The Right Tool

I've been into single speed's for some time now. In various past posts on this very blog such as this one, this one or particularly this one I've chronicled some of the adventures, details and thought process behind the whole one geared mentality. The synopsis is that it's different, it's simple and it's fun. I realize, anyone who has spent much time on a SS bike knows that there is next to nothing simple about them but once you get the multitude of setup issues debugged and once you progress from cobbled, to dedicated SS bikes, it starts to be more fun than frustration.

Why not cobbled you ask? The bottom line is that virtually all of us started that way. Heck, back in the day (the day was like 12 years ago in my case) there were virtually no dedicated SS frames, at least not for the MTB which was all we were riding back then. Instead you used some sort of tensioning device like the new to the market Surly Singulator or you just cobbled an old derailleur with extra long limit screws so you could lock it out in a given position. The former actually worked really well but was shunned by the staunch SS purist crowds. The latter worked, poorly, and failed frequently.

Soon we were getting dedicated bikes with slotted/horizontal rear dropouts. This was great but required BMX tensioners in most cases in order to work really well which also meant a nutted, solid axle. That pretty much sucked but was the norm. Disc brakes further confused this issue because the caliper needed to mount consistently based on the axle position. Eventually people started using slotted/ovalized caliper tabs on the frames, which got the job done. Having gotten sick of that setup and really liking the ability to use regular wheels with spacers on the freehub body and a single, easily changeable and cheap cog, I've gone primarily to Eccentric Bottom Bracket (EBB) designs. This is the worst design in the world for tensioning chains, except for all of the rest. Well, actually, the pivoting and sliding, vertical (normal) rear dropout designs are really the best bet. Unfortunately, they are hard to find and tend to be on expensive frames.

With the advent of BB30 and now PF30 compatible frames, you can get an aftermarket EBB adapter that allows you to run a normal frame with normal wheels as a SS bike. I love this idea and have started adopting it. The plan is to convert Cathy's SSCX bike over as well. Another project for another day. For now we will have to stick with what we have though, her horizontal dropout, bolted axle Kona Major One SSCX.

So anyhow, the whole reason for this post was basically, mud. It has been raining like mad recently and the conditions have been horrible. Last weekend the Downeast Cyclocross in New Gloucester, ME was absolutely brutal. I'm usually pretty good in the mud but last Saturday was the kind of mud you just couldn't ride and you had to run, frequently. Literally half of the course you would ride 100' and then run 100' and repeat. I suck at running so was pretty darn mediocre at the race Saturday.

On Sunday the conditions were a little better and I was having a pretty good day. I could ride sections a little better than many and made up lots of ground. That was, until I was riding a mud section that I thought I really should probably be running as it was really deep and had lots of grass pack in. Just as that thought was going through my mind, the rear derailleur sucked into the rear wheel and ripped off the bike. Ugh! I started running with it and soon blew up. I stopped and fished the derailleur from the spokes of the rear wheel so I could push the bike and started running again. The pit was about 1/3 of a lap from where I broke down and in that time I lost about 10 positions. Fortunately my pit bike was set to go and I worked as hard as I could to make up spots. At first it was tough given how gassed and disoriented I was from running but soon I recovered and got into a groove. I managed to gain back all but 5 of the spots and salvaged the day, to a degree. The bike, my good one of course, was mostly OK. A new derailleur hanger, some straightening and cobbling of the rear derailleur and truing the rear wheel (which meant pulling the tubular tire to access the internal nipples) and replacement of some cable housing and the bike was back together. Ready for next time.

When you ride muddy fields with a cyclocross or any other bicycle, a few things become apparent. First, bikes really are not made to ride in that crap. Beyond the issues of bearing contamination and all out destruction, we have an open and fairly fragile drivetrain. The rear derailleur, hanging perilously close to the ground from the tiniest little mount seems destine for failure. When you add grass into the mud, the caged jockey pulleys of the mechanism seem to have an attraction that can not be broken. The grass packs into the pulleys and bunches up, Rim brakes are another problem spot, as they are poorly affected by the mud and water but also because they like to clog up with grass, mud and debris as well. Add to this the fairly narrow openings affording small clearance of the chain and seat stays as well as the fork bridge and you have a whole lot of places that can and do pack in with power sucking mud. This is just a really bad design and a good example of the wrong tool for the job.

