Sweat, Sweat, And More Sweat...

Sweating was the order of the day on my ride as the high humidity combined with some intervals made me look like I had a water hook-up attached to my head. The weather finally broke this evening and as soon as I got home from work I jumped on the bike and headed out to Muskego Park. I did two intervals on the way to Muskego Park, 9 minutes each at 92% and then I did one interval at the park. I was already down one water bottle by the time I got to the park as I was completely soaked after about 30 minutes of riding and was not only slamming the water but pouring it over my head, Landis style. It was a bit chilly though and after the 2nd dumping I was starting to feel chilled as I started the ride with just the short sleeve jersey and shorts. The interval at Muskego Park warmed me up pretty quickly though and as I was finishing up my last 2 minutes or so I saw a familiar face going the other way in the park but I had to complete my interval so I kept on going. After I finished my lap I cooled down a bit in the parking lot and around the corner came the other rider and it turns out it was Brandon Krawcyzk. For those that don't know Brandon he is a rider that very shortly will be a rider that everyone in this area at least and maybe even on a regional or national level will be talking about as he has some great natural talent. He kicked butt in the 3's last year and from what I've heard talking to some teammates and other riders that trained with him earlier this year, he's got a lot of potential beyond what he's already accomplished. So anyways, I've heard a lot about Brandon but never met him until tonight and it was a pleasure meeting him, we even got a chance to ride together for about 4 to 5 miles and talk for a little bit......well, he talked, I did a lot of deep breathing trying to keep up. After we separated I did another short loop around the New Berlin area and ended up with 2 hours on the night. I feel really good right now and during my intervals I was really able to ramp up the speed without some of the discomfort that I had even just last week. I think last week my legs were shocked at being put back on the bike and told to go fast but I've acclimatized pretty quickly and the legs at least are nearly back to full power, now if my lungs would just cooperate as my breathing is a little heavier than it used to be. I need to get some more endurance rides in to help build up my aerobic ability again. I could tell that even though I was feeling decent today during my intervals, that 9 minutes was about my max, if I had to go 10 to 11 minutes, my power would have decreased dramatically as I was feeling the acid build up right about the time I was finishing each interval and the lungs were really starting to burn. Soooo, having said that, I think that I'm going to be o.k. on Saturday for my first 1/2/3 Masters race this year and I should be able to hang in the pack. Anything else is out of the question, but I think staying with the pack is definitely doable. Well, tomorrow will be a fairly normal endurance pace ride, Thursday I'll be off work so I'm heading to Burlington to do a group ride with my dad and his friends and I'll make it difficult without dropping them hopefully, and then Friday will be a short ride with a couple of sprints to open the legs for Saturday. Well, that's it for now....until next time........

Visit Brandon here: www.poppedofftheback.blogspot.com

Rain, Rain, and More Rain....

...and unfortunately that meant that I didn't get to ride as much as wanted today. I watched the radar most of the morning and when I saw a break in the precipitation I decided to head out and get in as much riding as I could before the rains came down again. Well, unfortunately the rain didn't hold out long as I got about 40 minutes from home and then it started coming down again, not too heavy, but heavy enough to make me decide to turn around and go home. So basically I got in over an hour but no where near what I wanted to do today, and it doesn't look like I'll get in a lot of riding tomorrow either. I may have to resort to riding the trainer tomorrow, which sucks to do in August, but with my first and only 1/2/3 race on Saturday, I have to get in a bit of riding before then. I'm really out of shape right now but I did do the Drop The Doc ride yesterday and had no problem hanging in with the group and I actually feel really good today, no soreness or anything. Next Saturday will be faster than the 24.5 mph average we did yesterday so I'm not really putting much credo in to how I felt yesterday because that won't mean much for the race. Either way, I feel I'm in good enough shape anyways to hang with the group next week, even if it is at the back, I'd be happy with that in my first race in 8 weeks. Well, it's getting late, time for bed....until next time.......

Coming Along.....

