'cross

Time was of the essence, so after picking up 'Z' from cross country (his first hard run in a while with so much soccer), I got home and hit the the 'cross at school next door (not my school). It's a bitch of a course with a bit of flat on top, a middle portion with a stair-step descent, a divebomb descent down to the creek, a rooty trail across the backside leading up to another grassy run. From there it's uphill time before a run-up with stairs and then back around school while gasping. I used the HRM again. Once I saw low 170s while I was about to lose my stomach through my nose, I figured I should probably slow down. I used that general benchmark the rest of the way, putting in (most of) a 'hot lap' until I approached the upper-160's and slowed down until I settled down into a more normal pace. Two more observations:

• my run-ups are devastating in their intensity.
• 'cross is sort of hard.

View Atherton 'Cross in a larger map

Golly Gee, I've been better. Work was a Monday. Same ol', same ol', but I was sort of wiped all day. By the time I got home my head was pounding, but L had soccer prac so I wanted to continue my new-ish tradition of riding during his practice.Dave was wandering around so he met me down on the river and we took an *easy* bike stroll. Post-work and pre-home I went by Swag's Sports Shoes- a running store I first visited literally back in '83 or so- and bought another heart rate monitor, in this case a Polar F6, which they sold me for a very fair price about $30 under the online list price. I have an older Polar which is sans battery at the moment. The prob with Polar is that they strongly suggest you send them back to the workshop for a new battery and re-pressurizing and such. So, if you have to do the switch you're out your HRM for a few weeks. Now I have 2. Overkill? No, I've decided not at all. I'm going to use one on most of my workouts both to improve my workouts, i.e. to not go too hard, and to have data on file if I have another "issue". I think it's $$ well-spent.

Dave and I did almost an hour, an easy hour, even more subdued by the headache. By the end of it I was experiencing heart burn too. Geez! But I got a workout in, which is better than nothing.

Applications and Polemics

This morning provided a melange of cycling polemics. The plan was to be a trail day with the Bloomington crew. Instead, polemic #1 rained on our parade. Wash out. No trail ride, and this all embued with a "will it/won't it?" kind of tension starting Friday. Into the mix came PJ with designs to ride big this morning to prepare for his GA trip. So, I had the primary trail option with a "rain date" long distance back-up with PJ. And since the dirt designs looked grim, the frothy brew of road back-up rose to the top of the cup. Polemic #2. The trail ride was cancelled. And PJ was to have hit the road at 5.15, so the back-up chicken had flown its coop.

 And yet I was in kit, basically ready for a day of two-wheels and I became determined that *something* was going to happen, so I drew the Bleriot quiver for my bow and away I rode, 6-shooter in hand! No, there was no gun and I let the metaphor get out of hand there.

I decided to ride to Sunergo's first and then to let the morning unfold. Dave has/had been laid up, nurse Betty style, so I didn't know if we could make contact, but I let his suggestion guide my direction. He mentioned catching Vic's LBC ride at 9.00, so I at least had a plan. I would coffee it up, ride to Vic's and see what happened.

 "Application"- this is a term Drew taught me during the IF design project. For the frame and subsequent parts, what would be the application? How would I specifically use said part? I appreciate Drew's insistence in this b/c I think it's the best way to approach a particular part issue. How am I really going to use said tire, brake, frame...Today I found that I had missed what the Bleriot's application was.

 **I just lost all the rest of this post. The Bleriot is a fine bike, not a race bike. I need to ride it like an all-rounder and not a pure road bike. Furthermore, I had some kind of heart incident at the latter stages of the club ride. I felt good and outclimbed numerous people on the ride while on the Bleriot. And then it went "FLOP" something like 3 times. ???? I don't know. It disturbed me and I'm still bothered. Polemics. And Applications

C'dale set-up

After our brief, fun ride out at Waverly last weekend I'm sort of jazzed about forays on the mountain bike. It's Fall, don't you think, the catalyst to escape the summer bugs and excessive growth and to carve warm-hued leaves and dry trails? Sunday I'm going up to Brown Country to carve what everyone says are some of the best trails *anywhere* locally and some of the best in the East, and I hope that my bike helps me to do that. I put it in the shop earlier in the week to spruce it up a bit: brake check, new chain, extra pressure in the Lefty fork. At home I took off the large Banjo bag that had been on there for winter riding and replaced it with an older smaller bullet bag for tube and small tool. I removed the pedals as well. I have some on-loan XTR pedals I'm going with instead of the silver M424s. I also put a Garmin e500 mount for data pleasure. The boys will take care of the directions on this one. No pics yet, but some to come for/from tomorrow. Weather is meh!, but I don't think it'll stop us.

