Adversity and Accomplishment...More or Less

The New, New Blog

2009-09-29T14:40:00.002-05:00

O.k, so New Berlin Cycling was too jumbled to find my blog posts, my new blog is below

briancarlsonvelo.com

This will give me more flexibility to post calendar events, slideshows and videos that are organized so people don't have to search, and RSS feeds. Enjoy!

New Site

2009-08-29T11:58:00.003-05:00

I'm going to start posting now on New Berlin Cycling, I've got 3 readers on this site and the new poll that I started only got 2 voters each time so there is no point keeping this up anymore. I'll keep it out here for my own reference to look back at what I did, but for new posts and such I'm just going to post on newberlincycling.com. It's a beautiful 61 degrees right now and cloudy, um, yeah, but anyways, I'm going out for about 3 hours after a trip to Home Depot. So, that's it for this site, go to newberlincycling.com for future posts.

Maybe...Maybe Not

2009-08-23T19:08:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was a really nice day, super weather, great company with my dad and his friend Dorothee, and a really nice bike ride. We started our ride at 9:00 and took a trip out to Dousman, my dad and Dorothee both found themselves wanting a new bike at the Bike Doctor, good thing they didn't have any credit cards handy. Just like last week there were quite a few riders and runners on the trail, and every one was quite happy, no doubt attributed to the fine weather. Well, actually I take that back, it was nice in the morning but the weather did turn bad in the afternoon after the clouds moved in, but by then we were back home and enjoying the rest of our day. Our total was 54 miles, a little less than I wanted to do but decent nonetheless. It was about the limit for my dad, we are doing the Door County Century next month and I told him he better get riding since he's been slacking quite a bit lately. Unfortunately riding once a week won't cut it for a century.
So anyways, on to the meaning of the title....I was planning on doing a double century tomorrow on my vacation day from work but I'm re-thinking that plan now. I'm not sure I'm cut out quite yet for a 200 miler, so I'm thinking of just doing something in between and trying another assault on the 200 miler in a couple of weeks on Labor Day Monday. Right now the plan is to do about 130-150, something more than the normal centuries I've been doing easily, but not quite the difficulty of a 200 yet. Doing the extra distance over the normal century will help me adapt a little bit more to the extra time in the saddle before I'm sitting on it for 12 hours. Now, the only caveat is if I'm feeling great after 130ish, then I may just continue on and finish, but right now that's not the plan. So anyways, tomorrow will be about 7 to 8 hours in the saddle, I have to work late Tuesday so there may be no time to ride by the time I'm done, but if anything I'll try to at least get in a recovery ride. Wednesday will be a normal 2 to 2.5 hour ride, and then Thursday I will do the Thursday Night Beatdown again from Wheel and Sprocket. Friday will be a rest day and then Saturday morning I plan on riding to the Doc Ride again and getting in another century. It'll be a full week of riding and hopefully the weather cooperates, should be fun. Well, that's it for now, time to put the legs up and get ready for tomorrow. Until next time........

Beat Down on the Beatdown

2009-08-21T16:13:00.003-05:00

The Thursday Night Beatdown lived up to it's billing. I met up at the Wheel and Sprocket parking lot at about 5:50 after riding the 2.3 miles from my house with the skies looking fairly ominous, they did let out a little sprinkle but that was it for the night, about 30 seconds of raindrops. I met some familiar faces there, Rick Amen from Team Extreme, whom I only met last week for the first time, and a couple of former teammates in Rudy and Glen, it was good to see both of them again. There was a crowd of about 20 ready to roll and as we made our way through the residential area to get out to the country roads the pace was pretty slack, which was good for me since I needed more of a warmup after standing around for 10 minutes. After that we kept a steady pace of about 21-22 for a while and then at the end we had a nice long stretch of road with a tailwind and I have to admit I was fairly tired from taking a few good pulls throughout the ride. I knew my turn-off point was coming about 2 miles up the road so as we were flying along at around 30-31 I took a pull and only 2 or 3 guys came through and no one else went forward so I took another pull right away and that was a little too much for me. As I've said plenty of times I haven't done any intervals or anything this year, just normal riding, and my recovery for those types of efforts is nill. I could tell right away that I was in trouble but just hanging in the pack for a while would've been enough recovery time and I would've been fine. Unfortunately I got a freakin' side stitch really bad, probably from breathing so hard, and every time I took a breath in the pain in my ribs was killing me. At that point we were only about 1/4 mile from my turn so I looked back, there was only about 3 people behind me, I let them go around and I drifted off the back. I rolled up to my turn, took a few deep breaths, let the HR go back down a little bit then rolled it in to home. I got 43 miles in total which is more than I would've done by myself before sunset, and the pace of the ride suited me quite well until the end when my side stitch knocked me out. I'm not saying the side stitch caused me to get dropped because then I'd be deflecting the blame on that, it was the lack of fitness that caused the side stitch that made me get dropped. Yup, I'm out of shape for that kind of effort, it's a little embarrassing but oh well, I was riding with guys that have been training for and doing races all year, and I more than held my own until the end. It's my second group ride of the year and my second hardest ride of the year, so I don't feel too bad. A couple more group rides and I'll be flying right along, I feel great today, no soreness or residual affect at all, as a matter of fact I can't wait to rock again tomorrow. Today was a normal rest day, but I was tempted to bike and so far only the threat of rain, well actually it did rain, has kept me from getting out. I may still go out shortly for a little recovery ride but we'll see. I've got two options tomorrow and the deciding factor is what my dad is going to tell me when he calls later. I've asked him to come up and do a 60ish mile ride tomorrow morning and he's contemplating that offer and is supposed to let me know later. If he's says no then the plan is to be up at 5:00a.m., eat, nap, then bike over to the Doc ride at about 6:15. I'll do the Doc ride, then ride home, basically a repeat of my century from last weekend. Another century in the books with a hard effort would be great, especially ahead of the 200 miler I've got planned for Monday...what? Yeah, I said it, 200 miles. More on that tomorrow......until next time.....

Beatdown?

2009-08-20T11:31:00.004-05:00

That's the ride I'm doing tonight, I've never heard of it but I guess it's called the Thursday Night Beatdown. The odd thing is that it's only like 3 or 4 miles from my house and goes on roads I ride almost every Thursday. The fact that I've never seen the group on the roads is weird, considering that I've been on the same roads many a Thursday evening, very strange. Supposedly it's been going on for quite a while now and is a fairly fast ride, averaging 22 to 23 mph for the 38 miles, not too fast, but not slow either, exactly the kind of ride I'm looking for. I saw a blurb about it on another blogger's site yesterday and figured I'd inquire at Wheel and Sprocket in Hales Corners since I had to go there anyways to get some more chamois cream. Sure enough one of the salespeople said they leave the parking lot at 6:00, plenty of time for me to get home, change, and ride over for the departure. I'm looking forward to it, hopefully it doesn't continue raining, I won't ride it in the rain, no point this late in the year since I'm not training for anything. After I was able to hang on at the Doc ride Saturday after riding 27 miles to get to it, I feel pretty good about my odds of staying in on this ride since it appears to be a tad slower. I found a few routes on the Garmin Connect site from users that have downloaded the ride and I've attached a picture below, just click on it to enlarge. Looks to be 38 miles, average ride time that I saw was about 1:43 to 1:45, there were quite a few downloads of the ride, I just grabbed the most recent one I saw from July, so take a look. Should be fun tonight.

Go Wisconsin!

2009-08-19T08:18:00.005-05:00

Pretty cool for Wisconsin racers, he's had a tremendous year so far.

(F)atigue (R)esistance (S)ystem

2009-08-18T16:15:00.005-05:00

FRS products. FRS doesn't stand for Fatigue Resistance System but that's what I'm calling it for myself. It really stands for free radical scavenger, which sounds cool too, but it's more appropriate to say I'm going to try it for my fatigue than to fight free radicals since I can't quantify if it's really fighting any free radicals in my body or not. I can quantify if I'm feeling less fatigued when taking the product though, although that's still probably more subjective than quantitative. Anyways, I'm going to try out the FRS products, yes the product(s) that Lance uses, to see if they make me feel any better. I'm a good test subject for the FRS products because their ads, which are ever-present on web sites all across the Internet, say that they fight fatigue and I seem to feel fatigued all the time. I know I don't get quality sleep so that contributes to my fatigue, but we'll see if the FRS products help in spite of my lack of quality ZZZZZss. They recommend taking some of their liquid drink in the morning, available in concentrate or powder form to be mixed with water, and then taking two of their energy chews in the afternoon to keep going for the rest of the day. So that is the plan for the next couple of weeks. I'll keep track of my fatigue using a simple (P)erceived (F)atigue (S)cale, which I just made up right now, and post the results at the end of the two weeks. I guess the ads that are hard to miss on all the sites I visit did their job and got me to try the product, hopefully it all tastes good. More to follow....

Fatigue fighter or fake? I'll find out.

Fatty

2009-08-17T15:05:00.004-05:00

I may be the last person in the cycling community to have heard of his blog, but here is a very popular blog to check out for those of you who haven't heard of it yet. He knows Lance, gets free stuff from Garmin, gives away DI2 equipped Orbeas, and has enough readership to get some mondo advertising dollars. So anyways, check out this blog, it's a great read. He has been affected by cancer in a major way as his wife just died from breast cancer in the last couple of weeks, but he has turned that in to a positive by becoming a major LiveStrong fundraiser. Read his stories, you'll appreciate them.

http://www.fatcyclist.com/

Doc Ride and Century...Check

2009-08-16T11:16:00.006-05:00

The plan on Saturday was to embark on my ride at 6:15, ride to Dousman, do the Drop the Doc ride, and then ride back to New Berlin. I was up at 5:00, ate a big breakfast, and then took a little snooze again until 6:00. I got dressed and headed out right on time, with the intention of being in Dousman about 7:45ish. It was a little foggy and more than steamy when I started riding, the temps weren't too bad at around 72 according to the Weather Channel, but I could tell right away that I was going to sweat ALOT on the ride. I hit the New Berlin Rec trail and took that in to Waukesha where I joined up with the Glacial-Drumlin trail. There was an unbelievable amount of people on both trail segments, which I didn't expect in the 6:00 hour, but I guess everyone was trying to beat the heat by getting out early. I was a little nervous on the way out to Dousman as thoughts of getting dropped right away on the first hill on the Doc ride crept in to my mind. I was thinking positive though, because although I haven't done a lot of speed work this year, I have done a lot of miles, maybe enough to keep me hooked in to the group. I got to Dousman and there was a pretty good group ready to head out, maybe 40ish, so I figured it was going to be pretty fast. A lot of the top name racers were not there though as the last WCA race of the year was going on up in Neenah, so I figured that would help me out quite a bit. As we got going the pace was pretty lax, around 20mph, so I had no problem staying in for the first mile or so, after that it picked up and my HR definitely kicked up quite a few notches. I was feeling good as the pace skirted the 25-26mph mark, and I thought that about 20 miles in I would take a pull or two at the front. I went to the front on a straight stretch of road and pulled for about 30-45 seconds, but right after my pull I saw that we were going to hit a hill and I figured I might be in trouble at that point. The group hit the hill pretty fast and I started to drift back, the reserves sapped a bit from my pull, and I was definitely in trouble. My HR was 192 and I was fading, luckily I was able to crest the hill only about 20 feet back from the pack and we had a nice downhill where I pedaled like mad to catch back on to the back of the group to get the draft and recover. I suffered for a minute or two but finally got my wind back and from that point on, with about 16-17 miles to go, I felt great. I actually took a few more pulls, and on the next few hills I was actually passing people, that was a mental boost to say the least. I always forget when the finish is coming on the ride because I haven't ridden it enough so I ended up missing out on the final sprint as we rounded a downhill turn and the pace picked and everyone started to fly towards the finishing sign. I just rolled it in and then took a break to eat a Clif bar and a gel for the return trip home. The heat and humidity had picked up quite a bit by the time I started back and the effort on the Doc ride made my legs feel a little gelatinous. I rode back on the Glacial-Drumlin, did a loop on the Fox River Trail, and then made my way back to New Berlin to finish out the day with a century, all before noon. I ended up drinking about 10-12 bottles of water on the ride and was still dehydrated when I got home. I'm a little sore today as my legs aren't used to the efforts I put in on the Doc ride, but I'm really happy that I stuck to my goal of getting up so dang early and doing the ride, it's my first century for August but I still have two more planned this month, well, maybe two, I might do a 200 mile ride next weekend and then I won't do a century the last weekend. Today it's going to be a short recovery ride and some housework, I'll also be starting a sit-up/crunches program today to get rid of some of this belly fat. Well, that's it for now, check out the newest poll in the top left and vote for your choice. Until next time........

Amb(ass)ador

2009-08-13T11:58:00.009-05:00

Ambassador - def. - an unofficial representative

It seems lately that more often than not cyclists have to fight the bad rap that some drivers have given the population of cyclists as a whole, as renegades who don't follow the laws of the road. There are some that are trying to get cyclists banned from being on the road altogether such as this group - Bastards. Then there is this county in CO that is trying to do the same - A-Holes. So it is up to us (bicyclists) to be good ambassadors to cycling and follow all the rules of the road and be polite to drivers, pedestrians, runners, dogs...whatever it takes, so that we don't eventually lose the right to use the roads that we enjoy so much. Could you imagine being limited to a stretch of bike trails for your daily riding? Yeah, me neither. When you are out on the road or riding the Oak Leaf Trail, or the Glacial-Drumlin trail, of which both are multi-use trails, please follow the rules and be polite to everyone you encounter. I was on the Oak Leaf trail yesterday and I've made it a habit to say hi to everyone I pass, whether it's a cyclist, a jogger, walker, old lady in a Little Rascal scooter, whatever, I always try to say something nice. I slow down when I come upon someone and go around them with plenty of room and if I know they don't see or hear me coming I always let them know I'm behind them so they don't get startled. Conveying the image that cyclists care just as much about enjoying the roads/trails as they do can go a long way. Unfortunately not everyone is doing that and I saw it last night on the trail myself, there are still jerks out there, hence amb(ass)adors, in the title above. They are the asses, not the ambassadors we need. I probably saw about 5 different cyclists that just couldn't wait to get around someone, so even with walkers passing each other on the two-way trail at the same time, they still were trying to squeeze between them without even saying a word. The trail is only wide enough for 2 people abreast on each side, so to try to squeeze through is just a jerk move and makes us (cyclists) look stupid. What's it going to hurt to wait that extra 3 seconds, I mean c'mon, they were all bike path warriors, nothing more than rec cyclists, so what the hell would it hurt them to slow down? It might hurt their 15mph average speed?? Please. On two of those occasions I was behind the riders so I was able to see the look on the walkers' faces enough to know that they weren't happy. So anyways, that's enough ranting for now, usually I don't get political but after I saw that last night I just had to post something to let it be known that your actions as cyclists can go a long way to keeping us on, or off, the roads and trails we love riding. Please be a good ambassador whenever you can.
Back to regularly scheduled programming.....Tonight I'm going to do a 20-30 mile ride with Mike, who posted on New Berlin Cycling that he was new to the area and looking for someone to show him the roads and trails around New Berlin. I happily obliged so tonight we'll be riding on the New Berlin Rec Trail, the Fox River Trail, and I'll show him the trail-head to the Glacial-Drumlin trail since I doubt he has a State trail pass yet. I'll point out the good roads to ride on as well, but right now I think he's more interested in the trail stuff but we'll see. He's not only new to the area, but new to cycling as well, so maybe I'll make a recurring ride with him to help him out and show him how much he can enjoy the sport. On Friday I'll be doing a normal 2 hour ride after work, just a Tempo ride to get the HR up, and then Saturday I'll be doing what I attempted to do last weekend and that is the GD-Drop the Doc-GD ride. I'll ride from my house to the Glacial-Drumlin trail, from there to the Doc ride in Dousman, do the Doc ride, then ride back on the Glacial-Drumlin trail, and then home. All said and done, should be 100 miles before 11:30ish. Sunday will be a fairly leisurely 3 hour ride at an endurance pace. Looks like the weather will be great this weekend, I can't wait to get out. Well, that's it for now...until next time....

Never Enough

2009-08-10T15:10:00.005-05:00

It was a hot one this weekend, for me anyways as I don't take well to the heat. I can never get enough water when I ride on days in the upper 80s and 90s, it seems like I sweat it out as fast as I can take it in, maybe even faster. I did two 3 hour rides each day this weekend, Saturday I had to wait until the rain finally stopped at 3:30 and then I got out for a ride around Waukesha, on what I like to call the 3 Hills Loop. It's 3 of the toughest hills around my area, well, maybe not toughest, but definitely 3 of the longest. It was pretty muggy and I ended up going through 6 large bottles of water in only 3 hours, 2 of the 6 probably ended up on my head but the rest were consumed to keep me hydrated. Sunday I started pretty early but it was still pretty warm and very humid. I started sweating before I got out of my neighborhood. I ended up going through about 8 bottles on the ride, which took me out to Dousman and back. About 3 of those bottles ended up on my head to keep me cool, a la the Floyd Landis effect. I saw a former teammate on the road, John Grisa, at the turnaround point in Dousman, he was out doing about the same distance as me, except he looked really fresh and I'm pretty sure he wasn't even sweating. I must be really out of shape. The rest of the day was spent hanging out inside, keeping cool and doing some house stuff.
Today I'm home helping out my wife who threw out her back yesterday while camping with her aunt and her cousins. I'm playing the role of nurse and helping her in and out of bed and to the bathroom, now I get to see what she gets to go through every day as a real nurse.
Other than that, I'm actually VPNed in to work as well working on some projects and then once I finish up with a conference call shortly I'll head out for a quick jaunt around the neighborhood on my roller blades. I won't have time to get on the bike before I have to drop off Xavier at driver's ed at 5:00. Better to do 15 minutes on the roller blades than nothing at all. The rest of the week will consist of as much riding as the weather and daylight will allow. Hopefully there are no late nights at work and I can get out on time all week. The plan right now is for about 15-16 hours on the bike, shouldn't be too much of a problem if everything falls in to place. That's it for now, until next time......

2009-08-08T09:10:00.002-05:00

Derailed???

2009-08-07T09:57:00.003-05:00

First, check out the new poll on the left hand side, go ahead and pick your choice, just something new for the blog that will be updated with different polls every week.

