Ruined by a Plant

I'm not sure where I screwed up but I screwed up big time. I haven't been on my bike as the poison ivy really nailed me. I have spots of it everywhere. My wrists are really in a sorry state, as are most of my fingers at this point. It makes riding the bike a daunting proposition. I really want to get back on but I'm also reluctant to ooze all over my handle bars. I may not be riding in the group ride this weekend, or doing any riding for that matter for the near future. All the various creams and such haven't really dulled the itching. Ugh

Round 3: Poison Ivy Wins

I love our new house, we have a huge yard and a large swath of forest behind us on city land that won't be developed. The downside is there is poison ivy everywhere in the forest. So far Michelle and I have done three rounds of thinning it out the hard way, by pulling up the roots. It would be easier to spray poison on them, but that would be less ecologically sound as the missus says.

On Sunday I helped Michelle pull out two ten gallon bags worth of poison ivy vines, and that only comprised maybe 5-10% of the Poison Ivy we have in our back yard. We had geared up for it with plastic bags covering our arms and then covered with latex gloves. Now everything was going fine and we were moving at a real good clip. Poison Ivy pulls out of the ground really easy as its roots don't seem to go very deep. After about an hour though our gloves and plastic bags were full of water from sweat, and then back to back both of us punctured our gloves on brush (not Poison Ivy itself.) Michelle only had a pin-prick tear so her poison ivy isn't that bad. I, on the other hand, tore a huge gash along my thumb on my right hand. The oil on my glove mixed with the water in the gloves and my arms were quickly covered.

A quick shower seems to have isolated it to the area around my wrist but in my rush to disrobe it looks like I also got some on my left wrist while taking off the glove, though just a smattering. I can already tell from what's shown up that its going to get really bad on my right arm, here's to a couple weeks of itching like mad. Hopefully we'll win in Round 4 like Michelle did in Round 2 where she used the same plastic bag/glove technique but didn't get any holes and as such no poison ivy.

Harry Potter's Glasses are ROUND!

I made the full circuit to a from work today on the bike, and while the ride in was smooth and uneventful the ride back was full of surprises. The biggest surprise to me was how much energy I actually had to keep pedaling hard up the hills all the way home. Even the big Medway hill didn't phase me as I powered up it without having to down shift or stand up.

Around the middle of the ride I noticed a car full of teenagers ahead of me on my right looking to pull out. The driver never even looked left after she came into my field of vision so I slowed slightly and prepared to slam on my break if she pulled out. She did pull out of course and I timed my stop to bring me right to her car door. She look appropriately shamed, I hope she looks both ways in the future.

Shortly after the I hard a large crunch an saw a big white blur in my peripheral vision that looked to me like my derailleur had flung off the back of my bike or my tire had blown out. I slowed and checked everything out only to see a white plastic cup rolling around in the middle of the road behind me. It was pretty windy today so it must have blown into my back tire as I passed.

Finally the highlight of the ride of follies was at a four way stop. I stopped and signaled a left turn and as I had arrived last waited for my turn. Everyone signaled for me to go so I did, only to have my left foot uncliped as I pulled up on it. I think I slid my foot a little out to the side and that's all it took. This caused my leg to lurch up and me to wobble side to side as I recovered and pedaled with my now clipped in right leg. Displaying all the grace of a drunken circus clown the motor cyclist on my left yelled out, "Smooth moves Harry Potter." To which I replied, "Harry Potter's Glassed are ROUND!" My glasses are not round!

More Gas in the Tank

This Saturday during the Landry's group ride I rolled through my 500th mile on the bike since I bought it. I've definitely improved since then, with my main nemesis hills becoming a place where I gain ground instead of lose it. I still can't pull at the front for long periods of time, but if I'm on someones wheel I'm getting much better at hanging on to it at speed.

The group was pretty spread out on some sections of the ride which gave me a great opportunity to practice bridging gaps. Near the end of the ride I managed to bridge three sizable gaps to catch up to the leaders on one long stretch. Basically leap frogging from group to group and recovering on someones wheel before jumping again. Earlier in the ride I hit a big bump and lost one of my water bottles. That too gave me an opportunity to chase up through the pack to the leaders. There I made my move while we were going up a hill and managed to go from the back all the way to the leaders which was a gap of around a hundred yards in less than two-hundred traveled.

