Cycling Perspective

a nice website

2008-09-08T11:40:00.001-04:00

Dear friend,
Hope you everything goes well. I find a good company to buy electronic products recently.Now it is under sales promotion.They provide the attractive service and price to customers, It is realy a good chance for shopping, you can have a look their web if you like, and you will find more surprising. its website is www.bailecn.com .
Sincerely yours!

June 25, 2006

2006-07-10T13:51:00.000-04:00

2nd day of Deland Omnium (circuit)
David finished 3rd in a close sprint.
Danae finished 5th in a close sprint.
I finished 8th in a close sprint.
ORC had a good cat 5 race. we had 4 top 10 finishers and Sean took 5th overall in the Omnium.

June 24, 2006

2006-07-10T13:48:00.000-04:00

David, Danae, and myself raced in Deland Omnium. David took 3rd in RR, 11 out of 12 in the TT. Danae has 5th in RR, no TT. I flatted on lap 2 of RR and did not do the TT.David is very happy with his 3rd place finish and close sprint.

Changing up the schedule

2006-02-23T22:47:00.000-05:00

This week I decided to change our normal routine training schedule. Normally I would train with the kids on Tuesday on Heintzelman for an easy ride with a group of women riders, Wednesday we would do intervals by ourselves, and Friday would be a light spin just to get ready for the weekend races. Since we are not racing this weekend I decided to try something a little different and we joined up with Coach Dennis for training.

Tuesday
On Tuesday we did sprint intervals, 6 short intervals and 4 longer ones. We would start from a track stand and sprint to a designated point without shifting. The sprints were long enough that you would spin out but it foreced you to keep leg speed up for a longer period of time. When we finished the sprints we would continue to roll for a short distance and then turn around and start over which allowed our entire group to stay together no matter how fast or slow you are at sprinting. This worked out much better for the kids and myself since everybody was able to get a hard workout. By the end of the practice I was totally wiped out and feeling dizzy but at least I got a good strong workout. This type of practice was very similar to our Saturday sprint practices on the school track. The kids really liked this over practicing on Heintzelman were we could never seem to stay together.

Wednesday
Last week's practice was a little difficult for me because we did intervals on standard roads and I was unable to keep an eye on both kids due to their different capabilities and we always ended up seperating. On Wednesday we meet at Coach Dennis's house and went to a short 1.3 mile road to practice. The intervals were 2 minutes long with a 8 minute recovery between them. We ended up doing 5 intervals before heading back. The practice was very hard and just like yesterday we re-grouped when everyone turned around to start the next interval. Again the kids really enjoyed this practice and I plan to continue attending this practice.

Thursday
Normally Thursday is a off day but since we are not racing this weekend I decided to ride with Coach Dennis again. This ride is a skills practice and an easy recovery ride. The juniors also have a similar ride out on Heintzelman but I didn't feel like driving that far and also wanted to see what Coach D's skills practice was like. We worked on cornering by taking the inside line while riding in a group. The practice was a little bit harder than I expected because we spriting to the front of the group to talk the inside line through the corner. Both David and I agreed that this was not a typical recovery ride that we are used to. Danae decided to take the day off and it was probably best for her anyways. After we finished with cornering we practiced on the West Orange Trail in a 3 wide rotating paceline. This is where there are 3 lines and only the middle line rotates to the front. This practice caused a couple of riders to crash a few weeks back so several riders were a little nervous but everything went well. I didn't mind the drill except it got kinda dark and I think it would have been safer if we did this with better lighting. I will probably be riding with the juniors next week to see what they are doing on Thursdays.

Dade City Race

2006-02-20T10:25:00.000-05:00

This weekend was supposed to be a road race on Saturday and a crit race on Sunday but I decided to only go to the crit on Sunday. I originally planned on racing on both days myself but my road rash forced me to reconsider. Even though I wasn’t there for the road race it was probably for the best. There were a number of crashes and Will, Stephen, and Lance all went down with minor injuries. The women’s race had a rider hit by a car and had to be air lifted to the hospital. But on a more positive note Craig, who just moved up to a Cat 4, finished the 2nd in his first Cat 4 race. Way to go Craig!

On Sunday the crit race was in Dade City. There was a pretty large field of juniors and Team Laser showed up in force. The 10-14 categories had perhaps 12 to 15 racers and it was pretty evenly split.

Danae’s Report
Danae started out trying to hang with her teammate Ali but eventually got dropped. Danae put in a hard effort early in the race but unfortunately spent so much energy trying to stay with Ali that she didn’t have anything left to keep of with the rest of the field and ended up off the back. Danae has good race instincts to jump on wheels but her body just isn’t ready to keep up with her thoughts. She ended up finishing in 4th out of 6.

David’s Report
David had a strong race. The 13-14 juniors started the race fast and hard and David launched several hard attacks from the very beginning. After a couple of laps/attacks David looked spent and fell off the back when Luke attacked. Once David was off he linked up with two other riders that he felt he could beat in the sprint. He road with the two other boys but didn’t want to do all the work so he slowed the pace and let them take turns pulling. When they got to the final lap David easily sprinted to the finish beat the two boys and finished 4th overall. David was a little surprised that he didn’t come in 3rd and thought the officials made a mistake putting another kids in 3rd but there was no mistake, David just lost track of the other boy on the course. If David hadn’t lost track of the other kids I know he could have taken third but I guess this will be another lesson for him, “Never lose track of your competition”.

Got A New CompuTrainer!

2006-02-17T21:04:00.000-05:00

I have just received and hooked up a brand new CompuTrainer. The Team purchased two of them (for a total of three) and because I'm a coach it was decided that I could keep one at my house for testing teammates on the west side of town.

I hooked up the CompuTrainer with no difficulties and the 3D software was pretty straight forward as well. Once I got the new trainer calibrated I was ready to race. The default settings for the computer opponent rider is to match whatever pace you maintain which makes it difficult to take the lead but it was good for my first time out. I started with a very short .3 mile race and I was able to beat the computer with a sprint finish. On my second race I choose the Central Park course which is a 10k mildly hilly course. I really enjoyed the ride and learning how to use the software. I played with many of the features of the CompuTrainer and when we got near the finish line I sprinted and beat the computer again.

It was great beating the computer twice even though I know the default settings are pretty easy but it was fun just the same. I look forward to learning how to save my race performance and then racing against my saved races instead of racing against the computer. This was the first time that I have ever enjoyed riding a trainer and I look forward getting on it again.

Starting to feel better

2006-02-16T10:28:00.000-05:00

Now that racing season has started our scheduled training rides are Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday with races on Saturday and Sunday. This week is an exception because there is no scheduled race on Saturday so we will most likely change the normal training schedule to get in a little extra milage.

The practices on Tuesday and Wednesday went pretty well. I held Tuesday practice for the entire team (mostly juniors) and we had around 5 show which isn't bad considering it was cold and Valentines day. We practiced sprinting with an enphasis on 100% efforts. Everyone did well but Danae struggled a bit with the pace between sprints. Our average speed between sprints was 18 to 20mph and Danae was unable to get her breathing under control when ever the pace held at 20mph so I slowed it down a bit to be sure everyone was rested before the next sprint.
On Wednesday I took the kids to Cherry Lake for longer intervals below threshold which was a little difficult since I the kids ride at different speeds and I couldn't stay with both. I let David go alone for most of his ride and stayed with Danae but near the end I rode with David leaving Danae. I was very nervous leaving the kids alone on the road since I couldn't keep an eye on them but I guess they have been trained well enough and know what to do. Everything ended up just fine although David got ran off the road by a truck with a trailer but I'm sure it was just a simple mistake and David handled it fine anyway.

