capeCOD

rode a cent to the cape on friday afternoon. the weather was fine, no rain until i pulled into shauns driveway in eastham which was pretty awesome. i was insanely hot and sweaty all day tho cause it was so muggy. i skipped lunch at 50 miles and decided to be hero and keep going. dumb idea. i was so tired and not enjoying the second half. until i got to yarmouth, 80 miles in and stopped at the optimist cafe. best chicken salad of my life. the waitress was so courteous, depite the fact that i was so dirty and smelly and the establishment was a nice cafe/wine bar. she must have told them to make my sandwich extra large cause it was massive. it had cranberrys and walnuts in it. i felt so much better after i ate. for like two miles. then i realized i ate WAY too much and had a stomach cramp the following 18 miles. anyways id def ride there again, with better tactics, and hopefully go faster. averaged 18 mph even, 5:30 ride time, 6:30 total time.

albORbust09

we did our annual memorial day weekend ride to albany last weekend. shaun joined this year which was fun and caitlin drove us all our crap in shauns car and met us at the hotel for dinner which was amazing. so much more enjoyable not having the pack on the back of the bike unless your actually doing some touring. friday was very hott, but saturday was fast and cool with a nice tailwind. we made good time, ie arrived when we expected to, it was like 10:45 total at about 16mph. pics are on my flickr but below are a few choice flicks for ya (in reverse chronological order)

firstRACE

so i did my first race today. wells ave crit, 12 miles, .8 mi loop, cat 4 and 5 riders i believe. we averaged probably about 24 mph or so, but i forgot to reset my comp cause i was all nervous and not having a clue as to what was happening. all in all it went pretty well considering i had no clue what i was doing other than just trying not to get dropped from the first pack of riders. great success in that respect. definitely learned a lot and it was nice to just dive in and get my feet wet. i was doing pretty well and trying to move up on the last lap when i hit a sewer cover pretty good and my bars slipped in the stem and tilted forward which threw me for a loop and killed the momentum i was trying to build up. unfortunate but not the end of the world obvs. it wasnt like i was going to win or anything heh. cant wait to race again.

forgotness

forgot to mention i finally got up to 40.6 mph today out in hopkinton which was very fun. also i think there is a discrepancy between my computer and mapmyride. im always a bit short on my computer. i just used the preprogrammed 700x23 setting so i should actually measure it out.

cycling updates

do i update about anything else ever. apparently not.
friday i did some speed intervals out in dover. nothing too exciting. saturday i biked ot the post office and met up with dan and shaun. it then started pouring so we went to dans and ate cookies instead. we did ride very fast for a mile to dans house tho. i was super winded. sunday i did a fast hour to caitlins. averaged 18.69 mph which was good considering i had a horrible headwind the whole time. today i did 50 miles. felt great. nice tail wind for the first half and a managable head wind for the second. took 2:41 and averaged 18 mph even. very pleased with that. map is below.

rides

tuesday dan and i went out and did some hills. five times up north hill, hr zone 3 twice, zone 4 twice, zone five once, but i didnt get my heart rate up quite high enough, 178 bpm level five starts at 181. then once up west st which wasnt as bad as i though it would be at all. i still need to do a max hr test and set my zones more accurately based on that.


today i rode to to school, caitlins then home. nothing too intense. transportation speed.

sunDAY

did a fast 1 hour ride this morning then rode home this evening.  it was soooo friggin windy this morning which killed my avg speed, i could have done much faster with much less effort had it been not so windy on the ride out, ohh well.  averaged 19mph which im pleased with considering the headwind for the first half and the comm ave hills on the second half.

maidenVOYAGE

took my new bike out on its first ride today with dan.  this bike is sweet. pretty stuff and very responsive to what i want it to do.  it feels great when im out of the saddle, very stable and fast.the size fells great even with a 90mm stem, but i think a 110 with more rise would benefit me. im very impressed with the ultegra components as opposed to the tiagra group i was riding before.  shifts are faster and smoother.  esp the front derailleur i thought was quite crisp.  the concor light saddle is pretty comfy too i like it.  i was concerned about it being too narrow but it was fine. the best thing is the bontrager bar tape which is comfy, but even better was wrapping it which i did backwards on one side, i dont think ive ever wrapped a bar correctly in my whole life :(  instead of having adhesive backing it has two thin stripes of rubber grippy stuff that grips instead of adheres while you wrap. SO GENIUS!  the blackburn neuro 6.0 is pretty cool, but acted a little funny at first.  i had to adjust the sensors a couple times throughout the ride but got it goin by the end. it has so many functions itll take some time to get used to the workflow of it. i cant imagine how complicated a garmin must be at first heh. anyways on to the pics.

ohhYESSSSS

ohh man am i super duper psyched on my new frame.  i think i chose a good size which i was most nervous about.  the saddle to bar drop isnt too bad at all, at least in my very unorthodox preliminary test fits, which really tell me not much at all.  the frame is very nice tho. welds are beefy but still semi smoothed out, the carbon looks nice, the zerts inserts are kinda cool too, they are see through heh.  one of the best features in the FULL carbon fork, steer tube and all. ive got it mostly built up, i need a few more things including a chain cause the tard i bought the parts from broke the chain instead of using the quick release link that was right in front of my face when i opened the package up, not sure how he missed it/didnt bother to look for it and went for broke. some pics below and some more tomorrow, or whenever i get my stuff from pbk and actaully complete the build. ohh and remind me to post about the mit museum: rovs, androids, chairs crashing into cats, and a keith haring hologram portrait.

