Don't Skimp On the Meat

- and I mean that in two ways.

1) I'm a firm believer in the power of animal protein - specifically of the red variety and especially for athletes. I went vegetarian for a while mainly because it was cheaper and I thought it would be healthier. I did see an improvement in my riding for a while and I did feel healthier... but then I hit a ceiling in my performance, and it wasn't until I started craving hamburgers after races that I realized something was missing. 

    Once I introduced red meat back into my diet (two or three times a week) my recovery improved significantly both during workouts and from day to day. In addition, I felt just as healthy as long the meat was in moderation (...not so much in Germany when it was sausages and schnitzels every day).

    Now don't get me wrong, I've seen Fast Food Nation and I'm not proud of the 42 degrees of separation between me and my meal, but urban living doesn't provide me with an opportunity to honorably hunt my own meal or otherwise raise a herd. Which brings me to...

2) Go big when purchasing the protein. Sure, a cut of beef from a place like Whole Foods may cost two hours wages for some of us - but if it's just two of three times a week it's worth it.  Yes, there are lots of feel-good and healthy reasons to drop the extra dough (vegetarian-fed, free-range, humanely treated, no hormones...), but there is one undeniable reason - flavor. Consider the extra money spent as a guarantee of good taste. As long as you don't overdo it on the seasonings it's failry impossible to screw up a good piece of meat... and even if you don't use any seasonings at all, it'll still be pretty good. It's tough to say that about any other form of protein.

Although the Sugar Glyder recently referenced my daily cup-of-raw-oats habit (and sometimes twice a day), it's all for naught without the beef.

Bon Appetit.

Going Coastal

Training is going well -- despite two rear tire blowouts in two days. The first one was on a Serfas Combi Tire that had 3,500 miles on it, so I wasn't too bummed (I ran over some gum then ran over a heavy duty staple). But then, of course, the second blow out happened on the brand new tire on the very next day on a nail I never saw. 

I've been doing the Mulholland Ride pretty often - three times in the last seven days. It's probably the most "interesting" 3+ hour ride I have. The terrain is challenging, the views are pretty cool, and once I get to the other end I see the Pacific Ocean. There's something about that large body of water that just never gets boring. This time of year the cool breeze is much appreciated too. Inland, near the apartment, it's hitting 90 just about every day.

Several ABD'ers, including the Elite Team, are out tackling the Proctor Road Race today. This year some of the P-R-O's came out from Colavita and Priority Health, so that will change the strategy in the 1/2 race quite a bit. The organization has been good about posting results right away so those of us at home can follow along.

CyclingNews of the Weird

Here's a great story from CyclingNews today: "BMC riders help Navigator soigneur apprehend thief"

The short of it is that a 250 pound man was harassing a Navigator's soigneur outside the teams' hotel, and BMC sprinter Dan Schmatz had no hesitation about physically intervening - and the rest of the team jumped in to help.

When I was a Boy Scout back in Junior High, I was a proud member of Troop 21 in West Chicago. Every year when all the regional troops came together for "Camp-o-rees" (or whatever they were called), our troop would win the competition for having the cleanest and most-up-to-Boy-Scout-code campsite. That was hysterical, because we were also the troop that would organize and instigate a midnight brawl with any and all comers from other troops - it was like Boy Scout Fight Club.

Which brings me back to Team BMC kicking some ass. For years I've been talking about a Cycling Team Fight Club - primarily because I think it would be absolutely hysterical. Have you ever seen a bike racer fight? Most of us have long since trained away any upper body strength and most likely couldn't even hurt each other. Actually, the pain riders inflict on each other at races like Stillwater, Tri-Peaks or the 78th day of Superweek is so much worse than a punch in the face. Maybe that's the truth behind my Team Fight Club joke: I'd prefer a nice, swift shot to the jaw over sucking wind for 10 laps while the Euro-jauggernaut strings it out at the Sheboygan stage of Superweek.

But if it ever did come to blows, there are definitely a few riders out there that could dominate a ring full of cyclists like an adult playing king of the hill with preschoolers. It's nice to read that Dan only uses his powers for good.

Ahead of Schedule

Sorry for the delay in updates - I did two, 4-hour days on the bike this weekend with lots of climbing, and that pretty much knocked any productive juices out of me. After 9 hours my first week back on the bike I made it up to 17 hours last week. That was 100% increase and 20% more than I originally planned -- and I certainly felt it. By the end of Saturday and Sunday's rides I was just dragging myself home.

I'm not planning on getting the volume much higher than 18 or 20 hours as in the past I generally average only 18 hours per week Superweek - so now I'll just be mixing in the intensity - VO2 and sprints.

Today marks the 4-week mark since my surgery so technically I've got full clearance... I better get going.

