Farewell TNWC

Pulled another double yesterday.  The morning workout was 6 Pursuit style efforts on the Road.  I managed the early efforts well enough that I could still put out a lot of power on the 6th effort.  That is something I have been trying to get right all season.

After some recovery I went to the Tuesday Night Crit to mix it up with Columbia's fast guys.  Inside of the first 10 minutes I could tell my legs had a little extra zip than they had before I left for Colorado.  I went with a couple breaks, and helped chase a few more down.  With 10 minutes left I decided to conserve and wait for the sprint.  With 1k to go, someone jumped hard into the gutter and I almost missed the move.  I was able to grab ?Ward's? wheel and was pulled up to the group.  I managed to flub my way through turn 3 (you know, a corner I've only been through 700 times in the past 3 years) and had to sprint to grab on again.  I was waiting for the final sprint and I had no gas when I happened, but I managed to roll by a few guys for what I think was 6th. 

Live From Sunny Colorado

It's about 7:30AM and a half hour prior to my normal wake up time here.  I fight tooth and nail for every minute of slumber but it wasn't to be any more today, so I decided to write a little entry before I eat breakfast.

Life here is odd.  I lose track of time and days because each one just flows into the next.  The only differences are what workout we are doing and where it will be.  The other odd thing to me is that the staff is here for me and the other athletes.  I'm not used to this where another person's job is to make my life as easy as possible when I'm not on the bike.

As for the riding.  I am here tagging along with the road team as they prep for Worlds.  Seeing how it is a prep camp, our coach is building them to a peak.  On the other hand, he is just beating the snot out me to figure out what I can do and where my breaking point is.  One of the unique things about riding here is my role in the group.  At home, I find myself doing a lot of rides with people stronger than myself and I am just along for the ride.  But here with the other gimpys I am doing a lot of work pulling because I can.  My time here has beeen productive, I'm learning a lot and really learning about myself.

I haven't been on the track much, but the session I did get out there with the coach was productive.  After putting me through some efforts we discussed Worlds and some possible times he thinks I am capable of.  I'd be happy with a time in the range he was talking about, so it was good.

I'l be back in Columbia Sept. 2 for about 3 weeks building up to track prep camp.  I will be riding a lot and would love some company, so if you want to ride please let me know!

Fatigue

I'm tired. My consistent riding over the past three weeks has finally chased me down. I was starting to feel it Thursday and it really hit this morning. I took the same pulls I take with the fast group, but they hurt more. After the ride I was a total zombie and recovery has been slow.
I'm taking a bit of rest, not riding tomorrow.

Consistency

For whatever reason I feel that I have been more consistent with my training in the past 3 weeks than I ever have before.  That includes my time in San Diego.  I was doing my prescribed workouts out there, but I think I may be doing them better here.  I wake up, look at my schedule, and get on the bike.  

Turning the pedals over is becoming a very natural feeling.  I feel like I'm getting faster and that just makes it fun!

Just an update

I haven't been posting much because there hasn't been much to say.  I wake up, I eat, I ride, I eat, I nap, I eat, sometimes I ride again, I eat.  There is a trend.  I am eating a lot.  I'm trying not to lose weight and I would be ok if I gained a little bit since I don't have to climb any mountains at Worlds.  

I am packing up and heading on my next adventure soon.  I'll be at the Olympic Training Center as a member of the national team starting Tuesday and will be there for 3 weeks.  I'll be training with the coach of the national team and the other members of the track team.  I will be logging some quality time on the track and will have full access to the cafeteria.  When I say cafeteria, I'm sure you are thinking nasty thoughts of highschool, but those would be the wrong thoughts.  The OTC cafeteria was designed in heaven and delivered to earth on the wings of cherubs, true story.  In seriousness, it is great and has a ton of healthy, tasty options.  

I think we will be getting our team kits and skinsuits which I am super stoked about!  It's little stuff like that really make this experience fun.  

The Road Team will be coming in after track camp to prep for Road Worlds and I will be tagging along.  I'm not on the road squad but I think it will be good for me to spend as much time in Colorado with the coach, Craig, as I can.  

I guess that's about it.

Post Nats Thoughts

I'm headed to Manchester England in November to race the Paralympic World Championships. It is going to be harder and the competition will be stiffer. I'm going to have to step up my game in order to be competitive. I do have a lot of technique work that will lead to better times at my current fitness levels so that is encouraging.

In the Kilo I need start work, timing it right out of the gate will net me a little time. Issue number 2 is standing through the turn. Next I need to work on getting to the aerobars quickly so I can stand longer. I need work on holding the black line at speed. Getting that stuff right will earn some free speed. On top of that, more strength will help get that race gear rolling, a higher top-end will drop my overall lap times, and more tolerance for lactic acid will stave off the fade.

In the Pursuit I need the same better timed start, stand through the turn, quick transition to aerobars, and line holding. My biggest time gain will come from pacing. I put on a clinic in how not to pace a Pursuit. On the fitness side I need more threshold power and VO2 max power.

Other little things I can do are taping the helmet vents, losing the gloves, getting a long sleeve skinsuit that fits tighter, not using pins, and riding a front disk.

One variable I cannot control is climate. On Pursuit day there was talk that the track was colder and less humid than it had been in the previous three days which could have cost all racing a few seconds.

Add all of it together on top of 4 more months of solid training and I could go to Manchester and post some better times!

The Pursuit

I got finished with USADA at 9PM after the Kilo and was in bed by 10:30. But I could not sleep. I was reflecting on the Kilo, the jersey, the probable trip to Worlds, oh, and the Pursuit the next day. Kilo win or not, I was still looking at the Individual Pursuit as my target race of the week. I woke up with sore legs and hoped my warm -up would get them feeling better. The IPs went off around noon so I had about 15 hours to recover.

My warm-up went well and I went to wait my turn. I was more nervous than I had been the day before. I was shaking just a little as I clipped in. I flubbed my start just a bit, I did not pop my hips hard enough and didn't really get the bike rolling until my right leg came around for the downstroke. Once again, I sat down half-way through the turn, then I stood back up on the straight away and got into the aero bars later than I did the night before. I came through lap one and my second half split was 9.5, perfect. Lap 2 was an 18.1 and I freaked out, that was .4 sec too fast and I stopped pedaling so lap 3 was 19.1. That was too slow so I had to pick it up. I caught the guy that started on the opposite side of the track on lap 4 or 5 and took way too long to get around him. My time that lap was 19.7, then I rolled a high 18, a pair of 19.3s, and I quit getting splits with a Kilo to go. I was falling apart in the last few laps and was bouncing sponges while trying to hold a good line. I finally finished with a time of 3:56. It was not what I wanted to ride. I was looking to run about 3:50, but the race was over and I went wait for the rest of the heats to finish. I was looking at the lap splits and started to realize that no one was having a fast ride Edit: Everyone was riding slower than the splits run in practice the previous day pointing to some external factor keeping speeds lower than they should have been. and I might still have a shot at the podium.

