Visits are up so my sense of obligation dictates quantity over quality today. We'll start with training. You might be bored or stagnating at this time of year. May I suggest going with the two-a-day. I don't mean commuting, though I suppose that is ok, but to me it's too much like work. The weather in June sucked and I never got to enjoy my favorite part of the summer, which is riding around the neighborhood aimlessly on a hot summer night as it gets dark. So I'm making up for it now. The streets are deserted, and it's good to stretch the legs one more time before the end of the day. Yeah it is junk miles. Even better if you do them in a wife-beater with no helmet and riding your zoot wheels. Train in the morning, ride for fun at night. Try it.
This is the time of year when I start to get a lot of questions about D2R2. Most of the conversations end with the enquirer saying "maybe I'll do it next year." Speaking of which, I even registered at vsalon yesterday, because obviously I don't waste enough time online already. There's a lot of D2R2 buzz on there. Most people are doing the 100k in order to save energy for some apparently popular old bike snob afterpartys. I'm somewhat tempted to try that myself this year, but I'd feel I was missing out on something if I skipped the long version. It would be fun to attack the "short" ride though, and the 9 am start would be a huge bonus.
Here is a link from the other day. I found this interesting. You might also. Or not. Here is another blog that I'm adding to the sidebar, because it is good. I should get out more often. Or maybe not. I've stumbled around and started to find a crazy surge in cycling blog/sites that are fashion/style focused. It's an urban thing. I know, newsflash. I guess when you live in the anthills you have to go out of your way to be different and get noticed. Here in suburbia people go out of their way to all appear the same.
cc.com disses Team Garmin pretty well in one of their blog entries. But are they unbiased? They sell the jeans. Which don't come in white. White is supposed to be PRO. Hincapie is a PRO. CC is supposed to be all about PRO. I'm so lost. Maybe I should take a poll (huh-huh) to determine which model solobreak should buy. I am so confused.
The leadout on the final stage was pretty impressive. I only watched it once, and as we know Versus doesn't show the helicopter shot if it makes one of their heroes look bad. But to me it looked like Garmin simply got overpowered before the last turn, and it was the GH surge that did it. Garmin had the position and weren't fast enough to hold it, and they ended up looking like Cat 4s yelling "inside! inside!" I'm not exactly sure what this means.
There were some other links that I can't think of and I have real work to do. Thanks for reading.
since 2006
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Product of the Week
We all heard more than enough about how stylin' George didn't get the gift he felt he deserved after spending all day working in a break.. Gee, the rival teams raced their bikes. What a concept. Oscar Pereiro must have been laughing his ass off. In case you've forgotten, Hincapie sat on his wheel like, forever on the Tour stage to Pla d'Adet (defending the jersey for the team you know) in 2005, then barely was able to sprint around him in the last 200m for his much ballyhooed stage win. That's racing. Anyhow, these towels should be a hit with race promoters who could hand them out to spoiled, whiney competitors with misplaced senses of entitlement, who also feel "screwed" when they aren't given exactly what they want. Thanks for reading.
PS: OK, before you even start whining to me, yeah sure, GH completed umpteen tours, deserves respect, blah, blah, blah. And it was Stapleton who did most of the whining. Whatever. This isn't MacNeil-Lehrer here.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Positively Jens
A pro cyclist who doesn't suck. Nice contrast after what's been an awfully whiney month heh?. Thanks for reading.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Race Report: Tour of the ughhh
Another weekend of not racing. Looking back, unless you count time trials, I've only raced three times in the over two months since Sunapee. Not sure how that happened. After a long and active spring I set out to cut expenses a little, but not to take the summer off. I haven't even been to Wompatuck. Most weeks when that would have fit my schedule and/or training goals it got rained out. I'm already signed up for the Mount A TT, promoted this year by Noreast. This is a cool and unique event, and Noreast turned out no less than sixteen riders for my club's Workingman's Stage Race, so the least I (we) can do is return the favor. Are you listening BOB scrum? So that is in two weeks. The week after that I'm signed up for D2R2, another non-race. More on this later.
You've already read how my Workingman's didn't turn out. Competing there was a bit of a surprise, but I think it would have worked out if I hadn't got sick. Sick. Yeah. Still not sure what happened. Could have been food poisoning, could have been some kind of flu. I was already having flu-like symptoms when all hell broke loose the night of the TT. My weight had gone back up to over 78 kg in June, but with my fifteen hours in three days training on the holiday weekend, I was starting to get it back under control. My plan was to mix up some short races with long-assed rides to get me ready for a big block of Hilltowns-Concord-Bow-Gate City-Mt A-D2R2 starting Saturday and ending next month. But these things don't always work out the way we plan.
Ten days later, I still have not found the four kg I lost during the sickness. This puts me at the lowest weight of my adult life. You might think that would be a good thing with some hilly races coming up. Maybe it would be if I had the strength to turn the pedals. Recovery from the sickness was pretty slow. Only recently has my appetite returned to sort of normal. I probably should have sought some qualified medical advice, but since I felt like I was slowly getting better, that did not seem necessary. The emphasis is on slowly. I'd feel ok, go for a little ride, then sleep 12 hours, eating little. I'd rest and try to eat, repeat the process. My bathroom patterns were the complete opposite of what brought the weight loss on, so I knew something was wrong. Well it turns out that after a vicious round of diarrhea, constipation is quite common because you are dehydrated and your body is trying to suck the water out of the shit before letting it pass. You people with kids probably already know this, but since I have not been blessed that way, and hardly ever get sick myself, I'm rather ignorant in the ways of PediaLyte and all that.
