Feeling Rested...Kinda.

I'm definitely feeling less fatigued than I had mentioned in my last post on Friday as I did get some rest yesterday. I didn't get much rest on Saturday as I was up at 6:00a.m. so that I could eat some breakfast before the Drop the Doc ride. I drove up to Dousman and did the ride, 37 miles at 24.5 mph, so it was a pretty good ride. I stayed at the front for a while in the beginning and took a few pulls, then sat on for a while in the middle of the ride. Near the end two guys took off up a little rise as I happen to come through for my pull so I pushed it hard on the hill and caught up to them near the top. One guy was blown so he dropped but I kept going with the other guy and then we were joined by my teammate Tony and we were pushing it at about 28-29 mph. The pack was about 30-40 yards behind us so we just kept pushing it. I didn't really know that we were near the end as I've only done this ride once before so I thought we were just having a go and that the pack would just catch us again. Well, after about 2 minutes we hit a flat section and the pack came sprinting by us at 35+ mph as we were actually at the finish line of the ride, which is basically a wooden sign on the side of the road. At first I was wondering why everyone was sprinting like crazy and then I realized we were at the end, which is good because at that point I was starting to get a little fried on our little breakaway. If the pack didn't catch us I probably could've gone for a little bit longer but not too much without blowing up. I have improved quite a bit this year but still not enough to hold that pace for a long distance, so I guess I still have a ways to go. It was a fun ride and I definitely got in my requisite amount of Race Simulation training. After the ride I went home, mowed the entire lawn, stained the outside of my fence, painted my back door, painted and cut some base molding for the house and then at about 8:00 I finally was able to relax and eat dinner before the Packer game. Sunday I did some more work around the house, basically cleaning the garage, pulling weeds and some other miscellaneous stuff. I was scheduled to do a 2 hour Endurance Pace ride but instead I suggested to my wife that she ride with me so we went out and did 20 miles together, which at the pace she can go took us 1.5 hours. She was pretty tired at the end of the ride as it was the longest ride she's ever done so I'm pretty proud of her for that. I was really fresh of course and could've ridden another 2 hours but it was 6:30 by the time we got back and it was time to cook dinner and relax. I ended up in bed at about 9:30, which is really early for me, but I needed the sleep. I feel rested up and ready to go today, so even though I'm scheduled for a rest day I'll probably take a little stroll on the bike just for fun, maybe an hour or so, just to keep the blood flowing. Tomorrow I've got some Over/Under Intervals scheduled so hopefully the legs feel good so that I can push those hard. The weather looks great the rest of the week so it should be a good week of riding. Until next time...happy riding!

Sooooo Tired!

Since I've come back to work last week Wednesday I've been working like a madman, 11 hours a day, up at 5:00a.m. or earlier and in to work by 6:00a.m. until 5:00p.m.. Today was the first day that I got to sleep late, until 6:30, so that felt great but I'm still completely wiped out as I've typically been getting about 5 hours of sleep a night. Some people can handle 5 hours of sleep and it's no big deal, but when you are working all day then coming home to bike for another 2 hours or more, it can really wear on your body and eventually major fatigue or sickness sets in. Luckily I don't feel sick but fatigue is a big issue right now, I can tell my body is getting tired and I have a general feeling of malaise that I normally didn't have before this week. I do have to be to work early Monday through Thursday next week but I finally get a respite as I have another vacation day on Friday. After that my big project at work will be complete and I'll go back to my normal schedule and I'll finally get some much needed sleep. Anyways, the last couple of days have been good on the bike, Wednesday I did intervals and yesterday I did a nice short 1.25 hour Endurance Pace ride. The intervals on Wednesday were pretty tough as I did 2 sets of (8) 30 second Speed Intervals during my 2.25 hour ride. The last set wasn't as easy as I had previously bragged about on Tuesday's ride. The second day of SI was pretty tough and by the end I was really gasping for air and my HR was up around 189 bpm. This result is obviously not only the expected result but the desired result as I really trashed my body during this 2nd day of hard workouts. Last night my easy 1.25 hour ride, in addition to tonight's 1 hour Recovery Ride, will help to start the regeneration process in my body to rebuild from the two hard efforts. I will tear down my body again, hopefully, on tomorrow's Drop the Doc ride as I'm hoping everyone will make it a super fast ride. I'm counting on the ride being like a race simulation, with the expectation that there will be about 70 people there who are going to try to really push it. After the ride I'll take a little bit of a nap as I'll have to get up again early at about 6:00 to eat and drive out to the ride, so I'm going to need just a bit of a rest afterwards. Basically the rest of the day will just be doing a lot of yard work and some cabinet work on my house. I'll probably relax at night with a movie in the recliner until I fall asleep. Should be great weather tomorrow and a great day of riding and working around the house. Until next time, happy riding...........

Is It Time To Race Yet?

It has been about 3 or 4 weeks since I've last raced and I'm starting to get a little antsy to get out there and mix it up a little bit. I obviously did the MS150 which was a great charity ride but it wasn't a competitive event so it was more relaxing than anything, basically just cruising for 150 miles. I started my speed training again last week as well and I'm feeling pretty strong right now and I think that is part of the reason I want to get out, I'd like to gauge my fitness against everyone else. I have just over two weeks until the State Crit Championship and if everything stays on track for that I think my form will be good enough to at least be more than pack fodder during the race. I did Speed Intervals on last night's ride and was able to sit and push at 35-36 mph on the flats for each of the (7) 30 second intervals. Basically the Speed Intervals are 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off....and so on, 7 times with a 5 minute rest between sets, of which I did two. As each interval progressed I actually felt stronger as they went on and by the end of the two sets I wanted to do another set but didn't want to make the mistake of overtraining, which a lot of people do when they feel strong. Tonight I will be doing 2 sets of (8) reps of Speed Intervals during my 2 hour ride, which is almost my max now as by the time I get home and get out it's dark about 2 hours later at 8:10ish. Anyways, normally you wouldn't do Speed Intervals 2 days in a row as the usual recovery time between these workouts is 48 hours because they stress the body so much. Tonight I'm doing them for the 2nd day in a row because by overstressing the body so much this week I will be allowed 2 weeks to recover creating a greater compensation effect than if I were to do intervals right up to the race without recovering. 2 weeks is usually when you want to start tapering after a really stressful week of training, so my last hard ride this week will be the Drop the Doc ride on Saturday. Next week and the week after will only include one day each of Intervals and lots of Endurance pace and Recovery pace rides. Hopefully this all pays off with a good result. Well, besides that, my new teammate Tony won the Sheboygan WI Cup race and is now only 9 points behind going in to the final WI Cup race so we'll definitely have to make sure he wins that race to take the series overall...that's if he doesn't upgrade before the race to a 3. Either way, it's been a great year for him and I can't wait to see how he progresses next year in the 1/2/3s. Well, almost time to head home and head out for a ride. Until next time.

MS150 Recap

This past weekend was the MS150, which is a charity ride from Waukesha to Madison over 2 days, and other than being rained on all day yesterday, it was a wonderful event. We started out Saturday morning at 7:30 a.m. with a leisurely stroll out of Waukesha with a group of almost 1500 riders heading towards our destination of Whitewater where we would stay the night. The first 3 or 4 miles were pretty slow as everyone made their way out of Waukesha and thankfully the groups started to thin out as the miles went on which allowed me ride in a straight line instead of weaving around all of the slower riders. The weather was perfect on Saturday with overcast skies to block out a lot of the sun and keep the temps manageable in the mid 80s, and the wind was pretty much non-existent. Dave and I rode the 100 mile route and it was a great ride with plenty of opportunities to eat lots of food at the rest stops along the way. I may have actually gained a pound or two during the weekend. After the ride we had a large dinner at the dining hall of the UW-Whitewater campus, basically all you could eat spaghetti, chicken, ham, mashed potatoes, and I also ate a corn dog....yum, yum. We awoke on Sunday morning to cloudy skies at 5:30a.m., but with hope that the rain would hold off we went to breakfast for our fill of waffles, juice and a couple biscuits with gravy. We changed right after breakfast and walked out of the dorms with our SS jerseys on only to find that it was now raining. I quickly threw on my jacket and unfortunately that was not an option for Dave as he didn't bring one with, so we headed out knowing that we were in for a long day of riding in the rain. Immediately we both were pretty wet and chilled and knew that cutting it short and doing the 62 mile route would probably be the order of the day. I have a lot to race for yet this year with the State Crit Championship coming up so I was not ready to catch pneumonia by riding in the rain for 6 hours on the 100 mile route. After about 26 miles we hit the 2nd rest stop and the ride organization was making everyone stay at that stop as the local law enforcement were not allowing anyone back on the road as there was way too much lightning and supposedly hail heading our way. We all huddled under a carport and tried our best to squeeze out whatever water we could to help dry out a little sooner than later. After approximately 45 minutes of standing around they finally allowed everyone to continue on and the rain and wind combined to chill us to the bone, reaffirming our decision to cut our route short and do 62 miles. We finished the ride in Madison filthy with mud, manure, worms, and whatever other road grime we accumulated along the way. Luckily for us one of the buses was getting ready to leave to take people back to Waukesha so we quickly threw on some dry shirts and shorts (or wet shorts in Dave's case) and jumped on the bus. It took about all of 10 minutes before I was almost drooling on my shirt as I slept like a little baby on the ride back. After we got our bikes and gear we packed up and I headed for home with nothing on my mind but a warm shower and a plate of leftover lasagna from Friday night. I showered, ate, and then went to Starbucks with my wife for a nice big coffee and then relaxed the night away watching a DVD in the recliner. All in all, it was a great ride and in spite of the rain, a great weekend. I was proud to raise some money for MS and hopefully I can make it back next year to do it again.

