Where Have I been???

Oh like your really care!!

Just hidin' out and layin low. To be honest, my lack of prose has been offset with a somewhat increased busy schedule, coupled with some serious breaks in the weather, and then to smooth over the time spent on the bike with my BEAUTIFUL BETTER HALF. (yes I'm told to be mushy)

But paybacks are hell..

Anyhow... I think it's been about two weeks since I posted. I'm in the Base III period of my plan now. Well now I'm practically over it. The big difference here - if you even care - is a little more duration and some higher intensity workouts - Z4 for me. To make it sound not so spiffy, add two Zone 4 interval workouts each week.

To be honest, this is good and I can see the point, however, when the weather breaks and it's 70 degrees out, one rides for two hours, then the next day these interval rides are hard for me. But I'm also a puss.

I didn't print out to review what I did two weeks ago, so I'll only bore you with what I did last week, and what's going on this week.

03.05.07

Monday - knowing I had a training class in Clarksburg on Tuesday, I decided to ride out at Kanawha State Forest, here in Charleston after work. Then go to Grafton to visit my old man. So after work that's where I went, my normal thing is to ride up Middle Ridge fire road and start out that way... well there must have been some gas well issue as that route was closed. So up the fireroad which was fresh bulldozed mud. I think it took me 18 hours to get to the top. However the Edge worked fine.

03.06.07

Tuesday after my class I stopped in Roanoke West By God to check out Stonewall Jackson State Park. Well I found one nice trail - Heavnor's Orchard Trail. This trail was about 3.5 miles long mostly all single track, and very scenic. If it wasn't so cold out, I would have probably turned back around and rode it back the way I came. But because I'm a _____ss I didn't. My feet were cold and headed to the car. But most of the pics here are from that ride.

03.07.07 - NOTHING Didn't do crap.. however it wasn't supposed to be a day off, tried working out in the evening but I guess I was too tired, so decided to catch up on some 24, and Heroes that were DVR'd.

Thursday was nothing special...

03.09.07 Friday - the weather was awesome, took off work a few hours and managed a nice little road ride for just over 2 hours. Then dinner with some of the betterhalf's friends.

03.10.07 Saturday - another two plus hour day in the sun... this time it was an intentional flat ride as on Sunday I want to do some intervals. After this ride, it was dinner at Red Lobster with the betterhalf's parents, and a baby shower or birthday or something with some other relatives. Noteworthy stuff really, if you want to hear about it you can pay me.

Sunday - well I guess I was too tired for the intervals because I stunk up the joint on that workout. So managed to ride some hills, then proceeded to drink more beer and some errands around the house.

So to conclude that week...

227lbs, about 120miles on the bikes.

New Week

Now just to catch up, I'll make this short story that much longer.....

Monday, rode after work on an empty stomach - well I basically bonked..... cut the ride short and came home and ate some Reese Cup Easter Eggs, and a salad.

Tuesday - well that's today, I'll tell you later.

Sunday Morn

It's like 7:30AM Sunday morn, the snow is coming down? Who knew it was supposed to snow? Guess those that paid attention to the weather! Not me.

It's also my Girlfriends - Susan -Birthday. I have done nothing. She says don't worry about it. BS. LOL That's an invitation to disaster. I'm thinkin' breakfast maybe - but that requires me to go to the store. We'll see.. needless to say I'll probably hear about this day in the future.

As for the riding...

Well the weight's hovering around 228 to 230.... Knowing that the goal by the end of March was 225, I think that I skirted the diet some this past week. Ryan's Buffet, and a conference didn't help or they encouraged.

This week I managed 113 miles riding about 3 jogging. About 1/2 and 1/2 between trainer and outside. On the trainer it was mostly intervals. The Z4 intervals. The first day was tough on my fat behind. The second time seemed ok. Then I also did some hill climb intervals outside on Friday. These actually kicked my ass so much I bonked on an easy ride on Saturday. You'll have that.

Because I'm close to my goal I'm creating a Shadow goal of 220 by the end of march. By this I mean, It's a success of 225, but the intent now is 220.

Stay tuned.

