General Bike Thread (Desiderata, Questions, Pics)

[smittycl]

25 miles through Rock Creek Park followed by a beer and crab cake on the Georgetown waterfront. Had a new Sea Stallion flyover as well! When I left and was on the Key Bridge heading home two of the President's Sikorsky's flew over but I couldn't get my phone out fast enough.

 

[sugarbutch]

Not a huge surprise but MvdP using those cyclocross skills!

The women's race was a thriller

 

[patrick_b]

Drone footage is so damn good.

 

[smittycl]

Drone footage is so damn good.

Last time I went skiing there were signs everywhere prohibiting drones. I guess the snowboarders can carry a tracker and the drone will follow it and film. They were apparently also crashing into skiers on the chair lifts.

 

[otc]

Gotta get those guys flying drones on the ski/board Freeride World Tour...

Some of the FWT drone pilots seem to have forgotten that their goal is supposed to be getting good, stable, footage of the skiers...nobody wants to see how awesome their flying is, they want to to actually be able to see what is happening.

Looks like the pilot is from the same group that has been building those custom F1 follow-cam drones.

 

[sugarbutch]

Looks like the video was pulled. What was it?

 

[Texasmade]

Looks like the video was pulled. What was it?

If you open on IG you can watch it.

 

[otc]

First mtb ride of the year today.

Seems early but I’ll take it.

 

[zissou]

I feel like this is the first time since college that I’ve maintained a decent level of cycling fitness over the winter. The first outdoor ride felt a bit awkward, but today’s ride (my third outdoors, for 35mi) felt like June of last year. Thanks, fancy Garmin trainer.

 

[otc]

This is an entirely predictable outcome: I did not ride the trainer nearly as much as I intended to.

 

[smittycl]

This is an entirely predictable outcome: I did not ride the trainer nearly as much as I intended to.

I tried to use a stationary bike at the gym but wasn’t as diligent as I’d hoped. Might be a bit before I get summer mojo back.

 

[sugarbutch]

Winter '22-'23 indoor season was super effective for me, and I hit the road in the best shape of my cycling life. Getting laid off and an extensive unemployment with a dispiriting job search killed my mojo last summer so I lost fitness despite having essentially unlimited free time. Ironic, no? And now that I am back to work, it is in-person with a commute, and I am not at all motivated to get on the trainer when I get home from work.

 

[Texasmade]

Cardio conditioning tends to go pretty fast if you don't keep up with it. Normally to maintain a decent baseline performance, you'd want to have a session at every other day.

 

[zissou]

One thing that was helpful for me was to give up on the idea of intense trainer workouts most of the time, and just use it to keep moving and maintain a base. Zwift was killing my motivation because I felt like I couldn't ever quite meet its expectations of me. So, I just put on exciting WWII movies, did my own intervals or easy spins, and I've started the year in decent shape.

 

[otc]

I should have tried a more rigid schedule or something, but I also found out that my wife is due (!!!) 2 days before the event I was intending to train for...so the "need" to get those training miles in is gone.

Not that I wasn't still active over the winter. Skied 56 days so far this season (including days skinning *up* the mountain) , made a handful of visits to the climbing gym, did some yoga, etc.

But as I learned on my ride yesterday, none of those really preserve that bike conditioning. Had hoped to keep the higher-tempo cardio alive with XC/skate skiing, but our winter just didn't deliver the snow and I only went skate skiing half a dozen times.