In the Gym

Spending a lot of time in the gym lately. Mainly because thats where I can train and watch the Olympics at the same time. Lots of weights. But fun for a change since I don't lift weights that often.

Exploring new towns is always fun and there's been a lot of that! There are some really good restaurants here in Omaha. I'm really excited for the snow to melt away here as is everybody I guess. I don't mind snow if I can do something on it. But its in that in-between stage now where its mostly icy dirty stuff, and just enough to make riding pretty sketchy. Off to Mpls tonight to get my house ready to rent out. Maybe some snowmobiling this weekend if I get the house done by Saturday night!

BTW...while it is not Lindseys fault...I think Mancuso had a shot at another gold.

Winter Olympics

Ahhhhh yes...the 2010 Winter Olympics are in full effect now. I love it! Being able to understand what the athletes, trainers, coaches, volunteers, etc go through to preppare themselves for the games is mind boggling. I can easily watch every sport in the Olympics. Its so fun to cheer for Team USA, even if its just from my own living room with no one around. I especially look forward to the Skeleton and Speed Skating because thats what I would love to compete in. I'd love to try them both.

Watching the Olympics makes me want to train harder and longer than ever. I've put in some good training already (more than other years at this time) but now feel like I should do more. I am very close to solidifying plans for Sea Otter and making a strong start into the 2010 season.

Sarah has been in town since Friday and yesterday while I was at work she found some nice steep hills that will work great for some tough efforts...when the snow melts. For now its still the trainer and the gym. I'm putting a lot of focus into evening out the legs and building core strength, particularly in my back - top to bottom.

Speaking of legs...I'm going to try a new set of pedals this year. Switching from Time to Shimano. Also...new tires. Haven't bought any yet but thats on my shopping list at the next LBS.

Cross-training

I've been running, lifting, biking...some very random type excercises for core and other workout types. 60-90 miuntes a day ~4-5 days per week though and I can definitely tell. Anything to keep my mind off the fact that there is still snow...everywhere!!

I'm really hoping I can make it to Sea Otter this year. I'll go if I feel ready - two months away! I can do it! I think...may have to make a phone call for some help to get ready. Anybody else going?

Regular Excercise

It sure feels like the groove is coming back. I've been training regularly and keeping up with the better nutrition...I've been cooking a lot lately. Other life stress is relatively low, all things considered. I'm only 10 minutes or less from work now which helps tremendously. I feel like I can go through an entire workout and stay concentrated. Rocky movies help ;-)

I got back from Denver late Sunday night and last night I scouted the area around my apartment and found some decent climbs within a mile that will for sure help with the workouts. More hills than around my house back in Coon Rapids! Excited to get out on the road! I love snow in the mountains or if there's enough to go snowmobiling, but neither really works here so...NO MORE SNOW!

Also...on another racing front...I've been doing a litte research on the auto racing scene around here. I forgot that Mid-America Motorplex is only 30 minutes form here! Hmmm...pondering some SCCA road racing for the future.

A bit rusty eh?

The last few days I've been training again and I gotta say it feels amazing! I'm sleeping better, eating better and just feeling better in general without even much effort. Everything falls in line easy when I start to ride.

That first click of the cleat snapping into the pedal a few days ago was a great sound. First the right then the left. It actually felt a little strange sitting on the bike at first. Its been way too long. The first 10 minutes revealed a lot about the balance of power (or lack thereof) between the right and left legs. The heart rate seemed to respond a little quicker than what I'm used to.

Most of my excercises this week have been on the bike, on the trainer and some long stretch sessions and core excercises. I'm getting excited about 2010! However, my abs kinda feel like Lars Ulrich played through the entire Black album on them. Oh well, here we go!

Gonna go pick up a car in Denver this weekend. Then next week I'll drive around and start scouting for some hills to ride around here. I must say Omaha has more hills then what I expected. Kinda reminds me of St. Paul a little.

Welcome to Omaha!

So I'm in O'town now as my friends call it and things are going well here! Everybody's been great to work with and nice people wherever I go. Thanks to the comments on my last post, I've found some good info on where to ride when the trails are ready. Hopefully able to line up some group rides on the road too.

I've got my apartment situated now to have my CycleOps set up in front of the TV with the Bianchi...long "shake the rust off" ride tonight on that. I'm eager to get started again.

