woody
Well-Known Member
Unfortunately, Bontrager stopped making them like a year or two ago.
Fortunately for me, I've been buying up the world's remaining inventory of them ever since, so I'm stocked for life.
This Season's Gong Show
- Thread starter Norm
- Start date
Unfortunately, Bontrager stopped making them like a year or two ago.
Fortunately for me, I've been buying up the world's remaining inventory of them ever since, so I'm stocked for life.
you are so f'ed when 29.5" rims are the new it thing.
How do you monitor this? What foods are rich in Na, K and Mg? Its a good thing I payed attention in HS chemistry.
Wednesday
Jump right into it. I decided to take off Wednesday and go for a bike ride with Fred and Young Rob. Old Rob was invited but things beyond his control ruled him out. So Fred came over at 8:00 and we drove up to meet Rob, on the way having a cup of coffee in the car that I had roasted last night. I thought it was a bit raw, maybe a hair sour. Fred said he didn't mind it.
Ended up doing the Bear Mountain Harriman loop as recommended by Ben:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/103885904
Despite the threat of rain (it's raining now) it was an absolutely gorgeous day. Blue skies and nice temps greeted us. Here's Rob and a look at how nice the day was:
We did the loop as a figure 8. The bottom loop was CW and the top was CCW. A bit before the halfway point we stopped on 9W and refilled our bottles:
Then we made our way to the base of the climb. It's a big climb but the pitch isn't anything crazy. 0 to 1200 feet but over something like 4 miles, so it's nothing crazy. Perkins gets a hair steeper in spots but it's not the pitch so much as the time that you end up climbing. At the end, it did pitch up a little more. We were eventually rewarded with a nice view:
We dropped back down and made some solid time back. The last leg is a really rough stretch of road, with some seriously crappy pavement that we couldn't wait to be off of. We sort of silently decided that we needed to be done with that ASAP, so we drilled it out of there, really cranking out the final miles.
Got back to the car just before 1:00, which was the objective. Really nice ride on a really nice day. Finally get to check this off the To Do list, which it's been on for quite some time. It's really not that far away and the loop isn't too deep. I can certainly see myself going back.
Ah but the day wasn't done. On the way back we met Nat & Julia and headed to Minado. Wanted to show Fred a little of what he's in store for when we have this Eat Off:
Truth be told, I have no chance. After 2 plates I was pretty much stuffed. I'm pretty sure Utah and Jake are going to bury me and Fred and Rob likely will too. I seem to be able to eat a lot, just spread out over a day. We're going to need to come up with a scoring system. All I can come up with is that everyone needs to eat the same exact thing each round.
Finally rolled back to the house at about 3:00. This is how I should be allowed to spend at least 1 day every week, mid-week. Wake up late, argue with Matty about fat racers, have coffee with friends, ride bikes, eat good food, then come home and bum around the house. This is good stuff, good times.
Jump right into it. I decided to take off Wednesday and go for a bike ride with Fred and Young Rob. Old Rob was invited but things beyond his control ruled him out. So Fred came over at 8:00 and we drove up to meet Rob, on the way having a cup of coffee in the car that I had roasted last night. I thought it was a bit raw, maybe a hair sour. Fred said he didn't mind it.
Ended up doing the Bear Mountain Harriman loop as recommended by Ben:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/103885904
Despite the threat of rain (it's raining now) it was an absolutely gorgeous day. Blue skies and nice temps greeted us. Here's Rob and a look at how nice the day was:
We did the loop as a figure 8. The bottom loop was CW and the top was CCW. A bit before the halfway point we stopped on 9W and refilled our bottles:
Then we made our way to the base of the climb. It's a big climb but the pitch isn't anything crazy. 0 to 1200 feet but over something like 4 miles, so it's nothing crazy. Perkins gets a hair steeper in spots but it's not the pitch so much as the time that you end up climbing. At the end, it did pitch up a little more. We were eventually rewarded with a nice view:
We dropped back down and made some solid time back. The last leg is a really rough stretch of road, with some seriously crappy pavement that we couldn't wait to be off of. We sort of silently decided that we needed to be done with that ASAP, so we drilled it out of there, really cranking out the final miles.
