boo!

happy halloween! four days until the iceman! i think i'm ready. if not, then that'll just be a good excuse to drink more after the race. looking forward to the race and the post-race parties. looks like i may have a little friendly competition going on w/ my roommate, macromius. we're in the same age class so we'll be racing against each other. i think that if he loses, he needs to parade around the loading dock in tom's man-thong. now that would be a wager!

i can't believe how excited i am for this race. i must be thinking about it WAY too much because i've dreamt about it the past two nights. i imagine i won't be sleeping too much on fri. night. the only other 2 races i've done this year were yankee tt and 12 hrs. of addison mud. i was pretty excited about yankee even though i wasn't in very good shape and the rain the week before addison definitely put a damper on things. so, this will be my one BIG race of the year so i'll give it my all. even though my goal of 2:05 isn't great, i need to be realistic. if i actually trained and rode this summer, i'd definitely be under 2 hrs. oh well, i have to go with what i've got. it ain't much, but it'll do the trick! ;-)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MASON!!!

last training ride

what a fantastically, gorgeous day it was today! i couldn't have planned it any better. today was another day off for me and am i glad i used a vacation day. being at work today would've been torture. it hit 70 degrees today! as scheduled, today was my last iceman training ride. i was looking to get in over 2 hours at race pace and i did it! 33.56 miles, 15.7 mph average, 2hrs 7min. i don't know how good that 15.7mph avg. is but for a hilly route, it seems decent to me. i know any expert/elite rider would smoke that but who cares, i've only been "training" for 6 weeks. i think i'm ready to finish the iceman comfortably. my goal will be 2:05 on a dry course. it looks like it's gonna be COLD this weekend. i'm guessing the temps at the starting line will be in the high 20's...about 40 degrees colder than today! i had a short sleeve jersey and shorts on today! i can't wait for the race this weekend. after it's over, i can have fun on the single speed. training isn't a whole lot of fun. but, i'm getting used to riding the hills and they're really not that bad. hopefully, i'll feel the same way about the hills on saturday. i just need to figure out a way to stay WARM!

new toy!

i finally picked up my first single speed yesterday! i never thought i'd do it since i luv my gears so much but after my training ride at kensington on the 5th of this month, i realized you could climb big hills in big gears. i picked up the raleigh xxix. it's a steel frame and rigid steel fork. decently equipped and low $$. a combo that can't be beat. thanks to ernie at cycletherapy for hooking me up! btw, he's got all 3 sizes currently in stock, so stop by and check 'em out!

well, yesterday was supposed to be hill training ride #2 of 3. i was too excited to get on the ss that i headed out to pontiac lake instead. i figured 2 or 3 laps out there would be a good workout regardless. my plan was to do the first lap on the ss and then switch over to the geared bike. well, i never got on the geared bike. the first lap was so much fun, i took it back out for the second lap! it took a little while to get used to the rigid fork. i haven't ridden one of those in about 13 years. with the amount of leaves covering the trail, it made it a little tricky. hidden rocks would really jar you whereas w/ a suspension fork, you would barely even notice it. surprisingly, i made every climb on both laps! granted i was running a low gear combo but, hey, i still climbed them in a much taller gear than on my geared bike. for some reason, i think that standing on the climbs made my legs burn much less than spinning up them in a low gear. weird. i need to get stronger on the climbs so i can run a bigger gear because i was spinning my brains out on the flats and going nowhere. i don't think i could've climbed w/ a bigger gear yesterday. MAMA!

single speeding is definitely a full body workout. i can't believe how sore i am today. my upper body, especially my back and my legs. i think i'm gonna pick up some of the specialized bg grips or the ergons. my hands and wrists were really feeling it towards the end of the second lap. maybe slightly less air pressure in the front tire as well. although i don't know how much lower i want to go. i was running 28psi the first lap and then let out some more air so i'm guessing i was somewhere around 25-26psi...lower than i've ever gone before. those exiwolfs sure are plush!

so if the weather holds out sunday, i'll ride the ss and then i've taken monday off for my last training ride. that'll of course be on the niner. 9 more days til race day!

one down!

