Only Me

Heading out on the bike path

After work tonight it was out south of town for the pcl tuesday night crit. I was running a bit behind but still made it out there only a couple of minutes late but the problem was I was the only one there. I did a couple of warm up laps hoping someone would show up but no one did so I ended up just doing some intervals alone. My legs felt ok but were a little lacking. The intervals were good but I only did them for about 20 minutes and then I decided to head back towards home. I think I would have felt a bit better if I was pushing to keep up with someone. I swung through pioneers park for a quick lap to get a few short climbs in and then headed home. I need to try and taper it down a little this week and get my legs back. It's going to be a busy couple of weeks of racing.

A little bummed on the way back towards home
Rollin home

Not sure what was up with the crit tonight. Maybe everyone was tapering it down a bit for the race this weekend or maybe the rain all day got everyone out of the mood to ride. Hopefully it continues to go on. I get some real good training out of it.

Harp

Labor Day Weekend

My labor day weekend couldn't have gone much better than it did. I did have to work on Sat. night and at the shop Sunday afternoon but other than that I spent the rest of the time with the family or on the bike.

On Saturday morning I decided to sleep in a bit and went for an extended ride in town through wilderness park. I spent a solid 2 hours in the saddle pushing a race pace most of the time. I was surprised that I didn't see any other riders out there though.

Sunday morning I was up early and headed out to Branched Oak to hit my favorite singletrack in the area. I decided to ride area 1 where we usually race but won't be in a couple of weeks. I did put in some real good laps other than the first which always sucks cause it is what I call the spider lap. The spiders there love to put up their webs across the trail. I always end up stopping a lot to clean the webs off my glasses, face and arms. Once in a while you have to clean off the spider that's crawling on you too. After that is done the rest of the laps are great and I always feel like I get a lot more accomplished training wise on the more challenging climbing course.

Today I went out again to Branched Oak and first hit the spider lap up alone and then met up with Ryan and we headed over to area 7 where the race will be held on the 13th to meet up with Millhouse and do some course recon. We rode the course twice. The first lap Millhouse led the way and I realized the course wasn't as bad as I thought. It is a new trail right next to the old rutted out one. On the second lap I lead us out and pushed up to my race pace which I wasn't able to hold over the entire 2.9 mile course. I cracked about 2/3rds the way through. I'm not sure what was up and after that I felt pretty weak the rest of the day. I didn't really eat anything before I rode this morning cause I was a bit tired and just forgot. I'm not sure if that is what it was or I just haven't been getting the rest I need. The course is shorter than the rest of the race courses so it will be a bit different doing more laps instead of the standard 3. After that Ryan and I head back to ride area 1 again and I still didn't have much in the legs and Ryan was having trouble with his drivetrain so the loop wasn't the best but bad singletrack is better than none. After that I needed to get going cause I thought the wife and I were going to go get a new laptop in Omaha but the store we were going to go to was closed for Labor day. So the rest of the day was spent lounging around the house catching up on some reading.

The only gripe for the weekend is what should have been. A few weeks back I decided I wanted to race the Dakota 5-0 in Spearfish South Dakota. I wasn't able to do it cause of some family stuff I was supposed to do. The family stuff ended not happening and I really wish I had gone to the race but by the time I found out it was to late to get everything organized so that I could be gone for the weekend. I did keep thinking about it yesterday as I rode that I should be racing instead of just out training. Next year it will definetly be on the schedule especially after reading a race report from it.

The plan for tomorrow is to head out to the pcl Tuesday night crits and get my ass kicked. I figured this will get me into the road bike mind set since I'm going to do a road race this coming weekend. Should be good training to get me ready for my last 2 mountain bike races of the season.

Harp

Riding at Dusk

When I got off of work tonight I got home and had some stuff to do around the house and made dinner and then I was off to ride. Tonight was a planned light ride with nothing to hard. I've pushed it the past couple of mornings and I just wanted to take it easy. I also had a pretty good sized supper and if I had gone all out I probably would have had some stomach problems. I was surprised though that I finished my planned loop fairly fast even though I wasn't trying to. I did take the camera with me and here are some pics:

This was the first of about 20 deer I saw tonight. At one point I had 2 of them running down the trail right next to me. It was cool to feel like I was racing the deer.

Blatant Sponsor Plug

Action photo of the new XTR shifters

Picked up some new fox reflex gloves from the shop. They are pretty nice but I need to break in the thumb a bit. My thumbs must be long the rest of the fingers fit perfect but the thumbs are tight. It did get better as the ride went on.

Dusk. Still one of my favorite times to ride.

Not sure what tomorrow is going to bring as far as ride time goes. I'm going to play it by ear. See how I feel. Got some stuff to get done after work.

Harp

Early Morning Rides, Work and Rankings

Finally a bit of time for a quick post. Only had to work at the college today. 2 days in a row of leaving the house for work at 8 and getting home after 11:30 gets old fast. Those hours actually aren't to uncommon for a lot of the machocistic chefs like I used to be but it's hard for a guy trying to train to be a mediocre bike racer. Anyways I have still been have been able to get a little bit of time on the bike. Yesterday and today I got out around six am for some fast paced trips through wilderness park. I actually do like to ride at this time. I love being up and being out at dawn and dusk. I like the twilight feel of it as it's still dark but the light is creeping up or out. It's also nice cause I got the park all to myself.

I've really been digging riding my mountain bike lately too for some reason. Not that I don't always but with the new shifters and front der plus cutting an inch off each end of the handle bars the bike is running smooth. What I have also been thinking a lot about lately is how much I enjoy riding this particular mountain bike. The bike just seems to fit me and my riding style perfectly.

