Beat Up

The heat is taking it's toll on me this week. That and the fact that recent rains have caused everything to grow profusely, is forcing a tough work week upon me. We've been working 10 hour days and I'm exhausted. Have had no energy to even think about riding my bike.  I sometimes envy the air-conditioned office trapped workforce. Of course my heat endurance is through the roof on days that I don't have to work. Unfortunately I'm too tired to take much advantage of it. 

Not sure what type of riding the weekend holds for me. I don't think the saturday road ride is in the cards. I don't know if I'll have what it takes to hang on after this week of work. I'd also like to ride the new bike somewhere. Still weighing all options.

New Baby, More Fun

I am continuing to try and put more "fun" into my riding. To help with this I put together a new bike.

It is a Rocky Mountain Slayer with six inches of travel. It weighs a scant 35 lbs.... Ok, maybe not scant, but not as heavy as some all mountain bikes with that much travel.  I plan to ride this a lot and hope the increase in weight will help to make me stronger. It has a "pro-pedal" feature which should help eliminate the typical bobbing you get with this much travel. All reviews that I've read say that if you have to pedal up to get to the downhill part, then this is the bike to have.  I'll let you know how it rides after this weekend. 

On another note, Congratulations to Kevin Hofmann (see his blog link listed on the side). He won first place overall at the Hammer Head 100. This feat is even more impressive because he did it on a single speed while competing against competitors with geared bikes. Kevin is a Machine! (and I'm proud to say my friend and trainer, and if you want an autographed picture I will be selling them for $10). If you have the chance to ride with him, take advantage of it, you might learn something.

Going Slow

Kevin says you have to learn to go slow if you want to go fast. With that knowledge, I rode slow this morning. I spent an hour on the bike before work just going slow. Let me tell you, it was actually enjoyable. I cruised around the neighborhood and just enjoyed the ride. I kept my heart rate below 124 bpm and just reaped the benefits. Ok, maybe not reaping just yet, but still working in the right direction. I'll say this though, it is definitely harder to ride slow when you are so used to pushing yourself to the limit. The nicest thing about it is that it is at a pace that the whole family can keep up with. I can incorporate some family time with my training rides.

On another note, I bought my long travel bike. A Rocky Mountain Slayer. I found it used and will post pictures once I have them.

Exciting News

Just found out this morning, we are going to Colorado july 23rd - july 29th. I can't wait. Now the pressure is on to find that long travel bike. 

First Week Of Training

I'm through with my first week of training for the 2009 race season. I rode 30 miles on monday, 36 on friday and 56 today. A total of 122 for the week is not a bad start. I also went to the gym one day as well as swam a half mile. This coming week will hopefully return me to bike commuting to and from work. I have a training outline from Kevin that I'm going to try and adhere to. 

And so it begins.