New Blog

I have started a new blog. It is designed to give workouts to firefighters (although most of the workouts could be used by anyone). I really push the idea of Functional Fitness to my recruits. They stated to me at one point that they thought they were weaker than when they started the academy. What they meant was they couldn't bench press as much as before. I told them I didn't care how strong they were while lifting a weight along a single plane in a controlled air conditioned environment. I cared about how strong the were while doing the job. They agreed, the were stronger and overall more fit. I referred to this as Functional Fitness.

So I decided to start this blog as a way to share some of the workouts that we do at the training center. Some are ones that we have done and some are ones that we will be doing.

Check it out. There might be some workouts that will interest you. Some of them are "Velocity" based as well. So they will make great off season and cross workouts.

www.functionalfitness4fire.blogspot.com

Jealous

One day when I get back on shift work I'll be able to take off during the week and ride some cool places. Teammate and friend John Gray took a trip with Todd Helmick to the mountains and got some amazing pictures. I am still much more of a roadie (I like the outdoors as long as there is asphalt under me), but you can't deny that images like these make you want to take a day trip. Yeah I'm a little jealous.

Read this link so I can buy more bike parts.

My wife has decided to start selling Mary Kay. Here's the deal: If she sells a lot she will buy me more bike parts. I know that doesn't help you at all, but now is not the time to be selfish. Click on this link and buy some make-up. Your wife, girlfriend, mother or yourself will thank you. They got some good stuff. Even some very good guy stuff. So check it out...please.

http://www.marykay.com/jennigoyet/

These women may or may not be Mary Kay customers but I thought the purple lip stick was cool.

Big Day!

I haven't posted my weeks training plan because I decided to go planless this week. I did good training last week although I did miss a vital workout which was the Thursday intervals. Family got in the way. But I have been feeling pretty good. I decided to take off Sunday, Monday and Tuesday so today will be my first day back on the bike since Saturday. Its been a busy week.

At 10:30 I have my assessment center for fire captain promotion. So my week's concentration has led up to this. Although I still have a lot to do by Friday, this will relieve some pressure off of me.

So I plan to go for a ride after the assessment center and enjoy the rest of the day off. I also need to put a package together and send off to the FDIC in order to teach a class there next Spring. That is actually a very big deal. If you recall my earlier posts from my trip to Indy for that conference, this is a chance to teach and be recognized on a national level. So I have to get that together by the Friday deadline.

Busy week. Big day today, though.

By Friday I will need a lot of time on the bike to unwind and/or a lot beer.

Go Fast Don't Stop to Pee

I ate lunch with the family at the new Chipotle in Virginia Beach before leaving for the Go Fast Turn Left race yesterday. We took separate cars and I was packed and ready to leave. Still I was a little nervous about not making it in time for the race. When I left the restaurant I thought to myself "self, you should have used the restroom before leaving." But who has time for that I needed to get to the race.

I was in a hurry and I was going fast. At least that is what the cop in Waverly told me. Thanks for letting me off with a warning "pay attention to those reduced speed signs." (That's the Go Fast part of the title)

I started to really regret the decision on not stopping to pee. I was drinking some tonic water (helps prevent leg cramps) and I had my 1 liter Nalgene bottle with water in it. I was on I95 when I thought there might be a chance that I would really need take care of this problem. I did not want to get off the freeway and try to find a restroom that may or may not be right off the exit. So I was developing plan B. Plan B was simple...empty my Nalgene bottle. So I finished the rest and set it right by me.

I got to 288 and realized I was still nearly 20 minutes away. At this point I had no choice. Good bye Nalgene bottle. I had to stop peeing when I started to get worried about it spilling over. Because of the angle I was at this only allowed me to fill it to the 600 mL mark (which seemed like a lot). But I still had to pee.

The relief of 600 mL was enough to relax me a little and bought me time. The first thing I did when I got to race was find a port-a-potty and finish the job. I sort of wanted to measure that because it seemed like another liter worth. At least I knew I was hydrated.

