Ok, let me start by saying that this will be a discombobulated filler post.  Several blog readers were recently asking me what the hell happened to the posts and the training…and the short answer is: a morale destroying chronic injury.

I have to admit, I’m far too buzzed right now to be incredibly creative or witty.  Its pretty amazing how far 5-6 beers will get you when you weigh 150-something.  Ok, so that’s 156 as of today.

Lets rewind.

I started out last week in NYC riding with my buddy and coming to terms with my need for some rest (given my IT band flaring up the day before).  Since that ride (my last time on the bike), I’ve been in a training tailspin.  I’ve been binging on all kinds of crazy foods and wallowing in self pity while sitting on the sidelines.  It seems like I’ve got two settings: liquify and off.  I have no frappe or chop setting.

Here’s an example that some of you have already heard me relate:  Last Friday, Oksana was on her way home from work when I asked her to pickup some “cookies” at the store.  She comes home 30 minutes later with a huge box of soft-batch Costco cookies.  When I say “huge,” I mean huge.  If you know the Costco bakery, you understand that they peddle absolutely disgusting quantities of decadent treats.  At Costco, cookies are not measured in ounces, they are measured in pounds.

I destroyed that box of cookies - plowing through two rows of the giant cookies in less than 24 hours - easily several thousand calories and 100’s of grams of fat.

Anyway….that’s just a sample of the gluttony.  I wish I had more energy to elaborate on my downward spiral, but its time to hit the hay.

Next post I’ll talk about my cross training (xc skiing…more this weekend…with pics) and my feeble attempts at PT for my IT band

Ok, a lot to catch up on…

first, a note on the title change.  I got an email from my friend Ian in response to the fat bus driver post and my cog analogy where he jokingly referred to me as the MVCIS.  I thought it sounded funny in a satirically self-deprecating sorta way, so I thought it’d be a good “post-300 to 30″ blog title to try on for size.

So onto the recap of the roller coaster week that has me ultra bummed out and cracking a beer(s) right now:

Last Wednesday was recovery from the Tuesday night’s 3 hour ride, and otherwise pretty uneventful.  I did the same old one hour spin into DC around Hains point and saw what was probably the gazillionth fox so far this year.  Honestly they are more populous than squirrels down on Hains Point.  I don’t know if the scent of my sometimes-a-little funky chamois is becoming familiar to them or what….but they seem to be getting bolder and stopping only a few meters away from me as I slow down and creep by them.  I’m still not entirely accustomed to regularly coming within spitting distance of these supposedly “wild” foxes on these night rides and so it weirds me out a bit.

Thursday was cold as hell outside and turned out to be a perfect gym workout day.  I’ve been trying to do more hip flexor and quad work to stabilize my knees a bit (and hopefully mitigate my IT band issues…so the gym work is a good thing right now)

Friday was a do-nothing-keep-my-feet-up-and-catch-up-on-my-drinking day.  I didn’t plan on it being a “cheat day” since I anticipated some dietary loosening during the NYC trip later in the weekend, but I ended up pouring myself a few fingers of scotch and one thing led to another…  I’m not sure if God was watching down on me and getting ready to punish me for my utter lack of discipline or not….but the rest of the weekend (from a training standpoint) was all downhill - despite being an awesome time.

Saturday was bad.  The forecast looked to be pretty brutal, and I knew I needed to log a good solid ride.  I suited up in my 25 degree riding outfit when I probably shoulda prepared for 15, caused thats about what it turned out to be.  I started off feeling ok, but not nearly as refreshed as I expected to feel.  I went out of my way to seek out some hills to avoid the wind and stay a bit warmer.  After snaking through Alexandria neighborhoods down south of Mt Vernon, I was about 20 or so miles from home when I realized that my feet were starting to get colder at an increasingly scary pace.  With the daylight fading, and my feet already completely numb, that’s when I decided to start heading home (dumb, I know).  I started back at about the same pace as I had gone out with…but my feet became so wood-like, I started to get concerned and jacked up the intensity a bit.  I started running through mental scenarios where I’d end up getting home to purple feet and tissue damage…and I actually kinda scared myself - I had really underestimated the cold.  I rode as hard as I could on the way back and was well into the 20s the entire way despite the variable winds and dropping temps.  This would have been all fine and dandy, getting in some unplanned high intensity training…but then my IT band started acting up.  It was totally demoralizing to feel the now very familiar pain in my left knee, but still not quite distracting enough to keep my mind from thinking about my poor feet.

