3alarmer 

...gun is no longer censored. You must have missed the memo. I like the "discount guns" aspect of it.

3alarmer 

.
...gun, pistol, rifle, shotgun, revolver, 2nd amendment thumb sucking blanket, bangstick, heater, ***, Colt Peacekeeper. Uh, oh, looks like Siu missed "***".

Heathpack 

Heartbreak Hundred is next week and today's training ride was just a pre-ride of the entire course. All I can say is today was not my day. That ride was a total struggle for me, I'm not sure why. It was 100 miles/8500 ft of climbing, not really something that's too out of the ordinary for me. The temp range wound up being 40-90F, but most of the day was within my cycling comfort zone. It did suck a little to be climbing in the sun in 90F temps wearing a light wool base layer, but honestly that was no more than 30-40 min. Kept up with calories pretty well, ate 2000 and burned 3500, maybe cutting it a little close but should have been ok. Hydration good- 100 oz, which is almost 3 liters.

So everything good but I was really dragging for the final 50 miles. This ride does have a 30 mile pure climb, starting at mile 47. Really no down at all for 30 miles. But the first 20 of that is not too steep, like 1-3%, then maybe 5-7 miles of moderately steep stuff, 5-7%. Topped off by "Heartbreak Hill," which is a few miles at 8-12%. Very tough, then another 15 miles of rollers, with a decent amount of down but also some steep 10ish% stuff. Those 45 miles made me reconsider cycling as a hobby, lol. Bright spot in there is Steady Steve and I set up a nice rational paceline for the first 20 miles of the long slog, 3 minute pulls and managed a 15 mph pace, not too shabby.

We also started with a 10 mile climb into headwinds, not epic headwinds, maybe 8mph. But up a 5-6% long climb, it was kind of a brutal start (haha, I did not feel cold though!). Then there's lots of rollers with short steep hills, 10-14%, I wasn't really aware of that, its hard to see short stuff like that by looking at elevation profiles. And final factor was gusty wind, which was sometimes a head wind. But again it really didn't seem that bad, I was blown around a little, so some of the gusts were probably in the 20ish mph range. I would say that most of the headwinds were 5-8 mph range, really something that is typically pretty manageable for me.

So I'm really not sure what was up. Moving time was 7:30, which is pretty slow. But total elapsed time was almost 9hrs. Yikes, total disaster. Moving speed was 13.4mph, which is actually around 0.75 mph faster than I'd normally do a big climbing ride. But that stopped time was just ridiculous. I was just getting really exhausted by the end.

Whatever, I'm not going to worry too much about it. We'll see if coach can figure it out any better than me. But sometimes there's just no explaining a particular cycling performance. Either way, all the training is essentially done, fretting about it won't change anything. If I can find something to correct, I'll do it. Otherwise, I'll just ride the thing next Saturday and see if I can do any better. A little frustrating, but that's how the cookie crumbles some times.

PS Best comment of the day was from Steady Steve, "What's wrong with you? You're usually kicking my butt on these rides but today you're kind of a disaster." Thanks, buddy.

Heathpack 

No pics. That was the kind of thing they told us not to do. Just be unobtrusive, no pics/autographs/social media, no "helping" them (especially handing them anything consumable, I guess to be sure the anti-doping is not rigged), letting them do whatever media/team/medical/mechanical stuff they needed to get done.

She is such a sweetheart, I'm sure she would have been fine with it. But still, we weren't supposed to, so I didn't.

Yes, I've since read about her backstory. What an incredible individual. Doesn't surprise me one iota, though, having had that tiny glimpse yesterday. She seemed like the real deal to me. But it makes me cringe a little to think there are women like her out there- I feel like I should establish some sort of cycling foundation to get a road bike into the hands of every 14 year old girl in America, see who has big cycling chops and just doesn't know it.

BillyD

I got the memo, we discuss these dings, just didn't want to be the one to open the floodgates.

LesterOfPuppets

Oh there were goats. The local 4H goat posse runs deep. I just didn't get a pic of them.

LesterOfPuppets

Don't make me break out the Lee Greenwood youtubes!!!

3alarmer 

...the Cal state fair dairy goats are some of my favorite critters. I like them way better than stoopid cows.

Bunyanderman

My cycling begins this week, I am officially done with swimming as of today.

datlas 

Wow we can say gun. What about the French shower word??

Let's see...******.

edit: the answer is obvious

datlas 

No riding today. Stuck in central NJ for a synchronized swim meet.

