They Call Me An-twan

Naughty List

2011-12-22T15:44:00.000-05:00

Today was the perfect day to get out on the bike and just enjoy the ride. With just a couple of days left before Christmas I spent the majority of my ride taking in the decorations. I was flying high with the spirit of Christmas. Somewhere about 35 miles or so into the ride I came up behind another rider. We were heading the same way so now I company for the next 10 miles or so.

People ask me all the time about run ins with cars but I cannot honestly remember the last time I was honked or yelled at. Today that changed. We stopped for a red light and once the light changed and we started back up, we were passed by two cars with no problem. The driver of the third car came by with the horn blowing and window down. He let up on the horn to yell to us "Get off the ******* road!" I usually just let stuff like this go without response but I replied "Merry Christmas!" He then gave me the early present of the finger. I know one guy who's stocking is going to be full of coal.

Island therapy

2011-09-02T07:33:00.001-05:00

This past week was supposed to be a relaxing getaway full of sun, sand and saddle time. I keep telling myself, two out of three isn't bad. Looking back to recent history, I cannot remember the last time I had been so relaxed. Not a worry in the world once I stop worrying about my level of fitness and health.

The first day down here, I did some running on the beach. This wasn't your typical "let's go for a run" type of run. You all know I wouldn't say or do such a thing. Instead, it was just a few short pain free minutes (maybe 20) of throwing the frisbee with Todd. The following morning was a different story. My right hip flexor started to yell obscenities with my every attempt to move it. I tried to reason with it, explaining this was a family beach and those kind of words would not be tolerated. I even tried smacking it around a bit. That didn't work either.

With this slated to be a heavy mileage week in preparation of the upcoming ADK 540, I got on my bike and headed out for the better part of the morning. I wish I could report the ride was a success but it was anything but. I quickly became frustrated as I attempted to break the world record of completing the most missed turns in the first half of a ride. At the same time, the hip pain had now stretched all the way down the outside of my leg.

At one point it was bad enough to bring me 79.9% of the way to mentally breaking. Instead of crawling into a ditch to cry, I turned the wheel towards home and bagged the rest of the ride. The ride ended up, being less than 5 miles shorter in that direction. The original route would have been more scenic but without the mental fortitude it certainly wouldn't have been more enjoyable.

Fast forward through two days of extreme hip therapy consisting of hours upon hours of sitting on the beach perfecting all my amazing tan lines. What most people try to avoid, I usually excel. My crisp, sharp lines of differing color on my skin would make any cyclist proud.

Yesterday, I awoke and my hip had stopped yelling at me so I decided to take a few laps around the island. The plan was to ride for as long as I could go without feeling any pain in my hip. That lasted close to 4 miles. Frustrated, I finished up 2 laps of the island which are similar to extended loops of Westcreek but without any sort of change in elevation just flat, mind numbing miles. And yes, I do realize Westcreek doesn't have any real elevation change but it does require me to use the rear shifter twice every 6 miles. So I went back to the self-prescribed beach therapy.

Like my new do?

It looks as if I will be giving it one more crack this morning when the other 8 members of the house take to the road for a few laps of back and forth action. If only the superpowers of the flat, straight roads could be used for good (hip numbing) instead of evil (mind numbing) my world would be perfect.

Getting Hitched

2011-08-14T06:47:00.000-05:00

Last week while Jenn was out of town, I had ordered a hitch to be mounted on the back of the Highlander. It arrived but was too heavy and awkward for my little man arms to lift, hold and bolt into place all by my lonesome it had to wait. Yesterday, the weather was extremely nice for a Saturday afternoon in August and it was decided today was the day to get hitched once again.

Now the reason I decided to have one delivered to the house and not "professionally" installed by a local dealer was the labor rates. More than one company quoted me ~$150 to have it installed. I stopped calling after that and watched a Youtube video. How hard could it, I just watched it on youtube.

The instructions provided with the hitch stated a professional install would take approximately 20 minutes while a novice install would take 40 minutes. After crawling up and under the rear of the car to make sure I knew which were the appropriate holes to be filling with my bolts, I decided 20 minutes was certainly achievable. I laid out the toolbox to find I had misplaced one of my ratchets. Of course it was the one I needed to install this hitch in 20 minutes or less.

A quick run to the local Home Depot store was now necessary. I entered the store with a very short list of needs and a long list of "needs." Some of you may call those "needs" "wants" and I could get go on to explain to you the differences between "needs" and "wants" but its a losing battle. You just wouldn't understand if you don't already get it. Somehow, I left the store with only those needs and nothing from the "needs" list. This was a first for me. One that must mark a new level of maturity or just an extreme amount of focus on the task at hand; install in less than 20 minutes.

Once back at home with all the appropriate tools in hand, Jenn was summoned to come out to help and the timer was started. From there, the job went by in a flash. We crawled under the car, lifted it into place, started the bolts in the holes and tightened those bad boys down. 12 minutes and we were done.

We didn't even have to use a 2x4 like the "professional" in the youtube video. Jenn's joking reply was that we obviously did something wrong if we didn't have to use one. With the utmost confidence in my ability to do simple tasks, I offered to go out and hit the hitch with a 2x4 if it would make her feel better. Having seen my mad pinata striking skills and not wanting her vehicle dented, Jenn asked that I not swing a 2x4 in the vicinity of the hitch or car. I can't say that I blame her.

2011-08-11T15:35:00.002-05:00

New SRAM drivetrain or lunch?

Shifty bits it is

Now its time to figure out what's for lunch

Ramping it up

2011-08-07T05:22:00.000-05:00

With the ADK 540 quickly approaching, almost one month away, the miles and saddle time are really starting to add up. Well they should be increasing if I were following anything that may resemble the slightest bit of a training plan. But I'm not and neither are the miles.

With Jenn in Washington (the state not the district) until Tuesday with her mom, I have been on pup sitting duty. Wednesday Sage, Petra and I were joined by our good friend Dusty aka Doodle aka Dustball aka ... I'll just stop there. Just like all of our beloved pets he has a million nicknames and answers to only one of them.

Dusty and Raven staring at each other through the gate

Dusty has been having some issues with the strength in his hips and cannot walk up stairs very well. This didn't bode well with me because I have been having some issues with the strength in my back. I woke up Thursday morning with a very tight lower back from trying to pick up Dusty's massive 100+ pound Husky self and carrying him down the stairs so he could relieve himself in the lawn and not on the carpet. Knowing my back would not hold up to 5 more days of that, I built a ramp leading off the front porch.

Yep, its our old front door. Works like a charm

Thursday afternoon, I got in a short ride across town. I had to ride over and provide a lift to the airport. My lower back had tightened up to the point where everything in the back of my legs were also quite tight which is why I decided to not take a ride yesterday. At this point in the game it's also probably best that I rest any injuries so they do not become long drawn out nagging ones. They say with age comes wisdom, could this be the start of it?

Like a leaf in the wind

2011-08-04T11:50:00.000-05:00

Two weeks ago, Jenn and I ordered a new bike TT bike for her. It arrived last week which meant she would most likely be spending a lot of time on "him". Yep you guessed it, it's a boy. Nope, I'm not jealous.

If you remember, 23 months ago (you can tell there is a baby in the house because all ages are communicated in months) I drove off after a ride leaving my front wheel in the parking lot. Despite my attempts of having an Amber alert dispatched, it was never seen again. The arrival of Jenn's new bike (name still TBD) meant there would be a set of matching wheels going unused inside the house. I decided to switch them over to Le Antique for a ride or two.

The first ride on them was pretty rough. Wind blowing me all over the place had me feeling like a new rider all over again. I was a bit impatient when I mounted them up and didn't switch the cassettes over from my wheels to the new ones which lead to some chain skippage not only at the misopportune times but all the time. Her used cassette didn't mate well with my worn chain. Sad really but that's the reality sometimes. Once home, I made the ole switch-a-roo and prepared for a ride the next day.

I now have three or four decent rides on them and I have to say, the new gear has me excited to not only get on the bike but once I am on it, the ride hasn't been long enough. I just don't want to stop riding. Like a leaf in the wind, I just want to cruise thru the air.

My Wish

2011-08-01T09:50:00.000-05:00

As you all know, Jenn and I have been working alongside with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society for the past couple of years. Over that time, we have both gotten to know many fortunate people who have benefited from the research and treatment opportunities provided to cancer patients and their families by the LLS. With all things in life, with the good comes the bad. Thankfully, today I have no bad news.

I recently watched a series on ESPN called My Wish. They featured a story of a young man named Brendan who just like all of us had a sports hero growing up. That is one of the two things he and I have in common. The second is how we both pretended to be Landon Donovan while playing soccer in the backyard.

After watching the video, please help Jenn and I in our quest to help find the cure for Leukemia. We are hoping to raise another $1300 by Sept 11th. You can help save another young boys dream by clicking this link and following it to the "Donate Now" button on the right.

Three Thousand

2011-07-24T07:18:00.000-05:00

The number 3000 has always had a significant meaning in sports, particularly cycling and baseball. About 2 weeks ago, Derek Jeter reached the very select and illustrious 3000 hit club. Not as amazing of a feat, I just noticed about the same time as he reached that milestone, I crossed over the 3000 mile mark for this year. I found this to be pretty exciting because I haven't been chasing the long rides or miles which means only one thing, I have been riding my bike and riding it often. In case you missed Jeter's hit here is the highlight video. Sorry for not having video coverage of me crossing over the 3000 mile mark where ever it was on the road. Maybe next year I will hire a film crew to follow me around, but probably not.

2011-07-18T09:40:00.000-05:00

This past week was full of work, stress and riding. It was nice that the stress only came from work and not from any particular ride or lack thereof. In the end, I finished the week with a couple more than 250 miles. It has been awhile since I got over 200 and today my legs are feeling it.

On Saturday, I started the morning off with a 4am wake up call. After a quick breakfast and shower, I jumped on the bike and heading over to Westcreek to meet Jenn and other Team in Training members for the Silent Mile proceedings.

After the Silent Mile, a few of us headed out to Goochland and parts of Hanover for a nice leisurely ride. Once back to the cars in Westcreek, I grabbed a handful of donuts which were left over from the Silent Mile breakfast, filled up my bottles and headed for home. For the second ride in a row (Friday's ride through P-town) my feet felt like they were broken. The pain made it quite undesirable to put any sort of pressure onto the pedals. With the feet feeling the opposite from great, I just cruised home. All in all, it was a great day in the saddle which leaves me full of confidence as to where my fitness levels are for the ADK540.

Ignite it like the 4th of July

2011-07-11T09:04:00.000-05:00

Last week, I tweaked something in my lower back which had me laid up for 4 days. I am up around again which is a relief to me and everyone around me. Sunday was Jenn's birthday and to celebrate it, we got a couple of our closest friends together to have dinner on the lake before watching the fireworks.

Just like with everything else fun, Mother Nature had to have her opinion heard and tried to scare us off the dock by passing a couple of thunderstorms over the lake just missing the restaurant. We must have upset her by not heeding her warning by remaining out on the dock. She soon sent a nasty storm across which sent us all scrambling for cover.

A short 2 hours later, the storm had passed and the DJ was pumping the jams once again. If only the back was feeling better I would have thrown my "So You Think You Can Dance" audition routine out there for all to see. Maybe next year. Shortly after the sun was set it was time for the fireworks to begin. The evening couldn't have possibly had anymore fun packed into it. Here is a bit from the finale.

Tell him what you want

2011-06-28T14:24:00.000-05:00

Last week after another discussion with a friend who just switched over to a compact crank I started to think once again. The ADK is coming up in a couple of months and I may need all of the help I can get while up there. The race will have ~31,000 feet of climbing if/when I make it to the finish. On the way home, I stopped by my parents house to pick up a 50 tooth chainring I had purchased a few years back and never installed. It just sat there new and unused.

I got the new smaller ring mounted up and decided to take it for a spin. I could feel a difference almost immediately but I didn't know if it was a good difference or not. With the smaller ring, I will have to increase my cadence in order to achieve the same speeds which my hips have not liked in the past.

Fast forward to that evening when I got a laugh while reading the local mountain bike forum. There was a guy who announced he was looking to purchase a used bike. Another user offered up one that was one size smaller than what the original poster was looking for and was denied due to it not being big enough. Possibly offended by the denial he replied, "My wife has always told me that one inch does not make a difference."

The following day, I took Le Antique out for another ride when that comment came back into mind. Now I understand his wife was just trying to protect his ego but I can tell you that anything that is round and an inch bigger will always generate a more pleasurable experience. Case in point the smaller ring. After a week of riding around on the smaller ring, I am beginning to lean more and more towards the fact that the smaller experience isn't all that others have made it out to be. I'll give it a couple more days to see if I can get used to it but more than likely I will be going back to the larger ring. Why? Because bigger is better...

2011-06-20T15:32:00.000-05:00

Friday was a day I had been awaiting for the last couple of weeks. A few friends had invited me to tag along with them on a loop around Lake Chesdin on a couple of occasions but I had prior engagements (Sounds important doesn't it?) which kept me from taking part. A couple weeks back, I had mapped out the ride with hopes of riding it but again, life got in the way and I hadn't ridden it.

They had always boasted about the low amount of traffic and beautiful scenery. They also warned me that I would need to carry enough food and fluid to get me about 50 miles because once you were down there, there was nothing. Nothing was right and I was OK with it. I was enjoying what seemed like a 100 mile stretch of wooded road sides when out of the blue the woods stopped and goats appeared. The goats must have been just as surprised to see me as I was them because they all just picked their heads up and stared at me.

They lost interest in me before I did them because by the time I got the bike stopped to take a photo, all but one of them had put their heads back down to continue their afternoon meal. As I was digging the phone out of the pocket I heard grunting, snorting, hoof stomping followed by more grunting, snorting and hoof stomping. Fearing I was about to get charged I snapped the picture and started on my way again.

Shortly down the road I found myself on the south side of the lake where there was supposed to be a general store. The store was there structurally but it has been quite a few years since it was operational. With the temperatures starting to heat up, I decided to start rationing my fluids because I couldn't remember how far along the next store was according to the map. I came across a small marina which had a very small country store attached to it where I could fill up my bottles a few miles down the road.

The nice old lady who was working the store asked me "You trying to kill yourself out there in the heat today, aren't you?" I replied with "Believe it or not it isn't that bad on the bike." Because I had started when the temps were a bit lower and was out there while it heated up I hadn't really noticed how hot it was actually getting. A few more miles down the road my wrist found out just how hot the road temps were becoming.

The forest shaded roads were now behind me and the sun was full force. I was really starting to sweat a bunch and my wrist was starting to feel like something was irritating it. A quick look down and I noticed my RoadID (everyone should ride/run with one) was burning my wrist. The way my hands were resting on the hoods had the clamp pointing straight into the sun. A quick unclip of the clamp so the band would rest on my glove and feeling eased a bit except when the sweat would roll over it.

I was really happy to have have gotten out there to do the route. I really enjoyed it and will be looking to head that way once again in the very near future. Now I know where the stores are which will help my nutrition planning. With ADK just a few months away, I need some longer efforts to not complete shock my system when I ask it go 2 days without sleep.

2011-06-13T06:01:00.000-05:00

With less than one day before the RAAM solo's officially start their trek across the country, I have spent the last couple of evenings before falling asleep reading up on this year's starters. With the largest solo field to date, this year's rendition is sure to be a good one. Now you can spend a minute and a half filling yourself with excitement that will last you for days.

This week looks to be a nice one for me. Cooler temps, a regular work schedule and a strong motivation to be out on the bike should help this week prove to be a fun one. If all things go to plan I am going to hit some never before ridden by me roads in Southern Chesterfield on Friday. I drew up the cue sheet a few weeks back but never got around to venturing out. This week it WILL happen, I think...

All Natural

2011-06-11T05:59:00.001-05:00

Since returning from Asheville on Monday, this week has been relatively routine. With TNT training over with for the summer, I am now searching for ways to get in my miles during the week when I would have normally been getting them in with the Team.

Being able to commute home has been a real blessing. Once I leave the store, I am left with the decision of which route I want to take. Ultimately there are an endless amounts of ways I could head but I usually stick to one of the main three. The shortest is 21 miles and the longer of the three is 31 miles. The route chosen for the day is usually determined by my energy levels and the amount of time I have before I need/want to be home.

Yesterday my legs were feeling quite OK when I left the shop. The temps were already screaming into the triple digits but I wasn't concerned as I had packed an extra bottle for the trip home. I decided I was going to take the longer route home and head up the Old Gun climb. That was until, I started to hear a hissing sound coming from underneath me.

I found a low hanging tree to pull over next to which would provide a few minutes of shade and also a low hanging branch to make into a roadside workstand. A couple minutes in the shade to cool off with the sweat pouring down my face and I was back on the road kinda. For whatever reason, I didn't have a full CO2 cartridge with me and the one I had only filled the tire up to a little more than halfway so I had to ride very gingerly in hopes of obtaining another flat. And if I did get another I would at least be closer to whom ever I called to come get me.

