It has been about 2 months since my last post, so I figured I would quickly sum up the rest of my road season, briefly talk about my short track season and then finish off with a little recap of the Boilerman.
First off, ICC/Superweek went fantastic! I ended up racing 8 out of the 16 days, which was more than I anticipated. With ToAD not going entirely to plan in terms of upgrade points and watching my buddy Tristan tearing up the fields at Superweek, I tried to jump into every Superweek race that I could. I had way more luck during Superweek than ToAD and ended up taking 4th overall in the Cat 4s. My results from the week plus all of the racing this season earned me enough to upgrade to Cat 3! I was stoked! My goal for the season was to earn my upgrade from Cat 4 to Cat 3 and I did it! With a little gas left in the legs after a long season, I decided to go race the NEW Wheeling Weekend up north as a Cat 3, so I knew what I would need to work on in the Winter to be competitive as a 3 for next year. While I did not do as well as I would have liked, I was able to sit in the field and mix it up a little in the sprint. Not bad for a first couple races as a Cat 3!
Over the last few weeks of the season, different people suggested that I race the track to really up my game on the road. Once I learned I could use my own geared bike on Monday nights for practice and then borrow a bike for Tuesdays, I went down as much as possible. Great learning experiences and great people. I will definitely be spending more time at the track next year!
Now, onto the Boilerman. The Boilerman is an Olympic/International distance triathlon (1.5km swim/40km bike/10km run). Kari really wanted to do an Olympic this year to see her progression as a triathlete, so we selected this race partly because it is relatively inexpensive, I was the Race Director for the '04 edition, and it is at the end of season not conflicting with my road season. We decided on this race in June (I believe) and I set Kari's training plan over July 4th weekend with the goal of her doing the race in 2:28:00. It was ambitious, but I thought if she stuck to the plan that it was very achievable. Unfortunately, time did not work out like we were anticipating for her, so we backed off her goal to 2:45:00 and modified the training plan.
With road racing taking the priority for me this Summer, I did not start my triathlon training until my road season was winding down. Thus I only spent about 8 weeks prepping for the swim and 6 weeks prepping for the run. Not ideal, but I knew that my cardio system was good to go thanks to my weekly average of about 200 miles riding per week. I just had to cut my riding down a bit and add in some swims and runs each week, focusing on speed, to remember how to swim and run and do it fast.
Training went pretty close to schedule with some of my runs and swims surprising me with how fast I was able to go at moderate distance. Unfortunately, I was unable to really prepare for it like I would have liked by doing all of the distances at speed without rushing things; however, that was not in the cards, so I just had to rely on my ability to suffer to get me through.
We got to the hotel around midnight Friday night and quickly tried to get some sleep before the alarm went off in the morning. Due to hang-ups involving breakfast and getting ready to go, we got to the race course about 40 minutes later than I wanted to, so no warm-ups for us. We only had time to check in, set up our transition spots (we chose to be next to each other), get body marked and walk to the swim start. I ran into an old friend who was on the Purdue Tri team with me when we were both students, so that was great catching up briefly. For the swim, I was in wave 1 and Kari was in wave 2. One of the really cool things about the Boilerman is that it draws a lot of the best collegiate racers from around the Midwest, so the competition, while small, is usually pretty stiff. The start opened much like I expected with a lot of guys ripping on fast swims. I tried to follow feet whenever I could; however. this was not always possible. While there were a lot of fast swimmers, many of them were unable to swim straight lines. I was swam into (head perpendicularly into my chest) several times. It was bizarre. I finally settled into a groove and set about the task at hand. I exited the water in 10th place with a time of 22:42.6. My goal for the swim was 25, so I was well ahead of my goal (not that I knew this because I don't carry a timing device on my person during the race). The run from the water to T1 is a rather long uphill jaunt through fairly tall grass. I could tell that the lack of warm-up was affecting me and I took one of the longest T1s of my life to get wetsuit off and out on bike. Once on the bike, I had to spend the next 5-10 miles to get my legs to be willing to suffer and do some work. After that, I settled into a nice groove and got to work trying to turn around the performance of the first few miles. I was thinking how nice a warm-up would've been. Oh well, nothing I can do about it now, but power through and make the best of the situation. I exited the bike in 16th with a time of 1:05:18.4. My goal for the bike was 1:05:00, so still on track despite feeling like crap for most of the day. I had another slow transition to throw on some socks for the run. Normally, I race triathlons without socks and end up with some bloody feet as a result on the longer races. I wanted to avoid that today. I felt like it was a good decision. I left for the run trying to keep my pace in check. The last thing I wanted was to run too fast the first mile or so and pay for it later, since I haven't run longer than a 5km at speed in a long, long time. The first 4 miles of the run snake through a neighborhood which the changing scenery kept me fairly interested. When I hit the grass by transition to start my final 2 miles or so of running, I was feeling pretty good and started picking up the pace. I do enjoy running on dirt for some reason, lots of fun. On the final uphill into the finish, I could see the clock for the first time all day. The number read 2:16:00. I started cheering because I knew I was only about 100 yards away and about to demolish my PR at this distance (2:56:00) and goal. My goal for the race was 2:18:00, but I knew that if everything went well (warm-up, weather, etc) that I could challenge 2:10:00. With how the morning went, I thought I would be lucky to break 2:20:00. I ended up crossing the line in 2:16:31.2 with a 45:12.9 10km (my fastest 10km ever and only 12s off my goal time of 45 min)! I was stoked!
My dad came to watch Kari and I race, so after I finished I went to find him and look for Kari. It was great seeing him there as I entered and exited transition and for the last stretch of the run. I could not see Kari's bike as I ran past transition and was starting to wonder if she was having a really crappy day. After I grabbed a slice of pizza, a banana and some drink mix, my dad informed me that she was about to finish the 4 mile loop and could see her coming up the road. We cheered her through transition as she went off for her last 2 miles. I spent some time catching up with Chase (he took 4th on the day) while we waited for Kari to finish. As she made the final uphill kick, the time on the clock read 2:39:00 and she crossed the line in 2:39:47.2 (plus she got to subtract the 3 minutes between waves). Thus she crushed her goal of 2:45:00 with a finish time of 2:36:47.2! Fantastic for her first ever Olympic distance race and she smashed my previous PR by 20 minutes! Holy crap! She did awesome!
I took 25th out of 177 overall and 8/25 in my age group, and Kari took 76th overall and 5/15 in her age group. She was very happy with her results until they were posted later and she learned that she was the 13th fastest woman and 9th place was less than 1 minute ahead of her (she was delayed on course by a truck for a little bit). Still, I think she did great! Definitely a great way to cap off the season!
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Updated Results
Results finally updated from May! Let me know if I missed anyone or anything! Congrats on a great season everyone!
Saturday, July 16, 2011
First Week of Superweek Recap
Unlike TofAD, I chose to only race 6 races of ICC/Superweek, instead of the full 17 days of racing. Part of this was due to time commitments I had on the major weekends of the race and part was due to not wanting to spend a gob of money on race fees only to have to spend even more money repairing my bike and myself like I did at TofAD. I'm not saying TofAD was a bad experience, but I only made $30 back and spent way more repairing my bike and patching up skin. I did learn about myself and bike racing during TofAD that I am trying to apply at each race since.
When registering for ICC/Superweek, I noticed that they had a 6 day pass, which included entry fees to 6 races, a t-shirt and a 4-pack of Point Premium Root Beer. I knew that I wanted to do at least 6 days, but I was not sure if I could do more. It sounded perfect for me!
Knowing my buddy, Tristan, was rocking out in the Illinois stages, I decided to start a day earlier with my first day being at Brown Deer Park. I got to the course about 1.5 hours early, like I do at every race, to find that I was the first person to show up. I had forgotten how much differently TofAD and ICC/Superweek were run. I started warming up while waiting to check in and get my number. Legs felt good and I was licking my lips for some serious results. Once the race got under way, I tried a few attacks, but no breaks stuck. I settled in behind Tristan for the final lap and sprinted to 3rd. I actually had to touch my brakes during the sprint because Tristan was going too slow and I was boxed in behind him. Oh well. Podium finish and good learning experience.
Once of the nice things with TofAD was that they provided recovery drink, chocolate milk. ICC/Superweek did not. By the time I got on the podium, received my check and got home to start recovery, about an hour had passed before I was able to start the recovery process. This was definitely not ideal, but it was what it was.
My second day of ICC/Superweek was at the South Shore Cyclery Classic in Cudahy, WI. My legs felt ok, but they did not feel exceptional. Tristan and I were going to try to get me a stage win and one of the stage winners jerseys. We had a break planned with a group of strong men. When it happened, my legs did not have the punch to respond and jump on. I spent the rest of the ride in the field trying to get people to work together to reel in the 3rd placed guy. Nothing worked. We had a bunch sprint for 4th on the day and my legs did not want to work, so I settled for 11th. Not good, but because ICC/Superweek paid 15 deep, I was still in the money.
Day 3 of racing occurred for me in Brookfield. The course had quite a few turns and a slight uphill and downhill. We had another tiny field (only 15 guys), so everyone was in the money as long as they crossed the finish line. I tried a few breaks and tried to organize a group to go for one. Nothing stuck and we settled for a field sprint. I came from about 10th back to take 2nd on the day, missing 1st by about 4 inches.
Currently, I am in Indiana working a couple weddings as a photographer. Here is my website, in case you ever need some photos (shamless plug). So my quest for a stage win and more upgrade points are on hold until next week when I try to wreak havoc for another 3 or more days (depending on time and how I feel). To sum up, I took 3rd, 11th and 2nd in my three days of racing, made $155 of the $208 I spent on entry fees (at about $35/day, I am ahead of schedule to make my money back). This has been a much better series for me than TofAD was in terms of results!
When registering for ICC/Superweek, I noticed that they had a 6 day pass, which included entry fees to 6 races, a t-shirt and a 4-pack of Point Premium Root Beer. I knew that I wanted to do at least 6 days, but I was not sure if I could do more. It sounded perfect for me!
Knowing my buddy, Tristan, was rocking out in the Illinois stages, I decided to start a day earlier with my first day being at Brown Deer Park. I got to the course about 1.5 hours early, like I do at every race, to find that I was the first person to show up. I had forgotten how much differently TofAD and ICC/Superweek were run. I started warming up while waiting to check in and get my number. Legs felt good and I was licking my lips for some serious results. Once the race got under way, I tried a few attacks, but no breaks stuck. I settled in behind Tristan for the final lap and sprinted to 3rd. I actually had to touch my brakes during the sprint because Tristan was going too slow and I was boxed in behind him. Oh well. Podium finish and good learning experience.
Once of the nice things with TofAD was that they provided recovery drink, chocolate milk. ICC/Superweek did not. By the time I got on the podium, received my check and got home to start recovery, about an hour had passed before I was able to start the recovery process. This was definitely not ideal, but it was what it was.
My second day of ICC/Superweek was at the South Shore Cyclery Classic in Cudahy, WI. My legs felt ok, but they did not feel exceptional. Tristan and I were going to try to get me a stage win and one of the stage winners jerseys. We had a break planned with a group of strong men. When it happened, my legs did not have the punch to respond and jump on. I spent the rest of the ride in the field trying to get people to work together to reel in the 3rd placed guy. Nothing worked. We had a bunch sprint for 4th on the day and my legs did not want to work, so I settled for 11th. Not good, but because ICC/Superweek paid 15 deep, I was still in the money.
Day 3 of racing occurred for me in Brookfield. The course had quite a few turns and a slight uphill and downhill. We had another tiny field (only 15 guys), so everyone was in the money as long as they crossed the finish line. I tried a few breaks and tried to organize a group to go for one. Nothing stuck and we settled for a field sprint. I came from about 10th back to take 2nd on the day, missing 1st by about 4 inches.
Currently, I am in Indiana working a couple weddings as a photographer. Here is my website, in case you ever need some photos (shamless plug). So my quest for a stage win and more upgrade points are on hold until next week when I try to wreak havoc for another 3 or more days (depending on time and how I feel). To sum up, I took 3rd, 11th and 2nd in my three days of racing, made $155 of the $208 I spent on entry fees (at about $35/day, I am ahead of schedule to make my money back). This has been a much better series for me than TofAD was in terms of results!
Monday, June 27, 2011
ToAD - Madison
The day started like each of the days before. Got up and relaxed for a bit before prepping equipment to jump in car and head to Madison. We got there early, like each of the last few days, so I could have time play with the medics. With new bandages applied, we headed out for our warm-up ride. My legs felt pretty good and I was starting to think how I could get another good result to close out the week strong. Unfortunately, those sensations completely vanished once the race was underway. My legs just did not want to cooperate. I hung tough and stayed with the field. I tried to move up the field on the hill a few times; however, I just did not have the legs to stay up there in the front, nor did I want to get taken out on the final day of racing. We had some new riders in our field that were rather sketchy. On the run into the finish, I picked off a bunch of guys and took 28th on the day. Chris fell off the pace of our group fairly early on and finished 43rd. Following the race, I noticed that my front brake (swapped wheels earlier and did not completely check brake clearance, I guess) was rubbing slightly. Good to know that I can ride at 25.4 mph with a slight brake rub, if it was, that is.
It is over! While this was a fantastic experience (nothing more fun than riding my bike), it did have its moments of frustration and pain. I can now say that I have raced my bike 10 days in a row, a new first for me! Now I am spending the next few days trying to get my ripped skin completely healed and recover before I need to get back on the bike. Not planning on riding much again until Wednesday or so. Next race for me is the Wisconsin State Criterium Championships on July 10th.
Recap of equipment that I used throughout the series:
2 bikes
3.5 different wheelsets
3 flat tubular tires
2 derailleurs and hangers on my Cervelo
Lots of bananas, electrolyte drink mix, pb&j sandwiches, energy bars, energy cubes, italian food, cookies, and chocolate milk
Happy Racing!
It is over! While this was a fantastic experience (nothing more fun than riding my bike), it did have its moments of frustration and pain. I can now say that I have raced my bike 10 days in a row, a new first for me! Now I am spending the next few days trying to get my ripped skin completely healed and recover before I need to get back on the bike. Not planning on riding much again until Wednesday or so. Next race for me is the Wisconsin State Criterium Championships on July 10th.
