SummerSlam07

6/29/07 - Did the river road hillclimb on Sunday, from the boat basin to the sheriff station. I timed myself even though I was carrying a lot of stuff. My time was 6m, 15s to the brown road sign, and about 6m 45s to the entrance of the parking lot.

6/30/07 - Four hill repeats in central park for lunch. Then out to prospect park on Monday night for summerslam07. It was fun and much more interesting than a typical road or track event. I wasn't planning on riding hard or fast, but then the urge to compete took over and I finished 5th in the first heat, 6th in the final. The blue schwinn rides great! (might need a slightly longer stem).

7/1/07 - Racing in floyd bennet field. Apparently we were in the 'break of the day' but then we got caught in the last lap. I don't remember who was in it... andrew riss, an iron riders guy on a yellow kestrel, and a tall guy on purple lemond. There was very little wind and we didn't work together long enough. A few started attacking each other too soon, imo. Finished somewhere 14 or 15th.

Next time I need to be more aware of who is in the break, and if the break fails I should try to position myself for the sprint and contest it. Need to keep an sharp eye out for the strongest finishers. Looking at the photos of the 123 sprint, the winner was the first with a strong jumpe from the outside, but he cut across the field, and took sprint on the inside. This is a smart move - since any rider who tried to pass on the outside would effectively shelter him from the wind. Also starting on the outside and cutting in might bring some of the slower riders across the field too, blocking the other sprinters who were already on the inside.

Raced union vale on Sunday. Fun 44 mile road race. Finished in the middle, rider 51/100.

Clicking in my ankle prevented me from really mashing the pedals, especially on the third lap by the feedzone... when the pace really picked up I slipped through the pack then popped off the back.

The finishing climb is about 700 feet of rise over 1.5 miles, the only way up is at your own tempo. Maybe next year?

floyd bennet

Yet another race... where I finished (not) first (and not last).
Had energy to spare at the end.
Tilting the saddle up definitely helped eliminate the hand numbness, and that's a good thing!

Saturday morning prospect park race

The "Brooklyn Grand Prix" race on Bastille Day was a logistical mess.

On my first seemingly successful breakaway (and certainly not my first nor last unsuccessful breakaway) we caught up to the pace car, started to pass the pace car, realized our error and slowed down to let the pace car get ahead of us, and then got caught by the field while riding slowly behind the pace car hoping (and yelling to the driver) to speed up.

One of my teammates took 3rd place but was dq'd. Apparently everyone in the field (except for 9 riders) were dq'd. Not worth the entry fee.

Rode easy Sunday for 30 minutes. Rode a little harder on Monday for 2 hours and felt pretty good (fast). I decided I'm getting a powertap in about two weeks.

Made a couple of minor saddle adjustments. Slide back 4mm, nose up a bit. (since my hands went completely numb during the grand prix race.)

Finished around 12th-14th.

Floyd report

After racing Saturday then riding 80 miles hard on Sunday I didn't have much to give at the race on Tuesday night. The turkey sandwich I ate on the way to the race also made me feel gross and sluggish. I attacked a few times, rested a few, and finished mid-pack. The pace felt fast but the average speed was actually slower than usual. Wednesday was a nice recovery ride.


bridging a gap on Tuesday night.

Master's day race

One of the most enjoyable races I've been in, a very interesting race. We caught the handicap group with 4 laps to go.

89 starters
Finish: top 15-20
Lesson: When there's chicanery at the finish line, sprint around it! In second place and glued to a well-known sprinter's wheel 400 yards from the finish, when he slowed down I did too.

Floyd Bennett Field Report

The legs felt like jello yesterday but still raced ok. It was my first top 10 finish at floyd bennett field - riding with category 3&4 guys.

It might have something to do with the new red veloflex tires that I'm riding on.

I pulled a few times in breakaway attempts but nothing stuck. For the sprint I wound it up in a nice heavy gear but didn't get fast enough and didn't have a leadout.

56 starters
finish: 8th or 9th place (top 5 scored)
top speed: 34mph (wind on my back)
sprint speed: 28mph

Rocky Hill Cycling Classic

Entered the masters category with some 800lb gorillas today.

Only finished 30/42 miles.

I faded off the back on the last part of the georgetown wall. Looking over the garmin data, it seems to me that I shifted into too low a gear and was spinning too much (when I got dropped).

Although I thought I was saving energy by going aerobic, sometimes the fire needs to be stoked and the legs will feel the burn (instead of the heart).

Top speed: 48mph down the other side of the wall.

Numb3rs

Can you tell the difference between these two numbers: 74714853002 and 120135369424?

Hint, the answer is not -45420516422. The second number is actually bigger than the first number.

The right answer is that first number is an integer datatype, but the second number is a big integer datatype. Try to cast or assign the second number as an integer and bad things will happen.

This was confounding the invoicing feature in the software program that I wrote for a long time.

Finally, only after a user took the time to explain the steps to reproduce the error was I was able to fix it. Heaps of praise for active users!

It's very different building a real world app than it is building a prototype or an even an intra/extranet app.

Ice Cream

Ice cream is good. And good for you too, especially if you're burning a lot of calories every day.

Today Molly and I hit Il Laboratorio del Gelato for the best.

Molly: small } Mexican Cinnamon & Dark Chocoloate
Me: medium } Espresso, Thai Chili Chocolate, Lavender Honey

Ice cream is always satisfying. If it was always this rich, I think I would eat less of it.