Friday the 13th

It's been a horrible year for flats. I seem to get one every time I put on a new tire.

These are significant flat tires not just random punctures.

In the past 30 days, I ripped a tire on a curb (the curb was hidden under freshly mowed grass), tore the sidewall in some unknown way (on a new prorace3 tire), and just yesterday punctured a new Vittoria tubular over a small shard of glass riding out to a race in Rockleigh.

There was an explosive boom at the parking lot for Jiminy peak. That was when I discovered that Vittoria Corsa CX tires and Bontrager Race X Light wheels aren't compatible. They don't seem to share the same circumference.

Here's hoping that Friday the 13th changes everything.

Handlebars, stems, top tubes, and bike fit

Establishing the correct amount of reach and drop seems to be one of the more challenging aspect of proper bike fit.

For me, not enough reach means nether regions, hands, and fingers might go numb. Too much reach and the bike rides like a torture device for stretching out the back, neck, and shoulders.

I've not yet shelled out three hundred dollars for a professional bike fit, as much as I would like to do so. I have great respect and appreciation for some of the more in depth fit methods like wobble-naught, but for that same amount of money I can buy a lot of parts like stems and maybe a different saddle. Having parts on hand can be useful for experimenting, and I feel that bike fit can sometimes be a dynamic attribute.

Bike fit formulas seem at best an approximation of what works. After trying a number of the formulas I have always required small adjustments to make the fit work for me. I usually (always) carry an allen key when I ride and use it to make small adjustments. As a rule of thumb, adjustments are made in very small increments. The rule is as follows: adjust only 1/2 as much as seems necessary.

It would be easy to go on and on about the finer points of bike fit but there are many others with more knowledge and experience in this aspect of biomechanics than me.

Different handlebars have widely different dimensions. These dimensions are width, drop, and reach. For the most part width remains constant. A 38cm handlebar measures 38cm wide, and a 46cm handlebars measures 46cm wide even though some manufacturers measure from center to center and others measure from outside to outside. Still that's not the meat of the issue.

The meat of this post is that a bar with 4cm longer reach will make the bike feel 4cm longer in the cockpit and consequently should call for a shorter stem for the same feel while riding in the drops. A bar with 4cm more drop will require a few more spacers under the stem, or a different stem angle, etc, etc. This little calculator can help figure out stem length and angle. So if a bike feels like it almost fits, don't give up until trying a different set of handlebars.

Below is a table describing what has and hasn't fit me based on what I've been using. My bikes are
* 54cm Felt TK2. 53.5cm top tube
* 51cm Lemond. 53.2cm top tube
* 49cm Lemond. 51.5cm top virtual tube (too small for me)

Handlebar	Drop	Reach	Sum(TT+Stem+Reach)	Experience
DedaPista	173mm	109mm	734mm-752	Doesn't fit on Felt with 90mm stem or on 51cm Lemond with 110 stem. Too deep.
Nitto 123	170mm	108mm
3T Zepp XL	170mm	100mm	752mm	Feels a bit deep on lemond with 120mm -8 degree stem but is working ok for now.
Nitto 125	150mm	88mm	733mm	Fits pefectly on Felt with 110mm -6 stem and some spacers.
Ritchey WCS Logic	144mm	82mm	734mm	A bit too wide for me (42cm), but felt ok with 120mm -8 stem.
Ritchey Biomax II	130mm	75mm	733mm	Love these bars! Was very comfortable on 49cm Lemond with 140mm -6 stem but geometry and handling felt off. The width is 39 on the hoods and 41 at the drops. But it doesn't have enough drop on 51cm Lemond.

[Highlighted rows had good fit.]

It seems obvious. In addition to measuring the top tube and stem length, the handlebar should also be factored in for proper fit. I should probably try a shorter stem with the Zepp XL handlebars.

This leads me to offer one of my bike up for sale. It's a 49cm Lemond titanium bike. It's one hell of a ride, for a medium/small sized person. I'll accept any reasonable offer. :)

Tour de Parc

Not much to say, just writing my race reports so I can refer back to them later.

Molly came to watch the races. She described my race style as a cat chasing a feather. A good analogy but not exactly a compliment to my cycling prowess. In the masters race I chased everything and was always at the front... but not in the winning break.

Cat 4 race, no breakaways. Contested the prime but otherwise I rode conservatively. Final result: 8th place (in the money!).

