2009 Resolutions:

Pilates, Yoga, Nautilus, Repeat.

No 587: Last post of 2008

It appears that I'll be heading out of work early today. Need to make it to Providence bike to pick up some items before they close for the holiday/snow. I'll probably head straight home after that..
Bisikletci Murat wishes you and your family a safe and happy New Year.

2008 Season Recap

Data

The data for today's ride, compared next to the 3 hour ride I did two weeks ago:

1% of 8000

Your Hero did 1% of 2008's total mileage today, in a duration of 4:35. I'm a little worn out of course, but I'm very happy about my knees. Usually, at about the 2:15 to 2:30 point, the knees begin to protest, and by the 3rd hour, they're doing more of an LA riot than a protest. I can attribute today's pain free ride to a few things. See if you'll agree:
1. On Friday I did a one hour Level 1 YOGA session at the Y (awesome- I loved it and I'm going back for more.. Nega Coach will be proud- always preaching the importance of stretching)
2. The yoga was followed by two completions of the Nautilus circuit (Very light weights, 20 reps, focused on establishing settings and proper form) a light soreness today is accompanied by the positive sense of progress in the "structural fitness" department.
3. It's warm today! (56 right now) My worst knee pain occurs primarily on the very cold rides- when it's under 30 degrees.
4. Lately I noticed that my seat's a touch too low, primarily from observing my reflection in the window when I'm on the windtrainer. I hoisted it up about 4-5 mm and it feels so much better.
One other revelation of today's 80 mile ride- very cool that I did not cramp up even once during the ride.. But after I got home and leaned over to remove my booties, THEN I felt a nasty and breath-taking pinch in my hamstring. Data galore and possibly some other trivialities coming up later. Thanks for reading.

What if..

..every bike race team in New England were to contribute one gently used kit into a collection which is sent overseas and given to a less fortunate person to use? My team has already sent four full sets of Millwork One uniforms to Turkey this past season, two of which are being used by a racer who we fully support. Recently, I also sent five complete Union Velo Racing uniforms which were given to a few of the local upstart racers in Bursa Turkey. I think it's pretty cool that the roads and trails of Bursa, Turkey are populated with Millwork One and Union Velo uniforms.
If this idea turns your crank, please show interest with a comment, or write to me privately at reiscotools@yahoo.com. If a large number of New England teams participate, I'd like to start a new blog which covers this topic more appropriately. The idea is for every New England team to add one or more international riders to their team roster. Bike racing is extremely cost prohibitive for most poeple in Turkey. This idea will make our sport more accessible to more people. Think about it.
FYI, the next care package departs for Turkey on Jan 2nd (it's a Specialized Tarmac Expert complete bike), There will be plenty of dead air space inside of the bike box. Can we fill it up?

New Britain Criterium 2008 Redux

A new friend I made at the race this summer sent me these pictures from the 30+ race. I attacked with one lap to go and then fell apart completely with 1/2 lap to go, finishing nearly dead last. Whatever.. Cool pictures.

Adaptation: one leg intervals

Nothing does as good job of proving adaptation to stress, than a power meter. To wit, a week ago I did a set of one leg intervals. They were pitiful- 119 watts average, per leg. (Call this my untrained benchmark) Four days later, I was able to do two sets, same gear (39x19), separated by a 5 minute recovery (1 minute between each leg) Average watts were high 130s in the 1st set, low 130s for the 2nd set. Speeds and distance also way up compared to the workout. My next session of one leg intervals will be in the 39x17, and go 2 full minutes. The data of the 1st 90 seconds will be fun to watch. These intervals will increase in duration by 30 seconds every couple of weeks, until I reach 3:00 minutes. They are indeed evil as Brendan correctly pointed out. Those last 10 seconds really turn you inside out. Another interesting observation: leg is stronger than the right.

It's not too late..

..to buy a Likeabike Jumper in any of six colors and have it delivered to you in time for Christmas, as long as your location is within a 60 mile radius of Providence RI, or you are willing to make a trip to our location to pick it up. Go to www.weebike.com, there's a link in the sidebar where you can choose a color and make a secure payment via Paypal. If the recent blizzard has made it difficult to get out and find the perfect gift for the 2-5 year old in your life, please consider a LikeaBike Jumper. All colors are in stock locally in RI. Let's face it, if you're reading this, you probably spent more money on your road shoes, or pedals, or carbon handlebars than you will for this, the most top-shelf toddler bike on the market- the LikeaBike Jumper. All aluminum, rear suspension, Schwalbe tires, made in Germany. What's not to love?
This video is excellent!

On second thought..

