Boring day

Not much to say today.  The usual stuff.  I considered not even posting anything today, but it's the last day of March, so I wanted to posted a weight-loss chart for the whole month.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch:  Cheese steak.  Oops.
• Dinner:  Chicken piccata.

Exercise:

• Commute to work
• 45 minute run on the elliptical.  5.2 miles

Today's weigh-in:  180.6
Here's my usual two-week chart, plus my chart for the whole month of March:

Recovery day

I planned to go for a ride this morning, but my legs were pretty tired.  And I had some plans for the afternoon, so I needed to take care of things like grocery shopping and laundry.  So, I ended up relaxing a bit this morning.

We managed to get some free tickets for the whole family to go see the Harlem Globetrotters downtown today, so that took up most of the afternoon.  Once we got home, I managed to squeeze in a run before dinner.  After a filling dinner at Old Chicago, and dessert at Yogurt Yum, I came home and cranked out a strength workout with Strendurance Workout E.  I was really looking forward to this one, because I missed one of my planned strength workouts last week.

The family, doing a little YMCA at the Harlem Globetrotters.

I plan to get in some good rides to work this week, and maybe some lunchtime rides.  My race next weekend isn't until Sunday, so I should be able to ride most of the week, and still get in a good rest day on Saturday before the Sunday race.  More info about the race later in the week.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch:  Salad with chicken
• Dinner:  Big, bad dinner.  Calzone at Old Chicago
• Dessert:  Froyo

Exercise:

• 4.4 mile run
• Strendurance Workout E

Today's weigh-in:  183.6

CSU Cobb Lake Road Race (update)

Today was race day.  This was a 40-milr road race, just north of Fort Collins.  5 laps of a 7+ miles circuit.  I didn't have real high hopes for it.  It was a 4/5 combined race, which meant I was going to be racing against people with more experience than me, possible a lot more experience.  And the field was maxed out at 75 racers, so it was going to be a big group.

I started the day with my usual smoothie, and pretty much rested all morning.  After riding to work most of the week, my legs were pretty tired, so I wanted to take it easy as much as possible.  My race wasn't until 4pm, so I was going to have plenty of time to relax.

Around noon, I whipped up a tossed salad with some chicken.  I picked up a package of "power greens" from the store today, and gave that a try.  I usually just do some iceberg mixed with spinach, but today I mixed some premade lettuce mix with some "power greens".  This consisted of spinach, kale, chard and something I'd never heard of before.  And I don't feel like walking to the fridge to check it out.  Pretty tasty, though.

After lunch, I started gathering all my stuff together.  I've put together a race-day checklist to make sure I don't forget anything.  Everything packed up and in the car, and off I go.

It's about an hour drive to the race.  I got there plenty early, so I had some time to get ready without rushing around, which was nice.  I was able to chat with some of my teammates for a bit while we were all getting warmed up, and then rode the one mile over to the start line.  Once we got there, it was a little bit crazy.  Like I said, they had filled the 75-rider field, and then some, apparently.  I'm not sure how many racers they had in the 4/5 group, but there were a lot.  There were so many, they actually ended up splitting it into two different races.  Now, you would think they would have just split it into a 4 race and a 5 race, but I guess there wasn't an easy way to do that at this point in the day.  So instead, they just picked a bib number in the middle of the field.  People lower than that number were in the first race, and people higher than that number were in the second race.  I ended up in the first race, and the second race started three minutes later.

I was a little worried that the race would explode from the gun, but was happy to see the group really stick together.  It took a little while for everyone to get comfortable in the group, and there was a little bit of squirrelly riding going on, but it calmed down after a few miles.  We had some good speed going, and the pack generally worked together fairly well.  I was just happy that I was able to stay with everyone.  The end of each lap included a mile of dirt, followed by a decent climb to the start/finish line.  That tended to break up the group a bit, but everyone seemed to come back together again at the beginning of the lap.

We had a really good pace going, and while I think we dropped people along the way, I was able to just hang on to the back of the main field.  I occasionally moved up a bit to check on my Cat 4 teammates, but eventually they moved up and I ended up at the back again.  When I would start to straggle a bit, I had to push it a bit to drag myself back into the group.  But after 4 laps, I still managed to be hanging onto the back of the main field and knew I'd be able to finish with the group as long as nothing crazy happened.  And nothing really crazy happened.  I expected some big attacks off the front, but it sounds like everyone must have been as cooked as me, because nothing big happened.  I think we sped up a bit, and everyone started going pretty hard once we hit the dirt, but for the most part, everyone was able to stay with the field.  We made the turn onto the final climb, and everyone decided to go for broke.  I pushed it as hard as I could, but kind of blew up a couple hundred yards from the finish.  After blowing past a bunch of people on the start of the climb, my legs just gave out and I struggled to get to the line.

With the race over, I found my teammates to see how they finished.  Official results haven't been posted yet, but it sounds like we had one guy in the top-10, and the other guy finished a few spots later.  We then stuck around a little longer to see the second heat of the 4/5 race finish.  Then back to the cars to get ready to head home.  Unfortunately, while I was riding the 1-mile dirt road back to my car, I got a pinch-flat on my rear tire.  It was going to be a long walk back to my far, but a couple CSU guys came along and gave me a lift.  Back to the car, change clothes, grab a chocolate milk, and realize that results aren't posted yet.  Then, the one-hour drive home.  I stopped for some Qdoba along the way, then home to relax and write this blog post.

