Thursday, May 29, 2008

TNR May 27 Fearless Foursome

The cold and windy spring continued with temps in the 50's and high winds making for not so nice conditions. Only four riders (Long weekend forgetfulness?) rode tonight. Ironically the sun was out and the wind died down some and conditions were pretty good.

Fearless Bob showed his early season fitness fresh from a weekend TT. Next week promises warmer weather so we can hopefully get the ride back on schedule as we depart at 5:25pm.
SO2

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

TNR from an IT perspective, Volume One

Gosh, Todd keeps talking about "Father Mark", and today I counted 12 riders. Might there be something more to this religious metaphor? Guess again. By departure time the count was 16. Sunny skies and 65 degrees. The bold among us had full summer attire. The wimps used arm warmers. And the real chickens (like me) went with a long sleeve lifa wind block top under the jersey. Jennifer of the rose tattoo led us out down University, reveling again in her final week in Green Bay. By the time we turned east on Curry lane, I was sure I was overdressed. Full sun, a following wind, and a brisk pace combined to bring me visions of dehydration and heat exhaustion. But since the TNR is about overcoming adversity, I put those thoughts out of my mind. Luxemburg road came quickly, and we soon commenced our second eastward leg. The easy spinning didn't last long. Shortly after I followed Carl and Sue's tandem over the RR tracks, one of the high horsepower motors up front decided to ramp things up a bit. The wind was favorable, so 22, 23, 24 mph seemed reasonable. Since I had not been on my road bike for almost 2 weeks, I was hanging out at the tail end of the peloton, right behind Jenifer (of Jeff and Jen). I noticed a 2 to 3 bike length gap opening up in front of Jen, so I swung around, thinking that it was too early to lose contact with the first group. But I had a pang of conscience as I cleared her wheel. Instead of bridging up and splitting the group 11 - 5, I soft pedaled after I covered her, as thoughts of a nice tight 4 person rotating pace line lit up my synapses. I figured between Jen, Todd, myself, and the other rider (didn't get the name) we could get in some time trial teamwork practice. Captain Carl and stoker Sue were with us also, but they didn't factor into my pace line dream. Todd quickly jumped in with some field direction. "Move over to the left, Steve." I got onto the centerline, and everyone echeloned behind me. It was surprisingly easy going, and I was cruising at 22 to 23 mph. But it was soon apparent that I was the only one in the group fantasizing about the disciplined rotation of a time trial team. "Great job Steve, only 29 miles to go." Then "Keep it up, only 28 more." Todd was ticking off the miles as he sat in my slipstream. The fast group in front of us didn't look to be pulling away. In fact, 2 riders appeared to have fallen off the back. I thought that maybe we were gaining on them. If I could get a little help, we might bridge up. This went on for a time, and as they slowed for Sugarbush road, It occurred to me that a lucky break with traffic (like they get stopped and we sail right through) and we'd be all together again. But luck wasn't with us. They sailed straight through and we grabbed the brakes for a semi on the left and a minivan on the right. The semi was braking to a stop to make a right turn. He probably saw us, and was being cautious. Ditto the minivan on the right. We came to a stop, and I felt sort of guilty being way out in the center of the road. There was no place for the semi to make his turn. But then the scariest moment of the ride occurred. Carl didn't stop, but shot straight through the intersection. I hope we didn't anger the cars too much. While we made it through the intersection intact. The fast group was long gone. Furthermore, I was getting burned out from pulling. "Only 27 miles more" wasn't encouragement in my ears anymore. But help was on the way. I pulled out, and Jen took the reins. To my surprise, Hubby Jeff was right there with her. He was late to the parking lot and didn't start the ride with us. But you don't get to be an iron man by blowing off workouts, so here he was. I thought I'd be able to rest for a while, but Jeff had other ideas. The lead peloton was too great a temptation to pass up. Jeff just kept accelerating. 24 25 - 26 mph. Soon we were hitting 28 and 29 mph, and rapidly closing the gap. Jenny had been unwilling to hang on 5 miles back, but now, with Jeff out in front towing us along, she was right there. It was a very nice pull. No jump sprint breakaway to leave us in the dust, just steady gentle acceleration to keep the group together and bridge up. By the 10 mile mark, we were together again, although 1 or 2 riders had disappeared off the back after Jeff's pull.The left turn onto Rendezvous set us against the wind. Mark Z put in a big effort pulling us along. I sought out Wayne to block the wind. Riding in Wayne's lee was like following a pace car. Nice and calm. But I'm not as good at hiding from the wind as Todd, so every now and then I got out of position and had to do some extra work. After a couple of miles, the wind picked up and the skies darkened. We charged right into a cold front and it was as apparent as a dive in to lake Michigan. I was immediately glad that I was wearing an extra layer. For the rest of them, it was "ride harder to warm up." Everyone must have been conscious of the rapid pace, and the potential for bragging about a 21 mph pace. No one headed down the Bayshore Park hill. In fact, no one even bothered to wait for Captain Carl. We saw him cross highway 57, but headed for the Red Rocket en mass anyway with a nifty tail wind, gradually ramping up the speed until I could feel the lactate burning in my thighs. This is where self delusion became my training partner. I just kept repeating "Lactate is my friend, Lactate is my friend!"The good thing about passing the red rocket is that the big downhill is coming up, and that means a tight tuck and a chance to rest our legs -- Rest in preparation for the charge up the Benderville hill. The key metric on hill climbs is minimum speed. After perfecting your tuck and hitting 40 mph, how much of that momentum can be maintained up the other side. We started climbing at about 29 mph, and had only dropped to 24 mph by the top. Cresting that hill brought the bay into view. It's a beautiful spot: Roadside trees sheltering us from the wind, recovering from a hard effort to climb the hill, yet accelerating downhill on a road that looks flat and watching the sun set over Green Bay. I was too far back to see who did most of the pulling, but I know Roy and Mark Z were up there, and probably Jeff as well. Mainly I just wanted to hang on and not get dropped. I almost made it too. But by the UWGB campus, I was toast. I lost contact, and at almost the same time, Wayne dropped off to join me. We soldiered on for the last couple of miles, still moving at a respectable pace. All in all, a good early season effort.Steve

