I was mostly stuck indoors all this past week, because of snow and low temperatures. However, this weekend was nice(albeit a bit cool,) so I got a double header of racing in. Yesterday's race was a short 10 miler that I won with a perfectly timed attack on the final lap. It was also part of a small 3 race series, so one 2nd place and two 1st place finishes were enough for the O/A in the series.

I then turned around and raced again this morning, this was part of a different series. The course this morning was 22 miles and 1700' of gain. This one is quite a bit more competitive and I ended up 3rd place in expert class, in my age group. I had a minor cold earlier in the week, so even today I wasn't exactly in top form, it was all about managing the race. The start had a couple miles of 2-track and paved road, so there was a solid pace line at the beginning. I couldn't quite stay at the front, but raced myself back onto the podium by the finish.

Non-humble brag: Yesterday the weather cooperated and got in a 38 miler. Since it was a short ride, I upped the pace. Was crossing the 3 mile 520 floating bridge (Strava segment) into Seattle at 21.7 MPH when I heard what sounded like I was losing air from my rear tire with the dreaded whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.. Didn’t feel flat so kept going. Backed off a bit and heard, whoosh, whoosh again and looked back and it was a 45ish guy on my rear wheel - with his freewheel making the sound when he coasted. Man it was loud. When we finished the crossing, I commented on his freewheel and he said it was a DT Swiss. I was kind of shocked how loud it was, and was even more shocked this guy was on my wheel since that hasn’t happened for 30 years. And no, he didn’t ask to draft me and no, I didn’t care. So much for pushing 70. Full disclosure, it was a carbon bike with rim brakes and I wasn’t trying for a PR.

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Fastest ever non-downhill 40km ride today.

Oh darn, the rain came and I could not mow the grass, shucks.... got in 22 and 1K of climbing inside :D

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16 mile commute. Started out with 4-5” of wet heavy slop snow for 1st 6 miles. Met snowplow and had clearish roads for last 10 miles.

finally out and about in 61-62 degree weather in sunny san diego. trying to recommit to riding as all too many life/work things have minimized the
riding time and drained the battery in the last 12 months. 45-spot with a handful of semi-decent efforts but nothing too strenuous.

12 fake miles on my first fake race on ZWIFT - Richmond. I wanted to race in a category one lower than what I was slotted in, but the ZWIFT gods had other ideas. As a result, I spent 3/4s of the race trying to keep 40th place out of 52 with my heart rate between 177-182. Those races are brutal.

Think I saw the lead group for about 10 seconds until they were gone forever. Please pass the humble pie.

The amazing thing was that my lightest carbon bike was on the Kickr - and still got spanked.;)

I'm going to brag a little bit on this one, but...holding zone 2 power was even easier than I've been accustomed to on yesterday's trainer session, so I decided to do a FTP test today. Not the highest FTP of my riding career, but probably a watts/kg PR for me. Anyway, 345 watt FTP w/a 4.2 watts/kg ratio. I've actually been mostly just doing base training, with the odd race as an intensity day, so I'm excited to see what I can do with a bit more structured high-intensity work. Anyway, almost 12 fake miles.

Those virtual races don't have age classes do they? I mean this in the best way possible, but you're probably destroying most cyclists that are your age. Not to mention, that I suspect a lot of weight doping goes on with virtual racing.

Surprisingly enough, I've never done one of those Zwift races. Just never quite lines up with what sort of workout I want to do that particular day. I'll have to do one before winter is over.

I believe there may be age categories but I signed up for the breakdown of race results after the fact on ZWIFT Power - yet another site aligned with ZWIFT. I will see how I fair the next time and completely get about training schedules and fitting it in. From what I witnessed, when the flag drops, people are full gas from the start. No rollout, no riding as a pack with attacks (at least from my vantage - the rear) and little cooperation for drafting, not that I have ever noticed any advantage with drafting since it is so subtle. Let me know and thanks for the vote of confidence.

Did a whopping (I’m kidding) 18 fake miles, one third anaerobic, one third threshold, and one third Tempo. Was getting used to my new ZWIFT Hub One so needed to put it through its paces. Rest day tomorrow as am helping at a health clinic all day.

