It's killing me but..........
- Thread starter Sillyoldtwit
- Start date
No problem. I ride just about every day. It does get pretty warm in the summer (June-August), so coming sometime between September and May is a good idea. You might want to starve yourself for a few months before coming out, because we have lots of vertical.gman0482 said:
cyberlegend1994 said:
We rent out a house for a week in Eastham every 4th of July.
RapDaddyo said:No problem. I ride just about every day. It does get pretty warm in the summer (June-August), so coming sometime between September and May is a good idea. You might want to starve yourself for a few months before coming out, because we have lots of vertical.
That sounds really great. I would love to do a trip like that. This week one of the local club members sent an email out that he has a nice hard bike case for the plane and he will lend it out any time to all members.
RapDaddyo said:Any time. If you (or anybody else) comes to Las Vegas, let me know and I'll plan a special ride. We have some extraordinarily scenic routes and we can throw in just about as much challenge as anybody wants. A couple of years back, one of the forum members came down from Chicago. I posted a ride on our most famous route, Mount Charleston. He didn't bring his bike and I wanted to test a TT frame, so I lent him my bike. The funny part was that the TT frame was highly unstable and I was scared to death on the 50mph descent. We had a good laugh on that one.
What's this I'm reading? A chance to ride with the legendary RapDaddyo and glean some choice nuggets of wisdom? Hey now, maybe I want in on that as well and I'm hella closer than cape cod
Haven't been in vegas since last year but I love the southwest, sun, warm temps, and great roads. Any good, hilly road races out there in the next few months RapD? That would make for a nice excuse to hit up LV....
We have 3 great races per year that involve lots of climbing. You just missed the Callville Bay Classic (~March 1st each year). In September (9/19 last year), we have the oldest road race in Las Vegas, the Mount Charleston Hill Climb. In November (11/7 this year), we have the Silverman Triathlon with the hardest full-length triathlon bike leg in the world (10K feet of climbing). All three are good times of the year because it's not too hot. I may have to hit up one of our fast ladies to ride with us.DancenMacabre said:
RapDaddyo said:We have 3 great races per year that involve lots of climbing. You just missed the Callville Bay Classic (~March 1st each year). In September (9/19 last year), we have the oldest road race in Las Vegas, the Mount Charleston Hill Climb. In November (11/7 this year), we have the Silverman Triathlon with the hardest full-length triathlon bike leg in the world (10K feet of climbing). All three are good times of the year because it's not too hot. I may have to hit up one of our fast ladies to ride with us.
Just did a google on that Hill Climb and it looks like fun. Hill climbs in England are typically time trial events so seening one that looks like it's a road race format looks pretty cool. That's a big hill too - 5,300ft elevation gain to way over 8,000 could lead to some interesting racing.
RapDaddyo said:I guess that I should forewarn you that about half the time I am testing one or more Rube Goldberg inventions involving power and training. So, I may impose on you to beta test some goofball thing or another.
With great pleasure, anytime, you know that.
wrongFelt_Rider said:
I had hope, but those big rollers yesterday hit me harder than I thought.
Today's 2 hour SST ride ended up being a nice cruise in an awesome sunny mild weathered day.
Still got a ways to go Swampy, but I will keep trying.
Dropping in to share an 'aha' moment. Call it an early lesson learned or something along those lines about reality vs. expectations in the life of a newbie racer.
A few months back I mentioned this:
Got my first win today....and in what of all things you ask? A TT , on a plain old, and I do mean old, road bike. Not only a happy result but I found I liked the format a lot. When you are a green racer, like me, with all to learn, a race where enough fitness & prep trumps tactics, negative team racing, and stratagem's is a good combination. Just you, the bike, the clock, and all the suffering you can carry....not much different than the trainer actually. Now that's far from enough to call it the beginning of some great TT career but a good start if nothing else.
So maybe the take home message for the less experienced or would be racers is, you might be good at something you don't expect to be or were dismissive/dubious about. Suddenly doing alright at those things can make them a whole lot more appealing....
A few months back I mentioned this:
DancenMacabre said:
Got my first win today....and in what of all things you ask? A TT , on a plain old, and I do mean old, road bike. Not only a happy result but I found I liked the format a lot. When you are a green racer, like me, with all to learn, a race where enough fitness & prep trumps tactics, negative team racing, and stratagem's is a good combination. Just you, the bike, the clock, and all the suffering you can carry....not much different than the trainer actually. Now that's far from enough to call it the beginning of some great TT career but a good start if nothing else.
So maybe the take home message for the less experienced or would be racers is, you might be good at something you don't expect to be or were dismissive/dubious about. Suddenly doing alright at those things can make them a whole lot more appealing....
Felt_Rider said:
Some days you have it, some you don't even though you got enough rest and 'food'... It's way better to restructure the session and get some riding in than it is to turn around an go home. Sometimes a 'nice ride' is as good for the head as it is for the legs.