My road rash bothered me a little at first on both days but once I got moving I didn't really notice it at all. I was a little surprised I didn't have any pain during the ride so I guess I can train and race this weekend but I think I will sit out for now.

I'm back

2006-02-13T09:32:00.000-05:00

Well it's been about a year since my last post but I'm back blogging. I've been very busy over the past year dealing with hurricanes, a new house (still dealing with that), becoming a USCF level 3 coach, and of course training for next race season.

Just to catch thisngs up since my last post, both kids are still cycling and racing and this year I will be doing more racing as well (I hope). This weekend was the first race weekend of the 2006 race season and it was a LAJORS race. The weather was not very cooperative (for Florida) as is was windy (25-30mph) and very cold on Sunday (mid 50's).

David's report
David had a somewhat slow day on Saturday's race and finished 5th. He started off having problems clipping into his pedals and had to chase the group right from the begining. After the start he wasn't able to grab a wheel quickly enough and ended up time trialing to the end of the race taking 5th.
On Sunday he had a much better race and finished 2nd. The plan was to have his teamates control the pack to allow him to get away off the front. David attacked first but the pack chased and so David sat up to conserve energy. Other teamates decided to attack and got away leaving David with the pack. Eventually he was able to attack and get away from the field and time trialed away for the rest of the race.

Danae's report
Danae also had problems getting clipped in to her pedals (must be the first race jitters) and struggled early to get started. At the beggining of the race she had problems getting around a slower kid and ended up working herder to catch the other kids. After she caught back up they attacked and left her. She ended up alone and finished 3rd.
Sunday was also a better day for her as she never got dropped and had several very good attacks of her own. Unfortunatly she went too hard and got worn out and was caught by a teamate. She held in the race in any case and finished very well at third place.

Dad's report
I had the worst weekend of them all. I crashed on Saturday before my race during warmup. My crash was my own stupid fault, I went hard into a corner and slid out on the brick pavers. I guess it was better to happen during warmup rather that the actual race. I suffered no serious damage but tore my shorts and have some nasty road rash that preventing me from racing for the weekend.
On Sunday the race was on ORC (Orlando Road Club) sponsored race so Adri and I ended up working the registration all day. Since I wrote the database for registration I ended up staying the entire day at the tent and couldn't have raced even without road rash. The race was a complete sucess.

BTW, a very special thanks to Adri for helping me so much with race registration on Sunday. We both worked around 14 hours.

Racing Season Has Begun

2005-02-22T22:04:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since my last post because racing season has begun and I've been too busy to write. Over the past couple of weeks I've been to Gainesville twice and satellite Beach for races and Band competitions, whew it's been busy.

Well the kids first race of the season was in Gainesville and it was a 12 mile Time Trial. The weather was perfect and the kids didn't need any arm warmers or anything but it was a little breezy. I watched the kids come down the ramp as they began the race and then jumped in to Henry's truck to follow the group and get some pictures. David's primary goal was to not get passed by the kid behind him and Danae was just to finish the race. David finished in 6th place out of 8 and Danae finished 2nd out of 2. Overall I was very impressed by Davids time, he was only down 40 seconds off the rider ahead of him which isn't bad considering that he hasn't been riding that long.

The second day in Gainesville was a crit race. This was Danae's best race so far, she finished 2nd out of 3 with a spectacular sprint finish against another boy that was a year older and had been riding for 2+ years. David struggled in this race and got dropped by the main group but finished strong. Danae was so happy with her race that she didn't want to get off the bike for 20 minutes after the race.

Last weekend was another crit race in Gainesville with perfect weather. David seemed very sluggish and didn't do well at all while Danae finished 1st. Wow, Danae got her first 1st place finish and a trophy. She was so proud that she took her trophy to school to show it off today. David seems to not be feeling well and I don't think he ever fully recovered from his cold a couple of weeks ago he's still coughing and sneezing.

The entire team did great over the past couple of weeks taking several 1st place finishes in the 13-14 age groups.

Double training day

2005-01-27T22:34:00.000-05:00

Our training schedule has gotten a little messed up this week because David was unable to keep up with his homework on Tuesday so I moved his training ride to Thrusday. Of course this is also a training day for Danae and they can't train together because they are at different levels.

The first ride was Danae's. I talked to Danae on the phone before leaving the office to see how she felt and she didn't sound too excited about todays ride. I often feel that she would prefer to only ride with the team but she needs more time on the bike to get stronger. I have been trying to think of ways to keep her training rides fun and benificial which required some creative ideas. Today we are supposed to do 8 x 20 second big gear intervals but after talking to Danae she just wanted to practice 180 turn arounds and emergency stopping. I told her the we would compromise and do a little of both, 5 x 20 second intervals and 180 turn arounds. We started with the intervals and then used the manhole covers in the street as our 180 turn around markers. Danae did well on the sprints but wasn't getting the 180 turns very well, she kept making her turns late and going way past the turn around point (manhole cover). I tried to be creative and make a game out of it and told her that she need to turn around riding over the manhole covers with both wheels. In addition I had her skip ever other manhole so she would eventually make it around the block back to the house. This turned out to be much harder than even I imagined because of parked cars leaving little room for the turn around. Danae had a hard time at first but after a little while she got the hang of it and did a wonderful job, not real fast but at least she was turning better.

David was supposed to do VO2MAX training on Tuesday but I rescheduled it to Thursday. Because I rode with Danae after work and before dinner the only time left for David was after dinner around 7:30p. I setup the trainer in the garage with a big fan in front of the bike so David wouldn't over heat and started his warmup. The workout consists on 2 sets of 3 x3 minute intervals pushing a big gear with a 10 minute warmup, 10 minute rest between sets, and 10 min cool off. The total workout takes 1 hour to complete and is pure torture. David complained during the workout that his legs wern't feeling strong which was probably because he had not recovered after Wednesday's ride. The first set went well and David looked very tired but the second set was miserable for him. On the last interval he began to cry and was in a lot of pain be he kept his cadance over 100 throughout the intervals (mostly). I closely tracked his time, cadance, and heart rate during the workout to be sure we were getting the results disired. His cadance rarely dropped below 100 but he had to change gears a couple of times to find the right combination. His heart rate max'ed out at 200 and generally hit 191 in under a minute. This means he spent over 2 minutes at his max VO2 on almost all intervals. After this I gave David a protein bar and a well deserved rest. What a hard workout, it's hard to watch your kids workout until they cry. I talked to David after the workout and he thanked me for helping him and said that he enjoyed it, what a sick freak. ;)

A tough practice

2005-01-26T22:13:00.000-05:00

Today's practice on the West Orange Trail was a little harder that most. The team had the normal riders show up with 11 people with a few missing. We started off in a double pace line riding around 17 to 18 mph and rotated the leaders every few minutes. After around 5 miles Danae rotated to the front and took her turn pulling. As I watched from behind I wondered how well she would do pulling at these speeds and it didn't take long before she slowed the pace a bit, down to 16 to 17 mph so it was barely noticeable. Danae looked strong riding in the front and at certain spots on the trail she worked up to 20 mph. Initially the pace line was rotating the leaders every few minutes but I guess Danae didn't get the word and stayed pulling for the next 5 miles until we reached our turn around point at Horseman's park.

On the way back Coach Stephen wanted to push the team hard and took off up hill @ 20 to 22 mph in a single pace line. Last week I was able to push Danae up the hills and she was able to hold my wheel on the flats to keep up with the team but today's pace was a lot faster. I tried to push Danae up to the end of the pace line but I quickly realized that she wouldn't be able to hold my wheel for long at this speed so we dropped off with another junior and formed a small single pace line. We climbed the hilly part of the trail and once we got near the flats our small pace line broke up because John was unable to hold on to Danae's wheel. David was able to keep up with the team most of the way put eventually got dropped with another junior Daniel. Daniel and David rode together for a while but David went in to his time trial mode and dropped Daniel and wasn't far off from the team. This is the first time David has been dropped on a team practice in a long time. He's almost as strong as the other kids and I figure he'll be up to them by April or June. Danae did really well the rest of the ride and didn't cry on the hill sprint like last week, she pushed real hard and did a great job.

