Gravity

Diablo likes to take my seat on the couch when I get up to refill my coffee in the morning.

On Saturday we saw the most customers come through the shop in a day this year. It was great to see so many people getting ready for the season. I am starting to get stoked to get out on my bike. I think will be able to achieve the goal of not riding indoors all winter. It should make the first couple of outdoor rides a bit hard, but I am motivated. I think I am gonna have to answer the bell that KBD seems to keep ringing.

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I don't know how Melissa talked me into this one....but this morning I am on my to Oliver to give a couple of high school classes presentations on running a small business. I have no idea what I am going to say, or what I should say. To add to the experience, M claims she has the roughest bunch of characters in one of the classes that she has come up against yet. I am pretty sure today will reinforce my decision not to go into education. Having a father, sister, and wife who are all teachers I have a tremendous amount of respect for people who decide on that career. Hearing the 'horror' stories they have told over the years makes me admire someone who is willing to deal with negative aspects of that job. People who really belong in that career must have some amazing capacity to focus on the positive things they are able to accomplish everyday. No wonder Oprah likes them so much....I wouldn't know that except Geoff told me....back when we were roommates I seem to remember catching him watching the big O a couple times.

Tour of California

The "Comeback" is heading to North America! We are getting pretty excited about the race to start tomorrow. Ian organized The Bike Barn's T of C pool based on a points system. Points are awarded for overall GC Placing, Stage Finishes, Sprint Jersey, Climbing Jersey, and Team Classification. So the Barn crew is going to be following the race pretty closely. Lord knows how Jeff managed to get Leipheimer and Cancellara but I think he is the favorite to take the pot right now. No matter how you feel about Lance's comeback it is certain that there will be more attention directed towards professional bike racing in 2009.

Getting 100% out of me

I was thinking about ranting about drug use in sport, the media emphasis on the economy, or Veltec not being able to deliver two frames I have had on order since October. Fortunately I went for a ski with Dr. Big Deal yesterday and have something positive to focus on. It was a great day up at Nickel Plate, and we made the most of it. Tom wanted to classic ski in preparation for the Loppet this weekend. That worked great for me because then we could actually ski together....yeah I was skate skiing. And yes he is still a bit faster than me on his classic skis. Over the years Tommy and I have spent many hours training together. However, in the last couple years my focus has drifted away from elite level fitness limiting our training time together. Fortunately with us both having the day off from work, Tommy and I have been getting out on the xc skis on Mondays. Since I met Tom out on ride about 8 years ago there have been countless competitions between us, mostly initiated by Tom. Whether it is sprinting to the top of a climb, strength challenges at the gym, or Meadow Matches on the xc skis Tom always seems to think taking it to limit is the best way to have fun. Yesterday was no exception and we had a couple races around the upper meadow...which added some very high intensity intervals to my longest ski of the year. After the second Meadow Match (probably 90 seconds of skiing flat-out) I was shaky and exhausted and still had about 5km of skiing to finish the planned 30km. In those last kilometers I had one really hard crash because my legs couldn't handle a couple ruts at the bottom of a descent and I was also in survival mode on the last couple climbs. I eventually reached the cabin knowing I had worked hard and gotten the most out of myself on that day. That has been a success of Tom's that he probably never intended, but he makes me get the most out of myself when we train together. And for those keeping score I won one and lost one Meadow Match yesterday.

"OFF" SEASON STRENGTH TRAINING

Here is a video Tom sent out to myself and some of the Team Big Deal boys last week. He offered $10 to the first one of us who could "whip a couple of those off." I can currently do one on each leg with no weight. Also leaves my quads feeling like they are torn. I enjoy the challenge of attempting new exercises in the gym rather than increasing the weight on ones I have been doing for years. This got me thinking a bit about "off" season strength training. Which then got me thinking about "off" seasons. Since I haven't raced in a couple of years and I don't plan on starting to race again, I guess I really don't have an off season anymore. However, since I recentely reached a lifetime high point for density I have been trying to be more consistent with exercising daily. Now that I don't have to train specifically anymore it is fun to try new challenges like one legged squats. Although if you have a hard workout planned for the next day I wouldn't recommend it! I think the cost of the physio or massage appointment for my sore quads is going to be more than Tom's $10...which I still haven't earned.

Also will the real Geoff Waterman please stand up! Or should we start calling you Stu?

This is a Test

A video of Chris Sharma sending a climb in Spain. No reason to post this other than to see if I figured out how to post a YouTube video to the Blog.

YouTube - Lance Armstrongs Strength Training Workout

Here is the link. I can't actually post the video here as the embedding is disabbelled. If someone knows how to get around that, let me know.


YouTube - Lance Armstrongs Strength Training Workout