Hello Spring!

Hello sunshine! It's been too long since your sparkling rays have warmed the dank and depressed earth here in NY. Amazingly, you've managed to show yourself after a record setting run of snow...good for you.

Yes indeed, with the sunshine and 60 degree days comes the thrill of RIDING OUTSIDE! Mind you that the trails are still covered in snow and ice (thanks snowmobiles) but the roads are mostly dry. The only problem is the excess of sand, salt and cinders that can shred even the toughest tires in seconds.

Sunday we shocked the world with a 35 mile ride, with nearly 2000 feet of climbing, and we finished feeling awesome. Fitness wise, I'm actually at a point which I was at in the middle of May last year. That's what only 4 weeks of indoor training will do for you. I am able to ride all the climbs that gave me even the slightest hint of trouble last year, and now I'm doing them almost effortlessly and using larger gearing (I manned up and swapped out my compact double for a standard double this year.) The only downside of this was a flat tire in the driveway of all places, then another flat on the road, and finally a third flat when the valve core of the presta valve inexplicably disappeared. Incredible, that's all I have to say.

Today, since I was given the green light to do nothing in honour of my birthday (another year older, another mark off my max heart rate, I know....) I took my newly built cyclocross bike out for a jaunt. 25 miles later, I've learned that there is a big difference between my 16.9 pound road bike in it's climbing garb, and my 24 pound cross bike with boat anchor wheels. No flats this time around, probably because those tires are thicker than a doormat. Oh well, it's good training nonetheless, and I'm more than happy to be able to get out and ride in March of all times.



And so, as spring hits us head on, I beg of you to get out there and ride. Test your form, enjoy the spring air and keep the rubber side down.

January is down the tubes:

Tonight is the Pro Bowl. Tomorrow is February. A week from today is the Superbowl. In 2 weeks Valentine's day is here. This year is moving right along, with 1/12 of it history already.

I've been outside for two rides this new year, and with only two rides outside in January, it's been the horrifying spectre of trainer riding. As insane as that thought is, I'm actually happy to say that I've been seeing some improvement in my fitness and because I've set a target date for my first training peak I'm actually enjoying my indoor rides. What? Yes, that's entirely correct, I've fallen completely into the pit of despair and forced myself to enjoy trainer rides so that I'll have some fitness by April 18th.

Surfing around the web looking for races in the area turned up a criterium about 10 miles away from me that looks quite fascinating. I've toyed with the idea of racing my road bike all throughout this past year, but just never committed to it (not to mention that I had that little thing called the Livestrong challenge looming large.) So, a criterium sounds like a good way to start the adventure. 1.2 mile laps, 10 laps in total. The weekend after the Tour of the Battenkill (which I'll be going to, of course) it has a taste of the best of the European classics. It features a sharp climb, speedy descent, wicked corners and cobbles. Yes, COBBLES! Awesome!

With that news on the table, the pre-season has been great. I've upgraded from a compact double to a standard double (roadie speak) and worked on technique and form over the off season. I should be in pretty good shape come April, and I'm looking forward to my first experience on the road (and cobbles.)

The mountain bike? It hasn't been touched. With hunting season still in effect here in NY, frigid weather (4 degrees Fahrenheit), a distinct lack of daylight and a wedding to plan all sucking away my time and motivation for riding, the mountain bike has been hung in the garage for the winter.

Of course, there is always the newly built cyclocross bike...

Ahh, I'm pulling myself in too many directions. One day I'll have enough time for all this riding I need to do.

And on another note, I'd just like to say Happy Birthday to Mountain Bike Tales. Five years of writing, reviewing, editing and answering questions and MBT is the best it has ever been. Thanks to all the people behind the scenes who make it happen and to all the writers, editors and development folks who bring it to the forefront. Happy fifth, and many more!

Happy holidays, I think...

Almost two months since an update. Sad indeed, but there is a good reason for it.

Insert real life here:
I posted about my road bike crash that had taken me out of commission for a while. Fortunately, the wounds have healed, except for the obvious scars that will be with me for a while. Unfortunately, I did not post about the slip and fall that I experienced while walking on the rocky beach in La Jolla California the weekend before the crash. Well, as of today, I am STILL having problems with my right wrist, and finally got the news that it had indeed been fractured in that fall and was still not healing well.

Subsequently, I am STILL off the mountain bike (road riding is tolerable with a wrist brace/support) and it looks like I may be for a while until it is pain free.
End insertion of real life:


In the meantime, the hurried arrival of winter's snow and ice has driven me inside and insane (the two seem to go hand in hand quite often) and forced me to begin building up a cyclocross bike. Twisted, I know. But it will pave the way to a good solid ride option for the poor weather.

In any case, keep the rubber side down, have a safe and healthy holiday, and welcome 2010 with a bang. Ok?

And the bike bites back.

Ah yes, it's that time of year where we're trying to get the last hurrah out of a quickly waning summer season. The rain and cold has hit in the northeast, and things have gotten pretty sketchy pretty quickly.

