Thursday, February 28, 2008

Video of past weekend

Mark Hartman has a great little video up from this past weekend's adventures.

Check it out over at his blog, it's awesome!

Be sure to pay close attention and watch Bert lay 'er down at the end :)


I've been stuck in South Philly for the week, so no riding for me. I'll be back home tomorrow afternoon and laying down some big miles this weekend.

At least I'm not stuck in the snow like everyone else

Monday, February 25, 2008

Exploring Corning

Headed down to Corning yesterday with the Geneva Crew to meet up with the Hollow Crew. Jer-Bear had pre-scouted some roads and terrain for what would shape up to be an "epic" day to say the least.

Temps were great, sun was shining; perfect day to be on the bikes.

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Group climbs out of the city into the hills, enjoying the sun


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One of the many monstrous climbs on the route. Climbing was a horrid ordeal, if the road was dirt, it was likely mud, zapping your energy with each pedal stroke. If it was snow you had to ensure you didn't spin out.

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Unknown to us on this very road, would be where we would do most of our playing

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Coleman Rd aka the road of a million crashes. Under these few inches of snow was solid ice. Any sudden movement on the bike and you went down. Everybody hit the deck, often multiple times. It was hilarious, you could hardly go a few pedal strokes with out starting to slide sideways. Once you got speed, it was just inevitable you were going down. I can only imagine the thoughts of the people who lived in the area. For the howls weren't from the coyotes, but our howls of laughter.

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Casey slip sliding around on Coleman as we approach the end

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Poor Bert. On a road bike, with slicks. He went down so many times on the road, we just stopped counting, but we had to give him huge props. For right after this photo, he had on of his best crashes that included about a 40 ft baseball style slide.

Good time, loads of climbing, 40 miles out in the sun playing around. Can't wait to go back for more

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Rollin with the Crew

Yesterday morning was an unbelievable day for mid-Feb in Upstate NY. Temps were near 50 and the sun was actually shining. Headed out on the road with Mark and Suzanne Hartman for a nice early am ride. I was on the roadie (as that's where the power meter is) while Mark and Suzanne were rockin' their respective 29ers.

We headed out pretty much right into the wind and hit a few nice hills. Steep, and short, but long enough to make you suffer. I've not really done any super hill work or anything steep as of yet, so I wanted to see how the engine was running. Figured the few hills would be a good test, but not wear me out too much. Besides the small ring shifting isn't really working. (Yup, I do zero maintenance on my road bike, you can tell by the water bottle bolt replaced with wrapped duct tape). So I was forced to grind up the hills and actually felt really good. I was suprised to feel as good as I was considering the past few days of training.

Hopefully Mark will get some nice pics up as he had his helmet cam, maybe even a video.

In the meantime, enjoy The Champ's latest Video

I'll take the next few days off here and recover. The weather is shaping up for a nice weekend, so I'll be back on the bike Thursday. (probably hitting the dirt). Hopefully, It'll stay as is and I can put some huge miles in this weekend and maybe even get down into the hills in Naples.

Currently playing in iTunes: Walcott by Vampire Weekend

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Solid Block

Past few days have been a big block of training. Weather has been tolerable enough to get out there and get things done.

Thursday, I busted out the skiis and did some am xc skiing at the local golf course. It was a bit chilly, but tolerable and managed a quick hour prior to work.

Friday, temps were good enough to get out for an hour and a half and pound out some tempo on the road.

Yesterday, I pulled out the paragon and headed over to glenwood with Lizzy. I hit up the GBC before hand and picked up a new drivetrain for the roadie and some more winter clothing. Over at glenwood, the snow was a little bit deeper than I thought it was. Luckily, marky had gone out in the morning and laid down some tracks. There was also a few walkers who packed the trail in nice. After a few laps that felt like pedaling through quicksand, it was some good riding.

This morning I pulled out the roadie and challenged the coming rain. Weather was forecast to be quite a bit windy in the morning with some rains coming in the afternoon. I headed out the door and got some good time in. I suffered like a dog for 20k heading south into the brutal headwind. Pretty much felt like I was going nowhere for quite a while. To top it off the rain came in near the end of those last few k's. Even with the warmer temps, I was forced to take a turn and head home. The roads were quite wet and I was starting to get cold from the strong winds. It did manage to be a good ride overall.

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Note the few spots where my speed just jumps up from having a huge tailwind

Hopefully, I'll be able to get out tomorrow in the am and put a few more hours in and top of this nice little block of training.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Snow is coming

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Winter is back with a nice little treat these next few days. Guess it's time to bust out the ski's possibly the next few days. I'm actually excited a bit about a little bit of a change of pace. I hope the rain holds off though......

Not that things are getting tough, but It's winter, and I like to xc ski. Things are actually going good. Last night I even busted out the rollers for a little go. I've still got it; Yup I can ride no handed with 1 leg. That's smooth baby, smooth... One thing that frustrated me though is the power-tap torque values were a bit off for the first 25 minutes of my ride. I'm freaking busting my ass doing 1 minute intervals at 250 watts. I thought maybe the trainer was just on a little bit harder, but 250 is tempo, no AE!! Once I re-calibrated the torque all was well, but now I gotta figure out how to adjust 25 minutes of power data to sensible numbers (anybody wanna help me ?)