A Green Workstand

By closer, I mean on the same side of the river because once I crossed the bridge I had the brilliant idea to climb Old Gun anyway. My thinking was, if I am going to have to wait for someone to come get me, it would be nice to do it in the shade not the wide open where all I would be doing was baking my potatoes. The climb went as to be expected and I pointed the bike for home. A few cuts through neighborhoods I don't normally take got me home in a slightly shorter amount of time and all was well except now I had to correctly fix my tire and start chugging recovery drinks. More commuting on tap as the ADK 540 is now just 2.5 months away. Just gotta keep em spinnin!

Trip down to Asheville

2011-06-04T22:07:00.000-05:00

"Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack" Jenn and I went to a Flying Squirrels game on Friday night. A ballgame isn't a ballgame without Cracker Jack.

Which one is more awesome? No 1 or No 2? If we base our decision on the level of vulgar lyrics, No 2 wins hands down. Excuse me a minute while I update a couple Ipod playlists.

With Jenn driving, I took a nap before eating my chicken nuggets. Once I woke up I put them into the Highlander's built in microwave.

Finally made it down to Asheville. This is the view from our hotel room.

Friday = 1 more day

2011-06-03T05:26:00.000-05:00

So today is Friday. Seems the week has disappeared without really knowing it was here. The holiday followed by a couple of days off from work made it go by quickly. This is a good thing because tomorrow Jenn and I are leaving town after a short stint at work to join the rest of the TnT crew in Asheville.

After a short 7 months of training event weekend is here. The Team has worked hard riding in the extreme cold and now the heat to prepare for what for many of them is going to be their first century. I couldn't be more excited to have been able to help them along their way. The smiles on the faces of those who are riding now what they once walked up in heap of frustration are priceless. It won't take much convincing of me to realize they are ready. The work has been done, now it's time to have some fun!

Part of that fun is packing. OK there is nothing fun about packing. Especially when you have to break it down into a couple of nights/days. Do I need this? Should I take that? At some point this evening the phrase "Hey Hun, Have you seen the ____? No? Where the F is it?!" will surely be uttered. Tonight is probably the worst part of the trip for me. Packing will always put me into the Can we leave already?, mood.

So today, I have one more ride home from work before I spend some time wrenching on the bikes before I start packing everything up. The morning will bring one last ride into work before Jenn arrives to start the journey.

What happens when you assume

2011-05-25T21:19:00.000-05:00

Yesterday started out like many others wake up, pack the car, go to work and ride with the TnT crew. Before I packed the car I took a few minutes to place the borrowed saddle onto Le Antique so I could try to get a feel for it before I went out on a longer ride later this week.

The ride started with a short cruise over to Westcreek where I arrived a few minutes early and got in a couple more miles while waiting for the remaining members of the crew to arrive. Once we got started, I dropped back to chit chat with another team member and before we knew it had lost contact with the main group.

This is where my assumption got me into trouble. Well not really trouble but it did make work a bit harder than I thought I was going to. The last couple of weeks we had been going left onto Millers and then heading over to Shallow Well before returning back to WC. I hung a left and gave it a bit more energy in hopes of catching back up shortly. They couldn't be that far ahead, I thought to myself.

Once I arrived at the corner of Millers and Shallow Well, I began to believe that they had not come this way tonight. I kept pushing on in hopes that my second assumption of the evening was wrong. It would turn out not to be wrong. I was chasing ghosts all night, always thinking I would see them "right around this bend".

That didn't happen either. I arrived back to the lot a few moments ahead of the them. Turns out they decided to take two shorter laps instead of one of the longer loops. My assumption rating was 50% for the evening and it only cost me a few extra farmland miles. One day my mother's advice about assuming things might just set in, maybe.

Forced time off = ouch

2011-05-23T09:42:00.000-05:00

Mid-way through last week, I knew there was not going to be much opportunity for me to get any decent riding time in due to work and the other projects I had started around the house. I didn't want these projects to continue on for long so I put a lot of my free time into it when I wasn't at work or sleeping. In trying to keep my sanity, I told myself it was a "forced recovery week."

On Saturday afternoon when I jumped on the bike to make my way my thoughts of "forced recovery week" changed. They are a bad idea if you wish to keep any sort of consistent fitness. It had now been 7 days without my arse being in the saddle and my legs were letting me know about it quickly. Needless to say, the ride in wasn't that enjoyable. Correction, it was nice to be on the bike but it hurt a bit more than I would have liked. Saturday evening, I ended up making the ride home mostly with Zeb of the Hug and Tug Crew. He set a pace I didn't want to really keep but did so just to save a bit of face.

Sunday morning, I woke up a few minutes early so I could help Jenn get ready for her triathlon. Having to be at work shortly after should would finish I packed my gear up along with hers so I would just ride over from the race and then ride home. Jenn did a amazing job finishing 6th of 26 while setting a PR for the course. She was/is extremely happy with her progress. Now if her hip would stop bothering her like mine was (Is hip flexor discomfort contagious?) she would be even happier.

On the ride home from the shop Ried, Twig and I were all heading the same way so we all left together. Twig and I were a bit tired still and made the comment that we weren't trying to push it. Once that was out of our mouths Ried jumped off the front to up the pace. Again not wanting my ego to take a hit, I put my head down to close the gap and pull him back.

Once alongside of Ried, I made the comment "Nice jump but how about we not do that again?" Seconds later, Twig was off the front. Not again! Once again I put my head down to pull us all back together which took a bit more of an effort because of our delayed response. Once we were all back together it was time for Ried to head one direction and Twig and the opposite. Twig was gracious enough to let me try a saddle he isn't using so after a quick stop by the Square Brick Building on the Right I was back on the road heading for home solo. Thank goodness, I could finally shut it down and just spin it home.

I don't think I will be taking that much time off the bike in a straight setting anymore. At least not until September and the ADK is in the past. This week sees a rest day today, then back at it Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday then possibly Saturday and Sunday. 6 days in a row really? Taking bets as to if it actually happens or not.

1 hour 30 minutes

2011-05-19T05:23:00.000-05:00

Raw vegetables for a salsa and some potatoes ready for heat

Gotta have greens with every meal

Pork stuffed with pepper jack

Dueling dragons

Vegetables with a little smokey flavor added

Golden brown

Time for a short rest

Final plating before devouring

Direction of focus

2011-05-16T08:41:00.000-05:00

So the last week has been a bit of a let down in terms of saddle time. The usual culprits are to blame work, weather and lack of motivation. Their isn't much I can do about the work and weather but the motivation, I could probably do something about that. It isn't the fact that I don't have any motivation, it's just I have been focusing all my attention onto work and a couple of projects I/we have started around the house. Both of which I am terribly excited about. Neither of which I am going to reveal any details of just yet.

I did pry myself away from said projects and out of the house long enough on Saturday morning for an easy 30ish through Ashland with the TNT crew. They were slated to ride 75 but with Mother Nature threatening us with hail producing thunderstorms all day we thought it best to get in a quick ride before things got sporty. As it turned out Mother Nature ended up holding her cards close to her chest and not revealing her hand until late in the afternoon. No worries as the ride was a good one and I know of at least one other rider who had a great ride despite their being a whispering gnat in her ear all day.

Depending on how quickly the house projects get finished up, I may have a post about a decent ride or two later this week. Until then, here are some pics from Saturday...

Delivery thanks to Powerbar

Orange Turtle which we helped cross the road

Field of purple flowers in the mist

2011-05-12T04:58:00.000-05:00

Sometimes in life throws us a twist, something we didn't expect to see how we will react. To see what we will do in the face of adversity no matter how great or small. This past week has been a rough one for me which thankfully, I do not have many of. Yesterday, I was in need of a little mental getaway so after work I did the two things I thoroughly enjoy no matter what the conditions are; ride my bike and cooking over an open flame.

After leaving the store, I packed my bag and headed out. I thought about extending the ride but then an overwhelming desire to just sit down for a few minutes came over me. At that point I decided to just head towards home and see if my feelings changed along the way. They didn't. A short hour later, I was home and playing with the pups.

This photo is actually from Tuesday nights ride. In trying to take a photo of the horses, I got one of the moon.

The last couple of days, I have been addicted to Mexican styled food. It seems if I eat it one day, I want to eat it for the next 13 days. For the record I get that way with a fresh pan of lasagna too. After a quick run to the store, I had everything I was going to need to whip up something new to us on the grill.

First we started with a couple of breasts rubbed with a chipotle seasoning

The chicken was then joined with pepperjack cheese, onions, green peppers between two tortillas

After just a couple of minutes on the grill it was finally plated up next to a big helping of Mexican rice

Spoiled Feet

2011-05-09T07:45:00.001-05:00

Over the years, I have spoiled a lot of things in my life. It is often times hard to say no to people. The hardest in particular order; friends, family, dogs and my wife. When I was first getting into the endurance side of cycling, a good friend of mine told me that the contact points on the bike are the most important when trying to stay comfortable. For that reason I have spoiled my feet, without allowing them spoil rotten (that would , by putting them into some of the most comfortable and flashy shoes on the market. Here's a quick introduction of the current plus a brand new one.

The Golden Twinkies

Named for their color and desire to be worn while riding the Blingle-Speed

The Ruby Red Slippers

Named because they take me the furthest for home and like Dorothy, I often times forget how far away I actually am and wish it were as easy as clicking my heels together.

Newest Addition and Yet to be Named

I purchased these because for sometime now the Ruby Red Slippers have been starting to show their age. They are the same model as the Ruby Red Slippers which is nice because I know my feet will be comfortable in them. One big difference in the two however is the replaceable heel pad on the new model. This is important because the worn down heel pad is what is killing the soles of the Ruby Red Slippers.

I was able to test them out for the first on the couch and then on the road this weekend. For their first ride, I put them through 117 miles of the flattest terrain I could ever imagine. I was excited that they fit the same as my Slippers. After about 80ish miles I could start to feel just how stiff the soles were on the balls of my feet. This is to be expected and doesn't cause me any concern I will just have to get myself a new set of insoles for them as the stock ones are quite thin, good for ventilation but bad for support. As the miles continue to add up a name for them will surely come, now to get more miles in.

Predicting the Future

2011-05-02T08:02:00.000-05:00

Often times, people who claim to be able to predict the future get labeled as a kook of some sort. Although some may disagree, I will go out on a limb and say I am not a kook, most of the time. However, I will be making the prediction that this post will be the second most "searched" post of this blog. Thanks to all the pervs in the world, the post I wrote about breaking the tip off my saddle is the most popular. Those same pervs will surely make come across the following photo of me breaking the tip off of something else while searching for who knows what.

Another broken Tip

2011-05-01T05:46:00.003-05:00

Another week has come and gone. I had high hopes of some good mileage for the week but they didn't always happen thanks to Motha Nature's bad attitude where she threw a couple days worth of hail spitting, tornado producing thunderstorms at us. Luckily it meant I was missing out on a couple days of commuting and not one of the longer rides reserved for my days off.

Left my sunglasses in Jenn's car. Had to kick it old school for the day.

Horse Country

This sign means only one thing, Fun Riding Ahead!

Remind anyone else of the Tree of Life at Disney?

Proper recovery is key. Fresh fruit, frozen fruit, 3 scoops of Powerbar recovery, 2 scoops of ice cream and a splash of milk

And for dessert, Grilled Bananas with ice cream

Lost and Found

2011-04-25T08:37:00.000-05:00

Like many of you I often miss place items I "need". It is usually when timing couldn't be any worse, as I am rushing out the door. My keys used to be hard to keep track of but I found a real convenient place to keep them, the front doorknob. Jenn doesn't like it but it certainly speeds up my ability to locate them as it is the first place I look. The second place is where they are supposed to be on the key rack before I start tearing the house apart. A few weeks ago I lost my favorite pocket knife. Last week I lost my Ipod. I found it. Then I lost it again.

3 years ago Jenn lost something most of you (not us because I embraced losing mine many years ago) dread losing, her mind. It has been a long hard road of searching everywhere for it but it is still gone. I can tell she misses it sometimes. I try not to let her know but I have caught her just staring at me a few times recently. At first, I would try to figure out "What I did not do?" as it is usually what I don't do that gets me into more trouble than what I actually did. Then I remembered a special anniversary coming up. That's right 3 years to the day she was blinded by both my bald head and the bling and said "yes". I would appreciate if you see her mind just laying around somewhere you leave it there and don't tell her where it is. I have kinda gotten used to her being around all the time.

2011-04-23T06:08:00.000-05:00

With the birthday celebrations in the past I was hoping to be able to settle in this week and get some riding done before I started traveling for the week. That didn't happen except for on Tuesday where I was able to get in a quick 40 after work along side the TnT crew. I had the time and the weather to do it on Wednesday once I got back into town but my lower back has been plaguing me for about a week now so the ride didn't happen.

Thursday brought a day trip to beach where I was reminded that like NOVA drivers, the peeps at the beach should also all have their licenses revoked as they cannot get through a single rush hour period without hitting someone else. It took me more than 54 minutes to go 4/10 of a mile and then wa-la I was cruising the highway at faster than posted speed limits. Not to the other drivers, the speed limit was raised on 64 to 70mph quite sometime ago, its OK to go faster than 60.

The time in the car brought on more back inflammation which meant Thursday night and all day Friday was spent going in and out of consciousness while trying to keep my back as still as possible. Thanks to the world of the Interwebs, yesterday wasn't a total failure however. I was able to conjure enough strength to place an order for another RAAM documentary called, You Need No Victory, To Be A Winner.

I had seen the preview a few months back but unfortunately, there wasn't an American coded DVD available and my PS3 won't play the EU coded bike pron. Last week, I read a review of the movie over on UltraRaceNews. It is now being sold by a brand spanking new company who no customer reviews over on Amazon. I took the chance and ordered one yesterday, who knows maybe they will throw in a special something something for being their first customer...

What I do know is I am not making my dream of racing RAAM any easier. Later this year, I still have to get my qualification while playing in the Adirondacks and then the true test of endurance begins, convincing Jenn that the race is a good idea. Her reply when I told her I ordered the film, "You don't really want to do RAAM do you?" Hmphh...Good thing I don't always listen to the words that come out of her mouth...

Only as old...

2011-04-18T10:08:00.000-05:00

The ole adage says "You are as old as you feel." This past Saturday, I turned another full year older which officially makes me 3_ but I feel like I am 87. Each and every morning I wake my body reminds me I am not getting any younger. Aches here, pains there. A very small part of me wishes I hadn't and didn't continue to abuse my body as hard as I do. But that is just who I am. I enjoy pushing myself to what I perceive is my limit which I will only ever fully achieve once in this lifetime because once I reach it the proverbial rubber band will snap. It will then be up to friends, family and doctors to put me back together again.

Lucky for me, I have the best set of friends and family anyone could ever ask for. Those that were in town were able to gather for a small celebration Saturday evening. One person who was not invited but somehow found out about the party via a highly complicated and elaborate email hacking ring was Mother Fphin Nature. She was not happy to have been off of the guest list. She sent a string of thunderstorms full of rain, hail and tornado like winds. She must have forgotten that I too am slightly computer savvy and was able to see all of her attacks coming well before they got here.

I channeled my Native American ancestors (I'm sure I have at a least one right?) who told me that if I lit a fire at night the thunderstorms would stay away or maybe we had gotten to the point in the story of how to keep coyotes away. Not being able to remember, I filled 2 chimneys up with charcoal and set them ablaze. After seeing the way the heavy storms veered away I am certain that not only are coyotes afraid of fire but so are thunderstorms.

With the weather behind us, we could now get down to the business of grilling and acting a fool. I did the grilling and everyone else took on the task of acting a fool. The night consisted of human beat boxing, dance offs, synchronized swimming, thoughts of rowing the canoe down the river (ahem, creek) and a few rounds of flip cup racing.

Thank you to everyone who came out and a special thank you to my best friend and wife, Jenn! At least for one night I felt 30 something again and not 87. Now where is that Advil bottle?!

Ride your bike

2011-04-13T05:13:00.000-05:00

"If we all road a bike, we would all look better in lycra."

Do you remember...

2011-04-10T06:45:00.000-05:00

Do you remember as a kid spending so much time over your friends house that it seemed as if it were yours? Having a second mother after you were accepted into their family as one of their own? Maybe now as we all get a little bit older your house is becoming that house for your children's friends. Growing up, Ashley's house was that house for my wife Jenn.

For as long as they can remember, Ashley and Jenn have been best friends. Growing up they were inseparable, spending days and nights over each others homes. When you spend so much time with someone you cannot help but become just as close with their family. Toni (Jenn's mom) and Debbie (Ashley's mom) accepted and treated each others daughter as if they were their own. As Jenn said, "Her family was my family and my family was hers."

By now you are asking yourself why am I being told this? What road are we about to go down? Sadly, back in 2005 Debbie was diagnosed with cancer of the colon and has been battling everyday since. Always the fighter, Debbie has undergone several different treatments over the past few years in hopes of ridding her body of the unrelenting cancer. Many of these treatments like chemotherapy where developed by the doctors who were funded by the donations raised by the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS). Last year Debbie passed the 5 year mark since she had been diagnosed which only about half colon cancer patients get to experience.

