...or, how I stopped worrying and learned to love the burn

[Alistar]

Looks like you're all over your colds if recent riding is anything to go by
Impressive speed on that fixie!

Yeah have to pick your battles sometimes. After my last little altercation with an old guy, a Ute load(5) of burley farmer boys slowed down pulled up alongside and wound down the window and made the old wanker sign. Apart from giving them the old wtf's your problem stare, and trying to look menacing( not sure a 70kg cyclist ever looks very menacing ) I wasn't going to push my luck!
Yeah education is pretty important. Not law in this country yet but cycle groups have been pushing for that 1.5m rule for awhile and it is suggested by Police etc as best practise. So most drivers do give you room. Its just that hardcore ~5% of either ignorant, plain useless, or self righteous vindictive drivers that cause the grief. And I suppose there'll be a corresponding percentage of cyclists that don't do us any favours...

Some guy on this forum posted this late 1970's/early 80's NZ TV advert about "looking out for cyclists" as they see what you don't (glass,potholes,gravel, gutter gratings at side of road they have to avoid) so give them room. Wish there were those kind of safety messages being put out today as many people who've never cycled just have no idea.

[bob_summers]

Have had a few days off, so thought I might try to catch this up with the dregs of 2013

Turbo: haven't used it since mid-December, as there's no need when I'm not working. It was set up with GoldenCheetah so I did an 20 mins FTP test on 18/12 which gave me 329w. Kind of a shame that it's not proper calibrated power as I wouldn't complain about 4.5W/kg Anyway now to see if I can get that up a little bit (VP is useless as a comparative against other riders but is reportedly good for repeatability for the same rider on the same turbo).

Then a few easy rides before seeing out the year with the Festive 500. I was going to do it on my fixie (hah!) but thankfully thought better of it.

24/12
140km Mandubia
Got of to a bad start. Having put crudcatchers on the Pego, the front one started to rub on the tyre after about 10 minutes. COuldn't sort it, and assumed it would stop on its own. It didn't, and it rubbed for the next five hours. First 3 hours were draining, raining and into a strong south wind and generally uphill, avg of 24kmh. Almost turned round and went home the same way but stuck in to the top of Mandubia, after which the gradient and tailwind gave me a 30kmh avg. Hard day.

25/12
150km Azpirotz Donestebe
Almost 6 hours and a lousy 26kmh average. Wind not as strong but day before had left me out of fight. Torrential rain at Leitza, so the big downhill was sketchy and I was frozen (though ambient was not too cold) from then on. Last hour nauseous and fed up, but more than halfway through the challenge.

Three days of holiday in Bordeaux followed (banned from taking the bike!), where I picked up a stomach bug. Water in the hotel went off for maintenance or something, I got up and took a drink in the dark and got a couple of mouthfulls of brown sludge. Cue a day in bed with a fever and cold sweats.

29/12
100km Urraki
An easy ride as I didn't feel great and was missing energy stores. On the climb to Urraki I couldn't keep an effort together for more than a minute, and my HR was elevated anyway. Had a couple of loops to add on in case I felt better but never did, so got home with 108km left for the challenge.


30/12
120km Biarritz etc.
Worst ride of the lot, and mainly for the drivers, deja vu from about 3 weeks ago. First one objected to me asking him to back off from tailgating me on a roundabout. Tried to ram me twice, but as usual declined my invitation to stop and chat. Good thing, as I think I would have taken his head off with my frame pump. Not very vegan of me. Barely a km later a French driver ran me close, gesticulating towards the cycle path. The logic defies me - to care about the well being of a cyclist so much you're prepared to run them down in the road. Never mind, passed 108km to get the Festive 500 in the bag.

31/12
50km Igeldo x2 Aia
Beautiful evening ride, got over the top of Igeldo just in time for the sun disappearing. 10 mins off my summer pace on the same circuit, but not bothered.

Yet to ride in 2014, might try tomorrow, but feeling generally run down and get the feeling I carried the same thing right over the holidays.

Lezaeta farmhouse on Christmas day


Last sunset of 2013

[bob_summers]

I knew something wasn't right, maybe the hotel 'poisoning' wasn't that after all, and it was the work of a virus or something, as I've felt pretty shitty the last week. Stomach cramps (belly was up like a baloon and painful to touch), no appetite, fuzzy head and a load of snot. Today was the first day I felt a bit better (last day of the holidays, naturally...)

