April 2008

It was Tuesday night at Hellyer last night and there were a number of brave souls out getting a good serving of pain in the cold, windy air of southern San Jose. I decided that I would throw my hat in the ring and give it a shot, so I paid my dues and grabbed a rent-a-wreck (The Wife was using the bike I normally ride) for some scratch race circling. Since there was close the stated requirement of women and juniors to hold a separate race for them I got shoved into the ‘B’ group. I had to laugh when Larry Nolan asked if I was racing ‘A’s or ‘B’s; I am more of a ‘C’ anyway, and since it had been a month without hard riding I knew that even the ‘C’s would be a stretch, the ‘A’s someplace in the stratosphere for me at this time.

Larry ran a bit late, so by the time I got the rental bike and did a quick setup there was not much time for a warmup. Then I had to wait through the 30 laps of the first women’s race to get out on the track. Let’s just say that I was out of my league at this time with that group. I could hang most of the time, but when Andreas and a couple of others threw down the gloves the pace went too high for me and I was chasing the tail of dragon. Then there was a LONG time until our next race as the women did a second and ‘A’s their first, and most of us were torn between using the judging stand as a windbreak or breaking it apart to make a fire on the infield. Even riding the warmup circle was not sufficient to generate sufficient heat to keep me warm enough and the lower back started to seize up. Crap, already at a disadvantage then that. I mused on throwing in the towel, but decided to go back out for the second race and see how long I could last. I actually did a bit better the second time. I pulled out after a pull on the front with 5 laps to go; the legs were spent and I knew The Wife was probably becoming a human popsicle while flipping numbers on the lap counter (she was).

Ten days before the next race, the EBC crit. Not sure if the thumb will be where I want it to be. I will give it a tryout this weekend, then a bit better one next Tuesday when I join in the fun of the SJBC Twilight crit in south San Jose. My current plan is to alternate Tuesdays between the track and the Twilight crits for the next 4 months, with every 4th Tuesday being in a recovery week where I will play course marshal rather than race. If you are looking for some Tuesday night fun, come an join in.

I got a flyer in the mail this weekend for the High Uintas Stage Race. We get a lot of flyers advertising century rides, races, and tours, and they usually go straight to the recycle bin. But this one got my attention. A stage race with high altitude climbing …. and all in some of my old stomping grounds! I did my undergraduate work at the U. of Utah, and backpacking in the High Uintas Primitive Area was my escape from the rigors of Organic Chemistry, Biochemistry, Calculus, Biomechanics, and other such serious topics. Hmm, two days of brutalizing one-self at elevation. Sounds like fun, but this year’s calendar is full so it will have to wait at least another year. I am sure that one of the counter arguments will be that I/we should do the Everest Challenge first, to which I reply: Bring it on!

Not me. Not even close to being retired, semi or otherwise. No, it is my thumb splint, my constant companion of the past 25 days that has been put into semi-retirement. I saw the orthopedic surgeon yesterday who, after taking a couple of photos and doing some poking and prodding, pronounced that the thumb was healing well and it was time to let it out of the splint during ‘normal activities’. He warned I should wear it if I engaged in activities where it was likely I could take an impact to the thumb (if taken literally that is anything for a klutz like me), so I took that to mean that most of the time I can live without that hard plastic shell. Yippee!

Yesterday evening I took a fast 20 mile loop up into the Los Altos Hills to give the thumb a test. Still cannot shift the thumb lever on the right side, so Wente RR is now officially off the table, though unofficially I had been resigned to it being unrealistic for the past 10-12 days. The goal now is to work towards being ready for the EBC crit two weeks from tomorrow (10 May 2008).

Madera Madness

Wow, sometimes by ignoring on-line discussions you miss out on some good cat-fights. There was some real head butting about the Madera Stage race over on the ncncaracing list. Some folks get fairly dogmatic that they have seen the truth and cannot understand when others do not agree. Sheesh. Oh well, hopefully now that the full moon has come and gone that little battle is finished.

Last Saturday I was at a birthday celebration for Mintie Linsey, who finished 3rd in the GC for the Women 4 at Madera, and I was asked when the photos I had taken at Madera would be on-line. Ooops, apologies to Mason and others who have been waiting. I finally retrieved the camera from the bag last night and will now go through them and post some to the gallery RSN (Real Soon Now).

A quick scan of the photos provided some evidence of what I had suspected. Not long after The Wife completed her ITT I noted that the rear wheel was flat. That raised questions about if it was going flat during her event which would have increased rolling resistance. No longer supposition; it is clear that as she crossed the finish the part of the tire beyond the tan sidewall is compressed down and barely visible. The replacement tires will be glued onto those wheels this weekend so The Wife can get accustomed to them before the Women’s Stage Race at Kern in three weeks.