Recap of equipment that I used throughout the series:
2 bikes
3.5 different wheelsets
3 flat tubular tires
2 derailleurs and hangers on my Cervelo
Lots of bananas, electrolyte drink mix, pb&j sandwiches, energy bars, energy cubes, italian food, cookies, and chocolate milk
Happy Racing!
Sunday, June 26, 2011
ToAD - Downer
Before the start of the race, I was talking with both Chris and Tristan that I did not believe we would be as fast as Fond du Lac (26mph avg). I thought we would be fast, but not quite that fast. I just did not see the group putting out 26mph efforts two days in a row, especially with the wicked turn 2. Boy, was I wrong or what?
The day started much like every other day during the later part of the week: body woke up at 5:30, I forced myself to sleep until 7, got up, puttered on my computer while watching Psych on Netflix, ate breakfast, got ready for the day, and waited on Chris. Once at the course, we got registered, pottied and then I went to look for the medics. As much as I love those guys, I really wanted to punch one of them yesterday. Not for any fault of his own, he did patch me up quite nicely, but because my nerve endings are finally re-growing in my hip and the application of ointment caused a searing pain rivaled by few experiences in my life. When he rubbed it in, the pain only grew. I hobbled back to the truck, cursing under my breath. If you know me, I try not to curse too much, if at all. It tends to get reserved for moments like this. I hurriedly got my stuff together at the truck, so we could head out on the warm-up ride. I figured riding my bike would help alleviate the pain. While it did not, it at least got my mind off of it enough that I could focus on the task at hand - prepping my legs for downer.
Following our warm-up, we headed over to the start line to try to get a good spot in the field. As the race began, many of the new riders that joined us quickly fell off the pace as we charged along. Glancing at our average speed from time to time, I figured that a break would not stick in our race today, so I let myself float in the back waiting until the appropriate time to move forward. Seeing Tristan trying to mix things up at the front and go for a breakaway, I started working my way forward. By the time I got up there, he had already drifted back into the pack. Now that I knew roughly how long it took for me to get to the front, I settled back in to the pack to save up for the finish. With about 4-5 laps to go, I started working my way forward. The one thing I did not factor in was that the announcers were going to give away money and stuff every lap for the last few laps. Instead of having a keen sense of the rhythm of the race, the dynamics completely changed and I was unable to get back up like I planned. I tried every lap to climb up the field. While I made some headway, I was not in contention for the top spots coming into the home stretch. I rode hard up the finishing straight, picking riders off, but I figured I was too far back to worry about points or money. I ended up 23rd and Chris finished 43rd.
The thing I was frustrated with was that I did not feel like I worked all that hard. It actually seemed like a fairly easy race and I had a gob of energy left in the tank. Chris and I have already decided to light some fireworks today in Madison, since it is the last day of ToAD. Leave everything we have on the road. With us being way out of the overall, I'm 31st and Chris is 53rd, nothing left to do than kick some tail today and help those with chances of moving up the leader board mix things up. If you're in Madison, come on down to the Capital square and watch some bike racing!
Happy Racing!
The day started much like every other day during the later part of the week: body woke up at 5:30, I forced myself to sleep until 7, got up, puttered on my computer while watching Psych on Netflix, ate breakfast, got ready for the day, and waited on Chris. Once at the course, we got registered, pottied and then I went to look for the medics. As much as I love those guys, I really wanted to punch one of them yesterday. Not for any fault of his own, he did patch me up quite nicely, but because my nerve endings are finally re-growing in my hip and the application of ointment caused a searing pain rivaled by few experiences in my life. When he rubbed it in, the pain only grew. I hobbled back to the truck, cursing under my breath. If you know me, I try not to curse too much, if at all. It tends to get reserved for moments like this. I hurriedly got my stuff together at the truck, so we could head out on the warm-up ride. I figured riding my bike would help alleviate the pain. While it did not, it at least got my mind off of it enough that I could focus on the task at hand - prepping my legs for downer.
Following our warm-up, we headed over to the start line to try to get a good spot in the field. As the race began, many of the new riders that joined us quickly fell off the pace as we charged along. Glancing at our average speed from time to time, I figured that a break would not stick in our race today, so I let myself float in the back waiting until the appropriate time to move forward. Seeing Tristan trying to mix things up at the front and go for a breakaway, I started working my way forward. By the time I got up there, he had already drifted back into the pack. Now that I knew roughly how long it took for me to get to the front, I settled back in to the pack to save up for the finish. With about 4-5 laps to go, I started working my way forward. The one thing I did not factor in was that the announcers were going to give away money and stuff every lap for the last few laps. Instead of having a keen sense of the rhythm of the race, the dynamics completely changed and I was unable to get back up like I planned. I tried every lap to climb up the field. While I made some headway, I was not in contention for the top spots coming into the home stretch. I rode hard up the finishing straight, picking riders off, but I figured I was too far back to worry about points or money. I ended up 23rd and Chris finished 43rd.
The thing I was frustrated with was that I did not feel like I worked all that hard. It actually seemed like a fairly easy race and I had a gob of energy left in the tank. Chris and I have already decided to light some fireworks today in Madison, since it is the last day of ToAD. Leave everything we have on the road. With us being way out of the overall, I'm 31st and Chris is 53rd, nothing left to do than kick some tail today and help those with chances of moving up the leader board mix things up. If you're in Madison, come on down to the Capital square and watch some bike racing!
Happy Racing!
Friday, June 24, 2011
ToAD - Fond du Lac
As I prepped to head up to Fond du Lac with Chris, I noticed that my front tire on my bontrager had a slow leak. Jamis became the stead of choice for the day. Perhaps I should keep riding the Jamis, because all of my points in this series have come on its back.
After we got there and were checked in, I went to find the medics to get new bandages on my wounds. Once I was all patched up, Chris and I went off on our warm-up ride to loosen up the legs before the race. My rear derailleur was a little off, so I took some time to adjust it while Chris was finishing getting ready. We hit the start line feeling good and both in decent position. I was sitting right behind the beast Captain Crowe. As the race went on, Chris and I floated near the back of the field. I learned fairly early in the race that I could power up to the front pretty much at will; however, I did not want to spend a whole lot of time up there. I opted to stay near the back so I could ride my own lines and avoid twitchy people. Unfortunately, at about the halfway point in the race, my water bottle bounced out of the cage. Thankfully, it was not overly warm today, so liquid was not as necessary. A few laps later, Chris found me to let me get a drink before I made my final drive up to the front. I got myself up to the front and held my position for the rest of the race. I entered the final turn in about 12th wheel and raced past a few guys to get barely nipped by the overall leader at the line. If I would have had another 50m, I would have easily taken him, but just ran out of real estate. Oh well. I am learning more about positioning in the field with each race and coming on strong with the final two days left in ToAD.
For those interested, the overall average today was 25.9 mph. I took 10th and Chris took 30th. Finally, our luck is turning around!
Tomorrow, we will be at Downer Ave in Milwaukee racing at approximately 12:30. Come out and watch the spectacle!
Happy Racing
After we got there and were checked in, I went to find the medics to get new bandages on my wounds. Once I was all patched up, Chris and I went off on our warm-up ride to loosen up the legs before the race. My rear derailleur was a little off, so I took some time to adjust it while Chris was finishing getting ready. We hit the start line feeling good and both in decent position. I was sitting right behind the beast Captain Crowe. As the race went on, Chris and I floated near the back of the field. I learned fairly early in the race that I could power up to the front pretty much at will; however, I did not want to spend a whole lot of time up there. I opted to stay near the back so I could ride my own lines and avoid twitchy people. Unfortunately, at about the halfway point in the race, my water bottle bounced out of the cage. Thankfully, it was not overly warm today, so liquid was not as necessary. A few laps later, Chris found me to let me get a drink before I made my final drive up to the front. I got myself up to the front and held my position for the rest of the race. I entered the final turn in about 12th wheel and raced past a few guys to get barely nipped by the overall leader at the line. If I would have had another 50m, I would have easily taken him, but just ran out of real estate. Oh well. I am learning more about positioning in the field with each race and coming on strong with the final two days left in ToAD.
For those interested, the overall average today was 25.9 mph. I took 10th and Chris took 30th. Finally, our luck is turning around!
Tomorrow, we will be at Downer Ave in Milwaukee racing at approximately 12:30. Come out and watch the spectacle!
Happy Racing
ToAD - Sheboygan
This was one of the wettest days I've spent on my bike. When we arrived, it was only drizzling a little bit. After checking in, I went over to the medic's to get a new wrap for my arm that was race safe. It looked pretty sweet. Very Euro!
By the time we would have gone for a warm-up ride, the sky opened up and poured on us. We decided to jump back into the truck and stay warm instead of properly warming up the legs. About 25 minutes before the start of our race, I got out to go pee and try to get my legs warm. I spent the next few minutes shivering while my body got used to the cold and wet and my big engine got warmed up. By the time I hit the start line, I was actually pretty warm. During the time we were standing on the line, many of the racers started shivering again. Knowing that all of the corners would be slippery, the field actually went a little slower than usual for the first few laps while we were figuring out the turns. About 4 laps in, I saw one of the Team Extreme guys I know, Andrew Rossa, laying on the ground in the line that I was taking in turn 1. To avoid a more serious crash, I tried to get around him by slowing down and turning. Instead of getting by him cleanly, I ended up falling near him. I checked both my bike and myself, all good, and then grabbed it and ran back to the SRAM Neutral Support guys to take my free lap. The more I race, the more I value the free lap. Once back in the race, I started working back towards the front.
During the race, I noticed a lot of guys falling and crashing. I started thinking that this would really be a race of attrition. With about 10 laps to go, I went on a solo flyer off the front and stayed off for a little over a lap before a few other guys caught me to tell me we were in a break. I moved to the back of the breakaway group to rest a bit. Within another lap the field was back together. I started trying to find some guys who were willing to try for another breakaway in the final laps. I knew that a breakaway would have a greater likelihood of survival in the conditions. I learned quickly that there were guys in the field who were scared to challenge the big dog on the front of the group, guys who just wanted to stay upright, and few willing to chance it. By 3 laps to go, I had a 2 other guys willing to take a chance. I hammered to get us off the front, but by the time the second guy rolled through, I had nothing left in the tank. The field sucked me back in and I settled in to finish with the field. I ended up 14th on the day and Chris took 34th. At some point, Chris got pulled. He thinks that the officials lost track of who was on what lap. In their defense, it was a mess out there and they were trying to grab guys off the course before too many dangerous things happened.
Today, we have Fond du Lac in what should be a dry race. It should be flat and fast.
Happy Racing!
By the time we would have gone for a warm-up ride, the sky opened up and poured on us. We decided to jump back into the truck and stay warm instead of properly warming up the legs. About 25 minutes before the start of our race, I got out to go pee and try to get my legs warm. I spent the next few minutes shivering while my body got used to the cold and wet and my big engine got warmed up. By the time I hit the start line, I was actually pretty warm. During the time we were standing on the line, many of the racers started shivering again. Knowing that all of the corners would be slippery, the field actually went a little slower than usual for the first few laps while we were figuring out the turns. About 4 laps in, I saw one of the Team Extreme guys I know, Andrew Rossa, laying on the ground in the line that I was taking in turn 1. To avoid a more serious crash, I tried to get around him by slowing down and turning. Instead of getting by him cleanly, I ended up falling near him. I checked both my bike and myself, all good, and then grabbed it and ran back to the SRAM Neutral Support guys to take my free lap. The more I race, the more I value the free lap. Once back in the race, I started working back towards the front.
During the race, I noticed a lot of guys falling and crashing. I started thinking that this would really be a race of attrition. With about 10 laps to go, I went on a solo flyer off the front and stayed off for a little over a lap before a few other guys caught me to tell me we were in a break. I moved to the back of the breakaway group to rest a bit. Within another lap the field was back together. I started trying to find some guys who were willing to try for another breakaway in the final laps. I knew that a breakaway would have a greater likelihood of survival in the conditions. I learned quickly that there were guys in the field who were scared to challenge the big dog on the front of the group, guys who just wanted to stay upright, and few willing to chance it. By 3 laps to go, I had a 2 other guys willing to take a chance. I hammered to get us off the front, but by the time the second guy rolled through, I had nothing left in the tank. The field sucked me back in and I settled in to finish with the field. I ended up 14th on the day and Chris took 34th. At some point, Chris got pulled. He thinks that the officials lost track of who was on what lap. In their defense, it was a mess out there and they were trying to grab guys off the course before too many dangerous things happened.
Today, we have Fond du Lac in what should be a dry race. It should be flat and fast.
Happy Racing!
Thursday, June 23, 2011
ToAD - Schlitz Park and Ripon
By writing the race recap in the morning following the race while relaxing before the next one, I have found that it is difficult to get one written before the 6:30 departures for the the early morning races. If you've read any of the other race recaps, you will notice that this has not been my best week of racing in my life. Things started to change for the better for me at Schlitz Park. Chris and I got there pretty early. This turned out to be rather advantageous because we had a chance to pre-ride the course a few times and get acquainted with the hill. After riding the hill a couple of times, we thought that the hill would be rather selective. Following our warm-up, we worked to get near the front at the start. Sure enough, the first lap up the hill blasted the field apart. I worked my way through the carnage of riders blowing up to latch onto a group as far forward as possible. Luckily, I found my new friend Tyler from UW-Whitewater to work with. He, being the better climber, would take the uphills and I, being the better descender, would take the flats and downhills, all in the goal of chasing back onto the leaders of the race. Unfortunately, he wrecked his chain and dropped out of our group. Then I was left with the guy in the overall leaders jersey who was willing to do some work with me and a few passengers. About 10 minutes into the race, I accidentally dropped my bottle, so I had to go the next 40 minutes without liquid on one of the hotter and more humid races. Yippee. I tried a few times to drop my companions on the downhill and flat, but they were good enough climbers and I was running out of gas due to dehydration that I could not get away for long. With a few laps to go, my posse caught and passed Chris. He looked like he was not having the best of days. He said later that he gave up on the hill a few laps in and decided to ride a training ride. On the last lap, my passengers got in front of me before hitting the downhill, which was too technical to safely pass them. With only 100 meters of flat before the finish, I ran out of real estate to get back around them. I took 14th for the day and Chris took 16th. Much better than our previous results.