Masters 35+. There was a break early on. We were caught. Then a few small attacks followed by the successful break that started at around the midway point of the race. At first I let it go, thinking they'd get brought back, but when a few other riders bridged I decided I really wanted to be in it. I buried myself for 3 minutes trying to catch up but couldn't quite make it. I had waited too long. I saw a strung out field gaining ground on my solo effort so I sat up. A few more times I tried to go with other guys to catch the break but alas, unsuccessfully.

Overall a great weekend for Kissena.


early in the cat4 race


small break, goes nowhere


a few more laps to go...


Sprint sprint sprint sprint, coming around the Setanta rider on my right


It was a close one

...Master's 35+

Working hard to catch the breakaway group, it never happened.

credit: These are Skip Straub's photos that he posted at velocitynation.

Two days in a row

I volunteered to help with race organization at Floyd Bennet Field. I got the 1/2/3 field. It was my first time doing this, I found it to be interesting and worthwhile, and a little nerve racking at the end.


Two days of racing/training...

Tuesday, road bikes at Floyd:
The FBF 3/4 race felt easy, but in the end I popped my sprint too soon for a finish in the top 15 not top 10. Need to approach it more like the track. It goes a little like this, Follow follow follow... hold it, 200 yards to go, that's half a lap, wait, wait, keep spinning, hold that wheel, not yet, set up, come around, cross eyes, 100 yards to go, don't blink or black out, just another 1/4 lap, still holding on, come out of the turn, 75 to go, wind it, 50 to go NOW! Except there may be some gear shifting involved.

Heart rate hit and briefly sustained 190, previous max seemd to be 185. I want to think it's due to the hard effort I put in on Saturday.

Wednesday, Kissena Velodrome:
My legs felt so dead on the way out that I stopped and almost turned around. I pulled out my phone and then realized that I had no obligations and nobody cared if I wasn't racing. I also knew I wouldn't be getting any competitive training for the rest of the week and I was already 1/2 way there. So after getting clobbered in the first race of the night (there are 4) I geared down from 49x15 to 47x15 and everything got a little better. Somehow this enabled me to qualify for the "A" series. It is fun/different racing with new team mates.

Bethlehem / Masters

These boys know how to handle their bikes. Many of them have been racing hard for years, some of them still competing at the Pro/1/2 level (results). They also know how wring the juice out of a lemon, and I was that lemon.

For most of the race I was near the front but not at the front. It's a little fuzzy but I think there was a split, twice. I remember riding hard with some fellows off the front and the loudspeakers announcing we had a 35 second lead over the main field. It felt great until somehow the field caught up to us.

Then there was another split. This happened at around 30 minutes into the 50 minute crit. I wasn't in it - but desperately wanted to be. We chased hard and there was some good blocking by a big guy with a team mate up the road. He would gap off the front, get others to chase him, then he'd slow the fuck down and so would everyone else.

The second break was brought back by a strong field in the final 2-3 laps. There was a (very) short breather and then the chaos started in earnest as riders battled, attacked, and jockied for their position. I imploded on the last lap from the intensity and the field came around me.

It was a very hard effort and the reward may be some super compensation along with fatigue. Average HR was 177 for 50 minute race, average speed was 25.9 mph.

What the hell do these damn numbers mean anyway? I want to kill my bike computer. I don't remember ever looking at it during the race anyway.

Lesson: It's more satisfying to race hard and loose by a mile than to race conservatively and "almost" win.

Floyd Bennet training race

Wooo, last night was fun.

It was the first night of races at historic Floyd Bennet Air Field. The category 3/4 race was 10 laps (just over 22 miles). The finish line moved to the east side of the airfield - where the roadway is only about 1/2 as wide as before.

I tried to get away once or twice but it didn't work out. The data makes it look like I attacked 7 times, but some of the attacks were defensive, not offensive attacks. I spent a lot of time at the front burning matches with a few other guys who don't like to piddle about at 21mph. We kept the pace fairly high but our average was only 25.3mph.

Busting my ass off the front trying to make something happen. (more on flickr)


The sprint was a bit crowded and fast even though we were headed into the wind. I wanted to contest the sprint but was in a poor position and didn't.


The day before (Monday) I did 10x1 minute sprints up the great hill in central park. I should have been more tired but going for a 35 minute light and easy ride in the morning really helped clear the fatigue.

Lesson learned: Racing fast is fun, but being patient (seems to) beget victory.

