Heathpack 

Oh yeah. Also my replacement disc wheel has shipped from FLO. They are awesome to deal with, very easy.

revchuck 

Heathpack, the Queen of dee Nile.

Hermes

Heathpack 

Haha, sometimes I actually get called Cleopatra. I don't fully understand it, something to do with it me realizing I'm thirsty after I've already settled down on the sofa and then sending a text wondering if I could possibly have a glass of water at the next convenient opportunity.

chasm54

@Heathpack, I bought some extra fittings for front and rear lights so That I could have them permanently attached to each bike. So swapping the lights from bike to bike takes 10 seconds, just clip 'em off one and onto another. As a result I'm never out training without lights. Quite apart from darkness, at this time of year one gets low light conditions at other times. Try not to get yourself killed, it's unnecessary.

Your 17 year-old is right about group rides, imo. Very rarely, riding in a group, did I get to do the ride I needed to do.

shovelhd

Heathpack, thick wool socks can restrict circulation and have the opposite effect. For 37 degrees I use medium thickness wool socks, wind blocking fabric booties, and a chemical hand warmer between the bootie and the top of the shoe near my toes.

Heathpack 

Lights on the TT bike present unique challenges. Nothing can be mounted on the base bar- first due to their aerodynamic shape (they're flat not round) and second if you mount anything on the midline my hands would block the light anyway.

So the lights have to go on the aerobars and because there's a swivel on my light where it meets the mount, I can't just mount the light sideways, it has to be upside down. When it's sideways, any ripple in the road causes the light to swing downward. Very dangerous.

When the light is mounted upside down with a standard mount, it doesn't sit low enough and some of the light is blocked by my hands. Interestingly that's not really the problem, it's the light that's reflected back, it ruins my night vision. My eyes are not that far above my hands in my TT position.

Thus I need some kind of mount which extends the light several inches below my bars. It also has to be removable for races because it's not very aerodynamic, we couldn't find the right mount that was commercially available. So my husband has built a prototype of a custom light mount which attaches to a custom Garmin mount he also made. Both are in prototype phase right now because he'd have to re-do them completely if I change my arm position (the mount is between the aerobars). So while the prototypes are in use, the method of adding the light mount is a little awkward. The finished product I'm told will be easier to use. I'm pretty happy with my arm position but I'm going to try a new stem, which is on its way. So there will be more bar fiddling coming. The mounts should be finalized after that and I think moving the lights from TT bike to road bike will be as easy as it currently is between road bikes.

I don't usually ride with a daytime headlight, although I understand the argument for it. We didn't have cloudiness and low light conditions too often actually, I would use the light probably if it were a dark day. I have the brightest blinkie known to man kind, though. A reason not to be on a group ride with me.

17 year old kid takes no days off from training. Rides or gym or core work every day. Very disciplined. Perfect nutrition. They wanted to take him for pizza. Nope. He likes pizza very much but he's not going to eat it. The kid does our local climbs while putting out an lackasadasical effort and winds up Strava top four, not even breathing hard. I'm not sure what pipeline he's in. My friends son met him while racing track in Europe. It's really great for our American boy wonder to see. Because the Euro boy wonder is much more of a wonder and that's probably because he's so much more disciplined about it all.

Heathpack 

It is a little surprising really that I don't have booties. This weather is not at all unusual for us in winter, I rode in this stuff with wool socks & toe covers & frozen toes all last year. I guess I should just go ahead & order some and be done with the complaining.

How long do the chemical warmers last? We're usually riding around 90 min to 2 hr.

chasm54

Maybe the simplest answer is to train on the TT bike in daylight. Radical, I know.

Really good juniors are sickening. The boy wonder in my old club (as the others know, I helped found a club focussing on youth racers a few years ago) is now one of the hotshots on the British Cycling Olympic development program. They're turning him into a specialist track sprinter because he put up the fastest flying 250 time they'd ever seen from a 15 year-old, but he's still plenty quick on the road. Climbs like a F16 while chatting about what he watched on YouTube last night. Never gets a reply, though - nobody else can breathe.

Heathpack 

Training during the day, what a novel idea. Might work for you retired types but I need to leave my house by 7:10 to make my train to get to work. So I need to be done with data uploaded & notes made by 6:40, hit the shower and then off to work. It's 4:30am or nothing for me, I can't reliably ride after work because my job doesn't finish at a set time & is comprised of a lot of unscheduled emergency cases.

I can get almost anything done on the trainer. Just not a climbing ride.

IBOHUNT

Thermal booties are a beautiful thing.
I personally don't like the chemical warmers as they take up room in the shoes. Your tastes will vary. The thin toe warmers from Hot Hands last ~8 hours

As for lights... I run a light on my bike at all times (except races). I've been told it's pretty bright even in the daylight (on strobe). Still didn't prevent that truck from pulling out in front of me 2 1/2 years ago but I do think it's prevented some others from doing the same thing. Red blinky one in the back as well.

Racer Ex 

2.5 hours yesterday with the guy who runs the new team I'll be on next season. 3k worth of climbing. We hit the gym after for a weight cycle, then went out for sushi. Hour of stretching and rolling after, during which a black rubber ball kept appearing at my side. Kept batting it away, and it kept showing back up.

Didn't prevent a weird bit of satorius cramping before I fell asleep. That's been one of those "huh?" things I get from time to time.

Mrs. Ex is over in Chasmland till Friday; Ridley's a bit lonely so we did 20 minutes of face wrasslin this morning and one belly rub cycle followed by a ball throw workout. 12.7 TSS.