Chris and I got to Ripon early enough that we were able to pre-ride the whole time trial course. This proved to be helpful in us not being able to blow up on some of the hills along the course. When it was my turn to go, I felt pretty good and started the first climb just like intended. My goal was to rock whatever gear I could maintain 90-95 rpms throughout the course. I was having the time trial of my life, flying past people and getting stronger throughout the course. With .6 miles left, there was a downhill "S"-bend. When Chris and I pre-rode it, it was dry; however, the on-and-off rain had caused this corner to be slipperier and my brakes to not catch. My rear wheel slipped out and I slid across the road on my side. I think that if I would have crossed the double yellow, I could have kept it upright, but that is technically illegal. Thankfully, I was only a little scraped up, but my rear derailleur hanger was bent. So I started the walk back down the hill to the finish line to both finish and send a medic up for the guy who was hurt way more than I was. Once I finished, I headed back to the medic tent to get patched up. I was a little pissed because, as I said a few lines up, I was having the time trial of my life. It took me 35 minutes flat to get to where I crashed, .6 mile from the finish, which with my speed would translate to a low 36 minute time trial and a top 10 finish. As a result of the crash, I finished last in 47:15. Chris crossed the line in 19th in 37:39.7.
We are planning on getting to Sheboygan a little early today, so I can have some time to visit the medic before I kit up and go for my warm-up. It will be nice to get some fresh bandages for my wounds.
Happy Racing!
Chris and I got to Ripon early enough that we were able to pre-ride the whole time trial course. This proved to be helpful in us not being able to blow up on some of the hills along the course. When it was my turn to go, I felt pretty good and started the first climb just like intended. My goal was to rock whatever gear I could maintain 90-95 rpms throughout the course. I was having the time trial of my life, flying past people and getting stronger throughout the course. With .6 miles left, there was a downhill "S"-bend. When Chris and I pre-rode it, it was dry; however, the on-and-off rain had caused this corner to be slipperier and my brakes to not catch. My rear wheel slipped out and I slid across the road on my side. I think that if I would have crossed the double yellow, I could have kept it upright, but that is technically illegal. Thankfully, I was only a little scraped up, but my rear derailleur hanger was bent. So I started the walk back down the hill to the finish line to both finish and send a medic up for the guy who was hurt way more than I was. Once I finished, I headed back to the medic tent to get patched up. I was a little pissed because, as I said a few lines up, I was having the time trial of my life. It took me 35 minutes flat to get to where I crashed, .6 mile from the finish, which with my speed would translate to a low 36 minute time trial and a top 10 finish. As a result of the crash, I finished last in 47:15. Chris crossed the line in 19th in 37:39.7.
We are planning on getting to Sheboygan a little early today, so I can have some time to visit the medic before I kit up and go for my warm-up. It will be nice to get some fresh bandages for my wounds.
Happy Racing!
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
ToAD - Waukesha and Greenbush
Since I didn't get to posting a result from Waukesha, I will just include it with my post about Greenbush. Due to my desire to let the glue dry some more on my bontragers, the torrential rains upon leaving my house and my quest to not get my expensive bike destroyed at one of the twitchy crits, I decided to race on my Jamis with my training wheels. I knew the course was flat enough that the extra weight would not be much of an issue. I was right in that regard. Chris and I rode close to each other the whole race near the back of the field. Not ideal position, but it was difficult to move up without really blowing a ton of power. We just decided to take it easy near the back and make sure we did not get gapped by someone falling off the pace in front of us. This worked pretty well until halfway through the 7th lap to go when Tyler from UW-Whitewater's team went down in front of me in turn 4. I saw a line to the outside, so I went for it. Unfortunately, so did his sliding/flipping bike and body, so I had to come to a complete stop in the gutter to not hit him or fall myself. As a result, a huge gap was created between myself and the field. Seeing that there were several other gapped people because of the crash, I tried chasing for about 1.5 laps to get back on. With no real progress made, I conceded that I was completely out of contention for the day and started taking it easy (especially around the officials, to try to get yanked). Finally, with about 2 laps to go the official signaled that I could stop, so I asked if he would still score me. Once he answered yes to this, I thanked him and got off the course. Knowing that I was out of contention for today, I did not want to completely blow my legs for Greenbush or the rest of the series. Chris finished with the main field (he was lucky enough to dive inside around the crash and did not lose too much time to the field). He was 29th and I was 44th.
I have only raced two road races prior to the road race in Greenbush. Both were hilly courses and I got gapped early spending the rest of my day chasing. No fun. I knew Greenbush would have some hills, but the big one was mostly a power climbers hill. Since I have dropped the weight, I have actually become a decent climber. Words I never figured that I would utter. My plan for the course was to ride in my little ring as much as possible. As much as possible was defined for me as still in contact with the main field. On the first lap, I was in my little ring for about 60% of the lap and I was steadily moving up the field. Perfect. For some reason, I got away from this mindset a little on lap 2 and drifted back to the back of the main field. At the start of lap 3, I decided to go back to my bread and butter play and spend as much time in the little ring as possible and climbed back to the front end of the main group. As we crossed the start/finish line receiving the sign for 1 lap to go, I was sitting about 15th wheel, feeling fantastic and ready to unleash pain upon the field (who some I could tell were starting to fade and admitted as much) once we got out of the forest. Each lap, the field would slow down exiting the forest because the roads were not overly smooth and they just finished all of the big climbs. I knew that was the time to make the move. I had spent most of the race hoping for a breakaway to form with a K/S Energy guy, a ISCorp guy and a Brazen Dropouts guy (since those were the three largest teams left in the main field and knew a break with that make-up would not likely get chased down). Now that we were on the final lap and that hadn't happened yet, I knew a better shot for a breakaway would be with whichever other solo riders were left in the main field that felt as good as I did (basically like I hadn't worked the whole race). I call myself solo because (as I found out later) Chris had a mechanical early in lap 1 and was in a chase group 10-15 minutes behind the field. After I had assembled a little posse of riders interested in turning the gas on exiting the forest, I heard that great sound of air rushing out of my tire. Flat. Well, crap! Some of the other guys expressed sorrow for me as I pulled to the side to get out of the way and look for our follow car for a spare wheel. In this road race, we had a lead car and a follow car with an official in it. As the follow car pulled up beside me, the official yelled that the neutral support was that way (pointing backwards on the course). I yelled back asking how far, but no response. So I got off to walk backwards on the course to find neutral support. I saw what I was looking for following the Masters 3/4 field. At first, he did not want to hook me up with a wheel, but we were 3-4 miles into a 10 mile lap. I needed either a wheel or a ride to get back to the start line. I told him that I knew I was not in contention any more and that I just wanted to get back to the start/finish line. He gave me a wheel and I set about my solo journey back to the finish. I saw a pack of 4 riders just up the road, so I tried to chase onto them for a little while. I realized that was probably stupid when I did not gain ground and just settled in for a nice long cool down. Once I crossed the line, I found my wheel and started looking for Chris. He crossed about 5-10 minutes after I did. I am not sure what our placement was, but we both realized that we thoroughly enjoy road races.
Now I am resting up and relaxing before the final 6-turn criterium in this race. Throughout this series, I have learned that I am strong in road races and circuit races and that my true-criterium skills need work. Hopefully my luck starts to change, since this has to be about the most unlucky stretch of racing I have ever had (2 flats in 4 races, crashes in the final laps after the free laps in the other 2 right in front of me that have taken me out of contention for anything).
Happy Racing!
I have only raced two road races prior to the road race in Greenbush. Both were hilly courses and I got gapped early spending the rest of my day chasing. No fun. I knew Greenbush would have some hills, but the big one was mostly a power climbers hill. Since I have dropped the weight, I have actually become a decent climber. Words I never figured that I would utter. My plan for the course was to ride in my little ring as much as possible. As much as possible was defined for me as still in contact with the main field. On the first lap, I was in my little ring for about 60% of the lap and I was steadily moving up the field. Perfect. For some reason, I got away from this mindset a little on lap 2 and drifted back to the back of the main field. At the start of lap 3, I decided to go back to my bread and butter play and spend as much time in the little ring as possible and climbed back to the front end of the main group. As we crossed the start/finish line receiving the sign for 1 lap to go, I was sitting about 15th wheel, feeling fantastic and ready to unleash pain upon the field (who some I could tell were starting to fade and admitted as much) once we got out of the forest. Each lap, the field would slow down exiting the forest because the roads were not overly smooth and they just finished all of the big climbs. I knew that was the time to make the move. I had spent most of the race hoping for a breakaway to form with a K/S Energy guy, a ISCorp guy and a Brazen Dropouts guy (since those were the three largest teams left in the main field and knew a break with that make-up would not likely get chased down). Now that we were on the final lap and that hadn't happened yet, I knew a better shot for a breakaway would be with whichever other solo riders were left in the main field that felt as good as I did (basically like I hadn't worked the whole race). I call myself solo because (as I found out later) Chris had a mechanical early in lap 1 and was in a chase group 10-15 minutes behind the field. After I had assembled a little posse of riders interested in turning the gas on exiting the forest, I heard that great sound of air rushing out of my tire. Flat. Well, crap! Some of the other guys expressed sorrow for me as I pulled to the side to get out of the way and look for our follow car for a spare wheel. In this road race, we had a lead car and a follow car with an official in it. As the follow car pulled up beside me, the official yelled that the neutral support was that way (pointing backwards on the course). I yelled back asking how far, but no response. So I got off to walk backwards on the course to find neutral support. I saw what I was looking for following the Masters 3/4 field. At first, he did not want to hook me up with a wheel, but we were 3-4 miles into a 10 mile lap. I needed either a wheel or a ride to get back to the start line. I told him that I knew I was not in contention any more and that I just wanted to get back to the start/finish line. He gave me a wheel and I set about my solo journey back to the finish. I saw a pack of 4 riders just up the road, so I tried to chase onto them for a little while. I realized that was probably stupid when I did not gain ground and just settled in for a nice long cool down. Once I crossed the line, I found my wheel and started looking for Chris. He crossed about 5-10 minutes after I did. I am not sure what our placement was, but we both realized that we thoroughly enjoy road races.
Now I am resting up and relaxing before the final 6-turn criterium in this race. Throughout this series, I have learned that I am strong in road races and circuit races and that my true-criterium skills need work. Hopefully my luck starts to change, since this has to be about the most unlucky stretch of racing I have ever had (2 flats in 4 races, crashes in the final laps after the free laps in the other 2 right in front of me that have taken me out of contention for anything).
Happy Racing!
Sunday, June 19, 2011
ToAD - Grafton
Chris and I arrived early enough to be able to enjoy another nice warm-up for the Giro d' Grafton. This race was not nearly as sketchy as the day prior in Thiensville, with only 1 guy going down. I started the race in much better position than the day before, right behind one of my quickly becoming favorite riders in the group Tristan from Team Mack Racing. The guy in front of us had a hard time clipping, so we lost a little placing, but that was not that big of a deal to me. I was in a place that I was comfortable with, so I was fairly happy with the start of the race.
A few laps in, I had another new experience for me, my rear tire was leaking. Yippee! It took me a couple laps to completely diagnose the issue. With each turn getting scarier, feeling like my tire was going to roll off of my rim. As I slowly lost contact with the field and felt pretty sure I had a flat, I rode to the SRAM Neutral Support to get a new wheel. They fixed me up and I was ready to go! I love those guys! Thanks to the free lap, the officials got me back in the field and I was on my way.
Following the flat, it took me a couple of laps to get comfortable bombing through the corners again. Once I had my confidence back, I started working my way forward. With six to go, I saw Tristan on the front, so I knew I needed to get up there. With four laps to go, I was on the front, but ended up in the back quickly because I was not willing to take some of the chances the guys who remained up there in the corners. It was good to see that I had the power to get up there when I needed to. Staying up there is my new challenge on the technical courses. Unfortunately, I was stuck too far back going into the sprint finish, so I had to just drop in the biggest gear I could spin at a high revolution and pick off as many as I could. I was able to climb back into 28th position, passing a bunch of guys on my way to the line, and Chris took 38th. Better results for me than Thiensville, but still not quite where I need to be.
One positive is that I have felt ready to race each day, but I did not quite have the pop at Grafton that I had at Thiensville. I tweeked my recovery last night to see if I could get my pop back for today in Waukesha. Kari will be racing the Cat 3/4 Women, Chris and I will be mixing it up in the Cat 4/5 Men and Brent will be mixing it up in the Masters Cat 1/2 Men.
Happy Racing!
A few laps in, I had another new experience for me, my rear tire was leaking. Yippee! It took me a couple laps to completely diagnose the issue. With each turn getting scarier, feeling like my tire was going to roll off of my rim. As I slowly lost contact with the field and felt pretty sure I had a flat, I rode to the SRAM Neutral Support to get a new wheel. They fixed me up and I was ready to go! I love those guys! Thanks to the free lap, the officials got me back in the field and I was on my way.
Following the flat, it took me a couple of laps to get comfortable bombing through the corners again. Once I had my confidence back, I started working my way forward. With six to go, I saw Tristan on the front, so I knew I needed to get up there. With four laps to go, I was on the front, but ended up in the back quickly because I was not willing to take some of the chances the guys who remained up there in the corners. It was good to see that I had the power to get up there when I needed to. Staying up there is my new challenge on the technical courses. Unfortunately, I was stuck too far back going into the sprint finish, so I had to just drop in the biggest gear I could spin at a high revolution and pick off as many as I could. I was able to climb back into 28th position, passing a bunch of guys on my way to the line, and Chris took 38th. Better results for me than Thiensville, but still not quite where I need to be.
One positive is that I have felt ready to race each day, but I did not quite have the pop at Grafton that I had at Thiensville. I tweeked my recovery last night to see if I could get my pop back for today in Waukesha. Kari will be racing the Cat 3/4 Women, Chris and I will be mixing it up in the Cat 4/5 Men and Brent will be mixing it up in the Masters Cat 1/2 Men.
