Shiz, I have a real cyclist in my ward
 

He is tall, thin, and fit. I talked to him, and he says he has raced in the past. Didn't say what Cat, though certainly I gave him the opportunity.

He says to call him next time I ride. I've been on 5 rides this year and bonked recently on a 14 mile ride.

I'm scared. Mom, hold me.

So I've ridden past two days, in efforts to get better before my first rally.

Man, it is hard, hard, hard. It's frustrating to be going 20, knowing that if I was in shape, I should be going 23 for the same cardio effort.

Going on a ride with this guy, with me out of shape, is like showing up to a date after a #2 accident.

My first ride with this guy is probably this evening.

I rode 20miles hard yesterday. Played basketball at lunch today. I am beat.

I think he is a former Cat 3, and I know he has done at least one rally this summer. So he has more talent and more fitness.

This is going to suck big time. He's going to think I'm a grandma.

Ride real hard for the first two miles and then go down hard. He'll never even know that you were toast by that time.

btw, I got stung by a wasp on my ride yesterday. The area around it is hard and indurated. My lower abdomen.

I got stung by a bee in the lip a couple of years ago while out riding before work. By the time I got home it felt like this:

http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465...tch.jpg?size=l

It hurt, and I said, "ouch, ouch, ouch!" as I tried to swipe it away. Which of course is hard to do when you are traveling 30mph on a flat, no wind, indefinitely.

OR this:

http://ridetrash.com/images/imagesfi...rsBeeSting.jpg


That is Jonathan Vaughters when he was stung during the Tour a few years ago and they wouldnt let him take any cortisone so he had to retire.

His eye is swollen, so what? Riding with a broken collarbone is harder.

Not if you're not clean.


One eyed riding in the peloton is not very safe.

The heavens opened up and brought forth showers.

I am safe.

I just found out that he rode Lotoja last year. I peed my pants.

What's his name, I'll see how he did.

He finished in about 12 and a half hours.

He's not as good as I thought.

Or he took it easy, or he bonked.

On that ride, if you bonk, you bonk. So a twelve hour ride is not out of the question and not indicative how good he may or may not be.

Anything under eleven hours is good. If he waited for friends, had some long meals, you just never know.

I wouldn't judge his cycling abilities based on an endurance ride. Most Cat 3s train for races, eighty miles or shorter, and if he's a crit guy, he's training for short hard rides up to an hour. Morever, Lotoja has hills, and you don't what those are in Texas.

When in Buffalo Springs, the locals were calling the ride, "hilly". It has some dips, lots of rain and lots of wind, but "hilly", it was not. A few rollers, that is all. The run had hills.

I was just joking about him not being good. I don't think I could finish.

He's tall and thin. I don't know if he's more a sprinter or a climber or an all-arounder.

Apparently the heat here really bothers him. That's my advantage.

Well if Lotoja is my road to Jericho, I didn't want people to know how badly I suck.

Viking is likely to kick my ass.

I hope we can break eleven. For me it would be a great day if we could do that.

Let's see you all break 4 hours at Hotter N Hell.

I have an A, a B and a C goal. The D goal is to finish.

Our C goal is under 11. And I'm afraid to mention the other two, risking ridicule when we don't approach it.

If we had consistent fueling, no bad weather, averaging about 20mph is difficult but doable. Aside from that 19mph is more probable.

If you pull my ass up the three mountain climbs, we'll be fine.

The last person to go under 11 hours last year was 439th of 1421. 30.9 percentile.

I won't be able to attend this year, but perhaps next year. Is it Texas flat, with adequate support.

In those temperatures, one needs about forty ounces every hour and I'm not carrying that much.

With a good crew, it sounds approachable. I've done in a time trial on a tri 24 mph for 56 miles. With a peloton, one would hope I could average a mile or hour faster. However, I notice it's rather easy to hold 23 and maybe 24 on flats, but kicking it above 25 appears to be out of my range for the most part. I need more cycling miles and better training to do that.

There are 4,000 people in support on the ride.

If you want to get a really good time, you shouldn't stop. For the race they do have a water pick-up zone I think. I can tell from the collection of empty water bottles on the side of the road.

