Fluidride

I was able to do a few longish rides this weekend. I went out to Stony on Friday night after work and rode for about 2.5 hours. I felt pretty decent, I think my little practice session last week helped with my cornering. I wasn't suddenly quick or anything, but I felt smoother than normal.

I alternate between feeling faster than last year and feeling slower than last year. In general, I sort of feel slow, but then I hit certain sections of trail or do certain rides, and I realize that I am still getting better. I should probably do a test again and prove it to myself.

I bought a new mountain bike DVD last week: Fluidride: Like a Pro. It is definitely more downhill oriented, but when I watched the preview and I learned something from the 30 second snippet, I thought it would be worthwhile. I watched it Friday night, and there's great material. I thought the format was very good: a little lecture, followed by some demonstration. The main instructor covers the material really fast, which is sort of a double-edged sword. For the first time through, it was probably too fast, but I think it will be good for repeated viewings.

(I love pictures like this where the rider is leaning so far!)

Sunday was my opportunity to try some of this stuff out. I rode over to my home trail, PLRA for a couple laps. I wanted to do two things: work on staying in a neutral position and try the drop technique they showed in the DVD. When I remembered to do it, I definitely descended and cornered faster and more comfortably in the neutral position. It's something I'll just have to keep working on to make a habit.

As for the drops, I used to always either try to roll a drop by pulling mostly up on my bars (at low speed) or bunny hop a drop (at higher speeds). The DVD explains why bunny hopping off drops can be a bad idea. The main drop technique on the video emphasizes shifting your weight back to lift the front wheel. Nothing new really, but they explained it in a way that worked better for me. Anyway, I tried this on most of the drops at PLRA (none are very big, 2ft, at most) and it worked really well, fast or slow.

Dirt Trackin'

I took both Monday and Tuesday off this week. I was definitely still feeling tired on Tuesday from my workouts over the weekend and from not sleeping enough on Sunday night. Actually, on Tuesday, I was feeling like my legs were really strong, which usually happens right after I've been riding a lot and right before I get sick. That seemed to be another good reason to take Tuesday off.

After the extra rest, I felt much, much better on Wednesday. I had to ride the trainer though, since I had some childcare duties Wednesday night. I did the Spinervals "No Slackers" DVD. It's always a good ride...

So, Thursday, I was going to go easy again (trying to peak a little for the Marathon race next weekend). I grabbed my singlespeed and some cones and went out to a little gravel parking lot near my neighborhood. I set up the cones to make a corner, and started drilling the corner. Pretty interesting session... The gravel was so loose that I ended up "dirt tracking" most of the corners (my inside foot off the pedal). I learned (or experienced) a few interesting things:

1. The bike definitely corners better with the outside pedal weighted. I mean, really weighted.

2. I tend to keep my weight too far back, which tends to make the front end wash out.

I would have kept going, but I'd already spent almost an hour there, and I thought I should spend a little more time with the family.

Pentwater Ride

I was in Pentwater over the weekend to visit the family. I brought my road bike and tried out a route I found on MapMyRide.com. It ended up being a really nice route through farm country. Very little traffic and (mostly) smooth roads.

I went out to Stony Creek on Sunday to continue preparing for the Marathon race. I ended up not riding the Pines at all; I talked to another rider at the trail who said that part of the trail was in very bad shape from the rain. It was basically a good ride. I did notice that the bike handled much better with the trued up rear wheel. Who would have guessed? I suppose I'll have to keep an eye on that now to make sure it doesn't get too bad.

Musings

This week has been pretty good for training. I got out Tuesday night and did a little power workout at Waterford Oaks. I did a hard cruise interval workout on the road Wednesday night, and last night I did a fairly easy endurance ride at Stony. I am now "super uphill logpile man"... OK, maybe not, but after riding the (pretty easy) one at Brighton, I decided I needed to ride the (bigger) one at Stony. I cleared it both laps, no problem. I think being able to do this is a result of working on my balance over the winter; a lot of it is also mental, of course.

I did some work on my mountain bike last night after the ride. I got the wheel trued up. I took the tire off to do it, and I was pretty happy with how quickly I was able to seal the tire back up. Definitely easier than the first time. I got my new rear derailleur about half on (I bought this derailleur in May '06, when I thought I had damaged mine... it turned out to be a bent hanger instead). I noticed that the spring felt stronger than on the broken derailleur, maybe this will help with my chain falling off?

A couple of musings on bike handling:

1. I'm thinking that having a rear wheel noticeably out of true is a "bad thing" for bike handling. Imagine cornering near the limit with the bike leaned over. Your tire is happily holding the line, then it reaches the spot where the wheel is out of true, and the tire (and therefore, contact patch) moves over. I think you would at least feel this, and if you were truly at the limit, it might be enough to push you over. It will be interesting to see if I notice a difference now that my wheel is true again.

2. I think my priorities for picking lines on the trail are screwed up. I put too much weight on avoiding little obstacles and not enough on the geometrically better line. This is one of the things that makes me slow.

3. Another thing I need to focus on is keeping my weight balanced over my pedals. It's a little hard to explain (but easy to feel), but when your weight is really being directed through the pedals, control (and grip!) is so much better.

Stage 3

"Race results live on Google forever."'

For as bad as my racing was on Saturday, Sunday was worse. To make a long story short, I DNF'd. It was the first time I've ever dropped out of any race. According to Weather Underground, the temperature at the race start was about 95F, with humidity about 50% (so, heat index 105F)!

I felt reasonably recovered after Saturday; I knew I wasn't fresh, but I certainly didn't feel bad. I drank plenty of water prior to the race, and I still went through a warmup (although I did cut it back a bit). I tried to hold back a little at the start. I put in one semi-hard effort at the beginning of the race. Basically the group split very early and I was in the wrong half of the split, so I bridged up to the front group. I didn't feel like that effort put me in too much difficulty.

About 2/3 of the way through the lap, I started feeling really bad. I couldn't develop much power and I wasn't able to focus. Shortly after that I felt a few chills. At that point, I rode at a fairly easy pace and called it quits once I got to the start/finish area. I was convinced (and still am) that I would have crashed badly (or worse) if I'd continued on. I'm disappointed that I DNF'd, but I still think it was probably the right decision.

So, what happened? Probably a combination of racing on Saturday and the heat. We haven't really had many hot days this Spring, so the heat and humidity were a bit of a shock this weekend. On the other hand, a bunch of other people raced both days in the same weather I did. In hindsight, I wonder if I would have been better off drinking some kind of sports drink during the race rather than plain water (or, maybe I should have taken my gel sooner?). I tried sports drink once before during a race and I didn't like it, it sort of congealed in my mouth and then I didn't have any plain water to rinse it out. Maybe I didn't really drink enough water prior to the race, but I think that I did.

Anyway, I'm glad that weekend is behind me. I've got to do a little work on the bike, thanks to the Saturday short track crash: my rear derailleur is broken and my rear wheel is out of true. The next race I'm doing is the Stony Creek Marathon, just three weeks away. Last year, this was a hot one too.

Brighton Stage Race: 1 & 2

I raced the first two stages of the Brighton Stage Race today, the time trial and the short track race. How can I best summarize my day? I crashed, and then I crashed some more.

Stage 1 was the TT. I made it through the 2-track / road start and just barely into the singletrack before I went down for the first time. I think the front end started to slide, and then bit, and somehow this caused me to go down. The killer was that I dropped my chain and it seemed to take forever to get it back on (it always does). I fell again about a minute or two later, just about the same way, but my chain stayed on. Then about 5-10 minutes later (with someone right behind me) my front tire slid on a root and I fell again! The second two falls didn't slow me down nearly as much as the first, but falling that much really screws up your focus. To top it off, my bike was ghost-shifting like crazy.

I didn't expect to set a great time in the TT, since the trail was pretty technical, but I thought I'd at least keep the bike rolling! I can't remember the last time I crashed so much in a race (actually, I can). Anyway, my effort earned me a last place finish in the class. I don't remember the exact time gaps now, but I was about 30s or so behind the next guy, and maybe 7 minutes behind the leader.

Between the stages, I at least was able to fix the ghost-shifting problem. It turned out that the low limit on the rear derailleur was way out. I'm thinking maybe the derailleur got bent (or somehow otherwise screwed up) on that first crash.

We had a decent turnout of Rhinos today, 6 in total I think. It was nice to hang out with them between stages: swapping race stories, contemplating tire pressures, etc.

