day 3, recovery day

Sorry if some of my sentences don’t make sense, today or the past few entry’s, if there seems to be more typos than normal. Its busy and I’m tired. I tell you what pro’s DO NOT have an easy job. 6 hr rides fill the day up pretty fast. 1hr to get ready before, 1hr after to stretch, message, and eat. That’s 8 hrs. and if your doing that 9hrs of sleep is a bare minimum.
nice slow pace today. Still 5200 feet of climbing but we all kept it pretty easy. Its amazing riding with a group a guys who are ALL amazing riders. I mean people that really know how to ride well. Some think, “its riding a bike, I have been doin that since I was 6”, while they adjust there belt below there gut a little. But even the athlete thinks this some times. I can ride! I did 5:10 at lake placid Ironman. Yeah that’s great. those people are very strong and talented. What I mean is, for example, we headed out on a steadying rolling terrain but gaining altitude. We averaged over 20mph and my HR never went over 145. Never. And I’m saying this to say I’m super strong. Or that my teammates are. The pace line was just so smooth. No wasted energy, no accelerations, slinging shooting each other up little hills, it all adds up. It doesn’t seem like you are going any faster it certainly wasn’t hard, but the momentum never stops and never slows. We did 17.9 mph today and I feel great. There is something to be said for technique on the bike and it more than your pedal stroke. Teammate spotlight:Jay Baer: cat 1, lives in VT. This guy is dangerously unassuming. Real nice guy. Always has this little smile on his face like he knows something you don’t. And I’mstarting to think he does? . Dark hair and facile hair. Riding slow this trip as he is looking at a long, long season of racing and looking to be in top form later in the season. Many of you may have read my race report on the ½ ironman I did with about 3 weeks of training after my road racing season. Pretty cool huh, I’m a bad ass, right? This guy did an Ironman 1 week after his racing season and pulled down a 10:30! This guy is the real deal. 10 years of racing and riding and over 100,000 miles! That’s consistency for yah.. He doesn’t talk about races he won or almost won, and with his crooked right leg, heal sticking out and skinny biker arms, you would never know it. But this guy is not only efficient and strong but smart. You don’t win pro-1-2 races on strength. You’ve got to be strong and smart and he got it both. I am pumped to be riding with him, and everyone else, this week. I will learn a lot. And that started today actually. My descending skills are really bad so to day we did a few descents with me leading everyone else behind riding the breaks and Jay Baer behind talking me through it. I’m already better. Can’t wait for tomorrow.

10,000 feet

today we set out for a 6 gap killer. Only 85 miles though. Well, off the bat I will mention that much like the day before our fearless leader "Jay bear” whom has been here before, miss calculated again. The ride turned into 97 miles with just shy of 10,000’ feet of vertical gain. If you don’t know how much that is. Its like that hardest Tour D’ France mt. stage ever!! Well maybe not but pretty hard. first climb same as yesterday. Second not so long 2-3 miles not so steep 5%. So far riding easy level 3, - level 3. third climb. 6 miles not so steep in the beginning. Then kicked upa bit mare 6% with a few pitches of 7-8. and we hammered! Kicking up the pace hard. Jay-Baer and Joe dropped off quickly due to there training. So it was Beerman me and Eric Person. After a strong long pull from Eric I came through and Beerman was dropped but still close behind eric and I traded pulls keeping the pace high 15 MPH or so. faster if the grade eased a bit slower if it kicked up. in the last mile my HR was 190 or so. And I was in that 4+ level andin full flight. I didn’t fell super, the drive down was still in me. After yet another great decent we stopped for some eats and water and were off again. Andrew Knight, founder of the team and fantastic cyclist was down for the ride today. He turned off early to head back to Atlanta. The real job has been keeping off the bike guite a bit this yr. we headed out to the approach to Brass town ball. This one started to get into the legs after only a couple of miles. Then straight down, yes another great decent! Hard right hand turn and up another one. 4-5 miles 5-6% on this one and kept in tempo (level 3) as we had the last. 10 miles after that we hit the final climb, Hog Pen Gap. I have done some hard climbs in my time and this one may have been the hardest. 7 miles, and the last 4 were at lest 10-12 percent the whole time. Then it rolled a bit with some more climbing to really put the nail in the coffin. Killer. my legs buckled under the presser. I could barley turn them over. And the pain wasn’t sweet. It was that rusty, your in over your head pain. I will say that the car drive was to blame but I will also admit that the blistering pace we set mid ride was surly to blame as well. The decent was the fastest and longest I had been on. 2 guys in the group hit over 60. In the last 8 miles on the flats we fell into a pace line and knocked out the last 30’. Not hard just an honest “lest get home” pace. 23 MPH avg or so. Home was a pleasant sight. The short climb to get there wasn’t. tomorrow will feature a shorter easy ride and I will welcome it. Only 2 days and I am kicked. off to bed I have 8 hours of sleep to catch up on!