I think the Zwift races are shorter, so to be expected. I know when I do my outdoor XC mtb races, it's often balls to the wall right out of the start chute. The series I've been doing with the 1.5 hour races, I often find myself doing 400-500 watts in the opening miles of the race, just to stay near the front. If I can hold that to the first descent/technical section, then I know the rest of the race is going to be fine, but the absurdity of starting a 1.5 hour effort at 500 watts isn't lost on me.

You like the Zwift Hub? I'm considering getting another trainer and was thinking of the Wahoo Kikr core with the Zwift Hub. My Tacx has been on really good behavior lately, so I'm hating it less, but I can actually justify 2 trainers(leave one at work for the 3 days a week that I'm not home.) Right now I lug the Tacx back and forth between work/home, but that's not terribly convenient. I already have a bike that I leave at work, so I'm halfway to having 2 setups anyway.

One of my buddies just got the (now defunct) Zwift trainer with the Zwift Hub, although he ran into some interference issues with it and his wife's bike. I guess there is some tab that comes off her frame and was rubbing the outer plastic part of the Zwift hub. Don't tell the manufacturer of it, but I ended up turning the outer plastic of it down on my lathe. If that doesn't work for him, I'll make him a custom spacer out of aluminum. He's got 12 speed, I think she has some lower-spec 10 speed, so the hub is a really good idea for their household.

About 22 fake miles with 5500' of fake elevation. I kept it at a zone 2 level, so average of 260 watts for a couple hours.

Nice and steady

“You like the Zwift Hub? I'm considering getting another trainer and was thinking of the Wahoo Kikr core with the Zwift Hub‘“

So far it is fine but noisier than I would like. The gear ratios are so close that at first I couldn’t tell if I was changing gears. When racing I found that I was changing gears more often to keep my cadence in the low 90s. I hear it is no good for climbs greater than 20% (it tops out) so that might be a consideration too. For the price it is a good compromise. No handle to help with moving it, but mine stays in one place. The click shift was a hassle to set up until I called support and they told me to scroll on a Wahoo screen (which there was no indication there was more fields below) and click software update, and then it all synched. For about $500, it’s fine for me. Have to figure out what to do with my old Kickr - hate sending it to the dump.

Your old Kickr likely has bad bearings? What's the shipping to Cali on it?:lol:

With all the indoor riding and my Strava not recognizing some of the "virtual" elevation gain, I needed to right my mileage to elevation ratio for the year. I was just below the 100'/mile at the start of today's ride, but finished with 96k' and some change for 946 miles in 2024.

Today's ride was 40 miles and 6300' of elevation gain. I rode with some intensity today and was rewarded with a KOM on a climb and some decent wattage numbers on others. Even got 3rd O/A on a descent. I'm down 20lbs from last season, yet same FTP, so I'm almost feeling like a climber now.

Referencing some controversial current threads, I took out my "weight weenie" bike today. I didn't feel like expending the 1 minute of time to take the daily-driver disc brake bike out of the trainer.

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Those look intriguing, if something happens with my Stages bike that requires a replacement as I think Stages is not long for the life unless something is turning around for them, I was thinking I would just pick up a couple of wheel off Trainers as my wife's bike is Shimano, and I am running Sram and the reason I decided on the Stages bike is I got tired of changing hub bodies and cassettes and moving bikes around. Even buying 2, would still be cheaper than getting a new smart bike, but damn they are so quiet and the only thing I have to do is swap out the seat post. I got 2 seat post, that way she has one, I have one, it take 10 secs to do. Waiting on some long term reviews of the new Wahoo bike, to see how they hold up compared to the original gens that seem to have some issues. I do not think I would go with the Zwift version as I think it is only compatible in that config with the Zwift app and I use Rouvy if I am not mistaken. But I like the idea.

I got in 35 Rouvy miles and 1800 ft of altitude yesterday, 29 miles and 2400 ft today. Today was a good day, set a PR in time, almost a 4 min improvement, and Power, increase of 12W on my avg, on this Rouvy route that kicks my butt each time as it is has a very steep and shortish climb right near the front of the route. Starts with a slight downhill on the first 4.5 miles, then climbs for the next 4 mile with sections of 15 to 21%, but averages 10.9%, pretty freaking grueling for my flatlander legs. Of the 2400 ft of altitude gain, 1500 of it are in this 4 mile section. Then there a couple of segments down the route that are 450-ish ft each in very short but steep inclines to finish it up. I was very pleased with my performance tonight on this.

In other good news, I got the initial payment from my insurance company for my roof replacement so they can start that by the end of February.

‘Yup, it’s the bearings. I’m sure YouTube was a video or two on how to replace and which ones to buy. Nothing wrong with having a spare, but my wife prefers her dumb trainer and YouTube videos of riding the Dolomites and mountains of Europe.

Today’s health care clinic totals: 12,500 steps with 74 flights climbed. The bummer is that I stupidly did a Tour of Calif race the day before and thrashed myself. I call that, Paying the stoopid tax.

Got in 51 miles and 1400 ft of climbing today.

Gravel ride today, 40 miles and 4000' of climbing. Was racing to get home before the rain started...my haste netted me a top 10 on a popular Strava climb and the KOM on 2 others. I took the KOMs from a local pro XC racer, so I'll be lucky if I keep them for more than a couple months.

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Way to go!! Rain can be one helluva incentive. Two KOMs is unreal.

After yesterday’s stair climbing and walking fest and am doing the same tomorrow - I spun at Z1 and 2 today and watched The Tourist on Netflix. Rather bizarre and rather Ausi. Mileage was immaterial and what was bizarre was that I cancelled my Apple subscription for ZWIFT ending today, I watched a countdown on the screen, how many KMs I had remaining until my subscription ran out. At zero - it was game over.

Have a ‘free’ year of ZWIFT starting tomorrow included with my new trainer.

On an unrelated note, I live in a prime mtb riding area with miles of technical single track. Today, less than a mile away, a mountain lion took down a female mountain biker - ;but was rescued by her riding partners before serious injury. The cat was tracked and killed, but it has a sibling there too which ran. As a result no biking, running or dog walking until they locate the other cat and either capture and relocate or euthanize. Trails closed.

My wife had a cougar cross in front of her car after dark a year ago and the woman next door met one on the trail a few years back - but nothing happened other than a change in running shorts. She hasn’t run the trail since.

And then I have run into a couple of black bears - one when running which stood its ground about 25 feet away. The other while mtb in heavy woods (where the cougars live) and was able to find another trail and get away. And then there was the mama bear and her two cubs that walked across our front lawn….

Thanks, I'm starting to feel legitimately quick on a bike. Dropping 20lbs from last year certainly helped...I had an epiphany at my last XC race, and that was that I was reeling people in on the climbs. I just don't have the body type to be a "pure" climber, but I can at least hold my own now.

I've seen my share of mountain lions locally...luckily, none were negative interactions. I even pedaled my road bike past one, about 100' away from me. He just nonchalantly looked at me for a couple of seconds, but you could tell that he really didn't care that I was there. The thing about cougars is, if they want you bad enough, they can just take you by surprise.

A buddy of mine had a scary interaction with a cat up here. He was out trail running at dusk, on one of the local trails. He ended up having a cougar that stalked/followed him for 5-10 minutes, it kept charging him and hissing. He finally nailed it in the face with a well aimed rock throw and it turned tail and ran away. I'm guessing my friend had to clean his pants out after that one.

I frequently see black bears here. I'm not too worried about them, they've almost always been absolutely terrified to see me. I've only seen 2 that didn't immediately run away from me. First was raiding trash cans(becoming common here.) The other was a cub that I came across while riding dirtbikes out in the national forest. The mom and the other cub freaked out and ran away fast, the 2nd cub was very curious and was approaching me fairly closely. It was a cool interaction for a couple minutes, but I realized that I probably shouldn't condition bears to think humans are ok...so I fired my bike back up and did my best to scare him off.

No Strava PRs today, other than some "local legends." Just a nice, mellow zone 2 ride to enjoy the storm clouds blowing in. The wind gusts tried to kill me a couple times, deep section wheels+wind makes for fun descending.

25 miles and 3000' gain.

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