Posts Tagged ‘Cleveland Park’

« Older Entries

Compete by wandering around

Monday, April 16th, 2012

Knowing that I wouldn’t get a lot of riding in over the weekend, I didn’t take a break from training during the week. By Friday, I was a little tired. The Time-Crunched Cyclist plan doesn’t take so much time, but it can be intense.

Still, I had to get one last ride in before heading out of town with my family for a conference hosted by my church at a camp in North Carolina. It was chilly as I started my morning ride so I was dressed pretty warmly. The good news was that it wasn’t an interval day.

Even so, there was one thing tapping at the back of my mind. Strava. What is Strava? It is an online community of cyclist who record their ride information. What makes it fun is that it allows you compare your ride with others and compete against other riders in “segments.”

On Strava, segments are stretches of road that a member of the community has designated as a “competition zone.” Now, that could be they are simply competing against themselves to see if they can improve their times on those sections. Of course, any time you put something like that out there other cyclists are going to see if they can beat it!

Strava plays on this by awarding “King of the Mountain” trophies for the riders who hold the fastest times during these segments. There are quite a few segments around Greenville and because of the USA Professional Cycling Championship here there are quite a few segments “owned” by pros. Basically, that means, I’m out of the running!

I was first introduced to Strava a couple of years ago by Scottie Weiss who was racing with the Kenda Pro Cycling team at the time. He had recommended it to me during one of my duldrum times as a way to get motivated again during training. I took a look at it, but didn’t really get into it. My account sat dormant for quite awhile.

Then I got a message one day about a week ago from a newer rider who pointed out that he was just a second or so off of my time on a particular segment. “What segment,” I thought to myself. “I don’t recall entering any segment on Strava.” So, I logged in to see what he was talking about. Sure enough one of my recorded rides — I believe it was a Sunshine Cycle Shop ride back in 2011 — had me going through a segment and I was holding 8th place or something like that.

Well now, that couldn’t be allowed to stand! I knew the segment — Nature Trail — and the rider who was holding the KOM. I could definitely beat that time. So, I went out Sunday a week ago and took my rightful place at the top. :-)

I was hooked. I kept uploading my data and even went back to catch up. Another segment KOM came my way and I didn’t even realize it. It happened on a day when I was doing intervals in Cleveland Park. As I made a turn off of McDaniel at the start of an interval, I came upon too much traffic. I knew I wouldn’t be able to hold my necessary wattage through the park, so I diverted onto Ridgeland Drive. Since I was on a power interval, I was pushing it up at a good pace.

When I got home and put in my data, I was surprised to see I had a KOM award. It turns out that someone had created a segment on that Ridgeland Drive climb. So, now I had two KOM’s notched to my belt.

That brings us to Friday. There was another KOM I wanted… the Cleveland Park loop. This one was kind of special to me because it was one of my original training spots. For many months during my early days as a cyclists, I had goals to increase my 1 hour speed average around the park loop. I still remember the night I averaged 21 mph for an hour.

Things have changed in the park since then. It is a nicer park and that means there are many more people. Also, road bumps have been placed in the roads to slow traffic. Sure, bicycles can easily go around them, but when there is traffic you are stopped by the cars slowing to go over the bumps. It isn’t nearly the fun it once was.

Anyway, I saw that the fastest lap was 6:32 at 21.7 mph. I knew I had done a faster lap than that in the past. This might be my third KOM in a week.

The segment starts right near the port-a-john by the baseball field. You immediately turn right and climb. My plan was to get up the hills as fast as I could, recover a bit on the downhills and then hang on for dear life on the flat section that would return me to the starting point.

That climb in the beginning came back to haunt me on the flat section! I had averaged over 700 watts as I was climbing up the first hill. I was gulping oxygen on the downhill. I was ready the few seconds later when I took a right by the doggie park for the next climb. On this one I kept myself under control a bit more at 470 watts. By the time I made the right turn back onto Woodland Way, I was starting to feel it.

Now, everything depended on how I caught the lights on McDaniel. If there was a lot of traffic and red lights, my attempt would be sunk! Thankfully, I was able to make the right turn onto McDaniel with no traffic approaching. As I looked ahead, I saw the light turn red. Oh no! Thankfully, as I scanned the road there was no traffic coming. I was able to make the right turn onto Cleveland Park Drive and then pick my pace up again along the relatively flat section to the finish.

