Eccentric Loading for Tendons

It's about a month since "it" happened, and my mileage has plummeted from ~140 miles per week to closer to 5-10. I would give my leg time off, generally three to four days of only light walking and then try to reintroduce my fifteen minute bicycle ride to school only to be answered with a very mild discomfort. I hesitate to describe it as pain, but something telling you that things are going wrong. If I were to increase the mileage, pain would start, but that telling feeling of something being wrong in the tendon was always the precursor.

So, last Friday I saw the physical therapist, Kevin, who showed me a way to eccentrically loading my quad. As an engineering student, eccentric to me means off-center, such as a column loaded to one side of it's centerline. Apparently no one told this to physical therapists, because to them it means differential loading; twice the weight on muscle expansion as on contraction. You start out in the typical gym quadricep machine, the one where you lift both of your feet up to raise the weight. This time, instead of lowering normally you only use the injured leg to lower the weight, making it work twice as hard on the way down as it did on the way up. This type of exercise has had great success with chronic tendon injuries in runners, though Kevin didn't know of many experience with cyclists and quad tendons or with injuries less than 4 weeks old. Still, the principal is the same and CT scans in test subjects show a re-organization of tendon fibers in their normal direction, from the injured chaotic state of many directions.

Kevin warned that my leg would be extremely sore for two to three days, which I sort of brushed off with a sense of pride in my once chiseled leg. However, today is Sunday and it remains as sore as yesterday so something is clearly working. Surprisingly, the heavy lifting didn't seem to hurt the tendon and it hasn't complained all weekend; though I haven't been very active either.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to ride to school and get another session in. I'll keep updating on my progress.

Quadricep tendonitis

The verdict is in, that's my problem but it's fairly mild. My flexibility isn't affected and the Physical Therapist (PT) says it doesn't sound like a long term injury. He recommended direct ice to the spot for 8-10 minutes several times a day to reduce inflammation, and commented that I didn't need to worry about swelling so no more elevated legs and anti-inflammation pills. I'm headed to Seattle today until Monday, so that should give me enough time. I'm just worried about walking too much and irritating it, but we'll see what happens.

Injured

So my last post I thought of easing off the intensity and increasing the distance. Well I didn't quite do that as a limited schedule only had room for more intensity, and now my right quad tendon is giving me trouble. After 15 miles of a planned 50 mile trip, it started hurting. I decided to keep going for a bit and see what happened, but it only got worse. I turned around at mile 20 and had 20 more to pedal back in pain, so the following day it I woke up and it was hurting. I followed RICE - Rest Ice Compression and Elevation for the next three days pretty solidly. Then, thinking it was back to normal I attempted an 18 mile ride with a friend, but the last 3 miles were in pain. I'm not sure what's causing this, my guess is either over use from the intensity work I've been doing all winter or a muscle imbalance. I'll find out tomorrow with the PT.

Even though I already registered and paid for my first 200 km, I decided not to go. 126 miles with over 11,000' of climbing will do nothing but serious damage to my knee.

In fact, all my Brevet plans are up in the air now. I'm seeing a physical therapist Wednesday, so I'll see what he says and keep off the bike until then. I'm taking a trip out to Seattle Thursday, so that will give me 5 days off the bike. I'll most likely try riding the rollers when I get back next Tuesday.

Not riding a Brevet is no big deal, and I have no problem accepting that I won't get to ride most of the Brevets I want to, if any. However, I want to be problem free for a 4,000 mile trip cross country with my brother and two friends that starts mid-June, so that's what I need to concentrate on.

Unfortunately it seems like my long distance blog is turning into a recovery blog, but I hope it will be short and I can get in the New York 300k.

Rollers

No longer do I have to obsessively check weather.wrong, because my rollers have arrived! I placed an order with my favorite shop, Bicycle Therapy, about three weeks ago but their distributor was out of stock. Finally it came in, and being car-free meant some ingenuity on my part on how to get it home.

Strapping the massive 4 foot by 2 foot by 8 inch box to my back and riding home from the shop was a feat; I tied two tubes around the box's width, and intertwined the straps on the back of my backpack with them. Then, four or five wraps of string across the length of the box and through my backpacks handle secured it vertically. Aside from a tendency to shifty to the left, the ride home went well with plenty of odd looks from pedestrians and drivers.

I was very pleased with myself and my bag until I realized how easy disassembly is; I didn't need to go through all that, as all the individual pieces would have easily fit in my bag. So much for out of the box thinking.... Sorry, bad joke.

