Some racing photos

Seeing as I've been so useless at posting about my training here's some racing photo's courtesy of Nadav:

Before the pain

If only you knew the pain ahead

Actually realised how narrow my handlebars were in this pic

Making my move

And pulling it off

Blood and sweat

Savoring a hard faught 2nd

Blood Work

Today got the results back of the blood work I had done last week. The doctor didn't call me in to discuss it but I found the results in the mail. Apparently I'd only get a chat if there was anything wrong so I guess I can be quite happy to not get called into the sterile office. I got a list of acronyms and abbreviations that I had to idea what they meant. A long list of figures that meant nothing to me but after a bit of Googlizing I found that each abbreviation meant something about the blood I previously had no idea about. Since we had so many scandals breaking in our sport that I should at least understand what was going on in those secret passageways that keep everything working. The most interesting was obviously my haemo levels although they were dissapointingly low so i guess there's not as much oxygen getting to those important muscles as they should. I then went about reading what excercise does to these levels but the amount of scientific lingo being thrown around made my tired head dizzy so I decided to leave the investigation for another day. The good thing is that I now have something for the furture to compare my values against to see how they either go up or down.
As for riding I had big plans but I need some work done on the bike so dropped her off on the way home. Getting the cables replaced and the brakes bled. Also Uriel will give her a quick once over to make sure everything else is in working order. I need to replace the bearings but the costs are putting off getting them done right now. Tomorrow will be a tough ride so glad I chose to rather take a complete rest day, especially after yesterdays punishment.

Heavy

Practice was rather tasty this morning with Ofir deciding that we haven't suffered in some time. Well at least not since the weekends race and that was a long distant memory to him. It was off to the sprint track, he might have been inspired by Bolt or something. We had to do 30 second sprints with 3 minutes rest in between, repeated eight times. The lactic acid was searing through these tired legs of mine and the steak from the prvious night was not helping matters. I finished just about on my outer limits and nasuea was setting in. The fact that I was about to blow chunks shows I was putting in the effort and no matter how uncomfortable in was the satisfication of pushing my body to the limts made it worth while. I will need to start putting this stuff into practise during the racing.
With pushing us over the edge we were all ready to do an easy ride back to the car and off to work. Yet again the sneaky fox that he is thought it a good idea to get that lactic acid moving around a bit with a half and hour tempo ride. So the envelope was definitely pushed as I forced the cider blocks attached to the pedals to turn over at a steady rate keeping the heart ticking over at a hefty rate. I enjoy practice like this every so often but it makes me realise the amount of work need by the top athletes to be able to perform. Imagine doing this type of riding all day as many of them spend hours in the saddle to get into Olympic shape.

Looking pretty

This is what I looked into this morning in the mirror. Yesterday while out on my long ride with Erez A wasp decided to do a kamikaze on my eyebrow. At first the was nothing but by lunch things were starting to swell a bit and this morning the eye was nasty looking. So it was off work today as I needed to take some medication that would get the swelling down. By this afternoon it was right down and looking normal. So Mirit and I decided we'd put a bit of meat on the fire and I got some beers, good old imported ale.

Not pretty

That needs to go down

Mirit having a bit of Breezer by the fire

Getting the fire hot and ready

The serious fireman

Yesterday went for a three hour ride with Erez. He wanted to test out a new bike, Titus Racer X, and compare it to his Blur XC. I jumped at the offer becasue I've been wanting to ride a few other rides to compare them with my Epic. The Blur was fantasticly smooth compared to the harsher Titus. The Blur was almost like what I imagine a free-ride bike to be like. Having never riden on anything in the free ride side of things. My handlebars are really narrow so it felt like i was riding a bus around the trails and the stability was actually unsettling. I enjoy letting the bike get a bit out of control on those crazy turns but the wider approach made things a easier I have to say. The Titus on the other hand was really stiff and if I had another saddle I might have enjoyed the stiffness a bit more. Every bump I hit though send my arse right into the stomach amaking the technical stuff jumpy.

