Midyear Review of 2011 Goals

Wow, it's been a long time since my last post. I figure it might be a good time to review the 2011 goals since it is almost the end of June. Let's see... not so good.

• Join RUSA - didn't happen.
• Get a route registered with RUSA - didn't happen.
• Ride Yellow - didn't make it. My son felt sick so we didn't go. I wish I had gone because other people I know who did ride had a great ride.
• Pensacola Classic - still a possibility if they put the race on.
• Racing license - I did get a racing license but I've only ridden 3 events. I had other events on the calender but due to finances and work I have only made 3 events this year. The only other event I might be able to do is Pensacola Classic.
• 5k miles - doesn't look to likely at this point. I currently have 1,699. At this time last year I had 1,507. I guess I could say I'm doing better but I need to be at 2,500 if I were to make the 5,000 for the year.

So what's been going on, why am I so behind?

1. I've been out of town a lot and haven't been able to ride.
2. A change in interest. I was very interested in RUSA; in fact, I still am. But now I'm also interested in the track. My son and I have been going to the Dick Lane Velodrome (DLV) in Atlanta. More on this later in the post.

Yes, you will find me riding the group rides on Wednesdays and Saturdays when I can. Other days I'm pretty much doing my own thing. To be honest, I'm just not putting in the miles I thought I would.

Now for the track. It all started when we got a good deal on a Dean track frame. My son really wanted it, so we bought it. It didn't get very much use there for a while. This is a true track bike and isn't been to be riden around town as a fixie. Later my son bought a set of track tubulars from a friend.

Fast forward about a year. Turns out that Lees McRae College (LMC) in Banner Elk, NC wants my son to be a part of their cycling team. LMC has a great cycling team with many national titles in several disciplines. One of the disciplines LMC pursues is the track and the coach is an experienced track rider. So, we have been encouraged to ride on the track at DLV. The team makes a couple of trips a year to DLV for training. BTW, my son is due to attend LMC in the fall. It is a small school in a small town; the cycling team currently has over 50 riders.

We have made several trips to DLV. We both participated in a weekend beginner's class which they offer on occasion. You have to take a class before you are allowed to ride on the track. After completing the class we both went up to Atlanta for the beginner's races which are held on Tuesday nights twice a month. It didn't take long and my son was invited to ride in the categorized races on Wednesday nights. My son also participated in the first of the Pro Race series which was in May; the next Pro Race will be in July and another in September.



Currently my son is a 'C' rider but hopes to move up to a 'B' by the end of the summer. It will take a lot of work. In an effort to reach that goal my son has a personalized training program which he has been following quite well. Part of this program is the Saturday group rides which are suppose to be 3 hours and then an easy 2 hours on Sundays.

A couple of his workouts each week are on the rollers all done in an easy gear. The workout consist of a warmup for about 5 minutes then spinning at 100 for 5 minutes, followed by a sprint. After the sprint he is to spin at 110 for 4 minutes, then 1 minute easy, then sprint again; it is a 5 minute cycle. After each sprint the cadence is suppose to go up another 5 or 10 rpm depending. The total workout is 35 minutes. The purpose is to develop the spin.

I also have been doing the rollers and spinning. It is really the first time I have ever ridden rollers for any length of time. After the first workout I felt fairly comfortable on the rollers. I'm actually enjoying the workout and I've made my workout to be 40 minutes instead of my son's 35. I like it whole lot more than riding the turbo trainer. Now you might notice on the group rides we are spinning quite fast. In fact, I rarely get out of the small chain ring anymore.

So, the track has been taking a lot of our time. DLV has an excellent program in my opinion with a lot of great riders that are also friendly. It is definitely a community that gets to know each other.

At first I was skeptical about the track. I had never ridden a fixed gear before. After my first day on the track I didn't like it. I went back for the 2nd day of the beginners class and we had races. I started to enjoy it then. I've heard some people say that track racing is little races. Yes, they are short, but they are very hard. It is amazing how much tactics come into play. There are several types of races and each type race has it's own set of tactics.

I can't say I'm very good at the track. I am still considered a beginner or a 'D' rider. I do not do very good with the short races, but I do better at the longer races. The race I've done best at is the unknown distance which is a race where the racers have no idea how many laps it is. I like this race because it starts off slower and builds up so by the time the bell rings I'm warmed up. BTW, my son hates the unknown distance.

One of the things about the track is it requires another bike. All of my track riding so far has been on 'school' bikes. DLV rents bikes for $5 per night/day if a rider doesn't have one. The problem is I have had a hard time getting fitted properly so I believe my performance suffered. Sounds like a good excuse to me. I just finished building up a track bike for myself so now I won't be able to use that excuse much longer. Here is a photo of my track bike; it is a Bianchi Super Pista.



Speaking of posting pictures I hope to post pictures of the velodrome soon with a little bit of information about the track.

Track riding is very different from road racing and, just like road racing, isn't for everyone. It's another discipline of cycling and I believe participating in track will make my son and I both better cyclist. It is a long haul to drive to Atlanta twice a month, but I really want to help my son reach his goals. After he goes away to school I can't say how often I will continue to go. I do enjoy it; I just wish it were closer. I know, instead of a ball park downtown let's build a velodrome instead.

2011 Goals

I've been sick the last week so I haven't been on the bike. I did manage to get 3,280 miles in for 2010. It's time to look back and look forward.

