Getting Back On Track

Well, I think I'm FINALLY over the little bug that has kept me sick and fatigued for the better part of 3 weeks. I finally stopped coughing on a regular basis earlier this week, maybe Tuesday, and don't feel the junk rattling around in my chest anymore. I managed to ride about 3 times in the two weeks prior to this week while I was sick, and have ridden 4 times already this week but I can tell I lost quite a bit of fitness and that will probably take a month to get back. The 4 rides this week were an hour and a half to 2 hours long and were basically just to get my legs under me again and get some riding in. This weekend I'll continue that with a long ride tomorrow as the forecast looks decent and then hopefully if the rain holds out Sunday I'll get another long ride in. Basically I'll just ride at endurance pace and just try to get in some miles that I missed out on in the last few weeks to build up the endurance again. I'm on vacation now the week of the 7th so that will be my big week and will hopefully get me to about 80% of where I was before I got sick. After my vacation week I should be able to get back to hammering again as I'll have 3 weeks of good riding in the legs and will hopefully feel like a racer again instead of a rec rider. So anyways, as I said, tomorrow will be somewhere in the neighborhood of 70-75 miles as the plan is to ride out to Burlington and back, I think my typical route is about 72 miles with a pit stop at my mom's to refill the bottles and grab a quick soda or something. Sunday will be weather dependent but hopefully I can get out for a 60-65 mile ride and together with Saturday's ride I'll feel pretty good about the weekend of riding. I have my fingers crossed but it looks like our warmup is finally coming as the forecast doesn't have any snow in it, although it looks like the rain will be here, and the temps are steady in the mid to upper 40s, whoohoo! I'm glad now that I cancelled my vacation this week as it wouldn't have been the greatest week to try to ride, I was a little disappointed with having to come in after planning to have the week off, but it's gone quick and I have no complaints. Well, that's it for now, until next time..........

Nothing To Report..

Not much to report about training.....just this, it's getting a little freakin' repetitive......

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN MILWAUKEE/SULLIVAN HAS ISSUED A WINTER STORM WATCH WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM THURSDAY MORNING THROUGH LATE THURSDAY NIGHT. SNOWFALL ACCUMULATIONS THURSDAY AND THURSDAY NIGHT WILL LIKELY EXCEED 6 INCHES ACROSS MUCH OF SOUTHERN WISCONSIN. LOCALLY HIGHER AMOUNTS ARE POSSIBLE NEAR THE LAKE DUE TO LAKE ENHANCEMENT.

I will ride my bike outside tonight and tomorrow night though, should be able to get in 90 minutes before sunset. At least I'm not in my basement riding the trainer.

Break Out the SnowShoes

Now the weather guys are calling for 10-15 inches of snow today, supposedly we are supposed to get 1-2 inches per hour throughout the day, whoohoo. Yeah right. This lends some credo to my argument a couple of posts ago that the Wisconsin cycling season shouldn't start until the end of April or beginning of May and go later in the year. I seriously think that the Evergreen race in a couple weeks has a chance to be cancelled because the course will probably be flooded, not that I'm doing it but just saying for the guys that plan on doing it. A May start is looking more realistic for me every day as of right now.
Well, after being off the bike for 13 days due to being sick and traveling I finally got back on the bike on Wednesday night, only for 50 minutes but at least I rode. My HR was sky high and even though I was going slow I was sweating like crazy mostly due to the fact that my body is still hanging on to a bit of my cold. Last night I rode for 90 minutes and my HR was still sky high even though I wasn't working all that hard. I'm guessing it will take me at least 2 weeks to get back to where I was 2 weeks ago, and then another month to get to where I want to be before I race, maybe more. I'm still hacking up a lot of junk from my chest but I'm thinking I'll finally be over this by early next week, hopefully anyways. Well, I'm off next week and the plan was to ride alot but I don't know what will happen now, the forecast looks like crap, but the plan is to ride as much as I can in spite of this snow and the forecasted rain. I'm hoping to get in at least 20 hours minimum and that will help me regain some of my lost fitness. Hopefully the week of the 31st will be nice and I can follow up my long week with some good rides that week. Well, that's it for now, not much else to say, I'll get a good workout tonight shoveling my driveway, so I have that to look forward to, until next time..........

Too Funny

All I can do is laugh, what else is there to do........


WINTER STORM WATCH IN EFFECT FROM LATE THURSDAY NIGHT THROUGH FRIDAY EVENING...
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN MILWAUKEE/SULLIVAN HAS ISSUED A WINTER STORM WATCH...WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM LATE THURSDAY NIGHT THROUGH FRIDAY EVENING.
A WINTER STORM SYSTEM IS EXPECTED TO PRODUCE FROM 4 TO 7 INCHES OF SNOW ACCUMULATION DURING THE DAY FRIDAY. THE HEAVIEST ACCUMULATIONS WILL BE NEAR THE ILLINOIS BORDER

