Extreme Momentum

Fiesta Island TT Series #1
February 7, 2010 – San Diego, CA
Masters 30-39 – 10th – 32:18
285 watts – 23.1 MPH

Time trials for us Chicagoans in February usually mean riding a Computrainer like a hamster in the Winfield Middle School. While it may not be “fun”, it helps break up the winter training doldrums. Those folks who are lucky enough to live in “warm” climates like SoCal, Arizona, etc. actually have a winter racing season. Well, I didn’t want to miss out on their fun, so I took the opportunity to get in an early season OUTDOOR TT in San Diego today.

The main TT course in San Diego is Fiesta Island. It’s a completely flat “sand dune” next to Seaworld. The San Diego Bicycle Club (SDBC) sponsors a season long TT series on the island that runs from February to October. It’s a 4 mile loop with sweeping turns and nary a hill. Three loops for 20K. The course is completely closed to traffic. The only downside is that races are EARLY. Riders need to register between 6 AM or 6:45 AM or they forgo their time slot.

I got there at 6:15 AM and it was still dark. The parking lot was full and I was cursing that I didn’t have a flashlight. This was apparent when I showed up to the registration table with my license and race flyer rather than my signed waiver (which was still in my trunk). Plus, I got tons of odd looks because I was wearing shorts and it was “only” in the mid 50s. Oh, well. I had plenty of time to warm-up and was happy to have brought my Knog Frogs since the sun was just creeping up. I prerode the course and soon had a bike covered with sand ( from the 2″ of rain the day before). I also ended up getting a flat tire on my way back to the car with about 10 minutes before my start. Thankfully, I brought a spare tube.

I had decided to race “Eddy Merckx” style (aka, non aero) since shipping my TT bike was pretty expensive for just one race. I was actually happy I did this, since I had never raced a TT like that before and it was early season so my expectations wouldn’t be skewed. Most of the other riders are TT rigs, so I was expecting to get passed but passing anyone else would get me motivated.

There was a pretty strong headwind on the first part of the course, but made for a fun tailwind on the home stretch. I was amazed at how quick this course went. I’m not sure if it was the short laps or curving nature of the course. Not the usually cornfield bores we have in the Midwest. I paced myself fairly well throughout the race and felt much better than my legs were feeling. Biking 65 miles the day before didn’t help, but I was targeting this primarily as a workout anyway.

I ended up finishing in 32:18 for 10th in the Masters 30-39 for an average speed of 23.1 MPH. For this time of year and my “old school” setup, I was very happy with my result. My power was about where I was at the peak of 2009. Another cool part of this race was not being the only XXXer! Greta Neimanas had been in the area training and posted the 2nd fastest women’s time. Wow…1800 miles from Chicago and we had more XXXers in a TT than we normally do within 50 miles of Chicago (HINT, HINT to the rest of the team).

I’m planning on coming back to San Diego in March for some more “spring training” and hope to get another TT in if I can. For anyone visiting the San Diego area, be sure to check out the Fiesta Island TT series. The SDBC puts on a first class operation. And, it’s a guaranteed Fiesta!

I almost forgot to mention that this is an ABR race! Not only do they sanction the MATTS series in the Chicago area, but also the Fiesta Island TT series.

The Fiesta Island Time Trial course (20K, 3 laps).

Photo by Dave Strom.

Photo by Dave Strom.

Photo by Rose Nguyen.

Photo by Rose Nguyen.

I’ve had a couple of good days of riding in 60 degree F weather here in San Diego. Nothing THAT sunny, but it’s been dry and nice not to have to wear leg warmers, winter hats, booties, etc. in February. I had planned my longer ride today and it just happened to be the one day we got 1-2″ of rain (SoCal really needs it). Well, here’s my route and a typical shot of the radar today.  Ironically, we probably won’t get weather like this along Lake Michigan until May. And, it also felt like a normal Memorial Day weekend in Madison. Unfortunately, I just saw the forecast for Chicago on Tuesday…about 8″ of snow…looks like I’m bringing back the precipitation, not the warmth…:)

Most of the flats that I’ve gotten over the years were caused by small pieces of glass. No surprise there, because shards of glass are the nemesis of every cyclist. Until yesterday, I would only consider one flat “weird”. Several years ago I once had a drywall screw puncture my MTB tire and actually seal it. I was riding home with a “click-click-click” and couldn’t figure out what was causing it. I have no idea how that screw ended up on a bike path though.