4/1
50km Cruce, fixie
Cruel weather, headwind out which switched 180º and blew a storm in off the sea (and a HW back), finished pissed off and frozen.

6/1
60km Playa Gris, fixie
More strong wind, headed for Zumaia but rounding the bend into the bay of Playa Gris the wind stopped me dead and was threatening to blow me over the wall into the sea. Some surfers parked up in a van advised against going further, and I didn't need much convincing. Felt better today, well better than when I was struggling with the Festive 500, kept it nice and easy though.

In other news, the Pego is dead. It rusted through, which I'm kicking myself over as I always swore I'd get a winter hack and never did. I never treated the inside of the frame either (nor any of my other steelies but they're not made of paper thin tubes). Well, I say dead - I'm sure a good builder could cut out the tube (NDS seat stay) and weld a new one in, but I shudder to think of the cost. I've asked a couple of places for quotes so we'll see, but tomorrow's job is to build up my old Colnago, nice to ride but about a kilo heavier

Sounds like you've had a pretty hard couple of weeks. So well done even completing that 500 considering!

[quote="bob_summers"] work of a virus or something, as I've felt pretty shitty the last week

[bob_summers]

Yeah, i guess it did a fair few k's, Strava has 24k in the last couple of years, no data for the 3 or 4 years before that but you could double it at least. More than the average Pego I suppose (I never see them on the road, I always imagine them to be wobbling around Central Park in the sunshine beneath fat dentists clad in Rapha but maybe that's unfair heheh). Not much for a "bike for life" as it was supposed to be though!

I did find out there are a couple of framebuilders locally, one in the town and another an hour away in Bilbao, both doing tig welded bikes from Columbus tubes, so maybe not the end of the road.

For now, I've been looking at the Chinese carbon frames which seem to have a good rep on the forums. An FM066 is about 700USD shipped, and weighs about 900g for a size 54. Angles are identical to the Supersix evo, and I've only heard good things about the handling. I've always wanted a CAAD10 but would struggle to get one even second hand for that price. Carbon frames tend to leave me cold but these look pretty purposeful...

[Mr. Cleetus]

hmm, you don't think you could get the Pego fixed for that cost? Or are you just itching for something new?

[bob_summers]

I'm *always* itching for something new! But if I can get this repaired, it won't be quick. The guy in Bilbao spoke to Dario (Pegoretti) (!) - - apparently these guys don't like touching each other's work - but he's got the OK, and is happy to have a look at it, however would have to prioritise customer builds.
I stripped it yesterday, the tubes are full of loose rust but no obvious holes anywhere else. This guy does some pretty nice work himself http://www.flickr.com/photos/amarobikes ... 307685858/

Finished building the Colnago, somewhat ignominiously its first ride was on the turbo.

8/1
Turbo 55m
Threshold "a very dark place"
So upped my CP in GoldenCheetah to 330w after doing the threshold test last month. Surprise surprise, I could barely hit the target power. I wasn't a mile away though, and still don't feel recovered after the crappy couple of weeks, so I'll just keep at it.

[Alistar]

Carbon might feel a bit dead after what you're used to tho. Love my Taiwanese cooker cutter frame (apart from dropouts ) as has a good geo, and really stable at speed down hills and handles fantastically. Heavy for carbon, pretty stiff, but then as its past warranty (even if its make hadn't gone bust ) I'm pretty happy about that as should do me 10yrs.

That bike looks pretty stealth, and you can tell who inspired it, but still not sure about those super thin seat stays. Look like they might shatter if you looked at them the wrong way

Will have to go look up "CP" as can never remember what those power things refer to...

[bob_summers]

Seems that frames are going more disposible nowadays Al, I don't like those thin stays either especially not since I saw that guy last summer have his SUpersix Evo destroyed in a weird uphill crash. Not sure if I told the story here, but he got shunted from behind (by a Madone) as someone near the front missed a gear. The Madone was unmarked but as we picked the Cannondale guy up, I couldn't believe the rear triangle had snapped off completely and both wheels (Zipp 303) were tacoed.

CP/Critical Power is the maximum you can sustain for a period of 'x' mins, so your CP for 60 mins would be the same as your FTP. What most people do is measure a 20 min TT effort and use that to gauge progress every 8 or 10 weeks (because who wants to do an hour at TT pace?!). If you look at the 'best power efforts curve' on a paid Strava account (although it might just be visible to the user, I dunno) it shows you the CP for that ride compared to previous. My last one for example is 25w lower for my CP20, but that's because the last ride didn't have a 20m max interval so it's counting the rest intervals.

