Stay strong but know when to rest

After 3 days off the bike I with a bad cold I fit in a group ride today. I missed the snowhomish bike shop ride yesterday due to not feeling up to it which was sad because I hear Santa was sitting in on the pace line. Maybe next year!

It was a very wet 40 degree day that tends to discourage outdoor exercise but I wanted to push my legs just a little before I head off to grandmothers house for 3 days of Chrismas eating and rest. 

Joe and Barbara were the other brave souls on this fine Sunday ride. The pace was mellow and it was great to get to know Joe and Barb better. Buy the end of the ride I was soaked but warm as if cycling in a bath tub and we had logged 25 miles, mostly on the Centenial bike path. 

When winter knocks you down, you have to fight back! Looking forward to healthy days to come after I kick this cold for good. Merry Christmas to you all! 

Fenders and visibility

After my group ride, I realized my fenders were still sub par for rain riding. I decided to find a way to install a full rear fender with buddy flap extensions. This was no easy task without fender mounts. I had to use some 1/8" conveyor belt rubber and ShoeGu. The Zip ties were required to hold things in place overnight untill the glue set. The Shoe Gu can be peeled off easily come corss season or summer riding season and then I can go back to my quick mount fenders as needed.

Buddy flaps installed for reduced spary in a group setting so I don't have to ride in the back of the bus all the time.



 While I was at it, I decided to add some more reflective tape. I bought gold and black to match my bike so if I do a nice install it will still look nice in the day time and light up at night

Gold and black by day:

Bright white by night:

I'm not done yet. I ride at night almost every day this time of year so too much is not enough when it comes to being seen out ther in the rain and fog north of Seattle.

Hammering thru December

I joined the Snohomish shop group ride for the second time today since the cyclocross race this weekend is far from home. They had enough riders to break up into a large easy pace group and a small fast group of 7. Naturally, I joined the fast group. Not bad for a wet day in December. Tim Turner on a disk wheel recumbant broke wind almost the whole ride but his low profile on the bike makes him a poor draft so Jeff Reed followed him and provided draft for the rest of us. The flat and down hill pace was so fast I could hardly hold a wheel, let alone take a pull. Tim Turner has the majority of all the KOM's on Strava around here and both these guys crank out around 10,000 miles a year. 36 miles and 1,350 vertical feet later I was toast and I craved endurance to stay strong till the end of this and longer loops to come. It was a great training rider and nice not hold back although buy the end I was feeling like I should have a little. My hill climbing is good but not to great at 145 lbs but I need more power on the flats. I will enjoy the organized rides and races I do next year with more of this kind of training under my belt.

Vitamin D deficiency in Seattle Wa

Rumor is, lack of sun in the north west can lead to vitamin D deficiency. Last winter I was on work travel so this is my first full winter here in Washington and since I don't drink milk or eat eggs regularly (and theses foods have minimal vitamine d content anyway) I'm guaranteed to be low on  this vitamine.

So what are the effects of running low on D? Bone loss is the main problem as well as a lowered immune system but my main concern is decreased brain function. My memory has gone down hill fast this year. I can't remember names or training I've dove and as an engineer, a sharp mind is my livelihood. 

After taking high doses of vitamine d for about 4 days my memory has improved a noticeable amount! It's nearly impossible to overdose on it so I'm not holding back. 

It seems that cycling regularly seems to burn off a lot of vitamines and minerals. I think not taking supplements and eating a low quality diet is the reason my fitness peaked at 19. Had I eaten the right things, I may have been a pro rider by now. I ended up training very hard into college logging lots of hours on the bike but my body could not keep up. All that work just to become slower really took the wind out of my sails and I stopped taking my sport and health so seriously. In hindsight, social rides are my fondest 2 wheel memories. It's good to mix in some racing to recharge my drive to train hard and become a better rider. 

Picture above was a late summer race 2013, and my first competition since 2005. Raced sport and brought up the rear. What a kick in the ego! I have made my fitness a very low priority. Time to turn that around. 

Tall Chief race Seattle Cyclocross nov. 2013

Some pics from tall chief cyclocross race, part of the Seattle cyclocross series in early November. It was a very slow race. After 30 minutes in the muddy grass, I was toast. Raced in the 4/5 race due to lag in my license upgrade and was disqualified as a result so not sure how I did.