Getting Serious Again

The last few weeks have been pretty relaxed on the bike as I haven't really had a structured riding program and have just basically been riding at casual speeds for 2 to 2.5 hours with the exception of my long ride last Sunday. I am now 4 weekends away from the State Crit Championship so Monday I started ramping up my ride intensity again and have gone back to a structured program until the race on the 26th. I did a 42 mile ride on Monday at Endurance pace and pushed it on any hills just to get my legs used to the intensity again. Last night I did a 36 mile ride and did 2 sets of 7 x 30 second Speed Intervals. Speed Intervals are perfect training for criteriums as they simulate the burst coming out of corners and the high cadence that I use during crits. I'll be doing the Speed Intervals again tomorrow so that means tonight will just be a short recovery ride between the two days of intervals. Friday I'll just be doing a short recovery ride as well ahead of the 100 miles I'll be doing on Saturday for the MS150. Sunday will be 75 miles, again for the MS ride and then Monday will be a rest day. I'll do a couple of heavy interval days next week followed by a gradual taper heading in to the race. I'll obviously update my training as the weeks progress towards the race and let you all know how it's going.
Anyways, I'm also back to work today after 5 weeks off for my sabbatical and it's been rough going so far. I was up at 4:50a.m. and in to work by 6:00 and I have a feeling I'm going to sleep pretty good tonight. After long periods of vacation like this companies should allow people to come back gradually, like 2 hours the first day, then 4 hours, 6, and then finally the full 8-9 hours until the employee is fully acclimated again. I'm definitely for this idea but instead I'll be working 11 hours today, tomorrow, and Friday. Good times, good times. Only 16 more days until my next vacation day though, so I've got that to look forward to........until next time.

It's Really August Tomorrow?

Well, July ends today and year seems to be winding down pretty quickly. There is still a lot of cycling left to do though and I'll be riding quite a bit in the next few months. Just to re-cap the last few days I've missed......I rode about 35 miles last Thursday because I didn't want to push it too much with the saddle sores I had. Friday I rode for about 16 miles fairly easy just as a fun ride around Whitnall Park. Saturday morning my saddle sores were completely gone so I did the Drop the Doc ride in Dousman and felt really good, no issues in spite of the humidity and rising temps. It is one of the faster, if not the fastest training rides in the area and supposedly it was a slower day for the group as we averaged 23.5 mph for the 37 mile ride. From what I've heard from a few people it is normally faster than that, and the pace did seem quite comfortable so I have no doubt that they go quite a bit faster on occasions. Normally I would do a longer ride on Sunday as well but I didn't get a chance to bike yesterday as it rained throughout the morning and then we had to go out to my father's house in Burlington for most of the afternoon. We got home in the afternoon and it was my first wedding anniversary yesterday so I spent some time with my wife and we had a great dinner and relaxed with a movie in our recliners, just like an old couple right? I'll make up for yesterday's ride by riding today for about 45-50 miles even though it is supposed to be about 97 degrees with a heat index of about 110. The winds are 20-25 mph so it should make for a fun ride. I like the heat though and I'll take a route with a few County Parks along the way so that I can re-fill my bottles occasionally. Most likely I'll get a lot of things done around the house first and then ride in the late afternoon or evening when it cools down a bit, like to 92 or something. :)
The big ride for me this week will be the MS150 on Saturday and Sunday, in which I'll be riding 100 miles on Saturday and 75 on Sunday. I won't change my training program this week for the ride, I'll just keep riding as usual and will probably go for a short ride the night before even as my friend and co-worker Dave will be staying at my house as we have to be in Waukesha fairly early and he lives in West Bend. We'll take a nice leisurely ride of about 15-20 miles just for the fun of it and then we'll take in a nice pasta dinner and relax before getting some sleep. The MS150 should be a great casual ride and I'm looking forward to it and best of all it is for a good cause and I'm proud to be raising some money to help out. Well, off to do some molding work and door trim in the kitchen, until next time.........

I Hate The French

Surprise, surprise...the French have found a way to try and make another U.S. rider look bad and now we are hearing that Floyd is a doper as well. There was only one positive test this whole Tour and of course it was Floyd's. I'm just stunned right now. I really hope it isn't true and I can't wait to see the results of the B sample and hear what Floyd has to say. This is just crazy.
Anyways, I have been riding the last couple of days, in which I did a 35 mile ride fairly easy on Tuesday and felt a little sluggish but not too bad. Yesterday I did 46 miles at a little higher pace and felt pretty good although I think that I have a saddle sore issue now as during yesterday's ride I had a little discomfort and sitting was a bit troublesome but not to the point where I couldn't ride. Today it is raining right at the moment but I hope to get out yet for a short ride as I can tell I'm on the edge of a full blown saddle sore if I'm not careful and I ride for too long. I really have to be careful now as I have the MS150 next weekend and I'll be doing the 100 and 75 mile rides and there is no way I can afford to have a saddle sore going in to the ride. 175 miles with a saddle sore would probably make me cry like a little baby. Tomorrow I'll be off the bike for a rest day and then I'm still looking at doing the Drop the Doc ride on Saturday morning and a ride with my MS150 teammates on Sunday. Overall, I'm feeling pretty good, I can't wait to get back to some speedwork training after the MS150 as right now I'm just doing rides with no intervals or anything and I need to spice it up a little bit to make it feel like I'm getting a good workout. The Drop the Doc ride should be good for a lung burner and then I'll start my SpeedIntervals after the MS150 on the 6th. Well, that's all for now, I'm sure I'll put out an update on the whole Floyd thing tomorrow once I hear more. Hopefully he releases a statement soon.

I've Come A Long Way

I have to say first of all that although I didn't finish my 24-hour ride the other day I am proud of doing 175 miles in under 10 hours after only being able to ride for 15 minutes at a time when I started training in December. I thought when I started riding again this year that I'd be mediocre at best and would use this year as a base for serious racing next year. So far I think that I'm following that schedule as I've been decent enough in races this year, nothing spectacular yet, but I've also finished every race and have improved all year long. I've decided also to join a team for the rest of this year and next year and will be riding for Team Wisconsin (www.team-wisconsin.com) for the next 2 or 3 races and for 2007. They have a new sponsor coming on for 2007 and have a Masters team that I think can be pretty dominant and I'm looking forward to being a part of the team. I looked at a few different teams and Team Wisconsin seemed to have more of a presence at some of the races, they have an attacking style that I like, they have multiple riders that will be upgrading to the Masters 1/2/3 category within the next year so there wouldn't just be one or two of us toiling away in the races. Team tactics aren't so important and not really necessary in the 4/5 races and even in the Senior 3's races, but since the Masters 1/2/3 races are run together we will be going against some well organized teams, some great riders, and will really need to utilize the gamut of tactics in order to do well and win some races. I feel we can line up with 4-6 really good guys and could be a team that dictates a race. I'm really looking forward to a full 2007 season, should be really fun!
Anyways, as far as riding goes, I didn't ride yesterday although I should have, but I just needed to get some rest as the long ride left my immune system a little compromised and I now have a bit of a cold. My throat hurts, my nose is plugged and I have a constant sinus headache. I pretty much figured this would happen, as the body shuts itself down to repair from the riding it really leaves itself open to sickness. I wanted to ride with the Velocity guys today but feeling the way I do there is no way I'd be able to go fast at all and really don't feel like getting dropped on a training ride today. I need to recover so basically I'll be going out to do about 30 miles at a really easy pace so that I don't tax my body anymore than I need to in order to recover. I'll see how I feel tomorrow but I should be doing about 40-50 miles tomorrow and about the same Thursday. Friday will be a rest day and Saturday if I'm feeling better I will possibly try to hit up the Drop the Doc ride. That's about it for now, time to run errands and do some housework. Until next time.........

Some Pics......

After 145 miles, my dog knows I'm weak so he's trying to schmooze for my PB&J sandwich....

It's the reward not the journey right?????????

Can't Sit....That's It. Sorry.

Well, it's come to the point I've been dreading, I can't sit down anymore and rode my last 15 miles standing up off the seat, which beats the alternative of sitting down. I don't think I can do anymore unless I figure out how to form some sort of device that lets me rest each cheek on something seperately and leaves my boys free of contact. :) I guess for now the final tally is 175 miles in 9 hours and 45 minutes for an average speed of 17.9 which was at 18.4 until the aforementioned last 15 miles when I had to stand and go quite a bit slower. It isn't easy when you aren't riding with a pack or have a rabbit in front of you, so faster would've been better, but after only 8 months of riding that's not too shabby. I'm still happy with that I guess, I sure would've liked to hit 200 miles in less than 12 hours but oh well.......
I have a lot of respect for people that do the 24-hour races, it sure is tough to stay on the seat that long, I think I'll stick to the shorter races for now. Well, I need to go eat now at some place that serves a lot of fat and meats and cheeses and ice cream and chicken tenders, sounds like Dairy Queen to me!!!!!! I grabbed a handful of brown sugar right out of the bag and shoved it in my mouth when I just got back so I know I need big time spread right now. My wife took a few pictures throughout the day, I'll post them later once I get some food in me........happy riding to you all!

Still Going...In A Spot Of Bother Though

As Phil would say, "I am in a spot of bother right now" after 145 miles and 7.5 hours. My stomach is starting to get a little funky so I've cut out solid foods for the time being. I just changed clothes and am having some water and Ensure Plus which is basically a 350 calorie shake with 50 grams of carbs, 11 grams of fat and 13 grams of protein plus lots of vitamins and minerals. I need the calories for sure and the fat will help provide fuel to burn. The carbs will only really be replacing what I've already burned and will not provide much in the way of fuel at the fat-burning pace that I am going at. I'm averaging 18.4 mph after 145 miles, not too shabby with no one to draft off of. I'm getting a little giddy as I think the endorphins are kicking in, little things like the LED numbers on my computer and the sweat stains on my gloves are becoming the most amazing things to me right now. I tried to figure out little animal shapes out of the sweat stains for like 20 minutes. Riding this long really makes you introspective, or crazy. If I'm crazy, then at least I'm one of the happy kinds. Well, off to ride again, there are some cool looking clouds out right now, I think I'll try to find one that looks like a chinchilla.