Catching up on my posts

2005-01-24T09:43:00.000-05:00

Sorry that I have not been able to post more frequently but it's not that we haven't been riding but that I haven't had time to write.

Wednesday 1/19/05:
We had a great turn out on Wednesday's ride and every rode very well. We started on the West Orange Trail and rode 20 miles with nice weather. The ride started off slow going out to Horsemans park and coach had the juniors practicing a double-rotating pace line. Since the pace was a little slow we had a hard time keeping tight together and some of the riders were not experienced doing a pace line so we had a lot of spacing issues. Both David and Danae did very well in the pace line and staying tight on the wheel in front of them and maintained speed perfectly. When we turned back the pace picked up a lot. I knew that Danae would get dropped on first hill so I watched her closely. When she fell off the back I managed to push her back up to the main group and told her to hang on my wheel. The pace line was pulling 18 to 20 mph and Danae was doing everything possible to hang on. She did great, even though she didn't take any turns in the pace line she hung in there until the group stopped. Only one junior was dropped on the way back and his mother stayed with him and Danae was proud that she wasn't the last rider this time. There was one final hill sprint during the ride and I encouraged Danae to push hard. As she worked even harder she began to cry because she was so tired and I told her to keep her legs moving and not to give up. When we finished the sprint Danae had beaten another junior and I told her that she did great but she was just too tired to appreciate it. She recovered quickly and even participated in an attack.

Thursday 1/20/05:
Danae is supposed to ride today doing 20 second intervals but I decided that she needed rest from yesterdays ride. Instead we went out and did a light spin and practiced 180 U turns and emergency stopping. We rode out to the local middle school parking lot and practiced for around an hour. I tried to setup a ride with Danae's friend Samantha but her mother said that she would be home for early enough to ride.

Friday 1/21/05:
Went to the LBS and picked up some supplies. Danae needed new brakes and I installed them when I got home.

Saturday 1/22/05:
Today's was a team practice at the middle school in Winter Garden. Once again we had a great turn out and even had the development team show up. We practiced sprints, 180 U turns, and emergency stopping. David's sprinting was a little slow and he nailed the 180 U turns and emergency stopping. Danae started off a little shaky but after a few times she really showed improvement and enjoyed the ride. After the practice we rode to County Line Station on the West Orange Trail and back again and both Danae and David rode strong. Today we tried to arrange for David's friend Ryan to ride with the team but he had a scheduling conflict and couldn't make it. We are going to shoot for Wednesday.

Sunday 1/23/05:
The weather turned much colder today and was forecasted for rain in the morning. The team ended up re-scheduling the ride for 1:00 p but things were still cold and windy. When we started the ride it was in the upper 40's and a 15 to 20 mph wind. I dropped Danae off with Dennis to ride on the tandem and she was thrilled that we didn't have to cancel the ride. After dropping off Danae, David and I drove to coach Stephen's house to begin our ride and wait for the rest of the team to meet us. We started off riding out to the Yahala Bakery but on the way the ride leaders decided that it was too windy to ride to the bakery because of the hills. We ended up taking a different route that was flatter and cut out around 10 miles off the trip. David started off riding really strong and I was feeling terrible. My chest was tight and my legs just didn't want to move, I guess the cold air was making hard on everyone. As I rode close to David he seemed to be riding stronger than normal and never fell back on the hill climbs on Cherry Lake Road. The pace was a little faster than normal IMO around 18 mph up the hills so I was truly impressed at how well David was able to hang on. After around 30 miles we ended up turning directly into a head wind and David and Wil dropped off from the pack. I stayed with them but after the climb and a turn the team was out of sight. I wasn't familiar with this route and ended following a detour sign which turned out to be a mistake. The kids were hardly able to stay on my wheel and I was getting extremely tired but the pace was slower so the kids could hang on and I did fine. When we got around 10 miles from coaches house Wil bonked. The more we rode the worse he looked and the last 2 miles of the ride he could barely maintain 10 mph. At one point I was considering calling his dad Henry to pick him up but Wil insisted that he could make it. I helped him on a few hills and he made it back but he was almost unable to speak when we got back. Henry got him some food and Wil recovered but I sure was scared for a while. Overall David and Danae rode strong and enjoyed the ride but none of us want to see that kind of wind again any time soon.

Terrible weather for riding

2005-01-16T20:46:00.000-05:00

Today's weather has been miserable. It started off raining and cold with a 15 to 20 mph wind. We were supposed to riding to the Yalaha Bakery but I personally didn't want to ride in weather like this. During Saturday's practice I had agreed to watch another junior (Wil) because his dad was unable to make the ride so I decided to call him to see if he was planning on riding in this weather. When I called Henry told me that they wern't riding in this weather but some of the juniors were going to meet later to riding if the weather cleared. Whew, now that I didn't have to worry about picking up Wil I didn't have to ride either. Unfortunatly Danae was very dissapointed and cryed about missing the ride. She understood why we couldn't ride but was still dissappointed because this was the second Sunday she wasn't able to ride with Dennis on the tandem.

Later in the day the weather cleared and the sun came out so we decided to meet @ 1:30p at the coached house. Since Dennis would not be there with the tandem I decided to bring Danae and riding with her alone and let David ride with the rest of the team. Coach had decided on a route the was faily flat and around 50 miles. Even though the sun had come out it was still cold and windy so the flat ride would probably work best. Of couse Danae couldn't ride with the team so we ended up taking a 25 mile route in Montverde with some mild hills to climb.

We started off with the team and Danae struggled to hang on to a wheel. We rode out with the team for around 5 miles and then seperated. I had decided before riding that I wanted to keep an eye on Danae's heart rate during the ride so I could determine how hard to push her. After we separated from the juniors her heart rate was 188 so I slowed the pace a little until it was 180. Next we started riding on a trial when we came upon some kids riding skateboards and a bike. The kids were kinda moving slow and wern't paying attention to anybody else so I called out (passing on your left). Either they didn't hear me or didn't care because they continued to block the path until I passed them on the left. The kids riding the bike seemed shocked that I was passing him as he ran off the road but quickly re-gained control of his bike getting back on the pavement. Unfortunatly Danae was right behind me and ended up getting ran of the road too but wasn't as fortunate when she attempted to get back on to the pavement, and crashed. She was already slowing down so the wreck wasn't too bad and she only skinned her knee, nothing serious so we continued riding.

We came to out first real hill and Danae climbed it confidently, she was proud of her ability to climb and told me that she was much better than the last time we rode. Now it was time to turn off the trail and ride with the traffic which was Danae's first time. She was riding very well and stayed close to my wheel for the most part but was having difficulty due to the strong winds. We eventually came upon another large hill and Danae started to slow down. She also struggled during this climb and began to grunt with every pedal stroke, she was clearly in a lot of pain trying to climb that hill but she never gave up and kept pumping. Once she got to the top I noticed that she was in her middle ring and suggested that she try changing to her little ring for the next climb to make it easier. When we got to the next hill I told her to shift gears but she said no and pushed on. She starting grunting again and was in a lot of pain but she never stopped and made it to the top again in her middle ring. I was clearly impressed with her determination and was glad to see her putting in so much effort.