Training in Turmoil

I'm finally back from my business trip to Florida and it's so great to be back to this sh*tty weather, I love 30s and rain. It's supposed to rain tonight, tomorrow, tomorrow night and I think Wednesday it's supposed to finally clear up in the afternoon. This weekend the temps are supposed to top out at 36 on Saturday and Sunday, whoohoo. So it's been 10 days since I've been on the bike due to my sickness and obviously being in Florida for work, so I'm feeling pretty fatty right now and out of shape. I've got alot of work to do to say the least. I wanted to move my vacation from next week to the week of the 31st but my boss is out that week already so I'm stuck with next week. Early 10-day forecast shows temps of 40 on Monday and Tuesday and 40% and 60% chance of snow showers, whoopty-f*ckin do. I'll do what I can do to get out and ride as much as possible but I'll obviously be at the mercy of the weather, I'm not very excited about my week off now. Anyways, I'm still feeling a bit under the weather, coughing up chunky monkeys, nasty, yeah, but just keeping it real, that's what's happening. I'll be riding as much as I can this week, but nothing super hard in the early part of the week since I still have a lot of junk in my chest. No plan as of right now, I'll just be going with how I feel as the week goes by and then I'll decide on what I'm doing next week while I'm off depending on how much riding I get in this week. I've got a team ride and meeting on Saturday as well, so at least I'll get in one decent effort possibly on the team ride. Depending on the weather the next few weeks and how much outdoor riding I get in I'll be deciding on when I'll kick off my racing season, as of right now I'm thinking the Brown Deer race on the 19th but most likely I'm looking at Whitnall on the 26th. Well, that's it for now, until next time.......

Schedule Re-do

My schedule has been completely changed now due to my nagging sickness as I've basically pushed everything out a week and maybe two weeks. It's been 5 days since I've been on the bike, I leave tomorrow to go to Florida for work and that means it will be 9 days before I even have the chance to ride again when I get back Sunday evening. 9 days with no cycling, that sucks at this time of year. I was going to go to Blue Mounds the week of the 24th but I'm pushing that out now until the week of the 31st. Basically the plan is to get over this damn flu/cold bug while I'm out in Florida and come back healthy (hopefully) on Sunday. I'll start riding again Sunday evening and take the week to get my legs back under me and then kick it back up again a bit the week of the 24th. I'll take my vacation now the week of the 31st and most likely go to Blue Mounds. I'm definitely skipping the Sheboygan race on the 5th of April and will either start my season on the 13th or the 20th now. I won't be starting my Steady State intervals now until the 24th or 25th and I was supposed to be doing them last week already, so basically I'm just pushing everything off a bit. I don't really care if I miss a race or two, I'd rather get in some good quality training and feel confident going in to my first race. Well, that's it for now, gotta go pack for tomorrow and take some more meds and get to bed. Until next time.....

Clouded

This has not been a good weekend as I've been pretty much relegated to the bed and the couch, down for the count with a bad flu/cold bug. I got sick Thursday night and have been basically sleeping ever since, except for struggling though work on Friday. My mind is clouded with enough cold medicine to keep me just comatose enough to sleep steadily but not enough to kill me. I'm up now to drink some tea, figured I'd let everyone know how non-existent my training was this weekend.......well, back to bed, here is me and my dog, spending some quality time on the couch....

Tis The Season.....

.....For me to start being crabby. One thing I really don't like about the Wisconsin road cycling season is the fact that the races start so damn early in the year and end early. We start in this crappy weather in the first week of April and then everyone is pretty much done at the end of July, what the hell for? Isn't there two good months still yet to ride after that? For those that whine about Superweek being their last hoorah for the year, take a week, do a few recovery rides, and get your ass back on the bike. Seriously, the fact that we feel compelled to start so early has us on the roads in February in March when the weather is crap, the roads are crap, we get stuck riding the trainer inside, we go crazy trying to keep up with the next guy by riding outside when it's 20 degrees and we can't feel our toes, when we really don't have to. There is no reason we can't start at the end of April and go through the end of August or beginning of September, heck, even the end of September. That gives us almost an extra month to get outside, enjoy some better weather and better roads, and we can still get in a full season. I don't know, maybe it's the fact that the first race is 28 days away and we still have a foot of snow on the ground and I'm looking at the fact that it's only going to be in the 20s outside this weekend with more snow on the way, and I just don't feel like I'm ready yet. Sure would be nice to have that extra 3 or 4 weeks, I mean jeez, shouldn't we be able to say that we've ridden outside more than a few weeks before the first race? For those that are thinking, "what the hell, no one is forcing you to do this", well, if you know me, then you know that I'm competitive and I'm racing to do well for myself and represent the team the best I can. I'd hope that I'm prepared enough to do that but when we start racing after only 3 or 4 weeks of outdoor riding, it's tough to feel that way. Maybe at some point somebody will be smart enough to mandate that change, but I guess I have no choice but to live with it for now. At this point, I mayyy, and I say may, skip the first race on the 5th, but not sure yet. The second race is the 13th and I'd feel way better about that being my first race, it gives me more time outside to work on some things I need to work on, and I'd feel a lot more confident about being able to help the team after a couple extra weeks of training. Anyways, that's my 2nd rant of the day.....probably enough ranting for this week.....

