Quite A Weekend

Well, after being sick from Wednesday until Friday evening I'm feeling quite a bit better now and although I still have a bit of congestion I think I'm close to 100%. I'm in far better shape than when I was laying in bed for 3 days with a fever and intense sinus headaches. Now I just have a good case of sunburn after being outside for the last couple of days (and probably overdoing it). Yesterday I rode for 4 hours with my dad to Delafield and back and although it was windy, it was still nice and warm and we had a good feast when we got back. Today a bunch of my team-mates got together in Burlington and did a bunch of laps of the State RR course and a short loop of Alpine Valley, we had a great time and had some spirited hill sprints, attacks, and stop-sign sprints. We did just over 50 miles and about 2hrs 40 minutes on the bike. We had a great feast today as well, with lots of fruit, salads, beer, brats, and burgers. Yeah, not the best food, but darn good anyways. Tonight I'm just relaxing and will probably go to bed early as it's back to work tomorrow, can't wait. At least it's a short week as it's obviously Tuesday already tomorrow and I only have to work a half day on Friday. I'll be doing lots of riding this week and will have to work around my sister-in-law's wedding this weekend to get in a couple of long rides on Saturday and Sunday as well. Well, I'll update more as the week goes on, time to eat dinner. Until next time.........

Back On The Bike

I took a few day hiatus to deal with this head infection, and I'm calling it a head infection because I still don't know if it was sinus or ear related, it seems that everything was plugged and hurt. I'm on a course of antibiotics and I've been taking Theraflu to help sleep at night and my fever has finally gone away after being 101 the last two days. I actually got in a 1.5 hour ride and felt o.k. although I almost threw up a couple of times, but my legs felt great anyways. Other than that I'm going to be doing 65 miles with my dad tomorrow out to Delafield and back, hopefully I don't get sick then. Monday will be about 3 hours with the team out at the State RR course, hopefully I'm at least 75% by then, I'd like to do the whole ride without getting dropped or getting sick, that would be a bonus. If I'm feeling 100% by Tuesday then I'll start some heavy duty training with two-a-days through the weekend and then the following week I'll start the week strong and taper down by Saturday. My most difficult rides will be next week Wednesday and Thursday and then Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday of the following week. I'll start to taper down the week of the 3rd on Wednesday and Thursday and then Friday will be an easy ride ahead of the race on Saturday. I'm really looking forward to the State RR, I'm confident I can hang with the front guys, I definitely need to lose about 5lbs. and be about 175 for the race but I think my power can carry me over the smaller hills, there aren't really any climber type hills so my weight won't be much of an issue. I've trained on those roads a million times in my previous life as a racer so the confidence is there that I can handle them with no problems. We'll see, I'm sure everyone is training like this is their last race as well, so it will be tough, and if it isn't I'll be sure to make it tough. Well, I know it's 5:30 but I'm worn out from being sick so I'm going to take a little nap before I watch some movies with the family and rest up for the ride with my dad tomorrow. Until next time.........

Down For The Count

I felt pretty good today at work and then shortly after work I started to feel really sick, I went out on my ride and got sick and came home just absolutely shivering and my wife took my temp and it's 100 right now. I feel completely miserable, not sure what is wrong, this is the worst I've felt in years. That's it for now....going to bed. 24-hour flu? I hope so. My head cold might have become an infection.

Finally

Today's race, Wheels on Willy Criterium, was one of my "A" races this year and a race I'd been looking forward to for quite a while, well....mainly since last year when I got 3rd and was so disappointed that anything less than 1st this year wouldn't make me happy. So guess what? I'm very happy! I won today's race with a bit of crafty maneuvering and a wicked sprint, who knew?? We arrived at the course at 7:45 a.m. and it was quite cold with a nice cold breeze as well and to top it off, a little bit of drizzle. Luckily by the time our race started at 9:00 the drizzle had stopped and although it was cold the pace of the race warmed us up pretty quickly. I have to say that I felt pretty bad the first 5 laps or so, just dead legs from yesterday and full of snot (sorry) from my head cold. After about 20 minutes I started to feel better and moved my way to the front and tried to stay in the top 15 the rest of the way but it was pretty tough. Finally with 2 laps to go I went to the front and stayed in about the top 10 and as we came around for the final lap I knew that I wanted to be the first one or two guys through the turns in the last lap. I moved up and after the 2nd turn I jumped on the left side and went to the first position through the 3rd turn and was really pushing it with my head down. My initial thought was "great, now I'm leading everybody out for the sprint, that was stupid"....but I still kept flying as fast as I could and made the 4th turn at full speed and stood up to sprint and had no problem holding off the pack for the win. It felt great to win today because it was a race that I picked out at the beginning of the year and really tried to focus on and it turned out exactly as I had hoped. The rest of the guys did great as well today and Glen continued his streak of top 10s with another one today (2 is a streak right?). Andy, Chris, and Bob also had good days and were very active throughout the race, it was a good job by all. Our group is a great bunch of guys and I'm so glad that we still have quite a few races to do yet this year, this is a lot of fun.
As far as the next races go, the next one is a big one, the State Road Race Championship in my hometown of Burlington. I'm a little disappointed that they don't have a separate Masters 4/5 race so I have to race with the young guys and hope for the best. In the old days I used to be able to do big ring sprints up the big hill, unfortunately I can't anymore but my climbing is o.k. so I might be able to hang with them for just long enough to sprint it out up the hill that I know quite well. Anyways, the next few weeks are going to bring some solid training and I'll be concentrating mainly on getting in some miles and hill work. I'll ramp up the duration of my intervals as well and try to get in some more power work so that I can fly up those hills. Well, time to go relax on the recliner and chill out until dinner, no housework for me today after a long weekend. Until next time.........

Not Too Bad I Guess

Well, it was a tough course today, and considering that I'd had a head cold and sore throat all week I didn't expect to do much today and would've been happy just finishing in the top 40 (there was only 50 in the race). Surprisingly I felt pretty good and actually ended up 10th today on a pretty brutal course and I'm quite happy to take that result. We lined up under beautiful skies and I can't say that I was feeling good or bad as we rolled about 2 miles to the big hill but as soon as we started going up I decided to pace myself and not try to stay with the few guys that were taking off and it was definitely the smart thing to do. I managed to get in a group of about five for the first lap as there was a group of 10 that formed at the front and we were the second chasing group. On the 2nd time up the hill I could see the front pack and it appeared that we would catch them before the start of the 3rd lap and we almost did but ultimately we caught them right after the start/finish and of course it was right before the big hill. I realized everyone wasn't there when we made the catch and I was right in that there was 6 guys off the front and we had caught the remaining 4 guys. I think we were with them for about 2 minutes before I got dropped on the hill again but this time I managed to come to the top with only the front 6 and 3 out of the 4 from the second group in front of me. I tried to catch the group of 3 but it was just too hard by myself and I dangled about 200 yards behind them for the entire 3rd lap. Eventually when we hit the headwind in the finishing straight they pulled away a little bit but I managed to hold off any chasers and finished 10th all by myself. We had Dave Sapiro in the front group and he managed a 4th place, we had Glen Stroik in the 2nd group and he managed 7th so Team Wheaton got 3 guys in the top 10 today, not too shabby at all.
I've done all I can tonight to recover I think and I'm ready for tomorrow to race at Wheels on Willy, it's supposed to be quite a bit cooler and maybe a chance of rain for our 9:00a.m. start. I just read the flyer and noticed that they changed the course this year, I didn't know that before now, that course has been unchanged for a very long time now, I'm a little disappointed that they changed it. This is the first time in like 15 years that it has been changed I think, so we'll see how this one compares to the old one. Either way I'm ready to rock and roll tomorrow, can't wait. Until next time.........

Double Trouble

This weekend will be double the fun with two races, one each on Saturday and Sunday. First up is a road race in Denzler that features a one and a quarter mile climb that gains 700ft. of elevation. It's definitely a good size climb for Wisco and I'm not sure I'm really suited for that, but what the heck, anything can happen and maybe I'll have my climbing legs on tomorrow. I've got some major head congestion right now in the sinuses and ears but the lungs are clear and the legs have been feeling good this week. I did a half-mile climb by my house last night and went up it with a new PR so I know I'm feeling good right now. Of course I should go up it faster this year than last year since it was my first year back, but I could have kept going for quite a bit longer at the pace I was going so mentally that makes me pretty confident. Anyways, Sunday is one of my favorite races and a race that I've circled on my calendar this year as an "A" race. Wheels on Willy is a nice crit course that is fairly fast and is well suited to break away attempts and I tried one last year and ended up getting 3rd after I couldn't hold off the pack in the sprint. This year I'm feeling a lot better about my chances and I'm really looking forward to that one, it's also a good money race, so winning would definitely help pay for some of the trip expenses, at least a half a tank of gas. All in all the training has been going fairly well but not great this week but I'm feeling strong going in to the weekend. The weather looks great for tomorrow, not so good for Sunday but if it rains for the crit then all the better as I think my experience and handling skills will help me out in that one. After this weekend we don't have any races for a couple of weeks so it will be two solid weeks of long and hard riding and then a bit of a taper for the State RR, I'm really looking forward to that one as well. Well, back to work, until next time.....

