Updated - absoluteBLACK Oval Chain Rings

Awhile back, Patrick was selected as a brand ambassador for a really rad company called absoluteBLACK. They specialize in creating oval chainrings for bikes of all shapes and sizes.
And perhaps my favorite thing of being someone's partner, is sharing in their excitement when something cool happens to them. So naturally, I asked him to let me take pictures of how GREAT the new chain ring looks on his bike.

absoluteBLACK offers a variety of colors for their product, which is convenient since I've found cyclists to be some of the most finicky and aesthetic driven people when it comes to their bike. (not hating, I'm quickly becoming one of them, too!)

Patrick selected the red chain ring for his new bike, a Stradalli frame with Boyd carbon wheels that he'll be using for cross season. He's great at obsessing over the smallest details on his bikes, which always turn out looking amazing in the end result.

As far as the science behind oval chainrings, studies have been done at major universities throughout the country, concluding that, unlike traditional round rings, the oval design works better with the body to transmit power more evenly with each pedal. That means riders are able to generate and maintain higher power levels.

After about a month of riding with these new chain rings, testing out all sorts of different terrain, Patrick has said that he can definitely back up the company's claims on their performance.
Living in the city, maneuvering around traffic, means that just when you get up a good cadence, you're guaranteed to hit a red light. However, with absoluteBLACK's chain rings, he is able to pick up his speed again in no time. And as someone who is consistently riding with him, I can vouch that on this bike, he takes off. 

It's not only on the road that he's seen a major difference. He bought the Stradalli as his cyclocross bike so, naturally, he's been testing it out on all sorts of gravel, mud, and grass trails. No matter what terrain he's on, the effects from the chain ring holds true. I'm excited for him to get further into his training, and for that spring rain to come and make our training all the more fun.
He stands behind absoluteBLACK to the point that he's currently planning to switch over all of his bikes to these oval chainrings...on top of the million other upgrades he's currently saving up for, of course.

Gettin' Serious

Lil cross babe got road tires put on her. She looks much less tough now...

The weather has finally become constant spring! No more worrying about making plans a week out, only to have them canceled by a random day of 30 degree weather.
But with that, it means that all the big plans I spent all winter putting off, I finally have to start doing. That means making myself actually get out of bed at 7am to get in a couple miles of riding before going to work, holding myself to a strict training regime, eating better, doing yoga/stretches consistently, etc. (I may have gone a little overboard with spring plans, honestly)

Yesterday, I did my first real group ride. I spent pretty much all day hyping myself up for how nervous I was to go out with a group. I wasn't sure who else would be going out, but I knew the leader of the group...and his legs are about the size of my torso. Hours before the ride, I was texting other lady cyclists desperately looking for someone who I'd feel comfortable riding (and potentially failing) alongside. In the end, I got a couple of well-needed pep talks (thank you, Rhys!) and was sent out to do the ride on my own.



Despite some minor annoyances that come with riding in unfamiliar groups, I had a great time on the ride. It was a pretty low-key 18 mile ride, with some climbs that gave my thighs a good burn.

Altogether yesterday, I got in right at 40 miles. Not bad!
Now, I'm just working toward getting in the habit of getting in about 20 miles even on days that I have to work. Right now, only training one day a week just ain't cutting it.

Oh & I also got my very own (!) Loose Nuts jersey. Which means that I finally have my very first jersey & now that I rep Loose Nuts on my person 90% of the time. I'm really lucky to have stumbled upon such a great group of people who are constantly motivating and inspiring me to get better.

Plans are to rest for the rest of the week. We're planning on starting our hardcore training regime on Monday, so I'm sure I'll be making a ton of posts about getting my butt kicked and all my tiny little brags during times when I don't.

Starting in April, Patrick is leading a group ride out of his work, Outback Bikes. If you're in the Atlanta area, definitely come hang out with us!
We're still working out all the details but you can join the group on Facebook for more information.

If Ya Can't Beat 'Em...

 After fighting against making the switch to clipless shoes and peddles for months, I finally did it! Despite what everyone had said in regards to going clipless, I just couldn't imagine it making that significant of a difference to bother spending money on new equipment for my bike.

Yesterday, I spent the day working with Patrick at the bike shop, just building bikes. The owner said he'd give me $10 per bike I built. Instead, I decided to build enough so I could afford a trade of work for new shoes. And I got em!
First pair of cycling shoes I've ever had. Despite it taking me close to an hour to learn how to clip in and out (I'm still not fully comfortable with it), I've never felt so awesome on a bike. Can't believe I took so long to make the switch!

Not to get all ~emotional~ about an inanimate object, but it's real strange to feel so ~connected~ with your bike.
(I also really need to get out of the habit of using ~~~ to mock myself)

I'm excited to make this giant step in preparing myself for the racing season. With a new, amazing bike and now this new pedal setup, I'm starting to run out of excuses for why I'm slow/don't want to throw in an extra 10 miles on my ride.
Gotta get better about pushing myself.

2016: Year of the Not Wimp

New! Bike! Day!

 I have been nearly bursting at the seams waiting for mail day to deliver my new bike. After a week that felt like an absolute eternity, she's finally here!

2016 will be my first full year of riding, my first year of training, and my first year racing the cyclocross season. I wanted a bike that I could swap the tires back and forth for road to off road. I ended up getting the Felt F85X. I couldn't be happier with my decision!

First things first, she is absolutely gorgeous. When I saw the picture on Felt's website, I wasn't entirely sold, but felt like I was "settling" for a bike with good components in my price range. After seeing her in person, she easily would have been my first choice all around. Whoever was in charge of the paint scheme did a killer job! All the little turquoise details hidden around her frame continue to amaze me. 