You still reading? So anyway, with a diet that is rather low in sodium to begin with, compounded by a general loss of appetite, my daily attempts to train in the recent heat and humidity were probably keeping my electrolyte stores and hence hydration at less than optimal levels. I wasn't dieing or anything, but I was running out of gas after less then two hours on the bike. Not that I was used to the heat anyway, with the way this "summer" has gone. Bow is kind of an important race for me. It's my favorite road race, having won it as a Cat 3 a long time ago, as well as scoring a first and a second at the old Manchester Road Race, which had a course that overlapped what is now Bow. The race has not been too kind to me in recent years, as they've made the loop harder as I've grown softer, but last year provided a glimmer of hope when I stuck in the lead group of the 45+ until the end. For this reason, I wanted to go to Hilltowns just to remind my body of how much you have to suffer in one of these things, even when you are going well. TOTH is a 40+ and the long climb does not suit my "talents" but it would have been great training. However, the nature of the last hour of the race puts stamina and endurance at a premium, and these two qualities have gone down the toilet for me lately, both literally and figuratively (did I already use that? Not sure). I kept holding off on registering to see how I'd feel close to race day. Things were getting better, but it wasn't until Thursday that I figured out I might need a little salt in my diet. By Friday I started to feel much better, but faced with a long drive, $40 entry fee, tolls, traffic, locusts, etc, made the executive decision to bag out. I simply lacked confidence and did not want to spend $100 to get dropped and ride in alone and broken, which was how I've been finishing even modest rides around the flat suburbs this week.
As luck would have it, Saturday I felt like a million dollars on the bike. I headed over to Big Blue, anxious to see if my new Rasmussen-esque physique was going to help on the steep stuff, even with my motor running on three cylinders. The road up was more like a mountain stream than a road. Water rushed down, with rocks and storm debris strewn across six inches deep in places. It was humid too. My legs felt good, but I was sucking wind. Not racing will do that to you. In a few spots I had to hold myself back because even though I had the ability to turn the pedals, I felt out of breath. I got to the top in 5:06, my best this year, though not that great. Under the conditions I'll take it. Reminded me of the old, old, old days before the road was reconstructed, when you had to pick your line to keep from spinning the back tire. My best back then was 4:48. The new pavement has to be worth 15 seconds at least. I rode 4:46 three years ago and I know I'm not as strong as I was when I was thirty. Saturday came to 414 watts average, which at my current weight of 73.5 kg calculates to a CP5 of "pretty good."
The rest of the ride was ok too, but I still sort of fell apart at the end and subsequently slept all afternoon, so I'm glad that I skipped Hilltowns. I have a feeling that would have gone OK until about halfway up the climb and then I'd end up crawling back to Windsor as I initially feared. Sunday I recovered but not as well as I'd hoped, but my appetite is finally back and my body once again seems to know how to process food. All good with Bow coming up this week. The bad news is that without any racing or even hard group rides, I'm not sure my suffering capacity will be up to the task. I'm also unsure on whether or not the Concord-Bow double is within my capabilities right now. Concord is one of the best, oldest, longest continually running crits in New England, on a great course, but it also can take a bit more out of your legs than the average crit. Bottom line is that I'm not much of a bike racer this summer. Time for work. Thanks for reading.
You've already read how my Workingman's didn't turn out. Competing there was a bit of a surprise, but I think it would have worked out if I hadn't got sick. Sick. Yeah. Still not sure what happened. Could have been food poisoning, could have been some kind of flu. I was already having flu-like symptoms when all hell broke loose the night of the TT. My weight had gone back up to over 78 kg in June, but with my fifteen hours in three days training on the holiday weekend, I was starting to get it back under control. My plan was to mix up some short races with long-assed rides to get me ready for a big block of Hilltowns-Concord-Bow-Gate City-Mt A-D2R2 starting Saturday and ending next month. But these things don't always work out the way we plan.
Ten days later, I still have not found the four kg I lost during the sickness. This puts me at the lowest weight of my adult life. You might think that would be a good thing with some hilly races coming up. Maybe it would be if I had the strength to turn the pedals. Recovery from the sickness was pretty slow. Only recently has my appetite returned to sort of normal. I probably should have sought some qualified medical advice, but since I felt like I was slowly getting better, that did not seem necessary. The emphasis is on slowly. I'd feel ok, go for a little ride, then sleep 12 hours, eating little. I'd rest and try to eat, repeat the process. My bathroom patterns were the complete opposite of what brought the weight loss on, so I knew something was wrong. Well it turns out that after a vicious round of diarrhea, constipation is quite common because you are dehydrated and your body is trying to suck the water out of the shit before letting it pass. You people with kids probably already know this, but since I have not been blessed that way, and hardly ever get sick myself, I'm rather ignorant in the ways of PediaLyte and all that.
You still reading? So anyway, with a diet that is rather low in sodium to begin with, compounded by a general loss of appetite, my daily attempts to train in the recent heat and humidity were probably keeping my electrolyte stores and hence hydration at less than optimal levels. I wasn't dieing or anything, but I was running out of gas after less then two hours on the bike. Not that I was used to the heat anyway, with the way this "summer" has gone. Bow is kind of an important race for me. It's my favorite road race, having won it as a Cat 3 a long time ago, as well as scoring a first and a second at the old Manchester Road Race, which had a course that overlapped what is now Bow. The race has not been too kind to me in recent years, as they've made the loop harder as I've grown softer, but last year provided a glimmer of hope when I stuck in the lead group of the 45+ until the end. For this reason, I wanted to go to Hilltowns just to remind my body of how much you have to suffer in one of these things, even when you are going well. TOTH is a 40+ and the long climb does not suit my "talents" but it would have been great training. However, the nature of the last hour of the race puts stamina and endurance at a premium, and these two qualities have gone down the toilet for me lately, both literally and figuratively (did I already use that? Not sure). I kept holding off on registering to see how I'd feel close to race day. Things were getting better, but it wasn't until Thursday that I figured out I might need a little salt in my diet. By Friday I started to feel much better, but faced with a long drive, $40 entry fee, tolls, traffic, locusts, etc, made the executive decision to bag out. I simply lacked confidence and did not want to spend $100 to get dropped and ride in alone and broken, which was how I've been finishing even modest rides around the flat suburbs this week.
As luck would have it, Saturday I felt like a million dollars on the bike. I headed over to Big Blue, anxious to see if my new Rasmussen-esque physique was going to help on the steep stuff, even with my motor running on three cylinders. The road up was more like a mountain stream than a road. Water rushed down, with rocks and storm debris strewn across six inches deep in places. It was humid too. My legs felt good, but I was sucking wind. Not racing will do that to you. In a few spots I had to hold myself back because even though I had the ability to turn the pedals, I felt out of breath. I got to the top in 5:06, my best this year, though not that great. Under the conditions I'll take it. Reminded me of the old, old, old days before the road was reconstructed, when you had to pick your line to keep from spinning the back tire. My best back then was 4:48. The new pavement has to be worth 15 seconds at least. I rode 4:46 three years ago and I know I'm not as strong as I was when I was thirty. Saturday came to 414 watts average, which at my current weight of 73.5 kg calculates to a CP5 of "pretty good."
