flying and dying

One more wet day. But the rain stopped early in the morning, high humidity, fairly warm temperatures up to almost 14C, very strong gusty winds. He though about Trevors, but around 6:30 lurking out of the door, all was soaking wet, did not looked any good nor safe to ride in a fast group. Py does not know if any one went out today, likely a few, but never know.

Little later in the morning the sun was taking a peak at times and he could impossibly stay one more day indoors and prepared for a ride, not yet sure how far, just get out.

Minor roads were still wet, but not too bad, and a warm strong tail wind almost made him feeling hot. But this was the only nice thing about that day, it was warm. OK, flying out east silently at 40km/h not feeling any wind, well that is pretty nice -- but there will be a return.

This was about the end of the flight east and one of the nice sunny moments -- he almost got blown away taking that photos.

A mix of cross and head winds with strong gusts for the next leg of the ride, as he decided to go South on Doctors and head towards Mill skipping the out and backtrack part to IPBP.

On a few open sections it was quite some hard work to keep moving and he felt like dying even in the small ring...

A little snack stop here

and still some long way back.

Out of service after 20'000 km

are going Py's worn Speedplay cleats. Here as they (and the shoes) were brand new, this image was taken Jan 14th 2007 / bike odometer 10'100 km:

and today as they were send into retirement Dec 27th 2008 / bike odometer 29'802 km:

... going to the bike parts junk yard/box.

And the new replacements:

Do not trust your mechanic saying he can do it with his screwdriver in fingers only -- he may or may not get close to the specified 35 inch pounds, but no one has a torque wrench in his fingers. Do it right once and ride away in confidence.

A quick indoor hop on the bike test after having the applied dry wax lube settled in and dried revealed a very nice all new again feeling. Smooth and precise, easy operating :-)

the "j" crew ride dec 25

Christmas Day ride on December 25th 2008. A special day, with exceptional nice and for the season warm air, just little windy, but that was good, as it dried off most of the rain on the roads of the night, also the warm weather front took care of removing almost all of the ice of the last weekend.

On special invitation, well, little attention pointed Py this day to a "casual 35mi B+ ride" starting at SUNY. This in mind, he added two times 17mi, his part of the ride to the group ride start.

A nice mix of riders gathered at the SUNY RR parking lot.



En route one more rider joined in... here looking at the lens:



Always welcome, a new route once in a while, they went out South towards the LIE, here Marc having a snack, while waiting little up for rejoin as the group got a bit stretched on a slight incline....





So Py had a few photo options.... :-)

A great day and even better ride, some fun options for sprints on a few great rolling terrain sections to get moving.



Alright, back home he added 13 new WP points :-)

Here is the ride track:


View Larger Map

RRL - Relativistic Ride Lunch

Quick RRL at the Camp. With temperatures and wind back to acceptable levels from a gusty storm with temps as low as -8C it got to moderate wind and just -2C with clear sky today and Py decided to stay save on side -- as there were just unbelievable many unpredictable black ice spots on the roads.

With a full snowed out weekend and missed WP points, some ride was due -- the sign says training, right -- here we start?

So he scouted out one lap for safe conditions around the RHIC, a 3.1km road layed out in a perfect circle.

... and it's going around and around and around ...

.. and around ...

A lap to scout it out, a lap for warm up and a few photos, a lap to go for... up to almost relativistic speeds.... (may be some time) -- it's made for it o-)
Two more laps full warp ahead, one for little recovery and a couple more to go -- he got a total of 10 laps, a total of 37km and got 5WP points.


Funny looking ride track....


View Larger Map

Snow Storm hitting LI

Update from LI. Friday around early noon a snowy weather system was hitting the island. Here a view out of Py's office on Friday early afternoon.

A little chaos on almost not snowplowed minor roads...

And it kept snowing until Saturday... good he got a RRL in on Thursday before the storm. A total snowed out ride weekend :-(

Trevors #4 - skipped three, one WLSCC race Weekend, two wash/ice outs

Was good getting back in one more Trevors ride this Sunday. The early morning was icy cold with about -3..-4C and still very low sitting mostly hiding sun, little wind only, that was good. Py knew it would warm up very soon, but there was no choice, this warm layer need to go on now at 7:30. Moving out at 7:37, shortly before turning into Columbus he meet Karl, arriving together at 8:12 at the PJeff meeting location. The air was already getting warmer out there. The "B" group was about to leave... But Py had plenty of time until the A group was about to go, just a few were already there.

