Pack Fodder....Or Less

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

More Suffering Ahead

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

Decent Race

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

Breakaway

[click to enlarge]

Looking For The Spark

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

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

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

Getting Back On Track

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

Nothing To Report..

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

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

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

Break Out the SnowShoes

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

Too Funny

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


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

Training in Turmoil

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

Schedule Re-do

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

Clouded

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

Tis The Season.....

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

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

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

Such A Tease

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

New Hoops

Shutting It Down

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

Rollin on Carbon Hoopdees This Year

Planned to post pics tonight of new wheels, but Blogger is broken, maybe tomorrow tonight it will be working.......

Yippy, More Snow!

The roads that were good enough to ride on this weekend are getting trashed again with more snow, let's hope the plow crews work double time to get that shite cleared off so I can ride outside again this weekend. Don't they know that I've got bike practice to do this weekend? The past few weeks of training have been going quite well, too much time indoors during the week because I really have no choice, but this past weekend was pretty decent as I did 5 hours outside on Saturday and 3.5 hours outside Sunday with Ben and Dave. 8.5 hours for the weekend is the high for me so far this year and, well, I guess it should be since we are getting closer to race season. I did a recap of Saturday's ride in another post, but I'll reiterate that it was a good ride, I felt really good up the hills and had no problem pushing on the flats. Sunday I felt good on the flats and felt good on the hills in the beginning but felt like shat on the hills in the last hour. I got dropped by the dynamic duo of Ben and Dave on one little power climb, and then followed that up with a flat tire about 10 minutes later. Maybe the flat tire was some sort of saving grace to allow my lactic acid filled legs to take a little break. I did have the distinction of having the hardest ride the day before so I knew I was in for a rough day as I wasn't fully recovered, but either way, Dave and Ben could kick my butt on one of my good days. I've been saying it all off-season, WE WILL HAVE A KICK ASS TEAM THIS YEAR! Dave and Ben will be super strong, Pete, Scott, Kevin, Gene, Paul, Chris and Chris, and myself will be a pretty formidable lineup. I know the guys I listed above will be training hard this off-season and I'm training as hard as I can, up to 15-18 hours per week now, so we may not win all the time or even half the time, but I think our team is worthy of a few wins this year for sure. Enough of the Wheaton soapbox, I've tooted that horn enough this year, but it is what it is, we bad (that means good). As for myself, I'm still working on one of my weaknesses from last year, hill climbing, and may not be one of the top 10 climbers this year in the 30+ 1/2/3 group but I will be improved over what I was last year for what it's worth. I might have to resign myself to the fact that I'm not 155 any more and maybe sprinting is my forte this year but I'm certainly going to try to improve my climbing the best I can, as the saying goes, "race your strengths, train your weaknesses" and that's what I'm going to do. Soooo, the plan for this week right now is calling for about 16.50 to 17.00 hours depending on what the weekend weather brings. If I can get outside both days then it will be 17 hours, and it will be quality work also, I'm not just riding to ride. If the weather is bad and I'm relegated to trainer time then it will be more like 15-16 hours for the week. The plan right now is for 2 to 2.5 hours nightly on the trainer during the week working on Tempo intervals and then this weekend will bring a ride out to Delafield on Saturday and then as of right now I'm planning on a Lake Geneva trip to do 4.5-5 hours around the lake and the surrounding hills. Repeats, repeats, repeats are on the agenda. Sunday's forecast is calling for 39 and 30% chance of rain, that means there's a 70% chance of no rain, whoohoo. Well, that's it for now, I'll have a surprise post tonight with some extra special pictures. Until next time......

Couldn't Resist A Little More

Today was one of those days where I didn't even want to get on the bike, it was colder than I wanted it to be for a long ride and it's always a chore to get all the layers on and try to balance being warm and on the other hand, being too warm and sweating too much. Well today was no problem with the sweating as it was about 27-28 degrees for my ride, although the workout that I went through today was definitely cause for sweat. After begrudgingly putting on the layers I headed out the door with the intention of doing 3.5 to 4 hours and doing tempo work and hill repeats. I warmed up fairly quickly and got going on the Tempo stuff for a bit until I got out to the loop where I was going to do the hill repeats. I did my repeats for a while and then figured I'd start another loop out towards Waukesha, something that would bring me back towards Muskego eventually. So I did that, rode through Muskego to Big Bend and back around the south side of Muskego and then back to New Berlin. So, after not wanting to get all dressed up and even take on the cold weather I ended up doing a 5 hour ride, and I paid for it at the end as I was wiped out from the Tempo work and the hill repeats and my toes were frozen solid by the end. I've attached my chart below of today's ride, you can see my HR is in the ozone layer for the first 4 hours of the ride as I did my Tempo work and hill repeats, and then my last hour is basically a nice flat pace and a cooldown, literally, as I was heading home right at sunset and the temps were dropping. I had a nice big dinner of spaghetti, some bread and recovery drink. I'm getting ready to prop the legs up a bit now and then I'll hit the bed in about an hour. Tomorrow I'll be going out to tiny Trevor to ride with the prez for about 3 hours. Should be a good ride, it'll be at least 6-7 degrees warmer than today so I have that going for me. Well, like I said, today was one of those days where you jump on the bike and are having such a good time that you don't want to stop. Hopefully I'll have many more of those this year as Team Wheaton and I are kicking butt on the rest of Wisco riders. Time for bed, until next time.........




