MIBM Recap: Lessons Learned



Finally back over 4,000 per year, and 500 per month.

 2012 is the first year I made a serious effort to rack up some miles for my May Is Bike Month (MIBM) pledge. While trying for 100 miles each week now for 2 years, I usually end up with around 300 miles a month. Reviewing my rides and mileages on DailyMile, I noticed a few changes I thought I could make to break the 500 mile/month barrier.



577 miles in 13 rides. Some LSD in May

First, I noticed that I never rode two days in a row to avoid muscle glycogen depletion. This was no accident, it stemmed from a combination Friday evening, and Saturday morning ride where the Friday ride leader didn't get us to a cafe in time to recover properly. This led to a disaster of a 60 mile Saturday ride where my muscle glycogen was so depleted I suffered through a pathetic 212 watt ride. I decided to challenge this limitation again, and see if it was a 1-off experience, or a real limitation.

Second, I noticed that general fatigue, weather, or allergies often kept me off the bike for 5-7 days at a time, which wastes a lot of days in the month. Weather is hard to beat, but having good lighting gave me some crucial flexibility to beat heat, cold, and allergies.

Third, I began to notice last year, when I started to get interested in riding a double century, that if you want to reliably get out the door for the long miles required to train for doubles, you have to have spare parts you can use when things break, bend or wear out. (I crashed the 3rd week of Feb, on the last ride of my Big Week, so March broke the trend - temporarily - because I didn't have a spare me).

Finally, I noticed that hand numbing, numbing boy parts, and shoe hot-spots started to take their toll after 100 miles a week. If you've been reading along over the last 15 months, you know I've been relentlessly identifying and addressing these problem areas.

So how successful have my efforts over the last 15 months been? I thought MIBM would be an excellent challenge to test my adaptations, and that turned out to be true. I was also inspired by my ability to steadily increase my monthly mileage starting around Thanksgiving last year. Each month I'd tack on another 10-25-miles.



Only 1 day off, and burning a LOT of calories. My Big Week experiment back in February

I started testing my ability to evade the fatigue that normally comes with back-to-back days in March, and racked up a 214 mile week, with only one (unnecessary, as it turned out) rest day, and generally, long days separated by short, 20-something recovery rides. Fatigue is  a problem if I spend more than 30 minutes in Zone 5, or at 100% of max HR for more than a couple of minutes. Keeping my HR in Zone 3 solved the fatigue problem, except for cumulative fatigue after days of riding. Psychological fatigue played a bigger role than I'd have thought, making it hard to find the motivation to get out the door.

I was inspired to try recovery rides because there was a report published early this year by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute that showed cells accumulate various and sundry flotsam when working hard, but they scavenge themselves to find, and burn these fragments for fuel - BUT- this process is triggered only by mild, recovery ride type exercise. The process is called autophagy.  I still need to rein myself in on recovery rides, but if I keep my HR below 130, and at an average of 120, recovery rides help.

I spent almost the whole first week of May off the bike due to high winds and high pollen counts, but then hit on the idea of getting up before 5AM, before the offending plants opened for business, and while the wind was still calm. Having bought good lighting for winter riding, I was safely able to ride early. That approach worked, as long as I finished up by 10:00am, when my throat would start to swell shut. I still had to put up with some red, blood-shot eyes, and sneezing, but the early mornings were quiet, serene, and very cool.

Starting the 4th week the heat became a problem, but once again, early starts, or riding after dark, provided the needed scheduling flexibility to ride comfortably. In fact, the night of the 31st I rode 51 miles, stopping at WBP park, instead of extending down to CSUS because nobody was out riding at 10:00 at night. Weird, since hundreds of people rode after dark all winter, and have the lighting to beat 100 degree heat. I also used my lighting, especially tail lighting, to stay safe in early morning rush-hour traffic when returning home after very early starts.

Early in the month I remounted my custom built Open Pro wheel, and it was pinging and popping till it nearly drove me mad. I did everything I could think of, and nothing helped - except putting the "spare" I'd been riding all winter back on the bike. It's almost an identical wheel, except it has WheelSmith 14/15ga spokes instead of DT Revolution, and it costs half as much. Problem solved. (still need to come up with a long-term solution, like rebuild the wheel using a DT Swiss RR465 rim, but not under any great pressure to decide as the wheel is functional as a spare, albeit annoying)

The most serious problem I encountered were saddle sores, and those are a very serious problem. I've had friends who've been off the bike for months, and those sores continue to limit their time on the bike. I tried chamois butter, talc, shorts with different chamois, and riding the SS bike with it's classic seat. It all helped, but the sores kept getting worse. I finally ordered an expensive Fi:zik Aliante seat, which was even worse than my Specialized Avatar since I spend so much time in the drops and aerobars. Staying off the bike while waiting for the seat, riding my SS, and changing to shorts with different chamois helped, but still wasted 5 days.