The rest of the ride was ok too, but I still sort of fell apart at the end and subsequently slept all afternoon, so I'm glad that I skipped Hilltowns. I have a feeling that would have gone OK until about halfway up the climb and then I'd end up crawling back to Windsor as I initially feared. Sunday I recovered but not as well as I'd hoped, but my appetite is finally back and my body once again seems to know how to process food. All good with Bow coming up this week. The bad news is that without any racing or even hard group rides, I'm not sure my suffering capacity will be up to the task. I'm also unsure on whether or not the Concord-Bow double is within my capabilities right now. Concord is one of the best, oldest, longest continually running crits in New England, on a great course, but it also can take a bit more out of your legs than the average crit. Bottom line is that I'm not much of a bike racer this summer. Time for work. Thanks for reading.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Gasp! Gloves
Contador wore gloves in the TT. He won.
Ever since this interview/story about the MIT cycling team and the wind tunnel testing of their collegiate champion TTT ran, I don't think I've been to a time trial where some know-it-all did not chastise another rider for choosing to wear gloves. A few years ago I even did a post about these gloves which were supposed to be used by CSC or something. Well here we are at the tour, and look, AC wore gloves.
Cancellara wore them too. He was second fastest.
I suspect Mr. Herrmann was just fucking with people, and lo and behold, it worked. If you read it on the internet, it must be true, right? Or maybe the Beavers wear hockey gloves or something. Personally, I consider gloves to be essential safety equipment. Don't go down without them. Thanks for reading.
Evans went bare-handed. He was 12th.
Images reside on cyclingnews.com
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Tour Sleeper
Even in this sleeper of a tour, Nibali has managed to stay under the radar for the most part. Look for a move today. This guy agrees.
Boonen out. I feel your pain Tom.
Trying to see if we got any Nocentini pictures from the stage he won over Mill Creek Summit.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Biggest Loser
Thursday, July 16, 2009
shutdown -h now
I think I used that title before. I'm recycling. Anyhow, my WMSR ended almost as soon as it began. My digestive system and intestines went on strike during the TT night. So much for being a Workingman. During the race I thought I might be OK, but that is probably because I started out easy, downshifted early and often, and then faded badly at the end anyway. I ended up 10th in the masters, barely breaking 40 kph. Afterward I felt awful. It was already dark and the mosquitoes were out, making cooling down on the trainer problematic. I packed up my shit, picked up the gel wrappers that the classy Cambridge Bike kids were kind enough to leave behind on the sidewalk, and went home. Wednesday was hell. Last night and this morning only slightly better. In the past 36 hours I've eaten a half bowl of cereal and a piece of toast, neither of which stayed in my system more than 30 minutes. I did not even travel to the race last night. I haven't DNF'd in a long time but there was nothing I could do. Thanks for reading.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Enough about the tour
Yes, as asked for by jtheskier, you are entitled to at least one pre-WMSR preview/excitement post. And here it is. The only night time stage race in the world. This is going to have to be quick and dirty, because the big preview news is that I'm competing. There was some question about that because Team BOB decided earlier that this edition would be all hands on deck for helping to run the event. However, race director Armand Schleck later decided it was important that we field a competitive team at our own event, and yours truly was selected to represent. I know, pretty sad, so stop making fun of BBox.
We will need all the help we can get, as Team Sunapee S&W apparently was not content with winning everything there was to win this past weekend, and are sending a battalion to support our race. CCB will send their usual wrecking crew too. And of course zencycle and his Cyclonauts. But it's not just masters. Reuter is a late entry in the Cat 5 race, and rumor has it that Internet Ryan will have a cameo heckling role at the points race on Thursday night. I'm going to see about getting him a microphone.
Speaking of Reuter brings me to a brief chat about time trial preparation. The first night involves a 10.9k semi-technical TT (very Tour prologuesque). Most of you know my main rule of TT prep is FORGET ABOUT DICKING AROUND WITH YOUR STUPID EQUIPMENT, and make sure you arrive at the start ready to ride. Every detail is important, right down to your night before the race dinner of supermarket sushi and coconut popsicles while typing a stupid blog entry about the race. This single-minded focus on the big picture of being ready to ride is why I insisted Reuter forget all that and instead borrow a TT bike from Armand. Colin is working in Boston until 4:15. He is somehow going to ride his bike home (somewhere), load it into his car, fight traffic to get to Amesbury in time for number pickup at 5:30 (certainly there is a caffeine stop in there too) then get acquainted with a fast bike that he's never seen before with one ear tuned to the rider's meeting, and then race it without much warmup on a course he's never seen before at his 6:29:00 start time. I've got confidence in him, but don't you try this at home. You'd surely fuck it up.
My TT bike is ready to roll. I assembled it last freaking Wednesday, almost a week ahead of schedule. I know, I must be getting old. I even rode the thing at the Rehoboth TT last week. I'd gone there cannibal two weeks prior, riding a 20:02 for the 13.2k course, despite having an "episode" that was either a) an asthma attack, b) some allergy-related respiratory attack or c) a friggin' heart attack. Since I never had any issues before with a or b, I'm going with c. Halfway through I couldn't breath and had to almost completely shut it down. So last week I go down all TT technoed, with my aero helmet squeezing the earpieces of my Mr Magoo glasses right into my skull. I started off easy, felt great, blew by people the entire time, never went under 38kph, mostly 41-44kph, and finished in 18:42, one second behind the winner. Ready for WMSR, I went home and signed up for the Attleboro crit as a final tuneup. Then woke up sick the next day.
