sept 22 ride

I'm going to see if I can embed a map.

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blogged down

Hmmm, I haven't checked in for a while.  I've been blogging over on MySpace, thus dividing my attentions.

I've changed my plans for the second half (or third third?) of this year's cycling.  I've scratched the Metamora 4x50 and the UMCA 6-hour from the schedule.  The rib is still tender, and so is the left hip, with a little puffiness on the left thigh.  Yeah, a pro would ride through it.  Sorry, I'm not a pro.  I'm taking a very long-term view of this.  I've decided to volunteer at one of the races instead.

I've still got cyclocross season in mind, though.  Not sure which bike to race where, though.  The big red bike definitely cuts through the grass better, but the Paragon bombs the downhills.  Maybe I'll just ride the Paragon all season and call it training.

I took a basic motorcycle riders course the first weekend this month.  I was feeling a bit nervous, but the course was very well laid out, lots of skill building step by step.  There were ten of us, and everyone was getting on pretty well, so we were able to keep moving.  That made life easy for everyone.  We were able to finish the course early before the predicted storm rolled in.  Had we seen any lightning, we would have had to clear the course.

I'm now slightly obsessed with looking for a motorcycle.  I need to get a helmet and take the written and riding test (I took the course out of state, silly me), and then get some miles under my belt.

'Nuff fer now.  gotta git.

fried ham
Mood:  cheeky
Crit day today, and I was the one to hit the floor.  16 laps on a 1.5 mile closed course in an office with three 180° turns and two 90° sweepers, ups and downs inbetween.  I managed to stay with my group for the first lap, and then I gapped.  I paced myself around for the next two or three laps until a teammate of mine came up on me.  He was lapping me but had gone off the back of the Cat 4 race that had started about two minutes before my group.  We were trading pulls and I was following him through the turns, trying to learn his line.  On a hairpin, I leaned over too far, and it seems that my tubular rolled off.  I don't know why.  I went down on my left ham and my handlebar, so I have swelling on the back of my thigh, a couple of scrapes on my shin, and some lost knuckle skin.  There is now a scrape on the left shifter.  I think it still works fine, though.  I could feel stupid about the tire rolling, but as I said, who knows why?  Maybe I had the pressure too low.  But I gave my wheel a spin, and it was true, true, true.  And I build that sucker!

The uniform shows some scuff, but no holes.  I'm sorry that I banged the same leg I banged on the mountain bike a week ago, but I'm really glad I did not bang the ribs again.  Downside: DNF.  Upside: Didn't have to ride the whole durn thing!

Gee, if I do this a couple more times, I might talk myself into upgrading to SRAM Force and saving the other parts for a cyclocross bike.  Sweet!

Race day

Combo road race and TT today, only about 45 miles away, so I thought I'd go out and support the neighboring club.

We had a neutral start of a couple of miles to get out of town, and I motored up front to try to play domestique again. Well, this time it lasted all of maybe ten seconds. My teammates pulled around me, as did the rest of the small peleton. I thought I had kept my speed; I was told later I slowed down. Ooookay. I shot off the back as I had hit my brakes about midway in the field. Maybe it was me; maybe it was their bike handling. I wasn't happy riding the gutter. I may have been better off just sitting in, but I think I would have gotten kicked off pretty soon after. A mile or so later, I notice a couple of riders off the back. I worked my way up to the first, who had split from the second. At about five miles in, I caught the second one, who turned out to be a friend of mine. I thought she had stayed with the crowd. She's been racing the last week (it's kind of a local stage race). We started working together, and she found out how much fun it is to draft on me. I don't know how much she had to crank it down on the climbs, but I seemed to be keeping up.

The bad news came about halfway in. We turned a corner and saw two vehicles surrounding maybe ten riders. It seems that someone made a sharp left when he shouldn't have, resulting in a taco'ed wheel for one rider and a broken fork for another. It turned into a group ride for that group from then on.

I could have ridden with my teammates, but I chose to ride with my other friend. On one hand, that seems a little lame because she had teammates, but I had ridden with her that far and I didn't want to drop her. I ended up dropping due to my aversion to bridges. We had a big sweeping downhill that led to a longish bridge. I should have just kept my mind on the white line. I crossed it just fine, and I had lost my group. Another teammate of mine was kind of toodling along, so we rode in together.

