Pretty good day of cycling. I hit my power (watts) goals on my interval workout and had a drama free ride with the Gliders afterwards. Those Gliders were amazed at my lack of leg warmers in 38 degree weather. Earlier I had been wearing a jacket, leg warmers and my hardcore gloves while doing the intervals. By the time the group ride happened I was all warmed up and my only concession to the cold was my Nitto wool jersey. Those guys overdress anyway. They show up with arm warmers for 60 degree weather.

The group ride itself was pretty laid back. The Ride Captain warmed in advance not to go to fast on the hills or he would be dropped. Overall I felt better than I had in a couple of weeks. I think a few days off the bike last week and eating a lot of Christmas food definitely helped. Last night (Tuesday) V and I rode downtown to the Top and Karma Cream. It was cold but all right. Saw Wade down there. He invited us to some New Years Eve party his band is playing at some mansion on a private island. I need to get one of those.

Woke up early to get in my 3 minute interval work out before the Glider ride. Basically I do a 3 minute burst of harder riding followed by 2 minutes rest then repeat. Last week I did this 3 times, this week I bumped it up to 4. I must say I have been disappointed with my performance. Furthermore I have been feeling generally fatigued on the bike the last 3 weeks.  My legs don't have the snap they normally do. I probably need to back off some and let my body rest over Christmas.

Anyway I did the intervals and mosied  over to the Glider meet up. It was a crazy huge group. We rode out with Boss Hogg leading the way. He had some friend behind him and they were talking about TV shows and their children. The friend was trying to get Boss Hogg to watch Walking Dead and Hell on Wheels. Let me just interject that Walking Dead is the zombie show. It started off kind of cool but has deteriorated into a tiresome soap opera that doesn't feature enough brain eating zombies. And don't tell me that the show is supposed to be a metaphor for the breakdown of post industrial society or whatever. I work retail 8+ hours a day and I don't watch TV to listen to some dopes make ridiculous decisions and moan about their feelings.

So  we turn onto CR 241 and someone in the back promptly gets a flat. Now I am standing there listening to San Diego and 2 others talk about professional football for 10 minutes. Wonderful. For some reason Duetsche Bank and the Dopple-keet decide to ride up the road a ways. Finally we start up again. San Diego and I are in the front. San Diego is giving me all these instructions, like "Ok gradually ease up the pace." Etc. Do I need this? I'm glad that I give off this aura of approachability that people feel so comfortable freely dispensing riding advice and constructive criticism. Meanwhile other people gradually drift off to the side after pulling at the front instead of signaling that they are done so I have to guess what their intentions are and also yell "All clear!" at intersections (which is a big no-no according to the GCC website because everyone is supposed to check for themselves). Of course no one says boo to these people. But any random bike-hole has no problem stepping to me.

We drop back and people are chatting it up. The regulars by this point know better than to strike up small talk conversation with me so I'm just coasting along enjoying the silence. I know I sound like a jerk but Cheese and Rice, Boss Hogg's buddy is back their babbling about Matchbox 20 and the Wallflowers and the girls he was dating when the albums came out and how he is transported back in time whenever he hears one of those songs now. Seriously, that conversation was an aural Ebola virus gnawing away at my sanity.

So now we are heading towards Chestnut hill. There is a tree trimming truck blocking the road. We ascend and I don't go all out. For one my legs are kind of tired. Boss Hogg, Cheese and Rice (yes, I am officially calling him Cheese and Rice as of this moment) and 2 other dudes all beat me up the hill. Let me also point out that primarily due to the flat tire stop, some other random dudes joined the ride in progress. So this ride is inexplicably gaining members as it goes on. It's like the Thriller video where more monsters and ghouls keep climbing out of graves and start dancing.

We are now heading back on CR 241. This flash of yellow catches my peripheral vision. I realize that my brand new Road ID bracelet has come off and is lying on the ground back there. Oh for fuck's sake. Really? I just got that thing and it comes off after one ride? I could go back and get it,, but I'm like screw it.

