''Keep your helmet hard''

I was yelled this today on my ride by some teen girl, who was riding of course, without a helmet. To many rebuttals came to mind:

'Keep your trash white'

'You're lowering my property value' (as I was less than one mile from home)

etc.

But all I said was an unenthusiastic "yeah".

With the weather looking bad down south via satellite, I skipped the training crit and rode my TT bike instead for some fun. Fun being intervals.

***
As I'm typing this, I am reminded on why I freaking hate living in a subdivision. Door to door sales! This time it was a kid selling coupons. On the farm I lived on for 10 years prior to moving here, NO ONE came to my door. That's the way I like it. Leave me alone! It wouldn't be so bad if my dogs didn't go ballistic at the sound of a doorbell.
***

Now that my train of thought is long gone...Oh, now I remember. I was going to launch into a diatribe about helmet usage. In the last 4 years I've had 3 concussions and 6 bike wrecks. You won't see me without one. Do what you want, but I'm wearing a lid and keeping it hard.

Productivity

Looking over my mileage spreadsheet, I rode more miles this week than any week since June of 2005. That week I had 3 road races and a criterium. Just one race this week (training crit), and I even took a day off Thursday. The week finished out with a 3:15 ride over flats and some rollers. I didn't go out with the intention of riding real hard until I passed by Mitch an hour in. As soon as we started riding together my wattage got a little higher. Tried to ride to Yellow Springs, but the only road that we knew to get there was closed, just past Donnelsville. Oops.

Next Sunday is my first 40k of the year in Ft Wayne. I haven't done that long of a time trial since last year's state (about 38k). What that means is that I have to get a couple of rides in on the TT bike this week for some long intervals of hurt. Haven't been on that bike since the time trial last week. There are only four weeks left until 'state', time to put out some effort and put in some quality time on that bike. The Indiana State time trial is on this same course in late July. Maybe by then I'll have my new front wheel...probably won't have it by Ohio championships.

A little more like it

I spent most of the afternoon checking accuweather.com and seeing the rain getting ready to hit any time. Then, for two whole seconds around 4:50, actual sunlight came in my window and prompted me to quit being lazy. I figured there would be at least Craig and Dobo to ride with at PECO, so I headed that way for about a 45 minute warm up via Tipp-Elizabeth, cow hill and the other hill on Rudy right before 571. After a year, I still don't know the names. I assume the "cow hill" is the hill where there are the cows in the field. That one seems obvious to me.

Anyway, I rode for almost exactly hour with the group and even though I sat on the back for nearly the whole time, I felt pretty good. Life got in the way yesterday and I couldn't ride so it was a rest day I guess. Much needed after the Monday Tuesday Wednesday drop fest.

1:00 (and 9 seconds)
192 w
240 norm
21.5 mph (including time watching a dérailleur repair)
Peak one minute power was the highest since I've been back from Peru so that's good.

Overall it was 2:05 of riding on a day where I almost pussed out and got none. 39.6 miles for a 19.3 average. Tomorrow looks to be nice and I'll have some time for an afternoon ride prior to the big game.

If I had

If I had a dime for every time I've been dropped in the last three days, I would have a shit load of dimes. Twice on Monday, 4 times at the Tuesday crit and twice last night.

Note to self: It's not smart to do a full sprint workout prior to a group ride.
Note to self 2: It's not smart to do the Wednesday ride while still getting dropped on Mondays.
Note to self 3: I will not get dropped Friday! (and no, I won't be riding solo Friday) har har

A tale of two rides...

Pre-drop and post drop. Dropped right at the 12.5 mile mark

All was going great until I took a right hand turn on to Dayton Brandt and got nailed by the wind. Everyone pulled around me and I couldn't latch back on. It felt like someone snuck a 20 pound weight in my back pocket. The weight fell off on 571, then was put back on for the Pisgah rollers. How did that happen? Anyway, it ended up being good time trial practice (as most rides I do tend to be)

The first half with tailwinds:
12.5 mi
33:28
22.4 mph
218 w
251 norm
155 hr ave

1 minute, 2 minute, 5 minute and 10 minute wattage highs were all started at the 12.5 mile mark

The second half with head winds (mostly by myself as the group waited for me then dropped me again...crap)
12.3 mi
37:41
19.8 mph
237 w
256 norm
170 hr ave

Then being the complete idiot, I forgot to hit my recovery drink and woke up to unhappy legs. That should make for a fun crit tonight!

