Did You Ride Today?

[cobbwheels]

I'm only looking to beat my time in the 1996 event when I was 32 years old.
Long as I beat that time I am good. Looking at some of the guys , doing it in 45 minutes .

I'd be happy to ride double that . 1:30:00 is okay with me. I dunno about the avg speed.

I'm out of my training loop for a few days as I was a dummy and ran on the treadmill after Monday nights ride. Of course shins knees hips butt all complaining. No more running until October's scheduled big rides are over.

My running session is ALWAYS two days after my long ride with full rest day in between. I'm also only mildly sore after the long ride. And then the running sessions only goes for 3 consecutive days per week.

Running can be harsh on the tendons. A painful tendon can feel like a joint pain and that pain can spread to the muscles. I also try to avoid getting sore from running and so I keep my running sessions short.

When I was much younger, working out 'til your sore worked for me. But now that I'm much older, avoiding soreness now works better.

Some elite trainers out there will also tell you the same thing, don't get your muscles sore from running or strength training. Reduce the number of reps or weights you do or cut short your running sessions. Because getting sore from these can potentially ruin your rides and vice versa, ruin your running and strength training sessions.

 

[cobbwheels]

When I was much younger, working out 'til your sore worked for me. But now that I'm much older, avoiding soreness now works better.

I meant working out so hard that you keep having DOMS. It's still okay to experience soreness during reps or during a hard climb. Yet, be careful you do not go too deep for too long.

DOMS not really. If I'm not mistaken, DOMS is when you experience muscle soreness after 24 hrs. I do get post-ride soreness but these are mild and goes away within 24 hrs and no DOMS afterwards.

 

[Fourlegsgood2wheelsbad]

My running session is ALWAYS two days after my long ride with full rest day in between. I'm also only mildly sore after the long ride. And then the running sessions only goes for 3 consecutive days per week.

Running can be harsh on the tendons. A painful tendon can feel like a joint pain and that pain can spread to the muscles. I also try to avoid getting sore from running and so I keep my running sessions short.

When I was much younger, working out 'til your sore worked for me. But now that I'm much older, avoiding soreness now works better.

Some elite trainers out there will also tell you the same thing, don't get your muscles sore from running or strength training. Reduce the number of reps or weights you do or cut short your running sessions. Because getting sore from these can potentially ruin your rides and vice versa, ruin your running and strength training sessions.

Yeah best to dump the running even treadmill , when my cycling season culminates mid Oct. start back up.
Then my dog Fourlegs can "get hers" , she loves the asphalt as well as fire- trail single- track ect. Myself looking fwd to getting to register in over 60 in my runs. I run in tights (less chamois) and cycling jersey. Like robin hood.

Having my support vehicles behind me on Sundays ride might have motivated me a little too much. I'd lowered pressure to 76PSI ( I'm 136lbs today ) to handle the bumps on my route. A careful line is possible ( and some carefully timed hops ) to result in no snake bites. Cant wait to get spouse back home or a dog sitter. Otherwise I'm out of the game for a bit. Fourlegs always wins.

 

[cobbwheels]

Yeah best to dump the running even treadmill , when my cycling season culminates mid Oct. start back up.
Then my dog Fourlegs can "get hers" , she loves the asphalt as well as fire- trail single- track ect. Myself looking fwd to getting to register in over 60 in my runs. I run in tights (less chamois) and cycling jersey. Like robin hood.

Having my support vehicles behind me on Sundays ride might have motivated me a little too much. I'd lowered pressure to 76PSI ( I'm 136lbs today ) to handle the bumps on my route. A careful line is possible ( and some carefully timed hops ) to result in no snake bites. Cant wait to get spouse back home or a dog sitter. Otherwise I'm out of the game for a bit. Fourlegs always wins.





