Hi All! Well last week's post was all about ramping up, and this week, just the opposite. I wasn't intending to take an easy week, in fact this coming week was suppose to be the easy week, but a cold, and a session of strength training changed all that.
The good news is the cold is just about gone, barely any trace left. I kept riding the bike while I had it, knowing it was just a head cold, and was sure to keep it under control so it didn't spread to my chest.
Tuesday was a day of work followed by a 30-minute ride on the Bailey "Time Machine", followed by a strength training session in the gym. I know I said I was going to stay away from weights in the past, but this workout didn't really consist of lifting weights in the traditional sense. It was more holding weights while I performed various exercises. Needless to say, the exercises were effective, so much so that I was so sore the next three days I could barely walk. Needless to say, that didn't carry over to the bike very well at all! After attempting to get a hard 90-minute ride in Wednesday, which was followed by a sleepless night spent coughing, enough was enough!
I decided to take Thursday, Friday, and Saturday completely off from any form of exercise, not counting the eight hours I spent helping my Mom move Saturday. Serious recovery was in order! Fortunately that was just what I needed.
So today I awoke at 5:30am, showered, ate, loaded the car, and made the 80-minute drive down to Pine Valley to compete in the SDBC (San Diego Bicycle Club) Kitchen Creek Road Race as a guest rider. I'm horrible at taking a head count of groups of people, but I'd guess there were about twenty riders who showed up. I'm not going to go in to any great detail about the race since it was an unofficial event, but I managed to pull out a 4th place finish, and considering how my week of training as gone, I'm more then pleased with the result. A BIG thanks to Mike Holcomb who put the event on, and a BIG thanks to SDBC for allowing guests such as myself to join in their event. My plan was to try for a high finish, and use this opportunity to get reacquainted with the East County mountains before the Omnium RR in about two weeks. Mission accomplished!
This coming week...train hard. Short, but hard 2-hour rides after work up until Friday. I know it was suppose to be an easy week, but considering I only managed to get five hours on the bike this week, and the only race I have this upcoming weekend is the Santiago Canyon TT, which is just 30-minutes of all out effort, I need to log all the time I can before the RR's are here! Besides it's just a "B" race on my calendar, more of a high-intensity workout then anything.
That's about all for now. Hope you all were able to get out and enjoy this beautiful San Diego weekend. Absolutely gorgeous, give or take a little wind! Until next time...
Hello All! Sitting here at the PC after a solid 4 hours on the bike today. Today's ride was originally scheduled to be a 2-3 hour recovery ride after joining the SDBC 3/4/5 guys yesterday on their "A+" ride. The pace was manageable, probably due to all the training I've been doing with higher category riders such as Mark Palmer and John Bailey, and jumping in on the Swami's Ride on a more regular basis. The pace was manageable, but still a lot of work.
Today, as I mentioned, was suppose to be all about recovery, but when you join a Cat 1 and Cat 3 rider, it never works out that way! I met Mark and John in Racho Santa Fe, we then proceeded to ride up Del Dios Highway, then Bear Valley Pkwy to Mary Lane. Mary Lane to San Pasqual Road, Old Milky Way, to Highway 78, then up Bandy Canyon Road. We then descended down Highland Valley Road, and the pace really picked up when we hit the base, taking turns pulling at high speeds, and according to Bailey's power meter, a lot of watts. From there it was in to Rancho Bernardo and 4S Ranch, where I broke off at Fairbanks Ranch, and headed back to RSF, and eventually home. 70 miles, at an average speed of 17.7mph. It was the fifth day on the bike this week, with a day in the gym and one rest day. A BIG training block completed!
I plan on another good solid week of training coming up, and then following that with a fairly easy week before the Santiago Canyon TT. After the Santiago Canyon race it's going to be difficult to figure the training out having seven straight weeks of racing after that. Don't want to lose fitness, but also don't want to be tired. Oh, the Oakley Jawbones are great! Two back-to-back four hour rides, and barely noticed they were there. That's all for now. Until next time...
Hi All! Just wanted to give a quick review of the new Oakley Jawbones that I received earlier in the week. I mentioned in my last post that I've also used Oakley Pro M-Frames over the last ten years, and have had few if any complaints. As a matter of fact, there's only two I can think of off hand.
Near the rear of the frames, where the ear socks are located, the frames sometimes would tend to dig in to the back of my head. This problem was really only noticeable on long rides, (4+hrs). The other issue I had was with the lenses always popping out of the frame as I cleaned them. Minor issues, but...
So, when Oakley came out with the new Jawbones, I was intrigued. I'm a person who values function over fashion any day of the week. This isn't to say that the Jawbones aren't great looking glasses. In fact, I prefer their look over the M-Frames. But when you start talking about function, the Jawbones are king! I'm not going to get in to why, there are already a ton of video reviews on how the Jawbones work, but I will say, although they are pricey, they're worth it!
