Great weather for a ride today.

I was just about to head out for a ride alone, when Will called and asked what I was doing. I told him I was just about to head out for a ride & he asked if I wanted to join him and his friend Tim. I told him of course and he said to meet them at his house. My legs were a bit tight at the start of the ride, but by the time I met them at his house, they were feeling pretty good. We headed out towards Old Perry Rd, and I was feeling good. We took turns up front breaking the wind. We headed out to Hunt Rd and then hit Sandefur Rd. I like riding down that road, not much traffic, and smooth pavement. We hit a section of the road that has a slight downhill to it & Tim just took off. I tried to catch him, but couldn't close the gap even at 31 mph. I later found out that Tim is a Cat 3 racer, so that might explain things just a bit. We then headed down Bear Branch Rd and when we hit the first section that had a rise to it, Tim took off again, I did my best, but there was just no way I was going to stay with him. He slowed at the top to let me catch him, then we both waited for Will to catch up with us. On the next section that had a rise to it, Will tried going away, but Tim just made catching him look so easy. We then took 247 to Piney Grove, where I took a good steady long pull. The final section of the ride was down Old Perry Rd again, only in the opposite direction from earlier in the ride. There is a section of road that Will likes to attack on, & today was no different. I was behind him and I knew he was going to try something, the only thing was I didn't know when he was going to go. Sure enough, he tried getting away on the last climb as he usually does, but Tim & I were having none of it. Tim caught him first, then I did. He said it sucked doing about 21 mph up that hill and being dropped none the less. We took a quick break & chatted for a bit before splitting up and heading back to our respective homes. All in all I did 35 miles with an average speed of 19.62 mph by the time I got back home. I had a great ride with some great company. Stay tuned for more adventures.......

Catch up time

I think it's about time to catch up and post my adventures from over the weekend. I was going to do the Peach Peloton ride this past Saturday, but situations dictated a change of plans. I had to help a friend out of a situation so I didn't get to participate. I really enjoy doing the rides, no matter how much I suffer on them. It's a great group of guys that show up for the rides and they are a great bunch of racers too. I went out solo on Saturday afternoon and did a 40 mile ride that I really enjoy doing. I rode out to the Perry Parkway and pushed the pace on that part of the route. I came back home on Lake Joy Rd. My average speed was 19.48 mph for the entire ride. My legs felt good the entire ride. On Sunday I rode with my friend Will. He has a new Cannondale & he hadn't seen my new Trek, so we got a good look at each other's new toy. We headed out down Old Perry Rd, then headed out down Moody and then Sandefur Rd to Lake Joy. We took that road into Perry then headed out towards the Perdue plant, then ended up riding down Piney Grove Rd to Old Perry Rd. It was a good ride with a good friend. Today was just a steady tempo ride. I did 2 hours still trying to break in the new saddle. I kept the tempo as steady as I could and kept it in the small ring the entire ride. I rode down the Perry Parkway and then headed back Lake Joy, my legs felt pretty good the entire ride. It's just going to take time to get used to the new saddle. The new bike is working great, comfortable and stable for me so far. Stay tuned for more adventures......

Breaking in a new toy.

