Unleash The Beast!!

I guess I am not going to do hill repeats any more.  Because my rides have more hills than hill the hill repeat sets.  My wife set a wonderful route for me again, it took about 7 hours 30 minutes with over 3 hours 15 minutes of climbing.   After about 4 hours of this nonsense, I decided to unleash the beast!!  So I opened the cage, and the beast was cowering in there and would not come out.  ;0) (Francesco, I am sorry I could not unleash the beast!)

Whimpering, the beast closed the door and went back to sleep, so I was left on my own to complete the ride.  Another cold and windy day; the sheep were huddled together, looking at me crawl by at a mere 20km/hr, bleating and calling me a craaaaazzzzyyyy man! :0)

I decided to phone my friend Mike, if anything could get me through this would be a cheese and onion sandwich (my secret fuel that gives me about 1 hour of power) and Mike.  Well, I could not get ahold of Mike.  So here we are, no Mike, cold, windy, hilly, chipped asphalt roads, and a lot of riding left, the beast cowering in his cage.  

This is what ultra-endurance rides are about, training the brain to be tough and strong!  Jure in this years RAAM was riding through thunder, lightening and rain.  He never complains and has an amazing positive attitude.  I think he will win again this year, he is trying to do it in under 8 days!!! 3,000 miles in under 8 days, do the math!

PROPS to Tony O'Keefffee, he is from Ontario, Canada and is now 4th in RAAM and I think that he will maybe be third!!  What an awesome ride!  I am really inspired now!

I vow that from now on, I will not complain, I will be a man and "do the right ting"!!

Ok, last thing, have you ever rode down hill (knowing that you have to ride up again) and seeing at least 3 guys on mountain bikes stopped halfway, rubbing their thighs, head in hands, shaking their heads?  WELCOME TO PEMBROKSHIRE!!  :0)

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Intensity Phase (this really hurts)!

Well since my last entry, I have gone back to the drawing board and re-planned my whole training plan.  I think that I have one that will work and get me to my goal.  One thing I added is more technique work.  I believe strongly that efficiency is very important.  Economy is crucial when you riding for a long time, saving a little bit each pedal stroke makes a huge difference.

I am also thinking of getting a coach,  it is getting harder and harder to coach myself.  I am sleeping lots, and my legs are twitchy all night, they just want to pedal!  It is getting bad, I miss my bike, it seems like an old friend, I am starting to have breakfast on the trainer while pedalling.

So this week these are my workouts:

Strength (3 times/week):

• 2x25 Seated Squats
• 2x25 Deadlifts With Pushups
• 2x25 Single Leg Press
• 2x25 Dumbbell Rows
• 2x25 Stability Ball Dumbbell Pullover
• 2x25 Dumbbell Curls
• 2x25 Triceps Press downs

Technique (2 times/week):

• 6x2min Single Leg Pedal (very slow, focus on maintaining contact with pedals)
• 5x1min Spin-up 140+rpm

Conditioning

• 40km ride with 10x10min @AT (ri=10min)
• 40km ride with 10x1km 12% hill repeats
• 83km tempo ride
• 163km ride at race pace (28km/hr)

So tomorrow I do the hill repeats, it is going to be real nice.  I finally got my video recording working so I will do some filming and post it up.

RAAM is starting now and it is so exciting! Will Jure win this year or will Gehard hurt him. It has been great for me, with all the cycling, World Cup Soccer & Tour Du France coming up!!!

I will tell you how my hill repeats go!!  Never give up goals guys, keep working smarter, harder, and consistently.

Climbing: Improving Somehow

Today, I went for a 4:00 hour ride, again working only on climbing.  The 16% grade that I normally climb was suddenly easier.  I was not climbing anymore in my lowest gear, and my CAD increased from 12rpm to abut 40rpm!  I am not sure if I am losing weight or getting stronger or both.  To get this picture, I had to do almost one hour of climbing.

However, I am noticing that I am sucking more on the flats.  Mind you, the friction on the roads are so intense, that if I stop pedalling down-hill, I start slowing down, so I have to keep pedalling all the way through.

I tried some new fuel today, and now I have lots of gas, I am typing this blog, outside now, because I have been thrown out of the house.  I tried lighting a match but it would go out right away.  :0)  I bought a lot of this stuff, so I am not sure what I am going to do.

Those hills that you see on the right there, are the Preseli Hills or Preseli Mountains, the fabled stones from Stonehenge come from these hills.  No one knows how such large blocks of stone were quarried and transported so far away.


Now there are loads of cattle and sheep in these hills, so they have these things in the road that keep the cattle at bay.  There are grills that will catch anything with hooves or small bike tires.  :0)  I was a wuss and walked over these in the road, I can't afford to get injured now anyways.
In my next few posts, I will get some pictures of these amazing structures.
I will be off to Spain for a week in July, just before I get back.  And that will conclude my strength prep.  After that is speed, speed and more speed!  Lots of Intervals!!