So far the training is coming along just fine, I'm super motivated and last night was another difficult ride as I did a race simulation of 50 minutes after a 15 minute warm-up. Basically I picked a route around my neighborhood that was of similar profile to next Saturday's WCA race and did that at a speed as close to race pace that I could maintain. My course was a bit longer, 1.55 miles, and it was difficult as I had one good 60ft. hill in the route and near the end I was struggling a bit to maintain my speed. I could tell that my lack of long distance aerobic work was showing as I couldn't have maintained any sort of speed for much longer than I did, 50 minutes was basically my max time limit. I think that overall I was not a whole lot off of what I was 8-10 weeks ago but I can't maintain my speed for nearly as long, that's the major difference. Power-wise I think I'm o.k., I can big ring anything short of a super steep grade and last night I was maintaining speeds around 30 on the flats, 21 on the hill. Well, until the end, then my hill climb was around 17 the last 2 laps, I was dying. So, I guess that's my hope for next Saturday, maybe I won't die until the end and then maybe adrenaline will carry me over the hill the last two laps, last night I had nothing to push me. The plan for training is that I'm skipping riding tonight, which has been my plan since last week as I have a b-day party to go to, and then I resume again tomorrow. Tomorrow will be a 2.5 hour ride because that's all the daylight I'll have, and then Saturday morning I will do the Drop The Doc ride assuming it isn't raining like they are saying it's supposed to. Sunday will be a 3 to 3.5 hour ride and then I'll ride Monday through Friday ahead of Saturday's race. Basically I'll work on some speedwork and hill sprints the first 2 days next week and then just do a few normal rides on Thursday and Friday. Well, that's about it for now, until next time.....

Intervals?? WTF??

Whose idea was it to do intervals last night? Oh wait, it was mine, that's just crazy. So after only 4 straight days of riding I decided that I must be in good enough shape to do intervals last night on my 5th ride. I started by doing SteadyStates at 92% and as I got in to a rhythm I thought that I was doing alright and that maybe I didn't lose that much fitness after all those weeks of sitting on my ass. Well, it only took about 2 minutes of doing what was going to be a 7-minute interval to realize that I was sucking as bad as Britney Spears' parenting skills. I had the frothy-mouthed look of a rabid dog after about 5 minutes and by the 7th minute I was in a lactic haze that had me contemplating the argument of whether I'd rather eat myself out of a vat of hot wings, barbecued ribs, or pizza......the ribs won out. That was rep number one.....The second rep started after a short 3.5 minute break as I was doing 2-to-1 intervals..... I took off with a gusto thinking to myself "What Would Jesus Do?", he would start this interval with a sprint, I will too.....I promptly threw up in my mouth. "ok, maybe I'll just start slow and build up to speed"......7 minutes later I was down to just my socks because my mind said it was too muggy to be wearing these stupid biking clothes.....well, not really, but I had to convince myself to keep all my clothes on as I sweated buckets. Rep number two...finito. Max HR - 265, no lie. As I started rep number 3 I thought, this is it, let's finish strong, and to help me keep up the pace 2 riders turned on to my road from a side road just as I passed the intersection and I knew that they would probably start a little paceline to try to reel me in. Ok then, I'll just pick it up and blow them away...they have no clue...I'm a freakin' racer, I shave my legs dangit, I ride with the vengeance of someone who sits in a cubicle all day...they don't know who they are messing with. I crank it up and settle in, but they seem to be gaining, unbelievable. Alright, crank it up more. Look back under my arm to be discreet, they are still gaining....What the hell!!?? Is that freakin' Lance and Levi behind me, maybe it's a couple of Pros up for the USPRO crit that are taking a long ride from Downers Grove....maybe it's Andy and Scott, yeah, that's gotta be it cause these two are flying.....it's on like Donkey Kong now. Head down, deep breathing, in through my nose, out through my mouth, HR is 305 now, no problem. Shiiite, I can hear the sound of their bikes now...getting closer, great now I hear their shallow breathing right behind me....crap, getting passed.....don't look, save some pride, hold your breath so it looks like you aren't working, maybe they'll just go right by......What? They want to say hello....why is she smiling like that? Is he riding a single speed? Is that a basket???? "Yeah, ma'am, it is a nice day to get some groceries with your bike". "Oh, you're cooking a special dinner for your 50th wedding anniversary tonight, greaaaat". "Ok then, yes I will enjoy the rest of my ride...." I throw up in my mouth again. HR is 410. 3rd and final interval done....average speed for all 3 intervals....15.6mph. You all better watch out next Saturday, here I come.......
The preceding was a dramatization based on actual events, some facts have been changed to make the story more enjoyable. I fibbed on some of the stats to convey the difficulty of my intervals, obviously I can't go 15.6 mph quite yet...the rest is all true. Until next time...........

