Century Training Series: Day 15 (week 2 re-cap)
Ok, today is Monday which brings us to a rest day and Day 15 of my Century Training Plan. Now that I’ve completed two weeks I’m ready to start the 10-week plan as set forth in Bicycling Magazine. If you’ll remember, I started my century training plan two weeks early so I could get used to it before officially starting the 10-week plan. This week I’ll re-start at week 1, day 1, and continue on until my century on September 26.
Overall I think my week of cycling last week was excellent. I had a couple of hard days but for the most part I believe I stayed true to the week 2 plan and rode very well. Looking at my total mileage last week, I was kind of shocked to see I had ridden over 130 miles but at the same time very happy. I didn’t do anything extra to boost my mileage so I think the 130 miles is very close to what you should have if you have a targeted century endurance pace of 15 mph like I do.
On the other hand, if you’re reading this blog and expect to jump straight into week 1 and haven’t ridden for a while I think you may be in for a rude awakening. I had been riding anywhere from 50-75 miles per week for a couple of months before starting my plan which means I had at least a small base fitness. If I had tried to start my plan from cold turkey I’m not sure I could do it. I’ll go back and check the article but I don’t believe it mentions whether or not this plan is for a beginner or not. Honestly, I think a beginner would have a hard (if not impossible) time riding 109 miles in week 1 and 138 in week 2 like I did. I’m not say that because I’m an accomplished cyclist but because I think it may be the truth.
Here are my measurements for this week:
Weight: 267 pounds (down 4 pounds from three weeks ago)
Neck: 17.25 in (no change from last week)
Chest: 45.5 in (down .5 in from last week)
Left Bicep: 15 in (up .5 in from last week)
Right Bicep: 15 in (up .5 in from last week)
Waist: 47 in (down .5 in from last week))
Left Thigh: 28 in (down 1 in from last week)
Right Thigh: 27.5 in (no change from last week)
Left Calf: 18.5 in (down .25 in from last week)
Right Calf: 18 in (down .25 in from last week)
Overall I’m happy with those numbers. I had more drops than ups or no changes but I thought my weight would have been a little lower. I’ll take it though. With the loss of 4 pounds I’m falling right into recommended range of losing 1-2 pounds per week. My weight, chest and waist are the big three in my opinion and they were all down from last week. I can’t not be happy with that.
Here’s the mileage numbers from last week with total since the start of the plan in parenthesis:
Riding Time (h:m): 9:12 (16:56)
Mileage: 138.1 (247.2)
Avg Speed: 14.95 mph
I really find it hard to believe I rode 138 miles last week. If you follow the plan though you’ll have no choice to put up numbers like that and they’ll only increase as you get deeper into the plan. The Saturday ride is where a lot of it comes from (45 miles) but that means I still put in over 90 miles during the week. If I were at home with my family it would probably be very hard to put in that many miles during the week. Could I find time? Sure, but it would be harder. The average speed is close to my target of 15 mph but is skewed a little because it does contain some warm up time that is lower than my endurance pace. To fix that I’ve started resetting my computer after my warm up so I can get an accurate mileage and average speed for my endurance rides. My warm up time/mileage is now just banked time/mileage that I know I did but doesn’t show up anywhere.
With two weeks under my belt I think I’ve gotten off to a good start. My body has responded well to the mileage but my quads do feel a little sore this morning. That’s probably due to the long ride on Saturday followed by the windy ride last night. I still need to work on my diet some to make sure I’m eating at the correct times. Another thing Saturday’s ride told me is that I do need to invest in new bibs (I already knew this). I could tell after 3 hours in the saddle though that I’m going to need some that will provide a little more comfort for the longer rides. As soon as can I’ll be getting some of the Performance Elite IIs that come so highly recommended.
Thanks for all the encouragement and support so far.
Read MoreCentury Training Series: Days 12, 13 and 14
Day 12
This is the traditional easy cycling day that has 30 minutes of easy spinning scheduled. Due to having to drive out of town I had to skip it.
Day 13
This was Saturday and I had a 3 hour endurance ride scheduled. Before heading out of town on Friday I mapped out a new route on MapMyRide to try. I was up at 6:00 AM on Saturday morning and rolling by 6:30. After 15 minutes I reset my computer and set out for 3 hours of riding.
I headed due east on Highway 199 towards Dickson. This is a fairly trafficked two-lane road but has six foot wide shoulders that makes it pretty safe. It’s not too flat either with three very good size hills over the 9 miles from Ardmore to Dickson. I lived and went to school in Dickson and had only been back through there a few times in the past 20 years. Before turning off Highway 199 I rolled by my brother’s house and past the old house we used to live in before moving when I was 10. Once in Dickson I turned North on Highway 177.
