Hermes

@Heathpack I am somewhat speechless. Fred jihadists that feel they have a right to disrupt a permitted TT - priceless.

valygrl

HP - sorry to hear your vision is not settled down yet, that must be frustrating.

For the TT vs group ride thing - do you think the group is just expressing hostility, and when faced with the reality of the situation, would not get in the way of the race? I find there is a certain set of people who just... want to be angry and express it. Lame.

In my world, <edit whining about team stuff that is better off not aired at all, so deleted>

@sarals, I hope you are feeling better.

revchuck 

I finally got a nap yesterday and went out for an hour's ride at an easy endurance pace. My legs actually felt okay, but I was groggy and unmotivated. I took a Unisom last night to ensure I'd sleep, and got a solid 7.5 hours. I went out this morning in light fog/mist - the kind when you hit a bump it shakes the condensation off your bike and onto you, and off the brim of your helmet and onto your glasses - and holy expletive, it was like someone flipped a switch! I felt great and power just came so easily. About 1:30, TSS 95, IF .80.

sarals 

@Everyone, I'm feeling much better, thank you! I'm at work, yes, I went in to work last night, which is indicative that I had confidence that I wouldn't loose my cookies in the cockpit of that helicopter while on an instrument approach into San Francisco International. That would have been poor form.

I am little dismayed by the the behavior of the group ride people, @Heathpack. Ex is so right, that is completely and totally selfish and pigheaded. To add a little fuel to the discussion, one of the promoters in NorCal, he does the Red Kite series, explained the permitting process recently. The real eye opener was the cost. He said it costs him $1000 per hour to put on a road event. It's done in a time window to stay within permit parameters and to keep costs under control. Racers at a permitted race aren't being selfish, at all. Ass hats who get indignant about them and then want to be disruptive and even combative about them are.

sarals 

And, @Heathpack, I do hope your eye gets completely taken care of. I'm worried about you!

On the training side of things, I was off the bike yesterday because of that stomach malady (it may have been norovirus, or more likely, food poisoning). I was actually going to do the ride scheduled on the training schedule, but, I had a rare moment of clarity and I called coach. We talked for a while, and it was very, very productive. I chalked that up as my training for the day and stayed off the bike!

revchuck 

Not only that, but you'd have to clean it up and IIRC, there are lots of nooks, crannies, and crevices in a helicopter cockpit for that stuff to end up in.

sarals 

Ask me how I know about that! No, not me, a passenger, years ago. Okay, enough of that!

Racer Ex 

You can fly IFR right? So you only have to clear the instruments off.

I was going to ski yesterday then get in a ride. Had the day all planned. You know the old saying about making God laugh?

Finishing installing the insulation on my garage doors. Couple of them (I have three) have old school blade locks. Locked one of them to tape around the lever and forgot. Hit the button. Much noise ensued. 2 hours later I had the belt drive repaired, the tracks realigned, and the settings right.

Needed to get the doors finished so I continued taping. Then I ran out of tape.

I am not sure what the TSS is for throwing a wrench across the garage. Actually I just sighed heavily, and went down the hill to Home Depot.

sarals 

Isn't Tool Flinging an Olympic Sport? My dad holds the record in the coveted Socket Fling event. I don't he ever found that socket, he threw it so far....

Bandera

It is a multidimensional Olympic event: The Combined Tool-Fling/Expletive Howl.
Scoring is based on: Distance of Fling (1/3) Decibel of Howl (1/3) and a 1-5 Judgement of how disturbingly creative the Expletive was (1/3).

-Bandera

sarals 

Indeed. My dad has the distance record. He came up short on the overall, though, only scoring a 7.5 out of a possible 10 on all of the style categories....

echappist

well at least they didn't swerve into you when you rolled by...

Seems that the most inconsiderate are often old freds and type-A racers...

revchuck 

I guess it's a good thing I'm an old type-B racer.

Heathpack 

Well the latest thing from the group ride v TT saga is that I finally wrung the concession from the group that they would not ride through the race after all. I created big drama over it but honestly I didn't care.

Yes, @valygrl, I think they were pretty unlikely to ride through the race ever. People who were influential in the group would have stopped it. But to me it was also important to have them state that publicly on their FB page. Remember this is a beginner group and there are genuinely people in the group who have no idea what the etiquette is. Leaving it with the public comments that the group would decide when they got to the start, that they might ride through or not, made it seem like it was 'ok' either way. It was important to me to make the point that this was dangerous, rude and generally a ridiculous thing to consider doing. I ruffled some feathers but it was just something I couldn't let lie.

