Yesterday was the first real Oval ride of the year. The weather has been crappy and nobody has been doing them but yesterday we got a good group and did the long south loop minus Carter (86 miles for me). For the first time that I can remember I was calm and collected rolling out of town. I don't have to worry about when/where the move is going to go anymore b/c I'm confident I can make it.
The ppl on the front missed a left turn out west of Windsor. I knew the turn and made it on my own and some ppl behind me followed me including Rich and Andy. We rode hard (but not all out) until we got caught at a traffic light coming into Windsor. Some guys got back while we waited for the light. Nobody wanted to drill it into the Wall so we rode easy. Dan Milano got away coming into the Wall and made it over solo! There were about 10 0f us left at this point and we rolled turns down through Johnston and then turned west into the headwind. Nobody wanted to go hard into the headwind so Dan Porter attacked and made us chase. He stayed out there for several miles which was very impressive.
The group dwindled to 7 without any attacks. Then Brad Cole and Dan started sticking it to us west of Loveland. 4 of the seven got dropped; Phil and then I made it back. Then I got dropped again just before we hit Glade Rd and Andy Clark got dropped just after me. We rode up to HTMP together and caught the front 3 (Phil Mann, Dan Porter and Brad Cole) who had stopped for water. I was completely shot and got dropped again on Marina Hill... rode it in alone a minute or two down for 5th. Not quite what I was hoping for but not a bad start to the year.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Bicycle security
My race bike is in the shed, partially dismantled (I'm training on my old bike and fixie). There's a padlock on the shed door but that hardly matters now since two of the neighborhood cats have taken up guard posts in front of the shed. Git'um, kitties!
Monday, October 29, 2007
Training started!!
Yesterday was supposed to be the start of my 2008 training. But last Thursday I rear ended someone in traffic (really stupid and I don't wanna talk about it!) so yesterday I went out to my parents house where my father helped me straighten the front end on my car. It's not quite perfect yet but we got it pretty close. Anyway I got back home too late to go for the 3 hour training ride I had planned so instead I decided to go running...
21.4 miles. From my house west along Poudre River Trail, over Bingham, up the North Dam Hill, down Maxwell, behind the stadium, around Dixon to Cottonwood Glen and then home along Spring Creek Trail and campus. My goal was to maintain a 9min/mile pace so I had the run split up into 5 mile sections to be completed in 45 minutes each.
I was ahead of schedule at 5 and 10 miles, then at 12 miles I realized that I was in dire need of a "suicide kit" which is bad. With neither a kit nor a porto-john in sight I was forced to improvise but was able to make good time after that. I was 1 minute behind schedule at mile 15. Somewhere around 17 miles I cracked pretty badly and wasn't able to keep my pace up anymore. Ended up 5 minutes behind schedule by the end at 3:17. My goal is to complete the loop in under 3 hours sometime in November
21.4 miles. From my house west along Poudre River Trail, over Bingham, up the North Dam Hill, down Maxwell, behind the stadium, around Dixon to Cottonwood Glen and then home along Spring Creek Trail and campus. My goal was to maintain a 9min/mile pace so I had the run split up into 5 mile sections to be completed in 45 minutes each.
I was ahead of schedule at 5 and 10 miles, then at 12 miles I realized that I was in dire need of a "suicide kit" which is bad. With neither a kit nor a porto-john in sight I was forced to improvise but was able to make good time after that. I was 1 minute behind schedule at mile 15. Somewhere around 17 miles I cracked pretty badly and wasn't able to keep my pace up anymore. Ended up 5 minutes behind schedule by the end at 3:17. My goal is to complete the loop in under 3 hours sometime in November
Thursday, October 25, 2007
I've Gotten Scrawny in the off-season ;)
But my wounds have almost healed :)
And I've got a plan for fixing the scrawny-ness :D
My body and brain have been complaining about my lack of physical activity, especially now that I'm officially not playing hockey for a month. The excess energy is spilling over, keeping me up nights (as evidenced by the hour of this post).
The time is coming.
So is the veloswap.
No gimmicks. No gadgets. No fancy-schmancy expensive wheels. I'm gonna need Assos, tires, a drive-train or two, and maybe some more bibs so I don't have to take any days off to do laundry.
Bring on the cold and the rain (I've got SCUBA gloves this year). Bring me my skull cap (yes, Will, this means you). Bring me that Horizon (Yes, Johnny Depp, this is plagiarism)
It's time to get ready to be fast.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
It's time!
