Monday, January 31, 2011

TC Headbanging

In common slang a headbanger is associated with the like of metal bands or Beavis and Butthead. But to us cyclists we will undoubtedly connect with those kings of commentary Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen. We may conjure some fantastic image of Jens Voigt hammering the cranks of his machine until he can on longer see strait, the peloton sweeping him up with ease and disappearing out the back. Much like banging your head into a wall the pain can be torturous but, in the end, after all your effort, the wall remains intact.

And so it was, my first real headbanging session took place at approximately 10am yesterday morning. Now, I'm normally tired after but not like I was yesterday. I'm not sure if it was the session Chad chose (prolly not), the road ride in the wind I did with Cricket the day before or just plain lack of strength, but from start to finish my screw was being turned. Toward the end of the first interval I realized I was openly grunting as more than one person asked if I was alight. "Well, yea I'm cool. Just getting my ass kicked right now." Mind you that response was post-interval. I could only muster a lazy head bob during and I swear that simple bob put me over threshold for a few seconds. The grunting continued on the following intervals and the wall, the stationary bike going nowhere, was the only thing I had to focus on.

The truth is there actually was no wall after the session, no peloton to sweep me up and snatch all my glory away. The real truth is that after I was filled with a sense of accomplishment; 1 part lactic acid 4 parts fatigue, but a good sense that what I did will pay off soon.

I was also happy when I was able to smuggle out the hidden camera I had placed before the session. One Chad knew nothing about. You see I was able to capture some of the real magic that happens at TotalCyclist; stuff the general public isn't aware of. I bet you'd like to know how Chad creates riders that seem to be forged out of steel. Wanna know his deepest secrets? I warn you the following is a little graphic but is 100% accurate.



We did the head and neck strengthening portions yesterday; (3:38) Chad's idea of headbanging. Abs are next week.

C




Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Kit-tastrophe or $100 for 2 cups of coffee please.

Met up with team mate Kelly Hudson to get his race kits to him as he is the last to receive (he travels a lot). We decided to meet at the local Starbucks and upon arriving, I noticed the lot was full and this sign was right in front of me:



I decided to wait until Kelly arrived to see if a space opened up....not to be. Kelly gets there and we decide to run in for a quick cup of coffee and a short catching up session. He says, "don't worry, we will be in and out before they know it (or something like that).  I grab a seat where I can look out at the cars to make sure that they don't get towed. After about 20 minutes I got a glimpse of a guy walking by with a reflective vest on...hmmm. Cars are still there so we keep on talking. As we walk out of Starbucks, this is what greeted us:


$100 cash money and I'll let your cars go!



Das Boot

The car next to Kelly's was towed and cost them $120.00 US Dollars. We were fortunate and lucky that it was only $50.00 per car for us. Thank you Kelly for my get out of the parking lot fee.






Tuesday, January 18, 2011

2011 TotalCyclist race kits have arrived - Giordana Clothing ROCKS!


Giordana hits gold with the Alta Gamma line of clothing. Fits like a glove, looks great and superb comfort. Most of our team concentrates on long distance endurance events so you can imagine how picky we are to have comfortable clothing when you are pedaling for 6 hrs, 12 hours, 24 hours or going the distance in multi 100 mile days during the Tour Divide race. For our 2011 kits we selected Giordana for bibs, shorts, jerseys and vests. Their custom order program was easy to select from and the folks there are great to work with. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!
For more information on this excellent line of clothing, contact Galen or Giordana at Gita Sporting Goods Custom Program

Monday, January 17, 2011

ehhh, watts up doc?

The "PAIN CAVE" (as we affectionally refer to the TotalCyclist training center) delivered another New Years dose this past Sunday as the MTB team revved up for a grueling session that left most whimpering after the workout. The session started with a nice gradual warm up block of stair steppers (40%, 60%, 80%,100%) each lasting a few minutes and then a break of several minutes. The kickers were the sustained 3x2 minute intervals at 100% with the 1 minute rest at 60% followed at the end with a 30 second effort at 150% of max wattage. Some folks (aka 400 watt Scott and CW) were cranking the numbers up and pushing some serious wattage and then to make matters worse, "Master C" (aka Coach Chad) increases the numbers until the pedals can no longer be turned by mere mortals...OUCH!. That should teach us to spend more time on our bikes between training sessions.

On another note, TotalCyclist just received their new high quality clothing line from ALO (Air, Land, Ocean) and this stuff rocks. I picked up a long sleeve top and pull over. Check out the site and be sure to sport some of this awesome clothing before it sells out. There is also a really cool hat from Performance Sportsware with the TC logo in either pink or orange, very cool. Check them out!


Saturday, January 8, 2011

Polar Bear lives up to it's name - Blizzard


41 degrees at the start and at 1 hour in,  the temperature dropped to the mid to lower 30's and snow with blizzard conditions and high winds. 30 minutes later skies were blue and back to the 40's. Constant wind from 15-25 mph gusts. Scott, Chris W and I hung in there and stopped at 2 rest stops to have more than our share of gatorade, cookies, fig newtons etc. Overall a great day and as Scott said "better than laying in bed drinking coffee on a Saturday morning"....hmmmm, not sure about that but glad I went.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Polar Bear Metric Century, it's all about the rest stops.

From the recesses of my gray matter today sprung a distant memory of the Polar Bear ride from about 7-8 years ago. Seems I had not been on my bike very much that year when the "oh yeah, I can cover 62 miles no problem" devil stood on my shoulder and delivered his message. I bundled up and hit the road with the lead group only to be dropped within 10 miles. I suffered greatly on that ride and and within the last 10-15 miles, as I'm struggling up a climb, I hear voices behind me shouting "watch out" and "on your left". Unbeknownst to me, it seems I had been doing switchbacks on a straight road climb. The voices came from a couple on a tandem bike and as they pulled beside me they burned this phrase into my soul. "I don't think I've ever seen anyone ride that slowly without falling over" then they set a blistering pace and disappeared over the top of the hill. There I was left alone and suffering and now having to deal with utter embarrassment from tandem riders for which I had no retort.

Last year was freezing cold but a more enjoyable ride with the lead group until mile 42  because as I blew my nose and grabbed for a drink the break occurred. Goodbye my two wheeled friends. The last 20 miles for me consisted of catching up to the fragments that the lead group had shattered into and occasionally riding with a few smaller groups until that backed off the pace. No accidents and no rest stops last year. Overall a great ride and Tracey Lewis and Cricket Butler hung in there as well.

This year, Scott George, Chris Wieczorek and myself plan on drinking all the hot chocolate and eating all the cookies as we work our way from rest stop to rest stop. Be sure to catch our tweets, FB posts and photos as we "Rock the rest stops" via POLAR BEAR. I plan on being so bundled up that I will be unrecognizable!

Saturday, January 1, 2011

HEY, get off your tush and start training!


CEB_6274
Originally uploaded by cbake777

Nice photo I took while in the Everglades. Look forward to seeing everybody in the Winter Training Session Part II on Sunday.