Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Recovery Ride

Today was a recovery ride after the group ride yesterday. The weather was great & the wind wasn't much of a problem. I managed to get in 30 miles today at a comfortable pace. I tried to keep my heart rate under 150 as much as possible. It got above that a few times during the ride, but I was able to bring it down under 150 somewhat quickly. Tomorrow is another group ride, so we'll see how things go. I've been doing my Cyclo-Core workouts in the mornings & I've noticed I've lost some of the core fitness I had earlier. Some of the exercises are as hard now as they were when I started the program. Only time will tell if that's what my problem is or it's something else. Stay tuned.....

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Back to Basics

The past few weeks, I've been feeling a bit sore on the bike when riding with the club. My back gets sore after about an hour and a half. I'm thinking that it's because I've stopped doing the Cyclo-Core workouts since I've been riding more lately. I decided to start back with the exercises before work. We'll see how things go. I'm thinking my core muscles have gotten weaker by not keeping up with the exercises so I'm going to start getting them back in the shape they were in earlier this year. I have to get ready for Tour de Cure next month. I'm hoping to do the 100k route in under 3 hours ride time this year. Stay tuned for more updates.......

Friday, April 06, 2007

Perry-Roubaix Race Report and Training Rides

Sorry it's been so long since my last post but I've been riding quite a bit lately. The weather here has been fantastic. I had trained as much as possible for the Perry-Roubaix road race, riding the course no less than 3 times before the race. I knew the hills would hurt, but I was going to do the race anyway. On the first lap we had a crash, not on the dirt like I thought, but on the pavement early in the race. I was towards the back of the peloton on the climb when it happened and it seemed to split the peloton up. I was able to gain a few spots on the dirt road before we headed downhill on the back part of the course. I guess I overdid it on the back of the course during the first lap because I paid for it on the second time up the climb. My legs felt a bit heavier, but I did make it up and survived the second lap. I was working with another rider on that lap and we seemed to work good together. Coming up to the final climb I was able to drop my ride partner. I saw 3 other riders ahead and tried my best to catch them. I gained some ground on the dirt road, seeing as they were playing tactical games. Once I turned onto the pavement again, I was about 100 yards behind them, that's when they started working together and pulled away from me. I crossed the finish line 27th out of 35 riders. Most importantly, I didn't crash and wasn't last in the race. The past week has been some good, hard training rides. On Tuesday, we did the CGC ride. We were all together till we turned onto Maynard's Mill Rd. That's when things started to get a bit froggy. Will and Jason took of on a flyer. I was able to and bridge up to them, but as soon as I got on Jason's wheel, Will took off again. I couldn't do anything about it and just rode my pace. We all got back together on 42 for the ride back into Byron. Getting closer to the county line, the pace picked up and I coudn't hang with them, but that's ok. I guess I did too much up front on the ride before then. I'm learning as I go, going to be a process as to when to be up front and when not to be. All in all it was a good ride with some hard efforts. On Thursday, we did the usual CGC ride. We had a nice tail wind on the way out and Eddie was really feeling froggy on the hill going to Haynesville. He went off on his own and I followed BK up the hill. I rode up the hill the fastest I had ever done it. Once we turned onto Ellis Rd, they picked up the pace and I had a hard time staying with them. I remembered that the wind on Elko Rd, was going to be in our face so I decided to stay back and save something for that part of the ride. They slowed up on Elko and we all were together again. I turned on Sewell with Jason and Jessy to do the extra 3 miles. It felt good to ride and my legs were actually feeling good riding against the wind. All in all I did 38 miles that day with a 20.4 mph average. That's all for now, my next race is the Cat 5 crit in Athens, Ga the weekend of the Twilight. That should be fun. Stay tuned......