MikeRides

Up 15 pounds since the holidays has me thinking about the upcoming ride season. Rode a little more than 2500 miles last year, goal is 4000 this year! Got some new rides planned in addition to traditional rides.

2016 Goals:

4,000 miles YTD
April 23 - First ever charity/group ride, to benefit Students Against Drunk Drivers(S.A.D.D.). I signed up for the 50 mile route
4/30 EDIT:
Early March - Picked up my first road bike, Trek 1.1 - Previously all I've ever ridden is mountain/comfort bikes
Friend backed out on our planned 100 miler in June, and my daughter is going to baseball camp this summer so our traditional tour is off.
Also decided to aim for 50+ miles every weekend this season instead, the goal is to ride 50+ miles in one day but certain circumstances may not allow that so if I can ride 50+ miles in two days that'll work too.

I'll try to keep this thread updated throughout the year

Hermes1

Lofty and worthwhile goals best of luck achieving them. Hope to hear how you progress.

indyfabz

Are you aware that Amtrak finally started roll-on bike service on the Capitol Limited that parallels the GAP? Check their bike policy for details. You will need a reservation and I would expect the service to pretty popular in the summer. IIRC, there is room for only 8 bikes.

If you are referring to ACA's Adirondack Loop, there is some serious climbing. I bought the map from them a while back and it contains a route profile. And some of the roads up there are crowded with RV traffic, especially on the weekends.

ghostbhob

Good luck to you.

MikeRides

I haven't looked into transportation to/from the GAP. I was actually considering the C&O from Philly to D.C. first as I have friends in the area to park at, but someone in the touring forum recommended the GAP as it's better maintained and more interesting. Nonetheless, my daughter really wants to do the ECT again, she had a ball last summer despite a couple rainy days we rode through. Personally while safe and historically interesting, most of that trail was just a bit too monotonous for me. We took our time and rode it in 9 1/2 days, with one day off midweek. IF we were to do it this year, I would want to try to increase our mileage to ride it out in 5 or less, some of the stops we made last year would be pointless to make a second time IMO.

As for the ADK Loop, the only way I'm riding that is if I go solo so it probably won't happen this year(but it's always nice to dream). I've done some riding in the Ticonderoga/Lake George area years ago, so I'm well aware of the terrain. Being a summer vacation hot spot, it wouldn't surprise me if there were an abundance of traffic. IMO riding among traffic doesn't frighten me, I ride with tractor trailers doing 60+mph year 'round, I've got mirrors and hi-viz equipment and take safety very seriously. Every road I've been on has had a "bail" option, not that I ever had to use it.

MikeRides

New Bike - Training Plans


So after a lot of consideration and shopping around, I finally picked up a road bike. My first, ever drop-bar bike. I test rode six different models, had it narrowed down to three finalists: 1) Fuji Sportif 2.5, 2) Raleigh Revenio 1, and a 3)Trek 1.1. Best deal and most responsive ride just happened to be on the Trek. I wasn't prepared when I stopped at the Trek dealer, I was wearing jeans and work boots. Test rode it around an empty mall parking lot (~5 miles) and loved how responsive it rode and smooth it shifted so much that I wanted to go further, took that as a sign that THIS was the bike for me. The seat leaves a lot to be desired and I want to swap out the cheap plastic pedals but those issues I plan on addressing when my state tax refund comes in.

First "real" ride was a 20 mile loop, on a cloudy 60 degree March afternoon. This is where I was reminded the fact that I haven't ridden in over six months. Huffed and puffed against a headwind and on any sort of ascents and my rear end was crying for some padding. Ordered a new pair of shorts and a jersey since my one and only kit is now too large for me (It's really a dumb idea to buy $100+ athletic apparel when you're trying to lose weight). Oddly enough I only wore them once or twice anyway, I found no comfort advantages in them over regular tech shirts and gym shorts on my hybrid. Speaking of my hybrid, I've decided to tune it up and hand it down to my younger brother who's heavier than I was when I first started (I was 230, he's around 250...). Not sure if he'll have the same results as me, or whether he'll ride it as much as I did but he has taken it on a couple short rides already so perhaps he'll get infected with the Cycling virus as it gets warmer out.