Friday I was hacking up all kinds of shit and was shivering and shaking all day. It was not looking good. Luckily I somehow slept all through the night. Saturday I still was shivering and hacking but Attleboro is only two towns away and I'd already paid so I went. It was nice and hot in the parking lot too so I rode the trainer to get my core up to about 108 degrees F in an effort to kill the bug. The 45+ race was wicked short, only 30 laps, 40 minutes. I brought back what would have been the winning break, with every team except us represented. I had one from each sitting on my wheel and I knew they wouldn't pull through so I just kept drilling it until I was almost on the last guy. Then I drifted back to recover. Paul the Announcer gave me a little something for the effort, so I had that going for me. Then with four laps to go Bob Bisson (Gearworks) was moving up hard on the frontstretch so I got on his wheel and took the tow up to and off the front. I came through, maybe too hard as he did not stay with me and I ended up solo. I was not feeling it though, but after a lap Charlie Bedard (Sunapee) bridged up to me and we kept going but never got a sufficient gap. With 1.5 laps to go we were about to get swarmed so I pulled over and jumped the sidewalk to get the hell out of the way. Duano was right in there about 6th in line but I guess shortly thereafter started regurgitating his breakfast all over his skinsuit and handlebars and we got nuttin' honey.
Oh yeah, this was about WMSR. I went home to still be sick all day. Sunday not much better but I rode the TT bike for 90 minutes anyway. By the evening I was a bit better and today better still so we'll see tomorrow. The bike is pretty solid and after Rehoboth I think I can ride ok if my legs decide to show up. After that I'm not so sure because after being sick I don't know if I've got three good days in me. Wasn't that about as exciting as a Cadel Evans breakaway? Oh yeah, BTW, we are taking day of registrations tomorrow so don't be a wuss, head on up and give it a go. Thanks for reading.
We will need all the help we can get, as Team Sunapee S&W apparently was not content with winning everything there was to win this past weekend, and are sending a battalion to support our race. CCB will send their usual wrecking crew too. And of course zencycle and his Cyclonauts. But it's not just masters. Reuter is a late entry in the Cat 5 race, and rumor has it that Internet Ryan will have a cameo heckling role at the points race on Thursday night. I'm going to see about getting him a microphone.
Speaking of Reuter brings me to a brief chat about time trial preparation. The first night involves a 10.9k semi-technical TT (very Tour prologuesque). Most of you know my main rule of TT prep is FORGET ABOUT DICKING AROUND WITH YOUR STUPID EQUIPMENT, and make sure you arrive at the start ready to ride. Every detail is important, right down to your night before the race dinner of supermarket sushi and coconut popsicles while typing a stupid blog entry about the race. This single-minded focus on the big picture of being ready to ride is why I insisted Reuter forget all that and instead borrow a TT bike from Armand. Colin is working in Boston until 4:15. He is somehow going to ride his bike home (somewhere), load it into his car, fight traffic to get to Amesbury in time for number pickup at 5:30 (certainly there is a caffeine stop in there too) then get acquainted with a fast bike that he's never seen before with one ear tuned to the rider's meeting, and then race it without much warmup on a course he's never seen before at his 6:29:00 start time. I've got confidence in him, but don't you try this at home. You'd surely fuck it up.
My TT bike is ready to roll. I assembled it last freaking Wednesday, almost a week ahead of schedule. I know, I must be getting old. I even rode the thing at the Rehoboth TT last week. I'd gone there cannibal two weeks prior, riding a 20:02 for the 13.2k course, despite having an "episode" that was either a) an asthma attack, b) some allergy-related respiratory attack or c) a friggin' heart attack. Since I never had any issues before with a or b, I'm going with c. Halfway through I couldn't breath and had to almost completely shut it down. So last week I go down all TT technoed, with my aero helmet squeezing the earpieces of my Mr Magoo glasses right into my skull. I started off easy, felt great, blew by people the entire time, never went under 38kph, mostly 41-44kph, and finished in 18:42, one second behind the winner. Ready for WMSR, I went home and signed up for the Attleboro crit as a final tuneup. Then woke up sick the next day.
Friday I was hacking up all kinds of shit and was shivering and shaking all day. It was not looking good. Luckily I somehow slept all through the night. Saturday I still was shivering and hacking but Attleboro is only two towns away and I'd already paid so I went. It was nice and hot in the parking lot too so I rode the trainer to get my core up to about 108 degrees F in an effort to kill the bug. The 45+ race was wicked short, only 30 laps, 40 minutes. I brought back what would have been the winning break, with every team except us represented. I had one from each sitting on my wheel and I knew they wouldn't pull through so I just kept drilling it until I was almost on the last guy. Then I drifted back to recover. Paul the Announcer gave me a little something for the effort, so I had that going for me. Then with four laps to go Bob Bisson (Gearworks) was moving up hard on the frontstretch so I got on his wheel and took the tow up to and off the front. I came through, maybe too hard as he did not stay with me and I ended up solo. I was not feeling it though, but after a lap Charlie Bedard (Sunapee) bridged up to me and we kept going but never got a sufficient gap. With 1.5 laps to go we were about to get swarmed so I pulled over and jumped the sidewalk to get the hell out of the way. Duano was right in there about 6th in line but I guess shortly thereafter started regurgitating his breakfast all over his skinsuit and handlebars and we got nuttin' honey.
Oh yeah, this was about WMSR. I went home to still be sick all day. Sunday not much better but I rode the TT bike for 90 minutes anyway. By the evening I was a bit better and today better still so we'll see tomorrow. The bike is pretty solid and after Rehoboth I think I can ride ok if my legs decide to show up. After that I'm not so sure because after being sick I don't know if I've got three good days in me. Wasn't that about as exciting as a Cadel Evans breakaway? Oh yeah, BTW, we are taking day of registrations tomorrow so don't be a wuss, head on up and give it a go. Thanks for reading.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
One day later
More totally uninformed Tour opinion... I read somewhere that Contador let the gap open on purpose. If that is true, then combined with yesterday the whole thing starts to look like an honest team effort to get Armstrong a ceremonial leader's jersey before AC takes control on Friday, with a boring and dragged out two weeks to follow. It will be much more fun if it's the soap opera we all hoped for, or at least if someone else wins on Friday. Thanks for reading.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Welcome Sports Fans
Rather than talk about what's going to happen in the Tour, or the sexual preference of the podium girls, let's discuss what will happen after the Tour. Astana immediately disbands? Vino comes back and takes over, and we never hear about Kazakhstan again. Armstrong and Bruynheel are out, starting their own team, built around Taylor Phinney, with a resurgent Armstrong, fresh off his 8th Tour win carrying the torch for the first few years. Contador is an unpaid free agent, left wandering around Spain wondering why it hurts to sit down. Levi and Horner do a year or two on Rock Racing before winding up living in the bushes out behind the 7-11 in Santa Monica. You read it here first. Thanks for your continued interest.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Firecracker 464
With a long weekend and no racing, my plan was simple: ride lots. The only goal was three solid days of riding. Maybe you could call it training. Initially my thoughts were maybe 400k for the weekend. Friday morning the weather seemed decent for a change; this plan could happen. I'd sent out a few queries looking for ride mates, but was probably a bit late doing so and responders were nil as of Friday morning. Dougie's planned ride up in Conway was not totally lacking in appeal, but my secondary goal for the weekend was to do as little driving and money spending as possible. Seven hours in the car plus seven hours on the bike would have been too taxing a way to start the weekend, not to mention the weather forecast up there was less hopeful than at home, so sorry Doug. I headed out straight from home early in short sleeves and shorts, popping in a local group ride of casual cyclists, something I never do. But what the hell. Could I get through three days of riding with others and not yell at anyone?
