Thursday, January 31, 2013

Road Bike Thursday

I should just label this week "Road Bike Week" and call it a day.  The trails are a soupy mess as a result of the crazy bipolar temps we've been experiencing, so really, the only choice is to go with the lycra and skinny tires.  Not that I'm complaining though, I'm thoroughly enjoying my time back on the saddle of a road machine.

Today was about a 90 minute ride, high on power output with less spinning.  I don't want anyone to think I'm actually training though.  The resultant 'high power' ride from today came at the expense of changing the gearing on my bike.  You see, the stock crank and stock cassette was a Compact, 50/34 chainring set, and a 12-27 cassette.  I'm not saying that I'm putting out pro-level power, but I do happen to be a very strong rider and at my strongest rode a setup of a standard 53/39 crank and an 11-23 cassette.  Coincidentally, that's exactly what I set the bike up with today.  I pulled the stock crank off, threw on a sweet "new to me" Dura Ace (bought from my good buddy at the bike shop for a shockingly low price), and stuck with the 11-23 cassette I'd put on there when I was trying to make the compact crank useful.

Again, back when I was strong (and not to mention about 30lbs lighter!) I was killing it with this setup around here.  The rolling hills were no match for my legs, and I had no problem riding that gearing.  Today however, after a year plus off the road bike, I'm strong, and can still push those gears, but have a much smaller amount of muscular endurance.  The good news is, I wasn't too beat up by the end of the ride and actually finished much stronger than when I started.  The bad news is it was only a 90 minute ride and I've got some work to do before I get out there and start riding hard.  My plan for the bike now is to keep the gearing as is, and keep my intensity low and work on building up my endurance.  I'm not all into the fancy, scientific training thought right now, I just reckon if I ride more I'll get strong, even if the gearing is a bit steep for me at the moment.

Overall it's been a good week back on the road.  The weather's been cooperative and looks like it will be for the next few days.  The temps both yesterday and today were unseasonably warm and nice, but it'll all get back to winter starting tomorrow and going through the weekend.  I'm hoping to get a mountain bike ride in by the weekend, and if things go well perhaps both Saturday and Sunday I'll get the chance.  If the temps can stay below freezing, the mud should freeze up nicely and give us some great, hard, and fast trails to enjoy.

Road Ride Wednesday

With the temps reaching Spring-like proportions, it was anything but silly not to go out for a ride on the roads yesterday.  Yeah, there was a lot of much and sand on the roads-probably a little bit of salt out there too, remaining from the snow over the past weekend-but who the hell cares when you can go out in long sleeves, knee warmers, and glove-less?

Like I've stated before, I got the "bug" to ride the road again.  After picking up the new road bike and enjoying the warmth yesterday, I'm stoked to be getting fit and riding on the road again.  I'm not going to lie, in no way, shape or form do I get the same "rush" riding on the road as I do bombing down a rocky, rooty trail, but it is somehow therapeutic and very satisfying to be rolling along and just pedaling.  There's the sound of the tires on the road as well as the sounds that you don't hear from the bike.  It's just smooth and fast.  Power from your legs goes directly into the bike and from there in to the road.  There's no suspension to suck some power, and not jostling of the bike to get around obstacles.  What you put down is what you get out of each pedal stroke.  Without getting too poetic about it, things are just simple on the road: You pedal and you go.  That's about it.

I say all this keeping in mind that mountain biking is still (and probably always will be) my preferred style of riding-particularly Enduro style riding. I love the aspect of having to pedal to the top only to get to bomb the descents.  Getting through rocks, roots, mud, drops, and other obstacles is what makes things for me on two wheels more enjoyable than anything else.  But, and it's a big BUT, there's something to be said about the road.  Even though I spent most of the last year discrediting everything "roadie" (see lycra, shaved legs, etc.), it's pulled me back in like a drug.  Having the right mix of both will, in all likelihood give me a balance I've missed out on most of my athletic life.


Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Rest Day

Some days you just have to much shit to get done to worry much about working out.  Today was one of those for me.

