Did You Ride Today?



We're supposed to have snow starting sometime after noon. Now, that's bad. Snow on the roads will keep yours truly off the roads. I may have to ride the magnetic trainer and damage my rear tire. Well, if the snow is good enough. I will just break out the X-country skis. Hoo ahh!
 
I might take the X-C ski's up to the state park trails Monday. Not nearly enough snow to ski on outside of the man-made stuff at the local downhill resorts. Monday the forecast calls for either 1"-3" or 5"-8".

I have wax and waxless types, a couple pairs of boots and poles, but we haven't had the right combination of weather and time to get them out this season. El Nino crushed the snow...so far.
 
It's 6 degrees right now at 10:45 AM, but the sun makes it feel like 7 degrees! The wind chill is -12 to -18 degrees.

Nope. Maydog may go out in this, but not me. I'll be in shorts and an unzipped short sleeve jersey this after while sitting on the trainer daydreaming of sunny, Southern California beaches full of bikinis stuffed with silicon!
 
Not quite as bad as CB but 15 F with 30 mph wind.

I have a set of wheels to convert to tubeless and a new fork to put on my "Rando" bike to replace the Enve 2.0
 
Too cold and windy so I rode the trainer. 215 watts and a new record, record low. Pretty sure my thyroid is acting up again but will get the results Monday. Naps seems highly desirable this past week. Had this issue in 2002.
 
11 degrees, used the rollers and tried the fork stand attachment for the first time. It really lets you put some power into the pedal that way. It seems harder than road riding, probably the boredom. Somehow its suppose to get close to 50 in a few days...Strange winter, but glad that we've had very little snow fall.
 
According to Kreitler's SRM power meter verified chart, using a fork stand REDUCES power output:
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I've never used a fork stand so no clue. Probably a net loss due to frictional losses and the power required to rotate the mass of the front wheel assembly and the aerodynamic losses resulting in not turning it through the air.

It was 8 degrees for a high today, currently 7 degrees and the temperature will drop to 1 above zero tonight. Winds ran at 12 to 18 MPH all day with gusts to 23 MPH so the wind chill was brutal.

Yeah, supposedly up to 50 degrees by next Friday...let's hope!

47 minutes on the Kurt Kinetic fluid trainer. I can't get that thing up to the speeds my rollers allow, but it soaks up Watts like a sponge goes after water. I average 15-17 RPM less using the same gear on the fluid trainer and it also drives my heart rate higher on average and maximum.

I enjoy the rollers for keeping my leg speed up and keeping my form sharp. The trainer is better for keeping what little power I develop going through the Winter.

Kurt Kinetic's Watt chart for comparison:

Kinetic_FluidPCurve.jpg


A 22 MPH workout requires about 142 Watts on my 4.5" Kreitlers and 16 MPH or so will require about the same power on the fluid trainer.

The Kurt Kinetic (as well as other quality fluid trainers) fluid trainer has a sea level amount of overcoming air resistance built into the equation. The faster you go, the power input increase parallels outdoor riding...somewhat.

Rollers, unless equipped with a fan, fluid or magnetic resistance attachment, generally have only a very small increase in resistance level as speed increases. Instead they rely on the effort of driving larger gears at higher RPM's. Add a good resistance attachment to a set of rollers and it will give you a hellova workout that surpasses most stationary trainers.
 
The weekly Saturday hill climbing ride was cancelled due to high winds and extreme cold. I waited until 2:30 to go out. By then it had warmed up to 31F. I planned to do about 20 miles since the NW wind had sustained winds of 25 mph with gusts to 35. I went out, but only managed to do 13. I could barely keep the bike upright or in a straight line. The ride made me feel good and invigorated me because I was getting antsy knowing the sun was shining and melting the paltry half inch of snow. If I can't get out to ride on a Saturday, I get really nervous. My wife has already labeled me a nut case, but I will do anything to stay off that blasted trainer. I know I didn't get that awesome indoor workout that CampyBob had, but it's just the part about being outdoors that makes me feel alive.
 
