Home from the Hills

Hey friends, I'm back home a champion after completing one of my first cycling events, the dreaded ride in Gainesville! I just got back to my home sweet home after 5 hours on the high way glued to a car seat. I'm not sure whats more burnt out, my legs from the hills or my head from sleepiness. I'm going to give you guys a quick taste of my journey and I'll be back later on in the week with a more in depth view of how our scenic 45 mile ride went. That's right, I said 45 miler, and this is where the explaining comes in. 

My dad became sick with the flu at the beginning of this week and has been battling a fever for the majority of the time. Of course this is no condition to be riding in, so him participating in the massive century ride was in major question. On top of that we've had some rough weather due to a tropical storm that bombarded us named Sandy. Sandy convinced school officials to close down school for us kids on Friday, but left us with raging winds and a rainy weekend. It wasn't raining at all in Gainesville, but it was chilly and windy! These factors plus the difficulty of the rides course made us abandon our goal of the century ride, and switch to the next option, the 45 miler. I was a bit surprised, but deep down I wanted to make sure I could handle an event that I could finish happily. Riding the hundred miler without dad wouldn't have been the same too, so we've pushed the big goal back for now.

Just to give you the big picture, the ride went terrific, and dad was still feeling funny, but was able to complete a 25 miler solo, while Jim, Jim's friend, Nick, Johanna, Alex, and I did the 45 mile tour of hills! I'm really excited to share with you the pictures my dad snapped of us throughout the day of the ride, so look forward to checking those out a little later on in the week. My emotions from the event are positive, and the best part of all was that I actually had fun! You know, that feeling that rushes through your body, gets that adrenaline pumping, and pushes your mouth into a smile?! Well I got plenty of that today, and I'm proud that I can say, I didn't let those hills get the best of me; I deserve a polka dot jersey after this Sunday! For those of you who don't watch the Tour de France, that's the type of jersey the best climber of the race receives. Well I've gotta leave you guys with a cliff hanger tonight unfortunately, but stay tuned for my next story, "Conquering Gainesville", and pictures as soon as I'm recovered from the hustle of the event.  

Wind V.S Cyclist

Boy oh boy has it been tough since last time you've heard from me! If the title doesn't get through to you, check the weather for West Palm Beach Florida and all you will hear is talk about wind. Wind is something that particularly doesn't affect anybody's life, except if your a cyclist. Of course I chose to participate in one of the only physical activities in the world that is made more difficult by wind! Now when I'm riding, I enjoy reminiscing of the past when wind speed and direction never mattered.

I look back to when hearing the word "wind" didn't make a young man cringe. This feeling has only gotten worse, since I started this week off with an already immense challenge, a 70 mile ride. Not to mention it just so happened to be the Saturday that was the most gusty.

Ips and I didn't know what to expect when we got up that early Saturday morning and we both acknowledged the fact that we are definitely riding, and it's going to be most certainly windy. As soon as we arrived at Lake Worth bridge we set out with our fellow company of brave knights who dared battle the wind, Nick, and Johanna, as well as Alex, our usual crew members. Only dad and I had the big idea of riding 70 miles (wind can't stop our century training!), we did a 20 mile spin with gang before they retired from the fight. Dad and I then proceeded to keep making these same 20 mile loops from the Lake Worth bridge, to George Bush Blvd and back to ease the suffering some. 10 easy miles flying south and then crawling back north against a brick wall. I tallied each spin as a victory in our book, but it only got more and more difficult. I took advantage of my small ring to assist me with the fight, but what I really needed was a taxi home.

Well on the last and longest loop, I became getting more tired and frustrated too. Then just before our last turn around and the last 15 miles of misery back against the wind, things got from bad to worst.....

I take a spill! This insane gust shoot while biking in-between two tall apartment buildings, how can an invisible force knock a 150 pound beast in a bush in a split second ? This is when I really lost it!