On a completely unrelated subject, I have a water bottle pictured here that I am willing to give away to the first person who asks for it. There is nothing wrong with it I just don't feel like I need it any more.

About the race. Kyle the Kid scored 2nd in the Juniors, John Gray got another 5th place in the Cat 4 and should be upgrading soon. All three of us raced Cat 3/4 and I got into the winning break that lapped the field. The mistake I made was when we lapped the field I took a lap or two to sit on the back and relax. That was the wrong thing to do because I never made it back to the front and ended up with 7th place overall (there were 11 in the break I think). But I was thrilled with result. I later raced the Pro/1/2/3 race and felt pretty good. I tried a last minute (with 4 laps to go) break but got caught on the line. There was a break that had lapped the field so I don't know what placing I actually got because I didn't hang out. But still I was very pleased with our team's performance.

So I used the restroom before leaving the race and headed to Smithfield for my niece's and nephew's birthday party.

Information gathering

Over the next couple of weeks/months I am going to try and gather as much information about what the majority of people want out of a race series. I will be posting poll questions in the side bar. The more people I have answering these questions the more information I will have to put together a race series for next year. The first question concerns categories. I think race promoters feel the need to have as many categories as possible. Like I found during the VBW Smackdown there were a lot of people who raced the master's races. But the lowest turn out was the Pro,1,2,3 race. Would those masters have raced the Pro,1,2,3 race if there had not been a master category. I could have taken the prizes from the three masters races and have added them to the other categories and increased the prize list. Also by running so many races, some of the categories, like the women's race was very short. Also the officials were there longer then the recommended 8 hours. So I was thinking for the series to eliminate all age graded categories and have only senior categories. Would this deter you from racing? Please vote on the poll but also leave comments to specific reasons if you wish.

Here are some other issues I'll be polling soon:

Is September too late to have the final race in the series? This race would most likely be a TT in Virginia Beach. I am trying to set up to use the same TT course that is used during the Sandman Triathlon. They race on Sunday and the course is set up the day before so I'm thinking we could use it on Saturday. I just would want to make sure that people would be willing to race a TT in September.

Would you prefer a larger price for overall winners of the series, or make each race a large prize and have nice trophies awarded to the overall winners?

I'm sure there are tons of other questions I will be posing. Keep posted and please vote. Tell your friends and teammates to vote and comment also. I am very serious about this project and the more feedback (documented feedback) that I get the better it will be and the more likely I am to get sponsors.

One more thing. I was checking out the old race fliers on the VCA website. It was kind of funny to me to see some patterns. I was not involve in racing from 1995 to 2005. People complain a lot about too many races at the sportsplex. But during those years we fell into similar patterns. There were a lot of races at New Horizon during those years. But one thing I was looking for were races that had happened that could be revived. Sort of like what we did with Sleepy Hole this year. So if anyone has any information about the following races please leave a comment. Especially if you have any contact information or the quality of the courses (since I have never raced these).

Franklin Downtown Crit and Road race
Smithfield Road race, Downtown Crit, Time trial

Thanks for any help.

Free Burritos...For a Price.

I was so excited to hear that Chipotle has come to Virginia Beach. First of all I love those burritos and it is great to support a big sponsor of cycling.

Today was there grand opening and they had burritos for 100% off. The only price you had to pay was to wait in line.

We went to the brand new grand opening of Plaza Azteca instead. I'll pay for my Chipotle burrito tomorrow maybe.

A little pissed.

What is going on with the racing in Virginia this year? Are cities making it harder to hold races or are promoters just tired of holding races and giving up? So many races are being canceled this year. Just noticed the Tour De Weekend races are off the calendar. Maybe its the racers fault. Have we got too greedy and expect large price list that promoters can't deliver. I know it is harder than ever to get sponsors. Without sponsors prize money comes from the entry fees and essentially takes money away from the clubs. The final Tuesday race at the Sportsplex was canceled due to a field hockey tournament.

