Wednesday, July 30, 2008

It's raining, and I'm kind of glad


Man, that was, like, 6 road bikes ago. I liked that bike, Bianchi L Lite Alloy (Mercatone Uno replica), Cinelli Alter stem, Campag Chorus, bomb proof 32h training wheels (Sun ME14-A/Chorus hubs). Weird how I remember all that, that was probably 2000 based on the apartment. Note the Pearl drum shirt: I got it from Eric Singer of Kiss (and Alice Coopers band) at a drum clinic he put on at a music store in Muncie. It's signed, but you can't see it in the pic.

So it's raining this a.m., and I don't really mind the day off. I had TT ints scheduled, and the workout translates over to trainer very easily, but I don't think I'm going to do that. It's getting the time of year where wed-fri I am really tired, so I'm just going to bag it and clean up my road bike.
RS and I rode yesterday and it was so humid/foggy when we were going out that it was almost like riding in light rain. I need to lube my chain after that.
We rode a ride I've done just a few times, but that is really good. (for B-towners)- out old 37-to anderson-up low gap-to catholic cemetery (monster climb road)-into forest, across main forest road-in old 37.
we rode this 45miler in 2:13, for an av of ~21.1mph w/ town. Our rolling av was more like ~22. That's pretty smoking for that ride. I hope I can hang onto this form for another few weeks and ride like this for the IN Stage race in mid August.

Monday, July 28, 2008

Sheer human power



I did another 40k time trial yesterday (Sunday).
I was 1 or 2 seconds off of my best, which was set two weeks ago. But the course rode slightly different. last time there was a headwind out and a tail wind in. Yesterday there was no wind at all, making the rider 100% fully responsible for his/her speed; there would be no help from the tail wind, nor could one blame the headwind for 'blowing him up.'
So, I was satisfyed to have gone (basically) the exact same time as I did before.
I felt fast, and doing math in my head, I figured I could come in under 55min, but doing math in my head under noraml circunstances is one of my weaker suits, so add anaerobic exhaustion to it, and I'd be lucky to tell you what 2 + 2 is. (it's 4)
My brother and his wife came to town from Chicago this weekend. It was awesome to hang w/ the for awhile. It was nice to have Bloomington "to ourselves" (the students haven't fluxed in just yet), and we had a nice couple of days walking around Kirkwood the shops, eating at Laughing Planet, ice cream at Brusters, checking out my fav music store ,etc.
Plus we hung out w/ one of Evin's friends that lives here, Glenn. We ate our ice cream at his house on his kiler back porch and played w/ his miniature Dacshound(sp? [wiener dog]) Good times.
I don't have any racing on the caldendar for a couple of weeks, so I'm going to train by ear for a week or so and try to take it easy.
I have some improvments I'm making to my MTB and from those improvments, I'm building a new cross wheelset.

Bye.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Tired, but fast


Result sheet from the Morgan-Monroe 10mile TT this week (click to enlarge, dummy). I PR'd again.

RS said to me this morning while we were riding "it must be nice to PR every time you ride."
I have been riding really well lately. Problem is, I'm getting wore down. I know I'm headed for burnout, but I'm on such good form, I hate to slow down. Wednesday I rode my 4-hill climb ride and felt like I was struggling. I got in and checked my time: I was 5 minutes faster than I have been this whole year for the ride.
Within the next two or so weeks, I need to take an easy week. Maybe not off completely, but easy w/ lower volume. August 23 is the Indiana Stage race, and I did okay in 1-2-3 race last year, I want to do good this year, so I need to play it smart and not be fizzled by then.
I have been riding w/ RS for many, many years and he was commenting today on the leaps and bounds I have made in the past few years. It is good to hear things like this from people you respect as athletes and from the fastest person you know. When someone of his stature tells you are killing it, tearing it up, etc. it boosts the old ego.
It's looking like we're going to the 40k TT this Sunday. Another PR? We'll see, 55.55was hard to get and will be even harder to better. Honestly, I don't plan to better it.
My brother and his wife is coming to town this weekend too. It should be fun to hang w/ them for a while.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

In the Money!


