| Diet Forums : Fitness (Library) | Report Violation · Tag It! |
| Join in the fun; The Calorie-Count Cycling Club... |  leinad |
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| #141 |  pandajenn19 |
May 23 2007 16:57 |
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Thanks for all the sidewalk opinions! I think I'll stick with the street as I had planned, just seems safer that way. It's a 3.8 mile commute with only about 1 mile on a road that has a 35mph speed limit, the rest is residential. So there just isn't much logic to me in getting off the street, as safety is not much of an issue. I do have a sheepish confession though - I run one red light every morning on the way into work. It's usually around 7am, and I'm coming off a no-traffic residential street to go straight across into my company's campus driveway. There is a light there, as well as a pedestrian walk button. But the button is on the opposite side of the street, so I have to get off the bike, walk over, hit the button, walk back. Even when I do this, my direction gets a pedestrian walk light with a red traffic light, and the oncoming traffic gets a green left turn arrow. There is no way for me to trigger the green unless another car is waiting with me at the intersection. So, in lieu of having the cross traffic stop and me running the red, I just usually wait for an opening (it's pretty empty at this hour) and I run the red. Either way I have no choice but to run it, but I always feel guilty. I've asked our campus maintenance/facitilies person about it but didn't get a response. I figured that was the corporate way of saying it's ok, without actually saying it because that would get them in trouble. :) Btw, biked in to work again today. And it was a very nice morning for it! Little humid, guess it's getting that time of year already. But definitely nice out. |
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| #142 | carrihound |
May 23 2007 17:03 |
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nightc, great photos! that looks like a beautiful and challenging ride. it's wonderful to have places like that to ride! and hooray for bikes with a kickstand!
pj, ya gotta do what you've gotta do sometimes. in the early morning, when there's no traffic, i'll roll some stopsigns in my neighborhood. i still feel guilty about it too, but i can live with it. my big thing is only doing it when there are absolutely no witnesses, because i don't want to contribute to the reputation that all cyclists ignore traffic signs & signals. most lights on my route change for me, so i'm lucky that way :-) |
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| #143 |  nightc1 |
May 23 2007 17:49 |
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I never thought having a kickstand was a luxury. Interesting. What do you think of the bike? It looks pretty nice for something that cost so little. Eventually I'm going to replace the brake pads for a little extra stopping power. Expecially for the mountain run. On one of the pics.. the one where it's facing downhill after the first part of the climb i'm holding my bike there just barely with the aid of a rock by the kickstand. I was kind of worried it was going to start moving so I took that pic pretty quick. |
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| #144 | deannad70 |
May 23 2007 18:45 |
| Hey all, can I join this too?!? I haven't actually gotten my bike yet... it's on layaway for another week or so :). I am training for a triathlon and the bike portion is 20 miles, so any advice is greatly appreciated. I am a novice cycler! | ||
| #145 | nightc1 |
May 23 2007 19:37 |
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deannad70, welcome welcome. Hey 20 miles sounds pretty huge doesn't it... but it's not bad. My first serious ride on my new road bike I hit 34 miles. My advice? Um... start out on as flat a surface as you can to get up to doing some distance. Then switch to somewhere with more hills to climb. Also get a bike computer/speedometer. I got mine from walmart for $10 and it's made by the schwinn peeps. Good stuff. The hardest parts are getting everything lined up close enough (I had to shim the sensor up a bit) so it works and then measuring to figure out what size wheel you have. It's nice seeing how fast you go so you can see when you need to bump it up a bit and push yourself, and it's also nice as you can get your average speed, distance traveled, time, and so on .. in one nice little device. |
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| #146 | carrihound |
May 23 2007 19:38 |
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welcome deannad! good luck with the tri training!
nightc1, many roadies are tight with their spec & relentless about unnecessary bike weight, so in my experience kickstands are fairly rare on pure road machines. i have them on both my bikes and it's a wonderful convenience, but most roadies are content to find a soft spot in the grass to set their ride down (drive side UP! always) or a tree or building to lean it against. i did have mine fall over in the wind one day, so do be diligent with where/how it's situated before you step too far away from the bike. i've used that 'rock trick' too! |
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| #147 | deannad70 |
May 23 2007 21:14 |
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Thanks for the welcome all.... I don't think 20 miles is too bad but it's going to be a challenge for me to generally get into the shape to complete the entire race. I could do all the components seperatly but putting swimming, biking and running together is going to be the challenge:).