Pirkaus

Not sure which is worse
(I'm allowed to disrespect NJ, I was born there)

datlas 

Me too. I escaped at 18 though. We are in Westfield which has a very nice downtown. Would rather be riding of course.

rjones28 

I think I'll ride out to catch some local road racing action this morning - 2015 SRW - Road Race - 1st Loop - A bike ride in Town of Tully, NY. Our shop is providing neutral support.

Velo Vol 

Gun nut.

What's there to worry about?

You don't like swimming? I don't blame you.

rpenmanparker 

Ate many great meals at Chez Catherine in Westfield when I was employed and travelling to NJ on business. It was a favorite for customer entertainment and recruiting dinners. Finally the company put a stop to it...just too expensive.

In a more reasonable price range I also really liked The Frog and the Peach in New Brunswick and La Catena in Roselle Park. Ah, dem was de days.

Velo Vol 

I went on a bicycling strike yesterday to protest dumb tyres. This could start a movement.

I worked up a little sweat in the process. This didn't happen during my subfreezing walks. Also saw numerous rose bushes in bloom. Ditto. And a few other unidentifiable flowers.

Heathpack 

Well, as I said, I'm not going to worry about it, there's nothing more from a training perspective that can be done at this point. I can, however, look at logistical improvements for the ride, things like pacing, nutrition, where to save energy, stopped time, etc.

I'm currently the 8th place woman in this series, out of 16 total. Two women are ahead of me by only 5 minutes in our cumulative times. The goal was to pass them for a 6th place overall finish, doubtful I could catch the woman in 5th place because she's a full hour ahead of me. Moving up into 6th place will take me riding Heartbreak Hundred in a total elapsed time around 7hrs, even better would be 6:45.

Somewhere around March it became obvious to me that finishing these rides was not going to be a challenge, barring something like a mechanical or a crash, I was going to finish. So the goal changed to "doing well". For me, a 6th place finish would be doing very well, the top 3 or 4 women are serious high-end nationally-competitive endurance athletes. Dropping back to 11th would be a disappointment. Huge learning curve on these things, though, and they require a big depth of endurance that it takes years to build. So if I drop down in the placements, its not like I'll be suicidal or anything. Its just nice to set expectations for yourself and to meet or exceed them.

I've said this before, I think for me the reasons I ride a bike are different from the reasons many other people ride a bike. My reasons are not better, they are just different. Mostly for me, its about trying to find out what is possible. So I am constantly pushing my own limits and building on the last thing. I love the experience of that, the feeling of expanded possibility. For me, its 100% worth all the hard work and early hours and the time spent in strategic thinking. On the bike, I just don't want to do something, I want to do it as well as I possibly can.

Herbie53

When are you going to start racing?.. sounds inevitable.

Doug28450

Cows are tasty. Goats, not so much.

Doug28450

I officiated a swim meet yesterday. It was far from synchronized.

Doug28450

Wife and I rode 15 rainy miles. We were planning on 30, but cut it short.

Heathpack 

Haha, I am racing, didn't you read my post?

But I guess you're talking about the more traditional types of bike racing. I have signed up (heaven help me) for a 20k time trial on June 7. So totally clueless, I don't even want to try to set any goal or be competitive, I just want to go and ride it and see what its like, then we'll take it from there. Adobo Velo is also doing some intramural racing, chapter against chapter, this summer- three team time trials and one ITT. I'm pretty interested in doing that, if our team is organized enough for it to be safe (if there's no real practices, I may bow out).

It is funny though, the Death Ride was to be a major event ride for me this year. Its 129 miles/15000 ft climbing at altitude in the Sierra Nevadas, its a hard ride. But its not timed and now I'm kind of looking at it like "what's the point? how will you know how well you did?" Lol. It will be a personal best elevation gain from me if I finish it, so that's something. And it will be good training for the Everest Challenge stage race, which is 150 miles and 30000 ft climbing over two consecutive days. It will depend on dates, next year I'm going to be away for business around the time that happens, its in late September. But I might try to do that in 2016, if my schedule allows.

Basically though, after the Death Ride, I'm going to take a little regroup. Do "something else" on the bike in August, probably some time trials. Then come back for the fall and decide where I'm going from there. I'm thinking three doubles, build some of that ultra endurance and experience. But I'm not 100% settled on anything yet.

Bunyanderman

Where was this one this time? We just finished our D2 Finals this weekend.

BillyD

I can't speak for any other goat recipes, but you should try curried goat . . . to die for . . . or at least suffer moderately for.

Of course the best places to find it done properly are in West Indian communities or the Caribbean.