She has a full Shimano drivetrain that shifts like an absolute dream. I've never had handle bar shifting before and now I see what most prefer it. I've been able to gear a lot more efficiently on rides.

I've never had a ~new~ bike before. I think even as a child, all my bikes where either hand-me-downs or some sort of second hand. Which was completely fine! Before July, I couldn't have cared less about cycling. All of that changed when Pat bought me my first thrift store bike...

I am over the moon with my new bike. We got in a quick little 11 miles today, just to break her into some mud and road conditions. Almost crashed attempting my first bunny hop onto a curb, but I managed to get a couple of killer moving dismounts in.

I'm anxious for the weather to keep getting better and to get even further into my training.

Chase's Bike

Monday and Tuesday were so nice that it was impossible to pass up a nice middle-of-winter summer day at the park with my friends.

Following along with my new hobby of taking pictures of my friends' bikes, I met up with Chase & Jacob to snap some shots of Chase's bike.

In the process, I managed to find a new favorite photo spot for bike shoots! Granted, it's a little overplayed but, hey, it's overplayed cause it's a darn good spot.

Given my own thrift-store-found bike, I have a soft spot for all the cool Craigslist found bikes that my friends ride.

On a side note: I'm getting slightly better at being comfortable directing my friends to "stand right there" to make the picture better.

Personally, I'm still learning all the technical parts and names of bikes. I'm still very much an aesthetic-only person. Luckily, I have Patrick to tell me which of the "cool looking bikes" are actually equipped with good parts.

On Chase's bike, I love the little details of matching the spoke "things" with his bottle cage & the text.

And this is the picture that was taken at the overplayed location. But I haven't seen too many bike pictures here! Maybe we'll start a new overplayed trend.

Honestly, my favorite part about these bike shoots is an excuse to get really great photos of/with my friends that I never seem to remember to snap otherwise. Although not relevant to the overall "bike glamour shoot," this crew picture is perhaps one of my favorites! All of our bikes are weird frankenstein builds that we collected cool parts for and made way nice than they should be.

While my Raleigh will always be my first love, I'm so excited that I finally ordered my Felt cyclocross bike this morning. I absolutely cannot wait for it to be here! And I can't wait to do a bike glamour shot on my own bike.

Here's to remembering those nice fake out summer days as I prepare for another week of 27 degree lows.

Jacob's Bike

Since photographing Patrick's bike a couple of days ago, all of my friends have asked me to take pictures of their bikes, too. Definitely not complaining. Any excuse to ride around with my friends, explore new places, and practice my photography skills is A-OK by me!

My friend, Jacob, and I wandered over to the Pullman Yard (the same place I took the pictures for Patrick the other day). The outside lighting wasn't quite as great as it was for my previous pictures, so we decided to set up outside, in between some of the buildings.

This shoot was a lot more low-key. Jacob mostly just wanted cool pictures of his bike for the sake of having cool pictures of his bike.

Can't blame him there! I could fill a photo album with the amount of pictures I've taken of my bike.

My next obstacle is figuring out how to edit out the brick in the pictures, without messing up the shadows & coloration.

I kind of managed to do it on this picture of Patrick's bike, but I have a lot of room to improve:

Also in my shoot with Jacob, it was my first time photographing a person. I've always suuuuuuper admired the photographers who can capture amazing candid moments that they do. I've been sticking to inanimate objects since I've gotten my camera, but I'm eager to branch out....slowly.

If anyone in the Atlanta area wants to hang out, go riding, and let me awkwardly photograph you, let me know!

Accidental Exploring

Right after fessing up to wimping out of riding lately, Patrick and I hopped on our bikes for a what-started-out-to-be quick little ride around the neighborhood. As other cyclists know, some days your legs just feel great and don't wanna stop moving you. That was exactly yesterday for me. We ended up getting in a 15 mile ride, where I got a lot of "overall" trophies on Strava - whoohoo!

(If you don't know what I'm talking about, Strava is an interactive app that tracks how far you go, how fast you go, and the elevation gain on your ride. It then ranks you on certain segments against every other rider who has ridden that segment. You can set Personal Records and get Overall Records, which means you were one of the top 10 fastest of that particular segment)

Right outside of our neighborhood, we rode past this amaaaaazing house. Their whole yard was covered in bird houses, statues, and lots of other wonderful trinkets. My favorite part was definitely this vibrant pink wall that was covered in pieces of reflective glass.

At first, we just rode past, but a block later, I was filled with such regret of not stopping to take a picture of this wonderful find.

It was also a nice place to stop to take off some of our layers. We got dressed for cold that just wasn't there (shoutout to that 53 degree high yesterday!)

Patrick really likes to do this "follow me" game, where he pretends like he knows where he's going for a really long time and I just have to follow him. This is how our ride ended up going from a quick little spin into the journey that it did. Turns out, he did know where he was going after all. We ended up at this awesome abandoned bowling alley right off a decently busy road.

We weren't able to go in. All of the doors were super locked up, with signs everywhere alerting passerbys to report anyone they see trespassing. Who knows how strongly enforced those signs are, but better safe than arrested!

Besides, I'm so new to this urban exploring thing, that I'm plenty happy with just a solid outdoor scene.

After our ride, we popped across the street to the Pullman Train Yard right at Magic Hour. Patrick just built up a brand new Specialized AWOL (which he has written a more extensive post about), and he wanted some high def pictures of all the details. They turned out amazing! I'll let him take it from here on gushing about his bike.

Today, I'm going riding with Babe Lane. Hopefully the rain holds off for us!

Either way, I'm off to roam around town with some friends, who have been asking me to take pictures of their bikes now that the ones I took for Patrick turned out so well.

Hit me up for all your bike glamour shot needs.