Hopefully, by tomorrow, I'll have some results and photos to share.  For now, it's time to post this thing and go to bed.

UPDATE:  I checked for results online one more time before going to bed, and they had been posted.  In my race, we had 12th and 14th place out of a field of 55 racers.  I ended up 25th, so pretty much right in the middle.  I'm fairly happy with that.  I have some work to do, but I learned a lot, and am feeling more comfortable with the dynamics of pack racing.  And looking at the results, there were only two Cat 5 racers ahead of me.  Everyone else in front of me was a Cat 4.  That gives me a little hope for some of the upcoming races the break out Cat 5 into a separate race.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch:  Salad with chicken
• Dinner:  Steak tacos at Qdoba

Exercise:

• CSU Cobb Lake Road Race.  40 miles.

Today's weigh-in:  181.8

Tired legs

I've ridden my bike to work 4 days in a row.  Normally, this wouldn't be a big deal.  It's actually kind of nice because 1) I don't have to worry about parking at the office, and 2) it keeps me off the trainer at home.  On top of my daily bike commutes, I've run a couple times this week, too.  But there is one problem:  My legs are really tired.  This week has been a bit windy, so my easy commutes were sometimes pretty difficult struggles against the wind.

Again, normally not a big deal, but this year I have to deal with a race schedule.  This weekend I have a Saturday race to get ready for.  Fortunately, it's not until about 4pm, so I have a good long rest before my race.  I was just looking at the current field of racer on the USAC web site, and it looks like we have a large field of really good  racers, so it's going to be pretty interesting.  The race will be a Cat 4/5 field, so I don't have very high expectations going in.  If I'm anywhere near the front, I assume I'll be working for one of the team's Cat 4 guys that will be out there.  At this point, it looks like we will be fielding a team of 4, consisting of me and three Cat 4 racers.  I'm just hoping I can hang in there with the group and don't embarrass myself.

So, I guess I'm going to try to take it a little easy on my ride home tonight, and won't be doing any kind of running at my daughter's soccer practice.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch:  Chicken Caesar salad
• Dinner:  Big-ass burger at Smashburger.  Went to dinner with my daughter after her soccer practice.  Her choice.  They have salads, but I had one once, and it was awful.

Exercise:

• Commute

Today's weigh-in:  182.2 

Yet another commute

Another day with not much to say.  I rode my bike to work today.  Got a couple PRs, too, which was weird.  I must have had a tailwind or something.  I've ridden some of those segments well over 60 times, and PRs are few and far between.  One more commute tomorrow, and then it's race time.  I have a road race up in Fort Collins on Saturday afternoon.  More on that later.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch:  Steak tacos from Qdoba
• Dinner:  Bacon-wrapped chicken and some broccoli

Exercise:

• Commute
• 45 minutes on the elliptical

Today's weigh-in:  181.4

3/26

Boring day.  Just a commute to work.  But at least it was outside instead of inside on the trainer.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch:  Protein bar at my desk.
• Dinner:  Italian sausage with peppers and onions

Exercise:

• Commute - 27 miles round/trip

Today's weigh-in:  182.0

Commuting again

Not much to say today.  Mom-in-law is in town and using my car, so I am riding to work this week.  This means I don't have to get on the trainer at night, which is nice.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch:  I was starving, so I got a cheese steak.  Oh well.  I hope my bike ride makes up for it.
• Dinner:  Couple pieces of pizza.

Exercise:

• Commute
• 5 mile run during my daughter's soccer practice.

Today's weigh-in:  182.0

Kind of a recovery day

Not much to say today.  Recovering a bit from this weekend's rides.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch:  Protein bar at my desk.
• Dinner:  Salad with chicken.

Exercise:

• Strendurance Workout E
• 30-minute walk at lunch.
• 45 minutes on the elliptical.  5.2 miles.

Today's weigh-in:  184.4.  Weird.

Miles and hills

I wasn't racing today, so I thought I'd find some time to just get in some outdoor miles.  The weather was significantly better than yesterday, so it was a good day for it.  That reminds me, here is a shot of the type of weather I had to deal with yesterday:

A truly shitty day.  I think the dude on the front is wearing ski goggles.  I'm waiting to see if the photographer actually has pictures of me, but I'm pretty sure he skipped out before my race started.  Photo courtesy of Dejan Smaic of Sportif Images.

I started the day by giving the bike a good cleaning.  After yesterday, the bike was a mess.  So, once the weather warmed up and the sun came out late this morning, I cleaned it up as best I could.  After some lunch, it was time for a ride.

The local cycle racing organization, BRAC (Bicycle Racing Association of Colorado) just published the official race flyer for the Superior Morgul races in May, and I thought I would check out the road race course.  It is going to consist of a couple laps of hill-climbing.  I've done most of the course before, in pieces, but never the entire course at once.  This seemed like a good opportunity to run a full lap of the course, and just get some decent elevation gain in my legs.  So, I rode from home, did the course, did another lap of just the main climb, then took the long way home.  Made for a really nice ride.  I had a lot of headwind to deal with, so that just made it even tougher.  All in all, a good workout.  I'd like to do this route a few more times before the race in May.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch:  Salad with chicken
• Dinner:  Didn't really have anything in the house, so we ordered wings.