Cold December

The first 7 days of December have been very cold. The commute into work was in the 20's and I skipped out on the Saturday Snowhomish ride this week because it was 15 degrees and my leg feel ready for rest anyway.

On the equipment front, I am currently chaning from speedplay frogs to crankbrothers eggbeaters. I would have made the change 10 years ago by they had a problem with wearing grooves into the bottoms of shoes. I saw now that they offer steel protective plates to resolve that issue an the pedals can be had for as little as $28 for the stainless steel version so I figured I had no reason to wait any longer. Sure enough, after only 2 weeks, grooves did develope so I ordered steel protectors for all my shoes. Looking forward to trying them out with fresh legs and warmer weather next week. 

December fenders

This week is cold. The high today was 34 and it will only get colder as the week goes on but I have never been shy about freezing temps. My legs have felt strong but sore all week after last weeks riding. I will hit 100,000 feet of climbing for the year this week. Quite a lot of climbing in only 900 miles. Washington near the sound is quite hilly!

I also made some mods to my fenders to prepare for wet group rides. My new carbon cross frame does not have fender mounting holes so getting full coverage fenders has not been easy. I bought 2sets of planet bike removable fenders. I used a full set in the rear by bending the stays of the front fender slightly so it would fit behind the seat tube. Then I added 1/8" conveyor belt rubber to cover the gap between them. I used the large rear fender of the second set on the front and re shaped the steel stays to suit the application. I cut off the excess steel wit my Dremel. I still want a little more coverage so it's a work in progress.

Nutrition goals

This week I really ramped up the intensity with a longer rout to work and a high intensity 25 mile group ride and performed well every day to my surprise. The Snowhomish bike shop ride in Snowhomish Washington runs year round sat. At 9 am and it seems like a diverse group with many levels and abilities. I plan on making it part of my routine.

My hill climbing is progressing well because I have lost a lot of weight. I'm now below 140 on my 5'9" frame which is less than I want to be. I cut soda and junk food from my diet so I am having a hard time keeping the weight on. I was as high as 155 this year after spending 5 weeks overseas with working lots of overtime and eating out every meal. I'm going to use "my fitness pall" app on my iphone to track my intake again to I can adjust my intake and try to put a few pounds back on. It's a pain to scan all the bar codes and look everything up but I need to get a better handle on my weight. My goal is 2,400 calories a day.

Washington State Championship Cat 3 open

My second race on my new Blue cross bike. Wish I could say I was feeling fast but I felt more like a slug. I need more endurace! I suffered greatly and got a boost of motivation to train harder. Finished 11th out of 15.

My Strava Feed

My Strava:

Back in the saddle

After spending little to no time on the bike since I finished college in 2007, I want to get back into cycling in a big way. As a Jr. racer back in 1999 to 2002 I used to ride 3,000 to 4,000 miles a year to a completely planned training schedule and in 2001 was ranked #1 Jr. MTB racer in the state of Oregon. That was a long time ago now.

Moving to Arazona was not a good move in terms of my presonal fitness. I have never been an early riser so putting in long hours on the bike before getting to work at 7am just didn't work out and the heat and relentless sun kept me indoors most of the year. 

 As of september, 2012 I have lived in Everett Washington and I plan take advantage of the mild climate here and get back into shape. I'm 30 years old now and it is time to make a turn in my life before I am 40, overwieght, low on energy, and too out of shape to push myself out of this rut I have gotten into. Commuting to work was always the best way to ensure I got a workout in. As a teenager, I road into town 30 miles round trip every day durring summer and holidays. Between that and longer rides on the weekends, my fitness came naturally as a bi-product of my daily rutine. Starting in April 2013, I began riding to work consitantly every day once again. The only problem is, it's only 1 mile away. After putting in about 5 miles a day, 5 days a week, I have platoed in my gains. It is time to take it to the next level which means making time for longer rides consitantly, often in less than ideal weather conditions. 

 I hit up a few cyclocross races to push my motivation a bit. I think I jumped the gun on upgrading from 4/5 to cat 3 as I finished 11/15 at last weekends Washington Cyclocross championship. It didn't help that the bearings on one of my pedals was almost compleetly seased up causing lot of friction. 

Bellow, my first Cat 3 Cyclocross race: MFG at McCullen park on my stripped down mt. bike since my old Jamison Nova steel frame failed on me earlier this year. Finished 27th out of 35. 5 of those were DNF's.