Just bragging, what else...

Hi Ford,
Nice times!! For my first time on the track in 2004, I got a flying 200 of 14.5 on my Bianchi Pista with 48x16 using 15 year old mountain bike shoes with toe clips and single strap. At the time, I was 40 yrs old and the bike was one week old, this was my first track bike. I was riding 200 miles a week as a messenger so I had a good base with plenty of intervals on the streets of NYC. All of that definitely helped. When I rode that 200m I felt that I was spun out of gear but after reading many posts about rpms, I can see that I will have to get many more rpms out of my legs before I can consider myself to be spun out. Still I felt I could have used a few more gear inches. Also smoked nearly a pack of Newports daily. Anyway, like the title of my post says, I'm just bragging. On 04/08/2006 I'm going to do a 6 mile road ITT. That may be enough incentive to persuade me to quit smoking and concentrate on riding faster. Smoking is just something I enjoy, just as I enjoy cycling. The only thing about smoking and cycling is that I'll have to decide how serious I want to become with racing. Since I normally do all my riding alone the ill effect that smoking has on my physical condition doesn't come into play. I enjoy riding hard and in the future I'd like to get serious with Master's racing on the track so I know that I should quit smoking. I love to ride the track bike. The bike just seems to beg you to push it harder and harder.

My only riding in 2005 has been a 5 mile each way daily commute on the track bike. On New Years day 2006, I rode the track bike on a group ride with the local racing club. I impressed the other guys once on that ride by skidding...sliding to a stop on a downhill at a red light. One guy said, "I got to hand it to ya, you didn't wreck anybody!" We rode 40 miles that day and I maintained pace with the leaders and at times pushed the pace. I did not suck wheel that day. I even dropped back a few times to pull a couple of people back up to the pack. The last time I dropped back to pull another rider back up is when I bonked hard. I had to stop for a candy bar and water as we approached the entry back into town. When I stepped off the bike for this stop I had tunnel vision and was seeing spots I was actually close to blacking out. I was fine after I got the snickers bar and water. This ride started at 12noon and I hadn't eaten anything since 2pm the previous day. All this and still smoking Newports nearly a pack a day. Yada, yada, yada,...brag, brag, brag.

This post looks a tad bit long (understatement) sorry to bore anyone who might have read to this point in the post. Oh, well, I guess that writing online somewhat anonymously allows me to go on and on without regard to whether anyone cares to read it or not. I guess this type of writing is better reserved for a blog or a diary but as I'm somewhat anonymous, I'm going to post this anyway. Sorry if this gets posted multiple times but my browser keeps timing out when attempting to submit my reply. I am on DSL.

Peace
TJ