your daily bicycle log

realest of talk

Cleaned winter out of my BB and regreased it, it feels like a new bike, even if it still felt somewhat gravelly on reassembly, the bearing surfaces are not all that smooth any more. Then rode out to the brewery, everything is so smooth, first day this year I have really felt like I was riding for pleasure rather than just getting to work, going to the store or keeping fit. This is going to be a lovely summer of biking.

Heavy ride in the heavy rain, hella slippy treeroots everywhere, although my eventual tumble was caused merely by the mud shooting my front wheel off at an unexpected angle. Wore my brake pads down to the metal.

There are a few things I feel I'm really lacking right now:
(1) climbing strength
(2) technical handling (esp. high speed cornering, sprinting through corners, etc.)
(3) race condition drills (bumping, navigating through a field of 50+ riders, staying in the top 15 w/o getting in the wind, etc.)

Today I concentrated on (1), trying to keep all my efforts above 325W on the 6 climbs that comprise almost all of the 4500ft. (1370m) of climbing across an 88 mile club ride (I was in a pack of six riders).

The results almost* exceeded expectations: average 345W across all 6 climbs (*yet my lowest avg power on a single climb was 322W).

I also set PR's on all 6 climbs which was a sign that my fitness is starting to gel. I have my first road race coming up in three weeks so I'm going to start mixing in an interval training regimen to my 10-12 hour weekly riding.

i wanna avg 345 watts across 6 climbs. id totally settle for hitting it for 20 mins on a flat, actually. its not likely to happen again tho.

dude if i lost like say 100 pounds, I think I could join Euskaltel-Euskadi tbh

Recovery day, which means... more climbing. I will be very happy when this climbing is done. 5800ft in 62 miles. Kept climbs in zone 3, everthing else Zone 2, little ring spinning.

Pretty sure this is my last major climbing weekend for a while. Next up, intervals.

broke my chain while pootling like a vicar around the park on an easy day... thank god it wasn't on a climb. kinda weird, just had the chain replaced 5 weeks ago (1,154 miles)...

that's terrible. shasta what group are you using? have heard nu-ultegra chains are snappin lately, mine seems to be going strong tho (touch wood).

ultegra 6700 10spd

:-(

switch to SRAM?

I prefer Shimano's shifting style and they (afaik) have yet to be involved with a mass recall or class action suit as SRAM has so there's that.

I'd like to think that the break was a result of my interval workouts on Tuesday. B-) Heading to the shop at lunch to see if they'll do swap a new one on.

can u rly tell the diffence in your shifting between sram and shimano chain? because i only use sram chains w/ my shimano drivetrains. once powerlinks came along, it was bye bye stupid special pins.

also, i think i have never broken a chain on a road bike. i think once on an mtb.

campy chains are the best

oh i thought ed was suggesting i go for the whole gruppo as he is wont of. :3 yeah, i'm heading to shop now and will ask.

I was thinking just chain. Otherwise I'd be suggesting you get 12 speed ultra record with sprinkles and mind control. ;-P

they are replacing the chain with an Ultegra for no cost. Turning it around it time so I can do afternoon sprint intervals as well. Seriously dope shop.

do you guys inflate your front and rear tires to different pressures? because it makes sense to do so in order to get the desired amount of "tire drop", but ive never done it. maybe i'll start.

i do 107psi front, 110psi rear

if it's wet out, i take about 5psi out of each.

the chart available from zinn's column in velosnooze sez i should be like 115 rear, 88 front.

i don't understand the chart

surely there are rider/bike weights more than 154 lbs or is it truly sizist

its per wheel, and the weight distribution on race bikes is 60/40. So if you and your bike are 170, then its 102/60.

i rode my heaviest bike today with studded tires. like riding through molasses. gonna be so much stronger now guys

:-D

^ real talk

fucking snowing AGAIN, and out i go into it fuck

took new wheelset out into the hills for 50 miles, 4500 ft of climbing. on initial quality and ride i can recommend bormios, they are very true and round. the ride is great on smooth roads, but they are pretty harsh on rough pavement, although i think most of that harshness was from the prorace 3s at high pressure.

also i am slow and became exhausted.

Yesterday: did 96 miles, 7k ft of climbing, got some killer Spring views.

