Outdoor Addict

Yep, that’s what the Weatherbug iphone app said this morning for the weather here in North Conway.

Is it really that cold?  I don’t know, but its pretty damn cold.  I would say the high was no higher than 15, that is for sure.  And I would imagine that the gusts of wind are around 68 mph.  I barely slept last night due to the high amounts of wind keeping me awake.  It is pretty safe to say that I will not be outside on the bike, or hiking, or anything tonight.

Other than the big new of the arctic blast, today is just business as usual.  My goal for the weekend is working on getting myself on a team for this upcoming year.

Unfortunately, GT has decided to discontinue the Dirt Coalition for next year, so there goes option 1.  I thought something was possibly lined up in case that would be the case, but it never happened.  So there goes option 2.  I might have a possible option 3, but I do not have high hopes for it, so it looks like option 4 might be the case.  Option 4 is going to be pick and choose any bike I want (what will it be, big wheels, tiny wheel, only 1 fork leg, who knows?!?!) and just head out on my own, sans team and hopefully beat up on some of the other racers…unless anyone out there has any info/contacts on a team they would like to share with me.

Now, if the weather would just get out of the teens and my back would be back to at least 75% functional, I would get back out there on the bike for some needed miles.

Its been one week since my back has really started bothering me again.  I am keeping up with the few times a day stretching, the core workouts and everything that could possibly help when it comes to getting better.  Yet, some days, when I get out of bed, like this morning, it feels like I will be needing a walker to get around.

Yes, thats right, I wear a helmet to bed.  Ya never know when the waters are going to get rough and you need some head protection….ok, I really don’t wear a helmet to bed.

Its a funny thing how sleeping in a bit different position removes all the progress for the week.

Either way, while the back is still sore, my legs are getting antsy.  Yea, I have gotten a lot of projects around the house done and have read a bunch, but I miss riding.  I don’t race because someone told me to.  I race because I have a passion for being on the bike.

I have decided that I will be taking today and tomorrow off, and with the highs in the teens this weekend, I will be doing some short spins on the trainer.  Maybe an hour, maybe half an hour, maybe even more, who knows.  I will let my back dictate what I do.  The funny thing about it is the one position I feel no pain is when I am on the bike.  It is when I stand up and get off the bike, straightening my back out, is when it hurts.  Damn you core muscles.  I think with just spinning the legs lightly, it will help put me back mentally to where I need to be.  Plus, there will be live coverage of the cross worlds, so there is no better time to be on a bike.

Well, its almost like spring time is here.  But I have lived in New England long enough to know not to get excited.  It is the last week of January, and March is usually the “snowiest” month of the year.  So, no need to get all excited yet.

With the 40 degree temps, also came the rain.  And boy did it rain.  Luckily, I live on the very top of a hill, so there is no concern, but those in the low lands, like Weston’s and Sherman Hill’s farms, not so lucky.

For those of you that know the area, these * were from yesterday morning:

Heading west on River Road right after Weston’s Farm.

Same location

These signs are normally about 4 feet tall.

Same spot

Looking South on the Saco.  Those pillars are usually 20 feet out of water.

More pillars

Looking east across the bridge toward Weston’s Farm.  Usually about 25 feet of space below the bridge before you get to water.

Weston’s Beach parking lot.

View from the bridge.

The one thing that the rain and warmth has done that really effects me, is it has ruined the snow.  Sure, I don’t wish there was any, but it is that awkward in between time, where the snow is too crappy to ski, bike, or snow shoe, but there is still snow on the ground, so no single track to be had.  Ohh well, what can ya do??

On a side note about the back, every day things are getting a little better.  Today, I took a quick spin around our warehouse, about 30 seconds worth of being on the bike and the back felt fine.  It was when I tried to get off the bike and stand up that I had the problem.  I am figuring that I will stay off the bike until the weekend and see how it goes then.  I can say, that without being able to do anything, ride, hike, run, ski, anything, I am pretty bored with my time.

* All photos used were taken by Derrek Schlottmann.

Well, there has been a lack of posting because there has been a lack of riding lately.  Totally not my fault.  Let me run over the series of events that have led me to this problem.

Last weekend was a great weekend for riding, just like I last reported.  Monday and Tuesday are my normal days off/rest days depending on how I feel.  Wednesday, there was some household chores and things of that nature that got in the way, so no riding there.  Thursday was looking like the perfect morning.  Kelly took the pup to work, so I was all clear to ride the Pugsley.  With all the luck I had during the weekend smiling and riding that behemoth of a bike, I thought it would be the perfect thing to ride.

