Ouch

The GOOD NEWS - I felt really good on the bike tonight, especially on a ride I was not going to be able to make. It's the Thursday night Joe's ride. On the first lap Ice Berg went off the front motivated by verbal jabs by apebike and all-pro (aka cuz). I was scared so I just shut up (rare) and made jokes in my head about Berg's pink socks. The Church section surge starts slow which was cool so I was able to hold on into the long downhill. On the first tittie hill I had to hold myself back from jumping on the gas - I sat in. Second tittie hill hurts a little - I'm still sitting in. Cuz has been powering the whole time with a little help from ape. I'm about six riders back and I'm thinking of the bricks sprint. Now we're on the false flat and the speed ramps up. We drop some guys and I'm the last in our six man race. I'm in danger of getting YoYo'd off the back but HotRod bridges back up and I'm able to hang. Getting closer, planning when I want to go - Uhgh - Rod sits up enough to slow us where I have to make an effort to go around. I can't bridge to Big Jim but I pass yellow shirt and my cuz (who sat up on a nutritional). And I stay close enough to see ape and berg fighting it out. Berg won. I'm breathing pretty hard and the BAD NEWS is I'm dreading the climbs because I still haven't fixed my brothers bike - it's stuck in the big ring. Cuz says it's good for training. So I grunt it out pass Red Dragon climb and going in to AJ Henry Park I sneak off the front. Not to break away, but merely to go up Gardenview at my own pace. We regroup at the top of Gardenview and much to my dismay, ape powers down when we round the corner at the church. This is much quicker than the first lap and I'm already hurting. The church hurts, the golf course hurts, the downhill hurts. Riders are getting shucked but I'm still here - weird. First tittie hurts bad and I know I'm losing it. Ape and cuz are powering but keep pulling over just enough but nobody's pulling through. I'm about rider five and I know I don't have much left. Near the crest of tittie two, I stomp on the pedals expecting to at least provide a halfway lead-out... BOOM! I came completely apart. Ape powers by and says to dig deep, but I've already got a chop stick hanging out my ass. I chalk it up to half nutrition/half bonk. All in all a really cool ride and somewhat encouraging. Even though this was a slower ride, I did a lot better than earlier in the year. It was a smaller ride so I'm thinking it is about even. The running is definitely helping. bikechain out

OK, so I should be have about 3 % body fat by now. I have lost just over 15 pounds so I'm on my way. I shall refocus my energies. Big Worm (aka ApeBike) says that boot camp and red dragon are played out. I shall reincarnate "focus and disciplined" Later. K

Wagons at Altitude

Yes, a vacation to Breckenridge and I fell off the wagon. Not in the cokes and candy in the middle of the night way, but massive breakfasts at the Blue Moose kind of way. There was a time my guantlet was aimed only for bigworm, but now it is aimed at the drummer formerly known as Intense Terry. Seems as though he doubts the red dragon. That's really OK by me. It will be nothing to move my way back into the nutritional program. And maybe I'll ride more than twice in a month. I will not be denied. Victory or death. My name is bikechain and I approve of this message.

Detox - the hurt before the storm

So I did it. Laid down the gauntlet. This time it's really, really different. I decided late last year that I would actually "train" on the bike this year. I reflected on my "racing career" and realized I've never really trained like you should. Sure, I've ridden more than my current once a week average. But never have I done the interval, rest day, hard day bull shit that you have to do to be competitive. It's not that it really matters, but I'd like to see what would happen if I put my bulldog mind to it. First phase is the diet detox with a dose of running and riding. That sucks because I hate running and love junk food. Not the cliche' junk food eater, I'm the real deal. It's not uncommon for me to wake up at 3 A.M. for a candy bar or sour patch kids, washed down with a coke. Coke for breakfast? Fried chicken? Wings? Pizza? - It don't matter. And as bigworm (aka. apebike) says, it's the sauce that gets you. Sour cream, marina, blue cheese - bring it on... and strap on your seat belt - you've never been on a ride like this before... (Dr. Dre). This shall be the year of the red dragon. KW