The Math

My goal for this year's cross season was top 10 overall. Based on the math in points my best possible finish will be 8th overall. My worst possible finish is 13th overall. I will need my A game and my best race yet to reach my goal of the top 10. I am going to do my workouts and push hard during the race for my best finish yet!

Conyers Mudd Fest Cross Race!!!

Wow!! That was an awesome race it reminded me of the races in Seattle. Ton's of Mud and off camber hills, Deep Mud creek crossings and some slight inclines that were so thick with mud that you had to run them. The laps were long about 15 minutes each which was great we only had to do 5 laps. I was battling back and forth with a guy named Rob for 7th place. I know that his name was Rob because he had a big cheering section. We were trading off 7th and 8th place each lap. He was a little more fit then I was but I was better in the technical mud sections. On the last lap he put in a fairly large gap at the start finish line and help me off for a long time. I finally passed him on a run up about 1/3 of the way through the lap. After I passed him I put the hammer down and did not look back. I ended up taking 7th place which is my best finish of the year. One more race to go, the Finals in Dallas, GA. This week I am going to do the Race week in the In-season program with the addition of my 30 minute morning high cadence spin.

37 mile mountain bike ride and Race on Sunday

I did not do a lot of riding this week. I did cyclo-impossible 1-5 on Tuesday followed by a 37 mile mountain bike ride through the Georgia Mountains on Wednesday. We were in the woods for about 5 hours. 4 of which were riding. Tons of climbing and fast descents. It was a big workout and I was really not able to ride on Thursday or Friday due to my body needing to recover. Today I just did a pre-race ride. Tomorrow morning I will do a 30 minute spin before driving the hour to Conyers for the make up race. I feel pretty good so I am expecting a good result. Only 8 more days left in the season. Next week I am doing the Race week training.

Sunday's Race--Felt Good!

I had been doing the A cross race despite my license saying a cat 4. (I jumped categories do to my training with cyclo-core over the past year). I was informed that I needed to upgrade my license on the USA cycling website. They would only allow me to upgrade to the B race. So I decided that I would podium in that race so I could return to the A group the following race. The group was very large and unfortanately I had to start at the very back. I am a little nervous attempting to move up on the pavement in a group that large because one wrong move and I will be sliding across the pavement or worse. I went into the trail in about 15th place which is way further back then I wanted to be. I was stuck for about 3/4 of a lap behind slower riders as the leaders got away. I finally broke away from the group in 7th place at the start finish line which was mostly pavement. I was on a lone break trying to catch up to a group which contained 3rd-6th place. It was exhausting trying to catch up on my own. I noticed that I two other racers were not too far behind me. I let them catch up to me and one of the two guys was an excellent technical rider that was faster then me through the curves. I sat on his wheel and we made our way up to 3-7th place with about 3 laps to go. I varied my position in the group from last to 2nd until 2 laps to go. With 2 laps to go we were able to drop 2 guys out of our group and were down to 3. I sat behind the two guys, all the while knowing that I would be able to drop them in the deep sand section followed by the hill. On the last lap I darted past them running as fast as I could in the deep sand and up the hill over some barriers and back to the road. When I looked back they were no where to be found. I finished the race in 3rd place. I would have loved to win the race but I think missing the 2 person break at the beginning made it too difficult for me to win.

Feelin' Good and ready to Push

I believe that I am 100% recovered from my cold. For the past 3 days I have been focusing on riding twice per day. After completing the Morning Rituals I have been doing a 30 min high cadence spin to start my day. Yesterday I had intended on doing a hard workout but my body told me that I need a recovery day. Today I feel stong and ready to go. This will be my last hard workout of the week. Today I am doing the 10 min warm up, warm in 5, Cyclo-speed Anaerobic Functional strength circuits 2,3, impossible 3,4 then Power in 5, 8 min power yoga 2x and then a 40 min bike ride with two 5 minute z4 intervals. Tomorrow will most likely be a 1 hour recovery ride. Thursday I will be off. Friday 2 rides, Saturday pre-race ride and Sunday ride in the morning and race at 12;30. I am looking forward to a big result this weekend.

The Cold

Today is the 3rd day without riding which is surprisingly easier than it has been in the past. I started feeling bad Friday night and had a full blown cold by the middle of the day on Monday. I am electing to not race this weekend and am hopeful that I will be able to begin training again tomorrow. I have heard from some pro cyclists in the past that after 72 hours your muscles begin to atrophy. I am excited to start riding 2x a day and think that is going to be helpful to finishing the season strong. Three more races to go and 2 of them are worth double points so I am hopeful for a strong finish to the season . One lame thing is the USA cycling is requiring that I race at CAT 3. I did 4 races as a CAT 1 but my license said CAT 4. I should have followed the protocal and went through the normal upgrade procedure but I wanted to race at the top level. USA cycling is requiring that I race as a CAT 3. So I am going to finish the season by hopefully winning the CAT 3 races and then winning the CAT 1 Georgia cyclocross season next year.

