Since NE Championships and Looking Ahead...

Since I last blew myself up at the New England Cyclocross Championships in late December, I took some time off to get my legs back under me and recover from 51 races over 9ish months. Now late January, I have begun building base miles for upcoming 2012 season. There are a lot of projects and plans in the works this year.

With no collegiate season ahead, I have turned my focus to a few early races after a pre season venture to South Carolina for training.  In addition, I have teamed up with Bobby Bailey of 1K2GO Sports to build speed and gain my place on top step of the podium.

January thus far has been building as many base miles per week as unreasonably possible.  In other words, hours and hours on the bike.  Additionally to time spent on the two wheeled battled axe, I have managed to squeeze in some time skiing slalom at Cochrans for two evenings during each week.  The quick and twitchy movements from skiing slalom have managed to make their way in to my cycling.  Cadence has increased with proportional power increase.  Each slalom has had huge benefits to what will be climbing and sprinting muscles.  Come time for racing, I can only hope to hold on to, and build on the new found quick twitching muscles.

Looking ahead to the season, I have my eye on the podium for as many races as I can enter.  A large goal, and a tough one to meet.  Building off of last season, up seems like the right way to go.

On equipment; I have a new battle axe for... well, racing, riding and anything else you'd do with a bike.  Based off some awesome new designs, Flahute has released a brand new more aerodynamic sprinters bike.  Tubing shape has also changed, in addition to a new cut out which allows the stem to sit lower and shrink the effective steerer tube, creating a stiffer cockpit which reacts to all movements that make up that minuscule amount at the line.  Full specs on the new bike to be released in late February after on road testing has been completed.

New England Cyclocross Championships - Fitchburg, MA

Remounting and riding away after the barriers for now.

The latest and last race of my 2011 season was this past Sunday.  While many teammates traveled home for winter break, two UVMers made their way to compete at the New England Cyclocross Championships in Fitchburg, MA on a rather cold Sunday afternoon.

With temperatures not rising above 28 degrees, the course remained frozen for all but 2 or 3 laps of the Elite Men's race.  The track was long and flat, twisting and turning over athletic fields and around trees.  Two sets of barriers, a sandpit, and a flyover were laid into the track to test the best of the best.  Being so far into the season, I only made it through 2 1/2 laps before full system shut down and resulting in the first DNF of the Cyclocross season.

Aaaand BONK.

That said, leading up to the full system shut down, I cannot say things felt great.  In warm up, I was able to rip through on my bike, everything was comfortable and I felt powerful from the weeks preparation of both running and riding.  By the time the race came about later in the afternoon, I had lost the sensation of speed and comfort lingered back to the warmth of the van which I would estimate remained at about 50 degrees throughout the day.  A warm refuge after a massive debacle of a race.

Arc hard...

Closing out the season with a DNF is not my idea of finishing on a high note.  However, I think it is myself telling me (confused? good.) that it is time to take a break and let things recover before building for speed in the 2012 spring, summer and fall seasons.  I will be taking the next few weeks (until January 1, 2012) to rest and just futz about with whatever Tubular Adventures come my way.  Rest assured, skiing will most definitely be a good portion of said Tubular Adventures.

Until 2012,  Arc hard, ride fast and go plaid! 

Training Week...

  While I wasn't able to race, I was still able to ride a ton.  These are just the highlights.

Dusk training at the Whale's Tails.  Class is overrated anyways... right?

The past week was full of training of the suffering variety with UVM and 1K2GO.  The middle of the week took us to the Whales Tails in Shelburne, an iconic image of Vermont.  There, we built our own barriers out of PVC pipe and managed our own course to work on CX skills like sprinting from a still start, cornering, dismounts, remounts and eating mud.

Runups at dusk.
Not late for class yet...

As a reward for our suffering, we got extra muddy practicing our runups at the Whale's Tails themselves.  Click on the map to zoom in and see the "course."  It's the bottom right corner of the GPS map.  Before moving along to the remainder of the week, I'd like to thank Bobby Bailey for trying to make me late to class, and Jake Warshaw for helping me TT back to campus from the Whale's Tails in 10 minutes.

