Wednesday, October 15, 2008

A little of this and that.....

Nothing really to report except I got in a great weekend of road rides. Went with different groups each day and got to do some hills at race pace. That's always fun. Saturday's 50 miles concluded with me doing a one up sprint across the bridge over I271 on Fairmont and hitting a PB for 5 sec power and a maybe my highest max watts since I weighed 22 or 23 lbs more in 2006. I think its the racing on the SS bike thats given me a bit more pop.

Ive also been staying true to my 09 TT goals and have now done 3 training rides on the TT bike on the trainer. I do them Wednesday morning and let me tell you, its a mental bitch to do the routine. But its the kind of workout that is gonna build muscles and bio mechanic (is that the right term Sean?)adaptations specific to my TT position.

Also I am soon going to be a 10!! Okay, my CSK cross bike is going 10 -speed, but not for any reason you might imagine. It starts because I have a few sets of winter wheels/cross wheels. Some are to be used on the cross bike, some on the Cannondale Six 13 while commuting or crappy weather and hopefully on the CSK cross bike for really shitty weather commuting. But my cross bike is 8 speed (which is more than enough mind you) and my six13 is 10 speed. Long story short, now all my wheels will have a 10 speed cassette on them. Easy!!

On a side note, the 09 Rival is a nice step forward with Zero loss tech and crisper, better shifting. So the new Carbon levers will find there way on the Six13 and the older Rival on the CSK cross bike. I already own a spare Rival rr der and 4 10-speed cassettes so it was an easy upgrade. The CSK will probably lose another 75 to 100 grams now too!! I guess if I needed to justify this more, the 15 year old 8-speed ultegra lever was getting crappier and crappier in shifting anyways (especially when its cold), is heavy and takes a different shifting method than Rival.

And last on Monday I went for a 2 hour mountain biking extravaganza!! This time I improved 10 fold more, but also crashed more and came home in my usual state of bloody, jammed finger (fat and purple) and the usual bruises. But it was a great ride and Chris took the time to hop off the bike and watch me descend a couple tricky, steep and loose descents or try and hop some logs and with his instructions I improved so much at both. I feel like bunny hopping something big RIGHT NOW!!

I'd go mountain biking again tomorrow, but Id like to not be bruised and beat up for this weekends Spin cyclocross race on Saturday and possibly the Orrville race Sunday.
Whoo hooo, already thinking about the start and that crazy steep and long hill. You know the one!!

So I have coined a new term for my training and that's Mountain Mondays.

Monday is usually a day off, but now its a day to play. To improve on technical riding, have a blast (scare myself silly) and laugh and sometimes curse at myself. And it is 5 or 6 days before my next race!! Hopefully plenty of time for those cuts to heal, jammed fingers to unjam and the bruises to be less bruisey!!

See you all Saturday!! More Cowbell man!!

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