The DINO Spring Tune-Up was un-cancelled around 8:00 this morning, and I found out about it around 9:00. As general rule, it can't be guaranteed that I will even be awake 9:00 on a weekend morning when I have nothing scheduled. Seeing as I had cleared my schedule for the race, all that was on my agenda was getting my ride in sometime before 5:00 p.m. However, being the crazy responsible person that I am becoming, I awoke at 7:30 all on my own. I messed around, had breakfast, etc. and by the time Adam call me from work to let me know the the race was on, I was already halfway through a large pot of green tea and the movie "Twilight". I had been pretty pumped to race a couple of days ago, but at that moment, the thought of throwing my stuff in the car and trying to make the start didn't seem too appealing.
It's just as well, because I had a great workout this afternoon. It was a race simulation that consisted of clipping in from a full stop, sprinting for 10 pedal strokes, two minutes Zone 6, five minutes threshold, and ten minutes sweet spot all back-to-back. It was pretty hard, but I was proud of my numbers when it was all done. I was also supposed to ride for "a couple more hours" when I was done with the race simulation, so I gave myself a ten minute soft-pedal break and then tried to settle into upper Zone 2/ low Zone 3. I wanted to put in a better effort than "just riding along" pace, and I did. I only ended up with 2:20 ride time, but I was working hard enough that I didn't feel the need to try to tack on more distance at the end. I was about as worked over at I wanted to be with two very hard weeks ahead of me.
I was sunny and nice today, but the temperature was only in the low-to-mid 50's, so I developed "cyclocross cough" by the time it was over. That happens when I ride really hard efforts in cool/cold weather. I think I will be fine after some echinacea tea and good night's rest.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Friday, April 10, 2009
So What? I'm Still a Rock Star
The DINO Spring Tune-Up has been cancelled. That means that it will be three more weeks before my first cross country race, which is kind of okay because I'm not really fast enough to be racing cross country yet, anyway. Between the late start to training and the very endurance-heavy period leading up to the Lumberjack, I don't actually expect be "fast" enough until late summer. That makes me a little nervous about the first couple of DINO races, but tomorrow was supposed to be my freebee where I was the only girl in my class and got to pump up my ego with some decent lap times. Plus, I was totally looking forward to riding this thing, now that I actually know how to ride a bike.
That was from my very first race in 2006, which was about my fifth time on singletrack and my technical skills did not exist yet. I have a feeling that course is a little easier now that I have become "Rockhopper Rodkey". Instead, I get to do a sweet race simulation workout on the road, that should be really hard but kind of awesome at the same time. I like making my power meter go "vroom vroom".
I can't really explain the sudden burst of cycling related self-esteem. I'm still feeling good about last weekend, time and place aside. Something about the fact that I got faster without really trying makes feel hopeful about the future. Plus, I'm feeling surprisingly grown-up about following my training plan for the first time in my life.
Seeing Sarah last weekend was an inspiration to me, because she's made so much progress in the last year. She mentioned "putting on your big girl panties" when it came to training, and it got me thinking: If you put on your big girl panties often enough, eventually you'll actually become a big girl.
Excuse me while I go change...
That was from my very first race in 2006, which was about my fifth time on singletrack and my technical skills did not exist yet. I have a feeling that course is a little easier now that I have become "Rockhopper Rodkey". Instead, I get to do a sweet race simulation workout on the road, that should be really hard but kind of awesome at the same time. I like making my power meter go "vroom vroom".
I can't really explain the sudden burst of cycling related self-esteem. I'm still feeling good about last weekend, time and place aside. Something about the fact that I got faster without really trying makes feel hopeful about the future. Plus, I'm feeling surprisingly grown-up about following my training plan for the first time in my life.
Seeing Sarah last weekend was an inspiration to me, because she's made so much progress in the last year. She mentioned "putting on your big girl panties" when it came to training, and it got me thinking: If you put on your big girl panties often enough, eventually you'll actually become a big girl.
Excuse me while I go change...
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Jersey Cookies
I have been toying with the idea of "jersey cookies" for endurance racing for a few months, since I have now been saved twice by oatmeal cookies at aid stations. I don't have the strongest stomach when it comes to eating on the bike, so my nutrition plans have so far revolved around liquid/gel products. Despite being a bit afraid of eating "real food" in races, I ended up eating oatmeal cookies at the last aid stations of both the OC and the Iceman in 2008, when the end was near and the sports drinks were getting nasty.
So when I was preparing for the Ouachita Challenge this year, I strongly considered supplementing my gel with oatmeal cookies cut into quarters and stuffed my jersey pocket for easy access. Not the cleanest thing in the world, but easy to eat without stopping. However, I abandoned the idea after I finished exactly half of the gel that I brought on my last long ride before the race.
Then Jason called me the day before the OC for a pre-race pep talk/nutrition talk. Much to my surprise, he seemed kind of encouraging about my cookie idea, so I planned on picking some up at the rest stops. Unfortunately, they didn't have the same cookies as last year so that was kind of sad. I ended up making it through the race on 2 1/2 of the 5 gel flasks that I had packed, 2 1/2 bananas, 1 sugar cookie, and 1/2 oatmeal cookie I tried to scarf down on Big Brushy when the ugliness hit. The moral of the story is that real food has real value after all, and gel gets somewhat unpalatable after a while.
With that in mind, I'm doing taste testing in preparation for the Lumberjack 100, which is a little over 10 weeks away. I tried Pepperidge Farm Oatmeal Raisin a few months ago when the idea originally struck. They tasted good, but I never actually ate them on the bike because it was the middle of winter and eating cookies takes more manual dexterity than lobster gloves allow. My biggest problem was that despite the "zero grams trans fat" on the label, the word "hydrogenated" still made it's way into the ingredients list.
I really liked the fat-free (more in importantly, hydrogenated-free) cookies in the swag bags at the OC, but the attached card said the minimum order was four dozen. I think four dozen cookies in my freezer would be a really bad thing.
Finally, I noticed Quaker Breakfast Cookies while I was in the grocery store yesterday, and grabbed the box without giving it much of a look. I was under no pretense that they were actually health food or that people should actually eat cookies for breakfast (breakfast is a sensitive subject for me), but I somehow thought they might stack up better than the Pepperidge Farm cookies, which are marketed on deliciousness instead of nutrition. Sadly, when I looked at the nutrition facts on the Quaker Breakfast Cookies, I was shocked. That long column of text in the picture is its ingredient list, and the word "hydrogenated" in there a lot, along with a lot of other big words. It kind of grossed me out that they try market these things as being good for you.
I'm sure I'll find something good soon. I suppose a "dietarily insignificant" dose of hydrogenated-ness isn't terrible, but it would be nice to find a cookie that is tasty, soft, and shelf-stable without it. I'm not sure if that is chemically impossible or not.
Monday, April 6, 2009
A Tale of Two Cutoff Times: Ouachita Challenge 2009
What can I say? This year's Ouachita Challenge started so differently, and ended so the same. Well, luckily it was not totally the same, but I'll get to that later.
This year I had no pretenses of trying to "get ahead of the slow people on the singletrack". I might as well have made a formal announcement, "My name is Lindsay, and I AM one of the slow people on the singletrack." So when the pack started rolling, I started rolling at exactly the pace that felt good to me, going souly on RPE with almost no mind to what my HR or the rest of the group was doing. I did pay enough mind to look back and realize I was literally DFL for a few minutes. I knew that wouldn't last long and that I would eventually pick off a few people before the day was over. Luckily, the first one came as soon as the first significant dirt road climb hit and the girl in front of me got off and started walking. I was shocked, because if you're walking on a dirt road that a car could easily drive up, what are you going to do on Blowout Mountain? I figured that was her decision, though.
So I moved on to where the normal dirt road turned into steep jeep road/double track. This part was kind of funny because I was just sitting in my granny gear easily picking my way up the hill, and observing what I liked to call "The Boulevard of Broken Dreams" because it was pretty much a gauntlet of people fixing flats on each side of the road. I had been warned about the sharp rocks in this section, so I make sure to be very careful picking my lines and not going full bore.
After that came the Womble, which was just kind of whatever for me. I was riding reasonably smooth and clean compared to last year, but I still wasn't going particularly fast. I was still reserving energy for later in the day.
I rolled into the first rest stop within my fairly arbitrary time goal, made some minor wardrobe changes due the rising temperature, grabbed some more water, and moved on. I was feeling good about my chances of finishing "pretty", meaning finishing still looking strong with little no doubt that I was going to finish, even if the placing wasn't great.
I knew ahead of time that the course I finished on last year was an abbreviated version, but I didn't really understand the differences for 2009. I knew there was a little more trail and a little more dirt road before the first rest stop, but I didn't know how much more road there was in the middle. Last year it took me 20-30 minutes to get to Chalybeate from the first rest stop and yesterday it took me an hour and a half. During this time, there was a lot of frustration and fear that I was lost, because the blue ribbons marking the course were few and far between. I also had to shoulder my bike and carry it through a thigh-deep creek while holding a rope that was strung up to keep riders from washing away. That would was interesting, but pretty cold, and the soggy shoes weren't fun.
So when I finally arrived at Chalybeate, I was pretty frustrated because my legs and butt were aching from an hour and a half of sitting and spinning. I was also starting to fear that I wouldn't make the last cutoff time. I walked up the initial steep ascent of maybe 100 meters, and then told myself to suck it up and ride the best I could, even if my chances of finishing were waning. Once the determination to suck it up was made, my spirits were quickly lifted when I realized that I was able to clear almost the entire mountain from that point on. That section does have one major rock garden that I wasn't able to clear, but at least this year it looked like something I could ride with a little practice rather than a hopeless mess. By the time I finished the descent, I had given myself the new nickname of "Rockhopper Rodkey", which is quite an overstatement, but I was feeling good about myself.
Blowout mountain was much the same, I had a little trouble getting to a place where I could make a clean run at climbing on the bike, but after two or three attempts I was caught by Jason, my coach. It was funny because that was our first in-person meeting, which was brief, but it seemed like some sort of weird sign. I was able to ride most of the way over the top, with just a few fumbles from that point on. I also rocked the descent for quite a while, although I was forced to walk a lot during the last third of the mountain, because then the rock gardens got too big for me to handle and then there more climbing, which was steeper and rockier than anything else that day.
Around the time that I was able to start riding again, it started getting really cold and the 3:30 cutoff time was rapidly approaching. I rode as well as I could, but since I really didn't have any idea of how much distance vs. time was left I had decided that whatever was supposed to happen would. My only dilemma was if I showed up at 3:28 and had to make the decision of moving on with no time for fresh water or warm clothes or just letting the clock run out.
That didn't happen, because I arrived at the last station at 3:45 and was informed that the cutoff was now 4:00. It was kind of upsetting, because I was already resolved in the fact that I ridden much better than last year and simply wasn't fast enough for the extended distance yet. All of the sudden, I was forced to give up my fantasies of an imminent shower and realized that the decision to finish was back in my hands. Although I could have dilly-dallied in the aid station a couple more minutes and allowed myself to be "administratively pulled", I had come too far to give up unless I really had to.
So I squeaked in just past the cutoff determined to rock Big Brushy the way I had Chalybeate. I did pretty good for a while and then I was joined by Todd, the sweeper, who I was somewhat familiar with through Sarah's blog. We chitchatted for a while, and I was riding well, but then I started to fade. Looking back, it's funny, because during the time thought I had missed the cutoff, I was vaguely disappointed that I would be pulled without ever seeing "the ugly place" where my legs buckled and pedaling up the smallest grade became a Herculean task. Not that I wanted to feel that way, but it just would have felt odd to be pulled off the course still feeling decent. However, to the dismay of myself and both the sweepers, "the ugly place" did come before we were off of Big Brushy and I ended up having to walk a lot, and whimper a little, too.
Once we got on the road, Todd implemented a pull me on the flats, push me up the hills, strategy that got us home much faster than I could have done on my own. When he found out that I was in the 60 mile race, he said that I owed him big time for moving the cutoff and allowing me to go down as an official finisher. By the time the ugliness hit, I wasn't so sure that I was glad that I had been allowed to go on, but he does have my eternal gratitude for helping me back and making sure I DIDN'T GET LOST this year. He even gave me an awesome lead out train for my lantern rouge winning sprint.
I'm well on my way to becoming the Wim Vansevenant of the Ouachita Challenge, so I'm now resolved to do better next year, not for myself, but for all of the volunteers who've had to sit around waiting for me two years in a row. I feel like I need to send them an extra big donation check in addition to my entry fee.
This year I had no pretenses of trying to "get ahead of the slow people on the singletrack". I might as well have made a formal announcement, "My name is Lindsay, and I AM one of the slow people on the singletrack." So when the pack started rolling, I started rolling at exactly the pace that felt good to me, going souly on RPE with almost no mind to what my HR or the rest of the group was doing. I did pay enough mind to look back and realize I was literally DFL for a few minutes. I knew that wouldn't last long and that I would eventually pick off a few people before the day was over. Luckily, the first one came as soon as the first significant dirt road climb hit and the girl in front of me got off and started walking. I was shocked, because if you're walking on a dirt road that a car could easily drive up, what are you going to do on Blowout Mountain? I figured that was her decision, though.
