Seriously Easy

Tonight I did the 2nd seriously easy run of the 2008 late summer season. Ten minutes - easy. Kept HR low, low, low. I ran in cemetery to be on grass and most importantly, not seriously embarrassed by running my slow ass on public streets. Mentally I know I've got to do something different, apart from riding my road bike - as I felt great after this 'run.' I hope to be running quite often by the end of the fall - hopefully up to an hour so I can stay fit and mentally refreshed throughout the winter.
I'll give a report out on my soreness factor tomorrow. In past when I've begun running after a purely cycling regiment I've gotten SORE for a LONG TIME. Maybe I'll put in a decent cross season this year...its an awful long road season and my hats off to those folks who race every weekend effectively. I can't seem to do this yet. While my burnout state is better this year than it was last year I vacillate from being seriously psyched up for races and not having any motivation at all to race. Whatever motivation I had (like last week) has seemed to vanish almost overnight!
I don't know if I can bring myself to drive 2+ hours to Concord on Sat. although I might go up to Bow on Sunday. A :45 minute crit is not really worth 5h in the car for me at this point this season.
I went on a seriously fun MTB in Big River last night with Mike and Lynn. We went swimming after which was a blast.

Cadel Evans

An OK outburst...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FikzgWE3t0A

A better one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9St8xiaKzA&feature=related

The best one...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fe79ZuDKfk&feature=related

Why am I not surprised...

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2008/07/29/dcl.cop.decks.cyclist.cnn

...everything comes out with the proliferation of video capture.

Schedule

I did Norwell yesterday. There is nothing to report about this race except I was really pissed off at the end of it.

I know this schedule will change but it gives me an idea of how to plan my training for the next few weeks. Training? Yeah, I've been actually training again instead of pretending to train.


Week 1:
8/2: Concord
8/3: Bow - maybe.

Week 2:
8/9: Nashua
*or maybe Rochester.
8/10: Tokeneke...maybe?

Week 3:
8/13: Salem (Witches Cup)
8/16: NY Capitol Region RR
8/17: Fall River (Priority Race)

Week 4:
8/21: Pittsfield
8/23: Medford, NJ or Saco, ME
8/24: Blunt Park 'Cross, Springfield, MA.

Week 6:
9/6: Topsfield
9/7: Haverhill or *Tour of the Catskills

Week 7:
9/13 and 9/14: Bob Beals

Week 8:
9/20: Norwich, CT
9/21: Portsmouth

Norwell not Hilltowns

Looks like I'm skipping Hilltowns to put a solid effort into Norwell. I'm probably doing just the Cat. 3 race. There are some teams in there so its going to have be critical to cover attacks in order to get into the breakaway if anyone is strong enough to put enough gas on. I felt good last night and was able to stay where I wanted to be most of the time. I felt as if my power was coming along properly and I was able to ride at the right intensity necessary. I probably lost 5 seconds per lap being extra lame in the corners but I've recently had a bad experience of not respecting them. I did not get sick for once which I think means I'm getting somewhat fit. Hopefully I feel good on Sun. Not doing Hilltowns because I know I'll be tired after that, probably too much so to properly race Norwell. Tomorrow I'm back out to Wilbur Rd. or Cumberland Hill to do hill repeats until failure. I might even drive up to Wachussett to do proper repeats. Saturday is easy around town stuff, maybe even go to the beach or do something lazy and fun.

Last Day of School

Last day of school is tomorrow. Cannot wait. Believe me, I cannot wait. Going to celebrate by going to Ninigret. It better not rain. If it does rain, my usual method of celebration will be initiated. Hyundai leaves PC (River Ave. @ 4:15 or so). I did 4 sprints today on the Blvd. (instead of my prescribed 5) and was going to do more but I got a flat and decided to hustle on home. I felt great the first two, OK on the third, not so much OK and the fourth. On my ride home from PC I hit the East Side hill as hard as I possibly could which I guess counts for the fifth sprint.

Pig, Pig, Pig, Pig

I went to stop and shop for groceries - I need to start eating better and I had a plan of what to get. I was picking stuff up when I went by the sushi section. I walked by it and decided to go back and investigate. I picked up one box of it and decided that would augment my planned dinner of tacos. About 20 paces away I NEEDED TO TURN AROUND and immediately grabbed a second box - a box of the good sushi. This sushi was subconsciously calling my name. I couldn't resist it. No one person should ever spend as much as I did on Stop and Shop sushi, but I would have spent 2X what I spent on shitty beer if I went out tonight so I don't feel so bad.

