your daily bicycle log

Total Elevation Gain week of 3/1 - 3/7/10 (2 short rides, 2 long rides):

19,722ft/6,011m

is that using an altimeter type thing, or ? no matter how you slice it thats a shitload, congrats.

somewhere i posted the hunter climbing calculation rules once. like, less than 200ft vert in one go? doesn't count. less than 4%? dont bring that.

that's from the Garmin data.

longest climb was 3.3 miles at 7.4% (1300ft) which suckkkkkkkkkked.

oh stop ;)

http://www.paloaltobicycles.com/ringmap/gradient.jpg

A lovely evening ride was ruined just now by being accosted by a large gang of feral East End Glasgow teenagers who saw fit to pelt me about the head with various random objects to the point of bleeding.

It's not too bad after a nice hot shower and sit down, but still... bastards.

argh

what?! some fucking dystopic nightmare shit.

That's Glasgow's East End for you. Sometimes.

It's sore, but fine now, they just caught me some belters about the ear from ridiculously close range after running out into the road to get at me.

yeah I've had something similar happen in Chi (didn't connect tho), and knew plenty of ppl who encountered it with regularity

also: clean chain and frame alignment equals silky smooth drivetrain, it's wonderful. also switched to friction shifting after failing to get indexing working properly and I think I like it better?

Spent my lunch hour (+1/2) pootling like a vicar iirc.

lol

Re: Krakow - ouch, sorry to hear that.

I've got the official results in from Sunday's sportive now and me being me, I've bunged them into a spreadsheet and analysed them. On Sunday I was a bit disappointed that I'd only managed to shave 2 minutes off my time from last year, but I now realise it was much tougher this year than last: the median time was 23 minutes longer, and less than 5% of the riders got 'gold standard' (less than 4 hours), compared to nearly 20% last year. Last year I 'beat'* 55% of the riders, this year I 'beat'* 82%.

* I know technically it's not a race, but everyone's trying to finish it as fast as they can.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2804/4421799445_5cb8a956d3.jpg
(me nearing the top of the brutal final climb with 70 miles in my frozen legs)

Did 31 miles this morning in cold, windy Essex. Not much fun. I'll be glad when Spring finally appears.

duuuuuuuuudes

google maps finally has a "by bicycle" feature when yr getting directions.

* I know technically it's not a race, but everyone's trying to finish it as fast as they can.

Interesting. I don't think this is necessarily true. Yes, I want to finish in as good a time as possible; but if I was focused on that for the whole 100 miles or whatever, I think I'd go mad. What I want *most* out of a sportive is a fun, new experience in the fresh air while doing something I love with friends.

cosine.

i'm trying to get the best coffee, not the best time.

duuuuuuuuudes

google maps finally has a "by bicycle" feature when yr getting directions.

― nitzer ebbebe (gbx), Wednesday, March 10, 2010 7:37 AM (58 minutes ago)

is this the same as "Avoid Major Highways" or have they tapped into dedicated bike routes, trails and such?

trails, bike lanes, etc.

i just mapped my usual commute (which is like 5 miles of path, half mile of street) and it got it just right

neat, will try it out.

What I want *most* out of a sportive is a fun, new experience in the fresh air while doing something I love with friends.

Both of those things sound good, but probably tricky to fit them in what with all the cycling.

i dont have a general policy about how hard i ride something like that-- its not like i wanna quick time, its that i wanna "win" any hill or sign sprint thats contested by the group. and im happy to yak all u want, but please, NO STOPS unless piss or mechanical or dire hunger knock. generally hate hate stopping for over 2 minutes.

this is why training by oneself, if training is the objective, is superior. when you have a program, groups can derail the program. and it is why bike racing as an objective can steal the joy from your riding hobby, at least ime. youre doing work.

Yeah - it's like when I was making decent $$$ playing online poker - it became a job, an expectation, not a fun hobby.

ha hunt3r otm. HATE riding with groups. i turn down all my team's group rides. much rather go out by myself or one other like minded individual with similar fitness and training goals. NO STOPPING. NO LOOKING AT STUFF. NO MUFFINS.

and yeah its work

cutty doing work, a ilx joint

ok i saw a shit brown kona ute in the racks today, and while i dig the philosophy, i feel like if youre gonna ride that, you have to prove you need it by carrying, say, a 900 lbs sow in a cage.

