Bike Storage

I'm going to need to seriously address the bike storage issue when I move. Currently, I'm able to keep the bike hanging on my wall in the dining room (classy, I know) or on a stand in the office. In my new place, however, it is unlikely that the bike will be able to just be "out." There is evidently a street level bike room in the building, but I didn't remember to ask to see it when looking at the new apartment. There is also ample storage downstairs in the laundry room and possibly enough room in our storage unit, but we'll have to see. Ideally the bike would be part of an elaborate shrine-like display somewhere in the center of the apartment - hah! Seriously, hanging it from a hook somewhere out of the way would be nice so that it is safe in my abode with me, but the aesthetics of the apartment and keeping peace is much more important to me. I'm going to limit myself to my good road bike for the time being (plus the mountain bike that Heath is using for Muddy Buddy), so it's not like I'll need to go so far as to get the Delta Cezanne storage unit below (though maybe someday - gotta admit that is a pretty slick setup!).

new frustration. i'm changing the tires between my two bikes since i'm going to be primarily using my "good" bike. i was excited to change to my newer tires on my main wheelset, thinking that the tires were easier to mount than my old tires. but crap. turns out that the problem isn't with the tires, but with the rims. my hands are in huge pain from trying to seat my good tires on my good rims. back to it shortly. ugh.

I've been quite proud lately for how much I've been teaching myself about taking care of my bikes. I'm not terribly knowledgeable yet, but I'm getting better. It's pretty satisfying to be able to fix or adjust something by myself. Plus, it's going to make me feel a whole lot better on longer rides (like in Ireland), knowing that I will be equipped to deal with mechanical issues should they arise. Tonight I decided to work on the brakes on my 2nd bike (the one I'm taking overseas). When I was putting new tires on yesterday, I noticed the brake pads were set way too tight, even with the quick release levers open. I managed to mess around with the cables and the various adjustments to get them working properly. I also cleaned up the drivetrain, which was really gross and gunked up. Now it's all shiny and clean. This weekend I'll be looking at and working on my old mountain bike at my parents' house in Michigan. I'm hoping it's still in decent shape and I can get it cleaned up and in good working condition without putting too much money into it.

This is from a weekly newsletter I get (www.roadbikerider.com). Those of you who have had to tolerate my bike-related ramblings may appreciate this. Then again, it's probably only funny to us bike geeks...

SCOTT'S SPIN: Smart Mouth

Went to dinner with some cycling buddies the other weekend. Spouses were invited. None came.

"You guys are just going to talk bikes," said one weary life partner. "I'd rather get a root canal. With a rusty drill. In a sewer."

Oh, no -- proof positive that I've become a bike geek, incapable of engaging in normal conversation without using words like rotating weight, ceramic bearings or kilojoules.

Don't let this happen to you. Using my handy guide to dialogue for roadies, you too can learn to chat with humans about current events, culture, philosophy and other non-cycling trivia.

Heed these do's and don'ts and your next cocktail-party appearance will be a smash.

Topic: Foreign Affairs
What to Say: Anyone who thinks multilateral talks can solve the simmering tensions along the Serbian frontier need only look to the failed diplomacy on display during the Prussian renaissance of the late 19th century, don't you agree?
What Not to Say: So, Campy or Shimano?

Topic: Economics
What to Say: If you ask me, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act will sound the death knell for sheltered debentures unless fourth-quarter revenues turn this bear market around and housing starts cease declining in the face of Third World micro-lending policies.
What Not to Say: My bicycle cost four thousand bucks.

Topic: Politics
What to Say: As everyone knows, this front-loaded primary system makes a travesty of our so-called democracy by placing inordinate power in the clammy hands of activist voters in a few small, unrepresentative states where the price of hog bellies is more important than the cost of freedom.
What Not to Say: I wouldn't vote for Obama even if he rode a bike. Dude's a smoker.

