February Group Ride

Wow, what a beautiful weekend weather wise here in Wisconsin. I had a team mate set up a group ride for Saturday. He was starting in Cedarburg and brought the route up to West Bend where 4 of us met up with 3 others. The sun was plentiful and the winds were light. I believe the temperatures in the lower 40's, nice thing about the sun, is that it makes it feel a little warmer than what it really is.

I had a lot of fun taking my pulls and enjoyed seeing my friends. I did have a little bad luck though. My rear Easton wheel broke a spoke. I think this is due to last years crash at Downer. My wheel was out of true and I had it fixed, but I think that spoke was bent a bit and was weakened. Shouldn't be a big deal to have it fixed. I am glad that it did happen now instead of in a race.

I rode 70 miles and I was pretty trashed by the end of the ride. Sunday, I rode in the basement next to my wife. I did an easy short ride just to spin out the legs a little. I need to make sure that I am not hurting my legs to much to soon.

Monday, I will do some weight training and then by Tuesday I will be good to go again.

January Test

I DID IT! I was doing my warm up for my 20 minute power test and felt ok. I decided that I would go for it and see what happens. I am very pleased with my numbers so far and if I wasn't sick I am sure it could have been just a little bit better. I had a goal that I wanted for this test and I met it. I feel that I am on track with my training and looking forward to the 2012 race season.

Now, I just need to get over this cold.

Under the Weather

Oh it has been a little while since my last blog. Currently I have picked up a head cold. Started feeling it on Tuesday afternoon and it still here. I am feeling better now, but still have nasal congestion and I also feel a bit lazy. I haven't been sleeping very good at night either, the cold is keeping from getting a good nights rest. Now, I have a 20 minute test for myself for today and I feel somewhat up to it. My thought is to see how the warm up goes, if I feel good warming up I am going to give it a go. If I am not feeling it, well then, I will just tempo ride for a little while.

I have been training very consistently and I feel that I am getting stronger. That being said I was looking forward to the test. I know there is a lot of sickness crap floating around. I was actually hoping that I wasn't going to get sick, but it was just a matter of time. I just hope that I am able to get over it relatively quickly.

I am hoping for a nice weekend day one of these days, I need to get outside! February is right around the corner and I am looking for another solid month of training. Intensity picking up a little along with a little more saddle time. My next blog should be on how my 20 minute test went. So look for that soon. For those that do read this thingy.

Crazy MoFos'

Riding outside on December 31st, 2011. I had set up a ride because we were going to have mild temperatures. But, needless to say, not the greatest of road conditions. I was getting people cancelling out on my ride, so I was going to post pone or cancel the ride. I did make another phone call to Jim G (team mate) who was joining me, and he told me he was going and was meeting other people in a meeting spot in Cedarburg. So, no plan changes and I left my house at 10am with slightly snow covered roads. Meet up with Jim and his group of 8 total. I was really surprised how many people he had with him. The roads were very sketchy, and half of the group split a little while later. Half the group headed back to Cedarburg, and the rest of us headed towards Sussex.

I rode mostly tempo and had no problem being on the front pulling. Mike H. was on a bit of a time constraint, so I was glad to stay on the front keeping a good pace, without dropping anyone. Tailwind was nice and we made up some time really quick, but I don't think he made it back when he was suppose to. I tried to help.

I spent the morning getting my Giant ready. I changed the fit to be more like my Trek and also put my Quarq crank on so I could watch my power zones. I also have on a set of clamp on aero bars and used these quite a bit. Overall the bike fit felt good, only bad part is my saddle sucks. You really need to have a nice saddle if you plan on riding for 4 hours. Not sure if I really want to invest any money into my winter bike. I don't ride it that often, so, I think I will just deal with it.

New Years Eve night was a lot of fun! We stayed home, but had my brother and his fiance over. They spent the night so we were able to let loose.

I was suppose to ride on Sunday, but wasn't feeling well in the morning. We had plans in the afternoon that consumed the rest of the day, so I didn't get to ride. I rode on Monday instead, and didn't do my weight training because my brother wasn't up to it and I didn't' feel driving any where. I will get some weight training next week.

