Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Weekend/early week


This is what my cat, Sixx, used to look like. She's bigger now, but still pink.
(I don't have any race photo's from the weekend, so this is what you get)

Sunday was the Ohio Valley Cross race, the Tour De Louisville, at a metro park in LV, KY. I rode really good and got 8th. I think there was an error (some confusion) on the start line and some of the people in my race started 1 minute ahead of the rest of us. I may have gotten better than 8th. I rode better than 8th (or everyone else is really fast this year). It was a very technically demanding course, w/ lots of short uphills, off camber switchback turns and a semi gnarly downhill; well suited for a MTBer. Plus the barriers were followed by a short steep run up, which I felt great on. I in no way endorse running as a necessary part of cx training, as a lot people think it ought to be, but the running I've been doing came in handy on this course. True, it wasn't much running, but I glided up the run up.
Today i ran the full 6mile loop at Paynetown trails. I ran a high 48min, which I guess is pretty respectable. I felt like I could have keeled over at any given time, but I recovered well on the ride back in. If I keep up running harder and faster, like I am, I think I'll see some real gains in fitness next season. Who knows, maybe I'll jump into an x-terra off road triathlon (I'm only trail running right now).
Rest of the week to come, I'm feeling really good right now.

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Vegas

Vegas was overwhelming. Interbike was overwhelming in a good way, so much cool stuff to see; Vegas was overwhelming in a bad way. too much of everything. Excess.
I rode electronic Dura-Ace. I didn't like it. It had an incredibly fake feel to it. It's like clicking a mouse to shift. I turned around and rode new DA 7900, which is cable actuated, and preferred it (as much as I can prefer Shimano [which means if Campy went out of business, I'd rather have 7900 than electronic]).
We went to Cross Vegas Wed night to watch the race. It was an awesome course an awesome field and an awesome evening. Lance Armstrong showed up to race adn was boo-ed at the call up, which was cool. The race was the coolest I've been to, being under lights, etc, and really gave the CX bug. I race tomorrow, first CX of the year. I feel ready.
There is so much more to say about interbike. As I said, it was overwhelming. I was stoked on the Campy booth to see and touch new 11speed groups and new Super Record. This is an ~$,4000 group. It was dope.
Thursday night we went to the US Criterium Championships at Mandalay Bay, which was at the complete other end of the strip. The race was cool (not as cool as x-vegas), and we walked back. It is probably 4-5 linear miles, but we detoured through nearly every casino, and it took us over 3hrs to get back. We were out late, and raging.
Here are some interbike pics for you's:


Me and an 11spd shifter.


11spd RD.


Count em. 11.


~$10,000 german made Lightweigth wheels made famous by Der Jan Ullrich.


Me and endurance MTB superstar (and Lindsay's 'hero') Daniel Musto.

Monday, September 22, 2008

Solid week



I leave for Interbike tomorrow. We get to our hotel ~4am our time (~12:00am Vegas time, but I'm told there are no clocks anyway).

I had a very solid and very good training week last week. I got in ~11hrs, and they were all pretty quality. That's excellent because I'll probably gain 20-60lbs in front of various Vegas buffets, and I just may start smoking too to better fit in at the casinos! I also hear they give free drinks to gamers, so I may pick up that habit as well. Sin City baby!

Yesterday (Sunday) RS and I went out for a hard 50 or so mile ride, but didn't ride it exceptionally hard. Just good solid tempo. I told Lindsay I would take her out a CX ride to show her some places she wouldn't know of any other way. Apparently we have an annual ride together around this time of year that usually ends up w/ her upset for slowing me down so much, although I know what I'm getting into and am okay w/ it. She rode good and we finished together for I think the first time. weird thing is, I felt like I had been run over by a truck afterwards. I was sore all over. Sure, I had ridden 50 or so prior, but I think going slower made me sorer. I am used to going over the rough terrain fast(er) and I think going over it slow(er) caused my muscles/bones (body) to absorb more shock than it is accustomed to and it really took a toll on me.
So Lindsay can say she worked me over on a ride. It's true.

I'll probably have way to much to post after Interbike, so expect a short report and a few pics.
I am going to race CX in Louisville Sunday (9/28) after we get back Friday, then I have to work all day Saturday.
I'm going to try to ride to the Paynetown trails tomorrow, run the 6mile trail, and ride in to get in one last workout before heading to Vice-Vegas.
Viva!