The old folks walking gracefully on the side walk close to where I fell, asked me if I was ok while I stumbled back up. All I could I reply was a mix of gibberish and angry tones to them as I walked to retrieve the helmet I chucked at the ground out of pure anger at the wind after the accident.
After all, what was I going to say? They wouldn't understand that wind would cause me to fly from the road as if Mike Tyson ran up next to me and sucker punched me in the gut. From that moment on, this was personal. After I calmed down, I thanked God I didn't get hurt and even the bike survived with out a scratch.

Back on the saddle the rest of the miles crawled on, and we took little breaks in between so I wouldn't completely loose my sanity. suddenly, as a cherry on top of our torture, a nice heavy rain started beating us down too, I just love this hobby!
Thankfully the rain eased up and the last few miles where more manageable, dare I say even almost enjoyable.
Like dad always says during a long ride like this, no matter if you feel good or you feel bad it don't last long.....The mind will show its tricks when you are exhausted for sure.

I still would've looked like a deranged monkey pedaling against an invisible wall to a car driving by, but to a cyclist this was a sure sign of progress. Before you know it, it had been done, dad had pulled this Rolling Resistor to the finish line! 70 miles, 4 hours and 20 minutes in actual riding time under my belt is the greatest feeling ever, but it's a bitter taste of the difficulties that a century ride is going to pose for us as well!

Of course after that battle I had to take Sunday off, so we continued our week with our Monday ride, which yes was windy as well if you guessed. Not nearly as bad as the 70 miler, but it gave the gang and I a swell work out. Then on Tuesday I had full bike fit with Rudy as my lower back has been bothering me a little and I got a new saddle too. After two and half hours of adjustments and testing on the trainer we were done. Thursday I got to test the new set up and it was much more enjoyable, we even did some hill repeats in LW bridge to prepare to the hills in Gainesville area.

Big George Who?

A new week has come again and I was excited about our long ride on Saturday morning, since my b-day 60 miler was so "easy". Well it did not work out that way this time unfortunately. We had planned for a 65 miler, but Ipster had a headache and we weren't going to push the envelope. This led us only to go down to 7-11 and back, which calculates to a puny 43 miles. I was cool with this unexpected change because, I'm always looking for some extra rest, and we had a busy saturday ahead of us anyway.

By the way, if your wondering who this "ipster" is, it's because I call my dad either Ipster, Ips or some other made up variation of Isa or Isi which are the official names for dad in Finnish. On Sunday Ips was busy and out of town for the first few days of the week, so we didn't ride until Thursday again; so we've kinda been slacking lately, but to make up for loss training, my dad planned a 70 mile ride on Saturday morning. This will definitely make up for my lack of miles, and lack of sore legs.

I've been writing this blog a week behind our current events, and rides, so I guess you can say your a bit behind on my life,  but I'm going to make an effort to catch up on next weeks entry (it will cover 2 weeks of events) so you guys are up to date....

You definitely want to read about the 70 miler, but I'm not going to spoil that story yet, so I'll just proceed and wrap up this week in the old format.

Ippu had ordered a new bib and jersey for him self, you know all the pro's wear bibs so of course we sport them too, and I have to admit they are comfier than shorts. Wearing a bib instantly turns anything you sit on into a sofa, so I recommend you pick up a pair one day. So of course, the minute the UPS man throws the package in front of the door, he's trying them on and checking them out. Then he starts rambling on about how they are a George Hincapie Signature kit (kit as an outfit consisting of a bib and a matching jersey), and I'm like Hinkie who? The minute those words spat out of my mouth, he's looking around to make sure nobody who knows anything about cycling is around to hear and ask confused, "you don't know who Big George is?" No I don't know George, so I received a nice lecture about Hincapie; so word to the wise, in case you ever in a similar situation at least now you know a little about George....

So he told me all about how George Hincapie is a super domestique. I learned that domestiques are the helpers of main contenders in races like the Tour De France, where they do the work for the teams main rider, such as keeping their nose in the wind to keep the leader fresh, bringing water bottles from a team car to him etc. The super domestique like George is a lieutenant if you will, and kind of the right hand man that runs the show and keeps other workers in order.

George has the most Tour De France starts and finishes in history, 17 starts and 16 finishes. So everybody knows Big George......

