your daily bicycle log

Weather has been great here as well. I got another 100km/1724m in today. November is shaping up to become my second best month of the year.

Weather so go this thanksgiving day. Got a 100km in in the sunshine, also hit to of the dirty dozen climbs and succeeded on both, psyched for saturday, hope I haven't over done it.

so go - so good

got _demolished_ on the mtb by guys i'm supposed to be able to keep up with, two days in a row. still, so great. unbelievable weather, and perfect trail conditions. we rode a trail system i didn't even know about, it has ~flow~.

https://twitter.com/fredmantis/status/272387520279506944

Today

cool, how was the ride?

Pretty good, I didn't 'do' the dirty dozen. I had someone come across me on one hill and I put a foot down and then on the next hill I put a foot down that was all my fault and once you've done it once it's easy to do it again. I failed on 4 out of the 12 hills including "pittsburgh's Steepest' Canton Av at 37%. Tat one is short and there's a real technique to it. I think I could have got that one if I'd practiced it.

I'll search up some videos later, the whole thing was lives streamed

wow, ridiculous. good work.

I go past at about 3:12 on this one

http://new.livestream.com/accounts/2055846/events/1695888/videos/6810170

and about 2:24 on this one

http://new.livestream.com/accounts/2055846/events/1695888/videos/6808130

Canton Av

http://new.livestream.com/accounts/2055846/events/1695888/videos/6814767

http://www.pavephotography.com/img/s4/v63/p1288909362-2.jpg

-1C when on the first part of this morning's ride, rising to a sizzling 3C three hours later

No riding this weekend, Cold this week has knocked the stuffing out of me. COuld hardly breath going to the store yesterday

ridiculous, it was almost 70 deg today. i rode twice- two hours alone, an hour with the family.

Our recent weather could scarcely be more different

broke collarbone and elbow about seven weeks ago by going over handlebars taking evasive action to avoid a car hitting me.

looking forward to getting back on in the new year. First proper serious accident in about ten years of fairly constant cycling. Not really a consolation.

"Hysterical incompetence" otm.

yikes, get well soon. never broke an elbow, heard that's a bad one.

cheers, Hunt3r -actually took the sling off for the first time today, for a bit anyway, so the end is in sight. Actually the tip of the radius, rather than a splintered elbow as such, and while it was the most painful, it's the cb that's least likely to heal properly apparently.

Finally a free day without rain (though plenty of water lying on the roads). Feeling particularly masochistic on New Year's Day I rode up to Epping Forest and went up my club's hill climb route five times in a row.

out and about, 9 degrees F yayyyyy

I did something nasty to my knee over christmas, twisted it in a museum related accident. So I've been going gentle on the trainer and doing pilates.

meaningless stat, but i hit 176 HR today on trainer, i didnt think my old ticker could do that.

*clutches chest, falls over*

kept on finding hilaire shit to take pix of on Saturday ride; leaned bike against fence to snap away only for it to catch gust of wind, fall on drive side and bend derailleur hanger -_-

then rode last night after dinner on cx bike in v temperate weather, half road half gravel thru parkland. lotta rabbits out at night, it seems

http://app.strava.com/activities/37240868

six categorised climbs including the HC donna buang... which was unsealed for 8km. amazing route!!

Cool. I momentarily thought that was a staggering ride for the middle of winter, then remembered Australia was on the other side of the planet.

that looks awesome, i wanna do that someday.

lol NBS - the 'worst' it got all day was some fairly thick fog that rolled in just as i was cresting the mountain (at 7pm)

I want to ride that ride. I'm coming again in March, need to make the bike thing work this time.

we can make it happen!

for the first time in many years, i did the big sat group ride (60 or so ?), it was terrifying. at one point an suv tried to pass the group, which had the entire lane but would be turning off the road in .2 mi. the suv encountered an oncoming vehicle, and skidded off the left side of the road onto the shoulder. otoh, i've not ridden that well in a long time.

I looked into getting premium membership on strava but it seemed like quite a lot of money for not very much (the power reading is just an estimate - they can't know if there was a headwind or how much stuff you were carrying), but I do like the idea of the suffer score. The ridewithgps website gives you the total time that you spent riding in each of your five heart rate zones. I thought I could use this to make my own suffer score. The formula I came up with was Total = (10 x mins in zone 5) + (6 x mins in zone 4) + (3 x mins in zone 3) + (2 x mins in zone 2) + (1 x mins in zone 1). Does that sound reasonable? Maybe I should up the zone 3 bit to 4x.

so today i tested this on my tt, as all my previous tt saddles have given me huge chafing problems in race conditions:

http://www.ismseat.se/pub_images/large/Racing-II-angle-white_20.jpg

i rode tempo on the aerobars pretty much for and entire 1.75 hours, it was... it was good. it was signficantly easier to rotate my hips forward and stay there. there was def more weight on my elbows, but not enough to cause handling probs or fatigue.

My girlfriend got a saddle like that and she really loves it.

Strava Rage! My sole remaining KOM disappeared an hour ago by someone who rather suspiciously got up the climb at nearly 30mph. Closer investigation reveals he did his ride at an average speed of 114mph and covered the final mile in just 3 seconds.

strava has been a a little screwy of late, the guy leadin the base mile blast last night had 15,000km and more in the league table but only just over 1000km on his profile.

