Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Hard outside (summer-ish) ride

Today Ryan and Tim and i planned on doing a good outdoor ride. We left around 9:00 am did the North Shore ride. This is among the hardest rides around here and I had planned on avoiding North Shore Dr. until April or so, but I got vetoed. Fine. We went out and had a full-on RS summer ride. That's going 24-27mph the whole way (minus hills), killing it. I wasn't feeling great when we left and spent the first 10-15 minutes coming up w/ my excuse for when I got dropped. I was THAT sure I would be shelled. I rode and felt like a million bucks once we got going. RS did most of the pulling, but I mixed it up a little on the way in on hwy 45 through The Yellowood St. Forest section of hills. And I've felt great all day.
I'm not crazy about going close to 30mph on someones wheel this time of year though. Due to the cold I'm always either wiping my nose or screwing w/ my clothing (tights running down, collar needs turned up/down, zipper needs adjusted, whatever) and going that fast with a couple of inches between you and the guy in front of you is dangerous no matter what, but one hand on the bars and the other messing with cloths or nose wiping makes it way worse. I have full confidence in riding RS's wheel, but still, it's scetchy.
Hopefully I feel this good Sunday in Ohio. Really, I felt and rode great today.

Monday, February 27, 2006

1hr easy

I just spun for an hour on rollers this a.m. I wanted to either do that or get outside for an easy hour, but it was below freezing at leave time, so I just stayed in. Nothing big, just an active recovery day. The sun is coming out now and it's up to 38*, so another one of those 'if I could have left an hour later it would have been perfect days.' Oh well. Ryan wants to ride outside the next two days, as it's supossed to reach nearly 60*. We'll see what the mornings are like.

Sunday, February 26, 2006

Swim meet; nice day, good ride

Last night we went to the NCAA Big 10 swim meet at the IU pool. It was cool to see the fastest Big 10 swimmers, which are, basically, the fastest guy in the world. There were several olympic swimmers in the meet. The times were crazy fast. IU won by a pretty big margin.
Today Dan and Josh Prater came down to ride. It turned out to be a really nice day. It got to around (but just under) 40*, but w/ no clouds at all. It felt plenty warm. We rode a little over 40miles (~42) and climbed a little over 2000 feet. We did a ride I've been doing this season (out hwy 45, across South Shore Dr. and in), but came in a different way. The way we came in added some mileage and 1 huge climb. We came in on a road I've only ever gone out on, so I've ridden the road several times, but always been going the other direction (I'm east bound on it normally). Going west on that road (Sample Road) is a monster climb. You don't really notice how big the hill is when you're going down it because you're going so fast. It's big. It was a good ride and I felt great. I was afraid I wouldn't,as I got crap sleep last night due to a bad stomach. After the swim meet Linds and I went to grab soem food becasue it was about 10:00 and I ahdn't eaten since about 1:00. We went to La Chareada mexican joint. A lot of people I know say it's the best Mexican in town. It was definately good, but I got one of the veg entrees that had nacho chees sauce with it. It was COVERED in nacho cheese sauce. I eat pretty good overall, so when I ingest something along the lines of a couple bean burritos covered in probably 1 cup of cheese, it's a shock to my system. I developed a bad stomach ache that kept meup most of the night whinning. I expected to feel like and ride like crap today, but I ended up doing the exact opposite. I pulled a majority of the ride and it was a little windy. So, good weather and a good ride.
I've been watching Mardi Gras on the nola.com bourbocam. It looks like The Big Easy rebounded well from Katrina. It's still toally packed, as many expected. This has to be a huge boost for the suffering economy down there. I had my doubts there would be a Mardi Gras this year, but it's been pulled off. Good for them.

Friday, February 24, 2006

Final send off for lifting

Just a normal lift today. It wasa proper send off with some good tunes and my favortie dude there. He was back. He'd been abesnt for a bout a month. The knee high sock, bike short wearin short man. Oh yeah, the guy who 'jocks out' and exhales on the releases intead of on the lifts. Mr. technique. So, at least I got see him again.
Apparently the Tortuga meeting was at 7:00 last night. I showed up promtly at 7:31 and was there to catch the end. Oh well, I probably didn't miss much. Further, I can get anything I did miss w/ one shoot of the email. No biggy.
So far, it's looking like JP and DP will be coming down from Indy Sunday for some miles. Calling for slightly above freezing temps and sun. Sounds do-able...