Life Is A Full Time Job

Well, it's been a few days since my last post so I'll update on what's been going on around the Carlson household. Sunday was a busy day as the family headed down to Burlington for Mother's Day, but my plan of riding from Burlington to Alpine Valley and Johnson Rd. didn't quite turn out as planned. My wife had to go to her grandmother's in the afternoon so we had to high-tail it out of Burlington earlier than I was hoping to be back in New Berlin for an early dinner. Unfortunately it just obviously didn't work to stay out there for a nice 4 hour ride so I ended up coming home and then riding for 2.5 hours in the evening. Not quite what I intended as I really wanted to get in the hillwork for the upcoming Leland race and the State RR. It was Mother's Day though and obviously that's pretty important so I had to make a sacrifice. I'm learning that's it's quite different being a 30-something husband and father than when I was a young 20-something racer and could just do what I wanted, there's definitely a lot more to life now. Working full-time, having a family, owning a house is a lot of work, the things we get to do for our own sanity, like cycling, sometimes get pushed to the side. So far we are making it work, although I would always love to be able to ride more than I do now, but what can I do, priorities first. So anyways, I did ride Sunday, and normally Monday is a rest day for me but it was nice and hot out and I didn't ride as long as I wanted Sunday so I rode yesterday as well and I'm glad I did because my muscles felt really tight, especially my back and hamstrings and it felt good to stretch them out ahead of the harder workouts today and tomorrow. Today will be iffy for an outside ride as it's raining and I'm not sure if it's going to let up or not by the time I get home, the forecast says definitely not, but the weathermen have been wrong before. If it's only drizzling or it's done raining, then I'll obviously ride outside, otherwise it will be about 2 hours on the trainer, about 75 minutes of Tempo work. Tomorrow I'll be doing hill repeats on the longest hills I can find by my house and I do have a few picked out so I'll be doing that until the sun sets to get ready for the agony of Saturday's race. Thursday will be a moderate paced ride and Friday will be a short pre-race ride with a couple of power intervals to open up the legs. Saturday I'll be going up to Denzler for the road race, which is 3 loops of an 11 mile course and it has a one mile long 700ft. climb so I'll see if I can get my 180lb butt up that hill 3 times in the lead group, let's hope so. Sunday is one of my favorite races of the year, Wheels on Willy St., and that is one of my "A" races this year, anything less than top 3 would be a disappointment. The unfortunate part of this weekend is that I have to drive both days as my plans of staying overnight in Madison were nixed because I forgot my wife will be gone Saturday morning until Sunday morning for her sister's bachelorette party celebration. That leaves me with the kid and the dog and the kid has a Boy Scout trip on Saturday evening so I have to be home for that and to take care of the dog overnight. I tried to figure out a way to make it all work but finding someone to watch the dog is hard to do and our son is 13 which isn't quite old enough to leave home alone overnight. Basically it's just a few extra hours of driving and a couple tanks of gas, but hopefully I will win some cash to off set some of that expense. Anyways, I'm looking forward to a good week of training and we'll see how it all pays off this weekend. Hopefully all this work I've been doing all Spring will actually get me some results. Until next time.....


Here is a profile of Saturday's road race

Kinda, Sorta, Somewhat Happy

6th place today, obviously could've been better, but considering that I don't really have a sprint yet I was happy with 6th in a bunch sprint.....well, what was left of the bunch after a crash before the finishing straight. I'm heading out tonight to a cook out and will be eating some filet and drinking lots of cold ones....that would be beer. Tomorrow I'm off to Burlington in the morning for Mother's Day and then since I'm out there I'll be taking advantage of my mom's proximity to the State RR course and will do about 2 hours worth of riding on that and then about 2 hours of riding around Alpine Valley. I need a good week of training ahead of the double race weekend coming up. Well, off to eat, more details on the race and tomorrow's training sometime tomorrow evening. Until next time......

What A Wanker!

......That's what another rider must've thought last night as I was riding around the Muskego race course doing my intervals. Why would he think that you ask? Well, I was doing my normal course of intervals around the loop and was near the end of a rest period when another racer showed up and started doing loops around the course. At the time I was obviously riding at a normal pace for my recovery when he came cruising around me and he probably thought I was just a casual rider because I was going no more than 17mph. I'm sure I didn't look like a casual rider as would have been evident from the slobber all over my mouth and the completely dazed look on my face from killing myself for the last 10 minutes, but nonetheless he probably thought so as he passed me. I'm sure he probably said to himself, "get out of my way fred" as he passed me. Well, of course as luck would have it he passed me with only about 15 seconds left in my recovery so I even thought to myself, "great, now when I start my interval and pass him it's going to look like I chased him down and tried to go fast only because he passed me". I even thought to yell something like "I'm not a putz chasing you down, I'm just doing intervals! Really!", but of course I didn't say a word as I wound it up and passed him within a quarter of a lap. So as I passed him, I could see out of the corner of my eye that he gave me that look that said, "what a dick!". I kept going but I could tell that he sped up to keep pace with me as I was able to see his shadow dangling about 5 foot off my rear wheel. He was staying close behind me and after 9 minutes I was coming around the course and I calculated I would finish my interval right before the finishing hill. I thought it would be a good idea to see how fast I could sprint up that hill after a hard interval so when we came around to the hill I sprinted and promptly blew him away but just as quickly shifted down to my small ring and started my recovery as my interval was now finished. He caught up and quickly flew by me and I thought I saw a smile that said, "ha, what a wanker, he blew up". Again I wanted to say " I didn't blow, that was the end of my interval! Really!"....but of course I said nothing. I soft pedaled around for one more lap and saw him stopped at one of the bubblers getting water, so I knew he was probably relieved as well that I had stopped my interval. I guess what's funniest out of all of this is that neither one of us said a thing to each other the whole time...not when he passed me initially, or when I passed him back, or when I stopped my interval and he went by again. There was definitely that tension of being on the race course, doing race-specific training, and focusing on the workout that neither of us seemed to be in the mood to be friendly. He probably didn't say anything because he thought I was just an ass for being passed and then blowing by him, and I didn't say anything because I was feeling like an ass and then was in interval mode. We didn't say any words but I'm sure the mental exchange went something like this:

Me: (recovering 15 more seconds) " " (um, yeah, brain was off)
Him: (passing the fred) "Move it or lose it chump"
Me (now fred): "great, now I'll look like I'm trying to go fast because he passed me"
Him: (getting passed by fred) "What a dick, why is he passing me now?"
Me: (92% HR and flying) "This sucks"
Him: "I'll just stay on fred's wheel and he'll be blown in 30 seconds"
Him: (after 3 minutes) "shit, why isn't he slowing down"
Me: (92% HR and flying) "This sucks"
Him: (after 7 minutes) "momma, is that you?" "hi mr. penguin"
Me: "Only 2 more minutes, gonna sprint up the hill, yeahhhh"
Him: (watching me sprint up hill) "sweet jesus, can't....hold..on...any longer"
Me: "sweet, interval complete" (drop to little ring and soft pedal)
Him: "huh, wha...he's slowing, cool....I was just about to pass him anyways...."

At least that's how it went in my head.....anyways, 2 hours on the bike, with 60 minutes at the race course, felt great and I'm ready to rock on Saturday. Until next time......

Fueling The Fire

Sunday was a great day on the bike..... no HR monitor, no bike computer, just 4 hours of riding from Burlington to Lake Geneva, once around the lake, back to Burlington, over to the State RR course and a few times up Johnson Rd., and then back to Burlington. Not sure what my average speed was, no record of my average HR, and I have to say it felt good to just ride. Yesterday I did a little hour easy ride and then grilled out with my family and sat on the deck and enjoyed the wonderful evening. It wasn't exactly the best dinner for today's ride as it was all protein and/or fat and I know protein is good for time-release energy so those 3 brats I ate are providing me energy right now I think. Either that or they are just turning to fat as I sit in my cubicle for 9 hours, oh well. Maybe the 2 beers I had will help offset that and provide me the carbs I need, somehow I doubt it, but again, oh well. I did eat good today so I'm hoping I'm properly fueled up for my ride tonight. I'm going to hit the bike right after work and will ride until the sun sets, hopefully about 2 to 2.25 hours or until I get bored riding around the block eeking out the last bit of daylight before I can't see any more. Tomorrow will be intervals again around Muskego Park barring any rain, which would relegate me to the trainer in the basement. Hopefully I don't feel quite as bad as I felt last Wednesday when I really struggled up that little, steep double-step hill. It doesn't look like much but after about 10 times around it at 92% max it starts to hurt big time. I'm feeling better this week than I did last week and I think I'm almost 100% recovered from my cold or whatever I had. Physically and mentally I feel way better than when I was at my worst on Saturday. Hopefully that continues through the weekend and I have a good showing at the race. Well, that's all for now, until next time.....

