One Giant Bag of SUCK!

Tonight I went on my team ride. To say the least...it was absolute shit for me. Excuse my language. Seriously though, the title of this post, really says it all. I felt like my bike position was all off. I last rode not too long ago, but everything felt different. The last ride I was on it felt great. This time, I felt like the saddle was super high and it just didn't seem to fit right.

The first sprint of the night I was out of from the get go. Just behind everyone. I eventually caught up to the group that was going to sprint, but was at the back of it and so decided I wasn't going to be doing anything so I backed off and rode it out. We then rode some tempo and I got toward the front. I felt decent, but still not normal. Eventually we got to the point of our second sprint. I got suckered or duped into being on the front so, I rode some hard tempo for a while, but apparently it wasn't hard enough as I got passed as though I had thrown an anchor off my seat. I tried to catch up, but, had nothing and therefore essentially was dropped for the sprint.

We then move on to the ride back to the start. This is the point where the ride turns hard for pretty much the remainder. I felt decent riding with the hard tempo that was being set. My heart felt as though it might beat directly out of my mouth, but, I could still stay with it. Then we got to hospital hill. I felt decent going up the hill and caught an attack about 3/4 of the way up. Once we got to the top, however, I immediately felt as though I couldn't push the pedals. I felt like I was pushing in squares with absolutely zero power. So, the guy I previously caught was able to ride away. Thankfully there is a stop sign and the bottom of the other side of the hill. At this point there was a group of roughly 6. There was a small gap and I couldn't close it so a teammate of mine said he'd do it and told me to "hang on." Well, again the anchor went out the back, I felt like I was peddling in squares again and was officially dropped.

As luck would have it, they got caught at a red light and I was able to catch up. I stayed with them again and even put in a little effort. We eventually got to the last hill of the ride and I was on the front setting a pretty hard pace, so I thought. I was again passed, but the person who passed me blew a gasket soon thereafter and I went with a few of the counterattacks, but, eventually was dropped again.

Really frustrating to say the least, but mostly certain it is due to a combination of not riding enough, not doing enough of the right training and mostly just being full of suck currently. All it really says is there is a lot of work to do and I need to get my mind right, then training right and hopefully after that good things will follow.

Recovery rides are key.

I learned a lesson today about racing and recovery rides. As I previously posted, I might not have been able to go for a ride on Sunday...the day immediately following the race on Saturday. I did, in fact, go to the Habitat for Humanity luncheon. It was nice. Lots of good and FREE food, decent entertainment and some interesting facts. Apparently they have received a bunch of funding and have a new goal to build 100 houses in the next three years. I learned, from Amanda, they have only built 400 houses in their 25 year existence. I am talking about the Milwaukee branch, clearly worldwide they have built many more.

The unfortunate part is I didn't get to ride yesterday. I thought it would be alright and I would go for a longer ride today. Well, I got on the bike today and my legs would literally barely move. It was a struggle to go. About 15 minutes into this ride, I decided there is no way I am going to go for a longer ride today, I had hoped on about 3 to 4 hours. So, I got a decent hour and 20 in. I felt pretty good by the time things were all done.

Now for one of my more unhappy, yet somewhat satisfying jobs...cleaning the bike.

That is all for now.

Racing time.

Well, just a short update here. Today was my team's home race. The Velo Trocadero race held at Menomonee Falls Park near Lannon...actually I think it is actually in Menomonee Falls. In either case, I ride by it on one of my various routes out to the Holy Hill area.

Regardless it was a 1.6 mi, which for Matthew is roughly 2.7 km, or something like that. It is mostly flat and it was rather windy today. Which made for an interesting race. It was a total of 75 minutes. Basically they determine how many laps based on how fast the first few laps go. I have no idea how many total laps we did. I don't know if they didn't show them or what the story was, however, I only saw 6 laps and then down from there.

There were a few attempts at a breakaway, however, nothing really stuck. There was one particular guy who kept relentlessly attacking and oddly enough missed the actual break that went. At about the 1/3 way point through the race we caught a previous group of riders and as most racers know that is the time to try another one...catch, then counter. So, a guy countered and I went with the wheel. There were three of us and we were away for about 3 or 4 laps. We didn't stick...which is the frustrating part because the break after that was a group of 8 that stayed away.

No matter, I had two teammates in the group, so I was happy. I did some work to shut down any other attempts to bring that particular break back, a tactic known as blocking. I guess we ended up getting 3rd and 4th. Not sure, I didn't see the finish and basically relaxed the last half of the last lap as there was nothing to sprint for. So, I relaxed and sat up.

All in all, it was a good day and my legs are pretty tired. I am thinking of going for a long ride tomorrow...but...Amanda has some kind of luncheon for Habitat for Humanity and I am not sure if she is looking for me to go along. I may get to go meet Larry and Shawn's new puppy too...Grace.

That's all for now.

