Wednesday, January 23, 2008

3 degree racing...

So if you’re wondering if I rode the CX race Sunday in 3* temps…NO. I’m tough and have a good cold tolerance, but that’s too much even for me.
I waited until noon or so (when it warmed up to about 14*) and rode my MTB for ~2.5 hrs, then finished up on rollers for 45 min. I got my 3 hrs and got my weekly 12hrs in.
This week is on schedule too, however this Sunday is the B-town Underground CX annual trek to Columbus for Andy Messer’s cross race. I’ll likely go to this since the forecast is for 40*. That will make getting in a full 3 hrs more difficult, but I’ll play it by ear and see what goes down.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

tired...

I’m 6 ½ weeks into good, hard training and I’m feeling tired. I have two weeks left before a break. My legs were heavy and hollow feeling today (does that make sense? It does to me). I haven’t gotten to the point of low quality work outs, so I’m doing good, I just am feeling tired. I’m getting in my scheduled workouts for my 12hr weeks, but I’m starting to have to force myself to do them instead of just doing them. I didn’t want to get to this point at all, and especially not yet, but that’s winter for a bike racer in the mid-west. I have my February training schedule ready to go but I’m planning on taking the first week off, or at least most of it. I’m cutting out running to get it more bike time, then March will be similar to Feb, but w/ more outside rides.
Then toward the end of march and into april it’s go time.
This Sunday is a B-town cross race, but I have a feeling they won’t hold it due to single digit temps. We’ll see. I got a great hookup on a pair of Cannondale’s waterproof/windproof bib tights, so ineed to try them out. I have a pair of them, but not in bibs and they are sweet. They are completely warm and completely dry in rain, so the bibs should be great.

Sunday, January 13, 2008

The day; The year

My crew bailed on an outside ride today, but I wasn’t into riding trainer for 3 hours, so I headed out on the cross bike. I rode the gravel roads east of town and got in a good solid 2:20.00 or so. It was wet-ish and cold, but it wasn’t too bad out there on the DNR roads because there’s so much tree cover the wind doesn’t cut so bad. I had to ride trainer for ~45min when I got back to get in my time, but it was well worth it. I am getting good trainer rides in this year, but I don’t want to be on it unless I have to.
It’s going to get cold again, so this week may have more indoor rides than I prefer, but you gotta do what you gotta do.
Tomorrow is a run day, so it’s out in the cold.
I got my 2008 race scheduled typed up to send to a friend (coach Steinmetz in Boulder, CO) and thought I’d put it up here too. It’s pretty solid, but spaced out enough it should work out well enough. It’s my plan, and things can happed, I could up with a few more, or a few could get cut. We’ll see. Here it is:

April:
19- Morgan-Monroe road race/7 mile TT*
20 -Mooresville rr*
*Tour of Indiana Stage Race
26- Brown County State Park road race
May:
17- West Lafayette rr stg 1
18- West Lafayette rr stg 2
June:
1-Brown County State Park DINO*
*MTB
14- IN State RR Championships (Fishers)
July:
6- American Mountain Bike Challenge Muskatatuck Park, Noprth Vernon, IN*
*MTB
19- McCormicks’ Creek RR
August:
23- Ft. Benjamin Harrison RR/Fall Creek pkwy TT*
24- IN state Fairgrounds Crit*
*IN stage race
31- West Lafayette RR
There will be a few Monrovia 40k’s mixed in here and there.
Plus some of the Ohio Valley Race Series road races in March, but the calendar isn’t up yet for those.

Stay warm!

Thursday, January 10, 2008

this week, thus far

This week has gone good, though I haven’t been sleeping well.
Monday‘s run was nice, as it was really warm. I ran in shorts and short sleeves. That’s not normal January fare.
Tuesday was warm again, but rainy, so it was a shade over 2hrs on the trainer. I watched the 1998 Giro De Itallia, which was the year Pantani won both it and the Tour de France, so it’s a good one.
Wednesday was lift in the a.m. and ride rollers p.m. It went well.
Today it is back to seasonal temps, but w/ some sun it was a good riding day. It was ~37* and partly sunny, so I went out alone and ride to the Morgan Monroe Forest and did the Bean Blossom climb twice, then completed the lap. This is a good workout and I was feeling good. I rode Bean the first time just tempo, then rode it hard the second. My tempo ascent was 5:46.6 and my hard effort was 5:45.9, so I went about a minute faster the second time up (Bean Blossom is ~1.4miles long and gains ~350’).
I’ll lift again tomorrow and ride in the p.m. We are planning 3-4hrs Sunday, so hopefully the weather allows that.
There’s a 9mile trail running race Saturday morning I kinda want to do. It will be very muddy though and I’m not sure if anyone will be around to cover work for me, so I’m not 100% sure on that just yet. Then next Sunday is another Bloomington Underground CX race. I haven’t ridden the CXer in a race setting since November 17th at Lafayette. That’ll be over two months. I hope I remember how to do it!

Sunday, January 06, 2008

3- (as in NOT 3+)

We got in just a hair under 3hrs today, but it was a good ride. With it being 60* outside in January, how could it be bad? I had an overall productive day too.
We had group of four out and one of us was feeling weaker than the bunch due to excessive running and very little biking. Since I’m too skinny to put out a good draft, I let him stay in front of me at all times so he could draft of the "more aero" guys. It just worked out to where neither he nor I took a single pull the whole ride. Ryan and Fred split 100% of the work and we just hung on. This is actually good race training, as ideally racing I will do no work saving myself. I didn’t set out w/ this in mind, it just worked out that way.
My bike (and myself) were totally filthy when I got back, so I hosed off my bike and showered in our basement shower, so to not dirty up the bathroom one (having two showers rules sometimes).
I got The Simpsons Movie watched, which I didn’t see in the theater for some reason. It was very good and I’m glad I finally saw it.
Plus, since it was so warm I got my pepper aerated and turned. It still had a little lettuce and spinach left in it, so turned it all over and put the hunks of stuff into the compost. Hopefully my pepper garden is successful this summer.
I also got the floors vacuumed and cleaned my bathroom.
Like I said, a pretty productive day. And to think, I’m on the same 24hr program as everyone!
(I got in 12hrs of training this week)

Friday, January 04, 2008

Another 3+, not so good

New Year’s Day was cold and saw a frozen ground; good conditions for winter mountain biking. A few of us braved the ~20* temps and went to Brown County to ride. We rode 3+hrs and it snowed THE WHOLE time. I started off fine, but as we progressed, I felt worse and worse. I think it was mostly the conditions, but at some point I stopped having fun and then it all went down hill (my mood, not the trail). I just felt like I couldn’t ride well. It was icy-slick, so I was having to dab my foot a lot on corners, roots and rocks (in my defense, everyone was dabbing a lot), and for me, riding where you’re off your bike a lot just isn’t fun. The plus side is I got in a 3 hour ride on a true winter day.
Yesterday I had a really good trainer ride in the a.m. w/ some good intervals, then rode rollers in the p.m. I cut my roller ride a little short (~5min short) because at the end of the work day I started to feel very ill. I felt better once I got home, but I was worried about getting sick. I feel fine today, so hopefully…
My Wed commute was a cold bastard; it was 7*. It is supposed to be nearly 60 this weekend and into the 60’s next week. We should have some okay riding weather, if it doesn’t rain much.