Anyway we get on Millhopper road. Some other dude is leading up the I-75 hill. Afterward I am up. I go up a little incline, then downhill, then start up the last hill. I'm getting tired and I stand up out of the saddle. As I do Cheese and Rice leads most of the riders around me and I get dropped. It's tough when someone attacks when you're in the front going uphill right after a downhill. I was expending a lot of energy pedaling down the hill while they were just chilling in the draft. When he made his move I didn't have the energy or the will to respond. It sucked because Duetsche Bank and friends all followed and left me in the dust. Eventually 3 other dudes lead by Skeletor caught me and I finished dead ass last. Except for the Ride Captain and the Parakeet, who knows where they were.

So I'm kind of in a transition period with the cycling. Trying to switch up my training to be ready for shorter time trials in the spring. I'm kind of struggling right now with a somewhat new routine and probably trying to do too much. My ego is a little bruised from getting thumped today, but they were the better riders. Nothing I can do but train smart and stay focused on my goal of improving my time trial  rather than get distracted by treating the group ride like a race.

Later I drove back out and found the ID bracelet.

Did my 15k loop today. Came up short in the watts and speed department. Maybe I overreached last week in my training. I've been feeling suboptimal biking since last Friday. Maybe those intervals + Glider ride. Wednesdays take too much out of me.

I need to go out to Bronson to scope out the actual loop where I'll be doing the Cycling Club time trial. Today I was forcing myself to stay seated going up the hills on the Millhopper loop and it wasn't pretty.

In other news I'd like to say my yellow Ortlieb pannier bags continue to delight me. They are large and sturdy and don't get caught in the spokes or bounce around. Also I ordered an ID bracelet to wear in case I'm in an accident. It arrived today.

Good ride to and from work. I took it easy. Meditated on pedaling. Got home around 10:45PM. Ate some chili that V made along with 2 of her chocolate chip cookie squares mixed in with ice cream.

Had a sweet ride with the CoF last Saturday. The ride into work Sunday AM was one of the coldest ones this winter, but it wasn't too bad- right at 40 degrees. Saturday afternoon was ridiculous. I hit every frippin traffic light. Adding insult to injury I put my foot down in an ant hill and the last half of the ride I was swatting madly at my ankle while being devoured by the little buggers.

Found a cool website that converts watts generated during cycling into expected velocity.
http://www.kreuzotter.de/english/espeed.htm

Monday (tomorrow) I will attempt to improve upon my 15K solo time trial of last week

I ride to forget today on the Racetrack loop. I was feeling tired and sluggish. Then about 1/4 of the way in one of my eyeglass lenses fell out of the frame. I had to ride the rest of the way without glasses which was less than ideal but not too bad. It did however kill my remaining motivation and the final hour or so I was just going through the motions.

Noticed some new noise each time I pedal. It's a clacking sound each time I turn the cranks. Seems like I just had the same thing fixed a couple of months ago. This is a noisy bike.

Did a pre-Glider interval workout today before the group ride. My legs were already sore from some new exercises I did on Monday so I was in no mood to push the pace during the group ride.

There is one guy, I'll call Duetsche Bank who has been showing up the last few weeks. He is involved with the Dopple-keet, who as long time readers of this blog know is the Dopple-ganger of the Parakeet. Dopple-keet by the  way was wearing this cycleware that said "Vicious" all over them in Sex Pistols font and colors.

http://viciousvelo.blogspot.com/2010/12/heres-our-jersey-will-anyone-notice-us.html

Anyway Duetsche Bank was talking to Skeletor when we were in the double paceline. He was going on about how he hadn't been riding as much lately and last week he was "popped off" the ride on the I-75 overpass. This surprised him because no one in that group should have been able to drop him like that. I was eavesdropping and that amused me because I was the one who was pushing it on that hill and when I was done he was no where in sight. In his mind it wasn't because I got the better of him at that point in time but rather that he wasn't in shape. Later in the ride some guy was saying that he was riding comfortably at the moment but he didn't know how fast things would get down 53rd ave in the homestretch. Duestche Bank responded not to worry because there wasn't anybody fast in the group. This guy is such a tool.