Today: previewed the road race course that's in 2 weeks. 2x22.5mile loops, mostly rollers with a couple 2-5 minute effort hills. Uphill finish (5% grade over 2/3rd mile) after a rough road section that just sucks the power/wind/life out of you. Seriously, the start/finish 6 mile stretch of road has weathered attempts at improvement with spotty fill in patches of asphalt but it really just comes off like a war-torn minefield.

The dude I previewed the course with did ~only~ 50 miles yesterday and was just punishing me, after a while I could barely hold on to his wheel. Total sadist, but he felt sympathy for me when I explained it's hard to preview the course when I'm cross-eyed from just trying to focus on his bottom bracket.

Getting kind of nervous, trying to focus on what I need to do in the next two weeks.

i think u really dont need to go that long as a 4 when u are into your intensity phase. i assume u have a program tho

with the watts u put out, if you can get up that last hill u should kill it.

training = work + rest.

I finished the antibiotics (for tonsilitis) yesterday and ventured out for the first time in 11 days: 13 very gentle miles of pootling at 14mph. I've already missed one race which I'd paid for, hopefully I'll be ready for the next one (on Easter Monday).

the dilemma of pre-registration

Torrential Pissy rain yesterday which kill both the ride I had planned and more bike qualifying.

i think u really dont need to go that long as a 4 when u are into your intensity phase. i assume u have a program tho

with the watts u put out, if you can get up that last hill u should kill it.

training = work + rest.

― fat mantis (Hunt3r), Sunday, March 28, 2010 7:39 PM (Yesterday)

a) was just planning on 75 miles casual/regroups-often club ride (weather was really nice) but one of the guys was visiting from Vancouver and had never been up Mt. Tam so I decided to play tour guide promising slow/minimal effort up the 4 climbs up the mountain. It didn't matter as I paid the price yesterday as did my guest (who ended up cancelling his sat night plans and crashing at 8:30pm haha!)

b) there are 7 of my teammates in our heat, 3 of whom are big* like me (*6'2"-6'5", 180-200#s, almost all euros: german, belgian, dutch and me) and we all have a severe dislike of tagalong climbers (who aren't on our team). we were all concerned about the uphill finish and took a pact to ensure that there cannot be any un-fat mantises preying upon us with 2km to go. there is a section with a long stretch of headwind that we can play to our* advantage.

c) how do i shot taper? just cut down on the weekend mileage and just stick to efforts/intervals?

after u win u will be "steve shasta legendary roadie"

that's how i keep reading that thread title, tbh

plz2answer (c) plz

welp, i don't remember what workouts my program did, but tapering on a periodized schedule, where you are coming into a designated peak period in which you have one or more priority races in a cluster of week/s, is a structured affair about two weeks long.

for an early season, non-priority race, you can go easy in the days leading up to it, but its not really a proper taper.

that's my hazy recollection of training from about 10 years ago.

A horrible evening's ride. Had to open my front door with my elbows as my hands were too cold to turn the key in the lock.

Loved it.

usually sedate ride to work turned into series of out-of-saddle powerclimbs due to going 'the back way'. felt strong!

Cold and wet today. That thing a couple of weeks ago that looked like the start of spring was obviously just a mirage. I had to get back into full winter kit. Still taking it easy (just under 16mph), but gradually building the mileage back up (just under 30) in the hope of racing on Monday.

So nice biking into work this morning, crisp, bright sunny, I should move further away from work.

apparently there is a vicar convention, cuz mpls be pootlin'

creek path was dangerously jammed. i think i saw a fucking rollerblader

>:o

sorry butthurt rollerbladers u_u

ha, i still have a pair of the 1980s first gen laceup rollerblades and busted them out when teaching my kid to ride a bike

then i cranked up a boombox and roller jammed on my corner

[WARNING LONG]

So there is the famous ridge just north of SF called the Marin Headlands, in fact the Golden Gate Bridge spans right across to it. It's the southern most part of the Marin County peninsula, a county which is 80% national forest and where most of us city folk go to ride bikes. It's very hilly and picturesque as it has the Pacific Ocean to the west, the SF Bay to the east, the Napa and Sonoma wine country to the North, and SF across the Golden Gate Bridge to the South.

