Jordan Oroshiba's Cycling Adventures

FINALLY!

2011-11-09T16:05:00.000-08:00

So third time is a charm-- right? After one attempt to do my 55 mile ride cut short by my ride buddy being sore, a second by getting lost (although I did still get the right mileage, I didn't finish the route!), this time I made it! Got up early this morning (7:20 to be exact, yes that's early now that I'm in college), got breakfast and took off at 8:30am. First a weather report, it was SUNNY! and despite being early almost 50. And within 20 minutes I had switched gloves and taken off all my cold weather gear, SOO BEAUTIFUL! Not to mention that it is fall in Upstate NY, so the trees are beautiful. Anyways about the ride...

It was the hilliest route I've ridden in Rochester so far, 2700 ft of climbing, not too bad. (About 400 feet less climbing than my most similar ride back home, and the 3rd most climbing I've done in a ride currently on Strava). Anyways it was a beautiful route, working on pedal stroke and cadence and all that, just taking it easy the first half, pretty. Second half I knew I had a lot left in the tank to give and did the last 20 miles as essentially a TT, it hurt and it was all I could do to go 18mph or so at the end. But it also felt great! I haven't done a ride that was so painful in a long time. I also managed to keep up with my nutrition, which is something I constantly struggle with (gonna be better about it and hopefully road races will improve because of it!) Ride data is found at http://app.strava.com/rides/2268303 (go ahead and follow me on Strava).

One other finally, I cleaned my bike! There are no hoses and spigots in the dorm, or around it to rinse the bike off with, so it is a hand towel job. After being so insane about making sure it happened back home, it feels very weird to not wash the bike all the time. Something I will just have to start doing more frequently again!

Adjustments for and starting the off-season for real

2011-11-06T23:02:00.000-08:00

After a season of suffering with position issues, pain in the back of the knee, in the front of the knee, and the biggest being numb hands. It was time to go back to the drawing board on bike fit. Instead of the aggressive positions I have always ridden in, I have shortened everything a bit and moved some more weight onto the saddle. Handlebars are higher up, hoods are curved so the actually hit my hands properly while still being able to shift in the drops. Overall it feels quite a good bit more comfortable. Still a little bit of fiddling to be done, but it seems to be quite the improvement.

Took the fit out for its biggest test and my first real ride this off-season. A 55 mile solo ride is the perfect way to start. I found a route with some "hills" in area and took off at 1pm, with the sun out and bright, and a beautiful 46 degrees out. Ok -- so I was a bit chilly, but I better get used to it, weather here in Rochester is just going to get worse. First half of the ride was absolutely gorgeous (fall here is very pretty, with the colored foliage and all). At mile 20 I hit the first real hill I had seen in quite some time, about a mile of slowly building grade, starting as an aggravating false flat and finishing with a nice 21% grade. Needless to say I need to work on my hills, cause that hurt a lot. Then on the way back down the clouds rolled in and it got chilly. Chilly when going 40mph around turns that could go anywhere was not a good place to be in but I made it. At mile 30 I was starting to feel done and after a couple missed turns with 5 miles of riding to get back on course, I was agitated, cold, and my legs were cooked from my longest ride in 2 months (sad I know). Worse part was the whole way back into town was a dead headwind. I ended up just getting in the drops and pushing harder as the pain set in more and more. Cut the ride "short" but thanks to some missed turns still got the exact same mileage in. I made good time coming back though, when my phone died I had been averaging 14.8mph (slow, but nice and its always nice to enjoy a gorgeous ride). Ride computer said 15.8 at the finish line so over the last 10 miles I certainly picked it up a good bit (trying to beat the sun).

What data is left from my phone before it died can be found here: http://app.strava.com/rides/2219988#36954245
Feel free to follow me on Strava to keep up with all my rides.

Riding in the Off Season

2011-11-04T09:07:00.000-07:00

Now that I'm in college, settled in, and getting used to the cold weather in Rochester, it is time to think about the off season. Long, slower weekend rides in cold snowy weather are in my future. When it is so cold out that you wouldn't dare go faster cause of the wind chill. It will be a fun new experience for me, being from Texas where it isn't really ever cold. Although some warmer clothing is definitely necessary. So here is to a good off-season of abiding by rule 5, and hey the trainer builds character and mental toughness right?

