Competetive?

Aren't we all competetive? I think we all are or we wouldn't be doing this. I do think that saying hey, I want to ride it in X amount of time considering none of us have ever ridden anything even close to this might be somewhat naive.

d2

do more than just finish?!!

you're nuts. NUTS. loco.

however, the big problem with me is, i'm competitive. so if you want to all the sudden up the ante and "do more than finish", i'm game. which means i'm going to have to get SERIOUSLY serious.


game on.

nK

Serious? Not us....

If we were serious or sain, we would not be doing this foolish thing. I am not sure I agree with you about just finishing vs. finishing in any other manner. At this point, and I doubt I will change my mind at least. I will be very satisfied completing the race, or just finishing. I have no delusions of grandeur of any other sort of finish. I just want to be realistic. Train as much as we can and ride as fast as we can and let the peddles fall where they may. If all 5 of us finish I think we will have done something pretty cool.

d2

Serious...

With only 120 days until Jay (yup 120) I wouldn't call it serious. Maybe, or maybe it's reality or insanity. I really would like to make it through Jay and not just finish. Any pain I can alleviate now for Jay is a good thing. Thus the purchase of a new shiny road bike. So first real day out on the road, here's my thoughts.

1. Nice day out, we're still in March?
2. It's a lot faster.
3. Only took 3 miles to get our first Red Neck yelling at us.
4. I like dirt and woods better.
5. I was within 3 feet of Svens ass for an hour straight.

So what's the significance of this? Well, #4, I prefer the woods but can get hours and miles in on the road that I can't in the woods. So that's good. #5, well I don't know other than follwoing something like that breaks a lot of wind...and I mean that in a good cycling sort of way.

A1 out

Abe's Getting Serious

Abe's got a shiney new road bike- he's starting to get serious! It's a beautiful day and we're all in our respective indoor prisons (at least that's what it feels like today) except for Nick who's in a car somplace between here and California. Of course Josh is most likely outside hucking steel so he's all good.

Today will be a day to escape a touch early and get in a ride- today isn't training, today is one of those days where you really remember why you love riding a bike.


sc

Its just easy...

Hay, were doing thi really hard race that will be the mostdifficut ride we have ever attempted in any of our lives, but since it might take a little longer than we want, we should ride faster to get it over with sooner so that we don't suffer too much. I love the logic fellas. If only it were that easy. We need to ride this thing at a faster pace while not going anerobic while at the same time climbing 2 vertical miles across 62 miles of terrain. Consider it done. We shoulda thought about this sooner. I feel a lot better now that we have this licked. THe answer: just ride faster. Yous guys am wicked smaart.

d2

New time goal

Dennis and I got out for a good road ride yesterday, spending better then three hours in the saddle and during the last thirty minutes or so I started asking myself- could I spend another 7 or 8 hours in the saddle? the answer came back- hell no! So the next realization was that we needed to push our fictional pace a bit for the Jay Challenge. Originally we were thinking between 10 to 12 hours. That's a longgggggg time. So Abe and I got to talking, and we are now shooting for under 9 hours. This is still a pretty slow average speed (around 7+mph)but it seems doable (with training). Our concern is that fatigue of being out on bikes for more the 9 hours straight will be the death of us. So training with the intent of not only covering the distance and climbing, but to do it with a bit of tempo is now the mantra of the day. Here we go!


sc

super duper sweet.

that's all i got. those jerseys rock like bruce lee with nunchucks.

OK, so since i'm going to be traveling across the U.S. all next week, i imagine i won't be getting too much time in the saddle, but i'm sure i'll get some quality 12 oz. reps in... i hope you all make me proud while i'm gone.

nK

It's settled.

We'll be sporting the argyle jerseys. To all our fans out there, look for the argyle jerseys to get your autographs.

A1

Spring is here...

It's springtime. Time to get out and enjoy the warm weather.

Reality

So I go for a ride today, to the top of the Kanc and back- I'm feeling pretty good about myself. Three hours, 47 miles, 2100 feet of climbing. Braved some tough conditions- temps in the 20's, heavy wind, and it was snowing for the last 5 miles of the climb, managed to ride the three hours without eating (won't do that again) and in general got back to the car and felt pretty good. Then I had to run out the grocery store and it dawned on me- three hours, 47 miles, 2100 feet of climbing- on pavement, on my road bike- hmmmmm. The Jay Challenge has 10,500 feet of climbing, mostly off road, and does it all in 64 miles.

I other words I needed to climb 8400 more feet in just 17 miles. That's in essence riding the auto road- twice.

Damn, this is gonna be hard....


sc

not true

Sven didn't see me walk the last 5 miles home. So how was the Kanc boys?? Drove over it about 1pm and it was 15 at the top and very windy. I was thinkin about ya.

The Rumors of Dennis..