Lol, the person who was the militant one about her rights to ride through was not even planning on doing the ride. She's an ultra athlete and formerly was a decent friend. She's a bit of a recluse and opted out of social media a while back and only recently re-entered the fray, so I haven't been keeping up with her for maybe a year. She's done some bad ass stuff- Leadwoman, ultra distance running, double centuries. She has ridden a TT once, maybe twice. Today she decided to give me some advice as to how I could learn more about TTs because I seemed "upset" that the group was trying to piss on our race. Lol thanks, I'm sure your suggestions will be very helpful because I don't have any access to info about TTs. She also asked that I post a resume of my cycling clubs and what I do to support bike racing. Um. I actually *participate* in races?

On a related note, one of the races in our TT series went belly up. The Santiago Cyn TT is no more. So we are down to two venues in our races series. So stinky stuff happening every day this week. Tomorrow I'm sure my retina will detach and that will be the cherry on top of a very swell week.

Bright spot: I flipped the Magic Bike odometer over 13000 on the mornings ride. I love that bike, it was a game changer for me.

Racer Ex 

Well, I did get up on the mountain today. First I had to sit through a massive lift line and fight for ass space on the lift...not:



Got to the top and started to regret the choice. Visibility was "not much", wind blowing ice pellets, ski by braille which I usually refer to as MCL/ACL skiing.



Made a run, hit the ski shop for some anti-fog cloth, then started hunting around the mountain for some decent snow. Found some on the north side bit heavy and chewey, so glad I brought my powder/crud crusher back country boards. Did 4 more runs and it wasn't getting epic, so I started to make my way down the mountain. Figured "what the hell, the Chutes are open" so...



Through the gate and...oh my. Good looking snow and zero wind on the leeward side.





Dropped in and was laughing by the bottom. Four more runs making tracks and skiing loose snow from avalanche controls. Warren Miller fall line stuff.



Hitting it tomorrow.

Today's totals:

10 runs
12,560' vert
Max pitch 51 degrees (yee haw!)
Max speed 54.8

Actually my app said 69 until I realized I left it on for the drive down the hill.

On another downhill note I have a huge issue with freezing feet. Go the warmest liners I could buy, best socks, still not great. Bought a pair of these:



Definitely helped.

Racer Ex 

@Heathpack , glad sanity prevailed. I'm looking at doing a TT sometime so pass on those hints.

happybday29475

I do hope you're citing km. Otherwise, you're gonna need to reset to 0 and start over.

happybday29475

This is totally the kind of post that is keeping me coming back to BF right now!

I didn't know they had 51 degrees at Heavenly. Did you jump off the chair or something? Respect!

I was going to go up today myself, but we had freezing rain in Boulder and I decided the high stress drive up to the ski area wouldn't be worth it, since we had no new snow over night. So instead I did chores, boo hoo.

I've got to go cook dinner..and afterword put on new chainrings onto my "B" bike which sits on the trainer. It turns out that I bent my chainring shipping my bike back from San Diego a month ago. No biggie, the old ring is close to 10 years old and showing some wear.

PS: WRT Freezing Feet: Me too. I've got a line on a deal on Intuition Liners, they're supposed to be the bee's knees both for fit and warmth. I'm going to try them. Let me know if you want in on the deal.

PPS: 55mph on skis is fast! The fastest I've gone since becoming bionic is probably around 45, but every day I get a little more comfortable...

Racer Ex 

Mt. Rose, not Heavenly. See it from my (home) office window. Couple of the really sick pitches in The Chutes go to 55, pretty much the steepest stuff in the Sierras unless you're dropping off cliffs. If the snow is right they are just like flying.

Have a weekday season pass, 20 minutes up the road, open invite to BF'ers at the Racer Ex B & B includes an airport shuttle.

Skiing the Intuition liners now. Much warmer, only issue I had was needing a foot bed grind to avoid losing my toenails where the boot tongue rivet jabbed into them. You will really like them if you're looking for warmth. Pretty solid for a thick liner as well.

Hit 63 and change the other day on the groomers. Borrowed some carving boards from my next door neighbor. My fat boards get pretty wobbly over 50. Back in the day I had some big, non side cut Super G 207's. Those were mid 70 MPH.