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Smells like fresh pavement


Fresh new pavement on Hwy 45 between Nashville and B-town. This road wasn't bad anyway, but this is sweetness!


The fog lifting off of Lake Lemon (taken from South Shore Drive, looking north). It looked way cooler in person than a crappy cell pic delivers.

Good workouts so far this week. Tuesday we rode to Paynetown, ran the trails and rode in, like last week. What differed was I got mixed up on turns in the trail and basically ended up running the 6miles instead of 3. This was a 54min run, which if not the longest run I've ever done, is right up there. I felt really good though, so I wasn't to worried about it.
Wed I rode a cross ride i love doing. There is a trail through a woods system on the est side of town that dumps you out a kind of crappy road that you would never really be on for any reason unless you lived out there. Then you can hook up to some gravel roads and work your way back into town. One of these gravel roads is a killer limb though, loose, rough gravel and ~250' of elevation in ~1mile. The total rides ~18miles. It's a good one.
Then today I just road a 35mile road ride.
I want to get in some quality workouts before going to Vegas next week. As I mentioned, I plan to take running stuff, but not knowing where you are, etc makes working out difficult. Plus I could see it being hard to run in the Vegas strip area. We shall see.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Ike/ the moment every parent fears


Before.


After.

What'd you do during tropical storm Ike? I raced MTB's. This was a four lap race, each lap ~7.5miles (~32min). Laps 1 and 2 was were under perfect trail conditions, damp enough to be tacky and fast. Lap 3 it started pouring rain, turning the trail to ice riding. It got tough to keep it upright, so i just settled in to a slow(er) pace to not crash. 4th lap the course turned to chunky soup, it was just riding through puddle after puddle and running water on the trail. By the fourth lap I could only ride hard enough to get my heart rate around 130-150 because if I went any faster I'd surely go down. So I just threw in the towel and finished w/out getting hurt. Well, not hurt from crashing. My glasses were so covered in mud, etc I had to take them off. I ended up having to grab up a water bottle (rather than a GU2O [sports drink]) bottle so I could spray out my eyes every 10 or so minutes. I had so much mud flung up into my eyes I could see hardly anything. Lindsay had to drive home because a) I couldn't see well and b) I was wiping gunk out of my eyes the whole way. It was rough; I stood in under the shower water w/ my eyes opened for, like, a minute. It helped.
Anywho, I spent about .5hr cleaning my bike this morning to get to the "after" picture above. I went completely through my brake pads due to the sand in the dirt at town Run park, so I still have work to do before my MTB is functional.
-The Moment Every Parent Fears-
I'm not a parent, but still...when a cop is banging on your door at 2:30am, it is un-nerving.
Saturday night (Sunday morn, really) I awoke to pounding on the front door. i went to it and it was a Bloomington PD officer. I opened the door and he shined his light toward the street asked "are you missing your mailbox?" I looked out at the empty post and replied "it appears I am." He went on to tell me he and another officer observed some drunk teens walking down a street w/ a mailbox in hand and stopped them. They ran, but the cops got them and returned the box to the address on it. I told him I wasn't interested in pressing any charges, and asked him they had left a beer for me inside it. He said they hadn't, and they would be taken "down town" for being drunk and stealing personal property (it turns out if it had had mail in it, it would have been a federal offense), but their parents would have to come them and stuff.
Both of the officers I dealt w/ were very nice and friendly, willing to joke around w/ me (like asking they left me a beer in the box) and were very apologetic for having to wake me up.
I guess I'm glad it wasn't something major.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

I'm kind of like Mother Theresa...


...only I save bicycle related things.
Some lady came in and wanted to put a "different" head on this beautiful pump. I told her I couldn't let her do that and bought her a new pump w/ the "different" head she sought and traded her. This is an original Silca Pista pump, made in Italy, fully rebuildable and in excellent condition. I've wanted to get a Silca pump for a while, but haven't really had reason, as I have 3 pumps that all work fine. This proved the perfect excuse to score one.

