December 2012
2 posts
When your parents/significant other give you grief...
whatbikeracersshouldcallme:
HAHA so true.
Moving On
I recently decided to move on from my existing coach. Not because he was a bad coach, he was too expensive, I was plateauing or any of those things. I was steadily improving, it was a great deal and he was a good coach. I decided to move on simply because I wanted to use a different methodolgy that I think might work. Many people would bring up the old addage “If it ain’t broke...
November 2012
6 posts
Oiling the Machine Properly
I’ve always been active, but never eaten healthy. I’ve always been a picky eater, hamburgers only have cheese and ketchup on them (no mustard), never eaten vegetables and have a terrible sweet tooth. I decided to change that though, in order to become healthier and faster on the bike I knew I needed to give my diet (not as in losing weight but as in what you eat everyday) a reboot.
My...
Pedaling "Circles"
Many people think of the idea of “proper” pedaling as pedalling circles, this is highly overrated at best. In fact I would even call in inefficient The basics of the circular pedal stroke are very simple: your extenders, the glutes and quads, fire on the down stroke; the flexors, hamstrings and hip flexors, fire on the up. These two muscle groups bio-mechanically oppose each, and this...
The difference a year makes
Last year, you may recall, I was desperately trying to get back into shape after a full semester of not training. I ramped up my mileage bit time, I’ve never worked so hard on the bike, or enjoyed my time on it so much. Well this year I took a much shorter time “off” and even during my off time I managed to sustain 6 hours a week or so training. I started my proper training for...
Thanksgiving Ride
This Thanksgiving, I will be staying in Rochester as flying back home for 3 days is crazy expensive. In order to celebrate the day, I shall use my favorite means of celebration: an epic hilly bike ride. It is early in the season so the epic ride won’t be too long, but that means it will be very epic-ly hilly. Two Cat 2 Climbs, one Cat 3 and five Cat 4’s all in 56 miles of riding for...
I’ve been terrible about posting for the last oh… 6 months. Hoping for that to change soon. More training tips and product reviews to come.
October 2012
1 post
Giro Trans Shoe Review
As cyclists we are always searching for 2 very elusive perfect items: Shoes and Saddle. Unlike bars, stems, frames, components and basically everything else on the bike these are very personal. Everyone’s bum and feet are shaped differently and therefore there is not singular perfect item when it comes to the saddles and shoes. My journey for the perfect shoes has taken me through many pairs...
July 2012
3 posts
Anonymous asked: your cute ;)
In 2010 Contador took advantage of a “great chance to win, but lost a chance to win greatly.” On stage 14 Wiggins had a chance to put a much larger gap on Evans than he already has, but instead not only sat up but refused to chase Pierre Roland. While he may not be the most exciting to watch ride (his post race interviews are always a hoot though), he certainly rode with class a couple...
In April I did a 4 hr mostly flat ride with and average HR of 149 and averaged 16.2 mph. 2 weeks ago I did a 6 hour hilly ride at the same hr but 2 mph faster. Training works.
June 2012
5 posts
Cheap Quality
When it comes to my cycling addiciton, I like nice things. Shoot we all like nice things. I also try to keep everything to a budget, the budget of stuff a college student could reasonably afford. In the next couple of days I will be posting some reviews and thoughts on low cost products that promise most of the performance of top notch products, as well as some tips to get really awesome cool...
Great Day of Racing
I headed back out to the driveway today after a 1 week hiatus for some hard fast racing. On the menu for the day was both the 3/4 and P123 fields. Quick summary: I finished 10th and 14th respectively. Now for the long story for those interested.
[[MORE]]My objective in the 34 was to win, well the objective is always to win but often in the P123 I tend to focus more on not getting dropped. I set a...
Aero Wheels
I recently came into a bit of good luck and received 1 pairs of old HED CX’s, Zipp 303’s and 1 Corima disc. All these wheels weigh various amounts, the HED’s about 2000 grams (900 front, 1100 rear), Zipp’s 1200grams (550 front, 650 rear), and I haven’t even bothered weighing the disc. Based on this it would seems the Zipps are superior, and in some instances that is...
