Friday, March 31, 2006

Friday night and not in bed !

So this is how the better half lives ! I'm not in bed at 5:oopm ! Nice !

I did get on my spinner for 1-1/2 hrs and will hit the hills for some intervals in the morning.

My routine has been a push day then spin day followed by a lifting day and on two day's a week i've been spinning and lifting.The weights and reps are greek to me ! I'm use to bodybuilding not this 20 to 30 reps and light weights.

It would be nice to get in the woods before the first race of the season, but that might not happen.Oh well ! It'll be a fun race not to serious ! My first real race will be in May at Sugar Creek in Ferryville WI. 12 hr

See ya !

Saturday, March 25, 2006

Worked my last Saturday

At least for awhile ! Next week when I get off work on Friday,there will be no more rushing home,eating,showering and going to bed at 5:00 pm to get up at 10:00pm for work Saturday.It'll be nice to wake up early to get a ride in and not be tired from work.

I received my new training schedule for April and like I said before, the intervals are getting kicked up and I'm going to try and get some 4 or 5 hr rides in.

Midz did his first run this morning down on the riverfront 26.32 Good job Prez.

I just got off the spinner,I spent 2-1/4 hrs on it and did 4 -5 min. standing intervals.I brought it upstaires so I could look out the slider into the woods and wish I was out there!!

Union meeting tomorrow at 10:00am and I hope to get a ride in after the meeting at Rock Island Trail or the roads in the area.

See ya !

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Staying inside today

The snow hit hard yesterday with 8 inches out here in Trivoli and around 5 in Peoria.
The 2nd day of Spring and everybody wants to hit the woods, but not this year.The training schedule I'm on is realy for the road there is no way I could keep my heart rate in the zones I need.

We had a PAMBA meeting Monday night, we have a lot of work to get done again this year.We also had cup cakes for my 45th B-day witch is on the first day of spring!



The gang was chowing down on some God Father's Pizza before and during the meeting

A couple pic's from a few weeks ago !

The calm before the storm down in the dungeon

The main crew! nobody wants to come and play

As far as training goes I have the rest of the month hitting the base and weight's then I'm sure I'll get in to some major interval's and hill trainng.I'm on a 9 day schedule with no day's off the bike and three day's a week of high rep weight lifting.
I was on the spinner ths morning for 2-1/2 hrs and I'm heading back down in a few min. for some lifting.By the way my weight is down to 170 right on target and not losing it to fast ! Thanks to two salads a day and my Natural Peanut Butter !

See ya !

Saturday, March 18, 2006

I'm to busy !

Monday - work -train
Tuesday - work on house -train
Wednesday-work overtime -train
Thursday -work way to long - eat sleep
Friday - work way to long -eat sleep
Saturday - work - train
Sunday - ? - train

Next week - pay attention to wife and kids !

Dog still loves me !!!

Saturday, March 11, 2006

Started a new program

First day on the new schedule ,I hit the road for 2-1/2 hrs and I hope to get the same tomorrow.Some of us helped Stauby move today I couldn't make it to his new house I hope to soon.

Monday will be another spin day in the dungeon Midz should make it I don't know if anyone else will.

See ya !

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Cyclist Killed Last Week

A 47 year old man was killed while riding his road bike in Northern Peoria County last week.He was training for his secound season as a triathlete,he left behind a wife and kids and like I have so many times told them he would be right back and four hours later with a knock on their door their lives were changed forever.

One of the bad parts of driving a truck for 10 hours a day is you have the time to over think things that are in your life good and bad.When the story broke about the accident I spent the next two day's at work thinking of my own mortality and passion for riding. I started to road ride for the training in XC races. After years of only trail riding I finally learned the rewards of training on the road. I didn't even think of how dangerous it could be until the first few times cars didn't give me any room and missed me by what seemed like inches. I started to think about how much money I have spent on bikes, races, traveling to races, and nutrition.. and the worse the thought of the sheriff or a preist knocking on my front door to tell Cindy and the kids that I have been killed while on a training ride that I don't have to be doing. Was this really worth it?

So Saturday, I went on a late road ride around 4pm, on my regular quick 25 mile loop. I might see four or five cars and never have any problems and while I was enjoying riding by myself, I couldn't help but think why I had a passion for riding.

12 years ago some guys from the gym talked me into buying a mountain bike to go riding with them. I bought a Trek 930 and went to Jubilee State Park for my first trail ride... I wasn't in the woods 10 mins when my childhood came rushing back to me!

When I think about how old I was when I started riding bikes in the woods back in '71 or '71. I grew up on Tower Rd, just 15 miles from where I live now. It was a dead end road with eighteen houses on it, nine on one side and nine on the other with woods at the end. The kids on Tower Rd spent sun up to sun down in the woods, taking only enough time to go home and eat. Our main reason to be in the woods was building trails to ride our Stingrays on and build cabins to hang out in.We would get our dad's rake's and shovel's and any wood we could find to build our trail's and cabin's.The trailbuilding was just clearing the leaves and deadfall enough to make a path for our bikes.
Then the races would start and what a blast we had ! it wasn't radical but we had
some great races.On the day's we didn't race we would just hang out in the woods on our bike's, just sitting on our bikes while talking or killing time on a hot summer day or staying in the shade of the trees was cool enough.Is this where my passion for riding came from? I don't know but when I rode Jubilee for the first time 12 years ago I was back in 1971 and smiling like a kid again !

My thought's were also of Cindy and the kid's,we have a blast riding.Cindy and I are looking forward to putting in some long miles on the tandem this year and traveling to races and seeing some friends we have made along the way.Do I have a passion for riding ? or a passion for staying active as I get older ?

As I was about to finish my ride Saturday my last thoughts were of all the friend's Iv'e made because of my bike.Some close friends Midz,Thaller brother's and Stauby the PAMBA crew and the guy's I talk to on the blog's.I can't count the people at all the races !! I have an old childhood friend who built and rode the trail's with me on Tower road."Bob" has started to race and our friendship has been rekindled after years of raising our family's and being to busy to vist each other !

I hung up my bike in the garage Saturday... looked out to the sun that I just beat home and thought"I can't wait to ride tomorrow"