The second stage was a short track XC race. Basically, cyclocross-style racing with no barriers; the course and the race were also very short. They lumped all of the Sport and Beginner riders into one mass start! There were maybe 50-60 people in the race! I lined up in about the 3rd row (if there really were rows). I started next to John, and it looked like most of the people immediately around me knew what they were doing...

At the whistle, everyone went pretty hard; my plan was to try to get to the front quickly to clear the traffic, but it didn't work out so well. The group made it through the first corner OK, but the second corner, a pretty wide off-camber right, was a problem. I thought I did OK holding my line, and someone to my right was bumping into me with their shoulder. I was actually expecting a little contact, so this was no big deal. But, at nearly the same time, someone sailed into my rear tire (after inspecting my bike afterward, I think it was actually my rear derailleur). Contact at two points was more than I could manage, and I went flying off the bike. It looked like 2 or 3 other guys also got collected in the crash. I know my bike was at the bottom of a pile of three bikes.

The other guys got their bikes and got going; meanwhile, I noticed my chain fell off (again!) and I had to get it back on while this huge field was streaming by. By the time I got going again I was dead last... just the old guys and kids in front of me (I'm not kidding! Like I said, they combined the Sport race with all the Beginners). So, I put the hammer down and started passing people. It actually went pretty well, but I had to get off the worn-in racing line a lot. Since most of the course was on a rough grass field, that felt like a lot of extra energy. About halfway through the third lap or so, I felt like I was back into the Sport field, and I backed the effort level down just a touch (I was definitely not riding at a sustainable pace up to that point). I was still able to make passes, just not quite as quickly. Near the start of the 5th and last lap, I started seeing Rhino jerseys. That spurred me on a bit and I buried it for the rest of lap.

I ended up finished 4th out of the 8 guys in my class in the short track race. I doubt I really gained much time advantage in the overall standings, but it was nice to finish with a decent placement. I had hoped to put a little more time into the other guys in my class, but there's only so much you can do in a 15 minute race anyway.

So, tomorrow is the cross country race: 18 miles or so. The trail is pretty fast and open, so it actually might suit me well. If I get a good finish, it might be enough to put me on the podium for the overall standings (since they go to 5 places). It depends on how much time I actually gained in the short track race and how much time I can gain tomorrow. Honestly though, I'll be pretty happy if I can just keep the rubber side down tomorrow.

RSS

I've "discovered" a new way to read blogs and other frequently updated websites: RSS feeds. I set up the Google Reader with feeds to all of my favorite blogs; then I just go to the Google site and it automatically checks for updates and pulls them in. I'm always looking for little efficiencies now...

There's a new article on Ross's website that's worth checking out.

I had planned to ride before work this morning, but I opted for an extra hour of sleep instead. I probably could have done it if I hadn't decided to stay up and watch the first period of the Red Wings game (yes, "stay up" means 9:30pm). I'll ride tonight instead. Sarah and Cora are coming back from Boston today, so tonight will be a little busier than I've gotten used to over the past few days.

Weekend Rides

With Sarah and Cora being in Boston this weekend, I've had some good opportunities to ride. Yesterday afternoon, I went rode over to PLRA and did a lap. It went OK, I was trying to push the pace a bit on the trail, and I didn't feel so good doing that. I've been having some allergy issues this week; I'm generally feeling better, but my nose fills up pretty fast out on the trail.

Today, I drove over to Brighton State Park and rode the trails out there. The next race I'm planning to do is a stage race out at Brighton. I've never ridden there before, so I thought I'd check it out.

The first race will be a time trial on the Torn Shirt Trail. I rode that one first today. It had some nice technical climbs and some pretty fast descents. I'm not feeling too confident about setting a competitive time out there though. I was probably descending too slowly... which is my habit when I don't know where I'm going.

The second race is a short track race which will not be on the trails, as I understand it. The third race is a cross-country race on Sunday. This is on the Murray Lake Trail. I wasn't sure about exactly which trails would be used, so I rode everything out there. The Murray Lake Trail was fun, a lot of it was open and fast. Racing out there will be interesting. I didn't see many trail features that would tend to spread the pack out.

Motivation Post, Part 27

It seems like every year I end up making some post about low motivation... well, here's another one. I started working on this a couple weeks ago, but I didn't get around to posting it (no motivation to post the motivation post?). It's probably better off that way, the original post was even whinier than this one. Who wants to read that?!?!

Basically, the situation is that I'm not sleeping quite enough, I've got a lot of work stress and the stress of the new baby (she's actually a pretty easy-going baby, I can't imagine what things would be like if she weren't!). This means that sometimes, even when I do have time to train, I don't feel like doing it. Then I don't train, and I feel bad about it, then I don't want to race, and feel bad about that, etc. I've gotten to the point where I don't even want to talk about it anymore with people who are kind (or foolish) enough to ask me about my training.

That negative cycle is obviously not going to get me anywhere. Here's the new plan:

A. I really need to be consistent about setting (and writing down) weekly goals. For me, this is key to getting the most out of my (now limited) training time.

B. During the week, I need to seriously consider working out in the morning. This may be my best chance of getting something done, especially if I'm wiped out by the time I get home in the afternoon. This seems to be what a lot of people with kids do to get their workouts in. Consistency is really what I've lost over the past couple months, and I think consistency is the most important thing!

C. I need to get back into the (bad?) habit of spending at least a little time reading cycling and fitness blogs and forums and posting on this blog. It sounds a little silly, but it is part of getting my head back into the cycling / fitness culture. It's actually part of the reason I started this blog in the first place.

I think that getting a little consistency back into my schedule will bring about a positive change in my attitude. The reality is, even though my training has dropped off significantly, I still seem to be doing enough to be getting better. I think I could get a lot done in 30-60 minutes per day during the week, with longer sessions on the weekend.

Singlespeed

I went out for a ride on my singlespeed Saturday afternoon, despite some chilly temperatures and occasional rain. Weekends are now prime riding time for me, and a little questionable weather isn't going to deter me...

I did what has become my typical mountain bike ride: home to Pontiac Lake and back. I don't ride the singlespeed too much on trails, and I've never ridden it on a trail as difficult as PLRA. So, it was pretty interesting.

First, on the road, on the way to the trail, I noticed that the bike is definitely undergeared (I'm running 33x17). It was a nice warmup since I really got my cadence up, but it felt pretty slow. I actually do have a flip-flop hub on the bike, and it's set up with a smaller fixed cog on the other side (33x15). The gearing would have probably been perfect, but I didn't really want to mess with flipping the wheel over, and I'm also not sure I'm ready for fixed gear riding.

On the trail, my gearing felt good. There was only one hill I had to walk (I did skip a section with a couple steep hills). I was surprised that I could really feel how much more efficient the singlespeed drivetrain is. I definitely felt like I was going faster than I normally do given my cadence and effort on the pedals. Not having all the drivetrain bits rattling around on the downhills was also nice.

Now the bad (sort of)... my singlespeed has a rigid fork and V-brakes. I also have relatively narrow tires (1.95in) running at high pressure (at least, compared to my new tubeless setup). So, it was a rough ride; I remembered why I like suspension forks. On the other hand, riding on a rigid fork regularly would probably be good for me to do. It forces you to relax and pick good lines; otherwise, your vision gets blurry and your teeth rattle out!

This ride also made me appreciate the tubeless setup I've got on my geared bike. I definitely have more traction with the tubeless setup. I'm not sure that there was a big difference in rolling resistance, but there was definitely a difference in grip.

Anyway, it was a pretty fun ride. My body held up pretty well to the gearing and the pounding. I may try to incorporate more singlespeed riding into my training. I think it would be good for those Force and Muscular Endurance workouts.

So, a rundown (mostly for me) of the things I'd consider changing on this bike.

- Wider tires. Tires are the only suspension I've got on this thing!

- Narrower handlebars, longer stem? I wasn't too happy with my position, too upright and wide.

- Better wheel nut wrench.

The Break

Hockey was much better on Sunday night this week. We had more of the regulars there, so the teams were more evenly matched. I didn't score this week (although I got close, from almost the same spot), but I played much better. Last week it seemed like I could couldn't catch a pass or handle the puck to save my life. On the topic of puck handling, a guy at work pointed me to this website. The previews for his stickhandling DVD's are worth watching.

