''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.

What I go through to buy a bike

I fell in love with this bike from the first time I saw it late last year in a Velonews ad. When it became a reality (financially) to buy a new bike I hem-hawed between the Transition and a Trek TTX. I don't remember the exact model, but it was the blue one. I kind of forgot about buying a bike until the prologue of Paris-Nice was on tv and the Transition was under Quick Step and Gerolstiener. It reminded me how much I liked how it looked and the process began.

Trying to pick the right model became the issue. I chose the lowest end bike (Comp) and figured I would swap all the gear from my current time trial bike to it. Phone call after phone call after unsuccessful phone call, it looked like all my key races would be over before I would even own the bike due to supply/demand issues.

After a post last week on SlowTwitch, I found out that Fraser's bike shop north of Detroit had the Expert model in my size. A couple of phone calls and an internal debate later, I put a hold on it. I had to sit there for an hour with pictures of both the Comp (carbon/yellow) and the Expert (white/red) to determine if I liked the white one as much or better. The Expert has better components and therefore was more expensive by about $800. The Comp was a mix of Ultegra and 105, whereas the Expert is a mix of Ultegra and Dura-Ace. The wheels were also an upgrade, but that doesn't matter as I plan to sell those as soon as I find a buyer.

Tuesday morning started the 4 hour drive to Detroit. I also scheduled a FIST fitting and thought that would take 2 hours or so. Once at the shop, they started the dynamic fit as was asked "did you plan on taking the bike home today???" I explained my situation and my lack of desire to repeat an 8 hour round trip of driving and they worked hard to get my bike ready for me. Typically, they do the dynamic fit, then after the customer leaves, they make all the bike modifications (cutting aero bars, seatpost, swap stems, etc). Then the customer comes back to finish the fit days later on the bike and dial in the cleats. Well, we did that all on Tuesday.

4 hour drive, 4 hour fit, 4 hour drive home. All that on just one Venti Americano.

Yesterday morning I swapped the wheels out, changed cassette and installed the power tap and took it for it's first ride. Since there was a wind out of the south, I headed to my favorite 20 minute interval spot that mostly to the north. Unfortunately, due to the crazy seat stay my install didn't go so great and the power tap kept dropping out on me (fixed that later that night). Regardless, it didn't hamper the ride. The main thing I noticed was that I was more aero than on my other tt bike, but not at a comfort cost. That was weird. MORE aero and MORE comfortable?!? This bike is pretty fast. Too bad there's no time trial this weekend!

Hopefully, the power tap re-install will keep the dropouts from happening. I'll find out today.

I'm tired

so I'll write more about this later...

#8 April's Colavita time trial

Heading straight into a 25mph wind when it's 40 degrees out isn't as much fun as you would think. At least the return trip was nice.



Since I decommissioned my time trial bike, I raced my Orca in the standard bike class. Nothing aero. Not even booties to warm my feet. Notice my clashing red and blue shoes.


This is as aero as I can get without aero bars. I've been practicing this position quite a bit lately and can generate a decent amount of power from here.

Anyway, I finished 3rd in the road bike category, mustering up a 19.8 mph average. Not bad considering the "out" section was longer than the "back" section and it was all into the wind.

This week I get a new bike AND a new aero helmet! Too bad all the money in bike bank is gone and I have to keep waiting for the 808 front and Easton Attack TT bars...nutz!

Items of note 4-11-08

Tomorrow is the next Greenville time trial - 40 degree expected high and windy. I'm taking the Orca and racing the stock bike class.

Sunday is the pan flat Lynchburg, my first category 4 race in1.5 years. Pray for no snow.

Monday is my wife's birthday.

Tuesday I'm driving to Detroit to A) Pick up my new bike, and B) Get 3d FIST fitted to it. I'm looking forward to that!

Wednesday will be spent ogling, fondling and riding my new bike. Plus I have to set my Powertap up on it.

Just riding a bike

Yesterday I just rode my bike. No intention of training. No intervals. No set training route. Nothing but riding. You know what? It was great! Damn, every now and then I need to take a step back and remember why I ride in the first place. I think it was my slowest average in about forever, covering 22.85 miles at a pace of 15.5mph. It took me an hour and a half to ride what would take an hour on a very bad day on my time trial bike. But I loved every minute of it. Not staring at the power meter constantly, I was able to take in the sights and hear the sounds that I usually block out. My "big ring" was used only once while heading north as I had a tail wind pushing me along.