I also did manage to get out for about 3 hours this past weekend and just do some light tempo. Unfortunately, I worked Saturday and Sunday and was forced to shorten the ride. It would've been nice to pull of 5-6 hours of tempo. Hopefully I can catch a break this weekend and put in a nice loooong day.

I've got a new mantra also; taken right from Team CSC at last year's Tour. Go Here for what it is (NSFW).

Also, I re-enabled comments on my page, so feel free to drop me a note!

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

08 Race Bike??

Choices?? 1, 2 or all of them ???


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Rig, well definitely getting this bad boy

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Superfly :( No availability right now, maybe but not likely

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Hi Fi 29er, Yup looks like one of these is in the plans unless the Superfly happens.


As soon as the Supercaliber is back and in good shape, she'll be up on ebay helping me out.

Don't monkey around on your bike!



This is just plain freaky! I think I'm going to have nightmares about those monkey faces!

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Lunch time getaway

It was darn near 50 degrees today, unfortunately I slept like crap last night so I never managed to wake up early and put in a decent ride. I decided I would try to milk as much sleep as I could. As a result, I took an extended lunch and headed out for a ride.

Seeing as I only had an hour I just went out and slammed it. Pushed it in the upper tempo zones and really worked it on a few climbs. I really felt great on the bike today. 10 minutes into my nice 50 degree ride it started raining and raining good.

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I was pretty good and soaked to the bone, but I was damn near loving every moment of it. Thankfully I decided to wear full leg warmers instead of knee warmers. The fenders worked great in keeping my ass and back dry, but my feet still got wet.

For some reason, when the weather is nasty I really love to go out and just push myself as hard as I can. I love riding in the rain (I just don't like starting in it). Some of my favorite races and best performances have been in rainy/muddy conditions. I can't pinpoint what it is but it just feels a little bit primal...

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Todays power file...

Well looks like its going to get nasty again the next few days. Probably will be forced onto the trainer unless the ground freezes one of em.....blah

Currently playing in iTunes: Back Out On The ... by Broken Social Scene Presents Kevin Drew

Sunday, February 03, 2008

Crappy weekend

The weather this weekend was downright horrible. It snowed a bit friday and then turned to sleet/rain. The ground right now has a nice covering of snow and ice. It's odd though as its mid 30's or so so the stuff is kinda melting, but freezing up at night. I refused to ride the trainer so yesterday, I just went out and decided, I didn't care if the roads were wet or covered in ice (although on a few downhills I was damn scared). I pulled the road bike out and just went out and nailed it for an hour getting a few good sprint efforts in up some light hills. Managed to stay nice and dry though with the fenders! Those things rock, what have I been thinking for the past 6 years or so riding the wet roads in the winter with no fenders. I don't care if they look gay or not, my ass and my feet are dry and warm!

Today, the ground was nice and frozen so I was gonna head over to glenwood and let lizzy run around. The plan was to just nail it for 2 hours and have some fun riding the paragon. I just put a new chain/cassette/cables on her so was going to give it a good breaking in. Well, I went to adjust my saddle and the seat binder bolt broke in half. I couldn't get the one end of it out, so I was forced to pack everything back in the car and head home to hit the roads. I revised the workout and decide to just ride some tempo for 2 hours just keeping the wattage steady and giving it a good go. The route was predominately flat with a few risers here or there, but no major climbs of any sort.


power.jpg Keeping it nice and steady

Currently playing in iTunes: Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa by Vampire Weekend (FYI: this album is awesome!!)

Friday, February 01, 2008

2008 NYSERS/ Supercaliber down

The 2008 New York State Endurance Racing Series (NYSERS) is back again for 2008!!

Proud to announce the Addition of Plattekill to the NYSERS!!

The dates for the series are as follows:

Highland Hex: May 17th

Plattekill: June 8th

6 Hours of Power: July 27th

Suicide Six: August 16th

More info available here

Time to get out there and get training, before you know it the race season will be upon us!!!

So the Supercaliber is down and out for a bit. I broke the axle on the ergomo this past weekend. I was getting some odd play in the crank, and every time I'd put some force down on the right crank arm it sounded like I was re-clipping in and felt like it. I checked the cranks and there was some play in the right crankarm. When I got home, I pulled the bolt, put on the special tool and gave it a very light turn on the cranks and snap! the bolt broke right off. I took it to the shop yesterday to have them send it back in for warranty and you could visibly see the original crack in the bolt. No big deal, just be without power for a bit on the mt. bike. I'll just have to estimate my Training Stress Score (TSS) for a bit. Since this is the 2nd time the bolt broke, I'm taking a look into swapping the ISIS version for Octalink.

I also pulled the shock of the Paragon and swapped it with the one on the Supercal and set that on back for an overhaul. The Supercal rear shock is also being sent back to Manitou for an overhaul.

We're getting some really crappy snow/slush mix right now, but hopefully most of it will be gone before tomorrow am. I'm hoping to put in a pretty good weekend of riding. With the conditions of the roads, it looks like the new fen-dars will get some good use. All of next week looks to be in the mid 30's so it might be a good week for getting some miles in!

Currently playing in iTunes: Apocalypse Now by Muse