Exercise:

• 60 mile ride.  3,500 feet of climbing

Today's weigh-in:  182.8
 

CU Candela's Circuit Race

Well, that sucked.  Today was the University of Colorado Candela's Circuit Race.  This is a 4-lap hill-climb event out in Arvada.  It seemed like a pretty reasonable event, and I was looking forward to it.  But I didn't count on the weather.

This morning, my 7-year-old son had his first football game.  It was an enjoyable 3 hours in 25-degree temperatures and some wind.  Oh wait... it wasn't enjoyable at all.  Actually, it was pretty miserable.  All the kids were crying.  I think some of the parents were, too.

After coming back from football, I had some lunch, then started pulling all my stuff together for the race.  Shortly after, it started snowing.  And it really never got any warmer.

I drove to the race, picked up my number, and started getting ready.  And the weather kept getting worse.  It kind of varied between snow, sleet and freezing rain, along with some wind.  I spent most of my prep time in the car instead of warming up.  I just didn't want to sit on the trainer in that kind of weather.  Instead, I eventually just hopped on the bike and started riding around a bit.  And I'm glad I did, because that was when I noticed that my wheel was iced over.  I knocked some of the ice off, but ended up having to chip the rest off with a tire lever.

I made my way to the starting line, and off we went.  I felt pretty good on the first climb, but then ran into some trouble.  As we got to the top of the climb, we did a u-turn and headed back down.  At that point, I should have switched over to my big front chainring, so I could push it hard downhill.  But when I looked down, my chainring was covered in ice.  If I tried to shift, I would have thrown my chain, which would be really annoying, especially in a race.  So I was stuck in my small chainring.  And that means I couldn't spin the pedals fast enough to do anything.  The only thing I could do was get as aero as possible and coast downhill.

And when I got to the bottom, and needed to start pedaling again, I realized that most of my rear cogs were also iced over, except the one cog I was currently using.  So I was basically stuck in the gear I was currently in, for the rest of the race.  Fortunately, this was a decent climbing gear, so once we started climbing again, I did ok.

And that's how the whole race went.  I climbed fine, keeping up with some people, catching and passing others.  But once I got to the top, I had to coast downhill again, and those people just passed me again.

Here's what my bike looked like at the end of the race:

And here's what I looked like at the finish:

I have no idea why I'm smiling.  I might be delirious.

I ended up getting 22nd out of 28 riders.  Not a very good result, but the best I could manage with my bike troubles.  I'm looking forward to some nicer weather tomorrow, and hope to get out for a nice ride.  No racing tomorrow, so it's kind of a day off.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch:  Salad with chicken
• Dinner:  After race burger and beer at Rock Bottom Brewery.

Exercise:

• CU Candela's Circuit Race

Today's weigh-in:  183.8
 

Ready for a race weekend

If the weather holds out, I will be racing tomorrow.  This weekend's race is part of the University of Colorado race weekend.  Tomorrow is a hill-climb circuit race.  It's pretty short, overall.  Each lap is 3.4 miles, with 640 feet of elevation gain, and the Cat 5 race is 4 laps.  Actually, I should say this is actually a Cat 4/5 race, which will be interesting.  So, I'm not just racing against fellow Cat 5s this time.  I don't have very high expectations for this race.  But it will be a good workout, and hopefully another finish to count toward my upgrade to Cat 4.

I didn't want to work out much today, to keep the legs ready for tomorrow.  So, I didn't have to wake up super-early, which was nice.  I got in about a 1/2-hour walk at lunch, but offset that by eating lunch at Qdoba.  My daughter had soccer tonight, and my son came with us.  I convinced him to bring his bike, and he rode along with me as I ran laps around the field.  It was pretty cold, so we weren't out there very long.  The practice was 90 minutes, but my son got really cold, so we eventually had to head back to the car to warm up and wait for practice to be over.  My fault for not bringing gloves for everyone.  Oops.

Hopefully, my run won't hurt my legs too much before tomorrow's race.  The race is at 3:15pm, so I have plenty of time to give them a rest.  If I had a 9am race or something, it might be a different story.  Come back tomorrow to find out how I did.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie.
• Lunch:  Steak tacos at Qdoba.
• Dinner:  We decided to go out.  The kids wanted Firehouse Subs.  I really didn't want a sub, so I got a salad.  It sucked.  I wish I had just gotten a sub.

Exercise:

• 30 minute walk at lunch.
• 45 minute run during soccer practice.  4.2 miles.

Today's weigh-in:  185.4.  What the hell?

Recovery day

Nothing to say today.  Getting ready for race weekend.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch:  I've been doing pretty good lately, so I think I deserved a cheesesteak.
• Dinner:  Steak salad from Chipotle.

Exercise:

• Strendurance Workout E
• 30 minute walk at lunch.  Took the long way to the cheese steak place.
• 30 minutes recovery ride on the bike.

Today's weigh-in:  183.6.  Oh well.  Expected.

