Sun, Sweat, and Wind.

Today started out dark and cloudy with a chance of scattered thunderstorms - some possibly severe. Not wanting to be caught in any storms, I decided not to ride. I worked a little in the garden, then went to Lowes to pick up some more garden stuff, then Walmart to do a little grocery shopping. It was around noon when I got back home, the sun was out and the sky just about void of clouds. I changed my mind about riding. It was also 91°, according to the bank thermometer in town, and 80% humidity, according to Weather.com. The wind speed was - well, I didn't look, but it was strong. On a hill that I normally hit 31 mph, the best I could do was 19. Definitely the hottest day so far, but a good ride. There really aren't many cars on the roads now.

It's just the end of May and I'm more than halfway to my goal of 4000 miles.

Don't Pay Taxes?

I went to Greensboro today to get my allergy shot. Since it's such a beautiful day and gas costs so much (well, that's just a bonus) I rode the motorcycle. The nurse that gave me my shot asked me what kind of bike I had. I told her it was an old '83 Yamaha. Then she said she had heard something about there being a ride your bike to work day. I gave her a brief explanation of of national bike month, told her ride our bike to work day had been a couple of weeks ago. She then said the "weather guy" had told people that bikes (bicycles) had the same rights as cars and to give them room when you passed them.

"I'll do that for motorcycles," she said, " not a bicycle. They don't pay taxes or have to get license plates." Pretty common theme. Of course, bicycles don't do the damage to the road (or environment) that larger vehicles do. Plus, most people have a car too and are paying taxes. Me? I have two cars and a motorcycle. If I choose to ride my bike and leae them parked, well, I have paid the taxes for the road use, haven't I?

I didn't say anything to her, though, she DID have a needle she was going to stick me with.

Adjustments

It's amazing how much tiny adjustments can make such big differences.

Since getting my new bike I have had some pain running along the outside of my right knee. It was always pretty minor, so I didn't think about it very much. Until last Saturday. By the end of the 75 mile ride the pain wasn't minor, although it wasn't excruciating, either. It wasn't any better on Sunday, in fact, it was probably a little worse, and that, combined with the weather (more rain and thunderstorms) convinced me not to ride. I started doing the RICE thing and taking plenty of Advil. I figured I'd ride Tuesday, but the weather intervened again, this time with severe storms, complete with hail (which didn't do much for the 45 tomato plants I stuck in the ground Monday night). I went Wednesday, 33 miles, and there was some pain, but not too bad. I rode again on Friday, the same 33 miles, with about the same level of pain.

Saturday morning I decided to move the cleats on my shoes to see if it made any difference. I pushed them forward about 3/16 of an inch (that is a little less than 5mm for you metric people out there). I rode 41 miles, and NO PAIN. Not only that, but since getting the bike I have consistently had trouble locking my left foot into the pedal. With that small change that problem went away too. Who'd a thought.... not me, anyway.

It looks like a beautiful day today, but I don't think I'll ride. Got to watch the Monaco Formula One race, Indy, sleep through some of the NASCAR race from Charlotte this evening, and of course check out Versus week late coverage of the Giro.

Finished.

Some of the 383 participants before the start.

I don't think you could have asked for a better day for a ride. Temperature starting in the mid 50's and rising to about 70 by the end, low humidity, air quality in the green, and not a cloud in they sky. The organizers told me that they were a little worried that 500 people might show up because the weather was so nice. They didn't get that, but it was still a record turn out by about 20 riders.

I started about in the middle of the group and started moving up. After maybe 10 miles, and passing what seemed like 70 or 80 riders, I had made it into a group of 10 or so that was going at a comfortable pace. Then, my chain came off. When I stopped to put it back on, everyone passed me again. I never made it back into a group, so I spent the rest of the ride by myself - I caught and passed a lot of other riders, but never found anyone going close to what I wanted to go.

At about mile 57 there was a point where, if you were on the 75 mile ride you could turn onto the end of the 40 mile loop and finish with a 60 mile ride instead. I felt OK, so I continued with the 75 miles. As I was deciding that, I somehow managed to turn my left foot so one of the rear wheel spokes caught the back of my shoe. Of course, this locked the rear wheel, and I slid to a stop. It also bent the spoke. I spun the wheel, and, sure enough, it was now out of true and rubbing the brake. Bending the spoke back a little gave the wheel enough clearance to stop rubbing, and off I went.

