I hit 1 000 miles of riding this season. I actually hit it sometime last week, but was too lazy to post anything about it. This is by far the most miles I have done in any year of biking and the year is not over yet! I attribute a lot of those miles (682 to be exact) to the fact that I got a new bike that is just such a tremendous joy to ride.
Today’s ride was a 21 mile loop that I did pretty hard. I came in at 1 hour and 12 minutes, a 17.x mile per hour average. While this speed not what I will need to compete in TTs next year, my loops include a few hills (TTs around here are mostly flat) including one I can only go up at about 8mph. In the flat sections I am consistently above 21mph and on descents I stay at around 30mph just to be safe. So if I can get a trainer for the winter and work on my aero form I should be in top form for next season.
Today I went on my first group ride. It was a fairly quick and simple 20 mile loop from the local bike shop. There were about 15 of us with many different bikes. I had lots of fun chatting, riding, drafting, et cetera. I will definately be doing it again. Tomorrow is a 50 mile ride to some place that should have some good food. I really need to get a small digital camera to take some pictures on the rides…
A few weeks ago I wrote about a sucky weekend I had of bike riding. I have taken a very deep look at how I ride and took another shot this weekend at going 50 miles. My form has gotten so much better already and it shows because this weekend I went the full distance. However, without an odometer I have no clue how close to 50 miles I got. I do know it was within 47-49 miles for sure, if not more, based on the loops I took. When I finished I knew I could go longer and that was enough for me.
To fix my problems I did a few things: First I looked at how my legs were working with each stroke of the pedals. I found that my left leg was doing too much of the work involuntarily. So I am now pushing with my right leg. I also found that when I get tired I tend to drag my feet such that I don’t lift them up when I should which causes weight to be applied to the pedal moving upwards. I fixed this by making concious changes to how I pedal.
Secondly I looked at my upper body movements and found that when I was pushing hard I would sway from side to side. This is very bad because it is not only a waste of energy but also puts forces at a ninety degree angle to the direction I am traveling. I fixed this by ensuring my upper body remains still as possible throughout the ride. When I climb now, I make sure that although the bike swings from side to side, my shoulder remain in line with the wheels. Again, so as not to waste any energy.
Thirdly, I looked at when I was pedaling too fast or hard and changed my strategy. Because my 50 mile loop[s] have 4-5 hills that are still a tad challenging to me I have forced myself to restrain from blazing across the flat sections. Today this was helped by catching people and being able to wheel suck for a bit. Thank you for all the help out there! It was much appreciated!
Fouthly, I made sure that I was as clean as possible before going out. This meant little to no pizza and a very small breakfast before riding. I had a bowl of rice crispies with some bananas and some coffee. This also meant that I carried only two water bottles rather than the four I carried last time. The weight savings were noticeably, although next time I will probably carry three bottles or grab a refill as I ran out at around 40 miles.
And lastly, I made sure that I carried gatorade instead of just water! This ensured that my legs were still good for the last couple of climbs I had to do. Boy was the gatorade and power bars a life saver today. I ended up eating my power bar a little early, but it felt great. I immediately felt the change and felt basically fresh even after 25 miles of some pretty hard roads.
Tomorrow I get back into the normal 16-20 mile routine until I can go longer in the short time I have after work. I have lost a total of 0 pounds, but feel stronger and thinner. Once I change my diet for good I am sure I will lose some weight.
Carlos Sastre has taken yellow all the way home today to win the Tour De France in the overall best rider (time) category. Congratulations to him and the whole CSC team who also took the overall best team classification as well as the white jersey (best young rider). Carlos beat out Cadel Evans by attacking on Alp d’Huez and holding everyone off in the final time trial.
The biking season is just coming into full swing for me. Unfortunately I got a late start because I wanted to work hard first this summer and make some money, then ease off and get into a nice rythm. Before this past week my average weekly mileage had been stuck around 20-30 miles. This week I have ridden 53 with the intention of riding more had my bike not been in the shop for half of it.
One of the goals of this season was much like the goal of the previous season: to get my 16 mile time to under 50 minutes. Today I set out to do this and finished with a time of 00:48:22.xxx! This means I averaged roughly 20 miles per hour over the entire course (if I did my math correctly) which is well above my previous best of 17mph average.
Now that I have knocked one item off my list it is time to continue and work on the others: weight loss and overall distance. Weight loss will come, I am sure of that, but my bike is definately hurting me on distance. It sucks my energy because of how much friction it has and is unreliable when ascending. My highest mileage to date is 40 miles, and the goal is to get to 75 miles by the end of the season.
Who knows, I may just do it.
Cycling | John Sedlak | 
September 22, 2008 11:05 am | 
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