Twenty-three days until the Flèche.
All of the paperwork has been submitted and received. All of the fees have been paid. The final route approval has come through. Team “Chain Reaction” members are logging miles and making preparations. Here is a quick glance behind the curtain.
Earl (me): The bike has gone into the shop for new cables and a tune up. I’m fine-tuning my saddle position because I’ve discovered that it has slipped some over the past several months. Dialing these in and getting them just right is important. I’ve purchased a Garmin Edge 800 because it has much better route and mapping capabilities than my Garmin Edge 500, and it has the ability to run and provide guidance while it is running on an external power source. I’m learning its quirks and menu system on my test rides. My lighting system is intact. I should have about 15-18 hours of battery power for lights with less than 12 hours needed. I’m starting to pull together my list of food and “emergency supplies” and will be purchasing some of that in the coming days. I’ve ordered and received some new Halo sweat band products so that as one gets soaked, I can swap it out while the wet one dries. I’ve broken the route down into smaller files for our Garmin devices (they like that). Rule reviews are pretty regular.
Mike C, Mike B, and Jack all rode about 170 miles last Saturday, testing lighting systems, guidance in the dark, decision making when fatigued, and for Mike C, the ability to change flats. Mike C has re-evaluated his tire selection and I believe has purchased more robust tires. He’s had a series of flats in the last month or so. He wants to change that pattern … and we want the pattern to change too. Mike C commented this morning that had this big ride not been coming up, he would have stayed in bed. Each mile in the bank helps. Jack has been nursing a sore knee the past couple of months, and the longer ride last weekend allowed him to determine that regular and consistent use of OTC pain relievers would be sufficient. That was a confidence booster. Mike B has taken the Surley into the shop and has cables, bottom bracket, and crank arms replaced.
Randy is logging some miles on a PAC Tour in Arizona. He has had cold and rain and blizzard and sleet and sun and warm conditions, and that’s just through day 4. Even though he has promised us good weather for the Flèche, I think he is testing himself out in all conditions possible.
Sunday evening the SPP teams will be gathering together to coordinate some “bag drops” at some controls. Chris L has offered this support and will be “on call” for any of us who might need to abandon the ride. Although the ride is an unsupported ride, we can receive assistance at controls and our plan is to change into dry clean clothes for the night part of the ride.
This is a small ride compared to Randy’s RAAM last year, but the amount of planning involved is still significant. I know it doesn’t require this much, but I’m so looking forward to this ride that the planning is part of the fun. It is also something that allows us to enjoy the ride with less confusion.
Nope, didn’t ride yesterday. Tuesday night when I went to bed I remember thinking that I would decide about a Wednesday morning ride when the alarm went off. It went off. I stood up, blinked twice, and crawled back into bed. It was just like that.
This morning was different. The alarm went off and I rolled into my morning routine without giving it a second thought. Soon I was out the door into a warm and very foggy morning. I’m very fatigued from long days at work this week, and so I decided to take it easy. I made a grand loop to the Rusty Bridge and met up with others who all had close calls with walkers in the dark fog. I had only one encounter on the way to the bridge. I saw him when I was about 20 feet away but we were both respecting our side of the trail and there was no incident. He had no lights, no reflective gear, and was as silent as a ghost.
The foggy conditions kept our speed down for a time. As we moved south, the fog seemed to thin some and overall the speed started to move up. At one point our ride was disturbed by an animal cry. It wouldn’t surprise me if it turned out to be a fox grabbing a rabbit. We went into Round Bay to climb Asquithview and although I can clearly notice my increased fitness, it was there and the following climb on Old County where the peloton simply began moving away. Mike was content to ride with me, and we took it easy, engaged in conversation and watching the pavement pass by. This kind of steady pace with the heart rate in a very comfortable place is the goal for the Flèche.