Jenn and I would like to ask you to join us in the battle. This summer Jenn will be attempting to complete her longest triathlon to date. The Nation's Tri is held each year in our Nation's capitol, Washington D.C. and is an olympic length distance. She will be doing 1.5k swim, 40k bike and finishing with a 10k run all in dedication and honor for second mother, Debbie.

How can you help? I'm glad you asked! With just a couple of mouse clicks you can make a big difference. Start by clicking here http://pages.teamintraining.org/va/nattri11/jcwelch From there you can read Jenn's page and make a 100% tax-deductible donation to the LLS. We have set a goal of raising a minimum of $2450 before Jenn takes the starting line. If you prefer, send a check made out to LLS to:

7512 Brightridge Rd, Chesterfield, VA 23832

Every dollar DOES make a difference…. And no donation is too small.

If your company has matching gifts, please take advantage of this to make your donation go further! Just let me know so I can send you the necessary forms.

Thank you, Now Click, Read, Donate!

Wanna go that way

2011-04-07T11:37:00.000-05:00

With things still a bit crazy at the shop, I had to go into work for a few hours mid-afternoon. It gave me the perfect opportunity to try out a new route to work. The last couple of times I have had to cross the Huguenot bridge has left me cursing everything about it. Since they announced that a new bridge was going to be built the current one has seen very little maintenance. It's full of big potholes and their idea of fixing them is overfilling them so now it has huge mounds. It just isn't much fun to ride during high traffic times which is when one would normally commute.

Looking at the map I found a way to get over to the Nickel Bridge. Not being too familiar with that area and only having negative memories of a couple sections of that route from when I was younger, I felt it would be a good thing to roll through in the middle of the day when not too much was going down. I was quite excited to find out there really weren't any bad sections. Hell the sections I thought might be a bit rough ended up having nice newly paved roads with shoulders.

Once on the bridge, I stopped for a quick photo of the river from a different perspective. You can see the Huguenot Bridge off in the background. You can also see the tower at the carillon which was were I wanted to go . A quick jaunt down Grove and I was 3/4 of the way to work. The rest was the same it always is.

Hug-a-nut bridge upriver

Heading in that general direction

The ride home was a bit more work. The wind had started to pick up out of the South and I hadn't eaten too much. I was planning on grabbing lunch before I left but when it came time, I just jumped on the bike and headed back home. By the time I had to make the climbs back through the Boulders and up Newby's Bridge my legs weren't having it anymore. I knew what the problem was but since I was so close to home, I didn't bother eating anything more on the bike.

I paid for that decision the rest of the evening as the sluggishness of malnutrition and dehydration set in. After recording my daily eats and workouts into Training Peaks it would come to light I wasn't anywhere close to eating properly which I didn't really need too much help figuring out. My caloric intake was a negative 4646. Sounds high but when I only took on 300 calories for breakfast, no lunch and then a small dinner it isn't that far off. It's no wonder I am so hungry today. Time for lunch!

I feel pretty

2011-04-05T11:41:00.000-05:00

Since Saturday, weather and work have provided me with plenty of time to rest up the hip and ponder what I was going to do with my rear wheel. I am not sure if I am being punished for recently telling Jenn that I had no interest in going to see the Picasso exhibit while it is in town. Could it be someone's way of trying to tap into my creative side? Either way I am tired of making spoke art in the middle of my rides.

I have decided to rebuild my rear wheel with all new spokes and the work order has been placed. In the meantime, I need something to get around on. I thought about pulling my rear wheel off of the cross bike. It would match the front as I have been running it for the past year. Being spoiled with all the engagement points on the King hub, I decided using the cross wheel wasn't an option. Conveniently there was another set of King wheels sitting around the house since Jenn is now running around on her Christmas present. After cleaning up the drive train and switching it over, Le Antique is now ready to roll once again.

Gloomy Days

2011-04-03T06:25:00.000-05:00

This past week has been a mentally tough one indeed. Not a terribly lot of stuff went down as I suffered through the gray days of spring. With the onset of April coming Mother Nature thought it would be funny if she played a week long April Fools joke on all of the local weatherpersons, sending in gray clouds all week filled with rain. However, despite the ominous outlook she only randomly opened the bottom of the clouds up to drop the rain on us.

A week ago Friday, the anchor bolt on the front derailleur stripped during my commute home. I was left to spin the little ring home at a much higher cadence than the legs usually like to go. I compared my average cadence of that ride to one I had made earlier in the week and it was 14 rotations higher. That doesn't sound like much until you do the math, which I have conveniently done for you, and figure out that my legs did over 1500 more rotations in the same time frame as a normal commute home.

About 3/4 of the way home, I could start to feel my left hip flexor which has been giving me problems since the fall. I knew it was not a good thing but hoped it wouldn't linger for long once I got off the bike. The next day, I met up with the TNT crew for a ride through Goochland. It was a nice day and great ride but it did nothing but inflame my hip. Laid off of it Sunday and Monday and then did an easy ride with TNT on Tuesday night. My hip felt a little bit better but I could still feel tightness. For the rest of the week, I took full excuse making advantage of the predictions of wet weather and took the next 3 days off of the bike.

Yesterday, I met up with the TNT crew once again to lead the Saturday morning training. I was a bit worried as to whether or not my hip was going to behave itself with the ensuing climbs, not mountain climbs but some of the bigger climbs in the Central VA area. The only downside to the whole ride was breaking another spoke on my rear wheel. Each time it happens, I vow to get a new wheel but I just end up replacing the spoke and continuing on for the next few weeks until another breaks, meh.

Still not sure what I am going to do this time, I may end up replacing all of the spokes this go around. Until then, I may just throw on Jenn's pink King wheel since she isn't using it now that she is rolling around on the Reynolds for the summer. Hopefully, the high winds of today and tomorrow will blow the gray away and with it take my hip.

Sun will go down

2011-03-23T05:01:00.000-05:00

Last night was a typical Tuesday. While at work Lynne came into the shop for a couple quick adjustments and a few other items now that the weather is warming and staying warm. I asked if she was planning on going out to the TEAM ride which she told me she just got done with a ride about an hour back. After not a lot of effort on my part she reluctantly agreed to come out for a second ride.

I arrived over in the Creek of the West a few minutes before 6pm so I turned a couple of laps before heading over to meet up with the TEAM. We had a good sized group and they were all ready to ride by 6:30pm which is sometimes a difficult feat to accomplish. I threw out the idea of heading out of Westcreek for the first 12 miles before the sun went down and then finishing up with a few more mind blowing laps inside Westcreek.

The ride through horse country was a pleasant one. We were able to see a beautiful sunset over a huge gorse farm that turned the clouds different shades of bright oranges and pinks. Sorry for not taking a picture, I was being pushed down the road by the group. I did stop once we were back inside the Creek for a quick snapshot of the abandoned streets.

Stem Envy

2011-03-22T05:29:00.001-05:00

Yesterday morning, I was contemplating grabbing the bike and heading out for a short and quick ride before going in and working the remaining portion of the day. A quick early thunderstorm around 8ish had me changing my mind. Instead, I decided it would be a good time to give Jenn's bike a nice run through since she will be back outside with her teammates at EF going forward.

After staring at the deep dishes for a bit too long, I knew I was suffering from not enough length out of my valve stem. After many, many minutes of interweb research I decided that because my stem didn't have all the natural God given talents as some of the other valve stems in the world, I would try to elongate it.

You too can elongate your stem 38mm instantly for just a couple of bucks.

I won't bore you with all of the other details that are just normal run of the mill type details when you prepare a bike for a new season. But here she is looking as fast and slippery like a pimp in Detroit on a Saturday night.

Patch Kit

2011-03-21T06:58:00.000-05:00

After spending Friday night trying to recover from the voodoo curse Toucan Sam placed on Friday morning, I awoke Saturday morning knowing it was going to be a good day. I spent a few minutes on the interwebs searching for home remedies to break a voodoo curse which didn't involve sacrificing a live animal. Finally, my stomach told me it was not going to be accepting breakfast much longer as breakfast hours were almost up. I gave up my search for a cure and ate a couple bowls of the Captain Crunch.

I met up with the TNT team over in Varina for a nice 40ish mile ride. It started off with everyone questioning what they were wearing and if they should change. Rob then led a mission moment for the TEAM. It was a touching story of how he recently got to spend some time with the Dr. who saved his life over 20 years ago.

Once on the ride we were motoring along when Paul noticed something was wrong with Karen's rear tire. At first he thought her wheel had come out of true but upon inspection, the belt of the tire had actually blown in two different places and was causing the tire to grow massive ulcers. Naturally we were about as far away from the vehicles as we were going to get so Karen, Paul and I continued riding very gingerly in the general direction of the vehicles.

2 or 3 miles down the road, we were passing a small house who's property was lined with a row of boxwoods. A small dog came bolting through the bushes and into the street just yapping away at Paul's feet. A larger dog then came running through the yard. Just as it was breaking through the bushes, Karen's rear tire blew scaring the dog back through the bushes and into the yard. We stopped just a house or two down to assess the situation.

"We have ourselves a situation"

The tire had blown in the center of the tread and I wasn't confident we could get it fixed. Karen started making a few calls while Paul rode ahead and told the group not to wait for us. After not being able to reach anyone, I decided to try a Powerbar wrapper to help patch the hole long enough to get us as close to the cars as possible. Karen looked at me like I was mental but I got her back up and rolling. About a mile later Tom rolled back around and asked how we got it fixed, and I replied a Powerbar wrapper. He laughed and gave me the same look Karen had.

Shortly thereafter the second spot on the tire gave out. I was out of wrappers but thankfully Tom had a wrapper from another company who I am sure you have probably never heard of seeing how Powerbar is the only company who makes bars taste good. While we were dropping it into place Karen reached someone who was going to pick her up on the other side of the airport. With just a couple of miles to get to the opposite side and the tire patched again, we rolled even more gently than before. We got to within about a half mile of where she was meeting her friend when the tire gave out again. With all of the rubber that was being blown, I was glad to see someone had left us a gift on the side of the road. I don't think their situation could be fixed with a Powerbar wrapper, however.

After getting Karen situated, Tom and I started riding back doubting we would see any of the group before they rolled out of the parking lot. The pace was steady as we rode through the Battlefield and we came across three other teammates heading in the opposite direction. They had missed a turn and were searching for it. After the ride Tom made a post over on DM about "trying to keep pace". If a deck of cards comes out while he is around and the game of choice is poker, I can guarantee I will not be sitting down at that table. His face and body language showed no tells he was having to work at keeping pace although, he would later claim he was. Great ride Tom!

Toucan Sam's Revenge

2011-03-19T06:43:00.002-05:00

Tuesday night is Chick-fil-a night. I know that. Jenn knows that. The members of the TnT team who ride on Tuesday nights know that. Now you know it. While the Team and I were discussing how wonderful Tuesday nights are because of that, the topic then swung to other foods which are equally awesome. When "What our favorite breakfast cereals were as a child?" came up, I couldn't decide between Fruit Loops and Captain Crunch w/Crunch Berries.

Fast forward to Friday morning. I knew I was going to go out for close to a 50 miler through Powhatan today. Breakfast was going to be a must. Problem, no cereal as I ate the last of the Frosted Mini Wheats and we were also out of milk as I put the last little bit into Jenn's coffee this morning. Solution, go to the grocery store and buy the missing breakfast components.

Once at the store, the internal debate of which cereal to choose began once again. I tried making a list in my head quickly of what I could remember liking the most of each one as a kid but it came out pretty much even. I looked at the price which was the same which meant I couldn't use it as a viable reason to pick one over the other. I was going to have to hurt someone's feelings.

The inner 5 year old came out, this would be decided by "Who would win in a fight?". I won't go into too many gory details of the happenings of the frontline itself, but it ended with Toucan Sam trying some long distance voodoo mumbo jumbo against Captain Crunch but would ultimately be lured in closer by Captain's crunch berries. He would fall victim to a poisoned crunch berry. Captain Crunch it is then!

After getting home and finally eating, taking out the trash, doing the dishes, playing with the pups and thinking about cutting the grass it was time to gather the gear and head out onto the road. As I mentioned before I headed for the Powhatan border for a nice 50ish mile loop. I really enjoy that loop as it has a couple of steeper climbs, a lot of rolling terrain and a few flat areas to recover. Once on the bike I knew it was going to be a painful day. There was a headwind blowing out of the west at 15mph. The first 38 miles where either into it or a crosswind before finally a tailwind for the return trip home.

If this farm ever goes up for sale, I am going to buy it

At mile 28ish I was really struggling with the warmer temps and noticed I was going through my bottles pretty fast. No problem I will just stop to quickly refill as I grabbed my card just prior to leaving the house. Or not, I pulled it out but it never made it's way into my pocket. I was just about ready to slam into the "wall" when I started to see quick random clips of the cereal war run through my head. Had I picked the wrong one? Was Toucan Sam now aiming his voodoo mumbo jumbo at me? If a Korean nuclear missile cannot reach Virginia am I really to believe his voodoo spells can reach all the way from the jungle?

Someone's way of saying I am going to be swimming with the fishes?

Through the hallucinations, it became clear to me that there is no limit to the range of the spells he can cast with his rainbow striped beak. I choose the wrong colorful box this morning and now I am paying for it. The remaining little bit of Powerbar Endurance drink was to be reserved for when I took on a Gel Blast or two. Both were soon gone as I desperately tried to get some sort of energy from eating although I knew it wasn't going to be much help as dehydrated as I becoming. Mother Nature did me a solid one when she blew me the finally 9 miles home with a nice tailwind.

Once I was home, I turned on the tv, filled a bottle up with 3 servings of Powerbar Recovery, chugged the bottle and repeated. I then sat down in front of the tv while taking my shoes off and I feel asleep err, passed out for a couple of hours. When I awoke the dried salt on my face made it look as if I had been antiqued. A quick shower, another bottle of recovery and then an endless glass of water for the rest of the evening had me feeling much better.

I am left with the life changing question of whether I eat the remaining Captain Crunch, throw it away or return it? If I tried returning it, would the ladies at the grocery store go in search of a straight jacket? I'll probably just eat it and stop thinking about it...

2011-03-17T05:07:00.000-05:00

3 days from now will be Spring Equinox, the official start to the Spring season. Spring brings longer days (3 minutes each day this week), warmer temperatures and sometimes rain. Warmer temps means less layers. Rain means not riding unless I get stuck out in it by a shower that pops up onto radar out of nowhere then disappears just as quickly.

Tuesday night brought neither of those to fruition. The weather was looking a bit iffy all day but I was told by my gut of guts, lord knows it has gotten bigger with what I am going to call knowledge, it was not going to rain until after I was finished riding with the TNT crew.

Start time temperatures were 50 degrees but dropping so I reluctantly layered up in thin layers to help stay warm for the evening. Sounds terrible I am complaining about 50 degree days when others are jumping for joy one finally arrives. But 60's are now my nice day and 70's a great day.

Jenn is now working out on the bike outdoors again so we were heading to the same place. This cuts out about 9 miles but because EF starts 30 minutes before TNT than I still had time to get a few extra miles in. This early in the season I am not chasing miles anyhow, especially 9 more. If I get them, I get them but I am not sweating not getting them as they will not make or break my training, err I mean my fitness.

Ride went off just how I had planned it with all of the gut filled knowledge. As soon as the last bike was put into the last car, Mother Nature opened up on us. Finished the evening up with a nice ~30 miles under the belt and managed to stay dry. Suppose if I ever need a career change I could always start traveling with the county fairs as "know it all fat guy who can predict the weather." Then again, probably not...

Spring Fever

2011-03-13T07:35:00.000-05:00

With our recent trip down to Florida a few weeks back I was spoiled with morning temperatures in the 60's and highs never breaking 80. It made for a nice relaxing trip but certainly made the thoughts of coming back home to highs in the upper 50's a bit hard to stomach.

However, yesterday was the type of day I needed on the bike. I was able to use my good looks and charm to awaken Jenn 15 minutes early and convince her to drop me off by the store a few minutes early on her way over to Westcreek where she was to do a nasty set of intervals. I was going to work until mid-afternoon and then ride home and get some natural Vitamin D as it was supposed to near 70 degrees yesterday.

The sun started beating down on my pasty untighted, short sleeve wearing skin immediately and it was nice for my body to warm up within moments of being on the bike versus about 20 minutes in. Somewhere along Cherokee Rd some lucky husband was cutting his grass which was a delightful smell I never get tired of. Unless your grass isn't really grass but instead wild green onions. Then the smell isn't so delightful.

Another sign Spring is near, Spring Training is about 2/3 the way through and the start to the regular season is at the end of the month. After I got out of the shower yesterday I was able to watch the a Cubs game on the boob tube. Something I wasn't able to do much last year. This year a plan is in the works to make sure I don't miss a game and I cannot wait for it to be put into action.

Now to do the other thing most people dread doing in the spring. Nope not clean, Jenn and I did that before we left for our trip. Taxes! Gotta get the man his money or better yet get our money back from the man.

Bike powered parade

2011-02-28T16:47:00.001-05:00

Jammin in the jungle to the beat of one...one speed that is. The afternoon parade through the Animal Kingdom was human powered.

