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.

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 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!

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!

"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.

 

Remember that the Bone Rise is this coming Wednesday.