There is Hope

This has nothing to do with bike racing, but I couldn't help commenting.

From the LAtimes.com:
"Paris Hilton to go on Larry King show — unpaid ... after the three broadcast networks spurned her request for a lucrative deal."

NBC, ABC and CBS all took a pass on Paris - good for them. May she fade away from the public psyche and take all reality television with her.

I promise to never mention her again.

And Then There Were Two

It’s been another rough go at it for the ABD Men and Women at the Nature Valley Grand Prix. With two stages to go only Alex remains in the Men’s race, and Susan is holding her own with the Pro Women.

The race started out with a 1 kilometer, 6-corner course... which is awesome... NOT! There were a lot of crashes in the Women’s race and lots of amateur men were just blown out the back as the peleton stretched almost 1/3 of the course - Brett Stewart’s out.

Next up: a 63 mile road race with a fear of deathly crosswinds. ABD is prevented from fielding a car in the caravan because the officials decide that since we only have four riders left we can’t have a car... lame. In this day and age, not having a car in the caravan of a stage race is like putting blinders on riders. Most everyone who’s a contender is radio-wired to the team vehicle to get updates and breaks, splits, wind, course conditions, upcoming obstacles, etc, etc, etc. Oh yeah, and in the case of a major crash team vehicles are essential to take care of the mass of riders. Guess what happened? The mass of super-tense riders yard sales it just two miles from the start. Jeff Schroetlin breaks his cleats and helmet (spares of which would have been in the team van), Josh Carter breaks a frame - but continues on, Ryan Baumann gets tangled up with some pros and chases the rest of the day, only to finish 32 minutes down and outside the time cut. But, he rolled in with local hero and Cyclocross World’s Silver medalist Jonathan Page. Of course they wouldn’t cut Jonathan Page?!?! And they didn’t. Jeff’s out.

Friday morning the three remaining guys tackled the 5-mile TT (Josh on a neutral support bike)..... and they all finished without any casualties(phew). Then on Friday night they all took on the downtown Minneapolis Grand Prix. Josh struggled to get comfortable on a borrowed bike that the neutral guys seemed to alter the position on each time they gave it to him.... Ryan started coughing uncontrollably about halfway through the race (a cold he’d been trying to hide coming out in full force)... and Alex just sat in the field, out of harm’s way. Two more out....

Which brings us back to today and our survivors - Susan and Alex. At the moment I’m writing this both of them are duking it out somewhere amongst the wind-swept plains of southern Minnesota. May the force be with them...

"Money-makin"*

*the Beastie Boys

As I rode up and down the bike path along the I-5 (the only flat stretch of pavement sans stoplights within a 20 mile radius of my apartment), I devised a plan for making me a stronger rider... and boatloads of money.

Parked alongside my training route were thousands of Angelenos stuck in traffic - pretty much a constant on this stretch of the Interstate. What if I did two-a-day workouts during the morning and evening commute and hooked up a trailer with advertisements to tow in front of these captive audiences? 

I'm sure ad execs are going to be lined up around the block to book time for their company's sign on the "Ebert Express"! And then come race time I'll be flying (or at least feel like I am) when I don't have to tow around a trailer.

I'm gonna be rich and fast.

UCI Strongarm

A News Flash from Cyclingnews.com reports that every ProTour rider is being forced to sign an anti-doping agreement if they'd like to participate in the Tour dee France. The statement reads:

"I swear to my team, my colleagues, the UCI, the cycling world and the public that I have not cheated, have not been involved in the Fuentes case or in any other doping case. I declare myself ready to give a DNA sample to the Spanish judicial system so that it can be compared to the blood bags taken in the Operación Puerto."

In addition, the statement reads: "I accept that if I break the UCI's anti-doping regulations to pay in addition to the statutory sanctions a contribution equal to my salary for 2007"

And the big finale: the UCI is publishing a list on it's website of all riders who have and haven't signed the document.

This is a hardcore move on the part of the UCI which I'm sure violates certain liberties on the parts of the riders -- but pro riders lost those privileges a long time ago, and anyone whose clean should be proud to prove it.

And speaking of clean, it really sounds like T-Mobile is making a big change and earning the rep of a "clean team". Check out this recent interview (also on CyclingNews) with Greg Henderson. Some of the ABD guys can attest to just how wicked fast this guy is (ask Mumford, certainly no slouch, to tell his story of being in a two-man break with him at Bensenville) -- but now Henderson's just suffering to get through some of the ProTour races. Granted, some people just have the genetics to go real fast, but you still have to wonder about how titled the playing field might be when a guy like him is suffering as badly as he says.

[Sidenote: it was cool of Henderson to drop Pate and Candelario's names in an interview about riding clean.]

