Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Light in Motion

I got a new headlight and took it out for a ride last night after dark. I met up with some people from work and we rode through Percy Warner Park. We completed two loops of the full park ride (22 miles). That plus riding to and from the park means I rode 28.5 miles last night. This was another good ride for me. This course is very hilly and technical. We would ride at a slow pace and then push it up the hills. It was almost like doing intervals and I am sure I got a good workout. In fact, I am going to count that as my mid week "harder than usual pace" ride which I normally plan for Wednesdays. That means today I am going to take it a little easier and probably go 18 miles. Maybe I'll do the same tomorrow as well. Then, on Saturday, I'll ride between 40 and 50 miles. There is an organized ride (Friends of Warner Parks) on Saturday which is 50 miles. That's a good possibility at this point. Believe it or not, I am a little concerned about doing to much too early in my training right now. I don't have the luxury of building up over a long period of time though, so, right now I am just trying to figure out where I stand from a fitness standpoint and then stretch my training a little. I should be able to get in 1500-2000 miles by Etape time.

Total mileage to date: 149
Total hours: 10.5
Current weight: 162.4 (goal 145)

Sunday, March 26, 2006

Finally a good ride

I got in a 40.5 mile ride today. It took me 2:43 or 14.8 mph. That was a good ride for me at this stage. I felt good the whole way and my legs didn't start to feel tired until about 2 hours into the ride. I take this to mean I am in better shape than I had thought. Don't get me wrong, I am running scared right now about gaining the fitness and losing the weight to do the Etape; however, I still have 14 weeks of training left. If I apply a little discipline, I should be prepared to finish at least. I have some experience in doing rides of nearly this distance and difficulty. I have done 20+ centuries and most involved getting into shape in the last three months. Bridge to Bridge is the closest in difficulty to this ride and I have done it 7 or 8 times.

Total mileage to date: 121
Total hours: 8.25
Current weight: 160.4 (goal 145)

Saturday, March 25, 2006

The Monopoly game

It's Friday night and I am thinking about the long training ride I will be doing on Saturday. I'll have a decent meal and go to bed at a reasonable hour. I'll ride 42 miles and feel good about getting in my first long ride no matter how slowly I may ultimately go.

Wrong! My Niece Sheridan and nephew Davis invited me over to their house for a game of Monopoly (the old board game). Now, they normally play with all of the high tech computer games/consoles, etc; but, Mom or Dad pulled out the Monopoly game and a couple of days ago and they got hooked. Anyway, to make a long story short, I stayed up until 3AM playing until I was beat out by my 8 year old nephew. During the game I put down some pizza thinking it won't hurt because I will need the energy tomorrow.

Tomorrow comes and there is no way I am riding in the AM, too tired. My sleep schedule was way off and I was going to pay. I woke up at 6:30am with some awful cramp in my leg and didn't get up until about 11:30. I finally got dressed and went across the street to Goldie's Deli to grab a club sandwich for lunch, then stopped by Smoothie King and loaded up on Hammer Gel. Then, I lounged around home all day and wondered if buying Hammer Gel could count towards my training for the day. In the end it did. Tomorrow's another day.

Total mileage to date: 81
Total hours: 5.5
Current weight: 160.4 (goal 145)

Thursday, March 23, 2006

Weight and Fitness

I started training for the Etape basically on 03/11. That was my first real ride since October 2005. I have only done 5 rides since then. I now have less than 4 months to gain the fitness and frankly I am a little worried. There is not much light left after work and I haven't installed lights on my bike yet. And, I seem to find reasons to put off training rides rather easily. Last night I got home late from work but did manage a 1 hour ride on the trainer. That is the first weekday training ride I have done.

I weighed 162 when I started training and my goal weight is 145 for the ride. . At 5'3" I register obese at 168. 145 is something I think is realistic to do while still gaining fitness. Really I would like to get down to about 135 but that's not happening by July 10.

Total mileage to date: 81
Total hours: 5.5
Current weight: 158.8

Sunday, March 19, 2006

The Opportunity

I had thought about doing the Etape for several years. When I heard it was finishing up L'Alpe d'Huez this year I decided this would be a good year. Of course I didn't even try to signup before January. That's when I discovered all of the USA tour companies offering the ride were fully booked and already half booked for 2007. So, I looked at other English speaking tour companies outside the States and basically found the same thing. I guess the ride is more popular than I thought. I did find some other options like Velo Echappe's deal to ride this same stage on the same day as the Tour. Apparently you start early in the morning and you need to stay ahead of the real Tour starting about 5 hours behind you. That sounded like a possibility until I saw the price tag: $6700 dollars not including airfare! Wow! Anyway, all hope lost, I went back to eating pizzas.

Then on 02/24/2006 I get an email from Cyclomundo telling me they had two cancellations. I requested both slots, one for me and one for my older brother. The only problem is I haven't ridden since October 2005 and I am about 20 pounds over a reasonable weight to do this ride.