The next several miles were moslty down hill and normally would have been fast except Danae looked as if she needed a little rest so we more or less coasted down, I knew there were more climbs ahead and I wanted her to be recovered. The next climb was not very steep but it was long. From the bottom of the hill it looked really hard and Danae started to say that she couldn't make it. I told her that she was strong and could do it, just keep moving those legs. She kept going and made it but she was very tired. On the next decent the wind was directly against us and for the first time we had to push hard just to go down hill (hey that's not fair). We were almost back to the coaches house and Danae was looking very tired. The last three climbs were the worst so I suggested to Danae to use her little ring again but she refused. As we climbed the last three hills Danae grunted and started to cry but she didn't stop. I felt bad for her and the people in the cars passing by made me feel even worse. After all, what kind of parent puts their kids in lycra, in cold weather, and makes them climb hills until they cry. Those dirvers must have thought terrible things about me. Danae ended the ride happy but was glad it was finished, I figure the distance and terrain was just about perfect for her abilities.

A change of pace

2005-01-15T13:45:00.000-05:00

Today the team met in Winter Garden as usual and rode out to the middle school track. The weather was cloudy and a little cool but not too bad, it was just ugly. David was unable to ride again today because of his all-county band concert so it was just me and Danae. We also missed Wil today because he had something going with the Boy Scouts but most of the other juniors showed.

When we got to the track Coach Stephen said that we were not going to do our normal TT training but we were going to do high cadence sprints, practice our TT turn arounds, and stopping drills. We started off with the high cadence sprints keeping our RPM's above 110 during the entire sprint. I also participated in the sprints and got my cadence to 157 at one point but I'm not sure what Danae did. We finished the sprints after doing 6.

After the sprints coach had the team practice their turn around's by placing a water bottle at two ends of the track and having the kids ride between them and turning around (back and forth). This was great for Danae as she has always been very nervous about turning her bike in a "U" turn and needed the practice. At first she was having difficulty navigating the "U" turn but after a few times she did much better, but slow.

Next the coach had the team practice stopping. This consisted of riding somewhat fast on the track and stopping as fast as possible at a specific point (a line), without skidding the tires or without putting their feet down. The kids paired up and made a game out of this by seeing who could hit thier brakes last and still stop before passing the line without skidding. It took Danae a little while to pick up but eventually got pretty good at it.

Now it was time put it all together, to see if the kids had learned how to break quickly enough so they could turn around ("U" turn) faster during a TT. Coach had the team go back to doing the turn arounds just as before but this time he enfasized the speed. Craig was by far the best at this drill and seemed to accelerate, brake, and turn effortlessly. Danae didn't do too bad either but still was a bit nervous at a higher speed and all the juniors seemed to be better at turning after the drills.

The real training was over and it was time to hit the trail for a little 10 mile social ride. Today was a good day for Danae because she had little trouble hanging with the team on the trail after the hard workout but she did get dropped on the way to the trail head. She didn't seem to mind and even attacked me on the way. I wasn't expecting her sneak attack and she did it without help from anyone. At the time I was drafting for her at around 15 mph when all of the sudden, wham, she flew by me. By the time I realized that she was attacking she was probably around a full bike length in front of me so I persued. She ended up beating me to the next intersection and looked very strong. It won't be long before she is able to hang with the older kids.

Getting stronger

2005-01-13T19:53:00.000-05:00

Seems like our new training schedule is allowing me to to focus more on my own training in addition to the kids. Around a week ago the coach provided a training program for the juniors which has more structure than our previous schedule. Today our schedule called for hill sprints or 20 second sprint intervals in the 52x17 gear.

David was unable to attend the ride today because of prior commitments to the all-county band and had to practice with them today. Even though David missed the ride he did get to ride on the trainer in the morning but didn't seem to get a good workout. I don't think he pushed hard enough.

This was the second time Danae and I had done the intervals and we both got a great work out. Initially I started out riding without Danae because she was not ready but since we only go around the block she was able to join in as soon as she was ready. The weather was windy but warm with around a 15 mph wind. Because of the strong winds I decided to change the direction of out sprints so we would be going directly in to the wind for more resistance. After the first couple of sprints I was feeling really good but after around 4 intervals I started hurting. On my 6th interval I was hurting so much that I felt like throwing up but kept going to completed the scheduled 7 intervals. On the 7th interval I started "dry coughing" and almost lost my lunch but somehow managed to keep it together and waited for Danae so we could finish together. Since there is so much difference in our sprinting speeds there is virtually no way for us to stay together during the intervals which is ok since we are just looping around the block anyway but I wasn't able to watch Danae a closely as I usually do. When Danae finally caught up I was still exhausted and when she started her next interval I couldn't even keep up with her enough to watch. From my view she appeared to be standing during the entire sprint and was going pretty hard so I think she did really well. When Danae finished her 7th interval she was pretty tired but wanted to push for an 8th so I told her to go for it. I was surprised that she wanted to do more since normally she doesn't want to ride at all unless it's with the team. I guess she is starting to understand that she needs to train hard if she wants to keep up with the them. She did her 8th interval and some cool down laps and we called it quits. Total of around 50 minutes, but it sure felt longer. She told me her max heart rate was 195 and I think I saw mine hit 177 but it could have been higher since we probably didn't monitor our HR that closely.

After the ride Danae said that her legs were feeling tired and sore which is exactly what we are after so there's not doubt the we both got a terrific work out.

Decision about becoming a USCF official

2005-01-12T22:15:00.000-05:00

I spoke to Henry today, another parent who is an official for USCF, about getting advice for becoming an official. Henry has been an official for several years and seems to enjoy doing it. At one race last season I helped Henry during the pro category race by tracking the racers numbers and boy that was hard. The racers would ride by in a large pack making it difficult to write down all the numbers and still others would get lapped making if difficult to keep track what racers where in the lead, what a mess! Anyway his advice to me was to make sure that I had someone who could pick up my daughter during race days since an official is obligated to the entire day, which can be rather long for a young child. Hmm, I never even thought about that, good advice. He also suggested that we could possibly rotate officiating the races so we could each take turns watching the kids during the day, another good idea I never thought of. Other than that he said that he really does enjoy being an official and plans to upgrade is license at the next available clinic. I guess that pretty much settles it for me, if there is a clinic available I’ll go for it. Worst case I end up hating it and I don’t renew my license next year.

Back to normal

2005-01-12T21:08:00.000-05:00

Today's ORC (Orlando Road Cub) practice was David's first day back from his injury. The ride was a 20+ mile ride on the West Orange Trail and we had a good turn out. Another junior made his first practice back after being sick with a nasty cold or possible flu and is still seemed to be fighting a bit of chest congestion.

Today Coach Stephen started the ride with a brief team meeting. This was coaches first team practice since attending the USCF coaching conference and wanted to give the juniors some instructions. He told the team that he wanted them to watch their cadence and keep it between 95 & 110 rpm. He explained that in Europe the juniors generally keep this high of a cadence while the US juniors typically ride with cadence of 85 to 100 rpm. It is believed that a higher cadence is a contributing factor to why the European riders develop in to better riders than their US counterparts. So from now on the juniors are no longer allowed to use their big chain ring and must keep their cadence above 95 for all junior practices. They can use their big rings during regular training rides and on race days only.

When the ride started with the higher cadence the pace was somewhat faster than usual. Normally the Wenesday ride is a much slower recovery ride allowing all juniors to ride together regardless of skill. Today the ride started out around 17 to 20 mph and Danae was struggling to keep up. She did manage to stay with the team even up the hills but her heart rate went up to 95%. Coach had a mechanical problem and wasn't riding with us at first but when he caught up he immediately slowed the team down to keep them together. After that we maintained around 15 to 18 mph and we rode in a double pace line. At one point I ended up riding next to David and he told me that he wasn't feeling any discomfort in his tail bone. After a while I realized that I hadn't seen Danae because she was riding behind me so I reached over to David so I could turn around to look for her. While holding David's shoulder I saw Danae behind us and she was doing just fine but before I could turn back around David started to tell me that I was pushing him off the trail. By the time I turned around David was already in the grass but fortunately was able to slow and get back on the trail without incident (whew). After that we reached our half way point we took a 5 minute break.

