your daily bicycle log

bit belated but really sorry to hear about your accident alex. Last week I almost had the same thing happen to me but had just enough room to break.the car that did it was the police which was quite infuriating (it was the middle of the day,was on a busy bike lane were there's always likely to be someone coming).

i cycle to and from work each day.10 minute ride from my neighbourhood to downtown vancouver.pretty much q fairweather cyclist otherwise.last weekends we had some nice weather and i was particularly stoked to get out and cycle for miles just checking out parks and beaches.

it's like this: Denver. You don't need fenders, just sunscreen.

http://www.rei.com/share/rei-blog/2013/04/denver-cycling-town-champ.html?stop_mobi=yes&sf11192356=1

Well. I got stuck in traffic on my way over to Hillingdon yesterday and by the time I'd managed to sign in, get my numbers, shoes, mitts etc. on and get on my bike there was less than a minute to the start of the race so I had no warm up at all. There was a big field for a 4th cat race (I was number 56) and there was also a women's race with about 20 in it, set off a minute after us.

Hillingdon is where I had a nasty crash a couple of years ago and it has a reputation for crashes. It's not particularly technical and it's almost flat - maybe that's the problem, the course isn't tough enough to force a selection so you keep big bunches all the way. Also in 4th cat races it's the kind of course where people try their first race (precisely because it's an easy course). The riding seemed particularly poor yesterday, lots of people switching all over the place on the chicanes with no real concept of holding a line. Also there were some hopeless beginners (including someone who got lapped at least five times) who weren't really sure what to do when they were lapped and kept getting in the way. After about half an hour there was a crash in front of me with one or two riders going down - I managed to avoid it by going off the circuit onto the grass and then chased back on.

The race was supposed to be 35 minutes plus 5 laps, but we were closing in on lapping the women's race so they decided to extend it a bit. Somehow our bunch of about 50 managed to go past the women's bunch without any incident and then shortly after that they held up the 5 laps to go sign. With maybe four laps to go there was a massive crash in front of me - bikes flying everywhere. Again, I managed to escape it by going cross country and chasing back on. As we came past the finish line we shouted out to them that there had been a crash on the other side of the circuit and that there were injured riders. A minute or so later we came round to the scene again - I think there were still some casualties lying in the road. Suddenly there was the horrible metallic sound again and another half dozen riders came tumbling down. Once again I managed to escape it by going onto the grass, but this time I'd come to a virtual standstill and unclipped one foot. It took a real effort to chase back on this time. By now our bunch was down to just over 30, but I really wasn't in the mood for taking any risks at all and rolled in right at the back of the bunch instead of sprinting.

Afterwards there were people limping around with blood on them all over the place (including one guy with a prosthetic leg). Another rider who was in the race posted on a forum - he was brought down in the final crash "my LOOK 586 is totalled, carbon drop out is snapped off and I'm informed these can't be fixed. Not a happy bunny at all, it'll cost me £2000 for a replacement. Particularly pissed off as the crash was really nothing to do with me, an innocent bystander you might say. At least no broken bones which would have been disastrous, but I did see an ambulance there afterwards, so maybe someone was not so lucky. Anyone know anything? The riding was again shocking, the worst I've seen there. People just down seem to understand (or care) that if you try to go for the apex from an outside position somebody down the line is going to get squeezed, and I suspect that is what happened yesterday, several times."

On top of this, I'm ill again - I obviously wasn't fully recovered from the tonsilitis and I've given my body more punishment than it could handle.

Wretched, fours racing is really quite terrible. Racing a cheapo light al frame is not a bad strategy, I've known several who did it, when they had nicer shit in the stable.

Tbf they're still on the brakes at each corner in the threes too ime so...

