Saturday, June 25, 2011

Breaking In


It's best to make faces
at the wind.
Saturday: The replacement crankset has arrived!  To break it in, I took a nice stroll from Montpelier to Lake Elmore, through "moose country", a total of about 42 miles and a max of 10% grade.  I made the stroll solo today, enjoying the slightly cooler weather along the way.  It was great to have a crankset that is... well.. whole, and not missing a large part of the spindle.  While the old crankset was ridable with the damage, the new one is much more stable and noticeably stiffer, especially during out of the saddle efforts.  I figure on being back to racing by July.  Since there are no races nearby that I can enter, next weekend will be spent doing long hours, just like this weekend.  I can figure on doing long hours tomorrow as well.
Start of the Elmore steeps
To briefly recap the week... previous to Saturday
Tuesday: I did plenty of hours this week, including a practice criterium in Essex Jct, where I finished in 7th.  The race itself was a blast!  I managed to sneak off some attacks in the saddle with my bum crankset.  Not being able to power out of the saddle or use my smallest and fastest two gears was a huge disadvantage.  With the replacement crank installed, I'm excited to say that the next event, practice or sanctioned will at the least have all 10 gears and be a hell of a lot faster.
Wednesday: Not that interesting... rode... few hours.  NEXT!
Thursday: I also was able to make it to the GMBC South Greenbush Time Trial after spending about 3 hours in the saddle prior to the TT on Thursday.  Ben and I ventured to the Time Trial.  Full in aero gear, minus the profile bars, I took to the sub 9 mile course straight on into the head wind.  After catching four people, and only being caught by one tank on two wheels, I'm pretty happy with my performance still considering the lack of lower two gears and ability to grind out of the saddle.  This coming week brings options for the Time Trials as well as race paced rides.
Friday: I spent the day mountain biking in Camp Johnson.  Not many miles, but lots of hard work climbing through the woods, over roots and GETTIN' MUDDY!  A good break from getting dirty on the wet rain soaked roads of this fair Green Mountain State.

Montpelier to Elmore is both challenging and fast.

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