Come and Gone

2011-02-24T06:22:00.000-05:00

Another two days have come and gone. I haven't done anything worthy of writing about unless you consider stuffing my face constantly with a small hope my hunger will subside. Today starts another day with no physical activity on the books unless I go for a late night run in the middle of the night in the Sunshine State. Don't confuse it with the place the sun don't shine which is actually a small town in the Sunshine State.

The next week hopes to be a relaxing one with Jenn running a half marathon Saturday morning. A few days inside the Disney parks and a few more days of doing who knows what. I am taking my running shoes and watch with me in hopes of burning a few calories so I don't come back with the extra luggage I so graciously donated when we did our Spring cleaning a couple weeks back. Praying my hip won't flare up and I'll be able to do more than one without ruining the rest of the week. Stay tuned for pictures and such. I'm sure I will take some at some point, maybe.

2011-02-22T06:56:00.000-05:00

Monday, the day much of America's working force dreads as it means an end to the weekend and its back to the grind we call work. Yesterday, was President's Day which meant everyone but government employees had to combat a case of the "Mondays". It is a highly contagious disorder which spreads rapidly and often has people considering extreme measures to end it.

While looking ahead to the week and realizing how tough it was going to be to get some saddle time in, I too went to an extreme measure and I pulled a Revolver. One symptom of the "Mondays" is delusion sets in early and gets worse as time passes until you ultimately just pass out and awake the next morning with a sigh of relief that you survived yet another bout.

For me it started with a couple mildly delusional thoughts of warming up on the rollers before firing off 15 revolver rounds into my heart, lungs and legs. At some point the delusion became a frantic hysteria and I fired off one more killer round which saw my heart rate reach its highest point since about the same time last year.

Cooler temps and night rides are going to be the name of the game for the next two nights. Then Jenn and I board a plan for Orlando for a week in the warmth of Mother Nature's sun. She is running in the Disney Princess Half Marathon with her sister. We haven't had a true vacation since our honeymoon so it will be nice to slow down for a couple of days.

Headwinds

2011-02-20T09:21:00.000-05:00

Wow, what a day yesterday was. The sun was high, temperatures were ideal Spring temps and the wind was blowing like only mother nature can get them to blow. With the winds projected to be at a sustained level of 20 mph and gusts up to 40 I left the house about an hour before the meet up time for the Saturday morning Team in Training ride.

This week we were doing one of my favorite rides which leaves from the Cloverhill Recreation Complex which has now been renamed Horner Park. It took me about 45 minutes to make the 14 mile ride over due to the Westerly blowing headwind. Once arrived and we all had gathered, I gave a quick description of the course so the Team would know what to expect. "It is all flat except for the hills." Really? Did I just say that?

The Team did a great job battling the wind all morning long. There was only minimal complaining about it and those were mostly made sarcastically. They just kept turning the pedals over and enjoyed the country scenery.

Once we finished I still had to make the ride back to the house. The ride home was certainly faster for a couple of reasons. No headwind, legs were warmed up, I had eaten a couple packs of Powerbar Gel Blasts (which I may have new favorite flavor, Raspberry) and I was racing the clock to get home as fast as I could to help Jenn at least a little bit around the house before some friends came over and I fired up the grill.

2011-02-18T09:27:00.000-05:00

This week has been a somewhat tame week for getting my workouts in. Monday I was taken hostage and forced to do intervals for a short time period. Tuesday night I was able to get in a really nice ride which happened partly because I sometimes forget to pack stuff. I was supposed to ride over at Westcreek with the TnT crew. The last couple of weeks I have been leaving slightly early so I can get in a few extra miles prior to meeting up with them and then once the ride is over, I ride back over to the gym where Jenn is usually working out.

The days are getting longer already but I still need a light to get to and fro safely. The last two weeks I have only needed to turn my headlight on for the last mile of the 9 mile ride over to Westcreek. This week I had to leave earlier than in the past due to forgetting to pick up the light from the charger in the morning. The result? Photographic evidence of the viewing of my first sunset over Westcreek for 2011.

It was much better in person. Crappy camera phone, meh

Wednesday night was a wash in terms of me getting in a workout however Zeb and I did watch people workout at Gold's Gym for 4 hours. We were there hosting an informational booth for the store and educating Joe Public about Spin Class enhancements and outdoor riding. It was received well and we have been asked back to do it again at the beginning of the month.

Yesterday, I was able to get in a short but long for me run of 4 miles. I hadn't run longer than 3 miles for many a moon but I may have found the solution to my hip flexor issue. Many doctors may tell you hip flexor problems can be solved with stretching and other remedies. However I have found the miracle drug politeness. You see, I asked my hip very nicely with a "please" and a "thank you" to not blow up on my last night because I wanted to be able to walk today and tomorrow. I couldn't feel it at all last night and this morning it is only mildly sore like a 2 out of 10. Success! Now where do I get a patent?

Hostage Taking

2011-02-15T06:27:00.000-05:00

Spring fever is in the air! Well at least it is in my mind. The only downside to this time of year is it is still cold in the mornings and evenings which means if I want to ride in the warmth of the day I need to do so in the middle of it which only works on two days a week and even then the chances of it happening on both days are pretty close to slim and none.

Yesterday was Valentine's day and while everyone was spending it thinking of their own personal someone(s), I did the same. Having to close the shop, I knew if I was going to get in my workout in the morning. Sensing that I didn't want to get all dressed up to combat the morning coolness, the leader of Sufferlandia barged in yelling and screaming.

He started screaming something about how things would be alright if I just put on my ruby red slippers and got on the bike. He made me slip on Le' Antique's special Friday night, "Screw me tonight" thong. Because he was waiving his Revolver around in my face and I didn't know how to respond to his perverted requests but to comply.

Seriously what kind of stuff is this guy into? Intervals that is what. Lots and lots of suck butt intervals. 16 sets of them. 48 minutes later he put the Revolver back into his pocket and left just as abruptly as he came in. Only I was left felling tired, abused and trying my best to not break down in agony while crying out for help from Jenn.

A day early

2011-02-14T07:53:00.001-05:00

"Hey DJ keep playing that song all night, On and On and On" This past weekend one was of those which got a bit away from me ride wise but not on the productivity side of things. All week long, I had been looking forward to the weather on Friday and Saturday and then things changed at work which meant I would have Sunday off as well.

Friday came and went with me spending very little time outdoors. I had been looking for to doing a 70ish mile road ride but bagged that when Mother Nature decided to not turn up the temps until later in the day. I had other things to get accomplished and didn't feel like being cold. I am over being cold on rides. Bring on the Spring.

Saturday morning I left the house early to ride over to Laurel Park to meet the TnT Team for our Saturday morning ride. 25 miles over, 30 with them and things felt good. That was when I could forget about the pulsating wobble which was coming from my rear wheel which started at mile 24 and was caused by a broken spoke.

After the ride on Saturday, Jenn and I stopped by the shop and picked up a new spoke so I could repair my wheel. The plan was to go out on Sunday at some point once it warmed up. I awoke with a different plan however. An early rise had me watching a handful of cooking shows which were still on the dvr. I got the idea that since I have to close the store on Valentine's Day I would see if Jenn wanted to cook a nice dinner with me and celebrate the eve of Valentine's Day.

The menu was set. We were going to make homemade ravioli with a homemade marinara sauce. A side of jalepeno cheese bread and for dessert vanilla ice cream topped with fire-roasted strawberries off the grill. Now that we had dinner plans, Jenn and I some how motivated ourselves to do some spring cleaning around the house. We converted the third bedroom into a bedroom and not a room with a bed frame in it. We finished cleaning up the Cubs room (err the office). Outside we got the leaves out of the flowerbeds, filled the holes the pups dug in the backyard and spread out the remaining portion of the dirt hill which has been holding our driveway hostage for the past year and a half.

A quick trip to the grocery store and we began the cooking process. We were given a pasta machine for Christmas and hadn't found the time to use it just yet. We pulled it out made up a ball of dough and started rolling it out. We learned a couple of things, 1)Don't clamp the machine to the table without a cloth underneath it. It will gouge the table. 2)Ravioli dough needs to be thinner than what we made it. We didn't know how thin it should be so we guessed. It was turned out to be a little too thick. 3)We need to find a better stuffing recipe. The one I choose was a simple one which we had all of the ingredients around the house but it lacked a certain punch. 4)A ravioli tray would make things easier not only for speed but for portion control. We made some of the biggest ravioli I have ever eaten.

The marinara sauce was a simple recipe and it made a lot of it. Even after our meal we were left with about 2 quarts of it. Into the freezer it went to be thawed for a later day. The cheesy jalapeno bread was a nice change to the traditional garlic bread.

Then came the dessert. Shortly after we were done with dinner I went outside and fired up the grill. I pulled the strawberries out of the refrigerator, stood them up in a pie pan and put them on the open flame. I went inside filled two bowls up with vanilla ice cream which was sadly store bought. We wanted to make homemade because we were also given an ice cream maker for Xmas but the bowl has to freeze for 15 hours. 15 hours we didn't have. It is now in the freezer awaiting its next call to duty. Off came the strawberries and then they were placed on top of the ice cream. Delicious!

Happy Valentines Day to all you kids who actually wait for the day to arrive. I now need a workout.

Go slow

2011-02-09T06:35:00.000-05:00

Dr Dre once said, "Today was a good day". Even though I am writing about yesterday it still applies but I am not talking about it being good because I didn't get killed in a gang related activity as he was. Unless of course you consider all of the cars on the road a gang and then it would be true, I didn't get killed in my daily life of gang bangin.

The ride over to Westcreek to meet the TnT crew for their Tuesday night ride went by very quickly. I cannot put my finger on any one reason why it would have been so quick but it could have something to do with there being enough light left in the day for me to make the trip over without turning on the headlight to see, my legs just seemed to be firing on both cylinders (although Phil Ligget would never describe my legs as bronze pistons just driving the pain. At least not this early in the season.) or maybe because I was riding through rival gang terroritory and didn't see many members at all. The ones I did see must have feared recourse if they messed with me as they all showed crazy respect.

Once I arrived the pace dropped dramatically for the better part of the evening where I started a different type of endurance training, dealing with the cold! With temps hovering just a couple (that's 2) degrees above freezing topped with not really moving my legs in a fashion to build up any heat in my cylinders my hands and feet went cold very quickly and stayed there. At one point my upper lip was so numb it felt as if I had just visited the dentist and a local was injected into my lip to keep me from feeling the pain. It made it hard for me to talk which I am sure was a pleasant side effect for the others. I am just glad I didn't have drool running down my face.

After the ride was over I still had to make my way over to Jenn who was chillin at a local coffee house with one of her girlfriends. The cylinders where on fire again and didn't want to stop. According to the Garmin (which I couldn't see in the dark) I was pushing 28-29 mph for a bit over 2.5 miles of mostly flat road. It felt great although I didn't think I had that kind of power in my legs already. I probably will never have that power again. It just goes to show you the old adage is true, You have to ride slow to ride fast.

2011-02-07T09:59:00.000-05:00

Here we are at the beginning of a new week. The weekend followed suit as last week and was over before I knew it. Yesterday Jenn took Petra back to the vet for another X-ray. We were extremely relieved to be told she should be fine. Still not totally sure what was causing her stomach to be upset but she is back to chasing Sage around the house and doing her best to eat us out of house and home.

This week should be another week of decent mileage but more importantly time in the saddle. Today will be an off day but I plan to be on the bike Tuesday through Saturday. If Mother Nature doesn't throw too much of a curve ball to use Thursday night I plan on getting a 50-60 mile ride in on Friday. The pace probably won't be too exciting but the time in the saddle is more important at this point in the season. Who knows, maybe on Saturday morning I may get in a nice long ride as well.

Where did you go week?

2011-02-06T07:43:00.000-05:00

Looking back at the week that was I am not sure where it went. It was here and then gone before I knew it. I was able to get in a good number of workouts without too much effort. Seems as if I am starting to get into some sort of routine. Really? I haven't had a training routine in about 5 years. I am more of a fly by the seat of my pants kinda guy. Last minute decisions to ride usually provide the best moments on the bike.

Monday's workout was spent on the trainer in front of the good ole boob tube. I opened the windows, turned up the tv real loud and closed the blinds. That way all my neighbors good here would be a gunshot every 2 minutes and me wincing in pain for 48.

Tuesday I rode with the TnT peeps inside of Westcreek. Jenn was out of town so I headed over right after work to get in a few extra miles before meeting up with the rest. I didn't really want to push the limit. Just a nice easy spin through the creek.

Wednesday was a beautiful day with temps nearing 60 degrees. It may have been slightly over 60 degrees but I don't remember that far back. With age not only does the hair start to go but the memory does as well. Although, I did hear last night you can exercise your memory by doing some sort of exercise followed with socializing with peers. My memory has no chance, as I usually head straight for the shower and chow hall (dinner table) after a workout. After work it was a bit too dark and traffic seemed high for the time so instead of attaching lights to the bike which weren't fully charged, I grabbed my running shoes and took the pups for a run. All three of us passed out for the night almost immediately afterward.

Thursday and Friday - my legs still hurt from the run. Was it a good idea? Sure it was!

Saturday, started with a lot of radar watching to see if the weather was going to break to get in a ride with TnT after the kickoff party in the morning. We ended up moving the ride to Sunday morning which I cannot participate in due to household income obligations. I thought I was going to go home and jump on the rollers for a bit to stretch my legs out since they hadn't done anything but yell at me since Wed. Instead, I suited up and went for a short ride up Old Gun to get the legs stretched out. The ride went by pretty quickly in less than an hour but did a decent enough job of stretching the legs out.

Once home Jenn and I had to make the decision to take Petra into the vet. She had been throwing up all night and it continued into the morning. Fearing she had eaten something and was having trouble passing it we took her down to the docs. On the way, we came across someone who was a bit too excited to get their boat to the water. I know it was raining but the runoff on the road isn't enough water to make a boat float.

The docs took a few X-rays of her belly to reveal two masses. One mass was food they said. The other was a question mark. It could be food. It could be something foreign. He prescribed no food for the rest of the day and to bring her back for another pic this morning. Hopefully that question mark will have shifted and/or is gone. If not she may need surgery. She hasn't gotten sick since early yesterday evening so maybe that is a good sign. Crossing our fingers...

End of January

2011-02-01T07:07:00.000-05:00

Well here we are and the 2011 edition of January has come and gone. It means a couple of things, time to look back and compare this year to last year and my plates on the car are due to expire shortly which I should probably take some action on fast.

Last year I was just as motivated to get my rear into gear due to it being the "New Year" and all. Had a few pounds I didn't want to follow me around anymore and nothing on the schedule until the end of February when I made the decision to go out to Calvin's. This year I put Calvin's on the schedule almost immediately due to how much fun I had last year. Walking afterward wasn't too much fun for about a week while my rear healed but fun none the least.

Last week I had started to compare my saddle time monthly totals of this year and last year for the first month of the year. I had started to feel a bit worried as if I hadn't been putting in enough work through the month of January this year. Last year I had expectations of being competitive but I didn't foresee being able to produce a result as I did. I have silently been telling myself in the back of my mind that I want to show up in better shape this year. A better plan may also work but being in better shape will allow me to fly by the seat of my britches when the plan goes out the window.

I pulled the reports for January 2010 and compared the saddle time to this year. Even though it didn't feel like it I actually was about two hours ahead of were I was last year. The workouts are pretty close to being the same type (mostly indoor interval work) which means I actually have about two more hours of intervals in my legs this year verses last year. That doesn't sound like much because it isn't but it does help to ease my mind in knowing I am not behind where I was last year. I felt great in the Spring after a Winter of interval work on the trainer/rollers. Now I should be able to rest my mind for a bit although that little guy on my shoulder is always telling me to "Go harder!"

Tour de Sandston?

2011-01-31T08:24:00.001-05:00

Saturday morning I met up with the TnT group. We were leaving from the Food Lion shopping center in Varina for a nice 31 mile ride. This ride is always a nice ride. It is full of rolling farmland, airplanes and other various surprises often found along the way. We started with a somewhat large group of 16 riders.

The way it turned out Susan Ann and I got separated from the group as we helped a newer member of the Team out. We decided it would be best if we short cut the route in order to get back in front of them. We would then ride the route backwards until we ran into them. We would then jump back in. Well that plan didn't go so well because the group missed a turn and short cut the route themselves. Oops!

We eventually met back up about the 15 mile mark. While we were sitting at an intersection a young man drove by and rolled down his window to yell "Tour de Sandston, Wooooo!" It actually made me laugh a bit. Usually it is something along the lines of "get off the road" or a clever line questioning my sexuality. From there we finished up the ride together. It seemed everyone had a good time and nobody mentioned getting sick from all of the surprise scenery. At least no one mentioned it. Then again I was mostly likely the only one keeping track. Sorry no photos this go around but for those of you who are curious the count was:

1 Turkey buzzard
2 Somewhat new Deer
1 Deer skeleton
1 Raccon

Tasting vomit

2011-01-29T07:43:00.001-05:00

Wednesday and Thursday were a bit strange for me. Wednesday, I had planned on getting some stuff done around the house and even find some time to ride outside. Mother Nature being the big B that she is, threw a wrench into that plan with a day full of rain then sleet then snow back to sleet and then finally back to rain. It didn't really matter anyhow because I was having a terrible time even staying awake. A simple walk to the fridge seemed to really tax my energy stores.

