In order to improve my training I’ve ordered the Garmin Forerunner 50 ( http://bit.ly/HRcBl ) and the  Speed and Cadence Sensor ( http://bit.ly/hi8M8 ). Its not the best of the Heart rate monitors, but it’ll get the job done, the reviews on it don’t seem bad and I’ll have the speed and cadence sensor already when I can afford to upgrade to a better GPS/cyclocomputer.  I’ve also been getting sick of the stock saddle on my bike. It has waaay too much padding, and it slides around too much.  It’s one good quality is that its amazingly comfortable.

Here’s a pic of the current saddle:

And I was looking around Performance Bike’s website and spotted a  Forte Pro SLX ( http://bit.ly/jyHsh ) for $39.99. It looked nice and I read a few reviews on it and PM’d a few members on BikeForums.net that use it and all gave it positive reviews so I jumped on it, can’t wait to try it out.  I also ordered some tubes for cheap and ordered a fork skewer bike holder thingamabobber to hold my bike when I put it in my car.

The old saddle will go on my mountain bike which I’ll be getting back this weekend and will be moving onto commuter detail soon.  I figure the crappy mountain bike will be safer than my road bike being locked up for 5 hours a day.  I’ll be putting some slicks on it that Mandy said he’ll hook me up with (thanks meng) to help with the rolling resistance and make my ride a bit more pleasant, but not much can help the 40 lbs of heft on that decrepit beast from Target.  Now I just need a u-lock and a rear rack.  Any recommendations on either would be appreciated.  For the ulock I’m thinking of the  Kryptonite STD New York ( http://bit.ly/fPm9V ) I like to err on the side of caution and have a proficiency for having things stolen from me. that seems like a good bet, at the expense of some extra weight and a bit more money.  Any other recommendations?

Until the next one!

and all the Tech as well as an aggregation of all my posts on Yaniel.com

Last night:
I went to out to Miami Springs to do the 8 mile loop with the guys, and put the a typical performance for me. While we’re moving I can hang with the group fine, but slowing down for intersections, or stopping for lights DESTROYS me, specially with everyone sprinting from a stand still. I usually just fall off the back and work my way up to speed slowly and eventually close the gap at my own pace, but that in itself kills me since I can’t draft and recently the wind has been BLOWING here.  I should just man up and sprint out with them and fight through it and hang on, but I’m a wimp and don’t have to will power for that plus I’m sure it’ll hurt me more than it’ll help me.  Which is brings me to another thing, I really need a heart rate monitor to see if I’m just being a wuss or I’m doing the right thing by not pushing beyond what I feel is my limit.The ride wasn’t anything crazy, 24 miles total and I wish we could do more, but we’re usually strapped for time.  I never got dropped by the group, but in reality they weren’t going very fast, usually 20-21 mph.  About 20 miles I got into a sprint with Alex which shocked me, I was able to bring up to 30.5 mph without a lead out into a bit of a head wind.  Of course to crush my joy, Alex managed to turn it up to 32+ despite a bike that was falling apart under him, while screaming s372 (turbo/car joke) mockingly as he dropped me…  Yea out sprinted me, and was able to talk through it too… Thanks meng, thanks lol

Today:
Our parade was almost rained on, literally but by luck, the skies cleared and the scorching Miami heat managed to dry the road just in time for our ride.  I hit up The Key with Alex and Jorge for a quick ride, just one lap of City which is about 16 miles.  It’s got one large climb, for Miami anyway, and a smaller bridge that would be a ton of fun if it was longer but it’s all we got so we make due.  Jorge is just starting out so he can’t keep up for long which is fine, he rides at his own pace and still has a good time, about 4 miles in I broke away with Alex with him pulling into the wind since he’s the much stronger rider and he pulled almost until the end of the city into a stiff wind, very impressive.  I took over for the last half mile or so and was surprised I was able to keep the speed I was into the wind but the again I was fresh since I was wheel sucking the whole way.

We turned around and the way back I did the pulling and I surprised myself, like really surprised myself.  I brought up the speed slowly to about 18 mph for half a mile just to get the legs ready and then started turning it up.  I was keeping a good 21-22 mph and at first I was dying, I didn’t think my legs could do it, my heart was screaming at me, my lungs were burning but I pushed on.  I told myself just pull for a mile to let Alex relax for a bit and then fall back, and the mile came. Meh, I could fight the pain for another half mile right? Keep pulling Yani, keep pulling I told myself.  The half mile came and something happened, the pain that was killing me, the desire to quit, all vanished.  Suddenly this was fun again, and I came up to a group of riders going slower so I turned it up a few mph to pass them quickly and little did I know they decided to latch on.  And another surprise… The speed I built up to pass them didn’t fall away, I kept it at 23-24 mph for another mile or so, by now I had been pulling for about 4 or 5 miles and feeling good, then the pack that latched decided to attack…

This is where a lack of experience KILLED me, I see the first one go by and think nothing of it, the next to pass and I don’t do anything.  When they’re about 150 feet up the road I think WTF am I doing, I need to catch them, I’m sick of pulling.  I come out of the saddle for a sprint and about 5 seconds into it I realize my tank is empty, they’re pulling and there’s nothing I can do about it.  Alex comes around to try to pull me with him to catch them, but after about 10 seconds of that I fall back.  I’m sure if I would’ve countered as soon as it happened I wouldn’t have been dropped, Alex managed to catch them and said they were shocked he closed that gap.  They had been going about 27 mph since the attack.