I was sitting on the trainer when the USADA chaperon from the previous evening walked towards our pit area. I asked if he was looking for me and he was. The first thing I did was too look at the sheet and see what I had placed. It was second. Fair enough, a first and second at my first track nats was more than I imagined leading up to the race!

The Kilo

I was on the fence about even doing this race. The Kilo is a sprinter's race and I'm more of an enduro rider, but it was on the schedule and I figured I'd just do it as a warm up for the pursuit the next day. My warm up went well, some spin ups and some time at threshold. I had my bike checked (weight, saddle behind BB) and went to wait for my turn. I was to be racing with Sam Kavanagh on the other side of the track and I have to be honest in saying that I just wanted to ride fast enough so he wouldn't catch me.
I was nervous on the line, I've never started out of a gate and this was my first real timed track race. The countdown hit 20 sec and I set my grip. 10 sec, keep breathing. 5 sec, set myself. 1 sec, stand up. Start beep, explode. I timed the start well and got rolling pretty quickly. I sat down at the middle of turns 1-2 and got into the aero bars about center track. I started my second acceleration phase and came flying into lap 2. I hit the turn pretty quickly and had to float a little to keep from rolling up the track. I really started to feel the burn at the end of lap 3 and just tried to hang on to the line. I heard my time announced as a low 1:15, I was happy with that, but I was in some serious pain.
I was starting my cool down when a man came over and asked if I was Aaron Trent. It took me a second to realize that this man was my USADA chaperon and that I was going to be drug tested. That's cool, it meant I did something good! So 20 minutes later I get off the bike and have to sign a sheet saying I was notified of my test. The sheet said "1st men's Kilo"! WHAT! I had won and didn't know it for 20 minutes.

Quick side note: Domestic Paralympic racing awards are based on a factor so all disability classes compete together. To win, you need to have the best percentage of your standard, and for the Kilo I had the best time/standard on the day.

The awards ceremony was surreal. I was standing on the top step of the podium with a gold medal. I thought I would have a good ride, but I wasn't expecting to win at my first National Championship event.

When I got finished with USADA I came pack and the infield was empty except for Craig. He handed me the stars and stripes jersey the podium crew forgot to give me. It's pretty cool.

Nationals Recap: Pre-race

I got to LA on Tuesday with a bundle of nerves. I was fit and feeling fast but the timed track races are very different than a road TT in the early stages of a track racer's career. There is a lot of technique involved in getting around a Velodrome as quickly as possible and there is the standing start in race gear from a gate.
Craig Griffin, who is the National Paralympic team coach, set me out on a flying effort to gague the splits I should look at riding for my pursuit. My splits were decent, but my line was terrible. I stopped in for a chat and he told me to do a few efforts while looking through the turn so I could stay on the black line.
Wednesday was similar; still working on pacing and holding a good line, but this time in full race gear which was a HED trispoke front, Zipp 900 Disk, and aero helmet.
The girls had the 500m TT and Kilo TT (for the tandem) on Thursday morning so I went to watch and cheer them on. There was nothing left to do but race.

Training in SoCal

I ride a lot, I ride hard when I need to. Nationals are in 2 weeks, we'll see how it goes.

On Being a Disabled Lifer

It's been a long while since I last posted and this post has nothing to do with cycling. I know I've been slacking, but twitter is easier and blog posts without power numbers are so dull.

A few weeks ago my roommate had his 6th Crippled Birthday and had a big party. Over dinner the question was posed to me whether I, as a lifer, could fully realize my disability since I had never been able bodied. My roommate can, of course, because there was a day he was able-bodied. He was in a car crash and he became crippled. Matt knows what it's like to be both, where I never could (barring some sort of advanced treatment that will never exist because of the economies of scale, but that's a different post for a different day).

The question initially left me speechless, and when I disagreed the person continued to insist that I could not fully know what I am missing. I have given it much thought and am more sure now that I fully realize I am disabled even as a lifer.

You see, the world in which we live is developed around the bilateral use of our limbs. Computer keyboards, cars, bicycles, video game controllers, boxes, etc, were all built around being able to use both hands as equals. So I may never have been able to cut a steak with 2 good hands, but I know full well that something isn't right when I'm sitting there fighting with the knife and fork.

Imagine with me that you take a young child to do an activity they have never done before. Now bind the fingers of one of their hands and send them on their way. Despite having never done the activity they are doing, the child will know something is wrong when they try to use the bound hand and fail miserably.

In closing; probably not a great idea to tell a disabled person that they can't realize their disability for whatever reason.

Go West, Young Man

I boarded a puddle jumper in Columbia, switched to an MD80 at DFW, and touched down in San Diego to start a new adventure in life on Tuesday. This is my first time being west of Colorado so everything here is new.
My bike had not yet arrived so I borrowed one from my new roommate, Marc and went for a spin down the Pacific Coast. My bike would not arrive 'till Thursday so I spent about 10 hours on the loaner getting to know the coast and the climbs offered in the area. The bike is equipped with vintage Dura Ace 8speed Downtube shifters and a 12-21 block, so it was a quad buster when I went up the 15% grade on Mount Soledad.
Did I mention that there is real climbing out here? How novel that I can embrace my slender build.

Since I am going to be spending a large amount of time on the track I went to the ADT Velodrome today to get certified on the track. ADT is the only world class 'drome in the US with its 250m distance and 45+ degree banking through the turns. It's a cool place; Taylor Phinney, Sarah Hammer, and a host of other riders have won National Championships on the boards there.
I've heard horror stories about the layout of the track and some other things but I wanted to get in and get it over with, and maybe enjoy myself. There were 5 in my cert class, but the one guy left early and missed the meat of the riding. 2 of the people were less experienced so I did most of my riding with this 15 year old kid named Colin; he's strong, smooth, and young and it's great to see kids with talent like that.
My first 5 laps on the actual track were nervous and I may not have breathed, but after a water break and another set of laps on the track I realized I was not going to die (always good when your aspirations involve significant track time). I was able to relax and really start to ride. Our instructor, Andrew, lead us further up the track and then had us do a paceline with Team Pursuit style exchanges. After a bunch of riding Andrew (who was really laid back and funny) ask if Colin and I want to play a game. So we played follow the leader which involved following Andrew all over the track for several minutes; he took us to the rail (+30 feet in the air), dropped us in from the top, climbed the banking, all kinds of crazy stuff. Then he asked if we wanted to do a flying 200. Why not? So I did a flying 200, as I dropped into turn 1 at nearly full gas I felt the gravitational forces pushing me into the track, it was incredible!
By the time we finished, I had put in about 90 solid minutes of ride time, and I have the sore quads to go along. As for the horror stories, I don't know? I loved ADT, I think it's a fun track.