It has been 22 days since I broke my thumb.   What a pain, in many ways.  An opposable thumb on the dominant hand is, pardon the pun, a handy thing.   Using scissors, clippers, knives, pens, pencils, and such has been a chore at best for these three weeks.  I get new x-rays and an assessment on Thursday, and I am ready to get rid of this stinking (literally at times) splint and go back to some version of normality.

One thing that has suffered the past three weeks has been hard, disciplined riding.  I have tried to keep up with my normal commute riding, but I have not done some of the harder, longer commute rides that I did regularly before the break.  The first weekend after the incident I got out to test the waters, so to speak, and felt good.  But the following week was brief, interrupted, and ended with the three days of playing the role of support spouse at Madera.  The only ride that weekend was an easy pre-ride of the TT course.  The past weekend I got out for a hard, tempo ride from San Jose to Gilroy and back, and wanted more on Sunday but the ‘honey-do’ task of cleaning and planting the side yard got priority.  Tomorrow I need to get back into regular rides that mimic some sort of training schedule.

And my racing plan for the year went into the toilet with the minor tipover that resulted in a broken thumb.  I have already missed Madera, the one opportunity for a stage race this year.  This weekend it is almost certain I will miss the Wente Road Race, one of the races best suited to my abilities.  To compensate I have signed up for the EBC crit in mid-May and the ICC Dash for Cash crit later in the month, followed by the Pescadero Road Race in mid-June.  I had not intended to do Pescadero this year; I think I could use some more off-season leg strength work before tackling that brutal course.  But it is what it is.  That gives me about 7 weeks or so to get ready, so expect to see me around some of the local hills doing repeats over the next few weeks.

Glue vs. tape update

The twin sidewall punctures at Madera has given me an opportunity to revisit the glue vs. tape for attaching tubular issue.  Just before Madera I had re-glued the front tire, and taped the rear.  Both tires were firmly attached, not likely there would have been a roll-off.  The front tire came off cleanly; on the rear there was a couple of layers of the tape matrix left that was easy enough to remove.  But, and this will be what pushes me to the glue camp, there was a very tacky, squishy, thick layer of glue material left on the rim after removing the tire and the leftover tape.   I spent last night doing the dirty work of stripping all that nasty leftover glue off the rim.  I will go back to glue for the most part, but will leave some Tufa tape in the toolkit just in case I need to attach a tire in a hurry.

I am still working through the concept of training with a power measurement device, a subject I blogged about not long ago. It is a tough choice; SRM’s are too pricey (just see where the price heads when their patent protection ends) and there are too few crank options, Ergomo would require a crank without outboard bearings, and PowerTap has its reliability issues (The Wife’s still blanks in and out with regularity, and seems to be out more than in). And there is the idea that using these devices is “borderline cheating”. But I am slowling coming around towards the dark side and getting closer to throwing it down and getting a power unit.

If I felt lucky I could buy some Accelerade and put my name in to win a pair of Zipp 404’s with a wireless PowerTap. But I think I’ve used up my contest luck (a washing machine and a Jeep Cherokee have come my way through drawings). I bought a pair of Williams System 30 wheels just before the Mt San Bruno hill climb, at a time when Williams was saying that they could not make a deal with Saris to do PowerTaps. Times have changed; if I bought today there is a PowerTap option. So if I give in it will be YASW (Yet Another Set of Wheels) on my dime.

Of course, considering The Wife’s experience I might need a spare to use when the one I buy goes south. Just like Scott Martin writes about in the current issue of RoadBikeRider:

8. SCOTT’S SPIN

Power Outage

Help! I’m powerless.

“Tell us something we don’t know,” say my boss, my IRS auditor and my ex-wife’s lawyer. True enough, but that’s not the kind of power I mean. I’m talking watts, kilojoules, calories.

You see, my 2-month-old power meter died the other day. Evidently I am so powerful that the unit just short-circuited. Smoke poured from the strain gauges in the rear hub, the handlebar-mounted computer display flashed “Uncle!” and . . .

So I’m exaggerating. Actually, one of the contacts on the computer loosened and the unit stopped functioning. I called the company and explained the situation.

“No problem,” said the PowerTap rep. “Just send it back and we’ll fix or replace it.”

“Um, okay,” I replied, suddenly panicked by the thought of being without a gizmo that 3 months ago I disdained as overrated and overpriced. “Could you send me a loaner in the meantime — like when your car breaks down or your iron lung rusts?”

