Training - Outlook For Today is Sunny, Fast, and a Drum Brake

I was itching to try the new stem (and the rest of the bike) a bit more, but things kept me off the bike for a day. Therefore it was Sunday before I could get on the bike. With the high the prior day at 86 degrees and similar temperatures on tap for today I knew the ride would be hot.

I just didn't realize which hot.

I usually approach group rides with a bit of trepidation. I'm not strong overall and I rely on being able to draft effectively in order to stay with the majority of riders. I prefer larger groups that have a reasonably low proportion of very fit riders.

My guide today, like it was back in 2009, was a fellow BikeForums rider named Dennis. He selected a ride based on my temporary base camp, his home, and the ride start location. He chose a ride that would be "about 46 miles" that would take about 2 hours.

46 miles? In two hours? That's really fast, at least for me.

On the other hand this was Florida so it'd be flatter. Unfortunately for me (or maybe fortunately) I didn't realize the implications of the whole "there are no hills" thing.

It meant everything revolved around wind.

It also meant there were no downhills; other than a few seconds here and there we had no "easy" spots. In other words it was a full out FTP type of ride, exactly the wrong type for me.

All this was in the future of course. First my ride host drove me to the meeting lot. As we arrived first I got to meet everyone as they rolled in.

I got my bike ready, easy enough with just putting the front wheel on and checking the tire pressure. I had my various stuff all set, a saddle bag with my tools and two tubes, and a valve extender taped to the downtube. I had a third tube, phone (Strava), wallet, and a few bars in my jersey pockets. It was over 70 degrees at the start, and when I got my arm warmers and vest out, my host Dennis grinned and told me it'd heat up quickly and to leave them behind.

The tandem couple told me we'd be seeing a WW2 era tank and an animal shelter/farm kind of place that had a zebra, ostrich, buffalo, and some other unusual animals. My eyes lit up with the mention of the tank - I love military history stuff, especially to do with WW2, and I enjoy being able to see tanks above all. I asked if he knew what kind of tank it was - maybe it was the ubiquitous Sherman but it might be a more unusual Chaffee or a Stuart (we have one in Connecticut that I've seen) or an exotic Grant. He admitted he didn't know but that I could tell him what it was. Deal.

With introductions all around we set off, the tandem couple leading us, six singles (aka regular bikes) following. One single rider told us in advance he'd be peeling off quite early, netting us five single bikes for the majority of the ride.

As a novice tandem rider I have to admit I was in awe of the tandem couple's skills. I guess riding a tandem for 27 seasons will do it, covering something like 1000 miles a month. A month!

They stood and sat without any signals or words, and the stoker (the rider in back) would stand alone sometimes to give the bike some oomph.

Both riders standing fluently on the tandem - impressive!

We headed out and my stiff back and new stem combined to make things a bit uncomfortable. I did a short pull after the tandem couple dragged us through the first section of turns and such. When I pulled off they said, "Nice pull!" Very supportive, and something that happened regularly through the ride, this unexpected support from people who were strangers to me.

One of the guys, probably the strongest on the ride, asked me where I lived. I told him Connecticut, where it was 16 degrees when we left. His mouth dropped - he couldn't even think about temperatures like that.

It got a bit more business like once everyone warmed up and we were rolling along in single file in short order.

The group flying through a park that fascinated me the last time I was here.

I hung on while we drilled it through a park. I started focusing on keeping the gap closed, on staying on the wheel.

Things got fast on the MUP section heading north, with everyone raving about the tailwind and how fast we could go. Well unfortunately for me a tailwind means less shelter and the enthusiastic pace made it hurt even more.

I realized I was spinning pretty quickly (for me), spinning a bit quicker than some of the others on the ride. I'd stayed in the small ring (a 44T in this case) and it seemed to work fine. I looked around, though, to see what the others were doing, and they were all in the big ring.

I shifted into the big ring.

My cadence dropped a bit, I could stand effectively, and I could keep up without overspinning when the pace surged.

I started digging deeper, going into the red.

We headed off the trail and then north again. At some point the guys were really pushing, going hard, and then they spread out a bit, fanning out behind the first rider. I sensed a sprint coming up but without any references, without any info on the sprint, I didn't know when or where to go.

