It's killing me but..........

I have done it before in solo breaks and am fairly comfortable, it just always seems like I don't get the leverage needed or am not quite as stable so don't generate the power that I do in the drops.

Quoted post said:

Originally Posted by bgoetz [IMG]/img/forum/go_quote.gif[/IMG]

I have done it before in solo breaks and am fairly comfortable, it just always seems like I don't get the leverage needed or am not quite as stable so don't generate the power that I do in the drops.

I get that feeling when I watch the pros on TV in a stage race. The only times I have seen them use this position appeared they moving fast but looked to be in lower watt output compared to appearance of exertion in a TT effort.

Watching Nairo Quintana in the ITT for the TDF he used a road bike for part or all of that stage (can't remember exactly) and it appeared that he was using that leverage on with a tighter grasp on the bars to generate power.

Well I was changing positions throughout the effort, especially after I blew up midway through. I am not sure why I do it, but so far I am at like 50% when it comes to pacing TTs well. I just always feel so good that first 10 minutes. Despite the # right in my face that I know I can't hold, somehow I think that Jesus is going to come down from the clouds and give me that little extra to hold it till the end. Unfortunately, like previous TTs where I set the pace to hard that did not happen. I can say this, the same 18 mile TT last year I averaged 20 less watts and was 2 minutes faster on my TT bike. That says a lot about what just a bike can do (everything else even the disc wheel was the same.)

Most of that isn't the bike - it's the position that you're in whilst on the bike. 2 minutes sounds like either your TT bike has you in an exceptionally good position, your road bike position is a bit [censored] or the weather (wind/air pressure) was a bit naff last year. As for the power, put some tape on your power meter with the required wattage on it.

Boy a crazy couple of weeks for me. I was in the Glen Burnie/Baltimore area where I finally found some good trails and a nice path into the harbor area. The area right outside of Baltimore has plenty of rolling hills to play with.

Get back to NYC for one day and than head to Gainesville, FL to help my daughter move into UF and talk the opposite. Went to Gator Cycles here and the guy explained how this is the poorest area in FL but the school pretty much pays for the city. Anyway he explained how they have the largest cycling club in the nation and they have a huge amount of trails for MTB and road. Got up the next morning and all I did was make a left, couple blocks a right and found this bike path, got on it and never had to get off, it just went on and on and on. It was amazing and perfect for a 53 and putting out a nice steady output and do like >20 miles per hour for the ride. You may hit a couple small rollers but nothing special. Wind can be a bit of a big issuer.

Boy when it rains here, does it rain. Was riding my bike today and the rain started to hurt it was so hard and the first time in my life someone stopped by me and asked if I wanted a ride back into town. Nice people. The scariest thing was to see this armadillo rolling in the water by the side of the road, not sure if he was hit by a car or just rolling in the water. An experience this morning for sure.

I lost a few days of riding cause of all the setting up of my daughter and at the end of the day hit a 73 CTL. On the output side for two hours I was doing about a 200 and for an hour about 220. This place is a paradise for cyclists for sure. Will check out more of the bike shops.

Got to run to Ikea for more furniture in Orlando but will check out all the TT posts. The Cobb saddle I used yesterday and felt really good as I could tell this morning I was feeling good.

Have fun this weekend guys...

-john

Special Note: First the Armadillo elite held up amazing as I was doing 25 at times in the rain with puddles that splashed the water up to above my ankle, at times almost my knees and gave amazing traction and to my otter box for my iphone which without a rain jacket kept the tunes playing and the phone dry as a whistle. Only my PT kept loosing connection so I had to keep snapping it in and out to make sure the old wired unit worked.

Got back from Gainesville and hopefully will have a good spell here before I have to travel again. But I do admit the breakaway has been one of the best things I have bought cause all the new rides like Gainesville has really gotten me into loving cycling again. I am sure for most of you guys bike lanes like Gainesville may not be a big deal but riding on 331 or 441 is like being able to ride on route 3 here which technically I could but would be insane. The bike lanes were long, wide, well signed and just beautiful. Around here nothing comes close. You can really open up the bike out there and hold a nice steady output. Can not wait to get back.

Hope you all had some great rides also...got edit this post later and put up some pics.

-john

Side note: the weight stood up much better than I thought it would. Went on the scale when I got home and actually lost 1/2 lb and I went to a couple steak houses too! Down to 176 and counting down to 170!

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Originally Posted by Clancy [IMG]/img/forum/go_quote.gif[/IMG]

Do it faster fatty

As you wish....

Quoted post said:

Originally Posted by jsirabella [IMG]/img/forum/go_quote.gif[/IMG]
Hope you all had some great rides also...got edit this post later and put up some pics.

