Strava-Good or Bad Thing?

Right out da gate...Strava is a very cool site for GPSers. It keeps track of everything, some glitches here and there, but good none the less. Here is what I dont like; the fact that it exists. You are a complete idiot-that is, you the reader responding to my comment. Let me explain why. If you are training, Strava can, if you let it, sway you from your initial plan. Strava keeps track of KOM's (King of the Mountain). This is a very cool feature, problem is if you are KOM, someone will eventually beat you. Now, if you have incredible resilience to having the immediate urge to suddenly awake at 3am in the nude due to images of a 3 year old on a tricycle ripping you a new one on your favorite climb to go out and hammer that section and reclaim your KOM, you are stronger than me. It is very easy to get caught up in the hoopla, I myself have done that, especially if you worked hard to earn it. So I am making a conscious effort to be more in tune with sticking to my training plan and hopefully stick to it.

Ouch!

Today was the first 50 miler in a month. After last weeks balls to the wall hammerfest, I think my body is saying-"Slow down Pops, give me a break, ok?" Overall, it wasnt a bad ride-18.8 mph avg over 50 miles with 2k of elevation, but not the best. It was just too nice of a day to let it go.

Here is a comparison from last year at this point; huge difference.

2011

2012

Got a few races coming up in april-Bakers Dozen and Fairhill, both of which I have had great success racing, including a 1st place at Fairhill and a near bout with a 1st place in the SS solo class at Bakers Dozen. I will be doing a duo with my friend Blake Bricker this year at Bakers, so we should have a great showing. I am looking to take another win at Fairhill as well, we will see if it is the cards this year. If taking 8:37 off of my Sugar Hill time is any indication, it looks to be a possibility. Anyway, go ride your bike and as always, you aint a moron if you aint goin gearless.

Trek Mountain Co-Op

Yep, I have been adorned with the colors of the Trek Co-Op Mountain Team. My friend and rep Jon Rogers brought me some goodies today at the shop, including the lovely and fast Bontrager Rhythm Pro Scandium Wheelset, RXL Bar, R# tires for the roadie side of me and of course the new kit.

So Now I am riding for The Trek Adventures for the Cure Bike Doctor team. WooHoo!

Another Solid Day on the Road

Man, if you would have told me last year that I would be putting in back to back days at 20+ mph avg. and a 11.6 mph, 20 mile mtb ride 3 days after a tough race; I would have said there is no way that I could put in back to back days at 20+ mph avg.  and a 11.6 mph, 20 mile mtb ride 3 days after a tough race. The last few days I feel amazing. My HR is staying low and I am crushing my previous times. Today I did my usual BWI loop A1 before work ride and turned in a 20.4 mph average with some crazy strong uphill sprints to boot. My HR is the biggest surprise of all. I am becoming more economical with how my energy is being used. Last year, some of these climbing sprints would have resulted in HR easily in the mid 195 range. My power would have greatly decreased by the end as well. Not only did I get faster as I neared the top, but was able to sustain that power. Todays ride I tried something a little different; I did all of my climbs seated and using 53x15 gearing. Normally I would stand and power up the climbs. So now starts more intense work along with some hill repeats as well. Now, if you are new to monocogging, at least what I am coming to find is, your training better be geared towards doing hill repeats and do em' strong! You still have to do your other stuff, but hill repeats should be a mainstay. Do them on the road bike if you can. It allows for longer, more sustained hard efforts without worrying about terrain. I promise you will get stronger. Hey, if an old 44 year old dad of 3 can do it, no excuse for you!

Getting old doesnt mean being old

We dont need no stinkin Geritol!

Yeah, 44 isnt Rosetta Stone material, but in the cycling world, it isnt considered youth either. I am happy to tell all of you mid-death aged riders, gettin old doesnt mean you have to give in. I get tired of hearing guys 10 years younger than me come up with every excuse in the book as to why they are slow-thats BECAUSE YOU SAY YOUR TOO OLD!!!! KNOCK IT OFF! I hear it all of the time. You arent too old, your too complacent! Just get on the bike and ride! I know at some point, I will succumb to the reality that my body wont allow me to go faster, but start to decline...not anytime soon I hope. I feel the best I have ever been in my life right now. Sure, some improvements can be made, but I dont have 15-20 hours a week to make that happen. I work with what I have and try to maximize the time I have on the bike to its fullest. 

