It's hot, need to take my shirt off.

Trading snow for sand

Not a moment too soon. Friday morning I hop on a plane to Brasilito, Costa Rica. Although I am coming back home Sunday night, at least it's some time spent without a coat on. The LOW on Saturday will be 50 degrees higher than the HIGH in Dayton, with a high of 93 for the forecast.

My task for Saturday? Walk along the beach and look at land. Maybe I could rent a bike for the day, that would be cool (and it keeps this post somewhat related to cycling).

I love my job.

Interesting - Race number 2

More watts and a slower time lead me to scratching my newly shaved head. All four Project Velo riders had anomalies in their wattage. Three of us used Power Taps and the fourth knows her wattage pretty well. Mine was the only wattage that read higher than normal. The computrainer said I averaged 302 whereas my Power Tap read 282. I thought it was closer right after the race, but after CyclingPeaks review, it was off 20. But with the higher wattage than two weeks ago, I would have guessed a lower time, right? Wrong! 13 seconds slower. Hopefully, the issue will be taken care of before the next TT.

After that, we had our season kick off team party. We had all but 3 riders (I think) show up. One nice thing we are doing this year is a training camp. Hopefully, my schedule will be as such to make it.

New Jersey

No, not the state silly. Look at what was in a bag hanging from my door today.

Bike fit from Wheelie Fun

Yesterday, I had the most comprehensive bike fitting that I've ever had. Bob and (new team mate) Ryan took me through three hours of fitting and bike setup on my Transition. Bob's philosophy of the day was to start me from scratch based on some measurements and work on my position by watching my (OBJECTIVE) output on the computrainer. Only when the numbers came out the same was I asked what felt better.

We started by moving my cleats back from the old FIST position then I warmed up on a computrainer based fit bike. I don't know the exact terminology, but you can get my drift. I would pedal at usual cadence (mid 90's) and Bob would ramp up the wattage and watch my spin scan. Then tweak position and repeat the ramp. Bars up and down, bars forward and back, seat up, seat down, forward, back, etc. In one position, 330 watts felt "comfortable" (340 was not) and had the best spin scan so that's where we went. We tested a new saddle (purchased!) and was reviewed with an aero helmet. The interesting thing was that I used to "hunch" down to make me more aerodynamic. Now that's not necessary and actually hurts my profile because it lifts the tail of the helmet. That will sure save my neck!

My saddle is now this. It allows me to creep a little more forward and still stay UCI compliant. I found no problem with the shape of it as it puts pressure in a whole different area than my old saddle. Hopefully, this will eliminate the numbness that comes from time trials of more than 45 minutes long. 45 minutes is the magic number for "junk numbness".

I can't wait to get it on the open road. That being said, I won't have it back in enough time for the indoor TT so I'll use the Orca for that. I wanted them to clean up all the brake and shifting cables as well as cut the steerer tube.

Absolutely would I recommend Bob for a bike fitting. As a matter of fact, as soon as I get back from Costa Rica, I'm going to have him redo my Orca.

Under full disclosure, Wheelie Fun is a new sponsor of our team. All that did was get me in door as I don't usually make it to the Lebanon area very often. After being through the fit, regardless of sponsorship or not, I would still recommend them highly.

Special

I finally dusted off the Specialized Transition for '09 and gave it a spin on the trainer today. The first thing that came to mind is that "I was meant to ride this bike". I forgot how good the fit and feel was when I put it away however long ago. I wish I had that feeling on the road bike. Time may permit me to actually make it to Wheelie fun today to discuss that very issue.

I'm toying with the idea of taking this bike to the indoor TT this Sunday. The aero advantage won't exactly help! At least it gets me on this bike a little more. I need to "simulate the simulation" to make my final decision.

The time to takes to type this post

Will be about as long as I had to ride last night. However in that short amount of time, I simulated the simulation of the 6.2 mile computrainer course.