First proper weekend on the bike in a month and I've done 178km in two days. 100 yesterday, quite gently then out with a buddy today and his friend who just moved here. He was riding a tri bike and is pretty strong, I spent most of the day chasing back on but I got couple of strava PR's out of it on roads I ride a lot. Took 30s off a previous 9 min, long drag uphill, 20 extra strava watts.

otoh, it's also like this:

http://i486.photobucket.com/albums/rr222/Chass3ur/whycryweather_zpsfab4c899.jpg

actually 70 deg at my place now. 8-10" snow by tomorrow night :(. my first race is wednesday.

First Tuesday evening coffee shop ride of the year, very short but fun especially with it being 23˚C. New PR on the Eliza furnace trail chain ganging into a headwind. Also had fun on the last hill, again nothing significant but a 10 or so people passed me at the bottom only for me to overhaul all bar one of them by the top. Still a fat lump but at least I can now spin up a climb just below threshold and make some skinny wretches look silly.

Strava tells me I am a top 5 fat mantis in Pittsburgh.

rode out to see my club's (nb: i don't race) women's team do a 120 mile race with 13k feet of climbing. unfortunately i mis-timed my arrival at the support tent and didn't want to wait 90 minutes, so i had to bail before they got there.

i did get a daiquiri and some chocolate cake, though ... which made me feel seriously woozy in the last half of the 80 mile ride.

i need to eat better on the bike. thinking about buying the Feed Zone Cookbook but seriously doubting whether i'll ever make food in advance.

Cant eat better ANYWHERE than daiquiri and cake congrats #doinitright

just one mantis's opinion obv

Hi bikes

think ive agreed to do the ring of kerry cycle in july, 170 hilly km. Wtf.

bikes say: consider our daiquiri and cake training plan

I rode a tour in Kerry when I was 14, it rained a lot and and I learnt to drink Guinness, Murphy's and Beamish a lot, in large quantities.

Poll obv

Anyroad, ive a p decent hybrid, but i take it id be wise to borrow a thoroughbred if possible?

This is what you need:
http://www.bikeforest.com/large_wheel_unicycle.jpg

hybrid could be a bit upright... you'll likely be faster on something racier, you'd want to have some time on said bike to acclimatise though.

i figured on both counts, i can prob borrow one for the day but amn't likely to get a lot of practice time on one. might just stick to the one that fits my arse already

The pubs and teashops are very conveniently spaced IIRC. Also the capacity of the Kerry farmhouse freezer should not be underestimated. We were touring in a summer camp group of 30 and on more than one occasion we knocked at a farmhouse door, not only to be offered a barn to stay in but an impromtu cauldron of stew/chilli/curry.

Did the coffee shop ride today and we appear to have picked up a republican triathlete, I can tell he's a republican because he has a GOP cycling jersey. Left him in the dust on the last climb of the day, took over a minute off my previous best time. I'm having a lot of fun climbing at the moment, I feel like I know how much effort to put in and how to recover.

dont switch republicans that quickly ed, i got confused

i think this occurs all on the one day so there'll be little opportunity for cauldrons i'm afraid

I've been riding across Brooklyn a lot to get to things and am bored with the route so I went up and around today and discovered that the new Brooklyn Bridge Park bike path is so new it's not paved yet. Fun on gravel. :/

Also granny panniers ftw.

Somewhere in my paroxysms of stew and stout based nostalgia I hadn't noticed this was a one day ride. Get some miles in.

snowy and freezing third straight day, so it's back to vo2 max interval repeats on the trainer. nothing pleasant about them except when you stop.

i don't even know why i'm doing these workouts, they don't map to anything i need to do on a bike.

first day cycling to work since crash. didn't feel as jittery as my short rides - think it was partly early morning auto-pilot (also did cycle in at seven, so it was a bit quiet). Still a lot of thoughtlessness/stupidity about (edge out of side road across cycle lane and then sit there staring at your mobile, quick look up at 'empty' road and pull out why don't you..., and does anyone even indicate any more?). Feeling a little stiff, and elbow's still f'ed, which makes cushioning potholes a pain. Still it was GREAT to be out and cycling again. Chatted to some people on the way home, one girl on a bike, at whom a very elderly, somewhat shabby man had shouted LET ME TAKE YOU HOME, and a couple of cyclists coming back from Heathrow after their holiday, and felt generally summery and limber.

