Back on track

Last week was a rough one. Took me all week to recover from FL. Normally I recover in 3 days or so from a 12 Hr. race. This time however, I think there were other issues in on the delayed recovery. Rode a couple of times last week, trying to get the new road bike dialed in. I know it is set up right but I've been on the mountain bike for the last month and the Cervelo still feels weird. It'll feel good soon. It better. I'm headed to Albany, GA this weekend with the rest of the team for the GA Cup opener. Sat morning we have a 3.19 K prologue Time Trial, Sat PM is a 50 K- 8 corner Crit, Sun morning is a 148 K road Race. I've done NO speedwork or even gone anaerobic for more than a minute or two since Cross Nats. It's gonna hurt. The TT will be fine, the crit will be a life or death situation, and I am looking forward to the road race. Suppose to be good weather so hopefully I'll get some tan lines before I come home. Gonna do what I can to help my team and get some miles in.
Got to Yoga last night and I feel so much better. Should have gone last Mon. as well, maybe I'd have felt better later in the week. I was afraid to go last week, hurting like I was. My legs may have given out , I'd have fallen over , and knocked some other people over.
Had a nice day on Sat. Liza had an 8 K run out at Folly Beach so I went with her and cheered her on at the mile markers. She did well, right at the time she was shooting for. She out sprinted my Doctor at the line. No, he still doesn't know how to fix me.
Anyways, we got downtown in the afternoon to walk around and eat lunch. Nice day for it, 75 deg. and sunny. Got home and I cleaned up the garage for 4 hrs. Would have been 2 hrs. but I had to rebuild my clothes dryer before I could get anything else done ( long story ).
Got to go- DH

12 Hrs. of Chaos

Looonnng story short: 12 Hrs. of Santos- Started OK-2nd for 2 laps. Felt bad, Front tire exploded, fixed it, too much time in the pit fixing bike at the end of several laps.(wheels, brakes )Legs feel terrible. Going backwards. Back around 30th place now. Meltdown. Forget it. I'm out in 4 hrs. I quit, can't do this for 8 more hrs. Take off jersey, eat some food, relax.

Not gonna work. Not Me.

Back on the bike sans jersey( too hot ). My A game shows up out of nowhere now. 40th place to 7th place in 6 hours. Flying now, fastest lap is the 11th one. Still chasing down the leaders, they know I'm coming too. Crash really hard. Thought I broke my hip. Hurts, but I can still pedal. Run out of time and end up 4th. One off the box.

Should be top 5 in US Ultraendurance rankings now.

Gotta get a spare bike!

Feel like I've been run over by a bus now.

Later-

Virus

Sorry folks,
I had a good post with pictures and everything from FL. Some jerk commented right away with a virus attatched to it. So if you read the comment it infects your computer. Had to delete the post and comments. I'm not looking forward to retyping it - it was a long one. I'll get the details out soon. Later- DH

Last day before FL

Got the Cervelo built last night. I think it will work out pretty good. Have to make quite a few adjustments and it'll be good to go. That thing is definitely light. 15.5 lb. w/ pedals. When my Red group shows up I'll probably lose another 3/4lb. to a full lb. I don't think I've ever had a bike that light. Wonder how it will ride?

Anyways, have some packing to do to get ready for departure tomorrow. Have to set up some spare wheels and load up the pit equipment for Brad and I. Feeling pretty good going into this race, I've always done well there and have no reason to expect anything else this time. I did find out that one of the top guys that I thought was coming is going to another race. Bummer, I really wanted a shot at him. I'll get my chance at Nationals hopefully.

