To be or not to be a Hillclimber or Time Trialist?

A lot has been going on in my brain about trying to be a climber or a TTist or both. It is hard to be both. To be a great climber you need to light and thin, to be a TTist you can't be climber light and do super good in the time trials or can you? I have always struggled with my weight, I am a whopping 150 lbs. No matter how hard I try to get down the scale doesn't drop. I am afraid to try to drop weight now when my training is pretty tense and losing muscle or something. I have decided to focus on time trials and not completely on hill climbing. I have never really been that good on the climbs anyways...I have never won a hill climb, TTs I have. I am not going to cut out climbing, I am just not going to make it my main deal.

VOS

I can't believe it's already here. Yup, you guessed it Valley of the Sun! 2 weeks from now and I'll be getting ready for the TT! Hopefully I can finish top half in the TT and finish better then last in the RR and keep rubber side down in the crit. The weather has been looking amazing down there so far, 75-80 degrees everyday.=) I am hoping I can keep myself well and not come down with any sickness before...

Start to finish and everything in between part 2

Got my weights done early so I would have a good day of riding. At least that's what I thought. So as you read in my previous post I had bad luck on my ride yesterday and had to call for a ride home. I got my fixie ready to ride this morning since I couldn't ride the tt bike with the rear wheel broken. I decided to go to Park City to ride with the air much better up there, so I put the bike on the fixie side since I would be riding the back roads into Kamas and wouldn't have to worry about stop signs or traffic. I parked at Deer Valley and started to get ready. It was very nice up there and much warmer. I started my ride heading down into park city and I get to the round about at the bottom of the hill and it is kinda busy with cars and people, I go to do something that I don't remember what I was going to do. But I went to stop pedalling and I get bucked off my bike like a bull and my bike goes flying into traffic as I hit the ground hard. I had a hard time standing up. People were going around me and my bike which is the middle of the road and didn't stop. Than a couple nice people stopped and got my bike for me and made sure I was OK. I rode back to the car very slow as I was in pain. My whole left side is sore and swollen, my bad knee is sore and my chest bones and ribs and back are sore. I am sure I will be feeling it tomorrow... at least I got to ride for 5 minutes.

Start to finsh and everything in between

Woke up at 7am to have breakfast for my 5 hour day, I was excited about the day because I was going to ride my TT bike and I was going to ride to Park City and ride for a bit up there and ride back down to Salt Lake. I want to try to stay out of the haze to save my lungs...The ride started good, headed up Emigration down to parleys and so forth. The air was a bit chilly in the pc but crystal clear and full of sunshine. Did a good loop up there, went around on the north side to the road that takes you into Kamas than came back on the south road into pc. Me and my riding buddy went over to see if Bad Ass coffee was still there, 'cause we were a little on the cold side and needed some coffee to warm up, but it wasn't there so we decided to go to Starbucks. The roads in park city are super packed with people because of Sundance crap. Some guy yelled at me and called me Lance cause I was on my tt bike, it's the same as the Astana bikes but better. What a weird driver, Drivers can get crazy sometimes. anyways, as we finished our coffees and headed back to parleys to cruz down with a tail wind, I was going 50 mph in the aero position when all the sudden I hit something and I have flat. Scarred me pretty bad, I had to check myself. Whatever I hit cut my tire in half and took a chunk of my sidewall on my rim. CRAP!! so I had to get picked up at Lambs Canyon. When I got back to the house I put a different tire on the rear wheel and finished on the trainer, I didn't want to go in the scmucky air. Lame way to finish a day. It's pretty crazy what a good start to the day can bring at the end.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year y'all. Me myself made it to 8:30 last night before falling asleep. I tell myself every year I am going to stay up but when the clock hits 8:30 I am asleep... I think I have a clock in me or something 'cause every night I go to bed at 8:30 and wake up at 6:00. I didn't make any new year resolutions, I can't ever stick to the ones I make so I didn't do one and so I can't break it. It's 6:15 and I am waiting for the gym to open at 8. Man I am lame...

Cascade.

I found this photo. Greatest moment ever. What a great bunch of guys!

