Making it fit

Posted on December 17, 2011 by The Citizen Racer

So the water’s running for dishes (if Santa Claus exists, I’ve been good and I want a dishwasher) and the lovely Angela’s expecting me in a short bit, but I needed to sit down and post a big thank-you to my current work client. Story follows as such…

I’m currently working an on-site techwriting contract for a manufacturer outside of Batavia, a good 40 miles east of home. It’s far enough that commute + work + commute + freelance work + riding makes for a lousy weekly schedule. The office is surrounded by rural roads, so I asked my supervisor if I could start bringing in the bike to train right after work. That still means riding under the lights, but less so than it would be if the drive home preceded the ride.

Not only did I get a thumbs-up on the idea, but my supervisor came to me a day later – on his own initiative – and offered to flex my schedule so I could ride over lunch time. Yeah, it’ll mean unnaturally early days to make up the time, but it means structured rides on rural roads in the middle of the work day.

Score!

I got an extra 20 miles in this week thanks to the convenience, and several folks in the not-super-chatty office have asked about the bike. Even a few of the resident gearheads (whose hot rods are something to behold; look for photos later) showed some interest, and mentioned they’d done similar after-work riding from the shop in the past.

You don’t see many riders in Batavia. This is more truck-and-motorcycle country. But it;s heartening to get positive feedback from people at work; it’s a few more people to be accountable to, a few more motivating sparks to get me on the road or trail as the days get short, gray and chilly.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Flexibility

Posted on December 10, 2011 by The Citizen Racer

I didn’t lift any weights this week. Not that I didn’t work out — I got in riding and running a’plenty, as a matter of fact. But this was a week when opportunity and priority meant my balance of on-saddle and off-saddle live was a little different than planned.

Making the Most of the Moment

how do you get in miles as the days grow short and annoyingly cold? This year, the answer involves taking the bike to work, where rural roads mean a 15- to 17-mile loop is within reach between the quitting bell and the complete fall of darkness. I’m delighted to report that I have a bike-friendly boss who sees my sport fixation as something to encourage, rather than a silly pastime that shouldn’t cross over into the office. Lots of open cubicle space for bike storage doesn’t hurt, either. But the openness that’s letting me park a bike in the office equated to much more comfortable riding this week.

I dug up a couple of short but scenic and hill-infused loops that I can easily extend when the days start to lengthen again. For now, I can either repeat a couple of the hills, throw in a few intervals on the flats, or plan to lift a little when I get home after the ride. It’s all about flexibility at this time of year, since it’ll be quite a few months before the real riding and racing comes back into season.

Flex time, and first things first

Today would have been a chilly but brilliant day to loop into the country on a rolling loop like the Seven Hills CC loops off of Route 8. But instead, I ran. I’m not riding this very-sunny weekend, and that’s perfectly acceptable.

There are bigger fish in this pond.

The lovely Angela joined me for part of my run this morning. I later went out for a longer, harder trot while she ran an errand, but we got time to jog along and talk about nothing, something our schedules haven’t allowed lately. I managed a good cardio workout, and we got some highly valuable quality time.

Tomorrow, as we say around here, I’m gonna go blow some shit up. OK, it’s an afternoon at the skeet range with a couple of friends, and there’s a good chance I’ll do more missing than hitting (still learning this whole wingshooting thing), but we all need the break. Between job stress, freelance workloads and general life craziness, I think all of us planning to go just need a chance to unwind. I could get that on the bike, but time with friends and things that go boom has a certain value that gets lost amid too much wind, carbon and spandex.

So it’s not been a week as rigidly planned as my left brain might have hoped. But my right brain (the bigger side: I’m left handed, after all) shaped the week into a good one; I’m feeling damn strong for this point in the offseason, and my emotional/life/fitness/sport/work balance is equally strong and stable, just as it should be.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Drinking the carbon Kool-Aid

Posted on December 4, 2011 by The Citizen Racer

OK, now I get it.

