Vacation!

Loaded er'body up and went to Kentucky and Tennessee for the week!

Week of the 4th

I went into last week with back to back 200 mile/6 day training weeks and some sore legs. Like a genius, I have been increasing volume and not reducing intensity. Not sure where this is getting me, but I didn't have good legs on the group rides Tuesday and Thursday. I didn't spend as much time at the front and petered out in the sprints at the very end (but I still managed top 5 finishes.) Instead of my normal recovery spins between the hard rides, I took the days completely off looking for additional rest. I only logged 130 miles and 3 rides for the week. What I did enjoy about this was my early morning ride while we were in Gainesville on Saturday. I went on a mellow 40 mile spin out in the country through the little towns of Archer and Newberry. It was therapy on wheels. It was also hot as hell. Anyhow, I can't remember the last time on the bike that I saw more horses and cows than cars.

Saturday morning spin around Gainesville

Ok, so we had a few days off last week for the 4th. We planned to get stuff done around the house and ended up getting things done- just not many things on the list. Oh well, such is life. Anyhow, we did do some serious clothes shopping for Avery. Her summer wardrobe is now complete...

The girls shopping

My shopping partner

Since Riley goes to bed so early, we didn't do anything for the 4th. We actually had some plans, but they fell through. And I think it stormed. But this didn't stop Riley from dressing for the occasion:

Happy 4th!

Hanging out on the 4th.

I managed to hit Total Wine and grabbed a few good brews for my time off. I didn't drink nearly as many of them as I would have liked, but they were good nonetheless. While I was at TW I noticed that there is a lot of good stuff up there right now. I need to grab a few more new brews to sample this summer.

4th of July Selection

Oh, so Friday night we rolled down to Gainesville to hang out with Char's brothers. There aren't too many times that we get to kick it with both Al and Damien, so it was nice for us to get to spend the weekend with them. We didn't do anything too crazy, just went out on the boat, swam in the pool and ate a LOT of good food!

Damien, Char, Riley & Al

Avery tubing on Lake Sante Fe

And last, I said goodbye to Avery as she stayed behind for a week of University of Florida soccer camp.

Me and my sidekick

The Tour and Stuff

The Tour de France started Saturday and...well, this year I'm not making picks. I'm just going to watch it, enjoy it, and pull for whoever grabs my attention as the race rolls on- like maybe former mtn bike racer Ryder Hesjedal. I did think the odds to win the tour were pretty interesting- check 'em out:

Bradley Wiggins -- 5/4
Cadel Evans -- 9/4
Vincenzo Nibali -- 20/1
Chris Froome -- 22/1
Denis Menchov -- 22/1
Jurgen Van Den Broeck -- 22/1
Ryder Hesjedal -- 22/1
Frank Schleck -- 28/1
Robert Gesink -- 28/1
Samuel Sanchez -- 33/1

I had an excellent week on the bike, logging right under 210 miles. Not a ton of mileage, but building some solid fitness for sure. I had 2 good rides to end the week- you can check out Saturday and Sunday here on Garmin Connect. Or you can check out the Strava links on the left side of this page. I've also managed to keep my unofficial streak of top 5 sprint finishes in the group rides going at um...several. I've actually won every sprint in my solo rides but who's keeping tack? Anyhow, these strong finishes should help the cause when races roll around. Oh, and after slicing 2 road tires from 2 different sets this past week, I had to use my last set of good tires in the garage instead of buying yet another set, for now. Not sure if these guys have bad rolling resistance, but the Bontrager RXL All Weather tires seem durable (and flat resistant) as hell. Either way, they are good training tires.

I also added some bike stands in the garage to make it easier to deal with the bikes that are used the most- and for girl bikes. Anyhow, 10 bikes in a single car garage is a stretch...

