Quite day with another doper

My day was pretty quiet today and went for an easy ride up to the North. After spending the week off the bike because my bike was in the shop I decided to take it easy. I took my bike into the LBS for my pre-season/after winter pamper. Similar to what women do by going to the beauty salon I take the other lady of my life to her own special pampering parlor. Generally I have the cables and chain replaced as well as a general checkup where I replace anything that may be worn. This time around the headset, rear tire, BB and middle chain-ring all needed to be replaced, so this was a rather expensive trip to the shop and it took the whole week because of the holidays that were sprinkled between. At least now everything is working as required on the bike and I can know that something is not going to snap or break because I did not replace something before the time, much better to do it before the time and prevent problems.

Onto today's ride. I did an easy hour and a half ride up to Rosh HaNikra, the normal easy ride loop that takes me along the coast and with the weather lately the normal calm Mediterranean was kicking up white horses, I even spotted some surfers trying to catch the four foot waves blowing in. I was listening to the iPod and a new Podcast, the Two John's. Interesting stuff and its bike related so I'll give it a go. They have a wealth of knowledge but each show is about two hours long so its not a one sitting type of podcast I'm used to. An uneventful ride although it is still hell of a beautiful with all the flowers opening up on this harsh land.

Finally I read that we are once again befallen by another doping problem. Tyler Hamilton, of the badboys of cycling Rock Racing Team, was a little too bad. What i don't understand is that he knowingly took the substance, as if the riders that dope don't normally knowingly take the products. He claims to be suffering from depression so you sort of feel sorry for the guy but once you read that he once accused of paying some serious dollars to Dr. Fuentes you have to ask the question, why not go to a specialist and find some treatment that is not going to throw the entire peleton back into the spotlight. He will go on to retire and cycling will take another kick while its down. As if the news of Lance last week was not disconcerting enough now we have the real deal again. Lets hope that this will just go away quickly, thankfully he is not claiming his innocence and wondering who slipped something into his drink at the local pub.

Smooth

News has not been on the low side but sitting and writing it down has been. My first race for over three month's is coming up this Friday. During the hot summer months the roadies take center stage as we dust loving fat tired daredevils fly around ever drying track. As you can see from the graph below the race is going to be really tough. Went out yesterday to do a few laps on the track and was turning in times about half a minute down on the elite riders. Good news for the upcoming weekend of the Israeli Cup in Misgav. The first half is really the tough part because of the steep drop on the technical track that is pretty loose because the soil has worked loose. The there's a huge climb to that has a serious kick in the beginning that calls for the granny gear to be whipped out.Today I got the bike back after a bit of TLC at the local Fox dealers. after the yearly maintenance check. They did the work in a day so decided to buy them a six pack for the good work. It put a big ass smile on their faces and sure they'll be sipping on some ice cold barely goodness as you read this.Now all I need is to get the cables replaced on the bike and I'm set for the weekend's race. Trying to fit all this in while still needing to put in the hours at work is tough.

I also found myself spread on the floor last night with a wicked smile spread across Mirit's face as she ripped the hair out my legs. Decided to go the bald route on the legs for no other reason that to see the veins popping out. Phsycology plays just as much a part of the race as anything else so I'm hoping that the other riders will be a bit surprised by my entry into the next level mid season. Just hoping to go there and get a good result as I must say that saddle time has been as high as I can get it without being fired. Happy days

Clever Idea's - Tire Lever

Read Blue Collar's idea about using quick release as a tire lever in a tight spot. Read the full article here.

Feeling the love

I won't mince my words but the last few weeks I have been shite in practice and completely not enjoying the rides. Just flat with no inspiration to go out there and push a bit harder. i think after the hectic early season we have over here weekend after weekend, racing and training at full tilt i was a bit run down. It all sort of leaped up on me after only just starting and got swept away by the intensity of it all. Like most things that have peaks this roller coaster needed to come back down to earth. Last two weeks have been tough training weeks for me because I had nothing to motivate me to get on with it. There was avoid that I think the professionals are so afraid of reaching after their careers come to an end. You seem to have an emptiness without that adrenaline which kept you pushing your own limits. An example is that I would get up in the freezing cold darkness and go for a ride or spend time in the gym on a trainer keeping myself pumped by thinking about the payoff's. Now the season's have changed, I don't need warmers for either arms or legs. I might start with something warm but I take it off as soon as I've warmed up. The sun seems to be beating me up and there is no more chill in the once crisp morning air. The problem with this new found possibility of getting out there in comfortable conditions?? I just don't have that lust to leave my bed. Work has been an element but still not the main force behind it.
That was until Thursday and Friday's riding. I simply took off from my regular training program and went exploring around the area. I've wanted to do something like this for a long time and now was also the time before our trip next weekend. All in all I put in 100km in just under five hours. My legs were feeling it and I'm wondering how good things are going to go when we'll be doing similar distances in 1 day, 9 days in a row. Helped Mirit's brother set his bike up for their trip with the panniers and rack, quite tricky on a bike with disk brakes and not made for touring. I had a bit of a shock when cleaning my old bike, a Giant Boulder. Decided I'd use these with my panniers that I bought instead of the Epic with the trailer. Problem in that the rear dropouts thread has worn out and you can't replace it becasue is built into the frame. Not sure if I'll be able to re-thread it or if I'll need to make another plan with a spare dérailleur hanger and some super glue. Life is always interesting.

Punctures

I'm writing about an event that thankfully has not happend to me in quite some time. We've all had them at some time, you can't be a cyclist without this peril. Fixing punctures are not on my all time list of favorite things to do on a ride. That snakelike hiss can only be more terrible if the source was an actual snake. But normally as a cyclist you drop your head and pull over hoping that spare tube is still in good condition. I went through a patch last year that I was getting a few pucntures a month. Some were snake bites, for a full run down of the types of punctures take a look here, and some nasty little horned monsters throwing themselves at my unprotected wheels. I remember at one point I was siting in the evenings patching up all the tubes, it became quite expensive to keep buying new ones, almost every night for a full week. The most terrible thing would be a puncture with a group of strong riders and then have to pull over, everyones eyes rolling, and then stumbling around with gloves and tiny tools. This all topped off with a spare tube that also does not want to inflate and on closer inspection reveals another hole. I can count these with ease on both hands and still need to use some of my toes. My worst was a ride all on my lonesome into the wild bush without either spare tube or pump. Something I vow never to do again. Murphy must have spotted this predicament I had placed myself in and subsequently placed a nice big rock in path path while flying down a hill. She at least let me get to the bottom before the inevitable PSSSSSSSSST. I was buggered and had to walk about five kilometers to the car with shoes not ideally suited for hiking. After that I converted my bike to a tubless system. Basically you take a smaller inner tube, 20" in my case, and split it along the outer edge. This you place around the rim with the valve in place and the extra tube flapping over the edge. After that you replace the tire and then just before popping the tire on completely you fill the it with some sealant. Then you inflate a little making sure the tire is sitting on the wheel OK. After this inflate to your desired pressure and using a box cutter remove the excess inner tube that will be squeezed between the tire and rim. Just make sure not to cut the tire and there you have a DIY tubeless system that I have used without hassle for well over a year. You will need to refill the sealant every now and then but other than that you can be sure that the chances of getting aflat are drastically reduced.