23 March 2013 Race 1 - Barry-Roubaix

Barry-Roubaix roads, Thursday before the race

One race down. The 2013 season started March 23 at Barry-Roubaix, the Killer Gravel Road Race.

Most seasons (OK, all seasons) I'm not even thinking about racing for another month. Or several months. But being on a race team means, eventually, that you have to race. I picked the 36 mile route - 24 miles seemed too short, 62 miles and at least 4 hours out on the road in March sounded completely crazy.

The week before the race I had no idea what to expect on race morning. The route was  mostly unpaved roads, which during March in Michigan means snow, ice, mud, gravel, and some other stuff. Early in the week, western Michigan was still getting lake effect snow, but the race day forecast was for sun and warmer temperatures. By mid-week, the race had been rerouted to avoid some roads that were impassible for support vehicles, and the organizers were paying Barry County to put down some extra sand on some of the other roads.

After a couple of test rides on dirt roads around home I decided to take the Anthem 29er, but on what tires? Nice fat mountain bike tires would probably be the ticket for mid-40s slop. Narrower CX tires probably work best on frozen dirt and the paved sections of the reroutes. But ice? Other stuff? No ideas there. Eventually laziness won out - it seemed like too much work to switch tires when I really didn't know if there would be any advantage with the CX tires.

Friday night before the race I stayed at the Roadhouse in Yankee Springs State Recreation Area, organized by one of the Greyhounds. Score one for being on a team - on my own I would have just got up early and drove out on Saturday morning, eating on the road. At the Roadhouse, there was coffee (!), a nice place to change, and no last minute rush to get to registration.

By 10am Saturday, it was looking like the best day of the week for a dirt road race - just below freezing, no sun, no wind. I did a few miles of warm up to get the blood flowing and test out the temperature, then got into my wave in the start queue.

At almost 3000 riders, Barry-Roubaix was the biggest race I've ever started. Wave 8 started right on time at 10:21am, with about a 2 miles roll out on pavement through town before the first dirt road. As usual I started at the back of the wave, but unlike usual I stayed in the pack at the start and even passed some of the guys in my wave before we hit the first dirt road.

After a good start, the race went great! The Racing Ralphs were the perfect tire choice for me - no worries on the ice, not a huge penalty on the roads. The full suspension ate up any holes, washboards, etc on the road. The extra weight probably hurt me some on the hills, but it was worth it bombing through potholes and washboard. Every time I looked at the mileage, I was surprised how fast the race was going by, which is always a good sign.

After a couple of quick stops to put the chain back on (for some reason the chain came off a couple times when shifting onto the big ring), and one for a gel, I was back at the start, sprinting down the finishing chute for a time of 2:44:08, 131st of 199 registered riders. My target was between 2 1/2 and 3 hours, so mission accomplished. With all the riders, there was always someone to chase down which was fun and helped me stay focused on racing. At the beginning of the week I wouldn't have guessed it, but it was actually a lot of fun and I'll probably sign up again next year.

After the race, another plus for being on a team. The trailer was right at the start/finish, with a place to change into warm, dry clothes. And there was food, even some really good, warm, jambalaya. And a bunch of Hounds to talk with about what we just finished. It was a lot more fun than the usual lone wolf thing.

Next up, the team points series time trial on April 14, then Pontiac Lake on April 28 to kick off the mountain bike season!

First ride with the Greyhounds: I did not know Strava Suffer Scores went to 'Epic'

Wow. I knew this was going to be hard, that's why I signed up. But Saturday was epic - even Strava says so. I've never really done group training rides before, and to get faster I need to consistently try to keep up with people faster than me. Judging from the ride on Saturday, finding people faster than me is NOT going to be a problem.

