Dobovedo's Journal of Journeys

How long has it been since it’s been sunny on the weekend? Six weeks by my count. Woke up good and late and found the temp hovering in the low 40s here at home, upper 30s in Sylva. Figured it would be right around freezing up at Balsam Gap, so I pulled on the heavy bib tights, the fleece IM jersey and other appropriate clothing and headed out under the big, bright blue skies for a 40 mile ride. I overdressed just a bit so I could a) be sure to ride easy and b) stop to take pictures without catching a chill.

Got it perfect yet again. Comfortable the whole afternoon.

The rest of the story »

Had to look at my stats to figure out the last time I rode five days in a row. Eight months ago, all the way back to the first week of June. Nearly double the miles. In five rides I didn’t quite make 100 miles, but I suppose 98.5 is close enough to round up. Regardless, I’m getting a bit worn out. It’s been a long time since 100 miles in 5 days would be enough to wear me out.

Hell, usually 100 miles in one day doesn’t do that! Oh well, it’s a start.

The rest of the story »

OK, so does three trainer rides in three days constitute a streak? Four out of the past five doesn’t, but in either case, I’ve at least found a little bit of a groove. It helps to get a UPS delivery of three brand new Spinervals DVDs. I bought the latest in the Competition series: 30.0/31.0/32.0. These are a little different than most of the others I have. Different in that they are easier.

Not “easy”… that would be pointless, but definitely easier by comparison.

The rest of the story »

Last Sunday I did Spinervals 29.0, Droppin’ The Hammer. I really like this one. The 60 minutes of sets are killer, but for some reason seem to go by very quickly. This one is a bit unique in that a lot of the sets are designed to let you choose your own gearing and find a “sweet spot” based on desired TT cadence. I skipped Monday and on Tuesday evening I got on the trainer for the short but tough 40 minute 6.0 Zoot Challenge. I really don’t like this one very much, which is kinda why I picked it. A lot of standing in small gears, which I skip a lot of and just do superspins. Today might be the first time in months that I could say I actually had a “bad ride”? I guess since Nov. 7th! (kidding). My heart rate was through the roof, and I got no recovery beats during the breaks… it stayed elevated. My lungs were burning, legs were burning, and even my arms felt tired on the few occasions I did actually get out of the saddle. Not that any of this matters. It’s the beginning of February, I really don’t have much of an agenda, certainly no events on the horizon I’m training specifically for. And if I’ve learned anything, the day after a bad ride is usually a pretty damned good ride. Unless you have consecutive bad rides, then the third ride is good. Unless it becomes a three day streak and then… The point is that eventually it passes and things get better. And I’m 100% certain I won’t have a streak of bad rides right now anyway. How can I be sure?

Because it’s been half a year since I’ve ridden enough days in a row to call it a streak!

Not much to report training wise, but I did post some snowstorm photos taken over the past days to the gallery.

Today I was reminded of the classic Peanuts cartoon strips where Lucy finds seemingly neverending ways to convince Charlie Brown that this time, no matter how many times she has done it in the past, if he runs and kicks the football, she won’t yank it away. Over and over again, she taunts him, and over and over again he is foolish enough to believe her. He convinces himself that this time things will be different. He’s finally going to kick that damned football. And every time, she yanks the football away and Charlie Brown lands on his back, foiled again. This could be used as the perfect illustration of the very definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. A conclusion from this tale could be that women are evil. Both would be hard to dispute. Another conclusion might be that whether women are evil or not, men are idiots.

Dills Gap is my Lucy with the Football, and I, apparently, am an idiot.

The rest of the story »

I’ve been whining and crying a bit lately because every Sunday I want to get outside and do a nice long non-trainer ride, and every Sunday it is either cold as hell, raining buckets, or I’m otherwise not able to do a ride. Saturdays have been more or less the same. So this afternoon I got off of a conference call at about 3:30, looked out and saw clouds but no rain, the temp was hovering in the low 40s, and I had a little over two hours until sunset.

Yup.. I’m outta here!

The rest of the story »

Wow.. nine days since I last wrote anything? That’s gotta be some kind of record. This has been one helluva week. Didn’t keep an actual clock on it, but I figure I’ve worked about 70 hours in the past 5 days, going back to Sunday. From the time I woke up until I finally shut down the laptop and went to bed it was meals, a few emails (and screwing around on FB), and work. Except that I did take time out each day to get a trainer ride in. A different Spinervals each evening.

Oh.. and I also managed to find time to do my first run since Thanksgiving, in my new shoes. Only 2 miles, but it was good.

There’s nothing quite like a week in snowy Cleveland in January to kill the workout buzz. In the wake of a solid month of winter maintenance and a build up to the Hardcore 100, I haven’t really done anything since. I flew instead of driving, so there was no chance to ride, although with snow in the air and on the ground nearly the full five days I was there, I wouldn’t have been riding anyway. I stayed with a co-worker instead of a hotel, and had access to a treadmill, but didn’t use that either. Despite being ‘cleared’ to run, I have not yet picked up my new shoes, and am hesitant to start back up without having solid soles (heh.. that’s like a mix of Solid Gold and Sole Train – but not) underneath me. Since I’ve been back I’ve managed one swim and one trainer ride. So I guess there isn’t much sense in posting this. Except that despite the lack of activity and a general willingness to pig out while on the biz travel, I’m still on track with the weight loss. I was making up the calorie debt from the previous weekends riding, so most of the excessive eating was really just bringing myself back into balance. I didn’t lose anything but I didn’t gain either.

Looks like there’s a warming trend in progress and getting back to normal temps. Gotta get outside for some rides while it lasts.

The day after the Hardcore 100, it was really beautiful outside. Lots of sun and deep blue skies. It was quite chilly, but I decided I would ride to Franklin to go for a swim instead of driving. I consulted my gear guide, trying to remember how to layer for mid-20s riding and adjusting for two 1200′ climbs and 40+ mph descents.

The Sugoi longsleeve IM Finishers tech jacket rocks!

The rest of the story »

OK, so I know at least one of my fans is going through blog withdrawal, so I guess I’ll write a little something here. It ain’t gonna be much because I’m not real keen on reliving my indoor century. I didn’t get it done on New Year’s Eve because, well.,..

sometimes life happens.

The rest of the story »

Forgot to mention yesterday that I reached a new best distance for my underwater swim at the beginning of my workouts. I felt like I was out of air as I was approaching the wall, but I decided to turn around and at least push off. To my surprise, I was actually able to put two good pulls in before coming up, and made it about 1/3 of the way back before I finally came up (gasping). That says a lot about the mental aspect of the practice, and the need to relax. For what it’s worth, 1/3 of the way back is as far as I ever got as a teen. Not bad for a not-quite-middle-aged guy. Anything I get beyond this really will be a personal best. Will I ever get 2 lengths? Hard to say, but there’s a huge difference between taking strokes on that return length and merely getting good distance by pushing off the wall. I’ll settle for halfway back.

Tonight’s Spinervals was a shorter and less intense one. 7.0: Uphill Grind. I wanted to take it just a bit easier after two solid ones. Tomorrow will be swim and core but no bike. Need a break before hoppin’ on for the Hardcore 100 on Thursday. No idea what’s in store for early 2010. More indoor trainer for sure, but I really am jonesing to get outdoors now that the buildup to HC100 is done. I also gotta figure out what the heck I’m going to do while I’m in Cleveland for 5 days.