ZERO degrees this morning.

Guess which one of us is NOT going out on the road today.

I picked up another pair of headphones yesterday to help destroy what's left of my hearing even faster!
 
It's up to 17 degrees. I did an hour on the Kurt Kinetic fluid trainer. It sucked. Boring.

The el cheapo headphones ain't no Sennheiser's, but they sound decent enough over the noise of the trainer and two 20" box fans. $13 Zagg/iFrog ear pollution toxix on-ear models available at any WallyWorld. Perfect for sweating on and more than good enough audio quality for plugging into an iPod.

Averaged only 17.6 MPH so maybe 180 Watts? Felt good keeping the tempo up there and doing a lot of small punches. Worked in a few standing sprints, but didn't go all out with them...just good wind ups. Plenty of recovery areas in the first 40 minutes then pushed to the end. Not much structure, but it's Winter after all.
 
-3F and 20 mph winds this morning. I did a kind of short interval session on the trainer listening to my ancient i-Phone. Power was half decent for me anyway. I was bored. Need to figure out how to watch netflix on my PC or something more entertaining because the trainer is getting old.
 
Did 30 mins on the trainer, 227 watts. I feel like a rat turd on a stale cracker right now.
A kitten with a bad attitude could kick my butt. BP and HR are reasonable now. It is hell getting old.
 
My people are poor. They have no power meters. We only have charted approximations. We yearn for strain gauges and two-sided power readings every 30 degrees of crank rotation.

I do have a stupid BP & HR story for ya, JH...

Last Spring I was in for the doc to look at me and see if I would live another year. The nurse had taken my vitals and the doc did his thing and asked me if my HR was always that low.

How low?, I asked.

43, he said.

Yeah, all those miles pay off and I explained that I'm in pretty good shape for an old geezer.

He shook my hand and walked out of the examination room, closing the door behind him. It no sooner closed than he spun around and opened it again. He walks in and says, "We HAVE to do something about your blood pressure!".

Huh? 'What' blood pressure? I'm always in the low-great range.

Doc says, "You're 150 over 115! That's hypertensive and borderline stroke out zone!"

Huh? I said again. I tell him there has got to be some sort of error. He asks something about me having 'White Lab Coat Syndrome'...Nope. I grew up in a hospital. With multiple catastrophic injuries through life...I'm kind of used to the medical profession. And how in the name of Hell can have a sky-high BP reading and be 'freaked out' by a nurse with a pulse rate of only 43???

No answer...

He says I should get it checked out soon. And walks out before I can demand a re-count.

Somewhat stunned at the diagnosis and still thinking someone, somewhere ****ed up, I go to the nearby drug store and pay $50 for one of those old geezer BP cuff things.

And I use it twice a day for the next two weeks and carefully record my readings.

I spent a Grant to find out my BP would be the envy of a 21-year old Olympic marathon runner. AAARRRGGGGHHHHH! Stupid nurse!

Anyone want to buy a lightly used Omron BP Monitor?
 
My BP has been fine until 2 week ago. My HR is running 58 -62 as I sit here but it is 85-95 when I wake up.
F**f up. I get the results tomorrow but probably temporary thyroid issue. Yep my BP was 160/ 103 when I saw the doc last week. The worst is my energy level fluctuates all day long. I had this before due to stress in 02.
 
And you're still doing 220+ Watts?!?!?! Im-fracking-pressive!

Check your PM's.
 
I didn't ride. I did pistol and bow practice, today. It's tough shooting a compound bow without gloves in below freezing weather. No, I don't hunt, but I like to practice with the bow for when the left bans our guns.
 
And you're still doing 220+ Watts?!?!?! Im-fracking-pressive!

Check your PM's.
Thanks, power comes and goes. Had a great nap in the afternoon. Feeling almost normal right now. I think I need a Stem Cells cocktail.
 
44 with Gina on the tandem 17.3 average. Jose started with us but flatted after 2 miles. He told us to go ahead and he'd catch up with us later. He sucks at flat repair so we got to do about half the ride alone which was nice! :D

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