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February 28, 2008
Sunday in Hell
While spinning today, I was watching a Sunday in Hell which is a documentary on Paris-Roubaix from the 70's when Merx was still rising. First, the music on this movie totally sucks. It has an operatic tune that is trying to add drama to the scenes on screen, but it just comes across as high-pitched noise. It is hard to concentrate on the trainer while having to hear that. Second, I realized that I can never complain again while riding or racing after watching the beating these guys take during the race. Watching the first section of cobbles had my stomach in knots. The dust kicked up by the cars and moto bikes is atrocious. Then add the wind (and sometimes rain) and the cobbles themselves and hell is truly created. Watching the faces of these men while they traverse the cobbles, which is also the place where these guys start attacking pushing up the pace in general, just amazes me. Then you look at their arms and you can see the shock their bodies are taking as the bop, rise, and drop over each cobble, and my own arms start to hurt.
So this morning, when my alarm went off at 5:50 AM and I headed down for my 1/2 hour easy spin as a recovery to yesterday's interval session, I was complaining because my legs felt like crap and my mental motivation was 100% gone. About 1/2 through my short session while watching these men fling themselves across the cobbles and knowing that all but a select few were there to just suffer with no glory, I stopped complaining. Yeah I was tired and my head was not in it, but I muscled through an easy session and felt better for it at the end.
Posted by kermisch at 9:16 AM
February 24, 2008
338 Miles
So far I have clocked 338 miles on the bike this month. My goal is 500 for the month of February, but I am going to fall short. I should hit that by the end of the weekend, but that will put me into the first days of March. This past weekend I logged 76 miles outside on the cross-bike. It is nice to be on the roads again vs. fighting snowy and muddy trails. I have ridden all but 2 days so far in Feb. and am feeling some fitness come back around. I can see the power on the powertap getting more steady and can feel my recovery going well in between sessions. Today I got out with Delaney and it was great to ride with someone else and push myself a bit harder than usual. I feel like I am progressing well for the Loon State training camp and feel good about the fitness going into the early racing season. I need to start to plan my training for March where I plan to increase intensity sessions.
Posted by kermisch at 10:21 PM
February 10, 2008
Training on Track
110 miles this week... Most of it on the trainer. I have started riding every day now. I am up at 5:50 AM and on the trainer by six four days a week. I just ride for 30 minutes alternating between temp work and ez recovery rides. On Wed. I was on the trainer by 5:30 and muscled my way through a Spinerval video to get some interval work in. Saturday the weather cooperated and I headed out for a 1:40 ride on the roads. The temps were in the 20's and I headed from the house to Gear West. GW does a morning spin class on Saturday's so I knew I could step into the shop to warm up before the ride home. It was good to see some others suffering on their trainers as well. It gave me enough inspiration to get home.
I had just installed a new computer on the cyclo-cross bike only to find out I could have bought a sensor and extra mount kit for the Power Tap and could have used that instead. I still may purchase the extra parts to enable the Power Tap to work without the hub, this way I can get some data back during races where I use my race wheels.
Anyway, with the temps pushing -40 degrees with the wind chill today, I am off to the trainer to finish watching 13 Days and click off another hour or so on the bike.
Posted by kermisch at 8:06 AM