Night Rider

No, it's not KITT from the old David Hasslehoff days, it's just me out riding way past sunset. I was doing some night riding tonight, an hour and a half after work and I have to say that once I did my main hour loop out in the country and got back in the safety of my neighborhood I was enjoying the ride in the dark. I did the last 30 minutes in the subdivisions all around my house and it's quite fun actually to be out there with no traffic in the neighborhoods tooling around like I used to when I was a kid, except this time I actually had a headlight. When I was a kid we used to take our bikes out on the country roads (I lived in the middle of nowhere) and we only had the moonlight to see our way around. Of course I wasn't training then, only out causing trouble with my friends. Tonight I wasn't really training either I suppose, I was just enjoying the ride and I was plenty bundled up against the 55 degree temps and 15 to 20mph winds, I wasn't cold at all. These kind of rides are what make me really enjoy riding the bike, it's something out of the norm to say the least to be out riding in the dark, but I took it slow and just looked around and enjoyed it. The only bad part was when I was just getting ready to head down my street a dog started barking right next to me and scared the crap out of me. He must've run across his lawn from the house and I never saw him, he was a black lab, so that's the only bad part about riding at night I guess. Well, here is a picture of me heading home, I took it my with camera phone so it's not the best quality but it's pretty representative of what I was seeing, you can see the faint glow of my light at the bottom of the picture. I have a good headlight though and it's quite a bit brighter than the picture shows but it was pitch black otherwise.

Yeah, yeah....

....so I didn't do exactly what I wanted to do this weekend....and I feel bad about it but I can't change it now. I'm really motivated to ride right now considering I haven't ridden most of the year but sometimes other things get in the way. Today that something was the most meaningful game for the Milwaukee Brewers since 1982, I was only 9 then but I clearly remember the '82 team and how much I loved them. I'm 34 now (35 in 3 weeks) but I really like this team as well and I had to watch THE deciding game today to see if they finally got back to the postseason again. They pulled it off and beat the hated Cubs and the Mets choked again this year and lost to the same team as last year on the final day, the Florida Marlins. It was an exciting game and well worth missing a ride, although I did have rider's remorse afterwards (term for when you miss a ride you should have done). I had already decided I'd miss the Packers game and was going to get out early this morning to ride and then be back by the 1:10 Brewers start, but I wasn't feeling all that good this morning, still stuck with this damn cold, and I ended up sleeping in. I got up, did some things around the house and then laid down on the couch to watch the Brewers with the intention of cycling afterwards. Well, after the game I had to watch the celebration, then make calls to a couple people to talk about the game and then I had to eat something. By then it was 5:00ish and too late for a ride and we had no groceries in the house, so I decided to grocery shop instead since my wife was gone for the evening at a family member's b-day dinner. Lot's of excuses but I'm happy for the Brew Crew and wouldn't exchange this afternoon for anything else, it was a very good day for long suffering Brewers' fans.

Gettin' In His Grill.......

So is it just me or was Greg LeMond getting up in Lance's business just a little too much at Interbike? What is his vendetta against Lance, get over it Greg, you aren't the greatest American Cyclist any more, stop being jealous. You can't tell me that Greg's era was all that clean either, I mean come on, Fignon, Delgado, Millar, Theunisse, Roche, Marie, Escartin, yeah, they were all clean. Greg said it's suspicious that Lance was able to beat all these guys that were caught doping or assumed to be doping, he had to be superhuman, well, how about asking Greg that question. If he won two Tours de France, either every one was clean and he was just the best or he beat guys that were doping as well, so why can't Lance's circumstances be the same? Greg declares he beat everyone else fair and square whether they were doping or not, that he was clean, well maybe Lance did as well. Until someone says that Lance tests positive without any doubt at all, then I'll believe that Lance is clean. I think Greg is just trying to find some way to knock Lance down so that he can be considered the greatest American cyclist, Greg needs help. He can try this place for starters -

A Little Bit Peculier

This review will be short but sweet, sort of like the beer I drank yesterday, Old Peculier. This beer is made by the Theakston brewery, T&R Theakston Ltd. if you want to be precise, in Masham of North Yorkshire, England. Old Peculier is their best known beer, it's a Classic Ale by their definition, an Old English Ale by mine I guess, but a dark one at that and it's been a favorite of mine for quite a while now. Here is Theakston's description of their beer, and it's pretty spot on, I'll try to add what I can but this says it all -

A dark, strong beer, Old Peculier is justifiably famous for its rich and complete character, its sheer strength – and for being a beer with a long history.