...not having been training have been greatly exagerated. He and I rode a 90 minute loop on Saturday morning and I can attest the boy still has legs and lungs. Looks like it's game on.

sc

we gotta ride up in order to coast down

who's afraid? i am. quivering pile of jelly... horrified beyond belief. hoping that my fear will allow me to train even harder once the ground gets dry.

hold me.

nK

What goes up must come down

Who's worried, not me. We've been out getting our climbing legs. Sven, Nick and I have been climbing Davis, Josh has been running and Dennis has been climbing his step stool to get his top shelf tequila. Maybe Dennis is trying to thin his blood to allow more oxygen flow, he's wicked smart.

Abe

just to keep the image fresh

here is the actual course elevation profile.

yeah.


sc

bad math 10400/64

Its not so bad if you spread the 10,400 feet of climbing over 64 miles its only 162.5 feet of climbing per mile. What are we worried about.

you, mr. morgan

are a true inspiration to all of us. i might just have to adopt your training regimen...

nK

Watched some TV and had a margarita

Training has taken a turn for the better. Thninking of adding alcohol to the training a little more as I think that my body will need to build up a tolerance to performing with toxins in the system, ala Bode. So as a first step last night I broke out the blender and some tequila (Lactic acid has to be just like tequila) for a pitcher of margaritas. Then I watched some TV and after that I went to bed. Slept pretty good. Woke up and think I might try it again tonight. The training continues.....

d2

64 x 10,500

now THERE'S some dimensions for your gear ratio...

it's the mantra, it's the drumbeat for this whole foolish exercise... so, the rain's stopped, who's up for a lunchtime ride?

north korea

64 miles, 10,500 of Climbing

It's funny how that can be a motivating factor. Worst part about the ride this morning was the road grime in my teeth. I might as well have licked the pavement the entire ride. Here's what I did: GG parking lot up to Mt. Surprise and up to turn around, back down and then up Hurricane to the gate (still lots of ice at the gate) down and to Whitaker Lane, across Old Bartlett back to GG. Soaked. Showered, down to Fronstside for a breve (sp?) and a bagel. Last night while NICK and SVEN were out I did chest and tri's, oh I'm feeling frisky now, or the 64 miles and 10,500 is a motivator, or a scare tactic. Tonight Guiness and some cheese curls.

Abe

Rollers to nowhere

So hopefully Dennis got "out" for a ride indoors as Nick and I got out for a good ride last night in the fog and rain and Abe went out solo this morning for a jaunt in the "sunny" weather. Josh got out for a run last night- sooooooooo........

Hmmmm

sc

or better yet....

come over to my house , bring your trainers/rollers and we can ride to nowhere there.

d2

alternative!

in the immortal words of reed rothchild in boogie nights:
"how much ya squat?"

-north korea

Pete out.

Pete hears the rain, pete don't like rain. Pete likes American Idol.

Pete.

Pete's in tonight.

I don't want to be the one holding the TEAM up in July. Rain and cold will only make you tougher Dennis, the TEAM tougher. Dennis's true reason is American Idol is on tonight.

Seacrest out

I'm Pete

The photo had the name Pete so I signed it Pete. Sven changed the name so no on has breached our high security blog. Pete=Abe.

Pete

Has anyone looked at the weather report?

I know I get abused about my love for foul weather, but I'm not sure if I want to ride in a drving rain storm at night when its 35 degrees out. Call me a wimp.

More imporantly, have we found out who Pete is?

d2

Who's up for a night ride?

I know Dennis will say he doesn't want to get the Yeti wet, but what about the rest of you? 9PM tour of the Davis Hill region? It'll be nice a dry and toasty warm. Anyone?


SC

PS- Three members of the Weak and Feeble squad took third in the Hannes Schneider Meister Cup this weekend- yeah us!

yeah...

who's infiltrating our sacred space?

korea

Pete?

Who the hell is Pete?

dm

Train this

This week training log.

Monday - 2 Guinness
Tuesday - 1 Guinness
Wednesday - 2 Guinness

I'm getting wicked fast, not on the bike but firing back Guinness. Shit. The image? I'm guessing it's what Sven will be saying to me at the Jay race.

Pete

you got me

dennis, that post was designed purely to generate a response... you're not a hippie.

Lefty??

I have to say that might be the first time I have ever been accused of being some sort of green tree hugging enviromental wacko. Actually my concern is more out of respect to other riders.

DM

hey, hippie:

the ground's fine. there wasn't any tearing up of anything.

go smoke some dope and save the world, why don't you...

--communist, right-wing whacko north korea

Wetness

Should we be concerned about being too anxious to get into the woods while the trails are still thawing out? Wouldn't want to damage them. Not that I like the idea of Davis Hill anymore than the next.

