First ride on the new CompuTrainer.

I picked up my new CompuTrainer Lab trainer yesterday afternoon.  I set it up, got everything running then jumped on it and did a 3 mile course and a 0.5 mile course to make sure everything was working properly.  I wouldn’t really call that a ride though.

This morning I got out of bed about 6:00 so I would have time to give it a real try.  I decided to try out the Sea Otter race course.  The course is 21.8 miles and has a good bit of climbing.  I figured this would be a nice test for it.  I was instantly amazed by this trainer, it is the least boring trainer I have ever been on.  In a way it actually makes training fun.  The flats are about like any trainer, the downhills are completely different though, it’s actually a lot like riding downhill.  The hills, now they are tough!  I couldn’t believe it but at times I was looking for an easier gear, unfortunately I didn’t have it though.  Some of the climbs were close to 16% and they actually felt like it.

By the time I finished I had ridden 20.8 miles in 81 minutes, burned 983 calories with an average heart rate of 149 bpm.  I had a terrible average wattage though, it was 205 watts.  I’m definitely out of shape.  According to the computrainer I had 4,866 feet of climbing.  It was definitely pretty cool!

All in all I have to say that I believe the computrainer is going to be a great investment for me.  I think it is going to help motivate me to get some training done.  I still have a lot to learn with it though.

Here is a picture of my setup.  In the future I will have a dvd playing on the second monitor.  Today I wanted to focus on the computrainer.

Survived another spin class.

Last night I made it to spin class, I don’t know how though, I was barely able to walk in the building. The only thing that helped me through was that the trainer that had me do all those god forsaken lunges was almost as sore as I was. It’s good to know that they didn’t just hurt me.

Anyway, he is the one that leads the spin class so I couldn’t back out. If I did he would make fun of me and call me names. I just can’t handle that.

I was able to make it through the spin class. It hurt quite a bit towards the beginning, then towards the middle it started to hurt about the same amount, at the end it let up to the point where it didn’t hurt any more or any less than it did when I started.    Unfortunately my legs wouldn’t let me get my heart rate up like I did in my previous session.  I maxed out around 165 bpm which is still in my zone 4.  I was able to burn close to 800 calories though so it wasn’t a complete loss.  The worst part was at the end when he had us do squat for 30 seconds, then another 30 seconds, then one more for 45 seconds. If I had hair I would have pulled it out at that point, I couldn’t have made it much longer.

Once I made it home I had a hamburger to give me a little protein, plus I hadn’t eaten nearly enough calories yesterday. After that I started watching the movie Hot Rod until I fell asleep. I woke up this morning still sore, decided that a day away from the gym will be a good thing. I will be leaving work early today to help with the Secret Santa bikes. Our bike club needs to build around 450 bikes this weekend. Should be fun, but I probably won’t be able to work out at all today.

The gremlins are trying to kill me!

I was actually able to get a couple of hours of sleep last night, sort of suprised me.  Everytime I moved I felt like I had a gremlin in my legs with a jagged knife and a rusty old pair of pliers cutting and ripping at my quads.  When I did finally decide to get up I almost collapsed, the level of pain in my legs was amazing.  However, none of this pain compared to when I tried lowering myself on to the toilet for my morning visit to the library.  I was almost in tears!

By the time I made it to the gym I was convinced that I was nuts, not nearly as convinced as my wife though.  I managed to suffer through 30 minutes on the elliptical machine thinking that it might loosen me up a little.  It worked for a little while but it didn’t last.  By the time I made it out of the shower the pain was back.  The 1/4 mile walk from my truck to my office just about killed me.  The gremlins were back!

Tonights spinning class is going to suck!

I met Satan today, and he sucks!

Okay, I think I met Satan today. He is the trainer at the gym / sponsor of our race team for next year. I ride with him quite a bit, go to his spin classes and hang out with him from time to time. Generally a very nice guy, at least until today.

I get to the gym and they are getting ready to have a group workout thing. He tells me to jump in so I decided to give it a try. It wasn’t really the type workout that I was after but figured what the heck, a nice rest day would be nice. Afterall, it was just a few women and a couple of older (heavier) gentlemen.

