Recovery Coming Along Well

As I mentioned in my previous post, I was under the weather late last week and over the weekend but my recovery is coming along nicely and I felt better Monday and felt a lot better last night. I have not done any interval or speed work in a week and only rode shorter recovery rides over the weekend, nothing hard at all, although I did hike Devil's Lake all day Sunday. Last night the weather was great so I figured I'd make the best of it and stay out until sunset and push it a little bit to open up the legs to see how I was feeling after a week off of any hard efforts. I rode out to Muskego and did some sets of hill sprints up the finishing hill of this weekend's race course, only 2 sets of 6 sprints with recovery only being the time that it took me to turn around and start the sprint again. I was dying after about the 3rd sprint of the 2nd set and threw up on the 4th sprint but that was due to the residual mucous that I still have from being sick and I kind of gagged on it when I was trying to breathe, yeah, it's gross, but that's what happened. I finished out the 5th and 6th sprint and headed out of the park towards Big Bend and did a loop out there and then made my way to one of my favorite hills, Tans Dr. and decided to test my fitness there by doing one climb to see where I'm at compared to my PR. I figured that since I haven't done much of anything for a week that I'd be pretty slow and figured on throwing up again but surprisingly I broke my PR by 7 seconds! Now, could I have even gone up the hill a second time, maybe not, I hit HR numbers I haven't hit in a long time, 194 was my max up the hill, my chest physically hurt after that. I think I was just exceeding my limit to prove that I still had some fitness, but I know I couldn't have done 6 repeats up the hill like I did last week. That's the problem with a little layoff, for the most part you can still feel great for one hard day of riding or one really hard effort, but try to ride hard for 3 days in a row or try repeated hard efforts up a hill, that's when you'll realize that you've lost something. So yeah, I was good yesterday, today I'll probably feel it though when I try to ramp it up again, all cylinders might not be firing tonight but I'll try again anyways. It's raining right now but it's supposed to be better later, so no doubt I'll be able to get outside and enjoy the 60 degree temps. Like I said I'm going to try another harder effort tonight but if I notice that I'm not feeling it or my body is not responding then I'll just do an easy ride and do a hard ride tomorrow. Friday will obviously be an easier day ahead of Saturday's races.

On the home front, I'm getting stressed about my freakin' basement wall because it has some nice horizontal cracks and step cracks in it that are ever-expanding and I'm thinking one of these days I'm going to be sitting in my recliner enjoying a Guinness and it's all going to come tumbling down on me. I've been keeping an eye on them the last few weeks and they are getting bigger so I finally made the call today to have someone come take a look, they can't get out until the 21st, I was hoping like tomorrow would be nice! Oh well, I have two weeks now to sit and watch them get bigger, wish me luck. If the bill comes to the 3 or 4 grand that I've heard it will cost to put up the steel beams, then I might be selling my bike to pay for it, anyone want a CAAD8 with all Campy Carbon Record and carbon wheels? Final cost dependent upon my bill from the contractor of course....I'm kidding, I'm not selling my bike, well, maybe..... until next time..........

Family Fun

Yesterday was a great day with the family at Devil's Lake State Park where we hiked around the entire lake, up and down the bluffs on both sides of the lake. We were there for most of the day and the weather was great, mid 60s and sunny, a little windy, but it felt good as it kept me from sweating too much. It was Melissa's b-day so it was nice to have all of us, including the dog, up there and together. I've been under the weather since about Thursday of last week and haven't really felt like doing much of anything but it was nice to get out in the fresh air and today I'm feeling a little better and hopefully will be 100% in the next couple of days. A lot of my co-workers have been sick in the past week and I figured since I am healthier than almost all of them, that I'd be immune to their sickness, turns out I wasn't but I didn't get it nearly as bad as a few of them so I have that going for me. I did ride for a couple of hours over the weekend, basically a couple of recovery rides, nothing too long. Today I'll be getting out after work because it's a beautiful day and I'll do about 35-40 miles at a fairly easy pace just to make sure I don't stress the immune system too much as I recover, and I'll probably do the same tomorrow just to make sure I'm back to normal before I push it too hard. Wednesday and Thursday will be hard days and Friday will be an easy spin ahead of Saturday's races. I plan on doing 2 races Saturday, the Masters 3/4 and the Masters 1/2/3, one is in the morning, the other in the afternoon, so there is plenty of time to recover. I don't care if I get dropped in both of them, I just need to get the race time in so that I can make a decent showing at least in Iowa in a couple of weeks. The Masters 3/4 shouldn't be bad, looks like the same guys I raced last year for the most part. Other than that, the weather looks like it might be improving gradually to the point where we might actually see 60 degrees on a regular basis. Wouldn't that be nice?? Congrats to all my teammates that did the Baraboo RR this weekend as well in nasty conditions, it's a tough race without the cold and rain, so hats off to them for their effort. We had a couple of 2nd place finishes and 5 other top 15 placings as well, great job by all. Until next time.......

