New Other Woman?

Yes. I have been in hibernation over the last 4 months, but I have not been sitting on the couch. Instead, I have been running... a lot. My original passion when I got into endurance sports was running. I always swore that when I lost interest in racing my bike I would return to my original passion. I knew that I had learned a lot in my time gone, but never thought that my return to endurance running would go as well as it is now.

I have returned to the blog but my new topic will be my quest to run long distances in a relatively short amount of time and training. I will be getting this thing up to speed over coming weeks and there are a lot of exciting races to come for me in the next two months...

Glad to be back...

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.

Winter Focus

The following points sum up my focus for the last two months...

1. Get aero and get used to it...

I have decided to spend a lot more time in the drops than ever before. I realized when reflecting on past seasons that anytime I am attempting an attack, to bridge an attack, sprint for the finish, advance in a crit, hold position in a crit when I am outmatched, or ride a TT/prologue, I am in my drops. Yet I have spent nearly no time training in my drops. My road bike position is relatively aggressive on the hoods and very aggressive on the drops (these are mostly relative to my own comfort level but also in comparison with other cyclists)... this makes me less apt to ride in the drops than on the hoods. I have focused on spending time in my drops this off season and have tested there on occasion. I have more than a 20 watt drop in FTP when moving from my hoods to my drops... this is unacceptable and explains some of my hardship in certain races over the past few years. I will often jump into the drops on an attack or bridge attempt only to find myself quickly out of breath. Now I expect that is due to many factors, but giving up 20 watts cant be helpful in any case. Spending more time in that position will help flexibility, muscle firing, and strength in TT/drop specific positioning that should help in races. I need to be closer to 98% FTP in those positions rather than 90%... time will tell...

2. Lift Weights...

We will see... I hope that it adds to my sprint but who knows. What I do know is that it has made me full strong throughout and that should add to my durability and confidence during the next races season... cant be bad...

3. Save the L4 for January...

Last year I completed a 40 minute L4 time trial every week from November until nearly February. As L5 and L6 work started in Jan/Feb, the L4 work tapered off but still continued every other week for maintenance. This offseason, I have had a steady diet of L2 and now L3 and will build L4 similar to the way I have built L5/L6 in the past... do it over a month and dont look back. I dont know what this will do, but I feel much more mentally and physically fresh right now compared to other years and I burnt out last spring very quickly so maybe this is the right move. I am training between 8 and 13 hours a week... feels good and my legs seem OK so time will tell..