See: Deep dark ruby

Smell: Fruity, mellow, warming

Taste: Rich, full-bodied, malty


When you pop the cap on the bottle you know right away that you are getting a good beer just from the smell, and then the pour justifies your initial reaction. The smell is a bit earthy, with hints of caramel, and a nice aroma of roasted malt. Upon pouring, the dark brown beer, not amber, not a stout - somewhere in between, leaves a nice head, maybe 2 or 3 fingers (horizontal, not vertical) and because of the carbonation it disappears fairly quickly but not before I got in a good sip. As you'd expect upon first tasting the beer, the same smells that I mentioned above are dominant in the taste - roasted malts, caramel and molasses, a bit of hops, and maybe some oak taste as well. I enjoyed the beer for a bit, taking care not to drink it too fast so that I could really take in the taste of the beer, it's not often that I get Old Peculier and I'm not sure why, but it might be a while before I have one again so I took my time. Wait, I know why I don't drink it all the time - because there are soooooo many beers out there to try, I have my favorites, but I have to keep trying new stuff as well. ABV % on this one is 5.7 so it's definitely a beer that could put you to sleep after 3 or 4, or 5 or 6 in my case, but you'd definitely fall asleep happy. If you get the chance, go search out a bottle, or 6 or 12 of Old Peculier, it's a 4.5 mug beer in my ratings and I know you'll like it as well.

Darkness Falls

I think that was the name of a movie a couple of years ago, sounds familiar, but anyways, in my world it means that sunset is coming to darn quick now-a-days. I had to use the full-on light kit last night, the super bright, LED, red blinking light on the back and the battery powered front halogen, at least I think it's halogen, on the front. There was no way anyone could miss me on the side of the road the way I was lit up, but I'm sure someone talking on the phone or putting on makeup, or maybe even eating their McDonald's drive-thru dinner could find a way. I did make it home safely last night though so thanks to all the drivers for avoiding me for one more day at least. I'm glad I rode last night at all because I was feeling quite a bit under the weather for the last few days, and wasn't sure that I'd even get in a ride after not feeling the best throughout the day at work. I toughed it out though and made sure I didn't push myself too hard so that my body wasn't being taxed too much to recover from this cold/flu combo that I have. I felt really good and did 90 minutes, sunset is the only thing that put an end to my ride, I could've gone all night as it was a beautiful 75 degrees when I departed from the driveway. Today is supposed to hit 80 degrees as well and if it's not raining after work then I'm heading out again for another 90 minutes or until I can't see anything, although my light kit is all ready to go again so my own limiter is how safe I feel on the roads after dark I guess. Like I said a couple of posts previous I'm not really pushing these rides at all, just taking it easy, 17 to 17.5 mph averages, and no intervals or sprints. I'm pushing easy gears on the hills and I'll do this for about another 6 weeks or so just to get the legs back and build my aerobic base again. The weather looks good this weekend so hopefully I'll build on that quite a bit with a ride out to Burlington as I didn't get to do that this past Sunday since I wasn't feeling good. I did get in 3 hours on Saturday and that was more than enough when the body is fighting whatever I have going on in there.
I'll also be taking the camera with for the next few weeks as the leaves start to change color and hopefully I'll get some good progressive pictures to show the change. Last night I should have had it with as I could've posted some pics today of about 30 deer that were in Whitnall Park last night, it was just a crazy amount, I can't believe people don't hit them there more often, I guess if you drive through there enough you know to expect them.
Well, that's it for now, I'll be posting another beer review tonight as well, an Old Peculier (no, it's not spelled wrong) was on the menu last night, and I'll tell you all about it tonight. Hint - it was a dang good beer and an old, no pun intended, favorite of mine.