Plus, to be honest, I was so tweaked I couldn't think about going.

When the guys started going I just kept my pace constant, watching them ride away from me.

The group starts to go for some invisible line; unusually I merely sat up.

I somehow got 4th fastest on Strava for this "First Monty" segment.

Sure enough this was the bit just before we stopped for food and water. Someone bought a gallon of water and we all partook. The heat - I think it was 85 degrees - affected me a bit more than I thought and I drank a bunch of water.

We set off and I started getting a bit dizzy. I ate a protein bar for breakfast and that's it, and I didn't feel that great anyway, and now I was hungry. I chowed down a bar, feeling pro, and started feeling a bit better.

At some point we passed a tank. My Contour battery died (I'd plugged it into the wall not knowing it was controlled by a light switch so when others turned off the light for the night my Contour didn't charge) so I don't have an image or even location of it, but another rider asked me about the tank.

"Vietnam era, M60 tank."

I realize now it may be an M48 tank (to me that's most likely) or an M47 or M46 tank, all Patton tanks. Whatever, at that moment I was proud simply that I could lift my head enough to see the tank, forget about trying to ID it.

At some point we went by the animal shelter/farm place but I had no clue what was happening at that point. I was deep in the red, my legs twinging, my eyes were probably starting to roll around in my head.

I kept pushing, driving, trying to stay on wheels. The relentless pace on the flat roads was totally different from the peaky type style I prefer. Florida emphasizes FTP. Connecticut emphasizes short term power. I have no FTP. I have short term power.

After another five minutes, another five minutes, another corner, another skipped pull, my mental walls started crumbling. I realized that I'd have to sit up shortly, to ease up. I didn't have it in me for another five minutes, another intersection. The gaps would start opening soon and not closing.

My pair of deuces wasn't enough for this card game.

I prepared myself to holler to my host that I had to fold. I quickly chowed down on a second energy bar, washed down with some still-cool water. I looked down at the SRM, I'm not sure why. The top line, which alternates every five seconds between time and miles, read 44.6 miles.

Waitaminute. The ride was "about" 46 miles. With this relentless just-over-my-comfort-level FTP type pace, I couldn't go another 30 or 40 minutes but I could definitely make it another mile.

I even responded to the last semi-surge before we got to the parking lot.

I made it.

The tandem couple had a cooler in their minivan with lemonade and ice tea. Although I passed on the ice tea (actually I didn't know about it and already returned my cup) I took in the cool, soothing lemonade.

(The lemonade is a great idea for summer rides and races, btw.)

I learned that one of the guys used to do Bethel (he's from New York). The others were mainly in Florida, but incredibly none of them raced, not for 6 or 8 or 10 years minimum (the New York guy), and the others not really at all.

I clipped in and out of another rider's Keo Blade pedal. It didn't seem as tight as my original Keo Carbons. I want to try the new Keos that have a much higher retention pressure (the Blades were 16 nm, the new ones are 24 nm).

We headed out as if on signal and Dennis dropped me off at my home base. I felt a bit better by then, not quite as shell shocked as when I first climbed off the bike.

I had some more thoughts on my ride and experience as well.

First, this was one of the first proper group rides I've been on since I think 2011. I've ridden with someone, meaning I've caught or been caught on a training ride, but I don't remember actually starting and finishing a ride with a group since I used to ride with a local shop's Monday and Wednesday rides.

I was surprisingly unnerved when we first rolled out so I intentionally sought out the tandem. I knew it would be less jumpy, sort of like an 18 wheeler versus a sports car. After about half a mile I got over my nervousness and within 10 or 15 minutes I was comfortably sitting a few inches away from the next wheel.

Second, I had some back issues at the beginning of the ride. Due to Junior being awake for a large part of the night I was up as well. What little sleep (1.5-2 hours) I got was on a strange-to-me bed so it wasn't an ideal night of rest. Therefore I arrived at the ride with really stiff back and I worried a bit about my somewhat radical looking stem. It basically keeps my drops at my earlier level but drops the tops and hoods by 3 cm.