Keeping it going

So this weekend saw another race in the searing mid summer. To make things worse the start was 13H30!! That got me a bit worried after last weeks heat wave that took its toll on me with cramps being the eventual result. I woke up yesterday morning to a wonderful sight though, clouds. At this time of the year its almost unheard of and there is never rain this early so you could call it a sort of miracle. No rain fell but the cloud cover made this a whole lot more comfortable than my previous mid-summer baking contest.
Onto the race. It was great to get out there and the pressure of my first race at the new level was off the shoulders. I knew who the main competitors were, this week amounting to a grand total of four. I just concentrated on keeping up with the guy that beat me last week, did some pre-race chatting and found out he has dominated the expert level the entire season. That gave me a bit more of a boost as he apparently was pretty much doing the same thing last year. this being my first year racing makes finishing second behind him quite encouraging.
Some how my start I go stuck behind all the clumsy riders. Keeping Matan within my sights I set off trying to not push too hard but keeping contact as last week I over did the first lap and that was the race over basically. Like I said though the clumsy riders seemed to sneak in front of me at every corner just as I was making up ground and then go down in the turn. Hobbling around the donwed rider having lost all my momentum saw me loose about a minute in the first lap. I eventually saw him again on one of the switchback climbs but he must have noticed me coming and put donw the gas. That was the last I saw of him as I spent the rest of the race just riding at a competitve pace not loosing any places.
In the end I managed a second for the second week in a row. Not a bad start to my new level of competition but there will need to be a bit more work in the begining of the race to keep up with the faster guys.

Race photo's

Here's a few photo's from the race:

Erez in cruise control, champion for finishing with his back not co-operatingDusty start to our race

That's me trying to avoid the the dust on the left

Rotem dominating the race, I think he started yawning already

The technical descent, fast and tricky

Club League - Misgav

Race day. Went all out but start a bit too fast in the first lap. There were not that many people who showed up so they decided to start the expert and the elite riders together. Being my first race I didn't know what to expect but went off like a rocket because I wanted to get into the single first. Came in with a super time but set me up for some pain in the next three. as i had over cooked it and the heat was baking my heat. The second lap also saw me loosing my concentration and flying on the downhill part of the course a bit too fast. Went into a corner to hot and paid the price. Counted at least two guys go past as I got my chain back on and luckily it was the ego that got dented and not the bike. I was filled with sand that turned to mud with all the water I was pouring over myself. The first dreadful thoughts of throwing in the towel for getting myself in to deep. It lasted only two minutes as I entered the next downhill piece and the cramps were moved to the back of my head as I tried to keep my beast under control. I was really starting to enjoy the race as i got into a sort of painful rhythm, keeping the pace as high as possible without falling off the bike in spasms of pain. The last two laps I found my rhythm and also got better after taking in the gels. I think next time I will rather skip the before race gel and rather take it after the first lap. I had used this in the first races but i don't really think its helps to such an extent, rather keep a bottle of isotone on hand for the first bit as the pecking order is sorted out. All in all a great intro into the expert level taking second place although it must be said we were only five riders. Look forward to the next race and more experience. Pictures to follow as soon as i find them online.

Race telegram

Late dot Pain dot Will have further report dot Need sleep dot

Resting up

Was supposed to go out today for a ride but after riding till sunset my legs were still a bit tender. From my running experince I find resting completely the day before is more productive as I want the energy levels to be at their max. What I haven't done till now is not going to be helped with an extra ride that will lower the energy levels. I'll do some stretching after supper with a few core strength excercises just to get the blood flowing. Mirit is in the kitchen with some carbs on the fire, pasta with mushroom sauce.

Pre-mushroomsOn another good note my weight has steadily gone down over the past two weeks. I'm trying to get down to about 72/73kg for the end of the year come Israeli Championships. Pretty happy with myself so far although I still seem to nibble on sweet things every now and then. The up side is that this lowered weight has not had an effect on the power i seem to be pushing out. I don't have any fancy measuring equipment but based on feeling I'm not as weak as I was feeling two or three weeks ago. Like Fat cyclist said about his race over the weekend, I go into this race with no expectations or pressure. I've moved up a category so expecting a win would be stretching it and I'm no where near peaking for the Championships so all i hope to gain is experience and a good time in my backyard training ground.

Testing

First time in my life I've had blood work done today. Went to the clinic after reading about how as cyclist we can use this simple procedure to gain insight into what our internals are doing. The invisible element that we often take for granted. So I now wait on the results to see what I may be lacking or if there are any anomalies. The only thing is that I don't have a previous test to compare against. It would be interesting to see my pre-cycling levels compared to what they are today. I also realized that needles are as painful as they look in a sort of annoying way.
That set my whole morning ride out of whack becasue I had to fast for the test. No ride this morning but I went out this afternoon for a ride up to Rosh Hanikra. Easy ride on with a few teasers of one minute full out. Feeling good for the end of the week and tomorrow will be an easy ride before the race.