Happy Racing!
Saturday, June 18, 2011
ToAD - Thiensville
Chris and I got to Thiensville a little earlier than expected. This actually afforded us a little longer warm-up, which is always nice to get the body ready to rock. After our warm-up, we swapped bottles and headed over to the start line. This is when I learned that I did not need to actually bring my own wheels because SRAM Neutral Support had us totally covered (I love those guys!). Lesson learned: Do not need to bring my own spare wheels! Sweet!
Unfortunately, this discovery cut into our pre-race time to ride the course. By the time we finished pre-riding the course, we were on the last line of the almost 80 Cat 4/5 riders. With this being a rather technical course, I knew it would be a challenge to climb back up (never want to stay in yo-yo land). It took a few laps, but I found a good rhythm to move up on the course. Granted, I have no desire to start near the back again. I'd rather be near the front relaxing and have the ability to challenge for something. It is also a safer place to be with all of the twitchy Cat 4/5s. We had at least 5 crashes yesterday: three behind me somewhere, one next to me and one a few riders in front of me. Unfortunately, the one in front of me was on the 2nd to last lap and forced me to go off road to stay up right. The worst part was that I was in the top 20 riders in the field and the crash took me completely out of it. I clawed back on the final lap to finish 44th with the field. Considering how sketchy the field was and that I haven't raced in a month, I was moderately happy with the results. This result may have taken me out of contention for the overall, so I am modifying my goal to chase stage wins more. I was really hoping for a top 10-20 today to help my cause for the overall.
Today, we have Grafton. Feeling pretty good and ready to rock some worlds later! Also, we have Hank joining us to mix things up today!
Happy Racing!
Unfortunately, this discovery cut into our pre-race time to ride the course. By the time we finished pre-riding the course, we were on the last line of the almost 80 Cat 4/5 riders. With this being a rather technical course, I knew it would be a challenge to climb back up (never want to stay in yo-yo land). It took a few laps, but I found a good rhythm to move up on the course. Granted, I have no desire to start near the back again. I'd rather be near the front relaxing and have the ability to challenge for something. It is also a safer place to be with all of the twitchy Cat 4/5s. We had at least 5 crashes yesterday: three behind me somewhere, one next to me and one a few riders in front of me. Unfortunately, the one in front of me was on the 2nd to last lap and forced me to go off road to stay up right. The worst part was that I was in the top 20 riders in the field and the crash took me completely out of it. I clawed back on the final lap to finish 44th with the field. Considering how sketchy the field was and that I haven't raced in a month, I was moderately happy with the results. This result may have taken me out of contention for the overall, so I am modifying my goal to chase stage wins more. I was really hoping for a top 10-20 today to help my cause for the overall.
Today, we have Grafton. Feeling pretty good and ready to rock some worlds later! Also, we have Hank joining us to mix things up today!
Happy Racing!
Friday, June 17, 2011
Tour of America's Dairyland
The big race of the season for me, ToAD, has begun with the Pro/1/2s starting in Shorewood last night and the rest of the Amateurs starting today in Thiensville.
Currently, I am sitting/laying on the floor in my apartment, contemplating the race a little, prepping body and bike, and watching a little Psych on Netflix. Yay free month trials!
Time to put all of the indoor work from the winter with Brent and the racing this spring to good use. Good luck to the whole Emerys Crew throughout the week!
If you are interested in watching some good racing, Chris and I will be racing the Cat 4/5s every day (Hank will be joining us on some of them), Brent will be racing every day of the Masters Cat 1/2s, plus the Pro/1/2 fields. I will try to post a race recap daily with some photos, if possible.
Currently, I am sitting/laying on the floor in my apartment, contemplating the race a little, prepping body and bike, and watching a little Psych on Netflix. Yay free month trials!
Time to put all of the indoor work from the winter with Brent and the racing this spring to good use. Good luck to the whole Emerys Crew throughout the week!
If you are interested in watching some good racing, Chris and I will be racing the Cat 4/5s every day (Hank will be joining us on some of them), Brent will be racing every day of the Masters Cat 1/2s, plus the Pro/1/2 fields. I will try to post a race recap daily with some photos, if possible.
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Sussex Crit Recap
Following the Chiropractic Crit that saw my rear derailleur fall apart, I spent much of the night pounding ibuprofen to try to ease my back pain. I do not remember hitting the curb with my back, but I must have. I could barely walk, sit, move, do anything for the rest of evening. Late in the evening, Jeff called to see if I was racing Sussex. I said that it would depend on whether or not my back allows me to move and if the storms hold. He considered me basically out, since my back was not sounding good.
When I woke up prior to Sussex, my back was still a little sore, but I could move around and almost touch my toes. (This was a big deal, since I had to hold my back as straight as possible to minimize the pain and could not even get close to touching my knees, let alone toes). What was even more exciting was that the storms looked like they would not interfere with the Cat 4/5 race slot. I decided to go race, but instead of riding to each race, which I prefer, I decided to drive out there. I packed up what I needed and headed to the course.
After registering and pinning on my number, I went for a brief warm-up on the roads. I did not feel like my legs were quite where I wanted them, but it was as good as I could do in the time. Met up with Tom (from Hampshire Cycling) and rode to the start line. The start surprised us since the official just nonchalantly said "go", so off we went.
The race itself was relatively uneventful. The wind was stiff enough and the hill was big enough than no one was able to get away. I tried to take some of Brent's advice and pedaled up the hill in my little ring on every lap outside of the final two. I found that I was able to accelerate through the field, or in the least maintain position, to save my legs for later. With two laps to go, I felt I was in great position. Unfortunately, I lost a bit of my positioning in the final lap and hit the final turn in about 12th position. The guys in front of me got gapped by the leaders going up the hill, so I had to sprint around them, bridge the gap, and continue sprinting towards the finish. Jeff came around at the end to try to give me a lift. I kicked it in another gear and climbed up a few more spots, finishing 7th out of the 35 guys racing. Much better than getting crashed out of the race. I was just a little disappointed that I did not fight for better position going into the final turn, since I had so much gas left in the tank after the race. Oh well. It was a great learning experience and great to ride with Jeff. Normally, I do not have the pleasure of racing with him, but it definitely helped having him in the field to tell me little things throughout the race instead of yelling from the sidelines. He took 9th in the Cat 4/5 and then raced Masters 4/5.
After the race, I drove over to McDonald's to try out one of the tasty chocolate dipped ice cream cones. It looked so good on the billboards. It definitely did not disappoint:
Here is my data from the race and cool down for those interested. Looks like it was just a touch slower than yesterday at 23.8 mph, despite the hill.
When I woke up prior to Sussex, my back was still a little sore, but I could move around and almost touch my toes. (This was a big deal, since I had to hold my back as straight as possible to minimize the pain and could not even get close to touching my knees, let alone toes). What was even more exciting was that the storms looked like they would not interfere with the Cat 4/5 race slot. I decided to go race, but instead of riding to each race, which I prefer, I decided to drive out there. I packed up what I needed and headed to the course.
After registering and pinning on my number, I went for a brief warm-up on the roads. I did not feel like my legs were quite where I wanted them, but it was as good as I could do in the time. Met up with Tom (from Hampshire Cycling) and rode to the start line. The start surprised us since the official just nonchalantly said "go", so off we went.
The race itself was relatively uneventful. The wind was stiff enough and the hill was big enough than no one was able to get away. I tried to take some of Brent's advice and pedaled up the hill in my little ring on every lap outside of the final two. I found that I was able to accelerate through the field, or in the least maintain position, to save my legs for later. With two laps to go, I felt I was in great position. Unfortunately, I lost a bit of my positioning in the final lap and hit the final turn in about 12th position. The guys in front of me got gapped by the leaders going up the hill, so I had to sprint around them, bridge the gap, and continue sprinting towards the finish. Jeff came around at the end to try to give me a lift. I kicked it in another gear and climbed up a few more spots, finishing 7th out of the 35 guys racing. Much better than getting crashed out of the race. I was just a little disappointed that I did not fight for better position going into the final turn, since I had so much gas left in the tank after the race. Oh well. It was a great learning experience and great to ride with Jeff. Normally, I do not have the pleasure of racing with him, but it definitely helped having him in the field to tell me little things throughout the race instead of yelling from the sidelines. He took 9th in the Cat 4/5 and then raced Masters 4/5.
After the race, I drove over to McDonald's to try out one of the tasty chocolate dipped ice cream cones. It looked so good on the billboards. It definitely did not disappoint:
Here is my data from the race and cool down for those interested. Looks like it was just a touch slower than yesterday at 23.8 mph, despite the hill.
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Chiropractic Crit Recap
After waking up before the alarm, I began prepping both my and Kari's bikes for the race. We left West Allis at 8am, giving us 2 hours to get to the race before the start of mine. Other than the Kenosha races, I have ridden my bike to and from every race this season. It is something that I relish. I am able to slowly bring my legs up to speed, get a proper warm-up in, not spend too much time standing around waiting, race, and get a good long recovery ride afterwards. That was the plan for today; however, the Big Guy had other ideas. Kari and I met up with Chris at the race site, pinned on numbers, and Chris and I went off to get a little more riding in before the race.
The race start was fairly uneventful. I had a great start and quickly started driving the front edge of the field. As Chris passed me, he said that we should try to string the race out and see what they can handle. We spent the next 10 minutes or so doing just that. I then tucked myself into the field, but I worked hard to stay near the front. I found myself drifting too far back on a couple laps. My definition of too far back is when I had to brake in the turns. When I was properly positioned, I could just coast into the turn and accelerate out of it.
With 5 laps to go, Chris and I both got caught up in the only crash of the day. I saw the rider two guys in front of me go down in turn 2, so I started moving to the guy in front of me's left to try to take the clear line around the mess about to form in front of me. Unfortunately, the guy in front of me also moved left and got caught up with the guy in front of him. Seeing that I was going to go down, I somehow quickly shifted to aim my body to land in the grass. Somehow, I succeeded; however, my rear wheel must have hit something. I heard a pop while I was getting back on my bike, assuming it was a broken spoke. I got back on my bike as quickly as I could to chase back onto the field. Thankfully a few of the other casualties from the crash were also trying to chase back on and not quitting. We eventually formed a little group of four riders, including Chris and myself, charging after the field. As we kept racing through the remaining laps, we kept picking up more riders who were shelled from the main group. With two laps to go, Alex (from Kenosha Velosport) mentioned that my rear was wobbling (stupid broken spoke). I took a few seconds to open my rear brake to make sure that my wheel had clearance.
As we hit the final lap, Chris started to drive the front to break people off of our wheels. Seeing that he was close to gassed, Alex jumped hard. I knew that I needed to catch him, but sprinting to catch back on would just waste what little energy I had left and make it harder for Chris to follow my wheel. As we came out of turn three and into the wind, I was able to pull myself and Chris back onto Alex's wheel. Knowing that he was getting gassed in the wind, my plan was to force Alex to drive me to the line. Unfortunately, Chris came around to try to put in one more effort and crush Alex, but his move only gave Alex a bit of a rest before the sprint (we did not communicate what to do in this case). When Alex jumped with only a few hundred meters from the line, I followed his wheel. As we closed in, I hit the gas and tore around him, taking the sprint for the leftover riders. I crossed the line 29th and Chris took 31st out of the 39 finishers. While I was happy I took the sprint, I was pissed because my legs felt great and I was crashed out of contention. I knew I could have been quite good in the field sprint. Oh well. There's always next time.
After the race, I was riding my bike back to Chris' truck (he graciously agreed to get myself and Kari home, since my bike was out of commission). During this time, my rear derailleur completely snapped in half and broke off the hanger. Instead of a simple broken spoke, I ended up with a pretty devastated bike. Thankfully, this happened at about 15 mph instead of during the race at speeds of 25-30 mph. Here are some photos of the bike, courtesy of Ryan Larson at Emery's:
The race start was fairly uneventful. I had a great start and quickly started driving the front edge of the field. As Chris passed me, he said that we should try to string the race out and see what they can handle. We spent the next 10 minutes or so doing just that. I then tucked myself into the field, but I worked hard to stay near the front. I found myself drifting too far back on a couple laps. My definition of too far back is when I had to brake in the turns. When I was properly positioned, I could just coast into the turn and accelerate out of it.
With 5 laps to go, Chris and I both got caught up in the only crash of the day. I saw the rider two guys in front of me go down in turn 2, so I started moving to the guy in front of me's left to try to take the clear line around the mess about to form in front of me. Unfortunately, the guy in front of me also moved left and got caught up with the guy in front of him. Seeing that I was going to go down, I somehow quickly shifted to aim my body to land in the grass. Somehow, I succeeded; however, my rear wheel must have hit something. I heard a pop while I was getting back on my bike, assuming it was a broken spoke. I got back on my bike as quickly as I could to chase back onto the field. Thankfully a few of the other casualties from the crash were also trying to chase back on and not quitting. We eventually formed a little group of four riders, including Chris and myself, charging after the field. As we kept racing through the remaining laps, we kept picking up more riders who were shelled from the main group. With two laps to go, Alex (from Kenosha Velosport) mentioned that my rear was wobbling (stupid broken spoke). I took a few seconds to open my rear brake to make sure that my wheel had clearance.
As we hit the final lap, Chris started to drive the front to break people off of our wheels. Seeing that he was close to gassed, Alex jumped hard. I knew that I needed to catch him, but sprinting to catch back on would just waste what little energy I had left and make it harder for Chris to follow my wheel. As we came out of turn three and into the wind, I was able to pull myself and Chris back onto Alex's wheel. Knowing that he was getting gassed in the wind, my plan was to force Alex to drive me to the line. Unfortunately, Chris came around to try to put in one more effort and crush Alex, but his move only gave Alex a bit of a rest before the sprint (we did not communicate what to do in this case). When Alex jumped with only a few hundred meters from the line, I followed his wheel. As we closed in, I hit the gas and tore around him, taking the sprint for the leftover riders. I crossed the line 29th and Chris took 31st out of the 39 finishers. While I was happy I took the sprint, I was pissed because my legs felt great and I was crashed out of contention. I knew I could have been quite good in the field sprint. Oh well. There's always next time.