Icing on the cake... Allyson Felix (World Champ in the 200m dash multiple times over, and '08 Olympic Gold medalist 4x400m relay) was at a track meet next to the 'drome and was walking in to get a drink as I was walking out. I said hello, and thought it was pretty cool to have met someone that fast.

Lowes Motor Speedway Time Trial

The Time Trial, the race of truth. I didn't like the truth last year and it kinda threw a kink into my Paralympic plans. Turns out, you get on the team by riding TT's or the track time trials (Kilo & Pursuit). If I want on the team I have to Time Trial. I got a coach this year and he introduced me to Threshold workouts; they changed they way I ride.

The LMS TT is held on the Nascar oval in Charlotte, NC. It's a 7 lap, 10 mile affair that is held rain or shine. It rained tonight, so the track was very wet. I warmed up on the trainer and headed to the start line armed with my Vintage Giro Aerohead helmet, clip on TT bars, a Spinergy RevX front wheel and a powertap/Open Pro rear rear.

I had a good, no nerves start and settled into my aero bars. Aquick glance at the PowerTap showed 300 Watts, too much effort, so I dialed it down to 260 and stayed there for the first 2 laps. I picked up the pace just a little on lap 3 and pretty much rode by feel with the odd look at the PT to make sure things were good. As I started lap 5 I realized my time was looking better than I had hoped so I pushed on. Coming around the final lap I knew I would easily hit my cautious goal time, but making my optimistic goal time would be close. I was looking for 23:10 and coming into the final stretch I sprinted for all I was worth and fell shy of 23:10 by just a few seconds.

I looked at the results and sure enough, 23:17, so I did the math and realized I had actually BEAT my goal time by 7 seconds. About these goal times. The paralympic team has time standards for the different tiers of the team. The highest Tier is the National Team, to make that you need to go 25.58mph, and the Talent Pool is 24.9mph. For this race that worked out to 23:24 and 24:10. My oxygen deprived brain mixed up the seconds so when I realized my mistake I was very very happy. All of my hard work has been validated and I'm getting alright at this Time Trial thing. A very good night for me.

A little update

Thursday:
My coach threw in an interesting workout that was 3 rounds of "10 minutes at 260W, and every 3 minutes surge at 350W." I did this one with the silly hat I'm borrowing from Mark D.

Yup, a vintage aero lid that looks ridiculous, but makes me faster.

Friday:
I went out and rode from Cycle Center and went super easy as it was a rest day.

Saturday was 70 min on the trainer with an hour at 210W

And today I went out to Hopkins and rode at a pretty good pace for 1:45 in the aerobars. Avg Wattage was 210 and Avg speed was 21.2mph. I'm starting to get the hang of riding in the aerobars and am hoping I can ride a respectable time on Tuesday at the Lowes Motor Speedway Time Trial.

I found my fitness!

Yup, 2x20 min. I started out feeling like a rockstar and pushing too hard: having forgotten the lessons of the powermeter, I rolled with it for a few minutes. I then settled into a reasonable pace, but felt the pain of my bad decision towards the end. I ended with 264W, still not anything to be ashamed of.

Interval #2 was a different story, I started out at what I thought was a reasonable pace but it quickly turned into 20 minutes of torture. I thought about bailing halfway through, but that little voice in my head kept reminding me that nationals is only 8 weeks away and I can't wimp out. I also remembered how much fun it is to be fast, so I put my head down and pushed through. 244W, so that's the hole in my fitness. My FTP slid, and that explains my not feeling as fast or not feeling I can last in a break as I have earlier in the season. Now that I found it I can get it back!

The moral of the story is to do your LT work kids! And then drink chocolate milk, because it tastes good and is great for recovery.

TNWC p/b Tibco

Jeff brought his team of pro bike racing women to our little playground and they made things lively. I'm still riding a little bit anonymously, but did manage to get in on 2 breaks that died quickly. Ladd tried to organize the first one, but we couldn't get cohesive and were brought back.

It was fast for sure, I've got an avg speed of 26.4 which is faster than I've ever seen. Racing with a bunch of powerhouse women like that was really cool, always nice to mix it up with some pros.

2009 Roswell Crit

Roswell is an hour drive from Athens so I stayed overnight at Kyle's house drove to the race in the AM. Only problem, church traffic turned it into a 90 minute drive. So I missed the 3/4 reg and settled for the 4/5. I was slated for both, but oh well. I staged in the back, and when the field is +100 deep with some tricky turns, well that is no good. I spent 30 minutes hopping from dropped rider to the next chasing the field down. After 30 minutes of sprinting out of 3 of the 5 corners I fell back and told the moto ref I was done. #Fail

2009 Athens Twilight Qualifier

My morning started at a very early 3:45AM so I could make my 8:45AM Cat4/5 start time. I arrived at the Jittery Joe's Roaster with no incident and got my stuff in line, slammed a shot of Jittery's espresso, and headed to the course. My coach had told me that staging is vital in this race and I got a spot in the second row, not the best, but I could have done worse for sure. They sent us out and mister Keo pedals in front of me missed his clip in, so my good position just went down the drain. With an eager field of 75+ the opportunity to move up early on was dicey. About 400m from the Start/Finish on lap 3 there was a crash that went from curb to curb. I managed to stop, but then had to walk by bike through the mess. My race was over, and then I saw Ron Williams on the side of the road. Ron is the captain of the US Paracycling team and is definitely a guy I look up to. He told me to catch back up and that provided a lot of motivation. I put my head down and went into TT mode. I was riding through the groups of dropped riders and rode part of the way with another guy who looked strong. As the laps ticked down I realized I was catching the field. Coming around the last turn the catch was made, but it was too late. No night race for me. NP for the 26minuterace was 270W, and I spent 18 of those in chase mode. Not a bad effort in that I can chase down a group from behind.

Athens is a fun race, I enjoyed the handcycle race since I know half the field. Alejandro Albor got his big gear (58T chainring) would up and powered away from the group to take the sprint.

The pro races were pretty cool, and fast! I hung out with Ron, Alejandro, and Oz Sanches (another paracyclist). I'm looking forward to seeing these guys later in the summer.

TNWC 4-21 edition: Brutastic!