I’ll admit that I’ve been somewhat ego-driven in my bike and parts choices lately. There’s a part of me that wanted nothing more than to hammer through another season on my reasonable-but-lower-end aluminum 2.1, gaining those little moments of satisfaction when brawn overcame tech on the racecourse. But I’m changing my tone, and quick.

Sean H. and I threw down a hill ride yesterday to test out the new bikes: the Madone 5.1 for me, and a Fisher Cronus he acquired about a week prior to my upgrade (yes, kids, there are good deals afoot at Trek of Cincinnati right now). A skewer recall (go figure on that one) meant that I swapped out the Bonty Race wheelset that came with my bike for the SRAMs I plan to race on this year. Not that I would have done otherwise, seeing as I only have a few rides on the race hoops and I could easily justify dropping a little weight for the hills. We headed out reasonably early on what I’m hoping isn’t the last pretty, crisp day this fall/winter.

Our route consisted of a series of climbs looping off of KY Rte 8 west of 75: we hit Devou, as well as a healthy climb that started in Bromley and curved around to a steep, twisting descent to Villa Hills. Combined with the flat 6.5 miles to Sean’s in N’side, the same route to the river and a repeat to get home, I ended up with 44.4 miles for the day.

But it felt like about 25 miles.

Not Surprised

I expected the Madone to climb well: it’s a stiff frame with a fat wad of carbon around the bottom bracket, and the 5 or so pounds it gives up to the 2.1 was clearly evident on even small climbs. But it’s amazing how much easier it is to hold a taller gear on even the worst of the climbs. In the lowest gears, this thing could climb a tree.

I was also expecting the bike to carry more momentum, which it did quite well. Chalk that one up to an extra 25 psi of air I can load into the tire/wheel combo, as well as the better SRAM wheel bearings. The bike didn’t lag like the 2.1 would on small climbs and through rough stretches of road.  The flip side of this is that I can feel when my pedal stroke gets uneven: the bike surges and jerks ahead a little, telling me I need to shift up or pay more attention to technique. This should be good for me in the long run, making me more aware of how I’m putting down the power.

Yep, Surprised

I wasn’t expecting the speed. Holy crap, this thing has a high terminal velocity. On the descent to Villa Hills, I was trying to keep it conservative, what with all the new equipment and a little moisture on the pavement. But every time I let up on the brakes, the bike surged ahead as if I was pedaling. I’m confident this thing will redline 5-10 mph faster than the 2.1, thanks to the slippery aerodynamics and hotter wheels/tires. Now all I have to do is get the technique and cojones to push it closer to that limit.

That might not be that hard, though, given the other big surprise of the day: Carbon really does eat a lot of road buzz. I didn’t realize how much the tiny bumps and jolts add up over the course of a ride until they weren’t there. As Sean and I crossed back over the river to head home, my legs said I should see about 28 miles or so on the computer, rather than the 32 I was seeing. I simply felt better, more well-rested, and livelier in the saddle. Several bike-community friends talked about this feeling, but I didn’t get it until now – I think you have to have the experience to fully appreciate it.

This is going to be an exciting year. I can see the combination of nutrition, perspective, technique and technology coming together in a powerful way. All I have to do (as is the case with so many things in this sport) is keep on this track, and I’m more confident than ever that my big goals are within reach.

Posted in Motivation, Technology | 1 Comment

An excuse for a torque wrench

Posted on December 1, 2011 by The Citizen Racer

There are a lot of guys out there who have torque wrenches. But I suspect that a lot of these serious, precision tools do what my torque wrench has done for the last few years: sit in a box and collect dust, after the job that motivated the initial purchase has passed.

But not only do I have a torque wrench, but I now have a reason to use it; probably regularly for at least a few weeks, as I get the new road bike tuned to my liking.

Serious tools with a serious use: I’m feeling pretty manly.

