Greetings! It was a tough decision but I have moved my blog to bargelt.com. Thanks for visiting!
Two good rides this past weekend. The biggest bummer was that my buddy John wasn't able to make the Saturday ride due to illness. We were all bummed. We (Brandon, Chuck Carl and I) started out at the Green Bridge in Kent and rode to the end of the Interurban trail in Pacific, turned around and headed back through Kent where Chuck decided to call it a day. Brandon, Carl and I continued North on the Interurban trail up through Renton then took the Green River trail back South to the Green Bridge where I lost Brandon and Carl (at roughly 35 miles - great job guys!). Man it was a tough decision to keep going... but I did. I did another Interurban to Green River loop to add about 20 miles to the day for a total of 55. Much less than my training plan called for (80) but I was done once I got home. Two things I learned. One, I still need to learn how to eat better. I think being overweight is a serious disadvantage when trying to eat properly for a long ride. I'm pretty conditioned to watch what I eat... but I think twice now that has bitten me on longer rides. I just need to eat more while riding. Most calorie burning formulas say that I burn between 1200 and 1400 calories per hour when cycling vigorously. Now I know I don't need to eat that much while riding but I also have to realize that eating 2000 to 3000 calories during a three hour ride will not cause me to gain weight and may actually help aide in weight loss since I'll be able to ride farther and longer. Two, I need a new seat. I'm a big guy and the seat that came on my new bike is just too narrow - I don't think my sit bones are supported correctly. The last 10 miles was very painful for my butt and my legs - so much so that riding up the hill back to my house was a welcomed relief from the monotony and pain of riding /spinning in the flats of the valley.
I have wife approval to also do a Sunday ride so I planned on getting maybe 20 miles in. I'm not a big fan of seat padding but I had to switch out seats and the only wider seat I had on hand was a Serfas RX Saddle that I bought some time ago. The Serfas saddle is extremely comfortable for 20 - 30 miles at which point I can tell that it exerts pressure on the softer tissue around my sit bones. It is the most comfortable seat I've used but I'm not sure it is going to get me to 204 miles without major discomfort. I also noticed during my Sunday ride that at times the cushioning made it feel as if I was riding with poorly tuned rear suspension when going over rough roads - you know - that feeling that the back of the bike is kicking back up at you.
Anyway Rob and I decided to hit the road at about 11:30... I told the wife I'd be gone for 1 to 2 hours. Well evidently Rob was feeling pretty good Sunday - we ended up with 36.65 miles in 2:28. Again we went South on the Interurban trail to Pacific then south on W. Valley Highway through Sumner, under HWY 167 and up the hill to Edgewood. Killer climb - especially since I wasn't ready for it and was already having a hard time keeping up with Rob (even drafting!). My legs were pretty shot from Saturday. I guess the upside is tat my cardio felt great. We then descended back into the valley on Jovita - which was awesome. This is one of those descents that isn't so steep that you can coast at 30MPH but it's steep enough where you can fairly easily pedal at 30MPH. I think we ranged from 25 - 35MPH for the roughly 1.5 mile descent. Fun fun. Of course the decision to dive down Jovita also meant that we had to climb the hill back to our neighborhood. Ugh! We stopped at a mini-mart in Pacific for some Powerade and fig newtons (thanks, Rob!) and a 10 minute break. Then back to the Interurban trail to home. I really struggled on this last stretch. My legs were rubber. I could barley maintain 14MPH unless I was drafting behind Rob. I felt totally crappy to be riding so damned slow. I really hope my legs (which have never been my weak spot before) come around soon. Again the ride back up to my house was a welcome relief from the pain my legs were feeling when spinning in the valley. Of course I didn't feel so good going up Sunday as I did Saturday - but I made it.
Part of my sore leg issue might be bike fit related and I am tweaking my seat and cleat position after each ride but I feel that the pain is is mostly related to the fact that my legs are not used to pumping the pedals at 90 RPM for hours at a time.