just got into work after a morning iceman training ride. man, is it nice out! started out at the kent lake parking lot and hit the huron valley trail. took that up mt. trashmore, under 96 and then left on the dirt road leading up to buno rd. turned right on buno, climbed the hill and went down to the railroad tracks. turned around and then climbed the big-ass-long hill and out towards kensington. into kensington i rode to the golf course turned around and turned left down the little loop road. there was a steep climb on that road. don't think i've ridden it before. then went all the way back out to the other toll booth and then back through kensington and the 2 monster hills and back to island lake where my car was. whew! i need a gps! 29 miles, 1:50 ride time, avg speed 15.7. i don't know if that's good or not but i was just happy to make it up that last, long climb. no cramping! my quads thought about it going back up the little steep hill under the connector bridge from kensington to island lake. my legs had almost no juice left when i got back to my car. so, the question is...was this training ride harder or easier than iceman? i don't know, but to be safe i'm gonna throw in some more hills next time i do it. i think i'll do this 2 more times and i should be ready. it just kicks your ass mentally and physically to train at race pace. i don't know how people do this for an entire season.

though it was painful, it was still fun. the dirt roads were muddy as hell so it reminded me of the springtime training rides. the bike really needs a bath and a tune-up. the views were spectacular on top of the hills in kensington. you can see for miles with the beautiful fall leaves in all their glory. i can't wait to take another half day next week to do this all over again!

always wanting...

...a new bike! so i finally broke down a couple of weeks ago and order a 29er single speed. i never thought i would do it but finally figured out it's great training pedaling a tall gear up hills. whowouldathunkit? i had ernie order me up a raleigh xxix. with any luck, it'll be here at the beginning of next week. BUT, me never being satisfied w/ any purchase, i go shopping on the internet. now i want a fisher rig. looking for a good deal on a used one. i really liked the geometry of that paragon i demo'd in the spring plus, a reba would be nice too. of course, there aren't any in my size available. either smalls or larges.

it's not like i have any money for a new ride, especially since my computer crapped out over the weekend. i'm hoping the motherboard didn't get fried but the computer geek here at work thinks that might be it. if that's the case, it's time for a new computer...which wouldn't be all that bad.

this crappy weather is really putting a damper on my iceman training. tomorrow looks like a decent day to ride except i'll be going to the killers show after work. so, i think i'm gonna take the morning off and do a 2+ hour race-paced ride at kensington and see how my legs feel. i just need a handful of long hard rides and i should be ready to go....i think. see, so much doubt. one thing's for certain though...

the tigers are going to the world series!!!

19 days and counting!

so, i've been training for this race called iceman and i have less than 3 weeks to go. since i hadn't ridden very much all summer, i know i had my work cut out for me when i decided to start "training" during vacation--the week of labor day. so, i've been at it for about 5 weeks and i'm still not where i want to be. i know i don't have the strength and endurance to finsh how i want to finish so i'm just looking to finish comfortably. my one and only iceman race two years ago must've left a pretty big scar because i'm frankly scared to death of this race. sure it's only a two plus hour race (for me, hopefully) but still, those hills kicked my ass the first time around. and for someone who averaged 1 ride every 10 days over the entire summer, i haven't built up any race pace endurance.

let me refresh your memories...i had brain surgery on june 7th of that year and finally got on the bike on july 17th. so that gave me 3.5 months to get my ass in shape for the race. i did a lot of riding that summer and fall, but they were mostly group rides which meant lots of stopping to regroup. i ended up being in the best shape of my life despite weird things coming out of my nose from the surgical site. regardless, my goal was to get on the podium for the sport class in my age...top ten seemed totally do-able. i had the race of my life up until the end of the race. i cramped up really bad on the second to last hill but continued on. not knowing whether or not there were any more climbs, i thought i would be getting on the podium. then it hit me. that last woodchip climb. as soon as i got off the bike, both of my legs locked and stayed that way. at that time i was at 1:51 w/ only 1 mile to go. i couldn't walk up the hill and i certainly couldn't get back on the bike. so i sat and waited...and waited...until finally my legs allowed me to walk up the hill. i sat on the side of the trail for 11 minutes. my heart was broken as i finished at 2:06, which was a pretty crappy time for such fast course conditions. that thought of me sitting on the side of the trail still haunts me. everyone tells me i'll be fine this year. but they all say that. i know my body better than anybody and it still scares me. i've trained pretty hard the past month and a half but i still have some work to do. i've been doing lots of running on days i can't ride and ride pretty hard on days on the bike. i've even done some hills at kensington. so, will i be ready to conquer my fears this year? i don't know. we'll find out november 4th at around 12:15PM.

jake for sale

the jake's finally for sale...reluctanly, i might add. but, that was the deal for me to be able to buy the niner.