Because he crossed the line before me, I was "last" in the road race. I can say that I was not last in the TT as I took fifteen or twenty seconds out of the guy who started thirty seconds in front of me. I thought I was going to catch him, but no go. My friend put thirty seconds into me, but that's usual. She's been riding much faster than me this season.

Criterium tomorrow, then a couple of weeks off from racing, I think. I've knocked down my schedule again. I do not plan to attempt another 200 this season. I'm going for a faster century in prepartation for a six-hour two weeks after that. I really need to get out on my cross bike to start working on that.

The guy who sponsored my Euro trip last year is interested in our doing the citizens' Paris-Roubaix. That would be both brutal and pretty cool.

Ciao ciao.

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Time trialing

I was back on the bike today to do a 40k TT. By my cyclocomputer, I did 01:12:56 at 20.2 mph. Heartrate was quite benign: 129 avg. That's about five or six beats under race pace. Max was something like 145.

Now, I just checked my results from the 20k TT, and the official results show that I had a 20.4 mph average. My heartrate was through the roof on that on. My time was 00:36:31. Double that is 1:13:01. I didn't hurt as badly today. Maybe I didn't hurt so badly back in May. I don't do well with hurt.

I've got to find some more races. I've been flat. I'm not happy toodling in mid-paced rides anymore. I like riding with my gf. It's also true that I have not had a season of my own making. I've chosen to involve myself in other things. I need to do what I like again.

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Friday, July 6
A quiet 4th of July has passed. A little housework, a little yardwork, an afternoon ride on the toodle-bike, aka the Schwinn Tourist. It is odd to ride, putting me in a very upright position. But it seems to be suited to the bike path, much more than my Zinn (effectively my sports car) and the Gary Fisher (my pickup?). I cannot ride seriously on this bike, but it will toodle down the path just fine. And toodle we did, about 24 miles round trip. I hadn't intended that many miles, but my gf made the mistake of giving me a destination, and the legs took over.
I submitted two more articles to QCBC's Pedalwheeling. One was somewhat whimsical, the other not. A racer died at the Proctor Classic Road Race in Brimfield, IL. It was an accident, short and simple, but still one that resulted in a death. I had, have mixed feelings about my place to be writing about someone I did not know and about and event I did not witness, but I still had things I wanted to say and good reason to say them. Some might say that makes me a writer, others a blabber mouth.
On to other matters. I received a message about two web servicES: Twitter and Pownce. Each is an interweaving of instant messaging and blogging and the following of threaded conversations. At what point are we talking too much? How much do we really need to tell everyone we know everything that we are doing or thinking? You have to wonder what Ray Bradbury has to say about all of this.

Time to catch up...

Geez, May 10 was the last time I checked in? Ouch! I've been blogging regularly over in MySpace territory. I'll have to get this one up to date.

37 miles of hot riding earlier this week. Boiled my brain and rode against a strange wind. I never thought I'd say this, but it's more fun riding in the rain.

Saturday, June 23. I led a mid paced ride in a mist and then zipped back for the Tour de Brew, basically a pub crawl on bicycles. Stuffed myself silly on sausages at the East Moline Bier Stube.

Friday, June 22. I rode in the local Senior Olympics race. Last year, I was 2m 44s back of the leaders. This year I was 6m 20s down. The difference was that I was a good domestique and motored the first five miles to protect two of my teammates. Had I ridden with last year's gap, I would have only gained one position, and had I gotten my motor started a bit quicker after recovery, I might have even gained that position back as I was only down 15s. So it was a pretty good trade, as I see it.

Mountain bike riding...I've been to Sunderbruch Park and back to Sylvan Island. I keep mashing my right forearm, the one I scraped at the end of Tailwind. I gave a tree trunk a whack at Sunderbruch, and I leaned over too far in pea gravel at Sylvan. My skin is in various states of disrepair depending on how many times it was scraped.

