Constantly hungry; more base miles

I put in 30 miles yesterday and 20 today.  I just didn’t feel like going the extra distance today but I may make up for it tomorrow.  Regardless, I am doing a lot better than I did last year.  I didn’t start my serious base work until October, and that was only about 20 miles per day.  I hope to do the same 20 mile ride with the team every day in October just because it’s lots of fun, but I will most likely add a few of my own miles on.

Anyway, my appetite is actually what has been on my mind the most.  I can’t stop eating. I am constantly hungry and I’m just not the type of person who can ignore it.  I will eat until I’m satisfied because I figure it’s what my body needs.  I guess it’s not an effective way to achieve my goal of weighing 130lbs come race season, but oh well.  I think that being healthy and always having enough fuel for my rides is more important than the advantage I would get from 4 fewer pounds.  Anyway, I’m hoping that over the course of the next few months I will very slowly lose the weight just through the increases in my workout volume.  It has worked in the past, so we’ll see.  I just don’t think ignoring hunger is healthy :o)

Beginning Base Miles

Well, I’m officially starting my base building period.  I put in 40 miles yesterday and 30 today.  It was much too hot yesterday and I got a late start so by the time I got home I was feeling pretty bad.  A bottle of gatorade and plenty of carbs fixed that though.  I did get cut off by some woman driving a mini-van — she made an unprotected left turn right in front of me when I had a green light.  I was pretty angry, and made the bad decision to follow her into a parking lot and have a word with her.  I guess she was a bit scared when I came up to her window yelling, she refused to roll down her window and took off out of the parking lot.  If anything, I kept her from getting her sub sandwich for lunch.  It was a bad idea, I know, but I was pretty angry.  I can’t wait to move back up to NorCal and get away from these idiotic drivers.  Anyway, my legs are feeling better after the week off… though I did have a bit of knee pain yesterday.  It’s just more easy, long rides now.  I have 30 miles planned for tomorrow, 40 if I feel particularly good.

Race Report: Summer End Grand Prix

This will be a short race report because I’m still tired from my vacation.

I got a short, crappy warm up because I couldn’t find a decent place to put my rollers (I could definitely use a trainer for warm up).  It was pretty hot and I wasn’t feeling very well.  The race started as usual, but I started suffering quite a bit during the early surge.  I blame this on the fact that I cut down significantly on the intensity of my training a few weeks before the race.  As usual, after the early surge I got into the rhythm of things and I began to feel pretty strong.  I noticed two members of the same team who were working very well together — they were not doing any work, and the older one was giving a lot of good advice to the younger one.  I hopped on the wheel of the younger rider and maintained that position for most of the race.  With 1 lap to go, the older rider took to the front of the pack and really picked the pace up.  The younger rider sat on his wheel and I hung on about 5 riders back.  A few riders split off the front about halfway through the last lap, so coming into the final sprint I really gave it everything I had to try to catch them.  I came across the line in 5th position.

But not before I heard the bell ring.  I had sprinted — and used up all I had — on the 2nd to last lap.  I had nothing left so I just dropped back and allowed the pack to pass me.

That was certainly embarassing.  It’s not like I’m completely inexperienced… on my 20th or so race I decide to sprint on the wrong lap.  Oh well.