View attachment 6786

Lovely dog! I miss mine. I never hop. I used to try to do it but finding it very difficult to learn with a heavy bike and flat pedals without any foot retention. I can only hop the front wheel but not the rear wheel and I know you can hop both front and rear wheels even with flat pedals by pulling the pedals and the handlebar apart so the pedals doesn't slip off your feet. I'll probably need to learn to do it with a light BMX bike in case my feet slips off the pedals, I won't land on my b**** on the saddle!

I also feel uneasy hopping the bike even if just the front wheel. I can feel the force of the landing impact is much higher than if I just rolled over a huge pothole at high speed. So I just choose to roll over the giant pothole.

We don't have cattle barriers out here but we do have this chip seal repair from hell like if Satan's minions did the repairs, if you can imagine what the repairs would look like, they use huge thick steel plate with sharp edges that can protrude 2 inches above the road! An then this steel plate have rows of steel rods welded on them. If you run this plates over at high speed, you will pinch flat or what you call the "snake bite" puncture. It can damage or puncture even car wheels.

You can swerve around them in the presence of traffic if you're alert and saw it in advance. But if I missed the chance to swerve around them I would slow down from >30 mph to just under 10 mph.

Here's how one looks like although this one didn't have steel rods welded on them. This is also what my riding conditions looks like (more or less) in most length of the road of my 40 mile weekend ride. Though the one in the picture below is actually worse but not by much!

 

[Fourlegsgood2wheelsbad]

I'd learned the hop from childhood bmx days. We'd see how tall a soda or beer can we could clear or measure length of hop. I can hop my 26"aluminum coaster bike but not the the Schwinn steel wheeled monster . I can barely pop up just the front.

The move was mainly useful for MTB in the 80's hopping diagonal ruts at speed on fire trails or hopping a branch or cow pie . Better time it right.

Countless times while riding on road bike lane there is a branch that would require a hop or a swerve around. Often I like to hop diagnonal to get from say a side walk to waking path to bike path. Rather than plow through the gravel and goatheads ( incredible this year. )leap the patches that separate the riding lane sidewalk street . I draw the line at hopping UP curbs , on my road bike at least. Hop down, but not up them.

The metal plates you have on road repair we have them maybe not so thick. but they often put asphalt patch around the edge to make easier on autos. Mostly rural work. Sundays ride had about 2 dozen plates over a half mile. They extended into the traffic lane and protruded right into the gravel shoulder. So either a lot of impact or just leap em. Without enough ground speed many took a leap up onto and leap down off or just beat myself up with the impact of the lip .
Primary reason I bough a CF bike is why? Comfort , now it's sitting on stand waiting for race day while my training on the beater. Beats me up .

I've had-chose to hop small animals - squirrel ect. But most beneficial I use the hop right before any decents. To affirm tire pressure adequate . That way I know by the response front and rear the bike is at correct pressure and had not incurred a flat which might see me descending on a deflating tire and end up on rim. Been there it sucks.

 

[cobbwheels]

I'd learned the hop from childhood bmx days. We'd see how tall a soda or beer can we could clear or measure length of hop. I can hop my 26"aluminum coaster bike but not the the Schwinn steel wheeled monster . I can barely pop up just the front.

The move was mainly useful for MTB in the 80's hopping diagonal ruts at speed on fire trails or hopping a branch or cow pie . Better time it right.

Countless times while riding on road bike lane there is a branch that would require a hop or a swerve around. Often I like to hop diagnonal to get from say a side walk to waking path to bike path. Rather than plow through the gravel and goatheads ( incredible this year. )leap the patches that separate the riding lane sidewalk street . I draw the line at hopping UP curbs , on my road bike at least. Hop down, but not up them.

The metal plates you have on road repair we have them maybe not so thick. but they often put asphalt patch around the edge to make easier on autos. Mostly rural work. Sundays ride had about 2 dozen plates over a half mile. They extended into the traffic lane and protruded right into the gravel shoulder. So either a lot of impact or just leap em. Without enough ground speed many took a leap up onto and leap down off or just beat myself up with the impact of the lip .


