Not really workinghard

So all the Mountain biking this summer got me back in to the mood to try some racing. So I waited till the last minute and got some weekends off to try to race some cross.

I wish I still had the fitness I had by the end of August, where I Finlay got the old mountain bike I pieced together three years ago broken in on several all day rides in the Wasatch mountains. Not sure why I stopped riding in September for sure but I did. However I will take what fitness I have simply because its nice to not feel like crap in spite of loving to be on the bike riding as hard as I can.

Here is to some more improvement and loving the ride.

Good One

Roll It Old School

So to start off with the good news, I know why I ended up sucking for the only two races I really wanted to do well in. In fact my assumption was confirmed the very night of my sucking in the state RR. My wife went to a wine party and found out that vintners do add sugar to some wines. This is not labeled like on most other foods. Sampling some of my wife's wine from time to time this spring was screwing up all my efforts in my eating and training discipline. I thought, 'if I can eat grapes and even drink sparkling and plain grape juices then why not be able to sip fermented grape juice?' I can eat fermented milk (ie yogurt.) I really shot my self in the foot by getting her a couple bottles after the Bear Lake RR and TTT. We had quite a bit of it when I got home that evening. One of the biggest culprits for having added sugar is the White Zinfandel and the one I brought home, I drank more of than usual, because it was easier to drink than most others.

So I got all that figured out and am feeling good. The motivation to get to more races seems to have left for now. Some of the contributors to the lack of motivation is all the silliness with the timing chips and result hassles. Based on my skimming the proposal that 'Winning Time' sent out, it seems almost like they planned the menagerie this year just to get the Utah races to be willing to pay even more. To have more assholes out to the races to scan our chips,to make sure they work, and lots of other horse shit. Just to get results that seemed to come just fine in other races without all that extra equipment and hassle. That kind of crap takes the fun out of showing up to race for me. There are so many other things that nickle and dime you anyway. We are already paying for the USA Cycling license, club dues and kits. If you want to do the weekly crits, you spend more money for that number plate plus the small weekly fee. I was going to do some of those but not enough to justify the number plate, so I am doing none of those. I am thinking next year focus on one or two big events out of state, this way I can still race and enjoy being in good shape and justify having expensive cool bikes and fitness.

I have spent the last week out on the Rigid TinCannondale. This has been a fun change, I don't even have a speedometer on it and I have put big DH tires on. It's so rocky around here, I tear through anything else. With the DH tires on I haven't pinched or had any other tire issue. And it's almost as good as riding a bike with a front shock. I have to say I really don't feel the difference of not having a shock even with normal XC tires on. I couldn't justify the money to just put a shock on. So I go with the rigid mountain bike it is about as low maintenance as a Road bike. And set up with the heavy DH tires its similar to riding around in an old Willey's Jeep-- slow but can go any where. And it is a great high resistance work out.
The first couple days I could really feel the fatigue in my upper body, this reminded me of my goal to continue to improve on my fitness pin for work. I surpassed the 90% goal in March and won that award but I didn't reach what I wanted in some of the areas. So I am now more motivated for this in September than any bike racing. I think I will take it one up and work into the weight room as the days start getting shorter and put the SCD to another test. I have already seen how much muscle I have built and maintained mostly doing endurance stuff. but what if I lessened that and do the weights and only shorter rides and runs? This should be fun. Then turn around and start hitting it hard to see if I can build any speed and power up to make considering the Gila this spring worth it.
With all this above drivel already written, I have been reflecting a lot on the expectations I have had for myself off and on over the last years. I think a lot of the pressure I was putting on myself was simply to see if I could finally feel better. I would always refer myself back to how I felt more constantly well when I was racing bikes as a teenager. So I pushed myself to try to be like that again. Now after all this time it seems its easy to not care so much about the results as it is about the fact that I feel well enough to do all sorts of other stuff and I am just happy to be able to get out and do it and not need to come home and go back to bed.
Now to see if I change my mind again.

