Rider Profiles

Thursday, January 15, 2009

New personal worst!!

Yessir,
I've been waiting a long time to set this new personal worst record. Commuted today in -13F temps. It was brilliant, I tell you. An eerie ride, for sure. Started by bundling up, layer after layer. Had on leg warmers, then AmFib tights, then sweat pants. Two pairs of sox, shoes and overshoe booties. Five layers for the upper body. Green reflective vest. Hoodie, two balaclavas for the noggin, topped off with ski goggles, headlamp and my helmet. Walmart 100 pile $8 gloves. Ready for the 4mile commute. Only the tip of my snout was sticking out and my pie-hole to breath thru.

Ventured outside. Big clouds of vapor every time I exhaled. Turned on the blinkies, and MiNewt Niterider. Out into the cruel world. Going up the first big hill was weird. Just like a battery, I was feeling the extreme cold zap my energy. Took longer to recover too once it leveled out. I had a route planned where if I blew a tire I wouldn't be too far from shelter. 24 hour laundromat, QT gas station, Kum and Go, St. Joes Hospital, dry cleaners, Pettits Pastry and 4 miles later, the Zorinsky Federal Building. Voila! Made it. Should have seen all the dubious looks I got walking my bike in. If the guards didn't know me already, they would have suspected some armed robber or terrorist.

Of course, I still had to make it home at 4 PM. By then it was a balmy 1F outside. I guess the next benchmark will be -20F. I got the negative double digits goal out of the way. It might be a while before we see -20's tho. Looking forward to the projected 40F's. I'll be riding in short sleeves!

El Guapo

Sunday, January 11, 2009

extreme weather training

Hey y'all,

I rode today (1/11/09) from Scooter's. Waited for other fools to show up, but none did. I rode my cross bike and knobbies from home to Scooters. A little wet. Then Scooter's to 60th Street and north. The street wasn't bad, but the brutal hills and the 23 rear cog didn't help. Headed east to Ponca road. Good shape. Then south on 36th Street. Need the hills to prep for Horribly Hilly Hundreds (june) and the Triple Bypass (july) rides.

Under Mormon Bridge and by airport to Kerry Pedestrian Bridge and over to Iowa. Then back to Old Market. Came home on hilly California Street. Probably 25 miles or so. When I left temp was 29F, when I got home it was 31F. So much for forecast highs of 35-40 degrees.

I got in much-needed high-tempo ride. Snow predicted again for tomorrow.

New Year's resolution is to eat less, work out more. Gonna cut back on heavy lifting now, start dropping weight to get to 180ish by March. Need to get to fighting weight of 175 by race season. Hit high of 189 during this offseason. New Year's resolution is working so far....down to 182 this morning.

Give me a holler anytime you wanna ride. We will set up a team meeting soon. If you would like to come to one of my spinning classes (Saturday 8 AM at S/SW YMCA 132nd and Center OR Wednesday evening 615 PM at Maple YMCA 75th and Maple St.). I'll line you up with a guest pass. Classes last 45 minutes. I'm also contemplating doing the indoor Trek trainer classes as advertised on Nebraska Cycling News.