New Fit

So I went see Eric over at Austinbikes for a bike fit this week. Great experience, as usual everybody there is friendly and knowledgeable. I ended up much further forward than I had been (which I expected was going to occur). The fit finished up yesterday, and I decided what better way to try out than to go race a crit? Somewhat kidding.

Regardless, the crit went pretty well, I spent some time up near the front and that was exciting. So much better going through turns when you don’t have to slow down and worry about people going all crazypants on you. After chatting with Drew a bit after our strength workout on Wednesday (that I’m still sore from, thanks, Drew ;) ) I was looking for a few new things in an effort to try and move up and stay up. While I did get pushed back at some point, and then had to chase back on, I stayed in it and did move up a little towards the end. I had a bad side stitch, though, and that was making the stay put and rest vs. moving up battle a little bit harder. However, in the end I avoided the crash and finished up 18th. 

At least I’m being consistent. I don’t plan on racing next week right before our trip as a safety precaution and because I’m sure we’ll be busy. But I have two more crits after I get back and I intend to go all out. After I get back I believe my training is going into official “base season.” The first race is at the end of January, so now is the time to start getting down good long, steady miles in preparation for the intensity that will start to come around the new year.

Also, I might try and do cyclocross. There is that entire issue of needing a bike, however. This is still being investigated.

I am going to hit ATC tomorrow with one of my teammates. Hopefully Jacob and I can hang in longer than I did last time (2nd climb on Southwest Parkway, eesh). It is really a ride of attrition. I hope to get a good spin of the Dam Loop in after the inevitable drop, so it should be a solid 3 hours of quality riding.

I also need to start looking for jobs when I get back from the trip. I am trying not to think about it too much… job hunting is just one giant ball of stress. However, I am hoping when I get back the weather will have really turned a corner and it will really feel like Fall. 

The highs are going to be in the 40s in Norway. Yeah, that will be a shock.

Getting Ready for a Triathlon

It has been a little over a year since the last time I did a triathlon. I was out of shape, and it was one of the most pitiful athletic outings of my life.

Well, I decided to sign up for a triathlon this coming Saturday out at Pace Bend park: the Dilloman. It’s a sprint distance, and I am thinking it should be a much better experience. We have gone swim a few times in the lake at the gym, and I must say, I have never felt so good swimming. I think my increases aerobic fitness is helping me to keep my breathing much more under control.

I mean, I am not a fast swimmer. But I can get through the 750 meters smoothly and without having to stop, and that is miles of improvement over previous attempts.

The 20 km bike ride doesn’t concern me at all. I am going to try to put down a fast time. I am thinking I should be able to do pretty well at this.

Lastly the run. It’s just 5 km, so nothing to worry about. Right? Well, except for that today I noticed the weird sensation in my back and legs that indicates nerve irritation. Also, I wore some new shoes today and my goofy foot position while walking has given me a possible blister on my right heel.

Fantastic. The one time I’m actually in shape to do a tri, weird stuff happens. I am hoping that stretching and rolling over the next few days will help the back issue. For the possible blister I will be wearing comfortable and soft shoes here on out. Carrie and I went running on Sunday before our swim, and I think spending the last two days at home in the office chair after running did me no favors. 

From going to the PT last year, it’s all an irritation issue. So if I can let that nerve relax, I should be able to get through the 5 km. I’m not really sure what happened, though, as my core is a lot stronger this year. I have not been doing any running, and I haven’t been doing any strength training for the last month and a half (hence no core work) so I guess that’s part of it. I don’t know.

Here’s hoping it all goes fine. I am really hoping to go after this race pretty hard. I know I have the fitness to do okay. Just making it through the swim smoothly will help my placing a lot. If I can get through the run without my back hurting, things will be good. If every step is an electric schock down my butt and hamstrings, we have a problem.

Fingers crossed.

Progression

Last night at the Driveway I could tell my legs were tired. The previous two days of workouts were still there in my legs. I warmed up and things felt loose, but I could still feel some tiredness.

The race started and I was in great position. The first time around the top corners (both > 90 degrees) I slipped back some (because I was being a scaredy cat), but was still okay. Then I got trapped in the middle down on the bottom of the course and slipped back a lot. I had a bad feeling.

I spent the rest of the race gaining ground on the bottom part of the course, and then slipping back around the top turns and down the corkscrew. Then moving back up again… repeat repeat. I could feel my legs were a little shaky going around some of the turns, but I kept asking them to push me forward, catch me back up, and they kept delivering. 