Ah, bike tires. I am completely new at buying bike tires, so I've been doing a lot of research on them and talking to various people lately. The Michelin tires have consistently gotten good reviews as far as comfort, performance, and durability, so I've sprung for some of those. I decided on the Michelin Krylion Carbon tires for general training and for my trip Ireland. They are built for durability and puncture resistance, so while I'll be bringing a spare to Ireland, I doubt I'll have to use it. I'm going to put them on both of my road bikes. I got the grey/black ones, figuring red or yellow wouldn't look too great.


Those ones are rated great for lots of miles but are not so great for racing. When I'm going to race, I'll switch over to the Michelin Pro 2 Race tires. They have a lower rolling resistance and are lighter. These come in lots and lots of cute colors, including the lovely sky blue (pictured below) that I got. I think they will look great on my Kestrel for races.


Tires are sorta expensive. But, I'd rather have good ones that will last me (and I fully trust these will) than have to replace cheapies over and over. Plus, anybody that knows me knows that I found THE best prices possible on these. eBay was the winner for both types. For each set, I got the PAIR for about $10 more than ONE tire would cost at a bike shop. I can't wait to get them!

The current overall standings for the time trial series are posted on the ABD website and my category standings are shown below (click for a larger image that is actually legible). For the individual race, I was 4th out of 7, and I'm 5th out of 11 overall right now. I'm pretty happy with that. I was really hoping to catch that Joy Houser person, but as you can see, she blew her previous hilly time out of the water. Just goes to show you that all you can do is race your best, since it's just you against the clock. In time trials, you have no control over how other people race, only yourself. I'm happy with my improvement over time. The Fraser Memorial TT (10 Miles) is the last race in the series. It's April 1st in Maple Park and will be my first outdoor cycling race, and my first time racing in my aerobars. Yikes! Should be interesting.

The final indoor Time Trial was today. I raced really well. The girl next to me was pushing really hard and it was all I could to to hold her off. It paid off, though, since both of us ended up going a lot faster than if we hadn't been going head to head. My time was 18:41.11, with an average speed of just under 20mph, which is the fastest time I've managed. I'm interested to see how I placed in my category and where I'm at overall. I'm going to try to get some pictures up of the race. Here is the progression of my performance over all four races. Note that my power increased from race to race, it indicates that I'm getting stronger and stronger every time.

Race 1: 19:16.24 / 19.3mph / 178watts (flat)

Race 2: 19:15.26 / 19.3mph / 191watts (hilly)

Race 3: 18:53.16 / 19.7mph / 199watts (flat)

Race 4: 18:41.11 / 19.9mph / 202watts (hilly)

Update: I put some pictures of the race up on Photobucket. Still waiting on ABD to post the results. Below is one of me warming up before the race started. I'm SO rocking those pink socks.

Before yesterday, I was pretty concerned about my cycling. I'm still nervous about completing the distance for the race, but I'm feeling much better. I spent 1 hr 20 min on my bike indoors on the trainer yesterday. I did my Spinervals DVD, which I really liked. I'll definitely be buying more of them in the future. Even though it was quite a chunk of time, it wasn't horribly painful, despite being on the trainer. My hamstrings started to get a bit tight and my butt started to get sore, but that's to be expected. So basically, I covered not quite half the time I expect to take during the tri. Considering how long I still have to train, I'm confident that I'll be able to cover it. Plus, I'm feeling better about Ireland. I'm going to try to do this DVD a few times a week (three, hopefully) to build up more aerobic base for those long rides. On other days, I'm going to try to incorporate interval workouts to increase my speed. I've got my final indoor time trial on Sunday, and I'm determined to beat my time again.

Indoor Time Trial #3 was today. I was out sorta late last night, but still got up and went, and wasn't all that sleepy, so that was good, particularly since I had to race at 9:30, which is significantly earlier than my other two races. This is the most training (all sports) I had done in a week leading up to a race. I definitely felt it, and not in a good way. My goal going in was 18:30 (20.1mph), and I maintained that for about the first 2.5 miles. Then mentally and physically I really started to hurt. My brain was like "this sucks" and my body was feeling very weak, sore, and tired. I came SO close to just quitting, but no WAY was I going to do that.