no good

the way the season has was going I was getting quite a bit of confidence in my goal to improve on the State TT and RR. two weeks ago I was breaking all my previous personal bests and still feeling good after the rides as well. I started to question my self going in to the week leading up to the TT. my legs were feeling worse after a nights sleep and only a little better after a light spin. I kept my hopes up but then I didn't help things much by staying up till 1Am visiting with my aunt from out of town.
Trying to warm up for the TT I couldn't even hold tempo let alone LT. I felt better once the race started, I felt better but still couldn't hold on to the power I was needing to at least get an improved average speed over last years speed on the 40K course. By the time I finished I was .8 MPH under what I supposedly did last year. I can only guess on last years speed as my SRM was in the shop so I am going by what the soft wear says I did based on time and distance. This year I have it but I am only glad I have it when the numbers are cool. Two weeks ago they were cool I was beating my PBs by minuets and watts by more than 10W.
It may seem weird but last year I got really fast by about May 25th just like this year and I fell of after the first week of Jun just like this year. I didn't start training til February this year, and took two weeks off in March. For now its just an interesting thing I noticed. not sure what good noticing it is considering the intentionally latter timing on structuring my work outs.
Now trying to stay positive I need to find something else fun to do with my day of this week end since there is defiantly no need to do the state RR I haven't been on the bike since Saturday, I cam home and sleep for two hours just like I did today after work instead of ride. This crazy weather this year is fun to ride in now that the chances for hypothermia and frost biter are lessened.

I would rather eat than post

The blogging has fallen of allot lately. Mostly because lots of my former free time is spent preparing real food and I have to say it is worth it. I feel better and I am enjoying the spring with no real allergy complaints other than itchy eyes in the morning. That is nice compared to the prior life time of misery from before the SCD diet change.
So hats been going on since the last post.

its finely stopped snowing. and shorts and Jersey are more common than layers.

I had the best time on my bike at the Bear Lake TTT since the first mountain bike ride I road In Moab. The inner Tourette's during the race was mostly suns a bitches, suns a bitch, damn fast suns a bitches. Not to sound like I was angry with my great team mates but some how it helped me work harder to not slow them down. it was a good pain.

The RR was ok but I only got to race the first lap because I was a retard and tried to grab my musette bag even though I could see that the pace was not going to let up in the feed zone. In my defence I do need more water than I used to as I eat so much more protein. I grabbed the wrong bag and ended up mostly by myself for the next lap with bottles I didn't dare to use any way.

I have learned that my recoveries are slower if I let my supplies of SCD yogurt run out. and my eyes are itchier for a week after I get started on eating another batch.

I think I am finally back to when I quit riding in March.

I enjoy that recovery rides feel like recovery rides this year. And I am looking forward to my next day with work efforts. I used to suffer through them like they were the last hour of a double century, thus resulting in recovery days being recovery weeks that were basically naps before bed time.

I am a little excited for the state TT even though its on the frontage road by Salt Air. Mostly to see if I have improved any. That road is only a little better than riding rollers in the garage to me.

I get to go to the climbing place today. I think I am going to set the interval timer for the decents as well because last time going down I think I went faster than ever before. I have been working on not touching the breaks for the entire decent. Craziness. but its finally working its about time since I have been riding that canyon for over eight years.

Racing in to shape to try to suck less

So I have had two weeks in a row of racing. and racing in not the best conditions. Both were hard, and that's good because if it was easy what would be the point. Hell Of The North was good not as muddy as the first groups but still muddy. Going in to the race my challenge an goal was to not get dropped or crashed. On the second lap a guy got squarely and I over reacted and dove right in to probably the only deep sink hole left as things were starting to dry up. I was about hub deep and almost to a complete stop. I never was able to make the gap back up. I kept on thinking I was getting back on but it was just guys gong backwards. I eventually got with a couple guys and some occasional stragglers would try to work with me and Josh from MIB but it was mostly me and Josh. are tenacity payed off because he got 11th and I got 12th same as last year except I sat in the pack the whole time last year. I wish I would have gone ahead and used the Seven instead of the cross bike. Not just because its more comfortable and it wasn't as muddy as I expected it to be. It would have been nice to have the data from my SRM file chasing for 8 laps. I could have updated my values from that data. That means more now after the Great fun at Tour OF the Depot. The TT and Circuit race were fun but not very eventful for me with the exception of the first few laps of the circuit race had me totally astonished at the watts I was having to crank out just to hang on at the back. I realized thankfully before it was to late that I could probably get to the front first chance I got and put out less. I was right except for on the hills and attacks. I chased one attack down and had to hold on for dear life for the next couple laps. then before I knew it the race was over.

