Category Archives: Whining

Learning About Becoming a Human All Over Again

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Our weekend in Bend was great, and I’ll write up a recap of the race and festivities once I get some photos. But it was a weekend with Laurel away from home. Planning that is always a bit of jump off a cliff. Did we bring the right clothes? Did we bring enough food? Will we sleep at all? What if she gets sick?

It was exacerbated by the fact that Lo was throwing up all week last week. Like, literally every night she’d vomit the entire contents of her stomach all over Amanda or I. But mostly Amanda. And she had maybe one good night of sleep, which meant we (read: Amanda) had pretty much zero nights of good sleep. (Hell, I was just standing around at a stupid tradeshow all week. Whee!)

So we thought there’s no way she’ll rally for Bend. Let’s just stay in and sew all weekend. But Thursday night she ate and slept and woke up like a million bucks. So we decided we’d go.

The first night in Bend was great. She was a delight. The folks we stayed with adored her and brought out all these old toys. There was much laughing and cooing. The first day at the race was super-fun, too.

But the second night, Continue reading →

Washington County Cross Crusade Race Recap

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I finished the race today pissed. Pissed that I can work so hard in the back of the race and do so crappy. I mean, I busted my hump for a shitty result.

Paul and I staged together near the 2/3s mark, and I was on his wheel coming out of the sand pile that acted as the biggest, dumbest choke point ever. (There were people literally minutes in front by the time the middle part of the herd made it over the pile. Neat!)

Then on this really simple part of the course, I randomly shot off course and got tied up in the tape. So fucking dumb.

I went from the middle of the herd to the back. I managed to pass a lot of people after that, but woooo! I got 114th out of 185.

I did a lot of good things after that. Jumping out of corners and putting in long efforts, riding smart. But the course was dry and fast, and there weren’t any places to make up time.

Continue reading →

Cyclocross, season 1

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Just finished with the weekend I wanted when I first considered cyclocross: Halloween weekend. And it did not disappoint.

Mud, cowbells, cheering, beer, friends.

I raced pretty bad both days, but Saturday I was in the middle of a cold. Can’t recommend that — it was like breathing through a straw.

Sunday I felt better and I raced better, if a bit over-cautious. I want to work on my cornering in the next two weeks — those were the places that had me losing time.

Anyway. We hung out with some new friends, got muddy, got a little drunk, picked up a few new scars, and had a blast.

So Sore

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Lifted twice this week with Lonnie. So sore. Took yesterday off, but plan to go back today even if work is hard. Especially if work is hard!

Did incline press and butterflies. That’s what really killed me. The weight I used for flies was hilariously light — 20 lbs. I didn’t struggle, but I sure felt it.

Incline press was better: 8 reps with 115 and I didn’t struggle too much there either. Nice!

Managing Exhaustion

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I’m not exhausted yet, but am definitely feeling more tired. I still plan to hit the gym today, however, because we’re doing a whole lotta nothing this weekend other than camping and drinkng.

Oh sure, there might be a little hiking too. But generally speaking, I expect rest. And naps.

And I think that’s the trick to staying motivated and energetic when re-starting a workout program: keep your eye on the rest periods. When you start to run out of energy, determine if you can push through to the rest period.

And then really rest. Do nothing. Put your feet up. Crash. Get intimate with your couch.

That’s one thing I’ll do wrong this weekend — in all likelihood, it will not be that restful. So I may need to take off the early part of next week to recharge. We’ll see.

Migration and Another Attempt

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I migrated the old blog over to WordPress from Blogger. Nothing against Blogger, but I really like my WordPress iPhone app. And what I say about training is not terribly verbose, most of the time.

Amanda and I have been swimming for the past two months or so. Maybe even a little more. It’s been great to swim, and while I can’t say I’ve lost any weight, it’s made me feel a little better about things.

I’ve also been doing the occasional trip to the gym. Mostly I’ve been doing that to keep my shoulders from being injured from all the swimming. It seems to’ve worked thus far.

Today, I got back on my bike for the first time in a while. I may try to commute by bike a few times in the next few weeks. We’ll see.

Three things have been going really poorly lately. My food choices are attrocious. I’ve been tossing and turning at night way more than in the past. And work’s been stressful. Possibly more stressful than normal. I’m going to try to get the food thing on track this week too — little changes mostly — and hope that the work thing works itself out.

