Being Sick Sucks

What some awesome weather we've been having up here, today it broke into the 70's. Great day for a ride, if it wasn't for me still being sick for the fourth day in a row. This unfortunately has thrown me way off of my training schedule, so I am regretful to say that I will not be going to Lubbock this upcoming week/weekend.

I am still offering an open invitation to anyone who wants to come up here during spring break and join me on some great riding. Just get yourself here and I will give you a place to stay.

I'm going back to bed....

I Hate Being Sick

I don't get sick very often, but when I do, it sucks. It wouldn't be all that bad if the weather wasn't perfect, if it was snowing I would be okay with being stuck inside, but I just want to ride.

Oh well, sleep today, rest tomorrow, and come back Monday hard.

Road Block

Yesterday was my first day back climbing in the mtns after a week down in AZ, and I must say that after a week of not climbing it doesn't feel good the first time back. I did get a little break halfway up Lookout with a herd of mule deer crossing the road. They took there sweet time too. I finally had to shoot through them to continue the ride.
I've been babysitting Max for the last few days; he is a great dog, just really a momma's boy. Erin gets back later tonight and will pick him up, it was fun having a dog for a while, just not fun taking him out for a walk when its freezing cold outside and he decides he really didn't need to go.
For those of you who are wondering, I will be down in LBK next Wednesday till Monday doing some training on the flats, so whoever is up for it let me know. I wish I could come down to TX more and do the entire TMBRA series, but it is hard right now trying to follow a strict training program and prepping for Sea Otter and NMBS, but I will be down to race the TMBRA in Waco, and looking forward to seeing everyone again.

The Last Five Days of My Life

The trip started out a day earlier than we expected. Originally planning on departing Denver on Thursday morning at 4am, we left 7pm Wednesday to beat the oncoming snow storm. It worked as we arrived in Las Vegas, NM at midnight missing all the snow. The hardest part in a rushed departure is figuring out for the first time how to fit four bikes and six wheelsets in the back of the vehicle along with luggage.

Thursday morning started out at 7am on the road again driving through NM and heading into AZ.

Our biggest pet peeve of the trip were the semi's who tried to pass other semi's but never had enough speed to pass them in less than 10 minutes.

I found out that Seth is the only guy that I know who separates out his servings of M&M's and cheese crackers into their proper serving sizes.

On a back road in AZ we came to a stop in a construction zone, Carlos too this advantage to relieve himself in the middle of traffic.

We arrived in Phoenix Thursday afternoon and turned our hotel room into a bike shop.

Then we went cruising in Carlos' Denali

Passed the time hanging out in our room watching mostly the Olympics. (From left: Seth, Carlos, Mateo (standing), and Goodwillie)


The time trial was on Friday and went very well, by far my best time trial to date. Then the road race followed on Saturday, Joey had the job of helping unload and reload the bikes.
Joey also too the time to admire the fine quality of the spinners on the mini van next to us.


The road race went okay, not great. There were a lot of problems, both in the logistics of the planning of the race itself by promoters and the stupidity of some of the other racers. Then Joey had to go and sit on his left shifter, but it was nothing that a bunch of tape couldn't fix.
The last stage was the crit on Sunday, I sat fourth going into it and the field wouldn't let me break away to make up any time, so I just sat in the group and took some cash sprint prizes.

We left Phoenix around 3:30 Sunday afternoon and drove straight through to Denver and got home about 4am Monday morning. Not a bad first race of the season, just time to start training for the next race, and maybe catch up on some sleep.

V-Day

This should be a great week. Yesterday was my second conconi test and it shows that my wattage at aerobic threshold, power to weight ratio, max wattage, and recovery time have all improved dramatically over just a month of training.

Today is an easy day with just three hours cruising and tomorrow is another easy day with just an hour of active recovery. Unfortunately, on Thursday we leave at four in the morning to start the 13hr drive to AZ for the stage race this weekend. Once we get there we have to put in an opener ride for an hour and a half. Then its race time, time trial on Friday, RR on Saturday, and a crit on Sunday.