Music highlights from todays final lift for this season:
Eddie Money-Take Me Home Tonight
Cure-Love Song
Michael Jakcson- Got To Be Starting Something (from "Off The Wall" and before he was a total wack-job)
I know I'm forgetting at least one, but that's still a pretty good set there.

Thursday, February 23, 2006

1 hour on the hampster wheel

Didn't make it outside today. It's the time of year when it's totally outside ridable weather, but later in the day. When I have to get out its still in the 20's. This a.m. it was 26 w/ no sun at the do or die time, so I put on inside clothing. By the time I finished it was 37* and sunny; what a pisser. Oh well, this jive shouldn't go on too much longer.
I have a Tortuga meeting tonight @ 7:30. It'll be the first one for 2006. Hard to believe road racing is here in a week and a half. That means MTB is just around the next corner.
Tomorrow will be my official last lifting session. The Y membership is cancelled for sure this time, so after tomorrow that's it. I'm fine w/ it. I will have lifted only once this week and ridden 5 days. Good, more riding w/ more intestiy is what I need to be doing. Although there is no substitute for getting some racing in the legs. That where the Ohio Valley Spring Series comes in. Week and a half. Hope for sun and warmth.

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Bad day

I had a bad day today. That doesn't happen too often as I'm so laid back. I went to the eye dr this am, which I was pretty pumped on since I have insurance now. What used to cost me around $90 should now cost around half of that, right? Wrong. It cost more. I went in fully expecting to pay $40-50 and spent $108. Insurance is the biggest scam going these days (period). You read: I pay the same, the Dr. just gets more. If you have insurance you get charged for things you wouldn't otherwise. They didn't do anything my other eye dr did, it just costs more. Medical insurance isn't a government regualtion (meaning required) like car insurance, but I'm still racking this one up to good 'ol Uncle Scam. So, my plan is to save my money >again< and buy an ass load of contacts so that I don't have to go back to the eye dr for years.
After the eye dr I wanted to get a ride in before going to work. It was around 40*, but no sun. My plan was to ride down hwy 446 to hwy 58, then turn around. this would be 40-45miles. I felt like absloute crap on the bike, so I turned around @ 45min, which makes a 1.5 hr ride. Stat wise I rode okay, but I felt terrible. When I got back I called work and made sure it was cool if I flaked on them today. They said no sweat so I stayed home. Probably not the best plan since I spent every penny I have on having my eyes poked, but I just wasn't w/ it today.
So spending almost 3 times what I expected to, which in turn took all of my stash and feeling crappy made for a bad day. It happens, I guess.

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Ohhh Maaaan

Oh man, I ended up inside today. The temp was 23* and I decided that if the Accuweather Real Feel Temp was above 30, I'd go out (it's really sunny). It was 19*. I still wasn't convinced though. I sat for a solid 20min debating to myself. I hate this most of all. On days like this I could waste hours argueing w/ myself on whether or not to go out. It's rediculous, really. Ultimately I flipped acoin, heads inside, tails out. It came up heads and I went upstaris to change. I made a hill workout that was standing on the hardest gear for either 10 or 5 min w/ 5 min of tempo spinning in between. I put in an hour. I watched yesterdays Tour of California stage. The coverage is really good. I was afraid it would suck, but it's just like the euro coverage of races. I'm pleased, although because it's on @ 1:00am, I have to set the VCR which means I have to tape commercials. Oh well, not that big of a deal to FF through them.
I have an eye appt tomorrow am, so I may tell the guys at work I'll be extra late so I can try to get a ride in outside, wait, I mean to get my eyes thouroughly examined.
I WANT TO GET OUTSIDE!!!

Monday, February 20, 2006

1 hour

18*, so 1 hour trainer ride. Monday, on my 'normal' training schedule will be either an off day (depending on how thrashed after Race Sunday I feel) of easy recovery day. Although, I can't just sit and spin on the trainer. i have to do intervals or the time goes by way to slow. Doing int's segments the time and make sit go by much faster. So I did my standard hour trainer ride, which is: 20 min spin, 1 one legged drill set (10 min) 10 min spin, 10 min climb (stand in hardest gear) 5 min spin, 5 min easy spin to cool down. Tuesday is strenght day, or hill reps. I think it may be okay tomorrow to get outside and check out the hill I have in mind for reps. It's a big bastard and part of the Hoosier Hills route. It may be too steep for big gear reps, we'll see. I'll get it worked out one way or another, just may have to gear down a little.

