testing

I’ve been out of my photography game for the moment, so these halfass iPhone shots will have to do..

I got my hubs relaced with HED Belgium C2 rims! The Belgium’s are 24mm deep and 23mm wide. It seems there’s a slight pitch to wider width wheels with the understanding that a wider rim = less sidewall deformity and less of the lightbulb shape = aero-er and a better ride. All of the above? Yes please.

I’ll do a writeup about WheelBuilder soon. They’ve built me five wheelsets so far, and I have nothing but damn good things to say about them.

Ohhhhh, that’s my sad excuse for LEGS, aka sacksofshit. While they’ve never been magnificent chiseled trunks of unstoppable locomotion, they’ve usually been know to handle their own on the track or anything that required some sort of sprint (on the flats of course, because, who’s heard of anything Hella Fools!!! related moving fast uphill?!).

My riding this year has totaled a whopping 59 miles! I think that might include the few couple hundred feet I spent trying to get my Garmin to recognize my cadence monitor.. and then there was that one time I used my bike as a prop for a film short at work. Let’s round it up to a complete 60 then. 60 glorious miles since the 2009 Gran Fondo. To be fair (according to RangsiWHAAT, these are also called “excuses”), I don’t have anything planned until October 2010, and I wanted to get all my tattoo work out of the way this year so I can properly focus on triathlon training this year and next. I’ve got one last session in mid-May, and hopefully that’ll be it until the next tattoo. That mean’s I can officially start “riding” in June, “swimming” in July, and “running” late May.

So, back to my sacksofshit legs. Yesterday’s ride included my usual loop, but at an LSD (long, slow, distance) type pace of 3 hours, or 30 miles, whichever came first. Ideally, that also meant keeping my heart rate below anywhere close to threshold. And with all that mental preparing I did, I ended up with 30 miles in a little over 2 hours, with my heart rate above threshold. W. T. F. I’m not sure what happened. I didn’t get the usual ‘that-jerk-didn’t-call-out-on-your-left-I’m-gonna-chase-him-down-and-yell-ON-YOUR-RIGHT’ feeling at all, I think it was just me not paying attention to what I should’ve been doing. The wind was heinous on Cañada, as usual, but I’m pretty sure I compensated by doing what I do best.. SLOWNESS.

The few things I did do right (or, better yet, better than I usually, but never ever right right) was recovery. I had a small bit of recovery drank in the car since I refrained from anything other than water on the ride. I’ve read a few articles on training your body to use fats instead of easy-peasy carbs flowing through the two IV’s I carry on my bike filled with CytoSport. I’m not sure if there’s even any verdict out on it, but if anything, I do want to ween myself off the sugar goods until I’m really doing work and dragging my ass up and down hills for 70 miles. After I got home, I slid on my Skins compression Sport Sox and elevated my legs. And we don’t even have to go into the food, because I did done ate it. Nothing too shitty, just some protein and carbs and a touch of vegetables. Just a touch, because anything more would’ve caused way too much gas, and I had a party to attend for this girl that.. well.. yeah. That’s a different story for a different day, maybe some day that’s greased with alcohol. I’ve been relying on the Skins Sox for recovery as of late, and I think they’re doing the trick. My legs don’t feel half as bad as they used to, and I think I’m up and about sooner than I usually am. Now don’t get that twisted in any way, because my legs are still two sacksofshit, but they’re certainly less sore sacksofshit. They felt horrible immediately after the ride, but 24 hours later, they were in respectable condition. I even  planned a run today, but happily canceled when I noticed the rain. A longer term review to come once I pour the hot butter on the rides and start adding volume.

Until the next brainfart..

But by nothing, I mean, not the absence of substance, but the absence of movement. And by the absence of movement, I mean, no site redesign as of yet. SLOWASS. I know. Believe me, if it’s anything I know, it’s slow. Let’s pretend this site redesign is like me climbing your average 7 mile/30 minute climb (yes, I know that adds up to 3 mph.. I KNOW). It’s not particularly painful, but you know it’s just going to be a slugfest between your ass and that 6% grade. Now the question is, bright and happy? Or dark and brooding.