With snow looming over the weekend, race directors made the choice to cancel the Wicked Spooky Cyclocross Race to be held in Bennington, VT.  Of course, in Burlington, we got no snow and had sunny skys throughout the day.  The boys of UVM cycling ventured out to Catamount Family Center where we attempted to suffer and ride through the pain cave, straight on to the glory hole.

A fine looking crew of UVM CX'ers.  What's Ben looking at?

This was not an easy task, especially since three of the six riders are elite cyclocrossers, and the rest of us are well... out for a Sunday ride.  Nonetheless, we managed to verbally abuse each other just enough to motivate one another to spend a good portion of Sunday afternoon suffering.

Ghost ride the bike. "Alex, catch!  It's carbon"

More specific to the suffering, we spent a good amount of time working on barriers and riding a steep runup in the middle of the woods.  This involved riding over two logs on a decent incline.  In addition to the runnup riding, we practiced bunny hopping barriers.  Let's leave it at, I have no ups, just flips.

Overall, a great week of riding.

Arc hard, ride fast, go plaid!

Super Stealthy Ninja Training

Under the glow of Burlington's street lamps, in the dead of night...

I got the call to meet in a secret cyclocross training location in the middle of Burlington.  Asking no questions I threw on my trusty mix-matched kit and sped at high cadence to the scene.  Bobby Bailey, coach and founder of 1K2GO was waiting to lead me through some choice CX drills to improve both strength and skill.

As to not reveal any trade secret of the man himself (Bobby... not me), the night ended with some simple mounting and dismounting drills to help with the fluidity and comfort of getting on and off the bike and high speeds.  It is important to remember when dismounting to have a stabilizing hand on the top tube before your final foot touches the ground.  That way if the bike hits something after the dismount, you then have the ability to keep control of the bike.  It also decreases the chances of the chain bouncing off the rings and dropping.

Visit 1K2GO for more information on Bobby Bailey and his methods.

Monday Night Cyclocross Clinic & Wednesday Night Catamount 'Cross

Right to left: Bobby Bailey(1K2GO), Amy Miner(1K2GO), Josh Saxe(ORR)

Start together, suffer together
celebrate together.

Monday:  Bobby Bailey of 1K2GO lead riders in a brutal cyclocross clinic at Catamount Family Center with special help from Issac Howe (who even brought a hammer with the sole purpose of dropping it).  The specifics of said clinic are blurred together by dirt, mud and the potential of vomit.
The night began with a small minute sprint loop from a mass start.  With the sun setting, we rushed into the next set of intervals; a 5 minute interval which included barriers and stairs separated by technical switchbacks and fast descents.

Eying Ben before the sneaky sprint for the line.

The final interval was greatly an exercise in running, when we came to the "Stairway to Heaven", which was a long run up after a gradual hill and set of stairs, it was completely necessary to sprint up to the stairs and to the top...  here's the breakdown.  The interval hillclimb started riders 15 seconds apart and lead them from the grassy straight followed by a sharp right hand cranker back through the finish and into the climb.  Once into the climb, there were some brief straightaways into some simple switchbacks.  Once arriving at the stairs.  My account after the long ass stairs is as follows: with two riders in sight, I hucked my bike onto my shoulder and began the long haul to the horizon.  I pumped my legs to sprint in an attempt to catch the two riders ahead of me.  Gaining precious ground, I arrived at the top to be greeted by the other riders from the clinic.

Tailing a healing Amy Miner.  She's still wicked fast!

Wednesday Night: Cyclocross at the Catamount Family Center was an experience to be remembered.  About 30 riders approached the line.  Mountain bike and cyclocross bikes, pros and amateurs, juniors and seniors all riding within the same pack, sprinted off the line at 5:40 and began the 45 minute suffer fest on the newly extended course.  I managed to move up quickly and pass some UVM teammates along the way.  Leading the charge up many stairs and over barriers, my legs burned with the burning of 1,000 suns.  Heart pumping and lungs burning, I made my way through the course with the simple goal of survival.  As the race went on, my survival instincts began to drop and my speed increased.  Sadly, my back began to seize up and my speed significantly dropped.  I am not sure what was different from the weekend, but my best guess would be the slow uphill grinds and perpetual pumping on the spine did a number on my core.  Not wanting to give up, I managed to finish the race and even sprint strong for the line.

