Feedback and Turmoil

I've been getting a lot (for me) of reader feedback lately which is super cool. I mean this blog has been around for like 2 years and all I ever got was spam. So to get real feedback is nice, as opposed to people pointing me to websites about penis growth. So today's post is about reader feedback, then some biking at the end.

Somehow Cliffy has started reading the site again. He and Woody were the only ones for a long, long time. I assumed they both stopped reading a while ago but it appears I was wrong.

Cliffy

Let's see you weigh your clothes before the ride, let them dry after the ride and weigh them again.

There are 2 problems with this. The first is that much of the water weight you lose comes out through your breath. The second is that I wear actual bike-specific clothing now which holds very little water. So most of what I sweat evaporates. The accepted method is to weigh yourself before and after then subtract all the water you drink on the ride. This will give your sweat rate though I don't know where to count the amount you pee.

Jake

what, no love for jake today? bah! post your four bridges ride will ya. i'm curious about your take on it (as i have been for oh, four months now)...plus i'd like a different 40ish loop.

Hey you got mention, I told you to drop the parachute. Good to see that you decided to race the LMC after all. I'm still unsure of that race. I'm thinking some of the more exciting courses. Maybe one of the NY State ones and the Ringwood race almost for sure. Maybe LMC as well. Who knows my life moves in days now if not hours.

thanks for your take on north four bridges. i think there are two briges...but i won't figure that out 'til next week when i get up early and ride past your front door. :)

Well I'm glad you enjoyed the review. If you're really going to do that loop let me make some edits to it. There's a road I would swap out and I would cut the loop at Cross Road. Going to my house then back would be kinda silly. If you want I can make up a crs for you to load on your 305. It wasn't my favorite loop in total. Didn't really like the Chester stuff through town and the route 24 stuff is tolerable but obviously nothing great. But I really didn't want to make it a 50+ mile loop.

Steve

good to hear you are going to start crushing edges again! I am at about 95% and am backing into the biking thing tomorrow. The next week will be all steady road stuff. I am still taking prednisone, which shoots my resting heart rate up over 25 points. I am apprehensive about those effects, constantly moving in and out of the aerobic zone in the woods.

Yeah I've been waiting to make the "I ride for a team" post and it will be titled I Crush Edges! Good luck with getting back on the bike. This has been another bitch of a cold for me. Monday at work was pretty good but a light headache permeates from time to time. So I'm also working back into it slowly. My CTL (long term training load) dropped like a brick in the last week, from 107 to 98. That sucks because it takes a lot of work to get it there.

George

Yea...yea...Switzerland....not Suisse.You make one tiny euro-elitist comment..and they are all over ya...lol.Glad to hear you are feeling a bit better.I will try to enjoy the suffering of das climbs...hope you do too, you vertical addicted maniac.

Yeah better now but not best. I do have some absurd mania for climbing these days. I remember when I lived near Watchung Reservation I used to do a ton of climbing and it made me really strong at it, even at 190 pounds. I still don't feel I'm at a good climbing strength now even though I almost have to be compared to then. Anyway enjoy yourself out there.

Anonymous

You can also try plotting your routes on MapMyRide.com - Topo maps, auto routing (ie, follow roads), gps imports direct from device, as well as cue sheets!

You're not going to get much love with a name like that. But hey, if you want to be The Man Behind the Mask that's cool. About mapmyride, that's great but they took a major hit when I plotted out the big 50+ mile Califon route and tried to download it. It brought me to a registration page. Ouchy. Course gone and patience done. I closed the window. It was a fine interface but that pissed me off. Definition of User Unfriendly. I'll try again later after I register, unless it costs me money in which case I won't.

I gotta be honest that comment sounds like marketing. So if you really do read the blog you should comment again to convince me otherwise.

There are the recent comments. Outstanding! I enjoy it so keep 'em coming. On to biking.

Today's ride was garbage. I'll be honest I'm having a real hard time getting motivated right now. I'm still sick but only slightly, and not enough to make that much of a difference. The odd thing is that both before and after I felt great. But on the bike is shit right now.

I have a King Kong sized saddle sore which doesn't help. But I also still have that left knee/hamstring pain. When I was done with the ride I dropped the saddle back down and made sure it was centered. Hopefully that helps for tomorrow. If not, I really don't know what I'll do. Bridge to be crossed if/when encountered.

On motivation, well today's ride was just tempo in the swamp, 20 quick miles of pancake flat road except for the hill to get in and out. No ride link because the GPS buys me nothing on a ride like this so I left it home. This is a really boring ride and maybe that's part of the problem.

I may be dialing it down a little from here on in. I've built a good base thus far but like I said, motivation is hurting today. I may need to add a little extra sleep each day and cut a bit of ride time. Or maybe keep 2 hefty weekday rides and cut out the Wednesday.

My power also sucked ass this morning. But that may be due to low motivation, knee pain, and not eating anything before the ride. I'm looking to drop some more pounds now, or rather to drop some of the pounds I've put on in the last month. Everyone said it's real easy to gain weight in the high volume season and my average had creeped up from a low of 184 to 188 over the last few months. During my sick week it blew up to 193, 5 pounds in a single week. I've come down off that a bit but not a 5 pound drop. It never magically comes off like it goes on.

So I'm looking to back off my "performance eating" which means when I leave the house at 5:30 with nothing to eat and 100 calories of Heed I'm not going to ramp up to my expected power that well.

There's my season in turmoil. This should have been a post on its own but I'm all about SOC so there ya go.

Pulled apart the hubs last night and this morning and the races look great. No need to replace the hub. I may look to buy a good pair if I can find them on EBay over the next few months but if this overhaul works out there's probably not much need to. A light set of spokes would be nice but I'm not sure I want to pull the wheel apart for that.