5 hours down

Well, I'm 5 hours in to my 24-hour ride that may only last 12 hours, we'll see. I've got 4.5 hours of riding in and 30 minutes of rest and I'm at 85 miles. The list of sore body parts....arse, neck, quads, other than that I'm good. I'm just about to go back out for my 30 miles loops of which I'll do 2 laps and then I'll probably take a break. That will put me at about 8.5 - 9 hours total and 8 hours on the bike. I'll have 145 miles at that point and then I'll see how I'm feeling. Right now I just had a quick shower, changed clothes and ate a little bit.......Here is how I look after 85 miles.... How many monkeys can dance on my head? I'll let you know after 60 more miles.

Like the cornrows????

Enjoying My Time Off

Life has been good the last few weeks on my sabbatical, I'm really enjoying my time off of work, and I really don't want to go back!!! I've done a lot of work on the house and there is more to do everyday, I could work all year and still not get it all done. I'm sure my wife would agree with that! I've been riding some this week but not too much, I rode Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday all about 40-45 mile rides. I won't ride today although I might just hop on the bike for an informal stroll around the neighborhood because it's nice and cool out. Tomorrow I'll ride for about 50-55 miles at just a leisurely Endurance Mile pace and then Sunday at 7:00a.m. I start my own little race. I'm going to try to see how many miles I can get in from 7:00a.m Sunday until 7:00a.m. Monday morning with quite a few breaks of course as I've never done a 24-hour ride before. I'm going to start at my house and do my 45 mile loop twice for starters and then I'll take a break for lunch and a little nap. I'll change clothes and then I'll reverse the course and do it again backwards two times. I'll come back for dinner, a longer nap, a change of clothes and then I'll do my small 18 mile loop until it gets dark. After it gets dark I'll go down to a small 3 mile loop within my neighborhood and I'll take a break at about 10:00 or so and change clothes, nap again, eat, and then continue on until about midnight. At this point I'm sure I'll be thoroughly wasted and will decide whether to rest or keep going, I'll try not to sleep though as I'll probably not get up if I lay down. If I keep going I'll try to rest every two hours until 7:00a.m. and then I'm sure I'll sleep most of Monday to recover. I'm just doing this for fun and as a personal challenge and I don't know that I'll even be able to ride past 5:00 in the evening but I'm definitely going to give it a go. If anything the miles I put in will be good training for the 100/75 double I have coming up for the MS150 in 2 weeks. After that I'll be cutting back miles again to do speedwork for the State Criterium Championships at the end of August. Well, back to doing some yardwork, gotta mow the lawn and spread some more mulch in the flower beds. Until next time.......

Taking It Easy...Sort Of.

Well, sorry for the lack of posts lately but just been really busy with housework, landscaping, etc. on my sabbatical. After my last race at Whitnall Park on Wednesday, the 12th, I just kind of took it easy to recover from the 3 days of racing. Obviously feeling disappointed with my results I just decided to stay off the bike for 2 days and didn't ride on Thursday or Friday. Saturday I rode for about an hour at a pretty easy pace to Whitnall Park and back, about 16 miles, so yeah, I averaged 16 mph, it was that easy. Sunday I did a more difficult ride and went to Muskego and back via Tans Rd. which was fun since there is a nice 1 mile long climb that gets steep near the top and really burns the legs. I did this route in anticipation of the race that I was supposed to do on Monday, the Holy Hill Road Race, in order to get the legs primed and ready to go. Ultimately Monday morning when I woke up at 6:00 a.m. to get ready to race I decided my head wasn't in it and I figured it was better to stay home. I didn't ride at all and did about 10 straight hours of work around the house and worked on my landscaping which I have to say was probably harder than the race as after about 3 hours of digging holes I lost about 1-2 lbs. of fluid in the 96 degree heat. Later in the day I checked the results of the race and saw the announcement that a rider had been killed during my race as a result of a collision with a truck. My heart sunk and I was just stunned by the news. I didn't recognize the name but when someone.... anyone.... even those that you do not know, lose their life so young, it's really disheartening and very hard to imagine what their family is going through. My prayers go out to the family of Aaron Bieberitz and I hope they know that the cycling community is very close and we all carry a heavy heart today. I've been struck twice by cars while riding and was able to get up and ride or walk home. I know what it is to be "lucky", as either of those days could've been the end of my life, I wish the tragedy that happened yesterday could've been....would've been Aaron's "lucky" day.....God bless Aaron and his family.

Peaking? Um, No.......

Well, I was supposed to be peaking this week for SuperWeek but my schedule got a little messed up the last couple of weeks and I didn't taper as well as I had planned. It sounds like it would be easy to just ride less and take it easy right? Well, as it turns out I probably worked a little harder on the bike than I should've and I'm just worn out right now I think. Yesterday at Alpine Valley I had some major quadriceps cramping and couldn't push on the flats at all, the hills were fine though because I could stand and stretch. Unfortunately I lost the pack after they hit the gas on a hill because I couldn't sit and push a big gear without my quads screaming, so ultimately I ended up in 23rd place. Decent enough I guess but that was out of the 33 that finished the race from 50-something starters, so I was only 10 from the end. Oh well. Today at Lyons MGA I felt really good but they had a really strict yellow line rule in effect and I couldn't get position until the last lap so I basically sat in the pack and just hung out the whole race. On the last lap I managed to move in to the top 10-15 going up the hill before we turned in to the MGA Proving grounds but as we were going through the grounds I almost hit a matressed-wrapped pole because the pack didn't expect a sharp S-turn at the bottom of the hill and everyone slammed the brakes. 10 guys went around me as I had to slow down to avoid the pole and then I pretty much kept my position to the finish and I ended up somewhere between 20 and 25 in the results. I just checked the results on the web site and they don't have anything posted yet but I should know by tomorrow morning although it doesn't really matter in terms of points or money. Tomorrow is the Whitnall Park circuit race, a 2.3 mile loop that we do about 15 times, and it should be a fun race as it's essentially a closed course with some rolling hills and wide enough for the safety of the pack and to make some attacks. Since it's my last race this week I probably should try to do something instead of just sucking ass but we'll see how the legs feel. Right now they are a little sore but I think they'll be good for tomorrow. A top 10 finish would be nice after having 2 disappointing showings thus far, but I've done nothing to prove yet that I'm in any shape to be a top 10 finisher. Maybe it'll be my day, who knows........

All in all I'd have to say that this year has been a little below my expectations so far but I guess I should be disappointed. The level of competition is higher now than when I initially raced, the Cat 4/5s race like the 3s used to and from what I've seen the 3s and Pro 1/2s look faster now as well. Obviously when I move up to Master 1/2/3s I'll be able to better judge the speed but from the looks of it they are flying. I've been there and done that before, no reason I can't do it again, I just need to build up for next year, it hasn't been so easy this time around, that's for sure. In the next few weeks I'll be doing some long training rides for the MS150 and I've only planned 2 more races for the rest of the year, the 3rd Ward Criterium and the State Criterium Championships. Other than that, I'll just keep riding for next year and do some nice relaxed touring rides and just enjoy being on the bike. Until next time.........

Busy, Busy, Busy

Sorry for the lack of posts, been extremely busy around the house. Just been relaxing pretty much and doing some yard work and today I installed a new back door on the house. The riding has been fairly short and I'm just basically resting up for SuperWeek which starts for me on Monday at Alpine Valley. I'm feeling o.k. but not great, we'll see how I do Monday but I'm really looking forward to the race on Tuesday in my hometown of Burlington. The roads we are racing on were the roads I trained on for a good 8 to 10 years, the course starts about 2 miles from my dad's house. Well, I gotta keep it short today, I'm still not quite packed for our trip to Governor Dodge State Park from tomorrow morning until Sunday. Well, I'll update ya'll Sunday when I get back.

Bad result, Not Quite There Yet

Well, today was my last tune-up race before SuperWeek starts for me on the 10th and I should've been feeling really good and been near top form but I wasn't near where I wanted to be today. I ended up in 11th place in today's Elm Grove Criterium in a bunch sprint and would've been even further back had I not passed 3 or 4 guys with my suddenly improving sprint finish. The last 3 or 4 races my sprint has improved quite a bit and I am now passing guys in the finish instead of getting passed by just about everybody. Unfortunately my plan didn't work out today to attack the race and go for the win because my legs just weren't on top form, no other excuse than that. I went to the front and led the pack a few times but when I tried to push the pace to test myself I could tell my legs weren't really responding well. Part of the problem was that my schedule got messed up this week with the rain on Wednesday not allowing me to ride. I was supposed to do intervals Tuesday and Wednesday and then have an easy day Thursday. Instead I did intervals on Tuesday, rode for an hour on the rollers Wednesday at Endurance Pace and then did intervals on Thursday instead. Friday I only did a short 20 minute Recovery Ride because I worked late and spent time with the family. Training this week just wasn't optimal for my race today, and hopefully the weather will cooperate the next week or two so that I'll be good to go for SuperWeek. Anyways, my plan today was to attack on the last lap up a hill before the final bend but unfortunately a Wheel & Sprocket guy went with 2 laps to go and the pack caught him on the last lap right before the hill, so of course everyone pushed it right away and we were just going way to fast to make a go of it. I had good position though and was still able to pass a few people for 11th. After having 3 horrible placings to start the year....20th, 26th, 32nd I've turned it around the last 4 races with placings of 3rd, 18th, 8th, and 11th. The 18th place was an anomaly because in that race I attacked on the last lap and the pack caught me and I was too blown for the sprint. I've moved up from 21st to 12th as of last week in the Wisconsin Cup standings and with my 5th place today in the 30+ age group I should now be in the top 10. Not too shabby for a guy who hasn't ridden a bike in 3 or 4 years. Well, here's a couple pics from today's race, we had a pretty decent size field....

