dj whitebread
Thursday, June 04, 2009
Driveway
I headed out to the driveway tonight. I took my bike and I took my camera. I knew things were going to be challenging on the bike as we'd be going up the corkscrew, so I would need to be able to deal with the surge in power up the short and steep part. I knew things were going to be challenging with the camera as I would be photographing at an effective focal length of 50mm. But, I was determined to deal with both challenges.
First the bike side. I did better than before. I still didn't hang on the whole time, but I hung on for half the race. Marked improvement over the last few times. I felt surprisingly good going up the corkscrew. What got to me eventually wasn't my legs, but the time at effort. The climbing I've been doing has been paying off to improve my leg strength. Now I need to start being more disciplined about my training to work in some more structured intervals to get my aerobic fitness improving.
On that note I am actually considering using one of the various excellent coaching services we have in town. I think I would respond well to a structured plan with a real human on the other end. Anyway, more on that in a future post.
On the photography side, the light was a little challenging. The shadows were still pretty harsh, but I got some that I liked. (June in Black and White Day 4)
For example, there is a picture of Dave Wenger before the P/1/2/3 race. His face is in shadow, but the rest of him is in the sun. Obviously not good. However, Dave's an outstanding guy so I kept the picture in the set. He's also doing the standard "waiting for the race to start" pose.
But now to some that I like:
The above is one of three pictures I got as the riders races up and around the corkscrew. The other two I like a little better, but I've cropped them short and wide, so you'll have to head over to flicker to check them out (1, 2... I really like 1 ;) ). This one is neat because of the shadows coming in as sharp lines. The grade of the corkscrew is also such so that everything really feels up and to the right giving nice motion.
This is my friend Andrew Stackhouse. I caught him before he started doing the announcing for tonight's P/1/2/3 race.
I love this shot... I didn't notice my shadow in the lower left corner out there. Doh! (I still like it a lot though ;) )
Finally, a picture of some of the old cop cars they have out there... this one's for Jerry. :)
Labels: cycling, driveway crits, JiBaW, training
11:51 PM |
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Back at it
I am coming to my third week of really riding my bike consistently. I am starting to feel stronger, though nowhere near strong enough. The weight is starting to come off again, little by little, which is a good thing. I went under 200 lbs for the first time in a long time this week, so that made me happy.
I was feeling good this weekend on the bike, so I decided it was time for some humbling. I went ride up some of the hills near here in an effort to remind myself I'm still slow and heavy. Mission accomplished. Ladera Norte is still steep, they didn't change that. But in all honesty, it was good to get up it (however slowly).
I've been watching the stages of the Giro, and it is just so impressive how the leaders can power up those mountains. It is always nice to see the giant group that comes in many minutes down. It's nice to know that even professional cyclists aren't all climbers. (Though, comparably they can still fly up the climbs.)
Work is going well. I am excited. I should hopefully know very soon what the final destination is for next year.
Friday night we're heading to another cooking class at Central Market. Joanne Weir (a chef who had a show on PBS the year we didn't have cable, and thus we watched a lot of PBS) is teaching. I am really excited. I loved her show (I even have one of her cookbooks).
I am going out to the Driveway tonight to take part in our weekly crits. The series has been awesome this year under new management, and the addition of the 4/5 race actually gives me a workable target. We are doing the long course tonight and going up the corkscrew, so hopefully I'll hold on past the first time we go up the corkscrew. ;)
I'm going to get a little bit more work done before I get ready and head out on the bike to ride to the crits. I hope everybody's weeks end well!
Labels: cycling, driveway crits, Giro d'Italia, job search, Ladera Norte, personal training, work
3:46 PM |
Thursday, March 19, 2009
"Racing"
Yes, that's right, tonight marks my return to bike racing. The quotes in the title are there for a reason. I really don't expect to do that well. My fitness isn't anywhere near where it needs to be. But, since they added the 4/5 this race at the awesome Driveway Crits, I figured I would give it a shot.
It will be curious to see what happens.
Carrie and I are doing a charity ride out north west of here on Saturday morning. I'll be 62 miles of hill country prettiness. I'm excited.
Labels: driveway crits, racing
1:55 PM |
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Meh
Feeling amazingly panicked about school at the same feeling amazingly defeatist. I'm going to go ride my bike to the crits, where I will also not do well, but at least I'll be outside in the sun enjoying the weather and getting exercise.
