Training Update

Kellie said do an easy hour, but with the car parked 40 miles away, there wasn't much choice but do two. So I just cruised in with a tail wind. Picked up a flat tire on the way in. Nothing too macho with the State TT this weekend. Planning on doing some stretching this evening and possibly snagging a massage tomorrow.

Coaching

Until now, I've never really worked with a coach. Going into RAO 2005 I tried to set something up only to find my to be coach was no longer accepting clients. So I did what I always had done self coached, I set goals, planned milestone events, and then sort of filled in the gaps. In the end it all worked out, but I know it could have been better, and there were a few moments when I wondered what exactly I should be doing.

With the 508 now firmly on the horizon and with my secret personal goals for the race, I felt I needed to change my approach to raise my performance to the next level, by bringing in some outside consultation, motivation, and expertise. Without further ado, Team Tartan, er the Titanium Triceratops, is pleased to announce that Lance may have Carmichael but I've got Kellie Moylan from RPMCoaching, ready or not here I come!

It’s Tartan Time!

Tartan Secrets

Before the 2006 RAO, Fantabulous RAO Race Promoter Terri Gooch asked me to share a Team Tartan Training Secret. Going into RAO I was mum, as going into any A+ race its best to be humble. But with the 2006 RAO now in the record books I think I can share one, yes one of the tartan training secrets.

Commuting to Work

Many ride to work, but most don't do it glued in the aero position. Going into the 2006 RAO, Team Tartan was sweating it big time, as always the there were big guns lining up for the 2006 RAO in all categories, ours included. To do well we knew we would need to bring back some of the 2005 race mojo and race to perfection. In Tartan lingo, racing perfectly means doing everything in ones arsenal to propel the team forwards: Training, recovering perfectly, using the most optimal equipment, and recruiting the best dam crew period. We knew to have the race we wanted I would need to be able to ride to the ends of the earth and back while tucked tight in the aero position. With that goal in mind, in the weeks leading up to RAO, I began commutating the 80 miles (Keizer->Corvallis and back) glued in aero bars on my lethal weapon, a Co-Motion TT bike. Did it pay off? Well, at RAO I road the Co-Motion TT bike over 2/3 the time, including the entire climb up monument.

Now before I forget, back to my commute. Until today I could honestly say I had never hit a small fuzzy animal, but today while commuting in to school that all came to an abrupt end. As the tragedy would un-roll, I was pedaling down the bike path about to merge on to highway 20 heading out towards Corvallis; with the wind at my back I was flying. Then the bushes to my right began to move, and then this gray streak of fuzzy fluffiness came darting out. It tried to run the gauntlet between my front and rear wheel under the spinning crank arms of death. But alas, what ever it was didn't make it, my rear wheel went thump, then crunch, as my fat ass distributed over a 120 PSI rear tire bore down. Almost immediately after the crunch there was a shrill cry and then glancing back the once darting grey mass was static.

It's Tartan Time!

Training Update

Tuesday

- Did a chill ride back from Corvallis to Salem, motored into a slight headwind. ~2 Hours, Hooked up with the Scott’s cycle evening ride, and kicked it for another 2 hours at TT pace.. So all and all 4+ hours and a little lactic acid..

Today (Wednesday)

Keizer->Corvallis-> Keizer Nothing to hard just light tempo.. ~80 miles ~4 hrs..

Training Update!

Two days after RAO I was ready to get back on the bike, and with Ring of Fire (12hr) and the FC 508 on the immediate horizon now is definitely not the time to be slacking.

- Wednesday 40 miles (Corvallis -> Keizer) - Road Bike No Aero Bars.

- Thursday 40 miles (Keizer -> Corvallis) - Road Bike No Aero Bars.
10 miles in evening pulling the burley dog trailer.
20 miles no dog trailer..

- Friday Rest Day

- Saturday 4 hrs (Road Bike No Aero Bars)
76+ miles (Keizer->Mt Angle->Scotts Mills->Carus (7 miles shy of Oregon City)->
Silverton -> Keizer

- Sunday 96.5 miles (Road Bike No Aero Bars)
(Keizer-> Silverton -> Silver Creek Falls-> Aumsvill -> Turner->West Salem->Keizer

Timberline

Team Tartan at Timberline with George!