Last night was one of my only nights this week with no commitments after work, so I went out to the track to ride with the Rhinos. My plan was to go easy, since I had a lot of time (and go hard on other days this week when I don't have as much time). For the most part, I accomplished that. I didn't do the time trial at the beginning of the formal group ride, and I generally just rode around at a pretty easy pace.

At the end of the night though, we did a short race. I lined up with the "A's and fast B's", since that's really where I belong (given that we split into only A's and B's). My plan was just to sit in the whole race and not contest anything. So, the race was 4 laps, and we were in neutral for the first half lap. I ended up around 6th or 7th position when we really started, and I just tucked into the group. My plan was working fine. Rob attacked about 2/3 of the way through the lap, and no one went with him. Once Rob came back, Matt made a little attack, but he didn't get far either. The pace was gradually picking up and the group was stringing out as we finished the first lap, but it was still reasonably comfortable for me.

When we hit the hill on the second lap, Mark W and Matt went hard. It sort of looked like it wasn't going to be a big attack at first, but it was. Being the scrawny guy that I am, I got up the hill pretty fast without much effort. At the top of the hill, I looked out and saw Mark and Matt were opening a big gap. There was one other guy with them and a 4th that looked like he was bridging the gap. I was at the front of the rest of the group. Since Mark and Matt were arguably the fastest guys out there, I decided that this was probably "the move", so I buried it to try to join the break. (What was that about taking it easy?) It was a pretty big effort, but I bridged the gap. I also did the right thing in the process by not stopping when I made it to the 4th guy, who hadn't quite caught on, but by continuing until I caught the break myself. That 4th guy never did catch on. I knew I was in trouble almost immediately after I caught the break. The other 3 guys had a little paceline going, and every time someone would pull through, there'd be a tiny surge that threatened to drop me. I hung on for the rest of the second lap and for the start of the third, but I knew there was no way I was going to hang on to these guys much longer. At this point, I remembered how this was supposed to be a relatively easy day, so I sat up, pulled off and did a little cooldown in the infield.

It would have been fun to hang on to the break a little longer (although I suspect they could have ratcheted up the speed a few more notches), but I just wasn't close to being strong enough to do it. Still, it was a good way to open up the legs a little, and I felt somewhat gratified that I correctly identified and responded to the winning move, even though I couldn't really do anything once I got there.

Escanaba

Wow, it's been a long time since I posted. I haven't been able to do a whole lot of riding since my last post. I got in some good rides last weekend. I also had a good skate at hockey last weekend. My team got crushed, but I scored our only goal. I ended up bruising my knee pretty badly though.

This week was a real mess. I only rode on Tuesday this week (on the trainer). I took a quick trip up to Escanaba later in the week for work, so there were another couple days shot. Then, last night, I did another ride on the trainer. It's pretty rainy today, so I'll probably ride indoors again.

I'm hoping next week will be better. I'm starting to think about how to get rides in at other times during the day, either in the morning or at lunch. I'm having a lot of trouble either making time to ride in the evening, or, if I do have time, feeling rested enough to make riding a reasonable proposition.

Bloomer XC - 2008

I got my first race of the season out of the way on Sunday, the Bloomer Park Cross Country race. I had a bad feeling going into it, basically because I knew it was going to hurt. My strategy for this race was to bury it at the start and ride with the leaders until I couldn't anymore. It's a hard way to go, but I usually get better results with this method.

I lined up in the second row, behind some Sport 19-29 guys. At the whistle, the two guys in front of me went out really fast, and I went right with them. The course starts out through some fields and wide open trail before it goes to singletrack. This year, the sledding hill was not part of the course, so there weren't any trail features to string the pack out before we hit the singletrack. I found out later that somebody locked up his brakes in the field section (!?!?) and that did spread the group out a little as people were trying to avoid him. I did wonder at the time why no one was coming around me; I'm not usually that fast at the start.

Anyway, it didn't take me too long before I realized that I'd probably gone out too hard. It was pretty clear that I wasn't going to be able to keep up with the first two 20 year-olds. I kept my position through the first section of singletrack, which had a decent little climb, but I started dropping back after that.

From then on, I just kept plugging away (and hoping for a mechanical to put me out of my misery). I felt pretty bad for most of the race, but I rode OK. My technical skills have definitely improved. Last year, there were some sections of this trail that tripped me up, but I didn't have any real problems this year. I did crash once on my last lap. My front tire just washed out in a sandy corner and down I went.

From about the halfway point until the end, I was basically riding with just one other guy. I wasn't sure if he was in my age group or not, but I decided to assume that he was to make sure I kept going hard enough. He was a little quicker on the tight singletrack, but I was faster on the climbs and open sections, so we kept switching positions. As we were heading back to the cricket field for the finish, I put in a last gasp effort and dropped him. (I talked to him after the race, and, no, he wasn't in my age group.)

I ended up finishing 4th out of 11. I was really shocked by the result. For as bad as I felt during the race, I expected my result to be a lot worse. That being said, I wasn't very close to the 3rd place rider; I was almost 6 minutes back! There was a decent gap behind me, another 3 minutes or so to the 5th place guy. I suppose it was a good race, given my current fitness and that it was only my 4th time out on a trail this year.

(Photo from John O's blog.)

Training Post-Baby

This week is a rest week for me. Usually, by Thursday, I'm feeling pretty rested, but it's not the case this week. I really thought I'd be able to sleep a little more than I have. The baby, of course, is part of the reason I'm not sleeping, but Sarah takes care of so much of the night duty during the week, I can't say that that's really the reason.

I've generally been able to make time to ride or do some other exercise at night and on the weekends. It's meant a few later nights than I'd like, but I've been able to do it. What's been getting at me lately is also practicing my trumpet. A friend of mine at work set up a gig and assumed that I would be able to play. He's really counting on me to show up (and play halfway decently), so I feel like I can't let him down. So, I've got to keep practicing for another week and a half. Once that's over, things should get a little easier.

I've done just a little riding so far this week. I went out for about an hour last night on my 'cross bike to Waterford Oaks and rode on some of the trails. They're not too technical, but, on a 'cross bike, they're pretty fun. It would be a good place for a 'cross specific workout once Fall rolls around.

Up A Notch

I wound up kicking things up a notch in my training this weekend. Friday night, I went on a ~3 hour mountain bike ride with Brad. We didn't push too hard, but my legs were dead by the end. He lives at the top of a long steep hill, which would be bad enough, but the dirt road was badly washboarded, so you couldn't keep any momentum. It ended up being a brutal way to end the ride. It's good for me to follow Brad around on the trails too. He's much smoother on the singletrack than I am.

I just did a pretty easy ~1 hour ride on Saturday to keep the legs loose.

Sunday night I started hockey with the new group. These guys were definitely a notch (or two) better than my Winter group. Basically, the group consisted of the better players from my Winter group, plus a bunch more that were as good or better. We had 4 guys on the bench, and we went hard the whole time. It will definitely be a good group for me to skate with.

Maiden Voyage

Yesterday I took my new (tubeless) wheels out for their maiden voyage on the trails. I guess I was sort of expecting to feel a huge difference from the tubed setup, but I didn't really. Maybe I would have noticed it if I'd already been riding the trails a lot and then switched, as it was, this was also my first trail ride of the year. Everything went off smoothly though, I ran the tires at 25 psi, and I hadn't lost any pressure by the end of the ride. Grip was probably better than with the tubed setup (where I ran higher pressures). I didn't notice rolling resistance being especially low, but I might have if I could have made a better back-to-back comparison.

Anyway, for a first ride on the trail, I actually felt really good. The first few minutes weren't great, but I got comfortable pretty fast. I think working on all of the balance stuff over the Winter really helped. I rode all of PLRA without having to dab, which I think is pretty good for a first ride.

By the end of the ride, I did feel like the rear tire was a little squirmy. I think I will try bumping up the rear tire pressure just a few psi and see if that takes care of the problem.

It looks like I'll be playing hockey a little more this Spring. The group I played with this Winter had our last skate on Sunday night. On Tuesday, a guy from the group emailed me to see if I wanted to play with a group this Spring. Since my racing schedule is pretty light this Spring, I decided to go ahead and do it. So, hockey resumes for me this Sunday night again.

Rhino Pacing

I ended up going out to the track last night for the club road workout. I hadn't originally planned to do it; they were predicting heavy rain earlier in the day. It turned out that the storm blew North of us, and since I'll be watching the baby tonight and tomorrow night, I figured that this was my chance to get out and ride.