Well, my plan for tomorrow might be derailed, the rain is supposed to stick around longer than originally forecast, probably through Saturday afternoon now, and maybe even making a comeback on Sunday. That's a real bummer. Granted we need the rain really bad but I'd prefer not to have it Saturday morning, was looking forward to riding the G-D trail for the Doc Ride. I don't ride in the rain for training, there's no point in it for me, I usually don't even race in the rain so why train in it. Here is the stinkin forecast for 6:00a.m. which is when I'd have to leave, if it's not raining I'll be riding -

6 am
68°FScattered T-Storms
50%
From S12 mph

7 am
69°FScattered T-Storms
40%
From S12 mph

8 am
71°FScattered T-Storms
40%
From S12 mph

The Weekend Ahead

2009-08-06T10:23:00.004-05:00

The weekend ahead should be a good one for getting on the bike as it appears that Summer has finally returned to Wisconsin. The temps will be up in to the 80s and 90s again which we haven't seen in a while so I'm looking forward to getting out and getting in some good miles. I have a half-day of vacation tomorrow from work so I'll try to get out in the afternoon but we have a 60% chance of rain and thunderstorms. I'm hoping they'll be scattered and I can get out between storms. Saturday the plan is to ride from New Berlin to Dousman on the G-D trail, do the Doc ride (and probably get dropped), then ride back to New Berlin on the G-D trail again. Total ride distance should be a century, it's 26.50 to Dousman, 40 miles for the Doc Ride, 26.50 back, and I'll throw on another 7 miles somewhere around my house. I'll be all done with a century by 11:00 or so and have the rest of the day to relax and do stuff around the house. I'm definitely worried about getting dropped on the Doc ride, it's probably 60/40 right now that I'll be spit out the back, but I'm looking forward to doing some sort of group ride, it's been a while since I've done one. Either way, it's more for the training than anything, so I don't really care if I get dropped, it's just about having fun. Sunday is going to be the hot day for the weekend, in the 90s as of right now, I'll keep it short and do something in the range of 3 hours, I've got plenty of other things to do around the house so no need to kill myself out in that heat for too long.
On another note, last night I surpassed my mileage for all of last year, which was just a bad bike year for me with other things affecting my motivation to get out and ride. I was pretty happy to see that and now I've still got a lot of time left to finish the year strong. I'm hoping for something in the range of 7500 miles for the year, it's definitely doable, of course the weather would have to cooperate in the cooler months to really help me along with that. I've got 3 centuries planned for this month, all of them as just solo training rides, 2 centuries for next month, and then 1 each in October and November. Who knows, maybe I'll even do one in December. Add the 700 miles worth of centuries to all my regularly planned training rides and that will add up quite quickly. I'm trying not to look that far ahead though, I'd rather not think about riding in November and December quite yet.
One thing I was thinking about this week was joining a fitness center for the first time, I don't have free weights at home and nothing of the sort in the small fitness center at my work either. I really would like the use of a squat rack, and the ability to cross train with basketball, swimming, Pilates, etc. would have been nice. Ultimately it wasn't worth the $100+ a month to join, especially with a yearly commitment. I think I'm going to go the route of finding a used squat rack and weights to put up in my basement and I'll be happy with that. I'll have a squat rack at home, I'll get some yoga and Pilate videos, and with the treadmill and resistance machines here at work I should be good to go. I'll also be doing snowshoeing as well, so that'll help. Well, that's it for now, more updates to come after the big ride on Saturday.

Glacial Drumlin

2009-08-01T19:27:00.007-05:00

Had a nice 55 mile ride today from my house to Dousman and back on the Glacial Drumlin trail, it was pretty windy out there. I kind of got screwed, I had a headwind out and then it switched on the way back to a crosswind, so I never got a full-on tailwind today. I was expecting to be doing 25-30 going back in to Waukesha since a lot of it is downhill as well, but with the crosswind I was at 22-25 instead, good enough I guess. I felt great and there were a ton of people out today. It did rain this morning but cleared up quite nicely by 12:30ish or so. The winds were easily up to 20mph and in the videos below you can definitely hear it, although I was riding too so you're hearing the wind from that as well. It was a great day on the bike, the temperature was perfect, there were lots of people out, and the legs are feeling better every day. Tomorrow the plan is to do a solo century but my butt is hurting today, it feels like the start of a saddle sore, hopefully by tomorrow morning I'll know if I can make it for 5 and a half hours on the saddle. If I get a saddle sore then 75 will be in order, either way it'll be a 75+ mile day. Here is some video from today's ride, one is heading out, the other is heading back.

Sorry but it was so windy you can't hear what I said, but I said "it's windy!"

Rock Island

2009-07-27T19:39:00.010-05:00

Time For A Getaway

2009-07-24T09:49:00.006-05:00

The family and I (dog included) are going away for 3 days to Rock Island off the Door County Peninsula and we'll be doing some primative camping, hopefully without any rain. This is the carry-in, carry-out, no bikes, no cars type of camping. We take a ferry witht he car to Washington Island and then from there we leave the car and take another ferry to Rock Island. We'll unload our gear at the dock and carry it all to our campsite about a quarter mile away. From that point on, we are on our own and free to do what we want on the island. There are 10 miles of trails to explore, a lighthouse, and a great hall/museum from the guy that founded the island. Other than that, it's all about relaxing with books, some cards, hiking, playing with the dog and walking the beach as well. It's going to be fairly cool the first full day with a high of 68 and 40% chance of rain, Sunday and Monday are supposed to be low to mid 70s so it will be very comfortable. Again there is a chance of storms both days as well, but we'll make do. I'll miss the bike, but I'll be back Monday early enough I think to get in a ride and then I'll have a full week of riding when I get back. I'll get in enough hiking to keep the legs active so I won't lose much over 3 days. I'm looking at doing another solo century out by Lake Geneva and Alpine Valley next weekend to build up some hill climbing power, something I'm desperately lacking. I could lose a little weight as well but I'm gradually trimming that down and hope to be around 185 in the next couple of weeks, I'm close right now at 188 so just a little more to go. Once I hit 185 then I'll gradually work on getting down to 180, but I'd like to increase my core and build muscle at the same time as losing fat so I'll be steady for a while since I'll be building muscle, but then eventually I'll cut down on the fat. The goal is to stay less than 185 all winter since I seem to gain 20 pounds every off-season and have to work like crazy to get it all off again. This time I'd like to stay 185 all winter and keep my race weight at 177 to 180. Anyways, no ride tonight, back to riding on Monday evening hopefully. That's it for now, until next time....

Recovering

2009-07-15T08:53:00.004-05:00

Well, the last few days have been about recovery, just a couple of short rides, and tonight I'll ramp it back up a bit again with a longer 2.5 to 2.75 hour ride. The legs were sore but today they feel a lot better, of course it's still early and I'm not on my bike so the sensation may change when I'm actually riding. The weather looks great the next few days, cooler weather that will be great for riding, exactly the way I like it. I'll be doing some intervals and hillwork this week, I don't want it to be 90 degrees when I'm doing those types of workouts, it's too easy for me to get dehydrated that way. In addition to doing the intervals and hills this week I'll also be doing the Doc Ride on Saturday morning hopefully, depends on how I feel after Friday's ride, but it's 75% as of right now that I'll do it. Sunday will be a long ride, maybe in the range of 4.5 to 5 hours, that should cap off a great week on the bike. I'm trying to get some yard work done this week as well, I have off work on Friday so that will be spent working outside for the most part and Saturday and Sunday will be spent re-paving my driveway as well as all the biking. It's a busy week, I'm getting plenty of rest though too, it's tough between working 45 hours or so, doing about 10 hours of yard work during the week, and biking about 16-17 hours. Somewhere in there I'll relax and watch a movie or go out to dinner with my wife, probably Friday night. Superweek is going on as well this week but I won't be going to watch any races, I'll be doing my own riding and none of them really interest me anyways. I'd like to go watch Downer Ave, but I'll be camping next weekend, which I'd rather be doing anyways.
Le Tour is fairly exciting but this week is not going to be a barnburner, the stages seem pretty lame, mostly flat, nothing for the big GC guys, they are just waiting for the Alps. I still hope Lance wins but I'm also rooting for Levi and Christian, their time is due, it'd be nice to see one of them win before their careers are over.
Well, that's it for now....

All Hail The King

2009-07-12T18:32:00.004-05:00

Well, I'm not the King, but that's what the shirt says, it was quite a challenge but it's now complete. 121 miles, about 13,000 feet of climbing according to the Garmin, and a long 7 hours 57 minutes. The weather was perfect, it wasn't too warm, the wind was cool, and the hills seemed easy until the end when I had to climb up the last two long climbs and my right hamstring kept locking up on me. I never got off the bike or stopped pedaling and made it to the top of the park with my dad clapping and yelling as he had turned off earlier and cut the course short since he wouldn't have made it up the last few hills. There were words of encouragement written on the road leading in to the finish, namely "cold beer at the top" so I was quite motivated. I made it up to the top, rode straight to the pavilion, rode in to the pavilion to the surprise of the other riders sitting at the tables, and rode right to the beer bucket. It was ice cold and filled with cans of beer, I grabbed one and slugged it down. Man, that was the best beer ever. I sat down after that and we heard that someone had been hit on the ride and killed, a 62 year old from Waukesha was riding down a hill and a 16 year old turned left right in front of him and he hit the side of the truck. Oddly enough the kid was from New Berlin, which is where I live, and it's not any where near Blue Mounds so I'm wondering if he was camping with his family or something. It's very tragic either way, that guy's family lost their husband/father, brother, etc., and that kid is young enough that it may affect him for quite a while. It just goes to show you should live every day like it's your last, make sure you tell everyone you love them when you walk out the door, it may mean a lot in the end. Well, that's enough for now, here is a picture of me today, looking a lot less tired than yesterday.

Reward

2009-07-11T18:52:00.002-05:00

Reward

My Dad

2009-07-11T17:31:00.002-05:00

Finished. He's still alive.

The Last Big Downhill

2009-07-11T15:29:00.002-05:00

Almost There

2009-07-11T14:56:00.002-05:00

Blue mounds baby!

Heading Down, And Right Back Up

2009-07-11T11:36:00.002-05:00

Downhill Relief

2009-07-11T10:22:00.002-05:00

The Night Before

2009-07-10T19:57:00.002-05:00

The Time Is Near

2009-07-09T14:09:00.003-05:00

Well, only another day and a half really before I start my death march at Blue Mounds. The weather looks great right now, 79, partly sunny, not too windy as of today's forecast. It's supposed to storm tomorrow but it's only 50-60% as of right now, hopefully nothing too severe since I'll be sleeping in a tent tomorrow night after arriving at Blue Mounds State Park in the afternoon. Once we get there we'll set up camp, or maybe hold off if it's raining since I'd rather not set up the tent in a storm. It's supposed to taper off later in the day so maybe we'll just sit around under our pop up screen tent which folds out in 30 seconds and just eat and read or maybe I'll bring a small board game or something. Either way, it'll be a dinner of spaghetti in the evening and then early to bed as we have to be up at about 4:30 to eat so that we are at least close to having our food digested for the 6:30a.m. start. At least the weather will be cooler for the first 3 hours or so before warming up, we should be about 50 miles in to it by then, only 71 to go at that point, yikes. As hilly as it is, my dad will probably have a rough go of it, so I'm hoping for at least a 16 mph average by the time we are done, yeah, that means it'll take us 7.5 hours of ride time, add another hour at the rest stops and we'll be done about 2:30. The best part is that we get to eat afterwards, then they have a pool at the park so we will be relaxing there and staying cool. The rest of the night will be spent by a campfire and then I'm sure we'll be completely wiped and be sleeping pretty early. Sunday we'll head back home and I'm sure I'll just sleep some more, but I'd also like to get in a recovery ride to clean out the legs as well. It's a lot better for the muscles to keep the blood flowing after an effort like that. As far as training goes this week, I'm just taking it easy, did a few hill repeats last night, will do a few more tonight and then maybe an hour spin tomorrow morning, but that depends upon the rain. I've taken it easy the last week and a half as a taper to this event, but once it's over I'll pick it up again next week. More intervals are on the schedule and lots more hill work to get on par with all the other racers. Well, that's it for now, until next time. I'll post pictures tomorrow and Saturday once I get up there, check back for updates.

Well That Certainly Hurt

2009-07-06T09:21:00.008-05:00

Coming in to Sunday's race at Omro I was feeling a little under the weather on Thursday and Friday, but progressively got better on Friday and felt fine on Saturday when I went to bed. Sickness was not going to be an issue in hindering my performance on Sunday, so I thought I'd do well enough, I was hoping to stay with the lead group but realistically I was thinking second pack would be where I would end up. The realist in me ended up being correct but I should've been a little ahead of the second pack and finished solo between them and the lead group, unfortunately I had the most severe cramping I've ever had on the bike. My calves were knotting up constantly from mile 11/12 to the finish, which was at 38 miles I believe. I know it wasn't hydration or electrolyte related as I drank a lot of water Friday, Saturday, and Sunday morning and ate very well in the two days prior to the race. I eat a lot of bananas and drink milk so my calcium and potassium were there, which are big preventers of cramps. The cramps were basically caused by muscular tension that they haven't seen before, basically I tried to push myself above what my training has prepared me for, but I knew that coming in to the race. As I've said, I haven't prepared for racing so my body was completely shocked by the effort I think as I was pushing way bigger gears than normal and sprinting around corners, etc., and it was just too much. Part of the problem I think is that in racing mode there's a tendency to move forward on the saddle and that recruits muscles that you normally don't exert too much on training rides, and I was sitting a lot further forward than normal during the race. I could spin fine up hills with no issues when I was in an easy gear and on both hills I rode away from the pack I was with, but as soon as we got over the top I couldn't sit and exert pressure, my calves would knot up instantly. I had to drift off the back of my group a few times to rub them out but caught back on each time. I finished by rolling in off the back of the group when they sprinted in as I couldn't stand to sprint at all, I tried but instantly locked up. Oh well, I was happy with getting the race in as it was my first race since the first week of May in 2008, obviously it's been a while. It was nice to be part of a competitive event and feel that adrenaline of being in the pack and riding hard, I just wish I could've ridden harder. My training has been geared towards longer rides though in order to be prepared for the Insane Terrain Challenge this weekend, so once that is done then I'll concentrate more on intervals and getting back in racing shape.
Speaking of Insane Terrain Challenge, that is finally this Saturday, it's been circled on my calendar since January and it seems like time has flown by. It's been on my mind for a while, but unfortunately training didn't start until quite a bit after I registered for the ride, so it's going to be a tough one. I'm ready for it though I think, I've done 5 centuries so far this year so endurance shouldn't be a problem, it's going to be getting my butt up hills and staying hydrated and well fed. If I do all those things well, then I should be able to finish with no problem. I took off work on Friday so my dad and I are heading up and camping at Blue Mounds State Park and then the ride starts at 6:30 Saturday morning. I have no clue how long it will take, my dad doesn't think he's prepared for it, and is looking at short cuts already, but I told him that if he can at least stay with me for 75 miles or so before he cuts it short, then I'd be happy with that. I can finish the remaining 46 miles by myself, but it'll be nice to have him with me as long as he can make it. After the ride is done, we'll chow down I'm sure on whatever we can find to eat, and then we are staying over one more night at the state park to relax and hang out by the fire. Sunday I'll head home and probably sleep all day.
Well, that's it for now, more to follow this week on my prep for the ITC.

Precipice

2009-07-02T14:35:00.003-05:00

As the title eludes to, I am on the precipice of the sickness cliff, I feel a little off today but so far I haven't fallen in to a full-on sickness as of yet. The usual onset symptoms of a cold- sore throat, neckache, stuffy nose, and a stinkin earache are all surfacing today. I can manage it right now, I'm downing Echinacea tea, vitamins, water, and taking some pills with the hopes that it won't get much worse. Right now it's just there, lingering, but hasn't really hit me yet so cycling is still in the cards for tonight. I've ridden the last few days at a nice recovery pace, and my legs are feeling really good and the HR is down so all systems are back to normal after being a little off kilter on Monday. Tonight I'll push it a little bit to test the legs and see if I have anything for this weekend's races. I'll try out a couple of timed climbing repeats to see if I'm where I need to be relative to my previous times recorded on the climbs. I'll do my kilometer long Tans Dr. climb as a test and if I'm near my PR I'll be happy and consider myself to be in good enough shape to race. If I'm more than 10 seconds off then I'm probably not where I need to be and would skip at least one of the races this weekend with the fallback of doing a makeup race at Holy Hill in two weeks. That way I'll still get in my 3 races this year but will have an extra couple of weeks to prepare and make sure I'm not under the weather with this cold. I haven't been sick in quite a while so of course it sucks that it was this week, but oh well. I'm excited to race this weekend, even if it ends up being only one race. Most likely the Whitewater race would get skipped as the WCA races pretty much leave you on your own if you get dropped by the group, it becomes a solo training ride for the most part. At Omro I could still get dropped and integrate in to other groups, so that might make more sense. We'll see, I could still feel good enough to do both. I'll ride tonight, do a pre-race prep ride tomorrow and go from there, the plan right now is to race twice. I wish the sun would come out though, it's been a little cool and cloudy the last couple of days, not even getting out of the 60s, today we are finally supposed to hit the 70s but I don't think it's happened yet. Maybe once the sun pokes through the clouds it'll warm up a bit. Until next time...

