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Denny Yunk

Category Archives: cycling

Competition: What I learned from the Tough Mudder and Lance Armstrong

24 Monday Sep 2012

Posted by Denny Yunk in cycling, ethics, racing

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Tags

bike, competition, Dirty Kanza, doping, Ironman, Lance Armstrong, Tough Mudder

Earlier this month, Kelley and I did the Tough Mudder. My attitude going into the event was kind of dismissive. Compared to “real” competitive events, I thought it was more hype than substance. We had a great time, though, and I’m really glad we did it. I can see now that it wasn’t so much about completing the course as fast as possible as it was about helping others and overcoming physical and mental obstacles. Not to mention that it was the longest I’ve ever run (about 12 miles), which by itself is something I’m pretty proud of.

At the time of the event, all the Lance Armstrong vs. USADA stuff was coming to light. None of it surprised me because I’d already been cured of my illusions for quite a while. It got me thinking about competition in new ways, though – specifically its purpose, its effects on people, and its place in my life.

It’s often said that competition brings out the best in us. While that may be true in regard to absolute performance, it occurs to me that it’s often the opposite in regard to ethics. The Tough Mudder is explicitly not a competitive event. There are no results and no prizes for the top finishers. I don’t think time is even kept. People gladly help each other out, and you can’t really cheat. If you don’t want to participate in an obstacle, you just run around it. I’m sure no one who did the Tough Mudder was on a systematic doping program to maximize their performance.

On the other hand, the Tour de France is the biggest competitive cycling event in the world. Going back to 1996, all but two winners have been somehow implicated with doping. Even on the amateur level at which I race, there have been a number of people who have tested positive and/or have admitted to doping. I’ve never seen testing carried out at any of the races I’ve done, and that’s over a period of 15 years which included two national championships and a lot of big regional races. I’m not a pessimist and I try to avoid gossip, but I can’t help but wonder what the results would be if testing were instituted on the local level.

That’s not really my point, though. My point is that I’ve decided that winning bike races isn’t as important to me as it used to be. There was a point early in my cycling “career” when my sole motivation for riding was racing (and winning). I still like to race, but I don’t need to race in order to justify riding any more, and I don’t need to win in order to justify racing.

So as I think about the events I’ll do next year, I’m feeling drawn towards races that I stand little or no chance of winning, but which I think will be fun, challenging, and rewarding. Dirty Kanza is at the top of the list. I’m even contemplating a half-Ironman, with an eye toward doing the full iron-monty in 2014. These events would require me to train and prepare at a new level, and simply to finish them would be a major accomplishment – regardless of how much mud I have to go through or how many dopers (if any) I get beat by.

The embrocation experiments: part 1

21 Tuesday Feb 2012

Posted by Denny Yunk in cycling

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

embrocation, Enzo's Cycling Products, Mad Alchemy

Disclaimer: non-cyclists are excused from reading this post. It’s just going to sound like “click, click, buzz, buzz, hippie puke, crazy, crazy, crazy.”

Every cyclist wants to become a better cyclist. We would also like to be faster, but getting faster requires training, and that involves time and pain. Getting better, on the other hand, requires the acquisition of knowledge and skills that cause one to appear faster. Entire blogs are devoted to the subject of becoming a better cyclist, and it’s the reason that there are more bike blogs than there are actual cyclists.

I’ve been curious about embrocation for a while. As far as I know, no one I ride with uses it. This means it could make me a better cyclist.

So, I recently decided to try some. I ordered a couple varieties from Mad Alchemy that should arrive this week, and I bought a stick of Enzo’s from Emery’s. I tried the Enzo’s this past Saturday.

Enzo's medium embrocation

I applied it as directed, rubbing it in while wearing latex gloves to keep from accidentally getting it into places where it didn’t belong. The process took about two or three minutes. The smell was strong but not unpleasant. I thought it kind of smelled like a spice-scented candle, or like cinnamon-flavored medicine (if such a ting exists). My wife, Kelley, had a more defined opinion. She gagged, grabbed our 22-month-old son, and promptly left the room, just managing to utter “truck stop hippie puke”.