We had a big turnout, maybe 30 people or so. This was the second week at the track, but the weather was miserable last week so only a handful of people showed up. Lots of new faces too.

We spent the first part of the night just working on getting comfortable riding in the group. My group riding skills could still use some work, but I'm definitely getting better at this. Then we spent the last hour basically riding tempo around the track. A few of the stronger riders (or those who thought they were strong) rotated up front and the rest of us just sat in behind them (thus, "Rhino pacing"). I felt pretty good doing this until the last 10 minutes or so. Not too bad considering how long I'd been sick.

While riding in line, I had the thought that this kind of riding is probably why the better 'cross racers usually come from the road side rather than the mountain side (Simon Burney makes this statement, but doesn't explain it, in his book, Cyclocross). Even though you definitely have some hard bursts in a 'cross race, the effort is generally fairly steady. So, it's more similar to the road rather than the trail. Maybe this is something I need to think about in terms of training as 'cross season gets closer?

I'm not sure how the rest of the week will go for me. Sarah is going to go to the rink for a while tonight and tomorrow night, so I'll be watching the baby (so, no riding outside). Friday is open, but the weather forecast doesn't look good for Friday (or the rest of the weekend). The last race of the Rhino Spring Training series is Saturday, I'd like to do the B race, but Sarah is supposed to be at the rink at the same time; I could do the C race, but I don't know if it's worth it. Sunday is the first mountain bike race of the year; I'd like to do this also, but I still haven't ridden on the trail yet this year, so maybe it's not such a hot idea.

Riding Again

I'm 95% over my cold now, and I actually started riding again on Friday. The weather was pretty crummy on Friday, so I rode the trainer. I mainly worked on pedaling technique drills. The first few minutes were a big shock to the system, but I felt OK by the end.

Saturday morning, I went over to the track to watch some of the spring training races my club puts on. It was nice to see some of the guys, and the "B" race in particular was pretty entertaining to watch. We had 3 Rhinos in a 5-man break, and somehow managed to finish 3,4, and 5. That's how it goes I guess. Saturday was really nice in terms of weather, but it was almost dark by the time I was ready to ride, so it was back on the trainer again.

Yesterday, I rode outside around noon. I did the route from my house through Pontiac Lake State Park to Indian Springs and back. I ran into a couple guys from the mountain bike team at PLRA, so I stopped and talked for a few minutes. They said that the trail was muddy, but not too bad. If we get decent weather this week, it should be OK for the race next weekend. (I'm going back and forth about doing that race, it will really depend on how this week goes.) I ran into some more guys from the club at Indian Springs, but they were on the bike path and I was on the road going the other way, so we didn't talk. Anyway, it was a good ride.

I played hockey again last night, next week is our last skate. Since I hadn't played in 2 weeks, it took me a while to get going, but I felt like I played OK. I was on the same team with the best player in our group. After watching him a bit, I realized that the main difference between him and the rest of us is that all of his fundamentals are better. He's a better skater, stickhandler, passer, shooter, etc. than the rest of us, and when you put that all together, he's a much better player than the rest of us.

Training Reset

I went back to work yesterday. It was definitely a shock to the system; I was pretty wiped out by the end of the day. I'm feeling much better now, but I'm still a little sick. I took a nap for about an hour when I got home, and I got to bed at a pretty decent time last night. I feel like I'm really close to getting rid of this cold now.

I'm going to have to figure out what to do with my training; I've missed about 2 weeks with this cold and the baby. My original plan called for a rest week next week and then moving on to the Build phase. I'm definitely not ready for that right now, so I'll probably start over at Base 3 and see how that ripples down to my races.

Brief Update

So, it's been a while since I've updated this blog. "Real life" has been very busy. I went to the hospital late Sunday night with my wife, and on Monday afternoon, our daughter was born. It's been wonderful so far, but very tiring. I'm still a little sick (due, in large part, to not sleeping anywhere close to enough) and I haven't thought much about riding.


I go back to work later next week, so maybe I'll be able to start re-establishing what is normal, and try to figure out how to fit cycling in with that. In the meantime, I'm trying to get healthy and I'm honing my diaper changing technique.

Tire Lab

So, I'm still a little sick. I was feeling better yesterday and got on the trainer for about an hour for an easy ride; I think maybe that was a mistake. I felt worse this morning. So, I took things pretty easy today; even though I'm feeling better now, I decided not to ride at all. I did get out and shovel a little bit though... I can't believe it snowed again!

What I've spent most of the past couple days working on is getting my tires sealed up with the Stans Notubes system. I bought some new wheels from Stans: ZTR Olympic rims and Hope Pro II hubs. I'm using my Kenda Nevegal tires from last year. There are better race tires out there, but the Nevegal is a good tire, and, as it turns out, I think it was smart to start out with Stans on a used tire. I'm just using the yellow tape and sealant... no special rimstrip.

The first step in setting the tire up is to inflate it with just soapy water to help things seal. I spent about half an hour trying to figure this out with the first tire. This is where using a used tire helps, since the bead is already basically the right shape. The devil is in the details here; watching the video on Stans website really helped. I eventually got it (with a floor pump)... it was pretty cool when it finally sealed, you could hear the soap bubbles snapping and the tire actually held air for a little while. (Like I said, technique matters, I inflated the second tire on my first try.)

The next step is to add the Stans sealant and shake it around to seal any pinholes and around the bead. Again, used tires help here because most of the pinholes have already opened up. This is where Kenda's are a pain though, because their beads are notoriously hard to seal. It took me about two days to get them sealed, but I think I've got it now. Both tires held their air overnight last night, and the "soap test" doesn't show any foam. The picture below shows a soaped up tire during the sealing process, you can see the foam from a bead leak on the lower left.

I'll probably take the tires out for a little spin on the road before I hit the trail, but I expect everything to stay sealed up now. I was also originally concerned about the tires blowing off the rim on a tubeless setup, but now that I've worked with it a little, I feel pretty confident that the tire will stay on the rim.

Setback

It looks like I'll suffer a little setback in training this week. I woke up this morning (actually, in the middle of the night) with a pretty bad sore throat. We'll see how it plays out, but I expect I'll get more sick before I get better. So, I'll try to follow my usual plan of sleeping a lot and not working out until I get better. It's hard on the ego, but I think I get better faster that way. (I also need to get feeling better before the baby comes!)

I don't even have to look back at my training log to know what happened. I strung together too many days of not sleeping enough, having stressful days at work, and following my training plan as-written. I can do that for a while, but eventually, my body decides it's time for some enforced rest.

Training Volume

Sunday was a good day for training volume. I went to the group ride at Indian Springs and rode for about 2.5 hours. It's normally a pretty boring loop, but if you've got 10 people or so to ride with, the time passes pretty fast. We kept the pace very relaxed... 15mph or so.

I played hockey again on Sunday night. I was much sharper this week than I was last week, but I ended up playing more defense than I'd prefer. I got my lone goal of the night on defense though... a piddly slapshot from the point that stayed on the ice and somehow found its way in. Only three more skates left and we're done for the season.

Base 2 Test

After sleeping in until 10am this morning (!), I did my LT field test on the trainer. It was a very good effort today, and I ended up averaging 256W. That's a nice improvement over the 243W I did last month, and, in fact, it's a new personal best!

So, the training has definitely gone well over the Winter. I still expect to be a little slow for the first few races of the season, but my focus is really on races in the Summer and Fall.

I've also gained a few pounds since last year, so my power to weight ratio isn't changing much, but absolute power is still heading up. For the races around here, I think that's just fine. I'm going to post more on that some other time though.

Riding Outside!

I've actually been riding outside for the past couple of days! It's still fairly cold (especially on a bike), but bearable if you're bundled up. The roads are mostly snow free; just a little bit on some of the rarely-frequented back roads. The worst of it was actually dodging all the potholes that have sprung up over the winter. Anyway, it's been nice to get outside.

The Sunday Skate

I played hockey again Sunday night. I had missed the week before, and I could really tell last night. My skating and puck-handling weren't very good at first and my decision-making process was slow all night. I blew a couple beautiful chances in front of the net... hopefully next week will be better. Just about all of our "high-energy" players were there though, so the game was (relatively) fast the whole night, which is always good.