Photo's From Camp

Warmsprings


Climbing Out of Maupin

RAO - Camp Redux..

Over the last couple of years the RAO race camps have become a Team Tartan staple. To win RAO one must go to camp. One can train on similar grades, similar length courses, and even simulate the entire course indoors, but no training approaches being out on the course. Unfortunately this year Team Tartan was missing in action at both the official three and four day camps.

So what to do? Well, simply plan our own unofficial race camp. As a team we have had a little experience on the RAO course in May & June, but neither of us had ever been out on the course in July and thus the weekend of the 4th of July was chosen as "Tartan Time". In planning our camp we knew we would need some help. With my crew was off in Canada and Ben's crew somewhere in the Midwest in search of the "Worlds Largest Six Pac", we would need to bring some new members into the clan or get friendly with bike trailers. Well the call went out for help and when the Caber finally hit the ground, Lisa and Ken Morton aka "The Super Llama's" had become new members of the Team Tartan clan.

The Tour

Instead of writing about the route, how we hammered till our little legs fell off, how under trained we really are, and my 16% body fat roasted in the heat; I’m going to share the big lesson we learned about the 2006 RAO.

Feel the Fire

In May & June, the RAO course can be warm. But in July the course is an inferno. We knew it was going to be hot, but it wasn't until camp we truly had an understanding for how hot it is going to be. In the morning leaving Portland it was warm, government camp was cool, a little outside Tye Valley it was 104F. Day two, it was cool in the morning 80F, by noon in the valley between service Creek & Monument it was 109F, why the sun couldn't muster 1 more degree F so we could have suffered through a more optimal 110F I do not know what I can tell you was it was by far the hottest hell I've ever ridden through.

How to handle the heat on race day? Surviving the heat on race day will take every trick in ultra-cycling race manual and then a few more. Here are a few of our observations..

1 - Hammer Nutrition - Endurolytes - Plan on bringing at least two bottles of endurolytes per rider. Ben and I were consuming roughly 50+ endurolytes PER DAY out on the course. Yes you might not dip into the second bottle but as with everything else it’s better to be prepared.

2 - Water - One can not have to little of this, both externally and internally, but again Endurolytes will be critical to avoid Hyponytrimia.

3 - Nutrition - Remember to eat in the heat even when your body says no..

4 - Hammer Nutrition - Liquid Endurance - This supplement is critical for the pre-RAO taper. Liquid Endurance increases the amount of water stored in the body allowing.

Race Strategy

During the middle of the second day I began to think about an RAO race strategy, especially a solo race strategy to mitigate the effects of the heat. What I came up with was a slightly unorthodox solo race plan; Sleep though the heat of the day. The plan would be to ride non-stop, but during the hottest part of the day 2:30 - 3:30 when it’s 100+F stop and sleep in the back of your crew's air-conditioned van. After the hour, resume the pursuit. I envision this race strategy would work very well for the solo that is just looking to finish and avoid the DNF. Remember last year approximately half the field DNF’ed so avoiding a DNF is a very respectable goal. Sleeping early in the mid day heat is strategically much better then sleeping in the evening or early morning when it’s cool. For the solo looking for a win the strategy also could work assuming a mid day snooze would result in a evening and day two increase in average speed of 1 mph over the competitors who road non-stop through the heat.

Team Tartan’s Goals

Much has been written about Team Tartan’s RAO race goals. Some if it’s right on, and some misses the mark slightly. Yes, Team Tartan would like to do well. Yes, we had a fantastic performance last year at both RAO and the Fireweed 400. Yes, we have had some success in a few early season time trials. But for as for RAO, our big goal here is to just ride a race that’s fun. In my case my graduate school work has left me with less pre-RAO training time then I would have optimally liked and Ben’s training schedule this year has been focused on goals other then RAO. Who will be first to the top, if I were to guess I’d put money on the sharks, the two recumbent teams should be next. For the two man race if I were a wagering man, I’d put Computrained first as I’ve ridden before with them, closely followed by Dik-Dik, not so closely followed by Team Tartan who might be down to a single rider. The Canabiles will most likely be late as they will be waylayed on catching and eating me. With my glutes are now nicely marbled at 16%, I’m expecting Bill Nicholi will be handing me a seasoning packet at the pre-race meeting.

