I'm getting ready to go to Spinning in a little while so I will kill time with a response to another comment. Nik asked about my 150lb weight this Sunday, what I'm doing to be that light and whether I'm flying up hills.

First off, I have never been a heavy person. For years I have bounced around the low 150's with the occasional mid-summer dip into the 140's. Around October, November and even into December I was distressed seeing my weight bump up against the 160 barrier. I realized that I had been snacking a bit more than normal and decided to cut some of that junk out. I haven't eliminated all snacking but the Suzy Q's and HoHo's and nighttime snacks have gone by the wayside. I still have a small dish of ice cream about once a week.

Am I flying up hills? Like I would divulge that information to any potential competitors. Actually, I don't feel as if I am climbing that well. I feel a little out of sync and don't have a real good jump or snap right now. That is something I can still work on but I'm riding okay.

On a completely unrelated note, Dan B'off wrote about his namesake Bischoff Beer. Mr. Bischoff isn't the only local rider with a name that has a sudsy tie-in. For 20 years Klages barley (Hordeum vulgare) was the industry standard for two-rowed malting barleys. How bout them barleys... umm apples?

It's Q&A time. This question was in reference to Saturday's post.
Devoted Reader: Just curious what your cadence is during these big ring efforts. Below average?
Answer: I don't have a clue what my cadence is. Have you ever looked at my bike?

SRM's? No.
Powertaps? Nada.
Heartrate monitors? Negative.
Cyclo-computers? Non-existant.

I do admit to having a sensor on my wheel and a cable/mount for a computer. But frankly, those don't provide a whole lot of data without the computer. I'm sure there are benefits to all those lovely devices but actually I don't give a flying crap. There are times when I wonder about watts and heartbeat and cadence but that passes. At one time I even had a computer that had a cadence feature. It was cool and thought there were some beneficial aspects when I actually used it. My computers usually end up being glorified watches.

To try and answer your question, my cadence for rides like Saturday is pretty good but yes it gets below average as I move down the cassette. As I begin to tire, I slow down too. High tech stuff, huh. Sorry I cant give you any useful data. I will say much of riding this winter has been in a smaller gear and thus a higher cadence. Just now I'm starting to mix in some bigger gears.

Patrick put together an 8am ride in Columbia this morning. Mother Nature did her part and cleared the rain out of town overnight and left us with a good day of riding ahead. AJ, Jeff, Joe and Mark also showed up for a good day of riding. We had a little everything. Damp roads to start the day, the small hills of the bluffs down to Maeystown with the Fults loop added on, some words spoken in anger/frustration, bright sunny skies and good head and crosswinds on the way back and a good hard effort to finish things off.

Weight: 150.7
Ride time: 3:45

It's good to see Erwin Vervecken win the CX Worlds again. The guy is not a prolific winner but he's steady and always strong at the end of the season. He seems like a down to earth guy and has responded to emails from a friend of mine. Nice move by a pro in my book.

The morning was drier than I expected but it was damp enough that I do not regret riding the trainer. Spent the whole time in the big ring between the 19 and 16. I gave a couple efforts but not terribly hard and two minutes at the longest. My legs weren't very lively after this week of decreased activity so I was happy to just get some good time on the bike.

Ride time: 1:40
Weekly time: 5:15

This has been a crappy week. My usual work schedule did not happen. I did not know about this schedule change until Monday morning when my boss walked in the door. He then let me know that I was supposed to sit with the guy from HP and watch the installation and software setup of a Virtual Tape Server. What resulted, was turning in mini-Fuller hours. Something in the range of 55 hrs this week. Those aren't outrageous hours but my schedule was messed up enough that I had no desire to hop on the trainer after eating dinner.

Saturday looks like a washout so it will be trainer time. I will have to decide what kind of ride to do.

Oh yeah, I was lucky enough to get out of work before 5 on Tuesday so at least made it to Spinning Tuesday. Amy ran us through the wringer. It seemed like a difficult class. Blogger was down that night so I couldn't post it.

