Weight and Stuff

My training has still been on track and it's been a great season for it. With the nicer weather I've been outside more often than not and the hours seem to fly by which is nice. It's helping me work towards my goals of getting faster and lighter.

As far as my weight goals I hit a 159.x avg last week so I guess I can say I hit my end of February goal already. That's nice to know. So now I'm working on my end of March goal of 155lbs. Will power has been the biggest part of the weight loss. With a healthy mindset, smaller portions, and some goals on the horizon, it has really been pretty easy. It's also interesting to see the weight fluctuations during my weigh cycles. Early in the week is heavier and the end of the week/weekend is the lightest. So it really helps mentally to keep track and see where I can go with this. At the moment I'm thinking 5 more pounds will be pretty straight forward to drop but then I start to walk the line of do I try to lose more. That would be great as long as I don't lose any power. That'll be tricky. We'll see.

There are some races sneaking up. I wanted to do a road race Mar 3 but it looks like I'll hold off til Mar 10th and then rev it up a bit. I'll be curious to see what my legs have in store with all of these base miles so far. I'm dying to open my system up a bit so it'll be cool to let it fly. I've gotta do some kind of intensity build as my first bigger race is Apr 7th in NC. That I wanna be flying for. Let's call it mini peak #1 of about 20 peaks ;-)

Gotta love this weather...

So far this season has been great and the temps have been making base miles pretty comfy. The trainer is still a big part of the training but at least at this point it's only once a week. Hopefully it can stay that way, or at least until I can afford some rollers. Anyway, the riding has been going doing another century Saturday so that's a century in December and now January and maybe I can keep that streak going. If things go as planned I have dirt centuries planned for April, June, July, August and September so I just need to fill in a couple of months in between and I'll be good.

As far as the weight situation is concerned I'm doing well. My goal for this month is to hit 160 by the end of February. As of this morning I was 159.8 and my average for this week is in the high 161's. I'm considering the goal met when my weekly average is at my goal mark or lower so I'm close. It really hasn't been tough. Portion control and good food is all that is really needed to get into the right form. Of course my sweet tooth has been going crazy and I have a little to satisfy it, but I try and keep the fruit nearby to see if that will do the trick first. So far so good.

2 months and 5 days til the 6 hours of Warrior Creek...
2 months and 26 days til the Cohutta 100...
4 months til the Mohican 100...

2012 is looking promising.

Weight Goal Update

So far so good. My initial goal was to be at 165lbs by the end of January. Well last week's average was 164 so that goal looks like it was surpassed and I'll keep working on February's goal. The goal for the end of Feb is 160lbs. Hopefully in a week or two I'll have that one on the horizon. Motivation is key and I'm already signed up for 3 big races in 2012 and that's helping. It also doesn't hurt that my schedule has been crazy busy and I'm running around constantly. It's all working so far. The goal of 155 for the 2012 race season is within reach...

Here's to 2012

With our lack of a winter, this year is going to be hard to not burnout it seems. Everyone has been riding a lot and I've been putting in some good time as well. I've been out in the good, the bad, and the stupid. That 4 hour ride Sunday (with single digit wind chill) definitely qualifies for the stupid category but it really wasn't that bad with proper layers. It's been exciting as my riding has been more focused already and is really giving me something great to look forward to this year.

Diet: I've cut lots of bad food out of my diet and I'm starting to look into this whole gluten free thing, not because it's trendy, but I'm curious if I really have any allergies to it. A few people close to me said it's been a great change in their life and I'm seeing if it would work for me. I'm kinda hoping it doesn't because I REALLY love pizza. I can get away with sandwiches on crappy bread or some other form of pasta but I can't sacrafice my love of pizza. We shall see how that goes.

Bike: For 2012 I've been craving something new to ride and I really want what I can't get it seems. I tried to order a Scott...Sold out. I would like a Superfly but that's the same as I've been riding the past few years so yawn... So I'm back to option #3 a ti bike. It'll be a bit more expensive but I'm going to look into the options that I really want and see if it is at all feasible. It should be anyway. I know it won't be superlight, but if it is dependable, and comfy, and gets me where I want to be really fast - that's fine by me. So I'm checking out this new possibility. As part of this fantasy I really want a fork with a lockout. Fox why are you so behind? So it looks like I'll be trying a Rock Shox this year. Let's hope that doesn't come back to bite me in the you know where...