As such, I decided that for the upcoming Orchardcross SSCX race this Sunday, I was going to do a test. I figured that I would try and put together a bike that was better suited for the mud as we are virtually guaranteed to have a really nasty course this coming Sunday, given the rain and snow predicted for the weekend coupled with the rain and snow that we have already had this week. What I did was to take my SS 29er MTB and monster-cross it. I like the idea of a SS for a really muddy race in general. If you can gear it low enough for the mud and still be OK for the dry sections, I think you would have a huge advantage. I say this because the drivetrain is simplified to the point where it should be much less impacted by the filth. A normal SSCX bike still has the clearance issues though. A SS MTB however, especially if you run normal 35c CX tires on it has a ton of clearance. The mud may still pack in but no where near as badly as with a CX frame. Lastly, the MTB takes advantage of disc brakes, which tend to not clog with mud and crap as they are fairly isolated from the ground, where the mud and grass is, being that they are in the middle of the wheel.

My one question is going to be in the handling. I think that riding mud with the wider MTB handlebars will be a bunch easier and climbing should be as well. I find that I get better leverage with the MTB bars. Cornering may be problematic as a 29er MTB isn't exactly fast handling when compared to a cross bike. I guess I'll see though. I plan to bring both bikes and will try each and see if I can get a comparison. Who knows. I'm hoping this might be the right tool for the job though.

What Happened to Fall?

Looks like we got hosed out of yet another transitional season. Seems that this has happened a number of times in the past few year, what with the spring and fall seasons taking a beating. It seems we go right from winter with cold and snow into an immediate change with warm and dry in the Sprummer season and then right from hot and dry to freezing and wet in the Fanter season.

No, it isn't snowing but did we ever get the nice, cool, crisp and sunny fall days that we all look forward to? Maybe I was snoozing and missed them. I seem to recall lots of above average temps and warm, humid and rainy. Now we are right into the 40 degrees and driving rain stage. Yuck. I recall a couple years back going from 40 and rain in March to sunny and 90 degrees a week later in April. We literally were hypothermic at a race one Sunday and people were dropping from heat exhaustion at a race the next Sunday.

Strange days, indeed.

Cathy getting first tracks up Bear Notch 2006/03/31.

Race Training

Or maybe a better title would be using races as training or possibly just how to effectively screw up a whole day of racing with improper training and racing. Regardless, last week and particularly last weekend I found the perfect combination to sabotage not only my own day of racing but my wife's as well. I'm choosing to take the high road here though, and say that we simply used last week culminating with the day's racing on Sunday as a nice solid block of training. That is much easier than simply admitting suckage.

The weekend prior to last week was a solid block of riding in and of itself despite not racing and last week had some good hard efforts highlighted by the two hour interval road ride on Tuesday. I've been trying to do more of this type of ride and have gotten a good small group together to hit some mild hills really hard. We end up on a very local 35ish mile loop where we sprint it out every time the pavement goes up. This nets us about 13 or 14 good solid 20 second to 1.5 minute efforts. Recovery in between allows for some really good repeats. I've been seeing historic records set in the short interval blocks on a weekly basis. This is a good thing. Anyhow, that was the Tuesday ride followed by the normal cyclocross specific training ride that saw another block of longer intervals, though much less intense. A solid block on the rollers Friday capped off the work week and had me feeling pretty good.

Friday evening as we were pre-registering for the Sunday race, I convinced Cathy that doing a double was the hot setup, because you know, the second race only costs $10. We both registered for the 1/2/3 race as well as the SSCX race, a race that we both hoped to do well at. In the past I've had mixed results with doubling up on races. In some cases I have had great success but in others not so much. If I am feeling good for the first race I often manage to put in respectable results in the second race. Typically though if the first race doesn't go well the second isn't much of an improvement. We would just have to see how things played out.

