Fixie

I got all into the fixed gear thing a couple of winters ago thinking I was all hipster and it would make me a cat. 1...this guy is brutal and has a great blog. All I got out of 3 months of riding a fixed was huge legs that really didn't make me go any faster, actually slower cuz I could never lose enough other weight to make up for it. I had a really nice pedal stroke though. My "fixie" is now a SS and only goes to publix.

the ONION

Non-Doping Cyclists Finish Tour De France

PARIS—A small but enthusiastic crowd of several dozen was on hand at the Tour de France's finish line on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées Tuesday to applaud the efforts of the 28 cyclists who completed the grueling 20-stage, 2,208.3-mile...

TNWC

Tonight's race was a pretty good one...lots of stuff happening. My plan was to just have a good time and not kill myself. I was in a couple of breaks but nothing serious. A small group went away with a couple laps to go and I was hoping for a hard chase and catch on the last lap but they stayed away. I got robin to drill it to turn 4 then I launched trying to catch them and ended up dragging Joe with me but I didn't make it. No biggie...

I've been purposely ignoring all power/wattage stuff right now cuz I'm not at the fitness level right now that it would be that interesting...I'm still downloading it all (to keep the CTL data going) but not really looking at my PMC. I'm usually pretty burnt around this time of year so we'll see how it goes this weekend. The course isn't super selective so I should be ok.

More maps please

meet Miss South Carolina

in unrelated news:

South Carolina's SAT scores fall
By SEANNA ADCOX - Associated Press Writer

COLUMBIA, S.C. --Average reading and math SAT scores for South Carolina high school students fell 1 point this year.

Weekend Update

Friday was the beer ride with Ella...It was a good time and we did the whole loop so it was her first hour and a half on the bike. She's a trooper.

Saturday was a hot and sweltering 2 hour ride through Hopkins then we hit the pool.

Sunday was going to be a 2 hour ride but I met up with Brian C. on the fort and we got talking...long story short is that I'm gonna do the state road race next saturday (35+ masters). So I changed my ride plans and did 4 hours...all in the fort, a triple loop--iron cross--turn around loop. About every option I could think of--riding not too hard just steady. I ran out of water for the last 40min and stopped at the "shoppette" just past the traffic circle. That's the coldest damn water in the city...it kicks ass. Speaking of ass I've started using this on every ride and it's made a world of difference.

Thursday

Fun ride tonight...not too crazy hard but some good digs. I'm getting my legs back but still can't really put the smack down. Karl was drilling it all night as usual and he hurt me bad when we got away on airbase...a trick when you're hurting and in a small break is to not just quickly pull through but to ride the front and recover there at a hard but manageable intensity. Plus this gave Karl a chance to recover a bit from his long pulls. There was a decent headwind too which didn't help so it all came back together.

Coming up to the sprint I was just chillin' when I saw that Les Amis kid come off the front leaving Mark in the wind with a long way to go so I jumped getting a good gap--leaving everyone else boxed in. Nice blocking Mark!

Karl was Mr. 35 mph Leadout on Shop road and when it was time to sprint I didn't feel like I really was going that much faster and then slowed to try to entice Robin, who was away, to sprint again. I like to inflict pain whenever possible.

2 new guys showed up and it's hard to gauge ability just standing around. It would suck to get dropped out in Hopkins with no idea where you were and tonights ride is prime for that as we only sortof regroup a couple of times. One guy made it, one didn't. The one who did is a super nice guy from Athens. We'd be chatting and I'd say...hold on a minute...to follow Karl or sprint, then come back and continue to conversation. I think he had a good time.

Young man...

Here's why there's no Finnish pro cyclists.

and Ouch!

TNWC 8/21

The crit tonight was pretty freakin hot (right now at 9:45pm it's 92 degrees)...that combined with my lack of riding lately made for a mello affair. I just sat in and tried to talk myself out of following attacks. I knew I had one shot at it tonight and I had to plan it to perfection.

