Progress

Sunday February 22, 2009

“Don't wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions. So what. Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful.”

- Mark Victor Hansen
author: Chicken Soup for the Soul

Coaching Week is less than a week away now, and yesterday in the midst of my trainer spin i really felt like i was beginning to make some progress. Of course the real test will be how i feel when i get to the roads of southern Arizona.

A glimpse at the records shows that my ave MPH on the bike has gone from 15.61 mph in January to 17.60 mph in February while my HR has remained steady at an ave of 141 bpm. Even though the average has remained steady, i have had a lot of rides with an ave HR of around 130 bpm. I think this means i am getting more efficient on the bike, that's a good thing. My average cadence is way up as well, now averaging in the low 90's. January's average cadence was in the mid 80's. The amount of time i am willing to be on the saddle for any given ride has increased as well. Yahoo! I am as ready for Arizona as I have ever been.

Craig

“Endurance is patience concentrated.”

-Thomas Carlyle

Why?

Sunday February 15

"A man cannot entirely disconnect from the past. To try to is the American impulse, but to look at the steady continuance of the past is to watch time get emptied of its bluster because time bears down less on the continuum than on the components. To be only a nub in the eternal temporary is still to have a chance to see, a chance to pry at the mystery. What is the blue road anyway but an opportunity to poke at the unseen and a hoping the unseen will poke back?"

-William Least Heat-Moon
"Blue Highways"

'Why are we out there in the first place?' Why does one desire to ride 1700 miles in 17 days. In Mountains. In Weather. Insane? No, i think not. Beyond all the obvious reasons: Fitness, Fellowship, Bicycling, I think for me there is a greater thing; Discovery.

Before i signed up for "Eastern Mountains" I did an interesting exercise; I made a map of the proposed route at the scale 1" equal to 10 miles. We laid the map out on the floor and tip to tail it is over 12 feet long. 12 Feet. 1 lousy inch equals 10 miles. 12 feet. so, "as a crow flies" that would be 1500 miles. But this is a bike trip, not a flight. 1700 miles. 112,000 feet of elevation change. The fear began to take hold. I thought.."No Way" then I started to study the map. Of the 9 states the route goes through, i have never been to 7 of them. Oh, and i consider myself "well traveled" Being from the Midwest, the Appalachians are not exactly the first thing your parents think of when they stuff you in the station wagon for the summer road trip. Yellowstone or the Grand Canyon is.

Fact is, I don't know the eastern part of our great country well at all. this will be an awesome opportunity to see the back roads of the eastern US, where the real people live, where history happened, where nature is the star. So, why am i going to be out there? Fellowship, Fitness, to finish, and i think most importantly: " to have a chance to see, a chance to pry at the mystery....an opportunity to poke at the unseen and a hoping the unseen will poke back."

I now have the map of the eastern mountains route tacked to the wall in the basement right next to where my bike-trainer is set up. Each time i get on the bike, the big ol long map stares back at me. Each nights rest stop circled in red. This week for the first time i thought..."Yes Way"

Craig

"The important point is to set a goal just beyond your reach
So If you do meet it, you'll feel really good about the fact that you did your best
Considering the circumstances
As opposed to just like cruising in and then two days later,
you start thinking back, "Gee we could have done better""

-Pete Penseyres

Key to Success

Sunday February 8, 2009

" I don't fail to finish because i am not physically up to it, but because i am mentally tired"
Mario Cipollini

I am mentally tired this week. Work got the best of me. I was in Rochester NY, where there are no signs of global warming. The ground is covered with snow. As a cyclist, i am glad i don't have to deal with that kind of winter. Traveling took its toll on me, and i didn't cycle very much cause of that. Resting now and looking forward to a better week.

I read Lon Haldemans Blog. (you can find it on the PAC Tour Website, www.pactour.com, then click on "Lon's Blog" This week he Introduces David Rowe in his blog. I quote from Lon's blog

"Lots of riders dream about what it would be like to “go long.” Most will attempt a century and stop there. Those that want to ride through the 100-mile barrier learn that physical conditioning can only prepare you to a point. The challenge of a multi-day, ultra-endurance event is mostly mental."

A few weeks ago, author and road cyclist David Rowe released a new book called “The Ride of Your Life.” His goal in writing the book, he says, is to help others achieve great things on the bicycle and in life."

The most interesting passage in the interview Lon has with David is this

"The key to success in long distance cycling is knowing why are you out there in the first place. If you have that squared away, then you're going to be prepared for the mental challenges. You will just keep on searching for a way to get your head and your heart pulling in the same direction, toward that finish line of the ride of your dreams."

Yes, i plan to buy and read the book. What is really exciting to me is that David Rowe is going to be at PAC Tour Coaching Week when i am there! Whoooo Hooo!. If you have been following my blog at all, you know i am most concerned about mental preparation. I see this as an amazing opportunity....

Till next week...

Craig

Training Tips from Bob Roll....The Bobke.....(i give credit here to the blog www.soquoted.blogspot.com for this wisdom. Sorry for the length but i found this hysterical and had to share it...don't take it too seriously!)

Tip 1: Crashing is better than eating right. Eating right makes you feel good about yourself. This is the last dang thing you want. You want to feel absolutely shitbag about yourself. Your self-esteem should be lower than a snake's belly at the bottom of a Deep South penitentiary septic tank.

When you have the appropriate base level of self-esteem, you'll want to inflict the grinding horror of your mind upon all around you. Appeasing the torments of your mind by ripping people's legs off in a bike race so you can be seen kissing the podium dolls is the best path. Eating right is bettor suited to actresses who've guzzled so many lies getting movie roles that their digestive enzymes have been vaporized.

Now, crashing, on the other hand, gives you scar tissue, and scar tissue tells a story no idiotic tribal barbwire tattoos ever will. And as the stories of your scars are retold, you'll get hungry for sour mash and pork rinds. It is almost impossible to eat a macrobiotic salad while picking at your scabs and describing your ass-over-tits, auger-into-the-gravel-pile-moving-into-sprint-position in the last corner. Self-hate propels the bicycle faster than all the 30/30/40 ratio flim-flam, phin-phen scam artists combined. Let retired generals, Enron satanists, Juan Exxon Valdez, and Guantanamo bay-detained Islamic Jihadists eat right. It is way better to crash hard and eat wrong.