On our way back the team picked up the pace a bit and started a double rotating pace line riding around 20 mph and Danae was unable to keep up. She did hang on for a little while but dropped off when the team started climbing a gradual incline. I helped Danae by pushing her up the incline until her heart rate fell below 180 and then she was able to completed the ride un-assisted. Near the end Danae and coached planned a sprint attach which surprised the team on the final hill of the ride allowing Danae to beat everybody up the hill. Danae was so proud that she beat everybody, especially her older brother.

Today was one of Danae's best rides and it was great to see David get back on the bike and ride so well without pain. It looks like we're back on track for the upcoming season.

Considering becoming a USCF official

2005-01-11T13:58:00.000-05:00

Last night I spoke with Coach Stephen about possibly becoming a USCF official. Apparently the team would like to have more members become officials so they can help out with junior races at various events.

Cons:

I have helped the officials out before at races and found the work to be difficult. Dealing with disputes and warning racers was part of it but it was also sometimes difficult to keep track of the race leaders during a race.
I'm also worry about not being able to enjoy watching my kids race.

Pros:

Now a USCF official gets paid $50 a day for being an official plus mileage and possibly hotel expenses so there is some benefits.
I really do enjoy watching the racing events anyway, it would kind of be nice to be paid to be there. It's not exactly the same as being a spectator but I would be an active participant.

I asked my wife for her opinion and she didn't like the idea too much at first but after some discussion she thinks I should try it out for one year to see if I like it or not. She's right, try it for one year and if I hate it then I don't do it again. Besides, there's no obligation to officiate any races unless I want to.

First good day back from injury

2005-01-11T09:32:00.000-05:00

This morning was David's first day back on his bike without pain. Unfortunately for him it was restricted to the trainer because of time constraints but it was a ride non-the-less. I wanted him to ride yesterday but he didn't have his homework finished so the only time left was this morning before school so he did a 30 minute session @ >90 rpm's. The effort was pretty hard and near the end he was breathing hard and was very tired. I initially told him to go easy and didn't think he needed the heart rate monitor but I wish that I knew his average HR during the ride. In any case he looked good and said that he wanted to ride on Wednesday's team practice ride.

He's only missed a week of riding due to the injury and it appears that he may be ready for the start of racing season after all. He has 4 weeks left to get ready and as long as he doesn't have any more problems with his tail-bone he should be ready.

Good job David.

Feeling better

2005-01-10T13:53:00.000-05:00

I woke up this morning feeling much better than yesterday. I no longer have aches and sleept soundly last night. I still feel a little bit weak but it looks like I'm starting to rebound.

Possible future rider

2005-01-09T17:57:00.000-05:00

I already had plans on Sunday to meet with a friend and let his daughter try out Danae's road bike to see if she might be interested in cycling. I wasn't feeling very good (sick) but figured that getting out of the house might make me feel a bit better so I went. My friend Dave has 3 girls and 1 boy and he owns a road bike and his oldest daughter has one too but doesn't ride much. His two youngest daughters (Danae's age) are twins and one has been very athletic and runs track at school. When I spoke to Dave a while ago he thought his daughter Samantha might be interested in riding so I offered to let her try out Danae's bike.

When she got on the bike she was a little ackward and feel over once but quickly got riding after that. We went around the block and she seemed to enjoy the ride a lot. One thing that surprised me was how much interest her brother Ryan had in the bike. Everytime Samantha would get off the bike he would hop on and take it for a spin. Ryan is 12 years old and has never been athletic to my knowledge so I was somewhat surprised that he enjoyed riding so much. After Samantha was finished testing the bike I talked Dave in to going for a short ride around the neighborhood and Ryan and Kayse (older sister) wanted to come. The ride was short and slow but at the end of the ride Ryan attacked and sprinted back to the house. I clocked Ryan up to 20 mph which was pretty good for a kid who has never been on a road bike before.

Samantha and Ryan both seemed interested in riding more and Dave said he would start looking for deals on used bikes or parts. Who knows, we may have 2 new riders.

Not feeling well

2005-01-09T13:50:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I wasn't feeling very well and took things easy. I knew I was coming down with something but I had no idea what was about to happen. Today I woke up feeling aches and pains all over and had serious head conjestion. I had to cancel the Sunday Bakery ride and Danae was disappointed but she understood. I don't think this is a garden variety cold, probably the flu or something so I'm going to rest and hope it passes fast.

TT Training

2005-01-08T13:42:00.000-05:00

Todays practice was another time trial (TT) practice at the middle school in Winter Garden. David is still out with his injury and so it was just Danae and myself. The junior coaches were out this weekend at a coaching seminar so me and Keith volunteered to run the practice. We did our normal TT training session where the kids ride against the clock for 8 laps, 4 laps, and best lap. Danae showed significant progress on her first 8 laps times but was a little slower than the previous week on the 4 laps and best lap. I guess she went out hard on the first 8 laps and didn't have enough left over for the rest of the practice.

We had a new junior show up for todays practive name Tyler, he's around 14 and looked fast. He struggled a bit with endurance but he had the fastest single lap time, hope to see him back.

Interval training on the flats

2005-01-06T23:42:00.000-05:00

Today the juniors were scheduled to due hill sprints or 20 second intervals. Unfortunately we don't live close to any good hills and it's too far to travel to Clermont so we are going to start 20 second intervals in the 52x17 gear. This is were we push as large of a gear as possible for 20 seconds to simulate a hill sprinting. I wasn't certain how these type of intervals on the flats would work at simulating hill sprints since we've only done hill sprints in the past but that's all we've got.

David is still out of commission so Danae and I went together. Since I also want to get in some training I choose to do the intervals around our block because it's relatively safe and I wouldn't have to worry about leaving Danae alone when we get separated. The first interval was a little awkward because I kept looking at my watch to make sure we stuck to 20 seconds. After I completed the first interval I turned back to check on Danae and saw that she was still pushing well past the 20 seconds so I told her to stop. Now that we had completed the first interval I decided it would be easier if we rode to a specific landmark instead of 20 seconds and this worked much better for the remaining intervals. In the end we both were very tired and I felt like blowing chucks so I guess the big gear intervals on the flats does a pretty good job of simulating hill sprints after all.

Team practice resumes for 2005

2005-01-05T13:31:00.000-05:00

Today was the first day back from our holiday break and we had a pretty good showing of juniors with almost everyone showing up. Coach Stephen has decided to change the juniors training schedule a bit and has made Wednesday a social/recovery ride. This also helps the newer & younger juniors to train with the faster ones. The ride was our normal 20 mile ride on the West Orange Trail and included one sprint with and slow pace the rest of the time. The team rode in a double pace line and Danae actually got to pull for the first time (way to go Danae). On the way back Danae struggled to keep up a little on a gradual hill but she didn't fall behind too bad and we eventually re-grouped at a stop light.

Injury update

2005-01-05T11:24:00.000-05:00

It appears that David has injured his tailbone after crashing on Saturday. He has been very sore and almost had to miss school on Monday because he couldn’t sit very well. He ended up going to school anyway and made it through the day just fine but he moves like an old man, actually he moves more like a pregnant woman in her 9th month but even a pregnant woman moves faster. I decided to NOT take him to the doctors because I also had a tailbone injury as a child and there really isn’t much a doctor can do anyway except prescribing pain medicine.