BTW: Powerpoint sucks. I've been plugging Millwork One/Weebike.com also at the end of every presentation I give - I'm working on putting the logo on a powerpoint slide. Much like Sesame Street is brought to you by the letter Z and the number 12 (I think I remember this from my youth), my presentations are brought to the class by Millwork 1/Weebike.com and the generous support of the Stafford Direct Loan program. No one hears this of course because its me who is giving the presentation and believe me I'm not the most "exciting" person around which means the majority of the class is either staring at me - but that glassy eyed kind of staring which begs to ask the question "When is this guy going to shut the fuck up?" I talk anyway, loudly and slowly in my attempt to drag the presentation out for as long as possible so I can get the highest grade possible. The rest of the class is doing something totally unrelated, like sitting in front of a laptop looking like they are paying attention while they surf the internet or do something else, drawing, staring out the window, leaving to answer phone calls, texting (yes, adults in grad school text), or doing whatever you do when you are bored off of your ass.

Warm Weather

Apart from sitting at the computer, typing papers for school I have been a lump of shit. I am way more productive in the mornings so I work until I'm useless from wakeup till uselessness sets in. Then I come back to it and type some more crap. Type, type, type, surf the internet, type, type type, type. I found this website, steephill.tv which allows me to actually watch the tour in real time, which is really cool. School has a way of narrowing my ability to plan for future events, seriously I cannot plan a thing more than a week out, but its over this week, and I cannot wait. I will celebrate my last day of classes with a Ninigret crit on Wednesday as opposed to my "normal" method of celebrating anything (and everything for that fact). In my efforts to defeat lameness, I went on a solo 2.5 hour bike ride. Ride was not lame because I purchased good headphones which don't fall off every time I hit a bump and second because I put all new music in the Ipod. Yesterday I did one hour but I did five solid sprints...the first ones about a minute a piece but later ones were only at :30 seconds. Today, I felt like garbage. I went out Woodward to do the Wilbur/Harris Ave. climbing interval loop I do from time to time. I only did two, and the second one was awful, I totally blew up on it. I then went to the old Lincoln Crit course and reminisced about it briefly before going out 116 to W. Reservoir and out Rocky Hill Road. Decent ride, again feeling shitty the whole time. I think the temp had something to do with the quality of this ride as it was 90F+. Tomorrow I may ride or I may not because its supposed to be 94F and I'm waking up on my own schedule, which means if I go out its going to be later. I'm just not sitting in a car 3h. one way up to Claremont. I've probably done that ride 75 times during the seven years I lived in Vermont. I may go to Naugutuck though on Sunday - I'll decide tomorrow. I'm psyched to focus on bike racing entirely for the month of August...I'd like to peak for the late Aug./Sept series of races, including Bob Beals.

Rest Week

Well I think I'm going to take a rest week. I didn't plan this but I still am a bit tired from Attleboro and I shouldn't be this far out. I was going to do sprint intervals today but they will wait. Attleboro was a decent race. The 30+ was fun, the Cat. 3 race got boring by the end. I think I went around that course 90 times, which is about 20 times too many. Good training though...hopefully I finally truly recover soon. I felt like crap at the end of this race which probably accounts for my long recovery time. My long recovery time could also be related to stress as I'm taking full load of summer courses right now and there is a lot of stuff to do. While in reality none of this stuff 'matters' in a financial sense - it matters to me and so I've got to finish up strong, just another week. Most of the big stuff is due this week so I should be OK next week.

I keep getting these emails about the bike lane on Blackstone. Lots of emails. I really want to reply but I don't see the point. Arguing with people does not get you anywhere, ever. In case you haven't been over there they put a bike lane where the right lane of the Boulevard used to be. They actually scraped off the dotted center line. I think its a good idea. Never liked the two lane approach anyway, too much like an expressway. I've ridden hundreds, probably thousands of loops there. I think I've seen one rollerblader...ever. Very few runners, most take the middle. There is now enough space for like five runners to run abreast in the far right pedestrian lane and not even come close to the bike land. I run there sometimes in the colder months actually. Yep, in the road. Nope, not going to change that either. Yep, don't care if I get yelled at. In one ear, out the other. I'll yell back and taunt anyway, other runners will do the same so I suggest that no one decides to be a hero and tell a runner where to go. Bikers can go around a runner and its not really a problem. The lane gives us more space and more of a right to use the road - we now have a lot of road now. Its a park which means its recreational space. This new striping cannot be changed anyway so we all mind as well accept it and enjoy it.