Not Racing Today

So this is just not my week as I'm not racing today in Neenah. I rode Wednesday at the Muskego Park course for next weekend's race and it was a cold day and my legs didn't have it. I felt o.k. but not great Thursday and was going to ride but my son ended up having some school stuff come up that I didn't know about and my wife was gone at clinicals so I had to drive him around and couldn't leave because I wasn't sure what time he had to be picked up. Friday was my wife's birthday and we had friends over for a surprise party and that lasted well in to the evening so I didn't ride then. Yesterday I woke up feeling horrible and just did some stuff around the house and couldn't bring myself to ride in the cloudy, 50 degree weather. With plugged ears, sore throat, and continued body aches I just was not up to being cold and suffering some more. I'm not sure if I'm just fatigued or what is the issue, but I've been really tired lately, just basically sleeping all the time. I'm normally a night person and stay up until 11:30ish on weeknights but this past week I've been going to bed any where from 9:00 to 9:30. It's been a stressful week at work and this next week will be as well so I think that is part of what is wearing me out. So anyways, it's been 3 days off the bike and with just not feeling well I decided it's best to skip today's race, I just didn't think my body was ready. I was sick last week before Whitnall and I knew my body wasn't ready and sure enough I had my worst race of the year. Well, knowing that, I wasn't going to go up to Neenah and waste half a day to finish in the middle of the pack knowing that I'm not feeling good again. I'm feeling a little better today so I think it's best just to get back to basics and use today as a training day to get my legs under me again. I'll get more benefit out of going for a long ride than to race for 45 minutes, so I'll be doing that today. It's windy as hell though, 30-35 mph winds but I wasn't looking at going fast anyways, so if I'm only cruising along at 15mph, oh well. I'd like to get about 4 to 5 hours in today, just to get that endurance back and with the winds 5 hours may only end up being 85 miles, but I'll take it. My longest ride in the last 2 weeks has been only 55 miles I think, maybe 3 hours. Once I get in that long ride today I'll feel better about training this week although the weather looks like crap with rain Tuesday and Wednesday so I'm sure I'll be on the trainer at least a couple of times. I really want to do well the next 3 races so today is where it begins I think, maybe the 3 days off was good mentally and physically and I'll start new today. Who knows.....it's been a struggle the last 2 weeks to really get the training going with the family stuff, work, and not feeling the best. I guess that's it for now, until next time.......

As Good As It Gets

Last night was just absolutely gorgeous, the weather was perfect for riding and I couldn't have had a better ride, too bad sunset seemed to come so quickly. I got out right after getting home from work and was on the road by 5:45 and heading towards Mukwonago in a big loop, hopeful to get in the whole ride by the time the sun went away. I warmed up for all of 5 minutes and then jumped right in to my Tempo workout which I ended up doing for 120 minutes instead of 90 because I felt so good. Basically it was smooth sailing and I had my HR at 164-167 for 2 hours and after including my warm up and cool down, my average HR for the 2hr15min ride was 162. I felt like I was in my own little world on this ride, barely breathing, light on the pedals and just really focused. All in all, with the weather and the way I felt, it's days like last night that really make this all seem worth while. It was just an enjoyable ride, it didn't even seem like training. Tonight is intervals at Muskego Park ahead of the race in two weeks, should be another nice night as far as weather and hopefully I feel as well as I did last night.
Other than that, I've got another new hobby that I picked up about 3 weeks ago and that is keeping me busy as well. I bought an electric guitar, a Fender Stratocaster, and have been practicing up on that at night to keep me busy. Between cycling and practicing, I barely have time to work on the house....oh well, priorities first! Until next time........

Still In First?? Weird.......

Yes, I'm still in first in the WI Cup point series, albeit tied now with another rider and we have 2 riders tied at 20 points behind us. I looked over the results of the Whitnall race and I actually did get WI Cup points because there were a few Illinois riders in front of me at the finish and so obviously the points go to the next eligible Wisco rider. Needless to say I was still surprised to see I was in the lead on Monday but it will be short lived as I'm only going to do one of the two races this weekend. I've decided for sure that I'm skipping the Sauk City race on Saturday and will only do the Neenah race on Sunday and then I will concentrate on the Muskego race next weekend and the double the following weekend with Sauk City #2 and Wheels on Willy. There is just too much going on around the house for me this week and I've got a lot to get done and my wife's birthday is Friday and I'd like to spend some time with her. Unfortunately I know I'll lose my points lead Saturday but I figured I would go 100% at Neenah on Sunday and will hopefully take advantage of the others that raced Saturday and have tired legs. Maybe I'll still come out of the weekend with the lead. I will then concentrate on making a good effort at Muskego and then I want to blow the competition wide open the double weekend of Sauk #2 and Wheels on Willy. I'm planning on that weekend being a bit of a peak weekend for me but we'll see as it's still early. I feel that my fitness will be pretty high for the next few weekends as I was almost under a forced rest this past week with my cold so I think that it might have actually helped give my body the rest it needed. I will really amp it up this week and it starts with a couple hour ride tonight where I'll do about 90 minutes of Tempo during my ride and then I'll finish off another hour on the trainer for 3 hours total. Tomorrow I'm going to the Muskego course and will be doing OverUnder Intervals on the race course for an hour and including the ride to and from the course I should get in 2.5 pretty hard hours tomorrow. Thursday will be an endurance pace ride of 2.5 hours and then Friday will be only a 1 hour recovery ride in the morning before work as I'll be busy Friday night. Saturday I'll be doing all my junk around the house that I need to get done but I'll make time for about a 2-3 hour ride and I really have to clean my bike as well so I'll do that Saturday.
If there is one thing that cycling does for me is that it definitely helps relieve stress as it's been a very hectic last couple of days at work and at home and I'm really looking forward to getting out on the road and just forgetting about all of it. If I wasn't cycling I might just go home and drink about 5 beers tonight...I may just do that anyways. Last night I got to go to the Brewers game, that was definitely a great time and I had a couple of beers there, so that is probably my allotment for the week. Well, back to work to finish up a few things and then it's off to ride.....until next time.....

24th Best

Today was a beautiful day for a race at Whitnall Park in Hales Corners and the race couldn't have been run any better, of course I'm biased since my team (Wheaton Franciscan) ran it today. Unfortunately I couldn't race up to the standards I've set so far this year with 4 top-10 finishes thus far in my first 4 races. As I've been saying this week I was pretty much at about 70% all week with a head cold and some lung congestion and the lack of intense training this week and basically the lack of riding for 3 days out of the week really hurt me today. I felt maybe 85% this morning when I woke up and I had a quadruple espresso to put me at about 90% before the race started. I felt really good just sitting in the pack until about 4 laps to go and then I moved up to the front and by the bell lap I was sitting 3rd wheel coming around the 2nd turn. Unfortunately it all fell apart from there as I was following the wheel of Aaron, who is in 2nd place in the WCA standings and as we made the 3rd turn and went up the hill he kind of peeled off to the side and I was left out in front going down the hill in to the finishing straight which ends on the top of another small rise. As we hit the start of the finishing hill I completely blew up as I tried standing for the sprint but had no speed in my legs at all and I ended up getting passed by about 20 guys. The more that passed me, the more demoralized I got and I think by the time I hit the finish line I was basically coasting and could barely pedal anymore. Luckily for me the field was big with 80 riders, so starting at the front and getting passed by 20 guys still left me just about in the top quarter of the results. Unfortunately though I didn't get any WCA points. Aaron who was in 2nd didn't get any either but the 3rd place rider in the series finished 9th overall and so I'm now out of the lead for sure but still hanging on to 2nd in the series. I have no doubt that if I was healthy all week and was able to ride and do my normal program that I would have been right at the front in the sprint, but as it was I didn't do much to build up that speed in my legs this week. I do feel really good this evening and I think after one or two more days I'll be back to 100%. As it stands right now I don't think I'll be doing the 1st of 2 races next weekend as the time and traveling is probably just a little too much for the things I have to get done around the house. I'd have to drive from New Berlin to Reedsburg on Saturday and then back home and then on Sunday I'd have another long drive from New Berlin to Neenah and back. Basically I'd be looking at about 6-7 hours out of my day Saturday and 4-5 hours on Sunday and I just can't afford to do that right now. My wife's b-day is next weekend and so I'd like to be home one of those days to spend with her. Right now I'm still probably a little slow up the hills so I'm going to be heading to Neenah for the Crit I believe as that suits me better. We'll see though, maybe I can do something really nice this week for my wife to allow me to go to both races. Well, time to get some rest as I've been up since 5:15 this morning to help set up for our race. Until next time........