Rome Cyclo-cross race

Another disappointing race. I am currently ranked 13th overall in the Men's A Georgia-cross series. My goal is the top 10 this year and to win the series next year.
I probably should not have raced this last Sunday. I was not feeling well and I now have a full blown cold. I did the best that I could and raced fairly well considering I was ill. The reason that I choose to race is because I had a team mate and friend visiting from Seattle. My friend was able to win the Men's A race by a huge margin so I was very excited for him. He gave me a valuable tip that I think will help a lot with 4 races to go. Every morning do a 30 minute spin on the trainer. Nothing to difficult but enough to wake your body up for the day. He said that I would be surprised at how good I would feel for my main workout of the day. Once I am feeling 100% I am going to implement the 30 minute ride every morning and hopefully break my way into the top 10 for the Georgia-Cross Mens' A.

I asked for Pain and I got it!!

Wow did that race hurt!!!! My race today was my worst result yet. 17th out of 21 yuck!!!! I felt like I was going as hard as I could the whole way through but my effort did not give me a good result. The first thing you think about when ever you have a bad race is, what did I do wrong or different. I can think of a few things that I changed that probably lead to me not having a good result. Here are a few that I am going to change back-
1. No time on road bike- I have been training exclusivley on my cross bike. Which means that I haven't done any rides over 1.5 hours. A good 2-2.5 hour ride once a week is probably necessary.
2. I gave up coffee for green tea last week and switched my normal breakfast of Odwalla Superfood for an organic powdered berry/greens drink- that didn't agree with my tastebuds.
3. I felt a little sick yesterday and today- can't change that but I think that had to do with my results.

Hopefully changing these items in addition to my compounded training will lead to top 10 results in the next 5 races. I will go hard again in the next race and will hopefully get a better result.

4 days until the Conyers race

Yesterday I did a one hour mountain bike ride at a very easy pace followed by 25 minutes of relaxation yoga. Today I am back to more intense workouts. I am doing the In-Season Week 7 day 6 workout. It involves 8x2 minute zone 5 intervals with 3 minutes rest in between and then 8x1 minute zone 6 intervals with 3 minutes rest. This will be my last hard workout prior to race day.

Monday's workout=Sore legs on Tue and Wed

Monday I did Cyclo-impossible 1-4 followed by Cyclo-endurance in 5, cyclo-power in 5 and finally Cyclo-impossible 5. Tuesday my legs were a little sore and today they are as well. Tuesday I did a 50 minute recovery ride and today I am going to do about a 1 hour mountain bike ride. The goal this week is to be ready for the race on Sunday in Conyers, Georgia. Conyers is home of the mountain bike race course for the 1996 olypmics. I am hoping for a good finish in that race. I believe that I now have the endurace and power to go hard off the line and sustain a solid effort for one hour. After Sunday I have a race every weekend until December 7th.

Sunday Intervals- Fantastic!!

Today I did some awesome intervals on a cyclo-cross course. After a 25 minute warm-up I did 7 intervals with 3 minutes of rest in between. The intervals were set up this way: 25 sec sprint into a 5 min zone 4 with the last 15 sec being a full sprint. After the intervals I had a nice 25 minute cool down. I had that glorious post ride feeling on the cool down. Tomorrow I am doing Cyclo-impossible 1-4 then Power in 5 and Explode in 5 concluding with impossible 5. Big race coming up next Sunday and I want to be at my best.

Sore Legs are Wonderful

Yesterday, I did the week 6 day 3 workout on Graeme's Advanced In-season program. The total workout took about 2: 45 minutes. Lots of Hindu Squats (I think about 250) and Chair pose. Today my legs are sore. Soreness means progress and better results in my next race.

I think I found what was missing from my race....

PAIN. I have been trying to avoid it in both workouts and races. In the race on Sunday I felt like I was going pretty good but I wasn't able to increase my pace and never really felt that glorious cyclo-cross pain. Last night, I was thinking that my level of intensity in both my training and races has faded slightly. I believe the solution will be to push harder during the planned intense sections of my training. During today's workout of Aero ab blaster, Fix the back-strength and stretch, I worked on really making the workout be solid instead of just going through the motions. I think that if I can continue to work hard and not just go throught the motions then I will have that extra gear that I need in the race.

Georgia Cross Race 2 Savannah 10-19-08

Today's race course was awesome. It had some super fun technical sections including a fly-over, an unrideable pit of clay mud and some woop dee woos. The mostly flat course did not suit my strengths but I thoroughly enjoyed riding it.
There appeared to be about 25 guys in the race and the course started with a long dirt car track section that was perfect for establishing an order into the first turn. I made a mistake early in the race by going out too slow. After the start lap I was in 15th place and feeling too relaxed for a cross race. My pace felt more like a group ride and less like a race. I lost some time every lap through a rooty tree section that was full of sharp turns. Those types of sections continue to be my weakness. I was able to make up ground on the straight aways and grassy field areas. I was in a group of about 4 riders (Green jersey guy, 2 red jersey guys on the same team and me)and we continued to attack each other for almost the entire ride. We passed a few guys and with about 6 laps to go the guy in a green jersey got away. So then we were three. Two red jersey team mates and me. The two team mates were able to drop me so I ended up riding most of the last 5 laps solo. With three laps to go I had enough left in the tank to increase the pace. I made up ground on the two team mates. As I came into the grassy field area before the start finish line on the last lap, I noticed the guy in green was back with the two red team mates and they were dropping the guy in green. I quickly made my way up to and then passed the guy in green as well. Shortly after that the two red team mates split up. I was able to catch and pass the slower of the two team mates but the other one got away. I finished in 12th place. My lesson learned was to not go out too slow and leave such a huge gap to make up in the end. I am now going to take a few days off the bike to recover. I will do some recovery yoga today. Tomorrow I will do the aero ab-blaster, fix the back- strength and stretch and by Wednesday I should be ready to increase the intensity. Later in the week, I will work on my work on my cornering skills in the rooty tree sections.

2 rides today

Today I am doing the In-season Peak week2 Tuesday ride in the morning and a super easy paced group ride in the afternoon. Morning ride went great. Great weather definitely helps.

October 12th Training Day

I did the Cyclo-impossible 1-4 and then did cyclo-explode followed by cyclo-impossible 5. I felt strong the whole way through. It did help that it was in the 70's today. The last time I attempted cyclo-impossible 1-5 was in Mexico were it was in the 90's. I had to stop due to fact that I started to feel like I was getting heat stroke. On, Monday October 13th My plan is to do a 30 min eazy spin following by some recovery yoga.

Georgia Cyclo-cross Race 1 Dahlonega

It was a hot day in Dahlonega, GA for the first cross race of the year. I believe it was in the Mid-80's. The race began with somewhere around 21 guys. Due to a early on log hop and this being my first cat 1 cross race, I decided to start at the back of the group and work my way up. That is not the best strategy but I didn't want to get caught up in a crash at the log or blow up on the first lap. I think we did a total of about 12 laps and each lap that went by, I passed more and more cyclists. As I was making the passes I noticed that alot of the riders were looking a little blown. It made me happy that I did not go hard off the start. I finished the ride strong in 10th place overall. My Goal for the next race in Savannah, GA is top 6.

My Training Calender for September

9/1/2008
Today I began my training for the Cyclo-cross series today. For the past month I have been riding in all zones about 5-6 days a week. I took one week off the bike completely in August.
My training is consisting of the Advanced IN-season program with some modifications.

Week 1: Consisted of the Week1 training program but on Wednesday I completed Cyclo-impossible. On Thursday, I did an easy recovery ride of about and hour. Friday and Saturday I was so sore from cyclo-impossible that I was unable to ride and could barely walk. Sunday I felt lots better and completed the ride on the week 1 schedule

Week 2: I did the 7 day cycling boot camp. The only exception that I made is that I am now inserting cross skill training and more anaerobic exercises into the workouts.

Week 3: This week I am planning on doing week 3 of advanced but am replacing the Tuesday Neuromusclar workout with Cyclo-impossible.

A little about Me and 2008 Goals

A little about me: Began riding mountain bikes in 2001 to cross train for a marathon. Completed the Marathon in September of 2001 and have not really run since. I quickly upgraded to Sport in mountain bike races and enjoyed fast paced group rides and solo rides in the summer when the weather was nice. I would do very little riding between November and March due primarily my lack of interest to riding in the dark, cold rain of Seattle. In October of 2007 I purchased and began using the cyclo-core programs with great success! I was placing in middle of pack with the Category 4 racers in cyclo-cross. In 2007 I upgraded to Cat 3 and completed the season in 11th place overall. In the Spring of 2008 I upgraded to Expert in Mountain bike racing and actually won a few events. This year I am upgrading to Cat 1 in Cross and hoping to place in the top 10 overall.