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Sloppy and Sore

Well, it's snowing pretty good out right now and that's just adding to the sloppy mess that we got yesterday with the rain and sleet mix which then froze overnight. Yay for winter, um, just kidding, I hate it. Eventually it has to stop though right, and that means that I'll get back on the road hopefully sooner than later, I'm not minding the trainer at all these days but I sure would like some sunshine. Race season doesn't seem far away and I'm starting to believe that even in spite of the lack of road riding the last couple of weekends, that I will be ready to rock come April 5th. This weekend was a good weekend of training, and went as follows: Friday was weights after work and then I went home, ate dinner and jumped on the rollers and trainer for 2.5 hours, Saturday was 1hr 45 minutes of snowshoeing and then 3 on the trainer. I would have loved to have been on the road Saturday as it was sunny and 26 degrees but there was so much slop on the roads that I couldn't have even made it out of my subdivision. Sunday was the top ride with a nice workout of 4 hours on the trainer and I did Tempo work, Muscle Tension and Fast Pedals. I'm completely beat today but thankfully after 3 tough days of riding it's a rest day on the bike tonight. I will be doing weights tonight but I think I'll be taking it a little easier depending on how sore I am still at the end of the day. Today is all about recovery, making sure I drink a lot of water, replenishing the glycogen stores, and tonight I'll probably get to bed early too, I didn't get alot of sleep this weekend and I'm feeling it now. Looking at the weather forecast, it doesn't look like it will be a good weekend but it's hard to tell now. Forecast is for 30 degrees Saturday and Sunday and 40% chance of, you guessed it, more snow! whoohoo....bah. Well, that's it for now, until next time.

Same ole', Same ole'

Well, more snow and more trainer rides have been, and will be, on the schedule. We're supposed to get 1-3 inches today, not that bad, but what does it matter when we already have like 18-20 inches on the ground, none of it is melting any time soon. This week has been a pretty normal week, did weights on Monday and Wednesday, and trainer rides on Tuesday, Wednesday, this morning, and will ride again tonight, tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday before my rest day on Monday. I've been using my Garmin Edge 305 for the last two weeks and I have to say that it has everything I need consolidated in to one device (well, except for a power meter). It's great to be able to download my entire workout in to the training software and check out my HR, cadence, speed, elevation, and it breaks everything down by HR zone and of course there are many more functions with the GPS that I won't get in to here. I used to have to take my HR monitor and my cyclocomputer and write down the totals for each workout and then I would put them manually in to Excel, now I just hook up a USB cable to the PC and it's all there in an instant. Way more convenient. So anyways, this week has been alot of Tempo work, some Muscle Tension stuff and tonight will be Fast Pedals and One-Legged Pedaling to work on biomechanics. This weekend I'll be doing lots of snowshoeing and I doubt that I'll be able to get on the road because of the snow, but we'll see, otherwise it's on the trainer for about 3-3.5 hours each on Saturday and Sunday. Racing starts 8 weeks from this week, that means a lot of intense training coming up in the next 7 weeks and then the 8th week will be somewhat of a taper week as my 7th week will be up to 24-26 hours on the bike and then I'll rest for a week and race on April 5th. Hopefully the weather is a little better than it was last year for the first race.....well, that's it for now, until next time..........

