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.
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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,...
