Holy eratic blogging, Batman!

It has been one busy summer! I changed jobs twice, discovered the fun and conditioning benefits of road-cycling, and rode our local 12 hour race with a 4 person co-ed team. We took second place at the 12 hour race. It was so much fun. I was surprised to be the only singlspeed rider present, and even more surprised to be the ringer on my team. I am going to try to be little more faithful to this blog and post at least once a week. I should have my work cut out for me with my current race target. I have decided that the Snake Creek Gap Time Trial series is most definately for me! Check out the details here. http://snake.nwgasorba.org/ The only thing keeping me patient is knowing that I've got a lot of work ahead of me to get ready! I will be heading to Mulberry Gap next weekend for the Niner demo. This should be a great chance to ride some terrain that will be similar to the course of the race. Can't hardly wait!

Multi-speed group-ride still winds up as pain and suffering for one.

I got an invite on Facebook last night to a group road ride. Feeling spunky, I snatched the 32c tires off of my crossbike and installed some 23c slicks I had laying around. Now, the reputation of this ride as a suffer-fest precedes it, and is not undeserved. I finally got to sleep last night around 11:00, with my 1980's era Bianchi Axis prepped and my belly full of Guiness. My alarm went off at 5:00 and after a couple of snooze button taps I drug myself out of bed, suited up and grabbed a quick bite and a cup of coffee. I arrived at the meeting point at 6:00 to find everyone ready to go. We began the ride at a casual pace for about half a mile. At which point the hammer dropped. I fell in and sat churning as best as I could, trying to find a gear that would allow me to spin a cadence and wattage I felt I could maintain. The pace-line rotated at no paticular predetermined rate of rider exchange or speed. When my turn up front came around I attacked with zeal. Referencing my computer and pulling at the pace we had been averageing. When I felt I could no longer hold that pace I signaled to drop back and pulled out to the side. Unable to hold on to the string I went off the back and fell into what I felt was a maintainable speed of 20mph and continued spinning down the road enjoying my view of the Gulf at dawn. When I reached my own predetermined turn around I made my u-turn and headed back towards the starting point. The group does not stay together on this ride and when the leaders caught up to me, there were only two of them remaining. As we approached a red-light another member of the ride caught up and the four of us continued on together. I would love to tell you that I gutted it out and hung in till we arrived at the finish, but, I was dropped again. The ride for me ended with a sense of pain, destruction, and inspiration. As I spun home at a relaxed pace I thought to myself that I was very much looking forward to next Tuesday's ride. More please.

My stats on the ride look like this:
Average speed: 17.8mph
Max speed: 31.6mph
Distance: 35.38miles

Tabata Madness!

Tabata is an interval protocal using 20secs. of activity followed by 10secs. of rest repeated 8 times. Todays workout looked like this:

3 rounds of:
6 ring pull-ups, 10 dips, 20 sit-ups, 15 overhead squats with pvc, 15 good-mornings

Tabata interval of one-armed kettlebell swings, alternating arms with 35lb'er

10 turkish-get-ups, alternating sides

Machismo vs. counter-intuitive reality. What'd'you call me?!?!?!

I am a relative greenhorn in the world of cycling. I have been riding with purpose for a meager 4 years. I have been riding single-speed for less than 3 of those 4 years. I am still learning, but, I AM learning.



Since I built my first SS bike I have always thought that a bigger gear = faster. It seemed to prove true and I kept running bigger gears. When I purchased my first SS mountainbike I immediately replaced the 20t cog it came with. I scoffed at my more knowledgeable friends who said this was an adequate gearing. I laughed in the face of those who said I should think about what I was doing to my knees and didn't I want to be able to walk, much less ride, when I was an old man. In short: I installed a 16t cog on that bike and said to myself "Self, you are a bad, bad man. You have the legs to push this gear." And push that gear I did. I pushed it to blown up legs that wouldn't allow me to finish our local 12-hour-race. I pushed it until both of my knees sounded like gunshots when I squat. And presently I pushed it until I have apparently created an under-use injury in my IT-band.



Thats right not an overuse injury. I have trained my beer-baby having body back up to marginal fitness in a slow and calculated manner. I did workouts that seemed to be a compromise to the very fitness I was trying to usher myself into for months. Slowly building back up to a little more intensity each week. No, not an injury resulting from overuse of my body. This is an injury resulting directly from underusing my brain.



I started using my brain concerning this matter last Thursday when the trouble with my knee unveiled it's ugly face. I swapped down to an 18t. I rode 7 miles, on Friday, without much pain, focusing on the hamstring pull on the backside of the circular pedal-stroke. This will, I am told, help to draw fluid into the joint of the knee. While focusing on this I also paid attention to keeping my knees in towards the top tube of the bike. This lower gearing combined with the slightly more forward position of the rear wheel, and the recently shortened travel(100mm reduced to 80mm) of my suspension fork has definately made for a better handling bike.


On Saturday I took things a step further and installed a 20t cog on the bike. Not only did it keep the lightning bolts out of my knee but IT INCREASED MY AVERAGE SPEED. And this was not an insignifigant increase. I increased my average speed by .9 mph on the Long-leaf pine Greenway on Saturday, and by .5 mph on the Dutch-Tieman trail on Sunday. I don't know what else to say besides "I wanna go fast."

The last thing I kneeded, first thing this morning...

Was to have some weird unexplainable pain in my left knee about 7 miles into what became a 13 mile ride this morning. It started out like a little pinch on the side of the joint and by the end of the day I swear I could see little lightning bolts pointing to my patela whenever I stepped wrong.

It didn't really feel that severe at first, but by the end of the ride I wanted my 18t cog back (I switched to a 16t about a month ago). Definately going to swap cogs for tomorrow's group ride and spin instead of mash. I am also going to scrutinize my bike fit, stop lifting other than KB's, and generally try to take it easy while trying not to compromise my training too much. I'm lucky enough to have a friend who is a Prostetist (sounds way seedier than it actually is - he makes braces and artificial limbs). So, I'm going to consult with him and see if he can help.

I haven't been the best to my knees over the 32 years I've been around and this isn't a completely new development. When I was snowboarding a lot I had similar issues with my knees, hopefully I can resolve this in short order.

I love the smell of brutality in the morning.

Nothing else has that lactic acid kind of smell.

This morning's workout was 3 rounds of:
10 ea. squats, good mornings, sit-ups, pull-ups, dips

followed by 3 rounds of:
10 kettlebell clean & press(pair of 35 lb'ers)
run 200 meters
5 push-ups
3 burpees

Tomorrow is a rest day, which means riding about 7 miles on the Long-leaf Pine Greenway before and after work. I've been jonesing to ride all week. Really looking forward to this.