Signing Off...

This blog started with my obsession with cycling and my obsession with power meters. It was really a place to write about my thoughts and training so that I could one day return and benefit from learning year to year and having some of that documented.

I am now retired from racing for a few years... family, work, home projects, other hobbies, and a lot of other things started getting in the way which is an easy way to say that I lost interest in cycling at that level. I am not genetically gifted enough to ride very well without a lot of training or at least I need 10-12 hours of good training per week to keep the edge and a lot of that needs to be with intensity during the race season... I just couldnt keep it up and found that I didnt really want to.

I sold my power meter.

That pretty well does it. The draw of the other woman has been tempered by life I guess. I still love cycling and will still ride and maybe even race, but the structured training is over... no intervals... no power sessions... no L4 discussion...

I am returning to the roots... I am unplugged. I am back to measuring success as whether or not I covered the time for the ride or whether or not I got dropped (which I am doing a lot). It is OK... it seems that when you have no expectations, getting dropped doesnt feel nearly as bad.

So it is over. I will keep open the blog for future reference and hope that I will return one day. I will likely start a new blog on a new topic in the next months and will post the name and topic on here. Thanks for reading...

Questions of the past year...

Is the sport overindulgent? Is this lifestyle overindulgent?

How long will it take for a guy coming on hard luck and driving a big truck to decide that my silly arse on a $3000 bike needs to be run over? Or maybe he is just texting...

How many kids can you have and how old can they get before I realize that it isn't all about me or "me and my wife" anymore?

How many times can I tell the wife that we should all head out on a weekend to some weird town to watch me race... or that if she doesn't want to go that I will "tough it" alone?

How many times will my daughter beg me to stay and play with her on Saturday morning instead of ride the bike since I have been gone sooooooo much to work that week?

How much will these questions take from my quads and add to my midsection?

How easy is it to make excuses when you are out of the zone and out of the game?

It has been a while since I posted and as long since I have ridden well. You are looking at the captain who knows his ship is sinking yet is wondering whether he should go down with it and what will happen if he does.

February Update

Just got back from our yearly training camp. Horrible weather but a good time to catch up with the guys on the team. And guess what? I still suck in the mountains. I suck so much that I actually look forward to going so that I can enjoy riding around here so much more. I never felt comfortable on a climb and we didn't do many. All rides were cut short or didn't happen due to icy roads. I did ride my bike in the snow for the first time...

I have ventured into L3/L4 training this month and a little in January. I am doing all tests and all notable workouts in the drops or on the TT machine. I have noticed a big increase in power when in an aero position. I am more convinced than ever that this will be a notable improvement come race time. My FTP seems to be moving sharply upward over the last few weeks and I expect this to continue through the month and taper off pretty quick.

I am more fresh than ever at this time of year. There is no question about that. Even though I have been riding the same number of hours and my FTP seems to be nearly what it was last year at this time, I did very little L4 this off season and really didn't nail the L3 until lately. I did a 40 minute L4 workout every week of the off season last year... no matter what. I really never understood how much mental and physical energy I was putting into these workouts. I did everyone like it was a do or die effort for every single watt... rather than just aiming for 90-100% of my FTP the week before, I would treat each one like a TT... a 40 minute TT. I would do them on Tuesdays and I would start thinking about the next one on Thursday or so. I didn't realize it until now, but I was racing every single week. Sure, it was just racing myself, but I was really racing the power meter... if I was under where I was the week before I would be upset... elation for the opposite. All of this drama dealt up a nice burnout for me in April last year... yes, I said April...

It looks like I will be racing the first three weekends of March. I cant hardly wait...

Ramblings...

A few things that have happened or that I have been thinking about over the many, many, long, freezing cold, solo rides that I have been on over the last month...

• This sounds like the start of a country song... I was riding my bike to church a few weeks ago to meet my wife and kids for Mass. I stupidly picked a bad, high traffic route and decided to ride on the sidewalk. This particular sidewalk apparently has water constantly running over it from the hill above. Of course it was around 32 degrees when I left the house. Before I knew it... riding down a hill at around 25 mph... I find myself shooting across a 3" thick sheet of ice. I, of course, go down like a sack of potatoes. Didn't get hurt... thank you Lord...
• Today, man and machine become one... not in the biblical sense, but suffice to say that I felt sorry for every man, woman, or child that does not take the time to become truly comfortable and efficient on a bicycle... it is magical and there is nothing else like it...
• I completely rehabbed my basement while managing 12 hours per week on the bike, work 45 hours per week, and raise two kids. Everyone is still happy I think (would I know if they weren't?). Anyone who tells you that they dont have time to workout needs a perspective change.
• Speaking of perspective change, I had to chuckle when I found some old emails where I was saying that it would be 36 degrees so I would not ride until it warmed up. Until this week, I have not ridden in weather over 36 degrees in three weeks with the same gear I had last year.
• I have leaned down quite a bit since New Years. Oddly, I am at 185 lbs (7 lbs over last year at this time) but I am in my smallest waisted pants that I own... pants I havent worn in 12-13 years... the weight room has worked but I hope it is not upper body muscle...
• My 30 min all out on the hoods is around 295W... My 30 min all out on the drops must be around 275W... My TT 30 min max is 269W. They are all growing rapidly but these are low numbers for this time of year for me... I am ready to let it loose a little...

December '08 versus December '09

Last year stats...

34.08 hours on the bike

Average Intensity factor for the month- 0.802

No time lifting weights

This year stats...

40.75 hours on the bike

Average Intensity factor for the month- 0.733

6 hours lifting weights (squats,step ups, plyometric jumps, lunges)

L4 is just starting to pick up now and IF will go up accordingly... it will be interesting to see how more hours, time in the weight room, and less intense work will translate into form this next season. Hope it works out...

Either way, I am as fresh as I have been in three years going into the new year and my threshold is as low as it has been in three years.