Bos at ToC???

While cruising the local pages for cycling dirt, i noticed this fellow hanging out with Priority Health riders. Garret Peltonon breaks the undercover news of Bos?? Striking resemblance to a certain Chickenride regular???
Bos.. anything we need to know???

Alright - i'm a dork...

but i'm feeling fairly motivated, and i wanted to put something up to keep me motivated....

Wu Tang Clan ain't nuthin to F@&% with...

That's right fellow pimps.. THE Wu Tang was able to double dip this weekend.
Ok ok, so I'm only a pimp in my own mind and perhaps in a geriatric sun dialers race. BUT - 2 rides on the weekend is still two rides on the weekend

OUT

sweat gets in your eyes....

I will be totally honest on this one.. when Lenny called and said he was not going to make it as he was feeling ill, i though maybe its a chance to sleep in a bit for me. Sarah got up and made breakfast, and everyone knows how much fun it is to ride on a full gut. I managed to convince myself i will do it. I though at first, ok its just an hour. But i was feeling really good actually and gutted out a full 2 hours with 2 x 15 min @ 230W, which is an improvement for me, as well as 3 x 5 min around 280-285 W. If i could just get a good week rolling with the weight loss, i may still have a chance to turn this around.
It felt really good grinding out a few of those intervals actually today, music thumping, sweat pouring out of you... a good day.
Now all i need to do is the same thing tomorrow right??

I'm a Realist....

As much as i have enjoyed the mild temps these past few days, i have also lived in chicago WAY too long to not realize there is a chance of snow for at LEAST 3 more months around here. I certainly enjoyed strolling down Michigan ave without a jacket today to go to lunch, and i most definitely like this pic, because it reminds me of Tree City. This was a lovely sunny day that i got to pimp out on the TT rig. The plan was to go super easy on the way out and have Enmark catch me and 'use teamwork' on the way back to help him in the overall. Perhaps the music was too upbeat, note the earbuds, who knows. Well, either i didn't go slow enough, or Enmark wasn't on the stuff yet to go fast enough so it didn't work out. Tree City also reminds me of that poor bastard that though he could get around the outside of me in the last corner of a crit. Man, I have never seen an OCLV completely blow apart like that guy's did after he hit a street light. Sorry dude, I'm bigger, and i was in front. Anyway, yes i too am dreaming of sunnier days and better training rides that attempting different views here at STC.
Who the hell decided a groundhog can predict the weather anyway!!

Detroit Muscle

Lenny showed up for the Sunday version of STC, and we cranked out 90 minutes on the trainers. he had a really sweet video for his new trainer, and it was a tour of Mallorca! Nothing better than seeing some of those awesome training roads to keep you motivated on a cold and snowy day chained to the trainer. Man i wish i could get back there to ride again!

Team Smooooooot ventured out to the auto show in the afternoon and saw some VERY sweet
detroit muscle with some awesome throw back designs. The new Chevy Camaro is bitchin, and there were several different killer versions of the Mustang and Charger.

Bike Practice....

STC is hosting Bike Practice again Sunday - call ahead seating is available!

Love is.....

Well, after 4 and a half years of marriage, a 19 month old, and a 1 month old, love is dropping Carter off at the babysitter's place and enjoying a warm loving romantic lunch at Bennigans! Actually it was nice to get out with the MRS. and enjoy some time with a quiet baby sleeping gently in the car seat. I certainly could not resist posting this comic....T-rent.. are you limping today???
To us die hard bikers, what we know to be true is love is a streak of good rides where you are actually motivated to get on the trainer and even shave your legs regularly in the winter. Fortunately I'm there now, in the zone. Its been a pretty good week, and while i know i can't put up the watts Rad Brad is doing, i don't ponder what length of time and cadence will best help me in a spring champions race either. So for me today - love is an hour on the rig this AM, thinking that so far i may still have a good shot at form before the Bone Ride. With the Chickenride less than 4 weeks away now, I'm not sure the first ride will be pretty for me, but at least we have some extra daylight earlier in the year to suffer through.

They brought their freakin toys!!!!

