I hope I'm not sick!

I did a 50 mile training at Yankee Springs on Sunday, all single track.  I did this in preparation for the Syllamo 125K in Arkansas in 2 weeks.  During my ride I found it hard to take deep breaths of air the longer I was out there.  By the time I was done it felt like an elephant was standing on my chest.

I talked with my coach and he said that it was probably just the fatigue staring to catch up with me.  I have pushed my limits which is good, but I also need to watch it to avoid getting seriously sick.  When you get to fatigued it can lead to respiratory infections which is what I thought I maybe coming down with.

Just to make sure I went to the doctor today to get checked out.  He listened to my lungs and checked my ears.  Nothing really showed up.  Just to make sure he had chest x-rays taken and those came back negative too.  How ever he did find fluid in one of my ears and prescribed antibiotics as well as rest and drinking lots of fluids.

So what caused my breathing to feel the way it did?  Not sure, other than I hope is is just a little fatigue and I need about 4 or  5 days of rest. 

Today in the Life...

OK, it's Friday and today I sat on a panel in front of an audience of people as the expert on Bed Bugs.  The other 3 panels members where 2 attorneys and 1 judge.  The group of people interested in this where part of the 9th Annual Fair Housing Conference for Southwest Michigan.  I was asked to be on the panel by a customer and I am totally flattered about the opportunity to do this.  This is the second time in about 5 months that I have been asked to talk about the bed bug epidemic.  The first time was for the  8th Annual FOCUS-Residential (Management, Clinical & Human Resources) Symposium.

So what does this have to do with racing mountain bikes? Really nothing, but then again everything.  Because I own my own business I get to do things like sit on panels and do presentations for groups of people that value the information and knowledge that I have acquired over the years.  It also allows me to set my own schedule, I can manage my days so that I can get some training in and still be at my kids school and athletics events. 

I have always been of the opinion that I run my business, my business doesn't run me.  I am fortunate for what I have and truly appreciate the staff I have in place at my business.  They make it easy for me to escape once in awhile and get a training ride in.

According to my coach, Mike Schultz, it's all a balance, and you need a balance to keep your life in order and keep things in perspective.  It's not all racing mountain bikes, it's family, friends, and relationships that in the end mean the most.

Right now I am lucky to be who I am... but it has not always been this way. In 2008 I was in the verge of bankruptcy, my business was heavily tied to the construction market, My wife and I went $100,000 in debt and depleted my 401k to save my business and keep it afloat.  I learned a lot about myself during the 2008 to 2010 year time frame, a lot of sleepless nights and worrying about not just me but the people who worked for me and their families too.  Today, Keller Pest Control is a completely different company, a stronger company, a more diverse company.  It took a lot of work and some hard decisions but I have a better company now and I can take some time to smell the roses, so to speak.

Enough of my soapbox, lets go race!!!!!

Sport or Expert, that is the question?

I am really struggling with which category I should be racing in this year. Last year I raced Sport Clydesdale and did very well.  Even though I still qualify to race Clydesdale (current weight is about 205 pounds), I really wanted to see how I measured against riders in my own age group.  Well I got my answer this weekend at the Yankee. Springs Time Trial.  I placed 7th out of about 35 riders and was 2 minutes behind first.

This was not the determining factor for me though, when I looked at the times for the expert category I would have raced I would have been totally out of my league. Those boys where turning in lap times 7 to 9 minutes faster than me and did 2 laps instead of 1.  I really like the feeling of being competitive in a group and coming in 50th in Expert is not where I want to be right now.  All that would do for me is leave me with a lack luster feeling about racing which may bleed over to my training.

I think it's good I stay in Sport, work on losing some more weight, and still get beat by those 165 pound guys in my age group...  it will motivate me to become faster in shorter events while I still train for the longer 100's.  This will also give me one more year to get ready to move to Expert.

As the year proceeds I will probably re-visit this same discussion and re-evaluate what to do, after all I will be entering the open division for my 100 mile races and get my ass kicked by guys like Christian Tanguy, Mike Simonson, and Tinker Juarez!

2012 Yankee Springs TT

A 95 Mile Training Ride

2012 Miles to Date: 1492.62
2012 Time in the Saddle: 113:55:01
2012 Hot Yoga Time: 18:05:00

I did a 95 mile training ride yesterday on the mountain bike.  I can't believe how hard it is to get the nutrition dialed in.  Yesterday I tried to eat a PB&J sandwich, 50 minutes later I was wishing I hadn't.  The PB&J was made with orange marmalade jelly which I think was my downfall.  So for about the last 30 miles of my ride I was fighting the overwhelming urge to vomit.

I really believe that it is the sugars that are my downfall.  For some reason I can't handle sugars under the stress of long rides.  I have tried homemade rice bars with rice, pecans, fig & honey and had no problem.  The difference in the sugar is that honey is a pretty natural sugar as opposed to the processed sugar in jelly's and jam's.

The great part of the ride is that is was 6240 feet of climbing and an average moving speed of 12 mph.  Not bad considering my stomach was really messing with me... just fought through it.