I am reaching the end of my week off of the bike. Granted, I have still logged in about 25 miles in group rides that I have had to lead. But still, for me this week has been all about relaxing, sleeping, and doing dishes, laundry, cleaning my apartment...!?! Wait a sec? This was supposed to be a week off. No waking up earlier than I had to, no staying up later than I wanted to, no standing for prolonged periods of time outside of work. What the heck happened.
It turns out, when you live on your own and take care of yourself and your home, you are working all the freaking time. I always thought that the adults (mature adults with houses, pets, kids, and significant others) where complaining about nothing when I would ask how their day off was. Alas, it is not so.
There is one upside to this. As I sit here typing this entry, I can smell fresh cracked pepper, rosemary, and olive oil wafting from my kitchen as I bake chicken and make some Alfredo. At least I still have time to sit back, read a book, drink my glass of white, and soak in the smell.
Too bad I will need to do dishes again in the morning.
18 August 2010
13 August 2010
Top 5 Worst Times Riding
Everyone has bad days on a bike. For some people it means struggling up a climb. For others it means loosing the Tour de France. Either way it sucks. In this post I am going to reflect on five of my worst moments on a bike.
5) Endless Headwind- A few years back I was competing in the PLT Time Trial series in Virginia Beach, I encountered a bizar, natural phenomena: the endless headwind. The PLT course is a lollipop- head strait out, make a loop, head strait back in. And the entire time I had a headwind. Impossible you say? Not according to every other racer there that day. All of our times where 2 and 3 minutes off.
4) False Flat of Death (aka Vail Pass)- The Triple Bypass takes riders over three Colorado passes in 120 miles in one day. And while Vail Pass (10,560 ft) was nothing compared to Loveland Pass (11,930 ft) it was by far the hardest of the day. It seemed like Jared and I fought up that climb for half of the ride. I think the only guy who enjoyed the climb was the one crazy enough to ride with a cooler of beer in a trailer.
3) My First Crit- A week after my first Wintergreen Ascent, I attempted my first criterium. For the three days before I had been hiding a cold from parents so that I could race. It turns out that was a bad idea. By the end of the race I was not only in dead last, about 5 laps back, but I was also alternating between fever and chills and had difficulties clipping out once I completed my last horrific lap. Funny thing is, I received a third place medal about two weeks later for my age group.
2) Today- This morning's ride was supposed to be a nice little outing. Unfortunately at mile 25 I hit the wall. For the third time in as many rides. The next 15 miles proceeded to push me to the limit of sanity (and humiliation). What really sucked was that Matt was having a bad day as well. I will finish with a little more on this later.
1) Cowbell Challenge 12 Hour Solo- On my first attempt at an endurance race I was greeted by 100 degree heat, a lack of water at aid stations, and a complete lack of preparedness. That and a random root caused my to abandon my first (and so far last) race. To add insult to injury (said root went into right knee forcing me to walk 4 miles back to the Start/Finish), my Explorer's AC was not working on the 4 hour trip home. And you all know how I get when I am overheated.
Back to today's ride. It made me realize something quite important about my training so far this year. I have been going hard for too long it seems. So this next week I am going to take a break. I will commute to work (some days), lead a group ride, and maybe hit the trails for an hour or so. But I am not going to go out with a specific workout or ride time in my head. I am just going to have fun and ride when and if I feel like it.
Enjoy the sleep...
5) Endless Headwind- A few years back I was competing in the PLT Time Trial series in Virginia Beach, I encountered a bizar, natural phenomena: the endless headwind. The PLT course is a lollipop- head strait out, make a loop, head strait back in. And the entire time I had a headwind. Impossible you say? Not according to every other racer there that day. All of our times where 2 and 3 minutes off.
4) False Flat of Death (aka Vail Pass)- The Triple Bypass takes riders over three Colorado passes in 120 miles in one day. And while Vail Pass (10,560 ft) was nothing compared to Loveland Pass (11,930 ft) it was by far the hardest of the day. It seemed like Jared and I fought up that climb for half of the ride. I think the only guy who enjoyed the climb was the one crazy enough to ride with a cooler of beer in a trailer.