At first the stem was a bit much with my back protesting for probably the first hour of the ride. As things warmed up, both temperatures and efforts, my back loosened up considerably. I found myself on the drops more and more, getting to the hoods only to stand up to relieve pressure (and focusing on not pushing my bike back when I stood up). Except once, when I inadvertently swerved when checking my six, I think I succeeded in being a smooth enough rider.

Third, when I'm maxed out FTP-wise I'm not inclined to sprint.

Fourth, I appreciate a friendly and open group. The riders accepted me without any problems, rode smoothly, and allowed me to take short pulls (the latter was critical for me!). My host thought I took short pulls because I didn't know where to go but they were all more than accommodating in terms of hollering out directions and such. I feel confident that I'd have had no problems leading the ride, at least from a directional standpoint. From a strength one? No way.

Unfortunately the trip wouldn't allow me to schedule another ride so it meant I'd be doing solo efforts until we headed home. Although slightly disappointed I kept in mind that the main reason we headed down was to visit family, not for me to do a training camp. I was fine with doing solo rides when I could and even not riding if necessary.

I just hoped that I'd be able to do some efforts on the bike, mainly so I could see how the stem (and the resulting bar position) affected the bike. I hoped for, and planned for, an improvement, but obviously I wouldn't be able to confirm that until I went out and ripped out a sprint or two.

That's the plan anyway. We'll see how it goes.

Training - Family MUP Ride

This has been the summer of bike racing discontent. With what seems like an infinite number of @TuesdayTheRents canceled due to rain/storms/thunder/lightning, one of the worse Spring Series (on the bike), and various hop scotch races (meaning the ones that give me something to look forward to, instead of a vast period of no racing) getting canceled, it's been a not-so-great year of racing.

Even when the race isn't canceled and the weather isn't bad I still have a hard time pulling a decent ride out of my admittedly undertrained legs.

Combined with non-race related stuff my racing has been not so great.

Therefore when a couple of the guys on the team said they'd be doing a weekend ride starting just a couple miles away from the house I thought it'd be a great break from the trainer, from the preparing to race but then getting on the trainer, and from moving stuff around to get to the trainer.

I've only done one team group ride, and it ended in quasi disaster when I hit the deck. Generally speaking the rides are on the other side of the river, just after/during rush hour, and with questionable form at best it's hard to justify figuring out a way to ditch Junior so I can get in the car and go somewhere.

This planned ride had none of the excuses. It was so close that I could ride there (although, due to the planned after ride activities, I drove). It took place on Saturday so the Missus could hang out with the slightly-under-the-weather Junior (teething, again).

And the pace would be moderate at best.

The plan was for the two teammates to pilot each of their tandems with a daughter in the stoker seat and another daughter on a trail-a-bike. That's six riders on two bikes, meaning two bikes with steering/brakes/shifting controls.

Another, the only boy of the group and the oldest of the lot at eight years old, would be on his own bike.

The two significant others would be on their own bikes.

I showed up solo, a semi-guide since I'd ridden the Rails To Trails before. The Missus asked what I'd do on the ride. I told her I figured I'd be shadowing a miscellaneous kid that was on his/her own bike, acting as an extra set of eyes for teammate Joe (three kids). Dennis has two kids and they'd both be on the tandem train rig thing.

With the expected pace a maximum of 11 mph I decided that it would be a perfect ride for the mountain bike. I last used it when I rode from the storage bay back to the house after parking the Expedition. 

Even in the month or two between then and now the tires were basically flat (I pumped them up to 60 psi). The rest of the bike isn't in much better shape - the rear wheel is missing a spoke so the rear brake is open quite a bit (I trued the wheel just enough so the tire doesn't rub the frame), the shock fork has totally collapsed (I replaced most of the MCU "springs" with solid spacers), the middle chainring is so bent that the chain won't stay on it (but who uses anything but the big ring while riding on the road?).

Importantly the bike fits me, it rolls, it stops, and just like driving a beat up truck can be fun this bike is just fun to ride. It's my SUV of bikes - I roll over everything and everything.

Except poison ivy.

But we'll get to that in a second.

The mountain bike cockpit.

The other thing about the bike is that it has no computer on it. I'd removed the lights (charged and in the car but I didn't put them on), it's never had a computer, and it felt a bit refreshing to ride 'sans electronics'.