Stay tuned for team reactions. This could get interesting, especially on the heels of the recent news that Discovery has left the Association International Group of Cycling Professionals (AIGCP).

The DL Update

Good news on Vicki Heck. The report from Mom (Mary Lee) is that Vicki was able to walk tonight and is going to heal up just fine despite three(!) fractures on her spine. Ms. Heck is definitely one tough cookie.

But unfortunately yet another ABD’er was added to the injury list this past week when Jackie Kurth crashed at a Junior Development camp in South Carolina. Jackie crashed pretty hard and broke her jaw, some teeth and needed quite a few stitches. But, she’s focused on recovering and getting back on her bike ASAP. Please send some good vibes her way.

Dad's Day '07

Happy Father's Day to all the Dad's out there. Like many kids whose parents went their different ways, I'm fortunate enough to have two Pa’s - Greg and Ray. Anyone who’s met them knows I couldn’t have asked for two better guys to bring me up.

Today there’s a Crit about 2 miles from my apartment, and it’s killing me that I can’t get out there and give it a whirl. I actually rode a whole three hours yesterday so I have these delusions that I’m somehow in shape. Of course, I only averaged about 140 watts… but I saw 300 a couple times. That means I can sit in a 1-2 field, right? That would be no, especially considering that it takes an average of 225 watts for 2 hours just to sit in a Superweek field (with at least 100 or so spikes over 800 watts), I best stay out of the way.

However, I have set up the LeMond so that I can go out and “tool” around just about anywhere I want, even in the mountains. I swapped out my Ultegra crankset with my Mom’s Bontrager Race X Lite Carbon Compact and put a 12-27 on the back, leaving me with a 34x27 granny gear. I rode the combo yesterday and it’s super rad. Climbs that I used to avoid on easy days I was able to spin up at like 95 rpm’s and around 200 watts. If I can figure out a way to have my very own compact crankset I’d probably leave it on for racing out West. I never really spend much time in a 53x11 anyway, but a 50x11 is still 3.5” bigger than a 53x12 and I’d gain a ton of lower gears -- even if I keep an 11-23 cassette on. A 34x23 is actually only an inch bigger than a 39x27. (39.9” vs. 39”) For any other geeks that want to know measurements, head to GeRZ Bicycle Gear tables (where I gathered all my info from).

And last but certainly not least: some sad news about ABD’er Vicki Heck (who works registration at all our events). Vicki fell from the attic in her garage last night and is in pretty rough shape with a few factures. Fortunately, everything they’ve found are areas that will heal o.k. She’s currently at Central DuPage Hospital and I’ll post an update as soon as I know more.

Made it two hours in the saddle yesterday and everyday the average watts go up while the average heartrate goes down. Rode over to the Rose Bowl and did a few laps around the park. It’s something like a 2 or 3 mile loop and around 4 p.m. everyone gets off work and comes out to race each other — not like an organized event with a finish line (although there are training races), but moreso every night it turns into a huge pissing contest between all things two-wheeled. It’s pretty funny to see who tries to hang on your wheel, or better yet, huffs and puffs past you only to shoot you the “Lance look”. I love it.

Day of stretching and core work today, then the big 3 hours tomorrow. Best of luck to the crews tackling Carroll County and the Grafton Twilight Crit.

Numbers, Schmumbers

I rode a whopping hour and 45 minutes today and even did about five minutes tempo to see how things felt. The good news is that there really wasn’t any pain, the bad news is that I’ve got a bit of work to do on the conditioning front. Not that I expected any less (or more?), I just forgot about the “pain” in No pain, no gain. My average heartrate was 135 for a ride that only averaged 150 watts. That’s pretty dismal, but I’m not too worried about the form coming around – I officially have one month from today to prep for Superweek.

Here’s another interesting number: so the report from my pre-surgery bloodwork said I have a hermatocrit of 47. That was pretty surprising to me considering I’d been off the bike for at least 3 or 4 weeks before the test. However, I’ve always had a pretty high level. Whenever I had blood work done while I was going to school in Colorado, my hermatocrit consistently came in between 48 and 49.5 – which I believe happens to most athletes at altitude. But 47, at sea level? I’m afraid the high percentage of red blood cells in my body is a result of my lack of taking deep breaths – really, I should switch to decaf… ok not really. More than likely it probably has something to do with the fact I have peanut sized lungs but insist on being an endurance athlete. My actual VO2? Now that’s a number I’ll never share… because I don’t know it and I don’t want to. As Coach Farrell says, “bike racing is all about suffering.” Yes indeed.

