.

2009-06-14T10:36:00.000-07:00

Good week of riding. Even though the weather wasn't great, only got rained on for maybe an hour total.

weekly hours 11

yearly hours 148

a good week

2009-06-07T19:25:00.000-07:00

It was a good week. This was an off week in my training cycle, so I didn't ride a lot, but good things happened. At the first the year I posted a list of goals for 2009. I was able to cross off one of those goals by winning the C flight this week.
Thursday was the first of the BDO Cash Crits. The race went well. I felt strong the whole time and stayed in the top five almost the entire race. With half a lap to go, I broke away and was able to hold the pack off until the finish. Ever since I started thinking about racing bicycles, I imagined crossing the finish line and wondered if I would throw up the victory salute. Up until that day I thought about it and decided if I was ever to win, it would be a shame to waste the possibly once in a life time chance to celebrate the win (hopefully it will not be once in life time!). So as I approached the line, I glanced back making sure I was still clear and raised my hands in victory.

If you know me, you know that I have taken my training more seriously this year. It feels really good to see tangible results.

weekly hours 6.5

yearly hours 137

2009-05-31T09:18:00.000-07:00

If you look the right of your screen you will see something called Garmin connect. These is where all the info about my daily rides will be posted. It is actually pretty cool because it lets one see all the info about the ride. Yeahh!

Weekly totals 12 hours 15 min 205 miles

This was about my biggest week of the year. My legs are feeling it for sure. Next will I will ride alot less next week.

Yearly total 130.5 hours

2009-05-24T16:49:00.000-07:00

tuesday 1.5 hours group ride, fast pace, got dropped 50 minutes in.

wednesday 45 minutes easy recovery spin

friday 1.5 hours with dave, two flats, never really got a good rhythm.

saturday 4 hours, rained the whole time. medium pace, good climbing up dry fork.

weekly totals. 9 hours 15 minutes

I got my garmin back, so my ride descriptions should be a little more detailed.

2009-05-18T19:52:00.001-07:00

monday 1.5 hours 1 hour 10 tempo with 5x1 minute max efforts

2009-05-17T07:31:00.000-07:00

4-16-2008 3.5 hours 6am. Divide, east side pineview, old snowbasin road, trapers, ogden caynon
Not a really intense ride. Divide time was around 28 minutes, but Iwasnt pushing it and got to the top feeling great. Cold ride, updressed

weekly total 8 hours

monthly total ???

yearly total 110 hours

4-11-2009 thru 4-14-2009

2009-05-14T20:00:00.000-07:00

My garmin (bike computer) is broken. So there is not alot of info to share until it gets back.

4-11-2009 1 hour tempo pace.

4-12-2009 Group ride. 1.5 hours. Very fast. Worked hard almost the whole time. Windy.

4-14-2009 2 hours. 1hour 40 minutes at tempo pace, with two all out sprints. Windy

slacker

2009-05-14T18:37:00.000-07:00

I haven't really been posting to much lately. If I don't have anything really exciting to post, I just haven't posted. But that is all going to change. I decided to use my blog as a Trainer Log. So the plan is every ride will be reported, with weekly and monthly totals.

Hell of the North

2009-04-05T19:39:00.000-07:00

My first real race of the year. The weather wasnt great, but it could have been alot worse. I had visions of 6" of snow on the dirt sections. The temepeture was about 33 deg, and it snowed the whole time, but it wasn't sticking. The race is a 5 mile circut race, with a 1.75 mile section of dirt. My group did 5 laps. I felt pretty good the first two laps. The dirt was by far the hardest part. The pace really got pushed when we hit it, and on the third lap I fell out of the main group. I ended up finish 15 out of 33. I had a fun time, and learned a few things.

my muddy machine

Bryce and Zane

close

2009-03-29T08:36:00.000-07:00

2.4 pounds to go. That puts me down just shy of 30. Things are feeling great. I hope to be able to keep it up.

three week recap

2009-03-15T07:27:00.000-07:00

First off: the St George trip. We had really great weather and rode a lot of trails we haven't ridden before.

Day one:
Road ride up snow canyon. Just Jason and I. Around an hour.
Gooseberry mesa. We rode the south rim. Very good stuff.
City Creek trail. Eh, it's close to the house, so we rode it. Just a ride, nothing amazing here.