By the time I rolled into my apartment building….I could barely walk.  I literally felt like a pirate with 2 peg legs.  I almost fell down inside the elevator, and then hobbled down the hall like an absolute gimp… I did something even more foolish once I got inside my apartment… In a hurry to warm up my feet….I tore off my shoes and immersed my scary ghost-white feet in hot water.  It felt kinda good at first…..and then, the man-tears were shed.  I was literally crippled with pain there on the side of the tub, still in my jacket, tights and helmet….my feet the source of unbelievable pain.  It was silly bad.  It felt like my toenails were being ripped out with pliers.  I honestly couldn’t believe how bad it was.  I’ve had super cold feet before and just allowed them to gradually warm on their own, or with the aid of a warm car vent or simple ambient room warmth.  The hot water thing….well, it goes in the never again category, thats for sure.  Obviously I felt like ass after this episode and decided to pound some wine at that night’s dinner party (my dietary restrictions were also suspended).   Fun was had.

No rest for the weary however.  After staying out til 2ish on Saturday, Oksana and I got going early on Sunday and drove up to NYC to spend the remainder of our weekend.  Not wanting to miss out on the chance to cruise around the city with my friend Norman (953 SSR guy), I threw my Lemond on the car and off we went.  By 2pm Norman and I were on the bikes cruising through Brooklyn.  As an aside, Norman’s bike, the “November bike” that I posted pics of a couple months ago….damn does it look better in person.  I’m 100% sold on the 953 concept now.

I’m also sold on NYC riding.  Its just a totally different world up there compared to DC (duh right?) with so much to take in.  We even found some pretty sweet kayaking to be had.

Compared to DC, the bike lanes are actually pretty abundant, if not disrespected.  We cruised over the Brooklyn Bridge, which was awesome.  If I wasn’t so blown away by the views of the city as we crested the bridge I probably woulda been a little more annoyed by the clueless tourists meandering in and out of the bike lanes…but in the end it was a treat.  Here we are just starting out on the Brooklyn side of the bridge, Norman on his pimp-ass bike:

I actually picked the most uninspiring spot on the bridge to take this shot - the city is obscured by the arc of the bridge at this low point - so here is some random dude on the bridge (seriously, no idea who he is), but you can see what the view looks like riding over the top.

Anyway, we cruised along the west side highway and up into central park.  The park is actually a pretty sweet little training loop.  I don’t recall exactly, but I think Norman said it was 6 miles - ideal to do some rolling training laps on.

The weather was less than ideal: a wet 30-34 degrees at the start and somewhere less than that at the end of the ride with some spitting snow and sleet to finish it off.  I think the excitement of riding someplace different made me care a lot less than I ordinarily would and the ride just kinda zipped right by.  Between the daylight fading, Norman’s feet freezing (bootyless in 30 degree wet weather I might add) and my knee getting worse by the mile, 30 miles turned out to be the perfect cutoff point before our Sunday night food & beer binge.  Norman and I started out with a quick post ride drink at one of his local favorites, “Beer Table,” before meeting up with Oksana for some recovery food and a night full of more deliciously hearty craft brews:

Its pretty safe to say that CO Nick has a leg up at this point in the 150lb contest.  The picture above kinda gives one a sense of what my state of mind was on Sunday night.  With the 70 wet and cold miles in the previous 48 hours, and a throbbing knee to show for it…..I started my downhill slide.  The 48 hours since Sunday night have included multiple decadent desserts, bagels w/ cream cheese, daily beers, an entire Pizza Hut pizza (size L), multiple chocolate bars (I think a bag of Skittles made its way in there somewhere), a cuban hot pressed sandwich and plate of fries, and other stuff I don’t remember.  Uhhh yeah, I gained back a couple pounds.  The coup de grâce?  Well, the fact that I can’t log any miles without pain right now is a HUGE demoralizer.  I’m back to the same Spring 2007 situation I found myself in when logging a few too many miles on the singlespeed.  I’d laugh off the disgusting food with some epic training rides this next week if it weren’t for the pain.  Now its back to a mixture of therapy and 100rpm low gear-short duration rides on the flats - pretty much the second fastest way to becoming much slower, only bested by pure couch time.