I gave the rollers a try, but today is a rest day after two hard rides and a "recovery ride" over the weekend after a week of off-the-bike. It's hard for me to mount, so I use a chair to stand on to get on initially. After a few minutes and one minor fall I didn't have to lean against the wall as much and started to get the hang of it. I'm now looking forward to the first rainy day, and can plan my training schedule with relative weather impunity.

Also, the first 200km is less than a month away. Despite the 11,250 feet of elevation gain, I feel close to prepared, but set a goal weight of 145 lbs from my current 155. Even though I'm at a very healthy weight right now, trimming down will help the climbing come easier and get me fitter in general. This week is finals and next is spring break, so I'll have the time for some serious miles. The plan is to dial down the intensity and increase the length of the rides to burn more fat and get my back and neck a little tougher. I've also been having some minor issues with my achilles, but found some good exercises here to strengthen them up.

Gym and New Orleans

Sadly, I have to be forcibly removed from my bike for four and a half days to go to a conference in New Orleans on Sunday.

Fortunately, it's all expenses paid, I'm going with friends and I can still do core workouts in the hotel.

The first step is to do a hard workout at the gym today, so I'll be sore for two or three days anyway. I plan on hitting the hamstrings especially hard; like most cyclists, they're underdeveloped in comparison to my quadriceps. That difference in strength can lead to knee issues when the quad's pull the knee harder than the hamstrings, so balancing the two prevents injury. I'll also do some core and back work, including the rowing machine.

If I'm lucky, the hotel will have a gym worth using and I can hit that on Tuesday, leave Wednesday as a recovery day, and possibly go for a ride after I get back on Thursday.

Sprints

A long ride, long being relative to the individuals capabilities, requires nutrition, hydration, motivation but most importantly good pacing. Putter along too slowly and miss the chance to beat a personal record, charge up the hills and risk burning out before the end. Clearly, for a very long, non-competitive ride, where the goal is to complete within a certain time, sprinting is out of the picture. So why then, do I practice sprints?

Part of it is the old montage "If you want to ride faster, ride faster" which holds more truth than one might think. By going anaerobic for short periods, you deprive the muscles of oxygen and stimulate the growth of more mitochondria in the muscles' cells. Mitochrondria being the "power house" of the cell, responsible for doing the work involved in muscular contractions. You know you're stimulating growth when your legs burn with lactic acid, and feel almost useless hours after a hard ride.

These anaerobic periods can vary anywhere from one to sixty minutes. On 2-3 hour rides I try to include periods of hard effort to go anaerobic and really push myself. These periods last between ten and thirty minutes, but are never structured. The idea is to feel completely wasted at the end of a ride, to deplete your muscles of glycogen so they rebuild themselves stronger than they were, with more glycogen capacity.

Often I don't have time for a 2 hour or longer ride, but can still make progress through a sprint workout in an hour. To do sprints, you need a long, fairly flat or mildly sloping uninterrupted road with light traffic. This is a difficult thing to find when you live in the middle of a sprawling city, especially when it takes about twenty minutes to get into the suburbs for good roads. Fortunately for me, Memorial Hall is only a ten minute ride away, sits in front of a long straight, flat road and makes for painfully scenic sprint workouts. Especially when this is the finish line:

The road is about eight tenths of a mile long, from a traffic light to the Civil War Memorial situated in a fairly decrepit neighborhood in north west Philadelphia. There are three parallel roads and for whatever reason, the one closest to Memorial Hall - "North Concourse Drive" gets the fewest cars, so that's where I do my sprints. The road is a slight grade up from the traffic light at Belmont and about 2/3 of the way to the end is a slight downgrade, where I hit my maximum speed and try to hold it for as long as I can. I'd like a little more room for these, but at least the scenery is nice.

Sprinting is also a way to track fitness. Increasing aerobic and anaerobic ability will allow for longer, more powerful sprints and translate to general riding. By increasing the mitochrondria in your legs, you increase your aerobic power, effectively increasing the pace you feel comfortable cruising at for very long periods, such as in a Brevet. Not only that, but your recovery time for hard efforts such as steep climbs are reduced and the stores of glycogen in your muscles increase, allowing you to do more anaerobic work until your legs are totally shot and the dreaded "death march" begins.

So, sprints do carry over to Brevets.

