Ski day.

Today Dad, Jon Rentschler, and I took a trip down to Chapin Forest for some skiing. I was pretty sketchy at first because I haven't been on skis in a long time. But, I got back into my skate ski groove and my form felt awesome. I actually wish that I was skiing earlier this month, and then raced the Nordic Flurry. I only fell twice too! So I was happy about that. We ended up skiing for about 2 hours, maybe a little bit over. I'm going to try and ski more this winter to work on my fitness and my core and shoulder strength. It was a PERFECT day today and I'm glad we went. It is so much better than riding the trainers. I would like to do some more skate skiing again here pretty soon, maybe next week since they are calling for more snow.

Over.

Power Test.

All I can say is holy s%@#. I rode the trainer today with my Dad and my cousin Scott. Warmed up for about 30 minutes along with some openers. After our warm up, I started my power test. It was a 12 minute test and I'm glad it was only for 12 minutes. That was probably the hardest I have ever gone on the trainer. During the 12 minutes, I was constantly in between 270-330 watts. A couple of times I went over those numbers, but I just couldn't hold it. After the suffer fest, we cooled down for a little bit and after the cool down, we did some one leggers. After the one leggers, we cooled down for the last five minutes and ended up finishing the workout in 1 hr and 25 sec. We were planning on going out for a short run after the trainer workout, but it is like a blizzard outside right now and we decided to stay in the house. Great workout today though.

I'm not going to be able to watch the fight tomorrow because we can't get pay per view. So I just have to keep updated on UFC.com. Go GSP!!!!

Almost time.

Check out the press conference....http://www.ufc.com/index.cfm?fa=VideoPlayer.home&gid=17459

I can't wait.

Jeff Cartledge and I were arguing with each other Monday night at the team meeting about who we think is going to win UFC 94 on January 31st. He wants B.J. Penn to win. But, I would like to see George St. Pierre win. I think GSP is one of the best fighters out there. He has great flexibility, great power, great technique, and he is very smart during his fights. He also holds the welterweight title. B.J. Penn just wants to step into the octagon and just kill the other guy and loses his head too much. I'm not trying to cut down B.J. He is a great fighter and he holds the lightweight title, its just I don't think he trains as hard or is as great a fighter as GSP.

It is going to be a great fight. Two title holders going at it and I hope St. Pierre comes out victorious. I can't wait till January 31st. What do you say about that Jeff? HAHA

Best investment ever.

Today, Nick, Dad and I took a ride up to Jeff Craft's work place in Madison and I purchased a power tap wheel. Jeff wanted to sell it for a very reasonable amount and I just had to get it. I have never even ridden a bike before with a power tap wheel, so everything was new to me.

After my Dad and I switched some components (from my original back wheel) we put the new wheel on my cross bike a.k.a. my training bike. After we did all the wiring, my mom put in all the information on the power tap computer. When everything was all set up, my Dad and I rode the trainers for 1hr 04 min. In our workout, we did some intervals, doing 2 X 5 min. in the 200 watts range. After the intervals, we cooled down, spinning for about 10 minutes. After a little cool down, we did another interval. In this one, we stayed in the 250 watts range for about 5 minutes. When that interval was done, we cooled down and ended my first workout using a power tap wheel. Also, earlier in the day, we all did some weight workouts for about a half an hour. So I am very pleased with buying this power tap and it is the best investment I have ever made. All I can say is the amount of training I am going to be doing with the power tap, I'm going to feel great for the road season.

LATER DAYS!!

UGH.

Man school has been kickin my tail. We just finished with semester exams at the H.S. and those were pretty bad. I still have to take one more exam and that is Algebra II/ Trigonometry. I was supposed to take it today but it was scheduled at the end of the school day. I had class at Lakeland so, I rescheduled it to Friday. Lakeland has been really hard too. My British Literature class has been super boring. We are reading all kinds of poetry and I have no clue what those poems are trying to say. So I have to start studying British poetry more. In Chemistry, we already had a test 2 days after the new semester started. It was a test on elements and their atomic numbers and atomic weights. I recieved my results today and I ended up getting a B. So I'm pretty happy with that. But the class work is major hard, especially my 3 hour lab. It's a good thing my lab partner is really smart because without his help, I don't know how I would be able to fully understand what my Professor is trying to say. I am doing quite a bit of intense training too. Doing a lot of intervals on the trainer, running and doing some swimming. I feel great right now, feel like I can start racing. I'm very excited for the season to start. I'm so excited that I started to shave my legs again. We still have a long way to go though. Only a couple more months...... That's a long time. UGH!

HOLY CRAP!!

Lance's brand spankin new bike.................... Only in my dreams.

Nothing Going On.

Nothing really going on here recently. Just been riding the trainer a lot and doing a little bit of running. Yesterday, I didn't have school because it was like -13* in the morning. It warmed up by quite a bit as the day went on too. It warmed up to about 5 or 6 degrees. For training yesterday, Nick, Dad and I did some weights. We did lunges, squats, calve raises, some core work, and some arm and shoulder work. I'm pretty sore right now, especially my inner quads. Today, my Dad and I are going to ride the trainers for about an hour, then jump off and put on our running shoes, along with 5 layers of clothing, and run a 5k. But, other than the typical training, nothing really exciting has been going on here. Just trying to stay warm.