Today I cracked my free hub, three cracks, each next to the pawls. I guess it's time for new wheels.

I didn't ride at all for more than two weeks after that race. I've finally shaken off the illness and a mysterious foot injury that I picked up, but I've been so busy with other things that I've still scarcley been able to ride. Did a quick 18 miles yesterday morning and a slightly shorter ride very early this morning. I'm supposed to be doing a big race next Saturday, but I don't know if I'll bother - I'm nowhere near ready for it. In better news: the sun is shining and I've been out in shorts! I thought this day would never come.

after an 80 deg weekend, it's back to snow on wed. my first two wed night races (not training rides, i actually paid $) were snowed out, no refunds. last week was nice, then this. i sorta hope they just cancel it, i dont feel like tt'ing in a wet snowy mess, really. also, i've rotated my position 4 cm lower in front, and 2 cm forward at saddle. my drop is 19 cm. i'm now uci non-compliant, as if i cared. but if its faster, i can't tell. hip angle still ok, power is about the same, tho it feels ridiculous. im staring at my front brake at this point.

I did a slow 50 miles on the bike this afternoon, trying out new shorts in the hope of less chafing. Even with chamois butter my lady parts feel like they've been sandpapered. Cycling and vulvas just don't seem compatible; I'll have to tweet Lizzie Armitstead and find out how she does it...

!

Have you ridden that far before? If not, it might just be that your body needs to get used to it.

I have, but not often, and I don't commute by bike any more so I think I've gone soft. New bike, too.

I'm supposed to be doing a big race next Saturday, but I don't know if I'll bother - I'm nowhere near ready for it.

I did it. I was nowhere near ready for it. In fact, I think it was probably my worst race ever (and that's saying something). Even if I was fit I would expect to struggle against 3rd cats, so in all honesty I wasn't expecting to last more than 20 minutes before getting dropped (on the Hog Hill circuit). In reality I lasted about 3 minutes! I started near the front of the bunch, then was terrified as we flew down the hill with a sharp bend at the bottom in high winds - I was doing 38-39mph but people were whizzing past on either side of me much faster. I was rapidly losing position and within the space of a minute probably went from 10th to 60th place with just a handful of people behind me. A gap had already opened a few riders ahead of me and as we went up the climb at the end of the first lap it was already clear that we weren't going to get back on: (just behind red straggler). To put it in perspective, averaging over 22mph on this circuit usually makes me feel like I'm dying - my first lap was at 24.3mph and I was already off the back and my race was over. I went round pointlessly with the dropped for a bit with the intention of getting lapped and sitting in for a bit to at least get some training benefit. I was caught on the climb and the entire bunch went past me in seconds as if they were all on motorbikes. I gave up then in disgust.

4 weeks into track season now (races every Tuesday night), and although my base and tempo fitness is way better than I felt it would be at this time, my top-end speed is TERRIBLE. As such, I've taken to suicidal solo attacks. Held off the field for 5 laps to take the final sprint in the points race last night. That is the WORST, MOST PAINFUL, STUPIDEST way to ride races. I was DYING afterward. Really need to do some leg presses or squats or whatever so I can mix with the big sprinters because this TT shit is no fun.

i could never figure out if the sled and squats ever helped my usable power. i have been doing way more anaerobic and v02 max drills on the trainer than i ever did while racing regularly (which was very little, and duh, why was my sprint so slow, i guess). i feel better during the short sharp action, but it's not race tested.

as an aside the 50 y/o masters racers physiques that i'm seeing on rides these days are really lean but with crazy quad mass for such old ppl. i can't figure if its that they never whittled down the extra mass over a longer period of racing, or if ppl lift more now, or if they are on t, or what. actually, the fast old school dudes i've known forever look about the same, really lean and not big.

tt tonight in 45 deg rain on shortened course. position felt perfect for a short effort, seemed so damned good and fast. But the results were meh.

