IGVENTURE

Carson

Sport Bacon
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Thanks for the explanation on the nickname. Always fun to hear the stories behind them.
 
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pooriggy

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Up Front

Mike shoot me a PM with any turf questions, I’d be glad to pass on some info.

Liong, right back at ya…I’m a big fan of yours as well.



Fred's Bday

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C'mon Fred Smile

Saturday I got together with Norm, Utah Joe, Kush (Ilya), Fred and Blake to celebrate Fred’s 27th birthday by doing a road bike ride. We met at Fred’s house in Hillsbourogh and cruised towards Hunterdon County to do a ride called the Lebanon 52. The ride leaving Fred’s house was what I’d call typical road riding roads that consist of some rollers, and some flats…nothing real difficult in regards to climbing. We were taking it easy and not knowing the loop I was kinda wondering if the 90mile ride was going to be this boring.

The Lebanon 52 Starts at the Round Valley area and loops around Lebanon Township connecting every climb in the area. I began to have respect for this ride on Zellers Rd. At this point we were 2hrs into our ride and this was what I was waiting for…out of the saddle climbing with hairpin switchbacks that make you grind your way to the top. Looking back at the ride profile on my Garmin I count 9 of these types of climbs that drove my HR well above Lactic Threshold. This was like doing a series of hill repeat intervals because the climbs were that close together and the only rest was on the downhill to the next climb. This is illustrated in the saw-tooth profile of my HR.

This ride would be considered a hard ride simply because of the amount of intense, frequent climbing involved. My avg. speed or avg. Hr for this ride does not tell the picture on this ride but rather the amount of time spent above LT was what this ride was all about. Four hours into the ride I was still able to hit 93% of my HR, I’ve never been able to go that deep that far into a ride.

Its rides like these that you put into your account that make you a stronger rider. Doing this ride solo would be torture, you need someone to share the suffering with…or at least I do. For me it was great to have Ilya next to me on the climbs for moral support and as a push to make it to the top. Like I said the climbs are frequent and can break you, having a wheel next to you offers comfort in the pain.

At some point in the climbs this song popped into my head. I heard it on the way to Fred’s house earlier and has been on my listening radar. This song has a Fred kinda feel to it …light and fun + with all the climbing it seemed appropriate. The band is called Givers, if you want to sound cool in front of your friends don’t put a the in front of Givers…there is no the.

I LIKE these cameras.

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jShort

2018 Fantasy Football Toilet Bowl Lead Technician
Team MTBNJ Halter's
This was like doing a series of hill repeat intervals because the climbs were that close together and the only rest was on the downhill to the next climb. This is illustrated in the saw-tooth profile of my HR.

Yea, I know what you mean. I have yet to find a loop by my house that is somewhat flat. I cant do a ride without a ton of climbing.
This is a typical ride for me. 3500 ft in 2 hours.
And my only company of these rides is my friend Mr. iPod.
 

kush

Active Member
For me it was great to have Ilya next to me on the climbs for moral support and as a push to make it to the top. Like I said the climbs are frequent and can break you, having a wheel next to you offers comfort in the pain.

Great riding with you Chris. This was one of my most enjoyable rides for the year.
 

pooriggy

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Jeremy, can you bring your bike to work and ride flatter roads in that area after work?

Also thanks for the pitstop Saturday & congrats on lewmo today.
 

jShort

2018 Fantasy Football Toilet Bowl Lead Technician
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Jeremy, can you bring your bike to work and ride flatter roads in that area after work?

Also thanks for the pitstop Saturday & congrats on lewmo today.


Thanks and your very welcome!

And thats exactly what I need to do. I should just steal the High gear loop and do that. It goes close to my work.
 

The Kalmyk

Well-Known Member
No doubt I will follow this thread!!! Now you need a set of Look KEO power pedals!!!
 
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UtahJoe

Team Workhorse
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Good times on saturday....I think this was the only ride I have ever done in which I regularly smelled bike brakes burning....I think my wheels were fire. Really could see where both you and ilya have an advantage with the lighter weight. While I was trying to pace myself, im pretty sure I would have exploded quickly trying to maintain the speeds you two were on the uphills.
 

kush

Active Member
Good times on saturday....I think this was the only ride I have ever done in which I regularly smelled bike brakes burning....I think my wheels were fire. Really could see where both you and ilya have an advantage with the lighter weight. While I was trying to pace myself, im pretty sure I would have exploded quickly trying to maintain the speeds you two were on the uphills.

At 175lbs, I'm not what the cycling world would consider to be climber's physique! :p
 

pooriggy

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Ok, I just pulled out the wife's scale from under the bed...under 150lbs with clothes on. Growing up in a world where XL is king I finally have an advantage, its good to be medium.
 

pooriggy

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Up Front

Being small has its advantages in cycling no doubt.