I hope alcohol has some anti-inflammatory properties.

ok, back to business…..I skipped a write up of Sunday’s ride which was just a recovery spin with CJ…..but last night (Ride #64), well….last night was a cold-as-shit 3 hours in the saddle.  My Niterider Tri-Newt light barely got me home.

Now that its regularly dipping down below 30 at night, I’ve had to ditch my jersey + baselayer hardass approach, and actually mix in a softshell layer.

What a difference a little Mountain Hardwear makes….damn.  It was upper 20s for most of the ride and the only body part thrashed by the cold were my feet.  I love you mysterious softshell material.

On another note, I must confess, I’ve started up a nasty little habit…

No, not black tar or china white….its the dreaded ear-buds-whilst-riding that I’m addicted to.  Now that my phone (which I’ve always thrown in a jersey pocket for emergency purposes) and music are so sweetly intertwined a la iphone…well, it was only a matter of time before I gave in and decided to plug in some headphones.  The best part is, when I get smoked by a car that I didn’t hear coming, I’ll be able to conveniently dial for help from the phone that’s playing some nice tunes in the background.

Honestly though, riding with music is pretty much the way to stay motivated when you’re out by yourself at 10pm on a weeknight in the pitch black winter cold, trying to convince yourself to keep going for another hour….

I’ve got a great bunch of mixes put together and I’m noticing that I’ll randomly get a shot of insipiration depending on how the shuffle on my iphone works out.  I was lollygagging along the other night when Prince’s “Fury” popped on….suddenly I felt a bit energized and ramped up my intensity a notch.

I know quite a few of you are probably thinking that I’ll just become another one of those douchebags that’s out riding around oblivious to his surroundings and a hazard to other trail users.  Well, I’m already a little bit of a douchebag, but I’m fighting to remain attentive as much as possible (win some, lose some)….

One last thing: It looks like the race for gauntness is heating up.  Colorado Nick is down to 158 or so (depending on whether he’s shat pre-weigh-in).  and I’m hovering around 152-4lbs.  Originally the wager was suggested to be $50, but I’m proposing that the winner receives an IOU coupon for miscellaneous entertainment of his choice when we are in Amsterdam this July (there may more may not be pictures ;-0)

Ok, time to go purge…..the apple I just ate was not part of my daily plan.

The only thing I hate worse than being yelled at, is being yelled at - at the end of a bad ride.

Last night I got out for what was planned to be a pretty mellow effort, and it was indeed mellow in terms of effort, but my body simply felt like ass the entire time.  My legs felt fatigued (not in that good, “I’m working hard accomplishing something” sorta way, but in the “I need a rest day” sorta way) and my left knee really never warmed up.  Now considering it was a chilly night, with the temp sitting right around 32 degrees the entire duration of the ride, I guess some of this shittiness is expected.

Whats not to be expected?  Some fat ass bitch of a bus driver standing on the street corner yelling at me to obey the light.

Now, I have to paint a better picture cause I’m sure some of you are like…yeah, she has a point.  Well, maybe she does, but there is something to be said for delivery.  I’m going to ignore the fact that I’m in all likelihood a far more valuable cog within society than this piece of shit slob who will probably be pulling a disability check by age 45 considering her grotesque obesity (after all, behavior of valuable cogs is intrinsically correct right?) - and just look at the situation from a neutral stance.

The intersection that I was stalled at, is a pressure-sensitive timed (those metal thingies embedded in the pavement) light.  Therefore, unless you weigh 2000lbs, you are not triggering this light sensor in the pavement.  So, knowing this (after having waited multiple light cycles in the past at the same intersection), I creep out onto the median past the first side of the street, and wait for the opposite side to clear.  Thats when I hear this bitch yelling at me.

I hear shouting and not realizing its directed at me, I look up…..

“Yeah, YOU!  YOU NEED TO OBEY THE LIGHT!  SEE THAT RED LIGHT!? (she points)…..blah blah blah”  Then my internal filter kicked in and I didn’t make out anything else she was saying as I rode away from her.