Fearing I may be catching something I wanted to make sure I was well hydrated and started looking for some juice to drink. We didn't have anything so I turned to the next best thing, Powerbar Endurance mix. The rest of the day went like this; eat something, drink something, sleep, wake-up, pee, repeat. All day long it was all I could do. Thankfully, Thursday went a lot different as I felt like I had some energy, still didn't ride but at least I wasn't completely lethargic.

A quick look at the weather forecast for Friday had me once again optimistic I would be able to get outside and not have to ride the rollers. With the morning sleet/rain storm which came through uninvited, I decided it would be a good rainy day project to organize the office closet. Jenn and I have a bag for every athletic discipline we participate in which allows us to keep everything we need in separate bags. We can then just grab the appropriate bag and go. Very little searching for any gear has to take place.

The problem lies in when you have so many bags and so little space to put them in. The closest in the office has been a pretty good team player with all of the additional responsibility we have asked of it over the years. It started off with just office type stuff in it. Then came one bag, two bags, more bags and more random stuff. Recently the closet started protesting the decision to hold more than just office stuff. He didn't sign up for it he says and like any disgruntled prisoner who felt he had nowhere else to turn he started to fight with biological warfare. Instead of throwing feces it just started to vomit on us each time we opened the door.

Tired of tasting last night's dinner each time I wanted to don my ruby red slippers, I took the morning to gut the closet and restore some order. While doing so, I went ahead and made it aware his responsibilities have changed and he will now solely be responsible for keeping all of our bags neat and organized. He tried to negotiate by asking for a "no random crap" clause but seeing how you aren't supposed to negotiate with terrorists, I made no promises.

2011-01-25T07:05:00.001-05:00

Keeping with the getting some sort of workout out in each day theme which I started a long time ago on Sunday morning, I decided to squeeze one in yesterday prior to going into the shop. I didn't have a tremendous amount of time once the decision was made. Just an hour to setup the bike, get changed and then ride. That would leave me about 20 minutes to shower and put together a lunch to take with me.

I remembered how nice of a workout I got in on Sunday morning with the newly downloaded video from Sufferfest and thought about putting it on again especially since I was home alone. I could play with my revolver all I wanted and no one would carry right? Then it dawned on me, I was sitting right in front of big double windows in the living room which all my peeping tom of neighbors could see into if they looked out their windows.

They would probably wouldn't understand all the benefits of getting one's self all sweated up just to wave their revolver around all willy nilly for 48 minutes. Combine that with a constant pain stricken facial expression they would probably call the authorities thinking I was going to do something drastic. So I looked for other options.

I ended up going with the beginning of a documentary I haven't seen in awhile. A friend actually asked me if I had seen it before just the other day. I offered to let her borrow it but not before I watched it one more time. The workout consisted of 40 minutes of steady state tempo riding. I focused on keeping my cadence the same and not shifting. I felt good and inspired once the time was up. Check out the trailer if you have some time its been out for awhile.

Knife to a Gun Fight

2011-01-24T08:52:00.000-05:00

The month of January seems to be in a hurry to come and go this year. With the goals I have for this year I really cannot afford to let any time go by without getting my workouts in. There just simply is not enough time between now and the last weekend of April.

In trying to make a change in my regimen, I had to stop making excuses not to be on the bike. Yesterday, I was working all day long and the football championship games on after work which meant most likely I would not be motivated to get in a late night session. I got up with enough time to get in an hour long ride.

I have been getting tired of doing the same three Spinerval videos and I went looking for something different. I have heard good things over on Jason's blog, The Soiled Chamois, about the videos available for purchase from thesufferfest.com. I decided to give The Revolver a go.

It was 48 minutes of pure feel good pain. The longer the video went on the harder it was to recover from some of the intervals. I certainly felt as if I couldn't have gotten a harder workout into such as short session if I tried. Once in the shower and my stomach tried to give back its contents I knew I had truly showed up to the gun fight with only a two inch knife.

Yes, it is the morning

2011-01-20T08:21:00.000-05:00

Ah, one more morning in which I have been lucky enough to wake up to. Although this morning didn't go as I had hoped when I planned out my week in my head the other day. I was scheduled to work this morning and was going to ride home after. Instead, I was asked if I would be willing to switch a shift today. I thought about going all semi-amateur, nowhere near elite athlete with my response by saying "Why would I even consider the thought? My training comes first and foremost. I cannot miss the session." But instead I just replied with a simple "Why not"

Now that means I will not be able to ride tonight as planned unless I ride into work this morning and then again home tonight. Morning rides/workouts just don't sit well with me. I would much rather be overly active until I puke later in the day. That way when I just want to lay around feeling dizzy and asking myself why I always push myself to the limit, I won't feel bad.

This morning however, I am going to try and break that mentality just this once and put in a session on the trainer. Thinking about doing the Uphill Grind once again. Normally I do these workouts on the rollers but out of the saddle intervals can get a bit sketchy on the rollers. The trainer will allow me to do these without paying attention. Which also means, I can push myself just that much harder. I just hope this doesn't ruin my motivation for the rest of the day.

View from a Confederate Breastwork on the way to Snowshoe

Dusk from the back porch of the Company House where we stayed

Tuesday Night Team in Training

2011-01-19T06:56:00.000-05:00

Last night I left from my mother in law's house in the West End and rode over to Westcreek to meet the Team. Worried about the weather I layered up and hit the road. 8.7 miles later I arrived at the parking lot to find the Team just about ready to roll. They were putting the last few articles of clothing on. This gave me an opportunity to cool down a bit.

Usually these rides are a strong test of how cold can you endure. It was really nice to have such a balmy evening in January to be outside. The lack of wind and the high humidity kept the temps feeling pretty true. The workout felt pretty good despite how tired my legs and body still are from the weekend of skiing. I haven't slept this well on 3 consecutive nights in what seems like an eternity.

Even though I really should get back on the bike tonight, it looks like I am going to take the evening off and try to let my body recover and then I will be back on it tomorrow night. At least that is the excuse I am going to use to sit around and try to finish up the book I started this weekend because the copy of Going the Distance I ordered two weeks ago still hadn't arrived prior to our departure. It has since arrived and I cannot wait to dive into it. Who knew I would enjoy reading so much? Better question. Who knew I could read?

Makin you a pizza pie

2011-01-18T07:02:00.000-05:00

This past weekend, Jenn and I joined a few friends of ours on our 3rd annual long weekend in January getaway. This year we (everyone but me, I was indifferent) decided it would be a good idea if we got a cabin up in the Snowshoe resort area and went skiing. I had never been skiing before so it was going to be a new experience. One in which I was preying I wouldn't get hurt at.

We arrived up at the "Company House" where we would be staying on Friday night. It is located inside of Cass Scenic Railroad State Park. The town of Cass used to be the center of a big timber industry. Once the company left town, the state purchased the entire town and made it into a state park. We unpacked the cars, made some dinner and enjoyed each others company into the wee hours of the morning.

Saturday morning we arose early to ensure we got our moneys worth on the lift tickets. Once everyone was set we all stepped into the skis and away we went. All I could think about was, damn there are a lot of people here and I hope I don't run into them. Everyone kept telling me to "make pizza" whenever I got going to fast. Pizza was easy to make, turning was not. The first run went like this, turn to the left, turn to the right, turn to the left, turn to the right and blam! Down I went. I couldn't get off an edge and bailed before reaching the tree line. The rest of the day I spent following Jenn down all the green trails doing my best to keep up with her. I started to get the hang of turning without having to make the pizza but still didn't have the confidence to just let it go.

Around lunch time we stopped and ate lunch in the village. I could tell I was getting tired and my knee was getting a bit sore, so I opted out of the next couple of runs while Jenn, Pantea and Mikey went racing down the diamond trails. Once the trails were about to close, we all met back up and went back down so we could go back up to the "Top of the World" where we were parked.

Sunday morning brought on some soreness in my shoulders, hips, knees and calves. Jenn and I made the decision to start the morning off over at Silver Creek since I had exhausted all of the easier trails at the main resort and I wasn't ready to try anything more difficult. Silver Creek was a ghost town in comparison. Jenn was able to help me learn to turn not in the pizza and we did a good number of quick runs since there was no waiting in lift lines. Ski to the bottom go straight back up, no waiting. After awhile Jenn and I started to take different trails so she could do the more challenging trails and I would stay were I was comfortable since they all ended at the same two lifts.

Lunchtime Sunday afternoon we left Silver Creek and headed back over to Snowshoe to meet Mikey and Pantea for lunch. After lunch Jenn and I did a few more runs but not as many as in the morning due to the longer lines. In one of the lines we saw a dad tell his son who was about to have an emergency to just pee his pants so they wouldn't lose their place in line. The trails soon closed and we headed back to the house were dinner was prepared and I zonked out almost immediately after.

Yesterday, we awoke with just enough time to pack the car before check out and headed back home. We had a great weekend and no one got hurt. A little sore yesterday but this morning there really isn't any soreness except a small knot in my calves still. Tonight if the weather holds off I will be riding with the TnT crew. If it doesn't then I will try to get a roller session in. Hopefully either one of those will get the knots out of my legs.

2011-01-15T07:02:00.080-05:00

Every now and again I get asked about my training. What do I do in order to ride longer? Do I do any cross training? I must do something out of the ordinary, a secret regime maybe? Nope, I have no secrets as the only one I live by is to ride more. Anything more makes it seem like training to me and that isn't fun. I just want to ride my bike.

Now one thing I have done over the last couple of years is I've tried to really learn more about MY body and how I need to take care of it so it will take care of all my crazy thoughts, hopes and dreams. In doing so, I have started wearing a heart rate monitor on all my rides, learned about proper nutrition and started recording all my workouts in a journal of sorts.

A heart rate monitor will do a lot of good things for you no matter how in depth you wish to train with it. I tend to only care about the basics. I just want to know my current, overall average, average zone and the number of calories burned. With that knowledge you can do more intricate workouts which require doing intervals in different zones. If you are dehydrated and/or tired you will have trouble controlling your HR which could be a sign you should take it easy for a ride or you need a day to recover. For a good read pick up a copy of Heart Zones Cycling by Sally Edwards. I would loan you my copy by Sage ate it shortly after I was done reading it.

Knowing how many calories I burn on the bike is an eye opening experience. On a few hour ride it is conceivable I will burn more than half of the calories I intake in a day. I am a believer and supporter of Powerbar not just because they are a believer in me but because they really try and do their best to support all levels of athletes. They have a number of great articles published on their website along with a page full of health calculators. I do not know how much I would trust the calculators as gospel but they do a nice job of getting you in the ballpark. Once in the ballpark you just need to find your seat. I recommend reading through the articles when you have a chance.

The only other thing I do is record my workouts. In the past I never took the time to do it. I also never really learned or better yet retained what I learned on any given ride until I made the same mistake again. I was introduced to the Dailymile about this same time last year by a friend and it proved to be a great tool. It has been appropriately called the "Facebook of workouts". It provides you an easy way to record everything about all your workouts. There are basic reports which summarize your work but for me the two most important aspects of it are I can go back and reflect on how I handled certain conditions and it also provides some inspiration and motivation by surrounding myself in the cyber world of athletic friends.

With any of the above, you can get as nerdy with the information as you want. From the sound of it I suppose I am in denial of just how nerdy I am about the health side of sport and life. I'm having fun with it which makes it a nice place to be. Now back to my regularly scheduled day of no training just having fun while staying active.

Time to get away

2011-01-14T06:51:00.000-05:00

As promised, I was able to get in a workout the other night on the rollers. I didn't have enough time to get in a double dosing but I did get in 45 minutes of grinding up hills. I can certainly tell that my leg strength is coming back to me pretty quickly but I still have a long way to go for my cardio to be there.

This weekend won't bring any riding for me. Instead it is time for Jenn and I to take our 3rd annual trip with Mikey and Pantea on an outdoor adventure where we may or may not get eaten by a bear, fall into an icy lake but most certainly will freeze our butts off. Last year we rented a cabin in Fairy Stone State Park for the weekend.

This year I am a bit nervous but very excited as we have once again rented a mountaintop home in the valley near Snowshoe. I have never skied before which is a bit intimidating. I'm sure things will be OK I just hope I don't hurt myself or others with my first time awesomeness. I still haven't located my insurance card because I haven't looked for it but when I do, I am going to attach it to the front of my jacket along with my lift pass. Wearing it like a shield should keep me safe, no? Jenn also thinks I should wear my RoadId so if I get myself stuck in the snow they will be able to identify my body in the Spring once everything thaws out. Needless to that is negative talk but I will most likely do it because she is smarter than me.

Keep an eye out here and over on twitter this weekend for updates and pictures. According to twitter you do not have to have an account to follow. All you have to do is text "follow RidesAnAntique" to 40404 and you will be following me. Now you have no excuses. Of course if you do have an account you really didn't have a viable excuse anyway.

Its a flyin

2011-01-12T06:40:00.000-05:00

Whether you like or even realize it, time continues and will continue to fly by at breakneck pace. After taking the last couple of days off to rejuvenate, my plan for last night was to come home, grab a small bite to eat and then begin a workout. With the uncertain weather conditions it looked like most likely it would be inside on the rollers.

I was also asked to write up a short little bio type introduction for the newest cycle teams I will be coaching for Team in Training. Never having to do something in a recent amount of time, it certainly took much longer than anticipated. Do I put this in? Do I not? Does the wording make me sound egotistical? Does anybody care? All of which kept running through my head as I wrote, read, edited, read, deleted, rewrote all night long. I finally got it to a point where I felt it put my experiences in a good light and hopefully my words don't make me appear as a jerk.

Before I knew it, the midnight oil was burning. I gave a late night workout a very short thought before deciding to just head to bed. Tonight will certainly bring a workout. Maybe back to back Spinervals?

Stop Go Pennzoil

2011-01-06T07:08:00.000-05:00

Yesterday morning I had a couple of thoughts which led me to commuting home for the first time this new year. First, I was itching for a ride. Second, I didn't really feel like driving home from work by myself or waiting around while Jenn was doing her thing at EF. Le Antique was put into the back of the Highlander and Jenn dropped me off at work which left me with no other option but to get myself back home via the cold windy open roads.

Once I was on the road, I didn't really want to try to push it too hard even though I have done three workouts with Coach Troy in the past week. His workouts work but not that fast. It's a good thing I wasn't looking to get in a hammerfest because traffic just wouldn't allow it. Seemed as if all the lights were red which made me think I was starring in one of the old Pennzoil commercials. "Stop, Go, Pennzoil"

As I was approaching the bridge, I hit a pothole and my rear light went shooting off the back. A quick glance back and I saw it made it all the way across two lanes of traffic to the median without being smooshed. I paused for a minute, waited for traffic to clear and then retrieved the light. I should have taken this first jumping attempt more seriously as the way things panned out, the Mars 3 would make another attempt when the time was right. The second attempt took place as I crossed the railroad tracks at Huguenot and Robious. The timing of this attempt would prove to be a fatal one for the Mars 3 as once I heard it hit the ground, my quick glance saw it explode into many pieces under the rear tire of a big SUV.

I will surely miss that light as it has been with me for a long time. Now that I look back it was the oldest light I owned as every other one has met a similar unfortunate fate. Please join me in remembering such a loyal ride partner.

The Distance

2011-01-03T10:01:00.000-05:00

Every once in awhile I get the urge to read a good book. Now I cannot read about vampires, wizards or elves but what I read about usually consists of recounts of everyday heroism and leadership which may come as a surprise. The other night I awoke around 2 in the morning and couldn't fall back asleep. Instead of consistently flipping over and annoying Jenn, I went out to the living room in hopes a little tv would help me fall asleep. Nope that didn't work either.

Reading almost always puts me to sleep so I grabbed the laptop and started surfing the interwebs. It started off doing research on races for 2011. Which ones I want to do which ones I don't. I came across the Ring of Fire Time Trial which takes place in Oregon. It happens to take place one week prior the Adirondack 540 which is a RAAM qualifier I have been eyeballing for about a year now. Both races have a lot of appeal to them for me which I will get into on a later post but needless to say I spent some time on both sites going through every page race descriptions. Which is where I found out who the race promoter of Ring of Fire is.

I started reading the story of George Thomas over on the Ultracycing page where John Hughes did a review of a book called Going the Distance. The story intrigued me so much I went searching for a copy of it. In the Google search, I came across a preview of the book in Google Books. I started reading it. After reading the Foreword, I was worried I wouldn't be able to stay awake long enough to read the entire preview which covered the first two chapters of the book. I couldn't put it down and was saddened by the fact I had to stop as I reached the end of the preview.

The book is an amazing story of a man who is denying all the research which has ever been done on epilepsy in the medical world. The story follows George through the 1995 edition of the Race Across America. A race I one day am qualified to take part in. I could go on and trying to tell the small part of the story which I know but in no way do I think I could do it justice. Best get it straight from the horse's mouth.

