15K

Drove out to Brooker again today to do my 15K loop. I wanted to better my time from last week. It is a great stretch of road. Pretty much deserted. Debris free. The road is very smooth. I felt like I was going faster than last week. I punched it out of the saddle going over the hills. I did the narrow turn around at the halfway point with a little more confidence. The thing is at the end of the ride I had only bettered my time by a measly 2 seconds. Which I guess is better than getting worse, but still. So I need to average at least 21mph for the course. Right now I stand at 20.4 which is not so good. Why am I doing this again?
Big time ride with the CoF this Saturday. Hot chocolate was consumed. There was a moment of truth when we contemplated turning around early due to 30 degree bone freezing temp. We soldiered on and crushed it.

Downtown

Rode downtown with V last night. Someone in a van honked at us on the little road that runs through GHS. They received a hearty return volley from the air horn. Saw this film Melancholia at the Hipp. I felt ill during the movie due to lack of food and all the jerky hand held camera work. Biking out in the night air afterward helped me feel better.

Still Raining, Still Dreaming

Wednesday- after a false start due to the ultimately unfounded fear of precipitation I embarked on my Glider-less ride. Remember that My Bloody Valentine EP "Glider"? That was a pretty good one.

Anyway I started out with my  3minute intervals x 4. My goal was to do them all at 260 watts and I did it. My legs were burning, I was huffing and puffing and my heart rate was near my max but that's the point right. Next week I'll go for 265 watts.

After the intervals I did my 30 mile Racetrack loop. My pace was significantly more casual than what I do on Fridays. Mainly because I was tired from the intervals. I threw in some 5 minute periods of harder riding (220 watts for those of you keeping score at home) just to mimic the group dynamic of when I take a turn pulling at the front.

The wind was absurd. 18mph according to the weather channel, but there were gusts where it was well over 20. My front wheel was getting knocked around quite a bit. There were times when I was just going 12 mph. I didn't much worry about it though. I just lowered the gear and kept the watts steady. At home I did some other exercises (chin ups, dips, step ups) and called it a day. I was pretty wiped and I still had to drive down to Ocala for this CPR recertification class

So dipping into this week's mailbag, I have a request to post a picture of my bikes. The one on the left is a 1955 Schwinn Tiger that belongs to my wife. It is rideable, but is awaiting some much needed TLC. The middle is the Sempre who despite an overinflated sense of importance ("born for performance" indeed) I have grown to love. Finally the Cortina is my workhorse commuter bike. Bianchi should have named it the Ashford and Simpson because it's solid as a rock.

Random notes

Today marked the triumphant return of Small Kid Huge Backpack (SKHB). For my newer readers let me explain. SKHB was this little kid with a preposterously oversized backpack overloaded with massive textbooks. The cumulative weight of which caused him to hunch over like a decrepit old man. He wore a perpetual scowl. I sleuthed that he attends Cornerstone Academy which is a Christian school by my house. He has been MIA for a while but this morning there he was, a little older and taller. Still with a giant backpack, slouching from the oppressive poundage. He looked as displeased as ever.

Hardcore fans of the Lone Biker blog will appreciate this deep cut. I have recently seen the shoegaze vampire boy that I mentioned last year waiting at his bus stop on 34th just north of University Ave. We have a thing were we subtly nod to each other. He seems to have put on a little weight and appears less pale and wane so I my need to come up with a new nickname.

Monday night biking home I witnessed a college age gentleman walk out of his house on 34th and urinate in his front yard. What is it with public urination lately? Was the backyard the designated spot for going number two?

When I came into work this morning Manic Monday was playing on the muzak. I used to imagine when they sing "He tells me in his bedroom voice/ C'mon honey, let's go make some noise" that it was Kim Gordon singing about Thurston. Like that was their code for getting it on except half the time they'd just go into the bedroom and wind up making actual noise with screaming feedback and kinky alternate tunings. Then I was sad thinking about how Kim and Thurston broke up and if they could break up what possible hope do the rest of us have?

