Back to the dirt; Finally

Finally hit the dirt this past weekend. Been quite a while. Yesterday, headed over to MPH. Casey, Val, Mark, Suzanne, Jim, c-dog and lizzy along with myself put in a few miles before the trails thawed. Since the paragon has been pulling double duties, a quick wheel swap was required in the am and I was out the door.

It was nice to be on the dirt and the sugary snow that was left in a few hidden areas. I think the last time I was off-road was at the hollow a few weeks ago! Been that long, damn. Alas, my mind hadn't forgotten how to handle the bike, but some subtle nuances were missing. I wasn't out of my element, but definitely wasn't on top of my A-game. I felt really good climbing the hills and making the transitions, that you get in mt. biking but miss out on on the road. It was nice to be in the woods and get the stillness and quietness of nature. It wasn't very quiet though when you hit the crunchy snow; with a gaggle of riders, you could barely hear yourself think it was so ungodly loud.

The day ended a little bit early for myself and lizzy as she had taken off early for her usual exit. She returned, a little bloody, and tired. She hobbled on as long as she could, but I ended up having to walk her out of the woods as she could barely move. She hasn't opened her eyes up since she's been home.

Hopefully all the snow will be gone soon everywhere and the trails will open up.

Most likely not gonna happen, but one can wish right? Oh well, there's always the California singletrack to look forward to in a few weeks right?

Friday and Saturday where the usual road excursions. Friday was almost cut short, but a quick pit stop in the GBC helped bring some bloodflow back to my fingers, and I managed to make it home for the nice 40 minute hot shower to continue the thawing process. Saturday was nice sun-shinny 4 hour day and dealing with the wind.



Feeling really good on the bike right now, but taking today off to do some cleaning and bike maintenance and get some stuff up on ebay.

I'll edit this draft and post some pictures; I've got some, but have been slacking as the cable is at work and camera is always at home.....

Solo Weekend

Spent the past weekend on some solo adventures. All in all a great weekend of training. Would've liked a bit more time on Saturday, but the Ol' man winter had made up his mind.

Saturday, I put in just over 2 hours of brutality. It was 30 degrees with 30mph winds. Pretty much every backroad that ran North-South was insane. With the winds blowing so fierce they were creating massive snow drifts across the roads in unprotected sections. I'd say I crossed about 50 snow drift, some up to 100 meters long or so. I was forced to walk one, as the wind pushed me around so much I couldn't stay upright in the snow. The good news is I didn't crash in any of the others and after negotiating a few difficult ones, they became fairly easy as you just found a good line and cruised. If there was no line, I just hit the gravel off the shoulder and it provided decent enough grip to stay upright. The last few mile, though the snow picked up pretty heavily and became difficult to see more than a few hundred meters. Naturally, after I get home and clean up the sun comes out and all is good.

Sunday, was a great day 35 and sunshine all day. Light winds, but nothing major. I decided I would just give it a good day on the bike. I headed south into the rolling hills of Seneca Lake Wine Country and put in 142k circumnavigating the lake. I felt pretty good for the 1st 3 hours or so, but by the time I climbed out of Watkins Glen, I could tell that my meal from the night before didn't prepare me well enough for the ride. I'd eaten well on the bike, and prior; but not enough for dinner. I can pretty much tell how much an effect a meal or even certain foods now has on my training. I didn't expect I'd put in such a big day, but then who can argue when the sun is shining and its a nice day. If there wasn't snow on the ground I'd have thought it was June. The last 20k of the ride I suffered a bit, but suffer now and feel good come race day!

I was suppose to ride this morning with Mark and Suzanne, but I bailed for more sleep after yesterday. However right now, its 47 and the sun is shining. Yah, I have a "appointment" around 3pm ;) ..... gotta take advantage while I can!!

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.

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

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.

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

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.

Casey slip sliding around on Coleman as we approach the end

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

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.

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.

Snow is coming

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!

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.


Keeping it nice and steady

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

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

Full Weekend

Managed to put in some decent time this weekend. Not as much as I would've liked, but I'll take anything right now as the temps are getting slightly better.

