Caesar’s Head ride !

After living so long in Greenville and having not ridden either Caesar’s Head or Paris Mtn. on my bike came with much shame. This weekend fixed half of that problem at least, after successfully riding Caesar’s Head. The elevation was around 4000 feet and included a 5-6 mile steady climb that really got to me with about a mile to go. The real real fun part was the descent though, where every time I looked at my computer I was going over 41 mph. The ride left from Furman with my coach and a few other people from my team, and lasted around 57 miles/3 hrs. I have some pictures to attach as well. I will be riding it again soon, that is after Paris Mtn.

Crowds

It was really a tough feat to find a parking spot at Panera, though the parking lot was pretty big. Once I got inside and ordered my chicken caesar salad I now had to hunt for a table to sit at. This common thing made me see not only how Paners has made fast food healthy for you, but also how much healthy food is in demand by the public and just not ready available.
Yay Panera (aka Saint Louis Bread Co in the STL area)!

Hydration.

Damn. It’s gotten really hot outside.

I always think about the details of things that most people skip over.. Such as, what should I drink during a workout or just during the day depending on the activity I am doing, and how could it be used to my benefit?

An example would be drinking ‘Accelerade’ or ‘Gatorade’ mixed with water on a criterium.. or would just drinking tap water be more beneficial to my performance?

I’m drinking a big bottle of Fiji water right now… Sparkling water tastes good too.

During crits (usually under 40 minutes of duration), I have been told to stick with one large bottle of plain water, or two smaller bottles, one of a heavily diluted sports drink and the other of water.

Also, I guess it would be better to have the sports drink before the race, and just plain water during the race, so your muscles just receive the pure water without added mix.

If you are going on a longer ride.. maybe.. over 2 hours, you could use Accelerade which replenishes you with both proteins and carbohydrates, or Gatorade replenishing you with carbs.

Just speculation.. it’s a topic that has been on my mind.

Upcoming races/FBCC Review

I’m pretty stoked about the BMW crit this thursday. During the last one, racing juniors, I got second which was pretty fun. Instead, this week i’m going to do the Cat 4/5s so i’m not totally sure how it will play out. 

Last weekend was the ‘French Broad Cycling Classic’ up in the area surrounding Asheville NC. The first race was a Time Trial up in Marshall NC, which I found to be pretty fun. Before I left my dad had an old titanium Litespeed sitting around and an awesome pair of Spinergy wheels which put together would make a pretty sweet TT bike. My start time was 6:30:30, the course was an out and back 20K with a slight uphill there and a nice downhill on the way back. I finished 12th for juniors with a time of 33:12.. So I think i did good, somewhere in the middle of the group. 

The day after was a criterium in downtown Brevard NC. The course was fast with 4 corners (one of which was rather iffy) with a nice uphill finish. My placing was 15th.

Sunday led to the Asheville NC criterium in downtown. Honestly, the course kept me a little anxious because one of the turns was a bad hairpin coming from a downhill leading into an uphill.. I thought it would be really dangerous, but ended up being really fun after I got used to it. I finished 14th, worked really well with another member of my team, Chris Calder, whom I led up the hill (toward the finish) and he led me back around the course. For the finish I led him around the course and let him go for the hill, leaving him at 13th. Very fun race. 

Next week also starts the Crossroads Cycling Classic, which is a series of criteriums around Charlotte and Central NC. I’m not necessarily into 10 days in a row of crits, so I think I may just do the races in Statesville and Winston Salem NC. 

First Post

Alright. Made a blog. 

Give me a few days to get used to WordPress, then it will look all nice and shiny. Merci.