I should also mention that the Mavic Cosmic Elite front wheel (made in Romania btw) helped considerably on days when I was tired and the wind was fierce. I ran into a problem with it though on the SBH ride on May 31st, because I blew the front tire off, ruining the inner tube, and the spare didn't have a long enough stem to air up the tire past 35lbs - at least for 10 miles or so. I tried again at WBP and got about 75lbs in it. That was good enough to add a trip up to Folsom and 20 miles to the total.

The biggest problem of all turned out to be nutrition, and for what turns out to be an obvious reason. Ride fuel is cheap and ubiquitous, whereas good nutrition is expensive and time-consuming to prepare.. Tired of baking potatoes after, and cooking and eating rice before the ride (no appetite so early in the morning), I started eating a LOT of french bread - as much as 2 one pound loaves per day. This turned out to be a disaster, as my blood pressure got out of control, diverticulitis and constipation were a constant threat, and fatigue started to set in. I was scrambling to find something that would work.

I went back to potatoes after, and resigned myself to spending the money for commercial ride fuels, and eating them on the bike, especially early in the ride, as appetite would allow. The best recovery meal I had included 4oz of left over T-Bone steak with my recovery potatoes on one glorious Monday. I could almost feel that hit my muscles. My pepper chicken dish really hit the spot too, and the micro-nutrients were so effective I could almost feel myself getting stronger with each bite. Angel-hair pasta with hot Italian sausage, crushed red peppers, and Newman's Own Sockarooni sauce was excellent - but I was often too tired to cook.

Still, I was searching for nutritional solutions while waiting for the new seat and nursing saddle sores, so not so sure the nutrition thing is really fixed. I will have to push the Big Mile frontier again, and see if I can get it dialed in. I did come to love Espresso Love GUs. The maltodextrin really helped put some snap in my legs on a few occasions, though, caffeine should be saved for late in a ride to prevent going too hard too soon, and dehydration.

It's worth mentioning that days of back-to-back riding progressively strips the body of carbs, so getting enough carbs becomes more important. Fruit, whole wheat bread, and pasta, all with GIs in the 20s-30s, are the go-to foods after initial an initial recovery  period of 1hr (or the duration of the ride for rides longer than 2 hours). Start with very fast carbs to prevent catabolic muscle destruction, and taper into slower carbs, and good, balanced nutrition. Midnight snacks play an important role in reloading muscle glycogen. Raisin bran is my favorite.

Quads are still my weakest link, and even now, after 9 days off the bike, my IT bands on both legs ache a little. I need a solution to this problem, and that may be BenGay, compression shorts, massage, or something I haven't considered, (like a wife) but this problem still needs solving.

Overall, though, I was pleasantly surprised that so much worked so well. My wrists were fine, my feet were fine, I had the clothing and lighting to ride as early or late as needed, and I was able to keep motivated with the help of my friends on DailyMile, the MIBM website (which reported rival's miles), and my bike club, the Sacramento Bike Hikers.

Finally, I should mention that shifting on the front derailleur was getting worse and worse, and it finally locked up completely coming home on the 31st. I've torn the shifter down and found one of the release ratchet dogs broke off. There are no user inputs to this mechanism, other than those required to shift, so I'm not sure what happened, but I did find a 1/2" strand of shifter cable inside the mechanism. My best guess is a defect in the metal dating back before mfg began. These are tiny parts, and even tiny defects can cause failure.

I'm  going to blog the entire RnR project, but having not just spare parts, but a spare bike as well, is helpful if you want to avoid any training gaps. Something to think about.

Rest & Recovery

Co-Motion Macchiato. Built for pure speed, it omits the center bracing tube, and features a belt Captain's drive.

 After Sister Heat (love child of Father Time and Mother Nature) took most of the summer off, she made a saucy appearance last week, with temps in the high 90s, but it's been cooling off dramatically now, with highs in the 70s, and rain on the way for Tuesday if the weather guessers are to be believed.

After a smoking fast Tuesday night ride with SBH, just 2 days after a 50 miler 2 weeks ago Sunday, I found myself awash in fatigue. When it lasted more than 3 days I knew something more was going on. In part that was due to a rare flair-up of diverticulitis, but it was more than that too. When fatigue goes on for days, it's heart fatigue, and the cure for that is Co-Enzyme Q10.

It was first synthesized in Japan in the early 50s, and has been used as part of standard therapy for heart attack victims there ever since. Incredibly effective for tired muscles, and no muscle works harder than the heart, thus any deficit in the body's naturally synthesized Co-Q10 is felt first in the heart. Burning the candle at both ends writing software for Wall St took a lot out of me, and a real toll on my heart, but 400-600mg of Co-Q10 restores vitality in days, and 1-200mg per day maintains it. I'd stopped taking it altogether about a year ago, and won't do that again.