Crash and Burn

Yesterday was going to be a great day on the bike....I was flying out of work to get home to ride with BOYZ from the team around Whitnall Park and I thought I was feeling o.k. after not feeling well most of Tuesday and Wednesday with a sore throat and body aches. I had some sludge (coffee) from the company machine before I left and I think that gave me some false energy and made me feel better than I really was. It was a bit chilly on the ride over although I was dressed for it, but noticed that I got congested right away and was having trouble breathing. I got to the course and we had a good group of Andy, Glen, Greg, Doug, Tony, and Todd for a short time. I could tell that my legs weren't up to par and that my breathing and HR were off but I figured that once I got the fire stoked I would be o.k.. Well, that didn't happen and I was sucking big time as we did our laps around the course. We were doing some pretty fast laps and trying some breakaways and I couldn't even hang with the group, I got dropped pretty quickly and felt like I was turning the pedals with baby legs. My HR was stuck in 3rd gear and my legs were stuck in neutral I think. Normally my HR for intervals is in the 172-180 range depending on what I'm doing, but my average HR yesterday was only 158, it was completely suppressed and I couldn't get it elevated. I think my body was just fighting this cold and just didn't have anything left to get the bike going fast so it wasn't really a great workout, but it was fun to be out with the guys anyways. I'm hoping that I'm recovered by Saturday for the race and I'll take it easy for the most part until then. I doubled up on the vitamins last night and this morning, had a bunch of hot green tea with honey, took some Theraflu last night to get some good sleep and I'll do that the next couple of nights as well. Tonight I will do an easy 2 hour ride on the trainer just to get the legs cleaned out from yesterday and then tomorrow I'll do about 1.5 hours with some sprints to open up the legs for Saturday. I plan on being 100% for the race no matter what my body says, it has no choice but to go fast on Saturday. We'll have a good contingent of guys lined up for the race and based on how everyone else was flying last night I'm excited for our chances to pull out a win. We have lots of races in the next couple of weeks so IF my form is off on Saturday because of this cold I won't worry too much about losing my points lead, I'll get it back after a few more races. Well, back to work, until next time.......

Challenging Weather

So as of right now it is drizzling out and that might make for a challenging outdoor ride tonight as it is supposed to start a full on rain at about 6:00 and the radar doesn't look good. It's about 4:30 so by the time I get home in 60 minutes we'll see how the weather is before I decide to layer up the clothing and head outside. It may just end up being another trainer ride tonight, I really hope not. I guess normally I would ride in the drizzle but I am still feeling the tinge of a sore throat that I've had for about a week but I'm doing a good job of fighting it so I don't want to get caught in a full-on rain and really get sick. Tomorrow looks like more of the same but I'm planning on going to Whitnall to get in some training with some of the team guys so it better not rain, we have to be ready for Saturday. We have a strong team and I'm really looking forward to changing up our tactics for Saturday's race as we should have a good size group from the team and we'll make a splash for sure. I'm not giving anything else away but it should be a fun race.
Well, to look back at this past weekend I think it was good overall, I got a 5th and an 8th and I feel good that I was very active in both races although I would've been happier with some higher placings, but there are a lot of races left. Saturday I probably would have done everything the same except for lead out the sprint, I think I would have placed better if I started 3rd or 4th in line. Aaron was pulling strong heading up the little rise before the finish and when he peeled off I was just kind of left there in the front, it wasn't ideal but I wasn't about to put on the brakes. As far as Sunday's race, I think I would've chased the initial break a little sooner and tried to chase it down before it got 10-15 seconds. It was hard to close any gaps in the wind and even though I tried to work with a couple of other guys Aaron was just too strong. I think I'm gradually building power as that just comes with time on the bike and pushing the gears, my sprint is coming along fairly quickly, probably quicker than I thought. The last thing I need to work on is my hill climbing, that leaves a little to be desired. Sauk City in 2 weeks might be a challenge for me but maybe I'll have to just go off the front so they can catch me on the hills and then I won't be left behind. Probably not the best strategy, I might have to work on that. Well, back to work really quick, more to follow this week, don't want to give away too much of the training secrets and strategy. Until next time........

GDVC#2

Here are some race pictures.....a couple of the whole pack and then the breakaway I was in that ultimately failed when I got caught in the last lap. Ultimately I recovered enough to get 8th in the sprint. I wish I had just a little more power as all I needed was one more lap to pull out at least a 3rd or 4th place finish. I knew I was going to get caught though in the last lap either way though so I sat up and rested right before I was caught to get my legs under me again for the sprint. I actually passed guys in the sprint and was pretty happy with that considering that I had been out in front of the pack for about 20 minutes. I'm really happy with where I'm at with my fitness, can't wait for the next couple of races. Right now, after what I think is an accurate calculation I'm actually in 2nd place in the standings by 1 point. The ages weren't posted for yesterday's results so I got 5th and I'm basing my points on the fact that I think everyone ahead of me was in the 30-39 group. If there was any 40+ guys in the top 4 then I'm in first place in the standings by 2 points. I won't know for sure until tomorrow, but I'm guessing 2nd is accurate.

Pics

I'm Digressing!!!

Just kidding, but I did do worse than last week by 2 places although I'm not disappointed at all with a 5th place today. The pace was fairly fast and the team worked great together today and we pulled off two spots in the top 10. Greg and Andy worked hard today and Rudy got 10th in the sprint. I got in position in the last lap to be at the front and got on Aaron Schindler's wheel coming around the the last half-lap so I was second wheel coming up the small rise before the turn in to the finish. At the top of the hill Aaron peeled off and I was stuck leading out the sprint with about 200 meters to go and that is way too long for me so I got passed by 4 guys. My sprint is coming around but I haven't done any sprint-specific training yet this year so I guess I shouldn't expect to win any sprints yet. It was a good race and I think we all felt really good at the finish and were happy with our results. Andy did great in his first race (we won't count his start at Sheboygan), and kept his nose at the front for part of the race and looked strong. Boy, if he wouldn't have been sick, who knows how well he'd be flying now. It's a long year though and all of us will get better and I think we'll place a few of us in the final top 5 or 10 in the Series. Well, that's all for now, keeping it short, it's dinner time! I'll update again after tomorrow's race, until next time...........

Race Pics

(click to enlarge)

Busy Week

This week will be a pretty busy one for me, lots to do around the house in addition to all the bike practice. Tonight I'm going to head home and hit the road right away after work, basically until sunset so hopefully I'll get in about 1hr45min to 2 hrs. The plan is to do a warm-up and then 55 minutes of Tempo work and then a cool down. I'd like to hit at least 2 hours so I'll be flying home after work to get out by 5:30ish. If I only get in 90 minutes or so then I'll probably ride a bit more on the trainer when I get back. After that I'll be doing some painting and cutting some molding for the house so that my wife is happy when it comes time for her sister's bridal shower at our house on the 29th. Tomorrow will be more of the same as I'll be flying home after work and then doing some SteadyState intervals for what hopefully will be another 2 hour ride. Thursday will be a regular ride at endurance pace and I might do part or most of it on the trainer as I'd like to get my lawn thatched on Thursday so that I can lay down some crabgrass preventer this weekend after Saturday's race. Obviously I can't thatch my lawn in the dark so I'll have to do that after work and then save the ride for the basement. We'll see how I feel though, if it's really nice out, I may just hit the bike outside. Friday will be a short ride as I have the race on Saturday so I'll just do a short ride with a few Power Intervals thrown in to get the legs fired up for Saturday.
Saturday I have the Brown Deer race and from the race flyer description it's a dead flat course nearly 2 miles in length and it appears that there is only one corner but it's about 120 degrees. The rest of the turns appear to be pretty soft turns through the park. Not sure how open it is so not sure if any wind would be a factor, but obviously being a flat course of nearly 2 miles in distance, there will be opportunities for some breaks to get away and stay away. I've never done this course before so not sure how it will play out, all I know is that this year the first two races have been won by breakaways which was pretty unusual last year. Seems everyone is in the mood to attack this year, especially after having watched lots of EuroPro races on Versus already. We all think we can emulate them but there are probably only a handful of guys, if that, that can solo away in the Master's 4/5s. It was pretty funny to see some guys attack at Madison this past weekend only to sit up or get brought back right away as soon as they hit the headwind. Speaking of Madison, Sunday's race will probably be a repeat of this last weekend. I'm sure quite a few people will try their hand in a break before a good one finally sticks. I'm going to make sure that no matter how it plays out that I'm there in the end. I don't want to give away too much though, so that's about it for strategy. After only 2 races I'm 2nd in the WCA standings for 30+ Masters 4/5 and I'd like to keep that placing or even better for the first few races before I decide whether to upgrade or try to win the point series. Right now I'm leaning towards upgrading by mid-season but we'll see. I like the guys I'm racing with now and I don't know that I really need to be in any hurry to get killed by the 1s and 2s in the other category. If I improve my power and climbing ability in the next month or two then I'd definitely lean towards the upgrade as those are my weaknesses right now, and I'd get killed in road races. Anyways, the weather looks good this week, should be a good week of riding, can't wait for the races this weekend. Until next time........