Here's a big pic for perspective: http://marinphotoblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/BonitaGoldenGate.jpg
and here's a smaller pic to show perspective on the climb/grade/route: http://www.gatetrails.com/photos/slackerhill.jpg

2 times a week, my club has a 6:15am dawn ride where we spin across town and the bridge, then attack the undulating climb (1.7 miles, avg. grade of 5.7% with some 8% sections), we regroup at the top and then depending on weather or everyone's mood/fitness, either turn back home or loop down and attack the climb from the backside which is shorter but steeper (1.4 miles at a steady 8.1%).

HOWEVER, the Golden Gate National Park is closing the top 1/3 of the climb (which really has the dopest views of SF imo) for 28 weeks starting April 1st, 2010. So our club decided to throw a going-away/farewell ride where you could do the climbs @6:15am (and then celebrate with coffee/donuts) or @5:30pm (champagne!)... or hey, why not both?

So I decide to the morning ride, but one problem. There is a storm the night before the ride. We had a couple short showers the night before but I'm awakened before my 6am alarm (which is rare) to the sound of high winds and sideways rain pummeling my bedroom windows @ 5:30am. Does not bode well. All the sudden, my phone is blowing up with emails from the club listserve saying "rain or shine", "rain does NOT cancel" etc. Hardcore! The storm passes quickly and by the time I'm dressed and heading to my join point, you can actually see the clouds parting and the pre-dawn glow peaking through.

By my join point, the group is 20 riders strong, already shattering the previous record of 14 riders for the AM dawn ride which we end up doubling with 28 total. At our last group point before the climb we stop for a group photo (the club founders are tailing us in car taking pics/video), I notice as we pull off that I have a slow leak in my rear tire. I do a quick squeeze and estimate I'm at ~80psi which given the conditions is not horrible, but I take the rear of the group to be safe.

First climb I do in 8:52 (avg speed/power: 11.3mph/343W). I'm absolutely pushed to my fitness limits. I place in the top 10 but I'm about 14 seconds off my PR disappointingly as I thought I'd have a shot at breaking it. I borrow a hand pump from a fellow rider which shows perhaps the reason why: 60psi reading from the gauge. So I try to get it my rear tire to at least 90psi for the backside but on one of my last 2-3 pumps the nipple breaks off the nozzle, and my tube (also my spirit) goes limp. To add insult to injury, it begins raining. I change my flat in the rain and decide to abandon this mission and come back for the afternoon session.

[ffwd about 8 hours]

it's actually been a nice day and i have to HUSTLE to get to the meeting spot by 5:30pm. I pick up 2 other stragglers on our 6 mile path to the foot of the Headlands and thankfully, one of the dudes is right about my fitness, maybe a little better. So as we're about 2 minutes away, still on the bridge and approaching the start of the climb, we see the lead group of 24 riders go off. FUCK! We don't want to kill ourselves because we're already pushing it and we want to save our watts for the hill. So the other dudes and I slow it down a little and I even pop a clif blox with a little caffeine.

The first part of the hill is really steep and convex. At about 1/3 of the way (2-3mins in), my legs are screaming and I'm already sucking wind. I'm thinking that I may have given too much in the morning ride and it's gonna be tough from here all the way up, but the other dude is right on my wheel and I've got a good cadence going that will get me to the top.

I give it everything and finish with 8:43 for the frontside (11.5mph, 347W). Still 5 seconds off my PR which I did with 10 less bpm... so kinda dissapointing. But I finished in the top 5 for the day (including against some cat 3 climber dudes) for the frontside.

So we wind down the beautiful but scary steep coastal descent (*trying to find on youtube*) and then hit the back. This climb is tougher: it's steady and never has any forgiving segments. After my two earlier efforts, I'm not sure what I have left but I settle into a decent cadence and just start chipping away, using my altimeter as a countdown. Like the frontside, my breathing quickly becomes forced and I'm just trying to stay smooth, efficient and keep the pedalstroke firm and spinning. The guy from the frontside was on my ass again until the last 100meters and he reached back and launched an out of the saddle sprint out to catch a guy ahead of us that I just watched dumbfoundedly.

I ended up breaking my PR on the backside by a minute (I never really took it seriously). But I looked at an effort I had done late last year and I had very similar heartrate and was almost two minutes slower. Also I put out 368W for almost 9 minutes which is a lot for me.

Overall, I logged the 5th best combined times on both climbs which, for a non-climber, I'm pretty surprised with. Still it's early in the year and I may have been pressing more than most guys were. I'm a little disappointed I didn't PR both climbs as that was a goal but I'll settle for the higher place then I thought I'd come in at.