The road race I had been looking forward to since I first heard about the rout in December. Ski Utah had Spence in second place and I was primed to work hard even though I knew I didn't have much sprint out sustainable watts. So all I would be good for was Chase down breaks till I was spent. I was scared to do that to soon because it was 75 miles. after one of are best solo break away riders Jan flatted five miles into the race we had some small flurries of breaks go off and then a fast decent. Once we were out of Stockton I noticed a bunch of the RMCC Crown Burger guys going to the front. One of them was Nick who has gone off with successful breaks in lots of different races including the Hell of the North last week. So I followed him to the front and he kept going so I went with him. As we got out a ways I figured if we went till my legs gave up that would let Ski Utah sit on for a while so I went around Nick to take a turn up front and he asked if I though we could hold on to it till the finish and I said we may as well try and gassed it. Next thing you know the referee motored up along side us and said we had two minutes on the pack as we approached the long climb. I thought it was only about six or seven minutes but it turned out to be over ten and this was us giving it everything we had or at least everything I had when Nick would tack his turn in the head wind it was all I could do to hold over 400 watts for 60 seconds thankfully he would fade enough for me to take a turn up front at my pace. The next lap we were both wondering if they were going to catch us before the next time up the hill. I was wanting to at least make it to the sprint bonus line again because I thought Nick got the first one. I ended up literally holding the bag on that one at the end of the day.

When the referee road up to us to tell us we were only out front by thirty seconds we both sat up a little. That's when I realized that the crazy numbers I was cranking out for over an hour had caught up to me and my legs were done. When the pack caught me one of the Crown burger guys Jess was in a full on sprint and the pack was hot on his wheel. I couldn't hang and even the wheel car passed me. I was determined to not finish solo so I through everything at it and got back on just to get dropped again as they went for the sprint bonus. I hoped to catch back on on the 16 miles or so descent in the Gratsvill but the pack was going into Grantsvill by the time I started the decent. I had to use the small ring up Utah Av and at 1K to go I started burning the winter storage I was shaky and sweating as hard as I was on the break away except I was only going about 12MPH. I crossed the line and was wondering how I was going to ride over the via dock to get to my wife and car. She did a great job handing me my muset bag. Not sure if I would have even finished if it wasn't for that hand up. I recognised a team mates car and went and laid down on the sidewalk next to it. I fell asleep only to be awakened by a lady telling me to make sure I drank water while I sunbathed. I am sure she was being funny because I wasn't getting much sun with arm and knee warmers on as well as my helmet and my bike laying on top of me. My team mate never showed up but Sean and his family were nice enough to let me bum a ride with them back to my car. I was to out of it to notice where my wife was parked but I did find about six hard boiled eggs to eat. They were amazingly hard to shell but as I finished the last one I saw my wife and son looking for me. They took me home to get showered befor the awards were handed out. By the time I was dressed I would have never know I was as haggard as I was not 30 minutes prior. So I must have some fitness on bored because I bounced back really fast. Spence got the win on the day as well as the over all so all the hurting was well worth preserving him for the big finish.

After suffering out back for two weeks in a row. I made the decision I wasn't going to get lazy even with the wet weather this year. I was doing so good in February just to get lazy and lose it all.

The rose colored glasses I got in the sprint prise helped with that as I ended up spending three hours in the rain on Tuesday and it really wasn't that bad. However I did spend the next two days on the trainer and it was all I could do but after suffering the last two weeks its worth it to be able to do more than just hang on to the pack for dear life.

Some more What the!

So I sort of have my self going again? And got curious about prior years training and the like. so I got comparing things and am very surprised to find that I am in exactly the same place as last year in spit of every effort last year and my being half assed so far this year.
Well I shouldn't say exactly because my TH was much higher than now, and I think I should have it lower in the charts this year but I just can,t handle seeing such a tiny number in that box. So my CTL may be considerably higher if I were to put things where they should be but between not wanting to see such a tiny number in the box and the fact that I would do the same rides any way I am leaving it till I either mach what it is or surpass it. I have to get so I can handle riding hard enough to get a real test completed. I tried last week but I popped and ended up with an average that was more like what an entire ride average would be. And I was not going to put that in the WKO I would have to go so slow I may as well walk my bike on endurance days. I know the stuff is calibrated right because it fits what I feel for one and I only really used it for about four weeks last year after I got it back from the shop.

So this week end I will take my dirty bike out and test my self with the other crazies at the Hell Of The North. I am excited to see what I really can do after such a weird off season of training or not training this year.