Then, as I rode away, the delayed anger set in.  Sure, maybe she had a bad day at work….whatever.  I had just put in a really long work week myself, and nonetheless forced myself off the couch and out onto the streets to relieve some stress.

I guess I don’t really have a point here, other than to vent.  Obviously I’m joking about the more valuable cog thing, but seriously….I don’t know what more to say.  This kinda thing just pisses me off.

Then again, maybe the dieting thing is making me cranky.

I weighed in at 152 this morning (147 goal race weight), but was probably a little dehydrated.  This is pretty crazy, but I’ve only had 4 beers in 2009 (and no other alcohol either), and all of them were at the Gogol Bordello concert last Friday night.  To be honest, there is really no way I’m going very far with this kind of self imposed asceticism.  I figure to see what kind of dividends the discipline with pay this spring, as far as maximizing my own physical performance potential….then go from there.  I have a feeling, being “kinda sorta fast” and guzzling craft brews and single malt night caps might be a happier place than “fast as I can possibly be” and having 1 beer a month.

random: found out the other day that Oksana and I are skipping town for the inaugaration and will be up in NYC for an extended weekend.  We’re driving up, so I hope to have some solid ride time while there.

I’m not sure there’s a good “spin” to put on tonight’s ride.  Normally I’d be inclined to wax a little poetic about how I battled the cold or the wind, but actually….it just sucked balls.  It seemed like there was never a tailwind to enjoy, just shitty headwinds and crosswinds.  I never felt strong and just kinda struggled the entire ride.  To be fair, the lower intake of carbs is probably making me a bit sluggish, but I guess its a small price to pay.  To top it all off, I didn’t even log the 2 hours I had planned…..settling for 1.5 instead.

A couple observations from tonight’s ride:

• It sucks when you ram into a Mexican wearing all black with no lights walking across the bike path.
• There is so much f*cking noise pollution in this area.  I swear, between the howling wind, the cars and just whatever else…I could barely hear myself think, let alone listen to see if I solved my creaking bottom bracket issue.
• Noises emanating from the bottom bracket area are by far the most obnoxious since it makes your entire bike sound like junk.
• My glorious Sigma computer has one glaring and obnoxious flaw: unusually audible beeps when the crank magnet passes by the cadence sensor and likewise for the speed sensor on the wheel….surprisingly loud actually.  What the f*ck?  What is the purpose of that?  I get that it lets you know that the sensor is working on each pass, but wouldn’t a little blinking light work just as well??? and be WAAAY less obnoxious?

To finish with a positive sentiment…I can say that my new seatpost is a shockingly noticeable improvement in the overall ride quality of the Seven.  Its probably 2x as stiff as the carbon post it replaced….maybe not everyone’s cup of tea, but it serves to accentuate the frame’s ride qualities so much more than before…and I’m loving it.

Yesterday was a planned rest day after a solid 6 days of quality training rides (and today’s a gym day), but there are always a few things to ramble about - and some time to kill.

Speaking of killing time, Oksana and I decided to cut way the hell back on our TV watching - pretty much not turning it on during the week unless there is some special reason to watch it.  Its pretty amazing how this effectively extends the perceived duration of any given evening.  You take your typical 7-11pm time span and fill it with TV and it pretty much slips through your fingers.  On the other hand, if you throw in some more elaborate cooking, some reading, and whatever else in lieu of TV….well, time seems to creep by at a much more leisurely (and arguably enjoyable) pace.  Anyway, just an observation, we’ll have to see how long the TV-less life can last.  It doesn’t hurt that my TV is a piece of CRT junk to begin with, so I’m not resisting some pimp-ass LCD screen luring me onto the couch every evening…

Since I’m talking about draconian lifestyle changes - one that will severely cut back my consumption of bike gear is the “merging of the family finances”.  I ranted about not spending money on upgrades and replacing shit that doesn’t need replacing….all of about a month before buying my DA spec’d Seven - clearly I have an internal conflict going on.  So now that I have two pimped out rigs to keep me satisfied for awhile (one is still on the way), we’re in full on “save for the wedding” mode.  That being said, here is a summary of my “at the buzzer” (i.e. before merging accounts with the future wife) bike gear acquisitions:

First up, some new shoes, the Aerator 3v Tom Boonen editions:

These were a great deal courtesy chainlove.  I took a total gamble on sizing and won.  I’ve had such hit or miss results with buying shoes sight unseen in the past, but this one goes in the win column.  They are pro-level shoes purchased at a ridiculously cheap price of 50 bucks.  I simply can’t wait for the weather to get nice enough for me to wear them.  They also coincide nicely with the Euro-trash suit.