I did have an excuse - the rear brakes were dragging for the first half of the ride. The pads weren't retracting all the way, and every time I touched the rear brakes they dragged more. By the time we stopped for lunch I actually had to pedal going downhill to maintain speed - this is not something I usually have to do. The rear tire was coated in brake dust, so there was definitely a problem. I sort of fixed it by pressing the pads out as far as I could with a screwdriver and then not using the rear brakes for rest of the ride. This helped some and I was able to stay with the (possibly somewhat charitable) 'B' group for about half of the ride home. After that I dropped back to finish with the 'B-' group. 54 miles, just over 4 hours riding time. Not bad for me in March. I don't think I had 50 miles total by this time last year.

Everyone was really supportive during the ride - very much appreciated. I know how far I have to go, it's good having teammates that understand that too.

I've been through this process before - from getting lapped repeatedly at my first few kart races (I eventually figured it out how to go fast and win races), to spinning off the track multiple times on the first day of the  Waterford Hills drivers school in my new Formula V (until I figured out it wasn't a kart, and set the fastest time on the second day, and went on to win some races there too), to my first mountain bike race (Yankee Springs TT in 2000 - I didn't expect to win, but I thought all the road miles I was doing meant something on the trail - wrong!).

I'm still working on the mountain bike thing, and I'm sure riding with the Greyhounds this year will make me a better rider.

Today was a 17 mile test ride on some local dirt roads, getting ready for Barry-Roubaix in 2 weeks. The ideal bike for this might be my mountain bike with the wheels and cross tires from my Trek 7.5 FX Disk - after 17 miles today I'm not sure my back (or hands, arms, neck, or butt) would survive 36 miles of dirt roads on a rigid bike.

The rubber hits the road, if I can get it to hold air

I'm just about ready for my first training ride with the Racing Greyhounds. All I need is some air.

I have to say right up front I love my Stan's NoTubes. I converted two bikes to tubeless last year - my Giant Anthem X 29er 2 (Schwalbe Racing Ralph tires/Giant S-XC29-2 rims), and my wife's 26" Giant Anthem X1 (Kenda Nevegal/Mavic 117 rims). It only took about an hour to convert both bikes, including drilling out the valve holes per the instructions and installing the rim strips. I used an air compressor to get the beads to seat initially - I'm not sure how you get air in fast enough to seat the beads with a floor pump.

Both bikes ran great all summer - no flats, minimal air loss between rides, and I never even had to add more sealant. Perfect! I didn't notice that the wheels felt lighter, but I did notice that my bike really responded well to lower tire pressures - 25psi front, 30 rear and I'm a Clydesdale. Lots of grip, better suspension feel in long fast sweepers, and it never felt mushy or like I was losing much straight line speed due to low pressures.

So last night when I started to change my worn out rear tire, I thought I'd have it done in 10-15 minutes and have plenty of time to put in some time on the trainer. I was wrong! After 2 hours of coating me, the garage floor, and everything else in the area with Stan's Sealant, I gave up. I'm sure it's not the fault of the tires, the rims, or the NoTubes conversion - I was using the same rim, same make/model tire, same technique. The only thing I can think of is that it's about 50 degrees colder than when I did the job last summer, maybe the rubber is stiffer and not as compliant?

I also noticed I wasn't getting much air into the tires using the presta-schraeder adapter and the standard schraeder value chuck on the compressor. The presta core just wasn't getting enough force on the valve in the schraeder chuck to open it all the way. And the one time the tire actually beaded, I let all the air out when the valve core came off with the adapter. So the adapter (which works great for bike pumps and CO2 cartridges) had to go. One trip to Home Depot later:

• Workforce Dual Foot Inflator and Gauge
• 1/4" Male NPT compressor barb
• 1/4" Male NPT to 1/8" hose barb (would have liked a female version, but Home Depot was out)
• 1/4" NPT Union (no need if you get the female version of the 1/8" hose barb)
• Short piece of 1/8" hose and Presta/Schraeder pump head (scavenged from an old floor pump)
• Hose clamp
• Teflon tape

I'm not recommending you actually go out and make something like this. You should go buy Park Tool's very nice shop inflator, even if it does cost 4-5 times as much as my homemade version. If you do make one of these, you're on your own - don't come complaining to me with your remaining fingers if something goes wrong.