Time for Some Rest

2009-06-30T15:02:00.005-05:00

So it's been a long 3 weeks of cycling, 16 to 18.50 hours per week have been spent pedaling away in order to get ready for the death march on July 11th. The progression resulted in two centuries this past week, 330 miles, 18.50 hours and now I'm officially tired. This week will be spent resting, although I didn't really plan it that way. I did have a little bit more intensity in the program for the week but the weather and my legs have made me change my mind and now I'll spin it out this week to allow the legs to recover. I'll still be doing about 16-17 hours but it will all be slow, recovery pace efforts to allow my body to recover a bit. If I'm feeling good then I'll try an effort or two at the end of the week but I was supposed to do the UW-Whitewater RR this weekend along with the Omro RR so those might be the only efforts that I do this week, it's probably best to wait until then. If I'm still not feeling good at all and my HR is suppressed like it was on my ride yesterday then I may skip one of the races this weekend and just take a day to do another training ride. I had trouble getting past 172 bpm on my ride yesterday and that is about 20 beats off my normal max, so I know my body is saying, whoa, cut me some slack. I always listen. Another indicator is my resting HR today is 54, that's high. Lately it's been in the low 40s to 45 on any given day, I've checked it 3 times today and it's been 54 twice and 55 once, so again, I'm listening. Obviously heart rate isn't always the best indicator, power is better, but I don't have a power meter of any sort, so I have to go by HR, and in my opinion power is only good on the bike, off the bike you obviously can't deny what your resting HR tells you, and of course other indicators like general leg soreness and fatigue are big determining factors as well. On the bike there are things like caffeine intake, hydration, temperature and humidity, wind, and stress that can affect HR, but your power should remain the same more or less when those factors come in to play. Power numbers will fluctuate when you are overtrained or sick, that is when it's good to have a power meter, overtraining will show in the numbers on the bike, which unfortunately is what I can't tell right now. Yeah, maybe something yesterday affected my HR and my power was the same as always but I'm just going by feel and I don't think that I had the same power as last week. I guess I better start saving for a power meter next year, it'd be a good item to add to my training repertoire, especially if I start coaching next year. Anyways, tonight it's supposed to rain at about 6:30ish, the plan is to go home, ride around my neighborhood or within 10 minutes of my house anyways, until it starts raining, and then head home. Hopefully I can get in an hour at least, 90 minutes would be better though, but I'll take what I can get. Tomorrow is supposed to bring some rain as well but I'm hoping for a break to get out for 2.5 hours or so after work, even if I have to do the neighborhood thing again, I'll do whatever it takes to get outside. Thursday and Friday will be more of the same duration but thankfully it's going to be nice and sunny so I'll be hitting some remote destinations outside of my immediate area, probably up to Dousman and back on Thursday and probably a big Waukesha loop on Friday. Saturday and Sunday as I mentioned might be race days, I'm hoping I feel good enough although I'll go in to both races with almost no race training at all for the year. I've done two days of hill repeats, other than that it's been all endurance rides and tempo work. If they were completely flat I'd have no problem, the race flyer for Whitewater says one "dominant hill" though so that doesn't bode well for me. I'm willing to give it a go, it's only 40 miles, maybe I'll get really lucky and be at 100% and that will be about 60% of everyone else, but it might just keep me in the peloton. Well, that's it for now I guess, more to follow ahead of the race weekend, I'll let you know how I'm feeling and hopefully I'll be doing two races. Until next time.....

Hills, Hills, Hell

2009-06-25T09:05:00.008-05:00

Yeah, I did hill work last night and it was hell, but a self-induced hell that I'm glad that I put myself through. Let's just say that I didn't lay the smack down, or open up a can of whoop-ass on the hills, but I can tell that I've certainly improved in the last month or so as my speed and RPE have gone up and down respectively on the same hills. I started out with about a 20 minute warmup to one of my favorite hills, a kilometer long jaunt that starts at about 6%, ramps up a little to 8%, back down to 6% for a short period and then hits 12% at the top for about 50 meters. I did 5 repeats up the hill with a short break between each rep, and alternated doing some high and low cadence work the first 4 times. On the last rep I went up it at max speed and kept sprinting over the top as hard as I could until I blew up. This is the FIRST time this year that I've done any race-specific training, yeah I know, it's July next week, but hey, I'm off to a late start this year. Anyways, after that I rode for another 15 minutes or so to my next hill, a half-mile long hill that starts at 10%, and levels off to about 4% before going up to 8% at the top. This isn't a hill that's all that difficult, it's about 4% for most of it's duration except for right at the beginning and the end. The reason I use this hill is for big ring hill work, basically building muscular strength and also to work on standing during climbs. I alternated repeats on this hill using the big ring doing the climb standing and then sitting, it's very taxing on the muscles but will really pay off after a good recovery. After finishing my repeats I decided that I had been out in the heat too long, especially given the effort that I had expended, so I turned around and headed home. My ride time was 2.5 hours, which considering the heat, and the work I just did, was more than good enough for me. I went through 3 full waterbottles, one of which was stuffed in my jersey pocket which made it nice and warm next to my body. That was tough to get down but I still needed it so the bottle was definitely emptied. A quick cold shower and then a trip to Chipotle completed the evening. I was very happy to finally get to open the throttle a bit on the engine as I've been doing nothing but just "riding" for the last couple of months, now it's time to start to get some real work in, but not necessarily for the upcoming races, but more for the Race the Lake event in August and to build up for next year when I hope to take on a full race season again. The plan is to do the UW-Whitewater RR next Saturday and the Omro RR next Sunday, and I'm not expecting anything other than to hope to stay with the pack for the duration of each race. Finishing would make me happy, placing really doesn't matter in those races. I may do the Holy Hill race on July 17th as well, which is part of Superweek, but I'm not sure yet, we'll see how these first two races go. I'm not fond of the Superweek organization for their crit courses, but the Holy Hill course goes back to a time before the current promoter so I'm not all that averse to doing that race. We'll see.
Tonight is actually a day off although I may throw in a short 1 hour ride, my mom and stepdad are coming up for dinner tonight, so that is on the agenda instead of a ride. Tomorrow is a vacation day so I'll be doing a longer ride on what is normally a rest day or recovery ride day for me. Something in the range of 3 to 3.5 hours is on the schedule right away in the morning. Saturday is the Lake Country Classic Century and then the evening will be spent watching the Downer Ave. race, part of the Tour of America's Dairyland. I'm looking forward to the consumption of a few beers and of course the famous Cafe Hollander frites. Until next time, happy riding.........

Another One Down

2009-06-23T07:09:00.005-05:00

Sunday wasn't just any other day, it was my 3rd century of the year, 4th if you count that I also did a 94.6 (95) miler, yeah it's 5.4 miles short, but that's close enough for me. My next one will be Saturday at the Lake Country Classic in Oconomowoc with my friend and co-worker Dave, but I digress, back to my Sunday ride. I knew it was going to be a difficult ride with the heat and humidity, especially after I did a 3 hour ride on Saturday and was suffering a bit even though I was riding at 9:00a.m.. Sunday would be basically the same but twice as long so hydration was key and I probably drank about 12 bottles worth of water and PowerBar Refuel drink mix. I started out at 8:00 at Big Foot Beach State Park in Lake Geneva with my dad and his friend Dorothee whom had ridden up from his house in Bohner's Lake about 12 miles away. We did the lake loop up to the observatory, and along the way hit a nice long hill that maxed out at 16%, the burn was on at that point but the legs were just getting opened up as we were about 6 or 7 miles in. From there we went through some countryside outside of Lake Geneva to the Alpine Valley area and hit another hard climb on Bowers Rd. that was probably about 4/10ths of a mile long and maxed out at 17%. There was a Phish concert going on but luckily for us all the Phish-heads were just getting up and weren't on the road yet, too much later and we would have been in the middle of a pretty big traffic jam on Hwy D. At this point I was sweating buckets and we were only 25 miles in, and I knew that I'd probably run out of water before getting to New Berlin to refuel at the 65 mile mark. We kept on rolling along until we hit the Honey Creek area where we went up another 16% max hill and my dad and Dorothee decided that they were turning off to head home. They had 40 miles in and it was still about 20 miles back to my dad's house for them, so I thanked them for hanging with me for a while and we went our separate ways. I kept going along until I got to the Lake Beulah area, then Big Bend, and finally through Muskego before I hit my refueling stop at home. I had 65 miles in and had some ground to make up as riding with my dad and Dorothee had my average speed at this point at around 17.1, which is fine because the enjoyment of riding with them was worth the slower speed, but I had already improved on that after I left them as my average was 16.6 at the 40 mile mark. I probably did 18ish the next 25 miles after I left them which was mainly due to a headwind on the trip to my house. After 10 minutes, 2 or 3 bottles worth of ice water and some Clif Bars, I was heading back on the 46 mile trip to Lake Geneva. I had a nice tailwind, was cruising along at about 20mph and soaking up the sun until I hit the 85-90 mile mark when I started having some pain in my big toes, mainly when I stood up on hills. I had to go up Lyons Rd. and then South Rd., two long, fairly steep hills and the feet were starting to become bothersome so I sat more than I normally would when I climb. After getting over those two hills though I had a fairly flat route the rest of the way and motored along in to Lake Geneva. The only small problem was running out of water again at about 98 miles, so the last 13 were without water, but at that point I didn't care as I knew there was salvation in the form of Burger King after the ride. I got back in to Lake Geneva and was happy to be done with another century in the books, and thankfully I had brought the cooler with me and was even happier to have some ice water to drink to cool down. I was beet red and even just sitting at my car I was still sweating profusely for another 10 minutes or so before the spigot finally turned off. I left the park, drove right over to Burger King, ordered a Whopper value meal and wolfed that down pretty quickly. Yeah, not great after ride food, but it sure tasted good and it definitely replaced some of the calories I lost. According to my Garmin I burned approximately 7,000 calories over the duration of the ride. They use a formula of height, weight, distance, elevation, average speed and HR to determine the caloric expenditure, and I think based on other formulas I've seen, the number that it puts out is fairly exact. That's it for the ride, a great course, a nice warm day with not too much wind, and I felt great afterwards, no soreness at all Sunday night or yesterday. I'm ready to get back on the bike tonight and I'll just do about 2 hours today to get the blood going again, and we have a heat advisory in effect with temps over 90 and humidity in the 80% range so it's probably best to take it easy anyways. Tomorrow and Thursday will be 50 mile rides after work and then Friday I have a vacation day so I'll be doing about 3 hours on the bike and getting some yard work done as well. Saturday is another century and I'm not sure what Sunday holds yet, probably just another 3 hours or so. Well, that's it for now, until next time, happy riding!

Damn

2009-06-21T21:54:00.007-05:00

Damn, tough day. 111 miles, 6 hours in the saddle, and the heat, humidity and hills were tough. I was sucking wind up some of the hills out by Alpine and the heat and humidity had me looking like a water spigot. I've been trying to rehydrate tonight, and I think I've done all I can do, I still have a bit of a heat headache, but hopefully once I fall asleep in about 5 minutes it will go away. More details tomorrow, time for bed.

Let's Try That Again

2009-06-18T21:15:00.003-05:00

I ended up not doing my century last weekend, I woke up feeling under the weather and even though I was up at 5:00 in the morning and made breakfast I just could tell that my body was not 100%. I ended up going back to bed and decided to just get some rest, I think it was allergies because I had a sinus headache, my neck ached, and I just felt really fatigued. Anyways, I'll be trying it again now this next Sunday, no reason right now not to do it, it's going to be a beautiful day, actually both days look nice this weekend, I can't wait to get out. I've done two 50 milers this week and a 40 miler, I didn't ride on Tuesday because of the rain but will ride the next 3 days before I take a break on Monday. I'll be doing part of the ride on Sunday with my dad as he and his friend have decided to meet me in Lake Geneva for the first 50 or so miles, so that'll be nice to have the company. This weekend will be good preparation for the next few weeks as I've got the Bay View Bicycle Club Century on Saturday next week, and then the UW-Whitewater WI Cup race on July 3rd, the Omro Wisport race on July 4th, and the Insane Terrain Challenge on July 11th. After that I don't really have anything until the Race the Lake on August 16th, but I'm sure I'll find something before then to do, maybe the Holy Hill Superweek race. I took off work that day just in case as it's on a Friday.
The big thing for all these events is that I have to start kicking up my intensity, I've had a few long rides and have been riding for quite a few weeks now so my base is pretty much complete. I don't expect any results from the races, I just want to complete them to get some of those competitive juices flowing again. I started kicking up the intensity tonight by doing some hill sprints and I felt pretty good doing that, no repeats, but just sprinting up any hill that I came across, I have to start slow. Eventually I'll go up them multiple times, repeats obviously, and then start Steady State intervals and the like.
Well, that's enough for now, I've been up since 4:50, it was an early 6:00a.m. day at work, so it's time to get ready for bed.

Here Comes The Fun....

2009-06-12T16:03:00.006-05:00

The weekend is finally here and I can't wait to get out of work in exactly 55 minutes so that I can get on the bike. The clouds are starting to move in but the temps are still in the uppers 60s I think so that is good enough for my ride tonight. The rain is supposed to start moving in at about 10 or 11 o'clock, I'm pretty sure I'll be done riding by then, and maybe even in bed. That would be weak I know, but it's been a long week and I'm tired. The forecast shows the rain stopping mid-afternoon tomorrow but it appears that it will remain cloudy the rest of the day for the most part. Again, that's good enough for a ride for me. Sunday is looking great, sunny and low 70s, just perfect.
Tonight the plan is to hit the road for about 50 miles, I want to do some hillwork and I've got a good course picked out with 3 good hills of about .4 to .5 miles long, so maybe 2 to 3 minute climbs. It'll be another late dinner after that at 9:00 and then I'll spend the rest of the night in front of the stupid box until I fall asleep.
Tomorrow as I mentioned will be raining in the morning but after that the plan is to ride from New Berlin to Dousman, check out the Bike Doctor shop, and then turn around and head home. Should be about 3 hours, no frills, just a nice, fairly flat ride.
Sunday is the "queen" stage of the weekend as they say in stage races, 111.50 miles from Lake Geneva to Alpine to New Berlin and back, should be about 6 to 6.5 hours and lots of climbing. I'm using it to prepare for a couple of races in the next 3 weeks and also to prep for the Insane Terrain Challenge on July 11th. That ride will still be about 11 miles longer and will have about 8,000 feet more of climbing than my ride Sunday.
I'm definitely getting better, I'm feeling stronger, I'm not shifting down to my small ring for every little roller, I've lost another pound this week, it's a small victory but good enough. My average speed for every ride is going up, my average HR is going down and my resting HR has dropped about 9 bpm in the last month. Recuperation is getting quicker as well and the soreness that was present after every ride is not there except after the hillier routes that I pick. I'm still working on the hills obviously.
Well, that's it for now, good riding to everyone this weekend, enjoy it!

Ehhhhh........

2009-06-08T09:20:00.003-05:00

It was just an "ehhhh" weekend, nothing special, nothing disastrous though either. Friday I got out and did a 50 mile ride after work even though I got out of here late due to a last minute conference call, I didn't start my ride until 6:00. I went at a hard Tempo pace so I had no problem getting done before dark, it was a good ride and it was very helpful in relieving some of the stress that I built up during the workday. Saturday I had a graduation party to attend in Lake Geneva at noon, so I had to be out the door by 11:00-11:15ish, and the morning weather wasn't exactly all that great. Temps in the upper 40s, and clouds greeted me as I woke up and my intention was to get in a 2 to 2.5 hour ride before I had to leave. I couldn't get myself going knowing that it was cold and the house just seemed more appealing so I only ended up riding for 1.5 hours. I thought maybe I'd get a ride in after the party but when we returned home at 4:00 all I could do was think of a nice nap as it was still cold and cloudy and I ended up sleeping until 5:30ish. The nap was great though, no complaints there. I rested up Saturday night and knew that the forecast was iffy for Sunday so I really wasn't sure what kind of ride I'd get in and the plan was to wing it after I woke up. Basically Sunday started with some clouds and cooler temps again, the radar showed on and off showers with some clearing during the day. Eventually it cleared up about 2:00 so I jumped out for a 2.5 hour ride, and I finally did some hill work, and the verdict is in, I still suck at hills. I'm still at a hefty 194 pounds, although I've lost body fat, for some reason I just can't seem to shed the weight even though I'm eating well, maybe it's just all muscle? Hmmm. I doubt it, but I'll just keep working on my diet, keep getting the hours in on the bike, and eventually the fat will melt away.
This week the plan is to just ride as much as possible, although my boss is gone for the next week and a half so a couple of late days may creep in to the schedule and derail some training, I really hope not, my stress level is high enough already. The forecast looks great after today so the weather will not be a deterrent, and even the weekend looks good so far, I'll keep my fingers crossed. That's it for now, happy riding......

Not So Bad After All.....

2009-06-03T21:36:00.005-05:00

So I thought the high today of a balmy 59 degrees with 15mph winds would make for a miserable ride tonight. I was wrong, it was great. I put on the normal shorts and jersey, but also threw on knee warmers, arm warmers and a vest and that was more than enough. The sun was shining, well, for part of my ride at least, and the wind had died down by the time I started riding at 5:45. I took it fairly easy but still rolled along at an 18mph average and my average heart rate was 13 bpm lower with a .5 mph jump in my average speed than the last time I did this particular course 3-4 weeks ago. Training adaptation at its best. All in all I got in 50 miles after work tonight, it definitely was dark when I got done so thankfully I had my taillight blinking away and my headlight system going, no one could miss me (thankfully). The only bad part of such a long ride on a work night is finishing dinner at 9:30, now I'll probably stay up until 11:00ish so that I don't go to bed with too much in my stomach. I'm trying to cut down on weight so I didn't eat too much anyways, just some chicken with bread, a salad, and a glass of milk. I'll do the rest of my refueling throughout the day tomorrow to make sure I'm fueled up and ready to go for tomorrow night's ride.
Well, that's it for now, it was a great ride on a night that I wasn't really thrilled about, but it turned out for the better. I can't imagine what I'm going to say after tomorrow's ride when it's actually supposed to be in the 70s!! Whoohoo.

Century Day

2009-05-31T19:42:00.005-05:00

This is all that I'm saying today, too tired to type more.....101.50 miles, 5 hours 30 minutes. 18.5 mph. Not too shabby for a solo ride.

A Little of This, A Little of That.....

