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!

Designing a training camp

Sitting around with nothing better to do, I designed a perfect training camp for Ohio category 3 riders. In Ohio, our road races aren't hilly and aren't very long. 90+ mile slogs up some mountain somewhere don't make the cut, although that sounds like more fun than riding the trainer. Here is my idea:

Precamp
-Evening bike fitting/adjustments/etc

Day 1
-Breakfast
-3 hour rolling route at tempo
-Lunch
-Nap
-1 hour of technical work be it pace line, explosions out of corners, what have you
-Dinner w/team building or Q&A

Day 2
-Breakfast
-Late morning time trial
-Lunch or throw up breakfast because of the time trial
-Nap
-3 hour mid afternoon rolling route at E2
-Dinner, etc

Day 3
-Breakfast
-1 hour late morning crit
-Lunch or puke
-Nap
-3 hours rolling @ E2
-Dinner, etc

Day 4
-Breakfast
-3 hours tempo+
-Lunch
-Nap (I love naps)
-Evening time trial
-Dinner, etc

Day 5
-Breakfast
-3 hour E2
-Lunch
-Go home

That would make a great camp for me. Throw in a few bottles of a good Dolcetto and my wife to be with me during the non-riding portions and that would be damn near perfect.

French Fry training

Had one of my best training rides last night, after a lunch at a place called Red Robin. If you've never been to this place, they have expensive "all you can drink" drinks (non alcoholic, damn) and "all you can eat fries". My chicken bruschetta sandwich came with garlic fries of which I had two servings. When I finally got home I hit the trainer for an hour of power (I also rode in the morning) and had a normalized and average power way above normal. Maybe it was because I knew I had to work the fries off. The rub was that I ended up losing 1.5 pounds yesterday. Not like I needed or wanted anything else to eat, but the sandwich and fries and fries and fries was the only meal of the day.

I told my wife I can never eat there again though. I could slog my way through so many fries it wouldn't be funny.

Pissing on who got you there?

A few cases have come up in the last couple of weeks where I've found people completely pissing on organizations who either got them or helped them get to where they are today. One was work related and one was cycling related (hence the post about it on my cycling blog).

Work was related to someone completely crapping on their former company and other companies "in the industry". Professionally, this is a bad way to go. You will never know when it could come around and bite you. I worked for a company years ago (left in 2000), and found myself just last year co-working on a large project with them! How bad would it have been for me, my client and the company if I would have spent the better part of seven years dragging them through the mud?

Cycling was relating to a rider commenting about his old team. How they didn't do "this" or "that" to his personal approval level of expectation (whatever that my be). What if your current team manager overheard that, or read it on a blog? If I was that manager, I would think as soon as their done with my team, he's going to bitch about things, policies, what we did wrong (in his opinion)

What comes around goes around. When outsiders have a listen to what you say, it makes them wonder if you soon be bitching about them when their situation changes. You don't know in this day and age with blogs, forums, and email, who is reading what and it could be about you. In a more traditional sense, with local industries being fairly incestuous, you never know that the person you are bitching to is friends with the person you're bitching about.

In the business world, I've found it's best to keep my mouth shut (non disclosure agreements help with that :) )

Title goes here

Felt like I stole one today for some reason. 55 degrees with a nice wind and two hours on the road. Tempo efforts into the wind sucked but the 20 second intervals with the wind ruled. It felt very nice to be wearing shorts, as my little white sticks need some sun. This was my first ride in 1.5 days (gasp) because I worked too long and was beat by the end of the day. Spending 10 hours at a client's office is SO much different than 10 hours working at home with dogs at my feet.

It's only March 13th and I've missed too many days of riding this month. I missed 2 days in January, 4 days in February and now 3 days in March.

This Saturday has two races on my schedule due to last week's TT being postponed because of the snow. 8am is a 20k time trial in Greenville and 1:30pm is a race around Hueston Woods. I should be dead by Sunday. Hopefully, both the weather and my body cooperate.

Race (and TT) #4

Mid Ohio was canceled due to the weather so the only race for me this weekend was the final indoor time trial of the series. My time and wattage closely replicated my January effort. Not that that's a good thing. I was told that most people were running slower - what is it about computrainers that does that?