I do recommend getting a good air pressure gauge if you're running pressures this low - the gauges on my floor pumps were pretty inaccurate and inconsistent this low in the range. If you're off by a pound or two on a 110 psi road tire, no big deal. A pound or two at 25 psi makes a big difference! This SKS gauge from REI works well for me

The whole point of getting the bike ready NOW is that tomorrow (Saturday) is my first planned ride with the Greyhounds. Livonia to Ann Arbor, do some hill repeats, stop at Zingerman's Deli to regroup/refuel, then back to Livonia. 50+ miles. On mountain bikes. In March. I don't think I had 50 miles total on in March last year. Next week, the regular Tuesday road and Wednesday mountain bike training rides start up. Daylight saving time starts this weekend, so there's more light in the evening to ride. Time to get out of the basement!

Race season is coming.

Registration season

Funny how the next 2 weeks will define a lot of what my bike season looks like even though right now it's 24 degrees, there's fresh snow on the ground, and the only riding I'm doing today is a spin class at the Sports Club. But we're well into event registration season.

Registration for Iceman and Lumberjack 100 open on  March 1st and 2nd (and both sell out in minutes) for events in June and November. I'm hoping to get into Iceman, if I don't I'll try to pick up a transfer as people drop out later in the season. Lumberjack, I don't know... I have to admit 100 miles on a mountain bike in June (or any time) is pretty intimidating, so if I don't get in I'll just go out and support the Greyhounds and maybe do a bandit lap (33 miles, no problem) to check out the course for next year.

DALMAC and Peak2Peak opened their registration this week, for events in September and October. Those don't fill up as fast -  currently only 14 signed up for Peak2Peak, including me and Ann. This will be my 4th Peak2Peak - it's a fun race even in the bad weather we had last year, although last year's expert/elite riders might disagree since their race got shortened due to bad weather.

Derek and I have successfully registered for our 4th DALMAC. A nice ride, except for the one day every year when it's cold and wet.

And I'm doing something I've never done before on a bike - raising money. I'll be registering for the Komen Ride for the Cure as soon as there's a Greyhounds team registered with them to sign up with. That's really goiung out on a limb for me - ride 100 miles, no problem. Raise $500? Not really in my comfort zone. But I'll give it a try, and it's a good cause so it shouldn't be too difficult.

August is shaping up to be pretty busy - Komen on 8/3, Maybury TT on 8/17, X100 on 8/24, DALMAC starts on 8/29 in Lansing and ends on 9/1 in Mackinaw City.

Numbers don't lie

Interesting event with the team Sunday - 1km on a CompuTrainer to get your average power for 1 minute, then onto a scale to determine watts/kg. The bottom line - 418 watts, 214 pounds/97 kg, 4.3 watts/kg, 38th of 39 Greyhounds.

The top Greyhound was at 8.5 watts/kg - to get there at my current weight I'd have to average 827 watts, just under 2x my output. Not likely. Or drop my weight to 108 lbs. That one, I'm willing to say is impossible. I probably haven't weighed 108 pounds since I was about 10 - let's just say as a kid I shopped in the extra-Husky section at Sears and Roebucks...

So, what's realistic for me? I know I can get to 185-190 pounds, I was there the spring before I broke my collarbone, and that was my racing weight when I was racing karts. With no change to power output, that's 4.8 to 5.0 w/kg. 11% to 16% improvement. I can also get stronger, maybe 10%, I know from weight training that I'm down by at least that much from a couple of years ago. Assuming that translates directly to power output, that puts me at 460 watts, 5.3 to 5.6 w/kg.

Another area to work on is endurance. The CompuTrainer output shows my max power was around 10 seconds into the trial, max average was at about 15 seconds. After that it was all downhill for the next 45 seconds.

