A bit late on the report, but I was fairly busy this weekend.
I had some trouble with the front tire going flat earlier this week after leaving the bike in my car at work till I rode it at lunch on Wednesday. I pumped it up Wednesday and thought no more about it. I noticed when I put the bike on the car to head over to the start point, that the tire was flat again! Oh well, I'll just pump it up again was my thought....
Arrived over at Archer's Lodge aroun 7:50am and Neal & Ray were already there. Kevin was on his way. I got my bike off the car and proceeded to pump the tire. I finished and then heard the "pffftt" of air leaking out. OK, then. Proceeded to change the tire with Neal's help, as my fingers were getting cold and I couldn't get the last little bit back on the rim. In the meantime, Kevin arrived. Once the tire was fixed, off we went...
Nothing really exciting about the ride...we stopped at 21 miles at Shoeheel, but my buddy Cletus wasn't there. I guess it was too early for him. Headed on out after a few minutes. Things went pretty well along the route. It got a bit hilly after turning at Antioch Church Rd but nothing that was all that bad. I lagged behind on the hills this day because I didn't prepare properly the night before and my legs were still a bit sore from my gym workout earlier that week.
We crossed Buckhorn Reservoir and I had to stop for a few pictures. This was one of my projects that I worked on a couple of years ago. Got a few pictures, and will either post or link them in a bit. Headed up Buckhorn Road (guess that's the name of it?) and yes, this is short and steep, but nothing that a compact double and 12-27 can't handle. I think the first town we came to was Bailey after the reservoir. We stopped at a store for some water and food, then headed out for the last third of the route. This was when it turned bad for us.
The last leg of the route was into the wind the whole time. It was pretty hard riding too. Kevin is a real workhorse! He pulls and pulls and pulls. He's a very strong rider. So, into the wind, down Hwy 231 to the infamous Flower Hill. Yea, it's hard. No, it's not harder than anything I've done up in the mountains. And, again, nothing that a compact double & 12-27 can't handle. The good thing about this hill is that it's short.
We made one last stop at the Flower Hill store then headed on for the last 12-15 miles back to Archer's Lodge. This, I think was the hardest part, going back on Antioch. Not that Antioch is all that hard, but it is hard when you have to pedal downhill to just keep from slowing down!! Note of interest here...I got gapped just a bit on Antioch and this mail lady in her Chevy Blazer with flashers on, passed me and got behind the guys. I'm following her, not too closely thank goodness, because she starts to slow and then the next thing I know, she slams on her brakes and I just about run into the back end of the Blazer! We shout at each other and she claims she had her turn signal on to make a right turn. Duh! The damn turn signals don't work when you have your flashers on lady!!!! Grrrrr.
That was about all the excitement we had for the ride. We rode down Buffalo for a short distance to make sure Ray had 100k ridden so he could tell his kids that he had done it.
It was a really beautiful day and the ride would have been perfect had it not been for the wind. I hope the actual Frostbite date is as pretty and doesn't have the wind to contend with. I hope I'm ready for it - ready to keep up with Andy & Jay!
Monday, February 11, 2008
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Broken Links
Sorry for the broken links to photos. I have had to do some house cleaning at PhotoBucket and haven't had a chance to fix the links. I'll try to get that done soon.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Intervals Again & More Bike Parts
Yesterday was really nice, tho just a bit windy, but I rode anyways. I wasn't sure what I was going to do when I started - either a zone2 ride or intervals, depending on how I felt. I must have been feeling ok, because I decided to do intervals.
I thought I would try to do 10 minute intervals and drop down to 8 minute if I couldn't do them. I managed to do them alright. But, as my mentor tells me after thinking about them over night, it seems I didn't do them correctly. I went too hard on the first one, and the 2nd & 3rd ones were ok, but I didn't take enough time for recovery between them. Then I decided to do a 4th one. It wasn't even in the correct zone:(. Almost in zone 4, but not really there.
Next week, I have 2 days of intervals scheduled - 4x6min with 8min rest in zone 4 with cadence 95+ and 3x3min with 6min rest in zone 5 with cadence 95+. I have to nail these. I'll find a road tomorrow while riding that I think I can do in 6 minutes and just repeat the intervals there. Same for the 3 minute intervals. I guess the training will be picking up a bit....