Unfortunately, I decided that a great pre-race ride would be to do a Saturday AM 50 mile group ride out to Harvard and back because it would be nice and gentle. You know me, I'm excellent at the nice and gentle thing. I can so handle that gig. Oh yea, that's right. I actually totally suck at "nice and easy" and failed "gentle" in kindergarten. This near three hours block of "nice and easy" was the straw. About half way in, right after I did my one and only "opener" hard interval at the top of Oak Hill, it dawned on me that I'd done way too much. Cathy echoed my sentiments shortly after that. The damage was done and despite shutting it down and coming the last 20 miles "easily" home, the legs were whimpering. At home I downloaded the power from the ride and was surprised to see that in no less than three short time interval categories I hit within 50 watts of my personal bests. That either indicates that my personal bests are pretty lame or the ride was probably not "nice and easy". The data confirmed the physiological assumption, this was not the best pre-race ride choice.

Fast forward to Sunday AM and we get to the venue early to support and cheer on the Junior Development Team who showed up in force. The legs for some reason have not recovered from the previous day's activity. I wonder why? I pulled the single-speed off the rack, got suited up and got out onto the course to pre-ride and see what it was all about. Cathy had already headed out on her geared bike to preview the course. Making an appearance at the day-time venue once again was the dreaded flyover of doom. This is always a challenging feature and can be a game-changer if you are not comfortable and proficient with it. On the pre-ride lap my legs actually didn't feel all that bad and so I was still optimistic. As my races were much later in the day, I figured that I would just see how it played out after a few hours of spectating. What else could I do after all?

Cathy rails the wood-chips in the barn.

First up on the day were the Master's events. We had a bunch of NEBC teammates in the mix and walked around the course and spectated. After the Master's events were the Cat4 and Junior races. We had a seven kids in the races from the team including three who would be competing in their first cyclocross race ever. The race was super exciting and very animated as they sent nearly 100 Cat4 Men off at the same time as the 20 Junior racers. It was mayhem. You can read all about it via the NEBC Junior Team Race Report directly. It was great to see all of the kids out there having fun and getting the opportunity to experience a new aspect of cycling. That is what it's all about, if you ask me anyhow. Keep it fresh and keep it fun. We had a total of five of the team bikes the I've been working all season to pull together from strategic purchases and donations from club members and friends. This allows the team to try this new discipline without having to shell out for a bike. We also have some mountain bikes to use for the team as well and have in the past been able to head into the woods to experience yet another discipline. The program is going very well and is having a very positive impact, at least from what I am seeing.

Next up was Cathy's category race. She was doing really well at the start and having a great race but as time went on and the race progressed, I could see my stupidity in ride selection from the day prior was taking a toll. This was when the true extent of my poor judgment sunk in and I realized I hadn't only potentially impacted myself but had sabotaged Cathy's day as well. Ugh! She still managed to finish up strong and never gave up.

My category race drew a big field of primarily younger guys than I am used to racing with. This was because they offered no Master's 35+ 1/2/3 field but instead chose to combine the fields into a single 1/2/3 group. Off the start I wasn't feeling quite up to the task. Combined with the slight uphill sprint into the uphill power section slog I was already in trouble. The younger guys seem to be able to start just a little bit harder than I am comfortable with. This results in me struggling hard at the start and then picking it up when they start to fade off. This happened as usual but I found myself well behind the front end of the race. Despite making up some ground I could never close the gap to the group ahead, who were still charging hard. Despite seeing him coming and trying my hardest to preempt the strike, I got beaten at the finish by SSCX rival Shawn M. which slipped me another place back. That's racing though.

For the single-speeds, I'd switched our gearing combination on the SSCX bikes from the previous race at the venue, opting for a taller gear. I'd changed both of our bikes from 38x17 to 40x17 shortly after the previous race. After spending some time on that combo, including doing a real cross practice including some sprint intervals with the NEBC Junior Development Team, I decided to go bigger still. I've come to realize that riding SS is a very different animal that racing SS. You really want to over-gear for a race situation and suffer through it on the ups with the thought being that it allows you more chance to recover/go faster on the flats and downs. Being spun out at 125rpm is no way to try and recover. So I bumped up to a 42x17 which, after the pre-ride lap I decided was the right choice.

I was still confident that I could hold it all together for a good showing in the SSCX race. That was, until I finished the 1/2/3 and felt the true gravity of the situation. The SSCX race started in 15 minutes and I was, spent. I choked down a Goo and drank some water, pulled off my base layer which I really didn't need in the first place and regretted having in the previous race. At the line I had really good seeding, but then they told us it was to be a Le mans, running start. They then sent us back down the hard-pack sinder road a hundred or so yards. They then put the women off 45 seconds in front of us. This is going to be challenging.

