#ToddLife: June 2012

June 28, 2012

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...

June 26, 2012

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.

June 25, 2012

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...

June 24, 2012

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!

June 22, 2012

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...

June 20, 2012

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.

June 19, 2012

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.

June 18, 2012

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!