That was the hardest part of all! I was doing my best to keep the wattage up, but I kept seeing the speed drop. The good news is that it never dropped below 22 mph. I crossed the finish for the segment in 6:16. I had my third KOM.

That may be my last one. I’ll never get the one climbing Paris Mountain — nor the ones descending it. However, Strava also keeps track of your personal bests. That is definitely something to aim for. Of course, now that I’ve put this out there, I may not have the KOM’s I earned last week for very long!

Tags: ,
Posted in Rides | 3 Comments »

Speed bumps in my training

Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011

George Hincapie was recently interviewed by Neil Brown for CarolinaCyclingNews.com. He’s feeling fit and fresh at the start of his new season. He gave insight into his training over the last few weeks. I had to laugh when I compared it to my training on Tuesday.

“I’ve been at home (in Greenville, South Carolina) motorpacing four or five days a week, trying to train as hard as possible,” he told Neil. “I’ve had good weather, daily massages and am eating well. I feel strong – definitely a lot better than I did at this time last year.” Now, less you think that is “the life.” George spends hours on his bike. If you think the description above is a piece of cake, you haven’t motorpaced.

The thing is… that’s his job. Sure, it is a job he loves, but he is being paid to be out there training and preparing for the season. It is hard work. However, that singular focus is one thing that lessens the issues that we amateur racers must face.

Consider my Tuesday workout…

I rushed out of my last meeting of the day so I could get home and possibly get my 2 hour training block done before it got too dark to ride. When I rushed in the door at home, I was faced with a fifth-grader with tears in his eyes over adding fractions. No way could I just walk past him and say, “Sorry, I have to ride my bike.”

Once I got him settled down and back to finding the least common denominator, I rushed into the bedroom to change. I looked at the clock and it was now a race against time. I grabbed my LowCadence.com bibs and started to pull them on. I couldn’t get them over my knees! Oh, these belonged to my fifth-grader. After disentangling from those, I grabbed my POA kit off the drying rack and finally got ready.

So, now I had 30 minutes to ride before leaving to go pick up my daughter from play practice. Beautiful Redhead was leaving for her aerobics session. Thankfully, I have the Batesview Criterium. By tacking a little bit to my warm-up, I was able to get the first part of my training session (including a 5 minute blow-out of 320 watts) wrapped up before leaving for my daughter.

Thankfully, practice wasn’t far away. After about 20 minutes, I was back on the bike. However, the type of workouts I needed to do wouldn’t work on the personal, but very hilly criterium course. I headed for Cleveland Park.

I was supposed to do 6 x 3 minute efforts at 320 watts. I would rest 3 minutes between each. Then I would ride easy for 10 minutes before doing 4 x 2 minutes at 320 watts with 4 minutes easy spinning between each. Once I got done, I would ride easy for the 15 minutes back home. Adding up all those minutes as I headed down East North Street toward the park, I realized that I was going to be in a race against the sun.

Once in the park, I ran into a new frustration. It used to be that I could start at the intersection of Ridgeland Drive and Cleveland Park Drive and put the hammer down along Cleveland Park Drive onto Lakehurst Drive all the way to Cleveirvine Avenue. At 350 watts that takes about 1 minute and 40 seconds. Then I would turn right on Cleveirvine Avenue followed by a second right onto Woodland Way. I would then crest the hill above the park right about the 3 minute mark.

Things could be worse!

Things could be worse!

Enter the speed bumps. I don’t begrudge the bumps they put in where the Swamp Rabbit Trail intersects Cleveland Park Drive. It does slow that traffic in an area with a lot of pedestrian traffic. When I’m riding my bike, I don’t normally notice it because there is enough space around the bumps for a bike to pass easily.

During my workout they were a nuisance. It seemed that every time I got close to the bumps, a car would pull out of the nearby parking lot and then come to a complete stop as they slowly traversed the 10 inch mounds. On a couple of my efforts I had to come to a rolling stop. This meant to get my average above 320 watts, I had to punch it up Woodland Way.

Just as I was starting my second 2 minute effort the sun disappeared. Things started getting scary. Still, I hoped that I could get the final two before going home.

