Thursday, May 29, 2008

Milestones





This pic was taken 365 days ago. Lindsay and I bought our house 1 year ago. That’s Milestone #1.
Milestone #2: 10,950 days ago, (give or take for leap years and stuff), I was born.
That’s 30 years
3-0.
Thir-ty.
Wow, 30.
Wow.
I have had very good rides this week, w/ the exception of the 2 flats I got riding MTB Monday. The allergens have me feeling a little wacked, but I have been riding strong.
30.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

I once read...




...that blogs w/out pictures are lame. True, maybe, but this blogger used to be too complicated to add pics. They made it easier, so I'll post pics now!
1. Bike raicng
2. Bike racing.
3. Me in chicago visiting my brother.

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Slayer!

We didn’t just kill the Nashville 90 today we slayed it. More later…
Man, I feel like I’m back. I had a great week training. First, I got a full week in, which I haven’t for the last three or so weeks. Second, I had some good hard, fast rides.
Mon and Fri were standard shorter easier days, but Tuesday I went out w/ a fiery group and rode a fast 35miles and really worked the big climb of the ride. At the top of said climb, two were left, and I was one of them.
Wed I went out for a strength workout on the TT bike. I planned this workout a few weeks ago, before getting sick. The plan is 8min, 53x12 gearing ~60-70rpm, then 2 min rest (on flat ground) repeat 6 times (I only had time for 4 though). The planned result is for me to get stronger, gain a few lean pounds and increase my overall power. As it turns out, my course (Bottom rd from hill to hill) is perfect distance, but the intervals were far too easy. I talked to my coach friend, Matt and am going to change it up a little; I’ll have to shorten the interval to not run out of flat road, but pedal harder.
Thursday Ryan and I rode North Shore and it was a fast ride. I decided to attack most hills, then let him catch me and ~try to~ get back on his wheel. When he comes back around it’s like a freight train and is very hard to get back on, especially after an effort, so it was good training.
I have been training myself into comfort lately and am needing to do things like attack hills and get back on, or let myself get gapped and chase back on to force myself out of my comfort zone training. I’m lucky to have Ryan as a training partner, as his speed is about like motor pacing anyway.
So today Danny P came down and he Ryan and I rode the 90. I wish I could say Dan and I pulled our share(s), but we didn’t. We took our share of "novelty pulls" to make ourselves feel like we did some work, but Ryan did all the real work. Anywho, we killed the previous 90 record, set by Big Zach Ruble (pro tri) and Ryan (pro-caliber tri) by 4 minutes. Our rolling average was 23.3mph (rolling means from the start of 446 to 10th and bypass, as reference points to cut town miles out). Our average WITH town was over 21mph anyway. We killed that mother! And I rode great. I felt great and rode really strong. I forced myself to eat more than I normally do, which I think made a big difference. I never felt "bonkish," I never felt like was falling off, it was one of my better rides. Too bad it wasn’t a race.
Being sick took it out of me, but I think I got it back.
Tomorrow’s plan is for a MTB ride before next weekend’s MTB race @ BCSP. Hopefully the weather allows.

Monday, May 19, 2008

If a picture’s worth a thousand words…

Then a race is worth a thousand excuses.
The Tour De West Lafayette Stage Race.
I could write a thousand excuses as to why I didn’t do very good: it was super windy, it was cool (borderline cold) weather, I was sick week before…But the fact is: I just didn’t too very good.
Crit racing isn’t my thing. The crit (stage 1) was shortened to a ~1/2mile square, which makes it even less my thing. Whatever, those are excuses. I got dropped and dropped riders were pulled form the course. I rode about half the race. Dumpster.
The Road Race (stage 2) went okay, but just okay. Again, super windy, cold-ish and a nasty little climb. However, it was the wind, not the hill, that saw the pack split right in front of me w/ (I think) 3 of 7 laps to go. I rode the remaining laps in a group of 5, which turned into 3 by the finish. We finished w/ the main field in sight, but out of it all the same.
The Time Trial( stage 3) went well, relative to my shitty over all weekend. Again, cold/very windy. And it went up the aforementioned hill form the RR, but I buried my head and pedaled. I felt good, and rode well enough.
I ended up 26th in GC for the weekend, out of 48 or so riders. Not even halfway up, but that’s the way it went. Our team (3 of us) got 3rd in the team comp, so I did get paid for that, but I barely feel like I deserved it.
Overall, I give the race a grade "C." It was semi poorly run, the director (Mike Handley?) was (is!) a jerk, and it was far too expensive.
Josh and I stayed at my parents house Saturday night and it was nice to hang w/ them for awhile. They showed up Sunday later in the day when we had just finished the TT, so they missed all the hot action of watching their son get his ass handed to him, but it was nice of them to show.
Next scheduled race is June 1. MTB race @ BCSP. I still need to ride MTB before this. And I need to get fast on two wheels.
Later.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

"PW"

First, I am feeling much better. If I were a normal, couch-potato-joe, I would say I’m 100% better, but I lost the top end (my speed) during a week off (3 of which were spent in bed). So My fitness is good, but I don’t have quite the "punch" I should. It’ll come back though, next week or so…
Hence my title "PW." This is a phrase form Muncie triathlete legend Jimmy Leffler. While everyone talks about their PR (personal record) or PB (personal best), Jimmy would always joke about his getting a PW (personal worst). At the 10mile T last night I PW’d by ~30 seconds. I went 24min even, which while ~okay~ is slower than I have ever gone. I jus didn’t have the top end speed. Plus I was shifting a lot, which tells me I had less because I don’t normally shift much on the course, even with its hills.
I am on schedule this week, actually I rode an easy 45min yesterday morning before riding out to the TT, doing it and riding back, so I’m a little ahead of schedule.
There were more angry motorists out last night than I’ve seen in one session, ever I think. We were honked at, swore at, swerved at, etc. more times going out and coming back last night than I’m used to getting in a month. Motorists are jerks (in general).
I’m feeling like I’m a good go for this weekend. Let’s just hope it stays dry (especially for the Saturday crit, which looks to have, like, 8 corners or something).