Saturday I took Lizzy out and headed over to Dryer Rd. Put in just over 2 hours in the snow and dirt. There was a light covering of snow on the ground making it a bit sketchy in a few parts, but there had been a few riders out and after some laps I had it packed in real nice. It was fun to get out there and just hammer a bit. I went out and just pushed it as hard as I could for 2 full hours and was pretty whipped by the end.

Sunday, was nice enough to get out and hit the roads. Light winds out of the south and low 30 degree temps and clear roads means pull out the road bike. It was a nice ride on a lightly rolling route. I was having fun and staying warm but around the 2:15 mark or so I flatted after a good stint on some back dirt/stone roads. I changed the flat with my 4inch mini pump (aka 400 strokes), but by the time I got back going again the gloves were cold and wet from sweating so I just finished my ride up and headed back home. I kept it mostly light tempo, with a few efforts here and there. I'm feeling really good putting in the hours and laying down the tempo, I just lack my climbing legs. They will come in due time though as I usually purposefully hold myself back on the climbs this time of the year. Mid to late next month I'll start adding some longer climbs to bring up the intensity. I'll add a few race efforts at the Giro's in the spring for sure.

Today, I'm gonna sneak out of work here in a few hours and see if I can't "raise the roof" with a few vo2 max efforts, and test how the legs are after 2 days of good rides.







This video is great! Found it over on Drunk Cyclist

Another Cold Day this time at the Hollow

Yesterday was cold; 10 degrees F and 30 mph winds. Headed down to the Hollow to hit the trails, managed around 2 hours of ride time. Loads of fun with everyone. All fingers and toes are accounted for.

Loads of pics in the slideshow below:

Frozen toes

Hit up the Geneva Bicycle Center for the Winter sale this past morning. Picked up a few essential supplies. Usual tubes, lube and food, etc.

After that grabbed lizzy and headed over to Dryer Rd in Victor for some riding on the Supercaliber. Ground was nice and firm as it was brutally cold with a nasty wind. Still some snow out there on the trails, but for the most part was dirt. Managed an hour before I couldn't feel my toes anymore. My core and hands were plenty warm, but the toes just weren't staying nice and toasty.

Ergomo doesn't lie

Lizzy Surveys the scene

Climbing up thru Moon Valley

Hope no one was sitting there!!

Bustin out the XC Skis

Snow is coming down outside just a little bit ;) 5-9 inches or more expected, with the possibility of a Nor'easter this weekend!

I did manage to get out on the bike on monday for some night riding at glenwood. I rushed home and put the supercaliber back together and headed over to the trails with Mark and the dogs. Temps were hovering right around freezing, but it was warm during the day. This meant that the exposed parts of the trail were nothing more than mud and muck. I managed to get close to an hour in then we called it quits.

So it's snowing out pretty good today. Looking like it's going to be a good night for some xc skiing. Road conditions are probably going to be too poor to head anywhere, so most likely going to end up over at glenwood. Lay some tracks down and can most likely get it worked in for the bikes possibly over the weekend.


View outside my car at lunchtime today!

Currently playing in iTunes: Velvet Snow by Kings Of Leon

Glenwood Snow Riding

Hit up glenwood yesterday with Mark, Burt, Cadence and Lizzy. It was great to get out on the trails and ride around on the snow. Decided to pull out the camera and take a little video. Edited it up just now and posted it here for you. Yes, the whole video was taken with me riding 1 handed!! on my Paragon!!... Not an easy task, there are quite a few logs that took me out and you'll notice me hitting the snow/dirt near the end of the video as I tried to navigate a v-ditch.

On a side note, I'm now a Sergeant Grade 1 in Halo 3!! Umm, yah I still suck as my kill to death ratio is .69 (but hey it was .13!!)