Labels: driveway crits, work
2:46 PM |
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Recovering
I wanted to go for a ride yesterday, but as I was just riding my bike from the shop up to the truck, my legs (specifically my quads) felt completely sore and tired. So, I decided another day of rest and another full night of sleep would be a good thing. I do plan on going for a ride tonight, however, and I'm going to ride down to the crit tomorrow and get dropped in the 3/4 race. ;) They are actually hosting a crit skills clinic, so I hope that I can do that as well. I'm confused about the timing of the clinic, but hopefully it will all make sense once we get out there.
This weekend is Texas State's race weekend. I plan on skipping the short hill-climb time-trial in the morning and heading down Saturday afternoon for the crit and Sunday morning for the road race. The nice thing is with being in San Marcos I should still be able to get some work in both days as well as race.
I'm having a hard time getting stuff done the past few days. I'm really going to make an effort to get through what I need to get through today, so I can get back to building features.
Happy hump day.
Labels: driveway crits, training, work
10:27 AM |
Friday, September 21, 2007
Eek
Man, that crit was kind of embarrassing. I didn't make it to the start/finish twice before getting dropped like a bag of rocks. I just don't have the strength right now to stay on to a pack moving that fast. I still enjoy going out there, however. It's a good ride there and back, and it's nice seeing my cycling friends. Heck, last night they were giving away free SweetLeaf, so that's always nice.
And it's not a stomach burn that's making me get dropped... it's actually my legs, I just can't turn a big enough gear fast enough. So that to me just points to the fact that my legs haven't turned many gears at all since May.
I hope to get most of the writing I need to do finished today. I would like to spend the weekend editing and revising a little before I send the draft off to Harrick. What I have down at the moment is pretty pitiful, but the first text on the paper usually is.
Labels: driveway crits, NSDI, out of shape
8:40 AM |
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Pain is apparently like crack
I'm heading back to the crits today. I'm going to try and do the second crit as well. There is some thought that it is 4/5 not just 5. But I think the 4/5 may just be for the 35+, but I don't know. Anyway, I'm going to try and weasel my way into it. If I can, I'll just drop out of the first race as soon as I get dropped in an attempt to do better in the second race. We'll see.
So I'm finally thinking of biting the bullet and getting the ol'Bianchi back to a usable state. There are several sets of 27" fixed gear wheels up on eBay right now, and that's really the only piece I need to get on my own. After that I plan on bringing it to the great guys at AustinBikes and telling them to order what they need to make it a kickin' fixie. What I realized is that, while the weather is still pretty warm, I can just ride to the park'n ride and park the bike there, as opposed to parking the car. Once the weather gets cooler, then I can just ride to school. I also want to be able to ride around the neighborhood to like pick stuff up at the store... but I'm not leaving my carbon racing bike outside the grocery, lock or no.
Labels: driveway crits, out of shape, pain, racing, the Bianchi
9:39 AM |
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Made it
We've made it to Baton Rouge. We had a pretty uneventful trip. We stopped in Baytown to eat at Chili's, so the extended supper made the trip last right around 8 hours as opposed to the usual 7, but other than that it went smoothly.
On Wednesday night I did the Ride of Silence that started downtown. It was nice, and they had a pretty decent crowd. I do wish the urban hipsters could have put on helmets for one night though, I mean, it was a ride about safe coexistence on the roads.
Thursday night I decided to the Driveway crits. It was fun. I hang on to the 3/4 a little longer than usual, so I guess that is progress. At some point when they lapped me I jumped back on for a little bit and saw 28+ on my computer. Haha, yeah, I don't think so. Maybe I need to get those speed limits out of my head. All in all, it was a good time and since I had ridden from our condo to school and then to the crit (and then back) I got a good 35 miles in total. That is definitely the way to do it, forget driving.
Friday was bike to work day, so Carrie and I met up with some people from NI and we rode up to NI with them. It was nice. After we got to NI I turned back around and headed home; I picked Carrie up in the truck later around 1 as she was given the afternoon off and we were going to head out as soon as we could.
On the work front I have gotten a good bit of stuff done this week, but I will need to get some stuff done while we're in Alabama, and then push hard once we get back to Austin.
Oh, and Blizzard announced Starcraft 2 today. I'm glad to see them returning to the RTS genre. I played a lot of Starcraft back in the day. It's a great story. I will probably have to pick up the game just to enjoy the plot. I'm not sure when they plan on releasing it, however.
Labels: driveway crits, starcraft 2
10:26 AM |
Thursday, April 05, 2007
The return of the weeknight crits (for me at least)
So they've been going on since the switch daylight saving time, but this week is the first time I get to go. I'm very pumped.
Of course, I'm going to get destroyed as I have to race the 3/4 race, but it still should be fun nonetheless. It is just a good time out there.
Labels: driveway crits
2:50 PM |
