Good Bye 2011 - Hello 2012

It's that time of year again to do the self-evaluation and setting of goals for the new year.

First I need to talk about the last couple of rides.

Saturday, the last day of 2011, saw my son and I riding with the Firestone & Summit group doing the Perdido Key Route. It was a foggy day, the worst of it being on Lillian Hwy as we rode by Perdido Bay. We had a fairly strong group for this ride, but Dana did a lot of pulling and I had to work really hard just to stay on his wheel. When it was over I had an average speed of 19.2 mph which might be a record for me on a group ride.

On Sunday, the 1st day of 2012, I rode with my son and a friend of his from college; we rode the Spanish/UWF/Scenic route. I was really feeling tired from the previous day's effort. Needless to say I couldn't keep up. It was a very hard ride for me. The hills just killed me.

2011 Review

I did a mid-year review here. Not much changed since that review; I continued to go out of town a lot for business which set me back. I knew when I made the goals I was going out on a limb, but I really thought I would make those goals. I'll address some of the 2011 goals:

• I only raced 3 events, not the goal of 6. These 3 events were earlier in the year. I could have raced our local Pensacola Classic, but I just didn't believe I was anywhere close to competitive. I did go to the DLV track in Atlanta quite a bit during the summer.
• Mileage for the year was 3,342 miles, not anywhere close to the goal of 5,000. I find it interesting that for 2010 my mileage was 3,280. When I compare 2011 with 2010 I basically did one more long ride for 2011. Not much difference between 2011 and 2010.

2012 Goals

After the disappointment of not reaching goals for 2011 I am very hesitant to publicly state goals for 2012, but I'll give a try.

• Six events - This is the same as last year, but I'm going to put a twist on it. By events I'm not going to limit it to races. That means Ride Yellow and similar rides will count as events. I do want to do more races than last year, but I'm going to have to take into consideration time, fitness, and costs. I hate to admit it, but costs is a factor this year. By the way, I've already renewed my USAC racing license.
• Improve on the track - I really enjoyed riding on the velodrome. I'm still considered a beginner, so hopefully for 2012 I can move up. The problem is that it takes going to Atlanta quite a bit and that costs both time and money. Non-the-less, I want to ride track and improve.
• Be More Competitive - I don't want to keep finishing last in my races. I would actually like to win. I've already started working towards this goal by making some life-style changes. The effects will take time to realize. I do need to lose weight so that I can go up hills better. Right now hills really do me in. Loosing weight is not going to be easy. I also plan to push myself more so that I can be a factor/player in the outcome of races. This goal is hard to measure except by not finishing last anymore.
• Mileage - for 2012 I'm going to set a goal of 3,600 miles. That isn't the 5,000 of last year's goal and it's just a little over the actual miles for 2011, but it's a goal and looking over the history of the last few years is both more than I've been riding and obtainable.

That's it, four cycling goals for 2012. I really believe I can reach these goals. Happy New Year every one. I hope that 2012 will be a great year on the bike for all of us.

PS - I want to add another goal that is not really cycling related. I want to blog more and take more pictures. I want to add pictures to the routes that I map with MapMyRide, plus it would be nice if my blog posts also included pictures.

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!