Power numbers:
Max: 16.02/kg
Max 5s: 14.68/kg
Max 30s: 7.76/kg
Max 1m: 5.85/kg

Jiminy Peak

Saturday 5/3 I raced at Jiminy Peak in Mass. There was a strong headwind on a long descent and breakaways were difficult. The weather was cold and damp in the high 40's / low 50's. The main characteristic of this race is a long gradual climb (4%) that dips for a moment and then becomes a steeper (7%) climb to the finish. My rear wheel flatted before the start so I raced on the powertap.

On each lap it felt like we were moving too slowly up the gradual climb. My team mate attacked once on this section - and came back - then I attacked - and came back.

On the steeper climb I nearly got dropped on each of the 3 laps in the circuit, the second lap being the worst.

I was able to chase down the group on the first and second laps… I passed lots of riders as I flew down the hill at 53.5 mph spinning out my 53x12. I eventually made my way to the front to learn that Dave was still attacking the group, but in the worst possible place. Into a headwind on a long descent! He and a few others dangled off the front for a few minutes but the pack had an easy time closing the gap sustaining about 28 or 29mph.

There’s not much to report from this race since I finished last of the second group across the finish line, about ½ way between first place and last place. I used the powertap numbers to pace myself on the final climb, it may have helped me to avoid popping and I passed a few riders who looked spent.

Lots of racers told this race is boring, or that they hated the course. Having raced it once I disagree. I didn’t love this race - but it wasn’t boring, bike racing never is. It wasn’t beautiful, and it didn’t have any sharp corners or long sweeping turns. But it was technical, a waiting game, much like some of the track races – pursuit comes to mind.

The patient riders are the ones who had the most strength to attack when it mattered.

Lessons learned: I could have conserved more energy, especially since I thought I might need more power than what I have available.

Or... if I was racing my strengths I might have tried to make the gradual climb more difficult for the other racers, instead of conserving energy.

Untitled

The blog is now linked from every page of the kissena.info website. This started as a simple personal journal: like an email to myself. I never expected anyone to link to this site or to have it represent anything in particular. But I did notice the traffic. And people started asking me about my "goals." How embarrassing, what if I don't succeed? I guess I can still blog about it.

A few more people will click away than did before. The rest of us can go out, get out on their bikes, and ride a little too fast at times. (Please be careful). It is Spring. The temperature is perfect even when it rains, the trees are in bloom, and the air has a certain weight to it that is delicious and nauseating.

Well maybe only in New York for that last bit.

Observing the race

This was my Yahoo horoscope today.

Let someone else be the superstar. Step back and allow other people to be the movers and shakers. Learn how to enjoy being in the background -- it's just as interesting and just as educational as being front and center. Give it a try. Do not confuse praise with respect. You can earn a lot more of the latter if you know when to pull back and slow down.

I'd forgotten about an important aspect of racing. I sat back and observed a few races last year (while I was in the race) and discovered that it's a good way to learn what's going on. It forced me to race calmly instead of being nervous about every move and chasing down too many attacks; that's my usual way of not winning races. I also noticed that the winners were not attacking throughout the race. Winners conserve energy as much as possible and burn it when it matters.

I'm not advocating being a wheel sucker. In order to make the most of it -- it's important to be confident and strong enough to move around in the field and see it from different perspectives. It takes just as much work to move up and down a field as it does to race hard. But the goal for the race is different.

On another note, we got 1st place in Team Sprints at the velodrome on Saturday. It was a near perfect start, and we beat a strong second place team by 2.2 seconds.

Battenkill race report

We had near perfect preparation for this race. We drove halfway up the night before and stayed at William's country house in Millbrook. As soon as we arrived at the house we unloaded the bikes and went for an hour long ride with a few hard efforts thrown in for good measure. William cooked up a delicious country dinner with roasted chicken, pasta, vegetables, and three philosopher's ale while Dave and I worked on our bikes.

The race itself was dusty, steep, hot, and hard. During the race I let a full waterbottle slip out of my hand at 22 miles. I kept going -- but maybe should have turned around to get pick it up. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to catch back on to the group if I did. Later, at 45 miles into the race, I was dehydrated with no fluid left.

Analytically reviewing the powertap data it becomes obvious what happened.

The first 47 miles (two+ hours) of the race show heart rate average of 162bpm and watts/kilo 2.75.


But the last 7 miles of the race average heartrate of 139bpm and watts/kilo 1.77. This is hitting a wall. Pathetic!


I was able to trade some electrolyte pills for a few swips of water at around the 50 mile mark, but at this point it was already too late.

The lesson learned is that when things go wrong, figure out a way to fix the mistake before the critical moment.

Maybe I should have started trying to broker a deal for water as soon as I dropped the bottle... before getting thirsty!