The temperature was in the low 30s, so I chose to wear some light tights over my bibs rather than just relying on the embro alone to keep my legs warm. I can’t say I felt anything in the first hour or so, except for a slight burning around my ankles. When I got home three hours later, I discovered that it was coming from the area under my socks’ elastic. On the positive side, I did notice that my legs felt pretty loose during the ride. I’d been off the bike for about a week and a half, so it could have been that I just had fresh legs. Whatever the cause, I felt good and not the least bit cold.

Angry ankle

I'm lucky my chain didn't rust.

The end of my ride was just the beginning of the adventure, however. I had been warned that a hot shower would multiply the burning effect of the embrocation exponentially. Following some advice I’d read online, I applied dish soap directly to my legs before getting in the shower. I then ran some cool water and wiped my legs down with a washcloth. So far, so good. However, things got interesting once I got under the water. As predicted, I suddenly felt like a herd of ferile cats was using my legs as scratching posts. I had to stay out of the direct stream of the shower, so I washed myself one limb at a time under lukewarm water. This was considerably less pleasant than the long, hot showers I like to indulge in after a ride out in the cold. Fortunately, my ability to drink beer in the shower was not affected.

Angry pores

Connect the dots!

After I dried off, all that remained was a pleasant warm feeling on my legs. This lasted for about one hour. To Kelley’s relief, only a hint of of truck stop hippie puke aroma remained.

Conclusions
My experience wasn’t positive or negative enough to render a verdict after a single ride, so I’m going to reserve judgement until I can get out for some more embro-assisted rides. That said, I’m not sure that the benefit embro (supposedly) gives me while on the bike outweighs the pain of being denied my hot post-ride shower. Next time out, I’ll keep the embro off my sock area, and I may try to apply less but spend more time rubbing it in. I’m also going to follow Enzo’s recommendation to use rubbing alcohol to remove the embro before hopping in the shower.

Further consideration
A couple of questions occurred to me during and after my ride. First, how horrible would it feel to crash and get road rash on embro-coated legs? Second, if water “activates” embro, what would happen if it started to rain? I’m guessing cool rain water wouldn’t be as painful as a hot shower, but embro in an open wound could be more painful than listening to Craig Hummer’s live Tour de France commentary. I hope someone is able to answer the second question reassuringly and that no one ever has experience with embro and road rash. I also wonder how soon embro can be used after shaving one’s legs.

I’ll post again after my next ride, hopefully with a review of one of the Mad Alchemy products. I’ve already reassured Kelley they won’t smell as bad as the Enzo’s stuff. It seems like a safe bet that nothing could smell worse than truck stop hippie puke.

New posts on the Bike Fed of WI blog

06 Tuesday Dec 2011

Posted by Denny Yunk in cycling

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The guys at the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin recently invited me to be a guest writer on their blog. Click here to read my introductory post, which gives a brief history of my involvement with cycling, and click here to read my post titled, “A Cyclist’s Guide to Surviving Winter in Wisconsin”.

Bike Fed of WI blog

I’ll continue to write posts on this blog with my usual irregularity, but most of my bike-related musings will probably go on the Bike Fed blog.

Tour of America’s Dairyland 2011

27 Monday Jun 2011

Posted by Denny Yunk in cycling, racing, Tour of America's Dairyland

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I did three races in this year’s ToAD: Grafton, Waukesha, and Downer Ave. Despite my lack of training miles, I was pretty satisfied with my results. I didn’t place well in any of the races, but I was able to attack a few times. I even took a $50 prime at Downer Ave. Most importantly, I stayed clear of crashes and finished all three races with my bike and body intact.

Here are links to my GPS/power data from each race:

  • Grafton
  • Waukesha
  • Downer Ave (Note – lap 1 is my ride to the race, and lap 2 is the race itself.)

As always, the series was exceptionally well run. Every race started on-time, and results were posted online early the following day.

Pedaling through a corner with my inside foot down

Pedaling through a corner with my inside foot down

That's the way you're supposed to do it

That's the way you're supposed to do it

Time to get skinny

03 Wednesday Feb 2010

Posted by Denny Yunk in cycling

≈ 4 Comments

Every winter, when I ride less and eat (and drink) more, I put on a few extra pounds. My ideal racing weight is about 150, and this year I got up to 167. The culprits – Christmas cookies, beer, and potato chips – not to mention the fact that I’m turning 35 in a couple weeks.

