Weekend "Stuff"

My friends & Teammates, Walt, Gail, Mat (yes, that is spelled correctly by the way) & Daryl from the Team Mack Quincy, IL. pod sent over some pics of what they have been up to lately, ie: Lots of Cross Racing! Which is awesome! I threw this up there to fly the ol' Team Mack Colors, and keep in the mood through Cross-Nationals, which is in Kansas City again this year. Dr. Mike & I are heading over, as he has an awesome shot at the national title.

The Quincy group does an annual camping trip, where everyone hauls their stuff on their bike & with trailers. This is supposed to be a hoot, as you can see from Daryl in his lederhosen. I think "adult beverages" get consumed at this function in a pretty steady manner, you think?

Cross (Reality) Check

I learn new things every day, I think. One of the things I learned recently is that my true competitive days of cross racing may be slightly impeded by the fact that 1. I cannot pull out of my left pedal to dismount, one of the nasty little side effects of having a broken tibia 2. I cannot run, as the doctors told me I would not be able to, and they were correct and 3. Even if I could do number 1 & 2, the odds of re-fracturing my tibia in half again, are probably very great, so I shall not attempt this. Been there, done that, not fun.

I have been riding cross several times per week, playing hooky from the office, training, and then coming back to the office to finish my work. The daylight changes next weekend, so it may be weekends only from this point forward.

Had a couple of awesome cross workouts in the past week. Last Saturday the "VQ" coaching group went out to Lake Evergreen, where we hit some really fast single tracks, followed by some awesome wide open trails, to do a 110% VO2 max effort. I was completely gassed after 10 laps of that. I bonked with about 3 laps to go, and the legs were on empty. This am, we did a pretty good cross workout at a park in Morton, consisting of some bike skills stuff like bumper bike etc.

I crashed coach Stan-O during the bump & grind session. Oh well. I then proceeded to crash myself into Mitchell, which was pretty cool as well. Cross is like Fight Club, just on bikes, that's all. Male aggression taken out on each other, on grass, just to get up and do it again!

After the cross workout, we headed over to Village Courts, the gym that I work out at for a kettlebell instruction.

The VQ group, including myself got a pretty good eye opener. Kettlebell has been around for ages, mainly in eastern block countries. This will be an awesome supplement to our winter/off season training. Hope I can make it through!

Reverse Bucket List

Road season is over. Been doing some cyclo-crossing the past few weeks to enjoy the weather, hang w/ my buds and have fun. Went out to Jubilee State Park last Thursday. Kind of disappointing. All of the rain this year has severely eroded the trails, and the main trail that I love was closed, due to a bridge being out and about some massive trees that fell. I'll be out at the Kickapoo recreation area, and then a couple of parks near my house for some cross intervals.




Went to a wedding last night for some dear friends of ours, LJ & Tim. LJ is no longer LJ, she's now LC, so I have to get used to that I guess. Really nice wedding & reception in Bloomington. The best part was: I danced! No, really, I danced. Like G&I danced our tails off. Not since my accident have I been able to dance due to wheelchairs, crutches & canes. It was awesome! Now, I do the "typical white guy" dance, but it was better than sitting on my duff. We slow danced, fast danced, even did the cha-cha or whatever they call it. Made me realize how much fun G&I have together in the things we do. This was one of the things to be accomplished post-accident, and I did it. Now, today, the screws and rods in my legs are feeling the after effect, but it was definitely worth it!




G&I between sets on the dance floor. Kind of like "Dancing with the Stars" except not really.












This morning I made "the call" to my trainer, Steve. I had been building up to this, because I know what he would say. I contacted him a couple of weeks ago, said the racing season is winding down, and I need to get into the gym, work on leg strength, core etc. He told me to call when I was ready. I did, and he followed it with "well, get your butt in here"!

I knew he would say that, so I am meeting him this afternoon, and start some strength, stretch, core, flexibility, yoga workouts.

Wish me luck, as he's kind of the no-excuse workout Nazi.