I spent some time this weekend working on my bikes. I'm just going through everything, making sure bolts are tight, parts aren't worn, etc. My fork came back from Push Industries. I haven't had a chance to ride it yet (or even put it back on the bike), but I'll be interested to see how it feels.

I've got some races coming up pretty soon. The Rhinos host a spring training (road race) series that I'll probably do (pending arrival of the baby), which starts March 29. Then, the first mountain bike race I had planned for the year (Pontiac Lake TT) is April 13. Given the winter we've had, I'm not convinced that the trail will be ready by the 13th though.

I'm not really going to be primed for any of these races; I'll be starting my Base 3 phase next week. I'll basically just treat the races as hard workouts; they're a good opportunity to remind the body what a race effort feels like after the off-season. I'll also get a chance to see what kind of shape my competitors are in. ;)

Trainer Burnout

I did some long trainer rides earlier this week. About an hour and 45 minutes both Tuesday and Wednesday. I was going to try to ride outside this weekend, but they're predicting a snowstorm for Saturday, so I'll likely be inside then too. My trainer rides this week were good rides, particularly my tempo ride on Wednesday, but I decided I couldn't take another trainer ride tonight.

So, I went out for a little run instead. It ended up being just OK. The roads were still a little snowy and icy; I decided to walk up one road that was completely ice-covered. It had been about 3 weeks since I'd run last time, so it was a little rough. Anyway, it was better than the trainer.

POTATOES Update

I haven't posted much about the 2008 POTATOES challenge that me, my dad and my uncle are doing this year. We keep a log of trainer mileage on Google Docs; this year's "route" goes from Pentwater, MI to Murfreesboro, TN. I finally updated the spreadsheet with most of my February mileage tonight.

It looks like the field in the POTATOES challenge has been shattered! We're spread across 3 states! My uncle is still in Michigan... maybe he had a mechanical? Dad is crushing the field, he's just crossed into Kentucky. Looks like my detour to Rhode Island cost me, as I'm now floundering around in the middle, not quite to Indianapolis.

I don't think I'll be able to catch Dad. In fact, I'm not sure if I'll be able to make it to Mufreesboro by the end of the month... I've still got 360 miles to go.

No Ride

I went out to Stony Creek this morning for the ride. Yeah, it was a little cold, and yeah, we got some snow last night, but I figured the roads would be clear... I was wrong. Driving over, the roads weren't too bad (except in my neighborhood, of course), but the park roads were all snow covered. I decided that a ride would end badly, so I headed back home. I ran into Curt out there; he was thinking basically the same thing as me.

Anyway, I rode the trainer at home for a couple hours. Not too fun, but racing starts in a little over a month, so what can you do?

Working Base 2

“The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.”
- Vince Lombardi

Definitely a busy week for me this past week. I've been working a little late most days, so I haven't had time to do much else besides the usual eat-sleep-train. It's been a good training week though. I'm feeling good on the bike and strong off the bike.

Before my ride on Wednesday, I discovered that the saddle on my trainer bike was a little low. I was playing with my saddle tilt a few weeks ago, so maybe I effectively lowered the saddle when I dropped the nose a little. Anyway, it felt much better in the correct position.

There's a group that rides the road out at Stony Creek on Saturday mornings; I'll probably join them unless the weather is just terrible. I need to start riding outside, but the weather just hasn't cooperated much this winter. Sometimes the pace of this ride gets a little too high, but it should be cold enough tomorrow that the group won't be feeling too frisky.

Rhode Island Pictures

(Very) random pictures from Rhode Island...

The Weekenders

We made it back from Rhode Island yesterday; still just two of us, so it was a success. Sarah's teams did well at the competition. Both of the teams she coaches took 2nd place in their division. The other teams from the club took 2nd and 5th. In general, the teams did better than expected.

I took about a 2 hour nap yesterday afternoon when I got home. Being around the kids and parents and skating for so long wiped me out! (My 30 minute nap after work today also turned into a 2 hour nap!)

We finally had good numbers again at hockey last night. It had been about 3 weeks with only 1 or 2 guys on the bench; last night we had 5. As a result, the pace stayed pretty high until the last 10 minutes or so. The guy that runs the skate had a little extra money left over, so he got everyone jerseys. They're nice quality jerseys, but I'm not sure what I think about the color.

On Saturday morning, I ran the stairs in the hotel for a while. It was a pretty decent little workout; There ended up being 7 flights of stairs if you went all the way down to the basement. My calves have been sore ever since though. Hopefully, they'll get feeling better tomorrow.

Training Trip

With emphasis on the trip...

I had hoped to be putting more pictures up, but Sarah's been taking the camera with her, so I just have my phone. I can't pull the pictures off my phone since I don't have a microSD card reader with me, so those will have to wait until I get back. Maybe I'll try to commandeer the camera this afternoon.

Anyway, it's been a good training trip so far. I've been swimming in the morning and doing something else in the afternoon. Good meals and plenty of rest in between. I could get used to that.

I went for a run yesterday afternoon around the hotel. As I was running on a sidewalk along a pretty busy road, I heard a dog barking over my left shoulder (from the road). I turned my head to see what was going on (the dog was in a slow-moving car with the window down); at almost the same instant, I stepped into a big hole in the sidewalk. I stumbled; I almost saved it, but not quite. It was actually a nice fall... a good roll, elbow to shoulder to back... all on the grass next to the sidewalk. The guy driving the car asked if I was OK. Sure, I was OK... I would have been better if his dog hadn't been barking at me though. (No, I didn't say that.) From some not-so-good bike experiences, I figured the guy was messing with me. I think, in hindsight, he was probably making sure I wasn't going to run across the side street he was about to turn into. Anyway, no harm, no foul I guess.

I picked up the coaches from the rink in downtown Providence last night. It was during rush hour, so things were a little crazy. Providence seems like a cool city... really bustling at 5pm. I saw lots of bikers, including one messenger-type guy on a Surly road singlespeed or fixie.

My legs were a little stiff this morning, but swimming loosened everything up. I've enjoyed swimming in the morning. It's something I'm not used to doing though, so I'm surprised at how quickly it tires me out. I'll do some kind of Ross-inspired conditioning drills this afternoon. I'm saving my stair running for tomorrow night...

Rhode Island

I'm out in Rhode Island this week for Synchro Nationals. Not too much going on yet; Sarah's teams don't compete until Friday. The kids have some practices and are doing Brain Gym until Friday.

I got in a decent workout last night at the hotel. I did one of Ross's minute drills. My quads were just about locking up by the time I was done. I got some weird looks from the people floating around in the pool next to the "fitness center" in the hotel. The fitness center consists of 2 treadmills, some kind of recumbent stationary bike thing, and an eliptical machine. This morning, I found a second fitness room which was empty. The empty room will probably work better for my purposes. The hotel also has nice wide stairwells (6 stories worth) and a big field out front. Lots of possibilities... My only real disappointment is that there was no resistance equipment in the hotel; I assumed there would be so I didn't even bring my bands.

This morning, I got a little swimming in. The pool isn't too big, but it's just fine for my swimming abilities.

Cat Up!

I just renewed my USA Cycling race license this week. As part of it, I applied to be upgraded from cyclocross category CX-4 to CX-3. I didn't technically meet the upgrade requirements, but I felt my race resume was sufficient to upgrade anyway. For our local series, we don't use the USAC categories, and no one would care if I raced the B's anyway (in fact, I'm sure I would be pressured to race in the B's), but for the UCI races, maybe it would matter.

Anyway, I heard back from USAC this afternoon, and they agreed with me. So now, I'm CX-3! Not only that, the guy said I shouldn't race Cat-5 if I do any road events, so he also upgraded me to Cat-4 on the road!

At first, the road thing freaked me out a little bit at first, but I'd actually be more inclined to do more road events (ie- crits) as a Cat-4 than I would as a Cat-5. They call the Cat-5 criterium class the "Crash-5's".

LT Test - Base 1 - 2008

I did my first LT Field Test for the year this morning. The test after Base 1 is always a little bit of a shock to the system; the body just isn't used to going that hard on a bike.

Anyway, the test this morning went reasonably well. I averaged 243W, 10W higher than last year at this time, and only 11W lower than the end of Base 3 last year. I also rode a pretty fast first 10 minutes (which doesn't factor into the average power calculation, but it definitely influences performance over the last 20 minutes).

My only disappointment was that I felt like I could have gone just a tick harder. It wouldn't have pushed my power number up too much, maybe another 5W or so. I just didn't have that "shattered" feeling today that I usually have after I finish the test. But, basically, I'm happy with the result.

