Why not skip the ride then? I am preparing to ride in the Mt Mitchell race later this spring. I needed to get some miles in. I decided to leave 1 hr before my family did, so they could pick me up if I had trouble.
10 mi - feel good, but notice rain water pooling in my shoes
20 mi - feel miserable, looking for Erin to rescue me
30 mi - stopped to get water in Clevelland, SC. I have sent Erin on against my better judgement. She has gone past me at this point.
40 mi - reached North Greenville College . feeling better at this point because I know the roads from riding them previously. Home is in reach.
50 mi - come up on Rock's at Lake Robinson. In a ton of pain. toes and fingers are numb. Not sure why these last 5 miles are killing me.
57 mi - arive at home. thank you Lord! Hot soup and hot shower!
Yesterday, Erin had a doctors appointment at 10:00. Rather than stay at home with the girls, I decided to go over to Cleveland Park and do a few laps. There is a number large trail system that that intersects with this park, called the swamp rabbit trail. It is one of the coolest new things built over the last few years by the City of Greenville.
I did not however, want to ride the swamp rabbit trail. This trail is for novices and hobbyist, which of course I don't consider myself, (I definitely should!) instead I wanted to try the Cleveland Park loop. This is a 2.5 mile lap that all the "serious" cyclists that work in the downtown area come and ride over their lunch break.
I pulled the girls around in their double trailer, and really got an incredible workout. Granted, I got some crazy looks, (something I am growing more accustomed to when riding with the girls) for riding in full gear while towing them along, but also received a great deal of props from the other guys as I climbed the hill with them.
I had a blast! I did 15 miles in about an hour of ride time, but I did have to stop at the zoo once for a potty break, and stop one other time to pass out raisin boxes to my passengers to quiet them for another 5 miles. Total actual time was more like 1:20. All told, I didn't think it was that great of a workout, but my legs are most definitely feeling it again! Look out for me to be there again some Friday morning. I will be the one pulling what looks like a golf cart. You can't miss me!
I finally had a few minutes yesterday to get out on the bike. If you were watching my twitter account you noticed that I had every intention of going out on the MTB. I decided instead to take to the road. It has been a while since I have ridden the Allez, and I really wanted to spin in the open air for once, instead of in my living room. Also, because of my riding on the trainer, I wanted to see if I could ride at a consistent cadence. This is something I never used to be able to monitor, but when I got the new bike it came with a computer that shows cadence.
I had been training at a cadence of 85 to 95 or so, and this is what I decided to ride at yesterday. I rode from my house over to Paris Mt. State park, which is about an 9 mi ride, then up the Hincapie challenge to the turnaround and back home. Riding at this higher cadence was a very odd experience. I liked spinning, fast and smooth, and it was kinda fun to be changing gears much more often in order to keep the cadence steady. But, it is an uncomfortable pace. I have found that I MTB at a very slow cadence. This transition may be difficult to make. Is it necessary?
1. How long should I plan for each workout?
2. Should I base my workout on cadence, or distance traveled?
3. How important is it for me to stay in true riding position/form?
4. Will this actually make me a better rider, or just a guy who sweats a lot while watching TV in the living room
Any insights?
I have found over the last few months, that I don't need a full bike rack all of the time. While it is nice to be able to haul four bikes down the road, I rarely actually do it. This is a picture of me and Daylia in front of my 4-bike Reese bike rack.
I like the Reese rack, because it has an easy locking system, bolts into place to reduce vibrating and shaking, has a sturdy structure, clamps the bikes down tightly, and allows me to tow a trailer even with 4 bikes in place. However, it does not allow my rear hatch to swing open even if there is not a bike in place, without pulling out a pin and swinging it down and out of the way. My wife is now pregnant with our 3rd child, so the task of moving it out of the way has become a cumbersome.
Also, I have found that my rack has clotheslines a number of people as they walk around the rear of my vehicle. It is just not what you are prepared for when rounding the back of a car. (Although it is good for a few laughs)
I worked for a while on my new rack, which holds 1 bike and does not interfere with the rear hatch. I took the idea from my friend Mark Pittman who made a similar looking rack for his Suzuki.
As you can see if you look at the pics, the design is very simple. I did need to angle the fork mounts slightly to allow room for the handlebars at the rear window. Aligning them exactly perpendicular to the crosspiece left my handlebars bumping into the glass as I went along.
I was able to build the entire rack with parts off of an old roof rack I had laying around, and about 4 bucks in nuts and bolts to hold it together. But if you were to start from scratch I think you could build a similar rack for around $35. And I still am able to pull a trailer at the same time!
Check out the pics and ask any questions you might have. I would love to answer them!
I have to give the disclaimer immediately, that this video is not of me. It is done by Jonathan Pait, someone I only loosely know through the blog world, and is a contributor to the Greenville News.
I have ridden at Paris Mountain a number of times at night. However, i have never been fortunate enough to have a light with me. Usually I have overestimated my own riding speed, and bit off more than I could chew, or pinched a flat mid-ride, which forced me to come home after dark. Nonetheless, these guys look like they are having fun, and I hope to give night riding a try in the near future...wanna join me?