The ride this morning required frequent wipes of the glasses. It was amazing how easy it was to see after the mist was removed from the lenses. I could tell each time Mike cleaned his because his speed increased slightly. There were times that it was hard to see the pavement far enough ahead to avoid potholes. We relied mostly on knowing where they were and what “line” we needed to follow on each particular section of the ride to avoid them. Worst was when oncoming car headlights illuminated not only the fog but the thousands of droplets on the lenses, blinding us for a moment. Then there was the one driver who switched from high beams to dim as we approached, then switched back to high while we were still in front of him. If I would have closed my eyes and ridden for a few hundred feet, I might have seen as much.
I ended the morning with 26 miles and Lori was surprised to see me come in that quick. I wanted to ride more, but I also wanted to see her off for work. It was at arms length. She said I was particularly odoriferous this morning.
I’ve got a decision to make for tomorrow. Do I ride the fixie and do as many miles as I reasonably can? Do I ride the Kona and attempt 100-125 miles? My planned training regimen for the Flèche has me scheduled for a long ride. I’ve got two Fridays for longer rides left and two Fridays where that won’t be possible. Those long solo rides are not very appealing to me right now. Stay tuned for the decision.
This Ride: 26.2 miles
Month: 447.4 miles
2012: 722.8 miles
Total since 1/1/2010: 14,576.5 miles
With rain looming off to the west (at least that’s what someone said the radar showed … I never looked), and some saying they saw lightning, at least 8 of us were out for a great ride on a beautiful morning. The temperature was about 60° F and the riders were uncertain about what kind of speed to ride. We started easy. Clearly some were holding back. The pace allowed us to catch up a little bit and to consider the recent injuries of a couple of riders. The injuries should not be Flèche-ending, but could be a factor. We had a few close calls with walkers on the trail this morning. No lights, no reflective gear, dark clothing all combine to make it hard to see someone in the dark. We avoided any collisions or close calls, but sometimes it was the second row that saw the walkers first.
At Old County, I elected to avoid Round Bay, as did Mike C. He pulled ahead and I was chasing his tail light for the next several miles. I was attempting a good hard ride and wanted to see how far down the trail I could get before being caught by the main group. They caught me at Joyce Lane when I stopped for a car, and they also slowed. I caught the peloton’s tail and hung on, watching my speedometer climb past 27 mph while riding a foot from the rider ahead of me. When the inevitable sprint to the finish began, I was content to hold Dan’s wheel and keep the pedals turning. Strava indicates that I matched my best ever time on that leg of the ride! I averaged 24.4 mph on that 0.9 mile segment. Mike beat the peloton to the end. He says that’s a first for him.
The return trip was a little more leisurely. I tried to stay with the group, but when I couldn’t close the gap I simply resolved to ride a reasonable pace the rest of the morning. Mike accompanied me. We talked about the training ride he was on Saturday. It was a real confidence booster. Soon enough, I made my way home after a quick loop “around the block”. I was surprised to see an average speed for the morning of 17.3 mph.
School buses were a factor this morning. One bus passed us on B & A with just the minimum 3′ clearance but caught us by surprise because the bus was exceeding the speed limit and approached as silently as a bus can. Almost immediately, another school bus fell in behind, waited until it was safe to pass, and gave us a wide berth. Later, I got caught behind a school bus picking up kids for school. I was stopped a couple of times as it made its collection of children.
I’m quite encouraged by the noticeable improvement in speed and stamina. Today marks one month back on the bike (541 miles) outdoors. Not bad!
This Ride: 24.8 miles
Month: 421.2 miles
2012: 696.6 miles
Total since 1/1/2010: 14,550.3 miles
Has it really been 6 days since I last posted? It hasn’t been six days since I last rode!
Wednesday, March 14th: I expected a quick ride today, and got it. 24 miles at an average speed of 17.4 mph, and I was off the back the whole way. The other guys were speedier!
Thursday, March 15th (the Ides of March): A 25.5 mile ride at a reasonable pace, 16.5 mph avg.
Friday, March 16th: I hoped for a century ride, but timing conspired against me. I got in 65 miles on the Kona, including breakfast in Annapolis (and cake and ice cream for breakfast again). The ride felt good, even though I had some skin irritation where my leg brushed against the saddle. I’ll have to check to see if the saddle has slipped. This was faster than the week before on the fixie.