Here's a chart showing my progress through the Base phases (mostly) from 2006 to today.

Ready to Race

OK, mentally ready to race... not physically ready... yet.

I got myself pretty fired up to race last night. It's not entirely unusual for me to start feeling pretty good like that during a rest week, but last night, a lot of different things sort of converged. First, I spent some time working on bike handling in the garage. Usually, I do these rides on my singlespeed, just because it has flat pedals and the saddle is low right now. Last night, I decided to do the drills on my race bike (I just stood on the clipless pedals with regular shoes... slippery, but OK). Something about riding around on that bike just got me fired up for mountain bike racing.

Then, I went inside, with the intention of doing my "back-off" strength workout. Before I got started though, I decided I needed to hang up my Steve Tilford picture. Then I decided I needed to hang up my plaques from last year's cyclocross season. I've got a pretty good cycling wall going now... a Flying Rhino calendar, my autographed picture of Tilford, my plaques, and a big Lance Armstrong poster. Everything is easily viewable from my bike on the trainer.

Before I started my workout, I flipped open Ross's Infinite Intensity book (I was looking for some recommendation on exercises for a back-off day), and I happened to open it to a page with a few of his closing thoughts. This is what he wrote (the emphasis is mine):

"The human body is the most amazing system in the world. The potential of the body is largely unknown. Most people will never tap into even a fraction of their potential.

Do not make this mistake. Life is one big opportunity... If there is something you wish to achieve, you owe it to yourself to bust your ass until your dreams become a reality."

How could you go through all that and not be fired up?!?!

Sarah also got me some cookies for Valentine's Day. Hmm... frosting...

Banquet

Saturday night was the annual Flying Rhino club banquet. Sarah and I went and we had a great time. It was nice to see everyone again; club activity is pretty quiet during the winter months.

Jamie Smith was the guest speaker. He's releasing a book next month about cycling culture (road cycling in particular) that should be pretty good; the title is Roadie. Jamie's blog also has some cool videos of racing in Detroit in the 80's. His best line of the night regarding bike racers was: "We worry about our weight like prom queens." The video here is also worth watching.

The mountain bikers (all 3 of us) in the club were all there. Supposedly, there's a lot of interest in the mountain bike team for next year, maybe up to 15 people. We'll see how that turns out; we have a racers meeting next weekend.


Sunday night hockey was OK. We had a low turnout again, only 2-3 guys on the bench skating 4 on 4. It was really cold last night, so maybe that kept some people away? I don't know. Anyway, the past two weeks have been a lot of skating. I suppose that's good for me, but I prefer to have more guys on the bench so I can go really hard when I'm on the ice.

This week is a rest week. I don't really feel too fatigued, but I noticed that I was pretty moody over the weekend. For me, that's an indication that I'm getting tired and could use a little time off. So, I've got mostly easy workouts scheduled for this week, then I'm doing my first LT field test of the season on Saturday. It's always interesting to see where you stand. I'm feeling pretty good about it, but you don't know until you do it.

Heavy Snow

It's been another busy week; I can't believe it's Thursday already before I've had a chance to make a new post! Our childbirth class finished up this week, so that should help free up Tuesday nights.

Anyway, it's been a good week of training for me again. I felt like I had a very high quality strength workout on Sunday morning. I pushed myself hard without going overboard and doing anything stupid. Sunday night hockey was a little thin this week, since it was during the Super Bowl. The Zamboni guy turned the game on over the rink speakers; it was kind of fun, but you couldn't really understand what was going on, and most of us weren't paying attention. Since we only had a few guys, we played 4 on 4 for the first game, then went to 5 on 5 for the second. I think I prefered the 4 on 4; I played better with more space and time, and I appreciated the slightly longer rest on the bench (we only had 7 skaters per team!). By the end of the night, I was pretty beat.

I did a technique ride on the trainer Monday night. I watched the 2007 Cyclocross season highlight video put together by Masher's Media. I'd skipped through it before, but this was the first time I'd watched the whole thing. I really enjoyed it; it was fun to remember the races and see the other racers that I know.

Tuesday night was off. Like I mentioned, we've been going to a childbirth class every Tuesday for the past 4 weeks. Basically, I get home from work, eat, go to class, come home, eat, go to bed. It was a worthwhile class, but I'm glad it's done.

Tuesday night, we got a lot of freezing rain and a little snow, and then Wednesday afternoon, we got maybe 3-4 inches of pretty wet snow. So, the driveway was a mess last night. The wet snow was covering about 2 inches of slushy snow. I shoveled for an hour and a half before I called it quits. I basically got everything important cleared, but not as much as I would have liked. I decided that I didn't need to do another workout last night after shoveling.

Tour of California

I stumbled across a few links about the upcoming Tour of California (find official link). They're taking some new steps to try to keep the race clean (a little more clarification here). Hopefully it will help.

We're getting quite a bit of snow today. I think it doesn't bode well for me to get out and ride tomorrow morning, but we'll see. It's also supposed to be pretty cold in the morning, well below 30F, which is about my limit for a training ride.

I was feeling a little sick this morning, but not too bad. I really perked up in the afternoon, so we'll see where that goes. I got home tonight and did some fast-paced shoveling. We ended up with only 5 inches or so, but it was wet and heavy. After I shoveled, I took the bike out and practiced skidding around on the lightly snow-covered driveway. The balance practice is definitely helping; most of the time, I was able to skid to a stop and get going again without putting a foot down. I think the skidding practice was helpful too, I was starting to get a feel for how much I could slide (and how far the bike could be leaned) before it was a problem. This idea all goes back to a video I found last year.

I haven't slept anywhere near enough this week. I went to bed early last night, but Suzie woke me up 2 or 3 times, and I was stressed about work, so I didn't end up sleeping too well. Anyway, I'm looking forward to resting this weekend.

Big Chill

It's been bitter cold the past couple days, which has been a bit of a shock compared to the relatively mild weather we've been having. It's supposed to be a bit warmer tomorrow and into the weekend, but we're also supposed to get dumped on tomorrow, so I'm not expecting to ride outside for a while still.

I've had a pretty good week so far in terms of training. Monday was a speed skill ride and yesterday I did some "garage skills" and an off-the-bike strength and conditioning workout. I tried some of my usual garage drills with my "weak" foot forward. It was quite a bit tougher, especially the first few times.

I'm feeling a little run down today; mostly from not enough sleep this week I think. I'm going to take it easy tonight and hopefully get re-energized for a good weekend.

Running, etc

Here's the GPS data from my run this week.

I ended up riding on the trainer last night. Not my first choice, but I need to get used to pedaling the bike for a while again. Hopefully the weather warms up just a bit (at least, for the weekends), so I can ride outside.

Quick Week

It's been a very busy week, so I haven't had much time for blogging. It seems like all I do is eat, work, eat, train, eat, sleep... repeat. The big changes this week have been increasing back to a more "normal" training volume, cleaning up my diet and being more concious about getting to sleep on time (or early!). Some days, it doesn't leave a lot of time for other things, but those are the sacrifices I choose to make.

From a training point-of-view, it's been a good week. I've put in a decent amount of time in the garage working on very low speed balance and bike-handling stuff. So far, my favorite drill has been riding through a 4-cone slalom. I space the cones out at about wheelbase-length, then try to get through without letting either tire hit a cone. The tricky part is not letting your back tire hit the middle couple cones; your balance has to be good to go slow enough to do this. I think to go tighter than wheelbase-length, you may need to stop and hop a wheel to the side...

I got a nice run in on Wednesday night. It was dark, snow was falling, and the streets were basically empty. I took a picture with my phone, it probably didn't turn out well, and took my GPS. I'll try to post that stuff later.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do for tomorrow. I'm supposed to do a 2hr ride, but it's going to still be cold in the morning. I'm supposed to go to a diaper class with Sarah in the afternoon. (Who knew there was such a thing as diaper class?) I just hate to do long rides on the trainer.

Training Begins

"Success each day should be judged by the seeds sown, not the harvest reaped."

- Unknown (to me, anyway)

So, training begins in earnest for me today as I start my Base 1 phase. The focus is on developing skills (bike handling and pedaling) and trying to get a long ride in over the weekend. I'll ride if the weather is OK, but otherwise do cross-training. I try to limit my time on the trainer for Base 1.