So, that is what I did.  I got on the bike, headed towards the sled trails to get to work.  I didn’t really know how long it would take me, but from previous, shorter excursions, I was assuming an hour and a half.  With some trail closings, loose snow and a few other obstacles, I made it to work in an hour and 25 minutes.  Perfect.

South view from the Trestle crossing the Saco.

Views to the north from the same trestle over the Saco.

That is where the problem came in.  Because of the ruts left by the sleds, my back was pretty fried.  I have been having some issues with it from skiing, but nothing that I couldn’t deal with.  When I swung my leg over the top tube to get off the bike, it took me a solid 30 minutes plus a HOT shower to be able to stand up straight.  Not good.

Because of the back pain that has plagueing me for the past few years, I  know better. No need to get on the bike.  So here we are, Tuesday and still no riding.  But things are getting better.  Through the use of an inversion table and a bunch of yoga positions and stretches, I can almost walk straight up right.  With the exception of my work chair and Jeep seat, I am able to sit comfortably for longer periods and am able to get up and walk around.  The toughest part of my day, tying my shoe laces.  God bless Crocs.

One good thing about this is I now know the cause of all my back pains.  With this latest episode, I have begun to do some core strength exercises and my core strength is awful.  I always suspected that, but this has confirmed it.  So, the plan is to lay off the bike for a day or 2 more, keep up with the daily yoga, stretching and core workouts (something I really should be doing daily anyway) and I will hopefully be back on the bike by the end of the week.

What a killer weekend for riding.  For the 3rd week of January, I couldn’t have asked for much better temps.

On Friday, temps were supposed to be up near the 40s.  That is something I NEEDED to take advantage of.  So, I took a bit of time off from work and went out on a nice 2 hour lunch time spin.  I have to say, I am pretty lucky that I can take 2 hours off during the middle of the day to ride.  Then again, I work in the bike industry, in New England and its winter.  There is virtually no chance of that happening during the summer time when we are busy.  Either way, a nice 2ish hour spin to get the legs prepped up for the weekends effort.

On Saturday, when I checked out the weather, I couldn’t believe what I saw.  A high near 50?  Hot damn.  There was no way I was going to miss out on this. So, a quick breakfast and a nice walk with the dog and it was time to get down to business.  Dressed up with the least amount of clothing that I have put on in the last couple of months, I went out for what was looking to be a 4 hour day.  About 2 hours into it, the worst came true.  In my rush to get the morning things done, I didn’t eat enough and I was going into the red quickly.  I took in as much Hammer product as I could (Perpetuem and gel), but there wasn’t much I could do from that point on.  Ohh well, I had to cut my 4 hour ride down to 3, but not a huge deal.  Sometimes those things happen.  I just need to slow things down in the morning and take in the calories I need to.  Rookie move.  Either way, it was a good ride and was nice to be out in 50 degree weather.

Route from Google Earth

Sunday couldn’t have been more different than Saturday.  The high was supposed to be in the low 40s and chances of snow all day.  It looks like I did the right thing to get out on the road bike on Saturday and get out on the Pugsley Sunday night.  After last weeks little issue (my crank arm fell off due to me not checking bolt tightness), I did some needed maintenance to the bike and finally got out around 4:30.  Man, that bike is fun to ride, but it sure is a TON of work.  Some things I always have a hard time remembering when on the bike.  1)It isn’t quite as “flickable” as my carbon hardtail.  When coming around a corner, I can’t get the back end to move around things.  2)That bike is a pig.  At around 35ish pounds, it takes a lot to move it.  With the Pugs, its all about the workout, not the speed.

With that being said, I did the smart thing (wait for the sarcasm).  I took it to one of the tougher climbs in the area and did some climbing with it.  The climb I chose was up Cathedral Ledge, which for the first section has an average grade of 17.5%.  That is a hell of a climb on a 35 pound bike.  With the climb out of the way, I was able to get a few more miles in before I had to turn around to get back home.  Even with the climb and tiring legs from the past weeks effort, I had a smile on my face 95% of the time.  It is just to hard not so smile while riding that big goofy bike.

Route from Google Earth

Elevation Profile

Sure, doesn’t look like a huge elevation gain or anything like that, but 17.5% for .5 miles using a 35 lbs bike in lose snow is quite a tricky climb.

Today is Monday, and that means one thing.  Cleaning up the bikes from this past weekends efforts out side.  With a 50 degree day under its belt, even with fenders, the bike is pretty trashed, which will give the legs a bit of a breather as they have been worked pretty nicely this week as well..

In case any of you ever wondered, this is exactly what I picture hell to look like.  The view from my trainer.  Never a good thing.

Sorry about the horrible picture.  That is the best my phone could do and I currently cannot find my normal camera.