Riding And Feeling Alright

I've been riding the last few days, 4 straight to be exact and have felt pretty darn good. Considering that I rode only like 6 times in the last month before this past week, I'm happy to have done 4 rides in a row. I'll be riding every day this week except for Thursday, and will ride every day next week up until the Chiro Crit on the 25th. I guess for now the plan is to do the race, but that could change. I changed my mind after jumping on the bike for 2-2.5 hours the last 4 days and although I didn't really try any crazy repeated hard efforts I was still able to average 20mph for the most part by myself, although yesterday was a little windy and I could tell I was getting tired so I turned it down a notch and averaged only 18.6. Tonight I'll be doing about 2 hours again but I'll take it easy as I'm planning on doing intervals tomorrow and Wednesday so I want to be rested up. I know that the anaerobic stuff will be hard to get back in two weeks but I don't really have a choice so I'll do as much as I can up until the race and will just have to suffer with whatever shape I'm in by then. I'm going to do SteadyState type intervals this week and then next week I'll do some SpeedIntervals and PowerIntervals. Obviously two weeks of intervals will do nothing to help get me in shape for the race, but it's better than not doing any at all. After the Chiro race on the 25th, the plan is to then keep training and do the Fort Atkinson Wisport race on the 8th of September. It's a 100K race, and I'm sure there will be a lot of fast guys there, should be a good challenge. I'll also be doing at least one century, the Cream City ride, and maybe one or two more centuries on my own in the next month or so just to get the miles in. Let's see, what else, oh, I've dropped 5 lbs. of the weight I gained this past month, I went from 178 to 188 in a month, but I'm now down to a consistent 183 after cutting back on the food the past two weeks and getting back to being active around the house and on the bike. I'm guessing I can be back down to 178 by the time the Fort race rolls around. Other than that, my boss is back to work after 3 weeks, so I'm no longer feeling the stress of handling everything at work, which is obviously a huge burden off my shoulders, I was happier today than anytime in the last 3 weeks. Well, that's it for now....until next time......

Rec Rider

That's me right now, just a rec rider....if that. I haven't touched the bike in about 9 or 10 days and only rode 6 times in the previous two weeks before that. I've gained 10lbs at least, so yeah, right now I'm about as fast as a rec rider. I guess I just lost the motivation after the State Crit Championship, partially because I knew I wasn't doing SuperWeek and also because the next WCA race isn't until August 25th, a whole 8 weeks from the previous WCA race. I figured I'd use some of that time to cut back on training to get things done around the house, go to Brewer games, eat brats and drink beer. Well I did all that and cut back SO much on training that I didn't train at all. Now with the next race 3 weeks away I'm doubting that I will be doing it since I still haven't found the motivation to train as of yet. It would be my first race in the Masters 1/2/3 category and I would instantly get popped off the back if I did the race in the shape I am in now. I guess in the back of my mind I've already resigned myself to the fact that I might as well just be getting ready for next year since this year is pretty much over for me. I'm sure I haven't lost motivation to quit cycling completely but obviously something just isn't striking me right now that would make riding my bike appealing on any given night. I get home after a long day at work and it just seems like the last thing I want to do so I usually eat and lay down. Somehow, somewhere I need to find that motivation again. Not sure how though.....oh well. I certainly ain't feeling sorry for myself, I've been able to get a lot done around the house, I've become pretty proficient at my other hobby, playing electric guitar, and I've also been able to spend some quality time with the family before they go back to school (both the wife and the kid). Other than that, our team ran the WI State TT and that went off without a hitch, everyone on the team did a great job helping out, and as much work as it was I don't think I'd mind doing it again next year, but we'll see, I may change my mind yet. Anyways, that's it for now, not sure if anyone is reading this anymore........until next time....

Sad Day in Cycling

So I don't have much to say about my training which has been going o.k., but I will say that today is a sad day for cycling fans and for racers alike. Rasmussen has been pulled from the Tour by his own team, the second time a Tour leader has been kicked out of the race while it's in progress. I thought it was over after Sinkewitz, then Vino was positive, then Moreni this morning....now, after already being a Tour leader that everyone was suspicious of, Rasmussen is out. Contador's possible win will be a sidenote to what has been a circus affair. Anyways, I'll be riding tonight, but I'm going to pour out my Accelerade for water, don't want to be accused of trying to enhance my performance. Until next time......

Yeah...I'm Still Here

After a bit of a short hiatus I am back on the bike and just doing some miles to get the legs back under me. I felt really good last night as I did 2 hours of slow to medium paced riding, a little above endurance pace but I wasn't really pushing it. I'm just enjoying riding right now, not really thinking about intervals or sprints or anything like that. I've got enough going on around the house to keep myself busy this week that I'm guessing none of my rides will be over 2 hours until the weekend. I'll ride a bit longer this weekend 3-4 hours, and then will probably kick it up a bit for the work week next week and do 2.5 to 3 again after work. As for tonight I'm hoping to make it to the Whitnall Park SuperWeek race but it all depends on if the rain holds out. And I'm not talking about racing in it either, I mean watching it. No racing for me until August. It's a fun race to watch, especially seeing the riders come around that off-camber uphill turn.....secretly hoping for someone to catch a pedal. Well, not really. So, I guess there isn't much going on now, just doing my easy rides, getting stuff done around the house and gaining a few pounds. Pretty much enjoying life. Until next time..............