Into The Pain Cave

I've spend a number of hard days in a row on the bike.  Not sure if that's a good idea or not.  Saturday and Sunday were both hard races.  Monday, I opted for an aerobic base workout instead of a true recovery workout.  OK, that wasn't a real hard day.  But it could have been easier.  Yesterday, I was probably still due for a recovery workout or aerobic base, but I opted for a hill-climb workout.  And today, I did yet another hard workout, Spinervals 33.0 - The Pain Cave.  I really want to focus my hard workouts in the middle of the week, so I can rest a little before weekend races.  If I hadn't done a hard workout today, I would have regretted it.

Time to enter The Pain Cave

This weekend really let me know where I stand among the other races in my category.  Basically, right in the middle.  And I don't think that's good enough.  I need to make sure my hard workouts are real hard.  I really need to work on everything:  raising my power output, raising my anaerobic threshold, and losing more weight.  I have some racing technique and strategy to work on, too, but that will have to come on the road.  I can't work on that on a trainer at home, so I need to focus on everything else.

Power and heart rate will come with choosing the right workouts.  I am going to start putting a little more thought into which workouts I do, and when.  And I need to get in some more time on the road on the weekends, particularly on those days when I'm not racing.

As for weight loss, I've had a pretty good couple weeks.  But I have a long way to go.  I started the year at a little over 190 lbs, and I'm now getting close to 180 lbs.  That's pretty good, and I'm happy, but I have so far to go.  My official goal is to hit 165 lbs, but truthfully, I would love to lose even more than that.  But for now, I'll stick to saying that my goal is 165.  If I actually get there, I can think about setting new goals.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch:  Protein bar at my desk.  Boring.  Unfortunately, I got stuck finishing up some work, and needed to be here ready for a 1:00 meeting.  Damn.
• Dinner:  Another salad with chicken.

Exercise:

• 45 minutes on the elliptical.  4.6 miles.
• Spinervals 33.0 - The Pain Cave

Today's weigh-in:  181.8

Indoor hill-climb workout

Decided to switch up my workout a bit today.  I've been doing mostly aerobic-base, high-intensity, and recovery workouts lately.  After this past weekend's Lookout Mountain hill-climb, I realized I needed to get in some more hill work, too.  So, instead of my planned aerobic-base workout, I upped the intensity and did Spinervals 41.0 - Ascending Mountains in Leadville, Colorado.  I haven't done this one for a few months, but I really need to do it more often.  It's a good one.

Climbing some mountains with Spinervals 41.0

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch:  Free lunch at work.  Tiny sandwich.
• Dinner:  Salad with chicken

Exercise:

• 42 minutes on the elliptical.  4.3 miles.
• Spinervals 41.0 - Ascending Mountains in Leadville, Colorado

Today's weigh-in:  181.8.

Strendurance Workout E

Today I decided to step up to Strendurance Workout E, the next step in this progression.  I'll be doing this workout probably twice a week for the next two or three weeks.  Here's the rundown:

Warm-up:

• Flix - 30 seconds
• Squats - 30 seconds
• Jumping jacks - 30 seconds
• 12 squat thrusts

Set 1 (x3)

• 30 seconds of push-ups
• 30 seconds of dumbbell rows
• 30 seconds of mountain climbers

Set 2 (x3)

• 30 seconds of squats
• 3 plyometric jumps
• 30 seconds of overhead shoulder presses
• 30 seconds of high-knee running

Set 3 (x3)

• 30 seconds of v-sits (kind of a sit-up type of thing)
• 30 seconds of back hyperextensions on the stability ball
• 30 seconds of crunches on the stability ball
• 30 seconds of plank

Set 4

• 12 squat thrusts
• 12 push-ups
• 12 squats
• 3 plyometric jumps
• 30 seconds of jumping jacks

Every workout in the Strendurance progression gets a little harder, either by doing more reps, or adding more weight to the rep.  I was wondering how they were going to keep increasing the intensity of the workout while staying around the usual 30-minute workout length.  Easy answer:  they didn't.  This workout ended up being a little more than 35 minutes.

One thing I like about these Strendurance workouts is how they give you a hard strength-building workout while still keeping the heart pumping hard.  Quickly switching from move-to-move certainly helps, but throwing in the jumping jacks, high-knees and plyo jumps certainly helps.

Oh, and I got my results from this weekend's crit, and I was right;  I ended up in 15th, out of 25.


Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch: Protein bar at my desk.  Boo!
• Dinner:  Couple pieces of pizza.

Exercise:

• Strendurance Workout E
• Spinervals 28.0 - Aero Base Builder VI

Today's weigh-in:  182.4

Oredigger Classic - Criterium

Today was my first-ever criterium, and it was a doozy.  This was the Colorado School of Mines Oredigger Classic Criterium.  It was a 30 minute race, with as many 1-mile laps we could do in those 30 minutes.  That doesn't sound all that difficult, but each lap had a 100-foot climb.  So, instead of a typical dead-flat crit, there was a lot of climbing involved.  In fact, this crit had almost as much climbing as yesterday's climb up Lookout Mountain.

I got to Golden really early.  Too early, in fact.  They weren't handing out race numbers when I got there, so I walked around a bit, and hung out by my car.  Once the other guy showed up, I headed over to the start line and picked up my race number.  Then I came back to the car and started getting ready.

