It's my third time riding OKHT, having first tackled the course on my Jamis. I bonked around mile 84, to the point I was riding off the side of the road. I rolled to a stop and the bottom of Pottershop, and walked nearly every inch of the road, but I did make it to Bardstown under my own power...in about 11 hours.
Last year I hit it on the Motobecane, and cramped. It had started raining on the way into the Lincoln Homestead SAG (Sarcasm and Grief) stop. Pouring actually It was like someone turned on a hose inside my shoes. I had been hot, and hammering to make decent time. Turning onto the decent into the SAG, I realized I had less than zero brakes. I seemed to actually go faster with them on. I waited at the SAG for it to stop, of course they were out of everything. So with suddenly cold muscles, wet feet and no nutrition, I tried to take off for Pottershop, and both calves cramped. I made it 80 miles. I called a friend for a ride.
This year my Motobecane and I have already visited Pottershop, and climbed it successfully. We've done many more centuries this season, and I've gotten much better at fueling. It should be an awesome ride.
The night before I rode up the the registration on Beast, with all my camping gear in tow to put it in a friends vehicle. I was having some neck problems. Not the normal right side neck/shoulder I've been struggling with, but the left lower neck/spine. I return home descending HWY-42 after dark on Beast. flat out..and slow. The panniers, my baggy clothes and an unwillingness to really go for it kept me under 40mph. Aerodynamics are the key on that descent, even something like knickers can drop 3-4mph easily...back to the ride.
I wake early Sat to get ready for the ride, I want to be out of the house and riding to Sawyer for the start by 6:15 at the latest. Minor problem. My neck won't bend enough to let me look out over the bars, much less get into a tuck. About 10 minutes while the coffee is brewing with a tennis ball and a wall and I get my neck into position. Still can't turn it much, but it's good enough to ride. By the time my neck is made workable and breakfast, shower and such are ready I'm already late out the door and I still need to get bottles and such on the bike. I finally get out at 6:45.
My morning wakeup is Wolf Pen Branch, with is the lowest traffic way to get to Sawyer Park. Still pitch black and quite cool and damp compared to what we've had lately. I feel strong on the climb. I'm just easing up it, not hammering, but my legs are working well and feel great. I continue on my way and roll by Sawyer thirty minutes later than I really wanted to. I had really wanted to stop and hang for fifteen minutes or so and roll out at 7:15, but 7:27 will have to do.
I have a simple way of knowing if I left soon enough: if I roll past the Lilly Pike SAG before they open. They open at 9:30 and are 29 miles away. Pretty much I need to average 15mph over 2 straight hours non-stop. My GPS is showing me splits every 6 miles, 15.4, 14.7, 15.0...averaging 15 over the first 18 miles...no room for error, must pick it up. I see people in front of me peeling off and visiting each of the SAGs, I'm not stopping, pretty soon I realize that other then the racers who are heading up to open Lilly Pike, I'm the first rider. The 12-18 miles split comes in 18mph! Just bought myself 4 minutes! I'm awesome! Then come the 18-24 miles split, 13.9. I just lost almost half of my gain! I end up passing the sag in 1:58:43, meaning I beat the opening time by just under 5 minutes. I keep going on to lunch, and get there 19 minutes later, the first one. As I eat others start showing up, the Scouts know this and despite the fact that they're not officially open until 10, they're ready for us 15 minutes early. I'm later shocked to find I spent 27 minutes eating a sandwich and chips. Despite the massive waste of time, I'm still the first to roll out.
Continuing on to the next SAG, which my friends the MAD PUPS put on at Mt Zion church, which is the point where you have to finally decide on the 70 or 100 options. On the way some faster riders finally start passing me by, a group of racers I know about 7 in total, and a pair of riders who were lunching next to me and left right after I did. I knew I would spend a bit of time here, and a pleasantly surprised to find it was only 24 minutes, of quality eating and socializing. I make sure everything is full and I carry on.
It's 28 miles to the next SAG, Lincoln Homestead, and from the moment you make the turn onto the Century course it starts punishing you. after the first 3 you begin to wonder if you made the wrong choice. The punishment continues for the 6 more after that. A few lazy miles travelling through Willisburg and Mackville, and you soon arrive at what is probably my favorite section of road, a flowing slightly downhill section of patched up concrete called Mays Creek Rd. which you get to enjoy for 6 miles. I tend to get feisty on this road and will hammer for a bit if there is anyone to chase or drop. This year it was a tri-tool of some sort, who I saw out of my mirror having his aerobars pointed at my back in full tuck. I can guess he was going to ovetake the big guy with the fenders and bags in short order, but I ever so subtly put some more effort into it, not getting out of the saddle to make it look like I was working but powering a gear higher, pushing on the downhills and soon I'd dropped Mr. Carbon not to see him until a couple roads later coming into the SAG.
