Music from the Heavens

I woke up kinda of slow today and I am glad. My SO was wanting a Wii and was planning on going to wait in line to get one. I wasn't really into that so I told her that I would meet up later. Especially since she had beed up and going already for 1-2 hrs. As I was sitting drinking my coffee, I heard the music from the heavens. I saw the sun coming up. I was shock and had to check the weather for the day. The weather said that it was going to be partly cloudy and the temperatures were going to be in the 60s in the afternoon. So an email was sent out to the friends for a ride and I began preparing for the ride. I called the SO and told her that I would be later in meeting up. Soon I was talking to my friends and the ride was on. The ride had been moved up in time from what I was looking for but I was not going to miss it.

I went down to meet up with the SO for a bit and to be nice, I carried her a coffee. It was still cold so I thought it be a nice gesture since she had been out there for 3+ hrs. I waited until they open the doors and she had the bad luck that she didn't get the voucher for the Wii. At that point, I told her that I wasn't going to be around at lunch. She was ok. She went to try other places but was out of luck.

I started the ride feeling pretty good. I went out with a friend and his SO. My friend had just got a new bike and it is really pimp. I think he is really stoked about it too. We started out on a easy stretch of road and the ride was suppose to be nice and easy. As we started coming back on the first stretch, I learned a new meaning of easy. I don't know what happen but at one point, my friend told me to go after someone that just past us. I was just planning on sitting in the group so I wouldn't wear my self out. A few minutes later, the group picked up speed and passed the guy. They joked about it as a stress reliever but on the most part it never slowed down afterwards. During one of the hills, I was climbing as the lead and my friend came up on my side like there was no difficulty in the hill and goes "What is your power now?". I told him my power and he greatly discourage me at the time. We kept a pretty strong pace the rest of the trip through the hill country. I know that I was not eating and drinking correctly and I was physically falling off. As we headed back to the first stretch to finish up the ride, the SO said what is the deal with picking up speed on the hills. I think the ride was starting to work on her too. I finished up the ride with about 45 miles and felt spanked. It was definitely a good ride though. I had a average power of 175 watts with a max of 691 watts.

By the way, my friend said lance was lying. It was definitely about the bike.

Trainer Day

Today was another rainy day. My SO and I was bored so we went to have some fast food japanese and went to walk around the mall. So nothing really major. We also went for a sandwich at supper. We were good. We did share a sandwich. We just wanted out of the house today.

I need some time on the bike so I got on the trainer for about an hour. I did some one legged drills and one minute max power drills. The one legged drills really let you know how bad of pedal stroke that you have. I feel that I pull up too far on the back side of the pedal stroke and it is very inconsistent. This is one of the main improvements that I will be working on this year. With the resistance that I had set and the gearing, I was maintaining about 80 watts with one leg and 140 watts with one minute max power. I am going to work to improve these numbers.

Marking the dates

So far this week is driving me crazy. I have been stuck in doors for a whole week with all the rain and ice. We had 3 ice days that I couldn't even go to work and the rest of the week was cold and rainy. I know we need the rain but I wish mother nature would work with this water distribution.

I also received and email today from a friend. Her major question was which races was going to race this spring. It made me look at the spring season which I haven't really done. I decide that I would race about once every month starting the first of March. I am planning on doing 3 or 4 races this spring. I had already decided to do the 12hr race in Febuary. This is really good thing. It helps me to motivate myself for training.

Also, I got a call from a friend at the bike shop. He told me that the mechanic found a creak in my fork. The fork is out of warranty but they felt that it was not a big issue. I could get if fix by buy a new crown and stanchion. I am going to hold off at the time. I will wait for them to break and buy it then. Otherwise, my bike is almost creak free.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Well, It is a new year and time to make some new goals to achieve this year. I normally half way do my goals for the year and this year I am going to try to publish them. Hopefully the community will give me trouble for not fulfilling or keeping them up today.

1. Lose weight - Currently 183 Pounds and Goal is to lose 20 pounds.
2. Become a stonger and more technical cyclist.
3. Race in a 24hr Race.
4. Race in a Sprint Triathlon.
5. Ride 10 Trails or Road Routes that I have never ridden before today.

The blog will explore how I will achieve each goal and it will keep you upto date on the progress.