On the third effort I got to the bumps and the car not only went slowly over the obstacles, but I also could see two ladies in the car talking away. They continued at a very slow pace. My average was blown. I decided it was time to go home.

Thankfully, I made it to the bicycle lanes on East North Street with no mishaps. I pushed my lap button and decided to get one more two minute effort on my way home. Not bad… at the end of the session I was still able to turn out a 385 watt 2 minute effort. Of course, that meant I only got a 3 minute cool down.

Yes, it was a frustrating evening, but looking back over the ride data I have to be pretty happy. I nailed every one of the efforts (except one at 310 watts due to traffic) at 320 watts or above. This is showing me that I’m beginning to add some matches to my matchbook. I’m still not where I was last year before the wreck, but I’m starting to believe again that I can get there — even with speed bumps in my way.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Training | No Comments »

Getting ready for the end

Friday, February 11th, 2011

My coach optimistically calls this workout “Race Winning Efforts.” Yesterday, I got a good dose of them. I don’t think I’m to the “race winning” stage yet, but I do know that these efforts are going to help me finish strong.

February 10, 2011 workout (red heart rate/purple wattage)I’ve been doing a good number of these recently. However, this was the first one I have done on the road this training season. In some ways it was easier and in others it was more difficult than the trainer.

I went down to Cleveland Park and marked out a distance that fell somewhere between a kilometer and a mile. This means I was starting my effort just as you turn onto Cleveland Park Drive from McDaniel Avenue. This gave me a pretty flat section to open up on until I had to turn first onto Woodland Way. For several meters I was on a 5 to 8% grade up to the finish line.

Jim told me to attack out of the seat for 8 to 10 seconds before settling in a between 375 watts to 400 watts to the finish. This is pretty easy to do on the trainer. On the road, it was a bit harder. I would get settled in at a wattage and then the road would dip down just slightly, I would have to compensate to keep the wattage within range. However, I did pretty well.

I averaged 422 watts for my first effort followed by… 403, 408, 400, and then on my last effort… 367. Jim told me to do 5 to 7 of these or until the wattage dropped significantly. Turns out that fifth one was the one.

It was also encouraging to know that the efforts on the trainer were within the same parameters of the road efforts. I figured it would take me 2 minutes to cover the mile and I tailored my trainer efforts accordingly. Out on the road I was covering .9 miles in 2 minutes 16 seconds. I’ll keep that in mind next time I have to do these on the trainer.

I know these are going to help me during the times near the end of the race where someone pegs it and everyone is just trying to stay in contention. Of course, this doesn’t only happen at the conclusion of a race, but that is the time when it really counts. I don’t like them, but doing them now will help me like riding a lot more in the future!

I’m interested to see what Jim has lined up for me next week. That Saturday is the first race of the season. I’m thinking Jim isn’t going to set up my training to make that race my “A” race. Most likely he will make the race part of my training for the future. Even that will be getting me ready for the end.

Tags: ,
Posted in Training | No Comments »

Here we go again

Tuesday, August 24th, 2010

Last night was wonderful. After getting off work, I argued with myself about getting on the bike. A meeting had gone long and I knew the beautiful redhead needed me at the house that evening. Maybe I needed another day off the bike after the rough Friday and Saturday. I’m glad the “get on the bike” side won.

When I got home my wife said, “You’re going out riding, right?” I replied, “Well, I’m home later than I planned. What works for your schedule?” She looked at the clock above the stove, “You’re going out for an hour? That would work perfect for me.”

So, after saying hello to the Things Three, I headed out on my bike. I could tell right away that it was going to be a good ride. Yes, I was a little sore after my efforts over the weekend, but I could even tell my legs LOOKED different. They were even starting to FEEL different. There was a little bit of the snap coming back.

It was like going back in time. Jim, my coach, hasn’t given me any training objectives yet. I’m just going out and trying to find my legs again while working through the stiffness in my neck and getting comfortable on the bike. I simply headed out to Cleveland Park to do laps just as I did back in the beginning of cycling days.

The 8 minutes or so it took me to get from my house to the park gave me time to loosen up a bit, so when I got onto the loop within the park I started to open up a bit… though slowly. I still wasn’t paying much attention to the computer. It was all about feeling the bike again.

