I previously mentioned that I have been having some knee troubles. After some careful consideration (and a couple rides that were probably too long for my knee condition) I have decided that I need to take 2 weeks off the bike, and let things heal up. My friend Charlie wrote to me the other day and shared some sage advice with me “It is better to be off the bike for a couple weeks to let the injury heal, rather than continue to ride and risk a bigger injury that could keep you off the bike for months”. Sometimes, you just need simple logical advice to snap your head into the right place. The question then becomes, what do I …
Training
I think I get it now
I mentioned that my conversation with Nate Loyal had flipped a switch in my head regarding training; well, the light finally came on. I think I finally get it, base period is everything. I have heard that phrase and read it more times than I care to say. In all my rookieness, I always chalked up base period as “a really boring stretch of time where you ride slow and just log miles to get your legs used to it”. Little did I know that there was a very important biological process going on during this time period. To quote Joe Friel “In some ways the initial Base period of the year is the most important in the athlete’s season.” …
My Fitting With Nate Loyal
As I mentioned in a previous post, I got a professional fitting done with bicycle wonderman Nate Loyal. Nate was a pro level bicycle racer, and has raced almost every form of bicycle you can imagine: Road, track, criterium, time trial, mountain, single speed mountain, 24 hour mountain. He is an overall madman and a hell of a nice guy. I arrived at the fitting and instantly felt extremely confident in Nate’s abilities. This guy was no jokester trying to pose as someone who knew what they were doing, he is the real deal. He hooked my bike up on the fitting trainer, I hopped on and started pedaling. He and I started chatting about what my cycling goals are, …
Acting on Lessons Learned
I wrote a post a little while ago that was about lessons learned from the Hell’s Gate Hundred. In that post, I talked about all the great lessons I learned while in Death Valley. A couple of those lessons require some follow up work. Those lessons are “Bike fit, as I have always heard, is one of the most important things in cycling” and “I need to train more”. Let’s handle the first one first… 1. Bike fit, as I have always heard, is one of the most important things in cycling This is so true. The more I ride, the more I find that my body is trying to ride in its natural position, but I haven’t allowed it …
Another Epic Adventure With Charlie M
As you may know, I am going to be riding the AdventureCorps Hell’s Gate Hundred at the beginning of April. That century has around 8000 ft of elevation gain over the 100 miles, so for me, that means climbing is the training order of the day. Anytime I want to get some climbing in that would make a mountain goat think twice, I know who to call, my good buddy Charlie M. Charlie is a 508 solo finisher and all around nice guy. I got introduced in a round about way to Charlie last year and we have been good buddies ever since. I even did his birthday ride last year (beyond epic). I am wandering a bit, but background …