I tried to focus on my breathing and just making sure I didn't drop below 19mph too often. I knew the girl to my left was going to kick my booty, but I wanted to beat the other two girls in my heat. The one on the other side of "fast girl" was trying to catch me in the last mile and a half, which really pushed me. I was so afraid that she was gonna get me. She was behind distance-wise, but was going faster than me when I started to die and lose speed. All I did was try to stay even with her speed, which was tough. With about .25 miles to go, I decided to just go all out and sprint and get this painful race over with. I was hanging around 22-24mph for that stretch, which was good, but kind of bugged me, since I obviously had something left that I hadn't been able to tap into earlier in the race.

My average speed was19.7, but I was so tired that I forgot to look at my exact time. It was between 18:30 and 19:00. I was happy to break 19, but was a little bummed that I didn't hit my goal. When they post the results later tonight or tomorrow, I'll update this with my time and place. Fast girl had her "best time ever" and broke 17min. Crazy fast. I didn't let her speediness distract me, though. Also, everybody was really nice to me today, which was cool. The girl working the computer was encouraging me, and the girl to my right was friendly, too. Oh, and the guy who had to unhook my bike from my warm up trainer because I wasn't strong enough. :P

Update: My actual time was 18:53.16 (5th place for the day). Unfortunately, I dropped to 6th place in the overall standings (adding together best flat + best rolling time, which will then be added to the outdoor time trial time). I am currently 15.17 seconds behind the 5th place girl and 16.21 seconds behind the 4th place girl. I have one indoor race left (another rolling course) and the outdoor 10 mile time trial to try to bump myself into a top five spot. I think top 5 get plaques, which would be cool. Gives me something to shoot for! Grr, if I had hit my goal of 18:30, I'd be in 4th place overall!

How can three bikes possibly be enough? I need at least two more - at LEAST. :) Yes, I have managed to collect three bikes in the past year, and yes, I still feel that I need more. I can justify all this, really. Honest, I can.

First I got my hybrid/comfort bike, which is great for fitness and recreational riding on the limestone paths, etc. It even carried me through my first triathlon, so I love it for that reason. However, as people flew past me on road bikes, tri-bikes, in aero position, I felt like a gigantic sail and was ready to upgrade.

So, I got myself a road bike. I got a deal on a quite nice road bike, a Kestrel Talon. Full carbon frame, with Ultegra 10-Speed components, aero tubing, internal cabling. Very nice. I adore it and am able to slap some Carbon Stryke's on there and get into aero to reduce that whole frontal surface area wind drag thing.

But, seeing as how that is such a nice bike, I was quite scared at the prospect of taking it to Ireland with me (and to and from there), where it might be left outside, be in the elements a lot, etc. So, I remembered a friend of mine was looking to sell his road bike since it was too small for him. Turns out it fits me just fine and is a perfect "beater" bike for Ireland, bad weather rides, the trainer, etc. It needs to be cleaned up a bit, but is nice (aluminum with carbon fork and stays, carbon seatpost, 105 components, some cool looking wheels).

So here's where I'm at now. I'm sure all of you (whoever you are) are VERY aware (/sarcasm) that road bikes are not the ideal mode of transport for multisport athletes. The seat tube angles, aero position, and how that impacts the muscle groups, which then impacts the muscles for the run, etc etc. Thus, I need a Tri-Bike or Time Trial (TT) bike. These have a steeper seat tube angle, bar end shifters at the ends of the aerobars (so you don't have to go un-aero to shift), and well I think those are the main differences. The one pictured below is the Cervelo Dual, which consistently pops up as a favorite of mine with glowing reviews, good looks, great components, and a decent price point. At $1800 with Dura-Ace components, this bike is practically a steal. That may seem like a ton of money to some, but, trust me, I can find bikes that cost more than my car (and I don't drive too bad a car). I'm pretty sure my budget will require me to wait until next season for a tri bike, but I had a little down time this afternoon and felt like posting this. And wow did it get long!