This has been a slow year in terms of Hella Fools!!! related news, events, happenings and such. For the winter, we all switched to snowboarding, which, I wish was more fruitful when it came to fitness, but to be honest, it was more for fun. Fun. That’s isn’t something that’s been thrown around very much in the past few years. Most times, anything described as “fun”, was done so retroactively. In hindsight, if you will, since nothing about training and riding and forming the ass-callous is fun, until you look back on it with fond doe eyes and laugh about all the mishaps and blood and pain and time that was spent all in the chase for that elusive event.

Hella Fools!!! is in transition, so to say. T-1, so to speak, since we aren’t anywhere close to T1 or T2. Hell, even T0.

The mighty Garcia and yours truly are training for.. (dun dun dun).. triathlons!

It’s an expansion kinda thing, unlike our belt sizes, welcome with warm hearts and painful feet. As for me, it’s been a dream of mine to compete in an Ironman. YES, YES, I know. Walk before you run. Baby steps. Finish your burrito before you ask for another. I know. But it’s a dream nonetheless, and I think I’ve finally found the time (time? really?) to start training for one. That means, no major major events (major major is a technical term.. kinda like, “does she like me like me?”). I’ve got Levi’s Gran Fondo October 9, and the Silicon Valley Half marathon October 31. Oh and YES, I got a lottery spot into the ING New York City Marathon!! Oh and YES, I’m going to defer, because I just simply won’t have enough run training volume by November. I’m a little bitter and sad, but it’s for the best.

Swimming will be on tap this summer, as well as running. Riding will take it’s usual Saturday spot in my heart, as well as a spin class here and there.

So please, stay tuned. Better yet, if I keep posting bullshit on here, tell me to go train… that’s better..

Let’s hope for the best year yet. Coming up soon – a slight site redesign (read: new theme, new colors, new suckas), reviews, events (Hello, Hella Fools!!! completed 2009 Seattle-to-Portland ride, 204 miles), and more content. Things have been busy for Hella Fools, but rest assured, we’re still here, and still fools, hella.

-HF

a week before the ride, i FINALLY got my wheel issues resolved (see previous post), and everything was coming together. rangsiwan, benito and i headed down to solvang friday afternoon after me spending 20 minutes sweating on top of their car trying to get my yakima wheel fork mounted, only to realize it wouldn’t fit the wheel once my bike was mounted onto the tray. great. never try anything new before a ride. and that includes new wheel mounting techniques.

we stopped by some ramen joint in san jose to get a quick lunch for the apparently 4 hour ride down (why didn’t i know that solvang was closer to los angeles than it was to the bay when i signed up?). ill let you in on a little secret. eating soup will sometimes give me the runs at the most inopportune times. mostly when im not allowed to have the runs, i.e. long drives, going out with girls, the night before a longass bike ride.. aka anytime a toilet is not readily accessible). sure, TMI, but you’ll thank me the next time we go out for ramen. i stuck with the vegetable chicken stir fry. my stomach was happy with the choice.

we got into solvang around 6pm. the drive wasn’t as long as i thought it’d be, but of course, none of that mattered since i didn’t do any of the driving. i was backseat passenger extraordinaire. i checked us into our hotel room at solvang inn & cottages. the lady behind the desk must have been in her late 40′s, maybe even 50′s. she stood up too look at my sleeve, and i thought she was going to make some off comment about tattoos, but she complimented me, and proceeded to tell me about the tattoos she wanted to get. and then she proceeded to tell me about her piercings. and where they were at. and my ears proceeded to bleed.

our hotel room was at the annex, about a block away from the main office, and about two blocks away from the start. it was a large room, with kitchen, king bed, vaulted ceilings, and a view of the parking lot. my rollaway bed was there already.. because it just wouldn’t be fair to the rest of the world if i shared a bed with rangsiwan and benito, and not everyone else.

we walked to hotel corque start village to get our start packets. when we got there, i completely missed the step down from the curb and almost fkd myself up. i stared at the ground for the rest of the evening. they gave us a magnetic solvang button, safety pins, jersey bib and bike number.. and road rash cream. really? was it because i almost took a spill in the parking lot and i wasn’t even on the bike? why don’t you just take my ass and drag it across the asphalt. there was a huge map that had the routes and the route profiles marked. i pointed at the large grade at what looked like mile 74, and i asked exactly where it started.. he said mile 93. maaan. it says it starts in the 70s. i came to realize later he meant the last hill, affectionately called “the wall”. more on “the wall” later. we walked around the festival for a bit.. it seemed like most of the folks there.. “recreational” type folks. sure, i don’t look like a hardcore rider, and look more like a food tester, but i’ll tell you right now, i looked more like a rider than 90% of the folks out there. we concluded that all the serious riders were there earlier and were already in bed, getting rest for the ride the next day. great.

