TT race 3 - Kentucky Speedway

The third time trial in the series was held yesterday at the Kentucky speedway, down in Sparta. (Or was it Warsaw?) The race, being held on an actual Nascar track, was rather interesting. (Ignore the Strava climb data, it has issues.)

It was a "long" 2 hour drive down there, which is nothing compared to at least one racer from Pennsylvania that also made the trip. The mountains were lovely, and the areas where there was no shoulder nor guardrail overlooking some valleys were just insane. (Note to self, try not to take I-71 in Kentucky, unless necessary.)

Packed the night before,  spare clothes for after the race, tools for changing a tire, etc. For a lot of my races, I still the bike inside the Vue rather than on the bike rack.

It took a few minutes to find the entrance to the racetrack (gate 3, in hindsight. That was missed in the pre-race instructions) and then I got to drive under the track itself to the central area for parking. (I assume that would be the place spectators don't get to visit.)

 

It was a nice tunnel though.

 It was a somewhat fun race, a little different being on the track, especially compared to the road races that make up the rest of the time trial series. 7 laps on a NASCAR track, and no worry about pedal strike if I corner to hard, what isn't to like?

I might have enjoyed myself more than I should have...

 I got 5th place, and have a firm grasp of 4th for the point series. If I miss the final race, which I don't plan to miss, I will still be guaranteed 4th overall. I don't think one of the 3 above me will miss, the race is local to one, and the other two haven't missed a race either. (Certainly the guy who has a freaking Carbon framed fixie isn't going to start skipping now, and the other guy did RAIN the day before the race, as well as in the time between finishing RAIN, he picked up his daughter at the airport and still beat me at the race. (He came in at 353rd for RAIN, out of 1,086 riders. Showoff...)

During pre-race warmup, I stopped to get a pic of my bike leaning against the wall in turn 4, which was more difficult than I expected, due to the slope of the track.

It was a fun race overall, I do need to get more time riding in to place, but my times are getting better, and next year I think I will actually be able to beat someone in the fixed division. I don't know if I will do that on Glowie though, but maybe I will. Just because they have carbon or aluminum bikes don't make them the fastest. (Though the 50/15 ratios help them, by about 6% compared to my 44/14 ratio.)

I know what the bike needs to go faster. White tires. Or at least white walls. Yeah, that's it...

Seriously though, I enjoyed the race. It did get a bit hot out before the awards were done, and I did come home with another # of pasta. (After the first race, I think I have a lifetime supply.)

Hey, more pictures! (some by me, some from Good Times races, who did the timing.)

2 races in a week

I had two races the first week of June, both on Glowie, and one was my best, and one my worst, race so far. (I delayed writing the blog to see if pics from the second race would get posted. They didn't.)

First off, I had the Troy Strawberry Festival Time Trial. There were a few people from the Fort Wayne team that had taken most of the podium at the TT in Fort Wayne there, which meant a good 2 hour drive. I'd see both of them again three days later at the second in the Midwest series.  I was at a bit of a disadvantage in this race, since my road bike has a few loose spokes, and wheel truing is not one of my skills. The Strawberry festival race doesn't have a FG division, just age groups. Still, I managed to shave about a minute off my time from last year, so I really can't complain too much. (Other than coming in 60th out of 65.)

2014 Troy Strawberry Festival TT

I am in the Tour De Donut Jersey. I think it had just dawned on the one person that I was on a Fixie. 

The second race was also the second in the Midwest TT series, which I am competing in under the FG division. This was one of the hardest races I have ever done, mainly due to a particularly nasty hill. It was the first time I have ever had to get off of Glowie and walk up a hill. That wasn't the worst part. The hill, on the way back down a few miles later, had a few turns. I fought to keep the bike at about 30 MPH, because my legs just couldn't keep up with the pedals at that point, and I questioned if I was going to survive the race. The winner of the fixie division there said he hit 40, but he is also running a 50/15 ratio (compared to my 44/14) so he had it harder on the uphill (obviously, he is a bad-ass) and a little easier on the downhill, since at the same speed, his pedals rotate less.

TT2 - Bellbrook
(I know the link says I got 4th overall, it does that sometimes when somebody makes a new course the day of a race, and then there are about 5 people who all get 4th. I started 7th or so, and with the gps time, blah blah blah, etc.)

Overall, for Men at Bellbrook, I came in 86th out of 86. For the points series, I believe I am now in 4th for the FG division. First and Third from the Ft Wayne race didn't show up to this one, and the winner for this race wasn't at Ft Wayne. The next race in the series will be at Kentucky Speedway, which should make for an interesting race. I am planning on taking a second bike along and doing a second race. Yeah, I know that I won't likely end up on and podiums, I'm there to have fun. Even if that means I enter the age group division for my second race using a 1974 Schwinn Varsity. Nothing says 'there to have fun' like riding a bike that weighs more than 2 or 3 other peoples bikes combined.

What part of TURN don't I understand?

Went out for a quick ride on Glowie, which became an adventure in the last three blocks.

It started out well, since I didn't have a lot of time, I took the bike on a route I hadn't used with that bike yet. (The weather was beautiful, it was supposed to rain, instead they now predict horrible weather for tomorrow.) The Strava segments were not my best, and one of them was among my worst.

What was interesting about the trip was that I did an out and back to the current end of the local bike path with a turn around in a construction zone. Measuring from the footbridge (Why the Hell does Piqua have two bridges on the bike path with stairs?) to the construction site, Strava gives it around 1.8 miles. (It varies on two different pages for the same segment.) It took me 7:56 to head out, and only 7:55 to return. Only 1 second difference in the two directions, which I really find amusing.