After all the collegiate races this morning, it was time for the USAC races.  Cat 5 Men were going first.  I got to the line early to get a spot up front, for what it's worth.  After chatting with a couple of the riders, it was time to go.

At the line.

On the signal, we took off.  It was a pretty flat start, which was nice.  The first turn went smoothly, but the second turn was a little sketchy.  Someone cut into my line a bit, and we ended up rubbing wheels a bit.  Fortunately, I managed to keep the bike upright and continue normally.  The road turned steeply downhill, with a couple sharp turns, before taking a right turn and heading back uphill to the start line.  The hill wasn't too bad on the first lap, but every time around, it just started getting worse.

For a while, I was hanging close to the back of the front field, but eventually, I just couldn't keep up.  I slowly started dropping back.  In the end, I didn't do terrible, but didn't make the top 10 either.  But I had a good time, even though it really, really hurt.  I'm looking forward to my next crit.  I'm just hoping it's a little flatter. 

My wife was taking some pictures during my race.

I took some shots during the Cat 3/4 race after mine.  Here's a Zilla racer.

Photos:
You can see even more photos HERE.  My wife was taking pictures while I was racing, then I grabbed the camera and took some shots of the next race.

Results:
Lookout Mountain Hill Climb - The results from yesterday's hill climb were posted when I got up this morning.  I ended up in 22nd out of 44 racers.  I would have preferred to do better, but it was my personal best time on that climb, by quite a bit, so I'm satisfied.  I need to make some improvements, so I have some goals to work out.

Criterium - Results haven't been posted yet.  But I think I ended up in about 15th out of about 22 or something.  I'll post more info tomorrow.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch:  PB&J on a bagel, during my warmup.  Race was at 1:30, so I needed to eat something while I was getting ready.
• Dinner:  Hamburger, but wrapped in lettuce instead of a bun.

Exercise:

• Oredigger Classic Criterium:  30 minutes of hell
• 45 minutes on the elliptical this evening.  5.1 miles

Today's weigh-in:  183.2

2014 Oredigger Classic - Lookout Mountain Hill Climb - Time Trial

The beginning of the race season typically opens with the various Colorado university events.  Last week was supposed to be the University of Denver Criterium, but it was canceled due to weather.  This weekend consisted of the Colorado School of Mines events, the Oredigger Classic.  It consists of tow races:  a time trial up Lookout Mountain, followed by a criterium on the School of Mines campus.  Today was the hill climb.

The standard Lookout Mountain course is known as "pillars to post", which starts at the large pillars at Beverly Heights Park in Golden, and rises 4.6 miles and over 1,200 feet to the finish line at the sign ("post") for Buffalo's Bill's grave at the top.

The Pillars, the start line for today's time trial.

When I arrived at the race this morning, it was cold and windy.  Around 40 degrees, and gusty winds at around 20 mph.  After getting myself signed in and picking up my number, I went back and sat in the car for a bit to keep warm.  I got myself changed, and got all my stuff together, then got out and hopped on the trainer for a bit.  With the cold temps, I definitely wanted to get the legs warmed up.  I probably rode the trainer for about 30-40 minutes at a pretty high cadence.  During the warmup, I also munched on a Clif Bar and a banana.  Once it was time to go, I packed everything back up, hit the head one more time, and made my way to the start line with a few minutes to spare.

I'm not going to recount the entire ride.  That would be pretty boring.  It's 4.6 miles, all uphill.  It was cold.  The wind sucked.  I passed a few people, and a few people passed me.  So, I know I didn't come in first, and I didn't come in last.

A cold day on Lookout Mountain.

I managed to get in a good sprint at the top, turned around, and took a leisurely ride back down.  Although the ride up was tough, the ride down was the real killer.  It was just really damn cold.  And because I was just coasting downhill and not working, I wasn't generating any heat.  It was just bitter, bitter cold.  I got to the bottom, rode straight to my car, and sat there warming up for a bit with the heat blasting.  I got changed, then went over to see the results.  I was disappointed to see a sign saying "Results will be available online".  So, no reason to stick around.  I got back in the car and drove home.

Now, I'm getting ready for tomorrow's crit.  My start time is at 1:30pm, which means I get to sleep in!

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch:  Steak salad from Chipotle
• Dinner:  I raced today, so maybe I deserve a break.  Big-ass burger from CB & Potts.

Exercise:

• Oredigger Classic - Lookout Mountain Hill Climb
• 45 minutes on the elliptical.  5.0 miles.

Today's weigh-in:  185.2
 

Recovery Day

After last night's sprint workout, I needed to loosen up the leg muscles a bit.  I didn't want to take a day off, just spin everything nice and easy.  Hopped on the trainer after dinner for a little 45-minute spin while watching an episode of Burn Notice on Netflix.  Then hopped off the bike, changed shoes, and got on the elliptical for another 45 minutes, and another episode of Burn Notice.

Tomorrow will be a day off, and then comes a big weekend of two different races.  Looking forward to it.  Check back to see how I did!

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch:  Cheesesteak.  Bad idea.
• Dinner:  Salad with chicken again

Exercise:

• 45 minute recovery spin on the bike, followed by . . . 
• . . . 45 minutes on the elliptical.  4.8 miles.