First Two Beers

So I thought it would be great to start with my favorite beer of all, well, I shouldn't say that because it actually isn't my favorite, but it is my favorite "drink anywhere, go with anything, comfort beer" and that would be Guinness, in the Draught form, although I'm quite fond of the Extra Stout as well. Unfortunately, believe it or not, I didn't have any Guinness on hand this weekend so I made do with the remainder of the Lakefront Brewery Variety Pack that I had left over from last week. I had 3 beers left and I had two of them this weekend, the first was the Cherry Lager and the second was the Klisch Pilsner (also a Lager for those that don't know). The Cherry Lager was from Lakefront's seasonal line of beers and their Klisch Pilsner is from their regular line of Lagers. The 3rd and only remaining beer of the variety pack was the Fuel Cafe Coffee Flavored Stout but given that the weather was fairly warm and humid this weekend, that just didn't seem as appealing as the two Lager beers. Neither bottle had a brewery description so I can't compare my opinion to what they set out upon making, but I'm guessing I'd be close to what they would have described on their bottle.
I started with the Cherry Lager, and upon pouring it was rosy in color and had a pinkish hue to the thin head, a good start to what I was hoping would be a refreshing beer on a fairly warm and humid September day. The smell was reminiscent of a Door Peninsula Winery's Peninsula Red wine, with a slight cherry aroma, but definitely not overpowering. The first sip was definitely refreshing with a hint of cherry and a bit of a malty finish, and unfortunately a little bit of a cherry throat lozenge taste as well but that wore off within a few seconds of each sip. I downed it fairly quickly and that was probably due more to the fact that I had just ridden 3 hours on a warm Saturday afternoon than due to it's irresistible taste, my insatiable thirst was more to blame for that. All in all it was a good beer, more or less a beer for someone who likes wine or fruity drinks than someone who likes a good biting beer with a strong finish and character. It was a 2 mug (out of 5) beer for me and I'm being generous because it's not typical of the beers I like, but would appeal to the general populous I think, so it gets a full 2 mugs.
The second beer I had was the Klisch Pilsner, a very refreshing golden lager that was perfect for quenching my thirst and unlike the Cherry Lager, didn't have me looking for some water after finishing the glass. The Klisch had a good looking hazy, golden color and a nice head upon pouring, getting me excited enough to stop halfway through my pour to take a sip. It was a good decision on my part to be hasty in my pour as it had a very smooth malt finish, as it should, and a slightly hoppy but very pleasant bitterness to it, and there was no doubt that this was the better of the two beers. Some people, especially those used to the typical Budweiser or Miller products would consider this a hoppy beer, but my taste buds tell me that this is a slightly hoppy beer in my book, and my book is full of very bitter beers teaming with hops just the way I like it. So, for the general populous this may be just right of middle in terms of how hoppy they would like a beer, but for me it was just right of the beginning end of the spectrum. A great beer on a warm, humid day, it deserves 3 mugs for it's smooth finish and pleasant hop flavor. As a last bit of advice, serve both of these beers quite cold to enjoy them to their fullest. Check out the Lakefront Brewery line of beers here. Also, thanks to my friend Dave I now have a great variety pack to share with you in the coming weeks as well, a veritable cornucopia of world beers that I'm looking forward to drinking very soon. Thanks Dave!

Reviews are Coming

Tonight I will post a review of two Lakefront Brewery beers, the Cherry Lager and the Kilsch Pilsner, two beers that were perfect for drinking this weekend even though I was a little under the weather. I can't let a little illness get in the way of my beer, I think the alcohol helps kill the germs from the inside. So, check back again tonight for the review, this darn place that actually helps me pay the bills is keeping me busy today, go figure.

Just Ridin'

I took a little hiatus, got some things in order, and have been back on the bike for a few weeks now, well, maybe only 3 weeks, but that's a few I guess. I've been doing little rides here and there of about an hour and a half, with my long being about two and a half hours. This weekend I'm going to enjoy the weather and do a ride out to Burlington and back to visit the parents, which will obviously be my longest ride since about the last weekend of April, possibly even before that. Right now I'm just enjoying being on the bike, I'm not doing anything resembling a "training" ride and probably won't anytime soon, at least not until I decide my offseason training begins and then when I can't spend a lot of hours riding outside I'll "train" on the trainer/rollers. It's nice just being able to ride and not worry about average speed, HR, etc., I actually enjoy riding that way for now, eventually I'll want to go fast cause as Ricky Bobby said, "if you ain't first, you're last", so I don't want to be last which means that I need to eventually get the speed back. Yes, that means I'll race again next year, but nothing like I did last year or the year before, it will probably be more like this year except without having to quit because of work and all that shite. I won't be riding for a team next year either, I'll just be chillin' by myself, and doing whatever I can, I guess I didn't want to make any team look bad when I'm off the back again like this year. That's not really the reason but it's a good one for now, so that's what I'm telling whomever asks. It'll be a pretty stress free year of riding and racing in '09, exactly how I need it, just a few races like I said and I'm sure I'll pick one big race to concentrate on, the State RR perhaps? If the venue hasn't been lost for '09 it sure would be nice to win on my home stomping grounds, I used to be able to do 12-15 repeats up the Johnson Rd. climb in my big ring with my eyes closed and no-hands, sure would be nice to get back to that point. Anyways, like I said, who knows if I'll want to ride enough to get back to that point, it's freakin' September of '08 yet....and I'm fat and out of shape compared to what I was earlier this year. Lots of work to do and plenty of riding ahead.
As part of my new blog I'll also be sharing my other big interest with you as well, not every day, but at least once a week, maybe twice a week, heck, maybe even more. I'm a beer snob, a big-time beer snob. For those that don't know me, beer is one of my vices, I love it, a lot! It doesn't help in the training but as my blog title says, it's a reward for a good ride and life is not just about training and racing, it's about enjoying everything else around you, and usually I'm around some good beer. I'll share my thoughts with you on what I'm drinking each week, I'm guessing you'll enjoy that part of my blog more than the stories about riding, but that's fine by me.