1/2/3 Women Winding up the switchbacks.

The running start was a joke. I'm an OK power runner but with carbon soled shoes and toe spikes on hard-packed surface, I may as well have been running in clogs. Heck, it looked like I was. I got to and on my bike with about 20 people ahead of me. My tired legs balked at the first power climb and the switchbacks were mayhem. I struggled, thrashed and floundered like a walrus caught in a fishing net. It wasn't pretty. As the course opened up I started to make some headway, and then we hit the women. The only point at which this was a real issue was when I got stuck behind a small but opinionated and vocal woman going up the flyover. It wasn't pretty and it was slow. The rest of the race was just trying to chase back through the spots I'd lost at the start. The short is that I managed to get most of the spots back and had the group ahead of me and even the leaders back in sight with a couple of laps to go but I could not even match the final lap pace, let alone close. The gear choice was spot on, I just wish I'd have had the ability to use it. Cathy thought she was a little high, but I suspect that was Saturday's ride and the 1/2/3 race earlier talking. I know that she can push a big gear when she wants to.

So lets just chalk that one up to a block of training. This week started with the plan to do some steady, recovery riding and not further tax myself. Other than going out for a very, very short run on Monday which basically crippled me for days, the goal was met. I'm hoping for good legs for the weekend of racing in Maine. Will see what happens. I'm optimistic and looking forward to the weekend at the very least.

Entitlement Revisited

It is the one year anniversary of this blog. Yes, that's right, it has been a little more than a year now that I have been going on and on about, well, not much at all in general. How time flies. As part of the anniversary celebration I thinks it time to stir some sh!t up, if you will, and look into some of the crap that I get to hear about when I get home from work. That as opposed to crap I get to clean up when I get home from work. Speaking of stirring and cleaning up sh!t, I'll have to give you my hot setup tip for cat litter at some point. My own secret blend of herbs and spices that totally neutralizes the kitten poops.

Anyhow ...

Why is it that the topic of entitlement just won't seem to go away? Last year I wrote a piece on it from my perspective as a club racer and team captain who was trying to balance and rationalize the demands and expectations of those affiliated with the clubs race teams as well as amateur racing in general. This year it seems that the target of those entitled are the unfortunate individuals that find themselves higher in the race standings, referred to as the sandbaggers in order to retain outward consistency, than those entitled masses. These masses are the ones that expect or more, demand to finish higher up in the standings than they currently are because, you know, they deserve and are entitled to it, and so they themselves can upgrade into further mediocrity if not into just plain absurdity.

I must admit that I have not been part of this whole thing first hand. That is not to say that I have not been privy to accounts and recounts of both sides. At first glance I would agree that the same people seem to be winning certain low level amateur races week in and week out, by a large margin. The races in question tend to be non-elite races at the big UCI series events. These people also tend to be a combination of mostly Junior racers (under 18 years old) and Masters racers (over 35 years old). On the surface it would be easy to quickly dismiss them as sandyboogers and demand their immediate category upgrade to push them out of the amateur races and into the elite races, even though none of them are professional cyclists who get paid to race their bikes. Clean, easy and unfortunately, shortsighted.

If anyone looks at the rules they will notice a couple of things. First, junior racers can not participate in the UCI elite races that we have in this region. That means for those Juniors that upgrade beyond a category allowed in an amateur race, they could no longer race any of the larger local series events, period. Next, for the Masters racers, they can indeed race in the UCI elite races with the purchase of a UCI license. However, if they score any UCI points at all they would be barred from competing in the Masters World Championships. So after spending all the dough on a license you'd basically have to DNF every race you enter or run the risk of miscalculating your finish and gaining unwanted UCI points. This is reflected in a piece here. But hey, at least they'd be out of your way, right?

A big problem is that sandbagger is a very relative term that means many different things to different people. There are also many external factors that people fail to take into consideration when passing judgment. Of course there are legitimate sandbagger out there, those who just enjoy doing well and refuse to progress in category to the point of mediocrity. Actually, one can easily say that those people are realists and understand both their limitation as well as the true fact that greater motivation is derived by positive results than by negative results, at least by most.