Now I'm back on the slicks I can feel some of the horrorshow of my drivetrain through my feet. Bottom bracket is very gravelly.

did a nice 42 miles. first trip up to 8400 feet of the season. the extra mass slows me down, but my lower back and my core generally felt really solid. no aches, no squirming around on the climbs. it was almost warm in town (low 50s), but they still tons of snow on top, and low 40s.

One of the most beautiful rides of my life.

60 of us rode from San Francisco to Santa Cruz which is 92 miles over mostly rollers with 4 major climbs (~6500 feet of total elevation gain). I averaged 19.1mph which is definitely my biggest effort to date for a ride of this caliber. the ride was casual but there were 3 competitive segments:
a 1.2 mile uphill "sprint"
a 3.3 mile climb over a mountain pass (1300 feet ascent @ 7.5% grade)
a 7.2 mile rolling, twisty and technical "GC" stage

I placed 3rd in the sprint (24.7mph), 12th in the climb (8.6mph) and 2nd in the GC stage (23.9mph). I won a cool computer bag, a winter beanie, and a cookbook. :o)

Not that it counted but I finished 3rd overall. I felt insanely great until about 85 miles and then my legs just started aching and I eased up which may have cost me my 20mph average trip speed.

We ended up at a gastropub in Santa Cruz with gourmet burgers and pitchers of beer in the sun... Then we loaded our bikes into a truck fitted for bike transport and boarded a bus back to the city.

Good times but I will sleep very deeply tonight.

that sounds dang wonderful

like srsly

very impressive

that sounds really fun. was there a field size limit, cause it seems like a pretty marketable event?

nice riding.

awesome!!!

That sounds rather wonderful.

Well done too.

still tryna get comfortable on tt bike so did moderate 26 miles on it with some hard 3 minute efforts. 34 deg with terrible 15-20 mph wind out of the north and spitting snow. my northbound sections were at a whopping 17 mph and painful as hell.

taking tt saddle recommendations cutty

Get the heaviest saddle you can find (for training purposes) ;-)

i know! right now the "taint shredder" saddle is not making it. i could probly do 40k on it, but.... fortunately the tt races im doing are really short, like 16k.

this seems like a good tt saddle but $290, yeeeeesh.

had fairly uninspiring week of riding - work and back, getting groceries, that was about it. luckily i have lollerdays from friday for a week and a bit.

ha i almost brought up the fact that said saddle costs about 2x what i paid for my frameset.

out for a couple laps this morning before dawn on the usual route. several packs of cyclists out on thr rollers - thought they'd all be off hammering the north road group ride, so was a bit of a shock to be honest.

might take the camera next time, it's quite spectacular!

evey day except sunday

oops

what i was trying to say - every day 'cept sunday, me & the dog, to work & back...i wanna get a camera get some pixtures here ...best part is on the ay home where doog goes swimming

"doog" = i mean DOG

I decided to go for my SOLO HOUR PR today:

So I head down to a paved .7mile (1.1km) lap around the polo fields at Golden Gate Park.

PROBLEM: a 10mph on-shore wind (from the West) steadily blowing making this more of an interval effort rather than steady rpms.

first 30 minutes: feeling strong, avg 22 mph (20.5 into the wind, 23.5 with it). @ 45 mins: legs are aching, caught my self under 20mph into the wind a couple of times, jumped out of the saddle to rectify (and get som blood to my ass).

@ 55 mins, get passed by some team dudes doing intervals. i use their pace to pick it up for the last few laps.

@58 mins: i have quite a bit left in the tank so I open up the throttle for the last lap. Almost hit 27mph on the last lap (26.9mph).

Finished with a respectable 22.3 miles for the hour. Was hoping for closer to 24 but it was not going to be happening on a breezy day like today. But still, my one hour solo PR.

One thing: I kept my form consistent the entire time. Stayed down in the drops, wrist straight, elbows bent about 50-55 degrees, tried to keep my back straight and most importantly: tried to keep the pedal stroke smoooooooth. I feel like this ride helped refine my technique which is admittedly a little rough around the edges.

Impressive, well done Steve! Good on you for taking it on with the wind, and winning.

90kms today in a variety of paths and weather! i think i've found the worst-paved road in melbourne, too!