JasonHilimire.com

Things have really started to mesh well the last few weeks. Been getting some good ride time in on the bike & all the snow is starting to melt. The sun is even shining!

Few days last week I managed some early morning road rides along the lakefront. Something quite serene & peaceful about it. Everything is still & it’s nice to have the solitude. Unfortunately so early in the am causes some unawakened legs also, but just takes some getting used to.

This weekend was great. The sun was out & got to race my bike on Saturday & get in a good ride again on Sunday. More importantly spent loads of time with Lake! Bridget is in NYC for a few days so we’ve been hanging out. Went for a bike ride, played some snow soccer & played some indoor hockey (don’t tell Bridget!) & all the fun stuff that little dudes do. He’s way too much fun, gotta keep it coming in doses though!

Thus week should be another killer week. Fitness is rapidly climbing & another giro again this weekend. Might skip Sunday & go climbing the hills of Naples for a big ride. Gonna be gorgeous! Maybe I’ll even get some pics up on thus thing & blog more than once a month!

Things have been pretty much more or less of the same on the training front.

Been riding the cross bike on the snow covered roads. Much more fun with the new powertap on her. Put in 3 hours Jens factor 4, on Saturday. It was snowing pretty good all ride. Even found a super fun deep snow seasonal road to play on.

Did a whole bunch of mtb snow riding Sunday & then again Monday night. Was good to get out on the trails and ride with the GBC crew. Plus lizzy loves it.

Last night I buried myself on the snow covered roads on the cx bike once again. At one point thought I might get buried. Was riding uphill into the blowing snow, road covered about 4 inches deep & wind howling. It was only about 1k long, but felt like an eternity climbing the thing. Much better than the trainer any day!

Weather is looking to be the same as usual. Looks like more time on the cx bike.

3rd times a charm right? Typed this out 2x on the phone already & failed to post. Oh Well. Keep it short.

Hit up some snow covered roads on the cross bike last night. Way more fun the rollers. Super serene & peacefull out there.

I’ve not kept up on the blogging front, but I have been training! You might just call it stealth mode training I guess nowadays. As everytime someone goes on a bike ride apparently there’s suppose to be a blog post with pictures and powercharts/tweet/or facebook update. (I’m guilty on the twitter/facebook thing as it’s just so much easier and faster)

But you see I’ve just gone and put on my ninja mask, and disappeared.

Slowly silently, I’m training. Stalking and killing will be the name of the game. It’s not about being the biggest baddest wolf. I’m thinking it’s more about being swift, & nimble and using some well timed attacks this season, like a golden eagle. For Reference: This is how you bring em down

Been quite a bit of roller time this season. I decided I had to lift my 4 year indoor bike ride boycott. Especially since my Minerva Design Cycling teammates are counting on me to be ready in the early spring, and ready for the Spring Giro’s (7 weeks away!)

I even pulled out my xc ski’s this past weekend. Thank god I don’t do that in public anywhere. I flop around a bit, but get the job done. And man was I sore for a few days….

Temps are warming up after our deep freeze, So that means loads of time on the bike outdoors this weekend! (this ain’t the south or the west, so 25 degrees is warming up)

It’s ok really, I’m still alive. My off season has come and gone. You can call off the search & rescue crew, I’m finally making a blog post. I’ve even ridden my bike a few times…

So I took a few weeks off the bike, drank some beers, hung out with the family. Played alot of video games. Lot’s of Modern Warfare 2 and I still suck online. The only thing I could kill was the people in the airport as they were unarmed…

I’ve finally swung myself back into training mode. Been getting myself motivated enough to get into the gym for every workout. Though I swapped with Bridget and started going in the mornings. Let me tell you, getting up at 5 am really sucks. I’d much rather lift at midnight than that early. There really isn’t any amount of coffee that will awaken me enough. Though, I gotta do what I gotta do otherwise she’ll wear the dreaded sweatpants. If you’re a guy, you know what I’m talking about. If you’re a girl, why?

