This is my bicycle that I am itching to re-vamp into a different creation soon, maybe a SS Fixie??? We shall see!!!! Most likely I will put it back to its touring form, as I plan on doing many touring events this season.
-WCFTW
20120125
No Hands on the Rollers!!! (One Mile Interval)
It has been a while, so much has happened lately... After 1000 miles of rollers, this is what you get:
And other things have kept me very busy.
-WCFTW
And other things have kept me very busy.
-WCFTW
20120122
2012 Worst Day Of The Year -RACING GREYHOUNDS- RGTPS #1
Seventh Annual
Worst Day Of The Year Ride!
Hosted by: Wheels In Motion
And Michigan's Premiere Cycling Race Team: RACING GREYHOUNDS
Discipline: Polar Bear Ride 40 miles
"Wannabe" Photo credit: Lucaseq
And my video, albeit not so entertaining.
My footage is rather limited due to the fact that I was riding the whole time.
My footage is rather limited due to the fact that I was riding the whole time.
Oh where to begin...
The preamble preface primer...
I don’t remember much as it was last weekend; however, we can do a somewhat brief re-creation of the day as it were experienced by me. I was quite rested and nourished before the ride, and even made pasta for the carb loading before and after the event, this proved to be a great success. The weather was approximately 28 degrees average the whole time, highs in the 29-30 degree range with some gusting winds from the south, it was like the weather didn’t know whether it wanted to be warmer or colder, it chose colder and starting out it was 27 degrees, and without any movement, it was a bit chilly in cycling clothes.
I went to sleep about two in the morning after wrenching on my bicycle putting the fenders on, really a ten minute job, ended up being a two hour job due to multitasking (A.D.D.) other chores like laundry and dishes. During the bicycle building, I happen to have an extra Magic Hat Beer laying about in my cavernous refrigerator, yes it was there just laying about and wanted to be consumed proper, so I had two.
Waking up was easy breezy, and as Touring Team Captain for the RACING GREYHOUNDS, it was my duty to get there early and capture a brief head count before the ride, this was rightfully accomplished with my camera. A photo proved you were there and we didn’t need an actual sign-in sheet, and since we were the first group to leave on the 40 miler, head count was easy as memory anyway. There were nine of us and we were doubly excited to be racing with an Olympic racer: Frankie Andrew “Olympic cyclist and Tour de France veteran Frankie Andreu will be participating in the ride this year!” The roll out was fifteen minutes late but no biggie, the initial group of 40 milers did seem rather large, maybe 50-60 people tops, but with a ton of Recs too. Sign in was simple, I always go by the name: "Wannabe Cyclist”, so the Wheels in Motion staff got a kick out of that. I should say that the sign in and food accommodations were sufficient and very welcome in the bitter cold morning, Kudo’s to them for setting this FREE event up and always having enough munchies for the riders, oh the coffee was a bonus too!
The roads in the city were a slushy slippery mess.
(This may be the "Title of my blog after a nice long re-vamp.)
(This may be the "Title of my blog after a nice long re-vamp.)
2010 Gunnar Fastlane -Ice Commuter Version-
RG- Beaker , Torrance
RG- Beaker, Torrance, Chlorinated, Nomadoo, and Tattoo
I really should forewarn you that I didn’t take any pictures along the way, heck; I only stopped once on the return trip for a water break with a tired HOUND, other than that moment, it was all full throttle, or as much as I could handle anyway, all things considered. The few shots here you can see a small peppering of the team, as we were 56 members deep, so deep… Yuup. The majority rode the MTB trails and twenty milers, which you can see in Lucaseq’s video below!
SWEET Video by Lucaseq
The ride started out really slow, like totally slow, which was great for a decent warm up and a bit of a social, I was able to chat briefly with a few people on the way out of Ann Arbor, it was like commuting pace, and rightfully so. We all were the lead group, like in the first ten for pretty much the whole race, yes, I did say race because when the pace picked up, it got hot! The pace was incrementally getting faster by the mile and started to average 19 mph, which is a great moderate pace, but things started to get weird once we crossed Washtenaw Road going through the subdivision, the roadway had become treacherous, or at least for me, I got scared and started dropping back in the pack, the speed on the jagged terrain mixed with slush, gravel, and ice, made for a potential season breaker, there was much to lose so backing down wasn't too bad of an idea, considering we had a few stop lamps to wait for to jump back up to the front. I did this again to hop back up to the front, this time with my fellow team and along side with Frankie, but just for a bit. I remember catching up to tattoo, who was on a SS and he had said he was out of gear for the pace, and had replied: "I'm just out of shape and cannot keep up!" This was almost to Prospect road, and once there we all regrouped, rolled through the green light, swiftly changing to amber, and then the group had split again. The ride captains were telling us to slow back, as it were to be a no-drop ride, so we slowed to 12 mph avg., but once re-grouped, we started back into it, but this time it was going to be a breakaway. Towards the front, two ride captains were chattering about the pace being way too slow, I agreed, it was really commuter medium pace, I was looking for some pain, little did I know what was in store.