Taking off one layer and leaving it in the car of one of the Kreb guys, was a wise decision -- would have been too much warmth.

About at 8:32 they moved out of the lot slowly picking up speed and getting warm. Py took it easy, just one pull up the hill to the Duck Pond (Mt. Sinai?). Shortly after turning into Lower Rocky Point Rd Owen flatted... and it took a while until he was ready to roll again...

Waiting for the flat getting fixed, they just got warm and moving well... too bad.

From there they were moving until a short reassembly wait stop on top of Little Flower and kept moving all the way out east and back non stop -- well, a few lights needed to be observed. Some work into the wind going South, then pretty easy fly back "home" going North and a little sprint up and back to PJeff.

A good Coffee & Bagel break before heading back home was nice....

That done, 119km, 3h45 (need one more extra lap to make the 15WP Pts full) -- breaking the 200 Pts boundary with that today :-)

Ride stats -- average of 34.7km/h for the group ride part:

RP2IPBP - the first little taste of arctic riding

This Saturday back to the RP2IPBP ride. A late start, as the morning was really cold. Py meet C at Tildas at 11, and quickly realized his vastly vented helmet and the thin hat below barely covering his ears was not sufficient, still being in RP they made a little detour via Py's home and exchanged it with his snowboard helmet with nice cosy ear covers and no (closed) venting holes.
Best decision of the day so far :-) Proceeding around the block taking his favorite climb for some warm up attempts... moving out of RP on NC as usual. One more rider showed up on the way and was hanging on, so they moved out to IPBP together. Nice pace.

Some wind helped going south, but most of the time just felt icy cold in the face. Here at IPBP:

The return was some hard work with a good head wind component at prolonged times... Nice day, good ride. Just cold. C looks a bit stiff frozen here...

Back in RP at just little over 3 hours, 96km, one more lap for Py to make the 13 WPpts.

[[added link to GPS data, inconsitency: GPS moving time=3h13 -- ole computer=3h19]]

RRL solo & little dreaming

Today the Island slowly warmed up from yesterdays cold front, reading -8C on Monday morning, with changing wind direction to South (=warm+wet soon...) it was still about 0C at the morning today, but around noon it got up to almost 7C and still rising with strong South winds.

Py was tempted to ride to the Camp today, but the forecast called for rain setting in from 4..5p, wet + dark = too much no fun, so he stowed the bike in his car and opted for the RRL once more. Seam one one else was ready for it and he had to go out solo today. Strong South wind, what meant most of the time cross wind for his route out east and return via Mill. Moving out strong and fast, he got a little slower on his return, but still, made the 35km loop in an hour and one minute -- counting time from the North Gate, a total of 41km including the slower sections on site, giving a total time of 5 WP points.

QUARQ
a nice toy, may be he should put it on his Santa's wish list..........

Second time, no Trevors for Py

Saturday night snow showers set in, light frost, about an inch accumulation, a icy, dirty, wet mess on the roads -- not safe, no fun for a road ride. Also trails were most likely in a better not ride on condition -- no good for the trails and for the material.

Around noon Py needed to get some fresh air and took the Humwee bike out for a few local laps, this is rock salt, no ice


Here a dramatic view of the Sound

This is the last 2/3 of the multi-level gradient climb on one of his laps, starting at about 15m elevation goes strait up to about 60m and winds around up to 75metes at it's "peak". Not bad for LI and just around the block.


Here we also get a short single trail fun part to play on up and down...


And a view of the beach of the North Shore Sound at Friendship -- who wants to swim there now anyhow, snow on the beach and a freak'n cold wind blowing.


Not to bad for an one hour "hill" workout and about 600m accumulated elevation gain - 4 little tiny points only today :-(

Glacier Ridge

This Saturday Py went for an alternative off road ride at GR, two hours of trail riding fun, 8 points and one full and one shorted "lap" in that maze of trail spaghetti. It wasn't as cold as expected, but a nice day.

RRL -- nice day, last chance for shorts this year?

Road Rid(ac)e Lunch today under crystal clear blue sky with Trevor. Fast moving, windy, so what. Fun, flying out East to Mill Rd.

Five WP Points.

