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I'm slowly getting back into my routine. It's weird, it feels like it's been weeks since I was last on a bike. Doesn't take much of an interruption in your training to really throw you off. Tomorrow I've got a meeting, so it's going to take some creative thinking to get saddle time in...or at least the amount I WANT to get.
My first race is just over a week away, and despite the fact that my training plan has been a mess lately, I'm feeling really strong.
I think it's time for me to include one of the fixtures of cycling blogs everywhere...
The self (while riding along) portrait:
Hey, if it's good enough for Kerkove and "The Goat" then why shouldn't I do it too?
With my first race so close, I'm trying to decide if I'm gonna run a bottle or my Camelbak. I'm leaning towards the bottle, as there are numerous places where you can drink and not run into a tree or knock a tooth out because of bumps, roots, small forest creatures, etc. I like the idea of using a bottle as it's less weight (especially since that additional weight would be on my back). The topic has even come upon mtbr. Decisions, decisions.
It sure was good getting back on the bike, I almost forgot what it was like. I don't normally like having 3 days off the bike in a row...I typically feel like that many days off the bike does more harm than good, but today was an exception. It was very evident on the mtn bike ride. I could do no wrong, my game was on. I even found myself keeping up with a buddy, who can usually drop me on this particular trail. Today though, he didn't get more than 50-60ft ahead of me. I had tons of top end power too.
It was one of those days that makes all the training worth while. If I can have a day like this on the 9th, I'll be very happy.
I made it back home. Finally.
I think I know why Oklahoma is called the Sooner State... the "sooner" I could get home, the better!
I'm anxious to get back on the bike, and get some good training in. My first race of the season is just under 2 weeks away, so I need to get back on the program. The next few days are gonna be some intense ones. I've not been riding since I spent some saddle time on a stationary bike Sunday night. Today I wanted to ride, but I had to go pick up the Santa Cruz from the bike shop. I was having some shifting issues that I couldn't get sorted out. Tomorrow though, it's all about the riding. I'll be doing both an AM and PM ride in addition to the usual Thursday night group mtb ride.
This is the event T-shirt for my first race. Pretty cool, huh?
I've been absent as of late. I've been in the happening burg of Oklahoma City on business. Not much to tell, other than I'm sick and tired of seeing a stationary bike. I've logged almost 100 miles on the damn things since I've been gone. Gimme a trail, a road, anything that is outdoors.
I'm outta here. Need. Sleep.
Today was the second of three mtn bike TT's. The first time around, I completed the 4.62 mile course in 23:08. I was hoping I could shave some more time off and get in under 23 minutes. My specific goal was 22:50. I've been battling some allergy related congestion and sniffles, so I was concerned how that might affect my performance today.
I started the TT feeling pretty good. I got a good start and found my rhythm early on. But once I started hitting the climbs and pushed my HR closer to my threshold, that's when some problems developed. Trying to take some deep breaths I'd hear my chest rattling, and that would make me cough some. In order to get some much needed air into my lungs, it caused me on a couple of occasions to back off ever so slightly. I just knew that those moments of easing off my pace was gonna cost me a good time. I was certain I was gonna be slower than the first time. Giving in wasn't an option. I kept pushing myself, trying to get some breaths without breathing so deep that it brought on coughing.
I come off of "Carbo", turn left onto "Speed Demon", get in the big chainring and I turn those cranks for all I'm worth. I make it across the finish line and turn to hear the bad news. Surprisingly, there wasn't any bad news. My time was 22:54. Backing off those couple times cost me some precious seconds...I'm sure I could've shaved another 10 seconds off that time had I been totally healthy.
14 seconds faster than last month. I can live with that. In April I'd like to aim for a time of 22:15, or thereabouts.
