America's #1 Balance Bike Destination

America's #1 Balance Bike Destination
America's #1 Balance Bike Destination

Monday, April 22, 2013

Just checking in..

Hi readers. Some quick updates to assure you that I still draw breath and still pedal a bike! Here are the highlights of my 2013 to date:
1. Training camp in Florida- went solo this year and banged out 455 miles in six days of riding.
2. Delray Beach Granfondo- included in the above mileage was a 100km granfondo in which I narrowly escaped with all of my skin (3 big crashes), finished about 30th out of 600 starters, and beat Nelson Vails to the line.
3. Delray Beach Criterium PRO RACES- watched the men and ladies light it up in the dark the evening after the above granfondo. My mom was with me and also enjoyed the thrilling speed of the closed course.
4. Delray Beach Amateur Crit- Held in an industrial park near the Delray Pro Crit, this was a good test of my tired legs, and gave me confidence after I finished the 40+ race without blowing up, where it was fast enough that there were 10 DNFs.. 12th out of 16 finishers, I'll take it, in March.. in Florida.. The Pro-1-2 race afterwards was just too much though.. I sat up after 5 screaming fast laps..
5. Chris Hinds Criterium- my 2nd test of the season, on the weekend after returning from Florida. Tons of fatigue in the legs.. I felt confident and bridged into the winning break after burning an entire book of matches in one lap. The occupants of said break did not show any desire to let me slack off for a couple of laps, and I was spit out after one lap going 28-29 mph. Just didn't have it, though I'm sure they slowed down after I was gone. At the end, I won the field sprint for 8th.. after a lot of hard work at the front and it was nice to show the family that I had good legs (the sprinting kind, not the time trialling kind).
6. Teaching SPINNING class at the Kent County YMCA 2x/week, all full classes, and really enjoying it as my riders get engaged in the power data aspect of the spin bikes. I have them paying very close attention to the average power they achieve for various durations, and hopefully have given them a golden ticket to avoiding the 'junk miles' so prevalent in the SPINNING world, where people go and thrash themselves for an hour without any goal or purpose, make themselves tired and fail to force any adaptation. The power aspect of my classes adds a whole new measurable dimension that keeps people interested and working hard to improve.
6. Now it's April and my last few difficult rides are extremely encouraging. The data is what it is, it is abundantly clear that I am now coming into very good form. I need to reign myself in a bit because it's too early for any kind of peak. I won't crack 100TSS/day until early June, but maybe I should slow that down as well.. I want to be FLYING in August, not JUNE!
I'm picking and choosing the races I care about though, and avoiding the waste of time, money and energy on races I do not care about, just for the sake of racing. My targeted "A"events for the year are going to be: Concord, Exeter, Chris Thater and Portsmouth, among a few others.. All late season stuff. Not a whole lot going on in May/June, other than a lot of crits in New Britain, maybe I'll race Prospect Park once or twice in July..
Really looking forward to temps in the 70s, if it ever happens. Today I went out for a late ride and by the time I got home it was in the low 40s. Thanks for reading.

Monday, January 14, 2013

No base mileage records will be broken in 2013

I say that now, but the temptation to pour on the mileage is strong. From experience I've learned that it's best for me if I increase volume gradually week over week.. and beginning with this week, I've got about 100 miles logged, which includes a one hour Spinning class that I teach every Saturday morning. In a few weeks I'll also begin teaching a Tuesday night class. My plan for the next three months:
-Mondays 60-90 minutes recovery/endurance riding plus some weightlifting.
-Tuesdays 60-90 minutes with 20-30 minutes of specific high-end drills, Spinning class in the evening followed by some [upper body] weightlifting.
-Wednesdays a longer 150-200 minutes endurance ride with 30-40 minutes of tempo
-Thursdays 60-90 minutes with 20-30 minutes of specific high end drills
-Fridays either 60-90 minutes recovery/endurance, some fun riding with my son, or even a day off is fine and dandy.
-Saturdays Spinning class in the morning followed by some weightlifting
-Sundays another long 3-4 hour ride with a variety of intensities as the mood strikes or the terrain dictates.
It's a rough outline, not too different from what I've been doing for a few years. I'll be keeping a close eye on CTL and gradually work my way up towards 100/day by early April.
Now that I've put this out there, I own it and will make it happen. Success is easier when you at least know what you want to do.

Friday, December 21, 2012

new beginnings

I'm a little bit sick of Facebook. It used to be that a lot of cool people I respected would come here and read my stuff and leave comments.. I miss that. Facebook has sort of hijacked the blogging world, but I'd like to keep trying to contribute here. Thanks for not giving up on me, even though I've obviously been quite the slacker. Some extremely exciting things are happening in my life, and I'd rather share them here than on Facebook. Please stay tuned..

