dhsean
Member
No murder train Sunday?
Going Long and Hard.
- Thread starter Steve Vai
- Start date
No murder train Sunday?
Steve Vai
Endurance Guy: Tolerates most of us.
Saturday
Wedding. Blah. Had to leave work early so I had to drive in. As most know by now, I really don't enjoy these things at all. If you don't drink or dance there's not too much left to keep you occupied. I tried. Believe me. The thing that started to get to me after a while was the no food I could eat thing. We left the house at 4pm to get down to Asbury Park for a 6pm ceremony. Cocktail hour was from 7-8, seafood theme, nothing vegetarian anywhere. By this time I'm getting hungry because it's dinner time for me. I guess around 9:30 we get salad, which was awesome, but not a meal by any means. By 10 or so I'm ready to eat the place settings!! They brought me out a vegetarian meal, aka fish and crab. WTF!!?? The veggies will understand this. Normal people think fish is vegetarian. It isn't FYI. Actually everyone at my table was surprised to hear that fish isn't vegetarian.
So I tell my wife I was gonna dip out to get some grub in town quickly. She says no, instead we'll leave in a few. Sweet!! But not. Next thing I know she's out dancing, then wandering around with her cousins, then I have no idea. Almost 2 hours went by and my mood went way south. At about midnight I've had enough and still haven't eaten anything so I went to go get food. While I was warming up the car she came out to see where I went. I said I'm going to get food and yelled at her a bit about saying we could leave 2 hours ago, you guys know the drill. I told her I'd be right back but she decided we would just leave instead. Which at the time I thought was fine but I knew I'd hear about that later on. Like the whole ride home
Blah. I reminded her that we skipped my rule. Which is to always eat before we attend family functions. And it works. We've done about 2 dozen family events this year and it's been working out great. This time we didn't follow that rule and it backfired, of course🙄
We got home around 2am or so I had mixed thoughts on hitting the uber-Roubaix loop.
-Jim.
Wedding. Blah. Had to leave work early so I had to drive in. As most know by now, I really don't enjoy these things at all. If you don't drink or dance there's not too much left to keep you occupied. I tried. Believe me. The thing that started to get to me after a while was the no food I could eat thing. We left the house at 4pm to get down to Asbury Park for a 6pm ceremony. Cocktail hour was from 7-8, seafood theme, nothing vegetarian anywhere. By this time I'm getting hungry because it's dinner time for me. I guess around 9:30 we get salad, which was awesome, but not a meal by any means. By 10 or so I'm ready to eat the place settings!! They brought me out a vegetarian meal, aka fish and crab. WTF!!?? The veggies will understand this. Normal people think fish is vegetarian. It isn't FYI. Actually everyone at my table was surprised to hear that fish isn't vegetarian.
So I tell my wife I was gonna dip out to get some grub in town quickly. She says no, instead we'll leave in a few. Sweet!! But not. Next thing I know she's out dancing, then wandering around with her cousins, then I have no idea. Almost 2 hours went by and my mood went way south. At about midnight I've had enough and still haven't eaten anything so I went to go get food. While I was warming up the car she came out to see where I went. I said I'm going to get food and yelled at her a bit about saying we could leave 2 hours ago, you guys know the drill. I told her I'd be right back but she decided we would just leave instead. Which at the time I thought was fine but I knew I'd hear about that later on. Like the whole ride home
Blah. I reminded her that we skipped my rule. Which is to always eat before we attend family functions. And it works. We've done about 2 dozen family events this year and it's been working out great. This time we didn't follow that rule and it backfired, of course🙄
We got home around 2am or so I had mixed thoughts on hitting the uber-Roubaix loop.
-Jim.
I thought the fish thing was the complete opposite.
Usually I hear non-vegetarians (myself included) bitching at vegetarians who eat fish who say it's not meat.
Fish is meat. Maybe it's the fucked up catholic thing. No meat on Fridays so they eat...fish?