This year has shown a huge improvement over last year so far. I knocked 8:32 off of my race time from last years AFC sufferfest and still felt ok at the end. I would have never been able to go out and hammer like I did sunday for 20 miles on the SS and turn around a do my M2 tempo ride at a 20.7 avg speed...never. I am training smarter, but still having fun riding. I think most people go out and train everyday; thats ok I guess, but you lose the most important part of cycling-riding with friends. I know you know the type-Nah, I am doing 37 hill repeats and going home to drink some protein shake. Or-I am going out for a "casual" ride today; it ends up being a day you wish you stayed in bed.

All I am saying is, if you want to get faster, then you better make sure you ride with faster people and figure on training. If you want to ride and have fun, do that too. Whatever you do, dont ever say your too old to race, ride or whatever. I can and others my age and older still give it to the younger guys and it feels pretty good; in fact, look at results sometime, especially in the SS cat. Youre gonna find that most of the faster guys are in their 40's baby. We aint goin away anytime soon either!

AFC Sugar Hill and a great 4th place finish

At least I am very color coordinated

I love to hate this race-lets just get that out in the open. I love it, but I get so worked up before hand that it really throws me off a bit. I have "slimmed" down to 183lbs., I guess that is as slim as I'm gettin folks. This years cast of monocogging characters was, I would say the best one so far. 31 starters and all of them fast, fast fast. Teammates Adam Driscoll, Jonathon Houghton and Blake Bricker (who I will be doing Bakers with) along with Bernie Shiao along with some fast youngins as well rounded out this years group. I think what I get so nervous about are the "unknowns", Now I dont mean that in a derogatory manner, but just the guys you dont know that could throw a wrench in your cog.

I decided to run a 32/19 on the Superfly SS, which incidentally is the first time racing it at Patapsco. I ran a 32/18 on wednesday, but it felt a bit hard on my 44 year old bod. I made a good choice. The flats were a bit hoppy, but the climbs were ever so slightly easier? It was also the first race on the Niner rigid carbon fork. 4 words Very Fast Very Stiff. Yep, the rock gardens were a bit rough, but it is super accurate. No flex at all, so on the climbs, it was beautiful, just beautiful man. The bike weighs in at 18lbs even now, but doesnt feel frail at all.

Anyway, this years goal was, as usual to shave some time from last years time. Wednesday pre-ride without a 3 mile section timed in at 2:04. Today I ended up with a 2:02:47 with the additional 3 miles! That was 8 minutes faster than last years time. So the training seems to be working. I held 2nd for 2:00:01 of the race and then it hit-the thigh burn was just too great and Jonathon Houghton passes me a mile or so from the end. I was able to stick with him, but couldnt get by. He did beat me by 2 minutes-33 seconds last year. This year only 9 seconds separated us. AAAAAHHH! I ended up 4th, which was 1 down from last years results, but this was my best race there so far. Eight minutes off and a strong finish-so I am very satisfied with my placement.

On a somewhat interesting note; my HR only got to 187 for a max, and my average was 171. My max HR is 200 so I am assuming that my training program is allowing me to be a bit more economical in regards to power output. Or I just didnt try hard enough. Normally I would hit in the high 190's and my average would be my LTHR-178. So 8 minutes faster with less effort-that's what Im talkin bout! It surely took a toll on my body, but climbing Ridge 3x's will do that.

Anyway, it was good seeing Blake and Sandie-who raced SS female and did great, both of whom are great people and riders to boot! So next year, sub 2:00?


Adam finished 1st, Jonathon 3rd and me 4th in the SS class. Chris and Auggie finished 6th and 7th in the sport class with a sprint to the finish. Pat finished 4th in the gear head division so it was a great day overall for the AFC TEAM!

AFC Sugar Hill Pre Ride Race Pace-ish

Man, what a great day. 72°, 99% of the trails are dry and clear trails. Today I decided to go out and kill myself with a 27 miles pre ride race pace-ish SS jaunt through Patapsco. Now mind you, I didnt set out to do 3 laps today; it was one of those things that you decide on the spur of the moment, er uh spontaneous.

