What the flu?
So...Mrs. P is sick and odds are she has some form of the flu. Had to happen. She's a nurse and all that swine flu panic had her seeing a ton of patients daily. Now she has a fever and feels like "poop" - her words. Little P is in and out of a fever and I have had chest congestion starting to creep in while riding.
So...I hope everyone gets better soon. Being sick sucks.
This weekend is Monsters and Wheels on Willy (Madison). We have a solid 5's crew going for Monsters. They are hungry. They know who to mark and what to do. They're strong and a little crazy. You'd have to be in order to toe the line with 100 cat 5's in 1 pack. Everyone is going to be so afraid of wrecks that they'll all be pushing to get to the front....leading to wrecks....
Kind of glad I'm a 4 at this point.
Thanks to some great name dropping over at Bike Forums I have been SLAMMED with quotes for bike parts from my commercial site. I've got some great pricing on some niche stuff but I think some people are thinking I am going to like sell stuff below cost. I think everyone is just so used to getting great deals they have no appreciation for how good the deals really are sometimes. Some of the sales are coming through though. Good thing this is just a hobby for me.
Tueesday's group ride out of Penny rd was crazy. It was just weird. We have always passed a lot of team and club riders while riding out there but this week everyone ended up along the same path at the same time going in the same direction. There ended up being about 20-40 riders at different times representing: Village Cyclesport, Verdigris, BBC, Wheel Werks, Spin Doctors, Our precious Bicycle Heaven, Project 5, Chronometro (I think), xXx, ABD, and even a Mack rider I believe. Our shop rides in Geneva/St Charles are pretty well known for drawing a crowd but this was on par. Slower but on par. It was like an underground crit were everyone just met up and decided that it was time to race.
It was fun.
Keep the rubber side down and keep hammering.
BH Ride Report
Great ride. Lots of people showed up. We had close to 30 or so. I thought it would be bigger, but a lot of the guys who usually meet up with us out by the golf course weren't there.
As we were climbing in one section early and heard the unmistakable sound of cleats hitting the pavement. I yelled "RIDER DOWN!" The group sat up for a second....then laid into it.
It was Ara. He got boxed in or something and hit the deck. I floated back to see who it was and saw him rocketing back up to the group. many of the team members floated back to help but he didn't need it. In the end it just left a bunchof guys off the back at a bad time for them. Ara even told them "don't wait for me (save yourselves)."
Speed wise is was slow to wind up. I was planning on leading all of the 4/5's that wanted to ride slower by taking all of the short cuts. I was 1/2 way through the first turn where I was supposed to go straight for the shortcut and missed it. That's when it started to get a little faster.
I was hanging pretty good, but found myself in the wind swinging around in a weird middle section trying to hold on. I held for a while but then my mind just said, "save it" so I sat up and coasted back.
That was when the group hit McDonald Rd and they were GONE. We ended up with a group of stragglers. Alien3 from the penny rd ride was with us. He told me CyLoew had gotten a flat and was out a long ways back (oops....). He said he felt bad for not stopping, but we all know what kind of ride it was. I still felt bad I didn't stop even though I didn't even know until many miles later.
Colorchange, RR, myself, alien3, and some tri guys made up this group. I was feeling good and was looking to take some hard pulls. We started kind of rotating well. I was pulling at 400-500 watts when on the front. We were hauling butt around 30mph all the way down McDonald. We took a shortcut and ended up in front of the main group for a majority of the ride.
Some of the tri guys weren't pulling through and when they did they weren't really pouring it on. That ended up with myself and RR and Colorchange doing a ton of pulls. We ended up really tired by the time we got back into the wind. We started a constant rotating 2 line paceline. Even that died after a few miles.
The group caught us and we motored on in the big pack. Nice. Hit Townhall in the group. It was like a gun went off. Those guys attacked it like date on prom night.
The rest of the ride found alien3 and myself limping back. We made it back into the group when we got back into town. Nice ride. Fast, but it has been faster. Fun. 40+ miles. Even with the soft pedaling in town I averaged over 20mph for the whole ride. Haven't looked at the power data but I am sure it is brutal.
CyLowe and MJH2 came rolling in together. Nice move by MJH2. He's always been good like that.
Now...trail ride with little P this morning. Hit the shop in the afternoon...racing in Madison tomorrow and hopefully Sunday as well. Here's to a good and safe weekend for everyone!
....oh yeah....and check out my site. Click on some of the advertisers links if they interest you...hopefully you know why. Custom wheel build quotes, etc.
BH Ride tonight
I am getting psyched for the BH ride tonight. Just about everyone is planning on showing. The weather is good. This could be crazy. Still debating whether or not to do the "rip your legs off total Cat 1/2 full on race world championships" or to split off and do a 4/5 "development" ride.
Probably a little of both.
5 o'clock. Parking lot. Here.
