Training Ride 11/30/11

Really cold.  Fingers frozen.

Training Ride 11/29/11

Back to the pre-dawn grind.  Cold front came through, so it is warmer now than it will be later when the sun is up.  Tomorrow's ride will be cold.

Training Ride 11/27/11

My plan was only to do 40 but I ended up closer to 50.  A lot of cycling this weekend, I cannot wait for tomorrow's rest day.

Training Ride 11/26/11

Micco Metric route.  Did my fastest metric ever.  Let's eat.

Training Ride 11/25/11

Broke out the TT bike for a spin.  It is definitely fun to rock the Cervelo every now and again.  As this was a shorter ride for a weekend, I decided to push the intensity up a notch or two.

Training Ride 11/24/11

Happy Thanksgiving.  Amazingly awesome weather, I'm thankful for that and the great form I have had lately.  Cannot complain about the way I've been turning those pedals.

Horrible Hundred Pics Up!

Found the pics of me suffering up Sugarloaf on my 30 mile breakaway.  Came out nice!

Sufferfest!

Training Ride 11/23/11

What a great ride.  I felt as strong as ever this morning.  It was really cool considering getting myself out of bed was a struggle, but I'm glad I did.

Training Ride 11/22/11

First training ride of the official "offseason."  Not much different than before, actually.  It was a bit wet still from last night's rain, so that was unpleasant, but the rest of the week looks dry.

2011 Horrible Hundred

So I won the 70 mile race.  I can't really believe it, either.  The short of it is that I was with the leaders of the race for the first 40 miles or so, and the peloton kept a very fast pace.  At about mile 40 the people doing the 100 mile race split off from the people doing the 70 mile race.  When the split occurred, there was nobody else among the leaders of the race doing the 70 besides me.  So all of the sudden instead of being in a group of about 75-100 leaders, I found myself on a long solo break.  I realized that there was a good chance that I could win at that point since there was likely a large gap between myself and the next rider in my group, so I gunned it hard.

I was still unsure if I was in the lead until I hit Buckhill and from the top of Buckhill you can see behind you and in front of you for a loooong way and that's when I realized that there was nobody else but me.  I pushed it really hard, attacked hard on Sugarloaf mountain (I take a lot of pride in the fact that I was the first person to summit Sugarloaf out of all 2,300+ racers) and from that moment on I knew that nobody could catch me.  

From there it was about 16 more miles to the finish with just enough climbing to make it non-trivial.  I basically rode as hard as I could for that 16 miles to lock it in.  Despite the hard effort, once I realized I was going to win, it felt like I had wings.  3 hours in the saddle at a race pace, with a pretty high heart rate and it felt like a nice Sunday cruise.  Cloud 9.

I crossed the finish line as the first finisher in the 70 mile category with a time of 3:24:11.  I was elated, and still am elated.  I went to Chipotle afterwards and ate a big burrito, which in the absence of any kind of prize will have to serve as my prize.  And it was a good darn prize.

Training Ride 11/19/11

Horrible Hundred tomorrow.  Just wanted to do a medium distance ride at a medium effort to keep the legs fresh.

Training Ride 11/17/11

Good ride to end the week on.  Rest day Friday, easy spin Saturday and then Sunday is the Horrible Hundred.

Training Ride 11/16/11

A nice, hard and most importantly, dry morning spin.  Started a little earlier than normal, which resulted in slightly less traffic than normal.

Training Ride 11/15/11

A rare afternoon ride thanks to rain at 4am.  The plus side is I got to ride a different route.  I like the route, but it's just not safe to ride in the dark. Can you tell it was windy?

Training Ride 11/13/11

Encountered a fast dude from Las Vegas on vacation in Sebastian, and we traded pulls for about 20 miles.  Pushed it really hard.  Nice to get some decent group riding and intensity in.

Training Ride 11/12/11

A nice metric century to keep the legs fresh and burn some calories before my buddy Robert's wedding.

Training Ride 11/10/11

Pretty chilly this morning.  Good thing my new Voler long sleeve thermal top came in just the nick of time.

Training Ride 11/9/11

Fantastic morning.  I feel stronger each day lately.

Training Ride 11/8/11

A good morning spin.  No rain, which is a big plus.  Let's get on with the day.

Training Ride 11/6/11

Went really hard.  Tried to keep the HR in z3 and z4 for the last 25 miles.  Bring on the pigskin!

Training Ride 11/5/11

Cold ride.  Floridians don't like riding in the 50's.  But the good news is I got a metric in, and keeping pace with my expectations.

Training Ride 11/3/11

Last ride of the work week.  As nice as pre-work exercise makes you feel, and no matter how early you go to sleep, waking up at 4am never gets easy or fun.

Training Ride 11/2/11

More good miles in.  Much less windy this morning, and consequently less annoying.  Looking forward to what should be a somewhat laid back day at work, we'll see.

Training Ride 11/1/11

New month.  Fresh start after the horrible weather last month.  The big goal is Horrible Hundred on the 19th to close out the cycling calendar.