Winter Doldrums, feeling tired, lazy and fat. Hurry up Spring..

Roto Q Rings

I bought a set of time trial rings awhile back, (May) on the advice of a friend. I also did some research and found some good write ups on various cycling sites.
I also came across a place that had the rings on sale so i decided to get a set for my road bike. The TT rings are 54-42 and the road bike is compact so I ordered 52-36 for it. The installation was easy, they provide good instructions. They also recommend riding 300 miles or so in position 3 to get used to them, then move them to a position that works for your riding style. I skipped  that and went to the masher (less cadence) position (4) from the start.

I've used them all season and i do feel they have helped me get a little more power to the road and i haven't felt any unusual knee or leg pain. Haven't used them on any long steep climbs yet, we'll see how they do next spring at the SI training camp.

Working on setting up moble blogging

40k Time Trial

Did my first 40k time trial yesterday, it was near the town of Paw Paw. Luke, John Betenia and I left Rantoul at 5:30 for the drive up. We made it with plenty of time to reg and get in some warmup time. The weather was good and wind was fair. We took off from the start 1 min behind each other. I was feeling good and was hoping to have a good result. Never having done 40k, i didnt know how hard i could go and still have enough to finish. i finished in 1hr 5 min. and had energy left, i could have rode harder. oh well, now i know and will work harder on the next one.
Ave mph was 23. I'm going to work to break an hour by Drubers race in Aug.

Put on my Q rings on both bikes today, hope i can get some speed from them.

Cracked

Man, did I crack last evening during our ride. Did ok till the rise going into Monticello then it seemed like nothing was there, no power, no anything. All I can think of is that the heat (90* plus) did me in. I've never been able to take it well for long. I'm racing this Sat and the temps are supposed to still be up there, hopefully I'll get to go early before it gets too hot.

TT, PB

Did our teams second TT last evening. I did the 10.85 distance in 27:10 (23.96 ave), 9 seconds shy of my personal best last year. I hope to take a full minute off that by mid-season, getting a 25mph ave. would be great.
Druber showed up, busting the course in 23:19 a 27.9 mph ave. he's a TT monster.

Solo

I had to work last Saturday, but i get off at 12:00. After i had lunch with my wife i got ready for a ride to Bloomington. My sister-in-law was having a Graduation - Birthday party for her daughter and husband, i wanted to get some miles in so i decided to ride over. i had plenty of time since the party was at 5:00. I left town at 2:10, i seemed to be sluggish had a hard time keeping a pace, ( i was hoping for 19mph) but the wind even though slight was against me. After about 30 miles my legs started feeling better and i was able to speed up. 56 miles later i arived at the party feeling pretty good and i wound up with a 17.5 ave. this has been my longest solo ride so far, may try for a solo century sometime.

Sunday, Luke and I got out the TT bikes for some training, Art came along also. We rode around 32 miles working hard for most of it. I hope to see some results on Tuesday.
I need to get those rings on..