I've had-chose to hop small animals - squirrel ect. But most beneficial I use the hop right before any decents. To affirm tire pressure adequate . That way I know by the response front and rear the bike is at correct pressure and had not incurred a flat which might see me descending on a deflating tire and end up on rim. Been there it sucks.

My only bike I have right now had the CG right over the bottom bracket and weighs 36 lbs. To lift the rear wheels, that's the weight I have try to lift with nothing but the grip of my shoes on the pedals. It's probably doable with clipless or toe clips and hopefully without destroying foot retention devices but very likely not with pedals alone without any foot retention. Definitely dangerous on a road geometry bike if there's a chance your feet might slip.

I've never been in a situation where I needed to hop over anything anyway. I've been driving for over 20 years (never my own car). I found correlation that everything that is probably worth hopping over with my gravel bike, I would also swerve around or slow down for when driving a car or risk damaging the wheels or suspension.

I think hopping is only useful in MTB and in any race where you can't swerve all the time and braking would be undesirable or even dangerous. Yet it would be easy to hop a race bike being light and would have clipless or toe clips.

Primary reason I bough a CF bike is why? Comfort , now it's sitting on stand waiting for race day while my training on the beater. Beats me up .

Most do!

I've actually managed to make my aluminum bike quite comfortable in our bad roads. Custom designed saddle, 32mm wide tires, and quadruple wrapped tape at the drops of the handlebar and setting up the handlebar comfortable to use on both hoods and drops. I put my hands on the drops when the roads get really rough because the drops part of the handlebar can flex a bit and help absorb shocks of road bumps. Even more when I wrapped the drops in quadruple layers of tape!

I ride my bike for 80 miles nonstop on one route on very long sections of continuously severely bumpy roads. It was torture before I did these mods, particularly the custom saddle and dropbar mods.

Road works in this country never put asphalt around those thick steel repair plates. At least I've never seen one with asphalt. They cause damage even to cars.

 

[Fourlegsgood2wheelsbad]

I take it back. I was able to hop the rear- heavy 20kg full fender candy apple coated beauty about a couple inches front and rear today for the dog . Like a typical hop but exaggerated form to get the bike up ,

Believe it or not the hop is best learned without clip in ect . Just platforms .
However I ride clip in on the 3 working bikes . the wrist must rotate backward and the bike thrust forward and it rises up under you . It's so not in the pulling up with pedals as you might expect but the preload up front ( best word I could think of ) is everything . Some courses ( and the walnut orchards ! heh heh) have a water bar you have to clear or well - stack it or brake while someone next to you goes over at 30 plus .


Perhaps on 32's I might not hop over as much things . to compare my 28's to 32's is like comparing 25's to 28's. Apples to oranges.

Even riding right over a succession of cattle guards might be fine on 32's. I just like to clear em whatever speed I'm going. Any opportunity to practice refine my skills ,even road stands ect. Clipped in of course!

Even a pleasure ride on my citibike with 38's , a 10 mile loop on old un maintained roads. Full of steep rolling county unattained terrain so all the ruts from erosion that would slow me down or require dismount I hop over. My avg speed is bad enough with no stops !

 

[cobbwheels]

I take it back. I was able to hop the rear- heavy 20kg full fender candy apple coated beauty about a couple inches front and rear today for the dog . Like a typical hop but exaggerated form to get the bike up ,

Believe it or not the hop is best learned without clip in ect . Just platforms .
However I ride clip in on the 3 working bikes . the wrist must rotate backward and the bike thrust forward and it rises up under you . It's so not in the pulling up with pedals as you might expect but the preload up front ( best word I could think of ) is everything . Some courses ( and the walnut orchards ! heh heh) have a water bar you have to clear or well - stack it or brake while someone next to you goes over at 30 plus .


