Indoor/Outdoor Winter 2018-2019

[Patrick]

Ah, the Ides of March.

Go eliminate your Julius.

looking at the long range weather - it would seem that the brutal (brutus?) part of winter has met its terminus.

how about 60deg for HOH?

I gotta say, riding outside yesterday was nice, but the time could have been used collecting XP to hit level 10 to unlock the
jungle loop. got the EVO ready to roll through the mountains. Just like the fatbike on sunday.

 

[RobW]

Ah, the Ides of March.

Go eliminate your Julius.

looking at the long range weather - it would seem that the brutal part of winter has met its terminus.

how about 60deg for HOH?

I gotta say, riding outside yesterday was nice, but the time could have been used collecting XP to hit level 10 and unlock the
jungle loop. got the EVO ready to roll through the mountains. Just like the fatbike on sunday.

I saw the extended forecast too.. 60 and sunny? Is there a god?

 

[qclabrat]

what happened to the counter? seems like me and others liked @Mtbdog lost some hours overnight
Looking as the leaderboards and noticed the change

 

[Patrick]

what happened to the counter? seems like me and others liked @Mtbdog lost some hours overnight
Looking as the leaderboards and noticed the change

i'll look - i had to write some javascript to make it work, and google is throttling the sheet calc, and throwing an error.

 

[Patrick]

what happened to the counter? seems like me and others liked @Mtbdog lost some hours overnight
Looking as the leaderboards and noticed the change

Yup - fixed - it may take a bit to render when loaded via the website too.

 

[qclabrat]

Yup - fixed - it may take a bit to render when loaded via the website too.

Thanks, no worries on my side but the leaders might

 

[iman29]

Getting bad at posting here so adding in last weeks rides..

3/12 - MonDaze

Distance 20.2 mi
Moving Time 1:14:14
Avg Speed 16.4 mi/h
Elev Gain 1,122 ft

Nothing spectacular except it was a bit cold and I was still sore from the Saturday ride since I didnt do any proper recovery Sunday. Just felt blah but forced myself to go out since it was nice and sunny out.

But I was eyeballing the forecast and looked like Wednesday would be a great day for a long ride....those plans got changed though... see next posts.

 

[iman29]

03/13/2019 Float Like a Butterfly, Sting Like a Bee, Please SUV Driver, Don’t Right Hook Me
Distance 24.2 mi
Moving Time 1:30:24
Avg Speed 16.1 mi/h
Elev Gain 1,670 ft

So I planned to ride 60+ miles today as my final prep for HoH, but Monday night I got overruled since I was procrastinating getting my teenager's bedroom painted while he was off from college this week. This means I spent about 10 hours on Tuesday prepping, spackling, sanding, primering and painting including moving all the furniture to one side of the room so I could work. I will detail that stuff in the DIY thread soon.

This meant that my long ride this day was not gonna happen since i was totally wiped out and slept like 10 hours, The legs were sore tho so I still felt like I needed to get in some miles today without going nuts. It was a little more cold and windy than i expected but the real shitty part was the douchebag SUV driver who tried to right hook me on a blind turn/intersection. I told him who was number one with the middle finger of my right hand.

Then I saw that Thursday's forecast looked perfect for a metric climbing fest....

 

[iman29]

03/14/2019 There’s No Cheating Scandal for This HOH Final Exam

Distance 63.4 mi
Moving Time 4:08:04
Avg Speed 15.3 mi/h
Elev Gain 5,085 ft

Woke up a little later than planned, but got myself out the door my 9AM. It wasnt warm but but it wasnt that cold and there was ZERO wind. I mapped out a loop that I had used for my GFNJ training which includes Climbs #1 (Black River Road) #3 (Rocky Run) and #4 (Frog Hollow). I could go explore some gravel roads too, but I didnt want to take that chance riding solo to break down or hit the deck and have to make a call, or worse.

The first 15-20 miles or so I didnt feel great so it took a while to get the legs and lungs warmed up. My first big climb was gonna be Black river road, which I usually ride once a year on the GFNJ because I hate it so much. but I kept telling myself HoH is only 10 days away so time to HTFU and get going. About half way up I almost got off the bike because I thought I was going to tip over, but i kept pushing through and made it somehow. At the top of Black river I decided to change my plan so that I wasnt dying too bad at the end, so I would make my way towards Climb #3 but instead of going down Buffalo Hollow road, I would come up it. It runs parallel to Rocky run but its not as steep and long.