My first hard ride in 16 days. There was a nice headwind blowing up the back stretch which promised that there would be pain. We started and when the pace picked up the suffering level went right along. I attempted to go with some moves but I knew I didn't have the power for most of them. I was in the front a good bit, butr I also spent time tail-gunning. I hate seeing races from the back.
I saw the winning break go and had nothing. Then half a lap later I saw Ladd start bridging, I tried to get to him but that turned into a big fat FAIL. I sat up with half a lap to go having burned through all my matches.
Upon reviewing my power files from this and previous Tuesday crits I realized this was the hardest I've been to by a long shot. Everything from max 30sec-max 10min power were way higher. That's nice, but I want my fitness back!

Take It Away

Deprive someone of a major part of their life, watch the reaction, then judge what role it plays in their life.

For 10 days I could not ride a bike. The Deprivation part.

My reaction was actually a lot better than I would have hoped, from the moment someone told me my bike was broken, to the advice of the doctor not to ride, through the healing process.
Back Story: I was laying beside the road waiting for the EMT and someone said, "dude, your bike is F***ed!" My response was "guess I need a new one".
So the news that my bike was trash went over really really well. The news from the doctor that I'd be out of commission for 10-14 days was met with the idea of healing as quickly as possible. And I did not lose my head while off the bike. Now something you may have picked up on is that I'm a bit obsessive and neurotic, which I feel are my biggest character flaws. At a mild level I think these traits can help in being a good athlete, but if taken too far are just plain annoying and worse. Throughout this whole ordeal I think I have managed myself pretty well. I never freaked out about missing training, I just focused on getting back to it.

As for what role the bike plays in my life. There have been times when I wonder if I really like riding or if the bike just serves as a means to an end. In all honesty, I just like a good challenge and would probably be happy doing a dozen different sports. I like training, I like competing, and I like seeing what I can do (a lot to do with having CP).
Yesterday while I was out riding the MTB I was just haveing FUN. I realized that I really do like riding a bicycle. It was late afternoon and the long shadows cast by the sun against the dirt and trees looked really cool. Now that's not to say I don't like training. I'm ready to get back to it and see red, and break power records and go fast, because going fast is fun. Oh yeah, and win a race. It's about time I get around to doing that.

Sometime You Crash

Sometimes when you race a bicycle, you crash, even the pros.

Healing

The stitches come out tomorrow! And I'm getting on the trainer for the first time today, not tomorrow. I think I have the necessary ROM to get through a pedal stroke and it is time to be riding again. I was really able to see how much of my life was the bike while not riding.

I got a new frame, not new, but new to me. It's a Cannondale CAAD8 or 9 from the Healthnet/CoFA stable. I liked my six13 enough that I wanted to stay with the same family and geometry.

I discovered that rowing with one leg is a challenge, but will really work your hip flexors, glutes, and hams. Not a bad way to cross-train and keep the ticker from getting lazy.

How to Break a Bicycle

For me, the Rock Hill Road Race is personal. I got dropped inside of 15 minutes last year and rode alone for nearly 2 hours. Talk about a swift kick in the pants to show you that your fitness sucks.

This year was different and better until the very end. I was sitting midpack at the start and when I saw the first crash about 5 minutes in I knew my place was at the front. So that's where I went and stayed for the whole race. The first hour was attack after attack. An attack would go, it would get some leash, then the front group would do a fast rotating line to make the catch. The only time I played tail-gunner was after this one super steep hill. I realized out that 53-23 was not a small enough gear and blew my quads out. I recovered at the back for about 3 minutes and made my way back up front. The last 10 miles were super boring, it was established that a break would be given no leash. As a result we just rode in.
We turned onto the home strech and 3 guys jumped. I went with them, it was too early. As I was getting passed the road was getting full of bikes and bodies. We ran out of room and I ended up going down. As I was lying on the ground after coming to a stop I saw a Carolina Cyclones Junior go flying over my head. I'm pretty sure that's how I trashed my '"new" custom, one of a kind 6-13 frame'. I think Cyclones used it as a launch pad. Well that really sucks, I really liked that bike and I felt bad about calling Rich to tell him. But I guess that's racing.

As for fault. Maybe mine, maybe the very large guy in a green kit I bounced off of, maybe someone else for crowding him. In retrospect I would not have done anything differently if I was in that exact same position tomorrow. Although I do think I'm up for some bump drills once I heal up.

The damage to me is vast amounts of Road Rash, and 4 stitches in my right knee. I am under orders not to ride or bend my knee for 7-14 days.

I am searching for a new or new to me frame. I'd rather not spend a lot of money, so I'll probably be on Aluminum again. If anybody knows of anything with an effective Top Tube about 54cm please let me know. If all else fails I do have my old Trek, but I'd rather not go back to that.

TNWC: 3/31 Edition

Last week my coach was pleased with my pre-crit intervals so we made a deal. I can do the crit, which is a lot of fun but I get to do intervals beforehand. For the month of April I have 4x5min on the menu before we race. I started out and knew it was going to be tough. I was hitting the wattage numbers but my PE was high. I was hoping I'd feel that tingling in the legs and feel better after that but it never came. The second effort was ok, and the third one just sucked. I wasn't holding any power down the backstretch. I also wasn't able to maintain my normal high rev cadence during the intervals. I had hopes for the crit being better.

The first lap arrived and who is off the front other than Mr. Gimp Shoulder Rich. After his crash on Saturday's Monumental 110 miler I wasn't expecting that. A few guys bridged and I decided to close the gap solo. I could not do it, I got to within a few seconds but I still felt crappy. Fortunatly I found my spin and I ended up doing ok during the crit. I wasn't playing at the front like last week, but I spent a good bit of time there. I went with a few moves, but nothing was sticking.

I tried an attack at one point, but no-one went with. I just don't command enough respect to draw people with me yet. I knew I was not going to last long if I just tried to ride at FTP so I sat up.

The power data is really close to last week and the speed was a good bit higher (I've got 25.65 after the neutral lap). I guess that if I can do that on a day where I just feel like crap then I'm not doing too bad.

Long, Fast, and Wet

If you had told me in December that I would do 110 miles at 21.1 mph with 3000 feet of elevation gain I would have given you a blank stare.

I met a few others at Ladd's house yesterday bright and early, and set out to meet another group. (Sorry for taking too long Ladd) It was a lively ride with everyone taking strong pulls. I took a few pulls that I felt good about, but did not go overboard. I was really impressed by Gordon's pulls, it was like riding with the energizer bunny. I kept wondering why he's still a Cat4.

Around mile 85 miles in we came to a few "climbs", as Ladd called them. They were steep, 500m, big ring, power hills. I responded to the first 2 attacks and then fell off a little bit coming to the regroup point. Ouch, those hurt!

The last hour was pure misery, we rode in the driving rain just trying to get home. It was made worse by Rich getting crashed. It sucks to end a good ride in that way.