I dropped down the hill into Lincoln Homestead and arrived at 1:26, putting me at 5:59 for 78 miles, with 51 of that so far at SAGs, that number was about to go up a bunch. I was going to fuel up here for the final push to Pottershop. 38 minutes. I had a sandwich, some fruit, gorp, M&Ms, Payday. Bottle of Gatorade.
Lots of people telling stories of previous attempts at Pottershop. I tell someone to take it easy and rest in the miles coming up to get ready...of course I don't bother to mention that the next 10 miles are pretty punishing. He later passes me and asks how exactly he's supposed to rest up. I mention the 6 miles leading up to it as being fairly easy, which they are and quite welcome at that point. I take it easy, taking 1:20 to cover the 18 miles to the HILL!!!
Time to climb. I still have my neck bothering me, any out of the saddle efforts aren't going to be fun. I slide forward on the saddle, lean into the bars and press my palms into the drops. Stay to the right and just go. I'm really shocked that it's only a 5 minute climb up the first. I only have to paperboy it a couple times at the bottom. I spend way too long at the top of Pottershop. I feel good, but have been riding alone all day and want to socialize. 28 minutes for no reason.
The rest of Pottershop continues as before, just go, I know I've gotten up these hills before, so there's no point in thinking I'll have to walk this time.
I finish up in 9:07 total, with a 14.1 av rolling speed. I'd say I'm not overly thrilled with those numbers, but heck I finished OKHT and feel great, like I could ride more miles. I was stopped for 1:53, I could probably do better, but it's supposed to be social, and not having anyone to ride with, my social times are stopped.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Sunday, September 4, 2011
TMD Uphill TT
Tommorrow is the third time I will attempt the Moser Knob Uphill Time Trial. The first time I attempted it I was fairly new to the LBC, and I went up it fully loaded on my Jamis Coda hybrid. It weighed something like 40lbs. I took 12:26, only one person was slower. Last year I attacked it on my Motobecane, stripped of luggage, bottles and fenders. I took 13:23. I was the slowest person up the hill, even beaten by someone with a broken wrist riding a mountain bike on flat pedals! I was having allergy problems and had to stop half way up to catch my breath. I have no idea how I'll do this year, better would be nice, but a three-peat as the slowest male would be interesting as well...
September Populaire
Awesome!
I decided to ride this months' populaire with the group. I knew I wanted to hammer it out and try for a very good time. I switched out cassettes last night from my 13-30 to an 11-26, so I had some gears to hammer on, instead of spinning my high gear like I tend to do on flattish rides. I've only used the 11-26 cassette on a few other rides, where I knew there were no major climbs. And this was just such a ride, never requiring me to drop to the small ring, or to cross chain (meaning I never used a gear lower than 46x23)
I had a goal of 4:00 hours on the bike. I didn't make it, with a rolling time of 4:08:27. I was 4 minutes faster on the return, despite there being a good bit of rain on that leg. The middle section of roads were a bit rough, and knowing this going in I dropped the pressure on the tires by 5psi front and rear. The CX geometry and 28s were made for this, and the bike acted awesome, floating over all the choppy pavement and really encouraging me to just go for it. Averaging 16.7 over 69 miles is pretty damn fast for me. I've done faster rides, but never over such a distance. Honest Abe, which I consider my "TT Century", has never had me average better than 15.96.
The route wasn't exactly flat, but rolled pretty much the whole way with no significant climbs, but still even the one guy who came on a SS with rack and panniers managed to get in within the time limit. My gps shows 2562ft of climbing, making it the "flatest" ride I've ever created, and less than 200 ft more than the July Populaire Steve created.
I decided to ride this months' populaire with the group. I knew I wanted to hammer it out and try for a very good time. I switched out cassettes last night from my 13-30 to an 11-26, so I had some gears to hammer on, instead of spinning my high gear like I tend to do on flattish rides. I've only used the 11-26 cassette on a few other rides, where I knew there were no major climbs. And this was just such a ride, never requiring me to drop to the small ring, or to cross chain (meaning I never used a gear lower than 46x23)
I had a goal of 4:00 hours on the bike. I didn't make it, with a rolling time of 4:08:27. I was 4 minutes faster on the return, despite there being a good bit of rain on that leg. The middle section of roads were a bit rough, and knowing this going in I dropped the pressure on the tires by 5psi front and rear. The CX geometry and 28s were made for this, and the bike acted awesome, floating over all the choppy pavement and really encouraging me to just go for it. Averaging 16.7 over 69 miles is pretty damn fast for me. I've done faster rides, but never over such a distance. Honest Abe, which I consider my "TT Century", has never had me average better than 15.96.
