Weekend again! Tell us about your cycling this week / weekend!

The last couple days ...

Thu, 19/07/2018 ... Zwift - Slow Flat Ride ... 32:23 ... 13.39 km ... 65 m

Fri, 20/07/2018 ... Zwift - Couple Loops of the Flat Loop ... 50:42 ... 21.27 km ... 122 m



Plus walking and a little bit of stair climbing.


Me in green on Zwift ...

Saturday -- Rowan and I wandered around Bunnings to collect the material for a small raised garden Rowan would like to set up.

Then we set up one of Rowan's bicycles on a trainer!! It seems to work ... he got on and pedalled for a few seconds to try it out.

Later in the evening, when the TDF came on, I did a ride ...


Distance: 19.48km
Elevation: 221m
Moving Time: 51:18
Elapsed Time: 51:18

...................... Avg ............... Max
Speed ............. 22.8km/h ........ 57.2km/h
Heart Rate ...... 139bpm .......... 172bpm
Cadence ......... 84 .................. 138
Power ............ 98W ............... 251W


Only down-side of the day ... I broke another tooth. A misguided dentist when I was a teen, long-distance cycling, and being a tooth grinder have absolutely destroyed my teeth.

Saturday - My first real ride in about a week and a half. Still sick as a dog but I just couldn't wait any longer to take out the "new" Polaris. Beautiful day out in the valley and not to hot yet while I was out there. HR still elevated though and the lungs were worthless. Wound up dizzy a lot of the ride. But I still got in 25 miles and avg 18.3 mph. I"ll take it. Late in the ride I had some segments in the low 20's where the bike just seemed to take off on it's own. Can't wait to get this one back out when I'm feeling good.

A couple of shots I grabbed along the way today.




I love the shine still left in the 26 year old paint job.



Dura Ace 7400 components worked very well.



Smooth and responsive like my other Giordana's.

Went out for a lap to test out newly mounted 30mm Schwalbe tubulars- very nice!

Entering a section of fire road through a narrow gate, I think I ran over this little guy (~12" rattler)

but the big soft tires didn't seem to do any damage. 30 miles.

Remember: If you're hot, they're hot. Bring them inside.

My first real back to back daytime road bike rides since the May injury when I was hit by a car. Shoulder has improved enough to support me on the bike, although it still has limited range of motion and is painful to lift overhead. Before this weekend I could handle only about one outdoor ride per week.

40 miles, 20 of it with a group, on an afternoon with the temp at 107. Felt great until the last few miles on the way home when the shoulder and neck were cramping. But by then I was riding solo and didn't need to worry about anyone else's pace. Despite the heat and my lack of real heat adaptation this summer I felt great that night, just a bit tired the next day.

And another 38 miles Saturday morning with a group, including a large group ride on the runway at the Fort Worth Joint Reserve base, an annual event, but my first time. Fun. There's nowhere else in town with a continuous 5-6 mile loop that's almost perfectly flat and well maintained. Even without being in peak condition, and with a fairly stiff wind, I was able to maintain 17 mph on the 5 mile loop and 24 mph on the 2 mile straightaway for the first of my two runs around the loop.

But that was only upper middle of the pack. Some local very strong riders set new records working together in a paceline. They would have lapped me if I'd stuck around for a third go 'round the loop but I pulled off. It was impressive watching them work together from across the airfield. They did the 5 mile loop at nearly 26 mph, which included fighting a 15-20 mph headwind for 2 miles of that loop (and tailwind on the opposite side of the airfield). But where the paceline really worked was the 2 mile straightaway into the wind. I was struggling to do 12 mph solo. Their paceline was tight and averaged almost 18 mph. I think they were riding conventional drop bar bikes, not TT bikes or aero bars.

I think I'll rest Sunday. The Saturday ride was fun and I took it very slow going home, but the temp peaked at 110 by the time I got home and I feel like a limp noodle.



Large group waiting to enter Joint Reserve Base on Fort Worth's west side for annual ride around the runway -- the only long flat stretch in the area.


Large group waiting to enter Joint Reserve Base on Fort Worth's west side for annual ride around the runway -- the only long flat stretch in the area.

Sunday --

Rowan and I drove (I drove!) to a neighbouring town where we went for a 2 km walk with a stop for ice cream.

Then, after we were home for a little while, we both rode our trainers! Rowan got on his for about 20 minutes and covered 5 km according to his computer.

I did Zwift again ... a Volcano route:


Distance: 20.48km
Elevation: 83m
Moving Time: 50:34
Elapsed Time 50:50

........................ Avg ............. Max
Speed ............. 24.3km/h ........ 41.8km/h
Heart Rate ...... 116bpm .......... 130bpm
Cadence ......... 74 .................. 87
Power ............ 80W ............... 101W

From our walk this afternoon ...










On the trainer ...

Sunday - Finally woke up this morning feeling human again. Took out the old Fuji S12-s for a 31 mile jaunt. This is an old bike I've converted to a 650b setup. I just recently "finished" it up. It is quite comfortable yet still fast. Early in the ride I was cruising in the 19 mph range and made myself slow down. Didn't want to work hard today. Then around 15 miles in I easily ran it up over 29 mph and then held a high speed for awhile. The 27.5 l be steel beast will still move out.











