Week Ending DEC 29 2007

Finished week 4 of official training.

Weekly Stats

Miles Goal:

50.22 miles

Total miles:

13.62 miles

Average Speed:

14.63 mph

Due to the holidays, and more importantly, a bad bronchial infection I got when I came back to Chicago, I didn't get to finish my miles for this week. Lessons learned: better prepare for traveling, and stay on top of asthma med refills.

Soup Fairy

Maybe it was holiday cookies. Maybe it was the 5 days off from riding. Maybe it was cold I picked up coming back to Chicago. No matter what the reasoning, it was a pretty rough ride.

I didn't stay on top of my asthma meds, going without them for about four days while gone for the holidays, and I definitely woke up this morning with my lungs telling me they weren't happy.

Despite all that, I decided to take a ride tonight. I told a friend I'd play Soup Fairy bring her soup since she's sick too. I'm sure she didn't expect it to be in a can and dropped off at her door at around 1am. Either way, the Soup Fairy delivered some campbell's chicken noodle, which, now that I think about it, will probably be frozen in the morning. It's the thought that counts right?

Back on the bike I headed south to do my usual night loop. The winds were picking up and the cold of the wind combined with my head cold did not mix too well. I was able to complete most of the ride (cutting out a few blocks down in the Loop) and actually finished feeling relatively strong.

Time for some food and sleep. I still have 36.60 miles to complete by Sunday.

Stats:
Thu, Dec 27, 2007 - 13.62 mi [Cycling]
13.62 mi in 00:55:52 hours at 14.63 mi/h on Ross Fixed Gear. [Cycling] Midnight ride. 32F, with a wind chill of ~26F. There were some heavy winds picking up coming out of the east/southeast.

Week Ending DEC 22 2007

Finished week 3 of official training.

Weekly Stats

Miles Goal:

45.20 miles

Total miles:

49.64 miles

Average Speed:

15.14 mph

"Hey you got shit on your back",

"Hey, you got shit on your back!", yelled a guy in a passing car.
"Really?" I replied.
"Yeah!" yells the guy as their car tries to speed off.

Little did they know I was enjoying the sarcastic commentary and wanted to continue. So I sped up to around 22mph and knocked on the guy's window. Startled he rolls it down. "Did I surprise you? You look like you just shit yourself. Hey, enjoy the car ride, I'll see you guys further down Fullerton if you can keep up with me." I say as I speed up and weave past cars and a red light to get a head start. They never caught me.

What a great ride. I didn't sleep more than 5 hours last night, but needed to do about 33 miles to finish my weekly goal. To my surprise it was above 40F today so I geared up and headed out to play in the sloppy roads of black winter slush. The first 10 miles was rough on the lake front (damn head wind), but then I got my rythm and kicked butt. Due to some construction I ended up back on the city streets. If it weren't for the construction I would have never had such a lovely conversation with the pass car above.

Stats:
Sat, Dec 22, 2007 - 37.87 mi [Cycling]
37.87 mi in 02:26:05 hours at 15.55 mi/h on Trek 2200. [Cycling] 44F, with wind chill 37F. Winds from the south at 14-16mph.

How much lubrication is too much?

Wed, Dec 19, 2007 - 11.77 mi [Cycling]
11.77 mi in 00:50:42 hours at 13.93 mi/h on Ross Fixed Gear. [Cycling]
Posted from My Cycling Log

So I went for another out side ride, pushing the limits of how much slush I can ride in. Temperatures were around 34F, 27F with wind chill. I just got done lubricating the chain on the fixed gear and noticed what could have been too much slack in the chain as I headed out. Up until 7 miles into the ride, things were going ok. Whie heading up Southport I hit some traffic which caused me to ride through a bunch of slush (why can't the plowes also plow the bike lanes??). Apparently the mix of slush and well lubricated chain caused it to pop off and for me to go from fixed riding to no riding in half a second. A quick fix in front of a bar (the girls by the window told me they enjoyed the spandex show) I was back on the road and heading home.

I really could have ridden another 5-10 miles. I was feeling great. Unfortunately I was too worried about another chain issue, so I decided to cut the ride short and spend the extra time eating and fixing the bike.

Week Ending DEC 15 2007

Finished week 2 of official training.

Weekly Stats

Miles Goal:

40.68 miles

Total miles:

42.39 miles

Average Speed:

14.93 mph

Sat, Dec 15, 2007 - 10.02 mi [Cycling]

Sat, Dec 15, 2007 - 10.02 mi [Cycling]
10.02 mi in 00:40:28 hours at 14.86 mi/h on Ross Fixed Gear. [Cycling] Finished up the remaining miles for the week. Since it was so few miles, I did a four minute warm up, then some on/off single legged riding. I would do a quarter mile with just my left leg, then a quarter mile with both legs, then a quarter mile with just the right, then both again. I repeated this for 4 miles, then a 2 minute cool down.