So I moved on to where the normal dirt road turned into steep jeep road/double track. This part was kind of funny because I was just sitting in my granny gear easily picking my way up the hill, and observing what I liked to call "The Boulevard of Broken Dreams" because it was pretty much a gauntlet of people fixing flats on each side of the road. I had been warned about the sharp rocks in this section, so I make sure to be very careful picking my lines and not going full bore.
After that came the Womble, which was just kind of whatever for me. I was riding reasonably smooth and clean compared to last year, but I still wasn't going particularly fast. I was still reserving energy for later in the day.
I rolled into the first rest stop within my fairly arbitrary time goal, made some minor wardrobe changes due the rising temperature, grabbed some more water, and moved on. I was feeling good about my chances of finishing "pretty", meaning finishing still looking strong with little no doubt that I was going to finish, even if the placing wasn't great.
I knew ahead of time that the course I finished on last year was an abbreviated version, but I didn't really understand the differences for 2009. I knew there was a little more trail and a little more dirt road before the first rest stop, but I didn't know how much more road there was in the middle. Last year it took me 20-30 minutes to get to Chalybeate from the first rest stop and yesterday it took me an hour and a half. During this time, there was a lot of frustration and fear that I was lost, because the blue ribbons marking the course were few and far between. I also had to shoulder my bike and carry it through a thigh-deep creek while holding a rope that was strung up to keep riders from washing away. That would was interesting, but pretty cold, and the soggy shoes weren't fun.
So when I finally arrived at Chalybeate, I was pretty frustrated because my legs and butt were aching from an hour and a half of sitting and spinning. I was also starting to fear that I wouldn't make the last cutoff time. I walked up the initial steep ascent of maybe 100 meters, and then told myself to suck it up and ride the best I could, even if my chances of finishing were waning. Once the determination to suck it up was made, my spirits were quickly lifted when I realized that I was able to clear almost the entire mountain from that point on. That section does have one major rock garden that I wasn't able to clear, but at least this year it looked like something I could ride with a little practice rather than a hopeless mess. By the time I finished the descent, I had given myself the new nickname of "Rockhopper Rodkey", which is quite an overstatement, but I was feeling good about myself.
Blowout mountain was much the same, I had a little trouble getting to a place where I could make a clean run at climbing on the bike, but after two or three attempts I was caught by Jason, my coach. It was funny because that was our first in-person meeting, which was brief, but it seemed like some sort of weird sign. I was able to ride most of the way over the top, with just a few fumbles from that point on. I also rocked the descent for quite a while, although I was forced to walk a lot during the last third of the mountain, because then the rock gardens got too big for me to handle and then there more climbing, which was steeper and rockier than anything else that day.
Around the time that I was able to start riding again, it started getting really cold and the 3:30 cutoff time was rapidly approaching. I rode as well as I could, but since I really didn't have any idea of how much distance vs. time was left I had decided that whatever was supposed to happen would. My only dilemma was if I showed up at 3:28 and had to make the decision of moving on with no time for fresh water or warm clothes or just letting the clock run out.
That didn't happen, because I arrived at the last station at 3:45 and was informed that the cutoff was now 4:00. It was kind of upsetting, because I was already resolved in the fact that I ridden much better than last year and simply wasn't fast enough for the extended distance yet. All of the sudden, I was forced to give up my fantasies of an imminent shower and realized that the decision to finish was back in my hands. Although I could have dilly-dallied in the aid station a couple more minutes and allowed myself to be "administratively pulled", I had come too far to give up unless I really had to.
So I squeaked in just past the cutoff determined to rock Big Brushy the way I had Chalybeate. I did pretty good for a while and then I was joined by Todd, the sweeper, who I was somewhat familiar with through Sarah's blog. We chitchatted for a while, and I was riding well, but then I started to fade. Looking back, it's funny, because during the time thought I had missed the cutoff, I was vaguely disappointed that I would be pulled without ever seeing "the ugly place" where my legs buckled and pedaling up the smallest grade became a Herculean task. Not that I wanted to feel that way, but it just would have felt odd to be pulled off the course still feeling decent. However, to the dismay of myself and both the sweepers, "the ugly place" did come before we were off of Big Brushy and I ended up having to walk a lot, and whimper a little, too.
Once we got on the road, Todd implemented a pull me on the flats, push me up the hills, strategy that got us home much faster than I could have done on my own. When he found out that I was in the 60 mile race, he said that I owed him big time for moving the cutoff and allowing me to go down as an official finisher. By the time the ugliness hit, I wasn't so sure that I was glad that I had been allowed to go on, but he does have my eternal gratitude for helping me back and making sure I DIDN'T GET LOST this year. He even gave me an awesome lead out train for my lantern rouge winning sprint.
I'm well on my way to becoming the Wim Vansevenant of the Ouachita Challenge, so I'm now resolved to do better next year, not for myself, but for all of the volunteers who've had to sit around waiting for me two years in a row. I feel like I need to send them an extra big donation check in addition to my entry fee.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Gag Reflex
My attempt to KILL IT on my one minute intervals last night didn't go as great as I had hoped. I felt a little flat after two days off and I underestimated how hard they would feel with a mere one minute rest in between. For my Bloomington readers, I did the intervals going South through Cascades Park, since the smooth pavement and gentle upward grade would help put out my best power. Unfortunately, there were little fuzzy things falling out of the trees everywhere and a lot of my effort was wasted trying to not suck them down my throat or get them in my eyes during the hard efforts. Gross!
It was kind of funny because it seemed like the park was full of Little 500 riders going the opposite direction, presumably going for a cool-down ride after ITT's last night. I couldn't help but imagine what they were thinking as they met me grimacing, gagging, and grunting through my workout.
Overall, I still did pretty decent, but I wasn't able to produce the numbers I had hoped for a few days ago.
It was kind of funny because it seemed like the park was full of Little 500 riders going the opposite direction, presumably going for a cool-down ride after ITT's last night. I couldn't help but imagine what they were thinking as they met me grimacing, gagging, and grunting through my workout.
Overall, I still did pretty decent, but I wasn't able to produce the numbers I had hoped for a few days ago.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Extreme Taper: OC Edition
I have officially made it through the first three weeks of my training plan pretty much exactly as prescribed, although yesterday's planned 3 hour road ride turned into a 3:45 death march in lightly falling snow. My legs said enough was enough, and I just couldn't keep up a decent pace. Though technically, I think my power average was still in the assigned range (just barely) and I racked up the assigned amount of kilojoules, so I'll call it a win. Okay, I think I'll call the fact that I went outside at all a win.
As icing on the cake, yesterday marked the 21-day threshold for habit formation, although I think wrote down 100 days of no blown-off workouts as my first goal for 2009. It's a both a good goal and a silly goal at the same time. It's good because it was something I needed to improve on, but silly because it's not like it will do me much good if I decide to sit on the couch and eat ice cream for Day 101. I don't think that will happen, though.
Speaking of sitting on the couch, my three weeks of hard work have earned me one heck of a rest week leading up to the Ouachita Challenge Sunday. Days off include: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. I'm not sure if I'll know what to do with myself, but my muscle fibers need some time grow back (hopefully stronger) before the race. I'm pretty sure that there really won't be a whole lot more sitting on the couch than normal, since I will need to use a lot of the free time to catch up on the housekeeping and other miscellany than have been ignored during my training binge. Hopefully, I'll still find time to put my feet up for some book reading and movie watching before time to leave on Friday.
My one real workout this week is on Wednesday, which is 1-minute intervals, and I'm actually really excited about this one. The night before the Long Run Park road race a couple of weeks ago, I was supposed to do 4 X 45-second "openers". The instructions said "FG" (I took this to mean Full Gas), so I went out and KILLED IT and I managed to knock out some pretty impressive power readings, for me at least. It was exciting to pour it out for the first time in forever, but it was probably also a contributing factor to my crappy race the next day. So I'm looking forward to KILLING IT again on fresh-ish legs without worrying about ruining my race, as I will have three days to recover afterward. Then I should be able to show some restraint for my next set of openers on Saturday.
As icing on the cake, yesterday marked the 21-day threshold for habit formation, although I think wrote down 100 days of no blown-off workouts as my first goal for 2009. It's a both a good goal and a silly goal at the same time. It's good because it was something I needed to improve on, but silly because it's not like it will do me much good if I decide to sit on the couch and eat ice cream for Day 101. I don't think that will happen, though.
Speaking of sitting on the couch, my three weeks of hard work have earned me one heck of a rest week leading up to the Ouachita Challenge Sunday. Days off include: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. I'm not sure if I'll know what to do with myself, but my muscle fibers need some time grow back (hopefully stronger) before the race. I'm pretty sure that there really won't be a whole lot more sitting on the couch than normal, since I will need to use a lot of the free time to catch up on the housekeeping and other miscellany than have been ignored during my training binge. Hopefully, I'll still find time to put my feet up for some book reading and movie watching before time to leave on Friday.
My one real workout this week is on Wednesday, which is 1-minute intervals, and I'm actually really excited about this one. The night before the Long Run Park road race a couple of weeks ago, I was supposed to do 4 X 45-second "openers". The instructions said "FG" (I took this to mean Full Gas), so I went out and KILLED IT and I managed to knock out some pretty impressive power readings, for me at least. It was exciting to pour it out for the first time in forever, but it was probably also a contributing factor to my crappy race the next day. So I'm looking forward to KILLING IT again on fresh-ish legs without worrying about ruining my race, as I will have three days to recover afterward. Then I should be able to show some restraint for my next set of openers on Saturday.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Mofo Accomplished (Mostly)
After three days of fretting about whether my big mofo four-hour singletrack ride would happen today, it did, more or less. I spent the whole day yesterday checking the radar for Nashville, IN about every 30 minutes, as I watch two large green patches of rain go each side of Brown County State Park. Score! However, there was still rain predicted for late morning today. So I got up at 6:15 a.m. ON A SATURDAY to try and beat the rain.
I had hoped ride the paved climb up to the North Tower, ride two laps of the race loop, come down the connector trail, refill with water, and do the whole thing over; kind of like doing two DINO BCSP races back-to-back. However, I wasn't going full race pace, because I was going to be out there much longer than normal and my legs were quite tired from training this week. I didn't know if I'd be able to do that within four hours.
After two laps, I was well off-pace, partly because I had to make a bathroom stop at the top of the Aynes climb on both laps. Obviously, hydration was not a problem and I had a decent amount of water left. It started lightly sprinkling, so I decided to try and get in one more lap without stopping to refill for water. By the end of the third lap, the rain was coming down earnest and I knew it was time to get off the trail. I still had some time left, and since I've become very OCD about getting in the full workout time, I finished up on the road. I could have probably finished another beginner loop only, if it had not been raining, but I was close enough.
When I got home, I was kind of disappointed to see that I had only covered 26.1 miles of not-that-hard terrain in my four hours. I was hoping for more like 40. It's still way better than I'd done before the Ouachita Challenge last year, and I'm lucky to have been able to get in four mountain bike rides already this year. Hopefully, the speed will come soon.
I had hoped ride the paved climb up to the North Tower, ride two laps of the race loop, come down the connector trail, refill with water, and do the whole thing over; kind of like doing two DINO BCSP races back-to-back. However, I wasn't going full race pace, because I was going to be out there much longer than normal and my legs were quite tired from training this week. I didn't know if I'd be able to do that within four hours.
After two laps, I was well off-pace, partly because I had to make a bathroom stop at the top of the Aynes climb on both laps. Obviously, hydration was not a problem and I had a decent amount of water left. It started lightly sprinkling, so I decided to try and get in one more lap without stopping to refill for water. By the end of the third lap, the rain was coming down earnest and I knew it was time to get off the trail. I still had some time left, and since I've become very OCD about getting in the full workout time, I finished up on the road. I could have probably finished another beginner loop only, if it had not been raining, but I was close enough.
When I got home, I was kind of disappointed to see that I had only covered 26.1 miles of not-that-hard terrain in my four hours. I was hoping for more like 40. It's still way better than I'd done before the Ouachita Challenge last year, and I'm lucky to have been able to get in four mountain bike rides already this year. Hopefully, the speed will come soon.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
She Has Danced Into the Danger Zone
Soooooo tired.After 2.5 of the 3 relatively butt-kicking weeks of this training cycle, I'm starting to hurt. It all seemed pretty manageable as I ticked the workouts off one at a time. Now I'm in the last day of the next-to-last block. I just need to make it through the workday and a two-hour mountain bike ride tonight and then I get a day off tomorrow.
I think my real problem is that I've the far, and things are looking thunderstormy for my the big four-hour mofo singletrack ride that I had scheduled for Saturday. Then Sunday has a high in the 30's and a chance at snow. That's a three-hour road ride day.
Damn. I forgot it was still March.
I'm so close to pulling off a perfect training cycle. I WANT MY BIG MOFO SINGLETRACK RIDE!
