Your at-tension please

Something tells me this Eurocutie's legs probably can't push what looks to be a 50x18 without blowing apart her patellar tendons, but that's O KAY. I'm sure she would be welcomed in many a peloton.

Well, if I haven't mentioned it yet, I opted to go the route of running a big-ish gear this winter with the hopes of working on my main cycling weakness (and yes I have others)- leg strength. I threw a 42 up front with an 11-23 on the winter bike. With computer, fenders, saddle bag it weighs 23.1 lbs. Hey, let's face it: If you're a competitive rider you're a weight weenie like the rest of us. Whether you're taking the easy yet expensive route and lightening your rig or you're stepping on the scale 3x time a day, you're guilty as charged. And that's ok because I'm right there with you- at least on the former. As for the latter, I apparently have gained about 5 lbs (2.5 kilos for you Euros) over the last month and a half and honestly I think the scale is wrong. Yeah, sure fat ass. Either that or (cue Arnold voice) I've put on some muscle going to the gym and trying to hang with the Rocket and Manimal in a 42x17 up 15+% grades. Insane. I'm hoping that jumping on Black Betty this Spring down a few LBs will be real nice:

The jury that resides in my mind is still out in regards to the overall benefit of a fixed gear. Now all you fixies out there just back off a second and let me explain. While riding a fixed gear, obviously it's intent is to smooth out your pedal stroke as there are zero deadspots. I was talking to Manimal about this yesterday and he claims that riding out of the saddle on a fixie up a steep climb is actually easier: The momentum of the rolling wheel actually assists the turnover of the crankarm. Manimal has apparently ridden a SS of a similar GI and found that climbing was in fact easier. Another point I'd like to make is that rarely is a fixie-er in an optimal cadence. Duh. Perhaps there is some training benefit to going from near single digit to 180+ rpms within 30 seconds. I rarely coast on my "regular" bike so when I crest a climb I'm immediately downshifting to keep muscle tension constant. I'm just playing devil's advocate here. I suppose that the number one benefit is that it's a completely different riding experience and is a welcome change to pounding out the miles in the Spring/Summer. I'm sure I'll end up on a fixie next fall. But in the meantime I'll try and maintain the focus my teacher taught me:

Keep pedaling on descents I will.

Thoughts on Crosstraining

I can't help but laugh about the "stealth" training that alot of cyclists do in the off-season. Why many resort to such secretive training methods is beyond me. It's like when you show up in April and you're twisting crank arms and dropping everybody on the climbs that we're supposed to actually believe you did "nothing" over the winter. I guess it's analogous to the annoying kid in school who had to broadcast that he didn't study for the Chemistry exam and he somehow aced it. Come to find out, he was up all night cramming for it.

I suppose if you're a bike racer your desire to improve is there because let's face it, noone wants to be last. We all have different motivations. Some have yet to let go of misfortunes in their lives and hammering on the bike is their "outlet". The only problem with that is the internal stuff never really goes away. I know, because running used to be my personal "release". Not fishing for sympathy, buy I've had numerous not-so-great things happen in my life and my way of dealing with it was ramping my HR BEYOND the red zone. I was fueled by anger and I eventually learned that I was able to use my mind to push my body places it wasn't supposed to go. Not good. This manifested in injury upon injury to the point where I was relegated to swimming and yoga- activities that diametrically oppose running, or even cycling for that matter. Strangely, in swimming, alot of the times you try harder you actually go SLOWER. This was my lesson in patience. Yoga taught me two things- awareness and letting go. So needless to say, (but I'll say it anyway) I have a very different prospective than most riders out there. I probably "lost" 5 of my best physical years, but during that time I guess I can say I found myself.

Others are results-based riders. Hilljunkie touched on this perfectly here. Being a relative newbie to cycling, I definitely don't have any unrealistic performance expectations. Because to tell you the truth, I don't train to optimize performance. I basically ride to ride. I ride to be fit and I ride to slake my sense of adventure. I guess I'm what you call a rider who occasionally races. As Hilljunkie says, if a nice result comes my way, then even better. I'll never be on a training schedule because I don't want to sacrafice a potentially awesome riding experience (which is more than likely of dubious training value) because it's not what my coach has scheduled. Not to mention, the feeling of a nice result is as fleeting as the wind. I guess it ultimately comes down to what fills the ego.