Late

Next Tour winner?

............. Maybe. Better not try and ride away from him or attack him, you'll end up like the mouse.

Weather.

Man I hate the weather in Ohio. The past couple of days, it was nothing but snow. I don't like the snow at all. I don't get why snow makes some people happy. It is nothing but work and you can't really do any training outside, except running or skiing. This month, my Dad and I are going to focus on staying in heart rate zone 2-3 in all of our training rides or trainer workouts. No more spinnin and staying in an easy, comfortable heart rate. I got my Road Bike all ready for this years season. Got some new wheels, tires and a brand spankin new chain. I'm not going to ride it until road season because I don't want to get anything messed up on it. I'm going to train on my cross bike with some road tires on it when I ride outside...... when it isn't a blizzard. We are supposed to get hammered with snow tonight and and for the weekend leading into Monday. So trainer workouts and some runs are coming my way. Nice pic Roberto, at Copely... on the trainer before my race.

Late.

Oh what good memories.

This picture was taken by Rick Adams and it was an awesome one! I love this picture because one, it was in a cyclocross race that I placed well in. And two, look at my main man Brent Evans! This race was the day after Halloween and Brent had to represent the Halloween spirit.

I remember what happened when this picture was taken. There was a sharp corner afterwards and I tried to stay really tight, but my back slipped out, almost causing me to crash. But you know, I have mad handling skills! :)

Awesome pic Rick.

Over

Bike fitting today.

Today after Nick, my Dad and I dropped off Robert, we headed out to Bike Authority for some bike fittings. I was first up and Sean started me off with the Dartfish technique. The Dartfish technique is when you are riding the trainer and the person who is doing the bike fitting (Sean Gilbert) is video taping and taking pictures of the front, the side and the back of you while you are on the trainer.

After the Dartfish, Sean put the video of me on the trainer on the computer. He played the video of me on the trainer and slowed it way down. One problem that I had was that my left knee shot way out while I was doing my upstroke. He corrected that by raising my seat. The next problem, which is the biggest, is that my back is soooooo inflexible. I couldn't even keep my back straight when I was riding on the trainer. So I was given a couple of exercises that includes stretching, lower back workouts and core workouts.

When we fixed those, Sean did the Spinscan technique. The Spinscan technique starts off with you riding on the computrainer. This tells you your wattage, cadence, speed, etc. With the Spinscan, it focuses on a perfect pedal stroke. Wow I thought I had a good pedal stroke before, man was I wrong. After the Spinscan fitting, Sean went back to Dartfish and video taped me again on the trainer. This time, my position was a lot better, and my back was sort of straight, better than the first time with the Dartfish. Now all I need to do in order for me to have an almost perfect position, is to stretch out my lower back and do some core workouts.

Dartfish and Spinscan are really complicated but awesome procedures and if you want to get a bike fitting for this road season, this is the way to go. Thank you Sherman and Sean for getting me all set and helping me out.

Later days

Weekend training with Robert.

On Friday, Nick and I drove up to Bike Authority to pick up Robert so that he could stay over my house for the weekend. While Nick, Robert and I were coming home, we had to stop at Qdoba and get something to eat. We were just so hungry. After eatin what seemed like a 5 pound burrito, we got back to my place. We unpacked Junior's stuff and watched Step Brother's. That is probably the funniest movie I have ever seen. When my Dad got home from work, we went out for a 32 minute run. The run included some railroad tracks and some nursery roads, and of course road sections. After the run, I could definitely feel that burrito that I ate earlier rollin in my stomach.

Today Robert, Dad and I went for a 2hr and 8 min ride through some nurseries and through the Outdoor YMCA. It was really cold at first, but as soon as we were riding through the first section of nursery in the beginning of the ride, it warmed up quick. What was really cool was that the nursery roads were frozen. Usually when my Dad and I ride the nursery roads, it is all mud. During the ride, young grasshopper (Robert) and I each had a couple of crashes. I crashed on a good ol' sheet of ice at the Outdoor Y and also in one of the last nurseries. Robert also crashed in one of the last nurseries and banged up his knee pretty good. Of course, my Dad didn't crash at all because he has such great handling skillz..... but he did almost go down a couple of times. :)

Other than the crashes, it was a great ride. The sun was out, the wind was pretty calm and it warmed up quite a bit, making the nurseries a little muddy. Good thing we were on our cyclocross bikes. Great to have Robert this weekend and he better be coming over again or else there is a whole world of hurt coming his way!

New Year's ride.

Today my Dad and I met Kevin Ward, Steve Costell, and our friend Duane Yerse at the Office Max right next to the Great Lakes Mall in Mentor. We got in close to two hours and it was a very fun ride. First we scoped out a maybe future cyclocross venue. (WOW) The ride was a mixture of road and trail riding. We rode through the streets of Mentor and Kirtland then rode the trails at Chapin Forest. After we did some riding at Chapin, we were all freezing and ready to go back. After a couple of good sized hills, we got back to the parking lot and after some fare wells, we took off to the spray car wash. As soon as we washed our bikes, it was so cold that they immediately started to freeze and all the water turned to ice. That's winter.

Another good ride today and now it is time for some relaxin watching some Zoolander. I love that movie.

Later days and Happy New Year!