"Praxagora, Where is that damn woman!?"

Easy...

After spirited rides both Sunday and Monday, today was all about relaaaxxxinnnnggggg. I prolly did 11mph both directions and it felt great. I got my ride in and did it on my mellow terms. Hope everyone else got a ride in today on your own terms yourself. Treat yourself!

'crossing it

Blast from the past!!! Lithodale has inspired me to dust off ye ole 'cross bike for a bit of muddy groveling action. Out of nowhere I decided to revive the forlorn Crosscheck for its original purpose. L had soccer prac at 6.00, for which we would have to leave at 5.30. Unfortunately I was drawn into a Law&Order-CI from which I could not extricate myself until 5.00. In those 30min I

• found and dressed in sufficiently ratty cycling clothes given that it had rained all day and that it would be a mud bath.
• removed the rack and rear fender (that fender will get new life somewhere. it's a nice city rack)
• removed the 30c tires and mounted the 45c Panaracer Firecross, the heaviest, slowest tires of all time, but *perfect* for the soup.
• mounted an Edge500 computer mount
• removed the old, rusted flat pedals for future (i.e. 20min later) installation of (old) TimeATC pedals.
• find my old Shimano cross shoes with Time cleats and the other crap I needed, including something to protect my key fob from the muck

It was as active a 30 as I've had of late. We arrived, I paid for the tshirts (other story) and got ready to ride. Basically, I did a short warm-up and dove into the first "hot" lap at mostly full gas. Because my gas isn't all that gas, well, it was mostly "gas" to me. I pulled off and prepared for the next "hot" lap, for which I used the "lap" function on the Edge. That lap was at 9:03 doing the "road" link first. I think the wind was coming pretty heartily from the west, so that route provided me straightaways into the wind. On my cool-down I noticed two other 'crossers doing an easy lap. Last week (on the mtbike) there was a whole pack of youngsters; they must have stayed away from the mud. I hit the lap again and went into my third "hot" lap. This time I ran up behind the two 'crossers, holding my spot for a while until I got a chance to pass. Funny that I hadn't been in a race situation for YEARS but that's where I was, looking for room to pass. The dude let me by and I finished my 3rd "hot" lap at 8:45, 18sec faster than #2, and with the slow traffic behind the 2 'crossers. 

I spoke to Lithodale later and he encouraged me to do StormtheGreens in late October, the weekend after our RiverRiverGorge weekend. The Cat4 race is 30min, which is basically 3 of my "hot" laps plus a bit. The challenge, I guess, would be to avoid the DFL (google it if you need), but if I feel good and have a non-injury race, who gives a crap? Mas training? Maybe?

