On the lookout for my Escalator

Anybody seen my Escalator out on the trail or the road? It is what I was using this spring and summer, and some jacked it from me in July when I went to Vegas to get married. There is a reward if you can bring it back to me, especially before the race this weekend.

Here is pic him. Take a close look. His name is Raw Dawg, and he answers to that. Don’t taunt him though, he might run your azz over. If you see him, please bring him back home to me, I have a nice kid size bed waiting him.

It’s been awhile since I have given a details post. Even though I have not been on the keyboard, the wheels have been turning in my head. I have had to rethink my whole program once my results went down the tube. I did get hurt in Jacksonville, but that didn’t really set me back enough for my results to suffer. I think I have found it, though. It is 2 simple mistakes that I made.

The first one, was I stopped doing high end work once the season started, and that has been the main culprit. This happens to some degree when race season starts every year, but this year has been more than others. In normal years I have always been training really hard in July and August, only to lose form in the later part of the season. So I decided to get smart or at least smarter in holding back my hard riding. So I did not even touch my bike for all of July, and half of August. I came back really fresh, and not bored of racing or training.

3 weeks later I was on the box for 6-hrs of Santos, so I thought the quick program I put together was good to go. I had never even done a 6-hr event, nor have I ever even road on the mtn bike for 6 hours. So I kept the program going for Tallahassee and had my best result to date in the Expert Category. So I really went into “High End” training to lift my form, but I had no power at the Razorback race at all. So I backed off for Jacksonville, but hurt my knee at the race. So, I had to wait for the knee to heal before I tried to hit it hard. Then comes Gainesville, and I have good power in the beginning, but the bottom fell out after the 3rd lap and I started seriously going backwards. I did another decent week of training, but crashed out of Alafia. That has been my season. Started good, crashed and broke into a million pieces so now I’m trying to play jig saw puzzle before the season is over.

Now, the second mistake took a little bit more detective work. I went back and review all my workout charts from the spring and summer in my Polar Performance software. I found the best block of training I have ever done in my life, and it was when I was taking this supplement called Kona Endurance.

In March of this year one of my mountain bike buddies from NC was raving about this supplement he took called Kona Endurance, and that his V02max and power on the bike is way up as a result of taking it. I did some research online and was not too impressive with what I read so I didn’t bother to buy it. It seems similar to Optygen that I heard makes you moody. He kept asking if I had tried it, and he sent me 2 bottle because I was reluctant to try anything new. Well, when I looked back at my charts I was riding my best on the mtn and road bike after about 3 weeks of taking the supplement. All my lap times were better on the mtn bike, and my avg heart rate was way down compared to the same workouts that I do now. In addition to that my most dominating performances during my road racing campaign came during the second bottle of Kona. I also had the fastest lap times ever at Markhum. When you can have an Avg speed of 12.5mph at Markham in 3 laps, you are “Riding on an Escalator”. So I ordered Kona again, and started taking it a couple of days ago. I’m not expecting anything to happen until the end of the month on that, but I’m going to take it religiously until the end of the season. I’m hoping I can have a good promising performance next weekend in Santos, and really come into my form at the Markham race the week after.

It was nice to have time off from racing to put together a nice training block. I’m back to doing High End workouts, with enough time to recovery and get ready for the race this weekend. Last week I did most of my workouts by myself which was highly inspirational. On Sunday I went out to Oleta and did two fast laps, and I felt good on the mtn bike. I had to take out the ceramic bottom bracket as they are shot and making too much noise. This week I have rode the mtn bike twice, and the road bike twice and all the workouts have been very promising.

What is the plan for the race this weekend? I’m going to get in with the front 5 because they will set a nice pace. T-Wiz always does well at Oleta, and I have caught a lift from him in the races more than once. They’ll be more additions as some of South Florida’s fast Experts will be out, and might shake up the race a bit in the beginning especially if LaRue does what he did in Tallahassee. Last year I completely blew after 2 laps, so I’m going to monitor how I feel quite closely. I’m determined to finish up the season with a bang so I can say that the entire year was a good year of racing.

So if you see Raw Dawg anywhere, holla at your boy.

Pacer Out!