Wow, it only feels like a few days since my last post, but it's been 11... I swear I was celebrating the transition from 2009 to 2010 a few days ago, but January is already half done!

Training is going pretty good... After a few months of banging out the miles, I'm now a few weeks into intervals. The first interal session was a shock to the system, but every intervals workout I'm doing has been at higher watts than the previous. Nothing like a consistent gain in watts to boost the pre-season morale.

I've been doing a fairly regular Saturday ride with 1-2 training partners, which turned into someone's birthday ride, and is currently snowballing into something even bigger. This weekend could be somewhat epic in terms of a long distance / quality o'ahu training ride!

It also seems that luck, or at least avoiding serious injury, is something I've got going for me right now. Bullet-dodge numero uno was having some safety tape on a construction site blow into the road and wrap around my bars at speed. I managed to rip through the tape... Just!

Bullet-dodge number two was last night... About 100ft from home, doing 25 mph, a black cat ran across Kalakaua Ave and BETWEEN my wheels. Cat lived and so did I! I still can't believe that I kept the rubber side down, and that the moggie retained a full coat of fur. I guess I had a lot more luck that poor Andreas Kessler who is in critical condition after a bike vs. cat run-in over in Mallorca at Astana's training camp.

Posted by mzagorski at 12:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Wow, it's already 2010... A new year and a fresh start!

I've been getting a bit lazy with writing blog updates... Probably as a result of Facebook / Twitter... Anyway, here's a quick post on what I've been up to.

Surfing is still consuming a lot of time... Over the Christmas weekend I spent 10+hrs in the water. Christmas day was spent in some fairly epic big surf (based on what I'm used to)... Exciting part was having my board detach from the leash and make it's own way back to shore, leave me a little stranded and having to swim back in. It's funny how safe you can feel while attached to 6ft of fiberglass covered foam vs. being out there in big surf with nothing to grab onto!

Training for the 2010 season is pretty much in full swing... Intervals have commenced...

Three SRM files from mid week rides... Short intervals on day 1 and 2, then longer climbs on day 3. So far, so good.

I wrapped up this weekend by waking up at 6am to get in a couple hours of surfing, then met up with Casey Tucker for 4hrs of training on the bike... The ride culminated with an ascent of Kamehame Ridge which is one of my favorite places on O'ahu... The view is simply amazing.

Kamehame Ridge.

The CTL points are still being racked up, but I need to start getting in more intervals and a few more miles each week!

Posted by mzagorski at 10:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Now that I'm back to getting in some time on my bike I figured I should post a blog update! I started training again in early November, gradually building up to riding most days of the week, keeping mon/fri and some time on weekends open for a little surf action.

Thanks to my ex employer deciding to lay me off 3wks before christmas / days before the christmas office party, I had a little more time on my hands over the past week. Not much that I could do other than turn a negative situation into something positive...

So, after missing Tuesday's training ride on my last day of work, I spent Wednesday doing an FTP test in 30C temp. Thursday was a double dose of training... A few hours in the late morning, and a fast hour in the evening, totalling 4+hrs in the saddle.

Friday was a lap around O'ahu with Casey Tucker. We agreed on meeting up at 9am to avoid waking up crackhead early. The negative side of this was riding through the hottest part of the day, finally getting back to town at about 2pm! ROASTED!!!

Saturday was Ed Kurzenski's 53rd birthday, so we scheduled another ride around the island starting at 7am. Ouch.

This time we had a larger group of guys and made it around in just over 4hrs of actual ride time.

The weather was perfect with little wind to be felt, we stopped at Waimea to watch some epic surf conditions that only slightly fell short of being able to run the Eddie Aikau contest, shave ice at Matsumoto's in Haleiwa, then back to town.

Group shot at Waimea. (l-r) Mike Zagorski, Casey Tucker, Mark Little, Ed Kurzenski, Bill Jarvis, Nguyen Le.

For the data junkies out there, those 4 days of riding put my CTL from 47.4 to 61.4, ATL went from 75 to 140.2, putting my TSB from -29.7 into a deep hole of -78.8. Nothing like taking mediocre fitness and giving it a swift kick in the balls to get it jump started!

My happy time of living the life of not setting an alarm to wake up, and riding for however long I feel like screeches to a hault next Wednesday when I start a new job. I'll write some more about the job later, but it's going to be awesome and a lot of fun.

Posted by mzagorski at 4:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)