It’s the whole carbon-on-carbon thing: the Madone uses a carbon seat mast, clamped by a carbon post that holds the saddle. Too much pressure could cause cracks, which could cause things to shatter (ever seen a Formula-One crash? Yeah, no urge to have that happen right under my spandex-clad backside). Hence, the torque wrench, a measure of security ensuring that no bolts get over-tightened, and that no carbon cracks from my stupidity.

Ride on, ride smooth

I finally got said Madone out for a ride tonight. It was a short, flat, slow spin, the result of a hard weight day Tuesday and a number of stops to tweak the fit. I’m not going to get all ‘it’s a magic carpet compared to my old aluminum bike’ on you: Yes, the ride is pretty smooth, and yes, it clearly accelerates faster and holds speed better than its heavier predecessor, but I’m holding back on specific rants or raves until a few more miles are under the tires. Plus, I’m not in shape to wring it out yet: October was a bad month for my endurance, and I’ve got some catching up to do.

Weighty matters

Hence, in turn, the weight routine that left me doing the old-man walk after last night. I’ve read for years about the benefits of off-season weight training, but I’ve never made the commitment to do it right. Well, this year’s different. Between having loftier-than-ever goals (Shenandoah 100, anyone?) and the very real demands of moving to Cat 4, I have some very good reasons for hitting the dumbells for the next 12 weeks.

The flip side, I’m quickly realizing, is that pushing myself in the weight room will mean taking it a little easier on the bike, at least until I’m used to the new strain. The two should work together, as I understand it: weight work to tear down muscle fibers in key groups, and aerobic conditioning rides (yes, the season of the small chainring is upon us) to loosen and stretch the muscles as they heal and overcompensate. I don’t expect to tap the full performance potential of either bike this year, but I’m hoping that the added power will kick me up a little closer to that limit.

 

Posted in Motivation, Technology, Training | Leave a comment

Changing seasons

Posted on November 28, 2011 by The Citizen Racer

I have heard friends and fellow riders talk about the emotional connection they have with their bikes. The machine goes beyond an assemblage of components, becoming something capable of sharing the experiences that draw us back into the woods, that keep us spinning down the endless ribbons of road. This has always been a bit of a latent feeling for me: these are tools, after all. True, for the most part they’re tools for sport and recreation, but they’re tools — parts to help make a job easier.

But I have to admit I got a little nostalgic today as I pulled the accessories off my road bike and cleaned it up for one last trip in the back of the truck. My much-enjoyed, much-fussed-over Trek 2.1 got traded in for a newer, lighter, shinier (for the moment, at least) Madone 5.1. I wasn’t so misty-eyed about the fixie I traded as well, but I took a moment to think back on how many things I learned astride the black-and-blue 2.1; it’s the bike on which I climbed the steep first bit of the road racing learning curve, and it’s the tool that was just good enough to get me hooked on this aspect of the cycling-sports world.

Madone 5.1 with the racing hoops

Not to say that I have regrets. The new ride has me buzzed like too much coffee too late in the day. With the stock wheels, it’s still a full 4.5 pounds lighter than the 2.1. Throw on the SRAM wheelset (which looks quite fitting with the full SRAM gruppo) and I think it’s creeping somewhere south of 15 pounds.

Awesome.

Fully pretty with the stock rims

Trek of Cincinnati’s running some killer deals at the moment, and Jacob treated me well. I thought it’d be another year before I could swing a true race-weight ride, but it looks like I’ll have fewer technical excuses to hide behind in 2012. It’s fitting I met up with Sean from the team this evening to talk about the preseason. The tools are here to go very fast. Now all I have to do is make the legs and lungs match.

And in the process, I suspect I’ll make plenty of memories that will make it hard to say goodbye to this bronze-and-white rocket when it’s time to once again upgrade my racing tools. But given the jump in technology, I suspect it’ll be a bit before I reach the performance envelope of this bike. It should be fun to try, though.

Posted in Bikes I like, Motivation, Technology, Training | Leave a comment