Sprecher Brewery Tour

Yesterday I got to meet Amanda's lovely parents, Julie and Don. They drove over from Mineral Point to hang out with Amanda. Being the genius she is, she thought it would be a good idea to go to the Sprecher Brewery for a tour. I have only been on one tour before, and it was the Miller Brewing Tour. Sprecher was way, way better. We actually got to go into the brewery area, where they have the tanks for the mixing, cooking and whatever else is involved in making beer. We didn't get to go into the fermentation area, but, we got to see where they keep the beer once it is completed, before it is bottled. Learned a few fun facts:

1. Sprecher Root Beer was voted #1 Root beer in America by the New York Times
2. Sprecher started in 1985 and has 50 total employees...50. Thats it!
3. They sell 50,000 barrels of root beer per year, vs 14,000 total combined barrels of the other beer and soda.
4. They use natural and local ingredients...including honey. I wish I could have gotten a picture, because there was a tub of honey...660 lbs of honey...that is a serious tub of honey.

Here are a few pictures from the adventure:These are ingredients, lots of ingredients

These are bourbon barrels used for special edition brews

<--- As you can see...this is 1,000 liters/250 gallons of Root Beer Syrup.




These are the stacks of finished and ready to ship product. --->

To the left here is the Sprecher label and it was designed after the founder's family shield. Or that was the thought. He believed his family crest involved the Griffin, however, he later learned that was entirely the case but it was too late to change it.

Once we were done with the tour we went and had a burger at a local burger joint and all in all it was a good time. Oh, once the tour is over, you get 4 free samples of beer, a small glass for the samples, which you get to take home and all you can drink soda. It was great!

A disappointing burger

I don't have too much to talk about for this installment. I recently did a ride down in Alpine Valley with some of my teammates. It would say it went well overall. I clearly need to improve on a few deficiencies, however, this should all come in due time. I just need to work hard and I should overcome. Which is easier typed than done.

I checked and apparently my gadget is going to be arriving today, which means I will have opportunity to play with it tomorrow. Should be exciting. Though, I won't have too much time as I am helping the 'rents pick up their new washer and dryer! I wish I had a house that needed a washer and dryer, but, I don't.

Last night Amanda and I went to "Five Guys." I believe this is a chain that began out west, in Washington, but I could be very wrong, I haven't done a lot of research, but that was my best guess based on all the magazine covers I observed in the joint. In any case, I was not impressed with the food or the price for said food. I found it to be quite average and quite expensive. $13 for two burgers, a small fry and no drinks? A little much I think. Granted, there were two 100% beef patties on each burger, but, still...a little expensive.

Oh, my racing license is here! I think my first test will be April 17th, my team's race in Menomonee Fall's Park. After standing out and working at the race all day, I'll try my best to race.

Ok, all for now...peace.

To Garmin or Not to Garmin....

I have to say, I truly enjoy the warm weather, however, it makes it entirely too difficult to sleep when:

1. You live above a bakery...heat rises, just like dough.
2. The air conditioner for said bakery is directly below your window(s).
3. It is April, no reason to get the window AC unit in yet.

Don't get me wrong, this is great weather. I have been able to put in a lot of time on the bike lately and enjoyed being able to drive around at work with the windows down, but, there comes a time where a guy wants to get some sleep. Usually for me it is conveniently between 1am and 9am. It is extremely difficult for me to sleep though when you have an industrial sized air conditioner going on and off, a refrigerator that sounds like it is going to die out and a fan all going at the same time. I used to think I was a pretty heavy sleeper, but apparently things change.

Anyway, enough nagging. I am thinking of getting a new HR monitor/training tool and am conflicted on what to get. I have been training the past few years with the PowerTap, from Saris. The PowerTap I have is a wired version, and I am not going to place this on my new friend Tatiana. I was thinking of perhaps getting the Garmin Edge 500. It has the ability to read power numbers from a PowerTap. The issue here would be I would need to find a wireless PowerTap hub for my rear wheel. So, even though the Edge is $249, I would need to probably spend another, at least, $500 bones on the hub bringing us to the grand total of $700(ish) dollars.

Another option would be to just go with the PowerTap wireless set up. This is certainly more expensive, and could be ridiculously more expensive if I wanted it to be, but this limits me only to use it while cycling.

Which brings me to the final option, and possibly my own conclusion...the Garmin Forerunner 405CX. A teammate of mine purchased this little product this past winter to use it for skiing and says he has found it to be super accurate on the bicycle as well. I tend to do a multitude of activities and if I were to be able to ski again next winter, this could possibly be a valuable tool to allow me to see how much energy I am using to suck at XC skiing. If I were to keep the wired PowerTap on my other bike, I could ride that bike when I wanted to get an idea of power numbers. The PowerTap does have a HR feature, which would allow me to monitor where my HR is at during certain efforts and corresponding wattages. Then, when I am riding Tatiana and using the Forerunner, I can judge what my power is based on my HR...I think I may have just gotten my solution.

There are a lot of schools of thought on how to train...by using gadgets, based on feel...etc. My brother has been very successful at doing it based on feel, though now he is using a lot more numbers based training. I would tend to agree with him that the body will tell you when it can give/take more and when it needs a rest. Currently mine is screaming it needs a rest, but, I think a slow, easy ride up to REI might be in order.

Well, thanks for reading...if you did...and following my crazy man's logic.

Ciao!