Last week of Riding and Racing

2011-04-21T22:23:00.000-07:00

This last week I have had a lot of awesome cycling stuff going on, MS150, time trialing, mountain biking, and the always amazing Driveway Series. I'll go through them in order:

First off the MS150, what a great experience. It was my second year doing this ride and like the first year it was just an amazingly wonderful experience not to mention a great training ride. The first day of the ride (100 miles) we started in the morning with a temperature, nice a chilly. When you first start off there are just people EVERYWHERE, as I passed multiple different people I ended up pulling together a pace line of around 30 people. Through mile 50 we were averaging 23.5mph, blazing considering how slow you have to go at the beggining. Right at mile 50 we hit hills and it time for me to say bye to the group. The hills definitely kicked my rear end after pushing the first 50 really hard, but I hung in keeping and even effort approach to the ride. At mile 60 I took my first break to use the restroom facilites then continued riding. Stopped again for some food before finding a teammate from the National Instruments team I was riding with, who I rode the rest of the way in with. That is until I decided to sprint the last 1k cause, it isnt a good ride unless you have a finish sprint right?

The second day opens with the BEAUTIFUL Bastrop state park, with rolling hills and wonderful tree covered tunnel like roads. After the hilly park we rode as a paceline the rest of the way to Austin, just enjoying ourselves and all the great ride support. When we reached the finish of the second day the chute to the finish charged me up so much I botched the turn and ran into the chute fence in my sprint... oops. Great ride though, just a fantastic atmosphere. Ended up averaging 19.5mph for both days (175mi) of riding.

Then on Tuesday I did the new AllSports Timing TT in South Austin. Legs were tired to start, I was riding my moms TT bike and hadn't done a TT all year. So it was a great base level test :P. I finished the 8.1 mile loop in 21:13, avg speed 22.8mph. Not bad not great, but I now have a time to beat!

Wednesday I went for a mountain bike ride on the greenbelt. What I expected to be a grueling ride after the previous day actually felt great! With little effort I averaged 1mph faster than I have for the 13 mile loop ever before. Great ride, no crashes! http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/pvSoCSuZT70 (link to GPS file from ride).

Then today I had the driveway. First up was the Juniors again, Mino and Trevor were out of town so it was just Vit Volny (a racer who recently moved here from the Czech Republic) to duke it out in the end. I tried to break away multiple times during the race, but he latched onto my wheel every time. During the last lap he launched attack after attack after attack, all of which I were able to fend off (a first for this season). I missed the spot I wanted to jump at due to people trying to make a "move" which did not work. He ended up starting his sprint before me, I caught up and was catching ground but nowhere near quickly enough and he pulled out the win. My best race as far as my fitness is concerned yet this year!

Next was the 4/5, sat in most of the race, staying close enough to the front to avoid major crashes. With 1 lap to go I found my way through the mess to the top 5 or so positons. Then it all went down the tubes. People just need to learn how to ride a bike, cause I had people leaning on me from both sides trying to squeeze into the top few position, people in front of me tap brakes such and so forth. Ended up finishing outside the top 20, largely cause I just didn't want anything to do with the sketchy racing being done at the front. I have decided that from now on I will race the 3/4 instead, focus on becoming stronger and then winning will just be a byproduct of that.

Driveway Series Week 4

2011-04-07T22:08:00.000-07:00

This week was the week... the week I would get my upgrade. With juniors races averaging 7 per race so far this year, I was feeling pretty good about my chances of getting my last point. My plan this time, was to hold the race together, and launch my sprint early, as soon as it felt just right. 2 laps in however my plans were derailed, I decided the race was moving to slowly and attacked to pick up the pace, then while humming along at 29 mph I had Trevor Brooks come flying past me, never to be seen again. New strategy was to mark the only junior left in the group the rest of the race, and dominate him in the sprint. I sat on his wheel everytime he surged, everytime he sat back, just everytime period. With 1k to go I started getting ready to launch my sprint, which I would do at the first lull in speed. At about 800m to go everyone started playing cat and mouse games and I launched. I got the womens breakaway 7 seconds ahead of field, and not to brag, but I owned that sprint, 100% no competition. 2nd place on the day (enough for my upgrade)

