Did You Ride Today?

[CAMPYBOB]

46 consecutive days of riding! Yes!

22 hard miles in rolling to hilly terrain. Only 1200' of climbing, but I went at it hard...with a vengeance! It was a nice 89 degrees with sunny sky and I worked the new crankset over like it was some POS from shitmaNO.

I had trouble lighting the afterburners after yesterday's long ride, but the conditioning took me right to the top of every climb without any drama. Even with the fatigue and not being able to get the heart rate fully up into the stratosphere I managed to keep the tempo high enough to be respectable.

 

[jhuskey]

I don't comment much on my short evening rides but holy hell it is hot. 97F and 1000' of climb. I actually got worried I might over heat and pass out. Hard on an old dude.

 

[glenncz]

46 consecutive days of riding! Yes!

oh what a life!

Did my 102 Sat. At one point on Sunday I thought i would go out on do my Tour De Springbrook which is my 17 mi go to ride around my house. But that didn't last when I realized how tired I was and took of yesterday too.
47 today with 2400 ascent. After 1300 mi in this summer, I'm in prime bike fitness and hardly even notice the wear after today ride. But It is very soon the beginning of the end. Cool early 50's am.'s will be coming soon and daylight is moving. I've realized it's well worth it to be out as early as possible to enjoy the solitude and beat the traffic, but I don't like riding too much below 55F and won't ride below 50F(unless there is a high sun and no wind)

 

[CAMPYBOB]

97F and 1000' of climb.

Nice job, JH!

Yeah the heat and humidity add up to a big SUFFER FACTOR! Kudos to you for riding it despite the conditions!

Only 17 Miles this afternoon with 550' of climbing. The thermometer read 90 degrees when I threw a leg over. I had to blast over the roads in a big hurry to get to the fields with daylight left so it was a decent workout despite the short hour on the bike.

The sun was out and the humidity was rocketing up with a rain front moving in this evening. No big deal. It sure beats the daylights out of riding in the Winter!

 

[Uawadall]

10 miles into my planned 20 morning ride. Theirs this really rough road if you make one of the right turns from my usual route. I've told people I know and posted on my bike club group to avoid this road....Stupid me took the right...I use this road sparingly to mix things up, going against my better judgment. Was going pretty fast when my bike wheel got wedged between 2 different pavement surfaces and boom! Being the cheapskate that I am, I first checked my garmin for damages, followed by my bike and then checked myself for damage. My knees were scrapped pretty badly, one of them is missing almost half the skin. My new Arione saddle got scuffed up and I got a flat. The stem/bars/brakes were pushed out of position, but are fine.

I'm a luck *******, traffic was behind me when I crashed, good thing those drivers were paying attention. 3 cars behind me zoomed by as fast as possible, obviously not wanting anything to do with helping me. fine by me, its a dog eat dog world out there. One guy came back and asked me if I needed anything, told him know, but thanked him. Tried to mount the tube and it took some time. Start riding and the bike is real noisy...Not wanting another crash, I stopped to see what the problem was. 4 inches of the tire was folded like an accordion.

4 miles isn't much and luckily, I wear mountain bike spd style shoes to cycle. I walked home carrying my bike 4 miles with blood dripping from both knees, elbows and forearms. All I could do was smile, I was fine, my bike was in pretty good shape, and it was a sunny morning. One lady stopped to ask if I need help, I said no, i'm stubborn like that. She told me her brothers a cyclist and apparently she is hand with bikes do to him being in situations similar to this. I also was passed by a member of my bike club, he stopped to offer help. We ended up having a nice chat, he joked that know carrying a tire is also necessary after seeing the shape mine was in.

Finally got home, cleaned up my various scars and applied some ice. Didn't have much time to do the latter, at this point I was already 1.5 hours late to work and it takes another 45 to get there. I'll take a week off the bike to heal up some and remember this lesson. Hopefully a new tire and a quick safety check by my LBS will be all thats necessary to ride again.

 

[zipp2001]

Glad to hear you didn't break anything, and make sure to get the bike checked out.

I got in a 2 hour ride playing in the woods exploring old and new sections. Legs are feeling really strong and the TT bike is already at work. If the rain holds off tomorrow I will pick a nice rolling course for the TT bike.

 

[CAMPYBOB]

I walked home carrying my bike 4 miles with blood dripping from both knees, elbows and forearms. All I could do was smile,

Chicks dig scars!

I'm glad you're pretty much OH, U.

Hope you heal up quickly and watch those roads. They will reach out and bite you in the ass. And no politician or road department will give two ***** about us cyclists on our skinny tires.

 

[Weatherby]

Today was a sad ride like when you broke up with your girlfriend kinda way.

I decided to let her go.

