Go Crazy~

I always really enjoy reading other team WoE member's posts...and pretty much anything cycling, so I figure I'd give this a shot, my first post will focus on training. Anyone that has ridden on an endurance ride with me...or a trip to a race when I'm all hoped up on coffee has heard my rant/theory on training. In the theory of "train wisely" vs. "ride lots", I put much stock in the latter. There is one correlation that remains constant in the break-down between time spent riding and corresponding Categorized Rider and it is very simple: Higher Category riders ride their bike more. Period. Unfortunately for us, time is the one thing we can't seem to find. We're in college, we have kids, we have demanding jobs..., and we have girlfriends, homework, grading to do, and the responsibilities of life. So where does that leave us...with limited time, we should train smart...we should do endurance work, building to Tempo's and Steady States, and eventually graduate to upper end cardio work...and I think...every once in a while ,Go Crazy~. I think ... when the opportunity of our daily lives opens a window of time, we need to do something a little off the wall. My favorite stories of the pros are the crazy ass shit that they do in pursuit of hardening their bodies for the sport we share. A few standout...if you've read Bobke II, you remember the chapter "Lost in the Jimenez". Bobke took $5 and a water bottle and set off for a 140+ mile ride...that's nuts. A local Plattsburgh hero from the early 90's would ride his bike to Catamount in Burlington with Cyclocross tires strung over his chest like Bandolieros, change his tires...race a 'cross race (do well by the way), change back the tires and ride home, also crazy. So how does this fit into training? I fully believe that if you want to be a "top-of-your-Cat-rider", not just pack fodder, you have to be willing to do things other members of your "Cat" aren't willing to do. Afterall, they also have jobs, children, school-work, and girlfriends and wives. Personally, I look back at 4-5 hour rides on the trainer this winter as something that most 3's didn't do. I also look at long ass hikes in the Adirondacks as a little above and beyond. More recently, we just finished a 2-day solid block of team training where we were all pushed...and definitely feeling some burn/fatigue, it's not as dramatic as doing a 140+ mile ride, but the next day I pushed my body above and beyond and did one of the hardest hill workouts I've done on the hills of Peru in brutally cold weather, and today ... with dead ass legs, and tons of fatigue I set out for a 2-hour Mountain Bike ride in the cold and mud of the worst spring weather I remember, my body ached, my saddle sore oozed, my heart was throbbing and I couldn't catch my breath until I started a 10minute climb up a flooding dirt-road on Burnt Hill, then I thought, what are other Cat3's doing this week? Suddenly all the pain left. My feet weren't so cold, my breath came easier, and I started floating up the hill and then enjoyed a mud-filled fast descent. So in a nut-shell, if I were gonna offer any training advice to any of my teammates/friends, I could sum it up to these two annecdotes: 1. Ask yourself this question often "What are other Cat X's doing today"? ...and then do more then them. and 2. Train smart when time is limited...but when time is available...Go Crazy~.