The PowerTap took on some water about 2 hours in and the current wattage reading started bouncing around like a pinball, so I'm not 100% sure about my data. I tried zeroing it with no luck. In the last hour it stopped reading anything and it only has 103 miles of data. I'm going to seal it up so I can ride in the rain. The data I do have shows an Avg Wattage of 169W and 2961kJ. I'm proud to have seen my first 3000kJ day!

My Legs are Still Sore

Wed I did trainer sprints and decided I like my bike too much to do something like that ever again.

Yesterday there was a lull in the rain so I headed out to the crit course for some 8 minute intervals. Rich was doing a really long LT workout so I hopped on his wheel and did 16 minutes at 210W and 112RPM, little ring the whole way working on cadence. Then I moved over to my workout. I was slated for 5x8min. I did 292W, 285W, 278W, and totally imploded during the 4th and finished in the 260s. I haven't done this workout before but I liked it, it's not as hard as a VO2 workout, but it is faster than a threshold workout. And it's fun to ride at 290W. It did put quite a hurt on my legs though, and they have a good bit of that dull ache right now.

In other news: I'll be spending most of May and June in San Diego with fellow Paracyclist Matt B. It will be a regular gimp-fest in his house. He offered a couch and it makes sense because Para Track Nats are at ADT in L.A. I'll be 2 minute from the beach, riding distance from Palomar Mountain, have access to 2 Velodromes, and the group rides are supposed to be pretty insane. I'll get pummelled into shape and I'll be able to get my technique work on the Velodrome for the Pursuit.

On the Pursuit front, things are going pretty well in terms of power. I threw down 367W for 5 minutes (6.1W/kg) at the Forest Acres Crit. The literature suggests I need 370-400W after the initial acceleration to go 3:43, so it looks like I'm on track so far.

TNWC

I made it out to my first Tuesday Crit of the year this evening. I had 3 min intervals on the plate beforehand; I was supposed to do 5, but I did 3. I did 304W, 314W, and 318W. Not too bad, and neg splitting the whole way.

The crit started up about 15 minutes later. I was talking to Mike during the neutral lap and ended up at the back. I took the next few minutes to get to the front where I spent most of the evening. I went in a few breaks, helped chase a few down, and generally hung out with the fast guys. I definently didn't do the most work, but I did more work and saw more wind than I have ever seen at one of those before. It was freaking fun out there at the front!

An Upgrade Point!

Baby steps; that's how I make progress in this bike racing thing. Let me tell you, it feels good to be moving!

Saturday's race was in the mountains, and although we did not climb any of them, they made the course interesting. We did a ?6 mile? loop 6 times. It was mostly downhill and flat on narrow, twisty roads (the mountain influence) and each lap punctuated by a hill that was about 1km long. The finish line was just 150m past the crest

I sat near the front the first 2 laps and kept my wheel out of the wind. Each time up the hill I dropped into the little ring and kept a high cadence. The pace was light enough that my heart rate was dropping. I didn't like this, this meant the bigger guys were not being put into enough difficulty and the hill not long enough to split the field at this easy pace.

Lap3 was the start of the animation. The lone woman (Amity) in the field worked her way to the front, which was my que to go to the front as well. Riding with Casey has taught me that when a woman races with the men, she means business. I also figured she's a Cat2, maybe on a pro team, knows how to ride, and will probably make a move. Her presence was visibly upsetting some of the guys (stupid boys), which was pretty funny. They were freaked out by a girl leading their race. So she attacks, and me, carbone wheels guy, and tall guy in red kit go with. We each pull through before the pack reels us in since you can't let the girl get away. Coming into the hill I was 4th wheel and asked Amity, "do you want to shatter the field?" She said she needed a little rest so I pulled through and set hard tempo up the hill. About 3/4 of the way up I was ready for someone else to set pace, but I looked back and the whole field was 50 feet behind. They just let me ride away. I was caught on the downhill and sat in 'till lap 5.

Once again, I tried to hurt the field by setting hard tempo up the hill, and once again, they let me ride away.

So now it's the last lap and the field is swarming, setting up for the last climb. I had to move up, so I shot some gaps and got to about 20th at the bottom of the hill. I passed a bunch of people, but didn't have the legs to get more than 9th. But 9th earned me one point towards my Cat3 upgrade, only 19 more to go!

Well, my plan to rip legs didn't quite work. The hill wasn't long enough to create a sense of urgency when I rode away. I may have gassed myself a little too much on lap5, and I should have been closer to the front at the base of the last climb. I am pleased with my effort. I rode hard, and I raced, and have my one point, and I will get the rest!

Suday's race was at BMW. It was flat and windy, I got a great workout, the end.

Hmm

I found a way to eek out a tiny bit more speed from my sprint today. Seems that weighing 134lbs (61.1kg) lends itself to being pretty areo. Good times!

2 Years

This past Thursday was my 23rd birthday which is the two year mark for me being on the bike. Two years ago I walked into Outspokin' knowing I wanted a bike and not much else. It's been a lot of fun, and I feel like I'm finally out of the total newb stage, and into the sorta-newb/sorta-experienced category.

While I have since realized the ride on that aluminum Trek 1500 was pretty harsh we shared a lot of miles and good times. I'd say it was a pretty good 21st birthday present. It took me around the tri-state region to race and even took me way out west to Colorado.

Here's to many more years on a bike.

Greenville Spring Series #4

Cold temps and rain caused the race to be called off. The flier says "rain or shine". So Evan and I bundled up and headed to Donaldson Center unaware of the cancellation. The only real thing to say here is that while Embrocation (icyhot without the icy) is wonderful for cold racing, it is terrible if the only thing you are doing is sitting in a toasty car for 45 minutes.

Greenville Spring Series #3

I'm here in Greenville staying with Rick and Gail again. Also here is a Cat1 that Rick is coaching. I came up yesterday to show Evan the way to Paris Mtn for some leg openers. A little more than I'm used to, but the legs felt good. The weather did not. Rain and 50 degrees. So the turnout was small and the 3 and 4 fields were combined for 45miles (3 laps), there were about 50 on the line. I got a decent spot in the second row and we were off. I looked around and knew the guys to watch would be the Hincapie Barkley, and Barley's teams. I stayed close to the front and tryed to stay out of the wind, pulling through when my time came but making my pulls reasonable. There was an attack about 10 miles in that I went with, the counter was pretty hard and I drifted back a bit. By this time the field was being thinned out rapidly. I had worked my way back near the front when we went around a turn 5 miles into lap 2. I pulled on the breaks and had very little stopping power. I rolled into a parking lot to get out of the way since it was that or ride into some poor guy's wheel. I told the motor official I was dropping out, and rode 50 feet behind the pack for a few miles before a sag picked me up. It turns out the road grime chewed my brake pads up. I would love to have finished that race because I was doing well, but I guess we all have to have a mechanical sometimes. Yes, I am racing tomorrow. It will be 40 degrees, rain, and wind, fun times.