From 5am onward, I've been moving and moving and moving.  Personal training clients, doctors appointments, bootcamp classes to teach, and the list goes on...  I like these days because usually it means I'm being productive.  Usually it means I'm making some money and getting things done-but today I somehow wound up spending more money than I earned.  Hate days like that.

On a good note, the temps have warmed up a bit and the weather is looking nice for a good road ride tomorrow.  I'd love to get out the mountain bike for a trail ride tomorrow, but A)the trails are going to be a soupy mess, and B) I need to continue to build up my fitness.  I haven't dropped many pounds yet since the holidays (which is perfectly fine at this time of year), but I need to keep my head down and keep plugging away so that when the Spring and races come, I'll be fit and ready to go.

On ANOTHER note my stomach hurts so bad from the sit ups I did yesterday, I thought I was coming down with the stomach flu when I woke up this morning.  Alas, what I thought were stomach cramps was actually just DOMS.  Kind of a good feeling to know that I worked hard enough to have to "stretch" to actually stand up straight, but at the same time kind of sucks to know that I haven't been keeping up enough with my abdominal work that it hurts so bad after just 100 sit ups.  Still, I'm encouraged.

Finally, I'm really getting stoked on skateboarding again.  It's been a good 10 plus years since I actually attempted a trick or two, but I'm picking things up again and it's a fun and creative way to goof around when I'm not trying to be serious about fitness.  I think it's a necessary evil to have some kind of an outlet that's not "fitness related" when your pushing the envelope training for a particular sport.  It's nice to be able to concentrate on creativity but still be somewhat physical at the same time.  I will say though that I wish I'd played soccer in school-makes me think I might have a bit more coordination with my big as floppy feet if I did!

Tomorrow is a bit more of a relaxing day and one in which I can concentrate a bit more on riding and getting back in the saddle.  It's going to be warm and rainy-a nice Spring-like day.  Looking forward to turning the cranks!

Monday, January 28, 2013

Detour

I was going to make this a hate-filled, negative post about what I hate in the gym and the humility that is non-existent in so many parts of life, BUT, I thought better and realized that it's all about the positivity that we spread in the world.  Karma is a real thing and if you're positive in the way you live your life, you welcome positive things, events, people, etc. in as well.

So instead, I'll just talk about my workout today.  In an effort to get my strength back I've been hitting the weights pretty hard.  And, because of this, I've caused myself to plateau a bit-which isn't a bad thing, just a regular occurrence in any training program.  To me, it's these plateaus that allow us to learn and progress in the end.  The key is to know what to do when you reach it and to have the guts and discipline to actually do what you should (i.e. rest, recover).

I've been dead lifting a lot of weight lately, getting my 5 rep max up to 335lbs.  This by no means is 'world class' or even close to where I used to be.  But, it is a step in the right direction and I'm happy with the results I've achieved.  After my last dead lift day, however, I was spent and wasted physically for about 3 days.  No good.  Because of this, I took a step back for this week  on the weights side of things, and am concentrating in stead on "feeling" my way through workouts and not trying to be Superman.

Today, I did the following, all with a 32kg kettle bell:
Warm up-1 and 2 arm swings and shoulder stretches
Then- 2x5 of one arm:
Clean
Long Cycle Jerk
Snatch (I actually did 3X5 of this because it felt so good)
Then- 5 rounds of:
10 Push ups
20 Sit ups
10 Strict Pull Ups w/full range of motion-starting each rep from a dead hang
Then-
2x5 1 arm Front squats on each arm with the kettlebell.

On the volume end of things this workout was just about perfect.  The strength work in the beginning was all quality, and the bodyweight stuff in the middle (push ups, etc.) was great-tiring, but great.  I threw the front squats in at the end for shits and giggles, as well as to round out the workout and give my legs something to do.  A workout like this is perfect all around and can be done in about 45 minutes providing that you're giving yourself ample time to rest in between sets of the strength work in the beginning.  I'm a big fan of resting fully between lifts like snatches, cleans, and jerks, so a lot of the time spent in the gym today was spent pacing in between that early stage of the workout.

