Did You Ride Today?

[CAMPYBOB]

66 degrees? Too COLD to ride outside?!?!?! That's prime Winter weather here! That's a beautiful band stand, Mr. B. Back when I played trumpet in a couple of community bands and an orchestra I got to play in a couple of those.

51 degrees in Ohio this afternoon and the sun was shining! The wind was pushing at 10 to 17 MPH and gusts as high as 25 MPH. Perfect! Let's ride!.

Just a steady tempo ride. Again, no huge efforts. I'll save those for Zwift and 70+ degree days on the road.

The flood waters somewhat receded and cleared two roads. The third still had 2' to 3' of water on in for a couple hundred yards. Low land was filled up...acres upon acres of new 'lakes' and 'ponds'.

450' of easy climbing on a double out & back course. It felt great to be outside!

 

[CAMPYBOB]

30 degrees with light snow flurries and a frozen mist on and off all day. The wind was running 8 to 9 MPH and the sky was cloudy to nasty dark gray from sun up to sun down.

I fired up the laptop, paired the Bluetooth headphones and put on some fast trance tunes. Headed to Watopia and did the Volcano Loop with about 700' of virtual climbing per lap. I did 19 miles worth of virtual trying to keep up with other guys.

Did the climb 10 seconds slower than my PR on that segment. About maxed out without gears and more resistance. 1,400 riders on the virtual Watopian World when I logged in.

1 hour worth of fun and games! I'll hit Zwift tomorrow before the turkey dinner and maybe again after some rabbit hunting and a second piece of pie!

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving! Stay safe!

 

[CAMPYBOB]

Thanksgiving morning was 27 degrees and sunny.

I did Zwift for 18 miles (on the Garmin) doing laps of the so-called "Hilly Loop" on Watopia. Fast and tiring! It's now Friday and I'm going to head out into the real world and snort some cold air!

BTW, it's weird how many cyclists on Zwift are actually afraid to ride in the real world! Amazing! Zwift is a great piece of training technology, but to replace outdoor riding? No way!

 

[CAMPYBOB]

Entry for Friday, 11/24/2017: Warm at 49 degrees, sunny and with the wind a tough 16 to 17 MPH.

22 miles of gently rolling terrain with only 650' of climbing. Just a recovery ride to shake out the legs after Zwift rides killed them.

Everyone must have been out shopping. I had the back roads to myself. A fun little ride!

 

[CAMPYBOB]

Saturday, 11/25/2017: Almost a duplicate of yesterday. 50 degrees and sunny and the wind at a steady 13 to 15 MPH, but wind gusts were hitting 25 MPH.

I rode a 24-mile climbing route that had 1250' of vertical on it. No suffering efforts, but solid, mid-gear climbing. The wind kept killing my speed in the valleys and exposed flat sections, but the Emonda felt good and even a bad day out on the road is better than a good day on the trainer!

Lots of sun, so the wind could be ignored for the most part and the still green grass and golden leaves still clinging to the trees looked great!

 

[CAMPYBOB]

It was 37 degrees and sunny when I threw a leg over and 40 degrees when I climbed off. The wind was running 10 to 13 MPH.

Just 31 miles on a flat'ish out & back course with 1225' of climbing. The wind was more painful than the little hills, for sure! Quiet roads and it seemed like very little was going on outside. No combines or tractors in the fields, only saw one guy mulching up leaves on a zero-turn mower and one fellow was dragging his dirt to level it out after some excavation work had been done. Everyone else was inside.

Cruised at a moderate tempo on the way out and looked at the clock at the turn around and I was only a minute off a decent Summer time for the leg. The wind worked me over on the way back. I kept the power up and worked up a good sweat on the final 12 miles heading for the barn.

A really nice ride other than the chilly temperature.

 

[CAMPYBOB]

A nice 50 degree day with sunshine! The wind a mild 6 MPH. Perfect! Let's ride!

I only had a hour before the 4:59 PM Sunset, but I packed in 18 quick miles with 500' of climbing. Steady, medium gears and a couple of 1-minute efforts thrown in.

The Fall scenery was spectacular to take in from the view over the handlebars!

 

[CAMPYBOB]

A warm 62 degrees when I set off this afternoon and 52 degrees in the rapidly chilling air as the sun set when I stepped off the bike. The sun was shining and the wind was up at 13 to 15 MPH.

A rolling loop with 850' of climbing and 22 miles of fun on it. My legs were still a bit dead, but dropping a gear and spinning harder into the wind brought them around. Good times!

 

[CAMPYBOB]

Cooled off to a high of 50 degrees today. The sun was still shining and the wind was only 3 to 5 MPH. Perfect! Let's ride!

I had time to rush through a nice 17-mile ride that included 700' of climbing and some fast bursts along the valley floors. It felt good to breathe in the cool air and enjoy the sights.

