Digging Deep.

[TwoWheelsDC]

Seemed like a tough weekend for many on the forum…I indulged my wife’s strange Olive Garden craving on Saturday night, which thankfully did not react with the fig newtons until after my ride yesterday…that would’ve just added to the misery of the ride. In addition to the punishing heat yesterday, I arrived at a point on my ride where the map told me to turn right to go under FFX county pkwy. That road, however, did not exist and it took me about 30 minutes of circuitous riding to figure out how to get across the parkway. Shortly after that, I was on a quiet road that the map shows as the designated bike route (Hooes Rd. paralleling Franconia pkwy)…decent little ride until I hit the “road closed, follow detour” sign. Well, the detour was onto Franconia pkwy, so that was not really going to work for me. So another 30 minutes of frustrated riding trying to find the way across…then, as I was cutting through on the Fairfax Cross County Trail, I fell over when I was trying to pedal up a super steep hill that I found out had a sheen of moss. It was too steep to get unclipped and there wasn’t really an alternative, so I just had to try and make it up while my rear wheel kept slipping. I was able to lay the bike down gently on the side of the path near the top, but still banged my knee up pretty good. I then through Lake Accotink, not knowing that the hilly trails around the lake are gravel and not paved, which made using my road bike pretty much impossible. So I had to abandon that and find an alternate route again, which dumped me out in a no-mans land south of the beltway and the railroad tracks, with my only viable route being up Backlick road, which isn’t exactly bike friendly. Then I cut over on Braddock, thinking I could just ride the sidewalk. Nope, sidewalk abruptly ended in a spot where my only choice was to ride about a mile in the right lane, which was a bit terrifying. But then I got it all sorted out and found my way home, but me and Fairfax county aren’t friends anymore.

[dasgeh]

@TwoWheelsDC 25356 wrote:

but me and Fairfax county aren’t friends anymore.

Sorry about the bummer ride. Fairfax County and I broke it off a long time ago. Stupid county of cars.

[Dickie]

@TwoWheelsDC 25356 wrote:

I fell over when I was trying to pedal up a super steep hill that I found out had a sheen of moss. It was too steep to get unclipped and there wasn’t really an alternative, so I just had to try and make it up while my rear wheel kept slipping. I was able to lay the bike down gently on the side of the path near the top, but still banged my knee up pretty good.

Oh how I hate that feeling…. Hamster in a wheel, hope the knee is fine.

[Tim Kelley]

I’d like to comment that I was amazed that 10 degrees of temperature can make sure a different when comparing this past weekend to the weekend before. 95 degrees vs. 105 degrees–both are still hot, but 95 degrees isn’t hot enough to melt the adhesive off the pads on my aerobars! And riding 100 miles with friends is a lot easier than riding 100 miles by yourself.

[Terpfan]

I had some lazy biking. We stayed with some friends in Chincoteague Island and so i grabbed an old rusty cruiser from their garage and rode into town for morning coffee. It wasn’t too bad although most the gears didn’t work and the weight of the thing felt like I was on a slight incline the whole time even though it was flat. The fun part was riding back past my fiance who was jogging with a latte in hand and watching her try to keep running as she was laughing pretty hard.

[krazygl00]

@rsewell19 25325 wrote:

I totally cracked this weekend and I thought this might make for good Monday morning banter. My first mistake happened Friday night when I impulse substituted my pasta dish for some tasty looking tacos….in retrospect a REALLY bad decision since I had decided to do a 50 mile Potomac/Palisades loop from Rosslyn on Saturday morning.

…

It was hell. I thought about calling my wife from the “3-bucks” to pick me up but I dug deep, and made it home.

So how was everyone else’s weekend?

THIS is what epic ride reports are made of!

By the way, in addition to the five-second-rule, there are guidelines for how many bits of roadside gravel may be in any dropped food before it is deemed unfit for consumption.

@KelOnWheels 25330 wrote:

Yeah… I did that twice this weekend! First I stuffed myself on yuca & chicharrones and then went dancing Saturday night :p and then I had gluten-free pancakes for breakfast this morning. NOT GOOD PLAN. Fortunately I was not on a 50-mile ride.

Five-second Fig Newton rule totally applies.

Oooh, where are you getting chicharrones locally? Are you talking the pork-rind-style ones in the bag from the store, or real honest-to-goodness cooked chicharrones, Colombia-style? Do tell.

Oh, and everyone’s cumin-chili-fig-newton-taco-yuca-chicharrones-bowel-storm-brewing stories are conjuring images just a little too vivid

[consularrider]

Speaking of too vivid images, after a couple of really long rides recently, I have decided that riding with frozen water bottles (or ones filled with ice or ice water) in a back jersey pocket is not a good idea.

[KLizotte]

@rsewell19 25347 wrote:

Wear that tan with Pride, I outline mine with a Sharpie!

Yeah, I’ve never had such a sharply delineated tan before; it looks particularly odd given the white hands (I always wear gloves).

Those Tour de France guys sure must look funny when they strip down.

Worst of all is the helmet crease across my forehead that lasts at least 60 minutes after I’ve taken the helmet off; normally not a big deal but when you show up at meeting on Monday morning….

[Tim Kelley]

@KLizotte 25389 wrote:

Worst of all is the helmet crease across my forehead that lasts at least 60 minutes after I’ve taken the helmet off; normally not a big deal but when you show up at meeting on Monday morning….

I took a header yesterday and 24 hours later, I have two small bruises/marks on my forehead from the helmet!

[KelOnWheels]

@krazygl00 25384 wrote:

Oooh, where are you getting chicharrones locally? Are you talking the pork-rind-style ones in the bag from the store, or real honest-to-goodness cooked chicharrones, Colombia-style? Do tell.