I was hoping after a week I could do the Tuesday night ride again, but wasn't feeling chipper at all. By the time Thurs rolled around though, I had been taking 400-600mg of Co-Q10 for 5 days, and was raring to go. The Thurs night rides are usually pretty leisurely, and only 20-30 miles, but since I rode to the start, this one was 42 miles and change.

As it was, Steve had his Co-Motion tandem out, and after getting passed by a fast peleton, he decided to push the pace, with me right on his wheel. They didn't stay ahead of us long, as we bridged up within a half mile, and eventually, passed them pushing into a 10mph headwind. Advantage tandem!

Co-Motion Supremo

That set the tone for the whole ride though. The Garmin reported 20.25 mph for 27 miles at 147.5 BPM (89% max HR) for 1:25:11, so basically an hour and 25 minute TT at ~ 90% of max cranking out 280 watts. About 12 miles of that was done before dark at an average speed of 21.6. The rest of the ride possible because of the myriad of lights we had on the bikes allowing me to ride 2 hrs after full darkness.

I might remount my MagicShine to the right side of the handlebars though, swapping its position with the Planet Bike 1W Blaze, as I had to offset 2 ft and back 4ft to keep my light on the trail surface, and not all the reflective stuff on Steve's tandem. This gave Steve a solid fix on the trail so he could freelance his helmet light to see around corners or into deer saturated grasses.  His taillight was also blinding me when directly behind, so after dark, I wasn't able to draft effectively.

I felt fantastic once home, and really great the next day, a little tired the 2nd day, but still enough energy to stay up late reading Joe Friel's Paleo Diet for Athletes, which I highly recommend. It's much better than I expected, as he spends more time on the science than he has in any other of his books. I'm still wanting to do my favorite 65mi ride to the Rescue Fire Station, and was hoping to do that today, but I was up babysitting a pot roast until 2:00 AM last night - something I haven't made in 20 yrs at least,  but good Paleo nutrition.

I was going to do the Rescue ride today, but with rain on the way I need to fix my car windows instead. Plastic gears on electric windows get old and brittle, and are kind of a bitch to fix (unless you like your arms cut up by sharp sheet metal edges) but not all that hard either. 

It's also becoming clear to me that when you CAN ride all year around in an accommodating climate, it's important to take some planned time off from time to time. Since I'm not training for events, there are no built-in rest periods, so I am learning to make some to allow me to recover. Living and learning.

I think I'll head up to Beals later and do something I've never done before - take pictures of the sun setting on the lake an hour from home. Really like my new MagicShine light. 

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River of Time

Things change. Tires, bar tape, bike clubs, and pro riders. I've been riding 100 mile weeks again, and more of it with a bike club than in 2 years now. Lance Armstrong was in Davis last weekend in support of that city's LiveStrong fundraising ride. First time since the ATOC in 2009. My friend Jodi was there and really psyched!


Jens Voigt in perfect climbing form. One of the true giants of the sport.

It's mid-July, and the Tour de'France is in full swing. I was so looking forward to the RadioShack team crushing the Pyrenees and hoping Chris Horner would have an epic tour and maybe win it all. Their luck has just been atrocious though, so I find myself rooting for Big George and Cadel Evans' BMC team, and hoping they can punish the wheel-sucking Schleck-Tard team, and put Contador to rest.

I will really miss George Hincapie and Kloden when they retire. True hard men of the sport. I think this photo of Klodi says it all. If we'e talking about the greats, I just have to mention Jens Voigt as well. In the meantime, I'm really enjoying Thor Hushovd's reign at the top, and Cav's peevishly quick smile when winning.


Andreas Klöden : Hard man  

 I had a really wonderful ride on the 4th of July with the Sacramento Bike Hikers, was able to ride near the front on both legs of the roughly out and back route, and really enjoyed the company, route and pace.

On Monday we did a breakfast ride, and it was so cool I wore arm warmers both ways. Some good climbing, including Iron Point Rd, and some of the bike paths and neighborhoods where the views are magnificent and the houses are paid for by Intel stock options..


The Tourmalet circa 1937

On the way home we averaged a bit over 20mph for about 12 miles heading into a 8-12mph breeze, and I put my aerobars to good use pulling a fast group of 5 into the wind in the most exposed area of the bike trail. I got some compliments on that pull, and was a bit puzzled by that until I looked at the Garmin trace. Instead of a spiky saw-tooth my pull was nice and even.