Sunday, February 19, 2006

3 Hours!

My plan to ride outsdie was curbed today. It was 8* when I got up and the high screamed all the way up to 20*. Around noon I got tired of waiting and decided to ride 3 hours on trainer. This is the longest I've ever riden trainer. It sucked. I have to send props to those of you who regularly put in 3 hrs and put in 5 hrs for long days (Big Zach, MStein, Jumpy). I feel like it was good for me mentally to do it and of ocurse good physically too. I watched the 1991 tour that RS let me borrow. It was boring the crap out of me waiting for the moumtains, so I fast-forwarded through a lot of stages, watching the time trials to ge tto the mnts quicker. It was taped off of ABC in '91 by some local dude and for whatever reason, this tape ends right before they hit the hills (literally, the day of the first mt stage). So after that I turned on snowboarding, not Olympic, but some other stuff here in the US. It kept me occupied for the remainder. I really wanted to see this tour though, as I Indurain wins and I'm pretty sure it's his first. No one considers him an overall threat and he takes it in the TT's and mtns. Oh well, at least I was able to put in 3 hours.
The first ever Tour of California bike race opened today and it was an all American top 5. Not that I'm patriotic or anything, but w/ a deep international field, it's pretty cool. We'll see how it all unfolds over the next week. I'd like to see soem of the smaller US teams (Health Net, Colavita, Jelly Belly, Jittery Joes, etc) make some waves against the top international teams and athletes.
Rooting for: Horner, SoPro Jones, Tom Danielson (for overall).

Saturday, February 18, 2006

E-Z, Snow day and New Shoes

So it's been an easy week for me. I took it easy and only did two work outs this week. I slept in an extra 1/2-1 hour per day for recovery and I feel prett good. My back is still a little sore from MTB Wed, but physically I feel good. We were planning on riding long tomorrow, like over to Nashville, but it snowed probably 1/2" and is 7* right now. It's supossed to be sunny and warm up tomorrow, but we're going to have to play it by ear. It's going to be a cold ride to work today. I leave in about 1/2 hour and it's not going to be above 10*, I'd say. The streets don't look especially clear either. Not that it's THAT mouch snow, but still.
I got some new shoes last night. I decided that since my eye appt. will be cheaper than expected, I would replace my old shoes, which are some old Adidas that I used to run in and are starting to have holes in the bottom. So I went to shoe carnival vowing to spend no more than $30 for a pair. The only $29.99 ones thay had on clearence were either really small or really big, so I had to adjust my will to allow $35. I got a pair of Vans that should last a while. I figured since they're skateboarding shoes they have tough soles and hence should hold up fine to commuting, walking and spilling bicycle lube(s) all over them.
Could be looking at a big trainer ride tomorrow, hopefully not.

Thursday, February 16, 2006

A.M. lift

Did my normal lift routine today. It felt pretty good, although my lower back is a little sore from MTB yesterday. The jarring of MTB tends to be hard the lower back until you start doing it semi-regularly. No biggy.
There was some meat head on the squat rack for a real long time sqauting 405lbs. I wanted to watch him because he wasn't huge like Lou Farigno or anything and I consider 405 a lot of weight. The dude was going down to about a 45* angle. That's not to take away from him, it'd still be hard to push up that much weight, even if he's going down about half of what he should be. It's always been my opinion that one's better off using a full range of motion and focusing on form. That's just me though, I'm not working to look big, I'm working to improve motion for cycling and decrease proneness to injury. So meat heads, don't be offended we have different goals.
Off the next couple days, then we'll see about Sunday. It's supossed to be just over frezzing, but sunny. May try to get out, otherwise it'll be trainer time!

