two good wheels

I tend to post when I am either unhappy with my employment or unable to sleep. Its been over a year since i posted to this thing so i guess i am both happily employed and sleeping well. How do you revive a dead blog? Is it even possible and if so why bother?

Since this is a cycling blog it is worth mentioning that i have begun to commute to work via bicycle when the weather is fine. I have also learned that this is a topic hardly worth blogging about. Tweets, yes. A tumblr perhaps, but not worth typing a blog post. Upon further thought, considering the danger of riding my bike to work, how do so many people do it after all?

Anyway, good. I will end with this thought: stomach and core exercises make you a better climber.

Consider this my post-crash honeymoon.

I went for a brief 45 minute ride last night to stimulate the circulation in my legs. There has been no riding  since Saturday (not including my 20 minute ride to the supermarket) as I sat around oozing from my knee, hip and shoulder for a couple of days. I really dislike riding at night- cars don’t see me until the last second, and I have to wear a bunch of reflective clothes and lights that make me look like Gay Tron.  The upside is that night rides are good for recovery.  Night riding forces an easy pace and spinning. I have to be extra-defensive when I ride so I cant go very fast and my helmet light is so bright that it doesnt cast shadows of road hazards.

The JVS team is lining up to crush the south mountain race on thursday night. I would love to join them but dont know if i can ditch work/family to go make my already sore knee worse. I am thinking of resting up and doing the Rahway crit on sunday morning with Roy. Then again, maybe i should just go mountain biking. We’ll see.

Last week was a rarity- I raced twice in one week. I took a couple of days off from work so I was able to attend the first 4/5 race of the Thursday night training series at South Mountain Reservation.  It was a small turnout of about 25-30 guys and after the neutral lap, the pace started off easy and got increasingly fast.  I raced it like i had nothing to lose and made serveral attacks just to see what would happen. I was able to go off the front a few times but got reeled back. Once my teammate Denis attacked and stuck, i sat up and chased down breaks to keep them away.  We did about 15 laps for about 45 minutes and I came in 8th in the early evening darkness.

Saturday was the Cherry Blossom Classic race at Branch Brook park in Newark. I dont know why this race is so popular, but teams bring out their big guns for the sprint show down.  It was a very windy day  and I lined up late toward the back of the pack. We pedaled off the line and kept a moderate pace slowly accelerating as the laps clicked by. I watched my teammates roll to the front, but was blocked from joining them by another guy. Around 5th lap I started looking for an opportunity to dive through the wind and find a place in the front when suddenly two guys in front of me touched wheels and went down. Rather than run them over i tried to avoid them and laid down my bike and skid on my right side. Everyone was (mostly) OK but I waked away with a whole bunch of road rash on my right side. My knee, hip and shoulder are have some scrapes and a have a slightly sprained thumb.  Forutnately, I was able to walk away and live to race another day.

I did the 35+ race at branch brook park in Newark. It was freezing cold, but the pace was reasonable enough for me to hang on. I got 35th place, which is way better than expected.

More details to come, but heres some video from the March 6, 2010 Branch Brook 35+ race.

Took a day off to let my leg heal from tuesday’s spill. It’s Feeling much better.

Did 1:01:00 on the rollers last night. And not a second more. My Leg felt good on the bike, so saturday’s 35+ race is a go. Im all registered and actually kind of excited. My goal is to just hang on for a couple of laps and use the time for good training.

This has been the first winter that i dont ride outdoors in the morning at least a couple of times a week. Conditions have been cold and wet keeping me indoors. And the mornings, are so dark that waking up and doing the rollers is not an option.  The arrival of march had me motivated so i kitted up and went out at 6am.  It was colder than i thought, and there were some avoidable ice patches, but conditions were OK and there was some daylight. I pushed on to do a loop around the meadowlands at a medium pace when i hit a patch of “black ice ” about 20 minutes into the ride. I was going about 16 mph when i saw the patch and slowed down a bit but immediately hit the pavement on my left side when the front wheel washed out on me.  Being that i hit ice, i skid a few feet on the ground.  Fortunately there were no cars around except for the unmarked lyndhurst police officer who rolled by to check on me (nice guy.) I picked myself up, moved away from the ice and got back on my horse after checking for damage. I was OK, but a bit sore and in a bad mood.  Still i rode 47 minutes but cut the ride short after seeing black ice everywhere.

