Saturday, April 29, 2006

Off to the Races

I love supporting the local (within state) cycling scene. However, there is one small problem that I have with the very few mountain bike races here. The promoters of these races for the most part here in Louisiana refuse to make thier events norba sanctioned. This means that if I go race I don't get any points. Hummm my only reasons for going is that it will pay-out and I will get to cruise on a trail I have never ridden before. Should things work out I might even go fishing at Lake Bistineaux with the fam.

Shreveprt Here I come.

Jr

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

billiards and bands.

So last week me and some buddies head out to the caterie a local dive of a restaurant/bar/live music venue. This place is in dire need of some serious renovations or a good fire. I will admit that back in the day The Bayou was the local shit hole of a bar. It was one of those places where the stench of the bar greeted you 200 feet before the entrance. That title of BR shittiest bar has now unequivocally been claimed by the caterie. This place has great food if you like a heart attack in a box and great drink specials but you don't go there for the atmosphere as the atmosphere is toxic.

So Vance, Richey, Naomi (the glue of this random situation) and I are all out par-taying. I have played pool plenty many times but you haven't played pool till you have played at the caterie. There are no billiards sharks that go to this place. The tables are covered with stains of every sort, from long stains to short round stains to I can only guess what caused that stain. I insert my 3 three quarters into the table and out comes our 4X (1 balls) and a hodgepodge of random balls that make it possible to play but not by any stretch of your imagination a conventional game. The tables with one exception were all missing a cue ball as if some sorry teenager on a drunken rampage stole them all. The change machine was out of order. The shotty craftsmanship of the rail upstairs instilled a meager amount of faith in me only when I was too tanked to care anymore. Finally, the shear number of smoke stacks in this place definitely reminded me that living in Baton Rouge can get worse, as if the air is not polluted enough already. If you can't tell I was really impressed by this SHIT HOLE...

Screw playing pool I gave up and started to check out The Anteeks. These guys though a cover band have a guitarist, whose name escapes, me that has mad chops. His ability to technically play his instrument of choice was quite impressive. I was really impressed and that is rare. They chose a string of songs that were familiar soundscapes of my past, a reminder of many great distant memories from my years as a teenager here in BR. Good thing those days are gone they were more like night terrors than fond memories.

These guys were followed by Anisette. Go Micha. I have known Micha the guitarist from this band for over half of my life. They rocked the house and finished the night off. Then home I went. The next morning I rode the hell out of my bike trying to burn off the high octane liquid diet from the night before. BTW, the training is comming along great. My intervals are faster harder and longer than before. I know that sounds horrible but I am talking about bicycle intervals for all you dirty minded people out there.

LAE,
Jr

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Nothing.

I've nothing worth sharing today.

Jr

Saturday, April 15, 2006

My Back Hurts

So I have been off the bike since Thursday. MY back has been killing me. I am a young man and this should not be a problem. So I have taken a few days off the bike and everything seems to be coming back just fine. However, not riding sucks. When you get used to exercising and then you temporarily go into a slough state it is difficult. Sort of like eating lunch everyday at 12:30 and then stopping that daily routine.

But like I said everything should be back on track shortly for a full recovery with big gains on the far end so I am putting up with it. Well tomorrow has 5.5 hours in store for me. Felicianas here I come. Hopefully I won't run into too many good ole boys while cruising on Easter Sunday. They just might take offense to me riding my bike on that day.


LAE,
Jr

Thursday, April 13, 2006

Training Coming along just fine.

Last week my training regiment was increased to ~ 19 hours a week. Though due to bizarre circumstances that has been drastically reduced this week. Long rides that finish in 40 mile training races and even longer rides in the Feliciana's on Sundays are what my diet has consisted of lately. Basically, I have been up to more big gear efforts and cruise efforts. However, as I am trying to peak late in the season for several NORBA National Events in particular Snow Mass (Aspen, CO) and Park City, UT NORBA National Events it is now time for the really hard intervals to begin. Criss Cross Efforts are by far the worst feeling efforts that I perform. They basically consist of efforts that start at cruising at your LT (lactate threshold) then slowly ramping the effort to the point that you are Super LT then once again slowly lowering the effort to LT effort. These intervals hurt but they whip you into shape very fast. The only problem is that over doing it is easy. Then you gain nothing out of this hard work but lost fitness.

Anyway, I am still looking to head to the MTNs. Though I have races coming up that will send me there anyway.

