Tuesday Night

I was planning on doing my own thing last night but once I got on the bike and started moving I quickly realized that I had no motivation at all. So I decided if I wanted to get a hard workout I better get in with the group and have them push me, or die off the back. We head out of town into a pretty strong wind. We were taking it easy for most of the way out. I took some hard pulls to see what my legs were saying. They told me to sit in because the way home was going to be fast. We turned around and with the wind still blowing now we had an awesome tail wind. Mark and Jason ramped up to 30mph in no time. We had a group of 4 that were able to hold that pace. It was really fun taking short hard pulls at that pace for miles on end! Every 5 miles was a major intersection we would slow for and then kick it up again. I was starting to feel better, not best but I could tell my base miles were keeping me on. I got gapped once or twice and had enough reserve to dig down and bridge to the group.
After the ride Cathy and I headed to the story to get some food. We walked past the paper and seen this article about Jim Peterson!! He is taking off today for Worlds. I guess they will be posting real time results so I will get a link up here for anyone interested in following their favorite athlete. (i.e. Jim)
Sounds like there is going to be some long rides going out this weekend, I think I am going to head down south of Rockford on Friday after work, then Sat. Jason and I are talking about doing 5 hours of road. Sunday Cory and I will be heading to Kettle for some 3 hours of day/night riding. Monday...not sure yet I could be doing some recovery at that point

Blue Mounds

Last night Cathy and I headed up to Blue Mounds to check out the trails. I haven't rode up there since winning the 12 Hours of Blue mounds, 2 years ago!! I guess quit while your ahead right. Anyway the trails were in really good shape. There are so many rocks there that if it is wet at all it is horrible. But it was good and dry. Cathy was riding incredably, on our second lap once we got to know the trails, she was pounding through the rocks like nothing! She is considering doing the Blue Mounds Race the first weekend of October. Not sure what we are going to do, us doing a duo team, he soloing, and Cathy riding with one of her teammates, or what.
Tonight I got a long ride planned. Chequamegon is quickly approaching so I got this week of long rides, next week I am uping the intensity and then taper. Hopefully it all works out.

Weekend Trip

Looks like we got back in town just in time. The day after we left Georgia Katrina came in leaving all sorts of destruction in her path. I haven't mentioned much about this trip because of obvious reasons. I talked with the guys at Thomson and they seem like a good group, they put in big hours but I guess it goes fast if you enjoy it. Now we just need to decide if this is something that we want to do or what. The area is pretty cool, we drove around some and went through the Air Force Base here in town

After looking around at some planes we decided that we had check out the sushi situation. Tom made us some increadable rolls. We got to talking and he said that this shrimp was his special.

As we were leaving the place we heard some people in the parking lot talking bikes. We went over and started talking to them about local rides and trails, ect. Sounds like they have some decent trails down there but nothing really special, within a 2 hour drive at least. Something to think about before moving. So that is that, and we will have to wait and see what happens.
On the way home we stopped in at the Atlanta Speed Way, totally sweet!! I guess in June they got nailed buy a tornado and did something like $4-6 million in damage. One of the securty guys took us for a ride and got to do a lap on the track. Cathy could hardly contain herself, it was really cool! We hadn't planned on it taking that long and that put us big time late for our plane. We busted out of the Speed Way and cruised to the airport. We got our car checked in 35 minutes before the plane was supposed to leave. The ticket lady told us that if we ran we MIGHT make the flight. We were chucking through the airport so fast!! Cathy was upfront clearing traffic and I had all the bags doing a full sprint. We got to our plane and with only 5 people left to get on, THAT WAS CLOSE!!
So that was the weekend, I don't know if we could have packed anything else in, Oh yeah I guess we did. When we got home we had a going away party for Jim Peterson, soon to be 24 Hour Solo World Championships participant.
!!!!!GOOD LUCK JIM!!!!!

