Meduim Durometer Man

I went for a 2 hour ride with Clayton today. It was a little on the cool side, not cold enough for me to earn "hardman" points, but cool enough to register on the durometer scale.
The early part of the ride was a talking pace with some force on the pedals. We opened things up a bit on the return part of the trip and I saw some glimmers of speed out of my legs. It was a good ride. I'll have a lot of free time over the next week and I'm looking forward to putting a few more road miles in the legs. The spring racing is less than 3 months away and it's time to think about sustaining some effort.

Squats and Shoes

4 sets of 5 reps @ 155lbs.

Ancillary work:
GHRs
Reverse Hypers @ 70lbs

I felt pretty good with the weight today. One slightly shaky rep in the 4th set, but that's because I got loose in the hole.


I went to Cycle Center and got some mountain bike shoes. I raced yesterday and have been riding on platform pedals and tennis shoes and my shins have paid the price. It will be AWESOME to have a full pedal stroke on the MTB!

V

Today, I raced a mountain bike for the very first time and I had quite a lot of fun doing it. It was a 2 lap, 11.6 mile event and I was racing the beginner class (Cat5). Since I've never raced in the woods before and didn't really know what I was doing I just wanted to go along for the ride, no expectations, no nerves. Racing without nerves (at least until I was on the line) is the way to go and I have to figure out how to do this on the road. Rebecca yelled "go" and we were off. My first two pedal strokes were weak but I was in the lead by my 4th stroke. I wanted the holeshot because the bridge a few hundred meters after the start line was slick. I hit the singletrack first and rode cautiously fast-ish. The trail was covered in leaves after the week's rain and wind, it was cold, and I wasn't all that interested in crashing since I was leading. One of my competitors was better at riding technical trails and was catching me in the "hard" section. I proceeded to take a wrong turn, and when I looked back he was going the other way. I turned around and thanked the cycling gods when the trail opened up and was conducive to fast riding. I rode like mad to catch him and finally did about 10 or 15 minutes after he passed me. I was content to ride behind him and recover for about a half mile. I made the pass and just rode my race. On lap 2 I almost took the same blasted wrong turn, but I stopped and made sure I was going the wrong way. There were some times during that lap where I wanted to slow down since I was pretty sure I had a good lead, but it was a race so I made sure to keep pressure on the pedals. Crossing the line first was an amazing feeling and I raised my arms in celebration. Then I put my finger to my lips in a "shhh" sign (stolen from soccer) because it's about time I silence those internal gremlins questioning if I can win a bike race.
My winnings were $40 worth of gift cards to Cycle Center, my first actual win, and the title of "Sandbagger", guess I'll race the next category up when I do another MTB race.

Trainer

Just a short 20 minutes on the RTD (Roman Torture Device). Trying to dial in my new Fizik Arione saddle. Hoping it works out. The nose is more narrow than the Specialized Alias I was on, so that's nice.
I know I'll be riding it more over the winter so I need to get used to it.

I Feel Slow

I went out Friday on the Road bike and tried to turn the 42-12 (94.5 gear inches) and realized that I am feeling really sluggish right about now. No real intensity has taken it's toll on my speed. That and the fact that it takes about 28mph to turn 100rpm on that gear. It's a lot more gear than I'm used to riding, but I need the strength. This time of year isn't about speed anyways, but it sucks to feel slow.

I went mountain biking today and snapped another chain! This is getting old because I don't really think these legs are putting out Chris Hoy amounts of power(+2000 watts). These quads and hamstrings are only so big, you know.
Fixed this one and I rode out. The guys I rode with had much more techincal proficiency than I do so it was a struggle to keep up. I was fine fitness wise, I rode with them easily in the wide-open smooth areas. It's just that I have not learned the art of flow. It was a good ride. It suits me to ride with people better than myself because I know I have to adapt or die, and I'm real competitive. That's how I best improve on the road, and it seems to work on the trails.

Exciting News

I was inviting to the Paracycling Winter Camp in Chula Vista next month. This one is a team camp, a step above the developmental camp I was at in September. So US Para knows who I am and wants me at their camp. Awesome! But I won't be going because I have finals that week. Hopefully I'll get an invite to the spring or summer camp.

Aggression

I was feeling hyped up and ticked off about something yesterday, not really sure what it was. Maybe it was the rain, it was dreary all day so grabbed the mountain bike and headed to the fort. The trails on the fort are flatish with a lot of sand and pine straw. The addition of rain made them slick and fun.
I rode hard for about 50 minutes and hit the sand a few times. I finished up covered in wet sand and felt much better.

Rain riding is perfect of fat tire knobbies.

2009 Has Begun

The training for the '09 season has started. My weekend training was eventful. I went to Harbison Forest to do some mountain biking Sunday. The sun was shining, the temperature pleasant, a perfect day to ride. I proceeded to break my chain 3 or 4 miles from the trail-head. SWEET, I got to walk the bike back to my car. I got home and decided a road ride was in order since my mtb ride was cut short. I ended up riding 2 hours. All but the last 2 miles were done in the 42/14. I have bent my 52 so I will be in the 42 until I replace the chainring. I'm riding the single gear to build some leg strength over the hills.
I also did some spin outs. I hit 162 rpms which makes for a new cadence pr and maxed my speed at 35.6 on that drill.
After my ride I had to split some firewood for the wood stove. Count it as core strength and power?

Monday:
Rowing warmup.

Deadlift
3 reps
4 sets
200lbs
Limited by grip strength here.

Ancillary:
GHRs
Reverse Hypers 60lbs