Wednesday, June 06, 2012

Balance Bike Buyer's Guide

You could buy an unsafe low end knock-off, or you can show the same care and concern about safety and quality as you do for your own bikes. If a Fizik Arione saddle is worth $150, then so is a top quality balance bike for a 2-5 year old kid. 
Read more about what constitutes a safe balance bike. 

Tuesday, April 03, 2012

Untrained??

Well I just reopened the blog to readers. Sometimes I like to shut it down- like during periods when I'm interviewing for a job opportunity. Sorry about that! I now have a new gig in Avon CT, so if you all have any good pointers for where/when to train in that area, I'm all ears. Aside from a Wed and a Sunday road ride, I am teaching two SPINNING classes a week at the Kent County YMCA.

Friday, February 03, 2012

Training Camp

Been down here in south Florida all week, and having a great time riding my ass off. Five days of riding so far and 231 miles. I'm very pleased because I've banked enough base miles in the basement back in New England that I can go out and do lots of FT work without any overuse issues. It's been great. The bike I rented fits like a glove, luckily- the seat is at it's highest point- it's a LOOK 595 and I've really connected with this bike. Brought my Powertap wheel down with me and the workouts have been successful and free of structural pain. I even did a 60 miler the other day in less than 3 hours. Of course the roads are pancake flat, but my rides are all out and back and it's very windy down here. I am expecting to top off 300 + miles in the next couple of days, but it's okay if I fall short by a little bit. I'll be going into February ready to do some more specific LT work and start on some zone 5 stuff too. looking forward to a really awesome 2012 racing season!

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

3 days straight

It's a good start. Three consecutive days of riding. The weather has been nice, making it a good opportunity to really enjoy myself. Today I'll try for a 4th day and maybe crack 2 hours (easy)

There's some exciting stuff happening over at www.WeeBIKE.com. Almost everything's on sale, including the new FirstBIKE.
It helps pay the bills, so if you're smitten with something over there, please take a chance. You won't regret it. If you're a New Englander, you are spending your money locally and will probably receive your stuff the next business day. To those of you who have been my loyal repeat customers: XOXO.
Thanks so much.

Monday, November 14, 2011

R&R

Taking all this time off from riding, training and racing was the worst mistake ever. I do not feel refreshed. I feel fat, bloated, slow and unathletic. Way to let 3 contiguous seasons of form disintegrate! Phuck.

Friday, October 14, 2011

Update time

So I've been off the blog radar for a bit here.. A lot of stuff happening, but none of it includes any riding, unfortunately. I haven't taken a break this long in two seasons I think. One interesting thing that happens when you stop riding- I HAVE SOME FUCKING ENERGY TO DO OTHER THINGS! also, removing the training load completely has helped me to SLEEP AT NIGHT MORE DEEPLY AND FOR LONGER PERIODS! I still wake up occasionally from the lower back pain, but it's not as often. Plus I am waking up feeling a lot more rested. Soon though, I will go out for an easy ride and then get all wrapped around that axle all over again and proclaim that my 2012 road season begins in October etc etc etc..
Cyclocross-wise, I've been laying low. The MRI taken earlier this year proved that I have two bulging disks causing me such great agony from all the running and jumping, and tree roots and other trauma that cyclocross inflicts. It definitely AGES you more than road racing, of this I am sure. So once I find a cross bike to use, I may like to race Canton and NBX at Goddard. But that's probably it. It will take some pain-killers to get through those I guess, but hey at least I have an excuse for being slow in cross.
WeeBIKE is growing nicely. We picked up a European brand of balance bike and we're contracted to be the exclusive US importer. Lots of potential there for us, we feel very blessed and I pray that we don't blow it. Still selling merino wool, still selling a bunch of different brands of balance bike at WeeBIKE.com. We also picked up some new brands to sell as authorized dealers, including FirstBIKE, FootBIKE, FUJI, UVEX and Louis Garneau. So we're excited about the growth. Every day we're getting closer to the time when I can walk away from the construction industry forever. It has aged me more than anything else in my life, it very likely contributed to my father's illness and death, and I've just plain had enough of it.
Our little company sponsored a couple of new teams this year: the Boston Bicycle School and Velocite. We continue to sponsor and manage WeeBIKE-Hasyun Racing and maybe we'll add another team to the WeeBIKE family, who knows? Our team won a few races this year, we podiumed quite a few times too, and I'm proud of that. We have both the NE Regional Masters Criterium Champion, and your hero won the NEMCA rankings for his age group as well. We had a good year.
It's been rumored that we might be opening a retail children's bike boutique, and there's some truth to this  idea. We are looking for some retail space where this could be successful. The idea is to have basically every brand of balance bike in a showroom, offered together with kid's helmets, apparel, gloves, and other kid-friendly cycling accessories. Sounds good on paper, but will it work? My thinking is that since we will inevitably be forced to rent storage space for our FirstBIKE inventory, it may as well be a location with a storefront. Seems like a no-brainer.
Thanks for reading. Maybe I'll see some of you at Canton Cross.