Trails are soggy from heavy fall rains, and are covered with wet leaves and deadfall, so in the interest of not ruining the hard work of many, we stick to the road on days following heavy rains. Of course, there is nothing saying that deadfall and leaves aren't on the sides of the roads either.

That being said, in the 5 years that I've spent seriously riding, both road and trail, I've had my share of crashes, mostly on my mountain bikes. Of course, there was some bruises and scrapes involved, but nothing too terribly bad. Of course, all that had to change on Sunday afternoon.

Riding in paceline, no more than 4 miles from home on a beautiful 60 degree, sunny day, a large sticks (heretofore known as the "little bastard") managed to wedge itself into my front wheel behind the brake caliper. This means that my forward momentum of approximately 20mph carried me right over the bars and to the left, into the lane. Fortunately, no cars were right behind me at the time, and I escaped being flattened by a moving vehicle. My face and body didn't escape the pavement though. My chin cracked down onto the tarmac hard, leaving a deep gash, before I slid and tumbled across the pavement.

After taking a second to determine if I was going to die (I was not) I came to the following conclusions:
1: I was pouring blood from my shredded chin
2: My teeth were all still intact
3: I was laying in the middle of the lane, 2 feet from the yellow centerline, as was my bike and bottles.
4: WAS MY BIKE OK!?

My course of action (the two in front of me were scrambling to get back to me at the time) was to scrabble over to my bike on my hands and knees, and half carry half toss all my gear to the side of the road before staggering to the shoulder.

I realized that the bike appeared OK, and even though I was dripping blood at an alarming rate, I appeared to be mostly ok. So, off to the ER I went where they glued my chin back together after fishing out some of the grit.

So here we are, two days post accident. My body is aching and sore in places that I didn't even realize I had. My chin is disgusting to look at, worse to touch and even more painful than I could imagine that it would be. In fact, at times the pain is almost nauseating.

All because that little bastard decided to make itself known and put a quick end to my season. At this point, by the time I heal enough to begin riding again, the snow will be falling and the holidays will be here, which means no riding.

Ahh holidays. What more of a bummer does the year include other than "the holidays?" Those are almost as low on my list as the "little bastard."



On the plus side, time on the sofa means plenty of cycling DVD watching. Hello 2009 Giro and 2008 Tour DVDs.

And a month later...

Here I am again.

Forget updating ever couple of days, I can't even remember to check my bank balance that often. No, I'm kidding. Actually, the real difficulty in updating very often lies in the fact that life (which includes cycling, imagine that!?) has been interfering with...well, life.

Here in the northeast we've become mired in that awful beast known as "fall" in which the sun drops below the horizon early in the evening and leaves us stuck on stationary trainers or bundling up and donning lights to stick out a few miles in the chill of the evening air. It's an ever-present dilemma that anyone in a New England state will have to come to grips with early in their cycling experience. Gone are the long lazy evenings of tooling along trails and less traveled back roads. Those carefree summer days are replaced by worries of darkness, fallen leaves hiding slippery roots or potholes in the road, and the creeping chill of the coming winter.

Not to fret: the weekends are prime time to spend with the rubber side down. Knobby or skinny, mud or tarmac, spinning or mashing, climbing or descending, it is all good. It's just the exhilaration of the ride that makes the week's troubles melt away. It is worth all the time spent in the office, in meetings or on the phone. And it's one of the only escapes from reality that allows us to focus on the next obstacle in front of us without any thought of the consequences lying down the trail.

Wouldn't it be nice if life was just as easy?

I was informed yesterday...

That I forgot the link to the Livestrong Challenge photos.

So, in the spirit of giving (which is a rare spirit for me) go to town. http://picasaweb.google.com/robdamanii/LivestrongChallenge#

After a long hiatus...

Here we are again. Yes, it's been nearly 2.5 months since my last update, but there has been good reason for such an issue. I have been very heavily training for the Philadelphia Livestrong Challenge for the past couple of months. This has meant that weekends have been spent consuming pasta, riding copious miles on my (new-to-me carbon) road bike, and practicing how to suffer mightily at the hands of steep and long slopes.

Why? What's the point?

I have two family members who were claimed by cancer, and I wanted to help the Lance Armstrong Foundation to put this mean bastard to rest, once and for all. So I trained, I trained hard, I suffered, I considered giving up, but I persevered. I rode the 100 mile Challenge, which also happened to be my first ever century (I only began road riding last year, and I was pretty much unable to complete even the metric we tried last year.) What a century to start with, right? 100 miles in 85 degree heat, 90% humidity, sunshine blazing down on the roads....it was fantastic.





So, right on.

Now it's back to relaxing. No more training schedules of 75 miles on Saturday, recovery ride Sunday, intervals Monday, etc etc. From here on out, it's going to be "mountain bike whenever I feel like it, road ride to keep some fitness, and drink beer as necessary."

I've been looking very longingly at my long neglected mountain bikes hanging in my garage. My Dawg has been whimpering at me, wondering why he hasn't been run in a while, and my King is still asking when his first race will be. Well champ, hopefully I'll have a free weekend here and there to make that happen.

Here's mud in your eye.