My cycling journal
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My Tour de France legs have left me. The legs that could climb the Galibier, Telegraph, Croix and Mollard the day after hammering up Alpe d’Huez are gone.
But that’s ok. This year I have different goals. I don’t want to ride mountains all day long; I want to win a bike race. [...]
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A week ago I gave up drinking alcohol. I went an entire week without a beer after a ride or glass of wine for dinner. It was very strange at first. I wasn’t quite sure what to do with myself. So, I read more, wrote more, worked more and played the [...]
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I expect racing to be a series of very high-intensity moments scattered amongst a fairly hard baseline of riding. The high-intensity moments will be generated by doing things like jumping with a breakaway, closing down a gap or just trying to maintain contact with a group going balls out. Historically, my fitness has [...]
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My legs are really sore. How do you know when it’s time to rest? Training uses a simple, amazing principle. When you apply stress to the human body, it reacts by adapting and even overcompensating to better handle that stress in the future. The key is that the adaption and overcompensation [...]
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I worried I had been slacking off over the holidays, but after reviewing my training diary, I can see that I’ve actually been hitting it rather hard. Good news, since my first road race is just 4 weeks away.
66m: Saturday, Dec 27th
I rode hard with the Descenders. I use this weekly ride to [...]
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It was cold again this morning on the way to meet the Descenders for their weekly Saturday ride. This time I had my full-fingered gloves on and it made all the difference.
We were supposed to preview the Boulevard race course today, but the chilly weather had us staying closer to home. The high [...]
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On today’s ride, my odometer clicked past the 6,000 mile mark for the year. I checked google maps and it is 3,031 miles from my house in San Diego to Boston, MA. So, in 2008 I effectively rode my bike from San Diego to Boston and back.
I only drove my car 3,350 miles this [...]
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Mark says that the guy who wins the bike race is the guy who wants it the most. He knows this because he’s won more bike races than I’ll ever attend. And he’s right of course. I just sigh and look down, because I don’t know if I want it badly enough.
I’m [...]
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The truth is I’m just not fast enough.
I rode with the Descenders this morning after four days of inactivity. Being totally rested, I expected to dominate on the hills and on Dye Road. My goal was to take on as many high intensity attacks as possible to simulate the feel of a road [...]
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Completely unsatisfactory! The rain-mongers predict it will rain all week! I’m just starting the second week of my first Build period and I cannot sit, sit, sit, sit on cold, cold wet days. I do not like it, not one little bit.
Ha! But I know some games I can play. I know [...]
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