Change of Pace

Instead of the normal Saturday morning Virginia Beach stage race, I decide to meet up with some people in Suffolk at All About Bikes for a long steady ride. We had a decent turn out. Forced everyone to work on pacelining and sharing the work in the wind. Good scenery and great company. VBV, Fat Frogs, VBW and of course All About Bikes racing had some representation.





During the ride, we could see up ahead a group of 7 or 8 deer hauling ass through a field. They were heading towards the road in front of a large pickup truck. They all jumped the ditch and ran across the road right in front of the truck. I tried to get my camera out to get a good shot, but they were pretty fast. This is all I was able to get.

It was nice to get out of my norm for a change. I think change will be my norm. I can stay a lot more motivated by alternating my rides and changing bikes up. This week I rode my TT, fixed and road bike in three different cities. Don't get me wrong, I missed my friends from the Saturday morning ride, but I'm sure I'll see you tomorrow at the Peter Teeuwen Memorial Ride.

Wine and Dine

Keagan's at Town Center (I think they also have one in Newport News) does a Wine and Dine Night on Thursdays. $30 for two entrees and a bottle of wine. Its like getting a bottle for free. Jenni and I decided to try it out. The food is awesome. Kids enjoyed there corn dog bites.


Jenni enjoyed here wine.
This place runs deals throughout the week. For a lot of us Sundays may be the time to go. It is their Serve Your Country night. Military, Police, Fire and Teachers get a free meal (I think it is buy one get one free).

On a cycling note, I got on my TT bike yesterday. Just went out with John to the county and rode sort of easy in the wind. Felt good and comfortable. That bike has been hanging in my garage unused since July.

Inspiration

Just wanted to share some of those inspirational posters you sometimes see. These ones are not available in most stores.





More to come later.

Icy Hot

No I'm not refer to the cream you put on sore muscles. Although I do have a story about that...think about it. My days as a runner, sore groin muscle, Icy Hot applied to that area just before a ten mile run. Let's just say my mind was not on the pain of the run that day.

No, I am referring to this weekend's weather. Saturday morning I got up to do the Tripower training ride from Conte's (AKA the Saturday morning stage race.) It was 24 degrees out. Freak'n cold. Although by the end of the ride the temperature had risen to 44 degrees, my toes were still frozen and I could feel my fingers for a few hours later. But good day. 70 miles completed.

Now let's fast forward to Sunday. 2pm start time for the All About Bikes ride in Chesapeake. Much different weather. Near 70 degrees the entire ride. Windy, but very comfortable ride. Because of the wind it wasn't quite the relaxed, base building ride it was supposed to be. I'm just glad I did not bring my fixed gear. Good turnout too. About 15 riders from All About Bike Racing and Virginia Beach Wheelmen. I forget my camera. It would have been good pictures. Albe did bring his helmet cam though, so look for some video maybe. 50 miles completed.

Good weekend for me. Hope everyone else is also getting the good miles in. No ride for me today though. Work, then Velocity tonight.

Cross Results

I was just surfing around the internet, doing a google search on people that I know, when I came across this site. Crossresults.com

Anyone see this before. Its pretty cool. It sort of reminded me of another site I had seen before. Athlinks.com Tracks results from endurance athletes.

Just cool stuff. These sites can even tell you who your competition is. In bike racing we usually know, but it was cool to see those stats from my days of marathon running. I know Keirin Racer I used the forbiddin "R" word that you hate so much.

Tour De Garage-its freak'n cold outside

Its cold outside. That is a legitimate reason to move your training indoors. I don't know about you, but I have a hard time building base miles while on the trainer. I have never been able to just get on and pedal on the trainer. But this time of year, that is exactly what I need to do. During the month of January my focus is aerobic base and muscular strength. I do these two together for one reason. This is when I lose weight. The base training helps lose the weight and the muscular strength training helps maintain muscle while I lose the fat. So a lot of my indoor workouts this time of year might include the gym, Velocity training, or hill workouts on the trainer. But also on the trainer I will attempt longer rides. Of course for me an hour and a half is long for the trainer. Here is one of my workouts:

Spend the first 15 minutes warming up. Use some of the warm ups I have provided before our use your own.

The key to keeping your sanity during long trainer rides is to be able to focus on a period of time of no longer than 5 minutes. Here's what I mean:

Warm up
15-20 minutes what ever you want
Workout
5 minutes in Big ring/18 spinning at a cadence of around 90
5 minutes in Big ring/12. Stand for first minute, sit for second minute, than stand for third minute...
5 minutes in small ring/18. Recovery spin at greater than 100 rpm.

Repeat this cycle for no less than 4 times. This workout gives good leg spin, recovery time and strength building. 5 minute intervals are easy to stay focused on.

Cool Down
Add some 1-legged intervals and an easy spin for your cool down.

Enjoy the cold if you like it...enjoy the trainer if you don't.

The First Day of 08

'Twas the first day of the New year,
when all through the roads,
cyclist were stirring, even those toads (aka Fat Frogs).
The tights were stretched over the legs with care,
in hopes of keeping warm out there.
The Wheelmen were riding in a group with no haste,
while visions of miles kept them at this pace.
And Tim and Jennifer on their tandem, and me on my fixed,
had just settled in on a New Year ride with bikes mixed.
When out of South there arouse such a gust,
we filed in one line for it was Creeds or bust.
Up the Pungo Ferry Bridge we flew like a flash,

...okay I give up.

I'm not a poet (obviously), but I figured everyone would be writing about New Year's day rides and I wanted mine to be a little different. The Virginia Beach Wheelmen (some of us) met this morning at 9 to ride the "Pungo Hangover Ride." Its much like the "Pungo Hell Ride", but slower.

The Players:
Tim Shockley
Jennifer Shockley
John Gray
and myself

The Scene:
Pungo. From Redmill, over the Pungo Ferry Bridge and back.

The Equipment:
Tim and Jennifer on a tandem, John on his road bike and me on my fixed gear. We like to mix it up.

The "no shows":
James Goyet chose to ride in Suffolk near his house. I can understand not wanting to drive too far for a ride. Good day to spend with the family.
Jon Nisbet is out of town and was with us in spirit since he was probably on his bike at the same time.
Mike Tamayo...I don't know. He is only two weeks away from graduation from the Chesapeake Fire Academy. We can cut him a little slack for a few more weeks.

The Hangovers:
I had a little to drink last night. Woke up with Mr. Hanky's cousin...the New Year's Poo. But recovered well and felt good.
Tim had some girl drinks at my house last night. He was probably still on a sugar high.
John worked on the medic last night in Suffolk and only got 3 hours of sleep.

The ride:
We kept the pace easy, but the wind still made the ride challenging. A lot of other riders were on the road. We saw Tripower guys and Fat Frogs (sorry for the toad comment, but I needed a rhyming word). 40 miles on the fixed gear for me was tough. It was almost harder on the return trip when we picked up the pace and I had to spin faster.

Overall it was a very good 4 days of training for me. It was a good way to start my aerobic base building and muscular strength phase of training. Now the temperature drops...the indoor trainer will be heating up though.