Fast and Faster

Yesterday was 3 hours on the rollers and trainer, just working on mechanics with Fast Pedals and then some muscular stuff with Muscle Tension intervals. I worked up a good sweat, got my HR up there and felt pretty good at the end of the day about my workout. The only problem now is after almost 13 hours this week with 3 more to go today, my arse is getting really sore, hopefully no saddle sores are going to crop up after today's ride, it seems imminent, not that you wanted to know but that's a part of getting back in to the longer durations again. Anyways, while working on my FastPedals which are normally in the 120-130rpm range I tried to really spin it out to see what I could get and got my RPMs almost as high as my HR. My goal is to be able to hit 200rpms at some point just for the fun of it, I got really close, maybe next time. Like I said, today is another 3 hours on the rollers/trainer and for the most part it will just be cleaning out my legs from my long ride Friday and my tough workout yesterday with some Tempo work for about 30-40 minutes and the rest at Endurance Pace. Here's a graph of my ride yesterday with the Fast Pedals starting near the end........

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Vacation Day

I had a vacation day from work today, so instead of sitting in a cubical all day I went out and enjoyed a nice day outside. What did I do on my vacation day, well, not much sitting around as I went out and did a 4 hour ride on the SS mtb, most of it at or near Tempo pace. The temps were not bad at all, 33 degrees, and that's warm compared to what we are going to get this weekend. I hadn't planned on going that long today, but what the heck, it was a fairly nice day and I had the time. My legs are sore now of course, but I had a great dinner of filet mignon and a big baked potato and relaxed the rest of the night watching movies with the family. I'm sure I'll be plenty recovered to do what I want to do tomorrow, which is snowshoe in the morning for about 90 minutes and then in the afternoon or evening I'll be hitting the rollers/trainer as we have to go out to Lake Geneva tomorrow to get our taxes done at 12:30 and then I'm going to visit my parents in Burlington. That'll pretty much take up the day so the indoors riding will be later in the day. I'm planning on 3 hours inside as I already will have done some snowshoeing so nothing as long as today is in order, I'll keep it shorter for sure. I think it's supposed to snow a bit as well and be windy so probably not a good day to be on the bike outside anyways. Sunday is supposed to be bitter cold so probably no snowshoeing but I will hit up the rollers/trainer again for another 3 hours, maybe 4 if I'm feeling rested up. Other than that, not much going on, I'm continuing to ramp up the hours every week and we are closing in on racing season. It seems not long ago that I created my Countdown spreadsheet which started at 180 days until race day, now I'm down to something like 55 days and time sure seems to be flying. I need more time for sure to get back up to speed so I welcome the time I have left before racing starts. Well, off to bed, until next time......

Ummmm, Riiight

In regards to my previous post.....This might actually stop me...they say any where from 9-20 inches depending on where you look. I'm thinking 9 is a good number, my fingers are crossed.....

A Little Sore But There's No Stoppin' Me

Sooo, a little sore? What does that mean, well the crash yesterday hurt more than I thought as I was experiencing pain in my right knee when I woke up Sunday morning. Overnight my knee had swollen up from the little wipeout I had on the slick roads Saturday afternoon and it was quite stiff and sore. I decided to hold off on cycling right away in the morning and let the knee get warmed up a bit and see if I could get the swelling down. I did some work around the house, finishing up some trim around a new bathroom door and staining some window trim and then decided to sit for a bit and ice my knee. After the knee was iced I thought it might be a good idea to maybe jump on the trainer for an hour to test it out and get the blood flowing through it to help recovery. So at about 11:00 I jumped on and it was quite sore at first but after about 15 minutes I was able to pedal with minimal amounts of pain and I finished the hour feeling pretty good about the knee. I took some more downtime and finished working on my projects and then had a great dinner of chicken soft tacos, refried beans, spanish rice, and taco dip. Most of the ingredients were fat free or low fat so it wasn't as bad as it sounds. Anyways, after that I figured the knee was up to doing my regularly scheduled ride so I jumped on the rollers and figured I'd hammer out some Tempo workouts during the Super Bowl. 3 hours later I had done about 75 minutes of Tempo work and the rest was just endurance pace and I was sweating buckets. I think I felt really good because those beans kept giving me a turbo boost...um, yeah, anyways.....So 4 hours on the rollers/trainer yesterday and 2.5 hours on the SS Saturday along with 45 minutes of snowshoeing with the wife made for a good weekend. My knee is still a little sore this morning, it actually feels better on the bike than off of it, I'm sure it will be completely recovered in a day or two. Tonight will be weight work and an hour easy on the trainer just to help the legs recover and keep the knee loose. This week I'll be ramping up the bike time even more and will be doing a schedule of 15.50 hours for the week, maybe more if I can get my ass up in the morning for an hour spin before work to clean out the legs from the night before. So far the days look like this - tonight (1 hour RR) - Tuesday (2 hours, w/45 min Tempo) - Wednesday (1.75 hours) - Thursday (1.75 hours, w/45 min Tempo) - Friday (1 hour RR) - Saturday (4 hours, w/75 min Tempo) - Sunday (4 hours). If I have time I'll be doing an extra hour in the mornings on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday. So it could be up to 18.50 hours this week, but we'll see. Well, that's it for now, until next time......

