When did Merckx find the time?

Funny, you always read about how Eddie would tweak his position on the bike sometimes even during a race adjusting saddle height etc. So this past week I replaced my stem and by Saturday I had only ridden the new length stem on the rollers once midweek. I faced a dilemma. sunday was a team development ride that I wanted to go to. It was a 90 miler and that is cause in and of itself to take notice. I decided not to go, and do a local ride instaead to be sure I was comfortable on the bike with the new stem. GOOD thing I did, because I swaer I adjusted the height of the stem and tilt of the bars about hald a dozen times before I found the sweet spot.  The new position feels comfortable, and this is after getting in a solo 60 mile effort. MAN! I don't even want to think about the headache I'm going to have when I start to dial in my new road shoes from SIDI. THAT involves the saddle height as well as the cleats. :( I guess it's the yang to the yin of picking up some SWEEEET new "Ruby Slippers" NOTE I've been in the same TIME shoes for the last 10 plus years...
allez!
Ray

Crazy racing?

Over the last couple of days I've stumbled upon race info for a couple events that look pretty "interesting". For whatever reason I'm seeing a pattern where I'm starting to gravitate toward the more "interesting" events, as opposed to your typical races. Think it all started when I decided to do the  Madison-Chicago 200 relay race last year.That was WAYYYY cool. The first one that caught my eye is the quarryman challenge, which is a 10 mile run in Lemont on what I know to be a brutally hilly route. The funny thing is I'm trying to talk my brother into doing it, and he has no idea what awaits. To be fair, hes in some decent shape coming off a very respectable under 4 hour marathon last year in Chicago.
The other race is a 10 hour 75 mile course in the Mineral Point/Blue Mounds area in Southwest Wisconsin on August 28th.The Unnamed Epic!  It looks tough, but can easily help justify the new full suspension bike I now own. I should be in some pretty good condition coming off of the Madison Gran Fondo a few weeks earlier, so the timing looks good. So forget about racing around an industrial park, or yet another downtown 5k. Got to keep it interesting...
allez!
Ray

48 hours gives you a lot of time for reflection...

So yeah... I've been down and out with the flu, and with not being able to do anything other than stare at the ceiling or mindlessly at the TV for 2 and a half days,  it gave my mind PLENTY of time to reflect on a WHOLE bunch of topics. Without typing pages and pages of stuff I thought I would touch on the one that hit home the most. OK I rarely get sick, and when it's the flu it all but kills me. This time around it came after a harder longer ride, and to be honest I was scared that it wasn't the flu. I thought my body was reacting to the training in a negative way, and I was in the beginning phases of a legitimate health scare. You see a number of years ago I encountered a legitimate health scare and it was the single most scary thing I've ever experienced in my life. To this day it lingers in the quiet recesses of my mind.... So I'm thinking it's poor diet?, its a heart ailment due to some hereditary issues? It's the fact  I'm in my 40's, and jumping back into intense training after all these years and my body can't handle it and I'm bringing on my demise with the focus and determination that sop many athletes have toward training? Something that due to some issue in the past is going to do me in? To be honest, I was "running scared" (well "staring at the walls" scared). Could my previous indescretions at living well be dooming me? Was I in for a downfall as scary as I experienced a number of years ago? Having all this internal chatter going on when you can hardly get thru the day because of weakness, and illness puts one on the losing side of controlling one's Mitote. Then came the thinking thru the currenty career issues, but we're not going there today. So anyway, shame on me but I was somewhat relieved when one of my boys had to stay home from school today because they've come down with the flu bug. I guess I'm doing alright outside of being sick, I just have to get my strenght back. That and follow thru on a couple diet ideas, even some lifestyle (read that stress management) areas as well. NOT that "the voice" isn't hiding in the recesses of my mind...  DAMN that FLU
Allez
Ray

Jinxed by a blog post

About a week or so ago I read a blog post about someone who went to work out and shortly after getting back home was hit with the flu. I shuddered at the thought of how bogus that was for her. Little did I know...
So yesterday was a long ride with a friend/teammate, and I felt lousy from the start. I blamed it on the steak (out of the ordinary) meal from Saturday night at Gibsons. So off we go climbing etc for almost 4 hours. The whole time I was "off". I walk in the door as tired as anyone would be after a 4 hour ride im March and immediately was hit wth the flu. I have not eaten post ride, have no energy, and am screaming in discomfort. THIS SUCKS! The crazy thing is when I was REALLY struggling up the climbs etc, I was thinking my fitness level is not what I thought (not that I'm stellar by any stretch), and the longer the ride proceeded the more the self talk became, "you're out of your league, and should reconsider what your currently involved in..." So all I can say dare I say it is I'm glad it's the flu, and not the fact that training isn't working... CRAZY. It's been a very tough 24 hours so far.

DAMN training camp would be cooool - in San Luis Obispo at that!

I'm fortunate enough to be involved with a team this year, and with it comes the added responsibility and time dedicated to training, team meetings and everything else one gives up or does to ride competitively. Now when I heard about the team having training camps in mountainous regions of our great country, I instantly became jealous. It's events like that you only think about when it comes to the pro teams. To have it available to the team I'm on kicks A$$, but the cost and time to do it this year isn't part of my RAYality. I'ts nice to know that MAYBE next year I can further progress down the road to being a "EuroTrash Wannabe". Thank god the local weather for this weekend looks to be the nicest of the year so far. Temps hitting near 50 will probably mean that I will muster every hour and amount of energy to get in some mad mileage.
allez
Ray

s1gn of th3 times

The one thing I didn't like with the olympics were the snowboarder uniforms. Granted the look of the baggy jeaned flannel hoodie closely resembles "the younger generation and how it swings" (<-Van Halen Reference) I would think they would go the snowsuit look like all the other athletes did. I was equally as dissapointed when I seen ed hardy mickey mouse designs in a lot of shops on the hallowed disney grounds. Not knocking ed hardy, but disney used to be the mouse ,white gloves, yellow shoes, and the occasional wizard cap and riteous cape.... Didn't need the look of tag art all over. All this probably started when MTV was born. seriously.....

The paincave plague seens to be spreading

It's interesting, but I have heard and read a vast number of complaints (especially regarding attitude) from a lot of winter athletes. Let's face it, we've been stuck in garages and basements. Regardless of how interesting you make "the cave", riding a windtrainer, rollers, running on a treadmill, nordic trac etc, AND dealing with snow covered roads more than neccessary SUCK. At first it was a couple people, but it sure seems to be a timely issue recently. I'm not burned out yet though, not sure if it's because I've been able to mix it up enough to keep it interesting, or if it's because outside of a couple rare occurences, I've limited myself to 1 hour riding indoors and I refuse to use the treadmill. Granted, if it wasn't for being outdoors on the road a few times over the last couple weeks I might have a different attitude, all in all, I'm doin fine...
Allez
Ray