Trying To Be Optimistic

So tonight it's snowing but I guess instead of using that as a reason to be upset that I won't get in a road ride tomorrow I'm trying to turn that around and think of it as a good reason to go snowshoeing. I'll go snowshoeing right away in the morning and then get back and warm up with some espresso before I either hit the mtb outside or hit the trainer. I hope to do at least 90 minutes of snowshoeing followed by at least 2.5-3 hours on the mtb if the weather permits otherwise I'll do 2.5 hours on the trainer. Either way I'll get in an all-around good workout and be happy with what I do regardless of the weather, at least that's the attitude I'm going to have anyways whether I'm happy with it or not. After getting in my exercise I'll be doing some work around the house and then I think the tentative plans are to hit up Delafield Brewhaus tomorrow night for some brew (obviously) and their sausage and peppers, mmmm, delicious. So that's it for now, more to follow tomorrow afternoon or Sunday morning. Until next time.......

This sucks

It's 5 degrees right now, supposed to be -10 tonight and a high of 9 tomorrow. Cycling is the furthest thing from my mind right now. Blah.

Whatever, dumb-ass playcalling.

Customize Your Ride

Quick info on the training tonight - 2 hours on the trainer, no frills ride, tomorrow is weight work and another 2 hour ride with Muscle Tension intervals.

I'm cutting it very short on time as it's getting late already and I need to get to bed so I didn't finish my first longer review on my new Avid SS brake setup but I'll publish that later this week. In the interest of time (my sleep time) you're getting the short review tonight of something that adds a little flair to your ride. After a while everyone in the pack starts to have the same look - same wheels, same frames, same tires, etc. so if you want to stand out a little bit and make a statement then you should visit PurelyCustom.com and check out their selection of pre-fabricated headset caps, handlebar plugs, stem spacers, bash guards, roof rack accessories and much more. If you don't like their expansive choices then you can make your own design or have your own text engraved on a headset cap. The prices are very reasonable and the work was done pretty quickly. I had a custom red headset cap made with the "Team Wheaton" text and I had it on my doorstep in about a week. I also ordered some handlebar plugs and an existing design from their selection for another headset cap. None of these parts are going to make you faster or lighter but they jazz up your ride a bit and set you apart from the crowd. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of the custom Team Wheaton cap right now as it's still in the bag and will be put on in the Spring, but here is the other cap I have on and the handlebar plugs. Like I said, keeping this one short, check out purelycustom.com and maybe you'll find something you like, they have everything from beer mug logos to perrrrty little flowers, for those who like that sort of thing.

I'm No Bill Gates

This weekend didn't turn out exactly as planned as I had some family issues, namely money arguments that I'm sure most married couples have on occasion. I won't delve too much in to it but basically the gist of it is that cycling is tough for those that are even considered middle class if you want to have a good bike and keep necessary components on hand. Think about the things you need to have and replenish almost every year - Energy drink @ 20-30 bucks a jar that lasts about a month or maybe two, Energy bars and gels @ 20-25 dollars a box and again that's about a month or two supply, training tires at 20-30 dollars each that last about 3 months if you do 7000-8000 miles a year, so you need to buy two sets at least, racing tires at 50-75 dollars a piece that if you only use for racing can maybe last a season, but you always need a spare set, you need to replace your chain every year, I replace mine twice a year @ 45 dollars each, then you need bottles of chain lube, heavy grease, brake and shift cables stretch so you need to replace them every year or two, clothing is a big expense, race entry fees, traveling to races, especially the gas cost now a days. Last year I estimate that cycling cost me $1600 between team clothes, energy drinks, bars, and gels, tires, parts, entry fees, travel costs, tools and lubes, and a few other minor miscellaneous things. Those are just the things that I needed, not luxury items, in order to ride and race last year. Now, for me that $1600 was absolutely worth it for the entertainment value and that is probably no different than people who go out to concerts or the theater or other vacations. So anyways, I'm getting off course here a bit, but sometimes cycling can bring up money issues and lead to arguments and then it becomes time to prioritize things a bit, so instead of cycling on Saturday, that is what I did with my wife, cleared the air a bit so to speak. So basically in spite of the fact that my wife is working only part time as she is in her last year of nursing school and we are short on money, she really pushed me to keep up the biking and said we'll find a way to make it all work. I'm not sure how, but at least now I don't have to get another job, which was my plan, so that's a bonus. It's great to have her support in spite of our rough times so I'm very thankful for that. My blog is titled "My year as a bicycle racer" and certainly these kinds of things are a part of being a racer - money, family, time, priorities - so I had to include that in this posting.
Aside from that, after we figured out our money problems on Saturday, I did get in a ride on Sunday and I also did 2 hours on the trainer yesterday on my normal day off to make up for missing Saturday's ride. I did weights last night as well after work and I'm feeling better than I have in a long while on the bike. The weather looks like crap for the next few weekends, super cold and definitely not riding weather so it appears there will be a lot of trainer riding. Well, that's it for now, more to follow tonight when I do my weekly review of one of my cycling products. Until next time.....

Another Crappy Weekend

Training has been going well the last few days, I did weights and 2 hours on the trainers/rollers on Wednesday and 1 hour 45 minutes last night on the rollers. Wednesday was one hour on the rollers to get warmed up and then I moved over to the trainer and did my hour of Muscle Tension intervals. Last night was just a regular paced ride on the rollers, nothing special. I watched the movie "3:10 To Yuma", pretty darn good as far as westerns go. Tonight I'll be doing weights here at work and then I'll do one hour on the rollers just to loosen up the legs after doing the weight work. Soooo, on to the weekend, and I have to say I really am not sure what I'm doing at this point but it looks like I'll be able to get outside. The forecast is calling for 30% chance of flurries and temps around 34, so almost a carbon copy of last Saturday's weather. The roads are wet today and I can't imagine they will dry out any time in the next 24 hours so it looks like it'll be another wet, muddy SS ride. I can't imagine the weather will hold me back from riding outside so if that's the case then I'll be doing 3.75 hours to 4 hours both days although Sunday looks to be the worse of the two days with a 60% chance of snow. Anyways, after riding the trainer this week I'm looking forward to get back outside and having as much fun as I did last weekend.
Tomorrow afternoon is the Packer playoff game and I'll be at my friend Jason's house for the festivities so I'm sure we'll consume vast quantities of beer and that will make for a rough ride on Sunday. I'll alternate beer and water probably, hahahaha, that was a good one hey? Either way, I'll probably be hungover but I'll be out there riding Sunday, I'm just lovin' the bike right now. My motivation is super high right now, I'm really itchin for time to fly by and get to that first race, only like 85 days away. Damn, that seems long. Other than that, my weight is dropping, I've cut out all the extra bad foods, the holidays are over so there are no temptations, I've upped the water intake, and the increased riding is burning those extra calories. My goal this year is to be at 173-174 for the races, that's about as low as I can go without losing power. So that leaves me with about 17lbs to lose, yeah, I got that fat in the offseason. Just like Der Kaiser though, I will lose the weight and be ready to race. That's it for now, back to work, I'll update Sunday with some pictures from Saturday's festivities, until next time..............

Something New

I will update my training log tomorrow morning as I've yet to ride tonight, I'll be doing a couple of hours in about 15 minutes, but for now I'm going to do something new - a product review. This is something that I've decided to add to my blog on a regular basis to spice things up a bit, because, well, porn would just be weird. So here is my first product review, nothing too exciting but they are my most recent purchase so that's where I'll start. I wasn't all that happy with the support of the standard Sidi insoles that came with my Ergo 2s that I purchased at this time last year but have kept them in the shoes just because it hasn't been a priority to look for insoles this year and I'd rather spend the money on something else. I got a gift card for x-mas this year and with all my components pretty much up to date I decided it was time for some new insoles. I went out and looked at a few different varieties last week and ended up getting the Sole Heat Moldable custom insoles. Here is the description off of their website:

SOLE Custom Footbeds are heat moldable, so they fit your unique foot perfectly. The generic insoles that are supplied with your footwear are designed to fit the lowest common denominator foot shape. They simply cannot offer the same level of arch support, control and comfort that heat moldable SOLE Custom Footbeds do.

