Snow Dogs

Kents Hill Communute.

Murph Girl on the trails with Dad. She was having so much fun. It was good to see the old girl enjoying herself!

She looks miserable, but only because I was holding her back for a forced photo. She wanted to run, or what passes for running for this nearly 13 year old girl now. She's a trail blazer at heart.

KH XC Ski

Kents Hill School. Just a few steps from XC ski and snowshoe trails. I love It!

Groomed trails just 10 yard from my back steps.

Into the Woods.

I crashed and grabbed my camera so quickly I still have snow up my nose!

I am fortunate enough to live at the dorrstep of a couple of hundred acres of groomed XC ski trails. I ventured out for a two hour ski tuesday and was soooo happy to be in the woods. I've recently heard someone say that they get board hiking, walking, snow shoeing or skiing in the woods and I get close to being indignant when I hear this. I JUST DON"T GET IT. The woods are like a novel to me. So many sub plots and so many stories being told. Every time I venture into the woods I am overwhelmed with information. You just have to have an ecologocal educaton, and if you lack that, like many young children, curioisty will make a walk in the woods exciting. It did for me. My best childhood memories are those of me and my friends or my brother and sisiter exploring in the woods. You just open your eyes and your senses. I am blessed to live in rural Maine.

Flu Lays KH Low

OK, I've gut some time off so I hope to do a TON of training. The extra time off came due to a biotic entity (it's not really alive but it shares some characteristics of both the biotic and abiotic. Bio nerd coming through again) in the form of the influenza virus type A and B. The epidemic was serious enough (see kentshill.org for further info. This is a cycling blog!) to start March break two weeks early. The kids were heartbroken! The faculty will just have to find other things to do, but I know these folks pretty well, so most of them will be doing pro-development and class prep for much of the "free" time, including me. But I've been freed up to train like a pro for the next five weeks! Bring on the Pain! (speaking of pain, check out the link of Lance working out. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/multimedia/photo_gallery/0902/cycling.lance.armstrong.training/content.1.html Go easy on the weights, Lance!)
Anyway, I've already started hitting it hard. See next blog!

The Results Are In

Check the link below if your interested in the race results. The pdf link is where you'll find the entire list of finishers. There where 210 overall. Pat finished an impressive 42 and my finish was 71. The website also has a link to ch. 6 news which covered the event, complete with a video clip of the race.

http://www.mypeakmultisport.com/news/PolarBear_5K_Results.htm

Polar Bear 5K Race Report

Pat Englehardt and I ran the Polar Bear 5K Saturday morning, Feb. 14 at 9 am in Portland. The weather was cold! In the 20's and worse yet, a strong breeze to really cool things off. Well, we pre-registered, so the money was already spent, so we showed up, picked up our numbers along with about 250 other wack jobs (Seriously. It's still very much winter in Maine. We're nuts, but we were surrounded by like-minded crazies. There is comfort in the mob) . After a brief warm-up we were off. Actually, the race MC was a bit too wordy for my taste. Thanking everybody and anyone he could think of. Kinda like a bad wedding toast after a few too may glasses of champagne. Finally, they let us race and I lead Pat for about 50 yards and then the youngin' took over and ran away from me. He's getting stronger and I'm getting older (I think my gut also has something to do with it. See lean and mean Pat and then me busting through my XL t-shirt in the picture in front of the mini-van.)
Pat finished in about 22:30 and I finished about two minutes behind Pat. If the weather was better, I bet Pat may have finished sub-22. He had a good race. The course was windy and surprisingly hilly for a coastal town. All told it was a good training day and even fun if you like the feeling of intense muscle burn. I do.
I may do another 5k sometime before April. Maybe I can rope in my sister to do one when she comes for a visit in March and Pat is always game. I'd like another shot to redeem myself anyway before the bike season comes along. I'll post a link to the offical results when they come along.

Below is a release from Peak Performance regarding the Maine Time Trial Series. I plan on racing the first five. After that Cheryl and I will be In NH taking Grad classes at UNH and living back on the farm with Mom. Now I really feel like I have something tangible to train for. Today I biked for 90 minutes including 30 minutes of higher intensity work (HR in the high 150's to 160's) and then 30 minutes of running on an indoor track at a moderate pace. A good training day!