It was around 11AM when I made my way to Buffalo hollow road and I could feel the early stages of dehydration kicking in, so before I climbed it I got off the bike to drink a little more, and stretch the legs to avoid cramps. I finished that climb without too many issues and then stopped at a gas station to refuel and get some more water for the ride back towards home. I was at mile 40 at the gas station and I knew one of my riding buddies was going to be out, so we planned a meet up at the bottom of Frog hollow so I could have some company riding back. Also great to have someone to draft off for a little while after 40+ miles of riding solo.

We met up and did Frog hollow at a conversational pace and made our way back towards his house which is only .5 miles from mine. At that point I was pretty beat and wanted to go home, but my mileage OCD would not let me stop the ride at 61.9 so I did some junk miles around my neighborhood and topped it off at 63.4.

Then I proceeded to guzzle a 24 ounce water bottle at home and devour an entire meatball parm hero sandwich in the span of about 3 minutes. After getting cleaned up I was on the foam roller for a good 30 minutes to hold off the onset of more cramps. I would say this was a great test of all the training and my prep for HoH is complete.

Pics galore in the Strava link but here's a few of my favorites. sorry none of the food because it was gone before I could get out my phone to take any pics.

 

[Patrick]

03/14/2019 There’s No Cheating Scandal for This HOH Final Exam

Distance 63.4 mi
Moving Time 4:08:04
Avg Speed 15.3 mi/h
Elev Gain 5,085 ft

Woke up a little later than planned, but got myself out the door my 9AM. It wasnt warm but but it wasnt that cold and there was ZERO wind. I mapped out a loop that I had used for my GFNJ training which includes Climbs #1 (Black River Road) #3 (Rocky Run) and #4 (Frog Hollow). I could go explore some gravel roads too, but I didnt want to take that chance riding solo to break down or hit the deck and have to make a call, or worse.

The first 15-20 miles or so I didnt feel great so it took a while to get the legs and lungs warmed up. My first big climb was gonna be Black river road, which I usually ride once a year on the GFNJ because I hate it so much. but I kept telling myself HoH is only 10 days away so time to HTFU and get going. About half way up I almost got off the bike because I thought I was going to tip over, but i kept pushing through and made it somehow. At the top of Black river I decided to change my plan so that I wasnt dying too bad at the end, so I would make my way towards Climb #3 but instead of going down Buffalo Hollow road, I would come up it. It runs parallel to Rocky run but its not as steep and long.

It was around 11AM when I made my way to Buffalo hollow road and I could feel the early stages of dehydration kicking in, so before I climbed it I got off the bike to drink a little more, and stretch the legs to avoid cramps. I finished that climb without too many issues and then stopped at a gas station to refuel and get some more water for the ride back towards home. I was at mile 40 at the gas station and I knew one of my riding buddies was going to be out, so we planned a meet up at the bottom of Frog hollow so I could have some company riding back. Also great to have someone to draft off for a little while after 40+ miles of riding solo.

We met up and did Frog hollow at a conversational pace and made our way back towards his house which is only .5 miles from mine. At that point I was pretty beat and wanted to go home, but my mileage OCD would not let me stop the ride at 61.9 so I did some junk miles around my neighborhood and topped it off at 63.4.

Then I proceeded to guzzle a 24 ounce water bottle at home and devour an entire meatball parm hero sandwich in the span of about 3 minutes. After getting cleaned up I was on the foam roller for a good 30 minutes to hold off the onset of more cramps. I would say this was a great test of all the training and my prep for HoH is complete.

Pics galore in the Strava link but here's a few of my favorites. sorry none of the food because it was gone before I could get out my phone to take any pics.

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Great ride - good story - see ya at HOH.

 

[qclabrat]

Will there be March madness this year? Enjoyed the extended format last year

 

[Patrick]

Will there be March madness this year? Enjoyed the extended format last year

ooh - we should do a team thing. i can probably balance it to within a couple hours.
Good idea.

 

[Patrick]

OK People time to bring it home.
we finish up Sunday the 24th at midnight.

Looks like @DoubleD25 has the time crown locked - very consistent with the running and biking.
@pygmypony is looking good for the position crown - consistent all-weather commuting, and early morning
loops really racked up the saddle time.

keep riding! and we can discuss our transitional competition for march-april.

 

[iman29]

03/16/2019 Marty’s Saturday - Dancing in the Sleet (and Rain and Wind)

Distance 34.2 mi
Moving Time 2:07:56
Avg Speed 16.1 mi/h
Elev Gain 2,051 ft

I took "off" Friday since my legs were beat from the big ride but I was still working on Phase 2 of the bedroom repainting so I didnt really do a proper recovery. I had to decide to try and ride Saturday morning and then finish the painting in the afternoon, since Sunday riding was out due to a family event.