Back to topic: Crosstraining. A lot of New England riders are faced with unpleasant winters- wind, snow, frigid temps or if you're lucky, all three. Most use x-country skiing as their weapon of choice for off-season training. There is no denying that x-country skiers are the most fit endurance athletes on the planet. Using just about every major muscle in the body, it puts a tremendous load on the cardiovascular system. I remember watching the Olympics in '94 at Lillehammer. I had such appreciation for the skiers, who, after crossing the line in a race would fold over into a pile of mucous and sweat. I mean, honestly, what other sport do you see that? Even in the 10000m in track, they're usually interviewing the victor within a minute.

I've only been out skiing once this year. This involved me going back and forth in the field behind work. Needless to say the scenery wasn't exactly titilating. It's a far cry from the winter of 2006 when my friends and I skied the backcountry in Yellowstone:

I can tell you one thing: the 7 hours of skiing we ended up doing that day produced a fatigue I've never know. If I remember correctly, I was having a helluva time staying awake at dinner. I suppose the only thing I have against skiing is that my technique is not allowing me to get a substantial workout benefit. Or maybe it's my equipment. Or maybe it's both. Maybe I'll have to get faster skis. Ah, I'll just save the funds to fuel my bike lust. I did hear of a place nearby that grooms for classical- about 13 miles worth. I'll have to check it out.

For obvious reasons, snowshoeing has been a good option for me this winter. I enjoy plodding through the woods with Emily and given it's not very efficient exercise, it can be a great workout. I also feel muscularly that walking with snowshoes in deep snow is very similar to the movement of pedaling a bicycle out of the saddle. The first couple times out my hip flexors were toast and my calves were sore a couple days after. You really can't ramp your HR walking but if that's what you're looking for, try running. It's unbelievably hard.

Speaking of hard, I personally think that erging (i.e. rowing) is the hardest exercise out there. I usually row 1-2x/wk. and just the other day I did a 6x500m set with a :45 recovery. I can tell you that my HR was well into the 190s on the last set. I've read that elite rowers are on a part with elite x-country skiers in terms of absolute maximal Oxygen consumption- to the tune of a staggering 7+ liters/min! If I could somehow consume O2 at that rate, it would equate to a VO2 max of 103 ml/kg/min! Because of the high body mass (relative to other endurance athletes) of an elite rower, this works out to VO2 maxes in the neighborhood of "only" 70-75 ml/kg/min. Skiing speed seems to be determined solely by size of the aerobic engine (i.e. VO2 max) and Lactate threshold values do not seem to be a limiting factor either. Rowing, like cycling, is based on power output and LT is in fact a determinant of success. The higher your LT with respect to max HR, the fitter you are. And on top of that, the more power you can put out at your LT, the faster you go. Obviously the musculature involved in cycling and rowing is quite different though it can be argued that the primary movers (i.e. extensors of the hip) are similar. I suppose if I skied with more intensity or raced I would undoubtedly increase my aerobic engine but rowing will have to fill the x-training void for now.

Curing the January doldrums

Certainly sights like this help. This was actually Thursday, 1.15.09, the coldest ride of the year thus far. I believe the mercury was just north of 0F at the end of the ride. My toes were as bad as they've ever been but I did manage to last for an hour and change.

Going snowhere

Saturday I hooked up with CB2 for what would be a memorable ride at West Hartford Reservoir. Itching to get out with forecasts calling for a balmy 20F high, I figured, why not? I left the Nokians on the Specialized (more on that later) and met him at 12:45. Not many people around, just a couple of idiots riding trails with 8 inches of crusty snow. That would be us. One of those idiots would be riding a FIXED mtb. And that idiot would not be me.

CB2, like alot of riders out there these days, does not like gears. I believe of the six or so bikes in his stable, 1 has derailleurs. I remember he told me once that he threw a compact on his road bike because his knees were bothering him. He then proceeded to never shift into the small ring. Go figure. I threw an 11-23 on my winter bike with the 42 up front as my concession to the gear inch madness.

Anyway, 20 feet into the trail it became instant slogfest. Did I mention I washed my bike before I left (stupid) and I was stuck in the big ring? By no surprise, my HR hit 185 within a few minutes and CB2 disappeared from view. He seemed to be floating over the crusty snow. He kindly waited for me and when I caught up I realized I was running WAY too high PSI. Not to mention, I don't think the Nokians are great in deepish snow. They're better for icy, semi-plowed roads which has been their primary use. I probably had about 38 PSI at the start and CB2 was running tubeless at 20ish. After a few stops, I was probably running around 28. I must also add that Alex + Bike = ~200#. And no, I'm not fattening up, my mtb IS that heavy.

The going was slow. There was a line about 15 inches wide from heavy foot/ski traffic that if you were able to stay on, was a decent go. If however, you lost concentration, you were putting some serious watts through the pedals to get back on or you were hikeabiking. I was doing both. In stark contrast to Thursday's ride, I was overheating.