1. Beat my previous best time by 4 seconds
2. Season high 5 minute power average
3. Season high 15 minute power average
4. Obscurely low heart rate average (15 beats lower than normal)

Sign

For at least a year, I have had a message written on the dry erase board in my office. It says:

"If you never go 30mph, you'll never go 30mph"

I stared at that message for nearly an hour while I drummed out yet another set of intervals (3~5 minutes & 1~10 minutes). That got me thinking of not only killing myself but what should my 'goal' be for 2009. It's simple. Hard, but simple. My goal (wait for it) is to average 28.0 mph or better in a time trial this year.

There you go. I estimate that I'm going to have to put out 320 watts (when I get back down into the mid-160's in weight) to do this plus have favorable course and weather conditions. A tail wind couldn't hurt, but on an out and back course, that's probably not going to happen.

Maybe I should modify my sign.

2009 race #1

http://www.teamdaytoncycling.com/Documents/ITTresults_1.11.09.pdf


Results are above.

Ever since early November, I have had a difficult time trying to ride. Rides have not been high quantity, so I've been shooting for high quality. I'm hoping things change by early February as my current job will slow down somewhat and my part in the clinic will gradually fade away. I think I missed my window, but I've been debating taking the rest of January off from riding, but at this point I think I've screwed the pooch in regards to time off (if I want to be at least somewhat competitive in the spring).

Anyway, back to the race itself.

I was able to secure a 9am slot because we had a clinic open house that I needed to get to as soon as possible. Four others joined me for that time slot. What was funny is that our finishing order matched how we were set up...computrainer #1 finished first, #2 finished second, etc. My time and average were about what I expected, as I finished with a time of 16:43.7 and a watt average of 289 (278 via my powertap though). First place in my age group was 16:43.3. That's a real bite in the ass!

In two weeks is the next indoor TT. I hope to make it to this one, and I hope to have a little of training in the mean time. The bad thing was that I was only able to hit the trainer for 40 minutes tonight before getting sick of it. Tomorrow at least appears on paper to be a good day to get a nice ride in (on the trainer). We'll see what happens.

Missed it by 'that much'

'That much' being 0.4 seconds. That's what separated 1st from 2nd place in yesterday's indoor time trial in my age group.


fuuuuuudge

Two posts in a day, I'm on a roll

Today was a 6.2 mile computrainer simulation. A simulation of a simulation of actual riding. The encouraging news is that I had my best time by 8 seconds, beating a time I had in early November. My time was 16:12 and I set a season high in watts for 15 minutes (273). A far cry from last year's best of 311, but right now, I'll take it and run.

I'm not sure I'm going to make it to the computrainer race Sunday due to the open house, but if I do, at least with these numbers in hand, I'll go in feeling confident.

1-5-09

Merry happy new Christmas year.

I have minutes of downtime and how better to spend it than describing in painful detail about how I did not receive any cycling related gear as gifts?

Harumph.

Actually, it's probably a good thing that no one bought cycling related merchandise. I can hear it now, one of my relatives trying to buy a wheel for me...

Zip? Oh Zipp with two "P's"
808? Huh Can I still order an 808 even though it's not August of 2008?
Front or rear? Don't bikes have both? Campy/Shimano? WTF?
700c or 650c? 700 centimeters is almost 23 feet. Better go with 650. Oh. Huh?
Clincher or Tubular? I think it takes tubes, better go with that.
Spokes? Yes I think it needs them?

Luckily, I got money. Enough for a Zipp 808 front clincher wheel. Look out. Now that the holidays are over, I'm getting excited about the season. The first time trial (the outside variety) is in March. The 808 should be in place with an even better position by then (thanks to Wheelie Fun!)

Why I love Clint Eastwood

“My father had a couple of kids at the beginning of the Depression. There was not much employment. Not much welfare. People barely got by. People were tougher then.”

“We live in more of a pussy generation now, where everybody’s become used to saying, “Well, how do we handle it psychologically?” In those days, you just punched the bully back and duked it out. Even if the guy was older and could push you around, at least you were respected for fighting back, and you’d be left alone from then on.”

“I don’t know if I can tell you exactly when the pussy generation started. Maybe when people started asking about the meaning of life.”

So this post isn't about cycling...

After two years of planning, six months of construction and countless "everything else" the building is done. Anyone of my regular readers (all three of you?) are welcome to come visit us for the friends and family open house next Sunday (January 11th) from noon to four. See the website for directions.