The big drop between 15 and 20 second is probably a transition from sitting to standing. Or standing to sitting. I was already seeing stars at that point.

The other people doing this also seemed to peak early and trail off, but I only have my data so I can't say if my drop off was more or not. I think I'm safe saying it probably was.

So, what to do with this information? The obvious thing is to get serious about losing weight - I'm probably down 10 pounds in the last 6 months, but I need to lose about 15-20 more ASAP. People keep telling me it's harder to lose weight as you get older - I don't know about that. Your metabolism slows down a bit so it's probably easier to gain weight if you don't adjust your eating and activity to match, but weight loss is always more calories out than in. Not being able to lose weight as you age just sounds like an easy out. I know how to do it, I just need to step up my game.

Strength training and yoga are obvious, too. Maybe yoga isn't as obvious, but more flexibility will help me get more power to the pedals, especially on my right side.

Intervals should help the short term power output. I've never been a great sprinter, but I can do better.

And an electronics project - my old Tacx CycleForce trainer has everything it needs to be a discount CompuTrainer except a brain - 7 resistance levels and a published table of power vs mph for each level. Replace the manual level selection lever with a stepper; add speed and cadence pickups (multiple points/revolution to improve accuracy; Polar receiver for HRM strap; add an Arduino to handle sensor input and data output to a PC; some PC software to handle display, analysis, programmed training sessions - done! Not 100% accurate for watts, but consistent so you could chart your progress anyway. Probably less than $100 in hardware (big costs are the Polar receiver and stepper motor from SparkFun). Certainly less than the $1600 or so that a CompuTrainers goes for. Useful for my teammates, a great Instructable, and an overall interesting project. And a bleed over to my other blog, Black Dog Blog.

Stay tuned....

I never thought about that...

This month's (Feb 2013) VeloNews has a very interesting article by Caley Fretz and Friction Facts about the efficiency of chain lubes, or lack thereof. Maybe 'interesting' is overstating the case for non-engineering nerds, but certainly useful. I always just cleaned the chain and put on some more White Lightning (probably subliminally influenced by 'Lighting' - must be fast, right?). Turns out the trick setup is melting a block of paraffin wax and throwing the chain in. Clean, fast, repels dirt, what more could you ask for. I'll have to try it - I need all the watts I can get! - but I hope it doesn't turn into XC skiing:

XC ski wax chart

"No honey, I have NO idea why the slow cooker is covered in bike grease!"

Turns out there's a LOT of discussion about bike chain lubes on the internet (try Googling 'bike chain paraffin wax') - some people think about this stuff a lot more than I do, which is pretty amazing.

Nice ride at Island Lake in the snow this afternoon - not fast, but very pretty with the big snow flakes falling in the pines, and much better than another ride in the basement watching 'Breaking Away' for the millionth time. You start to notice stuff like this:

Dave, you'd be faster if you didn't stop to reverse your drivetrain all the time

Eventually, you start making up your own dialog...

"Mama Mia, the Greyhounds, they are coming soon! Like the wind they fly! Like the birds they sing!"

I guess I'll find out about that last part at the team party next month when the karaoke machine comes out.

Still a great movie. OK, not 'Citizen Kane' great, but neither is 'Citizen Kane'.  But maybe if Rosebud where a bicycle instead of a sled I'd understand the fixation better...

Beer Me

Interesting data point from last year's riding - 1 beer = 8.0 miles on the road, or 3.25 miles on the mountain bike. Probably skewed that much due to more race training and racing on the mountain bike, more touring and commuting rides on the road. My Garmin Edge 500 tracks heart rate, position, distance, speed, cadence, elevation, could do power if I had a power meter (but Strava can estimate power from the uploaded data).   Bike computers have come a long way since my first one, a mechanical mile counter that used a peg attached to a spoke to turn a wheel.

So 1 loop at Island Lake (13 miles) is equal to about 4 beers... probably not the best way to power my rides though.

Try getting that off your AMF Roadmaster Deluxe Mileage Counter!