2009-05-29T07:42:00.004-05:00

Lots been going on lately, going to work every day of course, doing housework, riding my bike are at the top of the list. All have thus far presented no major challenges and any stress of the first two are muted by the release on the bike.
The biggest accomplishment on the bike this month has been the Drumlin Dominator that Dave and I did last Friday, 109 miles of fun on the Glacial-Drumlin trail from Waukesha to Cottage Grove and back. I have never done the full length of the trail before but it was great, with one exception where a section of the trail was under construction and it was very loose and bumpy, a bit like Paris-Roubaix....well, maybe not quite that bad. The length of the trail itself has all the amenities, there are bathrooms and water stops quite often and at the end of the trail in Cottage Grove there is a Subway only about a mile and a half away, along with other restaurants, including one right at the trail head. We chose Subway, it seemed healthiest, and it definitely tasted great. That day it was the best sub I'd ever had, it definitely hit the spot, and kept me going on the way back. We managed to do the 109 miles in just over 7 hours of ride time, not super great, but we took our time, and you have to remember that this is crushed gravel/packed dirt and we did it on trail and cyclocross bikes respectively. My ass hurt quite a bit that night and the next day, I managed to squeeze in an hour recovery ride on Saturday but stood up quite a bit. Sunday had me back in the saddle for 3 hours with not many issues. This week hasn't been so good though, Tuesday and Wednesday I was laid out with an underlying illness that just made me feel tired and gave me a sore throat, headache, etc., but I'm feeling better now and last night I managed 2.5 hours on the road bike. Tonight I'll be hitting up the bike again for 2.5 to 3 hours after work and then 3 hours again tomorrow. The big day will be Sunday when I do a 6 hour ride to try to get in another century this month, I really enjoy the long rides and the forecast is looking good. I used to do long rides and centuries as the norm for training in my past racing life, so that seems to be coming back now as to what I like to do again. Of course I'm getting proper rest as well, no worries there. Eventually this year I'm going to have to start my intervals and speedwork though as racing is on the horizon, Greenbush (a big maybe), the Whitewater RR, Omro RR, the Insane Terrain Challenge, and Race the Lake are the big events on my calendar for the remainder of the year so it's time to look at the base I have and decide if it's enough to move on to the next step. A couple of more weeks are in order for sure, but I can't take too much more time as those events are nearing pretty quickly.
Other than that, I'm still studying for my American College of Sports Medicine Personal Trainer certification, and will hopefully take the test in July at the earliest, August at the latest. Add that to my USAC Coaching cert which I'm already preparing to upgrade to a level 2 hopefully before the year is over as well, and I'll be feeling pretty good about my abilities to take on some coaching responsibility at some point this year or next year. I'm looking at a few other things as well, but those would be secondary after I complete the two primary objectives.
Just wanted to say that everyone should check out the Tour of America's Dairyland website as well, it's great that a Wisconsin promoter is putting on a race of this magnitude with nice, safe courses (Downer is iffy in that regards) and is even offering the chance to race the possible Olympic course at Blue Mounds, how cool is that? Check it out - http://www.tourofamericasdairyland.com/

Busy B

2009-05-06T10:13:00.005-05:00

Well, it's been a while since I posted, sorry to my 3 readers for the delay. It's been a busy year thus far, seems like last year I was saying the same thing. It turned out to be a less than stellar year in '08 after work duties kept me off the bike right around this time and I suffered for the rest of the year with a lack of fitness and a big appetite for fast food and beer. This year I've not been quite as busy at work, so I'm happy for that and riding has been consistent, well, other than weather related ride cancellations. I've had a couple of long rides, a 75 miler and a 94 miler, the rest have been anywhere from 60 minutes to 3 and a half hours. My fitness is coming around, I've lost a few pounds around the waist and I actually have a biker tan now, so that must mean the riding has been good. Unfortunately it's not been good enough to get back in to the local WCA races in the next month or so since I'm not quite in racing shape, but getting there. I haven't done any intervals, speedwork, or hill work of any kind so racing is just not an option right now. I'm just enjoying the rides right now and once I think my base is good, then the intervals and hill work will start, probably in the next 3 to 4 weeks. I'm looking at the closest race being on June 26th, the Greenbush road race, which is part of the Tour of America's Dairyland. I'll have lots of riding in by then and will feel comfortable with that as my first race. Other than that I think I may only do two other races this year, the UW Whitewater RR on July 4th and the Omro RR on July 5th. No StupidWeek crits for me this year, I'm just completely turned off of that race right now. The locations are crap, the organization is crap, and last year there were racers whom couldn't cash their prize checks because they were bouncing. The only race I may do depending upon whom they allow to do it, would be the Lakefront road race, but from the sounds of it they aren't using the long course, it's the old short course, which is fine, so we'll see I guess. I don't want to give them my money but it would be nice to get in another race. My goal this year, which is somewhat of a transitional year to shore some things up, was to do at least 3 races. I'd already have my 3 races in by then, so I'll decide after I do those. Other than that, I've got quite a few centuries planned, I'm also doing the Insane Terrain Challenge with my dad in July, Google it, it's 121 miles with 12,400 feet of climbing, insane is right! I've also got my own double century/twelve hour ride planned for July 19th, a week after the Insane Terrain ride because I'll be in optimal shape. A couple of years ago I wanted to ride as long as I could and ended up with 180 miles, this year I'm shooting for 200 miles or 12 hours, whichever comes first. I've never done 200 miles so it'll be a first and a major accomplishment for me, can't wait.
Anyways, short term, it's supposed to rain tonight and I have to go to my mom's graduation, she finished up her nursing degree, so she'll be starting a new career as a nurse (obviously). I'll be riding tomorrow and Friday and Saturday is iffy right now, temps in the 50s and 50% chance of rain. Sunday is supposed to be nice, and for at least a 4 hour window of the day I'll be in Burlington for Mother's Day so I'll need to plan a ride in the morning or the late afternoon or evening. Well, that's enough for now, don't want to overwhelm you with too much....until next time....

Thank goodness they took the

2009-04-20T19:24:00.001-05:00

Thank goodness they took the snow out of tomorrow's forecast. I think......

No Mas

2009-04-19T16:35:00.004-05:00

No Mas! That's what I was saying yesterday when I ended my 4 hour ride, I was pretty tired. It's been a while since I've done 4 hours, I can't really remember the last time actually, it had to be March or April of last year I'm guessing. I loved the weather though, sunny, warm, and hardly any wind. I did a big loop from New Berlin to Waukesha, out towards Mukwonago, back to Waukesha and then home. There were tons of riders, joggers, and families out walking, too bad today had to turn out like it did because I think everyone is ready for this weather to be here to stay. I wanted to do a century yesterday because I knew it wasn't going to be that warm for at least another week (maybe this weekend), and I declared earlier this year that I would do a century every month. Well, now it looks like I have to do that century this weekend, I don't have much of a choice, I'm sure I can manage on Sunday because Saturday there is a WCA race right by my house that I'm going to go over and watch for most of the day. I'll probably set up a grill and bring a cooler of beer, but then again, maybe I'll just ride over. So anyways, Sunday is the day right now for the century, the plan is to ride out to my parents house in Burlington, have some soda and a snack, say hello and turn around and come back. I'm also off of work, as much as possible anyways, this week. I have to do some e-mails and set up some network cutovers from home while I'm on vacation but I have to say it's better than actually being there. 6 days away from work will be great, yeah, it's only 6 because I was actually there working today for 2 hours to prep for vacation. It seems like there is always more work to do the week before vacation and the week after, so it's almost like not getting a break at all. Anyways, the plan is to ride for 3 hours or so per day this week, except for tomorrow which doesn't look all that great, and then do my big ride on Sunday. I'm really looking forward to it, no doubt about that. Other than that, I'll be doing some landscaping this week, housework, and just getting some odds and ends done. I'll also be riding with my dad out in Burlington one day this week too, not sure what he has planned yet but I'll try not to hurt him too much. Well, I'll give regular vacation updates this week and hopefully the weather cooperates for all my plans.

Detour In To Darkness

2009-04-09T07:45:00.003-05:00

Unfortunately a detour in to darkness is exactly what I got last night as I was out for what was a planned 90 minute ride which would get me home at 7:30, which happens to be sunset. Well, I didn't get home until 8:05 as I was about 3 miles from home and hit a closed road that detoured me about 2 miles back from where I just came, another two miles west, where I was earlier in the ride, and then finally home coming 3 miles from the other direction. It was pitch black when I hit the driveway and the only thing lighting my way home was the light from the cars which were surprised I'm sure to see a cyclist on the road at that time. Thankfully they were all polite and no one gave me the business for being out without a light. I say thankfully for them, not for me, because if anyone would've said something there would've been a throwdown, I wasn't in the best mood after having my HR pegged around 190 for 30 minutes trying to fly home. I need to figure out a way to get my shoes off quickly though during those times, they put cyclists at a definite disadvantage if someone gets out of their car. "Excuse me, can you wait while I get these shoes off, thanks..." usually won't cut it after you just hurled a verbal barrage at some redneck in a truck....not that I'm stereotyping people who drive trucks...or rednecks. That's experience talking though, especially riding on as many farm roads as I've ridden on, that's just the way it is. Anyways, it was a good ride in spite of that, I was pegged for 45 minutes at least of my 2 hour ride and the weather was perfect and there were lots of people out and about. I'm sore today though so the plan is to do a bit of a recovery ride for about 75 minutes and then relax tonight. I'll see what the weather holds the next few days but it looks o.k. so far so I'm thinking there are quite a few hours of riding in my near future. Chipotle is on the menu today with Dave, fuel for tonight's ride, can't wait.

Bliss

2009-04-05T19:45:00.005-05:00

Now my heart is full
Now my heart is full
And I just can't explain
So I won't even try to.....

O.K., maybe I'll try...........I rode 3 and a half hours yesterday, it was amazing, I felt great. I couldn't have had a much better day on the bike, well, if I had more time and more energy in reserves I guess there'd be that chance. Saw plenty of bikers, some groups of 3 to 4 riders. Those I chased and some chasers, none caught and not caught myself, but the excitement was there, my heart was full of cycling and it couldn't have been a better day.
Today was a cloudy, windy, cold day as predicted but I had nary a disappointing feeling, I was at peace knowing there are more days than not to come that were like yesterday. Looking at the upcoming forecast gave me hope that the next couple of days are winter's last hold on us, clinging desperately, but I have to say, NOT everyday is like Sunday, not everyday is silent and grey. I'm ready to ride, even if it does take a couple more days to do so....until then, here is how I spent my day....

Keepin' On

2009-04-03T09:45:00.009-05:00

If anything is "keepin' on", it's winter. Temps have been pretty good of late, but as typical of Spring we've been getting showers on and off so riding has been sparse, but there are obviously better days to come. Sunday isn't one of them though as we are forecasted to get either no snow or 4 to 7 inches "depending upon conditions" as the weathermen say. It's supposed to be in the low to mid 30s so my guess is that we'll get just enough to piss me off, but hopefully not enough to where I have to shovel. Either way, riding will not happen outdoors on Sunday. Today and tomorrow though look like adequate enough temps to ride outside so I'll be hitting the roads for about 75-90 minutes tonight and then hopefully 3 hours tomorrow for a couple of leisurely rides. Today is supposed to be 47-49 but with hefty winds in the 20-30mph range, so I'll get a workout whether I want it or not.
On another note, I've harped on this in the past, actually the last two years at this time, but it looks like the first WCA race will be cancelled again. I'll stand on my soapbox one more time and say - Why on earth are we starting races the first week of April in Wisconsin and finishing the season in July essentially??? It makes no sense, everyone can complain about working around Superweek and such and being wasted after that is over, but there is no reason that after a break of a couple weeks that WCA races can't resume through the first week of September. Don't schedule the first two races at least in April and move them to the back end of the schedule. If there is concern that people won't do those races because the "season" is done, then don't schedule any races in April and put 4 or 5 races after Superweek so that it forces the racers to go to those races if they want to get points. Anyways, it just wouldn't be the same if I didn't rant about this every year. I don't want to hear from mountain bikers and cyclocrossers either, if you do both and the schedules conflict then just make a choice which one you want to do, nothing will ever make everyone happy. And by the way, after all the Superweek issues last year I think they've gone down hill anyways, and with the first half of the schedule heavy with Illinois races, who really cares anymore, it's not what it used to be.
So here is where I went for dinner last night, it was o.k, nothing special. They just opened though so the menu is limited right now until they get going and they aren't really a "Brew Haus" yet as they don't have the permits but I was told they are expecting to either sell (their label) or make their own beer by summer, but I don't think the waiter really knew. They had the bare minimum of Miller, Guinness, Stella, Spotted Cow, and one or two others that I don't remember. I was expecting something different I guess since it just opened by my house and I was excited to go with the thought that I was going to get some new microbrew from them. When I walked in and didn't see any tanks I knew I was going to be disappointed. Oh well, I'll come back in 3 or 4 months to see if they've made any progress. If they don't live up to the "Brew Haus" name of actually making Brew then I don't think they'll last very long.

It's Gotta Be The Bike....

2009-03-28T11:42:00.008-05:00

....that's slowing me down, so had to get a new one. Unfortunately the steed won't see the road today, although I've been out for almost 4 hours on it the last two days and it's a beauty. It soaks up the road like the Cannondale never could, although I knew what I was getting with the Cannondale so I wasn't suprised and have always loved Cannondales by the way. But it was time for a carbon bike and I'm glad I took the plunge, this thing is like a Cadillac on the road as far as ride quality, but it feels like a dump truck heading up hills....oh wait, that's me that's the fatty dump truck. Actually the bike will fly up hills, if I weren't so fat I'd feel weightless on this thing, but as it stands I have some work to do with my fitness and then the GTR will do the rest. I blinged it out of course with some flames and lots of skulls, 14 to be exact. Yeah, it's not classy on the roadie scene, probably fitting in more with mountain bikers or cyclocross, but I'm a rocker and my favorite band is Avenged Sevenfold which rocks the skulls so I'm following suit. It's gotta be customized to follow my tastes, so that's that. I also added a lot of orange touches to it in the form of cable stops, crimps, handlebar plugs and spacers. I've got some Michelin Pro 3s coming in the nice Yellow Flash and Service Orange colors as well to liven it up. Nobody will miss me on the road this year. Check out some pics....you may not love the look, but that's o.k., we can't all be rockers at heart.....

Snowshoeing Anyone?

2009-03-27T10:36:00.005-05:00

So last night was not too shabby at all, lower 50s, but a bit cloudy and it did sprinkle on me a bit but that stopped after about 15 minutes. I was at work at 6:00 so was heading out the door at 4:00 with the intention of being on the bike at 4:30. I got home though and it was pretty dark and had just started raining so I figured I'd wait it out for 20 minutes or so. It started to clear up after about 10 minutes so I figured I'd head out and got out the door at 5:00. I got in a very nice 2 hour ride and if I had my light on the bike I would've ridden about 20-30 minutes more. There were a lot of people out walking, running, and riding, most of them probably figuring it could be the last time for the next few days. We are supposed to get anywhere from 4 to 9 inches of snow depending upon how cold it gets overnight, it might be a slushy mix, but there is no doubt that it will snow some at least. Either way it appears cycling outside is not going to happen this weekend so I'm looking at getting out the snowshoes if it does snow enough, we'll have to see what happens. If it doesn't snow enough then I'll probably just ride the bike inside for a little over the weekend to maintain fitness, maybe 90 minutes or so each day Saturday and Sunday. I'm not going to try to do what I was doing last year or the year before where I was riding 3 hours each day on the trainer if I couldn't get outside, I don't really have a reason to do that this year. It's kind of nice mentally because then I don't feel pressured and I can get some stuff done around the house too this weekend, maybe even relax by a fire in the fireplace (versus anywhere else in the house obviously). I wish I could've taken some pics last night to make this post more interesting, but my cell phone was tucked nicely in my jersey pocket under my rain jacket in case it started raining a lot so I wasn't going to try to dig it out.
In the meantime here is a link with a pic to Cole House, a Wisconsin local, who won a fairly prestigious race in Belgium for U23 riders, great job to him and good exposure for Wisco riders. Check it out......
http://www.usacycling.org/news/user/story.php?id=4073

Bahh....

2009-03-25T07:33:00.006-05:00

So I resigned myself to riding inside last night on the rollers and it ended up not being as bad as I thought it would be. I was realllly tempted to ride outside in spite of the wind and imminent rain but I had been at work since 6:00a.m. and just wanted to sit down for a bit after I got home, plus Melissa made lasagna so that was too much of a temptation. So it's 7:30 now and I've been at work again since 6:00a.m. this morning and I only got about four and a half hours of sleep after tossing and turning most of the night because I couldn't breathe really well. My sinuses are stuffed up and I was trying to mouth breathe as I fell asleep and the pressure on my sinuses just made trying to fall asleep difficult. But anyways, back to my original point, I did ride the rollers last night, only for an hour but it was something, so I'm happy with that. I believe it is supposed to stay dry today and temps will be mid-40s so I'm thinking of cutting out of work today at 4:00 or 4:30 and getting in 60-90 minutes on the road. We'll see how tired I am, but I'm guessing I can manage to perk up enough to ride, especially since this weekend isn't looking so good right now. I really don't have a plan right now for the week, just ride as much as I can and then this weekend I'll play it by ear with regard to the weather and how much I'll ride. If it's dry then I'll be out for 3 hours each day just to get in some miles. I'm not really looking at "quality" rides right now, no intervals or anything like that, just enjoyable normal rides to get some miles back in the legs. I've got some housework, of course, planned for the weekend as well. I'll be out in the yard trimming trees if it's dry, otherwise I'll be in the garage doing some Spring cleaning with the intent of getting rid of some old junk. I've got bike parts I need to get on eBay this weekend as well, along with my Cannondale frame but I'm still making sure my new rig is working well before getting rid of that. So far, so good.
Other than that, too bad about Lance, I was disappointed that he crashed (just think how he felt), I was really looking forward to seeing how he would do in his first Giro. Sounds like he will definitely be back for the Tour, but may skip the Giro or just do part of it. He probably won't be competitive as planned, but you never know with Lance, he's a very determined person.
Also, check out the WCA website, wicycling.org, and read the article about Paul Warloski, a local cyclist that got hit by a car recently. He's got a good blog about his rehabilitation and sounds like he is in good spirits. I live in the same area as Paul and have seen him out riding quite a few times, along with racing along side him in a bunch of races in 2007 before I upgraded last year. He seemed like a really nice guy so I wish him the best in his recovery.
That's it for now, until next time.....

Physics

2009-03-20T23:07:00.002-05:00

It sure is weird how time seems to drag during the week while I'm at work and yet the weekends seem to fly by so quickly. It isn't time space continuum because I think that's some sort of weird thing with time and space on some sort of linear plane or non-linear plane, spatial or something like that, 4-D maybe. Christ, I don't know, Google it. Anyways, hopefully this weekend drags on forever because the temps are supposed to be above 50 both days with some adequate sunshine beginning tomorrow afternoon and mostly cloudy skies Sunday but a bit warmer temps. I'm looking forward to doubling up with 3 hour rides each day, that's about my limit right now as I ride myself back in to shape. I'd like to do more but I'm trying to be smart about my riding and I don't want to overdo it right away as I play catch-up to those that have been riding throughout the winter. My weight is still not coming along as well as I'd like but I'm starting to turn the screws a bit and hope to cut it down fairly quickly. As the weeks progress I'll get in longer and longer rides and will start to get out to do some organized rides and maybe take a weekend trip or two to enjoy some hillier roads, Blue Mounds is on my list for sure.
On another note, I got my USAC Coaching certification so I'm now a level 3 coach (only) but will continue to learn as much as I can and hope to obtain a level 2 certification as soon as possible. I've got to figure out how I want to go about doing some coaching just to get some experience, I'll probably just start with friends and family that ride and some word of mouth, but at this point I'm not looking to take anyone on for payment, I need to organize things a bit first. I'm working on my American College of Sports Medicine Personal Trainer certification as well so I hope to tie them both together to do some coaching and training together, probably work part time at a fitness center as well. There is the Princeton Club by my house which is a huuggge fitness center, so a weekend job or weeknights there in the winter may be in order. No way I'd do it over the summer though, I need to bike or I'd go crazy. Well, more crazy than I already am. That's it for now, good riding to everyone this weekend, until next time.........

