Como

Fun studies for another day with a better camera and morning or evening light. I could spend all day in the Japanese Garden.

Stillwater ride

Original plan was to roll with the slow group and use this as a slow burner. Of course that didn't happen. I rolled with the fast group, which consisted of more new faces than familiar ones. The first 15 miles were relatively flat, but everyone was taking flyers, trying to split things up. I knew the big climb out of Stillwater on 11 would splinter everything so I saved my matches for later.

We caught the slow group right at the base of the climb, so we had to weave our way through 20 people and up the first part of the climb. This thinned things out a bit, but the faster guys came back together before the big hill. I decided to try keeping it in the big ring and sprinting up the climb. So, I stood up and went. Stayed standing all the way to the top (that was some good pain), looked back and I had about a 100-150 meter gap. Didn't get caught until Stonebridge (stupid stop sign), but by then we had shelled all but 6 guys.

The newbies didn't quite grasp the whole rotating paceline concept. When they got to the front they would hit the gas and fly off the front, instead of keeping the same pace and letting the guy who just did all the work catch a break. After a little coaching things smoothed out and we were flying between 25-30 mph through the rollers. I took one more flyer on the final hill, staying away until the descent. Then the cat and mouse for the sprint started. I thought I was finally in a good spot, about 4th wheel with 1,000 meters to go. Then 2 guys sat up and I was in the worst position possible. If I took a short pull and sat up I'd get attacked. So, of course, I went for it with about 600 meters to go. Legs were burning, got caught at about 100 meters to go but managed to catch a wheel. Was still in it but got boxed in for about 4th place.

Overall, legs felt pretty good. If the temp ever gets above 70 I may be able to breathe and we'll see how things improve then. Hopefully no repeats of last weeks total body shutdown (I'll be working on recovery the next few days).

Max Watts: 957
Average Watts: 210 (next ride I will try to hit the interval button to get more accurate averages, excluding the warm-up and cool-down parts)
Average Speed: 22.5 mph
Distance: 40.34 miles
Calories burned: 1575

Recovery Ride

Took an easy morning spin yesterday to keep the legs alive. Turned into a harder effort coming back into the wind, but not a hammerfest. Tonight we hit the hills by Stillwater for 40 miles. Can't decide if I'm gonna sit in with the slow guys and just get some miles in or if I'm gonna do the usual race effort.

Holy close call, Batman

We just missed the tornado by about 10 minutes. We were at Home Depot in Blaine and the sky was doing funky things so we headed home. By the time I turned on the tv the tornado warnings were out. Missed us by about 5 miles. Funny thing is it didn't even rain here until the second storm rolled through. Going outside now to see how much hail damage we have.

Where were the sirens? They didn't go off until the storm was well past us.

Lebanon Hills

I took it easy, skipped the Afton ride, and went to Leb instead. Did two full laps plus the warm-up loop for a cool down. Cleaned the entire Tedman's Curve section for the first time, so that was nice. I rode the whole trail with a bit more confidence on the new rig. It's nice having a bike that fits and that has full-suspension. I took some lines in the xx loop I never would have dreamed of on a hardtail, and the boing-boing saved my bacon in the rocks a few times. Perfect day for riding, hopefully the energy levels return to normal soon.

Obey the recovery week

I think I'm paying the price for overtraining. Yesterday morning I woke up and felt horrible. Super weak, nauseous and out of it. It took everything I had to get Owen to daycare and get back home. I crawled into bed to rest for a minute. I woke up 4-1/2 hours later. Better today, but still super tired. Hoping to ride this weekend, but will definitely take it easy.

Aw yeah

I hate penalty shoot outs, it's kind of like deciding the outcome on a coin toss. But, I guess you've still got to put the ball in the back of the net. Man Utd are Premier League and Champions League champs. Awesome.
In the "This could only happen to me" department: I set the TiVo for the match and Jen and I are watching the highlights. I fast forward to the penalty shootout. Good stuff. Even though I knew what was coming it was still nerve racking to watch. Hargreaves makes his penalty kick, then the TiVo cuts out. Thank God for the internet, where I found some video from Australia posted to Youtube.

Nason Hill

Super windy and I got gutterballed about 5 miles in (literally, blown off the road into the gravel). I latched back onto the pack, but as I was doing that there was a break of 6 guys at the front. We started chasing but only me and 2 other guys would pull through. I got frustrated and went for it, trying to bridge up. Didn't work. Sat up, waited for the chasers. Same deal for the next 15 miles: 3 people out of 8-9 took turns pulling, and if anyone else did pull through they went way too fast for anyone to follow (after they'd been sitting in forever).

Well, I put up with this until the big climb, Nason Hill. Dropped the hammer and shelled the dead weight. Passed lots of shredded riders from the original escape. Eventually, the stronger, cooperative riders from the previous chase group caught me. But, the 5 of us got a smooth paceline going and drilled it for the next 20 miles. I felt great on the hills and took a few monster turns on the front. Legs were absolutely screaming for me to stop, but I was able to ignore it for once (holy crap am I paying for that now. Ouch). Took one more big pull up the last twisty hill on 7 before the sprint. Dwight gave me the secret sign to follow his lead out for the sprint, but that was game over for me. Sat up and watched the sprint unfold. Good times. Great ride. This is what was missing from my training last year.

