Falling In Love All Over Again

It has been a while since I've been out on a good road ride. Somewhat due to winter weather, winter fattening up (or periodization depending on how you want to look at it), but mostly because I have not had a complete bike in a long time. I cracked my road frame a while back and Specialized quickly got on the ball to warrantying it and sending me a new frame set. The new bike is awesome by the way; stiffer and better looking than the SL2 and with a tapered headtube. Thanks for the hookup Specialized. Getting the new frame, I decided I should get some new components since I was still using the original from 2007. I decided to go with a Sram Red and Force mix. I've made the leap and am never looking back. This stuff is awesome! However, Sram is back-ordered on the brakeset and the cassettes so that put another kink in the mix. Thankfully, I have some good friends that have let me borrow those parts so I can get back out on the road.

Today was shaping up for the perfect day for a ride. It was my first true day off in over two weeks, the weather was in the mid 50's, light breeze, warm sunshine, and I just got my new Speedplay pedals to complete the bike and make it rideable again. After sleeping in for a while and then getting up and having coffee with my grandparents for a while, I was ready for my comeback ride (It's been since November that I can remember getting out and having a good road ride). The ride was AMAZING, pure and simple. I loved the new pedals and the way they felt while hammering down the road. The new PI tri fly III's performed awesome too. They were super stiff and very breathable, maybe too much on this windy, chilly day. The Tarmac Pro SL3 frame was very stiff and responsive underneath me. The new components are outstanding. Sram Red is the best thing I've ever ridden. It is quiet, quick, and precise. Right on every time. I could feel the upgraded performance over my old Shimanadango stuff. But the thing I was most impressed with was my performance. Now, I'm not trying to toot my own horn and claim that I could win Saturday morning world championships, but not having ridden for such a long time and not having done a continuous workout over an hour and a half in a few months, I was very happy with my performance. I went over 57 miles in under three hours. If it wasn't for my body's response I would think that I had never quit training after Ironman last August. My glutes and pelvic girdle knew I had not ridden my hard toupe saddle in a while and definitely let me know the whole ride. Towards the end of the ride, my calves were cramping and I could feel all my hip muscles working to keep my legs rotating around the pedals. Several times my legs screamed at me for pushing hard in the big ring or trying to sprint, but it was beautiful. I felt great. I felt alive again and remembered why I loved doing this so much: the physical aspects during the ride and what it does to your body over time, the scenery on deserted country roads, the traveling to different states and towns, the wildlife (I saw vultures eating a fox on the side of the road) and the feeling that you are doing it all on your own power and drive.

After the ride I had to lay down in the floor and recover for a bit. My legs were killing me; they obviously didn't appreciate the ride as much as I had....yet. After showering and some modified stretching (some muscles were cramping and preventing stretching of others), I had some chocolate milk and a whole can of cashews. Lounged out in the recliner, I was feeling pretty good, aside from all the pain you know. I was wondering how my swim, lift, and spinning was going to go tomorrow morning, but I'm starting to feel better now and think it will be a good challenge to hit it hard again for the third day in a row tomorrow.

All in all, I remembered why I love this sport and that I completely love my new bike and its setup. I'm looking forward to training on it this summer. Wish I could do some more racing on it, but I've already dedicated myself to racing Xterra's again. It was a great day and I'm looking forward to my swim practice in the morning and fresh set of squats.

Good Morning Memphis

I've gotten back into biking to work since the weather has been nicer. It feels good to ride again. I also got in a nice morning trail ride this morning. It was a great sight-seeing adventure. I saw five deer prancing through the woods, an owl gliding and then perching in a tree top, a chipmunk running and hiding in a rotten out log, and stand still traffic on Farm Road and Walnut Grove which I flew by. I also almost hit a goose and a squirrel too. Wouldn't have been too upset about either of them. I hate those geese around Patriot lake.

This made for a great start to my Friday morning. Now time to ride into work and then on with the wonderful weekend.

65 and Sunny

Today is a beautiful day. And no, not because it is Valentine's Day. Because it feels like spring time outside. It is 65 and sunny and all I want to do is go for a five hour bike ride. Having an incomplete road bike kind of puts a kink in that plan though....along with school and work and what not.

But this is the first real sign of spring. Even though we had a big snow storm last week, the weather is finally looking favorable. The warm sunshine on my back and the amber tint on the world from my sunglasses really makes me want to get back in shape and start training again. I missed my morning swim and weight training this morning due to heavy traffic and a bit of a late start. I thought I'd compensate with a longer spin on the bike by starting 25 minutes before class. Wrong. We only did some stupid heart rate testing and junk so even with my ambitious goal I still didn't even break an hour on the bike. Not being satisfied with that, I stayed after classes and went back to the gym for a great swim; it's starting to come back. It was nice being able to swim without having an imminent class I had to get to in a different change of clothes. I've already started seeing positive gains in the water and some fitness gains on the bike. I won't be able to really tell on the bike until I get out on the road and do some distance on my road bike. But like I said, that will have to wait until I get all my parts that are on back order. That is going to get harder and harder to do if this weather keeps going in this direction. I might break down and borrow a set of brakes from a loving co-worker and ask my boss if I can take a cassette from the store and replace it with my identical one I ordered once it gets here just so I can start riding. Then again I'm still waiting on pedals, but hopefully they will be in later this week.