215GRAMS

not bad. very nice looking IRL. rode last saturday with dan. did like 27 miles at like 16.5 mph.  gotta ride more. ive been busy with other things this week, like what white cork tape to get for this new bike. specialized roubaix tape, although not cork, feels very nice, but on the other my $7 nashbar tape is tops, double tops in fact. what to do, what to do. ill sit on it for acouple more days and see if i receive any divine inspiration. ill figure that out friday tho. frame should be here tomorrow, im going to bike home from class SOOOO FAST and start building it. cant wait!?!?! any one have any good names for this bike?

layZEE

yeah ive been lazy the last couple days, trying to figure out bike stuff.  hopefully tonite proves fruitful and gets the wheels turning. pun intended. is that a pun even?

stPAT

nice weather today, a little brisk if you were just sitting around outside, but perfect if you were churning the cranks a bit.  did 15 total today. not terrible. what is tho is how confused about frame sizing i am.  do i get a 56 or a 58.  i think i need a 57 tt MAX, prolly more like a 55 or 56, and a 58 seat tube. those two measurements dont really go so well together tho. hmmm...

sundayMUNDAY

rode home from bawstun then went for a ride with caitlin yesterday.  now her shoulder is messed up :( rode to finish today 22 miles total, did some pretty weak interval stuff on the way home to get the legs goin again.  i need to make more time for riding bikes. unfortunately i need to work way too much and as a result spend way too little time on the bike (and at school i guess too).

croun bike. bout time a pic got up. im lazy.

initialTHOUGHTS

i can tell a difference between the ksyrium up front and the deep v/iro hub.  the ksyrium is much stiffer and twitchier.  it feels very different, especially noticable when hitting cracks and bumps in the road.  you can feel them.  could also be the difference between the risers with plush ourys and the drops i put back on yesterday which have some pretty tough cork tape on them.  i can definitely see how you might get a little better response and power out of the l33ts.  less flex, stiffer ride, and lighter.

iRO

threw the l33t on my iro and took a couple pics. this is the best wheel ever. i can tell how good it is, i rode two blocks up and two blocks right back and my evil mail man gave me the stink eye of jealousy at how fast i was going, took like 28 seconds total trip time.  the radial lacing slicesthrough the earths atmosphere.  some pics for ya below.  i used to try and keep this bike super clean, but new england winters make that nearly impossible.  after five minutes the bike looks like you just did a cx race through a monsoon in the jungle. is that bad of me to not take better care? do monsoons occur in the jungle?

saved$7

no need. yay.

ksyriumL33TS

picked these up for 2 bazillion dollars. the super wide spokes cost 199.9 bazillion extra. there are no holes in the rim like where the tube goes so im not sure if you need a rim strip or not. i hope you dont cause i have no more money to purchase them, interesting. ill have to look into this matter after this post.  radial front, 2x rear, ballin all around. my one gripe is the name. should have been ksyrium l33ts. ill just call them that when im doin mad cents with 50 year old men. still need a frame :(

12-25

briskNIGHT

did about 15 to caitlins and back. got a weird cramp in my right thigh on the way there. prolly shouldnt be doing intervals when its 32 degrees outside :(

man its hard to take pics of shifters.

ultegra 10 speed group parts came today. very excited.  looking at some ksyrium elites tomorrow, which should be a nice set to have. now i just need a frame..... looking forward to riding bikes tonite and hopefully tomorrow. gtp.

new basket!!!

so i got this new basket for my bike.  its pretty nice. HOLDS QUITE A BIT!!!  its a sunlite 18x13x6, costs like 20 or 25 bucks.  its nice cause the legs are threaded so its completely adjustable to any bike and handlebar set up. ive had it pretty full with food and clothes and other stuff and its totally ssturdy. i like this feature over walds preset mounting holes in the legs. i cut off the factory mounting clip/loop things with the grinder and used some 1" rubber coated p clips from lowes instead, maybe use 3/4" if you have smaller bars.  they offer greater flexibility in terms of where and at what angles you can mount.  i cant see any reason why this set up with a sunlite basket couldnt mount to any bike and bar set up. 

31.8 1.5" risers

grind down the corners prior to mounting and reverse the screws, no bloody knees or ripped jeans.

bike dingleberries?

rearWINDOW

my mum says she felt like i was cutting up a family member and stuffing them into a suitcase like in rear window

HIIII

this template is super friuty-tootie!