No helmet.

Seems stupid when I put it that way.

Much less into the speed stuff these days. Still hate to waste time getting to the chair though

happybday29475

Heh. I've gone fast on skis, too, but it was back before they had computers, maybe even before electricity, so I don't know if it was 65 or 70. Regardless, I completely agree that it's important to get to the chair quickly.

I do remember getting up to that speed on a bicycle once too. My little cateye computer registered something like 67mph. It was in a flat sprint after a long road race; I got all aero and turned up my guads to 11. OK, that last sentence is not true: it was down a steep hill all by myself. (Of course perhaps I didn't have my wheel circumference measured corrrectly). I always wanted to go back because fear was my limiter, not effort. It was pre-strava, but the strava segment now exists. Of course, strava only records uphill for liability reasons. The grade is more than 10% for much more than a mile, with a good long chunk at 15%, and it's dead straight for the duration with a fine runout. I bet the locals have gone much more than 70. Anyway, here's the segment, but my lawyer tells me to say that none of this is true and that I've never been there and I certainly recommend to never ride down this segment, only up, and in fact I don't think that the road actually exists.
https://www.strava.com/segments/4532537

There are probably a handful of spots around the country that are even better for setting speed records, but this is the one that I've ridden.

I've driven the descent from Tahoe to Reno and bet that bikes go fast there, too.

Heathpack 

Sweet. Nope I was talking miles. So that means I get another 13000 miles?! Sounds great.

Before I got the Magic Bike, I was on a $600 aluminum entry level Trek. It was actually a decent bike & it took me pretty far. But boy when I got on a "real" bike, that was magic.

I met my fitter (who I love) because of this bike. When I ordered it, it was supposed to arrive in a week but the shop actually had no idea what they were talking about, there wouldn't be any in the country for 6-8 weeks. Because of that erroneous communication, they would have let me out of the purchase.

It was such an expensive bike for a newby to purchase that I started to second guess myself. A friend had suggested her fitter previously, the guy was supposed to be great but really? $325 for a fit on a $600 bike? Who could justify that? Then I learned he could do a pre-purchase fit and tell me if the expensive bike would work for me. Plus fit me to my old bike, which I really needed since I had a big milestone ride coming up- 100 miles!

Lol, the rest is history, it's been a great relationship, although maybe Ex wishes I wouldn't come back from a session asking questions about 75 little negligible things I could fiddle with on the TT bike.

Haha, I remember what he said to me: "Thats a great bike. If you can afford it, you should for sure buy it".

Feb 22 will be our three year anniversary, me and the Magic Bike. Love.

revchuck 

Congrats! I'll be climbing somewhere around Tucson on your anniversary. Since your Magic Bike has taken you up a hill or two, hopefully I can channel some of those vibes.

echappist

well, that's a relief that some common sense prevailed. Ms. militant seems to be the type who ought to stay off social media
what is the magic bike again?


more like, seems you've hit your head one too many times racing your bike

one reason why i stay the hell away from skiing is that i don't think i can handle the speed

Bandera

I just checked w/ Captain Fast, icon of The 41.
That old machine is no longer obsolescent it is Obsolete and must be replaced immediately w/ the latest uber-aer0/hydraulic shifting/electric-brake Team Shy replica to maintain 41-cred.

Certain carefully chosen and fitted machines are just "right" from Day 1.
Recovering from a hip strain a few weeks ago I pulled the old Vitus race bike down for the first post layoff ride and it felt right.
Good to go Old School style.

-Bandera

Heathpack 

The Magic Bike is my BMC, I was riding lots of endurance miles back then and the model I got is their Fondo bike, the GF01. It really is a great bike, I'd highly recommend it. However knowing what I know now, I realize that I probably would have found a half-as-expensive bike equally magical. It was really just going from an 8 speed all-aluminum thing with crappy wheels to an 11-speed Di2 carbon bike with decent wheels (since upgraded to good wheels, making it extra magical).

I wound up buying a used Trek Madone maybe 6 months later, that's a great bike too.

But they are so different, the BMC has always felt like you're riding a very fine dressage horse. Still to this day, this is the arrow I pull from my quiver for big rides, anything over 50 miles or with lots of climbing.

The Madone feels totally different, quick and light and responsive, like a sparrow. Hence the name: the Madone is also known as the Sparrow.