Productive Day

Not a bad day I guess as I got in 45 minutes of snowshoeing with Melissa this morning as we were in a little bit of a time crunch so we couldn't go quite as long as I had hoped. It was still a good 45 minute workout and my average HR was 142 due to quite a few hills on the trails that we took that are only about a mile from our house. After the snowshoeing we grabbed some grub and I came home and rested up for a few minutes and then changed into all my winter gear so that I could hit the roads and trails with my SS mountain bike. I layered up quite a bit as it was snowing when I decided to head out and it wasn't really all that warm at 26 degrees, but definitely better then we've had of late. I rode down Sunnyslope to the New Berlin Rec trail and then took that to Waukesha where I spent some time going through the city and then I came out the west end near the Fox River. I took the Fox River Parkway trails and was cruising along when I hit a few snake turns that were slick with a little bit of snowcover and I took my first spill of the year. It was a slow spill at only about 15mph but the snow made it seem like a high speed crash as I slid for about 25 feet before I finally came to a stop. I checked over myself and my bike and after determining that I had nothing more than a minor knee scrape and a sore hand I was off and riding towards Big Bend. I went through Big Bend and then back to New Berlin for a total of 2.5 hours of riding. I was going to do 3.5 today but I figured that I did 45 minutes of fairly strenuous snowshoeing and was a little sore from my wipe out so I decided to just relax tonight and watch a movie with the family. My ride was pretty tough anyways as I pushed it for almost the entire 2.5 hours and at the end my average heart rate was 168 with a max of 190bpm. I spent an hour and 15 minutes split almost equally with my HR between 80-89% of max and 90-100% of max so it was almost like a TT the whole way. I can definitely feel it now as I had to push the one gear up the hills and I spun it out on the flats and descents as well so I used every muscle to the max. My legs are pretty darn sore now but I'm going to do it again tomorrow and then will take Monday to do an easy recovery ride to clean out the legs a bit. Tomorrow is supposed to be mostly cloudy I guess but no snow and about 4 degrees warmer so that's a bonus. I plan on doing about the same routine, but this time I'll go out snowshoeing myself in the morning for about 1.5 hours and then hit the bike for another 2.5 hours, but this time I'll avoid the trails so that I don't have another wipeout. I can't afford to break a collarbone or something slipping out on the snow again, better to play it safe this early in the year. Well, off to bed to get some much needed rest, until next time.......

Still Truckin' Along

So I haven't had much to say lately because I haven't been doing much. Lifting, riding occassionally, and just waiting for nicer weather. After about 3 or 4 weeks now of not riding outside, I've got a major case of cabin fever and this weekend I'm going to give it a go on the SS regardless of all the snow on the road, with an outside ride most likely coming on Sunday. I got a new toy that I'm going to play with as well this weekend and I'll give a review after the weekend of riding is over. I'll also be snowshoeing a bit tomorrow, we sure as hell have enough snow for it. I'm gradually losing weight, so that is coming along well, I'll be at racing weight with no problem by the first race in April. The WCA schedule also came out today and along with Superweek and the Iowa Memorial Day races; my schedule looks pretty full with about 35 races for the year. Possibly the Masters Nationals in Kentucky as well, but that would be a bit of a stretch. Been riding on the trainer the last few days and will hit it up again tonight for about 90 minutes of easy riding to loosen up for the thrashing I'm going to give myself this weekend. My schedule calls for kicking up the intensity in the next few weeks so the hurting is going to be happening on a more regular basis as I progress towards April. Well, that's it for now, hope you all enjoy your weekend, hit those skis or the mtb, and maybe a beer or two....enjoy, until next time..........

Trying To Be Optimistic

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

This sucks

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

Whatever, dumb-ass playcalling.

Customize Your Ride

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

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

I'm No Bill Gates

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

Another Crappy Weekend

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

Something New

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

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

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

Sole Heat Moldable Footbeds

High arch support and great heel cup

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

Another Day In Paradise

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

Sunday's Pics

This Is Definitely Different

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

Saturday's Pics

Short Post

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

Cycling and Sickness

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

Snowshoeing Fun.....

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

Sunday's Snowshoeing Pics

Tis The Season

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

New Rig

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

New SS Rig

Winter Blues

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

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

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

Snowshoeing

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