I had to dig really deep after 2.5 hours of riding to keep the hammer down, but was very happy my legs felt so strong so late in the ride. Also nice that we started 10 minutes behind the main group of 30 riders and passed them doing about 23 mph on a long straight stretch.

I'm still a little tired though from that one, as I did about 45 minutes above LT, and 30 minutes of that at better than 90% of max HR. I think next time I'll stay with the peleton on the way out, and hammer home. Mostly though, SBHs are about riding. Just putting in a lot of miles, and not gear, or egos (well, not too much, anyway). They also put on their annual picnic last weekend and I met a lot of my FB friends in person for the 1st time.

So what happened to my old bike club, Hammerin Wheels? Not really sure, but they seem to have imploded. Not many rides and all very poorly attended. I put a lot of time and effort into teaching members there about gear and nutrition, so as sour as the vibe got to be there, I'm a little sad to see it come to this.

A couple of panic stops (idiot peds on the ARPT) ripped through the tread, and by the end of our speed run Monday, the chords were showing through on my back tire. I used up a gift card at Amazon, and dividends at Performance Bike shop, and put Conti GP 4000s on the front, and when they arrive, Ultra Gatorskins on the back.

If I am still getting flats in back I may move up to the Gatorskin Hardshells. I like the pointed crown on the GP 4000s better than the Michelin Pro3 Race I've been running for 3 yrs now. Very sticky rubber too. Like super glue sticky. Will have to see how they perform.

Conti has an asymmetrical Attack/Force tire combo with a 22mm in front and a 24mm in back, with construction tweaked for turning and pushing respectively, and it got me to wondering how much sense running identical tires front and back really makes. I think I may have flatted once in 3 years in front, and 2-3 dozen times in back. I also can wear through at least 3 back tires before the front goes, so I'm going to try tailoring the tires to the task and see how that works.

As expected, I have had to move the shifters enough to require retaping the bars, and after going from blue sidewalls to black on the tires, I want more viz than royal blue and black dapple provides, so I am going back to blazing Ferrari Red. The Black & Blue tape was Profile Designs, and it has no sticky on the back. Weird, but it did allow me to move the tape up a bit to follow the shifters.

The red tape is a new up-scale tape from Performance, which admittedly is a little like saying upscale Yugo, but I ride in the aerobars so much the bar tape isn't that critical. (although I am riding on the blocks a lot more now riding with the SBH, so wrist swelling is an issue again) At any rate, it seems worth a try, and I like the fog-horn subtlety of all that red up front.

Oh, I am absolutely swimming in my new PI Elite In-R-Cool shorts. I got back from the ride on the 4th of July and had to pull them up over my naval to get them fully stretched out. I don't know if they've stretched or not, but they are causing my back muscles to cramp that far up on my kidneys. (aside from being completely ridiculous) I've received a very strong recommendation for Assos bib shorts, so I'll try those after returning the PI shorts.

Finally, it looks like the Specialized Avatar Gel seat has done the trick. Yea!

Descending the Tourmalet at 60+ mph. God's roller coaster!

So that's where I'm at, rowing along on my river of time. Keeping at it. Staying healthy. Learning, and stopping to smell the rubber along the way.

First 100-mile 'Week'

For the first time this year, I've managed to put in 100 miles in 7 days. The perpetual rain finally stopped last Tuesday, so I joined a club ride on their Beal's Pt Sprint ride, from the Fish Hatchery up to Beal's Pt. This was pretty much my bread and butter Beal's ride - except for the pace - since I rode to the start.

When I got there a few of the riders I knew were riding slow laps of the parking lot to warm up, which I didn't need to do, but it was nice to catch up with them. As the minutes ticked by we picked up riders, some who just happened by, and some, like me, were there on purpose. Few of the HWs rides have been well-attended this year, so everyone was pleasantly surprised that we headed out with ~ 14 riders.

Once we crossed under Hazel Ave on the newly reopened underpass loop, we headed up over the bridge and then down the 'chute' for the dam. On the ride briefing, Jeff had recommended we wait till around the dam before putting the hammer down, so when nobody seemed to want the lead I thought it might be a slow sprint ride.

NOT! We got 500 yards past the dam and the group started to get organized. I started passing riders as we had a pretty good tail-wind, and 23 mph just wasn't that hard. I ended up near the front of the 'fast' group of 5, and checking the Garmin trace when home, we averaged 22.7 on the 3.5 mile false-flat from there to the Negro Bar.

We did the flat stretch along Lake Natoma between 30 & 31mph, and I averaged 155bpm on that leg. The approach climb up onto the plateau of Negro Bar pushed me right to red-line for the first time, as the kites blew past me. I grabbed my waterbottle and tried to get some hydration, wind, and ride fuel in me for the main Beal's climb, now 1 mile ahead.