Because of yesterday’s post, I needed to get off my ass and get down to business.  So, when I got home, I walked in, gave the Mrs. a kiss and just went to get changed.  There was nothing getting in my way from riding the trainer.  Spinervals #22.0 – Time Trialapalooza was what was the prescribed workout.  Even though I had this dvd for about 3 years now, it was one that I have never done.  Not sure why, but I just never did it.

Gotta say, it was a pretty solid workout.  It is about 80 minutes long, consisting mostly of 4 intervals: one 20 minute interval at a few beats below your lactate threshold (LT), one 15 minute interval at about your LT, which is about 5 beats higher than the first, one 10 minute interval a tad higher than your LT which is about 5 higher again, and then a 5 minute, all out, leg burner.  See for yourself with my heart rate file:

That last one is an average of 186 beats a minute for the 5 minutes.  That will get ya going.

Plans for tonight??  More of the same, but a different video.

Almost a month since the last post.  That has to be somewhat close to a record.

I am still here, sticking with the bike, doing the things that need to be done for another year of racing.  Let’s get caught up since we last left each other.
For the end of December, I went back home to Pennsylvania, to visit the fam and got to take the bike with me.  Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t all that cooperative, so I only got to ride once.  Ohh well.  Nutting you can do about that.

Since then, I am back here in North Conway, doing my best to keep my sanity during these few months of cold weather.  I got out the cross county skis a couple of times (1, 2, 3) hit the trainer a bunch and also have been outside on the bike as much as possible.

For some reason, getting up and going this year has been more difficult for me.  I am not sure if it is because of how much time I have spent on the trainer last year and I know the amount of suck that is involved, if it is because I have a new coach (more on that), or if because I haven’t inked a partnership with a team yet.  It’s gotta be one of those three, a combination of the three, or something completely different, but the motivation isn’t there.  I need to do something to change that and unfortunately, it mostly involves the trainer.

Last year, the XC skiing was pretty good due to the amount of snow we got.  This year, it has been pretty chilly out there, but the white stuff just hasn’t been falling.  At all the local cross country ski areas, they keep grooming, but the bare spots are popping up all over the place and it isn’t something I want to run my skis through.  So trainer riding it is….I guess.

So, it seems like it is up to my new coach to get me motivated.  And that certainly adds up to problems.  You see, this off season, I did some studying up and passed my test and became a USA Cycling certified Level 3 coach.  Do I plan on doing much with the certification??  Probably not, but I did it to help myself out.  I figured that if I knew the basics of coaching, I could relay more valuable info a a coach in order to help out my current plan.  Since I am going at the training on my own this year, the feedback isn’t helping.  I think last year, when I was working with Grasky Endurance, I felt an obligation to them, not to make them “look bad”.  I felt that if I didn’t do what was prescribed, and didn’t achieve my goals, it would make him look like a bad coach, something that he certainly wasn’t.  He was a great coach and I learned TONS from him.  Either way, I am now out there by myself, and I need to get my keister in gear.  Nothing more needs to be said.

As for a team, I have some things in the works, but it just seems as if any of the final paperwork has not been passed back out for the 2010 season.  I know when I got my contract signed with GT last year, I worked extremely hard to show my team mates what I really could do.  Hopefully the paperwork will come through soon and the same effect will happen.  Which also might mean a new bike……YEAH!!!!

As for races this year, I will not be the 1 trick endurance racer I was this past year.  I have decided to branch out a little bit and do some other races, to make me a more rounded rider.  I have decided on a road race, or two, as well as some of the shorter cross country races in the area as well as as many endurance races as I can  and still have a positive season without killing myself.  With all of the different style of races thrown in, it should help when it comes to cyclo-cross season (scheduling the races with some recovery time is a VALUABLE lesson learned from last year).  Last year, when I made the transition from endurance to cross, I feel it was too late.  This year, along with the long rides, I will be throwing in some shorter rides to prime the system.  Now, I just need to look at all the schedules and races I am thinking about and put together a solid season.

That’s it for now…..off to ride the trainer….ugh..

Here are a few images from last weekend when I was part of the  TWAF Holiday Edition Gravel Grinder.

The always tricky backwards view

Views of Shawnee Peak.

Another backwards shot.

What I got to see, for a little anyway.  I caught them before the crest of the hill to get my important King of the Mountain points.

Gota love backwoods Maine.

View from what I believe is Hawk Mountain

Another View

Ice buildup from the end of the ride.  I had to stop and clear it many, many times.

Other side of the bike

I like the ice build up on the cables.  That is the reason I usually ride a fixed gear in this type of weather.  Nothing to go wrong.

What a day for riding.