Seriously, can feel the raw power in the legs coming. Just wait till next week when I’ll try to get my scrawny ass to lift more than just the bar. My legs are gonna be HUGE!

I even actually dragged my ass out of bed at 4:30 am this morning in the midst of major snowstorm, and drove to the trails to ride. Mark & Suzanne couldn’t make it out due to the weather, and they had Burt’s bike. I made a unfruitful attempt to ride in the deep snow and decided to turn arond and go back to bed. Ah well, chamois time is training time right?

Maybe I’ll get some miles in this weekend on the roadie, I even bought me a new sweet blue race lite front wheel for her and everything. I don’t have to steal the one of my cross bike anymore!

Maybe next post I won’t wait an entire month!

Yup folks, tis the season for the fun rides. While summer isn’t officially over it’s pretty darn close. Only 1 big race left on the mountain bike (el reto) and time to dial in the cross bike and cross fitness.

Tuesday am I did some solo cross practice at the local rec center. Cornering in the wet grass, dismounts/remounts and even some sand pit/loose gravel riding. Lizzy even got to run along with me. Though she figured out my loop wasn’t very big and started short cutting and realized there was no reason for her to jump the barriers. Some more cx practice and maybe I’ll kick off my season next weekend!

Night riding and having fun on the trails is what Fall is all about. Heading down to Naples area and shredding gnar when the trails are in primo shape is the greatest part q out bike riding. When you share that with your buds, nothing better. Hit up a solid night ride with Chad and Hanggi this past Wednesday night. I don’t think HiTor has ever been in better condition. We railed it and had a blast. Though no pics cause my camera turned some kind of shake fix or something on and all my pics came out blurry.

I’m heading back down tomorrow for an early am ride and will be down there all weekend for the Groc fest. Some good times on and off the bike to be had. I’ll be packing the camera and vholdr for some footage. Will try to get an update Saturday afternoon, but no promises!

Well, the past few days have been VERY hectic around here. Bridget went into the hospital Thursday last week and then again on Saturday. Originally kept for observation, the doc held her till monday so he could run some tests. Some scans, etc and then gallbladder surgery on monday. It’s been a whirlwind of visiting the hospital taking care of the dogs, picking up and dropping off Lake and taking care of things around the house. Thankfully she is home, feeling much better and my stress levels have lowered down a bit.

So… since she was in the hospital on sunday still, she gave me the go ahead to go and race at the Suicide Six. She was feeling fine, had some pain meds and didn’t want to see me bored out of my mind (not that I was or would be as I would do anything I could for her no matter what).

The race was, well not my best. Things started out well, was 3rd across the line on the 1st lap (1st Solo), I turned a 39 minuter, but the legs were no way feeling their best. The next 3 laps rolled perfectly around the 40ish minute mark. Lap 3 though I somehow took off without a water bottle, not a very biggie as I had a red bull in my pocket and grabbed a quick drink at the aid station (though what’s up with the aid station on a descent right before the tech singletrack?). It ended up only playing a small part in my demise.

Lap 5, my engine exploded, literally. On the singletrack switchback climb before the rattler, massive cramping. So bad the legs refused to move. Refused to move and locking up which = me falling over and laying there writhing in pain.

I walked it out, but had to shut it down immensely. Lap 5 was about 45-46 minutes long, quite a bit slower than priors. To top things off, it was now starting to rain, heavily. I lost the lead in the transition area and set off to give chase. I had to keep things on the DL on the climbs and try to maintain my gap and use the singletrack to my advantage. It wasn’t really happening. I was losing so much time on the climbs, and the legs were just utterly seizing at every hard pedal stroke.

Another 46 minute lap and I made it halfway through lap 7 with about an hour left of racing (Still on track for 9 laps), I just rode right to the pits, loaded the bike on the car and beat feet for the hospital. I had no need to suffer in the rain, and I was really stressing hard about deciding to race over staying at the hospital (even though she told me to go). Combine rain + cramps and it was an easy decision.