our own FURLY

I'm tired, whether from exertion or from getting up well before the crack of dawn. We all need miles for Fall plans, so Pat, Dave and I met at 6.00 for a brisk early morning 50, I so I could get home for family doings and Pat the same. I left around 5.30 to get a warmup in (and to rival Dave who always gets a few more miles than I do). They were both at the Loop when I arrived and we hit it, using Eastern Pkwy to link up southward towards Iroquois and our first hills. I set a firm tempo up Iroquois in the pitch dark, glad to have my SON lighting my way. Excellent choice there. We circled around the back of Iroquois where Pat pipped me at the top of the disc golf hill; I left just a bit too early on that one. A quick water break led us onto Southern Pkwy and a somewhat big gear roll downtown. I wasn't feel too great, right in between gears if you understand me. I wasn't strong enough for the next cog and burned my legs, but the cog up had me at my limit with my breathing, but thankfully for me we started hitting lights. Unthankfully, we seemed to hit every light on 3rd and Market streets. A quick roll across the stench of Butchertown had us at a road block at Frankfort, apparently for a run/walk down along River Rd, our route. We found that we could use the right lane, and impressively the left lane was full of runners. We then hit Mockingbird Valley hill, me taking a steadier tempo before giving it some more gas at the top up "green" whatever road. I managed to stay ahead of Pat this time, but he was climbing much better than last. We then had a brief stop during which Pat tried to figure out what was up with his front mech, but to no avail. A swoopy downhill in Indian Hills delivered us to the bottom of the traditional Indian Hills climb. I backed off a bit b/c I was tired of blowing at the top of every climb and it worked pretty well. Pat almost got me that time. River Rd allowed us to tempo up a bit, but it started drizzling and gave us a headwind (I think). That set the plate for Wolfpen Branch, during which I tried a little move up on the third portion but overcooked it, with Pat going by me easily. Tired legs. All that was left after that was Barbour Ln. and our last quickie climb. I felt pretty in control for 75% and the last 25% blew up entirely. Again, overcooked it. Gonna have to work on that. We reconvened at the top and cruised by Pat's place and dropped him off. Dave and I were blessed on the return via Westport with a tailwind and downhill, so our tempo increased a fair shake until pulling into St. Matthews where *suddenly* food became necessary. And Plehns was in order to quench said pang. After a donut (2?) we bridged through the park in the later stages before stopping at Twig-n-Leaf for a warm breakfast. Funnily, some long-time LBC members were there hiding from the drizzle. They decided to bag the potentially wet ride. Sissies! The end result was 58 well-earned miles, and all before 10am. That nap is gonna feel spectacular this afternoon! 

 p.s. In discussing bike usage this morning, Dave and I speculated on which bike(s) I was using more this year, especially between the new IF and the updated Blueridge. As of this ride today, I've taken exactly 22 rides on each bike, with the IF leading the mileage race 721 to 655. Basically the difference is that the IF has 2 centuries this year and the Blueridge none. The bike with the most trips in '11 is the Ute, the neighborhood bike of choice. The bike with the fewest miles is the RB-1, with one trip of 8.5m. Pathetic. Two bikes haven't been ridden, the Redline 9.2.5. and the old C'dale Criterium. I'm going to try and give that to my uncle today to use if he would like. The 9.2.5. needs to be cabled and sold. And perhaps the RB-1 needs anew home too.

 .

Fall Plans

There's been lots of talk on google+ about bike plans among the bike guys of late. I have 3 rides lines up, one per month. That'll keep me sufficiently motivated and excited, but it will also allow for soccer and cross country time too. So:

• Sunday 9/25- I'll be driving up to Brown Country, finally, for a half-day of trail riding up there with Apertome and Dave G. EVERYBODY talks about how fun the BC trails are. Also, mostly everybody talks about them in terms of good flow instead of gnarly technical challenges. I like that.
• Sat/Sun 10/22-3- At least 3 of us will be going to Red River Gorge for a 1-night bikes+camp weekend. We'll drive down early Sat and take in 100K of E.KY/DanielBooneNF mixed-terrain goodness. After a good camp we'll do the 28m RRGorge Loop, road in nature this time, before heading home at lunch Sunday.
• Lastly the posse is all planning on taking on the Gravel Grovel, Saturday 11/26. That's another 100k worth of pure gravel, double track and some singletrack. Given it's status as a "race", we/I'll need to be in reasonable shape to not miss any cut-offs.

Big Fall. Exciting stuff. I was just prepping a bike for a 50m "training ride" tomorrow morning moving out at 5.00am and thought to myself that I'm really enjoying bike riding these days. The older I get, the better it is. Can't say that too often.