Recovery Coming Along Well

As I mentioned in my previous post, I was under the weather late last week and over the weekend but my recovery is coming along nicely and I felt better Monday and felt a lot better last night. I have not done any interval or speed work in a week and only rode shorter recovery rides over the weekend, nothing hard at all, although I did hike Devil's Lake all day Sunday. Last night the weather was great so I figured I'd make the best of it and stay out until sunset and push it a little bit to open up the legs to see how I was feeling after a week off of any hard efforts. I rode out to Muskego and did some sets of hill sprints up the finishing hill of this weekend's race course, only 2 sets of 6 sprints with recovery only being the time that it took me to turn around and start the sprint again. I was dying after about the 3rd sprint of the 2nd set and threw up on the 4th sprint but that was due to the residual mucous that I still have from being sick and I kind of gagged on it when I was trying to breathe, yeah, it's gross, but that's what happened. I finished out the 5th and 6th sprint and headed out of the park towards Big Bend and did a loop out there and then made my way to one of my favorite hills, Tans Dr. and decided to test my fitness there by doing one climb to see where I'm at compared to my PR. I figured that since I haven't done much of anything for a week that I'd be pretty slow and figured on throwing up again but surprisingly I broke my PR by 7 seconds! Now, could I have even gone up the hill a second time, maybe not, I hit HR numbers I haven't hit in a long time, 194 was my max up the hill, my chest physically hurt after that. I think I was just exceeding my limit to prove that I still had some fitness, but I know I couldn't have done 6 repeats up the hill like I did last week. That's the problem with a little layoff, for the most part you can still feel great for one hard day of riding or one really hard effort, but try to ride hard for 3 days in a row or try repeated hard efforts up a hill, that's when you'll realize that you've lost something. So yeah, I was good yesterday, today I'll probably feel it though when I try to ramp it up again, all cylinders might not be firing tonight but I'll try again anyways. It's raining right now but it's supposed to be better later, so no doubt I'll be able to get outside and enjoy the 60 degree temps. Like I said I'm going to try another harder effort tonight but if I notice that I'm not feeling it or my body is not responding then I'll just do an easy ride and do a hard ride tomorrow. Friday will obviously be an easier day ahead of Saturday's races.

On the home front, I'm getting stressed about my freakin' basement wall because it has some nice horizontal cracks and step cracks in it that are ever-expanding and I'm thinking one of these days I'm going to be sitting in my recliner enjoying a Guinness and it's all going to come tumbling down on me. I've been keeping an eye on them the last few weeks and they are getting bigger so I finally made the call today to have someone come take a look, they can't get out until the 21st, I was hoping like tomorrow would be nice! Oh well, I have two weeks now to sit and watch them get bigger, wish me luck. If the bill comes to the 3 or 4 grand that I've heard it will cost to put up the steel beams, then I might be selling my bike to pay for it, anyone want a CAAD8 with all Campy Carbon Record and carbon wheels? Final cost dependent upon my bill from the contractor of course....I'm kidding, I'm not selling my bike, well, maybe..... until next time..........

Family Fun

Yesterday was a great day with the family at Devil's Lake State Park where we hiked around the entire lake, up and down the bluffs on both sides of the lake. We were there for most of the day and the weather was great, mid 60s and sunny, a little windy, but it felt good as it kept me from sweating too much. It was Melissa's b-day so it was nice to have all of us, including the dog, up there and together. I've been under the weather since about Thursday of last week and haven't really felt like doing much of anything but it was nice to get out in the fresh air and today I'm feeling a little better and hopefully will be 100% in the next couple of days. A lot of my co-workers have been sick in the past week and I figured since I am healthier than almost all of them, that I'd be immune to their sickness, turns out I wasn't but I didn't get it nearly as bad as a few of them so I have that going for me. I did ride for a couple of hours over the weekend, basically a couple of recovery rides, nothing too long. Today I'll be getting out after work because it's a beautiful day and I'll do about 35-40 miles at a fairly easy pace just to make sure I don't stress the immune system too much as I recover, and I'll probably do the same tomorrow just to make sure I'm back to normal before I push it too hard. Wednesday and Thursday will be hard days and Friday will be an easy spin ahead of Saturday's races. I plan on doing 2 races Saturday, the Masters 3/4 and the Masters 1/2/3, one is in the morning, the other in the afternoon, so there is plenty of time to recover. I don't care if I get dropped in both of them, I just need to get the race time in so that I can make a decent showing at least in Iowa in a couple of weeks. The Masters 3/4 shouldn't be bad, looks like the same guys I raced last year for the most part. Other than that, the weather looks like it might be improving gradually to the point where we might actually see 60 degrees on a regular basis. Wouldn't that be nice?? Congrats to all my teammates that did the Baraboo RR this weekend as well in nasty conditions, it's a tough race without the cold and rain, so hats off to them for their effort. We had a couple of 2nd place finishes and 5 other top 15 placings as well, great job by all. Until next time.......

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