The intent was to get out in the woods on Saturday for a 2-3 hour frollick. Unfortunately the weather had different plans. I woke up and it was seven degrees outside. I had a few hours to burn before I was to get to the shop and pick up the Mamasita. By the time I got there it had warmed up to a whopping 11 degrees, terrific. I then went and got some groceries to fire up a little crockpot action. when I was walking out of the store I thought that it was not too bad, the sun was out, the air was crisp and maybe I would be able to pull the ride off after all. By the time I finished loading the last of five bags into my car, I could barely feel my hands and my legs were absolutely freezing. Well, that was about it, another day on the trainer for me it seemed. So that is what I did, an hour and a half while watching a DVR'd movie, Hitman. Pretty okay movie, though at some point towards the end I stopped paying attention and was confused by the finish.
Sunday held new hope and promise at getting into the woods. I got dressed, put medium balm on my legs, and headed out. The first thing that I noticed was after about twenty millimeters of travel, my fork ended in an abrupt THUNK! Well, that just is not right. I rolled down to Cadence to meet my two riding companions. When I got there, I went to get a drink from my Camelback and, nothing. Yeah, Cameback was sitting in the back of my car, shit! So, I got into the shop, put air in my fork, buy a water bottle and head out for my ride. It was good, even with my fork blowing through travel and bottoming out in a noisey mess, the ride was a blast. We kept the pace nice and steady, the trails were fast and hooking up great. Thankfully no mechanicals because I was ill prepared to say the least. We ended up in the woods for two and a half hours, and the rides two and from the trailhead made the day total out at three hours. That was the longest I have been on a bike since the disaster at the Brentjens challenge. After that it got busy, straight to the shower, where the balm got really toasty. Then I dropped the bike off to get a complete fork overhaul, Starbucks to get coffee for the week, grocery store to pick up some odds and ends then home to get cooking. I fired up a pot of chili and put it in the fridge to go in the crockpot for today, lunch ready, made some puddin'. Then it was to Adobe' to watch the Eagles game. I really hate them, so I was happy I did not have to hear about the Super Bowl for the span of two weeks.
Oh, I also got a pair of compression tights to sleep in. They are supposed to help recovery efforts and stimulate blood flow and this and that. I have been reading about them for years and decided to give them a go. I wore them for a few hours last night, but could not sleep with them on, very restrictive, and pinchy around the waist. I will try to see what the deal is with them as my study progresses.
Well, that is a weekend wrap, have a good one.
Respect each other
Monday, January 19, 2009
Thursday, January 15, 2009
My sports teams stink
I may give up on sports, I am just having a tough time with it right now. The Giants played horrible football against the Eagles on Sunday, thus ending that season. The Flyers, who have been very dominant at home this year, played the Penguins on Tuesday. The Pens have been 1-7 in their last eight games knocked them off 4-2. It is starting to get to me a little bit honestly. A loss I can accept, it happens and I get it. The thing that bothers me the most is that the other teams won. See, I have a special kind of hatred for those two teams. I never want them to win, ever. This kind of dislike is not something I hold for any other team, or any other sport. I actually don't know where it came from either, it is a bit disturbing to me actually, but as the dude in Red Dawn said, "My hatred keeps me warm."
I peeled myself out of bed yesterday and got my butt down to class at the shop for 6am. There is a bit of strangeness for me in that. I just have a very tough time in making myself go to that class, but it is not the waking up part, because I get up at the same time when I have work anyway. I just cannot bring myself to work out at that time in the morning. I can do anything else, anything! Regardless I through my bike on top of the car and drove the 3/4 mile to the shop. When I got there and pulled my bike off the car, I noticed one thing, it is freaking freezing. It was about 10 degrees outside, burr. I got my usual trainer set up and noticed that the class was pretty crowded. They ran a deal on the coaching packages and it looks like many people are taking advantage of it. I sat between two guys who obviously picked up new gear for the new year. Anyway, the class went pretty well, I suffered through it and got to work. I will say that by 4 in the afternoon, I had hit the wall and was ready to get out of there.
Well, it is looking like my qualifying race that usually takes place at the end of April will be taking place the beginning of March due to a return trip to Euroland.
Time to get my grind on.