So I convinced myself my legs were not THAT sore Friday night and got myself set up to ride Saturday morning with the shop group ride. The whole time I was getting ready it was sunny and then I saw some cool cloud/sunrise thing so I took a pic from my deck. What i didnt realize is that it was a pop up storm cloud because I was so focused on getting out the door I broke the magic rule of checking the radar. I need to leave my house by no later than about 7:20-ish to make it to the shop by 8AM so off I went.

Within .5 miles it started lightly spritzing and I was like WTF it said sunny all morning. Then at mile 3 it was full on raining and Sleeting !! that may have helped me not get too wet but man does that shit sting your face. and now I was worried about road glaze so I had to slow down. And we all know the point of no return is like well if i check my phone then I will be late to the ride so in my stupidity I kept riding.

I arrived at the shop at 7:55 and there was like 30 people in the lot which is crazy for this time of year. I wish I snapped a pic but I was so effing cold and pissed off I did not. and then the sun came out just in time for us to roll out I think i was the only one wet from the rain. I knew I was not feeling 100% so no A group hammering, but I immediately knew I would not be riding the full loop my legs were complete toast.

I managed to hang on with a few guys and then one other guy peeled off with me and we headed back, where I dropped off at home and he went back to the shop solo. I was glad to get out but I think I should have stayed in bed.

only pics I took were from my deck and at the same park .5 miles from my house.

 

[Patrick]

50+ out, perfect weather for a zwift meet-up. I jumped in with the HBCC group since they were going up part of Watopia that I haven't unlocked.
perfect opportunity - cool thing is that the mtbnj team meet-up started at the same time/same route, so @MissJR and @Glenn Rides After 4 PM CST were right there
with us. after a quick wave (seriously, you can wave in zwift) we were off for a jaunt through the jungle. Good stuff.

I don't know what Glenn has as his weight, but they render him like the hulk. Maybe it is his FTP or something.

had the lighting wrong in this one.

kicking up some dust

 

[MissJR]

I don't know what Glenn has as his weight, but they render him like the hulk. Maybe it is his FTP or something.

@Glenn Rides After 4 PM CST is a mild mannered man by day, ass kicking zwift hulk at night. True story. You should see my heart rate trying to keep up with him.

 

[Glenn Rides After 4 PM CST]

Somehow I ended up with the most portly avatar Zwift has.

Great riding with everyone last night.
@MissJR you are going to kick but at the race Saturday.

 

[Patrick]

not that anyone is looking at the leaderboard, but google sheets is having an issue right now.
don't know why - hopefully it will resolve itself. something with the data concatenation over the multiple weeks is failing.
it is a few fields from each week.

 

[iman29]

03/19/19 Eighteen is Enough
Distance 18.0 mi
Moving Time 1:06:36
Avg Speed 16.2 mi/h
Elev Gain 1,391 ft

I took a few days off again because I realized I probably was still wrecked from my big ride earlier in the week, but in hindsight I should NOT have gone out Saturday. I almost went out on Monday but I wasnt feeling it, so I went out Tuesday instead. Turns out to be colder and windier than I thought and I was underdressed so I did a shorter loop and was glad to get back home.

My headgames always start this time of the week whenever i have a big event coming, to figure out if I am over trained or rested enough or somewhere in between. This ride was one of those where I felt better physically afterwards so it was worth going out.

Oh and I love carb load week I have been consuming extra carbs and water all day long and will continue to do so until Saturday.

 

[iman29]

03/20/2019 Well, That’s a Horse of a Different Color

Distance 32.0 mi
Moving Time 1:56:03
Avg Speed 16.6 mi/h
Elev Gain 1,585 ft

Warmer weather than the day before (slightly) and sunshine means extra miles. Feeling so much better than the day before so it was time for one more moderate ride before the washout coming. Got my WFH buddy to come ride along with me and he shows up on his brand new Allez Sprint (his 2nd one!). Nice find online for a brand new frame and then he built it up with take off parts off FB Market place and eBay. Not too jealous since he has another one in the Blurple color.!

Anyway, we are also training for the TT cup series in the Non TT category so we agreed on some speed work and keeping it mostly flat. I could tell he was holding back that new bike wants to fly but we did some random sprints on some segments and he nailed a KOM on a local one into a headwind, at the end of the loop with me lagging behind on purpose. He's gonna crush it this season. I was able to take some pulls and put in a few good efforts knowing that I am taking Thurs and Friday off again to taper for HoH. Was a good ride with nice weather even if a little windy here and there.

We took some pics here and there since it was so nice out and he had to anyway since new bike day.

Looks like Saturday morning will be a Zwift prep day since the weather looks shitty still and even if its sunny I wont go out into the wind and zap myself trying to prep for Sunday as the wind literally sucks the life out of me in general.