There were about ten riders in the group. Some looked OK, but some appeared to lack experience. What was I getting in to? After introducing myself, I took a spot at the back of the line to observe. The ride leader and his companion were on a tandem... Luckily, they set a brisk pace 35-40 kph down the flat roads near the lake. This was not so bad. I think the ride was a mix of triathletes and old century riders. A few of them had just done the 140 mile B2B ride, so they couldn't be that bad. In a few places, apparently they have a "hot spot" where the strong riders blow the group apart, and then waste time waiting for a regroup. Oh well. I got in two hours with a few mild efforts and met at least one strong local guy whom I'll be happy to ride with in the future. After the ride broke up I rode over with him to Walpole before venturing off on my own. I had no plans so I went through Norfolk, Medway, and down into Franklin. Being a semi-holiday, the roads were delightfully deserted for the most part.
With about three and a half hours in it was decision time. The skies still looked reasonably sunny and I felt good, so I kept going across Franklin, briefly crossing into Rhode Island to zoom down Tower Hill Road the fun way. Unfortunately, the super narrow and twisty road was quite littered with storm debris, and it's difficult enough to avoid becoming a hood ornament on the occasional oncoming vehicle as it is. So I took it easy. Over by the resevoir the road was wet and dirty, like a heavy shower had passed though. I rode back toward home via Foxboro, got more food, and at the five hour mark the skies opened up and I got soaked. This was only about 15k from home. Funny thing was, even though it was hard enough to flash flood the roads inches deep in places, much of the time there was simultaneous bright sunshine angling through breaks in the clouds. It was almost like lightning the way things were going dark/light in an instant as the storm clouds maneuvered overhead.
You can only get so wet, so I just kept riding. A few k from my house the roads completely dried out. It had not rained there at all. Normally I never worry about rounding up ride time or mileage, but I kept circling the neighborhood for about twenty minutes just to air-dry my shoes and bring the day up to a nice even six hours, 177k. Now I started to wonder whether or not I could up my weekend goal to 500k? Murat and I had an email correspondence going about the feasibility of some riding together on Saturday. By 9 PM Friday, it was agreed we'd meet down in Rehoboth at 7am. Ughh. My bike was a mess. Instead of going to sleep, I got to stay up and clean my chain, wipe down my wheels, sponge off some of the grit, and generally make ready for an early departure. I still did not wake up at dawn, and when the 'rat called me at 6am, he was already on his bike riding to the designated spot. It would take him ninety minutes to get there. It would take me about the same unless I time trialed, and I wasn't even close to leaving. My legs felt fried too. I kitted up, had some food, and drove down to a big athletic complex in Taunton where I knew I could park. There was a huge softball tournament getting started, college women. Bonus! I was on the bike at 7:00 and after 15k or so of headwind on Tremont Street, got to the Chartley Store right as Murat rolled up at 7:30. We did a nice big leisurely flat loop around Cattleboro, Foxboro, and Norton, and I accompanied him back as far as the E. Pro line on his journey home before bidding farewell. BTW Murat, I forgot to thank you for the wool base layer. Very nice.
It was gorgeous weather by then so I criss-crossed Rehoboth a few times, doing the TT loop again before riding the big tailwind back to my car. Finished with 4:15, 124k, and a very squashed and numb sensation at the intersection of where I sit and plumbing central. Probably not a good thing... I was home by noon and cooking on the grill by 4 though, Samuel Smith's lager in hand, sweet. This holiday life is not too hard to take. The response from my Team BOB mates for a long Sunday ride was kind of underwhelming. With some prodding, Les agreed to ride out to Fitchburg with me. He is one of the few who does not hide under the covers when five hours gets mentioned. He had an overnight firefighting shift to deal with first, but luckily he still got some sleep and we met at his home in Chelmsford at 8:15, departing west more or less (pun-intended) at 8:30. We were met with a direct, constant headwind. WTF? Mornings are supposed to be calm. Our route was consistently uphill too, not so good for making time. The masters started at 9:30, so we need to get there by 10 at the latest in order to heckle the Cronoman before it finished. After plugging away for an hour at 25kph, we topped out in Lunenburg, plunging down 2A into Fitchburg back on schedule. There were thirteen laps to go when we got there, and Jonny Bold was killing it off the front in a solo break which lasted several laps before Westwood Velo hit the front and brought him back. We sauntered around while spectating, running into Les's Chelmsford neighbor Dick Ring, who introduced us to cycling legends John Howard and Bobby "the Baltimore Bullet" Phillips. That was wicked awesome.
This is for you Dougie. I had no speed sensor, so the x-axis is time, making the downhills look steeper. Only half the climbing needed for a 100x100 squared designation. But a fine loop just the same. We went out on the main roads to save time, but with some slight modification and an extension around Jaffrey, this could be an epic. Note that the intervals all come at the end.