Respect each other
I peeled myself out of bed yesterday and got my butt down to class at the shop for 6am. There is a bit of strangeness for me in that. I just have a very tough time in making myself go to that class, but it is not the waking up part, because I get up at the same time when I have work anyway. I just cannot bring myself to work out at that time in the morning. I can do anything else, anything! Regardless I through my bike on top of the car and drove the 3/4 mile to the shop. When I got there and pulled my bike off the car, I noticed one thing, it is freaking freezing. It was about 10 degrees outside, burr. I got my usual trainer set up and noticed that the class was pretty crowded. They ran a deal on the coaching packages and it looks like many people are taking advantage of it. I sat between two guys who obviously picked up new gear for the new year. Anyway, the class went pretty well, I suffered through it and got to work. I will say that by 4 in the afternoon, I had hit the wall and was ready to get out of there.
Well, it is looking like my qualifying race that usually takes place at the end of April will be taking place the beginning of March due to a return trip to Euroland.
Time to get my grind on.
Respect each other
Monday, January 12, 2009
Building a bigger engine
This is a critical time of year for training. Rides are to be done in the "endurance zone." I am told that it gets your heart, lungs, and muscles prepared to do harder efforts that come later down the line. Where I am at now, there is an up and downside to it. The upside is that, being that I was essentially off the bike for three months and living on beer and frites, I don't have much more than an endurance pace in my body. The downside is that when I am in a group, and they are also doing endurance zone, I am at the very upper end of my zone, when they have just entered theirs. It is kind of making training with others a bit more difficult. I do have to say that I am feeling a lot better than I did just three weeks ago when I started my season. I also found out that I have a rather large descrepancy between my left and right leg. I am left leg dominant, (which can lead to a much larger conversation about what body part does what better than the other in my life) but when pedalling a bike, I have a big hole in the pedal stroke on my left leg. My right can, on its own, produce a reasonable facsimilie of a circle. My left has a rather large deadspot between the ten and two o'clock position. That is something that needs to be worked on more sooner than later. The last thing is that I have to de-fat myself a bit prior to what is going to be my season opener.
Well, the football team that I am a fan of lost yesterday to the team that I hate the most. The Eagles knocked off the Giants. So, quite honestly my football watching season is now over. It has become more and more difficult for me to watch the game. Between the criminals playing widout, the showboating of the running backs and the awful dances performed by the defensive lineman after a tackle or a sack. Each year it gets easier for me to get up during a game, to do something completely different. Though I have to say, I still enjoy watching offensive lineplay. It is a position I held for twelve years growing up, and I like watching the front five (or six if you have a good tight end) do work. The thing is, I have no back up team. It is all hockey and cycling now. The hockey season is half way over and the road season starts next week.
The weather is looking pretty good for the forseeable future. I just need some more sunlight at the end of the day. I can join a night mountain bike ride on Tuesday, the issue is that right now I have neither lights nor a mountain bike. Since I have been back a bit over a week, I needed a new rear wheel to be built and now then my fork took the proverbial dump on me. Thankfully the head wrench at the shop has a clinic covering rebuilding suspension forks today and tomorrow. That means I should be good to go this coming weekend. I am also having a remote lockout put on the handlebars, I just don't have it in me to reach those eight or so inches to the top of the fork to lock it out.
Hope ya'll had a good weekend. Respect each other
Well, the football team that I am a fan of lost yesterday to the team that I hate the most. The Eagles knocked off the Giants. So, quite honestly my football watching season is now over. It has become more and more difficult for me to watch the game. Between the criminals playing widout, the showboating of the running backs and the awful dances performed by the defensive lineman after a tackle or a sack. Each year it gets easier for me to get up during a game, to do something completely different. Though I have to say, I still enjoy watching offensive lineplay. It is a position I held for twelve years growing up, and I like watching the front five (or six if you have a good tight end) do work. The thing is, I have no back up team. It is all hockey and cycling now. The hockey season is half way over and the road season starts next week.
The weather is looking pretty good for the forseeable future. I just need some more sunlight at the end of the day. I can join a night mountain bike ride on Tuesday, the issue is that right now I have neither lights nor a mountain bike. Since I have been back a bit over a week, I needed a new rear wheel to be built and now then my fork took the proverbial dump on me. Thankfully the head wrench at the shop has a clinic covering rebuilding suspension forks today and tomorrow. That means I should be good to go this coming weekend. I am also having a remote lockout put on the handlebars, I just don't have it in me to reach those eight or so inches to the top of the fork to lock it out.