Pack Fodder....Or Less

So right now the racing is not going so good, there's no other way to look at it, I'm just not at the level I need to be in order to stay competitive, or even finish the damn races. Saturday was another bad race, stayed in for about 28 minutes and then once we hit the hill I got popped out the back, I did another lap and then quit as I was way off the back, 31 minutes total. I'm not doing anything to help the team so far this year, I don't even feel like I'm part of the race, I'm basically just hanging on for as long as I can and then quitting when I can't hang on anymore, that's make 2 DNFs out of 3 races, not a good record. Sooo, what do I do about that? Well, mentally I'm still trying to stay the course and I keep training every day but eventually this may start to wear on me a bit. I have two options right now, one is to start doing the Master's 3/4 races, which is probably the best choice, or stop racing for a few weeks and just spend the weekends doing some hard training instead of traveling around to race my bike for 30 minutes, which also sounds good to me. I'm not sure what I'll do yet, the Baraboo RR looms on Saturday and that course is not suited for me at all, so that will probably get skipped either way in favor of training. I'm supposed to go camping with the family Friday thru Sunday at Devil's Lake State Park in Baraboo, so I'll be up there either way, although the weather doesn't look good right now, so that may get cancelled too if it rains. Basically right now I'm just going to ride my bike and figure it all out as it comes, I have no clue what this weekend will hold much less the rest of the year. My motivation is definitely not as high as last year, so that has something to do with it, I just have too many interests right now with the house stuff and the yard, and that makes it difficult to take all the free time I have after work on the weekdays and spend it all on biking. Well, that's it for now, nothing much else to say.

More Suffering Ahead

This past weekend held two disparate races for me, a pretty decent race on Saturday where I didn't feel all that bad and got in a breakaway, and a bad race on Sunday where I got shot out the back after 21 minutes of a 60 minute race. The main difference between the two? A punchy little hill on Sunday that had the HR in the ozone layer, and the lack of any ability to recover after the hill. Admittedly I haven't done much hill training yet this year as I've been a bit miffed at my weight, which is 10lbs heavier than last year, so I've kinda been avoiding hills. I've been doing mainly Steady State intervals, but I think the realization has kind of settled in that I need to get off my ass, drop the weight, and start doing some hill work. I'll get dropped in any race that has even the smallest bumps in it if I don't start doing something to remedy what is now my major weakness. Having said that, I'm pretty worried about Whitnall on Saturday as the course has a nice little double-step hill and a smaller gradual hill that will probably have me in trouble shortly after the start. Sunday's data from my Garmin was all I needed to see to make me realize that I'll probably be in the same situation Saturday as well. Basically I started off o.k. with my HR in the mid to upper 170s, but then up the hill it went to around 186, then as we went around the course it would start to recover and get in the 170s again, but then it was time to hit the hill and it was right back up to 186 again. So I never really recovered enough after the hill because the speed was so fast that every time I hit the hill the batteries were getting drained more and more each time. Finally I went up the hill and had an acid leak that exploded my legs and I was done. I'm hoping that something similar doesn't happen Saturday as I have been practicing a bit on the Whitnall course and in 3 weeks of doing intervals around the course I dropped my lap times 24 seconds per lap from week one to week 3 last week. I was averaging lap times that were equivalent to my M4/5 race last year, and doing it solo for 12 minutes at a time with only a 7 minute rest between each set for a total of 36 minutes of intervals. One day I did a constant 40 minutes to see if I could maintain the speed of the M4/5 race by myself for the entire duration, and it was close but I couldn't quite do it for 40 minutes straight. Maybe mentally I'll feel better on Saturday since I've done the course 7 times in the last 3 weeks and will do it 1 more time this week. Other than that, today I'll be doing the course, tomorrow will be hill repeats (yes, I'm doing them again) and Thursday will be a normal ride. Friday will be an easy ride with some sprints to open up the legs for Saturday.
It's also that time of the year for yard work to get done so I've been doing some work around the yard as well and will have to squeeze that in at some point this week too. Most likely I'll be stuck out in the dark doing some things after my rides or I'll have to do as I did this morning when I got out and fertilized before work. I'm also looking forward to some camping already as we are heading off to Devil's Lake for 2 nights next week on Friday and Saturday, coming home Sunday. I have the Baraboo race Saturday, maybe, as the hills will kill me, so we figured it was a good reason to camp since the campground is just outside of Baraboo. Sunday, May 4th, is also my wife's b-day so it will be nice to celebrate it with a hike around the bluffs at the park. Well, that's it for now, I wanna give a shout out to Jason, let's get together and drink some beers soon, it's been way too long. But not too many beers, I gotta get up those dang hills. Until next time...........