I'm trying, also, to keep my lifting volume to a minimum this week and focus solely on strength and quality movements.  For the past few weeks I've spent too much time trying to tire myself out from gym workouts and have expectantly seen a slight decrease in my performance.  It's important to remember that the gym is a place where you build strength, not tear it down.  Working too hard or with too much emphasis on volume is a surefire way to see performance dip and then continue to decline until you decide to train properly.  From this point onward I'll worry about tiring myself out on the bike, not in the weight room.

Tomorrow, hopefully, will be another day on the bike.  I'm not sure if it's going to be on the road or on the trails though, because of the crappy snow and rain we've had the last 24 hours.  My guess is that the trails will be a sloppy mess of half frozen dirt and slush.  Hopefully one way or another the bike I ride will be decided for me by the elements, because I'm so stoked on both right now it'll be hard to decide.

Ahhhhh.... Now that felt much better than being all negative.  :)

Sunday, January 27, 2013

The Bug

I got the road riding bug again.  I mentioned it in an earlier post this week, but I woke up this morning once again thinking of going out for a road ride.  It's cold, miserable, and the roads are shit full of sand and salt from Friday's dusting of snow, but for some reason all I wanna do is bundle up and push the pedals.

It's funny how things go in (pardon the pun) cycles.  I have, personally, about a 2 year attention span when it comes to sports.  Since I stopped playing lacrosse-my longest run at a sport, spanning nearly 20 years-I've been hopping around and back to different sporting endeavors.  From Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, to Triathlon, to Mixed Martial Arts, to road cycling, to downhill mountain biking, I've pretty much done everything I can do on two wheels.  Even now, getting into dirt jumping and some small attempts at trials and street riding on my dirt jump bike, I've had a hand in everything.  Hell, I even started skateboarding again.  Then, if you combine all that with the fact that I'm back into being a gym rat again, you'll probably figure out that I'm just an activity junkie.  And honestly, I can't say that I'm the type to sit still for all too long.  I need to be on to something, have some kind of interest, and more times than not it has got to be physical.

So what's the lesson in all of this?  What is the take away that I can use to improve my life and learn a lesson?  I don't know.   At times I feel like this addiction to switching things up has been a downfall of mine.  I get just good enough at something to really give it a go, but then I grow tired of it and things turn stale.  Just at the point where I'm about to advance to the highest level I can achieve, I burn out.  I'm not psychologist, and I honestly don't believe there is a deeper meaning in any of this, but I'm sure that someone sitting me down on a couch would say that I'm a non-commital person.  Maybe so, in the sporting part of my life anyway, but I think the real meaning behind this is that I'm just a very "interested" person.  I see something cool and I want to do it.  Sure there have been times in my life when I would have liked to master something, but at the end of the day, what's the big deal?  I can have just as much fun being proficient in something, and maybe even more, than if I spent months and years of my life trying to perfect just one thing.

The idea of perfection and mastery is deep rooted in our culture.  We're told to look at all the great thinkers, performers, and especially athletes and try to emulate what we see in them.  Why?  Why can't we just learn different skill sets enough to experience the joy in each and then find the next thing?  After all, those skills will be there when we want to call on them again-maybe a bit rusty but they'll be there.  I'm not saying we should just strive to be mundane, rather, we should strive to be well rounded.  Learn different skills, ask different things from different aspects of your personality.  Not everyone has to be Michael Jordan or Tony Hawk.  It's ok to be the "other" guys (or girls), just make sure you're having fun while you're at it.

Saturday, January 26, 2013

Not Up for Much

Kinda wound up spinning my wheels a bit today.  I guess it's probably from being a little overzealous this past week with my training.  It's dawned on me that I'm going to have to go a little less hard in the gym if I'm going to want to give it a go on the bike for this race season.  My endurance on the bike has always been a strength, so I'm not too concerned with that at the moment.  The nature of enduro racing being what it is-with high intensity periods followed by low intensity periods-is forcing me to think about my training differently than in the past when I was just an endurance racer.