Today's weigh-in:  185.2

Sprint Training

Another Strendurance workout this morning.  I decided to stick with Workout D again.  The plan is to do each workout twice a week for two weeks.  I haven't looked back at my schedule, but I'm pretty sure I'm onto Week 3 with this one.  It's just really hard, and I don't know that I'm ready to move up to the next stage in the progression yet.  We'll see how I feel next week.  I probably won't do another strength workout until after this weekend's races.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch: Worst protein bar ever.  Met rx, CookieDough flavor. it wasn't like a cookie-dough-flavored bar, it was like actual cookie dough. That sounds good, but trust me, it's not.
• Dinner: Salad with chicken.

Exercise:

• Strendurance Workout D
• Spinervals 20.0 - The Sprinting Machine. I really love this workout. It's insane.

Today's weigh-in:  186.4. Surprising and disappointing.

Easy-ish Day

Not really a rest day, but any easier day nonetheless.  I am planning on a hard trainer ride tomorrow, so I didn't want to push it too hard today.  Just an average wake-me-up on the elliptical in the morning, and an easy ride on the trainer tonight.  I didn't put on a Spinervals video this time, just made it up as I went along, while watching an episode of Burn Notice on Netflix.

I registered for this weekend's races today.  On Saturday, I have a hill-climb time-trial in Golden, and on Sunday is my first criterium, also in Golden.  If the weather cooperates, this will be my first full weekend of racing.  Because I have two completely different types of races to deal with, I am going to switch the cassettes on my bike.  I have both an 11-23 and 11-28 cassette.  I want to climb on my 11-28, but the 11-23 is the cassette currently on my racing wheels.  The 11-28 is on my training wheel.  I picked up some tools today to allow me to change the cassette.  I hope to switch them out tomorrow to get ready for Saturday.  Then, after Saturday's hill-climb, I'll have to switch them back, because I want to use the 11-23 for Sunday's crit.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch:  Protein bar at my desk when I got back from my little shopping trip
• Dinner:  As usual, Tuesday is pizza

Exercise:

• 45 minutes on the elliptical in the morning
• 45 minutes on the trainer this evening

Today's weigh-in:  184.0

Back on the trainer

Weekend's over.  Time to get back on the trainer.  And things are about to start getting crazy.  The kids' sports seasons have started, and each of them have practice 3 days a week.  So, Monday through Friday, at least one of them has a practice.  Ugh.

I managed to squeeze in some exercise today, even without getting up early.  I couldn't convince myself to get up at 5am today.  I'm sure the time change didn't help.  Maybe tomorrow.  But I went out for a walk during lunch, listening to some podcasts.  And this is weird, but I saw former Broncos head coach Mike Shanahan walking around down in LoDo.  Wonder what he was up to.  I left work a little early, to make sure we were ready to get my son to football tonight.  My wife took him to football, and I stayed home with my daughter.  I did a quick 30-minute Strendurance workout, then whipped up a quick dinner for the two of us.  After that, I took a little break, then went down and cranked out a Spinervals workout.

And hey, look at this!  One of the photographers from yesterday's time trial posted some of his photos today.  I decided to pony up $15 to buy this one, since I don't have too many good photos of me riding my bike, and I looked really fat in the other photo he had.

No, that guy back there isn't catching me.  I just passed him.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch:  Protein bar at my desk, after my lunch walk.
• Dinner:  Two pork tamales.  Quick and easy.

Exercise:

• 30-minute walk at lunch
• Strendurance Workout D right after work.
• Spinervals 18.0 - Aero Base Builder III.

Today's weigh-in:  184.0.  Sweet.

Frostbite Time Trial

My second event of the season today.  This was the Frostbite Time Trial, an 11.8 mile time trial up north of Fort Collins, pretty close to Wyoming.  This event was supposed to be last weekend, but was postponed due to weather.  Ironically, even though this is called the "Frostbite" time trial, the weather couldn't have been better.  Even though this is the beginning of March, the weather was in the upper-50s, and I rode in my shorts and short-sleeved jersey.  I actually got a little bit of a sunburn, which is a nice change from recent rides.

The day started with some normal preparation at home.  Last night, I had the car mostly loaded up, with my trainer, extra wheels, pump and toolbox.  And I got the bike rack on the car.  This morning involved getting some breakfast, packing up my pre- and post-race food, and getting my clothes and other gear ready.  I brought my entire kit, since I wasn't sure what the weather was going to be like.  Then, I got the bike onto the car, threw everything else in, and hit the road.

After driving for about an hour, I got to the start line, and found a parking spot along the side of the road.  I walked over to registration and picked up my bib number, then back to the car to start getting ready.  I pulled out the trainer, got the bike ready to go, got my racing clothes on, and hopped on the bike.  I probably rode the trainer for about 25 minutes or so, getting the heart and legs pumping with some high-cadence intervals, which rockin' out to some podcasts.  I probably should have used some more intense music or something, but I pretty much only listen to podcasts these days.

During my warmup, I was also sucking down some Cytomax for hydration and carbs, and ate a banana and a blueberry Clif bar.  At that point, I was pretty much ready to go.  I put all my crap back in the car, hopped on the bike and went for about a 5 minute ride, just to get a feel for the aero bars again.  Then, off to the start line.