In typical Oakley fashion, the quality is leaps and bounds over their competitors. You can just feel it when you pick them up. They do feel slightly heavier then the M-Frames, but what's amazing is that when you put the Jawbones on, they practically disappear! I haven't ridden beyond the 4-hour mark with them yet, but I was our for 3-hours with them yesterday, and absolutely no complaints. Not only are they comfortable, but you can customize their appearance, which I did to match the Bailey kit. They come with a beautiful hard-shell carrying case, an extra set of lenses of your choice, and of course the bag to store them and clean the lenses with. Still the best! Hope all is well! Until next time...
Hi All! So you may or may not have noticed, that I've been trying to update this blog on a regular basis, and for the most part, that means every Sunday.
On a separate note...DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME HAS RETURNED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If you're an athlete, you get it!!!
Not much to report. No racing this week. Training as usual, but a little less, and at lower intensity. I'm convinced that when I have this much ""off time" between races, it's probably not the best idea to keep training at all out effort. I'm worried that come race day I'll just be more tired then anything, or possibly run the risk off burning out way to early in the season!
Looking at the race calendar, I've noticed that April and May are going to be heavy months for me as far as racing is concerned. I begin next month with another run up at the Santiago Canyon TT, followed the next weekend with the Omnium, followed the next weekend with the De Vlees Huis Ronde RR , followed the next weekend with the Devil's Punchbowl RR, followed the next weekend with the San Luis Rey RR, followed the next weekend with the Fort Irwin RR, and then finally a three week break until the State RR Championships!!! All these races, with the exception of the Santiago Canyon TT, are "A" races for me, meaning that they are of the highest priority as far as results are concerned. Anyone out there care to join me in these races???
Now I know it's highly unrealistic to expect that I could peak for all those races seeing as how they are back-to-back, but since I no longer am racing crits, my calendar has slimmed down quite a bit, so I don't want to miss any opportunities I have to get some racing in. And I figure, I really want to be peaking for the State Championships, so all that racing leading up to it, followed by three weeks of no racing just prior to it, is perfectly timed.
On an exciting note, I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of some new Oakley Jawbones that I ordered earlier in the week! I have high hopes for the performance of these glasses after all the great reviews I've read on them. I did try on a pair a few weeks back and found them to be extremely comfortable. The ease of lens changes is really the selling point for me. I've worn Oakley M-Frames for years, and have loved them, but occasionally have been frustrated with the lens' coming undone from the frame at inconvenient times, and the frame itself digging in to the back of my head, which isn't a big deal, but on rides exceeding 4 hours, it becomes much more noticeable. Apparently Oakley has fixed both these problem with the Jawbones. I even had them custom designed to go with the colors of the Bailey kit! Sweet! Can't wait, hope to see them tomorrow. I'll post my own review after using them for awhile.
Hope all is well out there! Until next time...
Hi All! How ya'll doing? Good I hope. Just finished a little work at the restaurant and decided to sit down here at the computer and fill you in on the weekend. Had another excellent week of training and racing!
Raced the Santiago Canyon TT yesterday, and boy was it fast! I had hopes of riding a Bailey TT bike that I'm currently borrowing, but after spending close to an hour Thursday night in Bailey's garage, we just weren't able to get it dialed in properly. I decided to race anyway with my road bike. I figured since the first four miles of the course were climb, and the rest isn't pancake flat by any means, the road bike would work just fine. Also, I was expecting rain, and I feel more confident riding on my road bike then a TT bike when the streets are wet. The race went off without a hitch, not a drop of rain on the course, but one heck of a tailwind, which provided me a new PR for the race. 28 minutes 04 seconds for the 11-mile canyon run! That was good enough for 7th place in my category. No complaints for the first TT of the season, and especially since I ran it on a road bike with a 12-25 cog in the rear! Sure could of used an 11!!! And a BIG thanks to John Bailey for hookin' me up with a skinsuit, I'm sure it had to help!
Managed to get out for three hours today with Bailey out to the coast and down to Torrey Pines. Miserable, wet, windy, and cold conditions, but hey, it's gotta make you tougher right? Right???
Anyways, just registered for a brand new road race on the calendar up in Bakersfield April 18th. The De Vlees Huis Ronde; A Road Race for the Strong!!! A thirty-mile loop we'll be racing around two times. A European-style road course with an uphill finish. Right up my alley. Looking forward to it. But before that, the next race on my calendar will again be the Santiago Canyon TT, followed by the Omnium TT and RR.
Hope all is well with you all! Until next time...
"the trick is to keep losing weight until your friends and family ask you if you've been sick. then you know you're within 10 pounds. if they start whispering to each other, wondering if you've got cancer or aids, you're within 5. when they actually do an intervention, you're at race weight." - Slowman
