It’s late March of 2007, and the weather has finally taken a turn for the better. Cranking out my first 40-mile road ride in 5 months felt surprisingly good. My pace was not all that aggressive, but I wasn’t exactly soft-pedaling. I could easily deceive myself into thinking that I did a pretty good job of keeping myself in shape, over the off-season. A deception that will surely burst like a toy balloon on April 21st when I plan to strap on a number plate for the first time this season, and go head to head with my fitter and faster competition in the WVMBA series.

I can’t help wondering if my off-season strategy, or lack thereof, will allow me to maintain my usual finishing slot among the Expert Master field – or if I’ll move down, or hopefully up, in the pecking order. A year ago, I feel that I trained much harder in the off-season. I didn’t really take any time off between the end of the fall racing season and the start of spring racing. I rode hard every chance I could over the winter of 2005/2006, and hit the spinning classes. That program helped me gain a little ground on my competition in the early-season races. Based on those good results, I was feeling pretty self-confident as I made my mid-season switch from XC racing to endurance training—getting ready for the Wilderness 101, and a Duo 24-hour race after that.

Then something went wrong. The 101 was brutally hot, enough so that a significant percentage of the field DNF’d due to dehydration and other heat-related ailments. Clemens and I pushed each other, and pushed on to finish the race (with my body feeling much worse for the wear). I was pretty blown. Didn’t touch the bike for two weeks. I found myself questioning my off-season strategy, wondering if I had over-trained. Wondering if I was just flat busted? I ended up bailing on the plans for the Duo 24-hour race, and promised myself a few months of “just riding my bike for fun.”

Fun riding – hey, I remember that! What I forgot was how therapeutic it could be. Recovery, yeah, that’s the ticket. Then and there, I decided that my 2006/2007 off-season would be more about recovery that training hard throughout the winter. I decided I’d rather come into spring rested, even a bit soft, and work my way back into shape, that risk another late summer collapse due to exhaustion.

I did turn it up a notch ever so slightly last fall, when I entered a few local cyclocross races. However, I was not in top form, so the races were just a way of easing back into hard training efforts than they were about racing, per se. The rest of last winter I just rode opportunistically — whenever Mother Nature froze the mud or gave us a nice blanket of packed snow. When things got ugly, I rested until I couldn’t stand it any longer, and then jumped on the trainer for an “easy” session, just to get the blood flowing. Mix in a few trips to the pool, the gym and the running track – and you get the picture. Certainly a more casual approach than the winter before. Is easier better, when it comes to off-season strategy? I’ll let you know in a few months.

Michael from Pittsburgh, PA wrote me (coincidentally I’m also Michael from Pittsburgh—soon to be Michael from Madison), to ask about tire pressure. Normally, I don’t feel all that comfortable giving people such specific advice since equipment and terrain can vary widely. But this guy lives just around the corner from me, and I can only assume he’s writing about riding on the same trails as I.
But rather than tell him exactly what pressure to run, I came up with a quick guide to setting the pressure on your tires.

I’ve never used this guide myself, nor have I asked anyone to try it out. But I thought it might be an amusing way to think about your tire pressure.

Starting at 40psi, use the following tables to add or subtract total pressure.

STEP #1: RIDER WEIGHT

100-120lbs. -10psi

121-140lbs. -8psi

141-160lbs. -6psi

161-180lbs. -4psi

181-200lbs. -2psi

200 + 0

STEP #2: Style

Fluid and Smooth. Your wheels rarely leave the ground. You take turns with grace. -5psi

Aggressive and Hard. You huck everything in sight. You aren’t afraid to beat your bike. +5psi

STEP #3: Intention

Go Fast: +2psi

Have Fun: -2psi

Better Descending: -2psi

Corner Hard: +2psi

Step #4: Equipment

Tire seats snugly on the rim: -1psi

You’re carrying a tube and pump: -2psi

No tube and pump: +10psi

TALLY IT UP: using the above equation, my 160lb. self (rider + gear), (-6psi), that rides aggressive and smooth, and stays closer to the ground than the air (-1psi), wants to go fast, have fun, and descend better (-2psi), whose tires it snugly and is carrying a pump (-3psi), I should run at 30psi.

I typically run around 28psi. And I’d advise against running anything less than that.

What pressure did my equation give you?

As an author, you know you’ve hit a home run with an article when people email copies of your article to each other, contact you to say “great job,” or “I can’t believe you printed that!”

As an editor, you know you’ve done a great job when shops request more copies or when readers take the time to send long opinion letters.

In the case of #126, we’ve done it all. Not only has the Offshore to Your Door article made its way on to every major forums message board, we’ve been contacted by people telling us, “wow, what an insight! I can’t believe that’s how it works.”

On the flip side, we’ve also had a few people appalled at what I wrote. A few shops have returned their copies, some major retailers have pulled the issue from their shelves, and some behind-the-scenes folks have said, “I cant believe I was stupid enough to answer your questions.”

As for the issue itself, the artwork of an attractive woman on a bicycle caused one UC Davis forums member to say, “I can’t even leave it out for my kids to see.” Other readers were disgusted by the combination of the cover girl, the postcard insert, the contributor bio photo and our new model. All in support of their take on feminism, people have returned their issues, canceled their subscriptions and written letters of disgust.

A home run, I’d say.

Getting people to act in this world is not easy. It takes the right information packaged in the right way to provoke action and speech from just about anyone. But provokin an action like mailing copies back, putting energy into a thousand-word letter, citing commentary on each point of disagreement within an article… all of this means that our actions resonated with people, for better or worse.

Now, I’ll be the first to tell you that we’re not here to piss people off. Quite the contrary, we’re here to enlighten, inspire, inform and document the cycling world. Unfortunately (for some), this means a competitive marketplace and a discriminating public that favors certain business models; it means using pleasing images to attract attention; publishing messages that not everyone agrees with.

So while you may or may not agree with our insights on the bicycling world, or our use of a particular message, remember that we’re not trying to set you off. We’re trying to put forth opinions and insight that we’ve take time to develop.