"Happiness is a warm puppy."
- Charles Schultz
So, what's new since my last post? Hockey was good on Sunday. We had a big snowstorm in the morning, so I figured we might be short on skaters Sunday night. As it turned out, just about everyone showed up, we had 4 or 5 guys on the bench. I actually played pretty well; at least I felt like my "hockey fitness" was better than it had been all year. I don't know if it was the change in workouts or what, but it was good. The strange thing about the game was that I thought our side should have been much better than the other side (even though the best player was on the other side), but we got blown out. We had trouble breaking out of our end and we had trouble scoring, but in between, we were pretty good. ;) Our side did a lot of flying around and a lot of work, but we didn't really get much done.
Tuesday night was another strength workout. After doing only bodyweight exercises last week, I went back to using the weights some this week. No issues there, but the workout turned out to be longer than I like. It ended up taking an hour and 10 minutes. I prefer to keep my strength workouts to 45-50 minutes if I can. Workout quality can start to suffer if I go too long.
Last night I went outside and ran some hill sprints. I worked a little late, so it was dark by the time I got out to run. The road was a little snowy in parts, but not too bad. More distracting than the road was the German Shephard tied up at the top of the hill. He'd start barking like crazy every time I'd get up to the top. I ended up doing 8 sprints (run up, 15 pushups, walk down, immediately run up again). I felt like the running wasn't too hard (maybe the snow kept me from going full speed?), but the pushups caught up to me. Still, I was feeling pretty tired after I got home. I've also noticed a little soreness in my legs today, so I guess it was a good workout.
My upper body is not recovering from the workouts as fast as my lower body (probably because it's not used to being worked so frequently), so I'm probably going to give the upper body a break tonight. I'm not sure exactly what I'll do, go run or use the jump rope.
I start my Christmas vacation tomorrow. I may go skiing someplace local tomorrow (there are two small ski areas within about 15 minutes of my house). We'll see.
Video of the barriers at Stony. See, no hop!
Me and Sarah in Georgia over Thanksgiving.
I played hockey again on Sunday night. For some reason, I never seem to play as well on nights when I don't race as I do on nights when I have raced... doesn't make much sense to me. Anyway, my legs felt dead and I didn't play particularly well. I think part of the problem was my nutrition over the weekend. I didn't do a very good job about eating lots of fruits and veggies; which means, on the Paleo diet, not too many carbs. I'm sure it had nothing to do with me not being able to stay out of our leftover Halloween candy corn...
The second weird thing was that there was an on-ice "incident" earlier in the day that had the rink running about 30 minutes behind schedule. We found out from the Zamboni guy that someone had fallen and hit his head pretty hard during open skate. Anyway, it meant that we started late, and finished late, and so I only got 5.5 hours of sleep. (Not that there's really a huge difference between 5.5 and 6 hours of sleep.) I'll get to bed early tonight though.
Also, a nice article about why people do what they do, and a link to a quick story about a 95-year-old man who set a new (age group) World Record in the 100m.
Brian, before his derailleur exploded... I was looking for a picture of him running, but no one seems to have gotten that.
Sunday was the Lower Huron cyclocross race. I didn't expect much going in; as I posted on Thursday, I was pretty tired by the end of the week. I did decide to skip my ride Thursday night, but I did a hard trainer ride Friday and a semi-laid back mountain bike ride Saturday. I had a pretty bad race at Lower Huron last year too. It was cold and rainy, I made a lot of little mistakes and my fitness wasn't very good. So, like I said, I wasn't expecting much.
One of the things that happened last year was that I got snowed under at the start. The begining of the course was basically the same this year, there was a long paved straight (into a strong headwind) ending in a sharp left-hander. At the whistle, I went hard, but nothing too crazy. We quickly formed into a line I think, I don't know because I ended up second in line! I was OK with that, I figured I'd just sit there and let this guy pull me to the grass. About 3/4 of the way down the straight, another guy pulled alongside the first and they rode next to each other. No problem for me, now I had two guys blocking the wind for me. Unfortunately, that was the last time I got any help in the wind.
Things were pretty close on the first lap, the first two guys had pulled away a little, but there were a few of us trading spots behind them. When the course doubled back on itself, I could also see that a chasing group was close.
