May 25, 2010
This morning was 20 minutes on the treadmill (just walking with a couple of short jogs mixed in). Tonight is Cycle U. I'll miss a work function, but I need to get in a couple of solid rides this week, especially since it is going to be rainy all week. I'm guessing that today will be our testing day - I'm hoping that we didn't test last week...since I worked both Tuesday and Thursday nights. Friday, I have the electrician out to the house to finsh a project and the washer and dryer get delivered. My workout will probably be spreading bark. Saturday I'm with relatives, so Sunday and Monday need to be ride days....hope we have good weather.

May 24, 2010
Swam in the morning, and rode after work with Fredrika at Duthie. Just cross country. Rode Step it Up and Moving on. Walked a bit of flowtron. We didn't ride particularly hard.

Last week, spent a week working late (no riding) and barely did any morning workouts. Saturday was recovering from the week, and researching bathroom fans. Sunday my clothes washer died, so I spent the day researching washers and dryers. Thank God for friends with washers!

May 17, 2010
the clinic with Kat went really well. I rode the drop on Last Frontier and both switch backs on Last Frontier.

Weekends are for fun

Monday, May 17, 2010
A bit tired today. Stayed up too late doing laundry. Also, my neck is bothering me a bit. So my swim was all of about 15 minutes. Tonight is a switch back clinic at Tokul East with Kat. We are going to master the switch backs on Last Frontier. If we have time, I'd love to have her coach me through the drop on FlowTron. In reality, I need to be practing drops at Duthie on the Nomad so that I'm really comfortable dropping on that bike. With the new method that Simon taught me, I'm not as wigged out about the drop on FlowTron as I was. I've Ridden six days in a row...pretty impressive considering how little I've been riding.

Sunday, May 16, 2010
Did a clinic with Kat on turns and berms. Her style is very different than Simon's and she concentrates on different things.

My big learning was pumping with my feet on the pump track like bumps. On the berms she had us concentrate on braking before the turn, getting low, looking around the turn.; then popping up to get ready for the next turn. She also had us work on Two, one, none braking.

Saturday, May 15, 2010
Ann, Rachel and I did a drop, jump and berm clinic with Simon. It was awesome. His teaching style is very simple. He said with skill on drops I should be able to drop anything at any height. That was good to hear. His major thing is to shift the hips back. The slower the speed coming into the drop the more exaggerated the hip movement.

On Jumps, he had us pay attention to our feet and really feel the bike going into the jumps. It made a major difference. Any pumping motion he is having us do is with our feet and not our upper body.

On Berms, he had us weight our outside foot and point the inside knee in. Made a big difference.

Friday, May 14, 2010
Met Fredrika at Duthie for another day of freeride. I was fairly tired and so we played on the drops, played on the jump lines and rode 2Hi. Then called it a day. I was making little mistakes that are linked to being tired. I made sure I was in bed by 9:00pm so that I'd be rested for my Saturday clinic.


Thursday, May 13, 2010
Met Fredrika at Gasworks for an easy 20 mile road ride. I felt really strong and wasn't in the least bit tired at the end. I felt like I could have ridden another 30 miles.

Loving it

Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Met Fredrika at Duthie for some freeride time. I brought my big bike. I was really apprehensive, it has been a month or two since I was out practicing. I ended up having a great time. Chris from my team was there and he did a bit of coaching. This is the second time he has coached me, the first he corrected my body position which really has helped and apparently I have integrated because he said my position was great. This time he pushed me to ride the drops faster. It was really helpful. It helped my timing; but also he explained that if you are riding faster there is less chance of something going wrong. Too slow and there is more chance for your front wheel to drop first which could result in an endo. It also makes sense to me that my issue of having the bike drop out from under me on big drops might be linked to riding too slow...

I rode the first two drops and I'm ready to move up to the third drop. I jumped (well) all the jumps on the first luna line. I cleared the last two table tops on the second line and I rode all the easy drops on the third line and rode the table top at the end. I need to work on getting my speed up faster at the top in order to get air on the first table top (2nd line) and to really drop well on the 3rd line. Also rode 2Hi twice. rode the whole run. Second line I jumped one jump really well, the rest I rolled. Again need more speed.