We saw a few people walking and I couldn't help but think what they were thinking about us. I'm sure they must think that those guys must really love riding bikes to be out in this crap. We talked with one guy who passed us with his dog and he had the typical look of amazement/appreciation you get when riding your bike in winter. CB2 and he talked for a while about mtbs and because I couldn't help but interject that he (pointing to CB2) is riding a fixed gear. He looked at me as if I was speaking Urdu and he was on his way. I suppose I wouldn't know much about it either if I wasn't an avid cyclist. It is something to see: watching someone on a fixed mtb descend- in 8 inches of crap no less.

All in all, a great ride. I have no complaints. I think we got nearly an hour and a half in when I otherwise would have relegated myself to the trainer. Maybe.

This was actually one of the easier sections.

Tis the season

It's funny what you miss in the Spring, Summer, and Fall when you've got your head down holding wheels. I have the good fortune to live in an unbelievable area for bike riding. Literally within 5-10 minutes of my house you can be on roads where you never see cars with more than your fair share of dirt only minutes further. To the west, the beautiful rolling horse country of Duchess County and to the North, you're in the Berkshires within in an hour. I guess I'm really blessed in that regard.


The singular motivation for riding outside is to completely avoid riding on the trainer. Although, admittedly, I've been on it twice since cross ended the third week of January. So much for that. Riding has become riding for the sake of riding. Or for you Latin connoisseurs out there: Veho gratis vehentis. I haven't done anything over 35 miles in almost 3 months now (10.19.08 to be exact) which is completely fine by me. I've still managed to get out 2x/wk. which I set for a doable goal for the winter. Yesterday's ride sort of pushed the temperature envelope. I would dare to guess the mercury was in the neighborhood of zero at the end of the ride. Everything was fine except the very tips of my fingers and of course, my feet. I even did the wool sock-toe warmer-wool sock-saran wrap combo. To no avail. In hopes of remedying (can't say I've ever typed that word before) the shoe situation, I recently dropped the hammer on some Louis Garneau 2009 0-Degree Winter Cycling Shoes. Bicycling Magazine recently ranked them the best winter cycling shoe and "they" say they're rated to 5 degrees:

My current shoes, the Sidi Diablo GTX's in one word, blow. A complete waste of $350. They're great to about 25F and after that it just becomes a matter of how long you can deal with freezing feet. At basically half the price of the Sidi's, I'm hoping the LGs do the job. Not to mention, the LGs will go nicely with my red Assos Fugujack. Hey, you gotta look good when you're riding too, right? No seriously, it is the best jacket you can possibly buy for winter riding and I highly recommend it. The built in balaclava is sweet. It completely blocks the wind and it breathes well. I couple that with their 851 Airblock tights and I'm good to go. I'll let you know how the LG boots work out.

I recently came up with this ridiculous goal for my 2009 riding- 500,000 ft. of climbing. There's something about that half a million that draws me. Nobody cares but me so we'll see what happens. To date, I'm "only" averaging 956ft./calendar day. With a season's worth of epic riding ahead of me, I'm sure it won't be too far out of question. Other goals include but not limited to: Tour of Battenkill, a couple/few mtb races, Housy Hills RR, 6 Gaps with Doug and the boys, D2R2, Greylock Century, and as many hillclimb races my schedule will allow. I would like to go sub-30:00 on Ascutney.

New Year's Resolution

I've resolved myself to blog more for 2009. I'm sure the blogosphere is clogged with thousands of individuals with similar intent. But like I've seen at the gym year after year, I intend to keep going- long after the "resolutionists" have thrown in the towel. As I was telling Emily after a ride yesterday, it's good motivation to ride through the winter and conversely the riding is good for the blogging. I have no intentions of becoming a blogsation like bikesnobnyc; I enjoy writing and riding.


Cross season '08 was fairly uneventful. Highlights included racing both days at Gloucester (thanks Brian), both days at Northampton, and Sterling. Results were fair to middling though I definitely have gotten stronger and I will upgrade to Cat 3 cross for next year. At least then I will have the option of racing either Masters 3/4 or 1,2,3. Some things I've learned: start/start position is at least 30% of the race, bike handling is a plus, NOT getting mechanicals is a plus, and riding is WAY faster than running. DUH. The frustrating thing was that I was victimized by guys I know I'm stronger than. Oh well, I guess that's the nature of cross. I did have a blast and be sure that I will bottling up a bit of that frustration and unleashing it on the road. I know, I know. Let it go.