Hope ya'll had a good weekend. Respect each other
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Back to it, and rankings
I'm back, both to the grind of the everyday of work, as well as trying to keep up with the blogging side of life. I am not sure if I find this cathartic or what, but after doing it for some time, I figured I would just keep going. Let's see, since the last post... I wrapped up my Euro stint, well part one at least. I got back to the States, got engaged, and am starting base training for racing season 2009. It looks like I will be heading back to Europe so I am not sure if the base training will be a complete waste of time, but at least it will help me sleep at night.
I upgraded from cat 5 to cat 4 on the road side of racing things. They also changed to categories on the mountain bike front, and I am a cat 2, go figure. It really sounds a lot better than it actually is, I remain a guy who is a bit too girthy or distracted during a race to be a real threat. It is my goal to remedy that side of things. Anyway, I got my rankings for both road and mountain at the beginning of the season, I am hoping to improve the overall but will put everything down to keep track as the season progresses.
USCF Criterium Cat 4 Standing:
Rank in zip code - 1
Rank in state - 12
Rank in riding age (37) - 15
Rank in 5 year age ranger (35-39) - 73
Rank in 10 year age range - (30-39) - 119
Overall rank - 348
NORBA cross country standings
Rank in zip code - 1
Rank in state - 3
Rank in riding age (37) - 6
Rank in 5 year age range (35-39) - 29
Rank in 10 year age range - (30-39) - 41
Overall rank - 161
Now I just have to put the work in and get moving up.
I started doing my base training which included an epic ride in 50mph wind gusts and brutal snow squalls that took place on New Years Eve. Sunday was a two hour effort in 24 degree weather, which was not actually the stupid part. The part that got to me was that it took place at eight in the morning. Being that I have no kids or real responsibilities, I don't see why weekend rides should start prior to ten. Yesterday I pulled myself out of bed to do a 6am class at Cadence, which is just ridiculously early. It is funny that it does not require my getting out of bed any earlier than I would if I was heading to work, but just the riding that early gets to me. I also doubled up by doing the evening movie and a spin down there. Unfortunately I was not really ready for the second part, went out too quick and blew myself up. Oh well, it is all good.
Okay, that is enough of a start for now. I hope all is well with everyone. Spoke with the Ogre yesterday, so I know what he's doing.
Respect each other
I upgraded from cat 5 to cat 4 on the road side of racing things. They also changed to categories on the mountain bike front, and I am a cat 2, go figure. It really sounds a lot better than it actually is, I remain a guy who is a bit too girthy or distracted during a race to be a real threat. It is my goal to remedy that side of things. Anyway, I got my rankings for both road and mountain at the beginning of the season, I am hoping to improve the overall but will put everything down to keep track as the season progresses.
USCF Criterium Cat 4 Standing:
Rank in zip code - 1
Rank in state - 12
Rank in riding age (37) - 15
Rank in 5 year age ranger (35-39) - 73
Rank in 10 year age range - (30-39) - 119
Overall rank - 348
NORBA cross country standings
Rank in zip code - 1
Rank in state - 3
Rank in riding age (37) - 6
Rank in 5 year age range (35-39) - 29
Rank in 10 year age range - (30-39) - 41
Overall rank - 161
Now I just have to put the work in and get moving up.
I started doing my base training which included an epic ride in 50mph wind gusts and brutal snow squalls that took place on New Years Eve. Sunday was a two hour effort in 24 degree weather, which was not actually the stupid part. The part that got to me was that it took place at eight in the morning. Being that I have no kids or real responsibilities, I don't see why weekend rides should start prior to ten. Yesterday I pulled myself out of bed to do a 6am class at Cadence, which is just ridiculously early. It is funny that it does not require my getting out of bed any earlier than I would if I was heading to work, but just the riding that early gets to me. I also doubled up by doing the evening movie and a spin down there. Unfortunately I was not really ready for the second part, went out too quick and blew myself up. Oh well, it is all good.
Okay, that is enough of a start for now. I hope all is well with everyone. Spoke with the Ogre yesterday, so I know what he's doing.
Respect each other
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