You could do 100oz camelbak, 2 water bottles on bike, and perhaps another water bottle in pocket. For some that would be plenty.

I'm a high-liquid consumer, it wouldn't be enough for me.

With 11,000 riders, you can always find a pace-line, esp. starting in the front.

I wouldn't plan on stopping, but in that heat, I consume a large amounts of liquids. I calculate about 45 ounces every hour, so about 180 ounces.

Do they know how to had a racer the bottles on the fly? Or does one have to get off the bike to go get it?

The problem with rides, is one must dismount, and that negatively affects the time. In a tri, the volunteers are taught how to give bottles to racers rolling through.

I don't know, I've never done the race. If you truly want me to find out, I can go to the bother. But since you aren't coming, doesn't seem like it matters.

http://www.lotojaclassic.com/

I was just looking at the profile for lotoja and the climbs are long but not real steep until you get to the end of the Salt River Pass. 3000 vertical over 21 miles, 1000 vertical over 9 miles and 1300 spread over 11 miles. This all comes in the first 100 so you get them over early.

He's definitely stronger than me. Despite only riding the same pitiful amount this year.

He was 2nd in KOTM in Lotoja in his class he said. His strength is climbing.

So like a moron, I said, let's go to the hilly streets. So I am at the limit already after those short, but steep, climbs.

I averaged 181 bpm, but I'm not sure if my HRM is accurate.

When we talked, he was speaking normally, I was speaking like I had emphysema.

He says Lance doped, so I know he is a good guy.

P.S. archaea send me one of your old cassettes with a really big gear. I need a triple or I am going to die.

with a big gear you will just be choosing death by aerobic menas as opposed to anaerobic menas. Either way, this guy sounds like a killer (and you would both kill me).

How big are the hills you are talking about, btw? What sort of climbing do you do?

eensy tiny embarrassingly small hills, but the one kicks up to something ridiculous like 20%, even if it's only 75 yards or whatever.

I'm a high cadence rider, not a masher. I always ride over 100rpm.

I am usually at 90-100 rpm unless th road goes up at all. On my ride home last night I took the hilly route, which has a climb of about 750-850 feet in about 2 miles. I think my RPM and speed were both in the single digits on the climb, but my HR made up for it.

20% is prety extreme.

I don't have any big cassettes which are old.

I have a bunch of 11/23s, 11/21, one 12/27 that is barely used. I intend to do Lotoja with the 11/23. I am a masher except in a crit.

If he did a 12 hour in the Cat 3s and was 2d in KOTM, I find that hard to believe.

when you approach it, it looks like a wall.

I don't think he raced as a Cat. I may be wrong.

turns out I have a 12-23. I need to buy a 12-27.

I can't imagine doing Lotoja with a 12-23. But then again, I am more Lance Armstong--high cadence in a low gear. Probably going to buy one today.

Reasons this guy could have won KOM in his division:

1. he may not have been in a very competitive division
2. the climbs are more at the beginning
3. I know he rode with some people slower than him, so he could have sat up during the last half.

What kind of crank are you using? Is it a 53/39 or is it a compact?

If you are using a compact, I kind of doubt that you will have much use for a 27. Thats only useful for the long steep stuff. A 23 or 25 is probably good enough, don't you think?

If its a 39 crank, then a 27 might be good to have. But even then, those climbs at that goat ride aren't long enough where you'll likely have time to down shift to a 27. You'll be at the top before you feel like you need to go that far down.

36 + 23 is too much for me to pedal at 110rpm on the really steep hills. I end up with a much slower candence and it kills me.

Maybe I just need more fitness. For me, that 36+23 is about 12 mph going uphill. So with high cadence I should be going probably 13-14mph.

Is that reasonable?

We went on another ride last night.

He hadn't ridden since out last ride. I had put on 120 miles since then.

He is much stronger. It didn't help I was a little sick (in retrospect) before we started.

Last night, I blew chunks, everything. Woke up with heartrate of 120.

Feel awful. Probably a stomach virus compounded with a too violent effort on the bike.

I am just now starting to feel better and not massively thirsty.

I think I may have cracked my kidneys, but they have recovered a fraction.