Ride time: about 1:05

Sunday's TTT had a little different flavor than past editions. Most notable was the complete and utter lack of our "elite" riders. So much were we lacking that I ended up being a team "captain". We also did three laps instead of the normal two. Some things never change though. Like being damn cold. Maybe it was the humidity but the low to mid-30's yesterday morning felt more like the 20's. My fingers went numb quickly and only when we got the blood flowing in the time trial did they start to loosen up. Along the way to the start we spotted a bald eagle about 25ft up in a tree. That was cool.

My group of six was good mix. Besides me, there was Amy, Loran, tri-guy Ryan Roth and two others, Robert and Tim who are either new or also tri's. We were not blindingly fast but the whole time we kept a nice rotating paceline going. I was happy with that. In my mind it was an exercise and teamwork and everything went smoothly for the most part. We lost Tim at the end of lap one because he needed to work on his bike so that he could shift into the big ring. He fixed the problem at some point and got rolling again. We caught him on the third lap so he latched back onto the group and we finished with everybody.

In the end we did the 34 or so miles in 1:42. Eight minutes slower than the winning time. I said we weren't quick.

Ride time: 2:30??? about 52 miles

Seventy minutes on the trainer today with some 5 minute efforts mixed in. I could have gone longer or harder but thought I'd save some energy to the TTT Sunday.

Ride time: 70 minutes
Weekly time: 8.5 hrs

Now that Google created a Mac version of GoogleEarth I have played around the program a little. First I checked out a few things like my brother's house, his work and a couple of the programs saved locations like the Eiffel Tower. Then I had to try and find some of the mountains in France. Alpe d'Huez was a challenge since the town at the base was not listed as Bourg d'Oisans. I had to start in Grenoble and find find the road that leads the mountains. I didn't have a good handle on scale and before long I was in western Italy. I headed back west and found Briancon. Once there I knew I could follow the road east and it would lead right to Alpe d'Huez. That worked and I found the Google lists the town as just Oisans. The road up was pretty obvious though and interesting to see.

From the Galibier was an obvious choice since it is between Briancon and Oisans. I'll tell you, I wondered if I was looking at the right place because it was very unimpressive. I rotated to the other side of the mountain and it became more apparent but still you would never guess the difficulty.

Next was Ventoux. I searched for Bedoin. Bam! There was the mountain. They actually had the mountain labeled but even so it's easy to spot that lone mountain rising out of the flatlands around it. Ventoux looked impressive.

Next, I tried to find the Col d'Aubisque. I was unsuccesful. A couple of the towns nearby were easy enough but nothing looked like it went up a mountain. Odd stuff. The next day I remembered the town right at the base, Laruns. Only then did I follow a road that went up what I assume was the Aubisque.

It seems like mountains would stick out more. Why did I struggle so much up those molehills? But, it you really want unimpressive check out tough local climbs like Wedde Rd or the last hill on Old Lemay Ferry. Good lord, it looks as flat as a pool table.

Weight: 154.3

I got home after work today and started looking at the mail. There was a Priority Mail package. I was curious and felt around with my hands trying to figure what it might be. Like a kid at Christmas. The contents were thin and did not have much substance. I was puzzled so I looked at the return address. It came from Glory Cycles. I hadn't ordered anything from Glory so I was really puzzled now. Inside was a pair of PezCyclingNews socks.



You get the socks when they use one of your photos for their Daily Distractions section. My photo still has not been used but I got the socks anyway. I can only assume that means that my picture of Elisa Basso will be appearing sometime. Either that or they are being very generous.

Okay, time to hop on the trainer for a while.

------ intermission ------

I'm back. My knee was feeling a little gimpy to start so I took it a little easy. 53x19 the whole time. Kept a good tempo and did one 10 minute effort. I say I went easy but there was a good puddle of sweat under me so I must have gotten in a decent ride.

