Friday, June 19, 2009

Decorah (Luther) knows how to grow them!

My body/mind has sort of hit a road block on the bike. I have put in so much training in the last few weeks that I have never done before, that I am stating to see signs of fatigue both physically and mentally on the bike. Did some VO2 intervals tonight and couldn't get my HR to go about LT threshold numbers. I am gonna chill for a couple days with some spinning and see how the numbers come out, hopefully they will raise again. Only 1 more week of hard stuff then a rest week to taper for my races (FINALLY)!!!!

Tomorrow, Bethany and I are leaving for the Twin Cities to attend the Rascal Flatts concert at the Somerset Country Music Fest. These tickets were my gift to Bethany for our wonderful first year together back in May :) . It will be a good change of pace and allow the body to recover!!!

So back to the title of the post. Decorah cyclists have been doing a great job so far this season!!!

I have had some good results and won Snake Alley.

Sarge (Luther Grad and Decorah resident) WON the first day of the Cat 3 Tour of America's Dairyland and will have a great shot at winning the whole thing. Garrett is also coming into some great form and finished 11th!!!! Also a great finish by Chad Bishop!

Matt Busche
went to Luther and WON the first day of Pro Tour of America's Dairyland.

We have much credit to the terrain and amazing roads around Decorah. So many roads that connect to other roads that make a 4 hour ride easy without seeing the same roads!!!! Climbing is also the key as you have to really climb at least 1 mile in any direction to get out of town and then rollers/long climbs dominate N. E Iowa. It also helps to have Novian Whitset as a riding partner, I have talked about him before, so no need to keep going.

Looking forward to Northfield Crit and Cedar Rapids Gold Fitness State Crit!!

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Update!

Not to much to update about, but doing it anyway.

Been working quite a bit and also had some good weeks on the bike. Getting ready for the month of July where it looks like I will actually be able to race my bike. Kind of wanted to go up and do the two NVGP Cat 2,3 races this weekend, but I had a wedding to work last night and didn't get done until about 2AM. Money is good and it can work better than wasting my money. Also missed the chance to go back to Ohio with Mercy for the Tour of Ohio this next week.

Gearing up for the Iowa State Crit Championships and then Clear Lake Race Weekend. Both will be a good way to test my form from a month of hard training. Will be epic with 80 mile RR and a crit the day before. Usually very windy over in Clear Lake.

Will keep posted on news/results and life.

Congrats to Amanda Miller and Nick Frey, both road very well at NVGP and also Amanda winning the Best Young Rider jersey. Not to long before she will be winning like Kristin Armstrong.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

New Roads!

Went out for 3 hours this morning on a great tempo ride. Took some new county roads I had never taken before and ended up being a great loop. A stretch of about 5-8 miles of gravel had to be taken to connect roads I found, but the gravel was pretty much non existent and yielded instead pavement. The scenery around the area was awesome, could look forever in any direction and then when I descended into the Upper Iowa river valley, great winding roads. Ended up coming out on Iowa Highway 76 and encountered a long/steady 2.5mile climb or so, not the steepest until the end but enough to put some pressure on the lungs/heart.

Overall it was a great ride, made up for not having any of the guys to ride with.

July 5th is the Iowa State Criterium Championships. This is in downtown Cedar Rapids, a .7mile course, very flat and fast. It goes over the 2nd and 3rd ave. bridges, two of the very bridges you saw underneath the wrath of the Cedar River, just 1 year ago. Check out the website for details on a big weekend. Enter more than 1 race and take home some good cash with a 7,500 dollar cash payout for the day. One of the bigger races in Cedar Rapids, and help to celebrate the downtowns rebuild from the floods!! Could even come a day earlier and experience the July 4th Taste of Iowa celebrations!

It is also the Iowa State SINGLE SPEED Championships, so bring your fixie/single speed!

Thats the area of the race course, while under water last summer!