Hermes

I climbed up Kings Mountain yesterday and descended. I was warm. I had a Craft Zero base layer, arm warmers, leg warmers, jersey and Voler thermal jacket. Plus I had a warm hat under my helmet warm gloves and PI wind barrier elite booties.

I had the jacket open while climbing but should have taken it off and stuffed it down the back of my bib shorts. It will not fit into a jersey pocket. Here is a link to the Voler website https://www.voler.com/browse/product/li/1010B42CLR2XS and a closeout deal that they have on a light weight rain jacket that can also be used as a wind barrier when descending. Shipping is almost as much as the cost of the jacket. My wife has one and it is okay. However, it is not a Showers Pass quality rain jacket.

Cleave

+1

tomgdaly

When this happened in my group in Oct., when everyone was just back training, I went up to the second guy in the line and signalled him to ease off. This left the culprit off up the road all on his own.

sarals 

Training. Today is a day off. It's a good thing. I've been getting SEVERE leg cramps since about 4AM. In both legs, thighs and calves. I've been hydrating all morning in the hopes that this s**t will stop.

chasm54

Three hours yesterday, mostly in Z1 and Z2 with a few decent z4/Z5 efforts in the hills. I was taking it fairly easy because it was my first ride in a week following a heavy cold, but was faster with a lower average HR than I have previously been over that route. Which just goes to show, there is something to be said for a rest week...

Hermes

It rained Saturday night so we waited until the afternoon when it cleared up to ride. The roads were almost dry. We did the TT course and Woodside loop - 2 hours of endurance. We thought about just doing loops on the TT course but nah. It was cold and the average temperature was 51 degrees for the ride according to the Garmin - my Bible. We love this route since it is so easy and very few stops.

AzTallRider

An hour of JRA yesterday, with some sprint form practice. Every time I sprint, I start craving the electronics. Reaching with my finger, while OTS with my head down, interrupts my rhythm way too much. The only way I can do it at all smoothly is to get my finger there before I stand up, and keep it there. I then shift after 10 revolutions, and again after the next 10.

I know SRAM handles this better, but if I switch things over, I'll go for Shimano electronics. So when N+1 strikes again, it will be a stiff, aero crit bike. I'll keep the Madone as is for road races.

sarals 

One hour in the Fit U gym this morning starting at 0600. I did 20 minutes of warmup on the Matrix trainer (the one I ride all the time, I'm used to it), and then 4 sets of 50 box jumps (10 minutes), followed by 25 situps and then 25 crunches on the bocu. That was followed by 25 minutes of lunges and toe lifts with weights (18 pounds), capped off by 25 pushups (not the girl kind, on my knees - the real thing, as I learned to do them in the military). No cramps today, everything felt fine. The box jumps do irritate the old crash injury on my left hip, but that's no big whoop...

shovelhd

AZT, it takes practice to shift in the sprint. Form sprints aren't always the best vehicle, because you should be concentrating on the sprint form. I work on it during sprint intervals, when I'm going flat out shooting for speed. I have found that with my small hands I cannot go 100% and shift cleanly without introducing a short pause in power to shift the weight forward enough to make the shift. We're talking a tenth of a second or two at most. What I work on is timing the pause with the shift. It gets natural with practice.

AzTallRider

Thanks, Shovel. I'll be doing all out sprint intervals tomorrow, both from a slow roll and from 25mph, and will give that pause/weight-shift a try. The positioning is a bit different with the new bars, and I need to sort that out as part of it. When seated in the drops, my hands are about as far forward as they can get. It's a great, very tucked, position. When standing, the arm position is cumbersome, and it works better if my hands are back on the flats of the drops. That makes my standing position more coordinated, and gives me leverage. But it also takes my fingers away from the shifter. :/ Before I do the sprints, I'll try some hand and arm positions to find the best all-around position, which is probably to keep my arms tucked, with my chin bouncing on the bars, Manx-Missile style.

Esteban58

When I see those sprints I always get the feeling that they are ever so close to the edge of wiping out... it amazes me that they can get their weight so far forward.

shovelhd

An attack, not a sprint per-se, and definitely not the Manx Missile. I did win the race from this point on.

sarals 

Shovel, is that a wet road?

Great "race effort" photo, by the way!

AzTallRider

I don't have a photo, but that's about the position I think I'm in, but I'm probably not quite as low unless I'm focusing on it. I'm still in the "need to focus on it" stage for sprints.

But think how nice it would be to just roll your right thumb up a touch to get that shift - no pause - no let up - just roll the thumb a touch.

Racer Ex 

Shifting during a sprint takes timing and practice, which is why you should practice

I actually have very few pictures of me sprinting.

sarals 

Have you ever ridden Campagnolo, AzT? It's a mystery to me how I'd get my little thumb to reach that upshift trigger from the drops, without letting go, that is...

Racer Ex 

You position your hands in the drops on the curve of the bar then use your thumb on the shifter. You may need to rotate your hands inward a bit, but I sprinted on Campy for years like this.

sarals 

I'll try it, Ex. I've gotten into the habit of letting go of the drop and moving my hand over the hood to shift. Time to nip that in the bud!

shovelhd

Yes, and thanks. I tend to be very aggressive in the rain.

Hermes

Gym workout tonight. Mondays are alway busy at Equinox but not a problem and I love the buzz. Every new year, we get a new batch of customers and tonight was typical. Fortunately, we got a couple of new hotties which I hope hang around for awhile.

Allegheny Jet

Nice clear, calm and quiet night for short steep intervals with screaming descents on the fixie. It didn't feel like the 29 degrees the thermometer shows. I had one of those Dirty Harry moments, "did I do 6 repeats or 7?, feeling lucky punk?" I wasn't feeling lucky and might have done 8. Quite a hard ride with only a 10.8 mph ave for 19 miles.

I do know my new Magicshine $37 knockoff head light is da bomb!

Hermes

Great stuff for an average speed thread.

revchuck 

Gym workout tonight. Rowing machine for warmup, one-legged box jumps (4x10 on each leg), box shuffle thingie (haven't gotten any more coordinated in my old age), pushups, dumbbell reverse curls, 3x25 on the adductor machine (I had to google that before I went to the gym), and 20 minutes on the elliptical for a warmdown. 50 pushups used to be easy, not anymore! Need to work on my upper body, I look like Andy Schleck without his legs.

Allegheny Jet

My coach cites me as an example of "easy spin recovery".

Allegheny Jet