The route wasn't exactly flat, but rolled pretty much the whole way with no significant climbs, but still even the one guy who came on a SS with rack and panniers managed to get in within the time limit. My gps shows 2562ft of climbing, making it the "flatest" ride I've ever created, and less than 200 ft more than the July Populaire Steve created.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Scrambled Eggs
A short run down of stuff:
Brakes. The one thing you really don't want to spend any time thinking about on your bike. You want them to just work, require little care and don't want to hear a peep out of them. Sadly that's not how the stock brakes on Beast have been. They've required a readjustment every time I removed and replaced a wheel, the feel has been poor, as has been the overall power. Frankly it was pissing me off. I decided to do something about it, and replaced the front brake with a new Deore BR-M590 in black. Amazing! Really, since I'm running the odd combo of a bar end lever, v brake and Problem Solvers to make them compatible, this may be the most awesome combo ever. The old brakes had longer arms (even though the M590 says "New! Longer Arms!" the old were even longer) which meant the lever/problem solver combo was a bit short on pull and therefore stopping power. The M590 is really an awesome brake for very little money. I should have gotten both front and rear.
Work. I now have a second part-time job. I'm working a couple days a week at one of the local bike shops. It's not a ton of money, but every little bit helps. It seems weird working on plastic bikes. It's a nice commute, with nearly 1000' of climbing on the way in and 1500' for the 22 mile round trip.
Heck of the North. Currently it's beginning to look like it may not happen for me this year. While I think the race will be fun, and I'm in decent enough shape to complete inside the time limits, in reality the main part of the trip was the fact that I'd get to go visit friends that live up that way. Sadly, it doesn't look like it will be a good time for a visit and I don't want to spend the money to travel up there if I'm not going to get to see them.
The next Populaire is this Sunday. The route is not finished, as my first attempt to drive it was today, and a closed road, with a large construction area blocking it, meant it's back to the drawing board. I could make it a very fast route by staying on the main roads, and there is a chance it may come to that, but I'm trying to get it on at least some side roads, but in that area there's a good risk those are gravel. While I'm fine with that, most of the people coming out for the ride wouldn't be.
Brakes. The one thing you really don't want to spend any time thinking about on your bike. You want them to just work, require little care and don't want to hear a peep out of them. Sadly that's not how the stock brakes on Beast have been. They've required a readjustment every time I removed and replaced a wheel, the feel has been poor, as has been the overall power. Frankly it was pissing me off. I decided to do something about it, and replaced the front brake with a new Deore BR-M590 in black. Amazing! Really, since I'm running the odd combo of a bar end lever, v brake and Problem Solvers to make them compatible, this may be the most awesome combo ever. The old brakes had longer arms (even though the M590 says "New! Longer Arms!" the old were even longer) which meant the lever/problem solver combo was a bit short on pull and therefore stopping power. The M590 is really an awesome brake for very little money. I should have gotten both front and rear.
Work. I now have a second part-time job. I'm working a couple days a week at one of the local bike shops. It's not a ton of money, but every little bit helps. It seems weird working on plastic bikes. It's a nice commute, with nearly 1000' of climbing on the way in and 1500' for the 22 mile round trip.
Heck of the North. Currently it's beginning to look like it may not happen for me this year. While I think the race will be fun, and I'm in decent enough shape to complete inside the time limits, in reality the main part of the trip was the fact that I'd get to go visit friends that live up that way. Sadly, it doesn't look like it will be a good time for a visit and I don't want to spend the money to travel up there if I'm not going to get to see them.
The next Populaire is this Sunday. The route is not finished, as my first attempt to drive it was today, and a closed road, with a large construction area blocking it, meant it's back to the drawing board. I could make it a very fast route by staying on the main roads, and there is a chance it may come to that, but I'm trying to get it on at least some side roads, but in that area there's a good risk those are gravel. While I'm fine with that, most of the people coming out for the ride wouldn't be.