I've warmed up to Boss Hogg some over the past month or so. I guess Duetsche Bank will be my new nemesis. Oh and nothing special happened in the homestretch. We traded off pulls of 3 minutes or so going around 24-26mph with the help of a little tailwind.

Monday decided to do an abbreviated version of the Millhopper loop. I have decided to train for the local monthly 15k time trial that the cycling club starts in the spring.

Anyway it was windy, rainy and bleak.  My watts were a little under where I would have liked them to be (218W) but it was ok. Had problems with the shifters. I would try to go down a gear and nothing would happen. I would try again and drop 2 gears. It was annoying. When I came home I tried fiddling with them per some suggestions Paul made a few weeks ago.

So each Monday I plan to ride 15K and see how I do. I may change courses since Millhopper is hillier than the course the cycling club uses. We'll see. 

Blustery day on the Racetrack loop. Averaged 196 watts which is a solid effort for me. Got hung up coming and going on 441. The Sempre was making some noises. I need to have Bikes and More give it the once over. I noticed some back wheel rub on the brakes before starting the ride. I adjusted the brakes and every thing seemed ok. Then the noises started up again later. Not sure what's going on.

Looking forward to a long overdue Hawthorne trail ride with the Cyclist on Fire tomorrow!

Did my intervals to and from work yesterday. I've been making some of them a little longer, stretching into 1:30-2 minutes. The whole workout is kind of a crap shoot each Thursday. I'm typically not warmed up or awake when I start in the morning. Then there are random obstacles that can slow me down. So it's not very precise. I had to go out into traffic around 34th and SW 2nd Ave to blast around another biker. Still it is a very time effective way to get a little training in.

Last night V and I  rode bikes down to the Top. Afterward we went to Volta for the first time and had hot chocolate. It was really good. Like they melted a bunch of pure chocolate in there. It’s a cold night around 50 degrees. I was wearing one of the retro bike jerseys I bought from 8^th ave bike shop and coffee house Wednesday.

After pondering last week if I should continue on with the Glider Wednesday ride I decided to suit up this morning as I had no better alternate plan. At first it looked like it was just going to be me, the Ride Captain and one other dude. Then at the last minute Boss Hogg, San Diego, Skeletor and this other dude I don't have  a cool nickname for yet appeared.

Anyway true to form  Hogg was hogging it up for most of the ride. I tip my hat to him, the guy is a beast. In the second half of the ride Hogg and I are at the front in the double paceline. Anyone who knows me knows that in that scenario I always wait for the other dude to say they are ready to fall back. So we are riding and riding. We ride a long time together at the front, not so much as saying boo to each other. After a while I look back and realize that once again we have dropped many of the other riders. It's not like we are going crazy fast. I don't know why this happens.So we slow down to let the other people catch up and gradually ease the pace back up.

At this point however we are in front of Chestnut Hill, which if you recall is a pretty steep hill for this area. I must confess I have always wondered how I would match up against Boss Hogg going up this hill. On the one hand he is a bigger dude with a lot of beef on his legs to generate power. On the other hand I have a wiry build and have less than 150 lbs for gravity to pull on when going up inclines.

So this is it. Hogg and I are up front and the hill is right there. I am a little tentative at first and stay seated instead of going on an all out attack. I feel a little hesitant because we had dropped all those riders and they just got back on. Now they are about to get dropped again. I wasn't sure what the etiquette is and as we all know group biking etiquette is not my strong point. Anyway we are halfway up and the grind of the incline starts to kick in. Hogg pulls away a little so I stand out of the saddle for more power. We crest the hill and I am a few feet behind him.