It was cool, overcast, and humid this morning but I got the miles in before the rain arrived. Pretty dry in the valley this year. If a wildfire ever get's going it's not going to be easy to stop.

Saturday: Bike check...a mostly flat ride with an amazing tailwind home. 38.4 miles, 1,391'.

Sunday: Did this, with a group: Whitehall English Century Bicycle Route (100 miles) - Explore La Crosse
I also rode to and from the ride. Day total: 132.7 miles, 4,308'. My longest ride to date, by a couple of miles Moving time: 8:06:33; elapsed time: 10:06:35 (including a bit of a post-group-ride chat).

Snagged a picture someone else took during the ride:

A rather different sort of weekend. Nothing to write home about, course-, conditions-, or data-wise, but really wonderful.

Yesterday, I got to ride with a friend who's been out of commission for a while - surgery and recuperation. Really easy-going ride, as you might imagine, but I was kind of concerned when we had to stop for a breather before we got half way. But then it was really great how he got his second wind on the way back - after the climbing, mind you - and rode really well the last few miles - almost back to his old form! About 44 miles, 2,100' to Piermont and back, leisurely, but home before lunch. 10 miles, 700' of that was my trip to the meeting point and back home, so my recovering friend didn't have quite so much work, but 33 miles was still pretty good, all things considered.

Today was also awesome. 23 miles, 1,200' in our little ride to the Market and back, so, like I was saying, totally unremarkable in that respect. But an old friend, whom I hadn't seen in a couple of years, had contacted me because he wanted to start riding road bikes - prompted in part by his considering that this will be the last year he'll want to run the Marathon, and how he'd like to have a nicer bike than his old hybrid, etc., etc. He came up to test ride a couple of my bikes, so we took the Casati and Helium out, so he could see the difference in those kinds of bikes, and some of the difference gearing can make (Casati has compact, Helium has mid). He's 3" shorter than I, but an adjustment to the seat height worked out fine.

He started on the Casati and warmed up to that pretty well, then after we had a bite to eat at the Market, we swapped bikes and he took the Helium. Took to it like a duck to water, and totally got the advantage it had for accelerating up hills. He'd struggled behind me on the hills earlier, but with the Helium on our last climbs, he was climbing like mad. We used to ride motorcycles together, and it was kind of like the old days - he isn't yet, but he's definitely going to be way faster than I, just like he was on motos; great bike handling skills, great confidence, etc....

And now he's definitely going to be faster, because I sold him my Propel! At the end of our ride, I took him by my local shop. We looked at a very nice second-hand Look 595 (Record 11sp, Zipp 202 tubulars), and a couple of TCR they had on sale, which had been very tempting. Then he asks whether I'd want to sell any of my bikes. Well, his enthusiasm for them was so great, I couldn't say no. I sold it to him "as is" with the brand new saddle, clip-on aero bars and the deep-rimmed racing wheels (tubular), because I didn't have any need for them on any other bike, so he still needs to spend a few dollars for some more versatile, day-to-day wheels, and some new cleats or new pedal and cleat system (we could have taken the cleats off the shoes I let him use today, but they're rather worn, and he'll want new anyhow, so I just let him borrow the shoes for the time being).

Saturday rode 10 miles to the club's TdF party. Pretty well done w/ food & drink, the day's stage on a big screen, prizes & schmoozing.

I won both the yellow jersey (t-shirt) for most miles last month, and the polka dot for most climbing. These were not technically deserved, but I was there

and helps to further my (also not well deserved) reputation as some kind of hard man.


Sunday set out to do a fast group ride where I routinely get dropped, but had a brain cramp & showed up an hour late.

Ended up with solo 89 miles, 6k, unfavorable winds & few stops.

Photos show what used to be the old road/bridge next to construction of new one. Traffic control w/ 10 minute wait- this was faster, but now just an adventure.

Woman operating a backhoe in field w/ cows crowded around, & horses watching also. Cow funeral?

Boat yard.

Both Saturday and Sunday I just did a short ~30km loop around my regular training route. Saturday was a fast group ride, did my best to hang on to the fastest guy's wheel, really intense ride that got me a bunch of new PRs that I probably won't be beating on my own any time soon.
Later in the afternoon picked up my brand new custom-built 55mm rear wheelset with Ultegra 11-28 cassette, so Sunday's solo ride was a trial run with the new wheel. Also another high intensity ITT-like pace, did not break any of yesterday's PRs but still got a slightly higher avg speed overall.

Hey, [MENTION=4588]Machka[/MENTION], good to see Rowan up and at 'em again!

Saturday I went for my Picnic Is. Davis Is. ride for 40 miles. It rained hard about a half hour before I got going. Then the sun immediately came out. It was like riding in a steam bath. Although, I usually do this ride with ease it was really hurting. Sunday I swore I would not go on the Courtney Campbell trail to Phillipe park again since it was windy and hot (it was 85 degrees before sunrise). However, I just kept making decision after decision so that I wound up there anyways. I did better than I thought I would and was cruising in the 21 - 23 mph range for about 8 miles on the way back. Finally started to weaken on the last 5 miles. Anyhow about 45 miles total.

Got in 72 miles Saturday dodging showers. The wasp that found himself down the back of jersey was fun time.