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

TNR May 20th Sunny and Sweet Photoset

16 Riders rode out to enjoy the sun if not the wind as we hopefully say goodbye to a cold spring. Watch for the full review soon.




Wednesday, May 14, 2008

TNR for 5/14/08 Todd Speaks Out

TNR 5/13/08So what if it was windy, dark and gloomy? The hardcore InCompetition manlymen and womanly woman braved the unforgiving elements to gather for ourweekly Tuesday night bike fest. Father Mark gave us the usual uplifting peptalk in the InComp parking lot before we started, and had everyone pumped upand ready to ride...until he started blathering about how it was "dry on theground, but raining like crazy at 15,000 feet." Not to worry though, "the rain might not make it all the way to the ground." Great. At least MarkB. didn't call me a sissy for wearing knickers last night like he did twoweeks ago.. Positive that I'd be soaking wet and hypothermic by the time we got backfrom our ride, we all took off together to face the hardships that surelylay ahead. Roy and Jeff M. took the lead on the way out of town and kept usin line until Luxemburg Road, where Ryan and Jeff took over the job ofhauling the rest of us east, in a 25 mph side wind from the south. Thegusts were moving us around sideways and it felt like I was riding with discwheels. After a few miles Ryan tried to drop back and let someone else takea turn up front, but we fooled him and we all stayed in a perfect linebehind his wheel. He said we were picking on him, but I told him he was ingood company because we did the same thing to Dave Kay last week. I wonderif that's why Dave wasn't there last night? Anyway, Ryan was a good sportand stayed up front.I'm not sure about the rest of the group, but my blood pumper went to racepace and stayed that way for most of the rest of the ride. Jeff and Ryandidn't seem to be having any trouble though; they were merrily havingcrumpets and tea upfront while pulling the rest of us along, catching up onthe latest gossip from the society pages and discussing what they would wearto the next ball. Jenny M. was trying to make conversation on my left, butpretty much all I could do at that point was nod or shake my head to answerher. I wasn't thinking too straight right about then, but I remember hersaying something about getting ready for the Ironman and training for ridingthe 110 miles bike part of the race. Right about then it didn't sound toappealing to me. I kept looking for Carl, Sue and their tandem, but he washiding way over on the left and gave us no opportunity at all to suck theirwheel. Slacker.Going north on Mercier was Heaven as we had the wind at our back pushing usforward instead of trying to knock us down. Carl took a flyer and stayedaway until Nicollet. We also lost Ryan and some of the UW Green Bay guys,including Mr. Grand Performance. These guys were my ace-in-the-hole comingfor back along Nicollet into a quartering headwind. With them gone mylifeline was now Jeff, Mark B. Roy and Ironwoman (Jenny). We caught Carl & Sue just past Bay Shore Park and then somebody had thebright idea of turning toward the Bay off Nicollet and onto Ledgewood (?)to "get out of the wind." At this point I was just looking at the wheel infront and trying to hide in the gale, which we still had down by the Bay.Mark went out in front and pretty much stayed there for the rest of theride. Just before we popped back on to Nicollet we saw Karl & Sue go bylike they'd just jacked the local candy store. We chased and finally caughtthem. Moving south on Nicollet with Mark in front on the left, we had a perfectechelon going. Jeff was just right and back from Mark, Roy was next, thenme and then Jennifer. Bringing up the Lantern Rouge was Carl. I noticedJennifer