Couldn't deal with the trainer

for another day in a row so we met our long time bud Jon Rentschler at Chapin Forest to XC ski today. Tony Jon and I skie'd for a little over 2 hrs. mostly on the lower loop due to the longer steady climbs to work on our climbing technique. I haven't been on my ski's for a while but I felt pretty good today and my form came back quickly. I saw a few guys that we bike race and triathlon with, one who is going to the Birkebeiner ski race in Wisconsin on February 21st. The Birkie is North America's largest XC ski race that draws thousands for the 50 and 54 k events, along with all the other kids events team races family races and beginners, that would be an awesome race to go to, maybe someday....

Tony took a power test yesterday to get his training zones so I figured I couldn't let him have all the fun, so my cousin Scott and I joined in with him and did it too, just for the workout. Actually my numbers were higher than when I took mine last month, so I might have Shawn re-adjust my zones too. Tony's numbers were slightly higher than mine so now he can do the work on our training rides and I can follow him around and hopefully get stronger. Actually our numbers were very similar so we can work together now in training.

I think tomorrow we will get in a swim and run workout and stay off the trainer for another day.

Go Steelers!

Team meeting

last night at Bike Authority. Lots of teammates showed up to meet our new members and we went over a tentative 2009 race schedule, team tactics training and lots of interaction between friends, it was a good 2 hour meeting.

Kyle and Luke gave me 6 presents for doing some frame repair on their moutain bikes, it wasn't necessary, but very much appreciated, Thanks guys. This is some good stuff. It's a golden colored Belgian Ale that I have never had before but will look for to buy. It is a nice full bodied beer with a sweeter taste and most of all has a great aftertaste. Not only do the Belgians turn out some great bike racers, they turn out some great beers as well. I highly recommend this one.

We're all looking forward to some nicer weather, as I'm sure everyone is, so we can get out and do some team training. We're in for another winter storm tonight and tomorrow, so it doesn't look like we're going to be outside anytime soon. We did a good trainer workout this afternoon at least.

Not much more to report on, so I'll catch everyone soon.

Status Quo

is the name of the game right now. Swim practice Tuesday and Thursday, bike workouts on the trainer and running 3 days per week, not too bad, I've been feeling pretty decent lately, a little tired but the training has been going well considering it's been so damned cold out. I'm ready to get outside more that's for sure. We're considering an early season triathlon this year, maybe in May. Either in Tennessee or Florida, kinda still in the thinking about it stage, but we're going to make a decision pretty soon, like as soon as my cousin gets back from Florida....
TLE meeting Monday at Bike Authority. A meet and greet get together for all the new members we have this year, I'm looking forward to it.

See you all later.

Very cool

I hope Lance does well. Ya gotta admit wheather you luv him or hate him, it's going to be pretty exciting to see how he does this year and it sure is good for the sport.

Balmy weather

was key today in allowing us to get out for a run and not totally freeze to death like when I went out the other day. I was scheduled for a 2 hour group ride today so I called as many of my closest bike riding friends as I could think of and asked if anyone would be interested in riding outside for 2 hours. The most common response I got was a click on the other end of the line, so since none of my wimpy bike riding buds wanted to go out, I buckled to peer pressure and didn't got out either.

Just kidding on calling as many guys as I could but I did call 1. Tony and I managed to get out for a nice 5k run followed by a 1 hour trainer workout on the TT bikes today though. I believe the temps. had warmed up to nearly 10* by the time we ventured out to run and that was at 11:30 this morning. Actually it wasn't bad at all, seriously. We could have gone longer, but Tony said he was hungry, or was it that his feet were cold, no, I think he said he had to go to a b-day party later in the day and didn't want to get to tired out, anyway we just ran for 23 minutes, but it was good.

Good workout today. Jammed to some old ELO and The Eagles while on the trainer which made the hour go by pretty quickly and we'll get some pool time in tomorrow and finish it off with a run on the treadmill. Life is good.

Nothing much

to really report on lately except that I'm getting pretty close with my trainer, actually much closer than I would like to, (my stationary bike trainer that is, for all you sickos out there) Just finished listening to ole Dick Goddard sayin that some places might see another foot or more of snow in within the next couple of days and more extreme cold, but thats nothing new either.

Went to the triathlon team meeting last night at Bike Authority with Tony and my cousin Scott and got all signed up, ate some pizza and drank coffee with my TLE mates and B.A buds. We were a little late getting there for the 6:00 pm meeting due to the traffic snarls though. What normally takes about :45 minutes to get to the shop from my house, took 2 hours last night. I left at 4:45 and got to the shop at 6:45, it was insane, and the roads weren't even that bad.

We're getting all the Lake Effect Hincapie clothing orders in now for the 09 season. With all of our new teammates this year we're going to have a pretty big order going on. We're basically going with the same design as we had last year with the exception of a couple co- sponsors and the addition of a few new ones.

Hope everyone is doing well and see everyone soon.

Lotsa coffee

and snowplowing. That seems to be taking up quite a bit of my time lately, not that I mind the coffee, but the snowplowing is becoming a pain in my ...


Masters swim every Tuesday and Thursday and trainer workouts have become the norm, along with waking up very early in the morning. We're going to get a nice run in today though on the Greenway Corridor. That's a section of old B&O Railroad that the Lake Metroparks bought and converted to an 8 mile out and back from Painesville into Concord Twp. It's a nice rolling paved path perfect for running on when the streets are snowy and dangerous.



Weather wise it looks like more of the same for this week. I just might miss out on some of the plowing fun though because this is my last week for jury duty and their supposed to have 2 cases scheduled.....I don't know which is worse though, sitting in the truck for 10 hours or sitting in the courtroom.....