Anyway, I've got just over a month to work on my fitness before my big ride (50 miles on Apr 23). I've also got to build up my confidence to ride in the drops, I have this fear of falling or flying over the bars and can't seem to stay in them longer than a couple minutes at a time. Luckily there's a nice paved rail trail near work, that a co-worker advised me nobody except him (he's a runner) seems to use during the week so I can start there. I have no idea where the official trail parking lot is, so I plan on leaving my truck parked at work and riding over to the trail (less than 2 miles) as a warm up then do some intervals in and out of the drops, then a "cool down" ride back to the truck.

TrojanHorse

Personally, I spend most of my time with my hands on the curved top of the bars with my hands on the grip part of the shifter, or maybe with my hands on the flat part of the bars and only occasionally in the drops. Don't feel like you have to ride with your hands down there.

This is what I mean: It's very easy to brake & shift from there.

MikeRides

Yup, that's exactly where I've been keeping my hands majority of the time. But I still think the drops will have an advantage if I'm battling a strong headwind. Other than that, I just need to work on my fitness again (it sucks to be a fair-weather rider sometimes, but it's a choice I make and thus have to deal with the results) - the confidence of riding hunched over will follow with more experience I'm sure.

MikeRides

Couple updates..

First as I posted in another thread (carbo loading and the April ride log), the charity ride was a great success. My first group ride and on unfamiliar hilly roads, I managed to finish in 3:35 riding time / 4:11 elapsed time. Main excuse for the big difference in time is because I and many of the other riders in the group I ended up in had to wait near 30 min at a train crossing. I skipped the first rest stop, at mile 13, simply because it was too early into the ride (I still had plenty of water). Stopped at mile 30 rest stop to refill my water bottles and grab a quick snack, then again at mile 45 to stretch out a tight calf muscle but even those breaks I was only off the bike for perhaps 2 min each stop. The organizers did an excellent job at marking the route so nobody would get lost, and ensured it didn't get too congested (there were less than 500 riders altogether between the 10, 20 and 50 mile courses so that was nice), and more importantly I'm proud of myself for not being the last one in at the end of the day ( I knew going in that I wasn't going to be the first one..) I've already committed myself to do this ride again next year, and am even considering doing it solo sometime this summer.

In addition to my goal of riding 4000 miles this year, I've decided to ride at least 50 miles every weekend. I'd like to make that 50miles in one ride, but I know certain circumstances may not allow that to happen so if necessary I don't mind if it's 50 miles in two days.

If anyone recalls, I had two "tours" planned this year, a 100 mile ride with a friend and a traditional week long tour with my daughter. Well, my friend let me know that he won't be returning home after AIT in June so our 100 mile ride will be postponed til he does return (next year, most likely). Also my daughter's really getting into team sports (baseball) this year and wants to go to baseball camp this summer, which actually works out well for me since I found out my vacation request was denied for July anyway. I'm hoping to make time for some weekend bike-camping trips instead, but not writing anything in ink just yet.


My main focus this year is strength training / speed, I've got a good base of miles down but I learned a lot on the charity ride - 1 being just how slow I am at hill climbing. As much as I hate hills I feel the only way I'll improve on them is to ride more of them, so I've been scoping out new routes preferably hilly ones. Got a few 13%+ rated climbs nearby that seem perfect, I crawl up them at <7mph but I hope by the end of the season I'll be spinning up them at about 14mph? Wishful thinking...


If anyone has any tips on strength training I'd love to hear your input.

dagray

keep it going Mike

MikeRides

So, I had high expectations for last year but with family obligations and my work schedule I neglected to ride as much as I had hoped to. I've been digging myself out of some massive debt the last couple years and am now in a safe position financially to finally buy my first home, that's my main focus this year.

As I stated last year, I already committed myself to doing the 50 mile group charity ride again at the end of April, this time I hope to finish in less than 3 hours. Some goals, as previously posted include:
- Average of 20 miles a day for a grand total of 7300 miles (should be doable even if I have to count trainer time)
- Lose an additional 20-25 pounds (put on a few over the recent holiday)
- Get stronger AND faster on the bike
- Self-sustained statewide bike tour (~750 miles) this summer to celebrate my 30th birthday [pending vacation request approval]
- I'm committing myself to a fast food and alcohol free year.

jsigone

congrats on the house, but I don't see enough snow

MikeRides

That picture was taken by my agent back in the fall. It's just been brutally cold here for much of the past month so while there's not much snow, we still got some lingering. I'll snap a new pic the next time I'm over there - closing the sale now.