Perhaps on 32's I might not hop over as much things . to compare my 28's to 32's is like comparing 25's to 28's. Apples to oranges.

Even riding right over a succession of cattle guards might be fine on 32's. I just like to clear em whatever speed I'm going. Any opportunity to practice refine my skills ,even road stands ect. Clipped in of course!

Even a pleasure ride on my citibike with 38's , a 10 mile loop on old un maintained roads. Full of steep rolling county unattained terrain so all the ruts from erosion that would slow me down or require dismount I hop over. My avg speed is bad enough with no stops !

For someone just learning, I'll need a much lighter BMX bike with the saddle all the way down!

Not really high priority for me. We have motorcycles at greater risk of pinching flat with their small wheels compared to my 700c wheels with 32mm wide tires. We all do it the same. Pay close attention to the road and traffic and get your lines right, you'll be able to avoid all the potholes and cracks and the metal repair plates from hell! For me, it can simply be sticking to the same lines the motorcycles are doing.

I might actually end up causing damage to my cheap bike if I hopped it often. I managed to bend the rear axle when I came off a kerb into the road while trying to land as gently as possible. I don't do that anymore and will either get off the bike first or scoot the bike with one foot on the ground so not all my weight is on the bike. I'm still using the same bent axle and it squeaks loudly sometimes. Sometimes, it's totally quiet. Turning the hub 1/4 if the quick release is loosened would quiet it down too.

 

[Fourlegsgood2wheelsbad]

If memory serves my first drop bar bike Lemans Centurion at 12 ( big for me) that behavior would bend the solid axles . I think 34 lbs plus bike.

 

[Mr. Beanz]

Yes, I rode last night. First time ever with a heart rate monitor. Buddy gave me his old one about 6 months ago. Never had an interest but figured I'd see what it does.

I'm 60 so max should be 160

Did a 20 miler last night. Right away 145 on the way out, gentle rise.

Hit a 8% climb, 161. Got close to the top, last 50 yards(?), pushing, maxed out at 170.

No abnormal heart stress feelings but wondering how I hit 170.

Oh well, heart rate monitor, more **** to think about.

 

[cobbwheels]

If memory serves my first drop bar bike Lemans Centurion at 12 ( big for me) that behavior would bend the solid axles . I think 34 lbs plus bike.

The rear dropouts on my bike is also misaligned from a previous crash. I have aluminum frame and the dropouts cannot be corrected without causing further damage. It makes bending force on the axle when the QR is tightened. It probably adds up to the bending force from road shocks.

If I loosen the QR enough, the issues go away and I suppose because the axle becomes straight again or at least straight enough to avoid any rubbing and squeaking. Yet the QR had to be too loose so I'd rather have it big tighter with some rubbing and random squeaking.

 

[cobbwheels]

Yes, I rode last night. First time ever with a heart rate monitor. Buddy gave me his old one about 6 months ago. Never had an interest but figured I'd see what it does.

I'm 60 so max should be 160

Did a 20 miler last night. Right away 145 on the way out, gentle rise.

Hit a 8% climb, 161. Got close to the top, last 50 yards(?), pushing, maxed out at 170.

No abnormal heart stress feelings but wondering how I hit 170.

Oh well, heart rate monitor, more **** to think about. View attachment 6788View attachment 6789

Congratulations! The max heart rate actually vary greatly even among the best endurance cyclists. And among, cyclists, the max heart rate does not follow the standard formula for estimating max heart rate.

Chris Froome for example tops out at around 170 bpm (zone 5 effort) at the peak of his career.

Some 60 year olds I've heard from tops out >210 bpm with a healthy heart.

 

[Mr. Beanz]

41 miles with Tony today. He often questions why I burn so many more calories. I outweigh him by 70 pounds. I would think that makes a difference.

Also,on this 7.3 mile strava segment, we averaged 20.1 mph. His hr at 162 and mine 163 bpm.