Rested And Ready To Go...I Think

Well, it's been a few days and I haven't ridden at all since Saturday as I've been taking a complete off-the-bike midsummer rest. I'm going to jump back on tonight and take a nice, easy 2 hour ride, probably part of it with my wife. It's been nice to be completely detached from cycling for the last 5 days as it's really helped give me the time to get a few things done around the house, practice my guitar, and just get away from the mental and physical stresses of being on the bike for the last 9 months. After tonight I'll probably jump on the bike again tomorrow for a short ride and then kick it back up again over the weekend. Not sure how much time I put in but I'll gradually begin ramping up the duration up until my next race, which won't be until August, but not sure which one I'll start with but I'll definitely be racing in August. Well, time to get back to work, I'll update more later tonight after getting back on the bike.

Taking A Break

Well, another bad race, I'm just not on top form anymore, kinda blowin' it lately. I don't even know what I finished, didn't bother checking because I sat up in the sprint and got passed by a lot of guys. It was just so hot and I wasn't handling it very well, didn't feel all that great but I tried a little dig in the middle of the race to see if I could get away. 3 other guys went with me and only one other guy worked, the other 2 just sat there, for whatever reason they didn't try to come around for a pull. What the hell sense does that make?? Why would you make the effort to get in to a break and then not do anything to make sure it stays away. Maybe they just wanted to be able to say they tried to get away to impress someone or their family was at the race, who knows. In the end, it didn't matter because I just didn't have anything. So, basically now I'm going to take a break this week, no biking until at least Thursday, a physical and mental break. Then this weekend I'll be kicking back up the aerobic rides again after doing lots of intervals in the last few weeks. I'll do a few longs rides for a few weeks and then kick it up again. Not sure what the plan is after that, or what races I'll do, we'll see. Well, that's it for now, I'll update again next weekend. Until next time......

Tapering

Tapering big time...as in not riding at all the last couple of days. Didn't ride Sunday or Monday and I got sick last night and have had a fever today along with chills, probably won't ride tonight. I'll hopefully be good tomorrow and will ride Wed, Thurs, and Friday ahead of Saturday's race. Tapering is supposed to be good right? Probably not quite how it works though. Oh well, all I know is that the recliner will feel good tonight.....well, not much to say, hopefully lots more to say tomorrow. Until next time.....

A Big Turd And Then A 3rd!

Well, after I laid a big turd yesterday I had to make up for it in today's Whitewater Road Race and I did just that, taking the uphill field sprint behind a breakaway of 2 riders. It was a pretty hot day, about 90 degrees and there wasn't much wind which was good because we had to do 7 laps of a 6.0 mile course with one medium size hill and a couple of pretty small rollers that made the legs pretty sore by the end of the race. I felt a lot better than yesterday right from the start and kind of figured I'd be in for a good day and although a few people tried to animate the race, not much happened as the race went on. There were a couple of attacks that gained maybe 20-30 seconds but they were reeled in by the last lap which is when 2 guys took off and stayed away by about 30 seconds. I knew that we wouldn't catch them so I positioned myself to be at the front coming around the last turn and when we hit the corner I took the inside line and everything opened right up for me and I was able to fly up the right side of the road to a 3rd place finish. All my teammates had a great race today, we were by far the best team with 4 of us finishing in the top-10 and all us riding strong at the front and doing a lot of the pacemaking. I feel bad for Glen that he had some cramping on the last lap otherwise we probably would have had 5 in the top 10. Dave S. rode strong as always and got 5th, Doug is improving by leaps and bounds every week and got 6th, John had a great ride today and was the first 50+ rider with a 9th place finish. Andy had a really strong race after doubling up yesterday and he still had the energy to be at the front today and he finished strong in 19th. I have to apologize but I don't know what place Glen got but he rode strong all day and unfortunately cramped at the end. Mike also gave it a go today and although he didn't finish, he managed a few laps in only his second race this year. We also had a great showing in our M1/2/3 group as Dave E. got 2nd place after breaking away from the pack with 4 laps to go and he was later joined by one of the strong men of that group and they stayed away for the remainder of the race. 5 top-10s for the team today, it was really a great day. Well, this is my last post for the week until I get back from vacation on Friday afternoon. I'll be up at Governor Dodge with the family for a week of camping but as I've mentioned in previous posts, I'm bringing the bike and we'll be riding for most of the week. Tomorrow I probably won't ride, Tuesday will be an easy couple of hours, Wednesday and Thursday will be hard days of 4-5 hours to Blue Mounds and back and then Friday we head home and I'll do an easy spin ahead of Saturday's race. Well, that's it until Friday, until next time............

Mountain Biking Anyone?