There aren't many races left this year, and they're all crits of some kind or another. I'm looking forward to next year where I'll have a chance to try some open road races. I have a feeling they'll suit me better than crits, but I'll just have to wait and see.

Oregon and Back Again

The Sullivan family reunion out in Oregon was great fun last week, and a great opportunity to meet parts of the family that I hadn't met before. While I was out in Oregon I drove into Portland with my wife to visit River City Bicycles and I was stunned. I've never seen so many cyclists on the road in a major city before, and I've never seen a city laid out in such a manner that was so friendly to cyclists. I swear that in parts of the city on the Saturday afternoon their were more people on bikes than cars on the road.

River City itself was a veritable cycling Mecca. Two huge floors full of all manner of bikes, free Espresso, and more people in the shop than you could shake a stick at. Beyond the shop staff they had a gaggle of women at a central checkout handling all the people that had just come in to pickup some random piece of gear. It was truly impressive.

Needless to say I haven't had much time on my bike lately, but I still went to Wompatuck this evening. Luckily for me after I was dropped the third time by the field a group of six other riders fell off with me. For the next nine laps we hung together in a ragged paceline that had me at the very edge of my current abilities. I think if we had been able to keep a clean paceline going I may have been able to help more but it was a pretty sloppy affair with people pushing after they peeled off or peeling of crazy wide. When the field finally caught back up to us on the tenth lap together I fell off and spent the last 5 laps talking with Dave who had been helping to organize our group into a functional paceline. On the bell lap he led me out and let me sprint for the finish for practice, which was fun and nice since my wife Michelle had come out to see what I was spending my Wednesday nights on.

I've been continually impressed with the cyclists I've encountered at Wompatuck, they've all been very helpful and supportive. They've gone out of their way to share knowledge with me, and help me progress so I can hang on just that little bit longer. I feel pretty good right now, even though I'm exhausted and a little sore. I can't wait for this time next year!

Hill Attacks

I ended up not riding Tuesday and Wednesday as I wanted to rest for the Wednesday race on Tuesday and Wednesday the weather scared me away in the morning only to ignore the weather man and turn into a beautiful afternoon.

The ride into work today I had fresh legs and a head full of anger at missing the race yesterday so I really attacked the hills hard. I gave it everything I had to carry my speed up the hills and then over the top and down. In the end it took me just a few seconds under an hour to get to work, which I was pretty pleased with considering I had to stop for a car on the first downhill section, stop for construction on the second downhill section, and stop for a semi that was blocking the road as it slowly backed into a driveway. All told I did a good job of making up the time by really pushing up the hills.

I paid for it this afternoon with some really sore legs, but it is a pain I'm happy about. I'm off to Oregon for a family reunion this weekend and most of next week so I probably won't get a chance to ride again until next Friday. I'll be back in a week with some pictures and maybe even a story or two.

Mind Over Mind

When I woke up this morning my quads were really tight, and I really just wanted to roll over and go back to sleep. Instead I played proverbial footsie with the alarm clock for around a half hour before I finally convinced myself that riding into work at a nice even pace would do more to loosen up my muscles than driving into work and taking the day off.

The ride into work went well, and my legs did feel better after a nice long stretch after the ride. I've never personally seen any benefits from stretching cold muscles, so I tend to do all my stretching after I finish exercising or after a nice warm-up. To keep from pulling muscles I'm pretty careful to slowly warm myself up over the first 5-10 minutes before pushing.

This evening I replaced the front tire on my commuter wheel with a Dillo tire and it was a new record for me. I managed to get the old tire and tube off and then the new tire and tube on in around 15 minutes. So far each change has taken me at least a half hour or more so I was pretty pleased to have it go quickly. I feel like I'm really starting to get a technique down that works for me. Maybe when I have time I'll take pictures so people can tell me all the things I'm doing wrong.

I know it has nothing to do with cycling, but here's another picture from the Garden in the Woods I liked.

Garden in the Woods

Michelle and I spent the afternoon on a tour of the Garden in the Woods. I had a fun time taking pictures of the various flowers, and I particularly liked this one. Since I already had an easy hike under my belt when we arrived home I went out for a short 13 mile ride to try and flush some of the crap out of my legs from yesterday's effort. The only real excitement came as I pumped up my front tire, when I went to remove the nozzle the top of the valve broke off inside! I took apart the nozzle to remove the piece, and since the tire was already inflated and I wasn't planning on going fast I just left it alone. I figured if it flatted I'd change the tube, just like I was going to have to do if I wanted to fix it now. In the end it was fine.

