Once again I am headed out to China for a few days. The trip will be short and sweet, not much time to look around. Part of it is that I don’t want too long of an interuption of training at this time of the year, the other part is that my first race is next weekend (Rouge Roubaix). I am coming back on Wednesday after spending only two full days (three nights) in country. Unfortunately, I am missing our training race tomorrow which should be starting around the time I am flying up to Detroit (first leg of the trip).
I think I am in pretty good shape despite how hard my solo ride today ended up. It wasn’t terribly long at 62 miles, but it was windy and I was alone out there. Before I did my ride, I took Andrea’s Bulldog CX tires off my Dura Ace wheelset and put my Bontrager Hard Case tires on. Those are going to be my wheels for Rouge. My bike, at this point, will be my Felt. Andrea’s team Trek Madone came in on Thursday, mine should be soon, but I might not be ready to race it in the few days that I have before Rouge.
Well, I suppose I should pack some clothes. Andrea is out to race Spa City 6 hour. It is an NRC mountain event in (relatively) nearby Hot Springs, Arkansas.
Taking a look through our team website, I just noticed the photoshop project that Bryant did with a photo taken at the Outdoors CX championship. The cool think is the stick on ’stache was given to me by the race…this photo was part of collection I took at my computer…
Here are a couple more from the ’stache series….
After what has been a lower volume January / early February, I have been trying to right the ship by increasing volume and adding some intensity at the same time. The good news is that I am apparently able to handle it and I just completed a good 3 day block.
- Friday – 2 hours moderate mountain bike (night)
- Saturday – 6 hours moderate road – 100 miles
- Sunday – 4.5 hours moderate/hard – 70+ miles
Although this sort of thing will be routine in a few months, for now, it is a stretch. So we spent the afternoon watching Winter Olympics on our only “big” television (we finally bought an “HDTV” a few months back, 37″).
On today’s ride, I put in some good efforts through the Forest and generally was very happy about how I felt all the way to the end. I guess I must have retained more fitness than I thought. Hopefully, I can continue this through early season racing (and that my next China trip won’t interfere). Rouge is coming….
Here is my first pass schedule for 2010… will be kept up to date on the page “2010 road season”
February
March
April
May
- 5/1: Sumner Co RR (White House, Tn.) [TBRA] or Syllamo’s Revenge (Mountain View, Ark.)
- 5/8-5/9: Joe Martin Stage Race (Fayetteville, Ark.)
- 5/15-5/16: Highland Rim Classic / State RR (McMinnville, Tn.) [TBRA]
- 5/29-5/30: West Feliciana Classic (St. Francisville, La.) [LAMBRA]
June
- 6/6: State Crit (Johnson City, Tn.) [TBRA]
- 6/12-6/13: Tour de Louisiane (New Orleans, La.) [LAMBRA]
- 6/19-6/20: Smith & Nephew / Marx-Bensdorf Gran Prix (Memphis, Tn.) [TBRA]
July
August
- 8/22-8/23: Meridian – Cuba Challenge (Meridian, Miss. / Cuba, Ala.) [LAMBRA]
- 8/28-8/29: River Gorge Omnium (Chattanooga, Tn.) [TBRA]
I have had a pair of these Pearl Izumi winter gloves for some time, but they have always had an issue where the insides were getting bunched up every time they were washed. Sometimes I would spend 10-15 minutes trying to straighten out each glove inside. Lately (this winter) it had gotten much worse where some of the fingers were very messed up to the point that gloves were unwearable (due to comfort and limited function for shifting, braking etc).
So I decided to do some surgery on the gloves to try to understand what was up. It turns out that gloves consist of an outer cover, a latex like vapor barrier, and in a fleecy inner glove. The issue was the vapor barrier was getting all messed up not allowing the fingers to go into the correct spots all the way. So my new process is to disassemble the gloves after washing… And then built them back up from the liner outward (over my hand). It is a bit of a hassle, but much less than the process of trying to straighten out the fingers.
If you try this, it is imperative that you hold the finger tips when pulling your hand out if you plan to wear them again. This is especially important if you are on a ride and stop. If you mess these modified gloves up out in the field you will have to repeat the entire process…. Also watch when you put your hand in, because the in parts are no longer attached to the cuff (need to hold the liner with the other hand while putting your hand in).
The bunching problem is a huge deal breaker for a very nice and warm winter glove. I hope they got this straight in the last year or two, because this design needs some help.
A training hole that is… I really haven’t been riding as much as I did last year at this time. (To put it in WKO+ terms, my CTL is about 10-15 points lower than last year at this point). Weather had something to do with, work also was to blame (a bit longer hours and travel to China). It is not the end of the world, it is just where I am at.
It doesn’t mean I am screwed for the upcoming season, I feel pretty good and have been able to step it up when needed. Rouge Roubaix is only a few weeks away and I should be okay for that assuming I can go at all (I might be in China again the week before.. not sure yet).
My plans for March include:
- 3/7: Rouge Roubaix (LAMBRA – St. Francisville, LA)
- 3/20: Hell of the South (TBRA – Berlin, TN)
- 3/27-28: Tour de Tuscaloosa (Tuscaloosa, AL)
I haven’t put together a full calender for the 2010 season yet, haven’t had the time yet, but plan a fairly full schedule all the way to August.
This season promises to a be a good one, I don’t have a lot of definite expectations for early season racing, but expect it will be a good month for the Marx-Bensdorf cycling team.
Some where in the next couple weeks, I should get my long awaited Trek Madone in (Andrea is getting one as well). They are a the bike sponsor for the M-B team and a good portion of the team will be riding the white & black frames with red accents. The feedback from the guys that have got one has been positive–I expect to be selling 58cm Felt FC (w/ SRAM Red) sometime in March… any interest?
R
After doing a bit of WordPress research (my least favorite activity), I found this solution… Gallery for win!
Here are is a small album of a few random shots that I took in China last week. Most are in Shanghai, some on the road to Huai’an, and back in Shanghai at the radio tower in the Bund. No captions, just sort it out….
I will add more to this gallery once back home, Wordpress is being a bastard in corrupting while uploading. :@
[Gallery deleted, see next post]