Of course I very conscientiously charged my phone and Strava'ed the ride. And I used the helmet cam (all the pictures are stills from the cam footage).

So much for escaping technology.

The roll out. Joe driving his tandem with Sam between us.

With just one kid on a single bike I knew exactly what I'd need to do - look after him. Sam is 8 years old, has his own geared and hand-braked bike, and rode really well. His shoulders reminded me of Junior's and I realized that if/when Junior rides this will be part of my life.

He had plenty of zip at the beginning of the ride, bridging gaps, attacking, stuff like that.

Dennis driving his train. Sam in front of me, again.

As soon as we got off the most heavily traveled and maintained part of the trail I realized that poison ivy bordered virtually all of the trail. If it wasn't in the bushes and growing up the trees it was poking out from between fence slat and spreading along the grass. Even at the first main intersection, where we had to wait for a Walk signal, I spotted poison ivy directly next to the trail.

My mantra became that of the saucier from Apocalypse Now, modified just a bit.

"Don't leave the trail."

Or, in the movie, "Never get off the boat." (warning: language)

I'm pretty sure I was telling every to stay on the trail every time we slowed down. Annoying, I suppose, but not as much as having poison ivy everywhere. If Sam has some illogical fear of poison ivy that's why, because every time he veered to the side I reminded him to stay on the trail.

Sam about to thread the needle, going about 5-8 mph faster than the tandem rigs.

Sam enjoyed the whole outing, from what I could tell. He'd maneuver around the larger, less agile tandem rigs, at one point threading the needle as he launched a big move. Other times he'd start flagging a bit then rally hard to bridge back to whatever tandem rig loomed ahead.

After that "threading the needle" move I hit 28 mph bridging up to Sam. Strava claims I did 32 mph at one point at the end; although Sam was riding fast here and there we never hit those speeds. I'm pretty sure that Sam could hit 22-24 mph though, so that's pretty good.

Approaching the end.

With the sun getting low on the horizon we got close to our start point. At some point I was to lead out the tandems for their final race (the girls were the instigators, for real), but my sense of duty looking after Sam kept me at his side. The tandems had to race on their own and apparently finished so close it was impossible to tell who won.

Riding with Sam was quite the rewarding experience. I started thinking about the whole "protect the kid with your body" thing - when we crossed streets I entered the road first and then he'd cross under my watchful eye. There's a whole post there because the same idea of "blocking" for Sam applies to drafting, to covering moves in a pack, playing Go, and even to playing baseball. I'll leave it alone for now, let it simmer, and do a post at some other time.

For now, though, this ride was a preview of what to expect. Maybe not in the sense of the exact experience, but the idea of looking after a human being that is self-mobile, understands mechanical gadgets, knows some more complex rules, stuff like that. 

After the ride we all had a bite to eat. The kids were pretty hungry after a two hour ride, and Sam had faded hard in the last mile and change. I thought I faded hard but it took him about 50 meters to go from "keep trying" to "exhausted". At the table I saw mannerisms in him that reminded me of Junior, while at the same time Sam was much more developed, being over six years older. I came home after Junior had fallen asleep so I didn't get an immediate compare-and-contrast experience, but I'm looking forward to all that stuff. I can't imagine Junior doing that stuff - it's beyond me - but I know logically that he'll be like that, talking, thinking of what he wants to do, thinking of the rules. He does some of that now but not at Sam's level.

I also learned that when a family heads out for a ride you need to bring everything. I rode a bit risky - I had no spare tube, no pump, no nothing. It meant that I didn't have things like a 15 mm wrench (adjusting the chain on the trail-a-bike), bug repellent (requested when we stopped), or even some allen wrenches (adjusting chain on the remote cranks for the stokers). I picked up some CamelBaks at the last Interbike I attended and they'll come in handy for our future family outings. With the Missus expressing interest in joining in next time, with me hauling Junior, I hope that we get to do a family ride soon.

For me the ride was a nice change from the trainer grind. More smiles per mile, that's for sure. Here's to the next ride!

Training - Tandem at the Bloomin Metric

Sunday the future missus and I did a local organized ride. A co-worker (and friend) Kelly and his girlfriend Jenn also joined us. We rode on the tandem, they on their (matching) singles, and it seemed to work out pretty well.