Caving in the New Year

2011-01-02T08:07:00.000-05:00

With the new year beginning, I haven't made too many resolutions. I haven't really been a person in the past to need a "new year" to do something different. I usually do not do too many things that do not work repetitively. It's one of my faults really. You see, I am lazy and do not like doing things more than once. I want to get the task completed so I can relax.

One thing I am looking to change though is the regularity of my blog posting. This past year the posts have been pretty scarce since I wasn't ride much therefore I didn't have very many interesting rides. I am also being pushed pulled into the modern day social networking realm. I am still holding out on starting a Facebook account but I did at the request of one of my title sponsors for 2011 open a Twitter account.

I choose it just because it seemed a little bit easier to integrate into this blog. If you haven't noticed already there is a small box to the right in green which will hold all of my most recent tweets. Feel free to click the link below to follow me. I am on a mission to reach Ashton Kutcher like twitter status. I mean why not right? If you are going to have a goal might as well set it high.

By TwitterButtons.com

Suffer Fest

2010-12-30T23:46:00.001-05:00

Around this same time every year it is customary to look back on the year that was and make resolutions for the upcoming year. For many of us one of those resolutions comes in some form of living a healthier lifestyle. Gym memberships will go through the roof and then by the end of January, 55-60% of them will stop being used.

This time last year, I was one who had stopped racing and therefore was lacking the motivation to just ride. I had lost the desire and couldn't find the fun factor in racing so I found new hobbies. Those new hobbies left my competitive side feeling unfulfilled. I got back on the bike with a goal in mind. I was going to attend a 12 hour race in Ohio and then possibly more after that if I enjoyed it. I did enjoy it but I didn't do any other races the rest of the year.

Here we are and once again I am looking to set some goals for the upcoming year. I have spent the last couple of days researching and debating which races I want to attend this year and which ones I do not. I am beginning to narrow down the list but it looks like I will need to do some riding this year in order to accomplish them.

Instead of waiting for Jan 1 to come around like I did last year, I took the opportunity to do a fitness test last night. With it being late (I actually kept Jenn from going to bed until I was done) I popped in the Spinerval Vol 27 Threshold Test / Suffer Fest. The workout started with a couple of hard intervals before doing a 20 minute time trial at your threshold.

My legs felt stronger than I expected them to but my cardio just couldn't keep up. It took no time for my heart rate to go into a zone 5 and it didn't leave it for the 20 minutes. I am encouraged I was able to keep my cadence nearly the same for the entire test without changing gears. Although I wasn't expecting great results from this first test with all the time off of the bike I have had in the last 6 months, I am expecting to learn a lot about my fitness levels as my training progresses. I am going to do this test every 6 weeks throughout the year. Hopefully it begins to become less of a complete suffer fest.

New sensor

Be careful of what you ask...

2010-12-26T08:32:00.001-05:00

The Christmas season is always my favorite season of the year. It is full of good food and a never ending supply of family. Sadly most of them we haven't seen since the last holiday season. Earlier in the month as I was putting up the lights outside and decorating the yard, I made the comment that we were the Griswald's in training. Jenn didn't really like the idea of me turning the house into a tacky light tour stop but the decorations continue to grow each year.

As most of you will remember during nothing seemed to go right for the Griswalds in the movie. That was not the sort of Christmas I was asking for when I said we were in training. I just wanted our house to glow like theirs but it is exactly what we got.

When we awoke yesterday morning, we did so to a heating unit which would not turn on. Lucky for us we live in a house built in the early 80's which still have the original windows which do anything but keep the inside temp in and outside out because it was 35 outside and 52 and dropping inside. After not being able to figure out a quick fix we just decided we would worry about it later and head over for Christmas breakfast. We weren't going to take the pups but we didn't want to strand them in the cold house all day so they jumped in the back and headed out with us.

Once we arrived, Sage decided he was going to go lap surfing and ran across the laps of 3 unsuspecting family members before getting to our Grandpa who was drinking a cup of coffee and reading the newspaper. A split second later, the coffee is in his crotch and Sage is running for his life.

Moments later, our darling Petra is running around the living room with a poo covered elastic band hanging from here rear. She had torn up a pair of my old sweatpants about a week earlier and it was finally ready to pass it. Outside we ran followed by a lot of gagging.

After that things seemed to calm down and bit and the only thing we weren't sure of was the heat situation back at the house. I was really hoping we would be able to return home and find a fuse blown or a reset button which needed to be hit up in the attic which we didn't have the time to check for before breakfast. Once home Dad came over and we crawled up to the attic. Sure enough one of the fuses on the inside unit had gone bad. Now the living room was being heated by a few space heaters we took from our parent's houses. I could finally relax.

Once I sat down I decided to balance the old checkbook since we had done a lot of spending the last couple of days. Now, I'm upset because to the list of everything which had already gone wrong yesterday, I can now add identity theft. A quick phone call to the bank has my account on hold while they investigate.

Luckily nothing else happened as I was able to just lay around for the rest of the evening and watch tv before falling to sleep. This morning I reflect back and I am extremely thankful for all the love and support we have in our life. I am also thankful Dad just brought us a new fuse for the heat! Merry Christmas everyone!

Tuesday Night Track Run

2010-12-22T10:23:00.000-05:00

Just like most Tuesday nights I tagged along with Jenn to her workout with the EF crew. Once we arrived we found the track in less than prime condition. It was still covered in an icy slush and where it wasn't icy it was soft like peanut butter. Now because I am not part of the team I usually do my own thing while Jenn works out with the team and coaches. They took the party off into a neighborhood across the street and I stayed on the track.

A big part of me thought it was not a great idea to run in such conditions. My biggest fear was slipping on the ice and falling. I was also worried about how my knees would like running on such unvaried terrain. Since I was there I decided to go ahead and put in the work while I had a slight bit of motivation to endure the cold. I was glad to see my lungs didn't mind the cold and my knees held up to the challenge.

My hip flexors however didn't fare so well. Once they begun to hurt a bit I eased up finished the mile I was on and then walked a lap before I started to stretch. My flexibility was once described as slightly better than a steel bar so I am not sure why my hips hurt me to the point where I cannot sleep the night following a run. One of these days I will have to start listening to my body as it wants to react differently to the abuses as it is getting older.

The Performance Enhancer of the Future?

2010-12-20T08:46:00.001-05:00

A conversation with a Team in Training teammate last night about stretching sent me looking for the link to the article I re-posted here back in October. Not only did I find it, but I also found another article which was just posted on Wired.com about a future performance enhancer which I found quite interesting.

The Next Sports Performance-Enhancement Fad? Blood Pressure Cuffs
By Brian Mossop
December 17, 2010

Forget illicit drugs and questionable supplements. New research suggests that a small, constrictive band that wraps around an athlete’s arms or legs may lead the next wave of performance-enhancing fads in competitive sports.
A study published this month in the journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise demonstrated that highly trained swimmers that used a blood pressure cuff to restrict blood flow to their arms a few minutes before maximum-effort time trials improved their performance in a 100-meter race by 0.7 seconds. The study team was led by Greg Wells and Andrew Redington at the the University of Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children.
So, in just a few minutes’ time and with minimal effort, athletes were able to significantly boost their performance, making gains that — according to the authors — would normally take an average of two years of intense training to accomplish.
The study builds off research first conducted in the 1980s by cardiovascular pioneer Keith Reimer that examined infarcts, areas of dead cardiac tissue that resulted after heart attacks, when blood flow (and, hence, oxygen) were cut off for extended periods of time. Reimer and his colleagues discovered that much less heart muscle deteriorated when the tissue had previously experienced a few training sessions where blood flow was slightly reduced.
It was as if practice makes perfect, and the previous bouts of low blood flow, which researchers refer to as ischemic preconditioning, primed the heart muscle to endure more serious, even catastrophic, events. When a life-threatening heart attack transpired, instead of shriveling away, the preconditioned heart muscle seemed to stand strong.
In 2009, a research team led by Maria Hopman from Radbound University in the Netherlands posed a question: If Reimer’s team was able to use ischemic preconditioning to protect the cardiac muscle during a heart attack, would the technique protect different types of muscle tissue from the stress and damage that occurs during another type of ischemic event, like exercise?
Though immensely different than a heart attack, exercise is technically an ischemic event, as athletic performance hinges on how much blood reaches a tissue. And insufficient blood flow, which also translates to reduced oxygen and nutrient delivery, can be one factor that limits exercise duration and intensity.
Hopman recruited 15 healthy, trained cyclists, asking each participant to complete two maximum effort bicycling tests, where the intensity was slowly ramped up over time. But before one of the bicycling tests, the subjects underwent three 5-minute rounds where an inflatable cuff, similar to what’s used to measure blood pressure, limited the circulation to their legs, followed by a five-minute rest period where the cuff was deflated.
The researchers found that the subjects performed better when they underwent ischemic preconditioning before the exercise trial, touting gains in both maximum power (1.6 percent) and peak oxygen consumption (3 percent).
Yet, the performance improvements were not due to differences in heart rate, respiration or lactate levels, all of which seemed to stay the same, regardless if ischemic preconditioning was used or not. Rather, it seemed possible that the ischemic preconditioning treatment may have given the participants their edge.
While Hopman’s work recorded the benefits conferred to the average athlete, the latest research from Wells and Redington pushes the understanding of ischemic preconditioning one step further, looking at whether the technique works in elite athletes, a group whose bodies run with machine-like efficiency.
Using a group of 16 to 18 swimmers who previously competed at the national or international level, the research team devised a double-blind crossover study where the same athletes swam mid-intensity and maximum-effort trials, but on two different days.
To counterbalance one of the main criticisms of the earlier studies conducted by Hopman — that the study design potentially allowed the placebo effect to creep in, inadvertently making participants try harder when they had an inflatable cuff strapped to their legs preceding exercise — Wells and Redington decided to alter their protocol: On both days of the experiment, a cuff would be inflated on every athlete’s arm. On one day, to induce ischemic preconditioning, the cuff would be pumped up enough to surpass the systolic blood pressure, slowing the flow of blood to the arms for four cycles of five minutes. The other day, the cuff was still inflated, but only enough to slightly squeeze the muscles for each 5-minute period, which provided a better sham, or control condition, than Hopman used.

Yet it seems that ischemic preconditioning is not a placebo effect at all. Similar to the Hopman’s findings in average, healthy volunteers, Wells and Redington found that when elite athletes used ischemic preconditioning before the maximum-effort trials, they swam faster. In fact, the athletes bettered their personal records by 1.1 percent on average.
And just as Hopman observed, the performance boost was not a result of heart rate or blood lactate-level differences. Consequently, ischemic preconditioning had no effect on the less rigorous, mid-intensity trials.
All of the researchers investigating ischemic preconditioning seem to agree that temporarily reducing the blood flow to a tissue causes protective molecules to be released into the bloodstream. But many are still scratching their heads as to why.
Hopman thinks ischemic preconditioning may cause vessels to dilate once blood starts flowing again, increasing nutrient and oxygen delivery to the formerly deprived tissue. Wells and Redington, on the other hand, think altered metabolism of mitochondria — the energy powerhouses of muscle cells — may contribute to more energy available for exercise.

Though the exact mechanism of ischemic preconditioning may not be known, it hasn’t stopped researchers from commercializing their discovery. On the published paper from Wells and Redington’s lab, a few of the study’s co-authors are listed as shareholders in a company called CellAegis, whose website says it is patenting “non-invasive technology to protect the heart from injury during heart attacks and medical/surgical procedures.”
And U.S. patent application 20100292619, co-assigned to the Hospital for Sick Children and CellAegis and processed last month, lists Andrew Redington as an inventor on a new device (seen above) that uses “methods for enhancing physical performance without requiring repetitive training,” with claims that ischemic preconditioning can be used to enhance maximal performance in physical activity.
If further research validates the findings from Hopman’s lab and the work of Wells and Redington, a new era of performance-enhancing devices could soon hit the market. And once again, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) will have to decide what to do with these devices.
The controversy around ischemic preconditioning devices could prove eerily reminiscent of the debate surrounding altitude training tents in 2006. WADA initially viewed these tents, which simulate a low-oxygen, or hypoxic, environment, as unsportsmanlike, since they required “no investment of skill or effort beyond entering a room or tent, donning a mask and flipping a switch.”
WADA eventually granted their use, no doubt at least partly due to the difficulty in enforcing such a ban.
Humans are fast approaching their physical limits. And as more research unfolds and inventions emerge, biology may have to nestle into its secondary role in sports. At least for now, it seems that technology is in the driver’s seat.

Image: Flickr/jasleen_kaur, CC

2010-12-16T06:07:00.000-05:00

The Mayne Event with Buffalo Bills Safety Bryan Scott

2010-12-03T16:13:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the Holidays!

The Holidays aren't the Holidays without egg nog.

They were outside before Jenn got home.

Griswald's in the making...

Our first of many trees from an actual lot

The drive...

2010-11-18T10:08:00.000-05:00

It seems as if I have been posting about motivation and where I can find it more and more in the last couple of months. For me, I have to have a goal in order to fire up the good ole motivation train. Since I haven't had any real goals this year other than in the Spring, it has been a constant struggle. But once the train is rolling, everyone who knows me has learned to either jump on or get out of the way because there is no stopping it.

This past weekend, I had the privilege of being the "personal paparazzi stalker" for Jenn as she ran her first half marathon. Now I believe wholeheartedly things happen for a reason. A reason none of us will know until after the "thing" is over and done with and we have time to reflect. In reflecting back on this past year it is really appearant just how hard she has been training this year for all of tris and now this. She was able to finish within 2 minutes of her goal time! Watching her run with a smile on her face each time she saw me or one of her friends made me wonder if it were time to give running another go.

I gave up running back in high school because I didn't have time to do it between all of my other sporting activities and my knees weren't tolerating it anymore. Today that seems like just another excuse to sit on the couch all winter and put on more weight than I already have. This weekend Jenn and I are going shoe shopping so I can get rid of the excuses and start being active once again. Between now and then I will be deciding on the Spring goals and whether they will be on the bike or on foot. If my body can take the beating, my gut says it will be on foot. Either way you can rest assured I will be pounding the pavement in some fashion or another.

My motivator!

Planes Trains and Automobiles

2010-10-27T09:22:00.000-05:00

Saturday morning Jenn asked if I wanted to ride out in the Varina area as a nice change of scenery from the now traditional Saturday morning ride for her and her teammates. After meeting up with Dale, John and the Masta of Spin, we headed out from the boat landing through the battlefield. I was really hoping the tree color would be changing through the battlefield as it always really pretty through there in the fall months.

The ride went relatively uneventful except we did have to wait a few minutes at a railroad crossing up near the airport. While we waited we watched a handful of planes take off over our heads before deciding to just turn around and find another way around. Out and backs are the worst rides ever in my opinion but thankfully I was able to recall a way back without having to backtrack all the way to the cars.

Last night, Jenn and I headed out to Westcreek for our Tuesday night workouts. Jenn ran for 40 minutes while I took laps around the Creek. Nothing really of note from last nights ride except it was terribly unseasonably humid and my burps tasted like jalapeno cheese dip.

Where does it go?

2010-10-22T15:14:00.000-05:00

Where oh where does the time go to? It doesn't feel as if it was over two weeks ago since I last wrote a short blurb of nonsense. Two things have happened since. The first being more saddle time and the second being the days are getting much shorter. In order to get the rides in, I have been riding home from work this week. I was successful in making that happen 3 of the 5 days I worked this week. There would have been a fourth day but mother nature finally agreed that Richmond smelled funny and needed a good shower.

Yesterday, I decided I was going to take the long way home which meant a climb up Old Gun. It also meant I was going to have to dig out the lights as Monday's ride home ended with me racing the moon.

Below is the map and details from the long route. My legs felt pretty good except on Old Gun. The climbing legs and lungs just aren't there yet. I hope to be making that ride more and more throughout the next couple of months. Cold air and climbs are sure to feel good.

Stretching hurts

2010-10-07T21:40:00.002-05:00

Ever since I can remember I have never been one to enjoy stretching exercises. Even when playing organized sports growing up with a coach standing over top of us, I would fake the stretch because it always felt as if I tired faster when I stretched. Even to this day when I see other people stretching before exercising I wonder how it is they do it and often enough they wonder how I don't do it. Today I came across a study recently published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research which says that static stretching does more harm than good. Here is the article which was written for Wired on the subject.

Seems that most everything your high school gym teacher told you is wrong. Well, at least when it comes to all that start-of-the-class stretching.
A recent spate of studies shows that when it comes to warming up before exercising, phys ed instructors didn’t do us any favors by having us to go through a series of calf extensions, hurdler’s stretches and the like.
The latest salvo against stretching comes from a study published in the September issue of the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, which found that static stretching before a workout lowered runners’ endurance and made their body less efficient. While previous studies have illustrated the effects of stretching on anaerobic activities, this was the first one to show the effects on runners.
The study took 10 fit middle- and long-distance runners (all male) and had each of them do the same run on two separate days with a 72-hour recovery period in between. The researchers divided the run into two 30-minute parts, with the first testing for caloric expenditure and the second assessing endurance. One day a participant did a stretching routine before running; on the other, he simply sat quietly prior to his workout.
During the first interval, participants ran at 65 percent of their VO2 max, keeping a constant pace. The researchers found that when the runners stretched before the workout, they burned, on average, 5 percent more calories during the run than when they didn’t stretch. Because they burned more energy to run the same distance it indicates their bodies performed less efficiently after stretching. For the second half, participants were told to run as far as they could on the treadmill for 30 minutes. When the runners didn’t stretch, they went 3.4 percent farther than when they did.