For a short ride, it was a pretty good workout. After the first 2 reps on each leg I noticed a more consistent pedal stroke and was able to keep a higher cadence on the last mile rep for each leg (average of around 73 rpm). I'm definitely going to add this into my weekly workout for future training.
Posted from My Cycling Log

Wed, Dec 12, 2007 - 20.53 mi [Cycling]

Wed, Dec 12, 2007 - 20.53 mi [Cycling]
20.53 mi in 01:19:43 hours at 15.45 mi/h on Trek 2200. [Cycling] It was a great night in Chicago. Most of the salt was off the roads and temperatures were about freezing. Official temps: 34F, feels like 27F with wind chill. Body temperature was really good and I may have finally figured out the glove situation. Aside from the great ride, I also had a nice surprise when I ran into Annie in Lakeview. All in all, a very good, and much improved ride.
Posted from My Cycling Log

Wed, Dec 12, 2007 - 20.53 mi [Cycling]

Wed, Dec 12, 2007 - 20.53 mi [Cycling]
20.53 mi in 01:19:43 hours at 15.45 mi/h on Trek 2200. [Cycling] It was a great night in Chicago. Most of the salt was off the roads and temperatures were about freezing. Official temps: 34F, feels like 27F with wind chill. Body temperature was really good and I may have finally figured out the glove situation. Aside from the great ride, I also had a nice surprise when I ran into Annie in Lakeview. All in all, a very good, and much improved ride.
Posted from My Cycling Log

Mon, Dec 10, 2007 - 11.84 mi [Cycling]

Mon, Dec 10, 2007 - 11.84 mi [Cycling]
11.84 mi in 00:50:13 hours at 14.15 mi/h on Ross Fixed Gear. [Cycling] Not the greatest of rides. Couldn't get a great rhythm and body temperature. It was also wet and salty out with threats of ice, which kept me from going too fast since I was relying on one front break for stopping power. It was great to get outside though and ride.
Posted from My Cycling Log

Week Ending DEC 8 2007

Finished week 1 of official training.

Weekly Stats

Miles Goal:

36.61 miles

Total miles:

36.99 miles

Average Speed:

14.24 mph

Sat, Dec 8, 2007 - 12.21 mi [Cycling]

Sat, Dec 8, 2007 - 12.21 mi [Cycling]
12.21 mi in 00:49:23 hours at 14.83 mi/h on Ross Fixed Gear. [Cycling] Indoor fixed gear training.
Posted from My Cycling Log

So I had to finish up the last 11.83 miles for the week and since I couldn't get it all done earlier in the day, I decided to just push through by putting the fixed gear on the trainer, watch Under Seige on tv, and hope to coast through the miles. It turned out reasonably well and even got some extra mileage in.

Lessons learned today: don't take 4-5 days off between rides, and make sure to not skip meals.

Sat, Dec 8, 2007 - 10.78 mi [Cycling]

Sat, Dec 8, 2007 - 10.78 mi [Cycling]
10.78 mi in 00:45:13 hours at 14.30 mi/h on Trek 2200. [Cycling] What a horrible ride. I couldn't make it through the full "Workout 1." My legs started getting weird pains around 8-9 miles, my heart rate was super high, and my asthma didn't like the exercise either. I think the main problem was lack of eating dinner the previous night, and not enough food today prior to the ride. Staying out late the night before and drinking massive amounts of caffeine probably didn't help either.
Posted from My Cycling Log

Blog linking fixed

With some clever internets magic, I've fixed a bug so that links to individual posts, labels, and archives all look pretty with my new layout. If you notice any pages missing the design, colors, etc. then let me know.

Yay for php and .htaccess files... god I'm such a geek.

Mon, Dec 3, 2007 - 14.00 mi [Cycling]

Mon, Dec 3, 2007 - 14.00 mi [Cycling]
14.00 mi in 01:01:16 hours at 13.71 mi/h on Ross Fixed Gear. [Cycling] Outdoor. 9pm 28F, feels like 24F. Wore AmFib tights, regular shorts, shoe booties, base layer, jersey, wind breaker and felt great. I never felt over heated or cold, so it was definitely the perfect combo. I still need to figure out the glove situation. The base gloves with lobster claws still is too sweaty. For head wore baklava with ski cap. It worked out well.
Posted from My Cycling Log

Site Redesign

To kick off the beginning of my official training I took some time to do some clean up to the site. I hope you all enjoy the new design.