As to the kickstand thing....most people that race or have roadbikes don't have them on. In fact, coach advised us this weekend if they are on to either take them off or be prepared to get laughed at :P. Guess it adds enough weight. |
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| #148 | nightc1 |
May 23 2007 21:38 |
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I'd rather lose 2 more pounds than give up my kick stand. Same for my under the seat bag, bike computer, or my flashing tail light. Heck I'll probably add a headlight on there eventually since my moutain rides are usually near sunset by time I get to the top. I can see during a race you would want to strip as much weight from the bike as possible... but you may also want a 15# bike ($5000+) to begin with instead of a 25# ($150) bike like what I'm riding in my liesure for fun an exercise. If I was smart though I'd get my old mountain bike out and try to get that up the mountain or down the bike trail. It's 40# ... plus all the extra resistance from the bigger tires. I'd probably build up some good muscles for biking that way. Hmmm. That's a suggestion I guess. If I plan to train for a serious race I should train on something extra heavy so I can have that extra endurance during a real race. Does this seem like an outlandish thought? |
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| #149 | carrihound |
May 23 2007 21:43 |
| not crazy. in fact i did it in 2004 when i was training for our trip to france. i trained on my cyclocross tires for 3 about months - kenda 30-somethings with a knobby profile. when i switched to 25mm road tires about a month before my trip my speed was MUCH improved. the added rolling resistance of the knobby tires is a formidable training tool! | ||
| #150 | kclark0153 |
May 23 2007 21:46 |
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Best way I've found to build endurace is to do long road rides. As long as you can. Riding a heavier bike might build more leg muscle which i guess is always good. Might give you better cardio which is really good. If you are thinking about racing make sure you setup your race bike and training bike the same.
edit - thought of some more stuff Another great way to build strength is to ride a fixed gear road or single speed mountain bike. I've been doing this for about 3 months now and it really pumps your legs up. In fact, I'm thinking my singlespeed will be the only bike I ride from now on. Even racing. Just find a gear ratio you like. |
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| #151 | nightc1 |
May 23 2007 22:08 |
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kclark0153, By set them up the same do you mean the seat height and bars and that stuff? That seems do able if I ever got into racing. I may train though just to get faster and have more endurance for my hill climbs. There's a lot of other roads (none nearly as cool as the one I ride) around here with some serious hills. I'm sure with a few more runs i could do our whole paved bike trail. That's around 46 miles round trip currently... it'll end up 33 miles long one way by september. Also in september they are saying we'll be connected to Georgia?s Silver Comet trail which runs pretty much all the way to Atlanta another 50 miles. A nice 83 mile ride one way. Wow. I know after it's all connected and finishe d I'll ride the whole thing one day. What a trip that would be. And there's 1 big mountain in the way that takes you up about 1000 feet ... though I think it's over a 9 mile stretch that get s you to that height since this was all old railro ad tracks. Currently I have no interest in racing anyone. Just burning calories and having some fun in the process. This is probably the only form of exercise I would consider true fun. |
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| #152 | nilla529 |
May 23 2007 22:14 |
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Hi all! I went for a great ride today, about 37 miles and I feel good. I have a funny story to tell and hopefully some of you can relate because it was kinda dumb on my part.
I live in a small farming community so all I have to do is ride about 1/2 mile and I am out in the fields and irrigation. Today was a fairly warm day and I was pushing pretty hard, had a good sweat going. I saw in front of me a big sprinkler hitting the road, you know the ones on the end of the line that shoot out quite a bit of water. I decided to cool myself off and thought it would feel so good, WRONG! The darn thing almost knocked me off of my bike and I felt like a giant hand had slaped the entire front side of my body. I don't see any welts and I came out of it fine so I am just going to laugh and chalk this one up to experience. Sprinklers don't feel good, especially when riding into one at about 16 mph. |
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| #153 | carrihound |
May 23 2007 22:45 |
| pozesara, that's really funny! i guess those mega-sprinklers are much more forceful than you thought! glad it didn't knock you over :-) | ||
| #154 | trhawley |
May 23 2007 22:52 |
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nightc1: your theory about riding the heavier bike to train seems to make sense. Funny thing is though, most of the guys I know that race mountian bikes do 80-90% of their training on road bikes. My brother for example does a lot of mountain bike racing and off road triathalons. He does most of his racing on a single gear hard tail but he does all of his training on the road on his LeMond Zurich. He does ride his mountain bike a lot in the winter though. I think the theory is that you can build a better base spinning longer hours on the road.