We're done... can I puke now?

After the race finished, a bon fire was made in the parking lot where beers were enjoyed, along with delicious sausage shaped foods.  I am not sure many other places have a community of riders who would come out on a Monday evening after work and classes to suffer like we did.  In this case, suffer is a relative and in general to be expected by cyclocross.  I am proud to have such a strong community of riders to suffer and enjoy these experiences with.

Back in Business and goin' strong!

After playing with new stretches and exercises off the bike, and finally getting a bike fit, I am back in business and going strong!

TRAINING AND GENERAL HEALTH

These past few weeks have been spent consulting with Steve and Hannah at Elevation Physical Therapy in Warren, VT.  They both helped my to begin the process of loosening my hip flexors which, as observed by Steve and Hannah as well as Sean at Ski Rack, are far too tight for my own good.

Before getting the bike fit, Specialized Body Geometry fit at Ski Rack, to be precise, I spent a lot of time doing stretches to loosen my hip flexor, strengthen my gluts, and separate my IT bands.  All in the effort to reduce stress on my right knee, which until this past week could not last more than 10 miles of easy efforts. The addition of simple stretches, as well as minute adjustments of the cleat, lead to my knee being 200% better than it was before.

While I am still working on loosening my legs in general, the additional help of the BG Fit from Sean at Ski Rack sealed the deal.  While I do not know how to fit, I had done my best by searching google and reading through almost every thing I could find on how to solve any problems I could find.  Alas, nothing beats having someone who is an expert had has the papers to prove it dial your bike fit in.  As demonstrated in the video, there was an amazing improvement of knee alignment.  Can you tell which is before and after?

Photo by Kenneth Saxe

The pack accelerates through the straights and corners
at the GMBC Practice Criterium in Essex, VT.

RACING
I finished 3rd in a local criterium in Essex, VT while racing in the A field.  After warming up with the B field and successfully testing my knee, I took to the road with the simple game plan of playing it safe and just keeping a good tempo through the entirety of the race as not to aggravate my knee.
The A race proceeded as expected, Bobby Bailey made a break in the pack, which held until the end, resulting with Bobby and Jake taking 1-2 and leaving the rest of us room to sprint for 3rd.  Feeling good, I wound up with 2 corners to go, taking the smooth line through the final corner I unleashed my sprint, finishing in what I thought was 10th, but turned out to be 3rd after a few checks with spectators and officials

Photo by Kenneth Saxe

Sprinting for the line out of what was apparently the
main field at the GMBC practice criterium.

Looking ahead...
I am planning to head down to Tokeneke Classic in East Hartland, CT next weekend.  After which I'll be heading to Vancouver, BC for my cousin Sarah's wedding... of course I'll be shredding some trails and riding some gaps while I'm there... I mean, wouldn't you?  When I return it's final preparations for the Green Mountain Stage Race....

Arc hard, ride fast, go plaid!

Just pictures

Some pictures from todays ride... tired... so that's all you get.  Pictures.  They're worth 1,000 words anyways, and with the number of miles added on, it's worth a billion rotations more.

Ritesville Dam from Horn of the Moon Rd

Jackson Hill as seen by my pedal

Elm Street as seen by my shoe.

5,958 vertical feet, 108 miles, 86 degrees, and 3 times up...

The Smugglers Triple, totaling 5,958 vertical feet over
105 miles of Vermont roads.

The plan for this weekend was to do as many miles as possible.  So far, that is exactly what I have done.  I took to the road today with the plan to at the very least ride the notch road (rt 108) twice, but the goal of riding multiple mountain roads.  With the sun beating down, I took route 15 all the way to Jeffersonville where I began the steady grind up the Smugglers Notch side of the mountain with plans to meet Andrew at the top.  I passed and met many other riders on the road who had ventured down to lovely Vermont from Canada, mostly Quebec where I was informed the riding was significantly flatter than the roads of Vermont.

The peak of the climb.