We rode the cooldown lap with the Cronoman and Soups, then headed north up Rindge Road. We were still battling headwinds, which got even stronger on the wide-open and west heading Rt 119 up into West Rindge NH. Taking Cathedral road over to 123, we had almost three hours ride time at our northwesternmost point. I'd expected it to be further. Passing Windblown Ski area on the way back east was the highest point on the route too, so combining with the tailwind the elevation-losing way back would be much faster than the journey out. We'd need to improvise just to make sure we got our five hours in. After snacking on a homemade doughnut at the store in New Ipswich (there was a reason we took this route) we navigated the lumpy roads of Mason before plummeting down into Townsend. Now we were past four hours and we cranked up the power on some of the punchy climbs like Hog Hill that lead to Pepperell. That took us to Groton and old Les said he was hurting. I wanted to finish the weekend with some efforts, so after escorting him back toward the homestretch of Rt 40, I circled back solo to do (two) six minute pieces of work on a nice road with a gradual slope. That did the trick and now my legs were ready to call it a day. Doing my longer intervals deep into a day's ride is something I learned from riding with Markie Mark back when we were neighbors.
I limped back from Groton to Chelmsford on Route 40, but at least the traffic was still lighter than normal and the wind was at my back. Les's driveway came up at 5:40 ride time, 162k. That brought the weekend total to 16 hours, 464k, so a bit shy of 500, but 10,000+ kj just the same. For me this qualifies as "lots." Thanks for reading an exceptionally uneventful and boring "training" post. No fellow cyclists were yelled at, lectured, nor otherwise abused in the creation of this blog entry.
There were about ten riders in the group. Some looked OK, but some appeared to lack experience. What was I getting in to? After introducing myself, I took a spot at the back of the line to observe. The ride leader and his companion were on a tandem... Luckily, they set a brisk pace 35-40 kph down the flat roads near the lake. This was not so bad. I think the ride was a mix of triathletes and old century riders. A few of them had just done the 140 mile B2B ride, so they couldn't be that bad. In a few places, apparently they have a "hot spot" where the strong riders blow the group apart, and then waste time waiting for a regroup. Oh well. I got in two hours with a few mild efforts and met at least one strong local guy whom I'll be happy to ride with in the future. After the ride broke up I rode over with him to Walpole before venturing off on my own. I had no plans so I went through Norfolk, Medway, and down into Franklin. Being a semi-holiday, the roads were delightfully deserted for the most part.
With about three and a half hours in it was decision time. The skies still looked reasonably sunny and I felt good, so I kept going across Franklin, briefly crossing into Rhode Island to zoom down Tower Hill Road the fun way. Unfortunately, the super narrow and twisty road was quite littered with storm debris, and it's difficult enough to avoid becoming a hood ornament on the occasional oncoming vehicle as it is. So I took it easy. Over by the resevoir the road was wet and dirty, like a heavy shower had passed though. I rode back toward home via Foxboro, got more food, and at the five hour mark the skies opened up and I got soaked. This was only about 15k from home. Funny thing was, even though it was hard enough to flash flood the roads inches deep in places, much of the time there was simultaneous bright sunshine angling through breaks in the clouds. It was almost like lightning the way things were going dark/light in an instant as the storm clouds maneuvered overhead.
You can only get so wet, so I just kept riding. A few k from my house the roads completely dried out. It had not rained there at all. Normally I never worry about rounding up ride time or mileage, but I kept circling the neighborhood for about twenty minutes just to air-dry my shoes and bring the day up to a nice even six hours, 177k. Now I started to wonder whether or not I could up my weekend goal to 500k? Murat and I had an email correspondence going about the feasibility of some riding together on Saturday. By 9 PM Friday, it was agreed we'd meet down in Rehoboth at 7am. Ughh. My bike was a mess. Instead of going to sleep, I got to stay up and clean my chain, wipe down my wheels, sponge off some of the grit, and generally make ready for an early departure. I still did not wake up at dawn, and when the 'rat called me at 6am, he was already on his bike riding to the designated spot. It would take him ninety minutes to get there. It would take me about the same unless I time trialed, and I wasn't even close to leaving. My legs felt fried too. I kitted up, had some food, and drove down to a big athletic complex in Taunton where I knew I could park. There was a huge softball tournament getting started, college women. Bonus! I was on the bike at 7:00 and after 15k or so of headwind on Tremont Street, got to the Chartley Store right as Murat rolled up at 7:30. We did a nice big leisurely flat loop around Cattleboro, Foxboro, and Norton, and I accompanied him back as far as the E. Pro line on his journey home before bidding farewell. BTW Murat, I forgot to thank you for the wool base layer. Very nice.
It was gorgeous weather by then so I criss-crossed Rehoboth a few times, doing the TT loop again before riding the big tailwind back to my car. Finished with 4:15, 124k, and a very squashed and numb sensation at the intersection of where I sit and plumbing central. Probably not a good thing... I was home by noon and cooking on the grill by 4 though, Samuel Smith's lager in hand, sweet. This holiday life is not too hard to take. The response from my Team BOB mates for a long Sunday ride was kind of underwhelming. With some prodding, Les agreed to ride out to Fitchburg with me. He is one of the few who does not hide under the covers when five hours gets mentioned. He had an overnight firefighting shift to deal with first, but luckily he still got some sleep and we met at his home in Chelmsford at 8:15, departing west more or less (pun-intended) at 8:30. We were met with a direct, constant headwind. WTF? Mornings are supposed to be calm. Our route was consistently uphill too, not so good for making time. The masters started at 9:30, so we need to get there by 10 at the latest in order to heckle the Cronoman before it finished. After plugging away for an hour at 25kph, we topped out in Lunenburg, plunging down 2A into Fitchburg back on schedule. There were thirteen laps to go when we got there, and Jonny Bold was killing it off the front in a solo break which lasted several laps before Westwood Velo hit the front and brought him back. We sauntered around while spectating, running into Les's Chelmsford neighbor Dick Ring, who introduced us to cycling legends John Howard and Bobby "the Baltimore Bullet" Phillips. That was wicked awesome.
This is for you Dougie. I had no speed sensor, so the x-axis is time, making the downhills look steeper. Only half the climbing needed for a 100x100 squared designation. But a fine loop just the same. We went out on the main roads to save time, but with some slight modification and an extension around Jaffrey, this could be an epic. Note that the intervals all come at the end.
