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But sometimes the rabbit is you!

06.07.2009 by Ray Niekamp // 3 Comments

Just a day after gloating about beating some poor guy who didn’t even know he was racing, I was brought back to reality. Out again on Mopac for an easy ride with Pat, I thought I would spin up the hills and wait for her at the top. It was another beautiful morning, and the best time to be out, because the afternoon would be uncomfortably hot.

What I had forgotten was that Saturday mornings are when the T3 team does its practice rides.  They’re one of several triathlon teams in Austin, and we could see some of them heading north on Mopac when we reached the road and turned south. I didn’t think much about them as I pulled away from Pat on a slight downhill section.

I concentrated on my cadence as I hit a small hill, shifted into an easier gear, and started spinning at about 90 rpm. The effort brought the first drops of sweat to my brow, and I started to breathe in a measured, but faster, rhythm.

Swish! Two of the T3 guys glided by me, gaining speed as they went uphill. All right, this could be fun. Maybe I could hang with them on the next hill, then wait for Pat at the top.

As I watched them widen the distance between us, I realized it would take everything I had to close the gap. I wasn’t pushing yet, but I was moving a bit faster than I usually do on this part of the route. Then, two more T3s sailed past. One, a young woman, was tiny — but she led the guy who was with her without effort. I reached the base of the biggest hill on the course and kept a close eye on my cadence. By the time I reached the top, all four of them were out of sight in the distance ahead.

Pat has an arthritic hip, and was struggling today. I decided I would take it easy, and not get too far ahead of her. That worked until we reached the big downhill on the way back. I was pulled over in a cutout for a yet-to-be-built cross street, waiting for her to catch me. She went by, and urged me to get moving. I shifted into the big ring and passed her, quickly gathering speed as the grade steepened.

But the wind was from the southeast again, and it hit me in the right front. I pumped hard, trying to get above 30 mph. At the base of the hill, where I always register my fastest speed — two more T3s cruised past. These guys weren’t even breathing hard. They were down on their aero bars, coasting along, while I sat up, gasped for air, and settled into an easy effort.

At the end of the course, we were stopped at a red light when another T3 rider, a young woman, pulled up next to us in the left turn lane.

“How many of you are out this morning?” I asked.

“About 30,” she said. “We’re out here every weekend.”

“I’ve been passed by you all all morning long.”

“Heh-heh.”

So today, I was the rabbit. If nothing else, it keeps me humble, and realistic about my cycling abilities, while at the same time, giving others the boost of confidence I felt on Friday.  Glad I could help, folks.

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Categories // Rides, training Tags // Mopac, Rides, training

Now, back to rebuilding

05.17.2009 by Ray Niekamp // 9 Comments

Just put my son and his girlfriend on the plane to head back to Minnesota. They were here for four days, which is why the posts have ground to a halt. We were pretty much going non-stop during that time, because the young lady had never been to Texas, and we wanted to show her a good time.

Luckily, I did get one bike ride in. Friday morning, everyone slept in, so I headed out for a tool around the Veloway and then did one Mopac loop for a grand total of 16-something miles. The Mopac loop is the site of a bi-weekly time trial, which some friends have been urging me to do. As I’ve said many times, I’m not a racer and am not really interested in it, but I’m thinking I might try the time trial once, just for the heck of it. So I tried to do Mopac at a time trial pace.

I do have a benchmark: my friend David is a regular at the TT, and his goal is to complete the eight-mile loop in 25 minutes. He hasn’t managed it yet. So I set out with that in mind.

Friday morning was warm, but not terrible. Then the sun came out and the heat built up quickly. A brisk southeast wind blew moist air in from the Gulf of Mexico. My southbound and eastbound legs ran smack into the wind, which kept me from hitting my best time — at least, that’s a convenient excuse if anyone asks.

So I finished at something over 26 minutes. Probably closer to 27. I didn’t get an accurate read, because I wasn’t certain of the TT finish point, so I guesstimated it. I guess if I do decide to enter the time trial, I’d better do a little more work, first.