I had a couple more good brews this week. For fun, I've been snapping shots of them in the garage with bikes in the background. I cleverly refer to this as bikes n beers. Anyhow, I don't drink a ton of beer, or usually more than one at a time, but I love trying new craft brews. And I especially love them after hard efforts on the bike. Oh, and I also like to keep trying the ones that I really like again and again. If I have a picture of it, I like it. So here's Friday, Saturday, and Sunday:

Besides riding bikes, this weekend was rather mellow. Avery is at her mom's this week so I didn't get to hang with her besides seeing her Friday night after soccer camp at UNF while I was riding. I'll have her all next week before she goes to soccer camp at UF. Riley got a bunch of new toys via a gift card from grandma Kathy this weekend. One toy is a true sign of the times- an iPhone case for little kids. We supplied the iPhone, but wow...

And here are my lovely ladies this morning before I hopped on the bike. Riley is rocking out all of her new toys...

This upcoming week we have a few days off (6 in a row for me!) so we are going to get caught up on a few things around the house before heading to Gainesville to kick it with Char's brothers. For the 4th we plan to hit Jax Beach for our traditional celebration with the Crichton's. We've spent the 4th with them since Char and I started dating- so 6 years in a row now. Anyhow, I look forward to both trips- should be a great time!

As for the bike stuff- should be a somewhat normal training week with less volume based on this weekend's trip. Tomorrow is an off day and I really need it- legs are a little tender from the past few weeks. I am still winging my training plan but that may change as things unfold over time, but we'll get into that later...

Mid Week

After hitting a hard interval session on the trainer Tuesday night, I went out for a short recovery spin on Wednesday evening. Tonight I logged 50 solid miles out at the beach on the County Line Ride. I had another great ride and put in some good efforts, including another top 5 finish in the final sprint. I'm getting significantly stronger but I am still lacking snap in the sprint. I am still on a mission, however...

Here's what tonight's ride looked like: Thursday night County Line Ride on Garmin Connect

And here's Wednesday night's recovery beverage in the bike cave:

Rinse and repeat tonight:

Last- road tires. Ugh. I have destroyed 2 this week. I hate dropping $$$ on road tires...

Damn Rain

Ok, so Tropical Storm Debby has just been sitting here for 3 days now dumping a ton of rain. Today was the first day that I actually missed a ride, so I took my bud SBC's advice and downloaded a Sufferfest training video. I downloaded Fight Club because it looked like a good choice for road racing and it sounded like my last road race where the attacks were a plenty and I got punked. Anyhow, it spiced up a trainer session and made me work my ass off! It also was a decent replacement for the group ride that got rained out tonight. Check out their website- they have a good selection of trainer videos.

Oh, scratch that- Debby is now a tropical depression. I think that just means flood. The flooding around town has been crazy today. There has been like 12-20 inches of rain in the past 2 days. Lame. Hopefully this sucker moves on out of here soon. 

Just do it

Or not. No need for road sharing while Tropical Storm Debby continues to dump rain for the 2nd straight day. This is the second tropical storm to hit here so far early into the hurricane season and once again, it sucks. This much rain is lame. This much rain for several days is even more lame. Riding is so less enjoyable when you are forced to do it indoors, on a trainer. Blah...

Week Recap

So this week came to an end with a good amount of miles on the road bike, 190 to be exact. My goal was 200+ but today's double flat cut my last ride of the week in half. Anyhow, I hit 3 hard group rides this week (Open Road, County Line, Lodge Ride) and put in some solid work and finished very strong in the final sprints. I've also been on a bit of a weight loss kick these past few months and managed to drop 10 pounds, getting close to my weight when I graduated bootcamp 18 years ago. I'd like to get closer to my CAT1 mtn bike racing weight from 4 years ago, so tack on another 8 pounds to lose. My reward for the miles this week? A beer! I somewhat cut beer off the menu in these last few months of training to help get my weight where it needs to be. But for now, I use them as rewards!

Today I went down to Gainesville to pick up Avery after her week long trip to Puerto Rico with the Fosmoe's. The Puerto Rico trip was part of her birthday present and an excellent opportunity to spend some quality time with her aunt & uncle & cousins. It was also her first trip out of the country so she was pumped. She had an absolute blast but I was excited to pick her up. Here's a shot of her while we stopped for drinks before the drive home:

Today- on the bike? Yes!

And Riley? Smiling as usual!

