Washing your bike shoes

As most of you triathletes out there and just plain old cyclist will attest, bike shoes become a little raunchy after several months and/or seasons of racing in them. And as my roommate or anyone else who recently came within about a mile from my bike shoes in the recent months, they know that mine are no exception.

So a few weeks ago, I put up a post, half jokingly, on Facebook stating that anyone that knows how to wash a paid or cycling shoes without having them clang around in the washing machine or become sudsy anytime that it rains in the future, please let me know. I got some interesting suggestions that ranged from “just go buy new ones” to “put them in the dishwasher on the top rack”.

Now, good cycling shoes cost around $200+ per pair and I really wasn’t willing to shell out that kind of cash when I just got these shoes at the beginning of last year, so I inquired with the person that said to use the dishwasher. He said it really worked, but don’t do it all the time as I’m sure it’s not too good for the shoes integrity. I figured I would give it a whirl (and make sure that the “drying heat” button was turned off as to not burn or melt the shoes)  Turns out, this was a good idea, and after scrubbing the insoles in the sink and washing another pair, my shoes came out the other side really hot, but remarkably - un-stinkylike.  It was a miracle!

Above is a shot of them "smoking" in my windowsill after being removed from the top rack.  I had concerns about the carbon melting on them, but then I thought that if a thin tupperware can withstand the top rack in my dishwasher, my bike shoes should be able to do the same.  So this will be how I clean my shoes after IM this year as I'm sure more bodily fluids than I care to admit will end up on them during the long race.  Just thought I would share a tidbit I learned after many years of long course racing and having to deal with smelly shoes.  Hopefully this new snow melts and we can all get out on the roads soonish. Train hard friends and see you all out there.  Cheers!

First outdoor ride of the year!

Last night I was able to go for my first outdoor ride of the year.  Had a nice 35+mile ride outside as the sun was setting.  Didn't move an inch, but it was nice to get out in the fresh air and have a breeze and a little change of pace. 

It became pitch black by the time I got finished with the ride, but honestly that’s no different than when the lights turn off after about 15 minutes in the basement when I’m riding. So it was a good ride and I only got a few weird stares from motorists passing by (I was right next to the parking lot) and it was a good ride. Normally when I’m riding in the basement and the lights are on, this is the view that I have:

Yesterday, I took advantage of the weather though and brought the entire set up outside and got my ride in outside :o) That was partly because I was lacking the time to get my entire ride in and also partly because I still have to get a new helmet after some moron decided he would walk out of the transition area with mine at Musselman last year.  I’ll be picking one up this evening on my way home from work, don’t you worry!  

So with that, get outside, enjoy this unseasonably warm weather and train my friends.  The spring is right around the corner (actually this weekend) and I expect to see you all on the roads and trails, training hard.  Cheers!

More ramblings...

Well I have a little bit of extra time at work here today and I thought I would add on to the post from yesterday with a few new tidbits of stuff going on in the land of Keep Moving Forward.  Things are still going okay and I'm getting back into the big training once more and getting back into the groove once more. 

This past block of training was good, I was beat afterwards, which tells me I need to focus a little longer on rest, recovery and nutrition between key workouts and thru the day (so maybe giving up the Dew isn't a bad idea after all) The only thing that was different about this last block is that I didn't race and I think I missed that.  Maybe it's the fact that I didn't race last weekend that has made my mood quite melancholy, but it's something.  I enjoy racing and I know I have a lot of it coming up on the horizon, but I've been missing seeing the gains from all the labor that I've been putting in this year.  (and that's been a lot over the last few weeks) But after this new block of training (3-4 weeks) I'll be racing a lot, so that will hopefully scratch the itch.

I didn't give up coffee this year and I vowed to never again after that Chicago race report (as Tim pointed out) so hopefully the above hyper caffienated situation will not apply.  :o) That was a totally random picture and thought to put down here, but I really just wanted to add the picture to the blog.

In other news, the prelimiary rankings came out for the One Hour Postal Swim that I did back in January and it was some fierce competition with places 1-10 getting medals in each age group.  After busting my hump and swimming faster than I ever have before and covering 4800yards, I ended up 15th overall in my age group.  Not too shabby and I'll take it.  Realistically, next year I'd love to be in and around that 5k mark as I think that is a solid barrier to be around.  Preliminary rankings can be found: HERE

I also know that I owe you all the "seasonal" listing of my beer offerings from the top ten list and here is a solid picture to depict that from my buddy who comments on this blog so much, Tim.