Tuesday Hammer Fest

I haven't been to a tuesday night group ride in so long. I am have been doing a lot of solo training or have been too busy to make it so it was fun to get out and hammer with some FAST riders again. We headed out to Whitewater lake, well we made it to the lake before having to turn around. On the way out we were pushing a pretty good head wind, the group split up and the "A" guys put the hammer down. I was pushing pretty hard taking pulls at 24-26 mph. Ever stop ahead sign was a sprint finish. I just pulled through and was starting to drift to the back when everyone stood up and were gone! I grabbed a couple gears stood up and had to work to get back on the tail end of the group. I caught some wind off of Ken P. and used that to up the pace, I got around Joe and had Mark and Jason in my sights but time was running out. I stayed wide of Mark so I won't get hit by his head wind. At the sign I had edged out both Mark and Jason by inches. When we got to the lake we turned around and had a nice tail wind. A couple of us were told to go and that we were going to be the "rabbit" and the group would then caught us. I told them, lets drop them the entire ride! With that we were gone, pulling at 28-30 for miles on end hurts even with the wind. The pack was coming but we were holding them off until we had to stop and wait for some cars at an intersection. Bob and two other riders had dropped off so I went back and picked them up and pulled them back to the group, right as we got on I was totally BLASTED, and they all took off. We weren't recovered enough to up the pace and we were off the back again. I tried to talk Bob into going for it but he was done. I tried to get back on and was pushing 28-29 for a mile or so solo but the group was still gaping me so I sat up.
It was a great ride, I needed that intensity after doing a lot of base miles. The days are getting shorter and the evenings are cooler, I can't believe fall is already coming.

I want to rant but shouldn't

After some thinking and from the remarks from a teammate I realized that I shouldn't have posted this rant. Afterall Louis Garneau was kind enough to give the team killer deals on the jerseys and shorts. Personally they don't fit me the best, but it could be a combination of my saddle as well. If there are people out there that are thinking about getting a pair of shorts, try on many styles and types from different companies, to get one that fits you good. A good pair of shorts makes any ride a lot more enjoyable.
Again, I hope I haven't turned anyone away from Louis Garneau.

In other news, we got all moved into our house and that is totally SWEET! It is really nice and feels more like a home then our other place, maybe because our bathroom is bigger than a port-a-john and that now we have a ceiling over the shower, not floor braces.

Moving

Hey sorry for not keeping this up-todate. This week has been crazy, we are moving on Friday so ever last second we have we are throwing things into boxes. It is amazing how much stuff a person can acquire, I wonder if construction builders consider weight limits when building a house? I know our house is going to be about 3500lbs. lighter once we get all moved out!!
Anyway, yeah we did have a race this weekend, again I have been really slow in getting some pictures on here. I am going to try to post some riding pics. later this week. The race felt good, it was hot and FAST. Cathy did really good. She felt great and took the victory with a 2.5 minute gap! My race went well considering I have been putting in long base mile rides. This race was all about intensity. I had a 31st place finish, nothing to write home about but I felt consistent through the whole thing, and had enough to kick it for a hard sprint finish. The past two days has been recovery and now I will get back into the miles again.
Anyway I will keep this updated better and hopefully get some pics for your viewing pleasure.

Feeling good

I am getting excited to race this weekend, I haven't been to a race since July 3rd!! I took some time off the bike to get refocused. Then started training for a good showing at Chequamegon. I have been putting in some big day and long miles. Went out last night on the MTB and did some over/under's at Rockport Park. It felt really good running the legs up and spinning them down. I am getting excited about this weekend, even though I don't plan on having a stellar race, because I will be training up to and through the race more than wasting a bunch of days to rest up for it like I should to have a peak performance. It should be fun though not having the pressure to get a good finish but just to enjoy some time on the MTB.
We are finally getting some much needed rain, so it looks like my road ride tonight might be a wet one.

