Update

Hey everyone, with no racing I have behind on blogging, but my life has been far from boring.....

After the State Center weekend as my previous post listed, I needed a week off the bike to regain my mind/legs/etc. My body had been pushed too far, and I was very close to over trained, but I was lucky enough to not get sick, but had no power. I took 5 days total off the bike and was a complete couch potato except for work. About 3 days into the break, I found myself wanting the bike so much, and this is the point where I found that I just love riding my bike, and being outside. I was going stir-crazy to say the least. On Friday, I was scheduled to go to Madison, Wisconsin to help facilitate and coach with the Zoom Performance Epic Ironman Camp. This was going to be a great weekend where I could get on the bike with friends and restart the engines!

So now the fun starts....or not. Driving to Madison, I was 4 miles from the hotel and I ended up getting in a car accident on 151. Talk about the wrong place at the wrong time, but unfortunately, my car was totaled....SUCKAGE. I am a poor college kid, and getting a new car is not something that needs to be happening. The good thing, is no one was injured. So I was late getting to the first evening workouts with the athletes, but no one seemed to be to mad at me, a good excuse I suppose I had. Anyway, I was pretty flustered but that you to my Dad, Mom, and Bethany for keeping me under control, and told me everything would be ok. This was my first car accident ever.....I wanted to keep a clean slate forever, but I guess there is a first for everything.
The rest of the weekend was awesome though, getting up at 5am, having a great breakfast provided by the hotel and out the door around 6am for workouts. Saturday was a 110mile ride around the Ironman Wisconsin bike course. This course was so amazing, and I can't believe they have to run 26.2miles after completing it. When we got home, the groups headed out for a 4 or 6 mile run, OUCH....can't believe the training an Ironman needs to do, but I really respect it! That night to replenish the 4000+kj's burned, we went downtown for some food, ice cream, and SPOTTED COW ON TAP!!!!! Sunday was another day of training for the group. The athletes started out with an open water swim at Lake Monona. Julie and I then rode our bikes in support of the group as they tackled between 10-13miles of running on the Ironman Course. Everyone did a great job, and a HUGE THANK YOU to Julie for the ride back to Cedar Falls. It was a great weekend, and I was so glad to be involved, and hope to help out again!

So after the weekend, my mind was off the accident, and refocused on working and riding. My coach has me riding by feel for the next 3 weeks to just enjoy my bike. It has been fun so far, with no Joule to look at, no timed intervals, no speed, HR, distance, just my Ipod, bike, and myself. From here on out, I am going to ride my bike for the love of it, and not focus on the number crunching, race my bike and have fun.

Schedule: Clear Lake
Z3 Select Camp (Des Moines)
State Road Race