Tim, your comments and squirrelly pictures amuse me much, so thank you so much for making my day brighter.  (I'm just actually glad you gave up the ribbing about pulling out of Cast-A-Shadow several years ago!) But in the light of the picture above, I will NOT be adding Budweiser to my list of seasonals, and will put a solid focus on Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter beers that make my "top 3 seasonal" lists each year.  So when those seasons come along, you all can enjoy like I do, if you prefer.  Or just try some new and exciting tastes.

So with that, I'll close this post.  I feel a lot better about how "up-to-date" the blog is now and I got a chance to use two funny photos to boot! :o) See you all in the dungeon, on the trainer, on the roads and hopefully on the trails soon after the snow melt friends.  Train hard and cheers!

Earl(e)y season BIG training

So it's been another solid block of training and I just came off a rest week last week feeling okay. (note - not feeling fantastic, just okay) But that might have something to do with the fact that I've been pushing some hours that I didn't quite know I was capable of in mid February/early March.  You see, the last three week build that I did went (in total hours) 16 hours, 17.5 hours and then a whopping 18 hour week before I kind of broke down and went onto a rest week.  (and only 30 minutes of those were core work - abs, pushups, etc...the rest was good old fashioned S/B/R)

I woke up on that Monday of the rest week and felt like my body had been broken. I ended the 3 week build with a solid 3 hour ride and it had some intense tempo efforts in it in an effort to increase FTP and also muscular endurance.  I'e been ending all of my long trainer rides with tempo at the very end to "finish strong" and I can feel it's going well.  But I know that the hours took their toll and I was teetering on that fine line of just overdoing it and getting sick for the beginning part of the week.  So sleep, liquids and OJ were on the dockett and I felt quasi-normal by mid week.

This block though I am concentrating on more "strength" type work on the bike and will be breaking my muscles down a lot more than they have been in the past, so I don't expect to see my weekly hour totals go up as high as they were in that last block.  This will be more quality work that will tax me physically and I'll need more protein to rebuild and recover to go after the next workout. 

On that note though, the Garmin that I got is pretty swanky.  I'm a big fan of the charts and graphs and seeing the power lines and #'s mid ride is a definite bonus.  It's taught me to let go of the speed #'s that I chased after for years and to focus on staying within my wattage (and riding within myself) It's also pretty slick for runs too, not having to guess at how long I ran or anything.  Good stuff that makes my mileage and logs much more accurate. 

So on a side note, I gave up Mountain Dew for Lent.  This might not seem like a big deal, but that was one of the perks that I looked forward to slamming when I was low on energy.  Now this wasn't by any means a daily thing, but I would often have one maybe 2x per week and it would be a special treat for me.  It's gonna be a long haul until Easter, but I think I can manage.  I might just have to replace one vice with another...we'll see how it works out. 

Other than that, things have been going well here in the land of Keep Moving Forward.  The next race on the horizon for me is Spring Forward 15K and that will be a fun way to blast the rust out of my legs as a start to the season.  It's gonna come at the end of this 3 week block for me, so we'll see how it pans out. That's really all I got going over here, nothing new, just training lots and getting stuff ready for this years season.  See you out on the roads, the trails (when they melt) and in the pool friends.  Cheers.

Cast-A-Shadow Race report

So I eluded to the fact that I owed it to myself and the two readers that I have for this blog that I needed to put a race report in writing for the Cast-a-shadow 6 hour snowshoe relay that occurred last weekend. This race is always a blast and we scraped up a team consisting of myself, Brian Matthews and Tim Howland for the weekend. In years past, we’ve been vying for the overall win and to win some of those sweet Mountain Hardware fleeces that they give out to the division winners. This year, it was rumored that Mr. Jeff Beck and Nate Huckle would have a team and our delusions of going for the overall win was shattered as quickly as it tried to poke thru. Needless to say, the team wasn’t too stoked about slogging around in the snow for six hours, but we begrudgingly got our entry form in and were ready to roll for the race.

Race day came and we got dumped on pretty good the days prior. The atmosphere in the lodge at Black Creek was just electric and buzzing with folks getting ready and seeing everyone that they hadn’t seen in a while. It’s fun times. I got there, stashed my gear on a bench and decided to lead off the opening leg. (Bad idea…) I completely forgot that the opening leg was required to basically blaze a path thru the snow and “cut trail” for the 2.25-2.50 mile course. Needless to say that the opening leg was my slowest leg of the day. About 400 yards in, I actually stopped and started walking because I didn’t want to lead and the front pack bunched up a bit. By the time we got to the single track it got a little better and we were able to actually run the trails the way they were intended.

The whole race is kind of wild, there's a lot of commotion going around and people are everywhere.  Relay teams are all over and it's just like organized chaos.  The whole race has an "old school" feel to it as there are no timing chips, everything is timed by hand with a stopwatch and pencil and paper.  I think this year was actually the first year that they had handed out actual bib numbers.  It's one of those races where the race directors know pretty much everyone running and you just call your name or your team name out as you come up to the line and they handwrite your splits on their sheets. 