The lap cards came out and I knew that I was going to be finishing this race no problem. Now I actually started to think how can I crack the top 20. (Cracking the top 20 has been my goal at the Driveway since before my little heart-induced “vacation.”) I knew that moving up a ton on the last lap would probably be tricky, so I should try to move up after I see 2 to go and try to hold more position going around the top turns on the last lap. 

Well, I did do the first part, but I slipped back again. However, it being a 4/5 race, there is a lot of looking around going on. So when we came down the hill on the last lap the people in front literally sat up. And of course, this meant they slowed down. Excellent. I moved up front-middle, and waited for the inevitable acceleration. There was a little move going around the big sweeper at the bottom, but no biggy.

We get to the final straight, and some people go on the left, then on the right. Unfortunately, I look up to see that I’m behind 4 people in the middle of the road who have decided their night is done. Argh!

I see enough space, get around the roadblock and start trying to jump from wheel to wheel moving up. There aren’t that many people in front of me, so I figure top 20 may be possible. So I give it everything I have, passing people who are sitting up, and even a few who aren’t. I even get out of the saddle for the uphill finish… hehe, it always looks silly to see somebody sprinting for, you know, 20th.

The race was over, I stayed upright, and I had the best finish of the year (and of my bike racing life). When the results were posted this morning, I discovered that I was 19th! Woohoo! While 19th in a cat 4/5 race may seem completely insignificant to a lot of people, this is a big deal to me. It’s the first time my name has been on a results sheet for any race that I have done. I know I am not a super star, but I have gotten consistently better, and it gives me faith that if I keep training maybe I will be able to upgrade to a 3. Maybe I will be able to actually win a race at some point. I don’t mind slow improvement as long as it’s improvement.

Now, of course, I have to end this by saying, regardless of the race results, doing all the bike training has made me feel so much better about myself. I’ve lost weight, I feel good, I’m more relaxed… these are all good things. But stuff like this is just icing on the cake!

Happy Friday!

Tahoe Pictures and Assorted Thoughts

So first and foremost, I have posted the pictures from our Lake Tahoe trip. That place is absolutely beautiful:

We really had a great time at Ruth’s wedding, and it was great getting to hang out with people who don’t get to see very often at all.

Two days ago I woke up at 6 AM and went ride my bike. This had several advantages: 1) it was much cooler and 2) I was done with my ride by 8 AM. However, Tuesday night was pretty tired. We did trivia at the Flying Saucer on Tuesday night, so between some beverages during trivia and my early rise/exercise, I was pretty exhausted when we got home.

Tonight is the Driveway. I believe it’s the elevation loop. It’s not the easiest course to move up on if you slide to the back, so I am really going to have to focus on not sliding to the back to begin with. It really takes consistent effort. Somebody told me once if you aren’t passing somebody then somebody is passing you. Maybe that’s true. Regardless, I really need to be aware of that. Last week resting for a few seconds turned into moving 10 people backward. Can’t let that happen.

Last night I made an Okra and Shrimp masala. It turned out really delicious, though a bit spicy for Carrie’s palate. I thought it was fantastic. I took the fresh okra and cooked it super hot in some olive oil to de slime it, then threw in the onions, bell pepper, and seeded and deveined serranos. Gave that a bit to sauté, then put in the garam masala, anchum powder, and cumin that we have acquired for our neighborhood Indian grocery. Added a canned of fire-roasted stewed tomatoes and the shrimp, and boom, done. It was fantastic.

Today I am having a cup of coffee. Not very much. It’s mostly almond milk. But I was really craving for some coffee. I have really been enjoying my tea, but I still like the taste of coffee, and decided I’d give it a go today. I don’t think coffee was the cause of any of my heart/stress issues, but I don’t necessarily think it was helping. I have felt much more relaxed the last week and a half, so I figured a little coffee wasn’t going to hurt anything.

Labor day weekend is the Tour of Austin. Four days of racing (1 time trial, 3 crits) around Austin and my first real racing goal since I started this whole thing in February. The next few weeks I’m putting my training as a top priority, and I plan on putting more strictness back in my diet. Since I have achieved my weight goal, for the most part, I have been a little less strict with the diet the past two months. However, I really want to put good fuel in the next few weeks before the race.

I guess that’s it, hopefully I’ll have some good news from the Driveway tonight. Take it easy, everybody!

It is going

I am continuing my JiBW2 project, even though my Flickr stream has been quiet since Wednesday. 

I was able to get several pictures today as I had to take a walk down the street some after I discovered that our guest bathroom shower is now also not working. That’s right, we have no working shower. I am not sure why this condo has had such terrible plumbing issues. I think that it was 1) terribly constructed and 2) it’s getting old that so all of those cheap materials and all of that shoddy workmanship is coming due. Lovely.