I liked the ride of the Armadillo tire on the back, though the weight difference was really driven home when I climbed some of the small hills on my route. Since I'm going to have to replace the front tube anyway I may just buy a Dillo for the front tire too and kill two birds with one stone. An expensive stone, but well I've come to terms with the fact that keeping up with this cycling habit isn't going to be cheap.

Speaking of not cheap I also took a picture of the new wheels this morning before changing them out with my commuting/training wheels. I'm really looking forward to Wompatuck this Wednesday night to see if I can hang for more than two laps at a time. I have so much to learn, and so much conditioning to catch up that I'm not sure if I'll be able to hang on for a full race until next year but that won't stop me from trying.

I'm going to stop doing the food log, in the end I haven't really been able to glean much from it and I don't like obsessing about food so hasta la vista.

The Joy of Riding

Once again I awoke at 6:00am Saturday morning to drive down to Norwood for the Landry's group ride. Wiser after last weeks experience I went out with the B group, and I had an absolute blast. Patrick was our group leader, and he had some fresh legs after taking around a week and a half off due to the flu. Unfortunately with only 9 people in the group we had no chaser and we lost two early on at a turn, after around a half hour of trying to track them down we reached them on a cell phone and we continued on our way.

The 7 remaining riders were all at a pretty equal level of ability, except for Patrick, so the ride went at a nice clip and I didn't get dropped off the back like a ton of bricks. Part of that was the new wheels. Now, I liked my old wheels just fine but wow do the new Ksyrium SL's make a huge difference on the hills and during accelerations. While I am slowly getting in better shape they were a huge help in letting me scoot up the hills, and take my turns at the front.

The Pan-Mass Challenge was going the other way as we headed out of Medfield and it was an impressive sight. I don't think I've ever seen so many cyclists on the road at the same time before. My only qualm is they really hogged the road. They were riding so many abreast at one point that they took up half of our lane and almost hit one of our riders. Still it is a great cause and I was proud to see all shapes and sizes flying by.

Near the end of the ride there is a really long uphill climb that has a series of steep and then shallow climbs. Around half way up as we hit a steep part I decided to put on some speed and see just how much I could accelerate going up the hill and I took off. As I slowed down further up to catch my breath and let the others catch me Patrick flew by me at mach 9, so I went for another push to catch him. I didn't manage to make it onto his wheel until right near the very top and only then because he slowed down. He taught me an important lesson on attacking, do it near the top of the climb and only do it when you have the energy to keep pushing the pace after you reach the top. Otherwise they'll just blow by you while you're getting your legs back under you.

After the hill four of us formed into a pace line and they taught me some of the basics like pulling off to the left, the elbow saying go through, and accelerating before you reach the end of the line so you don't get dropped. I did eventually get dropped from the line a short way before one of the stops as I screwed up getting onto the last wheel and burned myself out trying to latch back on.

When we finished I was tired but glowing. Out of all the rides I've done so far this was by far the most fun. I think part of it may be that I've made it to the ride for the past four weeks in a row and people are starting to warm up to me. I think some of the older riders get a kick out of my enthusiasm and eagerness to listen to their advise and stories. The new wheels really did make a difference too, and now that my commuter wheels are heavier than ever I think I'll always feel that difference when I put the race wheels on.

Michelle took a picture of me yesterday before I took off for work. I wish I had seen it before this afternoon as I now realize my helmet strap is way loose. Oh well, and damn I have knobby knees! This Saturday also marks the end of my third week of riding. In the last three weeks I've traveled roughly 380 miles on the bike. While not even close to the mileage I know some people put up in a week I'm pretty happy with how its gone. Today was also the first day where I really started to believe that I could be a great climber one day. It was the first day where I really looked forward to each hill as we approached it, and wow does that seem strange.

Glass

I didn't ride yesterday as I had to spend a couple hours in the afternoon taking care of car and bike maintenance so I had to skip so I could swing into work early. The world from the Landry's in Norwood crew is that I didn't get ripped off with the wheels. I'll be taking them out for a ride tomorrow on the group ride. My plan is to only use the for racing after the group ride. I'm excited to give them a try. The only real problem is the cassette on the race wheels isn't exactly the same as my commuter wheel cassette so I have to adjust the cable tension every time I switch out but I can live with that. I'll have to take some pictures because they look pretty cool.