What To Do.........

This has been a good week of training so far, unfortunately still on the trainer as the weather is obviously crap and we haven't hit DST yet, but after this weekend I'm guessing I'll be getting outside after work for at least half of my ride time during the evening. I leave for Florida though Wednesday morning so I'll only get to test the limits of daylight on Tuesday evening before I head out to sunny, warm Tampa. Once I get back though next Sunday I'm hoping most of my rides will be outside after work. Well, anyways, this week has been pretty good, Tempo work on Tuesday night and one-legged pedaling last night. Tonight is Steady State intervals and then tomorrow is a recovery ride day. I don't know what this weekend will bring, it's supposed to be mid-20s and chance of snow, maybe some SS riding on the MTB is in order, not sure yet. I'd like to get on the road but not sure the weather will cooperate. I wish I was going to Tucson with my teammates, sure would be nice to enjoy some of that great weather. Oh well, next year.
On another note, is Paris-Nice going to be worth watching this year, will the major teams even show up, what the hell is the beef between ASO and UCI, figure this crap out so that the riders can just get on with riding their bikes and not worry about being suspended and sued and all that other crap. I can't believe that with all the doping issues that happened last year that the two parties wouldn't make concessions to make this stuff happen this year without so many issues. It's turning people and more importantly corporations off of cycling, pretty soon they won't have to worry about who is doing their races because there won't be any teams. Well, that's my rant for the day.....
Not sure what the weekend will bring, but I'll tell ya all about it on Sunday I'm sure...until next time....

Such A Tease

Well, Mother Nature was teasing us yesterday with some beautiful weather but now it's all crashing down on us again with temps back in the low 30s and snow. Looks like we'll only have temps in the high 20s this week, we are supposed to be averaging 39-40 degrees, but those kind of temps are nowhere in sight. This weekend is supposed to hit mid-30s maybe on Sunday, only 28 on Saturday but that's a long ways off, maybe it'll be better, who knows with our crazy weather. Anyways, this weekend was very good on the bike, although I got cut short yesterday by a 2 minute downpour which had me flying back to my start point only to taper to a sprinkle and then to nothing as I was trying to get out of my wet clothes. I could've gone back out but I was already getting chilled and had forgot my rain jacket so I was wet and cold. Let's start at the beginning I guess before I get too far......My intention this weekend was to ride 3.5 hours Saturday and then do 4.5 to 5 hours of hills on Sunday, what I like to call the Trifecta...Lake Geneva, Alpine Valley, Spring Prairie State RR course....lots of hills and very steep ones at that. Saturday I had some afternoon commitments so that was going to be my short day of the weekend and after letting the temps warm up to all of 27 or 28 I hit the road and went from New Berlin to Big Bend out to Waukesha and did a loop out there and then back, a tad over 3 hours and 30 minutes. I felt really good and although I was a bit cold, the lack of wind made the 28 degrees temps feel just fine once I got warmed up. Saturday evening I recovered with lots of food and water in anticipation of a long ride on Sunday morning. My plan was to drive out to my mom's in Burlington, leave on the bike from her house and ride to Lake Geneva, do a lap of the lake, then ride over to Alpine Valley, do a lap of the race course there, then ride over to Spring Prairie and do a couple laps of the race course there, lots of hills and lots of fun. The day started out well with a 10 a.m. departure and sunshine as I made my way to Lake Geneva but shortly after I got to Lake Geneva and was doing my loop there the clouds started rolling in. From Lake Geneva I made my way over to Alpine and it got cloudier still and I felt a few sprinkles falling but kept going on my loops anyways. I finally made it over to Spring Prairie and had gone up the big hill the first time and was starting my loop when it started raining really hard, I made a quick u-turn and was flying back to my mom's, only about 2 miles away and was almost there when the rain tapered to a sprinkle. I was chilled now and made it in to my mom's driveway and of course the rain stopped. I thought about going back out but was shivering and my clothes were wet so I thought the better of it, and changed in to some dry clothes. So yeah, it only rained about 5 minutes total but it was enough for me to get wet and divert my ride and mess up the plan. I did get ALOT of hill climbing in though and 3 hours 45 minutes of riding before I had to detour home. I looked at my data after the drive back to New Berlin and I had two hills that hit 19% and the Spring Prairie hill was not far behind at 16%, and I had about 3500 ft. of climbing. Most of the hills were short steep power climbs, so obviously that was alot of up and down for the duration of the ride, nothing too long. I did some recovery last night, basically just kept hydrated and laid around, nothing too exciting and I'm feeling good today, the legs aren't sore at all and I'm ready for another hard week of training before a 4 day layoff next week as I head to Florida for business. Some of the other team guys did a ride yesterday as well and I wish I could've joined them but I wanted to do some pretty specific stuff yesterday and doing the group ride would've been counterproductive to what I'm trying to accomplish. There will be plenty of opportunities to ride with them yet this Spring though. Well, that's it for now, until next time........hope you all enjoyed the one nice day yesterday!