Off the start line @ DINO AMBC N. Vernon. I'm in the blue/white just the left of center. Josh is right behind me.

I ended up 17th out of ~70 at the IN St. RR. Still in the money, but it was our team effort that impressed the day. Gerrant Parry tells the story better than I: http://www.teamtortuga.org/blog/.
Today Ryan and I went out and killed the 60k route around Lake Monroe. We av'd just under 22 mph, w/ just the two of us. He and I both raced yesterday (he a tri in IL, me the RR in Fishers) and it occurred to me at some point that this was the hardest "recovery" ride I have ever done. Whatever though, if you've got some fast, you might as well spend it because it doesn't save.
I'll be racing this weekend too, either MTB Sunday at Westwood Park in New Castle, or a 40k TT in Monrovia. I'm not sure which yet, but one or the other. Westwood is a course that I have never done particularly well at. It isn't hard, pre se, but it's long and taxing. Lot's of pedalling. And if it's wet, forget it, I don't even want to mess w/ that. So we'll see.

Friday, July 18, 2008

Uneventful training week.


My brother, Evin w/ Vince Neil in Chicago somewhere.

Due to it being a rather uneventful training week, you get a pic of Evin w/ Vince Neil. I guess he was doing some promo for a brand of Tequila or something so Evin went over to meet him.
3 highlights:
1) Tuesday was a hard trainer w/ RS doing flat intervals, but me attacking hills. This means he rides hard on the flat stretches, I attack and ride hard on the hills, then he catches back up when it flattens out and I have to get back on his wheel. Really good road training.
2) Wed I went out to do a big gear TT workout on Bottom Rd, which was closed due to bridge work about halfway out. So I had to make several 180* turns to get the intereval done. A little different, but it worked.
Wed night there was a litle get together for the going away of a good friend, Tim Cote, and his lady. They're moving next week to North Carolina. He's a good friend and great athlete; they'll be missed.
Tomorrow is IN St RR in Fishers. We my ride MTB's Sunday. I got some nes stuff for my MTB, but I don't plan to get it all on and ready anytime soon. I need new wheels, as my rims are starting wear, so I decided rather than rebuild V-Brake wheels in 2008-2009, I'd spend a little more and get disc brakes and wheels. I got the brakes, but have no wheels for them yet. When I make the changes, I'm going to build my Chris King hubs into cyclocross wheels. It'll be sweet.
So, I'll make over my CX and MTB in the coming months, and it isn't really going to cost too much!

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Muncie Weekend



It was a good weekend to be friend of mine. The podium is 2/3 my good friends, Big Zach Ruble on top and Ryan Shannahan on the second step.

This weekend was the Muncie Endurathon ½ Ironman triathlon. As the official event mechanic, I was busy most of the morning doing the work that people should have had done prior to showing for a race, as well as tending to some emergency fixes too. It always a fun weekend for me to get back to M-town and hang out w/ all my old friends. That was all well and good, but it rained absolute buckets throughout pretty much the whole race. I was soaked to the bone, and after I was done w/ my work, I headed for a park shelter to try to dry out and watch the race. It was a good race and no athletes complained about the rain at all. What a bunch of positive people (I would have been bitching non-stop).
The after party at Shane’s was awesome as always w/ tons of food and everyone shows up. Plus BOTH of the houses at which I stayed had Vs. TV network, which broadcasts the Tour De France, so I got to watch some Tour.
I rode in Muncie Saturday and Sunday (though I didn’t ride the race course Sat. due to the torrential rains) and it was fun to ride a couple of my old rides that I cut my cycling teeth on.
I had a great weekend overall.
This coming weekend is the IN St. RR Championship in Fishers which was rescheduled from early June when it rained ~10” in one day and shut down half the state. I’ve raced this course once, but am not really sure what to expect. I guess I should expect to ride hard and be tired afterwards.

Best of luck to my good friend (one of my bestestes), Dan Prater who is moving to California (Davis) tomorrow.