***

Where are the races this weekend??? Mid-Ohio is rescheduled for this Saturday. I was going to do it until I realized that the race is at 5 or 6 in the evening. This would interfere with my watching of the Red Wings/Pens game 1. Priorities, man. I can't find ANYTHING else closer. There are some races in north west Indiana but that's it. Nutz

TT TT TT TT TT

How can I buy 2 mph more between now and June 22nd? That's the question. My answer is to keep time trialling. Between now and the state championship there are several more time trials of varying length. The state is right around 22.5 miles so on June 1st I'm heading to Ft Wayne, Indiana for a flat 40k challenge. June 7th is the Strawberry Festival time trial. June 10th is another Speedy-Feet TT, and hopefully the flood will be gone so we can race the whole course. June 14th is another Colavita TT. QCW also hosts a 10 mile time trial every Tuesday. I doubt I'll be driving an hour and a half one way to race 10 miles, but if I find myself in Cincinnati on a Tuesday, I'll hit it up. Once I move to Cincinnati (WHENEVER THAT MAY BE!), I intend to be a fixture there. Unfortunately, there is only one more Monrovia time trial prior to the state, but it is the day before! Not going to do that one. I may hit up the June 29th edition though as I need to keep up the time trialling to prepare for the "Independent Nationals" on August 9th.

#10 Speedy Feet 5.67 mile time trial

Due to flooding, the course was only 5.67 miles. It was free so who am I to argue? Racing on a bike path wasn't as bad as I anticipated, but since it was a nice day out there were other people "rec riding" on the path. Swerving around them was kind of fun. The only hectic part was passing another rider on a blind uphill curve on a 10' wide path.

I ended up 1st overall with a time of 13:46 and a speed of 24.71 mph. I forgot to turn on my powertap (it shut off right before I started) until 45 seconds into the race. For the duration, it showed 290 watts average.

http://www.speedy-feet.com/results/May_MRTTT.htm

Link to results above...

First win of 2008.

#9 Colavita time trial May edition

May 10th was the debut of my new time trial bike. I wasn't sure going in how it was going to go due to: a) being off the bike while on vacation b) being sick for the last week and c) losing 7 pounds due to "b" in the last week.

While I didn't podium (4th place), the effort felt ok. Power was better than I would have though considering the circumstance (272 average). Finished with a time of 31:12, with an average of 23.3 mph. Overall, that's considered a success in my book.

Tonight there is another TT at Eastwood Park. No idea how long it is or how safe it's going to be (it's on a bike path!?!), but that's going to be better for me than driving to Harveysburg for the training criterium. I need to get as many time trials in before the state championship on June 22nd and really get comfortable with the bike.

Dropped is what you get when you ride sick

Due to this intestinal thing I have going on right now, I've lost 6 pounds since Saturday night and can't keep food down. For some reason, I thought it was a good idea to do a hard group ride last night. After 8 days off the bike in Peru and not being able to ride much over the weekend because of my stomach, I still thought it was a good idea. I rode the 8 miles to the start point for a warm up then stayed at the back of the group for as much of the ride as I could (about 18 of the 24 miles). Turned away early and rode home for a 2 hour ride of 36 miles or so. Sunday, all I could do was 15 miles and Saturday all I could handle was 30 minutes on the trainer due to cramping, etc. I won't go into what "etc." means at this time.

The stomach is still in knots and it's debatable whether or not if I will eat today. Then again, the first Tuesday criterium is tonight in Harveysburg, and I plan to be there.

Stupid is as stupid does and usually stupid gets dropped.

The hardest thing I've ever done...

A 4 day, 45km hike through the Andes mountains to Machu Piccu, Peru.


It's also one of the most rewarding things I've ever done.