For the second lap, I was right with a Cycle to Fitness guy. I had passed him going onto the pavement, and he wasn't interested in helping me out in the wind, so I pulled him all the way down. He passed me back running through the sandpit. This basically was how the race went until near the end. He and I were swapping spots back and forth. Usually I could work by him on the open flat parts of the course, and then he'd run hard and make it up.
On the third lap, the CtF guy had opened a little gap by the time we got to the pavement, but I pushed and closed it before we hit the grass. I had planned to back off the pace just a touch on the third lap, but I didn't want to back off too much. I knew that two other Rhinos were just behind me (in talking with them after the race, this is where they thought they could catch me). The CtF guy looked like he was tiring a little bit about halfway through the lap, so I attacked and tried to open a gap. He went with me though, so I didn't get my gap. This was the point, I think, where we gapped the group chasing us.
On the fourth lap, I was in front on the pavement again, I tried to use some lapped traffic and the edge of the road to keep him from getting a good draft, but I don't think it helped much. Things were still tight until a barrier section about halfway through the lap. My rear tire hit the second barrier hard and I dropped my chain. I got it fixed pretty quickly; I kept expecting the guys behind me to come by, but they didn't. The damage was done though, the CtF guy was way ahead of me, and, unless he had a problem, I knew I wasn't going to catch him. I worked hard for the rest of the lap, but nothing unusual happened, and I cruised in for 5th place.
The other notable point about the race involved our new Rhino, Brian. Brian's rear derailleur exploded (for some reason unknown to us) at the start of his last lap. Instead of DNF'ing, Brian picked up his bike and ran it the rest of the way through the lap! If I had thought faster, I would have taken my bike to the pit and let him use it. At that point though, my bike was in the car, and it didn't occur to me until it was too late.
Anyway, 5th place... by far my best finish of the year, and my first podium (thankfully, the podium in 'cross is 5 places). A couple things contributed, first, some of the usual faster guys weren't there. Still, I beat English Mark, and he's been consistently beating me all year, so that wasn't the only reason. Second thing is that my high-end fitness is finally here. Basically, I was able to push for the whole race (unlike Stony, where I could only push for about 20 minutes), and I felt strong enough to make some tactical decisions, like my couple hard efforts on the third lap.
I had the realization yesterday that this week is sort of my last "hard" week of the year. True, I'll still go hard during the upcoming Peak phase, but volume is reduced enough that it seems much easier.
It's been a little while since I last posted. Not too much new going on; I'm feeling really good right now, which is typical for me during the Build 2 phase (at least, until the end of the week, when I'll be feeling very fatigued). I had a great interval ride on the mountain bike last Friday night. I rode the trainer early Saturday morning, since I was at the Michigan game basically all day. Sunday, I did a short backyard cyclocross practice and played hockey at night.
I'm still doing the Paleo nutrition thing (I've decided I shouldn't call it a diet). I've actually been spending a lot of time cooking and preparing food over the past few days. It's kind of a pain to cook so much, but I do like eating "real" food all the time. I suspect I'll get a little more efficient as I do it more too.
Basically, my impressions of this nutrition plan haven't changed since my last post. I'm definitely eating a higher volume of food, but it's low enough in calories that I need to be careful to eat enough (this is, I guess, how people lose weight on low-carb diets). The other feeling I get now is that my head is very clear all the time; I'm not saying I was foggy before, but I can't think of a better way to describe it. I also haven't been bonking badly (or at all) in my workouts like I expected (from what I've read, this is common at first for people changing to a Paleo nutrition plan).
I've been reading The Paleo Diet for Athletes by Loren Cordain and Joe Friel. Obviously, I'm not looking to make diet changes to lose weight, but to increase performance and increase my resistance to getting sick. Essentially, the recommendation of the book is to eat only lean meats, seafood, fruits and vegetables except for certain periods of time before, during and after exercise, when you need to take in more carbohydrates for energy.
I'm not quite finished with the book, but I've been gradually implementing some of the changes. Here's what I've noticed:
1. If I do this, I will need to eat a higher volume of food. Meat and fruit and vegetables are nutritionally dense, but they tend to not be calorically dense. I worked out a sample menu the other day, and I'd need to eat about twice the volume of what I eat now to get the same amount of calories.