A couple of weeks ago I went on the Peach Peloton ride and noticed that shifting from the big ring to the small ring was intermittent. I took it to The Bike Store & had Charles look at it. I was just thinking that the cable was loose and just needed to be adjusted. I found out that I was wrong. The guide on the frame was stripping out. Charles did what he could to fix the problem, but I didn't know what the result would be. I went for a ride on Monday & found out that once I shifted to the big ring, the only way to get it back on the small ring was to unclip my right foot from the pedal and push the derailleur back to the small ring. I asked Charles to see if he knew anyone who had a 54 cm frame that I could borrow until I could afford a new one. He called back a bit later in the evening and told me about a 2008 Trek 1.2 and asked if I would be interested in it. I asked him to let me know what the cost would be and how we would work it out. We came to an agreement and I went to the shop to swap out the parts from the Orbea to the Trek. I went up to Epic to make sure the fit was correct and Mike worked his magic once more. Yesterday was the first ride. I did the Peach Peloton ride from Howard Middle School. We started together then broke up into 3 groups to practice rotation for a bit. The road we used to practice the first set of rotations was mainly uphill and the bike worked great. The frame was stable and responded great. We regrouped and rode 2 abreast until we hit Hwy 42. That was the next section of rotation practice. Chad let me know that I might want to hang back and hang in. I'm glad I listened to him, as the pace was quite fast. I don't think it dropped below 20 mph the entire time down 42. The last hour of the ride we had a tailwind and it felt good, the pace was pretty fast, but I was able to hang with the group. My legs were certainly feeling it close to the end of the ride. All in all we did 66.96 miles and I had an average speed of 19.86 mph. Today I went on a steady effort ride with Eddy. My legs were a bit sore from yesterday, but I really wanted to get more of a feel for the new frame. I just followed Eddy and let him dictate the pace. On some sections of the ride, we were riding what seemed like an easy pace and at other times it felt as if we were hammering. We rode out to Perry and used the Perry Parkway for a good section of the ride. I really like riding the parkway, it's just nothing but rollers, but it will give you a good workout. The Trek worked flawlessly, just need to work on the motor for it now. I'm very happy with the frame, it may be called an entry level frame, but it seems stiff enough for me and stable enough at higher speeds for me. I just need to break in the new saddle and that will only come with getting on the bike. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more adventures....

Night riding

On Wednesday night I had done my workout with my Bowflex and I really wanted to get on the bike. I had two choices, one was to put the road bike on the trainer and ride that way, the other was to take the commuting bike and ride outdoors. I didn't have lights on the road bike & really didn't feel like riding the trainer as of yet. I know I'll be doing plenty of that here in the near future, so I decided to take the commuting bike out on a short route that I use for my recovery rides. It was certainly different riding that route at night. I heard things I never noticed during the day. I guess I was paying more attention to my surroundings seeing as I couldn't see as well. I have to admit it was fun riding that route in the dark. I had a good ride and just might try it again just to break up the monotony of riding a trainer all winter long. I'm up at my folks house, but I did bring my bike and I'm hoping to get some riding in this weekend, just long, steady, miles to build up for next season. Stay tuned for more.....

Recovery Ride

Today was a great day for a recovery ride. I didn't get to do one yesterday due to other obligations, so today was recovery day. The weather was great, didn't need any arm or knee warmers at all by the time I got to get to ride. I headed out and decided to keep it in the small ring the entire ride. I headed down towards Perry to ride the parkway. The traffic was minimal and I had the wind at my back going down the parkway. I just kept a comfortable cadence, not hammering it at all. I'm trying to stick with a plan to do some proper recovery rides and not give into the temptation to ride hard if my legs feel good when I'm scheduled for a recovery ride. There were only a couple of bad things about today's ride. The first was on the return trip I got stuck at a construction zone for quite some time while they cleaned up gravel on the road. The other bad thing was that I had a headwind most of the way back home. I ended up doing 42 miles today & my legs felt better today. Stay tuned for more adventures......

Peach Peloton Ride #1

Today was the first Peach Peloton ride of this year. The temperature at the beginning of the ride was under 40 degress, so I was having a hard time deciding what to wear. I knew it was going to warm up during the ride, so I just had arm & knee warmers, my jersey, a base shirt, shorts, vest and my Slipstream shoe covers. It turned out that I wore just enough for the entire ride. We had over 20 people show up for the first ride, which was great. At the start we were told that it would be a social pace on the ride. There was no attack zones at all on this ride. The pace was nice and comfortable for everyone. The route was rolling hills with a few decent climbs on it. My legs felt good the entire ride, I was able to keep up a good cadence throughout the ride. I was only able to ride once this week, so I'm very happy that my legs felt as good as they did on the ride. I stayed towards the front of the group, taking my turn up front. On the way back to the starting point, I had a difficult time shifting my front derailluer from the big ring back to the small ring, but luckily I was able to shift to the small ring just before the last two climbs. All in all we did 54 miles in just under 3 hours, great start to the Peach Peloton series. I'm going to start my off-season program on Monday & I'm going to stick with it better this year than I did last year.