Puttering Around the Lehigh Valley

Today took me just outside of Allentown for a 70 mile ride around and over Hawk Mountain with a teammate. I was promised climbing by my coach, Steve Lehman, to test my previous week of work in VA, and was looking forward to it. The ride would not disappoint. Hills abounded, climbs were tough, the lingering snow kept it cold, and the poorly maintained roads kept me on my toes.

My goal for the ride was to blow up the group on the climbs and ride them as hard as possible. I feel I did pretty well, putting on a good gap each time and making everyone work. I'm definitely looking forward to road season and putting all my hard work this winter to the test. I think I'm going to pretty well as an all-arounder, able to sprint, climb and TT. Not amazing in any area, but good enough to bee competitive in them all.

The final climb of the day took us over Hawk Mountain, and what a climb it was. 2ish miles of solid, steady, steep, mountain challenged my ability to keep the cadence and speed high without completely blowing up. Fun times...two more rides this weekend...it's like being a pro...except without the sponsors, money, support, or team.

Great Riding Has Been Had

It was an excellent week off of work. I traveled down to the Shenandoah Valley in good old Virginia to visit the parents, and of course, the bike made the trip. I rode each day, opting to take the steep mountain roads out of valley, as I can always ride flats and rollers here around Philly.

I really enjoyed the roads, which were mostly traffic free, and STEEP! My favorite ride of the week too me up the east side of the valley on a road where only the switichbacks were paved. As the road wound up thru the George Washington National Forest, the feeling that only climbing will bring began set in.

You may know the feeling...it's one where you're heart rate is close to its max...you're tired, but don't feel it anymore...you begin to feel light on the pedals and feel the urge to go. You surge and pedal harder....and harder...and then you reach the top.

The comes the really fun part...45mph down the gravel road on the back side....good times.

Glad to be back in the comfort of my own home, but I definitely enjoyed my time out of the city.

Commuting By Bicycle

So I found this to be the funniest thing ever, from the always hilarious BikeSnobNYC that is very applicable on my 40 mile roundtrip here in Philly.

Dear Car That Beeped At Me,

You beeped your horn at me while I was riding to work. It was not the blaring, impatient honk of the self-important luxury car owner; rather, it was a brief chirp meant simply to alert me to your presence. And while your intentions may have been good—or at least not malicious—please note that I don’t care. Your beeping means you can see me, and I’m not worried about drivers who see me. I’m worried about drivers who don’t. Believe it or not, in a city of eight million people I already operate under the assumption that there is probably a car behind me, and the fact that you happen to be in it has no bearing on which portion of the road I choose to occupy. Please only use your horn when you are about to collide with another vehicle and death is imminent. Thank you.

Dear Car That Beeped At Me Impatiently,

Yours was the blaring, impatient honk of the self-important. What makes you think I care about your schedule or where you have to be? If you were on your way to saving a life you’d be in a truck with a siren, not in a German sedan. You also wouldn’t have food in your lap—unless you plan to resuscitate the patient by stuffing a Blimpie’s sub down his throat.

Dear Car From Jersey That Beeped At Me Impatiently,

When I told you to “go back to Jersey, you piece of [excrement],” you retorted: “I’m not from Jersey.” Now that’s just funny.

Crazy Week of Training

This week sure has been a tough training/commuting week.

Mon. morning: Flat tire in the 37degree rain at 6AM

Mon. afternoon: Left work late so I took the bus

Tues. morning: Fast ride to work, avg 21 mph

Tues. evening: Faster ride home, avg 22 mph, plus an (brutal) hour on the trainer

Wed. morning: TIRED, rode the bus

Wed. afternoon: mix of rain and more rain. Avg a bit slower (19mph)

Thurs. Morning: Great ride at 21 mph. Beat the rain, but had a meeting a little later that would require a 10 mile ride in it

Thurs. Afternoon: Fast ride in the rain at 20mph (cold and wanted to get home)

Fri Morning: felt like crap, took the bus

Fri Afternoon: Anticpating a fast ride home in the cold, followed by a brutal hour on the trainer

Looking forward to a great Sat. ride @ 830 in front of the art museum

Sleet, and low 30s made it a beautiful morning as I headed out to Lancaster on Saturday December 8, 2007. The weather soon cleared, but the course conditions were far from ideal. What would have otherwise been an extremely fast, wide open, grass circuit became a snow-covered mudfest.