At the line, I jumped in my place according to my bib number.  I took a few more swigs of Cytomax and then dropped off my bottle on the side of the road, where I would pick it up when I was done.  The race was only 11 miles, so I wasn't going to need anything to drink during the race, and I didn't feel like carrying the extra weight.  Then, I almost had a little disaster.  When I was moving up to the start line, I did something a little weird with my aero bars.  I put all my weight onto the right elbow pad of the aero bar for some reason, and it moved a little bit.  Not enough to cause a big problem, but enough to be annoying.  I've spend the past few weeks riding those aero bars at the exact same position, and now it was thrown off a bit.  Again, it didn't cause any big problems, but it was slightly different than what I was used to.

Once I was at the line, they had a guy holding the bike up, so I could stay clipped in for the start.  The starter counted down the last few seconds, and gave me the go-ahead, and I took off. 
It was about 5.5 miles south, then turn around, and head another 5.5 miles back north, along the I-25 frontage road.  Racers went off at 30-second intervals.  The whole time, I could see the guy that took off 30 seconds before me, but by the turn-around, I still hadn't caught him, although I was getting closer.  After a few miles, a fellow Zilla who started 1 minute behind me, as a Cat4, caught and flew right past me.  Fortunately, that was the only rider who passed me the whole ride.

About 2 miles after the turn-around, I finally caught and passed my 30-second guy.  That felt pretty good.  It makes you feel like you're actually making some progress.  At least I knew I wasn't going to be last.

At the 1-kilometer-to-go marker, I put on the gas, as much as I could.  I really didn't have a whole lot left.  But enough that I could try to push it a little.  Up a little grade, and then the finish was in sight.  I pushed as much as possible, huffing and puffing my way across the line.  I chatted with a few Zillas who finished shortly before and after me, and then headed back to look for results.  Nothing was posted yet, so I went back to the car to get some normal clothes on.  Then, I walked back to the registration area to find the results.  Posted on the side of the porta-a-john.  Classy.  Anyway, the results has been posted, and I was shocked to see I got 5th place!  I think the results they posted showed 26 total riders, but in the end, the official results showed 27.

Men Cat 5 results.  5th place!

After I got the results, I chatted with some teammates again for a little bit, and then climbed in the car and headed home.  A quick stop at Qdoba for some lunch, then home.  After putting everything away, I decided to go for a run just to burn a few more calories.  And the weather was just too nice to pass up.

All in all, a good day.  There are a couple races next week, but I still haven't signed up for them.  We'll see how the weahter is, and if I've got any other plans.  Stay tuned . . .

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch:  Steak salad at Qdoba
• Dinner:  Sauteed sausage, peppers and cabbage again.

Exercise:

• Frostbite Time Trial
• 4.2 mile run

Today's weigh-in:  186.0

Race tomorrow....

So, today's race was canceled due to icy conditions.  Hoping they reschedule, but no word yet.  We'll see.

Tomorrow is the time trial that got postponed last weekend.  I'm looking forward to it, mostly because I just want to get out and ride, to see how I do.  And regardless of how I do, a time trial is a good workout anyway.  And I could use a good workout.  I didn't really do any real hard trainer rides this week.

With my criterium canceled today, I was able to relax a little, with limited craziness.  If I had to go to the crit, it was going to get pretty hectic.  This afternoon, after lunch, I was able to go for a nice ride in an effort to keep my legs moving a bit.  In addition to getting some miles in my legs, I also wanted to make sure I was comfortable on my clip-on aero bars before tomorrow's time trial.  So I did a nice 20-mile loop that I like to do when I have about an hour of free time.

I was really happy with today's ride.  I don't know if it was the aero bars or the legs, but I completed that route significantly faster than I ever have before.  And I burned far fewer calories than the other times I've done that route.  So I guess that's a really good sign.  I hope it translates into a good result tomorrow.  Stay tuned.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch:  Steak salad from Chipotle
• Dinner:  buffalo wings.  Probably not the best idea.  But my daughter is at a sleepover, so we let my son decide what we were going to do for dinner tonight.

Exercise:

• 22-mile bike ride, in my aero position.

Today's weigh-in:  189.0.  Ouch.

Race is canceled . . . boooo!!!!

We got some snow pretty much all day today, and the organizers of the DU Crit at City Park had to cancel the race.  Damn.  Hoping it gets rescheduled. 

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch:  Cheesesteak.  Yum.
• Dinner:  Grilled chicken Caesar.

Exercise:

• 45 minutes on the elliptical.  4.8 miles

Today's weigh-in:  Didn't get around to doing a weigh-in tonight.

Nice day for a commute

So, a couple things going on today.  First, as I mentioned yesterday, my wife's tire has a giant hole in it, and I wasn't able to put the spare on last night.  So, she took my car to work, while I rode my bike.  Fortunately, it was kind of a nice day.

Second, today was a company-sponsored ski day.  Unfortunately, I decided not to participate this year.  Seems like about half the office went, and the rest of us stayed at work.  So, it was a quiet day around the office.  Thought I might skip out early to do some more laps at City Park, but I ended up just working all day, and going home a little early.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch:  Free pizza at work
• Dinner:  Some kind of sausage/cabbage/bell pepper skillet thing.  It was pretty yummy.

