Prepared?

I guess so. Since I ran out of gas so fast last Sunday, I’ve been trying to pay more attention to how my body reacts to different forms of punishment, I mean riding. Since it’s still too dark to ride when I get home, I’ve been using the controlled environment of the gym to monitor my results. I learned from the race that I have plenty of strength and power, but I have a slight bit of an endurance problem.

While riding the X-Bike the last few days, I’ve been wearing a heart rate monitor to see exactly what’s happening when I get tired. I start with a five-minute warm up, and then I shift gears (if that’s what you call it on a stationary bike.) I push it pretty hard and watch my heart rate steadily increase, then I back off or a minute or so. After that, I shift to the highest gear, stand up, and mash the pedals. My heart rate shoots up to the max after a bit, and I take mental notes on how that feels. I then shift down to a more comfortable level and cruise for a bit, while maintaining what I think would be a good pace. I repeat this for the entire ride. I realize that what I’m doing is called “intervals”, but it’s the heart rate results that I’m most concerned about. I need to be able to gauge how I feel during the race so I can make adjustments as needed.

I realize that there is plenty of data and other information about this kind of training available on the Internets, but I need to do my own study to meet my specific needs. Short of hiring some sort of cycling trainer guy, this is all I can do. I hope to see some results, and maybe I’ll move up in the standings a bit. That would be a good way to see what is and isn’t working for me. It’s a long war, and it doesn’t have to be won in the first battle. I guess what I’m trying to say is that the race season has just started, and I don’t expect to win the first series.

I got a little garage time last night to sort out some things on my primary bike, Goose. I set out to install my brand-new Cane Creek 110 IS headset, and to also decide on a proper steerer tube length on my new Fox Fork. You see, I didn’t cut anything off of it, so the fit has been a little weird. The good thing is, I’m not currently racing this bike, so I have plenty of time to decide, and more importantly, to do it right. I’ll talk more about that tomorrow.

As far as the dirty jersey incident from yesterday, I‘m not sure if I’ve made any progress. I rinsed it off last night, and placed it back it the tub for some more soaking with the all-powerful Oxy Clean. It appears to be working a little, but I’m starting to think that I will have permanent mud-colored polka do accents on my team kit. I’ll probably just give up if it’s not clean by this weekend. I have other things in mind anyway. After all that mess (pun intended), I think I’ll need a large dose of beer. It just so happens that I bottled a fresh batch of homebrew that should be ready this weekend.




See y‘all tomorrow.