Long time no ride

I've been neglecting this blog, mostly because I've been neglecting my road bike. Poor Paris hadn't seen the great outdoors for over two weeks. I was determined to change that tonight. I spent the entire day holed up in Muddy Waters working diligently on my focus group transcription, knowing that at the end of it all I would reward myself with a nice long ride on Paris. It had been hot out, but beautiful and sunny when I arrived at the coffee shop. At some point, in the four hours I was there, the weather gods decided to mess with me. As I left for home, it started to drizzle. It stopped by the time I arrived. I checked the hourly weather forecast... 50% chance of thunderstorms. Hmm... I looked outside and saw nothing but dark gray overhead, but a whole lot of light gray to the west. And the weather here always moves from west to east. Hmm... So I checked two other weather sites. They both agreed that it was only a 40% chance of showers for the next two hours (probably use the same satellite data). I decided to believe the majority and get myself all kitted up to ride.

It was still dry and the wind had died down when I walked out to the garage. As I was putting on my helmet and gloves, I heard the first raindrops. By the time I had my shoes on, the rain was coming down pretty seriously. I stood in the garage and contemplated my options. Give up? Or get wet? I chose to get wet, and boy did I ever. It poured, and thundered, and lightninged for the first 30 minutes of my ride. I kept looking ahead at the lighter gray skies in front of me, hoping that I would catch them or they would catch me before my willpower gave out. I did, or they did, doesn't matter which. The end result was a very wet start to a mostly dry 35 mile ride through the rolling countryside. Just right for getting back into the groove of things.

Oh, and as soon as I got home, it started to thunder, lightning, and pour down rain again. I guess the weather gods have a sense of humor.

Back to the races

Bernie and I had a nice ride on Sunday. We were both tired, but it was clearly affecting me more than it affected him, since after an hour he was dropping me on all the hills. I was very well behaved and didn't kill myself to keep up, even though it was awfully tempting. Luckily for me Bernie was a gentleman about it and waited for me whenever necessary. We did about 2 hours at an average of 17mph. That's pretty fast for me while tired, so I'm happy with it.

I'm going to race tomorrow night. No excuses this time, the weather looks good and I've got the zipcar already booked. The only potential problem is the course will be the same one that I DNFed on last time I raced. So, I set my goals nice and low: Finish the race. I'm throwing in an additional bonus goal: Stay with the pack for at least 1 full lap. I think I'm getting better at realistic goal setting. Neil would be so proud.

I was feeling some pretty serious leg fatigue today while just riding to school, and my resting heart rate is up about 10bpm (OMG it's over 60!). That means that I haven't recovered enough from the long hours of riding this weekend. I calculated over 10 hours on the bike since Thursday evening. That's a lot for me right now, so I'm going to make sure to get a lot of sleep tonight and take it very easy on the way to school tomorrow. On that note, I'm going to go shower and head to bed. Good night!

All it takes is the lycra

Yesterday I felt awful. It was the end of my hell week, I had just had two exams, I was getting my usual stress letdown headache that frequently becomes a migraine, and I hadn't been sleeping enough. But I had promised myself that I would go for a ride that evening. So when I got home from school I gave myself until 5:30 to sleep, and then woke up still feeling tired and awful. But, I was determined to at least try to get a real ride in before the thunderstorms hit. So I start to change into my team kit. Like magic, as soon as I'm dressed to ride I feel energized and motivated. I go out there and get on my bike and my mood seems to improve with each pedal stroke. Instead of the ordeal that I had been expecting, that ride ended up being exactly what I needed. My headache went away, my mood lifted and the world just disappeared for a little while.