TOMRV...I did day #1 of TOMRV,--Tour of Mississippi River Valley. 110 miles, lots of climbing in the last 40 miles. Two bridges I do not like, but for the first time, I rode both. I charged the last hundred yards of the last hill, got some cheers from another team on the hillside. We stayed in a wonderful b&b that night. The day after, my gf and I rode on the Heritage Trail, which starts in northwest Dubuque.

Balltown Classic...another DNF, but with a completely different complexion. I rode far more intelligently, but a little lackadaisically. Where I was burnt out after 105 last year, I was still strong at 130+ this year. I ran out of time, light and weather. When the rain started at dusk, I knew it was time to pull the plug. With more luck, more strength, and more pluck, I will make it next year.

Memorial Day Weekend...started in Burlington on the Friday beginning the four days. Followed the pro/1/2 race; those boys are just strong! Saturday was a lot of standing in rain and steam when the sun came out. Got to see a teammate take a win after the leader flatted. Muscatine came next, more standing, then riding over a 15mph speed bump at 35-40mph. Oh, joy. I got to sleep in my own bed on Sunday evening before going to the home event in Rock Island. A pretty even day, few crashes and only a couple of cheaters in the wheel pit.

QCBC 20K TT...fat is slow...I pegged my HR at 145 with a max of 154 (which I never do!)...and rode the slowest TT I've done in four years. I've got to drop some tonnage.

Bike resurrections...I rebuilt a pseudo-mtb that a friend pulled from a creek. Got it running just fine. I also found a late 50s Schwinn Corvette at an antique store and a late 70s Schwinn Tourist at a rummage sale. The Tourist only needed a tube for the rear tire. I've already got more than four hours of labor into the Corvette's front wheel, and I'm waiting on tires, S-7, odd proprietary size.

That's it. I'll try not to fall off the back again.

 

stream of consciousness ride report

Scott rides to parking lot, meets friends
Scott leads ride out on path.
Scott drops to back of pack to tell story in Hampton.
Scott drops off pack up golf course hill.
Scott attempts chase back, never quite catching pack, even after turn to Rapids City.
Scott finds John H. with a flat, maybe just should have handed John a front wheel. Small group comes back. Small three-ring circus ensues; John may have fixed it faster himself.
Group descends to Rapids City, starts chaseback.
Scott drops on hill out of Port Byron.
Scott attempts second chase back.
John H. drops back to help.
Scott give it best shot, hitting 27mph, acknowledges limits, tells John to chase back while still possible. My most humble and great thanks to John.
Scott takes downhill to Port Byron.
Scott meets Dave Gantzer and friend, rides for a couple of miles.
Scott goes on, until Scott's rear tubular blows out. No crash, just
blowout. Scott has tubes; Scott does not have spare TUBULAR TIRE.
Scott walks until Gantzer and friend pass.
Scott calls team car; team car is in Clinton. Bummer.
Scott gets bored, decides to ride.
Scott finds that tubular can be ridden at 10mph.
Scott rides. Team car finds Scott as he turns into Silvis from Hwy.
84. Team manager goes to buy beer.
Scott gets home, drinks beer, orders pizza.
Scott checks wheel, finds no damage.

Lessons: Scott needs to ride more. One can ride home on a flat tubular. Scott can glue a tire. Scott can build a solid wheel; it was not out of true when he got home.

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the day after

Well, I'm still here, still in one piece. I'm a little stiff, but the scrape is not bad, doesn't pull very much at all. I did a slow hour on the trainer for recovery. Two days after is usually when these things hit me, so we'll see what I feel like then.

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saturday hundred

QCBC Tailwind Century today...not my best performance, not my worst, just have to relearn how to ride long again.  Basically, I started out too fast, did a five-mile spurt with a teammate...dumb, dumber, dumbest.  I found a new guy to ride with, who I met in the shop the other day, really nice guy, well-matched in speed and temperament.  He had a couple of mph on my today.

And I managed to put myself on the pavement, get a little road rash, use up a helmet, two lousy miles from finishing.  No damage to the bike, no big deal for me, even.  I probably hit my head harder today than I did three years ago.  This one didn't seem so bad, maybe because I knew I was going down.  I had no trouble getting back on the bike after I went down, and I had no trouble getting on the mtb this evening.  That's a good thing.