weekly team training ride

Last Sunday for are weekly epic team training ride Jeff Dickey and i rode about half of the moco epic loop and we also did some extra exploring of trails on top if that. We did about a 4 hour 40 mile day. Trail conditions were great considering how wet it was earlier in the week. The trails of the moco epic loop are pretty flat and non technical so they are way more fun when the trails are dryer. Next team training ride is scheduled for next Saturday Feb 4th.

pics from sunday ride

Frederick watershed ride

this week we did are team training ride at the watershed again instead of the moco (Montgomery county epic loop) that we had originally planned... we were guessing that it would have been too wet and muddy to do the moco.

it was cold during are ride... about 25 degrees.. i had my winter riding shoes on and my motorcycle booties that i fit over those, many layers and saran wrapped helmet... i am sure i looked like a weirdo but i felt comfortable.

we rode for 3 hours and 15 min...

the unseasonaly warm weather has stopped and there have been more and more cold days... i am spending more time on the trainer (witch can be boring)...so it felt really good to get outside.

my garmin GPS is broken and i in the proccesss of trying to get it fixed. so that past week or so i havent been able to log rides on strava.

next team training ride is planed for next Sunday jan 29th.

2012 race license

for 2012 i will be going with a wolverine theme race license... haveing accelerated healing and heightened senses should be an advantage in the 2012 season.

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

photos from watershed training ride

 Dylan

 Jeff

Me

watershed training ride

MO CO epic training loop was canceled yesterday due to wet trails, in its replacement we did a long ride at Gambrill state park and the watershed (water drains much better at the watershed, trail conditions were great)... it was a 3.5 hour ride and we went 30 miles... Jeff Dickey and Dylan Johnson were there... this is where i normally ride (7 miles from where i live) but on most occasions i only ride the dirt roads of the park because much of the trail riding is very technical and falls and broken parts are common... also maintaining a certain HR intensity can be difficult... despite being my home turf Dylan showed me a a gem of a trail i didn't know about... it was one i had been down before but was unaware that it had a lot of trail work done to it and was 10 times better than when i last rode it... it was a northshoreish downhill with large rock features... no team ride next week Dyan and Jeff have other training/ vacation plans... i will probably end up doing a epic solo ride though...next team training ride is scheduled for Jan 22.

MOCO epic 3 and 4 cancled, Strava

weekly MOCO epic training ride didn't happen yesterday and will also be canceled for next weekend... with x-mas and new years there are too many schedule conflicts... im going to use these two weeks get some longer rides in to hopfuly get my fitness to a place where i dont feel like i need to go race pace to keep up with Dylan and Jeff... next MOCO epic ride will be on Jan 7th.

i recived a GPS for Christmas... one of those Garmin ones that you can use with your bike and i set up a Strava account... they are one of the sponsors of are team... Strava lets you download your ride, calculates your power output, shows a map of where you road, lets you compare and compete with others on climbs, gives an easy to read line graph of heart rate, elevation , power, distace and speed.... all in one cart... its also a social networking type of site you can follow other riders and comment on their rides... i am liking it so far... it has made me more motivated to ride.

the Strava site...

http://app.strava.com/about

MOCO epic training ride # 2

this time Jeff, Dylan and i did the loop backwards... we didn't do the official MOCO loop we made some modifications and did a little bit of exploring... it ended up being a 4.5 hour / 50 mile ride like last weekend it felt like plenty...the temp was about the same (about 40) but it was less muddy than last week.

here are some pics...

 crossing a stream

Dylan

me

first MOCO epic training ride

last Sunday (the Dec. 10th 2011) was the first MOCO epic training ride... it was raining most of last week... but the Friday and Saturday before the the ride was dry so i though conditions wouldn't be horribly muddy... it wasn't bad at first but later in the ride it started getting pretty muddy... we ended up cutting off the last 15 miles because of the trail conditions... it ended up being a 4.5 hour ride 47 mile ride... witch felt like plenty at the time... next week we plan to do the loop backwards... my weather channel app tells me it will most likely be clear for the rest of the week... so hopefully trail conditions will be better.

Dylan Johnson dialing in his new Scott carbon 29er before the ride

Jeff Dickey being cold before we got started moving (35 degrees at the start but warmed up to low 40's later)

2011 recap/ update

I didn’t do too much racing in for the 2011 season… I made a goal for myself last winter to ride at least 12 hours a week… I was doing this had some great fitness up till January when I got sick… It was bad strep throat or the flu not sure I didn’t go to the doctor.. but I had a high temp and my waking HR was around 10 beats over normal for about a week… I was sick for about 2-3 weeks till the sore throat went away and I felt safe to ride again…I started to build some fitness again but I seemed to loose it again in spring when I started working more… I was cleaning ponds for work and it was labor intensive … spring is the biggest season for pond work… during this time I was exhausted and only riding 2-4 hours a week… I didn’t start getting reasonable hours of training in till mid summer when I wasn’t working as much… I was feeling like my normal racing self tord the end of summer… I only did 5 races and i only had fitness for the last one… this is the least amount of racing I have done in a year since I was 18.

I just noticed that I made a lot of excuses for my bad race year… at the end of my 2010 season I said 2011 would have less excuses… I failed there.

For 2012 I plan to put a bit more preparation and planning in to having a successful season… ive just purchased a new bike that I will only use for racing.. 

it is the same size and geometry as my current bike just 4 lbs lighter and made of carbon and lighter parts… the weight savings will be nice but the part that I think will help me the most is having new unworn parts that are less likely to fail during a race… fresh tires, fresh drive train and fresh cables.

 I normally have the mentality that don’t replace things till they break… I have gone into races with very worn tires and frayed cables and have probably had more than my fair share of race mechanicals because of it… no more.

For training starting on Dec. 10^th team mate Jeff Dickey and I (plus whoever else wants to join) will be riding the MO CO epic loop… it’s a 62 mile mostly off-road ride that goes through 9 different parks in the WA DC area…we plan to do it every Sunday (weather permitting) till race season starts … every other Sunday we will reverse the loop.