Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Not Keeping Up!

Man, I've not been keeping up with my blogging!



February was really pretty decent. I got outside to ride several times; I also ended up riding quite a bit on my trainer. So, that's all been pretty good.



I played hockey a week ago Sunday night. It was pretty fun, but I somehow pulled a muscle in my chest. It's getting better, but it's limited what I can do for strength training.



Racing season is approaching. Less than a month to Barry-Roubaix and Iceman registration tomorrow!

Wednesday, February 08, 2012

Slipping

So, this winter, I ended up rebuilding my old Bianchi (steel) road bike. It seemed like a lot of things were broken, or weren't working well, so I ended up converting it to a singlespeed. I was mostly able to use old parts that I had laying around, which means the bike has a strange mix of components.



I rode it briefly a couple weeks ago, but my position was really screwed up so it was uncomfortable to ride for very long. The gearing was also a touch too hard. I went back and checked my position more carefully and took it out again on Sunday. I also swapped in a cog with one extra tooth.


It turned out that the new gearing was just about perfect, at least for February riding. On a slight downhill, I was spinning quickly, but nothing too crazy, and the uphills weren't overly tough. Although, by the end of the ride, I was really feeling the climbs. On a singlespeed, there is nowhere to hide!


The only problem was that my seatpost was slipping. I don't know if it was a thermal expansion problem (steel frame / aluminum seatpost), or that I just didn't tighten it enough, too much grease, or what. It took me awhile to notice, but I eventually did, after it had slipped a lot. After I reset and retightened it, I didn't notice any more slippage.


Anyway, it turned out to be a pretty fun bike to ride. I kind of thought it would bother me to only have one gear on the road, but it really didn't turn out to be a big deal. Like I said before, the only problem was that, after 2+ hours of riding, I was wishing for an easier gear on the hills. Still, it wasn't too bad.

Sunday, February 05, 2012

Just for Fun

I was thinking about this song last night... no particular reason... just for fun...



Anyway, yesterday was busy. Sarah was coaching all day so I watched the kids. They were good, but it's just a long day.

I did my first trainer "power" test after the kids went to bed. I wasn't expecting too much; I just didn't feel that energetic. As it turned out, I ended up putting out some decent numbers.

My 5 minute test felt terrible; no surprise for early February. I still put up a slightly better number than I did for my first test early last year (early March). Last year I'd been doing more high-intensity training, so I was pretty happy to be ahead there.

My 20 minute test didn't feel as bad as I expected. I ended up also being a good bit ahead of where I was last March; in fact, it was my best-ever early season test! So, it seems like my training is off to a good start.

Thursday, February 02, 2012

Back at it!

Well, I never ended up getting really sick, but I was sick enough that I didn't do any riding or other training. I finally got feeling good enough to get back at it on Sunday. So, I'm back to my regular riding and training schedule. Not really too much else going on...