Overweight

There a lot of different diets out there, but which one is the one to follow. It's really easy to follow a good diet... I have been trying for a while to lose weight and I just have a hard time. I do good the first day or 2, then the 3rd day I sneak an extra snack in there cause I am hungry then the 4th day I am so hungry I find my self back in my old eating habits... I eat my fruits and veges but maybe not enough. I focus on eating carbs in the morning then meat and veges for lunch and dinner. Valley of the Sun is almost here and I would like to get down at least 10 lbs before then, maybe that's too much in 6 weeks time? I don't want to lose muscle or power. I think I just need to be patient, I am not good with that but that's probably what it takes. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Happy New Year

Trainer and sledding

The family got a seriously awesome computer for christmas, which I am writing from. The monitor is a 24" flat screen HD. Siiick! It's 6:30 am and I just ate a bowl of cereal and a pb&j sandwich to get ready for the 4 hour trainer ride... Me and the Fam have been going sledding a lot lately at the top of Emigration Canyon, It's a blast, If you're looking for a place to go have fun then go up there. I am thinking of snowshoeing a couple times a week, it seems like it would be a good workout. I was watching this show last week called Addicted to food. There are people that eat anywhere from 14,000-36,000 calories a day. The lady that ate 14,000 a day was like 400 lbs. It's crazy that Mike phelps eats 12,000 a day and is 100 lbs thanks to swimming. Crazy stuff.

Happy New Year,
Norm

2 1/2 pounders...

Things have been rolling pretty sweet lately. I am now 5 weeks in to my training now and it's going great, I do have to say that gym work is pretty awesome. I have graduated to 2 1/2 pounders on the bench press! I finally made it past the bar. Selling my Cannondale.I have been riding a sweet Schwinn fixie, those bikes will really help you work on cadence. I have been on the TT bike too, I am thinking of tweaking my position so I am lower in the front, I need to be more aero. I am getting the 09 Rocky Mountain with the 09 Dura Ace, I am super stoked! I've been doing yoga too, that s%@t works.

This and that.

I know it's been forever since I have posted a blog, but everything is still the same, Nothing new. I have been off the bike for 5 weeks now and am getting antsy to get back on and start riding again! I have lost 10 lbs and still counting. My goal is 125 lbs, That is the race weight I want to be at. I think it would be good for the climbs, I might suffer a little on the TT's but that is ok I think. If anyone is up for some EASY base miles hit me up and we will cruise, I start training Nov 1st. Work is starting to pick up now that the holidays are getting closer. It is going to be crazy this Christmas. The 2 weeks leading up to Christmas we will be running 24/7 Wow nuts. But not me, cause I got some training to do! I went to another body building show, that stuff is crazy cause it's crazy to think you can get the body that big. The guest bodybuilder was 5' 6" and 250 lbs of muscle! Nuts! his name is Branch Warren check it out.

Norm out.

Millcreek at 6 am.

Talk about cold. It was a good ride until I hit the top and started coming down. My fingers did get cold on the way up which is kinda weird cause you think they would stay warm at your hr goes up, but I guess not.I saw Bruce which is cool, Coming down. I have been on a pretty crazy diet for the last 6 weeks, I have gone from 146 lbs, down to 132 lbs. I want to be 130 by monday. My ultimate goal is 125 before the season starts up next year. The reason for going down you ask? cause I was too heavy at 146 and couldn't go up hill. And also to get ready for the State HC coming up next weekend! There's a ride on the 20th of September called I think I canyons, it's a ride of all 4 canyons. I think I will do it, it sounds fun.

P.S. No I haven't got my computer fixed. I am at the library so I thought I should update my blog. I think I will come here more often.

Peace

Posts

My computer crashed and burned so I am computer less. I will try my best to keep up with blogging untill I get it fixed.

airports part 2

The airport in Quebec I think is the smallest airport I have ever seen, It's tiny. Anyways, my great airport luck just keeps rollin'. My flight from Quebec to toronto was 30 min. late. So I had to really rush to get my luggage and my bike case and hurry up and get through customs when I arrived. We'll it took only forever to get it, and good thing going through customs was a breeze cause I was really running late to catch my next flight. I made it and the flight was running behind. AAHHH!! this point I am freakin' out with late planes and crap. So I just kept my cool and sat and waited. The boarding came around and I arrive in denver late, because I left late. So I freaking ran to the train and road the train to my destination and ran to the desk to find out that I MISSED my flight. At this point all I could do is laugh. Ha ha. By the way this is the biggest airport I have ever seen. I got another ticket for a later flight which is suppose to leave at 5:07 pm. Well I went to double check on the boards to make sure it is still on time and it has been delayed till 5:44 pm. I am sitting here hoping that it doesn't delay any longer. I have been dealing with this now for 10 hours today and I am tired. I sure can't wait to get back.