So far, my training has been high intensity, really hard but short gym sessions.  My thought is to have most of my intensity come from that early on, and then start to incorporate specific hard sessions on the mountain bike once the season comes closer.  I say "season" more referring to the Spring right now as I've yet to plan any actual races.  The planning part will have to come a bit later when Anne and I can sit down and figure out what races are going to work where in our calendars.  Her races have a higher priority than mine, so we'll have to plan accordingly.

Back to training, I'm toying with the notion of cutting my gym sessions from about 5 a week to 3 a week and ramping up my riding volume.  Last week, I did a couple double day sessions that worked well, but left me tired and quite fatigued.  I think it's best if I let my fitness come around first before doing too many 2-a-days.  Also, while you can compliment what you do on the bike with what you do in the gym, there's really no substitute for getting in good saddle time.  Spending about 3 solid sessions on the road and the rest on the mountain bike working skills should be a good plan moving forward.

The ride today wound up being a little more of a "fun and adventure" ride than anything else.  We got about an inch of fresh snow covering the trails from last night's snow that provided quite a bit of fun.  I haven't ridden in the snow in ages, so getting my wheels underneath me required a little bit of patience. Also, having not really ridden in the cold for over a year didn't give me the best idea of what to wear when the temps were well below freezing.  The long and short of it was that I dressed too little and got cold early.  It's tough to come back from being cold nearly as soon as you start, but I did my best to get in what I could.  Tomorrow is another day and I plan on getting in some more quality riding time then.

One other thing that has been on my mind a lot has been rest.  I posted a few days ago about making sure I get proper rest, and since I haven't been terrific in doing so.  I've done alright to get a good nights sleep, but there are other things such as foam rolling, stretching, and getting to bed even earlier that I could be actively doing but I'm not.  Also, my diet still needs to be gotten under control, and that's something I have absolutely no excuse about.  I've always got the "tomorrow" idea going in my head, but it's just something I've got to take the bull by the horns and control for myself.  After all, no one can have more control over what I shove in my mouth than I do!

Friday, January 25, 2013

Overdun it a bit...

I got in my disciplined 'rest' day the other day, and that was good.  Yesterday I woke up with a migraine but still pushed myself to do hill reps for 50 minutes on the road bike followed by a light but intense kettlebell workout later in the evening.

The hill reps went fine.  Hard, but fine.  On my new bike I have a compact crank (50 teeth on the big ring and 34 on the small), something I've never used before but am experimenting with.  The original cassette on the bike was a 12-27, something that would have been a bit too 'spinny' for me with even a standard crank, but with the compact it's just way too small.  I got a new 11-23 cassette from a friend and put it on the bike yesterday before the hill reps and it seemed just about right.  I'm still gaining back a lot of my power on the road, but this particular cassette is just about what I want to be on when I'm riding with the compact.  It shifts smoothly and I don't get a lot of gaps inbetween gears.  I'm not a huge math guy, so I can't give out exact ratios and whatnot, I just know that it feels just about right and just about what I'm used to.  

For the kettlbell workout I went with something I'd done last week (see the 1-2-3-4-5 workout I posted last week) but scaled the weight down using two 16 kg bells instead of two 24 kg's.  That's a HUGE difference and allowed me to save some energy and just work on my lungs and heart with that particular workout.  Oh, and while I kept the 1-2-3-4-5 scheme the same, I did do the following changes (kind of on the fly):
Clean
Squat
Jerk
Burpee
Renegade Row
Pull Up

I like throwing the burpee and the pull ups in there to spice things up a bit and 'get away from just holding onto the kettlebells the entire workout.  Part of the reason for doing it while holding the bells the entire time is to work on grip strength, but with only the 16 kgs of bells I used yesterday, I didn't really think it would benefit me much.  Rather, I thought I could work in some other stuff and give the workout a bit more variety.  Seemed to work out well.

