It's been a month since I last posted, but not without reason. My General Agent (my manager) took off to the East Coast to visit family and I had to manage the agency for a short 3 weeks. It didn't eat into my riding time as much as it just ate into my general time, altogether.
A lot has happened in the last month, but I guess I'll start with the whole cyclocross racing thing.
I was getting in some good training rides, and with the help of a new Garmin Forerunner 305 with Heart Rate Monitor, I've been able to see my progression (or digression) from day-to-day. With the aid of this device, I would lay out some hard loops, beat my own times, etc. It has opened up a whole new aspect of riding that I didn't have before, and it's really nice.
All that being said, before I even lined up at the start line at the Surf City Classic last weekend, I was completely indifferent about the whole thing. I had a great start keeping up with the leaders, and after getting dropped on the climb, I just quit. DNF. No go. I asked myself, "WTF am I doing out here?" and I hung it up.
After last year's experience and this year's lack of drive - my Surf City experience was the true litmus test of whether racing is in the cards for me... and it's not. Riding for the sake of riding is what I love about riding. Mentally, I'm pretty exhausted from my career, and so maybe this is why I don't have the desire to compete outside of work. Anyhow... no more race reports from me, unless I'm taking pictures of my brother... but even he is a little "out of it" this year.
I converted my 29'er back to a single speed. If I ever get the wild hair to put gears on it again, please kick me. That bike was meant to be a SS - it is a perfect ride for one gear. It's still pretty heavy, but it is so much better than the heaviness of having multiple speeds - fully loaded it creeps up near 30 lbs. No thanks... I like it this way.
I'm selling my 26" SS if anybody is interested. $320 and it's yours; I'm also going to let my Leader 510 (geared) bike go for $600 o.b.o.
As always, you can e-mail at dion@dionridesbikes.com
I haven't been doing much in terms of true road riding, and so I've been averaging about 60 miles per week, mostly dirt. Also, since I was "training" for CX racing, my rides were short and hard. The cooler weather has come, so maybe some longer, slower rides are in the future.
One thing that I have been addicted to is Instagram. This is the only place I post pictures of my rides now, so if you're a fellow IG'er, follow me @dionridesbikes and I'll follow you back. I love this phone app, and it lets me document all my rides. Very addicting stuff!
Thanks for visiting my site. I am amazed to learn how many people actually read this thing and I'm glad to be of entertainment. Stay tuned for my "cheap parts" review! You can always support my site by clicking through the Amazon banner at the top to make future Amazon.com purchases. It costs you nothing extra (just a click), but it sure helps me a lot. Thanks again!
A lot has happened in the last month, but I guess I'll start with the whole cyclocross racing thing.
I was getting in some good training rides, and with the help of a new Garmin Forerunner 305 with Heart Rate Monitor, I've been able to see my progression (or digression) from day-to-day. With the aid of this device, I would lay out some hard loops, beat my own times, etc. It has opened up a whole new aspect of riding that I didn't have before, and it's really nice.
All that being said, before I even lined up at the start line at the Surf City Classic last weekend, I was completely indifferent about the whole thing. I had a great start keeping up with the leaders, and after getting dropped on the climb, I just quit. DNF. No go. I asked myself, "WTF am I doing out here?" and I hung it up.
After last year's experience and this year's lack of drive - my Surf City experience was the true litmus test of whether racing is in the cards for me... and it's not. Riding for the sake of riding is what I love about riding. Mentally, I'm pretty exhausted from my career, and so maybe this is why I don't have the desire to compete outside of work. Anyhow... no more race reports from me, unless I'm taking pictures of my brother... but even he is a little "out of it" this year.
I converted my 29'er back to a single speed. If I ever get the wild hair to put gears on it again, please kick me. That bike was meant to be a SS - it is a perfect ride for one gear. It's still pretty heavy, but it is so much better than the heaviness of having multiple speeds - fully loaded it creeps up near 30 lbs. No thanks... I like it this way.
I'm selling my 26" SS if anybody is interested. $320 and it's yours; I'm also going to let my Leader 510 (geared) bike go for $600 o.b.o.
26" Single Speed
26" Leader 510 rigid XC
As always, you can e-mail at dion@dionridesbikes.com
I haven't been doing much in terms of true road riding, and so I've been averaging about 60 miles per week, mostly dirt. Also, since I was "training" for CX racing, my rides were short and hard. The cooler weather has come, so maybe some longer, slower rides are in the future.
One thing that I have been addicted to is Instagram. This is the only place I post pictures of my rides now, so if you're a fellow IG'er, follow me @dionridesbikes and I'll follow you back. I love this phone app, and it lets me document all my rides. Very addicting stuff!
Thanks for visiting my site. I am amazed to learn how many people actually read this thing and I'm glad to be of entertainment. Stay tuned for my "cheap parts" review! You can always support my site by clicking through the Amazon banner at the top to make future Amazon.com purchases. It costs you nothing extra (just a click), but it sure helps me a lot. Thanks again!
Source: http://www.dionridesbikes.com/2011/11/wow-hello-again.html
No comments:
Post a Comment