This is what I wake up to these days....
Dalmation Mind Tricks!!!
You will feed me......
You will take me to the Dog Park.....
Monday, March 24, 2008
Sunday! Race On!
Its all smiles on Race Day
Fat man in a little coat...Only temporary, this dude's gonna be fast soon
Saturday! Kinda Cold
Chris is cold and we havent even gone up yet
Jordan showing the love, and Mike chill as usual
Cold ass descent!
Crispy......
Well, after a fairly easy day Friday I started off the weekend with a nice little 75 mile ride up to Conifer and around the hills of Evergreen with Chris. We hit High Grade pretty hard, then did some climbs off of N. Turkey Creek. The weather was cold with some intermittent snow showers, nothing to make the roads messy, but enough to remind us that it was still winter.
Sunday was funday. The first race of the year! I lined up in the 3/4/5's race which was a full 75 peep field. Things started off fast, or at least it seemed that way. I didn't really have much of a warm up so that could have contributed to the early on suffering. I was rolling the new wheels, and man its nice to be on something other than the bomber training wheels. A couple laps in I got caught in the seam between the edge of the asphalt and the gutter. Luckily it was my rear wheel, and not the front. I held it up, but the dude lapping my rear wheel took the brunt of my unintentional change in lines and bounced off the deck. I think he was ok, and just pissed. Not to be callus, but that's racing bro, those things happen, and I've been on the receiving end of that short stick before. Which brings me to reminder No. 1 for the day. DONT OVER-LAP WHEELS! The race went on with the occasional attack, and bring back. (3's chase everything down, even their own teammates most times) Finally the race began with the ref. giving the 8 to go signal. Seemed the pace picked up and the position jockeying began. I was sitting back pack to tail gun most of the day, racing like I didn't have fitness, conserving my energy. I started to think about moving up at this point and with 5 to go it was time to get up front. This was a good course to tail gun where there were no real corners to cause the accordion effect, and resultant sprints every lap. It took me 2 laps to get up to the front and I was finally sitting 5th wheel. Perfect position for the sprint. 3 to go and the guys up front kept the pace high, then with two to go it happened! Negative Racing!!!!!!!! first and second wheel stopped pulling all together, I swear just stopped, sat up, no, I got blocked in from the resultant surge from both sides. Spent the rest of lap 2, and last lap fighting to get back into position, only to get back to 12-15th or so. That's racing! It was nice to get the competitive juices flowing again.
Race 2 of the day P/1/2/3.......
This leads me to Lesson No. 2 on the day. Always check your gearing before the start of your race!!!!! I spent the first 2.5 laps of the race spinning my 39-12/11 trying to hang on the tail of the group. I couldn't figure out why my legs felt so dead.... I had Teton on my wheel yelling to me to quit opening gaps, and was just straight up suffering. Once I figured out what was happening, and finally got into my 53, I was toast, kaput! I rolled off after 4 laps of high cadence work and went with McDiggler to go climb Flagstaff. Apparently I didn't switch my gearing after my first race, and in the haste of getting my number switched, forgot to check. I needed that reminder.
Good times!!!!
Sunday was funday. The first race of the year! I lined up in the 3/4/5's race which was a full 75 peep field. Things started off fast, or at least it seemed that way. I didn't really have much of a warm up so that could have contributed to the early on suffering. I was rolling the new wheels, and man its nice to be on something other than the bomber training wheels. A couple laps in I got caught in the seam between the edge of the asphalt and the gutter. Luckily it was my rear wheel, and not the front. I held it up, but the dude lapping my rear wheel took the brunt of my unintentional change in lines and bounced off the deck. I think he was ok, and just pissed. Not to be callus, but that's racing bro, those things happen, and I've been on the receiving end of that short stick before. Which brings me to reminder No. 1 for the day. DONT OVER-LAP WHEELS! The race went on with the occasional attack, and bring back. (3's chase everything down, even their own teammates most times) Finally the race began with the ref. giving the 8 to go signal. Seemed the pace picked up and the position jockeying began. I was sitting back pack to tail gun most of the day, racing like I didn't have fitness, conserving my energy. I started to think about moving up at this point and with 5 to go it was time to get up front. This was a good course to tail gun where there were no real corners to cause the accordion effect, and resultant sprints every lap. It took me 2 laps to get up to the front and I was finally sitting 5th wheel. Perfect position for the sprint. 3 to go and the guys up front kept the pace high, then with two to go it happened! Negative Racing!!!!!!!! first and second wheel stopped pulling all together, I swear just stopped, sat up, no, I got blocked in from the resultant surge from both sides. Spent the rest of lap 2, and last lap fighting to get back into position, only to get back to 12-15th or so. That's racing! It was nice to get the competitive juices flowing again.
Race 2 of the day P/1/2/3.......