His watts at 182 and mine 286. Again, I'm guessing because it takes more to move this 240 pound body.
I was zone4 much of the time on the ride so I think that's good.

 

[cobbwheels]

41 miles with Tony today. He often questions why I burn so many more calories. I outweigh him by 70 pounds. I would think that makes a difference.

Also,on this 7.3 mile strava segment, we averaged 20.1 mph. His hr at 162 and mine 163 bpm.

His watts at 182 and mine 286. Again, I'm guessing because it takes more to move this 240 pound body.
I was zone4 much of the time on the ride so I think that's good.View attachment 6791'View attachment 6792View attachment 6793View attachment 6794

Yup, can't beat physics!

Wow, that's low watts to maintain 20 mph. Strava estimates my power output at 20 mph to be in excess of 230 watts.

I did set my bike in Strava as 40 lbs Gravel Bike. Strava probably assumed knobby tires, racks, pannier bags installed, full fenders, knobby tires, big flappy jacket, and full beard and that would be spot on with my real life setup except the full beard.

 

[Mr. Beanz]

Yup, can't beat physics!

Wow, that's low watts to maintain 20 mph. Strava estimates my power output at 20 mph to be in excess of 230 watts.

I did set my bike in Strava as 40 lbs Gravel Bike. Strava probably assumed knobby tires, racks, pannier bags installed, full fenders, knobby tires, big flappy jacket, and full beard and that would be spot on with my real life setup except the full beard.

Yeah, Tony's bike is around 14 pounds as he mentioned yesterday. Mine is about 21.. Heavy wheels but I'd rather ride than replace wheels every 2k miles at my size.

I wonder what I could do on a super light bike but not cost worthy to have a $10k bike sitting in the closet for special events.

 

[cobbwheels]

Yeah, Tony's bike is around 14 pounds as he mentioned yesterday. Mine is about 21.. Heavy wheels but I'd rather ride than replace wheels every 2k miles at my size.

I wonder what I could do on a super light bike but not cost worthy to have a $10k bike sitting in the closet for special events.

At your weight, the difference in weight is a tiny 3%. I think you'll get bigger bang for the buck if you invest in an aero bike.

 

[Fourlegsgood2wheelsbad]

Yeah, Tony's bike is around 14 pounds as he mentioned yesterday. Mine is about 21.. Heavy wheels but I'd rather ride than replace wheels every 2k miles at my size.

I wonder what I could do on a super light bike but not cost worthy to have a $10k bike sitting in the closet for special events.

that's a good comment regarding the $10K bikes so many seem to have lying around propped up or hanging. The reality is really marginal when and if you're not racing .

I am doing that hillclimb on Oct 1st so with just one WB and minimal "other" stuff . It's a timed event very important to me - but I am only racing myself and my time from 96.

Just then realized what I'd been doing . Letting the new bike sit for that special stuff.
If I had a 14 -15 lbs bike , same scenario . If I ever run into some real money might be hesitant to buy such a bike even if I can afford it, really!

 

[Fourlegsgood2wheelsbad]

At your weight, the difference in weight is a tiny 3%. I think you'll get bigger bang for the buck if you invest in an aero bike.

 

[Mr. Beanz]

At your weight, the difference in weight is a tiny 3%. I think you'll get bigger bang for the buck if you invest in an aero bike.

How do you figure a 70 pound weight difference to be 3%?

240 to 170 is 70 pounds difference. 30% is 72 pounds.

Our 70 pounds difference is more like 30% than 3%.

That's more than an aero bike.

 

[cobbwheels]

How do you figure a 70 pound weight difference to be 3%?

240 to 170 is 70 pounds difference. 30% is 72 pounds.

Our 70 pounds difference is more like 30% than 3%.

That's more than an aero bike.

Oh I meant you going from 21 lbs bike to 14 lbs bike. 7 lbs weight saving against your 240 lbs weight is about 3%.