He also makes cycling clothing and even cool jeans, he just retired from pro racing a few months ago, so there you go!

 

Special Sunday

Lucky for me, this week has been a breeze in cycling terms, if you remember last weeks tremendous triumphs, you would probably agree it was about time for that easy week! Come on, you know all of us  like a relaxed week of coasting miles sometimes, instead of the usual grinding of gears that leaves you coming home jelly legged. Not to mention, this week was a special one for me overall, it was my birthday on Sunday! I turned 16 years old, and I'm loving it. Not to mention it's good for my training, my legs are getting a little bit of an extra work out from smashing the gas pedal (or is it brake?) of my 2001 BMW 525i around town. I got my license Wednesday, and it's changed my life. Dad got me the BMW about a month ago and we've been tweaking it here and there, but soon enough we're going to need to put some bike racks on it, that way I'll be forced to ride my Cannondale more than the BMW.

So I started my Sunday and well lets say I was greeted with my first birthday gift at 6AM... a 60 mile bike ride. Thats right up there with socks on the scale of lame birthday presents, but as a Rolling Resistor I figured it would be a nice birthday challenge. To my surprise it was one of the most exhilarating and fast rides dad and I had ever done. We got a nice warm up of a few miles just us two, but then a huge peloton of riders swept by us like a rolling tumble weed of cyclist and we hopped on their tail. Turns out the jamboree of bikers were doing a 65 mile ride, and heading the same direction we were planning, so we stuck with them till our 30 mile turn around point which arrived in a blink. This isn't no surprise, we averaged 21 mph with the mob, and that was the best thing that could've happened on the ride. The way back was just as smooth, but slightly slower, it was certainly a victory. Catching that peloton was the best birthday surprise that day, next to having an awesome dinner cooked by grandma with the family after our 60 miler.

Other than that my week crawled on, and it wasn't much different then when I was 15. Our Monday night ride got rained out, which is living proof that rain dances can work. Unfortunately they don't work twice in the same week, because the sun was bright and shining for our Thursday night ride. It ended up being a great ride with "Frog", Nick, dad, and I, and we pulled a smooth 26 mile ride from Linton Blvd and back. "Frog" shared his secret to us after the ride; apparently bananas give him a boost of energy, and I believe it. "Frog" didn't have any issues tagging behind my dad after he decided to chase after a group of go hard cyclist, pushing 26 mph on their speedometers! I couldn't even muster up the power to catch up to them, in fact, I'm glad I didn't pull a hammie after sprinting 28 mph in attempt to catch the guys. Hopefully Nick doesn't receive the same affect when eating bananas, or else I'm going to be stuck pulling myself, and that doesn't work well for a Rolling Resistor like me. Maybe I'll start experimenting with the lunch spread at school and see if I can discover a secret energy concoction, to make sure I'm still on par with the rest of the gang. Either that, or I just gotta hit the gym.

The Training Hits Hard

My log book has been jam packed with miles since my last post, because the crew and I have been restless, and glued to our saddles. We have begun deep training for the century ride coming up in just under a month, and since this serious cycling training is new to me, it seems like all I've been doing lately is pedaling! the crew has been putting on so many miles that we pedal in our sleep now, and it's scary to say; but we would rather be sitting on a rock hard saddle than our sofa. Why? because the count down has begun, and I'm confident that I will be riding that century ride with out crying for my momma or stopping to hold my blankey. So the only way to ensure I am prepared for this gig is by putting plenty of miles on my speedometer and taking less vacations from the asphalt.

Now of course being The Rolling Resistor I am, I'm proud to say that I've finally completed a 50 mile ride! This is my longest ride to date, and it sure was confident boosting to know that I can at least survive half of a century ride. The past Saturday just me and dad headed north for a solo ride. It was certainly an interesting ride where I got to see some new territory, and experience a new definition of tiredness. The rain at the last 15 miles of the ride didn't help either, it was cold and windy, yet I was able to pull through. Of course I did not have my nose in the wind much as dad did pretty much all the pacemaking as I was trying to return from the ride with the ability to keep on walking for the rest of the day. After all this was the day of my birthday party and I needed to entertain my friends. My actual birthday is next Sunday and I'm sure dad will be pulling me out of the bed at 6 am even then for the 60 miler, well I guess we don't need to worry about that yet.....