Today I was looking forward to nice ride into work and for the first six miles it was nice, if a little warm. A nice little piece of glass decided to hitch a ride in my wheel and after taking a half hour to change the flat on the side of the road I was soaked in sweat and my quads were really uncomfortable as I got back on the bike. About a mile down the road my wife passed me (my support crew) and I decided to throw in the towel and put the bike on the roof rack and took a ride into work. My quads are pretty unhappy tonight, I'm hoping they loosen up on the group ride tomorrow morning.

There is actually a fair amount of glass on the side of the road on my way to work so I ended up getting a new Specialized All Condition Armadillo Elite tire for my rear wheel. I'll probably get one for my front commuter wheel too, but I want to see how this one handles. My front tire still is in decent condition for now anyway. Hopefully I won't have any more flats any time soon.

Where I did flat to elderly women came out onto their front porches and watched me go through the paces of changing the tire. I'm sure I looked plenty goofy, though one was kind enough to offer me a glass of water, which I declined as my hands were well covered in smutz. I had one cyclist pass and offer assistance, as well as a motorist with a bike rack. Its nice to have the offers even though I didn't need it this morning.

After changing the flat this afternoon and putting the new tire on tonight my thumbs are burning from all the pushing and stretching, but I feel like I'm getting better at it.

The Food Log
On the Ride to Work - 1 Gu Packet, 16oz of Gatorade
Breakfast - Sausage McMuffin w/Egg (I know horrible but the wife wanted a quick breakfast)
Lunch - Sub with Turkey and Ham w/ American Cheese
Dinner - Spaghetti with to many meatballs and mushrooms. (Oops I just made to many meatballs and not enough sauce.)
After Dinner - 1 Glass of Chocolate Milk

Wicked Workout

I'm whipped, the ride tonight at Wompatuck was way faster than last weekend as there were more people and some better riders that really pushed the pace. Once again I was lapped multiple times, though near the end I managed to hold on for two laps giving it everything I had and the stopping to watch the finish. The sound of the finish is something I'll never forget, and it is a sound I'll cherish every time I hear it in the future. Like a swarm of angry bees the hum of the tires on the road screaming along at over thirty miles and hour in the sprint to the finish was just awesome.

I did end up meeting Andrew and I did buy the tires from him, I'll take them into Landry's tomorrow to get them all setup so I can use them next Wednesday. In the end since he was willing to accept a personal check I was willing to accept that the tires really were a good deal. I definitely liked him, as we chatted for as we did a cool down lap after the race. I hope to see him at Wompatuck or Wells Ave in the future.

I also talked with a 66 year old that managed to keep with the group for around 19-20 laps before he was dropped. He is an inspiration to me to keep pushing to get in shape, and hopefully stay in shape like he has. Before the race started I did a couple laps with a racer that was also getting back into the swing of things, though he has a deep well of experience to pull on. I couldn't quite catch his name as he mumbled it, but essentially he is a racer that was on the Haitian Olympic squad many years back, and it was his racing that allowed him to come to and stay in America. Now later in his life (I would guess mid-40s) he's a success and has been able to start racing again. Every time the group came around he was always near the front and participated in at least one break that I saw. I hope to see them both at future rides as I loved listening to their stories.

Another thing I learned today is it is so much better to be at the front than the back. For the first two laps I hung out at the front on the far right about 2 rows back from the leaders. The closeness of the other riders as we were riding 6 abreast on a fairly narrow road was pretty nerve racking for me. After the 2nd lap I let myself slip back to give myself some more room and while I hung on until the start of the 3rd I was dropped due to the accordion effect you get at the back around turns. I have a lot to learn, but I feel like I'm learning and slowly getting some conditioning.

Still I'm totally exhausted now, so I'm off to bed.

The Food Log
Glasses of Water - 9
Breakfast - A Bagel w/Cream Cheese and a Banana
Lunch - 1/2 a Cheese & Pepperoni Pizza
On the Ride - 32oz of Gatorade & 2 Packets of Gu
Dinner - 2 Italian Sausages and a Bowl of Fresh Snow Peas