the ride

Day one, 3-11-06. Well, we're here. we drove all through the nite. Which wasn’t so bad. 5 guys trading off 2-3 hr shifts pretty smooth. The sucky part was not being able to sleep. That blew. We had the back bench laid out of one to sleep well. I finally grabed it in the the am hours which was well needed. So after we finally got here we did some unloading and headed out for a “loosen up ride”. after 30’ hit the a climb not so bad 20 minutes or so we kept it pretty chill, level 3 or so HR was around 170, maybe higher if I stood up for a section. Felt good. After we all regrouped at the top we flew down the nicest decent I have ever been down! Banked turns!! There are lots of motorcycle riders out here as well. The Harley kind and the crotch rocket kind, and I can see why. the roads are truly amazing and the seanery matches. I got a lot of “Deliverance” jokes before I came down here, and we have definitely seen that abit, but, all in all the people are amazing and drivers very respectful, roads you dream about and breathtaking scenery. So we are all very happy. The nick names have already stated. Joe our team manager and maybe one of the strongest most talented rides around is now know as 140. he has the name due to his strick training program this winter. He is not allowed to have his HR go over 140. Ever. And if you meet Joe it wouldn’t take you long to realize that he is a very meticulous and detailed man. So 140 it is. Ok back our ride the 2 hr leg loosener that turned into 4. After the drive and then the ride on which no food was brought we were pretty kicked. Dinner was large and the hot tub, yes HOT TUB, was wellcome. It will be our savoir this week.
140 made dinner and it was great. More tomorrow!!

getting ready to turn it up

I have had a nice relaxing week off looking at my new bike! Check out the pic.
it is sow nice. Its been a bit tempting to go out and hammer but I have been pretty tired after last weeks training. Really tired. We all know the importance of resting however some times you need to take it to the extreme. The road racing season is long, hard and unforgiving. A friend of mine told me awhile back that after a hard winter of training a long time off is really important,"yeah yeah" I said "I take some rest weeks." "No, he said total off the bike. Don't look at it until all you can think about is riding! It keeps you up at night, and your heart rate jumps up with the slightest thought of racing!"
I woke up last nite sweating. I had some dream can't remember any details really some one was yelling encouragement at me from a car and I was in full time trial mode. I had to go watch TV for 30 minutes and calm down at 2am. so... I think rest time is served!
We head out tomorrow for GA. I can't wait. 7 days of nothing but training, eating, and more training. Through in some good company, bad movies and a some hot tube time, that's my idea of time away from work!! I have been training well. nothing crazy but allways working on specific areas. Many of my weaknesses and keeping my strengths my strengths. just slowly improving and getting ready for this trainning camp so that i can come out of it strong and not begging for mercy. This trip will feature lots of climbing. And lots of miles. There are sure to be some days with 8000+ feet of vertical. I'll be posting everyday with pictures, well trying to, so check it out. Also I will have specific details of the rides and training in my "training log" in my links!

Things to come

No comments on the Tyler post, I though for sure I would get something. Well, moving on. Things are really coming along now. Job is good. Coaching is really coming along as well. In early March my cycling team is headed south for an intensive training camp in the mountains of an undisclosed location. I am not sure what internet access I will have but I will do my best to give you daily updates and pictures. It's sure to be a week oflong miles and lots of uphill suffering. Don't miss it!
Which reminds me. Awhile back someone wrote in saying that I should get a publicists. Well I don't. I need a spell checker! The team I ride for is not the team of the jacket in which I was given. The Louis Garneau team is now Kenda/ Raleigh racing. I was asked to be on the team in the early winter months and am very excited and honored. Especially after the season they had last yr!
The jacket is acutely pretty nice. I ware it on the coldest days. Tomorrow should be one of them. But if you were focused on the actual "jacket" then you missed the point. However, thanks for reading and sending your comments I love them all.

I am healing up well from my surgery and feeling strong again on the bike. (see my training log for details). The team is getting more organized and we are now planning on who will be peaking for what times of the summer. I get really pumped every time I start thinking about it. hammer up hills with thoughts of leading out our team leader for the day up the finaly climb of the day. I can't wait to race, I just can't wait!

Thanks for checking in.