We rode the cooldown lap with the Cronoman and Soups, then headed north up Rindge Road. We were still battling headwinds, which got even stronger on the wide-open and west heading Rt 119 up into West Rindge NH. Taking Cathedral road over to 123, we had almost three hours ride time at our northwesternmost point. I'd expected it to be further. Passing Windblown Ski area on the way back east was the highest point on the route too, so combining with the tailwind the elevation-losing way back would be much faster than the journey out. We'd need to improvise just to make sure we got our five hours in. After snacking on a homemade doughnut at the store in New Ipswich (there was a reason we took this route) we navigated the lumpy roads of Mason before plummeting down into Townsend. Now we were past four hours and we cranked up the power on some of the punchy climbs like Hog Hill that lead to Pepperell. That took us to Groton and old Les said he was hurting. I wanted to finish the weekend with some efforts, so after escorting him back toward the homestretch of Rt 40, I circled back solo to do (two) six minute pieces of work on a nice road with a gradual slope. That did the trick and now my legs were ready to call it a day. Doing my longer intervals deep into a day's ride is something I learned from riding with Markie Mark back when we were neighbors.
I limped back from Groton to Chelmsford on Route 40, but at least the traffic was still lighter than normal and the wind was at my back. Les's driveway came up at 5:40 ride time, 162k. That brought the weekend total to 16 hours, 464k, so a bit shy of 500, but 10,000+ kj just the same. For me this qualifies as "lots." Thanks for reading an exceptionally uneventful and boring "training" post. No fellow cyclists were yelled at, lectured, nor otherwise abused in the creation of this blog entry.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
The Armchair D.S.
Maybe "office chair D.S." would be more accurate, as 8-4 weekdays appears to be the most traffic here on the cyclo-blog. Either way, yup, it's Tour time, and the know-it-alls are just getting started. There's a reason why we don't have too much PRO racing fan discussion in this space: I acknowledge that I don't know what the fuck I'm talking about when it comes to the PRO racing scene. My first-hand experience with professional bike racing, other than being a spectator at a handful of events held in this country, is zero. For the most part, I read about it online or watch video. That's it.
Sports are big business. So is sportswriting and sports discussion. The print media and airwaves here, especially in a big league sports town like Boston, are full of self-proclaimed experts. Second guessing coaches and general managers by fans runs rampant. It cracks me up that people who merely watch a game on TV somehow come to believe that they understand more than those with a lifetime of involvement in a sport, working and even living with the participants most of the year.
Cycling is not immune. The latest is the outrage over Astana leaving poor little Chris Horner off of this year's Tour squad. Get a grip on your emotions, ok? Do you honestly believe that the 75 minutes of each Giro stage you watched on Universal has rendered you more expert on the subject of winning the Tour than Bruyneel? I'm skeptical.
I'm not immune either. Many of you follow pro racing much more closely than I do. That wouldn't be too tough. I got into this sport to be a participant, not a fan, but I still get caught up in it. My view of the Horner situation is that I never saw him sacrifice anything for anyone. He rode well at the Giro, period. From my view in the really cheap seats he was hanging around waiting for one or more of his "leaders" to falter, or for an opportunity to snag a stage. That's not sacrifice. Remember the Postal and Disco teams that won the Tour for Armstrong? Nobody was allowed to do anything. Most of them had to ride themselves into the ground long before the final climb, and finished many minutes down. Contrast that with Horner fighting to stay in the leading group to the bitter end, then later saying "I was there for Cadel or Levi." I don't think Bruyneel was fooled.
Neither was Armstrong. Remember when he made his comeback? Horner had been quoted as shit-talking Armstrong several times, so now this was spun as him just being a guy who speaks his mind. Yeah OK, and lots of teammates have done that with Armstrong and not been punished for it... I wouldn't doubt it if Armstrong set him up like a bowling pin for this, leading him to believe everything was cool, then knocking him on his ass. Of course, I don't know Armstrong from outside the media either, other than the infamous cutting me in line at the Fitchburg buffet incident of '92, but according to media legend, he's a vindictive S.O.B., so I don't think I'm too far off base here (clever baseball reference).
And oh yeah, what do you know, it's Fitchburg time. I guess I was the last to know that the Wachusett finish was out for this year. No matter, I wouldn't have entered anyway. Good luck to those who did. The elite womens' field is huge. For much of the registration period, this was the biggest field. Who'd have thunk it.
No racing for the rest of us though. My fitness is not so great. I raced at the BOB Old Home Day event, which as you may know did not go so smoothly. There's a reason I generally avoid "First Annual" races, but this one was my team's, and I was there to support Captain Duano. We got a good turnout, but unfortunately so did the Old Home Day celebration, and the course ended up crowded with parked cars. That did not turn out to be so much of a problem. It was narrow and sketchy, but then so are most mountain stages in the Tour. The fields were almost forced to neutralize going through the cauldron, but once we exited town the racing was pretty good. CCB was out in force and very aggressive in our race, with Pavlov going up the road with the Skipinator on lap 3. I'd spent the first lap at the front out of fear, but kind of exploded. I blame "Goji juice" which was a canned beverage I pilfered at the conclusion of the Easton running race. Thinking it was just a Powerade type of thing, I downed a 20 oz can while on the trainer warming up. Well, it turns out it was a Red Bull knock-off concoction, and my HR soared to LT levels while soft-pedaling. Great.
With the Foley (no relation)/Pavlov duo well up the road and heading out of sight, I fought my way back to the front during lap four of six. Sunapee and Gearworks had guys up there too and we put on a good chase around CCBs blocking. Pavlov dropped back to us with 1.5 laps to go, but Skip was left dangling out there. With their guy out of the break, CCB took over and rode a nice tempo until a half lap to go, bringing in Skip. Then the leadouts started. The Cronoman took a turn for us, then Jim Nash (CCB) pulled at 45 kph for about two friggin' kilometers, very impressive. Then I think it was Pavlov, with me taking over for Duano and Big John with 1.25 k to go. I took it out through the last turn onto the finish road, slightly downhill at over 50kph and was totally spun in my 50x12 when I got swarmed by the sprint at about 500m to go. Then...
