I was the star in the corner,
Cookin’ your legs like Chris Horner,
Ridin’ real hard up on the inside,
I went down in a nasty low-side.
Skinned up my knees like Lewinski,
Screamin’ like a hopped up jet ski,
Hoping not to crash on the next ride,
Next time I’m gonna pass on the outside.
Cut like a shrimp at Benihana,
It's like I crashed my Suzuki Katana.
I’m watchin’ from the curb with my shorty,
Easin’ the pain wit an ice cold forty.
But I’m comin’ back, betta than eva,
Like Bond James Bond, I never say never.
‘Cuz I’m the fat man with mad bike skillz,
And Gros has me workin’ on the handlin’ drillz.
So pimps and hustlers better step aside,
I’m the wide boy on the carbon ride,
Breakin’ some legs, takin’ a toll,
Brave Soldier and Tegaderm is how I roll.
Yeah, it sucks. But like my racing, my hip-hop rhymes are the best a Racing Age 40 white boy novice can do.
- Random PowerTap thought: The PT encourages peddling efficiency. I noticed that when I was pedaling squares - like hammering at high speed in a big gear on the flat and stomping it - that the wattage readout bounced up and down wildly. 250, 450, 299, 505, and so forth. This may have averaged out to perhaps 330 watts, but within a minute my HR had climbed up from recovery, to tempo. When I concentrated on smooth pedaling, including a 'wiping your feet' motion on the bottom of the stroke, and smoothly pulling up with the hip flexors, I could pull the same or nearly the same average wattage and move at the same speed, but without the HR blasting through the roof. I pulled 275 - 300 up the Cap Crescent, and the HR remained in zone 2 until I reached the little bridge on the top. This aligns with my experience in races, which tells me that when an acceleration goes (like an attack, or sudden speedup of the pack), it's best to ramp up the speed gradually unless the initial move on the front of the pack must be covered. It's not the speed that kills you - it is the maximal and near-maximal efforts that burn up your matches. Smoothness and efficiency equals durable, lasting speed. Hey, why am I telling you guys this? You're the competition.
- That's enough. Really.
2 comments:
That last little thing you didn't want to share with us was exactly how I raced the open crit last Sunday. When every other knucklehead jumped hard out of the corners I, along with my 235 pounds of lard, used half of each straight to surge back up to my original position before each corner. My heart rate never fluctuated more than 10bpm on any one lap until I died completely after about 40 minutes and it jumped from 160-170 up to high 180s.
Big Mike
Mike, that's a different problem.
You need to ride closer to the front and do your bike handling drills, so that you can positively rail through the corners. Fight for that top 10 or top 5 positioning - it's easier to surge up 5-10 spots at a time and place of your choosing on each lap, than it is to try to do coming out of a curve where everybody in the whole pack slows down.
Yes, when I'm on my game, I get brake rub as a result of the wheel flex from railing through the corners. I *like* getting in front of the pack then having to slow down to get back into the draft, because that means not only did I not burn any energy on the corner, but I actually got to stop pedaling or to soft pedal for 10 or 15 seconds. Yes, I am a lazy, bad, bad man. I am also competitive on the flatter crit circuits.
BTW, congrats on 235. Understand also that I know that you know what I wrote just now about position and not braking, but that I wrote it for the benefit of those who brake in front of me in the corners in *every* damn race. There's no need to hit the brakes, people... just learn to corner better.
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