I realize I'm getting a little too caught up in the details again, as I tend to do lately. My actual written down goal for March-June was to follow my training plan without blowing off any days. I figured I needed to get that accomplished before I could hope to achieve anything performance-wise. During my initial consultation with Jason, I all but blatantly stated that I wanted a totally easy sandbagger program for the first month, just so I could prove to myself that I could follow a plan again. The plan I actually received was anything but easy sandbagger (at least not to me), but I'm thisclose to having pulled it off, anyway.
I just need to breath, have a snack, sleep a lot the next couple nights, and take whatever Saturday's weather brings.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Overkill? Perhaps.
Training is still going well and I have reached the last hard week of the cycle before I spend next week resting (and praying) for the Ouachita Challenge. I'm scheduled for 13 hours this week, and even though I'm pretty tired from what has possibly already been my best two-week training period ever, I feel confident that I am going to sail through beautifully.My pink booties seem to be drawing attention out on the roads, and when I walk by the drying rack where I air out my cycling clothes I'm starting to see a trend. Spring must be "pink season" for me, since all my heavy winter stuff is black. Soon I will shed it all for a few months of hatless, gloveless goodness.
It looks like I will have to buck the trend soon, though, because on my mountain bike ride on Sunday, I realized that my three-year-old pink Fox Incline cross country gloves are on their last legs (or thumbs). I was looking for a new pair of the same gloves, but current choices are limited to charcoal or walnut. I finally decided to go for the walnut, since it has light blue stripes that will match my new non-pink helmet, seen in this picture from the road race a couple of weeks ago.
When I got my new job, I decided to celebrate withe purchase of of a high-end helmet. I had planned on getting a pink Giro Atmos for a while, but I really didn't like the look of the latest version and in the end I decided I wanted to ugrade to an Ionos, anyway. The Ionos doesn't come in pink, so chose the light blue and white, which look pretty good with the mostly black 2008 kits (no word on when 2009 will be available).
Friday, March 20, 2009
First Mountain Bike Ride of the Year
It seems that Indiana has a wet year/dry year pattern. Luckily, we are scheduled for a dry year this year and seems to actually be working out that way so far. I was able to get in my first mountain bike ride of the year, exactly as my FasCalendar (I like that word) stated. Last year I didn't see any singletrack until I hit the Womble during the Ouachita Challenge. I'm not sure if I will get in the remaining three singletrack sessions that I have scheduled before the OC, but things are looking good for the next one on Sunday and I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
Unfortunately, I keep forgetting to take pictures now that it is warm enough to handle a camera without the bulk of lobster gloves. My phone was buried in my hydration pack, as I don't trust jersey pockets when I'm riding off-road. Since I was only out for an hour and a half, I didn't want to stop and dig it out.
The ride went better than expected. My mountain bike mojo was low since I'd been off the trail for a few months, but it was still better than I expected. I'm pretty sure I cleaned some rock sections that I never had before. It was the routine logs and roots that I've been riding for years that messed me up. With this, it seems that I have started a tradition:
For three years in a row, on my first ride of the year at Brown County, I have managed to ram into some seemingly innocuous object, come to a stop, nose wheelie, bang the top of my quads on the handlebars and bruise them, and come back down embarrassed but more or less unscathed. Last night it involved a roughly four-inch diameter log; I'm not sure how that happened.
Unfortunately, I keep forgetting to take pictures now that it is warm enough to handle a camera without the bulk of lobster gloves. My phone was buried in my hydration pack, as I don't trust jersey pockets when I'm riding off-road. Since I was only out for an hour and a half, I didn't want to stop and dig it out.
The ride went better than expected. My mountain bike mojo was low since I'd been off the trail for a few months, but it was still better than I expected. I'm pretty sure I cleaned some rock sections that I never had before. It was the routine logs and roots that I've been riding for years that messed me up. With this, it seems that I have started a tradition:
For three years in a row, on my first ride of the year at Brown County, I have managed to ram into some seemingly innocuous object, come to a stop, nose wheelie, bang the top of my quads on the handlebars and bruise them, and come back down embarrassed but more or less unscathed. Last night it involved a roughly four-inch diameter log; I'm not sure how that happened.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Maniac
On the ice-filled line of sanity
It's a place most never see
It's a hard-won place of mystery
You can touch it but can't hold it
You work all your life for that moment in time
It can come or pass you by
It's a push of the world but there's always a chance
If the hunger stays alive
It's funny, but those were the lyrics that came to mind when I made the agonizing decision NOT to go get a muffin yesterday. Yeah, I know.
About a month ago, I hit my lifetime high weight of 137. Luckily, I realized that everything that I believed to have stood in my way during the last couple of years was either resolved or very near resolution. Like when I was offered my new job, I quickly realized that having a new job wouldn't in and of itself make me happy, but by leaving my old job, I had removed my most major excuse for not being happy. However, I still had to make the decision to get over it.
So I started riding again and quit worrying so much about whether I felt like riding or not. Then I pulled the trigger and signed up with a coach again. Then I stopped eating crappy food. Then after a couple of weeks it actually got easy to do all of these things again.
Which leads to me to the muffin. I was having a stressful morning and I just wasn't imagining the bean soup that I had brought for lunch giving me the happy shot of dopamine to the brain that I thought I needed. I craved something sweet and strongly considering going out for a muffin after I ate my soup, but after I was done with the soup I realized that I already had the blood-sugar stabilizing protein and fiber that I really needed. While I still wanted a happy shot of sugar-induced dopamine, I decided losing the 20+ pounds that I've gained over the last year and a half was more important.
What I can't understand is how I could make that decision yesterday, but not a couple of months ago when I was busy gaining those 20+ pounds. It's a hard-won place of mystery. You can touch but can't hold it.
I don't think there's a better way to describe the way that my weight has fluctuated through about five major ups and downs in the last 10 years. It really has nothing to do with which self-prescribed regimen I'm using, it's whether I "have it" at the moment or not. I just wish I knew how to keep it.
For the moment, I am rocking the first two weeks of my new training plan and I've lost about three pounds. I'm super tired, and I get hit with overwhelming hunger every couple of hours, at which time I eat 200-400 calories of something healthy and move on. I just need to remember that after months of not really needing any nutrition on the bike, that the overwhelming hunger will likely hit in the middle of the ride and I need to have some Rapidade or gel ready when it comes. Two hours with 2 x 14 minutes tempo kind of sucked last night on just water.
How far can I take it? We shall see.
Along those lines, I have decided that "She's A Maniac" will be my 2009 theme song, since that seems to be something that I like to do. There was "Livin' on a Prayer" in 2007 and "The Long Way Around" in 2008.
At first glance, choosing the song from an 80's movie training montage seems really lame. I didn't really even like the song until I heard an a capella version in the movie "Hamlet 2". Once I got the "Rock Me Sexy Jesus" song out my head (watch the movie), I started thinking about the "maniac" lyrics. There's actually some pretty good wisdom about self-efficacy in there. No overly inspirational crap about getting what you want if you work hard enough; more of a "you won't know unless you try" message. I like it.
It's a place most never see
It's a hard-won place of mystery
You can touch it but can't hold it
You work all your life for that moment in time
It can come or pass you by
It's a push of the world but there's always a chance
If the hunger stays alive
It's funny, but those were the lyrics that came to mind when I made the agonizing decision NOT to go get a muffin yesterday. Yeah, I know.
About a month ago, I hit my lifetime high weight of 137. Luckily, I realized that everything that I believed to have stood in my way during the last couple of years was either resolved or very near resolution. Like when I was offered my new job, I quickly realized that having a new job wouldn't in and of itself make me happy, but by leaving my old job, I had removed my most major excuse for not being happy. However, I still had to make the decision to get over it.
So I started riding again and quit worrying so much about whether I felt like riding or not. Then I pulled the trigger and signed up with a coach again. Then I stopped eating crappy food. Then after a couple of weeks it actually got easy to do all of these things again.
Which leads to me to the muffin. I was having a stressful morning and I just wasn't imagining the bean soup that I had brought for lunch giving me the happy shot of dopamine to the brain that I thought I needed. I craved something sweet and strongly considering going out for a muffin after I ate my soup, but after I was done with the soup I realized that I already had the blood-sugar stabilizing protein and fiber that I really needed. While I still wanted a happy shot of sugar-induced dopamine, I decided losing the 20+ pounds that I've gained over the last year and a half was more important.
What I can't understand is how I could make that decision yesterday, but not a couple of months ago when I was busy gaining those 20+ pounds. It's a hard-won place of mystery. You can touch but can't hold it.
I don't think there's a better way to describe the way that my weight has fluctuated through about five major ups and downs in the last 10 years. It really has nothing to do with which self-prescribed regimen I'm using, it's whether I "have it" at the moment or not. I just wish I knew how to keep it.
For the moment, I am rocking the first two weeks of my new training plan and I've lost about three pounds. I'm super tired, and I get hit with overwhelming hunger every couple of hours, at which time I eat 200-400 calories of something healthy and move on. I just need to remember that after months of not really needing any nutrition on the bike, that the overwhelming hunger will likely hit in the middle of the ride and I need to have some Rapidade or gel ready when it comes. Two hours with 2 x 14 minutes tempo kind of sucked last night on just water.
How far can I take it? We shall see.
Along those lines, I have decided that "She's A Maniac" will be my 2009 theme song, since that seems to be something that I like to do. There was "Livin' on a Prayer" in 2007 and "The Long Way Around" in 2008.
At first glance, choosing the song from an 80's movie training montage seems really lame. I didn't really even like the song until I heard an a capella version in the movie "Hamlet 2". Once I got the "Rock Me Sexy Jesus" song out my head (watch the movie), I started thinking about the "maniac" lyrics. There's actually some pretty good wisdom about self-efficacy in there. No overly inspirational crap about getting what you want if you work hard enough; more of a "you won't know unless you try" message. I like it.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Famous Last Words
As for myself, I'm doing everything I can to not need an excuse for tomorrow (crashes and mechanicals be damned). I've spent the whole week trying to hone my "Eye of the Tiger". - Me, Three Days Ago
I had this great plan to show up two hours before the race start, get checked in, dress in a calm and relaxed manner, do a thorough warm-up on the trainer, inspect the course, and start the race ready to fight harder than I'm normally used to doing. So here's a rundown of Saturday's race for which I thought I was so well prepared:
1) Late start from Columbus
2) Had to stop for gas, because I hadn't expected to drive the rest of the way to Louisville (my fault)
3) Got semi-lost or at least took a very inefficient route (semi-my fault for trusting the directions on the race flyer rather than taking it to MapQuest.)
4) Pouring rain made for slow moving a high stress level once I knew we were semi-lost (rain, not my fault; stress level, kind of my fault).
5) Arrived at race venue 45 minutes before race, 1:15 later than planned.
6) Freaked the hell out because I had to tried so hard to actually properly prepare for a race for the first time in probably two years
7) Got dressed
8) No warm-up except for one easy lap of the course, which was really just inspection rather than warm-up.
9) Started race, but due to the wet conditions I was afraid to bury myself in the middle of the pack as I had been instructed to do.
10) Got dropped on first hill.
11) Spent about a lap and a half beating myself up for everything that had happened so far that morning and my inability to handle it.
12) Told myself to HTFU and chase down the girl 100 meters down the road.
13) Looked up and saw there was no longer a girl in sight (not sure if she sped up or dropped out), but it left me with no choice but to time trial it out to the end
14) My chain broke off right before the end of the fifth lap. I had been on pace for six laps, but while I was walking up the last hill, the leaders finished and I was recorded as finishing with five laps, rather than a DNF.
So my "no excuses" race place dissolved into nothing but. I think that's why I had my pre-race freakout, because last year was nothing but lame-ass excuses. I wanted to actually put my heart into a race for once, even if it wasn't an "A" race. I guess that Saturday's race had become way too symbolic for me. I'm just so freaking tired of things getting messed up all the time, and as much as it happens, I feel like it must be my fault on an unconscious level.
On a side note, racing with a power meter adds a nice measure of objectivity at least. I was able to go home and see that, yes, my numbers were pretty weak compared to my training last week. It is comforting in the sense that I know the crappy race was in fact me actually riding badly rather than riding well and still falling behind. However, a bad day is a bad day and it's important that I figure out a way to do better next time.
I had this great plan to show up two hours before the race start, get checked in, dress in a calm and relaxed manner, do a thorough warm-up on the trainer, inspect the course, and start the race ready to fight harder than I'm normally used to doing. So here's a rundown of Saturday's race for which I thought I was so well prepared:
1) Late start from Columbus
2) Had to stop for gas, because I hadn't expected to drive the rest of the way to Louisville (my fault)
3) Got semi-lost or at least took a very inefficient route (semi-my fault for trusting the directions on the race flyer rather than taking it to MapQuest.)
4) Pouring rain made for slow moving a high stress level once I knew we were semi-lost (rain, not my fault; stress level, kind of my fault).
5) Arrived at race venue 45 minutes before race, 1:15 later than planned.
6) Freaked the hell out because I had to tried so hard to actually properly prepare for a race for the first time in probably two years
7) Got dressed
8) No warm-up except for one easy lap of the course, which was really just inspection rather than warm-up.