Out of the package the insoles were very rigid from the heel to the arch support and the toe area was a flexible foam. The instructions said to heat the soles up to 200 degrees and then put them in your shoe and stand on them for 2 minutes. I wanted to make sure I'd feel the difference before and after, so before heating the Soles I put them in my cycling shoe to see how they would feel before they were "custom molded" to my foot. They were very supportive in the arch area as I expected but my right arch must be a little on the flat side because there was a bit of pain there from the arch support pushing upward on it. So, I had my baseline and was ready to heat and install the insoles. After letting them sit in the oven for approximately 5 minutes to reach the desired temp (as designated by the color-changing sticker on the sole) I was ready to put them in my shoes. I did feel the right arch give a little bit after a few minutes of standing in the shoes and it was noticeably more comfortable than my test before heating the insole. I took the insoles out after about 5 minutes and did notice the change in shape from before they were molded to my foot shape. Now, the big test was riding for an extended period of time with them and I did that this weekend, riding about 7 and a half hours between Saturday and Sunday. My first thought was that they were definitely more comfortable than my original Sidi insoles except that the right insole was a little tight in the toe box. The arch support was fantastic, the heel cup supported my heel quite a bit more than the Sidis and my foot as a whole was better aligned in the shoe. After the long rides of the weekend I'd have to say that for the price, $49.95, that these insoles were definitely worth the benefit of the comfort that they provided. I think we all would just tend to stick with whatever comes in our shoes because it's something most of us don't think about, but if you are having any trouble at all with foot comfort I would recommend the Sole insoles. The only change I did make to them is the aforementioned toe box issue with the right shoe. I must have a fatter right foot or something but I had to take a bench grinder and take off some of the padding on the base of the insole and then trim off a very small amount of the length of the insole. Other than that I had no problems. So, that's it for my first product review, I'll have at least one a week, if not more. I've included some pictures of the insoles below. Until next time.....

Sole Heat Moldable Footbeds

High arch support and great heel cup

Had to use the grinder to thin down the toe and heel areas a bit

Another Day In Paradise

Today was another fun day outside with the singlespeed and it was even more wet and muddy than yesterday, big time fun. Well, not really. I’ve had to wash down the bike twice now this weekend and I guess that was the least fun part of each of the rides, but the rest was all good. I did pretty much the same route I did yesterday but did quite a bit of it in reverse so that made it a little more exciting. Again, I chose it because it’s a route I knew wouldn’t kill my legs with the option of only one gear up the hills. I felt really good today and there were actually a few more cyclists out today than yesterday, which wasn’t hard to beat since I saw none yesterday. Oddly enough the 4 or 5 I saw were very casual rec cyclists, no one that was out for some obvious training which is very surprising, where are the rest of you racing types??? I know this guy was out this weekend, how about the rest of you? Anyways, all in all it was a good weekend of riding, 7hrs and 25 minutes total, about 35 minutes short of my goal but I also got in 1hr 10 minutes of snow shoeing as well this weekend so that easily makes up for it. I’m feeling good about where I am this time of year, but I can’t say for sure if I’m behind or ahead of where I was last year, I’m feeling strong though and confident with the training I’m doing so that’s all that matters. This week starts my Preparation Period so I’ll be incorporating more Muscle Tension work in to the rides, 3 days a week instead of 1 and I’ll also start some Tempo riding 1 day a week, increasing that to 3 days a week in about 3 weeks when I cut down on the muscle work. This period will also be the start of Steady State intervals and near the end of it will be lots of Climbing Repeats. So, that’s it for now, time for some much needed rest….I’ve attached some pictures of today’s ride, way muddier than yesterday, enjoy! Until next time…….

Sunday's Pics

This Is Definitely Different

And by "this", I mean riding a Singlespeed. Today was my first day out on the mostly complete buildup of the singlespeed 26" mtb. I have to say that my muscles definitely feel sore in places I haven't felt sore in a while. It's not much different than riding a road bike when you are on the flats, and my gearing of 42x18 was well suited to cruising along on the flat roads, but as soon as I got to a hill I was habitually trying to shift but there was nothing there so I stayed seated and just kept grinding it out. I tried to avoid going down roads where I knew there were really steep hills but I tried to search out the roads where I knew there were long, gradual climbs because those types of climbs are perfect to help work on building some muscle, and I'm pretty sure today's ride will help with that. Downhills are pretty fun too because although I could obviously just coast down them, I wanted to work on some leg speed as well, so I was spinning out the 42x18 as fast as I could on some of the hills, probably in the 130-140rpm range. The only unfortunate part about today's ride was the really wet, somewhat muddy roads and I came back with my feet soaked and most of my body was wet and mud-splattered. So, how long did I make my first SS ride? Well, I wanted to really go for a while on it just to take on all sorts of roads with it and I tried to find some trails to ride as well but there was too much snow on those so I went from New Berlin to Waukesha, around the west side of Waukesha and then back to Muskego and then back to New Berlin for a grand total of 3 hours, 45 minutes. I wanted to do 4 hours but I was bonking at the end and I took a shortcut home and I'm glad I did because I was spinning pretty slow at the end there and I got back right before sunset. So that's a good workout hey, well, that's not even all I did today! This morning before the ride I managed to get Melissa to go snowshoeing as well before the snow goes away with this impending rain and warm weather. We went and did some local cross-country trails for an hour and 10 minutes and worked up a good sweat doing that as well before I hit the bike. So the exercise total for today is a pretty nice 4 hours and 55 minutes worth of work and tonight I'll be eating a good dinner, having some hot green tea (and maybe a beer), and then hitting the bed early-ish, maybe 11:00 or so. Tomorrow is iffy as far as the weather right now, only a 40% chance of rain and a high about 44 degrees, definitely warm enough for a ride so hopefully the rain holds off. If it does I'm tempted to take out the road bike but we'll see, I really don't want to go through the crappy roads with it so it may be another day on the SS. If it rains then it'll be 4 hours on the trainer/rollers, kinda like last weekend, 2 hours or so on the rollers, then an hour of muscle work on the trainer and then another hour on the rollers. Let's hope it doesn't rain. Well, that's it for now, I've posted pics below of me after my ride. Until next time.......

Saturday's Pics

Short Post

Sorry, no pictures of my SS or headset press as promised, I went to bed early yesterday, didn't get around to the pictures. Skipped weights yesterday, got home, ate right away and then jumped on the bike for a low intensity spin. 90 minutes on the rollers, and then I had some Nightime Theraflu and went to bed early. I was actually able to breathe last night so I managed to get more than the 2 hours of sleep I got the night before. Feeling a little better this morning but still have that detached cold-medicine feeling and I'm staring at the wall a lot today at work....Hopefully I'll be 100% by this weekend....that's it for now....until next time......