Before I started racing (read: training), I would go out for long rides and basically solve all the world's problems in my head, have conversations with myself and wave or smile to drivers, people doing yard work, etc. Lately, it's been a non stop quest of power. Now I love the power meter and don't intend to ever ride without one again, but it gets in the way sometimes. Struggling to get the last interval at the right wattage, blowing a great 20 minute interval because if that dog that jumped out of the ditch. Dammit, doesn't that dog understand the importance of FTP??

After my latest DNF Sunday at Vandervort's corner (10th OVR DNF in a row I think), I called it quits to category 3. Monday morning I submitted my latest batch of results - which was pretty easy, at just three letters repeated over and over again D N F - and a request for downgrade to category 4. It felt like I either needed to do that or just quit road racing entirely. Paying $30 to get dropped on a overpass 10 miles in is not exactly fun. My request was approved by Monday afternoon. I attributed last year's suck fest as just being married and trying to get used to that. One year later, no luck. Then I attributed it to my training program and overhauled it entirely. Same result. I'm lighter and stronger and STILL getting whacked on any bump in the road that's greater than a 0.0001% grade. Will category 4 be any/much/totally different? I'll find out Sunday.

Regardless, it was a great ride yesterday.

#7 Vandervort's corner

Pictures here
Jeff took some great shots!
Ok. You see me riding by myself in this picture. Do you THINK I had a good day? I'm going to be a damn good time trial rider this year.

#6 Green Tour

Oh the life of a Yellow Springs resident. I haven't heard the phrase "Yeah, man" this much since, well, whenever. And that all came from one guy who was having a conversation with someone else as I walked by. His attire? A tie-died shirt and a hat meant for covering dreadlocks (of which he didn't have). I'm guessing he wasn't even alive during the 70's, let alone the 60's. I won't discuss the peace rally going on either...

Notes on the race:
The good - Rodney Sauser appeared to line up with the cat 1/2 field.
The bad - The cat 1/2 were merged with the 3/4 due to a small field.

The good - I had an all time high 1 minute AND 5 minute power readings.
The bad - The one minute was inside the five minute
The worst - It was on the first lap up devil's backbone

Needless to say, I was dropped and spent the next two hours time trialling. 40 miles by myself, 4 laps up devil's backbone, 20 mph average.

Sucks to be this guy

Original picture
http://jjakucyk.exposuremanager.com/p/hueston_woods_road_race_33008/dsc_079938

#5 Heuston Woods

40 category 3's lined up, with me being the only representative from my team. Olympus had the most riders, then Dayton, then COBC. Anthem, Darkhorse, Team Turner and Echelon rounded out the field. The race started at the base of the first hill, and from what I understood it was supposed to be neutralized until the top. Well, Team Turner had two little tiny guys take off. 4 seconds into the race started my highest 1 minute power average for the entire day. So much for that. It didn't take much to get back together but a few miles in a real attack happened up hill and that's all she wrote. I just can't climb like these guys, and I'm stronger and lighter than last year! Four of us who ended up getting dropped team time trialled for a while then my real fun began. 20 miles in, my front dérailleur stopped working with any sort of efficiency and 7 miles later my powertap hub died, probably due to the rain, but hopefully due to a dead battery. Finished a lap down on the field.

Oh, guess who won the cat 3 race? Good Lord he's tough. I think he's well past the mandatory upgrade point....oh well, maybe it would be more logical for me to bitch about it if I was finishing in SECOND place to him every week!

166.5

That was this morning's weight and the lowest I've been in three years. That being said, I'm sitting in a coffee shop right now and just polished off a muffin and I'm sucking down an Americano.

This weight is a complete surprise since I went to an Easter buffet Sunday and ate myself stupid. I think the extra mileage has something to do with it. Last week was my highest mileage week since last September (right before we went to Scotland for two weeks, and thus, killing my season).

The first road race for OVR is this week. Weather wise, it looks like we'll get the chance to actually race. It's about time!