CRASH!

Ugh.

So this morning I awoke at the beautifully dark hour of 0630 to shower and pack for my first ride with the Velobrew guys. After dropping off some stuff at my mom's, I headed further into Orange Park and waited as the 0815 start time came and went. Thankfully, we did get wheels up right before 0830, and managed to get a couple miles in before I made a complete fool out of myself.

The guy in front of me signaled a right turn as we were descending a small hill, so I took my right hand off to signal. Well, I misjudged the distance between me, the guy in front of me, and the car we were pulling up to, so I panicked and grabbed a fistful of rear brake. Excellent. The rear tire locked up and the back end started to come around. In slow motion (doesn't it always happen in slo-mo?) I pointed my front wheel to the right of the guy in front of me, into the gutter. Still trying to brake with my front brake, the tire hit the slime in the gutter under pressure and locked up. So now I'm hauling ass into a curb, basically hydroplaning at 13 mph. I hit the curb and flew, still attached to the bike, into the muddy section between the curb and the sidewalk.

Before anyone could ask, I was on my feet, saying "I'm good" over and over. Damage assessment:

a) handlebars - tweaked ~40 degrees off center

b) front wheel - wobbling like a Jello square

c) rear derailleur - bent into my rear wheel

Wonderful.

After some MacGuyver-ing, we managed to get back on the road and put in some good miles. Around 23 more, in fact. I managed to stay with the group on uphill sprints (and staying with a Cat 3 and Cat 1-2 isn't too easy... they must have been toying with me) and actually came from behind to pass two of the guys on a steep uphill, hitting around 28 mph in the process. Needless to say, I'm proud of myself.

One thing I didn't expect though: how much of an advantage drafting is. I thought it was all good, being second in the paceline and maintaining 22 mph behind the leader, when suddenly he waves his elbows (kinda like the Funky Chicken, which made me laugh). That's the signal that he wants to rotate to the back of the paceline and someone else should take a pull. I was already there, so I said, "What the hell. I got this." As soon as he pulled off, the wind hit me like a hammer. HOLY CRAAAAAAP. I managed to up the pace to 24 mph, but didn't last too long. That put me in my place, for sure.

So I called Champion on the drive home to ask if they had some free time to straighten everything out, and was asked "Is this the guy with the orange F95?" ...Okay. "Yeah, that's me" "DUDE! Of course we have time for you! Bring it in ASAP, we'll have you ready for that race!" I was taken aback. Well. I assured them I would bring it in later. I'm lovin' this VIP treatment.

Well anyways, my knee is a little tweaked, my legs hurt from the sprints, and I got a little scraped up on my side. My back hurts like hell, and I have a tiny limp, but I'll be ready. I'm feeling a little more confident now.

I'm gonna whup some ass at Deland. Watch me.

Stats From Today's Ride

17.03 Miles

56 Minutes Flat

Avg. Speed 18.3 mph

Max Speed 24.5 mph (in a headwind, no less)

Minutes per mile: 3.20

Not too bad. New tires are awesome. Vittoria Rubino Pro III's FTW.

Rainy Days, The Actual Joy of Commuting, and more!

So, lots of news since last post, which I've mostly been posting to my Facebook in some asinine attempt at social interaction.

First, I am now a fully licensed Category 5 road racer and a Category 4 cyclocrosser. I joined up with a local club called Velobrew Racing, and I'm eagerly awaiting my first race, which is set to be in Deleon Springs, Florida on January 31st.

I'm excited, but also nervous about the prospect of hitting the roads once more, (hopefully) nestled in the pack, with the chains and cranks emitting the buzzing and whirring of a furious beehive. Normally I'd have the regular pre-race jitters and butterflies, but this time it's a little bit different. This time, I'm nervous about the course. Take a look at that, if you please. Of initial note is the ungodly hairpin turn after the first mile or so of the course. Second, notice the two turns back-to-back on the left side of the course. Does that look tight? That's because it is. Looking at Google Street View, it looks to be, oh, about 100 meters (or less) between corners. Can you say "Cluster Cuss"? I sure can. Further scouting on Street View reveals the sheer amount of sand on the course. Should be fun. Lastly, that hairpin again. SV shows that there is a second, milder turn in the middle of the fork. The problem is, there's a stop sign. Why is that a problem, you ask? Because cars leak fluids. A bunch of guys going 25 miles per hour on tiny tires through an oil slick isn't the best thing in the world.

But this isn't to say that it's all bad. A lack of real elevation changes and such mean I'm pretty well suited for the course. Furthermore, I'm not just nervous.

I'm excited.