I personally feel that in the beginner category, which is Cat4 for cyclocross, people should indeed be pushed through and out as soon as they are competent to safely compete. As such, Cat4 should have no incentives or rewards given for placings, nothing to entice people to stay there. Cat4 is supposed to be the place where those coming into the sport get to experience the fun and positive aspects and where the hook is set, so to speak. It's not supposed to be a destination. At present, this is not the case. We have career Cat4 racers. Judging from the field sizes, we have a lot of them.

I think that in order for the sport to progress, we need to discourage that from happening. Because the sport is so top heavy yet thin in the mid section for a certain gender based segment, there is not sufficient volume to warrant a separate Cat3 field. At the UCI races it is unfair to require the Cat3 racers to purchase a UCI license and race with the professionals and as such, you end up with a combined field. If you want a separate race, grow the Cat3 field. This may not give you a separate time slot but it could possibly result in a staggered start, separately scored event.

The bottom line however, is that there is a point at which upgrade no longer makes sense. Many of us wrestled with this in mountain bike racing recently, when the categories and rules were changed/consolidated and we were told in no uncertain terms that we could not upgrade further regardless of the local results we'd gotten, which in the past would have qualified for an upgrade. Pro means pro as in you get paid to do it as a job. It is not an ability based classification. In the real world what that means is that no matter how good at writing blog posts or how much content you churn out, you are not a professional writer unless someone values your work enough to pay you for it. As such, I may be a professional software engineer but I'm still just an amateur cyclist.

I think it is truly unfortunate that so many seem to feel entitled to results beyond those they are naturally able to achieve. What happened to hard work and time in the trenches? What leads people to believe that if they are unable to win the races that they are in, that they will somehow do better in the higher level races. Why is it that people are satisfied scoping the classification that they are part of sufficiently that they too attain the results they are looking for? I like to compare myself against everyone, not just the SSCX 44 year old bald/overweight men from Bedford. On the up side, I'm totally dominating that category!

StFUaR, harder in fact, as the case may be!

They'll Never Learn

You 'd think that after the experience last winter, coupled with other past experiences, that "they" would learn. There are certain things that you just shouldn't eat.

Last weekend we took a break from cross racing made the trip up to our place in Maine to celebrate Thanksgiving with Cathy's folks. On the way up Thursday night, we stopped at Tim Horton's in Oxford, ME for some "doughnuts". Traditionally, they are one of the few places that carries sour cream doughnuts, save for intermittent appearances in the bakery of our local Stop&Shop. Those are about as good a doughnut as you can get from a chain. However, we were disappointed to find them out (who would have guessed they would be out at 9PM on a Thursday) and also that what they did have, was less than stellar. It had probably been sitting around since the early AM run. Regardless, we were there and foolishly purchased a dozen of their doughnut dregs.

On a side note, they are working feverishly on the new Resort Casino that is going in on RT26 just south of Oxford. It is going to be something, I'm sure. Will be interesting to see what it ends up looking like and what kind of business is does. We don't really gamble but on odd trips to Vegas in the past we have enjoyed playing very limited amounts of quarter slots. This was back in the pre-virtual day when the payout was in actual quarters and you pulled a handle. We would take a bag of loose change with us and dole that out on a daily allotment basis for a gambling money. Winnings went in the pocket, not back into the kitty and we would usually come back with more than we went with. Yes, we're also really boring in real life, if you haven't guessed so far.

I'm not sure why I do it. Since I've started sampling gourmet quality artisan doughnuts, the chains just don't measure up. It's like drinking crappy beer or having chain pizza or fast food burgers. They simply leave too much to be desired, so much so that you end up regretting having made the choice in the first place. Sort of a buyers remorse situation but on a slightly smaller scale. Come Monday morning we were back home and made the pilgrimage to Kane's in Saugus, MA for the real deal. Nothing else really measures up afterall.

You'll be sorry!

In the mean time, we found a use for the remnant chain doughnuts, if you can actually call them that. Though they seemed very happy to get them, I'm pretty sure there were some upset stomachs later on. Hope this doesn't qualify us for endangering the wildlife.