Cycling and Sickness

The last few days have been good training days as I didn't overindulge during the New Year's festivities, I was actually asleep by about 10:45 on New Year's Eve. Weak, I know. I did my weight work Monday here at work and then went home and had a nice dinner of steak and Alaskan King crab legs, and only a couple of adult beverages with dinner, namely Sprecher's Pipers Scotch Ale. Tuesday I did some work around the house and then did the roller/trainer combo for 4 hours. I went through 6 water bottles in that time, and I only had to get off to pee twice, not too bad. I started with 2 hours on the rollers, then jumped over to the trainer to do my Muscle Tension intervals for an hour, and then I went back to the rollers for another hour to cool down. I watched a lot of football, unfortunately neither of the games I watched were all that interesting but there wasn't much else on so I stuck with it and if anything it kept me from getting too bored. Yesterday was easily my longest ride in quite a while and hopefully that carries over to this weekend if the rain holds off as temps are supposed to be mid-30s on Saturday and low 50s on Sunday. I'd like to get in 4 hours each day if possible but we'll see depending on the rain, as there is no need to get sick trying to ride outside in January and ruin the following week of training. If I have to ride inside I'd probably be fine with that, but man, it sure would be nice to be outside again. Last year at this time I had at least 2, if not 3, 4 hour outdoor rides in December and the beginning of January, I had none this December because of the weather. Time is flying by and I think I'm about 95 days or less from the first race of the year, yikes. I actually get to kick it up a notch starting next week as I move in to the Preparation Period of my training and start working on Tempo work and get in to Steady State Intervals in addition to my Muscle Tension stuff. That will help break up the monotony of the normal endurance pace rides that I have been doing so that should make it more interesting. Other than that, I have swapped out some parts on my SS and now have a pretty decent rig, which I'll hopefully be able to take out this weekend. I'll also be posting some pics tonight of the headset press that I made for only $4.67 to put in the new headset for the SS, it was cheap and it worked very well, a way better option than getting a name brand tool to use once or twice every few years. Anyways, tonight is weight work and then I'll hit the rollers for about 90 minutes. I've caught a bit of a cold yesterday and am really feeling it this morning. I think I only slept about 2 hours total last night as I was constantly blowing my nose and my body aches made it difficult to get comfortable. I drank some coffee this morning and took some pills so I'm good for about the next 3 hours or so before I have to take another dose. It's a mid-major cold right now, hopefully it doesn't turn in to anything more than that and ruin what could be a good weekend of riding. Well, that's it for now, until next time................

Snowshoeing Fun.....

I got in some good snowshoeing yesterday, but never did get in a ride as my sister was up here from California and her and my dad came over in the afternoon for a belated X-mas dinner. I was up early and on the trails a little before 8:00 and it wasn't really all that bad, I was dressed appropriately this time so I didn't sweat as bad as the last time I went out. There was no one else out there, which I wouldn't expect at that time of the morning so I was blazing the trails all by myself and Friday's snowfall made for a tough go of it up some of the hills. After snowshoeing I had to get back and get in some last minute grocery shopping and house cleaning before I started cooking. There just was no time left to get in a ride as my dad and sister ended up leaving at about 9:30 but I really didn't care at that point as we had a great time playing some GH3, pool, darts and sitting by the fire. I will get in a good ride today though, hopefully about 3 hours on the rollers and trainer, using the trainer for muscle tension stuff. I do have to be in Burlington though at about 11:00 this morning until about 4:30ish, so my ride will be done while watching a movie tonight otherwise I'd probably try to ride outside if I didn't have to leave. Oh well, I'm used to sweating it up on the trainer. Well, that's it for now, until next time.......

Sunday's Snowshoeing Pics

Tis The Season

Tis the season for snoeshowing, certainly not cycling, as I got out this morning and did just over an hour of snowshoeing on some local XC ski trails. There was a nice sledding hill at the parking lot and I also did a few running repeats up that to give myself a little burn. In addition to the snowshoeing this morning I'll also be riding the bike tonight (inside of course) after some afternoon family festivities. I've allocated about 2 hours to ride the rollers while watching the newest Harry Potter movie with the family. Yesterday I was able to get in 3 hours on the rollers and the trainer. I did 2 hours on the rollers while watching the Packer game and then after 2 hours I switched to the trainer so that I could do Muscle Tension Intervals as there really is no resistance on the rollers. So 3 good hours of cycling yesterday, 1hr15min of snowshoeing and 2 hours of cycling today have me feeling pretty good about my fitness, well, in addition to the 7 straight days of cycling and 3 days of weightlifting that I did last week. I've been on a roll lately with the bike since I've got back from Florida and I'm feeling pretty good with the Foundation Period that I've almost completed. I've done almost 16 weeks of foundation work and in a couple weeks (the 8th I think) I'll move on to the Preparation Period. The winter season has been pretty snowy so far, I'm hoping that it tapers off a bit, even though we've really just begun, so that I can get more cycling in outside on weekends. I've ordered some parts and mtb tires for the new singlespeed so I'm hoping that I can get that outside even in the snow in the next couple of weeks. I'll also be getting in some time on the snowshoes to break up the monotony of the cycling as well. Well, the next couple of days will be filled with Christmas fun, I hope you all enjoy the next couple of days as much as I'm sure I will, have a great Xmas!! Until next time...........

New Rig

This year I really had a desire to get a fun, tooling-around town, trail-ready, single speed bike......sooooo, yesterday I picked one up. I went to the bike shop to get a seat collar for my road bike as I tightened mine a bit too much Tuesday night while making some adjustments and snapped the seat collar right in half. Luckily I didn't damage my frame or seatpost. Anyways, I went to the store and bought my seat collar and was heading out the door. Out of the corner of my eye I saw this wonderful green machine that caught my attention. I walked back through the door and checked it out. I said to myself "SOLD!" A few minutes later I had it downstairs in my basement, luckily the wife wasn't home so I snuck it in and still haven't told her as of yet. I'll have to let her know tonight though....wish me luck. It's actually not an expensive bike, pretty cheap actually, about 300 bucks but I liked the style and the color, lime green with flames! It's basically a starting point to having some fun cruising some of the trails around town that I wouldn't take my road bike on, such as limestone or dirt trails. I'll also use it to ride with my wife and it's great to take out on wet, crappy days as it has fenders! Admit it, you're jealous....well, probably not. So, the frame is aluminum, so it isn't super heavy and other than that most of the parts will be upgraded shortly. You're probably asking why I just wouldn't get a better bike if I'm upgrading most of it but basically I bought it for the frame style and the price, and for the singlespeed setup. The first items to be upgraded will be the front end of the bike.....the threaded cromoly rigid fork is going and will be replaced by a threadless carbon rigid fork and threadless headset and stem. The bars that came with it are the wide, curved bars and they add to the style of the bike so I'm keeping those. Basically that will be it for upgrades until Spring, then after that I'll be upgrading the seatpost and seat and then at some point this year I'll upgrade the wheelset, but of course I'll be keeping the fenders. Well, that's it for my exciting news for now, I've attached a pic below. Until next time.....

New SS Rig

Winter Blues

I hate the trainer, I hate the trainer, I hate the trainer. O.k., now that we got that out of the way........
The New Year is approaching and it's probably a good time to look at what my goals and plans are for 2008. Of course I already started training for 2008 back in October so that has already been ongoing and will obviously continue to progress up until the first race. As far as what I plan on doing for races and what I expect in '08, I'm hoping to expand on the number of races I did this year, and I already have and will be increasing the quality of my training to be able to be competitive with the 1/2/3s. This is the start of my 3rd year back and obviously I won't ever be able to train as I much as I did before so I won't ever be as good as I was but I think that if I was 80% as good as I was, then that should be good enough to be competitive. I can already tell that some of the issues that bugged me last year won't be holding me back this year, such as my sore knee, and tight back/hip. Last year I had a very sore and tight left hip and I couldn't push my left leg at full power on most rides. I don't have even the slightest tinge of tightness in my hip anymore, all the stretching that I've been doing has alleviated that. My knee pain is essentially gone, I haven't felt that in quite a few weeks. Basically there are no physical limiters right now. Sooo, anyways, on to my plans and goals for 2008.....
Given what I know I'm capable of, I don't think I created goals that aren't realistic so I should be able to achieve all of them.