I fell off today. I've been going really well recently and I had a bike fit on thursday, of which more later when my wrist feels more up to typing. Very windy today and I wiped out on an exposed S Bned that went from crosswind to to tailwind to crosswind; as Icame bak into the crossind at speed I got hit by a gust, the bike started to go out from under me, hit my brakes too hard and the back wheel locked, blew out and I skidded across the tarmac.

Luckily a friend was able to come and pick me up and take me to urgent care for a wrist x-ray and to have some nurses giggle at my arse as they irrigated it with hydrogen peroxide solution. I'll be suffering from road rash for a few days yet.

went out yesterday with a group of people i mostly didn't know. didn't think i was going that fast, but set a bunch of PRs in the first half of the ride, then cracked and limped home in the second half.

I was supposed to do a time trial on Saturday, but didn't bother. It was more than a 100-mile round trip and the forecast was heavy rain and strong winds and it was on a dual carriageway course. I weighed it up and decided that there was a good chance the event would be cancelled (which happened last time I tried to race there and it poured down with rain) and even if it was on it would be too dangerous for my liking and I'd have no chance of getting a good time (even if I was in good form, which I'm not). So I did a 42-mile ride instead and got home just before the rain arrived - much better.

ain't done much riding for pleasure in the last few weeks - semi-exhausted from new job. however I am very much back into the swing of the commuter wacky races.

Things have picked up for me: I've managed to squeeze in 4 races in the last 12 days (two 10-mile time trials and two hour-long road races). Finished in the bunch (or rather, right near the back of it) on Thursday evening and got dropped with just 3 or 4 minutes left to go today (in a race against 3rd cats, so I'm pretty pleased at lasting that long).

Rode without arm warmers today. Commuted 40+ miles on Wednesday so I could do a shorter ride today, as well - nice to have my whole afternoon free, tbh.

"my" local canyon is such an overcrowded shitshow at this point that there were 4 police cruisers handing out tix to cyclists up and down a 10k stretch. over 20 years i've watched it go from a 1.5 lane seldom travelled goatpath to a 3 lane highway with continual bike and car traffic (over 1000 bikes/day on weekends). i don't really care so much about the traffic, but i'm sad because i think sooner or later, this bike route is going away, and theyre not building any more mountain roads.

Wait you think they won't allow bikes any more? Isn't that the opposite of how things are going most places?

they can't expand the road anymore afaict, and the residential population above the canyon has really increased in the last 15 years. it's not a suburb, it's a car based exurb. i don't see how they are gonna limit local car traffic. who knows though? this is the road where this happened last year to a guy i raced with in the 90s:

http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2012/11/bike_rage_byron_nix_herbert_hoover_grandson.php

i will not claim that i don't see cyclists do pretty thoughtless/oblivious/inconvenient things on that road.

how are they limiting motor vehicle traffic out there?

Bay area you mean? Dunno about outside SF, but here they're just gradually reducing parking spaces afaik. There's talk of expanding the subway and limiting car traffic on some roads but I haven't seen any action.

It's hard to build here so total populations isn't rising much. Of course, that means anyone who doesn't make six figures is getting fucked ...

*population

sorry I'm on an Untappd binge

Did a group commute today. Fast - I got dropped a little over halfway. The group was really a small set of really fast guys and a larger set of people just hanging on. If I had been smart and stuck with the second group, instead of trying to take pulls when I was almost redlining in the draft, I probably would have made it. Also need to get better about grabbing the back of a fast paceline when I'm spent. Anyway, fun!

Oh yah and this was a little over 40 miles, super flat.

That sounds fun, I wish I had a commute like that.