Waverly

No photos, but Dave and I have an excellent time (at least I did) on a short ride at Waverly this morning. I hadn't been out there for a couple years but it's Fall and there is no better time to hit the trails. I've also been somewhat incommunicado about Fall plans, but one of the dates is a day trip next weekend to Bloomington to Brown Country Park to ride with Apertome and Dave G, and today's effort was intended to prep for that a bit. Best as I can tell, I hadn't been to Waverly since November, 2008 and much has changed. KYMBA had already done trail work out there, but the modern trails differ substantially. The old ones were more verticle- up hard and down straight- making for a trying and tiring time. The new trails have an amazing amount of "flow". Dave and I only had time to do the front trail, "Fresh Air", and the back trail, "Twisty" somethingorother. My chain broke on the second trail, but fortunately and funnily enough we found the trail end about 100ft up the trail. Dave used the MonocogSS and did a great job plowing through things with partial slicks, no front suspension and only one gear. We had to suck wind occasionally at the tops of climbs, but what they've done at the modern Waverly is reward any climbing with *amazing* swoopy, flowy descents, most including berms, jumps, bridges and turns to carve. My skills aren't particularly good, but both on the front and back trails at times I let loose and got some speed going and began to "carve" a bit. FUN! The bike is in the shop now for a chain, some front fork air and a little love, and I'll be really ready for next weekend. I'm hoping very much that we have weather like today. Perfect. FUN!

 

WestEnd Loop

Whew, long, windy commute loop home in the afternoon. I had made grand plans to do even more but I needed to stay at work a bit longer. Then I started making good time and pushing a big gear going due west. Uh oh. Due east wasn't so much fun, but I put it 26 on the day.

Commute

Commuted yesterday. Rode hard in the pm. Slowed down when hot.  Today didn't ride. Feel sort of blah, but I'll perk up.

On a more important meta-note, why did my "goofy" post get so many more hits than usual?  the google+ reference? Do I need to refer to google+ every time I do a post. Then maybe due to google+ I'll get lots of hits and can monetize my blog and be a good capitalist like all other good Americans, especially Americans with google+ accounts.

'Cross-ish

Had soccer taxi this afternoon so no commute, and then more soccer taxi 6-7. So, during L's practice I got the 29er out and rode some 'cross trails at RRCC. It's something. Better than nothing. "Time" is total, ride time was about 45min. Ran into cross country coach marking course and talked to her for a bit.

 

Miles

I wasn't paying attention, but this first week of September I passed my mileage from all last year. I finished last year amid health problems and whateve else with 3,024, which was about 600m less than 2009. I remember being disappointed. This past week with the HnHFCH and some commuting I'm up to 3,059, not up with FatGuy and certainly no Bikeolounger, but sheeyat, I'll take it. And the Fall may prove promising. On deck (hopefully) is a late-October gravel/trail weekend with some camping thrown in and in late November we're talking a GravelGrovel with the extended RCCS crowd. And of course I have to train for such events.

I like to ride, and ride I will.

Goofy

Goofy commute today. As posted on google+, I wanted to take the TrekSS out, but the front tire was flat. I knew in the back of the petrified noggin that it had been flat before, but I pumped it up anyway to see what would happen. I made it, pretty spiritedly in fact. The afternoon brought complication. The plan was to jet home and drive the car back to school to pick up teenager from soccer. During the day at some point I felt the tire and, yep, pretty flat. I tried pumping it up with my old small pump and it wasn't doing jack, so I grabbed a ride with a colleague and still returned to school for teenager *and* bicycle pick-up. 7.3 total miles for the day. Not the way to train for a 100K gravel grinder. Oh well. Fun while it lasted.

Slow Commute

I commuted slowly yesterday (15m).

Pondero commented on that fact, but I deleted that post while using the new blogger interface. I regret having stolen Pondero's voice. I appreciate his comment, and appreciate the cooler temps too.

Short Commute

(Using blogger's new interface and lost a post. This one will be shorter.)

Yesterday was slow, today short. I stopped by the stadium on the way home to watch us lose 0-1 in a JV game. Z played his first game at right back and played well enough, getting some crosses into the box but losing position on the goal; the center and left backs also missed their assignments, so not too much blame.

Sure is nice to have the SON going in drizzle and leaden skies.

FCCHundy pics

Rehl Rd. in the morning. For those of you not from Louisville, this is about 2m tops from "the 'burbs'. Quaint, isn't it?

