This was my longest ride of the year time wise. It felt great (I guess when you go that easy it would be kind of pathetic if it felt bad). Fantastic weather today, sunny, kinda windy and about 13-14C. We bumped into Keir and chatted with him for a bit. Today was my first ride with the compact crank. I’m a big big fan. I think everyone who’s outa shape or just riding to ride around should have one. It’s fantastic. Honestly even if I ever got fit enough to tool around in a local race again I think it would be fine. The one I have on has a 46 big ring… and I found it nice and comfy to ride 38-41kph on a 46×13/14 — Not that I spent much time riding that fast! I can’t even imagine ever needing to drop it in the 11 even. It will be great for riding up the passos in Italy the next two weeks.

Sheri was cranky for the first 40min today. It was her first day riding her regular road bike. She has been riding her cross bike all spring and she found the position shift uncomfortable and rigid wheels harsh etc etc. By the end of the ride she was feeling more normal on it.

Today I’m going to try to lay out all the stuff I’ll need on the trip and get a bit organized. I guess we’ve had to jigger the plans a bit because Svein’s not riding the Giro now. The fun bit is we’ll now head over to Spain for a few days and get to visit Amber, Karen, Christian and Svein in Girona–that will be fun. We’re debating driving versus flying?

I’m a bit frazzled here with spotty news about Cam’s crash in Gila. Looking for more updates.

TIP: All the fatman’s unimpressive ride data is brought to you exclusively from a Saris PowerTap. They’re heeps of fun for geeks and fat sods.

It was my first ride outside this year. And only about my 4th ride period this year. I felt surprisingly comfortable on the bike, my *ss didn’t get too sore, I felt like I was pedaling smooth etc. I really enjoyed it.

I’m hope to ride pretty regular here now until I leave for Italy on May 5th.

Sheri pointed out that in 6 weeks we are going to Italy and she has intentions to ride some pretty big cols. And she expects me to be able to keep up to her… not in speed but in endurance capacity. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I’m fast in any way… but I tend to go a bit quicker than Sheri. What I can’t do is go very long, at all. Sheri kicks my ass in the endurance department. Which is why she has concerns. You see if she wants to climb 20km passes in the Dolomites we’ll be riding for 2.5 to 3hrs. And she doesn’t think I will be able to do that. I agree with her.

Anyhow in keeping with the fatman project’s transparency here are my rather pathetic digits from my first two gittin’ back at it trainer rides. EW would call me a wussy for two reasons here, 1) because I’m using a power meter device 2) And well, because I’m just an out of shape wuss and I got no wup-ass.

On another note, I rode 1.5hrs today with Matt J. and Dave B. I rode on Monday too. So that is two rides this week.

I rode for 1.5 hrs today with David and Sheri. We rode slow, real slow and it was hot and humid. Tomorrow I’m doing another ride on Dave’s Moots ‘breakaway’ titanium bike. With David, Jenni, Sheri, Mary, Ian and some other people I’m sure.

TRAVEL NOTES

* I saw Jesse James Garret in Vancouver on the way here.
* YVR now tops my list of least favourite airports to depart from
* I still can’t stand how much crap people try to bring on the plane with them, and I wish the airlines would implement strict carry on rules
* Minneapolis – again – tops my list of favourite US airports to travel through.
* Don’t get full insurance coverage on a rental car, its more than the rental

We drew car 23 of 25 for tomorrow–which s*ks *ss actually. Generally we get good draws so I guess luck turns on you sometimes. Tuesday we were car 25 of 25. But that was because we were late to confirm our riders at accreditation. Oh well. tomorrow is a big big day. 250km of racing and then 500km of driving as we rush our way back to Canada to make it to Quebec on time for the start of the Tour de Beauce.

Anyhow, I struggled a bit today on the mountains in Delaware. We did 2h about 50km or so.

Oh, and yesterday I didn’t do anything. It was a race day. I got up at 6:15, left for the meetings in Ready by 7:00am and wasn’t back in Wilmington until after 5PM. Tired and hungry I just ate and chilled out.

