New pieces and parts....

I have replaced several parts on the rig while in my blogging hiatus and will summarize those for your reading pleasure.

As I approach my first major race (test) this year, I have decided to get down to my "race weight" of 162.  I have wieghed significantly more than this in my life but had leveled off at 173.  I can pretty much eat what I want (within reason) and exercise and maintain this weight.  So, I figure if I am going to go down to race weight, I might need to focus some attention on the weight of my bike :).

I am not a weight weeny that is going to go for the lighting possible setup but a few pounds here and there could make a big difference.

The first things I changed were my handlebars and seatpost.  I went with bontrager race light carbon bars and race light carbon seatpost (xxx).  I also changed out the stem to make my position on the bike more aggressive.  While at the bike shop for this change, Andy changed my grips and yelled at me for leaving the old ones on for so long.  I guess he doesnt like the rubber to come off in his hands when he grabs the grips like I do....Believe it or not, this reduced the wieght by over a pound (thats a lot).

I have also replaced my wheelset with Stans notubes Crest wheels with hutchison python tubeless tires.  This reduced the weight by almost 2 pounds!

The bike comes in at 24 pounds now and that is good enough for me.... The only thing to upgrade on this rig in the future is the brakes, I have mechanical disk brakes and NEED hydraulic disk brakes at some point....But for now, when I squeeze, it stops.  So, the money flow has to stop before my wife kills me!




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Catching Up

Well, as it turns out, I am terrible at keeping up with a blog.  I WILL do better going forward!

From March 27th,
We went to Chicago for a family get away and I had some training to do over that weekend.  I took a video of the Lifetime Fitness Facility I went to for the ride.  Wow, what a gym.

From May 13th,

The Paschals, Wyatts and Browns went to Paducah, KY for the weekend and the boys rode both days.  We rode in the Shawnee National Forest in southern IL.  The first day we took the path less traveled to get back to the start and lets just say it was less traveled for a reason.... Brad was ready to get out of the woods.....The storm rolling in did not help either...NO we were not lost!

The second day we rode about 3 hours did get lost but it was better.....That is what planted the seed for upgrading my garmin 305 to a 705!

Mud makes a good ride!  And on the right we have the support vehicle!

I am not sure if I would ride in boat shoes like Brad but it works for him.  Grant had to one up Brad with flip flops, these guys are animals!

From June 19th,

Well a race I went to today out west of St. Louis was cancelled due to weather....should have checked the website (that I did not know existed).  So, I went and rode a couple of hours at Castlewood State Park.  This is some of the best riding in the St. Louis Metro area IMHO.

 This was also the inaugural ride with my new Stans no tube Crest wheels.....these took 2 lbs off of my bike.

I have been goin hard but these are the rides I had pics for on my phone....Again, I will be doing better with the updates!

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1st race of the year

Well,  Life happens, I have not posted in quite some time.  However, I have been training hard!

This past weekend I went to Lawrence, Kansas for the BoneBender 6 Hour Mountain Bike Race.  Andy Gibbs (coach) also went and two of his friends from the St. Louis area.  As my sons birthday party was on Saturday at 2 and Andy was leaving at 12, I had to go it alone.  However, my dad did "step up" to the challenge and go with me.

That's Andy on the 2nd place podium for the Mens Open Division, he did 7 laps.

This is me on the course finishing up a lap in the chute, I did four laps in 6 hours, about 40 miles.  It was a slow time but the course was VERY rocky and technical.  Overall, I felt very strong on the day.  The main difference is that Andy had me taking on some different kinds of nutrition and I did not cramp or "Bonk" which I usually do.  That is a major step forward!

There was also a guy on the course with a camera on his bike and shot some good footage and some with me in the video!

For those of you who would like to ridicule me on my performance, here is the link to the RESULTS.

Overall, it was a fun race and I did feel as strong as I have felt in a race but the rocky technical nature of this coarse slowed me down.  Looking forward to the Firecracker 50 on July 4th!


