Trying harder, or a new low?

Loyal fans may have noticed the entries get shorter and less frequent. Sorry kids, but not much to write. I don't follow pro cycling closely enough to comment on it, and haven't been excited about cyclocross since long before everyone else discovered it, and we all know we're not supposed to write about the past here. The other guys all have the equipment scene pretty much covered, and my value-oriented critiques aren't generally well received anyway. The humor, well, that doesn't always seem to get through. That leaves training.

At Stillwater I had the revelation that I sucked because I just wasn't working hard enough. Part of this was the lingering tendonitis in my right knee that has bugged me ever since I bumped up my weekly mileage by 400% for ten days back in May. With that, the the only hard stuff I've done since were efforts at Wompatuck and some weekend races. No climbing, no long intervals, no sprints, nothing. The bathroom mirrors at the ultra-plush Best Western in lovely downtown Troy, NY also revealed some serious muffin-top action that I'd somehow managed to overlook up until that point. I always had some love handles that wouldn't go away, and since my weight was almost down to where it was back in my early 30's, I figured I was OK. Mo's evaluation of my legs as skinny toothpicks made me step back and realize that even though my weight was the same, my muscle mass has gone downhill with the years and now at 172 pounds my body fat percentage is no longer in single digits, and not really even that close.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. I've always felt that in September, if you aren't losing weight, you're gaining. It's just one of those things that comes with the season winding down. Winter around here is bad enough without packing on weight right from the first day the leaves start turning color. So, even though there are only two weekends of road racing left, and neither includes significant climbs, I decided the time was right to try and push the weight envelope and lose the dough in the middle. With the loss of daylight, I'm not riding so much anyway, so I don't need to fuel up as much and constantly be pouring down supplements to facilitate recovery. I got a jump start on my winter running this year too, starting two weeks ago, so almost a month earlier than last year. That should help.

I'd thought about setting a weight goal and vowing not to blog until I reached it. That might provide some added incentive, and nobody wants to read another weight loss blog anyway. If you don't see a post for a week or two, you'll know what happened. So far things are going well. I've adjusted to eating less. I've changed the foods I do eat a bit, and so far I've been fine on my workouts and not unbearably starving during the day at work.

Oh yeah, training. I was at the bbq last weekend and talked with a guy I used to train with a lot. He's an excellent rider, won dozens of masters races when he was in his 40's, and on the sleeves of his kit he wears the stars and stripes piping that only former national champions are allowed to have. He used to host a Wednesday night throwdown ride which was as hard or harder than any race. It was invitation only, no waiting, no holds barred. I was lucky enough to be able to participate once in a while for a few years, and still remember the suffering. I asked him, do you still do the Wednesday night ride? He said no, he'd got tired of it, and now in his mid-50's the kids that were showing up were just too much for him. He said, "I do most of my training down in the basement now, just watching the power meter." Ughhh. So much for enjoying the bike; it had become just training.

I can understand that after work traffic can be a real downer. I'll admit, in the winter I grow to enjoy the hassle-free days on the trainer, away from traffic and all the assholes who come with it. But I still love to ride. Last night though, I wanted to do some repeats on Big Blue. Since I work literally at the base of the hill, even though I don't get off (huh-huh) work until 5:45, it's light out until just after 7, so I'm OK. The Blue Hills used to be such a great area to train that we would even meet at the old Howard Johnson's (now another friggin' Dunkin Donuts) for after work group rides. No more. Even the reservation roads are practically gridlocked until about 6:30. In the waning light, I just can't get into riding in heavy traffic. Of course, the Big Blue access road is not open to cars, so you can ride it right up until dusk with no worries. Problem is, where to warm up? Doing repeats on cold legs just doesn't work.

I caved and setup the trainer in the parking lot. I only had 75 minutes, so even though it looked and seemed stupid, I probably got in a better workout. I did 25 minutes of spinning at specific intensities, then hopped off, hit the hill, and did three repeats. The best was a 5:17, and the cumulative for all three was 17:04, which I'm pretty happy with because usually I find making more than one good run impossible. When I was done I got back on the trainer and cooled down for 15 minutes, then drove home. I told you this was a new low. Now you know why most days I'm not even bothering to make an entry. See you all at Haverhill Sunday, hopefully. Thanks for reading.