Racer Ex 

Make sure you fill up before the last leg into El Paso...

Bandera

Fitted a small Arkel handlebar bag onto the winter/wet bike to go w/ the full mudguards and cheerful brass bell.
With a rain jacket & some gels, room to stash arm/leg warmers a gilet and my 'phone might as well add a Kazoo and put some cards in the spokes for the Full-Fred-Effect.

Racer Ex 

Bandera

Yep, that's my TT bike!
The streamer length and chainguard aerodynamics are slightly non-conforming to UCI rules but the carrier rack is exactly the same model Dumoulin uses.

-Bandera

Hermes

Is that fixed gear or three speed with coaster brake?

Hermes

I have been working on strength and endurance so Saturday was a coastal ride and Sunday a strength training circuit. Today, was endurance loops around Fiesta Isand.

Bandera

Good eye, it's fitted w/ a New Departure single speed coaster brake hub which has less internal drag than Bendix models giving that important technical edge in the TT.
The USAC's addition of the Pee-Wee Herman Class to the 2018 National Masters Time Trial championships has caused a flurry of innovation in chrome doo-dads, aerodynamic bells and ultra low Cr white wall balloon tires.

-Bandera

Racer Ex 

There's 10w savings in a properly designed rack.

I've got some bow tie test data if you'd like it. Turns out the fabric is as important if not more so than the knot you use.

revchuck 

It's been an interesting week in Tucson so far. I started it with less endurance and strength and more fatigue than last February's trip, and it showed.

I drove ~900 miles Saturday and finished the drive on Sunday. I arrived in time to kit up and do two laps of Saguaro National Park East for a total of 16 miles. I had to make myself go slower than last year, but even so, ended up with a .81 IF. It's really hard to NOT hammer that loop.

Monday was Mt. Lemmon. I wanted to do a steady climb at about the same pace as last year and succeeded. The descent was much better this time since there wasn't any rockslide debris on the road like last time. TSS 250, IF .74.

Tuesday was a 61-mile loop that included a six-mile climb, a bunch of downhill and then Madeira Canyon. I managed to bite off more than I could chew on this ride. The grade on the road up Madeira Canyon gradually increases, with the last two miles going from 8 to 14% at the end of the road. I made it to about 2-1/2 miles from the end of the road before my legs and lower back combined to tell me "no mas". I could've gone farther, but I was already past the point of diminishing returns. TSS 196, IF .67 (probably due to all that downhill). TSB was -42 at the end of the ride.

Wednesday was one of the nicest recovery rides I've ever done. I rode to a coffee shop shortly before sunrise, had a couple of mugs of coffee, rode through the sunrise for about an hour ending back at the same coffee shop where I had an awesome breakfast, then rode back to where I was staying. An hour and a half on the bike, with another hour at the coffee shop. The temperature got down to 37 on the ride and made it to 57 by the time I finished. TSS 41, IF .50.

Today was a pretty nice loop through north Tucson. The goal was to do it at the lower end of endurance pace with the exception of a two-ish mile climb, which I was to do at the top end of threshold. It went pretty much as planned. It included a really nice MUP along a river bed. 2h:38 on the bike, TSS 136, IF .67. And a couple of mugs of coffee at the coffee shop.

Tomorrow is 45-60 minutes at recovery pace, which will be done in a manner similar to Wednesday's ride, then packet pickup later on. Showtime is Saturday morning. Looking forward to it.

sarals 

Moved days around due the weather forecast. My long(ish) ride with BJ was yesterday. We big ringed it all the way up a long grade, and then eased our way down with a (nice) sprint point in the middle. The coup d grace was her driveway (24 percent 150 meters long) at the end. Nice!

Today, 20 minutes on the rollers. I swear hovering a helicopter is easier.

And, OMG am I stiff. And sore. Ahhh, rest period. I know my body likes it. It just doesn't feel like it likes it.

Hermes

After three days of feeling sick: coughing, congestion and fatigue, I went to the track yesterday and planned to ride as I feel. It was another beautiful day and I did the classic warmup and jumps. I tried some easier intervals that went okay.

Racer Ex 

Cleared to start progressive weight bearing and PT. Very limited range of motion in the ankle, not enough flex to stand naturally. Going to be a long road back.

Hermes

Great news on starting the PT and progressive weight bearing. I put a warning sign on my ladder. DO NOT USE.

Racer Ex 

Hey Chuck,

I've done most of those rides. Nice down there, a good friend just moved there so I may hit him up for a room for a few days once I'm back at it.

Kitt Peak is still on my list.

revchuck 

Kitt Peak isn't bad on the way up, but it's high pucker factor on the way down due to frost heaves strategically placed in the corners. I'll probably do it again, though. I really enjoy riding out here. Next time I'll hit Madeira Canyon when I'm fresh.