First lap was rather dismal, the waterbar climbs killed me for the 1st half of the loop. I had limited power and almost named the ride-the vomit comet; yeah, real close to it. The second lap was much, much better. I turned in my fastest loop time at 38:21, last year my fastest was 40:38-so looking ok. Came to the end of the 2nd lap and was going to cut it short half way through the 3rd lap, but for some odd reason, I went on. 3 times up Ridge is not something I look forward to at all. In fact, I felt pretty blah on all 3 attempts. I finish the ride feeling pretty depleated, although satisfied. I think being on the road bike so much this year has put a damper on my mtb climbing efforts, but still time to overcome that.

Last year, my time was 2:10 for the race, today's time-although not a race (which is usually a slower time anyway) was 2:01:34-almost 9 minutes faster than last year. I would like to think that I can duplicate that effort saturday; we'll see. Ridge will certainly be the deciding factor for sure.

Feelin pretty rough today

Today was the first Bike Doctor Shop/AFC team ride in a while for me, and man was it a winner. Quick run down. Drive 35 minutes and get ready. Adam, Pat, Bruce and Jon-along with 20 others-had a nice warm up ride from the park and ride to the shop. Lets start off at a 22 mph pace for 10 miles ! OUch. The wind was brutal and I wasnt feeling all that great trying to maintain that insane pace. I struggled, but kept within 10 seconds of the immortals. We finally settle down after a pretty nasty crash in the group. Everybody was good-albeit the bikes were a little bad off. The pace "slowed" to a 18.6 mph pace-whew...glad for that break! I ended up doing 40 miles overall and legs are feeling pretty rough. Gotta take it a little easy for Sugar Hill this week. Over and out!

The Little Kangaroos move to 5-1-1

These guys deserve a huge round of applause. To see how 6 7 and 8 year olds have grown as a team and progressed to become the "powerhouse" team-can you say that for a kids team? Heck yes! They won by a landslide over the second place team 38-26. They are now 1 game ahead in first place. Alex scored 14 pts, 6 rebounds,7 assists and 6 steals. The points were spread out a little more as the kids worked on setting up defense and passing the ball more. Alex loves to pass, but the kids on the team love to pass it back to him to shoot. Anyway, Alex has 94 pts on the year in 7 games for a 13.4 ppg avg. In his first season last year-which was a rugby league at best-he made just 4 baskets. He has really shown that this is his game. Come on son, dont you want to ride?

Great Ride on the Road

Nice Numbers

Yesterday was one of those days that you want to ride because the sun has fooled you into thinking that yes, it is 65° but he doesnt tell you that Mr. Wind has a surprise up his sleeve...Senior Gust. Now going into this ride, which is a tempo day, I had pretty much figured that it was going to be a struggle just to maintain 18mph. Of course living on the water makes the wind even more of an issue. So I get through my usual 10 mile starting loop at a 20 pace. Hmmm, ok it will change when I hit some of the climbs and the wind. 30 miles in and I am still at 20. The best part is that I feel like Super Man at this point. Even with the 20mph head winds, I am not feeling the burn at all, in fact my HR is hovering around 80% (160bpm). The real test was on the way back west on Pulaski Hwy, the head winds are at their worst. It always seems to blow the same direction every time I ride. Well, I still managed to hang around the 19mph clip, and feeling good. I know the avg speed had dropped at this point, but I still had some climbs to go and 10 miles. I hit Eastern ave and tucked and rolled. I got home and was pleased to find that after 52 miles, my average speed was at 20 exactly. Now, what I havent mentioned yet is the that during the ride, the only info displayed on my GArmin was %HR and HR zone-no speed, time, avg speed, etc. Maybe the key to riding a little faster is less info for the brain to fool you with.

So, I feel much stronger than last year at this time. The same loop in february of last year with less wind yielded a 19.4 average. Hopefully this will transfer the same results for the race season.

The Kids... in cartoon

Just finished my illustrations of the family, so I figured I would share. Just another side of the singlespeed moron that most of you dont know about; the artsy fartsy illustrator moron. You can see them in all of there glory a bit larger by clicking on them.

They arent always this colorful!

