2 outta 3 ain't bad...

Today's lunch ride ended up being dry! Admittedly, I was a little bummed- I've been enjoying the hard man/ nutjob reputation I've been building (further) in the office. The past 2 days were very rainy, cold and windy. Today was just cold and windy. I finished the ride with a nice hard sprint up the short hill that leads into our parking lot. It was kind of an afterthought, after struggling up the earlier hill toward the office into a crazy-strong headwind, but I was very pleased with the sensation of power getting to the rear tire. I felt strong. I liked it.

Heading out the door...

Standing in the warehouse freezing like a drowned rat...

Part of the power I felt in the sprint no doubt came from the frame, which is the same Scandium prototype I've been riding for more than a year. It's now my "rain bike"- with a blend of Ritchey WCS parts and SRAM Rival drivetrain. The frame is super stiff- lending to that stiffness is the fact the 60cm frame uses the chainstays of a 58cm, so they are super short and keep the rear end MEGA stiff. The frame is an absolute missile! Also lending to that stiffness is the Ritchey WCS Zeta wheels- which I have mentioned before. I love these wheels- sincerely. They are among the best wheels I've ever ridden that weren't built specifically for me. The low profile rim paired with the spoke pattern creates a super stiff wheel that just rails. In the insane winds I was in today and earlier this week, the low profile helped me keep the wheels under control and the bladed Sapim spokes sliced through the wind just fine. All in all, the wheels and frame create an awesome riding machine when stiffness is the order of the day... and chugging into some mean headwinds requires stiffness!

208lbs. That seems to be my current baseline... 208lbs. Now that I'm back on the bike regularly, it's time to start getting serious about my diet again. I've dropped nearly 10lbs since Christmas, but I'm still a few pounds away from that 195 goal and I know I can get there... since I was just there as recently as September. My wife, who is beginning to look HUGE these days, has been very encouraging and has continued to push me to ride and train. I'm enjoying the feeling of getting some power back- all things being relative, 'cause it ain't like I'm about to win le Tour. However... still kicking around the idea of buying the racing license online soon so I can race the Old Guy division of the local crit on 2/7... so we'll see.

I'm not hearing voices in my head yet (well, new ones), but we've gotten tons of the rain we so very desperately need here in SoCal over the past few days. I'm not sure if I've seen heavier rains here since moving to San Diego in 1986, but I know that my drive home tonight was the most challenging one I've had since '86! Wow... tons of standing water on the freeway and nobody sure how to drive in it. It was chaos. If it rains like this for much longer, I'm collecting lumber and animals...


Tim

Music you need to have for riding your rollers...

If you're like me and you ride your rollers at night in your driveway, on a fixed gear, with your iPod headphones jammed deep into your skull (and freaking out your neighbors), then I recommend some of the following for truly good workout...



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiU7o7hRJmE (excellent video as well as song)















You can thank me later... when you are winning races.

Tim

What a week...

I'm glad tomorrow is Friday. It's been a long week- on lots of levels. I'm glad to get this one into the "done" pile, for sure.

Almost done picking the new colors for the Fall '08 bikes. Just a few more to go and I am done! All I'm gonna say is that if you like what the line looks like now, you're gonna love where it is headed... you can take that to the bank.

Heading to Los Angeles for the weekend. Gonna go spend the weekend with my best friend, the dreaded Blue Squirrel, riding and riding and riding and riding... and then riding. It's our super double secret training camp. It's only two days, but it's intense... I could tell you more, but then I'd have to track you down and kill you. No bags of blood and no syringes, just lots of riding (and lots of me whining about not being a climber) and "dude time". There might be a beer in there somewhere- after all, one of our team sponsors is Peroni.

I took the night off from going to the gym, but the previous two nights I put in very hard work with the weights and nearly hobbled myself, but managed to avoid injury. Today, though they felt a lot like the steel plates I was lifting the night before, my legs felt really good on the bike. They felt heavy, and stiff, and lacking any kind of "snap", but the power felt great. As much as I hate weightlifting, my legs have always responded well to weights. Hopefully this means that I can fight the negative effects of all the travel and loss of training time and still manage to find racing fitness for next season. I want to get some podium time this next season, so I'm trying my best to actually "train" this winter. Hopefully that means that I can get my former racing fitness back and get back to the front of the field.

So, since I'll be away from home for the weekend, there may not be any posting here for a few days... but don't worry, I'll be back... and I'll be thinking of you while I'm gone. I promise.

Tim

It's that time of year again...

It's that time of year again for me...

... time to sit on the trainer in the dark, in the driveway, freaking out the neighbors.

With all the work that needs to get done at work, it's hard to actually ride at lunch anymore. On top of that, even when I do get to ride, I know I have a lot of travel coming up and I will lose my bike time. So, like a desperate squirrel storing nuts for the winter, I'm packing in all the T.I.T.S I can get (Time In The Saddle... you perverts...).

What really freaks the neighbors out, aside from the fact that I'm spinning my ass off and going nowhere- complete with rivers of sweat pouring off of me- is when I do ILT (Isolated Leg Training... pedaling with one leg) workouts. They look weird, I know, but they are SO good for your neglected hip flexor muscles.


If the belt on my rollers wasn't busted, I'd be rolling on those instead- which really scares the neighbors for some reason. I really need that replacement belt though because there is no better workout than riding the rollers on a fixed gear/ track bike.

And a solid 45 minutes to an hour on the trainer, at high intensity, is quite the workout too...

... as you can see from the picture. For this time of year, with the schedule I have, it's a better workout than I care to admit- stupid fluid resistance unit kicks my butt!

The good news is that I'm down to 205 pounds, from 215. Hopefully that will start going back up as the muscle replaces the fat. I'm still hoping to do a few cross races this year, even though I can't run across the street without my knees swelling, so I don't know how I'm gonna survive a cross race. I want to come out of this winter with a decent level of base fitness so I can hit the early season crits with form next year. It's a pipe dream... but it's good to have dreams.

Tim