Winding Down

Sorry for the lack of posts this week, I did a really long post on Monday or Tuesday and when I submitted it I got some freakin' IE error and it didn't get saved. I was frustrated so I didn't bother re-typing it. Anyways, this week has been a really calm week for me, not much riding as I'm in a recovery week. I didn't ride on Monday as it is a usual rest day for me, and I had a busy weekend anyways with the State Crit and the Cream City Century. Tuesday I rode for a nice medium paced ride through Whitnall Park for 1.5 hours and had to actually put the smack down on some euro-trash wannabe riders. I believe in wearing helmets, I've crashed enough times during races and been hit by a couple of cars so I know their importance. Everyone is entitled to go sans helmet if they feel like it, it's their choice and there is no law against it. Tuesday though I was irked a little bit by a couple of guys who were riding through Whitnall and they were obviously not racers as evidenced by their hairy legs and their poser euro outfits, without helmets of course. I could see them coming behind me for a ways and I could tell they were trying to push it as they both had their heads down and were spinning pretty profusely. I slowed down as we were nearing a stop sign and there was a car stopped to the right of me, so he was getting ready to go and then I was going to go. Well, these posers come flying past me as this car takes off, they don't stop, almost get hit by the car and they just keep going, turning around once to laugh nervously at the car that narrowly missed them. I didn't have any respect for them first off because of the helmet thing, but that pushed me over the edge. They kept flying and I decided I was going to catch them and give 'em a little piece of my mind. I'm guessing they were going about 23-24 mph but I caught them pretty quickly which I think shocked them because I know they thought they were the fastest thing this side of France. I pulled along side them, said " nice move assholes, by the way, get yourselves some helmets" and their only response was a sheepish " yeah, whatever". I shifted down a few gears, took off, and at the next intersection they turned right when I went straight. I was hoping for a little more of a confrontation cause I think I could've taken them both with no problem, but at the least I hope they go get some helmets now. So on to Wednesday, it was a less adventurous ride as I rode with my wife and son just for the fun of it. We did 1 hour and it was a pretty good ride. My wife is doing a little training for the Pedal The Kettle on the 17th so it was good for her to get out. It was suuuuper slow but I didn't really care as there is only one race left this year and I'll be in form for that race regardless of what I do this week. Today I have to help coach my son's soccer practice at 5:30 until 6:30 and then I'll end up riding on the trainer tonight as there will only be 45 minutes of daylight left by the time we get home and I get changed. I'll be doing about 1.5 hours on the trainer with some intervals thrown in, about 3 reps of 8-9 minute Steady States. Tomorrow I'll ride for 1 hour easy, Saturday I leave at 8:00 to go to Devil's Lake for a day trip with the family but I'll ride before we leave, I'm hoping for about 1.5 hours if I can get up at 5:30. Otherwise I'll ride on the trainer at night when we get back. I haven't figured out Sunday and Monday yet as it might rain, I'll let ya'll know later. Until next time......

Pictures

Went to dinner and a movie...too late to do a full re-cap but here are some pictures.....Scott is in the first picture and he did an awesome job for the win..........

Disappointing 8th Place

Brief results.....I got 8th today in the State Crit Championships. A little disappointing considering I felt great. Full race re-cap and pictures will be posted tonight.