Good Ride

Today's riding experience was much better than yesterday's. I 'stayed up' too late last night and did not make it to Wells today. I rode up through Cumberland into Wrentham and into Franklin. I like this ride, there are some good hills in there and the roads are really nice - some open farmland mixed with woods, so there is a lot of scenery variety. There was a lot of people riding today. All types of people too, from recreational groups, to families, to a Quad guy to this Millworks guy. It was nice to see a lot of folks out because I think its good for the sport. I think its better to have a lot of people excited about cycling in general. I felt quite good and did some big ring TT type stuff again. I didn't quantify any of it, but when I felt good I went hard and when I needed to rest I rested. I tried to keep the efforts at least a mile - I got 3 really good kinda longer efforts in and a load of little 2-3 minute efforts which has resulted in me being beat right now. Upper Union St. in Franklin is a kick ass road going north - slight tailwind and slight downhill meant 30+ mph for 2 miles. So much fun.

I've had some success trying to follow the Tour de France...Eurosport has live audio, ITV has a podcast with interviews, and Youtube has amateur videos, along with Steephill.tv (which has professional video). I don't have the 'good' cable which gets Versus, so I'm going to have to improvise.

This week was the first week I've really tied a lot of good training together, today, yesterday, sprints on Friday and Ninigret on Weds. I'm hopefully going to put some good training in next week too...sprints Tuesday, long/hard Weds, moderate or easy on Thurs., easy and short Friday and then Attleboro. In the past I've ridden to Attleboro, but I might not this year because I've gotten dehydrated when its been hot. Something is 'up' with my digestive system anyway, I vomit after every race, get cramps for hours later and for some reason I require a huge amount of water. Actually, I know whats up with it, its called being out of shape and this is a situation I'm well on my way to rectifying. So if its hot, I'm driving, if its cool - I'm riding. I've got a hell of week with school and work coming up though so I hope to get everything in. I've got to miss the Bikeworks TT until the last week in July so thats a big bummer because I really like that TT.

Apart from cycling I've been bogged down with school. I cannot wait for it to be over - Wednesday, July 23. I

40% Chance of Rain

Just so I'm on the same page as the National Weather Service a 40% chance of rain does not mean that you stand a 4/10 chance of being rained on. It means you will be rained on 40% of the time. The first half of my ride was fine, out to North Smithfield, doing some solo hard pulls and 3-10 minute TT efforts. I felt really good. Then it began raining. I crashed the other day, not too hard, but kinda hard - so I've got some cuts and scrapes, big deal, but I left the ones on my legs uncovered.

I will never do this again (leave leg cuts uncovered). Why?

Well, it began raining & where did it begin raining you may ask? Yes, thats right, North Smithfield. Now North Smithfield isn't all that far from Providence by any means, but its not exactly in town either. I was about 20 miles into my ride. At first it wasn't bad, just drizzle and some big rainy drops here and there. However, once the road got wet spray began to creep off my front tire. My legs got sandblasted with everything on the road the entire way home. It doesn't hurt that bad - its hurts just bad enough to put someone like myself in an awful bad, grumpy mood. I was real pissed off the whole way in. I ducked out to RT 7 and commenced a TT effort into town. So, in retrospect it was good that it began raining as I got a superior workout in.

BTW: It stopped raining once I came down Cobble Hill into Pawtucket. I knew that was going to happen.

I signed up for Attleboro: 30+ and Cat 3. Not sure about New Britain if I'm going out there or not. I might, or I might not. Probably Claremont in NH on the 19th and Nagutuck on the 20th. Probably Hilltowns on the 26th, but I might not and focus on the Norwell race on the 27th.

My new routine

A new part of my precious daily routine will now commence as evidenced by this photo. If you read this blog chances are you know what I'm talking about.

Went into corner too fast. Pedaled through about half-way. Crashed. End of story. Thanks Lynn Samaratano, Murat and Bill Doonan for the help. Murat and Lynn both stopped for me and I want to thank them for making sure I didn't lie unresponsive on the pavement waiting to get run over by other bikers or eaten by Coyotes.

I feel really good on the bike though and hope to be racing at Wells on Sunday. I did Newton last week - a good race. I liked it. I also did Cox - a very hard race which is ancient history by now.

I've got to sign up for Attleboro, New Britain etc... I'm so psyched to race now. Its been a long time since I've been motivated. I hope my motivation keeps up! Gotta go.