1. Finish in the top 30 in all my races this year
2. Finish in the top 20 in 50% of my races this year
3. Finish in the top 10 in at least 3 races
4. Finish in the top 3 at least once
5. Finish in the top 15 in WCA points in 1/2/3 30+
6. Upgrade to Cat 2 by season's end

I plan on doing at least 25 races in 2008, up from 17 this year and most of the extra races will come in the form of SuperWeek races, which I skipped entirely this year.
Other than that, I just hope to be a good teammate to the other guys in my races and I'll also try to help the guys in the 4/5s as much as I can as well to get them moved up to race with the 1/2/3s. As far as things I need to improve on personally, I'll be working on my climbing ALOT more this year and I'll need to improve my sprinting a bit more as well. My time trialing will come along as well as I get stronger but I won't work on that specifically as there are only 1 or 2 TTs that I'll be doing this year. Well, that's it for now, gotta get back to work...until next time.....

Snowshoeing

Pictures of Melissa and I snowshoeing for the the first time......the snow was great, we were pretty wiped out after we were done. Next time I'll wear clothes that are a bit more breathable as I worked up a pretty good sweat, and jeans and cotton shirts just don't move that sweat away from the body very well. Lesson learned. It was hard work and I'm feeling it today.

Pics

Random Goal

I added another goal today to my spreadsheet of short-term and long-term goals. Based on the direction of where my team is heading and the potential that I think we have in 2008 and 2009 (as long as we stay together) I have added the Masters' Elite National Championships in 2009 as a long term goal. I know that I won't be quite ready in 2008 to do them but if I progress at the rate that I am and keep up the training that I have been doing so far for 2008, then I will definitely be competing in the Elite RR, TT, and Crit. I think a lot of people will be surprised with the power and cohesiveness of our team this year, and we can bring out probably 4-5 of us in 2009 that will be able to work together to get the strongest guy to the front of those races and hopefully get a placing. The RR would be my priority, TT second and Crit third. It's on the list of goals, I'm sure most of my team will share in that goal and be willing to go along, and of course we'll kick some butt. If they don't go along, then I'll just kick their butt instead. Just making a quick random post...until next time......

Riding..Riding..And More Riding

I leave for Florida on Sunday for a whole week, returning on the 9th of December. Unfortunately it's not for pleasure as I'll be going out there for business and will not have an opportunity to ride my bike at all for the whole week. I'm staying at an extended stay hotel which is more of an apartment type complex so there is no workout center either. I will have a few opportunities to work out though, it is Florida so it will be sunny and warm so I'll be doing some jogging for as long as my knees can handle it. The hotel does have two amenities that I can use, one is a basketball court and that can be a good workout if I play some Hustle with a few co-workers, and they also have a pool so I can do some laps in that as well. Of course I'll also do my stretching and ab work to keep myself limber so that won't change. One problem will be that all the food is free and there is a lot of eating while we are down there, so I will need to temper my appetite as much as possible, I'm sure I won't do to good in that area though.
So anyways, I am really cranking out the time on the bike this week ahead of the lack of riding next week. I rode last night for 75 minutes on my normal rest day, in addition to doing weights. I rode this morning for 45 minutes on the trainer and will ride again tonight for 90 minutes. I'll do the same tomorrow with rides in the morning and evening, and you guessed it, I will ride in the morning and evening on Thursday as well. Friday night I have plans so I'll do weights and then it will be a normal rest day on the bike. Saturday I'm hoping for 4-4.5 hours outside and then my flight out on Sunday is in the afternoon so I should have time to squeeze in 3-3.5 hours outside on Sunday. I'll definitely have a good amount of time in the saddle ahead of leaving, potentially 15 hours this week, so I won't feel all that bad as long as I maintain some activity next week. Well, that's it for now, I'll update before I leave Sunday, until next time.........

Keeping It Short...

Well, I'm keeping my post short, not my riding though. It was a little chilly today, the wind was whipping around pretty good but I still got out and got in a 3.5 hour ride outside, and I was actually pretty comfortable with all 3 of my layers on. I've been on a roll lately with really, good long rides on the weekends and I wanted to keep that trend going, so even though I wanted to stay warm inside today I just said, "to hell with it, I can handle a little cold weather". I'm glad I went out, just like last weekend when the weather was even a little worse with the rain. Tomorrow I'll be going out for 4 hours to Delafield and then off to my dad's for a belated Thanksgiving dinner. Tonight I'm getting ready to leave right now to go out to eat and drink an obscene amount of beer with my friend Jason so that's why I'm keeping this short. Well, that's it for now, more tomorrow, until next time.......

First Snowfall?

Well, I guess I can't really call it a snowfall since we probably got 1/800th of an inch but when I went out for my ride on Sunday morning there was snow on the grass on almost every road I was on until it started to get closer to noon and then it was gone for the most part. I did get up early Sunday expecting to have better weather than Saturday but after about 45-50 minutes of my ride it started to drizzle on me again, even though I could see sun ahead of me. I think the black cloud was following me from Saturday. Anyways, I got in a 3 hour ride before the Packer game and I felt really good, the weather really wasn't that bad and today I still haven't gotten sick even though most of my riding this weekend was in some sort of inclement weather. Things are really going well with the bike fit, I think I solved my issues last week and so far my knees are feeling good and I feel balanced on the bike.

As far as this week goes, tomorrow I'll be riding for 90 minutes on the trainer, I'll be skipping weights on Wednesday since I'm off work but weather permitting I'll ride outside for about 3 hours while I'm home, then Thursday will be iffy, it all depends on how I feel at night whether I ride or not. Friday I'll do weights and then ride the trainer for only 60 minutes to most likely make up for Thursday. Saturday and Sunday will be my normal 3 to 4 hour ride each day, it appears it will be in the upper 30s and as long as it doesn't snow or rain, that's good enough for me to get outside. Well, it's late, time for bed....until next time.......



The first snowfall of the year....it was gone in like 3 hours....

Through the Looking Glass(es)

I've got to say that today's weather was crap, a little breezy, cold, and it basically drizzled all day.....perfect weather for a ride outdoors. I really didn't feel like staying inside today so I got all dressed up with all my cold weather gear and threw on the clear rain jacket and headed out for what I had planned as a 4 hour ride. After about 2 hours I was pretty wet on the bottom half of my body, my feet were soaked and cold and I was ready to head home. Problem was that I wasn't any where near home but I took a few shortcuts and made it back home in 90 minutes, basically cutting off 30 minutes of my ride and getting back to the warmth of home as quick as possible. I did a route through Whitnall Park out towards the Sports Complex in Franklin, then through Franklin towards Waukesha and then I took my short cut through Waukesha to make my way back home. It was 3.5 hours of cold, wet riding but I tried to make the most of it, knowing that 3.5 hours on the road was better than 3 hours+ on the trainer. It's rides like today that you really have to do stuff to motivate yourself to keep going, because it's so easy just to make the excuse that it's really crappy out and you don't need to be doing this today, there will be better weather tomorrow or some other lame excuse. Well, I didn't figure that making excuses would help me be any better come Spring so I was glad that I got out and rode. A saying that I like to go by quite often on the bike and in life is this...."your effort is a portrait of yourself".....so I said that to myself quite a few times today on my ride to keep me out there. I also used a little bit of imagination and as I was riding through the rain and cold I tried to picture myself somewhere in Europe riding a classic or something in miserable conditions.....I took a picture of it for everyone to see......