Excited in the sick, sadistic way any extreme athlete is when they eyeball a mountain or other obstacle and say, "Yeah, that's prolly gonna kill me. 'S all good, though."

So, training.

Not going so well. Late nights and work conspire against me to inhibit my training days. Oh, and there's one other factor. RAIN. Last week we had two pretty rainy days, and today is another. Radar's showing 50 to 60 percent chance of showers all day, and when combined with the cold, makes for a Daniel that is sitting in his room typing out this blog instead of riding his bike. There might be a chance of a ride though. He's currently talking himself into it.

Commuting! It's actually cool now! I live just over a mile from work, and ride there and back twice a day, typically. I need a better light kit because Anders Rd. is a lightless death trap full of rednecks, wannabe gangstas and other crazy peoples, but it's still fun. Over 4 miles a day is decent for recovery days, and after longer rides, it's nice to hit a slow pace and just enjoy the bike. I don't get to do that all the time.

Which isn't to say I don't enjoy speed. I've been doing drafting runs with Bri lately, following her Civic until I run out of steam. Top speed so far has been 33 mph, but we can go faster. I've never been properly warmed up before our little runs, and I definitely need some better sprint speed if I'm going to handle these guys in Deland.

For now, adieu. I'm gonna go suit up and get hit with some cold rain.

Crank Brothers

Thanks to my generous Christmas bonus (which I'm not sure I deserve for being at the job less than two months, but regardless) I was able to pick up some Crank Brothers Egg Beater SL pedals. They rock. That is all.

The Joy Of Commuting

So, on Friday I donned what is to be called the "Hibernation Outfit":

And followed a new route to work. It was much safer than dealing with the clustercuss that is the I-95/Baymeadows interchange, but adds another couple of miles and a new minutes to the route. This wouldn't have been quite so bad, but it just happened to be balls-ass cold outside to boot. My toes were frozen, and I had trouble breathing. Not to mention commuting fifteen miles by bicycle in Jacksonville is damned near suicide. Unless you have THIS:

This sweet piece of commuting machinery is the Felt F95 TFCCE (Too Farkin' Cold Commuting Edition [yes, I know it's a bit of a mouthful]). Maybe if I petition Felt, they'll make me a custom model?

Note the sweet 8 dollar Schwinn bag setup, and the hobbled together lighting:

It's a good thing we'll never run out of zip ties. It's also good that my bottle cages are generally unmolested, so they could still hold this fancy deal here:

So anyways, the trip wasn't TOO bad... except on the way home, wherein the coldest rain evar* began to fall.

*NOTE: this claim is completely unsubstantiated.

I realized, though, that even through all this, I was having a great deal of fun just being on the bike. I love it, all the soreness, coldness, and minor inconvenience aside. This is why I think I'll be ready to race this next season. I hope so, anyways.

One Day...

...seems like forever when your bike is in the shop. I'm getting my 90 day maintenance done up at Champion, whatever that means, and they'll need the bike until tomorrow. I'm losing my mind! I wasn't even going to ride (stupid crummy weather), but just not having the bike hanging up in the room is driving me nuts! Here's hoping the next couple of days goes by fast!

40 Degrees: I Must Be Out Of My Mind…

Today in Jacksonville, it was a balmy 41 degrees at 8:00 am, right about the time I was crawling onto my freshly cleaned Felt F95. I got all of 9/10ths of a mile down the road before I decided I was ill-dressed for the occasion. So then I donned this get-up.

Do I look cold, or what? Not only did I have a good bit of trouble warming up, but I was also carrying a pretty hefty payload:

I don’t think jersey pockets were designed for 30 pounds worth of tools, but I could always be wrong…

I had a pretty decent ride, but the cold and lack of food conspired against me, leading to a 6-mile bonk. I tried to stretch out and tell myself, “it’s just a hurdle, jump it and move on” but I guess that sentiment got intercepted by my roiling stomach on the way to my legs. I dejectedly turned back to go home, but spotted the entrance to the UNF Fountains dorms and swooped inside (pardon the pun). I continued to go through at a pretty easy pace, as I couldn’t seem to get my cadence up in the higher gears. I eventually worked my way over to the library, and while I was working on turns, decided to use the parking garage for instant artificial hills. I had a decent time running around there, and eventually worked the knot out, I guess. I hit some decent speed on the way home, took a little detour, and got a good amount of miles for the day.

Later, the girlfriend and I went to the town center to ride around for another 10 miles or so. Check out this expert locking job:

I really need to work on that.

So, yeah. Look forward to more updates as the training ramps up for January.

Later.