I'd love to write more but I need to go get some breakfast now. And then some more, and then some more. That's probably my favorite part of 12 hr. racing- I can eat whatever I want in the days leading up to an event and it probably still won't be enough. Later- DH

Big day today

Lots of stuff goin' on today.
Got the Yeti ready to roll for an all out assault on Santos, FL.
My Cervelo Road bike FINALLY came in. Have to get that built up tonight. I'll post some pictures soon.
And most importantly---
The Tour de France organizers pulled out the " I aint gonna touch you with a 10 foot pole rule" and excluded the Astana team from the tour this year. About time someone had enough of dealing with bad reputations. This does however exclude 1st and 3rd place riders from last year's tour. Ya lay down with dogs boys, ya get up with fleas!
I've got to go build a bike now- Later-DH

3 more days

Only two more days of work and I'm outta here. Fun and sun on the horizon. On a different note- bad luck has befallen our relay team for the 12 hr. One by one the members have fallen to the following: 1. Broken collarbone, 2. Pnuemonia, 3. Funeral ( not the team member ). So it looks like Brad is the sole remaining member and will be forced to race solo if no one else steps up. Not that there is anything wrong with racing solo- but if you are not planning on it it is another thing. Fortunately there is still time to get prepared. We are both still excited however, and my excitement grows by the hour. I just wanna race my bike!

Check this out:
I devised a formula to determine the races I want to do this year are worth it.

Hours Riding on the trip > Hours Driving X .75

This applies to most races. National Championships and " classics " races don't count because they are worth the drive regardless.
Gotta go ride- Over and out. DH

Friday Can't Come Quick Enough!

Had a pretty good last 4 or 5 days. Got alot of mileage in over the weekend up in the mountains. Thought I would be tired and wouldn't be able to do my tempo workout this morning. Very windy out but I felt pretty good. Didn't have to work real hard to keep it in my Tempo zone and the interval was over before I knew it. I'm really excited about racing in Florida this weekend. They have the best courses down there and the terrain suits me well. I'm feeling pretty good now, my bike is running great, and the weather is looking great at 80 degrees and sunny. We have a large group going down this weekend with a shop relay team and I'm racing solo of course. We'll be camping out for 2 nights and it should be a ton of fun. The only question now is do I go all out and bury myself trying to win the race and be blown for a month? Or do I ride like I'm down there to train and save myself for more important races? I am going to race- and once it starts It will be hard to hold back! Guess it depends on how I'm riding. If I'm running near the front I'll have to bury it, sometimes you gotta go for it. Stay tuned to find out.

Finally some nice weather

The whole last week has been great weather down here. 80 degrees and sun out today. It's good to be able to take advantage of that and get some good base mileage in. Still don't have my road bike yet but I kinda like riding my mountain bike everywhere. I've gotten in about 200 miles or so on it in the last 5-6 days. May just ride it for awhile. Training has been going well lately, finally sleeping better and the abdomen pain is getting easier to control. I'd like to think it doesn't hurt as much because I am getting exponentially tougher daily, but I think it is the Yoga that is really helping me out. If I skip a week then I feel like crud and don't sleep at all. That stuff keeps me right. Got in a very nice ride this morning , gonna get a couple more hours in tonight on the group ride. It's off to A-Ville again on Thursday for some more wheels. Looking forward to the mountains. Hoping to get in at least 4 hrs. daily on Fri. and Sat. We'll see. Later- DH

Weekend Photos

Went to Manchester State Forest to ride MTB on Fri. Road Group Ride on Sat AM, Moto at Wambaw Swamp in the afternoon, and MTB at Marrington early Sun. morning before I had to go to work. Pretty good weekend.

Sleepless in Charleston

Got out on a good ride tonight, just Jay and I. Normally we have 6-8 guys on that ride but only us tonight. Got in a couple of solid hours then cruised on home. Riding the mountain bike with slicks on for awhile. Sold my cross bike and Cervelo still hasn't sent my road bike.

Later-DH

Tough commute to work this morning

I had to bring alot of stuff in with me this morning. Hope I have a tailwind on the way home!

