Hello…Barry!

Subtitle:  Damn, I’ve Got a Lot of Work to Do.

I’m late again.  It’s killing me.  I had intended this post to go out Saturday night when I returned from my race, which I will tell you all about…now…

The past two years, I’ve started my race season in mid-April with a 7 mile singletrack race.  Also, in the past two years, I’ve been fortunate to be able to ride outside nearly all winter.  Not so much this year.  Tons of snow and bitter cold banished me to the basement and the trainer.  Not entirely bad, as I was at least able to “ride”.

This year, after much deliberation, and a little prodding from some friends, I decided to ride the Barry-Roubaix in Hastings, MI…in March.  Barry-Roubaix Killer Gravel Road Race is held on the third Saturday in March and consists of three distances, 62 miles (The Killer), 36 miles (The Thriller), and 24 miles (The Chiller).  Sixty-two miles seemed tremendously ambitious, given that I hadn’t had a good outdoor ride since the beginning of December, or truthfully, since Iceman.  So, I opted for The Thriller, the 36-miler.

While the race is on gravel, it starts and ends on pavement in downtown Hastings, and there were several (life saving) stretches of paved road throughout, including approximately the final two miles.  Taking into consideration how much snow the area had gotten, the relatively quick thaw, refreeze, thaw, and refreeze, and then some rain the night before the race, there were only a few patches of real soupy mud.  Gravel does that when it gets wet.  Did I mention the race was on gravel?  I have to thank the race organizers and all of the volunteers for a job well done.  They were awesome!  The entire event was extremely well-organized, and the town of Hastings could not have been more accommodating.

The course was challenging, and a lot of fun.  The hills, dear Lord, the hills!  The good thing about hills?  What goes up, keeps going up…and eventually does come down.  I can sit here and say I used nearly all of the 27 gears at my disposal for this ride.  Yes, I “grannied” some hills!  It was either that or walk.  Neither are great options, but a slow pace is better than no pace.  My legs threatened mutiny at least a dozen times, but I gutted it out and finished.  I would have liked to have been faster, but a finish will have to suffice for this year.

I am becoming painfully aware of my shortcomings as a cyclist.  I could blame a lot of things for my disappointing time, but in reality, it was my speed and endurance.  Yeah, I know, I finished.  I’m proud of that, but I had higher expectations of myself.  I also realize that I need to find out where I need the work before I can start fixing things.  This time, the legs were not a problem.  I can attribute that to my new-found love of the squat.  My legs felt great at the finish.  My lungs were a different story.  I’ve been working a great deal on my overall body fitness and my endurance, and I could tell I had made progress.  I suppose I was seeking bigger gains.  My VO2 Max has improved, but if I’m to make the gains where I want to, I know I need to work harder on specific areas of my riding.  I think another piece to the puzzle is my perception of the work.  I’ve been so long out of shape that I feel like I’ve forgotten what my thresholds are anymore.  Obviously, I’m older, and my previously sedentary lifestyle hasn’t helped, but I used to be very much in tune with how hard I could push myself.  I’m not so sure today.

Before I close this out, I want to tell you about my amazingly supportive wife.  She travels with me to these races, where she knows she’ll have to wait multiple hours for me to come tearing across the finish, but she does it anyway.  She puts up with my constant grousing about little tweaks I need to make to the bike, and my MANY race weekend moods.  I don’t know if either of us was certain how far I’d take this little cycling obsession of mine, but she’s in it for the long haul.  And I love and appreciate her more than I can ever express.  This weekend, she got to see that I actually do get naked in the parking lot!  She didn’t seem all that shocked.  Now, let’s see how she handles it when I start shaving my legs.  (Just kidding, honey!)

#LetGoOfTheBrakes

 

 

 

 

“The Legs Feed the Wolf”

One of the many original, and sometimes odd, phrases coined by the late, great coach Herb Brooks, “The Legs Feed the Wolf” was used to inspire the players of the gold medal winning 1980 US Olympic Hockey Team to focus intently on their leg strength and endurance.  Coach Brooks knew, that in order to beat the Russian national team, his players would have to outlast and out-will them.

The meaning of the phrase stems from the hunting behavior of wolves who must locate, stalk, and chase their prey in order to survive. Some wolves have been known to chase their prey for over 10 miles.  Wolves with weak legs and lacking endurance tend to starve.