On Tuesday we tried to get David on the bike just to see if he could ride around the block but he wasn’t able to even get his leg over the seat. He’s making progress everyday and moving much better but still isn’t able to bend much and is very careful when he sits down. Unfortunately this is a slow healing injury and it appears that he might be off the bike for several more days or possibly even another week. This really sucks for David since he’s made so much progress lately and racing season is only 4 to 5 weeks away. I guess we will take it day by day, I plan to try him on the bike again on Friday for a spin around the block.

First Bakery Loop ride on tandem

2005-01-02T10:55:00.000-05:00

Today was Danae’s first long ride on the tandem with Coach Dennis. She rode for 68 miles in Clermont, Montverde, and Yahala with the club and averaged around 17 mph. The route was the normal Sunday Bakery loop and was pretty hilly; in fact this was Danae’s first experience riding in the “big” hills. She was very excited about the ride and was looking forward to eating at the bakery that her brother and I had talked so much about but it was closed due to the New Year holiday (sorry Danae, maybe next week). The ride started out with around 12 to 15 riders and after everybody got warmed up the team started a double rotating pace line. The pace line was somewhat slower (probably because nobody wanted to hurt Dennis riding on the tandem) and topped out @ 20 to 22 mph. I enjoyed watching Danae as she experienced all of this for the first time and she seemed to be doing well during the ride. She rode extremely well and when we arrived at the bakery she didn’t even seem tired and was ready to head back. The ride back started off slower and social but about half way back the pace picked up a lot. We rode down several hills and even shared the lane with some passing motorcycles at one point. Dennis and Danae reached a max speed of 46 (Wow) and after several miles of riding fast they both dropped me. I was amazed at how fast Dennis was able to ride with Danae and couldn’t believe that I wasn’t able to keep up with them. When we arrived at the end of the ride Danae was tired but happy and was smiling from ear to ear. I know she enjoyed this ride and is looking forward to next week because she smiled almost the whole way home.

I can’t wait to see Danae get stronger and watch her enjoy cycling even more.

Bad new years crash

2005-01-01T19:37:00.000-05:00

Today we went for our first ride of the new year. The ride was a casual ride on the West Orange Trail for 30 miles that ended up as a 17 mph average speed ride with several attacks and sprints. Most of the juniors showed up for the ride and everybody rode at their own pace so we broke up in to several smaller groups. My son and Daughter rode in the lead group the entire time and both rode very strong and the weather was warm around the mid 60's, everything seemed to be going great.

Everything was perfect until the very end of the ride when there was nasty crash involving my son David. We were riding back toward the parking lot and we had just finished our last attack of the morning when the crashed occured. David was following another junior (Craig) when Craig decided to slow to make a turn in to the parking lot. David was not expecting Craig to make this turn since normally we go straight and he ended up clipping Craig's wheel from behind. I was ahead of both of them and for some reason I happened to turn around to look behind me just in time to see David hit Craig's wheel and go down. David landed on his butt and then began to roll, Craig was ran off the road but didn't go down and suffered no damage. I immediatly turned around to find David lying motionless on the trail. When I arrived to check on David he didn't want to get up and was clearly in a lot of pain but was talking. I slowly got him back on his feet and he was mostly complianing about pain from his butt and hip. Now that I could start my heart again I started checking David for serious injuries. I saw that his helmet was scratched on the side and his jersey was torn but it appeared that he had no broken bones and was very sore but nothing serious. His bike suffered no major damage either other than needing new bar tape. I suspect that David was riding around 20 mph when he hit Craig but I'm not sure but based on his injuries I'll bet I'm pretty much on target.

It was a scary experience for both David and I but things could have been much worse I guess and David will be grounded for a while. So what does this say about the new year, is this a bad omen?

Danae's first ride on a tandem

2005-01-01T18:48:00.000-05:00

A couple of weeks ago our club president Dennis Sutherlin offered to take Danae on the Sunday Bakery loop rides on his tandem. The ride is generally 66 miles through Clermont Florida, Montverde, and Yahala areas with various hills and an average speed around 20 mph. Since this ride is long and fast Danae would not normally be capable of riding with the club and Dennis thought is would be a good idea to tow her so she could experience the ride.

Initially Danae was very apprehensive about the idea, afterall she had never ridden longer than 36 miles and she hated it. Another problem for Danae was the hills, she hated the hills too and this ride seemed like 100% pure torture.

Today Dennis called me and asked if he could test out the tandem with Danae before we ride tomorrow and I said "Sure!". We met Dennis at the West Orange Trails for a 30 mile ride with other juniors. The ride was fairly fast with an average speed of 17 mph and several attacks and sprints. The tandem looked like it was perfectly fitted for Danae and she was very comfortable. We rode around 15 miles before our first break and Danae was clearly excited, she just kept talking about the ride so far and you could tell that she was enjoying it. On the way back we had several fast attacks and sprints and Dennis was pretty much in the front the entire time. Dennis was so strong that on the last attack he went by me so fast that I felt like I was standing still and I was riding around 20+ mph at the time. I persued him along with several other juniors but he was just too fast, I clocked him at 30+ mph at one point and Danae loved it. When she got off the bike she was totally thrilled and couldn't wait to ride again. She's still a bit worried about riding tomorrow but she definitally wants to go.

Hopefully this will help Danae to build more strength and get even faster. Before long she'll have no problem hanging with the rest of the juniors during normal practice rides.

Updated Training Log for 2005

2004-12-30T06:29:00.000-05:00

Well now that the family has new heart rate monitors I decided it would be a good idea to update our training log. The updated Excel spreadsheet includes statistics for resting heart rate, average heart rate, and maximum heart rate. I also added a chart that shows the monthly averages for all three heart rate statistics.

http://www.geocities.com/dballagh/CyclingLogs.xls

First lactate threshold test

2004-12-28T22:35:00.000-05:00

Well it's time to put those new heart rate monitors to use. Today I decided to test my daughter (Danae) for her lactic acid threshold. We started off with 15 minutes of warm-up around our block which is flat with no stops. Next I had her do 3 x 1 minute intervals @ 100% VO2. Now we are ready for the testing which consisted of a 20 minute time trial around the block.

In case your wondering what "lactic acid" means I'll give a little explanation. The expression "lactic acid" is used most commonly by athletes to describe the intense pain felt during exhaustive exercise. When you exercise, sugar is broken down into different chemicals, to produce energy for muscles. As long as you get all the oxygen you need, the final products are carbon dioxide and water, but if you exercise so vigorously that you can't get the oxygen that you need, the reactions stop, causing a chemical called lactic acid to accumulate in your muscles and spill into your bloodstream.

Lactic acid causes muscles to hurt and makes you feel tired. You breathe hard and fast and slow down to catch up with your oxygen debt, which converts lactic acid into carbon dioxide and water that are blown off as you breathe. Eventually blood levels of lactic acid lower and your muscles stop hurting. A pace that you can hold breathing deeper and faster, but not gasping for breath is called the lactic acid threshold and is the training level for most competitive athletes.

Danae rode very well the entire time but clearly doesn't like time trialing very much. Initially she was shocked that I wanted her to ride for 20 minutes with a hard effort the whole time but I explained that 20 minutes was the average time of a junior crit or TT and we needed to test for the same period of time to determine her threshold. I think Danae rode a little too hard initially and began to slow down after 10 minutes of riding and the last 3 or 4 laps were the worst. You could tell that her legs were hurting badly because she began to tear up and whimper a little but she stuck with it the whole time.

So what are the results of this torturous testing? Well we determined that her average heart rate during the TT was 181 which is her lactic acid threshold. This basically means that during certain type of training we will push her heart rate @ or past 181 and during endurance riding she will want to stay under 181.