Hard Work Is Paying Off

Well, I finally got some results to speak of as I got 3rd in yesterday's Great Dane Velo Club Crit (which is more like a circuit race). I'm surprised a bit because I didn't feel all that great going in to Sunday as I was a little under the weather on Friday and Saturday with a sore throat, congestion, and body aches. I still did my normal pre-race rides and routine and when I woke up Sunday morning I still wasn't feeling the greatest but I was energized by the fact that I was racing again after a week off for Easter. I had an afternoon start so I skipped the normal race breakfast of pancakes and went with my more traditional breakfast of eggs, low-fat bacon, and then I also had some strawberry-cheese danish and a quadruple espresso, yes 4 shots! I was energized and feeling good when my teammate Glen and I arrived at the race course. After registering and walking the course we went back to the car and spent a bit on the trainers to warm up. I could tell my legs were feeling good and I was ready for some action. The race started as our races normally do, a fast pace with a few guys trying their hand, but basically staying together as we went around the almost 1 mile loop. About 20 minutes in to the race a small group formed and I went around about 20 guys and bridged up to the break and we had a nice small group of 5 of us working together. The first lap or so we kind of dangled about 15 seconds off the front of the pack but then we started working well together and and the pack was slowed down a bit by the efforts of my teammates. Dave Sapiro and I from Team Wheaton were in the break along with Aaron Schindler from Chiropractic Partners and then two other guys that I didn't know. We went from 15 seconds to a sizable gap of about one minute by the end of the race and it came down to a sprint between the 5 of us. I was struggling a bit up the hill on the back end of the course but easily caught back on as we rounded the downhill before the last turn in to the finish. It was a fairly long, slight uphill finish and I started my sprint a bit late as I went around one guy and then my teammate Dave but the line came too quickly and I couldn't catch the other two so I ended up 3rd, which I'm pretty happy with. Of course I always want to win, but I guess I was lucky enough to be in the break in the first place after missing it at Sheboygan 2 weeks ago. All in all it was a great race, we had a lot of Team Wheaton guys representing the Master's 4/5 with myself, Dave, Glen, Rudy, Greg, Chris, and Bob all showing up to give it a go. We have 2 races next weekend so I'm hoping that the form continues to progress and that I can give it a go in next weekend's races as well. Sunday's race will be on the same course as yesterday's race but run the opposite direction, either way, it's a course that suits me so I'm looking forward to it again. Well, time to get some work done here in the cubicle, but more to follow tonight about my plans for this week.....until next time.....

Not Feeling That Great

Well, tomorrow is another race and I have to say that I'm not feeling that great and it's somewhat disappointing after a good two weeks of training since the last race. I started to feel under the weather 2 days ago and it was not too bad yesterday but then this morning I woke up feeling like crap to put it succinctly. It's a cold though so I should have no problem racing tomorrow as it's not the flu so I don't have to worry about puking or anything during the race. It's mainly sore throat, head congestion, and body aches. I did ride yesterday and today, about 2.5 hours yesterday and only 1hr15mins today but today didn't feel all that great. I was barely out of the driveway and my HR was up to 150, and the first little rise I came upon caused my HR to go up to 175 and I wasn't even breathing or trying hard. The elevated HR obviously means that my body is working to fight off this cold, but I have to say that my rate of exertion didn't seem that high so I think I can still hammer tomorrow but it will be with a HR pegged at 190 the whole time. Oh well, still should be fun. It appears that we'll have 5 guys from the team at the race tomorrow to take it to the rest of the Masters 4/5 racers, so hopefully we can get a break going or at least get a good train going for the finishing sprint.
As far as tonight goes I'm just going to finish some work on the house, clean my bike up a bit, and then relax on the couch and probably fall asleep there well before 10:00. Oh yeah, I have to shave my legs up a bit as they are getting a bit stubbly. Well, can't wait for tomorrow's race, the weather looks great, at least there is no snow in the forecast, so that's a bonus. Until next time.....

Take 3 Ibuprofen and Call Me In The Morning

So we probably didn't get as much snow as the weathermen forecasted but it seems like a lot, maybe 6-7 inches I would guess. It's the heavy, wet stuff too so as I got home today and decided to shovel I knew that I was going to suffer tomorrow with some back pain. Last time I shoveled snow like this I was bent over for 2 days in agony. So what the heck, I figured I'd do it again. This time I took some Ibuprofen ahead of time as preventative medicine, who knows if that will help but I figured it wouldn't hurt. Hopefully all this stuff is gone by the time Sunday rolls around, I don't want to deal with the snow melting on to the course as we are racing. Not that it would be enough to make a difference as far as handling, but I just don't want to have to clean my bike again like I did after the last race.
Anyways, I did get an outside ride in yesterday before the snow came as thankfully the storm was moving way slower than they said so the only limiter on my riding was daylight. I rode down to Whitnall Park and then did an hour of loops around the course for the upcoming race and then rode home. I got in 1hr 40 minutes by the time I hit my house and figured that I'd warm up a bit by riding the trainer for another hour just to get the blood flowing through my body as my toes were frozen and my hands were pretty cold by the time I got back. When I was out on the course at Whitnall there were 3 other racers doing loops, no doubt practicing for the race as well. I basically simulated a race and did a combo of 8-9 minute intervals, hill sprints, and big gear stuff with a couple of 5 minute breaks in between a few of the efforts. All in all I was happy with how I felt and can't wait for the Whitnall race on the 28th. Tonight I am obviously getting off to a late start due to shoveling but will be on the bike in about 5 minutes and will be doing 2 hours with 55 minutes of Tempo in the last hour. I've got a movie to watch, The Good Shepard, so I'm looking forward to the ride as I heard it's a pretty good movie. Tomorrow I'll be doing just a plain ole' endurance pace ride on the trainer most likely for about 2.5 hours. Friday I've got some plans to go out with some friends and will hit the trainer for about 1 hour after work and then head out for some chow and some brew. I'm not really sure what the weekend holds yet other than the race on Sunday, basically my Saturday ride will depend on the weather. I've got a lot of work to do on the house Saturday as my sister-in-law's bridal party will be at our house on the 29th I think, so the wife is cracking the whip. Well, time to get on the bike, I'll be on it until 10:30 as it is.......until next time.........

You Have To Be Kidding!

We are supposed to get 8-10 inches of snow tonight and tomorrow, this has to be a freaking joke. It's difficult to keep the motivation up when it's 20 degrees below normal and instead of mowing my lawn I'll be shoveling my driveway.......wonder what the cost of living is in Arizona?

Happy Easter

Happy (late) Easter to everyone. It's almost 11:00 and it's definitely time for bed but can't fall asleep quite yet. It was a busy weekend and I figured I'd be tired tonight but I think all the sweets I've eaten all weekend are keeping me up, especially the cookie dough that I ate about 45 minutes ago. My weight doesn't seem like it suffered from the indulgences of Easter though as I'm still steady tonight at 178.5, about what I was on Friday morning. As I said, it was a busy weekend but I did manage to get in some rides yesterday and today but unfortunately just due to time constraints they were both done inside on the trainer. I made them difficult though with quite a few intervals, mainly PowerIntervals and Steady States. I felt good all weekend but wished I would've actually had more time in the saddle as I was only able to manage 2.5 hours both days so obviously that was way less than I had planned. I didn't count on the Easter festivities taking so much time for one, and the weather was just getting me bummed out as well. Even though it was fine for a ride today I just didn't feel like taking the time between dinners to get all bundled up to head out on a 35 degree day. I guess it just felt right to stay inside and spend more time with the family and eat as much ham and horseradish as my body could handle. Once I finished eating I did manage to get on the trainer tonight and of course I ate even more afterwards. The forecast this week is looking like crap all the way up until Sunday which is the day of my 2nd race. Thankfully the skies look like they will be clear and the temps will be below normal but a manageable 45 degrees. I'm feeling stronger this week after some really good rides so my hopes are a little higher for the next race than the 10th place I got at Sheboygan. We'll see, I'm sure everyone is stronger so there is no telling how it will play out until the racing starts. Well, that's it for now I guess, I have to be to work at 7:00 tomorrow so I suppose I better try to sleep at least. Until next time........

