RickySilk

This morning wasn’t nearly as difficult as I thought it would be. Getting the boy out of bed at 6:30 was a little challenging but not too bad. He was ready and out the door to the bus stop right on time. Lil E seemed excited to go to school but once we got there she did not want to stay. I had to do the old hug, kiss, goodbye then turn and walk out paying no attention to the devastation I was leaving behind. I can’t wait til they get home and tell me about their first day.

In-laws were in town this weekend which always means I get to ride my bike a lot. Rode down and did Chaires ride with Big Tim then did an MTB ride with Cliff on Sunday. I wasn’t feeling the Munson Hills so much on Sunday. Cliff has a new mountain bike and I can’t blame him for wanting to ride it but…. some clay roads on Sunday would have been preeeeeeeemo. I know because the parts of the ride that were offroad were so-so and the parts that were on the road were NICE and cool and breezy. Anyway… crammed in 7.5 hours of bike riding over the weekend and that feels good.

Cliff did get this cool pic though.

I need to get back in the habit of carrying the camera on rides. I’ve missed out on some good pics.

Good thing, less heat and rain. Bad thing, less daylight. In the mornings I’ve started to feel and smell just a little bit of fall in the air. Kids start school next week. Truth be told I can’t wait to get them out of the house. They’re going crazy… that’s no joke. I really think they’re going crazy.

We’ve been cramming in a whole bunch of mini-vacations here at the end. Mostly the beach. I love the beach. I’d like to live somewhere that has white sandy beaches and mountains all around. I don’t think that exists. The closest thing is probably Southern California.

Found myself feeling a little bored with riding this summer but salvaged it with the Tuesday Night Crits. That ride broke up the mundane with good hard 60 minute efforts. I found that if I really wanted a solid 60 though I had to get in a break otherwise there was too much cat and mouse stuff early in the ride. Those roadies are funny, they’ll just sit up and stop pedaling whenever they feel like it. Messes up the flow.

I’ve got my eyes on the first three FSC mtb races. Gainesville, Fernandina Beach and Tallahassee. After that the races go south and I start doing the good long autumn mtb soul riding. Can’t wait for that. Last race of the year will be the state cyclocross champs here in Tallahassee Dec 5th I think. I’m gonna try and be in top 1 hour form this year. I’m also gonna bring a boom box out there and have a dance party on the sidelines during the other races. It’ll be sweet.

Why not just ride? I’ve asked myself that question. I’m not totally sure why.

I just read “Talent vs. Training” by Molly Cameron. I can relate. Why train so hard? I don’t know…. I like a challenge. I want to find my limit. How fast? How far?

Don’t Die Wondering. I think that was a marketing slogan from Vision back in the 80’s. I still like it though.

I finally got a photo of the towel rider. I hadn’t seem him in at least a year. He rides a Cannnondale F-1000 down the middle of the road while sitting on a towel. I wonder what his logic is for riding the yellow line.

I’ve got a spectacular weekend of riding the penis numbing flatlands of volusia and flagler counties upcoming. Probably just ride up to Palm Coast and back.

Starting friday we’re going to Lil E’s final doctor appointment in Jax, then it’s down to the inlaws in Ormond Beach. It’s ok to visit but if I had to live there I would have some negative feelings. Gotta do what you gotta do.

Taking the CX bike so I can hit a little of the double track at Bulow State Park. The only elevation change I’ll see is going over the Granada Bridge. Gotta force the fanny outta the saddle or there’ll be some serious numb penis. It’s so bad I’m thinking about putting the watch on a 10 minute timer to remind me to put it in the 11 and stand up.

This is excellent training for Oak Mountain. Gotta do what you gotta do.

3 weeks out from Bump&Grind and the knife sharpening has begun. Only rode 8.5 hours last week but every ride but Tuesday’s had some sort of intensity to it. Long hours dull the knife so now I try to use the knife as little as possible but keep it sharp with high intensity.