It's interesting that some people like Boss Hogg and the Dad stay seated virtually the whole ride whereas if I want to maximize a climb or a sprint I have to stand.

So several minuted later we are coming back on Millhopper road. I take the lead a little before the I-75 hill. Once at the hill I downshift a gear and immediately stand up and take it over 400 watts. I crest the hill and sit down for a brief respite, then out of the saddle again for the next brief incline. I look in the Italian Bike mirror and I have opened up a significant gap.

Now it's just a matter of how long I can stay in front until someone catches me. I'm hurting but I get out of the saddle again to build up some speed on a decline before the final hill. I sit down and get low to try to build up some more speed. At this point Skeletor and Boss Hogg have caught up. On the last hill I get out of the saddle again and am cranking it for all I've got. I'm pretty gassed but I keep pounding it out of the saddle until I reach this bike lane sign, which is what I normally do on my Monday Millhopper solo ride. 

I give up the lead and put in an extra burst to reattach to what is now 2 other riders. Skeletor and Hogg each do 1-2 minute pulls and I am back up. At this point I notice that I am close to setting a new 10 minute watts record. I am kind of exhausted and need whatever motivation I can find. I need to pedal over 240 watts for the next 2:30 minutes or so. It's tough but I crank it out averaging 24 mph with the help of a little tailwind. When I give up the front Skeletor is gone and it's just me and Hogg. Again I put in an extra burst to reattach. I am right on his wheel to maximize the draft. We are only 2 miles away from the finish but he is pulling away and I am too drained to keep up. 

All in all a pretty good ride. Some might say I should have pulled less at the front on the way back in on Millhopper and saved my strength for the final push. I don't know. I'd rather go harder earlier and train on getting better at hanging on at the very end. Besides I set a sick ass new 10 minutes watts record (and a 3 and 4 minute mark as well) and totally cranked it on some hills. 

Millhopper loop today. Legs felt a little fatigued at first but I loosened up and had a good ride. I'm kind of in a quandary as to what to do next in terms of cycling. I was trying to figure out what direction I wanted to take my training in and I realized that I'm not even sure what my goals are.

Not gonna lie, the second half of today's solo ride was a grind. I rode out to Alachua, and like Bruce I took a wrong turn and I just kept going. I wasn't lost, I just wasn't on the path I wanted to be on. The pavement was rough, the cars were frequent and there was no bike lane or shoulder. The last hour and change was tough. It was windy and my legs were fried, partially from my Racetrack ride yesterday and partially from starting to hard on the first half of the ride today.

About 43 miles all told. Rode back in from Alachua on 441. Those people that compete in stage races and have to perform at a high level day after day are beasts.

Halfway through the ride a tried Paul's favorite honey gel. It tasted like honey.

Did my Racetrack loop today. In an effort to have more energy during the second half of the ride I took an apple- cinnamon energy gel with me to consume at the halfway point. I felt like a badass when the time came- ripping it open with my teeth and slurping it down. It actually tasted pretty good. Hard to say of it helped or not. I still faded some in the second half.

Yesterday I did my intervals during my commute. I've made some of them longer, stretching into the 2 minute range. Going up the hill on 34th Ave by Westwood there was some little kid standing right in my path as I was barreling up. He was just standing there staring off into oblivion. I'm frantically screaming, "Bike! Bike! Kid there is a bike!" I had to hit the brakes. He never even looked over. Oh well.

Glider ride today. We did the loop through Alachua today. It was about 40 degrees and my hands and feet were suffering. Within a couple of minutes The Semi ran over an exacto knife blade which totally lacerated his tire. He was done for the ride and had to call his wife to pick him up. The tire itself had a big gash in it. Boss Hogg had showed up for the first time in weeks and preceded to pull at the front for the first 20 minutes. Classic Boss Hogg. It was just as well because the only other people were the Parakeet, the Ride Captain and  2 B-17 riders from a couple of weeks ago.