On one lap about 25 minutes in I came upon two riders who were spaced out. I could tell they weren’t together. I went around the first and then came up on the second one just as we started the climb onto Woodland Way. I really wasn’t trying to drop him or anything. It was just that I had been pushing it a bit — though I admit that coming around him on a climb made me put out a tad bit more of an effort. :-) I launched up the grade and took a glance at the computer. I was climbing at over 600 watts! Ahhhhh, I was leaving that guy in the dust!

I crested the hill and then swooped down toward the doggie park. Suddenly the effort caught up with and at the same time, so did the rider I had passed earlier! He didn’t slow as we started to climb this more shallow grade. I put out an effort to get on his wheel. I found it harder to stay there. Later while looking at the data from my ride, I saw I was pegging 187 bpm during that period. Yeah, that would explain that feeling I had in my stomach!

Then we got separated at an intersection. I thought he was long gone until I reached the Woodland Way climb again. There I could see him just ahead of me on the climb. Once again I put out an effort and got up to his wheel before we reached the crest. However, this time he dropped me for good on the Woodland Circle climb. I let him go.

In the past, I would have kicked myself for not being able to stay with him. Here I was all duded up in my Low Cadence kit, shaved legs, and fancy bike. Yet, here was a guy who looked more like a recreational rider taking it to me. I didn’t kick myself. I laughed at the situation.

No doubt three months ago I would have been able to leave him in the dust. No doubt three months from now I will be able to do so again. Right now it is just kind of reinvigorating to go back to those early days when it was all new to me and every rider was a question mark. Also, just being on the bike is enough. I have nothing to prove.

On the other hand, it was an evening with my first feelings of that competitive urge. That too was a welcome feeling along with the new snap in my legs. In so many ways I am beginning again. This time I am going to take the opportunity to enjoy the journey even more.

Tags: ,
Posted in Training | 2 Comments »

They call him McPain

Friday, January 15th, 2010

Yesterday I rushed out for a couple of hours around my lunch time to get in my training ride. You may recall my post for that day was on how to beat the funk that sometimes gets you as the race season approaches. I think I found another reason why you may feel down and confirmed the way to beat it. Plus, I ran into McPain.

McPain is Anthony McClain. He is a regular commenter on the site. I told him I would put up some video of him. Here he is…

About the funk business? Well, don’t discount the weather. It is cold and the days are short. It does take a bit of the joy out of riding when you are freezing out on the road or slogging away on a trainer for a couple hours because it is too dark to ride outside.

When I came upon McClain in the park, I had to take my glove off in order to get the video. I ended up taking both of them off as I finished my ride for the day. Amazing what a difference it made to my spirit to feel warm and pedal along in the bright sunshine!

The weather here is supposed to be warm (relatively speaking) for the next several days. Looks like the UWBL might even get out and back before the rain starts. It makes it much easier to focus when you have conditions like that.

Hope to see you out there, McPain.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Rides | 1 Comment »

Garmin Edge 500 ride video

Monday, December 14th, 2009

Thought it might be neat to take some video from the start of a ride all the way through the process of getting the data from the Garmin Edge 500 to my coach and ultimately onto my computer for future use. Of course, a video like this can’t show everything or answer every question someone might have.  I’ll be glad to look into any questions the video might generate and find an answer.

It is Monday and folks at Garmin told me that the software update for the Edge 500 would be coming out today. I’ve had the opportunity to try it out and it seems to be working. If when you attempt to send the data from Garmin Connect to your Edge 500, you may get an error. However, simply click the “send to” link again and you will find the data does transfer.

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Review, Rides | 2 Comments »

Keep your eyes open – your life depends on it

Wednesday, September 16th, 2009

It is true that I nearly killed myself last Saturday.  Well, not really, but I felt like I was going to die.  Most likely you aren’t going to die from riding your bike.  However, it pays to keep your eyes open or you might die while riding your bike.  I was reminded of this Monday evening.

The desire to ride certainly wasn’t there, but I knew if I didn’t get back on the bike it would take even longer to recover from Saturday’s ride.  My muscles were sore and stiff.  They needed some spinning to help get them limbered up.