WTF???

2009-03-15T20:06:00.009-05:00

So I'll start with my great ride today, only 2.5 hours, but I was feeling sore from my ride yesterday...sore back, sore butt, sore shoulders, so it was good that I cut it a little short. Plus I did more yardwork today as well so that was more than enough combined with yesterday's ride and yardwork. I saw a lot of riders out today, maybe 6 to 8 total and at least twice that many joggers and walkers. It was a gorgeous day, warm and sunny, and thoroughly enjoyable.

Now on to the weird part of the day. I'm driving back with my wife from Pick N' Save here in New Berlin and as we are heading down National I see this big yellow truck and trailer in a parking lot between Culvers and a car wash. It's a crappy old parking lot that's used for a number of things, Christmas tree sales in the winter, people park their cars there to sell, cops sit there, it's really not used for anything. Today though it was used to park this beast -

I have no clue why it was there and I could only fathom a guess that it was filled with goodies that I would want and there was no one sitting in it. My guess is that they were driving to some event some where and stopped at Culvers to eat. I have no clue what could be going in Wisconsin at this time of year that would yield a visit from this beautiful Mavic truck, but I want to know. They didn't stop at my house and drop off a bunch of wheels so it couldn't have been anything too good. Oh well. Until next time.......

This Is More Like It

2009-03-14T19:43:00.003-05:00

Weather was pretty nice today, probably 45-47 degrees and not much wind, maybe 8-10 mph and I did my best to enjoy it. I got out this morning and did some yardwork up until about 11:30ish and then got out for an afternoon ride. It was great, the sun felt good, and my legs actually had a little zip in them. I'm a little sore now though and will probably feel a little less zippy tomorrow I'm sure. Tomorrow is supposed to bring some better weather and I'm really looking forward to it, hopefully another great ride of 3 hours or so. I did a couple of minutes under 3 hours today (literally 2:58), and would like to do the same tomorrow, at least that's what my planned route calls for as long as I stick to my projected average speed. I saw 4 or 5 other cyclists out there today and a countless number of walkers and joggers. It's great to see everyone enjoying the change of weather, but it's only March 14th, and the chance of getting more snow is still pretty good. I think back to last year and how we didn't really get rid of all the snow until the end of April I think or early May. There's no snow now though and none in the forecast so I'm happy with that. It's supposed to be in the upper 50s and possibly 60 this week but next weekend will be back in the mid to upper 30s. My plan is to get out and ride after work during the week for as long as daylight allows and then get about 6 hours next weekend.
On another note, looks like Contador was actually human today, although a hunger knock was the cause, maybe not so much his fitness, so I'm sure he's not so worried about what appears inevitable for the TdF, a victory. His team at Paris-Nice is definitely not the "A" team though so his supporting cast can't really be to blame, they just aren't that good except for Popovych, who is one of the few from this squad who will be on the TdF squad.
Well, that's it for now, until next time.........

Scary Sh*t

2009-03-12T22:23:00.001-05:00

Things To Come....

2009-03-10T09:33:00.003-05:00

Preview of things to come.......

Lovely Florida

2009-03-07T12:14:00.002-06:00

I'm out in lovely Florida right now for work, been keeping the eating under control, more than normal anyways when I'm out here. I'm feeling really good about coming back home and getting back on the bike without feeling like I gained 5 lbs, no major weight gain this time. I saw that it was nice for about 3 days while I was gone, but it looks like some rain and maybe even some snow this week when I get back. I'll try my best to bundle up and ride outside when possible this week, if there is too much rain then I won't bother but if the roads are just wet, then I'll probably be out there. Sunset will be about 6:50ish so that gives me time for about 60-75 minutes outside in the next week or two. I feel like the weather will turn for the better soon, I'll be getting out for some longer after-work rides and then hopefully a century or two in the next month. Yes, I said the next month, I'd like to get one long ride in every month, my goal is a century a month at least through October. I'm definitely excited for the year to start, now the weather just needs to cooperate and I'll be good to go. I'm still keeping the weight steady, I'm not exactly on schedule there to be at my goal weight for the end of the month, but I'm close. All in all, life is well, and it's now time to get back to work, since that's what I'm here for I guess.

2009-03-05T19:39:00.001-06:00

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NAHBS

2009-03-02T08:47:00.002-06:00

Check out more pictures of the North American Handmade Bicycle Show at http://www.newberlincycling.com/

For The Ladies

2009-02-28T15:35:00.001-06:00

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Scoots

2009-02-28T13:02:00.001-06:00

Scoots where are you?

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Zipp...Beautiful Dark Red Color

2009-02-28T12:09:00.003-06:00

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I Heart De Rosa

2009-02-28T12:03:00.002-06:00

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NEO Pro...Get It?

2009-02-28T11:58:00.002-06:00

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Money Well Spent

2009-02-27T09:16:00.003-06:00

Bill contains $1.125 million for Ice Age Trail

One of those perks tucked into the budget bill passed by the House this week provides $1.125 million for the Ice Age National Scenic Trail in Wisconsin.
All but $125,000 will be spent to buy land in Dane, Waukesha and Columbia counties, in areas where the trail now passes over paved roads. The $125,000 would be used to build hiking trail segments on the purchased land, according to Andrew Hanson III, the trailway director.
It would be another small step in the long journey to complete the 1,200-mile off-road footpath that marks the furthest southern reach of glaciers in the last ice age. Currently, about half of the trail requires hikers to trek on roads.
Hanson said the federal dollars would help generate allocations from the state stewardship fund and county coffers, and private donations. The federal allocation from the Land & Water Conservation Fund typically requires a local match of 50%.
Since 2000, the Ice Age Trail has received about $12.5 million in federal money for land acquisition and trail work and generated about $20.5 million from state and local sources.
State Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Madison) took credit for the federal windfall in a news release her office issued on Thursday.
"The Ice Age Trail is one of the great environmental treasures of our state and our nation," she said. "Preserving this trail and opening it up to the public is a gift and a duty to future generations."
The new infusion of cash follows two other recent gains for the Ice Age Trail: Wisconsin's Natural Resources Board voted 7-0 earlier this month to approve the purchase of 78.62 acres of land for the trail in Waushara County. The land will be purchased from the Ronald Motola estate for $220,200, of which 50 percent will come from federal Land & Water Conservation funds and 50 percent from Wisconsin's Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Fund.
In Washington County, the state and the Cedar Lakes Land Conservation Foundation combined to buy a 108.5-acre farm northeast of Hwy. 41. That land also will provide a route for a portion of the Ice Age Trail.

Credit: www.jsonline.com

My Weekend

2009-02-25T11:03:00.003-06:00

No riding this coming Saturday and Sunday, this is where I'll be. Good times!

Short and Sweet

2009-02-19T21:35:00.003-06:00

Well, I haven't posted much lately, just been busy, but I'll give a short update. I've been doing the best I can to ride as often as possible, but I've had a cold that has kept me limited to shorter rides and I've been sticking to my weight lifting program as well but had to miss a few days last week because of work related stuff. I'm on the uptick though with this cold and should be full strength again by this weekend. I don't want to go thrashing myself again though right away and the weather doesn't look all that suitable to road riding so we'll see what happens as the weekend progresses. I'm guessing some hiking on my snowshoe trails may be in order but since there really isn't any snow to speak of I will just use the hiking boots, no snowshoes. I'll hit the trainer as well and maybe I'll finally start my diet this weekend. I've lost a few pounds just by working out more, but I haven't changed my eating quite enough yet so that is the next phase of getting down to my goal weight. I'm gradually dropping it, but now March is coming up and it's time to get serious about eating well.
Other than that, I've finally sent out my USAC Coaching certification test so hopefully within a few weeks I'll get back my coaching license. Once that is good to go I'm starting on my ACSM Personal Trainer certification, that will take a bit longer though, lots of reading for that and quite a bit more studying involved, so I'm hoping by June I'll be taking that test. That is one thing I've wanted to do for a while and this year I'm going to finally get off my butt and get it done.
Well, it's time for bed, until next time........

Waiting?

2009-02-12T20:17:00.004-06:00

Last year didn't quite turn out to be the year I had hoped for on the bike. I started by training probably a little too hard in anticipation of racing with the Master 1/2/3 racers and ultimately my first few races turned out to be duds. I did 4 races before I got stuck with a project at work that consumed all of my time in the evening and I had no time to train, much less even be at home or sleep. It turned out to be about a 12 week project that physically and mentally drained me, I had no energy for cycling. It turned out to be one of the most depressing summers, maybe even years, that I've ever had. On the bike, but personally as well, it was a bad year for me. I thought that once I got back in the groove of riding in the fall that I could transition in to riding the trainer in the offseason and hit the trails on the snowshoes as much as possible. Well, once the winter came and we got all the snow that we did I hit the trails a few times but never really got the motivation up to ride the trainer as much as I had hoped. I took it easy this winter, did some weight training, gained some weight, and rode a few times here and there. I kept telling myself that I had plenty of time, "it's only November", or " it's only December". There was a lot of waiting for the winter days to pass, '08 became '09 and I said, "it's only January, I've got plenty of time". I'm not sure what I was waiting for, I didn't really have the ambition to be a top racer this year, maybe not pack filler, but I wasn't ready to commit the time it took to be a top 10 finisher on a regular basis either. I just wanted to race, be there, and be happy doing it. All throughout January I kept telling myself that I didn't need to be super, this year was going to be my build up year for 2010, the year I was going to give it all I got, really get back in to racing. My "A" race isn't going to be Wheels on Willy, or the State Road Race, but it is going to be the Masters National Road Race championship. I want to get back to some type of national level racing, be somebody on the bike again, and it was going to start with training this year in preparing myself for next year. This is where the title comes in to play now, "Waiting?", what do I mean by that? Well, I still haven't hit the bike like I wanted to, I'm still riding here and there, not really committing, I keep telling myself I have plenty of time, I'm waiting for something to hit me, to say now is the time. I haven't had that happen yet, and I just think maybe I'm being lazy, maybe I don't need something to hit me, maybe I need to just slap myself and say, "now is the time". I anticipate that 2010 will be a good year for me, lots of training this year, and a then I'll kick some butt, but what if I get hit with a heavy duty work project again? What if I can't compete like I want to in 2010, what if it's a wasted year like 2008? So I asked myself today, why am I wasting 2009, sacrificing it for next year, what am I waiting for? I decided that I just need to get back on the bike, really rock it as much as I can this year, there may not be a next year to do that. So I'm not waiting, I'll enjoy 2009 as much as I can, ride as much as I can, and although I won't be doing the Masters' Nationals, I will do the State Road Race, my "A" race this year. What are you waiting for? Let's rock 2009 together, see you on the road.

Back In The Groove

2009-02-08T16:49:00.005-06:00

The weather cooperated nicely this weekend and although a bit windy yesterday I'm not going to complain a bit. Today was cooler but less windy and that helped increase my average speed 2mph over yesterday's ride. Going 10 mph in to a headwind for 75 minutes sure does knock down the average. I took out the Pinarello yesterday because the roads were so wet and covered with salt, gravel, etc., that I didn't want to have to clean the good bike, plus the Pinarello has some nice cross tires on it that made me more confident that I wouldn't puncture or wipe out on any ice or snow. Well, that wasn't what I had to worry about, as about 2 hours in to my ride I felt my left leg moving around and looked down and my crankarm was about to fall off. I couldn't believe it, I had done maintenance on this bike in the Spring and rode it sometime in the fall and I'm not sure how the bolt got loose, but that definitely put a damper on the ride. I only had a 6mm Allen wrench with me and it needed a 7mm, so I tilted the wrench the best I could to grab the side of the bolt and got it tight enough to ride again. I had to stop every mile to tighten it, but eventually made it back home without it falling off. Of course I can't find my 7mm Allen wrench at the moment so the Pinarello got hung up in the basement until I do find it and then I'll take care of it.
Today's ride was not affected by any equipment malfunction and went off without a hitch, well, except for my lack of fitness which caused a malfunction in my legs but I'm definitely back in the groove and gaining fitness back quickly. I've lost about 5 pounds in the last week and a half just from the increase in riding and healthy eating. I should be down to 190 by the end of February which would be a 16 pound weight loss in a month, by the end of March I'd like to be down to 185 and then by the end of April I should be 180 which is pretty much my goal weight. Anyway, today's ride was a nice 3 hour jaunt through New Berlin, Waukesha, and Mukwonago and the sun and 38 degree temps were just fine by me. My cabin fever has been abated for another week at least and I'm hoping the trend will continue to where I can get outside again next weekend.
Tonight I will be relaxing by watching a few movies and having a pint of beer from the Riverside Brewery from one of my 3 growlers. Tomorrow is a vacation day from work so I'll probably do a little spin on the rollers amid getting things done around the house and heading out to get my oil changed on the Xterra. It's supposed to get cloudy and possibly rain during the afternoon and I have to be at the car dealer at 10:00 for the oil change so the chance of riding outside is pretty slim, I'll be fine with riding indoors after getting the 6 hours outside this weekend.
Well, that's it for now, time to run to Blockbuster and then back to help my wife cook some chicken wraps for dinner, until next time............

Jelly Legs

2009-02-02T09:12:00.004-06:00

My legs are tired today, a little sore but I'm sure by the end of the day I'll be feeling a lot better. I did more this weekend than I have in a while, and I finally got to ride outside again! Saturday I was out in West Bend for my friend Dave's trainer party and it was a great time. There were 8 riders there sweating it out for differing time periods over the 4 hours that we were there. I did 2 hours and 20 minutes, basically I had to stop because my ass started to hurt and I think everyone else was fizzling out as well and we were ready to be done. After a quick trip to check out the LBS, Pedal Moraine, we headed to Dave's to clean up before our trip to Riverside Brewery. Dave and I had a really good time at Riverside, they have really good beer and great food, probably not the kind of food I should've been eating but if you ever want a great Reuben sandwich, Riverside is the place to go. I took my 3 growlers up to get re-filled and came home with their Lager, Amber Ale, and Stout, I polished off half of the Lager already last night while watching the Super Bowl, it was perfect for watching the game and eating some taco dip. Before I consumed the taco dip and beer Sunday evening I got out for a nice ride outside for just under 3 hours in the afternoon. It was about 35 and sunny when I hit the roads, but the wind was between 15-20 mph which made it rough going heading out, but I had a decent tailwind heading home, of course the wind died down when I had it at my back. I am definitely out of shape, I need to get a lot of riding in between now and the time that some events start to hit my calendar. I'm obviously overweight so that's my key goal right now, lose about 15 pounds and also just to get in a lot of miles. I'm not so worried about intensity right now, I just need to ride and get my legs used to all this pedaling again. They didn't know what the hell happened after the riding I did this weekend, I haven't ridden that much in a while so they were sore but if I can just stick to my program I'll be good by the end of April most likely. By "good" I mean that I'll actually be able to go up a hill without puking in my mouth. I won't be racing though, I don't think I'll be anywhere near that "good". So anyways, the plan is to ride tonight, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday and Sunday. Tuesday I have to go to a Boy Scout thing for Xavier, and Friday is my normal day off. Hopefully the forecast will call for some good temps so that I can get outside again this weekend, I'm not even going to check though until Thursday, I don't want to get my hopes up until then. Well, that's it for now, until next time.

What Do You Know?

2009-01-30T08:32:00.021-06:00

So there is this thing going around Facebook and other blogs where people are throwing out 25 things about themselves that other people wouldn't know, or are just interesting facts about themselves. I figured I'd do the same on my blog, but in order to protect my reputation in regards to all the crazy things I've done or to keep my vulnerabilities a secret (I watch HGTV), I'll post 25 things related only to my cycling endeavours. So here goes. Some are old, some are fairly new, some aren't all that interesting, but this seems to be the rage right now so I want to be cool too. In no particular order -

1. Back in the 90s I used to be able to do sets of 10 to 15 repeats up Johnson Rd. hill (State RR course).....in my big ring. Since my comeback to cycling 3 years ago, my best effort was only 3 repeats...in my small ring. And I almost threw up.

2. See above....I almost always threw up after about 8 repeats, but ALWAYS finished the rest of them.

3. I've raced against Lance Armstrong.

4. From the time I was 11 years old to 23 years old, I never, EVER, got a saddle sore riding my bike. In the last 3 years I've had about 15, and I have no clue why.

5. In my previous 12 years of riding I owned two saddles, a Selle San Marco Rolls, and a Selle San Marco Concor. In my last 3 years of riding I've owned 6 saddles. Saddles were better back then, now a 400 gram saddle just wouldn't cut it.

6. I had never walked up a hill on a bike until I came back 3 years ago. 6 months in to my comeback I had to walk up part of the Blue Mounds climb. I'll never walk up a hill again.

7. Unlike a lot of people, I have no allegiance or preference for a particular tire maker. I've used Vittoria, Specialized, Hutchinson, Michelin, Vredestein, Continental, Maxxis, and Matrix (an old Trek brand). I have 3 wheelsets right now that I use for training and racing, all 3 have different tires on them (Vittoria, Specialized, Hutchinson). The only brand I would never use again is Vredestein.

8. Since I've started cycling I've owned 4 steel bikes, 5 aluminum bikes, and 1 titanium bike. The only bike I've kept throughout the last 21 years is my 1988 Columbus SL Pinarello Treviso, it is THE most comfortable bike I've owned. I will keep it until I die.

9. A very well known teammate (I'll keep his identity secret) on my old Chevy team had an affinity for picking up discarded roadside porn. I learned this on my first ride with him when he stopped to pick up something on the road. He caught up to me and I noticed a rolled up magazine in his jersey pocket, I learned when we got back to his house that it was just another item in his already extensive collection. I have never picked up roadside porn.

10. I've broken 3 helmets in crashes where my head has hit the road, because of those helmets I have never broken my head. I will never ride without a helmet.

11. From the time I was 15 until I was 18 I didn't lose a mountain bike race in my age class, I quit mountain biking when I turned 18 to concentrate full time on road racing.

12. When I was 16 I won the overall of the Minooka mountain bike race in Waukesha beating a guy in his 20s who had won 4 straight races prior to that. I only won because my dad, who was a really good mountain bike racer as well, unclipped his foot when we were sprinting up the steep hill to the finish.

