Dirt cruise

Thursday's have been rough the last two weeks. Justin and I got back into the gym the week following Idyllwild Spring Challenge, and we did legs on Monday that week. So, by Thursday we were good to go for Tempo Thursday. Last week we wound up taking Thursday off. It was easy to use the excuse that we were getting in volume on the weekend, and also that we had guests coming over so needed to prep food.

This week...along comes Thursday. All day I tried to psyche myself up for an easy ride in the dirt. And, then Thursday evening comes along and where is that motivation to ride? Right out the window! We were midway through making evening plans to grocery shop and get the weekend stuff prepped when I decided that one week missing a ride was okay, two weeks was not. You skip out on something two weeks in a row and it becomes a bad habit!

So, we got kitted up and headed up the hill for a nice easy spin in the waning evening light.



Saw some familiar faces, and otherwise had an okay cruise! I kept looking at the clock, but the last 15 minutes went by fast and fun. Glad we got out there, even though it pushed back dinner and bed by a little bit!







We were kinda disappointed, though. Universal Sports wound up showing about 55 minutes of not Giro TT for the morning broadcast, so we started watching the 8-10 coverage live. Justin fell asleep around 9:20, and I shut the TV off at 9:40 or so. Didn't get to see much of the front runners. Hopefully today the coverage will be ON! :)

This weekend has some good stuff on tap, but likely not many photo ops. From here on out it's all hard weekend workouts!

All About Getting the Edge

I had typed up a blog post on Tuesday during some of my internet issues, and I didn't publish it (for a few reasons). The first of which is my incredibly spotty internet at work. Some people are unaffected. Others, like me, have barely been able to load anything for a week now. Just luck of the draw, I guess.

The other problem was that Monday, and unfortunately Tuesday, were rough days for me. Monday's have been lately in general. I think Luke was spot on when he told me to take Monday's off from riding/exercising to rest/recover from a full week of work and the big volume weekends. Monday's just have been sucking. It's not even that I'm sore (I don't mind being sore, particularly - it means I'm working hard), it's just I'm usually tired and stressed out. I'm used to having hours in the evening to de-stress, watch TV, sit on my computer, do my exercises, hang out, and hit the hay around 10.

Well, lately it seems like I get home, eat, make lunch, clean up, and it's 9:30 and I haven't gotten anything done. I've actually taken to making lists of what I need to get done every night just so I don't leave anything out. I almost forgot to put laundry in the dryer last night I got so pre-occupied doing other stuff.

This is all without me even sitting at my computer or watching TV other than when I'm eating! It's been hectic.

Monday just sucked. Nothing bad happened. Justin said, "Have a bad day" as parting words (as a joke). It was my own fault for being a jerk that morning to begin with. Then I had no internet at work. I'm a creature of habit. If you take away my daily rituals I don't like it. So, it was a tough transition.

We got home late Monday, and I just have been sleeping like crap. We picked up a humidifier so Justin could breathe better at night and that coupled with our loud ass upstairs neighbors (who keeps 2 year old kids up until midnight? Seriously?) just have had me not being able to fall asleep. Then I'm up at 5 in the mornings to train, cause work has been crazy and we've had other stuff going on in the evenings...

So, I got all set up for my Tuesday drills, got up Tuesday and went to hop on the bike.



Garmin turned on, but I couldn't get off of the searching for satellites screen. My "Mode" button was no longer there. I should have just waited for the unit to say "Use without GPS" and gone from there. But, I was somewhat on..."edge" anyway, so Justin offered to take it apart. Now it's been 10 + minutes and I'm not on the trainer. He opens it up and says the "Mode" button has been smashed to smithereens. I have no idea what happened. Sunday it was fine. Tuesday morning it's not.

So he's messing with the unit and says again, "It's broken." "I don't need the 'Mode' button this morning, it's fine." "No, it's broken now." "What do you mean?" "The screwdriver just went through the board. Here, take mine."

I broke down. This really should have been a simple thing; to hop on the trainer and kill my legs with drills before work. He left the room frustrated and not working out, and I set about being able to use his unit for workable information. It was now almost 6 (30 minutes later than I should've started the workout).

I finished the workout and was left sore, but not dead and felt good for the day once I got breakfast in me.

Got to work and still had no internet and no real reason why not or when it'd be resolved (it still isn't, but it's slowly getting better as they turn off more and more websites available to us). But, at least I had a few things to keep me busy. Had dinner with dad after work (FYI - BJ's will do pizza without cheese! Way less greasy and it's gotta be healthier. Unfortunately the toppings do not stick to the bread, but it was good anyway).