That's what today's course felt like, just a big loop of one small hill, then a walking path, then a downhill turn off of a steep driveway ramp in to the street, if you missed the barriers then you continued until you hit a nice 180 degree turn and then it was like 150ft. to the finish. Just a really crappy course that was even worse than the course last year at Whitewater, which I didn't think could be possible. How this course ever got approved by USAC is beyond me. Anyways, in spite of that, I should have been able to do well as I've always been a good technical rider and I've only missed one top-10 out of 12 or 13 races this year so top-10 should be no problem right? Wrong. I sucked right from the start. I didn't get position going up the hill and then it was all spread out from there and there was no help for me between the lead group and the splintered packs behind me. I was by myself for a bit and then caught a Crono guy who sat on my wheel until the last couple of laps and then dropped me after he did no work the whole race. I also caught my teammate Glen but he was stronger then me today and dropped me as well, I think we were together for 4 or 5 laps before I couldn't hang on anymore. I have no excuses, basically I had nothing today, I couldn't breath, it felt like I was hyperventilating the whole race. The legs felt good though, but what does that matter. As a bonus I also crashed about midway through the race going around the 180 degree turn. My ass is burning right now from the road rash, but I didn't hurt myself bad and the bike is o.k.. My teammates Rudy and Dave S. also crashed, with Dave crashing twice and getting the worst of it as he bloodied up his hip and his elbow. He also had the best finish out of all of us though as he was off the front a bit and had plenty of time to recover before too many people came around. He should have been 3rd but his last crash allowed a few people to get around him in the finish straight. I'll get up tomorrow and see how stiff the hip is, I'll ride a bit to loosen it up and then if it's good I'm heading to the RR. I heard the course isn't too difficult, no really big hills, just a rolling course. Let's hope I have a better performance than today, as I lost my points lead and need a really good race to get it back. Oh, I got 13th today by the way.......Well, that's it for now, until next time.................

Weebles Wobble But.......

.....They don't fall down. That's how I felt last night. I felt like I was on another level last night than I have been of late, and I was pushing it so hard during bike practice that I almost passed out! I did a little bit of everything during my 2.5 hour ride starting with a nice warm up, which didn't take much considering that it seemed pretty warm and humid and I was sweating buckets just cruising along at 18mph. After my warm up I was on my favorite long, flat stretch of road ready to start my 6x3min PowerIntervals, but this time I cut down my recovery time from a 1:1 ratio to a 3:2 ratio, only resting for 2 minutes instead of the full 3 minutes. I was flying along, HR maxed out for the first 5 and feeling great. I was on to my 6th one and hammering and I figured I was going to try to take it even higher so I started sprinting the last 30 seconds and was about 5 seconds from finishing when I went totally hypoxic and started seeing the little sparkle fairies floating around my head. I was close to falling over but slowed down enough to recover and keep it upright. Back in my old days of training I would do intervals until my head fell off or I threw up in my mouth, then I knew it was a good day of intervals. Now I guess instead of throwing up, I know it's a good day if I almost pass out. Well, that's probably not good, but boy did it feel good. Anyways, after that I took off towards my favorite long climb by Muskego and figured I'd do a few repeats, and would try to better my PR, which was 2min 28sec. Well, on the first one I broke my PR by 6 seconds so I decided that the rest of the repeats would go a little easier. I did a couple more and on the 3rd one, another rider/racer (looked the part of a racer) showed up to do repeats as well and it just happened that I was finishing my recovery as he started his first one. I've never ridden up the hill with anyone else, so I don't have a gauge of how fast my time really is so I figured this would be a good time to see how I compare to someone else who looks like they have the ability to go fast. Well, I started about 10 seconds behind him and caught and passed him pretty easily about half way up, so it turned out that he either wasn't as good as I thought or my time up that climb is actually decent. Who knows, I felt good though so that's all that matters. After that it was an easy 30 minutes home and I downed a huge plate of stir-fry that my wife made.....whole grain rice, fresh vegetables, and lean cuts of steak, it was the best she's ever made so I was quite happy.
Well, as for the rest of the week, tonight is iffy with the rain but it appears that it's going to hold off so if it does I'll be doing 2.25 hours to Whitnall, down to Franklin, and back. It's one of my favorite Endurance pace courses, nice and wooded, quite a bit of it on the bike path and there is always lots of people to keep it interesting. Tomorrow will be about 90 minutes with a couple of PowerIntervals to open up the legs and then it's off to Whitewater for a crit on Saturday and a RR on Sunday.
After that I get a much needed vacation from work, and the family and I will be heading to Governor Dodge State Park for a week of camping. My days will be spent laying on the beach, kayaking, hiking, and cooking over the camp fire. Oh yeah, and biking! I'll be doing 3-5 hours Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday early in the morning while the family is at the beach and then I'll join them in the afternoon where I'll recover by laying on a raft in the lake. I'll do that beautiful climb up Blue Mounds probably twice over the 3 days and of course there are plenty of other climbs to keep me breathing hard. It'll be like a vacation and a mini hill-training camp all in one. Well, that's it for now, until next time...........