It's supposed to rain tomorrow afternoon...sometime. I guess I'll get on Zwift and kill my legs if it forces me inside.

 

[CAMPYBOB]

43 degrees and rain this afternoon with the with at 9 to 10 MPH.

I hit Zwift for a 19-virtual-mile fast ride and fast it was. I think it was the Figure 8 Loop on Watopia...pretty flat. Not much virtual climbing.

I warmed up as my Bluetooth headphones paired, Zwift Launcher fired up and I got YouTube running with some 72 BPM trance and off I sailed from the 'spawn' area. Yes...the kiddies call it 'spawning' when you 'teleport' into the Zwift 'world'. All righty then!

I either passed a guy or a a guy passed me and we started rolling at a good clip and got faster as we picked up a third guy. We blew right through a slow group ride event that had maybe 50 riders in the bunch. One guy surged away from me and the other turned off, ended his ride or dropped behind me and I cruised on up the road and hooked up with two fast gals. One pulled ahead and the other gal and I traded off beating the **** out of each other.

A single gear is NOT the bike you want to be on when the hammer comes down on a 9% hill. I was out of the saddle and sprinting up that climb to stay with her and my heart rate was almost pegged at 181 BPM over the top. The pressure stayed on as we hit the 5-miles to go mark.

She either dropped or ended her ride or decided to warm down and cruise as I picked it up to 77-78 RPM's and pushed for home with two guys that I picked up on the run in.

Hardest workout of the week. Anyone that thinks indoor riding has to be easy hasn't been on Zwift.

Eventually I want a trainer with action like the Kurt Kinetic Rock & Roll (the software / communication interface sucks, but the trainer's mechanical action is desirable IMO. I think it's a carbon saver.

There are several 'rocking plate' designs out there. A Zwift user published detailed drawings on a very nice one that is easy to make. And there is the CoPlate model you can buy out of Europe and it's really nice too. But, there is one thing I do not like about the rocker plate designs...the additional 2" or so of lift it puts under the bike. I already get nose bleed just sitting on a conventional wheel-on trainer and use a 3" step block to mount and dismount the bike (not a necessity, but a nice feature).

I used some pretty high durometer open cell rubber about 3/4" thick under the Kurt Kinetic Road Machine trainer in an experiment to give it some float / rocking action. This is in order to get some side-to-side rock to relieve some of the stress induced into the frame when sprinting, doing intervals and climbing hard out of the saddle.

Surprisingly, it worked pretty well! Almost too well. I got some nice side-to-side motion going. It's limited as the compressed starting height of the pads was probably only about 1/2" to 5/8".

I had used a 2" wide strip shaped pad longitudinally up the center of the rear roller support as a sort of pivot point and placed pads under the two forward leg ends. My trainer sits on an indoor commercial/industrial entrance type carpeted mat and there was no slippage or movement of the pads during my one hour session on Watopia this afternoon.

The rocking action could actually be just a little stiffer so i rotated the rear pad so it now has the entire 8" or so length of the trainer bar sitting on it. Theoretically this should stiffen up the rocking action a bit. I'll try and test it out again this weekend.

I will look for more rubber sheet to play around with if I go out to Menard's this weekend. I think stiffer rubber under the two forward leg ends would be an improvement and may go to 1" thick material. That should give me a compressed starting thickness of around 3/4" and allow more angle off vertical to the rocking motion and the higher durometer / hardness will increase the force required to initiate the side-to-side action a little.

 

[CAMPYBOB]

42 degrees when I threw a leg over and 32 degrees when I climbed off. It was sunny, all day, here in Ohio and the wind was only 5 MPH.

22 miles at a tempo that ranged from steady cruise control to medium fast in short efforts. My legs started out roached from Zwift yesterday and took 10 miles just to come around to getting a decent throttle response.

Only 600' of climbing and I left my shoe covers at the house on purpose. Yup. The tootsies got a little cold. Not so smart am I!

 

[CAMPYBOB]

45 degrees and sunny today with the wind a low 3 MPH.

26 miles with just under 900' of climbing. Kind of a recovery ride with just a few medium intensity efforts thrown in. A beautiful afternoon to be outside!

 

[CAMPYBOB]

As darkness fell it cooled off to 33 degrees and is headed into the twenties again tonight. The wind dropped to 3 MPH and I headed for the basement to free ride on Zwift.

19 miles at a steady moderate tempo and I lit it up to near max. a few times. A little fatigue was setting in and as I pressed it for the last two miles the quads were screaming. Hell to get old!

A fun ride and I noticed there were a lot fewer rider out this evening...at least on the 18.7-mile Figure 8 Loop route. I was warming down and did catch onto the back end of an event ride of around 25-50 riders. Hung with them for a bit and then left the island for the real world.

