Mike and Lori Ann get hitched

Congrats Mike and Lori Ann. It was a blast. Now get on your bike.

Your chance to ride and have a say in the 2-man TTT course

This is your invitation to come and ride the 2-man TTT course with me this Saturday (4/11). I have mapped out the course and have driven it. So I am going out there this Saturday morning at 9 am to ride it. I am inviting everyone who can make it. This is a good chance to get on the course and see what to expect. It is also a great chance for you to ride it and give me feedback before I make it official.

So if you are interested just meet me at the Smithfield Center at 9 am on the morning of Saturday 4/11.

See you there.

Conquer the Canal TT, Tabata Style

John Gray and myself represented the Virginia Beach Wheelmen at the Conquer the Canal TT. It was John's first TT of this short of a distance, and I was planning on trying something different. Since I am not a very good time trialist, I figured I would use this race as a test of the tabata intervals.

So I started my race and settled in. At the 2-minute mark I started my intervals. My intervals were 20 seconds with 10 seconds rest. I would go hard and accelerate for the 20 seconds. Then shift to one easier gear and and spin at a higher cadence for the 10 seconds. My speed was only dropping 0.5-1.0 mph during the 10 second rest phase.

I was able to maintain this until the 20 minute mark. At that point my legs were getting tired and so I was dropping too much during the rest phase and barely catching back up during the acceleration phase. So at that point I just tried to settle in and ride hard.

My goal was sub 29 minutes. In the two years prior I had done a 31:31 and 31:41 (last year's 31:41 was when the course was 12.7 miles instead). So a goal of sub 29 was still significant improvement for me.

I crossed the line in 29:04. So close. But it was great training. I may try this again for one of the PTL. We'll see.

Picture above was taken by BJ Samual. That's me and John waiting for results.

Lost in Smithfield...Need Help!

John Gray and I went out on Wednesday to Smithfield to map out the course for the 2-man Team Time Trial. I had looked at Google Earth and Map My Ride before we left and jotted down the directions for a course that I thought would work.

We got lost.

I don't know how it happened...it just did.

We finally stopped and asked for directions. Apparently we were a couple hundred feet from 460 at the time. The directions back took us down some dirt roads and some long, windy stretches of road.

So we didn't map out the course, but we ended up having a very good ride...just twice the distance we set out ride.




If there is anyone from the Smithfield area who would like to give advice...I am looking for a 25 mile course leaving from the YMCA on Cary St. in Smithfield. I think I have a course...maybe, but it is only 22 miles and I haven't ridden it yet.

Advice. Drop me an email.

Thanks.

Grit in my teeth ride.

I don't know if I've been fighting something or just stretched thin lately. I didn't feel a whole lot of stress from promoting the Smackdown, however rescheduling it did add more work and another level of stress. So from that, training, work and school I think I had been a little over extended.

Following the Dismal Dash (in which I felt good), I felt really good at our strength session on the following Tuesday (really good). The next day I rode easy outside then intervals at APT in the evening. Between those two rides I started getting body aches. I had to stop the intervals early from a lack of energy. I thought I was getting sick but, it never happened. For the next 3 or 4 days though, I had body aches throughout the day. So I took it easy (like no workouts) from that Wednesday to the Smackdown on Sunday. Then I tried to promote the race plus race the Cat 3 and the Pro/1/2/3 races. I felt okay, but not great.

During the next week, I never felt good on the bike. Still felt run down. Monday, Tuesday...no good. So once again I took Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off the bike. I was looking forward to a ride on Saturday morning. My motivation was high, which was apparent because when I woke up the ground was wet.

But I put on the arm warmers, knee warmers and grab my rain jacket. I felt good for the first time in a couple of weeks. I only road the first Conte's ride but put in a good sprint at First Court. It was nice to get out and want to be out.

Sometimes it takes a little time off to recover and sometimes it takes a ride in which you get grit in your teeth to feel good again. Back on the training plan hard on Monday. For now, I am going up to Maryland for a welcome home party for a friend.

ISO a new saddle.

I am currently using the Serfas Stinger saddle. For the past few years I have been changing saddles each year. This saddle that I have been using is fine. Fine that is until a real long ride or a ride over rough terrain. Basically, if it hurts me, it hurts for about a week after that.

So, my next upgrade purchase will be a saddle. Any suggestions. I have read the GamJams reviews posted last month so no need to direct me to those. I weigh 185 lb during the race season. This time I am looking for a saddle for the long haul. What should I get?

Sleepy Hole Smackdown Pics

Here are some pictures taken by James Goyet of the Cat 3 race:





Members of Facebook can see some more of his photos here.

Leah Nisbet took some pictures of all the races (I think) and they could be found here.

They include even ones like this:

Here I am trying to explain to this lady that "no, you cannot drive on the course and I don't care that you do it every Sunday." She didn't think we were being very fair to her and she was going to take care of it in the morning. She had already done some off roading past the cones to make it on the course during the Women's warm up. She then showed up later and tried to sneak past the FJ cruiser we parked there. This time I told her I was going to take her keys away. She said she was leaving but I was very fearful that she was just backing up to have room to be at full speed when she hit the pack of riders.

It was a very good day of racing. But I'm not going to bore anyone with race reports. Thank you to everyone who came out.