Nothing to write home about......

but good enough to blog, I suppose.

Yesterday kicked off the official beginning of the race season for me with the inaugural running of the Cold Toes Training Series in Chantilly, VA. This is an event put on by our club (Evolution Cycling). We had pretty miserable weather which reduced the turnout, but added a certain level of fun to the race. It was pretty much cyclocross conditions for a road race.

After arriving at the event to help get the registration tent set up, fence and cone off the course, and lend a hand with sweeping the corners. I reluctantly shifted into race mode and began warming up. I term I use very loosely here because there is not much actual warming up that accompanies temps in the low 40's with a consistent downpour. I did a few laps of the course, which is quite nice by the way, and then headed back to the team tent for some laughs and to dry up a little. This was followed by a few more laps and another return to the tents. Finally start time arrived and the field set out for the wet, wet race.

Back in December when I set out my goals for this coming season, this race was the first measurable goal on the list, with the simple notation to finish. I know, a stretch goal right out of the box, shooting for the stars, etc. But as previously discussed I don't have high expectations for this season, even lower with my dismal training over the past 3 months.

Anyway, I was able to ride in the main pack for the first 4 to 5 laps before my legs started to tighten up (either from the lack of warm up, the cold weather, or a lack of training....probably a combination of all of the above). Since this was designated as a training race I decided to sit up and "soft pedal" and wait for the field to come back around to catch back on. For some strange reason this took 2 laps to accomplish, I guess I wasn't pedaling soft enough. I managed to catch back on and ride with them for another lap or two and then tried to go when someone attacked on the back and had nothing to respond with. From there I simply cruised the last 2 laps with another rider, chatting about the race and the weather. True groupetto style.

I crossed the line about 10 meters behind the race winner (albeit 1 lap down). There may be some decent photos that I can lie about in the future.

I tried to get warm and then assumed my post marshaling the final corner for the next two races and trying to warm up. All in all it was a decent day for me and the results were a top 20 finish, 17th in fact (I won't mention the field size, but it was more than 20). Goal number 1 accomplished, but it felt like that 80 you got on a paper when you needed a B in the class. Just barely enough to count, but it counts nonetheless.

On a more positive note, my rear wheel enabled a teammate to win the A race. Who knew my wheel was really that fast...hmmmmm.

Later

Performance without Practice.....

Well, my first race of the season is but a day away. Albeit simply a "training" race it is a race nonetheless and I am not sure how I will fare. I honestly have to admit that I do not have very high expectations going into this race as my training has been no where near the level that I would have liked it to be. I gave in much too easily to the minor bouts of illness and numerous other "excuses" over the past few months. With all that being said I feel that I am in much better shape now than I have been for the past several years and am anxious to see how it plays out over the course of the season. Rightly or wrongly I am planning on hitting it especially hard in the coming weeks to "get ready" for the start of the real season on the 5th of April at the Tour of Walkersville followed by the 6th of April at the Tysons Crit.

I am truly hoping that my history plays out in my favor as I have NEVER been one to prepare ahead of time for an event, this includes rehearsing before speeches/presentations, studying for exams, warming up on the range before a round, etc. etc. etc and have always fared quite well. I seem to operate better on the fly and often feel that I would leave my best on the practice field and not have it at game time. Something tells me that this will not apply to cycling, but we shall see. If it doesn't work I will simply head back to the drawing board, find a source of motivation from somewhere, and hit the second half of the season with a fury.

I am partially guessing that a little dose of the motivation that I will need will be coming in late April when I head over to the Netherlands and Belgium for some riding and to catch some of the Classics (Amstel Gold Race and Fleche-Wallonne). I rode the motivation from watching a couple of stages of the 2005 Tour de France in the French Alps (mostly around Galibier) into an interest in cycling and getting my ass into shape.




Starting a cycling career at 39 (hitting 41 at the end of the month) isn't the way to go and I have very little expectations in terms of results. I just want to have a good time, mix it up a little, and hopefully help a teammate along the way.

It all starts tomorrow.

Later

Addio Marco.....

Si sono sbagliati. Today marks the 4th anniversary of the passing of Marco Pantani, Il Pirata. In my mind Marco was one of the greatest cyclist of my generation and his double (Giro d'Itlaia and Tour de France) in 1998 are unlikely to be repeated with today's specializations among racers.

Hills Suck, I Suck

That's all

A big mistake

Well, what is the worst possible things you can do after being sick for the majority of a week, missing several scheduled workouts, aaaaaand being on medication??????? The anwer is to try to participate in a team ride when the weather is in the low 20's. How do I know this? Because I was dumb enough to try it.