Friday, August 19, 2011
Ridin' Around
Took Beast out for a spin yesterday. I had made a couple minor changes: removing the front rack/bag and the rear fender. This lightens it a bit, maybe 3 lbs, and cleans up the aerodynamics a good deal. It also lightens the steering and lets a bit more road vibe through. Oh, and because it was raining a bit when I was out, means the tire throws a lot more crud in my face, off the top of the tire, and the downtube crud guard does a decent enough job keeping my bottles clean.
On the flats, with no headwind, I can keep a pretty consistent 18-19mph as it was. Honestly that seems pretty similar to the speeds I run with the bag, rack and fender. The front crud guard really does catch a good deal of air, and I remember it slowing me a good 1.5mph when i installed it. But for the gravel event it needs to be on, and I see no reason to not train with it.
I ended up with a pretty flat 71miles, and a moving average of 14.9mph. I rocked out my first 8.3 miles at 17.8mph. Probably my best sprint on Beast.
In all, training is going well. I'm not quite where I'd like to be, with a proven loaded, sub 8hr century. Madison will be my benchmark for that, and I should get out and ride it again soon, loaded. Last attempt was 8:37, it got warm that day, with my GPS showing highs of 96 (not counting the stupid temps seen when stopped)
On the flats, with no headwind, I can keep a pretty consistent 18-19mph as it was. Honestly that seems pretty similar to the speeds I run with the bag, rack and fender. The front crud guard really does catch a good deal of air, and I remember it slowing me a good 1.5mph when i installed it. But for the gravel event it needs to be on, and I see no reason to not train with it.
I ended up with a pretty flat 71miles, and a moving average of 14.9mph. I rocked out my first 8.3 miles at 17.8mph. Probably my best sprint on Beast.
In all, training is going well. I'm not quite where I'd like to be, with a proven loaded, sub 8hr century. Madison will be my benchmark for that, and I should get out and ride it again soon, loaded. Last attempt was 8:37, it got warm that day, with my GPS showing highs of 96 (not counting the stupid temps seen when stopped)
Sunday, August 14, 2011
I Scream Populaire
Today was the second of the trail run of LBC sponsored Populaires. It was also the first route I had designed entirely from scratch. I think I aimed too high, as the response from the five people who showed up was overwhelmingly positive! Five people was about half as many as I had hoped for, but it was a good group. I had been warning people that it was pretty climby, and I might have scared a few people off who might have come otherwise, and would have been fine. Depending on what you use to measure it, it comes in @3700, 4800 or 5200 ft of climbing. My Garmin 500 is at the low end. RidewithGPS is at the high end.
I couldn't have even hoped for as fine of weather as what we had today, with highs around 80F, cloudy skies and pretty light winds. Skies threatened rain, but other than a few sprinkles, held off. It made me very sad that I was driving a van from control to control to do the paperwork, as I could schedule this every weekend and not manage to luck into the kind of weather we had today. When I had scheduled it way back in May, I had expected a mid-August Populaire to be hellishly hot and humid.
The riders are asking me to put this on again, and no doubt considering the amount of time and effort I put into designing it, I will. However, I don't think I'll put it on too often, as I think it's special enough to dole out sparingly. Perhaps twice a year at most, probably once as a Populaire and another time as a club ride. I'm really tempted to see if I can continue to schedule it as a "Picnic-Alternative", and use it as a Populaire at some other point of the season, perhaps in Spring as soon as Polly Freeze opens. Trying to do it when the leaves are turning is problematic as a Populaire, as I have to schedule so far in advance that I could end up scheduling it on top of Harvest Homecoming, and the route overlap in enough sections to be confusing, which could endanger the HH riders.
I couldn't have even hoped for as fine of weather as what we had today, with highs around 80F, cloudy skies and pretty light winds. Skies threatened rain, but other than a few sprinkles, held off. It made me very sad that I was driving a van from control to control to do the paperwork, as I could schedule this every weekend and not manage to luck into the kind of weather we had today. When I had scheduled it way back in May, I had expected a mid-August Populaire to be hellishly hot and humid.
The riders are asking me to put this on again, and no doubt considering the amount of time and effort I put into designing it, I will. However, I don't think I'll put it on too often, as I think it's special enough to dole out sparingly. Perhaps twice a year at most, probably once as a Populaire and another time as a club ride. I'm really tempted to see if I can continue to schedule it as a "Picnic-Alternative", and use it as a Populaire at some other point of the season, perhaps in Spring as soon as Polly Freeze opens. Trying to do it when the leaves are turning is problematic as a Populaire, as I have to schedule so far in advance that I could end up scheduling it on top of Harvest Homecoming, and the route overlap in enough sections to be confusing, which could endanger the HH riders.
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