I regained contact with the kites, much to my surprise, but they dropped me a 1,000 yards into the climb where the 5-7% grade starts. Since I usually rest and hydrate at Negro bar when riding solo, I knew my HR was going to soar on the climb. I averaged 96% of max HR for the 14:22 it took to get to the top, and finished the last 100 yards at 102% of max.

Jeff, the owner of HWs had been laying back, saving himself for the climb, and though I held him off on the bottom part, just before we went under the bridge he and Julie went by me. Blowing hard I dropped into the aerobars and put down a few meager watts on the shallow downgrade heading under the Johnny Cash Bridge, and caught their wheel.

I stayed right on their wheel until the 9-10% kicker on the last 400 yards. Jeff was climbing out of the saddle, and started to drop Julie and I. 200 yards from the top I dropped Julie and hammered for all I was worth. I got within about 10 yards of Jeff, but couldn't catch him. I rolled past him, and as I looked back he was ballistically puking his lunch all over the road. I rolled into the concessions area gassed, but smiling, and saw the kites were dismounted and sucking hard on waterbottles.

After a break we headed across the parking lot, and back down the hill. I moved to the front, as I go downhill like a rocket, and didn't want to be riding my brakes the whole way. I picked up another rider going back under the bridge, and made a very fast technical descent, dropping him on the Oak Hill exit straight before the steepest, most technical (really broken up surface due to tree roots) stretch.

I dropped into the aerobars and tried to catch my breath as I rounded the last bend and headed down the straight stretch for Folsom. I stomped the hill leading out of the bottom between the bridges, and felt OK, but my legs didn't have their usual snap, so I eased off a bit, and tried to get my HR back into zone 4.

I stayed in front of the entire group for 5.5 miles, but the peleton caught me on the one good hill coming back. We were only 2.5 miles from the dam, but heading into the wind, I didn't want to have to ride solo. I was lucky in that there were a few weak climbers at the back, and I had saved just enough to catch their wheel.

The peleton was pretty ratty by this time, and not calling traffic, so as my wind came back I stared barking out 'bike ups' and the group seemed to collectively understand we were once again a cohesive unit. With rotations at the front, and some strong pulls by a few of the riders we managed 21 mph back to the dam. I was surprised to look back when climbing up onto the bridge to see our 14 man group had swollen to about 25. With a headwind, nobody wanted to ride alone!

I ended up on Jeff's wheel, and with faster traffic behind, and a nice gap ahead of me heading under the Hazel Ave Bridge, I decided to pass him. Yes, it was a bit of guilty pleasure, but I gave him plenty of time to step up the pace, so a righteous move. A split second later a squirrel darted across the trail, right between my wheels, and I actually felt my back wheel break loose for an instant as I ran over his tail. Jeff caught up to me and said "man, you're the luckiest guy alive!". I was leaning into the turn pretty good when it happened, so he was right!

When I got home and uploaded the Garmin I knew I was going to be tired the next day. A full 30 minutes in Zone 5, and HR averaging 87% of max, with the 102% kicker. I also averaged 263 watts, just 3 short of my PB when hopped up on Claritin, and that in spite of lolling around the parking lot doing circles in Zone 2. If I could figure out how to remove that segment, I'm sure this would be a new PB wattage.

My BP after a cool shower was in the 100/55 range, and HR around 95, so I should have taken a salt tablet, but have been wanting to ditch my BP meds, so I decided with (finally) sunny weather in the forecast I would just use that as a running start towards kicking the habit.

Long story short, I was horribly fatigued the next 2 days, sleeping most of the day. With low sodium comes low blood volume, and that creates a lot of extra work for a tired heart trying to maintain adequate blood pressure and flow. The next day it all went awry, and I ended up at a clinic with BP of 180/118. By the time the doc came in and took my BP, it was down to 160/105, but he still wanted to send me to the ER. I talked him out of it, but my headache and light headedness told me the same thing - even if I hadn't had a cuff at home.

24 hrs later I went for a flat ride down to Sac State (CSUS), up to Hazel, and then back home. I would sprint and then fade, not being able to settle on a pace. When I got home I realized I was over-medicated and lacking sodium. This is a very good simulation of high heat. I took a ThermoTab (time-released salt), waited for my BP to get back into the 130/75 range, and went to sleep. I took more med in the morning, and things started to settle down nicely.

Yesterday I did the identical route, this time without accidentally turning off the Garmin in the middle of the ride, and things went a lot better, even though the heat was a factor early in the ride. I took a ThermoTab again after my shower, and then a med before bed, and was in great shape this morning.