Photo courtesy DCM Photography

After getting my points, I decided to not hash out a plan for the 4/5 and just sorta wing it, do whatever felt right at the time. Right from the gun 2 riders broke away and had a 4-5 second gap on the group. I decided I would launch off the front and try and bridge the gap. I was about 3/4 of the way there when they gave up, and I decided that meant it was time for me to give up to. I sat in the group, and moved farther back than I should have. With about 6 laps to go there was a big pileup and I ended up at a virtually dead stop behind it, sprinting to catch the main group. This turned out to be costly as I was never able to get any sort of position back. Coming into the last lap I found myself at the back of the pack, and I did damage control to try and catch up, but it didn't work all that great. I launched a pretty strong sprint to catch up at about 800m again... however it only took me from 50th to top 30ish before I caught stuck behind some people... and yeah I think I'll develop a plan for next week, It was fun though! I submitted my Cat 3 upgrade tonight, so hopefully it will go through soon, and I will be in the 3/4 next week, getting in better shape!

Driveway Week 3

2011-03-31T20:12:00.000-07:00

After having to pull out of the driveway week 2 due to illness it was back on the bike on wednesday and back to the races on Thursday!

First race of the day was juniors. Plan was to sit in, try and work as little as possible, make it come to a bunch sprint and then just do my best. At the starting line, I identified Mino and Veto as my two competitors, and both people who could kill me in a hard a attack, and possibly in a sprint. After the gun, I made sure I was in position to watch the race, but not in rotation to pull, which I did perfectly. After the prime, which i just made sure Mino and Veto didn't get a gap on me at, some kid on an old bright shiny red GT Force kept attacking. When he did, I would get up front, set an easy tempo that kept him in sight, and wait for others to pull me back up. It worked wonders, Mino made hard charges to catch up at least 4 times, which I was hoping would tire him out for the sprint. With 3 laps to go the usual jockeying for position occured, oh and red bike kid attacked again. After pulling the red bike kid in again, with 1 to go things got really tense, you could feel the group was ready to break. At 1km to go a group of girls charged up the left side, I hopped on the back, but it didn't go anywhere. At 800m or so everyone just hit the brakes, and I should have launched but I hesitated and 50m later Mino jumped, I countered quickly, sitting second and just on Mino's wheel. Mino started to pull away, and I just didn't have to outright speed to hold veto off for the line, so I claimed third place! Yay 1 more upgrade point in the arsenal!

Race 2, the deadly 4/5. With a fast course with 1 sharp corner my goal was to just sit in the top 20 all race and time my spring properly. The course was too fast for anyone to get away, and I just didn't want to get caught in any crashes. I held my position perfectly, then we hit 1km to go, I caught a move coming up the left side, sitting about fifth wheel in the train the guy 2 people ahead of me just rode straight into the grass, and the girl in front of me stopped pedaling. Next thing I knew I was behind the front finishing pack and sitting in the "i couldn't keep up with the sprint" pack. I sprinted to catch back up, but likely finished around 30th, I'm STILL wondering how that happened (person three bikes ahead of me in the line won).

Driveway Week 1

2011-03-18T12:28:00.000-07:00

First week out at the Driveway Series yesterday! It was a beautiful day at around 85 and sunny! Rolling into the Juniors open race I knew that two juniors from 787 racing were going to be my main competition. From the starting line me and the 787 racing juniors went straight up to the front and started to push the pace to break up the field a little bit. After the first lap they rung the bell for a prime lap, on the lap I had the unfortunate situation where it was my turn to pull coming into 1km, I did maybe a 10 second pull and then pulled off hoping that the attack wouldn't come till a little later. As soon as I pulled off though both 787 guys sprinted off the front, and I thought I would chase with the pack instead of going off solo to catch up. 2 laps later I realized that my attempts to get the pack to chase were going nowhere, as it was mostly a womens 3/4 field that had no interest in chasing juniors. At this point I decided to work on my leadout, and asked Betty Hodges if she wanted a leadout. At the end of the race I successfully delivered Betty to a win, and got 3rd place in Juniors.