2. One of the features of this diet is that you're generally eating foods lower on the glycemic index. I've noticed the impact of this change already; I'm not feeling energy surges and lulls during the day as much as I did before.
3. I recovered really well from my racing and hockey on Sunday. I also slept a lot Monday and Tuesday nights (9-10 hrs each), but I've never felt so good on Tuesday night since I started hockey. I'm not sure if this is a result of the diet or being good about getting to bed.
4. I followed the book's recommendation for pre-workout eating last night before 'cross practice, which is quite a bit different than what I'd normally eat. I don't know if that was it, or if it was the sleep, or something else, but I do know that I threw down in our mini-races last night. My legs felt good and I rode really well. (At least I rode well for our first mini-race. I crashed twice on the second one, so it was harder to judge... but I was riding near the front until the second crash.) When we gathered again after the first race, people were like, "What's gotten into you?"
So, I don't know if it's the diet or what, it seems like it's too early for me to notice a difference, but points 3 and 4 are really what Friel is saying will happen. The idea is that you recover faster (and don't get sick as much!) so you can do high-quality workouts more frequently... and that's how you get faster!
And this old man in front of me
Holding canes and ruby rings
Is like containing an explosion when he sings
But with every chance to set himself on fire
He just ends up doing the same thing
- White Stripes "Little Cream Soda"
Another weekend, another 'cross race. This time at Stony Creek. The weather has been wildly different every time I've done this race. In '05 we had snow, in '06 the weather was mild, and this year it was hot and humid.
The course was pretty typical for Stony, there's only so much they can do there. The defining feature was probably the long running section along the beach. First, you had to go through a sand volleyball court (which was rideable), then a short stretch of grass before you hit the beach. The beach section was long and had a couple turns, so the C-racers were running it. Once you got off the beach, there was a short uphill section leading back to the start/finish line. Definitely tough going.
I'd been questioning my effort a little bit over the past few races. Not that I was out there cruising, but I felt like I had a little too much left at the end. I've also been disappointed in the way I've been getting hung up at the start. So, this week, I went hard at the start. I wanted to get to the first relatively tight corner near the front, since I figured people might be slowing more than necessary there or crashing. I didn't get a great start initially, but I worked my way up quickly and was maybe in the top 15 by the corner. Fortunately, my concerns were unfounded and everyone made it through the corner OK.
I had planned to back off a little a little at that point, but I didn't. There were several guys in front of me that I knew I could beat (and aren't great technical riders), so I wanted to get around them early. I did get past these guys pretty quickly, but the result was a pretty intense first lap.
Things were spreading out by lap 2. Again, I thought about backing off, but I could see that English Mark wasn't too far ahead of me, so I tried to keep that gap constant. Another pretty fast lap.
At the start of lap 3, I knew I had to back off or I was going to blow up big time before the race was over. So, I backed off and let the gap in front of me open up. I had a big gap to the group behind me, so I was hoping I could more-or-less keep it until the end. By the end of the lap, I was really suffering. I stalled about halfway through the volleyball court and had to get off and run. I also slowed down a bit running on the beach.
I tried to pick it up again for the last lap (and my lap times show that I did, a little), but I was about cooked. This was the first 'cross race this year where I really felt like quitting on the last lap (I also felt like throwing up). I actually take this as a good sign; I usually have my best races when I've gone hard enough to feel like quitting on the last lap. Anyway, I didn't have much punch left in my legs, and I got caught and passed by the group behind me. I nearly picked off one of these guys going to the line, but he saw me coming and turned it up enough to keep his spot. So, another race, another 11th place.
So, there were a couple good things that came out of this race. One was that I was really happy with my effort, even though I misjudged the pacing a little bit. I had nothing left by the end of the race. The second thing was that I can now say I've stopped the hop! All of my remounts were good (in terms of hopping) except the last one, which is saying something since I was off the bike 3-4 times per lap. Now I need to work on finding the pedals quickly when I remount.
Hockey was tougher than usual Sunday night. It was humid in the rink, and I think I was feeling the effects of going harder in the race. I was involved in a big collision where one (or both) of us wasn't watching where they were going. My neck was sore from it last night.