Sounds like you got in some good ride time. Look forward to the pics.

I hope to be getting the new wheels this week, but now I need to decide to sell my current PT SL+ wheels or keep them as a backup set or to use in the rain (and we are getting hammered this summer with rain). The only reason I am thinking this is that I fear I am not going to get much for them now and they may actually be functional in my weekly training. I do think I will at least hold onto them for a few weeks to make sure the new G3 hub is working fine. I did 40 miles in the rain yesterday and a lot of time in rain this summer with the SL+ holding up really great. No data drops and the calibration seems good. I may let a friend sell it on consignment, but he doesn't think I will get much for it now with all of these PM price drops being announced.

Most of all I am looking forward to using the wider rim on my road bikes. I have enjoyed the feel of the 23mm rim and tires on my FLO wheels that I use on the TT bike and it really feels good on tight fast corners and fast twisty descents.

As Fergie mentioned about his comeback on a different thread, I've been doing the same with very slight increases each week in intensity as my body allows (adapts). I hope to start increasing interval duration this week and step up to 30 minute intervals at L4. Do that for a few weeks, then to 40's and then hopefully up to 60 minute sessions. But I won't be rigid on attempting. If I am struggling I will drop back to shorter duration until I am ready for full 60 minute indoor intervals. I have still not totally caught up to my former FTP before the injury and illness, but I am coming closer each week. Just taking it slow and with fall coming quickly there is no need to rush. Bodyweight has been about the same so no improvements on that aspect.

Felt, if you do decide to sell your old wheels let me know, my brother in-law is looking for some. Not sure what you have or what you would hope to get, but maybe it will workout.

bg, thanks for the note. I will think about this. You can let him know the build below and see if he is interested.

If I sell locally at consignment I would like to get $500 for the set. If he is interested I would try ship it for that same price. I think I still have a wheel box that will fit a pair. If not I may have to ship in two packages and may have to adjust the price a little more. Or I can see if one of the shops have a box for a pair. I know I have boxes for single wheels. Plus I would provide tracking info from FedEx ground.

The rim brake surface still looks good on both.

Rear:
Kinlin XR-300 rim 28 hole
DT Swiss Competition spokes and nipples (black)
PT SL+ ANT+ hub / Shimano
Built by Wheelbuilder

Front:
Kinlin XR-300 rim 24 hole
CX Ray spokes / DT Swiss nipples
White Industries H2 hub
Built by Johnson Wheel Works (I am not sure that he is in business any longer). I destroyed the original back wheel with a PT hub in a 40 mph mountain descent crash and had the replacement rear built by Wheelbuilder. That is why the spokes are different.

As noted above I would like to hold onto this wheelset until I make sure the G3 is working fine.

felt, As promised here are some pics. On the third day I was going south 441 and passed this area called Paynes Prairies. I stopped to take some pics cause honestly most of the area looks like this. Even 331, you passed more cows and pastures but just miles and miles of bike lanes. That is the one thing I will not forget about Gainesville. I have never seen this set up before.

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This is one of the first times in a while I wish I was back on those roads than on my trainer or riding local. You can just ride and put out a nice steady output. The one surprise was on Saturday I thought I would see many cyclists but I saw just one on the opposite road in her tri-bars. Otherwise it was me, a few cars and the open roads. You can train outdoors all year round and with the steady output you can generate, it makes a trainer almost useless.

Wish I had some pictures of the armadillos. I have never seen that many in various states.

-john

Very nice! I have not been to Gainesville and mostly just to the really populated beach areas, but that looks nice to have those dedicated bike lanes. Based on the top picture it looks like the bike lane is completely separate from the road. If it is like that for miles I would love that.

I use the MUP (rails to trails) in Atlanta on Sunday afternoons because I can just sit in a brainless mode and steady pace without having to worry about much about cars. It is like being on the trainer but the time passes by faster.

I think my wife and I are going to one of the gulf beach areas that has bike lanes, but they are part of the road and only separated by a painted white line.

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Originally Posted by Felt_Rider [IMG]/img/forum/go_quote.gif[/IMG]

I think my wife and I are going to one of the gulf beach areas that has bike lanes, but they are part of the road and only separated by a painted white line.

The bike lanes are part of the road and a white line is what separates you but they are quite wide and well signed. Not sure your wife would feel comfortable riding them but they are beautiful and go one for miles. I pretty much could have ridden to Ocala which is abour 40 miles from Gainesville and would have never lost the lane I believe.

Not that many cars at all really. I actually liked it that they treated the lane as part of the highway. They do have tons of trails that going into the woods as you keep riding on the route. Also given the weather, you can not beat it.

Really hard to say which I prefer...I believe Vegas and the surrounding area cause lots more to do as a family but they do not have lanes like this.