Monster Mountain day

Got in a good ride today with Robert and Nathan. Got alot of climbing in on the parkway around asheville. Out for 5 1/2 hours. Very cold when we rolled out then very warm when we returned. Nice day for a ride. Was regretting the decision to wear the thermal jacket on the last 1/2 hour climb. I didn't feel great riding due to my legs being sore from increasing weights this week. Actually, I felt pretty weak for about 3 1/2 hours. Finally around 4 hours in the legs came around and I felt good again. That's about it- nothing crazy or too exciting happened- just a normal day out. Later- DH

Weekend Report

Built wheels all day yesterday. Went to the gym last night for some needed exercise. Driving all evening on Thur. and sitting in a chair all day yesterday had me stiff and sore. Felt much better after working out.

I'm sitting here at Robert's right now needing to get dressed to ride 5 hours. It's 33 degrees out; however, and I am putting it off as long as possible. Later-DH

Four Pair?!

Headed to the mountains this weekend again. Got packed up last night because I had to get up early and ride for a few hours before work. Maybe I was a little too tired. I looked over my stuff this morning. I'm only gonna be gone 2 days. This is what I packed: 4 pair of riding shorts, 1 jersey, 3 undershirts, 2 mismatched arm warmers, 4 (FOUR!) pair of sunglasses. 5 T-shirts, 7 pair of socks, no underwear, 4 hats, 2 gloves, 2 pants, 2 casual shorts, a toothbrush, shaving cream ( no razor), and a thermal jacket. And an MP3 player.
After a little re-packing I was set to go.

Got in a great ride this morning. 2 hrs with an hour of Tempo thrown in. Nice morning- blue skies and 55 degrees out. I felt pretty good all morning. Of course I had to have something go wrong before the ride was over. Flat tire within sight of the neighborhood. It would take longer to fix it than it would to ride home. You gotta be kidding me. Thought real hard about riding the flat in but did the right thing and fixed it.

The rest of the day has been uneventful. Cervelo told me my bike is shipping tomorrow. For the third time. We'll see what happens. Later- DH

Check out my new website

Just got a website for coaching up and running. Will probably change up the domain name soon to get rid of the blogspot designation. I'd like to get some tabs to different pages set up too. There will also be some pictures on the way and much more info.

Check it out: www.dhallcoaching.blogspot.com

Coming apart at the seams.

I've had an action packed weekend. Started on Fri morning with a trip to the Gym for an hour and a half of weights. Came back home and picked up Alex for a dentist appointment. Got that done and we loaded up the motorcycles for a trip up to Wambaw Swamp to ride.
The sand was wet up there , with all the traction you could ask for. We had a pretty fast ride until Alex went down and broke off the chainguide ( block ) off the swingarm and lost the chain. I got it back togather for awhile, getting us closer to the truck. Then the chain came off again and wrapped itself around the primary drive cog and jammed everything up. Fortunately we were close to a forest road. Alex walked the moto out while I took the trail back to the truck and came to get him. Rolled on back to Charleston. Saw Cloverfield at the movies and called it a night.

Robert and his family came to town fri. night for the long weekend as well. Sat morning was start of over 24 hrs. of pouring rain. Great- needed to get a long ride in. So we decided to ride the trainers for awhile and watch the Giro. Nathan came over and we all rode for a couple of hours. That was much better than riding by myself in the living room. Did 35 mins. of Tempo and cruised the rest of the time. Got some food and went to the movies again last night. That however, was not the highlight of the evening. For Kellie's birthday we all went roller skating down at Hot Wheels roller rink. The Watkins had all brought their own skates so I figured we were in for a schoolin'. Yup. Robert and Kellie proceeded to skate circles around everyone. We all had a great time ( even with a superman impersonation on my part ) and got home tired and went straight to bed.

I had to work today so Robert and I were up at 7AM to get in a four hour ride before work. 30 degrees and blasting wind greeted us as we rolled out toward the beach. My legs were sore from skatin' it up last night and took an hour or so to loosen up. Just in time to spent the next 2 hours in a headwind. More tempo riding than I would like but OK. We caught up with the Sun. group ride for a bit then headed back home. 10 min. later and I was out the door to work and here I sit. Doing nothing. No customers. Wasting the day. Anyways- Liza and the Watkins have arrived with my lunch and it smeels good. Got to go- DH

Busy, busy, busy!