Got back to the car just before 1:00, which was the objective. Really nice ride on a really nice day. Finally get to check this off the To Do list, which it's been on for quite some time. It's really not that far away and the loop isn't too deep. I can certainly see myself going back.
Ah but the day wasn't done. On the way back we met Nat & Julia and headed to Minado. Wanted to show Fred a little of what he's in store for when we have this Eat Off:
Truth be told, I have no chance. After 2 plates I was pretty much stuffed. I'm pretty sure Utah and Jake are going to bury me and Fred and Rob likely will too. I seem to be able to eat a lot, just spread out over a day. We're going to need to come up with a scoring system. All I can come up with is that everyone needs to eat the same exact thing each round.
Finally rolled back to the house at about 3:00. This is how I should be allowed to spend at least 1 day every week, mid-week. Wake up late, argue with Matty about fat racers, have coffee with friends, ride bikes, eat good food, then come home and bum around the house. This is good stuff, good times.
RNG1
Well-Known Member
No you guys clearly miss the understanding of the picture. Clearly Rob had to borrow Fred's socks for some reason.
I thought you guys would be able to knock out the 70 mile loop in just about 4hrs, but I guess I didn't factor in stopping time plus it would have had a bunch of more climbing. Perkins drive climb is a one of those things you have to do once, but there are more cilmbs in the area that take more out of you. That road coming down sucks as you mentioned .. I think it might be better in the opposite direction since you can manual over the cracks .. although that would probably get old pretty fast as well. It's hard to avoid that road coming down w/o adding a bunch of miles, esp starting where you did.
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wow, I see you have been in my neck of the woods. If I had known you were coming, I would have scribbled your names in chalk on the road like in the tour. That may have made your day to see "go Norm!" on perkins.
Yeah, 7 lakes and sloatsburgh rd are the cracks! I never ride them. I would have descended back down 106 to 17 and gone 100 ft south on 17 to Warwick brook rd and back onto long meadow for the feel like a hero 30 mph finnish. Either way, good ride.
Yeah, 7 lakes and sloatsburgh rd are the cracks! I never ride them. I would have descended back down 106 to 17 and gone 100 ft south on 17 to Warwick brook rd and back onto long meadow for the feel like a hero 30 mph finnish. Either way, good ride.
woody
Well-Known Member
This stuff is pretty new to me, but here's my simple understanding:
It is unlikely that any American is lacking in Sodium. Very likely to be lacking in Potassium and Magnesium.
Generally speaking, I avoid excessive sodium (salty stuff), and go out of my way to get lots of potassium (bananas, green veggies, soy, tomato, cashews, almonds...) and magnesium (milk, raisins, bananas, cashews, almonds, fish, spinach...) in my daily diet, and especially after a ride.
During rides and races, I go with full-strength Gatorade, with one of these in each bottle to keep the electrolytes flowing in reasonably balanced ratio. Plus a bite of Cliff bar or a gel when the mood strikes. Never plain water, as that dilutes the system too much. No salt-heavy bottles, as that throws off the Potassium/Magnesium balance.
I used to get bad cramps on big rides & races, now I don't.
YRMV
Not So Fast
Member
How do you get a cadence of above 120 without bouncing all over the place? Once I get to 110 it gets hard to keep from bouncing on my saddle.
So the problem of cramping is a problem in itself. Science doesn't seem to be able to say that cramps are caused by X. They just happen. So, what to do? For me, the problem stopped last year, and has come back this year. Last year, I never thought about Potassium nor Magnesium. Thus, you get a shrug and a blank stare. Next time, I'll kick you in the nuts.
So, using the scientific method, what's different this year as compared to last year?
1. Riding less, so endurance is not as good
2. Weight is +15/20 compared to last year's DH40
3. The heat was higher this year
4. More liquid calories, less solids this year
5. Gears this year, SS last year
I don't think #4 has much to do with it, so I throw that out. Calories are calories, and if it makes a difference I think it's sort of the "cherry on top" effect more than anything else.
