Stego's Fall Cycling Thread: come on in...

[stego]

on the bike a bit. I've been trying to get over this sinus infection and it's sapping my energy a bit. Had bad dreams about NOT commuting on Friday and decided to do it anyway: no matter how bad I felt. I was late to work coming in but just felt better riding. My son had a district band competition in the downtown Austin area, so I decided to do a long run down at town lake early Sat AM. I usually go later: 10-12am. But I hit the trail this time at 8am and it was like a whole different world. Many runners out, in groups and packs. I surmised that many of them were in training for the marathon season. The temp's were a bit cooler than usual, and my times dropped by 3 minutes for the long loop. I know: not cycling: running helps with my intensity on the MTB. At the end of my last MTB race, my left pedal gave out and re-discovered that on my training ride on Thurs. evening. I just could not find a good rhythm and felt "off" the whole time, so I called it after an hour of futile pedaling. I did have another set on my other bike, so I transfered those over to ride Sunday AM for some fast laps at WC. This weekend is the last TMBRA race out at Rocky Hill and then I will shut it down on the MTB for awhile. The time change over the weekend shortens the daylight after dark, so I will have to adapt our rides in the evening for the winter. We've got some really nice weather in the Austin area right now with high's in the 80's during the day so it's not really cold yet. I've got to save my pennies and buy some new pedals, and some lights F & R for my new cyclocross bike.

 

[ironz]

Hi, kids!

Stego...I just wanted to support your decision to get back to your biking roots if Tri wasn't really the thing for you. No worries!

Are you doing any of the Dirty Du events at Rocky Hill? The weekend before T'Giving. I am going to do the 10K trail run. Would do the Du, but I am just not good on my mt. bike. May need to do some of that over the winter on the weekends. Though, in my only mt. bike outing in a few years (just 6 weeks ago), I managed to partially tear my rotator cuff. Hint: do not grab a tree with your arm internally rotated to keep from falling down. ha!

And yes, the Town Lake trail is probably seriously bustling, what with 1/2 the town getting ready for the SA marathon, and the other ramping up training for the Austin marathon. I like to run towards the east end, when I can...less crowded.


Note on trainer riding. Yes, it can be hard on the rear tire, from more friction/heat (while your front tire is not being used really--unless you have rollers). I have sometimes put on a cheaper tire for trainer use in the winter.
As for boredom, watching movies helps. I particularly like to watch Cycling races that I have on DVD or on the DVR. My favorite is the 2003 TDF. It makes me feel more like I am actually riding and getting somewhere, so the time goes by faster. A nice workout to do is also a Spinning DVD such as Spinervals.
It does help to have some sort of variation in the workout (intervals) to keep you thinking and also breaking up the riding.
Example for a 3 hour ride might be: 15 min easy warmup, 5 x 15 seconds sprint (to bring your cadence up)/45 sec easy, 10 min steady spin, then some sort of interval work such as 4 x 20 min strong/10 easy....or 2 x 20 strong/10 easy, 2 x 10 strong/5 easy, 4 x 5 strong/5 easy... then use the rest as easy spin to cool down.

 

[stego]