My next race was the Cat 4/5 which I was hoping to get my final 2 upgrade points for my Cat 3 upgrade. Starting off I was feeling a little sore and fatigued from the previous laps of chasing down the break. I decided to hang out in the pack until 3-4 laps togo when I would move up into position, as the course rarely creates breakaway wins. At lap 4 I was sitting near the back and started moving up, by the beginning of the last lap I was sitting in about 9th wheel, perfectly positioned. Halfway through that lap I had situated myself in about 5th wheel, ready to spring. That's when the mayhem started. At 1k to go a group of 5 started to try and pull past me on my left which caused the guy in front of me to panic, swerve, slam on his brakes and next thing I knew I was boxed in at around 20th place. Coming up the last hill at 300m i moved up a couple more spots, and in the sprint I ended up sitting down as I just wasn't moving up fast enough. I ended up getting 14th on the day, not quite the 5th place I needed for my upgrade, but there is next week for that.

Birthday Bike Ride - Lots of Hills

2011-03-11T07:29:00.000-08:00

In honor of it being my birthday yesterday, I went for a just about the hardest 70 mile ride I could think up. From Jack and Adams I rode the second half of the Tour das Hugel course, mostly by myself. It didn't take long for the hills to start really really kick up in grade and have me second guessing my choice of birthday activities. About midway through I hit Beauford, followed by Courtyard and River Place. This little 3 peat of 20%+ grade hills drained, just longing for flat road. Seeing as this is the Tour of the Hills though, there is no flat roads, just less hilly ones, which luckily for me from there I only had a couple more grinding terrible hills. I also think I may have set my record for slowest speed while on the bike on this occasion, while on the last lost hard hill (Jester) I looked down to see my speedometer read 2.5mph, man was I flying! (I averaged 13.6 on the day, but hey I finished) Total elevation gain: 8131ft.

Bicycling Magazine Free Bike Contest

2011-03-08T17:26:00.000-08:00

I finished the crossword today in the most recent edition of Bicycling magazine that needs to be completed in order to enter this years free bike contest. In order to enter you need to solve the puzzle, count the number of times the letters B, I, K, and E are in the puzzle and then in 20 words or less tell them why you deserve a free bike. I've got my answer choices all set up just waiting 2 days till I'm 18 and can legally submit my entry for the sweepstakes!

Lago Vista Race Report

2011-03-06T14:10:00.000-08:00

Day 1 at Lago: Got to the race a little later than I wanted to, but still had 20 minutes to warm up. Was feeling really good during the warm up, but was starting to sprinkle. As we rolled out it started raining in earnest. The juniors and womens fields split up really quickly and after a couple chases I was in a front group of 3 juniors. At this point the rain got harder and it started to hail (which btw hurts when on a bike), we also had about a 30 second lead on what was left of the main pack. Then.... I got reallllly cold. My whole body started shaking, the water had soaked through the water proof booties, through everything and the headwind just hurt a whole lot. Coming down the backside I was unable to shift and barely able to control my bike I was shaking so badly. Called it quits for my safety after the first lap, then spent 20 minutes warming up in registration. See you all in the 4/5 tomorrow! Now I have 2 races to pack into one.

Day 2: My alarm didnt go off, so I woke up to late to make it to the 4/5 which I was signed up for on time. Called the promoter he said I could transfer into the 3/4 so I was off to the races. After the gun we rolled less than a quarter mile before starting to make our way uphill. Given all the hype about the hill it certainly didn't feel too bad the first time around. As I was now in a faster race I was focusing on just holding a good position in the field and made sure I had no more than 20 ahead of me at any time. On the backside things got really fast really quick, we hit about 38 every time on the way back down, and with junior gears I was spinning out quickly. It became a goal of hold the wheel. As the laps continued a group of 1-3 would go off on the hills either time and get caught up with on the backside everytime without fail. Finally on the 5th lap my legs were starting to feel very fatigued on the hills. I slipped back through the pack on the way up but made sure to move back up once we got to the backside, ensuring i didnt go out the back on the next set of hills. Then there was the 6th lap (which would have been my last in the 4/5) I got popped out the back on this hills, but fought to keep the group in sight, and caught back on on the backside. From there though I knew it was entirely damage management. As we moved into the next lap I was popped off imediately, decided to turn around and pack it up, I had gotten the 33 miles on my schedule, and at a faster pace. Overall I'm pretty happy with how quickly I'm getting back fitness, just need some more long rides to build up that endurance! Feel like if I had been there for the 4/5 I could have done well, but instead I got a workout, and that means better results next time! Hope to see some of you guys for my Bday ride on thursday, and if not my next race is gonna be the Driveway.