While riding back from Oceanside yesterday, I was happy that I hadn’t gotten a flat considering the amount of glass that I had ridden over and the number of cyclist that I saw changing tires by the side of the road. Entering Carlsbad, I knew my luck had run out. I knew I had a flat, since my tire rapidly lost pressure and I was riding on the rim.  Oh, well, should be a quick change and time to get back on the road.

Looking for the piece of glass on the tire, I was surprised to find a construction nail.  Yep, it had straight through the tire, tube, rim tape, and even the rim. Yikes. Check out the photo below and you’ll see where the nail punctured the rim.  The wheel is still rideable and I can do some “welding” when I get home.  Still amazes me though with the physics involved in getting a nail to do that.  Yep, I have a new “weirdest” flat.

When I found out I had to go to San Diego for work, I decided to head out early to see Rose and enjoy some real December weather (aka, sunny and 70s). The only downside of going was not having my bike with in the great weather. I’ve taken my bike before in heavy duty cases like the Performance ones or soft sided cases like the Akona Biospeed.  However, these were huge and often scrutinized by airline personal. With travel fees for bikes approaching $200 each way, renting a bike seems much cheaper. That’s when I remembered the Ritchey Break Away.

Nearly everything I heard or read about the Ritchey Break Away lauded it’s portability and said it rode very similar to their regular bikes. One of my teammates  highly recommended it. Considering I had several trips planned this winter, I decided to go ahead and order one. I had all of the parts ready to take from my CX bike.

I won’t get into the details. I’ll write a longer review later, but overall  I found it hard to pack the first time. I think this was part of the learning process, since assembling it was a breeze. I’ve posted some photos below. It took me about 15 minutes.

For some reason, holidays never seem to work out as planned in my family. I won’t get into the details, but I wasn’t surprised when I drove down my alley on Thanksgiving AM only to have my tire pressure light come on.  WTF?  I had just checked the tire pressure the week before, but it had been a few days since I had last driven my car.  My tire was nearly flat, so I decided not to take any chances.  I missed Thanksgiving with my dad, but was able to drive up to WI on Friday after getting the tire repaired (another victim of last winter and another reason why I got road hazard insurance).  I didn’t get in as much biking in WI as I wanted, but I had fun biking the Military Ridge State Trail on Saturday night.

On my way from Prairie du Chien to Mt. Horeb, I realized that I had left my tire levers and CO2 inflator at home. Not good, since I got a flat the last time I rode this trail. I swung into Walmart to see what they had.  I knew they would have tire levers, but was pleasantly surprised to see they carried a Zefal CO2 inflator.  However, at the check out, the clerk scanned the inflator only to find out they couldn’t sell it too me.  Huh?  The manager said it was due to a product recal. A little research the next day showed that Zefal was getting sued by Genuine Innovations for patent infringement, so the recall makes sense (see here).  I still had a hand pump in case I got a flat, but I was a little peeved they still had these on the shelves. Oh, well, Walmart isn’t a specialty bike shop.

When I got to Mt. Horeb, there were some still people running the trail (it had been in the 50s around noon), which was great to see especially since it was Saturday night and temps were now the lows 30s . It took me awhile to get dressed with all of my cold weather gear. I headed west towards Dodgeville and encountered a mushy trail with some leftover snow, but happy that wind was minimal (compared to the last time I rode this trail earlier in November).  I was jacked to have both my Ay Up helmet and handlebar lights.  They were so bright that I could light up a road sign on the other side of US 151 (just as if they were car headlights).  I was anticipating seeing a few deer, but only saw a couple of rabbits.  Riding the trail at night was a little spooky with a near full moon and plenty of stars.   Here’s a bad photo from the trail using my cell phone camera:

I got as far as Ridgeway before I decided to turn around. I would have loved riding all the way to Dodgeville, but it was cold and I still had to drive 3+ hours back to Chicago.  Here’s my route:

By the time I got back to Mt. Horeb, I was  frozen.  Once I got my clothes changed and on the road in a heated car I began to thaw out, but I still had tingling in my fingers for a few more hours. Weird.  And speaking of weird, I stopped at Kwik Trip to pick up some New Glarus beer, which you can’t find in IL.  Turns out they can’t sell beer after 9 PM in Dane Country (it used to be only Madison).  Huh? Wisconsin is getting wackier all of the time, especially guys like this who grew up there…