After the race, I was riding my bike back to Chris' truck (he graciously agreed to get myself and Kari home, since my bike was out of commission). During this time, my rear derailleur completely snapped in half and broke off the hanger. Instead of a simple broken spoke, I ended up with a pretty devastated bike. Thankfully, this happened at about 15 mph instead of during the race at speeds of 25-30 mph. Here are some photos of the bike, courtesy of Ryan Larson at Emery's:
Friday, May 20, 2011
The Bone Ride Recap
Wednesday was the 25th Annual Bone Ride. Although the morning was cool and raining, the day turned out to be a pretty nice day. Chris and I learned many valuable lessons. Our first lesson of the day was that whenever it is raining at the start of the Bone Ride, we should just drive to try to stay warmer a little longer. It ended being that the "heads of state" decided to wait until the rain moved westward, so we would just chase it the whole way to Madison instead of riding in it all day. This was definitely the smart move; however, it meant that we were standing around in wet cycling clothes with temps in the 40s. Not overly pleasant.
With it being a little nasty out, only about 50-60 guys (no women) showed up at the meet point in Tosa. My thought on the lack of women was that they are the smarter ones, since it was rather silly to choose to ride our bikes for 150-160 miles in the rain and low 50s temps. Thankfully, there were another 30-40 guys and a couple gals waiting for us in Pewaukee and Oconomowoc to join our merry bunch.
Another valuable lesson that I learned was not to have the world's longest pee as we approached the rolling hills on the way to Madison. If I need to pee in the future, I definitely need to pee closer to Pewaukee in the future (like Chris did). As a result of my really long pee, ridiculously long pee, myself and a few other guys started a frantic chase of the group. No sag wagon waited for us, so we were on our own to chase back on. We were able to close the gap a bit, but the hills really were trashing our legs. Eventually, myself and Eric (from Michael's Cycles) caved and jumped in a sag wagon to fill up bottles and get closer to the field before trying to chase again. This seemed to work out well; however, I did the one thing I wanted to avoid: riding in the sag wagon. Oh well, this was a necessary evil.
After we caught back on the group, we stayed firmly planted all the way into Madison, where an acceleration over the hill gapped myself and a few other guys. I noticed that Eric (we seemed fated together on the way out) was struggling as well, so we and a few others formed a little group to ride into town together. Eric flatted while I was charging into the city, so I went back to wait for him to fix his flat and make sure he found food. I decided to eat at Pizza di Roma, the same place as last year, and I ran into the same guy I ate with last year as well (Rob from Wheel & Sprocket). It was fantastic as ever! Much needed calories!
After I ate, I found Chris and Jeff to gather for the picture and stay connected as the group headed out of Madison. As we crested the hill, we observed the Ride of Silence in memory of all the cyclists who were seriously injured and/or killed in the previous year. On the approach into Sullivan, I was mentally preparing for a bottle refill and pee stop at the gas station; however, Tom Schuler (the organizer of the ride) selected a new route to get back into Oconomowoc, thus avoiding the gas station. Thankfully, Matt (from Pinnacle Health) let me borrow a bottle of water to help me get through the next phase. Knowing that I was not getting the electrolytes that I needed, I tried to make sure I ate more the next few hours. Not easy to do while trying to stay safely tucked in the fast charging field.
This was the first year that I was still with the lead pack as we entered into Oconomowoc. I have been told that the race is on once they hit Oconomowoc, but I was definitely not ready for it first hand. Thankfully, I was able to tuck behind a sag wagon to get pulled back onto the field. At this point, Chris blew up, but we had already agreed to stop in Pewaukee to regroup if necessary and for me to return my loaner bottle. I stayed with the field. I have no idea how fast we were going other than the fact I saw my average climb .3 mph over the 20-30 miles from Oconomowoc to Pewaukee.
Once we hit the western edge of Lake Pewaukee, I shook my fist in excitement. I made it back to Pewaukee in the lead group! I took the time I was waiting for Chris to swap bottles with Matt, refuel and stretch. We then tootled on home with a few stragglers who did not know the way. It was a first that I rode my bike the whole way from Madison back to Milwaukee! I was pumped! Here is my data, in case you're interested in checking it out. Now I just need to get the whole ride put together and stay with the leaders the whole way home.
Following the ride, I treated myself to some sweet nectar: McDonald's Large Chocolate Milkshake w/o whipped cream!
Thanks to the dirt, mud and rain, my sparkling clean bike got really gross!
Now it is all clean again for me to race it in the rain this weekend in Hartland and Sussex!
Finally, the team helmets just got in! They are really sweet!
Happy Training and Racing!
With it being a little nasty out, only about 50-60 guys (no women) showed up at the meet point in Tosa. My thought on the lack of women was that they are the smarter ones, since it was rather silly to choose to ride our bikes for 150-160 miles in the rain and low 50s temps. Thankfully, there were another 30-40 guys and a couple gals waiting for us in Pewaukee and Oconomowoc to join our merry bunch.
Another valuable lesson that I learned was not to have the world's longest pee as we approached the rolling hills on the way to Madison. If I need to pee in the future, I definitely need to pee closer to Pewaukee in the future (like Chris did). As a result of my really long pee, ridiculously long pee, myself and a few other guys started a frantic chase of the group. No sag wagon waited for us, so we were on our own to chase back on. We were able to close the gap a bit, but the hills really were trashing our legs. Eventually, myself and Eric (from Michael's Cycles) caved and jumped in a sag wagon to fill up bottles and get closer to the field before trying to chase again. This seemed to work out well; however, I did the one thing I wanted to avoid: riding in the sag wagon. Oh well, this was a necessary evil.
After we caught back on the group, we stayed firmly planted all the way into Madison, where an acceleration over the hill gapped myself and a few other guys. I noticed that Eric (we seemed fated together on the way out) was struggling as well, so we and a few others formed a little group to ride into town together. Eric flatted while I was charging into the city, so I went back to wait for him to fix his flat and make sure he found food. I decided to eat at Pizza di Roma, the same place as last year, and I ran into the same guy I ate with last year as well (Rob from Wheel & Sprocket). It was fantastic as ever! Much needed calories!
After I ate, I found Chris and Jeff to gather for the picture and stay connected as the group headed out of Madison. As we crested the hill, we observed the Ride of Silence in memory of all the cyclists who were seriously injured and/or killed in the previous year. On the approach into Sullivan, I was mentally preparing for a bottle refill and pee stop at the gas station; however, Tom Schuler (the organizer of the ride) selected a new route to get back into Oconomowoc, thus avoiding the gas station. Thankfully, Matt (from Pinnacle Health) let me borrow a bottle of water to help me get through the next phase. Knowing that I was not getting the electrolytes that I needed, I tried to make sure I ate more the next few hours. Not easy to do while trying to stay safely tucked in the fast charging field.
This was the first year that I was still with the lead pack as we entered into Oconomowoc. I have been told that the race is on once they hit Oconomowoc, but I was definitely not ready for it first hand. Thankfully, I was able to tuck behind a sag wagon to get pulled back onto the field. At this point, Chris blew up, but we had already agreed to stop in Pewaukee to regroup if necessary and for me to return my loaner bottle. I stayed with the field. I have no idea how fast we were going other than the fact I saw my average climb .3 mph over the 20-30 miles from Oconomowoc to Pewaukee.
Once we hit the western edge of Lake Pewaukee, I shook my fist in excitement. I made it back to Pewaukee in the lead group! I took the time I was waiting for Chris to swap bottles with Matt, refuel and stretch. We then tootled on home with a few stragglers who did not know the way. It was a first that I rode my bike the whole way from Madison back to Milwaukee! I was pumped! Here is my data, in case you're interested in checking it out. Now I just need to get the whole ride put together and stay with the leaders the whole way home.
Following the ride, I treated myself to some sweet nectar: McDonald's Large Chocolate Milkshake w/o whipped cream!
Thanks to the dirt, mud and rain, my sparkling clean bike got really gross!
Now it is all clean again for me to race it in the rain this weekend in Hartland and Sussex!
Finally, the team helmets just got in! They are really sweet!
Happy Training and Racing!
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
The Day Before...
It is now the day before The Bone Ride! Time to cram as many calories as possible in today to make sure we are all fueled up for tomorrow! Weather looks like it will be pleasant! Let's kick this one in the teeth!
Happy Training!
Happy Training!
Sunday, May 15, 2011
"How's your training going?"
I wrote most of this post as an email responding to the question, "How's your training going?" I thought maybe, just maybe, some of you all might want to know too.
My training (especially with power) goes well. I torqued my elbow doing non-tri related stuff (what was I thinking?), so my swimming has been derailed a bit. But, I always am looking for a reason not to swim. I'm still going to the pool, just not logging the yardage I was a couple of months ago.
I've been playing road racer a bit this year. Family obligations have limited my long distance training this year, so I figured a few sprint and Oly tris with a lot of bike races should keep me both in shape and active enough to not go nuts. Plus it is way, way cheaper.
What I have learned so far:
1. I should have gotten a power meter before race wheels.
2. The power meter allows knowing exactly what you need to do in order to survive a crit. Being able to see what the actual surges are and then training for them is of immense value. Seeing that just about every race sees 500w for 30 to 45 seconds for every lap has got me doing shorter intervals. My tri mind didn't really foresee this.
3. The little ring does not decrease your manliness. The power meter shows very quickly that you can go as fast, or faster, up a hill while using less power if you check your ego at the bottom of the hill. You can still be a man with a 39x26.
4. TT pacing with power is the way to go. I did a solo 50 mile TT effort at a meager wattage (about 70%) to see what would happen. I did not display speed during the ride. Just power. When I arrived home more than 10 minutes sooner than I expected and felt super-duper excellent to boot, I knew I had just learned something.
5. If I am going to ride a TT with a power of over the above wattage I need to get a bigger gear than 50x12 on my TT bike. That 50 mile ride had me out of gears for a larger portion than I would have expected. I have an 11 rear cassette that I will have to give a shot to. But I may have to go with a 53 tooth up front on the TT bike.
6. FTP testing can make you sit at your desk because it hurts to stand up after.
7. When you raise your FTP your training gets harder. Looking for new numbers is fun though.
8. You can actually recover on a recovery ride if you stay under 60% of your FTP.
9. In my previous TT efforts I was way slacking on the flats and hammering the hills too much.
10. RPE is hard to pace off of. In a test where I duct taped the computer completely and went by RPE only, my average power was lower than I would have thought and the normalized power was through the roof. The data actually looked a lot more like a crit rather than a TT effort. I'm not sure if this will change the more I ride with power. But, it is the case now.
So, as you can see I have actually learned a few things.
I plan on collecting data for a few more weeks and that should then get me into ToAD with a plan that has me ready to race.
As always, we shall see.
As always, we shall see.
Remember that the Bone Rise is this coming Wednesday.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Milwaukee Roubaix Recap
This past Sunday, Brent organized a nice long group training ride to build some miles into the legs. This ride was called the Milwaukee Roubaix, in homage to the great one day classic Paris-Roubaix, also known as the "Hell of the North".
The weather for the ride sort of cooperated for us. Considering we had snow/sleet the day before and after, we probably could not have asked for much better conditions. What were the conditions? Well, I'm glad you asked. The temperatures at the start of the ride (well, my ride started from my house when Chris showed up to head to Lake Michigan) were around 35 degrees (my toes were frozen for a couple hours). By mid-day, the highs got to about 45-50 degrees, and I was actually wishing I could take the bib tights off and switch to knee warmers. The sun actually felt pretty good; however, we also had to battle 20-30mph winds throughout, which cooled things down quite a bit. Mr. Weather Man said that the wind should subside around 1pm. This was not the case. It was a slug fest the whole way out to Holy Hill into the wind. I know what you're thinking. You're thinking crappy conditions out, boy you should fly back in. For the most part, we did rocket back in; however, this was after we had put about 50 or so miles into the legs against the wind and hills, so they were pretty trashed. At least mine were pretty trashed.
Most likely thanks to the weather, we had a rather small bunch riding with us. We started with 11, lost 2 on the way out to Holy Hill, lost another on the way back to Lake Michigan, and lost 3 more as we were zipping along Lake Dr in Shorewood, WI to their homes, calling it quits for the day. For those of you for whom math is not a strong suit, that left our merry bunch of riders with 5 guys left to game plan lunch and the second leg. While we were game planning the rest of the day, one of the five decided he was just going to ride south for 10 miles then turn around to go home to get his century in. A noble quest indeed. Another had family duties, since it took us way longer than expected to ride all the way out to Holy Hill and back. Silly wind! Now we are down to three! Yikes!
When we got to the Milwaukee Public Market, our awesome sag crew watched our bikes while we scurried off to find food. My only disappointment with the market was that there was no junk food. I walked all around the market and eventually settled on getting two brats on a bun with sauerkraut, some chips and a coke. I know what you're thinking. Ben, that sure does sound like a lot of food to me. When you are on a 6+ hour bike ride, you burn a ton of calories. It is really important to put the calories in while riding and at stops during the ride, otherwise you are more likely to bonk. Bonking sucks! Bonking on a 6+ hour ride, really really sucks!
The food was definitely needed. While we were sitting there, I zoned out a few times. One zone out was long enough that Brent started waving his hands in front of my face and laughing at me. Oh well. I was work really hard at taking in the calories. My goal was to take in approximately 300 calories/hour. Over the 9 hours we were out and about (both riding and resting), I consumed an average of 230 calories/hour (including lunch calories). To get that many in, I really had to pound the my sports drink, my endurance cubes and Honey Stinger Waffles throughout the ride plus eat as much as I could force down during lunch.
Anyhow, after we finished lunch, the three weary riders (Brent, Jeff and myself) continued our ride. Instead of fighting the wind all the way out to Pewaukee Lake and back, we decided to just ride until we were all over the century mark then split to head home.
Here is my data. Granted it is missing about 3.5 miles over the course of the day, thanks to Mr. Garmin not playing nice with my Speed/Cadence Sensor (battery replaced!).