Day two:
Barrel Roll. First time on this trail. It was a really well built, super fast, fun trail
Zen Trail. First time on this trail also. Unreal. One of the funnest trails I have been on. Technical, but super fun. A must ride. MUST!!
Short Road ride: 45 minutes with some good climbing and descending.

Day three:
Early morning road ride. A nice spin around St George. 1hour and a half.
Church Rocks. A new ride for us. Fun fast single track, leading to a cool slick rock playground. A great end to a fun weekend.

Gooseberry mesa

Alex on Zen trail

Jason on Zen Trail

Zen trail

me on Barrel roll

Tim on Gooseberry mesa

The start of Gooseberry

All in all the trip was a blast and I can't wait to get down there again.

Training:

Things are going well for my training plans. I am three weeks in and feeling quite tired. I have climbed the divide once every week. I had 31 hours of riding planned and have ridden just short of 30, so things seem to be on track for me. Yesterday I decided to test the legs (and the nerves) and go race the RMR crit. It turned out well for me. I did a much longer warm up; about 50 minutes. I know now how important a good warm-up is for a sort intense race. I was getting smoked in the cross races this fall and I know it was partly from a lack of a proper warm-up. I did everything in the race at RMR that I wanted to do. I was able to hang in the lead group for the whole race and I tried to go out on an attack on the last lap. I wasn't able to hold the high pace, but I for sure learned a few things. All-in-all it was great to get out with so many serious cyclists and I can't wait to do it again.

Weight Loss

Well, I haven't gained any back, but my goal of 200 by the first of April might be slipping away. I was 209.8 on Friday morning, which puts me down about 22 pounds since the first of the year. My goal for this week will be 206.5 which is pretty lofty considering the rate that I have been losing. Stay tuned.

mid week

2009-02-25T19:18:00.000-08:00

The week is going great so far. Here is a recap:

Monday- 40 minutes of tempo, and 25 minutes warm up/cool down
Tuesday- 3 mile time (cts field test) 8 power dills. 1 hour total
Wednesday - 30 minutes of easy spinning with Steph

The 3 mile time trial went well. The route started just after 1900 west on Pioneer road. Here is how it went.

I may have started to fast. I like the way that my heart rate looks, but I had a hard time gaining speed, but I didn't lose any speed, so that's OK I guess.

It will be fun to see my progress over the season. I will do another one at the end of my 6 week base period, and see if I can lose some time.

2009-02-22T19:47:00.000-08:00

I missed my goal by one pound. The "maintaining" week had an adverse effect. My regular weekly structure works really well because there are no real decisions to make. I eat basically the same thing everyday during my normal week. When there is choice involved, I almost always choose poorly. If the weight is going to keep coming off, I need to learn to not go crazy when I don't have my set schedule. There is 5 and half weeks left until April 1st. Too make my goal of 200 I need to lose 2.6 lbs a week. My goal for next Friday is 210.4

I have decided to start my training plan a week early. IT STARTS NOW!!
The plan has changed. I am going to break the year down to 4 periods with a week break between each.

1 Base period, basic aerobic endurance 6 weeks
2 Build 1, Get specific for High Uinta's Classic
3 Build 2, Get specific for LOTOJA
4 Build 3, Get specific for State championship cyclocross race

For the next 6 weeks I have 61 hours of cycling planned out. If I can come close to that, my fitness base should be good.

This week schedule is:

Monday 1 hour tempo ride
Tuesday 1 hour power work
Thursday 1 hour tempo ride
Friday 1 hour Hill work
Saturday 2 hours long ride

The excitement is mounting

2009-02-15T19:31:00.000-08:00

Well Ive been on a vacation of sorts, but this week its back on. The official training program is going to kick off the first week in March. Right now I am ridding 2-3 very unstructured hours a week, doing p90x here and there, playing racquetball and church basketball. Come March it will be 5-7 structured hours on the bike and 2 hours of p90x per week. The training program is still coming together. More than likely it will be a 4weeks on, one week off, program until august. The excitement is mounting!! Hopefully the weather will be getting better over the next few weeks.