DM

but wait, there's more!

sven has questions, i have the answers:

how long until we hit the trails? well, i did a bit of recon work last night in whitaker woods, and can file this report: the woods are an amalgam of virtually every kind of terrain you can imagine. soft snow, hardpack, ice, solid ground, spongy ground, standing water - it's all located in the cozy confines of whitaker. but the riding, believe it or not, was good!

let's just say anything beats doing laps up davis on pavement on a pair of fatty, nobby tires (now can't everyone understand that easier than 'on a pair of 24.5" Sizzler Hyperspeck Polycarbonate/Rubber diode blend tires?!).

so, barring some major meteorological events this weekend, i'd say we're going to be able to hit the trails freely in the next week or so. i still had a blast even in variable conditions, although being out of the saddle for two months has made things a bit... tender.

the training continues. running today, running tomorrow, we'll see what kind of weather the weekend brings...

nK

Gettin' itchy

The temps are getting up there, the woods are becoming bare- how long till we can hit the trails? Guess it's time to get the Blur into the shop for a bit of brake work. So here's the training log for the last few days. Saturday we skied and tubed- I pulled both girls up the Cranmore tubing hill a couple times- some sort of Rocky work out. Sunday skied with Powderjew. Monday 45 minutes on rollers. Tuesday and hour plus of classic skiing in the AM and then an hour on rollers in the PM. Wednesday 40 minutes on the rollers. I've been working on stretching, mainly cuz I can't bend over to tighen my ski boots or put on my cycling shoes- I'm guessing that is a bad sign.

So there it is. Abe what's the countdown?


sc

Josh posted?

I'm sure Josh will enjoy sven posting him.

just cuz

Josh hasn't posted so I'm posting him

Sven has NK envy

Sven is just envious of you ability to run a sub 23 min 5k. Seeing as neither he nor I can run a sub 30 5k.

dm

you're just jealous

that you aren't getting any love from dennis.

nobody likes jealousy, sven. nobody.

NK

What the...

has this blog turned into the Brokeback Mountain bike forum? Support for a fellow team member- what is going on? Something is askew....


sc

Kudos to NK

Nick, nice job on the 5k. Good to see that the training is continuing.

DM

a small milestone

now, i know, i know. a 5k is most defintely NOT a 64-mile jay challenge. but, that being said, there was a small goal achieved on this blustery sunday. you see, while the rest of you were most definitely out on your bikes, pedaling against the wind and making sure your quads were being forged into iron aginst the coming tide of Jay Peak, i ran a 5k in portland. and, for me, i ran it well. never mind the fact that i was passed by no fewer than three people who could have been my father, never mind the fact that i was dusted by no fewer than a dozen girls who were really fun to watch go by me - i did it in 22 minutes and 50 seconds. huge goal, HUGE goal for me. if you're going to measure fatness versus time, i set some kind of major record. my fatness remians, but the time is there, forever, as well.

i hope you all had a formidable, daunting sunday ride. if you didn't, i own you all. and, i've learned that a nice soak in a hot tub is a very, very nice way to settle your differences your mind and body might have following an exercise of this nature. i strongly suggest we invest in one of them portable jobbies for the challenge.

north korea

It's getting closer

So all this talk of how many days are left is making me nervous. I started to calculate time left to train. Hopefully within the next 4-6 weeks we'll be back on dirt. That leaves the rest of April, May and June. Then we're into the month of July and uh oh it's d day. So lately I've actually been working out knowing it's fast approaching. Wednesday was back, shoulders and arms. Yesterday, scheduled day off. Then Stalin shows up, shit. So downstairs we go, squats, squats and more squats. I shouldn't complain but I was planning a relaxing evening of American Idol. Fortuneately he had to get going so I was spared. Although walking up the stairs did hurt. Anywho, I think it should be a team prerequisite to lift with Stalin just once before Jay.

Freak out.

oh, it's serious now.

well, i haven't been on the bike since waaaaay too long ago, but have been active. what have i been doing?
• 15-20 miles a week of running (7 so far this week, and a 5K race in portland this sunday)
• skiing twice a week (wicked hahd, too, goddemma)
• back to lifting weights 3 days/week (because my finger works again)

there's something to be said for being busy, i guess, but it doesn't make up for the fact that i'm not riding. we're under the 150-day mark until we enter hell ("Abandon all hope, Ye who enter here" dante says), and we need to set up a true, ironclad riding regimen. so, since all of you are better and smarter riders than myself, help a brutha out!

north korea

Sven's training log

I'll be the first to admit I've been a bit wimpish regarding the recent temps. When it's in the singe digits and windy I'm apt to not go out for a ride- even in the daylight hours. It's funny since most people think we are insane that we ride at night in the wintertime during a snowstorm- but really 18 degrees isn't that bad- but 5 degrees is just too far for me. That's a long-winded way for me to say I've been riding rollers inside the past couple nights. The trouble with rollers- I can only go so long. So the last couple nights have only been 45-minute sessions. I've been trying to be good and lay down a bit of base, keeping the HR down under 140 and averaging around 130 for the workout. I should do more of that but riding that fixie with the 46x18 up hills isn't conducive to a low HR- oh well.

My wife has been trying to get me to do more work on my upper body and core- I thought that's what PBR tallboy curls were for? Oh well- I've been trying to do more upper body work- and who knows (I'll regret posting this) may be I'll go do some lifting with Abe (no I won't). Now I know something is wrong when I say that I might even go for a run today. The world is turning in its head.

So that's been the work out plan as of late- not nearly enough but better then nothing! Any bets on who gets a road bike first- Abe or Nick?


sven