Train hard but rest...

Isn't that counterproductive? You have to train hard to get faster. Train more. Ride lots.



Recently I have not been getting a good amount of sleep and I'm starting to feel like it will eventually catch up to me. I have been developing a habit of trying to use as many hours of my day to do things. I'm up at 430 am to go and ride. During the day I go out to run errands and deal with managing our business doing those little things that add up and take time. At night I spend it relaxing and on the computer and time just flies, by the time I know it it is past midnight. I force myself to sleep. So those three and a half to four hours of sleep are wearing me down. Today we did some real hard intervals in which we had to maintain a steady heart-rate for 15 minutes. Pushing hard against the hard wind did not help either. While Sergio was in zone 4.3 I was up in zone 5! On tuesday when we did similar intervals it was the opposite. I was in zone 4.5 while Sergio was dying. Tuesday I was rested because Monday was my rest day.  While I might want to make every excuse in the book to make myself believe that its not me it is the environment, the wind, the pebbles on the road that are causing me to work harder, my un-aero shape, the fact that Sergio is a midget and had a aerodynamic drag coefficient greater than a Ferrari, that damn smell coming from Sergio every time the gets off his seat.  Those are all excuses I'm NOT going to make. You can not make excuses, you have to figure out what is happening and correct them.


So here I am at Starbucks again. This is my spot to relax and think about what I'm gonna do during the day. It's sort of like stress relief. I'll take it as my spot to recover. I have come a long way by changing the habits I have developed over the years. The reason I was the way I was was because I did not think. I did not realize what I was doing. I ate just to eat and did nothing about it, It was just the way of life. Well while getting a couple more hours of sleep is not as drastic as changing 115 pounds, I have to do it because if I want to continue progressing I need to train hard but also rest the way I need to rest. Minor things that you don't think affect you do in the long run. It took me a lot of years to gain the weight, now I got to catch things early before it messes me up later.



Here is Sergio still asleep, the best company you can have after a ride, stays quiet and leaves me alone! lol  But that is cool, he works hard, trains hard and knows how to listen to his body.  Exhibiting it here at Starbucks snoring for the past 45 minutes. 

So do as Serge does; sleep lots, but not like Billy who sleeps to much. Must keep a good balance to get better.

Ride Lots...

Trying to stay focused. 

Need to keep eating well. 

Riding lots. 

I will get there.

Another morning ride...

Training ride done. Three 10 minute intervals. It was a good ride. Dieting is working. Lost 11 lbs since last weigh in. Now got to keep this going.

Duck face.

High school drama. lol

Sunday recovery ride after J100...

Went out with Team McAllen Cycling for their Sunday ride to get in some miles to recover from the beating we had on Saturday's Jalepeno 100.  This has been one of the windiest week ever!!! 30 mph winds is nothing to do a recovery ride in.  You have to work just get stay on your bike.  We we did a good 40 miles with a good little pit stop waiting for a flat tire.  I helped out a friend of mine do a personal top speed record on her new Felt bike.  34 MPH with a horrible side wind is not that bad!

Jalapeño 100 done...

Wind. Heat. Lots of work. 100 miles done.

 The day started off real nice, not like last year where it was wet and muggy.  Last year my truck got stuck in the mud as we were parking in the field.  This year it was nice and dry, the wind was already blowing but not that bad.  I knew that as the day went by, the wind will get a bit tougher.

Everyone was ready at the starting line. Waiting to do 100 miles. Waiting to take on hours of wind, sun, and more wind.  What are we thinking? lol  Well off we went, I had decided to go with the fast group with Sergio before the ride and we took off.  I was in a group with lots of Wally's Group riders so I just stayed in the group not noticing that Sergio had left with a group that was in front.  By the time I saw that he was not there I saw that they were a good distance away so I said to myself maybe we will speed up a bit and catch them later one.  That was not the case, we took an easy pace and cruised along. I was not disappointed because I would rather take a nice 100 than a 100 where I would be dead at end lol...  Slowly the large group I was in started to break apart leaving only the stronger riders.  Me and a couple of cycling buddies, Karen and Lauren, had to push hard to catch the faster group ourselves because we were the only ones left.  These are some strong girls pulling at 23 against the wind is some speed that some guys can't even do.  I managed to help them out doing my fair share of pulling to catch up to a bigger group where we could rest.  Later on we left that group too and took the rest of the way back on our own picking up another Wally rider, Pepe, and Wally himself whom was on mile 145 of his 200 mile journey that day!!!   It took us a good 5 hours and 28 minutes to finish my second Jalapeno 100 which shatters last years time almost in half!!!!  GOOD TIMES!

 Cindy and Justin ready to get riding. They finished their second 100 30 minutes faster than her last time.

 Arlene ready to attempt her first 100.  She did 60 mile which is still an awesome feat.

Adrian finished his first 100 miles!~