Pictures from Texas at Easter

I finally got around to downloading the pictures from my camera, including these from that ice event in Texas over Easter weekend.

Increasing My Endurance

I'm worried I'm not really in the kind of shape I need to be in to be competitive in my class (singlespeed or expert, depending on the race). Circumstances have somewhat kept me off the bike; I also just haven't been as dedicated to putting in the time, truthfully. The weather hasn't helped, but that would be true for everyone. Hopefully this year, instead of waning as the season wears on, I'll get stronger and finish at my peak.

In any case, I have three races in the next four weeks staring me in the face. Greenbrier, 12 hours of Lodi, and 24 hours of Conyers. Although, I don't think anyone has registered for Conyers yet, and I'm therefore not on a team, so it's not a sure thing I'll be going. Sunday I had the day free to do any kind of training I wanted. My first thought was to go around Greenbrier as many times as I could as race prep. But my biggest worry is my endurance. My skills have improved this year over last, no worries there. The most sensible training was therefore a long, hard road ride.

After spending a couple hours cleaning up the bottom bracket of my road bike and getting everything back together, I drove to Frederick to ride "Catoctin Climber" from "Scott and Jim's Favorite Bike Rides" (ride number 7). This is a 46 mile ride with about 5,000 feet of climbing, and the hardest in the book according to Scott and Jim. It was a late start; I clipped in at about 1:30 PM and started down the road, thinking, "This is going to hurt. This is going to be painful." But, that's what it will take if I'm to finish a 100 mile mountain bike race, or 4 to 5 laps in a 12 or 24 hour race. The first climb did hurt, coming as it did immediately at the start. But the hardest climb, Harp Hill (the steepest section of road I've ever ridden on my road bike) was just that. Hard. I wouldn't say it really hurt. The most tortuous part of the ride was the last 7 miles or so, when my lack of endurance was really showing. I just had nothing in the tank. It wasn't helping that I was dehydrated and my stomach was wigging out. Getting hydration, food, and stomach right has always been the hardest part of any long ride for me. The best part of the ride was after turning into Catoctin Mountain Park. No cars, little wind, it was a bit of uphill, and quiet like I haven't heard in too, too long. That section was too short to bring a lasting peace, but it was good to catch a glimpse. It makes me realize I haven't been on a backpacking trip in much too long. I did get chased by a menacing looking black dog on, I think Harmony road, the one before Harp Hill. He came from out of nowhere; never barked, though I caught snatches of a snarl as I managed to outrun him, having worked up some speed at that point.

So it was I finished the ride almost exactly 3 1/2 hours after starting, for an average of 13.4 mph (for all of you with calculators, I sneaked in an extra mile after I took a wrong turn -- I was tired). Pretty darn slow. Well, it's a start to increasing my endurance.

A Good Ride After Work

2 hours and 20 minutes of solid riding at Patapsco deserves a post-ride beer. I was flowing well, and my legs were with me for the entire ride. I may be in basic shape for Greenbrier after all. Not podium shape, but good enough to at least finish.

I suppose the weather will keep me in tomorrow. A good thing, since I haven't done my Taxes yet and I won't make any progress tonight. It will be painful I'm sure.

Another pic

The camera phone really doesn't take very good pictures, but you can get a sense of what Easter in Texas was like this year.

More pics from my trip to texas.

A New Bike?

I've recently been on a quest to lighten the Gunnar, my trusty, always ready to ride singlespeed, after I weighed it as 27 Lbs. Much heavier than a singlespeed should be for me, when I only come in at 136 or so myself. So now making it lighter has become my obsession, something to keep me up late at night combing through forums, comparing the weights of different components, and making notes of weights -- and prices of course. An expensive obsession to be sure.

The first thing I did was ditch the Nevegal on the front, which never had as much grip as I thought it should anyway, and replace it with the Ignitor I originally had on it. I also replaced the WTB tube with a Salsa (Kenda), and tossed the extremely heavy Continental tube that was on the rear wheel in the trash, replaced by the WTB one. That and removing the rock ring, which I've only really needed at Michaux, got me down to ~25.6 Lbs. Better.

Early last week I ordered a new WTB Shadow V SLT saddle to replace the heavier Speed V I'd been using, a Chris King stainless steel cog to replace the heavier Surly, and a WTB Nano Raptor 29er racing tire to try out. I put those on during the week, and Thursday after work I went to Gambrill, anxious to see what the recent changes would do to my ride. Brrr! The (hopefully last) big cold front had blown through and it was down to 40 degrees by the time I got on the trail at 6:29 PM; it would be 35 by the time I finished. My fingers were numb after the first 15 minutes (isn't this April?), but it didn't take me that long to figure out the Gunnar was feeling exceptionally fast. I'm sure some of that was the decreased weight, but the Nano Raptor with it's lower weight and very low rolling friction probably accounted for most of it. The bike accelerated much more quickly too, which surprised and delighted me. I was having a whole lot of fun! I had been concerned the Nano wouldn't have enough grip to satisfy me, but I didn't have any problems with it at Gambrill, though conditions were admittedly ideal -- dry and with most of fall's leaves swept away.

I finished the ride with the tough climb back up the blue trail to the lower parking lot. The time was 7:29 PM. One hour! I was frankly surprised. That was certainly the shortest time I'd ever finished a long yellow loop (previous best an hour ten?) and I'm not in nearly the shape I should be in at this point in the year. This weight obsession could turn out to be a very good thing. What to replace next, and do I have the money for it?

Easter in Texas. I sent that from my phone. Once I download some clearer shots from my camera I'll post them. Crazy.

What's new

I've been thinking about trying to spend some time actually posting to my blog. So... I upgraded my blog to the new layout system, picked a new template, and then played around with colors and fonts. I think the only thing I ended up changing was the page background color, which strangely wasn't included in the "Fonts & Colors" settings screen; I had to edit the HTML (CSS?) for the template.

If I think of it and have time I'll make a real post. I did set up the mobile blogging feature just for kicks. Might be fun.