Final Post for the Year.

This is my final post for this year. I went riding with Will today instead of doing my scheduled workout because the weather was just too nice not to be outdoors on the bike. We did the usual loop we do when we only have a limited amount of time. I decided to push it a bit today for the final ride of the year. Going up Lake Joy Rd, we hit the hills & I pushed it up the first climb. I usually do worse on the second climb, but I decided to push it up that one too. My legs felt pretty good up the second climb. I pulled most of the ride, but it wasn't that big of a deal. My legs felt good the entire ride & when we finally hit the final climbs on the ride, I was behind Will & about half way up the final climb on Old Perry Rd, I decided to pull one of Will's fav moves. I just attacked him up the final hill & I was surprised to feel how good my legs felt hammering up that hill. All in all it was a good ride with a good friend.
This year was a good year on the bike for me, I started racing again, learned how much I need to improve to be competitive, rode more miles this year than last year, & had a good time doing something I really love to do. I started out the year feeling strong, my legs just had to get used to racing again & the fields were very fast. I learned alot from fellow riders and did improve throughout the year. I need to learn race tactics better and place myself in better positions in the pack during the race. I'll learn that only through racing more. I also need to increase my power output for crits and need to really improve my hill climbing ability.
There was a lot of contraversy in cycling this year concerning doping and I'm hoping that things are getting better and they are catching the cheaters more and more. I take a lot of flak from my buddies who don't ride about all the doping in cycling, but I know it's not the only sport where the athletes using performance enhancing drugs. Baseball just released the report about what they have found out about players cheating there. Then there was the fued between the UCI & the Grand Tour organizers, which really hasn't been settled as of today. We'll just have to see what happens next season. There has been lots of changes during the offseason so far & we'll just have to see what happens when the season kicks off next year.
Well thanks to everyone who had read my adventures throughout the year & I hope you'll keep reading next year......

Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!

I just wanted to wish everyone who reads this a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!! May you and your families have a wonderful holiday & I hope that you get all sorts of new cycling gear to use for next season. See everyone on the road........

Peach Peloton #7

Today was my next Peach Peloton ride. I missed last week due to being out of town. It was only supposed to be a 50 mile ride. Once we got there, Chad said it was going to be a 70 mile ride. We broke up into groups and practiced rotating. We hit Maynard Mill Rd & after yesterday's hard workout I realized that I wasn't going to be able to stay with Chad & the others. I had the map of the orginal route & decided to do that route instead. I pulled out the map & was on my way. I reached one intersection & checked the map but I had the map in the wrong position so I read it wrong & made a wrong turn. I went 5 miles down the road in the wrong direction before I realized my mistake. I turned around & headed in the right direction. My legs were starting to feel it after yesterday & today. What was supposed to be a 50 mile ride turned into a 65 mile ride & my legs are feeling the past 2 days. Thanks for reading & I'll keep you updated.........

Cyclo-Core/Zen Update

Last week wasn't a great week for my workout routine. The holidays are starting to get in the way. I'm starting the past week over again. I had to do the recovery yoga routine from Cyclo-Zen today. I'm getting a bit more flexible, but still have a long way to go in that department. Yesterday was supposed to be an off day, but seeing as I haven't been on the bike since last Wednesday I went for a ride. I did the route I use for a fitness test. I managed to do a bit over 20 miles in under 1 hour & 3 minutes. The wind was a bit of a pain yesterday, but I did my best. I felt like I was going to throw up when I got home so I know I rode hard. My legs are a bit sore today, but I'll work that out later this week. Stay tuned for more updates.......

Peach Peloton #6

I know this post is about a week late, but I've been busy with other projects all week long and doing some Christmas shopping also. This past Peach Peloton ride started out in east Macon. We started from Bernd Elementary School & headed out. We had a group of about 10-12 of us on the ride. The plan was to ride about 80 miles with no attack zones, just practice rotation throughout the ride. I was happy about not having the attack zones, but didn't know how my legs were going to feel this ride. I spent the Friday night before the ride working on cleaning a house for friends to earn some extra cash for the holidays. I stayed with the group the first half of the ride until the store stop. We headed back towards Macon & started to hit some hillier roads. I was able to stay with the group until we hit Myricks Mill Rd. Chad describes that road as one short downhill & about the next 5 miles of climbing & he's right. I was dropped on the first climb on the road. I stayed within myself & rode that stretch of road at my pace. I wasn't the only one having problems on that stretch of road. Shane showed up for the ride & he was having a hard time too. I guess I over did it with the house cleaning because we regrouped before heading back to Macon & once we hit a good climb, I was dropped off the back again. Shane & I pretty much rode back to the school together, tired but feeling good to finish that distance. I was pretty much shot for the rest of the day, but have been doing more riding this week & doing the training exercises so far. Some of the workouts are getting a bit easier to do, but some still hurt. LOL That's about all I have for now, stayed tuned for more updates......