For those of you that have never been on the Notch Road, it is a beautiful trip.  The Smugglers Notch side is a steady grind up into the trees of Mt. Mainsfield.  Once in the trees, the road begins to switchback around the giant rock formations encasing both sides of the road.  The Stowe side of the Notch road is very similar, but a more gradual climb, with two walls of pavement towards the end.  The road also switchbacks around giant rock formations where hiking trails have been forged.  

The Smugglers side of the climb is small
compared to the mountains which
surround it.

I was strong enough to climb the notch three times, the last of which ended at a much slower pace than the previous two.  After the final climb up the Smugglers Notch side, we descended towards Stowe, but bypassed the village by going through Moscow and coming through Waterbury Center.  Once in Waterbury, we went separate ways.  I ventured back towards Burlington by way of Route 2 through Bolton and Richmond where I decided to take a quick spin up the first part of the Bolton access road.  After remembering I had already ridden the Notch road three times, I turned around and continued to Burlington where energy stayed high, and I stayed awake.

Overall, a good day for the legs, tan and fun.  I'm looking forward to tomorrows ride.  Hopefully the weather will hold out for all 70+ miles.

Arc hard, ride fast, go plaid!

Didn't race, Rode instead

This evening I was supposed to be heading to Exeter, NH for the 29th Annual Exeter Hospital Criterium, but because of late work release, and not enough time to get to the race and still be able to warm up, register, swap out wheels or even get dressed, I instead stayed in Montpelier and enjoyed a nice hilly ride just outside of the Montpelier town lines.

Lots of awesome climbs no further than 10 miles outside of Montpelier.

Starting in Montpelier, we ventured out past the golden dome of the state capitol building and headed up Terrace Street and continued out further towards Middlesex and some lovely dirt climbs.  We eventually ventured off of the Terrace Street/East Hill Street climb to Molly Supple Hill, which is an average of 10% grade and feels like forever.  After climbing briefly, a long descent lead us to route 12 where we headed towards Calais Rd and continued our climbing tour through Calais and East Montpelier.  We concluded our ride with the glory of a Maple Creemee from Morse Farm, a great place to end a ride, as well as an awesome place for mountain biking in the fall.
Even though I didn't get to make it to the race, I thought it was important to make use of the time that I had to ride and progress further in strength and skill.  There are no races this coming weekend, so I'm planning to do some long hours and heavy miles to prep for the coming race weekends.

Arc hard, ride fast, go plaid!

Breaking In

It's best to make faces
at the wind.

Saturday: The replacement crankset has arrived!  To break it in, I took a nice stroll from Montpelier to Lake Elmore, through "moose country", a total of about 42 miles and a max of 10% grade.  I made the stroll solo today, enjoying the slightly cooler weather along the way.  It was great to have a crankset that is... well.. whole, and not missing a large part of the spindle.  While the old crankset was ridable with the damage, the new one is much more stable and noticeably stiffer, especially during out of the saddle efforts.  I figure on being back to racing by July.  Since there are no races nearby that I can enter, next weekend will be spent doing long hours, just like this weekend.  I can figure on doing long hours tomorrow as well.

Start of the Elmore steeps

To briefly recap the week... previous to Saturday

Tuesday: I did plenty of hours this week, including a practice criterium in Essex Jct, where I finished in 7th.  The race itself was a blast!  I managed to sneak off some attacks in the saddle with my bum crankset.  Not being able to power out of the saddle or use my smallest and fastest two gears was a huge disadvantage.  With the replacement crank installed, I'm excited to say that the next event, practice or sanctioned will at the least have all 10 gears and be a hell of a lot faster.

Wednesday: Not that interesting... rode... few hours.  NEXT!

Thursday: I also was able to make it to the GMBC South Greenbush Time Trial after spending about 3 hours in the saddle prior to the TT on Thursday.  Ben and I ventured to the Time Trial.  Full in aero gear, minus the profile bars, I took to the sub 9 mile course straight on into the head wind.  After catching four people, and only being caught by one tank on two wheels, I'm pretty happy with my performance still considering the lack of lower two gears and ability to grind out of the saddle.  This coming week brings options for the Time Trials as well as race paced rides.

Friday: I spent the day mountain biking in Camp Johnson.  Not many miles, but lots of hard work climbing through the woods, over roots and GETTIN' MUDDY!  A good break from getting dirty on the wet rain soaked roads of this fair Green Mountain State.

