by my estimation 25.2mph average from a dead stop - Wow, what a speed deamon!

Did a short 20 miler at a high cadence just to get some blood going in the legs. Very nice out this morning. I saw at least 10-12 other riders out there. Enjoy the 4th!!

Well the challenge with this event is that you only get one gear. It is really hard to accelerate from zero speed in a 48/14. So the first 330 lap is ~34 seconds and I am up to speed in ~1/2 lap. My last lap was 28 seconds or ~27 mph with a 100 cadence. I have a faster first lap with the 47/14 but I have to spin faster to get up to speed. So you can see how the math works. If you have a 32 second first lap and five 28 second subsequent laps you get a 2:52. So to get below 2:50, I need the 27.5 second lap times and a good start. The trade off in gearing is the start and using your power (slower cadence) or using your heart / lungs (higher cadence).

It is worse than you think. No pit crew and a handicap. Besides changing my chainrings, I had to regear my wife's bike and swap the disc between bikes with different gears. She was using a 15 and I a 14. So instead of spinning my legs got to turn to concrete. My wife does not do any work on the bike. If she did, she would have to immediately get a manicure and pedicure.:D

From what we have read she seems to do some of her best work on a bike. :D

Took the hybridized Trek 970 MTB out for a leisurely roll around the airport with my wife and son. The first 5 mile lap I took it very easy riding along with my wife. The second lap I tried in vain to keep close enough to see my son. I'll blame it on the bike which is not built for the speed his road bike can do. Yeah, that's it. It was the bike. ;)

For the rest of the day I'll be riding the recliner and watching the big boys race on TV.

Saturday 7/04/09... Temp 88 feels like 97 and humidity 61%.

No matter who you are or how far/fast you ride HYDRATE... HYDRATE... HYDRATE...

Todays distance 55.14 (s)miles
Total distance this mo. 120.83 (s)miles
Total distance this yr. 3370.49 (s)miles

GO RAYS....2008 American League Champions
:cheers:

26+ miles @ 25.1 average mph this AM after a good warmup.:innocent: OK, it was a race with 45 other guys in my catergory. I did the Medina Twin Sizzler and entered the Expert 35+ race instead of my 55-59 age group. Our race left 4 minutes after the Expert 19-34 group and with 3.5 miles to go we caught that pack. Passing the other race group on a long 3% climb really impacted our race. Some of the first group jumped into our's making it difficult to know who's who. The 2 miles before the finish ended up being 30+ mph single line racing so moving up in the pack to set for up a sprint was very difficult. I got with 15-20 yards of the leaders but couldn't close the deal. With 1/2 mile to go we made a left, went up a little grade and across a bad RR crossing then made a right, then the finish stretch of around 350 meters. No one caught me from behind and I picked off two guys ending up 19 overall among all groups. I heard there was a 4 man break from the first group and that 4 or 5 of the first group were mixed into the front of ours. My best guess is I finished somewhere from 10 to 13th in the Expert 35+ race. I'll find out when the results are posted. I am very pleased with the result as a lot of the riders are Cat 2's and 3's and some may be as much as 21 years my junior. Last year was my first year racing and I entered the 55-59 race and got dropped on a defining climb around 10 miles into the race, not this year, I finished the Kennard Rd Hill climb in the top 10 riders and was even talking to a team mate at the top.:thumb: So I'm done for the day and have some serious choices to make while I'm sitting at the computer drinking a Yenguling Black & Tan. Do I watch the National T& F Championships (where my sport roots are), the Tour, or Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Championship? Praise be DVR's.:D

ANdy was in the hospital Wed and Thurs night. I spent the night with him Wed and was exhausted on Thursday, when I also began passing a kidney stone.

Anyway, still a bit exhausted, Andy out of hospital and back with his host home, Kidney stone evidently passed, Nora and I hiked about 3 miles today, severe thunderstorms forecast this pm!!

No bicycling last 3 days.

Beautiful day sunny and 61 degrees when we started riding. I wore a wind vest and knee warmers. 18 mile Z2 ride with a couple of efforts to open up the legs for tomorrow's race. My legs felt great after the pursuit practice.

Great result...Was this a USCF race? Normal racing rules are that you CANNOT ride with a group with whom you did not start. Doing so is a DQ. If the Experts were the elite P/1/2 gang, they normally ride a much longer race so the fact you overtook them makes sense. The fact that some jumped into your group does not. In our USCF races, each group has a motor cycle escort who is also an official. He will DQ yellow line violations and definitely would DQ the guys jumping into your faster group to gain advantage. The other thing the motos do is communicate with each other and neutralize groups in front of faster moving groups for safety purposes and prevent exactly what you described.

Hermes,

The race is a long running citizen race, but attracts a lot of local racers and teams. In our race there were some very well represented teams.Everyone knows going in what the race will entail regarding race conditions and rules. At the same time the YWCA also has a walk, 5K and 10k race. I estimate that the various bike races combined will have at least 250 riders for the event. The town square is a festival after the events with music food and awards.

