Penn State's mentor group - CLOSED! (Page 62)

calimavs - 2010-05-29 7:22 PM Happy Memorial Day weekend everyone! Just got back from my first ride over 50 miles - we ended up doing 55 today before a quick transition run. Since this was my longest ride ever I wrote a novel about it in my blog which I thought I'd share here. The short version is that my bike fitness is better than I thought for this course, but I desperately need a new saddle for my bike. 

Happy training everyone, hope you are all having a great long weekend! 


Here's the long version:
____________________
Wow. First ride over 50 miles! 

So I roll up to Windsor high school (the site of T2 for Vineman 70.3) at 7:45 and start to get my stuff ready for the ride and I go to turn on my Garmin and - nothing. It won't turn on. I charged it last night and it looked fine when I went to bed, today nothing. So the ride starts out with me throwing a mini-tantrum about my Garmin not working. 

Then I realized that it was probably God's way of telling me that I have been focused too much on speed (and beating myself up about it) lately and that I need to just ride my bike and have fun. I figured I could get the total ride time from my cell phone clock and the distance from one of the other people riding in the group with me. So off we went. 

The first 35 miles or so were awesome. The course is a bunch of rolling hills and felt pretty easy after Wildflower and some of the hill repeats I've been doing lately. 

Around mile 35ish my butt/saddle area started to hurt. Bad. My tri shorts kept bunching up and it seemed like all the chamois butter I put on wasn't helping. I kept squirming but could not get comfortable. We got to Chalk hill around mile 42 and I was able to just power up it without much problem. It did spike my heart rate a lot but it was ok. 

After Chalk hill things went to hell. My butt hurt so bad that every time I went over a bump (and there were lots since the roads were in bad shape) I would cry out in pain. I basically gritted my teeth the last 10 miles or so and tried not to cry. My legs felt strong, and I could have been riding a lot faster, but the pain just made moving excruciating. Long story short, I need a new saddle, badly. The problem isn't chafing, it's more the pressure on my saddle area, so I think I'll be looking for one with a cut out to take some of the pressure off. 

Fueling went really well on this ride. I was a bit hungry at the start of it since I ate breakfast at 5:45 and we didn't start riding till 8:20. During the ride I ate 3 packages of honey stingers, one packet of Accelerade (which I won't buy again, didn't like it) and had lots of water. Looks like 620 calories total which is only 155/hour but it seemed to be ok. I'll try to eat more next time to get it up above 200 and see if that is better. 

All in all a tough ride mentally but I'm really happy with where I am fitness wise. Today my fitness wasn't the limiter, my saddle was. 

 

kenj - 2010-05-30 8:41 AM

I had a great ride with the Saturday ride group yesterday!! Between the group ride and me taking the long way to the shop, I did about 61 miles with over 6100 feet of climbing!!  I can really tell that all the climbing I am doing is helping my cycling power and can't wait to test it in a race!!

Off for a medium length run this morning!!

Have a great weekend everyone!!

kenj - 2010-05-30 7:41 AM

I had a great ride with the Saturday ride group yesterday!! Between the group ride and me taking the long way to the shop, I did about 61 miles with over 6100 feet of climbing!!  I can really tell that all the climbing I am doing is helping my cycling power and can't wait to test it in a race!!

Off for a medium length run this morning!!

Have a great weekend everyone!!

Kath2163 - 2010-05-30 2:54 PM I finally took my tri bike out on the open road today. The winds made for some challenging moments as I felt myself and the bike being pushed sideways.   With the exception of some rough patches of road and downhills that I am not yet comfortable riding in the aero position, I spent most of the time in my aerobars. I am very happy that I have aerobars on my road bike as the learning curve is not as great as it otherwise would have been. I have an 11-25 cassette on my tri bike (what I had on my road bike until recently) and I was actually able to stay out of the easiet gear for more of the climbs then I was last year.  
 

furiousferret - 2010-05-30 3:09 PM

The cycling world hasn't seen a comeback since stage 17 of the 2006 Tour de France (and we all know how that turned out).  I swear I'm clean!

After my poor performance yesterday in dreadful heat and unrelenting winds, I was able to adjust to the heat today, and with no winds beat my previous time on my course by 9 minutes!

Going out there I knew it would be a headwind but it was very light so I pushed as hard as I could;  as soon as I knew it 3 riders were on my wheel for about 15 minutes.  I tried to get them off but couldn't then I hear 'lets drop this guy' and they blew by me and turned off at the next block.

Really?

I continued on and hit the turnout at a really good time, came back and had another wheelsucker.  Again, I tried to ride him off my wheel but he stuck.  Then as I slowed a tad he came up to me and said, 'I can't let you do all the work'.  Even though I didn't want to draft, we took turn for about 6 miles until he turned off.  

So I can't really call it an 'official' pr since I had help; but I would have bested my time without the help.

