Sorry for the delay!

So I know the typical excuse is "I've just been so busy and haven't had the time." Well, that is exactly my case. January - May is the busiest time of year for me at work and 8:30 am - 5:00 pm means absolutely nothing so please excuse my blogging lapse!

Training has been going great. I have been working my ass off on the bike and in the gym. I've been using my physical therapy appointments almost as personal training sessions. It worked out well because my injury was in my hipflexer and the PT's way of fixing it was just to strengthen every muscle around it, which has actually made my legs much stronger than if I had only been cycling.

My rides have been getting longer each weekend. Anything under 30 miles is almost non-existent, with rides typically being between 40 and 60 miles. Originally, one of my biggest worries was the recovery between rides (being able to ride a lot one day, and jump back in the saddle the next). Thankfully, I've been doing great with back-to-back longer rides, so that worry is almost gone, though I don't think it will ever fully leave. When I asked my PT for advice of what to do for recovery the night between stages his response was "Just don't stop moving... at all." Pain is to be expected and I'll welcome it. It typically subsides after the first 5 miles or so.

The month of April is going to be a pain in my ass, and my training. I begin some pretty heavy travel. My biggest worry is that I'll be without a bike for a week in the middle of April. I'm confident I'll be able to make up for lost time in the saddle pretty quickly and will be working on strength training in hotel gyms when out of town. That break will also allow me to drop off my bike for a tune-up before the ride. Stay tuned for orange-wrapped handle bars (orange is the MS color). The last week of April I'll be in New England. My big brother kicks ass and was able to arrange for me to have a bike for the entire time I'm up there so I'll be able to suffer through some really intense training rides in the mountains / hills of Mass. and New Hampshire. I've already got a 70-mile trip planned for me and my best buddy back home, so that should be awesome. Thanks Mike - love you brother!

All-in-all, I am feeling AWESOME about the MS150. I'm gaining distance on my rides, riding faster, form is better, my weight : power ratio is getting better (dropped 10 lbs since training started), and my appetite for doing better grows by the minute. There are few things I've ever been so passionate about. I'm in love with the cycling culture and community here in Central Florida.

Thank you all very much for your support with this race. I'll try and be much better with training updates!

Jeff

PS - Some credit is due...

I owe a huge shout-out to David's World Cycle in College Park. They hold training rides every weekend and really push hard but are absolutely amazing people. It's a pretty good feeling when you walk into a bike shop that services hundreds (with 6 locations) and the owners know your first and last name, as does most of the staff there. I'll forever refer anyone and everyone to them for anything related to bikes (like my boss just yesterday)! Keep kicking ass DWC!

Extremely Grateful!

I officially registered for my MS 150 race last Wednesday. Less than a week later and I have shattered my fundraising goal of $500. I cannot thank everyone enough for their extreme generosity. Initially, I was hesitant to ask for friends / family to donate. I just felt bad asking people for money so I figured I would just front the necessary money required to do the race and call it a day. I came to the conclusion that if I just tried it, the potential for raising WAY more than I could ever put up was a reality. So, I posted how you could donate, and look at me now. But in all honesty, it's thanks to all of you. All I have to do is ride a bike!

I can't tell you how much this means to Annie's mom. She was so excited when she found out that I would be doing this and in her name. I'll be extremely proud to call her and tell her that I've already beat my fundraising goal and am hoping to double it (at least) by the start of my race. If there is only one thing I am looking forward to with all of this, it's going to be getting a picture at the finish line after 150 grueling miles, holding up a sign that says, "This one's for you, Phyllis!" This disease has touched so many lives and if this is my small way to make an effort towards finding a cure, 150 miles is nothing!