Post Century Recovery

After Saturdays 103 mile wind-fest, I took an easy hour long ride up the Kelly bike path to the falls bridge and back. I kept my heart rate below 75% and averaged around 65%. I rarely do this and was surprised I was able to keep a 15 mph average at such a low perceived exertion and heart rate level even with the wind common to the path. The legs felt weak and I doubt I could have made any hard efforts, but it was a definite confidence booster. I wonder if this is the result of all the aerobic work I've been doing? I'm taking it as a sign to return to intervals and hard 90-95% Max HR for a while. I've also been reading some links from bike forums about the need for deprieving your muscles of oxygen by going anaerobic, or above your VO2 max in order to increase the mitochondria density and produce more power aerobically.

On Saturday I also planned on going to a new yoga class with a friend, but she bailed because of school work so I went alone. Going somewhere new alone is something I need to do more of, so I decided it was the best decision, especially given my only experience with yoga at my school's gym, which were very relaxing with lots of slow, steady stretches in positions that stretched things I'd never stretched before. Given my past experience, I just assumed more of the same and didn't check the schedule for what type of class it would be.

Turned out it was some sort of power yoga, with fast poses that changed frequently in a hot room preceded and followed by meditation. This, most definitely, was not what my body wanted after Saturdays ride and it may have aggravated my upper back, which is still stiff. Judging by Mondays new sore spots, it did seem to work my core out a bit, which isn't a bad thing but I would have been better off at a much slower pace with long easy stretches. No serious damage though, but it's Tuesday morning and my back is still stiff.

I took it very easy yesterday and may do the same today, I'll see how I feel on the ride to school and go from there. I'd rather wait until tomorrow morning to do hard intervals than overdue it before I'm fully recovered today. A two day break from cycling aside from my 5 mile commute is a little longer than I'd like, but I have to go by how I feel and not by what I expect of myself. The former is easier in terms of satisfying an addiction but a good way to promote injury while the latter takes a lot of willpower and by including rest will actually make me stronger than over-training.

First Century of the new year

Originally I had planned to sneak my first 100 miler in on leap day and solo (Friday) but commitments at school said otherwise. Thursday night at Bike Church a friend who doesn't often help out that night showed up and considering his interest in long distances I asked if he wanted to ride an imperial on Saturday. Immediately he answered with great interest so we set a meeting time of 9 am and I briefly described the route; about 4,000' of climbing and basically out through Ambler to Nockamixon State Park and back a different route, with food stops at miles 30 and 70.
The weather was calling for snow Friday night with clear skies Saturday, so I left my fenders on but the roads were dry except for the first hour in the morning.

Kevin showed up a little after 9, we had some coffee and I showed him the route on Bikely, which has a great elevation profile. We left sometime after 9:30 to low 40's and beautiful clear skies; a great change from the overcast typically of Philadelphia. Immediately the wind picked up and Kevin commented that he heard it would be gusting to 40 all day. I told him that's why I left my disk wheels at home and we pressed on.

Little did we know, but the wind would make this an incredibly difficult century. The first thirty miles tend to meander back and forth, into a headwind then into a tailwind, but the middle thirty was mostly up hill and directly into the wind. We tried to take turns pulling but it was almost always a cross wind so that was little help. The middle of the route ground on, and going up 5-10% grades into 20-40 mph wind with small downhills into the wind was incredibly frustrating. It was so strong that on somewhat steep downhills you had to put in effort to stay at a decent pace, it felt like it was flat! This part of the route was also totally unfamiliar to me, so we did get lost once but had help from two walkers. A chocolate espresso bar and a bag of dried apple slices from my carradice barley helped us through but just barely. Eventually we made it to Nockamixon and turned SW. I had expected a break from the wind but now it seemed like we were headed directly into it! In fact, looking at the route online and trying to figure out what direction the wind was blowing is mind boggling, it's almost like it was blowing from two directions at once.

In addition to the wind, Kevin is about 20 lbs lighter than me and an excellent climber so his pace up the hills was a notch or two higher than mine. It took the first thirty miles for me to tell him to slow up a bit, considering the distance ahead. This meant that by the time we got to those hilly and windy middle 30 miles my legs weren't exactly fresh, and when we turned around for the way back only to have continuing head winds was hell. Also, did I mention he races cyclo-cross? The day I out-climb Kevin is the day that I know all this riding has paid off.

Around mile 60 we had just began to hit some tail winds with me in the lead when Kevin shouts out "Pizza!" I shout out "Yes!" and make a high speed turn into the parking lot. Fueled by mushroom pizza and with a tailwind at our backs the next 10 miles flew by at well over 20 mph.

Too bad I missed the turn that was right after the pizza place and we went in the wrong direction.

