Well, this morning didn’t turn out quite as I’d hoped. I had all intentions of busting my guts on the CX course, but, alas! The temps were in the upper 20’s when we arrived at Martin Luther King Jr. Park. I was well-dressed for the weather, but as I warmed up, the circulation to my hands shut down. I could tell based on previous experiences that if I’d kept going, that they would have lost all feeling… which isn’t the bad part. The bad part is when the circulation comes back, and I end up in tears because feels as if my fingertips are about to explode and my nails are being ripped from their beds. As much as I love racing, there’s not much that will entice me into putting myself through that type of pain. So, I resigned myself to being Ryan’s photographer/mechanic.
After the race, we hurried home to do some more riding. Lauren (from Probike in MS) was in town for the weekend and came over to ride with us. It was nice to get in a chilly 3 hour ride and do some catching up. I avoided cold hand issues (for the most part) by using some Bar Mitts that Ryan gave me as an early X-mas present. I’ll post a review once I’ve had a few more chances to use them.
After sleeping in until almost 7:00am (Woohoo!), Ryan and I had some breakfast, putzed around on the internet for a little while (I started working on a new look for this site, which, as of right now, is still somewhat “unfinished”), then headed out after 9:00 for a 4hr ride. Even though it was cloudy, temps were relatively mild (upper 40s!), so it was nice- we took a route up through Oakland and Lambert which ended up being 73 miles.
By the time we got home, cleaned up, had lunch, and stopped by RB’s Cyclery, it was dark outside! I realized on the way home just how much of my life is dedicated to this, and how lucky I am to be with someone who shares and understands the dedication…
But enough of that mushy stuff!
Tomorrow is the “Martin Luther Cross” fun race put on by some local guys who love CX, and advertized by our beloved lone pack of hipsters who run the FixMemphis site. Ryan and I will be going to race, then soon as we get home & get our feed on, will be heading out for another chilly 3.5 hours or so of riding. Looks like it’ll be another full day on the bike! I should be in full zombie mode again by the time I get to the end of my 3 hour ride on Monday…
If you’ve visited the “about me” section of my long-un-updated Brickhouseracing homepage, you know that I’ve spent my fair share of time in the weightroom. Lately, I’ve been hitting the weights a couple of times a week, and I thought that maybe a few of you could use some help… (this goes for cyclists as well as you run-of-the-mill “meatheads” out there!)
1. When you see/hear about how desirable it is to have a “V” shape, it is in reference to your torso ABOVE the waist- NOT your entire body. PUT THE DUMBELLS DOWN AND DO SOME EFFING SQUATS ALREADY! If you see me “checking you out,” it’s probably because I’m in awe of how large your upper body is and how stupidly small your legs are.
2. While we’re on the topic of squats: IT’S A SQUAT RACK. NOT A BICEPS-CURL RACK. Biceps femoris > Biceps Brachii. If this confuses you, check your muscle anatomy charts.
-One last thing about squats: top of thigh parallel to the ground or they don’t count.
-One last thing about biceps curl: elbow goes through a full range of motion or they don’t count. Stop lowering the weight to ~90-100 degrees @ the elbow just so you can use the 30s instead of the 25s.
3. If you sweat a little, use the paper towels, etc. that the gym provides to get your booty/back/head sweat off of the machine you just used. If you sweat a lot, save some trees and bring your own towel. Either way, don’t leave a damp patch for someone else to lay on.
4. Learn correct form. Don’t be “that guy” that’s turning a lat pull-down into a row or a bench press into anything that doesn’t involve the bar contacting the chest in a way other than a giant bounce.
5. There are two types of women in the weightroom:
-Those that are there to pick up guys (either at the weightroom itself or by “toning up” a bit to make themselves more attractive outside the weightroom)
-Those that are there to get stronger and, as an added bonus, possibly make themselves more attractive to themselves regardless of how they appear to the opposite sex.
-Do not gawk or stare at the latter of the two. She does not want your number, does not want to talk to you unless you honestly need help with your workout, and she does not want you using the mirror in front of her squat rack to watch yourself do biceps curls while she’s squatting.
6. Don’t sit on benches/machines in between sets if you even have the slightest inkling that someone may want to work in with you between your sets.
7. Stop treating your abs like they’re made of something other than skeletal muscle. There’s no reason to do 11ty billion repetitions of a bunch of rediculous “core” exercises. See that decline bench? Hold a 10 pound plate behind your head and do some situps.
8. Put your weights away when you’re finished with them
9. Don’t use lifting straps unless you absolutely HAVE to. Ever hear the phrase “wet noodle” used to describe a handshake? Yeah, that’s you, Mr. “I use straps for my entire back workout.” My grandmother has more grip strength than you.
10. While you’re at it, do some deadlifts… and no, I’m not talking about the “straight leg” type…
The more than 11 hours I’ve spent on a bike between Friday & Sunday are catching up with me. I worked on some grades this morning, but after spacing out a few times while staring at my computer, I decided to call it a day. Now, I’m listening to the wind howling outside and thinking about how awesome it is that I get to ride 2 more hours today… I can’t wait for race season, when this will all pay off.