Satan (aka Jeremy) hands me two 30 pound dumb bells. He gives everyone else 15 – 25 pounders. I figured how good of a workout could anyone get with 30 pound weights, boy did I find out. The workout conisted of curls, military presses, lunges, and sumo squats. It started off doing one of each, lunges one each leg. Next set was two of each, etc, etc. The goal was to make it to ten of each exercise. By the time I made it to four my legs were starting to cramp up. Five was miserable, six I was seeing stars. At eight all I could do was think about how evil that SOB was. I hated life. I didn’t make it to ten. He let me stop at eight, well not exactly stop. Next I did seven, then six, then five, etc, etc.

Needless to say, by the time we were finished I would have loved to have had some five pound weights. Those thirty pounders felt like they weighed 100 pounds each. I dreaded each time he finished his set and handed me the weights.

Once I finished I jumped on the treadmill a few minutes to stretch out a little then I took a shower. After the shower I sat down and I thought my legs were going to fall off. I could barely get out of the chair. My legs were shaking, trying to cramp. I did finally get up and somehow managed to walk to my truck. Getting in it was a real challenge, if that wasn’t bad enough each time I pushed in the clutch I felt like screaming. I finally made it to my parking spot at work. Next challenge, walk 1/4 mile from my parking spot to the office. Somehow I made it but I cursed Satan out every step of the way.

Right now I am setting in my chair in ten different types of pain. I can’t wait for my next workout. The only thing I look forward to more is the next time we head out for a road ride, I’m picking the route!

Cheat Mountain Challenge ride report

Yesterday was the third annual Cheat Mountain Challenge at Snowshoe, WV. The ride started at 8:00 am at the bottom of the mountain. To get there we rode about six miles from the hotel for a nice, chilly “warm up”.

At 8:00 the riders were off. I made my way up to about the front 30 during the one mile flat warm up. Next we started a climb that was approximately three miles. Once we started down I saw one person crashed over the hill. He was moving around and appeared fine but I have no idea how he crashed. Next was a nice long descent followed by some nice rolling terrain. I had managed to get into a paceline of around 20 – 30 cyclists. We kept out pace line going for the most part until about the 55 mile point.

Up until the 56 mile mark we had done about 4,000 feet of climbing and had averaged 19.9 mph. Now was when the real climbing started. This climb lasted for 12 miles and was by far the longest climb I had ever done. By the time I finished it, about an hour and fifteen minutes later I was ready to die. I kept going though. Now was a nice descent which let me know that I really need some new tires. The tubulars I am running have some flat spots that are really noticeable over 40 miles. On top of that there were some strong crosswinds which made things sketchy running the 404’s. I kept my speed under 50 mph just to try to remain safe.

The next climb was about four miles long. About one mile into this climb my right inner thigh cramped up almost to the point of being locked up. I was able to slowly spin it out and survive the climb. One guy there with a temperature gauge on his computer said it was about 92 going up this climb on the scenic highway. I managed to finish this climb and kept going. Next was another nice downhill. Unfortunately the cross winds were so bad I had to keep my speed under 40 mph and it was still sketchy.

After the downhill and we got off of the scenic highway we had about 17 miles to go before we started the final climb. This was just rolling terrain that should have been pretty easy. Well at mile 87 my day changed. Both of my inner thighs cramped up to the point of being locked up. I barely made it off of the bike and had to just stand there beating my thighs and massaging them for five minutes. I finally got to the point that I could get back on the bike. For the rest of the ride I was going to have to baby them. At this point I honestly didn’t know if I was going to be able to finish. If they cramped up like that again I was just going to lay beside the road until someone either picked me up or a bear ate me. I honestly didn’t care which at this point.

Every little climb I did hurt at this point, every flat hurt, every downhill even tried to put me back into a cramp. I made it to the final rest area at the bottom of Snowshoe Mountain, this was the 99 mile mark. The “only” thing left was a seven mile climb up to the top of the mountain. I decided to go for it. The only way I could ride it was stay seated for 30 seconds, stand up for 15 seconds. This seemed to keep the cramps manageable. It hurt like hell but I was able to finish!

The Charleston Wheelers did an awesome job of putting this ride together. They also had an amazing “roaming mechanic”. He (Jason Means) is one of the best wrenches in the state and I imagine he saved quite a few riders.

My final time was 6:41, 6:30 ride time. I finished 27th out of 167 registered riders. The total distance (including “warm up”) was 114 miles with 10,480 feet of climbing. I have to admit, this was the most difficult thing I have ever done on a bike.

Zoar, Ohio race recap – aka, how I got my butt handed to me.

