Saratoga Springs and Training Thus Far...

Last weekend I managed to make it to Saratoga Springs for a tour of the Serotta factory. I have to say, it is a very interesting place. They seem to have very high attention to detail, though some of their manufacturing methods seem unneccessarily complicated and I still question their method of table-ing (tabling?) a frame as opposed to the new accepted method. Regardless, I think I might have to look into saving up for one.

I am almost done building up my rain/cruddy weather bike. Which couldn't be done soon enough, because all of last week was solid rain. Training has been mostly nonexistant, though I did get a decent ride in today. My new goal is to get at least some minimal amount of riding in every day. Hopefully I can start riding to work again as well.

Track Opening Weekend

Well by a strange turn of events, I managed to make it to opening weekend. And as an added bonus, didn't come in DFL. In fact, I was slightly impressed with my results, considering how little I've been able to train. I managed fifth in the kilo, despite completely losing track of my lap count and thinking I was one lap ahead of where I was (I advise against doing a kilo on a 400m track-2.5 laps gets very confusing). That really was the only major result. I ended up sliding to 15th place, being one point short of getting 10th. Looking back, I probably could have gotten that point in the last race (a miss and out), but I dropped out early because the field was racing very sketchy. We even had to reride as one guy broke his collarbone after the second lap. Needless to say, I didn't want to suffer the same fate on my birthday with my family watching.

Track(less) work

Well I'd say it's about time for another update. Yesterday I cleaned up the track bike and had Will at Roadworx (the best shop) take a look at my fit. As it turns out, I fail at math and had the saddle way too high. Today I decided to do some sprints to see how the legs are feeling. Two summers ago, I found a section of road right by me that is low traffic, with a 200m stretch from a speed limit sign to a 3-way stop. I use the stop line at the 3-way as my finish line without having to worry too much about getting hit by a car because this is a T intersection, with my direction of travel being along the top of the T (if that makes any sense). The legs were feeling good, but by the end the hands were feeling...well...they weren't feeling. They were frozen. Next weekend is the start of the race season here, with the first cadence cup race on saturday and the first spring series race the next day. I'll keep an eye to the weather to see if I'll head out there or not. I think the hardest part of these races will be getting there in time. 6:30 am start time with an hour of travel to get there. ouch. I might ride up to kissena after the saturday race to get a few laps in. Hopefully I can start updating this thing more often.

First race of the season

Looking at what little of the NY race schedule I can find, it looks like the first race in the Cadence Cycling Prospect Park series will be my first race for the season. It looks like it should be pretty good. Only 14 miles long (pfft.) and comes with a pink leader's jersey. Between that and the fact that the second race of the series is in May, this means that I could potentially be the cat 5 series winner for a full two months! what a deal. Looks like I'll have to focus on going really hard for only 14 miles. Base...who needs it?

As for actual training...well...yeah. I have gotten a few rides in, but between the snowing, raining, freezing, slow thawing and endless sanding/salting of the roads, I haven't really felt like going out at all. And as fun as they might be, the rollers have still sat in their corner. Today, however, I did crack out the ol' cross country skis. Man, I'm hurting from that. Though that might be because I still have no clue what I'm doing when it comes to skiing. Or possibly having to jump a fence to get to a nice field to ski on.

And so it begins...

Dear Internet,
Well. I finally did it. My very own training blog. Yes indeed. Big things are happening now. Anyhow, I was supposed to ride today with Gregory from the Kreb Cycle. Needless to say, I overslept. So instead it was a solo ride to the old field lighthouse and back. 20ish miles. Sorta hilly. Well as hilly as this area gets, at least. I also replaced my cleats again. They lasted a solid 2kmi (that's kilo-miles). Actually, come to think of it, it's been longer than that, because the last time I replaced them, I was still racing track. Speaking of which, one of these days I'll have to post my season goals. My main focus will be track. And finally doing enough road races to cat up. Well there's that. I'd say this is a pretty solid first post. I'm happy with it. It's supposed to snow tomorrow and then switch to freezing rain, so that either means rollers, cross country skiing, or most likely doing nothing. Now that's commitment. I do plan on helping out at the food pantry in the morning though, so I can still feel good about myself.