Mountain Bikes, Bass Guitar, and other stuff I like

This has been a different sort of month for fitness and competition, not to mention health.  I am winding up the month battling a stomach virus and am just now getting back active after a week recovering.  I think maybe nature has a way of forcing recovery time.  I have been going at it full tilt for the entire spring and summer with not much rest to speak of so I guess this is my rest.  Expert wisdom says that I need more recovery but without a coach, it's hard to judge.  Also, it's not much fun to gain a few extra pounds but it's difficult to adjust eating habits that are so accustomed to full activity. This month has seen me do back to back races and feel surprisingly good doing so. I never would've thought I could do a 6-hour trail run then turn around the next day and do a run-bike-run duathlon.  Progress is good.  Next I did a 100-mile bike ride in torrential rain. Wow, where did that come from? I don't know. I guess it's just proof that we are ...

Renee and I went down to Dauset Trails near Jackson,GA for the weekend. We were doing the 6-hour trail run as Team Herbal Gerbils. The name was inspired by her shop and the fact that we would be repeating a 6-mile loop.  She is trying to get me to become an endurance trail runner and is convinced that I am built for it though I don't share her enthusiasm.  Stayed at a lousy Days Inn in Jackson and got a few hours sleep the night before the race. I was hot and itchy all night. They had a terrible carb-laden "breakfast." I wolfed down a bagel and a muffin and some OJ. Arrived at the trails around 8:30 and set up our EZ-up. Threw down the yoga mat for between-lap stretching, laid out all our nutrition and fluids, and we were set to go for race start at 10:00 . Renee commented that she wished she had signed up for Solo category. I took the first lap and was really conservative. I had been wanting to practice a new strategy of starting out slow and finishing strong but this w...

Week of 9/1/13 Put in 14 hours last week with about half of that spent running, the other half biking. I managed an 18-mile run at K. Mtn that took 3:30 hours. The day before I rode for 54 miles on the SC, I was going for a century. That took 3:30 hours.  The day before that I rode at White for 2 hours, 35 miles. Maybe this explains why my IT bands are so tight and I’m experiencing tendinitis in both knees.  I think 14 hours is the most I’ve ever put in for training. This past week I’ve only done one ride at White for 35 miles.  Rest has been swimming and strength training. I feel like I’ve been getting enough rest.  Yesterday, I put in a run-bike-run brick at Blanket’s in preparation for next week’s races at Dauset Trails. I feel like that I’m getting enough rest but maybe my body is still recovering from last week. I did train for 9 days straight with no off days. This is where having a coach would be beneficial because they could help provide an unbiased ...

Many people have posed this question to me and I can safely say there is no one answer.  People shake their heads and think that I'm insane. Not that this bothers me. I think most people ask me this question out of disbelief that someone would subject themselves willingly to such torture.  Indeed there are many more comfortable pursuits but none I've found as rewarding.  I was getting a rare massage (4 months!) yesterday and the therapist asked me if I wrote about my experiences and what motivates me to get out in the morning and ride.  I told her about this blog.  She says that I have a book in me. Perhaps one day I will write that book. Truthfully I've been struggling with this question for most of the year.  Why do this?  Over the winter, I was dead-set on developing my own mountain biking training plan but that has fallen away for now.  (I've read that if you're not using steroids to enhance your cycling, you shouldn't bother with a training ...