Tour De France Disaster!!!!

Wow!!!! I can't express how much disappointment I'm feeling right now over the doping scandal at the Tour De France. Whatever happens ultimately during this Tour will be tainted by the suspension of so many riders and the winner will have an asterisk as the guy that won during the doping year. It's like winning the SuperBowl during a strike year with a bunch of scrubs. Who wants to win that way? Sure, the winner is probably going to be someone who would've contended anyways, but without Jan and Ivan, it just isn't the same. The chances for the top Americans, Floyd, Levi, and George have definitely increased and I think the winner will be one of those three. Should be an interesting Tour this year, although one that will be remembered as a sad example of the problems in cycling.
Well, that was my rant. As far as my non-drug aided training is going...I've been feeling o.k. the last couple of days but not quite up to par. I've been fairly tired from the intense training and am probably not getting as much recovery time as I'd like as I've been up at 5:15-5:30 everyday this week and not getting to bed until about 11:00. All that will change after today as I don't have to come back to work until August 2nd. Woohooo!!! I'll have plenty of time to rest before, during, and after my SuperWeek races. Next week we are going camping for 4 days right before SuperWeek starts for me on the 10th. I'll be doing nothing but 1 to 1.5 hour Recovery Rides for the 4 days and then I get to lay on the beach the rest of the day and just relax. I'll do a little kayaking, some hiking (but not too much), and lots of sleeping under the shade umbrella. I do have a race tomorrow and one on Sunday, and the plan for both days is a little different. Tomorrow, as long as it doesn't rain, I will try to attack and do my best to win the race as it is my last real tune-up race before SuperWeek. If I can get top 3 I'll know I'm right on pace for SuperWeek in 10 days. Sunday I'll be doing a Wisport race in support of my friend and co-worker Dave, who is doing his first race ever!!! We'll be racing in Omro on a relatively flat course and I'll do my best to protect Dave from any crashing and I'll tow him around the course as fast as he can handle. It should be a fun day as I haven't done a mass start citizen race in about 16 years and it's more relaxed than a USCF race. Well, tonight is basically a rest night, only a 1 hour recovery ride and then obviously my race tomorrow. I'll let you all know tomorrow night how I did.

Say it isn't so, Der Kaiser!!!!!!!!!!!

Sore..Check. Tired....Check.

This week has been pretty rough as I've been working like a dog at my job since my sabbatical starts on Friday and I'll be off until August 2nd. I need to get a month's worth of work done in the next 3 days and I'm starting to get a little worn down. I've put in 13.25 hours of overtime since the week started, I was at work last night from 8:00 until 9:30 getting some stuff squared away and that's after being in at 6:30a.m. Needless to say all this extra work is wiping me out as I've been getting up early and on top of that I'm not sleeping good during the night. Regardless, I have been getting my workouts in this week as I did a nice 1 hour recovery ride on Monday and then last night I did 2 hours of Endurance Miles with 4 sets of 8min/3min OverUnders. Basically OverUnders are 8 minutes at Steady State pace which is 92% of max heart rate and then you go immediately in to 3 minutes of Climbing Repeat pace which is 95% of max heart rate and then after 3 minutes of that you go immediately in to the 8 minutes of Steady State pace again. I say 4 sets but basically it is one set as it is 44 minutes of continuous riding at 92 and 95% of max, which is just incredibly hard. It looks like this......... 92%/95%/92%/95%/92%/95%/92%/95%, it's great for building power for road races, especially when everyone else is dying at the end. The 8 minutes at Steady State simulates your pace for a breakaway and then the 3 minutes at Climbing Pace simulates an attack after that, which would be similar to the end of a race.
Tonight I'm scheduled for a 2 hour ride with 2 sets of 6x30 second Speed Intervals. Basically you do 6 max efforts for 30 seconds, in a seated position, with equal recovery, and then repeat after 5 minutes. It won't feel like as hard of a ride as yesterday but it takes more of a toll on the body since the efforts are way more intense than yesterday. It's a pretty short workout so it'll seem easier but my body will be sore tomorrow for sure. Thursday and Friday will be rides of 1.5 hours and 1 hour and then I race Saturday at Elm Grove in a crit. This is the last tune-up race before SuperWeek and then I get to rest for 10 days until my first race at Alpine Valley.
Until next time......

Race Pictures

Here are some pictures of the race.................

3 Weeks And Counting

Well, today's race in Whitewater went about as well as I expected but I'm still disappointed as I finished 8th today in what was pretty much a spread out bunch sprint. The course was a 6-turn course with two quick turns at the end and that pretty much didn't allow for a true bunch sprint as we all came in to the final turns together but since they were so quick it kind of thinned out. I had great legs at the end and I went in to the corners in 9th and came out in 8th which isn't bad for me because I haven't been able to sprint yet this year and today I actually passed one guy and didn't let anyone get by me. I felt great after the finish and could have gone 20 more laps, so that is the disappointing part, I really should have tried to get away in the last lap but we were all moving so fast today in the backstretch and the course wasn't very wide so there really was no way around the front 5-10 guys. I was flying today on good form but I think everyone else was as well as the pace was pretty fast on this relatively flat course, there were a lot of breakaways and I think a lot of people thought they could win it today. After feeling so good today I'm pretty disappointed that I can't do the Whitewater Road Race tomorrow as I think I could do pretty well. My company is having a power shutdown tomorrow and I have to be responsible for shutting down and bringing up the network equipment before and after they turn off the power. I'll be in to work at 4:00a.m. and won't get out until about 3:00p.m. so it'll be a long day. Tomorrow I'll just try to get in about a 2 hour ride at Endurance Pace after work and before I have to go to dinner with my sister who is in from California and the rest of the family. Should be a long day.............Anyways, here is a picture of me during the race today, sorry no finishing pictures right now, I think my mom has some though that I'll post once she sends them to me.

Sprint, Hyperventilate, Repeat.......

Let me preface this by saying I love riding my bike......Intervals Suck!!!!!!!! Yes, they are a staple of a racer's workout but they can make a perfectly happy man insane. The last two days have been pretty brutal as I did a day of Power Intervals on Tuesday and Descending Intervals last night. There have been lingering thunderstorms in the area the last couple of days and when it's not raining the humidity has been pretty high so the last couple of days have been SweatFest 2006. I swear I've lost a couple gallons of fluid on the last two rides, I've replaced it of course by taking in just as much but when my rides end at 8:00 or 8:30 and I have to drink 2 or 3 bottles of water before bed I am up 2 or 3 times at night to go to the bathroom. Last night I got in a whole hour of sleep before I was up for trip number 1. Trip number 2 was at about 3:30 and then of course I had to go right away this morning when I woke up. I need to be hydrated obviously but I still need sleep as well, I'm pretty tired right now. Oh well. Anyways, the last two days have gone well and I felt really strong during the intervals and my HR recovery between intervals has been really good. I can get my HR up to or very near max at 189-190 and for the short recovery period between intervals it goes down really quick which means that everything is working as it should. If I were sick or overtrained I wouldn't recover as quickly and my HR wouldn't go down so fast. I feel pretty good about that as it shows that my training program is coming along exactly as I want it to and I'm feeling stronger every day. Tonight will be a nice, ordinary ride as I'm only scheduled for 1 hour 15 minutes at Endurance Pace to recover from the last two days. Yeah, 1 hour and 15 minutes is not a lot, but because my workouts are more intense in the next 3 weeks than at any other time this year the volume or duration of my workouts has to decrease. This peaking period will only help me hold my fitness for the 7-10 days of SuperWeek before I start to lose aerobic endurance. After SuperWeek I'll go back to doing some 3-4 hour rides on the weekends to build that back up again. My only other short peak of the year will be the State Crit Championship so I'll have about 2 weeks to do some long rides before peaking again for the race on August 26th. Well, it's nice easy riding the next two days and then the Whitewater race. I'll post results on Saturday after the race. Until then........

Sore Legs, And A Case of OCD

I wish I could say that I got a well deserved rest last night but after working 10 hours I came home, made dinner for the family, and then proceeded to dig post holes for my fence as I only have to put on two more panels to have it finished. It would have been nice to just eat dinner and put the legs up on the couch and watch TV but it just wasn't in the cards. I have to say that my legs are a little sore right now, but feeling pretty strong nonetheless. This week and the beginning of next week will be high intensity workouts and then the second half of next week and the following week will be mostly recovery rides as I taper down my workouts. The legs are sore but I know that after tonight and tomorrow's heavy-duty workouts that I get to rest the legs Thursday and Friday before Saturday's race. Tonight I have to do 7 x 3 minutes of Power Intervals and then tomorrow I'll be doing Descending Intervals of 75/60/45/30/15 x 2 sets. Thursday will be an easy 1.25 hour ride at about 60-70 % and then Friday will be an easy 1 hour Recovery Ride at about 50% with a few sprints thrown in to shock the legs for Saturday. Saturday is the race in Whitewater which is a 1.0 mile loop but I haven't heard much about the course, I'm not sure if it's hilly or flat or how many turns are on the course. It looks like I'll have a good cheering section for the race as well as I think my dad will be coming to watch for the first time this year and also my sister flies in from California on Thursday for a 10-day stay so she'll probably be coming with my mom and stepdad as well to watch the race. I might have to revise my plan and go for a good result to please the family....we'll see. Anyways, my singular vision right now is SuperWeek and it's hard not to think about what I can do to be at my best for the races. For those that don't know I'm on my sabbatical from June 30th until August 2nd so I will be home and can do any number of races and my plan right now is to do about 8-10 races depending on how I do in the first 5. Every day I'm thinking of what I can change or what I can do to be at my best for the next 4 weeks and it's becoming a little case of OCD. I'm constantly fiddling with my program and worrying about everything that I eat, so when SuperWeek is over I'll probably feel a little relieved!! I know my wife will be happy when it's over! We did plan a little break the weekend before racing starts as we are going to Governor Dodge State Park for some camping on the 7th, 8th and 9th and that will give me some time to unwind and just hang out at the beach and lay in the water. I will bring my bike of course to do my rides but at that point they will only be an hour or so at Endurance pace. Well, until next time........