Between the new job and the baby, I probably won’t get to ride as much this season as I have in years past, which makes my weight especically critical. With this in mind, I’ve created a spreadsheet to track my daily weight and to keep myself accountable:

My goal is to get to 150lbs by the time Caleb is born, which should be around May 8. This means losing 1.14 pounds per week. To do that, I have to have a daily caloric deficit of about 664 calories. I expect to achieve some of that by forgoing my nightly beer(s) and the rest by cutting out sweets and starchy food. I’m also cutting back on coffee (it makes me hungry) and drinking more water.

In addition to reducing my caloric intake, I’m also ramping up my caloric expenditure by hitting the trainer in the morning before work, and often again in the evening. Hopefully this will soon give way to consistent outdoor riding in the near future.

It would be great if I could just eat and drink all I want, then burn it off with heaps of saddle time, but I’m afraid that may not be an option until I’m retired and my kids are out of college.

Riding in 2010

25 Monday Jan 2010

Posted by Denny Yunk in cycling, racing

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This is the deepest I’ve gone into an off-season without a specific set of competitive goals for the coming year. But of course, this is not going to be a typical cycling season. I’m gonna become a dad sometime around May 8, so I don’t have any illusions of reaching new heights of fitness.

Instead, this year is going to be about riding when time permits and enjoying every mile, regardless of speed or wattage. I’m sure I’ll do some races – the Tour of America’s Dairyland in particular – but most of my riding will take place without a number pinned to my jersey. The two things I’m most interested in are non-traditional races like Barry Roubaix and long-distance events like the Dairyland Dare. If there’s a chance, I’d also like to try an S24O ride. Beyond that, I’m looking forward to some early Saturday morning centuries and maybe a WEMS race or two.

Once the daylight lasts a bit longer, I’ll start riding to work. Now that I’m working downtown, my round trip is just 12 miles, which is good, because there aren’t shower facilities at my office.

Well, that’s about it. I’m as excited as ever for spring, just for a much different reason than in past years.

Custom bike fitting

09 Wednesday Dec 2009

Posted by Denny Yunk in cycling

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

custom bicycle, gunnar, steel

Gunnar Sport

Gunnar Sport

Yesterday, I drove down to Waterford to get fitted for a custom Gunnar Sport. I’m helping them out with some copy writing, social media, and website design, and in return, they’re building me a bike. Not a bad deal, I’d say.

I would have been content with a stock geometry bike, but Richard and Johanna talked me into a custom build. The fitting process took about two hours. I brought my Salsa La Cruz, which is the bike the Gunnar will replace. Johanna began by taking some measurements from the Salsa. Then she measured my inseam, my femurs, my torso, and my arms. She entered this data into a computer, which returned a set of recommended frame dimensions.

Denny on the Fitmaster

Denny on the Fitmaster

From there, we went to the Fitmaster, which is a bike-shaped tool that can be adjusted to simulate a wide range of tube lengths and angles. Johanna set it up with my recommended frame geometry, and I rode a bit to see how it felt. The most notable difference was the seat angle. Most bikes (including all of mine) have seat angles of between 72 and 74 degrees. Because of my long torso and short femurs, a 75 degree seat angle was recommended. This put me in a more forward position, which opened up my hip angle and allowed me to stretch out more comfortably.

Most of my time on the Fitmaster was spent tweaking the handlebar position. The Fitmaster had an ergo-bend Profile bar, which has a shallower drop and a more acute bend compared to the Ritchey bar I intend to use on the Gunnar. Ultimately, we focused on the position of the brake hoods instead of the drops, which made for a more meaningful comparison.

Once I was comfortable with the position on the Fitmaster, Johanna went back to the computer to enter the exact dimensions we settled on. Here’s where we ended up:

Head angle: 73
Seat angle: 75
Effective top tube: 565mm
Stack: 582mm
Reach: 407mm
Front-center: 611mm

That may not mean much to anyone who hasn’t spent the last few weeks obsessing over frame geometries (the way I have). In a nutshell, this bike will enable me to get in a more powerful and aerodynamic position, with none of the compromises I’ve had to make on my stock-geometry bikes. Additionally, the long front-center dimension will ensure that even with my big feet, I’ll be able to run wide tires and fenders without any toe-overlap.