I knew I was in for a bad day when my heart rate was already in Zone 2 before I even climbed on the bike. I was able to have a fairly easy ride to RTC to meet the rest of the team, got there a little early but had time to have a nice tea to warm up. We had a group of about 8 that was heading West to pick up others along the way but I only made it to the OD Brewery turn off and just wasn't "feeling it". I decided to abandon at that point and head home, which turned out to be a good idea since I spent the majority of the day laying on the couch because I couldn't breathe from the congestion.

Oh well, lesson learned. If you are sick, don't ride (especially in the f'n cold)

Later

Punishment Day

I don't know if it was a dose of self-guilt or the need to get my ass in gear after not adhering to my training plan for too long, but yesterday turned out to be what I refer to as "Punishment Day". It did not start out with those intentions, it was supposed to be a day off with a dentist appointment and a visit to Santa Claus, but by the end of the day I had 4 2hour sessions of "punishment". The first session was from 6:30-8:30 in the morning on the Cycleops trainer doing 2 CTS videos (Criterium and Time Trial). All in all a good start to the day although my legs were a tad sore from the spin class the night before.


This was followed by 2 hours in the dentist's chair having some 25 year old filling replaced (my how technology has changed since I last had fillings). This ordeal began with the dreaded needle

that numbs the gums (and lips, and mouth, and face, etc) and after a tremendous amount of incessant drilling and water flying everywhere I was done. On the plus side I now have 2 areas that used to be covered with that silver mercury stuff that are now somewhat white and less obvious. On the downside I have another session next week. What the hell is wrong with me.


While sitting in the dentist chair I realized that it was pretty nice outside and that I was going to have some free time when I was done, so when I got home I changed into my kit, grabbed my nice bike, and headed out to the W&OD for a ride. This portion of the day was mainly Zone 2ish with the occasional sprint thrown in when I felt some snap in the legs and had a clear path in front of me. About half way through the ride I remembered that I had already comitted to spending some time at the gym that evening following the visit to Saint Nick so I took it very easy the rest of the way, but it was nice getting outside after about 2 weeks without it.


The next phase of the evolving 2 theme was going to Tysons II-The Galleria for our annual visit to Santa Claus. For those who are in the area and aren't aware, they probably have the best Santa out there. I am pretty sure the guys beard is real. In getting to Tyson's I had to deal wit the complete "CF" (clusterf*%k) traffic that surrounds malls and other shopping areas at this time of year. After taking Zen to see Santa we got the hell out of Dodge before the shopping traffic joined forces with the evening commute, besides we had to get to the gym.


Once at the gym, I did about 45 minutes on the eliptical (again in Zone 1/2) and then did some work on the various contraptions, focusing mostly on legs. I did my normal set on the Free Motion Squat machine, but then decided to push it a little.



I ended up doing an additional 3 sets at 360lbs, why? I don't know. I finished the rest of the workout and then headed home and relaxed for the rest of the evening and planned my day for today that was going to begin with a ride into the office. But as often, too often, happens I decided not to. Dammit, I have got to work on that. (Looks like Punishment Day #2 isn't too far away....might as well combine it with the dentist again)



Happy holidays to any and all that might read this.

It's time to get serious.......

Now that the calendar has rolled over to December and the temperature has dropped below 45 on a consistent basis it is time to get serious about training for next year's season. I am sure, in fact positive, that I am starting much later than a vast majority of the folks out there but as mentioned in my earlier posting I do not have too many expectations going into this season. I just completed a very informal "Prep" stage and am moving into 3 weeks of "Base 1". I am slated for about 8-10 hours/week of bike time during this phase with some additional time spent in the gym doing various strength building, flexibility, and core work. I also am planning ("aren't we always" of seriously attacking the diet. I have my own internal goal of dropping about 25 pounds between now and the beginning of the racing season, while at the same time increasing my power to have a significant impact on my power/weight ratio.

This is a bit of a stretch goal but I am under some self pressure to meet it since the new bike that I promised myself (and more importantly was agreed to by my wife) upon reaching that goal has already been procured........ooops. (see picture above)

Unfortunately the only real significant area of "useless" calories that can be eliminated from my current habits are those that come from the bottles of Chimay and Leffe that are commonly present in my fridge. To make sure I did not have any temptations once the real training started I took it upon myself to remove those items from the fridge over the weekend. Don't worry, they were disposed of properly...meaning that I used the appropriate shaped glass to enjoy each and every one.

Now it is time to get down to some serious training that was further motivated by our team training session yesterday morning where we learned some great stretches and some excellent core workouts, but most importantly I was in a room full of skinny guys that left me with a strong desire to be one of them.

Wish me luck, I will need it.

Off to the weight room.......