Looking back on 2010, it has been a good year for me on the bike. I had put 1,672 miles on the bike for 2009. I had set a goal of 2,400 miles for the year 2010, so I exceeded the goal. Once I saw I was going to exceed the goal I reset it to 3,000, so I exceeded that one too. My first event of the year was Ride Yellow. I had cut 30 minutes off my time from 2009. I felt good about that. My only other goal was to ride the Pensacola Classic which I did. I would have liked to have placed better, but it had been a long time since I raced, so I'm not going to beat myself up too bad about my performance. I did ride a sanctioned race in Dothan.

Towards the end of the year I've been feeling pretty good on the bike. I actually feel like I'm about where I should be, feeling strong and able to hang in there most of the time. I've had several rides this year over a 100k, but my longest has been 68 miles. So, I'll say 2010 has been a good year for the bike.

Now for 2011: I'm having a hard time setting goals. Maybe it's because I've been sick or maybe it is the uncertainty of the economy. Probably it's all that plus I hate making commitments.

• I had wanted to pursue a R-12 with RUSA, but I don't see that happening. I will join RUSA and lets see where it goes from there.


• I will try to get one of my 200k rides to become a RUSA ride. Also, will see about getting more RUSA riders here locally.


• I will ride Ride Yellow again. I hope to do even better this year.


• I will ride the Pensacola Classic again. I hope to put in a better performance this year.


• I will get a racing license and do at least 6 sanctioned races.


• I will set my total mileage goal to 5k miles for the year. I really want to do that, but it all depends. It might be pushing it.

That's it. Let's see how it goes. Happy New Year everyone!

The Rider by Tim Krabbe'

I just finished reading The Rider by Tim Krabbe'. It wasn't the easiest book to read, but I did enjoy it. The book pretty much covers a single race kilometer by kilometer with some other stories mixed in. I could feel his pain and understand the feelings and thoughts that he had as he progressed through the race. In the end I would say that it is a good book and recommend it.

UWF/Scenic Hills

Yesterday I rode with the Firestone & Summit group. We did the UWF/Scenic Hills Loop. You can read a different take on the ride here.

After having ridden 68 miles the day before my legs were heavy. I had a hard time getting my cadence up. There were only five of us. The average speed was a little over 15; so it wasn't a fast ride, but there were some fast sections as usual. I enjoyed the route, especially riding through Scenic Hills. I did take one hill and came in 2nd for the finish on Maygarden.

This morning my son and I were going to ride with our FSU friend, but 40 degree temps caused us to stay inside. The wind is up too. To tell the truth, my legs are heavy today too.

Molino 68mi

Yesterday my son, a friend, and I rode my Molino 68mi route. It was a nice day. I dressed warmly, but never got hot, just nice and toasty. I did get cold at a rest stop. This was the first time I have ridden some of these roads in over 20 years. Not much has changed, just more traffic in some areas and a few roads have better pavement. But, some roads appear to have the same pavement as 20 years ago.

Our friend is a student from FSU and is on the team there. It was the strongest rider of the day. I came in last. Towards the end of the ride going down Scenic Hwy I had very little left in my legs. To think that our friend had wanted to ride the 200k, there's no way I was ready for that.

We got a 9am start and ended at 1:30pm with 4 hrs of riding time. There was quite a bit of traffic on Pine Forest and the turn onto 297A. After we turned up 97 the traffic thinned and the pavement was good pretty much all the way to Muskogee Rd. The pavement all the way to Molino was about average with some good pavement thrown in from time to time. Molino Rd was pretty good.

The stores on Muskogee Rd and in Molino on 95A were open which is good. But we didn't stop until we got to Five Points. Quintette Rd is no better than it use to be. I take that back. The first half had good pavement, but the Santa Rosa part was numbing. I've never been a fan of Quintette Rd, but it does connect the two counties which opens up the possibilities of nice long rides without having to double back.

The traffic on Woodbine was intense at times, but it was around 12:30. The traffic on Hwy 90 was heavy and it was difficult to make the left onto Scenic Hwy. Some were saying how cruel it is to finish up the ride on Scenic Hwy. I think it is a good way to finish up the ride; although my legs were screaming at me.

We had a great ride! It was about the right distance for me for this time of year. I might make some modifications to the course to avoid Pine Forest Rd and the 297A intersection, but we'll see. This was the first time my son has ridden this course. He enjoyed it so much that he thinks it should be a weekly ride. BTW, I designed this version of the route just for him by going directly to Summit Blvd instead going via Bayou Blvd. He doesn't much care for riding Bayou Blvd.

Our friend will be in town until after the first of the year, so I'm sure we will get some more nice rides with him. It sure is nice having a 3rd riding to ride with; especially since he does a lot of pulling too. Thanks Joe!

A Little Warmer

My son and I rode Loop-T-Loop today. The temps were in the 50's. All in all it was a nice ride, but my son pushed me pretty hard. I rode the 928 for a change, but I could feel every bump in the rode. We are hoping to ride the Scenic 25 tomorrow if it doesn't rain with a friend. Got to ride when you can...

Pine Forest Loop

I got to ride Saturday with the Firestone & Summit group. We rode the Pine Forest Loop. There were 7 riders total. I was a little tired and the pace wasn't very fast. All in all it was a nice 40 mile ride. I'm not really crazy about the route, but I knew that the colder temperatures were coming, so I very much wanted to get some miles in while I could. I'll have to try to remember the route and post it on MapMyRide.com.

Today it is too cold and windy for me. I'm thinking about getting some more winter clothing; otherwise I'm going to have to learn how to ride rollers. I don't want to loose my fitness.