I started this post this morning and now, by this evening, I forgot what the hell I was writing about and I'm too lazy to go back and actually read through what I wrote.  Anyway, I finished the day off with a light, recovery-ish ride in the cold.  I've really got the bug back when it comes to road riding, and it's been a great way to not only pursue my fitness and potential racing goals for the upcoming season, but also a wonderful new rediscovery of something that was very important to me.  Yeah, riding mountain bikes will always be my number one, but there's a certain calmness that comes from just turning the cranks and riding in a straight line.  Nothing is more fun than jumps, berms, roots, and rocks, but there's certainly something to be said about the smooth liquidity with which a road bike moves.  The efficiency and the low hum that you get from your tires moving on the pavement.  Again, it won't take over as number 1 in my eye, but it sure is a close second.  Road bike, my friend, it's good to have you back.

The weather tomorrow is going to determine what I'll do for exercise.  The forecast calls for snow overnight and if that's the case it would be great to get out on the mountain bike and hit the trails before it's gone.  I'm not a HUGE fan of the snow, but riding in 2 inches of fresh powder is super fun-just as long as it doesn't turn to slush and mud.  Either way, I'll find a way to ride or lift.  Gonna be a good weekend.

Thursday, January 24, 2013

I did it!

Not exactly the groundbreaking "I did it!" as in finished a specific race, or achieved some amazing goal, but I did manage to stick to my plan and actually REST yesterday instead of training myself further into the hole of being dead tired.  I even got to bed a bit earlier than the last few nights, so I guess that's the cherry on top of everything.

Today is going to be played by ear.  The temps are super low here and have been for the last couple days, so it's going to be tough to harness the motivation to get out on the bike-either road or mountain.  If I am to ride I'm leaning a bit more toward the road, but only because it's "new" to me again and I'm enjoying something a bit different.  

I woke up today with what I think is a migraine I had in my sleep last night.  It's one of those "grab you on the side of the head" type of headaches that hurts only with sudden movement or exertion.  Coffee's helped a bit, but I think if I can get a chance to get out into some fresh air and move my legs a bit I might be feeling better.

If I do opt for some gym work, it'll probably be a light kettlebell session.  I've been lifting quite heavy of late with the 'bells, and while it's making me into a beast, it's also breaking down my body a bit more than I'd like.  I deadlifted very heavy this past Saturday and I can still feel it-not in pain or injury, but rather in a shock to my central nervous system.  Today I think is the first day I'm fully recovered and I don't want to push any buttons to slow down my strength building process.  

Regardless of the type of exercise or "training" I do today, there will be some physical movement involved with this body today.  Maybe a sub-freezing ride on the cold roads is just what I need right now to get my motor going.  We'll see.

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Rest

I'm gonna rest today.  I swear.  No exercise, not even a "recovery" spin.  Nothing physical other than what I have to to at work and what I've got to do at home.  Chores as they're usually referred.

I read somewhere that rest is over 50% of the puzzle when it comes to training and general fitness.  In my experience, this has been true more times than not.  I, like all athletes, have refused rest, pushed my limits, and often gone overboard with training.  It's not because of some internal need to be better (well, in some cases it might have been), but in thinking about it, the incidence of such overtraining is much more related to the fact that it "feels good".  Yeah, at a point in my life, I had goals-be them weight loss, muscle building, going faster on my bike, etc-but it all comes down to the fact that I feel better after a hard workout, and especially when I'm in a fatigued state.  In my sick head, I don't feel that I'm doing anything relevant, physically, I've I'm not spent by the end of the day.  And the cherry on top is when I'm pleasantly sore the day after a hard weight workout.

As I've shifted my focus more and more into the gym and lifting weights these days, it's easy to get carried away.  As well, the feeling of soreness is easier to achieve, further pushing me through the revolving door of being over trained and under rested.  I'm at the point now where I'm seeing changes in my sleeping patterns because I'm too wired from my workouts to settle into a good night's rest.  I've GOT to work on this and today will be the day.