A Little Different

Yesterday I had no legs. Nothing at all, so I didn't ride.
I was supposed to do jumps and sprints but I went out with Casey since she's back in town. It was pretty easy for 2 hours, but we met up with Tom S, Phillip, and the juniors. We did the "iron cross" which is all of Dixie and down Wildcat. I wanted to test the legs a little so I attacked on a small hill about 20 minutes in. That lasted 2 minutes. Things were together at the bottom and top of the nasty kicker on Wildcat that leads to Dixie. As soon as we hit Dixie I attacked, hoping the hill had gassed them enough to stay away. I was caught a little less than 5 minutes later and had to respond to the counters. Eventually Phillip got a gap and no one else would chase, so he rode solo to the end. It was a nice little workout, and the legs seem good.
Tomorrow I'm back on schedule.

Perspective

While I wasn't terribly pleased with the results of the weekend there is always a bright side. There was a nasty crash in the Cat3 race yesterday that tore a couple of guys up pretty bad. Bikes busted, bodies torn up pretty good, that sort of thing. There were a few moments in my races that could have turned bad. On the last lap yesterday one guy rode by me on a hill and promtly put his hips into my handlebars, taking most of my control of the bike away from me. No one went down, I did yell at him.
So my races may not have been what I hoped, but I am home with my bike and body intact and I have have a full season ahead of me.

Let's be thankful, lets freaking race!

Race Weekend #1

I'm sitting here, and I hardly feel like writing this. I've played these races in my head multiple times, reviewed the power files and sent the gritty details to my coach. It just sucks.

First things, fitness is not my problem. I just made dumb mistakes.

Race 1: I was at the front during the first 2 laps. I allowed myself to move too far back in the pack and spent most of the race trying, and failing to move up. It's hard to move up when you are stacked 4-5 wide all race. The one positive I took away is that my comfort in a pack has improved markedly since last year. I'm guessing the mountain bike helped out there.
Anyways, I got a pack finish.

Race 2: Quite possibly the suckiest race I have ever done. It even beats out the 60 miler I did in July, in Ga, in 100* weather. It was mid-40s with massive massive wind. I got spit of the back in 10 minutes, and it was my own dumb fault. I was 4th at the top of the biggest hill (roller) that was on the course when the 3 guys in front rolled away from the group, sweet. Except that we turned into a crosswind and I fell off the wheel. When the pack caught me I let them pass on the side that left me to be pummelled by the crosswind. I lost contact, the end, I sucked.

I'm looking to be just a hair smarter next weekend.

Charts from the Slugfest

This first graph is the 2 hills that lead up to and include Congress Rd. It's 10 minutes AP, not NP, at 243W with several spikes over 400W. My FTP being somewhere between 255-265W. I put myself into difficulty at minute 96, I shouldn't have pushed as hard.

This graph is the 5 minutes I chased Marc W. I was riding smart here and not giving too much on the hills. I was reeling him in and was content to ride within myself 'till I made the catch. (Smoothing of 2 factors)

This last graph (smoothing of 5 factors) shows us working together to get to the gas station at the end of Chain Gang to regroup with the rest of the guys. I'm pretty happy with this one, Marc and I worked very well together and did a nice little Team Time Trial.

This is the same graph as above sans the smoothing. It becomes apparent where I pulled as the cadence goes bonkers while I'm drafting.

Post #101 and a Sunday Stroll (or not)

I just realized that my last post was my 1ooth blog entry, so this is number 101.

I heard through the twitter-sphere that today's ride was going to be a pre-racing tune-up so I made sure to actually wake up and get to it. I was not disappointed. We were slated for 70 miles at a hard pace so my plan was to sit in, suck wheel, and take reasonable pulls (sage advice Rich) when I came through the line. By the time we reached 601 the group was whittled down to those that would finish, and I was happy to be there. When we reached the hill on Congress Rd I gave a little too much gas at the bottom and dropped off the back. I grouped with Mark W and we traded pulls to the gas station to regroup. When we got to the fort the attacks started up again, and my legs were pretty sore and tired. Jay went up the road and Rich thought it would be a good idea to tell me to chase him down. My oxygen deprived brain found this to be a brilliant idea and I blew myself up 20-30 seconds later. Thanks Rich :)

I'll have to look at my average power and other stuff later, I'm going to take a nap now. I feel really good about starting the race season next week!

15 minutes

Yup, yesterday's prescription was 3 x 15 minute intervals with 3 minutes of rest, so I headed down to the crit course to get it on. Rich was there and we chatted while I warmed up. He pointed out that the Power Meter can be used as a governor to remind you not to go too hard in the beginning. Armed with that advice I set out to ride in the 240-250Watt range. I made sure not burn though the first 3 minutes and ended up doing pretty well. I had 255W, 247W, and 249W. Pacing like that really worked well. Upon review, my coach said my pacing "in particular is very good". Very good to hear.Of course, he also points out that my average cadence dropped for each interval, meaning that I push a bigger gear and get sloppy as I fatigue. That's something to work on.

Tomorrow is a group ride with 3x25min at the end, so I need to get some quality sleep this evening.

Busta Lung

Armed with the PowerTap and warm weather I started the short stuff in earnest this week.
Yesterday I went out to that road that intersects Bluff that the Elon ride goes down (name? I'm in too much oxygen debt by that time to look at road signs). I had 4x5 minutes on the menu and that did not happen. I started out and was feeling like superman, I rode 425W for the first minute and suddenly I was scrambling to hold power. It fell to 375 and I keeled over at 2:15. Ok, so going downhill, even slightly, kills power. Also, that first minute at 425W, held for 3:3x would be close to enough power to put me on the podium at any International Paracycling Track Race. Overshooting much? So I did 3 sorta halfhearted efforts and quit. tsk tsk

Today I set out with resolve, a repeat of yesterday was not going to happen. The pain of the day was to be delivered in 2 parts. Part A was downhill sprints times 5 with nearly full recovery. Wattage was a little sub max, but that may be because of the hill I came flying down? I was starting between 25 and 30mph and managed to hit 35-36. Still not a sprinter, haha.

Part B was more painful. 30 seconds all out, followed by 1:30 rest times 5. Each interval was a little less powerful than the previous and the graph looks like an AT&T wireless commercial.
My best 30 second wattage was 630, so that continues to climb.

Weight, I'm not quite 132 like I thought, but am sitting at 135lbs/61.2kg.