Spence! its about time you showed up, now we can get this thing started.


Family Intro

I started this thread talking about the need to balance cycling with other stuff in life, like family. I've been married to Mary for 18 yrs and have 2 boys, Evan 16 and Jamie 13.

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Igs, Mary, Jamie, Evan

After 10 years of cycling my wife has gotten over the your a nut for riding your bike so much phase and at this point she accepts my passion to ride. A big milestone for me was when she and my younger son came to Lewis Morris last year to watch me race in the H2H series. This was the first time they had seen me race. I think she was curious as to what the hell I was doing all this time on a bike, like was I going to meet a girlfriend in the woods or something.(after all my training if i came in dfl i'd have some explaining to do) I was kinda surprised she told me she wanted to watch me race that morning, normally this is the last place she would want to be. In any case I was happy to have them there, I put Jamie to work handing me water bottles at the turn. It was good to have them there so they can see what in intense sport cycling is, now for the most part my wife just lets me do my thing.

Aside from cycling I spend a lot of time on the baseball field, Jamie has played travel baseball since he was 8 hrs old and I've been an assistant coach for his team. He plays soccer too but its baseball season so that's what I'm gonna talk about.

Any parent who has a kid in any travel sport knows the time commitment involved, for example we play 23 games over a 6 week period. I do enjoy it though and actually look forward to the games. My role on the team is that of scorekeeper, nickname giver, bench coach and I'm real handy with a grading rake.

Jamie is a good athlete, something he inherited from my dad. I was more like my older son Evan when I was growing up. I am going to just focus on J tonight...I'll talk about Evan later, for now all I'm gonna say is he's 16 and putting me through the same crap I put my parents through. This shit just all comes full circle.

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Basehit!

Jamie is the smallest on the 13 yr. old team but he plays hard and that's what fans really want to see. Actually they like to see the home run hitters but folks do appreciate hustle and determination on any playing field, I'd say this is J's greatest asset.


I Like being a twin.
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Medium Iggy, Large Iggy
 

pooriggy

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Training Rides

Last night I did the High Gear A ride with my teammates Utah Joe and Ilya (Kush) as well as some other hammers like J. Vreeland, Chris Esnes, and a bunch of guys named Joe, Jeff, Rob. There is usually like 25+ guys that start out on the ride and we end up with about 18 by the time we're done less then 2hrs. later. Yeah the ride is fast and that's what makes it fun. Well not ha ha fun but holy shit I can't believe I'm doing 27mph uphill fun.

We do a rotating paceline in a counter clockwise motion which keeps our speed up. When things get too slow or stale during the ride someone like Vreeland or Bill (Halters kit) will make a jump out front to stir things up and get something going. I find this a welcome relief from the monotony of pacelines and definetly gives the ride some balls. This and the sprints are something that helps keep the ride interesting.

This is a hard ride in the sense that it works the high end of my HR. Within the first 20 minutes I was using 98% of my HR. This is kinda stupid to go out that hard so early on a 2hr. ride but screw it, its a training ride. My approach to these rides is to work hard and be on the verge of blowing up, recover then hop back in for some more. In a sense its like doing intervals but without the luxury of a rest time in between. Its great to ride in a group like this because for me to work this hard solo would be next to impossible.

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Ilya & Powerhouse

Like a bachelor party, no one brings a camera to an A ride, so here is something from the archives. SSAP 2011.

Utah Joe is fun to watch on these rides. He can be on the verge of collapse and hanging in the back one minute then blasting off the front and dusting everyone 15 minutes later. Guys with power meters talk a lot about power #'s, those numbers don't mean much to me cause I don't have a power meter, but when I see a guys Joe's size spinning his bike at a cadence of about 60 rpm's and passing people, I know there is some torque/power going on there.

These high end rides are killing me, on my recovery ride today my lungs let me know they worked yesterday. I did the High Gear ride 2 wks in a row and Fred's Lebanon 52 ride on Saturday. I'm due for a rest week next week which works out well for DH 40 prep. The week after my rest week I'll put in 2 solid wks, then a taper week before the DH 40 race. Maybe show up at Kitattiny on the 17th as a mtb race tuneup.

Those who fail to plan, plan to show up at the Dark Horse 40 feeling like shit.
 

UtahJoe

Team Workhorse
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Ha! Thanks iggy! Im starting to get more comfortable now at the A ride after doing 4-5 of them. So im feeling better about heading up to the front and trying to run with the fast guys. Especially now that I think I know all of the turns. I remember reading norms first recap of the A ride last year and saying to myself "holy shit that sounds insane! ill never do this, ever!" So its been a big milestone in my head at least.

Extra power or not, in an actual road race, I think both you and Ilya would drop me in a hurry.
 

graveyardman67

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Late to the party as usual. Damn, 150 with clothes on. I must be getting more dense. Good read so far, luv the pics.
 
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