Washita River
Eventually I reached SH53 and turned left (West). This was the same type of road as 177 but with even less traffic and more scenic. I’m not sure I’d ever been on that road before. It was truly a beautiful piece of highway to ride on. I went by the old airport, turned to the North and then back to the West so I could continue on to Highway 77 over at Springer. Once past the airport though I ran into some more hills that really taxed me but I suffered on.
The trip down 77 was the worst part of the ride because the shoulder was in absolute ruins. Luckily this was a four-lane highway and I was able to ride in the right-hand lane heading South. Again, traffic was light so that wasn’t a problem but I hit a couple more hills that put the burn into my legs.
Once back into Ardmore I headed across town and realized that I was on track to finish in only 2:15 (h:mm) so I needed to kill 45 minutes. I wound up doing some loops on the South side of town to complete the ride and eventually ended up riding 2 hours and 57 minutes.
Overall I felt great this entire ride except for the last 20 minutes or so. After I had been on the bike an hour or so I realized that I hadn’t brought anything with me to eat and was worried that might be a problem. Turns out it wasn’t for the majority of the ride but I think that may have been what caused the last 20 minutes or so to hurt some. The weather couldn’t have been more perfect. Here are the numbers:
Time: 2:57:18 (plus an additional 15 minutes warm up)
Distance: 45.69 miles (plus an additional 3.31 during warm up) (49 total!)
Avg Speed: 15.4 mph
Day 14
I was back in Dallas this evening and was scheduled for a 1.5 hour endurance ride. I was worried I wouldn’t get the ride in because of thunderstorms but I did. I didn’t feel too great and the wind was terrible and coming from just the right direction to make it feel like I had a head wind no matter which was I was headed. White Rock Lake sits in kind of a natural bowl and I think the wind swirls really bad on spots which contributed to the head wind. Because of the wind, and feeling tired from yesterday, I only road for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Here are the numbers:
Time: 1:15:32 (plus 15 minute warm up)
Distance: 19.17 miles
Avg Speed: 15.2 mph Read More
Century Training Series: Day 10
What a wacky ride today. It all started when I opened my trunk to pull my bike out (I’d really like to get a roof rack some day).
I immediately discovered my front tire flat. This is probably the third front flat in as many weeks so I was getting frustrated. Each time I carefully inspected the tire at the location of the hole to find nothing even though the hole seemed to be forming in the same spot each time. I took a look at the rim and discovered the rim tape worn in that area and now think that the tube may have gotten the hole from a spoke hole edge. I had some electrical tape in my trunk so I ran some around the inside of the rim over the existing tape. We’ll see how that goes. Next time I’m at the bike shop I’ll pick up some new rim tape. Remember the two new tubes I bought the other day? I just used one.
After this delay I finally got started and everything went good for the warm up. It was hot again but didn’t seem too bad. The wind was blowing pretty good though which wasn’t cool. After the warm up I had a 1.5 overall endurance ride scheduled with 4×8 intervals. The plan was to ride 8 minutes at 17 mph followed by 8 minutes at 13 mph (15 mph average) and repeat four times. Everything went good until about halfway through my second interval.
As I come around a corner I see a guy on the side of the road with his bike upside down. I ask if he needs anything and he says a pump. I stop to help but after using a CO2, my pump, and having another cyclist stop and use CO2, we were unable to inflate his tire. The other guy that stopped and I think the tube he put in was bad. Even if it was good it wouldn’t have lasted long because his tire sidewall was basically shredded from age. It looked like he hadn’t ridden the bike in a while. I let him borrow my phone to call is girlfriend and then I moved on and finished my second interval.
Read MoreCentury Training Series: Day 9
With Day 9 comes the second week of cycling in the century training plan. Yesterday was a rest day so I was chomping at the bits to get out and ride. I wasn’t looking forward to the heat and wind though.
Yesterday’s ride is the same as Day 2 which is one hour at endurance pace (15 mph for me). Throw in my warm up and I was looking at about 1.5 hours on the bike which isn’t bad. I arrived at my normal parking area and put my bike together. As I was putting on my gear I realized I had forgotten my gloves. After Sunday evenings Day 7 ride I had hand washed them so they would dry over the rest day but forgot them when I left the house today. Normally I would have been upset but I looked at it as an opportunity to get some sun on the back of my hands. Right now I’ve got this tan oval on the back of my hand where the hole is on my gloves. I don’t remember the last time I had ridden without gloves so it took some getting used to. Can’t really say that I enjoyed it though. Gotta remember them today.
I started out with my normal 30 minute warm up and took it kinda slow at first because it was hot out. The high for the day was 102F with the heat index a little higher. What made it worse though was the wind. Wow it was blowing hard at times. The weather channel said it was 10-20 mph and there were a couple times I bet it was gusting over 20 mph. Once the warm up was done I settled into 15 mph and kept that pace pretty good for most of the hour. I dropped a little on a couple of the hills but gained it back on the downhill side.