I didn't expect the snow to continue into Sunday. Wishful thinking. It's not that cold out right now, but a family walk to the local Cumberland Farms to buy some Twinkies (for our son) was challenging enough- never mind trying to do it on a bike. Snow shoveling for the past two days has been quite an excellent set of workouts. Last night I did an hour on the trainer and two sets of 90 second one-leg intervals. It's rather interesting with the Powertap, seeing which leg is stronger and by how many rpms and how many watts. I'll show you later, if the mood strikes. Tonight I'm aiming for a 90 minute trainer session with a few Zone 4 efforts of 2-5 minutes each. Legs are freshly shorn. What a difference it makes- all mental of course. It's in line with the "looking good is feeling good" mantra. Looking strong is feeling strong, imho. Besides I plan to do some spin classes at the Y and I don't want to be mistaken for a newbie.

Winter Wonderland Ride on Sunday?

Are you interested and crazy enough for a three hour ride on slick wet icy roads this Sunday? Does your bike have full fenders? If yes and yes, reach out to me and we'll meet someplace on the roads of RI. Sunday. I promise it won't suck.

I hate Boston

Seriously.

Oral surgery

In the pain cave with sutures in my gums after a root evac
This sucks

One leg intervals

Do you want to discover which of your muscles have been "dead wood" all season long? Perform a set of one leg intervals on your trainer. Start out at 60 seconds/leg in the 39x19. This is harder than people realize. Add 30 seconds a week and as many gear inches as you can hold 90 rpm with. Later on, add sets (separated by 5 min recovery) You will find your abdominals and other core muscles becoming involved in the last 15 seconds of the effort.

Better to burn out than to fade away

I am saddled with a severe case of burn out at work. It's been a tough year for me.. A couple of very high end multi million $$ projects on Beacon Street for very wealthy and demanding people combined with very difficult architects and designers, has really taken it's toll. Being a punching bag for general contractors is not a satisfying occupation. I spent two weeks overseas "on vacation" this past May, tending to my father. Not exactly a vacation. That event took more out of me than I can even comprehend.. My coach was astonished that I had any good form at all this year, after what happened (losing my dad) The rest of my vacation time wasn't used for laying on a sandy beach or anything either. I went swimming all of twice, all year- at Narragansett Town Beach no less..
Long story short, I plan to take the day after Christmas off and the day after New Year's Day off. That means that after this weekend, it's 3 days work, 4 days rest, 3 days work, 4 days rest. Niiii-ice. But in order for this to happen without having a meltdown at work, I'm putting in a lot of extra time both last week and this week. Probably 70+ hours. It's little wonder that my heart rate's elevated..
How many hours/miles of base fitness can I add to the hopper for 2009? As it stands now, I will easily pass 8000 total miles for 2008 with just a few more three hour rides.

Glad that's over!

and glad I didn't wimp out. Did more climbing than I planned (2740 feet), missed my ride mates by a few minutes down at Route 3/102 (that was a buzz-kill), so I did my ride alone. This means that for 3+ hours I never had the benefit of a wheel to follow or a body to draft. Charts later... These are the rides which we will be comparing to similar rides of 12 months ago. Should be interesting to see where I stand.

Time: 6:49 am, Temp: 20 degrees, Wind: calm

I'm fighting a very strong temptation to go back to bed and bask in the warmth of the flannel sheets and down comforter which are still populated by my other two family members.
I don't completely understand what compels me to suit up and grind out three hours of endurance training, but it might have something to do with hating myself if I don't do it. I'm no longer coached, so the only person I'm accountable to these days, is myself. Obsessive-compulsive behavior? or a well disciplined work ethic? I don't know which.

One race report left for 2008

Maybe..
It's going to be colder than I like, up in Wrentham. I have a blown side wall from NBX, I'll have to throw an old tire on there. Need a tube too.. Some extra sleep tomorrow morning would be good.
Racing or not, I need to be there in order to retrieve something from Matt.
I'm not pre-registered, and I haven't downgraded. That limits me to the Masters 123 and the Killer Bees, again. I should have downgraded. Maybe I'll get down-graded on the spot by an official. One of these days someone is going to point out that I am constantly lapped and that I pose a risk to the ones who are lapping me. An anonymous mid-field finish would have been possible in the 3/4 field.
Maybe.

Paris-Tours: A nail biting finish

Somehow I accidentally managed to set my DVR so that it records every bike race on the VERSUS channel. It was delightful to discover that it had recorded Paris Tours. So I propped by bike and trainer in front of our 32" LCD and did a nice brisk 60 minutes of indoor training. The coverage was two hours, so I had to FF through the commercials and I watched the ending after I was done training. So very awesome that Philip Gilbert's team mate held that pace for the last 2k, holding off a charging field by only seconds and helping PG take the sprint. Tyler Farrar won the field sprint for 5th, right on their heels. Pretty amazing- I did not know this. Anyway, 60 minutes of zone 2/3 training (190 watts average) were happily completed and dying of boredom was avoided, thanks to Versus and my DVR. That is all. I'm off to one of my projects at Harvard.
In other news, Murat is mysteriously down to 170 pounds this morning. Hmmmm.

Pectoral muscles do not propel you forward on a bike

I love saying that, if not for it's raw truthfulness, for it's tendency to make certain peoples' skin crawl. I can now do 50 consecutive push ups. The last five are tough- they take a second or two longer than all the others, but I do them.