“Sorry, sir, we can’t. We’ll return it to you as soon as possible.”

I briefly considered hand-carrying the unit on a plane, then decided overnight delivery might be more cost-effective. Still, I’d probably be without it for at least a week.

How could this happen? Three months ago I was blissfully power-free. Didn’t even own a heart monitor. Had a cyclecomputer, but couldn’t figure out how to set the time of day. Then my power meter-flouting teammates convinced me to join the bandwagon — largely by crushing me in our weekly workouts.

Now I’m addicted to the instant, accurate feedback a power meter delivers. No more guessing, no more slacking. This wonderful, terrible device inspires me on good days and infuriates me on bad days, but always pushes me to improve.

Maybe I should buy another — for back-up.

(Scott Martin wrote feature articles for Bicycling magazine for a dozen years. He lives and rides in Northern California.)

The Wife and I spent a lovely anniversary weekend in beautiful Madera. The plan had been a hers-n-his racing weekend, but I was the party pooper. The doctors had advised against racing, and if there was any doubt a quick loop of the TT course told me that the shaking, rattletrap roads were no place to ride without a good grip with both hands. I hear that the fabled ‘Roubaix’ section of the road race would have been worse, but I will have to take everyone’s word for it since I was not going to get the pleasure of experiencing it. I got to enjoy the festivities from the sidelines, yelling encouragement, heckling occasionally, and providing support. The Wife will be reporting on her own trials and tribulations. She did a better job than she gives herself credit for, and I am sure she will take the lessons from this weekend and carry them forward. She is a tough cookie! A few notes and observations:

• Lots o’equipment needed, including lots o’tools and spares. That course and the weather is brutal on equipment as well as the riders.
• Check everything nightly: after pre-riding the TT course on Friday I did not inspect the tires. At the TT course on Saturday, just before sending The Wife off to her start, I found some glass embedded in the front tire and a slash in the sidewall of the same tire. Good thing I had spare wheels! I had a spare tubular tire and some Tufo tape with me, too, so if I had found the problems on Friday night The Wife could have ridden on the high zoot Nimble wheel rather than my old road bike front wheel.
• Lots o’riders seem clueless on feed zone protocol. Lots o’folks not taking feed were riding along the right edge and blocking those who wanted feed from getting over. If you are not taking feed, move left; if you are, move right. Darned tough to do the water bottle transfer across three rows of moving cyclists! There was way to much frustration and angst from folks not able to get bottles on Sunday.
• When the weatherman says hot, take twice as much fluids with you as you think you will need. Saturday it was clear we would run short so we made a quick dash to the store to pick up a few more gallons.
• Always check with past participants for restaurant recommendations. Shot in the dark picks are more often miss than hit.

Perhaps next year I can give a first-hand account of the racin’.

Allergy season, that is. The microscopic bits of wind-borne pollen are blowing hither and yon, adding some misery to my life for the next couple of months. Look for the old guy with puffy eyes, drippy nose, and a constant sneezing fit and you will have found me. My worst day ever was in El Paso, Texas, sometime around 1970, when I had a full 12 hour period of constant sneezing (one sneeze every few seconds). Talk about being miserable.

I seem to be immune to most medications for allergies. Claritin? Forget it. This past week I have been trying Zyrtec without any real success. Bendadryl works a little, a bit better if coupled with ‘Sudafed’ (the real deal, pseudoephedrine hydrochloride; ‘Sudafed PE’ does nothing for me). Last year at Sea Otter the allergies were so bad that I had to zip over the local pharmacy and sign my life away for 12 tabs of pseudoephedrine hydrochloride; apparently the feds think I will use them to start a meth lab or something. But even though it helps, some of the side effects of pseudoephedrine hydrochloride do make me relunctant to take it very much (hint: it is used as a first course of treatment for priaprism). So rather than take a daily chemical cocktail I will be suffering, though not so much in silence.

Now to find that extra box of tissues.

Saturday ridin’

I decided to test out riding with the damaged thumb on Saturday but I was not quite ready to tackle the thumb lever of the Campy shifters. So I grabbed the TT bike, with the bar end shifters, and headed to the west. I found it easy to operate the right shifter with a combination of two fingers and the hand. After a nice warmup in the flatlands I made my way into the Los Altos Hills and started some VO2Max intervals, and I was feeling good. I put in a bit over two hours with no problems whatsoever.