I Love Wisconsin

So the weather's great hey? Nothing like 30 degrees and 40 mph winds, perfect for interval training in to a headwind and then you can practically coast home with the tailwind. Unfortunately I wouldn't know because I've been riding the trainer the last two days sheltered in my basement. After work the last two days I've gone home and made dinner, cleaned up a bit around the house and then jumped on the trainer for my workouts. Tuesday I did 2.5 hours on the trainer with 55 minutes of Tempo in the last hour and I felt really good. My knee pain has all but disappeared so I can really push my workouts now at 100% without thinking constantly about the pain and being distracted from the workout. I felt really good coming out of Tuesday's workout in to yesterday's ride where I again did 2.5 hours on the trainer but this time I did 4x10min Steady State intervals. I have to say things started good for the first two intervals but the last two were more difficult. For the 3rd interval I was able to keep my heart rate up but I could tell I was losing power so I backed it off just a couple of beats. I recovered enough for the start of the 4th interval but again I felt myself losing power near the end. The key of this workout is really to keep the HR high, 92%, and I accomplished that so I'm happy about that I guess. I just need to be able to sustain that power all the way through each 10 minute interval. This is the closest workout to simulate a good race-effort breakaway so I want to be able to maintain that so I know I can do it during a race. Should take a couple of more weeks but I'll get to that point before the end of April. Tonight is a 2.75 hour ride at endurance pace, no frills, just a bit of recovery from the last two days. Tomorrow is an easy 1 hour recovery ride and then Saturday will be an intense race simulation day either on the trainer if it's snowing or somewhere around Lake Geneva or Alpine. We do have an Easter get-together to go to on Saturday but not sure what time yet, I'll have to work riding around that, so hopefully I'll have the time to get in a few hours. Well, that's it for now, can't wait for another week of racing, just training on the weekends isn't nearly as fun. Until next time.......

Back To The Trainer

Well it looks like this week is going to be another week back on the trainer unless the weather drastically improves. Today wasn't bad but it was a rest day on the bike for me so I got up on the roof with the leaf blower and cleaned out my gutters ahead of the rain that is coming. After that I had some dinner and watched a bit of TV and relaxed. I'm hitting the rack a bit earlier tonight to get some much needed rest, I've been up early the last 3 days in a row and it's starting to wear on me. As far as training goes I've got some Tempo work scheduled for tomorrow, basically a standard ride on the trainer assuming it's going to rain. I've got 2.75 hours total scheduled with 55 minutes of Tempo in the last hour and then a cooldown. Wednesday will be some weight work right after work and then I'll come home and hit the trainer for 2.5 hours with 4x10 min Steady State intervals. Thursday will just be a regular endurance pace ride of 2.75 hours after work and then Friday is just a 1 hour recovery pace ride. It will be good to get in my two hard rides early in the week then do two good recovery type rides as I'd like to make Saturday a really hard ride if the weather cooperates. Depending on what the wife has planned for our Easter weekend I'd like to get out in the afternoon after the temps warm up and do about 4.5 to 5 hours around Lake Geneva or Alpine Valley. Depending on how much time I have I might drive out to either Burlington or Lake Geneva for my start point so that I can spend more time doing the hills in the area before heading back. If I have to start in New Berlin I'll only be able to do one loop of Alpine before heading back because that is a 90 mile ride out and back and that's about my limit right now for an intense ride. Sunday we have Easter plans in the morning right away and then in the late afternoon again so I will definitely squeeze in 3 hours and probably even 4 hours in the late morning/early afternoon. The plan on Sunday is to ride to Delafield and back as of right now. Well, that's it for the week, it will be a good mix of intensity Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday and some more relaxed rides Thursday, Friday and Sunday. I'll keep you posted on the progress, until next time......

Disappointing First Race

I came in to today's race expecting to do quite well, top 5 or better based on how my fitness was coming along the last 2 weeks. I was feeling good all week and I could tell as I warmed up that my legs were feeling good and I was ready to race hard. The rain held out for our race and the course was dry for the most part although the roads were a bit narrow but not too treacherous I guess. The race started and my mistake right at the start line might have cost me the race but who knows if it would've made a difference. I kicked my right pedal as I tried to put my foot in and it started to spin so I tried to stop it to get my foot in and had trouble getting it top-side up to kick in. By the time I got my foot in the pack was already rounding the first turn and I could see 3 guys off the front. That was the race. First lap, first turn and they stayed away the whole rest of the race. I didn't think much of it as I frantically went to the front going down the backside of the course on the first lap. I thought for sure we would chase them down and I wasn't too worried that the race had gone away from me. I can't help but think that if I had my foot clipped in right away that I would've been at the front where I lined up and that I would've gone with the attack. Who knows, maybe I still would've played it safe and waited for the break to get reeled in, I can't really say now looking back. It was a mistake though and it won't happen again. I took as many pulls at the front as I could and it didn't seem that more than one or two other guys wanted too, or could, do any of the work. Later on my wife said that it seemed that I was towing the pack around the course almost the entire race and that the rest of them were out for a joy ride. Mike from LAPT and a couple of other guys from team I hadn't seen before seemed to be the only ones interested in making it a race instead of a training ride. I wish now that I would've just left the group and tried to go it on my own or just attacked them in the last lap or two but I was just so mad at that point that nobody else was doing anything that my mind was a little clouded. In bike racing you hedge your bets during the race, you have a split second to decide to go with an attack or let it go and if you make the wrong choice your race is over. I put my odds against the break and lost so that's racing I guess. Anyways, I ended up in 10th place in the sprint up the hill to the finish, better than my first race last year so it's an improvement anyways. I've got two weeks now until the next race and I'm really excited to get back out there and this time there won't be a breakaway that stays away in the first part of the race, I'll make sure of that. Well, tomorrow I'll write more about what I've got scheduled for training this week but for now here are a couple of pictures of the race today.

Finally!

Well, tomorrow is finally the first race of the year, and in spite of the weather I'll be heading up to Sheboygan and I'm definitely ready to race. I've had a decent week of training, I'm feeling light on the pedals, and I'm ready to put the hurt on some other riders. I've heard the course has some pretty narrow roads and it's hard to pass during the race so I'm going to start myself up front and hopefully stay there the whole time. I'm sure that a lot of guys will be there as it's the first WCA race of the year so the course will be pretty congested. As long as I don't go down I'd be happy, but I'd be happier staying upright and taking a win so I'm going to give it all I've got. I'm sure everyone else has done their due diligence for training so it will be tough but I'm confident in what I've done as well and can't wait to see how I stack up. If I don't end up doing well then I'll know I've got some work to do and I've got two weeks to make something happen before the next race. Well, not much to say now, I've got to do some stretching tonight, get the bike cleaned up a bit and get all my clothes ready. See most of you tomorrow, good luck!

Some Pics

Great night on the trainer....2 hours with 4x10min Steady States. No problem keeping at 92% for 10minutes and recovery was super quick. I went from 173bpm to 118-120 in about 30 seconds after each interval, which means everything is firing as it should. If I was overtrained my HR wouldn't recover as fast or even get that high. If I was undertrained I wouldn't be able to do the whole 4 x 10minutes, so I know I'm feeling good. Here are some pics of the new bike...CAAD 8 with all Campy Record Carbon and Easton Carbon components. Campy Eurus wheels. Also, some pics of the new team kit.