I felt good coming out of the last section of the route, and got onto Main street. Seeing the light was still green, I gunned it. I realized as I entered the turn at somewhere north of 20 mph that I was on a fixie, and I wasn't about to coast that turn. I had to accept that I was probably going to crash into the curb, and it was probably going to freaking hurt, so I did the only reasonable thing I could decide in the fraction of time allowed, I changed direction and aimed for the curb head on. I managed to jump my front wheel up, and the rear may have come up as well, but it hit the curb hard, and I felt the bike momentarily ride only on the front wheel onto the grass and gravel of the parking lot / grass of the factory on the corner. The bike felt a bit wobbly as I headed out from there for the few blocks home, but my speed was about normal. Once home, I put the bike on the repair stand, cleaned it up a bit, and adjusted the rear wheel. No visible damage to the bike, not the frame, not the wheel, not the tire. It did knock the wheel loose, but it was an easy thing to tighten, and I actually got the lag out of the chain this time. (So it is now, in theory, better than before my ride today.)

I don't really want to think what would have happened had that been my road bike I was on at the time. That is the second incident that I am lucky to have walked rode away from this year. (And I didn't destroy my wheels this time!)

If I had a tail light, I'd have gone out for another ride. It looks great out there, a shame the Indiana Weather Service has predicted some real nasty weather for tomorrow. (Which includes Trick or Treat.)

Glowie Deschanel is a creul dominatrix

(Not the best written blog by me, but I am tired after writing 3 papers for school tonight. This will just have to do. The title though I decided about 20 miles into the ride yesterday though.)

Saturday morning was as crappy an October morning as I can remember. It was raining, and in the lower 40s as I drove the boys to the baby sitter, and we prepared for the Groovy Gourd. We knew that at least 50 people had signed up for the tour, and even with the weather, we decided to just ride to the starting line. (It was only a mile away...)

The final count for those who actually attempted the ride was 7. (But the shirts are freaking awesome!) Nobody who signed up to do the shortest ride did such, and a few of use went for each route.

The funny thing is as we got ready to start, we wheeled my bike into the dark hallway near the restrooms, just so the collected people could stare at the mystical glowing bike. It hadn't been in the light long, but it was enough to show off what it could do.

The first thing I learned was that riding a fixie for the first time as part of a bike tour in 45 degree weather while it is raining and still attempting the 25 mile route is really stupid. The first 3 miles were fine, the cold hurt and extremities were going numb, but I have had that happen when running before. The bike ate its way though the bumps on the bike path with ease, though it did remind me harshly that there is no coasting on a fixie. I took the hills with gusto, early on at least.

About a mile or so into the ride, we went through a short tunnel under a road, and that was enough for my bike to switch on the glow, for about 2 seconds, my bike was green, and then it was white again. It is always a treat to see the glow appear suddenly like that.

My wife was on her Schwinn Fastback, which did give her a fair bit of advantage. I also realized quickly that my seat needed to go up a bit higher, and the handlebars were a bit too low for me. (Another reason you don't do a 25 mile ride as your test ride.) Still, for the most part, I kept up with her, and usually got to the top of the hills before her. Glowie though, she gets mean. A fixie does not care that you are getting tired, your clothes soaked through from the rain. I wasn't wearing my heart rate monitor for that ride, but I know that my pulse was higher than normal for a ride.

Much of the route was along my normal training routes except for a section I was unfamiliar with.  This section included some decent hills that I would have loved to hit in better circumstances. I rode up all of them, even though it left me drained at the top. Ruthie, however, ended up walking up one of the hills. (Remember, she as on a Sora equipped road bike, I was on a fixie with Mountain bike bars.)

We finally got to the only rest stop, about 20 miles into the ride, but don't hang out there long. Standing around while wet is not a good thing. We were feeling worse, and it showed.

It was fortunate that the stop was actually on one of my main training routes, and we decided to take a shortcut home. We got to one of the more interesting downhills, and I fought the bike to keep the speed unusually lower than normal, as my wife was hitting the downhill much slower than normal. We skipped the bike path enterence (She didn't trust the two downhills if we were to take that path back to the start, and we didn't want to go along the prescribed route to the finish. We took surface streets back downtown, put the bikes inside the city building, and tried to warm up. (We debated going strait home, but the furnace isn't fixed yet.)

We warmed up there a bit, and I rode home alone to retrieve the car. (Ruthie had a hair appointment that morning after the ride.) I didn't even bother with putting the rack onto my Vue, I just pulled off her bike's wheels, threw them in the back and put her frame in the back seat. We brought home 3 gourds, (it was the groovy gourd tour!) and I got to unload. My jeans were soaked, all my layers were saturated with water. I changed to my only spare pair of jeans, and put on the gourd tour shirt before heading up to see my oldest son's soccer game. This did not help anyone warm up, and after the game, we headed out to the mall for a snack. Where I ate and promptly fell asleep at the table in the food court.

I woke when my wife called to tell me that she would meed me at home, and once home, I slept for a few more hours. I don't know if it was the exhaustion of riding in the cold rain, being on the fixie, or all the shivering afterwards, but I felt like the exertion was worse than when I had done either of my half marathons.

After I slept, I threw Glowie onto the repair stand, and cleaned it off with baby wipes. (Seriously, I still buy wipes for that very reason.) I couldn't find any paper towels, so I had to skip relubing the chain. I did flip the stem upside down to add a little hight, raised the seat a bit more, and adjusted the brakes. (Front only. It is a fixie after all.) I then put the bike into the garage and reassembled my wife's Schwinn. I had to adjust her brakes a little, dried it off, and cleaned it up a bit. I will probably hit both with some lube in a few days, but they seem fit to go.