This is my biggest cycling month ever if I do a 50 miler (which I doubt) I will break 500 miles.  I'm definately seeing results.  I'm doing all this in a roadie without aero bars which is about 1 mph slower than my tri setup and I'm still flying.  Looking forward to the days averaging 20 mph on a relatively flat ride is commonplace; I've always considered that the standard.

calimavs - 2010-05-29 6:22 PM Happy Memorial Day weekend everyone! Just got back from my first ride over 50 miles - we ended up doing 55 today before a quick transition run. Since this was my longest ride ever I wrote a novel about it in my blog which I thought I'd share here. The short version is that my bike fitness is better than I thought for this course, but I desperately need a new saddle for my bike. 

Happy training everyone, hope you are all having a great long weekend! 


Here's the long version:
____________________
Wow. First ride over 50 miles! 

So I roll up to Windsor high school (the site of T2 for Vineman 70.3) at 7:45 and start to get my stuff ready for the ride and I go to turn on my Garmin and - nothing. It won't turn on. I charged it last night and it looked fine when I went to bed, today nothing. So the ride starts out with me throwing a mini-tantrum about my Garmin not working. 

Then I realized that it was probably God's way of telling me that I have been focused too much on speed (and beating myself up about it) lately and that I need to just ride my bike and have fun. I figured I could get the total ride time from my cell phone clock and the distance from one of the other people riding in the group with me. So off we went. 

The first 35 miles or so were awesome. The course is a bunch of rolling hills and felt pretty easy after Wildflower and some of the hill repeats I've been doing lately. 

Around mile 35ish my butt/saddle area started to hurt. Bad. My tri shorts kept bunching up and it seemed like all the chamois butter I put on wasn't helping. I kept squirming but could not get comfortable. We got to Chalk hill around mile 42 and I was able to just power up it without much problem. It did spike my heart rate a lot but it was ok. 

After Chalk hill things went to hell. My butt hurt so bad that every time I went over a bump (and there were lots since the roads were in bad shape) I would cry out in pain. I basically gritted my teeth the last 10 miles or so and tried not to cry. My legs felt strong, and I could have been riding a lot faster, but the pain just made moving excruciating. Long story short, I need a new saddle, badly. The problem isn't chafing, it's more the pressure on my saddle area, so I think I'll be looking for one with a cut out to take some of the pressure off. 

Fueling went really well on this ride. I was a bit hungry at the start of it since I ate breakfast at 5:45 and we didn't start riding till 8:20. During the ride I ate 3 packages of honey stingers, one packet of Accelerade (which I won't buy again, didn't like it) and had lots of water. Looks like 620 calories total which is only 155/hour but it seemed to be ok. I'll try to eat more next time to get it up above 200 and see if that is better. 

All in all a tough ride mentally but I'm really happy with where I am fitness wise. Today my fitness wasn't the limiter, my saddle was. 

 

zionvier - 2010-05-30 7:39 PM Just wanted to let everyone know I'll be a little weak on the posting over the next week most likely.  I'm leaving to drive to San Diego tomorrow morning for the marathon next Sunday.  I'm taking the bike though since it's a good alternative to running a lot the week before a marathon.  Hopefully I can find some good (and safe) areas to ride.  Definitely looking forward to a change in scenery... and I'm planning on getting some good OWSs in while I'm out there too.... plus a little surfing if the gods of surf cooperate.

zionvier - 2010-05-30 6:39 PM Just wanted to let everyone know I'll be a little weak on the posting over the next week most likely.  I'm leaving to drive to San Diego tomorrow morning for the marathon next Sunday.  I'm taking the bike though since it's a good alternative to running a lot the week before a marathon.  Hopefully I can find some good (and safe) areas to ride.  Definitely looking forward to a change in scenery... and I'm planning on getting some good OWSs in while I'm out there too.... plus a little surfing if the gods of surf cooperate.

Kath2163 - 2010-05-30 4:54 PM I finally took my tri bike out on the open road today. The winds made for some challenging moments as I felt myself and the bike being pushed sideways.   With the exception of some rough patches of road and downhills that I am not yet comfortable riding in the aero position, I spent most of the time in my aerobars. I am very happy that I have aerobars on my road bike as the learning curve is not as great as it otherwise would have been. I have an 11-25 cassette on my tri bike (what I had on my road bike until recently) and I was actually able to stay out of the easiet gear for more of the climbs then I was last year.  
 

zionvier - 2010-05-30 8:39 PM Just wanted to let everyone know I'll be a little weak on the posting over the next week most likely.  I'm leaving to drive to San Diego tomorrow morning for the marathon next Sunday.  I'm taking the bike though since it's a good alternative to running a lot the week before a marathon.  Hopefully I can find some good (and safe) areas to ride.  Definitely looking forward to a change in scenery... and I'm planning on getting some good OWSs in while I'm out there too.... plus a little surfing if the gods of surf cooperate.

PennState - 2010-05-31 7:41 AM Last week was a 220 mile bike week for me despite travelling to Toronto from Mon-Wed. Feeling pretty fried at this moment so thinking about a rest day today

PennState - 2010-05-31 12:00 PM my 'rest day' turned into a run day. oops