One of the coolest parts of this race is the fact that it starts at 2pm in February and goes for 6 hours, so about half of the race is in the dark and headlamps are required.  That and the fact that everyone running is in a pretty good mood and it's kind of like a party atmosphere in the lodge between legs for the folks that aren't getting ready to run.  It's fun all around.  This year was no different.  I was taking it as kind of a training run as I had to get in 15 miles that day anyway and it was the last thing I had to do before a rest week.  I had spun on the trainer for 3 hours the night prior and made up a swim at the WAC that morning, so I wasn't sure how much pain my legs would handle. 

I've blown up spectactularly in the past in this race (because as you can see, it's all about pacing) and I didn't want a repeat of that sordid fate.  So this year, I took it out conservatively each time I ran and we were doing pretty well.  We had no chance of pulling out the win and I really thought we'd be like 5th overall or so.  Turns out by about the midway point of the race (right around when headlamps were required) a sleuthy teammate of mine pictured above looking at the split sheets realized we were in about 4th place overall, but still holding the same amount of laps as about 3 other teams.

Now this year, the groundhog saw his little furry shadow, so the rules were that once the 6 hour mark hit, only FULL laps got counted.  Hence, if you were finishing up your last lap and were 100 yards from the finish and the clock read 6:00:00, that lap did not count.  So a little bit before the third to last exchange came up for Tim and then me, we realized that we might be able to sneak in one more lap if we all just ran REALLY hard.  So Tim leaves for his loop and runs great, I get out there for the exchange and run a solid lap, eventually passing Tim Dwyer and putting us a position ahead. The only problem was that when I got to the rellay exchange tent, my teammate Brian Matthews was no where to be seen!  He popped out of the lodge though when I bellowed his name and managed to remove his jacket on the run and fling it to the side as he started his loop. 

So time was running out, Brian came back from his loop and exchanged to Tim, I get ready for my second to last loop as Tim is out and we realize that it's going to be close if we can get this last lap in, like down to minutes or seconds.  Tim comes back from his loop HOLDING HIS SNOWSHOE in his HAND...I don't know if all of you are familiar with shoeing or not, but snowshoes are NOT supposed to go on your hands! I used that as fuel to get my adrenaline going and bolted off for my 2nd to last loop.  We all were running strong and it was fast.  I came back in about 17:3X and had been running consistent 18's all day, Brian went out and ran REALLY strong as I urged him to get me as much of a cushion as possible.  He came back strong and there was about 37 minutes left of the race when Timmy got his last exchange.  (Tim had to borrow a pair of snowshoes from someone because of his broken cleat/strap on his own pair and these were direct mounted Dion's that had no insoles in them...unlucky for him) Anyway, Tim runs out of his head too and hands off to me with about 19 minutes left of the race. 

I just take off, not wanting to spoil it for the team, the only thing I can think about is coming up to the line and having time run out and never crossing the line...so I'm cooking thru the darkened woods with a headlamp bobbing around and I can barely see where I'm going.  Most of the Ultra runners are done and in for the night, so it's fairly lonely out there as I'm huffing and puffing to get every last second out of my legs.  I only passed one other guy out there and finally got to the clearing and the last hill.  I could tell I was motoring and my legs were screaming.  That all subsided when I hit the line and was done.  We made it with less than 2.5 minutes to spare....thank goodness! :o)

The tie-breaker for when teams have the same number of laps is that the fastest last lap wins (so that was motivating me as well...) As we all got dinner and a post race feast (one of the many great things about the race) Fetch came by and slyly told me, "you know you did it, don't you?" and I had no idea until that comment that I had run the fastest last lap of the day and vaulted us from about 4th overall to 2nd place :o) I was beaming and it was a good feeling.  We all had dinner and beers at the lodge and I stuck around to help break down camp and load up the trucks for Mort and Tim.  Final results are up HERE for the mens division and HERE for everyone else.  All in all, it was a great evening and I'm glad my team convinced me to have a blast.  Wear your Mountain Hardwear beanies with pride guys.  Great work and none of it could have been done with out all of us running out of our heads.  Good times.

So that's it.  I gave you this race report as promised, told you all about the MS 20K lottery and the new toys (the Garmin) and that's been about it.  I'm just coming off a rest week last week for me and I'm getting into another solid 3 weeks of build and strength, so bring it on! See you on the roads, trails, on the trainer and anywhere else friends.  Enjoy yourselves, cheers!

Happenings...

So I know I owe you all a race report from Cast-a-Shadow which happened last weekend and I've got a few fun pictures in store for that report, but I wanted to drop a short post here because the past few days have been pretty solid in my little multisport world. 