The first sorta success: The first time that I ever rode a road bike, we were living at Stephanie's dads. I left the house and headed east towards the mountains. I got to Washington and decided to go strait on 2600 north. Its not a really steep hill, but I was completely convinced that my bike was broken and would not shift to the "easy" gears. Later I found out road bike gearing and mountain bike gearing are very different. I truly suffered going up that 1.6 mile hill. So now I try and use that hill as a gauge. I climbed it on the first day of this year, and it took me 9 min 12 sec. I rode this Friday and I did it in 7 min 44 sec. That is a one minuted and 27 seconds faster. That is what the loss of 17 pounds can do.

My weight goal for the week is 212.

week 5

2009-02-06T06:33:00.000-08:00

This was a pretty tough week. The weekend was ugly. Darn Superbowl . I think this week i will just try and maintain my weight, give my body a little break. I have lost 17.8 pounds total since Jan 2. My final goal is on track.

week 4

2009-01-30T06:39:00.000-08:00

The goal was 218. It was a good week. I cut out almost all dairy this week. Seems like it worked well. The goal for nest week is 214.5. Stay tuned .

Trainers sucks

2009-01-27T19:56:00.000-08:00

I did the exact same work today as I did last week, and it wasn't nearly as fun. Actually it suck, but I was able to make it through the whole hour. The magic happened in garage. It was rather cold, my toes actually went numb. This video is at 29 minutes.

week 3

2009-01-23T17:12:00.001-08:00

The week went well, I was kinda feeling like I might beat my goal by more than 1/2 a pound, but 1/2 a pound is better than nothing. My goal for next week will be 218.

Trainer time

2009-01-21T19:09:00.000-08:00

In the past, and more than likely in the future, I have not enjoyed spending time on my trainer. This evening however was different, for 60 short minutes I achieved what most cyclist can only dream of; trainer euphoria. For the most part I have a very hard time riding for more than 30 minutes, and getting my heart rate above 170 was nearly impossible. I also normally have a lot of hand pain while riding. I made some saddle adjustments based on an article I found online, and my hands felt great the entire hour. Here is how the hour went down:

5 minute warm up

4 minutes at 15o-160bpm

1 minute at 170+

3 minutes rest

6 minutes at 150-160bpm

1 minute at 170+

3 minutes recovery

6 minutes at 150-160bpm

1 minute at 170+

then repeated

The last 2 sets were the best, I was able to push really hard, and still feel good. The last 1 minuter I held it above 185 for the last 30 seconds. Gotta love the trainer.. at least today.

Oh ya, I was watching Breaking Away during the ride.

week 2 complete

2009-01-16T17:02:00.000-08:00

I made it. It took a lot of work yesterday. Over 2 hours of racquetball, and an hour of church basketball, and no dinner. Probably not the best way to lose weight, but it didn't seem as though it was going to happen, so in order to hit the goal, drastic measuring need to be taken . This not the way I want to lose weight, so hopefully things will go well over the weekend and I can get ahead of the game. My weekly goal is 220.9 . I find it weird that I am hitting my goals right on, like not 226.1 or 222.9... but right on the money. Maybe its because all week I repeat the number to myself, and I go to bed repeating it. I am sure it wont keep happening, cuz if it does, folks might start thinking that I am cheating. :)

week 2 blues

2009-01-13T19:42:00.000-08:00

The combination of not being diligent over the weekend, and it being the second week of "project 200" is making for a hard last few days. My weight is holding pretty steady, so unless something drastic happens, the 223 might not happen. The p90x is going OK, I am pretty sore, but I am feeling good. Tomorrow I will do my p90x workout in the morning, and I am considering riding my bike to work, then riding an hour after work. I will let you know if I step up and do it.

I have being thinking about some of the things I want to accomplish in cycling this and thought I might share a few of them.

1. upgrade from a Cat 5 to a Cat 4

2. win a BDO criterium in the C flight and be able to compete in the B flight

3. Pack finish in the cat 4/5 flight of the Ogden Harvest moon Criterium.

4. Climb the North Ogden Divide in less than 22 minutes.

5. Finish Lotoja 30 minutes faster than last year.******

6. Race the Utah cyclocross series in the B flight and not get lapped.

Some pretty lofty goals, but with some hard work I feel its all achievable.

**** (goal depended on Jason's willingness to ride, ands Steph's willingness to let ride.)

The Weekend

2009-01-11T21:33:00.000-08:00

Weekends are hard when one is attempting to eat right. I didn't do very well. I ate less than I normally would have, if I wasn't trying to watch it, but i probably ate more calories this weekend then I did all week. I am still going to try for the 223 goal.

