2011 Ride #1

2/16/11 Yep I waited 46 days into 2011 to get my first ride of the year in.  I haven't even gotten out for a run since Jan 9!

Why you ask?  My work mostly, & the attempt to see the family as much as I can on my very few days off in the last 30+ days.  Its hard to justify going out for an hour or more to workout when you either are at work or asleep. Unfortunately this cycle of work, work, & more work has no immediate end insight.  The night shift opposite me had one guy take a month leave of absence.  The day he came back another guy on that shift quit.  The coverage for that shift falls to me and another guy.  Lots of 5 & 6 days in a row.  Doesn't seem like much?  Try working 12 hr night shifts & you'll have a change of heart.  By the time I get to work & get home I've been gone almost 14 hrs.  Doesn't leave much time for anything else.

I have been trying to compensate by doing my version of Crossfit... Workfit.  Lots of stair walking, pull ups, dips, hefting around heavy crap at work.  It seems to have worked because I didn't die riding yesterday.

With temps to be in the mid 60's there was no way I couldn't ride.  Especially after last weeks -12.

There are still piles of snow around but a pretty nice day.  Rode my favorite 2 hr loop north of the house.  The county has decided to enforce this bridge closing with more than signs now.  Huge piles of dirt requires a quick dismount now.

Had another wait for this HUGE train.  Allowed me time to catch up with Twitter & change my listening selection from F1B podcast to some Modest Mouse to get me home.

Nothing special about the ride.  All little ring.  I averaged a whopping 148 watts for Just shy of 2 hrs. My ass is sore as hell today.  Imagine that with almost zero saddle time since who knows when.

A ride in pics

Rode over to my secret training grounds for some hills.

Cool wooden bridge.

Steep hill, 400 watts for about a minute or so. Heart rate didn't go ballistic which was nice.

Its rained a lot lately

Another steep hill

That made my legs hurt.

With this wind it must be Kansas?

Holy Crap I thought the SPR had been picked up & plopped down in Kansas. 20-25mph winds with gusts to 35+. Normal everyday winds for KS, suckfest for me. I did use the block headwind from the West to get in a 20 min FTP test, identical to the ramp test results(actually thought it might be lower). No wonder Tilford is so damn strong after fighting winds like that for 90 years.

Good ride all in all except for the 45 minutes or so when the sun went into hiding & I would have killed for my vest or a section of newspaper(your not wicked old school if you have to ask what its for). Halltown, Lawrenceburg, BFE dirt road near Comet to make TK happy. Actually the dirt road was the highlight of the ride. Ripping downhill with a tail wind on 23's equals big shit eating grin. Then over to Phenix, down to just east of Ash Grove, to Center(wind damage to the church), back side of Bois D'Arc via Mountain Lion Conservation Area, then Elwood & home. All that for 107 kilometers, wind made it seem farther. Actually topped out not far from the southern arm of Stockton lake. Never ridden all the way up to it might have to do that in the near future.

Don't like the weather? Wait 5 minutes

Saturday AM I woke up @ 6 to let the dogs out. No snow as predicted. Came back 30 minutes later to let the dogs in.

In an hour 2.54cm had piled up on the deck. Guess the weather guys were right just off on the time.

Sunday I decided since the sun was out I'd head to Sac for some frozen trail time. Got in a couple hours before the thaw started & started freezing mud to the bike. My toes froze so it was time to head home to a bowl of left over chili from Saturday.

WTF! IHTW

I got off work early Friday so went out to enjoy the sun before picking up Mia. I knew I should have tacked on another hour or two since I woke to snow this am. Supposed to hit the dirt roads of Polk county this AM but looks like a slight postponement might be in order.


Friday 1:30pm

Saturday 7:00am. I Hate The Weather!



I think it might be time to retire my Sidi Dominators circa 1994. With a new pair of Sidi Dragons circa 2009. Though I think Amber may flinch at the $500 price tag. If I get the same life out of them it works out to $33 a year. Not too bad.




We're kid-less this weekend to go to the Pub Crawl to help the Ding Dong the sister in law celebrate her 21st. Actually it was Thursday & I think shes still hung over. LOL to be 21.

Sunday part 2

Had a hard tempo day on tap for the day's ride. Put the Kenda Kwik 700x30C for some Frisco Trail Wattage time. Soft conditions, a strong wind & a rear tire that was going soft(found this out when I about stack it in a turn) saw me go mushroom cloud at the end. I'm now averaging about a flat a week for 2009.


Wish I could have seen the wall of water that deposited the limbs up there. That's about 10 feet of the water surface.

Pics

Warm enough in February for shorts? No razor rule in the winter is in effect regardless of global warming.

Another North Side long carless farm road. Smooth as butter pavement.



Halltown to Center

Season one TIAA-CREF hat today.

NRA hot spot.

I'll be shocked if this thing ever floats.

Dogs still love me.

Another anniversery of sorts

2 years ago was the day that change my anatomy forever. oh well shit happens.

On to bigger things. Didn't ride into work this AM. It didn't take much to change my mind but the 40 mph winds & following deluge were enough incentive to go back to bed for an hour. Last night the winds were 30-40 mph sustained. Totally wrecked me. The last 8k of my commute went straight into the wind. I was pedaling my ass off & only going 14kph. Crazy! I did have a cross to tail wind @ one point for quite awhile. I thought I had set a 5min PR but just fell short. I'm discovering that two a days messes with your Perceived Exertion. I think I'm nailing it & really I'm just futzing along. The tiredness in the legs sneaks up & fools you. My commute in the other morning I thought I had put in a pretty good effort only to discover my average heart rate was 116. I'll write that one off as a recovery ride. All things considered I'm starting to like getting my training in by commuting. You rack up the kilometers & if your careful you can get the intensity in too. Now I just have to commute in on the internet junk a few times before I have to race it. The hills by Fantastic Caverns will be a ball on that over geared lead weight.

Celebrity ride

Some time this week I got one of Farasy's patented cryptic messages about a celebrity ride this weekend & since I was a celeb I should be there. Not a clue what the hell he was talking about as usual. I have yet to get a message from him that really made much sense anyway. Damn crack babies. I finally tracked him down Friday to find out the ride was Sunday not Saturday like he said in the message. See nothing makes any sense with that kid.

I hemmed & hawed about showing up all weekend. I mean I'm on a self imposed exile from riding till the New Year. So after a lot of debate I decided one ride wouldn't kill me. Am I glad I showed up. A veritable who's who's of Springfield cycling was there. All 15 or so of them. This was a Greek led ride so I figured it would be interesting. Interesting it was. From a crawl of 15kph to 50 kph at a moments notice(damn Mertz!) The day temp wise was about as good as it gets in December so I couldn't complain too much about the dew covered roads. Now I'll have to wash my bike again. I bet Skip is dismantling his as I type this. If he ever updates he should have some pics to post.

Ended up with 3 hours & change with a solid TT effort @ the end(Damn Mertz!) Damn glad I showed up was a good time even if it wasn't Joe Martin.

Saturday I got out to Sac & got in a pretty good 6 mile trail run. Two big loops that is. I'm going to work up to 4 or 5 in the near future. Never know when you might need to be in running shape.