I still don’t feel about about myself though, I might not have been able to close the gap, but after we crossed the small bridge on the way back I reeled them in a bit and held them there.  I still didn’t drop under 20 mph and for the most part kept it around 22 without any draft which is a real accomplishment for me.  I couldn’t believe I was riding like that, and couldn’t believe I was riding like that after having another hard ride the previous night.  Eventually one of the guys in the pack broke away, I don’t know if he had to leave or was cooked, but at least I wasn’t the first to give up heh.  Then we got back to the big bridge, which after this effort seemed like the HUUUUUUGE bridge, on the way up I had thoughts of walking it, wishing I had the granny gear, maybe I should just jump into the water?  Screw it, I’ve made it this far, lets finish it right so I trucked up to the top and Alex was waiting for me.  I forgot to mention the wind, I don’t know what happened by we had a strong wind climbing the bridge into the key, but it must’ve doubled and shifted on the way out because that was ridiculous, I couldn’t even keep the bike straight while climbing the bridge.  We descended and still kept the speed over 20 on the way  back to the car, overall I was proud of my effort and hopefully I keep it up.

Tomorrow I’m going to go for an easy ride on the Busway to down to Homestead, finish listening to my Freakonomics audio book and hopefully get 40 or 50 miles in with some nice relaxed riding.

Lets see how I feel tomorrow morning after tonight’s effort  though

The view around 7 pm on the Rickenbacker Causeway, made with autostitch from 10 photo’s using an iPhone:

 The ride over the weekend with ralf wasn’t completely free of problems. About 16 miles in Ralf got a flat. We patched up the tire and then hit it with the co2 which didn’t fill it up completely so we had to crack open a second cartridge.

 When we get to the track ralf notices the tire is low again. I guess the patch didn’t hold but no biggie we have another tube, 5 minutes later and one and a half cartridges more and he’s good to go.

 40 miles
1 flat
3 cartridges

 One more flat and we would be screwed since that’s all the co2 we had, and gas stations don’t usually accomodate presta valves.

 Yea… Sure it was user error with the patch but still, it left me feeling uneasy. In the next few weeks I want to start doing a lot more commuting, particularly to class and back which is about 9 miles each way and don’t want to worry about having enough co2 if I get a flat or having to stop by the lbs to buy refills for the next day if I do get a flat.

 So I started researching frame pumps and the road morph came highly recommended by most and was pretty affordable. I got mine from amazon for 27 bucks shipped, don’t know if it’s the best deal but I’m happy.

 The pump will do 120 psi, it takes some effort but it does make it. The fact it has a hose to connect to the stem means that it unlikely to damage your tube. The foot grip and t-bar helps a lot when getting to the higher psi, I don’t think I’d be able to make it with out them.

 The only negative (apart from my hand still hurting from pumping it to 120 psi) is that the gauge is VERY hard to read… VERY VERY hard to read. Which I think they addressed on the turbo morph, but apart from that small nuance I’m happy with it. When I have to use it on the road I’ll give another review, but hopefully that won’t be any time soon.

Next up is a rack for the back to carry my stuff to class and and a good ulock/cable lock combo. that should hold me over until I can afford a single speed cyclocross bike for my commute. Fully dorked out with fenders, rack, 700×32 slicks, the pump, and maybe panniers. Hopefully it’ll keep me happy and I’ll be able to make it a worthwhile investment in gas saved. Cross your fingers for cooler weather.

We started riding south on the bikes and some how ended up and luckily they’re having an HPDE. Picks of the cars on the track coming soon.

Everyone knows I’m obsessed with autostich and panoramas so here are a few I took
The front of the speedway:

The view of the straight from the paddock

And a 360 degree view of the whole track:

At the end of the ride the computer read:

And no I wont show you the time because it was embarrassingly slow.

Until next time, enjoy the video of my day

Way to fail Miami, way to f’ing fail. This puts a lot of confidence in your promise to make Miami a more bike friendly city.

Lowcandence.com is one of my favorite cycling blogs and he just did a short review on the bamboo road bike from web works. Bad ass that they can make a quality bike from bamboo and carbon fiber joints and it would make a great commuter.

a bad boy might be in my future for school transportation. i’m just worried about theft. might just end up with a cheap fixed gear or something, we’ll see.