Saturday, August 27, 2011

2011 Chris Thater Criterium 35+ results

Not my dream result (19th) but a small stacked field makes this race extremely hard to even complete. To wit, there were about 45-50 starters. I've had my doors blown off at this race two times before and for once I finished it and got some cash too- it pays $2000 twenty deep. After what happened in the 2/3 race which followed, I am doubting I will ever go back. Kind of a long story and I've already driven 700 miles today so it will have to wait.
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Monday, August 08, 2011

2011 Concord Criterium 35+ Photos

Many thanks to the shooter for sharing these pictures (click title to go there). This one is my favorite:
We put a lot of trust in our rubber at this corner.

Thursday, August 04, 2011

Missing cable :(

I completed a very epic 150km ride the other day in a little over 5 hours. This ride included a shit-load of climbing, about 5500 feet of vertical rise. The final hill goes from sea level to about 1300 feet in 5 km. The first 2k are approx 12% grade- at least that's my guess. In my 5th hour of riding, this climb pretty much shattered me. So torched were my legs that I couldn't even get on top of the 39x23. I put a foot down and let my heartrate get down to 140 before continuing- which was pretty scary- I could barely stand up on this grade and almost fell a few times. Getting going again required some skill. This climb is expected to be rated HC once I upload it to Strava. We're presently at Ataturk Airport with 3 hours to kill before we board our 10 hour flight to JFK. Reis is zipping around the terminal on his Razor while wife and I share a 10.50 TL cup of Gloria Jean's filtered coffee (that's about $7)
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Friday, July 29, 2011

Update from Turkiye

Hey New England, what's up? While all of you bake in the heat, I'm more or less doing the same here. We're presently at an ultra-all-inclusive resort in Antalya, on the south coast of Turkey, which is the north coast of the Mediterranean. Maybe Pettachi stayed here after the Tour of Turkey- he did vacation in Antalya after both of the last two editions, as did many other pros.
Training has been going well I think. This past Saturday was the uber long Hors Category Uludag hill climb, followed on Sunday with a very easy group ride with about 10 of Bursa's juniors and some old friends who I raced with as juniors here back in 1989. Sunday afternoon we loaded the car for a six hour drive from Bursa to Antalya. We had one white knuckle close call with a TIR (ginormous tractor-trailer).. But since a man's reflexes peak at the age range of 35-45 we avoided disaster. What amazing views along the way though- in some places you have a 360 degree view to 50 miles away.
Monday was spent taking care of my father-in-law, a retired math teacher who has lost his sight almost completely and more recently, his 2nd wife of 31 years who left him in his time of weakness. Nursing the broken heart of a hard-ass alcoholic chain smoker is hard work. I did not ride Monday or Tuesday. Before leaving to check into our resort Tuesday morning, we made sure the house was stocked with bread, alcohol and cigarettes. He's a hard liner when it comes to politics- communism would have been better for Turkey than anything else, IHHO.
Wednesday after getting settled in to our hotel I was kind of getting worried about form- what with all the free food. Three days off the bike was unacceptable, and a hard workout was missed Tuesday which I wanted to make up on Wednesday. So I headed out at about 6 am and did the work. It was a disappointing workout though- 3 minute intervals at FT +15%, to continue with 3 minute recoveries until I failed to match the average watts of the 3rd interval. I must have been pretty fatigued because the 4th interval was a failure after 90 seconds. I tried again a few minutes later, and again a few minutes later. Nothing doing- I must have simply burned all my matches on the first three intervals. Plus it's over 90 degrees out..
Thursday was a day for 3 hours of endurance pace. I coordinated a ride with a young pro who races for the ManisaSpor pro team. Ali Gulcan and I met up at 6:00 am and did a solid two hours together on an out and back course- there was a longish climb and some wonderfully flat smooth deserted streets at the top. We screamed back down the same hill weaving in between Mercedes tour buses. (All the "greyhounds" here are Mercedes- Made in Turkey- and many are only 3 seats across) if not for the traffic, we would have hit 55+ mph for sure. Ali has been my e-friend for a few years, and finally got the big break he was working towards this season- a coveted spot on the new ManisaSpor Pro Racing Team. It was pretty apparent early in our ride that my idea of rest pace and his were waaay different. Maybe we were just excited to finally meet and ride together, but it was half wheel hell for me at least 2/3 of the time. I'm very happy for this fellow- he had thoughts of giving up and with a lack of family support I understand completely how difficult it is to keep the belly fire burning bright. The living wage in Turkey is about 600$ a month. He's getting the UCI mandated minimum of 800 Euro a month, which is a handsome salary in Turkey for a 24 year old. The ManisaSpor team has some Serbs and Slovenians on it, and one dude who is former Tour stage winner. It's a bigger deal than it sounds to populate this team. Good for Ali. Next year their team will be wearing my Hasyun merino wool base layers.
Day three of training was today, consisting of two 20 minute intervals at FT, separated by 10 min of rest. This is the most intimidating workout on my schedule- I really do not enjoy pushing myself at a metered effort for more than 5 minutes. I decided to stay on the hotel strip which had only one rotary with a light, and it had hardly any traffic, and long enough that I could do 20 minutes on an out and back basis. I had a real lousy time with this last attempt a few weeks ago- I ended up doing them on the trainer, and missing my target watts by a mile. This morning was a bit different. I was a little light on sleep, but I was making up sleep time poolside. First 20 min effort was a touch restrained- I really wanted to nail both of these, instead of having a super 1st attempt and a lousy 2nd attempt. My average's range on the 1st was only about 10 watts- a good sign that I could have gone harder and handled it. But my mind is on the 2nd interval, which is not only much harder, it's the one which pays bigger dividends. I had a target on No 2 that was just 10 watts lower than the 1st. I soon discovered that this was a good call. Though I did "cheat" a little bit by doing a few short bursts to keep up with my goal. I did these in the first 5 minutes- only a few times. It ended up that in the final minute, I had something left and could tweak the average up to within 4 watts of the first interval. Success. And no iPod either to use for tempo- that always helps. The Normalized power of both efforts was only one watt apart. Tomorrow early morning I'll do a nice easy ride with my son- on the same lightly traveled hotel road- he will love it. Thanks for reading.