This is what I really saw through the glasses

This is what I imagined I was seeing for a little motivation

Anyways, I'm not sure what tomorrow will bring, it all depends on the weather when I wake up I guess. If the roads are still nasty and it's cold then I'll just ride the trainer during the Packer game, otherwise I will try to get out for 3 hours before the game. Tomorrow is supposed to be nicer than today, but they also said it was supposed to stop raining this morning, it's 10:30 now and I think it's STILL raining. Well, that's it for now, until next time......

Pictures....

So here are the pictures per my previous post.....Notice that in the first picture you can't see daylight between my left leg and the bike. The laser line is on the outside of my knee and the outside of my hip at the top of the pic. The second picture is after the adjustments, there is now daylight between my leg and the bike and the laser line tracks straight through my leg......these are still pics from my movie editing program....I'll get the movies out hopefully tomorrow afternoon when I get back from my ride.

Using Something Called "A Laser"

Ahhh, let's see, where to start.....the quality of training this week has been shoddy at best, not quite up to what I had been doing the past couple of weeks after work on the trainer. It's not because my motivation has waned, far from it, I am amped right now to keep up my time on the bike and put in as many miles as I can. It's been shoddy for a couple reasons, one is that Wednesday night I had to work until 8:30 so by the time I got home and ate it was too late to ride. The other reason has been the issue I've had for a while with my biomechanics and how that makes me feel on the bike (unbalanced), and how it affects my knees (pain!), so the trainer rides that I did on Tuesday and last night were less than ideal. I spent a lot of time getting on and off the trainer as I was riding to fiddle with my seat, change my cleat position, I even tried extra padding on one side of the seat to even out my sit bones. I've known the problem....my left leg has a tendency to pull in, from the hip to the knee, which causes me to rub the leather completely off the left side of my seat, it also puts a lot of strain on the right arm as I'm constantly pushing against my body to the left to counteract that. Every ride seems to end with my right tricep and forearm just as sore as my legs. It's also caused considerable left knee pain in the past and makes me feel like I'm sitting crooked on the bike. So, I spent some time at the Bike Doctor getting fitted early this year and he did add some shims under my left shoe to try to counteract some of that supponation and it did seem to help. He raised my seat a bit, and pushed my seat forward as well. Things seemed a little bit better but I still never felt 100% this year, not even 90% for the most part. I realized last night there is one very important thing that the Bike Doctor never checked or asked me about, and I will get to that later. Sooo, this week after jumping on the trainer on Tuesday and feeling completely cockeyed I was fed up and decided to work on my position all week no matter what it took. I started on Tuesday with raising my seat a bit and pushing it back to the position that I always had set for in the past, which was really far back and stretched out. That didn't help the part about feeling unbalanced but it gave me a starting point back to the position that I always used to ride with, so that is where I ended up after Tuesday evening's ride. Last night I went all out and got out my laser level, the video camera and more shims for my cleats. I used the laser level on a vertical plane to see how my leg was tracking and I recorded that as I rode. It turns out my right leg was tracking almost dead straight, the laser line went through the center of my shoe, and the line was centered all the way up to my hip. It showed what I already knew about my right leg, nothing was wrong there. My left leg on the other hand, was all messed up. The laser line started at the center of my shoe but by the time it got to my hip, the line was almost on the outside of my leg because my upper leg tracked way in towards the seat. I already knew that as well, but I didn't realize how much it tracked in so my goal was to get my leg tracking out so that the line was right down the middle, the same as my right leg. After assessing the video and doing some visual assessment of how my legs naturally hang when I lift myself off the ground, I came up with a couple of solutions. The first problem is that when my left leg is hanging naturally it pulls itself in and up, causing my left toe to point in and my leg to be pulled towards my right leg. When my right leg hangs naturally it points dead straight and my toes are straight ahead, as I would expect.

Cause/Solution #1 - Hamstrings and groin muscles in my left leg were way to tight and were basically pulling my leg in and not allowing it to hang naturally and track naturally on the bike. I stretch pretty regularly and have always noticed that it takes a lot more work to stretch out my left leg and when I feel uncomfortable stretching it I just back off. Last night after my assessments I stretched it past the point of being comfortable, really cranking on the hamstrings especially and my glutes and hip flexors. I was in pain but after I got done I could tell that my hammie was really stretched out, not like my normal stretch. Sure enough I sat on my seat and let my legs hang and this time my left leg hung almost straight ahead. I could feel the muscles tightening up again so I know that it is going to have to be a regular practice to stretch my left leg 3-4 times a day. Now, to what I mentioned earlier about the Bike Doctor....I was never asked once in my fitting about my flexibility or if I stretch regularly and how that could come in to play with my bike fit. I think he saw that there was a problem but instead of finding the cause of the problem or asking about it, he just tried to remedy what he saw with positional changes. I'm not trying to say anything negative, but if there were some mention of the possibility of tight muscles or how I stretch or about my flexibility at the time, in addition to the positional changes, then maybe that would have helped him in the fitting.

Cause/Solution #2 - Shimming the left cleat. During my fitting it was also noted that I have a supponation problem with my left foot so shims were installed under the cleat to help with that. Basically the shims are wedge shaped so that you can have the thicker end on one side of the cleat to deal with pronation or supponation. After stretching I looked at some more things and realized that my foot was also leaning in a bit to the right on a horizontal plane towards the crank and that although I had some shims under the cleat already, I realized I just needed a few more to solve that issue.
After a good stretch and the installation of the shims I turned on the lasers again and started the camera up to record how my leg was tracking after the adjustments. I sat on the bike and clipped in and didn't even need to look down to know that my left leg was straighter now, I was actually sitting straight on the bike I didn't automatically start tilting like I did before, and I didn't feel that pressure of my right arm pushing me back to the left. So I started pedaling and recorded a minute or so of video. I got off and hooked up the camera to the big TV and watched the results, sure enough the laser was now straight down the middle of my leg, an amazing difference. I didn't need to watch the video to know I was already sitting straight on the seat again, but the video definitely confirmed that. I got my wife away from her Nursing studies to take a look and after watching the before and after videos she couldn't believe it either. She has been saying for quite a while that I had to see a physical therapist and that my body was just plain messed up. I think she was surprised to see that I figured this out on my own and she was pretty impressed by my laser setup as well. So, tonight I will ride some more on the trainer to just confirm that I'm good and then tomorrow I'll be getting outside as normal. Now that I rambled forever, here is a quick preview of what I'm doing this weekend. Tonight, one hour on the trainer and weights, Saturday will be a 4.5 hour ride outside, Sunday will be 3 hours outside and a hiking trip to Minooka Park in Waukesha. O.k., that's it for now, but tonight I'm transferring the video to the PC at home and I'll be posting short segments of the before and after videos with lasers and all for your viewing enjoyment so that you don't have to take my word for it, you can see for yourself! Until next time......