Today Tropical Storm Debby rolled in so who knows how riding will unfold this week. My plan is to duplicate this week's effort but I may end up on the trainer a time or 2. Monday is an off day after 6 straight days on the bike so it can rain all it wants tomorrow. I just hope its clear Tuesday for the group ride.

And last- quick shout to my awesome wife. She's been so incredible as a new mom. She has a lot on her plate with work, school, trying to get some training accomplished- all while doing the bulk of the work with Riley. She's been great to me while I tackle my bike racer comeback. Her and I have grand plans to race the 8 Hours of Labor (8 hour mtn bike race) in August together in the coed category. This was the last time I raced 4 years ago before the Mayo Clinic found my heart condition. At any rate, we aim to kick ass! And to show her awesomeness, the pic below is from her sprint triathlon that she did 4-1/2 months after Riley was born- and rocked a 3rd place in her AG! My wife is the best!

Ironheart Racing

Fast Rides

So far this week I have put in 2 pretty solid efforts on the 2 fastest group rides in Jax. On Tuesday I hit the Open Road ride and then on Thursday I hit the County Line ride. So a lot of folks wonder- how do they compare? Well, take a look at this comparison and see how similar they are. Even though both groups have a good mix of fast dudes, these rides are really dictated by how hard you want to make them. On both of these rides I had good legs, did a fair amount of work at the front and then positioned myself to be in contention for the final sprint. Both rides had plenty of accelerations over 30 mph and the final sprint speeds were similar- right under 35 mph for Open Road and just over 37 mph for County Line. The difference was probably due to wind and maybe a little of who was leading out the sprint trains. At any rate, this is a cool comparison that the cyclists at the beach and in town should find interesting but which one is actually faster is a matter of perception...and who shows up...     

This Week

Post Tuesday night Open Road Ride

Tuesday night I hit Open Road- HARD. Not sure why, but I had very strong legs and had a great ride. I spent a decent amount of time at the front, recovered smart, attacked hard late, and then concentrated on good positioning for the final sprint. I put a quality 40 miles in the books and for those scoring at home, 3rd in that damn sprint.

Tonight after I put Riley to bed and took a little siesta, I hopped on the trainer for a 45 minute recovery spin. I need to get better at recovering, so I have to make myself do stuff like this more often. I hope to have good legs for the County Line ride tomorrow night, which I would consider the fastest ride in town right now. I am not 100% sure about this weekend, but I'd like to do the Velobrew training crit this Sunday, which will be my 3rd weekend in a row of racing. I also really want to get on my mountain bike, because those races will be here before you know it....

Late night recovery spin in the garage

Ride.

New Bike, Mas Training

So here I am 3 months into my cycling comeback, with a new bike. I bought a buddy's 2011 Trek Madone ProjectOne 6.9 SSL loaded with all Bontrager XXL and SRAM Red. This machine is sick! I've been hitting about 150 miles a week on it and have raced  twice so far. I am pleased with my improving fitness so far after my 4 year bike racer hiatus. But damn, it is great to be back!  

This first pic shows her posing after our 3rd place finish in the Velobrew Crit 2 weeks ago. The second is a typical weekend ride around town and the 3rd is after the Ocala Road Race last weekend. I opted to race Masters 30+ and was doing pretty well until I ran out of water and started cramping 3/4 through the race. The heat, sporadic accelerations, and a lack of fitness resulted in big fat DNF. Sucks but has me determined to train my ass off and be prepared for the Nocatee road race in August.

Soccer Girl

Avery made some major strides in soccer this year-  making the U12 Red Academy team, graduating from the Academy program at FCSA, and then being selected to the JFC U13 Premier team. This summer she has soccer camps at UNF and UF before the fall season on her traveling JFC team. I hate to see her run and ride less and stop triathlon'n but she sure does love some soccer! 

Hangin with my Baby

Shopping, cheering for the Cats, or snoozin...I sure love hangin with my Riley!

Quick Update

Before I get too far ahead of myself, Char and I welcomed Riley Cole to the world on 12/31/2011. I'm ready to start blogging again but I needed to get this in here!

Riding and Racing...I'm Back!

Daddy/Daughter trail time

My Girls!

June TwentyTwelve

New baby and back to racing bikes. Time to start blogging...