-john

There are days you really need to listen to your body and not what you think will fit best with your schedule. My body today was really beat up and was like time to do some L2 but I wanted to do 2 x >20 of some SST cause I only had 2 hours to ride today thinking that would fit better. Well the body won. I got the first interval in @ my ~215 and than died on the second one.

The cobb saddle is a good saddle but still really trying to dial in the comfort. I am finally thinking I need to go to a pro fitter that my wife (when we had more money) gave me as a gift one time for setup and would actually build a bike to fit perfect for your body (well as perfect as they believe it should be). Lets give it a few more tweaks here and there before I go down that road.

The weight war is doing quite well as for my weekly weigh in I am at 171 and getting lots of commuter miles in but the battle with the watts on the CT is not going as well as I would like. Funny thing is that now outdoors I feel much stronger but the CT and the PT is telling me otherwise. I can take that hill which a month or so ago I had to get off the bike. My CTL is holding at ~75 right now.

Hmmm.....

-john

js, I can empathize with you on listening to the body. I've had quite a bit of that this year and being patient as life has thrown in the hurdles. Now in my 10th week coming back from that injury and illness and for cycling coming back is far tougher for me than lifting. I can take a scheduled week off from lifting and only struggle one week. After that week I am back to my usual training sessions. I have friends that are veterans to cycling and they seem to be like that. They struggle for that first ride back, but then the next weekend they are back in the groove or so it seems.

I've had to really be patient and I am leaning on WKO as my guide to the intensity and volume as I ramp back up slowly. Even if I tried to ramp quickly I am pretty sure I would also fail quickly. I've tried pushing the intensity at times, but my body just has not let that happen. This past week I had some good indoor intervals and then a long weekend with 40 miles low intensity on Friday, 78 miles on Saturday and then another 40 yesterday. Saturday during the night I woke up with my legs feeling feverish (hot) and sweating. Sunday when I started out my legs ached uncomfortably, but as time and miles racked up they began to feel pretty good and even got into a little bit of a race with some guys on the return lap and held on pretty good for a while. I finished feeling pretty motivated from the standpoint that I pushed past some of the discomforts and hopefully past part of barrier of moving forward. This season will not show any progress and in fact I have actually digressed some, but I am looking forward going into the fall and winter month with hope that next year I can progress.

___________________________________

On another subject of me being an idiot I bought a new set of wheels when I really did not need them and really took an odd path to getting the set of wheels as well. I come in this morning and the new front wheel was sitting in my office as ordered from Prowheelbuilder and I got to use the new rear wheel this past weekend that my friend built for me. Hindsight I should of had my friend build both wheels, but I had already ordered the front. Just poor decision making on my part. Both PWB and my friend did a great job in the builds.

Front by Prowheelbuilder: HED Belgium, White Industries T11 hub, CX-Ray, 24 hole, 2X lacing, (all black)
Rear by Josh: HED Belgium, Powertap G3 hub, DT Swiss Competition, 28 hole, 3X lacing, (all black)

Pretty light set of wheels and I look forward to running 23 tires. The G3 synced up nicely and worked well in two of the rides this weekend.

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felt, I f know what you mean on both subjects...

Part 1

I have really gotten a bit of the bug again to ride more and the commuting is making it interesting and fun. Add in the rides I have had in areas like LV and Gainesville, it was a winner of a year compared to prior years but from a performance standpoint I am way down in the numbers especially on the CT side. I really do not get it honestly. I mean yesterday should have been very do-able.

I have not been able to dial in the comfort level to where I have had it at times even after my back issue. Another thing that has never happen before to me is that I can not get comfortable just in terms of temperature in the factory. In the past hot or cold, no issue but I seem to not be able to dial that in also.

Part 2

My equipment is really all screwed up right now. The CT needs to be sent in and exchanged or just thrown out. Too much duct tape holding it together and it usually turns off somewhere in the middle of a session. My bikes are just screwed up also in terms of how they are built. The CX has the disc wheel and Joule PT hub and campy parts. It also has the rack and I threw aero bars on it and why I call it franken-bike. The breakway has an old PT hub with a great mavic wheel which would be perfect for the CX but is shimano. My CX has a 50,42 while the breakaway has a 53,39. Want to change the CX gearing.

I have to figure out what to do and settle down to two bikes that can do it all for me. One commuter and one road/travel. Any advice on how to make this all work would be appreciated from anyone reading. I also have an old set of campy record sitting here but can not use it cause the PT hub is shimano. Have not been able to sell my Cervelo RS frame cause every time I do sell it on ebay, the guy has not paid like 3 times with 3 different guys. I gave up. At this point I would sell at a much lower price than I wanted.

