Ken Lecomte - 15K mission accomplished, amazing!

The responses to my previous "off season training" post were so completely underwhelming, I'm glad to finally have something of substance to post here.

Although they didn't ride with us much this past summer because they were busy riding the flatlands of Florida including Zepher Hills and my all time favorite town name Howie In The Hills (I always wanted to know who Howie was), Ken and Lisa are veterans of the tuesday night ride and did jump on for this year's "COVAC training ride" as well as COVAC itself.

So that gives me about 180 some odd miles out of 15,000 that I got to try and hang onto Ken's wheel this past summer.

As a yard stick to measure Ken's accomplishment; in the five years I've been tracking every mile, foot, inch, hour, minute, second, whatever I've ridden, I'm about 2500 miles short of the miles Ken accumulated in 09.


For those who haven't already read this in Charlie's email, this is an amazing feat.
The bar is set for next year, 20,000 miles.....
Good luck Ken!

The deed is done! I'm sure glad I got it done today because rain is moving in tomorrow. Lisa and I went up to The Villages this morning to ride with some good friends. We had about 15 people along for a nice sociable ride. There was one nervous moment right at the beginning when Lisa touched a wheel in front of her but managed to stay upright. Whew!!!

We had a celebration party at Panera's complete with bagels, danish and champagne. Lisa made this cool sign, we took a few pictures and had a great time.

While cranking out all those miles, I've realized I'm the luckiest man alive. God has blessed me with good health, a great wife (who also rides) and financial independence. All three of these were absolutely necessary for me to accomplish this mileage milestone. Living down here in the land of the elderly makes me particularly aware of my good fortune. When I see what inactive seniors look like I don't need any more motivation to keep riding. I'm going to keep trying for 12K as long as I can, anything more is just gravy. I may try to get some more balance in my life with another activity, probably kayaking, something I've enjoyed in the past.

Thanks Guys for all your encouragement, it's meant a lot to me

Training techniques to prepare for next year

So I've been seeing this psychologist to help me improve my life.
When we finally got to the heart of the matter she pointed out that my life only seemed to suck because of my inability to perform well, on the bike. "Unless you can get over your feelings of inadequacy on the bike, you'll never be able to conquor them in the bedroom" she said in a voice that vauguely reminds me of Dr. Ruth (for those of you born before 1980 you probably don't remember Dr. Ruth so look it up) - she's one of those tough love shrinks who doesn't pull punches (sometimes I hate her).

I reluctantly admitted to her of my fear of humiliation as the group takes that finishing turn onto Rt 70, knowing the pain and suffering and ultimate failure that that occurs over those last 4 torturous miles.

"It starts out easy enough" I tell her, I sandbag the last 1/2 hour of the ride to ensure I have enough gas in the tank to accomplish my game plan.

"But that isn't fair to the rest of the group" she tell me, I don't care, I want to be a tuesday night hero.

I recount for her those last 4 miles down Rt 70, how as we turn onto rt 70 I hold my cards close to the vest, but I know others have it figured it out and are waiting to pounce -I start slow, wait, patience is a virtue I tell myself, let some of the others take a pull, slowly move up, one rider at a time, "don't draw attention to yourself" I tell myself, slowly move into a posistion near the front of the pack. Timing is everything, I do some mental math, 3 minutes gone, 3.5 miles to go. Time to launch the attack - I get out of the saddle, start pedaling in a 53/15, on the slight downturn shift down to the 12 - "play your cards right this time" I tell myself.

"it's a good stratagy" she tells me.

But then I admit what happens to me next, the sense of worry, "how long can I keep this up?", and then it happens, the slow burn in my legs and lungs begins to grow warmer, and warmer, hotter and hotter into a full blown inferno, both my legs and lungs on fire - "I'm too old for this crap" I tell myself, "it ain't worth it", "if I can pull a top 20 I'll be happy" even though there are only 15 of us on the ride -

I hear the sounds of changing gears, riders behind me shifting up or down to suit their cadance, getting ready for the spring, slowly I find myself starting to give up as I hear the sounds of wheels and rubber twisting across the tarmac, closing in, that's when I've pretty much tossed in the towel and decide to call it a night.

And sure enough, the other riders begin passing me by, one by one - "must - hold - on" I tell myself. They ride on, I catch last wheel, the front attacker pulls off to let the paceling pull through, I struggle to stay on last wheel. I watch as the leader of the counter attack pulls in behind me, "Hold that wheel", the 3 words I hate the most - damn my legs hurt, not to mention my lungs and brain, toenails, nosehair and every other part of me - "why do I do this?" I asked myself week after week, I look behind me, I don't want to give up, the person on my wheel is counting on me to pull though, 1 rider, 2 riders, 3 riders pull off letting the paceling pull through - I can't stand it anymore, but I can't let the rider behind me down, choices to make - bail out or press on.