Turning north on to 241 there was a decent headwind. The dude (B-17er) in front was struggling, going 16mph. After he dropped back I sped it up some. I was doing over 300 watts for a couple of minutes going over hills into the wind. A bunch of riders were dropped. And by dropped I mean they were way far away. I couldn't even see them when I turned around. How did this happen in the span of a few minutes?

It's hard to gauge how fast to go into a headwind because as the lead rider I am working a lot harder than the others but they are exposed to it too. Also it doesn't help that I have a small frame and lean way over tucked down by the drops so the person behind me doesn't get much shielding. Anyway after the group reconstituted it was Boss Hogg and I taking turns leading the rest of the way.

My other rides of the past week were solid efforts. No records set or anything but no problems. I did my usual routes, Millhopper, Hawthorne and Racetrack. Rode the Hawthorne trail solo. I didn't see a soul for the first hour on the trail. Still working on getting my cadence back up to where it was before a started riding in harder gears.

This weekend Virginia and I biked  some on the Hawthorne trail as well as downtown to eat, which was something we hadn't done in a while.

December starts tomorrow so I'll restart my monthly assault on all my power records. I never did best my 5 sec mark from October but I nailed all the other ones.

Practiced changing my tire today. It took a little longer than I would have liked but I'll try it again tomorrow.

It was raining this morning (Wednesday) but it had pretty much cleared up by the time of the Glider ride. I dutifully went down to the meetup at 8:30 but no one showed. There hadn't been a cancellation notice posted online so I guess it was just assumed.

I decided to take advantage of the situation and do an all out 20 minute ride. There is this thing in power meter cycling where you are supposed to periodically measure your watts going all out for 20 minutes. Then that gets plugged in to a formula which determines how hard your future workouts should be. I don't really adhere to that very strictly but I hadn't done the test in 10 months so I figured I'd go for it and see how much I had improved. I choose to ride north on 441 so I could avoid lights and turns.

I miscalculated a little and had to slow down at one point due to traffic and road debris, but it was minor. My glasses were also gunked up with water drops. I wound up with a power reading of 234 which was an improvement over the 208 I did last January.

On the way back I tried to tackle my 5 second power mark but I didn't get close. I don't know how I'm going to approach that one. It's kind of frustrating. Later in the afternoon I tried again on a hill by my house, still no luck. 

It's my anniversary this weekend and I'm writing this Sunday morning from St Augustine. Yesterday I made a last minute decision to ride the Hawthorne trail early before we left. I set my sights on setting new power marks for the 3,4 and 5 minute time frames. I still felt tired from the previous day's Racetrack ride. I entered the trail head at 7:30 and there weren't many other people around. Going up the 2nd hill I tried to assault my 5 second best for watts but I came up short.

I decided that once I was out of the Hammock I would go for the other power records. So I started cranking it and things were going well. The last  3 minutes were tough.  I was lightheaded and my heart was pounding.  I made it though.

                                                             Click image to enlarge.

I made 2 other attempts at the 5 second best but the closest I came was 783w.

I saw several deer. Also there were some of the largest cycling contingents I've ever witnessed on the trail. One was this massive group of kids chaperoned by a few adults. Later a really large group of faster adult riders going the opposite direction rode by when I was about 2 miles from the exit. I think big groups of people going relatively fast on this trail presents a safety hazard and freaks out the more casual exercisers.

I stopped at the 8th ave Bike and Coffee House. I blazed in on the Sempre in full regalia with the Molteni wool jersey and scored a pumpkin muffin.

While there I saw this bike
 


There was also a whole rack of sweet ass retro jerseys I'll have to check out later.

Afterward I went by Bikes and More and spoke to Paul about many things such as batteries, gloves, and God versus Christmas. I think if Paul was a cult leader I would join his cult. Maybe I already have. Note to self: start side project called God versus Christmas.