It worked.  I went out for a very easy spin that ended up leading me to Cleveland Park.  I finished up an easy 20 mile ride just doing laps before heading home.  By the time I was finishing I was in a much better frame of mind and my body was actually feeling pretty good.

It was on the final lap of the park that I had an experience that left me shaking.  Now, I don’t think it typically would have, but I have had so much trouble on the bike this season that I had an interesting reaction.  I started shaking and had trouble catching my breathe.

The scene of my near miss

The scene of my near miss

I was coming from left to right on Cleveland Park Drive.  As I approached this traffic configuration, I had a car coming toward me as well as a car coming toward the intersection on Richland Way (the road running from top to bottom).  Actually, Cleveland Park Drive ends here and turns into Richland Way.

I was in the lane with the right-of-way.  The car coming on Richand Way has a yield sign at the intersection.  You can see the dotted white line on the road indicates this.

The car caught my attention for two reasons.  One – it looked like my in-law’s car, and two – he was coming with a bit of speed and wasn’t slowing very quickly.  That really got my attention!

My brain did the calculations and it was clear that we would probably reach the intersection at the same time.  I assessed what was happening around me – a car coming toward me in the opposite lane, a car behind me, and this car.  I then put all my focus on this vehicle.

First, I tried to get eye contact with the driver.  He wasn’t looking at me.  That was not a good sign.  Second, I checked to see what type of route I could take by making sure where I could go to avoid any other vehicles while avoiding him.  Last, I bored in on him with my focus.

Sure enough we reached the intersection at the same time.  I could tell what he was doing.  He had focused on the car in front of me and was timing his arrival at the yield sign so that he could step on it once the car passed.  He wasn’t seeing me at all.

I started an evasive maneuver to my left as he encroached on my lane.  All this time I was looking him in the eye – or trying to catch his eye.  Then he saw me and I saw the look of surprise in his eyes.  He put on brakes and turned his wheel to the right.  Thankfully, this kept me from having to swerve into the oncoming lane.  I was able to adjust my line to avoid him without crossing the yellow line.

It all happened in a matter of seconds.  I kept going and he came up beside me.  He rolled his window down and apologized.  I just waved my hand and let him go.  It was right after that I started shaking.  I was definitely time to go home.

Bottom line is he would not have hit me.  I was more than prepared to avoid him.  However, what if I had not been paying attention?  What if I had assumed that the guy driving the car saw me and would stop at the yield sign?  There is no doubt in my mind he would have hit me.

We as cyclists must be always aware of what is happening around us.  We can never assume we know what a driver is going to do.  We can never trust in the laws of the road to keep us safe.  All it takes is that one person not obeying the laws to cause us injury.

Now, having said all that… I have ridden thousands and thousands of miles.  This is the second time in all of those miles that I have had this happen.  There have been many more near misses in a car.  So, before you tell me to get off the bike because it is too dangerous, consider that it is dangerous any time we go on the road – bike, car, motorcycle, or what have you.

Be safe out there! Be aware!

Tags: ,
Posted in Life, Review, Rides, Training | 2 Comments »

One of the shortest but best rides of my life

Wednesday, July 29th, 2009

Last night I was supposed to take a bamboo bike out for a ride. Since I have been resting the old legs it was my intention to take it out for a slow one. I mentioned to my 9 year-old son what I was doing and asked him if he would like to join me on his mountain bike. His reply was a very excited nod of the head.

Thing Two prepares for his first road ride

Thing Two prepares for his first road ride

We headed over to Sunshine Cycle Shop where Phil Webb was going to leave the bike for me to pick up. As we pulled into the parking lot, my phone rang. It was Phil from inside the shop letting me know that the bike had a broken shifter and the part would have to be ordered. There would be no ride on the bamboo bike that night.

My son and I went on in to take a look at the bike. I also looked to see if there might be an extra small jersey that he could wear for this first adventure on the road. We continued to do some window shopping.

“Where’s the bike?” he asked. At first I wasn’t sure what he was asking, then I remembered we had come in the shop earlier this summer and had him climb onto a 49 inch Specialized Allez. He was looking for it. Turns out it had been removed from the floor, but was still in the shop. His interest in the bike made me smile. It won’t be long and he’ll be tall enough for it.