Coming Along.....

Saturday's race in Madison at the Spin Doctor's Criterium didn't go quite as planned as the wind gusts of 25-35 mph threw everything in to disarray. I watched a few of the earlier races and they pretty much broke apart quickly due to the headwind and the crosswind on the downhill leading up to the right turn into the headwind-impeding finishing straight. My initial plan to test my legs by attacking would have proved pretty fruitless and I would have just wasted myself trying to fight the wind. I changed my plan to basically chase down anything that went away and that way I could stay with the pack and still get to test my power output. 3 different times a rider went away and after letting him get a small gap I went to the front and would tow the whole pack back to him in less than a lap. I got in a good workout this way and it was a good way to test my form without overextending myself. The race was pretty status quo for a Master's 4/5 race as it stayed together until the last lap where I took it upon myself to try to split it up right after the 3rd corner when I took off and tried to get away before we hit the 4th turn in to the finishing straight.....and the brutal headwind. I managed to get a bit of a gap going 31 mph with the crosswind but when I took the 4th turn and hit the headwind my speed dropped to 27 mph and the pack caught me about halfway between the corner and the finish line....and they were sprinting at about 35 mph so I did what I could to hang in and finished 18th. Tony Phillips and a couple of the Team Wisconsin riders placed well as Tony won and I think a teammate of his got 4th. They thanked me after the race for giving them a nice leadout which is basically what I did, but I feel good about it anyways as I didn't resign myself to the sprint as most others do. I accomplished what I wanted to do for this race and got to chase down a few guys, threw in my attack at the end, and all in all I would say it was a good race. My power isn't quite where I'd like it to be right now which somewhat concerns me but I've got time to work on it. I'm not sure anyone could have stayed away from the pack in to that headwind but I'd like to think that at some point this year I should be able to do that. Well, as far as training goes, today is quite the rainy day and it doesn't look like I'll get outside so it appears I'll be doing 2 hours on the rollers at Endurance Pace. Tomorrow is a rest day and then I'll be doing some intervals during the week which I'll obviously tell you about as the week progresses. The next race is Saturday in Whitewater which will be a 1.0 mile loop around the campus that we do for 40 minutes + 2 laps. My plan for that race will be relatively the same as this past weekend, attack a few times and then try for a good result. I'd like a better result this time around as I should be progressing every week that goes by as SuperWeek gets closer. Until next time.....

Ready To Race!

Tomorrow is race day in Madison at the Spin Doctor's Criterium and it's been about 3 weeks since I've raced so I'm ready to go. The course is the same as the Great Dane Velo race that I did for my first race of the year. It's about a .9 mile course I believe with one small uphill otherwise it is relatively flat, although the finish straight has a gradual rise but hardly worth mentioning. I'm feeling pretty good right now so I'm going to use it as training and hopefully will pull out a good result. My plan is to launch an attack or two just to see how the power is coming along and then just sit in the group until the end if I can't stay away. I haven't done all that well in sprint finishes so far this year so if it looks like it will come down to that then I'm not sticking around for it, I'll try to get off the front. Well, that's the plan for tomorrow, as for last night I did manage to get in my full two hours and did my set of 6 x 3 minute Power Intervals. I felt really good and was able to get my heart rate pretty high and was really able to push the limit of my lactate threshold. Early in the year if I went over a bump in the road I had lactic acid buildup, now my HR and lungs max out before I can fry my legs. These Power Intervals will definitely help with my lungs. Today will be an easy day with a 1 hour Recovery Ride on the schedule and a couple of 1 minute max efforts to open up the legs. I got some good sleep last night and will get to bed early again tonight after I clean up my bike and pack my gear. Overall, things are going well and I'm right on track for SuperWeek. Until next time.........

Yeah, We Need Rain, buttt......

....I also have to get my training in today so I'm hoping that the storm heading our way avoids us long enough for me to get my ride in tonight. It's about 3:00 and I'll be riding at approximately 5:30 so I'm not sure if the storm will be here yet as it's pretty far west. Tonight I'll be doing a 2 hour ride with a set of 6 x 3 minute Power Intervals. If it looks like rain before I head out then I'll probably stick close to home so that I can get back before I get drenched. The last thing I need right now is to get sick after getting stuck in the rain, I can't afford to be training and recovering from sickness, they really don't mesh well. Unfortunately if I get stuck riding on the rollers tonight I won't be able to do my workout with as much intensity because I can spin out the rollers in a 53x12 at about 35-40 mph because I don't have the optional resistance unit. They are the smaller diameter drums for added resistance but it's still not enough. This coming winter I'll be getting a fluid trainer to complement the rollers so that I can do interval workouts with more intensity. Well, not much more to say....I'm feeling pretty wiped as I've been waking up early for work the last couple of days so tonight and tomorrow I'm going to have to catch up on sleep. In addition to the race on Saturday I have a lot of housework to finish so I'm going to need the rest. Until next time........

The Rain Is Coming.....

Back In The Saddle Again

I did get back in town from Florida on Sunday but have been pretty busy the last couple of days trying to get things done around the house and get my rides in according to my program. I returned Sunday to some pretty frigid temps, only 58 here versus 92 in Florida, but threw on the arm warmers and rode for about 2.5 hours at a pretty easy pace just to get back in to the swing of things. Monday I did a 30 minute ride around the neighborhood with the family as it was a scheduled rest day and even though I was off the bike for 4 days I don't want to stray from my training program. Tuesday was a beautiful day and I did have off of work so I was out on the bike at about 10:30 and rode out to Big Bend and back and along the way did my requisite set 6 x 3 minute Power Intervals. The key to this interval is to keep up a high cadence and ride at a max effort, heart rate doesn't really matter as long as you are maxing out while keeping up a cadence of 110-120. This really builds anaerobic power and keeps you going when attacks come at the end of races and is a vital workout when trying to peak for important races, which for me is the upcoming SuperWeek races. Today I'll be doing an easy 1 hour ride with a ceiling of 92% so it will almost seem like a rest night. Tomorrow will be another day of Power intervals during a 2 hour ride as I'm keeping my rides fairly short but very intense for the next 4 weeks leading up to the first SuperWeek race. Friday will be a 1 hour Recovery Ride and then Saturday will be a race in Madison. I'll try to do well in the race but mainly I'm going to use it for training leading up to the Superweek races as I really want to do well in the 6 or 7 races that I'll be doing for that series. The Masters 4/5 category for Superweek is only 5 races long so my goal is to win that series and then do an additional 2 or 3 races in the Masters 30+ Open category or the Cat 4/5 category. It will be quite a challenge but I'm really focused right now on my training and have set up all my workouts to taper for that week of races so that I will be at my peak fitness for about 2 weeks in July before I have to cut back intensity and increase endurance again. I've also started a nutritional program as well that will provide ideal fuel for the next 4 weeks so that my body is running optimally for the start of the series. I eat really good now but I will be even more strict now for the next 4 weeks as I have to compensate for the increased intensity in my training. I will pretty much restrict my diet to all natural foods with a minimal amount of processed foods and increase my caloric intake slightly as I try to keep up with the calories I'm expending. I'll be eating more veggies, fruits, whole grain products, and of course I'll still be eating the PowerBars and PowerGels. I'll be cutting out red meat for the most part and limiting fat to a very small amount of healthy fats such as all-natural peanut butter and olive oil and some omega fats from fish. I've had pretty good success with this strict diet in the past for important races and peak periods so even though it's 10 years later, I'm gonna give it a go again. Not much else to say right now, I'll update ya'll tomorrow.

Takin' It Easy In Tampa

Well, not much going on with training right now as I am in Tampa, FL on business and am pretty busy working (well, except right now). I did not ride yesterday as we flew down in the morning and came right to our Fiserv center here and went to work. We left to have dinner at about 6:00 and then it was back to the hotel at 9:00. I was in bed fairly early and was up this morning and back at work at 8:00. I'm hoping that we get out early this afternoon as I found a Bally's Fitness about 5 miles from the hotel that I should be able to go to today to do about an hour or hour and a half on the exercise bikes. It's not the same as riding the road bike but it is a workout at least. They do have a b-ball court at the hotel so I'll probably play a few games with the other guys and that will be a good workout in this heat as well. Friday is a normal rest day so I don't need to ride tomorrow and they are talking about playing golf if we can get out of the office in the late morning, that would be pretty cool (relatively speaking in this heat). Saturday I'll hit Bally's in the morning again and then Sunday we fly back in the early afternoon so I'll ride as scheduled at home.
How about that American sweep at the Dauphine! That's pretty awesome, I guarantee one of the 4 will win the Dauphine, and maybe the Tour?????

Cool pic of David Z.