Great Ride with the AFC guys

Today marked the 2nd time out on the Superfly SS with the Niner fork. I would like to say that all is well and I didnt spend 54 minutes in the parking lot with the help of Double Matts and Jay trying to remedy the perpetual knocking headset, or spending a ridiculous amount of time on our hands and knees trying to locate the spring that holds the compression pieces together on the plug...but I cant. Soooo, I rode 18 miles with a loose headset. Other than that, the ride was great. Riding with those guys is a great time. Not too serious and just the right amount of suffering. I did take my first digger in a long, long time; busted up the left knee-yeah, the one with the click. Bike is good, so I am good. I did ride harder than I was supposed to (in zone 5 for 28 minutes), but Mr. Lins seemed to enjoy that. It is a tad bit harder to be as efficient on the SS than the geared thing for sure. That would have been a better choice for todays ride, I think-WHAT! Did he say what I thought he said? I did. Hey, the Superfly 100 has 112 miles on it and my other SS combined have 2500, so put that in your pipe and smoke it. I have always wanted to use that expression and now...probably wasnt worth the wait. So go out and ride and keep those shorts up.

Looking forward to a great ride with the AFC team on the morrow

Tomorrow looks to be like another great time with the AFC team on the trail. Should have about 7-9 of us out there. Most of the guys live right there around the park-lucky indeed. It is always a very fast paced ride-usually 10-12 mph with 3,000+ feet of climbing. It is always great to be on the trails with people that really enjoy riding. Most of the guys put in 120-200 miles per week. We meet at the park and ride around 7 am, so come out and join the sufferfest! See you in the a.m.!

The Little Kangaroos Rock it Again!

Today marked yet another win for the mighty Little Kangaroos; defeating the Bears 20-16. The Bears "were" the best team until today, both 3-1 with a tie coming in. The team has been working on defensive skills during practice this week and it showed. The team played as a unit for the first time this year-from calling plays to taking control of the ball. Alex had another fine performance with 14 pts and 5 assists. That brings his total to 80 pts in 6 games-You rock Boi! Two more games left in the season and on to baseball.

Blowin' Out the Pipes at Patapsco

Today...well this week was supposed to be a rest week for me. So averaging 11 mph and get the HR above 185 wasnt the smartest thing to do. Eh, I was feeling good and OH, forgot to mention; have a Niner carbon fork on the Supafly and today was the first ride. In a nut shell, it is a full one pound lighter (532 g's)than my Switchblade (955 g's)-bringing the total weight to...17lbs. 12 oz., my Fisher road bike was heavier than that! Anyway, I attacked some climbs at Patapsco that I would not normally put huge efforts into this time of year, but new toy requires testing. It tracks very well and is surprisingly forgiving. Not going to go into alot of details, but the only thing that was an issue was the headset loosing up due to the compression plug-all fixed now.

It Lives up to its Name

Soapstone-aka little heart attack is one of the steepest climbs at the park-some parts are 17-23% with roots and 200ft of elevation in 1/4 mile. I wasnt going to go full out, but the fork was beckoning me to thrust my 182lb frame into the bowels of the beast...nevermind. Out of the saddle, it did not stray off line. No torsional flex whatsoever. I will give a more detailed review later on, but for now, if you are riding a rigid fork and want the best, this could be it.

Time for a ReBuild

Yes, that is french "ReBuild". Some long hours in the saddle this past week-216 to be exact. Time to focus on some easy rides and rest-maybe and then go into the build phase! You have to sing it like Ethel Merman; come on, you can do it-ready...into the build phaaaaaaaaase! That was ok, moving on.

I have put in close to 1340 miles so far this year. Most of this is geared towards the longer 9 and 12 hour stuff later on in the year. March 3rd will be the most insane day ever for me. Why? I will tell you-4 hours on the trainer. I can think of a lot of things I would rather be doing; being castrated, colonoscopy, picking dead skin from a 90 year old womans feet...ok the last one is worse than seeing said woman in the buff. Anyway, it is for Cystic Fibrosis, so I guess I better stop being negative. It will be a true test of my dedication or a false sense of accomplishment. Ethel, you are the greatest...I cant get you outta my haiiiiiiirrrrrrr! Over and out.

Feeling Really Good Now and Another Fine Performance from Alex

I know it is too early to tell, but I feel really good right now. I have lost 5 lbs. down to 182-my normal weight, still no lightweight by any means, but I feel very strong. I am able to maintain good power on climbs, even on the early stuff. The wind has been really bad, but even with headwinds, I can still maintain 18+.

The Madone is still as amazing as when I first got it. It is a great blend of comfort and performance. If you are in the market for a new road bike, look at the 4 series. It is a great deal. Of course you can come into the Bike Doctor of Linthicum and check them out as well. MIne is over the top with Sram Red stuff, but the insurance check paid for most, so who cares.

