Friday Night

I needed to start planning for the upcoming season so I went down to the Bike Hub to get started. I brought a 6 pack of this and left with a set of these and a appointment for this. The skis a re more of a cruiser/backcountry ski. I am not going to do the berkie and I wanted a ski I could break trail with. I'll probably have more on that later when we get snow/really cold weather. I also brought my road bike in for a professional tune up. New cables, guides, cassette, bar tape and maybe chainrings. We'll see how the bearings look. I wouldn't mind a set of ceramic bearings. A new road bike is not in the cards. I probably will ride my '06 for at least a few more years. Also I will not be getting this. Unless Fast Mark wants to give me his hint hint. :) I probably will be buying this for my mtb. Thats probably all I will buy this winter. After the Bike Hub I felt like I had to do something. So I went and worked out at the Y for about a hour and a half. Little Yoga on FITtv today and I feel pretty good. Just waiting for it to snow...

Thoughts on Yoga.... Continued

Coupla pictures of where I am taking a class and the teachers there.

So why Yoga? Last year I felt kinda like a piece of metal that was cooled to quickly. Strong yet brittle. This was brought on by years of work/excercise with little to no stretching. I was always kinda interested in it just to improve my flexibilty. After jumping into racing with no prep I was very sore last fall. So when I recieved a invite I jumped at it.

What are the benifits of Yoga? I was just interested in touching my toes. But, it turns out yoga is good for other things. It is good at stress relief. You work your core even when you are sitting still. You practice breath control. You gain more body awareness. Your body feels more flexible after just a few minutes of class. You find out you can stand on your head. The levitation while meditating is cool too. J/K

I gotta tell you I did not expect to head stands my first class. So far its fun but, after I feel like throwing up. I don't get that with the shoulder stand though. I guess I would call it a core class where you stretch and practice breathing all at the same time. Some of the poses are hard but, you control how hard you make them. So far I like the class and probably take some more. I don't know if it will help in a race or not. But, I think it will make your core very strong which helps you go faster.

Couple of other thoughts. I realized most of the stretches I have been taught/ read about in magazines have some basis in yoga. Which makes sense since yoga is 2000 years old and modern sports medicine is only about 50 years old. Also at least in the beginner class I am taking the remind/show you how best to position your body during the poses. For example the reminded us to not arch our back to much when doing bridges because just a inch one way uses more back muscles which doesn't strengthen you core. Strengthening the core is the whole point of the class for me. Strong core=pushing harder on the pedals=faster lap times=less injury.

Time to start planning for next year. I am not going to lift like last year. I felt like it was somewhat a waste of time. "The only way to get fast on a bike is to ride your bike." -Rebecca Cleveland I think. Plus I know with my job I am keeping my leg strength up. See Ya Outside.
Oh yeah.
Namaste.

Reforestration Rambles...

I woke up Saturday morning and thought what to do? TV said rain was coming, better ride early if at all. So I decided to go out to the camp. I got out there by 830. Evidently other people had the same idea as me. There were at least 8 cars by the trail entrance. Today was all about just riding and thinking about life. Thought I would think about the last year since the season is over. Evidently I didn't have much to think of since I pretty much just rode. The only conclusion I came up with is. No matter how much work you put in front of yourself, you will get through it if you keep on plugging away at it. I've pretty much been relaxing since we moved into the new house. Just trying to enjoy it and spend time with my family. I can't make up for not doing much with them this summer but, we've been having fun together. Someone asked me how I found time to ride with a family. The only answer I have is you make time. You either ride early or late or at nap time. Otherwise you realize your 25 pounds overweight and your not happy. So today at the camp I ran into the duathalon organizers from the Ashwaubenon Nordic Ski Team. The said the course is the same as last year. Except you lap thru because they have chip timing this year. They said they moved it up a week this year so they didn't overlap with the Iceman. If anyone has time I suggest they do this race. It was a seriously fun race for me. Other than that, the newest issue of Bicycling has some diffrent stretches I hadn't tried before. They made my back feel better. Its probably sore because I hadn't stretched in about 4 months. A lot of things go out the window when your building a house. :) Going to blow up my new excercise ball when I get home from Family night at the Y.
See Ya outside.

