well everything about yesterday’s ride was just totally awesome. (sarcasm?)

i decided i was gonna do the ride i was supposed to do the day the guy hit me with his side view mirror forcing me to kick the asian guy’s door etc.

i got a new bike computer (more on that later) and some new shorts in the morning and hit the streets. wild, wild, runnin’, runnin’,.

hmmm. i don’t even know where to begin. yesterday was going to be a 100 mile ride. i don’t know when i decided it wouldn’t be but it had nothing to do with any of these factors -

1. the two people on western that opened their doors w/o looking that made me just about shit myself while swerving wildly into traffic to avoid dying.

2. the delivery truck on los feliz that put his blinker on and then turned it off and then 4 blocks later decided he was turning and almost pinched me between his truck and the car on the side of the road even though he fucking saw me and gave me a nod like “hey, i see you and know you’re there.”

3. the 4, yes count’em 4, city busses that pulled out on colorado blvd w/o checking their mirror that had me skidding and cutting and cussing.

4. the wind that was blowing hard all day from what seemed to be every direction. by the time i got to pasadena i felt like cool whip. if you know me you know i hate wind already but when i’m riding i lose my mind. this was not normal wind. i almost fell over more than once because i was leaning into the seemingly never ending gales only to have it stop blowing. so i correct my balance only to have it start blowing again! ugh. literally 8 mph down hill and pedaling on garfield ave because of head wind.

5. the heat…wow it was hot. summer summer summer. two water bottles completely drained twice. sweating like a freak.

but not doing the full 100 had nothing to do with that stuff. the reason is more sinister. you see, i want to race. i want to be faster and faster and ride to the top of a mountain and back down and set records and always be in the front. this applies to riding bikes too.

so i read. they actually have books on bike racing strategy. and in these books they talk about the best ways to train. i figured there must be some useful information in these books so i got one used from amazon.com for like 4 dollars (w/ shipping it was $1,747.53 but that includes the cost of a used, insulated, high-cube shipping container as well.) and began reading.

my old computer crapped out and for training purposes you really need to know your stats. the best thing to have is a power meter that tells you so much information you have to have a computer to explain it all to you but a power meter costs about $1,200 bucks pre shipping container.

so i went with the slightly cheaper option of a regular little cateye strada cadence (Cateye - Cc-rd200 - Strada Cadence). and there is that word - cadence.

that word is why i shortened my ride by 25 miles. that word…oh my.

you see, in the book the author talks about how cadence is very important for speed. it’s pretty boring but in the end it all makes sense so trust me when i say that having a cadence between 90-100 rpm’s is ideal. pedaling faster = going faster. and a higher cadence saves energy due to the type of muscles you’re using. but what he doesn’t tell you is that when you’ve never thought about cadence before you have no idea how fucking fast 90 rpm’s is. 90 on the cadence counter is what you would do to out run a pack of rabid dogs. 90 is what you would do if your buddy was cut in half and you had to get to an area with cell service to call an ambulance. 90 will kick your ass so fast you’ll wish your shipping container was buried in the ground so you could just go ahead and die and use it for a coffin big enough to hold you and all your stupid ideas like keeping up a cadence of 90 for any extended period of time.

apparently my normal cadence is about 70. and that is me thinking i’m fast. the truth is that i could tell i was faster and it was technically easier to pedal and maintain speed but several things come into play. one of those things is cardio. i am not in terrible cardiovascular shape, but 90 needs more than what i got. legs that are used to doing 70 will find that 90 hurts places that you forget about completely when you’re standing on your tippy toes looking over your shoulder trying to see if your calves are looking more ripped now that you’ve pulled 1,000 plus miles in a month.

90…

look out sunday! here comes 90!

chirp,

hillary