I've surpassed week one without alcohol. I think my last glass of wine was 1/13. I'm pretty sure if I can go another week or so I'll be past the hump and not care anymore. It's like anything else; if you want to ween yourself it takes about 2-3 weeks in my experience for the body to stop looking for it.

For example, I don't taste Panda Express and have that heightened sense of YUM in my mouth when we drive by one. I don't crave Chipotle every week. And soon I won't get home and "want" that glass of wine with dinner.

So far I don't know that cutting it out has made any difference what-so-ever. My weight hasn't changed (I didn't cut it out to lose weight, but those 200~ calories a day could go to something filling and nutritious), and I seem to be eating the way I did before (i.e. I haven't added in those calories). So, I don't know. I'm not sleeping well (coming close to overtraining? I don't know - I feel good today). Legs feel fully recovered after my efforts, though. Not sure if that is affecting anything or not.

Saturday after our near century we had Recoverite, food, and then strong coffee, and I felt really good on Sunday. Tuesday after drills I had my normal morning coffee. We'll see how I feel if I get to put in some efforts tonight.

Not sure what the consensus is on alcohol. I guess it's also another $10 every 2 weeks I can spend on food? :) Anyone else cut back/cut it out and notice anything? Keep it in?

So, my Edge... I spent the morning yesterday calling around So Cal to find an REI that had one IN STOCK! You'd never believe how hard they are to find. The San Diego store had one, so I put it on hold. Since Justin is the best husband ever, he went and picked it up so we could get home and get stuff done last night.



Now I've got THE EDGE (705). I had THE EDGE (305) before. I honestly didn't want to have to purchase this, but it was the easiest/best option (e.g. I don't need to change anything on my system for a new program, and I don't need to relearn a new unit and its software). I have many many complaints about Garmin products that stems from us never having one that hasn't had an issue. I hope Garmin got it right with this iteration...

Justin loves his, and the color screen and street maps I think will be useful this year. Also, power! Not that I have a Power Tap, but it's on my long list of "wants".

At any rate, starting with yesterday my week was looking better. I picked up my Crankbrother's order. The 4Ti pedals are SWEET!!! Looking forward to trying out the mini-cleats that were included (seriously! They're like half cleats!).

Sportin' the shirt today!



Here are the pedals (sticker(s) courtesty of Interbike in 07)



Okay, now onto a few food related topics...

We picked up some Almond Butter at Costco a few weeks ago. I've never tried it, but thought I'd make one sandwich with it this weekend to try out... anyone use it instead of peanut butter? Almonds are a'ight (I eat them weekly), but I prefer peanuts. It also has no salt! The horror! I looove salt.



Also, we eat canned turkey chili every now and then, and while not totally unhealthy, there's a lot of sodium and not a ton of flavor. We've been buying packages of 4 containers of ground turkey at Costco, and I also just picked up some dried lentils and barley...

Sooo, anyone have any good chili recipes, or even recipes for something like stew/soup to include the turkey and lentils/barley?

I tried some beef barley soup a few weeks ago and it was killer. Just looking for healthier/athlete recipes!

Lastly... my home gym continues to grow. I need to learn how to use the foam roller.



Happy Thursday. Here's hoping we don't get hit too hard by the rain this evening. I'm itchin' for dirt.

Thursday

I don't often feel like a rookie, but yesterday I did. I only took 9 days off the dirt, but it felt like about 99. While I felt great in warmup and climbing the big hill early on in the ride, the setting sun coupled with my failing vision and lack of ability to discern features on the ground all were factors working against me as I hit a short rocky bit I have been able to clean for months. Instead I had to take out my left foot and attempt a few hops to regain composure, only to fall in a big thud on my left hip.

Score.

It hurt for a bit, especially when I tried to put the power down for the remainder of the ride. I still tried not to take it too easy, and attempted 3 or 4 times to forget about the minor crash and continue on. Unfortunately I kept dabbing and near-falling for the rest of the course. I did finally clean one steep section I've missed my last few times. I missed the others, though, so not sure it was score 1 for me.

Post-ride we geeked out on training info. Gotta love it.

Today is a short road ride with a few spin ups. Tomorrow it's putting the power out for probably 2.5 hours (maybe a little less) and somewhere between 16 and 24 miles (depending on where you look for course info).

The best part? 50% chance of rain. I don't do well in the rain. What do you wear, anyway? I'm packing for the apocalypse, but I'll probably be dressed for normal weather. Like James keeps saying, weather is no excuse. Hit it hard and go for it. At least temps aren't going to drop too much; this isn't the mountains afterall.

Good luck to all those participating in the Xterra race this weekend!