Threshold work in the wind

Yesterday's wind was pretty brutal. I was going to piggy back a threshold workout on monday with the race from sunday, but the rain came and I decided to do some work on my other bikes.

So I opted to head out the door last night and get in a crusher. I was actually feeling really good and fresh off the bat so, I nailed out one of my intervals right away, and it happened to be my best one. Very odd as it was done on the flats, and I usually have a hard time putting out power on the flats, but I think the strong winds really helped. After that I rocked out a few more. I tend to just do my intervals fartlek style and let them occur naturally in my riding route. This means, I'll go hard where it warrants, and not worry about slamming it on a downhill or through a corner. I just focus on getting total time in the area I'm woking at. It was a good day for that as I managed 55 minutes at or above my threshold.

Click for full size

So I'm all signed up for the CAT Classic this coming Saturday in PA. Going to keep heading south and over to the Michaux Maximus 50 miler on Sunday. Hopefully the weather pans out and stays dry. A bonus of the race being in Gettysburg, is that work has a customer a few towns over, so I'm going to stay thru Monday and write off the whole trip, SWEET!

Currently playing in iTunes: We Carry On by Portishead

Power Tap Mt. Disc Hub

Ordered Up one of these bad boys!

Should be here in about 10 days! Can't wait...

In the meantime I need to offload my ergomo pro via ebay. Email me if you are interested in taking it off my hands prior to ebay.

Prattsburgh wrap-up

Took a podium at the Rambler!! Nice for the first victory of the year.

Full write up over at the 29er Crew site

Wheelman Ride

Click for full Size

Yesterday headed over to the Geneva Bicycle Center and headed out with a few new riders to hit the old Wheelman route. It's about a 38 mile ride with a few rolling hills, nothing major though. I added a few miles by riding there and back.

I was on the paragon, while everyone else was on the roadies. I suffered like a dog, it was a lot harder work than I thought it would be. But it was a great workout, with lots of time at threshold. Considering I don't think I ever made the ride once last year, I think they were teaching me a lesson for not showing up in a while ;) I tried my hand at a few attacks, and was able to bridge a few others, but the bike doesn't have the top end speed to bust out a killer move on the road or in a sprint. If I was on the trails it might've been a different story....

Time to rest up and clean up the road bike so I can ride that for the next time I make it out.

Coming up this Sunday is the Ramble around Prattsburgh, hope to see you there.

Currently playing in iTunes: Under Pressure by Queen & David Bowie

Back to the grindstone

Back home after the Sea Otter. For the race report and some pics, etc go here. I'm pretty bushwacked. I didn't have my best race, but not at all concerned about it. I'll see some good gains from the fitness of 4 days of riding. Plus I got to ride with Gary Fisher, meet some cool people and rock the California singletrack!!

The Superfly easily conquered the dry, sandy, wide-open course. Yesterday, I put it back together and did a quick ride out to glenwood so that Lizzy could get a nice run in. Not that she didn't get a nice run in this past week. According to my sister, she let her out for a bit and lizzy disappeared. A few hours later, my boss called and she had shown up for work!! I wonder if I get actual pay for her showing up in my stead rather than vacation pay? She was rather mopey while I was gone, so the run did her good.

What's with this weather? Not complaining at all, but rather enjoying it. Seems like everything is up and blooming as compared to dull and dreary when I left.

I learned a good little lesson while out west. Don't drink 4 margaritas the size of your head the evening after the race. The hippie and I headed out for some post race celebration at the local mexican restaurant down the block from the hotel. A few drinks later, I vaguely remember making it back to the desk and asking the clerk to help me to my room. The time between dinner and then, well let's just say the memory card was full and stopped recording. I fared a little better than the hippie though, he was found wandering around the village, in his socks. Somehow he lost his shoes. The local pd, picked him up and were kind enough to take him back to the hotel and not have any issues with it at all. It was all good, except I lost my f@cking iPhone!!! somewhere in the mix!! Guess that's my punishment...and believe me I paid during the 8 hours of traveling home the next day.

I'm working on getting the video of my ride on the Sea Otter course converted up and chopped down into something a bit smaller so I can upload it......

Sea Otter

I'll treat, you guys to the pics, but the full writeup is over at 29erCrew.com

Hanging with my fellas at Crankskins and Hippie Tech Suspension and chilling out at the venue

The marathon is easy. There are no lions

The marathon is easy. There are no lions

Hmm, guess all our fancy gels and gizmo's are no real match for these guys.

Quotes from the Article:

I sometimes run for two or three days with my cattle, and I have to protect them from lions.

I miss meat and blood very much. Not vegetables because they are food for a woman. There is milk here but blood is better because it gives energy.

Guess next time you are out riding, give up on the Phil and Paul commentary that the peloton is chasing you dow, and imagine it as a pack of lions!

(Via Guardian.)

Almost time

29er Crew site has another entry with the latest ongoings.

This weekend was fun, and now it's time to start the packing and prepping for Sea Otter.

I'll have tons of pics and videos and post as often as I can. Stay Tuned

Back to power

So very happy to have the ergomo back! Here's a quick post of Saturday's and Yesterday's power files (click for a larger version)

Saturday's Ride in the Hills

Yesterday's brutality into the headwind

I did pull out the Superfly and put her in the dirt before I boxed her up and shipped her off to California.

You can read all about Saturday's ride and Sunday's breaking in the Superfly here

29er Crew Site and Press

Looks like the 29er Crew Site is getting some press out on the web

Fisher Bikes

MTBR

Bike Mag

I am Speed

(EDIT: this is a carbon copy of my blog entry on the 29er Crew)

I think the quote from the movie Cars, "I am speed!" is befitting now that I've got my Superfly in hand!! At least that's what comes to mind when I look at it.




I spent the better part of yesterday at the Geneva Bicycle Center playing hookie from work and installing my ergomo pro into the paragon, and doing some swapping on the Superfly.

I'm totally jacked to be rocking such a bike for this season. I haven't yet ridden it, but I can just tell it's gonna be fast, and we are gonna have some good times together. I can't wait to ride er'. My guess is it'll be out in Cali for Sea Otter when she gets broken in.

Naturally, I had to go with the Pink Bonty Cage. I didn't want to be kicked out of the CPBC (Coalition of Pink Bottle Cages). Fellow CPBCers and 29er crew members;Mark and Suzanne Hartman will be out there sporting the pink this season also. Suzanne's HiFi is even pimped out with some super-sweet pink brakes! I'm sure you will be reading some similar posts from us as we ride and train together often.

It was also nice to get my ergomo back. It's been a while since I've had some power data to work with. I used the ergomo on my supercaliber all of last season and found the data invaluable for training and racing. I did run power on my roadie, but now that I'm using the paragon for paved and un-paved adventures; the power numbers will be nice to look at. Below is my ride from yesterday, short and moderate paced. I gave it some gas on a few hills to check some numbers, and things are looking good for this season

Yellow is power, orange is elevation (30 second smoothing)

Back to work, looks like this will be a good weekend for riding. More posts and pics to come....

Currently playing in iTunes: All In It by British Sea Power