Weekend Worriers

I am starting to wonder what is harder, loading up for a race, camping, racing, and driving home tired and sore, OR going home for the weekend!! Don't get me wrong I have a lot of fun with our families it is just BUSY! This weekend was no exception. On Saturday it was Chris and Jenny's reception. It was fun seeing everyone again and some people we haven't seen forever. Then when it got dark we lit off fireworks that would rival New York City.
Sunday we took dad's boat to the lake for the better part of all day. This was the first time I have been back on the water for almost a year so it felt great. There is a good chance that Cathy's knee broke my nose upon her ejecting from the tube after hitting a tidal wave behind the boat. I think everyone that was there got hurt one way or another so it was a successful tubing experience.
Today we are back to the grind stone. My schedule is tapering a little for this weekend so I don't totally die at the race. I think I am officially out of the running for a top 5 in points this year so I am going to use it as a training ride, and hope to just have fun with things.
I will get some pics up here hopefully tonight, I am going to try to get more pictures with my posts, we'll see how that goes.
Thanks for reading, out

Photo blogs

I need to start taking pics of random things on my ride. I have been reading other blogs and seems like everyone is snapping shots of everything when they ride. I wonder how do you get a good ride in if you are always screwing around with the camera? I guess when I go for a ride I do just that, RIDE! That is the good thing about this blog, since I am convinced that nobody, other than Cory, actually reads this stuff I can say what I want with no consequences. SWEEEEET!! So on that subject.......well never mind.
So last night I went for a ride, without my camera. The group mt.bike ride was road tripping to Camrock so Bill and I headed up on the road bikes. Bill was going to meet Jasha up there and switch bikes to do the mt.bike ride but that kinda didn't happen, hehehe. On the way up I had a something fly into my helmet, I stuck my finger up to dig it out and it stung me, turns out it was a bee. I pulled my helmet off and dumped him out on the road. My finger didn't swell too bad, just kinda hurt. That would have sucked if it would have stung my head! I kept going to Cambridge and stopped at the BP for the usual, 1 quart of Orange & tropical punch Gatorade and a Snickers bar = $2.74 and the fuel to get home. I rolled into town with 3 hours and 55 miles, I was pretty tired but it is weird as soon as I get onto Milton Ave it is like I have a new burst of energy. It is really fun, bikes are so much faster off the line and then you hear people floor their cars because a lame biker is beating them. I did this on a couple lights and then the rest were green. I was turning 34-36 mph all the way home, I even went into the passing lane and passed two cars (the speed limit is 30mph). I was pretty shot when I got home so I mowed the yard, Cathy got home and we ate some spaghetti and called it a night.
This weekend we are heading up to Minnesota for my bros. wedding reception party. It will be a good time, sounds like we are going to spend some quality time on the lake. I will take pics and get them posted, I might even be riding a bike.

long rides = weird food

I don't know what it is but it seems like after a long ride my body craves all kinds of weird food. Yesterday I was out for just under 2 hours, with 30 minutes of tempo. On the way back home I had this uncontrollable craving for jello! I got home and quickly boiled some water dumped in the jello, as I was stirring it the smell was overwhelming, I had to have it NOW. So I did. I drank the entire 2 cups of warm liquid-sugar. Then last night I was finishing my 3.5 hour ride when Cathy called and said she was making some French toast. The last 5 miles of the ride all I could think about was pouring gallons of syrup on the French toast when I got home.
I don't know what this means and don't care, if it will make basic, normally boring, food something to get uncontrollably excited about I'll keep doing it.

Just riding

Well another weekend is regretfully behind us. I can't imagine what it would be like to be a professional athlete, every day would feel like a weekend! I wonder what they do on the weekend to relax then? Looks like 24-9 went really well, like any race there were a lot of almosts, it is weird how someone can train and do everything just right for months before a race and when race day comes if they are not feeling perfect it seems like all that training was useless. I sure hope that doesn't happen to me this fall. I got my Polar S-150 heart rate / cycling computer on friday. It is really cool, I don't have it connected to the bike yet but that will happen sometime this week. Cory put together a program for me to follow hoping to get in shape by Chequamegon. It has been super hot so I have been putting a majority of my hours in the evening. Most of my rides have been ending around 9:30pm. I have my niterider light on the road bike and just click it on when the going gets dark. I really like that time of day, the wind is calm, it is cooler, less traffic, and BUGS so many BUGS!!!
Well 3.5 hours tonight then some recovery and another long day before the group ride on thursday. Then we are heading home this weekend for my bro's reception party. That is going to be a lot of fun, I plan to spend at least an entire day up to my neck in water.
Hey what do you people want to read about, more product reviews, more random rants? Drop me a note in the comments, you don't have to be a member, and let me know what you think.
Out for now.