After eating, drinking, etc. Monday morning I was about 5 lbs light. I don’t think I peed till tuesday afternoon. With all that had happened, I simply forgot to drink. Not much I could do, and that’s racing. Big Congrats to Terry Blanchett of the Cannondale team on taking the big W!

Luckily I was able to get myself on track these past few days, knock out some final prep (including some season best numbers on a few 30 second intervals) and I’m feeling good (and hydrated) for the Shenandoah 100.

Unfortunately with Bridgets surgery we aren’t going down as a family to visit here cousin . Instead I’ll be rolling down Saturday am with Pete M grabbing a hotel (sleep!!!) and ripping things up come sunday

The hard part about preparing for big races? the lack of riding. What you ask, well if you want to get fast you gotta rest more. The side effect is I’m feeling like a caged tiger ready to pounce at the Shenandoah 100.

First thing though I gotta sharpen my claws here:

Though, weather is looking iffy for this weekend

Looks like I’ll have to lace up a spare set of mud tires just in case.

All systems check, I’m ready to go. Yesterday’s morning 30 seconders went well and tells me it’s go time. Nothing like the taste of lactic acid and blood for breakfast. Though the early morning sunshine and ride along the lakefront made it all worth while.

It all comes down to this:

Labor Day weekend can’t come fast enough!

Last night was the grand finale of the RV&E Farmall Series. Things looked to be a little hairy on the weather radar as it was downpouring here in Waterloo/Seneca Falls area, but apparently never or barely rained on the race course. I had laced up a Bontrager ACX to my spare rear wheel just in case I’d need a mud tire, but ended up not needing it and was able to use the XR1 Team issue again as the course was super dry and super fast. I was super determined to break the course record of 1:03:30 and had broken down the lap times in my head over the past several days. Only thing to account for was lap traffic and/or a mechanical. Last season I took things for granted and had my ass handed to me a few times at Farmall, this year I was super determined not to let it happen again.

I felt really strong and comfortable off the start and got into the woods with a small gap on the Pilato Brothers. I was feeling good, but not quite as painful as the prior week and ended up the first lap 12 seconds faster than I was the week prior. Perfect, I was right on track and feeling good!

2nd lap was some more of the same. The Pilato brothers were still chasing me hard and in the chicane grass section, I started yelling at them to encourage a little brotherly ego race. After the second lap I had turned another 10 sec faster lap than the prior week and was still feeling really good and working the course well without really suffering (well I was suffering, but not nearly as much as last week). This set me up nicely and I realized that I really could push for the course record (even though the new course is slightly longer). My 3rd and 4th laps stayed constant and consistent, lap traffic was there, but never really became an issue as I was able to get around everyone.

After the race Lake asked me how I went down this hill so fast

On the 5th lap in the woods on one of the fast whup-de do’s somehow I was on the rear of my saddle and I heard a loud ‘pop’ and the saddle had kicked nearly upright on the rails. I stayed calm, carried my speed up to the top of the next climb and was able to hammer it down with my hand into a position I could at least sit on the nose of the saddle. I lost probably 15 seconds or so on that lap, but wasn’t scared. I stayed calm and focused and worked on making the time up. The next time around on one of the climbs, I dropped my chain and thought it had jammed into my spokes, but realized it had just jumped down the cassette, I was able to run out the climb and get the bike back into gear, losing only a few seconds in the process.

By the time the final lap hit, I realized I was still on pace even after a few mishaps and was pumped. I pushed it pretty hard and made up a few extra seconds and crossed the line right around 1:03:10. Super pumped to have a really solid race and feel great. My form and fitness are right on track and I have a few more days of really good training left before it’s time to rest up for the Suicide Six and Shenandoah 100. Hopefully everything falls in line and I have some great luck.