As I started this post, I HAVE to rest today.  There's no other option.  No easy ride on the rollers and certainly no "fun" and "light" kettlebell session.  This day will be all about healthy eating, sitting when I can, laying down when I can, and even taking a nap if it's possible.  For as hard as I've been pushing my body, I owe it a little bit of a layoff-at least for 24 or so hours.

Monday, January 21, 2013

Motivation

I've found through the years that the more motivated I am in my own training the more I write on this page, the more I finish things I started in my personal life, and overall, the better I feel.  There's something to be said about being organized, and in life, like in sports, the one who's got the most specific plan is usually the one that succeeds.

I decided to throw my hat back into the racing ring.  It's not that I had been pondering it for long hours, or losing sleep over it.  Rather, I got myself a road bike, remembered that I'm not a bad bike rider, and thought, "Why the hell not?"

I'm getting married in the next few months and my beautiful wife-to-be competes as a professional athlete.  In every way, she motivates me to be a better man-a "superhero" in my own movie.  She's awesome on so many levels and athletics is just a small part of that.  Seeing the focus that she brings to her workouts gives me chills.  Laser-like precision would be an understatement.  With that in mind, I decided if I could harness just a bit of that, I might have some success of my own.

It's not wholly that I'm getting back into racing for success.  I want to be competitive again to have a goal, a focus.  I love riding bikes and I love being fit.  Why not combine the two and throw in the objective goal of racing?  Seems to me like a pretty straight shot and one that I've done before.

So what does this all mean?  I don't exactly know but I'm excited.  When I think about my training I get the willies and the tingling excitement that I haven't felt in a long time.  Having a plan is awesome, but having something to shot for (i.e. a race) is even better-at least for me.

So here's to another (my second in a row!) week of being back in training mode.  Let's hope I rock this week just like I rocked the last!

Sunday, January 20, 2013

One of the hardest workouts I've done to date

And I'm not kidding.  This was the mother of all "short and painful" workouts.  As I've stated before, I'm not a big fan of crossfit, and I don't condone most of the workouts they put together.  While the following workout is "crossfit-esque" it's much more of a thought out plan, staying strict with movement and keeping the volume low on olympic type lifting.  This is what I did yesterday:

Warm up- Range of motion ballistic movements.  Light kettle bells and light deadlifts.

Main- HEAVY dead lifts for 2 sets of 5 reps.  Plenty of rest taken between sets and form had to be just as good on the last rep as on the first.

Then- 1-2-3-4-5 reps with 2 24kg Kettle Bells of: Clean/Squat/Jerk/Man Makers
      This portion of the workout was done for example, on the 3rd set, 3 cleans, 3 squats, 3 Jerks, 3 man makers.  (1 man maker is a push up on the kettle bells straight into one repition of a row-in push up position-on both arms....*note: a "true" man maker includes a clean and push press/jerk after the rows are completed on each arm)

Then- 2 sets of 10 one arm Kettle Bell snatches on each arm with the 24kg bell.


The thing that made this workout hard was not the heavy dead lifts, but the 1-2-3-4-5 of the clean/squat/jerk/man makers set.  Two 24kg kettlebells get real heavy real quick, but because of the low rep counts, you're able to keep the form good while blowing out your entire body.  At no point in the set was I so fatigued that my form suffered, rather my heart and lungs were screaming out!  This fits my philosophy of training quite well, and it's something that I'll use not only with myself, but with my clients.

This was just one small part of my workout week, but a really important one.  I've been striving to gain strength and the dead lift is my most important tool for doing so.  In the weeks since I've started (about 5 or 6) I've improved drastically and gained back much of the strength I had when I weighed 250 lbs, but without the bulk now at 198lbs.  I plan on riding my bike and racing a bit this summer, so while keeping my weight down isn't the most important thing, it is a big consideration.

As for today, it's a toss up.  The weather is beautiful so I'm thinking a road ride might be in my best interest.  It's going to be cold this coming week so I'd rather spend that time in the woods where it's warm rather than on the windy pavement.  No matter what, though, a ride is going to happen for sure today!

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Body Weight Fun!