Clif note version – I raced, I got dropped, I got back on, I got dropped, I got back on, I got dropped, I got back on, I didn’t win.

Full version:

Yesterday I realized what it is like to enter a race when you haven’t been training. I have been doing plenty of riding, but absolutely no training. Big difference come to find out. Oh, I had also been sick the three days prior to the race, as long as I’m going to throw out excuses I’m going to use them all!!!

The weather this past week has been perfect, a little hot but perfect none the less. Well, that all changed as we drove to the race. By the time we got to the race it was absolutely pouring. It was to the point that we thought about just turning around and heading home, they could keep our pre-registration money. It just wasn’t worth it. We decided to go ahead and drive the course before making our decision though. We drove the course and checked out the two climbs, nothing too bad. Each lap was ten miles with two climbs. We had to do four laps. This wouldn’t be to bad.

We got dressed, lined up and the race started. There were only 16 of us in the cat 4’s due to the weather. At the time it wasn’t raining. That lasted about ten minutes.   We get underway and myself and a couple of others up the pace from the start. Might as well test out the legs a little. Within ten minutes one guy is off the front. I start to go with him but then decide otherwise. I thought it was just too early. After this I was still feeling pretty good. The first climb was pretty uneventful but I have to admit, the climbs did hurt a little.

Second lap I decided to see what would happen if I took off on the second climb. Well, what happened was everyone took my wheel. Another thing happened, I found out that I wasn’t feeling as good as I had previously thought. My legs were gone. I managed to stick with the group but it hurt! When we got to the top of the climb it was raining so hard that everyone agreed to a neutral descent. That was probably a good thing. Then the second climb came, I got dropped! After the climb I fought as hard as I could for about five minutes to get back on. My legs were screaming.

Third lap, first climb I managed to almost hold on but I did get dropped. I fought about three minutes and caught back onto the back. At this point there were only ten of us plus the solo breakaway. Second climb, I got dropped like an anchor. Once again, I fought for five minutes as hard as I could to get back on.

Forth lap, solo breakaway was caught. First climb I knew I was going to get dropped. Luckily right when we got to the climb two leaders from the 1/2/3 race lapped us. At this time everyone kind of sat up in order to give them the road as well as the cars and motorcycles in front and behind them. This saved me, I barely got dropped.   Now for the final climb, I gave it all I had but guess what, I got DROPPED!!! At the top of the climb I was about 25 meters off of the peleton. I fought for close to two miles to get back with them. I caught up with the group at 500 meters to go.

I knew I had no chance at a sprint so there was no purpose in me slowing down and just getting back in the group of eight. I decided to just go around them with full momentum and see what happened. Well what happened was everyone yelled that I was going around to the left and they immediately grabbed my wheel. At about 200 meters to go everyone just started yelling on your left and on your right. I just held my line and let them go. I ended up last in the group, about five seconds off the winner. I finished 8th place, one spot out of the money!

I learned a lot yesterday so I don’t consider it to be a waste. I learned that I need to get back to training if I want to race, I learned that I need to work on some short climbs instead of just working on long climbs like I have been doing. I learned that I need to lose some weight, that’s the big one!

Still going……

It’s pretty bad but I think I remember what this whole training thing / being worn out thing feels like.  What’s bad is that I haven’t even been “training”.  I’ve just been riding and working out a bit.

Let’s see, here has been my past week and a half.

1. Monday – gym
2. Tuesday – bike – 46 miles, 3,700 feet of climbing
3. Wednesday – gym
4. Thursday – rest day
5. Friday – gym
6. Saturday – bike – 102 miles, 1,100 feet of climbing
7. Sunday – bike – 47 miles, 2,000 feet of climbing
8. Monday – gym
9. Tuesday - bike – 34 miles, 3,000 feet of climbing

Okay, so maybe that is why I am getting a bit tired.  Either that or maybe I’m just old and fat.  When I got on the scales last Monday I was up to 183 pounds.  Right now I am down to about 180 – 181.  At least the weight is dropping a little.  I’m hoping to be down to around 175 by August 19th.

There is a reason for the August 19th goal.  I have signed up for the Cheat Mountain Challenge bike ride.  The ride is 107 miles with 10,000 feet of climbing.  Sounds like fun!

Anyway, as of right now that is the only thing ride I have planned for next month.  I was planning on doing a couple of races but I’m going to skip them so I can concentrate more on that ride.  Hopefully it works out.