BB30 is Crap
There is a lot of hype in the cycling industry today around all sorts of new bottom bracket standards. There is the good ‘ole BSA, the new hot stuff BB30, and then all the others (BB386, BB86, BBRight, BB90 and probably some others). There are a lot of ‘facts’ thrown out by various companies and only about half of them are true if even that. I’m going to try and break...
May 2012
2 posts
Ingredient #3: Belief
“Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t—you’re right.”
-Henry Ford
If you don’t believe you will win a race, that you can win a race then chances are you will not win. You will find yourself sitting in, not putting yourself in position to win because in your mind you have already lost.[[MORE]]
This can be seen in the set up for a sprint, someone...
Pain Threshold: Ingredient #2
I’ve decided to make a series of these important ingredients for success. Pain threshold it is one of those things you don’t think about but impacts performance severely. Simply put if two athletes are on the same level and one can push themselves deeper into the cave they will be faster! The question is how exactly to you gain pain tolerance, push yourself further than others can go,...
Attitude: An important ingredient to success
Over the past season of racing I have had to change my mindset regarding. I used to train very little, expect a lot and make lots of excuses about why I wasn’t winning. Looking back I realized, that while I was succesful when I first started racing that was because I was riding a lot. I was maintaining a level of fitness but not getting any better, not doing anything to EARN success. So at...
April 2012
5 posts
I thought it was was SPRING?!
Over the course of the past 2 weeks Rochester has given us lots of great weather. It has been mostly sunny and warm and wonderful. Naturally something had to give. So yesterday it decided to be 38 and raining for my race (the race itself is another story entirely). Today…. snowing. 2 inches of snow over night, a couple more expected tonight and currently snowing/raining/sleeting, 34 degrees...
Tour of the Battenkill - Race Report
This weekend was my first big race of the season and first Tour of the Battenkill. For those who don’t know what Battenkill is , it is the American version of the various spring classic bike races in Europe. In April in upstate NY weather can be anywhere from cold and rainy to delightfully warm and sunny. The course is 62 miles of rolling hills, and long dirt sections. In order to do well...
March 2012
11 posts
Spring Break: Over
Spring Break has been quite enjoyable. Spent time in New York City, beyond the Broadway shoes and awesome food I got 2 races in there (22nd and 10th place), my longest run in many months and a couple of great bike rides in Central Park. Came back to Rochester on Wednesday and had some nice rides here Thursday and Friday, with some sub-par races Saturday and Sunday (more on that later). On the...
Training: On Track
The first couple races of the season are always question marks. You have to hope your training has put you right where you want to be, that everything is falling into place properly. Obviously there are indicators along the way as to how you are doing, but that first racing weekend gives you your first big test.
For this reason I am very pleased with my first weekend of racing. This has been my...
Racing in Central Park
Woke up dark and early this morning. Wonderful time of 4:45, nothing like getting 2.5 hours of sleep before a bike race. It was hard to wake up but once I was, I knew I couldn’t miss my chance at racing in Central Park. It may be fairly normal for the New Yorkers, but for me it was just awesome.
[[MORE]]
Since breakfast wasn’t open anywhere I had a pack of PowerBar Energy Blasts...
4 tags
Grant's Tomb Criterium
First race of the season, and first collegiate race for me in NYC today. First off hats off to Columbia for hosting a great race. Awesome to race in NYC with completely closed off streets! The course was great, from the finish line you hit 3 2 90 degree left hand turns that when hit right could be pedaled through all the way, the corners here where not the smoothest pavement in the world...
Argument for internal Cable Routing
As a mechanic I have always hated internal cable routing, recently though I have decided that there can be a very good case for it. First the issues:
Introduces drag to cables, degrading shifting
Makes changing cable a pain in the arse
Holes punched in carbon fiber tend to make the whole frame weaker
The cable drag can be bad on some bikes, and not matter at all on others, same with cable...
I love finding pro riders on Strava and noticing that you have logged 100 miles more than them this year. Then I look at their wattages and go cry… maybe I should have ridden 100 fewer miles as well. New strategy, use their strava accounts to build my workout schedule during the off season, will always be 1 week behind though :P. Mostly kidding.
3 KOM Ride
Ever have just a really good solid bike ride where you feel like you can push yourself for extended periods of time? Hello today! After my shitty ride Sunday I feel I was due a decent ride, and a decent ride I got. First of all it was sunny, and 50. It was windy but I felt like a million bucks so I could have cared less. Picked out a route for the day that hit some hills and lots of pretty parks....
