Mike's Bike Blog

You might recall from my Time Trial post on 8/25 how I just didn't seem to have it in my legs. They felt heavy and I was struggling. This has been common on most of my rides the past week or so. At first I thought it was some residual artifacts from the crash as I'm still bruised and swollen on the hip still (yes still, but it is starting to shrink).

Saturday I set out to do a 1 hour FTP test. The way I've been doing it is 20 minutes on my Twin Creeks circuit as this is where I do my smaller 20 minute tests and then complete the Volente Loop. The 1 hour mark should hit at the top of the 3 Sisters. Well at the end of the 20 minutes I was discouraged as once again I was not able to hold numbers I had a few months back. I just felt like I was riding through mud it was a struggle. I almost packed it in at that point, but I forged on to complete the next 40 minutes.

On the rest of the Volente Loop it was more of the same and when I got home the numbers were very discouraging. In essence my FTP has dropped by 30 watts!

Later that evening as I was washing my bike and cleaning the drive train I noticed that when I spun the rear wheel it didn't rotate smoothly. The rear break was rubbing against the rim. I fiddled with the wheel and break and got it to spin freely. At the time I didn't think anything of it. Until Sunday's ride.

My ride Sunday was late in the afternoon, I left at 3:30pm from Williamson County Regional Park. I was at the park for a soccer coaching clinic. I was expecting to spend 2 hours outside taking notes on drills, but spent the time being a demonstrator running through the drills as a player. By the end my left calf was cramping and I was hurting. I haven't had to run like that in ages, it wasn't the running so much but the cutting and sharp turns, my feet aren't use to it and rebelled with blisters. I started my ride already dehydrated and in the first 30 minutes had drank 2 of my 3 bottles. On Parmer I had to alter my course to venture to get more water, via CR 159.

With 3 fresh bottles of water I set out again, my cramping in the calf taken care of with a bottle of Hammer Heed. Heading North into the head wind, which I thought was the culprit for my heavy legs and once again the feeling like I was riding in mud. The thought of the prior days wheel problem I thought I should check it, I found a shady section on CR 258 and pulled over. I spun my rear wheel and once again it was not rolling smoothly and sticking. I messed with the brake to get it unengaged and started to ride again. This time it felt good, until I had to apply my brakes and there was that feeling of the mud again. Once again I hopped off and found the brake nearly fully clasped down on the rim. This time I found that whenever I would apply the break it would not spring back to it's open position. Thus whenever I would "fix" this before the minute I applied the breaks it would start rubbing and catching! I played with the tension on the break and I think I got it adjusted.

After this last adjustment it was like a weight was taken off me. I could feel a difference in my acceleration and my ability to hold my speed and power, in fact the headwind from the North wasn't so bad anymore. I'm not 100% sure if this has been the contributing factor to my lack luster rides the past week but it does seem to hold some truth to it. Not sure how long this rubbing has been happening, at the very least it could have been caused from the crash, but it could have been happening a lot longer. I had a similar problem when I got my PowerTap back from Saris, when I put the wheel back on the bike it wouldn't spin freely the brake was rubbing. I did the same thing as I did Saturday night when cleaning the bike, fiddling with it until it seemed to work.

Now I have my eye on it though so any slight feeling like I'm riding in mud and I'll be sure to check my brake. For the time being I'll keep my FTP lower and I won't go out of my way to do another 1 hour test. I'll see where my numbers are in the next 2 Time Trials and I'm debating signing up for Tour of Austin: Manda Shootout road race, that could give me a good indication where my level is at.

UPDATE:

It turns out I didn't fix my brake problem. It reared it's ugly head again while embarking out to do hill repeats up Far West. I did a quick detour over to Nelo's. It turned out the cable was corroded from sweat and water and wasn't moving freely in the cable housing.