Not Really Gettin' It Done

Well, my training has gone downhill the last few days after following my program to a "T" for the last month with a good 3rd place result in only my 4th race. I was feeling really good coming out of Wheels on Willy and was feeling completely blown up but really strong after doing the Horrible Hilly Hundreds with my dad in addition to some other really good training rides. This past week though wasn't such a good week of training and this week isn't going to be any better as I'm heading out of town for business to Tampa, FL. It started Thursday when I didn't ride because I had to go to Home Depot to get some of my equipment and supplies to put up my fence this weekend, and then I didn't ride my scheduled day off on Friday. Saturday I was up at 6:00 a.m. and worked on the fence from 6:30 until 5:00 when I finally stopped to bike and ended up doing something like 43-44 miles, but I was very tired and it was a lackluster effort. It was supposed to be a Race Simulation day but I ended up simulating a little baby riding a bike rather than a racer. I was just completely drained and although I had a good average speed my hill sprints and faux bridging simulations were pretty poor. Sunday I was up and working on the fence by 7:30a.m. and didn't stop until 7:00 p.m. so needless to say I didn't bike yesterday either. Today I biked for an hour at a pretty good tempo speed but obviously kept it short as it was supposed to be a scheduled rest day for me. Tomorrow we have a chance of thunderstorms but I'll see what I can squeeze in before I have to pack and get ready for my 7:00 a.m. Wednesday flight. I hope to get in about 2 hours at the least, but who knows how that will work out as I might get stuck at work late finishing things up before I head out. Now the kicker, the suites that we are staying at in Tampa are more like an apartment complex than a hotel so they have no fitness center, which means no biking, which means my program is trashed for this week. I will bring my running shoes but I am not a runner and don't like running so who knows if those will ever get out of my suitcase. They do have a pool and I'll try and do some swimming as that obviously works the legs pretty good if I do a lot of kicking. Other than that, I won't be doing much until I get back on Sunday. I have 5 weeks before the first SuperWeek race and I really want to do well for the two weeks of the race as I can pretty much race every stage if I'd like as I am on sabbatical. 5 weeks should be enough to get me back in to shape but only time will tell I guess. Well, it's almost time to hit the hay so I'll update ya'll tomorrow and barring any internet issues should be able to give updates throughout the week.

Bike Parts Are Addicting!

If there is one thing that I've found in my search for a new bike seat it's that I'm addicted to bike parts, all kinds from wheels to shifters to tires, right down to the handlebar tape. I love looking at all the online catalogs for excelsports.com, performancebike.com, bikenashbar.com, coloradocyclist.com, etc......I could spend all day browsing and buying parts! I think to be a bicycle racer you have to have some sort of compulsion, or full on OCD, because it is so demanding that you have to be obsessed with training, keeping up your diet, following your routine, shaving every gram of weight in order to be at the top of your game. I definitely have an obsession with training, my program has to be done a certain way, the more I race and the better I do, the more I want to race and do well, it just perpetuates itself. I'm the say way with my bike parts, yeah, I could've just bought a brand new stem or handlebar but if I see that the newer, lighter model came out I usually have to have it. Right now I don't have much to upgrade except probably my wheels as I have all Campy Record carbon fiber and titanium parts. I sure would like some new Mavic Carbon wheels, but at $1200 a wheel who can afford them?!?! Anyways, I'm trying to stick to just getting a new seat, but boy, looking through all those web sites without getting anything else sure is difficult.
So, yesterday I did some of what I needed to do at Home Depot and do have some other things I need to get today for my weekend fence project. I will try to fit in a bike ride between going to my son's baseball game tonight and going to Home Depot, but probably won't get in more than an hour. Tomorrow I have a lot to do, basically with putting up my fence, helping my friend Jason put up his and managing to find time to ride for 3 hours, it's gonna be a crazy day. Sunday should be about the same as I'll still be working on the fence and have to get in about 2.75 hours on the bike. Most likely my rides will be at about 6:00a.m. or at 6:00p.m. but we'll see, it all depends on how tired I am in the morning. Well, I'll update y'all tomorrow, not sure when but it'll probably be late after I finish everything. Until then.........


WHO DOESN'T WANT THESE???!!!! I KNOW I DO!

Steady States and Saddles

Last night was a pretty good night of riding, the weather was beautiful and I got in a good workout although the legs didn't exactly feel great. I rode from my house to the Root River Parkway and over to Whitnall Park to do my Steady State intervals around the criterium course which has almost no car traffic and some minimal bike traffic so its perfectly suited for these workouts. I did (4) 9 minutes intervals at 92% with equal recovery and my legs didn't feel all that super but my heart rate was getting up there so I know the workouts were doing their job. All in all I felt pretty good and rode a nice recovery ride home around New Berlin for a total ride of 2 hours which was about 15 minutes less than I wanted to get in, but 15 minutes doesn't really matter too much. Tonight I've got to get supplies for the fence I'm putting up this weekend and the decorative trees that we are also putting in so I'll actually be skipping a ride tonight and will be spending my time at Home Depot. It kills me to skip riding all together but I've been trying to get this fence and landscaping project going for a while now and have just been too busy. This weekend is supposed to be perfect Saturday and Sunday so this is the time to do it. I'll be gone next week in Florida on business so I need to get it done now. I'll still ride tomorrow night, Saturday and Sunday but tonight I just need to take the time to get all my ducks in a row and make sure that I have all the supplies I need.
Well, now for my saddle rant. I've been having trouble with my saddles this year and have to find a comfortable seat to buy so I've been looking around and think I may have found a nice one in the Selle Italia Signo Gel. When I built up my bike this year I bought the Forte Pro Ti saddle because it was really light and had the "pressure point" cutout. Unfortunately I just never got comfortable on the saddle and had to take it off, basically wasting $75 since it's now just sitting in my basement. I took the saddle off my old Pinarello which is a 15 year-old Concor Flite Ti saddle which is quite comfortable and worn in, but like I said, it is 15 years old! It has more miles on it than I can count and pretty much creaks constantly when I ride since the rails are probably ready to break off the shell just from age and use. I want a saddle that has a narrow head because I tend to bring my knees in when I pedal and I rub the seat if it isn't narrow. I'd also like a "pressure point" cutout as there is the possibility that I might want another kid some day and I have to protect the boys. It's gotta be a light saddle but at the same time comfortable, so no hard carbon shells, gotta have some padding. I've looked around and found some that I like but they are either too wide at the point, too heavy or just plain ugly, yes aesthetics count for something. So far the front runner is the Signo as it has everything I'm looking for, most likely I'll order one tomorrow. If anyone wants to recommend their favorite seat please leave me a comment. Here's the Signo, it has a carbon fiber shell, gel padding and vibration dampners and weighs only 225 grams.....

Rain, Rain, Go Away!!

Yesterday was another day of rain and some lackluster training as I had a pretty full schedule. After work it was raining of course so I wasn't able to ride outside and I had to bring Xavier to Boy Scouts at 6:45 so there wasn't enough time to hit the rollers before that as I had to make dinner also. Melissa was at the spa with my mom getting facials so I had to hold down the fort and take care of the boy and the dog. I took care of dinner and managed to clean up a few things around the house and then dropped Xavier off at Boy Scouts. I got home and jumped on the rollers right away after popping the movie "Munich" in to the DVD player. I had to pick Xavier up at 8:30 so I pretty much rode until about 8:20 and then jumped off to go get him in my bike shorts and jersey as I didn't have to get out of the car. I got back and jumped on the bike for another 15 minutes and then Melissa came home so I had to get off to hear all about her night at the spa. All total I got in about 1.5 hours on the rollers at a steady pace, nothing great but it was good to clean out the legs from Sunday as I didn't ride on Monday. I have to say I was also enjoying "Munich" and only got to watch about 1 hr 40 minutes of its 2hr 45 minute total. I'll be putting that back in tonight to finish it off. It's a great movie about the 72' Olympics and the Israeli hostage situation. It concentrates more on the aftermath and the hunt for the masterminds behind the plot and has great dialogue and action, I'd definitely recommend it. .........Tonight the weather is supposed to clear up enough to get on the road and ride so I think I'll be doing about 2.25 hrs with my Steady State intervals thrown in that I didn't get to do yesterday. I'll probably take the Root River Pkwy to the Whitnall Park Crit course and do my intervals there and then ride another loop around New Berlin before heading home. Hopefully the weather holds out and I can at least get in the interval workout. I was going to rant today about my search for a good bike seat but I've already written enough so I'll add that on to tomorrow's post or if I have time tonight I'll add another post today. Until next time.........

