September Summary

It's October and since this month I didn't forget to note my bike computer stats, I can present my September riding summary.

The overall kilometrage is 521 km, which is neither particularly high nor low. What is noteworthy is that this riding was almost all done on Wolfgang (494 km).  A large proportion is commuting and transportation, and there was our 135 km camping trip to Greenwood County Park. No Sunday Rides this month and no long rides with Gunnar. Average daily riding was 17.4 km and overall annual kilometers are up to 4501. I think I'll try to reach the 6000 km mark at the end of the year.

Terrible Hills! Mos Def!

Two posts ago, I mentioned the crazy "Terrible Hills involving the Letter B" ride, and indeed I was insane enough to actually try and do it. There are already several ride reports out there from other people in what was a great group of riders, and I will keep it short.

I hadn't done any long ride since the first week of July (traveling, moving, ...) and thus I was slow and suffered a lot. I fell behind the rest of the group quite early due to general slowness, having to buy new batteries for my GPS, and a wrong turn on Buffalo Road. Probably that was not the worst thing to happen because that at least allowed me to ride at my own pace. I did, however, catch up with the
rest of the group at the end of their lunch stop at Wegmans. Fortunately I spotted Sam's brightly colored FLCC jersey and reached the group just as it was getting ready to go again. Unfortunately, that meant that I didn't really have time to eat and drink more and in the long run that should prove to be disastrous. Anyway, I was fairly determined to make it the whole way, but the not terribly steep but long climb up Bostwick was draining. (Bostwick is my favorite downhill...) I knew that what was to come was my most feared climb: Blakeslee Hill. I had ridden up there a couple of months ago and barely made it -- and that was on a pretty short ride with fresh legs. Well, I completely bonked, taking two short stops on the climb and taking a long stop at the top of the hill. My body clearly had run out of fuel and I gobbled down two whole Clif Bars in record speed. It was obvious that the ride was just too much for me and I decided to ride back home. At the end of the day I had logged about 135 km and 2600 m of climbing. I didn't bring the camera, but fortunately Max Kraft took some nice pics.

On a side note, I decided to throw on my new shiny Brooks Swift for the ride. I was a little skeptical if it would be a good idea to attempt an extremely hard century ride on a new leather saddle. But it turned out to be quite okay. The saddle is comfortable, not too narrow, and it's already showing signs of breaking in.

July and August summary

As mentioned in my previous post, there are no separate summaries for July and August. In both months together I rode a meager 600 km, 338 on Wolfgang and 262 on Gunnar. If we'd assume that the riding was evenly distributed between the months (which it was not, because I did almost zero riding in July), that would bring both months down to the lowest average daily riding, even worse than the winter months. It's definitely time to crank it up a couple of notches before winter comes!

I'm back

After a long absence, due part to summer travel and part to no interwebs at home, I'm back with regular updates. Just some quick items:

• I forgot to write down the end-of-the-month kilometrage for July! Sigh. So no accurate July and August summaries. The inaccurate one: not a lot of riding, as I was traveling for 3/4 of the month.
• Gunnar has a new saddle. After not being able to make up my mind and being annoyed, sometimes by the high prices and idiotic design choices of Brooks, sometimes by the fact that I constantly had to switch and re-adjust saddles between Gunnar and Wolfgang, I finally ordered a Brooks Swift. It got here last week, is hard as a rock, very pretty and hopefully will see some riding this weekend (see below).

Holy smokes!

• This coming Saturday I will attempt the epic "Terrible Hills Involving the Letter 'B'" century. 165 km and about 3400 m of climbing. I'll do the ride with a couple of FLCCers and hope not to die. I'll keep you updated.

Odo Wolfgang 5152 km
Odo Gunnar 2429 km

June Summary

At the beginning of last week I was under the impression that June wouldn't be a particularly good bike month. We had been traveling quite a bit and I didn't make to any FLCC Sunday Rides. Well, it turned out that I nonetheless rode a total of 802 km. Due to good weather and lack of commuting, Wolfgang's kilometrage reached an all-year low with 224 km. Gunnar, on the other hand, did an all-time high of 578 km. Daily average riding was 26.73 km, a little less than last month. Total accumulated annual kilometrage is at 3380 km.

Cannibalization of Lean Muscle Tissue: A Random, Non-Controlled Experimental Study1

Abstract

In case my accomplice hasn't told you yet: this Wednesday I undertook an attempt to become a legit randonneur by riding more than 200 km in one day. And with a total distance of 231 km in 11.5 hours, going from Ithaca to Lake Ontario and back, I succeeded.