Montpelier to Elmore is both challenging and fast.

Part of training is resting

Pond Rd leading towards Rt 116 from Dorset St.  One
of many roads taken in the past ten days.

The past 10 days have been spent dodging rain and not always successfully.  Today, although beautiful was spent resting and getting fresh for the days ahead.  While this entry is short and to the point, I'd like to stress the importance of resting, whether active or passive.

After spending multiple days in the saddle, doing rides both easy and hard the body needs a day which it can rest and recover.  The enjoyment of the saddle can sometimes be a curse, especially when the weather does not always cooperate.

Laundry day!

All in all, be sure to rest, no matter how nice it may be, it might be just as nice to just sit and enjoy the sun.  Rest days are also great days to do laundry.

In a quick gear update, I've been told a replacement set of cranks are on the way from FSA.  Racing will resume within the next two weeks.

Arc hard, ride fast, go plaid!

Catching Up

While racing has been postponed by health, and now componentry problems, training has still been fantastic, but in order to get back to racing I am in need of a BB30 Crankset with a 172.5mm arm length.  
Please let me know if you have one you'd like to offload.  I've got wheels and other components for trade as well.  Contact me for more information at SkiDemon55@gmail.com

After being sick for about two and a half weeks, my recovery and catch up is coming along steadily.  Once the school year ended, systems shut down and began the reboot process.  The past three weeks have been spent riding lots of hours on difficult routes and paths.  To catch y'all up to speed, here's an idea of what the weekly schedule has been like:

Sunday: Long hours 4+
Monday: 3hrs easy + Mtn Biking
Tuesday: 2.5hrs, hard and fast + 80 mile commute
Wednesday: 3hrs easy
Thursday: Time Trial + Mtn Biking
Friday: 3hrs easy
Saturday: Rest/Cross Training

While all of this sounds glorious, most riding has been very wet and miserable.  While I don't mind getting wet, it does get old having to clean my bike after every ride.

Recap of the past few days:
Thursday evening was marked with the New Haven Jct TT, a 13.something loop out beyond Bristol but before Middlebury.  I was joined by UVM strongmen Ben C and Jake W and the Wonder Woman herself, Shannon B.  We all took strong to the course in the evening sun, along with 16 other competitors including 1K2GO pointman Bobby Bailey.

With strong legs I managed to launch myself about 10 miles past the first turn.  Completely missing the course by said 10 miles, I used the time to continue working on my TT effort.  Looking at the map after the ride, I realized I had ridden out into Starksburo (past the Rt 17 turn to App Gap).  Whatever TT I had just ridden, I won... but only because I was the only one doing it.  Whoops.

Friday, now known as dirt day, was spent roaming the back roads of Chittenden County with 3 fellow UVM riders.  We spent the afternoon being led through the countryside by Tristan B who capped our ride off by leading us onto a goat road in the middle of no where.  I will honestly say, I have never had so much fun while being so terrified.  Perhaps this goat road will become a part of the future Tour De Vermont.  Flanders, eat your heart out.


Arc hard, ride fast, go plaid!

Bikeman and the Wall at Sterling - Sterling Road Race - Sterling, MA

This past weekend I unexpectedly entered the 17th Annual Sterling Road Race in Sterling, MA.  The race was 7 laps on an 8 mile loop going through rolling hills and finishing on what might as well have been a wall.

Having just finished racing the 8 week collegiate season, I was planning to take time off until the Lake Sunapee RR at the end of May.  However, having a race less than 4 hours away is rare, so I took the opportunity and traveled down interstates to Sterling, MA with Andrew who was entering the Pro/1/2 field.  After counting more vanity plates along the way, we arrived at the staging area and were greeted warmly by fellow Onions who had either just finished racing in the 4s field, or were planning to put the rubber to the road in the coming afternoon races.  I was lucky enough to be racing alongside my teammate Damian, who entered the blistering pace of the 3 field.