7 Cylinders
I'm firing on 7-cylinders. More than the 6 banger from last year, but not yet full power.
Did the Penny Rd Pub ride tonight. Barrington area ride I did all last year. Wind sucked. Dan, colorchange and myself headed out. Dan put the hurt on quick.
I popped a couple of times - feeling the overeating from the holiday at my parents. I kept crawling back though and found I was recovering quick. Pop, climb back, lay on a pull. It was nice.
CC hurt. Dan hurt towards the end. Epic. Mid summer speed in full winter gear in April. We finished close to 21 with only 3 guys in the wind and cold.
7-cylinders. ....can't wait to see 8.
I’m riding…
40-ish degrees. Overcast and windy. Raining off and on for what seems like a couple of days. Most everyone has backed out of the planned rides for this evening.
Wussys.
I'm riding.
Postponing
I have been postponing my Psimet Invitational ride report. Don't know why. Just tired I guess. It seems like a monumental task. I know it doesn't have to be, but just doesn't seem right if I don't do it up right.
So...it's coming...
Right now just trying to enjoy the winding down of the road season. Last night's group ride was fun. Colorchange attacked on a downhill before the big climbing sections. I followed mainly because any advantage I can get for climbing will help me stay even. The attack was on a long slight downhill so it didn't cost me anything energy wise to go there. I usually spend my time on and off the brakes through there anyway.
I hit the first climb behind colorchange, but he slowed at the top kind of waiting for the group. I yelled I was on him and we went. We traded on the other climbs and really pushed it for a bit once we realized we were gone. Worked it a bit like a race. Felt like it. Was fun and a nice preview for this weekend.
We ended up passing alien2 who had come out later and was riding the course backwards to find us. We slowed up for a while to let him swing around and catch up. Then we started shooting the crap about the race he did this last weekend. It's on the same course as my race on Saturday. We slowed enough that it was definitely the end of the break by the time we turned South off of the hilly leg.
I felt good. I am not in as good of form as I was a few weeks back. Little P has been sidelined with a massive fever/ear infection. Others around me have been really sick as well. I had a small fever for a little bit before the ride. I just hope I don't go into full sick mode before during or after the races this weekend. A 4 stage race split over 2 consecutive weekends at the beginning of fall gives you tons of risk for getting sick.
In general I would be really happy with a top 10 overall for the series. That will most assuredly require a top 10 for the road race - which is double points. I don't know if I can do it, but what can I do but try. The TT and the crits don't bother me.
The TT is 10 miles. It will take at least a 25mph TT to take the top spot I am guessing. I don't have that in me, but I have done some near 23 mph ones...I might be able to do a 24 mph one if the wind cooperates and if I can borrow some Zipps (last TT I did a borderline 23 in the pouring rain with regular box section wheels on. Sat up in every turn and slowed to a crawl to stay upright....and it was 24-ish miles long).
The crits are like 8 miles long unless they make a last minute change. It will take like 15-20 minutes. I can ride at killer speeds for that amount of time. MJH2 has already decided to try to make it fun, and I am with him...especially if I screw the road race the day before.
I won't win anything (especially if I think this way). I might have a chance if it comes down to a sprint and I am in position, but the odds of that are pretty slim. I also think it there won't be a ton of riders doing all 4 events so that may give me a slight advantage.
Like I said....I would be extremely happy with a top 10.
...then it's on to learning how to cross race. This would be the equivalent of a runner trying to learn how to swin in order to do "try"-athlons. Knobbies and mud....ewww. So NOT me, but they are still mostly road bikes and the bikes look HAWT.
Besides...Carpentersville will have beer this year.....
Spicy
That was one spicy ride this morning. It took a while to get over the facts that I didn't get to bed until 1:30-2:00am ...because I was working on the long overdue wheels de aham. 5:00 came awful quick.
It was a ride with colorchange's club. He was there as well as aham (really just there to pick up wheels, but decided to ride...since he was already there and all) and about 7-ish other Spin Doctors riders.
I was wearing arm warmers, knee warmers (which on someone my height with my short legs really qualifies them as full leg warmers or something out of flashdance), vest, and was contemplating toe covers. It was COLD! Too freeking cold for this early in September. When I got home my trainer said...."see....you'll love me again someday soon. You'll see." *shiver*
The ride was 'brisk'. They usually start slow (so I was told), but I think aham and I helped push it a bit. There was no wind. Freeky fog, etc. By the time we got to the point where they normally take a natural (that's biker talk for peeing in a field - I do it while rolling) they were all saying it was the fastest they had ridden that route...ever.
I was just rolling along. The route is my kind of flat on roads I have ridden a ton so I knew where the features were, etc. I took short token pulls up front mainly due to not knowing the route and not knowing how high they were going to dial it up to later. Aham was riding well too.
