Sunday, December 30, 2007

3+

We got a solid 3+ hrs today. We had a good, strong crew and rolled it fast. It was good hard ride that would be a respectable pace/time in the summer, so it’s really good in December. It made me feel really good about my form and training. (not getting dropped by Ryan Shanahan is good this time of year [any time of year] because he never slows down. I rode good on the hills and took my share of pulls.)
We (Lindsay and I) had a great christmas with my family Saturday. Amongst a lot of great things, I got a weight bench for my basement, which I wanted because I’m doing lifts on one of those big balls right now and I’m afraid the instability could result in a dumbbell on the face. I also got Nikki Sixx’s book "The Heroin Diaries," which I have had a hard time putting down. Nikki is the founder and creative mind behind Motley Crue and for a number of years was completely strung out on heroin. He kept a diary and this book is his diary, published. It has interludes from both him and people that were around him at the time, and being a huge Motley fan, I’m very into it.
New Year’s Eve tomorrow; we’ll likely stay in.
Happy New Year!

Friday, December 28, 2007

to OK and back

Well….Lindsay and I made it to Oklahoma for the holiday and are back now. The weather sucked going there, it rained the whole time and I saw the sun for maybe 10 minutes of 13 hrs. Plus once we got on the final 3-4 hour stretch the temp dropped significantly and the wiper blades froze, leaving me a 1-2" line through which I could see.
The weather cooperated while we were there though, it was a little chilly by their standards, but in the mid 50’s. I took a bike, so I got in a few rides, which was nice. What was not nice was (at least) 2 dogs at (almost) every other house to chase me.
It was also nice that this was the first Christmas Lindsay and I have spent together since we’ve known each other. People think that’s weird, and it probably is, but we’re weird.
We made it back in just over 11 hours thanks to better (not good, better) weather and figuring out that hwy 46 runs directly between Terre Haute and Bloomington. I would have I70 to I465 to hwy 37, which is ~2 hrs between Terre Haute and B-town, hwy 46 shaves an hour off of that. I drove the whole way both ways, so it was awesome to come up shorter.
Shorter workouts due to unfamiliar territory and sitting in a car all day have ruined my hours for this week, but that’s the way it goes for an amateur. On the plus side, I came back with a dozen eggs from Lindsay’s mother’s chicken’s butts and a paper grocery bag ~3/4 full of freshly harvested pecans. And I got to ride a 4-wheeler at Lindsay’s grandmother’s farm; wwwwhhhheeeeeewwwwww!
We are going to my parent’s on Saturday (which is my normal day off working out), then we are planning a 3 hour road ride Sunday. The weather so far seems doable, so we’ll see. I’m 3 or so hours down this week, but I assure you I’m not riding 6 hours Sunday to make it up ("they" say you can’t make up a missed workout anyway).
P.S. I made the whole trip w/ no hot sauce. This was a task, as I use hot sauce (or some sort of heat) on just about everything. Lindsay’s mom is food-heat-wimp though, and doesn’t keep hot sauce around. "They" never said anything about not being able to make up for missed hot sauce, so I should double up the Tabasco on my farm eggs!
Happy New Year and stuff.

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

The suspense is killing...YOU!

I’m sure you’re wondering if I got out Sunday or not. I did. I got in my 3 hrs (2:50, actually). I rode my MTB out the snow covered rail-trail, then to Wapahani MTB Park where I rode few abbreviated laps, then back in. The key was the snow. It made riding very hard and very slow. This would normally have been about half of the time it took me Sunday, but the resistance workout was great. I wasn’t cold at all. However, every time I spun my rear tire out and had to unclip my foot, my cleat would freeze solid in ice and make clipping back in very difficult. I felt like an absolute beginner.
Today I ~planned~ on riding road outside, but it was 23* when I would have had to leave, so I bagged outside and rode 2:15.00 on trainer. It’s not as good of a workout, but you gotta do what you gotta do. We are now ~planning~ on riding outside Thursday.

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Week ain't over yet...

