That title might lead you to believe that this will be some post about how much difference my newly lost weight has made in my riding, but that would be untrue, as to the best of my knowledge, I’ve not lost an ounce off my fat ass post surgery. I’ve been doing physical therapy and strengthening work, and I’m way better, but that’s another story. This one is more of a bike tech geeky tale about how things change over time. So the weeks I’ve spent riding my KICKR have convinced me that I want to ride with a power meter which is something I’ve resisited for years, using various rationales to justify. They are expensive, they are finicky, they are heavy, I just like to ride, I don’t want to be a slave to the computer, and the most common, I’m just not that much of a data geek. So while some of those were true at some point, they were expensive (I paid 200.00 with free shipping for this stages though), these blue tooth and ant meters just work, no finickiness at all, this one weighs 38 grams, though there might be some validity to the freedom argument. Despite all those arguments back and forth the last he was reason was the most decidedly untrue, I’m definitely a data geek through and through. So I had to weigh some stuff out, I ride Campy on my road bike, and an Ultegra/105 mix on the cross bike. I have every intention of switching to Ultegra for my road bike, but probably not until I buy a new bike next year, so I was looking for something “cross platform compatible”. I ended up going with an FSA 386evo crank in 50/34 on the road bike which just happens to be the exact same crank albeit in 46/36 on my cross bike. So if you’ve been keeping up til now, you may have put together that with about 45 seconds and a hex head wrench, I can use my power meter on both bikes. See, yeah, method.

“But Dave” you say, “why would you take that beautiful and light Record crank off to put that boat anchor of an FSA on?” Well, I was somewhat worried about that too, but allow me assuage your concerns the same way I did my own. First, no one makes a crank based power meter for older alloy Campy. Simple fact. Sure there are other options, pedal based, hub based, etc, but then we’re right back into the above problems. So the Campy was out no mater what, so I was stuck with the “heavy” FSA alloy, that also conveniently worked with my cross bike. Out of curiosity and at the prompting of my youngest son, we weighed both cranks complete, including their respective bottom brackets before I installed the new one, and quite surprisingly, the FSA was exactly 2 grams heavier than the Campy, and that is with the power meter strain gauge installed. So if I am to believe the literature from stages, the FSA is actually 38 grams lighter than the Record. Now I will say that there is an elegance to the polished alloy of my old cranks lacking in the new one, but never fear, the Campy will find a new home, on my old Pinarello, where they will be most appropriate. The FSAs are a simple polished black that kind of disappears into the bike, which is just fine aesthetically. They are undoubtedly significantly stiffer, and this should also do away with an annoying square taper creak I’ve had for about 4 years as well.

I’ve never cared before, but post surgery, I’m recovering very slowly, and I know it will be a long while before I’m that fast again. ☹️.

But, I find it strangely motivating. I guess that’s why people get so worked up about it huh?

Kyle’s Fat Bottom Cosmic Stallion Road with Campagnolo Chorus 11 | The Radavist

http://theradavist.com/2018/01/kyles-fat-bottom-cosmic-stallion-road-with-campagnolo-chorus-11/#1

I’ve been putting this off for months, actually for over a year, but I’ve finally gotten it scheduled and today is the day. It’s not a big procedure, but the injury itself and subsequent secondary injuries have had a huge impact on my core strength, to the point of having basically zero core specific training for over a year.

I’m treating this as a reset time, with basically zero expectations beyond a hopefully steady improvement for the next few months. I’ve got a few lose goals if all goes well, recovery wise, something simple like finishing a 5k this spring (late spring), and maybe doing a 50 mile gravel ride late this summer.

More soon.

Tonight is a hot toddy night

Two winter spice tea bags,

2 Tablespoons of local honey (local is important for relief) but not essential for flavor

2 oz of whiskey (you can omit if you abstain- thoughts on alternatives?)

2 teaspoons of lemon juice

Brew in a teapot for five minutes then separate into two tea cups and enjoy.

The liquor is traditional and has some effect for sure, but let’s be real, the local honey is the long game if you’re dealing with allergies, and if you’re in Texas, you’re dealing with allergies.

I’m trying to decide right now whether to renew my YMCA membership here in the new year. I find I really just use it for the pool access, and on occasion my son and I use the weight room. Those are all valuable items on their own, but the membership for a family runs me almost 97.00 a month, and I have question whether we get that much value. While there is no way to put a dollar figure on all things, I suspect we use the facilities maybe ten times a month. I think possibly the most valuable thing is the time with my son, and now that he is 15, he can go on his own. He asks on the regular to go to the gym, but I’ve been putting together a lot of what we use there in the home setup. It’s just more convenient. We can now ride our bikes up there, which would be a plus when it isn’t bitterly cold outside…

In the end, I think the time with Jack makes it worth the cost.

The Hurricane known as Harvey put a bit of a slow down on my riding here lately. Thankfully we’re far enough up in central Texas that we didn’t get a ton of damage ourselves, just some fallen sheetrock due to water penetration on the house. Certainly nothing like what our friends and families in Houston dealt with, and are still dealing with. However due to the nature of my job, I’ve been basically locked in an emergency response cell 18 hours a day since the 24th of august. We slowed down a little last week and I was able to squeeze in a few rides, and as of Friday, the mission has been scaled back to the point that the bulk of us have returned to regular ops, which means this week I’m back to life as I knew it before.

I commute about 35 miles a day, with 12-15 inbound and 17-20 home, depending on the route I follow. I drive my truck in on Monday, with the bike and most of what I’ll need all week in it. I use it as a base camp of sorts throughout the week, and I drive it home again Friday evening. This allows me to have my vehicle at work when I need to make runs around the post and such, and in between I pick up about 150 miles on the bike. That leaves me 50-70 miles on Saturday to get a solid training ride or a laid back fun ride in over the weekend, and fall roughly in my 200-225 mile per week goal.

If there was one thing in the world I could have more of, it would be time. I could live without more money (though that would always be nice), I have all the love I need thanks, but what I dont have, and can’t seem to ever get enough of, is time. I’m reasonably disciplined with time, twenty three years in the military has a way of doing that for you, and I also know that you have to carve out the time you need for yourself, as no one ever seems to come to me and say “Dave, I have an extra hour for you, do what you like with it…”.

I’m willing to bet I’m not the only person who feels the weight of time, as when I read other folks blogs, and book reviews, and even just the buzzwords populating the net they mostly relate to needing more time, or compressing more into the time you have. Chris Carmichael seems to be doing pretty well for himself with his “The Time Crunched Cyclist” book (though 6 hours is pretty slim…). I have four kids, a wife, a career, and a few hobbies, since haters be damned, I feel pretty strongly that one shouldn’t live to work.

The point of this post is that over the last few weeks, I’ve lost the fight for time. Despite my wife’s urging that I go for more rides (a. shes good to me and cares about my health, b. Im a dick if I don’t ride often enough) I have ridden precisely twice in 17 days. Once at Huntsville State Park, and once locally for just a little exercise in sweat production.