my cycling season is officially over. bring on the off-season! off-season training sounds so much better before you actually start offseason training though. long miles and lonely hours in the cold. this year i'm actually going to lift weights religiously. my spindly legs look funny next to the tree trunks other racers have. power is an area i need to work on anyways. sustained power and aerobic endurance. those are the off-season goals. my anaerobic system is awesome, and power at LT is awsome. weights and long, long miles are what i need. this book is the shit. everyone who is their own coach should read it and follow it. tomorrow i go back to work for a 48 hour shift, so i can get lots of reading in, and figure out my upcoming season's racing goals. i'll let everyone know sometime this weekend.
11.29.2005
Its Official
my cycling season is officially over. bring on the off-season! off-season training sounds so much better before you actually start offseason training though. long miles and lonely hours in the cold. this year i'm actually going to lift weights religiously. my spindly legs look funny next to the tree trunks other racers have. power is an area i need to work on anyways. sustained power and aerobic endurance. those are the off-season goals. my anaerobic system is awesome, and power at LT is awsome. weights and long, long miles are what i need. this book is the shit. everyone who is their own coach should read it and follow it. tomorrow i go back to work for a 48 hour shift, so i can get lots of reading in, and figure out my upcoming season's racing goals. i'll let everyone know sometime this weekend.
Change of Plans
well i guess i'm not going to race this weekend after all. Mary's tri club is having a triathlon party on saturday, and that sounds slightly less torturous than cyclocross racing. hopefully i can race on december 18th, but i might be in FL with mary's fam. so my season might be over. so be it if it is. my abbreviated cyclocross season was incredibly promising, and bodes well for next year. i've been itching to start base training of the road racing season anyways. hopefully i'll be racing in colorado the upcoming season. i'll post a link to the american cycling association in the cycling links section. it is the governing body for bicycle racing in colorado. its part of FIAC, like OBRA. mary should hear about a sweet job in longmont, colorado this week, and i applied for a paramedic job in boulder. keep your fingers crossed. boulder county is the epicenter for endurance sports in the u.s.
i came across a copy of photoshop elements the other day. i'm going to start editing photos for framing and feature them on this blog. here is a picture of the confluence of the south and middle forks of the smith river (i think, it sounds smart anyways.) i took this picture last march.
i came across a copy of photoshop elements the other day. i'm going to start editing photos for framing and feature them on this blog. here is a picture of the confluence of the south and middle forks of the smith river (i think, it sounds smart anyways.) i took this picture last march.
11.28.2005
Home...Finally
well, we said good-bye to the house, and we are finally back home in our apartment. its nice to be home, but i really want a house of our own. last week was crazy with work and thanksgiving and running around between apartment and house. now i've got a couple days off to prepare for this weekend's cx races. i race on saturday in salem, and in eugene on sunday. i've hardly been riding, so we'll see how my body handles 2 races in one weekend. its stormy and shitty outside here today. cold and rain and wind. typical crescent city winter weather. sampson's abscess healed, and he no longer needs the lampshade. i think he misses playing with all the dogs while housesitting. thats about all i know. you'd think i'd have more to write about these last 10 days, but i guess not.
11.18.2005
Lampshade
my dog is wearing a lampshade. a little over a week ago, mary and sampson were playing at the beach, and sampson rolled in a very dead, and stinky sea lion carcass. we think he cut himself on the sea lion's teeth or something. anyways he had a nice little laceration that was healing up nicely until he decided he wanted to eat the scab from it the other day. so now he is wearing a lampshade so he doesn't lick at it and whatnot. he looks pathetic.
work sucked this week. as i'm writing this, i haven't slept since wednesday night. mary and i have nothing planned for the weekend. we might go on a hike or bike ride, but now i'm going to get caught up on some sleep.
work sucked this week. as i'm writing this, i haven't slept since wednesday night. mary and i have nothing planned for the weekend. we might go on a hike or bike ride, but now i'm going to get caught up on some sleep.
11.15.2005
Housesitting, Vegans, and Metalwork
hello all. its been a while since i last posted some stuff, so here's what i've been up to.mary and i are housesitting for the guy in the picture while he vacations in europe. he is one of mary's triathlon buddies, and a cool dude. his house is great. it makes us really want to get out of crescent city and buy a house of our own. soon.
we decided we are just hanging out this weekend, and not racing. it seems every weekend i'm not working we've been traveling up and down the west coast in search of cyclocross races. it will feel good just to chill for once (and save a little money.)
i added another link to my list of choice internet real estate. molly cameron is a cross racer from portland, who also owns a small bike shop that specializes in everything cyclocross. he's sort of a weirdo, so his life is interesting to read about.
the job search is slow moving. if either of us doesn't have a job soon, we'll be traveling to colorado and doing the whole job application thing in person. probably the first part of next year.
i did a little modification to the cyclocross frame the other day. i grinded off the "lawyer tabs" on the fork to make wheel changes faster and easier. bike companies put these things on forks so half-tards who don't know how to use a quick-release don't sue when their wheel falls off. here are some pictures of my handywork. soon i will do it to my road bike.