Pretty simple huh?

This stuff is so cool. ;)

Son's first ride with LOOK pedals

2004-12-28T13:35:00.000-05:00

My Son "David" got to ride yesterday for the first time with his new LOOK pedals. He rode around 30 miles in the Clermont area (Florida's hilly area) riding up and down Sugarloaf Mountain 2 times and Grassy Lake Road (I'm jealous, I didn't get to go). He was able to test out his new Christmas gifts like arm warmers, heart rate monitor, and pedals and told me that he enjoyed everything but this morning his left knee was hurting. (Oh no, now both of us is having knee pain, yikes.) Of course he was riding hard pushing a bigger gear (middle ring) but I still suspect it might be shoe cleat position or possibly saddle height. I will have to re-check things on his setup.

Christmas Gifts

2004-12-26T13:25:00.000-05:00

Well Christmas has finally come and gone and we can start to enjoy all those new presents we all received. This year Santa was good to us, we received an assortment of cycling gear with everything from toe warmers to heart rate monitors. We also received other non-cycling stuff that was wonderful too. It was great getting all this new stuff but the local weather has been absolutely terrible for cycling. It has been rainy and cold (yes in Florida) all weekend and by the time the weather clears it will be Monday. Unfortunately I've got to go back to work so I'll have to wait a little longer to try out my new stuff.

My son was invited to go riding on Monday with some friends so he'll get to try his things out so I guess I'll have to live vicariously through him for now. Oh well, at least since we live in Florida we won't have to wait to long before the weather gets better.

What to do when wife gets upset with cycing?

2004-12-20T21:40:00.000-05:00

Now that both my kids are training for racing I have spent an increasing amount of time riding with them. Currently the kids are riding between 3 or 4 days a week and I spend around 6 days a week riding between riding with both of them. Our training/riding schedules require us to ride on both Saturday and Sunday in the mornings until around 12 to 1 O'clock and one to two days during the week. Initially we rode on one weekday and on Saturdays but the kids were not progressing enough to compete in races so I added Sunday rides and one additional weekday to the schedule. The additional days has certainly turned things around and both kids are advancing nicely and getting faster, they should have a good season this coming year.

On the other hand my wife (Adri) doesn't cycle at all and feels neglected because of the amount of time we all spend riding without her. She is getting more and more annoyed with me and constantly reminds me about the time we spend without her. I feel bad for her but I cannot agree because before we began cycling Adri would wake up around 10-11:00a most weekend mornings and the kids and I would spend our mornings just sitting around the house watching T.V. until she woke up. Once Adri would wake up we would spend the rest of our weekend shopping, movies, or various other recreational activities. Now that we are cycling Adri has to wait for us to return home before we can begin our weekend activites and this is driving her crazy. I explained that we can still do the activities that we did before but that we would just have to wait until after lunch to do them (which we did most of the time anyways). She still goes nuts everytime I discuss it.

I have explained to Adri that the kids are enjoying the rides and want to continue persuing their training schedule to be competitive. Here are the things that I have suggested, done, or requested so far.

I created a training schedule and gave it to Adri and the Kids to keep everybody informed of the training schedule to prevent surprises and conflicts in the schedule.
I have agreed to change or cancel training days as needed. My only request is to try and stay on-schedule as much as possible.
It is understood that School and homework ALWAYS come before cycling/training.
I suggested that Adri start riding her bike more and eventually ride with us more as a complete family.

In my opinion we should try to help the kids succeed at whatever they choose to do. This cannot be limited to just school work and grades but also includes extra activities they choose. At one time my son was involved in Basketball and I coached for one season for his team. This was time consuming as well but could have been worse if my daughter were older and wanted to participate in something like dance, gymnastics, or soccer. Now that both kids are old enough to participate in activities I think we are fortunate that they both enjoy cycling so I can be there for both of them. Our time constraints would have been much worse if they had choosen different activities. Of course cycling is more time consuming than basketball, baseball, football, and some other sports but not really different than dance, gymnastics, swimming, or diving.

I guess this will be a continuing adjustment process and I hope that Adri can eventually join us as she desperately needs to get in to better shape herself. But if not I hope that she understands that its important for the kids to have extra activities and important for them to at least be equal to the other kids even if they aren't the best.

Getting out of shape?

2004-12-20T21:24:00.000-05:00

This weekend my son and I went on a ride with the team on our regular bakery loop ride (around 50 miles) which takes us through some of the toughest hills in central Florida. We've been riding this route (or similar) for around a month but for some reason I seem to be getting more tired each week. A couple of weeks ago I got dropped from the group that was riding @ 22 mph in a rotating pace line and this week I had to pull out of the pace line running @ 20 to 21 mph. Even though I didn't get dropped this weekend I still don't feel that I was as strong as I should have been and I honeslty feel this is because I am riding more with my daughter lately (age 10). I was hoping to begin racing this year but if I can't perform better during my training rides I will never get strong enough to compete. I realize that this is the off season and I still have time to get stronger but I am begining to get concerned about when I will have the time to train for my own races. I guess I can postphone my racing until next season. Oh well I guess that's the price of being a dad but I wouldn't have it any other way. :)

Cold Weather Riding II

2004-12-20T07:55:00.000-05:00

This past weekend was the second cold weather riding we;ve done this year. Fortunately a friend of mine has been kind enough to loan me cycling jackets/vests for me and my kids which made the riding much better.

Sunday was the coldest weather but was still around 10 degrees warmer than the coldest day we've ridden this year. The morning low was 51c but was still cold enough to require extra clothing. Basically we wore underarmour, tights, jackets, gloves, and a head band. Since the temperature during the morning got warmer we ended up removing our jackets and riding without them and so far everything went well. I can definitally understand the benifits of arm warmers and a vest instead of a jackets. Also my toes got a little cold in early in the ride but warmed up quickly.

So far so good. Hopefully we can get some better gear for Christmas. ;)

Kids getting faster

2004-12-15T13:33:00.000-05:00

Both David and Danae are getting faster by the week. Today we had another team practice and Danae had her best ride yet. She was able to begin and finish the ride with the team although she did get a little help from Dad up those hills. She wasn't able to hang on during the sprints or attacks but after a little help to get caught back up she was able to hang with the group under her own power. This is especially impressive since it was cold (55<) and windy (20 mph). My favorite part of todays ride was the look on Danae's face when we finished, she was so happy that her normal look of exaustion was nowhere to be found. She looked as fresh as a daisy but I knew that she had to be tired after riding 20 miles @ 17> mph.

David also had a good strong ride, he ended up riding up front almost the entire time pulling and he was still able to keep up with the attacks and hill sprints with the team. He has come a long way over the past 6 months, I never thought he would be this fast this soon.

I can't wait until next racing season so I can see Danae take some podium spots and David too. Danae can already beat some 12 year olds an David is almost as fast as his team mates. I would say that David will be right there when racing season starts back up in Feb.

Bike fit?

2004-12-14T13:25:00.000-05:00

How does a person get the perfect fit on a bike?

This is a question that I am currently asking myself for the second time. The first time was when I bought my first road bike and now I'm asking myself again with my second bike. When I tried to find the answer I spent countless hours researching the subject online and talking to different people. In the end I was left very confused and frustrated but eventually I was able to get comfortable on my first bike by making various adjustments. Now I find myself back in the same spot with my new bike. You'd think that my previous experience would help me adjust the bike properly and in some ways it has but I'm still experiencing discomfort on my new ride. My two problem areas are my knees (both) and my butt. I am pretty sure that these problems are related to my saddle position but I have been unable to properly adjust it so far.