Same Ole', Same Ole'

If you've been following my blog I'm sure you've noticed that it's pretty much been updated on Mondays and Fridays after I do my workouts for the week and then again after my weekend rides. I'll probably keep up that pattern for now unless something cool comes up during the week, because basically I do the same stuff every day and who wants to read about that day after day. As the season progresses I'll update a lot more, as once we get snow and I need to complain about not getting outside on the bike I'm sure I'll rant a lot more. I'll also have snowshoeing to talk about as I'll be trying that for the first time this year, assuming we even get snow. We did get it last year but it came in bursts and then went away, so we'll see what this year brings. My Turkey Day weight gain will also provide for some material as I always seem to gain about 3lbs on Thanksgiving and the few days following. Well, on to what I've been doing....
Friday I stuck around work and did my weight workout, nothing too heavy as I'm still in the low weight, high rep part of my program. I did have a bit of left knee pain though and I'll be lifting again tonight so we'll see if that's gone away or not. Right after my workout I went to meet the family at Charcoal Grill, but I didn't have one of their infamous Charcoal burgers, I had a New York Strip with yams and a salad, so nothing too fatty. We went back home and then played Guitar Hero III for about 90 minutes and then we all just relaxed after that. Saturday morning I woke up and did some yardwork right away in the morning and then mid-morning I took off for my ride out towards Mukwonago. I did that loop and then came back and did my Whitnall Park loop to finish off the ride. While going through the park I met up with Phil Cianciola and talked with him for about 5 minutes before going on my way to finish my loop and head back home. It was a great ride, the weather was decent, no complaints from me, as it is November and it could just as easily be snowing. After I got home I did a few more things around the house and then went to a movie with Melissa before heading to bed after a long day. I woke up Sunday morning to a little bit of drizzle and wet roads as I wanted to get in 3 hours before the Packer game. I decided to hold off on riding outside as it didn't make sense to me to ride in the drizzle and risk getting wet and sick. Well, about 20 minutes after I decided not to ride the drizzle had stopped and I could have still gone out and did my 3 hours outside before the game started, but I decided to just go back to bed, it was too early and I was tired. I slept for a bit more, got up, did some housework and decided that I'd ride on the trainer inside for the 3 hour duration of the Packer game. As the game started I jumped on the trainer and started to ride as the Pack started their whoopin' of the Vikings. I had just over an hour in when the Pack were up 10-0 and I could tell that the Vikings weren't going to do anything on offense so I figured what the heck, I'm going to get my outside ride in anyways, a Packer win is inevitable. So I quickly got dressed, bolted out the door and did my previously scheduled route, minus one short loop to make it a 2.5 hour ride. Add that to my hour inside already and I got in a nice 3.5 hours of riding yesterday to beat my previous few weekends of 7 hours. So I have to say, 7.5 hours this weekend was quite the accomplishment considering all the rest of the items I had to get done around the house, I got everything done and I feel good about where the yard is at and of course where my cycling fitness is at. My knee felt great all weekend on the bike after the tinges of pain while lifting on Friday, but of course today it is a little sore now as well. Keeping it loose on the bike actually makes it feel great, off the bike it stiffens up pretty quickly, but as long as I'm good on the bike, that's all that matters to me. I don't care if I'm in a wheelchair the rest of the time, it's all good. Anyways, this week will be more of the same, I'll be lifting tonight, Wednesday, and Friday. I'll be riding Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, 90 minutes each day, all of them at Endurance pace, with One-Legged Pedaling thrown in on Tuesday and Thursday. I hope everyone got out on the bike this weekend, the snow is coming soon I'm sure so get in the riding while you can. I'll be riding when it snows anyways, but for those that stay inside all winter, get out now while the gettins' good. Until next time..........

Turn Up The Heat

Well, the temps are gradually dropping, this morning I had to scrape my windshield for the first time this Fall, that's not a good sign. Supposedly it's supposed to get up to the mid to upper 40s today and be sunny for the most part so I guess that's not a bad day. Tomorrow will be about the same but Sunday is calling for 60% chance of rain, let's hope that holds off. I was going to take off of work this afternoon to get some stuff done around the house, but I don't want to have to come back to do weights, and I definitely want to get my weight work in today (shout out to Dave H.). So I'll tough it out here today and get my housework done tomorrow and Sunday. The plan tonight is to do weights after work, go home and eat a nice dinner with the family and then have a bit of a "family night". Usually that involves hanging out downstairs and playing pool, darts, board games and watching a movie, but tonight that will also include playing a little Guitar Hero III on the Wii.

I'll try to get to bed early but Friday nights always seem to be a late night so we'll see what happens. Either way I'll be up early on Saturday and out on the road for about 4 hours, probably towards Mukwonago tomorrow and then I'll add on my NB Rec Trail loop to make it an even 4 hours. After that I'll get home and mow the lawn, put plastic up on the sliding patio door, trim up the bushes one last time, burn some brush and by then it will probably be dark. I'll go in the garage after that and do some tune-up work on my Sears Garden tractor, and will probably put on the snow tires and the plow so that I don't have to do that when it's 20 degrees outside. Last year I had to shovel my driveway and it took almost an hour during a good snowstorm so this year I'll have it plowed in hopefully about 15 minutes or less. I'll save the strain on my back as well, maybe I'll shovel every once in a while for a bit of an arm workout......but probably not. Sunday I'll try to get out in the morning if the rain is holding off and I'll get in 3 hours if I can before the Packer game. If it's raining I'll sleep in and then ride indoors during the game, time on the trainer seems to pass quickly when watching football. After that I'll just rest up the remainder of the night and let the legs and body recover from a busy weekend.

If my calculations are correct there is only something like 150 days left until the first race, yikes, it's coming quick. Alright, that is plenty of time, but I'm sure it will go fast and I can't wait. Some guys on the team are still racing, Scoots and Eck are up doing Iceman this weekend, I can't imagine still racing in November, but Scoots has some races to make up after his end of year crashes and subsequent healing. Plus Eck says that Scoots still has some kick-ass form even after that layoff. The guy is a natural.......

Well, that's it for now, until next time..........

Pics From WCA Banquet

Keeping It Short

Well, I'm keeping it short tonight, I have to be up at 4:45 tomorrow morning to be in to work by 5:45 to do some work for an East Coast client so that means getting to bed in about 5 minutes.
I've been keeping busy riding this last week, and did another weekend of 4 hours and 3 hours on Saturday and Sunday. I'm definitely doing well getting in about 7 hours a weekend the last few weekends with the exception of last Saturday when I was hung over and then had the team banquet to get off to. That was the only day I missed a good long ride in the last few weekends. This coming weekend looks to be a little nasty at the moment, but hopefully that will change. 50s and a little chance of rain doesn't bug me too much, I'm hoping to still get outside so that I don't have to hit the trainer quite yet. I know it's November but I'm trying to avoid the trainer if at all possible. Other than that, I went to the WCA banquet on Saturday evening, had a good time talking with some teammates and drinking a couple of beers. I'll post a picture tomorrow of my 2nd place WCA Series trophy, I don't feel like doing it at the moment....yeah, it's lazy, I know. Anyways, that's about it for now, off to bed, until next time........

Stay Tuned....

Been pretty busy.....update coming later today....

When's It Going To Snow??

Kidding, I don't want snow yet, but now that I got some new snowshoes for the wife and I, I'm ready to use them. I can't wait to try them out, check out the pics below....mine are the yellow ones by the way.....not that I don't like purple or anything.....

New Snowshoes For the Wife and I

Long Weekend....

So this weekend didn't go quite as I had planned but I still feel o.k. about it nonetheless. Friday night I went out with my friend Jason, his wife Jenny, and my wife to Longnecks' Brew Pub in Big Bend for dinner and some beer. Well, I had quite a bit more beer than I had planned and ended up staying up until 2:00 and was quite drunk when I went to bed. I was supposed to be up early and at the team ride at about 9:30 but unfortunately in my beer induced haze I forgot to set my alarm and woke up at 9:30! I made the phone call of shame and told them I wasn't going to be there, which was probably for the better as I wasn't feeling very good and would have been heaving for sure on the ride. So I basically laid around until I felt better, got up and mowed the lawn with the push mower just to get some exercise for the day and then I changed and headed downtown for the banquet. We had a really nice team banquet, great food, great company, and I think we laid a good foundation for what we are going to do in 2008. There are no big changes for the team for 2008, everything is pretty much going to stay the same with the exception of adding a few new riders. We should have a pretty good team next year in both the Master's 4/5 and the Master's 1/2/3 so I'm really looking forward for the racing season to start.
Today I got up after getting in some good sleep last night, had a cappuccino, some pancakes and then did some yard work while the sun warmed things up a bit. I got out on the bike in the afternoon for 3.5 hours, not quite what I had planned but I wasn't feeling up to a long ride like I had planned. I was going to go to Burlington to visit my parents but I still wasn't feeling all that great this morning so I shortened my planned ride by 1.5 hours. I'm still happy with 3.5 hours and the weather was perfect, beautiful temps, not too much wind, lots of sun. There were quite a few other riders out today, nobody serious, all recreational, but it was still good to see alot of people out biking. I felt great, although I think I tried to rehydrate a little bit too much to make up for all the booze I had this weekend as I had to go to the bathroom 4 times in the 3.5 hours I was out. Next time I'll try not to rehydrate so much after 2 days of drinking, I definitely learned my lesson. Well, not much to say for this weekend, that's it for now......until next time......