Sunday ridin’

If one day of riding is good, two is better. The Wife was heading out to lead a team workout and asked if I wanted to carpool northward to ride in that area. Sure, but what bike? I had torn down the TT bike to clean and prep for Madera this coming weekend and did not have time to get it together. So I threw the Colnago in the Toaster and headed out to Woodside. While The Wife and her teammates did their review of what was ahead I did some loops of the parking lot and found I could use the finger next to the thumb to shift the thumb lever, just not smoothly or quickly. I did a warmup then cruised north on Cañada road for a fast tempo ride. There was heavy drizzle and stiff headwinds, but I did not care. The legs felt great and I rode hard, minimizing gear changes. I got in a big gear and powered up, doing 22-25MPH even on the uphill sections, all the while keeping the cadence above 95 rpms. I was shooting past groups of riders, the only one’s who were matching me were two guys in DBC kits. If I had felt that good, and had that much drive, last Sunday then I think I would have been in the front group all day. Maybe the extra rest did me good, or maybe the somewhat hard workout on Saturday. Need to sort that out, but it was fun and I was feeling it.

Glue and tape

One of my teammates had a tubular tire roll of the rear rim while he was cruising for an almost certain 2nd place at the Rondee von Brisbeen crit a week ago. The race official noted there was very little glue on either the tire or the rim. The teammate says that the tire was mounted by a local bike shop owner, one whom some folks claim tell them that they use too much glue when mounting tubulars. I do not know about that, but that shop owner has told me that I should be able to swap tubulars faster than I can repair a flat clincher. Never been able to, mostly due to the time it takes me to peel the old tire off the rim; maybe if I used less glue I could peel them off faster.

The incident has led to a lot of on-line chatter about gluing techniques, etc. Basically it is a religious war as to whether to glue or tape, if glue which one, etc. With Madera a week away, and The Wife wanting to ride the TT with the high zoot carbon trispokes, with tubulars, I decided to peel and remount the tires just to make sure they were on well. I glued on the front, using the Continental glue. For the rear I tried Tufo tape. When picking up the tape I did a quick check: regular or extreme? Extreme is for ‘extreme’ conditions of low or high temperatures, with the ‘extreme high’ meaning above 74 degrees F! Where is the world is it that 74 degrees F is an extreme high? Antarctica? I know Tufo is a Czech company, but the Czech Republic is not that moderate in their temperature range. Upshot is I went for the ‘Extreme’ stuff. While I was at it, I got a new tubular spare and needed to stretch that. All I can say is that gluing tires and stretching new tires onto rims really calls for having two good thumbs. I got it all done, but it was not easy.

New track wheels

While looking at the website of the manufacturer of the carbon trispokes for gluing recommendations I found that they sell a road to track kit for the wheels. For a couple of bills I can get the parts so I can swap them back and forth between road/TT duty and use at the track. Sweet! A lot more friendly on the budget than a new set of wheels.

I had my date with the orthopedic hand specialist and now I understand what the folks at Urgent Care were not telling me.  My rather enormous thumb has two breaks.  One is a rather standard, straight across the bone type and that gets and ‘oh well’ reaction from the doc.  The second is a smaller break, but it is where the flexor tendon inserts on the distal phalanx (say that 3 times fast) so the concern was that bending (flexing) the thumb might be compromised.   Apparently not, so I was sent home to let it heal naturally.  And the humongous wrist to mid-thumb splint that was functionally inadequate but impressive looking has been downgraded to a  flesh colored plastic thumb cozy in the largest size available.   Word is 3-4 weeks to heal with the advice that I can ride but should not race during that period.  So no racing at Madera, but Wente Vineyards Road Race in just over 3 weeks might be possible.  I have a followup with the doc 2 days before Wente.   Time to start prepping!

It appears I will not be doing the scratch race at Hellyer tonight. My track bike has been reconfigured to carry The Wife, but that is a result not the cause. Nope, all pretty stupid.

Yesterday I was riding to work when a dog, a big dog (yellow lab) ran out suddenly in front of me. As I evaded the front wheel dropped off the edge into dirt, the wheel caught, and I went down to the left. I was doing all of maybe 7-10MPH at best. Got a bit of scrape on the left knee. Nothing major. But as the day wore on the right thumb kept swelling, and then turned a nice blue. Just got back from getting some pics taken; fractures (plural) of the distal phalanx. All I can think is the thumb caught on the brake lever as I twisted down.

I am in a splint, icing and medicating to reduce swelling. Then the orthopedist will decide on the next step. Looking like I might be a spectator at Madera. Dang!

On the positive side, the upgrade sticker to put on the license was in this morning’s mail. Not that it matters much since I race open or mixed categories for the most part.