Putting the taper to the test

This week we'll load up and head to Tahoe/Incline Village for the last triathlon of the year. In any kind of endurance racing, there is a portion of training leading up to an event called a taper. The purpose of the taper is to back your body off of the latter stages, the most intense portions of a training cycle/plan and have it ready to "peak" at the specific event.

I haven't employed a rigid or structured training plan this year, but I have been working on this taper technique for about 4 weeks now (a typical taper period usually consists of no more than a week leading up to a race). The results of this 4 week taper are as follows:

• I'll be going into this race the heaviest I've been for a race this year - the extra weight may be useful if economic conditions continue to get worse, but it won't be great for this race.
• Good workouts have consisted of riding my bike at the 12 hours of Sundance race and on the trip to Moab last weekend. I actually felt pretty good on both occasions.
• I'm hoping I haven't forgotten how to swim since the Xterra race in Ogden 6 weeks ago, hard to say... still seem to be comfortable in the bathtub so will take that as a positive into the race. Also, should float slightly better with the extra weight.
• I've eaten lot's of crap, and found that I actually don't enjoy eating crap any more than I enjoy eating the decent food I eat when I'm paying attention to food intake. This new awareness is actually one of the better byproducts of this years training.
• The intense discipline I've demonstrated with my diet has carried over to my run training. Those of you who have followed this blog for a bit have read a few comments on how I intended to focus my training on the run. I have logged approximately 1 mile a week for the last 6 weeks - yeah, I know, the intensity is beyond me as well... the run should be consistent with previous races this year, although I intend to push it pretty hard.

Looking forward to the getaway with the family and seeing some friends.

Old Stompin grounds - Moab

We spent the past weekend in Moab, the little southeastern Utah town where I grew up. It's one of our (including the kids) favorite places to go for a few days of recreation and we try to make the trip at least a couple of times a year. Brandon, Sam, Dug, Erik and I took the day off from work on Friday and headed down early that morning for some mountain biking before the wives and kids joined up with us that night. We rode slickrock which was great, I hadn't ridden it since high school! Then headed to Amasa back for a late afternoon/evening ride which was fantastic. The other guys are pretty good technical riders and there were a lot of tough sections that were fun to watch them work through. We recapped the days adventures over dinner at the Moab Brewery, plenty of laughs with this group - great guys.

The wives and kids pulled into town just as we finished dinner and we called it a night. The girls got up and rode up the Colororado River Saturday morning, putting in about 40 miles in what seemed like a really fast ride, they were back much sooner than expected much to the relief of us dad's trying to herd cats, I mean kids, while they were gone. Spent the rest of the day relaxing at the pool and playing games into the evening - the great guys also have great wives so it made for a fun evening with lots more laughs.

Capped the trip off with a little jaunt to Delicate Arch and some rolling in the sand at Sanddune Arch before heading home. The kids hiked great, and Brock caught all but the last mile back when he decided to check out for some snoozing.

12 Hours of Sundance race report

The day started early for this one - out of bed at 4:45ish to be ready for pick up at 5:20 am. Sam came by, and while we were loading gear Brandon and Eric drove up, and the team was on our way to Sundance for 12 hours of singletrack that is impossible to get tired of. Sundance's trails make for some of the best Mtn. bike race courses in the state - and the 12 hour race format put it at it's best. It only took a lap for riders to spread out and the rest of the day was fast, tacky single track with minimal traffic from other racers. It would be a day of fantastic mountain biking for the entire team, with all the elements of racing - good laps, hard laps, fun laps, not so fun laps, excited to get back out, not wanting to go back out, etc... - thrown in for good measure and adding to the experience of the first endurance event for each of us.

After arriving at Sundance and getting checked in we drove up to the staging area to get ready for the race. We park, get out, everybody's excited. 5 minutes later, bikes are off the racks, and we're all back in the vehicles huddling against the heater vents, significantly less excited. Not sure what the temp. was, but the 5 minutes it took to unrack the bikes was all it took to chill us to the bone. I brought up riding rotation, and immediately volunteered to ride anchor, aka 4th, aka last, aka roughly 9:45 am when the sun would be out and and hopefully have warmed the place up.

Sam had hooked the team up with the guys from Revolution who were gracious enough to let us spend the day in their tent. We located Carl and the tent and set up home base. Carl was the Revolution team mechanic for the day and aside from being a great wrench, was a really great guy and good company, which is nice during a 12 hour race.

Sam, being the fastest guy on the team by quite a bit and having to leave early to go to the BYU-UCLA drubbing, layered up and went out first. Eric, Brandon and I finished the rotation in that order.