Fast forward to this evening. The plan was to meet Bernie for a ride around 5:30 after my class picnic. I got home and seriously considered calling and canceling because my headache was back and I was tired again. But, I had made a commitment so I started to get changed. Once again all it took was getting myself into the lycra cycling gear and I felt just fine. Once on my bike I felt even better. By the time I got to the designated meeting spot, I was feeling up for a couple hours of riding. I told Bernie as much and so he picked a route from his mental repertoire and off we went. Around mile 30 and close to 2 hours into our ride I was completely lost and Bernie asked me how far we'd gone. Turns out he doesn't have a computer on his bike so he had no idea. I told him and he was surprised, to say the least. I think he said something like, "Umm... I gues we should start heading home then..." I'm thinking that we're probably just doing a big loop and home should only be about a half hour away. I was wrong. Home was another hour and a half and almost 30 more miles away. Luckily Bernie is like a superhero and pulled almost the entire way back. So my nearly canceled ride that should have been a couple of hours ended up being about 60 miles and 3.5 hours. But I was smiling at the end and Bernie and I plan to do it again on Sunday. All I have to do is put on my lycra and I'll be ready to go.

Something clicked

My ambitious plan for the weekend fell through, and I didn't get on Paris until this morning, so I decided to make the most of it. I rode down to the course that so thoroughly beat me up in the last GVCC race. It was about an hour ride to the course, each lap would take about 30-40 minutes, and an hour back home. I planned to do 2 laps, but had to cut it down to one because I wouldn't have had enough gatorade. In heat like this the last thing I wanted was to be in the middle of nowhere with no liquids.

When I got to the course I decided to sprint up every hill (read: Fartlek workout, painful, but effective). There were probably 10 small hills, often called power or sprinter's hills, along the 9 mile course. All were steep (10% or higher grade, I would bet) and short (less than a minute to the top). I would usually pick a landmark at the crest of the hill and try to sprint to that. The goal with a sprint is to keep accelerating the entire time. Letting speed fade away just means that in a race people will be passing you.

The first 5 or 6 hills went okay, but I couldn't maintain my speed to the top. My legs slowed down, I had to drop into lower gears and if I had been in a race I would have been shelled off the back. Then there was a long, painful, false flat section into a brutal headwind. False flats look like they should be flat and easy but are actually uphill. They're awful, and compounded with a headwind are even worse. I'm going to once again state how bad the winds are out here. I've never seen anything like it in Portland. The gusts blow my bike all over the place, and I frequently have to lean my body into the wind just to maintain a straight line. It's crazy.

Back to the hills. After terrorizing my legs with the false flats, I reach another set of little hills. I expect them to go worse than the first ones, since I'm now tired. So I start in a slightly easier gear than I would normally. I stand, and try to maintain both my overall speed and a high pedal turnover. Somehow, something in my brain and legs clicked. I flew up the hill, accelerating the entire way, even managing to shift UP a gear before the top. My legs were still moving as quickly as they had been at the base of the hill. I was ecstatic.

This probably seems like a very small thing, but for me it's a pretty big deal. I'm not a hill climber and never will be, but I'm strong and should be able to use pure power to my advantage on these "sprinter's hills." Finally, I managed to get to the point in my training where I've got the right combination of fitness, muscle strength, and technique to do what I know I should be able to do. If I've done it once, I can do it again.

At least in theory, I didn't manage it on the last few hills of the course. But I'm okay with that, I'll make it happen again soon.

The entire ride today was about 42 miles, in a little less than 3 hours. I'll be going for a short ride tomorrow morning with Katharine from school (the one who's husband is a Cat 2 roadie), and then racing on Tuesday. We'll be racing on a course I've never seen before, so I have no idea what to expect. My goal: Stay with the pack for at least one full lap.

Still plugging along

I had a really nice relaxed ride on Thursday with Bernie from the UR Cycling team. We went about 30 miles in a little less than 2 hours. It was a good relaxed pace and just what I had been needing.

Friday I finally got myself into the gym. First for a yoga class, which was great. It was a very energizing style of yoga, so once the class was over I was feeling ready to go lift for a while. So that's what I did, working all the major muscle groups and using light weights just to get myself used to lifting again. By the time I finished my muscles were feeling pretty dead but I was feeling really good.