There's been alot going on lately. I've started training in earnest. 15 hrs. a week right now with gym, yoga, and cold nightime miles on the bike.
Speaking of bikes, my Cervelo will be ready to roll early next week in time for a trip to the mountains.
Got by the doctor for another followup visit. Diagnosis: I have suffered an injury somewhere along the line ( perhaps when I went down in Greenville ) and have separated some muscles from my ribs. The doctor told me that is very painful ( thanks- I didn't know that ) and it takes a very long time to heal because that area never really gets to rest. If I can not breathe and lie still in the bed for 2 weeks it will heal fast. Otherwise, I'm looking at something like 37 years till it gets better. Thankfully, I'm alright when I'm riding. I just can't roll over in the bed without pain.

I'm also working on expanding my coaching services. I'm really excited about this. Stay tuned and I'll let you know when the new website is up and running.
Later- DH

I'm in control of the tests now!

I am conducting another test on myself. Since the experts can't figure it out I came up with a foolproof plan. In order to see if it is really my gall bladder or if it is muscular I have devised a plan to differentiate the two. The muscular pain is not present now. So... I need to see if food makes my gall bladder hurt. Then I'll know what to do. I have just returned from Krispy Kreme. I just ate a few (dozen) glazed donuts. I feel OK right now ( other than being competely WIRED from the sugar) but if it starts to hurt then yes-- I should have my Gall Bladder nixed. Now all I have to do is a four hr. drive to Asheville after crashing from the sugar. I'll let you know how my experiment turns out. DH

Weekend Outlook

I've got a pretty good weekend planned. Headed up to NC tonight to build wheels @ Cane Creek tomorrow and Sat. Suppose to rain here on Sat. and be sunny there. That will work out well as I need to get in about 4 hours on the bike Sat. morning. Hopefully this will be the last weekend on the Surly as my Cervelo is shipping to me this week. Can't wait to get on that.

On another note, got to the doctor yesterday. They still don't know what is wrong with me, but they do want to take out my Gall Bladder to eliminate that from the equation. So if I have a headache do you cut off my cabeza? Anyways- the doc thinks #1- gall bladder is not well. #2 there is some muscular/ skeletal problem around my ribs. These 2 things are working together to cause me distress. So... I got a rib X ray this morning and have another doctor's appointment on Monday with the 1st genius that couldn't figure out what is wrong with me. I'll post again with some more inconclusive results on Mon. Later- DH

Lab Rat

I feel like a lab rat. My week has gone like this:
Mon: 1 hr indoors on the trainer.

Tue: 2 hr ride on the TT/ track bike. Met Liza and we did the 5K resolution run in Charleston. Rode home.

Wed: Went to the doctor's and had an Endoscopy done. Got poked and prodded then got put to sleep and a camera in a tube went down the hatch and checked out my esophogus, Stomach, and large intestine. Everything was clear and no problems found. Doctor told me to take it easy and not exercise. With to which I replied " I ride my bike." That made no sense to anyone but it was ok since I was still on drugs.

Thur: 1 hr. AM again on the trainer. 4 miles PM on the treadmill at the gym. Spending alot of time indoors on various forms of the hamster wheel followed by scientific experiments.

Fri: AM - another medical procedure, another IV, 1 1/2 hrs lying still in a tube for another scan. 1 1/2 hrs ( outside! ) on the track bike to the gym ( back inside ) to find my maxes so I can set up my weight workouts. Ride home.

Sat: Got out for 4 hrs. Good to be outside for an extended bit of time. Did the group ride, nice day out, no January World Championships going on so it was a great ride. I kept HR at exactly 145-155 hr for 4 hrs. Drafted at the back pretty much all day. I am pretty sure I did the least amount of work of anyone on the ride.

Today: 1 hr AM ( back inside on the trainer ) PM: Headed out to Marrington Plantation for a 1 1/2 hr. MTB ride w/ Alex.

Headed back to the Doc. this Wed. to find out what Friday's test did not determine. Later- DH