New Member of the Family!

Announcing the newest member of my family:  Mr. TT!  I adopted him today and am excited to have him as a part of home.

He’s a Cannondale TT bike with brand new felt wheels and saddle.  I’m excited to actually be able to get on a TT bike – instead of clipping on my aerobars to my regular bike. I know it’s  not the best TT bike in the world, but it’s a start and I got it for cheap enough that I can continue to save for my dream bike.

Anyway, that’s about it!  And here’s what you’ve all been waiting for: a pic of the new arrival:

Chillin’ Like a Villain

Well, things are still going superbly.  More gym stuff, a little lifting, nothing real exciting.  I’ve been doing the weekend group rides with the UO team which have been pretty non-eventful, and pretty easy.  Today Ivar unclipped on a sprint and proceeded to tripod with his leg and shredded his cleat…so that was pretty exciting.  He’ll probably write about it on his blog…

Anyway, today I went for a sprint – not all out – but i went for it…and beat the guy – and set a new max for my watts…a whopping 907 watts!  It makes me excited because I definately could have gone harder – I just stopped gearing up cause i knew I had won…but yeah, it keeps getting better without really working on it…so I know with some real work, my sprint is going to hopefully….do some damage.

Anyway, that’s about it. Some development with some team stuff for next year, and hopefully I’ll be writing about that soon.   It’s all really exciting!

Adventures in the Off Season

Well, things have been going well.  A lot of gym time.  On Friday I decided that I haven’t been getting enough intensity in my work outs, so I decided that I was going to run a mile on the track instead of the few minutes that we usually run.  Well, I thought that a mile consisted of 20 laps around the indoor track, so off I went.  Within the run I included 2 seperate laps of high skips, 20 ups, and 2 different sprint laps, all seperated by a few laps in between.  It was fun, and I was pretty out of breath when I finished.  Then Derek proceded to tell me that he thinks that a mile is 10 laps around the track – so, without my knowing I had done 2 whole miles!  yay for me!

Anyway, the workouts have been good.  My goal is to do a little swimming soon. I even went and bought some new goggles.  THey look a lot more high tech than the ones I remember wearing in grade school.  And a lot more expensive too…at least I’ll look cool in them, right?

Well, I went and watched chris do his first ever cross race on Saturday.  IT was fun, and cold.

The UO team is getting started and we had our first ride and team dinner on Saturday.  I’m excited for the women’s team especially.  It looks like we have quite a few women who are really enthusiastic about riding and racing, so that’s exciting!

Today after our ride we went to the crit course and practiced bike handling skills.  I have come to the realization that I am not blessed with the ability to pick up bottles while on my bike.  Take a look at this video (that I had no idea was being filmed), and you’ll see what I mean.

Anyway, it’s been a good, non-stressful couple of weeks.  Base is coming up soon! yay!!!!!

Cannot…walk…legs…abs…pain…

Well, Monday was my official day back into the exercise world.  I have yet to start base or anything like that…that won’t come until mid-November.  I decided that in order to jump start my lazy little body, that it would be a good idea to go to the UO/Life Cycle team evening work out.  These work outs consist of running, a bunch of plyometrics (jumping and body resistance workouts) and ab/core work.  I was most scared of the running because it has been months since I’ve really run at all.  The last time I tried it was a sad case, so I wasn’t really looking forward to what the workout had in store for me.

We started running (at a pretty slow pace), and at first I started getting the runners stitch (pain in the front side) that I usually get.  Eventually it went away and the running actually wasn’t that bad.  We then did a bunch of jumps and schwoops.  Those hurt…and we ran some more, and did some more jumps and schwoops, which hurt even worse…

Then I succeeded in loosing my key out of my little key pocket of my leggings, so Chris and I ran and retraced our steps and found it, and then ran back to catch up with the group.  (a little extra running just for good measure).  Anyway, after all that running and everything we did major core work.  It felt really good and I can tell that I am a lot stronger than I was this time last year, so that gave me a little boost of…wanting to do more core.

Anyway, needless to say, the next morning (yesterday) I got up and couldn’t walk very well.  My legs were pretty sore and it seemed to get worse as the day went on.  I massaged them a little last night and stretched, hoping to relieve some pain.  Well, this morning I got up and it was worse!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I couldn’t even get on my bike…and climbing up the stairs, well, that’s a horse of a different color!  Anyway, I guess you could say I gave myself a pretty good shock to the system.  I’m excited to do more workouts and to get into the weight room for my AA phase.   yay for training…and pain…and everything that comes along with it.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot!  I got my powertap on Saturday.  Brand spankin’ new!  I’m excited…but I have yet to even mount it.  That’s my goal for tomorrow!  yippee!  Oh, and I didn’t end up getting my Vo2 max test because the guy doing the test failed to mention to me that I needed to bring my bike along (when I’ve done the test before it was on an spinning/exercise machine type bike).   Anyway, so I have to reschedule…oh well.

Just let me ride my freakin’ bike!

So, ’tis the off season, and I am officially going crazy.  I’ve only been off the bike not even a week and I am going nuts.  I decided I am going to take a complete week off of everything, no heavy exercise, no weights, etc.  I have been commuting on my bike, so that gives me a little something – and I find that I like to go fast just to get my heart rate up a little.  The problem with this is that I end up going to class with sweat running down the side of my face and my bangs sticking like glue to my forehead…

All that aside, I’m doing pretty well.  I was in search of a cross-bike, in hopes that I would be able to purchase one for a reasonable price and then learn to ride it before the upcoming races.  Due to a lack of cross-bikes for sale in my size (and more-so in my price range), I opted for something a little different….

A POWER TAP!

I happened to find someone on the OBRA list that was selling one for a very reasonable price and I am picking it up from her this Saturday.  I am so excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  It’s going to be hard not to put it on and immediately go do some sprints or climb a monster hill as hard as I can.  But I’ll try to contain myself.  Maybe now I too can have power wars with Ivar and compare data with all you powertap geeks out there

Another exciting thing is that while I’m in Portland picking up my power tap (that’s a lot of P’s), I am going to get a VO2max test done.  I have been hanging on to a $100 gift cert from Cycle One coaching for a while and thought I’d put it to good use, especially since it expires on December first.  I figure right now is a good time so I can get some good numbers for base training.

Speaking of base training, I officially have my training schedule set, and hopefully (fingers crossed) I will be able to use the first few races to get mad upgrade points, and will be able to do my first NRC race this coming season.  SCARY!!!!!!!!!!  But, really, it is what I need.  I need to get my butt kicked and my legs ripped off…and that’s exactly what NRC’s are for right????

Anyway, I’m off to read some more Robinson Crusoe and dream of riding my bike and putting out hundreds of watts…and actually seeing them on my new powertap screen!