Movie Time

I've watched 3 movies this week during indoor training, nothing really good, maybe tonight's movie will be better. I wanted to watch the World Series game last night but cable was out for 4 hours so I took out a DVD I haven't watched in a while, Saving Silverman, funny movie, nothing great though. Tonight is The Invisible, a new movie that I rented at BlockBuster, and I'm sure I'll be watching the WS as well. Everything is good with the body as I've ridden the trainer the last 2 days with no knee pain at all. I think I fixed most of my hip imbalance issues last week with some shims and I also turned the seat a bit so that my hips are square now in relation to the bike. Before I made my changes I would pedal for a bit and then stop and drop my legs straight down and my left leg would be right up against the seat and seatpost and my right leg would be about 2 inches away from the seatpost. I added wedges to my right shoe, shimmed the left shoe, and toed it in a bit and then turn my seat right just a little bit and now I have the same distance between the seatpost and both legs. I feel like I sit square now on the bike and the knee pain has gone away for now so I must've done something right with my changes. I've also stretched my hip flexors every day and I've been doing lots of ab work so I think I'm more flexible and my core is a bit stronger. I'm feeling pretty dang good all the way around. Tonight is another trainer ride, 90 minutes, and I'll be doing a few One-Legged pedaling exercises as well during the ride. Tomorrow is a rest day and then Saturday I'll ride with the team, and Sunday will be another long ride. I plan on riding out to Burlington on Sunday to visit my mom, and then I'll head over to my dad's, re-fill the water, and head on back home, should be about 85 miles.
I lost my eBay bid last night for the two sets of snowshoes I was bidding on, they went higher than I was hoping. So I've started new again today with another bid, hopefully I get luckier with this one. I'd rather not have them now anyways, maybe as long as I don't have them it won't snow. Temps look o.k. for this weekend but I know the cold weather is right around the corner, I'm happy either way. I still ride in the snow and this year I can snowshoe as well. Good times. That's it for now, until next time..........

Temptation

So I e-mailed Sprecher to find out when I can drink my Russian Imperial Stout and Bourbon Barrel Aged Scotch Ale as they had mentioned letting it age for a while before drinking it. They responded that the batches that my bottles are from have already been extensively aged and were ready to drink now. I could age them a little more, 6 months to a year if I wanted and they would be a little better, but um, I've already waited a week and 3 days so I think that's good enough right? So I think this weekend I will be popping the tops on my bottles and drinking up. Maybe I'll bring them to Ben's cookout to enjoy with a bratwurst or two...or maybe I'll drink them Friday when I have some friends over....oh the temptation.

This had nothing to do with cycling but it was definitely worth mentioning....it is beer after all, just as important as cycling.

Recovering

After a long weekend of riding, today will be a nice recovery day, I'll do some stretching and some ab work but no riding today. I got in my 7 hours this weekend with some nice easy hours on Saturday, and some butt-kicking, headwind-killin' hours on Sunday. I worked harder than I wanted to yesterday but the weather was gorgeous and other than getting my heart rate up a little high and seeing stars by the end of the ride I was loving it. Couldn't have asked for much better temps near the end of October. I still got a lot of yard work done as well this weekend, I really didn't have to sacrifice any yard work time as I managed to juggle the time on the bike and got stuff done around the house, it was a great weekend all around. This weekend should even be better, not necessarily the weather or the bike time, but because Saturday is a day that will pretty much be dedicated to spending time with most of my teammates from Team Wheaton. We'll be starting in the morning with a ride of about 2 to 2.5 hours and then after that we'll be having a nice post-ride cookout with some brats courtesy of Ben. After a quick trip home to clean up and change we'll be heading down to Mo's Irish Pub downtown for our team meeting and then team dinner. Not only will the company of teammates make for a good day, but for those that don't know me well I'm a huge fan of the Irish beverages, namely Guinness and Jameson so I can't wait to have a few of those, not that I don't have enough already at home, but it seems better at a pub with friends.
As far as riding goes this week, it will be a normal week, 75-90 minutes during the week on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and then depending on the weather this weekend I'm planning for about 5 to 6 hours between Saturday and Sunday. I'm hoping to get my snowshoes this week as well as I'm bidding on 3 pairs right now on eBay. I've got two in the running for myself, of which I'll try to win whichever is bidding cheaper of course, and I'm also bidding on a pair for Melissa. I'm looking forward to some cross training out at Minooka Park during the winter, climbing the big hill out there a few times and then doing some of the flatter trails will make for great workouts. Hopefully I can snag both pairs for about $100, I'd be happy with that and if I like them I can always get a better pair in a couple of years. Well, that's it for now, have to get back to work, until next time.........

Cracked

I've got to admit that today I cracked....long hours in the saddle and very high winds made for a rough ride. Mentally I was broke after about 90 minutes in to the headwind on the way out. Speeds of about 16mph in to the 25-30mph wind was the standard, it was killing me. All in all I'm glad I did my ride, finished in a bit of a haggard state but it was a weekend of 7 hours so I'm really happy about that. I'm feeling good now after some really good Chinese food for dinner and now I'm relaxing on the couch watching a couple of slasher flix. More to come tomorrow, I need my rest now, until next time......

Life Is Good

Today was a great day for a bike ride and I took full advantage as I got out for a nice 3 hour leisurely ride. I rode down to Whitnall Park, out to Franklin and then back towards New Berlin where I detoured to Waukesha and then back home. I saw probably more than 20 other cyclists out today, easily the most I've seen on any single training ride this year, the Doc ride excluded obviously. The wind wasn't nearly as bad as they said it was going to be today, which was fore casted in the 20 to 30mph range, I bet it was more in the 12-15 range for most of my ride. All of the temperature signs I went past said 70 to 73 degrees throughout the ride, warmer than what was fore casted as well. Amazingly enough my knee didn't hurt at all today, seems to be the pattern though, I ride outside and I don't get knee pain, ride on trainer and my knee hurts for two days. Thanks to Tony I've really started to concentrate even more on my hip flexors, I was doing hip flexors stretches 2 to 3 times a week prior to this week, but now I'm doing them every day, that could be the difference. Either way, I feel great now, had a great ride and can't wait to do 4 to 4.5 hours tomorrow. Tomorrow will be a long day for sure, the weather looks even better than today, the wind will be about the same, and I'm just motivated to get out and ride.
So enough about the bike stuff.....tonight I'm testing my sanity as it's my son's b-day today and he is having a party right now with 9(!!!!) other boys over that are 13 and 14 years old. They are playing dodgeball outside right now and the screaming is driving me crazy enough but we also had them running in the neighbors yard, one kid was laying in the road, and we also have one that not only lost his shoes but he's running around without socks as well. They'll be coming in soon for pizza and then it will be armageddon inside the house as they have 3 video game systems with 3 TVs set up downstairs and I'm sure the screaming and craziness from that will be more than enough to put me in the loony house. Oh well, I did all of that as a kid myself (and worse) so I guess I can't complain too much. Well I can, but nobody listens anyways......that's it for now, until next time.......