Decent Race

I'll provide a more detailed race report tomorrow as I'm getting ready for some sleep right now, I'm pretty wiped. I did the Menomonee Park race today and it was pretty fast, a bit over 26mph average for the race and I was part of a breakaway of 5 guys that stayed away for 3 or 4 laps, I was too dizzy to count. Ultimately we got caught with 2 and a half laps to go, and I tried one more little attack before coasting in the last lap off the back of the pack. It was a lot of hard work but since the course was flat and not much wind I was able to hang and obviously even get off the front for a while. I guess today's race, and the accompanying great weather, was the spark that I needed to get me back in the racing mood. Now, tomorrow is another story as the GDVC course is a little more difficult and I'm not sure how I'll feel after today's effort. I've done everything I can to recover tonight as far as food and hydration so let's see if I can handle a bunch of times up that punchy little hill. A picture below of me in the break -

Breakaway

[click to enlarge]

Looking For The Spark

Although I've continued to train and have had to overcome a lot of distractions and hurdles of late, I'm still looking for something to really get me going and to get me in the racing mood. I just haven't found it yet and I'm hoping that something will come along to get me in the mindset to know that I've done enough training and that my form is good enough to hang with the rest of the bunch. Right now I know I'm not where I was last year at this time, I just feel like I haven't done anything that has given me the speed I need. I've done longer distance stuff, hill repeats and started Steady State intervals a couple of weeks ago but I just don't feel FAST at all. I feel sluggish up hills, I can't turn over big gears, and I haven't even attempted a sprint yet all year, the speed factor just doesn't feel like it's there. I was set on racing this weekend but now I just don't know if I will, it'd almost be a waste of money getting shot out the back right away.
There are alot of reasons why I'm just not feeling it, I wont' delve in to most of them. Here's one though as an example - tonight for instance, I had a really good day of training yesterday, I wanted to continue that tonight but shortly after I started my ride I was standing up and then sat down and I heard a crack, sure enough my seatpost broke. Most of tonight was then spent trying to find another seatpost that fit, then getting the height right again, and it was 9:45 by the time I got it all together. So no ride tonight. That's just the way things have been going this year, it's seems I can only run off one good week of training before something happens, like getting sick, having to go out of town on business, rain and snow on the weekends, blah, blah, blah. Anyways, I've thought multiple times of late about putting this racing season on hold, but I just can't do it quite yet. As mentally down as I am right now, for some reason I keep trudging along. Maybe I'll get that spark I need in the next couple of weeks, only time will tell really, who knows, I guess I'll know when it comes and hopefully I get that FAST feeling back again......

It's Been Awhile.......