Here are my ride details -
Saturday
Food:
Drink:
Post Ride:
Total calories ingested during ride: 1130
Estimate of calories burned: 4698
Sunday
Food:
- 1 Clif Bar Black Cherry Almond (250 calories)
- 1/2 package Fig Newtons (~440 calories)
Drink:
- 24oz (3 servings) Clif Shot Electrolyte Crisp Apple (w/ caffeine) = 240 calories
- 24oz Water
- 16oz Powerade (~120 calories)
Post Ride:
Total calories ingested during ride: 1090
Estimate of calories burned: 3090
Greetings! It was a tough decision but I have moved my blog to bargelt.com. Thanks for visiting!
[via: RoadBikeRider.com weekly newsletter - the emphasis is all mine]
A Descent too Dangerous?
Jimmy Casper is a 29-year-old Frenchman who rides for Unibet.com. He has the dubious distinction of twice finishing dead last in the Tour de France, and on a brighter note he was featured in the IMAX film "Wired to Win."
Last week something else happened to make him remembered in pro cycling.
He crashed on the steep, twisting, cobbled descent of the Kemmelberg hill during the Belgian race Ghent-Wevelgem. Cameras caught him smashing face-first into the stones and sliding that way for several meters, grinding off his nose and, according to some reports, part of his tongue.
A dozen others fell too and half wound up in a hospital with Casper to be treated for their own serious injuries. The crash touched off a firestorm of debate between those that say the Kemmelberg should be banned from future editions of Ghent-Wevelgem, one of cycling's historic spring classics, and those that say the race will be nothing without it.
If you are interesting in cycling and don't already subscribe to the RoadBikeRider weekly newsletter I suggest that you do subscribe. It is an awesome weekly read. I love it.
Technorati Tags:
Bicycling
Greetings! It was a tough decision but I have moved my blog to bargelt.com. Thanks for visiting!
Just went to Performance Bike and REI at lunch. I bought:
- 1 tub of Clif Shot Electrolyte Drink - Crisp Apple Flavor (w/ caffeine) I can't find any store-bought sports drinks without HFCS so I thought I'd try this on since the rest of the Clif line seems to agree with my system.
- 1 tub of Clif Shot Recovery Drink Mango Orange. What the hell - thought I'd try it.
- 7 packages Clif Shot Blocks So far these have treated my stomach very well. I bought one package of each flavor to try them out. Yes there are eight flavors but I already have a case of Strawberry at home!
Now a quick trip to Trader Joe's for Clif Bars and I'm all set for my rides this weekend. My training schedule calls for 80 miles Saturday and 20 Sunday. I may end up doing 40 & 20 or 60 & 20 due to real life getting in the way. I have to say that I'm really stoked because tomorrow I'll be riding with two good friends, John and Brandon.
Technorati Tags:
Bicycling
Greetings! It was a tough decision but I have moved my blog to bargelt.com. Thanks for visiting!
This past Saturday we rode 63 miles. That is the farthest I've ever ridden. The previous long was last year's Dam 2 Dam at a little over 50 miles. For about 70% of the time Saturday I felt great, rearin' and ready to go. The other 30% of the time it hurt. Almost 2000 feet of elevation gain which honestly wasn't all of the 30% of the "hurt time" - most of that pain was later in the ride when my knees were hurting so bad I thought I was going to have to stop riding. It wasn't the actual knee joint that hurt but the muscles or tendons near the joint. Weird.
At a few minutes before 8AM the neighbors and I rode from our neighborhood (on the West Hill of Kent) down to the valley to meet the rest of the troops at the "green bridge." I think there were ten of us total -- a great number considering one of the stated goals of the day was to practice our paceline riding.
We started south along the Green River Trail then south on the Interurban trail at a very leisurely pace. Once we reached Main St. in Auburn we grouped up and talked about paceline etiquette for a few minutes then we were off through downtown Auburn (yeah, the lights are NOT timed well at all for cyclists in Auburn). After a right on R Street we merged onto Auburn-Black Diamond Road where we started our paceline.