Lucky for me he bought a full gear hard tail last year and gave me his Specialized full suspension bike. I did ride it a lot this spring before the weather got nice but I'll stick the the road bike when I can. |
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| #155 | mrjiggles |
May 23 2007 23:04 |
| #156 | leinad |
May 23 2007 23:35 |
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Hello everyone,
Welcome deannad70, I hope you enjoy our little group (getting big now though). As you have already learned we are eger to help, do just ask away. To the distance question, although 20 is not that long (it sure is at first), increase your mileage 10% a week until you reach 20 that way you don't over extend your self at first. It won't be long before 20 miles is just a good warm-up pozesara, great story, Ican just see the surprise on your face when that sprinkler hit you, hoo boy! I tell you the best training is intervals no matter what you ride!! That is what my wife did all winter and her ability is amazing this year. She did a ride last night of 35 miles and averaged 18.0 mph her personnel best. Gotta go talk to ya'll later. DAN |
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| #157 | jc343 |
May 24 2007 00:07 |
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Panda: I wouldn't give that light a second thought. When you are on a bike you have to assume that it is your responsibility to get safely across an intersection. That means a) you get yourself across the intersection and b) you make sure you don't collide with massive bodies that outweigh you 100 to 1. On the other hand, as a cautionary tale: I was running an errand for the Chaplain in Cam Ranh back in 68. All of a sudden I encountered a red light at the intersection of two roads in the middle of nowhere. I stopped and waited. I looked around. There wasn't another vehicle in sight. Nothing was moving in any direction for over a mile. So I proceeded through the intersection -- red light notwithstanding. As soon as I did, I heard a siren behind me -- the one direction that I hadn't checked. I got chewed out pretty good but no ticket. So watch your rear. TR, MrJ: There is power and speed. They are not exactly polar opposites but you have to develop both. You know in the TDF you have specialists who are really fast and specialists that climb like mountain goats but the guys that end up on the podium are just fast and strong. So it makes some sense to me that somebody who was already good on a mountain bike might want to train for speed on a road bike the same way that I go out looking for hills because that is where I am weakest. By the way my Aurora is basically 26 pounds. Add a kickstand, head light (and 3 hour battery), a rack and a trunk on the rack and you are up in the area of 35 pounds. Then you put stuff like a big heavy bike lock and extra gatorade in the trunk along with 40 oz of fluids in the water bottles and you are up in the 40 pound range. That is how I commute and how I rode last Spring. I struggled though my first metric century pretty much loaded -- I didn't have the headlight. And I was mentored about carrying extra weight on a ride like that. So I developed a lighter configuration for club rides. Surprise -- I could climb much better. I am inclined to believe that practicing with an extra 20 pounds was part of the reason. Nightc: Great pictures. So far I have been reluctant to put my life on the line with a $150 bike but you have me rethinking the issue. |
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| #158 | gmule |
May 24 2007 00:57 |
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Night Nice pics looks like a nice place to ride.
Traffic Lights I found that if I can see the metal strips in the pavement before the cross walk I can trigger the light to go to green if I roll up very slowly almost track standing until the light changes. I can't always get in the middle of the road to do that but when there is no one else on the road it works well. Todays Commute Today I rode into a 20 mph head wind the entire 15 miles. I didn't curse the wind though. Even though it was blowing in my face it kept the thunderstorm behind it from catching up to me until I got to work. Tonights forcast is calling for scattered showers. I may get lucky and have a dry ride home. I am keeping my fingers crossed. |
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| #159 | leinad |
May 24 2007 01:27 |
| Well the club now stands at 25 and growing. So check out the roster and tell me if you would like anything added or changed. | ||
| #160 | pandajenn19 |
May 24 2007 02:04 |
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Shopping spree tonight! :) Went to the bike shop to get my fenders, and walked out with Shimano M647 pedals (the kind that are both clipless and work with regular shoes), shoes (of course), a stem for the bars that helped to adjust my position a bit so I'm resting more on my sit bones, and a Bontrager race lux crz+ womens saddle. And I hope to goodness I don't step foot in that store again for a while. Cycling is sooo much more expensive than running!! Or, for me it is, anyway. :) Also getting in just under 15 miles again today, since I'm about to ride to my soccer game. Shouldn't be bad getting there, but coming back in the dark after running 45 minutes is not something I'm looking forward to... |
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