Horrible Hilly Hundred

Yesterday was the toughest day on the bike yet this year and well, I can't wait to do it again! I suffered and bonked 110% worse than any other time this year, and I have to say that for the first time in my adult life I walked up a hill on a bike because I just couldn't push the pedals anymore. Yesterday I did the course of the Horrible Hilly Hundred with my dad in Blue Mounds and for those of you who aren't familiar with that area it is one of the hilliest in the entire state. I'm talking hills that are up to 2 miles long most of which are your typical steep Wisconsin hills and on top of that the temperature was a steady 95 degress with 20-25 mph winds. There were quite a few riders on the course, we saw no less than 30 riders, all of them probably training to get ready for the official tour of the Horrible Hilly Hundreds coming up on the 17th of June. The first thing I learned after about 5 miles was that my high gear of 39x23 was not going to be good enough for most of these hills and that I was going to suffer throughout the day, which for us began at 8:00a.m. and ended at 4:00p.m.. We rode the course at a decent pace and tried to enjoy it as much as possible, even though I was slowed on some hills to 5-6 miles per hour as I swore at myself for not having a 25 tooth cog on my cassette. As we neared the end of the long day my dad and I were both bonking pretty good and had run out of water and food and were both hoping that we could make it up the long climb to the parking lot at the top of Blue Mounds State Park. Well, I knew as we started the climb that my legs were completely toast and that the gearing I had was not going to get me over the top of the climb. I tried my best but when I hit the steepest part of the climb I almost fell over because I was only going 4 mph so I finally stopped the bike and got off to walk. It was a pretty humbling experience to have to walk for the first time but I knew that a lot of combinations factored in to getting myself in to that situation. One, the temperature was 95 degrees and unfortunately since we were just out riding the course ourselves there were no rest stops that would normally be there during the actual tour. Our single rest stop to re-fill my 3 bottles was at a county park at the 24 mile mark so needless to say we drank as much as we could at the stop and then knew we'd have to conserve water the rest of the way. Two, I read the warning on the official web site which said they recommend having at least a 27 tooth cog, but the largest I have is a 23 and I didn't want to spend over $100 to get a new cassette just for this. Well, I learned my lesson there!! Third, I just haven't ridden anything quite this long and difficult in quite a while, 11 to 12 years at least so I was probably pushing myself beyond what I was ready for after only 6 months of training. My dad has already done a century ride this year and will be doing 2 more in the next 3 weeks, plus he never stopped riding like I did so he has 20 years of non-stop miles in his legs and that all adds up to build up your endurance. I just didn't have it yet. Now, after all that suffering, truthfully I can't wait to get out there and ride it again in the next month or so. I will be buying a cassette with a 25 tooth cog and will be prepared with a little more water next time plus I know what to expect the 2nd time around. If anyone wants to go with me I have to say it is one the most difficult rides you'll ever do but it is also a very beautiful ride and something to be proud of when you finish. I'm going to find an open weekend in June or July and when I am going to head up I will post something on my blog so you can all join me if you wish!!! Alright, well today I'm just taking it easy and since I haven't ridden yet I am just going to ride for about 30 minutes on the rollers tonight after I pop in a DVD. Tomorrow I have quite a bit going on because Xavier has Boy Scouts and Melissa won't be home so I'll have to figure out my schedule with riding. Most likely I'll try to squeeze in a ride before Boy Scouts otherwise I'll have Xavier's grandma bring him to Boy Scouts and that way I can ride until I have to pick him up at 8:30. Either way I'm schedule for 2.25 hours with some Steady State intervals thrown in during the ride. Hopefully my body is recovered from yesterday, we'll see I guess........until next time.......

Resting Up...Or Just Lazy

I didn't ride yesterday as I had planned, but I don't feel too bad about it. I got home and I just felt like I had too much to get done, so I did a few things that I needed to do. I went to Wheel and Sprocket and got my rear wheel fixed and got myself a new helmet to replace the one that was cracked in the Wheels on Willy Criterium. Basically it's just a plain white Bell Sweep R that I'll make look a little better with some green accent paint to match my green jersey and shorts. I also took care of some laundry and put the heating pad on my sore shoulder, hamstring and left knee. I probably ate a little too much yesterday and need to cut back on eating as I've noticed that I've been pigging out this week, and not on good nutritional food either. The plans for this weekend have changed and I'll be doing the Blue Mounds ride with my dad on Sunday now, should be a good ride as it's supposed to be in the mid 80s and mostly sunny. Tonight I'll probably ride outside even though it is 6:00 and I'm still at work but hope to get out shortly. If I can get in an hour before the storms I'll be happy. There is a 60% chance of T-Storms and it doesn't look to good out right now. Otherwise I'll ride inside on the rollers for about 75 minutes just to keep loose. Tomorrow I'll probably ride for about 60-90 minutes since I haven't done much this week so far. Saturday will be a ride of about 2.5 hours with some Race Simulation thrown in for good measure. Sunday will of course be the long ride and then Monday will be a day off. The weather is starting to look better with temps in the low to mid 70s all week and less rain so training should go well next week.

A Little Sore, But Feelin' Better

Today I'm feeling a little better than yesterday, I'm still sore but not as stiff as I was when I woke up yesterday. My road rash doesn't really hurt any more, the pain is mainly in the joints that got bruised... the elbows, left knee and hip, and my neck. I rode last night for about an hour and 15 minutes to loosen up and felt pretty good with the exception of my right elbow. I do have a bruise and scrape on that elbow but it didn't really hurt until I rode last night, I couldn't put any weight on it at all for some reason. Other than that, everything was good and luckily for me this is a regeneration week so I had planned on taking it easy this week anyways. Tonight I'll most likely be riding for 1.25 hours on the rollers as we are supposed to have thunderstorms this afternoon and evening. Tomorrow if the weather is good I'll be out for about 1.75 hours with a couple of intervals thrown in to keep the engine running smooth. Friday will be an off day and Saturday I am planning on going to Blue Mounds with my dad to ride 100-120 miles around the Blue Mounds/Dodgeville area. He has an organized tour in that area called the Horrible Hilly Hundred in two weeks and wants to ride the course to make sure he is ready. It should be a fun 6-6.5 hours of riding through all the big hills in that area. Sunday will be an easy day as I will probably be going to my mom's in Burlington for a picnic so I'll probably just do a recovery ride to clean out from Saturday. My next race isn't for 4 weeks so I have plenty of time to train in the coming weeks and plan to make the most of it. Well, until next time...........

3rd....And A Little Worse......

Well, I had my best result of the year this weekend and also the worst result!!!! I placed 3rd in the Whilly Street Criterium in Madison although I should have absolutely won the race. I realized as the 40 minute criterium progressed that I was feeling great on the day and that the pace was slow enough that a break would work with either 1 or 2 laps to go, so I went for it. I tried to position myself to take off with two laps to go but right at the end of the 3rd to last lap a Chronometro rider took off and the pack let him go, which turned out to be a perfect setup for me and I knew it right away. We let him get about 15 yards ahead until the last lap and then we caught him on the back straightaway after the 2nd turn, and just at that moment I took off and had a 10 yard gap going in to the 3rd turn. As I took the 4th turn in to the finishing straight the gap was down to about 5 yards and although I gave it my all the pack caught me just as I hit the line, with only two riders nipping me for a disappointing 3rd place finish. Yes, 3rd is disappointing because I should have won it, I probably could have stood up to sprint for a few more seconds but the body was saying "no way!". I should have suffered just a little more regardless but I guess I'll just remember that next time. Anyway, I got a few USCF and Wisconsin Cup points and a little money to make it a good day. The second race was not so good to say the least, as after avoiding about 7 other crashes I got caught in the last crash going in to the finish straight on the last lap. I haven't raced a Category 4/5 race this year yet and after today I won't race any more this year, as they are way to squirrelly and they race like they've never ridden a bike before. I was extremely disappointed as I was in 6th position coming out of the last turn and the guy in front of me cut it too wide, hit the curb, and then bounced back in to my path and I went down with about 5 other guys. I am now completely scraped up from head to toe as I have road rash on my ankles, knees, hips, hands, elbows, and shoulders and also a sore neck and head because someone ran over my head which cracked my helmet. As far as bike equipment, I obviously need a new helmet and other than needing my rear wheel trued, everything else made it unscathed. Overall, I'm a little sore but will take a nice 30-45 minute ride with the wife tonight to loosen up the joints and then I'll resume normal training tomorrow. Here are some nice pictures of my oozing road rash sores..... nice, hey?

Ready For The Weekend

My plans are changing a bit for this weekend as I've decided to do two races on Sunday. I'll be doing the Masters 30+ as usual but I'll also be racing with the young guys and doing the Category 4/5 race as well. My first race is at 9:00 and my second race is at 11:00. I'll have about 45 minutes of recovery between races so that will be no problem. I'll probably do better in the 4/5 race if I don't crash because (1) I'll be warmed up and my body will have started the lactic buffering process and (2) I've heard so far that the 4/5 races have been a little slower than the Masters'. The only problem like I said is that there tends to be a relatively high number of crashes in the 4/5 race, hopefully I'll make it out unscathed. Well, last night I did a 2 hour ride with 3 reps of 9 minutes at Steady State pace (92% of max HR). I rode from my house to Whitnall Park and did my intervals on the criterium course and then did a nice leisurely ride home. Today I'll do an easy 45 min Recovery Ride and then tomorrow will be about 1.5 hours with 2 sets of 2 min Power Intervals. Sunday will obviously be the two races and a short recovery ride. Overall right now I feel pretty good, my legs are feeling good, I've been able to get my heart rate up during training which means that I'm not overtrained or sick, and I just feel better on the bike during climbing, pushing big gears, etc.. I know that I'm not where I want to be to be able to win a race, unless I get lucky, so I still have a lot of work to do. My goal is to do really well during Superweek as I have my sabbatical during that time and will get to do a lot of races. In the big picture I'm going to keep doing my muscle building work, my tempo work and work on building more power. June will call for shorter but more intense intervals to build up my lactate threshold and I'll start to incorporate some speedwork in to the program at the end of June. July will be all about SuperWeek (actually 16 days of racing) and working on sprintwork. August will be more of a rest month as I cut back on the speedwork and work on endurance again as there are probably only 3 or 4 races in August. The end of August and September will bring some nice touring centuries through Door County, Madison, and Milwaukee areas. October will be a rest month and then the program will start all over again in November with weights and cross-training.