Another item that Danta Claus bought himself was the pimpiest bike computer (w/o GPS or Power that is) that he could find.  The Sigma Rox 9.0 is seriously the coolest little computer I’ve used.  Sure, I’ve got several friends who love the Garmin 705, but A) the Sigma was 1/3 the price,  B) Sigma is German, and C) the Sigma doesn’t look ridiculously big sitting on top of the stem.  Kinda superficial to get hung up on the appearance aspect of a bike computer, but I’ve always thought the chunky size of the garmin was fugly, and would be better sitting in a pack or pocket.  Anyway, here is a screenshot of the software output from one of my recent rides (a pretty mellow one as you can see).

So obviously there is plenty of functionality and data capture to support my training goals.  I had debated splurging on the power route, going with a Polar WIND setup or something similar, but in the end it just wasn’t in the cards.  After a couple hundred miles logged into the software, I’m loving the interface, and analyzing the post ride data is one more thing to look forward to as I knock back each workout.

Move over Thomson, Dan Paulson is running a truly pimp post now.  Just arriving in the mail today straight from China (although manufactured in Taiwan by adults I’m assuming)…..is the, drumroll…………KCNC Ti ProLite 8000 Gold.    This post falls on the silly side of lightweight, and is light enough to make me question ever putting it on my mtb (see below).

Yeah, 146g, thats pretty f#$%ing light.  I justified this post because the carbon aero post that came with the Seven was just a hair overextended beyond the limit, and I just didn’t feel safe riding it that way for too long.  So I dropped a little money, dropped a few grams…in this case about 100g, and now my bike should be complete for 2009.  Haven’t weighed her yet, but I’m hoping to be below 17lbs.

So I decided the best way to bring about some structure to both my blogging and my training is to base each entry around my daily training log and then go from there.  Might be a bit boring at times to read about my stats for the day, or what I’ve had to eat, etc, but it gives me an extra driver for organizing my plan and staying on the ball.  Since today’s ride was simply an hour long recovery ride where I literally kept my HR below 130 the entire time, with an average of 119 on the flats, this is a good time to touch on the high-level approach to these first few months in 09.  I’ll sprinkle in the other crap around each individual ride entry.  For now though, I’m going to fast forward a bit up to #60.

Obviously one of my larger buckets of mini-resolutions/goals this year is cycling specific.  That being the case, I put together a pretty sweet training plan, basing it on both info found on the trainingpeaks site, and my own previous knowledge of my own body and training history (i.e. issues to mitigate).  There really isn’t anything magical about “my plan,” other than my fancy excel tinkering and a more holistic approach than I would otherwise have taken, since I’m looking at all aspects of my life as they relate to cycling.  I have the standard base phase (which I’m in the midst of) and then the build, competition, transition phases, but then I also have a pretty thorough means with which to track diet (in addition to training peaks/dietpower), stress, and other factors.  Most important will be the scheduling though, since I’m essentially working with a 2/3 season.  In a nutshell, my season will peak immediately prior to my wedding in July.  After the wedding trip, I’ll be a pile of shit bike racer.  I managed to mitigate some of the self-destruction last summer in Ukraine with a wee bit of self discipline and the fact that I was there by myself to study.  This time around, I’ll be there to celebrate, passing through such places as Amsterdam and Vienna? with 4 friends looking to tear shit up bachelor style.

Anyway, the point is, my season will be kinda short and sweet with a lot of road racing in the spring and early summer, and then after the wedding… probably a long period of goofing around on my mountain bike before thinking about some cyclocross (maybe).