If the saying "less is more" is in fact true, then I'm on my way to a successful racing season. A second attempt at 11.5hrs of training has been a disaster. The weather has cooperated, but I've been goin' a few rounds with my allergies. I've made two attempts to do my V02 threshold intervals this week, and I just couldn't complete them...I felt like I was working with one lung. I'm gonna get as many hours in as I can over the weekend, and then focus on the hard intervals next week. Ohh, and I'm not restarting the period again. I'm sayin' the hell with it.
Next week should even prove to be challenging. I've got to go out of town on business next Wed, and won't be back till Monday evening...to Oklahoma City, of all places. The stationary bike at the hotel fitness center is already calling my name.
This past week and a half has been full of ups and downs. Weather, namely wind, prevented me from getting some of my vital road miles in, and eventually necessitated me restarting my Build 1 phase. Sunday I was planning on getting one last attempt at getting some good road miles in, but for reasons too numerous to list, I ended up hitting the trails. Of course, having some "downs" are can be made bearable by having a corresponding "up". Check this out...
For the first time since I've been riding on these trails I cracked the mythical 13mph average mark. At one point during the ride my average was as high as 13.6mph. The great thing is, I wasn't even trying to go for a personal best. I was just out with the plan of getting a good, continuous time(no stopping) on the bike. It wasn't till about the midway point that I realized I was riding at such a pace. The discovery came after a couple of wipeouts in corners. The first slide out in a corner had me thinking I used a little too much body english, the second one had me scratching my head. Right after that is when I took notice of my avg speed, then it hit me(lightbulbs turn on, fireworks go off, the skies part)...Aha! I was going too fast for the corners. So, not a bad discovery, especially in light of how the week had been going.
That brings us to the current week. My sinuses have been messing with me (damned pollen!), so I just didn't have the desire/energy to ride on Monday. Tuesday came and I was all set to get back out on the road, and start up my intervals again...except that I had a 20mph N wind goin' on. Back to the mtn bike and the trails. *Sigh. The good news is that despite not feeling 100%, I still managed a 12.9mph average speed out there.
Today is a new day, and by God I'm gonna get out and do my intervals even if it hairlips Lance Armstrong.
Ohh yeah...congrats to Floyd Landis. He's won Paris-Nice (I know, it's kinda old news, so sue me!)! Couple that with his win at the Tour of California, and Floyd's lookin' very good for this season.
I'm restarting Build 1.
This past week has to go down on record as being the most f&%ked up training week I've had. It got off track with those windy, err, blustery days and went downhill from there. Today I didn't ride at all, I woke up with my sinuses really affecting me, making me uber drowsy. If I looked the way I felt, then this is what I looked like today...
I didn't have any discomfort or anything, I just felt exhausted. Fortunately I'm feeling more alive now. Tomorrow I'll get a couple hours in, but save the hard efforts for Monday and Build 1: Reloaded
Nope, not that kind of blow. I'm talkin' wind. Lots and lots of wind. Yesterday I was under the impression that it was gonna be rainin' like crazy today. In what first appeared to be divine intervention, the storms had slowed. I thought I had dodged a bullet, or as Maxwell Smart would say...
Missed me by THAT much.
What I didn't know was that I was the subject of a cruel joke... we didn't get any rain, but we get a wind advisory instead(Thanks, thanks a lot). 25mph winds with gusts in excess of 40mph. Dammit!
I typed all this to get to this... I got an hour and a half in on the mtn bike, so technically I'm still on target for the week, but I think that the rain will finally catch up with me tomorrow. If so, I'm just gonna restart the Build 1 period next Monday.
Maybe I could've told this story better with a really neato Viking analogy?
Another hour and a half is in the books. After yesterday's intervals my legs weren't snappy, or at least they didn't seem snappy. Despite the less than peppy legs I still managed a new personal best to the second stop sign...38:55. I wasn't even trying to go hard, I was actually taking it easy after the intervals yesterday. I'm not gonna complain though.
We're looking at some potential rain over the next two days, and if that's the case I'm gonna restart this build period next week. I'm not gonna stress over it, I'm just gonna do what needs to be done. Must. Stay. Relaxed.