Cockpit. I'll move the Garmin mount to the stem next time I'm in this configuration. Also, I won't use the mtfeedbag. It knocked against my knee a bit much on this ride.

"Canoe Park", or something to that extent. It's part of the developing Floyds Fork Park project.

Canoe launch. I discreetly used the bushes, if you understand me.

Old Taylorsville Rd.

Taylorsville. Looks pretty peaked in this pic, much like the rest of rural America.

Tobacco staking, for those who don't know what that is. I've never done it, but I've always heard it's back-breaking work.

This is an interesting stretch of KY458. It's a long, mild false flat. On my last FCHundy it rained on me here. This time, I think the heat was mounting. I took a quick breather at the top. And it smelled like cow shit. I don't mind cow shit, but not in the heat.

This is a painted message on 1754/Chaplin Rd., with me climbing and this on the opposite side. This stretch is apparently used for C.KY rides like the MS150 and maybe the OKHT.

lunch stop in Willisburg

Fresh asphalt along 433/Willisburg-Mackville Rd. 

My rest spot. I lay down in the grass just off the front wheel. I rested. I needed to.

Backroads leading into Perryville.

Steep crap along Oscar Bradley Rd. on the west side of Perryville Battlefield. I walked here, in socks.

Questionable activities along same stretch of OscarBradley

Pinto nuzzle along Oscar Bradley. My inability to ride and need to stay in the shade allowed me multiple pic opportunities.

Butterflies cavorting, just barely.

Approaching Perryville. Looks flat. It isn't.

Perryville and Chaplin River

Add caption

Shade, with a bit of sunny inspiration.

Last obstacle, Mt.Salem Rd. just south of Hustonville at mile 94. What is less evident here is that I was trying to capture the darkening clouds. It began to drip on me within seconds after this, and by mid-climb it was raining. By the "summit" at 1m it was absolutely pouring. No more pics for me.

FCHnHHundy Recap

I completed my second Family Camp Century, this one under some questionable conditions with temps around 100F mid-day. I sit here two days later and I'm not sure I had much fun. I accomplished something, and I'm sure it helped my long-term cycling acumen, but it just wasn't an intense gravel ride with a group or a miracle day with magic legs. It was a long damn ride in really hot conditions.

The first 55 miles were uneventful in a good way. I rode through very sunny conditions in the morning as the temps slowly climbed. During this stretched I just rode along, sometimes pushing the pace, other times backing off, and always drinking lots of water. The stop at Chaplin at 45m was particularly nice. The store didn't have dispenser ice, so I bought a bag to fill my bottles up and had a nice, cold Coke. I felt good and refreshed after that and made good time into Willisburg, my lunch stop. It's known for cheeseburgers, so like last year I bought one and ate it under the church picnic structure. Some AC would have been nice, but the restaurant had smokers. And the wait was a bit long. The burger and peanut M&Ms hit the spot, though.

Somewhere after Willisburg, though, the wheels started to loosen. The section from Willisburg to Mackville is basically a 3.5m mild acclivity, and it was during this that I got hot, very hot. I have a feeling, too, that I stopped drinking, I'm not sure. But I got hot and I stopped riding for a bit. I found a shady spot on the side of the road and I stopped and lay down, the first time I can remember doing that at a random spot on the road. After a bit I got up and "hit" the road again, but my spirited pace from the morning-15avg at Willisburg- was long gone and I was descending into a miserable patch. What worried me was that I knew the Mackville to Perryville section was one with lots of steep rollers, a section I suffered last time. This time was probably worse. I took the route behind Perryville Park via Oscar Bradley and Hays Mayes and encountered a couple short, steep uphills I just didn't clear. I walked, in my socks with my fancy road shoes hanging from my brake hoods. Low point. We've all been there.

