Tuesday, February 24, 2009

The Boringness- General Training.

Truthfully, I like base training. I like riding as much as I can, recovering and doing it again the next day. I like eating 5000 calories a day and not sweating it. I like listening to almost two whole Phish shows on a ride. I like the fatigue that my legs feel, but I like the thought of letting them rest a little, adding a little intensity, getting that snap back and racing even more. The one thing I that I haven't been liking too much lately is the bitter cold and wind. I pretty much put a completely flat 2000 miles of non-stop pedaling in over in IL before I start doing some hills and getting on the mountain bike again. Lately it's been 4 hour out and backs and the wind has been so bad I'll cruise at 26 mph most of the way up and struggle to churn it over at 15 mph on the way back. It hurts my knees, calves and lower back, but I push on, thinking it will make me stronger.

Tomorrow I'm going to dip my feet into phase 2 and have some fun, open up the legs a little and ride my new mtb for the first time off road. A little Rim Wrecker recon in 60 degree weather should do the trick. I'm shooting for 3 laps at close to 4 hours, but have a feeling Mexican and margaritas will win over after 2. A little Council Bluff man trip with Albert, Drewballs and Trey Grothoff will be the kick off to my mid week mini vacation. Thursday Casey and I are going to see Ryan Adams in Columbia and party it up a little bit. She scored a sweet free night at the Marriott in Columbia which beats the hell out of the whorehouse we stayed in for the 2006 Missouri State Championship Road Race. Might be a little tougher to score some crack rock at the Marriott though.

I guess it's about time to start riding some hills, too.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Hillbilly Racing Starts Soon

I have a lot to talk about, but not much to talk about here. Life is grand.

As far as the stuff I talk about here goes, I've been putting in the miles and feeling strong. I'm thinking about winning again, the eye of the tiger, baby ninja kitties and going fast; which are good thoughts for me.

I think I should be a collegiate athlete starting next fall for the Lindenwood Cycling Team. I have goals of doing well at the MTB Collegiate Nationals and completing the education I had to put on the back burner when I moved to the STL in 2001. The big picture is a really good one.

Hillbilly racing (AUS for mountain bike racing) starts up in a few short weeks, but I've got my eyes on the prize and am going to select a few choice races in the summer to light it up, but mostly focus on destruction in the fall. The racing I do for the next couple months will be to check the form and for kicks... hopefully there will still be some ass kicking as part of the kicks, but I'm not going to sweat it one way or the other.

I've got tickets to see Ryan Adams, The Killers, Ray Lamontagne, Phish and the Flight of the Conchords. I feel good about all that noise too.

I'm ready to "paint my masterpiece", so to speak, and working hard to get it done is giving me great pleasure right now.

The pieces are all fitting in nicely.

That ones for you, Matt.