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Nebo Ridge MTB

Linds and I went to Nebo Ridge to ride MTB this am. It rules, I can leave @ 8:00, drive over, ride the out and back, drive home and be at work by noon. Riding Nebo used to be an all day event for me, now I can bust it out before work. It was muddy on the frotn section of the trail, but after that it was perfect. I rode excellent. I was hitting good clean lines and riding fast. I felt awesome today.
I basically told Lindsay where to go and said "see ya." Since it's an out and back, there's only one trail and you can't really get lost. There's one place you can get off track, so I brought w/ me and dropped a bow left over from xmas there as her sign to 'go left here.' 45-50 min is fast for one way, I did a 48 out and a 46 back. Temp was in the low 40's and the sun was out. Can't beat it (unless it's about 80 w/ sun, but can't beat it in Feb). I was totally pleased w/ my ride.
I had to ride to the carwash after work tonight and spray off my bike, as it was filthy. So I got it cleaned up.
I plan to lift tomorrow and take off Fri and Sat. Then next week is back to bike interval time. Only about two weeks till road racin!

Oh and somethig else that totally rules: insurance.
I have insurance w/ my job here. I've been putting off going to the ey Dr. for about a year now becuase I din't want to spend the $$. Well, since I got insurance it turns out I pay only $5 for the appt AND my contacts are 10% off! So what used to cost me around $100 will probably cost around $40-45. That rules.

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Valentines Day (tuesday)

It's Valentines Day today, or Tuesday as I'd rather call it. Another no work out day, but we ARE planning on going to Nebo Ridge tomorrow. We haven't had any real percipitaion for awhile, so hopefully it won't be muddy at all. My favorite band Marah will be in Indy tomorrow night. I missed them last time through and I think I'm going to miss tomorrow too. I just don't want to drive all the way up there and get back around 1-2am. I told myself I'll see them next time, regardless, but hopefully they'll come through B-Town then. I think they would be very well recieved here and I could ride my bike to the show! Works out for everyone. They're playing Lafayette this round on Thurs, so I really can't see any reason to not stop in B-town on the way up from Louisville, KY. It could be argued that B-Town is a little off the beaten path and W. Laf is just off I65, but I know they play in Louisville either beofre or after Indy a lot, so throw me a friggin bone and play B-Town guys.
Oh yeah, happy Tuesday to all!

Monday, February 13, 2006

Day off

I stayed in bed untill 9:00am today. I think ne owrk outs for a coup0le days will do me some good right now. I'll probably take off tomorrow too, but I may take Lindsay over to the Nebo Ridge (Knobstone) trail in the Hoosier National Forest Wed. to do some MTBing. This trail is ~9 mile out & back (so, 18 mile total). It's a fast trail overall, but w/ a couple good climbs. The downhills are fast. I heard it's dry over there (Nashville/Story, IN), so we may check it. I think it would be good for her to see some "real trail," as Wapahani trail is pretty tame, really. Wed. is looking to be about 51* and cloudy, so that's not too bad. Looking back on my calendar, I came down here last year on March 10th and rode Nebo to get a few MTB miles in my legs before the season started. Also cool note, on Feb 12th, 2005 me Zach and Shane came down and rode with Ryan to Nashville via Bear Wallow hill. That's a big ride anytime and we did it mid Feb. Accordig to the file from my Polar it was 56* ave temp that day. I can't say I specifically remember it, but the watch is usually pretty close to actual temp when it's on my handlebar.
Note from yesterday's race: I got lapped only by Matt Batton and JL Serriere, and there's no shane in getting it from those two, but when they were going by JLS flatted and pulled out, so I decided to jump on MB's wheel for as long as I could. I hung w/ him for about 3/4 of a lap, but man he is fast. And fluid. He just flows. Not to sound like a hippy, but it's like his bike is an extension of him. Anytime I'd make the smallest error of line or cost through a corner, he'd gap me. It's good to ride behind guys like that to learn what they do. One thing I noticed is that if he has to brake for a corner, he stands up and hammers out of it, rather than continues his coast and recover a bit.
He's like: coast-brake-hammer
I'm more like: coast-brake-coast-pedal
Seems like short interval work is the key to doing this sucessfully. Although MB and JLS have always been known to smoke weed all season (all year) and still dominate. Who knows?