RP2IPBP

Again. Saturday, RP2IPBP with Craig. Chilly feeling morning, but blue sky and sunny. Waiting at Tildas for one more potential rider with C -- but none showed by 905. Moving out, it took quite some time to get little warm. Going out east was fast with that West wind. Just little over an hour to IPBP. The return was some work, but the shared and tricked the wind... and even made up some good time and speed.

Turkey Day RP2IPBP Variant

Thanksgiving day ride. Not much going on this day, some more easy ride from Wadingriver, partly en route RP2IPBP. Py decided to ride there and join the group for a while, then after Boyscout hill he left the group and proceeded on RP2IPBP route, as they rode on strait at Sound Ave to the Beach. He had a few more miles and was not sure if he would catch up at the beach.

However, no one there, they must have left already, as he saw wet bike tire marks on the road shortly before the turn to the beach at this tiny kind of river passing...

So he took a quick rest as he made some TT out there before proceeding. Interestingly, on Middle Country they cough up to Py who was going little more moderate pace and they must have taken some different route there. Proceeding to Riverhead looking for some bagel place -- closed.

Different bagel place on Mill/58 -- success. Some longer coffee and warm up break, as it was uncomfy freekn' cold outside, just not not freezing, but humid and windy.

From here, Py decided to return by himself via original RP2IPBP route, he got some what cold, even working hard and having on his neoprene booties. Some good workout with varying intensity.

Some how not optimal, cold. He did not felt so well next day and stayed mostly home.

Recovery days -- update on WLSCC

Pasts two days and today's rainy day Py just enjoyed being lazy for recovery -- from workout point of view. Just an hour of easy laps in the pool tonight felt really great.

Update on WLSCC:
More photos and official links to results at hamptonvelo.com.

Also Py added some more photos to his slide show, in the previous post, so check them out again!

2008 Whitmore's Landscaping Super Cross Cup - Sun

Sunday WLSCC again, day two.

Same thing, same cold, but less wind -- what made it all a much nicer day. Just awesome again.

The race went out in "forward" direction, a few known modifications and add ons to the course. This time a much better and faster race developed, just fun and full power ahead.

Press articles:

• at Velo News


• at Cycling News


• Video Womens
  

More photos -- still more to be added of the Elite riders...:



Py got 14 highly official (whatsoever Northern America Cyclo Cross UCI Series) points for coming in as number 12 on Sunday. -- This should be equal to WP points o-) !!!

2008 Whitmore's Landscaping Super Cross Cup - SAT

The 2008 Whitmore's Landscaping Super Cross Cup, TWO UCI C1 Events, were a must go for Py this year again. Organized by Hampton Velo.

Saturday morning he go ready to race these two upcoming day in the 3/4 Master 35+ category and enjoy the rest of the day watching the remaining races. Driving out to Southampton took about 45min. Here is a link to the schedule.

It was a very cold and really windy November day, especially with that wind chill factor:




Already at the registration table he got little cold waiting in line, but the line was short. That done he got ready for warm up and checked out the course, did a couple of easy laps. It was about the same than last year, but in reverse for the first day. The ground was rock solid frozen and thus it was fast.

At some exposed spots of the course the cold wind blew straight into his face. The former challenging climb now turned into a tricky downhill as the turn at the bottom was off camber like on frozen grass -- which was a slide out for a bunch of riders later.

His race started at about 10:15, a big group some how slow going and bunching up several times, no real race feeling was coming, always stuck behind and not even really getting warm at this given conditions. The 40min flew by in time...

After that done, Py had a good time and took many many photos, enjoy:



Py got 13 highly official (whatsoever Northern America Cyclo Cross UCI Series) points for coming in as number 13 on Sunday. -- This should be equal to WP points o-) !!!

RRL -- arctic freak'n cold wind - Brrrrrr.

Tuesday update -- Road Ride Lunch training ride w T, Camp, out east to Mill Rd, in reverse. Just a quick fast lunch time spin into the arctic cold wind. Good workout and prep for the upcoming Rad-Quer or Cyclo Cross Race weekend in Southampton >2008 Whitmore's Landscaping Super Cross Cup< -- The greatest biggest highest ranked bike race event on LI -- Py thinks.

So do not miss that! Come along and support Py, not only virtual this time....

About this WP Points

Py may need to explain... what all these WP point are all about.

1st) WP = Winterpokal = Winter-Cup

2nd) WP is a online challenge of members of the IBC (Internet Bike Community), originated in Germany, however, Py is member since long. So members are asked to form teams of five riders to just keep up biking (including other activities) over the winter season and getting rewaded points for activities following a simple scheme and by time.