Currently playing in iTunes: Down Boy by Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Snow

Mark, Suzanne, myself and the pups made an attempt to ride over at Glenwood this morning. We got a few inches of snow last night and figured we'd head out and pack in the trails, and run the pups a little bit. Unfortunately, the snow was a little deeper than we thought making for a tough romp through the trails. We made it down one trail and after a bit of sliding, crashing and walking (well, Mark had no issues as usual) we decided to head home and just pull out the skis. On the way home the rain came down and we had to bail because the snow sucked. So basically we were out and just decided to stick home for the day and chill.

Oh well, try again tomorrow.

Course Creator

I just came across this a few moments ago and it looks really cool. It's called Course Creator. Just sign up for an account and right away you can start mapping out distances, elevation, and if you have a garmin gps you can get waypoints for your ride. This looks real cool and I'll be playing around with it a bunch for sure.



Ol' man winter looks to possibly be coming back tonight and tomorrow ; Really sucks as all the snow right now is pretty much gone. It's been real cold overnight so I'm hoping to hop over to dryer rd and maybe get a mt. bike ride in this evening before the snow comes. As far as tomorrow goes, I'm probably going to have to suck it up and do a little ski time and trainer time. I hope by Sunday they can get the roads cleared back up and I can head out for the gvcc giro.



I'm sure a few people are caught up in this weekend's training dilemma, How do I train and still celebrate St. Patty's Day?? Well don't have an answer for that one. Check back Monday for a wrap-up and see how I rolled. Will I be good or bad??



Back to work....

Snowed In? Check these out

ipIf you're stuck with all this snow and itching to get your mountain bike fix, check out some of these mountain bike video sites:



Rip.tv

TotalVid.com this site looks cool as you can download entire movies

Mountain Bike Zone.com

MTB Movies.com

PinkBike.com



Hopefully those help give you some extra trainer motivations

Fresh Powder

Measured up the snow on the back porch this morning; 18"!! Plus its a lovely 3 freaking degrees outside. Man I shoulda took Erin up on those plans to vacation in CA for the Tour of California... A look ahead in the forecast shows mid 30's next week!! :)

Put some time on the skiis again last night. Right in the backyard, luckily the snowmobiles had a nice little loop packed in. I've only been out there to walk the dog during the fall, but it looks like come spring/summer time I can put in a good little loop and do some decent training. Lizzy was having a tough go of it as every time she went off the path the snow was up to her neck and she had to bound around, but that didnt really stop here. Poor dog, the snow is piled so high everywhere she is confused as to where to even go to the bathroom.

Saturday, I'm off to the Peaks Coaching Group Power Training Seminar in Buffalo. Looking forward to learning a great deal of info on power training and the inner workings of the software. I've read through the book and implementing a great deal of the info already.

If you missed it last night Lance was on the Colbert Report, be sure to watch it all the way through. Good line at the end

Miss my iBook

Man, only a few days and I've been without my trusty iBook. Didn't really realize how much of my day I spent on that thing. Seems like my whole system is outta whack. All my emails, todo's, calendars, projects, cycling info, web browsing, music, etc, were all wrapped up in that bad boy. Hopefully I'll get her back real soon. In the meantime I have dreams of securing myself a Macbook Pro. But, that's definately far fetched! I can dream though can't I????



Winter weather is rearing it's ugly head again as it looks like we might get walloped by snow this week. So this week looks like some more time on the trainer and busting on the xc skisto enjoy the fresh powder. My man Furber though is all hopped up about the snow as he is racking up the miles on his Pugsley along the snowmobile trails



This is the current radar situation! Hoping that the snow stays south of us, but it isn't looking very good right now

Solid Block of training

Wrapped up a good solid block of 3 days of training. Loads of trainer time and some xc ski action. A rest is welcome today, especially as I'm out of town in Jersey for work. I probably shoulda hit the roads yesterday as it was quite warm (26) compared to what its been and the roads were nice and clear

Props out to my man Brandon Furber for pulling out the Pugsley and putting in some time up in the snowbelt!




Hey Brandon, you didn't smash a beer bottle over any of those snowmobilers heads and steal one? If so we are waiting for the story!! :)

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At least I'm not there....

But I did just drive through it this past Monday morning. 110 Inches of snow and rising!



Thoughts of firing up the snowmobile and heading out dancing through my head