1 Introduction

The plan to ride all the way to Lake Ontario and back has a long history, probably dating back to the winter of 2008/09. The distance, about 110 km, seemed very long and probably beyond my reach, but not insanely so. This was especially true since the elevation profile was definitely one of the more harmless ones around Ithaca. In addition, the existence of a nice-looking state park made me think that it might be a good two-day trip, riding up, camping for one night, and riding back the next day. After having done my first century last year and some serious riding this year, I thought that I should be able to do the ride in one day. The goal of 200 km, the lowest distance that randonneurs do, was a very appealing challenge and I was fairly confident that I'd be able to do it. It might hurt, but whatevs. Because I hadn't done a lot of riding in June and already knew that I couldn't ride much in July, on Monday I decided to do the attempt on Wednesday, the last day of June. The weather forecast was very good–dry, sunny, not too hot–and I would have plenty of daylight.

2 Method

I tend to be terribly slow with everything when I have to get up earlier than usual and thus I tried to get as much of the ride preparations as possible done the previous day. I switched the Brooks and the seatposts from Wolfgang to Gunnar (note to self: need second Brooks!); raised the handlebars by one spacer; cleaned and lubed the chain; replaced the battery on my rear light; put on the Carradice rack and bag, made a heap of all the stuff I was going to bring on the ride; and printed two copies of the cue sheet. I was excited about my ride, resulting in rather bad sleep and therefore I didn't feel too peppy when the local country station woke me up at 5:40. I quickly ate two slices of the tasty banana bread (Figure 1) the accomplice had made for me and by 6:15 I was ready to roll.

Figure 1: Banana Bread

2.1 Materials

• 6 Clif Bars, assorted flavors
• 1 Hammer Gel pack
• 1 pack of Hammer Perpetuem
• 1 pack Hammer Endurolytes
• 1 bottle 1:3 apple cider/water mix
• 1 bottle water
• 1 patch kit
• 1 multi tool
• 1 spare tube
• 1 speed lever
• 2 copies of cue sheet
• 1 credit card
• 23 $ cash
• 1 driver's license
• 1 pair of arm warmers
• 1 wind vest
• 1 head band
• 1 MP3 player
• 1 bottle of sunscreen
• 1 tube of Chamois butt'r
• 1 cell phone
• 1 Road Morph pump

3 Results

I started the ride rather tiredly. I could still feel the racing on Saturday and the rides on subsequent days in my legs and I was pretty sleepy. What did wake me up were the low temperatures. I was wearing arm warmers and a wind vest but I was still a bit cold. After traversing Ithaca downtown, I followed NY34 up the hill alongside the Cayuga Lake shore. From Lansing I then descended down into the Salmon Creek valley and after 25 km continued on Indian Fields Road. Indian Fields Rd (which further north continues as Black St) is a nice rural backroad with little traffic and good pavement, but it also has one major disadvantage: dogs! The first pair of them appeared right next to me out of nowhere and scared the bejeezus out of me. Not many km further down I was chased by another beast and by the time I made it to Auburn I had been chased by a total of 5 dogs. This was really pissing me off and for the way back I considered avoiding this route and instead following NY34 all the way. Auburn was 60 km into the ride and around 9 a.m. I took a rest stop at the gas station there to have a cup of coffee and make a wake-up call to the accomplice. My average speed was fairly good, despite several bathroom and one seat adjustment break. The route through Auburn, bypassing the downtown area on the west, turned out to be a good choice and I cut across the city on quiet residential streets (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Dunning Ave in Auburn

Once out of Auburn, the landscape became slightly less agricultural (and less dog-infested). Until Port Byron, a little village next to I90, I stayed on quiet backroads parallel to NY 38. From there on I followed 38 almost all of the way to the state park. Even though it was state highway, the traffic on NY38 was very low. A few km north of Port Byron I made a quick stop at the Seneca River and it had finally gotten warm enough that I could take off the wind vest.

The rest of the ride of the ride to the park was characterized by rolling hills (Figures 3, 4). I had been aware that this portion of the route wouldn't be completely flat, but I hadn't expected the constant rollers that tired me out quite a bit. The constant crosswinds from the Northwest didn't help either; however, the prospect of being at the state park soon kept me going. With arms, calves, and shoulders hurting a bit, I took a final turn from NY38 onto 104 and arrived at the state park at around 11:30, after 115 km. The park turned out to be really nice, providing a great view of the lake and, more importantly, a large sandy beach with significant waves. After a coke from the convenience store and a lunch Clif Bar I put on my swim shorts and went swimming (or rather: standing in the water and enjoying the waves) for a bit. (Figures 5, 6)