We ended up getting about an inch or so of snow the night before, so I was a tad concerned about my decision to ride the cross bike.  But, I really didn’t want to dig out the mtb, so cross it was.  I met up with JJ and A1 and headed over to Bridgton Academy to meet up with DEA and clan.

This was my first gravel grind, so I really didn’t know what to expect.  From all the rumors I have heard about it, it lived up to my expectations.  There was some nice tarmac riding, followed by dirt roads, then through a field, back to roads, to more dirt, to roads to blah blah blah…I think you get the point.

The day started off pretty bad. I started to dig out all of my gear and found out I completely forgot my shorts. How was I going to ride 2+ hours with no chamois. Simple, I just manned up and rode. I was offered some “loaners” but there was no need for that. To be honest, it wasn’t really as bad as I thought it would be.

The big excitement of the day was that I was one of the few who road a bike with gears and since I had gears on a “skinny tired twenty niner”, my job was to win every king of the mountain point and win all town lines.

Winning the town lines ended up being tricky.  First, while on dirt trail in backwoods Maine, there aren’t many town line signs.  So, it got a bit out of control, but we were sprinting for every sign we could find.  Turn signs, no trespassing signs, no ATV signs, you name it, we sprinted for it. Sometimes, the signs were facing the opposite directions, we raced for it.  Even if the sign wasn’t on the trail we were riding, I seem to remember A1 sprinting through a field with his bike on his shoulder, just so he could get a no trespassing sign.  So, while the ride started off nice and casual, that quickly ended and it seemed like I was sprinting more than just riding.  Ohh well, good cross training I guess.

Then there was the actual “Welcome to Bridgton sign”.  It seems that A1 and JJ had teamed up to sucker me for the line.  While I was being nice and pulling for the single speeders, they said I was geared to high and to shift down.  Click, click, down it went.  “hey, what gear are you in” was the next question and when I looked down to see, BAM, there went A1 sprinting for a line I never saw….DAMN, 1 real sign and I missed it.

While chuckling about being bamboozeled on the sign, I saw another sign up ahead.  A few clicks and I was out of the saddle for it.  As I worked my way around the dynamic duo again, I felt a nice elbow into my side and I was pushed right toward JJ.  With some spectacular maneuvering (should read, just swerving around, nothing fancy), I made my way around and just lost out on another sign.  DAMN!!!!  However, I did sleep a little better knowing that A1 had to spin about 200 rpm to beat me.

I had enough.  I got off the bike, walked a few steps and “David Millar’ed” the bike into the ditch, with a big smile on my face.  Of course, there were no fans or team mechanic to pick up the pieces, so in the ditch I went after the bike.  Finally, a nice casual ride back to DEA’s.  I did win that last hill, but somehow didn’t get the points.  I think when the TAWF team races together, there is a lot of cheating going on with the outsiders.

After the ride, a great lunch followed, thanks Karen, with the usual PBR drinking.

Altogether, it was about 18ish miles of riding through parts of Maine that I have never been through and a pretty well laid out trip.  Great planning on DEA’s part.  I can’t wait for the next “team ride” so I can start using my elbows back for the town lines.

Data from the ride:

We recently got a few inches of snow.  Ok, we got about 10 inches of snow 2 nights ago.  Because our plow guy was out doing his job elsewhere, I started off shoveling the snow out of the driveway so I could take remove the cars from our neighbors driveway and put them in ours.

In past years, I have found that it takes, on average, about an hour t shovel my entire driveway, including digging out the mail box.  And here is my story of 2 nights ago.

First, thing you need to know when shoveling is staying hydrated.  Just like any activity, you will get thirsty.  However, because of the cold, you really don’t feel like drinking.  It is important to keep your fluid level topped off.  I certainly do my best to stay hydrated while shoveling.  Sometimes its tricky keeping your beverage of choice at the appropriate temperature, but I have found this works best for me.

As you can see, the cans of PBR stay nice and cold.  I figured 3 would be about the right amount for the task, mostly because that’s all I had in my fridge.  If I would have had more, I would have drank more.

About 22 minutes into my shoveling adventure, the plow guy came and took care of the driveway for me.  Good thing too because it was starting to turn over to rain and I was getting quite wet.  Not that much fun.  How do I know it was 22 minutes??  Simple.  I had my heart rate monitor and GPS on me.  That’s how I know.  And yes, that is why I am a dork.  I was curious just how much I would walk during the adventure and just what my heart rate did.  And now I know.

You can see all the back and forth on the driveway.  I don’t shovel like a normal person.  To save me from having to pick the snow up, I use the shovel more like a snow plow, pushing it, which is why I walk back and forth so many times.  Sure, it might take longer, but what else do I have going on?  I am outside, walking around (sure, its just my driveway, but better than nothing) and not killing my back by picking up the snow..