Fun, Fit and 60!

I've been thinking about that last post/ride. I'm sure the cold was a factor but here's the scenario:
Because it was so cold (mid to low 20s) and I haven't yet solved the cold-feet problem, I decided I would probably only ride for an hour. Based on that, I didn't eat any breakfast before leaving and I filled my Camelbak with plain water and not carb/electrolyte replenishment drink (salted lemonade). This is a good plan for an hour ride because you are likely to burn more fat this way but longer than that, you need the carb calories.
After setting out, however, I decided to ride for a longer period of time because I didn't feel that cold and in fact, the ride wound up being 3 hours.
I only had a Clif Mojo bar with me (200 calories) which I ate at the 1 hour mark.
Clearly not enough to fuel me for the entire distance.
I felt like I was in a trance when I got back.
Probably not a "bonk" but getting there!
If there's a moral here I'm not sure what it is. I want to say "stick to the plan" but part of the fun of cycling is just setting off and winging it depending on how you feel and what happens on the way or just a whim.
I guess under the conditions it was just a poor judgement call.
I think a good option would have been to carry 2 Clif bars, fill my Camelbak with water and carry a spare bottle with the homebrew lemonade. That way, I would have been more ready for a change of plan.

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Post by:mtbman1

Tuesday, November 18th, 2008 at 3:04 pm | No Comments »

Too cold, too far?

Today's ride really drained me. I think it may be the cold 'cause I don't usually have a problem with ride I did. It was 38 miles and not terribly hilly, not usually a problem for me.
Initially my fingers were cold with my ski gloves and liners but they warmed up pretty well after about an hour of moderate zone 3 riding.
My feet were OK in the beginning with 2 socks and insulated shoe covers and started to get cold after an hour or so. At that point, I stopped for a Clif bar and they warmed up a little. I think the cold feet have more to do with circulation than the cold alone because they get numb/cold even in the summer after awhile.
There was a bit of a head wind in places but not consistently.
I had intended to only do 1, maybe 2 hours because of the cold but I wound up doing 3.
I felt really spent afterwards, more than I thought I should.
My right shoulder, which is a chronic problem, really hurt on this ride. It's been hurting at night too. It bothers me mostly when standing out of the saddle or changing my hand position. I try to be careful not to pull on it but it only takes one wrong move to set it off.
My new compact crankset and freewheel are performing admirably. Very smooth shifting. I am having to get used to some new gear combinations because of the lower geared small chainring.
Here is the route, one of my regulars:

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Post by:mtbman1

Tuesday, November 18th, 2008 at 8:00 am | No Comments »

Too cold, too far?

It was 26° when I left the house. I felt really drained from this ride although it is not an unusually long or hard one for me.

Workout:

Type: Cycle
Date: 11/18/2008
Time: 08:00:00
Total Time: 2:58:10.00
Average Heart rate: 124
Calories: 1465
Distance: 38.36 miles
Average Speed: 12.92 mph
Max Speed: 35.5 mph
Ascent: 1,053 ft
Descent: 1,060 ft
Average Cadence: 73

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Post by:mtbman1

Monday, November 17th, 2008 at 7:30 am | No Comments »

Ride out to the old Army Depot

Workout:

Type: Cycle
Date: 11/17/2008
Time: 07:30:00
Total Time: 2:10:04.00
Average Heart rate: 125
Calories: 1032
Distance: 28.55 miles
Average Speed: 13.17 mph
Max Speed: 34.2 mph
Average Cadence: 71

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Post by:mtbman1

Saturday, November 15th, 2008 at 9:34 am | No Comments »

The Unthinkable!

Today, Mrs. MTBMan1 will be out all day 8:30AM to 8:30PM, I have nothing scheduled and I'm not going to ride.
That's right. I said NOT GOING TO RIDE!
And that's not because it's raining.
I was actually looking forward to a long ride down the Mo-Hud Bike Path in the rain. I like the rain (my close friends will attest to this.)
It's just that I'm still sore. Not real sore but ...
Well, two days ago as I related in this post, I was starting to think I was getting a wee bit burned out.
I have got away from the good advice of Dr.Gabe Mirkin who says that you should exercise hard, then chill out or exercise real easy until the soreness goes away. The soreness is nature's way of telling you to let the muscles heal (and grow stronger).
So, in spite of it being an ideal day to ride a loooong ride (this is killing me) 'twould be a mark of maturity to stay home and recoop.
It doesn't have to be a total loss bike-wise. I can work on my project bike, an Iron Horse "mountain" bike that I picked off the side of the road (the sign said free and the lady was right there smiling).

I know it's not much of a bike and I don't want to put a lot of money into it but I though it was a good one to practice on without having to worry about ruining it or getting bored and chucking the whole thing.
I'm going to take it all apart and totally clean it.
Currently, I'm working on the bottom bracket which sounds and feels nasty.

