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!

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!

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!

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!

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!