we went to dinner at the chumash casino. it was casino buffet fare, so i didn’t expect much. i’m guessing they didn’t either, because they didn’t have pasta. not a problem. i’m not usually one for carb loading the night before (didn’t you see the episode of the office when michael decided to carbo load?).. so i split my plate between chinese food and american food. yes. they had chinese food for some reason. nothing tasted all that great, but i’m also assuming it was the mild taste of throwup in my mouth from all the worrying i was doing about the ride. i pulled a meatloaf smeatloaf double beatloaf moment because i grabbed a bunch of desserts, none of which tasted like dessert.

after dinner, we headed back to the hotel to prep for the next day. revenge of the nerds was on tv! there is nothing better than watching a good classic comedy the night before a ride. completely relaxes you and lets you laugh a little before the crying you do the next day.  good tv and catchy music. the best remedies to settle the nerves. garcia had sent me a link to a youtube video by samwell called “what what (in da butt)”. i’ll stop here for a second while you find that video on youtube…

..

IT’S GREAT ISN’T IT? what a better way to start a bike ride by singing the words “what what.. in the butt!” every few minutes! rangsiwan kept me entertained by trying to think of all the old school slow songs we all used to listen to. i kept her entertained with any and every catchy mainstream pop radio song in my head.. including but not limited to “damaged” by danity kane (mostly just the part that goes “daaaamaged! daaaamaged! i thought that something something something” because that’s all i really knew).. samwell, and mint condition. she hit back with “daiiiichi daiiiiichi”! you need to watch revenge of the nerds if you just don’t know.

the route was good for the most part. the first 20ish miles were nearly all downhill, with a few rollers after that. in fact, most of the ride was rollers, including a few bitchass climbs at the beginning, nothing too harrowing. it was a cold morning, so the hills were welcomed because it gave me a chance to warm up and prevent teeth chatter. there were a lot of people on the course.. there wasn’t ever a moment during the day when we weren’t in contact with other folks. the rest stops were well stocked, toilet lines were expected but the water lines were non-existent. i didn’t bother trying any of the food since i limited myself to clif bloks to keep myself “light”. we hit the rest stop at mile 73, and “boot scootin’ boogie” was playing. for some reason i knew that the song was called “boot scootin boogie” and promptly blurted it out. a few white folks chuckled when i said i knew the song. again, TMI.

we hit the mile 74 climb shortly after. it wasn’t really a climb since it was stretched about for 10 miles.. but i guess on paper, its a hill. it was mostly upward facing rollers. nothing too difficult. i was feeling good at that point. no booty pain, legs were slightly heavy, but feeling good.. i was cold, but the rollers kept me warmed up. before we hit the last hill, i ran into a damsel in distress. i dunno about the rest of you, but if i see folks on the side of the road, i always check if they’re okay. its common courtesy. you never know when you’ll need help one day. as i ride by, i ask if she’s okay. she replies with “actually, no.. can you help me with my chain?” i dismount, and walk over to help her. her chain is off the ring and she says she can’t get it back onto the large ring. i take a look, and say “oh.. well i think you’ll need to shift to the big ring if you want me to put the chain back on the big ring”.. she slaps her forehead and goes.. “OHHH. that’s right. i shifted to the little ring right before it fell off. that’s why we couldn’t get it back on!” ha. i think they wasted 20 minutes figuring that one out. beautiful. im always happy when a mechanical gets resolved. on a sidenote, this reminds me of little mechanical i helped out with on the last 5 miles of the 2005 aids lifecycle ride. this lady got a flat, and i offered to change it for her. the other two guys i was riding with stopped with me, but just chilled while i changed the tire (besides, its a one person affair). another rider stops by laughing, and says “how many gay guys does it take to change a tire?”, and one of the guys i was riding with replies back with “none. the straight guy is changing the tire.” HAHAHAHA.

