Jonathan markowitz's Blog (10)

I have just spent the most physically intense week of my life on a bike. Saturday evening my legs were aching my shoulders were sore and when I took yoga I could not hold positions for more than a few seconds. Childs pose never felt so good. Yet I miss the riding and the comradery. I really enjoyed going out everyday and seeing if I could compete to my highest level. When I get home the challenges will be both physical and mental. The chance to push my limits will have to wait for races and time… Continue

Before the race recap some numbers. This week is was on the bike for 18 hours and 55mn, I rode 281 miles, I burned 8443kjs. By far this has been the most of everything: most miles, most time on a bike in 1 week and most kjs. I am exhausted, but a good tired. Amazingly I did not pull anything. But I guess it is not too amazing because I have been working out 6 days a week for 2 years. The work has its benefits. At VQ there is a sign: The harder I work the luckier I get. The Race. My group left a… Continue

Today’s ride is suppose to help us get ready for the big race tomorrow. We are doing a metric century, 62 miles. The day starts with a tad of confusion. The initial schedule said we were supposed to leave at 9:30. However due to tri training we were moved to 8:30. That is a problem because it changes breakfast time. I like to eat at least 2 hours before riding. Luckily I am an early bird so I had breakfast at the regular time. I ate breakfast with one of the bike mechanics. Each day after our r… Continue

Today is supposed to be an easy 40 ride with a 2k sprint for fun competition, and drills tossed into the pot. Everyone is tired from yesterdays climb and we need a light day before 2 hard days on the road. The day started easy enough. Floyd Landis showed up at camp last night and gave a talk. This morning we all showed up early and had our picture taken with him. Then Floyd rode with one of the groups on the recovery ride. Our group left last and off we went on an easy pace. At about the 5-mil… Continue

Today is the day of the big climb. Mt. Figueroa, the fig as it is called around here. There has been a ton of hype and a ton of worrying. 1 person I talked to said they did not sleep last night but worried about the ride the whole night. I was worried also. I talked to everyone trying to come up with a decent strategy. Finally I talked to Joe and Bob, two of the more senior coaches and they had the best advice. Don’t worry about time or anyone else. Find your rhythm and stay with it. That was g… Continue

Today was the sorting ride. Kind of like Harry Potter and the sorting hat, were everyone did a 5 mile time trial, tt, up a pretty steep mountain, total elevation was about 1000 feet, guesstimate. The goal was for everyone to do the same ride then we would get ranked and be able to ride in like groups. We did a nice warm-up ride at 8:30. It was cold, about 50, so everyone had on lots of gear: knee warmers, toe cozies; arm warmers, hat under the helmet, long finger gloves; wind vest. We left and… Continue

Arrived yesterday and did a short 16 mile ride. It’s nice here. There is no snow or ice anywhere. The trees have leaves. There is topography, like rolling hills. I am thinking of not coming home. Right now I am having trouble remembering why I live in Chicago. Oh I remember..... Anyway today’s ride will be an easy ride for 20 miles then a hard 5 mile time trial up a hill. The key is not to blow up. We have been discussing strategies all morning. I am pretty excited. I will be taking photos at… Continue

Monday 6:30 Chi time. The official weigh-in 144.2. I am ready to ride. My bag is mostly packed. I could not decide what to pack so I packed everything. It's the kitchen sink theory. Better to have it and not use it. The only thing holding me back is the American Airlines weight limit 50lbs. My carry on bag also weighs a ton. There is the cycling stuff, the electronic stuff, the misc. stuff, books, ipod the list goes on and on. I think I am a nut and I am carrying everything. Now if I can only g… Continue

Its Saturday night and you would think that I would be packing or obsessing about camp. Nope that has to come later. As some of you may know last Tuesday Ruth met a squirrel in the kitchen making a latte. Ruth screamed at the varmint but the squirrel just ran into the basement and has been hiding ever since; only making the occasional guest appearance. We were not happy with the thought of me leaving and the squirrel roaming freely. So for the last several days I have been trapping critters in t… Continue

A few more days and then I am off to camp. I am going over the stuff I need and keep fighting the urge to buy or look at any possible thing that I think will help. On the plus side I have worked hard in the off season and I am as ready as I can be. On the negative side I think I may have an ear infection. The next big issue is packing. I plan to do that today and then see that I will carry and what I will check. My motto. Pack heavy, it does not matter. I am looking forward to a great camp. Sta… Continue