Figure 3: Not long, not steep, but tiring nonetheless

Figure 4: Another roller

Figure 5: Great beach, great surf

Figure 6: Someone as excited as me to get into the surprisingly warm water

Even though I still was well within my schedule I didn't stay for too long and got back on the road at about 12:15. In addition to refilling my water bottles, I also prepared one bottle with Hammer Perpetuem, an endurance "food" that apparently is very popular amongst randonneurs and other endurance crazies. I might write a separate review at some point, but let's just say that a) it didn't taste quite as bad as expected and b) I have the suspicion that my stomach can't deal with maltodextrin, one of Perpetuem's main ingredients. Anyway, I was in good spirits and going in this direction the wind actually helped a bit with the rolling hills. I could really feel the uphills in my legs but overall I still held up a respectable speed (for the first half my moving average was somewhere between 24 and 25 km/h). Once back in Auburn, after about 165 km, I made another rest stop at the same gas station and got a big bottle of Gatorade and a pack of peanuts. While consuming these items, I chatted with some teenager on a BMX who wanted to know if there was any money to be made by riding your bike for long distances. If only…

For the last leg of the ride I decided to stay on NY34 to avoid the annoying dogs (somewhere around Port Byron another one had chased me, this time with the owner being present but unable to control it). This turned out to be an excellent decision, as the road had just been repaved. First I was a little annoyed, as the pavement was so new that it was still sticky, but this was only for a short stretch. After that it was super-smooth tarmac in combination with a mostly level road and I sped away in the drops until I got to the intersection with NY90. There it was time for a last stop for another bathroom break and another bottle of Gatorade. Just a few hundred meters after the intersection I reached the 200km mark! (Figure 7) A happy moment, as you can see in the picture. (Figures 6,7) The last section of the ride was rather uneventful and at 5:45, after 11.5 hours and 231 km and with an average moving speed of 24.5 km/h, I arrived back home.

Figure 7: 200km!

4 Discussion

4.1 Pain

The ride was a complete success. By its end I obviously was tired (Figure 8), but compared to some of winter rides this ride wasn't the most painful one. My butt was feeling quite alright, the neck was not too sore (I attribute this partly to me not wearing the helmet) and raising the handlebars seems to have reduced the stress to the upper arms and shoulders a bit. What did hurt surprisingly were my Achilles heels, but I attribute that to Monday's riding in Birks and a saddle that probably was a bit too high. What was also sore was my lower back, something I hadn't experienced on any previous ride.

Figure 8: My tired self (yeah, I do need a haircut)

4.2 Nutrition and Hydration

My nutrition strategy worked very well. By the end of the ride I had
consumed:

• 5 Clif bars (250 kcal each)
• 1 Perpetuem (270 kcal)
• 1 large bottle Gatorade (200 kcal)
• .5 small bottle Gatorade (50 kcal)
• 2 slices of banana bread (400 kcal?)
• 1 small pack of peanuts (300 kcal?)
• 1 can of coke (155 kcal)
• 1 cup of coffee with 1 pack of sugar (15 kcal)

I never felt terribly bonked and only while drinking the Perpetuem did my stomach feel upset. In the future I'll just stick to my Clif Bars which are tasty, energy-rich, and stomach-friendly. Because of the relatively low temperatures I also never was dehydrated. The overall calorie intake of about 2600 kcal was probably pretty close to the maximum possible intake. (Your body can only deal with about 250 kcal per hour)

4.3 Equipment

Aside from the need to readjust the angle of the saddle once and dropping the chain twice I didn't have any mechanical issues. Props to Gunnar for being such a reliable sport. My newly acquired headband did a great job of keeping the sweat out of my eyes (and making me look pretty goofy).

4.4 Route

Because my GPS hasn't made it back to me yet I solely relied on my cuesheets for navigation. This worked perfectly fine. The GPS's stats would've been nice but are not quite necessary. The route itself was a little boring. The landscape between Lansing and Auburn is monotonously agrarian and the section between Auburn and the lake is not too much more exciting. What is great about the route is the very low traffic volume and the halfway point at Fair Haven Beach is really awesome. If I were to do the ride again I would definitely avoid the dog-infested sections (or bring a big can of Halt!)

1.5.5 Future Researchiding

Obviously, the next milestone would be a 300km ride. Not sure if I will do it this year, but at some point I will…

Acknowledgments

The author is very grateful for the accomplice's support in the form
of banana bread, a great post-ride dinner and a positive attitude
towards my odd hobby.

Footnotes

[1] "Cannibalization of lean muscle tissue" is what Hammer Perpetuem is supposed to prevent. Not sure if it worked. My muscles felt quite a bit cannibalized but maybe that's just me.

Race Report: Corning Circuit Race 2010

Yay, I had my first race evar (unless you want to count the 2009 Cascadilla Hill Climb) and--important things first--I've completed 4 out of 4 goals!

