Race bicycles

Nice ride with Pete. 22 miles of road riding with very little hills. Average 13.2 MPH. This served as a good recovery ride to get the blood flowing a little bit.

Today I’m recovering from the 24 hour race. Legs are feeling good, but I’m very tired. I’m glad I took the day off work to rest and decompress a little bit. Tomorrow I hope to get out for an easy road ride.

Had a great weekend with John, Jimmy, and Chuck (and their families). My first 12 mile lap started at 2:15PM and took me 1:40. There was a very steep and rough down hill that shook me up pretty good and lots of rock gardens in the last few miles. The last mile was nothing but climbing back to the finish line. I started my second lap at 10PM and finished at midnight. I was followed by Jimmy then John. Chuck had bailed out for the night, so I did a final lap from 4AM to about quarter after 6. When I finished, I felt like I was having a heart attack. Crushing pain in my chest and pain in both arms (but my whole body hurt anyway). Sue Earsing adjusted me and the pain faded within the next few minutes. I was exhusted, but if I hadn’t had that pain, I may have tried another lap. My goal was 4 laps for the race, and I only got 3. Maybe next year.

This weekend I’m doing two metric century rides and I’ve plotted out a 5 mile course at work so I can ride on my overly extended lunch breaks when I run out of anything meaningful to do other that take a nap (which has brought on the 35 lbs). So I’ll give it a week and see if I can rack up at least 175-200 miles riding/training next week and I’ll work on my diet.

Well, I need to lose 35 lbs of blubber. I’ve lost this same 35 lbs too many times to count but as I get older, it gets harder. My goal this year, 2006, is to get in shape and ride the Hotter-N-Hell 100 mile ride in Texas. Yes, it’s hotter-n-hell in August in Wichita Falls, about 113* the last time I did it in a respecatable 5 hours. My plan, ride every day on the road, trainer, lunch whenever I can to just get used to burning some calories.

In my past I was a pretty decent bicycle racer who had little guidance or support so that dream kind of fizzled out. Got the ‘genes’ to be athletic but not the dedication so I would love to return to bicycle racing as a Senior. It isn’t easy b/c my expectations are to actually win some races if I do this at all so it will be a multi-year ramp up just to get to a point where some quality training & preparation can take place. My house is practically a physiology lab with equipment to help me get to my goal. It will be just dedication, belief and real effort that has to be expended.