11.11.2005
Decisions, Decisions
i have a dilemma on my hands, but i'm not complaining. the dilemma deals with cyclocross races. there are races on novemver 19th and 20th in oregon, but there are also races in san francisco the same weekend. the oregon races can be found on the OBRA website, and the SF races are part of the US grand prix of cyclocross series. all the big name pros will be in SF, with the series championships on sunday. saturday's race in SF is cool also. if i can convince mary to race, she could win a sweet lemond poprad cx bike. if there are 15 beginner women racing on saturday, there is a drawing amongst the beginner women, and one of them wins the bike. the odds are pretty decent, and the bike is really nice. the only problem is scrounging up a bike for her to ride. she could 
ride one of the beater mountain bikes we have lying around. we'll see what happens. i'll have to talk to her about it.
i told heather i'd post some more pics of mary and sampson so here is another one. just for heathrow.
-brooks
ride one of the beater mountain bikes we have lying around. we'll see what happens. i'll have to talk to her about it.i told heather i'd post some more pics of mary and sampson so here is another one. just for heathrow.
-brooks
11.10.2005
Thursday
alright. i'm trying despirately to get some tubular wheels in time for next saturday's race. i have 5 races scheduled in the next couple weeks, so i'm going to be busy. click on the OBRA link to the right and check them out. there was a good article in a local alternative paper up in portland about the popularity of cyclocross up there. click here for it. yesterday i said i'd write a little about cx training, so here goes.
since cyclocross races are so short (45min.) training needs to be ralatively short and intense. i try to get 2 quality workouts in every week. if i'm racing on the weekend, the race counts as a quality workout. i try to get another quality workout in during the midweek. the rest of the week is spent recovering, along with some cyclocross skills training.
quality workouts are workouts that will make me a faster, more efficent racer. workouts typically consist of intervals done at, or just below lactate threshold. what's lactate threshold, you ask? lactate thresold is the point at which your body converts from primarily aerobic metabolism to anaerobic metabolism. during anaerobic metablolsim your body can no longer buffer the amount of lactic acid produced by your muscles, and muscle cramping and fatigue set in quickly. cyclocross races are ususally performed above lactate threshold, so training your body to increase lactate threshold, so you can sustain near maximum efforts longer, is the goal of cyclocross training. sophisticated training tools such as a heart rate monitor, or power meter are needed to measure lactate threshold. i use a heart rate monitor, and with prior tests, i have determined my lactate threshold heart rate (LTHR) to be 191 beats per minute. if using a power meter, you can directly measure lactate threshold in watts/hour. basing training on LTHR is much more accurate then baseing training on maximum heart rate.
a typical quality workout usually involves a 15 minute warm-up at 60-70% of LTHR, with 5 to 10 minute intervals, totalling at least 45 mintes (race distance) done at LTHR. rest between the intervals is usually half the lenth of the previous interval. a 15 minute cool-down done at 60% of LTHR completes the workout. occassonally i will throw in short 1 to 2 minute long intervals done above LTHR in the mix as well. i find that these workouts simulate races very closely.
recovery rides are usually around 2 hours done at 70-80% of LTHR. i try to get in 2 quality workouts and at least 2 recovery rides in each week. quality workouts work really well on a stationary trainer, and i tend to do these at work. well, there's my little exercise physiology lesson for the day. i'm off for a 2 hour ride on the road bike.
-brooks
since cyclocross races are so short (45min.) training needs to be ralatively short and intense. i try to get 2 quality workouts in every week. if i'm racing on the weekend, the race counts as a quality workout. i try to get another quality workout in during the midweek. the rest of the week is spent recovering, along with some cyclocross skills training.
quality workouts are workouts that will make me a faster, more efficent racer. workouts typically consist of intervals done at, or just below lactate threshold. what's lactate threshold, you ask? lactate thresold is the point at which your body converts from primarily aerobic metabolism to anaerobic metabolism. during anaerobic metablolsim your body can no longer buffer the amount of lactic acid produced by your muscles, and muscle cramping and fatigue set in quickly. cyclocross races are ususally performed above lactate threshold, so training your body to increase lactate threshold, so you can sustain near maximum efforts longer, is the goal of cyclocross training. sophisticated training tools such as a heart rate monitor, or power meter are needed to measure lactate threshold. i use a heart rate monitor, and with prior tests, i have determined my lactate threshold heart rate (LTHR) to be 191 beats per minute. if using a power meter, you can directly measure lactate threshold in watts/hour. basing training on LTHR is much more accurate then baseing training on maximum heart rate.
a typical quality workout usually involves a 15 minute warm-up at 60-70% of LTHR, with 5 to 10 minute intervals, totalling at least 45 mintes (race distance) done at LTHR. rest between the intervals is usually half the lenth of the previous interval. a 15 minute cool-down done at 60% of LTHR completes the workout. occassonally i will throw in short 1 to 2 minute long intervals done above LTHR in the mix as well. i find that these workouts simulate races very closely.
recovery rides are usually around 2 hours done at 70-80% of LTHR. i try to get in 2 quality workouts and at least 2 recovery rides in each week. quality workouts work really well on a stationary trainer, and i tend to do these at work. well, there's my little exercise physiology lesson for the day. i'm off for a 2 hour ride on the road bike.
-brooks
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