Traffic management in areas of the course controlled by BOB volunteer marshals was excellent. However, the most critical points of the course, i.e. through the festival and the finish on Main Street, were left to the Plaistow P.D. who in hindsight had no understanding of bike racing. Despite radio warning, three vehicles had been allowed onto Main Street ahead of the sprint, and one had stopped to look for a parking space. With 50 riders at 50 kph approaching from behind. The leaders yelled and waved and most of us were able to get under control, but some weren't. I got hit from behind multiple times, but stayed up. Someone's bike went through the back window of a parked car, and two riders were transported away by ambulance with non-life threatening injuries. Big John went around and crossed the line first but we don't consider it a win and the prize list was donated to charity. Ughh.
Last but not least, the training wrap up - 230 hours on the bike YTD. Only 19 running. The 249 total is equal to last year, but the bike hours is a modern day record for me by 15%. I feel out of shape now, but I'm not confident that I can train hard the next seven weeks without a break. So I'm torn on taking one now, or maybe doing a build and then backing off for a week before Hilltowns or something. Blah-blah-blah. Complain all you want, what else were you going to read today? Thanks for choosing solobreak.blogspot.com for your blog consumption pleasure.
Sports are big business. So is sportswriting and sports discussion. The print media and airwaves here, especially in a big league sports town like Boston, are full of self-proclaimed experts. Second guessing coaches and general managers by fans runs rampant. It cracks me up that people who merely watch a game on TV somehow come to believe that they understand more than those with a lifetime of involvement in a sport, working and even living with the participants most of the year.
Cycling is not immune. The latest is the outrage over Astana leaving poor little Chris Horner off of this year's Tour squad. Get a grip on your emotions, ok? Do you honestly believe that the 75 minutes of each Giro stage you watched on Universal has rendered you more expert on the subject of winning the Tour than Bruyneel? I'm skeptical.
I'm not immune either. Many of you follow pro racing much more closely than I do. That wouldn't be too tough. I got into this sport to be a participant, not a fan, but I still get caught up in it. My view of the Horner situation is that I never saw him sacrifice anything for anyone. He rode well at the Giro, period. From my view in the really cheap seats he was hanging around waiting for one or more of his "leaders" to falter, or for an opportunity to snag a stage. That's not sacrifice. Remember the Postal and Disco teams that won the Tour for Armstrong? Nobody was allowed to do anything. Most of them had to ride themselves into the ground long before the final climb, and finished many minutes down. Contrast that with Horner fighting to stay in the leading group to the bitter end, then later saying "I was there for Cadel or Levi." I don't think Bruyneel was fooled.
Neither was Armstrong. Remember when he made his comeback? Horner had been quoted as shit-talking Armstrong several times, so now this was spun as him just being a guy who speaks his mind. Yeah OK, and lots of teammates have done that with Armstrong and not been punished for it... I wouldn't doubt it if Armstrong set him up like a bowling pin for this, leading him to believe everything was cool, then knocking him on his ass. Of course, I don't know Armstrong from outside the media either, other than the infamous cutting me in line at the Fitchburg buffet incident of '92, but according to media legend, he's a vindictive S.O.B., so I don't think I'm too far off base here (clever baseball reference).
And oh yeah, what do you know, it's Fitchburg time. I guess I was the last to know that the Wachusett finish was out for this year. No matter, I wouldn't have entered anyway. Good luck to those who did. The elite womens' field is huge. For much of the registration period, this was the biggest field. Who'd have thunk it.
No racing for the rest of us though. My fitness is not so great. I raced at the BOB Old Home Day event, which as you may know did not go so smoothly. There's a reason I generally avoid "First Annual" races, but this one was my team's, and I was there to support Captain Duano. We got a good turnout, but unfortunately so did the Old Home Day celebration, and the course ended up crowded with parked cars. That did not turn out to be so much of a problem. It was narrow and sketchy, but then so are most mountain stages in the Tour. The fields were almost forced to neutralize going through the cauldron, but once we exited town the racing was pretty good. CCB was out in force and very aggressive in our race, with Pavlov going up the road with the Skipinator on lap 3. I'd spent the first lap at the front out of fear, but kind of exploded. I blame "Goji juice" which was a canned beverage I pilfered at the conclusion of the Easton running race. Thinking it was just a Powerade type of thing, I downed a 20 oz can while on the trainer warming up. Well, it turns out it was a Red Bull knock-off concoction, and my HR soared to LT levels while soft-pedaling. Great.
With the Foley (no relation)/Pavlov duo well up the road and heading out of sight, I fought my way back to the front during lap four of six. Sunapee and Gearworks had guys up there too and we put on a good chase around CCBs blocking. Pavlov dropped back to us with 1.5 laps to go, but Skip was left dangling out there. With their guy out of the break, CCB took over and rode a nice tempo until a half lap to go, bringing in Skip. Then the leadouts started. The Cronoman took a turn for us, then Jim Nash (CCB) pulled at 45 kph for about two friggin' kilometers, very impressive. Then I think it was Pavlov, with me taking over for Duano and Big John with 1.25 k to go. I took it out through the last turn onto the finish road, slightly downhill at over 50kph and was totally spun in my 50x12 when I got swarmed by the sprint at about 500m to go. Then...
Traffic management in areas of the course controlled by BOB volunteer marshals was excellent. However, the most critical points of the course, i.e. through the festival and the finish on Main Street, were left to the Plaistow P.D. who in hindsight had no understanding of bike racing. Despite radio warning, three vehicles had been allowed onto Main Street ahead of the sprint, and one had stopped to look for a parking space. With 50 riders at 50 kph approaching from behind. The leaders yelled and waved and most of us were able to get under control, but some weren't. I got hit from behind multiple times, but stayed up. Someone's bike went through the back window of a parked car, and two riders were transported away by ambulance with non-life threatening injuries. Big John went around and crossed the line first but we don't consider it a win and the prize list was donated to charity. Ughh.
Last but not least, the training wrap up - 230 hours on the bike YTD. Only 19 running. The 249 total is equal to last year, but the bike hours is a modern day record for me by 15%. I feel out of shape now, but I'm not confident that I can train hard the next seven weeks without a break. So I'm torn on taking one now, or maybe doing a build and then backing off for a week before Hilltowns or something. Blah-blah-blah. Complain all you want, what else were you going to read today? Thanks for choosing solobreak.blogspot.com for your blog consumption pleasure.
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