Gonna ease into it. Honestly my leg feels good...but there are times when I know that it was broken 6 months ago. Not worried about riding on the trainer, but I have to say I'm a little nervous about getting back out on the trails. Still kinda bummed about the whole thing when I think back. I was really pounding those trails in Colorado harder and faster than I've ever been before.

Oh well...I'll get it back right? ...right? ;-)

2010? Lets see how it goes...

So...after an obvious long absence from regular biking...or anything really that resembled life before my last post...uncertainty has passed and I'm moving in a similar but new direction. I start a new job on January 19th...in Omaha, Nebraska. Yep...Omaha.

This is an excellent move career-wise and with training, this will afford me to get out earlier as the winters not near as long. Now that I'm only 7 hours or so from Denver, I will probably race most of the Mountain States Cup this season in Colorado! I'm REALLY excited for that! I will also make it back to Minnesota to race some MNSCS events.

I'll write more later, but major decisions like these have been whats kept me from regular training and blog updates. Obviously thoughts about possible decisions like these can't really be discussed in public forums.

More to come...but for now, I'm off to Nebraska! Supposedly there is some racing there - the Psycowpath series or something like that?

Getting Better

Ok so things are...getting better. My other issue has been taken care for now at least. So, I have been able to get some more training in with the lower stress levels. Today was a great ride - over an hour and pretty heavy on the effort. I clicked down a few gears on the Orbea (on the road) and cranked up the hr. I can finally stand and pedal with little to no forgiveness on the left leg - only for about 5 minutes though before some soreness starts up (tonight was a good dose of ibuprofen). I'm curious about how things will feel tomorrow.

Last weekend was Sarahs golden birthday and Saturday night many from her running club came, so it was great to be around a group of athletes - all talking running for the most part. BUT I did get some good tips for hill training on the bike in St. Paul - something about Ramsey St or Ave or something off Sunnit Ave...and then the "High Bridge" (Smith Road?) I've seen that before as I drive up Shephard Road. It looks like it could be a nice longer steady 5-6% grade climb - will have to check that out...hopefully soon! Then some other road - Ohio Street I think. Full reports to come later as the leg heals.

I'm Riding!

The transition back to hard training and riding after the ankle break has been slower than I anticipated due to...wellllllllll...say life's curve balls?? The last two weeks have been extremely full - some really good...but a lot of stuff that I wish would smooth out or go away so I can just relax and enjoy life. Its interesting to me how some people are like robots. And honestly, I don't think they'll ever realize what they're missing by living life the way they do. Its also interesting though, to watch how easy it is to get sucked into that same lifestyle by them...and those are the people I feel sorry for the most. The ones that wake up 10 years from now or more and say, "wait...what just happened?" Nope it didn't just happen it took 10 years for you to realize it did. That's as far as I will go on that one.

Good news though! I went out for my first ride on the road today! Ohhhh now that really felt great. I met Sarah after work and we went out for a little over an hour around Eagan - which has some nice hills by the way. My left leg definitely is NOT back to even with the right leg yet however. Last Thursday night I attempted a few lunges. Lunges 1-5 were good...so I thought. I went down for number 6 and didn't come back up! CRAZY charley horse in the hamstring and I could feel it twisting around my leg to make sure that the quad was gonna get in on that action as well. Yowza that hurt! That leg was sore until Sunday, even after massive massage work and active rest.

Yesterday and today though, I've been doing some more "weighted" excercises on it and I felt like the intial shock of work to the leg was over - I was right. Definitely still down on power but its working fine and now I can really start logging some miles and getting that leg back up again - still on flat pedals of course.

I'm Walking!!

The cast came off Friday and by Friday afternoon I was able to walk around!...albeit slowly...but I was walking! Ditched the crutches that night and really put my leg to the test Saturday morning by walking around Ritchfield to different spots to watch and cheer on Sarah in her first ever half marathon (The Urban Wildlands)- which she totally knocked out of the park by the way.

This was really REALLY inspiring, she looked so strong through the whole race. Talk about stepping it up, she improved by leaps and bounds dropping 15 minutes off her time from the training run the week before and beat 2/3rds of the women and half the men! Nice work first time out! Nice work period!!

Anyway, the whole time my leg felt great! Still getting the muscles and tendons used to moving again, and some soreness because of that but feels like it gets better by the hour. I wrapped it up on Sunday evening and was actually able to spin lightly on the trainer for about 45-50 minutes! Wow that felt good! I'm gonna work hard through rehab...no predictions on when I'll officially be strapping on a number plate this fall. I'm taking it day by day and gonna do it right...but I'm anxious.