I've stated this before, but I'm NOT a fan of Crossfit.  I am, however, interested in some of the things they do with bodyweight exercises.

In every way, I LOVE body weight exercise-squats, push ups, pull ups, sit ups, jumps, etc.  You can do anything you want, any way you want, and get a great workout without going to a gym, investing in equipment, or risking injury (more times than not).  In regard to Crossfit, while I'm strongly against many of the "weighted" workouts they do-forcing athletes to perform high volume workouts with exercises that were never meant to include more than 5 repetitions-I am, however, a big fan of what they do with bodyweight exercises.  Using your own body weight to do timed and/or high volume exercise is a great way to push yourself while avoiding serious injury.  Doing timed deadlifts makes you an idiot, but doing timed rounds of push ups, pull ups, sit ups, and the like, makes you tough, hard, and in many ways, a better athlete than the next.

So, in keeping with my beliefs, I did a workout today containing the following:

Warm up:
Playing around with a light kettlebell.  With this, I concentrated on warming up my shoulders, back, legs and chest.  Plenty of ballistic movements to get the blood flowing.
Main:
5 rounds for time of:
5 Pull ups (strict-full extension)
10 Push ups
15 box jumps (24 inch box)
20 sit ups
400 meter run

I've done this one once before.  It's my modification of a Crossfit workout.  I like it because it forces you to use every part of your body in explosive ways, while still challenging you aerobically.  Done correctly, it's not a sprint, but more of a paced session.  I get the same "feeling" from this workout that I'd get from running a hard 5k.  It's difficult if you push yourself, but not so hard that you'll be throwing up.

In the end it took me about 20 minutes to complete which was right about where I wanted to be.  Not too fast, not too slow.  Felt good and tired, but not so much so that I'd ruin the rest of my day being too exhausted to move.

Great workout, great day, and great life.

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Back at it

It's been a while since I've had consistent postings here.  I feel like the "blog world" on the internet is declining.  Maybe among some folks it's still super popular, but for me it's been something that I'll get to from time to time, more often forgetting or neglecting to post rather than sit down for 10 minutes to share the experiences from my day.  While I'm not promising that I'll update this blog every day, or even every week, it will remain a place where I share my thoughts and experiences as well as a place to get things off my chest.

With that being said, I had a fairly big event in my life occur yesterday.  No, I didn't get married yet (though that's only month's away at this point!!!), but more simply, I got another road bike.  Back in the Spring of last year, I sold my one and only trusty road bike before I went to stay in Spain with Anne for the summer.  It was a decision I later came to partially regret, not because I didn't get what I felt was appropriate for the bike, but rather because I lost a part of my love for cycling in that sale.  The truth is, I got completely burned out on riding the road, so much to the point that I completely discounted anything road-related.  I started to make fun of "roadies", triathletes, and anyone that wasn't a mountain biker.  Kind of dumb and immature when you look at it, but in the end it was more my own demons coming out than anything anyone else had done to me.  I immersed myself in all aspects of mountain biking-xc, downhill, and most recently dirt jumping and urban riding (think bmx).  Through all this I've realized that I love ALL parts and aspects of riding on two wheels-even road riding.

So it was with all this in my mind that I sold an old mountain bike frame and took the money to buy a decent road bike again.  Is it carbon? No.  Is it top of the range? Not exactly.  What I got was a very nice Cannondale CAAD10 frame with simple Shimano 105 components.  Just what I need to get back into riding the road and get fit again.

I'm not looking to do any road races, but I am dedicated to getting back into racing this coming season. I'll focus mainly on Enduro racing, but perhaps throw in a few 50 mile XC races just for the hell of it.  Anne's races will be the top priority, but if and when I can find something that works inside of her schedule for me, I'll take it.  I'm excited to give racing another go, and after a solid year's layoff, I think it's time to be competitive again.  As a great "blogger friend" once told me, "racing will always be there."  The dude seems to have his head screwed on and so far anything that he's said on his blog or offered me in my comments section has been 100% accurate.  Here's to brining in a great race season for my Fiance and I in 2013!