Training - A Warm November Day

Today I went out for a training ride, a rarity for me. The last time I trained outside was on the 17th of October, just about a month ago. I did the same loop, the one I call the Quarry Road loop.

I didn't try to ride that hard but I found myself complete out of breath by the time I got to the top of the hill leading out of the complex where I live. After that I tried to ride steady.

My two rides are as follows:
October 17th

Some major milestones of that ride - it took me 58:30 to do the ride. It took me about 3:03 to climb the "hill" to get home.

November 16th

Some major milestones of today's ride - it took me 1:01:08 to do that ride, so about 2:40 longer to do the exact same loop. I did a little jump in town but didn't do a proper jump at the last right turn. This led me to be much fresher for the hill to the house and I did it in 2:32, 30 seconds quicker than in October.

I made one major change on the bike for this ride - I switched wheels to the Jet 6/9 front/rear combo. I haven't ridden the Jet 6 front since I think 2010 and the Jet 9 since sometime last year. The heavy wheels really affected me, and whether the effect was actual or purely psychological the result told the story - I basically got shelled every time I rode with this setup on my bike.

I preferred the much lighter Bastognes, wheels that brought me a silver in the Nutmeg State Games, a win of sorts in a rain abbreviated TuesdayTheRent, and much less shelling overall.

However, with the off season being the off season I decided to give the wheels a shot. Plus they look cool.

Off season staring.

I have to admit that I still stare at racing ads and pictures. Not many of them - a very few of them. The one above is one of my favorite pictures. I love the big aero wheels, the compact bars, the casual fitness of the rider (he happens to be Viviani, a bonus since I didn't know who he was when I first saw the picture).

Except for the fact that he's a contender in field sprints in huge ProTour races he could be a very fit rider you see at the weekend crit or, more likely, at some big group ride.

Part of it is the "scene" - it's a group ride, literally, not a "beyond my abilities" field sprint or TT or climb. The group ride thing makes the rider more real.

So having been staring at that picture regularly for a month or so I decided that I'd put those heavy wheels on my bike.

Because they just scream the undefinable essence of bike racing life.

I put the Jets on the bike the day before to check them out. A short ride on the trainer, running through the gears, and the bike seemed okay. It shifted fine, as it should since the Jets and Bastognes share hub models, and I didn't experience any gear skips. I decided to give the bike a passing grade.

Bike as I rode it; the Jets have the same model tires as the Bastognes.

Not as sexy as the group ride picture.

I double checked the brakes (okay), tightened up the blinky tail light, and slipped in a 60mm valve tube and an 80mm valve tube. Also, although it's virtually impossible to see, there's a valve extender tucked in under that velcro strap wrapped around the down tube. The valves barely stick out of the rims, just enough to tighten them down, so I need the extender if I need to use the pump.

My now-standard frame pump mounting point.

Speaking of which I almost forgot my pump, literally walking back into the house to get it. I mount it to the left side of the bike, a good spot that has worked out well so far.

Big aero wheels look great when dreaming about bike racing but the reality is that they weigh more, especially my clincher variety. I mentally tortured myself before I even got going - wheeling the bike out of the office was hard work, the extra weight in the wheels noticeable when swinging the bike around.

My start wasn't too auspicious either - by the time I got to the top of the hill leading out of the complex I was so out of breath I actually put a foot down. I fiddled with the helmet cam but the reality was that I could have done it while rolling along slowly. I made the choice to stop because, frankly, I needed to stop.

I rolled along at a moderate pace. The big wheels rolled a bit more consistently, resisting changes in speed. That included accelerations but it also included the slight slowing when I did a more aggressive pedal stroke.

I found that if I didn't emphasize the downstroke as much that the bike seemed to roll better - this worked well on the slight upgrades or if I was just standing to power the pedals a bit.

I spent most of the ride in a praying mantis position, both hands holding the center of the bar, covering the stem and the SRM. On the hills I'd move to the hoods, and every now and then I'd go to the drops to remind myself they were still there.

As noted before I really don't like the shape of the drops on these bars. Since I expect to have a better drop position in a bit I decided not to torture myself and ride in the weird angle/shape drops more than I have to.

Plus, as I pointed out before, this is the off season.

I did one push about 3/4 of the way around the loop, nothing major if it was the summer, but today it really wrecked me. I had to ease and actually had to encourage myself to keep going just to finish one loop.

Five minutes later I still felt mentally defeated. With a schedule to hold I decided against pushing my luck and trying to do a second loop faster than the first. I headed home instead.

I practiced my "rolling stand thing" where I try and pedal a bit more evenly while standing, versus the stamping motion I tend to do. Since I hadn't gone very hard during the loop I could push on pretty well up the last hill on my ride.

Compared to my pretty fast ride last month I climbed the hill 30 seconds faster. Not bad for having much heavier wheels. I actually felt pleased that I did the hill a bit faster. The anti-Strava folks will shake their heads and wait for me to blow a red light or something but I find the Strava segments a nice way of checking my own status. I wouldn't even call it "progress", it's just a check to see where I sit within my realm of possibility.