Ride time: 50 minutes
Weight: 153.4

My plan was to ride last night but when I got home I had this odd feeling at
the top of my throat. Like a lump of sinus goo and it would not go away.
Makes me feel a little queezy. It still feels that way a little.but I will
go ahead and ride tonight.

Weight: 153.1

In the last week or so I keep looking down at my legs and seeing my winter fur. It seems so wrong. My urge is to shave it off and feel like a real cyclist. On the other hand, it is winter and maybe it keeps my legs 1000th of a degree warmer. Also, my conscience keeps telling me that if I shave now I will feel like it is the season and peak on Feb. 15th at 2am, thus ruining the whole year.

Ride time: about 1 hour at Spinning
Weight: 154.5

Sunday was the planned "introduction to newer riders" team ride in Columbia IL at noon. Joe and I feared the worst so we went over early and did our usual 9am fixie ride first. Justin joined us on his regular bike. He's always up for extra miles. Like last week we rode the bluffs down to Valmeyer. I struggled for the first few miles. Saturdays surprisingly difficult ride was still having its effects it seemed. My legs loosened up quick enough though and we seemed to reach 156 quicker than the week before. It must have been my imagination because I didn't feel that awesome. Back to Valmeyer was easy riding with a hefty tailwind. We skipped riding the side roads and just took B and Levee back and finished in just under two hours. We probably could have taken those roads because we got back at 11:15 and got a little chilled waiting for the noon ride to gather and get rolling.

Despite Mike's late-ish arrival we actually rolled out of the parking lot pretty much on time. Our group had a decent seven man group. Everyone was experienced except for maybe one guy who's name I still don't know. Not good on my part. He did an okay job with the paceline though, especially when you factor in the strong cross and headwinds. Along the way I did my best ruin any rhythm we had with two unrelated flats. In between those flats we had passed Kong on the side of the road with a flat and being helped by Butthead. They caught back up to us during my 2nd flat and decided to ride with us instead of fighting the fierce headwind with only two riders. We got rolling and came across Luke doubling back to see where Butthead and Kong were. I guess it was nice of him to double back but the idea was to have at least one experienced high cat rider with each group. Now there group was left without either one of those riders. Justin was still up there but he can get a wild hair once in a while and just away from a group.

Kong was hurting and told our group to go on and he would just spin. I wish he could have held on to Maeystown but he has very few miles in his legs and he should know his limits. Unfortunately Patrick dropped back to Jeff and we never saw him again. We went on in a decent fashion until the first knucklehead move. Just before the turn into Maeystown we were just about to catch another group. It was Mike's group and I guess he saw us. He was in a playful mood and circled back and then did a trackstand across our side of the road. Now we weren't going terribly fast but we kept going and I half expected him to move but he didn't and caused us to put on the brakes and sent everyone swerving. Luke pushed him into the grass as we went by which was good for a chuckle.

Most of the group was at the intersection of roads that went to either Maeystown or on to Prairie du Rocher. Joe and I kept rolled on past toward Maeystown as did Glen. The others were trying to catch our attention like we didn't see them but we already had 37 earlier miles in our legs and Glen had almost no liquids. There is no way he would have made it to Prairie with two swallows of liquid. Besides he was hurting for most of the ride. Joe doubled back to let the others know what we were doing and to give anyone else a chance to go with us. He brought along three or four others when he came back and we headed on the The Sweet Shoppe for fuel. Joe W's group was rolling out of town as we were going. They ended up turning around and joining us for the return trip after we fed ourselves.

Having the strong southerly wind at our backs was going to be fun on the way back. Rather than going back the same way we took Outlet Rd west to Levee so we had to endure another tough, windy section. My legs were heavy after stopping in town and I was sitting at the back of the pack. Not a good spot to be. It seemed like the pace was being driven pretty hard. We started getting in an echelon. It wasn't a nice, smooth echelon. People were fighting for calm air including myself. One girl (Whitney?) was dangling at the back too and looked to close to popping. I passed her and caught the tail of the echelon and motioned to her to move to my right side. She caught on and immediately and remarked how much better that was. Maybe that is something that will stick with her.