(p.s. Isn't it pretty? /drooooool)
(p.p.s. I also "need" a mountain bike, but hopefully my old Trek back in Michigan is salvageable! Hmm that actually means I own four bikes...)

TnT Kickoff Event was Saturday, and training began yesterday. I'm still pestering them about getting it so that I can set up my webpage. I'm frustrated that my fundraising is being held up so much by that simple fact. Hopefully I can get it going soon and get a bit of money in. I am trying to come up with some fundraising ideas and have a few so far. Hopefully they work and I'm able to get some money fairly quickly here. Training starts off nice and slowly, so hopefully I'll be able to manage alright. I have to bike tonight and am going to try to do my circuit from my trainer tonight as well.

I may be getting a bike from my friend, so I'll have a bad weather/trip to Ireland/Mindy can borrow/beater bike. I'm getting a great (and by great I mean phenomenal) deal on it, and it has all the features (materials, components, etc) that I was hoping against hope that I could get. I just will have to lean it against the wall in my apartment unless I feel like investing in a rack that holds two bikes. I'm excited though, since I was in need of a bike for Ireland, and this will be great to have even beyond that trip.

Indoor Time Trial #2 was yesterday. My heat was me + seven guys, ugh! I have my warmup routine down for these, now, which helped immensely. I was very happy with my performance, 19:15.26, which put me at 19.3 mph again and in 4th place out of 10 in Women's Cat-4. Even though I got the same time (essentially) and the same speed, it was a vast improvement. This was a hilly course (course profile below), and so was considerably harder than the flat course from last time. I compared some of the other girls' times and just about all of them did worse by approx a minute on this course as compared to last time. So I must've improved a bit, which is surprising since I haven't been training ALL that much. I think my pared down warmup (only 15 min) and having my ipod working helped a lot. I managed to beat the guy to my right, and was hoping I could catch the guy to my left, but the computer thingy he was on pooped out about 2/3 of the way thru. I would've been PISSED! Overall, a good race for me. I still have a lot of endurance work to do, but yesterday motivated me to really get going on being faster for the next flat course!

Indoor Time Trial #1 was yesterday. There were computer problems, but my section got underway at around noon. About two miles in, I thought I would die and wasn't sure if I could make it. My legs were feeling heavy all morning and I was just having an "off" day all around. I managed to push it though and refused to let my speed drop below 18. There was another girl in the heat that I wasn't far behind, but hard as I tried, I just couldn't quite catch her! She stayed approx .2 mph faster than me the whole time, grrr! Anyway, I definitely gave it my full effort, which I am proud of. I ended up getting 4th place out of 8 in the Women's Cat-4 with a time of 19:16:24 (average speed = 19.3 mph). I'm happy with that, especially since it was my first race ever. It definitely motivates me to improve for next time. I'm happy I was able to be in the middle of the pack as opposed to at the rear end. :P

I did a practice time trial last night in preparation for my race on Sunday (which I'm nervous about since I just don't know what to expect). I managed to meet my goal, averaging over 21 mph for the entire 10K distance. It's good because now I know that I can maintain that, which is something I wasn't sure of before. I also put together a playlist for my iPod, which should help me stay focused/ distracted/ motivated during the ride. I'm pretty sure you can wear headphones for these races. It looks like people in the pictures have them on, but we'll see. I find out my start time this afternoon.

Cycling training has begun. I have had my new bike a few months and haven't really gotten into riding. Now, with the snow, riding outdoors is sketchy at best. (Though with the recent thaw, I could get back outside perhaps this weekend.) I did find a series of time trial races that I am 90% sure I'm going to participate in. It's the ABD Indoor Time Trial Series, and is fairly local. There are five races in the series, including 4 10K indoor races on trainers and one outdoor 10 Mile Time Trial. I figure since I've never raced before, the shorter races would be a good place to start. Hopefully I won't be too intimidated.

I'm also in the process of developing my race calendar and training plan for next year. I've never really done this before, so it should be interesting!