That's ok though, because a friendly gas station attendant held up the line at the register to lend us a map and we got on a road that led us back on track. That little detour probably only added 2 or 3 miles, but was small chip in our morale. Still, at this point I could no longer get my heart rate above my LT so my legs were mostly shot. The aerobic system was well fueled by pizza and the home made energy bars from my friend Cole, so we were still moving at a decent clip.

For the next bit the tailwind persisted and we kept on at a good speed, it was nice finally having a gentle push up the steeper hills that remained. We were also back in familiar territory; I could practically follow these turns in my sleep. The last stretch through Manayunk was filled with traffic and reminded me of the importance of developing psychic abilities to foresee drivers making unexpected turns. Finally we made it to West River Drive and managed to keep 19 mph going pretty steadily without the tailwind and crawled up Black Road. Two more close calls with traffic and we finally congratulated each other and split off to make it home. I wasn't as hungry as I thought I would be, must be Cole's energy bars, but I managed to choked own a few glasses of milk, an omelet, some bread and my own cilantro hummus and a little granola and yogurt.

Today, my legs are sore but no saddle sores (I guess my brooks finally broke in) and no aching joints. Definitely a good sign.

Some stats from my bike computer:
103.5 miles
6:31 hrs ride time
151 bpm average - my LT is 161 and maximum somewhere above 185

I ate:
3 and a part of Coles energy bars ~800 calories
Most of a small bag of dried apple slices ~200?
1 slice of mushroom pizza ~400 calories?
2 bottles of Hammer 'Perpetuem' 350 based on the nutritional information
Half a chocolate espresso bar ~100 calories, but balanced with good amounts of caffeine

Total I would guess is close to 2,000 calories and I probably burned close to 5,000. Not bad for a days work.

Some issues did come up, mainly a sore upper back after 5 hours in the saddle, and tingling hands after 6 hours. The rowing and back workouts seem to help but I need to do more of them. Also, I think I'll double-wrap my handlebars with cork tape underneath and the washable Fizik stuff on top.

All in all a massive challenge but a very rewarding day. There were definitely times when I was hating it, but I wouldn't be doing it if there weren't.

Whether and the Weather

These days I feel like I live by the weather forecast. Sometimes it's fairly straightforward, as in when it's mid-30th's and rain all day I'll just make a date with the gym. This makes time for working on core and hamstring strength, running to build the tendons and just gives the cycling muscles an extra break.

Today however, was far from straight forward. Other commitments had me busy in the morning, when it wasn't too cold and plenty dry. Checking www.weather.wrong showed a massive storm swirling around Philadelphia, but not over the city. It seemed to be inching ever closer, but they can't tell any more than I when it will rain and how bad. A few drizzles I can live with, but no one wants to freezing cold, wet, dirty and have to deal with slippery descents for two or three hours on the bike.

So I waited.

I zipped up my rain jacket, went to the food co-op, bought most of a weeks worth of food, came back and still no rain.

Ok, I'll put my fenders on and if it's still not raining, then I'll go out. Of course, the fenders were off the bike because the rear mount broke and thinking I didn't have a spare I removed both. Naturally, I didn't look in the right crevice of my room because a few hours later I found my spare. Removing and installing fenders is a pain, but I've got it down to 15 minutes or so. The biggest challenge is removing the rear brake bolt because my allen key is so long I can only get 3/4 of a turn before hitting the seat tube.

With the last turn of the allen key, and the last brake adjustment complete the rain began to come.

Two hours.

It was two hours since I got back and could have gone out for rain free riding.

Oh well, off to the gym. More rowing, back work and now some hamstring work. I'm definitely coming up short for my February mileage goals.

Winter riding

The wind burns faces, forcing your cheeks tight against your skull while chilling toes and fingers to the bone. The air is cold and dense, like cycling through cold molasses instead of the warm air of summer. Vigilant eyes scan the road constantly for the patches of ice and snow who would cause a serious tumble. Cars give extra leeway as you must be insane to be out in this cold. Bikes return from rides filthy, but cleaning a very dirty bike doesn't take much more time than cleaning just a dirty bike so you stay on the road for longer.

Still, coming back day after day despite the dangers, the cold, the snow and sleet feels rewarding and progress comes quickly after time off the bike, making it more addicting than normal. After the first few rides of coughing and wheezing, the lungs become accustomed to the cold and react with suspicious surprise on the few warm days of winter. Even in sub-freezing temperatures you return from a hard ride soaked in sweat, once soft gloves become hard with salt and snot from the endlessly dripping nose. Yet after all this, a hot cup of tea and a long warm shower is more than enough to return to your former state.