The next morning I woke up sore all over, as can be expected after weightlifting, and with a mild sore throat. So I took the day off, except for my 10 mile ride to the grocery store and back. Today I felt much better and went riding with Bernie and a couple others from UR. One guy is from Salem, so he sympathized with my dislike of the wind and lack of hills. I've got to admit, though, the farmland and rolling countryside around Rochester is beautiful. It's just a very different kind of scenery from what I'm used to.

I don't think I'm going to do the GVCC race this week. I'm going to focus on lifting and a couple of short intensity workouts at a level I can handle. With my current computer troubles and the stack of homework I'm ignoring right now, it'll be good to take the week off.

Recon

The day before a race I always try to ride. It's my "blood volume" ride, and it seems to actually work. Basically, by riding I tell my body to maintain or increase its blood volume, rather than allowing it to drop. These increases and drops happen within a span of 24 hours, so without riding I would lose blood volume before the race. That has ll kinds of negative impacts on my racing form, so it's best to just ride the day before.

With that in mind, I decided to combine my BV ride with a little bit of reconnaissance. I checked out another of the GVCC race courses (actually, the course for next week). I rode for about 2 hours 15 minutes, for a total of almost 35 miles. Headwind all the way out there, tailwind all the way back. I don't think it's ever NOT windy in this place. Anyway, like the other one, this course is mostly flat to rolling with a couple of little bumps that I can power over easily. It'll be great for me. Any course that doesn't involve real climbing (real climbing = sustained for 1 mile or more) should work to my advantage. So far the two courses I've seen look like Cherry Pie, without the uphill finish. Note: Before that uphill finish I was in 5th or 6th place at Cherry Pie.

I realize that by saying all of this in a public forum, although not read by very many people, I will almost certainly get a severely bruised ego after racing these courses. But that's okay, I can handle some bruising, as long as it's dished out by women that are actually faster and stronger than me. Tomorrow is the first test. I've got a ride to the race, done all the training I could, and hopefully will not make a fool of myself. If only I were better at cornering...

Getting Schooled

I've been emailing with Todd, the guy that runs the GVCC. At one point he offered to show me some good roads to ride on, and I jumped at the chance. He then says, "I can swing by after I hit up the some hard training." Alarm bells should have gone off at this point.

So, at the designated time, he ride up to my house, wearing full kit and riding a rather beautiful bike (I'm embarrassed to admit I didn't notice what kind). He pulls off his Rudy Project glasses (yes, I did notice that) and introduces himself. We head south from my house, and I immediately come to the conclusion that I'm in trouble. It wasn't so much our speed that tipped me off, but I made the mistake of checking out his legs. Perfectly shaven to display a level of muscle definition that strikes both awe and fear into my heart.

We're chatting and cruising along, and I notice that my legs are burning a little. I think I'm just stiff from the ride yesterday and having been off the bike for so long. Then I glance down at my speed. Turns out we're cruising at about 21mph, before I'm warmed up. I think to myself, "I'm sure we'll slow down once we get away from traffic, and I'll be fine once I'm warmed up," so I don't say anything. Todd is continuing to chat about racing, school, and all kinds of stuff in a way that proves he's not even a little bit out of breath. I try to keep up my end of the conversation, but it comes out in half sentences, since I have to catch my breath every 4-5 words.

After only 15 minutes or so of riding, we come to an area that is made up of beautiful fields, backroads and old farmhouses. Perfect cycling country. I would have been enjoying the view, except Todd was maintaining his cruising speed of about 19-21mph. I should point out that we were riding side by side the entire time, in order to hold a conversation, so I couldn't just draft off his wheel. I should also point out that my typical cruising speed on this kind of terrain is in the 16-18mph range.

About 30 minutes into the ride I was feeling warmed up. There comes a point when the muscles just get loose and happy and I can feel the blood pumping without feeling much of a burn at all. I hit that point, and felt really good. It didn't last. About the time the good leg feeling was fading Todd says, "If I'm going to fast or too slow, make sure you tell me." Being as competitive as I am, he might as well have said, "I dare you to keep up with me." So I did. The good legs went away and the burn started to creep in.