Team Wheaton Flying High!

The team had a great weekend, we had 6 top-10 finishes over the 2 days of racing in Grafton and Fond du Lac. Saturday in Grafton we barely missed out on getting 4 riders in the top 10 as we finished 4th, 6th, 8th, and 11th in the bunch sprint. A bunch of the other guys finished really strong as well, with everyone doing a ton of work and riding strong all race at the front of the pack. It was a great atmosphere and a great day. Sunday we headed up to Fond du Lac and with 4 of us lining up for the start it was a smooth, fast race until the last corner as it started to really rain with 2 laps to go and there was a crash coming in to the last turn for the sprint. Doug and Andy managed great finishes with a 3rd and an 8th place, and although I got my rear wheel taken out and had to go off-roading, I still managed a 10th place as the camera caught me off in the grass. I think I got 10th only because everyone behind me quit after the crash and just rode in, I was mad and kept sprinting through the line off in the gravel and grass. Oh well. The team was great, everyone was strong all weekend long and we are only getting better. Can't wait to see how some of these guys finish out this year and how strong they will be next year.
As for me, I only have 3 more WCA races left, then the State Crit Championship, and then I'm upgrading. After upgrading, who knows how many races I will actually do for the rest of the year. There is only one more WCA race after June 30th, and that isn't until August. There is SuperWeek, but my vacation time is almost gone and the races are during the day so I'll have to pick 2 or 3 of the weekend races to do and that will be it. Basically it's June, and my season is already winding down. I may do some other races, like the Tour of Elk Grove or one of those down in IL, but that would be about it, and those aren't until August either. Well, gotta get back to work, until next time.........

Takin' It Easy

Not much to say today, took it easy, an on-the-bike scheduled rest day. 90 minutes at an easy pace, 17.0mph, and I took a pretty flat course. I feel really good right now after my tempo and sprint work on Tuesday and my PowerIntervals yesterday and today was just a day to let the body recover and then I'll give it a little kick again tomorrow before Saturday's race. Right now the weather looks beautiful for Saturday, I love the heat and it's going to be close to 90, ideal for me. I'll be cleaning up my bike a bit tonight and tomorrow and I'm sure I'll get a lot of sleep tomorrow as it's finally a race where I don't have to be there at 8:00 for a 9 or 10 o'clock start. It's not a far drive compared to other races so the 2:00 start doesn't bother me, plus we planned on hanging out anyways to watch some other races, have a beer (I'm bringing a cooler full), and grab some grub. Not ideal for Sunday's race but I'm not going to go crazy and have 5 beers and brats......maybe just one beer and I'm sure I'll find something decent to eat. Anyways, that's it for now, just relaxing and waiting for the racing this weekend......until next time.

Loving It!!

Today could not have been much better, it was absolutely perfect out for my ride tonight. Warm, not much wind, sunny, and there were a ton of bikers out on the roads. I got home and headed right out the door after changing and just got back from a nice 2.5 hour ride and I've got some pasta boiling on the stove right now. Can't wait to eat cause I'm starving right now. I did a route out to Waukesha, did a big loop out there and then came back home. Today I did Tempo and sprint work. Tempo was my primary workout obviously as that lasted almost the entire duration of the ride. I did about 6 sprints, 3 flat-road sprints for signs and then 3 downhill sprints to help build leg speed that I can't really achieve on flat roads at that speed. I hit 36.5 on the flat for my max sprint and hit 45.0 on a downhill but I was spinning out my 53x12 so that was the best I could do. I felt really good today, I think the high I was on from having such beautiful weather contributed to that. Yesterday I was having some quad soreness from Sunday's TT as I'm normally not used to sitting so far forward over the top of the crank to push the bigger gears. I was feeling it a little bit this morning yet as well, but by the time I rode this evening my legs were feeling 100%. It was definitely a day that makes being a biker rider worth it. Tomorrow will be bit longer ride, per my schedule anyways, 2.75 hours with 6x3 minute PowerIntervals being my primary workout. Basically high RPM, lung burning, type of efforts that will really benefit me for the next few weeks until I get through all these crits. I'll do those for about 3 weeks and then move on to SpeedIntervals which is assuming I can find some vacation time to do some SuperWeek races. If I decide to use the remainder of my vacation to do some SuperWeek races then I won't have a day off other than holidays for the rest of the year after July. That's a problem for me, so I'll be taking the next couple of weeks to think about how I'm going to work that out. Anyways, pasta is done, time to eat.....until next time........