Ok - so in realty i have had a small streak going. Got a few morning rides on, and an hour on saturday, albeit alone cause no one wanted to show up at STC. So we come to sunday. Crazy Lenny is n a hockey kick again, and is skating in the mornings a few times before work. So its finally in the double digits for temp ( sorry rain brad, 18 is not cold - its been 5-10 below in the mornings here for a week, and despite my favoritism to the metric system, unfortunately I'm talking Fahrenheit.) Sooooo.. we head out to Bos' place, and i find out he isn't even gonna skate with us. Its up to me and Lenny to clear the snow from the ice and go old school for some pond hockey.
Fortunately for me, i brought the FOIL!
now i can recall the days of playing regularly, and having 2 or 3 games a week even. It really was not that long ago. Now i went anaerobic just putting my skates on, and my low back was instantly on fire as my lungs cried for air... and all i managed was to stand up!
we did get about an hour of slapping the biscuit around, some good lung burning fun in all.
I did break my bike streak unless i get a ride in tonight, but hopefully i wont be too sore to get it in tomorrow AM.

Picking it all up....

For those of you with children, you already get it and i don't need to explain. For those without.. bear with me. SO my goal recently was to drag my but out of bed in the AM's like i had done all december and january and actually get some good time in for february. WELLL.. between Griffen being born, and me being sick, i lost a good chunk of january. No worries right? get back in the groove for february. Well i must have gained 3 tons, as it now seems impossible to lift my carcass from the bed in the mornings when the alarm goes off. Those of you with children understand this. For those of you without... try this exercise - go to your alarm clock right now, close you eyes, and set the time... NO YOU CAN'T LOOK AT IT.. you must then go to bed and wake up whenever you set the alarm for. You may get 2 hours of sleep, you may get 6. Don't know for sure. If the alarm goes off with more than 3 hours to go before you need to get up for work, repeat the blindfolded exercise, and i recommend a back up alarm. Repeat this daily for about 6 months, and you will be well trained for children. So i am turning over a new leaf - setting my back up alarm for tomorrow morning, and starting my new streak. Tune in soon to see how it goes.

Garland - Play on Player

Lenny - Bike practice this weekend!!!

T-Rent - less swerve, more bike

MOTIVATION

Bradley - if you want motivation.... look no further

At least I'm not the only one....

At least I'm not the only one who's month is in the crapper!
Kudos to Big T-rent for posting some BIG hours on the bike, well done. It sounds like B-Rad may even have a chance to finish in the cat 2's this year posting decent numbers, but i'd have to say a little disappointed if his big achievement is a 2 hour total on the trainer split between 2 rides. Come on man, you know good and well you need to be putting in more than that! Enmark gets the Flip Flaps award for a very Skirt-like 22 hours, and for myself - i am for sure destined to be a winner of the GRAVITY games posting a whopping 17 hours with 15 workouts on 11 days of riding, and amassing 435km (thats 270 miles for the metric challenged). Wow, big stuff. I'm sure i will be ready to get at least to the first starbucks on the Bone Ride with that kind of dedication. On a positive note - I think i am healthy enough to get back in the saddle.. i managed to spin a bit tonight so i can start my february streak.
I need to confirm with Lenny - but it looks like Bike Practice is on at STC this weekend as well.

Sick, Sick, and Sick

Well, i thought i managed to avoid the sickness that swept through the family, but tuesday confirmed my fears on monday night. Indeed i was not feeling good. Tuesday night i curled up like a baby, or how Trent looked like after his power test. ( see Enmark's blog for upcoming photos) I woke up completey feverish and sweat through my shirt, sheets and pillow; a real treat. I managed to drag myself to work and wallow in my illness, wednesday and thursday were each worse than the previous day. Friday and Saturday were a bit better, but Sunday grounded me to the couch, completely wiped out again. Finally as i sit here sunday night, this is the first time i feel almost human in a week. Close enough to human that i am even thinking about setting the alarm for an AM session on the trainer... time will tell.

I managed to torture a bunch of the MOB squad guys this weekend, no no, i am certainly not fit enough to take on a team on my own, but i put them through the power testing for them to benefit from.. Thanx to Mario for opening up his home to have guys trapse in and out all day and to give up a day with the family. There were certainly plenty of horses that showed up to test their merit. The funniest moment was Enmark busting the computrainer with his explosive test. After a quick reboot, he proceeded to do it again and post over 1400W in the explosive test and really showing some sack by holding over 1050W for 10 seconds.

I guess my hopes of making January a good month went down the drain, but hopefully now that i am well and have a few days to get back into the schedule and make February a better month.