Looks like I'll hit ~320 miles this week, my most weekly mileage in quite a while. I've got a 125-mile ride next Saturday, and then I probably won't see more than 60 in a ride for a couple of months. Coach said something about threshold intervals...

Hermes

Hi Chuck: I have done two camps at Tuscon and I really like the area. I have done the rides you talk about and they are a lot of fun. Congrats on some great riding.

sarals 

GREAT riding, Chuck! Wow.
@Racer Ex - wonderful news!!!!

Hermes

Two coastal rides this weekend - 2 hours on Saturday and 1.5 hours on Sunday. The training goal of these rides was keep power on.

sarals 

Three minute with two minute RBI X 4 intervals on the trainer this morning. They have been better! The rest period has taken it's toll on my fitness. There's fitness and race fitness. I'm glad I'm not racing right now.

Hermes

San Diego Velodrome track workout yesterday. Warmup, accelerations and jumps then 3x10' 30on/30off followed by 20 laps of endurance.

We are having warm weather with light winds so it was a great day at the track.

revchuck 

I can't believe it took me this long to get to write this. Two days of driving, work, errands...been busy!

El Tour de Tucson was supposed to start at 0700, so I figured getting there by 0600 would give me plenty of time to get a good starting position among the 2,000+ folks signed up for the 106-mile version. Uh, nope. Should've been there an hour or more earlier. The corrals-by-predicted-finishing-time thing was more notional than real. The start took place on time, but I had to wade through over 1000 folks just to start looking for a paceline. I hadn't found one by the time we hit the first dry riverbed crossing with a mandatory dismount about nine miles in. It reminded me of a Western movie scene of a cattle drive, with lycra-clad cows carrying bikes. I could've ridden it, but it was too crowded anyway.

Once back on the bike on the other side, I proceeded to search for a paceline. There was a lot of "find one, it's going too slow, close the gap to the next one, that one's too slow too, close the gap," etc. I finally found one that fit and stayed with them until mile 39, when I needed to stop to fill bottles. I rode from there to the next dry riverbed crossing about ten miles later. That slowed me down, not least because there was some primo grub available at the aid stations there. I snagged a cup of iced coffee and hit the porta-potty and kept going.

Once on the other side, there were a couple of short, sharp climbs followed by a bunch of rollers and gradual climbs. I glommed onto some groups - "pacelines" is too generous - and kept advancing as before until I finally found a real paceline going at a good pace. Of course, that was only about 20 miles from the end, but it was fun! We cooked right along until the end. Moving time was 5:29, official time was 5:54. For context, the winning time was 4:03 with a 30-person peloton at 4:10 (including Derek Bouchard-Hall, CEO of USAC). There were a couple of guys in their 60s in that peloton too.

I felt pretty good at the end. I surprisingly had a lot left in the tank. Lots of shoulda/coulda/woulda's in this ride, most of which would have been taken care of by being at the start at the right time. If I do it again, I'll aim for a time closer to five hours overall. That assumes training and tapering for it, plus all the low-hanging fruit. I haven't figured out my goals for next year, though, that that's still up in the air.

Hermes

Chuck: Sounds like a fun ride. Was the ride 106 miles?

revchuck 

Yup, though Strava called it 105.8. Training Peaks did list it as 106.

sarals 

Pretty cool, Chuck! I met Derek Brouchard-Hall last year at the district awards banquet. No surprise he was in the front group. He used to do hill repeats on Old La Honda Road. Ugly climb, that. The guy is a beast.

So are you!

sarals 

I did a scheduled JRA ride on the TT bike today. The weather has been unbelievable, warm, sunny, it feels like April. I decided to ride the Monterey-Salinas Highway, HWY 68, because, well, because. It has a lot of traffic, a LOT of traffic, but the shoulders are wide, the pavement is excellent, and it's a long grade up/down both ways. I did an out and back. My legs felt like hell when I started, I had a workout in the gym scheduled Wednesday and I did some leg presses. My groin muscles and quads were pretty sore, in fact my chiropractor identified some tearing in my quads (normal, just beating things up, they'll heal) Wednesday afternoon, hence the soreness and stiffness. It took me a good forty minutes to get warmed up, once I did, I settled into a moderate pace, zone 3, some 4, but mostly 3. On the way back, I PR'ed the daylights out the return leg by 45 seconds or so, and ended up eleventh out of one hundred eleven women who've ridden the segment on Strava. Whoopee.... Yes, I am resting! Yes, this is November! But, I'm just having a ball, and I'm pretty consistently quick nowadays. I can't help it.