Rivendell Mark's Rack

Rivendell Mark's Rack

The Sport itself is a cool bike. It’s got a low bottom bracket, which makes it super-stable, but not at all suited to pedaling through corners. It’s also got clearance for tires as wide as 35mm.  It’ll be my first choice for training rides, centuries, and any sort of long-distance ride that may involve brief unpaved excursions. I’m going to build it up with SRAM Rival and a Brooks Swift saddle. Oh, and I’m having braze-ons installed on the fork to allow me to mount a Mark’s Rack from Rivendell, in case I ever make good on my intentions to get into randonneuring.

After we completed the fitting process, Johanna gave me a tour of the Waterford facility. Click here to view my photo gallery.

Too sick for cyclocross

30 Friday Oct 2009

Posted by Denny Yunk in cycling

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Tags

cyclocross, halloween, sick, washington park

I’m sick. I don’t think it’s the dreaded you-know-what. It’s probably just a common cold. In fact, I’m already on the mend.

Regardless, if I do the cyclocross race tomorrow, I’m going to end up sick as a dog next week. I wouldn’t mind so much were it not for the fact that tomorrow’s race is one of the most fun races of the entire year – the Velo Trocadero Halloween Classic. Last year’s race was an absolute blast. There’s nothing like a bunch of costumed weirdos bunny-hopping a burning barrier and being heckled by an enormous, diaper-clad man-baby in 40-degree weather.

Illness notwithstanding, I will be at the race tomorrow, but I’ll be packing a video camera instead of a bike. Hopefully I’ll capture something YouTube-able. I just hope I don’t see anything as shocking as Katy’s 2008 costume (I looked for a photo, but mercifully, couldn’t find one). Looks like she’s going high-class this year.

Season Review

13 Monday Oct 2008

Posted by Denny Yunk in Chequamegon, cycling, Door_County, racing, Sea_Otter

≈ 2 Comments

With the possible exception of a few cyclocross races, the 2008 racing season is over. Time to take a look back.

The season began poorly with my big crash at Sea Otter, in which my new Specialized Tarmac SL received a fatal down-tube injury. I crashed again in my next race, but fortunately, the replacement frame survived. That pretty much quenched my thirst for mass-start races. The only exception I made was for the State Road Race Championships – an epic battle with the elements from which I emerged as a very wet state champion, thanks in large part to my teammates’ help.

After the RR championships, I focused on my main goal for the season- the Masters National Time Trial Championships. Thankfully, that went well. I ended up taking bronze and setting a personal best. My teammate, Scott Latell, came up from his home (and a very busy work schedule) in North Carolina to keep me company and serve as my soigneur deluxe. It was great hanging out with Scott and not having to worry about anything but turning the pedals. Plus, there’s no better post-time-trial drinking buddy than Scott.

After Nats, I came back out for a few Superweek crits. Those went reasonably well. Most notably, I didn’t hurt myself or break anything.

The next highlight of the season was the Door County Century, which I did with my wife, Kelley. It was her first 100-mile ride, and she did awesome – that is, she did awesome after I diagnosed a rubbing brakepad 15 miles into the ride. The rub was my fault, but she was so relieved not to be dying that she forgave me almost immediately. In fact, she even had the energy and nerve to punk me in a sign sprint.

The final big event of 2008 was the Chequamegon Fat Tire Festival – a 40-mile mountain bike race in northern Wisconsin. With a field limit of 1,700, it’s the biggest mass-start mountain bike race in the world. I hadn’t done a MTB race in four years, and I hadn’t done Chequamegon in about 12 years. Despite a poor start and a flat tire with five miles to go, I managed to finish in 236th place, achieving my goal of finishing within 30 minutes of the winner. Plus, I had such a good time that I’m thinking about devoting the second half of next year’s season to endurance mountain bike racing.

So praise God – it’s been another good year. There’s still some great riding to be had, but it’s never too early to look back and think ahead.

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