Asphalt Junkies CLOSED AND GETTING OUR FIX (Page 32)

Stan thanks for posting the info on carbo loading. It's a great article and definitely worth taking the time to read through it as there is a lot of good info in there.

Just checked the lottery for the NYC marathon and I got accepted for this year. I can't believe it, I got turned down the last two years and was expecting the same. I figured I would get in automatically for 2013 before the rules change for the lottery. I'm shocked I was not expecting this at all. There were two things I had on the bucket list, do an Ironman and run the NYC marathon. I get to cross one of the list this year. I guess I'll be training for a marathon this year after all assuming the HIM training doesn't kill me.

Tony, congrats on getting in the marathon...Now U gotta run it...lol

Jeff, how the achilles today?

karl

Wow - it will be a busy year of training for you! Congratulations!

Agreed.  A marathon is a serious undertaking.  Slow and steady on the training.  Get that run volume up and keep (almost) all of it at easy pace.  You have 6 months and arriving at the start line healthy is job #1.

All's I'm saying is Huff 50k race from last year........................

................That was awesome!!!!!!!!!

Brenda that sounds great. Enjoy your weekend camping and good luck with the 60K. I really hope you get better weather then what is being forecasted.

Just in case anyone needs any outdoor sporting goods type stuff...

I get the Sierra Trading Post Deal Flyer email. I just ordered 2 pair of sandals, tri shorts and a tri top for $100 total. There is an extra 35% off right now, just passing it on:

http://us.mg5.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch 

or use the code:EB042612B

JeffY - 2012-04-26 1:52 PM So riding last night was interesting. It was cool and cloudy so I didn't get the desert heat or the beauty of the rocks lit by the sun. I had to be back to the shop by closing and don't know what time I got started. It was after 5. The ride was said to be about 32 miles. Normally that would take me 90 minutes, but the guy at the bike shop was skeptical because he said there was something like 2000 feet of climbing. I haven't looked at the data yet so don't know for sure. I began riding with the verbal directions he gave me. I immediately felt uncomfortable. I pulled over and adjusted the seat height. A quarter mile later I did it again. This time it was just a touch too high, but ok. I found that I was crawling. I was having a hard time reaching 17 miles per hour (at best). Stupid rental bike! So I continued on going where I thought I had been told and eventually ended up on a highway in the desert. Still crawling, I made it to the Red Rock sign and decided to get a photo even though I was going to miss my deadline. Hopped back on the crappy, slow bike (didn't Lance say its not about the bike?). Eventually I made it to the guard shack that marks the entry to the park and began going up a small incline....crap, this bike! I was in the granny gear! My road bike has a standard crank, this one has a compact. It's also got more teeth in back than my road bike...and I am using them up a little incline that would be big ring back home. I stopped for another photo knowing I wasn't going to make my deadline. Did that at a couple of rock formations. I knew that I needed to enjoy the experience no matter how long it took... I hadn't even reached 12 miles and felt like I had been riding forever and was cold and it was getting dark and I was going 8 miles per hour.... But I was in the desert!!!Towards the back of the canyon I reached a downhill! Hooray! Pedal Hard and barely reach 20. Crappy bike....hey, why is there a puddle right there on this downhill? This must be flat! I had been on a 15 mile false flat! Suddenly I'm doing 40mph. All the way back I was near 30mph. If it looked flat, 29-30mph. It took me about 5 minutes to get back. I made it on time to return the bike. . It wasn't the bike after all. So the experience ended on a good note.

Oh that must have been frustrating, at least until you turned around!

Jeff - that's an awesome story and a long hill. False flats suck worse when you do down them first - "oh yeeeeeeaaa, I'm on today!!! 22mph on the flat!" to "I don't remember it being this hard on the way out..."

Tony - Congratulations on the lottery slot!

Stan - Great post on carbo loading. I love how everyone keeps referencing "athlete." There's NO WAY anyone could have accused me of that before last year. It keeps making me feel like I'm off to the olympics this summer!

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First (and second) ride with clipless pedals went well. I spend about an hour yesterday dialing them in and riding around the neighborhood. There are a couple of steep but short climbs which felt great in the shoes/pedals. I was able to pull UP on the pedals as well. Hard work, but fun!! I climbed one steep section at about 19mph, rather than my usual 14mph. 

The only small incident was arriving at a stop sign, unclipping the right foot, then leaning left to put my foot down... I JUST managed to unclip the left foot in time not to fall over in front of everyone!

I also played around with mounting and dismounting without unclipping. I can do both... but I can't get the shoes to stay in the pedals while I'm moving the bike around in bare feet before I get on or after I get off. I know you can use rubber bands to hold them before you mount, but what about after you dismount to stop them popping out of the pedals?

For today's ride, I did one of my regular loops. I was a little slower than I would have liked but I really felt yesterday's climbs in the top of my thighs. Apparently the proper equipment uses different muscles. I'm going to have to work on developing those.

John

You'll get used to clipless pedals pretty quickly.  Even after you get used to them, you might still have an "incident."  Last year, during a rain storm, I came up to a stop sign, put my foot down only to have it slip on the slick pavement.  I went down HARD on my hip.  It happened so fast, I didn't have time to put my hand out to stop the fall.  Probably a good thing, though.  I might have broken my wrist.  My handlebars were tweaked but no other damage.  My pride wasn't even damaged.  It was just an unfortunate accident.

Congrats!  Make sure to be wise with your training to make it to the start line injury-free.

I couldn't get anywhere on your link but I thought of sharing this one with all of you.  I am not sure why I haven't thought of this before and maybe you all have heard about "The " before but if not it can offer some pretty tremendous savings on some items.  Take a look at the site.  If you think it is something you may buy something from just use this link to sign up.  It'll give me a few bucks extra to spend through them.

Here you go............. The

Jeff, that was a pretty amazing ride.  Pretty much all of my riding kind of gets into that sort of thing.....false flats.  The thing about mine are that they don't go for miles and miles.  When I experience these it's more than likely a half mile at the most.  And then there's not much more to look at than corn and bean fields.  I'll take your experience over my riding ritual anytime.

Whenever I think about all of you riding climbs, I think about the next time I go to see my brother in Wyoming and biking I plan on doing while there.  I want to see how bad I can cook my legs in a couple of days.

Jeff, awesome ride man.  I have been there before...false flats are the most frustrating thing.  Glad you enjoyed yourself.

Where's the picture!?