13. See above...In spite of winning my age group I never won the overall of a mountain bike race again after that Minooka race.

14. I raced the Chequamegon 40 only once right after I turned 18, I bonked only half way through and finished in like 4 hours. At the finish line I threw up mud and sand because it had rained most of the week prior and I had my mouth open a lot. I never raced a mountain bike again after this race.

15. From about 1991 to 1996 my training sustenance consisted of at least 2 cans of Chef Boy R-Dee Ravioli a day, every day of the week. It was the perfect combo of sodium, carbs and protein, and it was cheap. I calculated once that I had eaten approximately 3,600 cans of CBRD Ravioli in that timeframe. I haven't eaten a can of Ravioli since 1997.

16. My racing weight in 1991 was 145, in 1996 it was 155. In 2008 it was 182, in 2009 it will be 180....maybe.

17. In the last 3 years I've gained and lost at least 25 pounds each off season in spite of training through the winter. This year I've gained almost 30 pounds.

18. I have never ridden a Shimano equipped road bicycle. When shifting Campy levers you press a button down to shift down, you move the lever up to shift up. Shimano uses two levers that both move up, even to shift down. Campy makes more sense and I like it better.

19. My next bike will be carbon fiber, I've never had a carbon fiber bike and want one for no other reason than I've never had one. Hopefully I like carbon fiber.

20. On a training ride when I was about 20 years old I had an aluminum stem snap off at the handlebars and I crashed right in front of a truck that was behind me. The driver of the truck swerved in to oncoming traffic to avoid running me over. No cars hit me or each other, I prayed a lot that night.

21. I've gone 59mph down a hill on my bike, my legs shook uncontrollably at the bottom of the hill out of fear. My dad has gone 61mph down a hill. I need to go 62 some day.

22. The longest I've ridden on a bike in one day is 180 miles. This year I plan on doing 200 miles in one day.

23. At the height of my training and racing career I was doing 550-600 mile weeks. The end of some of those weeks had me crying at the end of rides from overtraining/depression/insanity. I did not enjoy riding my bike then....at all.

24. As a kid I used to ride my bike to town to get food, shop, and to get to friends' houses. As an adult I have never used my bike to commute, or to go in to town to get anything at all.

25. Before I joined Chevy I had the chance to go race in France, I couldn't afford the plane ticket though or the bills I had to pay. I still wonder how different my life would've been, would I be sitting in this cubicle right now? Would I be married? Not sure, but I have no regrets about it. I'm probably better off now with the path I took staying here.

Well, that's it, maybe I'll make some more lists in the future, but at least now I feel like I'm part of the Facebook and blogging mainstream. Yeah, I'm cool.

Warm

2009-01-27T15:42:00.001-06:00

It's not really warm, but 17 degrees seemed mighty fine this afternoon compared to this past weekend. It's all relative I guess, 25 on Thursday and possibly even 30 on Saturday should seem like a heat wave. Other than that it will barely be past 20 degrees 8 of the next 10 days. On the bright side the average high by the end of February is 38 degrees, so we have that to look forward to.

A Case Of The Mondays

2009-01-26T21:44:00.002-06:00

No, this isn't Office Space, but just a bad day for me today. I have a bit of a sinus thing going on, an infection maybe, but it's killing the right side of my head, my teeth hurt, my right eye hurts and a little bit of an earache. On top of that I woke up to a cold house this morning as my 1 year, 5 month old furnace decided to take a dump overnight and I had to have a tech come out to look at it. He did some diagnostics, said it needed some cleaning (seriously? It's just over a year old!) and charged me $140 for the 25 minute visit. The furnace worked just fine after he left, so I guess I have no complaints. Of course it's all controlled by a circuit board with nice green and red blinky lights so I'm sure it's set to stop at certain intervals, hmmm, a conspiracy? I'm sure it's not, but dang, only after a year it's already giving me trouble. Such is life.
Well, I was off work today, but I will head back tomorrow, I'm about to jump in bed, get some good rest and hopefully I'll be feeling better tomorrow. No weights today obviously but I'll try to hit the bike tomorrow, riding seems to be a good way to get rid of sinus congestion as it's always running when I'm riding inside so maybe that'll help tomorrow to get rid of some of this junk. Well, I'm tired, and not inspired to type right now, so more tomorrow I guess.

Race Schedule?

2009-01-21T14:30:00.007-06:00

I put a question mark at the end of my title because it really is a question mark in terms of how the racing will pan out for me this year. I've really just started training so my season will not start right away, which is fine because I've managed to avoid a lot of trainer time in the basement by starting so late. As I've said in previous posts, I have no aspirations this year of being good, I just want to race in whatever shape I'm in, I'm not going to try to go all out and spend every minute of leisure time riding my bike. There is just way to much other stuff I want to do, and need to do (housework, right Lis?). So anyways, as my friend Dave said, it's best to declare something so that you have to follow through on it, well, I guess I don't have to but the 15 or so people that read this blog will know I didn't do it, so that helps to motivate me. So here is my tentative race schedule this year -

May 16th - Leland Gran Prix (very hilly road race), Masters3/4 probably since I'll still be in horrible shape. And fat. This is just a training race for the State RR.

May 31st - Sussex Crit, Masters 3/4, I'll still be slow.

June 6th - Backroads TT, Masters 1/2/3, since I can still be fat and do a decent TT

June 7th - State RR Championship, because it's in my old backyard, Masters 30+, no aspirations, just doing it for fun.

June 13th - State Crit Championship, Masters 30+, by this time I should be in decent shape, but still no aspirations, just for fun

June 20th-28th - Midwest Cycling Series, I'll pick one or two races from this, that's it, probably one of the weekend races depending upon the courses.

July 4th - UWW Road Race, Masters 30+, I enjoyed this course a couple of years ago assuming it's going to be the same

July 9th-26th - Superweek, one or two races for fun, probably Holy Hill if they still have that.

Well, that's it, should be a total of 8 races as of right now, that's plenty for me this year.

Football and Food

2009-01-19T09:46:00.004-06:00

This weekend was definitely a good one, I worked out quite a bit, got some things done around the house (not that much though), and watched the football games while drinking a few beers and consuming some BW3 wings at my friend Jason's house.
The weekend started out well with a chilly but sunny start to some snowshoeing on Saturday morning. I was out at Valley View by 10:30 and the sun was out but going away quickly as the clouds moved in, and about 30 minutes into my first loop the flakes started to fall. Nothing major, just small flakes and I kept on chugging along for 90 minutes worth of snowshoeing. It was a great workout and I was pretty wiped when it was over, I really pushed the pace up hills and my heart was pounding quite a bit. I got back home and had some tea and ate some soup and a sandwich and then hit the bike. I rode the rollers for two hours and my legs were pretty sore to start with, but I watched a bit of the 2006 Giro and then some random shows and forgot all about my sore legs. The rest of the evening was spent relaxing with the family after a nice chinese dinner of Sesame Chicken and Szechuan Pork.
I mixed it up a little bit on Sunday and skipped the snowshoeing since my feet hurt a bit from the day before and after eating a nice 4 egg omelet and some toast I hit the rollers for an hour and then switched it over to the trainer for another hour. I was happy to get in some quality time on the bike for once and ended the weekend feeling a lot better about my fitness than I did going in to it. I plan to keep up the same weekend routine for the next few weeks, lots of snowshoeing and a few hours of riding, hopefully some of it outside but this damn snow has to stop coming down.
After getting my ride in I did some work around the house; a bit of laundry, roof raking, and some vacuuming. Once that was all done I got ready and headed over to my friend Jason's house to watch the end of the NFC game and then we consumed a few beers and ate some wings while watching the AFC game. I have to say that the Cardinals are a big surprise, I would've never picked them to make the Super Bowl this year, go figure. Pittsburgh was one of my AFC favorites going in to the year but I just didn't think they'd make it all the way, but good for them and hopefully the game is a good one. It will be Arizona's offense against the Steeler D, and we all know how the offense vs. defense matchups have turned out in recent Super Bowl's, the D seems to win every time. Hopefully it's not a blowout.
As for this week, I have to work late tonight, probably until 7:30 or 8:00 and then I'll just go home and crash I'm sure after 12 hours at work. That means no weights tonight which has been the routine, and probably no bike ride either as I won't be eating dinner until 8:30ish I'm guessing. I'll be riding at least an hour each day the rest of the week, some days will be 90 minutes and will also do weights on Wednesday and Friday. I'm feeling good on the bike again so I'm looking forward to the workouts.
The WCA meeting was yesterday also so hopefully we'll have the schedule soon, last year it came out on February 1st, so I'm guessing we'll have it at about the same time this year. Right now I'm only planning on 3 or 4 races for the year, nothing until at least June, and then I'll decide on what I'm doing the rest of the year depending on how those races go. After the lengthy break I had in '08 and the not so great start to this year, in which I've basically started riding consistently last week, I'm not aspiring to do anything great in the races, I just want to compete for the fun of it. If I can stick to the plan, enjoy riding this year, get back on track 100%, then in 2010 I'll be looking to do a full schedule. I enjoyed racing in 2006 and 2007, last year just wasn't meant to be with other stuff going on, but hopefully I'll come back full force by the end of this year and really rock next year.
Well, that's enough for now, until next time.

Turtle

2009-01-15T15:35:00.010-06:00

Damn it's freakin' cold out, -7 right now, about -30 with wind chill. Oh well, I'm inside all the time anyways so it really only sucks when I have to take the dog out. I'm not riding outside or anything and can't snowshoe during the week so it's not really affecting me all that much. It looks like it's going to warm up to the lower to mid 20s by Saturday and Sunday so that's all that counts for me. I'll be snowshoeing at 10:30a.m Saturday morning at Valley View Park in New Berlin if anyone has snowshoes and wants a good workout. Meet at the Small Rd. parking lot. Anyways, I plan to do that Saturday and maybe Sunday but I'll probably do some longer trainer riding on Sunday and skip the snowshoes. This year is trending a lot like last year so far, hopefully the snow doesn't stick around well in to April. I'd really like to get outside on the bike without full arctic gear on. Just found out today that I'll be heading to Florida for work March 4th through the 8th, that'll be a nice reprieve from the cold weather here. I'm looking forward to it already.

In other news, I'm trying to start a community cycling resource for New Berlin and any of the surrounding communities, namely Hales Corners, Brookfield, West Allis, Waukesha, Muskego, Big Bend....and that's probably about the extent of the range I guess. It's mainly for New Berlin but since I ride a lot in Whitnall Park and out towards the Waukesha and Muskego area I figured that information for training rides and races, etc. would be pertinent for those areas as well. Basically the site has a calendar of events for future training rides and group rides in the area (once the weather gets warm and they actually start), and I'll post WCA events and pretty much anything bike related I can find. The site also has a forum to discuss any of the rides or events and also where people can talk about training tips, bike maintenance, nutrition, or whatever they want. Photos and videos can be added, members can maintain their own blog, and manage their own page. You can visit the site at newberlincycling.com. Check it out and sign up.

A Good Winter Day.....

2009-01-10T21:19:00.004-06:00

....For some snowshoeing. I got up this morning and had some oatmeal and espresso and headed out the door to Valley View Park for two loops of the trails. It was not a bad morning, temps were in the mid 20s, it was cloudy but not breezy, and I was bundled up so I was feeling good. I'm fairly out of shape so 90 minutes on the snowshoes was more than enough for me, I was already better than the last time I went though and could have completed another quarter of a loop more in the same time if I wanted. No bike ride today, feet are sore from being on them more then I'm used to so tomorrow will be a two-session bike day and I will take the day off from snowshoeing. I'll do a roller ride in the morning and then a trainer ride in the afternoon or evening tomorrow while watching the 2006 Giro, a dominating performance by Basso, hopefully pre EPO/CERA/Blood doping. I have to also say I feel bad for my parents down in Burlington, only about 35 minutes away but in the last two days they got about a foot of snow and I only got about 3 inches, it's amazing how only a 25-30 mile difference can have such a disparity in the snowfall. Good for me though, too bad for them.

STARTING THE DAY OFF RIGHT!

NO SKIING TODAY, SNOWSHOES BABY!

This And That.....

2009-01-08T16:14:00.006-06:00

We are in the doldrums of winter now, heavily entrenched in cold temperatures and random snow showers, the pattern of snow every other day has abated for now. We are supposed to get 4-6 inches of snow tomorrow and then the temps are going to dip to a sack-shriveling high of Zero on Tuesday with a low of minus Five. Riding will be near impossible this weekend with highs of 24 on Saturday and 22 on Sunday along with a chance of snow, but snowshoeing is not wind or temperature dependent as it IS meant to be done in the snow and outside, so I'll be hitting the trails both days. After some morning trail sessions I'll hit the trainer and rollers in the afternoon both days, but not likely for all that long, maybe 90 minutes to 2 hours each day. There is only something like 57 days until March 1st, 58 days until Daylight Savings time, that actually doesn't seem like all that far, and those dates are like a turning point for me in enhancing my mood as Spring seems close at that point and with it the nicer weather. I'm sick of the cold and snow already, but everyone has to deal with it and I will too, I can still be sour about it though....except when I'm snowshoeing, I do enjoy that. Not much other news of late or on the horizon, pretty much just waiting for some good riding weather, namely any day that doesn't have snow or isn't below 25 degrees. Oh yeah, as far as biomechanical deficiencies, I'm doing pretty good now since I've lowered my seat and moved it forward a bit, no leg rub and I'm feeling pretty straight. My left leg still tracks in a bit towards the frame but not nearly as bad as before. I'm not stressing about it anymore so basically that is good enough for me regardless of whether I feel perfect anymore, I don't think anyone ever feels "perfect" on the bike, we just get as comfortable as possible and I'm there right now.

I guess since the new year has started I better make some declarations about what I want to do this year, or think that I want to do, if that makes sense....maybe I won't do everything and maybe my goals will change but it's good to have a starting point so I've listed a few things below.

(Not in order of importance, just a random order)

1. Do a 200 mile solo ride in 11 hours or less

2. Do the MS150 - because it's for a good cause and it's not a race

3. Ride up Blue Mounds 5 times in one training ride

4. Be in good enough shape to finish the State RR Championship

5. Ride with my wife at least once a week

6. Maintain my weight at a steady 180-185, see previous post about racing weight

7. Do an overnight ride on the Glacial Drumlin Trail to Madison and back

8. Finish in the top 10 of at least one Masters 1/2/3 WI Cup race

9. Start a weekly group training ride out of New Berlin in the style of the Doc Ride or Centennial Ride - but not at the same time as either of those

10. Stay upright, stay healthy and enjoy my rides - yeah, that's 3 but encompassed in one goal.

Well, I suppose 10 is enough for now, I don't want to get too ambitious and fail miserably in attaining all of them.

Starting The New Year Right

2009-01-01T21:56:00.004-06:00

First ride of the year on the first day of the year......................

Snowshoeing....Without The Snow...and the Snowshoes

2008-12-29T19:21:00.012-06:00

Yesterday I decided to finally get off my butt and do some exercise and with the heavy winds it really wasn't in the cards for me to try to jump on the bike and head outside. So I decided to snowshoe instead and knew that it might be difficult with the snow melt that we had Friday and Saturday but figured I'd give it a whirl anyways. I headed over to the park by my house where there are some nice trails in the woods and thought that maybe there'd be enough snow in the woods to actually be able to use the snowshoes. Well, it turned out I was half right as I made my way around for the first loop, there was enough snow in only some spots but for the most part the path was either completely iced over or pretty barren as far as snow goes. I decided to hoof it without the snowshoes and just laced up the hiking boots and gatorz and took off in to the woods. I was the only person in the whole park so it was a wonderful 90 minute jaunt to take in the serenity of the day without other human noise to muck it up. My only other visitor on the path was a stray Doberman Pinscher that was walking on the path ahead of me. He did not have an owner with him, he was basically enjoying the day walking through the woods by himself. I stopped in my tracks when I saw him and let him get ahead of me a bit but I did eventually follow him and kept my distance before he turned off towards some houses about a mile down the trail. He was a big boy and no doubt I would've been seen as either a play companion or lunch if he would've seen me. I had my poles with me so I was ready to defend myself if needed, thankfully it didn't come to that. The only other real adventure of the day was when I had to traverse a river crossing, it was quite dangerous, I almost got my feet wet when I hopped over it, it was nearly a rapids to say the least.

THE RAPIDS - Don't try this at home kids!!!

SOME SNOW - It was still pretty hard packed though

NEW BERLIN ICE FLATS - I needed my poles to keep me from slipping out

Not A Lot Going On

2008-12-18T14:20:00.002-06:00

Just thought I'd give an update even though I really have nothing to say, it's been a crappy winter, about the same as last year with the snow. No riding of late, basically been sitting on my butt getting fatter again. I hope to get out and snowshoe this weekend but it will be a busy weekend getting the house ready for the wife's family on Christmas Eve. That's about it for now, barely worth the effort to type it but figured I would anyways. Happy Holidays.

Winter Days Are Here Again

2008-12-09T09:08:00.002-06:00

Well, winter weather is certainly here to stay, no road riding on the horizon any time soon. It might be good enough to get the mountain bike out after the roads are cleared but the forecast is calling for more snow later in the week, and part of the weekend. That means that I get to take out the snowshoes this weekend and hit the local trails for the first time since probably February or early March. I'm excited to get out in the woods and enjoy the solitude for an hour or two, last year I was almost always the only one out there, it was great. Maybe I can get my wife out there this weekend, we have a busy weekend planned with some cleaning for X-mas, but I'm sure we can spare the time. Other than that, I've been hitting the weights on a regular basis, although I missed two days in the last two weeks due to working late and then just not feeling it one day. I'm actually feeling stronger with the weights this year than I was last year at this time, I'm about 10lbs higher for each exercise and it feels noticeably easier. I rode the rollers last night and will be riding again tonight after shoveling, which looks like it's going to suck as the snow that is coming down is of the wet, heavy variety. If I don't throw my back out I'll do just an hour on the rollers again and watch more of stage 13 of Le Tour since I started it last night, and I DVRed the whole 5 hours of coverage so I have enough to ride most of the week just watching one stage. That's about it for now, it's Potluck Lunch today at work so I've got wings, chili, BBQ, roast beef, cheese and sausage, chips, soda, etc. to munch on today, I'll try to keep the fat intake to a minimum but it will be difficult.

