Fat Boy

I'm not sure what's wrong with me, but I'm just not in the mood to ride lately. I did that long MTB race which just kinda broke me. At the end of the day, I think I just need a break from riding. I should be racing CX and having fun with my friends, but I just don't want to put out that type of effort right now. It's a weird thing for me and I'm not exactly sure why. I guess when I want to do it I will.

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I took my girls to the CX races this weekend so they could do it. We had a good time. My girls are 6 & 9. They 'ride' the course, but don't really 'race' it. Well, something stuck a burr under the saddle of the 9 year old yesterday. She actually 'raced'. It was somewhat unusual to watch. She's normally riding with another girl her age. Yesterday she finished minutes ahead of that girl and 1 second behind a girl that was probably 2 years older than her. There was no smiling and waving to Daddy. When she came across the line she pulled to the side and just stood there for a bit to collect herself. I wonder if I'll continue to see that?

furiousferret

Having grew up in SF I have now adapted to SoCal weather. Everytime I go back home I toy with moving back up there, then I just complain how cold it is and leave.

If I want to be cold, I'll drive up to Big Bear and go skiing.

revchuck 

I just came off of a two week, doctor-required no cycling period. I was supposed to be running and doing core work in the interim. I ran one day of those two weeks, period. It was bleepin' awesome. As much as I love riding, I needed that break. Nose is currently pressed firmly to training grindstone again.

Jandro 

We're spoiled in the bay area. I can count on one hand the times I've ridden in <40*F this year. It's also been an incredibly mild winter (even by SF standards) so far. Almost no rain and it's only now dipping into the low 40's at night.

rideaz

Yeah....I didn't realize how cold it got here until I started riding bikes. It's easy to ignore when you stay indoors and drink coffee LOL. At least it's a "dry cold" and if you can switch to evenings, it's real nice!

Ygduf

When I'm there I'm riding around family plans, so early AM. It was alright though, I'm used to the cold, i.e. anything below 50 is basically freezing anyway.

mike868y

it's REAL early for people to already be getting sick of riding again, damn.

Fat Boy

My 'season' runs different from most due to work.

mattm

Depends. Not everyone starts at the same time, or peaks at the same time.

That said I'm not tired of riding, and looking forward to next year's racing (starting January) - I use it as motivation to keep on pluggin' away.

Jandro 

You doing the Mount San Bruno World Championship (/s) race on 1/1/2014?

mattm

**** no!

But I'm doing the Early Bird crits for training and of course the Cal Aggie crit in late Jan as my first real race of 2014.

Duke of Kent

Yes. Come on up to lovely Fort Drum, NY and tell me all about your problems. I will show you my platoon's supply cage, which contains 44 pairs of snow shoes.

Or the "Michelin Man" suit that, when it's 0F, makes me sweat if I do anything more than sit outside.

wktmeow

I'm such a wimp when it comes to cold. I need to move somewhere tropical. Anything under ~65F and I'm complaining.

That being said, work ruined my training last week. Had to work this weekend, snuck in a HOP ride, which is super laid back this time of year, had no trouble at all sitting in the bunch and even bridged a few gaps after some red light separations, but was too tired from late nights and early mornings to do another long ride Sunday. Ended up napping instead. Not sure if I should keep doing the weekend group rides though, I spent way too much time coasting or soft pedaling, I think I'd get a lot more out of a long steady solo ride. On the other hand it does keep me comfortable in a big pack...

Clocked just over 6 hours total for the week. I need to find some way to make a decent living off of < 20hrs a week so I can ride more

Trainer ride tonight, should probably do either 2x20 @ z4 or 3x20 @ sweet spot

mollusk

2x20 upper 4/lower 5 or 3x20 upper 3/lower 4 is OK.

2x20 lower 4 or 3x20 lower 3 is not. Not enough stress to make it worth the effort.

It is push and pull with FTP and this is not rocket science. If bike racing was rocket science I would kill you all. I am like Cat 0 at that.

cmh

And a Cat 1 chef based on your posts...

wktmeow

Normally I'd agree, but being that it's still early in the season for me, 3x20's @ 90% of FTP and 2x20's @ 100% are plenty to drive my CTL up at a steady rate right now. Late winter/early spring, sure, I'll start tacking on the 2x20's @ 105%, 1x40 and 3x20's @ 100% FTP, and 2x45's and 2x60's @ sweet spot, but not yet.

aaronmcd

Ugh, that sounds horrible right now. After my last race, I took a couple weeks easy, then a few off the bike when it was stolen, the a couple more getting used to riding again/getting used to the new bike. I didn't realize that would have such a huge impact in my motivation to ride hard. I need some fast group rides to get back in it. Example: legs a tad sore today but not bad. Morning commute I was at like 85% ftp for 6 or 7 minutes and whining about it. I need to HTFU. Bad.

mike868y

had to call out sick from work yesterday. first time i've done that...ever. weird feeling. BUT feeling significantly less sick today. going to try and spin easy on the trainer for an hour or so and hopefully to a "real" ride tomorrow.

thechemist

Well, my motivation is there but it is kind of unusual. I had a 10mph tailwind on the way home yesterday and finally arrived home at about what I was doing last year I am mostly doing zone3 stuff right now but itching to get faster

ovoleg

**** day on the bike yesterday.

Went out and rode up a local climb, get to the top to turn around and continue my workout and on the descent I hit a MASSIVE pothole, didn't deathgrip the bars but held them pretty tight as I hit the hole. My bars tilted down from the heavy impact, my garmin decided to launch itself off the K-edge mount and as soon as I stopped my front tube got a pinch flat. So I circle back and pickup my Garmin which now has a broken plastic back(thinking about how to fix that now), fix my handbars and get them back to the position they were in, fix the flat and ride home.

Wheel is still true(seriously surprised by this), the worst of it seems to be the Garmin plastic back that mounts. I looked at the fork but didn't see any damage. Anything else you guys think I should look for?

Rode home sorta pissed lol. Oh and it was cold!!!! like 45 degrees, WTF socal!

rkwaki

Look at all the components including headtube just to be safe. Check bars, stem, rims (hairline cracks), saddle rails, etc, just be real thorough under good light.

Try crazy glue, glue it then use electrical tape to keep it set while the glue dries.

ovoleg

thanks going to really look it over tonight!!

rkwaki

IMHO it is something you should do on a regular basis anyways. Good habit to start.

ovoleg

Yeah, I typically look things over when I'm cleaning the bike but generally I don't check the stem or headtube.

The plastic backing on the garmin is chipped off, I'm going to add some random piece of plastic and superglue it together I think. It still mounts into the k-edge mount just a little loose

MDcatV

it's uh, november 19th. winter doesnt start for another month.