Despite the rising tide of evidence that discredits the benefits of static stretching, the perception remains that it’s necessary to do prior to working out. “Just asking runners, they seem to think stretching would enhance performance,” said study co-author Jacob Wilson, an assistant professor of exercise science and sports studies at the University of Tampa. “The thought is that if you can loosen up and you feel looser, you can perform better.”
But looser isn’t better. “When you’re lifting a weight, most of the damage comes when you’re lengthening the muscle, and it’s similar when you’re stretching,” Wilson said. “You’re stretching the muscle and you do get microtearing and you’re making the muscle less stiff too, so you’re not able to store and utilize energy as well.”
We’ve grown up believing stretching wasn’t just about improving performance, but about injury prevention as well. However a 2005 meta-analysis of past stretching studies found that it didn’t meaningfully reduce soreness or injury.
Yet the effects of stretching go beyond muscles, tendons and ligaments. When we do our toe touches or hurdler’s stretches, “we lose neural control, and that’s important because neurologically, before an event we want the muscles and nervous system to be able to fire the muscle in a smooth sequence,” said Phil Wharton, a leading strength and flexibility trainer whose roster of athletes includes Lopez Lomong and 2004 Olympic silver medal-winning marathoner Meb Keflezgighi. “That diminishes when you’re holding position.”
Wharton has forsaken static stretching altogether for the athletes he trains. Instead, he uses active stretches, which are range-of-motion exercises designed to warm up the muscles and joints prior to a workout and improve flexibility when used after exercise. But he cautions that people should proceed carefully when working the active stretches into their routines.
“People think a little bit is good and so maybe a lot is better, but with range of motion it’s not the case,” Wharton said. “You need to use a progression and build into it slowly as your body warms up.”

Read More http://www.wired.com/playbook/2010/10/forget-pre-exercise-stretching/#ixzz11jxCFx4J

Climbing the Crabtree

2010-10-03T19:57:00.002-05:00

This weekend Jenn and I were able to get of town to celebrate our first anniversary. Time has really flown by as it is hard for both of us to believe it has been a full year already. We decided to stay in a bed and breakfast about 30 minutes south of Charlottesville. Saturday we climbed Crabtree Falls, the tallest waterfall East of the Mississippi River. Today we spent the day touring Monticello and then the rest of the day was spent at the Apple Festival up on Carters Mountain. Click the photo below to be taken to the magical world of all the photos ...

Crabtree Falls - 1st Anniversary

2010-10-03T06:44:00.002-05:00

Would you order Thai food from a place that looked like this while in Nelson county VA? We did and it put Richmond area Thai restaurants to shame. We watched as only the freshest ingredients were chopped and prepared to order as if we were making it at home. Best part is we have leftovers to bring home!

Do not pass go

2010-09-23T16:09:00.001-05:00

Yesterday was the first time in quite awhile which I have had both the opportunity and desire to ride home from work in a very long time. I was able to use the new Garmin Edge 500 which my loving wife gave to me for our upcoming 1 year anniversary which will be taking place one week from Saturday. Below is the route and details from the Garmin Connect page. Although is a relative boring ride to look at the details for I am excited to be able to post the information of some more exciting ones like where ever I ride tomorrow. I have the day off and will either get a ride in by myself or maybe jump in on a RABA ride in the afternoon. Time will tell.

2010-08-10T05:39:00.003-05:00

I may ride tonight, I may not. Only time will tell. But if I do, I should be nicely fueled thanks to dinner last night.

Chicken and Peppers soaking it up in a Spicy Orange Marinade

Spicy Orange Chicken served with rice and a nice side salad

Reasons

2010-08-03T05:48:00.002-05:00

Everyone has their own personal reasons why they enjoy to ride. One of those reasons for me is, I love to eat. Not only do I love to eat but the whole process of putting together a delicious meal really relaxes me. Last night, err yesterday afternoon (I turned it into an all afternoon affair by making a plate and walking out of the kitchen.) I decided to put some of the thoughts of dishes in my head into bowls and then onto a plate.

Started with a Curried flavored Potato Salad. Looks like mush in the photo but tasted wonderful.

Not my beverage of choice but it does help to get my wood wet in a pinch. Cedar was the choice of the night.

Pork Loin rubbed with a fresh herb rub and a little bit of love.

The Loin was pulled off at exactly 155 degrees allowed to rest for 5 and topped with a freshly made Pineapple Salsa.

And here it all is, plated up. One of these days I will either upgrade the lighting in the kitchen or stop being so lazy and get out the real camera and stop using my phone. The photos just don't do the colors justice.

Now that I am fueled, I will be riding tonight at Westcreek once again as we always do on Tuesdays. Maybe another night of hill sprints? Who knows really ...

Sprinting through last week

2010-08-01T05:44:00.004-05:00

Wow, so it has been awhile since I was able to sit down and share some of my thoughts of the whats happenings in the chaotic life of Twan. The last couple of weeks haven't been the smoothest which has lead to the silence.

I was still suffering from a lack of motivation to ride. This has become quite normal unfortunately when I do not have a goal in mind. This changed with a simple email from the Masta of Spin. He too was searching for the kick in the butt to get back out there and wanted to know if I would be interested in punishing my lungs and legs while doing an offroad hill climb race. A couple of back and forth jabs and we are both looking forward to partaking in the event. Once registration opens up I will be able to officially confirm my attendance but until then I will deny everything as usual.

Monday, I cruised home from work on Le Antique and Tuesday brought some fun out at Westcreek while Jenn was lumping together 3 different workouts with the Endorphin crew. I decided to start training with some intervals, mainly hill sprints. I made up my mind I wasn't going to stop riding until Jenn was done. Usually I stop about 15 minutes prior so I can load up the car to ensure a prompt departure and on time arrival to the local Chick-fil-a. My legs were upset at me for that effort for 3 days as I totaled, 30 miles worth of hill sprints and 6 "cool down" miles.

The list of electronics of mine which have broken/stopped working has continued to grew. First, my computer/heart rate monitor decided it no longer wanted to turn on. I thought it might have been throwing a hissy fit and refusing to turn on until my legs decided they were going to put out some power again but alas, no. I still get nothing. Then last night, I got out of my car and went to slide my embelical cord to the world into my pocket and it took a 34" fall straight to the ground. The touchscreen has a nice floral display made of cracks in it now.

This week is going to be full of riding and good eating. I have had a couple of ideas to try my hand at making my own bbq sauce and attempting a new technique of grilling or two. But not at the same time.

2010-07-19T05:38:00.003-05:00

Last week started off really well. I stayed dry for the most part on the commute home on Monday and had another ride scheduled for Tuesday night. That ride took place and was going well until, my eye had the unfortunate experience of meeting up with a gnat at speed. No problem right? When I lifted my sunglasses, there was sweating pooling at the bottom of the lens which got blown directly into the eye as well which stung like no other. Shortly there after, I could tell something was wrong with my right eye as it started to feel extremely irritated.

At its worst it would be about 3 shades of red deeper

The eye didn't heal by Friday which was the day I had planned on doing a quick metric with Wiggins around Lake Chesdin. Instead I found myself on the phone arguing with receptionists and insurance reps. Once all squared, the Doc took a quick look, "That gnat sure did a number on your cornea" he said. He advised me not to wear contacts until it cleared up, wrote me a new prescription for glasses and sent me on my merry way.

I haven't shopped for glasses in about 6 years so I took the time and tried on A LOT of different glasses. Shopping with me on Friday had to have been worse than shopping with any girl except I never asked "Do these jeans made my ass look big?" Instead it was a broken record, "What about these? These? What do you think?" All used way too many times. In the end I went with a pair which shouldn't be of much surprise to anyone, but with the new glasses I could definitely tell my ass is getting bigger.

Oakley whore above!

Saturday morning, had a two a day planned. Jenn was at the river with some old girlfriends and I had free reign to do whatever I wanted. Road ride through Ashland in the morning and then Metro had talked me into breaking out the B.U.S.S. for a ride at the Scout Camp in the evening. Which btw there is a little 18 hour race there each year if you didn't know already. Sign up now! I ended the day with roughly 55 miles, 35 on the road and 2 laps around the camp.

This week, I will be laying a bit low until my eye clears up fully and then it will be back in the saddle hardcore. A couple of events may be looming in my near future which we can discuss at a later date.

My rear may have P.T.S.D

2010-07-13T05:40:00.002-05:00

Yesterday, was my first chance to capitalize on my motivation being at an almost all time high. Well at least a high for the past few weeks. The weathermen were calling for isolated/scattered storms throughout the afternoon and evening. Jenn gave me a call prior to her leaving work and subsequently the same side of town. She wanted to ask if I would look at the radar and make a decision on whether I wanted a ride home or wanted to chance getting a little wet. Since it wasn't raining on the south side of the river I decided to make the ride home.

While getting changed I started to hear a pitter patter on the roof of the store. Once to the front of the store ready to roll, I could tell it was rain hitting the roof. The last time I rode in the rain it was for almost 12 hours in Ohio and my ass is still a bit bitter over it. It tried to talk me out of heading out there. It tried to accept a ride from Wiggins. But to no avail, like an ex-drill Sergeant turned therapist I snapped at it and off we went.

With the rain coming down and threat of more rain coming down on the other side of the river by the time I would get there, I decided to make the commute home in a more direct fashion rather than in the around my ass to get to my elbow route I usually take to get some hill climbs in. The rain stopped about 20 minutes into the ride and then it was just ballz hot humid. Humid to the point where sweat doesn't evaporate and glasses fog immediately on any climb or stoplight. Other than the weather the ride went pretty uneventful which was nice since I was playing in the middle of traffic instead of on side streets climbing.

Today, brings a chance of more rain. It actually has the same forecast as yesterday and a chance to get more saddle time in. Look for me on the roads of Goochland and Westcreek while Jenn gets her workout in with Endorphin.

2010-07-12T06:26:00.003-05:00

No riding yesterday but there was more cooking. This time by Jenn!

Prosciouto and mozzerella covered chicken with a side of fresh tomato pasta

2010-07-11T06:19:00.003-05:00

Wanted to ride more last week. A combination of laziness and lack of time would prove to be the big reasons why I didn't get out there. Instead, I spent some time over the grill. More riding to come this week........possibly, maybe

Peach glazed chicken and grilled peaches over a bed of rice

2010-07-04T15:05:00.002-05:00

Why do big weiners make people smile?

Happy 4th!

Squatting

2010-06-21T06:27:00.005-05:00

Wednesday and Thursday all I could think about was getting out onto the bike for a nice 4-5 hour ride. I had come up with a way to join to of my regular routes and called it the "Home visiting the sisters" loop. It would have me leaving from home, riding up through town to Ashland via the 3 sisters and then back home via my regular commuting route up Old Gun. The length looks like it will be just over 90 miles in length if I do not throw anything in to get over the mythical century number.

On Friday morning, I realized I had gotten the game time wrong in my head for the U.S. World Cup game. I was thinking it was the 2 p.m. game but in reality they were a bit anxious to play and they kicked off at 10 a.m. New plans! Watch the game then head out for a shorter 50ish mile loop.

Once out onto the road, my legs were feeling great. Very spanky indeed! About 10 miles in, it started to feel as if I was getting closer to the ground with every pedal stroke. I stopped to check my seat height and sure enough it had slipped. It would continue to slip and get readjusted until I found myself down by Pony Pasture.

The view of the river surrounded by the full green foliage definitely lifted my spirits. I decided to continue riding instead of turning back as it was the same distance either direction. While climbing Old Gun, the clamp finally gave out completely and the seat went slamming down. It reminded of me of the days back in elementary school when we would all pull or kick chairs out from underneath each other while we went to sit down. A quick ticket straight to ground level!

Once to the top, I used the good ole' gps on the phone to find some back-roads which would cut the 20 something miles back home in half. Sitting while pedaling started to take a toll on my knees so I would stand as long as I could then sit then repeat. Standing for so long felt as if I was running the bike without all the pounding of the joints.

Finally got home, took a shower started hydrating and started looking for the Salsa clamp I had purchased to pimp out Jenn's Gunnar when we first built it up. It was slightly too big for her frame and never got used. Thinking it was going to be too big for my frame as well, the plan was to strip it of its bolts and use them on my current Salsa clamp. The clamps turned out to be the same size and Le Antique had been bothering me to give it some flair to prove he was still a young stud who could keep up with anyone. Now Le Antique will be officially referred to as Le Antique with a metro flair.

2010-06-16T11:51:00.004-05:00

The last couple of weeks have been a little tough to find consistent time in the saddle. Most of it is work related as the schedule continues to change almost daily. This week will be no different as I have had to switch a few shifts to accommodate some visitors. No worries though, I have still been riding just rarely on consecutive days.

Last week, I was able to get out into Powhatan with Wiggins. On the way back into town, we both had to get onto the brakes hard due to a car getting a little to close for comfort. Shortly there after I started to develop a hard knocking in the front end of the bike whenever I grabbed hold of the front brake.

Once home and after a brief stint on the couch, I put the bike up into the stand to have a look at it. My first thought, was the headset had worked itself loose. I wanted to take the opportunity to inspect the bearings at the same time, so I tore it down.

Dangling tidbits

I didn't find anything odd, so a fresh lube job and back together it went. I was glad to see the bearings hadn't gone bad just like my pedal bearing did recently. Speaking of pedals, the Light Actions are again off of the bike and this time for good. They have been replaced with a set of Look Keo Classics. With two rides on the Keos, it is nice to not have my feet sliding around on the pedals all the time.

A look ahead to the rest of this week has me off the bike probably until Friday when I will definitely be getting in a longer ride. To where you ask, that is a good question. I guess I'll just figure it out between now and then. Ideas?

Floating around

2010-06-04T09:47:00.003-05:00

After Tuesday's slack attack I felt a bit down on myself because I didn't chamois up and ride. Wednesday was a different day in which I decided to try and make the most of getting out of work early. I left work and headed North with no route in mind just knew I had 3 hours to kill before Jenn got off of work. Nothing really exciting to report about the ride other than I hit 2 of the sisters and fire training hill before arriving in the center of the universe and heading back to the shop.

Yesterday, Wiggins came over to the house and with the intention of riding into Powhatan for a bit. We set off for one of my more frequented routes. What we didn't know was that we would be doing a 2.5 mile warmup before having to turn around and start yelling for the support vehicle (which didn't actually exist). I was in need of a pedal change. The bearings of the right pedal locked up and then began to screech like an alley cat.

Once back to the house I did a quick pedal change over to a set of Speedplay Light Actions which I had purchased for Jenn when she first started to ride. She hated them and have sat in the Keo box (which replaced them) ever since. A quick cleat change and we were back on the road.

The ride was nice with some rolling terrain, a few good climbs and a couple of flat sections in which Wiggins felt the need to stretch his legs. Moyer Rd is a short section of road I always enjoy, as it is fast and twisty and if you don't remember where the turn is you won't see it until it is too late and you will blow right by it. We blew right by :-/

Once we got back to within a few miles of the house, we slowed up a bit for a nice cool down of 3 or 4 miles. It was impossible to "cool down" though due to the upper 90 degree temps. The pedals seemed to work fine despite my inability to line the cleat and pedal up when trying to clip in at lights. I didn't take the time yesterday during the hasty cleat change to set the float limits and it showed. Going from 9 degrees of float to 15 made it seem as if I was skating on ice. It actually made it terribly sketchy when out of the saddle. I am not sure why anyone in the world would need that much float.

S-L-A-C-K

2010-06-02T05:04:00.005-05:00

Wanted to ride yesterday but a last minute thunderstorm came through fast enough to get everything wet and my butt turned a bit wet saddle shy. Instead I futzed around on my phone for an hour while Jenn worked out. And now to prove just how big of a slacker I am this post will have none of my own work. A couple of weeks ago my parents bought themselves a little hand held video camera. Here is the video mom put together of the footage from Jenn's most recent tri.

Looking back...

2010-06-01T05:45:00.005-05:00

Last week, I mentioned I had hooked up Le Antique with a little bit of extra weight by mounting for the first time the Go Pro Helmet Camera. I did this in hopes of possibly making the time in which you waste by reading this nonsense, a little more enjoyable. I also mentioned I had gone out with the TnT crew a few weeks back and there was an accident. As a result of the accident, one of our fellow riders has been off the bike with a broken clavicle.

Wiggins and I decided to go do that same ride last week and that is when I decided to hook up the camera. Here is the short unedited, no music added, no frills version of the decent. If you pay attention, you will notice the what is now dried mud/dirt at the bottom. At the time it was fresh, deeper and covering much more of the road. It forced everyone to the far left of the road unexpectedly.

Clavicle Claimer

Special Delivery

2010-05-28T21:32:00.003-05:00

Hey hun, did I order something?

Nope just Powerbar sending you a new product to try.