In Perryville I sent several whiny texts to my cycling brothers and the fam. That helped, I think, a means to clear the mind of negativity. What helped, too, was the Gatorade and ice cream sandwich. After a relatively long stop in Perryville (also working out finding a missing teenager who went to soccer instead of coming home), I ventured into the Perryville/Junction City stretch that hurt so much last year. I took the alternate route via Harberson Rd. down to Parkersville and 300. What looks like a 8.5m uphill stretch became much friendlier due to two factors, CLOUDCOVER from the heat and a TAILWIND, my first of the day. My spirits, or legs at least, lifted a bit and I made JxCity pretty easily, the only real problem being my hands (more later). A chocolate milk and AC rest in Hardees gave me strength for the final push along my parallel 127 stretch. I wasn't powering away here, but I made progress. I bypassed the ice cream again outside of Hustonville for some reason and turned onto Mt. Salem, my last obstacle of the day. Even more strangely, after a day of intense heat and sun I saw darkness growing from the east. It began to sprinkle and then rain. After a triple lightening strike not far ahead of me I knew it was on. Two hours earlier I suffered to survive triple digits and now I was chilly while being buffeted with a hard rain all along the high point of the day at mile 95. From there it was a divebomb into the wet cold until things evened out for my last 10 miles, before arriving at camp around the 10hr mark. A long day in the heat it was.



Thoughts:

• I used Chamois Butter liberally and had no chafing at all. The Brooks Swift was quite comfy. BUT the on-going ride gave me a painful spot in the leftish portion of my groin around my pubic bone. I've never had a pain there and never want to again. I'll have to make saddle adjustments or go to a new saddle, bc I'm not risking anything there.
• My hands gave me real problems as the day went. I'm theorizing that the oldish PearlIzumi gloves I used had a seam that ran along the base of my hand and created a pressure point. The alternative is that the Brooks tape and smallish Campy brake hoods created the pressure. I might have been better off glove-less except for the terry portions to wipe sweat. I'm hoping a future long ride sorts this issue out again, b/c it could mean a fit issue that I hadn't encountered on shorter rides.
• My feet legitimately cramped several times in the Specialized road shoes. I longed for my Keen sandals on occasion. That said, here now I would wear them again, I think. Road shoes don't do well when you have to walk steep hills when your legs are fried.
• My rough patch was from 60-72 this time, which is odd b/c that 70-mile segment is one I've ridden plenty of times. Still, I had the requisite rough patch and marshaled through it. I think long rides are fascinating in that respect, the ebbs and flows. I'm thinking that a 200k with a like-minded group would be a fun physiological and psychological adventure, but doable.

Eating:

• PB sand for breakfast
• 32m Slim Jim in Taylorsville
• 32m-36m Combos
• 45m Coke in Chaplin
• started Nuun bottles in Chaplin and had one Nuun and one standard bottle from there on out
• 55m cheeseburger and peanut M&Ms in Willisburg
• 73m Gatorade and large ice cream sandwich in Perryville
• 85m chocolate milk in JxCity
• 85m-95m Cliffshots

I'm not really sure I ate enough. I wonder too, if around mile 60 when I had troubles if I should've eaten and had drunk more. I'm sure it would've been smart to do.

Pics to come later when loaded.

Officially wrong side of bed

Don't know why I'm cranky, but I'm cranky. Got out for a pleasant spin with Dave this morning but that didn't make me uncranky. Had Quill's as I craved but they have changed from their own yummy prosciutto and cheese scones to standard blah Heitzmans fare. Blah. Cranky. Just got back hitting some tennis with L and I'm still cranky. Timothy and his horrible, no good, very bad day. Australia?

Hotter-n-Hell Hundy

I've already taken off work and tomorrow I am to recreate my Family Camp Century from last year, one which was my first century and my first solo century. I had a nice time last year- except for the typical 75-85m split- and I feel like I have both more experience with long distances and more general long rides in the legs than last year. Below is my route-ish. It's a quickie although the "master file" is the .gpx I'll use from MapSource. Please move below.




Here is the other new feature for tomorrow. Mind you, I've already put in for the off-day, so something has to go forward. Weather.com has us at 99F instead of just 97F. I have real concerns about a solo century with those kinds of temps. I harken back to early June when a 40-miler gravel grinder in IN just about did me in. Sitting here at this point I think I'll go forward, but with some trepidation. I have stops quite regularly, so refueling/rewatering are not problems, but dang, that's hot!

 

Friday, 2

97 | 74 °F

Clear

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