Peak Performance Maine Time Trial Series Announces 2009 Schedule
The racing season is just around the corner, and you will not want to miss this year’s time trial series. We are thrilled that Peak Performance Multi-sport of Portland will once again be our title sponsor and will also host two new races.

Our races will continue to take you to fantastic venues all over the state from Presque Isle to Mt. Agamenticus, Fryeburg to Bar Harbor and many places in between. This year, we have added a few new events that are sure to be both challenging and rewarding. Regardless if you are a highly talented racer or a recreational cyclist just entering the competitive scene, time trialing is a perfect opportunity to participate in a race. Riders are started at 30-second intervals and are not allowed to draft; therefore, it is just you against the clock.

This year, we are offering 13 races with the final race, the State Championships, worth double points. In order to qualify for series prizes, riders must participate in a minimum of 4 races. Riders will accumulate points for each race they compete in with their top 8 scores counting towards their overall score. The better you place, the more points you receive, and the male and female with the highest points at the end of the season will receive the highly coveted perpetual trophies. In addition, top placers in all divisions will win prizes at individual races as well as at the year-end celebration. We will also offer fabulous raffle prizes at all the races and at the end of year thereby giving all participants a chance to win regardless of how fast you are.

Along with the commitment of the Bicycle Coalition of Maine, we are fortunate to have so many of our local bike shops sponsoring these races. Our race directors and their teams of dedicated volunteers work hard to ensure the courses are safe and the races are well run, fun events. Mark your calendars with the following race dates:

2009 Schedule

May 3 LL Bean Time Trial Freeport
May 10 Midcoast Time Trial Camden
May 23 Belfast Bicycle Club Time Trial Searsport
May 31 Peak Performance Time Trial Cape Elizabeth
June 7 Belfast Bicycle Club Time Trial Searsport
June 28 Dick Williamson Memorial Time Trial Auburn
July 5 Hinckley Time Trial Hinckley
July 12 Maine Bike Rally Time Trial Fryeburg
July 18 Presque Isle Time Trial Presque Isle
August 9 Mount Agamenticus Time Trial South Berwick
August 23 Mount Desert Island Time Trial Mt. Desert Island
August 30 Peak Performance State Prep Time Trial Cumberland
September 13 Maine State Time Trial Championships Cumberland

For individual race details and further event information, please visit http://www.mypeakmultisport.com/ or http://www.bikemaine.org/.

Someone Please Wake Up My Metabolism!

November and December were 60 days of free for all caloric excess. It came in many forms, but mostly liquid, empty calories of the hops and barely variety. I put on 22lbs from my '08 race weight and it is coming off ever so slowly. Even with the increased training volume, the pounds are loathed to be shed. They have found a home and they ain't leaving! My near 40 physiology showing me who's boss. I can't even monitor my weight because I broke my scale. Well, I actually smashed it. After a strong week of training I stepped on the scale to be confronted with a number that was an affront to my senses and betrayed the hard work I had put into the peddles and snowshoes that week. Well, in a fit of anger I stomped down, I guess pretty hard (see how this training pays off?) on the scale to punish the evil coil mechanism for providing such an egregious number to me. I crushed the scale in spectacular fashion and now it's in a landfill somewhere in central Maine (my guess is Norrigewalk). To be competitive in cycling, one must have a good power to weight ratio. Strong, but light riders rule the course pushing big gears with light bodies. Big muscle heads like me go fast on flat roads where sheer muscle mass can churn out high power, but when the road starts to tilt up, gravity's insidious pull turns the strong, but big rider into a suffering puddle of flesh. The same mass that helps the big, strong rider tear it up on the flats, works against him in the hills. Speed does not kill. Gravity does. So, I'll keep training and work on the discipline to limit the empty carbs as these are the easiest calories to limit (I'll save some money while I'm a t it!). For a more detailed discussion of the role power to weight ratios plays in cycling, check out the link written by a former American pro, Bobby Julich:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/features.php?id=features/2009/bobbyjulich_jan09

Went for a 90 minute snowshoe in Kingfield yesterday. The snow was very deep with soft powder. I was wearing my big, 36 inch expedition/backcountry snowshoes and I was still sinking up to my knees and beyond once I got out into the woods. It was hard work, but fun. I cut it short because I didn't want to push quite so hard as I'm getting over a nasty chest cold. I was able to come across two deer beds were they hunkered down beneath some hemlock trees and a set of moose tracks. Saw lots of redpolls also (a species of finch).