Finally we made the turn north and started cruising quickly. Not so much because of effort but because of the push provided by the wind. Somewhere we must have shed some riders that were struggling. We turned off of 156 near Valmeyer and only had about 10 left out of the original 16-17 riders. PJ came up to let Joe W know she was going to gather up those that were behind. There were some other experienced riders like Nate and I think Craig back there too, so there was still a good core of people with whoever else was there.

Our small group remained under control. Joe W and BugMan finished their turn at the front and Fuller and I took over as we turned into a crosswind. It was odd because I wouldn't have expected a crosswind there. I need to look at a map of that section of road and figure how the wind was hitting us. Regardless, we had the wind. Joe and I were leading the others. The miles were getting into his legs and he drifted into my draft a little and I could see others shadows off his shoulder. I soldiered on at the front because my legs felt surprisingly good still and I figured I would go ahead and fight the wind rather than make someone else have to deal with it. I think I may have hurt some people in that section but no one really complained to me so I'm not certain. Joe mentioned that someone commented to him that they thought he was pushing the pace. Whoops! I know I never saw Joe W again. I doubt I would crack Joe, so it must have been a conscious decision to not go beyond a certain limit.

We regrouped some after the crosswind and then got another paceline going with the tailwind. The early season miles or the pace or maybe both started to take its toll. Soon it was just me, Hairdoo, BugMan, Justin. Mark was hanging tough and taking a few turns and skipping others. Joe F and Parker were staying close, too. After a while we eased off and rode in together for the last several miles. We hurt some guys in our little group in that last effort but it was pretty fun. Of course it's always more fun when your legs feel good. The others were probably cursing us.

The ride turned out okay for me but all along I had a sinking feeling that not everything was cool. I didn't like leaving the one group behind on the way back. And I worried about whoever went rode down to Prairie du Rocher. They were swimming with some big fish when you head down there with Mike, Joe, Josh, Luke, etc. The potential for carnage was great when you have cat 1's and 2's pulling around some unsuspecting new rider who are unfamiliar with the roads or how much further they were going to be riding. When I started riding with a team I would occasionally overestimate my abilities and end up bonking. My bones tell something like that may have happened Sunday, but I don't know. The conditions were ripe for sure.

The more I do of these "mentoring" type rides between experienced riders and new riders, the more I wonder about their benefits. I always have the sense that sometimes the really good riders get frustrated and want to leave the others. That's just my impression. I can't read minds. For instance, our team time trial event actually has that result built into it. The idea is to introduce inexperienced riders to tactics and strategy of pacelines. If that is the case, why is a team allowed to drop a rider after one lap? That is exactly the person that would benefit most from another lap. I don't have a solution, just an uncomfortable feeling about these types of rides. Maybe it is the big numbers of riders that show up to these things. I'm far more comfortable when a newer rider comes to our little Saturday rides. Goodness knows we've towed a rider or two around and over some hills before. They still struggle at times but it seems more low key. We push the pace at times but then ease up and offer an encouraging word or two.

Okay, I have written entirely too much. Goodnight.

Ride time: 2 hrs in the morning, 3:15 in the afternoon = 5:15 hrs. somewhere in the upper 80 miles.
Weight: 155.7

We had a group of five (Mark, Jay, Joe, Justin and me) show up at Meramec for the ride this morning. It was darn chilly to start but the sun was out and it warmed up a little. Not a lot though. Maybe the upper 30's. I expected this week's ride to be a little easier than last. I'm not sure it turned out that way. A few hours after the ride my legs were stiff. I rode okay but didn't feel particularly fresh. Maybe the cold I've played a role or maybe it was just staying off the bike for the last three days.