This morning I missed my treadmill workout because I forgot my sunglasses at home and had to drive back for them. After work, I'm riding 20 easy miles with Fredrika on the road bike. We are leaving from Gasworks. Hence the need for the sun glasses.

What's this all about

Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Swam this morning. Woke up with a stiff neck so I was nervous about getting in the pool. I did some massage on the tight spot on the drive in to the pool. The swim was fine. I concentrated on keeping my chin in and not flailing around my head looking for air. Swum 1000 yards. Didn't push too hard because i didn't want to put stress on my neck. I did decide I'm going to make myself 4 workouts on cards and get them laminated. So I have specific workout I'm doing. Feels good to be back in the pool.

Tonight I'm doing skills (drops and jumps) at Duthie in preparation for Saturday's clinic.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Went to cycle U last night. The work out was four 12 minute zone 4 intervals with 6 minutes in between. My usual trainer was taken (note to self - get there earlier....which of course sometime they don't open the joint till right at 6:00pm - our start time.) I chose a new trainer (in a spot that isn't covered by the overhead fans...so I was a little overheated.) I started warming up. It seemed difficult but I figured I just needed more warm up....and warm up I did. The first interval seemed really difficult. I was having a difficult time getting past zone 3; then I noticed my heart rate was high. So I decided to drop my heart rate to 80% and this put in at the top of zone one. Not sure if the trainer was off or me or both. Not sure what is up. I was definitely wheezing a bit (I checked my Peak Flow when I got home and it was a little over 400...which is normal after I've used the inhaler). It was 400 this morning with no inhaler so my lungs are fine. I've been in bed by 9:00pm every night this week...so I'm getting plenty of sleep.

I did two intervals and called it a day. Maybe it is that I'm back to a full workout schedule

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Today was a treadmill day. The Podiatrist suggest I try running in small doses. So today was three 30 second jogs mixed in with my regular 25 minute treadmill time. I'm currently pain free (on my right foot) so I'm hoping I can start with a little more jogging.

Tonight is cycle U. I decreased my zones by 5% last Tuesday and it helped a lot. Zone 4 felt like zone 4 and not zone 5!. I'm hoping I can get back to two days a week at Cycle U.

I'm signed up for 3 clinics.
1) Drop clinic this Saturday with Simon (and with Ann and Rachel). I'm losing my bike out from under me on some drops; thus I've gotten timid. So I'm hoping Simon can find the issue. I'm practicing drops and jumps on Wednesday and Friday this week at Duthie. I'd like to take my big bike; but parking is an issue and I might have to ride a couple of miles to get to the bike park...riding on a down hill bike doesn't sound fun...45 lbs of bike with 7" of suspension...

2) A cornering / switchback lesson with Kat (and with Fredrika and Ann). It will be at Tokul East (on the Last Frontier trail) that has a couple of good switchbacks.

3) A 3 day downhill clinic at Whistler with Simon. I'm hoping this clinic will push my skills to a new level.

Kat's regular Thursday afternoon clinic will start up in June; so I'll get good skill work.

Monday, May 10, 2010
Started swimming again. Last Monday was the first day back in the pool. Today I had a great swim. Two 25 yards, about Ten 50 yards and one 400 yards.

Sunday, May 9, 2010
Rode Duthie with Fredrika. Some freeride and some cross country. Was out for 2 hours. Actual ride time was one hour.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Cycle U. Dropped my watts by 5% and it was closer to my actual zones. I've lost some fitness and I've been struggling all month with the Cycle U workouts. Dropping my watts really helped. I'm hoping that I can get to cycle U twice a week now. I've been working too much the last month and had to work several Thursday nights.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Cycle U

April 23, 2010
Port Angeles Race weekend. Crashed on the second run of the day. Didn't continue to ride or race

Tuesday April 20, 2010
Cycle U

Friday, April 16, 2010
Tokul East. Rode Flow Tron and rode it well.

Thursday, April 15, 2010
Cycle U

Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Cycle U

Thursday, April 8, 2010
Cycle U

Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Cycle U