A Pinarello Dogma Ak61 batted her eyelashes at me. I try to have no more than 6 bikes, 30 firearms and I refuse to admit the number of tires or cartridges.

So, I listed my daily trainer on e-Bay. Sold in 10 minutes. ****. Took her for one last ride and she cried, "How can you leave me".....we did PBP together very fast and innumerable rides. She teased me to do a personal best on my local climb. Please....just one more. I respectfully declined and returned to the shop where she awaits disassembly.

 

[CAMPYBOB]

A Pinarello Dogma Ak61 batted her eyelashes at me. I try to have no more than 6 bikes, 30 firearms and I refuse to admit the number of tires or cartridges.

Pinarello is my 'death bike'. I still own four of them and have had three totaled out underneath me...and God help me...I LOVE them to this day! Congratulations! Ride it like you stole it!

30 firearms??? Slacker! Get shopping...now!

Only 19 miles this afternoon. It rained last night. It rained this morning. It sprinkled in the afternoon and it rained a little more after I got back home. I did manage a dry ride on dry roads in between the rains.

The humidity was still near 100% and for a 'low' 83 degrees it felt much warmer. My jersey was soaked just getting myself and the bike ready to ride. Only 575' of climbing, but I kicked it hard in a weak kind of ITT mode. The sky was light and dark, depending on which clouds I was under and the wind was driving the next bunch of rain cells in at around 10 to 12 MPH...not too bad at all!

I'm just fortunate to get a quick sprint in, some days and this was one of those days. Be thankful for the miles we get to ride!

 

[Weatherby]

Pinarello is my 'death bike'. I still own four of them and have had three totaled out underneath me...and God help me...I LOVE them to this day! Congratulations! Ride it like you stole it!

30 firearms??? Slacker! Get shopping...now!

Only 19 miles this afternoon. It rained last night. It rained this morning. It sprinkled in the afternoon and it rained a little more after I got back home. I did manage a dry ride on dry roads in between the rains.

The humidity was still near 100% and for a 'low' 83 degrees it felt much warmer. My jersey was soaked just getting myself and the bike ready to ride. Only 575' of climbing, but I kicked it hard in a weak kind of ITT mode. The sky was light and dark, depending on which clouds I was under and the wind was driving the next bunch of rain cells in at around 10 to 12 MPH...not too bad at all!

I'm just fortunate to get a quick sprint in, some days and this was one of those days. Be thankful for the miles we get to ride!

The humidity was special today.

 

[CAMPYBOB]

Yeah, it is. I just got in from an offsite with a customer and you could cut the humidity with a knife this morning. More afternoon showers are in the forecast. I'm going to try and blow out of here around noon and get another short ride in before it hits again.

 

[CAMPYBOB]

Just a fast blast 22-mile sprint with thunder and black / dark blue sky all around me. The wind was going a steady 12 to 15 MPH with gusts to 23 MPH. Climbing 450', it was a flat course that would roll up the miles quickly without slowing to climb anything worth calling a hill.

The humidity was probably a point or two shy of 100 and sweating while standing still was the norm today. The sun had been out all morning and the temperature was driven up to 94 degrees by the time I hopped on board.

I changed into old work duds when I got home, wrenched on one of the tractors and then repaired a downed fence. Yup...everything in the washer and put me it to spin dry!

 

[zipp2001]

Looks like we had close to the same weather CAMPYBOB !

95 Degrees 7-9 wind triple digit humidity made for a happy camper. I had the climbing wheels on the bike so I went and did the little thigh burners in the Burg for 2 hours. I didn't waste any time and got climbing after 1.8 miles of warm-up, and wasn't more than 3 miles away from work the entire ride. The lowest section of grade on the climbs was 19% with the highest being 25% so I was in my own personal shower almost the whole ride. I was pleased that I ended up with 26.7 mile, and the legs really enjoyed the workout.

 

[CAMPYBOB]

25%!!! Oh...my 39x25 feels the pain. 19% is beyond steep...that's Mortirolo stuff. What gearing do you use on stuff that steep? Even a lot of the Tour and Giro riders choose a compact setup for the monster steep climbs and have no shame about bolting on a 29 or 32 for those stages. Justifiably so!

I can get on a lot of 10% to 17% stuff, but I really, really have to look hard to find a wall with 20% or more on it. A bud snagged me a Chorus 11-27 cassette. I might use it on the next build.