Now as for my approach to this, I’m first and foremost concerned with getting into early season race form asap.  Here’s where it starts to get boring unless you’re obsessive about bodyweight like me (i.e. a bit chickish).  The first step for me getting “fit” is to drop some weight.  Everyone knows that you should be as lean as possible to race at your potential.  That being said, I had a disastrous Thanksgiving-New Year’s stretch from a cycling/bodyweight perspective.  I easily packed on 5-7 lbs of pure fat in that brief period gluttony.  That doesn’t sound like much, but if you do the math, its horrendous at my weight (I’m right around 155 now after shedding a couple in the last week).  Just pretend that at 150, I was 10% bodyfat.  If I add 5lbs of pure fat to my frame, my bodyfat shoots up 2.5% just like that.  It might not be enough to change your pants size, but its more than enough to zap the juice right out of any cyclist’s climbing ability.  So to say that I’m pulling out all the stops to drop down to my target weight of 146 is an understatement.  No sugar or cream in my coffee, no alcohol (I’m serious about this one…unless socially obliged of course ;-0) and a no eating out.  I’ve pared down the ratio of carbs in my diet immensely already (this coming from a carb loving freak) and have boosted the overall quality of my proteins and fats as much as I can for now.  I’m shooting for a 500-700kc deficit per day (including training expenditures) to start trimming down.  This might sound entirely neurotic to some of you, but I’ve spent way too many season’s just screwing around way below my potential, just randomly racing without any real training or prep.  Hence the obsessiveness.

I can tell you that the reduction in carbs is hard when I find myself inadvertently jacking up the intensity a little.  I’m straddling a thin line on some of these rides.  With that being said, I’m being very diligent about my refueling - trying to consume most of my carbs right in that prime absorption window post-ride.

My friend Nick L from out in Colorado is similarly neurotic about his training and weight, and so we have this casual “contest” to see who can get down to 150lbs first (we’re pretty much the same size and build except he’s starting with 7 or so more lbs of muscle).  We stopped short of getting into speedos and posing with a newspaper, but we are texting our morning weigh-in numbers back and forth.  155.5 for me today…

Since there are other posts and topics to touch on, I’ll wrap this up with a snapshot of my food intake over the past weekend (this is out of my food journal in my custom training log (i.e. not training peaks)).  Note that I’ve actually been undershooting my target intake by quite a bit, which is not a good idea for very long, but just worked out that way this weekend….I will typically eat a bit more (note the dark chocolate is only on account of a house guest we had over the weekend, probably the last time I eat chocolate for a few months).

SATURDAY

• 2 Servings Bran Cereal w/skim 2 cups of coffee
• 2 slices whole wheat toast w/ PB,  1 serving of Heed during ride
• 8oz OJ, 2 slices toast, 1/2 chicken breast, 10oz glass of tomato/Tabasco, handful of almonds
• 1 pear, 1/2 chicken breast with Thai chili-pepper sauce, 1 serving dark chocolate, green tea

SUNDAY

• omellette w/ eggplant, onions, cheese, olives
  1 cup coffee, 1 double espresso, 1 cup green tea
• Handful of almonds
• power drink: 1 serv whey, 1 serv mixed berries, 2 tbsp ground flax, 1 cup milk, 1 banana. 2 dried figs
• salad: mixed greens, tamatoes, vinegar/olive oil, almonds, olives, mushrooms, onions.  Partial baked acorn squash, green tea, 1 serving d. choco

So…..turns out the blog has been a pretty big victim of my 2 weeks of sporadic vacationing.

Since I’m way too lazy to try and recap all the past 2 weeks happenings now while trying to relax on my last day before punching the clock again….I’ll just preview my catch up efforts:

• weight loss contest with Colorado Nick - who can achieve the sunken cheek look first?
• new toys: Sigma Rox 9.0 (sweet!), awesome new carbon road shoes, pimpy new KCNC 143g!!! seatpost
• Walt Works update - almost there!  He’s started throwing it together, and hope to have it by February.
• how my new torque wrench provided me some blood soaked jeans and landed me in the ER.
• completion of car registration saga.  I championed over Virginia’s efforts to beat me down with DMV paperwork and now drive an up-to-date NY registered car.  Take that VA!
• Then there’s the unabashed list of 2009 resolutions (embracing the notion of resolutions head on this year….lame?  probably)

Anyway, I’m sure there are other random things to talk about in more detail….so check back tomorrow or Tuesday for a shitload of rambling that spans into ride 60-something now.