Finally a blog about what not to do.

Well, I finally broke down and am starting a blog. What you will find here are prime examples of how not to train as you will find out that everything gets in the way of a serious training program. Bicycle racing is one of those sports you need to be dedicated at to succeed. Training, diet habits, sleeping, resting are all things I do wrong so don't follow me. The only thing going for me is my genetic make-up.

The holidays are coming up and the one thing I find common every year is that I am attending lots of parties and drinking and eating all kinds of stuff you probably have been told by your coaches or by your cycling buddies to stay away from. Let's see... Wednesday night I went out with an old colleague which I hadn't seen for a while and we had many beers and Grey Goose&Sodas. As you will find out... I have love for the good life. I ended up getting home at a decently early time about 10:30 and stayed up till about 11:30 watching TV with the wife. I drank a lot of water before bed. This is a definite recommended habit if you drink any alcohol as your body needs to rehydrate itself as alcohol will dehydrate it.

Thursday morning, I definitely felt the effects of the night before. I was running slower than usual and had that foggy feeling in the head. Thursday was a wet day.. so no training for me. I have some old cheap Performance Bicycles rollers (You know the magnetic ones, which make a god awful racket) in the basement. Thursday night, we went to a Christmas party in the neighborhood, drank several glasses of Cabernet, then went home.

Friday morning I felt fine. I was motivated by Nick's blog about his weight workout, so I decided to go to the gym and start up my strength training program. As I have no coach for training, I wanted to see what some others do. I haven't been in a gym since my college days since I've stepped into a gym. You know the only reason I went to a gym was... to chat with the really fit females at the gym and look good for them. In those days I was about 170 lbs and now I'm about 150 lbs. You let yourself go after you get married. Well, not really. I just readjusted where the weight went. I got into bicycle racing several years after college. I found out it matched my athletic abilities well. I was a competitive club skier as well and cross training by cycling was good.

I acquired my first racing bike (My first 10 speed (14 sp) ever! I was a virgin!) during that time, as I worked at part time ski shop and one of the ski vendor reps was also a rep for Miele Bikes. (a Italian Name but it was Canadian) . I don't think they make racing bikes anymore. I got a Bright Orange speckled Columbus SL tube frameset with Shimano 600 groupo. My buddy at the ski shop also raced so he advised me on the type of bike I got and fit the bike for me. It apparently was a great deal and I started riding to the shop and that started me into racing. Who knew it would stick? I placed very well in the CAT4 races right off (in those days there was no CAT 5 category). I even won a couple... One was after a late night drinking binge with buddies and when I was introduced to my future wife. I loved Greenbelt, Westgate and the Bowie training races. Ah... the days of trying to out sprint Dave Osborne (aka: Sandbagger), Ding Dong.... yep, I guess I'm still trying to do that and probably will for the rest of my racing years. Plus these days, we have other young bucks who we have to gun for.

Well enough of the past... I'm sore as crap from my first day of working out with weights. No not like Nick's heavier weights and more reps...I did my own workout of basically increasing my weight from 135 lbs to about 175lbs and for 10 sets for squats (1 to 1 1/2 min of between sets) Then I did a few sets of leg lifts for working out on my core. I moved on to the leg press. Again not as much weight as Nick but about 10 sets getting up to 220lbs. My legs were now swelled up and trembling. I could barely walk. On to the leg curl machine. I did that a few sets and left.
At noon, there was the usual suspects on Thrasher's ride. I emailed them earlier that I just did a bunch of weight work and probably wouldn't be riding hard. Well what do you know. They just took advantage of that and rode hard. I basically just tried to stay up with everyone and it was a good workout. I definitely felt out of power. A few attacked at the end of the ride and I just let them go and didn't really care. The ride loosened up my legs a bit and I started feeling really sore later that afternoon. In the evening my wife and I went over to some friends and had a couple of margaritas and a couple glasses of wine and Pizza.

Saturday... I got up about 8:30am.. pretty late :) because of my commitment to the family. So no early DC Velo ride or the N2 Ride. We were going to spend all morning decorating cookies for the Christmas tree. This was our first weekend day without a morning hockey game for the kids. The afternoon would be booked for Hockey. Then another party at night. No riding today.

Sunday...ugh... The party was too much fun, however I'm paying for it today. We had a morning booked full for hockey. I felt sorry for the kids playing hockey as it was raining and they play on an outdoor rink with no roof. They probably felt like I did a couple of weekends ago when it rained and I rode and was miserable and cold. I found out from my son, that his feet were cold and wet, however they were not cold because they were constantly hustling. The other team apparently didn't show because of the weather, so my son's team got a chance to have a really good practice and scrimmage. I need to take a nap, but my daughter has a birthday celebration I have to coordinate. Again no riding for me, however these last couple of days are good for recovery as my legs still hurt.