Interested in riding the RAO course on the 4th?

Team Tartan's been talking about doing a "Elite" RAO tour/training camp on the weekend of the 4th of July. If anyone out there would be interested in participating drop me a email. Tentatively the plan would be to do a full, 3 day tour of the course but it might be as little as 2 or as many as 4 nothings definite. Ideally we would like to arrange a primitive sag, the plan here would be for everyone to chip in enough to give the driver a thank you.

So if you'd be interested in getting out on the course and training with us drop me a email and/or if you have a friend/significant other who would like to crew then definitely get in contact with me..

-- Kenneth

Weight Frustrations

So today I got my body composition analyzed by the cool kids over in the physiology lab and wow do I feel like a fatty. The measurement device was the bod pod, basically it's a combination of fancy formulas, air displacement, lung volume, weight, and height. The testing protocol requires subjects to abstain from eating and exercise for 2 hours prior to the testing protocol. The devices is considered to have a standard deviation of approximately 2% body fat, which is about half what calipers provide, and a little greater then hydrostatic weighing.

On to the numbers:

• Height 6' 2" – No surprise here..
• At 10:45 AM I weighted in at 175.5 lbs ( last meal/fluid was dinner the night before)
• Calculated Total Lean Weight – 147.1 lbs - 83.8%
• Calculated Fat Weight - 28.4 lbs - 16.2%

One standard deviation for the measurement device is 2% body fat so with a 68% confidence my true % body fat falls some where between 14.2% and 18.2%. Aka I'm a fatty.

In all seriousness I've been feeling good about my power and weight, but, after this I'm not so sure. Ideally I'd like my body fat to be somewhere between 12 and 10%. I would feel much better if my bod pod results had come back 4% lower.

Training Update and Misc Thoughts..

Too many things to do today.
- Lifted Tuesday.
- Rollers last night 1 hr. Right now I feel like a sloth.
- Plan on doing another hour on the rollers today, with exam's that’s unfortunately all I have time for.

- Oh well. Only 2 weeks till a Spring Break, at this point it can't come fast enough. I'm debating on going down to CA for some training and good weather. Anyone out there have any multiday 100+ mile day route suggestion's that would bounce between motels?

- In the good news department! Outlined my program of study yesterday with my masters advisor and if everything goes perfect I'll graduate with my masters at the end of next academic year! My last quarter is designed to be as light as possible. But we will have to see how this complicates RAAM. Right now my last quarter consists of one real class finishing my master’s thesis and two other token courses.

Ideally if all the cycling camps keep there present dates and if RAAM’s a reality next year for me, I really want to make it out to another AZ PAC tour, the Brevet PAC, and at least one of the RAO camps.

Life’s always complicated, but that’s ok cause,

It’s Tartan Time!

Alsea and Back - Sun 3/12/2006

Woke up feeling sorta tired today, feeling like I'm bordering on overtraining, I strongly debated taking the day off. But by 2:00 PM the sun streaming in was just too much and soon the spandex was on and I was out the door. The plan today was simple out and back to Alsea, nothing too long, just lots of climbing. Heading up HWY 34 the mid week snow was still clearly visible on the sides of the road, but the road surface was thankfully clear. Up over to Alsea and back, then it was back in via Decker Road on the OSU TT course. Heading back in I ran into Mark Newsom, of RAO Total Carnage fame, and we road back in together ultra shop. Today I didn't feel as good as the previous day and I think the next week will be a little mellower ala recovery week.

Long over due training update

Last week, 3/4/2006 – Didn’t get out till late in the afternoon ended up doing the Decker Loop, ~1.5 hrs. Then later in the evening jumped on the rollers and power cranks putting in another 2 hrs while watching a movie.