9) Started race, but due to the wet conditions I was afraid to bury myself in the middle of the pack as I had been instructed to do.
10) Got dropped on first hill.
11) Spent about a lap and a half beating myself up for everything that had happened so far that morning and my inability to handle it.
12) Told myself to HTFU and chase down the girl 100 meters down the road.
13) Looked up and saw there was no longer a girl in sight (not sure if she sped up or dropped out), but it left me with no choice but to time trial it out to the end
14) My chain broke off right before the end of the fifth lap. I had been on pace for six laps, but while I was walking up the last hill, the leaders finished and I was recorded as finishing with five laps, rather than a DNF.
So my "no excuses" race place dissolved into nothing but. I think that's why I had my pre-race freakout, because last year was nothing but lame-ass excuses. I wanted to actually put my heart into a race for once, even if it wasn't an "A" race. I guess that Saturday's race had become way too symbolic for me. I'm just so freaking tired of things getting messed up all the time, and as much as it happens, I feel like it must be my fault on an unconscious level.
On a side note, racing with a power meter adds a nice measure of objectivity at least. I was able to go home and see that, yes, my numbers were pretty weak compared to my training last week. It is comforting in the sense that I know the crappy race was in fact me actually riding badly rather than riding well and still falling behind. However, a bad day is a bad day and it's important that I figure out a way to do better next time.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Excuses, Excuses
http://www.warriorssociety.org/events/2009_vq_results.php
I thought this results page was funny. It contains a comment field with notable mechicals and injuries. Don't you wish all races did that?
As for myself, I'm doing everything I can to not need an excuse for tomorrow (crashes and mechanicals be damned). I've spent the whole week trying to hone my "Eye of the Tiger".
I read the following passage of this article a few weeks ago and it really stuck with me.
MiMBR: For those people reading this who are just starting out or who want to race, what advice would you give them?
DM: The important thing is to be easy on yourself. That’s something I tend to not be. If you go into a race and you’re constantly putting yourself down, then it’s not very much fun and you set limits within your own mind.
MiMBR: And you tend to live up to them.
DM: Yeah, exactly. That was the biggest mistake I ever made and to this day I still regret it. I did this race in Massachusetts and there was this other woman there. It was when I was still new to racing and I was just like “she’s going to beat me, she’s going to beat me.” And I was always just 15 minutes behind her and I never even really tried to push harder because I just thought I couldn’t.
Even though I'm no underwear-under-my-chamois-wearing newbie (earlier in the article), I think I would do well to heed this advise. I think I've always had a disconnect between I'm physically capable of and what I believe myself to be physically capable of. My college track/xc coach mentioned on more than one occasion that I did not look sufficiently spent after practice. It's not that I was consciously sandbagging, but maybe I just had another gear that I didn't realize I had. The only problem with trying to push past the pain and find the other gear is that it makes you even more conscious of the pain. That fact alone usually breaks me.
Maybe this is my true weakness. Perhaps what I believe to be my well below average level of physical talent is actually a well below average level of mental toughness and/or self-efficacy. I really want to use tomorrow's race as an opportunity to try and test my boundaries this area.
After all, I am technically undefeated on the road, so I should to focus on the fact that anything is possible and not create mental boxes how I should stack up against the field.
I thought this results page was funny. It contains a comment field with notable mechicals and injuries. Don't you wish all races did that?
As for myself, I'm doing everything I can to not need an excuse for tomorrow (crashes and mechanicals be damned). I've spent the whole week trying to hone my "Eye of the Tiger".
I read the following passage of this article a few weeks ago and it really stuck with me.
MiMBR: For those people reading this who are just starting out or who want to race, what advice would you give them?
DM: The important thing is to be easy on yourself. That’s something I tend to not be. If you go into a race and you’re constantly putting yourself down, then it’s not very much fun and you set limits within your own mind.
MiMBR: And you tend to live up to them.
DM: Yeah, exactly. That was the biggest mistake I ever made and to this day I still regret it. I did this race in Massachusetts and there was this other woman there. It was when I was still new to racing and I was just like “she’s going to beat me, she’s going to beat me.” And I was always just 15 minutes behind her and I never even really tried to push harder because I just thought I couldn’t.
Even though I'm no underwear-under-my-chamois-wearing newbie (earlier in the article), I think I would do well to heed this advise. I think I've always had a disconnect between I'm physically capable of and what I believe myself to be physically capable of. My college track/xc coach mentioned on more than one occasion that I did not look sufficiently spent after practice. It's not that I was consciously sandbagging, but maybe I just had another gear that I didn't realize I had. The only problem with trying to push past the pain and find the other gear is that it makes you even more conscious of the pain. That fact alone usually breaks me.
Maybe this is my true weakness. Perhaps what I believe to be my well below average level of physical talent is actually a well below average level of mental toughness and/or self-efficacy. I really want to use tomorrow's race as an opportunity to try and test my boundaries this area.
After all, I am technically undefeated on the road, so I should to focus on the fact that anything is possible and not create mental boxes how I should stack up against the field.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
The Gloves Are Off
It's interesting that I thought up this title during my *gasp* 70+ degree ride yesterday, where I amazingly rode with no gloves whatsoever for the first time in probably six months. It's probably even more befitting of today's events, though the temperature has dropped 40 degrees.
I'm a little weirded out, because for the second time this week, my blog-browsing netted some shocking material. I was reading this post and I realized that I am the way-back competitor referenced in the second paragraph. I don't understand the "rivalry" part.
Okay, so the reason I was reading in the first place was to see if the girl was doing the circuit race in Louisville this weekend, so maybe there is a little rivalry. However, it's my first road race ever and I not planning on "rivaling" anyone. If I can hang with the main pack the whole race and manage some semblance of a sprint at the end, I will be thrilled. It will be interesting to see how I fare against girls who I have only raced against in 'cross. Things might pan out differently without the annoying factor of grass and a lighter bike that actually fits me.
~~
As for my ride yesterday, it was really good; so good that I kept forgetting to take a picture of my ungloved hands and pasty-pale shorts-clad legs to post. I'm sure everyone's dissapointed to miss that spectacle.
It was the first without on my new "FasCalendar", and I did 3X9 minutes Sweet Spot, which is harder than tempo and easier than threshold. It went really well, and I'm pretty optimistic looking over the next four weeks' workouts. There is even a 13-hour week on the schedule in a couple of weeks and the sight of it doesn't scare the crap out of me. A year ago it would have, so that's a good sign.
I'm a little weirded out, because for the second time this week, my blog-browsing netted some shocking material. I was reading this post and I realized that I am the way-back competitor referenced in the second paragraph. I don't understand the "rivalry" part.
Okay, so the reason I was reading in the first place was to see if the girl was doing the circuit race in Louisville this weekend, so maybe there is a little rivalry. However, it's my first road race ever and I not planning on "rivaling" anyone. If I can hang with the main pack the whole race and manage some semblance of a sprint at the end, I will be thrilled. It will be interesting to see how I fare against girls who I have only raced against in 'cross. Things might pan out differently without the annoying factor of grass and a lighter bike that actually fits me.
~~
As for my ride yesterday, it was really good; so good that I kept forgetting to take a picture of my ungloved hands and pasty-pale shorts-clad legs to post. I'm sure everyone's dissapointed to miss that spectacle.
It was the first without on my new "FasCalendar", and I did 3X9 minutes Sweet Spot, which is harder than tempo and easier than threshold. It went really well, and I'm pretty optimistic looking over the next four weeks' workouts. There is even a 13-hour week on the schedule in a couple of weeks and the sight of it doesn't scare the crap out of me. A year ago it would have, so that's a good sign.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Seriously Disturbing
During my usual Monday blog-browsing, I came upon this post and sparked a traumatic memory from the weekend.
I just got back from a quick three-day trip back to Oklahoma for my grandma's 80th birthday. As part of the festivities, all of her children, grandchildren, etc. were supposed to submit a memory for a "memory book" that my aunt was creating for the party. I had a really hard time thinking of a good one besides that one that I used for her and my grandma's 50th anniversary video, and reusing it felt like cheating. So I sent off something short and lame, only to find upon inspection of said memory book, that several of my cousins had skipped their memory submission completely. However, when we attended the "after party" with several visiting relatives from California at her house, I gathered some solid material for her 90th birthday.
We were all sitting around having some "Owl Wine" , as she called it, and telling stories, and the subject of pesky wildlife came up. My mom mentioned that she had trapped a raccoon that had been killing some of her ducks, but didn't have the heart to shoot it, so she just drove it several miles from her house and let it go. That lead to my grandma telling about a recent bout of killing squirrels (as she tends to do) and the rest of the story went as such:
So then I looked up in a tree and there was this tiny little baby raccoon. It was the cutest little thing you'd ever see. Then I shot it....
Ew. I think I'm scarred for life.
I just got back from a quick three-day trip back to Oklahoma for my grandma's 80th birthday. As part of the festivities, all of her children, grandchildren, etc. were supposed to submit a memory for a "memory book" that my aunt was creating for the party. I had a really hard time thinking of a good one besides that one that I used for her and my grandma's 50th anniversary video, and reusing it felt like cheating. So I sent off something short and lame, only to find upon inspection of said memory book, that several of my cousins had skipped their memory submission completely. However, when we attended the "after party" with several visiting relatives from California at her house, I gathered some solid material for her 90th birthday.
We were all sitting around having some "Owl Wine" , as she called it, and telling stories, and the subject of pesky wildlife came up. My mom mentioned that she had trapped a raccoon that had been killing some of her ducks, but didn't have the heart to shoot it, so she just drove it several miles from her house and let it go. That lead to my grandma telling about a recent bout of killing squirrels (as she tends to do) and the rest of the story went as such:
So then I looked up in a tree and there was this tiny little baby raccoon. It was the cutest little thing you'd ever see. Then I shot it....
Ew. I think I'm scarred for life.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Back to Fight Another Day
I'm fighting the urge to cheat on my lunch again, but it looks like I'm going to pull through.
Would you want to eat this?
Monday, March 2, 2009
My Cheatin' Lunch
Okay, so this picture kind of refutes the point of this post, but I was mulling all this over while heating and eating said dish and I decided I needed a picture a little too late.
On Friday I mentioned that I had gone five days with no junkfood. I actually made it six and a half, pausing only for a "reward meal" of BBQ and waffle fries after viewing the NAHBS yesterday. Afterwards, I went straight home and prepared Thai-style tofu/veggie curry to bring for my lunches this week (sort of pictured above) and I'm back on track.
Lately it seems that my Sunday night lunch preparation is the key to my success or lack thereof. The first three weeks that I was at my new job, I probably went out for lunch all but two or three days, which is never a good sign for healthy eating. Part of it was trying self-medicate my new-job anxiety with comfort foods from the Bloomington Bagel Company, but part of it was that I either slacked on preparing food for weekday lunches or what I made didn't sound appetizing. I found myself cheating on my lunch a lot.
Finding a solution what part "suck it up" and part finding a lunch I could love enough to stay true to. I had to compromise a bit last week when I made Smoked Turkey Shepard's Pie, which was delicious, but is probably the most sour-cream and butter laden dish in my cooking repertoire. However, since I prepared it myself, at least I knew how much butter and sour cream were actually in it (less than Rachel Ray's original recipe), while I have no idea about the actual contents of restaurant food. On the positive side, it was also pretty heavy on the veggies and lean protein and gave me some inspiration to get back in the habit of "running what I brung" as far as my daytime food consumption. (Let's face it, going out for lunch a lot is even worse for my budget than it is for my waistline.)
So this week it was hard to find a follow-up to the Smoked Turkey Shepard's Pie, but I hadn't had the tofu/veggie curry in a while and it is easy to make. However, I was still kind of dreading my lackluster lunch today, but as you can see, I finished it all with no desire to top to it off with a cookie or anything. I've got to remember to bring a salt shaker for work, though.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Mini Blogs
I haven't updated my blog in eleven days
I don't have much to do
And I haven't had much to say
That's an excerpt from my new country song that I'm writing. Just kidding. I'm only good at parodying songs that other people have written.
I actually have several things to say, but they are all kind of short and sweet, so I've composed a series of mini posts.
~~~
I have a new coach.
I actually decided several months ago that I would probably choose Jason Hilimire of FasCat Coaching when I was ready to be coached again, because I was very impressed with everything that Sarah had written him. With the "who" question answered, it was then a question of when. Within the last month I've ditched my old job, it's gotten really close to daylight savings time, and I'm now friggin' rich. Okay, I'm not friggin' rich, but I got my first "new and improved" paycheck today and I have no complaints. So with all those factors in place, I'm really low on excuses not to get in shape again and a new coach was the last kick in the pants that I needed.
My official "plan" doesn't start until March 9th, because Adam and I are flying to Oklahoma next weekend for my grandma's 80th birthday party and I didn't want to start out with a three-day bikeless period in my first week. However, just knowing that "it's on" again has really helped get me going on my little after-work rides.
I've even been junk food free for five days now...
~~~
Along those lines, I am pondering idea of trying out a road race.
I've always been resistant to the idea of road racing, as riding around in a pack with strangers for two hours and then sprinting at the end seemed lame. Also, most of the road races around here throw all women of all abilities into one category, which is a little intimidating.
