New Year's Day 2008

newsclip-03-09-1997
Originally uploaded by chadsmith71

I found this old newspaper clipping while cleaning out my file cabinet today. It was in the Sunday sports section of a San Antonio newspaper from 1997. I am on the far left with my elbows out. I led the race over this climb, and this was probably my only time at the front because the race stayed together and came down to a field sprint with a strong tailwind (sprinting is my biggest weakness as a cyclist).

Funny to think that, in this picture, I weighed 30 lbs less than I do today. I'm by no means "fat" or overweight (although perhaps not as lean as I could be), just older and "thickened out". I guess it is my "old man strength" starting to bloom. Not to mention 2 days per week in the weight room, and the fact that I can now afford to feed myself, as opposed to when this photo was taken and I was living on pasta and power bars. PowerBar was a sponsor of the old Austin Whole Foods team (not around anymore), and I'd literally go through boxes of those things. It is no wonder that, at my lightest, I was down to 137 lbs.

I started the new year off right with a sprint workout on the road bike. Nothing special, wattage-wise (1112 max. watts), but not too bad considering: 1) I have not done a sprint in over 6 months; and 2) these were small gear, high RPM sprints of only 10-12 seconds and not done full-throttle - just jump hard out of the saddle, ramp it up to over 130 RPMs as quickly as possible, hold it for 2-3 more seconds, then stop pedaling, recover, and repeat. It was sunny but cold (35 F) and windy, and I could hardly breathe once my asthma flared up after sucking in near freezing air (good thing I always ride with my albuterol inhaler in my jersey pocket during colder rides). There were virtually no cars out and I felt as if I were riding in the Twilight Zone on normally busy roads.



Happy New Year.