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Lactate Threshold

Yesterday was my first ever LT (Lactate Threshold) test.  Because my computrainer is still not functioning through the computer (cord to be delivered the 9th to solve the problem), I did the test while monitoring my heart rate.  Here is what the test looked like:
20 minute warm up on the bike
5 minutes all out (avg heart rate 170)  This according to the coach was just to "open up the lungs"
10 minutes recovery
20 minutes all out (avg heart rate 168)
20 minutes recovery

Obviously, the 20 minutes all out is the test.....Man, I have done a lot of training etc. but this was pretty tough.  Although I do like it better than just riding for two hours on the trainer.  It was different because when you are out riding and you peak your heartrate for a while you either shift gears to accommodate or dismount on a steep climb to let your heartrate recover, but with this, you just power through for 20 minutes.  My LT number is 160.  My coach analyzed my data from this test and told me this number.  It is a little troubling to this engineer that I do not know how that was calculated.....yet.  On a positive note (I guess) the coach had me estimated at 154 and I moved it up to 160.....good I think....

More to come on this when I know more.....I wonder if there is online classed for this?

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Computrainer Issues

So, for Christmas I bought Darla an iMac (which is awesome).  This meant our desktop got "promoted" to my computrainer computer.  The computer that came with my computrainer purchase from craigslist was ancient and very slow.  The connection for the computrainer to plug into that computer went into a serial port, yes thats very old school.

Therefore, my new computer I had to get a serial to USB converter....well guess what, the drivers do not work with VISTA, go figure.  After three weeks, countless hours, and two cords purchased that did not work, I have ordered a $50 piece from computrainers website that they say is just what I need.  But I just couldn't pay the overnight shipping so I will wait for UPS ground.

I am excited to get it going as my coach has on my schedule to do my first LT Power test (Lactate Threshhold).  This will tax my body but give us some great data to start training from.....

I can still use my computrainer in the meantime through a small head unit that comes with it but it is just very limited to what you can accomplish in this manner.  So don't worry, I am still on the trainer just not utilizing all of the technology yet.


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New Paint Job!!!

Well, its been a while since my last post and I have a ton of excuses as to why but lets just say.....busy!


Scott at the powder coat shop was very gracious with redoing my bike.  So now it is black!  My favorite color.  I picked it up a couple of weeks ago immediately called Mr. Mike Dixon to help with the decals for the finished look.  Mike is about my age and grew up riding BMX like me.  However, his hobby is restoring vintage 70's and 80's BMX bikes.  As I type now, I wish I had taken some pics of his work while I was at his house but I did not.  However, I do have pics of my finished product.... I am so happy with the outcome.

Here it is!!!  The pic does not do it justice.

Old Color Scheme (NEON green stinks)

New SLX crankset and chain and XT front derailer

New Rear Cassette and Sram X9 long cage rear derailer

Close up of the FLAMES!

Hard to see REDLINE with FLAMES

I took all of the stickers off of the wheels and fork to black it out as best I could.....very pleased with the outcome.




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Training-

I now have Training Peaks software somewhat set up.  My coach has started entering my workouts into the program and I then upload my workout when I am done.  My first four weeks are really just to get my body used to the routine and learn some of the techniques, weights, and such I will be doing over the next year or so.  My first four weeks I am scheduled for about 7 hours of training per week.  This doesnt sound like much, but in the winter with a couple of days off in between, I am already finding it a little bit of a struggle.  This is mainly because I cannot go outside and ride for three hours, I have to do it on my "drainer" (to quote Tracy) or trainer.....more specifically my computrainer.

I am finding two things happen on every trainer ride:

1.  I go numb.  For those non-bikers I will stop there.  For you bikers, yes, this is something I need to get fixed.  I have been "fit" on my road bike and changed the saddle several times to no avail.  But I will succeed.

2.  At about 55 minutes my brain starts telling me to get off of the trainer.  My body is not tired but my mind is BORED!  And no it doesnt matter what is on t.v.....Maybe I should just watch Race Across The Sky everytime!  OK, if you've never seen a mountain biking clip or wonder what I am talking about in this blog, please click on Race Across The Sky link in the previous sentence and watch the trailer for that movie.  I had goose bumps the whole clip!  I think I held my breath through the whole trailer the first time I watched it.  (maybe that will help me the race at that altitude)

On a side note, my bike should be done (redone) at the powder coat shop tomorrow or thursday.  I already have the sticker man (Mike) and the bike shop on notice, so the bike will be back together swiftly upon completion,,,,, I cannot wait!  All the new componentry will be installed at that time.


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