Keeping in mind some of the tips Steve Lehman has been coaching me on, namely seated power at a high cadence, I opted to run a 12x35 on the rear and a single 44 on the front so I didn’t need to worry about gumming up the front deraulier, or having to stand in the slick muddy parts.

The strategy worked well. After taking the hole shot, and the early lead, I maneuvered the low portion of the course, managing to stay on the bike when many running a typical road setup (12x25) were forced to dismount and run. I managed to open a small hole along with 2 others.

As it was only the C race, I knew that a succession of attacks would quickly drop those remaining. After crossing the first set of barriers, I quickly remounted and attacked. One rider managed to keep to my wheel. When I reached the pavement section I attacked again and kept my effort up through the remainder of the lap, opening an advantage of about 40 seconds.

With one lap remaining, my strategy turned from opening a gap to staying upright. The rising temperatures melted much of the snow making the course even more treacherous. Turning was accomplished by sliding the rear around as mud and ice caked brakes became useless.

I rounded the final turn and crossed the finish with 1:30 over second place, taking the PA State Cyclocross C Men’s Championship. The win, combined with three others at Lehigh Valley Velo-Cross, The Whirly Bird Cross, and Spring Mount Cross, allowed me to sweep the PA Cyclocross Series.

Next cross season will present a true challenge, as my race results this year will allow me to upgrade to CAT 2 and compete at the Elite level. Look for me near the rear.

Ice, and Salt Covered Ice

Another post about the cold?? God, stop bitching you say...

Well it's not so much about the cold. I'm pretty used to the cold, and I have enough gear to keep an entire team warm. This post's less about the cold and more about what the cold brings along, namely, wicked ice that the road bike has difficulty on.

I understand PA's relentless desire to salt the roads like a 400 lb diabetic salts their cheese fries, but it's really not all that helpful when the temperatures dip into the low teens. Instead of salt, which is terrible for the environment and my bike, the state should be spreading sand. It provides greater protection in a wider temperature range and doesn't have the nasty enviro affects that salt does.

Of course, the state probably only needs about half the salt they actually spread. Currently the roads resemble salt flats normally found in the Nevada desert. Nver fear though, impending rain will wash the salt off the roads and into the river (how much worse could the river get anyway) effectively washing millions of dollars of taxpayer money away with it...

Environmental effects aside, cleaning that salty residue off my $2000 dollar bike is real pain...I could only imagine what it does to the bottom of the cars around here...

Icey Cold That Lasts

The past few days outdoor rides have been marred by snow, rain, wind, and biter cold. My pace has been slow, due to not being able to breath or get the heart rate above "barely surviving".

Commuting in such weather is no fun...until, after thawing, I watch the news and see that there is at least a 40 min delay on rail lines, and it is taking almost 3 hrs to get from King of Prussia to South St. It doesn't matter who crappy I feel, I can ALWAYS pedal faster than that. And, it doesn't matter how much riding in such weather sucks, it will never suck more than sitting in traffic for one minute.

That said, I think I'm going to take the advice of the Ice Bike team and get some studded tires for the cross bike and a good pair of waterproof pants.

Now if I could only find a way to keep 50 lbs of ice from building up on the bike...

Until spring, there is another way to get a workout in...the trainer...which I loathe, but I like winning, so ride it I must...

Carlisle Cross Results

It was a long day on Saturday out in Carlisle PA. I decided to enter the B mens race to get a good hard workout before the state championships next weekend.

It was really cold, and it probably took me a solid hour to warm up and get any kind of body warmth. The race wasn't much better than the weather. Despite feeling great, the result was less than ideal.

I had a pretty poor start, which was ok, as I felt I could move up from 15th to a much more respectable place. As I started to move up and slowly pick people off, the race turned ugly. Barrleing down a hill, I jammed the brakes only to realize that I had lost my rear brake. Without it, I endo-d, crashing pretty hard.

I lost about 5 places getting up, but all was not yet lost. However, the crash lossened up a bunch of parts, and I had to stop two more times to fix the bike. Oh well...25th isn't terrible and it was better this weekend rather than next when it matters...