Monday, March 19th: We had a good group out and I rode the fixie today. It was an easy pace, and I accumulated around 25 miles. Two accomplishments of note: (1) I rode up Asquithview on the fixie. (2) The ride was almost identical in length to the Monday a week earlier. I rode it today faster, included Asquithview, and had an average heart rate significantly below that of a week ago. Could it actually be that my cardiovascular system is seeing the benefits of all the work? I hope so.
Month: 396.4 miles
2012: 671.9 miles
Total since 1/1/2010: 14,525.5 miles
The rain moved through about 3:00 am. By 5:30 the streets were starting to dry and the temperatures confounded the weather wonks. The forecast was for anything between 40 and 52° F. It was 60. A quick consult of the clothing chart revealed short sleeve jersey, arm warmers, short fingered gloves, regular cycling shoes, and nothing on my head or ears other than the helmet. If anything, I was just a little warm.
Six of us were out. Four of us were fast. I wasn’t. Jeff wasn’t as fast as usual. Dan was slow for him … still faster than me. But it was a beautiful morning to be out on a bike. On the return leg, I think someone replaced my strong rippling muscled legs with some wooden ones, because there wasn’t much of anything left. I abandoned the last 3 mile loop for a hot shower.
I did notice something that has been missing for a while now. My face had crusted salt from sweat on it at the end of the ride. It has been a while.
The peepers were in full voice, attempting to imitate Barry White. Bunnies were out, daring us to catch them. I had a mouse dash across the trail in one long steady run, making it safely across. A box turtle created a daring obstacle. On B & A Blvd we had only two vehicles pass us … which was really nice. It is sad to think that so many missed such a great morning to ride.
This Ride: 22.1 miles
Month: 256.2 miles
2012: 531.6 miles
Total since 1/1/2010: 14,385.2 miles
Being the ultimate procrastinator, I neglected to re-assemble my Kona after picking it up from the bike shop on Saturday. Therefore, there were no lights and no docking station for my Garmin. Rather than assemble all that this morning and since I was already running late, I unleashed the fixie for another ride. It turns out the decision worked well.
It was about 40°F when we met at the Rusty Bridge this morning, and there were quite a few riders out. Many had ridden 200k rides or more over the weekend, so the stories were flowing pretty well. As half the group split off to do an extra hill in Round Bay, four of us stayed on Old County Road and kept the chatter going. We had a good pace going and the fixie was riding smooth as silk. On our return leg, down the hill on B & A, the fixie just wanted to go. I was along for the ride, trying to keep up with the pedal rotations. I didn’t realize until the end of the ride that my 157 RPM had resulted in a personal record speed on the fixie! We topped out at 35.6 mph! I had never been able to exceed 35 mph when trying.
Shortly after the record breaking section, Scott front flatted. The repair was quick, and we continued along at a nice reasonable, yet brisk pace. I added a 5k loop at the end of the ride to get very close to my morning distance goal of 25 miles. I arrived home just as Lori was leaving for work. I’ll need to get out of the house a little sooner in the morning if I want to keep picking up these miles in preparation for the Fleche.
When I was looking back in my riding log to determine whether or not this ride had a personal speed record for the fixie, I realized that last Friday’s ride of 60 miles was more significant than I thought. I’ve only had one ride on the fixie longer than this 60 mile ride. The strength training that comes from riding and not coasting is helpful, and I’ll need to keep it up as we move toward mid-April. We also exceeded 1,000 miles on the fixie this morning.
It was a good day for a bike ride.
This Ride: 24.8 miles
Month: 234 miles
2012: 509.5 miles
Total since 1/1/2010: 14,363.1 miles
Friendly Fixie Friday, the best day of bike riding around. And today was Clint’s birthday! We started out with 14 riders and by the time we got to Annapolis for breakfast there were seven. The others turned back for something called “work”. Clint sprung for breakfast. I brought candles and matches. I gave them to Myna, and she put a candle on a red velvet cupcake and we sang. Clint’s wife Sherri arrived just as the festivities started.