Wish me luck! 

My first sub-five hour century completed.

I know this probably isn’t a big deal to a lot of you but it allows me to check one of my goals off of my list. I completed a five hour century yesterday. I met up with PolishPostal and three of his friends yesterday morning in Galipolis, Ohio. We did an out and back ride about ten miles past Ravenswood, WV.

The ride was really nice and the weather was perfect. When we started it was around 57 degrees and it only warmed up to around 75 degrees by the time we finished. There were only two small climbs on the ride, about a half mile each with maybe 250 feet of elevation gain. Nothing bad at all. There were some small rollers as well but they didn’t really hurt until we were about 60 – 70 miles into the ride. The only downside was the wind at times. It wasn’t severe, just enough to know it was there.

Everyone on the ride was great, very nice people. Everyone took their pulls and did there share of the work. On the way back two of the guys were hurting some so they sat on a little more which worked out great. It gave PolishPostal and myself a chance to get a little more of a workout. The most painful thing about the ride were the town sprints. It seemed like every five minutes we were sprinting. At one point I was actually expecting to look back and see that my calf muscles had actually through my skin. They hurt that bad!

Anyway, by the time it was all said and done we had right at 102 miles in 4:56. We did 100 miles in 4:50 with an average speed of 20.7 mph.

I’m trying to come back……

I’ve been pretty busy lately so I haven’t been on the bike much at all.  As of right now I only have around 200 miles in for the month, pathetic!  This month I only have three days off of work and I am out of town ten days.  That makes it tough to get much riding / training in.  Actually, all I get in is riding these days, no training at all.  I generally get in a nice Tuesday night ride and then try to get in one or two more rides in during the week.  The past two Tuesday nights we have all gotten completely soaked.  We went ahead with the rides though.

Anyway, I did do a road race on the 4th of July and suprised myself.  Even though I haven’t been training and I have gained ten pounds I’m still riding rather strong.  I didn’t get a podium or anything but I did survive without getting dropped.  To me that was a victory in itself because this was a very difficult race.

Now, to the trying to come back part.  I’m not really trying to come back to racing since I plan to take most of the remainder of the year off.  I am trying to get back into some type of shape though.  This week I made it to the gym three mornings and I did one good ride so far.  I plan on doing a century tomorrow so I am staying off of the bike this evening.  I am hoping to have a pretty strong core and a decent upper body for the Spring road races next year.  One thing I really want to work on is my sprint.  To do this I think I need to develop some upper body strength.  I also need to lose some weight.  When I weighed myself on Monday I weighed a whopping 183.  I feel like Shamu, this is pathetic.

I’m going to take my time and try to get down to around 165 – 170 in the next couple of months.  Then this winter I am going to start concentrating on trying to build up some type of spring.  Racing cat 4’s and hopefully cat 3’s later on I’m really going to need to have a sprint.

Anyway, that’s pretty much what is going on with me.  Now, wish me luck with sticking with my plan.

What is this burning in my legs????

I forgot what it’s like to actually get out and work hard for more than one day in a row.  The past few days I have gotten in some pretty good riding and a good bit of climbing as well.  Saturday I rode with Steve M and we went out and did 35 miles with 3,100 feet of climbing.  Sunday I took off and spent some time with the family and enjoyed a few refreshing beverages.   

Monday I was back on the bike.  I did 51 miles with 4,100 feet of climbing.  Tuesday I met up with Steve again, he decided we should do some hill repeats.  We (he) decided we should climb Job Corp seven times!  By the time we finished we had in 34 miles and 4,700 feet of climbing. 

Yesterday I decided to go on a “recovery” ride.  I ended up meeting up with the Charleston Wheelers and doing the “A” ride.  Normally I would have considered it an easy ride.  However after the past few days I was beat.  I ended up suffering through 37 miles and approximately 2,100 feet of climbing. 

Today I’m hurting.  Luckily it is my rest day.  I plan on heading to Quaker Steak and Lube with my parents for bike night.  A great way to recover, hang out for a while and have a couple of refreshing high carb refreshments.  AKA Killians Red!!! 

Anyway, I’m back on the bike a good bit and having a blast.  Still not sure how much racing I will be doing the remainder of this season though.  I’m having a good time without it to be honest!

Oh yeah, made a couple more changes to the bike.  I have also added frame sliders and removed the rear pegs.  I’ll try to get updated pics on here in the near future.