So if I don't have the guts to ride outside today, does that mean there is no glory? Well, there will be no glory today!!! I don't mind some pain and torture but it is a bit extreme for safety today. I plan to be at the Y tonight, I have got to get my routine dialed back in.....my legs are begging for some pain (they might think again after I'm done!!).
Read more...I knew I couldn't make it to spin class tonight since Brady has his Christmas program at school tonight so I decided I was going for a ride this afternoon. People kept coming into the store today and saying how cold it was and that it was starting to flurry outside, that wasn't very promising for my plans. When I left work it was cold but I didn't think it was too awful bad so I went home and started prepping for a road ride. I layered very well and got to put my new Specialized Sub Zero gloves with a fleece liner to their biggest test yet, my fingertips were frozen. These gloves are great but I tend to get cold very easily and when riding into the wind the cold air got to my fingers, basically my index finger and middle finger on my left hand and my little finger on my right hand. I rotate my fingers between my palm and handlebar while I ride to block direct wind and this helps but I couldn't fight off the cold the whole time. I stopped 3 times to warm up my hands, it wasn't a big deal, just took a little longer to get home. Actually the last stop I realized my fingers weren't cold, they were on fire from heating back up....OUCH!!! By this time my toes were getting cold and when I got back home they were very cold....not frozen but very cold. Another 20 min or so and they would have been in some serious pain. I layered well and was comfortable everywhere else on my body.
I rode on Monday and avg 20.1 on the loop, I rode hard but didn't go all out so I was pleased with that performance. Today was a different story, I avg 17.6 and it was not pleasing....I had to dig deep in the toliet to pull that one out. But today was not about numbers it was about spending time on the bike and burning calories.
Okay, I know I just posted about an hour or two ago but I decided to take some steps to make me feel like I should ride more. I went down to the basement and gave myself my buzz cut, went upstairs and shaved my face and then shaved my legs. It had been a while since I had shaved my legs, it was like I had starred in a cheap movie....."Star Wars: Return of the Yeti"!!!
I feel like a biker again!!!
I have definitely neglected this blog for a few weeks, it seems that I have not been focused on much of anything here lately. I feel as though I am being pulled in 20 different directions with no "true direction" in front of me. With a barrage of things that have been happening, seemingly all at the same time, I find myself unfocused and full of stress and worry.....not a good combination. Do you ever feel like your life is in a downward spiral? I know each of us has a purpose, but when things get hazy it seems difficult to hold a line.
I did take a hiatus from heavy riding to deer hunt for about 10 days, it did me good to sit in a tree for hours at a time alone with my thoughts but it also linked itself to allowing myself to drift into the "what if?" thoughts. Molly has been battling this stomach issue for quite some time and with no real answers sometimes the scary thoughts try to creep into your head, I won't write out the thoughts but I'm sure you get the idea. I know she is in good hands, she has been doing really well this past week, it's just frustrating (especially for her) that we haven't gotten it 100% taken care of.....yet!!!
I haven't been able to ride much with her being less than 100% for several days and me being needed at home more, I am happy to fulfill my responsibilities but not being able to relinquish the added stress makes things a bit tougher. I feel as though I have put a couple pounds back on, that doesn't scare me because I know how to take it off, but it does piss me off big time!!!!!
I miss racing, not because I am overly fast or all that good but because that is the best training out there. It is so hard to simulate (at least for me) race speed and intensity while training, and only getting a ride in here and maybe there my fitness isn't anything near what it was. I know that a person needs to have a bit of rest to recharge the batteries, I just hadn't planned on taking this kind of break. I'm not sure what 2010 has lined up for me, I may not be racing as much as I would like but I plan to ride even more than before. I have some training workouts that I had thought about over the summer that I need to commit to print and schedule myself a workout plan. I need to be more goal oriented with everything, riding included, I need to "plan my work, and work my plan". I would like to do Lumberjack again this year, I have even thought about going single speed but there are so many big ring sections that it makes it hard for me to commit to one gear. I hit the whole range on gears the past two years at Lumberjack, cranking the big ring and grinding the granny gear (especially the last lap) on those long ass climbs, I'm not even sure what gear ratio I would run. I would have to contact every single speed racer that I could to find out what ratio they ran. I would really like to buy a new geared 29er and race it but I don't think that will happen in the next several months, but you never know!!! If I ride the same bike for quite some time that is okay too because I have an awesome bike (it's just hard to make some of those switchbacks with the training wheels on).
Well anyone that knows me very well knows that I like to hunt and tomorrow is opening day of deer season and I'm pretty excited about it. We have a lot of people getting together and a lot of food and anyone that knows me very well knows that I like food. We had an awesome meal tonight and I had about 2.5 meals worth, and of course I am furious with myself right now. I know that the meals to come will be awesome as well, some incredible soups, lasagna, roast and some homemade apple pie, homemade brownies, homemade banana nut bread (now all we need is Margie's cinnamon bread....yummmm).
I'll be up early tomorrow and sitting in a tree, what I like to do when I'm not riding my bikes. I won't be doing much on the bike for the next several days so I need to try and find a way to burn some calories........we'll see what happens!!
I was able to get out and do some mountain biking the past couple days, Fri morning went out and rode and then again Sat afternoon. Fri the breeze was a touch cool so I put on arm warmers and it wasn't long before I was sliding them down my arms and wasn't long after that I was taking them off completely. Sat afternoon it was already very warm so obviously I knew how to dress, it sure is nice to wear shorts and a short sleeve jersey and sweat in November. Both days I started at the campground loop and did the short section to the connector over to the boat ramp, then headed North to Lot 17 and made the return trip and finished up the campground loop. My computer shows that at 15.6 miles, it was really fast with the dry weather and the trails being freshly blown. I thought about going out today and do a road ride because I didn't have a lot of time but just couldn't squeeze it in. I'm not overly upset since I did a road ride Mon, spin class Tue, off day Wed, spin class Thur, mtb Fri, mtb Sat.
Read more...I need to find my groove again now that the Berryman is over, I have noticed that my body is playing catch up as far as calories go because it just seems I can't eat enough. I hope to get out of that stage in the next day or so, I remember doing this after Lumberjack as well (I do enjoy eating!!).
Went to spin class tonight, Mark had us doing long climbs with rapid descents and short flat sections. We did this three times, man I love climbing workouts!! Tim wasn't there tonight so that gave all of us in the class a chance to talk about him.
STUPID GOSSIP!!!