I think going that hard is not good training for me. It creates lingering fatigue, but I'd have to ride in the morning, away from the heat of the day to make a good call on that. I followed a big brick from CSUS back to WBP last night, and averaged 22.0 on the blocks the whole time. I'm riding in peletons a lot more these days, and am working on more speed up on the blocks. I thanked my locomotive as I peeled off.

Just as I pulled over at the drinking fountain at WBP, a group of 4 riders pulled up on 80's vintage steel bikes. One of those bikes was a Gitane! My first 10 speed bike was a Gitane, so I was thrilled to see one again in real life. We talked a lot about restoring old bikes, and local bike clubs they might be interested in. I met them 45 minutes later coming back towards them from Hazel. They were all smiles as I waved and gave them a shout. Hope I see them out there again soon!

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Time Flying - et al

Lots of things flying this week. Me, the time left to file, and refile, my taxes, time to preview the Amgen Tour of California, and time to install my new Shimano Ultegra 6703 drive-train. The latter looks pretty sweet, but as usual, I will be putting it under a microscope, and I think you'll be surprised by my conclusions.

As for me flying, I went riding with the Sacramento Bike Hikers (aka SBH) on Monday evening, staging out of Gold Country shopping center, for what for them was mostly a bike trail ride. I had about half as many miles getting to and from the start from my front door, and half the climbing, so quality 'animal miles' to and from made for 31 miles.

I paired up with a fellow brick, who, it turns out, I had ridden with before, and blogged about, though anonymously. Larry said he's been off the bike about 3 months too, with family matters taking up all of his time. He's riding a gorgeous blue Orbea, and is every bit the brick I am.

It didn't take long for me to end up in front, and Larry on my wheel. Given he doesn't have aerobars, and his long layoff, he did his fair share heading down to WBP into a 10-12mph wind. We set a good solid, 18.2mph average going down, but decided not to continue down to CSUS for the bonus 10 miles as we were both tired by the time we got to WBP.

I had been passed by a lot of the 7-8 woman group (Larry and I were the token males) because I didn't recognize them, but we managed to reel in all but 'Pam'. (can't remember her name now) She was all smiles while we shot the breeze at the drinking fountain, and waited for the rest of the group to show up. She'd gotten lucky and found a good draft to suck on, answering our question about how she managed to stay ahead of two good bricks.

Turning around for home, Pam took off like a shot, and I after her, while Larry had to close up a gap. With the wind at our backs we were really flying, 21-24mph right along. Pam pulled out and I took up the lead, getting down in the aerobars. I knew I was going too hard, but was LOVING the speed - peaking at 27mph. Huge smile, as I pushed the pace, my HR strap at home, I was enjoying my 'Off The Map' time. Larry stayed with me, but Pam disappeared. (phone call as it turned out)

When Larry took the lead I was struggling to hold his wheel, but after only a mile he was spent too, so we backed it down to 15-17 and waited for Pam to catch up. She never did, but it gave us some time to chat and work on a coordinated strategy for next time we ride together - something like push hard, but when the back guy comes up, ease into the power. The effect should be like intervals with short recovery periods.

My quick and dirty look at the early stages of the Amgen Tour is that stage #4, with the grueling Mt Hamilton climb from the NE side, may very well decide the race, and at least, the race until the queen stage in the San Gabriel Mountains. For those teams looking to base out of Sacramento, Iowa Hill out of Auburn is an excellent preparatory ride, as are hill repeats of Prospector's/Marshall Grade between hwy 49 and Georgetown. The latter can easily be made to take in Salmon Falls Rd, the heart of stage #2. Both are much safer practice areas.

Well, duty calls, so gotta go, but I'm excited to be riding again, and hope Larry and I get to do some more miles together. It would be so nice to have a well-matched riding partner.

Reincarnated Virgin

The skies kindly cleared here after a solid week of heavy rains, just in time for my 1st week back riding. Aside from a squeaky chain, and badly scuffed seat, I went out the door with the bike in ship shape, and with a lot of anxiety.

It took me forever to get suited up, find my water bottles back, mix my Gatorade, find my jersey, gloves, shorts, socks and do a final fitting on my new helmet. As I was going out the door I realized I didn't have my riding keys or sunglasses, so I had to leave the bike on the stoop and go back for them. 

I just wasn't sure how comfortable I'd be on the bike after 3 months of rehabbing the most painful injury of my life. Beyond that, I have read that many pro riders have problems psychologically recommitting to their sport after a bad crash, so clomping down the stairs in my cleats I was happy it was an epic, gorgeous spring day, with blue skies, puffy clouds, and 80 degree temps.

Hitting the start button on my Garmin I clipped in and rolled down the sidewalk for the driveway and street, shifting into a gear I could actually pedal. The new vibrant red Deda bar tape looked sharp with the new Ghisallo helmet, and red jersey, but more to the point, I hoped it made me visible as a stop sign as I approached the narrow in the road - down to 2 narrow lanes with no shoulder. The 2 SUVs left me 3 ft, but still made me nervous.

