Friday Night Ride

I was suppose to do the Cohutta 100 tomorrow, but my son needs me to help him move out of his dorm room, so I shall be northbound, instead of southbound tomorrow.
With nothing to do on a beautiful Friday evening except ride, I decide to do just that. I don't know my route, I just start riding. Within a few miles I decide to do a big loop and work my way over to Fox Lake Road. This road has a climb that's a mile long and a little over 100 feet in elevation. You may not think that's much, but on a single speed mountain bike on an unimproved road, it's a grinder. My goal is to do this climb three times...I feel real good after my 3rd time, so I do it one more time and make my way back home.
My ride was 31 miles, 2:13 ride time, 13.0 avg speed, 26.5 max speed, avg heart rate 128 bpm, max heart rate 167 bpm, climbed 1564 feet and burned 1601 calories.

Go ride

The Wind and Rain

It's another Saturday, I have no plans/obligations so that must mean a long bike ride! Again I will hook up with my two friends/team mates Jay Atwater and Derek Hill at the top secret location in Waterford. We head out pedaling into the wind and kind of know pretty quick that the day will present it's challenges. Our route isn't decided yet, but the first part will lead us to wherever we decide, will it be Fenton and the French Laundry or Holly and the Bittersweet Cafe...we'll decide in a few more hundred pedal strokes.

As we hit the first gravel road, we can see it's going to be a muddy ride which is no problem for the two of us who have fenders, but the one who doesn't, he's going to get dirty. Along with the first part of the gravel road comes a nice long steady climb. I take the lead and set a pace which I believe my two buds will be able to follow. About a third of the way up the climb I stop hearing the noise of an extra set of mountain bike tires following me, but I like my pace so I keep it and much to my surprise, they did not stay with me. Last week in the same spot, it was the opposite way around, I was in the back hanging on to their pace. As we finish the first part of our ride and are ready to cross a paved road I suggest we use some pavement for part of our route, both Jay and Derek agree. We hit the pavement and have a few "downhill coasting" races and a lot of fun. But Derek isn't having the best day and is suffering a wee bit on the climbs, so they decide to make it a shorter ride and with me having the Cohutta 100 in two weeks, I must get some miles in while I have a chance.

With this in mind, I quickly check the weather on my handy dandy smart phone and see there is a dark green swath of rain heading my way. Instead of heading to Holly or Fenton, I turn south directly into the wind. I am feeling very good today, so I decide to go as hard as I can at a comfortable pace. I am doing well and ride some roads that were part of the Tour de Cure from two years ago. Traffic is light and the roads are cyclist friendly.

I make a turn on White Lake road and head east back towards my starting location. I take White Lake road all the way back to the Waterford area and wind my way back to the top secret starting location. I go around the block one more time to get in an even 40 miles.

My totals for the day 40.01 miles, ride time 2:28, avg speed 16.1 mph, max speed in the coasting races 39.6 mph, avg heart rate 140 bpm, max heart rate 167 bpm, climbed 1268 feet and burned 2046 calories.

It was a great ride, I didn't want to stop, but the wind and rain had other plans.

Go ride.

Riding with my Cycletherapy Peeps

With my busy schedule I do most of my training all by my little lonesome self. So when I ride with some friends it's always enjoyable. Then throw in a route I've never done before and its like a whole new adventure.
The plan was to ride the city of Holly from a top secret location in Waterford. We pounded a little pavement before hitting the dirt. I'm on my single speed cross bike and the two cats I'm riding with, Derek and Jay Atwater or on geared mountain bikes. So I'm pretty sure I'll have my work cut out for me. The warm up wasn't much of a warm up, we had a pretty good clip going...not the most ideal conditions for this old man, I need a little bit slower and longer warm up, but no worries...I have to able bodied cyclists to draft from! =:)
As we head out of the township of Waterford we find the solace of dirt and then some of the climbing starts. We head out Pontiac Lake road to Cuthbert then wind our way north to Rattelee Lake road and I-75. We turn west and hit some longer sustained climbs, after Derek doing most of the work to this point, we take turns pulling and seeing who can do the most damage on the climbs. It turns into a little contest and we have some fun.
Upon entering the little hamlet of Holly our conversation turns to food, yes, this is a food ride where our turn around destination is some place to grab some grub and then head back. When we pull up to the appointed eatery, we realize they are closed. After some quick thinking by Mr. Atwater, we point our bikes to the Bittersweet Cafe. So one block later we are relieved to find it open and the place was hopping. We are greeted with a Chamber of Commerce type person who is happy to see us and invites us to experience the downtown area. We enter the cafe with our bright orange kits on and grab a table. We are greeted by one of the owners and they too are very appreciative of our visit, and inivte us back and plants a seed for a group ride.
As we saddle up and head back after some good food we head out easy this time and get ready for some hills. My plan is to attack each hill and see what I have. Some hills I can get my rhythm with one gear, the ones with a steep pitch, not so much. Either way, I am working hard to test my limits and if I can drop my geared buddies, well, that's just icing on the proverbial cake.
We have a good hard ride on the way back, take turns pulling and we end up with a nice cool down on some pavement and one stupid driver who wanted to see how close he could get without hitting us...in the words of the great Bugs Bunnny, "What a maroon!"
Other than that, it was an awesome ride with 50.3 miles in 3:21 average speed 15.0 mph, max speed 30.1 mph, average heart rate 141 bpm, max heart rate 176 bpm, climbed a total of 1959 feet and burned 2618 calories!

