Mtnracer

Not DNF!

Cherry pie was a tough race for me. Mainly due to the fact that I lost contact with the pack after a couple of surges and poor pack placement early on in the first lap. But, faced with the daunting idea of riding 40 miles alone, I was pleasantly surprised when Guinness’ rider Marco Rullo spun up and joined me. We rode together and finished the two laps significantly behind the field.

But, it’s a long season, and my fitness is increasing while my weight is dropping, so it’s only looking up from here.

Cheers!

-Andy

Hi, I know it’s been a while since I’ve put something new up, but with work and training, there’s little time to annotate it all… So, I thought I would share one of my staple workouts this time of year. I call it the”Hour of Power!”

Indoors

For the indoors version, I do my workout at the Timberhill Athletic Club using their Expresso stationary bikes. Here’s a breakdown of the workout:

• Jog to the gym to get blood flowing to the legs (5 mins)
• Warmup on easy or medium course, until sweat beads on my forehead (10 mins)
• Real hard, hilly course, jamming the hills at max from 400-600 watts, keeping my cadence under 95 (25-50 mins 1 or 2 laps)
• Cool-down on flat course, aiming to keep blood flowing in the legs, but also lower my heart rate and respiration rate (10 mins)
• Jog limp home (5 mins)

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Wicknasty and Tree-Farm better watch out…looks like there’s a new bigfoot on the loose in Malaysia.

I saw this picture as I was scanning the preview of the Tour of Langkawi in Malaysia. I’ve always wanted to race in a tropical place like the island of Langkawi. Although, I once read that Tom Danielson trained inside a sauna on his trainer to get prepared for the heat and humidity - now that’s an animal!

Only 15lbs (6.8 kg for you Euro-folk) to go, until I reach my race goal weight of 156lbs! Yay!
I have been stable at between 170 and 172 for 5 days now, and this morning was at an even 171. So, I’m proud…6 percent, here we come!

Here’s some pictures of me with my off season weight *haha*:

With a head this big, it’s a surprise any helmet will fit.

No, I didn’t play football…

Damn trees always hit me from the left.

Feed me!

I received my OBRA license in the mail today, and along with it came my MTB and Road numbers. Here’s a couple of pictures of me showing off my new numbers:

Mountain bike mug shots

Road bike mug shots

Here’s another one of my favorite snacks/lunches. This one you can even pack/slice up and bring on a training ride:

• 1 whole wheat/flour tortilla
• 2 tbsp peanut butter
• 1/3 sliced banana
• 1/4 cup sliced strawberries, mandarin oranges, and/or raisins
• 1 tsp honey - or - 2 tbsp yogurt *optional*

Roll it up in burrito-like fashion, and slice into 2 inch-long segments. Wrap in plastic wrap and pack for your next long ride. Mmm, mmm, good!

Jumping right into it - I’ve outlined my goals for the racing season, both macro and micro, in Goals Outline. I discussed my methods of self-promotion and the emphasis on winning key races throughout the season. My next step is to discuss how I will achieve the form and fitness required to win.

“Form”-ula

Recently in an article on VeloNews.com, Dirk Friel astutely pointed out that form is the difference between fitness and fatigue. He provided this crazy algorithm. Try and keep up!:

Fitness - fatigue = form.

Assuming we cannot get negative fatigue, our best chance of achieving optimal form, relative to our fitness, is to bring fatigue to its absolute minimum - zero.
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