As for the sleep problems? I don’t know what I can do. Probably my first step should be to cut waaaay the hell back on caffeine. I’ll start there today and see how it goes. Maybe I’ll try the doctor at the end of the month if things don’t sort themselves out.

Yeah. That should work out REALLY well. I’ll make three major lifestyle changes in one week. I feel EXTREMELY confident that they’ll all stick. Ha!

Finding a Cycling Team: Location, Location, Location

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Rode with my cycling coach Mike Manning yesterday at lunch from downtown Portland. At one point, he asked if I’d gone to any of the Meet the Team rides through OBRA. Being unattached or without a team in cycling is fine if you’re Lance. I’m clearly not, so Mike’s been gently pushing to get me with some people.

The “Meet the Team” rides start mostly downtown. But none of the regular team rides start remotely near our house in deep SE. And with just one car, I can’t monopolize it on the weekends to drive to Hillsboro or Beavertron or whereever. And unless I want to add 20 miles to every group ride I go on (I don’t), I’m out of luck.

A while back, I shot an email to the OBRA list. I got one semi-legit reply, which was for a vegan, organic triathlon team. Which is somewhat ironic because I’ve been considering getting back into the pool and focusing on triathlon to help strip off some upper-body weight.

Finding a team in cycling has been one of the most frustrating aspects of the sport. In swimming, which is my native sport, teams fall all over themselves to make new swimmers welcome. They encourage them to come out, try to be social, organize car pools, the whole shebang.

In cycling, the indifference to new members is shocking to me. You ask, and you get shrugs. You volunteer, and you get blown-off.

I had one outstanding experience when I first started with Veloshop, in that the Calver brothers (now with GSC United way the hell out in Beaverton) were some of the most welcoming, nice, encouraging people I’d ever met. They have a passion for the sport that completely infects new riders. But then, a few months later, the damn team kicked them off. I couldn’t even tell you why, because it was so bizarre.

Anyway, Mike off-handedly mentioned that he might put together a CycleOne kit to promote his cycling coach biz around the Portland area. I told him I’d wear it. And though it might not be a “team” in the strictest sense, I would certainly use it as an excuse to organize rides out here in SE.

Fitting training into a grown-up life

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It is funny how something like work and life can really kick your ass around. I had another great week of riding last week, but this week has been filled with one crazy surprise after another at work.Enough so that I’ve been distracted, and irritated. Worse, I have been off the bike except yesterday when Amanda and I toodled over to watch the Vaux swifts.

Ultimately, I came to some (hopefully) healthy resolutions about work. With at least a plan, it should make work-life more stable, or at least easier to not get whipped around and knocked off the bike.

One thing that gives me confidence is that I have a good cycling coach. I know that he is pulling for me, and that he will help me find a way to use cycling as a positive force in my life.

I sent him a whiny email, and he said replied along the lines of “Don’t beat yourself up. Get out there when you can and enjoy every pedal stroke and breath of fresh air.”

Great guy, that Mike Manning.

Sent from my iPhone

Sick

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I caught a cold somehow, and spent yesterday pretty miserable. But I took it easy, and slept well, so we’ll see how today goes. I’m going to try to nap even more today.

I noticed in VeloNews this morning that a company named “American Beef” will take over from Saunier Duval as the title sponsor for the Scott cycling team. Weirdly, it is NOT the Cattleman’s Beef Association of “It’s what’s for dinner fame.” Rather, American Beef is from Chihuahua, Mexico.

Anyway. Watching the final TT this morning for the Tour de France. Thus far, Cadel Evans is kinda stinking it up, but my man from Garmin-Chipotle, Christian Vande Velde, is flying.

In fact, it looks like Garmin-Chipotle placed two riders in the top 5, with Vande Velde and David Millar.

Anyway, there was an excellent article in the print edition of the newest Bicycling Magazine about Garmin-Chipotle, especially about how with their aggressive anti-doping stance that they will likely win a little less — that they will be merely okay. And the spin that Jonathan Vaughters put on it was brilliant:

To agree not to dope, to agree to never let that enter the context of teh team is to agree to fail sometimes. To agree to let your fans down sometimes is to agree to the fallibility of the human body.” He said the wins — honest wins — would be that much sweeter, the celebrations that much richer when you truly knew the “preciousness of winning.”