Just a photo today. This is from the previous weekend's Southern Cross. I'll give a race recap tomorrow.

Steady Tempo ride today. 1:45 doing my best to hold the power steady. That's right POWER. More detailed post tomorrow.

Recovery Week

Recovery weeks are kinda boring. If you live some place cool maybe you can find something else to do with yourself. However, Starkville, MS does not fall into the "someplace cool" category. In fact its a certified retirement community, whatever that means. So today I spent 30 minutes or so on the trainer taking it easy watching a couple of episodes of Behind the Barriers. If you haven't checked em out you should.

Since there isn't anything fun going on now I'll post some pics from a previous cross race in Little Rock, AR. It was my first true cross race. After a little advice from a more experienced friend I opted for the B race. Said experienced friend had a legit battle for first in the A race. Anyway, I ended up finishing 2nd in the B race. I'm pretty sure the only thing that got me there was my fitness, bc my barrier hopping skills are probably on par with those in the back of the pack. I was just waiting to catch a toe on one of those things and get a face full of earth.

Cold one at the Nox

Trying to keep up the no excuses attitude to riding, I decided to head down to the Nox today despite forecasts of light snow and sleet. Sometimes I wish I had a recording device to record the random thoughts that run through my head on rides. Probably wouldn't been very interesting 90% of the time, but occasionally something useful pops into mind. Learned a couple of things today.

1) I don't like to wear a camelback. Just having that much extra weight on my back bothers me and throws off my balance and weight distribution on the bike. Maybe I just need to ride with one more, but hopefully I won't have to use one in any races this year.

2) Still can't figure out how to dress. Although, I was pretty close this time.

3) Icy roots suck.

4) I love fat monster truck tires

5) Fat monster truck tires don't roll fast.

Anyway, I got in a decent 4-4.5 hour ride today. Slow going with having to stop to eat, remove layers, or whatever.

Goodies!!!

Got some new stuff to show off. Tubeless has been around in the MTB world for a while and its trickling over to road and cyclocross. I decided to give it a go and picked up some Hutchinson Piranha cross tires. So far I really like em.
They weren't too hard to install and sealed up pretty easily with Stan's tape and sealant. They are designed mostly for hardpack and roll pretty fast. I've run them as low as 30 psi so far without any issues. A bit pricey at around $7o each, but the tires on the only contact I have to the ground. Or I should say, its the only contact I wish to have with the ground.
Further reviews to come later!

Little Longer than Expected

I planned on doing a 2.5 hour ride today but apparently my memory doesn't serve me too well, and the route I chose was more along the lines of 3 hours. Good ride today though. 5x5 minute efforts at about the same level I put in on the intervals with David on Tuesday. For about the last hour I kept a pretty good steady pace although I began to fade a bit toward the end.

Other things of note: I want a power meter! According to Joe Friel, without one, I'm simply training blind.

Yesterday: More gym time and an endurance ride with David Ansel. Ride time was around 2.5 hours all to spend maybe thirty minutes on a new road. Only so many places to ride in Starkville, MS. Looking forward to visiting my parents for a few days in Brandon, MS to get in some rides on some different roads.

Today: I planned on hitting up the mt bike or cross bike this morning, but I woke up to rain in the middle of the night. When my alarm went off it was still raining! WTF?! It wasn't even supposed to rain so I was undecisive on what to do. Finally I decided to get a little dirty. And the results.

And the shoes

Obviously I was wearing toe covers. And for breakfast... Honey Wheet Bagel covered in Skippy's Natural with Honey! Strawberry preserves on one and Nutella(pretty sure God's gift to man) on the other with a banana(probably another one of God's gifts).

Legs are feeling the work today. It's probably a combination of the rides and especially the weights. Hopefully it'll pay off.

4x5 min

That was it for today. 4x5 minute work sets with around 6 minutes of rest between. David Ansel had to do a little more, but I was going to ease into them. Despite really sore legs from the weights I felt pretty good. Probably went a little harder on the efforts than I should have, but that's ok. I'll pay later! ha. Total ride time was right around 3 hours

New Season!

Yesterday was the start to a brand new season! I got in around 3.5 hours on the group ride at a fairly easy pace. I hadn't done anything athletic for a week so I didn't expect to feel too great. I was also hopping back on my cross bike which had been set aside for the better part of 8 months. On top of that, I had new S-Works shoes with cleat placement based on a wild guess. Not only did I feel awkard, but my sit bones were sore too. Either way I got in some good miles.

Today I spent some time in the gym. Squats, lunges, bench press, lat pulldown, standing row, seated row, straight leg dead lifts, and the ab roller rounded out the routine. Joe Friel suggests weight training to all athletes so I'm trying to be open minded and have a real go at it. I used to really enjoy lifting weights, but I sort of dropped it when I got more into endurance sports. I tried to ease into it with lighter weights and higher reps per Friel's suggestion. Sort of embarrassing bench pressiing 95lbs, but I gotta keep my ego in check.

I followed that up with an hour spin on the trainer doing some spin ups and single leg drills. Nothing too hard.

Tomorrow it's steady state intervals with David Ansel. We'll see how well my legs hold up to that after that workout today!

So much for being more consistent. Anyway, an easy ride on the agenda today. I am at home visiting my parents so I decided to hit up the Ridgeland trails. Wish I had known it was going to be so wet. I couldn't get in a groove at all so I only rode for about an hour. Some days are just a little off. Anyway, I'm off to Morgan Hill, CA tomorrow for BG Fit class... should be fun riding S-Works bikes, and I'll learn a lot.