Sunday, February 12, 2006

The End of Something

I know at least one of you (E.R.) got the title of this post.
Well, that's it for Cyclocross 2005. I know, I know, it's 2006. You know what I mean though. Today was cold. It was about 25* when I left to meet @ Soma Coffee for the race. Now (~3:15pm) it's 29*. Big warm up huh? Anywho I rode to Soma and we left for the venue (remember, only the person who set up the course knows where it is, so the course is a surprise for the rest of us). We end up going to Bryan Park, which is, literally, about 30 seconds from our door via bike. It was nice for getting home after we were done, sometimes I dread having to ride through town to get home after anhour or so @ race effort. Today I just rode the 16th of a mile to my door. Sweet.
The race was good. It was a good course. Like I mentioned, cold, but not snowing really during. It flurried here and there, but nothing big. Since it was so close to ur place, I called Linds on the way to the park and told her to come watch. She did and had a couple people to hang w/. Tim Cote, who's a strong rider crashed really bad yesterday and wasn't racing, so he was running laps of the course while we were riding. Linds rana lap w/ him and took some pics. The course itself was really rough, but pretty fast overall. Bryan park is a busy park, so we had to keep an extra watchful eye for people, dogs and 5-0. No 5-0's, but there were a lot of people using the park. We were trying to not make a bother for them, as we are totally illegally using the property.
I had tons of fun racing CX this year. I'm very glad I built up a decent cross bike and decided to race it instead of just commuting on it.
Cross Country skiing is on today from Torino. I like CC skiing. It looks hella hard. These peole are athletes; plus, the highest V02 max ever recorded was a CC skier. His V02 was 94! Plus almost all the athletes wear Rudy glasses. No wonder, as they're the best around.
Go buy some Rudy's!
Oh yeah, I got this handle bar mounted coffee cup holder made by Soma Fabrications (no relation to Soma Coffee shop here). It's a polished stainless steel band that mounts on a standard computer/light mount and comes with a stainless mug that fits right in it. They nrmally wholesale for $20.00, but I bought it from a dude who needed some dough for $10.00. I wanted one anyway and probably would have eventually bought one, so this was a way better deal. Now I can make a cup of tea and let it steep on the ride to work or make a latte w/ our Saeco machine and take it w/ me. Cool!
I'm taking a couple days off for recovery.

Saturday, February 11, 2006

Slight change of plans

Yesterday (friday) was my official "last lift day." However, Lindsay forgot to cancel the Y memeberhsip, so I have another two weeks available to me. I have already stuck in my head that I'm done w/ 2-a-days for the year and I want to start a regualr cycling schedule, even if it's inside, so I'm going to lift once a week for next couple of weeks, just because I can. So Wed or Thurs, probably, I'll go lift. and I'll ride every other day, except Saturday, which I'll take off still.
We went over the Ryan and Sarahs for dinner last night. It was nice as we haven't hung out w/ them for probably a month or so. Sarah has awlays been a great cook and I used to eat w/ them at least once a week in Muncie. Last night was no upset; we had a killer tomatoe based bean soup w/ little pasta thingies and hot sauce. Good stuff. Tomorrow is the final CX race in the B-Town series. Also the final race of the looming 2005 season. After a few days off next week, Josh and Dan from Indy want to come down and ride next weekend. That should be fun; it always is. Road racing starts up in about three weeks and Josh decided he wanted to ride outside at least once before toeing the line. Not that he needs to, he's a well of talent. One of those who can not sit on a bike for a year and go ride good. I guess he's getting older though and even though he and I are the same age your body acts different year after year.
Linds and I are planning to go to breakfast tomorrow after the CX. Runcible Spoon again probably. I'll report on it all tomorrow.

I went on Itunes and bought a bunch of Outkast w/ my free gift cards I got re-siging the lease. When my comp crashed out a couple years ago I lost all of my Outkast somehow. I retrieved everything else, but the Outkast was gone. Wierd.

Thursday, February 09, 2006

Hampster wheel, nice suprise and Steve Martin

I put in 1.5 hr on the trainer this am. Did one set of onel legged drills and one 10min standing climb. Tempo spinning, HR around 120-130 for the rest. It went by fast enough, although somehwere around 20 min I felt it dragging, but I knew I would be doing intervals (one leg) @ 30 min, so if I could make it to that, those 10 min would pass fast. Then 20 spin and 10 standing. Then another 10 spin and then 10 easy to 'cool down' (as if I really need to cool down from a trainer ride, it's just a way to chunk out the time). I don't know if reading what I just wrote make sense when read, but it makes sense when you're fighting to stay on the bike inside.
I finished the 99 tour tape and to my suprise I have the 2000 tour taped after it. I'm not sure how much if it I have, but this is a good one too w/ J. Ullrich and M. Pantani mixing it up in the big hills. Pantani even takes the stage @ Corchvel, beatin gone Lance Armostrong. Most peple say L.A. 'gave him the stage,' but I'm not so sure...
The new Steve Martin movie "The Pink Panther" comes out soon. This looks like a total crapper tome, but I'm glad to see Steve Martin still working. I think he's one of the best comedians of our (probably all) time. And his movies are great. So although I won't see this, I think it's a good thing, I don't really remember the last new S.M. film. I think it's been awhile.

