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.