Winfall of PBs

I've been rewriting my personal record book left and right the last week. Last Sunday I did all but the warm-up part of my ride at LT, Tuesday I rode hard, but still had enough left in the tank to set a new PB between Hazel and Sunrise racing, and dropping, a 2-man team on TT bikes.

Yesterday I set a new PB going upstream on that same stretch chasing a pair of strong riders, and later shattered my personal best on the Beal's climb - taking almost an entire minute out of my time while dropping a good, strong, kite in the process.

I could point to a lot of factors to account for this, but I think the obvious one is just putting in more miles. For some reason, I'm also eating a LOT less ride fuel on these rides - typically less than a half a PowerBar and one bottle of Gatorade. I'm eating sushi rice before and potato after, but my appetite in general has dropped off, and at a time of year when it's usually on the increase. I have also lost 3-5 lbs in the last 3 weeks. All good things.

My quads were pretty sore today after all of the hammering yesterday, mostly from chasing down faster riders and red-lining for long stretches, but I should be good to go tomorrow or Sunday, depending on weather.

I'm not crazy about the new gear ratios (although I LOVE the smooth, fast shifts), and my new Easton E70 Zero seat post keeps slipping down, but at least the lower seat position spared my calves last night. I clamped the Profile Designs seat post mounted water bottle rack tightly about 3mm up from the seat post clamp, and they were touching after my ride last night. I might also try carbon paste, a double clamp, or even some kind of glue! :-O

The 52/39 gearing paired with the 12-23 out back makes for awkward shifts when approaching hills. I might try mounting the stock (total crap quality) 12-25 in back and see if that helps. It just seems very difficult to land on the gear I want when shifting through tight rollers, which we have a lot of coming back from Folsom on the east side of Lake Natoma.

Issac told me about a novel fix for the seatpost - toothpaste. I found some with silica and am giving it a try, wiping some on the seat post under the clamp area. If that doesn't work I might try some rouge cloth facing inward to engage the seat post. I don't want to scuff up the inside of the seat tube on the frame.

So, after a rest week, and a sub-par one last week due to interviews and matters attendant with the sale of a car, I've been hard at it and very happy with the results. I'm looking forward to riding in fall weather.

Cheers!

Rest Week Over

I ended my rest week a day short by doing an easy 20 mile ride this evening on the ARPT. I had to make a few stops to adjust things, as I mounted a new middle chainring on the crank this week, and am fighting an Easton E70 Zero seat post that keeps sliding down on me. More on the crank on Tuesday.

The ride was pretty slow and tame, but I did manage to get a decent run in riding through 'race-track alley' from Hagen Pk to WBP. I ran into Issac again at WBP Pk, and we had another great conversation. We talked till the sun got low and I headed home. Not much to tell, but I'm looking forward to a good night's sleep tonight and expect I'll have some snap in my legs on my next outing.

Tweaks

I've been working on my bike, to try to morph it still again, this time into a TT bike. Looking at a shiny new P3 Cervelo at WBP, I have to say, she'd have had a big advantage if we'd crossed paths, but so it goes. Nice eye candy, and I asked her about the Adono seat. She liked it a lot, and claimed it really helped her fit on the 54cm frame at 5'7" of body height. She seemed to be riding in a very forward position, but that should help her power, so all good.

I flipped my stem, moved a token 2.5mm spacer from under to over the stem, jammed the seat forward as far as it would go - about 12mm, installed a 12-23 cassette, and then installed my new front wheel. (Yes, it finally got here, correct color and all)

The stem adjustments were good for about a 28mm drop in handlebar position, giving me a 40mm drop from seat to pads. I never felt stable enough to be comfortable with my old wheel with the stem flipped, but the 32 DT Revolution spokes make for a very solid but supple wheel. I also removed the waterbottle rack from the seat tube, but may move the downtube bottle there as it is, surprisingly, more aero on the seat tube.

In fact, the bike, for the first time, feels well balanced, like the weight distribution on the two wheels is now 50:50. The Roubaix, like all comfort bikes, is designed for a rear-biased, upright position, and it takes a lot of work to get it low enough and forward enough to make good speed on the flats.

I am looking at an Easton EC 70 Zero seat post, which has zero setback, unlike the stock Roubaix's 25mm of setback. The Roubaix seat post is also pretty heavy - about twice the weight of  the Easton's 215gr. I'll shave a little off of that by cutting the 400mm post down to 350mm to match the stock post, but carbon doesn't weight that much, so it won't make a huge difference. I do like having a nice piece of carbon tubing laying around. Makes a great aerobar mount for computers or lights.

So what did all this get me? Well, last week I pulled 2 other riders in a draft and managed 21.1 for the 5 miles from CSUS to William B Pond park. Tonight I managed a 21.8, a new PB I think.