Logistics and wanting to ride ...

What would January be if it weren't for cold windy days. Amazing is what! After putting off riding outdoors last week due to my puss-o-meter reaching an all time high I was able to get out with the TNT crew on Saturday morning for a nice 37 mile ride through the Varina Grove area. It was a perfect day to be on a bike.

While I was busy not riding my bike last week I did start to get some information together so I could start to strategize my state record attempts which will be coming up over the summer. Although Metro tells me they are indeed World Record attempts since those who live in Ashland, VA think Ashland is the century of the universe and Ashland is in the state of VA, Virginia is now the universe or in this case the world. Not sure about it but I will run with it.

My first attempt at plotting a course took me all of about 30 minutes of drawing and erasing routes on gmap-pedometer. Come to find out the straightest line in this case isn't the shortest because some how the previous two attempts which are now current records were about 20-30 miles shorter than what I had drawn. Keep in mind I haven't actually scouted any of these roads but rest assured I will find the shortest route possible even if that means going over the top of the biggest mountains.

All of this emailing back and forth with the records committee last week has me itching for a longer ride. Last night I made the comment to Jenn, "How can I have so much energy, yet am so sleepy?" I think the answer is because I have been so excited to get out and really test my legs for the first time this calendar year. Correction second time, the first time was the impromptu ride home from Osborne Park a few weeks back.

That being said, I announce that on Friday, January 30th, 2009 I will be putting in my first unsupported century of the year. The plan is as follows, take Petra to vet at 7:45. Be back at home around 9 or so. On the bike by 9:30ish. I will be riding through the city and picking up Zach (aka ZNels) and maybe Johnny (aka The Yellow Blaze). They will join me for the 40 some miles out on the Eastern side of town before we head back to the city and I will continue home. I am excited as this ride has both the Varina Grove area and Riverside Dr/Old Gun worked into it. Oh time cannot move fast enough at this point. Till then here are some pics from our weekend trip to Douthat State Park.

Blue Suck Falls

Olympic Long jump distance?

Jenn Climbing Lookout Rock

Sage Can Climb Lookout Rock Too

Overlooking the Lake

Methane Heated Fleece Blanket

Finishing the Last Kabob in the Fireplace

Roasting Mello's

That's my boy!

What's that smell?

So I pussed out on another ride outdoors last night. Was planning on getting in about an hour's worth of easy spinning with the TNT crew but with the temperature quickly dropping we decided to cancel the ride. Jenn and I did pick up a trainer for her to use here at the house on the cold nights and days when we don't want to be outdoors. In the process I also picked up a copy of the Spinerval's 5.0 Mental Toughness.

This episode is geared towards developing the mental toughness to maintain a steady hard effort over a period of time. The video is about 1.5 hours long and uses sets of steady state intervals the entire time. It started out fairly easy and I was just spinning along on the rollers. Then I started to sweat.

The problem wasn't that I was starting to sweat but I wasn't wearing a shirt and my armpits were starting to reek. I had a running dialouge in my head on which smelled worse, the dead fish from Saturday's ride or me. That is were the "mental toughness" training began. The intervals began to get longer and longer and I began to stink more and more. It was now mentally tough to just breath the stench. Then the jerk "Coach Troy" of the video asked us to get off our bikes and do isometric squats for a minute and a half. This required us to squat to a sitting position and put our hands up behind our heads. I haven't felt that kind of burn in my legs in a long time. It f-in hurt! I was only about to hold the first one for about a minute ten. The second one I was able to fight through and hold for the entire minute and a half. Then it was back on the bike for more steady state stuff.

The workout was a good one. Not a lot of power was required from my legs but it definitely was tough at times to keep the cadence soooo high and not slowing down because I felt that my heart was beating too rapidly. Might do the same workout Thursday night since it will be colder then than last night. But for now, I am off to take another shower as I feel dirty just remembering how stank I was last night.

Beautiful Day and now my legs hurt

The morning started off with Jenn and I going out to meet the Team out at Osborne Park. I was a it weary of the weather conditions as I have begun to be a big ole puss when it comes to being cold. Thursday night we went out to Westcreek where it seems to always be about 10 degrees colder there than any other place in Richmond. We had planned on doing 3 quick laps (18 miles) but it soon turned into 2 quick laps as my fingernails had started to feel like I had slammed each and every one with a BFH. I had Friday off and had been looking forward to a couple hour ride all week. But with being cold on Thursday night and being a being pile of lazy I stayed at home and played with the pups all day.
Back to Saturday. I was hoping it would warm up like the weatherpersons said it was going to but weary all the same as they don't always predict it right. The group ride had gone really well with everyone keeping a very good pace the whole 33 miles. As always when we ride out there we were blessed with a few laughs and WTH looks on our faces. The WTH looks usually stemmed from a dead animal carcass. The final count was

• 3 deer
• 3 fish
  
• 2 house cats and
  
• 1 red fox hanging from a barb wire fence

Once we got back to the parking lot I had made the decision to continue on ride back to the house. Between the high 40 degree day and my clothing selection I had warmed up real nice like. Just before I was about to leave the parking lot, a customer of mine Ed McNelis of Team Nature's Path had rolled up to the park to use the restroom. Seems he was out on a solo trip in search of the ever elusive base mile. After a brief conversation, I had a partner to ride back through the city with and off we went.

My legs felt pretty good despite not eating breakfast or lunch or anything other than a Fruit Smoothie Powerbar just before the start of the first 33 miles. By the time the road turned upwards to begin the accent from the riverbed my legs started to remind me, my diet routine stinks. I couldn't take on Gelblasts fast enough, I had hit the wall.

With the dark clouds rolling in for the afternoon rain showers they had been predicting I knew I couldn't just sit up and coast back. Well that and I knew I was still about 15 miles out and I had told Jenn it would only take me about 1.5ish hours to get home so I pressed on. Downing drink, gel blast, drink, gel blast for the next 52 minutes. My legs started to come back to me a little along the flatter/rolling parts of Huguenot. I hadn't been paying attention to the time really but I knew it had been 1.5 hours since I left when I heard the phone ringing. I stopped to call Jenn back and let her know I was only about 4-5 miles out and I would be home as quick as my two dead legs would get me there.

All in all it was a great ride. Ended up with my first metric century under my belt for 2009 and it has me thirsting for the next one. Look out there is blood in the water!

First Post of 2009

So it's seven days into the new year and I thought it was about time for me to make my first post of the year. Hope everyone had a nice fun filled time with their families over the holidays. I know Jenn and I did!

I have never been one to make resolutions for New Year's and I am not going to start this year. I have however been known to set a few goals I would like to accomplish each year and this year is no different.

With having to save money so Jenn and I can afford to get out to my sister's wedding this summer and also having to pay for our own wedding and honeymoon, I told Jenn I had made up my mind not race once again this year. She tried to talk me into doing a few of the bigger races but I told her I would have to respectfully decline as I had already come up with my next big list of stupid s*** I would like to attempt this year. She got nervous when I explained the list. And probably rightfully so. Here's the list for 2009:

• Marry Jenn on Oct 3rd
• Get myself into respectable endurance riding shape by start of summer
• Attempt to break the VA North to South record as governed by the Ultra Marathon Cycling Association
• And if time allows I would like to be the first to set a record for the W-E of VA

Jenn is a bit weary of the amount of time I will have to be on the bike training to get myself back into shape but is being very supportive. I will be getting in most of my harder rides on Fridays (usually my day off) and my easier rides with our Team in Training group. Which by the way you all should donate!

But for now I am off to install a new heart rate monitor on the bike so I can get an idea of just how bad this training is going to hurt.