around mile 80, we hit a fairly large hill. it was definitely a gutbuster, with enough blind turns to psychologically damage you because you realized after the turn that there was still more hill to go. when i’m climbing, i prefer people to stay away from me. don’t follow me because it’ll make me work harder and shoot my heart rate up. don’t ride next to me because then i’ll think i’m going too fast for you to pass me. don’t talk to me, because i will pass out if i attempt to use anymore oxygen. don’t ride in front of me, going the same speed as me.. because i’ll wanna pass you. in other words, i need to climb alone.. perhaps on a different planet. the descent on the other side was good, and it led us straight to another rest stop. there was another hill left.. one the locals called “the wall”. they all made it sound daunting, and said there was some large switchback at the top. it was anticlimactic, to say the least. there was a little turn at the top.. it felt like a switchback, maybe. but the previous hill was much worse. we eventually hit the same little hill that the tour of california used during the solvang time trial. definitely cool to ride where the pros did.

on the last incline, an suv nearly swiped me by a few inches… but nothing could contain my excitement and joy.. we crossed the line.. in 6:37 worth of ride time. not bad at all. we were all happy with the results, especially it being so early in the year.

post-ride, we cleaned up, and got a beer. the server working there said we could take pictures of us drinking beer and post it up on “the facebook”. post-drink, we headed to the hitching post in casmalia, where rangsiwan ate STEAK, just for my jerkday and to celebrate the ride. yesssss.

before we left on sunday, we ate at paula’s for some pancakes.. then ate danishes and sweets for the next 3 hours. and bought $14 buckets of cookies.
the end.

still good. fortunately! i started training earlier this year, mostly because i signed up to do the solvang century on march 14. i dont think i’ve ever done an event this early in the year. in fact, my first event in 2008 was the tierra bella 100k in april, and even then, it was early to my standards. i didnt start riding until mid march.. suffice to say it was one of the most painful rides ive done.

what i did different this year

my first training ride was january 17th. the previous three weeks were spent recovering from a bad cold and cough that kept me sidelined.  i started out with a fair base from the gym workous, mostly weights and cardio. the rides were slow and easy. not just slow, but slooooowwww. i didn’t bother hitting the hills until the 5th ride out. i increased distance each week but about 20%.. twice what i usually increase by, but the stress of a march ride got to me. even though the rides were slow, i jumped to 50 miles in the 3rd week.  surely small by any other standard, but i was recovering from a cold, and most of these rides were in 40 degree weather. cold enough for double base layers and long gloves! after the first 50, i limited my rides to around 40 miles to allow for some acclimation. gym and cardo were still in full effect, 5 days a week, including spin on tuesdays. my body felt good, and taking the slow approach felt better than previous starts.

i also experimented with my nutrition. last year, i had a dependency on sports drinks, and when a friend introduced carbo pro to me, i gained a dependence on that as well. it was honestly like crack, because i thought i couldnt survive without it. all my pre-hill rides (first 4 rides)  either involved only water, or one bottle of motortabs, and possibly one packet of gu or clif bloks if i felt dizzy (no, probably shouldnt wait till im dizzy, ever again).  ill pull a george washington, and tell you that i suffered quite a bit on the rides. complete and utter withdrawal.. but well worth it when i did a 50 mile ride with water and 2 motortabs, and clif bloks.

when i started the group rides (read: group of 3, haha), i’d have one bottle of cytomax, and any refills would be motortabs. id eat clif bloks to stave off hunger, and maybe one packet of gu if the shit hit the fan. riding in a group is always much more difficult for me because i feel obligated to keep up with the pace (obviously), and take pulls. for large events, ill bring along packets of carbo pro + cytomax.. because the last thing i wanna do is take any risks. i take much less than i did before, which is a beautiful thing because i always felt i was on the verge of bonking in previous years.  on shorter training rides, i’ll continute to limit myself to a motortabs and clif bloks, or maybe one bottle of cytomax depending on the route.

new gear makes me happy (most of the time)

in 2007 i got a set of zipp 404′s, with a powertap in the rear. we were doing STP for the first time, and i knew i’d need any kind of energy saving advantage i could get if we were going to paceline the whole day through 204 miles. while they’re a great wheelset, tough as nails, and smooth.. but regardless of that, they were still a set of carbon hoops that had me more worried than anything.. especially on long descents that required me to ride the brakes because gravity loves me.