I opt for A and watch the other riders sprint forward winning a spot on the tuesday night podium.

I suck.

Back to Dr. Ruth - she told me I must turn my negative self talk to positive.
She suggested some positive thinking during my off season training; when I'm on the trainer I use vizualization techniques to help me with my sprint. "You can work on your pathetic climbing skills later" she says, sometimes she isn't very motivating.

"Start by vizualizing yourself as something strong and powerful as you take the turn onto Rt 70" she told me, I asked her for ideas and she suggested something like this:

"As you begin your assault on the trainer she told me, vizualize the explosive power that's going to erupt from your legs once you decide to make your move on the rest of the group - and don't play it the same way each week, don't hold back, attack as soon as you make the turn, it'll be unexpected and most riders cant deal with the though of a 4 mile sprint to the finish. And be prepared in case someone else in the group thinks they have the legs to carry them over those next several miles."
"Like this?" I asked her?

"Very good" she told me

She went on to tell me that once the power meter in your brain goes over 700w to visualize myself cruising along at a 40mph pace, cracking the mentally inferior riders as they watch me flying off the front, putting other riders in despair dropping them further and further behind as I begin churning out enough watts to turn the street lights in the city of Fitchburg back on. I close my eyes on the trainer and visualize the gap I begin opening up on the rest of the group as I turn on the afterburners - I can't help feeling impressed with myself thinking about how humiliating my overwhelming power is to the group behind me.

And knowing this is going on behnd me

While I enjoy the fruits of all my hard work this winter

I can always dream!!!!!!!

More COVAC 2009 - Click on image to see full size!

These were taken by one of the volunteers at the event.

Better late than never - my COVAC 2009 photos

These appear to be in reverse order, and they really show how bad of a photographer I am.
They only go up as far as the 2nd SAG, I was too tired and sore to care about taking photos after that point.
And I do have photos of our last Tuesday night ride (again nowhere near as good as Charlie's), I'll try getting those uploaded sometime soon.
http://s440.photobucket.com/albums/qq130/barryjo/COVAC%202009/

Here's the link to all the COVAC 2009 pictures

http://s623.photobucket.com/albums/tt313/charliecycle/COVAC%202009/?track=share_email_album_view_click

New start time for our weekend rides.

Starting this weekend the rides from Gearworks on Saturday morning and the rides from Orchard Hills on Sunday morning’s start at 9:30am.

While I’m away this Saturday doing the Seacoast Century I’m sure someone will step up this Saturday morning to lead the ride in my absence.

See you all next weekend.

Charlie

Tuesday night ride report - last ride of '09

The most depressing ride of the year report

It’s kind of like I imagine the pros might feel on the last day of The Tour, the final ride of a sometimes enjoyable other times punishing some odd 20+ weeks of riding, riding into Paris onto the Champs Elysees, Leominster, Prospect St, whatever…. Mixed emotions, excited about the ride itself and the post ride dinner’s opportunity to eat, drink, drink more and reminisce over the events of the past 5 or 6 months. Depressed that another year of Tuesday night rides is in the books, older, fatter, slower than the year before, for me anyway.
I was so bummed out about this fact I ended up getting to the shop at 4:30 just so I could extend the experience by another 90 minutes. All I really got out of the 90 minutes was a new water bottle Daren owed me from COVAC, and “A Ride Greg” making me even more depressed telling me how he dialed his HR up to 210BPM on his last training ride. Bowling, Croquet or Golf is the one decision I need to make this winter, and I blew all my money on bike stuff so golf is definitely out.. C’est la vie mes amis.

