Load it up!

Snacks Anonymous?

I used to go to Costco and ask myself what in the world were these people going to do with all this food they were buying?   Answer:  Hosting a Camp for a bike team.

Teenie and I made several stops yesterday culminating at Costco.   We completely filled the SUV with provisions and we aren't done yet.  We are headed to Safeway tonight and expect to be there everyday.

Daily, we will hit the bakery for bagels, etc.

But, here is the treat.  Teenie is at the TAMALE COMPANY right now!

Training Corner.....

Weekend of rain (for those of us not living in Paradise)... saw many of us on the trainers/rollers... One of the things we often discuss and analyze is our aerobic fitness which is a great indicator for moving out of base into build training.  Ever fade at the end of a ride (HR stays same but speed is dropping)? Or watch your heart rate climb just trying to keep the same pace?

These are indicators that your aerobic fitness may not be where it needs to be.   Joe Friel discusses this as "decoupling" (he likes to see <5% for his fit athletes).  You can test your aerobic fitness by doing steady state blocks on the trainer maintaining a constant HR and speed (or cadence/gear like I like to do).. below is a 1hr roller workout with 2 20min intervals at my tempo pace (132-142 which according to Joe Friel is my Z3 into Z4... in theory).

the top line is my HR, the blue center line is speed, and the green bottom line is my cadence.  The first interval has a bit of ramp which is expected in HR.  The second interval is more constant as I had no ramp up.  The Pa:HR value indicates your Pace per HR coupling factor... you can see my Interval #2 is -.41 very low... Even better is to look at both intervals by computing the PaHR for the combined session....

you do this by the following....

basically what you are doing is looking at the percent change between Interval #1 and #2 using your average-pace and average-heart rate for both.... if you come up with <5% you are good to go.....in my case it is 4.4%...

Training Peaks will do this for you, but if you just capture your average pace (speed) and HR you can do it yourself.

a bad day mtn biking is better than..........

Not exactly what I had in mind as I was descending down Butternut Gap....

Whole new experience riding the Pisgah trails with only a rear brake..... BUT..

a bad day mountain biking in 30+ degree weather with your favorite hound is better than......

I’m pissed off and I wanna talk trash!

About a month ago the reps from Giant Bicycle’s women’s division came to town and I was asked to lead them on a ride around Greenville. As part of their job description, these ladies ride their bikes in a new town every few days, all across the country, all year long – and this was their second trip to Greenville. As we were riding along discussing various bike culture themes one of the ladies remarked in an off-handed way,

“Of all the roads I’ve ridden, these are the...”

(at which point I silently finished her sentence with words like “least congested” or “most cycling friendly” or “super-best-ever”)

“… trashiest I’ve ever seen.”

How dare she! That shrew just dissed my roads and my community. I’m dropping her on the next climb, for sure. Ok, maybe not, since I was the ride leader and all. But those words surely stuck in my craw.

Which brings me to today. As I was nearing the end of my weekly tempo run I noticed someone’s fresh Taco Bell lunch trash strewn along the side of the road. A few yards later I see a McDonalds bag and several napkins, a large styrofoam cup, and two empty tallboys. Deeper into road-side thicket I see layer upon layer of decaying fast food trash.

The words “trashiest roads I’ve ever seen” fly right in my face.

The Giant lady was right – these roads are nasty – and I’m furious. Who does this? Who thinks it’s ok to toss trash out on the road? Why does someone think this stretch of road is their personal garbage dump? And, why does it not bother you to see this mess each and every time you travel down this road?

Disgusting. Pathetic.

In a rage, I hoof it straight home to gather my evidence collection kit (ie phone, latex gloves and trash bag) and drive back to the scene of the filthy crime. Surely this is a repeat offender whose identity I might uncover with a little detective work.

Crime Scene Evidence:

4 empty tallboys, various brands
1 Redbull can
3 crushed beer cans
1 beer bottle
5 used Gu packets
1 Allstate Insurance bill belonging to Earnest XXXX, of Travelers Rest
1 empty mini-flask of high grade alcohol
1 banana peel
1 un-opened Bons Secours St. Francis Hospital bill addressed to Roger XXXX, of Travelers Rest
2 McDonalds bags, 1 Taco Bell Bag with nachos and cheese sauce, 1 Burger King Whopper box
2 Clifbar wrappers
1 Walmart bag containing Tanika’s Target nametag and sundry items that I don’t want to know about
1 dixie cup of chew and spit
Ketchup packets…so many ketchup packets

This is what I collected in 10 minutes, over just 0.2 mile.

