Working on Stats

Since December I've been working on a fun annual report style look at my racing career. But work and training has kind of gotten in the way. I can't wait to find some time to sit down and finish it — it will be full of statistical goodness and charts (all for my homeboy Layne).

I also need to buckle down and work out my training plan, at least leading up to Mohican.

Some of the work I have been doing is freelance — I'm trying to save up money to get a new rig to race with the big boys in 2012! I'm hoping to get a sweet Independent Fabrications steel cyclocross bike. I can't wait to get a new bike. All my bikes have 3-4 years on them right now and all the components are falling apart.

Till Blogposts Do Us Part

I'd like to announce that Bjet, my lovely wife and the person who inspired me to get off my tuchus and start exercising, will be joining me on the blog. She started her blog years ago and I started mine out of mimicking her.

Bjet has been racing on and off since she was 18 years old. She was a scrawny lil vegeterian girl with piercings and dyed hair riding her mountain bike to her job at Penn Station Subs. On the weekends she would go on trips with the BioWheels team to crazy 24 hours races like Big Bear.

In 2002 we both bought mountain bikes (hers being a race worthy machine), and that next year she came back to racing and has been hitting it pretty hard ever since. Last year was "an off year" where she didn't train as hard — but she still did the Mohican 100k, a fair amount of mountain bike races and a great cross season where she finished 2nd in the OVCX.



I'm excited to infuse her opinions and experiences as a female racer into the blog. Bjet also has a lot of valuable knowledge in nutrition, she is currently the nutrition buyer for the Fleet Feet running store in Blue Ash. I've imported her old blog into mine, and you can find her old posts here: Bjet posts.

Good Form Running

I've been modifying my form this year. I have been following the message in this video to improve my form. I have been feeling pretty healthy and quite a bit faster. Despite going faster I typically get a bit less tired because I am being more efficient.

I would say my main issue in experimenting with this new form is being a bit too robotic. So I have been working to loosen up.

These efficiencies really helped me last weekend in my first trail running race, which I will write about soon.

More information can be found at:
goodformrunning.com/

CommuteVille Rendez-Vous

I like my commute. I ride from Madisonville on the East Side to Downtown Cincinnati. It's 10-12 miles depending upon my route. I can find some gravel, hills, scenic overlooks or just do a very flat time trail depending upon my mood.

So last night I really wanted to get some miles in, and to put myself through the grinder. So I hit every hill I could think of between my office and home. First I rode up Liberty Hill and Boal Street, then Mount Adams Hills, then hills like Kemper and Collins making my way over to the Alms area, up the 16% wall of Alpine and up to Delta and Ault Park hills.



Man, I fell rough. I was pretty slow but I am still kind of in my post World Championship base period. It was nice to stretch the ride to 30 miles and I rode 4,000 feet of elevation. Not bad for a Wednesday night! I think this is the most elevation I have ridden in a long time!

I was worn out so I went home and ate some Vegan black beans and quinoa, and sweet potato hummus. I kind of looked like the character in the Triplets of Belleville. Then I fell asleep...

Hit the Ground...Running

So I've dusted myself off from the Masters Worlds. My "rut rash" and stake wounds have nearly healed. It's time to start anew and dream about a new year with new goals.

So I got sick of people knowing that I run, then asking me if I was running the Pig. I always say that I use the Heart Mini for early season fitness, then I just go out and ride a bike because that's fun. But after seeing the Pig last year and watching the Boston, New York, London, and Stockholm marathons on TV I got all siked to try one out.

So I've been running for the past month, taking the typical 5k's I run during Cross season and slowly ramping them up. I've been doing a lot of trail running because I feel it makes your legs stronger due to muscle confusion, and the impact on trails is softer on your joints.

I have big goals, let's see if I can achieve them!

I went to the dentist today. They said my blood pressure was 130/73 (with a pulse of 54)... I'm a bit worried about that. It's a tad high.

This week I took off to recover, but I've been working too much, not sleeping and drinking a lot. These are major causes of the high blood pressure.

I'm planning some changes for the new year with my diet. Last year I realized I was typically not eating enough calories to build muscle. So I began to eat more, and eat more protein.

But I got into the bad habit of cramming a bunch of food down my throat. Sometimes it was salty or fatty food, and I started to eat quickly again without thinking of what I was eating.

So I want to cut back on salt, eat more veggies and I plan to try some radical new diets. Stay tuned in!

Stop! Jump!

I tried to alter my JumpStop chain catcher so it won't let my chain bounce off the top. I flipped it upside down, and bent the former bottom so it's over the chain. But I also had to flatten/bend the former top so it wouldn't drop the chain into the frame, like it did 7 times during my race (not an exaggeration)...