Edit: At my weight, 425W for 3:35 may very well send me to the Olympics. haha

Sunday

Today was gorgeous.
75 miles in 4 hours 40 minutes, not very fast, but I racked up 2180 kJ points. I almost bonked on Mt Elon Rd from a lack of food but we got to G-Mart just in time for an Oatmeal Cream Pie and Coke.
I'm tired as all get out.

The New Bike

18.99lbs with pedals, cages, and an Aluminum shelled PowerTap Pro laced to a Mavic Open Pro rim with 32 spokes. That's 1.5 lbs lighter than the old Trek and I can drop more with a wheel switch. I'll take the data over the weight.

Today was really my first day to get out on the road on the new bike and I was pleased! The biggest difference was how much road buzz got soaked up, the old bike was a little jarring to ride, especially on the fort. Not so on the six13.
Another difference was power delivery. The six13 is more direct, stomp and go.
And the handling is snappier. A shorter wheelbase will do that, and the new bike begs to tossed around corners.

I'm very happy.

A Power File to Feel Good About

Last night I was out late with my friends, I figured it would be a good weekend to get it out of my system before the racing starts. I woke up this AM to meet my former debate coach to ride with her for a while. Back-story: I was on the debate team my senior year of high school, team policy FTW! She hasn't ridden much recently so we rode at her pace through the fort, accompanied by the most beautiful weather I have seen since the week before Christmas. It was fun and a pretty chill ride. We ate lunch at Earthfare, then I set out to do 3x20 minute intervals at 90-95% PE since I wasn't wearing the HRM strap. The results: 248W, 234W, 243W. When I dropped out the first and last 4 seconds it went up to 249W, 234W, and 245W. The lesson here is that I can't ease up at the end, gotta drive hard right though the 'line'. If you spotted the outlier, the 2nd interval, that was mental drift. I let my mind wander and it showed. Considering that I did 255W for 20 minutes in December at an all-out-I-can-taste-battery-acid-and-see-the-white-light effort I think it was a pretty good training session. On top of that, my weight went from 62.27kg to 60kg over that time. More power, less weight. W/kg FTW!

Charts and Graphs Telling on Me

I slogged away on the trainer for and hour and was supposed to do 15 minutes 3 times. And I did 1 of them. My 5 minute power peak was 281W, while my avg over the 15 dropped to 245 because I took a few rests that killed my average. Blast it all. And then I was fried so I averaged 150W for the last half hour for an overall average of of 167W.

These Power Meters are unrelenting, ease up for just a little bit and they go blab you out.

Trainer Sprints

I did them. The trainer isn't great, but blasting some music through the IRiver helps. Today it was Chevelle, and while Chevelle may not be the most musically inspired band in the world, there aren't a lot of other bands that make me want to break things (like cranks, or windows, or legs[see, cycling is good for me, keeps me from breaking things!]).

I spent a few hours searching for and downloading drivers to get the PowerTap to link with my computer this afternoon. I also can't get it to read with Power Agent, so I have to DL the file in PowerTap Link (a very archaic power analyzing program), save it to the computer, then open it in Power Agent. It a hoop jumping game, but it takes all of 30 seconds and I get what I need. It's cool to look at the data and start seeing patterns.

As Promised

The lighting is pretty terrible, but this is what the new steed looks like. I'll take it out for its madien voyage in a few hours!

Andy Hatcher

This may well be the best picture, or dare I say photograph, I have ever taken.

Subject: William "Andy" Hatcher. Also known as "The Hatch". Also known as the (self-proclaimed) best looking male on the US Paracycling Team

Location: Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs

Time: Sept 2008. Paracycling Camp. Prior to the Road TT. Andy is cool as a Cucumber.

Anyways, I forgot about this picture, but I think it turned out great. I met Andy back in June at Para-nationals and saw him at camp in September. He's a great guy, and he is quite hilarious. Andy is a bit of a larger than life character and I think the picture really captures this part of him.

The Last Week

Wed on the trainer. *unimpressed Aaron is unimpressed*

Thursday: picked up Rich's PowerTap to borrow and spent 3 hours trying to get it working and didn't ride. *wags finger at self*

Friday: off. *boredom sets in after 2 days off* (I worked at a party hosted by my boss which I found to be entertaining)

Sat: 2.5 hours at Harbison on the MTB. I fell down an embankment. *falling and landing lower than your bike is unsettling*

Sun: 4 hours, 70 or so miles. I met up with Sammy and we rode through the fort and Hopkins for a while. *I done with this style commentary*

The problem with the PT was the wiring harness, it was faulty. Rich obtained another from Jay, so I will be training with power this week, thanks guys.

Something new is coming; I'll have pictures soon.

TT Intervals

I went out to the crit course for 4x12 and felt strong today. My pacing strategy was better than last time. Rich was out there as well doing his intervals. When he finished he sat on my wheel for one of my efforts so I'm looking forward to seeing the data through his PT.

Greenville Winter Bike League

With the threat of rain in both Columbia and Athens I decided to put the city and the rain behind me and head north. What follows was 93 miles of rolling terrain and a few hills with several dozen of my closest Greenville friends. I stayed towards the rear of the ride since it was my first time, and I just wanted to see what happened. The first sprint zone came around 35 miles in and it was FAST. It also lasted 4-5 miles with a couple of domestic pros chilling (or not) on the front. Another bit of riding and another 4-5 mile sprint zone. Things went totally bonkers around 84 miles in with the last sprint zone lasting 7, yes SEVEN miles. I got gaped out when the wheel I was following faded on a climb. I bridged and survived until we hit the 4 lane road and was in a group that got dropped with severe prejudice. I have to say that with that ride being my longest of the off-season by 20 miles that I did quite alright. The fitness gains I'll see from that are awesome. After the ride I was invited to grab some pizza at a downtown pub. I devoured 4 very large slices and enjoyed the company. Not only are the Greenville boys fast, they are very hospitable. The UWBL ride comes highly recommended by me.
After the pizza I drove out towards the foothills to visit Rick and Gail. Right as I was getting ready to leave Gail said that I should stay in town and do my Sunday ride in Greenville (sweet, actual climbing). While they went out for diner I vegged on the couch and watched the Hawaii Ironman Triathlon on DVR. It was a good race, and while I'm not a Triathlete, it is a sport I can appreciate.
After getting 10 hours of sleep (YES) I woke up to cold temps and headed out for 3 hours. I finished up with a trip over Paris Mountain and on the Furman side matched my PR from July with 12:30. I'm quite pleased to be riding this well in January knowing I could shatter that number if I was rested and the temperature was warmer. On top of that my coach has not had me remotely close to my top end and I will be considerably faster as the intensity picks up.
A big thank-you goes out to Rick and Gail for hosting me over-night with no notice! Y'all are awesome.