Some of the group gathering at Lake Michigan prior to the start of the ride:
At a bottle stop on the way back to the Lake:
At lunch with the gang:
After I got home, I began the process of replacing the calories I burned. I consumed half a Dominos pizza, two large chocolate milkshakes (without whipped cream), a Potbelly Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie and some homemade cookies. In total, I consumed over 7000 calories throughout the day; however I needed to consume over 9000 calories to get back to even for the day. My stomach just could not handle any more food. Oh well, I felt that I made a valiant effort at calorie replacement.
Thanks again go to Brent for organizing this epic ride and for the guys who showed up to make it more fun! Hopefully, we can do this again next year!
Happy Training!
The weather for the ride sort of cooperated for us. Considering we had snow/sleet the day before and after, we probably could not have asked for much better conditions. What were the conditions? Well, I'm glad you asked. The temperatures at the start of the ride (well, my ride started from my house when Chris showed up to head to Lake Michigan) were around 35 degrees (my toes were frozen for a couple hours). By mid-day, the highs got to about 45-50 degrees, and I was actually wishing I could take the bib tights off and switch to knee warmers. The sun actually felt pretty good; however, we also had to battle 20-30mph winds throughout, which cooled things down quite a bit. Mr. Weather Man said that the wind should subside around 1pm. This was not the case. It was a slug fest the whole way out to Holy Hill into the wind. I know what you're thinking. You're thinking crappy conditions out, boy you should fly back in. For the most part, we did rocket back in; however, this was after we had put about 50 or so miles into the legs against the wind and hills, so they were pretty trashed. At least mine were pretty trashed.
Most likely thanks to the weather, we had a rather small bunch riding with us. We started with 11, lost 2 on the way out to Holy Hill, lost another on the way back to Lake Michigan, and lost 3 more as we were zipping along Lake Dr in Shorewood, WI to their homes, calling it quits for the day. For those of you for whom math is not a strong suit, that left our merry bunch of riders with 5 guys left to game plan lunch and the second leg. While we were game planning the rest of the day, one of the five decided he was just going to ride south for 10 miles then turn around to go home to get his century in. A noble quest indeed. Another had family duties, since it took us way longer than expected to ride all the way out to Holy Hill and back. Silly wind! Now we are down to three! Yikes!
When we got to the Milwaukee Public Market, our awesome sag crew watched our bikes while we scurried off to find food. My only disappointment with the market was that there was no junk food. I walked all around the market and eventually settled on getting two brats on a bun with sauerkraut, some chips and a coke. I know what you're thinking. Ben, that sure does sound like a lot of food to me. When you are on a 6+ hour bike ride, you burn a ton of calories. It is really important to put the calories in while riding and at stops during the ride, otherwise you are more likely to bonk. Bonking sucks! Bonking on a 6+ hour ride, really really sucks!
The food was definitely needed. While we were sitting there, I zoned out a few times. One zone out was long enough that Brent started waving his hands in front of my face and laughing at me. Oh well. I was work really hard at taking in the calories. My goal was to take in approximately 300 calories/hour. Over the 9 hours we were out and about (both riding and resting), I consumed an average of 230 calories/hour (including lunch calories). To get that many in, I really had to pound the my sports drink, my endurance cubes and Honey Stinger Waffles throughout the ride plus eat as much as I could force down during lunch.
Anyhow, after we finished lunch, the three weary riders (Brent, Jeff and myself) continued our ride. Instead of fighting the wind all the way out to Pewaukee Lake and back, we decided to just ride until we were all over the century mark then split to head home.
Here is my data. Granted it is missing about 3.5 miles over the course of the day, thanks to Mr. Garmin not playing nice with my Speed/Cadence Sensor (battery replaced!).
Some of the group gathering at Lake Michigan prior to the start of the ride:
At a bottle stop on the way back to the Lake:
At lunch with the gang:
After I got home, I began the process of replacing the calories I burned. I consumed half a Dominos pizza, two large chocolate milkshakes (without whipped cream), a Potbelly Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie and some homemade cookies. In total, I consumed over 7000 calories throughout the day; however I needed to consume over 9000 calories to get back to even for the day. My stomach just could not handle any more food. Oh well, I felt that I made a valiant effort at calorie replacement.
Thanks again go to Brent for organizing this epic ride and for the guys who showed up to make it more fun! Hopefully, we can do this again next year!
Happy Training!
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Rules for the Road
In no means can I take credit for this (Chris sent me the link), but I thought that they were good to share, especially with the beautiful weather joining us for the next few months, prompting more outdoor rides. Be sure to take some time to educate yourself of The Rules to not look silly during the warm spell that is upon us.
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Post Race Meal @ Five Guys
This was a delicious 2460 calories here at Five Guys; however, it does not compare to Sobelman's!
Happy Eating!
Happy Eating!
Menomonee Parkway Criterium Race Recap- the ladies version
So first off, let me just say that I have never actually seen blue toes. It's one of those thing they talked about in first aid/lifeguarding/EMT classes but it's never been a truly fathomable reality for me. That is, until I looked up at my feet, raised to drain the lactic acid from my legs and saw that the tips of my toes were blue. Like, legitimately Crayola Crayon cerulean blue toes. That can't be healthy. Apparently riding outside for 3+ hours in the cold with inadequate footwear and then immediately draining the blood from my feet was not the best idea. Lesson learned.
Today was a day for learning a lot of lessons. I learned that I really really like having my Garmin in working order, that I do like using the ride to the race as a warm-up/cool down, and that I really don't like cold weather.
To introduce myself to any readers, I am a fairly novice rider, 23, and female. I've been training with Emery's over the winter and have decent strength on a bike but, as a novice, I have a LONG way to go in the way of tactics and keeping my head in the right place. Today was just a step in the right direction.
My basic strategy (ha! If it could be so called...) was to stay toward the front, but not in the wind for most of the race while gauging the abilities of my competitors. At the end, I planned to make a break-away if I felt much stronger than I believed my opponents to be, or to sit 3rd-5th wheel and come around for the sprint. This being my first race with any decent women's field, however, I had no idea what to expect from the other riders.
Lesson 1: Fight for my wheel
During the race, I learned that it really pays to be fairly aggressive and fight to keep a wheel and stay out of the wind. During the first couple of laps, I found myself inadvertently out in the wind after turns. Fortunately, I learned fast and was a pesky wheel-thief to any of the six IS-Corps who seemed to be trying to set themselves up for a break-away.
Lesson 2: Just because there is a break-away, does not mean I need to catch it
The ISCorps ladies made several break-aways throughout the course of the race and I personally caught all of them, afraid to let any of them go. Of course, in hindsight, I knew some of them were not going to get away but, still, I pounded away after them, wasting energy that I could have used at the end.
Lesson 3: Racing against a team is tough stuff
The Cat4 Ladies field consisted of 8 ISCorps ladies and 4 other riders. When one strategy didn't pan out, there were other riders to try other strategies. Brutal because there were so many people to watch and so many options to attempt to anticipate. It was pretty gratifying to see a one of us 4 take first.
Lesson 4: Position, Position, Position!!!!
I held my position toward the front for most of the race, however, with a few laps to go, I started keeping an eye on one lady who seemed to be the ISCorp team leader, giving directions but never doing much of the work. My thinking was that she must be the sprinter and that she'd be getting set up by her teammates so I drifted back in the field to keep an eye on her and set myself up to follow her whenever she made her move.
Backfire. Big backfire.
I ended up getting pinned in the back while another breakaway went and actually succeeded. I managed to catch a second break but couldn't make it up to the lead break. The lady I had marked as the sprinter did make her move but then backed off and ended up in the grass when she saw that she would be bridging non-teammate up to her own team in the breakaway. Pooey.
I crossed the line 6/12 but with a little more cognitive arsenal for next time.
Lesson 5: Sitting still after a race hurts thine legs
Nuff said. Don't do it.
Overall, a beneficial day. I'm glad I did it, even if I did end up with freakish blue lizard toes.
Menomonee Park Crit - Race Recap
One of the great things about the Midwest is that the weather can change rather rapidly. If you are not satisfied with it one minute, it will typically (in the Spring and Summer, at least) change to something more enjoyable. That was what I was hoping for today.
Usually when preparing for a ride/race, I will check both weather.com and go stand outside for a few to see how it feels. The combination of the two techniques usually gets me dialed in to what should be comfortable for the ride. Today was a little different in that the outside weather was a little brisker and mistier than I was expecting based on the forecast. The forecast that I saw this morning said mid-to-upper 40s drifting into the low-to-mid 50s during the time that I was planning on being on my bike. It also said that we were due for only partly cloudy with minimal chance for rain. This really messed with my head, since I could feel the mist outside. Oh well, it will go away and get warmer, I thought. If only I knew how wrong I was. While the rain stayed away, the temperature and sun never came out to play.
Kari, Chris and I ventured out from the Target at Hwy 100 & Cleveland in West Allis at 8:15 this morning to ride leisurely to the course. The goal of this ride was to loosen up the legs and while putting some mileage in them. With this being an early season race, results, while important, are not as important as getting the miles in to prepare for the bulk of the season in June and July.
We got to the course with about 10 minutes to spare before registration closed and dumped our stuff by a tree. Chris and I then went off onto the course to get a nice easy lap in, to see the course and keep the legs warm and loose. We lined up about 3 rows back in the field of 45 Cat 4/5 riders at the start (41 finished) waiting for them to let us go.
The whistle blew and we were off! I told Chris that I wanted to sit in the field for the first 3 laps to see what would happen and let other people set the pace/monitor the attacks. This seemed to work fairly well and after a few laps, the field was reduced slightly. Chris and I kept ourselves near the front of the action and out of harms way for most of the race. Both of us went on a few solo flyers to keep the edge of the field cranking along. Whenever it seemed to slow down, one of us would push up to get the front of the field to respond. I know my strength is sprinting, so I was not trying to end up in a solo breakaway. If a couple riders would've come with, however, I would have been up for seeing if we could make it work.
On the final lap, I asked Chris how his legs were doing. He said that they were good and he had some work left in them. I said that mine felt good and that I had some sprinting power in them. After we crested the bigger bump on the course, Chris pushed forward with me right on his wheel. He drove the field at a high speed through the back part of the course with me safely tucked in behind him. Unfortunately, he ran out of gas entering the second to last turn, so the field crept around us. I broke off his wheel and tried to reestablish myself near the front of the group, but I was running out of real estate. I entered the final corner 8 or 9 back (I wanted to be 3 back), and was squeezed outside. I felt my pedal hit the ground and kick my rear wheel airborne, but I was able to control it and keep the throttle open. As I was sprinting towards the line, the guy next to me kept drifting into my line and pushing me onto the grass. I was yelling at him that I was on his right, but he kept coming. I finally got around him and tried to give it as much as I could once I had open road in front.
I finished 6th out of the 41 riders. Chris must have just sat up once he finished his pull for me because he took 29th. While I was a little pissed that I got out of good position going into the final straight (my legs felt really good and I was closing on the guys fighting for 1st), Chris and I rode a solid race in a very twitchy field. I was pushed off the road a couple times because guys did not hold their lines, and I felt some handlebars on my legs a couple times while people were jostling around next to me. The overall average speed for the race, in case you're curious, was 24.3 mph for the 40 minutes. Mr. Garmin said that I had a max of 34 mph in my sprint. Not my best, but not bad considering how many times I had to slow down to get around the guy pushing me off the road. We definitely learned a lot today with regards to timing our lead-out to sprint. Great practice!
After our race, Chris rolled home while I stuck around to watch Kari race. She did great! She hung in the with field the whole way, but got boxed out on the final lap and also took 6th!
Once she had some food in her, we made our way home. I believe that our total mileage was in the 60 mile range. Pretty good for the warm-up, race and cool-down! Despite the weather, riding outside is way more fun that inside. Come join us as we start to ride outside more and especially for the Milwaukee Roubaix next weekend!
Happy Training!
Usually when preparing for a ride/race, I will check both weather.com and go stand outside for a few to see how it feels. The combination of the two techniques usually gets me dialed in to what should be comfortable for the ride. Today was a little different in that the outside weather was a little brisker and mistier than I was expecting based on the forecast. The forecast that I saw this morning said mid-to-upper 40s drifting into the low-to-mid 50s during the time that I was planning on being on my bike. It also said that we were due for only partly cloudy with minimal chance for rain. This really messed with my head, since I could feel the mist outside. Oh well, it will go away and get warmer, I thought. If only I knew how wrong I was. While the rain stayed away, the temperature and sun never came out to play.
Kari, Chris and I ventured out from the Target at Hwy 100 & Cleveland in West Allis at 8:15 this morning to ride leisurely to the course. The goal of this ride was to loosen up the legs and while putting some mileage in them. With this being an early season race, results, while important, are not as important as getting the miles in to prepare for the bulk of the season in June and July.
We got to the course with about 10 minutes to spare before registration closed and dumped our stuff by a tree. Chris and I then went off onto the course to get a nice easy lap in, to see the course and keep the legs warm and loose. We lined up about 3 rows back in the field of 45 Cat 4/5 riders at the start (41 finished) waiting for them to let us go.
The whistle blew and we were off! I told Chris that I wanted to sit in the field for the first 3 laps to see what would happen and let other people set the pace/monitor the attacks. This seemed to work fairly well and after a few laps, the field was reduced slightly. Chris and I kept ourselves near the front of the action and out of harms way for most of the race. Both of us went on a few solo flyers to keep the edge of the field cranking along. Whenever it seemed to slow down, one of us would push up to get the front of the field to respond. I know my strength is sprinting, so I was not trying to end up in a solo breakaway. If a couple riders would've come with, however, I would have been up for seeing if we could make it work.
