Attack of the Killer Woodchuck!!

When I was out yesterday at the base of the second climb, I thought I saw two squirrels ahead of me on the shoulder of the road. As I spun closer to them (within three feet) I realized they were not squirrels rather woodchucks! They charged and snarled their teeth at me as I passed. They must have been protecting their nearby babies or something. A little scary, but cool at the same time.

Sarah also was fitted for her bike last night at Extreme. Some minor adjustments, new shoes, cleat adjustment and boom - no more numbness. Now she's just got to ride it more!

Hump Day

Unfortunately (or it could be good fortune) I will be missing the OBC ride tonight that goes through Holy Hill. I highly doubt I would be able to hang with the A group for long, but I would have liked to give it a go. Sarah and I will be heading down to Extreme tonight so she can get fitted to her ride. Her feet went numb on Sunday when her and I went for a spin. She also had some other problems with her back, probably because she was compensated for other stuff. Anyways, I've got an indoor soccer game at 9:30PM, which is why I won't be enduring the hill route tonight. But I did get a handful of good climbing in today on my 30 mile loop. Took the big climbs that I suffered at with the group last weekend and shortened it up a bit. Man I tell ya that Sleeping Dragon road is a killer! I hate it, but love it at the same time. Maybe one day I'll be able to tame that beast!

Volume

Well, I thought last week was a long week on the bike. This week I just kept trucking along and before I knew it had 11 hrs and 14 minutes of saddle time. Looking back I probably over did it with the extra miles and such. There was some good group rides though.

Did the Level Valley Creamery Route on Wednesday with OBC - dropped after a diesel pickup truck seperated some riders on the first climb up Pleasant Valley Route. Lacked the power to get back on with the headwind. That is my biggest goal right now - to hang on for the entire ride with the 'A' group of the OBC ride. I'll take that first over better finishes in races!

Thursday night Pedal Moraine Group Ride was good too. Had to stop a little short because of time due to two riders with flats. One has a sidewall blow out and had to call for a ride home (Jerry). Dave was able to get going again and finished strong. Boy it was cold though on the re-start. But I attacked on some hills to put a strain on my legs. Yep it worked. Legs were feeling a little drained. After I seperated with the group I went into TT mode for the five miles home. That was fun. Good ride guys!

Friday morning Dave, Doug and I rode out from Pedal Moraine for a nice recovery ride / base miles. My intent for it was to be a recovery ride, but the duration was a little too long for that, so I guess base miles. Dave took us on some roads that I haven't been on before around Sunburst into Kewaskum, Town of West Bend, etc. Beautiful route. I achieved my goal for the ride to keep my HR way down - Zone 2 average for the entire ride. Was a little tough with some of the rollers around Sunburst, but I just tried to keep spinning and breathing correctly. Guess it worked.

Saturday morning I got up at the butt crack of 5:25AM, made some coffeee, grabbed my steed and race bag and shot out the door to meet up with the Team as LaSata in Cedarburg for the second stage of the "Tour de Giese." Man Jim Giese can come up with some routes. Nice and flat for the first ten miles down Sherman Road. I mixed it up with a couple Stop Ahead Sign sprints to get my HR jacked up. Fun stuff! Cross Hwy 60 to Lily Road and enter the picturesque scenery. I was able to take some of it in before big climbs - Pleasant Valley Road / Hillside = immense suffering; Sleeping Dragon Road - I think that road ate a few cyclists in its time = immense suffering; Scenic Road north from Little Cedar = immense suffering. Throw in a few more sprints here and there plus trying to keep up with the Extremers after being a not so strong climber = legs toast. Done. Nothing left.

I just hired a coach this past week to assist in developing a training plan and fundamentals. He and I were talking about meeting this morning (Sunday) for an endurance ride. I had to decline the invite after yesterday as all that I can afford to do is a meager recovery ride. I really wanted to meet with him and ride, but I don't want to overtrain. He's supposed to give me a jing today so we can get working on the training plan and figure out goals, race schedule and other priorities for the season.

Lastly, I added another Wheels on Willy pic for your enjoyment. That is all.