3/5/2006 – Felt like I wanted to get some serious miles in, got out on the road a little after 10 AM, took Kings Valley down to Dallas, then took HWY 22 to Salem, from Salem I went out to Silverton, then stopped off at my parents place to refill the water bottles before riding back to Corvallis. Riding Time 7-8 hrs, 131.58 miles. On getting back I grabbed a pizza and passed out.

3/6/2006 – Sunny Chilly afternoon, road out to Marry’s Peak, got 2 miles from the summit before hitting impassible snow. Turned around and started down. As I decended Marry’s the weather changed, the wind kicked up and it began to snow. The decent was utterly miserable. Returned back to Corvallis via the Decker loop. Ride time 3 - 4 hrs.

3/7/2006 – Took a day off, and just lifted.

3/8/2006 – Recovery day

3/9/2006 – Got on the rollers and power cranks in the evening for another 2 hr stint.

3/10/2006 – Didn’t get back from the lab till late, after dinner even later, got on the rollers and power cranks for 1.5 hrs.

3/11/2006 – Didn’t get out till a little after noon, went out and back to Dallas on the kings valley loop. Ride Time 4.5 hrs, mileage just a tad over 80. On getting back, downed a recovery smoothie, passed out, woke up 2.5 hrs later and ate a late dinner. I’m a tad frustrated with my fitness as is. I keep thinking about last June when I had un-ending endurance. Oh well, thank goodness the big events are all a little later this year.

OSU/OU - Team Ride

Two weeks or so ago (2/25/2006) UO trucked up here for a good ole fashion meet the team ride. The plan for the day had been to rendezvous at the Bean, Corvallis, and then ride the OSU road course. Normally we depart around 10, but noon had been settled upon as it would make the duck migration a little more relaxed. Well, the beavers were all at the bean at noon, but the ducks they were over an hour late! Was it the migration, or are they just lazy, I don’t know but come race day we won’t be waiting.

Team UO, while punctuality might not be a strong suit was impressive in size and support. Team UO arrived fully decked out in their new race kits looking very impressive, the OSU kits are still in the process of production. I'd thought the OSU team was fairly strong in size but compared to the quacks we are tiny. UO team has a full woman’s team and men's A, B, and C squad. In addition to riders, UO arrived with support! Yes support, a wheel wagon driven by the official UO race mom.

With the late departure, the ride plans were modified, instead of doing 3+ laps of the Decker loop race course the plan was changed, 2-laps. The plan was to chill out to Decker, once at Decker it would be a hammer fest up the climb then the group would re-group at the summit and rinse lather and repeat. For me, the intensity of the ride out to the base of Decker was chill to light tempo, then the assault up the climb left me gasping as the real climbers spun their cranks. Once the re-grouped at the summit the tune for the second lap was much the same as the first. Not wanting to completely shatter my legs, I fell off the lead groups while spinning up the climb on lap two. At the top and we again re-grouped and then the respective teams split up. Some of the UO riders dropped down to repeat the climb again, the rest of us and the majority of the UO team just turned around to head back in.

Descending back down Decker, I decided to open the legs up a bit. As our resident team beef cake, 6'2" 177 lbs, I lead the decent. Flying down Decker we caught, passed, and shelled the returning UO riders, before dropping our pace to a more reasonable rate. Once back the plan was for the OSU A-Team, Murdock, BA, and Face, to switch into TT gear and regroup at the cycling pad. In TT gear on TT bikes we road out for what will hopefully be the first of many team TT practices. Team TT's are tricky and very different from individual TTs. The speed and intensity of team TT’s can be higher due to drafing, but drafting also adds a whole host of complications. Our initial pass at the course was very promising but also indicated there is work to be done here too. So much training so little time.

Once back in for the day, I downed a Hammer Pro Whey recovery smoothie, drove up to my parents place for dinner and final preparation for the following days adventure the Jack Frost-TT.