I also took my bike to the LBS to see if the front derailleur could be adjusted so that the chain would not come off the big ring while I attempted to do stomps. Prior tries had it falling off when I was in the combination of 50/12,12,14.
Now for the beater bike build....
I got a couple of tapered files at Lowe's Hardware and filed off all the powdercoating from the bosses. I was able to put the shifters on, but I didn't have all of the parts. Last week, I ordered a set of clamp-on Arabesque shifters off of ebay, thinking they were what I needed. Well, they are not what I need, but they do have all the parts and in the order of installation. These shifters also look WAY better than the ones I have. I will be putting these on tonight.
Last night, I tried to install the bottom bracket. It seems like you need to put the left side part in first then the right side. I started opposite that. I couldn't get it to screw in, so my husband thought he was more mechanically inclined and tried to screw it in. Needless to say, it didn't work and it got stuck. I didn't think it was going to come out, but we got it out. I put the bike away afer that because I was getting aggrevated with it and would most likely mess something up further if I continued.
I also received the Vittoria Rubino Pro white tires and the Look KeO Classic pedals from ProBikeKit on Monday. Looks like I will be able to get that Selle San Marco Regal white saddle afterall - got some money for my birthday!
Maybe I'll get more of my parts installed this weekend and have some pictures to post!
I thought I would try to do 10 minute intervals and drop down to 8 minute if I couldn't do them. I managed to do them alright. But, as my mentor tells me after thinking about them over night, it seems I didn't do them correctly. I went too hard on the first one, and the 2nd & 3rd ones were ok, but I didn't take enough time for recovery between them. Then I decided to do a 4th one. It wasn't even in the correct zone:(. Almost in zone 4, but not really there.
Next week, I have 2 days of intervals scheduled - 4x6min with 8min rest in zone 4 with cadence 95+ and 3x3min with 6min rest in zone 5 with cadence 95+. I have to nail these. I'll find a road tomorrow while riding that I think I can do in 6 minutes and just repeat the intervals there. Same for the 3 minute intervals. I guess the training will be picking up a bit....
I also took my bike to the LBS to see if the front derailleur could be adjusted so that the chain would not come off the big ring while I attempted to do stomps. Prior tries had it falling off when I was in the combination of 50/12,12,14.
Now for the beater bike build....
I got a couple of tapered files at Lowe's Hardware and filed off all the powdercoating from the bosses. I was able to put the shifters on, but I didn't have all of the parts. Last week, I ordered a set of clamp-on Arabesque shifters off of ebay, thinking they were what I needed. Well, they are not what I need, but they do have all the parts and in the order of installation. These shifters also look WAY better than the ones I have. I will be putting these on tonight.
Last night, I tried to install the bottom bracket. It seems like you need to put the left side part in first then the right side. I started opposite that. I couldn't get it to screw in, so my husband thought he was more mechanically inclined and tried to screw it in. Needless to say, it didn't work and it got stuck. I didn't think it was going to come out, but we got it out. I put the bike away afer that because I was getting aggrevated with it and would most likely mess something up further if I continued.
I also received the Vittoria Rubino Pro white tires and the Look KeO Classic pedals from ProBikeKit on Monday. Looks like I will be able to get that Selle San Marco Regal white saddle afterall - got some money for my birthday!
Maybe I'll get more of my parts installed this weekend and have some pictures to post!
Monday, February 4, 2008
A Sad Day
I just found this out via BikeForums - Sheldon Brown passed away last night or early this morning. Such a wealth of knowledge. You will be greatly missed!
Birthday Ride
TRAIN LIKE YOU RACE. My mentor got on to me this past week because I hadn’t been riding and more so because I said I had a group ride on Saturday and that we would be stopping/waiting at turns for the slower people. He asked me if that was how I was going to ride Marion (Assault on Marion) and I said no it wasn’t. Well, “train like you race” was what I was told.