I'd actually start from the bottom. Last year I ran SS and it acted as a governor. I couldn't go faster, and thus I probably paced myself better last year. As I said on Ilya's thread, I had a goal of HR progression to be 160->165->170. In this year's race, my splits were 174->169. So point #5 may be the difference.
Clearly points #1 and #2 and #3 play a part. On Sunday night I was still peeing yellow, so my hydration was lacking still. My sweat rate has apparently gone from 2 bottles per hour to 3. Maybe I need to consider a camelbak for this stuff. Maybe I need to lose weight. Riding more? That would be great but at this point it's at odds with paying the bills so that one's going to suffer.
It may be the case that better fitness, less weight, and lower heat masked the potassium/magnesium issues. I'd be willing to give it a try though at this stage my cramping-type rides and races are over. It's pretty hard to coerce yourself to cramp in a non-race situation, and I'm not itching to do that silly 3 park ride again. So I'm not sure how I would even test it. Maybe I need to go on a 5 hour ride in the middle of the next hottest day of the year.
Let me borrow a few of those magic pills next time I see you?
On the sodium issue, in general you're right. Most people get plenty. But I'm one of those people that has salt crusted in their hair and on their clothes after a long ride. Plus I believe that I've seen positive effects from adding salt to bottles. I wouldn't recommend it to many people though.
On the Jones ACX - you can have my 2 when I swap them out for Ignitors. I left the bike as I bought it, but to me the Ignitor is awesome as well. Since I know you've got a collector's series going on, you can have mine. Just need to swap out the rims to legit tubeless and go with Ignitors.
Well 4 hours needs to take into account time flux, which we're all familiar with. 9:00 means we start at 9:15, and yeah we stop for drinks, then we take a little time at the top of the climb. So in 3:45 we did 3:20 of riding. I think we got back to the car at 12:55 or so.
I'm not looking for brutal climbs with these rides, personally. I actually enjoy the gradual climb better than something like Iron Bridge or Fiddlers. I find those roads are just brutal for the sake of being brutal. There's no enjoyment in them. With Bear Mountain, you can get into a groove that lasts for quite a while. It's actually quite nice, wish we had something like that around here. It would make for a good road TT but it's too far away.
For a brief period I was bunny hopping those cracks coming down but it was a fast track to insanity, so I stopped.
kush
Active Member
At the other two enduros I did this year - FrenchCreek 50, and Fair Hill 50, I had zero cramping issues, and the Creek in particular was brutal. This race, I cramped pretty good.
I think it may also have something to do with the nature of the terrain, very undulating / rolly / punchy. Maybe. The heat wasn't that bad I thought, but when half the field cramps, there is something more here.
I think it may also have something to do with the nature of the terrain, very undulating / rolly / punchy. Maybe. The heat wasn't that bad I thought, but when half the field cramps, there is something more here.
That would have been the greatest thing to see as we were pedaling up! Next time I'll have to let you know when we're heading up there.
Warwick Brook looks good. I didn't love riding on 17A and it looks like that would cut out that section. I have no problem with the out/back being the same if we could cut out those spine-crushing cracks. Some really nice roads up there, I'll certainly be back! (and I'll let you know 🙂)
I can get to around 120 without too much power to the pedals. But that's something you need to practice. I'm not sure what the Garmin file says, but anything above 100-110 is a short term burst, like 1/2 a pedal stroke. If you want to get used to higher cadence just try to spin more. Some guys can go like a rabbit but I'm more of a masher.
There's something to think about, for sure. I think I need to get the RadioLab guys on this. We need some had data though. I wonder what sort of questions we could formulate to make sense of this.
I was texting with Pearl and he said it's interesting that he has never cramped. I asked him what happens when he goes faster than he's physically able, and he said he bonks. On that note, I don't ever bonk, but I cramp. It may really just be a different method for your body to say: Ok, no, I quit.
To that end, is this such a high-caliber event that you get a disproportionate number of people going too hard? And thus, more cramps and bonks?
Garmin did some sort of upgrade yesterday, so your guess is as good as mine. But I'll officially say: pudding.
Ok I'm caught up now. I prefer bikes & sushi to work, have to say.