When i got home i checked my bike and i dented the metal face plate on one shifters and scraped up the other. I also had some road rash on my left knee and hip from the slide.  I was pretty sore throughout the day but feel much better today after a good night’s rest. Im off the bike today today so i can heal up for racing this saturday. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and i can get my ass handed to me at the season opener this weekend. I saw that Magnus signed up for the 35+ so i will be in good company.

February is OVER. Say amen and pass the ammunition. Sure theres 18″ of snow on the ground, but the roads are rideable and the sun shines somewhere behind that thick layer of smoggy clouds in the sky.

I went out for 2 hours and 15 mins of medium/tempo riding. I am (mostly) finished installing my cyclocomputer after a full year and learned that I rode 38.7 miles. I was also able to see that i was cruising around 20.5mph without strain. This is probably nothing to brag about, but after riding your bicycle in the living room for a month, this is a an encouraging statistic.  I also did a few sprints on the way home to burn up the extra fuel in the tank.  I am not a sprinter but still the sun was out and all was lovely as i rode around tenafly/closter in bergen county. I saw one other guy riding, and he was on a tarmac sl2 with deep dish carbon wheels.  I spotted this guy a few weeks ago while going to Ben and Jerry’s in englewood and thought what kind of man trains in early january on carbon zipps?  This is not best practices, man. Meanwhile I train on 32 spoke open pros because I also train on Ben and Jerry’s Coffee Buzz Buzz Buzz ice cream.

Anyway, I realized i can make racing come faster by gaining weight. So here’s to season opener this saturday at fabulous branch brook park in newark. Ill probably ride down and do the 35+. I will to get shelled, but then again, its a training race.

Been too busy to train and do LSD on the rollers. Time to start ratcheting up intensity. Warmed up for 12 mins on the trainer then did 2 x 20 minute “hard-ish” efforts with 10 mins rest on between. Cool down 12 minutes. Legs felt good. Woke up feeling even better, jazzed with endorphins like I did something really good last night. I miss riding hard.

Unfortunately, We are expecting 15″ of snow in the next 48 hours. There will be no road rides this weekend. I must find a way to watch Het Volk this weekend.

“Tienes que tirar las pies hasta donde llega la sabana” -Mom.

Tuesday was gym night but it was freezing rain and the roads were slick and icy.  There was no way i could make it to montclair to get to the gym. So I made do with household items and did as much as possible at home.
I Started with 4 sets of squats @ about 70lbs — the max my dumbells can hold. Then I did 4 sets of 20 plyometric steps on one of these:

I did 20 x each leg x 4. nice.

Then it was time for 3 sets of 25 push ups and an assortment of plank, side plank, and leg lifts for back and core.

It was remarkably effective and much better than the rollers.

It was a long presidents day holiday weekend. We were supposed to go to Baltimore to visit family but the weather and our health didnt cooperate so we stayed home.

Saturday: nothing. took the kids into NYC to see the Nintendo store.

Sunday morning: Rode 2 hours around Bergen County. It was 25 degrees when i left but warmed up nicely as the sun came out and the clouds cleared. Medium pace, i stood up on a few climbs just to use my body. I felt pretty good through the ride and wanted to ride longer. Did 6 x 10 seconds sprints before going home. Later in the day, I Went for a family hike in the snow in Tenafly with through about 20″ of snow.

Monday: Beautiful weather, but family obligations only allowed for 1 hour ride up through montclair at an medium/easy pace. Again, stood up on the climbs and hit West Passaic Avenue in Rutherford 2x by spinning really fast in an easy gear. Ran into Randy from TFM along the way. Weather was a bit windy, but otherwise perfect.

My weight is good- hovering around 152. That is decent for February.