On the final lap, I asked Chris how his legs were doing. He said that they were good and he had some work left in them. I said that mine felt good and that I had some sprinting power in them. After we crested the bigger bump on the course, Chris pushed forward with me right on his wheel. He drove the field at a high speed through the back part of the course with me safely tucked in behind him. Unfortunately, he ran out of gas entering the second to last turn, so the field crept around us. I broke off his wheel and tried to reestablish myself near the front of the group, but I was running out of real estate. I entered the final corner 8 or 9 back (I wanted to be 3 back), and was squeezed outside. I felt my pedal hit the ground and kick my rear wheel airborne, but I was able to control it and keep the throttle open. As I was sprinting towards the line, the guy next to me kept drifting into my line and pushing me onto the grass. I was yelling at him that I was on his right, but he kept coming. I finally got around him and tried to give it as much as I could once I had open road in front.
I finished 6th out of the 41 riders. Chris must have just sat up once he finished his pull for me because he took 29th. While I was a little pissed that I got out of good position going into the final straight (my legs felt really good and I was closing on the guys fighting for 1st), Chris and I rode a solid race in a very twitchy field. I was pushed off the road a couple times because guys did not hold their lines, and I felt some handlebars on my legs a couple times while people were jostling around next to me. The overall average speed for the race, in case you're curious, was 24.3 mph for the 40 minutes. Mr. Garmin said that I had a max of 34 mph in my sprint. Not my best, but not bad considering how many times I had to slow down to get around the guy pushing me off the road. We definitely learned a lot today with regards to timing our lead-out to sprint. Great practice!
After our race, Chris rolled home while I stuck around to watch Kari race. She did great! She hung in the with field the whole way, but got boxed out on the final lap and also took 6th!
Once she had some food in her, we made our way home. I believe that our total mileage was in the 60 mile range. Pretty good for the warm-up, race and cool-down! Despite the weather, riding outside is way more fun that inside. Come join us as we start to ride outside more and especially for the Milwaukee Roubaix next weekend!
Happy Training!
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Supplements and WADA
Following Thursday's power workout, I commented that I was really digging the fitness supplement that I took in the morning: Rhodiola. Brent asked if it was WADA, World Anti-Doping Agency, compliant. I said that it was as of 2009, which he said was not good enough. This led me to really dig into the prohibited list of drugs for 2011 to make sure I was still good.
As a point of reference, prior to the workout, I felt like absolute garbage. Yoga was rough and my general alertness/feeling was pretty bad. I popped two Rhodiolas prior to heading over to the shop, curious to see what would happen. It is supposed to adapt to my physical needs and help fuel my exercise and recovery. By the end of the workout, Brent's famous power pyramid intervals, I felt fantastic! I could not believe how good I felt! It was incredible!
Anywho, back to WADA. What is permissible? What is not? These are important, albeit oft neglected, questions to ask if you are an elite athlete or an aspiring elite athlete. On my quest to determine the legality of my precious Rhodiola, I dug around to find what is permitted and what is not. I stumbled across the 2011 Prohibited List, which is a scientific document of all of the chemical names broken down into categories for what is not allowed or what dosages are not allowed. To make life easier, the USADA, US Anti-Doping Agency, publishes an athlete's guide to the prohibited list in language that the average bear can understand. Because I have a science background, I read both and compared all of the supplements I take, a rather daunting task, to make sure that I am not accidentally taking anything I should not be. One of the most shocking discoveries was that pseudoephedrine is prohibited in-competition. In-competition means that you can take it, but it must not be in your body or below a certain level prior to showing up at the start line. I see this as an easy one to inadvertently break while trying to fight the common cold.
Now that I have rambled on for a little while, I would like to point out that all of my supplements, including Rhodiola, are completely WADA compliant! Wahoo!
Happy Training!
As a point of reference, prior to the workout, I felt like absolute garbage. Yoga was rough and my general alertness/feeling was pretty bad. I popped two Rhodiolas prior to heading over to the shop, curious to see what would happen. It is supposed to adapt to my physical needs and help fuel my exercise and recovery. By the end of the workout, Brent's famous power pyramid intervals, I felt fantastic! I could not believe how good I felt! It was incredible!
Anywho, back to WADA. What is permissible? What is not? These are important, albeit oft neglected, questions to ask if you are an elite athlete or an aspiring elite athlete. On my quest to determine the legality of my precious Rhodiola, I dug around to find what is permitted and what is not. I stumbled across the 2011 Prohibited List, which is a scientific document of all of the chemical names broken down into categories for what is not allowed or what dosages are not allowed. To make life easier, the USADA, US Anti-Doping Agency, publishes an athlete's guide to the prohibited list in language that the average bear can understand. Because I have a science background, I read both and compared all of the supplements I take, a rather daunting task, to make sure that I am not accidentally taking anything I should not be. One of the most shocking discoveries was that pseudoephedrine is prohibited in-competition. In-competition means that you can take it, but it must not be in your body or below a certain level prior to showing up at the start line. I see this as an easy one to inadvertently break while trying to fight the common cold.
Now that I have rambled on for a little while, I would like to point out that all of my supplements, including Rhodiola, are completely WADA compliant! Wahoo!
Happy Training!
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Kenosha #3 Race Report
While it was a cold more (high of around 30) with a few snow flurries swirling around off and on throughout the morning, it was an absolutely beautiful day for a bike race. If only it had been about 30 degrees warmer, then it would have been a most excellent day for a bike race!
Because Kari was racing her first crit ever this morning, we had to get down there really early with the women's race being the third race of the day and my race occurring several hours later. Kari has raced a road race before and she has some "track" experience racing Little 5 down at IU, but she has never raced a crit. Personally, I think a crit is about the most fun you can have on a bike. Due to the cold temperatures, Kari had to borrow some of my thermal clothing, including my Purdue thermal jacket. She looked great at the starting line waiting for people to line up in black and gold.
While Kari missed out on jumping in with the girls who got in the breakaway, tactically, Kari raced a very smart race. She stayed right with her rivals and worked with them to maintain a solid pace. Once the official announced 3 laps to go, Kari decided that it was time to work and drop her competitors. It worked because she rolled across the line with about a quarter lap lead on the second place rider in her category and took 4th overall in the field. Nothing more exciting that winner your first crit by a large margin knowing that you left a lot of gas in the tank. She will definitely be rocking it out this summer in the bigger races!
Kathleen also raced with Kari in the Women's Category 4 and took 3rd in her first ever race! Unfortunately, she left before I could get a picture of her with her medal!
My race was definitely the most exciting of the series. As a quick recap, in the first week, the field stayed together throughout the whole race, minus a few stragglers who fell off the pace, and concluded with a field sprint. In the second week, the pouring rain scared most riders off and Chris and I drilled those that did show up until only he and I remained. This week was vastly different, but similar at the same time. One big difference was that the official announced that there would be primes, or intermediate sprints for prizes/cash! One prime was for an ABR sanctioned prize and the other was for $20. After the first lap, the official rang the bell for prime on the next lap. I had been very aggressive right out of the gate, my legs were not feeling all that good, and I got myself into bad position for the sprint, so I did not contest the first prime. Oh well. This prime actually shattered the field. The result had one rider off the front, a group of four (including me) then the rest of the pack split up into 1s and 2s. An unfortunate thing about racing with Cat 5s is that many do not understand strategy or how to ride in a pack. I had to teach my fellow companions how to pace line in a manner that would allow us to catch the breakaway rider. It took time, but it seemed like some of my yelling and instructing was sinking in. At least they were willing to work to bring him back to set up a "field" sprint.
At some point later in the race, the official announced another prime for our posse of 4. I got myself into 3rd wheel going into turn four, my favorite position to be in in that corner when the race matters. I hammered it coming out of the corner and raced passed the guys in my group to easily win the prime. It just so happened that this prime was worth $20 and the first was only worth $2. I definitely won the better one!
Once we regrouped, the chase for the breakaway commenced again. Now we were running out of time. Myself and big pony (a Team Pegasus rider named Chris) were doing a lot of the work, but as I shouted to my group, I really did not want to lose to a breakaway rider. With one lap to go, we still had not caught him, but we were making significant gains because our organization was finally there. Then it happened. I made the final pull that bridged us to the lapped rider drafting off his wheel right before turn 3. I relaxed, content to just sit in this position through turn 4, assuming none of my companions from my chase group tried to move up. As we rounded turn 4, I hammered it to the finish line and easily won the field sprint.
Following the race, I found the guy who was in the breakaway to congratulate him for a strong effort and thanked the guys in my chase group for their work. Big pony ended up taking 2nd and the breakaway rider took 3rd. One of the officials commented that he would have liked to see a true head to head sprint between myself and the breakaway rider, since we both were strong sprinters. I agreed. I would definitely like to test my sprint skills against other good sprinters. I have a feeling that I will get my chance soon with the WCA Road Cup starting soon.
My results in this series were 1st in Weeks 1 and 3 and 2nd in Week 2. One of the officials told me that I was not allowed to race Cat 5 anymore. I agreed and took my upgrade. I knew that I probably should not have raced Cat 5; however, all of my teammates, of which only Hank and Chris showed up once thanks to other commitments, are Cat 5s and they split 5s and 4s in this series. Now I am a Cat 4 in both ABR and USAC, inching closer and closer to my goal of the season to upgrade to Cat 3.
Finally, I would like to thank Kenosha Velosport and ABR for putting on a great training series. The volunteers and officials were great! This is definitely a fun series to tune up the skills from winter training indoors to prep for spring/summer racing!
Happy Training!
Because Kari was racing her first crit ever this morning, we had to get down there really early with the women's race being the third race of the day and my race occurring several hours later. Kari has raced a road race before and she has some "track" experience racing Little 5 down at IU, but she has never raced a crit. Personally, I think a crit is about the most fun you can have on a bike. Due to the cold temperatures, Kari had to borrow some of my thermal clothing, including my Purdue thermal jacket. She looked great at the starting line waiting for people to line up in black and gold.
While Kari missed out on jumping in with the girls who got in the breakaway, tactically, Kari raced a very smart race. She stayed right with her rivals and worked with them to maintain a solid pace. Once the official announced 3 laps to go, Kari decided that it was time to work and drop her competitors. It worked because she rolled across the line with about a quarter lap lead on the second place rider in her category and took 4th overall in the field. Nothing more exciting that winner your first crit by a large margin knowing that you left a lot of gas in the tank. She will definitely be rocking it out this summer in the bigger races!
Kathleen also raced with Kari in the Women's Category 4 and took 3rd in her first ever race! Unfortunately, she left before I could get a picture of her with her medal!
My race was definitely the most exciting of the series. As a quick recap, in the first week, the field stayed together throughout the whole race, minus a few stragglers who fell off the pace, and concluded with a field sprint. In the second week, the pouring rain scared most riders off and Chris and I drilled those that did show up until only he and I remained. This week was vastly different, but similar at the same time. One big difference was that the official announced that there would be primes, or intermediate sprints for prizes/cash! One prime was for an ABR sanctioned prize and the other was for $20. After the first lap, the official rang the bell for prime on the next lap. I had been very aggressive right out of the gate, my legs were not feeling all that good, and I got myself into bad position for the sprint, so I did not contest the first prime. Oh well. This prime actually shattered the field. The result had one rider off the front, a group of four (including me) then the rest of the pack split up into 1s and 2s. An unfortunate thing about racing with Cat 5s is that many do not understand strategy or how to ride in a pack. I had to teach my fellow companions how to pace line in a manner that would allow us to catch the breakaway rider. It took time, but it seemed like some of my yelling and instructing was sinking in. At least they were willing to work to bring him back to set up a "field" sprint.
At some point later in the race, the official announced another prime for our posse of 4. I got myself into 3rd wheel going into turn four, my favorite position to be in in that corner when the race matters. I hammered it coming out of the corner and raced passed the guys in my group to easily win the prime. It just so happened that this prime was worth $20 and the first was only worth $2. I definitely won the better one!
Once we regrouped, the chase for the breakaway commenced again. Now we were running out of time. Myself and big pony (a Team Pegasus rider named Chris) were doing a lot of the work, but as I shouted to my group, I really did not want to lose to a breakaway rider. With one lap to go, we still had not caught him, but we were making significant gains because our organization was finally there. Then it happened. I made the final pull that bridged us to the lapped rider drafting off his wheel right before turn 3. I relaxed, content to just sit in this position through turn 4, assuming none of my companions from my chase group tried to move up. As we rounded turn 4, I hammered it to the finish line and easily won the field sprint.
Following the race, I found the guy who was in the breakaway to congratulate him for a strong effort and thanked the guys in my chase group for their work. Big pony ended up taking 2nd and the breakaway rider took 3rd. One of the officials commented that he would have liked to see a true head to head sprint between myself and the breakaway rider, since we both were strong sprinters. I agreed. I would definitely like to test my sprint skills against other good sprinters. I have a feeling that I will get my chance soon with the WCA Road Cup starting soon.
My results in this series were 1st in Weeks 1 and 3 and 2nd in Week 2. One of the officials told me that I was not allowed to race Cat 5 anymore. I agreed and took my upgrade. I knew that I probably should not have raced Cat 5; however, all of my teammates, of which only Hank and Chris showed up once thanks to other commitments, are Cat 5s and they split 5s and 4s in this series. Now I am a Cat 4 in both ABR and USAC, inching closer and closer to my goal of the season to upgrade to Cat 3.
Finally, I would like to thank Kenosha Velosport and ABR for putting on a great training series. The volunteers and officials were great! This is definitely a fun series to tune up the skills from winter training indoors to prep for spring/summer racing!
Happy Training!
Monday, March 21, 2011
How Do You Measure Up
Ah, the performance metrics. Which ones matter? Which ones are easily obtained? Which ones can be ignored?
Now before you start reading expecting all kinds of equations for the calculation of normalized power and pretty graphs showing speed, torque, heart rate, power, number of gerbils necessary to power a 60w light bulb, etc. let us just step back from ourselves for a minute. Well, maybe more than a minute or less depending on your reading speed. Just know that typing this did take me more than a minute.
In previous posts I mentioned that my outside of sports life has a few changes on the horizon. My lovely (and she is truly lovely) bride will be doing a bit more higher learning and my offspring now have their own activities for me to support and truck them off to. Those two things will have a definite impact of how much I can train and how much I can race. So, on to measuring my performance.