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Back Roads Bonanza

The weather was pretty nice for today's Back Roads Time Trial, with temps at start time hovering around 70-75 degrees and winds of about 10-15 mph. I felt tired while I was warming up, just a little heavy in the legs and I didn't really feel like I could push a big gear. Well that all changed once I took off from the start line and was motivated to chase the guy in front of me. I felt o.k. going in to the headwind on the way out and was surprised at the size of a couple of the hills, one of them had me down to 16mph. I hit the turn around point at an average speed that was a little slower than I had hoped for based on last year's times, as I was averaging 23.0 as I hit the turn-around cone. I knew that I would have a crosswind or a tailwind on the way back and I tried to ramp it up as I was gaining on my minute man and I kept telling myself I could catch him. I saw my average speed go up a bit on the way back but not nearly as I much as I had hoped and I thought my finishing time was going to be worse than it ended up being. I finished about 14 seconds behind my minute man, almost catching him, and ended up with a time of 22:29, good enough for 2nd place on the day. Times were a little slower this year than last year for some, maybe it was windier than last year but I wasn't there so I can't be sure. Overall I'm happy with what I did, I think if I remember right from the results I would've place 6th or 7th in the Master's 1/2/3, not too shabby. So I guess it was a good day and this week I'll be shifting some of my focus to shorter, more intense intervals as we have a lot of crits coming up in the next few weekends. My ride times will remain the same but instead of the longer Steady State Intervals I'll be doing shorter 3-4 minute Power Intervals, big time fun for sure. Riiiiiight. Anyways, off to mow the lawn, eat some dinner, and relax with a movie. Until next time.............

Better Days

This week has kind of been a crappy week, of course things could always be better, but I have just felt a little down this week in terms of energy and enthusiasm. I haven't been sleeping a lot lately so that probably has something to do with it. I've had 3 early days so far this week at work, and have one more tomorrow, today is the only day I got to sleep until 6:30. The bike training has been going fairly well, Monday was an easy ride, just an hour to keep the legs moving. Tuesday was a 2.5 hour ride after work with a couple of practice TT efforts thrown in. I did the first one for 20 minutes at 92% and didn't really push it for average speed or anything, I just was getting warmed up for my second effort which I had planned on tracking the distance and average speed to see how I would compare to Sunday's TT. I did an out and back course with a cross-tailwind going out and a cross-headwind coming back with some moderate hills. I was flying going out but once I hit the turn-around the headwind killed me a bit because it was about 15-20 mph. I only ended up averaging 24.1 for the 20 minutes, which was below my expectations. I figured for the race Sunday I will need to average 26 at least to be top 2 or 3. I think the adrenaline of the race and having someone in front of me will be worth another mph so if I did 25.1 I think that would put me top 5 or 6. I also didn't have on a skinsuit and had open helmet vents so who knows, maybe I'll do better than 25.1.....or maybe I'll just have a bad day and do worse. I felt pretty wiped last night after a long work day, and after Tuesday's effort, so when I got home I felt like going to bed right away but obviously it was too early for that. I ate some dinner and thought about riding but I just said forget it and decided to go to bed early. It was probably the right choice because I wouldn't have had a good ride anyways. Tonight it looks like we are going to get a good storm and the wind is crazy right now, 40mph gusts, so it looks like it will be a night on the trainer. I'm motivated to ride as of right now so most likely it will be 2 hours and tonight I'll be doing some Steady States and Power Intervals in the 2nd hour of the ride. Tomorrow will be an easier 2 hour ride outside hopefully and then Saturday will be a 2 to 2.5 hour ride right away in the morning, probably 7:00 or so. I'm skipping the State Road Race because I just have too much going on at home right now and I will be gone for 2 races next weekend, 3 races the weekend after, 2 races the weekend after that and then 1 race the following weekend. Basically for the next 4 weeks I won't have a single Saturday to get things done around the house. We just moved in to our house 2 years ago and there is still so much to do, so Saturday will be spent catching up on some of those things. Well, that's it for now....until next time.............

