He said "Log"

Huh-huh. Wikipedia states that the term "blog" originates from breaking "weblog" into "we blog." Before today, I did not know this. My guess would have been blog= "bullshit log." What about the training log? Should it be the "tlog" or the "glog" or the "inglog?" This post is a bit premature, but this spring will mark the 20th anniversary of my training logs. The first entry, scribbled on the blank pages in the back of Tom Doughty's The Complete Book of Long-Distance and Competitive Cycling says "approx 150-200 miles on the season so far" and it was made on April 20, 1986. On this fateful Sunday morning, a 49 mile ride from my humble one-room apartment in Easton up to Newton and back had me rolling through Wells Ave at one point. Here I experienced the site of a bicycle race in person for the first time.

My earliest recollection of bike racing was the spotty TV coverage of the team pursuit at the Mexico City Olympics in 1968. As a young impressionable lad of seven, the grainy black and white images of four cyclists tearing around the steep banks of the velodrome, each peeling off to the very top of the banking after taking their turn, letting the others come through, and smoothly rolling back down into place at the end of the line permanently impressed me, beginning my fascination with bicyles. However, despite somehow defying near-poverty and obtaining a real, Mafac and Simplex equipped LaPierre ten speed at the age of twelve, actually competition had eluded me until now. Several of life's teenage detours had something to do with that.

So here I was, a Sunday tourist on my gigantic, $169 Motobecane Nomade, resplendenty equipped with steel rims, velcro water bottle cage, and shifters mounted on the stem, observing the local bike racing scene up close and personal. The Doughty book was my only connection to "real" cycling. I knew no competitors, had never heard of Velo News, and only found out about Well's Ave through an activities listing in the Boston Globe. Keeping my distance, I rolled up the sidewalk, staying off the course. The pack whizzed by. The listing in the Globe wasn't kidding, helmets were required. Everyone also had the funny looking shoes I had seen in the book (this was pre-clipless pedals era, and old cycling shoes looked like ballet slippers). Those were two things I would need if I were going to come back here and fit in. Of course, one other thing would be required to avoid embarrassment: it was time to get serious about training, and that meant a training log. You will read more on this later in the year.

Why this entry this day? Well, two reasons. My best guess as to when my riding started that fateful year would be somewhere around this time in March. That would have allowed me to accumulate my estimated mileage by the time of the first entry. So this marks the unofficial 20th anniversary of my adult cycling career. Secondly, the Motobecane reference. Saturday was the maiden voyage of my spiffy new Motobecane Champion SL. A Motobecane in name only, this bikesdirect.com warehouse special is a generic Taiwanese aluminum racing bike, exactly the same as one sold under the Fuji brand, except for the decals.

My observation has been that nearly everyone entering the ranks of the 45+ group rewards themselves with a new steed. Most of these guys have grown kids, nearly paid up mortgages, and 401Ks that put mine to shame, so typically the weapon of choice is a Time carbon, Seven Ti, or similar pro-quality rocket ship on two wheels. My humble means will not allow any such aquisition, at least not while maintaining any sense of fiscal responsiblity, yet my twelve year old Slim Chance, despite its undeniable elegance, suprisingly light weight, and superior handling, just seemd like it might be holding me back. Simply stated, this beauty is a joy to ride, but a bit flexible for a rider of my stature to be racing on.

The Motobecane represented a bit of a gamble, albeit a fairly small one, as most of my competitors spend more on a set of wheels than I would lay out for this entire bike. It looked like it would fit, so I ordered it up. Thursday and Friday nights were assembly time. For now I mothballed the AC 420 wheels included in the deal, swapped the 11-23 for a 12-27, and switched out the compact 36-50 rings for 38-52. With cages, 32-hole Open 4s, and training tires the total weight rang up as 18.9 pounds. The Slim weighs 20.5 with my paired-spoke Ultegra race wheels. So far so good.

Without so much as a driveway shakedown, Saturday morning I trekked up to the E-man's house in Nashua to exploit the unseasonably nice weather with a long ride in the hills. Besides me and KL (also on here brand-new Team Issue Terry), most of the Trek/VW northeast team, EM and two of our other BOB Master's mates, as well as two of BOB's youngest made up our dirty dozen. For the first hour or so, we just rolled along in a ragged double line, no doubt building some serious negative goodwill with the southern NH motoring public. It was not pretty. Luckily, the group split up about halfway upon reaching more rural territory. The Trek/VW boys had ridden over from Hudson, so they turned back to avoid turning this into a 5 hour tour. The remaining six of us hit the hills around Mt Vernon and Wilton.

The bike felt great on the climbs, despite a slipping seatpost leading to an unusual saddle angle. There really was a difference from my old bike. I will spare you the bike review BS like "unreal responsiveness" and "really puts the power down." Still though, this bike felt faster up the hills. Going down, it might take some getting used to. I loved the Slim, and this bike sports near identical measurements, save for much less BB drop, so the BB height is about 1.5 cm higher.

Just like the Belgian classics, we have names for all the cols on our routes. This day we did "Roof of the World," a 4.71 km ascent of 210 meters. This only works out to 4.5% averages, but the climb seems much harder than that, as like all of New England, the ups come in pitches, and there are even a few dips where elevation is lost. I am happy to report that this went much better for me than is typical in March, and I was able to stay out of the deep red zone and steadily hold a nice tempo for the entire 15 minutes it took us to complete the climb. The new bike feels great.

Never an early season terror, I cannot help but be encouraged by my form so far. We ended up doing 3.5 hours, only about 93K, but the beginning of the ride was slow and the efforts in the middle were solid. Sunday KL and I were both tired so we just spun around my home area for 1:45. OK, this is a rest day, but I still gotta get to work. No proofing this morning. Congratulations if you made it all the way to here.