Which brings me back to the notion of rebuilding, which I introduced in the headline. Because we were showing the kids around, lots of food was involved. And that means Tex-Mex and Texas barbecue. For this transplanted Yankee, Texas barbecue was different than what I was used to, but I developed a taste for it just like that.

saltlick_bbq2Family style at Austin’s famous Salt Lick Barbecue. This shot doesn’t even show the sausages and ribs! Because of odd blue laws, it’s also BYOB. And we did.

We had barbecue for dinner Saturday and brunch Sunday. We chowed down on juicy cheeseburgers and fries Friday while at the movies. And we washed it all down with copious quantities of beer.

Now, I’m betting some of you are wondering, “How the heck is this guy going to get in shape to ride a time trial?” Heck, I’m wondering how I’m going to get back in shape to ride, period. I sneaked a peek at the scale Sunday morning, and I’d picked up five pounds over the last three days. And that was before we went out to Sunday brunch. Which was the Gospel Brunch at Stubb’s BBQ in downtown Austin, so not only was there barbecue on the menu again, but some nice Tex-Mex, too, featuring migas — a mixture of scrambled eggs with tortilla chips, tomatoes, onions, cheese, lime and a little jalapeno — and music by the Aretha-esque Christianettes out of San Antonio.

I’ve been pleased that through biking and being a little careful about what I eat, I’ve dropped 12 pounds since February. This weekend put the brakes on that trend, though. However, the school year is over, and while I have plenty of work to do writing research articles and planning for my summer class, I’ll also have time to ride almost every day for the next three weeks. So my rebuilding will focus on two goals: re-lose all the weight I gained back and keep going, and see if I can actually get myself time trial-worthy.

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Categories // training Tags // food, training

Counting cadence

04.05.2009 by Ray Niekamp // 3 Comments

 

Here it is at the end of a recent ride.  16 mph avg speed, avg cadence 79 rpm, for 18.04 miles.
Here it is at the end of a recent ride. 16 mph avg speed, avg cadence 79 rpm, for 18.04 miles.

For my birthday last month, my son gave me a new cyclocomputer, a Cateye V2C.  It’s loaded with bells and whistles, and I’m still trying to figure out all the different functions.  But it also has one very important function I haven’t used up to now: cadence.

Since restarting biking in 2007, I’ve read that cyclists should strive to maintain 90 rpm as their cadence.  About the only time I ever attempted to gauge cadence was by setting the timer on my old unit, and when it hit a round number with a zero at the end, start counting rpms as I pedaled.  Count for six seconds, multiply by ten, and you have your cadence.

A fairly crude method, but it familiarized me with the fact that 90 rpms requires some quick pedaling.  Once I installed the new computer last weekend, I learned that first hand.  Just taking the bike around the block a few times to test the unit, I learned that I wasn’t pedaling any faster than 77 rpms.

I like the new unit’s physical setup — even tho it seems rather bulky.  On my last cyclocomputer, there was a cadence function, but the magnets were positioned too far from the sensors, and even when I shimmed them, I couldn’t get a reliable reading.  This one uses two large sensors.

puter2The big square thing is the speed sensor — the arm off to the left is the cadence sensor.

Now, I’ve had the chance to test it out on some road rides.  It’s true — to reach that magic 90 number, I have to pedal a lot faster than I’ve been used to.  I tended to settle into what I consider a comfortable pace, which turns out to be in the low 80s — 82 or so.  If I’m trying to maintain a pace of 90 rpm, I have to shift down and pedal faster.

But that’s fine.  I understand it will take awhile to get used to a faster cadence, and to the gears needed to keep the faster cadence comfortable.  Next, I’ll dig into all those functions on the gizmo.  Like an alarm bell that tells you when you’re out of your target cadence zone.  For me, that will be between 80-100 rpm.

One benefit of the higher cadence I’ve already noticed is that I travel at about the same speeds I did when mashing the large chainring — but my quadricep muscles still feel fresh after a ride.  That really came in handy on today’s club ride, where we faced a brutal and chilly northwest wind all the way back.

Does cadence play a role in your training?  Any tips on maintaining your target cadence zone?  Or is this cadence thing all overrated?

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Categories // Accessories, training Tags // cadence, training

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