To give a brief training update, I've been riding as much as possible! My weekends are entirely dedicated to cycling, even if it means squeezing in only an hour or two because of work or spending a miserable two hours pedaling through cold rain. I've also continued physical therapy on my hipflexer. I've certainly seen some great results - my legs are getting real strong! Yesterday I put down my fastest 7.5 mile time ever (that's a turn-around point for me when I do a few laps to Oviedo and back). I'm seeing my cruising speeds creep up more and more each ride and am starting to see sustained speeds at 20 - 22 mph (16 - 18 mph with a good headwind, which usually happens on the second leg of my ride). But, training isn't about speed (not yet anyway). For now, I am continuing to work on longer distances regardless of speed. Once I'm logging 100+ mile weekends, I'll start working on the speed, and that shouldn't be too long from now!

That's all for now. Again, thank you to everyone for all of the support with this race. I'll keep you all posted on progress!

Pain is Progress... right?

It's been a little while since I last posted; not because I've stopped training but because I've been extremely busy at work, logging many late hours. Every year I run an event called the Fly-in, during which I bring 25 high school counselors from all over the country to Rollins to learn about what we have to offer. It's a 3-day event and requires a ton of coordination, so my time was mostly consumed by that. But, now that's over! The event was a success and is one less thing to worry about.

I had mentioned going to physical therapy (PT) in my last post. That has started and hello pain! Now, I've been logging more and more miles in the saddle, so I am in a continuous state of sore legs, but in a good way. You know, the way you feel after a great workout. During PT, the therapist has determined that since my injury doesn't limit me during activity (mostly during stretching), the best course of action is to strengthen my hipflexer / groin area so this never happens again. To cut to the chase, the therapist is kicking my ass during workouts, pushing me extremely hard, demanding results, and getting them! So, although it might hurt to stand the morning after PT, I know my legs have been worked HARD and are getting much stronger. I plan on keeping up these same workouts after PT ends - it will only make me stronger for the race in May.

Wet ride!

This past weekend I went on my first group ride. It was advertised as a 20-mile ride averaging 12-14 mph. I typically do more than 20 miles (unless really hung over) and normally average 16-19 mph on my own but I figured that this would be good for me to hone my group riding etiquette. It was a really fun ride, though a little too relaxing for me. They offer different levels of rides so next time I'll do one a little more advanced but it was still a great ride and very well-organized.

After a night of cleaning... oh well!

My second ride last weekend was my first time riding in the rain. I wish I could say that it had something fun and unique about it, but it didn't. It was cold, wet, and not a ton of fun. But, the trails were almost entirely empty and I was still able to get a workout. I only wish I hadn't cleaned my bike the night before... oh well - I'll know better for next time.

This weekend is the cruise! It has been much anticipated and is very well deserved and both Annie and I are very much looking forward to it!

Progress continues...

After a great ride on Saturday, I did a little over 22 miles on Sunday and the same ride again today. Monday was pretty painful. Back-to-back rides are something I'm definitely going to have to get used to. One thing I found out this evening with a trip to a local bike shop is that I need a new seat. I was looking over some of the newer bikes and saw some interesting seats, looking nothing like mine. Apparently the seat I have now is horrible for my undercarriage and can leave lasting damage due to the way it's molded. So, before rides this weekend, I will be swapping out my seat with a new one that won't leave me in so much pain!

Something I've been in denial about for the past 2 weeks is the resurfacing of an old running issue: a groin strain. Yeah yeah... not pretty. Too much information - but that's the beauty of a blog: I write whatever I want! It hasn't been painful during riding, so I've continued to do so, while stretching and icing around every corner. I went to see the doc the other day, who was about 40 minutes late, just so he could charge my insurance probably close to $200 only to refer me to someone who knows more than he does about my muscle strain. With the race coming up in May, I figure now is a better time to address the issue than any closer to the race. Physical therapy will commence soon and I'll be able to oust this and continue training on schedule.

Up this weekend: more miles on the bike. Surprise surprise! I've also got a big work event starting on Sunday and continuing through Tuesday. Cruise in just over 2 weeks! (I hope they offer spinning on the ship!)

Hills and Headwinds!

I went back out to Winter Garden today to put down some more miles, training for the MS 150. I rode form downtown Winter Garden out to Lake Minneola. I Google Mapped it and it came back with 30 miles round-trip - not a difficult ride if it were flat, but I got my first dose of some rolling hills. 