Up Allen rd near Hampshire one of their guys started to do some attacking. That hurt. Later a lot of us admitted we were either getting light headed, dizzy or seeing spots there. "On the rivet" so to speak. From there it was "attack, bridge, repeat" for most of the rest of the ride. By the time we got back they all made it official...fastest ride on that loop...ever for most of them.
There was climbing, but only like 1,500 over 50 miles so needless to say I was there and hanging well for 99.9% of the ride. Knowing more of what to expect I could go back and do more work. So where does this ride rank for me?
Hardest
- Bicycle Heaven (Cat 1,2,3 sharks in chummed water - total class of their own)
- Racing
- Penny Rd (Cat 3,4,5 Fast and climby)
- Spin Doctors (Cat 3,4,5 Faster but flat with attacking)
- Century riding
- Village Pedaler (Saturday ride with some friends)
- Trail ride solo
- Trail ride with the family
Easiest
Tomorrow is the Harmon Hundred. Looks like we might get wet. I am on form and liking it. I have not been there all year. I hope to push it into overdrive for Fall Fling.
Scale said 172 last night.
The day in psimetville….
Group ride last night = good. Stayed on the whole way. Outclimbed a lot of people (even a few on Braeburn - wtf). Won final sprint - well accepted it when it was given over by the alien.
I was feeling good and can only chalk it up to finally being able to string 2-3 days of riding together - total shocker, but looking at my logs I haven't ridden on 2 consecutive days in a LONG TIME before now.
Thursday is BH ride.
I am winning the battle of the scale. Consistantly says 175 now. Been seeing some 173 and 174's. Still have my fat belly, but I am starting to think that will never go away. I felt the lighter weight on the bike too. Strength has been increasing so I feel like the loss has not been at the expense of muscle.
I had another meeting with the man to continue our discussion from last week. Didn't see the point and know it's just one of those "methods" for handling conflict situations that he most likely learned in a seminar. "Confront the issue head on and then give them a week for reflection then revisit the issue." I'm good in negotiations because I know when I am being played. What sucks is knowing that I am being played, not wanting to stoop to the level of playing along, and knowing that if you don't play along then no good can possibly come of that.
If de-motivation was a food, I would now be fat(er).
Holiday Weekend
So far it's been OK. I was able to lace 95% of aham's wheel. It's official....I HATE paired spoke drillings. Oh...did I mention I have like 3 or 4 more sets coming through a group buy direct from Taiwan. 
) was there. One of the other regulars - shop employee - was out with a broken collarbone - low speed crash while dusting his wheel with his glove. He's very embarassed I was assured. Karrie was there along with Dan, another regular and 2 newbs (blondie and 'stasch).
All I could think was...My batterys needed this.
Exhibit A:That was taken a few minutes ago.
Finally got on anti-biotics for the hell that I have been enduring. 3 or 4 weeks in. Dairyland Dare, Team Time Trial, Tour of Oakbrook, various group rides, etc all under the siege of snot. Final phase has been a WICKED sinus infection. Had to do something. Hopefully this will kill it all off and not flat my performance for Fall Fling like some anti-biotics will. Z-Pack baby.
I think we'll hit the trail with the trailer today. I can be a "dad" and still get some riding in. He loves it. Really. I just asked if he wanted to go on a bike ride with his helmet in the trailer...he said....with head bobbing..."uh...YEAH!" "Are you sure?" I said...."Uh ....YEAH!" 
BTW - aham is getting some good natured ribbing over on Bikeforums...check it out...http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=460040
later.
Bicycle Heaven Group Ride
So...I finally rode my first group ride with my team. I've known since I found out about the ride last year that this is a very high caliber ride. So I knew I was going to be in over my head.
I knew it would happen eventually so I didn't freak out or anything. MJH2 and I ended up plodding ahead. It took me forever to really get my engine running. I have been noticing that lately. What I mean is that it takes like 15-20 minutes of HARD riding before I stop hyper-ventilating and start being able to pour on power, etc without totally popping.
MJH2 noticed that as well as I was wheel sucking him like I was a 2 month old and his wheel was a nipple. All said we ended up doing some decent work. Really cranked out some powerful sections. The effort was similar to the TTT I did with aham a few weeks back. Has to list up there as one of my all time hard efforts speed wise.
It was like being in a race. Actually being in a race. Pegged from the start with absolutely no breaks.
We finished respectfully and got some "meh....not too horrible for cat4/5's" looks from some of the guys. Even got a "good riding" from the shop/team owner as a side comment.
Different vibe. No drinking afterwards, etc. All Roadie. I liked it, but I can't see abandoning "my People" on the Penny Rd Ride. Then again I will get much faster riding the BH ride. So....thinking of doing the Penny Rd on Tuesdays and the BH ride on Thursdays.
....now.....how do I convince Mrs. P that this is something that needs to happen.......hmmmmm