Smooth

News has not been on the low side but sitting and writing it down has been. My first race for over three month's is coming up this Friday. During the hot summer months the roadies take center stage as we dust loving fat tired daredevils fly around ever drying track. As you can see from the graph below the race is going to be really tough. Went out yesterday to do a few laps on the track and was turning in times about half a minute down on the elite riders. Good news for the upcoming weekend of the Israeli Cup in Misgav. The first half is really the tough part because of the steep drop on the technical track that is pretty loose because the soil has worked loose. The there's a huge climb to that has a serious kick in the beginning that calls for the granny gear to be whipped out.Today I got the bike back after a bit of TLC at the local Fox dealers. after the yearly maintenance check. They did the work in a day so decided to buy them a six pack for the good work. It put a big ass smile on their faces and sure they'll be sipping on some ice cold barely goodness as you read this.Now all I need is to get the cables replaced on the bike and I'm set for the weekend's race. Trying to fit all this in while still needing to put in the hours at work is tough.

I also found myself spread on the floor last night with a wicked smile spread across Mirit's face as she ripped the hair out my legs. Decided to go the bald route on the legs for no other reason that to see the veins popping out. Phsycology plays just as much a part of the race as anything else so I'm hoping that the other riders will be a bit surprised by my entry into the next level mid season. Just hoping to go there and get a good result as I must say that saddle time has been as high as I can get it without being fired. Happy days

Rough Week

Man oh man am i glad this week is over. Its been a rough few days for me with some crazy hours of work being put in and then trying to fit a practice before work. The weekend often see's my bike in the above position as I give it a clean and oil the squeeky joints. I love getting the bike on my home man bike hanger, I don't have a stand so this setup works well enough for me. I have a few problems that need to be sorted out before the Isle of Man jaunt. Firstly my rear shock and front fork need some TLC of a profesional. Secondly the bearings of the rear triangle need to be changed. This costs some dough that I'm a bit short of as most riders are.
We also have a race coming up next weekend that I'm getting pretty excited about. It will be my first race as an expert rider. This year has gone really well for me in terms of progress with my riding. This week saw me up at some ungodly hours so I could get the hours allocated to the saddle in before work. The was the main reason for my tiredness at work so i hope that next week will be better and I can get into bed earlier. The rides have been on and off. I was feeling the fatigue on Thursday's team practice. I suffered all the way though and collapsed in bed last night. Today I went up to Ma'alot where the Championship is taking place adn saw that they had already marked out the course for next months dry run of the course. I really love the place becasue of how technical it is. There's no hiding on the course as you have to work constanly. Tomorrow its a long ride with Ofir, the chap I completed the trip across Israel with. should be good.

Chauffeur

Firstly I'll pass on the great news that I've finally got a digital camera. That means that there will hopefully be some images from the Holy Land flying across the blogosphere. Really simple point and shoot but it will suffice for the battering that it will go through. I'm really excited becasue I can now actually document my rides a bit better and share the magnificent views that I find myself looking at in the early mornings.
As for the heading of the post I was lucky enough to give a ride to the best rider in Israel. Rotem is in our team but tends to train by himself so he only joins us every now and then. Today he came and gave us the run down of the race that's going to happen in two weeks. Its our home event with a newly opened single track. Its a bit messy with the soil thats completely loose in some places and there is some really great climbing. He showed us the better lines and you can see where experience comes into play as he straightened out he course and made it look easy.
I wasn't feeling fresh at all, work and sleep seem to have caught up with each other so its off to bed early tonight and a late afternoon ride tomorrow.

Bright sunny skies

The weekend has come and gone. I went for a ride yesterday with Erez. We were supposed to keep it as easy ride and do two hours of volume. We ended up doing the two hour ride but were climbing like goats all over the show. He introduced me to some single track he had opened up and some possibilities for future single track. So I'm hoping to help him out with buikding some trails. The ride was great as we were climbing up and down a mountain called the Camels Back. Brilliant place for riding and once we get these signle track open it will be a great loop for me to ride as I can do a great colume ride and still chuck in a bit of fun to spice things up.

Today I was supposed to go for a ride but decided to sleep in. Hoping to make up for it in the afternoon when the temp's were a bit lower i hit the pump track. Its still in th ebuilding process but more on that tomorrow, here's a pic to whet the appetite. As you can see plenty work still but the tight technical little bit of creative space should keep me occupied after work.As for the afternoonride... it never happened!! The weather was great and I really havn't been to the sea since arriving to the Holy Land. I really love the sea and its such a pity to not go down when I live a stone throw away. It may not be something you associate with Israel but we are situated on the Meditereanean after all. I think of it as my own little piece of southern France. The water was lovely and warm, i had an ice cold beer in hand and we were playing beach tennis all afternoon in between the occasional dip. I've convinced myself that it was worth the lost day in the saddle as I just hope that you feel the same way. Sure most of the folks over in the States would love a sunny day let alone aday in sand and surf.