Overall Day Rating: Hard
Intenisty: High
Road dace training length: Medium
Ultra Distance training length: Low

Coming Attractions:
- Jack Frost TT
- Training Update

Cherry Pie Race Report

Cherry pie, huge fields, lots of friendly faces, a little wind, and smattering of climbing. Going in I expected the fields were going to be big but what I hadn’t expected was the strong collegiate turnout. Yeah, at least in the cat IV field it was almost a pre-season collegiate race, with almost everyone making a strong showing, Idaho, Whitman, UO, and Montana. I have to say it was quite sad to have a race so close to home and still be outnumbered by riders from MONTANA let alone the 20+ riders from Whitman.

On to the racing, going into the race Erik and I had a plan, ride near the front, hide from the wind for the first lap, and then on lap two around the time we reached the hills light things up as best we could. With just two of us covering breaks wasn’t really going to be much of an option and anyway with the wind the success rate here looked rather questionable at best. With a shout of “Go”, the group rolled out. For the first lap the group more or less just chilled. At some point our pace dipped down pathetically nearing 17mph, a few attacks were launched but nothing stuck. The only real point of interest was during the brief section of climbing on the first lap a rider dressed all in black, launched an attack over the yellow line up the climb. While I’m not sure an official saw it the pack wasn’t exactly too impressed.

Being a two lap circuit race, the second lap was undoubtedly going to be a little more interesting. Entering the second lap, an attack was launched first by the rider dressed all in back and then a few moments later by a UO rider. Since we were heading back into the wind, the pack again waved them both off. After a few miles, still heading into the wind, the UO rider was sucked back up. The wheel car eventually bridged up to support the lone rider out on a breakaway. With about a ¾ a mile separating us, Erik and I organized the front of the cat IV field into a pace line to pull back the pesky breakaway, after a few minutes at a higher tempo everyone was back together again. At the base of the hills the field surged as a few of the teams with truly big flatland riders launched themselves. Then heading up the first climb there was a crash. Go figure, crashing at 13 mph riding up hill. Cresting the climb the field split and regrouped numerous times as riders attacked on the decent and into the final climb. Cresting and descending the final climb the lead group had shrunk down to maybe 20 or so riders. At this point all that remained was a tail wind sprint, with no team making an effort to up the pace the field was locked into position. Then at with about two miles to go things got jumpy, and about a mile out a rider near the back went down hard. Being in front, Erik went on to a top 10 finish, way to go Erik! Being right behind the pavement bound rider I cruised in right behind the lead group.

In further news, it looks like the 2006 Cat IV Cherry Pie Road race most likely will truly go down as a training race, as the entire field was disqualified.. See below, IMO the crash caused the centerline violation..

Hi all,

Due to camera problems, results from Cherry Pie will not be posted until late Monday at the earliest. Assistance will be needed to place the entire field.

Also, the category 4 field was DQ'd for violating the 200 meter mark.
Results for the category 4 field will not be posted at all.

I'm sure details will follow from Candi Murray or another official.
Please don't email me about this because I have no additional details
- I'm just the messenger.

Thanks,
Cheryl

Typing from the Freezer..

Ok, so it’s not that cold, UNLESS your sitting up at the RAO Finish aka Timberline with George where according to the weather women it’s currently 4oF. Yeah, thank goodness I’m down here in tropical Corvallis, OR where it is a balmy 25oF. So riding down here this week has been mixed, Monday was a rest day, and Tuesday I got into the gym and lifted and then hit the rollers for an hour and a half. Then Wednesday, back when the weather was just peachy and took the extended Kings Valley loop down to Monmouth and them came back north via Albany road which worked out to a little over 3 hrs. The weather was sweet and the ride was sweeter. Thursday, exams took crazy precedence over training, then the world changed, as it got cold and Friday, I road around and just chilled with some of the team, yeah chilled.

Spinning it on the Sunny side, Surf's Up.