Checking the cycling club list serve I see that the Glider ride captain has canceled tomorrow's ride because it might rain. He canceled last week's ride because it was too cold. One of the Gliders actually said when it's below freezing with the wind from cycling "it feels like 2 degrees." I thought to myself  "How would you like 2-grease deez nutz 'cause I'm going biking." Needless to say I'll figure out a way to ride tomorrow.

Hopefully I'll be riding with the CoF this Saturday. Last weekend one of the Sunrisers said he hadn't seen me before and wondered what I usually biked on Saturday. I told him I normally ride with one of the Netherlands' "leading lights" whose Nom De Bike is the Cyclist on Fire. He either was impressed or thought I was totally insane. Either way he left me alone for the rest of the ride.

Brooker

Drove a half hour out to Brooker where the site of the Gainesville Cycling Club time trial is held. The 15K loop was actually really nice. There is no bike lane but there was no traffic. It's an out and back loop through this rural neighborhood with a couple of brief hills. The road was smooth. I averaged 20.4 mph and 220 watts.

The downside is it takes so long to get out there so it's an extra hour out of my day. Also if anything happens to me it would be hard for anyone I know to find me. Still I think I'll make it my Monday loop for now. My immediate goal is to average 21mph.

Oh and there were inmates working on the road as well which made my a little nervous being so secluded but it was all right.

Sunrisers

With the Cyclist on Fire out of town I opted to ride with the Sunrisers Saturday morning. Regular readers of this blog are well-acquainted with my former arch-nemesis, Boss Hogg. The Sunrisers are Boss Hogg's cycling group. So all the local cycling groups, like classic Mastodon albums have a concept. The idea behind the Sunrisers is they start as early as safely possible (aka sunrise-7:30 AM currently), they ride a 39 mile loop with no stops or breaks so the ride is over by 9:30.  That appeals to me. I'm not one of those people whose social calendar revolves around riding on the back county roads babbling about tires and gloves with some dopes for 5 hours.

The beginning of the ride was unremarkable. They were riding at the same pace as the Gliders. Publix was there and he was  huffing and puffing- not faring well for some reason. About 40 minutes into the ride one guy takes off sprinting  and the group splinters. I speed up some but don't really give chase. Anyway a few minutes later up at the next intersection of county roads everyone is stopped and 4 dudes have their pants pulled down taking leaks. Seriously?  Did they not pee before they left home? So much for the "no breaks" Sunrisers because now we are just standing there. They should change their name to the Urinators and get sponsored by Flomax.

This is where it gets weirder. So we start up again. I start pedaling and there is another dude by me. The rest of the group never catches up. I don't know what is going on. I'm riding fairly slowly, the other dude starts to speed up. I let him go and finally I give up trying to figure out what is happening with the other rider and just go up to my normal speed.

It is foggy and damp. Road spray is kicking up onto my Molteni wool jersey which doesn't thrill me. I try to catch the other dude in front of me but I can't make up any ground on him. So I wound up riding solo for over half the ride. Amusingly, 3 riders from the group catch me at the very end with like 2 minutes to go. These guys appear to be better riders than me. They are younger and fitter than the Gliders. I assume that someone had a mechanical problem that they all stopped to help or perhaps they needed to stop and pee several more times.

Back at the Chevron station I overhear that someone  lost something and they had been looking for it. For what it's worth I set a new personal 2 hour watts record.

The Glider ride was canceled today due to the cold. I waited until noon and did my 4 x 3 minute intervals and called it a day. I had entertained notions of doing a longer solo ride afterward but my feet were numb and frozen. The intervals went fairly well. I few more watts than last week. I need to work on my aerodynamic position because I should be going faster based on the watts I'm putting out. The ride was hard. I was breathing heavy and my legs were burning.

Later I went to Bikes and More to get a replacement light for V. I hit up Keith for some tips on how to make a fast U-turn on a bike since that will come up during the out and back time trial I plan on doing.

Later I drove out to Brooker to scope out the time trial course. I'll probably start riding it for practice. It's 30 minutes away though which kind of sucks.