It's Ridemas Time Again

Ahhh...the holidays. I absolutely hate xmas (i even wrote two songs about it, check them out here) but i don't mind the time off, and spending time with friends who also have the time off!

The last few days looked something like this:

Thursday (Dec 24th) - Road Ride

Another beautiful day in Victoria, lotsa sun. Unfortunately, i was feeling pretty fried from the climb session the night before, but the roads were dry, and the Ridley Noah was begging to be ridden:



It really hides from the wind:



Safe to say i'm the slowest thing on it:



So it's weighing in at 17.35lbs with the PowerTap (sans bottles or saddlebag.)

Decided to head out for a Power Hour loop to keep it short. Cold day, and there seemed to be a constant headwind nearly any direction i faced..so stats not terribly impressive:

#3 SB Power Hour: 842kJ burned, TSS 87.2, NP 243w, AP 234w, HR 172, Spd/Dis 31.3km, ~4C, breezy

Previous two Power Hour rides, on the winter bike:

#2 WB Power Hour: 822kJ burned, TSS 84.4, NP 239w, AP 228w, HR 170, Spd/Dis 31.1km, ~2C
#1 WB Power Hour: 805kJ burned, TSS 80.7, NP 234w, AP 224w, Spd/Dis 31.3km, ~12C

Will have to give it another go on a less-breezy day!

Full numbers from the ride:

Entire workout (220 watts):

Duration: 1:10:24 (1:14:23)

Work: 924 kJ

TSS: 96.3 (intensity factor 0.909)

Norm Power: 236

VI: 1.07

Distance: 34.907 km

          Min Max Avg

Power: 0 789 220 watts

Heart Rate: 94 188 168 bpm

Cadence: 38 118 93 rpm

Speed: 4.8 58.3 30.0 kph

Friday - Fun MTB Ride

Fun ride w/Alex, Steve and Chelsea:



We opted to hit a number of trails we normally avoid, the 'downhill' ones, such as Green Ribbon, Sofa King, Jelly Roll and Lumpy Pants. We had a little trouble finding our way to Sofa King, but we made it:



Here we are on a the big drop on Lumpy Pants:



I rode down the section on the left, as Alex checked out the big drop on the right:



Yay - i survived!



Alex wasn't comfortable with the line needed to make it down that side, so he came down the same section as me. Steve showing off his tough spectator muscles:



hehehe

Fun day, i was on the big wheels, and Alex the little ones - 24":



Hilarious stats..we were out for 3hrs, but logged only 1hr 18min of actual ride time:

Entire workout (141 watts):

Duration: 1:18:39 (2:53:47)

Work: 665 kJ

TSS: 78.1 (intensity factor 0.772)

Norm Power: 201

VI: 1.42

Distance: 11.993 km

         Min Max Avg

Power: 0 940 141 watts

Heart Rate: 72 169 135 bpm

Cadence: 35 201 77 rpm

Speed: 3.9 35.6 9.4 kph

I swear i burned more calories than that pushing my bike up Hot Cherry! They agreed to join me in a quest to find a section that i've been unable to find...there's a long rockface descent that ends with a couple trees that used to be a part of Hot Cherry like 10yrs ago, but i can no longer find it... : \

Saturday - Boxing Day TT

Rode out with a small group to the annual Boxing Day TT out in Sooke on Happy Valley Rd. Shortish 13.7km course with a small hill but otherwise mainly flat. I was looking forward to smashing my previous time, as well as seeing how fast the Ridley could go:



Unfortunately, that's about as far as i made it, as my chain malfunctioned. I guess the tension cased a link to stiffen.. I hadn't used the special replacement pin when i swapped it over, but it's funny as it lasted three rides and over 4hrs...ahh well. Stats from the ride out:

Entire workout (146 watts):
Duration: 1:12:51 (1:53:16)
Work: 619 kJ
TSS: 70.4 (intensity factor 0.774)
Norm Power: 201
VI: 1.37
Distance: 28.029 km
          Min Max Avg
Power: 0 781 146 watts
Heart Rate: 81 170 135 bpm
Cadence: 31 120 83 rpm
Speed: 3.7 42.6 23.8 kph

Sunday - MTB

Final ride with Steve, who's off the New Zealand for five months on Wednesday! We'll miss you buddy!

Rode out to the Dump with Steve, met Alex and Johnny Y-Bike there (because he's riding a classic Trek Y-22!) Here we are up on Twister:



Yet ANOTHER beautiful day, trails were mint, just rode my regular loop.



And the numbers:

Entire workout (179 watts):
Duration: 3:32:19 (5:02:28)
Work: 2284 kJ
TSS: 255.2 (intensity factor 0.849)
Norm Power: 221
VI: 1.23
Distance: 60.501 km
         Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1063 179 watts
Heart Rate: 69 181 145 bpm
Speed: 3.9 49.7 17.3 kph

Solid TSS. Don't really know where that 1.5hrs went..guess we stopped and talked a few times!! Crazy number of calories burned, even more when considering how it's cold and i'm doubtless generating more heat...

Will miss ya Steve and Chelsea! Happy travels! =)

Monday - Climb

Oh boy..i realized i haven't had a day off since a week last Friday...and was feeling it today.

Climbed with Kelly, i started off rather poorly, there's a shortage of reasonable 5.9's at the gym right now, so warm-up can be a bit harried if there are a few people around the gym..fell off the tough, purple 5.9 twice as i was trying to get my groove..!

Got better after that, didn't really push it too much, mainly stuck to the 10a's and b's, and tried one of the 10c's again. Tried out the long, increasingly overhanging 10a/b for the first time, and on my redline attempt i cleaned it! I think it's a bit under-ranked..i'd say this was definitely much closer to a 9 than 10...the black 5.9 on the opposing wall is SIGNIFICANTLY more challenging...! (I'd say a lot of the ratings are a bit screwy..but that might be just me.)

2.5hrs and i was completely beat, but happy with the session.

I'm pretty wiped at this point, looks like another decent day tomorrow, so hopefully another go on the Ridley. Likely climb Wed, ride Thu, and perhaps take Fri (New Years) off completely. =)

I posted another RideCam photo gallery, check out all the pics here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/davenoisy1/20091227RideCam26

Keep it real!

=============

Dave's Latest Twitter Updates

follow me on Twitter

=============