bristol mountain road race

oh man... this was so awesome, let me just start off with the basics before i start gushing and being emotional.




One lap:
Distance - 17.06 miles
Ascent - 892 feet

I raced in the 2009 Bristol Road Race which was really more of a mountain climb. Being not registered as a racer i bought a one day license and raced in the category 5 field (least competitive that wasn't for kids or ladies). Cat 5 racers had to do two laps of the above loop, making it 34 miles.

Here's how I did:

Lap 1 - 55:50
Lap 2 - 1:02:58
Total - 1:58:48
Average Speed: 17.23 mph
Placed 44th out of 49



The beginning of the race was all about getting the different categories out on the road with their respective chase cars. We were second to last. Everyone had matching kits and shaved legs, which made me feel a little embarrassed in my not really matching shorts and jersey, and my hairy legs and arms:


(a separate ride)

When it came to be our turn to start, we lined up by the road, the official said "go" and we rolled out at a leisurely pace. As we approached the first corner I was in third? I realized this wouldn't last long being that we were in a peleton (pack).

Being in the peleton was the most incredible biking experience I've ever had. The 50 of us moving as a group down that first 5 mile flat stretch. The effort required to keep moving was minimal, people yelling "slowing" whenever the front would slow down so that people behind wouldn't crash into them. It was a living, breathing thing of its own. Speed swelling and falling apart, people attacking up the side, trying to vie for position in the middle, seeking the shelter of drafting off of the rest of the peleton. I managed to stay in the peleton until the first big hill, in which I sort of drifted to the back and then I looked up and the peleton was gone. From then on I was in a pack of 3-4 people, and then we got strung out over the rest of the course. Two of them were with the RIT cycling team, but we ended up being strung out for a while, and then I was with this guy in a VT Hokies jersey. Then we hit the big hill (Egypt).

Egypt was impossible. It started off with about 100 feet of the steepest hills you can think of, and then was just a plain old steep climb for another mile or two. Basically after I was done with that hill, I wasn't sure I could do another lap. Basically, the descent made the ascent totally worth it. Dan Summers, a guy I know on the RIT cycling team, said that the guy he was biking with said that they were getting up to 45-50mph on the descent. Basically it was freaking awesome. I kind of want to do that race again.

The way they timed us was pretty interesting, basically, we had numbers like usual. But also these little microchips:



Basically it tracked us passing the finish line, giving us accurate times, for instance, my first lap time was 55:50:180. It also would've cost us something like $90 if we stole it.

I think that's it. I really liked racing, I want to do it again.

Flying Wheels 70 mile loop?

Elevation

Min: 20 ft

Max: 574 ft

Ascent: 1969 ft

Descent: -1969 ft

oh no, we took a wrong turn and ended up about 7 miles short of the planned 70 miles.

Ugh... short post.

Flying Wheels Training, Part the First

So Richard and I decided to try the small Flying Wheels loop, to see how we would handle the hills (Dieter eat your heart out).  Turns out, pretty well, at least after the first monster hill.  The mileage for this ride isn't entirely accurate as we took a couple of wrong turns and got lost in Suburbia.  We probably need to tack on a few extra hundred feet of climbing, too.  In terms of nutrition, the Hammer Perpetuum is working very well for me.  Same goes for the Powerbar protein bars.  I didn't feel any burning from lean muscle cannibalization at all this ride.  I think next time we'll try the 65 mi loop.  Anyway, here are the details:

Distance: 42.35 mi

Total Ascent: 1434 ft

Max Ascent: 574 ft

where a helmet kiddies...

Dieter, check out this awesomeness

Even though the sun didn't come out today, Alex and I got a good Lake Washington ride in today.

Unlike the last loop we rode, we didn't get lost this time around. We decided to take our trip counter clockwise this time because of a single hill, which didn't seem all that bad today when going down it.

Here is the ride info:

54 miles

Elevation:

minimum: -3 feet

maximum: 505 feet

Ascent: 2080 feet

Descent: -2060 feet

Somewhere around Kirkland there was a massive hill (see: mile 36). I went up most of the hill, found a gas station at what I thought was the top and waited for Alex. We refilled on water and started back on our way just to find that we weren't at the top. Sweet. Heres a picture of Alex right before the water stop.

Oh yeah, this is from my way through Red Square today. What's going on at UW? Bling Blang.

this new fangled techmolongy

lets see how alex's fancy thing works in rochesters...



So usually i just go down about 12 or so miles, cut over and up to scottsville, and get back to the apartment around 19.38 miles (approximately), but yesterday turned effin' glorious so i did something i wanted to do for a while... bike to avon.

before i continue, i'll say that i'm biking in the hilliest part of rochester i can find, and that being said, rochester has no hills at all.