On the last lap I was sitting about 8th wheel and it was pretty fast...but around 100m before the 3rd turn there was a slight lull and I attacked hard up the right gutter. I got a gap but it wasn't that big...maybe 5 seconds. I also drug Sammy with me but I knew it was all or nothing so I just put my head down and went as hard as I could. Sammy came around me at around 200m and was caught at the line by a couple of people. Apparently 2 went down on turn 4 and one person tweaked his shoulder...maybe broken/dislocated.

Overall the race tonight felt pretty easy but I'm longing for some mello temps to actually be able to train outside.

al dente

Tonight was just 100 degrees so I did the thursday ride...good group heading out which ended up being 4 of us hammering down airbase. Me, Karl, Francisco and...Chris.

I figured Chris had something up her sleeve...she was a bit worried that her non sprinter hubby would get shelled in the sprint at the end of airbase so she took action. After I took a monster pull I was at my limit and drifted back looking for a wheel. Chris saw her chance and being last wheel she drifted back gapping us then sprinted up leaving me high and dry. Francisco was hammering at that point and I never got back on...Flicked! Damn Kaisers.

It was good to get back on the bike even though it hurt...

The Japanese know how to cool off. And This...then read this. Hilarious.

brrrrrr

Right now it's sunny and about 68 degrees...

I'm right HERE

fleece jacket

I'm off to Seattle for 5 days...

a dry heat

There's no way I'm racing tonight....Gonna

get on the Velodyne take a nap instead.

$25k

Went up to watch the Charlotte Pro Crit race. Karl and I hung out with Crusty who yelled at his team for 90min...that boys got some issues ;-) but we all know that.

It was a great race for HealthNet...They had a guy in an early break which forced Navigators to chase pretty hard to bring it back which fried them and then with about 10 laps to go Frank Pipp attacked with another guy and got 30s on the field, worked together and Frank got the win...and $25k.

Pipp is a good guy...he stayed in our guest room for a couple of nights earlier this year after Georgia and this is definitely his biggest career win. He's been riding very strong this year and is someone to watch at USPro in Greenville.

Dan Schmatz is another guy who stayed with me a few years ago...he had a good ride tonight bridging to a pretty dangerous break late in the race. He only had 2 other teammates with him tonight.

HERE are some pic's I took. I like focusing on the guys suffering in the back!

40 licks

It's tough sometimes being self coached...cuz you sometimes want to do shit for no reason. Tonight I was rolling out to the fort to do a threshold workout and I had the bright idea to instead do VO2 intervals. I then had to ask myself "why?" and I couldn't really come up with a good reason. This is my 3rd day of training. I'm nowhere near peak form and I had a disaster of an attempted VO2 workout last week. I need to build now and keep the intensity in check until later. Thanks Coach, you're soooo smart...and good looking too.

So back to my original plan of 2x20min at 275w. I wanted to go out pretty conservatively as I would rather have a lower ave wattage and complete the entire workout than go out strong and not get it all done. So with an eye on the PT I started up the hill on Washington...

The legs felt great tonight and as I was getting close to 20min I was in a good rhythm and the wattage was coming easy so I decided not to stop and just plow through till the end. The "rest" is only supposed to be for a minute or two so it didn't make that much difference. The last 5 minutes I tried to push it. Overall the 1st 20min was 275w, 2nd 20' was 277w with the last 5min at 285w. Textbook pacing....I'm pretty happy with that.

the dude abides

I was feeling a bit flat tonight for the group ride and ended up just riding easy...that seems like what everyone else had in mind too. I only went hard once, on the small hill of airbase to see if I could get away with Karl then just played around on the run into the sprint. Overall a pretty mellow ride. I'm gonna do some threshold tomorrow...The plan is to do 2x20 at 275w but at this time of the year I'll take what I can get.

New music I like: Spoon "Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga" and the new Interpol

bike practice

Nutty and I got out for a long ride this afternoon after the rain. Mostly tempo riding with each of us doing some threshold. The legs feel tired but pretty good. Karls back tonight so everyone bring their suitcase tomorrow. He just spent a week at altitude...think of the normal Karl with a few more RBC's. Ouch.

The girls are away so my night consists of a few beers and The Big Lebowski on the tube.