I got a mountain bike in the early part of fall '08. It's a Specialized Epic Comp FSR. I suppose it's a decent rig for what I want to do- tooling around in the woods and maybe, just maybe, a race in '09. The handful of night rides I got in were awesome though it was frustrating at times keeping the guys I ride with in sight. I had to keep reminding myself that they are Cat 1 mtbers and I've been out all of a half a dozen times. That's just me though; I expect to be good at something immediately. I picked up some Nokian Extremes and I've been hitting the roads after snowstorms- much to the surprise of area residents cleaning out their driveways. At least for the time being the trainer holds onto it's layer of dust.

I got back in the gym a few weeks ago and have commenced rowing to fill the cardio void of only riding 2-3 days/week. I have been tossing around the idea of doing the Crash B's and just yesterday my friend Andi asked if I was going to do it this year. She stirred the pot a bit and I may just sign up for the masters lightweight. Race length is 2K, not my strongest distance by any means but perhaps I'll start training in earnest to break the vaunted 7:00 barrier.

Looking forward to Spring, Black Betty is officially built. It'll be nice going from a nearly 30# mtb with the Nokians to a 14.4 lb road bike. At some point, I may upgrade to Sram Red shifters, derailleurs, cassette so that I can match up my k-force light compact to an 11-28 cassette. That way there I'll never have to modify my bike for the hillclimb events. A 34X28 minimum will be perfect and the 50X11 is close to a 53X12 so I won't lose anything on the high end. We'll see, but in the meantime I'm going to upgrade my shoes after nearly losing my toes on Tuesday. I'm thinking of going with the Louis Garneau's which were rated to 5 degrees in the most recent Bicycling magazine. I can probably get $70-80 for my used Sidi's.

Winsted 9 "Gaps"

I was feeling a bit worn down last week after Tuesday's group ride so I took Wednesday off and then did an easy 20 with Em on Thursday night- avg. HR 108 and a nice recovery ride. I felt as if I was fully recovering from the rigors of the week and so had it in my mind that on Saturday I would attempt my Winsted 7 "Gaps", the little spoof on Doug's Vermont 6 Gaps (actual Gaps, yes) shown below:




I picked up my road bike from Josh on Friday after having the 36/52 front rings put on as I mentioned in an earlier post. I then got to thinking how I could possibly make my Winsted version of 6 Gaps even harder and yes, I'm a complete idiot. Here is the profile from the ride I did on July 4th of this year:


A regular dragon's back, if I don't say so myself. I finally came up with a route- adding a couple more "gaps" (now 9) with (hopefully) a few hundred more feet vertical over just a few miles. I guess my goal is to climb the most feet vertical I can over the shortest distance in the area near my house. As it was, Winsted 7 Gaps was 6500+ ft. of climbing over a distance of just 52 miles- roughly, when doubled, 13000 ft.+ over the course of a century. This is on a par with Vermont 6 Gaps in terms of total vertical- "only" that you're now stretching it over 30 more miles. I would imagine that Vermont 6 Gaps is more difficult than if I were to effectively do 2 laps of my ride, however, seeing that the longer efforts on the steeper climbs of Vermont would most certainly take their toll.

Whatever, the case, I headed out around noon on Saturday under overcast skies or over undercast skies, if you will. Forecast was for some potential t-storms in the early afternoon, though I think they always say this to cover their asses either way. I swear they have the easiest job in the world. Adding more climbing to the already hard route I had done in July I knew would be a challenge- considering also that my minimum gear was now 36X27. I decided on my two small water bottles and two Hammer gels for sustenance and away I went. I figured I'd averaged 16-17 mph on the abridged version of this ride so I wanted to try and maintain that average speed for this one.

Long story short, I bonked. Hard. I ended up running out of water with about 14 miles to go. I spaced my gels apart- 1 at mile 30, the other at 45. They did provide momentary relief and I can tell you that they never tasted so damn good, but it clearly wasn't enough. The last climb of the ride, Bank St., I was absolutely dying and had all I could do to keep the pedals turning. I think Bank St., though short, hits around 17%. I'm usually on top of my hydration/fueling, but for some reason I wasn't on this ride. I guess I underestimated the ride difficulty and the fact that the weather went from overcast and cool to hot and humid didn't help matters. Here is the profile of (now) 9 "gaps":


Final stats: 58.5 mi., 7366 ft. elevation gain, 16.2 mph avg., 149 avg. HR

I suppose it could have been worse seeing that I suffered terribly the last 15 miles. I was hoping to ride this harder route faster than the July ride, but my inattentiveness to nutrition did me in. Oh well, maybe next time. And I have a few hundred feet of vertical I can add over a couple of miles.