This leads me to Lesson No. 2 on the day. Always check your gearing before the start of your race!!!!! I spent the first 2.5 laps of the race spinning my 39-12/11 trying to hang on the tail of the group. I couldn't figure out why my legs felt so dead.... I had Teton on my wheel yelling to me to quit opening gaps, and was just straight up suffering. Once I figured out what was happening, and finally got into my 53, I was toast, kaput! I rolled off after 4 laps of high cadence work and went with McDiggler to go climb Flagstaff. Apparently I didn't switch my gearing after my first race, and in the haste of getting my number switched, forgot to check. I needed that reminder.
Good times!!!!
Friday, March 21, 2008
Puke and Go's again!
Holy Crapola, it was windy last night. After two decent days of high to moderate intensity, I decided to push my luck and go for a third. I figured I would go and hang as long as I could at the M-Train for a second night this week. The intention as always is attack until you go, or blow. Tueseday, there wasnt much attacking going on, it was hold on for dear life. Apparently something happened between Tuesday and Thursday, I don't know what it is, but I was able to attack the field, and on the third try opened a nice gap. Guys must have either been on cruise control, or the wind was taking its tole on peeps. Unfortunately after holding the gap for a couple minutes, things went from go to blow. Well that's what its all about, the M-Train is the best place for doing stupid stuff like that. Ended up just hang'n for 45 minutes of the hour, at that point I had enough intensity for the day and week. The legs are starting to recover quicker from really hard efforts as fitness going up, and I start gaining some form. A little recovery ride today, some moderate climbing on Saturday, and the Second Annual Double Dip, this year its gonna be the CU Crit where I will be racing the 3/4/5's, and hanging on for dear life in the p/1/2/3's, that should leave a mark.
Keep on Keep'n on!
Keep on Keep'n on!
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Puke and Go's
So Joey informed me that yesterday was to be Puke and Go's at meridian. The idea was to attack, attack after attacks, and attack when ever someone got reeled in, and if something stuck attack again, if that makes sense. It did to me, but puke and go turned into just straight up PUKE and PUKE. Covering the damn moves of these fast sucka's hurts in March, and to boot, it was windy as a MO-FO out there. So combine smart drafting and trying to stick with attacks and not have the wind tear you to shreds was a consistent theme. Luckily I only popped twice, haha, I guess it could have been worse, and hell it was worse last week. Looks like the legs may want to race bikes again this year, all is coming along nicely, slower than last year but nicely....
Oh yeah, and Seth just road away from the field on like the 3rd lap, solo, in the wind. Two dudes bridged up to him, and he pulled them around for the next 40 minutes. Now that dude's strong!
Oh yeah, and Seth just road away from the field on like the 3rd lap, solo, in the wind. Two dudes bridged up to him, and he pulled them around for the next 40 minutes. Now that dude's strong!
Monday, March 17, 2008
Back on the Pain Train
With the brains of the operation on travel again in DC, I have a little more time on my hands. So I decided it might be a good time to get back into the full swing of training. I was able to squeak out 14 hrs of ride time this past week, which was a shock to the system, from the 6-8 I've been doing over the last couple winter months. I also threw in some intensity for the first time this year. I hit Meridian on Thursday, and the Spoke ride on Saturday. My legs didn't revolt all to bad, but it did leave a mark. Saturday turned into a 1 hour warm up, to 1 hour group ride followed by 3.5 hour climbathon, capped off by a 1 hour cool down slog back home. Yup, 6.5 hours, sure made the day go by quick. The Big Hadji and Lloyd were along for the GR and the climb'n. The Hadji turned back at the base of Highgrade, and Lloyd stuck with it for the remainder of the festivities, despite a near bonk in the first 7 miles of the climb. I think the highlight of the day was the chick from the gas station in Conifer, who came out and smoked a cigarette outside where we were chill'n taking in some UV's. Nothing beats some good ol carbon monoxide in the lungs after a 2+hour climb. Na, it wasn't all that bad, we were up wind and in the warmest spot around. Who could blame her for wanting to chill with Lloyd, the kids a stud!
(pic's to come)
(pic's to come)
Friday, March 14, 2008
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Opened up the legs......kinda
The first ride with any real intensity today, yup it hurt just like I thought it would. The legs need some more miles in them. We'll see what the next couple of weeks bring for weather and such. Days are longer which make training a little easier. Should be interesting to say the least....
Another 3 Weeks
My burrito lady just headed outta town for another 3-week adventure in the nations capital. I keep being told that separation makes the heart grow fonder. I think I might just dope slap the next person who tells me that. Its true, yes I know, but no one likes their noses being shoved in their own poo, SO PLEASE STOP IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
3-Weeks and we'll be doing this in Alta!Ok, I'm better now. On to some fun stuff, like this little bugger. Say hi to Gus! He is the local Toll Troll at cyn's place. Always (when he's not sleeping) there to greet Zeus and I when we come over.
He doesn't say much, just snorts a lot, pay the toll and he lets you in.
He is always smiling too, what a nice happy little troll.
Thursday, March 06, 2008
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
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