Party time!

Its a busy weekend for us. After work today we had my office party, a dance performance to watch, and a birthday bash for a mutual friend.

Tomorrow is a 12 hour shift followed by another performance and roller derby.

Roller derby? Yes, a friend's wife plays (rolls?) for a local team. Should be a hoot.

Testing, testing

I am done with phase two of a three phase testing block and all I can say is "Damn, that hurts."

Yesterday was some short 3 mile TT efforts.After the heavy lifting earlier this week (Thanks to an informal competition with Devin) my legs were heavy and sore. Needless to say, the numbers I generated were not stellar.

Tonight there were several sprint efforts. A five minute sprint and three two-minute sprints. There turned out much better. While still not anything very special, these tests turned out pretty good. Good enough that I was cross-eyed at the end of the intervals. That'll do. 

I have to work tomorrow so the next test will be Sunday. Its the biggie, the 20minute TT test. It is guaranteed to a load of laughs. 

Speaking of lifting weights, it feels good to be back in the gym. The friendly competition with Devin has kicked things in gear, so my goals should come a bit quicker. Now the only question is whether it will pay off when the rubber hits the trail in the spring. 

Its a learning curve

I did some consultations with someone with some coaching experience last week and have been hopefully pointed a little more accurately toward success in 2011. Over the weekend I did a couple workouts based on those consultations and I must say I am intrigued and encouraged. Maybe sometime I can actually shell out the bucks for an actual coach. 

One of the things I really like about training, whether in the gym on the mat or on a bike, is that there is always something you can learn. Whether its some subtle change in efficiency through improved position or form or discovering how your body responds to a new stimulus, its always a learning experience.

I don't have a lot of natural physical ability so most of my gains come slowly from hard work over long periods of time - with lots of thinking and planning. With that in mind, I am really looking forward to getting a little new information and finding out what I can make happen with it. 

Busy November

I am still trying out this Tumblr thing so this time the entire post is there. Here is the link http://cedge100.tumblr.com/post/1592224003/busy-november

It may be a little early but...

Looking back over my 2010 season I realized that I met all the goals I set for myself, even surpassing a few. While it wasn't a perfect year, it was pretty darned good. My goals were modest - hang on during our weekly group rides, podium in a Psycowpath race, and have a marked increase in measurable performance on some know rides/loops. Modest or not, they were goals I set and worked hard to meet.

November 1st is looming so its time to start laying out some goals for the 2011 season. With the upgrade to Cat 2 on the mountain bike, shooting for at least one podium for the year sounds reasonable.

A Cat 4 upgrade on the road is another goal, even though I could actually do it now. I really don't want to though until I could actually race with a Cat 4 group, not just watch them disappear down the road. And, I really want to focus nearly 100% on MTB and CX events so that may be one of those "it'd be nice but..." goals.

On the upgrade front once again, a CX upgrade from 4 to 3 would also be nice. Since I am a total noob to CX this might be a lofty one but I think I'll keep that one on the list. Maybe I should narrow it a bit and shoot for top 10 in two CX races.

I'd also like to do at least one major race in 2011 whether its the Dakota 5-O, or some other large race outside of the immediate area. A top 10 finish would be nice; a "not last" finish would be cool too.

How to accomplish this? Fitness and skills practice.

Once a week skills practice - mountain specific until fall then cross practice.

Return to the gym. I actually have started this one. The plan is to work up to two rounds of a deadlift/squat workout with a specific percentage (100+%) of my bodyweight.

VO2 work. I purposely neglected this in 2010, largely because doing it wrong does more damage than good. I need to study up a bit so I can make a go of it.

Wait - one more goal. Probably the hardest one but the most important. one. I can do all this stuff but if it ruins my home life its worthless. I have a hard time with divided attention but I have to learn that when I am riding I am a cyclist, when I am home I am a family man. Sounds easy right? Easy or not, it is goal #1.