If you’re looking for pictures of Farmall Series you can go here

Similar routine to last weekend. Hit up some Dawn Patrol with Hanggi, and this time Jim-Jam Hogan joined up with us for our ride. We decided to shuttle them up to the top and Start from Ontario County Park (OCP) and then they’d grab their car at Parish Hill and head into work, while I continued my journey onward. Things started off nice and fun and fine, hit up OCP, Cutler, Closed road down into Naples and then climbed Parish Hill. We mad our way over to Hi-Tor and then ripped down the DEC descent and they took off for work, while I had some more ‘work’ ahead of me. Temps were picking up quite a bit now, and I really hadn’t eaten a ton of food, so I stopped into the local gas station, grabbed some fresh water a red bull and some food to continue onwards.

I made my way up East Hill and felt really good. In fact, I had to double check that I had actually climbed it as I flew right up it. I headed through Hi-Tor’s fire-roads and added some more climbing and descended down so I could climb Brink Hill. I flew up Brink Hill, and was still quite surprised as I usually suffer at the top where it gets ultra-steep, but I was feeling great still. A quick scoot up Pulver Rd, where I was totally exposed in the hot sun, and things started to sloooow down. Thankfully, I hit the Italy hill descent and had some fun ripping it down. At the bottom, I decided to sit in the shade for a few minutes, eat some food and access my situation. I was super low on water and still had an hour of riding or more to get back into Naples and grab some food and water. I was praying the ol rundown convenience store was open in Italy and luckily it was open. 2 cold bottles of water and a coca cola had me feeling much better. Though, nothing in the store looked appetizing and that would be a big mistake.

I climbed up Basset to Burke Hill and made my way into Hi-Tor again and was feeling a lil bit slow in the singletrack, but felt pretty good by the time I hit the DEC descent and really ripped it up. Only thing left was the 10k climb up Gannett Hill back to the car. Open road climb at the 5:15 mark in the hot sun, and feeling tired, made for an absolute death march. I wanted to see what I could give so I gassed it for the first mile and then absolutely crawled on the hot pavement up the hill. Helmet off, gloves off, jersey unzipped, and out of water by this point. I came painfully close to either collapsing from the heat and having to walk up the hill. Thankfully after 45 minutes of climbing in the baking sun, I had made it back to OCP (I usually do the climb in sub 30 on the mtb). I was super happy to dive into the showers at the campground and then head down the hill and gorge myself with some fries & mayo, chesseburger and choc milk shake! It tasted sooo very good.

Sunday, I got a far too late start. 92 degrees and I rolled out the door at 11am for 2.5 hours of tempo work. I was a little tentative as to how I was going to recover as last week, I had nothing in the tank for Sunday’s efforts. However, I hit the gas after a few minutes of warming up and was able to ride pretty easily in upper tempo fairly easily for the next 45 minutes. I actually had to keep myself from riding too hard as I felt really good. What really got the juices flowing though, was when I was soft pedaling after the tempo session on a slight descent and a tri-geek came zipping by me. Yah, can’t let that happen. I sat off his tail riding tempo for minute and then when the road turned ever so slightly upward, it was time to go in for the kill. Closed the gap, and then rolled up next to him and while he was suffering away on the uphill grind, chatted his ears off. (no he wasn’t a weekend warrior tri-guy, he was a heavy tri racer and was in the midst of going around the lake). Nothing like tr-geek hunting on the hills, they make it far too easy. Anyway’s after that it was rolling some tempo to refill the water bottles and finished the ride off with a nice 20 min sweet spot effort. I felt good and strong on sunday so was happy with that.

After sunday’s ride, took the Lakester down to the State Park and put some time in chilling in the water. Felt really good and was a nice break from the brutal heat of the weekend. I was crushed this weekend though after all the riding! Both sat and sun, I slept for 10 hours solid so hoping the recovery is good and the rain stays away for Farmall #3 tomorrow night!