It's late. I'm goin' to bed, I'm beat.
I was good to my word today. I got out for my first day of the Build 1 phase. I kicked it off with some pyramid intervals, designed to increase my anaerobic threshold. The intervals went well. I need to fine tune some things, but overall I was pleased with how they went. I didn't feel like my chest was gonna explode, but they were tough, to be sure. I need to ask around to see what kind of exertion level I should be shooting for...maybe I should be close to puking when I do them. Kinda flyin' blind with this. I'll figure it out though.
USA Cycling has instituted yet ANOTHER program geared towards increasing America's mtb chances at the Beijing games in 2008. It will be interesting to see how it works. I'd love to see America do better(in mtn biking events that is) in international events.
Today is/was supposed to be the start of my first build period, and how did I begin it? An easy spin? Some intense Anaerobic intervals? Nope, none of the above. I didn't even get on the bike, how's that for a novel approach to training?
I'm actually quite pi**ed about it, to be honest. I had every intention of riding, but a quick flight/pricing check for an upcoming business trip turned into a mind numbingly long session of checking every airline ticket site known to man. What I'm most ticked about is, after all that time wasted checking prices and I STILL am no closer to a airline ticket. Hmmmph.
Write this down...tomorrow I'm getting some quality saddle time, if it's the last thing I do! There's not a friggin' thing that's gonna stop me!
If you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go sulk some more.
I just read that there will be a Pro purse at the NORBA events this year, and they're even gonna throw in UCI points too. As cool as it is that the pros will make some money for winning, the awarding of UCI points is HUGE! For anyone that saw the awesome documentary Off Road to Athens knows that it was the chasing of UCI points that created most of the drama in the film. To get a slot on the 2008 Olympic team, you need to amass lots of UCI pts. The highest point awards are still only available at the European World Cup events, which means a number of US pros will be heading to Europe over the next 2 years.
I think that chasing points is still the wrong way to go about the selection process. If someone who is very talented, even possibly the best rider that year, and they sustain an injury that keeps them out of the running for a couple months in the year/s preceding the Olympics, then they're gonna be way behind in the point race. So, that means that someone with less skill could make the team, just because they got more pts than others. There should be a couple of Olympic qualifier events, or, the coach of the team SELECTS the best riders for the team.
Personally, I'd like to see the Olympics go back to the days of all amateur athletes. That was a format that made the Olympics accessible to anyone, and offered much better competition...it left some room for surprises.
The point method that USA Cycling uses for team selection is a perfect example of making the Olympics inaccessible to most. If you're a privateer, then you're gonna have your hands full getting to all the NORBA races to gather those all important UCI pts, and the World Cup circuit? Fuhgetabouit...unless you're independently wealthy. Even a sponsored pro isn't assured of all the opportunities to gather the points. There aren't too many companies that are keen to pay for their riders to compete in Europe. Europe is hell and gone from a US company's target market.
At least the prize money and awarding of UCI points is a step in the right direction.
As of today, my base training is done.W00t!
Over the course of the last 3 months I've logged some heavy duty miles, and made some big gains in my aerobic fitness. When I first started, I could keep my HR in the mid 140s fairly easy, but to go much higher took some work. Fast forward to today and I can get my HR into the 160s without much thought. As a matter of fact, I did my TT test today, and then continued on with the remainder of my ride. After the test I noticed that while I was pedaling a good steady cadence and my RPE was around a 5 or 6, my HR was hovering around 165bpm. Riding on the road has done some great things for me, and I'm anxious (I might not be this enthusiastic after the more intense efforts to come next week) to get to the high intensity work of the coming weeks. It's just over a month till my first race of the season, and about 2 1/2 months till my first high priority race.
How's that for a trail obstacle? That's an Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake- about 4 1/2 ft of rattlesnake at that. Came across this badboy today. It was initially stretched out across the trail, but as soon as we rode up, he struck a pose, and started a rattlin'. Get bitten by that will put you in the hurt locker, for sure.