Trainer Party Pics

2008-11-29T21:18:00.009-06:00

THE DAY'S REWARD

Turkey Day

2008-11-26T16:26:00.004-06:00

Not much to report right now, ready to eat lots of food tomorrow, and bike at some point too, maybe. Basically just ready to eat lots for sure. Bought some Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale and Point's St. Benedicts Winter Ale, will drink that as well. Yum.

Um, Is It Spring Yet?

2008-11-18T15:29:00.003-06:00

How about that little snowfall we had yesterday, I've never seen .20 inches of snow cause so much trouble as it did last night. My drive home took 60 minutes, it's normally 15. I passed 3 accidents and countless cars that couldn't get up a 3% grade because it was too slippery. Luckily the 4WD Xterra had no problem going up hills, unfortunately I had trouble going down them though as no amount of 4WD was stopping anyone heading downhill. I had to lay on my horn once so that the guy in front of me knew I wasn't stopping as I was sliding downhill towards him. He took off just in time as I finally slid to a stop right where he had been. Way too much fun for me, can't say I want to do that anytime again soon.
Anyways, if you've read my previous posts the last week or so you've seen that my body is constantly adapting to my position fixes and screwing itself up as fast as I can fix it. I thought I had the problem resolved with some stretching and position changes but my body quickly figured out how to circumvent my fixes and get itself all screwed up again. I rode about 3 times in my new position and it felt pretty good, but not great, at least I wasn't rubbing the seatpost for the most part. I took two days off the bike and when I got back on this past weekend my leg was rubbing again. I never took the bike off the trainer, didn't move it, no changes at all. So how could it work fine one day, then a couple days later I was back to rubbing on the seatpost? Well, who knows I guess, that's what I've been having trouble explaining. It seems every time I think I'm good, things go wrong again a short time later. So, this weekend after trying to ride multiple times I finally did some more position changes and got pretty close to square on the bike again. I will be back to hittin' the trainer again tonight and we'll see how I feel. I'm hoping as long as I keep up my stretching and concentrate on what my body is trying to do, that I can overcome whatever structural issues come up again. Basically it's back to square one again, I've kind of been on and off the bike a bit the last couple of weeks so it's time to try to get on a regular program and make sure I stick to it as long as I have no issues. Normally I'd be doing more hours on the bike and things like Muscle Tension intervals and FastPedals, and Tempo work already, but for now I'll just be concentrating on riding and working on my form for the next month or two. I was off quite a bit this summer so it's back to the basics. I don't feel the need to catch up to everyone because I'm not really looking to race heavily like I was hoping to this past year, I may do 3-5 races next year, I don't really see myself being able to do much more than that since I probably won't start until the 3rd or 4th race of the year. I'm going to do probably the two important ones just for fun, the State RR and the State Crit and then not really sure what else, it's all up in the air. So anyways, that's the tentative plan, and of course I can tell you with 100% certainty that it will change, that's how things usually go.

Status Quo

2008-11-13T14:53:00.003-06:00

Well, not much has been going on since Monday, it's been pretty status quo. This is the time of the year where the training gets pretty monotonous, the weather gets crappy and there isn't much to talk about. There are no road rides to describe during the week since I'm always in my basement, the view is always the same. The weather has been crap all week, basically a constant drizzle, mid 40s, typical November weather. I've been in the weight room twice this week and doing the weight workouts feels really good, no complaints from the muscles. I was a little sore the first day and after that I've felt really good every time I've lifted. I'll be doing a few more weeks of lighter weight, high reps and then I'll move up to a higher weight, medium number of reps, and then finally I'll do power work later in the winter. It's good to have Dave up in the weight room with me, I get to talk bike stuff the whole time and it's great motivation to get my butt up there, some days I might have just gone home if it was just me. Hopefully having me there gives him the same motivation, from our conversations I'm pretty sure it does.
As far as riding goes, I'll be riding tonight and tomorrow and both days this weekend as well, although riding inside or outside is yet to be determined. Temps in the mid-30s and a slight chance of snow and rain are in the forecast, seems riding outside is doable at this point. I'll decide tomorrow though and plan my routes out appropriately tomorrow night to get the most out of routes that are a bit sheltered from the cold and wind. I'm thinking this weather will keep most people out of a park by my house that has some trails so some mountain biking might be in order for fun.
I know I have to do a beer review tonight or tomorrow, it's been too long, I'll be drinking a beer tonight so I'll have something to throw on the blog for your reading pleasure, or to bore you even more. Either way. Well, that's it for now, until next time......

1+1+1=3

2008-11-10T11:35:00.004-06:00

You're looking at the title and probably thinking, wow Brian, you are really smart, you can add. Uh-huh, I'm practically a genius. Actually the numbers refer to how I had to break down my training this weekend so as not to die from trainer-induced boredom. I decided I just couldn't ride on the trainer for more than an hour at a time yet for a couple reasons, one is that it's really boring, and two is that I needed to get some things done during the day this weekend. I had to split my workouts to be able to get in a full 3 hours yet accomplish some yard work and house work as well and the best way to do that was to ride once in the morning, once in the afternoon, and then once again at night. I did One-Legged pedaling in the morning, mainly for the benefit of my weaker left leg which is part of the cause of some of the biomechanical issues I've been having. I basically did a 15 minute warm up and then did 5 minutes on, and 5 minutes off for the remainder of the ride. In the afternoon I did Muscle Tension intervals, for these my reps increase to 10 minutes on and then 10 off with only a 5 minute warmup. I did these in the 53x13 at about 55 rpm and really concentrated on pulling through the whole pedal stroke, it was definitely a good workout. My night ride was a nice recovery type ride just to clean out the legs from the two workouts earlier in the day and to burn a few calories that I desperately need to get rid of.
The rides felt pretty good actually and mainly because I did a couple things to help out the issues I've been having. One is that I changed my position on the bike to something that opens my hip angle a bit more and put one more Lemond Wedge in my left shoe, and two is that I've been very diligent in doing my stretching and yoga. The stretching has been a huge help, my hamstrings, hip flexors, and back muscles were super tight and I've cranked the heck out of them in the last week. The yoga then helps strengthen my core and helps with some added flexibility. I've noticed the difference on the bike and have significantly improved the clearance on my left leg from the seatpost, I can actually ride without rubbing my shorts against the post now. I'll definitely be keeping up the routine of 30-45 minutes of stretching and 30 minutes of yoga every night for the foreseeable future, it doesn't take a lot of time and the benefits are well worth it. If it prevents me from going crazy on the bike, then why not. So, that means that I'll be back on the trainer for this week after taking last week off the bike to get back on the straight and narrow (literally). The weather is getting worse but like I said in my previous post, if it's not raining or snowing hard then I'll be out on the weekends. Eventually when the bad times come (that would mean snow), then I'll get back out and do some snowshoeing which I had a lot of fun doing last winter. That's it for the training stuff for now....
......Not much else going on, I did some bathroom work this weekend as well. Basically I'm re-doing the walls in our half bath because the previous owner had so many patches and paint splatters and some crazy popcorn type paint on one wall that they needed to just be completely re-done. I've got one more wall to go but that one is going to be tough, it's the wall with the sink, built in cabinet and the toilet, so it won't be easy to work around. After I'm done I'll re-paint it all, put in new molding, and it will look brand new.
I also finally replenished my beer stock this weekend with a Sam Adams Winter Variety pack which includes the standard Boston Lager, and also the Winter Lager, Cranberry Lambic, the Holiday Porter, the Cream Stout, and the Fezziwig Ale. All of them are good beers and now that I have something to review I'll put up a couple of reviews this week.
That's it for now, until next time........

Slow Burn

2008-11-06T14:12:00.004-06:00

Slow burn, that's what it feels like to do yoga and the deep stretching that I did last night. It's not like a sprint on the bike or intervals where all of a sudden your legs and lungs burn, it's a deep, slow ache as the muscles stretch, and during yoga as I move in to the different positions. I really needed to get back on track with my core work and stretching as I've been neglecting that of late. I'm taking a few days off the bike while I repeat some of my physical therapy exercises that I was doing back in the beginning of the year. I need to stretch out my hip flexors, my hamstrings, and strengthen my core a lot more. I was pretty loose in the Spring after PT but have since tightened up again and I feel it when I'm on the trainer since my bike has no lateral movement. On the road I can compensate for my tightness by leaning my bike, sorta like I'm riding in a major crosswind, my bike is angled relative to the road. I can't compensate for that on the trainer so it's difficult to ride comfortably. Soooo, back to basics with the stretching and then I can get back on the bike hopefully tomorrow or Saturday once I feel a little better about the tightness I'm having. Tonight I'll be doing the same thing as yesterday, about an hour of stretching, and then 30-45 minutes of yoga. The yoga helped to relax me as well last night and I think I slept better than I have in a while.
This weekend looks like crap right now so we'll see what the plans are after I check the forecast again tomorrow night. I worked on the Pinarello last night to get that ready in case I feel like riding a bit in the rain on the road, and I'll get the SS ready tomorrow in case I feel like riding on some trails near my house. I could care less about the colder temps, I'll ride down in to the 20s, but I don't want to ride if it's pouring and I could get wet AND cold, that's a recipe for sickness for me. We'll see how much it's going to rain and then go from there, either it will be a decent weekend in the cold outdoors or if it rains too much then I'll swap between the rollers and trainer depending on how my muscles feel. Either way tomorrow will be weights as well after work, doing all lower body stuff, lots of reps with lighter weight.
I know I haven't posted a beer review in a while, I'm actually out of beer right now so I need to make a run this weekend, especially if it's cold. I'll be inside and will be working on the house, so might as well have a beer or six. ....or more. Anyways, that's it for now, until next time.......

More Beer, Less Biking

2008-11-04T20:49:00.009-06:00

That is what's in the works. I'm going to put my off-season trainer riding on hold for now until I figure out my asymmetry issue that has plagued me since I started riding again in 2006. I still can't ride the bike without rubbing my left leg against the seatpost, I've worn completely through two pairs of short legs riding this way and deformed the left side of two saddles in two years. I'm done riding until I can figure that out, I'm just completely perplexed, it's really freakin' pissing me off. More beer drinking for now I guess, less riding.

Seriously, WTF???!!!!

Let The Sun Shine Down...

2008-11-02T18:14:00.007-06:00

...on me today. There was supposed to be a bit of rain in the forecast today and when I checked the radar this morning after I woke up there were spots of rain out west and a bit north of us. I figured I'd do some yard work for an hour or two and then check again to see how close it was going to get by 11:00 or so. I picked up some leaves for a bit, mainly cleaning them from out of my bushes and flower gardens and then checked the radar again. It was looking pretty good and right around 11:30ish the sun actually came out, but of course I had planned on watching the Packer game at noon to see if they could beat the Titans. It was a bit of a conundrum but I decided that a ride in the sun outweighed the Packers today, this could be my last chance for a sunny ride in 50-something weather, although I really, really hope not. I decided to keep it short today though, only 2 hours, for two reasons; one, I decided to do one hour of stretching and calisthenics, and one hour of yoga this evening as well as the ride, and two, I rode 4 hours yesterday and my butt is sore. I did a pretty flat route from New Berlin to Big Bend then to Waukesha and back to New Berlin. No other bikers out there today and I only saw one runner as well, everyone was either finishing their end-of-year yard work or inside watching the Packer game. So where were you all? Anyways, it was a great ride, I felt really good, the weather was nice and the only problem was my previously mentioned sore butt. Tonight I'm going to do some stretching, crunches, leg lifts, push ups, and then an hour of yoga as well. I'll be starting that at about 7:00 and then after that it will be close to bed time. My boss is out Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday so I have a feeling the first part of the week will be a little hectic, I better rest up so I'm not crabby at everyone when I'm getting hit from all directions. Well, no pictures today, that's it for now, until next time......

How Many?

2008-11-01T16:56:00.006-05:00

How many days do we have left like today, it wasn't exactly the warmest but it is November 1st, I'll take mid-50s and sunny any day of November. I'm not going to do a full re-cap right now because it's dinner time and I'm really hungry but I did 4 hours today from New Berlin to Waukesha back to New Berlin and then went on the Oak Leaf trail to Franklin and back home to New Berlin. It was a great ride, here are some pics for now, more to come later.

Ready To Embark

Oak Leaf Trail Bridge
Fox River Trail

I Feel....

2008-10-30T10:18:00.003-05:00

....a vacation day coming on tomorrow. The weather has been kind of crappy of late but I've been stuck at work anyways during the day so what does it matter really I guess. It looks like tomorrow is supposed to be really nice though so I've decided to take a vacation day to get in a long ride. Right now a long ride for me is 4 hours, anything more than that right now and I'd keel over, that's about my max at the moment. After my ride I'll be showering and changing quickly to go to lunch and drink some beer with my friend Jason, that should make for a nice afternoon to relax my body after the ride. Not the greatest recovery for a longer ride but beer has carbs in it so I'll be replenishing my glycogen stores, um, I think. Hopefully we have as good a time as our last endeavour to Ray & Dots and Bennos, this time we won't drink the new Schlitz though, that stuff is nasty. So, I'm looking forward to a good day, it's a good way to celebrate Halloween and close out October.
As far as weights and bike training go, I forgot I had to work late last night and even though I brought all my workout clothes I had to fore go my lifting and head home. I didn't want to be eating dinner at 7:30 so I decided to just lift tonight instead and then obviously I'll skip it tomorrow since I won't be at work to utilize the facilities. Monday it will be back to the normal lifting program, I hope. I rode the rollers last night as well, another 75 minutes, and I felt pretty good. I watched about 45 minutes of a lame movie, "Stuck", about someone being hit by a car and then left in the windshield for dead while I was riding but I had to turn it off because it sucked so bad, I wouldn't recommend renting it. Other than that, the weekend weather looks pretty good although Sunday could be iffy for a little rain so hopefully I'll get a lot more yard work done and the plan is to do about 3 hours each on Saturday and Sunday on the bike as well. DST ends on Sunday as well and I'm not looking forward to the extended darkness, I'm going to have to start tanning or something to get my fix of radiation. That's it for now, until next time.........

Sore Start

2008-10-28T21:33:00.007-05:00

Well, yesterday was the first day of weight work for the off-season and I have to say I was pretty sore today. I guess underneath my fat I actually have abs because they hurt today, my legs were pretty sore as well but after getting the blood flowing on the trainer tonight they are doing much better. I'll be back to hitting the weights tomorrow, I'll do different muscle groups tomorrow, more upper body and core stuff, and then will go back to the lower body on Friday again. Tonight was just a short ride on the trainer, only 75 minutes but it was more than enough for me since the first few rides in the basement are always the hardest. Jeez I hate riding inside. Anyways, not much else to report, here are a few pics of my newly cleaned bike below. A clean bike is a happy bike.......

Yardwork, Yardwork, and More Yardwork

2008-10-27T10:45:00.004-05:00

Yeah, that was the theme for the weekend. The forecast called for a chance of snow showers overnight and possibly today, but thankfully I haven't see anything resembling snow yet. When I saw the forecast on Friday I knew that it was time for me to get some remaining yard projects done before the weather really takes a turn for the worst, the high is only supposed to be 39 today for cryin' out loud. So I made my list and set about finishing as much as I could over the weekend. Saturday I didn't accomplish as much as I had hoped, I think a combination of the wind and the persistent clouds made it difficult to get motivated. I slept in a little bit and then did some things around the house and then took a nap, it's hard work doing nothing you know. After waking up I did some more cleaning around the house and then basically called it a day, my motivation was completely lacking so I said, "there's always tomorrow". I think the onset of SAD is to blame for my dismal attitude, that would be Seasonal Affective Disorder, I think I get that at the onset of the first cold days of the Fall, I have some ideas to combat though this year, hopefully they work. Anyways, Sunday was a new day and I was full of energy (probably from the 13 hours of sleep) and the sun was actually out although it was still windy and a little chilly. I think the sun provided the motivation I needed to get out and I took full advantage of it until it finally set just before 6:00. I cleared the lawn of all those stinking leaves, I really wish they would have all blown off the trees yesterday but I still have quite a few trees yet that have to get rid of them so there will be at least another week or two of raking. I also mowed my lawn again with the push mower, that always takes about two hours as my lawn is a decent size. After that I decided to work on splitting logs and after maybe an hour and 50 or so logs I decided that my arms and shoulders couldn't take it any more. Cyclists are built well in the lower body, our upper body isn't meant for all this manual labor and I'm feeling it today, my arms are hurtin'. After splitting the logs I stacked them all up in front of the house for easy access once we start using the fireplace, I used the wheelbarrow to move them so that really wasn't all that much work. Once the logs were stacked I decided to do some transplanting of my Iris bulbs to extend the flower bed on the side of my house. I think I hacked a few of the bulbs so hopefully they recover and come up in the Spring. A new, thin layer of top soil and compost was laid over all the Irises and they are now set for the winter. The next and last project of the day was to take some lawn edging that has been sitting in my garage for about two months and dig a little trench and put that around the shrubs and flowers surround my garage. An hour later I was all done with that and called it a day as it was time for some dinner. I had thought about riding the trainer but I was too sore for that so decided to do some yearly maintenance on the Cannondale. I replaced the brake and shifter cables, took off the bottle cages and cleaned up the 4 or 5 layers of Accelerade that had built up over the year, gave the bike a good washing and put on some new bar tape. I still need to replace the chain and clean the cassettes but I'll do that more towards the beginning of the new year as this chain still has a little bit of life yet, very little, but enough to get me to January. I will be doing maintenance on the Pinarello (my road bike with cross tires) this week as well as that will be my winter bike. I didn't use that much last year so that will just get some cable cleaning and lubing, a chain cleaning and a good washing. The Specialized will get worked on next week and that needs quite a few things done to get it back to riding shape, basically it was used this year as a parts bike for my Cannondale, so a few things need to be replaced with other spare parts that I have laying around. I'll also get the SS all lubed up next week and ready to ride as well as it will be taken out in the rain and snow and I'm sure that crap is coming soon. That's about it for now, the plan is to start weight work tonight and do that Monday, Wednesday, and Friday until about the end of March. I'll also be hitting the trainer on a regular basis now, basically I'll try to stick to a more concrete plan instead of just riding when I feel like it. It's time to get off my fat butt and get going again, I'm not looking to lose a ton of weight this off-season, but 198 lbs. won't cut it either. Well, that's it for now, until next time.........

Too Much Beer....