Max Watts: 795
Ave Watts: 225
Miles: 43.36
Calories burned: 1654

So much for my recovery week...

I was only supposed to ride 3-1/2 hours this week, all short recovery rides with a 40 minute TT today. I did a 40 mile hammer ride on Tuesday and a 3-hour leg ripper on the mtb at Afton today (including 5 times up Manhandler). I'm feeling pretty cooked, but it was a fun week. I'll take it easy tomorrow...

Fun facts from today's ride:

Guy sitting next to his bike on the switchback climbs, smoking a cigarette yells "You guys are ANIMALS!" as we ride by. He was in flavor country.

Some other dude was out riding with a cat. Yes, a cat. As in fluffy, litter box using, Meow Mix eating feline.

We got road raged by a guy in a golf cart.

Commute

I drove Owen to daycare, then went home and grabbed my bike and rode to work. It took me about 2-1/2 minutes longer to ride in at a recovery pace than it does to drive. It's only 3 miles each way, but with the extra trip home and back for lunch, I can get in 40-60 minutes of spinning every day and stick it to the man.

I certainly needed the spin, I'm feeling Wednesday's ride today worse than yesterday. Do you experience the 2-day lag? For me, the second day after a big race or a bad night's sleep is always worse than the day after.

Hey there legs, welcome back!

Did the R&G hammer ride last night. 40 miles from White Bear Lake north to Hugo, up and around Big Marine Lake, then back on the rollers via Norell and 7. I was able to hang with the fast group and actually put in some attacks on a few hills. Made the mistake of taking a huge flyer with John Thompson and burned a bunch of matches, almost got dropped, but recovered before the first climb. I didn't get dropped by the Oftedahl brothers (although I'm guessing this was a recovery ride for them) and had enough left in the tank for a long lead-out at the end.

I miss the group ride. There's nothing quite like a smooth paceline slicing through the wind at high speed. When I was taking my turn at the front the watts were in the 300-375 range on the flats. A few times even when I was sitting 3rd or 4th wheel I was ticking over 275-300 watts (my threshold is about 260). We caught the first group right before Big Marine and blew by them like they were standing still. I think Mealhouse was the only one to latch on and I think he fell off after the hill. Good times. Great night. Hopefully the fitness is coming around. Even if it's not, that was my best ride of the year so far.

The Stats (including warm up and cool down)
Max watts: 805
Average watts: 205
Calories burned: 1355
Average speed: 22.9 mph
Max speed: 38.75 mph
Distance: 40.68 miles

No Style Points

Another of Dana's shots from Sunday, showing me working on my cyclocross skills in the mudpit of death.

This is why I didn't ride through it...

http://gallery.mac.com/dana.schoppe#100047&bgcolor=black&view=grid

Check out Dana's photo sequence of the mudpit of death from Sunday's race. This is precisely why I ran it and didn't ride it. Dana Schoppe is the new series photographer, and she's already kicking butt right from the start. Nice job. Check out her blog for links to her galleries.

Glory, Glory Man United!

Back-to-back Premiership titles is pretty sweet. 10 titles for Ryan Giggs, not too shabby. Hopefully we crush Chelsea in the Champions League final.

Erik's Spring Cup

First mtb race of the year, first time in Comp. The staging area was moved and by the time I realized it I was in about Row Z for the start. The prologue was a traffic jam, as was most of the first lap. I got behind a train of riders going painfully slow with nowhere to pass. Tick, tick, tick... the clock was running. There was a bike-swallowing mud pit on the north loop that I ran through rather than ride (so many endos, the photos should be spectacular) but other than that the course was pretty solid considering all the rain yesterday.

Still have this allergy/cold thing going on, which is tolerable except for trying to drink on the bike. I can't breathe through my nose so every time I tried to grab some fluids I'd start hyperventilating. Sweet. I eventually settled into a good rhythm and cranked out my 4 laps. 35th overall and 6th in my age group. I even beat Longley for once. Not bad considering I'm at least a month out from being race fit, and my number one goal today was not to get lapped by the pros. Next stop: Afton.

Photo by Skinnyski.com

Hills

Max Watts: 713
Average Watts: 180 (includes warm up and cool down)
Distance: 18.51
Calories burned: 710

Did the Fridley/Columbia Heights loop tonight (previous post has map). The hills are nothing major, but they're good for intervals (more like really hard jumps than climbs). The race on Sunday is pancake flat, which means dirt time trial for 4 laps. I can feel the burn already...

Tonight's ride??

We'll see, looks like rain...

Ready??

Kevin looks ready. Jamison looks ready. I'm not ready. Legs feel like burning Jello. Pretty sore today from yesterday's ride. Definitely need some more endurance rides.

Ouch

4-1/2 laps at Harmon today, trying to keep Matt and Andy in sight. Lungs felt good, legs were nowhere to be found. Still felt good to be out on the dirt. Trail had a few muddy spots, but mostly good to go. I can already tell that next week's race is going to be a training ride. I'm nowhere close to race fitness yet.