This weeks training has been good. Monday was normal easy 50min spin, but Tuesday was change. I rode out to the Paynetown SRA, which has a good network of hiking trails, and ran the trails, then rode back. It's ~10miles out, then I ran the 3mile loop (the two people I was w/ ran the 6mile loop) then ~10miles back. It is a hard run, as it is pretty hilly. But I'm told trail running is way better on your body than road running, so while hard, I guess it's not as bad as pounding the pavement.
Yesterday (wed) I rode the CX bike out to Wapahani MTB park and busted a few laps around the lake there for some skills practice. Nothing intense, just a couple of dismounts/carries per lap. I like this ride, as the Bloomington rail-trail is largely (still) unpaved and perfect fro CX biking. Then add in the MTB park and it's a good ride.
today I rode a solid 2 hr road ride, and tomorrow I plan to ride to Griffey, run the (~2mile) trail there, ride the extended 10mile route home w/ gravel road, but it looks like it could be raining, in which case I'll likely do nothing.
DINO finale' is the Sunday, so last MTB race of the year, and w/ road racing done, I guess that makes it cyclocross season.

Sunday, September 07, 2008

100 (k)


IMWI sox.


Corndog. (I bought them at the store, I guess it's a weakness.)

I wore my Ironman Wisconson socks today to support Zach (the same Zach from the previous post) in his second Ironman in 7 days. He took 7th today in WI (6th last weekend in Louisville). This is the toughest 140lb, 6'2" dude I know.
What did I do while he raced for 9hrs? I ate a corndog and watched it on my computer!
Well, I guess that's not all I did, Ryan and I rode the Hoosier Hills 100k route around Lake Monroe. We kept it fast and it was a killer. I haven't downloaded the file from my watch yet, but we av'd around 20.5-21mph for it; pretty peppy.
Rest of the week was well. I did what will hopefully be a normal "off season" workout twice this week which is: riding the CX bike to Lake Griffey, running the trail there, then riding a scenic route in, which includes a ~1mile gravel road. It is ~4.5mile to Griffey, the run's ~2miles and it's about 10.5mile in, w/ the gravel section in there. Pretty good hour or so workout w/ lots of varying stimuli. This should be good for me. I feel pretty good running too. I'm excited about that, as running generally feels like Guantanamo style torture to me. Maybe my Dad, the marathon man, is rubbing off on me.
Lastly to report, I grew some Tabasco peppers in my garden and decided to try to make my own Tabasco sauce w/ them since they were ripening. The ingredient list on the Tabasco bottle is "Vinegar, Tabasco peppers and salt" so figured it couldn't be too hard to replicate. Well my batch came out spicy, but doesn't really taste like Tabasco brand sauce. I'll give it a whirl on my eggs and see how it fares.

Monday, September 01, 2008

90


This is my good buddy (and pro triathlete) Zach at Ironman Wisconson a year or two ago. He took 6th at ironman Louisville this weekend.

Lindsay's Mom was in town this weekend to visit, so I hung w/ them Friday night and Saturday even after work. Lindsay's mom enjoys yard work and gardening, so all the weeds and crap growing around our house was like a playground for her. She did a wonderful number around the house.
Sunday I went to my brother's wife's parent's house on Heritage Lake (near Avon, IN) to let Lindsay and her mom hang out w/out me being in the way. Since I was taking last week mostly off of training, I thought a day on the lake would be killer. It was lots of fun, we went out on the pontoon boat, jumped off it, etc sat in their hot tub, got sunburned and ate good lake food (burgers, but lamb). It was a fun day.
Today I rode the Nashville 90. My normal posse of riders is gone, so I hit it alone. I think I've done the 90 alone three times now and if memory serves, one was good and two...not so much. I started dying around the halfway point, but pressed on. I ate: 1 Clif bar, 4 gels and drank (I think) 5 bottles. I managed to pull off a 19mph average somehow, but I was totally worked. It took me most of the day to get feeling normal.
I think I may start working in two runs/week this week. That's the plan, we'll see how it works (if I can handle the pain). Cross season is basically starting and a little cross-over fitness can't hurt (actually, it can hurt really bad).
Plus I'm going to Vegas in 3 weeks for the annual Interbike bicycle industry trade show, and I'd like to be able to work out while there.
Yes, boring predictable Adam in Vegas baby.