Knee pain left
I have been having pain on the front/lower inside of my left knee. This problem actually started on my last ride with my old bike. I rode a 74 mile ride through some hilly areas and after that my left knee became inflamed and tender. I rested it for around 5 days and the pain was gone but now I'm paranoid and keep feeling minor pains that I never noticed before.
Knee pain right
My right knee has much less pain than my left. In fact I only experience pain occasionally while riding. The pain occurs behind the knee cap and feels like I'm stretching or something. If I adjust my body I can eliminate the discomfort.
Butt pain
I have only had minor pain after riding 30 miles or so without stopping. This could just be that I'm not used to my new saddle or perhaps the new saddle is less comfortable then my old one. I may end up switching back to my original saddle if this continues but I would prefer to leave this alone because my old saddle doesn't match my new bike colors.

My knee problems are my biggest concern as I don't want to have any permanent damage. From all my research I was able to determine that my left knee problem can be related to the saddle height being too low and my right knee problem related to the height being too high. Of course this is only possible if one leg is shorter than the other but I never had this type of problem before so I ruled this possibility out. I feel that my saddle height is more or less correct but I do feel somewhat stretched out so perhaps this could be the cause of my discomfort. My new bike is 2 cm larger than my old bike and the seat post is set back instead of straight so this definitely explains why I feel this way. I've tried adjusting the forward/aft position of the saddle but so far have not been entirely satisfied. I've also considered that my problems could be related to my pedals, I'm using SPD pedals which have 0 degree of float. This was a problem once before caused by the angle of my cleat also known as a "tracking" problem. This was fixed (at least I think it was) before but I've often wondered if I would be better off using a pedal with more float.
Of course I know that there is a more accurate way to be measured for a bike and I guess that's what I need to do. So far all my adjustments have been based on feel and not measurements/science and I'm still having problems so I guess I know what I must do now. I'll keep you posted as I make more adjustments.

Bikes first tune-up

2004-12-13T13:59:00.000-05:00

Recently I purchased a new bike to replace my Fuji Finest-AL road bike. I bought a '04 Cannondale R1000 from my favorite local bike shop Orange Cycle. I got the bike around 3 or 4 weeks ago and absolutely love it. I'm still getting adjusted to it because I went from a 56cm frame to a 58cm frame and I feel somewhat stretched out but it rides wonderfully. I've ridden around 200 miles so far and on last Sunday's ride the group decided to sprint on the last hill. When I started to hammer down for the sprint my chain skipped on the cassette so I guessed it was time to take it in for its first "free" tune-up.

Today I took the bike down the shop and the mechanic looked at the bike and said "Did you let the air out of the rear tire or is it flat?". Huh, I didn't even notice that. The LBS replaced the tube free of charge but this was a surprising to me since it was the second flat I've had on the same tire after the same ride & route. The road is really not that bad and I ride pretty carefully so I wonder what is causing it. I had Continental Gatorskins on my old bike and never had a problem, the new bike came with Hutchinson folding racing tires that are pretty light but I guess they don't offer much flat protection. I think I'll leave the new tires on for now figuring this was just bad luck but if I flat again I'll be force to switch back.

While I waited for the mechanic to finish with the bike I browsed around and ended up spending $60 on stuff when I was supposed to be there for a free tune-up. Well, I guess the LBS has to make money some how. ;)

Cold Weather Riding

2004-12-12T18:21:00.000-05:00

Today was the first day of what I would consider cold weather riding here in Florida. The morning temperature was 41 F degrees and the high for the day was 61 F. I realize that this may seem like no big deal for other parts of the country but for Florida it is almost as cold as it gets. Before the ride I was somewhat concerned about how I would feel on a 50+ mile ride with these temperature since I've never ridden that far in temperatures this cold. Last year David (son) and myself attempted to ride in the winter and since we didn't have the correct gear we froze so we both agreed to wait for a warmer day. Fortunately in Florida we didn't have to wait long for better/warmer weather but we did learn something from out cold weather ride, we learned "Don't ride when it gets cold unless you have the right clothes."

This year we were better prepared for cold weather riding. We had wind resistant cycling jackets as an outer layer, our jersey, and a long sleeve under armor shirt. We also wore tights over our bike shorts to keep our legs warm and double socks or shoe covers. Our gloves were simple long fingered gloves but thin and I also wore a head band to keep my ears warm. For added protection I wore a cycling vest under my jacket but found this to be too hot after a few miles of warmup. Since the vest was a thin cycling vest I was able to easily stuff the it in my jersey pocket and now I understand why people buy those cycling specific clothes. After suiting up in the morning I went for a test drive around the block and everything seemed to be perfect so we headed off to meet up with the team.

Overall the ride was comfortable but we did discover a few few things that we need to improve on.
1. Feet still need added protection, we need to get toe/shoe covers to block the wind better.

2. Possibly better gloves to keep the fingers warmer. My fingers wern't exactly cold but I think I could have done a better job protecting them.

3. Possibly should look in to better hear & face coverings. If it gets any colder we are going to need something to protect our face.

4. Arm warmers will eventually come in handy so we can shed a layer and easily carry then in our jersey pockets. Perhaps a Christmas idea.

By the time we finished the ride both David and I felt pretty comfortable and should do better once we make some of the changes I listed above. After some reflection, cold weather riding was kinda nice rather than sweating it out in 90+ F degree temperatures. I am kinda looking forward to our next cold ride now but I have to get that toe/feet problem resolved.

Some Background Information

2004-12-10T16:38:00.000-05:00

Since this is a new weblog I thought it might be useful to start off with some background information to help explain why I created this site.

Several years ago I decided that I wasn't happy with my health (or lack thereof) and decided to get off my butt and do something about it. I guess I became motivated by reading multiple articles about various health problems related to obesity so I decided to lose some weight. Initially this started out with a simple diet but as I lost weight I found it harder and harder to continue losing so I decided to add exercise to my diet. I started off walking for 1 hour a day 5 days a week and my weight continued to drop but eventually I reached another plateau. Since I was not at my desired weight I decided to add bike riding to my exercises. I started off riding a simple Schwin comfort/mountain bike from Wal-mart for neighborhood and weekend rides with my 11 year old son David. We started off riding 10 miles, then 20 miles, and eventually 40 miles. My weight continued to drop until I eventually reached my ideal weight and lost 90 pounds over 18 months. After 18 months of living a healthy life style I found that I could no longer tolerate my old eating habits and I actually enjoyed cycling. Now that my son and I had discovered cycling we both decided that we wanted to upgrade to road bikes. Eventually we both got road bikes and rode local bike trails around 30 miles on the weekends and as much as possible during the week.

One day while during our regular weekend ride we meet a cyclist that invited us to join his junior cycling team. David was a little apprehensive at first but eventually agreed to attend a team practice and loved it. When my daughter (Danae) was old enough she also joined the cycling team and now we ride between 50 to 150 miles a week. Both kids began racing at the end of the 2004 season and David finished the Florida Point Series race in 5th place for the 10 thru 12 age category.

Currently everybody except my wife (Adri) is riding a road bike and she is occasionally riding a comfort bike. Adri seems a little jealous of the time we spend riding but hopefully she will upgrade to a road bike and ride with us.
I hope this gives you a better understanding of why my family is so heavily involved in cycling and why I created this weblog.

My New Site For Ideas

2004-12-10T11:57:00.000-05:00

Hi All,

Thanks for visiting my personal Weblog. I hope to update this site with personal experiences on a daily or weekly basis. I plan to write about topics like cycling, current new events, and personal interests in general. Basically, as ideas pop into my head I plan to jot them down on this web site.

Please feel 100% free to leave comments on any of my posts, even if you don't agree with me. I love good debate.

Enjoy!