I tried really hard to do this on the Saturday group ride and did pretty well at it, but on my birthday ride, I wanted to do even better. I haven’t looked at the motionbased file yet – it will tell me the amount of stopped time I had. I had one stop to add arm warmers, one stop to cross the road to the RS and about 5 minutes there getting checked out and refilling bottles. After that, I don’t think I stopped again until I got back to my car.
***********************************************************************************
It was a beautiful day yesterday for a birthday ride! It’s been a long time since I’ve had such a beautiful day on my birthday. Most of the other times, the birthday day has been typical January/February weather. But, yesterday the temps were in the mid 60’s, blue sky, a few wispy clouds, and slight breeze occasionally.
I tried to get some friends to ride with me, but I guess everyone wanted to stay home & watch basketball games, had other plans or didn’t feel like they could ride after riding the day before. Anyway, I had some things to take care of before lunchtime, so I was unable to ride in the morning. After lunch (which I didn’t have), I loaded up my bike stuff and headed out to Archer’s Lodge Community Center to do my birthday ride.
Felt pretty good while riding and was able to get up the grades on Covered Bridge without too much trouble. I had to stop very shortly after starting though and put on some arm warmers. It was just a tad too cool to ride without. Once I got these on, I headed out again. I tried to keep the pace fairly high to mimic what I might be riding at the actual Frostbite so I could see how I felt. I did well – kept the pace around 17.3-17.8mph average until around 25mi. By this time, 1.5hr into the ride, I had eaten all 3 of my gels and drank almost all of my Cytomax. I stopped at a little store at the intersection of Hwy 42/NC 222 to refill stuff.
This little store is not the best one to stop at. Nothing really wrong with it – quite a few Mexicans in and out and it was very small. There is a BP store about .25mi down Hwy 42 that I’ll use next time. I got a Coke, peanuts, and bottle of water. I ate a few of the peanuts, refilled the bottle with Cytomax & water and headed out towards Flower Hill. I drank the Coke along the way. Afterwards, I wish that I hadn’t got the Coke, as it seemed to upset my stomach a little bit and cause my right side to hurt a bit. This last leg of the route, from around the 25mi mark until the end, was a little more hard for me. Maybe I was getting tired…Seemed like the wind was a tad stronger and blowing in my face. But, maybe not.
Made the turn onto Antioch Church Road and had around 12 miles left. Everyone says this road is hard to ride because of the hills. I didn’t think it was that hard. Riding in the mountains and doing the ride I did in December puts this all in perspective. We don’t really have hard hills in our area (Clayton). You just have to gear down when you hit the grades around here and pace yourself up them. I remember the last time I rode Antioch – the Frostbite Tour last year. I can remember coming up those hills, especially the one that has the church on the left side of the road, and about falling over because I was so tired and going so slow. Not this time.
Made the turn onto Thanksgiving and was able to turn the power/speed up a notch as it was a slight downhill grade to the next turn at Covered Bridge Road. Then there was one last longish climb, around 6% grade. Made it up this ok, albeit a little slow. Upon reaching the stoplight at Buffalo, I still didn’t have close to 43 miles, so I rode on past my car and then back ‘n forth on the road in front of my car until the mileage turned over to 43mi. I was off the bike then!
I had really wanted to ride about 6 more miles to make sure I got in 100mi for the weekend, but I just couldn’t do it. If I had started earlier, like 12:00-12:30pm, I had also considered riding a metric to get in my age plus my daughter’s age. Alas, it didn’t happen. But, that’s ok. I really enjoyed the ride; just wish I had had some company.
I did have one problem on this ride though. I wore my Hammer kit and the shorts are not good for long rides! These shorts and any others that are not Sugoi RS Flex shorts are only good for around an hour’s worth of riding. By the time I reached the store, my butt was starting to seriously hurt. It was hurting a lot more on Antioch and I think some of my average speed drop-off was due to having to slow down often to rearrange the shorts to see if I could get more comfortable. It didn’t work. I will be getting at least one or two more pair of these short and retiring all the others to just lunchtime rides at work or any ride of an hour or less in length.