Holly Smokes Batman, this last weekend the weather was just AWESOME! I never thought I'd be shouting the praise of high pressure, but this last weekend it worked wonders. A high pressure region came in, blanked Oregon, resulting in weather more characteristic of late Spring then early February. Unfortunately in the it's too good to be true department, it is February and the weather women are saying that we might get snow in the valley this next week, just in time for Cherry Pie. But, enough about all that, so what sort of wicked training runs went down this last weekend?

Going into the weekend I'd been feel a little knee/leg buzz. After the RAO 2004 debacle, I'm sensitive to it and really try and listen to my body. So with that in mind this weekend I opted to skip the Beaver hammer sessions and just do my own thing. Saturday, with the awesome weather I thought it would be fun to try some new routes so I threw the bike in the back of the Jetta, zipped out to Newport, and hit the road from there. Not sure if I should go north or south, I opted for the northern route and headed up along the highway towards Lincoln city. Bouncing off of Lincoln city, stopping off a lighthouse, the ride ended up being ~60 miles, nothing too big but riding on the coast is fun. The only real bummer was traffic. Heading north the traffic just got worse and worse in hind sight it makes since the blasted Casinos are all up north. But the traffic also had a welcome upside, can you say “beach Jeep hotties”, I can!

On getting back, I spent some quality time on the foam roller, ate a pizza, and started fiddling with the bike shoes. I'd first started fiddling with my shoes back in November. Having been on the cleats since a little before RAO the cleats were starting to show there age. My attempt to unscrew the cleat bolts from the shoes was an utter failure the cleat bolts had sized. The end result of this was after a little over a year my Sidi's had become disposable and it was time to order new shoes. But what to do in the mean time? Well, after placing the order for the new shoes, I suddenly remembered the old pair I had in the back of the closet. I figured I could use the old ones till the new shoes showed up. The old shoes definitely didn’t feel as good, but they worked, after the new shoes showed up I decided to stay on the old ones through the bad weather, for there was no reason to prematurely destroy the new ones. Well with the knee buzz it was time to switch back.

Sunday, I had a meeting with my master’s advisor scheduled for 4:00 so there was a pre-sunset constraint on the ride. I hit the road right around 11:00. Initially I had thought I might ride the Alsea falls loop, hitting the metropolis of Philomath I paused briefly to adjust my saddle height and in the process snapped my seat post bolt! SHIT! DAM! The ride plans changed then and there. Back to my apartment all out of the saddle, 1.5 cheese sandwiches and new seat post bolt and I was back on the road. This time on hitting Philomath, I wasn’t sure I’d have time for the Alsea loop so I opted for the king valley loop. The idea was that if time started to become scarce this route had multiple options for an early exit. I should have known that with the great weather there would be no turning back. On getting to the first turn off spot, I said no way, on the second spot, I didn’t even contemplate it and soon I was in Monmouth. I briefly headed back north on 99, then there was a brief back track on the standard KV loop, up and over the saddle and back to the cycling crib with 10 minutes to spare. I chugged a Hammer Pro-Whey Recovery Smoothie, grabbed my data, and was off to my meeting. Later, in the evening for further recovery I spent some quality time with the Compex Sport. The newly shimmed shoes felt like butter. Daily mileage 80 on the nose.

Plans for Monday? - Recovery day, there will be some foam rollering, possibly a little time in the weight room, maybe a brief stint in the hot tub, and lots of time with the books.

Laters, It’s Tartan Time

Super bowl Sunday!

Super bowl Sunday has to be one of my favorite days to ride. What better time to be on the road then when everyone is home for the blasted game. Rumor was Sunday was going to be nice so the Alsea Falls loop had been called. Departing from the Bean a little after 10:30 we pace lined out to the base of the climb up 34 to the Mary’s cut off. Today's crew was slightly more select, ok much more select then the normal club rides and with that I was left to cling to the back of the group holding on for dear life as we climbed up the first climb of the day, ~1,200ft. I snapped off just shy of the summit. After a brief pause so one of the guys could tighten a loose water bottle cage, it was down to Alsea. Fish launched himself down the decent like there were naked podium girls awaiting in Alsea. I tucked, spun the cranks a little, tucked some more and then was on and passed Fish’s wheel. Fish grabbed my wheel and then the two of us launched a little breakaway down to Alsea. Once in Alsea it was a left up into the Lobster Valley. Heading into the Lobster valley the road starts out with a very gradual climb which in the end becomes rather beastly. Again I popped off the back, now for the record, I think I’m riding quite strong it’s just humbling to train with cat 2’s. I didn’t end up catching back on till we were back down on Belfountain. From Belfountain it was back in on the good ole NWTTS course and then home. By the end the intensity had relegated my legs to their own unique land of pain.