After I got home, the weather was nice enough to get an actual outdoor ride in. Of course, I had to put on a fresh rear Kenda as the old one was now a slick from all the trainer time. Even though the wind was blowing me around, it was nice to get out and hit the pavement for once. Since the breeze was coming in from the south, the ride north along the newly paved (last year) section of Peter's Pike was awesome. I love the stretch between Old Springfield and Evanston. Actually, I love the section starting at Dog Leg and National, heading north on Dog Leg. The "Yield" right turn onto Old Springfield is fast, then there's really no need to stop for the left turn onto Peter's. This is where I do my 20 minute time trial intervals - one of the few places I can ride for 20 minutes without having to stop for traffic.

Speaking (typing?) of time trials, the next Colavita TT is this Saturday. That will make 5 time trials before I get an actual road race in. The Saturday after that is Team Columbus' version of the Hueston Woods road race - I guess that will be my first road race of 2008.

Numbers

171.5 Sunday morning weight in pounds
12 Crackers for "lunch"
40.05 Miles ridden
2:10 Time on bike
1181 kj burned
40 ounces fluid intake during ride
169.0 Post ride weight in pounds
(unknown QTY) Pieces of pizza
2 Belhaven St Andrews Ale
176.55 Miles last week (176.75 the week before!?)
169.0 Monday morning weight in pounds
3,000 Cost in USD of the new bike I want

Base, how low can you go?

I know what that means.

Anyway, base miles suck when you're confined to riding indoors due to being a pussy about riding in single digit temperatures. My Orca hasn't left the trainer since I unhooked it only to hook it up for an indoor time trial last week. My rear tire is now a slick.

The past two weeks I've been re-watching LOST episodes while sitting on the trainer, but today I watched some coverage of the tour of California. If the technology worked like it should in the rain, it would be pretty cool. I kept thinking the break just stopped pedaling, or they all en mass threw their GPS transponders away.

Anyway, anyway, after only a couple of weeks of base, I'm tired of it. I much prefer an hour ride with the bulk of it being intervals, but it needs done. I'm so glad I didn't take last year's approach to winter trainering.

2008 races #2 and #3

#2 was another indoor 10k time trial at Neo Limits
The good: I beat last month's time by 25 seconds
The better: 12 watts higher
The bad: Got beat by Slone in our heat by a wide margin

My time still wasn't where I wanted it to be, but at least I was satisfied with the increase in average watts. Ended up in 3rd place for the 30-39 age group.

#3 was the first Colavita 12 mile time trial in Greenville
The good: Passed 3 people (I started 7th)
The better: 2nd place in the 30-39 age group
The bad: Passed by Roger who started a minute behind me
The worst: Roger is in my age group and therefore beat me handily.
The worst part 2: My wattage and overall speed were BAD
The worst part 3: My average on the return half was LESS than 20mph. That's NEVER happened on my time trial bike, not even days where I go out and have massive long rests during interval training. Nutz.

The wind and cold beat us all up Saturday, and no one broke the 30 minute mark. There was a strong cross wind that blew us around quite a bit too.

I really like this time trial, save for the chip seal roads that beat the living crap out of me. Roger gives out free Colavita pasta at registration and we also got a free Clif bar. For my second place effort, I received a medal and a jar of Colavita Marinara sauce.

Next up barring weather problems is Mid Ohio. Going to race the "B" race, which is considered an approximation of category 3/4.

I missed riding yesterday due to lethargy/housework/paperwork so today is make up day with two hours planned. This is scheduled to be my longest training week, with 13 hours of riding within the parameters of Endurance through Tempo zones.

National Championship in my back yard?

Yep, you heard that right. Check THIS LINK on our team's message board for more information. Also go to Colavita Ohio's website for more info.

This is pretty cool. Originally, I hadn't planned to do very many of the Colavita time trials since we're planning to move to Cincinnati as soon as we get our butts in gear. Now that I found out about this, it changes my plan. The Queen City Wheels weekly time trials will have to wait until later.

First, the official word about Masters Nationals being in Louisville was announced last week, and now this. Now there's no excuses about my motivation to be a time trialist.

Well, Greenville isn't EXACTLY my back yard, but whatever.