Thursday, October 23, 2008

First Front!



Where were you when the first cool front of the year passed? I was out riding my bike! At first things were nice. A little rain, and nice breeze. Then came the lightening! Lotsa lightening. Hightailed it home quickly ... the evening was eerie with the low-hanging clouds and an odd hue to the sky...




Perfect setting for Halloween! In keeping with the fall theme, I had pumpkin beer. It's actually pretty good. Not very pumpkin-y, which is probably a good thing!

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Changing Seasons

The days are getting shorter. Time to look back and reveiw the waning season.

Recent fitness test results... normalized FTP power- UP. Cool! 30-sec, 1- and 5-min maximal efforts almost identical to last year. Bummer. If you're familiar with a mean maximal curve; mine is pretty hilarious. It's just about flat! It's no wonder I'm not happy with my climbing ability. Should I become a track racer? NO! Am I a genetic freak devoid of the ability to sprint? Perhaps. More likely, the fault lies in my training.

Last year built a solid base. I neglected to include enough over-reaching efforts in my training. My training philosophy is evolving too. OUT- for this year are long multi-week periods of exclusively base miles. IN- base miles integrated with more above-threshold efforts. My sub-treshold work is to maintain more than develop.

I'm super excited about he upcoming year. I'm developing a cohesive training philosophy for myself. I started out blindly following Joe Friels' Mountain Bike Training Bible. While an excellent guide, I found some things simply do not work FOR ME. That's the trick to this whole training thing - find what works FOR YOU.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Excellent Weekend!

Could not have asked for better weather this weekend. Even managed to squeeze in some dirt time today.


As a result of last weekend's testing, a new training program started. I like it, though it's got me hurting a bit right now. I'll try to provide more details next week.

Friday, October 17, 2008

Layzee Stir-Fry

Takes about 6-minutes to cook. A tablespoon of oil, add ton of grated ginger. A lot of grated ginger. Then cook the chicken, add a bag of frozen veggies.



Mandarin orange syrup adds a nice flavor that complements the ginger. I love orange/ginger combination. I've been using it a lot lately.



...garnished with the mandarin oranges...



Friday, October 10, 2008

No Picture of a Puncture

Eventually, it happens to everyone...Caught out with a flat tire. Three miles from home and I get a flat. A spare toob I had, a spare toob I installed. Hit it with the CO2, and behold! A leak! Not dead yet. I carry patches just for this situation. What I didn't have was a spare CO2. An assessment of the conditon of my rear tire, and lack of desire to walk lead me to conclude my ride on a flat tire - very slowly! It was time for a new tire anyway. Upon my return I added another cartridge to the seat bag!

I'm off for some fitness testing at a secret location this weekend. Secret because a friend is doing it gratis. Hoping to gain some insight as to why I'm so slow and the path to improvement.