Hermes

I use this by Light and Motion. It mounts on the helmet and offers superb visibility and has enough lumens to be used as a head light although, not advised for night riding without some level of ambient light.

So much like @Heathpack, I did a climbing ride up Skyline on Tuesday but left a little earlier in the day. However, the temperature drops and the climb is through the redwoods such that lighting is low even during sunny days in the summer. I warmed up with double arm warmers, base layer, leg warmers and wind vest - too much clothes. I reconfigured for the climb. On the descent, I put all the warmer clothes back on. The descent was cold and somewhat dark. I had the light on flasher mode and high visibility lens in my sun glasses. I could see without a problem and had no problem with passing cars.

I have run some very qualitative tests using the lighting system. On a route that I do quite often that features more traffic, traffic lights and cars pulling out of commercial property, I have used the lighted helmet on flasher. Based on observation, cars gave me more room when passing and clearly waited for me to pass if they were pulling out of a driveway or making a right turn against a red light. It was obvious to me that they saw me. Without the lighting, cars were still very courteous but seemed to pass closer and were more aggressive when pulling out of a driveway as I approached. And I have tried bar and seat post mounted lights and I do not seem to get an improved response from cars. However, the data set is very limited and based upon my memory.

Anytime I am in low visibility situations or higher traffic, I run the system. Why do I not use it all the time? It adds weight to the helmet and makes the helmet, IMO, not as comfortable. So for rides in daylight on open roads with light traffic and bike lanes, I do not use it.

It fits most helmets but seems to work the best on my Specialized Evade. The reason is the weight distribution of the lights on the helmet seem more balanced. On other helmets, the rear of the helmet seems to fall and I am constantly adjusting it. YMMV

sarals 

No, it's the grapes.

sarals 

@Hermes, I also use a Light and Motion helmet mount light. It's completely adjustable, and I've used it on my TT bike with absolute aplomb - not a hint of an issue. I don't like hanging lights on any of my bikes (except the needed blinky), the L&M light solves the headlight issue. And they're made locally - cool! @Heathpack - it might work for you!

Gym strength workout this morning, two sets. Felt pretty good, I'm cutting a very trim figure these days, too. I had spring and zip, and could hold the planks and V-up for about 40 seconds. Not bad.

Heathpack 

FYI, I ride in the dark all the time. 4-6 hours per week. Climbing, descending, good roads, bad roads. I'm very comfortable with riding in the dark.

I have a helmet light, a head light, a rear blinky. I also have ankle lights on reflective straps and multiple hi viz jackets/vests. I am typically the most visible of our Nightcrawler group by a good margin.

We also plan our dark routes with traffic/visibility in mind. We're actually much more visible against a black background (ie lonely canyon) vs in-town.

The issue was not that I don't have this stuff or understand its importance. I just misjudged sunset time because of the delays, so I didn't have my lights with me.

shovelhd

The chemical (a misnomer, they're just iron filings) warmers last at least 6 hours. IBO, I don't put them inside the shoe, I put them in between the shoe top and bootie, up front by the toes, covering the vents. My newest booties are made by Voler. They are the best stretch thermal booties I have owned. When it gets down into the 20's and below, I use LG neoprene booties, also with warmers.

Try it.

revchuck 

Today was my first chance to ride this week. After last week's almost no-chain rides, it was a bit of a letdown. My original plan was 2x20 threshold intervals; the first went fine, but I had to break the second into two ten minute intervals, I just wasn't feeling quite as froggy. 1:26, .87 IF, TSS 107, 1042 kj. This is in the same ballpark as last week's rides, it just felt harder.

Hermes

In Orange County and attended a track session at Velo Sports Center. Saw a lot of friends and talked with Cleave who is doing it as well.

I am playing golf tomorrow for openers and race on Saturday.

chasm54

Chuck, this has reminded me of something I have thought about, on and off, for a while. We all know the feeling you describe - some days it's easy, some day it's hard, even though by any objective measure the performance was the same. I'm wondering if, metabolically, there's a difference between those days - that it isn't psychological, but we actually do have to work harder to put out the same power because some system or metabolic pathway isn't operating at peak efficiency.

Clearly I don't have a laboratory to help me look at this (and I wouldn't know what to do with it if I had) but for starters, I'm interested in whether HR varies relative to power on good and bad days. Does it take a higher HR to generate 250 watts when you're struggling than it does on the "no-chain" days? Or maybe it's the opposite: after all, when I'm fatigued I can occasionally find it difficult to get my HR up, wheras on a good day it soars away. So I'd be interested if any of you powermeter users also track HR and note how consistent, or otherwise, the HR and power data are; and whether there's any pattern that reflects training load, RPE, or whatever.

IBOHUNT

Voler Booties at $19. A Steal for those that wear a small

revchuck 

Steady lower Z3 ride this morning. 1:26, IF .80, TSS 92, 993 kj.

revchuck 

I had to cut my ride short this morning due to drinking coffee and searching for a ride in the Mobile, AL area where my wife and I will be spending Thanksgiving. Workout was 2x10' threshold plus intervals. Power output was 104% for each, with the AP=NP and the watts being the same for both intervals! 1:00, IF .88, TSS 77, 741 kj.

chasm54

2.27 at endurance pace, estimated TSS 123, beautiful but cold morning. Lots of cyclists on the road.

sarals 

Two days of JRA. Kinda nice, but kinda slow, too. There's something peaceful and special about watching a sunrise from the saddle of one's bike. Threw in a couple of sprints - just checking - they still work. Almost time to get to work on next season.