Other than the wildlife sighting, it was a good ride. I'm feeling really good out on the trails these days, very strong.
I'm working on my bike handling skills, things like bunnyhops, etc. My bunnyhopping has improved dramatically. I'm progressing to bigger and bigger obstacles. I still have room for improvement, but I'm actually pretty decent at bunnyhopping now, where I used to suck at it...to the point where I didn't even try for fear of catching my back tire on the obstacle and stacking it up as a result.
I thought it was time for a long term review of the performance of the Maxxis Crossmark UST tires. I've been running them for about 3 months now.
The Tread
The Good: The tread pattern of the Crossmark is a good one. The almost constant center ridge offers good acceleration and low rolling resistance, and the aggressive side knobs mean you're gonna stick to that turn like velcro.
The Bad: The tire cleans itself fairly well, with the exception of the center ridge- that takes a bit longer to clear out.
The Hard Stuff
The Good: In hardpack conditions this tire rules! It gives you gobs of confidence, encouraging you to go faster and faster. The tire offers decent rolling resistance, so as a result it is snappy and accelerates very well... I'd say on par with the Kenda Nevegal, perhaps even a bit better, which is pleasantly surprising considering that the Crossmark is a 600+gram tire.
The Bad: Bad? On hardpack there is nothing bad about this tire. Period.
The Wet Stuff
The Good: In wet sand, the Crossmark still offers you some traction, which is no small feat. For not being full blown mud, wet sand can pack up tires in a heartbeat, leaving you with no traction. The mud that I've encountered has packed up the center ridge, but the outer knobs got cleared and left me with some traction. I'm gonna cover pine straw in this section, as riding on pine straw can be like riding in real wet conditions. We have copious amounts of the stuff. Like every tire I've ever used, the Crossmark does lose traction on the pine straw, but it finds the solid ground beneath very fast. I've found myself tackling out of the saddle climbs on ground covered with pine straw, and there'll be moments of spinning back tires, but I always find some traction and maintain my momentum on the climb.
The Bad: Wet roots really scare me on these tires. Anything but a straight line over some and the back tire starts going in any number of directions. Now, to be fair to the Crossmark, I've not found too many tires that handled wet roots very well. These tires handle the roots best when they're aired down. If you're running normal pressure be prepared for some scary riding.
Final Thoughts
I've been very impressed so far. In dry, hardpack conditions these tires rule! Even our notorious Florida sand doesn't deter these tires, you can float across/thru it without the bike getting all squirrely on you. These tires love to go fast, and rail corners...it shows, they do both very well. They do a great job with most conditions. The bottom line is that the Crossmarks are confidence inspiring. I've found myself going faster and faster, even to the point where I go faster than the tires and bike can cope with (a turn loaded with pine straw- can you say "wipe-out"?!?).
Note: On the UST version, the amount of air pressure you use on a standard tire will offer a completely different ride. On standard tires I ran 38psi, and it offered a medium ride- not hard but not plush either. That same 38psi in the Crossmark gives a hard ride. Since I'm running a F/S bike it doesn't bother me, and I run that pressure in dry conditions. Thru pure happenstance I found that you can go quite low on the pressure and still not bottom out the tire on the rim, or offer a super squishy ride. I can easily run 22 or so psi in these tires and have no problems (which is a real bonus when its wet out).
That's what I feel like today...jello. I don't know what it is, whether it's my sinuses, or the fact that it is one of those spring fever kinds of days. It's about 70 degrees out, with a nice southerly breeze. Perfect for opening the windows, AND being lazy.
I just don't have it in me to get out for a ride, my ass is definitely draggin'.
This will be my second day in a row with no training. Tomorrow though, I'll be back at it, regardless of how I feel. I can't/won't take all my rest days at one time. Gotta save something for the weekend. I need to be plenty rested before the start of the harder intensity efforts to come next week.