DancenMacabre said:
Congrats
When you're starting off it's good to try it all. Even when you've got a few years of riding under your belt it's good to revisit some of those events that you don't do that often just to have fun and see how you've progressed.
Congrats DM! As a "non-racer" the TT is the only competitive club event I participate in on a regular basis. The "fun" indeed is in how much suffering one can take for the reward of a new PB at the finish line. Well done!DancenMacabre said:
Thanks y'all for the good words
Guess that adage of 'don't knock it till you've tried it' carries a little more weight for me in terms of bike racing events. If someone said TT's to me a few weeks ago I'd have responded with........<yawn>....as that old post I made about sandbagging'em attests. Now I look forward to these events...
Part of it is that while being as green as it gets as a RR, you can get schooled by people who know the game. My fitness seems alright but you get other racers who play their cards perfectly in a RR and thus, beat you. TT's sort of equalize the playing field and can be a good way to get past the veneer of tactics & games and see, um, what you really got. It can be a boost to do better than people you thought, solely judged from RR results, were way fitter than you...
Anyhoo....I've done 95% of my training/riding solo, so it is like CF is my team
Opinion: Got another rolling TT upcoming real soon here. I was thinking of a) getting a profile of the course, even an imperfect one (e.g..., mapmyride.com), b) cutting it up into segments, c) use the MMP curve to plot speed & power for each segment and d) estimate NP for the overall TT and adjust power for the segments as needed. Now I'm very familiar with velocity increases in the flats adhering the cube function of power (e.g., to go 2x as fast, you need 8x more power!) whereas on climbs, it is a linear relationship. Obviously my bikkies, aka wattage currency, will be most heavily spent on the climbs...
Gman: ha ha, cat IV victories don't usually make magazine covers but.... How's training? You're still gonna try some crits....right?
Guess that adage of 'don't knock it till you've tried it' carries a little more weight for me in terms of bike racing events. If someone said TT's to me a few weeks ago I'd have responded with........<yawn>....as that old post I made about sandbagging'em attests. Now I look forward to these events...
Part of it is that while being as green as it gets as a RR, you can get schooled by people who know the game. My fitness seems alright but you get other racers who play their cards perfectly in a RR and thus, beat you. TT's sort of equalize the playing field and can be a good way to get past the veneer of tactics & games and see, um, what you really got. It can be a boost to do better than people you thought, solely judged from RR results, were way fitter than you...
Anyhoo....I've done 95% of my training/riding solo, so it is like CF is my team
Opinion: Got another rolling TT upcoming real soon here. I was thinking of a) getting a profile of the course, even an imperfect one (e.g..., mapmyride.com), b) cutting it up into segments, c) use the MMP curve to plot speed & power for each segment and d) estimate NP for the overall TT and adjust power for the segments as needed. Now I'm very familiar with velocity increases in the flats adhering the cube function of power (e.g., to go 2x as fast, you need 8x more power!) whereas on climbs, it is a linear relationship. Obviously my bikkies, aka wattage currency, will be most heavily spent on the climbs...
Gman: ha ha, cat IV victories don't usually make magazine covers but....
How's training? You're still gonna try some crits....right?
Congrats Dancen, nice job!
FWIW my first win as a master racer after many years away from the sport came in a TT as well and on my vintage steel road bike with clip on bars and no fancy aero gear. I've used TTs very effectively to advance or hold my GC placing in stage races and weekend omniums since then. I totally sucked at and hated time trials when I was younger and couldn't for the life of me figure out how to pace them or suffer alone like that out in the wind. The big difference is exactly the kind of training (e.g. 2x20s) that are described in the hundreds of pages of this thread and learning to simply put out steady power while training.
I guess my point is that folks who are following Tyson on this path and training per RDO's excellent advice really should think about time trials as many if not most racers I know, especially lower category racers, get a lot of their training through group rides and races and many never really learn to simply dive into the pain cave and hold a steady pace for 20 or more minutes. That's a big advantage in time trials for someone who's invested the time and energy to do steady L4 work.
Food for thought....
-Dave
FWIW my first win as a master racer after many years away from the sport came in a TT as well and on my vintage steel road bike with clip on bars and no fancy aero gear. I've used TTs very effectively to advance or hold my GC placing in stage races and weekend omniums since then. I totally sucked at and hated time trials when I was younger and couldn't for the life of me figure out how to pace them or suffer alone like that out in the wind. The big difference is exactly the kind of training (e.g. 2x20s) that are described in the hundreds of pages of this thread and learning to simply put out steady power while training.
I guess my point is that folks who are following Tyson on this path and training per RDO's excellent advice really should think about time trials as many if not most racers I know, especially lower category racers, get a lot of their training through group rides and races and many never really learn to simply dive into the pain cave and hold a steady pace for 20 or more minutes. That's a big advantage in time trials for someone who's invested the time and energy to do steady L4 work.
Food for thought....
-Dave