Once we crossed Geddes road, the pace lurched, it was tough to hang on, in fact, I was close to my bonk, as per usual. Ha ha ha! We re-grouped at Vreeland, the terrain goes uphill at this point and so did the sprint, I was up to 24 mph but riding the sluggish fendered dirty sticky bike, I just couldn't keep up, I had to relent and drop off the back, and would ya know it, it was right after a pull too. I should have sucked a wheel for longer, but oh well, there was no way I were to be able to keep up with a 28 mph pace-line on a dirty CX bike with fenders, so laughing really loud and watching my teammates roll on by was pretty funny, and more so as it was at Cherry hill road, the same road I had turned off onto last year to take pictures and such, one of my teammates joked about it too.
By the time the few of us got to Ford road, all you could see was the snake of spandex and carbon winding left around the bend, the "race" as it were was over, or at least for me anyway. T he next mile or two was spent in a medium paced recovery ride, wait, that really never happened as I was still too busy trying to catch up the the B-Group in front of me, so all effort was needed!
View Larger Map
Here is the spot where I was just in a mellow pace, about 17.5 mph and getting my heart rate down to below 165, all the while trying to catch up to this casual commuter wearing a bright hunters orange shirt and a vintage bicycle with beautiful chrome fenders, a totally beautiful bicycle I might add! So it was fun riding with him for a mile or two. Speaking of bicycles, check this out:
This is from CMO's photo album, and the same bike was on the fence in the same spot, even through a winter or two! How cool eh?!! Anyhow, it was fun just checking out the scenery out here. The ride progressed, I ate an energy bar and drank some slushy, all was good, no, actually all was great! To keep from freezing my other water, I had that one nestled in my jersey back pocket, that trick actually was the best thing I did the whole ride, besides showing up to ride. At one point, up past Angle road where it turns into Seven-Mile Rd, past Pontiac Trail, I heard this strange sound coming up behind me, I looked and it was a wheel sucker! I was about to pass the guy in the orange anyway, his pace was kinda slowish, enough to get a recharge, and enough for the racer to catch up to me and grab a wheel, so I did what all Newb-Freds do: Dropped it into second and punched it.
Like a rocket I was off! A whole 3 mph faster and passing the guy in orange, I'll show him!!! so I upped the passing gear and hammered on to 24 mph (seems my running maximum these days on this bicycle, Hmmmm.) I didn't look back, as it would compromise my already sketchy-draggy posture as I had sprinted on and out. Yeah me, after a mile of it, there was no sign of the both of them, including the guy and gal I had forgotten to mention earlier that I passed near Ford road. I was on fire!, or at least my legs were.Did I say headwind? and must you know, all headwinds are 15 miles per hour, even if it is 5, it just is, that is how drag operates, or at least in my eyes whilst pulling a train of yellow-jackets on and through the winds! Whipish! Rawhide! Did you know the "cracking" sound you hear when a whip cracks is actually the tip passing through the sound barrier? yup, it is true.
Once we got to E. Shore and Main Street, it was my turn to pull and once we turned left onto main, the wind seemed to really pick up, like big-time. I guess the previous two miles of wheel-suck, it was my turn to pay it forward. We averaged 15 mph on that leg, I must say, it felt kind of nice helping out like that, and when I pulled off, near Whitmore Lake Rd. and 6 Mile, all three of them said thanks for the monster pull and really appreciated the effort. That was rather nice of them.
After my only water break, at mile marker 36, it was time to head back into town, which was all downhill and I regret not going full speed, that would be fun! Also, that may have been the second best thing for me to do on this trip that is to take it easy. After bombing the first hill, I seemed to spring from the water break group (Have you ever noticed that in cycling races or rides, when one stops for a break, it is like the universal "We all should stop for a break" rule or it just me?
After zipping through the park with this MTB fella we popped out onto Main and headed to the Arbor Brewing Company, checked the bicycle, pulled off the computer and went inside for some Chili and bread, as well as a few pints. I gathered more information on who was with us and riding, which came in a lot easier after I had received the actual sign in sheet from Pusher, as it turned out, 57 RACING GREYHOUNDS were there and all accrued their points for the first RGTPS of the year! Great turn out people and thanks for participating!!
As for my second Worst Day Of the Year Ride, this was my best on so many fronts. The weather was perfect, the roads were decent, the atmosphere was great afterwards, and it was FREE!
Thanks for reading this blog, I appreciate you taking out the time to read a little bit of insanity from my cycling world.
As Per usual:
The GARMIN data.
The Pictures.
Last year's ride: (very thorough writeup.) HERE
And the Ride DATA:
Summary
| Distance: | 41.36 mi |
| Time: | 2:52:24 |
| Avg Speed: | 14.4 mph |
| Elevation Gain: | 855 ft |
| Calories: | 3,011 C |
| Time: | 2:52:24 |
| Moving Time: | 2:43:26 |
| Elapsed Time: | 2:52:24 |
| Avg Speed: | 14.4 mph |
| Avg Moving Speed: | 15.2 mph |
| Max Speed: | 26.8 mph |
| Elevation Gain: | 855 ft |
| Elevation Loss: | 844 ft |
| MinElevation: | 693 ft |
| MaxElevation: | 986 ft |
| Avg HR: | 160 bpm |
| Max HR: | 181 bpm |
Ride Your Bike!!
-WCFTW
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