As for crits, they just seemed too dang dangerous. However, I volunteered at the Bloomington Criterium last summer and after watching the women's race, I was suddenly less intimidated. I decided that if the right crit/circuit race came along this year, I might give it a try.
Then I got an email about this race yesterday and I kind of latched on to the idea. Forty minutes on a 1.5 mile loop seems doable and they have a separate race for Cat. 4 women. I checked with my partner in bike-racing crime, Chrysa, and she said it was a good chance to try out her new road wheels, so I won't have to go it alone.
~~~
Finally, the North American Handmade Bicycle Show is in Indianapolis this weekend, and hopefully I will get to go check it out on Sunday. I love looking at the pictures from the show every year, so maybe this year I will be able to take some of my own.
I don't have much to do
And I haven't had much to say
That's an excerpt from my new country song that I'm writing. Just kidding. I'm only good at parodying songs that other people have written.
I actually have several things to say, but they are all kind of short and sweet, so I've composed a series of mini posts.
~~~
I have a new coach.
I actually decided several months ago that I would probably choose Jason Hilimire of FasCat Coaching when I was ready to be coached again, because I was very impressed with everything that Sarah had written him. With the "who" question answered, it was then a question of when. Within the last month I've ditched my old job, it's gotten really close to daylight savings time, and I'm now friggin' rich. Okay, I'm not friggin' rich, but I got my first "new and improved" paycheck today and I have no complaints. So with all those factors in place, I'm really low on excuses not to get in shape again and a new coach was the last kick in the pants that I needed.
My official "plan" doesn't start until March 9th, because Adam and I are flying to Oklahoma next weekend for my grandma's 80th birthday party and I didn't want to start out with a three-day bikeless period in my first week. However, just knowing that "it's on" again has really helped get me going on my little after-work rides.
I've even been junk food free for five days now...
~~~
Along those lines, I am pondering idea of trying out a road race.
I've always been resistant to the idea of road racing, as riding around in a pack with strangers for two hours and then sprinting at the end seemed lame. Also, most of the road races around here throw all women of all abilities into one category, which is a little intimidating.
As for crits, they just seemed too dang dangerous. However, I volunteered at the Bloomington Criterium last summer and after watching the women's race, I was suddenly less intimidated. I decided that if the right crit/circuit race came along this year, I might give it a try.
Then I got an email about this race yesterday and I kind of latched on to the idea. Forty minutes on a 1.5 mile loop seems doable and they have a separate race for Cat. 4 women. I checked with my partner in bike-racing crime, Chrysa, and she said it was a good chance to try out her new road wheels, so I won't have to go it alone.
~~~
Finally, the North American Handmade Bicycle Show is in Indianapolis this weekend, and hopefully I will get to go check it out on Sunday. I love looking at the pictures from the show every year, so maybe this year I will be able to take some of my own.
This "Fairy Bike" from Rue Sports was one of my past favorites. However, I'm afraid that it's way too pretty to actually ride.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Pretty Pink Gloves
This was my Valentine's Day present from Adam: pretty pink Defeet gloves to go with my pretty pink Defeet booties. He's had a pair of these for a couple of years and really likes them, but I haven't tried mine out yet since the temperature dropped back to normal February level a few days ago and I think they will be 45-60 degree gloves for me. Yeah, I know. "Normal" people probably don't need 60 degree gloves, but my fingers are the last body part to see daylight in the spring (okay, well, of the body parts that EVER see daylight).
Nothing too exciting riding-wise. I experimenting with hard-ish riding a bit now, with about a 10 minute threshold effort on Friday and a 30-40 minute tempo effort yesterday. These are by no means formal. I just figure it's time to move beyond just pedaling around, so I'll tell myself "ride this effort from here to here" on one of my standard loops.
Yesterday, I tried to keep my cadence a lot higher than normal during my tempo effort, since the other day I noticed that I can produce a lot more watts for the same rate of perceived exertion if I pedal faster rather than shifting to a harder gear. However, I'm not used to spinning and while it's easier on major cycling muscles, it's definitely made me tight/sore in a lot of the smaller muscles that don't get used as much at lower cadences. For some reason my back and shoulders are really sore today, and my already uncomfortable desk chair is exacerbating the problem.
I'm plan to ask for a chair upgrade eventually, but I haven't worked up the nerve yet. I wish I could have brought my chair from my old job. Old Chair + New Job would be perfect.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Riding, Not Hiding
Considering my lack of decent blog material lately, one would think that I would jump at the chance to write up a race report, if material were available for one. The opportunity came on Sunday when I participated in the latest edition Bloomington Underground Cyclocross Series. This is not something I normally do for various reasons, not limited to the fact that past attempts have left me feeling like I was infringing on Adam's "man-time" by tagging along and forcing him to babysit the slow chick. Also, I'm usually well over the urge to even look at my cyclocross bike by the time the official season ends.
However, I have definitely had a more than sufficient break this winter and since I'm pursuing the lofty goal of simply getting my butt back in the saddle on a most-of-the-time basis, circumstances aligned favorably for my participation in Sunday's "race". The circumstances were basically that Adam and I had made plans to go to brunch after the race and I figured I should hedge my bets by riding before the gorging, rather than delude myself into thinking I would do it after. I also concluded that things would work out best if Adam and I were on the same schedule for the morning and he was actually in favor of my tagging along, so I decided to 'cross it up.
Basically, the whole course was a combination of standing water and slop that made pedaling extremely hard, even in my easiest gear. On the warm-up lap, I chose a bad line and got so bogged down that my bike came to a complete stop and I had to put my foot down in a puddle to keep from falling over. Since I was the only girl there and was really just trying to get in token saddle time, I only went as hard as the terrain dictated, but that was still hard enough to leave my butt sore the last couple of days.
So why did it take me two days to post rare winter blog material? Because I've actually been able to ride outside five days in a row and I've been too tired to blog in the evening. Woo-hoo! Of course, three of those days were 45-50 minute sneak-it-in-before-dark weekday rides, but that's still doing pretty good for February. Tomorrow is supposed to be thunderstorms, but things are looking good for short after work rides on Thursday and Friday.
I'm trying not to be so overly optimistic as to think that it will be all smooth sailing up to the beginning of DST, but things are looking good for the time being. I will not, however, make the mistake that I made last year by swearing off indoor riding too early.
However, I have definitely had a more than sufficient break this winter and since I'm pursuing the lofty goal of simply getting my butt back in the saddle on a most-of-the-time basis, circumstances aligned favorably for my participation in Sunday's "race". The circumstances were basically that Adam and I had made plans to go to brunch after the race and I figured I should hedge my bets by riding before the gorging, rather than delude myself into thinking I would do it after. I also concluded that things would work out best if Adam and I were on the same schedule for the morning and he was actually in favor of my tagging along, so I decided to 'cross it up.
Basically, the whole course was a combination of standing water and slop that made pedaling extremely hard, even in my easiest gear. On the warm-up lap, I chose a bad line and got so bogged down that my bike came to a complete stop and I had to put my foot down in a puddle to keep from falling over. Since I was the only girl there and was really just trying to get in token saddle time, I only went as hard as the terrain dictated, but that was still hard enough to leave my butt sore the last couple of days.
So why did it take me two days to post rare winter blog material? Because I've actually been able to ride outside five days in a row and I've been too tired to blog in the evening. Woo-hoo! Of course, three of those days were 45-50 minute sneak-it-in-before-dark weekday rides, but that's still doing pretty good for February. Tomorrow is supposed to be thunderstorms, but things are looking good for short after work rides on Thursday and Friday.
I'm trying not to be so overly optimistic as to think that it will be all smooth sailing up to the beginning of DST, but things are looking good for the time being. I will not, however, make the mistake that I made last year by swearing off indoor riding too early.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Pretty Pink Booties
The weather has been warming up (at least temporarily) and the last couple of days have been in the 50's. Now the snow is finally melting, which is good, but it's flooding the streets in its departure. Yesterday was the first day of the year where I thought, "The days are getting longer, it's sunny, it's not too cold, and if I hurry home straight from work, I can sneak in an hour of outside riding before dark." That's always my favorite day of the year, although full-time outdoor riding on weekdays is still not guaranteed for another four weeks. At least it's a nice reminder that spring is (relatively) right around the corner.
Yesterday, I rode in knickers, long-sleeved wool base layer, long-sleeved jersey, mid-weight gloves, and wool socks. I was okay for the 50 minutes I was outside, but the temperature was dropping rapidly as it was nearing sunset. I've mentioned my cold hands and feet before, and it's been a little weird for me in the upper 40's, low 50's range, because while wool socks alone don't really cut it, I feel stupid wearing my heavy "Napoleon Dynamite" neoprene shoe covers when it's over 40. So today I purchased a pair of Defeet Slipstream booties to wear in the in-between temperatures.
They are pretty much like socks that you wear over your shoes, but the material keeps wind and rain out pretty well. They did the trick today, since the temperature was about the same as yesterday and my feet were perfect the whole time. The only bad thing is that the women's model adheres to the "pink it and shrink it" guideline perfectly, so guess what color was available in my size? As many of you may have noticed, I generally have no issue with pink cycling accessories, but for this particular product, the choice seemed a little impractical. The type of weather for which these booties were intended tends to come with a lot of muddy spray coming up off of the road, at least in the late winter and spring. So while they were very pretty when I started my ride, they were not so pretty when I was done. It's hard to tell how dirty they really were from the picture. I washed them afterward and they got clean-ish, but they were definitely not restored to mint condition.
~~
The first week at my new job went well. The work is interesting, the pay is good, and I more or less have my own office and a semi-private bathroom. I guess the building is old dorm suites, because there is a full bathroom with a shower and everything between each pair of offices. It's nice having it so close, but there is a door on each side that must be locked before proceeding and unlocked when leaving, so I feel like my restroom habits are on display for the co-worker on the other side of the suite. The reason that I more-or-less have my own office is because there is a work-station set up for another team member who works at the Indianapolis campus most of the time, so we only share on the days she works in Bloomington. For the time being, that is only once a month. Having a whole room with four walls and a door all to myself most of the time is an extreme luxury after 2.5 years in cubicle land.
Monday, February 2, 2009
In Case You Were Wondering
Today was the first day at my new job and it went pretty well as far as first days go. That means that, like most jobs, I spent most of my first day watching other people do stuff and didn't really do much on my own. However, I think I get to do some stuff on my own tomorrow and every day it will get better until I'm working independently. After that, I think I will be very happy.
I'm happy now, too, but in a more over-stimulated mentally exhausting way. I'm still overwhelmed by the novelty of everything. I will soon be doing magical systems things that I heard about at my old job, but never really understood what they were. That's pretty cool.
I'm happy now, too, but in a more over-stimulated mentally exhausting way. I'm still overwhelmed by the novelty of everything. I will soon be doing magical systems things that I heard about at my old job, but never really understood what they were. That's pretty cool.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
How Does Your Garden Grow?
This was mine just a few short days ago. We got the biggest snow we've had in about three years this week, and it was even big enough to shut down the university on Wednesday. That was kind of nice, because it helped make my last week at my old job a little shorter. Even though I was happy to be leaving, I've been very anxious and irritable since I put in my notice.
Hopefully, the anxiety will fade when I officially start my new job tomorrow. I already got to see my office on Friday when I took my box of stuff over, but I was so distracted that I forgot to check out the view from my new window. It should be pretty good though, because I'm on the sixth floor and I'm on the side of the building that faces campus and downtown.
As for the snow, we've had a couple of sunny days and it got up to nearly 50 today, so the roads were fine and I got a much needed sunny day outside ride. Since those are so few and far between this time of year, I'm always amazed at how great it feels to ride in sunlight and not-too-cold weather. I just need to keep up that level of appreciation when April and May roll around.
Monday, January 26, 2009
For Lack of Something Better to Say
It's funny how my blog-ability has dropped since I swore off declarations of Big Plans. I'm still conjuring up Big Plans in my head, but at least I'm keeping them to myself. I'm trying to break myself of the habit by breathing deeply and telling myself to focus on the task at hand. Plans are a good thing; Big Plans are a messy way to give myself a false sense of contol. Must learn patience...
I read this article this morning. I think it holds some good advice regarding Big Plans.
I also just came across this article, as well. I think it might possibly be the most awesome promotion ever hatched by a bike company. However, couldn't they ditch the cheerleaders (lame-o) and spend extra money on a "Sparkly Pink Bike Series" for the ladies?
Yeah...
I'm not sure how having cheerleaders is sexist but assuming all women want sparkly pink bikes is not. However, I'm sure if you gave any up-and-coming racer a free bike, pro race support, and paid his/her travel expenses, it would not matter what color the bike was.
I read this article this morning. I think it holds some good advice regarding Big Plans.
I also just came across this article, as well. I think it might possibly be the most awesome promotion ever hatched by a bike company. However, couldn't they ditch the cheerleaders (lame-o) and spend extra money on a "Sparkly Pink Bike Series" for the ladies?
Yeah...