Cyclo-Core/Zen Workout Update

I'm on the third week of my 12 week Cyclo-Core/Zen offseason workout program. This week has been challenging to say the least so far. Yesterday's workout was what is called a 45 min. yoga spin. I started out doing some yoga to stretch out my legs then it was onto the bike. I started riding a 39 x 24 for 2 minutes to warm up, then the real fun began. I shifted into a 53 x 21 for 3 minutes at 100 rpm while staying in the drops. After that was a 1 minute recovery in a 39 x 24 at 80-90 rpm for 1 minute. Then it was back onto the big ring in a 53 x 19 for another 3 minutes at 100 rpm. My legs were feeling good so far at that moment, after 3 minutes of that, it was another minute of recovery. The next interval was a 53 x 17 same amount of time & same cadence. My legs were starting to feel it a bit by now, but it still wasn't that bad. After another minute of recovery time, it was time to big ring it again in a 53 x 15. This was getting harder with each interval to keep the cadence up to 100 rpm, but I gave it my best effort. After another minute of recovery it was time for the last interval, a 53 x 14. My legs were about fried half-way through this one. Once I was done with that and a 2 minute recovery spin, it was time for what they call power yoga. After doing that workout on the bike, I was having a hard time doing the positions called for, but I did try my best to do each one. The final workout was a cool down & stretching program. It felt good to stretch all my muscles after that workout.
Today was the ab/core workout. I still need lots of work with the exercises in this routine, but I can tell I'm improving a little. Some of the exercises aren't as hard to do now as they were earlier. My abs and core muscles are still sore from doing them, but if I want to get stronger and faster, this is what must be done. Thanks again to everyone who reads this & I'll keep updating as often as I can. Until next time......

Peach Peloton #5

Today was the 5th Peach Peloton ride. The weather was a bit cool at the start, but it was going to warm up during the ride. The plan was to ride 77 miles with an attack zone. At the start of the ride, Chad told us there would be no attack zone (thankfully). The route was going to be hard. It was the hilliest route we've done so far. We left Howard Middle School and headed towards Byron using the climb on Boy Scout Rd. I hadn't ridden that road in quite sometime & forgot how hard the climb was. We stayed together the entire climb so it wasn't that bad. Once we hit the top of the climb, we took a quick break to let someone who dropped off time to catch up. That gave me time to lose some of the gear I had on seeing as it was warming up & I was starting to get a bit on the warm side. We hit Hwy 42 & divided into 2 groups to practice rotating pacelines. I was with Chad, Christian, Doug, another Chad as we started out. Chad told me to do what I could and if I couldn't take my turn up front to just sit on the back and hang on. I told him I would do what I could & if I couldn't pull, I'd just sit in. We started out quite smoothly and once we hit a stretch of flat road, Chad started to pick up the pace. I was doing 29 mph & he was pulling away from me. Just at that moment, the second group caught up to us & the pace really started to pick up. I knew where the store stop was and what the road was like, seeing as I've ridden it before, so I just stayed within my limits & kept up a good pace that I was comfortable with. I was able to make it to the store & I wasn't the last one there. We waited for everyone to arrive and take a break. Some of the group had to head back to Macon for something, so they headed out on their way. The rest of us started back out on the back side of the route. We just kept up a comfortable pace until we hit Hopewell Rd. Once we made the turn onto Hopewell, we started a rolling paceline again. We kept this up the entire time we were on Hopewell, being nice and smooth and not leaving anyone behind. We then turned onto Montpelier Station Rd & just rolled on until we hit Maynard Mill Rd. Once on that road, the pace picked up & I stayed with them as best as I could, but was dropped. I did catch up to Robert Jordan, who was backing off a bit and the two of us just rode together until we got to Zebulon Rd where we saw the rest of the group. The climbs on Zebulon really hurt after all the riding I did, so needless to say I was left a bit behind, but they slowed up and let me catch them before returning to the school. It was a great ride today. I learned alot along the ride and my average speed was the highest it's been on a Peach Peloton ride. I was actually able to average 20 mph for the entire ride. I'm looking forward to the next ride. Stay tuned for more updates.......