wasn't getting the best draft and I gave up my spot to her andworked my way back behind the tandem, becoming the new Lantern Rouge. I'mthat kind of guy.It was much nicer following a freight train instead of a greyhound andpretty soon the blood got back into my brain and I started to haveconsistent conscious thought again. The first thing I noticed was that mylegs really hurt. My heart rate was coming down, though, and things werelooking up. The group was working very well together - exceedingly so - as we all heldour perfect positions in the line, and let Mark haul us toward Green Bay. Iwas starting to smirk a little as the feeling was now coming back to all ofmy extremities, and I was even thinking about taking a pull myself as weentered the InComp parking lot when Mark stepped up the pace. Carlstruggled to stay with the wheel he was following and I encouraged him witha smattering of name calling and four letter words when he finally just satup. My new lifeline was 50 yards up the road and rapidly receding. I jumpedaround the tandem and put my head down into the wind. After what seemed tobe eternity I caught Jenny's wheel about two miles north of Tillman's. Bythis time my heart was rat-a-tatting like snare drum, and I must havestarted hallucinating because it didn't look like any of the other riders inthe group were struggling at all. They seemed to be putting out less effortthan a Sunday morning ride with your preschool children. I popped a quarter mile from Tillman's and limped the rest of the way backin, wondering where was Jules when I needed him. Back in the parking lot Irode over to Mark B., who had showered and changed by then, and mentionedthat he rode pretty strong tonight. He smiled and told me, and I'llparaphrase, "that last week sucked, but the EPO kicked in this week and Ifelt good." His exact words were more like "last week sucked, but I didn'tfeel like I was working at all tonight."We didn't get wet, we didn't suffer from hypothermia, and there was nolasting damage, so it was another successful TNR.

Todd R.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

TNR May 13th Map My Ride






TNR Photo Preview. Check out the route map at www.mapmyride.com http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/wi/green-bay/407960778009. There were 15 riders who "stayed the course" and did the ride despite very windy conditions and threatening skies. There was some serious horsepower on tap, always handy in the wind. More to come..........

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

TNR 5-7-08




TNR 5-7-08 - 21 or Skidoo

TNR for 5-7-08
21 riders rolled out with moderate SSW winds and temps pushing 65 degrees. Compared to the weather of late it was wunderfull. The ride traveled to Rendezvous and north before turning for home. A few riders commented on their conditioning levels as they were shelled off but resolved to up their training…..motivation takes many forms. Most riders went home content with the good effort and 19mph + pace.

Most riders commented on the Jen and Jen Show what with their dynamic riding style and quiet intensity. Dave K. showed the new ride he calls the Flying Pumpkin. You have to be fast to ride a Blinding Orange bike like that. The bunch was treated to a real cops and robbers episode as they returned. They ran the gauntlet of cops looking for a couple scofflaws a half mile from home. No one was wounded.

Warmer weather is here finally so it would pay to get out and get the butt toughened up and the legs ready to spin. We go at 5:25 pm and I am expecting more riders to start showing up so expect two groups from the onset. Note that the Womens ride is starting this Weds. the 8th. Check out http://incomp-deb.blogspot.com/ for more info on Deb's site.

SO2