I’ve always had relatively strong legs.  Or, so I thought.  When I began to take cycling seriously, I learned differently.  Legs that simply walk, hold your body up, and occasionally run are not necessarily built for speed or endurance on the bike.  That requires work.  A lot of it.  And not just riding the bike for hours on end.  Real work.

I’ll admit, I’ve never been a fan of leg exercises.  Especially squats.  I used to do anything imaginable to avoid doing squats.  I’d go crank out reps of 400 pounds, or more, on the leg press machine.  But, no squats.  I just hated the motion.  What I’ve come to realize is that I’ve been missing out on one of the most effective power and strength building exercises in the book.  Leg presses were blasting my quads.  A simple change of foot position engaged the hamstrings and glutes to a small extent.  What I was missing was the stabilization of legs, hips and core that I could only get from a properly executed squat.

I began attending kettlebell classes in December.  The first time our instructor introduced the goblet squat, I almost fell over.  Really?  Squats?  I’m here to tell you, I’ve grown to love the squat.  That first week, my hips hurt.  My glutes hurt.  My hamstrings hurt.  Everything from my waist to the tips of my toenails hurt.  Not just a little.  Deep soreness that invades your bones.  Eventually, the pain went away.  The motion got easier.  I’m squatting with heavier bells on a regular basis.  And some other strange and wonderful things have happened…

My power on the bike has improved.  Dramatically.  My ability to maintain higher cadence for longer periods has increased.  Over gearing got easier.  Of course, at this point, all of this is happening on the trainer, but it’s hard to deny…my legs are getting stronger.  And I’ve begun to incorporate other leg exercises into my routine.  Weighted steps and lunges, Bulgarian squats, to name my favorites.

And, by the way, if you haven’t tried a kettlebell workout, I highly recommend it.  Once you do, you’ll be hooked.  In an hour, I get a better workout with the kettlebell than I’ve ever been able to achieve plodding through multiple hours in a “traditional” gym.  I love that it not only works my muscles, but my VO2 max as well.  Give it a shot, you’ll be glad you did!

So, when I begin chasing down those last several miles of dirt, gravel or pavement and stalking those riders whose legs are starting to fade, I’m looking forward to seeing if the legs do, in fact, feed the wolf.

Regardless of your sport, what’s your GO TO exercise?  We’ve all got them.  Share yours in the comments if you wouldn’t mind.

See you next week!

Vision Quest

Has everyone seen the movie, Vision Quest?  If you haven’t, you should.  Released in 1985, and starring Matthew Modine and Linda Fiorentino.  If you can get past the super hokey love story and get to the heart of what the film is about, it’s quite good.  Modine plays a high school wrestler, Louden Swain, who, upon reaching his senior year, decides to drop two weight classes and try to beat an undefeated state champion.  Sounds impossible, right?  If you’re among the 5 or 6 people on the planet who haven’t seen it, I won’t give the ending away.  Just check it out.  Anyway, this post didn’t start out to be a movie review…

So, why Vision Quest?  Simple.  I feel like the whole premise of the term, and the film, is to THRUST yourself outside of your comfort zone.  Not step.  Not tip-toe.  Not run.  T-H-R-U-S-T.  Thrust…it’s got an explosive quality about it, doesn’t it?  That’s what we’ve got to do to make our plans, our goals, our dreams happen.

When I first started riding, I didn’t have a plan; no real goals.  Other than losing some weight.  That didn’t work out so well.  Just like any piece of sporting equipment, a bike only works if you ride it.  And I didn’t.  My attitude toward riding for any reason at that time was pretty passive.

Then, someone suggested I try racing.  Seriously?  I couldn’t get out of my own shadow at the time.  Race?  C’mon, man!  But, hold on a second.  That might be a goal to work toward.  Even if I didn’t win, or even perform well, it would have accomplished something.  At the very least, I’d have gotten my ass off the couch and started moving again.  See, the whole concept appealed to my inner logic junkie.  This friend, this genius, who made the original suggestion might have been on to something.

I threw every available moment into riding that bike; to getting ready for that first race.  I was on a mission.  Then, some funny things started to happen.  I wasn’t tired every morning when I woke up.  My joints didn’t hurt as much any more.  My…holy shit…my clothes fit better!  What the hell had I done?!?!  I had given myself a violent shove outside of my comfort zone.  And, damn, it felt good.

