The Lost Month

Howdy Ho!

I have not posted a new entry in a while. It's been a very busy and depressing month. The death of a beloved family member will do that. Nothing seems to be very important. However life goes on and things are starting to return to normal. My wife is hating life at her new job, but like a trooper she's hanging in there. Money helps and she's making a pretty decent wage for someone who's never had a real job before. She'll get used to it eventually. As our debts disappear she'll be even more motivated to keep at it.

Allot has happened training wise this month. I have fallen behind schedule on weight loss and the Hunter/Coogan training plan. I'm still hovering around 205 pounds and haven't gone up or down in about 3 weeks. This is because I have stopped tracking my food consumption in the Training Peaks journal. I need to get back to that right away because I am eating too much. Fortunately I'm riding enough to even it out.

Fitness wise, It's been a so so month. Since the last posting about Greenbelt I have done 2 BAR events and did not do well at either event. I have also been sliding backward on the Davidsonville Ride. My tempo pace is increasing, but since I have shirked the training plan, I have not been getting in any quality VO2 max intervals or any sprints. This was painfully obvious at Bike Jam and RFK. It's also comes to play on the D'ville rides too. I cannot respond to the repeated acceleration. I'm OK initially or if I stay to the front. But once the race wicks up, I'm spit out the back.

In light of this I have decided to go ahead and volunteer at every BAR race left on the calender as a moto ref and only race at Greenbelt, and hit the D'ville rides for the rest of the season. I can be of more use to ABRT in this capacity since I earn BAR points for officiating. Weight loss needs to be my focus for the rest of the year. Hopefully I can come good for Cross. I really wanna try that! Right now I need to put the miles in and get the weight off once and for all with out the added stress of high intensity training. I should have done this over the winter. But I didn't and so there it is. This winter I will be more motivated to stay on the bike to maintain the fitness.

No point in recapping 2 DNFs at Bike Jam or RFK. Needless to say I raced them both not very smart. Bike Jam more so than RFK.

On a more positive note, I did do well at Greenbelt last night. I remembered my mistake from 2 weeks ago and did my damnedest to stay on the front. My only spot of bother was the prime with 3 to go, but I was able to close that gap on the downhill and get back on the front for the final 2 laps. At the end of the last lap, I sat up. As a Cat 4, I should even be in the C race, so I wont contest anything. I figure another couple of weeks in the C's and my power to weight ratio should be good enough for a right proper suffering in the B race. All in all, I was very satisfied with my ride even thought I am technically sandbagging it. Practically speaking, it still kicked my ass.

Next week I will be back on track with Week In Review.

Cheers

FGR