9 posts tagged “bike”
mt. tam hill climb - 17th
I rode it in 48:50, a personal best by more than a minute.
a few months ago i sprained my finger crashing in a race. it's a minor injury but it's still not fully healed, and the doc is recommending that i stay off the road until it's better. so lately i've been spending a lot of quality time on the indoor trainer! it helps that the vuelta is on right now, so there's plenty of bike racing action to keep me motivated while i pedal away in front of the tv.
did i mention the sweat? one hour on the trainer and i'm absolutely soaked. this is with all the windows open and a towel at hand to mop my brow every 30 seconds. and two 20oz bottles of water. since my background's in running, i am used to sweating profusely during a workout and actually quite enjoy it!
a doesn't like the fact that the bike-trainer setup has become a semi-permanent fixture in the living room. valid. if all goes well i'll be in good shape for tam next weekend and can get back to my regular road riding program.
early bird crit - dnf
snelling rr - 58th
merced crit - 24th
merco rr - 25th
merco crit - 41st
santa rosa crits - 42nd, 45th
berkeley ttt - 13th
brisbane rr - dnf
brisbane crit - dnf
wente rr - dnf
madera crit - 22nd
madera tt - 38th
madera rr - 30th (30th on gc)
berkeley hills rr - 24th
panoche rr - 16th
pescadero rr - 16th
burlingame crit - 49th
leesville rr - dnf
san rafael crit - dnf
district champs rr - 8th
dunnigan hills rr - 44th
san ardo rr - 19th
mt. tam hill climb still to come, and then it's officially wintertime!
the steel touring bike on which i began my racing career got demoted to 'commuter' last summer when i bought a fancy carbon racing bike. this weekend i had sat/sun races and in sat's circuit race i kinda f'ed up the racing bike (with a little help from a fellow racer who took us both down). so sun morning i trotted up to the start line on my old trusty steed of steel for some crit action. that thing is a pretty sweet ride! unfortunately i stuck a pedal into the ground coming out of a 180 turn mid-race and kissed the pavement for the 2nd time in 2 days. old steelie has 175mm cranks and my racing bike has 172.5s, to which i've grown accustomed ... yeah that's my excuse ...
anyhow i have twin skinned knees and some hip road rash to show for the weekend.
friday was the most beautiful day in months, and i couldn't resist taking the long way home from work via the embarcadero - crissy field - presidio. combined with my commute in to work, friday's riding was a perfect loop with no retraced paths. pretty cool.
i take special pleasure in zipping up hills in my street shoes and rolled-up jeans, leaving befuddled spandex-clad guys in the dust. this is the equivalent, i suppose, of when i ride the full-carbon race bike up page street in my team kit and some joker on a mountain bike rolls effortlessly past me. man, that is annoying!
Show us someone who inspires you.
big Jens Voigt! this dude is exactly the kind of rider I would like to be - strong, gutsy, aggressive, well liked and highly respected by his peers. he loves to attack, and when you catch him he will attack again. he works like a madman for his teammates. he wins big races. and he has been an outspoken opponent of doping in professional cycling.
i frigging love this guy!
I've been struggling to come up with creative approaches to this project at work, and a cool new idea popped into my head right before I left the house this morning. I was so excited about this idea that I pedaled just a little bit faster on the way to work.
I *sprinted* the two blocks down Brannan today. Now I'm inside and warm and I've got that amazing burny-lungs feeling.
Stayed late tonight, which these days means > 7:00pm. I checked out with just enough daylight left to ride home. Fired up the blinkie for the first time since ... March. Another cold, foggy, runny-nose kinda San Francisco summer night. It's amazing how different the traffic is at 7:30 versus 5:30 ... although the timing on the lights between Brannan/7th and Page/Octavia is basically identical.
Dinner = leftover fish tacos = fishl.icio.us. Later I will post the recipe for the funky hybrid of coleslaw dressing & tartar sauce that I made to accompany these. These was due mainly to a miscommunication with Ariel.