Soon spring will come, and I may actually miss this unique sort of suffering.

Doubts

Because of the timing that flu kept me off the bike for 9 straight days, aside from the short commute to school and back.

Now, there is 3" of snow on the ground and promises of freezing rain for the next 8 hours.

That 150 mile training ride at the end of march is starting to look dubious, considering the longest I've ridden this winter is 70 miles. I'll try and get in a ride Saturday if the roads aren't too bad but who knows? Sunday is my brothers birthday ride which will likely be short, so I may head out for an extra 30 or 40 miles afterwards.

School commitments had me tied up and starving until 1:30 yesterday, so there wasn't much of a chance to get a good long ride in before rush hour traffic would come into play. Instead, I opted for another gym workout sans ab work. This time it was 30 minutes on the rowing machine with two short intervals worked in, back extensions and two different back machines. I feel somewhat sore today, showing I didn't overdo it yesterday and the next workout can be more intense. If the weather turns for the worse again, I can return to the gym and use the days the roads are too dangerous to ride on as rest days. Eventually I'd like to spend an hour on the rowing machine, the back strength will be worth it despite it's mind and butt numbing nature.

Sick

This weeks training plans have been utterly wiped out by some sort of flu I caught on Wednesday. To make things worse, the ab workout I did on Tuesday meant that every time I coughed, sneezed or got up from a prone position caused searing pain in my abdominal muscles for the past four days.

Still, I have just under two months before my first 200k, and four or five days off the bike can be beneficial, I just wish I had upped the intensity before I got sick. I'm feeling better today, though the earliest time I can ride will probably be Tuesday, so that will make 9 days since my last ride. Much longer than I would prefer, but getting back on and getting sick again won't help either.

Cross Training

After three or more hours in the saddle, there are muscles that are more tired than I'd like them to be. These are the muscles that tire independent of power output; the ones that you use to hold yourself up on the bike. In my case, it's generally the part of my back between my shoulders, my lower back and the back of my neck. Because riding intensity doesn't make these muscles any stronger, there are really only two ways to condition them.

The most obvious is to simply go on frequent long rides, increasing the duration each time. This is more time consuming than I can allow for right now because due to other commitments Saturday is the only day I can devote entirely to riding.

The other way is to fatigue those muscles with some other activity, the basic principal behind cross training. You can build them up without the long hours of ache and pain if you do something that uses them as the primary muscle group.

So today, I did just that.

For the first time in my life, I tried the rowing machine at my school's gym and after 25 minutes my upper back felt like I had been on the bike for 3 or 4 hours. Ironically, the main thing that stopped me from going longer was that my butt was uncomfortable. That's a pretty tough thing to do to a cyclist.

Then, to work my lower back I did 2 sets of 12 (2x12) back extensions followed by what I have found to be the most effective way to work all your abdominal muscles; crunches on a stability ball. For some reason the stability ball really lets you hit every muscle along the front of your stomach, where as you need two types of crunches and leg raises to do the same thing on the floor.

I didn't want to overdue it and be sore for longer than tomorrow, so that was the extent of the workout. By the end of it, my back and shoulders felt fatigued in the same way that four hours on the saddle makes them feel.

This is perfect for me, I can work my way up to a one hour session on the rowing machine, follow it up with back extensions and a light core workout and really strengthen my back without all the saddle time. Not only does it save me time, but the gym is free where as wearing out parts on my bike costs money.

Still, I will continue doing progressively longer rides on Saturday and a fun ride with friends on Sunday. If I have time, I'll get in hill repeats on Thursdays and any shorter rides I can on Tuesdays and Fridays.

The idea is to build my aerobic base with the long ride and increase my power output with the hill repeats and interval training. At the same time, I take Mondays and Wednesdays almost completely off with the exception of my normal commute to school. This should allow enough recovery time during the week to prevent over training, something many cyclists do.

This season and last season

From what I've read, traditional randonneuring practice is to plan the year out in December, and begin training at around the same time. Obviously, what I do this season should be based somewhat around what happened last season, so I'll do a brief overview of 2007.

I returned from a 4 month study abroad in Ankara, Turkey in early January and immediately began riding after doing none while out of the country. I had a great time and will write a post about it sometime, but not tonight.