The back wheel felt a little greasy, and the bike just a bit twitchy, but at least the legs were working OK, and after a few blocks, my shoulder seemed fine - no pain at all. Unfortunately, the chain, pulled out of storage, was squeaking like I'd left it in the Libyan sun for a year, and generally reinforced my impression that I was c-r-a-w-l-i-n-g along.

About a mile into the ride I noticed my Garmin wasn't giving me a HR reading. It couldn't. I'd forgotten my HR strap! Darned! Still, after so long off the bike, it turned out to be the only thing I'd missed, and that was certainly better than forgetting my helmet or gloves.

The first good downhill is about 3 miles from the house, and I put down some power and dropped into the aerobars. OUCH! The shoulder complained immediately, and with a sharp turn at the bottom of the hill I moved back up to the hoods as quietly as I could. The bike just didn't feel quite right under me.

As I turned through the maze of riverside streets, wending my way towards William Pond Pk I tried the aerobars again, as the headwinds were substantial in places. I stayed down for a few minutes, but my shoulder was complaining, although seemingly a little less with each try.

On the way down to CSUS the wind was generally 5-8 mph in my face, so I kept testing the waters, dropping into the aerobars until my shoulder got angry, and then back to the drops. Slowly things got more comfortable, as muscles and tendons found new ways to support the altered topology of my shoulder.

I was breathing hard by the time I got to CSUS, so I rode up onto Guy West Bridge and took a breather. My glasses were already streaked with sweat, as I had decided against wearing my headband. I spotted a guy with a gorgeous Trek Madone and we had a nice chat until I mentioned I'd given up on low spoke-count wheels in favor of custom built. It was only then I noticed his wheels sported 16 :-O bladed spokes.

He'd gone on about his 'real' bike being a Cervelo' and all the trick carbon bits, and ceramic bearings he'd put on his Madone, and suddenly I was kind of peeved with this RUB - so I decided it would be a badly needed plate of humble pie if I could chase him down.

He took off like a shot, and I encountered some traffic at the bottom of the ramp, so he had a few hundred yards on me by the time I got into the power. Amazing what a good dose of adrenaline will do for performance, and pain suppression. I stayed in the aerobars, and with a few patches of tail-wind, was doing a decent job of redeeming myself.

With each small group of traffic, and each turn into the wind, I closed the gap. I was mentally shaking my head that a guy would ride ridiculously fragile wheels, but not aerobars. Ha! Advantage me! I finally closed the gap, and stayed on his wheel until he looked over his shoulder, and then backed off. I'd made my statement, but more importantly, was red-lining. I averaged 19.1 mph on that leg, almost exactly 2mph slower than my PB.

I cruised up to the drinking fountain at WBP, and had a nice chat about bike fit with a fellow 'brick'. His seat was back as far as it would go, and with a 73/17 stem, I told him he was probably giving up 2mph's worth of power, and suggested he work with Mad Cat to get a better fit.

I returned home and was anxious about what would happen overnight with my shoulder. It actually felt better than usual, especially since I had dislocated it twice the night before, enduring two intense pain spikes.

One of the women I ride with on occasion was unable to ride due to saddle sores, so I had this devious plan to ride for her -signing in with her name on the sign-in sheet - and thought it would make an entertaining mystery that she could meet her Spring Challenge while surfing her couch.

The rub was, my own seat was killing me. Torn, and scuffed, it badly needed replacing. After a lot of research I had narrowed my search down to a Fi':zi:k Arione CX Team Edition at Performance Bike Shop, and a Specialized Romin Expert (Caesar is rolling in his grave at that spelling, I'm sure) from Bicycles Plus, a LBS in Folsom.

The Romin Expert is the same saddle as the Romin SL from last year, which was priced at $150, so I was thrilled when I called for price and availability, and they had a 155mm black one on sale for $75. If it doesn't fit, I can take it back for a full refund.

The Romin saddle is tailored for riding in drops or aerobars, but the Fi`zi:k is 300mm long - almost an inch longer. The Romin saddle won out, mostly because the rails are anchored at the front about 20mm ahead of the nose of the saddle, so I expected the nose will give a little, and stop sawing me in half like my old saddle - which is basically a shorter version of the Arione CX. Hollow Ti rails, a LBS, and a lower price helped too.

Rushing around, I was able to drive to Folsom and back, buy the seat, mount it, remount the saddle bag, tail light, and aero bottle rack and get out the door in time to join the Sac Bike Hiker's ride - except I went to the wrong shopping mall! Arrrghh.