Among the myriad unhealthy and seedy items I collected today were a few things that just don’t seem to fit the unhealthy pattern: Gu packs and Clifbar wrappers (and maybe the banana peel). Which tells me I can’t jump to any conclusions about who does this or why.

So, Earnest, Roger, Tanika and whoever might be using Gus and Clifbars, what happened? Did your trash can blow over in the storm the other night? That must be it. Surely you didn’t just toss it out, because I know your mamas taught you better.

Well, I’ll hold on to your stuff until Thursday, trash pickup day. Let me know if you want it back.

# 9 - Baby Steps

This year, I will be setting a goal/goals for every workout.  No noodlin' around aimlessly on the Swamp Rabbit Trail......you know what I mean.

Today, I had a 45 minute easy ride on my trainer.  I scheduled this after several aggressive rides, the weather forecast for rain, and a Yoga commitment tonight.   However, I decided to accomplish something.

Goal 1 - TT bike in TT position - Since the SC Crit Championship, I have done nearly a year of rehab on my neck.  Staying in the aero position for more than 5 minutes has been very painful.  Today I wanted to stay aero with maybe only 1 or 2 rest periods.

Goal 2 - High Cadence - I am doing a lot of big gear/low cadence work right now.   I want to keep some speed in my legs so I set a goal to go 95+ rpm's for the 45 minutes.

Don't get me wrong,  there is the possibility that due to physical and mental exhaustion, the goal of one these 'easy' workouts might be to spin and recover.  That would be a viable goal.  Another goal, might be to forget the meter and just ride.   The sign of having a goal is forethought.
I plan to have forethought about every ride or workout.....a plan......achieve it.

There are a finite number of workouts for me prior to Master's Nats.  I am going to make every one count.

Many Baby Steps will hopefully equal a giant step toward me achieving my goals.

Oh, I exceeded my goals today!

Committed to the team

Bird told me if I join the team I need to jump in with both feet.  So here is my custom paint job to go with the new team kit.  Wow I'm looking good.  Take that Brian.

I JUST GOT STABBED IN THE BACK!

So, I thought this team was like drama free or something? I guess like not, because I got stabbed in the back today, literally. However, I allowed this to happen, so I cannot blame anyone else but myself. I ignored all the obvious warning signs and continued to repetitively and perpetual do the same thing over and over. A chronic misstep, full of impact and misguided pain. But, in 2012 I shall turn a new leaf, free of burden and pain. All fibrous tangles of drama and spindles of endless pain will become a distant memory left at malfunction junction. I shall become a receptor of good fortune.

I sat Friday at our team meeting listening to all the inspiring goals vocalized by each teammate. A few of you mentioned getting healthy, healing up whatever ailment you might have. I personally have been working on a nagging issue for the last couple of months. Basically, an irritation in my gluteus medius, or aka, Weinacker is a pain in the butt, oops, no, HAS a pain in her butt. Going into official Ironman training, I want to have all my kinks worked out, including any nagging little issues that I usually train through. So, if you have trigger points or adhesions of fibrous scar tissue in your muscles I encourage you to see Sam for some deep tissue massage or try the Graston Technique. Graston uses tools, metal or plastic, to locate adhesions or knots in muscle, tendons or ligaments, and then that same tool can actually be used to "break" up the restriction or adhesion.

I've recently had some Graston completed, and yet my still non compliant trigger point refused to yield and go back in line with the other muscle tissues. At this time, I was referred to another PT office, ProAxis in Greenville to try something called dry needling. Dry needles are small filament type needles inserted directly into the trigger point to elicit a muscle twitch. "The dry needle has been shown, when causing a twitch response in the active trigger point and muscle fiber, to decrease or completely reduce that spontaneous electrical activity and reduce or completely eliminate the irritating chemicals in that active trigger point."

I'm thankful that I was literally stabbed in the back today with needles, other than by one of my awesome teammates. Point being of this blog post, take care of your issues now, seek alternative approaches and opinions constantly, get core strong like Sam preaches, and have good old fashioned safe 'healthy fun'.......

View from the back.... Team training ride

The Saturday morning chill of 30degrees did not deter 14 of us from heading out on a Team ride to Possum Kingdom and some quiet roads.  Bake, OTF, Emily, Myrick, Catherine, Joe, Brandon, Mel, Ray, DS, Teenie, Adam Maddox, and Brandon Lee all set off for what was to be a "tempo" group ride... Tempo for me means Zone 3 with some short duration efforts..nothing too taxing....