About 5 miles later I was starting to struggle. It didn't help that this last 17 miles included hills steeper than anything I had ridden in the past 4 years, and it was all into a headwind. It was really hard to keep going, and I figured I'd really screwed up my pace and didn't have enough left to finish. I did make it, though, although the last 10 miles were all in the small chainring. Total miles: 76.82 @ 16.7. My average up to when I bent the wheel was 17.7.

When I got home I discovered that the rear wheel had actually deformed even more and was making hard contact with the brake in two places. I wish had known that on the ride! That is probably the reason those last 17 miles were so tough to complete.

My legs are beat today, but I did enjoy the ride. Now, I have to go true my wheel.

Goal

Well, it didn't really matter if the last ride fulfilled the 18 mph goal; Tuesday's did. 33.17 miles @ 18.0, and it was on one of my harder routes. So, now I have to set a new one. Tuesday's ride even met the ride to work criteria, as I stopped off at CK and checked on a job that was running.

Tomorrow is the 75 mile ride. I think I'm ready, although Tuesdays ride was the only one since last Saturday. The weathers been uncooperative. I guess as a rest week, this qualifies pretty well. It's supposed to be 78° and sunny tomorrow, although it's going to start out around 50° so I'll probably freeze at the start.

Does It Count?

One of my "why not, might as well try" goals for the year was to ride 30 miles and average 18 mph. Well, yesterday. at 36 miles I had exactly an 18 mph average. But.... I was 2 miles from the end of my ride. Those last 2 miles were mostly uphill into a 15 mph headwind, so the ride ended with a 17.8 average. That's what gets recorded into the training log. Does it count as an accomplished goal, anyway? Does it matter? Maybe the goal gets changed now to get one of that distance - or longer that I can record.

Next Saturday is the Tour De Lions 75 mile ride. I think I'm ready, I rode 65 miles on the 3rd and felt pretty good after. I skipped last Thursday's ride because of the impending storms, we ended up in the path of a Doppler indicated tornado, but the storm fell apart before it got to Liberty. Greensboro wasn't so lucky. We've been under another tornado watch most of today, so I didn't go out- the storms pop up so fast. I did drive into town this morning, it was raining and the wind was probably 25 mph, and I saw a group of about 15 cyclists battling it to get a ride in. I almost felt a little guilty - almost.

I watched the Giro on Versus today - now I have to wait until next Sunday to see what happens this week. Too bad about Dave Zabriskie, hope for a quick recovery. His loss will hurt Slipstream a lot.

Hope everyone had a great Mother's Day.

To ride or not to...

Twice a year one of the biggest antique festivals on the east coast takes place right here in Liberty. The spring version is today and tomorrow. It has expanded so much that there are mini festivals and flea markets all along the surrounding roads and almost everyone has a yard sale (except me - I threaten to , but I'm too lazy to drag the stuff out of the house). This leads to much traffic with not much attention being paid to anything on the road. Even last night when I went for my ride the traffic was heavy - mostly with incoming vendors, I guess, and they sure were not shy about seeing how close they could get to someone on a bike. I may skip tomorrow - I hate to miss a Saturday, but it's not the kind of traffic I feel comfortable playing in.

I had to work in High Point again yesterday, this time doing more fun IT stuff instead of just running cable. I didn't get out for my ride until almost 6:30. It was about 78 degrees with no wind, the most perfect conditions yet this year. I got in 20 miles at 18 mph. Oh, Tuesday's ride was 27.5 @ 17.3, and I got rained on again, but Wednesday I WASHED MY BIKE - that is a first, for any bike I've ever owned.

Different Stuff

For those of us that believe that real race cars don't have FENDERS, the past month has been one good thing after another. First, the two competing U.S. open wheel series finally unite. Then they make headlines when Graham Rahal becomes the youngest driver to win a major open wheel race in the U.S., in his very first start, followed, of course, by Danica Patrick becoming the first woman to win a major open wheel race - anywhere. I hope they get some mileage out of this and open wheel racing can become relevant again. You can't by positive publicity like this.

Now, if only there were some decent bike racing coverage...

3 Quarts Low

Being a good bike trainee, I consistently weigh myself before and after each ride to see how the hydration thing is going. I think I stared it because in the summer a lot of my rides are in the evening with temps above 90, and high humidity. Today's ride started with the temp at 57, and ended at 77. Not exactly hot. I rode 60.79 miles and averaged 17.3, and when I got home, I found I'd lost 4 pounds - that's 2 quarts. During the ride I drank 40 ounces of Gatorade, and 20 ounces of water. Not enough. I mowed the lawn after the ride (push mower), and decided to weigh myself after that, and discovered I was down another 2 pounds.