Crap

I'm still at work...on my birthday..... at 7:10, this is a bunch of shat. My client has their network hosed up, no prospect of getting home before 8:00 so there will be no biking tonight, only beer. Nothing like working 13 hours on my b-day.....

Pain, Pain, Go Away......

....come back anoth-, oh wait, don't ever freakin' come back. My persistent knee pain hit a peak yesterday and my left knee was cracking and hurting as bad as it has in a while. I had to push myself out of my chair at work yesterday every time I got up and ease myself back in when I sat down. I know it's my b-day today and I'm getting older but I shouldn't feel 70 years old. So anyways, I did some messing around with my position last night to try to alleviate some of the pain, figuring maybe I could come up with something that may make me more comfortable. I rode the rollers for about an hour and fiddled with the seat height, seat fore-aft, and shoe shims. Eventually I got something that felt really good and rode for a bit to keep my knee loose and this morning it doesn't feel too bad. Tonight I'm supposed to do Fast Pedaling on the trainer but I'm sticking to just doing a regular 75 minutes or so just to test out the knee and then I'll do my stretching and put the hot pad on it for a bit. I'll be ready to rock by the weekend I think, it's supposed to be upper 60s and no rain so I can't wait to get outside again. It's only October so I don't mind the trainer during the week yet, I'm actually o.k. with it mentally this week. By January I'll be dreading it though I'm sure. I can't wait for snowshoeing though either as that will break up the monotony a bit, I'll be kicking some butt climbing up the hills out at Minooka Park in Waukesha to take away some of the boredom of the trainer.
So anyways, not much else going on right now. I almost snagged a nice all-carbon wheelset the other day on eBay, a brand new set of FSA RD-800s, semi-aero 38mm, tubular. I forgot about it though when I was watching football and the auction ended with someone outbidding me at the last minute. If I was watching I would've won, damn. I can't make my bike much lighter or faster since I have all Campy Record on it now and all the other components are carbon as well, so the best upgrade I could do is wheels, so I'll keep my eyes open for a good deal on eBay and maybe by next Spring I'll find something good. Well, back to work, until next time..........

Support Your Local MicroBrewery

I'll start with the non-bike stuff first. Yesterday afternoon Melissa brought me to Sprecher Brewery to go on the tour and sample some beer for my birthday present and I had a great time. Xavier tagged along so that he could drink all the soda that he wanted as they had unlimited soda for the kids in the beer garden as well. The tour was fun, not too informational for anyone looking to get some info on beer-making in detail, but learning the history of Sprecher was pretty neat. Sprecher makes some of the best beer around, and one, possibly two of their beers are in my top 10. I especially enjoy their Pub Ale, and their Russian Imperial Stout is in or near my top 10 as well. They make some very popular beers amongst my friends, such as the Black Bavarian, the Dopple Bock, and OctoberFest, but I was surprised to hear that their Special Amber is their best selling beer. I don't think I've ever been out with friends where any of us ordered the Special Amber and the guys at work are pretty high on the beer as well and none of them ever mentioned that as one of their favorites. I'd think that between my friends and the guys at work, that they would be a good sample of the beer drinkers in the state, but I guess not, we're just not into Amber I guess. So anyways, after I got my souvenir glass and drank my 4 beers we went in to the gift shop and I picked out enough beer to last me a while. I got a case of mixed bottles, mainly the Pub Ale, Imperial Stout and of course OctoberFest, but a few others as well. I also splurged and got a couple of special bottles that I can't drink for a while. I got one of their Bourbon Barrel aged Scotch Ales, and a Premium Reserve bottle of the Russian Imperial Stout. The Imperial Stout is a bottle that I can't drink yet as it needs to be stored for about 8-10 months to let it age a bit, this bottle is like a fine wine, it will only get better (and for the price I paid I'm sure it will). I also got a nice T-shirt and a Stout glass as well. All in all, it was a great b-day present because I sure do love my beer.
So, on to the biking stuff. I picked out two routes this weekend that would give me 7 hours total over the two days, but unlike last week where I had a 4 hour day and a 3 hour day these routes would be split 3.5 hours a piece. Yesterday I went and did a nice endurance pace ride through Muskego, Big Bend, Mukwonago, Waukesha, and then finally back to New Berlin. I felt really good on the bike, no sore ass this weekend, my knee pain was manageable, and although it was a bit cool, only 37 degrees at the start of my ride, I was still warm and comfy. So after getting the first ride done yesterday I was really looking forward to today's ride but when I woke up at 6:30 to eat breakfast I heard the rain coming down and sure enough I looked outside and it was coming down pretty good. I decided to head back to bed, get some extra rest and wake up at 8:00 to try again. So up at 8:00, look outside, still raining. Crap. I checked the radar, saw lots of rain in the radar and in the forecast and decided that it's a trainer and roller day today as the rain isn't going away. It's 11:25 now, so at noon I'm going to turn on the Packer game, get the trainer set up and do 2 hours on that during the game. I'll take a little break after the game and get some stuff done around the house and then tonight at about 7:00 I'll pop in a movie and do another hour on the rollers just to work on my pedal stroke and form. 3 hours total inside is more than enough for me, I really don't care to do any more than that this time of year. I'll save the 4 hour trainer rides for January when it's really cold and snowy out. Tomorrow is a rest day and I'll do some stretching and ab work and then depending on how busy work is I'm hoping to get some outside riding in during the week as I've got my light system all charged up and ready to go. If time doesn't allow then I'll just be hitting the trainer this week for 75 to 90 minutes Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Well, that's it for now, check out some pics from the brew tour.....and the really bad lunch I had right afterwards, good thing I had a long ride. Until next time......

Trainer=Knee Pain

What is it about trainers that gives me knee pain? I mean WTF? I felt fine all summer long and in to the Fall. I rode all last week without knee pain. I get on the trainer this week and after 2 days my left knee hurt. I really think it has something to do with being locked in to a static position, my knees just don't like that. I've talked all about that in posts from earlier this year and last year so you can read my rants about that in previous posts if you care. So anyways, after rides on the trainer Tuesday and Wednesday I switched to the rollers last night after I felt the onset of the knee pain. It definitely helped to ride the rollers instead of the trainer as my knee doesn't hurt nearly as much today, luckily I don't have to ride either one of those tonight or this weekend as tonight is a rest day and this weekend I'll be outside. It will be a little chilly but I'll be up early tomorrow morning and out on the bike for 4 hours so that I can be back to go on a little trip for my b-day present. Tuesday is my birthday so tomorrow afternoon I'm going to Sprecher for a brewery tour and I'll be partaking in some beer drinking most of the afternoon and will leave the gift shop with hopefully quite a bit of their Limited Reserve and Premium beverages that you can only get there. Some Sprecher BBQ sauce will probably be in order as well as their little chocolate kegs with truffle infused with beer, mmmmm. It's going to be a good day.
As far as the biking goes, I will get my ride in tomorrow morning as I said, Sunday might be a little rainy, but I think they are only calling for like 30% chance of rain so I'm not too worried. I'll be doing 3 hours Sunday, and both rides will be at Endurance Pace. Hopefully Sunday I'm not too hung over from my b-day excursion to Sprecher, I think I'll manage either way, I'll just have to go slow. Well, that's it for now, tonight I'll just be chilling out at home, watching a movie probably and relaxing a bit, it's been a hectic week and I'm glad it's nearly over. Until next time........