Soaked To The Bone

Yesterday's ride was one of the worst rides I've been on in a long time as I got completely pelted with heavy rain and sleet. Actually I take that back, the ride itself was good, the weather was horrible. I left New Berlin under partly sunny skies and very little wind and headed towards Waukesha for a nice 2 hour ride. I got to the outskirts of Waukesha and noticed very ominous looking thunderheads heading my way from the north and I could tell that it was raining near Pewaukee but I figured it would stay North of me as I made a loop south of Waukesha. Within 10 minutes I was riding in 25-30 mph winds, a complete downpour, and on top of that, some very painful, pelting sleet. The rain was coming down so hard I couldn't see 15 feet in front of me and there was no way I was taking off my sunglasses as the sleet would've definitely inflicted damage to my eyes. After 15 minutes the roads were full of 3-4 inch deep puddles and it was all I could do to stay upright. I couldn't turn around because I was at the halfway point of my loop so the distance was obviously the same either way, so I trudged onward and started to head back to New Berlin. As soon as I hit Hwy. 164 in Waukesha there was almost a clear line in the road where the rain stopped and by the time I got back to New Berlin I was under sunny skies again and the roads were completely dry. Throughout the whole storm I managed to finish my 60 minutes of Tempo work as I kept a diligent eye on my HR monitor to make sure that I was completing my workout. I got home and Melissa couldn't believe how soaked I was, she didn't see or hear the thunderstorm in Waukesha and said that it was completely sunny the whole time I was gone, go figure. So.....I finished my two hour ride, got in my tempo work, got completely soaked to the bone and as a result had to air out my shoes and spent 2 hours overhauling my bike. I took the bottom bracket off my bike during the overhaul and enough water poured out to fill a juice glass. I then spun my wheels and I could hear water sloshing around as I spun them, I'm sure the rims were full of water. I didn't take off the tires though because that is a lot of work, I figure they'll dry out eventually. Well, tonight the forecast is calling for a good chance of severe storms so we'll see if I get outside. If I do get out then the program calls for some Steady State intervals and another 2 hour ride. Tomorrow will be an easy 2.25 hour ride and then Friday will be an easy 45 minutes with some sprints thrown in. Until next time.........

Could Be Better

Unfortunately the weather hasn't been very cooperative of late but I did manage to ride twice this past weekend. I rode for 1.5 hours in the rain on Saturday after getting some work done on the house in the afternoon, and then rode for 2.5 hours on Sunday around Alpine Valley from Burlington. I felt o.k. on Saturday but didn't feel particularly strong although I was riding my crappy-weather Pinarello with the big steel frame and heavy cyclocross tires. Sunday was a little better but still quite cold in the mist and there was a bit of a cold wind that went right through me. I rode from Burlington to Alpine Valley and rode up every hill along the way that I could find in preparation for Baraboo #2 on Saturday. I felt sluggish up the hills and mentally I was struggling. I think part of it was getting used to my new shoes as I was constantly trying to adjust my foot position and I have never been a good cold weather rider, so the weather definitely affected me. Overall my health feels good as I think I have kicked the cold that has held me back the last couple of weeks but I still have a lot of hard training ahead to get to where I want to be. Well, it's still raining today, hopefully it will clear up by the time I get home so that I can do a nice 2 to 2.25 hour ride after work. The plan for today on the ride is 60 minutes of Tempo work to build aerobic power, should be no problem.

It's becoming a broken record but here's another picture of the radar.....rain, rain, and more rain!!!!!!!

Sick And Tired - But Ready To Race, Maybe

Well, this week has not been good as I've been sick for most of the week and unable to ride the bike. I last rode on Sunday afternoon and have been sick since Monday night with a little bit of a stomach bug and some chills and fever. I started to feel better yesterday morning and thought I was going to get on the bike but after lunch I got a major headache and fever and basically slept the whole night. I am feeling quite a bit better today (so far) and hope to ride for about 1.5 hours on the rollers tonight. Tomorrow will be a 45 min to 1 hour ride on the rollers if I'm still feeling good, and if it doesn't rain like it's supposed to then I'll ride it outside and do some sprints. If I'm feeling 100 percent Saturday morning then I'll probably do the Muskego race even though I haven't ridden much this week. It's supposed to only be 54 degrees and rainy on Saturday so regardless of how I'm feeling I may stay home as I don't need to get sick by sitting in the rain all morning. I'm looking forward to the races next week, Baraboo again on Saturday and Wheels on Willy Criterium on Sunday. We'll see how the schedule works out with the family as I may only be able to do one race. My preference would be the Willy race as there are really good cash prizes and I've done quite well on that course in my previous racing life. I kind of want to do Baraboo again to see if I could do better but like I said, I'm sure the wife won't let me do two races. I'll update you all again tomorrow with the progress of my health and whether or not I'll race Saturday. Until tomorrow.............


Crappy Rain!!!!!!

Just Not There Yet

Well, another disappointing weekend. I thought I would have a good race this weekend in Baraboo considering the size of the climbs and the relative ease with which I've been climbing of late, but I guess I'm just not ready yet to hang with the big boys. I was actually able to hang with the group on the first big climb but after the second medium size roller I got swung off the back when a rider lost the wheel of the guy in front of him and then I had to sprint around him to get back to the group. More guys started to drop and I had to keep sprinting around them and eventually I lost the group on a right hand turn when I couldn't sprint anymore. My lungs felt good but I couldn't overcome the lactic acid that would build up pretty quickly in my legs after every sprint effort. I've only been riding my bike for 5 months after a 3 year layoff so the last thing to come will probably be the power and lactate threshold that is needed to do those kinds of efforts time after time during a race. I was following a good program of tempo work, steady state efforts and muscle tension intervals earlier in the year before the Madison race but since then I've been doing more group rides that although they can sometimes be difficult don't really follow a structure. I'm not really building a power base and lactate threshold during these rides and as much as I'd miss the group riding I may have to stop doing those for a couple of weeks so that I can get back on my program. If I had been racing and riding the last few years it wouldn't be a big deal but since I've been away for so long I really need to work on my power and get back to building up my efforts over time. Basically that means more steady state intervals, tempo work and some climbing repeats. My results have been declining every week for the last 3 weeks so it's time to change up my training starting tomorrow. Tonight is a normally scheduled rest day so I'll just clean up the bike, wash the bike clothes, clean the water bottles and keep the legs on the couch after that. Tomorrow would normally be a day of intervals but I'm going to do an easy ride of about 1.5 - 2 hours to just clean out the legs and let the body recover. Wednesday will also be an easy 2 hour ride and then Thursday will be a 2 hour ride with Tempo work of about 60 minutes. Friday will be an easy day with a few sprints thrown in to open up the legs. Saturday will be the Muskego race, and hopefully some better results. Here is a picture of the course profile from Saturday, it was as tough as it looks......

Feeling Pretty Good

Last night was a really good ride even though I initially didn't feel like riding outside because I was feeling a little sore and under the weather. Well, once I got on the road I felt great and the sun was out and it was about 75 degrees so the ride was perfect. I rode with Al and Tom out of New Berlin and we rode the backroads through Waukesha and Pewaukee all the way to Delafield and then back to New Berlin. It was a fairly hilly route and I pushed it hard up all the hills and felt like I was pretty strong and my lungs felt pretty good but lactic acid built up in the legs pretty quickly. I think I'm about as ready as I'll be for the race Saturday because the next two days won't make much of a difference in my training. Tonight I'll be doing about a 2 hour endurance ride with a few climbs up a long hill by my house. I'm going to keep the heart rate pretty low the whole time to recover from the last two days and there really is no reason to push myself now. Tomorrow will be a rest day with about a 45 minute ride with 3-4 sprints thrown in to open up the legs. Thankfully I have off of work tomorrow also so I'll be doing some yard work during the day and getting my rest at night. I also found out the results for Saturday's race and I ended up finishing 26th which was not in the points for the Wisconsin Cup. After two races I am now ranked 21st in points (all from the 1st race) after being ranked 17th last week. I'll definitely improve this weekend because from what I've seen a lot of the Master's racers can't climb very well. Until next time...........

Down And Out

Last night was not a good ride with the Velocity team, I got a bad side stitch that I could not get rid of about 20 miles in to the ride and had some trouble breathing because it hurt to bad to breathe deep. As a result of that I had some trouble staying with them when they hammered a few times, but did manage to cling to the back of the pack. I definitely wasn't feeling very strong overall and I could tell all day at work that I wasn't up to par. I felt somewhat nauseous all day and was having some stomach pains. My sinuses are still draining and I'm 6 days in to my course of antibiotics. Excuses, excuses, but I think my body was working to repair or fight this cold and chest congestion that I've had and so I just didn't have the energy to ride efficiently. I'm going to need a lot of rest heading in to Saturday's race as it is a hilly road race and I can't afford to be tired or just plain over-extended in my training in order to do well there. Tonight I'm somewhat hoping that it will rain so that I can just do a nice recovery ride of 2 hours on the rollers and then tomorrow I'll do a nice hard ride possibly before work and then another recovery ride at night. Friday will be a short ride with some sprints thrown in to open the engine up a little bit and then Saturday morning I'll be racing. I get my new custom racing kit tomorrow and Friday so I'm pretty excited to have that for the race Saturday. I'll be switching from red to green for my primary colors. I ordered a custom "bc velo" jersey from Velowear and got the matching green shorts and shoe covers. I also ordered some new silver Adidas shoes as my Sidis are pretty worn out. Until next time............

NEW SHOES!!

There Is Always Next Time

Well, this weekend didn't go as well as I had hoped but I guess I should be happy to finish without crashing or getting dropped. Again it came down to a bunch sprint and this time I had good position but just got wasted in the sprint, finishing somewhere around 30th (don't have exact results). I tried to attack twice with 4 laps to go and on the last lap but couldn't get away from the pack as I don't have the cumulative power built up that comes from riding for a couple of years in a row. Next year I'll have that but it won't help me now. The race played out pretty poorly as the pack stayed together for almost the whole race until about 2 laps to go when the winner broke away and managed to stay away for the remaining two laps for the win. Unfortunately no one organized a chase, which is just beside me as there were multiple teams in the race. Masters racers just like to sit in and wait for the bunch sprint, I guess they don't want to win, they just want to sit in and finish the race. Monday was a rest day so I just laid around the house, tonight I'll be riding with the Velocity team in Sussex. I'm still recovering a bit from my cold as I can feel it in my throat and I still have a lot of nose drainage but I think I'm getting better and should be rid of this soon. Well, here are some pictures of me leading up a hill (in red shorts - check out those muscles!!) and a crash during the race....