 

[zipp2001]

When I want to spend the day in the Burg hitting the burners I'll run 52/34 - 11/28. I can find almost 40 little thigh burner throughout the Burg. The thing is you might only have a short pop at 25%, but the problem with most of the climbs is you can't get much speed going into them. It's real hard to find good roads to descend on because most of the roads are ripped up pretty good. Today I did get lucky and found some good roads. I still have several good size sections of the Burg I have yet to hit. My first four climbs all ran parallel to each other, with three of them starting at the same point so I did loops.
Their is a climb that most people don't even go near that I did last year and will revisit soon that has a max of 31% but only lasts maybe a 100+ yards.

 

[zipp2001]

On a side note CAMPYBOB I need all the help I can get being that I'm not a light weight at 202 lbs. Then I've always been a climber that loves to stand on most climbs, thank goodness I recover quickly after climbs. If only I was at my 140 lbs racing weight, but alas LIFE IS GREAT. Besides I enjoy the suffering !

 

[Uawadall]

Good to see you guys keeping this thread active! I'm guessing ill need about 2 weeks off. Te one knee is still a little swollen, but the real issue will be the lost skin. If I try to ride again too early or too hard, the wound will reopen.

Still need to drop the bike off at the shop and have noticed one definite repair item. The dang photo upload on this page is not working, but the wheel has a bend similar to this:

http://ep1.pinkbike.org/p4pb8373955/p4pb8373955.jpg

Typically, will this be something that a shop can reasonably fix, or am I looking at a possible rim replacement? It is an alloy Mavic Kysrium elite with around 1500 miles on it. The only other things i've noticed is, the shift/brake levers are really starting to look like **** and the ripped saddle I mentioned before.

 

[CAMPYBOB]

U,

Most minor clinch bead / brake track dents, bash marks, deformations can be ironed out by a person with sufficient skill that is willing to invest adequate time in the job. Some issues like that can take a fast 5 minutes to get back to nearly perfect, but the next bashed area might take 1/2-hour and not ever be 100% in the cosmetic department. My rule of thumb is that if I can still feel it through the brakes after a couple attempts at ironing out the deformation the rim gets replaced.

So, your rim may be repairable or it may require replacement. And yes, the photo hosting part of this site is dead right now. No clue what's up with that.

Keep your eyes on the English websites for levers on sale. shimaNO levers are dirt cheap and you can order yourself some shift cables to go with those. You'll need them sooner rather than later anyways. Good saddle seem to always cost too much IMO. Keep an eye on the sales and buy as low as you can...which will still be a significant sum if you ride one of the 'better' saddles.

Your knee and other road rash is going to need the cyclist's home doctoring care. Google all the fixes and decide what works for you. Keep it soft, keep it clean and keep it covered during the day and uncovered at night is what I try to do. YMMV, of course. A&D ointment, Nu Skin, etc. And I do hope you've been shaving...

I'm no doctor and don't even play one on the internet. With zero knowledge of your knee injury...go easy for a few days. You might want to try riding a very, very short ride and see how it goes. Bruising is no big deal. Swelling is normal. But only a real MD with hands on is going to know the whole story. If pain persists...you know what to do. keep weight off and get to your family doc, stat.

 

[CAMPYBOB]

27 miles with 920' of climbing. It was 95 degrees this afternoon and the air was wet with humidity...but, at least the sun was shining. Well, shining between more black clouds that flashed lightning from cloud to cloud. The wind was up at 5 to 10 MPH steady and gusts to 22 MPH.

It threatened rain for the entire ride, despite the area of sun I managed to stay in. At a more relaxed pace of 17.4 MPH I was still sweating buckets! No one was out...or at least very few ventured out of the air conditioning.

I did see an Amish boy on a push-bike and long sleeve shirt moving smartly along. I also saw an Amish construction crew building a pole barn and man did those guys look soaked with sweat! They looked at me like I was da debil, flying by at 25 MPH!

 

[CAMPYBOB]

Consecutive Day 49:

Went out in the hot hot hot wind and did a metric. 2500' of climbing and it hit 93 degrees with more of that humidity stuff. The sun was broiling my hide.

Perfect! Let's ride!

The jersey was unzipped right from the gun. The tailwind help out the first 25 miles or so, but I was dead on into it for the last 25! It blew in strong gusts and averaged 15-20. The gusts went up to 30 MPH and kept me jumping back down onto the little ring, kept trying to blow me off the road when it was at my side and generally flattened my average speed down to 16 for the course.

The climbing was pretty easy stuff...only one long drag that made me suffer any

The weather dogs said 2"-4" of rain starting at 2:45. They were wrong! Again! I could have stayed out and got another 25 miles in.

The sky was partly cloudy when I shoved off, but they weren't rain clouds. Only during the last 10 miles of the ride did the cloud cover increase and turn to looking a little like it might rain. Might!

As I drove back to the farm the sun came right back out and it looks beautiful now at 3 PM. Radar shows the heavy stuff to be about two hours West of here.