We headed home sans bamboo bike, but that didn’t keep us from riding. I felt kind of bad as we rolled away from the drive. Here I was on a full sized road bike and he was spinning along after me on a 24 inch kid’s mountain bike. Thankfully, it was a solid 21 speed Specialized.

There was nothing really eventful about the ride. It was just that the entire ride was an event. We had ridden together some on trails and had gone down some roads for a mile or so. However, never had we started out together on one of my training routes. This was a definite first.

We followed the route through neighborhood streets down to Cleveland Park. As we went, I was helping him understand the proper gearing for the hilly terrain while instructing him of how to be alert to traffic. We rode on two rather busy roads, but he followed my instructions well and I could see on his face that he wanted to learn.

In Cleveland Park we rode one full lap. As we were completing it, I looked over at him and asked if he wanted to do another lap.  He got a big smile on his face, but shook his head to say no. “I’m a little tired,” he replied. So, we continued on toward home talking as we went.

Coming out of the park there is a short section with a 12% grade at the top. I was going ahead and encouraging him. My fear was that he would get into the climb and then have to stop. I was talking to encourage him and about to slow to allow him to come up to me when he came flying around my right side. He didn’t need the pep talk!

Then it was time for a nice downhill. My son can be a little fearful at times and is very calculating about the risks he takes. I wasn’t sure how he would respond to getting up some speed.  I went ahead and turned into our next road on the route.

Looking around I saw him coming down the hill. His face didn’t really give me any indication of his response. However, he took the hill just fine and made the turn in perfect control. As he came up to me, a smile broke out on his face and he said, “That was fun!” Inside, I breathed a sigh of relief.

As we rode on, I told him we had been riding for nearly one hour and had covered 8 miles. “An hour?” he said, “Wow, it didn’t seem like an hour!” It didn’t. For me it seemed way too short. We were almost home.

Climbing the last uphill portion before home he finally had to stop and take a break. We started off again with me coming up behind him and pushing him along as he continued to pedal. One final coast down and we were back where we started.

What a feeling. For me it was just a glimpse at the reason I started to ride the bike in the first place. By the time my children will be in their teens, I will be in my mid to late forties. I want to be in shape to be able to enjoy those years with them. If we can ride together, that will be icing on the cake.

To see the look of enjoyment and success on my son’s face gives me hope that someday soon he will put his leg over an actual road bike and we’ll do that route again… and again… and then another route.  As I told him, “Someday, you’ll say, ‘Let’s do another lap, dad.’ Then you’ll say, ‘Let’s go do Paris Mountain, dad.’” He didn’t say anything when I mentioned the mountain. He just looked up at me with a huge grin on his face.

Father and son after the ride

Father and son after the ride

Tags: ,
Posted in Life | 2 Comments »

The bike does have a place

Saturday, June 20th, 2009

Friday morning I wrote about feeling the tug to go ride my bike while the family was calling me to spend some time with them.  By the evening, I had a different situation arise.  I think I made the right decision with that one as well.

It was a pretty hectic day for me.  The entire day was spent trying to get a site launched that I have been working on for months.  That was interspersed with trying to get my wife’s anniversary present, taking my BMW to Duncan so it can be repaired, and other meetings during the day.  By five o’clock, I was pretty frustrated.

Everything did get done and I was able to make it home in time to go for a ride.  The family had gone swimming at a cousin’s place, so there was no family obligation to keep me there.  They all planned on me being gone for a couple of hours.

While I had wanted to ride Thursday night and was not able to do so, Friday night I had the ride planned but didn’t feel like it.  I didn’t want to go through all the ritual of getting suited up, sticking contacts in my eyes, getting the bike prepped, and then heading out and sweating every drop of water out of my body.  Couldn’t I just do something else?

Nope.  It was time to ride.  Just like I believe it would have been wrong to have ridden Thursday night when my family was wanting me at home, I believe it would be wrong for me let the discipline slide to get on the bike regardless of how I was feeling.  No excuses!

Funny thing is that as soon as I swung my leg over my bike and coasted down the driveway I was fine.  As a matter of fact, my ride that was going to be an hour of looping around Cleveland Park turned into loops of the park and two repeats of Paris Mountain.  33 miles, 2400 feet, and 2 hours later I arrived home.  Yes, I sweated so much that I felt like I had been at the pool with my kids!