i bought a garmin 705 to keep track of power + distance since the new 705′s and new powertaps use ant+ for communication. i tried to update my zipp powertap wheel, but according to saris, my 2007 wheel was “old”, and needed to be updated at the factory. stank. the wheel was out for 2 weeks. in the mean time, i got a new wheelset from wheelbuilder.com. kinlin 30mm rims, powertap sl+ rear with ceramic bearings, and a dt swiss 190c front hub.  i had a few quibbles with the wheels, but nothing that didn’t get fixed right away. apparently powertap campy hubs were brand new, and were slightly off with machining, so when the wheels were on and there was weight on the wheel, the hub wouldn’t allow itself to freewheel, and the chain would catch on the rear derailleur. wheelbuilder.com sent me a small washer (1/1000 of an inch, i believe), that solved my problem instantly. imagine how close those tolerances are if 1/1000 of an inch were between me and my chain dropping. the rims are nice and stiff, but the brake track is much smaller than the zipps or the mavics. my conti gp 4000 tires won’t fit without me using metal tire levers to get the them on. i sliced through a finger and my arm in a 30 minute struggle that broke 3 steel core soma levers. i eventually found some lezyne tire lever/wrenches/bottle openers that did the trick. let me tell you, i LOVE lezyne products now.

i switched out my fsa k-force compact carbon bar for the aluminum version. a friend’s friend took a nasty fall after his bars failed (probably from a previous crash), and it got me spooked. the aluminums vibrate the shit out of my hands and wrists, and i think im starting to feel wrist pain from them.. but not sure if switch back to carbon is worth it. for now, fizik bar gel helps by providing some much needed padding.

what now?

aside from getting over ANOTHER cold, the training rides will continue.. cycling through distances and routes, and building up to a century each month until STP.  im excited about all the riding im doing this year.. and at the moment, it feels damn good. one ride down, 4 more to go.

well. this time i almost proved myself wrong. i tried to change the site url, and ZOIKS.. error 500. oh sons of bitches. i tried feverishly to restore from older backups, not really knowing what the hell i really did, or how id fix it (i said i was a programmer, not a webmaster HA, kidding).

a panicked hour later, i ended up searcing for ‘wordpress misconfiguration’. i came up with a few good forum posts, but none with a valid solution.

eventually giving into despair i started the multiple word google search. you all know what im talking about. when nothing seems to work, you start searching for “computer does not work please help me”.

well. i eventually ran into the solution, and ill post it here, because one day i may make the same mistake again.

http://codex.wordpress.org/Changing_The_Site_URL

amen, people. amen.

(and look out for a site redesign.. you know, like one that has a little bit of effort put into it)

so what, one fool might ask of themselves.. what the hell should i do? im not saying go foolish and run a marathon (even though it might be hella fools nature to sign up anyway), but do something special. its like that burrito that holds a special place in your heart. its there because its an opportunity that doesnt come around often, but when it does, youre willing to knock a punkass over for it and take their burrito at the same time.

all im sayin is be the burrito. be special. be that new opportunity because this shit doesnt come around often, so youve got to be focused and in the moment every single chance you get. that goes for everything.. especially training.

of course, for hella fools!!!, there is no other way to analogize training than to compare it to a burrito.

its a little rough at the ends. anticipation always starts strong, mouth watering. you seize opportunity with both hands, eagerness overflowing. you reach the middle of the burrito with the fire, but youre a little slower, a little cautious because you started so quickly in the beginning. everyone slows down in the middle. fear of overeating can take over, but you know from previous bouts with “training”, youve just got to feel your way around and be agile enough to either keep going or put the burrito down… but just for a second. youre in it for the longhaul, so near the end you cowboy the fuck up and keep going. you hit a little rough patch because you picked up speed again after the middle, and sometimes you wanna almost slow down again just to savor the flavor, and take stock because you know itll end soon. you know this burrito wont come around often so you make the burrito, the moment, special.

so what does all that mean? im not sure. i know im hungry though. and that im thinking of burritos. but im thinking of training at the same time.

no, really.. what i mean is, train like its your last burrito. enjoy it. have fun. savor it. but dont get shit wrong.. because youre there for a purpose. youre not the sorry sack-of-shit types that want beans in your burrito. youre the carne asada type. substance, no filler. you wanna go all out, none of that tide-you-over till next time bs.  to be cliché, youre in it to win it. you aint there to be a plain bean and rice burrito, youre there to be a carne asada burrito. be special. be the burrito. train like a madman (or madwoman *bite knuckles*).