I’m trying to do that more and more as my cycling improves and I begin to get comfortable again.  First it was a mountain bike race, then it was a century, then another century.  Now it’s a gravel race in March…in Michigan.  Can you say COLD?  I can.

But, I need to keep trying new events, new disciplines to keep me motivated, to keep challenging myself.  Cycling has become my vision quest.  And, I have committed myself to making it happen.

Who knows, there may even be a triathlon in my future…(wink).

What keeps you motivated and how do you challenge yourself?  Let me know in the comments.

#LetGoOfTheBrakes

Ready vs. Prepared

I have committed to 52 posts in 52 weeks in 2014.  I’m looking forward to sharing some video posts, and maybe a guest post or 3 or 4, as well as a few of the lessons I’ve learned from a lifetime of doing things the hard way.  I don’t think, by any stretch of the imagination, that my little blog is going to change the world.  I do hope, however, to be able to reach some readers who, like me, are getting back on the bike “later in life”, or perhaps for the first time.  I’ve been riding bicycles since I was 6 and repairing them since I was at least 10 years old.  Getting serious about cycling in my forties has been challenging, frustrating, but mostly fun.  I love being on the road, but dirt is my passion.  I’ll be sharing my experiences with you, and I encourage you to comment and share yours as well.

Ready vs. Prepared

I have a confession.  I have not been prepared, in the recent past, for some events I’ve competed in.  I’ve been ready, but not prepared.  But, you’re saying to yourself, they’re the same thing.  What?  Allow me to explain.

As an athlete, growing up, I was always ready to play.  Baseball, football; it didn’t matter.  Suit me up and get me on the field.  Once I started playing varsity football in high school, things were different.  There was conditioning, and weight training, and nutrition, and game film.  Game film?  Yes, game film.  All of this added up to preparedness.  I was always “ready” to strap on the pads and lay a hurtin’ on an opposing lineman or linebacker.  But, if I didn’t take care of all the “little things”, there was no way in hell I’d be “prepared”.  Take game film for example.

Every week, we had optional film review.  Why anyone chose not to watch the opposing team’s film is still a mystery to me, but there were only a few of us that attended every week.  All offensive linemen…go figure.  By reviewing film, I could learn that opponent’s defensive tendencies, their formations and stunts, and ultimately be able to anticipate in most situations, what the other team was going to throw at us.  It made me a very PREPARED player.

Fast forward to my current athletic endeavors.  There is really no game film for a bike race, besides YouTube videos from a past participant’s GoPro camera.  It can give me an idea of the course layout, but it really won’t get me PREPARED to race.  Where I’ve failed to prepare has been with conditioning and in-race nutrition and hydration.

My thought process going into the Iceman Cometh Challenge in 2012 was, “I rode a century in August and was fine.  How hard can 30 miles on dirt in November be?”

Wellllllll….it’s hard.  Especially if you aren’t PREPARED.

I didn’t maintain the miles I needed in order to condition myself for the event.  I hadn’t made nutrition and hydration a priority leading up to, or in, the race.  My strength training was minimal.  Without blaming my equipment, I mounted tires that really were not suited to the conditions.  There are a lot of little things I should have done. In short, I failed to prepare.

The improvements I’ve made in all of my events this year have been the result of hard lessons learned.  The added training miles helped.  Being aware of my on-the-bike nutrition was a major factor in my endurance.  In this year’s century ride alone, I shaved an hour and seventeen minutes from my previous time.  This past November, I rode in my second Iceman.  I felt very strong on the bike.  My perception was that I fatigued to a lesser extent on hills, and recovery was faster.  My equipment was sound, and I brought the right clothing layers for early November in Traverse City.  Improvement?  Yes and no.  I finished with a nearly identical time to 2012.  Opportunity to learn and to be better PREPARED for 2014.

So, what have I learned?  For starters, I know I can ride for several hours, non-stop, at a moderate to moderately fast pace.  I also now know, that my overall conditioning sucks.  I just started a kettlebell class, and it wipes me out.  From the waist down, I’m getting it done.  As far as above-the-waist is concerned, strength does NOT equal fitness or endurance.  I’m taking steps to remedy that.  One of the things I need to constantly remind myself is that I cannot compare my beginning to someone else’s middle. I’m new to this, and I’ll continue to improve as a cyclist.  I’m always READY to ride.  I just have to keep thinking like a Boy Scout and “Be Prepared.”