Along the way I noticed my right brake lever was moving a little if I pulled on it so I was cautious and tried to use only the handlebars. I thought I had done a good job but heading down Sappington on the way home I tried to shift to an easier gear and the brake lever completely undone. The cables still kept it pretty much in place but it was pretty worthless for the final couple miles. I got home and could screw it back together. The nut wouldn't meet up with the screw. I figured the cables, taped along the handlebars, were preventing me from getting the bolt close enough to screw in so I had to undo half the handlebar tape and the tape holding the cable. Once I did that, I tightened everything up again and retaped the handlebars. Now everything is peachy. I hope.

Along the way back, near High Ridge, we crossed paths with the Gateway boys. They cancelled their 9am ride and left at 11 instead. It was too cold I guess. WAAAAHHHH!!! :) Probably a smart move actually but I'm following the Columbia Cold Forging process.

Ride time: about 4 hrs - distance: about 65 miles
Weight: 154.3

I am still dealing with a little bit of an on again, off again runny/stuffy nose. My actual symptoms are not that great but for a change I am staying off the trainer tonight. Hopefully, another night of rest and I will be closer to 100% for a ride Friday evening.

I saw on either Pez or Velonews that Liberty Seguros has new jerseys this year. At first glance, I call it an upgrade. It looks like a simple design and a little retro with a white "band" of white across the torso.



Weight: 155.7

Yesterday morning I woke up with a sniffly nose and slightly scratchy throat. It has lingered on through today. So far, the symptoms don't seem to be anything more serious than a slight cold. I hope it stays that way.

Went to Spinning last night for my usual Tuesday workout. My heart wasn't into working hard at first but once we got going my mood changed and I got a good workout. This week's class seemed a little shorter than usual. Maybe I am imagining since I didn't get home any earlier.

Ride time: 1hr
Weight: 153.3

Sunday's fixie ride in Columbia was nice. Great weather above all else but rather than riding the levee road the whole way we rode south to Valmeyer up on the bluffs. Riding up top offered some variety and made for a tougher ride for sure. Almost from the moment you leave the parking lot the little hills start hitting you. None of the hills are hard and could probably described as good sized rollers but on a fixed gear they take on greater degree of difficulty. There are some flattish sections of road but the hills keep coming. Each one saps a little more energy from your legs. By the time you reach New Valmeyer, you welcome the looong downhill into Old Valmeyer and the flats of the Illinois farmland.

Ride time: about 2.5 hrs

I just finished cycling.tv's coverage of Magnus Backstedt's attempt and the Derny Hour Record. He finished way off the record but I give him credit for doing the whole hour and not quitting when it was clear the mark was out of his reach. He gave the fans their money's worth. The most interesting thing I learned was that he used a 62x13 gearing. The chainline created by that huge pie plate up front and the tiny rear cog looked freaky. I'm surprised how quickly he got that gear up to speed. My knees would explode.

We did our first Saturday morning ride from Kirkwood and we had a nice turnout with 7 riders ready to tackle JeffCo. It was pretty typical down to Local Hillsboro road. Instead of cutting back on Dulin Creek, we stayed on Local Hillsboro, Cedar Hill and S. Byrnesville. The new roads were good and added some variety to the usual routes. We also took Lower Byrnes Mill from Franks up to Twin Rivers. I knew that intersection was on a hill but had never climbed it from this side. Never steep but it seemed to go on for a good distance. It was hard enough that it caused everyone to be spread out by the top. We also climbed Nollman for the first time up to Antire. The lower half is plenty steep and gradually eases as you go. One plus of Nollman is that being such a small road, the traffic is low. Two times on the road and yet to see a car.

