year end stats

Here are some of my end-of-year statistics from Jan-Dec 2006.

• total bike hours, all completed on a mountain bike: 744.5 hours
• estimated total miles: 10,400
• entered 9 races; one first place, two seconds, one fourth, two sixths, one ninth, one twelfth, and one fifty seventh
• ran 58 miles
• cracked 2 helmets
• one hit by a car while riding bike

My miles were based on time because I don't use a bike computer. I occasionally use an online gps map to calculate the distance of my routes which gives me a rough estimate of my average speeds when I divide the distance by time.

I'll be adding two more races to my agenda in 2007. I try not to race too much and focus on training because I am a young athlete with not very many miles in my legs. To date, I have only 850 official hours of bike training recorded. Of course, that is on top of 7000 miles of running, plus everything I did before that that isn't recorded!

-Randy

Lame blogger

I was going to blog yesterday, but realized what I had to put in was a bunch of garbage. I still want to blog though, so here's an excerpt from Jesse Jalonde's blog, a guy who probably doesn't know who I am even though I finished right in front of him at the Iceman and rode back to the start with him on the bus. Either way, I like what he had to say:

"Unexplored territory...

...Are you going to train harder this year? Faster? Longer? I got to thinking how the blogosphere opens up one's training secrets. It's all there for the world to see. Will you be faster if you duplicate everything on Jeremiah Bishop's blog? The off season comes down to figuring out the work load and implementing it into the daily grind. After the work is layed out tackle the mental side. For me this is 75% of the race. In college I had a roommate Named John who quickly earned the name "big balls". He was the only guy I knew who could run himself into the ground. Literally. He went to the limit every time he raced. He'd exert himself to the point of collapse and occasionally would DNF because of it. I think we all have this ability but continually deny the use of it. For most of us this is unexplored territory and will most likely remain that way. Me? I'm hoping for a glimpse of mine this season."

I agree with most of that. That's why you don't see detailed information about my training on here. I guess that's kind of silly because I don't think anyone would actually try to replicate anything I do anyway. But I'm proud of all the research and trial and error I've done to derive the system I use today; I think it's really well thought out and would be effective for most athletes. But also, I think that you have to believe in what it is that you're doing, and if you simply take someone Else's advise, then you probably won't understand completely what it is that that person has in mind for effective training, unless you're really close to that person. So for that reason, I don't think it's generally effective to follow the training plan of another athlete.

The mental factor is also important. That's one thing a training log can't really tell you. That's up to you.

out with the old, in with the new*

I'm a pretty big whimp when it comes to winter riding, at least relative to other people around here like Robert and Brent. I just can't dig it. If it's below 40, chances are you won't see me outside on a bike. So, I was really excited when my SportCrafters (special thanks to Pete) rollers arrived today.

It took me a couple minutes to get the hang of it, but after I was able to ride on it without holding on to something, I thought it was really fun. The road slicks I put on my bike won't seat right because of the tubeless rim strips I use, so I have yet to fix that problem because it doesn't make for a smooth ride on the rollers.

Before: My dad and I have been using this thing for something like 75 years... I get yelled at during spin class because its so loud.


After:

Check it

Like the new look?

I was sick of looking at the old one. It looked too monumental and important.

Look forward to some awesome updates in the coming weeks!

I love that picture- all the people, the tall trees, and the race.