And for some reason in the last few days I have been really focused on training and what I need to do to get ready for the few races that I have left. I've been watching what I eat and have been getting my plan ready for what I need to accomplish in my upcoming holiday weekend of extended training time. I really wished I would have gotten my shit together and made arrangments so I could have gone to the Dakota 5-0 race this weekend. I think it is definetly going to be on the schedule next year.

I did see today on Nebraska Cycling news that they have the series rankings up for the psycowpath series. I'm sitting at 7th in my category. Not exactly where I want to be. I think that's another reason I've been so focused lately is I've only got two more chances to meet my main goal of the season.

A big congrats to my man Ryan though. He's sitting at number one in his category. Rob is also doing well sitting in second in his.

Other than that I need to go catch up on some reading.

Harp

1/2 Century Ride in Pics

The original plan for this morning was to get out to Branched Oak for 25 miles of Singletrack at a painful pace but it rained so I opted to ride the road bike to Branched Oak go around the lake and head back with a goal of 50 miles. The legs didn't have much in them but I made it through. Not the best average mph but I'll take what I can get. Here's the pics:

At the lake 20 miles in.
Lots of these around the lake
Keepin the legs movin
Rollin the Marin Team Camo
Sailboats on the lake.

Stopping to refill bottles at the Malcom General store. Population of the town is 419. I got a lot of strange looks

Fuel
Done. Goal of 50 accomplished

PCL Tuesday Night Crit

I finally made it out for the PCL Tuesday Night Crit that I've been wanting to try for a while. I needed to do this type of training. I need to get out with some other riders that are faster than me and try to keep up.

On the ride out to the spot where it goes down I saw a Midwest Wheelmasters rider and pushed to catch up with him. When I got there we started chatting and he showed me the .6 mile lap that they normally run. Another rider showed up and we got started running the laps. The plan was 10 laps at a time. I was able to keep up with them for 3 of the laps before getting dropped. After that it was just me riding alone and trying to catch back up. After a short while it went from trying to catch up to not getting lapped. Unfortunatly I ended up getting lapped on lap 10. The turns really killed me. I had no confidence hitting the turns at a high speed and they seemed to do it with ease. I also am not used to riding right next to and on the wheel of another rider so I wasn't getting the drafting benefits.

After the first set was done we took a very small amount of time to spin and recover and then it was off again. It was about the same as the first time. I kept up for 3 laps and then was dropped. I did feel a bit more confident on the turns and was feeling better. In the middle of the set 2 riders from team fire showed up and joined in for the finish.

At the start of the third set Troy stayed on my wheel and helped kind of coach me to where to sit and position myself in a group so that I can get a draft. I still feel very uncomfortable riding right next to other riders. I've gotten too used to mountain bike races where we are spread out on singletrack over a 5 mile course. When I did get myself into the right spot I did see feel the benefit of the draft. Again on this set I managed to hang on for only 3 laps before losing the group.

After that people had to leave and I needed to think about getting home to. I headed out with the group chatting and getting to know some the other riders. We took a long way back to town heading through some cool new develepments. When we got into town I peeled off and headed home. I didn't check how many miles I did but I did put in 2 of the best hours training that I've had in a long time. Again I think that I need to keep doing more training rides like this. I really think I acomplished a lot tonight and it did more for me than flat rides on my mountain bike through wilderness. This gets me into a higher heartrate and I really push it harder to keep up with other people than I do when I'm out by myself. But I do love to be in the woods and of course after saying all of this I'm hoping to get my mountain bike back tomorrow and check out the new components and see how they work. My legs are pretty sore after last nights core workout and tonights efforts a light spin on the mtb will be perfect.

Must go for some recovery of sitting on the couch.

Harp

Ride with Lex & a core workout

My original plan for today was to get up early before work and get a good hour of intervals in but that didn't happen. I ended up getting to bed late and I woke up about 20 minutes before my alarm went off and told myself there was no way I was going to be worth anything on the bike if I went out and would just be disapointed so I reset the alarm and was back to sleep. As I went through my training plan for the week I decieded it wouldn't be a bad idea to take it easy today and just spend some time hanging with the kids. They go back to school on wed. and we had the open house tonight. After that was done we got home and my wife started dinner and my daughter Alexis and I headed out for a ride. We only rode a little bit but they are always some of my favorites. It's nice to head out and listen to her talk about any and everything. I had to take my road bike since my mtb is at the shop getting the new bling put on it. I need to get a cruiser bike for these casual rides with the kids. I always feel like it's a bit overkill when I go out on my race bikes. We have these at the shop and if there are any left after the season I might have to pick one up to help clear the inventory. And they are super comfy.

When everything was done tonight I did do my core workout routine with some adjustments. I haven't done a core workout for about 2 months + and at the last race I started to have some of the back and side pains that I wasn't having when I kept the core muscles in check. Plus I've been feeling heavy and pudgy lately. I think some of it is my fear of losing all the progress I've made. The core workout really kicked my ass and I'm going to feel it in the morning. I need to make sure that I get these workouts in at least 3 times a week. I always feel better when I'm getting them done.

Tomorrow the plan is to head out on the road bike to the pcl tuesday night crits and enter the pain cave for a while. The guys that do these are some serious roadies with some definate speed. I'm just going to go and see how long I can stay with them. It's really gonna hurt but in that "good" way that we all know about. It will be interesting.

Harp