While in Turkey I stumbled upon the idea of randonneuring online and decided to give it a try. I built up a Surly Cross-Check with a mountain triple and 12-27, did some riding with my ex-rugby playing friend and tried my first 200k. Well, it was also my first 100k, and first imperial century. As you might expect, 126 miles and 9,000' of climbing destroyed my knees and took me off the bike for quite a while. When I did return, so did the knee pain in the form of IT band pain

Throughout the spring I would take time off, try riding again to some degree of success and the knee pain would return. While doing this I built up the fantastic ride I have now, after getting an astonishing deal from a friend on the frameset. I was apprehensive, but it worked out and I was able to complete a very flat night time 200k in late July with only mild knee pain. This was probably because the effort was very low in a paceline on the flats of southern NJ. Then in August, I made an attempt at a 150+ mile ride to my parents house, but a stick in the spokes put that to a hault at mile 80. Honestly I doubt I would have completed it without the stick, the ride was hilly and I hadn't paced myself very well and my knees were complaining.

In early September I was involved in an accident with a minivan, and while structurally sound the muscles in my shoulders developed severe knots. This prevented me from putting weight on the handlebars for more than a month, so the longest rides I did were the 2 miles to school. Oddly enough, I credit this break with allowing my knees to recuperate as I have yet to have the serious problems of last spring and summer.

In the Fall I realized my knees were better and began to slowly increase my rides. I used the fair weather we've had to a great advantage and worked on hill training and speed work in December and January. The idea is to raise the amount of power I am able to put out for very long periods of time, so I can raise my average speed and spend fewer hours on the bike or ride longer.

Now we're approaching mid February and I have a solid plan for the season based on the last few months of solid riding, or about 1,200 miles in 2.5 months.

Saturday March 23rd (rain date is the 24th) I will complete the 150 miles to my parents house. Two mechanic friends (one of whom sold me my frame and fork) have expressed interest in riding with me to Baltimore and parting ways after 90-100 miles to meet up with friends. At this point I don't put much faith in what people say, as everyone seems unable to put their commitments to where their mouth is.

Saturday April 12th Eastern PA 200k - This ride depends on my ability to get to the start point, I may be able to hitch a ride with someone from Philly. It promises more than an extra 2,000' over climbing over last years Princeton ride, so I'd imagine it will prepare me quite well for this years.

Saturday April 19th The Princeton Classic 200k - Keeping with the theme of completing last years failings, I will complete the death march that destroyed me a year ago in infinitely better shape and shave 90 minutes off my time to make the ride in 10 and 1/2 hours, for an over all average of 12.0 mph. Considering that an extra 1,000' of climbing has been added to the course this year, it will be an excellent challenge. My good friend Ben wants to do this with me and we've been riding a good amount together on weekends, but I'm not relying on his presence.

Saturday May 17th - The Princeton 300k is an extra 61 miles added to the 200 just to keep in interesting. It passes very close to where I grew up in NJ and comes close to entering New York State. This will be my toughest ride of the season.

June 21st - The NJ 400k is a break from the climbing and largely a flat course. The night riding should be fun, especially with my budget lighting system.

July - Bike tour in Italy for 4-5 weeks. I've been planning this adventure for a long time and am taking my second term of Italian. After Turkey I realized how important language is in traveling, so I will be somewhat prepared.

August 10th - NYC 300 - This is another climbing route out of NYC instead of Princeton. It sounds beautiful and will make a great late summer brevet.

I'm tempted to add in the PA 400 the week after the Princeton 300, but I'm worried that may be over doing it and still have many commitments in school to take care of.

Also missing is a planned ride to Connecticut to visit my aunts, uncles and grandmother. I may use the NYC 300 to scout possible roads to take, so that may have to wait until late August.

I suppose I'll finish this post off with my distance future ambitions:

2009 - Complete a full Super Randonneur series consisting of a 200, 300, 400 and 600.
2010 - Full SR Series with the addition of a 1000k and 1200k.
2011 - Paris Brest Paris

Why I made this blog

Yesterday, after a massive heart failure, one of the internet's most influential and positive cycling advocate passed away. Without the seemingly endless pages of his website, uncountable thousands would have had no where else to go for vital information not easily attainable at their own bike shops. You could easily make an argument that he single handedly enabled the single speed/fixed gear movement, which has both breathed new life into the cycling industry and exposed a car free life to young and old. Sheldon Brown was a both a wealth of knowledge and a patient, intelligent tinkerer who was not only a bicycle mechanic, but a frame builder, part-modifier and most importantly teacher. His death made me think about producing my own contribution to the internet cycling community, aside from posting more often than not correct posts on message boards. So here's to Sheldon, he will always be remembered.