your daily bicycle log

(xp) Not in the same league as what happened to you, but very frustrating. Never mind cycling, I couldn't work or drive for a month. Still not able to walk far or fast enough to take my daughter to school / walk the dog. Not sure when I'll eventually be allowed to tentatively start cycling again - I think in about a month - but it'll take a while to build the fitness back up again. I'm supposed to be doing a 500-mile tour at the start of August, might have to cancel the whole thing.

nbs, that sounds legit miserable afaict. take it easy, reschedule if you need to.

gbx that tour looks cool. i was reading the description and i couldn't for the life of me figure out how their description matched their profile, then looked at https://ridewithgps.com/trips/1774642 which seems more accurate? i figure if you train for any event sorta reasonably, even then the last 20% is a bit of bluffing anyway, you'll make it. (otoh it's hard to fake something you just haven't prepped for-- aka hunt3r's half ironman experience).

yeah that description/profile thing had my scratching my head -- i think the profile is from a previous edition that started in taos?

i'm feeling slightly optimistic about being able to manage it (before having done any prep at all) after climbing up the north side of the sandia crest a couple weeks ago. vermont doesn't really have any long, tall, and steady climbs, so it was my first time ever doing a sustained hour plus of climbing. really liking these relatively gentle Western gradients vs the double-digit walls of new england

i know. switchbacks weren't wired into berkshire/green/white brains, so you ended up with hunt3r struggling up 18% in a 6 spd 39/23. enjoy these long lazy switches...

I'm doing this on Saturday for the second time.

http://nuemtb.com/series/cohutta-100-ultra-endurance-mountainbike-race

This will confirm my idiocy to many on ILX.

That is a lot of track (and vert)! Have fun and be safe.

Thanks. It was actually fun in 2016--well, relatively fun. There aren't many ugly grade climbs, but you do feel like you're climbing all day long. It took me right under 10 hours to finish and I think the climb was like 13,000 feet. The biggest problem (other than suffering) is the incredible, solitary boredom.

Anyone here done Leadville? I think that's gonna be my last gasp of this stupid endurance crap.

lol I feel like I am finally at a point in life (almost done with medical training, late 30s, no kids) where actually getting into this endurance crap is just what I'm after

like I really want to do the almanzo 100 next year, and maybe the pony express (which hunt3r had suggested to me )

No i didnt do leadville- shoulda done it before you had to qualify and crap, but i was doing regular racing and leadville had some great riders, but was still mostly weirdos. Now even the weirdos go 5 w/kg for hours so....

I dated someone who much later got dq’d and charged (!) for breakin some rules in Leadville tho (post hunt3r).

Also dandydonweiner i feel like i been aware of your ilx existence foreverrrrr, this board needs fatmantises, if you doing rides like that, you def in, we can be sending a consolation prize.

Someday im still ready to generate a fatmantis souvie...

lol I've been on ILX since 2002? A very long time.

I should have done Leadville in 2016 when I had the base built up and no injury issues (kinda). Saturday I will be riding to complete the damn thing instead of improving. But hell, I'm pushing 50 and I already feel like a freak amongst my friends. I want to ride the cobbles in Belgium someday too.

This summer was supposed to be the year I finally go to Le Tour and ride a mountain stage but my family keeps getting in the way. Am super jealous of everyone here who can still prioritize big rides like that.

you sound balanced to me, man. cray conservo tho, you need counseling.

obv jk, now i start selling you on the awesomeness of doing kokopelli as a one day 145 mi, 15k vert attack 2019. It was to be my great thing for 2018 but i’ve been forced to push it back til next year.

that's a lot of crotch pain but sounds like something I would plan on trying haha

i'd consider it with a year of prep but man that looks tough

how many miles a week would you want to be doing to prep for that?

man i don't even know

hunt3r? cutty (RIP)?

I'd def wanna be riding 100 miles per week for 6 weeks out.

I don't get psyched out so easily anymore,but without a dedicated support vehicle and considering doing it at high summer I just woke the Fuck up and decided it was waayy too many unknowns.

I might go for 1/2 pelli over la sals from Dewey as a test piece in august tho. That's like 70mi, 8k vert into Moab. Probably about equal drive for us gbx. Just do it and be a legend.

Yeah I don't quite look at it as an mi/week prep, more as an hrs/wk one, with a few big tests in 3 months prior- I was looking at a 12 hr solid but easy mtb (like my white rim in Nov), a 7-8 hrs solid road, and a few hard 6 hrs mtbs. That's to get through 18-20 hrs mtb that also has a lot of dirt road.

got the folding bike. it definitely feels like a folding bike, and it’s definitely twitchy, but compared to our local share bikes it fangs along. i’ve only trialled it on the bike lanes along the beach but it picks up a decent speed. hills are easy too. pretty pleased considering the relatively low cost (even basic bromptons are more than double the price).

now i want a full road bike too, i just don’t have anywhere to put one atm.

turns out this bike is for the chinese market. my local bike shop seems to have imported a load of them.

i've been getting up over 30 km/h (according to strava at least) and it's perfectly solid. utterly thrilled with this bike. folding is a bit of a shit though: if you don't fold the handlebars exactly right it's fiddly to close.

still not sure how within a month i went from "cycling is too dangerous around here, never touching a bike ever" to cycling daily along this terrifying death trap and loving every second. really just wishing i'd discovered this sooner.

