rubbish heap two

NO.

Already getting tired of how much grime I have to clean off my rims/brake pads in this winter rain. 5,000ft. of climbing in the past two days with 100 miles of riding. Whew. Fuck the rain...

This is exactly why I don't own an indoor trainer and don't plan on buying one if I can help it. I have never heard a single positive thing about riding them; usually, people put 'indoor trainer' in the same sentence as 'dungeon', 'torture', 'snooze fest', and 'stupid'. Just generally speaking, I think more roadies would be better off giving mountain bikes a try when the weather turns cold. Liquigas got the memo...

Joker, you been riding in this weather? We rode about 60 miles today in Eugene... started out about 15-20 degrees, warmed up to upper 20's. At least it's dry.. for now. The first hour was brutally cold, then it started warming up. Both of my water bottles froze... as well as my extremities haha. Wool can only do so much on my fingers and toes... Coming back to PDX tomorrow. Let me know if you'd like to do some long rides. I am looking to get as many miles under my legs in the next two months as possible!

Damn euth, I love Bridgestone keirin machines but how about posting a regular ass driveside picture? Nice bike. Tip to anyone training around this time of the year: go get buy some vitamin D3! People doing road rides in the summer absorb plenty of it being in the sun for hours, but in the winter not so much, and low levels hurt endurance and make it easier to get sick.

LOL to the guy who says "fuck it" and dismounts/runs down the hill in the middle of the group...

Joker - pretty sure the eccentric should work totally fine. The pedals are catching in corners either because the BB is too low, the cranks are too long, or both. Generally on road conversions its best to go with 165mm cranks... short by road standards I know, but that cornering clearance is crucial and spinners are winners! In other news, my CAAD9 came today. Fuck this money pit of a bike and fuck bikes in general. With that said, I'm starting base miles tomorrow on my CX bike.

Well, I pretty much adapted the tempo rides I was doing from this: http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/?pg=fullstory&id=2852 so zone 3 riding and a little higher in the hills, under the interest of only having 2-3 hours of training time and wanting to get bang for the buck. Either way, my plan is 4 weeks of mostly long slow base miles to start out the season with gym work 2x/week. After that period, a mix of tempo/base/Fartlek/20 minute TT efforts. After that period, VO2Max intervals, sprint work, crit work, more 20 minute TT's, hill repeats. Roughly, anyway, that's my big plan. Track and crits are my focus but I'll be damned if I don't enjoy the hell out of riding a good 80 miler for fun too.

Thanks for the tips. Interesting how you refer to tempo work... in 10 minute blocks, wouldn't it be more of a TT effort? I always gauged tempo ride as "max sustainable effort over ~3-4 hours" and rode tempo rides as such - faster than a base mile ride but mostly consistent efforts throughout, depending on when the climbing starts of course :D I've been pretty much in the off-season right now - one fun/hard effort MTB ride a week on the CX bike and a possible CX race on the weekend, with 1 gym day occasionally thrown in (inconsistently) for good measure. Some weeks - only commuting with no time for much else. So when it comes to it, I'll probably take a week break from serious rides with only commuting in the mix before "real" base season, and then keep track of volume from week to week during base miles as not to suddenly spike it. Still not sure whether to race collegiate or not - all the fucking collegiate racers are super burnt out by May/June, and that's pretty much when prime-time track/crit/fun summer series season starts. Luckily, commuting on a track bike means fast twitch muscle fibers get stimulated all the time on 'the jump'.

Joker - at what point in the season period do you recommend that 110" gear pushing slow RPM's workout? I'm transitioning out of CX season after next weekend and starting my base miles pretty soon...

A headset being out of adjustment is one of the worst things you can have. Leave that shit alone for too long and your bike steers like it's shitfaced. Too tight will pit the bearing races AFAIK.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220507847368&_trkparms=tab%3DWatching Just won this on eBay. CAAD9, BB30, full carbon fork and Campagnolo. Can't wait to receive it... Joker, gone are the days of me being "that guy" on a cross bike at PIR haha!

Found this on eBay: Similar to your whip right, Joker? Or do you have a Time? I always confuse the two... I was thinking about offering 1k (a little lowball, but fuck it), and seeing if he accepts. The small diameters for carbon don't seem they'd be very stiff for sprinting, though. I'm sure the ride quality is amazing though.

I'd take Pendleton... she'd smoke me in a race and I can respect that. I may have found a deal on eBay for a road bike that could save me $500 come later... fuck yeah. Rode more XC/single track on the CX bike today. Muddy fun! Man, I haven't ridden my 29er in like a month. Do I even need it anymore? Eh.

What sporting event? Fuck, it'd be cool to have another track racer in this thread. Joker, you know you want to get in on some of that SSCXWC!

Joker, any more Cross Crusades for you? I'm gunning for PIR and Barton. My bike should actually be in good working condition by then, no more jankiness, chain droppage and road gearing. CX season has definitely turned into "just maintaining" instead of building for me, which is refreshing for the mental break but my legs have been all too supple and not sore.