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Monday, July 25, 2011

The Climb

Check my Strava account for the data.. There wasn't any official timing but the guy who finished first happens to use Strava and he's listed on my Strava account as a follower. It looks like he made it to the peak 21 minutes ahead of me. His name is Cihat and he's 28 or so. Judging from his watts he weighs about 120 pounds. My battle was with my lower back- it was absolutely splitting in two the whole time. Any time I got into a good rhythm while seated I'd have to stand to relieve the back pain. I have bulging disks down at L5-L6 region.. It doesn't bother me in the short crits or in the drops- mainly acts up when climbing long durations and in cross.
Overall it was 34 miles- the first 13 miles were controlled up until the turnoff onto the real climb. From there it was about 20 miles of switchbacks with about 2 miles of downhill relief in the middle. Strava rates the climb and some parts of it as HC. We basically climbed one vertical mile in 20 miles. When you factor in the short descent, the overall grade is a little over 5%. They will do this event again next year. Those of you who show interest and reach out to me- I will help get you registered and find you lodging. The route is spectacular. The views are like those you get in an airplane. I had a great time.
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Friday, July 22, 2011

2011 Uludag Hill Climb

Here's the no-cost hill climb that has been organized by www.cyclingtr.com Not to poke fun at any other much shorter events here in New England, but forget $350, we're not paying one cent to participate in this 34 mile ride. There are 50 registered riders including your hero.. We drove a majority of the course today on kind of a pleasure sight seeing trip and the first hard 10 miles of climbing is on some of the most terrifying and picturesque roads I've ever seen. Yes I've climbed these hills before, but it's been a couple of years. The sheer drop offs on each leg of each switchback is just plain deadly. All it takes is one reckless driver to push you over the edge if your'e not paying attention. The climb is going to be brutal, plain and simple. I have my new Garmin heart rate strap and I expect to be paying close attention. Apparently there are some fast dudes coming here from Izmir who are supposedly very highly trained. We'll have to see I guess. I'm no natural on the long climbs but I have the advantage of experience- I've climbed this mountain a dozen times. So at the end of the day we will have ascended 8000+ vertical feet. Not bad for a day's work. Wish me luck.

Uludag mountain road view

We're having tea at a roadside cafe with this view. It's another 30k of climbing to the ski resorts at the top, which are at 1900 meters.
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Bursa from a distance

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