Can’t say I feel great at this point… don’t feel bad.. just don’t feel super. I really shouldn’t yet anyway I guess. I remember feeling this way last september when I was sharpening for the TB race. Doubt, etc. I’m pretty confident it will come around by May 31st. I just want to recapture that invincible feeling I had at TB last year. It was like a drug, the best drug, and it’s what I’ve been working for since January. Just one hit. Like Tyrone Biggums.

It’s pretty cool having over a years worth of data in wko+ now cause I can look back at the very same workout on 9/21/2008 and see improvement which helps my motivation a lot when I feel unsure and uncertain.

Opened my knee up again in the exact same spot for the third time. That new skin is so thin it just tore right off. Big E’s only reaction was, “Crap, I just washed the sheets” and sarcastically “maybe YOU should get some knee pads”. I have made fun of knee pad folks in the past. Reminds me of the reactions I got from my mom when I was a kid, “mama I just crashed and I have this big gash in my leg and…”, mom says “oh yeah, looks like it hurts, don’t get any blood on the carpet”.

Looks like I’ll be racing the old Thunderbolt on Sunday. Looking forward to that. As I remember, it’s not a flowing singletrack type of course more of a rocky, technical and very hilly course. A hard man’s course full of suffering. It will be long too. 3 laps of 10 miles. Whew. Hope I don’t knock this scab off my knee.

I had a gihugic breakthrough yesterday. Did the 20 minute test to check fitness and adjust FTP if needed. Came out of it with an avg of 307 watts. Best last year was 286. I set a 5 minute and 10 minute PB at the same time. Best 10 being the last 10 and best 5 being the last 5. I felt good.

I’m still trying to digest how I could have made such a huge jump. Immediately after the test I checked the powertap to make sure it was zero’d. It was. Then the whole ride home I’m thinking of what could have gone wrong to inflate the numbers. I don’t think anything could have.

So I look back at the last few weeks numbers to try and backup this test. I nearly equaled my best 20 minute last thursday in the last 20 minutes of a 30 minute interval the day after a brutal hill workout. I was 10 watts over FTP for the final hour of the race in Macon. I’ve been feeling monstrous on most rides, except last sunday when I felt like a tiny tiny humble man. So maybe I shouldn’t be so skeptical.

This puts me at 4.48 watts/kg…. dagone. Now I wonder… am I peaked? Is this is good as it’s gonna get? I need to race this before I lose this! I’m such a worry wart. I just busted the shat out of that ceiling that’s been sitting over my head for a year. How much farther can I go? Can I crack 5 watts/kg? I guess technically I didn’t crack my goal of 4.5 yet. Better stick with that.

The numbers are great but they really don’t mean squat on race day. I still have to line up and get myself and my bike to the finish in one piece…. and of course back up the numbers.

Pool temp hit 90 last week! whoooooooooo! I swam so much lately I got swimmers ear. Ghetto solar does the job. Almost time for a pool party.

It’s also notable that I haven’t found a tick on me in almost 2 weeks.

The in-laws were staying with us over the weekend so I pretty much rode whenever I wanted. Which was the afternoon both days. Saturday it was a little tough to get up and out but I hooked up with Chris and Mark for a nice effort. Yesterday I wasn’t sure I would make it out the door at all but I found motivation and rallied Jim and Cliff for the effort. Cliff is so used to me riding easy he just assumed that was on tap but it was a steady day hitting the hills with solid effort. “I only ate two pancakes” he cried as his body shutdown. It was a deja vu moment. I could have sworn I heard the same thing the day before except it sounded more like “gimme something that smells and tastes like a cheeseburger”. Asses were plum tore out.

You can see Big Worm looking for a cheeseburger.

Since I wussed out of riding last Sunday I did the ride Monday which meant I rode everyday this week. New volume record of 19.25 hours or 9800 kjs.

So now I sit with my once a week cup of coffee. Thoroughly enjoying it. Wondering when I’ll ever nut up and go back in to get my ticker tweaked. Maybe in the Fall…. sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet.

Cliff wanted a glamour shot on Friday. Here it is.