After a very busy Saturday we were pretty wiped, making me a bit concerned over the Sunday ride. The forecast was pessimistic - showers on and off the whole day. Ends up a sunny day once we got out of registration so we all enjoyed a beautiful Sunday out on the bikes.

The biggest difference between riding the tandem this year versus last was the Thudbuster I put on the tandem. The first hint was riding out of the rough grass parking lot - I felt some steady bumps but heard nothing from behind me. Normally I'd get an earful if we hit a bump without some warning. I did my usual "Oh! Was that okay?" on each bump bigger than a few millimeters - each time, she replied something along the lines of "What?" In other words, "What bump?" Virtually the whole ride I kept wincing as we'd run over a bump but she never complained.

For those of you who have never ridden the back seat on a tandem, the worst part about that spot becomes painfully apparent as soon as you hit a bump. The stoker must stand up for virtually every bump, even minor ones like pavement cracks. The rear wheel crashes into every inconsistency and the shock travels up to the stoker. The captain is blissfully unaware of the shocks (and the resulting pain) since the captain is located many feet away from the rear wheel - the shock is reduced to a slight vibration by the time the captain feels it. This inequality is probably one of the main things that causes tandem problems.

Well, not problems. It's just the stoker really doesn't feel like riding as much as the captain.

Although the ride was not a race (and we weren't even going out with the intention of "going fast"), we still did some efforts. Knowing that I need to work on the new me, I made a bunch of efforts. One particular one, the last one, was a "race-ending effort" - had I been in a race, I'd have been dropped after the work I did. It felt comfortably familiar. It should have since it was essentially a replication of my race ending effort at Prospect. I gave it a good shot to see if I could somehow recover after such an effort if I really tried.

Alas, like the race, that was not the case. I blew just as spectacularly and we eased up considerably afterwards.

Nevertheless we did 25 miles in a comfortable two hours. I worked about as hard as I would have on my own so felt pretty good about the effort. The other half did too - it was her first ride of the year and she did great considering that her only training was walking around in Las Vegas and at work.

Tandems, I must say, are amazing things. A normally non-compatible cycling couple can ride together with no problems. Each works at their own level (although they both pedal the same pedal strokes) and each contributes to the team's forward movement. Tandems provoke a feeling of synergy that is impossible to replicate on singles. So far every ride on the tandem has been fun.

Okay, not every ride. The first one was a bit shaky, but after that they've been great.

Our friends did well considering they were on single. Kelly worked particularly hard and got a glazed look about him towards the end. Jenn was a bit more mellow and seemed as chipper at the finish as when we started.

The free caffeinated ice tea soda after the ride tasted great and helped pep us up. The other three were smart and ate something. I didn't. I just drank a lot of the ice tea sodas. Three in fact - 240 mg of caffeine.

Before the ride (i.e. the morning of) we mounted a rack on the future missus's car so that we could carry the tandem and two singles. Appropriately, after the ride, we put Kelly's rack on his car. As it used to be mine and I have a different car, we had to buy some clips to get it rack done. Although I didn't think I was tired, on the way home from the shop (10 minutes away), I fell asleep.

A lot of good that caffeine did.

I didn't mention this before but we actually made them help clean up the house on Saturday - so they did some lifting, assembling, and cleaning up as a warm up for the ride. I checked over their bikes in return, they got to sleep out in the suburbs (well, technically we live in a city but it's not like Manhattan).

I got a pleasant surprise today when Kelly said that they rated the weekend a 10 out of 10, irregardless of the hours of labor they put in Saturday. I guess helping out friends isn't as hard as doing stuff you have to do. And the country stuff and the bike ride stuff made Sunday a nice reward for the work on Saturday.

We're still working on getting the house ready but we can see the finish line now. Thanks to Kelly and Jenn, we have a living room. Just one more room in the living area, a bit of basement de-cluttering, and we can put the house on the market.

So that's what will be happening this week. I hope to be able to ride a bit, write a bit, but it's a bit tentative.