Another thing I was pissed at, that also doesn't help the racing in Virginia was the late fee added to the State TT. As most people are aware, what was written on Bike Reg and what was actually done were two different things. The attitude of "you are SOL" by the promoter doesn't help things either. I know race promoting is a thankless job. We do it because without it there are no races. It does give our clubs money and if performed properly can be gratifying. My wife discovered this last year that she LOVES being a race promoter. As soon as we got home from the VBW Smackdown she wanted to promote another race. We looked at the race calendar but it was full. We could have put on more races if we would have known the rest of the season would be canceled. We started the plan for a RR in Suffolk, but the tornadoes put a stop on that.

Here is what I am thinking for next year. My wife and I (and hopefully help from the rest of the team) want to put on a season long Tour of Tidewater. A Poor Man's Tour of Tidewater. No entry fee exceeding $20. We will try to get sponsors for large prizes, but if not maybe we will race for smaller prizes and pride. We are thinking about making it an omni series of about 5 to 7 races spread throughout the season (TT, RR, and Crits). The will be BAR events and prizes at the end for overall winners. Does it sound like you would be interested? Post to comments any ideas or things to make this idea even better. The more comments I have the more likely I would be able to get sponsorship (I a can show how much interest there is).

So I will be at Richmond for GFTL but I will be skipping the TT this weekend. See you at the races.

Mini Vacation

We got back last night from a little mini vacation to Ocean City, MD. I had never been there before. We have some friends that currently live here in Virginia Beach but they are original from Ocean City. We went up there with them and acted as tourist for two days. For those that have never been, it is not much different from Virginia Beach. The real difference is that the ocean front is the only thing to do there so even the locals know and do all the "tourist" stuff. There boardwalk is the main strip. It has storefronts and even a tram that drives up and down. Because of this, bikes are not allowed on their boardwalk past 10 am.

One of the coolest things they had there was a place called Secrets. It is a Jamaican restaurant that is also a night club. It is primarily outdoors. The night club portion is indoors but everything else is outside. It is right on the water, or in some cases right in the water.

You could ride your jet ski up directly to it or your boat a little way out and they have a boat to go out and pick you up and bring you to your table. We sat on one of the tables on land. There were so many bikinis running around that I went into a "my team" overload.

Well it was a fun weekend. We ate a lot and I didn't ride, but my training last week was nearly as planned. My intervals were a little different and I didn't ride on Friday. But I feel like I was on track.

This weeks training should look something like this:

Monday: Weight training. Tempo ride 1.5 hours.
Tuesday: Race at the Sportsplex.
Wednesday: Easy ride.
Thursday: TT intervals. 2- 10k intervals
Friday: Easy ride or off
Saturday: Race?
Sunday: Race.

This Weeks Training 6/9/08

To begin this post I will remind you of what I was planning on doing last week:

Tuesday: Team ride. Interval, drills (no race at the sportsplex because of City scheduling conflict)
Wednesday: Easy ride.
Thursday: TT intervals. 10 mile TT practice in Pungo.
Friday: Easy ride. Probably to and from work.
Saturday: Race. Sportsplex, Senor state championship
Sunday: Race. PLT TT.

I ended up skipping my Wednesday and Friday easy rides. Overall good week of training but I need to step it up.

Monday: No riding.
Tuesday: Race at the Sportsplex
Wednesday: Weight training. 3x3 mile intervals on TT bike
Thursday: 2x10 mile intervals on TT bike
Friday: Easy ride
Saturday and Sunday: Off. I am going out of town with the family and some friends to Ocean City. No bike.

Virginia Senor State Championship

Summer decided to hit Hampton Roads hard this weekend. With no place to get out of the sun, the heat became a big factor at the race at the Sportsplex in Virginia Beach. In the Cat 4's race teammate John Gray scored a fourth place and Kyle the Kid finished shortly behind him in the pack. Both raced smart and did efforts to keep it a pack finish.

I raced the Cat 3. It wasn't a steady fast race but with all the attacks and the heat it ended up being a hard race.