I've been waiting since last year sometime over the summer to finally get a Garmin Forerunner 310xt.  I grabbed a powertap SL+ hub from my buddy Matt who upgraded his gear recently and had it installed in a Velocity deep V rim last fall by the wonderful folks over at Mendon Cyclesmith (great shop by the way).  All it's really been is a fairly expensive hub that's done nothing for me over the past few months.  Since I got a Tacx trainer a while back, I've been using that to measure my power on my rides and I've been jonsing to get a head unit for the PowerTap.

In comes the Forerunner 310xt.  As most of you remember, I travelled to Chicago last fall to run a silly race and stopped by the Garmin showroom there on the main strip. (also a classic waste of store space...that place was HUGE and their products can fit into your hand) I picked up a quick release kit and have installed the mount on my bike in heavy anticipation as of last fall as soon as I got back.  Tonight, I will be finally attaching and pairing up a headunit that measures power.  This weekend I will also take it on my long run and use it to track mileage/pace/speed/and HR! Needless to say I'm trying to hold back my excitement, this thing is AWESOME...and I've never had anything like it.  As a numbers kind of guy, I've always estimated my distance on my training routes and this will give me MUCH more exact data.

So as it charges at work, I'm sitting here in anticipation of getting to play with it once I get home and set up the quick release kit! Oh and the best part is, I bought it with my HSA and it was all pre-tax deductions from my work account.  So, the thing was pretty much "free" as I didn’t see the cash, so it was like “fake money”. I know it was money deducted from my paycheck, but it seems like it was never mine to begin with. Which makes it that much easier of a pill to swallow.

But alas, that’s not the ONLY good news in the past few days. The Muddy Sneaker lottery was held last night at the Otter Lodge and I won't keep you in suspense, it was a great night overall, only made better by the fact that #32 that was called was yours truly.  So for the scond year in a row, I get to haul butt thru the woods and HUGE hills down at Hi Tor WMA during April.  Some good fast folks are signed up, so this will be a good race this year! Getting in super early in the night allowed me to relax and enjoy myself rather than sweat it out and keep my fingers crossed hoping that I was going to get in.  It was good times, good beer and good food with good friends last night.  Great seeing everyone out and about and a PERFECT night to spend on a solid rest week. 

And that's it, just a short little update.  I'm super stoked to see how the Garmin power #'s compare to the tacx and play around with it all this weekend! So I hope you all are staying warm and enjoying your winter.  see you on the roads and trails friends. Cheers!

OHP - one hour postal swim

This past Saturday was the National USMS one hour postal swim (actually you can do it any day in the month of January, but entries have to be in by 1/31).  Basically it's a timed race where you swim as far as you can in a pool in an hour.  It hurts like hell....I am the postal coordinator for the Rochester Area Masters Swimmers (RAMS) and with that comes the inevitable headache of organizing who is swimming in what lane and who is volunteering for whom...sounds easy, but not when you have to juggle 20+ people and work their schedules.  Regardless, it went fairly smoothly.

Saturday was my day to swim and I had done this race in 2009 and managed to struggle thru 4,650 yards or so which averaged out to 1:17.X/100yard pace.  This year I know I'm swimming faster and I set a fairly loft goal up there of 4800 yards in an hour.  (1:15 pace)  We had done a 10 x 10's on 1:15 workout set earlier in the year and I got thru it, but it was painful and I really wasn't sure how I was going to do in this one. 

So, Saturday.  We start and I took the first 500 out in 6:00.00 - exactly 1:12 pace.....a TAD too quick, but I was settling in.  At about the 2,000 yard mark I had amassed about a 20-30 second buffer of time faster than the predicted 1:15pace that I wanted to go. I really thought I was doing the first 2k fairly comfortably.  At about the 3k mark, I had seen that buffer completely vanish and I hit a really low point in the hour of pain that I was going thru.  I kind of lost count (good thing we have counters on deck!) and started day dreaming a bit.  Once I saw that the clock read about 10 mintues left, I started to pick it up and push it....a lot.

By the time I hit the wall, I honestly only thought I had gone about 4650 or 4700 yards total and was shocked to hear that as the whistle blew, my hand hit the wall for a total of 4,800 yards in an hour! I was dead-nuts on my pace of 1:15 pace.  Not too shabby for this time in the year. So this squirrelly kid managed to shock himself and pull off a decent swim and breakfast at Charbroil afterwards too.  (I think that was Kim's favorite part!) Next up this weekend is the always fun Cast-a-shadow 6 hour snowshoe relay at Black Creek Park and that should be a blast.  I've been training hard and I have much to say about that, so until next time, see you on the roads and trails (or spinning in my basement) Cheers!