The stats:
Miles: 20.52
Time: 1.00.25
Avg MPH: 20.4

The ride – I think it’s the same loop we normally do on every "last ride of the year". Heading out of the shop it really was like the final stage of The Tour, everyone talking it up, having fun, the only thing missing was the Dom and some flutes to drink out of.
To be honest, I don’t remember crap about the ride, I think it was due to too much of Peter Cunningham’s wine during the post ride festivities, but I remember things picking up once we crossed Rt 70 and started heading into Shirley, a nice brisk pace, hit the hill and things started falling apart but not too bad. Slowed at the top and by the time we hit the stop sign I think we had everyone.
From there a left over 2 and then a right towards the prison where the speed always picks up, damn I was stuck in the middle on some of the worst tarmac this side of the cobbles of Paris-Roubaix. No matter, a busted up bike is a good excuse to upgrade to a Tarmac SL3 next year, right? New bike = faster speed, or so the good folks at GW are always telling me.
Or maybe not, if I can’t afford a set of Calloway clubs, I certainly won’t be able to afford the SL3.
We somehow ended up in downtown Shirley as we tend to do when heading past the prison. Took a right in the center, well some of us did anyways before realizing we were going straight over the tracks and then right - we really need race radios to keep this stuff in order.
I think we went straight, and then somewhere along the way there was this slight incline that seemed to go on forever, especially with Tattoo Dave, Dustin Pedroia, and a host of other A riders turning up the watts as they quickly separated themselves from the rest of the group.
Thankfully there was a stop sign somewhere along the way where we all stopped to regroup.
Took off again, a left onto 2A and then a real quick, pedal scraping sharp right that would lead us into Devens.
At this point I remember 2 things.
1. Noah pulling a Lance Armstrong and cutting over the grass to shave about 20 feet off his ride, I was actually quite impressed with his riding ability and the show he put on. Nice of him to let me know he did it to make it into the ride report.
Which brings up an interesting point – I didn’t realize anyone actually read the crap I spew out in these ride reports until a lot of people on the ride, as well as at the post ride festivities made comments about my commentary. I suffer from insecurity that goes back to my childhood when Billy McManus beat me up in front of the hottest girl in the 4th grade, so I still don’t know if people were complimenting me or pissed off at me for something I wrote about them or some dumb name I might’ve come up for them for them. Trust me, it’s all good, I love you all!!!!!! And thanks for the added pressure of coming up with new material for next year (my plan is to write about 20 of these in the off season and tailor them to each of the weekly rides next year before posting in the blog - we'll see how that works out).
2. The other thing I remember is after Noah pulled his stunt the roads got real nice and the speed was way up as we dipped into Devens – man it was fun trying to hang on at 40+ MPH flying down those hills.
Once out of Devens we headed back into Lunenburg and came out to PJ Keating.
After the right I knew…… I bided my time, cruising along in the pace line, occasionally drifting to the left to see how things looked….. tick, tick, tick, pull out for another look, time to move up. Big ring or little ring??? Last ride of the year 53/17 big ring for sure!
Slowly made my way to the front knowing full well what was coming.
The worst feeling in the world, positioning yourself perfectly when you know the attack is about to come, moving off the front as we headed up the sorry excuse of a hill, burning matches, HR in the red, aiming to be the first to the top. Things are looking good this time, maybe I have a chance.
And then the unmistakable sound of gears clicking, the steady rhythm of riders out of the saddle as their bikes twisting from side to side, the sound of their wheels tearing up the road.
And worst of all knowing there’s not a damn thing I can do to stop it (except to resolve to train harder with more intervals and less beer in the off season) slowly being swallowed up, one by one until there’s 2, 4, 7, 10 up the road, matches burnt, screwed again as more riders passed by and then total humiliation as the late night jogger passed me on the hill past Padula’s.
“Train smarter, not longer” – this is why I was so interested at the after ride festivities trying to get Tom Orsini to start up the Tuesday night trainer rides we had going on at GW a couple years ago, only this year I want them to start in October, not February.

Oh well, once we all made it up to the top of Prospect street everyone took their flyers down to rt. 13, as usual we missed the light again (I don’t think we ever caught it the entire season).

Back to the shop.

Only one award to give out – “650” Dawn” on the blue Trek got female rider of the night award not only because she was the only female to show up for the ride, but because covered every move throughout the night.
I also fear I might have scared off all the other female riders after my COVAC comments about keeping my head up instead of on the saddle in front of me. I'm still learning so bear with me.

The post ride dinner, as always was a blast. It’s always my opportunity to learn about the people I ride with throughout the year but was afraid to ask. Like putting names to bikes, helmets and kits.
Hats off to Daren, Gene and the folks at Gear Works for their generous donations of 3 water bottles that were raffled off at the end of the night.
Oh yeah, there were gift certificates in those water bottles - I know Dan Oulette was happy that he can buy that new cassette he was thinking about earlier in the day.

What else is there to say? It was another great year of riding. I’m depressed, but I’ll be all right with a little therapy, and when the first sunny days January and February roll around when we can get back outside for some Saturday base training rides.
Until then there’s still a lot of good riding to be had throughout the fall.

Hope everyone has a great off season, looking forward to riding with you again in '10.