Getting back in it was time for another hammer pro whey smoothie this time I used a recipe I found on the Nancy’s Yogurt web site, it was ok but not great. Hammer Pro Whey, Yogurt, Cinnamon, Banana, Orange, blend till smooth, and enjoy.

Hello February

YAHOO! I hope I'm not speaking too soon, but February is starting out quite nicely... The rain dare I say, has been holding off which is good I guess cause I was beginning to think I was going to need a propeller for my bike. Ok so on to training. This last week was a little crazy, ala the silence on the blog front.. But between studying for exams, and well studying for exams, I did managed to log a few hrs..

Last week
Monday: Rest Day
Tuesday: ~45 min on the rollers
Wednesday: ~1 another hr on the rollers hmm...
Thursday: ~1 hr on the rollers & lifted
Friday: 1.5 hrs on the TT bike outside then 2 hrs on the rollers.
Saturday: Ok so it has rained this month.. Went out to kick it with the team a little, and wow the weather was just down right miserable.. After 1.5 hrs came back in and did another 1.5 on the rollers.

Wett Weekends & Happy Lunar New Year!

January cannot end soon enough. Don't get me wrong. January as been a great month in terms of fitness, training, and what not. But at this point I'm ready for a day of spring weather. Is it to much to ask for the rain to taper down just a bit? The crazy thing these days has been all the standing water. Weeks ago that the ground saturated itself and thus these days any even infinitesimal degree of precipitation results in flooding. My guess is February is going to continue the pattern January has set forth.

So lets see the weekend riding update:

Saturday - Did the Bean Beaver ride - As always we kicked it out from the bean just a tad shy of 10, and then cruised through the Kings Valley Loop, doing the loop in reverse starting out heading north first. Weather? Need I say anything here, wind & rain. In fairness the rain was sort of off and on so it could have been worse and I actually appreciated the wind. The wind was an ability equalizer, enabling those who wanted to work hard to do so while others could sit in the slipstream. On the way back, still feeling like the legs needed a tad more I spun off from the group and brought it back in along Decker. All and all today was just a tad more then four hours.

On getting back it was time for a recovery smoothie, I really like these.
Recovery Meal: Hammer Pro Whey Fruit Smoothie (1+ scoop hammer pro whey,
peaches (From a can put there by a man)
1 fresh orange pealed
1 banana also pealed
1/2 cup low fat plain yogurt)
blend and enjoy..

Dinner: 1 Large Mediterranean Pizza + Salad.

Sunday - Saturday we had a huge turnout, but Sunday the turnout was back to the three of us who will ride no matter what. Becky said that makes us all hardcore. There is a chance the numbers were down as people were still recovering from the previous days ride, or it could have been because the weather outside was down right horrible, perfect for the Paris Roubaix but lousy for training. The weather dictated a abbreviated training plan; the KV loop in the normal direction. Alex, lead Becky and I out and once over the first real climb we all motored trading off work at the front. Bringing it back the route took us over a few sand and gravel roads. Normal S&G roads are really not all that bad. But today with all the rain, the sand had the consistency of saltwater taffy and between that and the wind the bikes climbed at a snails pace. Once back on the main road it was up and over the saddle and back in. Ride Time: A little over three hours

Recovery Meal: Hammer Pro Whey Fruit Smoothie, (see above)

Recovery Plan tonight: The plan for tonight is power up the Compex Sport unit and go over most of the body with the active recovery program.

Happy Lunar New Year, it might be the year of the dog in China but in the NW it’s going to be the year of the Beaver..