-Steve
Usually I hear non-vegetarians (myself included) bitching at vegetarians who eat fish who say it's not meat.
Fish is meat. Maybe it's the fucked up catholic thing. No meat on Fridays so they eat...fish?
-Steve
Steve Vai
Endurance Guy: Tolerates most of us.
I hear that all the time from people when they find out I'm a veggie. It's like oh you're vegetarian? Me too!! I just eat fish and chicken sometimes. And I go. So then you're NOT a vegetarian you know that right? Blah I say. People are silly. I was vegan up until my son was born. We figured it would be easier on the family if we were all just vegetarian and ate the same things so my son wouldn't be like why doesn't daddy eat with us kinda thing. They've all since started eating chicken and now I'm on my own again. Blah. Again.
-Jim.
-Jim.
ChrisG
Unapologetic Lifer for Rock and Roll
He tortures the hell out of Swedish fish, I can tell you that.😀
Steve Vai
Endurance Guy: Tolerates most of us.
Sunday
Roubaix-A-Raptor + HB + RV.
80 miles of uber snowy Roubaix goodness on the mountain bike. This ride definitely hurt and I'm pretty sure should qualify as a death march, at least due to the conditions.
The guys that have been on the shorter version of this loop know that it's a hard loop. Any road ride that you average under 14mph and over 145bpm, is hard. As a comparison, I can average over 19mph on the Round Valley road loop and be in the 130's.
We started off with 8 of us. Given the description of the ride and loop I put out, I was expecting to show up and it be just me. But Sean, Joe Mundi, the Sneez, Sexy Rob, Utah, DD, and NigNug came out to suffer.
Poor Nuggles never made it to Pottersville Road before he bailed out. Something about being up until 2 in the morning? Wait? Wasn't I at a wedding starving to death last night? Didn't I get home around 2? See rule #5 *****!!
We were moving along at a pretty good clip considering all the snow. I knew the ride would end up being a very long one in these conditions though. I spent most of the ride with my HR above the 140 mark, a few dabs just under 180 in some spots.
The first section hits 3 good climbs. Pottersville Road (paved), Palentine (dirt) and then and the very long climb up the end of Pottersville which turns from paved to dirt about 1/2 way up. Before the first rest area we had over 3,000 feet of climbing logged.
#1 rest stop in Califon, Utah and DD decided to B-line it back. Joe had somewhere to be and DD is a bitch😀
The rest of us ate cookies and drank RedBull to prepare for the next round. At this point we were only 35 miles in. We all knew Ken Lockwood Gorge was gonna be a cluster-F. And it was. It was murder trying keep moving on a mountain bike so I can only imagine what it was like for the cross guys. No thanks.
The second section had 3 big climbs as well. Cokesbury Road just out of the gorge, Cherry Road heading up to the reservoir, and Stanton Mountain, all paved. We dropped Rob and waited at the bottom of Stanton Mountain while the Sneez took a head start because he was hurting a bit and wanted to climb at 2mph. Through the bottom part I sat in with the guys and the started to turn it up little by little to try to catch Chris. By the end I was in full chase mode and nearly reeled him in but I just missed. FYI, that kind of effort isn't the best idea during one of these rides😉
Pit stop #2 at the now re-opened Stanton General Store. They have pizza now. We ate pizza. It was awesome. This was 55 miles in and I think 4 hours? We were getting kinda tired. And kinda cold. It was cold.
Section #3 we went past the Buffaloes!! Rob kept falling off pace as we went through some of the rollers before Rt22. I thought he was gonna pop. At the end of Island Road we were just a few minutes from the car and I gave everyone the option of voting if we finish the loop, or head back. Of course no one wanted to be the bitch that said we should go back. We continued on. There's a couple shorter climbs in the last section, nothing terrible, but 5+ hours into a ride, they don't feel good at all I can tell you that much.