I bumped into Dodson today and told him I think it’s the first time – ever – in my life I’ve actually ‘chosen’ to wear a helmet on a leisure ride. I don’t know for sure, but its safe to say I’ve probably ridden my bike more than 250,000 kms in my lifetime. So I’ve spent about 10,000 hrs risking my very life… I guess, if you believe the pro helmet crowd. I think I’ve maybe put it on a few times for the ‘loop ride’ but that is kind of like a training race. Other than that I really cannot ever remember choosing to put it on without being nagged to by some irrational helmet nazi.

Anyhow I had a fantastic ride, it was Sunday, so it was a tad busy in the parc with more douchebags in cars, but it was amazing. Warm, sunny, light wind perfect day to be risking your life riding without a helmet.

I felt a bit tired after yesterday’s bonk, but not destroyed. One thing that was bugging me was my left knee, it was pretty sore. Not in the joint itself- it felt like the muscles and soft tissue around the knee. I kind of pushed it hard for 40-50mins yesterday and I don’t think I was really ready to do that, so I think my muscles are sore. I’m not sure I’ll do anything about this sore knee, just keep riding and running normally and I think it will just go away.

On another note. I got a Norco bike from the club last year, for all my volunteering. I rode it in Italy around the mountains, and whenever I ride ever since. I’ve ridden a lot of bikes in my life. A lot. And I have to say this bike is sweet, I really really really like it. You know it might just be the best dang bike I’ve ever had.

Here’s some photos from today:

Sheri post ride

My rig after the ride

Base of Fortune hill

Road closures

Fortune Lake

The parkway

Looking up to Etienne Brule lookout

Sheri

More Sheri Action

Action photo

You won't see this often

Parc map

Pre-ride

There were a few douchebags in cars today. There are more and more douches around here. But luckily this ride is mostly on pretty quiet roads. On the Cascades road I only saw about 3 cars in 50minutes – that’s nice.

OK. Now I know, I plugged it into this average speed calculator I have. It is 18.8kph. That is how fast I ride now, or how slow. Still its not about the speed, its about having fun. I had a lot of fun today.

I bumped into Eric Lyman today. I like Eric. And he was with this guy – I like laflammerouge.

Today I spent a bit of time working on pictures for bikingbros … and trying to keep the guys in Hood from blowing out. Spirits are mixed in the club, but I guess that’s normal the club is having a tough season and a good season all at once.

For someone who loves Bike-ling as much as I say I do… maybe I should do it more often.

NOTE: Everything is closed in Chelsea on a Tuesday. I figured I’d go for a ride and hang out at the coffee shop. I forgot the coffee shop is closed on Tuesday. I couldn’t find a frame pump for my bike that fit. I had to use tape on one that didn’t fit to rig it the backend. I went to Greg Christie’s to get a new pump on the way home but it was closed too.

The frustration made me want to drink. Thank god the grocery store was open so I could get a six-pack of Sol and a lime.

Here’s today’s route. I did a bit extra, so maybe 24km, 1hr or so… I didn’t really time the ride.

I wonder why there are so many crashes in the Giro?

I’m not losing much weight, but my pants are starting to fall off, so I’m getting leaner and building muscles…. errr or at least I guess that is what’s happeing. I’m down to 192lb.

Today I changed it up slightly by doing 2×10 minutes at a bit higher watts to start 190 for 5min then 200+ for 5min.

Ride Data: 35min, 332kj, 178w avg.

So, here are the digits. I only did 20min. Even when I was fit, I’d start light on the trainer to not go mental. So I didn’t do much time. I felt comfortable between 140-150watts and did two 5min efforts at 190w and then 210-220w. That felt about all I was capable of 200w. I averaged 166w, and burned 199Kjs.

Those are some pretty pathetic digits. I was talking with Christian a few days ago, he’s rolling at like 6w/kg aerobic power right now. If I did the guess-timate math, I’d say I’m at around 2.2w/kg.