Overall average pace was 16.4mph, dropping from 17.5mph (first 25mi) due to butt soreness issues and the little extra I had to ride at the end to get in 43mi; slower riding for the last 1.5mi. Even so, I had a great weekend of riding! I have renewed my love affair with my bike and will get the training back on track this week.
I tried really hard to do this on the Saturday group ride and did pretty well at it, but on my birthday ride, I wanted to do even better. I haven’t looked at the motionbased file yet – it will tell me the amount of stopped time I had. I had one stop to add arm warmers, one stop to cross the road to the RS and about 5 minutes there getting checked out and refilling bottles. After that, I don’t think I stopped again until I got back to my car.
***********************************************************************************
It was a beautiful day yesterday for a birthday ride! It’s been a long time since I’ve had such a beautiful day on my birthday. Most of the other times, the birthday day has been typical January/February weather. But, yesterday the temps were in the mid 60’s, blue sky, a few wispy clouds, and slight breeze occasionally.
I tried to get some friends to ride with me, but I guess everyone wanted to stay home & watch basketball games, had other plans or didn’t feel like they could ride after riding the day before. Anyway, I had some things to take care of before lunchtime, so I was unable to ride in the morning. After lunch (which I didn’t have), I loaded up my bike stuff and headed out to Archer’s Lodge Community Center to do my birthday ride.
Felt pretty good while riding and was able to get up the grades on Covered Bridge without too much trouble. I had to stop very shortly after starting though and put on some arm warmers. It was just a tad too cool to ride without. Once I got these on, I headed out again. I tried to keep the pace fairly high to mimic what I might be riding at the actual Frostbite so I could see how I felt. I did well – kept the pace around 17.3-17.8mph average until around 25mi. By this time, 1.5hr into the ride, I had eaten all 3 of my gels and drank almost all of my Cytomax. I stopped at a little store at the intersection of Hwy 42/NC 222 to refill stuff.
This little store is not the best one to stop at. Nothing really wrong with it – quite a few Mexicans in and out and it was very small. There is a BP store about .25mi down Hwy 42 that I’ll use next time. I got a Coke, peanuts, and bottle of water. I ate a few of the peanuts, refilled the bottle with Cytomax & water and headed out towards Flower Hill. I drank the Coke along the way. Afterwards, I wish that I hadn’t got the Coke, as it seemed to upset my stomach a little bit and cause my right side to hurt a bit. This last leg of the route, from around the 25mi mark until the end, was a little more hard for me. Maybe I was getting tired…Seemed like the wind was a tad stronger and blowing in my face. But, maybe not.
Made the turn onto Antioch Church Road and had around 12 miles left. Everyone says this road is hard to ride because of the hills. I didn’t think it was that hard. Riding in the mountains and doing the ride I did in December puts this all in perspective. We don’t really have hard hills in our area (Clayton). You just have to gear down when you hit the grades around here and pace yourself up them. I remember the last time I rode Antioch – the Frostbite Tour last year. I can remember coming up those hills, especially the one that has the church on the left side of the road, and about falling over because I was so tired and going so slow. Not this time.
Made the turn onto Thanksgiving and was able to turn the power/speed up a notch as it was a slight downhill grade to the next turn at Covered Bridge Road. Then there was one last longish climb, around 6% grade. Made it up this ok, albeit a little slow. Upon reaching the stoplight at Buffalo, I still didn’t have close to 43 miles, so I rode on past my car and then back ‘n forth on the road in front of my car until the mileage turned over to 43mi. I was off the bike then!
I had really wanted to ride about 6 more miles to make sure I got in 100mi for the weekend, but I just couldn’t do it. If I had started earlier, like 12:00-12:30pm, I had also considered riding a metric to get in my age plus my daughter’s age. Alas, it didn’t happen. But, that’s ok. I really enjoyed the ride; just wish I had had some company.
I did have one problem on this ride though. I wore my Hammer kit and the shorts are not good for long rides! These shorts and any others that are not Sugoi RS Flex shorts are only good for around an hour’s worth of riding. By the time I reached the store, my butt was starting to seriously hurt. It was hurting a lot more on Antioch and I think some of my average speed drop-off was due to having to slow down often to rearrange the shorts to see if I could get more comfortable. It didn’t work. I will be getting at least one or two more pair of these short and retiring all the others to just lunchtime rides at work or any ride of an hour or less in length.