Patrick

Wheels on Willy Crit - 5/18/08...and a little catch up.

I know, I know - I need to post on here a little more often as this is supposed to be my Training Diary. Meh. I'll get to it eventually. This past week I put a lot of hours in on the bike. 7 hr and 45 min to be exact. Had a really good ride on Thursday for the Pedal Moraine group ride. Took a lot of pulls and sat on the front three wheels for the entire ride. Popped two or three off the back as well. Made me feel good as it was not me for once.

On Saturday, I set out at 5:30Am to meet up with fellow Team Extremers in Cedarburg for a base miles group ride. I had planned on riding for about 30 miles or so as I would be racing in Madison on Sunday. The pace was moderate for the most part. Got to my turn around point, but didn't turn around.... kept on riding. Ended up with a Metric Century.

Wheels on Willy Crit:

Sarah and I ventured out to Madison on Sunday for the Wheels on Willy Criterium Race. A short .6 mile left hand turn course with a slight uphill finish. I had a feeling it was going to be a fast race. Sure shit, right out the gates they're hammering it into turn #1. Down the slight dowhill stretch and into turn #2. This is where we met the 7-10mph crosswind. Not bad if sitting in, but solo gets a bit old. Turn #3 takes us into the headwind for a short stretch before turn #4 and the slight uphill finish.

I managed to hold onto the 27-30mph pace for just over 3 laps before I got gapped after turn #2. Tried to bridge up to the field, but fell short. Welcome to No Man's Land. Coming into turn #3, I looked back and did not see anyone else around except a few others rolling out of turn #2. I knew I was not going to be able to get back onto the field with the headwind I was about to face and sat up for others to work with. After about 2 laps, I found a rider from UW-Madison / Evil Racing to work with. He and I ended up working with each other until the last three laps. One rider from the field went down hard in turn #4 and stayed down for a while, which caused the race to be halted.

Race Officials restarted the race in two groups - main field and those off the back. I had trouble getting clipped in after the restart and couldn't get on with a group of ten riders. Found the UW guy again and we worked together until 200m. He started to ramp it up. I see him start to stand on the slight uphill and put it down. I knew from sitting on his wheel in the head wind he wasn't going to have much, so I went around and put the hammer down. Well, at least I got a good sprint in! Felt good to get that out. Finished 40th out of a field of 57 riders.

I'll definately be working on intervals and being able to sustain a higher pace for short amounts of time. Seems that the 4/5 races are really fast for 1/2 the race, but they slow significantly after that. I also refrain from any Metric Centuries the day before a race! Grant says I should be in good form for Grafton with all the riding I've been doing lately. Hopefully I'll be able to stay on track and finally be a pack fodder.

Patrick

Ugh

Training is coming along really slowly. I have not had a lot of time for daily riding. Maybe 2-3 times per week at the very most. At least I will be able to get out today for an hour and a half or so, but then have to go to work til 5. Maybe I'll try getting in a short ride around dinner time and maybe I can con Sarah into coming along with. There's so much to do around the house with the weather being warm its been difficult to find time for everything.

On a better note, I went to Extreme on Monday and had Karrie take a look at my fit as I was having problems with pain on the right side of my neck and my right elbow. After 3 1/2 hours on the training we finally fixed the problems. 1.) My stem was in a definite sprinting position where I was reaching far away (120 stem changed to 100 stem) causing neck problems 2.) a washer was missing from the left part of my saddle where it is attached to the seat post which may have caused the saddle to wear oddly --- the right side of my saddle was essentially bent down more than the left side causing an unevenness in the right half of my body. 3.) Right shifter was down just a tad versus the left and contributing to the right half unevenness.

As I have only ridden with the new fit on two short rides so far, I cannot totally judge how it is overall, but it feels a lot better not having a twinge in my elbow and a creak in my neck when riding. I also felt that I have more energy in this position as I am not wasting it trying to hold myself up from being stretched out to far over the bars.

Time for me to stretch and get ready for a ride. I'll try to report back here more often as I am slacking!

Till Next Time,

Patrick