Any how going back to the 50 miler, saying your going to ride such a distance isn't easy for a noob like me, so I had to keep reminding myself that I was completely capable of doing this while I pedaled farther and farther away from my cozy warm bed; so its as much pushing the envelope mentally as its physical if not even more.

  I took the rest of the Saturday easy and relaxed with my friends. I even skipped out on Sunday ride to recover, but soon enough the days marched on, and we began carry on our usual routine rides with the crew. Monday's 26 miles to Linton Blvd was graciously easy the first half, but predictably brutal on the way back home due to Florida's bipolar wind patterns. The gang and I were still able to average a decent speed and dad gave us younger riders of the crew some nice practice on rotating, so everybody had to do pulls in front. 

Next thing I know I'm coming home from school on a Thursday afternoon and cramming in a snack as well as some homework before we are again climbing up the Lake Worth bridge for our night ride. We decided to go 30 miles instead of the usual 26 as we will be skipping Saturday ride for a full day of volunteering at a kids event at church. Nick, Johanna and I were also able to manage pulling the small group of ours, and we got a nice average speed. As we turned around and swirled our pedals to head back, the sun was setting and night time struck soon enough. I was looking forward to darkness because it gave me an opportunity to try out the new front light I had got in the mail today. The 1,000 lumen beam gleamed through A1A and beautifully justified it's price. Night riding is not too bad, because when you look down at your computer you can't see anything, so speed and distance doesn't matter. At my turn I pulled our group at my leisure speed and no one could complain (except of course dad, who has a light in his Garmin and was calling the shots on when to rotate to the back). The rest didn't even know the speed my legs guided them at. I call that blind relaxation; a newbie riders, best friend.

Easy Like Sunday Morning...

Normally we try to keep our four weekly rides lined up something like this. Thursday we leave Lake Worth at about 5:45pm and head down south on A1A, we call this the Boca ride. However, the actual Boca ride heads north and Jari & Alex normally join them, its way too fast for the rest of us stick with for long but we may get a few miles flying with the fast guys. After a lightening warm-up we settle back down to a steady tempo on this 26 mile ride to Linton Blvd and back.

Then Saturday morning at 7 AM we head down the same route normally with about forty to fifty other riders, and again we usually get dropped from the group sooner or later, but thats not really a problem as Saturday is our long ride. We are trying to pump up the milage by about 5 miles every week on this ride, and keep rest of the week pretty much the same constantly.

On our Sunday afternoon ride we usually leave from Mark's house just with our own crew and head to Wellington's Aero Club area for a nice easy 25 mile or so spin.

Monday is officially our recovery day for all the group riders in our area and sometimes we ride the ladies ride leaving from Southern Blvd heading to the north end of the Palm Beach island. That sometimes feels even too easy but its good practice to ride in a big peloton. Or we may ride with a bit of a faster group heading south and forget the recovery.

Well last Saturday morning it rained so we skipped our ride and moved the long ride for Sunday morning, and actually that was one of the best things that could've happened! 

Fridays gym class in school was brutal, and I was sore everywhere so an extra day of rest was very much welcomed! Oh, I don't think I have even mentioned yet that I'm in 10th grade at Oxbridge Academy, and this blog is part of  the curriculum in my english class. I'm really enjoying my first year at this awesome school! Any way, so last Sunday when my dad and I did our long ride for the week, it ended up being a forty three miler, my longest ride yet! It wasn't exactly a tough ride, we had some wind going back so that helped boost our speed; we averaged seventeen miles on our clocks. The ride wasn't easy by any means though, in my mind I like to think of it as double my usual rides, or two and a half hours on a hard saddle. On top of that, on our way back we missed the peloton we were trying to catch, and the storm clouds above us began pouring. We got soaked with freezing cold rain, and since we were moving at a decent speed, the wind roared by my ears while I was shoot by water droplets. The main thing I remember was not being able to see through my sunglasses, and then taking them off and having even worse vision. It some what inspired me though to create mini wind shield wipers for sun glasses, but as of now that’s not working out to well.