Training starts this weekend. Saturday is the Veloswap, the grand opening of the new trials park on the west side of town, and most importantly Ghettoween 2, The Drinkening which will be hosted by the coolest racing family in the Alta Vista neighborhood!
And then Sunday morning, 10AM at the Oval, the training will begin. I'm doing 3 hours of tempo on Sunday. Probably the Buckeye loop. I think I'll start with 9 or 10 full weeks of base training, aiming for something like 200 hours. And then the first or second week of January I'm going to start doing intervals so that I can be fast in March.
And then Sunday morning, 10AM at the Oval, the training will begin. I'm doing 3 hours of tempo on Sunday. Probably the Buckeye loop. I think I'll start with 9 or 10 full weeks of base training, aiming for something like 200 hours. And then the first or second week of January I'm going to start doing intervals so that I can be fast in March.
Monday, September 17, 2007
happenings...
Well life hasn't been very blogable lately but I'll make an effort to generally catch up with the goings on of the Racing Hickeys. Here's what we've been doing... in pictures:
There's been a lot of hiking. Not always in matching shirts mind you. Months of doing nothing but riding bikes have turned us into strangely soft-bodies athletes so we look pretty gimp when we're expected to support our own weight.
There's been a lot of skating. For me, it's been topless skating for obvious reasons. I seriously didn't realize how white I am until I saw this picture. Anyway the situation has improved somewhat since then. And my skating skills are coming back too :-)
Lila is also learning to skate which is awesome. Here she executes a text book beginner emergency stop: run franticly off into the grass; windmill arms for balance and visual appeal. In all seriousness though, she's getting pretty good on the skates. Which is cool because despite the fact that Rollerblades haven't been cool for about a decade now, they are a really good way for cyclists to work their core, especially the obliques.
In other news I leave early Wednesday morning (5:30 flight) for Cancun! I'm going to do a half ironman with Robby's sister which is exciting. I haven't ridden in 3 weeks and the last time I ran more than 13 miles was May 2005 so it should be a nice exercise in pain and humility :-) But mostly I'm excited to see Robby's sister.
There's been a lot of hiking. Not always in matching shirts mind you. Months of doing nothing but riding bikes have turned us into strangely soft-bodies athletes so we look pretty gimp when we're expected to support our own weight.
There's been a lot of skating. For me, it's been topless skating for obvious reasons. I seriously didn't realize how white I am until I saw this picture. Anyway the situation has improved somewhat since then. And my skating skills are coming back too :-)
Lila is also learning to skate which is awesome. Here she executes a text book beginner emergency stop: run franticly off into the grass; windmill arms for balance and visual appeal. In all seriousness though, she's getting pretty good on the skates. Which is cool because despite the fact that Rollerblades haven't been cool for about a decade now, they are a really good way for cyclists to work their core, especially the obliques.In other news I leave early Wednesday morning (5:30 flight) for Cancun! I'm going to do a half ironman with Robby's sister which is exciting. I haven't ridden in 3 weeks and the last time I ran more than 13 miles was May 2005 so it should be a nice exercise in pain and humility :-) But mostly I'm excited to see Robby's sister.
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
post season happenings
There's been lots going on in the way of regaining some semblance of sanity. Last weekend Lila and I climbed Longs... Lila's first 14er. Here we are on the top (14,255')
At this point we were both pretty tired and the Keyhole Route seemed long and tedious so we decided to descend the north face directly. In retrospect this may not have been the smartest thing we've ever done but we made it. It's hard to get perspective but here's a shot of what we came down
There aren't any difficult pitches, but the whole slope is pretty steep so if you slip you're gonna tumble a few hundred feet before you stop. Also there's snow melt running down the rocks so they get slippery and your hands freeze. From here it was a 7 mile hike back to the car, and then an hour drive home, trying not to fall asleep at the wheel. Good off season fun :-)
At this point we were both pretty tired and the Keyhole Route seemed long and tedious so we decided to descend the north face directly. In retrospect this may not have been the smartest thing we've ever done but we made it. It's hard to get perspective but here's a shot of what we came down
There aren't any difficult pitches, but the whole slope is pretty steep so if you slip you're gonna tumble a few hundred feet before you stop. Also there's snow melt running down the rocks so they get slippery and your hands freeze. From here it was a 7 mile hike back to the car, and then an hour drive home, trying not to fall asleep at the wheel. Good off season fun :-)
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