I'm not sure how having cheerleaders is sexist but assuming all women want sparkly pink bikes is not. However, I'm sure if you gave any up-and-coming racer a free bike, pro race support, and paid his/her travel expenses, it would not matter what color the bike was.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
No Drama Rodkey = Boring Blog
After my big announcement on Tuesday, I've had surprisingly little to say. The fact of the matter is that my daily routine will stay pretty much the same until February 2nd, but my perspective about it has changed a lot already.
A couple of days ago, I saw a reference to "No Drama Obama" and it made me think. It wasn't the first time I'd seen or heard this nickname, but it really resonated with me on that occasion. I realized that my new job is a great opportunity to become No Drama Rodkey. Sure it doesn't rhyme, but what really rhymes with Rodkey?
There are several reasons for this. The most obvious is that I can stop applying for jobs for the first time in four years. Yes, I've pretty much been looking the whole time, because no matter what happened, I always felt like I was behind where I "should" be. I finally feel like I am exactly where I "should" be in regard to 90% of my life.
I guess that means that cycling is less important to me than I thought (<10%), because I'm sort of okay with the fact that it is the only area of my life that is not in place now. However, I figure that with everything else in place, it will fall into place, too.
It's funny because all the times that something didn't go the the way I wanted and someone said, "It will all work out for the best", I thought it was so trite and patronizing. However, as I've reflected on the past couple of years, I've come to the conclusion that *gasp*, things have worked out for the best. The new job that I ended up with is way better than all the other jobs for which I was turned down in the last two years. Also, I'm really happy that we bought our house two years ago when we could barely afford it, because now that we have more money, we get to spend on fun stuff instead of a big mortgage. It was hard finding something decent in our price range then, but it's a perfectly good house and I'm glad we didn't spend more.
I still don't plan on telling any distressed people that "it will all work out for the best" anytime soon.
The other part of the "no drama" equation is something that I've been thinking about for a while but I haven't been able to carry out the way I wanted. Adam and I were discussing when people have "epiphanies", which was his term for when people get big ideas about training, racing, vegetarianism, etc., but don't carry them out. I agreed with him that it was annoying, although I'll admit I'm one of the world's worst offenders in this category. When I started this blog, I wanted it to consist of rousing reports of my racing adventures and my training experience of what works and what doesn't. Unfortunately, it's mostly turned into Lindsay's Big Plans and the Excuses Why They Didn't Work Out. So I'm going to try to cut down on my "epiphanies" or at least try to keep them to myself more, although the blather above sort of falls into that category.
The only problem is that I'm not sure what I'll write in mid-winter about with no races to report and no more Big Plans, but I'm sure I'll figure something out. Maybe I can start taking more pictures once lobster glove season is over.
A couple of days ago, I saw a reference to "No Drama Obama" and it made me think. It wasn't the first time I'd seen or heard this nickname, but it really resonated with me on that occasion. I realized that my new job is a great opportunity to become No Drama Rodkey. Sure it doesn't rhyme, but what really rhymes with Rodkey?
There are several reasons for this. The most obvious is that I can stop applying for jobs for the first time in four years. Yes, I've pretty much been looking the whole time, because no matter what happened, I always felt like I was behind where I "should" be. I finally feel like I am exactly where I "should" be in regard to 90% of my life.
I guess that means that cycling is less important to me than I thought (<10%), because I'm sort of okay with the fact that it is the only area of my life that is not in place now. However, I figure that with everything else in place, it will fall into place, too.
It's funny because all the times that something didn't go the the way I wanted and someone said, "It will all work out for the best", I thought it was so trite and patronizing. However, as I've reflected on the past couple of years, I've come to the conclusion that *gasp*, things have worked out for the best. The new job that I ended up with is way better than all the other jobs for which I was turned down in the last two years. Also, I'm really happy that we bought our house two years ago when we could barely afford it, because now that we have more money, we get to spend on fun stuff instead of a big mortgage. It was hard finding something decent in our price range then, but it's a perfectly good house and I'm glad we didn't spend more.
I still don't plan on telling any distressed people that "it will all work out for the best" anytime soon.
The other part of the "no drama" equation is something that I've been thinking about for a while but I haven't been able to carry out the way I wanted. Adam and I were discussing when people have "epiphanies", which was his term for when people get big ideas about training, racing, vegetarianism, etc., but don't carry them out. I agreed with him that it was annoying, although I'll admit I'm one of the world's worst offenders in this category. When I started this blog, I wanted it to consist of rousing reports of my racing adventures and my training experience of what works and what doesn't. Unfortunately, it's mostly turned into Lindsay's Big Plans and the Excuses Why They Didn't Work Out. So I'm going to try to cut down on my "epiphanies" or at least try to keep them to myself more, although the blather above sort of falls into that category.
The only problem is that I'm not sure what I'll write in mid-winter about with no races to report and no more Big Plans, but I'm sure I'll figure something out. Maybe I can start taking more pictures once lobster glove season is over.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Saturday, January 10, 2009
M.I.A.
I haven't had a lot to say this week, because last Monday I tried to get back into my plyo routine. This was the first time since I tried it in the snow back in December. I was able to put out a much better effort when I didn't have to worry about slipping on the ice. I also added some Olympic lift action afterward.
It's kind of funny, because I did 3 sets of 3 clean-n-jerk. The first two sets I just used a broom handle to get my form back since I hadn't done it several months. On the last set, I only used a ~20 pound weighted bar like might be used in an aerobics class. Nevertheless, somewhere between the plyos and the lifts, I completely trashed my body. I was so sore I couldn't walk down stairs normally until yesterday, and my abs and triceps were still somewhat sore when I woke up this morning. Crunches are a joke; explosive jumping around appears to be a much better ab workout.
~~
My experiment for the coming week (considering I don't do myself in on Monday again), is to see how I like listening to an audiobook while riding rollers. A couple of months ago, a friend/mentor from work found out that I was Harry Potter illiterate and lent me the first book of the series in CD form, so that I could listen to it on my drive to Oklahoma. When I got back I realized that I'm really over my two-year-old indoor training soundtrack and thought I'd try listening to the second book over the next few workouts. I even had the sweet blog title: "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of the Bike Dungeon" picked out to post after last Tuesday's ride. Unfortunately, I only got about 20 minutes in because my balance was absolute crap (presumably from fatigue) and I kept falling off. Hopefully, things will go better this coming Tuesday.
It's kind of funny, because I did 3 sets of 3 clean-n-jerk. The first two sets I just used a broom handle to get my form back since I hadn't done it several months. On the last set, I only used a ~20 pound weighted bar like might be used in an aerobics class. Nevertheless, somewhere between the plyos and the lifts, I completely trashed my body. I was so sore I couldn't walk down stairs normally until yesterday, and my abs and triceps were still somewhat sore when I woke up this morning. Crunches are a joke; explosive jumping around appears to be a much better ab workout.
~~
My experiment for the coming week (considering I don't do myself in on Monday again), is to see how I like listening to an audiobook while riding rollers. A couple of months ago, a friend/mentor from work found out that I was Harry Potter illiterate and lent me the first book of the series in CD form, so that I could listen to it on my drive to Oklahoma. When I got back I realized that I'm really over my two-year-old indoor training soundtrack and thought I'd try listening to the second book over the next few workouts. I even had the sweet blog title: "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of the Bike Dungeon" picked out to post after last Tuesday's ride. Unfortunately, I only got about 20 minutes in because my balance was absolute crap (presumably from fatigue) and I kept falling off. Hopefully, things will go better this coming Tuesday.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Staying Hydrated
Adam just sent me this picture and I wanted to share. Apparently, it is now a "Campbell-back" hydration system. Actually, it was just sitting by the door to be thrown out. I didn't clean it out well enough after the Iceman and a couple of days ago I discovered the hose was clogged with black goo. I figure that it might be time to cut my losses and replace it.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Respect the Hill
I was going to steal the title from Adam's post from a few weeks ago, but it looks like I didn't remember it correctly. Yesterday was my first attempt at the Big McGowan Hill for the year, but it didn't humble me because I showed up already humble.
Of course, that didn't really help me get to the top. It didn't even help me get 1/3 of the way up. It was way harder than I remembered, but it was important that I got out there in early January. Now I have 9-12 more chances to make it up before the Ouachita Challenge. Ideally, I would be able to climb it 6-8 times in a row before the race, because only then will I get close to the level of difficulty that awaits. A 13-weeks-to-go reality check was just what I needed.
The only bad part is that I discovered an archive of free 60-minute horror films on our cable's "On Demand" channel. It's nice to be able to watch whenever I want without the commitment of a full-length movie, but I probably should not have watched two of them before my ride yesterday. The route goes through some remote wetland and forest in Brown County and it's easy to ride the whole thing without seeing a single car. Not seeing a car is a good thing, except that it does get kind of freaky riding in the middle of nowhere by yourself. There is one particular place that I hate, because there is a sharp turn in the road which leads up a very steep hill for about 100 meters and there is an old abandoned cemetery at the top. Extreme exertion plus old cemetery plus middle of nowhere is not my idea of a good time. I let myself get freaked out sometimes, but it's just such a good training route in the winter that it's hard to turn down.
~~
In other news, I got a haircut over the weekend. I seem to be changing my hair every three months now. I liked my last haircut, but I realized that it looked a little too much like the "the Rachel" circa 1995. So I decided to step outside my comfort zone a bit. The picture below is what I took to the stylist and the final result is pretty similar, except that my hair has less body and I didn't have a professional stylist fix it for me this morning.
Of course, that didn't really help me get to the top. It didn't even help me get 1/3 of the way up. It was way harder than I remembered, but it was important that I got out there in early January. Now I have 9-12 more chances to make it up before the Ouachita Challenge. Ideally, I would be able to climb it 6-8 times in a row before the race, because only then will I get close to the level of difficulty that awaits. A 13-weeks-to-go reality check was just what I needed.
The only bad part is that I discovered an archive of free 60-minute horror films on our cable's "On Demand" channel. It's nice to be able to watch whenever I want without the commitment of a full-length movie, but I probably should not have watched two of them before my ride yesterday. The route goes through some remote wetland and forest in Brown County and it's easy to ride the whole thing without seeing a single car. Not seeing a car is a good thing, except that it does get kind of freaky riding in the middle of nowhere by yourself. There is one particular place that I hate, because there is a sharp turn in the road which leads up a very steep hill for about 100 meters and there is an old abandoned cemetery at the top. Extreme exertion plus old cemetery plus middle of nowhere is not my idea of a good time. I let myself get freaked out sometimes, but it's just such a good training route in the winter that it's hard to turn down.
~~
In other news, I got a haircut over the weekend. I seem to be changing my hair every three months now. I liked my last haircut, but I realized that it looked a little too much like the "the Rachel" circa 1995. So I decided to step outside my comfort zone a bit. The picture below is what I took to the stylist and the final result is pretty similar, except that my hair has less body and I didn't have a professional stylist fix it for me this morning.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Happy New Year, Everyone!
I am working again today and I don't have much to say, but I thought I'd check in and kill a few minutes.
Last night I did my second roller ride of the season. I know, I'm a little off schedule with those, but I think it will be okay. It was exactly four weeks since the last one and last night's ride was 15 minutes longer, 15 average watts higher, and my average HR was 5 beats lower. Nice.
My New Year's Eve plans include a $12 bottle of sparkling wine from Spain that I'm pretty excited about, but there's not a lot on the agenda besides that right now. I'm sure we'll think of something. I just heard a radio story about inexpensive wines for the holidays and they said that Cava from Spain was good and inexpensive, so I'm wanting to test this out.
I don't really have any resolutions or official goals this year. The thing on my mind right now is to try to reduce my hike-a-bike time at the OC by about 80% from last year. This is a specific goal, but not too measurable because it's not like I hit my lap button every time I got off my bike last year. However, I think I will know when I'm close and I think I know how to make it happen. It involves riding a certain nasty dirt road climb A LOT between now and then. That will take care of the wussy related hike-a-biking and the remaining places that I have to get off for technical reasons I can live with. At least for this year.
Last night I did my second roller ride of the season. I know, I'm a little off schedule with those, but I think it will be okay. It was exactly four weeks since the last one and last night's ride was 15 minutes longer, 15 average watts higher, and my average HR was 5 beats lower. Nice.
My New Year's Eve plans include a $12 bottle of sparkling wine from Spain that I'm pretty excited about, but there's not a lot on the agenda besides that right now. I'm sure we'll think of something. I just heard a radio story about inexpensive wines for the holidays and they said that Cava from Spain was good and inexpensive, so I'm wanting to test this out.
I don't really have any resolutions or official goals this year. The thing on my mind right now is to try to reduce my hike-a-bike time at the OC by about 80% from last year. This is a specific goal, but not too measurable because it's not like I hit my lap button every time I got off my bike last year. However, I think I will know when I'm close and I think I know how to make it happen. It involves riding a certain nasty dirt road climb A LOT between now and then. That will take care of the wussy related hike-a-biking and the remaining places that I have to get off for technical reasons I can live with. At least for this year.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Weak
Not too surprisingly, I've not been able to keep up my massive training schedule that I had in Oklahoma. I managed to ride for about an hour yesterday and today, but I felt very weak and slow. I'm not sure if this is an after effect of my stomach bug, my long drive, or the fact that I rolled the crap out of my lower body with my long-abandoned TP Massage Ball kit Friday night.