Been Pretty Busy

It's been a few days obviously since my last post so I'll try to re-cap as best as I can what I've been doing the last 6 days. The training has been going according to plan and I haven't missed any rides or strayed from the program so I'm feeling pretty good heading in to this weekend's State Crit Championship. I did a few easy rides on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday and then Saturday's ride was a little more difficult but only 2 hours in length and it didn't include any intervals. Sunday I did a great family ride with Melissa and Xavier and it basically served its purpose as a recovery pace ride. We did an hour long ride in New Berlin on the freshly paved New Berlin Recreation Trail and it was a fun, easy ride that everyone certainly enjoyed. I'm trying to get my wife in to cycling and with time constraints it's been difficult for her to ride but we have now ridden together the last two Sundays for a total of 30 miles. Last week we did 20 miles on Sunday, which was by far her furthest ride ever, and then we did 10 miles with our son this week and she said that it seemed easy. Maybe by the end of the year I'll get her out for a 40-50 mile ride, we'll see though. Around the house I've just been doing the normal stuff, working on the yard, remodeling the kitchen, cleaning up, basically all the fun stuff. Sunday night after the ride we went to Zoo a la Carte at the Milwaukee County Zoo and fed ourselves until we couldn't walk anymore, I weigh about 3lbs more now but it was well worth it. Yesterday was a rest day and I was supposed to go to the target range with my friend to shoot some guns but we got there too late and it was already closed. We ended up just relaxing at his house and enjoyed a couple of good beers, probably not ideal training fluids, but I'm sure it won't affect my performance on Saturday. Tonight I have to do a 2 hour ride with 3 sets of Descending Intervals which basically start at 75 seconds and count down to 30 seconds with equal recovery in between each rep. After each set I'll rest for 5 minutes and then start again, it's great training for crit races so hopefully I'm feeling good and can get in an optimal workout. After tonight I have a couple of easy rides tomorrow and Thursday and then Friday I'll do a couple of Power Intervals to open the legs for Saturday. Right now the forecast for Saturday is calling for a 40% chance of Thunderstorms, I'm praying that it holds out as that could really wreck the race strategy!
As an aside, anyone who wants an inspirational story and some motivation to get off their lazy butt should check out the progress of Saul Raisin on his website at www.saulraisin.com. I'm sure most of you know what happened to Saul and have kept up on his subsequent recovery, but if not, you probably wouldn't believe his story. To keep it short, Saul crashed in a European bike race and was in a coma after developing an intracerebral hemorrhage and was basically told he might never develop full function again as a result of his brain damage. After 4 months Saul was riding again on the rollers and trainer, as much as 21 hours per week!! According to his website he is now doing 3 hour rides on the road as well. Check it out and make sure to look at all of his past blog entries and his picture gallery, it's pretty moving stuff. Until next time, happy riding...........

Sore and Lovin' It

Today my legs are hurting, kind of like the hurt of a 300lb person sitting on my lap, or maybe like getting kicked in the quads by a horse, either way let's just say they are sore. Last night I did one of my most difficult training rides in quite a while, completing 3 sets of Over/Under intervals and then following that up with 7 hill repeats. For those not familiar with OU intervals it goes something like this...smash your legs with a hammer for 8 minutes and then go directly in to 3 minutes of stabbing them with a large serrated knife. It's quite fun! Actually that is what it feels like but in reality it goes like this....8 minutes at 89% of max HR, directly in to 3 minutes at 92% of max HR, 8 minutes at 89%, 3 minutes at 92%, etc...... so it is all continuous for 3 repeats of 8/3. In real time it looks like this.....8/3/8/3/8/3...non-stop, that is one set. I did 3 sets of those with a 5 minute break between sets. On the way back home I did 7 repeats up 2 hills, 3 up a really steep hill and then 4 up a really long (for WI) hill. The two hills are like a half-pipe so I went up one, then down it, right up the other and so on 7 times then I finally went home. My legs are killing me today but the next 3 days are rest days on the bike so I will get to just take it easy with rides of 1 hour tonight, 1.5 tomorrow and then 1 hour again on Friday. Say what??!?! Only one hour?! Yup, only one hour, pretty easy hey? It does seem easy but it's all part of the plan of building up the body by trashing it for just over 2 weeks and then allowing it to build up for a week and a half. So for the last 2 weeks and 3 days I've been doing intervals or race simulation 3 days a week and now is the time to let the body rest and rejuvenate and if all works well that means a peak for the 26th. Most novice bikers will ask, "how can you get better by riding for only one hour?". It's not the riding that you do...it's the riding that you don't do that makes you better. Most novice riders (yes, I'm only a Cat. 4 now, but far from a novice if you know my background) don't rest enough to allow their body to compensate for their hard efforts. Most racers just think "go, go, go" on every ride and try to hammer all the time to prove that they have the biggest, um, helmet, bike helmet, yeah. They never allow for recovery time on the bike and then they end up overtraining or just getting stale from riding one speed, fast, all the time. Anyways, it helps mentally as well to just be able to go out and actually look around and enjoy the ride for what it is. So, after the ride tonight I'm hoping to go shoot some guns as my friend Jason and I are hopefully going to a target range to shoot a snub-nosed .38 and a "Baby" Desert Eagle 9mm. It'll help get out some frustration from work and it's always fun to shoot some of the "terrorist" targets. Until next time..........

Feeling Rested...Kinda.

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

Sooooo Tired!

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

Is It Time To Race Yet?

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

MS150 Recap

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

Getting Serious Again

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

It's Really August Tomorrow?

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

I Hate The French

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

I've Come A Long Way

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

Some Pics......

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

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

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

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

Still Going...In A Spot Of Bother Though

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

5 hours down

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

Like the cornrows????

Enjoying My Time Off

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

Taking It Easy...Sort Of.

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

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

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

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