Hermes

Hey even Ridley would not get near him.

sarals 

Ya think?

sarals 

More roller time this morning. Still haven't fallen off. If I do, it's no big deal, I'll just take out my TV....

Bandera

Mis-read the weather radar (again) and had to put my head down and do a desultory TT-ish effort to get home before the front hit.
I find oncoming traffic running their windshield wipers and close-by cracking thunder to be a powerful last mile motivator.
Needed to clean and lube the Merckx anyway......

-Bandera

sarals 

@Bandera, yikes...not so much the rain, but the lightning? Oy. Glad you got home okay!

Third straight roller session in a row. I was hands off the counter and nice and steady. I realized that the motions are much like hovering a helicopter! It's taken me about as long to learn to as hovering a helicopter did, too. Some things never change...

revchuck 

But how do you autorotate when you lose power on the rollers?

Hermes

Okay. I get up this morning and wife says, "I do not want to ride but go to a yoga class". After she picked me up off the floor, I asked her if she understood that she was not allowed to beat up the other women in the class in any way. And we would have to relax and search for some inner goodness.

The class was good and she behaved. I am now two inches taller.

Bandera

Yep, I am an idiot.

Another front rolled though in the night and instead of springing out of bed, climbing the roof and waving a golf club over my head while standing in a bucket of water I waited until morning. (It was not any kind of good sense preventing that behavior but a sudden extreme Ladder phobia I have seemingly picked up by sub-forum-osmosis.)

Wet roads, a stiff North wind and the skies we get when a Blue Norther rips thorough = winter/wet bike time.
Rigged w/ full mudguards, a plethora of anti-aerodynamic doo-dads & gimcracks it weighs slightly less than my truck and looks like an advert for a 1977 Audax in Northumbria. It's a suitable choice for plodding into a nasty headwind while rain water, automotive fluids, animal waste and toxic sludge sluices inside the fenders. The Brits, for all their other innumerable peculiarities, knew how to fit out a machine for proceeding in relative comfort on lousy wet surfaces at something resembling pace. Meanwhile the Captain Fasts of the world stay in the garage genuflecting to their immaculate Pinnalized-Specerrello Team Shy replicas.

-Bandera

sarals 

@Bandera

I'm one of those Captain Fasts who stays in the, well, living room, and genuflects. When it comes to cold and or wet, I'm a total wuss.

Bandera

As a trackie you are not required to operate your machine outdoors at all, certainly not on wet roads under any circumstances.
You are absolved by ancient custom from knowing what a mudguard is or why they are called that.

For background "Captain Fast" has not and never will compete in any sanctioned cycling event yet is an "expert" on every aspect of bicycle racing.
Just ask him in the 41.

-Bandera

sarals 

This Captain Fast person. Is he related to The Most Interesting Man in the World?

Allegheny Jet

I survived the Saturday fixie beatdown riding old abandoned railroads. Three of us finished with about 48 miles total with about 38 off road. The first 10 miles were by far the worst for our group of 5. One guy brought his cross bike and after 4 miles of bushwacking over the large loose gravel his rear derailleur was toast. He turned the bike into a SS but the front Rotor ring would not allow him to continue on the rough stuff. He and another guy who wasn't as strong found paved roads back to the start. Not sure if if the ride was more epic or dumb, but it's in the bag now.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4vflz8vjyh...20HDR.jpg?dl=0
The beginnings

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ahziar33d2...55.37.jpg?dl=0
Bike doctoring on the ballast

https://www.dropbox.com/s/i8c32szmwf...44.59.jpg?dl=0
The typical rail ballast

https://www.dropbox.com/s/zzlhoe3btt...15.01.jpg?dl=0
A hiker stopped us to ask WTF? Wild roses and black berry bushes took their toll in blood.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5teg5r4fug....50-1.jpg?dl=0
We even did about 5 miles of this stuff

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4lr0s2vytq...58.04.png?dl=0
We did a river crossing here. I missed a great photo op

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jq3qyqc3x0...55.00.jpg?dl=0
I broke my seat post with about 2.5 hour left in the ride. I put the broken end about 1.25" into the seat tube and rode gingerly the rest of the ride. Knees are still feeling it two days later.

Hermes

Wow. Epic or dumb. If you have to ask, you know the answer.