About a half-hour into the endurance portion I saw a young woman sitting on the curb with her bike laying next to her. I watched two guys ahead of me look her way and ride past without saying a word. I always make it a point to ask folks if they need anything when I see them stopped or it’s obvious they’re having trouble. So, as always, I asked her if everything was OK and she said something about her chain as I went by. I stopped and took a quick look. Her chain had come off probably from shifting while coming up the hill she was stopped on. It took less than a minute to fix and she was on her way. It always feels good to help folks out like that.
After getting back on my bike I completed the remainder of my endurance ride with no issues.
Here are the numbers:
Total Time: 1:36:47 (30 min warm up; 1 hr endurance; 6 min cool down)
Distance: 23.20
Avg MPH: 14.3 (includes warm up and cool down)
I’m writing this on Wednesday so I can tell you that I felt sore this morning from the ride. Not sure why as I didn’t think it was overly strenuous. It could be lack of sleep. I’m notorious for going to sleep at midnight and only getting six hours in. I know that’s not enough and I need to do better.
Read MoreThe Fleecing of Cyclists
This post has been brewing for a while and I’ve talked myself into writing it and not writing it several times. Am I bitter? Probably. Frustrated? Certainly. If you’re one of those cyclists that has bottomless pockets or an unlimited cycling budget you may want to skip this one.
Any hobby has its expenses. If you like to knit then you have to pay for yarn and needles. If you enjoy scrapbooking then you have to pay for paper, stamps and stickers. Cycling is no different. If you want to enjoy the sport of cycling you have to maintain you bike which costs money. Cycling clothes cost money. Bicycles cost money. And so on. Cycling is just like any other hobby we have. It costs money. But does it cost too much?
Road Bikes
Let’s talk about bicycles first. Are there affordable bicycles out there? Sure, if you start with the low-end beginner road bikes, you can find a bike or two for right around $1000 that may suit your needs. On the other end of the spectrum you have the new Madone 6.9 that’ll set you back $8600 for the basic version. Throw in upgrades and custom paint and you can get it up to $14000 ($8600 sounds like a real bargain now). Custom road bikes can be even more.
I don’t know about you but the planet I live on would call $1000 for a road bike expensive. Am I out of touch? Maybe but in my book $1000 is a lot of money. I couldn’t fathom paying $8600 for a bike. Who would actually go out and pay that for a bicycle anyway? Not anybody I know. I’m sure some of you know people who would pay that for a bike but is it a bike they’ll actually use for the purpose it was designed for?
Regardless of what kind of road bike it is I think the prices have just gone through the roof. Having to drop $1000 to $3000 on a new bike is ridiculous. Has the technology advanced so far that the research and development costs are driving up the end price? Perhaps but I also think the bicycle companies are taking advantage of cyclists with large mark ups.
Cycling Clothing
I’m a cyclist who owns just a few pieces of actual cycling clothing (four to be exact). And they aren’t even name brand bibs or jerseys. If you want name brand, or top of the line, expect to pay out of your proverbial arse for it. $80-130 jerseys. $150-$200 bibs. I talked the other day about how I was looking for a sleeveless jersey and was shocked when I found out one I was looking at cost a $100 at one of the local bike shops. Come on! It doesn’t even have sleeves for crying out loud!
There is cheaper cycling clothing out there but I hear that you do get what you pay for with regards to cycling clothing. I wouldn’t know if the expensive stuff is any more comfortable or not but I’ve been told it is. But is it so comfortable that it should require you to take out a second-mortgage to totally outfit yourself for spring, summer, fall and winter riding? Are cycling companies just like the department stores that mark up clothes 200-300% and take advantage of the shoppers? I would say yes.
Cycling Accessories/Maintenance
This is the low-hanging fruit of the cycling hobby that can really start to add up. $200 carbon shoes and handle bars. $1000 sets of wheels. $300 GPS enabled computers. $100 saddles. $1000 (and more) component groups. And the list just goes on and on and on.
I guess the real question is how serious are we with this hobby/sport we call cycling? Are we serious enough to blindly fork out thousands of dollars on bikes, clothes and accessories so we can have the latest and greatest designs or technology? Do we have unlimited funds where we can simply pay whatever the cycling companies want for their products? Are we willing to pay anything so we can fit into “the group” on the next ride?
Some people are perfectly happy to pay these prices and do. I can’t and won’t but that still doesn’t mean that the prices the cycling companies are charging aren’t inflated and ridiculous.
I expect a lot of flak from this post but I really don’t care. I would like your opinion on the subject though. Do others feel the same way or am I’m a minority in this line of thinking and should just get out of the sport of cycling right now.
Read MoreCONNECT WITH BTL
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