(oh yeah, sorry know wonderful pics...or fancy google maps, hell you probably didn't want those anyhow. Maybe this week I'll have my head in a noose if I don't have a B'day gift for Susan to show.)

Not Ready To Make Nice

Sorry..

I'm listning to the Dixie Chicks... If you know me - or I should say - if you've known me from my glory days.... then this isn't me. So it is a testament to the human spirit that I'm telling you this.

However the subject song is good. If you don't think so then you yourself are an idiot. PERIOD.

Ok so Summarize.

I had planned 6:22 of workout time... I actually did 6:17.. Yeah we're splitting C hairs.

I did about 55 mi of riding 10 off road, 20 on the road. So yeah it was very little trainer rides this week. That's about to change again. As I have some seminars to go to this week. So I'll make up the lost time on the trainer.

OH BY THE FUCKIN" WAY>>> I LOVE SNUGGLING SUSAN

Ok.. so.. where was i..

O yeah;..

well by the pic above you can see that more time has been spent in z3 the past 4 weeks. As opposed to jan.

(for you idiots, it's the red portion of the graph)

The next 4 weeks try to emphasize more z4. I have to say, 6 minutes on the trainer in z4, doing intervals is difficult.

Will I succeed.. doubt it. but we'll see.

The problem arises because that now, I'm sick of riding on the trainer, the weather is breaking every now and then. Riding outside is better. etc etc

So why would anyone want to be busting their ass on a trainer? I have no answer other than that I can better control the workout on a trainer. For example in the real world in WV, if you were to do an all out interval, chances are that you will do part of it on the down hill side of a hill. IE it's not helping you.

Anyhow..

For week 4 6:17 65 Mi riding (10+/- off road). I broke the 229 barrier.

Same time Same Channel

Edge

Edge

I'm over it... Let's see where to start.

Ok..Yesterday 02.21.07 started out pretty good. Got up and jogged for 20 min in Teays Valley, after staying in my city abode.

Interestingly as I think I have the early morning hours to myself.. I just bumble along the sidewalks, without a care in the world. Those of you that have Polar HRM's, may have the feature that if you raise the monitor up to your chest strap, the light will come on. Well I do this frequently so that I know when to turn around sometimes - 10 min out + 10 min back = 20 min. You get the drift.

As I bumble along no care in the world.. holy shit I run into a fellow early morning jogger. Scared the shit out of me. That was my interesting thing for the day... collision.

That eve, I received in the mail my new HRM monitor - why did I purchase a new one? Taxes, extra monies burning holes in my shallow pockets. Obviously if I needed it I wouldn't have purchased it. However, I received my new Garmin Edge.

This thing is awesome. Uses GPS, to track your position, speed. Has a new sensor than my old GPS so it actually receives signals very good.. heck it worked in my house. Garmin has some sort of partnership with MotionBased.Com. Whereby you can upload your data to that site for free - least for most features.

MotionBased has all sorts of cool features... stores your route to Google Earth automatically. Profiles, wealth of info. The Edge 305 was expensive, but for gadget geeks you may like. If you get a chance to try it out.

For busting my cherry, did a night ride around Lower Creek. Fairly warm out for February - 40's. It was an overall nice ride. (if you noticed the last link I think your able to go and check out some of the workout specifics, if not, oh well you wasted your time, but not as much time as I in figuring that out)

The Garmin worked great.

02.22.07

This morning checked the Garmin out on another little trot around Teays Valley. This time it was basically around some of the local subdivisions - again for about 20 min.

No collisions.

Test

R & R

So after yesterday's day off.. time to get back in the swing of things. So I started off today after work dropping Susan and the youngun's off.

Interlude... and this has nothing to do with cycling.... Leaving work rumor was that there was an accident on the interstate. At the Greenbrier Street interchange, there was traffic backed up. So being of sound mind and intelligence I proceed to go the opposite direction and then back track along WV 61. Well I needed gas also. To make long boring story short, this was probably an unnecessary step. Oh well I shared it with you.

Ok back to the rest of the boring stuff.

Came home jumped on the trainer, for the test. As per "the plan", this is supposed to be a Tempo Time Trial. Why is my fat ass doing this??? You find out let me know, but hey there's something to be gained from improvement right?