Weight: I set a couple of weight goals for the new season. I want to be 165 by the end of January, 160 by the end of February, and 155 by the end of March. This motivatcion comes from my success in 2010 when I started off the season at 152. This was crazy light but it carried some great success and helped me get where I wanted to be for the future. I now realize it was too light and I raced the rest of that season at 155-157. Last year, 2011, I raced the entire season at 165-167. I felt good, had some great races, but wondered what if. I always felt a little heavy and even if not the case it played into my mental game a bit. So my targets should help get that out of my psyche and help springboard me forward even more for the 2012 season. Each year it seems that I'm still progressing but I want to make even bigger gains this year - and this should help.

Promise of a New Year

The past two years have been pretty crazy and I'm ready for a nice progressive good year. With my PE in 2010 and my father passing in 2011 I'm looking ahead and keeping my fingers crossed for a year with promise. A year with great potential. A year with bigger goals. A year with more success, happiness, and miles.

The off season has been nice as I've done a bunch of good riding either solo or with friends and teammates. Base training is in full effect and it's nice to not be riding so hard and doing the specified structured workouts. I do miss it a bit and I will be looking forward to racing again soon but I'm biding my time so that I can come out in better form this year and really put a dent in the competition. I've been looking back at the way last season went and I've had some ups and downs. The downs were hard to fathom at the time but in retrospect, they had some glaring errors surrounding them that I need to correct for this coming year. Hindsight is 20/20 right? For sure...

So for 2012 the name of the game is endurance once again. Last year I tackled a nice mix of 100's/12hrs/6hrs and 50 milers. This year I'll be looking more towards the 100 milers with some xc's thrown in and some other middle distance races too. As always I battle with my list of priority races since I want to do every race out there. For now the schedule is looking good but still in progress. I'm thinking of doing 5 100 milers this year. They will be the Cohutta 100, Mohican 100, Wilderness 101, Hampshire 100, and the Shenandoah 100. As a warmup for the Cohutta 100 in late April is the 6 hours of Warrior Creek in early April. That should help ramp up fitness and give me some nice early season goals to shoot for. I'm really psyched and hope it should give me a nice boost for the remainder of the season, whether physical or mental.

The next debate is the bike debate. Still trying to figure out the FS vs HT debate. I've always been a hardtail man. People are trying to influence me into the FS discussion but I don't think I'm quite ready for that yet. I want the most efficient means to an end, and I think that's on a HT for me. If I'm not fast enough on it, I'll have to work on my fitness and not blame the bike. We'll see... It's always a fun debate anyway.

So those are my thoughts at this point in the game. More to come and I'm just enjoying the nice weather that's allowing for some great early season riding.

Bikes for sale!

Time to make room for some new rides. Up for sale is my 2011 Trek Superfly Elite Carbon Hardtail and my 2009 Trek Madone 5.1 Carbon Road Bike. Both are in amazing condition and need new homes. Check them out via the links below(copy and paste):

http://www.ebay.com/itm/130616245515?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649#ht_1012wt_1084

http://www.ebay.com/itm/130616245515?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649#ht_1012wt_1084

Update

Well as you might have thought/feared - my dad passed November 19th just after 10pm. It was the worst day of my life. I lost my best friend and the best father anyone could have ever had. It's been a struggle to do anything since really. There's not a day that goes by where I'm not thinking of him or talking to him for comfort or asking advice. He's always been there for me and always will. He's a part of me now and I really can feel that he's watching over me and comforting me at times. People say it's hard, but I could never imagine the hurt that I feel now. I really miss him every second of every day.

...On a more positive note, I've been trying to drown my sorrows in the search for a new bike. It's kinda ironic with the lack of riding I've done lately but I figured what the hell. I actually did a race the day after my father's memorial ceremony and that was really tough to get through. I had no fitness and no mental focus but somehow finished, and wasn't last. That was a huge success. So every now and then when I actually get the motivation to ride, I try and get a few hours in. I'm hoping it gets easier and easier and I get back into the normal routine at some point. My goal at this point is to start my base miles and cut weight for the 2012 season. I'd like to get back to 155 for next season and I set a goal of hitting 158 by January 1st as I'm 168 now. I know that will help me tremendously with the infamous power to weight ratio, and more than that, my confidence which really matters. Right now it's all tough and just trying to figure it out and see what really matters.