Short run down on conditions, it was 60ish and sunny, i was wearing my bike shorts, manpris, long green socks (to simulate when i shave my legs for flying wheels and stp?), t-shirt and sweat shirt. within the first 3 miles i had to pull my sweatshirt sleeves up, and i was comfortable for the rest of the ride.

there was some really really nice green fields, a barilla plant(?) on one side of the river, and then death on the other side (metaphorically and visually). i got the wind on the way back, the crops were dead from... crop rotation? and worst of all by the time i got to scottsville this happened:



old dude wearing full leg lycra and a windbreaker passed me. this is the first time something like this has happened on a training ride. add this to the fact that about 5 miles earlier my ipod popped out of my pocket and now has some pretty narly scratches on it, this killed me. dude had an awesome cadence, and i managed to keep up with him the entire time afterwards, but it kind of made the case for being more of a spinner than i am (i'm still a pretty horrible masher).

of course there was something nice here, most of the time when i'm on a ride it's pretty damn lonely. even though this guy humiliated me and then shamed me for another 7-8 miles, it was nice because it felt like i was biking with somebody.

i want to go home

<3

Lake Washington loop - oops (61.6 mi)

So, it's probably a good idea to bike with a map.  Richard and I planned on biking around Lake Washington but overshot the north end a bit when we met up with a trio of riders riding in a pace line.  They were probably pushing 19-20 mph but we hung with them for about 7 or 8 mi.  Oh well, at least now we can say we've got a metric century under our belts.  We both rode with two water bottles.  One with water and one with Gator-Ade.  I think we stayed hydrated pretty well.  We were eating shot blocks and Lara Bars to manage our sugar levels.  They did not work so well.  After about 40-50 mi, our legs were in pain - not so much from exertion, but more from ammonia build-up due to our muscles running out of glycogen.  I've read that taking whey protein helps with this problem.  I definitely want to try that next time.  Hammer makes a product called Perpetuem that incorporates protein and electrolytes.  I will be picking some up from REI soon.  Other than the ammonia problem the ride went pretty well.  I didn't ever feel like I wasn't taking in enough calories.  Also, the hill at the end to get back up on Capitol Hill was murder.  I probably should have gone back to Montlake and attacked it from that side - it's a little more gradual - but no, I had to go up Madison.  Insanely steep.  Even with fresh legs it would have been hard.

cold cold

nuvi:

Overall Avg.: 14.3 mph
Moving Avg.: 15.7 mph
Distance: 45.8 miles
Total Time: 3:12
Moving Time: 2:54

So biking sick is okay... as long as it's in your head (the cold). Biking while it's cold out is a little more frustrating (30°F), but it's fine as long as it warms up.

I think for longer rides I'm going to wear my shorts under my manpris, because my ass does start to hurt after about 20 miles. Another thing I need to look at is my hands have been falling asleep. Hopefully this is just something that has to do with me being stretched out over my fixed, but we'll see :)

that's what she said... about post ride recooperation

i've always liked what Josh Tack over at "that's what she said about your bike". Since we're talking about training, i thought i'd link his article on post ride recooperation.

bike expo!

bike expo this weekend at magnuson park. tons of venders. also, registration for stp and flying wheels.

first training ride

statistically: okay
actually: sucked

nuvi is actually pretty good if you don't have a bike computer, this is what i got

Overall Avg.: 12.4 mph
Moving Avg.: 14.8 mph
Trip: 23.7 miles
Total Time: 1:58
Moving Time: 1:36

This is why it sucked


So we all know how wind is on a bike ride, you never realize it when it's at your back, but when you're biking into it you never know where it came from, and curse its very existence (and yours). Without further ado, this was my route:


View Larger Map

Long story short, it was really nice until the flat. I have a Soma Everwear on the rear, which means it has an extra 5mm of rubber on the tread. Despite that I got a flat that I realized near the golf course, and couldn't repair (wind kept knocking the bike over, Deep Vs suck for getting the tire out when it's windy and frustrating, etc. etc.) so I just shot some CO2 in there, and it seemed to be okay for the rest of the ride (though I still wobbled a little bit).

Rochester isn't really hilly, though looking at the time and how my legs felt going up the one hill at the end made me realize I have a long ways to go to finishing STP in one day.

MY whip

While in Rochester for the foreseeable future I'll be training on my fixed gear I built up a couple years ago. Vitals: 48-15 gearing, it's a long bike, 165mm cranks and there's usually a good amount of wind.

I don't think the individual components of the bike are that important at this point, though I do have pictures of most of them if you're interested.

my whip

This blog will document three burly dude's journeys on their way to riding one epic bike ride from Seattle Washington to Portland Oregon.

I guess I should take my ride into the shop for a full tune-up.