First thing that came to mind when I saw the drink mix inside the box was, how did they know I am terrible about staying hydrated on a consistent daily basis? Then I found the letter they included which told the story behind their new protein drink and how it was to be used before or after a workout and designed to build lean muscle mass. After Wednesday's ride with Wiggins, I could definitely use some muscle mass if I want to keep up with the youngins. Now to find out how it tastes ... better with milk or water that is the question.

Back to the grind

2010-05-27T06:32:00.007-05:00

Since returning from Calvins 3 weeks ago, I have been lacking the desire to get out and ride on any sort of consistent basis which is evident by the fact I have ridden less miles in those 3 weeks as I did in the one day in Ohio. This week however thanks to watching a week's worth of pro cycling last week, I have been much more motivated.

Talking with Big Wiggins at work on Tuesday made both of us realize the fact that neither of us were scheduled to work yesterday. Ever since leading the TnT team on the Frog Leg Metric a couple of weeks ago, I have been itching to get back up that way. It didn't take much convincing to have Wiggins join me.

As of late, it has started to appear that you cannot be on top of your social networking game unless you include some video in your posts. I decided I would mount up the hero pro camera to the bike and try to catch some of the highlights of the beautiful ride we were about to take.

Camera mounted

The drive up had me a bit weird-ed out as it seemed as if someone were watching me. Each time I looked in the rear view mirror all I could see was a little lens just over the top of my phallicly challenged skull. Nonetheless, we arrived at the courthouse, suited up and hit the road.

Someone's watching me

The ride started well with everything I had promised hills, scenery and then more hills. I haven't been able to look at the video footage as of yet but I do know there will only be scenes from the first 20 miles or so because either the batteries died (hadn't been charged in awhile) or the memory card was full (camera cuts itself off when full).

Around the 45 mile mark or so, the combination of the heat and my lack of executing a sound nutrition plan really started to play a role. My legs really started to go away from me and looking back there really shouldn't be much of a surprise. I am just surprised it didn't happen earlier. The problem was, I drank according to plan but did not eat. One of these days I will learn to put food in my mouth, one of these days...

Should have stopped for gas

The last 17 miles seemed to drag on mentally but actually went by pretty quickly. Even with as little energy as I had, Wiggins' presence and his never ending energy kept the pace higher than if I were out alone. I would have just limped home for sure but instead I tried to not slow him down to much. We arrived back and despite my efforts to blow our average pace on the final leg, I have to be happy with still being over 18 mph for the duration.

It's who we are

2010-05-21T10:58:00.003-05:00

This arrived in the mailbox today

These were inside the bag

These were inside the shiny cases

Calvins Challenge Recap

2010-05-05T05:28:00.006-05:00

Its been a few days since I arrived back home from the 1 2 hour Calvin's Challenge in Ohio and I have been desperately trying to come up with a way to summarize 12 hours of riding. I could go extremely in depth with it but who would really read all of it? So I am going to try and keep it as short as possible without leaving out any juicy details.

We arrived at the school in which we would be starting from about an hour early. Then we had to make the 2.1 mile drive back to the hotel because I didn't pick up my race packet which had my timing chip and number in it. It was alright though because at that time the skies had opened up and it was pouring rain. Big drops of rain with lightning off in the distance type pouring rain. Kyle made the comment that all I needed to complete the human lightening rod costume was a kite and he thought they sold them at local convenience stores. We did not stop to find out.

Waiting for the start

Once back at the start the storm was starting to move off to the west of us so I got out of the car, started to prep my bike, and get dressed. Dad, Kyle and I reviewed the nutrition plan for the day and I was ready to go. Once the race got on its way, it started to rain once again. It would continue to do so for the first 4 hours of the race. The rain combined with all the spray from other riders made it a little bit difficult to eat while in the pack but I was able to get it down once I moved to the front of the groups in which I was riding with. In a race like this one you had to work together with the other riders or you would never make it. The wind was howling at a steady 15-25 mph ALL day long and the course was laid in a circle so you spent a lot of time fighting the wind and the rest flying along with it.

The first 51 miles flew by as I was working with one gentleman who could hold my pace. There were very few people there who were willing to do any work and they were content on just sitting on a wheel in a big pack doing whatever speed the group decided. This was not the case for us, we both had a goal of at least 200 miles and we weren't going to waste any good tailwinds sitting in a group. So we would use groups we came across on the road to shield us from the wind and then pick up the pace with the wind. If they held on fine, if not oh well for them. I think we finished the first 51 miles in something like 2 hours 4 minutes. Then it was back to fighting the wind until the checkpoint where we would pickup the tailwind once again.

I need bigger arms or smaller arm warmers

He had to stop to refuel before heading out for the second long loop and I just kept rolling. I was out there fighting the wind by myself. I just settled into a pace which I thought I would be able to sustain without taxing myself too much, in hopes I would ride onto a group or be caught by one. I did find a group at a most inopportune time. There was a quick zig and zag on the long loop and I caught them just as they were getting to it. I wasn't paying attention to markings and I just followed them. Thank god that road ended just a mile down with no other options or we would have been riding for a while off course. As it turns out it was only 2 miles total and back on course we went.

Rolling through the time check about to drop a bottle

By the time I finished the 2nd 51 mile loop my knees were really starting to bother me. I stopped at the rest station, relieved myself while Kyle and Dad were looking for the bottle of Advil I purchased the night prior. Can you guess what else I forgot in the hotel room? Back onto the bike I went while Dad and Kyle made the drive back to the room, got the Advil, found me on course and passed off the two little pieces of kneesavers. The third lap went by pretty uneventfully except by this time it had stopped raining and the wind was helping the roads and my clothes dry out very quickly.

Its my hurts so good look

Once done with lap 3, the short loop which was 7 miles long opened up. Rumor had it, the short course was shielded a bit more from the wind and would make for some very fast laps. The first 3 miles of it were NOT shielded and I struggled on each lap to hang onto the wheel of another gentleman Leman who I met. He and I had the same pace and the best part was we were both willing to work. We were turning low 20 minute laps consistently and before I knew it, I was over the 200 mile goal I had set. Now with the time we had left, we just set our sights on getting in as many laps as possible.

We were finishing what would turn out to be our last full lap. The scoring system allows for partial laps to count. They have volunteers at each mile mark of the short course and whichever marker you get to at the 12 hour mark is how many additional miles get added to your total. We were both determined to get as many miles as possible in with the few minutes we had left.

Pullin, pullin pullin keep those puppies pullin...rawhiiiide! Leman is the wall of man in the red shorts

I pulled into the wind until we approached mile marker 1. Then another gentleman took a very short pull when Leman decided it was too slow and went to the front. I held his wheel until just after the 2 mile mark when we were notified there were 11 minutes left. Leman started to pull away from me and I thought it was going to be the last I saw of him for this lap. I told myself not to panic and I just kept my pace steady. Somehow I rode myself back up onto his wheel as he started to tire. I just rode right past him encouraging him to grab my wheel and I would pull the rest of the time. He was able to jump on and away we went. Mile marker 4 came up with just less than 6 minutes to go. Now I had the wind to my back and I wasn't stopping. We blew by marker 5 with about 2.5 minutes to go. At this time I was pulling at over 31 miles an hour and trying desperately to get past the 6th mile marker so we would get credit for all 7 miles. We ended up getting credit for only 6 miles. We missed passing the mark by about 30 yards.

A little saddened (not much though) by being so close, I was extremely excited to have that feeling of adreneline that only comes with racing back in my body again. I ended up finishing with 220.5 miles which was good enough to take top honors in my age group. Thank you to Powerbar for fueling me the entire way, now to decide what is next on the list ;-)

18th overall, 1st in division

Photos are up ...

With or without

2010-04-30T04:28:00.002-05:00

Here it is Friday morning and I still have a little bit of packing to do. Nothing major just a few items of clothing which are currently in the dryer. After that, it will be time to eat breakfast, and fix a bottle of water so I may start the process of making sure I am fully hydrated. One would accomplish this by drinking like a fish and then bugging Dad to stop the vehicle every hour or so because I have to pee until we arrive in Springfield, Oh.

Earlier this week, I posed the question of whether or not I would be washing away funk or mojo if I washed my Oakleys. I wasn't able to come to a clear cut decision based on the responses but here are a few of them

-Becky "Wash your funky sunglasses. Your mojo is in your blood; no worries about washing that away. So, grab some soap and get to cleaning. Thank god they haven't invented scratch-n-sniff websites."

-The Beautician "You will definitely be washing away mojo. Do not wash them! I once wore the same pair of underwear for an entire undefeated season while I was playing travel elite soccer. We continued to win because I didn't wash away the mojo in my pants."

-Metro "Feel free to wash them as it is not mojo, just funk. Just like hoes in different zip-codes don't count, mojo cannot cross county lines. You have to make it fresh wherever you go."

-Jenn "They just look nasty. You should really clean them."

Some very valid points were made from talking to people about this subject but the only one that truly makes a whole lot of sense was Jenn's. I am not very superstitious but I am to a small degree and because of that, I have decided to not wash the glasses until after I return from Calvin's. With or without my mojo I will be traveling sure of exactly one thing... my glasses still stink.

Lucky charms

2010-04-27T05:42:00.003-05:00

I had taken all my gear with me yesterday morning in hopes of getting a ride in by making the commute home. They were calling for 30-40% chances of t-storms in the afternoon but I was hopeful. A quick storm came through just after lunch which left everything soaking wet and the air terribly thick and humid. Just before I was getting ready to leave I checked the radar and noticed a big green, red and yellow blob heading for the house. It looked like I would have been dry for the first half of the ride but then it would get a bit sporty. I made the executive decision to just ride over to Endorphin where Jenn was doing some strength training. It would allow me to get in a few miles while stretching my legs out.

I think I made the correct decision because as we were coming back across the bridge we saw these boom clouds ahead of us. Yes, that is the scientific name of them.

Shortly there after, it was one rainbow after another...

Was mother nature taunting me and questioning my manhood for not riding home? Was that a way of saying that I would ride like a world champion this weekend? Or is someone just trying to "steal me lucky charms?"

Flat to rolling?

2010-04-25T23:13:00.005-05:00

In preparation for this weekend's Calvin's Challenge I was reading some recounts of the previous year's racers. Most of them were in agreement that the long course could be characterized as flat to rolling. I took the gps along with me when Znels and I went out on Friday so I would have something to compare the elevation graph of the course with something here locally which I have been riding recently.

The long loop which has 713 ft of climbing per 51 mile lap

Home-Powhatan Half Century Profile with 4652 ft of climbing per 51 miles.

It would appear that I am comparing apples to oranges. Some of the recaps mentioned how bad the wind blew the entire day. I am beginning to think that the biggest threat from the course is going to be what mother nature has in store rather than any sort of lack of climbing legs. There won't be any hiding from the wind on such a flat to non-rolling course. I am off to bed now to ponder whether or not I should wash my sunglasses as I am getting opinions from all sorts of angles which deserve a post of their own.

Funk or Mojo?

2010-04-24T05:16:00.002-05:00

Yesterday, Znels came over and I was able to talk him into taking a spin through Powhatan with me. We went a little bit longer than what he was originally thinking when he asked me if I wanted to ride but he managed to get through it without a hitch. We ended up with about 51 miles in once it was all said and done. Beautiful scenic riding out there that is for sure.

I did notice once again, that my sunglasses are starting to smell like funk. It isn't just a little bit either, I can really smell them once I get them close to my face to put them over my lovely green eyes. The ear socks also look a bit funky but they do not stink.

My dilemma is, I could easily just wash the frames in a mild soapy water concoction and change out the ear socks (which I already own) and the frames would look and more importantly smell like new. But if I do it, would I be washing away some of my mojo or is what I am smelling just the remains of my mojo's funky movements?

One test passed....One to go

2010-04-23T07:59:00.004-05:00

Two weeks past, I got word that I would once again be lucky enough to be considered as part of Powerbar's Team Elite. I was very excited to hear the news as Powerbar is amazing at taking care of their athletes. As part of being on the team, they make available an endless amount of nutritional and training articles. You can also test and become a certified Nutrition Pro through them which means you can then host nutrition clinics. Well I took it and passed it.

If I could I would wear this like a sheriff's badge

Well all know, I have notoriously been a huge hypocrite when it comes to nutrition. I can talk about it in an educated manner all day long, but when it comes time to put the plan into action, I usually fall terribly short. In the past month or so, I have been trying to hone the on the bike nutrition in because Jenn had planted an idea in my head that I could still do certain things. What were they you ask? One was ride my bike, for very long periods of time. I have been ENJOYING being on the bike all year so much so, I usually put it before the household duties most of the time. Hopefully, all the time I have spent in the saddle combined with actually eating on the bike will help me pass my next test...

Taking place on May 1st, 2010

Birthday Weekend

2010-04-20T05:50:00.004-05:00

Last Friday was my 30th birthday. Last year at this time I was not looking forward to it very much as I was sure it was the beginning of the end. This year thankfully for everyone around me, I had/have a completely different outlook. I started the day off by sending my mother a "Happy Birthday" greeting. She and I have the same birthday. I then met up with Zach for a nice cruise through the Varina area to the Battlefield.

Once again Le Antique was on a search for his relatives. We didn't give him anytime to look this go around however, as I had a date with Jenn for lunch. She was hosting a cookout at work which benefited the March of Dimes. I ran over there ate lunch, chatted a bit and then like a bandit, I stole her smart tag.

I then met up with Mom and she and I went over to the Home Depot to do some flower shopping. Mom had brought a package which my sister had sent for me. She said it was the best gift in the world and she came pretty damn close.

Onto HD we went as I was on the hunt for some accent foliage to put out on our deck. We found some and headed back over to the house to get them into there rightful new places.

Mom and I then headed back over to their house and met up with Dad. He then jumped back into the car and we met Jenn down at the Strawberry St Cafe for dinner before heading over to the newly renovated Diamond for a Flying Squirrels game. One of the reasons I love Spring so much is because of baseball. The stadium was much nicer than it used to be prior to the R-Braves leaving town and the staff actually seemed as if they wanted their fans to have a nice enjoyable family outing. I would highly recommend a game.

Saturday morning, Jenn and I woke up and met the TnT crew for a visit with the 3 sisters, 1 crazy cousin and a messed up horseshoe. It was a great way to start the morning before we had to scurry back to the house to prepare for the cookout we were hosting for a few friends and family. Thank you to all who came out and those who couldn't we certainly missed ya!

Relaxin

2010-04-11T20:45:00.003-05:00

This weekend consisted of no physical activity what so ever. I ended last week with 10 hours in the saddle for a total of 194 miles. Very close to the 200 mark and would have been there easily had my conference call not been switched to Monday. Ah well! This evening when I got home from work, I took the pups outside to play. Tomorrow starts the week with a commute home once again.

Petra and Sage (im)patiently waiting

Sage has mad hops

Got it!

Looking for history

2010-04-08T21:09:00.003-05:00

Tuesday I set off for a little bit longer of a ride than the usual 40-50 miles I have been doing on my days off. The plan was to ride up through the city down through Varina, turn a quick lap through the Battlefield and then head back home via Riverside Dr and Old Gun. I knew it was going to be a hot one which actually turned out to be a record breaking day so I carried 3 bottles, two on Le Antique and one on my aging back.

The ride started with fresh legs which were putting out some power without very much effort. That was until I reached the city and all the stop and go traffic due to lights really took a toll on my legs. Once out of the city it felt as if Osborne Rd was never going to end. For those who have never ridden it, Osborne Rd is FLAT and STRAIGHT. Stopped at the entrance to the park for a photo op at which time I took the opportunity to switch my bottles around.

Le Antique wanted to stop and look for long lost relatives

A quick lap through the park and I was headed back to the city for another round of stop and go. Once over onto Riverside the heat really started to get to me. I was almost out of fluids in the 3rd bottle so I decided to stop and fill up at the top of Old Gun in Salisbury. I ended up going through 5.5 bottles in the 4 hours 19 minutes I was on the road. The ride ended up being 79 miles long. I am not sure I will do that particular route again, as I really did not have any fun going through the city.

Got myself a very sweet tan line. It actually isn't as red as it looks in the pic but it is getting dark. Especially for a pasty white guy like myself.

Yesterday, I ended up riding home from work once again. I have started doing this at least 2-3 times a week now. Just as I had hoped there really wasn't anything exciting about it as my legs felt fine.

Today, I headed out to what is becoming one of my favorite routes to do once again. I used to ride out the Powhatan way quite often when I first started riding the road. Not really sure why I stopped but I did. Now I have ridden twice in the same number of weeks and I am really enjoying it. The route is about 45 miles long which can be shortened or lengthened to suit my fancy which is nice. It contains a lot of climbing mixed with a healthy amount of flats in some parts.

The entrance to the radio controlled airplane field. I hear it is actually quite exclusive.

Just like yesterday, my legs felt good and I was able to put in a good ride while maintaining/conserving energy by keeping my HR in check. The wind was kinda nasty today as the storm is coming in this evening but that just meant it was also cooler than on Tuesday's ride. I have one more day of commuting home tomorrow before what looks like 2 days off the bike until Monday.