We began the race with a 1 mile neutral start from staging to the course, upon the arrival of the course, the pace increased to the speed of a hammer hitting a nail.  Under normal circumstances, the pace would let up slightly once the competition settled it.  In this case, the pace did not settle until there were two laps to go.  At this time, my back had already seized up and thus preventing me from putting any hard efforts in to keep with the pace of the race.  I was dropped like a rock, but rode out an additional lap before calling it a day.

After chatting with teammates and other riders, we came to the conclusion that my saddle was jammed too far forward and needed to be moved back a few centimeters.  I have since done so and my back feels considerably better.  To help fix the problem I will be doing a variety of core exercises which target the back region.  Additionally, my saddle has been moved back to easy pressure on the vertebre.

After the race, we enjoyed a scenic ride back along route 12 through MA and up into NH before hopping onto I91 and eventually I89.  From now until Sunapee I am planning to put in many more miles.  With school coming to a close, I will have more time for 5+ hour rides.

My next planned event is a practice crit which is run by the GMBC.  I entered these practice crits last year and they greatly improved my handling skills and abilities as a racer.  There will be four practice crits this summer, one per month.  I encourage racers of all levels to enter either the A, B or C race at least once time this summer.  They cost 5$ and there are 10$ temp licenses available.

Arc hard, ride fast, go plaid!

Bikeman Goes Eastern - Eastern Collegiate Road Championships at Penn State University

Bikeman and the League of Superhuman Bipedalists ventures to compete at Eastern Championships on the legendary Black Moshannon....

The race before the race at the
Frat Row Criterium, Penn State edition

Day 1 - Road Race - Black Moshannon
To start off blunt, this weekend was both disappointing and frustrating.  After eight consecutive weeks of racing, UVM finished up the season at Eastern Road Championships as hosted by Penn State University.  Our first day of racing was on the mighty Black Moshannon which presented a 20 mile loop for racers to complete.  While some racers did one lap, others did two, three and even four laps.  I however completed one lap after getting shelled off the back of peleton on the third climb.  Not wanting to waste myself chasing back on, I decided to pull out of the race and reserve my energy for the Criterium on Day 2.

Arcing hard, riding fast and closing out
the 2011 ECCC season in green and
gold.  Here's to 2012 racing!

Day 2 - Criterium - Frat Row
Having saved energy for Day 2, I thought I had played it fairly safe.  However in the Crit I was shelled off the back of the pack after a crash at corner one which forced me to come to a stop and almost crash myself.  Without thinking and having just avoided near death, I lept back into the race and attempted to chase back on.  At this point I am realizing I could have taken a free lap, in which I could have reported to the pit and explained there was crash that forced me to stop riding.  I was eventually pulled out of the race because I was getting lapped on the 1km loop.

Overall, the weekend was very disappointing for me.  I am using these poor results as motivation to improve and train harder to get faster.  I will be taking a 3 or 4 week hiatus from racing to specifically train and work specifically on my climbing base.  I found this to be my weakness while I was racing.  I am planning to post at least once a week, a training update for the past 6 days worth of riding or any other cross training.

Arc hard, ride fast, go plaid!

Fortress at Beech Mountain Day 4

The journey to Beech Mountain comes to a close as Bikeman ventures into the hills of North Carolina and begins his journey eastwards towards Vermont.


On the final day of riding at Beech Mountain, I felt well enough to venture to the outdoors for a short jaunt with some UVM teammates.  We made our way down Beech Mountain and headed towards Hickory Nut Gap.  We averaged an easy 14 mph up through the treelined switchbacking road.  After reaching the pinnacle, the group descending quickly, where we then split up, one group climbing back up Beech Mountain, and the other taking the support van back up.

Since I had been sick the past few days, I made the choice to take the support van back to the Fortress.  Making a quick and full recovery now is more important than packing in miles that would extend any given illness.

To any athlete who thinks it is more important to train than it is to recover from illness, think again.  Taking the time to recover from being sick will pay off more than pushing your body while you are sick.  Take the time to rest.  You'll thank yourself later.

Tomorrow we get back on the road and head back east, to NYC, where we will be racing a Criterium at Grant's Tomb.  Sunday will be a Road Race in NJ, after which we return to VT to resume classes.

Arc hard, ride fast, go plaid!

As Naked As A Naked Mole Rat Wearing A Bike Kit.