Exercise:

• Commute

Today's weigh-in:  186.4

Strendurance today

Not much going on today.  Got up early for a Strendurance workout.  Then worked like crazy.  Had to work through lunch, so just ate a protein bar at my desk while I worked.  Dinner was a little messed up because my wife had her class at Lifetime Fitness tonight.  And when she got home from work, her tire had a massive hole in it.  So, instead of coming home and dealing with dinner, I gave her my car to get to the gym, and I took the kids to Firestone to try to get a tire.  But they said because the car was all-wheel drive, they couldn't just sell me one tire, they had to do all four.  I said no thanks and left.  Just going to throw a spare on for a couple days, and go somewhere else to get a tire.

This mean she gets my car tomorrow while I ride my bike to work.  I'm also planning to meet some teammates for another ride around City Park in the afternoon.  Should be fun.

Anyway, with all that running around tonight, I didn't end up with time for a workout.  That's fine since I'm getting in some good riding tomorrow.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch: Protein bar at my desk
• Dinner: Salad with chicken

Exercise:

• Strendurance Workout D

Today's weigh-in:  187.2

Another ride to work

Not much going on today.  Rode my bike to work.  Pretty nice day for it.


Was planning on getting in some kind of workout tonight, but after my daughter's gymnastics class,
I found out my wife installed some questionable software on our computer, which installed a bunch of adware along with it.  So I spent the evening cleaning that up instead.  Fun stuff.

Food:

• Breakfast: Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch:  Steak tacos at Qdoba
• Dinner:  Gymnastics night is pizza night.

Exercise:

• Bike commute.  About 27 mile r/t.
• 30 minute walk at lunch.

Today's weigh-in:  187.0

Slow day

Late workout last night, so I couldn't get up early for a morning workout.  Still snow on the ground this morning, so I didn't feel like riding to work.  Busy at work, so couldn't work out at lunch.  And a PSIMET / Zilla team meeting after work, so I didn't have much time tonight.  But I managed to squeeze in 45 minutes on the elliptical.

Food:

• Breakfast: Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch:  Broke down and got a cheesesteak, but I balanced it with . . .
• Dinner: . . . a salad for dinner.  Bike team meeting tonight, so I had the Grilled Romaine Salad at Breckenridge Brewery.

Exercise:

• 45 minutes on the elliptical when I got home from my team meeting.

Today's weigh-in:  187.6

Easy day, off the bike

After last night's tough workout, I was due for a day off the bike.  We had a bunch of errands to do today, and I also had to do some actual work, but I found time for a couple short workouts.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch: Steak salad from Chipotle
• Dinner:  Chicken paprikash with zucchini "noodles".

Exercise:

• Strendurance Workout D
• 45 minutes on the elliptical. 5.4 miles.

Today's weigh-in:  186.4

The Sprinting Machine

Today was supposed to be the Frostbite Time Trial, up north of Fort Collins.  The weather was looking a little sketchy, so I decided a few days ago that I was going to skip it.  Glad I did.  Today, the weather report up there was about 12° and snow.  Probably high winds, too.  The first rider was supposed to go off at 10am.  At about 9am, they finally officially canceled the race.  It sounds like they might reschedule for next Sunday.  I already have a race planned for Saturday, so I don't know if I would plan on a Saturday and Sunday race.  We'll see.

Instead of the time trial, I was going to just get in a long endurance workout today.  But life got in the way.  First, my daughter had a soccer game.  Then, my son had to go to a friend's birthday party.  While he was at the party, my wife, daughter and I went out to lunch, where I ate like crapola.  Then, we picked up my son, and surprised them by taking them to see The Lego Movie.  Awesome flick, by the way.  ♫ Everything Is Awesome! ♪♫  Then, after that, we stopped at the new Noodles restaurant in the neighborhood and picked up some dinner.  Got home, relaxed for a bit after a long day away, and then finally got around to getting ready to hop on the bike.

By that time, I really didn't have time for a 2-hour endurance workout.  Instead I opted for the hardest short workout I could find, Spinervals 20.0 - The Sprinting Machine.  Rated 9.9 out of 10 on the Spinervals intensity scale, this is one of the hardest interval workouts I've ever done.  On paper, it doesn't sound that hard.  10 seconds of hard work, followed by 50 seconds of rest for 5 minutes, with long breaks in between sets.  But the hard work is really as hard as you can go.  Or harder.  Even with plenty of rest, it's just brutal.  And then, to really make a mess of everything, in the middle of the workout, you get off the bike and do plyometric squat-jumps for 30 seconds, get on the bike and pedal easy for 2 minutes, for three reps total.  A really, really hard 50 minute workout.  I know I'm going to be feeling this tomorrow.

Food:

• Breakfast:  Fruit / protein smoothie
• Lunch:  Chicken bacon ranch quesadilla at Chili's.  And chips and queso.  And a skillet cookie with ice cream.  What can I say, it was a fun lunch with my daughter.
• Dinner:  Went  to noodles, but avoided the noodles.  Stuck with low-carb, and went with a chicken Caesar salad.

Exercise:

• Spinervals 20.0 - The Sprinting Machine.  Ugh.

Today's weigh-in:  187.6

And for an overall look at how I'm doing, here's a chart for all of February.  This certainly isn't as good as I was doing last year, but I guess it's a very slight downward trend, so I'm kind of pleased.  I can do better, though.