Can we move some place where things don’t always break now?

But I do have pictures for each of the days. I can’t really sleep at the moment, so I might try and get them posted tonight. I’ll at least get them off the camera and on to the computer before I go to sleep.

Since we don’t have a shower riding my bike has just become much more difficult. I guess I can try and get up early this week and get rides in, then go to the gym to shower, and then head to school. Ugh. Unfortunately the more consistent extra steps that have to be taken to go ride, the easier it is for something to occur and have that ride get postponed, shortened or whatever. I was hoping to get back into a good groove of work and riding this week. Unfortunately, this shower incident has put an end to that plan. It’s going to take extra effort to make it all happen.

Rain

Today was filled with water. 

First, a small drip coming from our vent in the bathroom, dripping into the toilet. Calls were made, it seems to be fixed. We’ll see.

Unfortunately, this put me in a rut for the rest of the day.

Despite the rain that started to fall, I headed out to the Driveway to race the 4/5 crit. All the weather forecasts said the rain would stop by race time, but as I was stuck in my truck on Airport Blvd. waiting in traffic in the rain, I started to accept the fact it was going to be a wet race. Then I started to wonder if I was even going to make it to the race. I did make. No warmup, barely got everything together and myself to the start line.

The first few laps my brain did not trust the fact that the tires were going to hold. There is something innately unsettling about having a puddle in the apex of a turn. I don’t know what surface they have out there, but man, it was impressive. I never felt any slipping whatsoever. Unfortunately, I was unable to stay attached to the “pack.” I think there 10 of us total in the race. The main group being 4 people. Oh well, with the season pass I wanted to get out there and take advantage of it. Better luck (and hopefully weather) next week.

I am working through the few pictures I took this past weekend in Baton Rouge. We had a wonderful, albeit short trip. Saw lots of people in the time there, so that’s always nice. I saw some of my cousins that I had not seen since my grandmother’s 90th birthday party. I even got in two bike rides. Heck of a weekend, I only wish Carrie could have stayed for the whole thing. But she and her coachee did great in the Cap 10k on Sunday morning, so hooray for that. :)

On the work front, it seems I finally broke through the mystery slowdown. I can now actually run the real experiments that I was hoping to run, what, two/three weeks ago? Sigh. But, progress is always good, so I think this paper is going to form up well over the next two weeks.

We have a workout with Drew tomorrow morning bright and early. I need to make up for tonight’s less than stellar showing and hit it out the park. Two 3 hour rides on tap this weekend, looking forward to it. I think I might go and get spit out the back of the ATC ride for the first time. I’ve always heard so much about this ride, so I figured I’d give it a go. Plus, it starts at 8:30 which will get me done nice and early.

Happy almost weekend!

What a Growing Body Knee-ds

The pun is for Lynn.

Saturday did a great 70 miles out and back to Elgin. The nice thing about riding to Elgin is you get to get some barbecue to break up the ride. While my ride companions chowed down on brisket and sausage (oh, to be 22 again) I had the chicken. Still quite tasty, by the way.

Felt great the whole ride… except for the part on the way back when my knee started to feel a little catchy every now and then. I didn’t think much of it as it really didn’t hurt, it just was there. We stopped in Manor, and I stretched. But as we got closer to home I still felt it.

Then it started to really hurt. Not constantly, but anytime I stood up or did more of a forward mash than a supple spin, pain. And clipping in was unpleasant. 

When I got home I actually felt great. I felt like I could have kept riding. 

However, on Easter Sunday, I didn’t feel so hot. We got up to go to 9 AM Mass, as I was supposed to be riding three hours at some point. I also wanted to watch the Ronde on TV and we had to eat our celebratory Easter pizza. (We gave up cheese for Lent.) The ride didn’t happen, because I felt beaten down. I took two naps, and still went to bed early. After alerting Drew of the knee issues, it was decided to be careful and make this week extra resty.

So far, so good. I did an easy spin on Monday, and there was no pain. Today I did two hours in zones 1 and 2 and again there was no pain. It feels a little tight, but the painful catch has not come back. The inner quad right above my knee is tight and tender, so I have been hitting it with ice and the TP quad-rolller. 

Considering I went from sedentary to riding a lot pretty quickly, I am not surprised something eventually was annoyed. Saturday’s ride was also the longest ride I’ve done yet, and definitely the longest ride of “not my own pace.” I feel confident that this easy week will be good for things. I have the Driveway tomorrow (it’s the full two-mile course going down the corkscrew, should be interesting) and I am bringing the bike home with me to Baton Rouge for rides this weekend.

