Training camp 2007

I just got back from my first of what I can make an annual training camp. I spent the week in Bridgewater, VA. I really didn't have any particular plans except to just ride, and ride alot. It ended up being a really nice week. The weather was sunny all week and it only rained one evening after I was finished riding for the day. I ended up riding between 2 1/2 and 3 hours a day. Some days I rode hard and some I rode easy. It was a great time and I got to ride more outside in this one week than I had ridden all year up until this point. I'm not exactly sure if this week will help my racing this year but one thing that is for sure. It's amazing what time off, riding your bike, and plenty of sun can do to raise your spirit.

Disamal Dash ITT

It was off to visit my Aunt in VA beach this weekend to do a race in Suffolk, VA. I got there Saturday morning at 7pm after driving all night. I slept for a few hours and got up for a short ride. The rest of the day had nothing to do with biking and was spent goofing around and refueling(eating). The next morning I woke up and saw that it was cold outside. What's up with that, this is VA. It wasn't actually cold, it was in the mid 30s, but the wind was terrible so it felt much colder. By race time the sun was shinning and the temperature wasn't an issue. I started out fine, on a flat out and back course, and made the turn around in 28min 30 sec. I knew the wind was at my back the whole way there because at one point I went to shift into a harder gear and realized I was already in my 53x11. A quick look at the speedometer and I saw I was cruising along at 32mph. After the turn around it was a struggle. You immediately got smacked in the face with a cold wind and all you could do is hold your aero position and keep pedaling hard. I ended up with a finishing time of 1:03:10.50. It was good enough for 6th place out of 42 in Cat.4 and 27 out of 240 overall. It was really fun and it was interesting to do a race that flat. I can only imagine what a road race would be like.

New bike in Race Dress

New TT bike

I got my new TT bike. I don't have the position quite right yet as you can tell from the picture. It is a really nice bike and much lighter than my Cervelo was. I think I can still get quite a bit lower on this thing.

New bike with the wheels it came with

New bike with race wheels

Old bike, now for sale if anyone is interested

I was on the trainer for an hour this morning. I was doing the Trainright time trial video. That thing is tough. It makes for a really gut busting effort but there is enough recovery allowed, and the efforts are short enough, to make it manageable. Now if I could just kick this chest cold. I am feeling better today so hopefully this will continue.

This morning I decided that since I had the day off I would brave the cold and head out for a ride. I got out the cyclocross bike and headed out for an easy 30 miles. Unfortunately I only made it about 1.5 miles when I go a flat tire.(I hate cinders) I decided that since I was still relatively close to home I would walk home instead of standing beside the road and freezing while I was changing my tube and I didn't want to continue the ride with no spare tube and debris all over the road. So I walked home and decided that instead of going back outside I would stay inside on the trainer and do the Trainright Criterium video. I have a love/hate relationship with these videos. I hate them while I'm doing them but love how I feel when the video is over. So although I didn't get the workout I wanted this morning the intervals from the video probably helped me more than the slog through the snow would have.

Just another note on the snow today. I have completely forgot about how nice of a winter it has been and I'm already ticked off at how much snow sucks and how much hate it. I can't wait for summer!

I just got back from a 47-mile ride on my new bike. It's official, Rich didn't change things around just to screw with me, thank you Rich. I do believe that blue is faster than silver. I just hope that red or black wouldn't have been faster than blue but I don't think it is possible that any color is faster than blue. I met up with Brian Wieczorek about 18 miles into the ride and rode with him for about we parted ways to go home and avoid the rain that is supposed to come but has yet to arrive. Now comes my favorite part of training�.rest, recovery, and post training meal.

Here is a better picture of my beautiful new Six13. This may just be the nicest bike ever :-)

I spent an hour and a half on the trainer this afternoon on my new, blue Six13. It is a beautiful bike. I'll clean the mud off of the front tire and put up another pic. I got there from wheeling the bike from my car into the house. Anyway, 1.5 hours is the longest I've spent on the trainer this year and I don't like it. I would have much rather been outside but really didn't want to get rained on.

Here I am returning from my first training ride of the new season on Christmas day. I got home just as it started raining. Today I was inside on the trainer after work. I did my baseline power test. I think I had forgotten how bad 20 minutes can hurt. Hopefully we'll have a few more races without rain this year.

Here is another one

Man of the year