Pre-Race Prep for Tour de Olmstead

I figured I'd take an unorthodox approach to my preparation for this weekend's Tour de Olmstead in Louisville, KY. Instead of the normal intervals, tapering, and diet watching I normally go through before races, I decided to let my dog Jack take care of my pre-race nutrition by finding my stash of Clif Bars and consuming 740 calories in about 5 minutes. He weighs 30 lbs, by the way....that's going to be an unhappy stomach. 

He's so embarassed about how fat he's going to get, he can't even look at the camera. 

Now that my pre-race "carb loading" was all taken care of, all that was left was to get a good pre-race warm-up ride in. Normally this consists of a 15-20 mile ride that's nice and easy with a couple of moderate efforts thrown in. Nothing too taxing, just a nice ride to loosen up the legs. Well, I decided to forgo that nonsense and get some cross-training in right before the race. This consisted of a lot of shoulder and torso workouts, minimal walking, and absolutly ZERO time on the bike. I took a picture that I'm thinking of sending to Chris Carmichael so he can use it to help all those rich dentists tear it up during their weekend group rides.

The burn I got from this workout made me feel like a middle aged mom...not a bike racer. Such a refreshing change of pace!

Okay, in all seriousness....I had a great week of training leading up to this weekend's race. I'm feeling good and am ready to be aggressive down in Louisville. Maybe I'll give Mine That Bird a run for the money. Race report to come early next week!