Meh. Even still. Road bike is the next thing I'm buying. Not trying to race road on a cross bike all next season. Fuck, all my bikes need money poured into them right now as it is for one thing or another.

Joker, not hatin on that. You're not gonna start tricking on it though are you? Haha. Acer, it's an SS. I got no cash for geared MTBs... maintaining the drivetrain on my cross bike is costing me enough. Anyways, fuck it, I'm putting road drops on it when I have the funds. Raced Battlecreek CX yesterday. Flat, dry, grassy. Dropped a chain on the last lap and lost a few places but still managed a decent result in the B's. Cross is definitely making my handling skills better... loving it. I'm thinking about disengaging my brakes and taking a few runs through the BMX track here to really get a feel for pumping transitions and making free speed out of it... a lot of the guys had no idea how to do that but I was watching a MTB guy just go so clean into every tranny, corner and obstacle. Helped me on my own shit to emulate all his lines fo sho.

Good choice. Shoes are worth doing right the first time around. I've had my Dominators for 2 years now and could probably handle another year... Sidi's rule. I went riding some XC trails on my CX bike again after a busy week. Really fucking fun... I just love hoods and drops. Acer, hate all you want but I'm ditching the risers on my 29er. Can't stand climbing with them. I'm either gonna go with dirt drops like these: Or some FSA Compact Omegas on the cheap/freebie status. Why? Because I'm MTBing to improve road handling skills, and drops are going to be the best way of doing that.

Don't worry too much about it, I know cat 2's who drink like fish in the off-season. Base miles are just fine after a night of drinking. Racing or competitive rides, not so much... although I definitely drank the night before last Saturday's race. Just gotta watch that beer belly... the one thing I do dislike though, is that I can feel the effects of second hand smoke the next time I get back on the bike. Hell, I love getting trashed and have a soft spot for stouts and porters myself. Could go for one right now actually... "As soon as the liquor reaches my lips, I head straight for the bike" -a friend of mine.

Count, another thing that's really important is don't forget to do core workouts. Sit ups, crunches, planks, back extensions, side planks... all that stuff is very important for power transmission, bike handling and overall finesse. It also helps you fit into a more aerodynamic position on the bike (as does increasing flexibility). Also not to be ignored, if you want to focus on sprinting, is arms... seated rows are especially great for that, and if you're going to do a pull exercise like that, you have to balance it out with a 'push' (e.g., bench press). Squats and lunges should go without saying for the legs, of course. But if you only have time for one of these things... do core. \/

Both - but I suck at gauging my 20 minute efforts so HR for me. For crits, you also want to focus on sprints, VO2Max intervals (3-5 minute efforts repeated with rest between) and repeated acceleration efforts.

Well, this time of the year basically means either cyclocross racing or base training for next season. So if you were just starting out, the aim would be to do long slow miles, progressively adding on more and more each week. Also, tempo rides (where you go at a pace that you can sustain for 2 or 3 hours max). Sometime in the late-winter/early-spring you could add longer intervals like 20 minute TT's. What kind of racing are you trying to do?

Sounds like you'll be strong come spring time. I'm fittin' to have a good season myself... CX race was cool. My first mud race - rode to the course, got thoroughly soaked, took one warm up lap and then it was on. I started in the back of the group and ended somewhere in the middle. Next time I'm gonna try to get that front position at the starting line - I was stuck behind some slower people for awhile and wasn't really feeling like I was doing 'race pace' through the first lap. Dropped a chain once, seized up the front derailleur at the end of the first lap (so I was stuck in my 36t) and had a few minor spills (mostly as a result of tires sinking deep into the mud) - all in all I'd say a good race... coming through the last section, I was chasing a Wolf Creek rider and he crashed in the mud. I was all ready to take advantage of that... until I went down in the exact same area haha. So I gunned it up to get a sneak sprint from behind him, but he noticed too quickly and had too much of a gap anyway to give me much chance of passing on the line. After the race I talked to him and he said "well, I heard you were a track racer so I knew there was gonna be some kind of sprint coming up :D :D :D :D " haha. I'm definitely hoping to get another cross race in next week. My bike/core needs a shit ton of work in the mean time...

I'm on my second pair of Sidi's now... I've owned a pair of Dominator 5's for two years and they're still going strong for CX/MTB. Got some Genius 6.6's and they're a world's difference for road. Stiffffffff... both shoes are in the Mega size, with aftermarket insoles in both (don't rock the stock Sidi ones...). The Specialized BG footbeds+wedges are a great addition and well worth the extra cash. To the guy who fucked his rear wheel over... you can only reuse spokes if the new rim has the same ERD. Taco'ing the rim has very little effect on the spokes, and re-using them is not a problem. Joker..... CX racing this weekend! Personally... I'll probably get slaughtered. May do CC Sunday depending on how Saturday goes. Haven't been able to ride barely at all lately with school and work taking up all my damn time. All my "riding" has been commuting/grocery getting lately, give or take the once a week MTB ride...