TD Training Entry #11: Seven Months To Go

Well we are officially at T minus seven months and counting until the 2010 Tour Divide.  I’ve wanted to write so many training updates over the past couple of months, but hey, Time is an elusive, giggling little gremlin whose scrawny neck is forever just out of my grasp.  Any spare hours I muster away from work, family, and damned societal responsibilities must ideally be spent on the bike, and not in front of a computer screen.  So the following post is the result of me forcing myself to sit down and mash up a non-cohesive, abridged version of all the updates I’ve been wanting to write about but just haven’t had time to. 

So I logged 132 miles in the saddle last week!  That’s easily the most I’ve ever done in a six day span, due to (you guessed it!) time constraints more than anything else.  But since I didn’t have to worry about work over the long Thanksgiving holiday, I was able to crank out the extra miles.  Of course, due to family obligations, I had get up at 3 AM and ride in 40 degree weather in order to get my miles in before it was time to visit the clan.   But hey….dark, crazy morning rides in the freezing cold is exactly what the TD is about, right?  Mmmm mmm, that’s good trainin’! 

In a previous post, I mentioned that the training route I’d carved out for myself was 22-30 miles depending how much time I had.  Well, as I’ve built my endurance more and more, I’ve expanded that route, mile by mile, over the last several months.  Now, I’ve got a nice 60 mile route I can do as time permits, starting from my front door.  It’s unfortunately flat for the most part, but it does take me over the Kemah bridge (pic below), which is the steepest climb we have around these flatlands.

A kinda funny, cool thing I want to mention is that I now regard 20 mile rides as “warm ups.”  Several months ago, I remember reading previous racers’ blog comments about how they never really felt warmed up until they hit 40 miles or so, and I recall thinking something along the lines of “Phfft, whatever.  It doesn’t take 40 miles of riding to get warm…you’re just showing off.”  After all, in those days, I was “warm” after only a few miles into my 10 mile ride.  But now, as I’ve expanded my mileage more and more, I GET it.  They weren’t showing off….they were getting into a groove.  They were beginning to feel a sweet synergy.  The ride was becoming a part of themselves, and they got stronger as they grinded out the distance.  Well, I’m feeling that now, and it excites me.  It gives me confidence that I can actually do this thing.  And this weekend or next, I will try for my first 100 mile day. (yeah I know, how many time have I said THAT)

I have not, however, become simply a distance hound by any means.  A few weeks ago, Pat and I returned to Rocky Hill Ranch in the Texas Hill Country, where we camped and spent most of our weekend pounding the hardcore trails there, which were marked for the previous weekend’s race.  We churned out almost 40 miles of vertical, stony carnage, and had a blast doing it.  I don’t know if there’s an official formula for equating highly technical mountain bike trails to smooth road rides, but surely our 40 miles of grindage at Rocky Hill was the equivalent of 80 road miles!  What’s really cool is that we “settled” on going to Rocky Hill after we discovered that our first several choice destinations were closed due to hunting season…WTF!  It turned out to be a blessing, though, because Rocky Hill was a helluva joyous and challenging romp.  I hear technical riding is sparse on the GDMBR as a whole, but we got in a fantastic workout and plenty of climbing, a rarity for us flatlanders.

And then there’s my solo journey four weeks ago to Jack Brooks Park in Hitchcock, TX, or as I now call it, Evil Jackass Park.  What a nightmare that day was.  I went there looking for a kickass, all-day workout and, more importantly, to mentally avenge a piss poor performance from the last time I set foot there, many many years ago.  In that day of yore, long forgotten to all but me, I spent two hours fighting the vicious terrain and being embarrassed time and again as I bit the dirt in frustration.  For my grand finale on that sinister day, on our way back to the cars, I missed a narrow little bridge and plunged headlong into a disgusting, smelly creek, where both me and my bike were fully submerged for a few moments, and I was pitilessly laughed at by my “pals.” 

“This time will be different,” I mused confidently as I cranked out a few loops on the pavement there before hitting the dirt.  But Evil Jackass Park had other ideas.  Minutes into the trail, I was eating my shit as if today were merely a continuation of that pathetic day years prior.  In my defense, the roots there are vicious and gnarly, (see pics) but even so, I was awful yet again.  Perhaps it was a mental thing, but I was stopped so many times, and I had to tear my foot off my clipless pedal on so many occasions, that my anger mounted quickly and exponentially, to where I was “riding mad” in less than 10 minutes of being there.  And wouldn’t you know it, I fell off a fucking bridge yet again, wiping out all over the joint like a noobie moron.  I tore my carbon fiber handlebars, I broke my camera, and I got bitten by 8 trillion mosquitoes, all within 45 minutes of hitting the trail.  Beaten yet again by Satan’s Playground, I cursed at a tree and took a shit on it before I dejectedly walked my bike out of there for the last time ever.

 Needless to say I got myself a new set of handlebars (Easton aluminum this time please) and have been continuing my training efforts.  And now that Thanksgiving is over, its time to attack another sorely lacking aspect of my TD preparations: my diet. 

I’ve been a musclebound meathead my whole life, and its been difficult trying to slim down.  My lifelong mentality has been to eat lots of protein, lift lots of weights, and just be huge.  Now as I creep towards middle age, my unnecessary muscle has been growing a lovely new bacon jacket to keep it warm.  And even though I have been busting my arse on the bike and in the gym for many months now, I can’t seem to lose a whit of it.

I sure as hell don’t want to lug around all that extra meat for 2700+ miles!  So in a concerted, focused effort to lose upper body weight, while still strengthening my extremely sexy leg muscle, I have put myself on a serious calorie count, and I have cut out gluten and most simple carbohydrates, concentrating on complex carbs, healthy fats, lean meats, and of course, fruits and veggies.  And damn it all, I have cut out alcohol too.    I know full well that I’ll be eating junk on the TD, and I figure I will reintroduce it into my diet a month or so prior to racetime, just to “acclimate” my body to it again.

I’m restricting my upper body workouts to one day of intense circuit training, and focusing on leg strength and cardiovascular training (in the gym and in the saddle) all other days.  My age old focus on building mass is hard to kill, but I’ve already lost a few pounds since I began this regime a few days ago. 

I’m aiming for a weight of about 165 for the TD (I weight 185 now) even though it means losing some sexy muscle mass along with the fat.  Hell, at least when the TD is here, I will already be used to lugging around a bunch of extra weight!

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