Of course I think I was going much faster toward the end of 2010, when one day the Missus passed me going up the hill. I got home a minute or two after she did and she actually commented on my speed up the hill, her eyes wide with surprise.

"You were going really fast up that hill!"

Normally she doesn't say much about my riding when she sees me, other than saying stuff like, "I saw you on 10/202", so to have her comment on my speed on the hill, that meant something.

Unfortunately that hasn't happened since then.

My goal is to try and elicit that spontaneous response again.

No Series updates yet... and still sick

I woke up this morning after having a nightmare. Since I never dream (or rather, since I never remember my dreams?), this was very unusual.

In my dream I kept doing things which made me think "What am I thinking?". It seems to have something connected to promoting the race, my drive home yesterday (swervy 18 wheelers in the wind), and concern for my sponsors (heh).

I guess I was following our short trailer truck (we don't have one in real life) in the van (we have one). The truck was a 6 wheeler pulling a 4 wheeler type trailer - you know, a small 18 wheeler - I think of a smaller FedEx truck when I picture it. We were driving in some slippery conditions. I realized it was black ice (like last Sunday morning). The guys driving the truck lost control coming down a hill to an intersection and spun the whole rig around, finally ending up blocking the road. The trailer rolled into the woods.

I got out of the van and walked over to the guys (not sure who the "guys" were). They promptly climbed into the van and took off.

So now I have a truck blocking traffic and I'm standing there in the middle of the road. I decided to get the truck out of the way. I put it in neutral so it could roll backwards down the hill.

That's when I saw the cop running up to me.

Now if a cop comes up to me in real life and tells me to stop, I stop.

But in my dream, I thought "Oh man, if I talk to this guy, it'll take forever." Insert thought "What were you thinking?" So I did what you see on the Cops video shows. I rolled backwards right past him.

The black ice worked in my favor - I needed to turn around and as soon as I got the rear wheels in the dirt, the truck spun around. I was pointing forward, downhill, and I gunned it.

Somehow, the town after the intersection had a carnival going on. I recently read about that guy who mowed down a street-market in California - someone said that the driver showed blatant disregard for human life because he aimed at the people instead of, say, parked cars. I know collision insurance is expensive but if you don't have it. The market story reminds me of some of the old car racing stories I read, Indy 500 in particular, perhaps the driver's name is Shaw? Anyway, a racer crashed really hard in the race. The driver running just behind didn't hesitate. He simply slammed his car into the wall at full speed. Better than running over the driver in the middle of the track. Very honorable.

Anyway, I have a lot of regard for human life. So to avoid hitting people, I was doing wheelies with the truck and sort of bouncing the front of the truck around them. I didn't hit anyone but I was scaring a lot of people. I figured I should stop. At some point I parked the truck and got out. There were all sorts of people running after me - police, paramedics, and carnival security. I darted down a boardwalk type thing running behind all the buildings.

A paramedic came up to me first, holding out a big syringe. I said, "Wait, wait, let me get my jacket off first. I don't want my sponsor getting involved in this." I struggled out of my jacket and stuffed it under the boardwalk. Always looking out for the sponsor. Such a nice boy.

He watched me then said, "I wanted this for myself anyway." And he injected himself and slumped over. I'm not saying this is what paramedics do - they've been very helpful whenever I've needed one, and I know a couple. But this is what this one did in my dream.

My brother showed up (?) and asked how I was feeling. I told him I was feeling kind of sick. We actually work at the same company and he wanders over when he needs a brain break (he programs, I do sys admin stuff). So this replayed a scene from work yesterday. He sat down and we chatted a bit.

And the co-promoter and his wife also showed up. Or maybe it was my colleague and his girlfriend. Whatever. I told them, look, I just put my jacket under this boardwalk. Put it at such-and-such house (where I grew up and which we haven't owned in many years). I'll get it back when I get out of jail in 10 years or something.

That's when I woke up, sore throat, feverish, head pounding. Not sure how much the dream has to do with the feverish and pounding but the sore throat, that didn't feel good.

So... back in the real world.

The Ris Van Bethel may be over for the racers but it's definitely not done for the promoters. My co-promoter Gene handles the paperwork. I do the site. Since the site faces the racers, it gets a lot of feedback.

I still haven't done the GC for the Bethel Spring Series, and with two races done, racers want to know this stuff. I did the P/1/2/3's and the 3/4's but have the M40's, Jr's, Women, 4's, and 5's to go before I upload the page. I won't be able to finish it before I have to go so I stopped. I corrected a team I got wrong. Tried to find a misspelled name I noticed earlier but couldn't.

I'll need to finish editing the tape of the Ris race. Yesterday I got a lot of songs from my brother which he owns. Although I don't think anyone will come after me for using more than clips from a song, technically I sign an agreement when I upload clips to YouTube saying I'm not using copyrighted material. Since I haven't gotten permission from various well-known bands to use their songs, I can only use clips (that's okay). Or songs where I've gotten permission - like from my two brother's bands. So unlike my "get away from the authorities" dream, I try to play by the rules in situations like this.

Now I'll see if I can go to work. I think I'll be okay.