I did get some amazing riding in though. Jason H. and I took the cross bikes out in the hills above Vernal and man was it fun. Some really steep dirt snow pack roads. We rode for about an hour and a half, which was about enough in the 20 degree weather. I took my camera and was planing on getting some epic shoots, but the bleeding batteries died after 3 pictures. Rats.

Week one complete

2009-01-10T06:20:00.000-08:00

I made my weekly goal. Week one of a "get fit" plan is usually the easiest so hopefully things keep going well. I am sorta nervous for this week. The second week is normally the hardest for me. SO i think a goal of 223 is lofty enough. I will be 223 next Friday. (positive thinking) We are out in Vernal this weekend and Jason and I are planing on getting out on the cross bikes today, that is if its not butt cold like it is right now. The current temp is 10 F, and I have a 18 degree minimum requirement. I am sure it will get there by this afternoon.

p90x

2009-01-07T20:32:00.000-08:00

On Monday I started a home fitness program called p90x. I am three days in and I am mucho sore. My calves and my forearms are the only muscles that are not sore. It is a pretty intense program, about 1 hour and 15 minutes a day. I have been getting up at 6am and doing it before work. It is working out pretty good so far. I would much rather be ridding my cycle, but this is means to an end. It is a 90 day program, but I don't think I am going to go past 60 days, maybe 30, depending on the weather. :)

Here are some more pics from the weekend cross race
complements of Jason ..

First and Last

2009-01-04T07:55:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was the last cyclocross race of the season, but the first race of 2009. The race was at Wheeler farm in salt lake. The temperatures were manageable in the mid 20's. The conditions were hard but really fun. The entire coarse was snow packed, so it maybe it really interesting. Jason H. and I took a warm up lap, and by the time we got back they were already lining up, so we got pretty poor starting positions. It started out super slow, and it took along time to open up. Jason passed me about 1/2 way through the first lap and i didn't see him again until the end. All in all it was a fun race. The Utah cyclocross series is over, sadly, so it will be 10 months before the fun and pain returns.

pre race with Jason

weight loss goal

2009-01-02T21:46:00.000-08:00

My goal is be to under 200 by april 4. My starting weight is 232. Its going to be a crazy ride.

First ride of the year

2009-01-01T19:26:00.000-08:00

It has been a tradition of mine, to ring in the new year with a bike ride on new years day. For the last 4 years I have been able to accomplish it. Last year was pretty short, it was below 15 and that makes for unfun riding. This year everything was quite perfect. Good weather. Ample free time during the day. I planed on riding about 30 miles. I was about 6 miles in and out of corner of my eye I see a brown Cocker Spaniel bolting towards the road. I have had quite a few dog experiences in my bike life. Alot of barkers, a few chases, but never a comocazi dog. That all changed today. This dog made a beeline for my front wheel, and I took a header over my handlebars at about 19 miles per hour.

As I picked myself off the pavement, I hear the dog off in the distance crying. The owner of dog must have felt that if I saw him beating the day lights out the dog, I might not beat the day lights out of him. It must have worked, because I didn't get to mad at the guy. I was annoyed, but my wheels were still true, and pain wasn't bad, so I went on the way with some road rash, a bump on elbow, and new dog experience under my belt. I did finish the 30 miles though and it was fun.

First of many to come

2008-12-31T22:24:00.000-08:00

The idea of maintaining a blog has been a little daunting to me for several reasons, first; my grammar and spelling skills are below par, and second; I am scared I will make a few posts, then become lazy not do anything else. So, lets just see how it goes, and ignore my terrible grammar.

The purpose of this blog is to get some accountability for the things I want to accomplish this coming year in cycling. I am getting really tired of setting goals and not following through with them, so I thought this would be a way for my friends and family to check up one me, give me words of encouragement and accountabilty . I got the idea from a guy in utah who started a blog called fatcyclist.com . He started the blog for the same reason, to shame himself into losing weight and becoming a better rider. Not only did it work for him, but he makes money and gets lots for free stuff for doing his blog.

I hope to do a post every friday about my weekly weight loss, and posts through out the week about the training and racing I am doing.

Through out my life I have had a lot of "hobbies", but cycling is far more than that for me. Since I got my first bike in 2005, it has really consumed me. I have riden around 8,000 miles on the road since then and really I want to take it to the next level this year, and become competive on a local level.