With naturally grown aerobladed carbon fiber hairs for winter warmth, Bikeman sheds his layers of hair in preparation to face the three stages of THE SCARLET SCURRY....

With less than 4 days until departure for the Scarlet Scurry, hosted at Rutgers University, the layers of hair which built up through the winter for warmth, magically fell off over the course of this past weekend.  While many were stunned and disgusted by the trail of hair left behind, I was simply cold.

Put simply, less hair does not equal going faster.  Not in my book anyways.  Less hair means less to manage and also a more comfortable (temperature wise) ride.  With less hair on my head, and bush on my legs, the average temperature of athlete will drop 34% (this message brought to you by UOJ (University of Josh) an unaccredited, not real University, specializing in not real published statistics).

There is also then the added bonus of understanding why crickets rub their legs together and make wonderful sounds.  BECAUSE IT FEELS AWESOME!

In other news, training this week is a lot less volume, and more intensity for the early parts of the week.  To prepare for the 3 races this coming weekend, I have opted to give myself additional recovery time between rides and a full day of rest on the Friday before the first stage.  While the Tank on Two Wheels will be taking the whole of spring break (next week) off from training, intensity of the decrease in volume has been taken up a notch to make up for time which will be lost to what I would imagine to be the 3 S's of vacation. Sun, Sand and Super awkward tan lines.  While my trainer partner, who is yet to actually come up with an alias (and will thus be called Tank on Two Wheels until further notice) is enjoying said 3 S's, I will be in North Carolina with UVM Cycling.

During our stay in NC, we will be making base on Beach Mountain where rides will start and end.  I'm excited to be able to get out on the road.  It's been too long in doors with too many days on the trainer going no where.

Stay tuned over the weekend for results.  Here's to keeping the rubber side, down.

Arc hard, ride fast, go plaid!

Training for Super Strength

It's a bird! It's a plane!  It's a snowplow?  Bikeman retreats to his Fortress of Solitude within the depths of his humble abode.  Little do the neighbors know what stews beneath the streets....

Snow covered roads outside the Fortress of Solitude

With Vermont currently under what seems like endless amounts of snow, outdoor training has seemingly been delayed by the white evil which has covered and inhibited safe transportation by way of the Vermont roadways.  To compensate for this evil, training has been taken into the dungeon... or basement as many would call it.

With just over three weeks remaining until the opening race weekend at Rutgers in NJ, I have decided to try a new method of training.  During this time I will be incorporating a variety of different training methods which emphasize the strength of the core and legs.

More specifically, six sets, twice a week of 2:30-minute intervals at 95 to 100 percent of max heart rate (the point at which you cannot speak), followed by recovery to 60 percent of max, or until you full sentences are able to be formulated and you no longer resemble a loony toon who's heart is nearly leaping out of it's chest.  


On days between interval workouts, general core sessions and recovery of bike specific muscles will be the emphasis of applied workout time.  Recovery will be consisting of 1 hour spinning rides which will still utilize riding muscles, but at a relaxed pace with only one interval of 4:00 minutes (starting at the 30:00 minute mark) at 80 percent of max heart rate.


I have found it is important to consider a balance of biking and school.  While both take a large amount of time to themselves, it is important to balance both while leaving time to relax and mentally recover.  The best found method for myself is time spent with friends during which time school is not the topic of conversation.  I have also found that riding with a friend makes the tedious and boring chore of sitting on a trainer for 2+ hours much more enjoyable.  


Is it schadenfreude, or just good company?

Arc hard, ride fast, go plaid.

Bikeman vs. The Snowstorm

A massive storm has wreaked havoc on the state of Vermont.  Cyclists everywhere are being forced to retreat to their dungeons and lairs for the day.  Those brave enough to step outside look like giant marshmallows amongst white cotton clouds galavanting down from the sky.

In all reality, minus the comic book nonsense, Vermont is currently getting hammered by a huge snowstorm.  My classes have been canceled and the plan for the day is a 2 hour trainer ride, followed by some secret snow fort layer building.

If you're one of the lucky ones who is experiencing warm weather and clear roads, I only envy the clear roads part...  you don't need warmth to bike, just a road to no where.

Arc hard, ride fast, go plaid.