Live. And Live well.

The excerpt from Kyle Lake's final sermon below was read at his funeral. Kyle was a pastor who died while preparing to perform a baptism the morning he was to give this sermon and read these words. The tragedy that struck the cycling community this morning with Wouter Weylandt's death at the Giro d'Italia. Maybe there is comfort in some of these words as I was reminded of them this afternoon while reading about Wouter.

"Live. And Live Well. BREATHE. Breathe in and Breathe deeply. Be PRESENT. Do not be past. Do not be future. Be now. On a crystal clear, breezy 70 degree day, roll down the windows and FEEL the wind against your skin. Feel the warmth of the sun.
If you run, then allow those first few breaths on a cool Autumn day to FREEZE your lungs and do not just be alarmed, be ALIVE. Get knee-deep in a novel and LOSE track of time.
If you bike, pedal HARD… and if you crash then crash well.
Feel the SATISFACTION of a job well done—a paper well-written, a project thoroughly completed, a play well-performed. If you must wipe the snot from your 3-year old's nose, don't be disgusted if the Kleenex didn't catch it all… because soon he'll be wiping his own.
If you've recently experienced loss, then GRIEVE. And Grieve well. At the table with friends and family, LAUGH. If you're eating and laughing at the same time, then might as well laugh until you puke. And if you eat, then SMELL. The aromas are not impediments to your day. Steak on the grill, coffee beans freshly ground, cookies in the oven. And TASTE. Taste every ounce of flavor. Taste every ounce of friendship. Taste every ounce of Life. Because-it-is-most-definitely-a-Gift."

30 Days Update

Tuesday, April 5: An early morning mountain bike workout which included six 6 minute intervals in my zone 3 effort. This was my first set of any kind of intervals this season so even though it was a lower effort than one tends to think about for an interval training workout, I definitely could feel it later in the day. One challenge I tend to have with endurance racing is keeping my heart rate high on the descents as to prevent my body from going into too much of a recovery effort and I think that this workout and the course that I used gave me good practice at keeping my heart rate up, even while descending at other speeds. if I am able to keep my heart rate up, it makes returning to cruising and climbing pace easier (or at leat it feels that way to me).

Wednesday, April 6: 2 laps arounds the parking lot on my singlespeed. I rolled out of the garage late in the evening to grab the mail and then took a quick spin in the parking lot.

Thursday, April 7: Suspension testing on the Trek Fuel EX 8. This sounds a whole lot fancier than it really was actually. After getting home from work at almost 11pm, I twisted the rebound dials on both the front and rear suspension to try them out in a different position to try and balance out the feeling on the bike. It's a work in progress to get that bike dialed in and it will require much more time than the one lap around the parking lot I gave tonight.

30 Days of Biking

In the spirit of the #30daysofbiking movement, I am going to give it a go in April with all the other folks. Yes, I know I was supposed to register to be a part of the 30 Days of Biking, but I was late in the game to catch on to this year's plan so I'll launch my own bid to complete 30 days of biking here on Rolling In The Dirt. The concept is simple: for the 30 days of April, ride around the block or ride a century each day and then share the story on the web.

All I had in me for today was four laps of the parking lot on the singlespeed at 8:45pm. Anything counts and as I figured out last week, the singlespeed didn't really need a new bottom bracket-- the crank arms just needed some tightening and then some air in the tires to get it rolling again.

Hall Ranch and St Vrain Canyon

Heart Rate Testing

My training plan, Weight loss and Base Training, by Linda Wallenfels (LW Coaching called for a Heart Rate Test today, in follow up from four weeks prior. I've chosen to use The climb up Flagstaff Mountain in Boulder as my testing grounds as it has a good steady climb and is far enough from the house I can get in a good warm up and cool down without having to kill myself to get there. I start once I pass through the stoplight at Baseline and 17th Street and go up from there. Although my average heart rate for the 20 minute test hasn't changed in the past four weeks, I perceive that my power has increased as I was able to climb a quarter mile past where I finished last month's test. This shows me there have been gains in the past month but that better diligence in training will produce even greater dividends.