Ever since I got back, it feels like every running injury that I had in college decided to come back and hurt all the time, even when I'm inactive, despite the fact that I haven't run in about three weeks. My only guess in that 15 hours of cycling, plus the muscle cramps when I was sick, plus the 12.5 hours of driving caused some serious knotting. I tried to work some of it out Friday night, but it was very painful and I think the subsequent healing might have contributed to my lack of power the last couple of days. I plan to keep up the routine and eventually it will become less painful and hopefully beneficial in the long run.
Ever since I got back, it feels like every running injury that I had in college decided to come back and hurt all the time, even when I'm inactive, despite the fact that I haven't run in about three weeks. My only guess in that 15 hours of cycling, plus the muscle cramps when I was sick, plus the 12.5 hours of driving caused some serious knotting. I tried to work some of it out Friday night, but it was very painful and I think the subsequent healing might have contributed to my lack of power the last couple of days. I plan to keep up the routine and eventually it will become less painful and hopefully beneficial in the long run.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
I Think My Appetite Is Back
I am sitting at work on Christmas Eve, because for HR reasons that I do not understand, we are open today and I have volunteered to be the sacrificial lamb for my area. That basically means that I need to catch up on a few things from my vacation and answer any questions about students loans that come in that the front-line people on the phones need help with. I doubt there will be many of those today and I'm procrastinating on the small bit of work that I do have to do.
While I am procrastinating I'm a looking over the blog for the Break Epic stage race that is set to debut in Colorado next summer. It looks like it's going to be really awesome, but unfortunately, I'm fairly certain that I will have neither the necessary money nor the fitness by July. Maybe 2010. Last night I read an article in the February issue of Velo News on the growing numbers of off road stage races in Latin America. I didn't really put me off of my La Ruta dreams, but it did get me thinking that I might want to keep my first big stage race within the confines of the United States border, since there are starting to be more options available within our own country.
Anyway, as I was perusing the various Break Epic details that are available at this early juncture, I was surprised to see that they already have the menu planned for the race. It would have sealed the deal for me if I had been more seriously considering signing up.
I suppose that means that my stomach is better. My breakfast felt a little weird going down this morning, but the desire to eat again must mean that I'm very close to normal. I have to say that my illness wasn't a completely bad thing. It happened during a stretch of time that I wouldn't have been able to ride much anyway, and luckily very early in the season. Plus, despite all my riding last week, I still ate a lot and was still feeling like a complete fatty from my long layoff over the fall. Even though the scale says that I only lost two pounds, the fatty feeling has completely subsided, which is quite liberating. So I got the kick in the butt that needed to get going again last week and then an effective, if unintentional "cleansing" period. I just need to not make a pig of myself the next two days and then by Friday I will have nothing else standing my way for the 14 week march to the Ouachita Challenge.
While I am procrastinating I'm a looking over the blog for the Break Epic stage race that is set to debut in Colorado next summer. It looks like it's going to be really awesome, but unfortunately, I'm fairly certain that I will have neither the necessary money nor the fitness by July. Maybe 2010. Last night I read an article in the February issue of Velo News on the growing numbers of off road stage races in Latin America. I didn't really put me off of my La Ruta dreams, but it did get me thinking that I might want to keep my first big stage race within the confines of the United States border, since there are starting to be more options available within our own country.
Anyway, as I was perusing the various Break Epic details that are available at this early juncture, I was surprised to see that they already have the menu planned for the race. It would have sealed the deal for me if I had been more seriously considering signing up.
I suppose that means that my stomach is better. My breakfast felt a little weird going down this morning, but the desire to eat again must mean that I'm very close to normal. I have to say that my illness wasn't a completely bad thing. It happened during a stretch of time that I wouldn't have been able to ride much anyway, and luckily very early in the season. Plus, despite all my riding last week, I still ate a lot and was still feeling like a complete fatty from my long layoff over the fall. Even though the scale says that I only lost two pounds, the fatty feeling has completely subsided, which is quite liberating. So I got the kick in the butt that needed to get going again last week and then an effective, if unintentional "cleansing" period. I just need to not make a pig of myself the next two days and then by Friday I will have nothing else standing my way for the 14 week march to the Ouachita Challenge.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
24 Hours of Woozy
It started at 1 a.m. on Monday. I stumbled toward what I thought would be the kind of routine middle of the night bathroom trip that is common among chronically well-hydrated people. However, as I inspected my tired reflection in the mirror, I was overcome with that "I don't feel so good" feeling and the realization that my dinner was not sitting rather strangely in my digestive tract.
I went back to bed and proceeded to spend the next two hours writhing in pain that started in my abdomen, moved to my chest and back, and then radiated through the rest of my body. This was not the situation I wanted to be in just a few hours before I was scheduled to depart on the 12.5 hour drive back to Indiana.
After two hours of writhing and looking through the kitchen in vain for something to ease my discomfort, the offending food, bacteria, or virus, I not sure which, began to make it's way out of my body in the most unpleasant manner. This required spending two more cold, boring hours in the bathroom, after which I finally slept for a short time before getting up and announcing to my parents that I might or might not be making the trip back to Indiana that day, but I that I would definitely not be making my planned 7:30 departure. Somehow, they had managed to sleep through the ordeal, despite my complete lack of effort to be quiet. I was somewhat disappointed that on one of the rare nights that my mommy was in close enough proximity to take care of me when I was sick, that I wasn't successful in waking her up to do so. For the record, I did stop short of yelling for her like I did when I was a kid, which did seem a little over-the-top for someone my age.
So I slept another two hours and then decided that I needed to suck it up and make my weak, wobbly way home, since I was supposed to be at work on Tuesday and the forecast was much better for a Monday departure. So I began the long journey at 9 a.m. central time, and made it the whole way on a cup of jello, a few crackers, and some tea. This lack of nutrition didn't help my focus any, and the trip back home was a hard one.
I finally made it home at 10:30 p.m. eastern time and it took me a while to get greet my husband and cats, get unpacked, get reoriented to my house, and take a shower. I managed to get everything put away, except for a few items of street clothing that weren't dirty enough to go in the hamper. All and all, I finally made it to bed at 1:00 a.m., weak and spacey, but proud that I had managed to get through my 24 hour ordeal in one piece.
~~
I feel about 80% normal today, since I slept until 8:00 and didn't go to work until 10:30. I managed to eat my normal breakfast, although a half-size portion. I didn't make me feel sick, but it didn't really make me feel better, either. I still don't have much of an appetite, but I'm not sure that's really a bad thing this time of year.
I went back to bed and proceeded to spend the next two hours writhing in pain that started in my abdomen, moved to my chest and back, and then radiated through the rest of my body. This was not the situation I wanted to be in just a few hours before I was scheduled to depart on the 12.5 hour drive back to Indiana.
After two hours of writhing and looking through the kitchen in vain for something to ease my discomfort, the offending food, bacteria, or virus, I not sure which, began to make it's way out of my body in the most unpleasant manner. This required spending two more cold, boring hours in the bathroom, after which I finally slept for a short time before getting up and announcing to my parents that I might or might not be making the trip back to Indiana that day, but I that I would definitely not be making my planned 7:30 departure. Somehow, they had managed to sleep through the ordeal, despite my complete lack of effort to be quiet. I was somewhat disappointed that on one of the rare nights that my mommy was in close enough proximity to take care of me when I was sick, that I wasn't successful in waking her up to do so. For the record, I did stop short of yelling for her like I did when I was a kid, which did seem a little over-the-top for someone my age.
So I slept another two hours and then decided that I needed to suck it up and make my weak, wobbly way home, since I was supposed to be at work on Tuesday and the forecast was much better for a Monday departure. So I began the long journey at 9 a.m. central time, and made it the whole way on a cup of jello, a few crackers, and some tea. This lack of nutrition didn't help my focus any, and the trip back home was a hard one.
I finally made it home at 10:30 p.m. eastern time and it took me a while to get greet my husband and cats, get unpacked, get reoriented to my house, and take a shower. I managed to get everything put away, except for a few items of street clothing that weren't dirty enough to go in the hamper. All and all, I finally made it to bed at 1:00 a.m., weak and spacey, but proud that I had managed to get through my 24 hour ordeal in one piece.
~~
I feel about 80% normal today, since I slept until 8:00 and didn't go to work until 10:30. I managed to eat my normal breakfast, although a half-size portion. I didn't make me feel sick, but it didn't really make me feel better, either. I still don't have much of an appetite, but I'm not sure that's really a bad thing this time of year.
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Totals
Well, my vacation riding time came to a seven day total of 15 hours and 13 minutes. Today is Day 8 and I think there is about a 95% chance that the total will not go any higher this trip. It is 23 degrees outside and I have exhausted my supply of hand and toe warmers. I have really bad circulation in my hands and feet and they don't really make their own warmth very well, so chemical hand and toe warmers are a must below 35 degrees. I think I'm at the point where I'd just be riding to keep up my streak and try to pile on some more time to my total. Keeping a running total is cool, but in the end, it's kind of a meaningless number. I've still had one of the top three training weeks of my life, so as long as my motivation carries over into my real life this week, I'll consider my mission accomplished.
I got a copy of Off Road to Athens in my Christmas gifts last night and I had to watch it as soon as the festivities ended. It was really good, but it, combined with my sore legs, caused me to have really weird dreams.
I dreamed that I had been chosen to race 'çross in Europe with a large group of professional racers, including Katie Compton. I think won the trip because I was the only female to show up at some regular season race. Anyway, while I was at the race, a bunch of little kids came up to me and wanted my autograph because they thought I was a pro, too. While I was signing autographs, one little girl stabbed me with her pen. Sometime later in the dream, I went to her house to ask her why she stabbed me and it turned out that she was abused at home, so I decided to adopt her.
Needless to say it was not a restful night. I think the part about the little girl stabbing me came from having to be around my cousin's psycho 9-year-old son all day yesterday, but I definitely will not be adopting him anytime soon.
I got a copy of Off Road to Athens in my Christmas gifts last night and I had to watch it as soon as the festivities ended. It was really good, but it, combined with my sore legs, caused me to have really weird dreams.
I dreamed that I had been chosen to race 'çross in Europe with a large group of professional racers, including Katie Compton. I think won the trip because I was the only female to show up at some regular season race. Anyway, while I was at the race, a bunch of little kids came up to me and wanted my autograph because they thought I was a pro, too. While I was signing autographs, one little girl stabbed me with her pen. Sometime later in the dream, I went to her house to ask her why she stabbed me and it turned out that she was abused at home, so I decided to adopt her.
Needless to say it was not a restful night. I think the part about the little girl stabbing me came from having to be around my cousin's psycho 9-year-old son all day yesterday, but I definitely will not be adopting him anytime soon.
Friday, December 19, 2008
Oklahoma Pictures
I'm on Day 6 in Oklahoma with a total riding time of 12 hours and 48 minutes. It doesn't look like I'm going to make my 8 day goal of 20 hours, but I'm still doing pretty well. I'm starting to get pretty tired, but my early New Year's resolution for 2009 is to not be so terrified of overtraining. Plus, next week is going to be very light with Monday being consumed with driving and Wednesday and Thursday being consumed with holiday festivities.
Since today was the first day since Sunday that I haven't had to wear lobster gloves to ride, I decided to snap a few pictures.
Stonewall High School, my alma mater.
My bike laughing at me when I showed it where I used to play softball.
My awesome home town. Yes, that's pretty much the whole thing.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Pizza Belly
I actually managed to ride after all. It just required my practicing extreme restraint at the pizza buffet and keeping my consumption level at a place that would allow me to ride without feeling like I was going to throw up in my mouth. That is actually a pretty big accomplishment, as I tend to go way overboard in all-you-can-eat situations. We got back in time for me to sneak in two hours before dark and I'm still kind of on track for my goal this week.
When I was riding in the sunny warm weather on Sunday I was wondering wishing I'd brought my bike on a trip home sooner. It's a great training camp enviroment because of the utter lack of distraction. However, today I've discovered that it's not going to be quite as smooth of sailing as I had originally thought.
Tomorrow is still up in the air because my mom wants me to go to work with her, but I still haven't got a straight answer as to what time we will be back. I'm trying not to stress about it too much, as today worked out fine, but I'm just so happy with the work that I'm doing while I'm here that I don't want to mess up my streak.
When I was riding in the sunny warm weather on Sunday I was wondering wishing I'd brought my bike on a trip home sooner. It's a great training camp enviroment because of the utter lack of distraction. However, today I've discovered that it's not going to be quite as smooth of sailing as I had originally thought.
Tomorrow is still up in the air because my mom wants me to go to work with her, but I still haven't got a straight answer as to what time we will be back. I'm trying not to stress about it too much, as today worked out fine, but I'm just so happy with the work that I'm doing while I'm here that I don't want to mess up my streak.
Swept Down The Plain
Greetings from Oklahoma!