I wanted to get a late start because it was slated to be a cold day so I wanted to make sure the sun was high and temps were as warm as possible, which today was in the high 50s. What I didn't expect was the steady 20 - 25 mph headwind, which slowed my typical cruising speed down noticeably, as well as kept me pretty damn cold. Even though speeds were down a little, it still felt great because I was getting an awesome workout. 

Lake Minneola - taken while hiding from wind behind a tree!

As I reached the city of Minneola, I was pretty well chilled but then saw the lake - my half-way point. When I got to the lake I checked my mileage and realized I still had a few miles to ride alongside the lake to get to the actual turn-around that I found on Google Maps. All was well as I approached the lake and I was looking forward to some sprinting to try and get warm and get some good speed. Well, winds jumped up and were blowing even harder and colder off the lake. Seeing large whitecaps in a lake in Central Florida is quite a sight. I made my way around the lake but noticec that the wind was blowing so hard that it was actually blowing me off my track, even though I was maintaining about 20 mph. I decided to turn around about 2 miles from where I intended to turn and make my way back to Winter Garden. There was a stretch of trail that was alongside a beach that wrapped around the lake. The wind was blowing the sand in a steady stream across the trail and I was in no mood to deal with that.

The ride back was great. Most of the hard climbs were on the way out and into headwinds. The ride home was mostly downhill with the wind at my back. One of the coolest parts of the West Orange Trail is that there are stations all along it. Some are simply parking lots with a water station while others (the one I stopped at today) are larger parking lots with a building that houses toilets, I believe I saw a snack bar, and a bike shop! Now, the shop wasn't stocked with tons of bikes for sale, but they were there doing repairs and selling the essentials, as well as offering rentals (both hybrids and road bikes). It's pretty comforting and impressive knowing that these stations are scattered along the trail. 

I ended up logging 25.4 miles, just a few short of my desired 30. But, with this being my first time tackling hills and facing such consistent and strong headwinds, I am very happy with what I accomplished. Tomorrow I plan on heading out to the Cady Way Trail. It's local and flat, so after beating up on myself today, I'm looking forward to a flat and fast 22+ miles tomorrow. 

113 Days til Race Day!

When I spoke with Chris at David's World Cycle, she told me that if I could do 65 miles on a Saturday and 55 miles on Sunday two weeks before the race, I would be in good shape. While I think the distance will be hard, I think the hardest part will be getting my body to be able to rest overnight so that the second leg of the race is do-able.

This weekend I'm going to head back out to Winter Garden (WG) and jump on the West Orange Trail. This time, I'll be heading west, where I hear there are more hills and climbs. Mapping it out on the Google Maps Bicycling feature (which is amazing), it should be just over 30 miles. Sunday I'll probably stay local and try and fit 25 miles into the Cady Way Trail somehow (my last round trip was 22.3). If I can get 55 - 60 miles in this weekend, I will be happy. Plus, with WG being such a cool town, Annie's going to come out with me and hang around while I ride and then we'll grab lunch and scope out the local scene. There are one or two bike shops right there as well and I figure if I'm going to be out there most weekends, it's in my best interest to make some friends!

I've got 113 days to turn my 60-mile weekends into 150-mile weekends. It's certainly a challenge, but if it were easy, I probably wouldn't be doing it!

Surprise!

Yesterday, Annie and I were running some errands and on our way home we stopped in College Park at David's World Cycle. Turns out, that shop is the only authorized Trek dealer in Central Florida. I happened to be paroozing the Trek website earlier in the weekend so I wanted to check out a few of their bikes.

I was chatting with Chris, one of the employees there, and told her that I was doing the MS Citrus Tour. Her response: "Oh yeah, the MS 150 - that's a great ride." Turns out the unofficial name of the Citrus Tour is the MS 150. I knew this ride was going to be long, but didn't know it would be 150 miles. After about 30 seconds of shock, I got really excited. Training will be turning up this weekend! I will be taking some time off from work here and there since there isn't enough daylight after work to get a decent ride in. I am super excited and very much looking forward to the challenge!