My yoga class yesterday could have ended badly and generated a lot of DOMS. Remarkably, I am not sore this AM and I was able to get out of bed.

Dr Intervals today. Urology...well...what can one say about a prostate. All men have one and it gets bigger with age and sometimes goes bad. Mine is okay but big.

We discussed how to increase the time between pees - all bad news. No alcohol or caffeine in the evening. Why not just shoot me?

He estimates my prostrate is about 50 grams that is about twice as large as the younger guys. 25 grams is a lot to a cyclist. That is equal to one wheel skewer. Why not replace my prostrate with a carbon fiber one that weighs 10 grams and that way I can gain a few grams on the elite guys and 40 grams on the masters?

Allegheny Jet

After time and some brews the needle will swing towards Epic.

I too have a prostrate, and it's a very nice prostrate.

Giving up the things I love to drink would be very difficult. I'm hurting inside for you!

sarals 

You guys reminded me of sitting in doping control at worlds with Barb while they poured water into her. "Congratulations, you have a WR! You get to pee into a cup!!"

Racer Ex 

Heathpack can swear to my broken seat post well into a ride on the Tahoe Rim Trail. Second carbon post I've broken on an MTB over the years.

revchuck 

Dang, I'm away for a week and look what you guys get into!

Allegheny Jet

Hopefully you were able to make it work enough to get back out. My plan B was to use my iPhone and call Uber.

Heathpack 

Aw that was just a wee crack. So you lowered your seatpost.

Not nearly as amusing as when you broke your rear dérailleur over on Catalina Island and got to ride your fat bike as a single speed on the long climb in triple digit temps...

Fun times.m

Racer Ex 

True dat. The first time I broke one the entire seat snapped off in the middle of a race. Crashed. Still won.

Then I went to the ER.

Allegheny Jet

That is just plain bad ass.

Allegheny Jet

The bike I rode on Saturday has an Aluminum Redline single speed cross frame with other bits and parts purchased to make it a sweet yet functional ride. I originally purchased matching CF FSA seat post, bar and stem on Ebay with the seat post being the last part of the set to be broken. (that setup was matchy/matchy and made the bike look super fast) Standing starts took out the stem, hitting a pothole during a gravel group ride took out the bar and Saturday's ride through the mogul section, with my sprinter's butt, took out the post. Last night I purchased a used AL Thompson seatpost on Ebay for $18.00 to be delivered Friday. Oh how my standards have changed.

Allegheny Jet

Our late summer weather is gone. Rain and wind kept me inside on the rollers followed up with core work. My first time back on the rollers since last winter reinforces the training mode mentality.

Bandera

Strong North winds and sparkling blue skies brought to mind an old workout to attempt:

On a flat road into a headwind
Shift into a really Big Gear, stand up, hold the hoods and with assertive grace keep at it until an involuntary whimper escapes the lips
Sit down, shift into a small gear and spin for recovery
Repeat until fluid technique turns to an unsightly wobble and the legs begin to tremble

What "good" this does is no doubt debatable and why is lost in the muddle of various coaching schemes but it does feel Old School, therefore OK to me.

-Bandera

revchuck 

That was almost two weeks ago. My chest cold started breaking up the next day so I managed an hour at recovery pace rather than 1h:45 with intervals, was off the bike the next two days, got almost three hours at endurance pace the following day and almost two hours with 28 minutes' worth of threshold the next day.

I took two days to drive to DC, mainly to be there for the interring of my WWII vet uncle's ashes in Arlington National Cemetary on Friday. That was an impressive event - those Soldiers do that several times a day, six days a week, but there was no hint that it was a boring, rote performance. They're part of the "Old Guard", the 3d Infantry Regiment. And since they're infantrymen, some of them have been in combat and lost friends. The NCOIC was wearing a Combat Infantryman's Badge - only awarded to those infantrymen who have been in a combat theatre - and had overseas stripes indicating two deployments. It's no surprise they see this as a solemn duty.

After that, all the cousins - we grew up together on Long Island, then had jobs and families all over the country - hung out together and had a great time. We range in age from 58 to 73, but we definitely weren't acting our ages. Then I drove back home, arriving last night.

Nose back to the grindstone this morning...an hour at low endurance pace with 3x60" fast pedal intervals. I was supposed to be off work tomorrow but that changed, so I'll be riding with @Heathpack again. She'll probably drop me.