Once I realized my mistake I decided to focus on getting the saddle dialed in. I got the seat height adjusted, but decided not to fool with moving the seat fully forward until I had more tools, as that potentially would create problems for the saddle bag mounting.

I got things as dialed as I could and then pushed hard from WBP to Sunrise Blvd, averaging 237 watts for the whole ride, and scaled for HR, about 255 watts for that leg. With the seat so far back my power just wasn't there, but I still managed 18.1 mph, and averaged 147 BPM. I was pretty happy with that, and even happier that my shoulder felt good all day yesterday - although sore last night after some rainy weather rolled in.

I'm pretty happy with my conditioning, as I haven't lost nearly as much as I'd feared. I feel a lot more confident now that I can begin some rehab exercises for my shoulder and not have it blown up. Now if I can just get that very thin seat dialed in ....

,

Coach's Challenge

A friend was tasked with meeting this goal by her coach, and this simple challenge is turning out to be quite a good one. The challenge is to ride for 1 hr at an average HR at or above 86% of max, defined as ( 100 * (HR / 220-age)), with no stops, on a trainer (or outdoors), at a cadence of at least 100 rpms.

I have come close to the HR goal on several occasions, but would not even attempt it at the goal cadence, as mine has slowed from the mid-80s to the mid-70s since my calf tear. However, I have exceeded the goal HR for 30-40 minutes, which Friel's Cyclist's Training Bible forecasts should be at a HR of 102% of a 1hr/40km HR.

42 minutes at 92% of max HR implying 90% for 1 hr

Using these two traces, I should be able to meet the HR goal with a little cushion, but it will not be easy, as my LT is ~ 145 BPM. I often ride in the 148-152 range on 2 hr rides, but don't average that.

Obviously, speed, nor terrain nor wind conditions have much of an impact on this test, which is entirely focused on your 'engine', not it's effects. However, it is much easier to manage your body's resources on a flat, straight course or a trainer. To that end I have some advice. Listen to your body, and ride your own race.

While it's best to peg your HR right at the target rate and not change it, as that makes max use of slow-twitch muscles and minimizes fatigue, your body makes insulin on a 3-6 min cycle, so when you are sagging a bit, take it in stride. If you have some gas in the tank you can push a little harder the last km or two, and recover off the clock. I did this at the end of the first trace above, cranking out about 95% of max for the last 2km.

I am using the very cool feature of RideWithGPS that allows you to drag your mouse inside the ride profile box at the bottom and pick off any segment you want, with full stats. (except the Avg Watts is always for the entire ride)

That said, I am going to try to meet this goal by extending a ride with the SBH to one 1 hr leg from Gold Country, past Guy West Bridge, terminating somewhere along the golf course.

10 mi/30min ride at 90% implying 89% 1hr/40km possible

On the ARPT the section from Hazel down to Del Paso Blvd can usually be done without having to stop for traffic, and that should be enough to get 1 hr in at the prescribed pace for me. Let me know how you do!

First Outing with the Sacramento Bike Hikers

I did a fast 20-something mile ride with the SBH, which worked out to be 32 miles as I rode to the start. I guess I hung with the fast group for about 10 minutes, but was red-lining big-time at 24-26 mph. The 46 tooth "big" ring on my crank was a little inadequate at that speed. Other issues with that ring as well, so time to get a new 52t big ring.

I dropped back to a sustainable recovery pace, and waited for the slower group to catch up, which happened about 20 minutes later, led by a gorgeous tandem and a lot of half-bikes sucking on their wheel. I did the honorable thing, I got on the back of the train and sucked too! lol

You could tell this was the first opportunity for comfortable riding in 3-4 days, as the peletons were out in force tonight. In one 90 second interval we met three 15-25 man peletons. They were flying too - 20-25mph at least. You hang on tight to the handlebars when they pass, as a head-on collision between two such peletons would be pretty horrific. Only 4ft separated by a painted line, so not much margin for error.

I was coughing a LOT at William Pond Pk, and I am beginning to suspect it is a side-effect of the antibiotics I'm taking, but the ride back was strong, so no complaints.

Nice ride, and I did see some familiar faces. Fun group to ride with!

I got home and noticed a weird, fuzzy feeling green mold(?) growing on the back of my HR monitor strap. I think when I ride I sweat out enough antibiotic that it starts growing on the back of the strap? I wash it in antibacterial soap within minutes of arriving home, but have switched to Ivory bar soap and an old toothbrush now. Weird.

Also mounted new tires before heading out the door tonight. Another pair of Michelin Pro3 Race, but blue this time. I like the color of the gray better, but I saved $20 on these, and they look pretty good with the blue-ish Ultegra hubs and blue bike, but think I will need to pull the new colors together with new handlebar tape. Even guys have to color-coordinate sometimes!