I basically got over my cold late last week; hopefully being out late at hockey last night doesn't cause me any trouble.

Hockey was decent last night. I played OK, but I didn't feel particularly fit... not a big surprise I guess given that I didn't do much for the past few weeks.

Training Guidelines

"Skills pay the bills."

As I was madly planning my strength program last week, I got to thinking that, for most races anyway, my strength probably is not going to have the biggest impact on my results. (Certainly, strength work is important, but maybe not so important that it needs to be planned to the nth degree.) What was obvious to me last year was that what separates me from the top Sport racers is bike handling skills.

I've written numerous times before about how I need to improve my skills, but I've generally not gone after improving them the way I've gone after other aspects of my riding. In hindsight, I think this was a mistake.

Joe Friel wrote a couple "training guidelines" for novice mountain bike racers that I think maybe should still apply to me:

The first is "skills before fitness". I think he intended this to mean that you need to develop skills to the point where you don't crash before you worry about fitness. I'm obviously (mostly) past this point, but I think this is still a helpful guideline in terms of setting priorities. Taking the guideline literally, it means I need to do the important stuff first. So, work on skills before I go on my ride instead of after (when I might decide to skip it, or forget about it, or whatever).

The second is "speed before endurance". So, work on riding sections fast before you worry about riding the whole trail. In fact, this is basically how my very first mountain bike rides went. You ride a section, then stop (to catch your breath), then ride the next section. I've sort of dismissed this type of riding as "for beginners", but maybe it has more merit than I thought? The point for me here is work on riding technical sections at (or, ideally, above) race pace. My instinct for self-preservation is strong enough that I'm not going to ride a section significantly faster in a race than I've ridden it, or something similar, in training.

I think that following the "speed for endurance" model is also part of how I improved this year in 'cross. At our Tuesday night practices, I decided I would go as hard as I could for as long as I could. This got me used to riding sections at speeds higher than my race pace. I definitely benefited from this in the long run.

Down and Out in Boston

I made a quick trip to Boston over the weekend. I never quite got feeling good last week, and it finally caught up to me Friday night. Sarah and I were in Boston for her brother's wedding. We woke up early on Friday to catch a 6:30am flight out of Flint. I actually felt decent during the day on Friday, but as I was going to bed (relatively late) Friday night, I started to feel my nose filling up.

Saturday morning when I woke up, I had a full blown cold. I was pretty miserable all day Saturday (including for the wedding, yay!). I slept for a good chunk of Saturday afternoon; it helped a little, but not enough. I felt a little better yesterday, but still not too good. I got to bed early last night, which helped convince me to go to work this morning.

I was a little torn this morning. The bike racer in me wanted to stay home and go back to bed, but the guy with the day job in me decided it would be better to go to work. I was OK for a while, but at some point I decided to just finish what I had to finish today and then go home. Still, I didn't end up leaving until around 1pm.

I've just been lounging around since I got home. I watched Off Road to Athens for the first time. I thought it was great! Definitely a must-watch for any mountain bike racer. I don't know if it's because I was sick or what, but it got me teared up a couple times.

Anyway, I'm off to bed once I finish typing this. At a minimum, I need to get feeling better by next week, when I start my Base phase for 2008. Ideally, I'd like to get feeling better sooner and get some quality days in this week. We'll see how it goes.

Strength Benchmarks

Last night I set my pre-season strength benchmarks. I made a little chart showing where I am, where I'd like to get by the end of the base phase, and roughly where Friel says I should be. On the Friel numbers, I'm making the assumption here that target load is cut in half for the 1-leg variations, which makes sense I think.


So, my goals are to improve my lower body numbers to 120lb (I talked about this calculation last year). This works out to be about 20%. I think this is definitely doable over 3 months. For the upper body, I'd like to achieve a strength balance around my shoulder joint (note that the exercises break down to horizontal/vertical push/pull). There are some bigger percentages to go after here, so I don't know how feasible this is. I also want to be careful with the overhead pressing.

The other interesting part is that my benchmark numbers are already in the ranges that Friel recommends. So, I guess I'm thinking that the Friel numbers are too low, at least for the lower body. I think that building more strength in my lower body would help me go faster, even if it means adding a little weight. As for the upper body, my strength probably is good enough for racing. It's been a long time since my upper body has gotten fatigued during a race.

My throat has been pretty sore this morning. I haven't decided if/how I'll let this affect my workout plans for tonight.

2007 Hours

I finally got around to tallying up my training hours for 2007. The total damage was:

• Bike: 221.5 hrs


• Strength: 47.5 hrs


• Cross-training: 58 hrs


• Total: 327 hrs

It's interesting to compare this to 2006. I had a few more hours overall in 2007, but the mix is very different. I spent much more time on the bike, much more time cross-training, and much less time doing pure strength work. Looking at the 2006 chart though, you can see that my consistency was better. Especially early in the year, the undulating loading and unloading pattern is pretty obvious.

All Out

I played hockey again last night. It was the first time the group has played for a couple weeks. The attendance was pretty good, we had 6 guys on each bench. So, I figured I might as well go all out an every shift and keep my shifts short. The teams ended up being pretty evenly matched and the pace stayed pretty high for almost the whole game. Each team had 2-3 guys (myself included) that were really working hard.

Anyway, I had a good time, but I didn't get any production out of my work. The goalie I was going against was pretty hot, and he robbed me on a few good chances (and I screwed up a few other ones without his help!). Still, I felt like I helped by keeping things moving and being disruptive.

Not Quite Right

This week sort of ended up being a bust for my training. I just wasn't feeling quite right for most of the week. I never actually got sick, but I didn't really feel healthy either. I had a sore throat off and on, and sometimes a cough (felt like it was coming from the upper part of my lungs). Sarah was sick for most of the week too. So, I decided to play it safe and not do too much.

I finally got feeling a bit better yesterday, so I did a pedaling technique workout on the trainer. It also put me on the board for our 2008 POTATOES challenge (it's like the 2007 edition, but we're "riding" from Pentwater, MI to Murfreesboro, TN). This morning, I did Ross's "Magic 50" workout; hockey starts up again tonight also.

I'm getting ready to start my winter bike overhauls. It's a good time of year to really get everything clean, replace worn out components, etc. I was thinking about rebuilding my suspension fork myself, but I was having trouble finding all of the right rebuild parts. Just by chance, I checked Push Industries' website and found that they now rebuild RockShox Reba forks (I think that they used to only work on Fox forks). Their rebuild price is pretty reasonable, close to what I would have paid for the components, oil, etc. So, I'll probably have them go ahead and have them do it.

Shoveling

We got dumped on last night, maybe 12-14 inches of snow. So, this morning, I did my "shoveling workout". It took me about an hour and 15 minutes, including the sidewalks and a bit of the street (so we didn't immediately get stuck upon leaving the driveway).

It was kind of fun, I felt pretty energetic the whole time. I could do without my neighbors and their snowblowers though... they're loud and smell bad (the snowblowers, that is). Kind of ruins an otherwise good outdoor experience. Both guys that were running their snowblowers this morning are definitely young enough and healthy enough that they could be shoveling.

Ice Hike

I went out to Pontiac Lake this morning for some hiking. I expected the ground to be frozen, but I figured that the conditions would otherwise be OK. I knew I might be wrong when I only saw two other cars at the trailhead; then I almost wiped out when I stepped out of the car. The parking lot was completely iced over.


On the trail, the tread was covered with a thick layer of ice. It was very bad near the trailhead, but conditions improved some once the trail really got into the tree cover (more crunchy snow instead of ice).




I walked along the edges and managed to go the whole day without falling (farther up the trail, you could basically walk anywhere). The GPS said I covered 4.7 miles in 2 hours. Anyway, it was borderline stupid to be out there today, but I had fun.



Edit: GPS data now loaded...

Christmas Wrap

So, I'm back home from my Christmas travels. Sarah and I (and Suzie Q) went down to Muncie, Indiana last week to spend Christmas with Sarah's family. It was pretty low-key, but I didn't get enough sleep. I got some exercise in before I left and then one day while I was down there.

From Muncie, we came back to Michigan to visit my family. We had a nice visit there also, but I didn't sleep enough there either. I got two workouts in on this leg of the trip. One day was a minute drill from Ross. Kevin and I went on a Fartlek run the other day. I got a Garmin eTrex Vista for Christmas, so I took it on the run. Here's the data. The data isn't bad, but it looks like it got off a little in a few spots. The time info is also not right, because it includes a few minutes of me futzing around with the GPS at the house. Anyway, it should be a fun toy.