3) My First Crit- A week after my first Wintergreen Ascent, I attempted my first criterium. For the three days before I had been hiding a cold from parents so that I could race. It turns out that was a bad idea. By the end of the race I was not only in dead last, about 5 laps back, but I was also alternating between fever and chills and had difficulties clipping out once I completed my last horrific lap. Funny thing is, I received a third place medal about two weeks later for my age group.
2) Today- This morning's ride was supposed to be a nice little outing. Unfortunately at mile 25 I hit the wall. For the third time in as many rides. The next 15 miles proceeded to push me to the limit of sanity (and humiliation). What really sucked was that Matt was having a bad day as well. I will finish with a little more on this later.
1) Cowbell Challenge 12 Hour Solo- On my first attempt at an endurance race I was greeted by 100 degree heat, a lack of water at aid stations, and a complete lack of preparedness. That and a random root caused my to abandon my first (and so far last) race. To add insult to injury (said root went into right knee forcing me to walk 4 miles back to the Start/Finish), my Explorer's AC was not working on the 4 hour trip home. And you all know how I get when I am overheated.
Back to today's ride. It made me realize something quite important about my training so far this year. I have been going hard for too long it seems. So this next week I am going to take a break. I will commute to work (some days), lead a group ride, and maybe hit the trails for an hour or so. But I am not going to go out with a specific workout or ride time in my head. I am just going to have fun and ride when and if I feel like it.
Enjoy the sleep...
05 August 2010
White Bar Tape
I've said it many times. I will never use white bar tape on my road bike. I am a mechanic. Therefore my hands are always greasy, no matter how many times I wash them with GoJo (citrus/pumice based hand cleaner). The pink grips on my mountain bike are a stretch. I really need to spay them down to bring them back to life.
Back to the white bar tape. I wrapped my handlebars last night. With white. I can explain. Kinda. My old black Cinelli tape was at the end of its life (no longer sporting the cool "C" logos). A customer asked us to replace his white bar tape with fresh black bar tape. I completed the work order. I saved the tape. I now have fresh (o.k. slightly used) white Bontrager tape on my S Works (gasp... the B on the S bike!).
So this brings me to the meat of this post... why is it a faux paux to put say Bontrager (a Trek company) parts on a Specialized or Cannondale and vice-versa. I am now running Bontrager tape and tires on my Specialized and Cannondale respectively. I have long run Specialized tires on my most of my bikes. Yet I know people who refuse to throw a Specialized saddle on a Trek (ok... I might be one of those too if I can find a decent saddle from someone else). But really why?
All of the bikes I ride have a large assortment of mix-matched parts. Most of these parts, regardless of label, come from the same factory. The only people who should really worry about whether or not their bikes have matching parts are the professional riders who get paid to ride certain parts. Then they should make sure their labels match. But for me, a lowly Cat 5 and 3 racer (road and mountain... I know: confusing as hell) who cares? So this is my message to all of you who pay dearly to match brands... get a life. And does anyone know of a saddle that does not say "Specialized" that rides like a Toupe?
Back to the white bar tape. I wrapped my handlebars last night. With white. I can explain. Kinda. My old black Cinelli tape was at the end of its life (no longer sporting the cool "C" logos). A customer asked us to replace his white bar tape with fresh black bar tape. I completed the work order. I saved the tape. I now have fresh (o.k. slightly used) white Bontrager tape on my S Works (gasp... the B on the S bike!).
So this brings me to the meat of this post... why is it a faux paux to put say Bontrager (a Trek company) parts on a Specialized or Cannondale and vice-versa. I am now running Bontrager tape and tires on my Specialized and Cannondale respectively. I have long run Specialized tires on my most of my bikes. Yet I know people who refuse to throw a Specialized saddle on a Trek (ok... I might be one of those too if I can find a decent saddle from someone else). But really why?
All of the bikes I ride have a large assortment of mix-matched parts. Most of these parts, regardless of label, come from the same factory. The only people who should really worry about whether or not their bikes have matching parts are the professional riders who get paid to ride certain parts. Then they should make sure their labels match. But for me, a lowly Cat 5 and 3 racer (road and mountain... I know: confusing as hell) who cares? So this is my message to all of you who pay dearly to match brands... get a life. And does anyone know of a saddle that does not say "Specialized" that rides like a Toupe?
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