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Better?!?

Well, today is the first day I feel actually better. I feel like I could ride a bike today. I’m not going to, but I think I could. I think 1 more day of rest will put me where I can ride w/out doing more bad than good. Plus it’s in the 40’s, raining and SUPER windy. So yeah, this will be a final rest day.
I feel confident saying that last week was the sickest I’ve been for a very long time; that shit wiped me out. I haven’t forcefully missed a week of training, or three days of work, ever.
My hope is to throw together a ~fairly~ normal training week to gain some sort of from for next weekend’s Tour de West Lafayette stage race. This race is pre-register only, and I am waaay too superstitious to ever pre-register. So I pre-reg’ed for this one and got sick the next day. See how that works??? People always tell me, "yeah, but if you pre-reg they have your number ready for you and stuff." And I say ""yeah but if I pre-reg, I’ll crash the day before and break my collar bone." I shouldn’t be saying that stuff w/ a week till race yet to go, a lot can still happen; damn! Now I’m phsyching myself out. People: knock on wood for me!
I have a fear that week(ish) in bed has weakened me enough to notice. I have had muscle overuse issues in my lower back/upper butt and shoulder that I have had under control for a while. I fear that I’m going to have to go through it over again, the pain part, then the getting them under control part. Maybe it will be a good thing, maybe these problems have had time to heal. I have my worries though.
My rough plan for the week is
Easy 45min-1hr Monday
MMSF TT Tuesday evening for some intensity (~2hr)
1-1.5hr tempo wed
1.5-2hr mid tempo Thurs, maybe w/ Ryan if I’m up to it
45-1hr easy Friday
Saturday is Laf criterium
Sunday is Laf RR and TT.
Wish me luck.
Happy Mother’s day to my Mom especially, but all Mom’s too.

Wednesday, May 07, 2008

I wouldn’t say I’m “sick as a dog”

Because a lot of dogs probably feel better than I have lately. It’s Wednesday and I’m only a little better. The biggest problem is I CANNOT sleep. I’m sleeping maybe 4 hr/night the past 3nights. It’s just not working. I tried Tylenol PM last night, it just made me feel crazy, but didn’t knock me out.
I worked all day Monday and skipped riding, but no other employees showed up, so I felt like crap and it was just the owner and I all day; and we were super busy. My throat hurts so bad and I had to talk to people all day.
Tuesday I had a strength-on-the-bike workout planned, and about 4am, I knew that wasn’t going to happen, so I switched my alarm off and stayed in bed until ~9. I had a few tings I had to do at work, so I went in ~10:30, and again, there was only 1 employee there, so I was instantly bombarded w/ customers. I finally got the things I needed to get done ~1 and came home. I laid around the rest of the day, slept for ~2hrs total, ate a little, threw up, etc.
Today I’m skipping work all together. I was hoping I’d be able to ride again tomorrow (thurs), but I just don’t know.
I’m doing a big(ish) race 5/17-18 and going to go into it coming off of this. Urgh!
I was also hoping to gain some (lean) weight via these on-the-bike-strength workouts so I can hold my own going down hill better and gain more overall power, but I’m down to 128lbs right now. Great.
Thanks for the concern of all you I’ve heard from.

Sunday, May 04, 2008

A No-Go

I had planned to go to Ohio for the finale of the OVSR (Ohio Valley Spring Series) race today. I had the car packed and everything ready to go. I woke up twice in the night w/ a very sore throat though. I thought to myself ‘this isn’t good.’ I got up on my alarm a little before 6 and got my routine going, but didn’t feel good at all. I was dragging and wasn’t going to make it to Indy on time for my ride over to OH. So I called Josh and told him I was out, didn’t feel good. He said he didn’t feel real good either, so he skipped too. I went back to bed for a couple of hours and called Ryan when I got up to see if he wanted to ride. He wasn’t feeling great either, so we rode ~3hrs, but not hard (note: easy for RS is still pretty good). I felt absolutely terrible the whole ride. My whole body hurt; I was achy all over and had headache. I felt even worse when I got home, so I laid down for about an hour, then got up to take care of the crap I had to take care of today (eat, vacuum, network two computers in our house, get cat food, and I wanted to plant my peppers outside today, but didn’t get around to it [I’ll rest when I’m dead]).
So, hopefully whatever is eating at me is gone as quick as it came. I’ve been hitting the herbal tea, so we’ll see.
I had an okay week training after Tuesday’s brush w/ winter. I’m right under 8 hours, which is a little low, but w/ the way the weather has been, I’m dong what I can make myself.
40k time trail next Sunday. 40 k’s are so hard that if you do it right 1) you will only have ridden for 1 hour and 2) you won’t want to do anything else the rest of the day. So I may be short hours again next week.
We’re planing on riding MTB’s one morning this week too. I need to ride my MTB soon before I race it in a few weeks.