Well, they were kinda subpar chicharrones. More like overcooked pork chunks. But the yuca was FANTASTIC. Also the plantains. And the frijoles. And the margaritas. And then I jumped around a lot with a really full stomach.

[PotomacCyclist]

In my only potentially serious bike accident, back in 2009, I flipped over the handlebars after getting forced off the Capital Crescent Trail by a series of raised bumps in the pavement. (I was also going a little too fast, but it was my first month of riding as an adult.) I managed to smack the back of one shoulder, one cheek and an eyebrow. My shoulder was stiff for a month. My cheek was black and blue for a week or two. My eyebrow had a cut. But somehow, my helmet didn’t contact the ground at all. There wasn’t a speck of dirt anywhere on the helmet, while there was a lot of dirt pressed into the back of my shirt. I’m not sure how that happened.

I inspected every inch of the helmet immediately afterward, and later on at home. No dents. No nicks. No scratches. No specks of dirt.

[acc]

Chats with my “coach”, Marquis de Sade, go something like this:

“I need to hold 20 mph on the bike. How do I build to that?”

“Just get out there and do it.”

“This isn’t exactly the wise and sage coaching advice I was hoping for.”

“Why are you still here? Get out there and do it. Hold it until you can’t.”

And so that’s what I did this weekend. Loop after loop on a 3.5 mile course. Lap after lap for three days straight. I finished out the last set yesterday at two o’clock and decided what the hell, as long as I’m here, might as well go for a four mile run.

I swear I heard voices and spoke to my spirit animal, Lester The Guinea Pig.

I have no idea if this will work. I spent most of today staring into space randomly twitching.

It was a great weekend!

[Dickie]

@acc 25413 wrote:

Chats with my “coach”, Marquis de Sade, go something like this:

“I need to hold 20 mph on the bike. How do I build to that?”

“Just get out there and do it.”

“This isn’t exactly the wise and sage coaching advice I was hoping for.”

“Why are you still here? Get out there and do it. Hold it until you can’t.”

My Tennis coach used to talk to me like that, except he was drunk and usually spilling a martini on the court… no wonder I sucked and switched to cycling. BTW, I love the name of your spirit animal, mine ran away, I should probably go look for a new one.

[PotomacCyclist]

I do many of my speed workouts at Hains Point. I don’t often sustain 20 mph for an interval, because of the wind and because I wear loose-fitting running shirts for most training rides. And yet, I’ve always averaged over 20 mph for the entire bike leg of all of my Olympic-distance triathlons (24.8 mile bike).

In my endurance rides over the winter and early spring (and mid-summer), I keep the speed and effort fairly easy. Not quite beach cruiser mode, but not hard either. My average speed on those rides is not fast at all, after including stops at intersections. I do some of those rides on the mountain bike. On those days, my average speed is VERY slow, sometimes under 10 mph. (I tend to train by perceived effort. I can pedal at a steady clip on the MTB but not pick up that much speed. That’s fine with me, as long as I don’t have to use the MTB in a triathlon.)

Build up your endurance with training volume. Be sure you have a good bike fit. Do some spin-up (high cadence) drills. Try some one-leg pedaling drills on a stationary or spin bike. Do some strength workouts in the early season and hill workouts later in the season. Then some bike speedwork in the months before any goal races or rides. Even if you don’t reach your goal in Year One, if you stay consistent with the training, you should improve each year. It takes a few years of consistent riding to start to approach your individual potential for aerobic endurance. Then you can focus more on speed and sustainable speed (tempo and threshold effort workouts).

I’m training hard this month but there’s no way I could keep up this level of intensity year-round. I would get burned out or injured if I tried to do that. You have to challenge your body in order to improve your fitness and speed. But on the other hand, you don’t want to dig too deep a hole, in terms of fatigue and weariness. It’s usually better to build in a margin of safety, especially in your first year or two. Finish every workout feeling like you could have done just a little more. After the really tough or long workouts, get some carbs and protein shortly after you finish the cool down and any post-ride stretching that you may do.

I also take a very easy day every week and maybe another semi-easy day. I take an easy week every 4th (or 3rd) week during the main season. I take a mid-season break of an extremely easy week. And I take some time off after my last long race of the year. Not complete rest but no long or tough workouts during that off-season period. The off-season usually lasts for a few weeks for me. I may also switch things up and try something different. Because of the cold weather over the winter, I might spend more time swimming at the indoor pool and doing strength training. By the time I start up again in early winter with base training, I’ve recharged my batteries.

[Dickie]

@PotomacCyclist 25403 wrote:

In my only potentially serious bike accident, back in 2009, I flipped over the handlebars after getting forced off the Capital Crescent Trail by a series of raised bumps in the pavement. (I was also going a little too fast, but it was my first month of riding as an adult.) I managed to smack the back of one shoulder, one cheek and an eyebrow. My shoulder was stiff for a month. My cheek was black and blue for a week or two. My eyebrow had a cut. But somehow, my helmet didn’t contact the ground at all. There wasn’t a speck of dirt anywhere on the helmet, while there was a lot of dirt pressed into the back of my shirt. I’m not sure how that happened.

I inspected every inch of the helmet immediately afterward, and later on at home. No dents. No nicks. No scratches. No specks of dirt.

I have ridden one time without a helmet as an adult. It was in Knoxville during grad school. I was heading to a lecture, looked at the helmet and said to myself “it’s 100º’s out there, I don’t need it today”. The next thing I remember is a large black boot kicking my shoulder to see if I was alive. The policeman thought I was dead, I should have been. Cracked skull, memory loss, missing teeth and missing skin. I can say with confidence if you had not been wearing it that is where you would have landed.

[Author]

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