As you can see the jersey were open as well as the mouths. (Check out the cool VBW compression shirts we had made. They helped keep me a little bit cooler.) There were many attacks and although I was the only one from my team I did what I could when I could to help close them. With 6 or 7 laps to go a break was up the road that looked like it would last.

Bender had been riding strong and always has the potential to succeed in a break. The pack had just started to work together taking short, fast pulls at the front. Again I was doing what I could. Kazane racing had a number of guys they finally got organized and I started working with them. I took a pull through a turn and suddenly Kazane gave up on the chase and I found myself solo. I tried to bridge to this group. I got closer to them then the pack was to me at one point.

But I didn't have what it took to finish it and ended up going back to the pack and finishing among them. Bender took the win.

Good job. He later mixed it up in the Cat 1,2,3 race.

I talked to a couple of people that I had never met before this weekend. After my race during my cool down I talked with Chuck from Harley Davidson. He is a really cool guy and I was glad to see you out there mixing it up giving those Richmond Pro guys a hard time (last time they were at the Sportsplex they took the top 5 places in their race). I didn't stick around to see the finish but I'm sure you did fine.

Also it was good to talk with a fellow blogger and fellow GamJams ambassador Kyle Jones aka pedalnaround.
Hope your TT went well.

As for my TT, it was not great but it could have been worse. As other people told me..at least I looked fast.

All photos in this post were taken by Leah Nisbet. More photos could be seen at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/L3ahNiz/SeniorStateChampionships6708Lbn
Also check out her photo blog. Link is on my blog link...Journey Through Life Photography.

I did something stupid

I got a bad sunburn. I got it on Friday and it made me very uncomfortable during the race at the Scorchplex.

The story of how I got the sunburn is the funny and embarrassing. I laid in a tanning bed. Hey don't judge. But I know what you're thinking. The guys at the fire department tell me I need to turn in my man card for laying in a tanning bed.

I've learned my lesson. When the lady tells you they just put in new bulbs, don't tan for 20 minutes. Especially since it was the first time tanning in like 2 years.

The 100° day did not feel good on a sunburn on my ass. (Pause for laughter) I will post the race report later. I am trying to heal myself for the TT tomorrow.

Skinny Dipping

Okay not the type of skinny dipping you where thinking. But thanks for visiting anyway.

We took the family to the new shopping center at the corner of Princess Anne and Damn Neck. Its called Princess Anne Commons. Next to Firehouse Subs is a frozen yogurt bar called the Skinny Dip. You make your own sundae, weigh it and the cost is based on weight. Its pretty cool, very good and a great healthier choice then some other places. Everything there is fat free or sugar free (the yogurt not the toppings). Give it a try.

Here's a picture of Caitlyn enjoying her Skinny Dip.

Suicide Sprints

John Gray, Kyle the Kid and I went out last night for a ride and did suicide sprints. Remember those from PE class. Well we found a place to do them on the bike.

The white outlines are where we did them. They are large medians, so every turn is a u-turn, but the road on both sides are really wide. It is also straight and open so you can see if any cars are coming. So we start at the top and circle the first median, then down to the next and finally the third. After the third one it is a long 2/10 of a mile sprint to a yellow sign just past the start area. Good acceleration drill (which I really need), good cornering drill (which I also really need) and a good sprint workout (do I really need to say that I really need that too?).

This Weeks Training

I am going to give this a try. I am going to let everyone know my training plans. Then I'll let everyone know what a slacker I was by not sticking to them. Yesterday I ran with the recruits. It was a pretty easy 3 mile trail run. Here's what the rest of my week looks like.

Tuesday: Team ride. Interval, drills (no race at the sportsplex because of City scheduling conflict)
Wednesday: Easy ride. My brain might be mush after the written exercise for the Captain's promotional process.
Thursday: TT intervals. 10 mile TT practice in Pungo.
Friday: Easy ride. Probably to and from work.
Saturday: Race. Sportsplex, Senor state championship
Sunday: Race. PLT TT.

I've been feeling good lately. Not necessarily where I should be but better considering I had such a slow start to the season. Hopefully I'll be able to maintain good training and have a good second half of the season.