Sunday I rode in shorts and short sleeves because it was 75 degrees and sunny. The only drawback was the knock-you-0n-your-ass wind, which I rarely experience anymore.
Bloomington has lots of trees and hills and the roads tend to follow the lay of the land, so they are pretty curvey. All of this combined makes it very hard for the wind to get a clear shot at you when you're riding.
On the other hand, the area of Oklahoma where my parents live is pretty open. Not flat, because my ride can best be described as about a half-mile of going up a 4-6% grade and then going back down a 4-6% grade for about a half-mile. However, the the roads are straight and the trees are scrubby, so I could see for miles and miles at the top of each hill.
I just wanted to clear that up because when I first moved to Indiana, I got really tired of answering the question, "So is Oklahoma really flat?" This from people in the middle of cornland. Actually, the eastern part of the state is mountains and the western part is flat, but I grew up in between.
Anyway, I can't remember two more different days than Sunday and Monday. The temperature dropped over 50 degrees overnight, so yesterday I was riding in 25 degrees plus knock-you-on-your-ass wind. That was pretty unpleasant, since I'd only really come prepared to ride in mid-30's weather. At the time I packed, the forecast looked liked I wouldn't even need anything that heavy. However, I found myself being whipped all over the road with frozen nostrils and snotcycles on my gloves anyway.
Today is not much warmer, but the wind has died down. However, my grandma called me while I was having breakfast at 10:00 and asked me to go out to lunch at 12:30, so that kind of throws a wrench in my prime riding time today. I could have made myself get up and ride early knowing that there was a good chance this would happen, but without definite plans, I took a chance on squeezing a few more degrees out in the afternoon.
I'm surprised at how crappy of a mood I'm in about not getting ride in 25 degree weather, but I was just doing so well since I've been here. I had visions of monster hours of boring base-building rides on the road bike to kick-start my fitness before I got back home. I guess the important thing is to not let this one hiccup get me down. The weather is supposed to be much better the rest of the time I'm here, so I've got to take advantage of it.
Sunday I rode in shorts and short sleeves because it was 75 degrees and sunny. The only drawback was the knock-you-0n-your-ass wind, which I rarely experience anymore.
Bloomington has lots of trees and hills and the roads tend to follow the lay of the land, so they are pretty curvey. All of this combined makes it very hard for the wind to get a clear shot at you when you're riding.
On the other hand, the area of Oklahoma where my parents live is pretty open. Not flat, because my ride can best be described as about a half-mile of going up a 4-6% grade and then going back down a 4-6% grade for about a half-mile. However, the the roads are straight and the trees are scrubby, so I could see for miles and miles at the top of each hill.
I just wanted to clear that up because when I first moved to Indiana, I got really tired of answering the question, "So is Oklahoma really flat?" This from people in the middle of cornland. Actually, the eastern part of the state is mountains and the western part is flat, but I grew up in between.
Anyway, I can't remember two more different days than Sunday and Monday. The temperature dropped over 50 degrees overnight, so yesterday I was riding in 25 degrees plus knock-you-on-your-ass wind. That was pretty unpleasant, since I'd only really come prepared to ride in mid-30's weather. At the time I packed, the forecast looked liked I wouldn't even need anything that heavy. However, I found myself being whipped all over the road with frozen nostrils and snotcycles on my gloves anyway.
Today is not much warmer, but the wind has died down. However, my grandma called me while I was having breakfast at 10:00 and asked me to go out to lunch at 12:30, so that kind of throws a wrench in my prime riding time today. I could have made myself get up and ride early knowing that there was a good chance this would happen, but without definite plans, I took a chance on squeezing a few more degrees out in the afternoon.
I'm surprised at how crappy of a mood I'm in about not getting ride in 25 degree weather, but I was just doing so well since I've been here. I had visions of monster hours of boring base-building rides on the road bike to kick-start my fitness before I got back home. I guess the important thing is to not let this one hiccup get me down. The weather is supposed to be much better the rest of the time I'm here, so I've got to take advantage of it.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
A Long December
And its been a long december and theres reason to believe
Maybe this year will be better than the last
I cant remember all the times I tried to tell my myself
To hold on to these moments as they pass
Okay, December is still only one third of the way through, but I have a feeling it's going to speed up a lot after today. I'm taking tomorrow off from work to prepare for my 10-day "holiday trip" to Oklahoma. I will be back before actual Christmas, so it's not really "going home for Christmas". By the time I get back, it will practically be 2009.
In keeping, I have posted my 2009 race schedule on the sidebar. I thought it was pretty important to get that out there early so anyone planning to do the same races can go ahead and start shaking in their Sidi's. Or not.
It's actually not very different from 2008. I definitely want another shot at the OC and the Lumberjack. My one change is that I'm leaning toward the Wilderness 101 over the Shenandoah 100 for the second half of the season. However, I've resolved not to pay an entry fee on any other hundred milers until I have actually finished the Lumberjack, so the decision won't be made until mid-summer and may be affected by which races are sold out at that point.
Maybe this year will be better than the last
I cant remember all the times I tried to tell my myself
To hold on to these moments as they pass
Okay, December is still only one third of the way through, but I have a feeling it's going to speed up a lot after today. I'm taking tomorrow off from work to prepare for my 10-day "holiday trip" to Oklahoma. I will be back before actual Christmas, so it's not really "going home for Christmas". By the time I get back, it will practically be 2009.
In keeping, I have posted my 2009 race schedule on the sidebar. I thought it was pretty important to get that out there early so anyone planning to do the same races can go ahead and start shaking in their Sidi's. Or not.
It's actually not very different from 2008. I definitely want another shot at the OC and the Lumberjack. My one change is that I'm leaning toward the Wilderness 101 over the Shenandoah 100 for the second half of the season. However, I've resolved not to pay an entry fee on any other hundred milers until I have actually finished the Lumberjack, so the decision won't be made until mid-summer and may be affected by which races are sold out at that point.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Rollin and Tunes
I considered using yet another punny title for this entry, but I decided to spare you. I'm not sure why I like punny titles so much, but it seems like I use them at least 80% of the time. This brought to mind my 11th grade English class where we were learning about comic devices in literature and how I remember the teacher saying, "A pun is the lowest form of humor." I never really got that because even bad puns require some wit, so I googled the phrase a moment ago. Apparently, it is true that some authors have called the pun the lowest form of humor, but I also came upon this quote: "A pun is the lowest form of humor, unless you thought of it yourself." - Doug Larson
I guess that explains everything.
Anyway, I finally knocked out the 2009 inaugural roller ride. After a fumbling start I was able to make it the entire 45 minutes without a dab. However, my hands were numb by the end from my death grip on the bars. It also got pretty uncomfortable because I wasn't able to adjust my chamois without crashing. Hopefully, my skills will improve before it's time to do the longer rides. Overall, it was okay. My power was about 30 watts below where I wanted it to be, my perceived effort almost exactly where I wanted it to be, and my HR was a lot higher than I wanted it to be. I guess that's what they call being out of shape.
However, the most important data that I gathered during this session was my mental notes regarding how my 2008 trainer play list holds up a year later. Starting roughly at the beginning:
My Dixie Chicks selections still hold up pretty well. "Wide Open Spaces" is an anthem about personal growth that struck a chord with me several years ago when I stilled lived in Oklahoma and was still exposed to country music on a semi-regular basis. I really had no further interest in the Dixie Chicks, but a couple of years ago I rented the documentary "Shut Up And Sing" about the backlash they got from country music fans after the lead singer spoke out against George W. at concert in England. Much of the filming revolves around the writing and recording of "The Long Way Around" and it was kind of stuck in my head afterward. Last year it became my a trainer staple as I imagined a punny narrative of how my first year of endurance racing would play out. Tonight the open-ended conclusion sounded like a non-punny narrative of how my first year of endurance racing did play out.
"Unwritten" was actually the song that caused me to start rethinking my "classic" play list. It was fun two years ago when riding in crappy weather was still a novelty and there was a lot more unknown factors in my racing future. Now it just sounds kind of played out.
"Little Red Corvette" is still good in that it can just be pleasant upbeat music when I want it to be or when I'm feeling a little more imaginative, I can draw out a few bike racing metaphors. If only I had a red bike or kit.
Really the whole sexual encounter=bike race theme seems to work out pretty well. When I first got my iPod, I just went through Adam's music library and pulled things in "All The Things She Said" by t.A.T.u. I just thought some teenage Russian faux-lesbian pop might be good for humor value. However, it didn't take much trainer time for my mind to turn what "she said" from teenage Russian faux-lesbian things to an imaginary scenario about chasing down a smack-talking competitor. This has never actually happened it real life, but it's a good visualization to get me through a hard interval.
However, out of all the songs I heard tonight the Flashdance theme "What A Feeling" struck the strongest chord with me. It starts out all depressing and moves on to "thing won't suck forever, I CAN have it all" upbeat goodness. It was just what I needed.
These were just a few of the random thoughts that went through my head tonight and this isn't a comprehensive list. I didn't even make it to "Eye of the Tiger" or "Livin' On A Payer" in the 45 minutes time period. They are embedded further along in the play list for when things start to get extra long and boring. I really should rearrange, edit, and add some stuff, but our computer was recently repaired and iTunes has not been working right since. Maybe I need to pursue a remedy for that situation more aggressively.
~~
By the way, I'm the first to admit that I probably have the most horrible music taste of any human being alive, so feel free to make fun all you want. I'm not really sure where this fits on the humor hierarchy, but have a good laugh on me.
I guess that explains everything.
Anyway, I finally knocked out the 2009 inaugural roller ride. After a fumbling start I was able to make it the entire 45 minutes without a dab. However, my hands were numb by the end from my death grip on the bars. It also got pretty uncomfortable because I wasn't able to adjust my chamois without crashing. Hopefully, my skills will improve before it's time to do the longer rides. Overall, it was okay. My power was about 30 watts below where I wanted it to be, my perceived effort almost exactly where I wanted it to be, and my HR was a lot higher than I wanted it to be. I guess that's what they call being out of shape.
However, the most important data that I gathered during this session was my mental notes regarding how my 2008 trainer play list holds up a year later. Starting roughly at the beginning:
My Dixie Chicks selections still hold up pretty well. "Wide Open Spaces" is an anthem about personal growth that struck a chord with me several years ago when I stilled lived in Oklahoma and was still exposed to country music on a semi-regular basis. I really had no further interest in the Dixie Chicks, but a couple of years ago I rented the documentary "Shut Up And Sing" about the backlash they got from country music fans after the lead singer spoke out against George W. at concert in England. Much of the filming revolves around the writing and recording of "The Long Way Around" and it was kind of stuck in my head afterward. Last year it became my a trainer staple as I imagined a punny narrative of how my first year of endurance racing would play out. Tonight the open-ended conclusion sounded like a non-punny narrative of how my first year of endurance racing did play out.
"Unwritten" was actually the song that caused me to start rethinking my "classic" play list. It was fun two years ago when riding in crappy weather was still a novelty and there was a lot more unknown factors in my racing future. Now it just sounds kind of played out.
"Little Red Corvette" is still good in that it can just be pleasant upbeat music when I want it to be or when I'm feeling a little more imaginative, I can draw out a few bike racing metaphors. If only I had a red bike or kit.
Really the whole sexual encounter=bike race theme seems to work out pretty well. When I first got my iPod, I just went through Adam's music library and pulled things in "All The Things She Said" by t.A.T.u. I just thought some teenage Russian faux-lesbian pop might be good for humor value. However, it didn't take much trainer time for my mind to turn what "she said" from teenage Russian faux-lesbian things to an imaginary scenario about chasing down a smack-talking competitor. This has never actually happened it real life, but it's a good visualization to get me through a hard interval.
However, out of all the songs I heard tonight the Flashdance theme "What A Feeling" struck the strongest chord with me. It starts out all depressing and moves on to "thing won't suck forever, I CAN have it all" upbeat goodness. It was just what I needed.
These were just a few of the random thoughts that went through my head tonight and this isn't a comprehensive list. I didn't even make it to "Eye of the Tiger" or "Livin' On A Payer" in the 45 minutes time period. They are embedded further along in the play list for when things start to get extra long and boring. I really should rearrange, edit, and add some stuff, but our computer was recently repaired and iTunes has not been working right since. Maybe I need to pursue a remedy for that situation more aggressively.
~~
By the way, I'm the first to admit that I probably have the most horrible music taste of any human being alive, so feel free to make fun all you want. I'm not really sure where this fits on the humor hierarchy, but have a good laugh on me.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Snow Plyos
Today was the first real snow of the year and my first real training for 2009. For the last couples of months, any exercise has either been racing or the "I feel fat and gross and need to do something variety". Tonight I started my plyometric routine that will be my Monday and Friday staple for the rest of the winter. I took it semi-easy tonight to test how sore I will be tomorrow, but it was still pretty hard. At least it's hard in a fun way and I think it's a good way to get my muscles ready for those puke inducing efforts during the Ouachita Challenge where I'm already toddling up a steep pitch in a full anaerobic stupor and then I have to muscle over some rocks. I'm going to have to work really hard if I want to reduce my hike-a-bike quotient next year.
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