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Wed am lift

One lift session left to go for this season.
Also, today will be the last 2-a-day of this period. May do some more runing later on, but it's not in the plans yet.
Nothing exciting today at all. Just a normal lift session. I had to drag my butt out of bed this a.m., but I got up and got it done. Short roller spin tonight, and that's it.
I broke our vaccuum last week and got the replacement part yesterdau, so ineed to fix that. I think we're going to Ryan and Sarah's for dinner Friday eve, then the final B-Town CX Sun!
Y jams this morn:

Jovi- Livin On A Prayer
Cars- You Might Think
Duran- Wild Boys
Paula Abdul- Cold Hearted Snake
Seems like I'm forgetting something, but that's a pretty good list there in-and-of itself.

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

My Space

I made a My Space profile, basically out of boredom. there are a couple of bands I like I wanted to be able to check out on there, but you have to be a memeber to look at stuff. So I mace a profile. Here it is. You may get sucked in like I did though, to llok at my profile, you'll have to sign up and if you don't like to leave things undone, you'll make a full profile (it's all free).

http://www.myspace.com/54349837

Busted!

I actually rode outside today. It was 21* and is 25* now. The sun is out, so I sucked it up and went out. I rode the cross bike over to Cascades Park and did ints on the big dirt hill next to the water fall; the one I worte about last week (Tough CX Jan. 26). I did 3 intervals on the loop I made and combined with getting there and back I was out for about an hour. Not bad considering how cold it is. My toes hurt right now, as they're becoming un-numbed.
On my way through town I got pulled over by 5-0. I went through the two stop signs that i go through every day I ride, and one I go through every day to work; thought nothing of it. A cop pulls behind me and hit his siren/horn thing. I looked back and decided to play dumb and just keep riding. He pulled around me and pointed for me to pull over so he pulled over in front of me and I rode up to his passenger window. He said "you have to stop at stop signs just like cars" me"I know"
him "I just got you going through 2 god damned stop signs"
me "okay"
him "do you want a $118 ticket?"
me "uhhhh, no"
him "well, stop at the god damned stop signs"
me "gottcha" and rode off.
Lesson learned, pay closer attention when blowing stop signs. I only look for traffic that is a hazard to me (cross traffic and people turning left toward me). I need to look behind to to make sure the fuzz ain't there becuase $118 is a different kind of hazard, but a hazard all the same. And apparently here, like most places, The Man doesn't mind wasting his time fucking with cyclists.

Monday, February 06, 2006

Monday lift

Just normal lifting today. I did weighted step-ups instead of lunges, but that's all that was different. Stepping up is way easier than lunging. I started w/ 20lbs in each hand, but had to get more. I think it will do some good. I'll do it this, my final lifting week.
The music was on fire today. I can't remeber it all, but here are the highlights:
Duran Duran- The Relfex
David Lee Roth- California Girls
Melloncamp- Lonely Old Night
Go Go's- We Got The Beat
Tom Petty- Don't Do Me Like That
INXS- can't remeber which song
That's a good list anyway, but there are a couple more I forgot.
Roller spin tonight. I'm feeling burnt on this routine. It's almost over. It's been almost eight weeks. Good for the long run, but starting to get to me for the short run.

Sunday, February 05, 2006

Sunday am

It'as Sunday am right now. Superbowl Sunday; great. That means to me that maybe if I go to the grocery store during the game, it won't be as busy. We'll see.
Last night Linds and I went to a restaurant/bar called The Encore Cafe to see some string band play. They were good. It was a four peice w/ mandolin, banjo, guitar and double bass. They played a bunch of roots music like "O Brother Where Art Thou" (Soggy Bottom Boys) stuff. They were good. We cam in and sat down and the singer/bass player said "howdy folks, got any requests?" So I said "how about 'Rocky Top.'" I figured that's a standard and they should know it. They did know it and played it for me. Good stuff. They're coming back at the end of next month they said and we'll likely check them out again.
I'm planning on riding 2 hrs on trainer today. I've the 99 tour tape and some Boy Meets World ready to go. It snowed a couple inches yesterday and today it's supossed to peak at freezing and be hella windy. I'm not going outside. I'll report on how it went either later or tomorrow.