Even though I stayed up late last night for a Christmas party, I managed to drag my butt out of bed early enough to start a crock pot of sweet potato chili before my planned 10:00 departure for my long solo base ride. Everything looked good- I even remembered to turn the Crock Pot on! There’s nothing better after a long, chilly ride than a giant bowl of chili, right?
So I head out on my ride (I altered the last bit to go through Arlington in order to make it longer, so it was close to 80 rather than 74):
After 3 hours of riding, I made a stop at the infamous “Cat Pee Store” on the north side of Oakland. It was closed, but it’s got couches on the porch, so it’s still a nice place to take a break and have a snack. While I was there, I got a text message from Ryan:
“Do you mean for crock pot to be cooking? It is unplugged!”
Oops. So at the time of this posting, I’m having leftovers instead of chili. It will be ready by dinner time, but it would have been much worse if my goof-up hadn’t been caught!
So I head back out towards home. Along the way, I was on Hwy 196 outside of Galloway (it’s not on the above route since I changed plans mid-ride). I ride up behind a large tractor with two men on it- a driver and his passenger. They’re going about 15mph, and I was cruising at 17-18mph. So, I go to pass them… the passenger starts lauging and pointing at me- and the driver guns the motor to match my speed. The passenger is still laughing, and in the distance, there is a car coming in the lane that I’m trying to use to pass. WTF?! Effing rednecks. So, rather than slow down and get back behind them, I (for lack of a better term) attack the bejezus out of the tractor and ride my butt off until I was sure that they weren’t going to catch back up with me. They were close for a minute. It kinda sucked. I got away, though, so it’s all good. I imagine they’re back at home sippin’ Natty Lite and tellin’ me-maw & the kids about some crazy idjut on a bike that they were messin’ with the same way I’m telling the story about some backwoods rednecks not wanting to share their tractor-transporting road.
Thankfully, the rest of the ride was uneventful (though I did get chased by several dogs earlier in the ride). I felt like I still had a little “go” in my legs near the end, which is a nice feeling.
Today has been busy-
After a couple of french-presses worth of coffee, Ryan and I rode out to Shelby Farms. I’ve been coaching him into a short-term overreaching cycle in order to get him on form for Cyclocross Nationals in Kansas City (exactly two weeks from today). Today, we used the cross-country running course on the north side of the park. It’s about two miles long, and a perfect CX practice course. After riding a warm-up loop, I rode ahead of him and created some makeshift barriers out of strategically placed logs (I even managed to create a sweet forced run-up!) The interval I prescribed was tough: two minutes of all-out hammering followed by three minutes of “recovery” at an LT effort, for 30 minutes. Right off the bat, Ryan noticed that one side of his handlebars felt a little “off,” but he finished the workout anyway.
After that, we rode back home, had a snack, and headed back out on our road bikes for a two hour ride that included several more (shorter, less intense) intervals and one hill attack.
Beware… what follows gets somewhat domestic (again)!
Ryan had to go to the Outdoors, Inc. store on Union to pick up some new handlebars (see link above), as well as stop by his workplace for a little while. Meanwhile, I did some dishes, washed clothes (damn winter riding laundry!), went to the store…
Afterward, I removed the cables & housings from Ryan’s CX bike and snapped some photos of the carbon fiber explosion. He came home & worked on the re-installation while I made dinner: pear, walnut & gorgonzola salad (with arugala… yum!), and Hawiian pizza (I promise- they go surprisingly well together).
Which brings us back to the title of this blog entry…
In case you didn’t know (though you probably do), a half-decent shoulder has been installed on Highway 196 between Gallaway and Piperton. I rode a good length of it today (from Seward to Ral-Lagrange), and, while there is still a little more traffic moving a little faster than I prefer, riding on the shoulder seemed to help stave off road rage on the part of the motorists.
Hopefully, with the completion of Highway 385 (scheduled for next summer, I believe), much of the traffic will be diverted from both Collierville-Arlington Road and 196. Both are nice roads for riding that have been inundated with some pretty nasty traffic as Memphis residents flee the city and seek safer residence in the outlying areas.
In light of my neck issue and boredom, I figured that yesterday would be a good day to give my bike some new cables & housings (I wanted to flip the stem, too, which would leave me short on housing in the front). I’d also noticed recently that my awesome harlequin-pattern drop wrap was shifting around & not looking so hot, so I figured I’d re-wrap the bars, too.
The Harlequin:
I can’t have plain bar tape. I’ve decided that now. The new wrap is what I call “Memphis Style”
I finally gave in and bought a power meter :) Competitive cyclist had a sweet deal on a wired SRAM SRM, so I went for it. Pretty soon, I’ll be bragging about the massive wattages I’ll generate on a daily basis (eyeroll)
Anyway… I just finished installing it. It was pretty simple, though running the wires was a giant PITA. However, I do appreciate the relability of a wired system, so I’m not going to complain too much.
Photos:
The box (they apparently recycle the box of the crank that gets butchered to add strain gauges to the spider)
I don’t need no instructions to know how to rock!
The crank
Comparison of non-drive & drive side crank arms to the Red cranks I took off
Installed Crank
The whole thing
Thus ends the simple days of using the most basic of wired computers and a heart rate monitor :D