Wigwam Wipeout

Sorry about the late blog post. Tired after the race and busy week at work. I think we stayed at the park till 530 watching the awards and enjoying some oktober "fest".
The race was fun, I still had bronchitis for the race. I don't know if that helped much but, I felt faster during the race. I Pre rode on saturday and enjoyed the course changes. I was suprised by how dry the course was after our biblical summer. The equalizer felt easier except at the top it was very loose. I didn't get a very good spot on the start so I just hung back and rode with the guys around me. I had a good couple of laps just kinda staying where I was at not really passing many people. Than I took a curve just before the roots of evil and wiped out on the loose dust on hardpack. BAM down I go on my chest and belly with my face in the dirt. I sat up and tried to catch my breath half stunned. I got a good 6" scratch on my stomach to show for it and a bruised shoulder. What happened? I think I just slid out on the loose dust. This happened to me 3 times during the race. I have been riding the XR1 bontys all season and noticed the same thing early this summer. The only thing the seem to be good for is tacky soil conditions. I think I am done with these tires except maybe for cheq 40. It could just be my lack of skills too but, its time for new tires. Other than that got back on and finished the race. Only rode the equalizer once. I had to keep putting a foot down right at the very top. It was a fun day and I didn't mind the scrape. I am motivated to start training for next season right now. I'm not going to though. Hopefully I see you at the duathalon at camp.

Bear Paw Breakdown

Headed up to Bear Paw last weekend to see some friendly faces and hopefully be more competive. I have managed to ride a little bit more lately. So I was hopeful for the race. I prerode on Saturday and felt good. I had a little cough so I only did 1 lap. Then I went to Family night at the Y with my Kids and sat in the Hot tub. Best race prep ever. Sunday I had a good long warm up on the road mostly with J-Vog. Relaxed till Don said Gooo. Then I hit it. Had a good start, like I have been this year. It seems like I have lost any power. And I stayed in the top ten till the bottom of the long descent. By that time my lungs were burning. From the cold? More likely just lost quite a bit of aerobic capcity over the summer. So it took the rest of the 1st lap to recover. The second lap I felt great. I zoomed up the hill and motored thru most of the second lap. The third lap I felt great up the hil and then the legs lost the power. Kinda sad for that short of a race. I think the consensus on Bear Paw is that it is a tough but very fun race. I would rather race their twice then do Kewaskum once. I am looking forward to Sheboygan and hope to do a little better there. The new house is wonderful and I live a lot closer to AMS hill. Hill repeats=fun. Hoping to do the duathalon at the camp. Don't think I will do any cyclocross races just because most are a long way away. Looking forward to getting my road bike pimped by the Bike Hub this winter. See Ya outside.

Reforestration Ramble

Quick update. Life has been busy. Between working out of town quite a bit. And then working 12 to 14 hour days on the house. The good news is everything should be pretty much done this weekend. We move in the 3rd so happpy days are here again. So that m eant for the race today, I literally haven't touched a bike since the short track at the Subaru cup. I don't what made me think I could jump into a Comp race after not riding but, I did. I knew on the leadout I was in trouble. I couldn't hold any wheels in front of me and I was already with the slower guys. I just switched to survival mode and put it into a pace I thought I could hold for 3 laps. Which ended up being about 3 hours and 10 minutes. Yep that means I was DEAD last. Hopefully it makes me a better person for the experience. I didn't quit. Hopefully I can ride more soon. After the race I went with most of the Performa crew and had some drinks at Townline. With cheese curds, best recovery food ever. God I love riding my bike.

Wednesday Short Track "Race" Report

I think we had nine people show up for the weekly throwdown at the Camp. It must not be that tough because one guy was even competing on a singlespeed. We did the usual full lap of the singletrack then went back to the lot for refills. Then we went back and did a practice lap of the pink loop you can see on map. Had to move a small tree. Then Swede drew the finish line and we were all set to "race". Shoe told me to call it so I looked around and yelled GO. I got the jump on everybody and lead themto the base of the big hill. Then I kinda got swarmed and had to work to hold wheels. The first lap was fast and I thought I was getting dropped but, I managed to get back on. The rest of the laps on the straightaway were kinda sedate. No one waanted to work it seemed. So we all coasted down the gradual hill. I was at the back most of the race which was kinda hard because of the yo-yo effect. Everyone slows down then sprints to catch back up. SO I moved up on the last two laps. I pulled a little on the second to last and then the last lap I tried to be the first down the hill into the hard lefthand corner. Swede decided he was going to sprint me for the top of that hill. I pretty much blew up right then. I managed to hold his wheel after the corner mostly because I took a better line then him. After that I knew I would be slow up the big hill and I fell from second to last. After that it was just try to hold wheels to the finish. Swede and Tyson ended up sprinting for the win with Swede taking it by a half wheel. J-Vog and shoe were right there too. I was about 20 bike lengths back by then. It was a good night. I think we almost had spectators at one point. Maybe next week we switch it up and go backwards? It definitely gets you ready to race. See ya outside... At Nordic Mtn?