🙂👍

(also i’m helmet guy. turns out you can possibly reduce a lot of recovery with them. of all the bones ive broken and its MANY, the skull is really the worst. Diatribe over be free.)

I'm so happy to be commuting again

also ILTRMB plz join me on the world tour thread i started on ILE. it's giro time baby

world tour bike racing 2018

bookmarked, although i don't understand a single word

of all the bones ive broken and its MANY, the skull is really the worst.

oh jesus. even if helmets weren't compulsory here i'd be wearing them, especially after reading this. did you come out of it okay at least? (i can see it upthread but not the recovery)

i’ve outperformed expectations, so far. Its a far longer experience than id expected. I’ve benefited from absurd levels of recovery support and accomodation, really. Brain plasticity- amazing. not enough to make you quite normal. Pretty. Damn. Slow. A lot of recovery is adaptive/behavioral by necessity. Imo.

Stoked to check giro thread. sad it's only here on yet another provider stream, I'm not doing a another one.

as a fan of versatile middle-distance style, vo2max-god runners, and olds, I've been a fan of rusty woods since he came up, want him to arrive for a stage.

i think he's gonna take one, definitely the guy i'm watching this year

otherwise pulling for yates/chaves

Fucking hell, that sounds rough, Hunter.

thx, super kind. just take care for real.

fam has told me that me still riding makes me the guy smoking out of a hole in his neck. which would be mean, except it's true that my fam likely suffered far more than i have- i've not shed a tear on this one. (not because i'm tough, i'm not, and shed plenty other tears- it's just that, when you're the patient, you're just busy tryna get better and being all impressed with yourself. and more on that-- i'll totally recommend the documentary _the crash reel_ again, because it is great, and while i watched it in the hospital, i thought 'how could anyone with those tbis be willing to do risky shit again.' and then later i broke ribs and smashed my face and chipped a tooth in separate mtb crashes. people are quite resilient, but also dumb and selfish. narrator: "no, mainly him. also, clumsy and fragile.").

sitting here tryna think whether to try to convince my family to let me go ride pony xpress next weekend, gbx. i...think i'll temper action with wisdom. i do wanna see spanish peaks from the south and up close sometime.

Hunt3r even the fact that you’ve the fortitude to keep getting on bikes is utterly formidable

i would straight up never touch a bike again

hmmm

probably wise BUT also the chosen route has basically no traffic iirc. biggest danger would be having a mechanical or getting lost imo

have you ever done the iron horse in Durango?

Oh yeah the Pony express is mainly risky as spousal infuriation device, a marital endangerment factor. Non packriding on gravel seems reasonably safe. But, Away from the house, “for a day, FOR YOUR STUPID BIKE!”

that’s ~SCARY~

(Narrator: he will still angle to ride this.)

Yeah Iron Horse is fun. I did a few early to mid 90s, then i think 2001. One year they turned us back past Purgatory because of snow. Free dinner from me if you break 2.5 gbx.

I love Durango. Like a month after my tbi i was registerd to do Ned’s and Wells’ mtb worlds 25 anniversary celebration ride. I was still in Craig, but my buddies had Ned write on and sign my number placard and brought it to me. Awesome souvie.

oh yeah durango is great (nb last visit was in....2001?). my dream in college (and today, really) was to move to silverton and, like, open a skier's hostel

given that the top finishers in my age bracket didn't crack 2:30 last year, i think you're making a very safe wager ;)

and that is a cool souvenir! even though i haven't really thought about Mountain Bike Action in basically decades, my recollection of it was, in order, ned's mustache, tinker's hair, and the back page catalog from which i would painstakingly assemble my dream bike (usually a yeti with all paul everything)

oh and missy giove

aaaaaaaand because i just did some "where are they now" googling apparently missy got busted for smuggling pot in 2009!!

it was a bit of safe bet. I meet any a you mantis folk and i’ll buy you a (reasonable) dinner for sure.

yeah her story is exactly of a type for “at-risk” style personalities, and i dont mean that critically, but analytically. Last i saw she was ok, and pretty much in-character. which for me is more encouraging than some weird fakey “found jesus” vibe or whatever. I think it was a pro’s closet vid.

I still want to commission someone who actually knows what they're doing to make a fat mantis kit

gorgeous late autumn morning, went on a 2.5 hr ride through melbourne’s inner north (where the cycling infrastructure is surprisingly good for australia), had the best time ever, got home, dropped the bike down the fucking stairs. bent the derailleur but my local fixed it in minutes THANK GOD.

I love it when a mishap ends up with the person and bike ok.

Still, mordant larfs for incidents when rider (usually self) is like, maimed, but is only _really_ freaked out about the status of his/her bike*...

*note: i’ve never seen a woman do this idiocy.

yeah i’m pretty pleased the sum total of my cycling injuries is smashing one (1) pedal into my calf while walking the bike across the road

considering i ride the entire length of the local death trap almost daily, it’s pretty good going tbh

My main recall of Melbourne roads is nearly having a tram impale my rental while I tried to turn across traffic. Be careful.

tram tracks are basically ingrained into most of us, but they still scare the crap out of me, and i know at least two people who’ve jammed their front wheel in a tram track and copped a load of broken ribs.

you really quickly get into the habit of staying miles away from the tracks, and double checking any time you turn anywhere, but i would happily forego all the trams in favour of a bus network. they’re just shit.

is your recollection of a tram impale or of a tame impala I'll get me etc

Don’t say that. Teams are so much better than busses, even than busses in cities where busses are actually good. Melbourne busses are shit.