2 hrs!
I put in a solid 2 hours on trainer today. The strong winds didn't seem to materialize, but right now it's 1:40pm and it's 23*. I felt really good on the trianer. I did 2 sets of one legged drills (that's one minute right leg only, one minute both legs fast spin then one minute left leg only, etc. for ten miuntes total). I did 2 climbing ints, that's hardest gear standing w/ cadence around 50-55. I did one for 5 min and one for 10 min. The rest was tempo spinning, cad around 85-90. I watched the mountains of the 99 TDF. As most of you know, I'm not a Lance fan, but this tour is off the hook. It's his first win and there are some great battles in the mtns. L.A., A. Zulle, P. Tonkav, D. Estabarille and others really duke it out. Good stuff. Those of you who are stuck inside right now on trainer, I highly recommen getting your hands on this Tour.

Friday, February 03, 2006

Last endurance lift session

I did the final real fast low weight/high rep lift session today. I'm glad because it was hard. I'm not real sure what good it did, but I was definatley muscularly fatiqued. It must have done some good. Anywho that means 1 week of lifting left for this season.
Then next weekend is the final of the B-Town cross series on Sunday. I'm going to pencil in a few days off for the week after next, following the Monroe County Championships of CX. Maybe spin Monday, off Tues, Wed and Thurs, spin Fri off Sat and whatever Sun. We'll see.
I bought some Hormel Turkey chili at the store because it was on sale (3/$3.00). I had a can of it last night and it kind of sucks. I had high hopes of it, but was kind of let down. Oh well, I guess you get what you pay for ($1/can) and canned chili probably sucks, generally, anyway. I have another pot of Pinto beans soaking right now, we'll see how they come out later...

Music @ the Y today:
OMD- If You Leave (one of my all time 80's favs)
Pet Shop Boys- West End Girls
Heart- Listen To Your Heart

Thursday, February 02, 2006

Outside short(er) ride

I was kind of hesitant, but rode outside this morning. It was about 35*, but pretty dark when I left (a litlle after 8:30). I had a 20-24 mile ride planned. I didn't feel real good on the bike. i felt weak. Wehn I turned from the east bound leg of the ride, I realized I had been riding into the wind. It wasn't enough wind to rip flags off poles or anything, but just enough to make it hard. It started raining as I was climbing the Fire Station hill on Old Hwy 37. I know of a route that chops off a couple of miles, so I took it so to not get totally wet. This shorter route has a nasty climb on it though. I guess that's the trade off. So I guess overall I had a crappy ride didn't feel good and rain. No dogs though! That's something.
Oh and I just cleaned my bike the other day too. I cleaned the frame w/ Motorex Bike clean (the best bike wash), lube the chain w/ Rock-N-Roll Gold (best chain lube) and dropped Rock -N-Roll oil on derailer pivots and shifter ratchets (which are esposed on Campy). All dirty again. Oh well.

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Same lift as Mon.

I did anothe day of endurance lifting today. It is harder thanit seems. On top of doing the higher rep really fast, I'm following it directly with half the weight of the actual set, but even more reps and even faster. Example, if I (dumbbell) bench 20lbs 15x fast, I'll then drop the 20's, pick up 10's and do 20 reps even faster. It wierd how hard benching 10 lbs gets after all that w/ very little rest. I'll do this routine agian Friday, then next week I'm going to do a 'taper' like lift week, slightly lower weight than normal, but focus on formand breathing, etc. Then nomore lifting for this season.

Music today @ the Y:
Bust A Move- Young MC
??There She Was ??- Talking Heads (not sure if that's the title or not)

I made a big pot of black and pinto beans the other day that I've been eating off of the past few days. I've had them w/ rice and w/ a mexican flair. It' the first time I've ever cooked dried beans. They came out a little mushy, I think I need to cook them slower next time. I was riding rollers while they were cooking, so I didn't really check on them . I soaked them all day while I was at work, then cooked them for 1.5 hrs. I think I should try cooking them on lower heat for 2-3 hours next time.