Training Schedule Set

Here's the training schedule I've created to prepare for the tour next month. I'm going to do roughly 575 miles over 15 rides with several hill repeat sessions. I'll try to update my progress as we move through next month.


Ride #1 is 60 miles to Nyack tomorrow.

Gearing Up and Down

The Italy mountains tour is basically a month away and I’m far from optimal riding shape. I’ve been hobbled by a busy work travel schedule and both of my bikes being out of commission. I’ll have both bikes fixed today so it’s time to focus on gearing up for the trip. I’m going to put together a training schedule this weekend. I also plan on only riding my touring bike for the next month so I can get my body back in tune with the Black Beast.

I also need to gear down for the trip. The climbing on this trip is going to be legend…wait for it…dary. I’m going to need all the help I can get so I’m going to swap out my crank set in order to get easier gearing for the looming battles with Majolo, Stelvio and Gavia passes. I plan on doing the bottom bracket and crank set swap myself (with Dr. Ed’s oversight). This will be my first major mechanical project since the maintenance class. I’m assuming there’s a better than 90% chance I end up bringing it to a bike shop to complete.

Italy 2008: The Proposed Route

After many hours of research, I've come up with a route for our tour next month. I've sent it to Dr. Ed for his review. When I sent him a first cut last night, he responded "man there are some serious nutbusters on that route". He was alluding to the mountain passes. We would be doing the two most famous mountain passes in Italy, Stelvio and Gavia. I'll be back with an update when I hear back from Ed.

All for Wobble-Naught

My bike fit has gotten so out of control I needed to go back to the basics and have the bike refit by Wobble-Naught. I could try and explain it myself but here's how they describe the fit on their website:

"Everybody is custom, the bicycle must be a continuation of the cyclist. Using a quantitative scientific method we match the bicycle geometry to the cyclist. Maximum performance will be achieved with a precision custom-fit bike."

I originally had the bike fit by Mike Sherry using the Wobble-Naught system back when I got my bike. But I've gone through so many part changes and fitting iterations I decided to go back to him in order to have my bike refit. He chuckled at how out of whack it was. Further, he told me I really didn't need a custom bike -- that I could fit on most stock bikes (although I should shoot for a bigger headtube).

Riding home my fit felt awesome. It was sooooo out of whack. Back to the drawing board on the new bike but I'm still game on trying to get a custom Pegoretti while in Italy.

Italia Una Volta

I'm pretty sure my blog post means "Italy Once Again" in Italian. Yes, that's right, I'm heading back to Italy next month and I couldn't be more excited.

I'm heading back with Dr. Ed and possibly a few other people. We are going to tour the Lakes District and head up into Switzerland through the Dolomites and Alps. In the words of Costanza "I'm BUSTING Jerry, I'm BUSTING!". The scenery on this trip is going to be mindblowing. The climbing will be numbing.

Best part of the trip is that we are passing through the town of legendary framebuilder Dario Pegoretti. He is on my short list of custom steel framebuilders and I may have the chance to meet him in person for a custom fitting. He built frames for Miguel Indurain in the 80s and was named Framebuilder of the Year in 2007. I'm working on figuring out how to contact him to make sure he'll be around when I'm visiting. Did I mention that I'm BUSTING?!!

Cake Takes the Cake

I'm not sure I ever made it an official "contest" but I've been on a quest to figure out the best music for cycling. It's a no brainer. It's a piece of Cake. Cake takes the cake. Yes, you can have your Cake and listen to it too. Here's the icing on the cake, I'm out of word plays.

Johnny D

I was so tired while blogging Sunday, I forgot to mention an instant classic rider that was on our ride. By way of background, I was co-leading the ride with Maggie -- a woman I met through the club that did a cross-country ride two years ago. Maggie was in front of the pack and I was sweeping in the rear. At a stop light about 10miles into the ride, she veers into a gas station and the group stops. One of the riders had to go to the bathroom badly. Maggie pulled me aside and asked me if I would tell the guy who went to the bathroom to take off his headphones (wearing an ipod is against NYCC rules). "Sure" I said.

After the guy emerged from the bathroom and got back on his bike I casually introduced myself. "Johnny D" he replies in a thick NY accent. He goes on to tell me that he's not listening to music. That he has the headphones on because he has an earache from being seasick all night on a Tuna fishing trip in Montauk. He also tells me this is an easy ride for him because he isn't feeling well -- that he usually does long and fast rides. Confused by both how the headphones were helping his earache and how he was riding 80 miles after being out all night on a fishing trip, I just said okay and moved on.

Johnny D is a strong rider and he's not afraid to show it. At random times he'd just shoot out in front of the pack as if he had a motor on his bike. We climbed a tough unexpected (albeit short) hill and I tried to make small talk about how steep it was. He fired back with a story about how he rode his stumpjumper up a 30 mile hill one time. He was constantly making quick movements around obstacles on his bike -- on one hand it was dangerous but he was clearly in control of his ride. To this point I thought the guy was mildly entertaining. What came next made him downright intriguing.

Waiting at a light about 40 miles into the ride I smelled smoke -- cigarette smoke. I assumed it was coming from a stopped car but it was pretty strong so I turned around to look behind me. Low and behold, Johnny D is cranking on a Marlboro red. Yes, he was smoking cigarettes on the ride. He held back to finish the smoke. I saw at least 3 or 4 other times when he light up. Then on the way back to the bridge 75 miles into the ride and who knows how many cigarettes, he just blows past me as I'm trying to go as fast as I can. Incredible. And so begins the legend of Johnny D.

Two Down

Rode the second century of my career today. Best part is it was completely unplanned. I was leading a ride that was scheduled to go 82 miles but we got lost a few times which put us on pace to do 85 miles. At lunch we had 45 miles down and I was feeling great, despite climbing a bunch of hills. I asked the people on our ride if anyone would be interested in doing laps in Central Park when we returned in order to make it a full 100 miles. Two guys agreed. I ended up doing 102.1 miles, my longest ride ever. I actually feel pretty good -- not nearly as beat up as the first time I did it, which was on a much flatter route. Granted, I do have 6k more miles under my belt since my first century.

A few observations. I've always thought the difference between doing 80 miles and 100miles isn't just 20 miles. I mean, it is mathematically, but as far as effort, those last 20 miles are painful. In fact, the amount of physical degradation from miles 80 to 100 is incredible. Let's put it this way. At mile 70 I felt like a million bucks. At mile 80, probably about $900,000. By mile 100, I felt like 50 cents. Parts of your body just start failing. For me today, it was the bottom of my feet. They felt like they were in fire for the last 10 miles.

Anyway, I'm pretty pumped up about the feat. I'm going to kick back and relax now. In fact, I'm not even going to think about the fact that I'm having second thoughts about Waterford now. I'll save that for another post.