Tandem Ride

So my fiancee and I rode for just under two hours on our Cannondale tandem today. She'll readily admit she's a fair weather rider so when it was SEVENTY DEGREES outside we decided we had to go for a ride. Normally it's about 20 degrees and a cold day might be 10 or 15 degrees. Fahrenheit. So when it's about 50 degrees warmer than that and dry, well, you gotta take it when you can get it.

The tandem, except for some Ergo levers, is bone stock. And as a tinkerer, it is only in my nature to want to improve things. The Ergo levers was the first move - I just can not get used to the STI levers and there's a great hack to install 10s Ergo levers on a 9s Shimano drivetrain. So we did that and it's fantastic.

Next I'd like to get 175s up front. It's the same size crank on my other bikes and I find myself spinning way too high for my stoker's tastes. 175's would drop my cadence and also allow me to "cross-train" more effectively.

I need to fiddle with my seat position since it's in a setback position. Forward for more speed and a little more "oomph" would work better.

I'd like to get a close ratio cassette with an 11T. We have a 12T and run out of gear, even when we're not going that fast. An 11-28 or even 11-26 would be nice. Three and four tooth jumps between cogs just destroys our rhythm. It would be better to do a full crossover type gearing - you use a bunch of cogs on the big ring, then move to the middle and use most of the cogs there, then for bailing out of trouble the small ring is in reserve.

Depending on how aggressive I want to go with gearing, we could stay with say a 28T cog and get bigger rings. A 53T is just a bit small. Probably a 55T or 56T would be good (and look hot), and the corresponding low gear (34T or so) would be plenty. Right now we rarely drop into the small ring, and when we do, we're in the middle of the cassette.

We need a much better rear shock post since it seems to be set up for a 40 pound rider. It compresses immediately and offers no shock absorbing value. I hear it every time I miss a bump warning.

Finally, with a few wet spots on the road today, we really need a decent set of fenders. Plastic, light, with cool bendable wire fender-holders which can be bent to clear, say, some big disc brakes. I was thinking of the completely unstandard frame setup (downhill disc brakes, no cantilevers yet). I think a spoke wrapped into three loops and bent into a triangle would work to hold the fender up between the canti mounts - a loop for one canti mount, a straight section up above the (700c road) tire, a loop there for the fender, a straight section down to the other canti mount, and a loop for a bolt there. Clean, simple, light.

The chain squeaked a bit today so I also want to rig up a self-lubing system - a small spray can of White Lightning attached to the rear seat tube with nozzles extending to the chains on either side. The stoker (who hears more of the squeaking), if annoyed at some chain noise, could simply press the spray nozzle to lube the chain.

Today we put a second saddle bag on as well, under the stoker stem. The rear bag carries things unusable on the move - tools, a tube, etc. The front has more immediate things like gels plus another tube. As my seat is low we can't fit a handlebar bag back there like some other tandemers we know, but I'd like to try and maintain the image that we're a "fast" tandem, and handlebar bags just destroy that look.

We saw a lot of people out today. In the town next to us there were a lot of people meandering on the sidewalks, sitting on the benches, and just generally hanging out. With the sun, the stillness of the weekend, it was kind of like a Lazy Sunday except it's Saturday. Warm, breezy, etc.

We coasted down a hill, taking it a bit easy, and then punched it to get up a short hill - we accelerated from a brake-induced 37 mph to 44 mph as we rolled over the hill. It was a lot of fun but we ran out of gas and slowed back down. We held off the SUV's behind us for a quarter mile though so that was cool (speed limit was 35).

And the topper - on the way back home, we were passed by a most regal looking Cadillac. My fiancee and I have been on the prowl for a nice limo but not a "regular" one. I was thinking a Maybach, Bentley, a new Rolls, or something like that. Now this guy had a beautiful 1939 Cadillac 4 Door with a red silk interior (outside looks kind of like this one). Owned by some actress and complete with roses in vases on the inside. Anyway, we were presumptuous enough to ask him if he did weddings. He gave us a card so we'll see if he'll do it. If not, I'll resume my search for a Rolls (my current favorite new limo type car).

So we got in a bunch of miles, spent about two hours on the tandem, talked and stuff (instead of a single bike ride where one is always waiting and the other is always trying to catch up), looked at houses, people watched, and found a potential limo for the wedding. What a great ride!