Ectomorph.  All the traits except the sloping shoulders and long fingers... somehow I wound up with wide sholders and stubby little fingers.  I've definitely got the long shart features, spindly bones and skin that burns easily.

I can't bulk up to save my life. Ring of fat around the midsection, maybe, but putting on mass has never happened for me.

Quote from: djrashonal on April 09, 2010, 02:27:59 PM
I'm a mesomorph. I build muscle quickly, but can gain fat just at quickly dependent on my diet and fitness regiment.

That's the part that drives me absolutly crazy. If I'm not exercising and I eat crappy for say...3 days, I can quite literally see the change. Though the flip side is that staying on a diet yields the same results for muscle.

So we competed in the Tour de Phoenix this past weekend and had a great time. I was competing for time and Maureen was setting a new personal best for her distance riding. 

It was a tale of excitement, speed, pain, and exhaustion. The weather was prime - sunny, mid 70's, low winds (at least early on). The race started out fast, I was with the front pack for nearly 30 miles. During the first 30 miles there were several accidents but fortunately no one was more hurt worse than a mild concussion during an accident between to guys who were ironically best friends riding together.

Once we got to the 45 mile point the climbing began. There was one long stretch of an uphill climb at about 15 degrees for about 5 miles called Usery Pass which proved to be the most challenging part of the race. Speeds plumeted from 25mph to 10mph or less. It was a daunting climb to say the least. I would have performed much stronger on that stretch had I had access to a banana or two. Just prior to arriving at that point of the course my quads started to cramp up, and though I had taken in plenty of supplements during the ride, I was lacking in potassium in a big way.

During the climb I couldn't stand out of the saddle because my quads wanted to lockup on me, so I had to climb the entire distance from down in the drops by forcing as much weight as I could off my legs and into my arms so that I could keep the pump going without locking up. I was determined not to stop and to push through. When I did come through, I kept going and was in a swift moving pack of cyclists and taking full advantage of the draft to speed a brief recovery.

From that point there must have only been 10-12 miles left - practically in the home stretch. I looked down at my timer and realized that if I didn't break from the pack that I was riding with that I would never make the time for gold (under 3h45 minutes). So I told myself "ok this is going to hurt, but if you want the gold, you've got to break away now".

I broke from the pack increased the pace up to 27mph from 20mph and pushed it as hard as I could the remaining distance. During the last haul I caught up with several other small packs and took advantage of the draft for a brief pause then kicked it back up again. Once the finish line was in sight I came out of the saddle and sprinted it home! I was overjoyed to have an official tell me that I got the gold!!



After the unofficial results were posted, I saw that my time was 3 hours 44 minutes and 52 seconds - I nabbed the gold by a slim 8 seconds!! I was so happy to know that my push paid off!

Maureen did absolutely awesome! I was there for her at the finish and cheered her on as she crossed the line! She was so happy to be done but also ecstatic for having jumped from a previous personal best mileage of 50 miles to 72 miles! Way to go sweetie! 



All in all, after all the excitement wound down and the pain of pushing it so hard, we both agreed that it was a really great day!

Next race, the Tour of the Tucson Mountains in just 2 weeks!

Congrats on your finish Dave and Maureen!!!

Sounds like you both had a great race.



I'm back to running.  My foot feels good, but my body feels slow.   

It wasn't an injury per se....I have 3 small cysts in my navicular bone that were causing the pain.  I'm now wearing an OTC orthotic (Superfeet) that is reducing the stress on the bone. 

Not sure if I'll be back strong enough to compete in the half marathon in a 6 weeks.  We may get a relay team together at work.

Thanks Diva!

I work with a woman who has different foot issues, but after she saw a specialist and got some special inserts in her shoes, she was back to running at a nearly normal pace in a relatively short period of time. 

I hope that you're solution works for you too!

A relay team sounds like a great idea plus it involves more people which is always more fun! 

Quote from: Monster Dave on April 12, 2010, 07:45:01 AM
I was overjoyed to have an official tell me that I got the gold!!

Thats amazing man! Congrats!!!! I better see that gold at one of the meetings!

Quote from: DesmoLu on April 07, 2010, 06:46:58 PM
Yuu sure pack a lot of muscle into you! I would have thought 185 tops when I met you.