Overall average pace was 16.4mph, dropping from 17.5mph (first 25mi) due to butt soreness issues and the little extra I had to ride at the end to get in 43mi; slower riding for the last 1.5mi. Even so, I had a great weekend of riding! I have renewed my love affair with my bike and will get the training back on track this week.
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Bike Love & Training Woes
Sooooo...this past week has left my training very lacking. I just felt no love what-so-ever for my wonderful RC. Poor baby! I don't really know what the deal was this week - just didn't feel like riding. Maybe it was a combination of the roads I have to ride on during my lunch hour plus the high winds. Most of the roads have little to none as far as shoulders and when the wind is like it was this week, I'm blown all over the edge of the road. Top this off with the stupid traffic that I also have to deal with and I just had no desire to ride.
I feel bad that I didn't ride this week though. And guilty. Maybe instead of riding out along Rock Quarry Road, I should head into town on those windy days and find some hills to do repeats on. I suppose that would be better than not riding at all.
February is going to be better though. I'm going to make sure that I get in 3-4 days during the week of riding - need to kick it up a notch, as well as get to the gym 3 days. And weekend rides.
TRAIN LIKE YOU RACE
I haven't been doing this very well. It's hard to train properly in group rides. Most of the guys I ride with are out riding to have fun and there's nothing wrong with that. It's just that I have more serious riding goals this year and it's very hard to get the required training in for these riding goals when I do group rides. Maybe it would be better to do group Sunday rides, but I doubt there will be much interest in that.
The Frostbite Tour is coming up in 4 weeks. I've never ridden a 100 miles, but I'm going to try my damnest to complete 100mi. BikeWNC will be in town that weekend and will be riding, probably doing 100mi as well. I seriously need to keep the training up the next 3 weeks...I want to be able to keep up with him, but I'm just not 100% sure I will be able to. That's why I've got to kick the training up...next week, I'll be riding the metric route of the Frostbite and the following week I'll complete the metric and part of the 100mi route for 75mi. The last week will be a rest week preparing for the 100mi route.
Wish me luck!!!!
I feel bad that I didn't ride this week though. And guilty. Maybe instead of riding out along Rock Quarry Road, I should head into town on those windy days and find some hills to do repeats on. I suppose that would be better than not riding at all.
February is going to be better though. I'm going to make sure that I get in 3-4 days during the week of riding - need to kick it up a notch, as well as get to the gym 3 days. And weekend rides.
TRAIN LIKE YOU RACE
I haven't been doing this very well. It's hard to train properly in group rides. Most of the guys I ride with are out riding to have fun and there's nothing wrong with that. It's just that I have more serious riding goals this year and it's very hard to get the required training in for these riding goals when I do group rides. Maybe it would be better to do group Sunday rides, but I doubt there will be much interest in that.
The Frostbite Tour is coming up in 4 weeks. I've never ridden a 100 miles, but I'm going to try my damnest to complete 100mi. BikeWNC will be in town that weekend and will be riding, probably doing 100mi as well. I seriously need to keep the training up the next 3 weeks...I want to be able to keep up with him, but I'm just not 100% sure I will be able to. That's why I've got to kick the training up...next week, I'll be riding the metric route of the Frostbite and the following week I'll complete the metric and part of the 100mi route for 75mi. The last week will be a rest week preparing for the 100mi route.
Wish me luck!!!!
Lost Boys Ride:)
Group ride this morning from the local meeting spot, The Grocery Bag. There were, I think, 8 total riders and we were headed towards Kenly, then back to start. Temp was nice to begin with, slightly warmer than I thought it would be. I had to take the amfib tights off and put a different pair on - I was sweating before even starting the ride.
Had a mechanical not long after starting, one of the guys had trouble with his seatpost slipping and we used some parts from a patch kit to fix it. The clamp wasn't getting a good grip and it was as tight as possible. Got that fixed and headed on....our next road was NC 222...my testing ground.