.....but I'm still here, just been busy working, doing house things, and yes, riding my bike. The last few weeks have been good on the bike, I'm probably back to where I was before I got sick, but I should be way past that of course, so that is where this week's training will really help. I'd say I'm at 75% which is probably a little under where I am normally at this time of year, but after being off the bike for so long to start March I'll take it. I did 7 days on the bike last week, 2 days as recovery days so I'm definitely allowing for some rest, and I've had a good start to this week thus far. My training weeks go from Monday to Sunday, and Monday is normally a rest day, but I went out and did 3 hours yesterday since this is my "training camp" week while I'm on vacation. Yesterday was nothing fancy, just an endurance pace ride but it was nice to be outside. Today will be a split day because the rain is coming and is supposed to be here about noon so I'm leaving the house in about 20 minutes to hit the road for 3 hours and will then do another 1.5 - 2 hours on the trainer this afternoon or early evening. Today is Steady State intervals, which aren't exactly fun but they are a longer effort than PowerIntervals so not quite as intense. Tomorrow is supposed to be the only nice weather day of the week, meaning above 50 degrees and maybe some sunshine. The schedule calls for 4.5 hours out in Lake Geneva, with 2 loops around the lake and then hill repeats on a few select hills that are fairly long and steep as well. Should be a long day of thrashing myself and I'm sure there will be some near-puke experiences in there as well. Thursday is iffy as far as the weather, but right now the plan calls for another 4 hours with no real efforts so that I can recover from my repeats on Wednesday. Friday will be a shorter day, 2 to 2.5 hours but I will again be doing Steady State intervals so it'll be a tough day, but thankfully the suffering won't last too long. Saturday is another day that the weather will dictate what I'm going to do as right now they are calling for snow showers! I thought we were done with that, but that's the way this year has been going. If I can get outside then I'm looking at the Doc ride possibly and if I can't get my butt out of bed that early I'll be doing 3 - 3.5 hours solo later in the day. Sunday will be my last day of vacation and my toughest ride, again they are calling for some rain/snow mix, but I might just do my ride regardless of the weather. The plan is to ride from New Berlin to Burlington, over to Alpine Valley, do some repeats up the steep climbs and then head back to New Berlin, about 5 - 5.5 hours of fun. That will end my training camp with anywhere from 25 to 28 hours on the bike. Luckily for me next week happens to be the 4th week of my training cycle, so it's a regeneration week, that means only about 11-13 hours on the schedule so the week after that I should be fresh and ready to rock.
As far as racing goes, my first race now is tentatively on the 19th, I've decided that it's probably best to get a race under my belt before our big team race the following week so that I don't have a poor showing for the team in our own race.
Other than that, in addition to biking on my vacation I'm doing some major house stuff as well. Yesterday I built a shelving unit in my pantry, complete with under-shelf lighting and cubby holes for all my waterbottles, Clif products, energy drinks, etc., it will definitely help keep me more organized instead of having everything just stacked on top of each other. Today after my first ride I'll be running errands around town and then will also be finishing up the last of the window trim in Xavier's room. Hopefully I'll have time to get out the new solid wood pantry door as well and get the first coat of primer on that so that I can get it painted and installed this week yet. I hate installing new doors, all that shimming is a pain in the *ss, especially with our crooked house, I swear nothing is straight or at a 90 degree angle in this house. Oh well, it'll be about a 3 hour project, but well worth the aesthetic value and the investment. That's it for now, off to ride before it starts raining, until next time................

Getting Back On Track

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

Nothing To Report..

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

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

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

Break Out the SnowShoes

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

Too Funny

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


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

Training in Turmoil

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

Schedule Re-do

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

Clouded

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

Tis The Season.....

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

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

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

Such A Tease

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

New Hoops

Shutting It Down

Rode for an hour to warm up on the rollers and then moved to the trainer to do Tempo workouts.....couldn't get my heart rate above 155, I tried for 25-30 minutes, no luck. I'm smart enough to know that it means to shut it down, so that was it for tonight. Maybe time to give the body a rest, I'll see how it responds tomorrow morning but maybe a couple days of recovery rides are in order. That's all, until next time....