3nd) Team member can compare each other and may get motivated to do a little extra lap to finish up that one more point... and all teams are also ranked over all. There is also some best team price....

Points are rewareded by mainly by time:

Each finished 15min biking block = 1 point -- i.e. 3:10 hours biking = 12 points, finish that more 5 mins and get 13point. Equivalent to biking is only Cross Country Skiing if there is snow..., indoor biking/rollers/etc. also counts. (Computer moving time counts)

Running, 20min block = 1 point.

Any other activity of 30min or more (vollyball, swimming, gym, ....)  counts 2 points fixed.

That's all about it, here is the current situation:

Trevors #3 - storm before the ice age is arriving

Sunday morning, again Py got out for Trevors ride. It started out already with some strong head wind going west to the start. This day steady West wind of 22..25mph with gusts up to 45mph was expected.

A good sized early group got a head start of over 18minutes today, before Py within the about 10 riders counting faster groups rolled out. They were flying out West over the hills and South with reasonable efforts with an average of 36.7km/h at the turn into Osborne from there going South with strong Cross Winds at over 38km/h until the turned more West with varying strong head winds, still going at 34.3km/h -- thanks to our strong guys in front pushing so much air, Py kept it safe, just a few not to long pulls and hiding behind some of the big strong guys :-)

So they came back at a quite good time...

Today Py took a break with some of the others with an very good Cinnamon Raisin Bagel at Bagels and a Hole lot more or such place -- this should take care of the low on energy problem he had last time going home -- and so he flew home with tail wind today ;-)

Stopped for some goodies at Tildas and was early, meaning just finished 14 points so far, stuffed the goods he got into his rear pocket and headed little further East, passing or flying by two other rides and turning back into old Rocky Point at the East End, winding back towards home with a few scenic detours adding quite a good number of elevation meter gains...

Todays stats:

Radquer | Cyclocross day

At Veteran's day Py went out for an alternative training ride on his Stonbite Cross Velo and headed towards CP to meet with Craig and Karl for a few CP laps. A crisp clear windy and chilly day, great warm in the sun, pretty chilly in the shade and on open wind exposed areas.

Also this was an experiment to do the whole trail with all diamonds on his Stonie Cross, but was 100% ridable and flying on the very few smoother straits... Basically skill and traction limited, sliding on tonns on leaves and bouncing over hidden roots. May be little less tire pressure would have done good. But it was all fun and a great workout, no troubles at all.

Here the most active three of the WP team so far... 11 good well earned points today.

Trevors #2

2nd Sunday of November, means Trevors ride #2. So Py got up little past 6am got ready by 7:35 and rolled out and pushed up this steep hill in front of his house... some what not feeling so well today, tiered and little low on energy, may be low on sugar? However, he got to the start in the usual 35 min, so all must be normal enough.

The early group was almost ready to go as he arrived...

So what, let's chill out 15 more minutes in teh nice early morning sun -- seams like getting a great day. The chase group... just a few riders so far.









The group grew up to nine riders if Py remembers right. 8:33 -- they rolled out and kept moving nicely constant good pace, as Py did felt little weired this morning, he played as smart as reasonable and just stayed very shortly at front or just kept hiding from the wind more behind. This worked out great all the way :-)

On Mill Rd the eary group came into sight and they passed them, a few riders tagged on and kept going the faster pace. Also K tagged on, he gained one more point for starting out slow, as funny as it is... so what, Py was feeling little better after finishing up one more Clif bar and completed the group ride today all teh way back to PJ/112 instead of bailing East on North Country.

Here K & C back at the start.

What a day. Py rode back at decent pace, but a few miles before home he all sudden run really low on fuel... and was going at some emergeny pace for the last few minutes and made it to Tildas. Got a bad of goodies and a piece of Rasberry Crum Cake -- this was dedicated to be finishged on the spot -- that helped a lot and he got back enough power to finish up the ride and make the 15 points for today -- one more hill lap.

Ride stats:

Total: 3h46:37, 119 km, 882 m elev gain, 146 bpm avg / 179 bpm max, 83 rpm, 68.6 km/h max, 31.5 km/h avg, 4200 cal.

Group Lap: 2h:21:17, 85 km, 502 m elev gain, 156 bpm avg / 179 bpm max, 91 rpm, 68.6 km/h max, 36.2 km/h avg, 3092 cal