I leave you with a funny story, of course made better if you can picture my 125 lb. teammate Alex and his current hairstyle ... Due to prompting from Ben DeMong (he of Cat. 4 money-winning fame), Alex, a.k.a. Sugar Glyder, is pondering children: “…the world would undoubtedly be a better place with a bunch of little sugar glydars glyding around with their little mowhawks and [pulled-up] high socks…"

I cherish the thought.

Back in LA

Home again - After only spending four of the last 84 days at our apartment in Glendale, I'm back for a whole month.

The weather's pretty much the same as it is in Chicago right now, maybe even a little cooler - perfect for getting back on the bike and into shape in time for “stoopid-week”. I actually made it a whole 90 minutes on the bike today relatively pain free (as long as I kept it between 150 and 200 watts). The plan is to do a 3-hour ride this weekend and shoot for about 10 hours total this week on the bike, with an additional 1 to 2 hours of stretching and strengthening every day. I’ll shoot for 14 next week with 2, 3-hour rides and 1, 4-hour ride. It’s a pretty aggressive recovery schedule, but as long as I focus on eating and sleeping right I should be fine.

In more interesting news, check out chicagobikeracing.com. Maybe I’m the last to find out about it (thanks to Susan P. for the tip), but Luke Seemann has put together an informative and entertaining blog/site about all things related to the Midwest cycling scene (I believe he aims for a four driving radius of the city).

tangent: I find it ironic and humorous that with all the advances in web programming and hardware, the most popular sites are still all about information and maybe some storytelling – namely blogs and youtube videos. None of us want to bother with fancy, and mostly annoying, sites that take forever to load and have too much going on… just give us the good stuff. /tangent

Last but not least, if you’re under the age of 19 or over the age of 39 and looking for a fun race close to to home on Father’s Day, be sure to check out the ABD MaJORS event this Sunday at an all new course in Elgin - Terry and Jenny always round up a great ABD crew and put on a fun event!

Hybrid Love

Yep, rode the big 60 minutes the other day with fellow ABD'ers Jenny Cerwin and Jessi Prinner. However, the wound wasn't quite ready for riding the road bike - I only made it two blocks before I flipped the U-ey and went back to PPC-Batavia to borrow a 7.3FX Hybrid from PPC Batavia.
So, there I was, all kitted up with my snazzy Serfas tortoise shell shades... rocking my sneakers and a $450 hybrid. It was awesome. I must say I felt a little tight in the "mesh-area", but it was great to get some fresh air. It would have been even better to join the ABD Pancake Breakfast Ride... but I knew that was a little out of my range.
So instead I gave my LeMond Triomphe some much needed mechanical lovin' and modified it for "recovery" riding, i.e. put on a super-plush saddle, raised the bars as I high as I could, and installed a Race X Lite Compact crankset with a 12-27 cassette for the ultimate in "tooling" speed options when tackling climbs I otherwise wouldn't be able to ride for a couple weeks. Oh yeah, it's one sweet machine... and I'm gonna go ride it right now.

Back in Business

Went to the doctor this morning and he said I can start riding my bike again at a low intensity for as long as I can tolerate (basically sub-200 watts for about three weeks). Look for me on the Fox River Trail tomorrow in the granny gear ... although I still haven’t decided if I’ll be on the road bike or commandeering a hybrid from PPC-Batavia.

In related news, I’m heading home to Rosa by next Monday for an entire month. This will be the longest block of time mid-summer we’ve ever spent together, but since I can’t race for five weeks the team is letting me off the managerial hook for Nature Valley and Proctor. Thus it’s lots of training and catching up on ABD biz from mine and the senorita’s super-secret location. I’ll be flying back to ORD just in time to jump into the Superweek fire.

Last but not least, I just want to offer huge props again to everyone who put in the big efforts this weekend to make the Winfield Crits go so well. On top of that, some ABD’ers put in really great rides too:

- How about Tim Keeley taking 2nd in the Cat. 4’s? Nice ride, Tim. I was so busy buttoning down the hatches in the storm that I didn’t even realize you kicked butt until I was posting results Monday morning.

- It was awesome seeing both Susan and Jeff solo to victories on Saturday night in the Women and Men’s Open - not to mention Jessi and Josh taking their respective field sprints.

- Although he’s no longer offically one of us, props to Angelo DiGiovine for giving a certain rider a run for his money in the sprint on Sunday.

- and Ben DeMong finally got paid Saturday night — nabbing the last money spot for a check he claims that he will never cash. Good form, Ben.

Winfield Weekend

Blog Silence due to the Winfield Criterium Weekend, which went wonderfully well.

Resting now.

New Trek

Stop me if you've heard this one. So, Lance Armstrong, a LeMond Triomphe and a frame from a builder that sounds like "special iced" walk into a bar....