Sam laid down his typical speedster lap, despite having to deal with the first lap traffic, won't even mention that he rode a single speed - sick. Eric did his first lap with no rear brake, doesn't sound bad until you ride the decent - Eric usually get's a kick out of finding new ways to exit his bike, so it was impressive riding on his part to come down the mountain clean with only a front brake and a rear end feathering the back tire to keep speed in check going into the gnarly corners and switchbacks.

Brandon put down the hammer in what would be the last of the cold laps. And I went out just as the sun was cresting over the trees, instant warmth.

The 12 hours flew by, and at the end of the day, Sam and I had put in 3 laps, and Eric and Brandon had logged 4 each for 14 total. We missed getting out for lap15 by about 25 seconds which was the funniest part of the day. Brandon was out on his last lap, and we knew he was going to be really close to the cutoff time. From the staging area, you can look up the hill and see the riders coming about 45 seconds before they emerge from the trees and cross the line, allowing the next rider to go. I've been warming up for a few minutes, anticipating going out for one last lap, and watching closely for Brandon as the announcer starts saying 3 minutes, two minutes, and then 1 minute until cutoff. That's when we see Brandon come around the corner up the hill. The top of the hill is close enough the riders can hear you up there, so Eric and I start hollaring "Banks - Go!" waving frantically. Brandon hears enough to know we're yelling at him, looks down the hill and sees us waving, and takes it to be our jubilation that we just completed our first endurance race together and we're waving in the team's triumphant finish. Naturally he pulls up, waves back, and basks in the moment by coasting across the road, down through the trees, and across the line, seconds after the last lap cut off. It was an epic finish.

All in all, it was the perfect end to our race, giving us all a good laugh to top off the day.

Hard to beat great riding with great friends at a great venue. We'll be back next year, no question.

This is getting a little silly

I bought another bike today. It was a good deal, but still.....and I just made it worse by using the same phrase I've chewed out my wife for using on numerous occasions.

9 years today

And she's been better than advertised throughout the entire journey.

I Love you Annie!

Rallying the troops - part 2

So what happened? Friday I mention that I plan on being around Saturday afternoon to watch the Utes season opener against Michigan, and before Annie get's a chance, the 5 year old chimes in with the nagging! "Dad - ughhh, noooooo, we don't want to watch football, you always watch football, it's our turn with the tv, we want to watch Dora"

I'll spare you the remaining 10 minutes of the rant. I think Kylie will require a submissive husband.

I grab Brock, and despite his not being able to talk yet, made sure his opinion was heard and that he put his foot down on the matter - football season is starting, and he and I will be doing a lot of watching it. His argument wasn't recieved any better than mine - but it is cool to have a little dude to go through this with.

Flash forward to Saturday evening. The Utes won, and the girls have spent the last 10 minutes tugging at me to come out back and play football with them (this has never happened, and am pretty sure has never crossed their mind previous!). So the whole family goes out, and spends about 45 minutes throwing the football around, chasing and tackling each other ala smear the queer, and having an overall great time. The girls totally dug it, and, I'm not exagerating here, are fired up about football!

Also should mention that Annie is totally on board and into the cycling.

So what happened? I have to admit that I've even impressed myself on these last two go rounds. The number one key to moving the masses of estrogen in my house to my way of thinking is what I'll entitle the "Uniform of persuasion". In it's simplest form, it consists of buying them an outfit that they happen to look really good in (by their own admission), but that can't be worn with a clear conscience unless they acquiese to the testosterone side of the argument.

So in the case of this saturday, I show up with a couple of pink Ute football jerseys for Kylie and Chesney that happen to be really cute (you have to be sure the duds will inspire them, don't waste the money if it's less than a 75/25 chance they'll feel compelled enough to wear it to abandon their position). I dug up a jersey I bought Annie last year that happens to be smokin hot on her, and no joke, in a matter of seconds, they were a team of football chicks, running around giddy in their football jerseys. It was an amazing sight and I don't know that I've ever been more proud of myself, I mean, them. They'd learned to cross party lines and reach across the isle when it mattered most.

As for the cycling, it just so happens that my wife takes pretty good care of herself which translates into her looking really good in cycling attire. So, you guessed it, I started buying her some nice digs made for cycling that I knew she'd be motivated to wear. This led to the purchase of a new Cervelo road bike this year, which I was more than happy to buy for her, and now, she's my favorite riding partner and totally get's it when I ask permission to take off for a while to ride my bike.

Husbands, boyfriends, guy's, dude's, and maybe son's?(wonder if I could have made this work with my mom back in the day - done wondering, no money to risk then!) - the secret is finding some good looking clothes (the "uniform") that somehow match up with the battle your fighting.

So, call it manipulation via wardrobe, taking advantage of a weakspot, or whatever you'd like, but the "Uniform of persuasion" may be my greatest contribution to the man side of mankind to date. Look for a chapter on it in the back of Carnegie's book next time your at your local Barnes and Noble.