Now it is time to get completely on track now, all the distractions are out of the way.

Last test of the YEAR!

Ok, I did my 20 minute power test last night. It didn't go as I had planned. It went up, but only by 3 watts. I guess I should be happy that it went up, but honestly I was hoping for more. I performed it well, my TSS is good and where it should be, just not powerful enough. I am sure I am not the only one, but at this point I am second guessing myself, in what I am doing. Do I train more Z5 tyring to boost some VO2 for testing? More training? WHAT do I do. I will stick with the plan for the most part, with outside rides on the weekends when the weather permits. Doing so, I hope that my January test will improve more. I am putting in the work, it is wether or not that it is good enough. Having a coach does take the guessing out of it, because you just do as the coach says. Comparing my data from this year to last year, I am doing about the same with more fitness. I really didn't start making a good gains until March & April anyways, so, I am not going to beat myself up and just stick to the PLAN.

It is currently raining and I am pretty sure that I just saw Jeff M. riding his mountain bike outside on the trail. What an animal, guess he doesn't want to get on the indoor trainer yet.

Happy New Year!

Take Advantage

Ok, I didn't stick to my training plan on Sunday. The weather was actually to nice to pass up. Plus, I had the ok from my wonderful wife to spend extra time away from home. How this actually came about was that Brian P. my team mate was going out for a ride and posted it. The timing wasn't great when it came to football, because the ride was going to start at 10am and probably wouldn't be back till 1-2pm ish. And he actually ended up pushing the start time back another hour, so, we didn't start till a 11am. This was actually nice because it allowed the temperatures to rise a little more.

We rode out towards Holy Hill. There was three of us to start, myself, Brian & Jeff. Jeff didn't ride with us the whole time, it great seeing these guys again. I haven't seen them in quite some time and it was good catching up.

My training ride was actually suppose to be an hour long. I actually put in 3 hours, but nothing to hard, some good tempo and endurance stuff. I like riding with Brian, he knows how to ride. Meaning he doesn't kill it up the hills in the off season, it is all about steady power. What does this extra time mean with my training? Well, my lifting will stay the same for today (Monday), but my Tuesday ride will change. I had a harder/higher intensity ride for Tuesday, but I will now do Sunday's easier/shorter intensity on Tuesday. This should allow a little extra time for my body to recover and should be back on track for Thursday's ride.

I had a good week of training and looking forward to this weeks training and of course Christmas. Next week I have my LT test and I am looking forward to that short sufferfest. Have yourself a Merry Christmas!

TRUST

I am a bit disturbed by my so called friends and the choices that I have made. I had posted via email and on facebook asking someone to pick up my criterium championship jersey. Bad idea, should have picked the dam thing up myself, because it is gone. No one let me know that they have picked it up, so I have to assume that someone stole it. Seems a bit ridiculous if you ask me, and why I am up set? It is something that I have accomplished! I guess that is what I get for trusting everyone, I forget how evil people can be. I hope that it does show up, but it is not looking good so far.

On a better note, December training is going good so far, a bit early to know how good, but seems good. The body seems to be reacting well and recovering well. Really enjoy lifting two days a week too. My stregnth is coming back quickly! I am keeping an eye on my weight to make sure I don't let it get out hand. I am getting stronger and and I have only put on 5lbs from my racing weight earlier this year. I am doing well with the weight and shouldn't be to hard for me to keep in control.

Goals for December are 1) Raise my FTP by 10% (this may be a reach), 2) Consistent training (follow the plan, don't do to much to early), 3) Weight (stay in control). My FTP test will be on December 29th and trying to get it back up to where it was in September. I have lost some fitness it the past few months and now it is time to start gaining some of that back. When I looked at my WKO on Sunday my fitness was still on a slight decline, that should start rising slightly pretty soon. I know I don't want to rise to quickly to soon, so for me I need to stick to the plan, other wise I know I would train to hard to quickly and burn myself out to early. Looking forward to see how progress this coming year.