2008-10-24T09:05:00.004-05:00

.....and not enough biking. That was the theme last night as we had a celebration at Chammps for work and pretty much my whole evening was spent consuming Guinness and pulled pork sandwiches, oh yeah, chicken wings too. It was a good evening spent with co-workers in a nice relaxed atmosphere, of course everyone is relaxed because they are consuming lots of booze right? Definitely. It was all free, all night, which a lot of people took advantage of to the fullest. Loaded up food plates and bottomless glasses were the norm as I looked around the restaurant. I enjoy people watching at these events because when you get co-workers out of their comfort zone in the cubicles or get to see what they actually wear when they don't have to wear the business outfit, it's pretty amusing. I was drinking soda the second half of the evening so when others were starting to slur their words I was getting sobered up, that was the best part of the evening. "I shink I'd haf tooooo mush to drink, but dish ish reallllly a goot time"....um yeah, that line made me laugh when it came out of the mouth of an inebriated co-worker. Anyways, good times all around. So having done that I obviously didn't bike last night which is fine as I'll make it up tonight and this weekend although not sure how much I'll ride outside as the forecast is not looking all that great. It might be time to get out the SS and the rain gear for some long rides this weekend. Let's just hope it doesn't snow.

Leinie's Fireside Nut Brown.....

2008-10-21T21:42:00.006-05:00

....is a really good beer, although a bit tame it really does the trick as a seasonal beer. I picked up a 6 pack the other day and it was money well spent. I was looking for something a little different as I normally get a brand of Oktoberfest beer this time of year, normally Sprecher, and when I saw this I knew I had to give it a try. Here is the link to check out the description yourself but I'll pretty much post all the info from their site below. The beer, a Lager, is a version of an English-style nut brown with English two-row malts. Alcohol content is pretty low at 4.9% but that just means you get to drink a lot more of them before you have to cut yourself off. The color is amber (no, not brown) although it is on the darker side of Amber, and as soon as you start pouring the smells just start opening up from the beer and then as you reach the top you get a nice head that lasts just long enough to get in a good sip or two. The smell is overwhelmingly roasted malt and caramel/chocolate, and a bit of hazelnut. The taste, don't be surprised, hits with a nutty flavor first and then the caramel and chocolate come right behind, a very smooth and satisfying combination. This is an easy drinking beer, meaning for me it's easy to drink one right after another, it goes down sooooo smooth and the tastes linger in your mouth calling for more within minutes, make that seconds, of finishing the first glass. It's a beer that Leinies recommends serving chilled at 45 degrees but as a comfort beer that's too cold for me, especially if you do as intended and sit by a fire, you want to be warm right? I poured my first at 55 degrees in to a room temp glass and it was more satisfying than the second one that I poured at the cooler recommended temperature. The colder temperature takes something away from the beer in my opinion, I didn't get the robust flavor that I had in the first pour, it was too crisp for me to really take in the flavors. Go ahead and try out different temperatures for yourself, I'm going to go higher than what they recommend to satisfy my own tastes, see what works for yourself, it never hurts to experiment. All in all, this is a solid 3 mug beer that you will not be disappointed with, another score for Leinies.

Oh yeah, I rode on the trainer tonight as well, but that's boring stuff, nothing special, just 75 minutes to keep the legs moving.

Weekend Re-cap

2008-10-20T21:05:00.005-05:00

My weekend was pretty uneventful, I guess now that it's turning colder and October is nearing it's end, it's time to finish up all that last minute yardwork before we start getting frost on a nightly basis and then of course that first snow shows up at some point in November. Basically all I did this weekend was yard work and got in a couple of rides, of which one was quite enjoyable and the other was a little bit of a bother. Saturday I started by doing some driveway work, basically patching, leveling, and sealing. Once it warmed up I headed out for a 3 hour ride by way of Waukesha to Big Bend and then back home. I felt great and could have done a lot more but really had to get my leaves picked up and the lawn mowed. So after riding for 3 hours I ate a little bit and went right to working on the lawn for 2 hours, I had a ton of leaves to pick up and underneath all those leaves my lawn needed mowing. I only got the front done in those two hours, normally that's all it takes me to do the whole lawn. After the lawn work was done in front I moved in to the house, ate some dinner and settled down on the couch for a movie. Basically an uneventful day as I mentioned; eat, work on driveway, bike, eat, work on lawn, eat, watch TV. Sunday I was woken up early in the morning by the howling winds and realized that the 3.5 to 4 hour ride I had planned was just not going to happen for me. I just didn't feel like fighting sustained 25mph winds for that long, especially since they were gusting up to 35mph. I got up, realized we had no food in the house since Sunday is grocery shopping day and asked my wife to go get me the Deluxe breakfast at McDonalds which she happily obliged. Yeah, it wasn't the healthiest breakfast but I had a long day of yard work and a ride in front of me so I needed something with substance that would sit in my gut for a while. After eating I headed out and worked on picking up the leaves in my backyard which wasn't quite as bad as the front because the trees in back hadn't shed much of their leaves yet. I picked up as much as I could and then mowed that with the push mower for another 2 hours worth of yard work just like Saturday. After I finished that I ate some lunch, only a can of soup, and then headed out for a shortened 2 hour ride, not what I had planned but at this point of the year what's another hour or two of endurance pace riding? It's not going to hurt to cut it short right now. Basically the ride was a nice quick jaunt of 25-27mph with the tailwind and then a leg busting 15mph heading back home against the headwind. I was glad to be done and was cursing the winds for ruining what could have otherwise been a really nice October day. I did see a lot of rec cyclists and joggers on my route, I think everyone sensed that the nice days are starting to wind down so they were getting out in spite of the wind. After my ride I did some grocery shopping with my wife, ate some dinner and then hit the couch again for some relaxation. All in all it was a decent weekend, no frills, but sometimes that's a good thing, I like keeping things even keel.
Well, my work schedule is calling for a 4:50a.m. wakeup so it's time to go to bed, my beer review will come tomorrow, and after what will be a long day of work I may have to refresh my memory with another bottle before I start typing. Until next time.........

Just a Precursor

2008-10-19T22:56:00.004-05:00

Well, I had a lot going on this weekend and am finally sitting down at the computer but unfortunately it's to do some work I forgot to do today while I was so busy. So I have to get that done now before tomorrow morning. I'll do a weekend re-cap tomorrow sometime, but for now here is a picture from my ride today, lots of leaves in Whitnall Park, I had to ride down the middle of the road to stay out of the leaf piles. Also, I'll do a review tomorrow of Leinie's Winter Seasonal beer, the "Fireside Nut Brown" English style Lager.

Whitnall

It's That Time

2008-10-16T15:13:00.011-05:00

Fall colors are in full bloom or close to it, the air is getting crisp and for some of you the weekend bike rides are getting shorter. So once it's time to cut back on the cycling or move the training indoors when the snow starts flying, what are you going to do? I'll tell you....you should go on a brew tour and spend some time sampling some fine beers right here in the area, and I'm talking good beer, not a Miller tour. I shouldn't be so down on Miller, I started my beer drinking lifestyle sucking the top of an MGD bottle until I discovered the wealth of microbrews and wonderful imports that were out there. I was young and naive, I thought MGD was the best there was, and I'm not going to knock it now because I'll still take an MGD if it's offered, but the occasion is rare. Anyways, here are two in the Milwaukee area that I highly recommend, Lakefront Brewery offers a great tour, and the tour is actually a learning experience for those wanting to know the process in detail. Along with the tour you get a glass and of course you get to sample their selection of beer. There is some humor in the tour as well and for those that have been on it, you'll know what I mean. If you want to know what I'm talking about, then go on the tour!

Sprecher Brewery is also a good tour, but the tour itself is very basic and offers more information on the history of Sprecher than it does the detailed process of making the beer. The best part of the Sprecher tour is sitting in the indoor beer garden afterwards to sample the beers and then you get to move on to the gift shop. The gift shop has all of their normal beer selection along with most of their seasonal beers. The best part of the gift shop and something that I recommend you do, is to purchase a bottle or six of their Premium Reserve beers. It's about $20 a bottle but well worth the price, especially for the Russian Imperial Stout and the Bourbon barrel aged Pipers Scotch Ale. One bottle of the Russian Imperial and you are set for the night, it's an amazing beer and one that I need to stock up on again sometime fairly soon.

If you are looking to take a drive out of the city, then there are plenty of other brewerys around the state, too many to list here but a couple are Tyranena, New Glarus, Great Dane, Leinenkugels, Angelic Brewing, and Capital. If you are looking to get some food and sit down to eat and enjoy a few beers, then I'd recommend Delafield Brewhaus, Water Street Brewery, Rock Bottom, and Milwaukee Ale House. Delafield Brewhaus has a great sausage platter that you could pair with at least 2 of their 4 standard beers on tap, either the Pewaukee Porter or the Delafield Amber. Normally they have 3 to 5 more beers on tap in addition to the standards but those change often and are not listed on their web site.

Today is my birthday and I'm hoping to make it down to Sprecher maybe this weekend to get a couple of bottles at least, I think it would be a good idea for you all to get down there as well, or any of the other brewerys. Support your local brewery, even if it's Miller.

These girls love their beer, so should you....(sorry Lis)

All-Rounder??? Uh, No.....

2008-10-14T22:46:00.001-05:00

If you haven’t read my previous post then go ahead and read that first and come back to this post….go ahead, I’ll give you time……ready then? Well now you know what this post will be about then. Basically I’m trying to figure out how I want to approach racing next year, although my racing will be minimal I’m obviously not just going to train haphazardly and not prepare as I should. I look at the calendar of races for the WCA and I wonder to myself, is it really worth trying to become as lean as I can be for racing a calendar of events in Wisconsin? We have 2 road races of note with any climbing in them, Baraboo and Denzer, and Baraboo to me is really a power climbing race, Denzer is a little bit more than that. The Baraboo RR hills are steep, but c’mon they aren’t all that long, Denzer is really the only race where a “climber” would have an advantage in any race in Wisconsin. Holy Hill in Superweek, I don’t think so. A power rider and good sprinter can handle Baraboo and Holy Hill, soooo, I can’t really see where being 6’1” and 160-some pounds would help me in any Wisco races, I think it’s better to play to the strengths of racing here. In my opinion, that strength would be sprinting as we have so many criteriums, and looking back at the results from this past season it was a lot of the same people winning the races over and over. I checked back to 2007, then 2006, and yes, it was the same guys winning. Guys that were power riders and really good sprinters because those are the abilities that are needed to win races here where almost all of our races are flat. There are races with opportunities, Evergreen maybe, only because that course is kind of messed up in that it goes through a winding section that’s about as wide as a foot path, then down a curving hill, then up a hill, and repeat. The skinny section and the subsequent downhill create some places to get away and then maintain the gap on the hill. GDVC has some opportunities as well because of the crosswinds usually, Elm Grove because of it’s dangerous turn before the finish, but a lot of the other races I can think of usually come down to a sprint. The State RR is tough but usually it’s a decent size group going up that hill to the finish, the long hill is a tough one but it’s maybe a third of a mile if you count the part that levels off at the top before it starts to go downhill again. Don’t get me wrong, there are some tough races in Wisconsin, but they are usually won by the strong men and the sprinters. So, how does that affect me? Well, the last two years I was really striving to get down to 170 to 171, but was accepting a racing weight of about 174 because I just couldn’t get much lower. I really had to starve myself to get down to 174 and it was especially hard this year. I think I’ve decided this year to just shoot for what I need to do in different terms, and that is to lower my body fat % to as low as I can go while building muscle and power to enable me to be a better sprinter. I’ve done some calculations and my guess-timate is that I can be about 180lbs and my body fat will be low but I won’t be starving myself to get lean and I also won’t have to stop doing yard work because I’m afraid my arms will get too big. I have a big upper frame, my shoulders are pretty wide and it doesn’t take much for me to build up some good size lats, shoulders and biceps. I’m not going to worry about that this year, I’ll do what I can to lower my body fat as low as I can go without sacrificing power and then I’ll be happy with that even if I can’t go up the hill at Denzer. I’ve been a better sprinter than climber the last two years so it makes no sense to kill myself to be 170 when I should just play to my strengths, although my strengths right now aren’t all that strong so to speak. Either way, I’ll do a lot more sprint specific stuff this year, work a lot in the weight room and then hope that whatever hill work I do will keep me with the group over the little bumps that I do have to go up. Denzer is probably off my calendar but Baraboo is still a possibility. The State RR is up in the air right now, but I’m not counting that off my list yet either because of my lack of climbing ability, maybe just pure strength will keep me with the group there. Right now it’s all a little premature to say because who knows what will come up. Last year I had a big work project come up that completely derailed my training, the same thing could happen in 2009 and I could end up getting fat on the couch again. Right now though, I have a plan, we’ll just have to see how that works out. Until next time…..

Thank Goodness That's Over

2008-10-13T16:41:00.004-05:00

I'm glad to be home, I was getting too fat out in Florida eating all that delicious food that my company so graciously paid for, although they don't know the tally yet for my over-the-top consumption of said food. A little bit of Bahama Breeze, Tilted Kilt, Moxies, Smokey Bones, and Green Iguana all contributed to a weight gain of about 3.5 to 4lbs., yeah, I ate THAT much. Soooo, it's back to the "good" nutritional program now that I'm home and I'll be sure to watch my calorie consumption until the next holiday where I'm sure I'll eat a little too much again, but nothing like the 5 day bender I go on when I'm in Florida. I'm feeling a little under the weather today from being in the germ capsule that some people call an "airplane" and also from going in and out of air conditioning for 5 days, one minute it was 70 degrees then it was 90 degrees. A few days of that and my throat was hurting and headaches were pretty constant. As I mentioned in my previous post, no biking was possible but I did get in two walks and did a little jogging during the walks as well. Those two walks probably prevented me from hitting 5+ lbs of weight gain, at least I kept it below that. Basically that was my trip to Florida in a nutshell; hot temps, lots of air conditioning, lots of food, and a little exercise. Now that I'm home it's back to biking and taste testing a few more beers. Sunset is making cycling difficult as it will be tough to get out when the sun is already gone by 6:15 now-a-days, but I will make the attempt to ride for an hour after work with the light system and then maybe 30-60 minutes inside after that. I'll be doing that for the next few weeks in addition to longer rides on the weekends as the weather permits, basically if it's not raining then I'm riding outside. I'll also start weight training in a couple of weeks after work and then head home for the trainer rides. I'll do all that fun stuff through the beginning of December and then I'll start to ramp up my program. What is my program this year? Well, I'm just going with how I feel at the time, it's going to be an ebb and flow kind of thing.....something difficult to maintain as the weather gets colder and my motivation wains during the dark, winter months and then an unfolding and fervent desire to get out and ride as the white shit starts to dissipate in the early months of '09. I always have a basic plan, which then becomes a detailed plan as I start to get a feel for my fitness, and then it becomes meticulous preparation on an OCD level as the races near. Right now I'm in the embryonic stage, a beginning if you will, just riding, getting that bottom layer of the pyramid built and that will entail some weight work as well, building up the muscles, ligaments, and tendons. Riding and lifting, basic but key to my offseason workouts and I'll be doing that for a while until I feel I'm ready for the next stage. I'll tell you about the next stage some other time.

As I think about what my offseason workouts will entail I'm stuck in a bit of a quandary as to which direction I want to go, sort of like those old Dungeons & Dragons books where you could pick your next move and then turn to page 47 and find out that you just locked yourself in a room with death wraiths. Um, yeah, I was one of them, a RPG geek, but that's where I'm at right now with how I want to approach my season. What page do I pick? Go left down the wooded path, or take a right onto the old stone bridge, either way the hero usually ended up fighting something. Maybe it was only 5 goblins with great success, or it was an untimely death with 100 ogres. The best part of those books was being able to go back, turn the page to the other choice, re-live the adventure. In cycling, depending upon the path I take, it will be harder to turn the page once I get going down my path. What is this big conundrum you ask, nothing so big really, but both paths require a lot of work and going back after picking a path will be difficult. So, the choice is, do I put my eggs in the sprinting basket or the climbing basket (you thought I was choosing between mountain biking and road biking didn't you, maybe not)? It might not seem like a big choice but one of those choices will take a lot of work on my part and the other not so much, but both will be quite detailed in their preparations once I do decide. How do I decide, what difference will it make to my training, why bother making a choice? Well, this post is long enough, check back tomorrow to find out the answers to those questions and I'll have some good explanations. A quick teaser is that we all aren't Lance or Alberto, we all aren't great at both and we all aren't going to be riding the TDF any time soon, so in the races that we do around here (WCA), it's important to make a choice. That's it for now, until next time.........

Florida

2008-10-07T16:54:00.002-05:00

A trip to Florida means business and no pleasure, although I do get pleasure in eating lots of wonderful seafood. Being in Florida through Sunday also means no biking, but I will be doing some pushups and situps in the room and also doing some daily jogging as long as it's not raining. Temps in the upper 80s and 50-60% chance of rain most days, typical Florida weather. More info on the training program to come next week and I'm thinking I'll sample some local brews and post a review or two next week, maybe even while I'm still in Florida.

For Your Pleasure....

2008-10-05T21:37:00.002-05:00

....a couple of links to peruse while you have some downtime. My friend (and co-worker) Dave belongs to the Washington County Bicycle Club, you can visit their sites below and on my sidebar, some pretty good forums, pics, and if you live in the area there is some ride information as well.

http://washingtoncountybc.ning.com/

http://www.westbendtrails.org/wcbchome.html

Also, here is a site for race pictures for the Wisconsin and Illinois races, enjoy, you may see yourself -

http://peloton-pix.com

No outside riding today because of the rain, and no inside riding on the trainer because of boredom, I'm not ready to ride inside yet. I did do some yard work before the rain and then watched the Brewers and Packers lose, bummer of a weekend for Wisconsin sports as the Badgers lost yesterday as well.
Let's see, what else, I'm making progress but unfortunately not a lot of progress on losing weight after my summer of shame (no riding, lots of eating). Today's weekly measurements didn't do a lot to make me feel better about the riding I did this week, but I guess progress will be slow. It took me 3 months to get this fat and out of shape, I've only been back to riding for about 4 weeks or so. The weight is down to 194.5 from a high of about 210 at the end of August. Trust me, it was all fat, so now it's going to take a while to get rid of it. My weight last Sunday was 195.5 so it's disappointing that I only lost a pound this week, and I didn't lose anything off my waist measurements. The worst part is that I'm heading to Florida and will be there most of this week and all weekend so it will be hard not to eat all that great seafood, I will do my best though and will try to walk or jog when I get the chance. I was going to post a beer review tonight but felt so bad about my non-existent weight loss that I decided not to drink beer. Well, that's it for now, time to get some sleep.