Go ride!

Chilly End of March Ride

Let's see, spring has officiallly arrived, the robins are singing and have been so for a week or two, and the bicycle race season has officially been kicked off...so why is it still 32 degrees out for a high temperture? Who knows.

Any who, I went out for an easy recovery ride...a day late, I should have went yesterday. But it was not meant to be. I have a lot of little, middle size and large loops I can do on gravel roads around the hood. Today I wanted to go for about an hour and 15-30 minnows.

I put the fenders on and was ready to combat any conditions the roads may dish out. I've never had fenders before so it's kind of nice not to have a trashed bike. The conditions ranged from ice...dirty ice, to some soft light mud. All rideable and all good.

My ride time was 1:13, 17 miles, average speed 13.8 mph, max speed 21.4 mph, average heart rate 136 bpm, max heart rate 164 bpm, climbed 570 feet and burned 885 calories. So, with those stats, my ride plan was accomplished, nice and easy...with a few harder efforts up the hills.

A good ride, but I really wanna get rid of the winter tights! =;)

Go Ride!

Barry Roubaix 2011

Otay, I love this race, I love the course. It mimic's a lot of how I train, back roads on my single speed cross bike. And most of my early season miles is on the fixie...so this race is nothing new, my body is use to this type of race.

What I wasn't use to was the gear ratio that I selected. I've been running a 38x17 the past two months. Last year I had a 39 tooth chain ring along with some different cranks, so I assumed I used a 39x16. So I decided to switch from a 17 tooth to a 16 tooth and I thought I would be okay.

I was in Wave 3 with all the people over 40, single speeders and fixed geared racers. There were a ton of fast cats, so the roll out was fast and I could see the lead group pull away, which is no big deal so the panic button wasn't hit just yet. The pavement treated me well with my gear selection...I was rolling along, spinning at about 110 rpm's while working a little on the climbs. I was happy. Then we hit the dirt and a few climbs. In traffic, with a long line of cyclists in front of you, it's hard...no, impossible to ride the single speed style which is gain some momentum before the climb, so I was working real hard near the top of the climb. After a couple of these, I was unable to recover as I would have to keep pedaling down the other. With this said, I didn't even bother hitting the panic button, I threw the whole thing away. I knew my day was done and it was confirmed when people that I am always in front of starting passing me.

With each proceeding climb, I was digging deeper and spending more money than my account had. I decided not to worry about the race and my standing as I did have some big plans. I stilled raced when I could, but with this gear ratio, I lost way to much time on the climbs.

I ended up finishing in 2:26, a whopping 18 minnows slower than last year! I never cramped, just couldn't turn the cranks like I wanted too. I have a good baseline of where my fitness is at and let's just say...I'll be riding more real soon...just don't run me over on the pavement...

Go ride!

24 Hour Spin-a-thon for Waterford Coalition for Youth

24 Hours of fun, hanging out with all my cycling peeps and more importantly raising funds for the Waterford Coalition for Youth (WCFY). This organization helps promote a safe and healthy way of life for the youth in Waterford, Michigan, which is the same city my favorite bike shop, Cycletherapy resides in.

Our goal was to have at least two riders riding at the same time. A few times throughout the 24 hours, we would have up to 5 or 6 riders at one time. My time was from 2:00 to 4:00 PM on Saturday afternoon and then from 10:00 PM to midnight Saturday. I ended up going to 5:00 PM on my first shift as there was a misunderstanding in our time assignements and there was no one to ride. I didn't mind, it was good to be one the bike.

After my first shift I got a massage for a donation which went to the WCFY. It was a good choice as my legs were fresh for my later stint. I hung out for a while and chatted bike nerd stuff with other bike nerds. Families were there and a lot going on.

As 10:00 PM neared I got into a fresh kit and set my bike back up on my rollers...which were borrowed by others throughout the day, so setting up was just throwing my bike back on. As I got back on the bike, it was apparent the bee-hind would be a little sore, but not too bad. We popped in a new movie and the two hours went by fast. Just before my 2nd shift ended, others were setting up for their midnight shift...three riders, pretty good for a midnight gig.

Overall I was on my bike for 5 hours. It went by very fast. Lots of funds were raised for the WCFY and Ernie had a great sales day! So overall, it was a huge success. Thanks Ernie and to all those who pedaled!

Muddy Back Road Ride

Did a nice little ride tonight, nothing to long as I did a "Power Pump" workout at work today during lunch. You may ask yourself what's a Power Pump class? Well, it's kind of like a P90X routine, non stop fun. So tonight was just a spin on some back roads, just me and the mud. I have a read fender on and it kept me pretty clean on the back side. With a skinny cross tire on the cross bike...FIXED gear of course, the wearing of mud was kept to a minimum.

I managed 17.3 miles, 1:15 ride time, avg speed 13.8 mph, max speed 22.0 mph, avg heart rate 141, max heart rate 177 bpm, total feet climbed 515, total calories burned 815.

I'm somewhere around 400 miles this year...yippee!!!