Well I was down a good bit then due to the afore mentioned busted knee. I probably was around 190 the couple time you guys rolled through here due to my inability to do any real exercise Lu. When bubs took us for the Dragon tour, was pre bionic knee, so I hadn't suffered from forced R&R. But in general I carry a lot of leg and back muscle, so I might not look super huge... but I'm strong through the hips 

On a more on topic note - I've found a new exercise love. No idea what it's real name is - so if someone knows help me out. To help, here's a bit of description.
- Using one of the full size (45 lbs) bars, one end gets placed in a corner, so it can't slide away or most laterally.
- Add some weight to the end that is not in the corner
- Hoist up the weighted end (the one not in the corner) and cup with both hands.
- Start is arms and legs start fully extended - ie standing, pressing the weight upwards. The the motion is lower the weight with arms to collar bone height - slight slight pause - then squat. Reverse that on the way back up, pausing when your legs are extended before starting the arm press so you don't cheat by carrying too much of the momentum from the squat phase over to the shoulder (ish) phase.

Yeah - no clue what it's called... But feels the most like some of hte stuff we did for Rugby of any weight based exercise I've done. 

Quote from: djrashonal on April 12, 2010, 05:38:35 PM
Thats amazing man! Congrats!!!! I better see that gold at one of the meetings!

Thanks! I spoke with the OAM crew yesterday and everyone wants to see it so I'll have it there for sure the evening of the fundraiser (April 30th 7-9) so that everyone can check it out!

Nice dude!   

Congrats to Maureen on her longest ride ever and to Dave on your strong finish in the top half.

Quote from: Monster Dave on April 12, 2010, 07:45:01 AM
Once we got to the 45 mile point the climbing began. There was one long stretch of an uphill climb at about 15 degrees for about 5 miles called Usery Pass which proved to be the most challenging part of the race. Speeds plumeted from 25mph to 10mph or less. It was a daunting climb to say the least.

I think you might have miscalculated.

15 degrees is about 27% grade.  I'm not sure anyone could ride 5 miles of average 27% grade, let alone at 10 mph.  I looked up the road, if I found the right one it has an elevation gain of about 1100' which over 5 miles is an average grade of 4%, or 2.3 degrees.

trying to keep yourself motivated sucks. esp if you don't see much improvement. also throw in missing a few workouts due to work schedules and it sucks trying to get yourself back in it.

however, i was able to actualyl do more pushups with weight than i normally can do. i guess that's improvement.

Quote from: somegirl on April 13, 2010, 07:56:17 PM
Congrats to Maureen on her longest ride ever and to Dave on your strong finish in the top half.

I think you might have miscalculated.

15 degrees is about 27% grade.  I'm not sure anyone could ride 5 miles of average 27% grade, let alone at 10 mph.  I looked up the road, if I found the right one it has an elevation gain of about 1100' which over 5 miles is an average grade of 4%, or 2.3 degrees.

quiet you. it's the biking equivalent of "the fish was this big" and you should know that 

Monster Dave & SheMonster,

Nice work on the recent ride.

FYI...The two big climbs in Tahoe are steeper than Usery Pass.  The first one (up to Emerald Bay) is much shorter (only a mile or so), and is early in the ride.  The second one (Spooner) is 8 miles long, but is only 6% for about a mile or so of it.  Down side is that it starts at mile 70.

Quote from: KnightofNi on April 14, 2010, 04:45:14 AM
quiet you. it's the biking equivalent of "the fish was this big" and you should know that 

oops

It's really hard for me to guess at inclines especially in retrospect, so "yeah it was THIS big" is a fair assessment of my description.   


Randy,

Thanks for the input. I'm at a cross roads as to why my quads cramped up so much  - it could have been either dehydration or low potassium. Either way, I've made a mental note to increase my nutrition consumption during an event. Hopefully that will stave off the cramping.

If that wouldn't have happened I really think that I would have come through that stretch much stronger and had much more "in the tank" when I crested the last hill.

Thanks everyone for the kudos - we really appreciate it! 

So, I went to put muscle rub on my back, and since it is Pollen season my eyes itch like crazy....Well....I made the mistake of scratching the eyes and it felt like they where on fire....At least they didn't itch anymore 

Way to go Gomer.