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Post by:mtbman1

Friday, November 14th, 2008 at 11:29 am | No Comments »

All new drive train!

Last post, I mentioned losing my crank on a ride. Well the square hole in it was rounded so it needed to be replaced and you can't just replace one crank, you have to replace both and the other crank is part of the front gears so it's a crankset that has to be replaced and the new crankset wouldn't work with the old bottom bracket plus it was worn out anyway so that had to be replaced and it turned out that the chain was shot and that in turn had worn out the gears in the rear so the cogs had to be replaced .... <take breath here>
Whew.
Cost about $170. More than I paid for the bike.

I had Matt at Mad Dog Bicycles get me a compact crankset which means a smaller small chainring for easier climbing.

The crankset is a Shimano Sora and it's pretty cool and here it is:

I took it out this morning for a short test run and it shifts very smoothly.
Matt did a great job. Everything works perfectly. He even remounted my cadence sensor on the new crank and adjusted it so I didn't have to do anything this morning.
The rear cog set is a Shimano MF-TZ20.

I didn't test it on any big hills 'cause I really needed a break today. I've been overdoing it lately and I'd like to take a nice long ride this weekend.
I'll have to see what Charles is doing.

Charles:

I also replaced the 6 broken spokes on the ROSS MTB rear wheel.
I bought 10 spokes from Matt at a buck apiece. They are black instead of silver but what do I care?
I'm thrilled that I did this repair myself. Wasn't too bad. I had the spoke wrench and the thing to remove the cogs. I'm not too concerned about absolute truing of the wheel. As long as it doesn't rub the brake pads and all the spokes are tight, I'm fine. I spent a little time degreasing the cogs since I had it off. There is one broken tooth on it but it still works fine. I wouldn't know it but to look at it.

The Ross Mt. St.Helens (kind of a pretentious name, don't you think?)

From ROSS bike

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Post by:mtbman1

Friday, November 14th, 2008 at 7:30 am | No Comments »

Recovery Ride

I wouldn’t have ridden at all today but I wanted to test ride my new drive train.

Workout:

Type: Cycle
Date: 11/14/2008
Time: 07:30:00
Total Time: 1:01:19.00
Average Heart rate: 96
Calories: 290
Distance: 11.84 miles
Average Speed: 11.58 mph
Max Speed: 23.1 mph
Average Cadence: 74

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Post by:mtbman1

Thursday, November 13th, 2008 at 10:42 am | No Comments »

It’s God’s way of telling me to take a break …

I went out today intending to take a good 30-35 mile ride even though the weather forcast was for 100% chance of rain by 10AM.
After all, I have all the rain gear I need now except for a new helmet with a visor and water resistant helmet cover.
I was eager to give my new Pearl Izumi Am-Fib shoe covers a test ride.

I was feeling kind of tired, not from lack of sleep but muscularly so. However, I was hoping to get an endorphin boost a few miles in.

Annoyingly, I had to go more frequently and sooner than usual. I don't know why. I didn't have any more to drink than usual. The only thing I did different was to have a bagel with cream cheese before I left. I usually don't eat anything before riding and have a Clif Bar about an hour into the ride.
This time I thought I should have something for some reason.

My first scheduled pit stop is at a small town park on the way where they have a porta potty.

It wasn't raining and I was kinda warm so I thought I'd stop, do my business and remove my rain gear (this is the cheapest top and pants O2 makes. kind of like a breatheable yellow shower curtain.)

Well, guess what? No porta-potty!

No porta-potty

For some reason, this irritated me inordinately. I mean the first time I came down this road, I went into the woods on a path and that was fine. Then I found the park with the john so that was a pleasant surprise and I have used that since then.
So no big deal right? Use the woods. That was probably the first sign that I was overtired. Crankiness.

After that I was debating whether or not I should cut the ride short. The warning signs were there. Even though I took yesterday off completely I had already ridden 70 miles or so. And I've heard that us older folks (Masters)may need more than a day of easy toodlin' or even total rest.

Before long, I had to go yet again! Ok, twice. I've had to do that on a ride but not so soon within 15 miles. I'm getting irritated about that. Also everytime I run into a head wind I get inordinately annoyed.

A few miles later while standing out of the saddle up a hill ... ptoingg!! ...

I know what that is. Broken spoke. Probably multiple broken spokes. Sure enough the rear tire starts rubbing against the frame. Cause by the time that happens there is more than one spoke broken.

Now I remember I was going to check the spokes for tightness yesterday cause I noticed a little wobble in the rear wheel.

Great

Fortunately, I was in a good place to redirect and make a beeline for home. Which I did. I survived the spokes without too much trouble. There were no big hills to climb.

Total distance about 24 miles.

And the spokes? ... 6!