Mine is derived with virtual power so is useless as a real world comparative, but providing I ride on the same turbo, same tyre & pressure, same resistance, it's been found to be repeatable and reasonably accurate for evaluating gains. I'd like to try a power meter, I think they become more useful the less time you have to train. When I had more time, I found HR and using the same routes was enough, if I paid enough attention to how rested I was, but these days my HR is all over the place.

[Alistar]

Cheers for taking the time to explain all that
I have the same problem re HR

[bob_summers]

No worries. It was all new to me a month ago

HR has been weird recently. I'm doing moderate tempo efforts, looking down expecting to see 155bpm and I'm way up in LT. Other days it hardly responds. Odd.

Fri 10/1
Turbo 60m "Fight Club"

Getting quite into the Sufferfest vids! This one is particularly horrible. 4x6m threshold intervals with a few fartlek style max efforts thrown into each interval. First interval was a disaster, dropped the chain on the second sprint and as it was dark (I ride the turbo with the light off, don't ask!) I couldn't get it back on without getting off the bike. 2nd interval felt easy and I wondered if the resistance was set wrong. 3rd interval I felt I was beginning to drown and the last one was painful. I fluffed the last couple of sprints, the legs just went from under me. After it was over I just sat there in the dark shaking!

Sat 11/1
Goizueta Fixie 70km

Out and back, no big climbs but sufficiently lumpy to cause some damage in a couple of hours.

Sun 12/1
Zumaia fixie 80km

Set off at 11am (pretty early for me these days) and there were huge pelotons already arriving back in town. What godforsaken hour do these people get up at?!
Felt pretty good today and thought I might crack 30kmh avg (think I've only done it once on fixed) but struggled with the strong wind which had me out of the saddle on downhills a couple of times.

I ordered the Chinese frame. It might arrive next week (or it might spend a month in Spanish customs). Feel I've been too hasty here, although last year I was on the point of buying the same one to build into a cross between a big mountains bike and a rust proof winter hack. In the end I got some carbon rims for the Pego which brought it down to a bit over 7kg. I need to have a yard sale...

[Mr. Cleetus]

330w is pretty solid!

11am. bob.... what about the wee kiddo hah, actually, sometimes a later start seems to work better for me too with family.

I look forward to watching the Chinese get built.

[Alistar]

^Ditto. Should build up pretty light for those climbs

[bob_summers]

Hah, yeah 11am is pretty slack (was 12 today I think) but it works for me - the wee man and his mum go to spend the afternoon with Nana so I can hang out with him for the morning. Plus, there's little traffic on the roads around lunchtime (and drunk/drugged drivers in the mornings....).

The Chinese frame is now in Spain but got intercepted by Customs. I was a bit naive about it, I asked the sender to put 100$ on the invoice, which is going to fool precisely noone. Now I have to prove that's what I paid for it, which I can't, so I get the feeling a world of pain is about to begin. Hope I don't end up in prison

Anyway, back on the bike. It's been another really boring week with zero form...

Monday
Turbo, 2x20 sweet spots. Felt too easy, stuck to 89%ftp for the first interval, then 91% for the second.

Tues/Thurs commute

Friday
Turbo 1h decreasing intervals (400w jumps decreasing in length but increasing in power). Nasty business, again felt easy at the start then started to wonder if I was going to finish.. the last few intervals were really short, close together and I hit the power OK but couldn't hold them for the full duration.

Saturday
55km 2h12 Igeldo Aia Igeldo
Did this on the Colnago.. not a lithe climber, nor really geared for it (bottom is 39x23) but can't blame it for the time... I get round in about 1h55 in form. Just felt slow and tired - boy's been waking up a few times a night lately so maybe can't expect to be going well on erratic sleep.

Sunday
80km Zumaia Meagas Fixie
Incredibly, despite an abysmal forecast, I didn't get wet until about 10mins from home. Not a bad ride on fixed - only one short climb which is too steep for a 48x16, have to lurch up at 12kmh.

[Mr. Cleetus]

Good luck in prison!

It will be interesting to see what all of the intensity is doing for you. Possibly it will help you get away from the big fellas in the slammer.