 

[CAMPYBOB]

It got up to a warm 52 degrees this afternoon and it was once again sunny! The wind was a mild 6 to 7 MPH.

I did a nice 31-mile ride with 1025' of climbing...just rolling terrain. The sky was bright blue and the sun felt great. Any sun this time of year is a blessing.

 

[CAMPYBOB]

A nice warm 53 degrees today! It was overcast with rain moving in tonight and tomorrow. The wind was up at 14 to 16 MPH steady, but the temperature said, "Perfect! Let's ride!".

I just had time to get out for a quick 12-mile cruise. Decent power was required in the wind, but there was only 375' of climbing over a flat course. A fun little ride with sunset coming at 4:58 PM.

 

[CAMPYBOB]

37 degrees and a cold rain on and off, all day, today. The winds are going 17 to 20 MPH with gusts to 25 MPH.

I hit Zwift and the Greater London Figure 8 Loop. 4,000+ in the London World and I rode 80% of the ride solo. WTF? Rode a few miles with a Japanese dude and other than that I was solo. Got my ass run over on Box Hill. I was 5 seconds slower than the last trip up it so I...didn't beat yesterday...sad face!

I must have been passed by over 200 riders on Box. It felt like I was a rolling road block.

After the first 15-mile lap I jumped on the end of some 200-Watt workout or race. They were all wearing the same jersey...maybe 100 riders. Guys were getting shelled out the back as where I caught them (more accurately, they caught me and I jumped on as they swept past me) was close to their starting point and the big guns were still letting loose.

I sat on the back and just passed the guys coming off the back. The pace was kind of quick for the track bike, but I was managing well. I stayed on the back for 3 miles and then did a Quit/Save Ride and exited Zwift for my warm down.

I'm going to have to figure out how to join some workouts and see if the track bike can hang with some of the lower level racers. I'm telling you, it's a good indoor workout!

 

[CAMPYBOB]

37 degrees and the wind howling 15 to 20 MPH steady with gust to 25 MPH under partly cloudy sky.

Just 12 miles before darkness took over. Moderate intensity with a few good bursts thrown in. Mainly staying low and getting blown around a bit. Hardly long enough to make it worth getting all dressed up and driving out to asphalt, but a fun ride none the less.

No traffic other than the local Yoder Toters and the drivers all know me.

 

[CAMPYBOB]

22 degrees, the wind at 9 to 10 MPH and mostly sunny and clear today.

I got a Kurt Kinetic Rock & Roll trainer and this afternoon was the first test ride. I had to move the rear wheel left about 1/8" to balance the bike and rider mass right on the centerline of the rocking axis, but other than that small adjustment, it went smoothly.

I like the rocking action. It's much more like riding outdoors and seems to be a bit easier on the body as the bike moves with the rider. No fighting it like when it was mounted on my fixed Kurt Kinetic Road Machine.

I did Zwift's Richmond UCI course. Boring. I lapped a group of 25 or so slower riders that were on a group ride...lapped them 4 times in 7 laps. On the last lap I got steam rollered by a workout group that was doing intervals. Caught them when they sat up and I would have liked to have stayed behind them and seen if I could hold some wheels, but I had enough of the virtual world at that point and exited back into the real world after 1 hour and 4 minutes worth.

I also signed on for the Rouvy free trial to see what all the buzz is about.

 

[CAMPYBOB]

Entry for Saturday 12/09/2017. I could get not on the website last night for some reason.

The temperature was around freezing and the wind at 9 to 10 MPH as I headed out under an overcast sky for 16 miles at a medium tempo. Just 500' of climbing on a gently rolling loop for a decent workout.

After riding the road yesterday I stripped off the cold weather gear, threw on a short sleeve jersey and went down to the basement to ride on Zwift and further test ride the T-2300 Kurt Kinetic Rock & Roll.

The temperature had dropped into the mid 20's as a band of light snow moved in. We had a dusting by morning and the wind picked up with gusts to 30 MPH.

I rode Zwift for 35 minutes and did the 10-mile Greater London Loop with the climb of Box Hill. I managed to bury myself and took a full minute of my Box Hill segment time...still almost twice as long as the 'A' class riders flying up it in the big ring. No worries. I 'Beat Yesterday!'. LOL! It was a total high intensity session after that road ride as a warmup. Killed it even with the Rock & Roll still feeling a bit foreign under me. I'm getting used to it, but it's NOT the same rocking action we get on the real road. It take some getting used to as the upper body and arm muscle actions are different than what we do in real life.

Still, seeing how much movement the bike does even at only moderate power levels the rocking action has got to reduce stress on the bike frame. I'll mount one of the carbon road bike later this week and see how it feels.

 

[steve]

I think it'd be good if we could embed strava ride details here. Would you guys use it?