Wild Weekend

Well, kind of.....Saturday I did not get a ride in due to my sister-in-law's wedding and the rain we had most of the weekend. I was going to ride the trainer on Saturday morning before I had to head out to Waukesha for the ceremony but it was early and I was tired so I decided to just do some cleaning up around the house instead. I headed out to the wedding after that and it was a blast, we had a really good time and there was great food, dancing, and of course, beer. Sunday I woke up a little later in the morning and after looking outside I realized I should check the radar to see if the storms were going to be passing through or sticking around for a while. Well, it looked like we'd get a break later in the afternoon so I did some stuff around the house and did some grocery shopping with my wife. I took off at around 4:30 on the bike and although the clouds looked ominous I headed West to do repeats up one of my favorite hills. I got in about 3 repeats and set a new PR up the hill so I was feeling good....but then right at the end of the 3rd repeat the rain started coming down. Luckily I brought my rain jacket so I threw that on and went in to time trial mode trying to get home as it was lightning behind me and the clouds were black as could be. I got to within about 5 minutes of home and the rain lightened up a bit to a drizzle and I contemplated staying out some more but I didn't really feel like getting sick so I headed home. I dried off the bike, changed my clothes and headed downstairs to finish the ride on the trainer. I got in another hour on the trainer for a total of 2 hours and change. Quite a bit less than I wanted to do but I'm not overly concerned that I missed an extra 90 minutes of training. I was able to do my climb in 2:28 whereas my best time prior to Sunday was 2:45, so a 17 second improvement on a climb of that duration shows my form is pretty good right now, so I guess I didn't need that extra time. Well, I'm sure I could use it, but oh well. Today will be an hour recovery pace ride just to keep the blood flowing in the legs. Tomorrow will be 2.5 to 2.75 hours with two 20 minute Steady State intervals as my secondary workout. I've been doing shorter Steady States of 9 minutes the last few weeks but I wanted to increase my time spent at that intensity so I'm cutting the quantity in half and doubling the duration of each interval this week, so I'm doing 2 instead of 4 but doing 20 minutes instead of 9. That will change it up a little bit and make my body respond a little differently than it would with the shorter workouts. After this week I'll go in to more intense short Power Interval type workouts in anticipation of all the crits I have coming up in the next 4-5 weeks.
I'd also like to wish a speedy recovery to all my teammates that crashed at the Trek 100 this weekend, it's really a bummer to crash in a charity ride, especially a crash of the magnitude that they had. I hope they all recover and will be ready for the races this weekend. Until next time.........

Ridin' The Storm Out

It's storming pretty good right now and hopefully will be moving through before the Trek 100 starts tomorrow morning so that my teammates doing that can get in their 100 miles without contending with lightning and downpours. Before the storms moved in today I got in a nice 55 mile ride and did about 120 minutes of Tempo, way more than I had scheduled but I felt really good and wanted to push it today. My back is not sore any more, it does feel a little tight but nothing I can't manage right now with a little stretching. Tomorrow is my sister-in-law's wedding but I don't have to be there until about 1:00 so I'm hoping if I get up early the rain will be gone and I can get in a short ride before I have to start getting ready to go. It's an outdoors wedding so I've got my fingers crossed that the rain holds off for that as well. Sunday is not looking the greatest either right now, about a 60% chance of rain so I might be riding indoors Sunday as of right now.
It's a week until the State Road Race and right now I'm pretty confident, I'm not going to get much better in the next week so I'll make do with my fitness as of right now. I can lose about another 2 or 3 lbs though, anything to help get up that pesky, long hill. Well, time to get to bed, I need to be up early tomorrow and we will be at a wedding, and that means free beer and a late night I'm sure. Until next time.......

Back Breaker

Tonight was a wonderful night with temps in the 80s, very little wind and after a little bit of rain, some clear skies. I got out for 2.5 hours by starting from home and heading to Whitnall Park where I started my 4x9 minute Steady State intervals. Basically it's 9 minutes at 92% and then I give myself 6 minutes of recovery and repeat. I used the Whitnall race course so that I could get some hillwork as well, even if it is a little hill. Nobody else was there and traffic was very minimal, it was almost like I owned my own little race course. After the intervals were done I rode more of the Oak Leaf Trail and then stopped temporarily to get some water and my back started to hurt terribly. I tried getting back on the bike and could barely pedal and had to ride home at like 15mph. I was riding home in my 39x23 and getting passed by rec riders left and right, I felt ashamed. I'm not sure what happened but right now I can't bend over and the left side of my back hurts pretty bad. I've had this before and it usually goes away in a day or less, it's just annoying. This time I'm hoping it's something different.....my intervals went so well and I felt really strong so I think my body is compensating. I think that my back and ribs broke themselves in order to make room for my lungs to grow, you know, like werewolf style. I've got my fingers crossed on this one, I really hope that's it. If not, I'll be really pissed. Tomorrow is another day of about 2.5 hours with 75 minutes of Tempo and I think I'll be heading out to the Vernon, Big Bend, Tichigan area and then back via Muskego, should be a good ride if it doesn't rain. Well, that's it for now, time to go to bed, I have to be up at 5:00 to be to work early. Until next time..............

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.