On that subject, we are going to Baton Rouge this weekend to celebrate my grandmother BeBe’s 100th birthday… crazy! It will be a quick trip and jam packed. Riding, family, friends… the camera is coming with me so I hope to have lots of pictures when I get back.

Finally, my experiments finally seem to be making some notion of sense (thanks Allen!). It sort of took one of those moments where you realize you were kind of an idiot, but you have gone so far down the rabbit hole it takes somebody else to snap you out of it to see it. But alas, the Lagniappe paper seems to finally be taking shape after all these years. Whew.

With that being said, I’m going to switch back over to my terminal windows and see how those experiments are going.

Not Getting Dropped

Last night at the Driveway an interesting thing happened. I completed a race in the pack, without getting dropped. This is really only the second time this has happened in all of the races that I have done. The first time it has happened in a non-collegiate race. Now, I didn’t win, and in fact I was in the back half of the group. But I wasn’t last, and I was still attached. It’s a big first for me, and it’s great to see the results of the work I have been putting in on the bike.

It was a good course layout for me. The little incline had the crazy wind blowing you up and over, so that was good, and the only other turn was a big 180 degree sweeper that is wide enough to pedal through easily. I was able to just focus on getting myself on a wheel and staying there. Get over the hill, power down it, get back into the group, and hang out until we were back to the little incline again. 

What was interesting was that getting up the hill wasn’t a problem, the hardest part was having to get out of the saddle to catch up to everybody. In the back half of the group we were slowing down so much getting over the incline and around the turn that the people in front were already on the downhill. But I wasn’t as concerned about that last night.

I had told myself that I was going to worry less about where I was and just that I was. Get on a wheel and stay attached. Recover as much energy as possible and get up and over the incline in contact with everybody. That was my game plan, and it seemed to work out.

When I made it to the lap cards, I was excited. I thought that was cool, but I figured something was going to happen, and I was still going to get dropped. At 3 to go, I really started to believe that I was actually going to make it. When the bell rang for the last lap, I knew I was going to finish the race. We got up and over the incline, and I knew that I could do whatever was necessary to stay attached at that point as we were done with the incline and it was all flat to the finish. And, I couldn’t believe, I finished.

All in all, I was pretty thrilled. But this is just a first step. I need to keep up the diet and keep up the riding to move myself up in that pack. Also, I still need to work on my comfort in the pack in general and going around corners in the middle of the group, specifically. Next Thursday I will get a chance to practice both of those.

Tired

Ever since I started the Resolve Your Resolution program, I have been really sleeping hard at night. I am having to get a decent amount of sleep every night. Obviously, the exercise is causing this. 

I don’t mind exactly, as I really like the results that are really starting to show. I am oh so close to crossing the 200 pound border. My official starting weight was 213 (thought that was two weeks into the program, I clocked in myself at home at 215 right before it started). The 200 barrier is a big thing for me. Once I see that 1 again in front of my weight, I will be very excited. I am trying to get down to 175. Every pound that comes off makes going uphill easier. :)

What I find is amusing is that I still don’t fall right to sleep when I get in bed. It still takes a little while. But to be able to get up at anyway a decent hour, I have to get to bed at a reasonable time. This exercise is causing my body to be aggressive about not getting out of bed until enough sleep has been had.

Tomorrow is week two of the driveway. Let’s do it!

Resolve Your Resolution

The gym that Carrie and I belong to, Pure Austin is one of the coolest gyms I have ever seen, that’s for sure. We love being members. We noticed that they were having a contest, called Resolve Your Resolution, where they would pick 10 people and over 4 months these people would compete to meet their respective fitness goals. I threw my name in the hat, and amazingly I got picked.

They have paired me up with one of their fitness trainers who is also a Cat. 2 bike racer in town. We met last Thursday and I feel that we understood each other well. For the next 4 months I will be logging all of my food and beverage intake as well as my workouts. My coach at the gym will provide me with workout plans as the weeks go along.

My main goal out of this is to finally cross the line on the bike so that I can actually finish races. Since here in Austin we have the world’s best weekly bike race series, I have a great way to measure my progress. I am also going to be doing LT threshold testing at the beginning and end of the 4 months. The starting one will probably occur last week. I am expecting pain.

I am so excited and feel very lucky to have this opportunity. Today was my first official Resolve Your Resolution workout. Went out on the bike for an easy 1.5 hours. It was chilly, but it was nice to get out on the bike as always.

I plan on meeting and exceeding my goals. The main point is to get myself in decent shape finally, but there is a competition involved between me and the other nine people, so I would love to win. A little extra motivation never hurt anyone, right?

Oh, one last thing: GO SAINTS!!!!