Stage 4a and 4b

The TT didn't go that good. I got 98th, 5:09 down. I dropped my chain near the end. The Crit I got pulled which means it's over for me. I am done with the race which is a bummer. I really wanted to make it to the end.

Stage 3

Got a good night of sleep which really helped for today. I felt allot better then the last 2 days. I still finished far down but I hung on till the last 12 miles. The last 5k is the gnarliest climb I have ever done, It is 10-15%. Tomorrow is the TT, this is the stage I have been waiting for, I really want to do well in it.

Stage 2

Today was hard, not as much climbing as yesterday but still allot. I got dropped 40 miles into the race and caught two other guys to race with the rest of the race. I finished about 25 minutes down I think. I made the time cut so it looks like I will be starting the hardest stage of the race.

Stage 1

Got the bikes in at midnight last night and not my luggage, They are not sure where it's at. Got up at 6 am and got everything loaded in the car and went to breakfast. On our way to the race start my bike got loose and the rear wheel went over and smacked the back of the car. Good thing my fork was tight and it didn't go flying of the back. The bike is fine, a little scratched up but no broken parts. Got to the race and all the kids wanted autograph it was awesome. The race rolled out easy then It wasn't easy anymore. 40 miles in I need a couple of bottles, so I went back to the car and got bottles. As I was back at the car the peloton decided to go hard and I couldn't catch up. So I found couple of guys to ride the rest of the race with. I ran out of water with 40 miles to go and I got very dehydrated. It was very hot and humid. I would unzip my jersey to try to cool my body but it just got hotter. The wind was hot too. I haven't checked the results yet to see if I made the time cut. 20 miles in Brad had a heart rhythm problem and ended up not finishing.

Airports

My flight went off at 12:10 pm, so I got there at 9:30 am to give myself plenty of time just in case something went wrong. My flight went off as scheduled and so far so good. There was a storm in the area we were flying so the captain went around it adding another hour to our flight. So when Brad and I arrived to the Detroit airport we had 30 minutes to get to our next flight. So we ran way to the other side of the airport and made it with 5 minutes tell we board to find out our flight is delayed 1 hour. So we were trying to find the phone number to the guys that were picking us up to tell them we were running late. After about 30 minutes we finally find it. So 8:00 roles around and they say the flight is delayed tell 9:44. Now me and brad are getting frustrated and mad. So we go get food and come back to find out the flight is cancelled. There was nasty weather that kept the flight from going. So we slept at the airport and I think I got 3 hours of sleep that night. The flight the next morning went off at 8:50 am and that went smooth and we arrived in Quebec just fine. Got through security and we went to get our luggage (this is where is gets very bad) to find out our luggage wasn't there. The bags weren't on the flight, no ones bags were. So we had to fill out some paper that had the address we were staying at so they could deliver it when it got there. We'll as I am typing the team manager is on the way to pick our luggage up. So I have gotten 4 hours of sleep in 36 hours and the race starts in 12 hours and I still have to put my bike together.

Beauce

Well it's here, Tour De Beauce. I am packing all my stuff and I will be heading out tomorrow on a 7 hr flight to Quebec. It will be cool to see the stuff there, That is the french speaking part of canada. I am hoping to finish the race and not get time cut. I will try my best to update everyday. Results will be on cycling news and Velo news.

Good Rides.

I did a pretty sweet ride yesterday. I rode up Suncrest, down to American Fork, then rode up as far as I can before hitting the snow. The snow is at 15.5 miles, a couple of more weeks and it should be clear. So after American Fork I got a Coke and bar at the cheveron and made my way back up the south side of Suncrest. After the sweet descent down Suncrest it was nice, flat and headwind all the way back home. So that was my great ride. Then last night I went longboarding for 4hrs. That is such a blast. If you know where to ride through the U of U then it's really fun. I rode down South Temple for the first time and I cruised all the way down to State Street doing about 30 mph and carving the rode. Too much fun.