Saturday 7/04/09... First ride today 55.14 miles. Second ride today with my daughter 20.84 miles

No matter who you are or how far/fast you ride HYDRATE... HYDRATE... HYDRATE...

Todays distance 75.98 (s)miles
Total distance this mo. 141.67 (s)miles
Total distance this yr. 3391.33 (s)miles

GO RAYS....2008 American League Champions
:cheers:

Today was a good day. Weather in Vancouver was beautiful. I rode with a triathlon group training for Ironman Canada. I did 90K, but more importantly, went up the full road to Cypress Mountain, which is one of 3 mountains in the Greater Vancouver area (all ski facilities) that are popular bike routes. I was a little worried if I could handle it seeing as I have only been riding a year. I did part of this route a few weeks ago and did well, but it was a grind then. Today, that first section felt fine, I was spinning nicely, but the rest, ah, it was tough. Its 15K of climbing, most of it at 6-8% grade which I completed in 64 minutes.

I need to do this route weekly to get strong on hills. Hopefully as I lose a few more pounds, it will be a bit easier.

A little cloudy with west wind of 13-15mph. I rode to the downtown airport and took 3 laps around. Came close to my record time around missed it by 22 seconds. With better wind conditions I will be able to set a new record.

I ended up with 22 miles. 104 miles in the last 7 days.

Sunday 7/05/09... Real slow ride in the heat of the day with my daughter 31.05 miles. Temp 91 degrees feels like 97 with 50% humidity.

No matter who you are or how far/fast you ride HYDRATE... HYDRATE... HYDRATE...

Todays distance 31.05 (s)miles
Total distance this mo. 172.72 (s)miles
Total distance this yr. 3422.38 (s)miles

GO RAYS....2008 American League Champions
:cheers:

30.145678921 miles

I wanted to go 30.145678922 miles, but just didn't have the energy.

Just over 24 miles.....off road. Toasted. Much much better than rain.

A 20 mile Breakfast run with the Recumbent Enthusiasts this morning was a great way to start the day.

Got home around 09:30am and went to bed in preparation for the Night Shift. Had a sweet commute in to work of only 3.6 miles. Expecting to get some good riding time in Mon thru Fri as I'm on unpaid furlough and riding is free.

That's how it is when ya git old !!! :D

Got to run away now....come on feet, get moving!!

Hi Hermes,

That's a noticeably bigger gear than I used in my only 2K TT -- 49 X 15. I used a 48 X 15 for a 500m TT and I thought it was too big. Of course our build and riding styles are probably very different. :)

As far as the holiday weekend goes, I rode 52 miles on Friday, 36 on Saturday, and 58 today -- all with my club. Also managed to get in a bit of climbing on these rides with about 4K ft of climbing total over the 3 days. Weather was pretty much in the 70s with today getting into the low 80s before we finished.

THIS is for bicycle training friends of this thread. Ijust road around on the forth;and after bigtime lunch with family/friends My daughter wanted my car to go to the fireworks[any of my Marine friends who have trained in invasion tactics with a Navy fleet probably feel about as I do about fireworks after watching an island napalmed at night then the fleet blow it to hell] fireworks just aint worth the trouble.;///Any way I was taken home,/no bike because thay had lost the key to the locked bikes////Next morning [today]Its a cool clear early fall type morning so not waiting for an 8;00oclock ride I walk the 8mi. to my car./go to where IM repairing bikes fix two of then an antique triumph and a nice aluminum specialized then jumped on the trek for the training 20mi.I was tired on the hills but ive a feeling that the walking might be a good thing.///Your thoughts/KEnneth//did I mention Im tired.

Finally good weather - 80 miles today, then cut the grass!

AN afterthought//Today I helped two fellows from Florida with directions[hope I can find there card that ive misplaced]Thay had biked from florida through upper new england and were headed back to florida on more of a coastal route thay had low rider trailers and I think thay were camping sometimes Thay were sailboat racer's and builder's Thay both were uninpressed with the auto traffic witch thay found universally inpolite and surly to bikes/Kenneth

I've been absent because I had strawberries and peaches (from our tree) to jam.

Saturday we rode to Davis, 25 mi. pancake-flat, to watch our team mates at the Davis Crit. The men's Pro/1 race featured 1 teammate, our sponsor's son, and a former junior member, as well as the National Crit Champion (Rashaad Bahardi, sp) who rides for Rock Racing. That race was crazy-fast, and changed every time they passed us. Rashaad won in a photo finish -- we were at the finishing line and couldn't tell who won. It was an exciting race and worth the time we spent watching.

We rode the 25 mi. home easy, had a flat, a stop for more water, and all into the wind. Still, a good day to ride. We ate dinner while watching the TdF TT that we'd recorded.