Well the test is simple, warm up ride 3 miles at a certain calculated Heart Rate. Mine happens to be low Z4 range (for you that want to simply know 160 to 161). Record your time.

Back on Jan 24th I did this..

Jan 24th: 3miles 7:15.5 161avg
Today: 3 miles 6:55.5 161avg

Today pushed a harder gear than before. So that was probably the reason.

Also wanted to do some weights... but Turbo Tax is telling me that I need to do something else or the great State of WV will not accept my tax return. So I shunned the weights to fix this self imposed mess.

Till next time

3+

That's right...

3+

Hours down today.. almost 3.5. Ok so I'm tryin' to make up for lost time. Originally today I wanted to do a ride with the B'fat dudes... However the puss nature of me didn't. In my personal opinion, it wasn't my puss nature, it was more the time of the event. I think the group started ridin' at 11...

Wouldn't have made it.

So about 8 I managed to do another thunderous trot up at Susan's for 30 min. Basically jogged around sleepy hollow road. It was pretty scenic (sorry no camera no pic) but the snow covered golf course and adjacent fields, cool breeze and the snot dripping from my nose made for a magical moment.

Once back to Susan's I was ready for my fluffy pancakes and bacon. BTW folks TURKEY BACON IS NOT BACON. anyone with a passion for bacon will know this. Another hint DO NOT COOK BACON in the Microwave. Much less turkey bacon.

Pancakes were delicious.

Hung some curtain rods, then home to lift some weights about 12PM. After the weights I did another spinervals tape for an hour, then did a small 10 mile ride outside. finished up about 4 and took some pictures..

Nothing more to report..... I've gotten up to about 7 hours now out of 11. Looking forward to the Mexican Cantina again this eve.

This just in....

First things first....

More to come later

Just to touch base to my fan base - or lack there-of, the week of "the plan" isn't going well. Several adjustments to this 11hr week and it's now Friday, and I've only gotten about 4 in. Long weekend ahead.

Snow can cause quite an inconvenience in things. It places undue burdens on all those that have to deal with it.

Needless to say, WV got blanketed with our first big snow storm of the season. Come Wednesday morning we had about five inches of snow out "the Mill". Today, I still have about three and my driveway is covered.

Wednesday I was able to get a small jog in - of about 10 minutes. This was primarily used to warm up for some interval rides. For which I did manage to do 5ea - 6' X 2' intervals at Tempo pace (Z3 for me).

Then off to Susan's for Burgers...

Thursday was intended to be a long day, but the shit hit the proverbial fan and I've lost track of where I'm at. Is this important? Whose to say?

Probably not and I may offer some more insightful thoughts later but when things don't go as planned - it can be disappointing - especially if you're looking forward to it.

More later.

Recap Rest n Revise

Not once all weekend did someone ask me "why I wanted to ride in weather like
this". Those 100 orso peoples that made all or part of the ride may
not have known the answer, but a least no one asked the question. Wow
- to be normal for a bit...

I'm not normal.. or so this post says...

Thats from MBB and his ride he did for the Superbowl. I have no clue what the temp was in VA, but it was downright cold in Ona. But you can go here and check out Mike's annual Superbowl ride.

So if 100 people run and jump off a bridge, am I abnormal if I do not?

OH well... looks like MIke had a great time, and some cool pics to boot.

Sunday, for me was a short ride, then the Superbowl, where I had some friends over, Asshole, his betterhalf, Swanny, and myself and Susan. The Queen B was there also. Along with the yunguns.

The game was good, to pat myself on the back the Food was excellent. The little weenies were good too.

The game was good, I wouldn't call it great. The commercials, were not really noteworthy. But as always the Beer was excellent.

Monday was no school, Susan had some meetings for work and out of town. So I watched the yungons. Stayed home, and cleaned up the previous nights mess. Wanted to workout - lift and ride - but tired so I'm going to use this day for a rest day, and do the workouts tommorrow I think it will work out better.

So obviously it's now Tuesday, and we're on a two hour delay again.. So that is now past. Still plan to workout this eve.

Snow for tonight??

Anyone's guess.