The repeats were the first I have done on Altamont Road in some time.  I started up using my “perceived effort” to determine the speed I wanted.  The idea was to go up the first time at a speed that I figured I could match the second time.  This was after having already ridden for an hour at a good pace.

I reached the top the first time in 16 minutes and 33 seconds.  For that time, I felt pretty rough.  However, I turned around and rode back to the bottom.  The second time up I tried a little different gearing but still never looked at my computer.  I felt for a pace that wasn’t too much or too little.  I reached the top the second time in 16 minutes and 43 seconds.

The only frustrating thing on the ride was the new iPhone 3.0 upgrade with the voice activated dialing.  I was trying to listen to some music, but the voice dial kept activating.  I looked at the screen and it was locked and off.  It was about to drive me nuts!

It is a cool feature on the phone and I’m glad to have it.  I’ve just got to figure out how to avoid that problem in the future.  I think I might have the reason it was happening.  I keep my phone in a ziplock bag in my jersey pocket.  Of course, my pocket is getting quite warm and things are pressing up against the phone.  My guess is that something is turning on the phone – a system message, a new wireless signal, or something – and then the warm pressure of the phone pressing against me is causing it to “push buttons.”  Either that or I have a defective ear piece that is causing the voice dial to activate.

Whatever it is, I need to get it solved.  Anyone else have that kind of issue?

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Life, Rides, Training | No Comments »

Rainy days and Thursday – but the ride goes on

Friday, June 5th, 2009

It rained for almost the entire day yesterday. Since it was Thursday, that meant it was time for one of my favorite rides when a group of us get together for what typically turns into a barn-burner. I figured we wouldn’t ride in the rain, but as I got home from work, the rain subsided and things actually started to dry up a bit. Maybe we would ride!

Not wanting to be the one accused of being a wimp, I sent a text message to one of the other members of our group. “Do we have designs to venture forth into the rain?” Chances are, if we did start out dry, we would end up wet before the night ended. No response as the clock neared 6PM – our scheduled departure time.

Well, I didn’t want to get a phone call, “Hey! Where are you? We’re getting ready to go!” So, I suited up, loaded my bike in the car, and then headed to the rendezvous. I wasn’t going to be ribbed for letting a little dampness keep me from the ride.

The parking lot was empty. Now what to do. I was all dressed up with no where to go. However, I really needed to ride. I needed the exercise, but more than that… I needed to work some things out of my head by turning my pedals.

I turned my car to Cleveland Park. I figured if a gully washer came I would be closer to my car doing laps in the park. As I neared the park I found the roads were pretty much dry. This might not be so bad.

As I was turning into the parking area, I saw a lone rider coming down the road. It appeared to be a red kit. As I was finding a parking place I noticed the rider was on a black Giant. Yep, it was a POA Cycling Team rider – my teammate and friend, Matt Tebbetts.

Had I been smart, I would have started riding counter-clockwise. That would have allowed me to meet Matt as he came around. However, I decided to chase him down. He would be my carrot.

As I continued I formulated my plan for the evening. I would do a solid 20 minute effort then give myself a 10 minute break in the middle. I would finish it off with another 20 minute push.

Turns out it took me about that long to catch up to Matt. It was a good 20 minute push – actually, it turned into a 30 minute one. I averaged 290 watts and over 22 mph for the period. Just about that time I came upon Matt pulling into the parking area where my car was. He had seen it and was looking for me.

Unfortunately, Matt was having to leave, so we rode on together for just a couple hundred yards. Then I was on my own again. That was okay. The exertion had gotten my mind and body loose and I was feeling really good. Yes, it was pretty humid and I was dripping sweat, but I’ve always liked feeling that way.

I pushed on for another 20 minutes and then called it a night. It was about 7:30 PM and while the clouds were not thick where I was, I could see that was about to change. Time to get home.

Don’t know if you all can get to this link or not, but here is a page in TrainingPeaks.com that shows the ride. Speaking of TrainingPeaks… today I am the featured membership profile on the TrainingPeaks blog. So, today you get two blog posts for the price of one :-)

Tags: , ,
Posted in Rides, Training | 1 Comment »

« Older Entries