Last night's commute home, I love all the wonderful things you see from the seat of a bike. The Tyler-Davidson Fountain had a lovely dusting of snow on it.

Off-season workout regime

I've been having so much fun being a couch potato — but alas the 2011 training plan is coming soon.

Dumbbell

I haven't hit a weight room since I was a 117lb High School Freshman Football player, but it was becoming apparent that some of my cycling weaknesses were due to lack of strength (for instance, I cannot bunny-hop a caterpillar). Here are some observations from my first few workouts in the gym:

– I am VERY weak. Any motion not related to pedaling and eating is foreign to my body.
– Open the locker room door and confronted by the first completely nude middle aged man I have seen in years. I had to hide my shock, then it occurred to me that this is not only how God made us but IT'S A LOCKER ROOM!.
– Man, this place is great for people watching. Maybe I'm the weird guy with the staring problem.
– Anyone joining a gym in January is treated like a leper by the regulars.
– Girl Talk, the "DJ," has ruined pop music for me forever. His ADD mash-ups have left me confused whenever I hear the full-length originals.

I've been really happy with Revolutions, it's a really cool place with a lot of great classes.

My first ride since January 3rd and I go out and do a time trial in the snow! A little stupid maybe but I had a lot of fun. The woods were gorgeous in the snow — I had a blast seeing old friends and sliding through corners getting rad on Patrick the Paragon. My legs actually felt okay, but some of that was the numbness of the embrocation. Philip Hurst and Full Service Racing is putting on a killer winter series. I hope the weather cooperates and the trails stay in excellent condition. It's nice to see Harbin getting a lot of action — it's a cool trail and the second half of the loop is really killer, even though I was trying to ride conservative I really suffered!

At the end I had a sweet duel to the death with Matthew Stierwalt — and I bit it in a snow drift and he won the sprint/bike run! Epic crowd pleaser!


Rad photo by Nick Dunn.

The first Harbin Park Winter TT is tomorrow. After 3 CX snow races and one last CX race in the mud, I wonder how it will be? Take two bikes or just one?

I had to post these pics from the the last races. Tons of fun but my bike took so much abuse I wish I were pro. Instead I got to clean the bikes and buy replacement parts. Sexy beard photo by Dion Easthouse, the VividVelo man.

2011 Season Preview

I was planning on scaling back this year but racing is so fun I am having difficulty settling on only a handful of races. I wanted to scale back to mainly local races to save money for Bjet and my future house, car and travel expenses. Plus I heard this will be another crazy year for gas prices. Either way, I gotta get rid of the little belly I got after Christmas, check out that pic above, I look like a I just ate a suckling pig.

Running (for early season fitness and a change of pace)
– Heart Mini NEW 1/2 Marathon option, my first half
– May be interested in joining a relay team for 1 leg of the Flying Pig.

Time Trials (usually pretty cheap to enter and a great way to track your fitness):
– Harbin Park Winter MTB TTs
– Cleves TTs
– Harbin Park Summer MTB TTs
– Kings CX TTs

One Day Classics, i.e., Endurance Races:
– Sub-9 Death March with teammate Nate (for fun)
– Mohican 100 miler (while I am still stupid enough to ride 100 miles and spend 10 hours on a bike)
– 6 Hours of John Bryan
– 6 or 12 Hours of DINO
– Frankenbike 50
– Gravel Grovel

Mountain Bike Series:
– This summer I plan to focus on either the CORA or the OMBC series. It will depend upon my schedule, what Bjet wants to do and gas prices! That would be about 4-6 cross country races ranging from 25-30 miles a race.

Cyclocross:
– Focus on 8-10 OVCX races
– I may race the UCI3 and GPs (as Elite) based upon my license issues (still a 3, can I buy the UCI license or am I a fool?) and Bridget's sponsorship requirements. I like the idea of using these races as something to keep in the back of my mind whenever I throw a hurtin' on myself all year long. Don't want to make an ass out of myself. Although not doing them would save money for next year.



If I won the Lottery, Future Dream Race Seasons would include:
– Focus on the National Ultra Endurance series, doing Cohutta, Mohican, Lumberjack, Breckenride and High Cascades, using the race series to visit friends and family
– Focus on the USGP Cyclocross race series, traveling the country with the races visiting family
– Cat 1 UCI CX races in France and Belgium on a vacation
– Iceman Cometh
– TransAlp Mountain Bike Stage Race, probably a bit safer than the South American options
– Beaing a Lead Man, doing Leadville mtb and running races
– Tour de Burg MTB stage race
– The Boone Binge stage race
– German Cyclocross Stage Race?
– Or touring Rhine river along German biking paths
– Doing a Ironman Triathalon (might be an interesting change some day)

A little too excited about the new kits. I think I might wear them to bed like pajamas.

Evolution, Conservationism and General Nerdiness

Every year I like to look back at how I've progressed, be proud of what I've done but also set a "data point" for which I will try to beat myself. Competing with myself has always fueled my fitness regime — having goals, a number or a personal record which you can beat while improving yourself is thrilling and perhaps a little addictive. Here is a look back on previous years.



I used to be over-weight, technically obese at over 30% body fat. I'm happy to have found an activity that I can do with my wife and has hopefully added years to my life. I've gone from "not bad for a fattie" mentality in races to picturing myself as a thin, healthy person who strives to see how far I can go. I'm always amazed at how tough people can be, and I think anyone can do it if they find something they love to do that helps them lose weight.

2010 Cycling:
— 36 Races; 2 Crits, 5 MTB, 5 Endurance, 7 OffRoad TT and 17 CX
— 7409.76 total miles
— averaged 617.5 miles per month
— most miles in a month: 1024.08 (in May)
— longest ride 103.3 mi (avg 16.9 mph over hills with Joe, Gers and Mott).
— averaged about 11 training hours per week
— Approximately 575 total hours of training
— most hours trained in a week 22.28
— Max recorded watts 863W (I need to work on this!)
— Max average watts up Kuglar Mill: 299W (15.7mph/7:35)




2010 Running:
— 1 race: Heart Mini Marathon (15k)
— 234.48 total miles (I didn't get to use Nike+ to track all my runs)
— 19.5 mi/mo avg
— most mi/mo 49.25
— longest run 9.33 mi
— Set all new best times for 5k, 10k and 15k!




Commuting
This year I commuted a lot and not only used commuting as part of my training but actively used my bike to reduce my car trips. But this environmental message is slightly a paradox — I traveled thousands of miles to bike races, and at the moment my car is broken down so I HAVE TO ride my bike!

Over the summer I found out that Cliff Bar had the 2 mile challenge, it was a cool to combine my nerdiness for tracking numbers with my cycling and helping the environment and a charity. Cliff Bar donates money to 3 charities, and even more to the charity that commute the most miles (users join a team for a charity and log their miles). Supposedly 90% of trips in the US are 2 miles or shorter — obviously a distance easily covered on bike.

This year I did a total of 1794 miles of commuting in 160 trips — almost 2000 lbs of CO2 conserved.



Here are my workout stats (approximate not exact) since 2007:
Total Workout Days: 962
Total Workouts: 1419
Total Distance: 19,409.20 mi.
Total Burned: 917,231 (kcal)