Without a ruler you cannot measure. I think Yoda may have said that to Luke. At least I would ask you to reread that sentence in Yoda's voice to get my point across that it is a great philosophical statement. I'm not sure if anyone said it officially, but I'm writing it now. Regardless of who, or what, might have said it; it is a true statement. It is hard to measure something without a reference to something else. You have to set a goal or an end you are trying to reach. I'm not talking about one of those New Year's resolution type goals that are made at 11:55pm and after six too many adult beverages. I'm talking about one of those conversation with yourself that might go like this:
"Self, How you doing? You're looking good."
"Well just fine thanks. And you, too, are looking good. How can I help you?"
"Well maybe you can answer this question for me. What are you trying to get out of this whole triathlon/bike racing thing you've been up to?"
"My that is a question in deed. I guess I am trying to X."
Now X can be any or all of the following:
Loose 40 pounds
Live a health lifestyle
Lower my blood pressure
Be active and enjoy what my body can do
Ride a sub one hour 40K time trial
Place in my age group at such and such race
Win such and such race overall
Beat so and so at such and such race
Qualify for Kona
Be happy
Enjoy life
That list can go on and on. Some of those above are more short term. Some are long term. Some are easily defined. Some not so much. I would actually argue that only some of those may actually be worth pursuing and some may be steps in the pursuit of others. The part that is interesting about the determination of X is the brutal honesty that one must have with himself or herself during the above conversation.
Now here is the $60,000.00 question. What the heck is my X? If I could answer that for you I would first make you pay me way more than you currently are. So, off you go to figure it out for yourself.
Power meters, cadence sensors, speedometers, maybe race results, numbers in a training log are all tools to get you closer to X. They are not X. At least they are not for me and I truly hope are not for you, my gentle reader.
End of philosophy lesson for now. I promise i will post more mundane things in the future. Probably.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Kenosha #2 Race Report
Today, Chris, Hank and myself made one of our less wise decisions: racing in the mid-30s with a solid downpour and wind out of the southeast. Instead of a warm-up, we decided to sit in our cars and watch the rain pour down.
With about five minutes before the start, Chris and I emerged from his truck to finish getting ready and ride a warm-up lap. Within a few minutes, we were absolutely soaked. Since we did not have much of a warm-up, I led the first few laps at a casual 16 mph to build more of a warm-up in. Surprisingly, no one came around me for a few laps. When they finally did, Chris responded and we started shredding people from the group. Mind you, we only started with 6 people. At about the half-way point, Chris and I had driven everyone off of our wheels except for John (the 3rd place finisher from the previous week), but we had started to notice that he was weaker than us and struggling more in the wind. As I came around to the front with about 10-13 minutes left to go, I mentioned to Chris that I was going to shred this guy. I drilled it through the wind section and then as we exited the wind section Chris took over at the front and kept the pace high. Within the lap, John was gone and Chris and I settled into a rhythm for the remainder. As we approached the finish line, I let Chris take the line while I sat up to cheer the effort. Hank, racing his first bike race ever, rode a solid race and took 4th!
Earlier in the day, Jeff McKillip represented the Emerys team well and took 2nd in the Masters 55+!
Now we are all home, warming up and getting food in our bellies!
Happy riding!
With about five minutes before the start, Chris and I emerged from his truck to finish getting ready and ride a warm-up lap. Within a few minutes, we were absolutely soaked. Since we did not have much of a warm-up, I led the first few laps at a casual 16 mph to build more of a warm-up in. Surprisingly, no one came around me for a few laps. When they finally did, Chris responded and we started shredding people from the group. Mind you, we only started with 6 people. At about the half-way point, Chris and I had driven everyone off of our wheels except for John (the 3rd place finisher from the previous week), but we had started to notice that he was weaker than us and struggling more in the wind. As I came around to the front with about 10-13 minutes left to go, I mentioned to Chris that I was going to shred this guy. I drilled it through the wind section and then as we exited the wind section Chris took over at the front and kept the pace high. Within the lap, John was gone and Chris and I settled into a rhythm for the remainder. As we approached the finish line, I let Chris take the line while I sat up to cheer the effort. Hank, racing his first bike race ever, rode a solid race and took 4th!
Earlier in the day, Jeff McKillip represented the Emerys team well and took 2nd in the Masters 55+!
Now we are all home, warming up and getting food in our bellies!
Happy riding!
Sunday, March 13, 2011
First Win of the Season!
It is time for one of my favorite kind of blog posts: a race recap. Today was the first of three Kenosha Velosport Spring Training Crits held down in Kenosha/Pleasant Prairie, WI. More than any year before, I feel that Brent's winter training has really gotten me prepared for the season. With the big goal race being ToAD, the plan is to keep adding intensity in both training and racing over the next several months. Today was the first real test of how winter training actual went. As Chris put it the other day, time to put up or shut up.
Knowing that Daylight Savings Time was scheduled to happen during sleep time prior to the race, I made sure I got to bed a little earlier and left myself plenty of time to wake up and get things organized in the morning. I believe that I may have left a little too long, because I had way more time to think about what I was about to do than I normally have. Mind you, I am very into ways to mentally prepare. For instance, throughout this crit series, my Desktop Image on both computers lists my goals for the series. The goals are: Finish, Win Cat 5s, Help Chris and Steve place well. I have been staring at these goals for well over a week and will continue to stare at them when I'm on my computer, both at home and work. However, on the morning of, I try not to over think things because that just leads to increased nerves. Anywho, while I was getting my bag ready and car loaded to head down, I received texts from both Chris and Hank that they are out due to illness (to kid and self) and I was unable to contact Steve, so it looked like I was going solo. This is no big deal, I've raced solo plenty of times; however, all of our strategies were team-centric, so I ended up thinking more about how I wanted to attack the race.
The drive down to Kenosha was fairly normal. Right as I was turning on to 80th Avenue, I could feel my stomach doing summersaults. I was thinking: it is cold and cloudy, I have no teammates and I have not been on a bike outdoors since November. Awesome! As I pulled into the parking lot, I found Jeff McKillip's car and parked next to him. At least I'd have a familiar face at some point.
After registration, using the facilities and watching some of Jeff's race, I went back to my car to start getting warmed up and ready to race. As I was putting my trainer together, I remembered why I could not use my trainer and my bike with the skewers that I own. Good thing to note for future, not something that I wanted to discover on race morning at the site. I started thinking, what else could go not according to plan? I tried to push that thought from my head and just focused on the task at hand.
Instead of riding my trainer, I decided that I would try to do the warm-up that I would have done on the trainer out on the open road. This turned out to be a huge blessing in disguise. I was able to replicate what I wanted to do on my trainer fairly well while getting the jitters out of feeling my bike on the asphalt for the first time in months. I kept monitoring when the race before mine was due to finish and adjusted my warm-up on the fly to allow myself to finish warming up within 10-15 minutes of the finish of the race before mine. That way, I could dump the extra stuff at my car, switch gloves and ride to the start/finish line warm and loose.
I lined up in the second row of the bunch at the start while they were checking to make sure we were all there. Astonishingly, there was a guy (first timer) who was only wearing shorts, a Yankee's jersey and toe-clip pedals. He was actually fairly strong despite not knowing how to handle his bike all that well. I had decided to just sit in the pack and see what happened for the first few laps. As expected, no one went on a break so at the start of lap three, I jumped and had a huge gap on the field rather quickly. Unfortunately, no one came with me. I rode solo for a lap without gaining or losing ground on the field, so I decided to shut it down and let myself get caught. I sat in the field for a few more laps then did it again with the same results. One of my favorite parts of my breakaway attempts involved hearing the coaches yell at their cyclists to sprint so I would not get away! It made me smile each time!
With only a little more than three laps to go, the guy leading the field swung wide in the back stretch to try to get people off his wheel. As expected, the pack followed like a herd of cattle being led to slaughter. I took this opportunity to race up the inside of road and got a huge gap on the field while they tried to figure out what was going on. I shut it down again as we crossed the start/finish line with three laps to go. As we made it through turn three, I mentioned to the guy next to me (Shawn) that this was the most gentle three laps to go that I've ever experienced. He mentioned that he is a Track guy and the whole race is boring. We got a good chuckle out of it.
On the last lap, no one had picked up the pace at all, so I decide that I would once we hit the back stretch. Coming out of turn two, I punched it and got another huge gap on the field. Surprisingly, the field did not chase me down, so I kept the hammer on. At this time, the newbie I mentioned previously crashed behind me (I only heard the crunch of metal in the distance) and took two other guys with him. It was a bloody mess. Hopefully he is ok. Definitely not the way you want your first bike race to go. Knowing that my legs were not going to be able to keep pushing hard and muster a strong sprint in case I got caught, I decided to ease off the gas a little between turns three and four. Despite easing off the gas slightly, I still had a bike length or so lead going into turn four. Coming out of turn four, I punched it and really poured on the gas. As I approached the finish line, I glanced to my side to see where other people were. I had several bike lengths between myself and the next guy so I sat upright and glided across the finish line with my arms held high (Donna said it was Tour de France style). I am really hoping someone got a picture of that!
This was my first cycling win ever! Needless to say, I was stoked! I met the guys who took first and second on the cool down lap. They were cool guys and I look forward to racing with them again. The second place guy was really strong, a mountain bike racer trying out the road for the first time. He led the race for the most part, since he is more used to just a consistent level of suffering and not the accelerations common to road racing. I know that if Chris or any of my other teammates were there, we could have put an immense amount of suffering on the field and definitely road away from them. I am very excited for next week when we can make that happen!
Here is a photo afterwards with my medal!
Knowing that Daylight Savings Time was scheduled to happen during sleep time prior to the race, I made sure I got to bed a little earlier and left myself plenty of time to wake up and get things organized in the morning. I believe that I may have left a little too long, because I had way more time to think about what I was about to do than I normally have. Mind you, I am very into ways to mentally prepare. For instance, throughout this crit series, my Desktop Image on both computers lists my goals for the series. The goals are: Finish, Win Cat 5s, Help Chris and Steve place well. I have been staring at these goals for well over a week and will continue to stare at them when I'm on my computer, both at home and work. However, on the morning of, I try not to over think things because that just leads to increased nerves. Anywho, while I was getting my bag ready and car loaded to head down, I received texts from both Chris and Hank that they are out due to illness (to kid and self) and I was unable to contact Steve, so it looked like I was going solo. This is no big deal, I've raced solo plenty of times; however, all of our strategies were team-centric, so I ended up thinking more about how I wanted to attack the race.
The drive down to Kenosha was fairly normal. Right as I was turning on to 80th Avenue, I could feel my stomach doing summersaults. I was thinking: it is cold and cloudy, I have no teammates and I have not been on a bike outdoors since November. Awesome! As I pulled into the parking lot, I found Jeff McKillip's car and parked next to him. At least I'd have a familiar face at some point.
After registration, using the facilities and watching some of Jeff's race, I went back to my car to start getting warmed up and ready to race. As I was putting my trainer together, I remembered why I could not use my trainer and my bike with the skewers that I own. Good thing to note for future, not something that I wanted to discover on race morning at the site. I started thinking, what else could go not according to plan? I tried to push that thought from my head and just focused on the task at hand.
Instead of riding my trainer, I decided that I would try to do the warm-up that I would have done on the trainer out on the open road. This turned out to be a huge blessing in disguise. I was able to replicate what I wanted to do on my trainer fairly well while getting the jitters out of feeling my bike on the asphalt for the first time in months. I kept monitoring when the race before mine was due to finish and adjusted my warm-up on the fly to allow myself to finish warming up within 10-15 minutes of the finish of the race before mine. That way, I could dump the extra stuff at my car, switch gloves and ride to the start/finish line warm and loose.
I lined up in the second row of the bunch at the start while they were checking to make sure we were all there. Astonishingly, there was a guy (first timer) who was only wearing shorts, a Yankee's jersey and toe-clip pedals. He was actually fairly strong despite not knowing how to handle his bike all that well. I had decided to just sit in the pack and see what happened for the first few laps. As expected, no one went on a break so at the start of lap three, I jumped and had a huge gap on the field rather quickly. Unfortunately, no one came with me. I rode solo for a lap without gaining or losing ground on the field, so I decided to shut it down and let myself get caught. I sat in the field for a few more laps then did it again with the same results. One of my favorite parts of my breakaway attempts involved hearing the coaches yell at their cyclists to sprint so I would not get away! It made me smile each time!
With only a little more than three laps to go, the guy leading the field swung wide in the back stretch to try to get people off his wheel. As expected, the pack followed like a herd of cattle being led to slaughter. I took this opportunity to race up the inside of road and got a huge gap on the field while they tried to figure out what was going on. I shut it down again as we crossed the start/finish line with three laps to go. As we made it through turn three, I mentioned to the guy next to me (Shawn) that this was the most gentle three laps to go that I've ever experienced. He mentioned that he is a Track guy and the whole race is boring. We got a good chuckle out of it.
On the last lap, no one had picked up the pace at all, so I decide that I would once we hit the back stretch. Coming out of turn two, I punched it and got another huge gap on the field. Surprisingly, the field did not chase me down, so I kept the hammer on. At this time, the newbie I mentioned previously crashed behind me (I only heard the crunch of metal in the distance) and took two other guys with him. It was a bloody mess. Hopefully he is ok. Definitely not the way you want your first bike race to go. Knowing that my legs were not going to be able to keep pushing hard and muster a strong sprint in case I got caught, I decided to ease off the gas a little between turns three and four. Despite easing off the gas slightly, I still had a bike length or so lead going into turn four. Coming out of turn four, I punched it and really poured on the gas. As I approached the finish line, I glanced to my side to see where other people were. I had several bike lengths between myself and the next guy so I sat upright and glided across the finish line with my arms held high (Donna said it was Tour de France style). I am really hoping someone got a picture of that!
This was my first cycling win ever! Needless to say, I was stoked! I met the guys who took first and second on the cool down lap. They were cool guys and I look forward to racing with them again. The second place guy was really strong, a mountain bike racer trying out the road for the first time. He led the race for the most part, since he is more used to just a consistent level of suffering and not the accelerations common to road racing. I know that if Chris or any of my other teammates were there, we could have put an immense amount of suffering on the field and definitely road away from them. I am very excited for next week when we can make that happen!
Here is a photo afterwards with my medal!
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