Distance should have been about 53 or 54 miles. Tack on the 12 or so mile commute and I got a good 65. I was gone for a little over 5 hrs but take away 15 minutes of waiting before the ride, 10 minutes after the ride, two flat fixes, one broken spoke and a couple gas station breaks and I think 45 minutes can be taken off that time. Actual ride time was probably about 4:20

Weekly hours: 10.5 hrs

I did not have great ambition to ride Thursday evening. My left knee did not hurt but it felt "odd". Almost like the joint was not lining up just right. Still, I got on the bike with the idea of stopping if I didn't feel right. As with most aches, once I was riding everything felt better.

I warmed up for a bit before deciding to do some intervals. I did four 5-minute efforts. Perhaps I could have gone harder but it was a good workout. By the end, the legs had a decent burn going.

Ride time: 1 hr

Spinning Tuesday night seemed like a good workout. Lots of intervals from 30 seconds to 3 minutes.

Ride time: a little over 1 hr.

We had a decent turnout yesterday. Twelve riders headed out along the rolling hills on top of the Illinois bluffs. Going out we had a brisk headwind but made decent time. We emptied out onto the Bluff Rd a little north of Maeystown (KK Rd I think) and then headed to The Sweet Shoppe for some refueling. Four riders turned back for various reasons at that point while the rest continued on for an additional loop that took us just beyond Fults. We cut off of Bluff Rd at Fults and headed to the deserted side road. I guess that is still called Levee down there. We had a pretty decent double paceline going, aided by a tailwind. Halfway back the wind seemed to shift and we fought more of a sidewind the rest of the way back. We finished with 72 miles. Not the advertised 80-100, but we didn't go all the way to Prairie du Rocher. We were gone for 4:15 but that includes the stop in Maeystown and a couple "natural breaks". Not a bad pace. Some slow sections and some fast sections. The legs felt pretty good. I'm satisfied since the ride was a good bit longer than typical 35-40 that I have been doing.

Oh yeah, one more thing. I must have assembled the 10-speed okay because it didn't fall apart along the way. The shifting was a little quirky in a couple places but nothing major. The biggest issue was when the ride started. We started riding and I was riding so low if felt like I was riding a 52cm. I was really puzzled as to why I felt that way. My first thought was that I was just accustomed to riding the CX bike and that the setup was more radically different than I knew. After a few miles I remembered that I put my old Look pedals on the bike. Combine that with the Carnac shoes that have the Look cleats and I'm certain that was the problem. My Carnacs have a very thick sole and Look's have a naturally bigger stack height to begin with. At the first "natural break" I pulled out the allen wrenches and raised the saddle about a centimeter. The change was quickly made and I guessed at how much to raise the saddle. Even if it was not perfect, I felt much more comfortable.

Friday it was nice enough outside that I wanted to ride the roads. I entertained the idea of going down to the covered bridge. That idea passed quickly after take the first few pedal strokes. My legs were really stiff. Thursday's 2 hours on the trainer took a bigger toll than I realized. Combine that with the planned long ride in Columbia Sunday I figured it best to take it a little easier. Still, I went into JeffCo and took in plenty of smaller hills. I tried not to push it too hard but sometimes you have to work to get up them.

I went through Arnold on Tenbrook to MO State to Dutch Bottom to Konnert to Saline to New Sugar Creek, Schumacher, through Sugar Creek Golf, Old 30, Brennan, Hillsboro Valley Park and back through Fenton.

Total ride time 2:15
Weekly: 7:15

Viewpoint: Hottest Wife/Girlfriend/Sister Finally we come to the most important award this year. Admittedly, I know what very few of the cyclists wives and girlfriends look like but when I saw this woman come walking down the road to the sign in and VIP area in Briancon all I could do was stare. Ten or or fifteen minutes later she came walking the other way. This time she was staying close to Eddy Mazzoleni. It wasn't until a month or so later that I learned Eddy Mazzonleni's wife is Ivan Basso's sister. Pezcyclingnews may not have posted this picture of Elisa Basso-Mazzoleni as a Daily Distraction but she distracts me.