I really need to start doing more intervals that are anaerobic. The reason behind this is that anaerobic efforts increase the size and concentration of mitochondria within our cells. Mitochondria are the power factories of our cells. As you get to higher altitudes and the oxygen becomes scarce having more mitochondria will make one more efficient. Sure there is more to it than doing anaerobic efforts but they are one of the building blocks and major components of competitive fitness. It is no secret that bicycle racing is a competition of who is the most effiecient. So I need to start making myself more efficient now in anticipation of events with a base altitude of 6000 feet above sealevel such as Snow Mass.


So keep on ridin' and smilin',

Jr


R.I.P. Kerry Stamey and Emerson Bell.

Monday, April 10, 2006

Mississippi on my mind.

So I have been found guilty of neglecting my blog. I have basically been up to the same ole same ole. I have finally found some descent racing legs. They refused to come out of hiding in Saturdays Crit in the Fondren District of Jackson, MS. However, on Sunday during the Tour Le Fluer Road Race I felt pretty damn good.

The Road Race started off abnormally with us catching the lead motorcycle in the first Kilometer. He was a little busy chatting it up with the other official and was not paying attention. When we ran up on him and started yelling this guy floored his bike. Some how his rear wheel jumped up shot off to the right of the pavement onto the gravel kicked up dust and burned rubber to avoid an accident.

That was the first 1 Kilo. Shortly there after myself and one guy from Memphis Motorwerks attacked the group and gapped them pretty righteous. I wanted to keep on rolling but I knew that Herring Gas did not have any teammates with us so it was a Suicide Mission that I cared to not take part of. After 5-8 miles I sat up and reintegrated the group.

The Second lap and the legs started to feel good. There was a group off the front that appeared to have a herring gas rider, one Memphis Motorwerks and one NOBC guy up the road putting in a serious effort. However, my team Raising Canes had none. So I launched off the front of the group into what I refer to as nomans land. I was trying to cruise across the gap at well over 30 and just as I was about to make contact with them they increased there effort and I did not have a wheel to latch on to. So back to the groups. Back to Troy verbally ass ulting me for giving up. Well there were a few reasons that I choose that route. One: Herring was not in the breakaway. Two: My Legs were Dead. Three: I may have made it to the group but then I would have completely imploded and destroyed all my chances.

The third lap was preceded by a nasty attack by Rialdo from NOBC. The prior day I think he won the Crit. His attack was in the feed zone and I had no one to feed me anyway. My legs were shot I was dehydrated and really tired from trying to keep up with these guys. Some how I stole a bottle from my team mates Tracy Martin that held me over for a sec. The as we passed through the start finish line Memphis launched another attack. I wasn't to hip to this one but his teammate decided to bridge right in front of me. So I grabbed his wheel and went to work. I already had a teammate in Jerry Simon up the road and so in our little break were Two Memphis guys, Jerry and Myself from Canes, Sam Rieden from Pro Bike and Sebastian Alvereze from Tiger Cycling. We put in a serious effort. My legs hurt so badly but I pulled through as much as possible. The guys in this break were really working hard together to try and catch a small group of 3 guys up from us that we had all forgotten about. So I am completely out of H2O and Energy Gel. 13 miles later and a small group of breakaway artist catch up to us. However, they bring with them some extra baggage. So to get rid of the extra refuse we pull hard to drop any guys from that group that were not having a good day. We shell ~ 1/2 of the group that had just bridged up to us. However, the main peleton had organized and were chasing us hard. At about this moment I cracked. My legs had given more than they ever had in any road race. I was out of gel and out of water. So the group I had worked so hard to establish gently cruised away from me on a hill. Shortly there after the main group came dashing by. Or should I say the fractured remnants of that once large group. The guys had chased us so hard that they dropped over half of the group. I tried to latch on. I really did but I did not have enough. Somehow, I stole a bottle full O H2O from a Memphis guy and kept ticking the pedals over. This was followed by a pseudo hard chase in which a group of ~12 of us worked together.

We cruised to the finish and in the final straight Jason Hamm of La Sport launched a sprint from HELL. This guy and his teammate gapped our group really fast. I some how latched onto his wheel but with 100 M to go I found some legs and started to go around him. I am sure I caught him off guard. That said, I kept pushing the gear and was ticking over my 53-12 very efficiently and had a few bike length gap on him over the line.

So what did I learn from this weekend of racing? Ride Hard Ride Fast and it might be painful but it will be over in a couple hours.

LAE.
And Keep the Rubber Side Down,

Jr