We left my parents' house just as a big snowstorm was rolling in. The roads were bad most of the way home. It took us about an extra hour to get here, and I was driving a bit faster than most of the other cars (I credit the snow tires).

The lack of sleep had me feeling like a cold was coming on, so I didn't work out yesterday when I got home. I slept like a rock last night and I feel pretty good this morning. I'll do some kind of workout today, I'm just not sure what yet.

Hill Sprints

"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.

Camera Dump

I finally pulled the pictures off of my camera and phone; you'll see that some of them have been on there for a while. Here's a sampling:


Me chasing John Osgood at the Stony Creek CX race. The warm weather is a distant memory now...

Video of the barriers at Stony. See, no hop!

Me and Sarah in Georgia over Thanksgiving.

A guy at work owns this yellow motorcycle... I think it's so cool.

Kitchen remodeling...






Suzie running through the snow this morning. I'm not sure how much actually fell because we get lots of drifting, but I know I shoveled about 8 inches out of the driveway.

Beat Up...

... from the feet up...

That's how I'm feeling today. I did some pretty hard workouts off the bike this week, and today I'm just feeling beat up. I was going to go on a long hike, but I think I may trade that for a short walk around the neighborhood. This isn't the time of the year to push too hard.

I did ride my bike on the trainer this week. Just half an hour or so of pedaling technique work. It was the first time I'd been on the bike in about two weeks. I felt a little strange at first, but once I got going, it was OK.

I've been thinking a bit about the Mitchell Report. Just more "evidence" about widespread cheating in professional sports (although, I gather that there is very little real evidence in the Mitchell Report). Anyway, what I have to say is this:

For me, the whole point of racing my bike is to test myself. The point is to transform yourself into the athlete that you want to be by training, eating, sleeping, sacrificing things that detract from your goal. Satisfaction comes, not from beating other people, but from the realization that your placements and your improvement are a result of your hard work. I don't understand how someone could be satisfied with their achievements if they knew that they came, at least in part, as a result of their cheating.

Photo by Andrea Tucker

Musings

Aghh... I just wrote a nice long post, and somehow it got eaten before I could actually post it. I will try to reconstruct...

So, hockey was OK Sunday night, but I didn't feel like the fitness was very good. In our game, fitness makes a big difference; for the most part, everyone has roughly the same skill level. Still, my hockey fitness could be much better. It's the little things I catch myself doing when I get tired that bug me: making a looping turn instead of stopping, not going after loose pucks as hard as I should, etc. I think that improving that stuff would make me one of the better players in our game.

There was an article in the Detroit News today about Nicklas Lidstrom's durability. The guy has only missed 22 games in the 16 seasons that he's been with the Red Wings. Pretty incredible! He thinks that part of his durability and longevity has to do with his conditioning. There was an article in the paper this summer about Chris Chelios that said the same thing.

I did my first strength workout in quite a while last night. It went much better than I expected, especially the upper body stuff. I think that the Paleo nutrition plan has helped me maintain a little more strength than I could have in the past. I'm a little achy today, but not too bad.

Tonight I tried out a slightly modified version of one of Ross's "Enhanced Interval Training" workouts: 400m run, 20 pushups, 2 minutes rest (Ross gave you less rest). I made it through 6 intervals before I called it a night. I was going to do 7, but I had really slowed down by my 6th run, so I called it good after 6. I may be a bit sore from this tomorrow. I'm not used to running so fast for that long.

2007 Season Recap

So, the 2007 season is in the books. It's a good time to look back and see how things went.

My goal for the mountain bike season was to finish the Stony TT in less than 55 minutes. Since I ended up going to Alaska, I didn't race the Stony TT. It's hard to say if I would have managed 55 minutes or not; I think I would have been close. In general though, I felt like I had a pretty good year on the mountain bike.

My goal for the cross season was to race well enough to feel comfortable moving up to the "Killer B's" for next year. I accomplished a lot this year in 'cross. I got rid of my "hop", I feel better on technical parts, I learned what I need to do at the start, and my fitness improved until the last couple races. Anyway, I feel good about moving up for next year.

The other major change I made late this year was switching to a Paleo nutrition plan. I've been really happy with how this has worked for me (even though I have to cook more) so I'll be sticking with it.

Speaking of next year, I think there are two main things I need to work on. The first is technical riding (especially cornering and descending); the fundamental drills I worked on in the backyard seemed to help, but I started them pretty late this season. The second thing I need to work on is developing leg strength. The last 'cross race at Waterford drove it home again for me.

Greetings!

Greetings from the land of Not Training. I've had a pretty relaxing week, but we've had people in the house working on the kitchen, so things aren't exactly normal either.

I went for a short run Tuesday night and last night. I picked up some new running shoes (pictured); they're spikeless cross-country racing shoes. So far, I really like them. They're super light and I can tell that they're making my feet work. My feet and calves got a little sore the first time I ran in them, but it's been getting better ever since. Even though the shoes are very breathable, my feet haven't gotten cold yet (last night, it was in the high teens); I'm wearing thin wool socks when I run in them. On a slightly warmer day when it's wet or slushy, I may have a problem though.

I went 5 rounds with the heavy bag last night too. By the end, it had started leaking again. I called Everlast earlier this year to see what they'd do to resolve the problem, and they offered to let me buy a new bladder for $60. How nice! I tried a temporary repair, which obviously didn't hold, so now I'm done with it. I'm going to chuck the bladder and fill the bag like a traditional bag (with sawdust and padding). I figure that the bag is rated to hold 80lbs, so it shouldn't matter if it's water or something else.

I got Ross's latest offering this week too, Full Throttle Conditioning. Good stuff in there, as always. He makes a nice analogy at the beginning about fatigue "locking up" your "toolbox of athletic abilities". It's kind of hard to explain without going into the whole thing, but it was definitely nice.

Waterford Race

We got the weather they predicted last night. A couple inches of snow, plus a little ice on top of that. It rained just a little during the race this morning. It was tough going through the course, you had to break through the snow and ice to hit solid ground; it felt even tougher on the paved track.

Anyway, I felt decent on my warm-up laps. It was tough going but I felt OK, and I felt pretty good around the slippery corners. I lined up on the front row at the end.

I knew I was in trouble right off the bat when the race started. The pace was a lot higher than I expected, even Mark Caffyn went by me at the start (nothing against Mark, but he doesn't usually start faster than me). By the time we hit the grass, I had recovered a bit, and was back up in 7th or so. Still, the guys up front were really laying it down. I managed to get past a few guys who started fast and faded fast and I finished the first lap in 5th.

On the second lap, John Osgood went by me at a pretty good clip. Shortly after that, I fell on slippery corner. I got up quickly, but then I botched the remount after the runup (I got on the bike too fast when I needed to run to a flat spot). My fall and stall after the remount helped John open a big gap. Another guy also got by me and had a little gap during that sequence.

I worked my way back around the "other guy" on the third lap, but the gap up to John was really big. I kept pushing, just in case someone fell or whatever, but I didn't pick up any more spots. So, I ended up finishing 6th, one spot off the podium. A bit disappointing, but I'm not sure what I would have done differently today.

So, what happened here? My fitness felt OK, but the course conditions highlighted one of the weaknesses I identified earlier this year, Force (in Friel lingo). The snow covering the course made it almost like riding through a giant sandpit (Mark's analogy). I think it really favored guys that were heavier and stronger, especially in the early laps (it got a little easier near the end once we'd worn a line through the snow). Looking at the podium, you saw guys that were all considerably bigger than me. Certainly, some of them might have beaten me on a clear course, but I don't think everyone would have.

Couple more points:

- I need to re-examine my nutrition during the Peak and Race phases. As of this morning, I'd lost 6 lbs since the Peak phase started. Yeah, some of this is upper body muscle (since I also stop lifting during the Peak/Race phases) and a little is fat, but at 6 lbs, I think I'm also losing lower body muscle. That's a bad thing...

- I wonder if I should have taken a little air out of my tires today. I ran them at 30psi, same as usual, but I wonder if I'd have been better off at maybe 25 psi (or less)? I decided not to try it, since I've never ridden with pressures that low.

I'm not going to worry about this stuff too much just yet. My plan is to just enjoy being done with bike racing for a little while (and to drink some beer!).