A short ride down 222 to the intersection of Hwy 42 - crossed this and I started my test. As usual, I started too damn fast and was getting tired after 5-7min. I looked at the time and thought "13 more minutes!! I'll never make it". But, I did. Jay was on my wheel the entire time, encouraging me, telling me I was doing good, "c'mon it's not time to quit", keep pedaling smoothly, just a little further...that helped, but not quite enough. I just didn't have any more to give...I didn't have a good supper the night before and overslept this morning, so not a great breakfast either. I ended up getting just slightly better normalized power for that 20min - 183watts. Cadence was really good - 97! And, had an average of 19.2mph.
Probably, when I do the test next month, maybe it will be a little better. I hadn't ridden all week due to just not feeling any love for my bike and the wind has been awful around here this week. I'll definitely try to get more riding in this month so I can maybe raise my threshold numbers in March or April.
Anyways, after the 20min test, I took it easy for the next 2mi into Kenly and met the guys at the McDonald's for some more water & another gel. Then we headed on towards Clayton. To me, it seemed like the pace was pretty fast after leaving the rest stop and I started getting the cramping in my calves, but not bad enough that I needed to stop. Came on this one grade and I got dropped, just didnt' have it in my legs to keep up. Jay slowed and waited on me, then he and I tried to catch up to the rest of the group. Here's were the title comes from...those guys missed the turn and we turned. Waited on them for about 5min then headed on following the route. Those guys eventually figured out what they did wrong and turned around. While Jay & I were at the last rest stop, the group of Lost Boys showed up.
Heading out for the last leg of the route, I got a serious cramp in my right quad just after cresting a slight grade. Had to stop for about 5min or so and rest it. One of the guys massaged it and that helped a lot. I had to limp back in, slower than I wanted to, but at least I didn't quit.
A really great route and great company today. I always enjoy riding out that way. Tomorrow will be another beautiful day and another ride!
Had a mechanical not long after starting, one of the guys had trouble with his seatpost slipping and we used some parts from a patch kit to fix it. The clamp wasn't getting a good grip and it was as tight as possible. Got that fixed and headed on....our next road was NC 222...my testing ground.
A short ride down 222 to the intersection of Hwy 42 - crossed this and I started my test. As usual, I started too damn fast and was getting tired after 5-7min. I looked at the time and thought "13 more minutes!! I'll never make it". But, I did. Jay was on my wheel the entire time, encouraging me, telling me I was doing good, "c'mon it's not time to quit", keep pedaling smoothly, just a little further...that helped, but not quite enough. I just didn't have any more to give...I didn't have a good supper the night before and overslept this morning, so not a great breakfast either. I ended up getting just slightly better normalized power for that 20min - 183watts. Cadence was really good - 97! And, had an average of 19.2mph.
Probably, when I do the test next month, maybe it will be a little better. I hadn't ridden all week due to just not feeling any love for my bike and the wind has been awful around here this week. I'll definitely try to get more riding in this month so I can maybe raise my threshold numbers in March or April.
Anyways, after the 20min test, I took it easy for the next 2mi into Kenly and met the guys at the McDonald's for some more water & another gel. Then we headed on towards Clayton. To me, it seemed like the pace was pretty fast after leaving the rest stop and I started getting the cramping in my calves, but not bad enough that I needed to stop. Came on this one grade and I got dropped, just didnt' have it in my legs to keep up. Jay slowed and waited on me, then he and I tried to catch up to the rest of the group. Here's were the title comes from...those guys missed the turn and we turned. Waited on them for about 5min then headed on following the route. Those guys eventually figured out what they did wrong and turned around. While Jay & I were at the last rest stop, the group of Lost Boys showed up.
Heading out for the last leg of the route, I got a serious cramp in my right quad just after cresting a slight grade. Had to stop for about 5min or so and rest it. One of the guys massaged it and that helped a lot. I had to limp back in, slower than I wanted to, but at least I didn't quit.
A really great route and great company today. I always enjoy riding out that way. Tomorrow will be another beautiful day and another ride!
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