 There was some good news though, we were able to out run the storm and reach dry land in a few miles, so I dried up pretty fast. Plus it refreshed me, for the final 15 miles or so. The last of the ride went very smooth, and we kept our steady pace because Jari came to pull us in the end! It was a successful long ride and a goal accomplished for me. Up next is fifty miles, which you will hear about very soon. Until then I'll be cruising our usual rides, and doing homework; but ill be back, real soon!

                                              

The Blog has Landed!

Welcome ladies and gentlemen! I'm Aleksi "The Rolling Resistor" and this is my cycling blog. I will be sharing my life as a newbie roadie with you. You will read stories of my rides and goals, among other things. Over all you will get to know me better and hopefully we learn a thing or two about road bicycling together. So pump your tires, buckle up your lid, and lets get ready to ride!

How it Began

         I first encountered road cycling back in 2006 as a 10 year old when my dad started riding. I was never really interested in it, in fact I thought it was insane that people "enjoyed" riding bikes with skinny tires for long distances. Plus they were perched on top of even skinner saddles; in uncomfortable looking positions, wile wearing goofy, colorful, and skin tight spandex!   

You see I was never an athletic kid, but time passed and I started to train on a rowing machine to whip myself into some kind of shape; I realized that I liked it and got into a routine. Slowly I improved my endurance (no more chubby kid) and I set a goal to row one million meters by end of the year 2011. After reaching that lofty goal (least in my standards) I began accompanying my dad once in a while for rides with his commuter bike. Fifteen miles here and there; maybe twenty a few times too, and that same realization hit again that this is not too bad. I enjoyed the challenge and the change of motion from the rowing machine; plus kids like me should get more fresh air anyways.

After getting a little dose of cycling, my dad bought me my first road bike August 4th; it's a slightly used, middle of the pack, 2011 full carbon Cannondale with 105's. Man its fast compared to the commuter rig, and she's a cool green color too; kinda reminds me of a Lamborghini. In the near month and a half I have had the new ride I have been putting 350 miles on the clock.

Before getting the road bike my buddy Alexander also joined us for few rides with a borrowed road bike. He is a natural in any sport, so he picked cycling up really fast, and ended up buying the bike he was using. Then shortly after his younger brother Nick wanted to try riding too and he ended up getting a beautiful red AG, so this only added to my interest. Since then the boys dad Mark "The Frog" (I'll explain the nick name later) and mom Johanna also got bikes, so we have a small friendly newbie peloton going on here.

Our additional normal crew members we ride with is Jari, he is the guy Alex got his bike from (maybe that’s why Alex is so fast, some of Jari's speed may have stuck on the ol' Trek). Jari got into riding a few years back with my dad, and he has never looked back since. In fact he rides at least 7000 miles a year and only knows two speeds fast and faster. Jari also doesn't have the word "recovery ride" in his vocabulary; so if your expecting him to slow down, I would recommend shooting his tires. Jari's wife Tarja also joins us.

Alexander is in more of Jari's caliber so most of the time the "flying duo" wings with the faster groups, while the rest of us dilly dally, and pant.

Sure we ride in a slower pack, but we are getting better, faster, and stronger.....

One more thing, my dad has been slacking on the riding this year some what and needed a jump start to get going again, so as a good son I had to help him of the sofa and back to the road again and off course soon as he did get back to riding routine he get's this crazy idea and starts planning a century ride for all of us! Century as in a 100 miles of bicycling in one single day!

So my first cycling goal that I was sweet talked into, is this century ride in Gainesville Oct.27th. We will meet my uncle Jim there; as they live in that area. Jim is an old ironman so if noting else works he can pull us to finish. Hopefully in one piece, with out the saddles stuck to our behinds. 

Well I better get of the keyboard and start training as we have long way to go and short time to get there......