At this point in the season I feel like I'm at a really good place. Even outside of this one season I feel like I'm at a great foundation for a fantastic season. Coming off the Ironman last year and a half the year before that, I have some long, built up fitness and training hours that should help me bounce back quickly physiologically. Even if it doesn't happen as quickly as I would like, one thing I know I will have is a greater mental strength. I no longer NEED to do six hour bike rides or 5000 meter swim sets. I don't have to go down to a nasty community lake and do 2 mile open water swims. I don't have to wake up at 4:30 am to start a four hour run in hopes of completing most of it before the heat and humidity picked up too much (Didn't work by the way). I have endurance and experience now that makes these shorter races seem like "sprints" for once, which they are supposed to be. I feel like I keep learning every day about training either from media sources or from those around me training for similar goals. This upcoming season is a great chance for me to really excel and maybe have my first overall win. Knowing that going into grad school this fall will probably be extra motivation. Being completely consumed with physical therapy school for the next three years and starting my career after that, I don't know when the next time will be that I will really get to focus on races and put some real valuable time into. This might be my last chance for a while. It might be my last time to suffer, to grow, and to endure for a few years. I'm going to have to make it count and make it last. I'm not fantastic at any one sport. I would get demolished at a swim meet. I would hang for a bit but probably end up watching heals at a cross country meet. And I might be able to hold my own on the bike. But when you put all three together, I have a chance. I have the ability and the power to succeed. I am a competitor. I could look at it as weaknesses in those areas because I couldn't race and win at these events individually, or I could and I do look at it as a positive that I can be decently good at three different things. "Decently good" enough to beat most of the people I have raced.

That is not to say I'm about to go and demolish my competition. I don't want to get ahead of myself. I have a lot of training and hard work to do but the suspension is loaded, I've got my water bottles full, and the weather is 65 and Sunny. 

The Day After

The snow ride was awesome, tons of fun, but it did come with damage. I decided to ride my bike to work on Thursday after all the snow because I figured I would have better control of my bike than my car, wasn't sure how the roads would be after the sun went down again, and wrecking a bike is a lot easier to fix than wrecking a car. It was cold, but not too bad. I think it was in the 20's but the physical exertion warms me up pretty well. Less than a mile into my commute, I took a 90 degree turn onto a different road. I took it really wide trying not to make my turning angle too great but as I was running out of road I hit a nice slick patch of ice and went down. After sliding to a stop, I checked myself out. Because the road was completely iced over I didn't do any damage. My tights were still in tack and I wasn't even in any real pain. So, I got up and continued on into work.

It wasn't until later in the day when I finally put my bike in the stand and started to check it out that I realized something was wrong. I had wondered if all the snow and ice would cause any lasting problems for the drive train or brakes. It seems okay. But then as I was shifting the derailleur cage started rubbing the spokes. Damn it. As I inspected the derailleur, I found out my hanger was totally trashed. No use in even trying to straighten it out. Thankfully though as I dug through the hanger bin in the shop I found a used hanger that matched mine exactly. Score! So I figured my problem was fixed. My drive train should be back to normal. However, once I got the new hanger in place and the rear derailleur back on it became obvious that the cage was still greatly bent. So now if I'm in the little ring in the front and back, the cage rubs against the bike frame and the body of the derailleur itself. This isn't a popular gear for me so hopefully I'll be okay. I think I might try taking the derailleur off and bending the cage back but I doubt my shifter will ever be back to X.9 level. It was still pretty sketchy on my evening commute home.

I felt proud commuting to work on a day with such adverse weather. Granted the day turned out to be nice and most of the snow melted, but in the morning it was still bad; all the roads except Germantown Parkway were still iced over. And it was still cold all day. I need to get back into commuting to work more often. It just requires a few extra minutes for dressing and packing in the morning. The trip is very similar in time whether I ride or drive. Being on a bike gives me more flexibility out on the road.

Here comes the weekend. Oh what adventures and tales it will bring.

Snow Riding......in Memphis?

Memphis does not usually get very much snow but this winter has been a big exception. I have never seen so much snow here in the midsouth. The iced over streets this morning remind me of my days in Colorado. So, given this rare opportunity we had to capitalize on it.