I hope everyone has a wonderful and happy Valentine's day.

Hammerfest

On the menu for today, four hours easy. However, what I got was three hours of very high intensity with my coach, Mike Carter, two Red Rocks Velo riders, and Seth. We started out with no warm up, a little over a hour sprinting out of the saddle up hill, followed by some seated hammering, finished off with a death march back to Mike's house. Now I get to rest up for my performance test tomorrow morning to see if all this training is paying off, hopefully, I get my moneys worth.
 

Internet

Its a pretty boring day, so I spent a lot of it on the internet where I found this pic. Whoever came up with that idea was a genius.

Active Recovery

It turned out to be a snowy day, then a sunny day, then back to a snowy day, so that means its a trainer day. That works out okay though, it was supposed to be a 90min active recovery day anyways, but tomorrow is different. I am scheduled for a 5hr ride, but coach is sympathetic to me not wanting to ride in the snow and single digit wind chill that he is substituting in a hour trainer ride, not even close to easy though.

I decided to spend part of the day in Boulder picking up some last minute bike parts and tools before my first race of the season in Arizona next week, if I am ready for it is yet to be seen, but we will find out next weekend.
 

Another Awesome Day to be on The Bike

Now I have seen it all, SRM cranks on a mountain bike. I can understand wanting to know your watts on a road bike while training or racing, but putting them on a mountain bike seems a little pointless.
My day got made this morning while on my ride. I just happened to cross paths with George on the road and we hammered hard together for a while, then he turned to me and said I looked like "poetry in motion, smooth, efficient and strong". To hear that from someone who you look up to as a cyclist, it just makes you feel great. 

A Day Off and Nothing Accomplished

Its Monday, and you know what that means.....cookie day.

Yesterday I woke up to the sound of wind beating against my window, which lead me to go back to sleep and opt for the indoor supplemental ride on the trainer.

This is a great pic that appeared on the internet today of me, Brian H., and Seth on our ride around Lake Carter on Saturday.
I can't help but point out the size difference in Seth and Brian H. Its not that Seth is huge, its just that Brian H. is realllllly small. It is impossible to get a draft off of him unless your only 5 feet tall. 

I Love Long Hard Training Rides

Today I headed up the road a little ways to join the Pro/1/2 group ride out of Boulder. These were the cream of the crop in the nation, and the world (a couple of guys were just at the Worlds Cup) and the pace definitely showed. We hammered for 35 miles at an average of 27mph in a race fashioned ride with constant attacks and counter attacks. Then it was time for a pit stop.
We hung with them for about 45miles then they turned back to head home but it was a long training day for the four of us riding for H.A.R.T. so we kept going north around Carter Lake just pass Fort Collins.

Even in the stiff wind and high pace we still got in some horseplay. (Randy, Seth, and Brian H. left to right)

At the end of the day we put in 95miles of constant high pace training in under four and a half hours. So after a long day, I just want to go to sleep, goodnight.

SEX.....now that I have your attention

I can't believe they are actually using this as advertisement.
I guess it does work, I will always remember from now on what casino has the loosest slots in CO. 

Espresso

It seems like the entire cycling world revolves around espresso and coffee around here. The rides start from a coffee shop, there is usually an espresso break a few hours into the ride, and the rides end at a coffee shop. For the even longer rides the stop during the ride usually entails a pastry of some kind to get the sugar levels back up to keep going. So if you don't drink coffee, then it would be really hard for you to fit in around here, but thank god I love a cup of coffee. I never really got into espresso though until I came here, but now I love a shot in the morning so much that I am trying to find a good espresso machine cheap, but this is the cheapest most reliable one I could find.....for only $700.

So today started out like all the others, a shot of espresso and then start the training ride, but today's ride was my first TT training day. Lets just say I think the shot of espresso wasn't enough to make it all the way, maybe one more could have gotten me the last 10 minutes of the last interval. So next TT day, I'm going to drink three shots, that should be enough.