We had discussed that each rider would spend 2 minutes at the front of the line. After my first pull I looked at the line in front of me and the realization hit me that I only had to ride at the front for 2 minutes out of every 20 (yeah that math was tough!). The real smile came across my face when I realized that when you start to extrapolate the numbers is when they get really exciting. Only 6 minutes per hour at the front of the line. Only 24 minutes during a four hour ride and finally only 72 minutes during a 12 hour ride (STP = 204 miles. 204/17 = 12 hours). Of course this is in a perfect world where you never break ranks but still pretty damned encouraging. That is how we will be able to do the STP in one day.
We continued Green Valley Road then took 218TH AVE SE (which is a pretty good little climb) up to Auburn-Black Diamond Road on into Black Diamond,where we rested for 20 minutes with coffee and baked goods (I didn't buy anything to eat... I should have. I ate a Clif Bar I packed with washed down with a 16oz latte) then back on the road.
On the way back we reversed the same course with the exception that we took Auburn-Black Diamond Road all the way back to Auburn instead of using 218TH and Green Valley Rd. Rob and I broke away from the pack coming down the hill from Black Diamond. Gravity is just too much in my favor on the way down hill and I was tired of tapping the brakes (I know you shouldn't in a paceline but soft pedaling and moving out into the wind were not slowing me down enough) Rob must have been feeling the same (not to say that gravity effect him the same - he's definitely in much better shape that I am) because he took off from behind me and opened up a good 100 foot gap before I could pursue (had to wait for a car to pass). I managed to catch up then we motored down the hill - it was a blast! We waited for the group at a stoplight at the bottom of the descent and brought up the rear of the pack for a few miles back to Auburn.
Back on Main Street in Auburn I was feeling great, riding quickly between stoplights... not sprinting but really kicking it up a notch. Once were were back on the Interurban trail we decided to break into two groups one fast and one not so fast. I opted for the fast group (since I was feeling so froggy) along with four other riders. It worked well for a few miles. We dropped one rider then my legs (knees) started hurting. I wasn't even pulling and I had to drop out of line. I've never had my legs give out before my lungs before... it was a weird feeling. Even weirder is that I really didn't fall too far behind. Once I slowed a bit, and stretched I kept up with the other three reasonably well.
We regrouped back at the Green Bridge in Kent where most folks had parked. I ate my last Clif Bar and both servings Clif Shot Bloks and finished the last of my one water bottle (24oz) of Gatorade. I rode my winter bike partially in consideration of others since it has fenders and the roads were wet in spots. Unfortunately it only has one water-bottle mount so I'm guessing that I was a little dehydrated at this point. Luckily I was able to bum a full water-bottle from someone who was not going to to the final 20 miles with us. Five of us continued on for 20 more miles - up the Green River trail through Tukwilla, around I-405 and back onto the Interurban trail back to (yep you guessed it) the green bridge. This last 20 miles was pretty painful for me. My knees where hurting and I was dehydrated and tired. The water bottle I bummed was a life saver. I drank most of it in the first 6 miles then refilled at a bathroom at about mile 8. I drank the entire 24oz refill by mile 20 and I was actually feeling a bit better. Even my knees were hurting a bit less.
Lat but not least was the hill back up to our neighborhood. Damn that was a tough climb after riding 60 miles. You know what though - it was bearable even on my not-geared-for-an-old-fat-guy winter bike! I learned my lesson though. I need to bring more water and food. I'm a big guy and I burn a lot of calories and use lots of water during a 4 hour ride.
Ride Stats:
Total Time (h:m:s) 5:45:03
Moving Time (h:m:s) 4:16:57
Distance (mi ) 63.18
Moving Speed (mph) 14.8 avg. 38.0 max.
Elevation Gain (ft) +1,960 / -1,960
Food/Drink:
24oz Gatorade
24oz Water
1 16oz latte
2 Cliff Bars (Oatmeal Raisin Walnut)
1pkg (2 servings) Cliff Shots Strawberry
Technorati Tags:
Bicycling