That 60 mile ride was the longest I've been on since the beginning of September, 2006. Since I'm hoping to do the 75 mile ride on May 19, I need to get the miles up. I am not sure I could have done another 15 today. I've still got some time to get better, though. Tomorrow, though will just be an easy 30 or 40 miles.

The jury is no longer out on the seat that came on the new bike. It's not great, but its light years better than the one I was using on the other bike.

4.5 Short.

A perfect day for an after work ride. 76 degrees, sunshine, and almost no wind. I had to work in High Point today(at least I got to take the motorcycle), so I didn't get out until exactly 6:00, which is about 40 minutes later than if I work in Liberty. That was too bad, since one of my goals for the year is to do 30 miles at an average of 18 mph. Tonight's ride ended up being 25.5 miles with an average of 18.2. If I'd gone for the last 4.5 miles it would have been getting dark by the time I got home, so I stopped. Maybe next time. It's fun to go fast.

Petal Storm

One of the cool spring events here is when the wind comes along and blows all these pink petals off the trees. When you look out the window and see them blowing by it looks just like a snow storm. Here is a little petal drift.

Overtraining?

Finally, over the past week or so I've been able to ride a few times without getting rained on. Now I'm going to have to wash the bike - something I never did on the other one. Not sure I know how....

I sent my $20 in for the Tour De Lions ride, now I have to convince myself I can do the 75 mile loop. The furthest I've ridden so far this year is 52 miles, so I have a ways to go, but the ride is four weeks away.

Last night was supposed to be for intervals. The plan was for four at 5 minutes each with 3 minutes rest in between. I found that my heart rate wasn't responding very well, and my breathing was labored. I pushed through the first one, and on the second, it was even worse, so finished it and then just did a low intensity ride. Everything I've read seems to say that a low heart rate is a sign of over training, so I guess it'll be easy rides for the rest of the week. Still, I managed 33 miles @ 17.3 mph.

Yesterday a water main broke in front of C-K and 300,000 gallons (according to the city) of water flowed through our building. Quite a mess. Everything in the downstairs office is soaked, once again, so I'm sure the mold problems down there will only get worse.

Dodging Raindrops -

Last year I didn't ride in the rain. Not one single time. The fact that it didn't rain for most of the year had a lot to do with that, but I doubt that I've ever ridden more than a couple times in the wet stuff anyway. Now that I have a new bike, it seems I have to choose between riding in the rain or riding inside. Today, the rain won again. Originally thunderstorms were predicted, but they were gone from the forecast this morning, and it was about 65 degrees, so there was no danger of the frozen feet and toes of last Sunday's ride. I did two loops with the steepest climbs I've found around here for 44 miles at 17.1 mph.

After last years drought it's kind of nice to see that all the creeks have overflowed their banks. Hope the water table recovers. I think we were down something like 40 inches of rain last year.

Tuesday

According to the Weather Channel Tuesday was going to be the fourth consecutive day of rain, with the added bonus of thunder and lightening thrown in. I was resigned to setting up the trainer and riding inside - rain is ok- lightening I try to avoid. Around four 0'clock I noticed the sky was starting to brighten up, and by the time I left work at five, it was mostly blue with a few clouds. No trainer for me! By the time I got home, got changed and got the bike out, the temp was up to 75 and all the clouds were gone from the sky. So much for the thunderstorms. It was kind of breezy, but beautiful.

I decided it was time to start my weekly intervals. I managed 4 at four minutes each with three minutes in between. All of them with my heart rate between 169 and 174. They weren't much of a problem. What I can't figure out is why the 90 second ones on the Spinerval dvd seem so much harder, even though the intensity is the same. Is it simply because I'm on the road, going someplace?

This was the first ride I pushed the new bike. I love this bike. It feels right.

One Down - Three to Go

The first 1,000 miles is in the book. That's a pretty good start on the goal of 4,000 for the year. The best mileage at the end of March in any other year was 496.