Today could be the deal breaker.
I had a good week though. I have everything in I need to, but that leaves me 3 hours to do today and it’s 28*, ~4" of snow on the ground and ~20-30mph winds. I’m not ruling out riding outside yet. I may fire up the cross bike and ride it on our un-paved rail-trail. I may even go out to Wapahani MTB park and see what’s up there. Something to knock out some hours. I can pull a long trainer session, but would rather not.
Tuesday was (is) my hard(er) long(er) ride day and I got out this week. I went out to the Morgan Monroe State Forest and rode the loop, but did an extra interval up the Bean Blossom climb to get in more seat time. So I rode out to the climb, went up it, turned around at the top, went down, then rode up again, then completed the loop and came in. It was a good workout. I was wet afterwards, but not too bad. (Bean Blossom is 1.5 miles, and gains ~340 feet. It took me ~6.5 minutes each time to get up it.)
Next week will be another full week for me, but week 4 in December will have travel interruptions as Lindsay and I are going to Oklahoma for Christmas. We leave Sat the 22nd, but since Saturday is my usual day off, it won’t effect anything. We come back Wed the 26th, so I will miss that day. I will take my running gear and my cross bike w/ me to OK, so I will get in some workouts, but the quality may be lower due to unfamiliar territory. Point is, next week has to count.
And I have my January schedule written in pencil (can make changes), so after the holidays I can get going on that. It’s similar to December, but I added a long ride (to make 3) and added a short run. It has me working out 7 days/week and doing 10 sessions between am’s and pm’s, but I need to commit to it; it’s only 4 weeks.

Sunday, December 09, 2007

Week 1 (in review)

I had a really good workout week. I got in everything I needed to, and didn’t fudge on any of it. I lifted two days and was sore, but did my other workouts anyway (it’s easy to talk yourself out of workouts when you’re sore). I think the key to being able to run the day after the first lift session of the year was spinning for 45 minutes on the rollers in the evening following the morning lift session.
Today was the scheduled Bloomington Underground Cyclocross Race #2. It was raining and in the mid 30’s, so they cancelled it. To my knowledge, this is the first ever cancellation. We’ve raced in far worse conditions than 30’s and rain, but oh well. Only two two others showed up anyway, so it wouldn’t have been much fun. I went and rode my cx bike alone for ~1.5 hours in the rain after learning of the cancellation to get in some hours. It poured really hard for a while and my water proof Cannondale clothing was totally water logged, but I was dry (the stuff works). It cleared up some later in the day so I bused out some dry clothing and hopped on my "rain" bike to get in MORE hours. I rode road for another ~1.5hrs to get in my scheduled 3hrs for the day. It wasn’t too bad really and I’m really glad I got out.
Week 2 starts tomorrow; oh boy!

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Suck it up Buttercup

I had three good reasons to extend my week off to a week-and-a-day off Monday morning.
1)I was out late (~1am) at The Knitters concert in Indy, which was an awesome show.
2)My alarm got unplugged and I over slept by ~.5 hr.
3)It was 26* outside and I had to run ~5miles.
But this is hurt time; time to train, no excuses. Time to suck it up, Buttercup. So I did. And I rode 2.5hrs on trainer today. I need to keep this up through December, then up the bike time over Jan/Feb. I have two-a-days scheduled for two days/week, for a total of 2 runs/week, 2 lift sessions/week and 4-5 rides/week. Weeeeee!
I have a new "B" bike I built for trainer riding and not so good weather riding. That’s not to say it ‘s a bad bike; it’s not. It’s a Cannondale CAAD9 w/ Campy Centaur. This bike is all aluminum. Everything that can be metal is metal.
I also sold my Giant TCR at the Hilly 100 and built a new one of those too. I got a 2008 TCR Advanced frame and built it up a Campy Chorus. It’s sweet. It’s my "A" training/race bike though.
There’s supposed to be snow tomorrow. We’ll see.
B-Town CX #2 this weekend. Then road ride afterwards (at least that’s the plan, we’ll see how I feel).