Also the CX as commuter is really making too much noise on the rear brakes and I have to believe maybe the brakes really can not handle that much weight or the wheel is wobbling a bit? Not sure...

In conclusion I really stop thinking in terms of season cause I am not really working towards races but during this time I want to just put in the miles and get the equipment settled, comfort dialed in as best it can be and than decide on an event based upon how my training goes.

I bought the EMS cargo shorts and really enjoying the more relaxed commuting style and was thinking of even getting rid of the CX and finding a bike that I can have a rack but not a hybrid, maybe a fixie/single or even a touring bike like a Surly. As you can see lots to do...but in so many ways I really enjoyed this year more than others cause of the love for cycling coming back. And yes the weight is coming down.

-john

Quoted post said:

Originally Posted by jsirabella [IMG]/img/forum/go_quote.gif[/IMG]
In conclusion I really stop thinking in terms of season cause I am not really working towards races but during this time I want to just put in the miles and get the equipment settled, comfort dialed in as best it can be and than decide on an event based upon how my training goes.

Same with me on seasons although I do mention seasons at times. In reality it is weekly training load year round and life seems to throw in more interruptions that I don't need to take a scheduled break. I am so far back on where I would like to be that taking time off or tapering back for a particular part of the year just doesn't make sense to me. Plus I just love training hard and I get anxious and temperamental if I am not training everyday. I need something daily just to take the edge off.

Maybe you ought to look into some local bike fitting services. I feel very fortunate with the fit of my bikes and especially with the TT bike last year. I think what I liked the most from what he did was he listened to how I intended to use the bike, which is training long distance solo training only. One of his first series of questions was if you were to describe how you want to use this bike, short TT's, triathlons or Ironman distance which better describes what you desire and from there he started the bike fit. From the first miles on that bike until now there is really nothing that I would want to tweak. I really feel fortunate in meeting a guy that has good fitting skills, is highly used and trusted by competitors in the Atlanta area for fitting service, but also seems to listen to the person's desire for the bike.

I am sure you have some very good fitting services close to you based on where you live. It might help get you settled into feeling comfortable to the fit while training.

Quoted post said:

Originally Posted by Felt_Rider [IMG]/img/forum/go_quote.gif[/IMG]

... I need something daily just to take the edge off.

...I am sure you have some very good fitting services close to you based on where you live. It might help get you settled into feeling comfortable to the fit while training.

Just like yourself thinking in terms of season is kind of silly cause I have no season really. I just like to train like you and really just get better at it. I did decide yesterday to give it a more focused effort in 2013 - 2014 than I have in the last few years and started to make a list of things I need to sort out. While one big goal would be nice I decided to think in terms of just what is practical.

a) Want to continue commuting more regularly between Newark and NYC and my current bike setup is not good for that so I am going to dump the CX I built and thinking of buying a Surly CrossCheck which I always wanted. It can also be used for my big goal of riding NYC to Boston next year in a two day ride.

b) Want to have a road bike that I can hook on TT bars and play with it a bit and also use for more serious efforts on/off the CT. The breakaway is perfect and will not change that at all but I will take off all the shimano components and put on the campy I have here that was left over from the Cervelo. I can also use the breakaway for all my traveling which has been a big plus.

c) I have to get rid of and fix so much equipment and set on two bikes that can pretty much handle it. The CT needed repair badly and finally today I sent it out. I was tired of my poor performance on it so I felt would be the perfect time as I am starting a new focused regimen and will take the next couple of weeks commuting. Today kind of broke me cause I was able to get in a 2 x 20 @ 210 but it just felt way too hard. Checking the heart rate just seemed to high at like a 170. There was a time I could do 220 all day in my life at like 160. Not sure if just age or out of shape. Time to retire the CT for a little while and just commute for a couple weeks while it is being repaired.

d) I am set to have my last set of injections for my back which will mean light work for about a month. It was a tough decision to go back into the torture chamber but given results of others if I can get the 30% more I am looking for in improvement, I can really get comfort a bit more dialed in.

So lots of preparation coming up and than starting new in about November cause I will have of old stuff to sell, other bikes to set up, injections done, heading to japan end of october which is the first time back in years and a big step for my recovery. I will than check my ftp upon return from Japan and just try and get the numbers up, keep weight down and if I see my numbers finally getting back into the 260 range again, consider TT. In building up to the 260 I will plan for a ride to Boston.

I am really at the point right now where everything can just come together if all the cards fall into play. Also in November or sooner I will try and find a bike fitter, I believe most is simply cause of my back issue but a good fitting should help.

-john

BTW, sorry for the sensory overload on the last post. I was planning out my next few months while writing it out it would seem.