I didn't get to ride much last week, just Sunday and Tuesday. I usually ride on Thursdays, and even though it was 80 degrees and perfect, for some reason I didn't. Friday is go to Salisbury and get angelmonkey, so that was out. Yesterday I had to work for a while, then went and spent all my money at Sam's Club. Even though there was enough time when I got home, it was only 42 degrees and raining, I opted out. Too lazy to set up the trainer too. So, today, it's 41 degrees and just spitting a little rain, I need to put some more miles on the new bike, and I decide I have to go. CJ points out I could ride inside, but I want to ride on the road. Off I go, and it's not bad until about 19 miles have rolled by. It starts to really rain. It has sleet mixed in. Sleet stings, I find out. It does not take long to soak all my clothing, and I am no longer glad I passed on buying neoprene booties because I will never, no NEVER, ride in a cold rain. Having once known the pleasure of hypothermia, and not wanting to experience it again, I head for home. By the time I get there, 5 miles later, I can't feel my fingers or toes anymore. Still, I enjoyed the ride, and the rain. I just wish it had been warmer. Booties and rain gear that will fit in a jersey pocket need to go on my wish list.

Yesterday's Pic

I posted this yesterday, but forgot to post the plaque that's in front of it. A little Baptist history. I'm not one, but it's interesting, all the same.

Rode 47.48 miles today, only 16.1 mph, but the wind was pretty strong. I haven't ridden that far since October 2007, and my legs are complaining. I need to get the mileage up. I am planning on riding the Tour de Lions in May, and they have bumped the long route up to 75 miles. When I did it in '05 and '06 it was 62. I've never gone 75 anywhere.

Can't tell if the new ride is faster or not with all the wind, but it sure is fun to ride.

Veloproject

There was a large group of cyclists riding through Liberty this morning, maybe 20, or so, something you don't see very often. They all stopped at Quik Chek, so I pulled in (I was driving my car) and asked where they were riding from. Turns out they belong to a cycling club in High Point. Here is their web site. They invited me to join, of course, but I have a problem with driving 35 miles to join a group ride. It isn't just the price of gas, which I can't afford, its the whole concept of doing that. It would be nice if there were enough people around here to get a group together.

After I left them I wondered if I should have warned them about Sweet Pea, since they were headed that way. She looks pretty fierce when she runs out to race. I'm sure she was thrilled to see them.

First Impressions

New and Old

Finally. I got a decent ride in on the new bike. I love the shifters, no more reaching for the stem, although I have to admit I still did a few times today. I had heard that aluminium frames can be a little harsh, and having only ever ridden steel, I was a little worried, but with the carbon fork and seat stays the ride is actually softer than the steel bike. That surprised me. Handling surprised me too. I'd describe it as twitchy, except I know it's me and not the bike, it's responsive. I like that, need to get used to it, though. For some reason I found I was pedaling about 10 rpm higher most of the time, and I don't really understand that. Both bikes have 11-25 cogs (the old one has a 34 thrown in too, which can be nice). The new one is spread over 10, the old one over 6 (34 is the seventh). I'll figure it out. The saddle is different, and I need to give it some time to see how it works out. It may be better than the one on the other bike (a Specialized Alias), though. They both seem to put pressure in places I don't like, although the new one is better if I slide back far enough on it. Stem might be just a little long, I might try a shorter one later. Just little adjustments to make it perfect. Bikes sure have come a long way in 30 years. So far, I love it.

Now I have had three new bikes in my life. A red Huffy for Christmas in 1962 - and I had to wait until spring to ride it. I recall, that sucked, then a Ross 10 speed that was stolen - probably the best thing that could have happened to me since the blue Fuji replaced it. It was slightly used when I got it.

I did 36 miles at 16.8 mph. I don't really know how that compares because it was a bit windy.

On today's ride - beautiful blue sky.

3.5

It was windy at 5:00 when I left work, and there were a lot of clouds, but the weather map looked ok, and it wasn't raining so I hurried home hoping to get in a short ride on the new bike. I got changed, took the bike up on the street and calibrated the computer and took off. It started raining. I ended up going 3.5 miles, and would have gone further except it started raining a lot harder, so I gave in. The bike feels good, but it's going to take a bit of tweaking to get it perfect. I put it in the trainer when I got home and adjusted the seat height and position.

Got it

My new bike came in yesterday. By the time I got it home it was almost dark, so I only managed to ride it about a mile. WOW. If the speedometer was anywhere near accurate (and I'll measure the tire to make sure), it is a whole lot faster than "ol' blue". For sure it is more responsive. Can't wait for a longer ride, but... thunderstorms tonight, have to go to Salisbury and get my daughter (angelmonkey)on Thursday so it looks like I have to wait until Friday. I have Friday off. It'll be a long ride.

It may be harder to switch back and forth between bikes than I thought.