(Geometric Apex)
(Late Apex)
Before I forget, I timed a typical practice interval at the track this week. 4 laps on our course this week took me roughly 10 minutes (I forgot to stop my watch immediately when I finished, so I'm not exactly sure, but it's close enough). So, relative the UCI race this past weekend, that's equivalent to one lap; on a more typical course around here, it would be equivalent to about a lap and a half. Since we've mainly been doing 4 lap intervals at the track this year, it explains why I misjudged my pace on the first lap on Saturday.
(That's me on the far left.)
Afterward, I went home and got cleaned up, then I came back for the Elite race. There were some big names there, Jonathon Page, a former Swiss nat'l champ, the Canadian nat'l champ, Adam Myerson, Steve Tilford, plus all of the local fast guys. The whole thing was really cool; the pro's are extremely fast.
“Fatigue makes cowards of us all.”
- Vince Lombardi
(For Dad and his Michigan football rant.)
I didn't quite escape last weekend without getting sick. I haven't felt really bad, but bad enough that I didn't train for the past few days. I don't think it was the heavy workload that got me so much, but the lack of sleep on Sunday night. I've been going to bed early most nights this week (I was in bed by 7:45 last night!), but I'm still not quite back to normal.
At least I feel good enough today that I'm going to go ride a little. It's cool enough outside today that I haven't decided if I should ride inside or outside. I'll keep the intensity low and the duration low and see how things go. Maybe I'll work on my 'cross skills in the backyard for a while too. Like I mentioned before, this year I want to "stop the hop" (nip the skip, ditch the hitch, shutter the stutter...).
My copy of the Mountain Biker's Training Bible showed up yesterday. It is in extremely nice condition for a used book; in fact, I really wonder if it was used at all. I've only flipped through it a little, but there seem to be enough differences that I'm happy that I bought it.
My throat's been sore all day today. The club is hosting a cyclocross training race tonight, and I was planning on going, but now I'm going to skip it. This is one of those times where you have to do the smart thing, and not what your ego wants you to do. It's the difference between being able to train tomorrow, and being sick for several days.
The Stony XC results are up. As I thought, I finished 7th out of 10 in my class (I left before the results were posted on Sunday to start resting). I spent a little time comparing lap times. I still have to knock of 1-2 minutes per lap (on a ~35 minute lap) to be among the top guys in my class. Significant, but certainly within my abilities; it also goes to prove my impression that I wasn't getting shelled in the singletrack. Also consider that Stony is a trail that I know very well.
I also checked the Expert class times. It was interesting to see that they weren't going that much faster, maybe another minute or so faster per lap than the Sport guys, but they have to do one more lap. So, another 2-3 minutes per lap faster, plus a lap longer, and I'd be hanging around the back of the Expert pack. The extra lap probably wouldn't be an issue, but, of course, doing them all faster is! Still, this also seems like it should be within my ability to do, eventually.
From a fitness point of view, the race was just OK. I could tell that I hadn't raced for two months. The race went like mine usually do, I got gapped early on, but people started coming back to me late on the second lap.
The surprising thing about yesterday was that I was reasonably quick through the singletrack. Were people still pulling away from me here? Yes, but not like they did in the Marathon race. I'm definitely getting closer to where I need to be. One of the things I've really been working on is to try to stay relaxed, particularly with my upper body, and this really seems to be helping.
Just one race story to share. On the last lap, I caught and passed an RBS guy on the two-track just before the Pines. He really looked done for when I went by. After the last section of singletrack, I looked over my shoulder and saw that he had come back a little. I decided, whether he was in my class or not, that I wasn't going to let him go by me. So I put in a really hard effort for the last ~2 miles to try to drop him. About 40 yards from the finish, you had to take a long left hand turn on a paved road. I made it to the road, figured I'd dropped him, and backed off just a touch (without looking back). That's when I heard the whir of knobbies on pavement just to my right and saw that he was still there and trying to go around me! I punched it and outsprinted him to the finish. I talked to him for minute after the race, and found out that we were, in fact, in the same class.
After the race, the next priorities were sleeping and eating, to recover for the hockey game that night. I felt reasonably good by the time I left for the game, and, in fact, the game went pretty well. I think a big part of it was that most of the other guys were not in such good shape, since this was our first skate of the year, so my fatigue wasn't so obvious.
I'm really dragging today though. Today is an off day. I'm thinking I may go for a short recovery ride tonight, just to get the blood pumping and loosen up a bit, but we'll see how I feel.
