Today, Ryan and I opted out of our usual 70 miler (we’d have to leave the house at 8:00, and it was ~30 out at that time) and struck out on our own a couple of hours later for a chilly century. I mapped out a route that he uploaded to his Garmin in order to give us a little navigational help along the way.

We started by heading towards Herb Parsons lake, then on to the area used for the yearly local road race before heading north to Somerville. We took a short break at the Teague Store then continued north until we reached highway 59. Along the way, we ended up on a few miles of unplanned dirt road, which was a nice break from the paved monotony. Eventually, we reached the town of Braden then headed South- a welcome change since the wind was out of the North/Northwest, and we’d been headed in that direction for the bulk of the trip so far. After a couple of more dirt road miles, it was back to familiar territory on Hwy 196 south of Galloway, then back to the homestead. This makes 100 miler #2 for me. I’m guessing #3 will be Rouge Roubaix in a couple weeks!

If this makes no sense to you, I’m sure Ryan will upload his Garmin map. Take a look at his blog if you’re interested.

Even though I managed to take in a little over 1000 calories of food/drink during the ride, I’m still pretty beat. At one point around mile 90, I spaced out and took a trip to Arkansas… seriously- I was envisioning the Ouachitas around Lake Sylvia for a solid 3 minutes. If Ryan had stopped pedaling, I would have run straight into him and hit the pavement hardcore.
The most awesome part of the ride was getting home to a house that smelled of sweet potato chili that had been bubbling away in the crock pot since we’d left. After a hot shower and a bowl of that, I felt somewhat better. Oh yeah, and I treated myself to a Tazo London Fog Latte from Starbucks as well. If you’re into Earl Grey tea, it’s pretty freakin’ awesome.

If you’ve been looking for updates on the ongoing rails-to-trails conversion going on with the old CSX line that runs through Memphis, then it’s likely that you’re somewhat frustrated. Seems that even the Greater Memphis Greenline site doesn’t get updates very often. Probably not their fault… the construction seems to be going rather slowly.

So I figured I’d post my own personal update. Friday, after I finished wrapping the surly’s bars w/the most pimpin bar tape ever, I took it for a ride down the trail, which runs almost right behind my house. The tracks are all pulled up, and the gravel has been leveled, though some of the bridges are still cross-tied, and there are a lot of iron hooks, spikes, and plates strewn about in the rocks (they’ll pop up & hit your frame/wheels when you run over them, too). I rode from Germantown Parkway to Mendenhall and back. The gravel is really loose, which makes singlespeed riding pretty tough. I had to maintain a hard effort in order to keep from getting bogged down. It’s definately NOT road bike friendly at this point, and I’d be hesitant to say that just anyone on a CX or MTB could get through it without much difficulty. There’s also the bridge over the Wolf River… it’s just open crossties- some of which are rotten/burnt out. Crossing is pretty hazardous.

I’m pretty excited about the project- however slow it is being completed! It’ll be like a commuter highway for me to get to U of M. A few photos:

…than most women spend on shoes.

I have to preface this with a word of warning- if you are looking for functional bar tape, stop reading now. Go get some Arundel Gecko Grip tape. It has to be, hands down, the stickiest, grippiest, yet just-soft-enough tape that I’ve ever laid hands upon.

However, if you’re looking for hard to install, slippery, and generally non-functional bling that will turn heads (and, more than likely, a few noses), then check out the latest look that the surly is sporting:

…and I’m not talking about the wattage you sustain during your 40k TT.

This morning I woke up early so that I could get to the weightroom and do some lifting before class. I’m going to begin doing this a couple of times a week in order to maintain my somewhat neglected weight workouts. Since the race season has prettymuch started, my main focus is maintaining the strength I gained during the off-season (mostly before training camp), and to increase my explosive strength. I also do not need to gain more muscle mass (since that’s just more weight I’ve got to haul up the hills).

So, the workouts I choose need to have a large power component- meaning I need to lift heavy things very fast in order to increase the contraction speed (this is different than what most cyclists think of when they’re talking about power). Remember your biomechanics:
Power: how quickly or slowly work is done
P=F*V (power = force * velocity)

Increasing power in this sense will improve cycling skills such as acceleration into an attack or sprint- allowing you to “snap the elastic” between you & your opponents.

For this, I like to use complex training. This is a specific type of training where you combine a high force movement with a high velocity movement in order to take advantage of post activation potentiation (if that’s a bit over your head, just think of when you lift something really heavy then you feel like the next thing you lift is extra light… that’s PAP at work). Today’s workout was a combination of squats and snatches in alternating sets. After a warmup, I did a set of 6 squats (ideally, you do fewer reps & more weight, but, like I said, I’ve been neglecting my weight workouts lately, so I have to start back slowly):

After doing a set, I racked the weight and immediately performed a set of three light snatches:

I did the alternating sets 5 times. The basic thought is that you get potentiation in the muscles during the slow, heavy movement that makes you lift faster when you perform the light, high-velocity movement. This results in an enhanced training effect and BOOM- more power!
Afterward, I did some heavy sit-ups super-setted with reverse hyperextensions. It only took about half an hour to complete the workout, but I think that the exercise choice made it a very effective half-hour in relation to my earlier-stated goals.