Anyway, Alexs' team had a hard victory today against the team that couldnt differentiate between basketball and football. If this were a pro game, the other team would have fouled out most of its players within the first 20 minutes. They won 18-12 and Alex had a different game today. He only scored 8 points in 8 shots, but had 9 assists 5 rebounds and 5 steals and really focused on passing and taking charge of the offense. 64 points on the year with a 77% avg, not bad for 8. The team is now 3-2. The team played very well as a whole. The defense was great considering who they played. He is a great leader and a super cool kid-as are all of my kids!

No going back

Well, I am now officially recognized as a cat 1 XC racer singlespeeder man...guy...human; at least by USA Cycling. I emailed my resume and somehow they saw fit to accept my upgrade to cat 1.

Seems as though a few races this year are sanctioned by USA Cycling. In order to race Cat 1 SS, your license must reflect that. Last year I raced all expert/ss open cat, but none of the races required me to have a license. I feel all giddy inside. So...44, racing against guys half my age...doesnt get any better than that! Sure I will get snuffed by a few of the youngins, but they will feel the wrath of "Pops, the Monocog Wonder"!

Eh, I still have the ability to progress and get faster, at least for the foreseeable future. I was a little worried earlier this year. Yesterday I did my first hill repeats of the year which consisted of 4 x 3 (4 sets of 3 minutes each with 3 minutes rest) 53/19 @ 70 rpms on a .6 mile 3.8% avg grade, so not to bad. I did a 74 mile road ride on wednesday, so I wasnt even sure that was smart-but it is me we are talking about here, so anything on the side of stupidy always trumps practicality and common sense-I guess that means you are in the same boat, or you wouldnt be reading this...right? Anyway, I didnt push full on, but got the HR in low 180's, which is about 4-6 bpm above LTHR. I felt really good during and afterwards. In fact, I got faster while maintaining the same HR and cadence increased, so I was able to maintain power, which is a good thing.

First race is a month a way, and it is my favorite and toughest. 31 registered for SS class with some very fast people. I am just going to keep my head down and push it... ah push it...da do da do da...dadadadada...babe babe...ew babe babe. Thats enough-over and out!

Hints of spring and a sore butt

Today was one of those days that you should be on the bike; unless of course you were working-sorry. Started off a bit chilly, but slowly warmed up to the high 50's. The wind of course seems to always save the best for my day off on wednesdays. 20 mph gusts in all of the directions that hindered my efforts, even descents were not "rest" spots. I have to admit, It really grates me. Especially if you have set aside time to do a 70 miler, as I did today and you are pushing much harder than your training schedule allows.

Anyway, 74.5 miles and 18.2 avg. speed, but felt very battered and without power. My biggest concern was about 4 miles in, my rear end was already uncomfortable, I mean to the point that I was picking, maneuvering, wiggling and everything in between to find a comfortable position-it never happened. For 70+ miles, I had the gusts and an arse that was not willing to compromise.

This was my longest road ride in about 10 years. I did the Chesapeake Bay Bike Tour for 6 years straight and rode 100 miles on saturday and 45 on sunday. Oddly enough, my longest rides since then have been 24 and 12 hour solo races on the SS, now that's an oxymoron.

The first race of the year is the AFC Patapsco sufferfest. I have gotten better each year since they have been running it. This year I will be racing for the AFC team and competing against some of my own. Jon Houghton, who is a great guy and great rider will be there and hopefully I will be able to "avenge" my 3rd place finish last year. It will be strange racing against your own team mate. Either way, it will be a great time!

Alex was on Fire!

Well today Alex broke out and the team did great as a whole. This is their 4th game and again, playing against a taller team, they managed to end the game in a tie at 32-32. Alex was dominating! 24 points and 5 assists. That brings his total to 56 points for the year for a 14 ppg. avg. The team was slow to start and fell behind 14-6, but Alex had a drive of 6 baskets in a row! All in all it was a great all around effort by all. 2-2 on the season so far... good job guys!

Alex is really starting to show some real potential. He carries himself well on and off the court and is a true team player. He passes the ball when needed at takes command on the court controlling the speed of the game and shows real leadership skills. He is a super cool little kid and I love him dearly! Yeah, mushy, but I am a proud Dad.