Now I'm Ready To Race

Well, after a few days of recovery on Sunday and Monday I was ready to pick up the pace again today and I actually felt really good considering I felt like crap on Saturday. I did an easy 50 minute ride with my wife on Sunday and then an easy 45 minutes on Monday just around the neighborhood. I think I summed up both rides when I told my wife that I was just being a "bike rider" and not a "bike racer" when I went out to ride. I enjoyed just taking the time to go slow and ride, sometimes I forget to do that and it's nice to slow it down every once and a while and remember what it's like to just ride your bike without worrying about HR or intervals. So that leads me to today when I WAS worrying about those things as I kicked it up and stopped being a rider and started being a racer again. I did 2 hours on the trainer after dinner tonight with the last 50 minutes being a Tempo workout, along with a 5 minute cooldown after that. I had no problem keeping my HR at 162-165 for 50 minutes, I was sweating like crazy in the basement but my breathing was steady and I was pedaling on air. Tomorrow I'll do 2.5 hours on the trainer with 4 x 10min Steady State intervals as I'm assuming the forecast will be correct and it will be raining. Thursday may possibly be an outside ride as the forecast is a little iffy and if so I'll do about 90 minutes outside before it gets dark and then another 60 minutes inside. Friday will be an easy 60 minute ride and then Saturday is our team presentation. We will do the photo shoot and then go on a 90-120 minute ride and I'll be doing some Power Intervals to get the legs revved up and I'm sure we'll do a couple of sprints for fun. After that we'll be grilling out and talking race strategy ahead of Sunday's race. Well, that's enough for now, I have to be up at 4:00a.m. and at work by 5:00 so it's time to hit the hay. I'll post some pictures tomorrow of the new bike and our new team kit, until next time.....

Feeling Sore....But In A Good Way

Well, since I got back from Blue Mounds I've been doing quite a bit of biking but not nearly as much as I initially thought I would do while on vacation. I did get in 22 hours on the bike this week and for the most part the hours were equally split between difficult rides and recovery rides. I did my long rides in Blue Mounds and every hour of those rides were in the difficult category as I was going uphill it seemed like most of the time. 30 seconds downhill.....then anywhere from 5-10 minutes uphill....repeat. Wednesday I did a 2 hour recovery ride on the trainer and Thursday was 3.25 hours on the road at an endurance pace for the most part. Friday was a 4 hour ride out to Delafield and back and that was endurance pace as well. Yesterday was my first Drop the Doc ride of the year and for the most part it was a miserable ride as it was foggy, raining, and I also blew 2 tubes on the way to the ride from Andy's house. The actual riding part was good though as the pace was pretty fast and I didn't have any problem hanging in there, although I could tell that the wet weather and lack of stretching was affecting my left knee and hip as they seemed really tight the whole ride. The ride total for yesterday was a little over 3 hours including the ride from Andy's house and the Doc ride. I'm not sure what I'm going to do for a ride today, we have some family commitments today, mainly running around dropping off cookie dough for my son's fundraiser so depending on the weather when I get back I'll decide on my ride then. If it's nice I'll do a longer recovery ride but not before I clean my bike as it's a complete mess from yesterday's ride. My chain is dry and I got mud and worms caked on every other moving part I think.
This week it's back to work, so it's back to riding for 75-90 minutes outside right after work and then finishing on the trainer once it gets dark. March 31st is our team photo shoot and get-together and then the first WCA race of the year is Sunday, the 1st. Can't wait! Now let's hope it doesn't snow or anything. Well, more updates to come this week, until next time........

Could Be Better

I spent the last couple of days in Dodgeville doing some rides around the Dodgeville and Blue Mounds area getting my ass kicked by some nice long and steep hills. I did a fair amount of mileage, 81 miles on Monday and 63 on Tuesday and I didn't exactly feel that great either day. Monday was a long 5.25 hours and the ride ended with me cold, tired, and bonking after doing some good climbing, with the most daunting climb being the one up to the tower at Blue Mounds State Park. I felt pretty good to start with and then as the climbs began to take their toll along with the 25mph winds I started to slow down quite a bit. I'm still heavier than I want to be and I could tell that my extra weight was not helping me get up hills any faster, I still don't think I'm any faster up the hills than last year either. After I got back to my car at Governor Dodge State Park I loaded up on a carbo recovery drink, changed clothes and headed to my hotel to shower and change. After that I ate a fair amount of food from Pizza Hut and sat in the hot tub at the hotel to help with my recovery. I was asleep by 9:45 and woke on Tuesday to ride with Dave on a route that would again take us back to the big climb up to the tower at Blue Mounds. I could tell when I woke up Tuesday that I was still sore and tired from Monday's ride, and I knew it was going to be a slow day for me. As the ride progressed I could tell that in spite of everything I did to recover I was going to struggle big time up the climbs. Sure enough I was dying after the first few climbs and had nothing in my legs to get up them at faster than 6-7 mph. Dave was doing really well and in spite of the 10lbs extra that he has on me he was able to put me to shame on the climbs. I know that I have a lot of work to do to get back in to my old climbing shape but I felt pretty pathetic on these 2 rides. I guess that is what I went for, to improve my climbing, and if anything I think I will reap the benefits of struggling for these 2 days later down the road. It can only help me to do these types of rides and I really can't wait to do it again once my fitness is a little bit better. I did have the new CannonDale with me and it felt really good, the bike certainly wasn't holding me back as this bike is equipped for speed. It has all carbon Campy Record components and Easton carbon bars, stem and seatpost. The one thing I really liked was the Easton flat-top handlebars, they feel great on the hands when climbing and they were great on the few flat roads when I was able to rest my forearms on the flat tops. I would recommend these bars to anyone, they are a big upgrade over the normal round top bars.
So anyways, the training will go on today with a 2 hours recovery ride on the trainer today as it's pretty wet outside and then tomorrow will be another ride of about 3.5 - 4 hours depending on the weather, which right now calls for 49 degrees and 20-30mph winds. It will be tough to fight the wind so we'll see how much I can handle. Friday is supposed to be 54 and partly cloudy so I'm looking at doing about 5-5.5 hours on Friday hopefully with less wind and then Saturday I'll be doing the first Drop the Doc ride of the year in the morning. I have some family obligations from 2:00 until 5:00 on Saturday afternoon so I may be able to squeeze some more riding in after the Doc ride but we'll see. If I can't get in another ride before then I will ride the trainer some more at night after the family stuff. Sunday is calling for a 40% chance of showers with a high of 59 degrees so if the rain holds off I'll be doing another 4.5 to 5 hours. Well, that's it for now, I'll definitely update in the next couple of days, until next time.......

Off To Dodgeville

Tomorrow morning I am off to Dodgeville bright and early with the intentions of starting my ride off at Governor Dodge State Park at approximately 9:30. I'll be doing anywhere from 4.75 to 5.25 hours and right now the weather looks pretty decent, about 46 degrees with clouds in the morning giving way to sun in the afternoon. After the ride I'll eat a big dinner, relax in the hot tub and watch some basketball. After an early night most likely I'll be up Tuesday morning and hopefully ready to be off on the bike by 10:30ish. I'll be doing about 5 to 5.5 hours and then basically will repeat the same activities of eating, sitting in the hot tub and watching some TV. If the rain holds off for Wednesday it will probably be about a 4.5 to 4.75 hour ride but with more climbing as I'm hoping to do the Blue Mounds climb multiple times. I'll be heading back home after Wednesday's ride (or Tuesday if rain is definite for Wed.) and then Thursday will be a nice rest day. I'm really looking forward to hitting some new roads and doing some climbing this week as I need to get better at lugging my overweight (178lbs) butt up hills before the race season gets in to full swing.
As far as training went this weekend, I got in 4 hours yesterday and felt really good but didn't really try to push it as I was resting up for the remainder of this week. Today I was in Chicago with my family and my parents the whole day and will be hopping on the bike within the hour to just do an easy 2 hours on the trainer. After that it I'll be finishing off the remainder of my packing for the little trip and then it will be off to bed. I'm looking forward to lots of riding the next few days, and more importantly I won't be thinking about work so that will help relieve a lot of stress. Until next time........