Following the hearty breakfast (Sherri commented that she didn’t know we ate so much for breakfast) I met up with Mike B at Chick & Ruth’s where he stops with other friends. They hadn’t been served yet, and just as their food arrived, Mike got a work related call he to which he needed to attend. Our ride up to the airport together was initially threatened by the problem at work, but within about 15 minutes it was resolved and our ride together was back on.
I struggled. My goal for the day was to ride with Mike and accumulate about 75 miles (but the fixie really wasn’t part of that distance plan). I was quite fatigued through the ride, but made my planned minimum distance of 60 miles. Although that is only about 1/4 of the upcoming Fleche, it was on the fixie and will serve to strengthen these legs. I stopped at mile 50 for more water and a banana. Once I got home, I showered and then napped for a couple of hours.
Arrgghh! I just noticed that another 3.5 miles and I would have turned over the fixie odometer to 1000 miles! Well, it will be easy to do on the next ride.
So, you see, it was a good day to be on a bike.
This Ride: 60 miles
Month: 209.3 miles
2012: 484.7 miles
Total since 1/1/2010: 14,338.3 miles
When I purchased my second bike (the fixie), I thought that bike maintenance requirements would remain the same, not increase. After all, I reasoned, maintenance is dependent upon miles traveled and it was not like I was dramatically increasing my total mileage with another bike. I would just be sharing those miles between the two. How naive! Today, both bikes required work.
The Kona went into the shop for new cables and a light “tune up”. (Who knows what else will be found?). The fixie hasn’t been ridden since January 6th (on a very wet day), and I deferred cleaning her and attending to her needs. So, with temps in the 70’s I pulled out my maintenance stand and gave the fixie a shower, then proceeded to tweek a few components.
My first order of maintenance was to swap out my tires. I have some great leather looking tires I wanted to put on the bike to match the saddle and handlebars. That was a whole 30 minutes of frustration and failure. First, the tire was TIGHT. Brand new tires can be a royal pain to install. I don’t like using tire “irons” to put the tire on the rim because it can damage the tube, but this tire required such manipulation. When I inflated the tire, I discovered that the tire near the valve stem was not seated properly. There was a bulge there. I pulled the tire off, and tried again. Now there was a leak in the tube. I replaced it and once again installed the tire. Again, the bulge was there. I determined that the new tire has a thicker tire wall than the one I removed, and would not seat properly in the rim. I finally gave up and re-installed the old tire. It worked better, and I discovered a way to seat this tire differently. When I have some more time, I’ll try the leather looking tires again.
Next came the new chain. I’ve only installed a new chain once before, and that was on the Kona. This chain was different. I carefully laid out the old chain, counted the links, and broke the new chain in the right place. Installing the chain was almost too easy. I was worried I did it wrong, but testing it didn’t result in a fail.
The fixie has had a problem since I purchased it. At one point in the rotation, the chain is very tight. At the opposite part of the rotation, the chain is loose. This has caused me some difficulty and stress. I loosened the 5 or 6 screws holding the front ring onto the crank, moved it to the tight spot, and hit it with the palm of my hand to move it toward the rear cog. I then carefully tightened the screws. Testing revealed that the chain maintained tension through the entire revolution … or at least much better than before. At least that worked!
I checked brake pad locations and made adjustments. When the rear tire on a fixie is moved to adjust the chain tension, the brakes need to be adjusted so that they ride in the proper place on the rim.
A quick check ride didn’t result in any other noted deficiencies. I plugged the light battery pack in for recharging, and she is ready to go for the morning breakfast ride.
I’m looking forward to the ride … and the longer ride after.
Amazing. Absolutely amazing weather!
A couple of days ago it was 25° F and this morning as I rolled out of my driveway the thermometer read 55°. I got out of the house quickly (not as many layers to put on … in fact, my legs were exposed) and had over 6 miles before getting to the Rusty Bridge. Others were a bit early too, and I could tell from the very beginning that this was going to be a fast morning. Bill C offered to ride with me at a little slower pace, and Jeff S also hung with us. We had a crowd of about a dozen riders and it wasn’t long before I was unable to hold the wheel of the faster group. I was maintaining 20+ mph on the flat part of the trail and they still slowly pulled away.