Monday, July 07, 2008

DINO AMBC Pics




(I think they'll get bigger if you click them)
Right before finish. 2hrs, 37min, and I can still muster a smile for Luther.


Just after finishing. Note the mud all over!


Lindsay w/ my muddy self.

Sunday, July 06, 2008

The Missing Link (needle in a haystack)



The picture is of the Sram “missing link” chain master link. These beauties make chain installation and removal a breeze, eliminating the need for a chain “breaker” tool, after the initial installation. They are, until today, hassle free (the quarter is for size reference).
Today at the DINO AMBC MTB race at Muskatatuck Park in North Vernon, I crashed about 5 minutes in. No biggy, crashes in MTBing are regular, and really to be expected. So I hit the ground, got up, jumped on my bike in the same place I fell (no one had yet passed me) and realized my chain was lying on the ground. Broken chain? again, it happens. I picked it up (by this time several people had passed me), examined both ends, which had no sign of breakage. The missing link had fallen out. I have never seen this happen. At some point when I fell, the link fell out and the chain fell off. So I was left to try to find the two plates pictured above on the ground, in a woods. I looked for about 5 minutes (by this time I was waaaay o.t.b. [off the back] in the Expert race, and had been passed by most of the sport race too), and gave up. I stared to walk in, but in my first step I saw a glimmer in the leaves, it was ½ of my missing link. I thought ‘the other half HAS to be near it,’ and it was! I got the chain back together, and since I was so far back, I figured I’d just ride as hard I could, if I stayed last, fine, if I passed people, even better. So I chased SUPER hard for the next two laps, passed several people and ended up doing okay, considering. I rode really strong and since racing is always the best training, it was a helluva training day!
We also had a killer ride on Friday, the 4th of July. The weather was rotten, so we didn’t get out until late, but 4 of us rode super hard on a good local ride. I was really tired afterwards, and was pleased to have contributed to such a scorcher of a ride.
This weekend it’s back to Muncie for the Endurathon ½ Ironman. Not to race, of course, to help out and hang out. I’ll do some Muncie rides while there, I’m still not 100% sure if I’m going to ride the course during the race this year or not. It feels a little awkward because I’m passing people and some think I[‘m racing against them and if they up their pace to keep me in sight, then blow their run, it’s bad.
We’ll see though. It is a fun course…

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Crash! (the gods must be angry...)


I crashed. On road. I haven't crashed on road since, like, 1999 in a Road Race at Purdue.
A car was passing us on our left, in a left hand bend (unsafe pass), so we were keeping right to give the car room. The roads around here are erroding from all of the rain, and I hit a spot of road that had fallen away. I high-sided going 22mph. My file goes form 22 to 0. The picture is of my elbow, that's all I really ended up with. My bike, clothing, etc. were all fine. I have a litlle chip in the carbon on my LH shift lever, which some clear nail polish (thanks Lindsay) touched up, and I had to true my ft wheel. I was fortunate. It was a spectacular crash that probably ~should~ have been worse; 22mph is pretty high speed to hit pavement. I got up, checked everything, straighten my left shifter out and finished the ride (it happened ~20miles into 60). I was glad RS talked me out of turning in after the crash.
Other than my left wrist being sore, I'm totally fine.
I say "the gods must be angery" because today I was doing big gear TT intervals and I broke a spoke. 2 mis-haps in two days!
Now, the wheel I have came from a customer who wanted to replace it because he was breaking spokes, but 1) he weighed probably 250, so I figured I could get away w/ fixing it and using it and 2) I've been using it for about a year trouble free. I fixed it tonight, we'll see how long it lasts (the tension is all whacked).


This is a turtle I saw on the side of the road this a.m. (Bottom Rd) while doing TT intervals. The picture does not do him justice; he was huge. I wanted to put my foot next to him for size reference, but I was afraid he may bite me. I'd say his shell was about a foot across and 14-16" long. His tail was probably 10" long. I wonder how old a turtle this size is.


This is the pic taken after my 40k PR. it may be a crappy picture, real small and/or pixel-y. Whatever, you get what you pay for.