IronZ: I've had many, many thoughts on my triathlon "experiment". And some reflections as well. My wife summed it up one way: I prefer going all out at one event. I don't think she's far off...as she does have some insight on what makes stego tick. MTB and winter don't go well for me so I'm going to spend some time on my new cyclocross bike. This will give me a chance to work on intervals...and intensity. At WW, they say that you are successful if you just maintain during the holiday season. Just this morning a coworker brought in his kid's candy from Halloween and it is in plain view. This is just the beginning and I will have to take it day by day.
With the Texas MTB Fall series ending I'm going to spend some more time running. Stack is running the dirt derby thru January and I think we'll go every other week. This weekend went well and I finished mid-pack in my age group. I felt much better at this race so I think I'm on the mend. I'm still having some congestion though. Our son had some real ringers on the front line and he went out well. But we saw them all come in and sure enough; another sunday rendition of "sore loser syndrome". He came off the bike all bent out of shape and neither my wife or I took the bait. He hopped in the truck as fast as he could and that was that. They have overall series awards but at this point it just made sense to go on home and get some down time. I talked with the team captain and his new cyclocross bike will be in and so we'll pick that up this coming weekend. We did do a cyclocross race on the way out for our pre-ride. I went back and forth with one guy in the beginner group, but wisely decided not to burn all my matches for the next day's race. By default, my son took the overall junior series and scored a new series champion jersey as well as a set of tires. If you hadn't heard the news, a famous cyclist "humbled" us with his presence at Rocky Hill yesterday and entered the pro race. They all went out well, and coming through on the first lap you could just tell he was playing "cat and mouse" with the other two guys. He came through the 2nd lap just pedaling along and closed the finish decisively with about 1:30 gap. They loaded him up pretty quickly after the race; I saw a bunch of folks go over as well as a lot of kids who wanted a good look at him. I got some photos but there are a number on a few bike sites which are much better.

 

[stego]

and the interest in cycling has gone down. Shorter daylight hours, much lower temp's and strong north winds. I realized the DIS'ers in the northern part of the country take their bikes inside and on the trainers and that is just a fact of life. I'm grateful I live in a southern state where I can pretty much ride year round. Every now and then we get an ice storm and I get cabin fever really bad.
Went down to town lake and ran at a comfortable pace for 10 1/2. Legs were a bit sore but was within the mark by 3 minutes. It was not quite cold, with some wind. After lunch, we went down to the team store and picked up our son's new cyclocross bike. Pulled it off the stand and he was on it after I adjusted the saddle height. Couldn't get him off it but he did come in so I could settle the bill. I put him on the trainer when we got home so he could work on his shifting. Then he did laps around the 'hood so he could show off his bike and his new team kit. Sunday AM rolled around and so I decided to do an endurance ride...and took him out. He kept up ok but got a flat 20 miles in so good ole' dad fixed it. He didn't want to go ride with his mom after that so I figured I wore him out a little...we did 30 miles. Again, cool and some wind. So xmas came very early but he played along with "Santa" to humor us. We've been very firm to him that there will be little for him under the tree...as I understand will be the case with most folks.
If you're reading along you know this is the WISH section and that has to do mostly with weight loss. I had an insight this past week or so and it seems the way to close out this thread. Most of us are dreading the holidays because the tempations are great and beyond abundance. I figured out that was what was wrong with me: I was projecting too much...kinda of like putting the cart before the horse. I have a tendency to think ahead of myself; and realized that just does not work for me. My motivation is different from lots of people: it's the red plate. Red plate= expert/category 1.
The cold hard fact is is that my pants have gotten way tight, the old nibble behaviors came back: a little nibble here, a little nibble there. It all adds up. What I have found is a solution that works for me and that is: I can say no right now. My end goal is about mid-march and to be ready for the spring series and to peak out for 2 races. But I will have to do the work and that means many things: endurance, more time on the MTB, hard and then harder intervals etc. Most people don't like the thought of being uncomfortable but in order for me to get to my goal that is going to have to be part of it. The weight will come off and 4 months is not unreasonable. It's just that in WW they pretty much tell you if you can just maintain that is HUGE during this time. I want more and will take the focus off of my wife and son and put up with my hunger pains for awhile. It will pass and the rewards will be so worth it. I don't know quite yet if I will start a cycling thread in the spring but I will come back and post about how it went.

 

[ahoff]

Cycling is not over yet here, but it sure is getting cold in the mornings! I am still commuting to work via bike, and will continue throughout the winter. I just did my last race of the year two weeks ago, a duathlon with a 2 mile run, 10 mile bike, and another 2 mile run. This was all off road, which I enjoyed more than the road one I did a few weeks before that. Plus I won my age group, so that is always nice. Looking forward to the warmer weather!