Rest in peace Sheldon Brown (1944 - 2008)

I just signed up for the rec.bicycles.misc newsgroup, which I haven't read in about two years and there it was: Sheldon Brown 1944 - 2008. There are very few people I've not met that I really appreciate but Sheldon was one of the few I really liked. He introduced me to the Brooks saddles that I have on all my bikes. I remember posting to the newsgroup, complaining about saddles in general. Sheldon told me about the saddles and the amount of work required to break in and maintain the saddle. I've never regretted listening to his words of advice. Sheldon, we'll miss you.

To Sheldon's family, I can only offer you my words of condolence and a tear in his passing. I'm happy to say I met Sheldon Brown and was better for knowing him. The bicycling community has lost a valuable member and he will be missed.

Sheldon's web site.

Back in the saddle again.

Well I'm back in the saddle again. Actually I've been riding on and off since September but I've begun putting in some real miles in January (very odd). I got back on the bike in September so I could ride the Staten Island Bike Club's Pumpkin Patch Pedal. Since I injured my right thigh (a strain injury) pushing too big a gear I decided I'd get back to basics and spin. I completed the entire century in the small ring (39 tooth). I averaged 17.3 mph over the entire ride. For the next few months (October - December) I rode on and off, spinning of course, because of family, school, weather and the holidays. So far January has been very cold when it comes time to ride (twice in the low 20's). Oddly enough we've had a week (Monday - Friday) where it was in the 60's. I took advantage of that weather and rode at lunch time. This made up for the lack of ride time in the colder weather (I'm asthmatic, I'm not supposed to ride below 32F). Finally here we are at the end of January, where we'd normally have snow on the ground (usually a couple of feet). All we've had is rain and cold (any snow melted). Last weekend we rode down to the Griggstown canal and rode over black ice, two of my riders fell. One rider jammed his hand the other road rash on his chin, cheek, knee, elbow, and shoulder. In addition a broken carbon fork, Yikes! This past weekend I decided against riding where the natural springs might pop up (we get a lot of that here in Central New Jersey) and rode out to the farm lands (a short, flat, 40 mile ride). The rider with the worse injuries was back and riding again. It was a nice ride (though it only reach about 26F). I'll start putting up my ride cue sheets again and I'll hopefully have weather information for my rides too as I've just received a new weather station. All I can say is that it feels great to be back on the bike again putting on some miles.

Taking a timeout ...

Looks like I'll be off the bike for a while (grrr!). A few years ago I hurt my right leg (somewhere in the front of the thigh) on the last 35 miles of a Century. I had to ride through it as it was an unsupported Century. Lately it has been sore while riding. If I stomp (spin at a rate less than 90 rpm and above 18 mph) it hurts a lot, if I spin (spin at a rate above 90 rpm and above 17 mph) it hurts less. But lately its been hurting more. On one Century I made it 100 miles and my leg began to get sore the last three miles I was reduced to 12 mph (from my normal 18 - 19 mph). I've completed 11 Centuries since May so I know how I should feel and this didn't feel right. I've also begun to momentarily lose control of my right leg while climbing stairs and I've had a variety of pains in my leg. It's time to let a doctor look at it. Worst part is I just found out about the Century-a-Month club. I was looking forward to riding a century every month. April through December are easy enough to ride through as it's warm enough (above 40F). I could sneak in a Century on the first/second of January. It's usually warm enough for a Century. I figured that February (snow, cold and wind) and March (rain and wind) would be my troublesome month. February is just nasty with temperatures down in the upper 20's and low 30's as a high. It's also windy and the lovely idle farm fields are covered with snow. Wind chill on a Century now that's something to look forward to, remember to dress warmly. Maybe I should fill my camelbak with Expresso? ;-)

An afternoon ride (Monday, June 25, 2007)

I decided that I would go out for an afternoon ride today. I recent put new cleats (?) on my shoes, a wireless computer on my bike and I needed a little time on the bike. When I put on the new cleats one of the bolts on my right shoe stripped (argh). I've replace the screw but the new one appears to have the same problem (the hole is also stripped). I'll have to work on that. My right shoe still needs a little adjustment as it swings to far into the crank and my shoe hits it. The computer also gave me a little trouble as the magnets are pretty sensitive to where they can cross the sensor. They seem to work best when they are crossing at the left or the right side and not at the middle. A quick minor adjustment (needs to be about 1.5 mm apart max) and I had no more trouble. Once the computer was working properly I paid attention to my cadence and heart rate. On the Longest Day I noticed that I couldn't generate more than about 18.5 mph on the bike with or without wind and my heart rate just seemed wrong for the gear I was in. Because I was sick last year (very little consistent time on the bike), inadequate proper training this year and my bike problems early this year (two broken bottom brackets on two different bikes) which lead me to breaking in a new bike three weeks before the Longest Day (normally a very bad idea), I haven't felt quite right on the bike though the bike is very comfortable (a Giant TCR2). Well today I finally figured out why I've been so uncomfortable on the bike. I'm not spinning! My legs like to spin, they are most comfortable with a spin in the mid 90's. Today I found my legs spinning at 79 rpm. When I attempted to bring it up the best I could get was the upper 80'. I've begun to start working on getting my spin back. It'll probably take all summer but it will make me feel more comfortable on the bike and it will get my speed back up.

Post ride: CJBC's The Longest Day, Saturday 06/16/2007

Short version:

Start: 4:45 AM, 48F, 92% humidity, foggy, minimal wind
Finish: 7:54 PM, 68F, strong wind, S
Total time: 15:09
Ride time: 12:28
Avg: 16.7 mph

The entire ride was pretty quite, the first half traffic was lower than expected. Many (but not all) of the road ways had been repaired. It was interesting to descend at 40 mph in 48F weather (think wind chill). It warmed up on the middle part, the Pine Barrens seemed to have changed a bit. Down by the Mullica bridge the pine is now more pine and pin oak. It didn't help us with the wind but did minimize the direct sun. We managed to miss one rest stop on Rt 50 (our SAG was on a refill run) but it worked out a little better. I describe this section as the doldrums because it looks the same and we're really far into the ride and physical and mental exhaustion starts to set in. We managed to stop in the middle of that section and reduce the distance between Egg Harbor City (some visual and mental interest), the Pines and the WaWa at mile 183. This helped to make these two sections a little easy mentally and physically. The last 25 miles were all head wind. The gusts were the worst part. We had lots of wind in our training most of it worse. None had gusts of this strength also the traffic increased and we had to deal with discourteous pick up truck drivers and high school graduates yelling out the window. One of the more interesting things was the number of people who were honking and waving hello to us. There were at least as many as the discourteous folks. We managed to pick up one straggler from another team (we totalled 5 people then). When we pulled into the park at the light house most of us felt pretty good. Also, because of the wind there were no mosquitoes. That is unless you were by the reeds that minimized the wind.