Monday AM, Monday PM

Managed to double dip the training sessions again, every little bit adds up for the month, so im chasing it with all i got. It looks like i will end up short of 30 hrs for the month, but 25 is still in sight. Tighten up gents - the fat man is making a run to get under 190 lbs - i was 189.5 this am, lets see what tuesday holds.

Snow day

So I am starting a new streak, and seeing that i did not want to break the streak at just 2 days of riding, and i could not convince myself to sit on the trainer, i decided to look outside. Hmmm.. the driveway was covered with the white stuff. Hmm... trainer??
quick check of the weather channel says its 29 degrees already, Hmmm.. thats enough to break out the cross hog and head into the woods. So off i went with that. The main trail was in pretty good shape and the fluffy stuff created plenty of resistance to heat things up in a hurry, it also helped me with the task of kicking my own ass, since all i had was about 90 minutes to be out. Bears game on ya know. I did venture off into the single track some, but it was slow going and i was doing a better job off killing myself on the main trail. I was able to take another self portrait out in the snow, its no Knackered picture or anything, but it will have to do for now... sorry Enmark. The trail was the perfect choice with the tunes jammin and the legs burnin, i got in a killer 90 minutes in the white stuff.

Da Bears!!!!!!!!!

GO BEARS!!!!!!

Comin at you like a spider monkey!

Today's ride was brought to you by the letter Q, a warm yummy Cinnamon roll from the STC breakfast buffet, and by Talladega Nights. If you have not taken the time to view this masterpiece, I'd say go for it, but make it a GUY FILM day, the little lady will find it dumb i would think. Its everything you wold expect from the trailers on TV, and Lenny and I agreed that our favorite quote was from Rikky Bobby's son Walker who says he will be 'Comin at you like a spider monkey!' Endearing indeed. Well, I enjoyed my cinnemon roll, checked out Lenny's swanky new trainer with WIRELESS readout on a head that we could not figure out why it was 4 sizes too big for what it needed to be. WE had a good 2 hour workout and laughed pretty good at Talledega Nights. The gag reel is most definately worth jumping straight to before you view the actual movie. I defeinately think it will be a good trainer movie to see again.

7 Miler

Well - i decided it was judgement day to see how fat and out of shape i really am. I emailed Haas to get the file for the 7 mile field test we used to use regularly and hooked up the computrainer. After a good warm up, I launched off and settled into what i thought was a good early rhythm. From there i started dialing it up a bit as i reached the halfway mark. I was definitely feeling the lack of riding the last 18 months, but i was determined to post something that i would not be totally ashamed of. I dug deep for the last 1.5 miles and put in what i feel was a decent effort for the course. The test is 7 miles up a 1% grade, just enough to be relentless and definitely enough to scold you if you start out too hard, you need to pull it WAY back to get any recovery. I turned in 22:54 with 228W ave at 99 rpm for those of you that care about the numbers. Looking back to2004 ( the last year i had good data and i would consider myself race fit) it turns out to only be about 30W under where i was then.
Smotty's new plan:

• Keep up the double sessions
• Keep the nose to the grind
• Go out for long rides till i BONK whenever possible

I figure if i can follow that plan, i will get decently fit enough for the Chicken, maybe even the Bone ride. I'm sure in the process i can get some more knackered pictures for Enmark as well.

I'm ready for STC saturday indoor

Cheers

Saturday... High of 26

The weather channel predicts a high of 26 for saturday.
Unless the sounds of wearing everything you own sounds good, STC will be open for willing participants - 8am as always. See you there

Chasing an hour

Well i got up this morning with the best intentions of getting an hour in before Carter got up, unfortunately he was the reason i woke up. So we got up and played while mom and Griffen slept. From there, i thought for sure i could get an hour in on the trainer while Carter slept, as both mom and Griffen were again looking sleepy and thinking of nap time. No dice, as i was exhausted and opted for some couch time to follow up on the explosive opener of 24 and following Jack Bauer around. Alrighty then.. Carter is up, mom and Griffen are eating, i guess its go time! I took carter downstairs with me and managed to keep him entertained from the bike, and i was finally able to get that hour in i was chasing.
If i can manage to get an hour in with a 18 month old and a 3 day old in the house, as well as a recently pregnant still hormonal wife, you can too... mostly cause you can't top the excuses i have!