Once we hit the golf course we just buried it a bit. Rob fell off for good once we hit the snow. We were too tired to wait for him so we just went. It became every man for himself. Death march son.
We survived!! Woohoo!! We'll have to wait until the roads clear to hit it again and see how much faster it is sans snow. But this loop is very hard. Perfect training for Battenkill or even the 100 mile MTB stuff. From my house I can even add in Chimney Rock and Round Valley for some singletrack to get it even closer to 100 mile race training. I also have a few sections in the works to extend the loop and add in another big climb, I just need to explore it first on my own. As an example, Tree Top is a dirt road in our loop that's not on NJ Bike Map, I just found it exploring.
Here's the loop. Go try it for yourself!!
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/62829174
I'm supposed to do hill repeats or something today. I uh, don't think that's happening😱
-Jim.
Roubaix-A-Raptor + HB + RV.
80 miles of uber snowy Roubaix goodness on the mountain bike. This ride definitely hurt and I'm pretty sure should qualify as a death march, at least due to the conditions.
The guys that have been on the shorter version of this loop know that it's a hard loop. Any road ride that you average under 14mph and over 145bpm, is hard. As a comparison, I can average over 19mph on the Round Valley road loop and be in the 130's.
We started off with 8 of us. Given the description of the ride and loop I put out, I was expecting to show up and it be just me. But Sean, Joe Mundi, the Sneez, Sexy Rob, Utah, DD, and NigNug came out to suffer.
Poor Nuggles never made it to Pottersville Road before he bailed out. Something about being up until 2 in the morning? Wait? Wasn't I at a wedding starving to death last night? Didn't I get home around 2? See rule #5 *****!!
We were moving along at a pretty good clip considering all the snow. I knew the ride would end up being a very long one in these conditions though. I spent most of the ride with my HR above the 140 mark, a few dabs just under 180 in some spots.
The first section hits 3 good climbs. Pottersville Road (paved), Palentine (dirt) and then and the very long climb up the end of Pottersville which turns from paved to dirt about 1/2 way up. Before the first rest area we had over 3,000 feet of climbing logged.
#1 rest stop in Califon, Utah and DD decided to B-line it back. Joe had somewhere to be and DD is a bitch😀
The rest of us ate cookies and drank RedBull to prepare for the next round. At this point we were only 35 miles in. We all knew Ken Lockwood Gorge was gonna be a cluster-F. And it was. It was murder trying keep moving on a mountain bike so I can only imagine what it was like for the cross guys. No thanks.
The second section had 3 big climbs as well. Cokesbury Road just out of the gorge, Cherry Road heading up to the reservoir, and Stanton Mountain, all paved. We dropped Rob and waited at the bottom of Stanton Mountain while the Sneez took a head start because he was hurting a bit and wanted to climb at 2mph. Through the bottom part I sat in with the guys and the started to turn it up little by little to try to catch Chris. By the end I was in full chase mode and nearly reeled him in but I just missed. FYI, that kind of effort isn't the best idea during one of these rides😉
Pit stop #2 at the now re-opened Stanton General Store. They have pizza now. We ate pizza. It was awesome. This was 55 miles in and I think 4 hours? We were getting kinda tired. And kinda cold. It was cold.
Section #3 we went past the Buffaloes!! Rob kept falling off pace as we went through some of the rollers before Rt22. I thought he was gonna pop. At the end of Island Road we were just a few minutes from the car and I gave everyone the option of voting if we finish the loop, or head back. Of course no one wanted to be the bitch that said we should go back. We continued on. There's a couple shorter climbs in the last section, nothing terrible, but 5+ hours into a ride, they don't feel good at all I can tell you that much.
Once we hit the golf course we just buried it a bit. Rob fell off for good once we hit the snow. We were too tired to wait for him so we just went. It became every man for himself. Death march son.