But in following my monologue on group ride etiquette Friday evening I failed to explicitly state that, and just say it will be a tempo ride where we all stay together....

Bird said "it is OK to go off the front"... and some did ...
Bird said "it is OK to jump up the hills"  and some did ....
Bird said "it is OK to sit in"  and the smart ones did
Bird said "it is OK to let them go" and the smart ones did
Bird said "60+ miles 3+ hours".... and it was ... well closer to 4hrs

Fun day.. great ride....great team...   and here's to Adam for suffering through to the end and for Brandon Lee in joining us ....

.not sure the chart below says it was a Z3 ride (the average effort mathematically... but....)

I would like some feedback on the ride... time, efffort, etc....so let me hear from you.....

Once an athlete, always an athlete

I've had "learn how to ski" on my bucket list for a long time. I suppose I could have learned when I lived in Vail, Colorado for a year 11 years ago, but that would have taken time away from mountainbiking, and at that time, it would have been like asking me to chew my own arm off.

This year, we went to Portland, Oregon for a family Christmas. My younger brother Richard, came out from South Africa, and the three of us flew to Portland to be joined by our brother Brett and his other half, Heidi.

Being a competitive spirit, I always thought I'd do okay my first time skiing. My balance is pretty decent, cycling has given me pretty good leg strength, and sheer determination would get me through any shortfalls. On top of this confidence, as all my friends said "oh, it will be a piece of cake for you - you'll be a natural!" Well, okay!

Rich and I were excited about learning a new sport, and we booked some ski lessons for the 3rd day we were there, at Meadows on Mt Hood. The entire process of renting equipment, and then figuring out how to use it was novel. The boots felt reminiscent of skating boots, but looked like Terminators. I was expecting to look down and see them unfold and come to life, and then crawl inside my handbag. Of course the whole walking-while-looking-cool thing was impossible! It took a lot of concentration just to stay upright.

We had our lesson with a very nice woman who's name I've already forgotten, but who has been teaching at Meadows for something like 17 years. We worked on some balance techniques, and shuffling and sidestepping, and then made our way slowly down the bunny slopes, trying to control our speed in between some cones. I think I just ran all the cones over the first time. I just didn't get it. Amazing! How could I be so sure I was going to be good at this, and just not get it?!

We broke for lunch after our lesson, and met up with the rest of the group, who'd had a blast taking runs all morning. Rich and I decided we'd go up the lift with the others and try our luck on a green run. The ski lift was an experience on it's own. Never having been on one before, I couldn't believe they'd allow you to just sit on this bench so high up in the air with nothing beneath you. It was pretty scary! When we got to the top, I almost missed the dismount, and had to jump off the bench.

My brothers took off on a green run while Steve patiently helped me figure things out. I got more and more frustrated as I realized that everything I was trying to do was counterintuitive, and I had a difficult time breaking old habits. He told me to lean forward when I wanted to lean backwards, to load the downhill foot to turn, when I wanted to load the uphill foot. The whole experience was pretty miserable. The harder I tried, the more I fell down, and the madder I got with myself. Then I got mad that Steve could see how badly I was doing.

After at least an hour of very patient instruction, I finally managed to pin down some concepts. Almost at the bottom of the green slope, there was a steeper wide section all the way to the bottom, and by then I was so tired, my boots had bruised my shins, and I had snow down my pants from falling down so much (and so had a cold bum), that I decided the only smart thing to do would be to unclip my skiis and walk down. Yup, I was too scared to ski down the last 200 meters of a green run, so I walked! What a humbling experience.

I'm determined not to leave it too long before I get to go again, because I think when I finally get it, it's going to be a blast!

Many Thanks

Some times are special.   I got to share Adam, my grandson, with all of you.   And, vice versa.   You guys were wonderful to him, no surprise.   You helped make this Clemson weekend a great one.  Let's cross our fingers that he chooses to come here.

Thanks for your patience and care.

AGGREGATION OF MARGINAL GAINS

After last night's team meeting, Debbie Schusler was inspired to write a blog post.

AGGREGATION OF MARGINAL GAINS......for the common folk

Last night we all listened to DS's presentation on aggregation of marginal gains. Here is my translation for all of us who did not go to "Hahhhhhh Vahhhhd" or other such ivy clad institution of higher learning.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3JPa2mvSQ4

Pretty simle concept isn't it???

Debi S