Heathpack 

The Magic Bike at the top of Mt Pinos. Mt Pinos is the closest place I can get to with some altitude, the top is at 8200 ft, and the bottom is a 45 min drive from my house. It's not the longest or steepest climb, I think maybe 8 miles at 5%. But it's low traffic, a fun descent. So you can ride repeats of the hill to get however much climbing you want, or head over to Mt Able afterward for another 10 miles of climbing. In theory you can ride from one mountain to the other too, but the road between them is no fun- steep with zero shoulder and aggressive cars heading up to a little resort community at the base of Abel, people always in a huge rush to get to their cabin to relax.

echappist

nice bike and strategic usage of water bottle. I may borrow that one

I'm somewhat envious of the close proximity of the long hill. The only hill local to me coming close to 8 miles at 5% is 90 min away by car (and it's more 8 km at 5%). I'm also bummed by the fact that there's no place around here to really do TTs as roads are either narrow, wind exposed, or in bad condition. The wind just doesnt stop in NJ during this time of the year, and i'm almost contemplating driving 60 min to Ft Lee (in NJ) just so that i can get some decent miles on my TT bike...

valygrl

I've got a 2016 GF02 lined up as my rental bike for my Mallorca vacation. I have never ridden a BMC, so your love for Magic Bike gives me great hope that it will be a fun ride.

Heathpack 

@echappist, I am really lucky to live in a valley, I can ride right out my front door to an 8 mile climb (plus many other climbs of varying distance). The nice thing about Pinos is the altitude and the fact that it's a little cooler, it's a way to beat the heat in the summer- relatively speaking, you might be talking about 90F instead of 100F.

Also lucky I guess in that I have roads to ride TT efforts on. But realistically I mostly make that work by going out at 4:30am. I get my own lane on a six lane road that time of day. Whereas during normal hours, riding a bike on that very same road is completely non viable. But it's well lit with good pavement, so that part is great.

@valygrl, I hope you come home saying "those BMC GFs are really nice bikes" as opposed to "Hey HP sorry to break it to you but you could've bought a nicer bike".

Remind me again when Mallorca is?

valygrl

Mallorca is very end of March.
I haven't gotten my work to bring me out to Carmel yet. Chances diminishing, not yet zero, but close.

revchuck 

45 minutes at the low end of endurance pace with 4x60" fast pedal intervals this morning, just to keep the legs moving. Feeling pretty good, looking forward to the hard ride tomorrow.

Racer Ex 

Zwift at some point. Skiing got blown out with 60+ MPH summit winds.

Hermes

I am in Newport Beach for the weekend for a team training camp for my wife. Today, I drove sag for my wife and picked her up after 2 hour ride. They were riding 4 hours. Amazing weather today.

I did a coast ride after we got back. Tomorrow is a ride through Camp Pendleton.

Heathpack 

Today I ride amongst the artichokes. Openers in the Piru TT course, checking course more carefully than usual on account of the eye (we had rain yesterday).

Tomorrow I will take things as they come, my life has been a bit in disarray of late.

revchuck 

Oof. Abbreviated version of the Rouge-Roubaix "recon" ride was only 90 miles. It was way closer to race pace than it should've been. TSS 421, IF .84 for 4:49 rolling time. I ended up doing 1:07 at threshold when the young punks decided to line it out. I'm as tired as a half a dozen mofos.

revchuck 

1:30 at recovery pace this morning. The first 20 minutes or so were painful, then things smoothed out and I ended up feeling pretty good. No bike tomorrow, just some gym time.

sarals 

I didn't say anything about my openers ride yesterday, did I? One word - ugh. On to other things....

valygrl

First TT is a month away. Guess I should ride my tt bike at some point. I've been riding it on the trainer.

Today it was really nice out and I got out with 3 teammates for a mellow social couple-three hours. I've been hitting the indoor trainer pretty hard and have tired legs, so this was really great. I guess I'm gonna have to force myself to take a rest break here at some point. I've pushed my CTL up pretty far, and held it up there. Will be interesting to see how that plays out for racing, after racing at a lower training load under my coach the last few years.

Racer Ex 

Gotta do efforts on the TT bike, and those are best done in the real, messy world.

TT bikes are like playing the piano. You suck until one day things just click. When it does it's pretty cool. Gotta be patient and persistent.

Racer Ex 

I see a lime mayo in your future.

valygrl

Thanks. Patient is not one of my strengths, but I'm working on it. I'm all about persistent.

echappist

wait, those arent marijuana plants?

Heathpack 

One of the interesting things I think is how true it is that relaxed is faster on the TT bike. If you're tense or uncertain or the bike makes you question things or think too much, then you will be slower. So road time is important. People think of TTs as being all about your power output but riding the bike well is more aero and often more powerful. So it's really worth the effort of riding in the room.

For me, I think my TT position is engaging muscles differently enough that even small blocks of time off the TT bike (like a week for the eye surgery) really cause things to be tough when I come back to it. I'm more sore/stiff, can feel more lactic acid more quickly in my legs, and my upper body & neck fatigue more quickly.

I think @Hermes told a story about getting to a track to race which was kind of a unique track. His perspective was its best to show up with the mindset, "I am gonna love this track". Same thing with the TT bike. Decide you're going to love it and then ride it til you do.

IBOHUNT

I thought along similar lines. Couldn't do that in the open here... have to hide them amongst the corn rows...

<Just joking for any DEA agents that might be lurking if you'r not DEA then feel free to use my methodology.>

IBOHUNT

Weather got decent yesterday so I dusted off the bike and went out doing some JRA at Pace. Ended up being 37 miles with ~3100' which is not @revchuck flat. Got to love the Appalachains till the grade turns all double digit.

Bandera

Not a big surprise that where I live horses are a part of the environment with everything from working stock, traditional rodeo, quarter horse racing and equestrian events all around. Certain routes take me past barrel racers or show jumpers in training and mares with their foals in roadside paddocks. When in the mood they will chase riderless along the fence-line. Beautiful to see and requiring an all-out effort to try to match them.

Today: Quarter horse yearlings 1, Bandera 0.

I am in good company:

https://www.veloaficionado.com/blog/c...sus-horse-duel

-Bandera

Racer Ex 

Yeah, but if you store both of them in the garage for 6 months...

Not that I'm saying you should do that. Leaving your bike in a garage for six months is just wrong.

But if you did...

revchuck 

1:24 at endurance pace this morning with 3/5/7 minute sweet spot intervals to wake my legs back up. Felt decent but not wonderful, probably still a bit tired from Saturday...which turned out to have been my hardest effort to date when I went back and reviewed the previous one. I guess there's something to that "geezers take longer to recover" stuff.

revchuck 

Today's workout was supposed to be 1x20' at threshold and 2x20' at sweet spot, with the first two at 60-70 rpm and the last at 85+ rpm. The first one was relatively easy. I started the second one at sweet spot and after a couple of minutes thought, "What the hell, I'll try this one at threshold too." Got through that one with no problem. Started the third one and briefly considered doing it at threshold and decided not to push my luck, still ended up just four watts short of threshold anyway. Pleasent surprise. If I could only have the same success with losing weight...

echappist

do they still allow people to ride up to the edge of Camp David? That section off of MD 77 has some really nasty double digit kickers.