Yesterday the weatherman was predicting 4 to 6 inches of snow starting around noon. My hopes turned to school being canceled for the afternoon so I didn't have to go to any of my "real" classes. So like usual I got to campus around 7am to do my swim workout. I'm trying to ease back into it and get back in shape for the upcoming races this summer. After swimming I lifted weights and then went to cycling class. Once off the bike the anticipated email arrived on my phone. School was closing at 12:30. All I had left was karate class and then I was done for the day.

Heading home before the snow started, I stopped by Outdoors Inc on Germantown parkway to have my friend Matt McCulley fit me for ordering a tri bike. (We decided on the 56cm Cannondale Slice 3) By the time I left the shop the snow had started coming down and the bike shop employees had decided to do a group snow, night ride after work. Thankfully, Outdoors closed an hour early so we got to start our ride around 5:30. I road from my house to Andrea's figuring I would be safer going and coming home on a bike than in a car. I quickly realized this was the right decision. I flew past the traffic on Walnut Grove and got a few fist pumps from stand still drivers. By the time I got to Hope Church, about half way, I was already getting chain suck. I knew this was going to be a problem. I switched to the big ring in the front and an easy gear in the rear so a good bit of cross chaining. By the time I got to Andrea's my bike was completely iced over. My rear derailleur cage was a solid block of ice and I was forming some ice around my rear tire. When I would stop the slush would freeze up and lock my rear wheel. This was going to be fun. My mountain bike had picked up some aero qualities with a rear wheel cut-out now. I was also limited to essentially riding a single speed since all my cables and the drivetrain were completely frozen. Who needs gears though.  A little rewarming at Andrea's while I waited for Kenny to get  dressed was nice and then it was back out in the snow. Kenny, Andrea, and I started riding from Andrea's house towards shelby farms. Shredding through 6 inches of fresh powder over frozen packed trails was a new kind of riding. The good thing was that when we slid out and crashed we got to land in soft fluffy snow. Surprisingly we had pretty good traction on the roads even though they were pretty iced over. The trails were a little harder to ride since they hadn't been packed from cars driving over them. We were going faster than traffic on Walnut Grove and Germantown Parkway when we got there. After crossing over the Wolf River we rode back towards Germantown via the shoulder of Humpphreys until we got back to the Germantown Greenway which so graciously took our picture for us. From the Greenway, we made our way back to Parkway Liquors for a brief respite mid-ride. Starting back up again on Walnut Bend, Kenny started sliding out. Holding the slide for a bit, he eventually went down and slide on the road for at least 25 feet. Laughing and staring at the situation, I grabbed some brake and went down just the same. Sliding across the road on ice is a lot better than hitting it dry and leaving all your skin behind. Climbing the short hills on Walnut bend, we saw two men walking that we had previously seen on Germantown Parkway. Guess they had to abandon their cars and were walking home. All in all the snow ride was awesome. An epic time. A very fun ride that won't be forgotten. 

FIRST...

I've never had a blog before and honestly never thought anyone would ever care enough about my life to sit at the computer and read things that go on. However, as social media has progressed and I have actually started following and reading other people's blogs and twitters daily, I figured I should get in on some of the action. Maybe people will want to know what I do daily or what goes on in my life. I mean I think I'm interesting and have some cool stories to tell.

I recently scored an awesome job at a local bike shop called Outdoors Inc. It's been great for me. I've learned a lot more about bikes and being a mechanic. I thought I was decent before and could handle my own bike issues but now I really have confidence in my skills and will trust myself to work on my bike and others from now on. I learned how to build wheels and built my first set a few months back. It's pretty awesome to ride on a great wheelset knowing you built it by hand.

Working at Outdoors has given me other opportunities as well. Specialized recently warrantied my old tarmac frame for a new 2011 model. Awesome. Given such a sweet gift I decided to buy some new components and build up a whole new bike. Now I have the 2011 Tarmac Pro SL3 with a red grouppo. Now I'm in the market for a triathlon bike. Years past I've just done all my road tri's on my road bike. This becomes a big challenge and disadvantage when racing at the Ironman and Half Ironman level. I really want to see what I can do with an aero frame and fork. It should be interesting. Hopefully, I'll be able to place that order soon and get myself a new bike.

Other recent happens include a sponsorship deal with DLT Multisport Events. This is really going to help me out with racing this upcoming year. They are putting on many races in Arkansas from road tri's to mountain bike races. They also have a few races in Louisiana and a half ironman in Arkansas. Check them out at their website and sign up for some events. I'll be at 6 of them at least this upcoming summer.

The weatherman is predicting four to six inches of snow tomorrow but I think it will be later in the afternoon. I'm hoping it will wait long enough for me to get up and do my swim, lifting, and biking before they shut the schools down. If they do that then there will definitely be an afternoon snow/beer ride with Andrea Wilson from http://blog.brickhouseracing.com/. Check her out. She's got some awesome races coming up soon too.