Have fun on the trainer!

Masters swim

classes started up again last night for 2009. I haven't swam since my last triathlon which was September 6th. at Presque Isle, so 4 months without swimming a stroke. Not bad because I was racing cyclocross for those months, bad, because I started back into a full blown, almost 2,000 meter, 1 hour plus swim workout, ouch.

When the instructor walked in I asked him if he could possibly take it easy on us since it was our first workout of the season...he just smiled and said forget about it. After our first 400 meter build set I was cooked. I wanted to get out of the pool and grab one of those nice pool side chairs maybe hang out with my buddy Sam Adams and watch everyone else flounder around, but I managed to finish, very tired with some sore shoulders, it can only get easier from here is what I keep telling myself.

Along with the swim workout I got a 5.7 mile run in yesterday too after I got home from Jury Duty. I had to do something. I was sitting in the courtroom for over 4 hrs. and I didn't even to get to see any action. The parties settled the dispute without even entering the courtroom. Good, because I got to come home and run, bad, because I wanted to see some action, if I would have possibly been one of the chosen 8 to be a juror. We didn't even get a chance to pick 8 real time jurors. Oh well, I have one more week of J.D. and the Judge said that next week there are 2 Civil cases scheduled, so maybe I can get a groove on in the jury box. Who knows, maybe Matt Weeks will be one of the attorneys.

Oh Ya

The Cleveland

Triathlon team is now official. After very quick and excellent work, the new Bike Authority Fleet Feet sponsored tri team and it's website are just that, official.......

The Craft tri clothing and art design shown here came together very quickly as well and is very nice looking and the tops are even dimpled like a Zipp wheel, pretty cool! Team members all have the option of a 2 piece, (top and short) or a 1 piece skin (tri) suit. The team website is http://clevelandtri.com/joomla/index.php check it out.

Bike fitting

today. After we dropped Robert off at Rudy and Julie's, Nick, Tony and I stopped in Bike Authority for a couple of bike fit's. Bike Authority is now using Spinscan and Dartfish, which both are used in conjunction with each other to dial everything in to near perfection. Dartfish is the method for which the angles are measured. Sean videoed each of us from the front, side and rear to watch the hip motion, knee angle, back angle, shoulders, etc. all very scientific and technical. After the video taping was done we hooked the bikes up to the computrainer and did a Spinscan test which is a test of your pedal stroke fluidity and where you need to improve, and oh yes, everyone can improve their pedal stroke that has not had these tests, I guarantee it.

After the tests, Sean made a few adjustments on my seat post height and the position of the cleats on my shoes. We then re-tested and found out that my hips were no longer rocking and my knees were in total alignment with my shoulders and hips, all I thought before the test were smack on since I was not riding with any pain and I was able to crank out some pretty good watts and I thought my hips were rock solid, I was really wrong!

After the adjustments were made I rode for a while and immediately noticed a difference and could visually see the difference on the Spinscan screen on the computrainer. Sean told me some things that I need to work on to make my pedal stroke even smoother and to be able to get even more power out of it, all of which I intend to do and that are very simple things that make a difference, but really don't know to do unless tested. I highly recommend these tests for anyone wanting to get stronger and faster on their bikes. Many thanks go out to Sherman and Sean, you guys are great!

Here is a pre and post Dartfish angle test. The proper angle is supposed to be 144 deg., my initial angle was 151.5 deg. Quite a bit off for not noticing in my riding!

Later all.

Hamburgers and grilled cheese

at least that's the way Robert's knee looks right now....No just jokin, that's what they ate for lunch today after riding for 2:10. Very good training ride today through the frozen nursery roads, Perry Outdoor YMCA and the road. We opted out of the group ride from Brecksville today since Robert was staying the weekend and we did a little ride of our own way out here on the East Side. Everyone had a good ride today and did very well, although Robert hit an icy patch on one of the nursery roads toward the end and went down and scraped his knee up a little, but he's up and walking and said that he doesn't need crutches...... He did manage to contest a sprint to the mailbox at the end though, but did not catch us off guard this time........:-)

Nice ride guys.

Sangbagger central

Talk about sandbaggin'. Tony and I were the victims of a serious case of baggin' this afternoon on our training run. Robert, Tony and I did a 32 minute road nursery road, rr track run, and Robert said that the longest he has ran this winter so far was 20 minutes.....He was running very good though toward the last 10 minutes of our run which made me think this kid was baggin'. Well, we were just about finished and were rounding the corner when Robert saw our house at the end of the street and took off, leaving both Tony and I in the salt dust. We didn't even try to catch him, I was afraid I was going to pull a hamstring and Tony said I can't even run that fast to try to catch him. So we watched from behind as Robert A.K.A "the bagger" threw his hands in the air as if he was winning a major cyclocross race and turned around and was laughing at both of us, I thought I even heard the word "suckers" in there somewhere...............That's okay Robert, wait til tomorrow.

Welcome 2009

It was a great New Year's Day ride today. Kevin, Duane, Steve, Tony and I. We all used to ride together in the "old days" mountain bike racing, trail riding and just all training together on our road bikes. We used to travel all over the place together to ride and race different trails and races. Duane, Steve and Kevin still make the annual trip to Georgia in the spring to ride in Elijay and the surrounding areas. These guys are awesome mountain bike riders and have been riding for ALOT of years.

We did some trail riding today along with quite a bit of road to get from trail to trail. We got in about 2 hrs. and that was just enough before frostbite set in.

Thanks for the great ride today you guys.

Happy New Year all.