Training Log Archive: veinbuster

Easy start to a very foggy morning.

Flight Birthday ride.

Just tried to maintain a good cadence with the modest gear this bike has. Much of it was laps of the 'track' Flight and I used to race near the school. I thought 1 minute laps was a reasonable target and a civilized enough speed to adjust for dogs and the odd distracted walker.

For a while there was a woman doing laps. She didn't seem to be working very hard, or running especially fast, but she was consistently doing sub 2 minute laps of the slightly longer than 400m circle.

Oh...as a result of going out before it dried up, my prettiest bike is now covered in grime and worm guts.

Flight ride part two

I headed on the road this time, not even thinking about lunch traffic as I went out the door. I replayed my original post DVT route to start, then headed to a less traffic prone location to practice standing starts. The plan was to get a sense of how big a gear I could expect to be able to start on the track.

Little ring/14 really easy to get moving
Little ring/13 still easy to start
Little ring/12 this started to be a bit of work to get going, but comfortably in range
Little ring/11 this felt like a good start with nice rotation going by 50m and decent acceleration to 100m

I wasn't planning to try the big ring, but felt good so gave it a shot
50/14 work, but a decent shot
50/13 this might be the sweet spot - still had good rotation at 50m and acceleration through 100m
50/12 I had to do this twice. First start seemed strong but I aborted for a wandering dog. Second start was ok, but a bit of a push. 100m speed was up a bit but I might have lost time getting rolling
50/11 went better than I expected, but didn't have a good rotation until beyond 50m. 100m speed was up from the 50/13

So...I tried 50/13 again focusing on keeping the acceleration going. As before good rotation by 50m, but this time 100m speed comparable to the bigger gears.

I believe my small ring is a 34. I'll check the actual ratios on my charts later.

Early in the day I planned a bike triathlon in honour of Flight's Birthday: road, track,mountain. But I was running out of time before Mrs. got home from London and had a few errands to run...so I swapped the mountain bike for a short run to the railway tracks.

The woods trails are quite a mess. Once the bog like conditions dry up there will be a lot of broken tree parts to clean up.

It was quite depressing to come out of the evergreens and see the entire meadow burnt. Well all but the spots where winter traffic had made an ice path. The fire most have been while we were away in March because the smoke would have definitely been visible from the house.

Note to self: don't try to run after two hours on a traditional bike.

C • Sad 2

Just wanted to see the elevation Airport Road north

Checking elevation Airport Road south.
I thought they looked more intimidating than this. Turns out that they might not be worth dragging my bike to to drive along a road that isn't ideal for cyclists - minimal paved shoulder for much of it and a few instances of very poor sight lines.

Then again that long southbound hill might be good for Everesting if the sight lines are good at the top and bottom. It is a bit longer than my idealization (90-100m per climb), but the reasonably consistent near 6% gradient is the most I'd likely be able to climb repeatedly. Everybody needs a pipe dream.

C • Airport Road 4

Sufferfest: Blender
This completes the full set of videos for the year - a few duplicates due to Tour of Sufferlandria

38 minute road race

Attack a minute x18

14 minutes of time trial

Power: avg-201, max-425

Day 1 soloflex and free weights

First real ride on a regular bike after 3 weeks of babying my right arm. The plan was to focus on a relaxed upper body with minimal pressure on shoulders, elbows and wrists. That seemed to go ok.

I got all red lights heading east on Mulock. I debated how far to go given there is no one to call for the next three days if I got into trouble (not that I've ever called for help). After a nice stretch with no controlled intersections, the light at Hwy 48 was green so instead of looping home I crossed over to check the state of the road. Signage warned of 3km of hills, so I looped back at the 15km mark - with a flat.

I paused to change the tube, drop a layer and guzzle my drink. Pace was pretty good on the return, until I got back to the lights. Again all were red except the last one west bound.

C • You could call me 2

Cool, breezy ride along the northern loop. The strong cross breeze made a sail out of the big fairing on the baby recumbent. Just a few runners and a few dogs on the trail this morning.

Day 3 soloflex