Getting to the race

As announced in the previous post, I rode out to the race and back, which turned out to produce some minor complications. Somewhat spontaneously, my accomplice had decided to come to the race with me and cheer and take some pictures. So we and our bikes got on the bus to Enfield at 1:10 and arrived in "downtown" Enfield at 1:35. The race was scheduled to start at 4 and since I had planned to get there for the sign-up etc. half an hour early that gave us about 2 hours for the 35 km to The Glen. Well, complication 1 was that Enfield Center Road turned out to be not only a "seasonal access road," but supposedly also was completely closed. Probably we could've gotten through with the bikes, but Gunnar's 23 mm Dachshund-slicers (German bike slang for thin tires) aren't made for dirt and I knew there would be a parallel road just a bit further West. What I didn't take into account was the fact that this little detour would also increase the amount of climbing quite a bit--something absolutely not appreciated by the accomplice's legs. Thus, we ended up walking most of the way up Harvey Hill which was annoying and, more importantly, cost us quite a bit of time. The part of the ride to Montour Falls was very pleasant (I had ridden parts of it during my epic December 100k) and the pace was good. Nonetheless, there was still a big climb coming up out of Montour Falls, and it was already 3:30! At the bottom of the hill we therefore separated and I rode up the hill in a pace that was much higher than was good for me. I made it to the registration tent at 3:45 and was pretty exhaustedwell warmed-up. Fortunately, the race was postponed to 4:30, giving me a bit time to rehydrate and "eat" some gel and giving the accomplice a chance to make it in time for the race start.

Warm-up

About 25 minutes prior to the start we were allowed to get on the actual track for warm-up. The track was really great! Smooth asphalt, wide lanes, and wide turns--I guess just what you'd expect from a race track. Unfortunately, the course also included two short but kind of steep climbs, which would later turn out to be my doom. The warm up lap took me about 12 minutes, and the race organizers later announced that the Cat 5s would race a total of three laps. In the meantime, the accomplice had also made it to The Glen and I quickly did the obligatory pre-race bathroom run.

Race!

The Cat 4s started at 4:30 sharp, exactly one minute ahead of us. Since the track was a slight downhill, the field picked up pace pretty quickly. Because the track was so wide, the peloton was less compact than in your usual road race, making me feel rather safe. The downhill right turn was followed by the steep uphill bump, getting most people out of the saddle and hurting my legs significantly. I hung on with the field through the mostly flat parts and the long downhill halfway in the course. What goes down, must come up, and the less steep but longer uphill hurt me good and transported me to back of the field. I held on for a little longer but before the first lap was finished I had fallen behind. I assumed there would be a couple people behind me and in the course of lap 2 I was passed by a couple of them, making me think I was last. I made brief attempts to hang on with the people passing me but my legs didn't comply. During the final lap I saw someone maybe 300 m ahead of me and he seemed to be going at a pace similar to mine. This gave me glimmer of hope and tried to gradually come closer to him. By the time we were at the last turn before the finish line I was fairly close and I thought I might be able to take him by surprise in a final effort. I dropped some gears, got down in the bars and just pushed as hard as I could. The finish line came closer and closer and I was still behind him, but within meters of the line I finally passed him (I think, at least). Much to my chagrin, I then saw the guy's number and realized that he wasn't even in my category and maybe not even in Cat 4 but only doing an (illegal) warm-up. While my exhausted self was a bit annoyed by that and the conclusion that I probably came in last, I didn't care too much. I had achieved 3 out of 4 goals (no DNF, no crash, no crash) and riding the race track had been a blast.

The Way Back

After a much needed cool down and chugging like three bottles of water, it was 5:30 and we had to get going in order to make it back home before dusk. I (as it later turned out: incorrectly) thought the ride back would be a little less than 40 km, including one major climb out of Montour Falls. Well, major it was, but even though both the accomplice and I were fairly tired we made it up all the way. The road was a really nice back road with almost no traffic and great pavement. After 20 km we turned onto NY-13 and the accomplice, getting increasingly tired, spotted a sign claiming that it was another 17 miles to Ithaca. This obviously was pretty demotivating and we took a quick Gatorade break at the Dandy Mart. Fortunately, NY-13 was mostly flat all the way back to Newfield, but the accomplice suffered nonetheless. Once we were in Newfield all was good though and we thoroughly enjoyed the downhill into Ithaca. The 100k of race day were concluded with a big serving of poutine.

Aftermath

We're currently internetless at home and, thus, I could only look up the race results this morning. And, much to my surprise, I hadn't been last! Place 28 out 35 and therefore fulfillment of all of my goals. Even better.
Unfortunately, there are no more races in biking distance this season.