We survived!! Woohoo!! We'll have to wait until the roads clear to hit it again and see how much faster it is sans snow. But this loop is very hard. Perfect training for Battenkill or even the 100 mile MTB stuff. From my house I can even add in Chimney Rock and Round Valley for some singletrack to get it even closer to 100 mile race training. I also have a few sections in the works to extend the loop and add in another big climb, I just need to explore it first on my own. As an example, Tree Top is a dirt road in our loop that's not on NJ Bike Map, I just found it exploring.
Here's the loop. Go try it for yourself!!
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/62829174
I'm supposed to do hill repeats or something today. I uh, don't think that's happening😱
-Jim.
Steve Vai
Endurance Guy: Tolerates most of us.
YES!! And I can assure you, almost nothing I eat is based on it's health characteristics.
I don't eat meat because I love the animals, especially if it's really cold at night.
-Jim.
That was some F**king ride. Yikes... and I only did the ***** version. I ended up with 52 miles and 4hr 3min. 4300ft of climbing. By the time I got back to my car, I could barely strighten my left arm. Today I feel like I was in a car accident, my neck is toast. No way im trying a ride this long with the crux until I get it fitted. I had to get home around 2, but I dont think I would have been able to hang the entire way anyway. By the time we got to the deli, I was hurting. Probably should have taken the mountain bike.
Soon as I took those stupid toe warmers out of my boots, my feet came right back to life and were fine.
Thanks for the lesson in pain....cant wait until the next one 🙂
Soon as I took those stupid toe warmers out of my boots, my feet came right back to life and were fine.
Thanks for the lesson in pain....cant wait until the next one 🙂
This was a hell of a ride. Ive had enough snow after the 3 hours in MDR Saturday and this death march Sunday, cant wait for spring :drooling:
That final snowy section did me in...I was about 10 seconds away from giving up and walking when I hit the road. Dont use SB8 cross tires in the snow.
That final snowy section did me in...I was about 10 seconds away from giving up and walking when I hit the road. Dont use SB8 cross tires in the snow.
dhsean
Member
My conversation with Chris in the Gorge trying to keep my cross bike moving. Chris: I think Rob died back there. Me: I don't care if I stop I'm going to die.
Not good when your maxed out riding side to side trying to keep the bike straight and you have 45 miles to go. I did my MTB strength program tonight - maybe we need to make the loop harder. :getsome:
Steve Vai
Endurance Guy: Tolerates most of us.
That's it, next week you die:getsome: By the looks of it we may be riding in a foot of snow so hat should make it interesting.
Monday
So, uh, yeah, NO. I had another 3-hour day penciled in for today with hill repeats at the end. Like that's gonna happen. Sunday was actually both Sunday and Mondays workouts combined, so riding today wouldn't do much other than kill me. Although with the snow coming maybe I should've sucked it up a bit. Nah. The 8-string was calling for me😀
I think that's all I did. Played the guitars. Still trying to button down a minute long section in Endless Sacrifice. For some reason I'm have issues with the timing. For the Dream Theater fans it's from 4:54-6:30. Blah. I get to play my Talman for this album because it's all tunes to either D or C, except for Stream of Consciousness which is E-Flat.
I have a bunch of these backing instrumental CD's to practice over. I have all different genre ones so I can learn different poop. Yesterday I was jamming to the fusion one I have. Fusion is cool because it's like metal jazz. Good times, good times. Here's a peek, nothing terribly exciting, just working the neck to get the 8-string under control😀
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...8795&ref=nf#!/video/video.php?v=1797166370896
That is all...
-Jim.
Dusty the Whale
Mr.Chainsaw
Jim, I have a question about cadence...where should I be? Or better what is a "good" cadence to keep?
Dusty the Whale
Mr.Chainsaw
MTBTyler
Well-Known Member
Im no expert but 85-95 works great for me.
Dusty the Whale
Mr.Chainsaw
I feel comfortable in the 80's and really only go higher if I switch to an easier gear too soon