A 600 mi January woulda been rad but its a blizzard and I don't feel like risking this one at rush hour. Also I think my legs could use a break.

I have been rightfully reinstated as KOM. The person concerned was quite apologetic and followed me, so I've followed them back so as not to appear mean, even though I'm not terribly interested in seeing what they're up to.

I've just started training for the Dunwich Dynamo (120 miles, 20th July), from a fitness level of close to zero. Stuck indoors until March (in Nigeria, no bike).

Did 10 miles yesterday, 10 today, avg speed 12.24 mph, at a stately rpm most of the time. I find I can spin it up to 125 rpm but the HR gets a bit scary - pulled back when I hit 170. I need to work out what kind of intervals I can handle. No bike shorts, so a sore bum may hamper my progress.

That's the night time ride, isn't it? Did Porkpie & MarkC ever do that?

You're going to enjoy this, Zora.

I'm looking forward to riding tomorrow. Got grumpy after a week sick.

That's the night ride, yeah. I don't know any ILX0rs IRL cept K8, and I'm new to following the bikes board, so no idea who's done it. My pa has done it 3 times and swears it's the most fun ever.

Another 10m, prob double the avg resistance of yesterday & thursday, same speed. Feeling it in my weak leg & buttock & the dodgy foot is screaming blue murder, strangely. Soft underportions still intact. Buzzing a bit. \o/

I know a few people who've done it, Zora - everyone enjoyed it, and a couple of them weren't regular cyclists.

I don't know any ILX0rs IRL cept K8

tbh, the two I mentioned seem to have disappeared off ILX over the last year or so

Did 65 miles today in the icy wind. Not actually that much fun.

Well done for toughing it out then. Where did you go?

It should be warm in the UK by the time I hit the 65 mile mark, can't say I'm too sorry to be missing laps round Richmond Park even if the deer are picturesque in the winter.

79 miles at a very mellow pace, followed by a nap.

Where did you go?
Herts/Essex, nowhere very interesting (but would nice enough in the summer), http://app.strava.com/activities/39591271

Opening of the road racing scene in SoCal last weekend. My girlfriend and her teammates wanted to race the Boulevard Road Race, as their first races, so I headed out there with the RV. Being there, I decided to sign myself up for the Cat IV race even though the race is two 22 mile laps with 2100' of climbing (nearly all of which comes in the last 10 miles of the lap), and I am currently rocking a very fat-mantis-like 6'3" x 200lb frame. I got unceremoniously dropped and pulled out after one sad sad lap, thinking I'd "save some for the next day's Red Trolley Criterium". Had maybe too much fun hanging with the team around the RV after the race, and woke up Sunday morning with a 102 fever and a bad cough. Raced Red Trolley anyway, actually was feeling OK until fever symptoms manifested as strangling lower back pains with 10 min to go. Pulled out. Now I'm sick in bed with a crazy flu/fever. 2013 is off to a great start!!!!

Boulevard: http://app.strava.com/activities/39568121
Trolley: http://app.strava.com/activities/39715408

racing sick is pretty crazy, tho i've done it. gws.

not feeling well today myself, but working. my legs feel like shit after a day of tele on saturday and 24 miles of threshold 'round the rez on the tt bike sunday. http://app.strava.com/activities/39665775#

i really want to dial in my tt position this year. based on power numbers off my trainer (which im not sure are worth a damn) either my power really drops in the tt position, or i'm as aero as a brick. i should retest using a tt position, but that could hurt.

also my bike kinda sucks but no way i'm sinking any more money into that shit.

I've decided to try to improve my speed before I reach for longer distances. I managed a fairly pitiful 15.3 mph over 10 miles on the stationary bike today, which is +2 mph over my avg so far this week but man, it is still very slow. At >105 rpm the bike rocks all over the show and there's a deal of chafing. I'm pretty sure the saddle is the right height and there's nothing else to adjust, so it's gotta be my natural gracelessness, right? Any tips for improving posture & cadence?

zora, being willing to do your training on a stationary is awesome, it's unpleasant enough that it requires more willpower than just being lucky enough to go outside riding. my general advice:

1) don't worry about the speed indicated on the trainer- it may be wildly off from real world riding. continue to focus on the amount of time on the bike, and use the speed only to compare your efforts on that stationary bike.

2) 105 rpm is a relatively high cadence. I mean anyone can do it for a few minutes poorly, but riding smoothly above 100 rpm for longer durations requires a good position, a properly fitted bike, and a refined and fluid stroke. most riders on the flats vary between low 80s to mid 90s.

3) it's really hard to make suggestions about positions without seeing your setup. the vanilla instructions for saddle position for efficiency and injury avoidance are that if you sit in the bike with your hips level, you should be able to straighten your leg all the way while placing your heel on the pedal flat. as a result, when you place the ball of your foot over the pedal spindle, your leg will have a slight bend. some people prefer it slightly lower, in my experience. if your saddle can slide forward and backward, the general rule is that when the pedal is at 3:00, the notch below your kneecap should be directly over the pedal spindle.