Damn, I am sore

Fat Dave is here. Has been for a while. Since moving from a mountain town to a DC suburb I have gone completely to hell fitnesswise. So it's back to basics. The better half and I joined up at the local gym. Little place much like the Olympian Gym I joined in Va Beach in 1985 when I was serious about bodybuilding. I was a hard 147# back then at mybest. Now a soft 177# after kids, college, and much beer. They got a pretty good selection of free-weight stuff, mirrors, etc. Only part of me not hurting is my glutes, neck, and lower back. Biceps hurt! haven't felt pain there in many moons. I got weights at home but that does not work good enough. No motivation? 145# here I come. I oughtta be fast on a bike then.

Best Present in a while

I asked and I got it. The Paterek bike frame builder's manual. It is like over 500 pages long and since yesterday I have read maybe half of it. Some parts slow and studiously, others a bit faster.
I have it in my head that since I have no mental fun vocationally that I could use my mech eng degree with my love of bikes and do something that I can derive some sense of accomplishment and satisfation from on my own. My 1st project is going to be replacing my lugged steel road bike's top tube which has a big dent in it from the previous owner. I will probably read the book several times through, skipping chapters like tandems, then plan the repair. Knowledge takes me far but crap like determining what type of solder the bike was built with based on how the solder melts versus apparent lug temperature. So off to the welding supplier for gas and torch and Sears for new files in a month or so I will go. Old school hand work is how I guess it will be. I can't afford stuff like a mill or lathe. Should be interesting to see how I deal with having no fixtures or jigs. I am forming an idea of holding the tubes and lugs in position using threaded rod and nuts through the tubes and lug centerlines. I conceive that I will shape all tube miters and assemble the entire bike held together in tension by the rods before lighting the torch. Maybe for the main triangle anyhow. I guess I am stoked. Will become obsessed probably. Like when they had a balsa truss contest in college. I was nuts. Did strength testing on balsa sticks. Had much fun. I got plans to attach strain gages in various bike frame locations and collect data from real world rides to see where there is too much steel. Damn I am gonna have fun.

Dave's 1st Hiilclimb prep

Went down to Poor Mountain today to pre-ride the hill and decide on gearing and tires.
32x18T fixed is too hard for me. Made it up to the 1st little peak with pavement
maybe 4 miles or so up, right before the right turn to get to the towers, I assume
the course goes there. Started up after the turn . Legs just were toast, lower back hurt,
and besides, I doubt the 32mm cross tires would hook up on the loose gravel at the grade I saw,
so I bailed at that point. The Tomicog made a workout on the descent as I tried to use the
brake sparingly. My thinking is I run either a 22T freewheel or go 1x9 gearing with the RD
and the WTB 2.55 tires for traction at the expense of a little weight.
32x34 should be alot easier to spin. Any thoughts? Experience on this hill?

Decisions

Well, after my last crapfest race I have decided to enter (pay) for more rides/races. They are in October this year. Need to get back down to race weight, too much junk food and beer ever since my class reunion. Gonna do the MoCo Epic, which I did once this summer unsupported, it is a club fundraiser. Should be fun. Rode 44x20 freewheel last time, think I will do 44x18 fixed this time. Get some respecto and challenge myself. Like that 42 miles I did on Skyline Drive running 48x18 fixed gear, but smoked my legs, and I had been planning a 81 mile ride in that gear. Glad no one showed up so I could bail out at 42. The other event is the Poor Mountain Hillclimb, my 1st ever hill climb bike race. Maybe I will be like Doug someday.
Gear decision: Instead of tryin to rebuild my circa 1988 Dura Ace road read hub with a bent axle and toasted cones and bearings, I am gonna get a new Phil Wood hub and have my LBS build it on my rim.
And next year: I will do 6 Gaps again and probably run my XT mtb crankset so that I can hit Lincoln Pass with the confidence that a lowest of 22x28 gearing will supply. No walking.
And the SM100 is next weekend and I am passing on it this year. Will do it next year single speed if the cashflow is not hammered like it was this year. Here's to the future.

I am a loser too right now

I have been chillin a bit since I DNFed myself last Sunday at the Fountainhead Cranky Monkey mtb race. On the weekend of August 13 I picked up a chest cold and onSunday's race I felt crappy.
But I trained hard this year so I went anyhow. Got 2 miles into it and felt so hot and about to hurl, could not recover from the climbs. I was not me, getting passed alot. I never get passed there, that is my fave trail. I mean, there are faster dudes but I was way slow. So I was dyin, no fun at all, so I bailed out. Could not breathe good, still can't. Some good events comin up and I am afraid to enter. Poor Mt Hillclimb, MORE Douthat trip, and the MoCo Epic. Hate to waste my money like I did last weekend. At least I am not pissed off anymore. The cold was a shite happens thing.

Gear Up

Just got a new bigger chainring for my 29er fixter. 48T. Along with the 18Tomicog I can really roll. The 44 was a bit too small except on in the mountains. Hope the knees hold up though. They are protesting slightly and I may be over doing it. 1st ride yesterday morning and I was nearly up to my road bike pace on the neighborhood lap. 15 miles at just over 18 mph average.

I used to do around 19 mph avg on the road bike, which is down because I bent the rear axle and trashed the cones too. Hard to locate late 80's dura ace hub parts. I may need to buy aPhil Wood hub that fits my bike. Gotta race comin up next month, local, at Fountainhead Park. Got a new 22T freewheel for that. Registered for single speed and I can't climb everything on the 20T freewheel. Thinking about doin the back road century in September fixed gear.

Fixed In the Hurt Locker real proper like

Post title links to Garmin data.
I like to see how much I can take. So I went to do 6 Gaps in Vt last year and hurt and failed. "A man's gotta know his limitations." I hit one there: 4 out of 6 climbs ain't too bad for still too fat Dave. I nailed my limit yesterday and am seriously sore today. Guys around here question my sanity for riding my Tomicog fixed 29er on Skyline Drive. I upped the insanity by attempting a ride known as SkyMass on said fixie in 44x18 gearing and had a near perfect ride. The linked Garmin results were from the road bike guy riding with me. I have gotten away from data slavery on the bike and generally like it. We stayed together or I pulled a big gap until the grade was negative. I can't keep up with a geared roadbike on downhills with a fixie geared low enough to climb. But when the road tilted back up, I was a passin the roadie. Good fun.
I did manage to do my TT climb only 1.2 minutes slower than my PR and was holdin back cause I didn't know if the legs would last for the whole ride. It was warm and humid but thankfully it remained overcast all day. No cramping. That was an improvement over last year and pushing a relatively hard gear too. The only failure was my inability to ride the last 1/4 mile of the 4th climb, Massenutten Mountain, which runs around 12% grade. I musta been down to 1 mph and gave up and walked. Next time I do this ride on my road bike it will seem easy.