As we turned onto my road, with Todd still chatting amiably and without sign of fatigue, I realized that I had done almost no talking for the last few miles. He either didn't notice or, more likely, was kind enough to not point it out. We got back, I thanked him profusely for coming out to show me around, and watched him ride off into the sunset. I check my computer. Turns out we had gone over 18 miles in about an hour. When you factor in stoplights, etc. that amounts to pretty darn fast. My last race in Portland was a 20.4 mile time trial that I did in just over an hour. His cool down was my tempo workout. I believe that I got schooled tonight. The great thing? I feel like I could've gone farther. Maybe those two weeks without my bike weren't so terrible after all.

My first race is on Tuesday. With luck, maybe I can do a little schooling of my own.

More progress, and a ride to Lake Ontario

Today I took Paris in to Full Moon Vista for his tune up. The mechanic there today was named Dave and he was incredibly friendly. We chatted about all kinds of stuff, and it turns out he's an RN and Respiratory Therapist, as well as a photographer and bike mechanic. Busy guy. Anyway, while he was checking out Paris I sat and drank a complimentary cup of coffee and listened to his stories about Rochester and his multiple jobs, etc. Then he'd send me off on a test ride, I'd come back and tell him what was still wrong and he'd continue wrenching and chatting. It was great.

In the midst of this, I met Shana, a very enthusiastic racer. She was encouraging and helpful and suggested that I show up to the race on Tuesday night to meet other women. There are no scheduled group rides, and not enough women on any given team for tactics to matter much in the races, so joining a team is becoming less of a priority. But, networking with the female racers in town will help me get in on impromptu rides and maybe carpooling to races.

Also while I was there, I talked a bit with Kyle, the mechanic who had worked on Johnny a couple days ago. He recognized me right away, even remembered my name, which was really nice. He helped me figure out the best route for my ride to the lake and back. Dave offered me the chance to ride with him and a friend or two that evening a 4pm, but I wanted to be back home in time to eat and go swing dancing tonight, so I politely declined. But, the invitation stands for every Tuesday and Wednesday around 4, so I'll try to join them soon if my class schedule allows it.

I'd now spent over an hour hanging out in the shop, so I finished my coffee and took off in the direction of Lake Ontario. The route Kyle gave me went through the park that contains the Seneca Park Zoo.


There was a pretty pond in the park, it looked like a nice place for a picnic. Be warned that most of these pictures were taken while I was riding, so they might not be the best quality.


After the zoo I crossed over the Genesee River on a fabulous bike/pedestrian only bridge. Portland could learn a thing or two about bike/ped bridges from Rochester. So far I've used two of them and they are wonderful.


The view from the bridge was pretty good too.


This is the path I took along the other side of the river.


The path becomes this really nifty boardwalk. I saw lots of fun wildlife along the boardwalk, including an older guy with a bike (and a beer can in his bottle cage) who asked me if I have a boyfriend. I said yes, and pedaled away.


Turtle
Swan
Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird


After the boardwalk and wildlife viewing, I continued along the river. There was a cool bridge, that I eventually went over.


Under the bridge I almost got attacked by a pair of geese protecting their adorable goslings.


I finally made it to Lake Ontario! There was a nice big park, and a nice beach, and a lot of water. There was also an ice cream place, so I'm sure the future holds many rides to the lake for ice cream this summer. It was a very overcast, Oregon kind of day. I'm sure on sunny days this place would be packed.


One last shot of downtown Rochester.

The ride home was uneventful. I did get to laugh at what Dave had called "a nice climb." It did make me drop me speed to single digits (because I was conserving energy), but it lasted maybe a tenth of a mile, at most. If that's what they call I climb out here, I might as well call myself a climber. For a few more pictures, and larger versions of the ones you've seen, click here.