Life has been breathed back into my bike. After getting ice all up bunches of bearings business I have cleaned greased and relubed everything. Although I’m probably going to want to actually replace all of those sometime. Lets wait until I’m feeling fairly certain it is done snowing though.
Epic No-Day
Had my most epic day on the bike in terms of it telling me “Just give up already.” First I woke up and it was snowing, race was on but my ride to the race wasn’t racing. Rode 13.5 miles to were I thought the race start was only it wasn’t. 7 miles later I get the the race start to find the group rolling out just as I get there, after searching for registration and realizing...
Weather, you should know that I hate you a million times over. It has snowed each of the last 3 weekends making riding all but easy to do. I have earned enough hardman points this off-season, I’ve ridden in freak blizzards, I’ve ridden in expected snow storms, I’ve ridden in 15 degrees and in 28 degrees. Ok so I know that it is supposed to snow in Rochester and it hasn’t,...
February 2012
27 posts
I’ve been sick for almost 2 weeks now and this last week was completely unable to ride my bike (essentially), which really sucks. Where as I was on a pretty steady tracking probably going to get 28 hours in this month, I am instead likely only going to get in about 20. While I would always like to ride more, I currently have school and work that must be done. Today however, the opportunity...
Sunny and 48 outside!!!! Plus I got new PowerBar product and clean bike. Bike Ride Time!!!!
Small bike fit tweak
Over the past few weeks, actually ever since getting back from Winter Break, I’ve felt as though something was just a bit off with my new bike fit. Couldn’t pinpoint what it was though. Saddle has been shifted back a long ways over the last couple weeks, and that felt a bit better, lowered the saddle a bit. But it still wasn’t quite right. Finally just last night I decided I was...
4 tags
Bi-polar weather
As my blog here clearly shows, I was dead certain I was going to have to ride the trainer this morning. It was snowing, there was a decent amount of it on the ground too, and it didn’t show any signs of stopping. The on my way to pick up my new derailleur hanger (oh my gosh… my bike shifts better than it has in over a year), it was suddenly sunny, the snow was melting and it was 40...
Damn you Weather!!!!!
It decided to tease me by not snowing all week and then deciding to snow only the days that I can ride my bike. Today will be a day for some Sufferfest. Bring on the pain!!!!
3 tags
Freak Snow Storm!!
Starting to feel better after being under the weather for the last couple of days, so back to the training plan. On order for today was 8 x 2 minute intervals with 2 minutes rest @ 110% LT. Weather was looking great 40 degrees outside supposed to be somewhat sunny in an hour. I dressed accordiningly which meant a lot less than I have been wearing lately. Just as I started my first...
Sudden urge to true wheels results in two very very straight wheels. Which then lead to realigned brake pads and chain has proper tension now. Yay clean and functioning bike!
2012: The Endurance Year
This year is going to be the year of Road Races, Ironman, Long TT’s, and tough mental attitude for me. Since I started working weekends at Jack and Adams in 2010, I haven’t really focused on getting in my good long rides, working on the stamina. It has shown. I tend to be good in Crits, but a disaster in Road Races and TT’s. I had the best 200m time on my cross country team, but...
4 tags
It is snowing outside… time for breakfast and then intervals. Not stopping for any type of crappy weather (ok I’d stop for a blizzard).
Rubbing Fender
I was so super worried about how slow my intervals today were and what it mean about my fitness… Just now realized the sound my bike was making was my fender rubbing the rear wheel :). Feeling better about fitness now.
Welcome back Intervals
First set of intervals for the season in an boy do they hurt. Forgot how painful these suckers can be. Ended up having to cut 2 of them out because I felt like my knees where going to explode if I did it again. Tomorrow I’ll be back at it again, this time with hill repeats. Woo hoo. Today was focused on speed, and its something I clearly lack. As the season progresses I expect to see this...
Up next back to back days of heart breaking intervals. Love that interval season is starting. Means racing is also coming up soon! On the not so bright side, it means my body is going to be in a lot of pain on Sunday and Monday. That’s ok though, I like that kind of pain.
Why is it that I have class all day on the beautiful sunny days?
