The Big Show for little people

The Big Show
Originally uploaded by furryblackcat.

6 weeks. That's my prime time training window. I don't know who told me about the magic number but is has worked for me in the past.

The week before Hillsboro I was scheduled to take Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday off to get in a big block of hrs and after Dogwood knew it was time to ride some hills. Tues I ended up riding a big Wildwood loop hitting all my favorites and putting the hurt on myself on the climbs, and riding tempo between efforts. I ended up around 5.5 hrs.

Wednesday morning I woke up feeling great, and it was damn sunny. I called up Mike Flanigan and Andy Burgess. Andy tried to remember some quote about "making hay" when the weather was good then over the course of the min long phone call totally blew off the rest of his day of work to go ride. This guy is my hero. Andy doesn't fuck around. He's all about being a euro-trash metrosexual high roller and riding his bike. There are some people who start racing bikes locally because you can suck and go without notice- 7/8 of them have aero bars. I'm not talking about guys who get into it in their 40's, I'm talking about the fancy pants who has been racing for 10 yrs without a win. When you see guys some guys in crits you know that they don't have any athleticism to speak of, aside from maybe playing a little tennis on Sundays so they can prance around in very tight white shorts. Andy works hard and is now the Mesa 3's squads new last 10 meter hope seeing that I continually fall 10 meters short. If short white tennis shorts were in style in Italy Andy would charter a jet over there tomorrow to be outfitted; Addidas Rod Laver shoes, Le Tigre white polo shirt and of course a nice set of green and white Addidas three stripe headbands with matching wristbands.

I rode out from Soulard and met them at Greentree Park. We rode out to High Ridge, through Eureka, up Alt and Old State and then did a big Wildhorse Creek loop to put the nail in the coffin. Then we pacelined down Clayton sprinting for town line signs until the pulled off on Geyer and I realized I had to get all the way across the city and my legs were fucked. I ended up just under 6 hrs and went home and ate like a champ. These are two solid riders and good guys. They are both totally jazzed about racing as a team and are willing to do whatever it takes to win. Watch out.

Thursday wasn't so hot. Had I been controlling any of my efforts the 2 days before I might have been able to log another decent ride but I was totally worked. I ended up doing a super easy 2.5 hr ride, just cruising. Friday I got in another 2 hrs, 3.5 hrs today and then include the 3 hrs I did last Sunday and that puts me in at 22 or so. For me the volume isn't as big a deal as the type of intensity I was able to put out on Tue and Wed- I needed the hills.

I took some much needed rest the week after Hillsboro and the segued back into some work this weekend. Sunday Jen, Scott Rendall, Mike Lanyon and me went out and scouted some new loops in Jeff Co. We found some. Let me tell you if it's called Tower Road it's called it for a reason, 20% climbs. We ended up putting in a solid 5.5 hrs of hills and me being the nice guy that I am took them back up into High Ridge via Franks. Coming down from High Ridge Mike and I decided to put it down a little and pacelined most of it at around 30 mph. When we hit the flats at the horse stables I was redlined trying to keep the pace and he came by me alot faster, I opted to keep a little in the tank. We did find some nice families having a Easter meth cookoff and picked up some bags cheap, sweet!

That's about it I guess?