Sierra_rider

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.

rsbob 

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.

Sierra_rider

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

Sierra_rider

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.

jaxgtr

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.

jaxgtr

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.

rsbob 

‘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.

jaxgtr

Got in 51 miles and 1400 ft of climbing today.

Sierra_rider

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.

​​​​​​

rsbob 

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

rsbob 

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….

Sierra_rider

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.

Sierra_rider

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.

jaxgtr

Yikes.... I was in Utah many years ago, and was on a off road run with some friends. One of them runs this specific trail system on the regular as it was close to his house outside of Logan and we were about 5 miles in when he came to an abrupt stop, started to wave his arms and screaming as loud as possible up the side of the trail. He told us to back up as we were being stalked by a mountain lion, I sort of checked out after than and said I did not need exercise that much, but he seemed to be less concern and said it seems to have gone. I was not onboard with that thinking, so we exited stage right and went back to his house.

rsbob 

Have not personally had any interactions with the big cats but plenty of people around here have seen them on the trails and they usually take off. This is the second attack in my area in three years with the first one fatal. I mostly see bobcats which run away.

A few years back I was running with my black lab and a huge male black bear walked from the woods onto the trail about 25 feet in front of me and just stood there. I am used to them running. We were upwind, so the dog didn’t notice so I leashed him and contrary to instruction, did not make a bunch of noise, but slowly walked backward. He watched for at least a minute, not budging as I walked backward. I then started slowly walking away looking over my shoulder without him budging. It was very disconcerting.

My neighbor who was also a runner took a local trail that goes out about 1/4 mile into the woods and then splits into a circle which returns to that same 1/4 mile on the return. It had rained the night before so the trail was wet and a bit muddy. So when he was returning to the common connector he noticed cougar tracks, where there had been none before, following his outgoing route. He decided to see if it was a fluke or what but the cat tracks were going right along were he ran until he came to his senses and asked himself, what am I doing? He quickly turned around and got the hell out of there, keeping an eye over his shoulder.

Oh, and how ‘fer’ did I ride today? Zero. Was escorting patients to various clinics all day, 11,500 steps and 68 floors climbed.

jaxgtr

Did a light recovery ride today, done a lot of climbing lately, so got in 24 mile inside with only a scant 300 ft of incline. All zone 2 just spinning the legs. It was good.

jaxgtr

Got in 35 Rouvy miles with 2200 ft of climbing on it. Legs felt ok, but my brain overtook the legs and told me to stop at 35. the route did have 49 miles and 2800 ft of climbing. So I will finish remaining 14 miles and 600 ft tomorrow on lunch. The joys of working from home.

Sierra_rider

I'm usually away at work for the first half of the week, so I've done my usual virtual trainer time this week. I keep a spare road bike at work and bring my trainer in with me.

So far this week, between 3 days I've done 3.5 hours, 38 virtual miles, and 5,800' of virtual climbing. Monday and Tuesday were high zone 2 efforts on Rouvy climbs. Today's workout was a little interval session up a virtual Alpe d'Huez...3x10 minute blocks at 345 watts. Since it was a structured workout, it doesn't count the elevation gain.

I'll probably take it fairly easy the next 2 days, I got a 90ish mile gravel race lined up for this weekend. It's not really an "A" race for me, more of a test to see where I'm at. I think I have solid endurance built up, but I now need to "tune" the top end up a bit.

Sierra_rider

I did my "easy loop" today, which is 38 miles and only 3600' of gain. The only noteworthy thing about it/accomplishment, was that it was the least physiologically demanding ride I've ever done on this loop(by both HR and power zones,) yet it was the fastest average speed I've ever done it in.

rsbob 

30 miles OD 2000’. Temps were in the low 50s.

rsbob 

Wut?

Sierra_rider

Easy is relative, right? No extended grades of more than 10% and the tallest single climb is only 800'(not counting the grades with flat spots in them.) I'm able to ride the entire loop in a comfortable cadence without venturing far out of zone 2 power levels.

The total climb ratio is below the golden ratio and it's not gran fondo distance, so that's why I call it my "easy loop." My other regular loop of similar distance is my "hard loop." I do that one when I want to get some high intensity work in, or just want to experience pain. That one is 32-40 miles and 4500-6000'+ of climbing, depending on some "options" that can be done. I've got some even gnarlier local routes with some HC climbs, but they likely won't be ridable 'til at least May.

rsbob 

totally understand. On today’s ride, I rode my ancient steel fendered Bianchi 12 speed with very high ‘racing gears’ (since it rained all last night and all the shaded areas are still wet). A majority of the climbs are from 8-12%. So most of my elevation gain is pretty much in two shots with little break. I tell myself it’s good hill climbing experience with prolonged sessions out of the saddle going anaerobic. But grinding at 72 RPM is not my idea of fun - and am not training (like someone I know) for any events. Can’t wait until the roads dry and can get on my modern bikes.

diphthong

30-spot up the coast from solana beach to carlsbad and back. a few decent efforts on the ole ‘85 pinarello trying to keep up/stay ahead of the e-bikes. twas a struggle into a 3/4 headwind heading north but southbound, they couldn’t keep up.

jaxgtr

Was horsing around with my dog on Thursday and he gets pretty mouthy sometimes when he gets really excited and the little bugger caught my hand right at the base under my thumb leaving a 2 stitch hole. Luckily, It does not really bother me too much, so I got in 20 miles and 5oo ft of climbing.