1 hour zone 1 and 2 while watching Reacher

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Chilly, but at least it's dry today. Warmer weather coming soon. Can't wait!

So in the infinite wisdom of someone that does not see a big picture from the little guys perspective, my employer decided we had too many programmers but decided to add more projects to the calendar. We decided that after this week, we are going to do our best to keep work to as close to 40 hours as much as we can. I have a major project coming to a close and decided my 40 hr work effort will start monday....so I took an hour to get in 17 miles and 1K ft of climbing, before I do some more work tonight.

Did intervals on ZWIFT and then did a free ride and Garmin Connect told me I was over extending again. Seriously? I only hit 695 Watts on the final sprint.

There is nothing like having a 3 hr meeting with the audit group on a Friday that starts at 2 pm EST, but was only supposed to be 30 mins because 1 person said something completely out of scope that took 2.5 hrs to convince them that our team was not responsible for that process. I hate people that can't keep their mouth shut in these meetings that should not be on the call.

So to take out my irritation, I did 39 miles and 3200 ft of climbing on Rouvy

that crap happens all to often. some folks dont know how to stay in their lane.

If I could have reached through the phone, I would have strangled this dude. We ended up getting his boss on the phone and the group lead of the people that were actually responsible for it and it took them 45 mins to finally shut it down. The back channel conversations were not pretty and this idiot was told not to get on any of the calls specifically because he is stupid. His boss was in his car with his family as they were on their way out of town due to a death in the family. He was not a happy camper about having to get on this call.

As you can tell I am still amped and the dog just brought me his leash, so I guess it time for his walk.

May the dog take you on a relaxing walk

Quick ride to determine if a horrible noise is coming from the Orbea or the Wahoo Kickr. It turned out to be the Kickr - again! It was sent in once already. Time for a different trainer. The Orbea is a stellar climbing bike - super lite, but needs a couple lower gears.

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19 mile first ride on new bike.

Took a vacay day because the weather was just too nice. We had crazy cold weather, then I got COVID, and finally felt like getting back out there for an easy ride.

Had a nice walk and my wife went and got me an oreo blizzard, :love:. Feel much better now.

got in 58 miles and 2300 ft of altitude indoors today.

38 miles 1200’ and 26 PRs. Man am I whipped.

And downshifted brifter gears with my right hand while eating an energy bar with my left. Such amazing talent. Take that down tube aficionados (I still have two down tube shifter bikes - but they are not my primary rides any longer.) ;)

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40km on a beautiful spring-like day with my daughter today.

Road the short Pantani Gravel/Road ride today. I missed a turn so only the 32 mile route. My Edge 1030 took 45 minutes to find the satellites is my excuse. But it started raining so all was good. Long 15 percent gravel/dirt climbs. Few fast down hills. The Domane with GR1 tires worked. A larger than 34 tooth cassette would have been nice on the climbs. I want a gravel adventure bike.


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Fenders work.

Edit: The front of the rear fender is taped to the seat stay bridge with piece of Flex Tape for Gravel riding. Lessons the fender bouncing.

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: