I have a few minutes, so I'm going to try and get an update in. Two weeks ago i completed my base training (6 weeks) and trimmed myself down from 255lbs. to a now stout 240 even. Not too bad, but still a long way to go. Last week was a rest week where I should have kept up with my training volume, just cut back on any intensity. Well, even the best laid plans don't always come through. I only got one ride in all week, but considering I opened my fine dining restaurant, took on another business opportunity, began work with a local charity, and had the best fathers day ever with the family...it was a sacrifice I was willing to make.
So this week, I have begun my next 8 week cycle. I will not have another rest week until Aug. 15th-21st. Gonna be a long two months, but this cycle will be very important for a number of reasons.
1. Invervals.
I haven't done anything even remotely like intervals in 15 years, and even then, I didn't really embrace them as I should. I will be doing most of these on flat(ish) roads to work primarily on speed and my lactate threshold.
2.Racing.
I will have my first race in 3 weeks at the Jackson Hole Downtown Criterium on July 10th. This race should be good with its figure 8 course, flat profile, and good roads. The high bottom bracket of the cross bike will be suited well, now I just need to get the legs up to speed in order to stay in the group. This didn't go so well at the last group ride, so everyone cross your fingers. The end of the eight weeks will culminate with the Idaho State Criterium Championships in Boise which I have set as my first real goal of the year.
3.Investment.
These 8 weeks will be a huge investment for the cyclocross season which will start September 24th. These weeks I need to see the rest of the weight come off and the leg speed increase. If all goes well, I will take a four week break from structured training before resuming the really hard part of the year in tune up for the Cross season. No matter how you cut it, you gotta make regular deposits to the Pain Bank!
4. Motivation
If I can keep it together for the next two months, I should have more than enough investment to see me through the real meat of the season...Cyclocross!!!!! It also really helps to hear about my best bud Sobe slaying all last weekend in a few races on the east coast. To hear of Brian winning a field sprint in a criterium, is something a kin to Mark Cavendish winning atop the Tourmelet. At least to my ears anyway.
Big Congrats Brother!
That's about all I have for now, I'll get another update out there next week.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Monday, June 20, 2011
Carbon Bling and OTB Joe.
Forgive me father, for it has been weeks since my last confession...
Group rides can be funny things. Every town has their Tues. Night World Championships, the Wed morning slug fest, or the weekend Death Rides. Growing up, Brian and I would attend these rides religiously as part of our training. We had the Sprints at Southpark or the Tampa Crit on Tues. The San Antonio pro ride on Wed. mornings and the UCF throwdown on Thurs. nights. The weekends were split between Winter Park on Sat. mornings and the Windemere Death Ride on Sundays, or for some real pain, the USF group ride followed by the Tampa Telecom Crit on Sunday afternoon. These were great times, and a great way to test yourself and your form against your peers. You got an up close and personal look at who was going well and who was not; important information for the next weeks races.
Being my last week of base training I decided to attended my first group ride over in Jackson to see how things were going. On the fitness side of things, I am still lacking. When the pace really ratcheted up...I was OTB Joe. After being shelled like a spent cartridge, I hooked up with another dude in my same position, and traded pulls all the way home. I felt pretty good for all intents and purposes, just really lack any kind of leg speed. This makes sense considering I have only really be working on strength for the past few weeks.
I did make some other observations during the evening.
1. Since when did everyone ride there race wheels at a group ride. Back in the day, you wouldn't be caught dead riding your nice wheels in training, people would make fun of you.
2. Since when does everyone sprint out of the parking lot. Again, back in the day, you took it easy for the first 10K. You allowed the late comers to catch up, caught up with your buds, and let your legs loosen up a bit before the flogging.
3. I actually remember how to ride in the group (while I was in the group). I remembered the little signs, felt the ebb and flow, and generally just felt like a fish in water. This was probably the best part of the whole evening. Thankfully, I haven't lost the skills I once had, only the fitness.
See you cats on the flip side, got a rest week coming.
Group rides can be funny things. Every town has their Tues. Night World Championships, the Wed morning slug fest, or the weekend Death Rides. Growing up, Brian and I would attend these rides religiously as part of our training. We had the Sprints at Southpark or the Tampa Crit on Tues. The San Antonio pro ride on Wed. mornings and the UCF throwdown on Thurs. nights. The weekends were split between Winter Park on Sat. mornings and the Windemere Death Ride on Sundays, or for some real pain, the USF group ride followed by the Tampa Telecom Crit on Sunday afternoon. These were great times, and a great way to test yourself and your form against your peers. You got an up close and personal look at who was going well and who was not; important information for the next weeks races.
Being my last week of base training I decided to attended my first group ride over in Jackson to see how things were going. On the fitness side of things, I am still lacking. When the pace really ratcheted up...I was OTB Joe. After being shelled like a spent cartridge, I hooked up with another dude in my same position, and traded pulls all the way home. I felt pretty good for all intents and purposes, just really lack any kind of leg speed. This makes sense considering I have only really be working on strength for the past few weeks.
I did make some other observations during the evening.
1. Since when did everyone ride there race wheels at a group ride. Back in the day, you wouldn't be caught dead riding your nice wheels in training, people would make fun of you.
2. Since when does everyone sprint out of the parking lot. Again, back in the day, you took it easy for the first 10K. You allowed the late comers to catch up, caught up with your buds, and let your legs loosen up a bit before the flogging.
3. I actually remember how to ride in the group (while I was in the group). I remembered the little signs, felt the ebb and flow, and generally just felt like a fish in water. This was probably the best part of the whole evening. Thankfully, I haven't lost the skills I once had, only the fitness.
See you cats on the flip side, got a rest week coming.
Friday, June 3, 2011
Humble Pie with a Disclamer
This is not a BLOG! I don't do blogs. I won't be writing anything witty about current events, global warming, celebrity square dancing, or Lance Armstrong's "thereapy". If that's what your looking for, go to NYCbikesnob, he does all that stuff. This is a journal. A journal about my year trying to become any athlete (or something resembling an athlete) again. Once upon a time, my best friend Brian Sjoberg and I (with a cast of other characters) used to race our bikes from Florida to Canada and everywhere in between. And you know what? We were good. In our day, we were really good. Winning races, traveling the country, and getting into as much mischief as a van full of teenagers could. It was a fantastic trip. But all good things do come to an end, and eventually, it just wasn't fun anymore...
So it was time for a change. Not really digging college, I switched teams. From a cycling team to a kitchen team...and loved every minute of it. Now I was moving around the country every few years with a beautiful wife and two crazy kids, trying to increase my knowledge and my paycheck. And I did pretty well at that too. I finally made the big time as an Executive Chef of a large resort in Jackson Hole, WY, had another beautiful daughter, and bought a house.
Unfortunately, all the growth in my life came with a cost to my body. In fifteen years, I went from 178lbs to 259lbs! I ate poorly, drank too much, got no exercise...pretty much drove my body into the ground at the expense of my career. My wife tried, she really did. She was the only voice of reason and I didn't listen. I was too caught up in being a chef, which is very easy to do.
So what happened? Why the change now?
In the fall of 2008, a cyclocross race (Moosecross) was put on in my sleepy village. Having bought a cyclocross bike the year before in order to attempt to start riding again on the dirt roads around my house, I thought why not. If you have never done cyclocross...it is hard...really hard. It is basically one 45min Zone 5 interval, if you can imagine such a thing. However, it also has it's advantages; only 45 mins long, always in the fall (my restaurants are closed), no hills, and you get to get insanely dirty doing it. It was an absolute blast, probably the most fun I'd had on a bike in 20 years. So I hatched a plan to return to racing via cyclocross. The only problem is...I suck. I suck bad. I have zero fitness, little strength, and no cardiovascular health. At the beginning of this year, my BP was 149/98. I have since raced Moosecross a few times as well as CubeCross, and not done very well to say the least (lapped by a 16yr old kid on a Mtn bike). I did score a 4th at Cube Cross a few years back, but really have done no real training and little skills work that are required in 'cross.
So where are we now?
Well, I'm glad to say things are looking better. My weight is slowly dropping, and my BP is 118/82. I have mapped out my entire year in three cycles with a bit of rest in between. I had tried a real training program last year but overreached something fierce. In a place where you really can't plan on riding on the road until at least mid April, I chose the Moab Gran Fondo as my first goal. With little more that 12-13 days of riding in my legs, the 66 mile, 5600' elevation gain, ride destroyed me. I was the dead last finisher at 5:59:36. Twenty four seconds from not making the time cut. So needless to say, I have decided to have a more reasonable approach.
I am currently in week 5 of a 6 week "base" cycle. No, this is not your average base cycle obviously. I ride between 90-150min, four days per week, with between 20-60min of Tempo depending on the week. All I'm trying to do at this point is get comfortable, build a little strength, and lose some weight. I have been moderately successful on all fronts thus far, but still have a long way to go. So we will just have to see if this old fat man still has a little spark... I'm not make any promises.
So it was time for a change. Not really digging college, I switched teams. From a cycling team to a kitchen team...and loved every minute of it. Now I was moving around the country every few years with a beautiful wife and two crazy kids, trying to increase my knowledge and my paycheck. And I did pretty well at that too. I finally made the big time as an Executive Chef of a large resort in Jackson Hole, WY, had another beautiful daughter, and bought a house.
Unfortunately, all the growth in my life came with a cost to my body. In fifteen years, I went from 178lbs to 259lbs! I ate poorly, drank too much, got no exercise...pretty much drove my body into the ground at the expense of my career. My wife tried, she really did. She was the only voice of reason and I didn't listen. I was too caught up in being a chef, which is very easy to do.
So what happened? Why the change now?
In the fall of 2008, a cyclocross race (Moosecross) was put on in my sleepy village. Having bought a cyclocross bike the year before in order to attempt to start riding again on the dirt roads around my house, I thought why not. If you have never done cyclocross...it is hard...really hard. It is basically one 45min Zone 5 interval, if you can imagine such a thing. However, it also has it's advantages; only 45 mins long, always in the fall (my restaurants are closed), no hills, and you get to get insanely dirty doing it. It was an absolute blast, probably the most fun I'd had on a bike in 20 years. So I hatched a plan to return to racing via cyclocross. The only problem is...I suck. I suck bad. I have zero fitness, little strength, and no cardiovascular health. At the beginning of this year, my BP was 149/98. I have since raced Moosecross a few times as well as CubeCross, and not done very well to say the least (lapped by a 16yr old kid on a Mtn bike). I did score a 4th at Cube Cross a few years back, but really have done no real training and little skills work that are required in 'cross.
So where are we now?
Well, I'm glad to say things are looking better. My weight is slowly dropping, and my BP is 118/82. I have mapped out my entire year in three cycles with a bit of rest in between. I had tried a real training program last year but overreached something fierce. In a place where you really can't plan on riding on the road until at least mid April, I chose the Moab Gran Fondo as my first goal. With little more that 12-13 days of riding in my legs, the 66 mile, 5600' elevation gain, ride destroyed me. I was the dead last finisher at 5:59:36. Twenty four seconds from not making the time cut. So needless to say, I have decided to have a more reasonable approach.
I am currently in week 5 of a 6 week "base" cycle. No, this is not your average base cycle obviously. I ride between 90-150min, four days per week, with between 20-60min of Tempo depending on the week. All I'm trying to do at this point is get comfortable, build a little strength, and lose some weight. I have been moderately successful on all fronts thus far, but still have a long way to go. So we will just have to see if this old fat man still has a little spark... I'm not make any promises.
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