Finally...An Update

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, life has been a little frenetic. Well, I've been sticking to the program for the most part, but I've had some re-occurrences of knee pain so I'm a little peeved about that. I thought all was well but after I got back from Florida I think the lack of stretching and riding caught up to me. I jumped on the bike Sunday after not keeping up with my stretching routine the whole time I was gone and I think that affected my knee and hips. I did ride Monday but skipped Tuesday as I fiddled with my position again. I rode again last night for 2 hours on the trainer and felt a little better as I rode pretty easy. Tonight I'll be doing medium duty work with weights and then will ride for 2.75 hours on the trainer. Tomorrow I'll do another 2 hours on the trainer and then Saturday I'll be doing 4-4.25 hours. I have to be in Germantown Saturday for my son's school activity so I'm going to ride from Germantown to New Berlin after it's over and my wife will drive the car home. I picked a route that goes from Germantown over to Holy Hill and then south to Pewaukee, over to Mukwanogo and then up to New Berlin, it's about 76 miles. Sunday I have to go to Chicago with the family for something at the Science and Industry Museum that we bought tickets for a while ago. I'll ride for about 1.5 hours in the morning before we go and then 2 hours after we get back.
Next week I'm on vacation from work and was hoping to have good weather so I could ride quite a bit, but it looks like we are going to get some rain and thunder storms. Monday and Tuesday look o.k., with temps in the low 40s and only a slight chance of rain on Tuesday. I'll be staying overnight in Dodgeville and will ride for at least those two days around the Blue Mounds area and if the rain holds off I will stay overnight Tuesday as well and ride there on Wednesday. After what will hopefully be 3 good days of riding I will only ride for about 1.5 to 2 hours on Thursday as I'll use that as a recovery day and I also have appointments at with my doctor for an adjustment and then I'm going to the Bike Doctor for a fitting in the afternoon. I'll also probably get a massage after the fitting as well. Friday if the rain holds off I've got a ride planned from New Berlin to Whitewater and back, exactly 100 miles. We'll see what the weather holds for the following weekend but after my hundred miler on Friday I'm only going to do about 2 hours on Saturday. Sunday will be another 5 hour ride from New Berlin to Alpine Valley and back.
Well, things aren't going exactly as planned and I don't feel nearly ready enough to race on the 1st, but I just have to keep riding and hope that everything falls in to place. All I have to say is I can't wait for the nice dry weather of summer, March weather is usually not a lot of fun to ride in......until next time...........

Playing Catch-Up

Well, I'm back from Florida, it was good to be in the warm weather but now I have lots of catching up to do. I had a hell of a day at work as I had to go through all of my voice mails and e-mails and return calls and update all of my projects. At home, I'm making sure all the bills are paid and reading my Sunday paper still and going through all the regular mail. As far as the bike, I got a few new parts while I was gone so I have to throw those on the new bike. I did get a chance to ride yesterday but not as long as I had hoped because our flight was delayed getting back. I only had time to ride for 2.5 hours before sunset but it was a good ride although I could tell I'd been off the bike for a few days. I suffered on a couple of hills but I pushed the pace the entire way, as evidenced by my average heart rate of 165 for the ride. I was cooked afterwards but it felt good to finally be outside again, hopefully the weather keeps up. Tonight I got out after work for about 1hr 15minutes before it got dark, thankfully I brought my light with me to light the way for the last 5-10 minutes as darkness crept in before I knew it. It was an easy ride and normally today is a rest day but I figured it was nice outside so why not enjoy it. Well, I still have some phone calls to make, and some laundry to do. I'll get back in to the swing of things as the week progresses, so you'll be seeing some regular updates this week. Until next time............

In Florida

I'm in Florida on business so not much to say other than it's warm down here, about 80 degrees. We had a long day yesterday so I didn't get in a walk or any other physical activity. Our Suites have a b-ball court but no fitness center, hope to play basketball after work today for a decent workout. I've avoided the beer so far, only one Jameson on the rocks last night, that's it. I ate a healthy dinner but then failed on dessert, strike 1 was a piece of caramel cheesecake. So I'm not feeling too bad, I'll try to make it to Sunday without getting 3 strikes, we'll see. It's hard not to eat something when it's free, especially something as good as cheesecake. Until next time......

Nice Weekend.....

.....Well, kind of. I didn't ride outside yesterday, stuck to hitting the trainer down in the basement because, for one, it was a little bit windy and the temps weren't all that great, and secondly the wife wanted me to do some cleaning around the house during the day. We had some running around to do as well so it was just easier to hit the bike in the evening. As I mentioned yesterday morning I planned on doing another 3hrs30min last night and I did just that, and unfortunately I couldn't start until 7:00 so I finished at 10:30, which made for some difficulty falling asleep as I was wide awake after my ride. I will be doing another trainer ride tonight after work, only 3 hours though just due to time constraints as I have to have some time to get ready to leave for Florida on Wednesday. Tomorrow will be 3.5 hours total but it will be one in the morning and 2.5 at night. So when I leave for Florida on Wednesday I won't feel too bad about not being able to ride while I'm down there as I'll have done 13.5 hours in the 4 days prior to leaving, not too shabby. Well, other than that, my weight was down to 176.5 as of this morning, that's the lowest I've been since about 1997 so I'm feeling pretty good about that. Now that I have virtually no arm muscle pretty much anyone could beat me up, but I'll just kick them if it comes to that.
Lastly, the powers that be are meeting today to determine if cycling in the Professional ranks will continue as we know it because no one can play nice and they all want to take their ball with them when they leave. I mean, c'mon, is it really worth ruining the racing season to prove a point? Maybe it is but I think the one thing that the UCI and the race organizers are completely overlooking is the solidarity of the riders. When push comes to shove it's ultimately the riders who will decide what's best for themselves, not the UCI or the ASO. Let's hope that they get this squared away so that we don't have to watch Paris-Nice or Le Tour with watered down French Continental teams.......until next time........

Is It Spring Yet?

Right now it's 17 degrees and fairly windy so I'm hoping that it warms up a bit so I can get outside today but we'll see. The roads still aren't the greatest but I've got my cyclo-cross bike so I'm not worried about getting my bike dirty, just more worried about the drivers that won't give me room because there are no shoulders on the road at all due to the snow. I'll give it an hour or so and then decide whether or not to hit the trainer again today or bundle up and go outside. Anyways, yesterday was a good day, on the trainer of course, with a ride of 3hrs 35min with 45 minutes of Tempo in the last hour. Everything felt really good yesterday, a rarity of late, and I'm ready to put my knee troubles behind me now I think. Today I'm going to do another 3 hour 30 minute ride if I hit the trainer otherwise I'm hoping for about the same if not a little less on the road. I'd be satisfied doing 2.5 on the road and another hour on the trainer if the temps decide to go up. It's 4 weeks from today until the first race, I want to be ready but I'm not going to push it to try to be 100% for the first race of April. Right now I'm planning my peak for July, basically for the same reason everyone else peaks in July, Superweek number one, and also for the State Crit and State TT Championships.
This week is going to be a crappy training week as I'll be in Florida for work from Wednesday until Sunday and I'm staying in a suite complex that doesn't have a fitness center so I can't even ride an exercise bike. Even if I were to rent a bike, there is no where I can ride in the area that we will be in, it's all interstate and 4-lane roads. I'll ride today though for 3hrs30min, tomorrow for at least 3hrs, which is normally a rest day, and then Tuesday I have my son's Court of Honor for Boy Scouts so I'll do an hour in the morning before work and then 2.5hrs at night afterwards. Sunday I will be back home at about 2:00 so luckily it's also the first day of Daylight Savings Time so I'll have plenty of time to ride outside. Well, that's it for now, time to go check the temps and maybe hit the road. Until next time.....

Still Feeling Good

I rode again last night and my hips and knees felt really good but a minor inconvenience came up with sitting on my seat as a result of the change. Since I am now sitting straight or balanced on my saddle I am now sitting on both sit bones, whereas before I was leaning left to reach with my left leg since there was a discrepancy. Now that I am sitting straight I am sitting on my right side as well, which it appears I'm not used to as it is a little sore today. It seems that my right sit bones haven't touched the saddle in at least a year as evidenced by the soreness today and also the obvious leftward lean of my saddle. So now I just have to get my right side used to sitting on a seat again, which I don't mind doing since everything else doesn't hurt at least. I ordered a new seat yesterday that doesn't lean left so I won't have to keep scooting myself over as I gradually slide left while I'm riding. Anyways, I rode for 2.5 hours last night on the trainer of which 30 minutes was Tempo work and I felt great. I had no problem keeping my heart rate up and most importantly I had no knee problems with the bigger gears. Tonight the wife and I have to head to the tax guy to get our taxes done so the riding time will be limited unfortunately. We have to head to Lake Geneva to get them done (it's free so it's worth it) so I'll only be able to do about 90 minutes by the time we get back. I'll probably do one of my CTS DVDs though to make up the lack of quantity with quality. Tomorrow will be an easy 1.5 hours and then Saturday looks to be an inside ride due to the weather so I'll be doing 3.5 hours on the trainer. Sunday is still looking good with temps right around 30-32 with partly cloudy skies. The plan is to ride from New Berlin to Burlington to my parents house and then to Alpine Valley and back home. Should be 85 miles and about 5 hours including a quick pit stop at my mom's house to say hello. I've got my fingers crossed that the weather holds out. It appears that the weather will be getting better next week so hopefully that bodes well for the long term outlook for riding.

Other than that, not much going on, just bidding on a few parts for the new bike, counting the days until the first race one month from today, and waiting for that warm weather to get out on some long rides on the road. Until next time.....

My new straight saddle! My bike is silver, my team kit is red, should look good....