By Robinson Road, they were ahead by nearly 100 yards. We took Old County Road to work the hills. The fast group descended into Round Bay to challenge the larger hill there. They caught us by the time we re-entered the trail. By the time we arrived at the southern end of the trail, I had some cramping high in my thigh and had been sucking wind hard during the fastest ride in quite some time. I rode easier headed north, waiting for Mike C to catch up. He had gone into Round Bay with the others and had been dropped at the top of the hill. Mike and I rode back together from Glen Oban at a more comfortable pace, although it was still faster than usual.
Average speed for the morning was 17.1 mph. That’s my fastest ride since October 11th. The middle 15 miles of my ride averaged 17.96 mph.
I posted the ride on Strava to see what kind of speed I was doing on some of my “test” sections, and notice that I have some ways to go, but this felt pretty good. My average heart rate was 148, which essentially means I was near or in oxygen deficit most of the ride.
This ride was very encouraging as I attempt to regain fitness to be able to ride the Flèche. The serious hill work should begin soon. I do notice that most of the right leg atrophy seems to be resolved. I’ve regained muscle tone in the leg. Now if my cardiovascular system will cooperate.
The Kona goes in to the shop today for new cables and a light “tune up”. I’ll be cleaning up the fixie this afternoon and will ride her tomorrow for the breakfast ride and an extended ride. Planned is the longest ride of the year, and on the fixie at that!
This Ride: 24.3 miles
Month: 149.2 miles
2012: 424.7 miles
Total since 1/1/2010: 14,278.3 miles
This morning started out pretty nice. The temps were in the mid 30° F range, and there were ten of us out on the trail. Dan showed off his new wheels and saddle. It must have made him want to go fast … because he did. Chip went with him, and the rest of us lingered behind enjoying the early morning.
I wasn’t sure how my morning would go. I’m pretty fatigued, and thought that this would be a real effort of a morning ride. When it started to get a little tough, I simply ducked behind another rider and drafted until I caught my breath. That allowed me to keep the speed up and to keep pressing along. The trip up Old County Road wasn’t anything to write home about, but I’m seeing some improvement. My heart rate still hits the upper limit, but only if I go a little faster than the last time.
It was on our return leg where things got interesting.
First, we noticed activity on the trail as we paralleled it near Fishpaws. Actually, I didn’t notice a thing since I was flying down the hill, but others noticed what seemed like an ambulance on the trail. We were concerned that something might have happened to Mike B, so a rider or two turned back to see what all the fuss was about. Two police vehicles and a maintenance vehicle were parked on the trail and the drivers were attending to another cyclist, who was up and walking around. It seemed that everything was well in hand.
As four of us were strung out along the rollers of B&A Blvd north of Jones Station Road, we heard barking. Shortly, it was accompanied by the sound of splintering wood and a large redish-blonde dog barreled through the new hole in the fence gate and quickly accelerated to top speed. Two riders ahead of me were the initial target, but since the dog was slowed down by the destruction of the gate, I was next in line. I accelerated and the race was on! The dog was in it for a good sprint and I knew that I only had to be faster than Clint (on his fixie behind me). The dog still chose me as a target, and ran with me until it was tired. There seemed to be no attempt at aggression, but when there is a barking dog paralleling your route and staying with you at 20 mph, outlasting the dog rather than cuddly thoughts are foremost on my mind. The dog had a nice sprint, then pulled up and let Clint go by with narry a “woof”. (Later, Clint told me he slowed down when he saw that the dog had me in its sights. He was waiting for the dog to tire.)
There was nothing else in the ride that even rose to “interesting” after that.
It was a good morning ride.
This Ride: 22.7 miles
Month: 125 miles
2012: 400.4 miles
Total since 1/1/2010: 14,254.1 miles
Rev Rider 