Flatlined

In an attempt to curb my dangerous habit of emotional roller coastering I am going to set way-high long term goals and large, but reasonable short term goals.
In real terms, I want to get into the Paracycling talent pool this year which means riding the B standard in one or more event(s), if training puts me hitting an 'A' standard my goal can be readjusted. Worlds, worlds can wait for 2010 when cycling doesn't compete with school for top honours in terms of time commitment. If I go this year it will be a bonus.

Being resonable should keep me closer to the mean on the emotional scale, which is where I prefer to be. Soaring highs and plunging lows wreak havoc on me.

sickness and long arms

After Saturday's MTB freeze fest (frozen pipes at the fountain meant I only had one water bottle, frozen mud meant my toes became very cold) I got sick so I didn't ride Sun, Mon, or Tue. Yesterday was drills at the crit course, and today was 3+ and about 50 miles on that TT bike that I still have lying around that is not mine. The problem with the bike lies in the crank arms. You see, Rick is a guy that is made up mostly of leg, so while he is no less than an inch taller than me he needs these massive 175mm cranks. Another issue is that the headtube is way too tall. I could probaly drop another 2 inches and be comfy. But the cranks, I never could turn them over last summer, and I still can't. I need to get the bike out of my posession so I quit trying to ride it only to get angry when it just doesnt work for my body. I did threshold intervals today.

I like working with a coach, it helps keep me accountable. It's funny, my race results should do that, but that's a topic for another entry I'm working on. I seem to be riding better with the consistent riding so it's working out well.

The Paracycling Performance Plan was released a few days ago. The A and B standards for the Road TT and Kilo were slightly relaxed while the Pursuit is a little more difficult. The US is only taking 6-8 men to Para-Worlds, so Nationals should be a hotly contested affair. We'll see how I stack up this year in July.

Secret Goals

Athletes are funny creatures. Most of us have very high expectations of ourselves but how and who we express our goals and expectations seems to vary based on natural ability and strengths. I read a Taylor Phinney interview where he said he wants to win a World Championship in the next 4 years and the Pursuit at the 2012 Olympics, and I didn't bat an eye when I read that. The kid is 18 and finished 7th in the Pursuit at the Olympics, his goals seem wholly realistic. A lot of elite sprinters seem to have a sort of brash confidence, but it seems like a necessary part of sprinting. They just come out and say they think they can win a stage or a race, but what about the rest of us?
When I was at the OTC we had nightly meetings and in our first meeting the athletes were asked what out goals were. Most of the goals were within reason, a bunch of people expressed a desire to qualify for Paracycling Worlds. The people that rode regular bicycles generally wanted to have some success in local and regional USAC races. Some people expressed a desire to ride faster time trials, and a few people talked about going to the London Paralympics in 2012. Overall every one's goals seemed reasonable, and I think that a lot of people were holding back, being cautious about what we said to not sound presumptuous or cocky. A lot of us were holding back.
The discussion of goals is funny, you have the reasonable ones. I want to win a road race, I want to upgrade to Cat3 this season. I want to be a 2 in the next few years, I want to go to Para Worlds this year, and I want to go to London in 2012. That's reasonable stuff. Then there are big goals, the kind that take years to achieve and are only mentioned to select people on rare occasion. In general they are extensions of reasonable goals. Then, you have the mack-daddy goals. These goals exist on the edge of the realm of possibility. They are never spoken about except in passing and usually as a joke, and I'm not sure that these goals exist in the mind of every athlete.
The athlete that does carry these goals views them as no joke (but would not let on about this), but as something that takes them away from the everyday grind of intervals and local group rides. It is something to think about as a you drift off to sleep, knowing that enough dedication might just get you there but it might not. It hangs in the balance of fantasy and reality making that time before sleep the perfect time to contemplate this goal/dream.
Maybe you are wondering if I am one of those people that has a goal hanging between fantasy and reality. Yes, I will admit to having about 2 of those at this point in time. You're out of your mind if you think I'm going to share what they are, though.

Rollers, Scary!

I had my first experience with rollers on Friday, I headed over to ride with Pat and we watched the 1992 Liege-Baston-Liege. Talk about vintage.
It took me 15 minutes of riding before I got my hand off the wall, but then I was good and spent 30 minutes spinning along. It was a unique experience and the amount of concentration needed was pretty high. I could spin along around 105 rpms pretty well but I wasn't smooth enough to get over 140.

2x20

I went out to the the crit course for some 20 minute intervals at "5% under Threshold HR". That's easier said. Rich was out there as well and asked to sit on and I proceeded to feel slow since I've seen his wattage numbers. It's one of those walk before you run things. edit: I looked at Rich's power file from sitting on my wheel and the speed was higher than on my computer. The power numbers showed that I was pushing too hard up the front stretch and too easy down the back.
So I went out a little hot the first go around (WHAT!? Aaron go out too hot? Never!) and averaged 175bpm, or about 97% of Threshold. With only 3 minutes of recovery I wasn't able to flush my legs and ended up stuck in the 160s for HR.
It's supposed to be COLD this weekend.

Valley of the Sun

So a friend of mine is trying to convince me to go out to Tempe Arizona for a 3 day race in mid-February called Valley of the Sun. Ordinarily the idea of going to Az for a Cat4 race would never even cross my mind, but this one is different. I am going to know people there so it would be a blast! So here is who I'll know.
Matt Bigos: Cat4 and Paralympic Cyclist. Matt and I would race together in the 4s and would be someone I'd look to get into a break with in the RR. Off the bike shenannigans are sure to abound.
Casey Gale: After abandoning us Columbians for a Pro Team in Texas, she will be at VOS. It would be great to see her again
Greta Neimanas: Racing Cat3 when she's not busy with Paralympics, Greta was insturmental in getting me involved with US Para and I haven't seen her since September.
Dave Swanson: Cat2 and tandem pilot for Paralympian Clark R. Dave is cool.

So it would be a fun weekend and Matt could hook me up with a bike, so all I need is a plane ticket? I need a benefactor.

Cerebral Palsy: A Little About My Disability

With my aspirations regarding Paralympic competition it is common and expected for me to field questions regarding my disability and how it affects me in and out of competition. I'm going to try to write about it here for anyone who wants to know more or feels uncomfortable asking me directly. I know that disabilities can be a sensitive issue for many and I will not hold it against you for being shy.

I have become progressively more open about about my disability for several reasons. First, I live with Cerebral Palsy every day, it is as much a part of my life as being 5'9" tall or having a 28" waist. Trying to hide it or ignore will not make it go away, but on the other hand I do not feel the need to broadcast to everyone that I have CP. It has helped shape my outlook on life but it is not the only factor that affects my life. Second, if people with disabilities treat their conditions as a normal, integral part of life then able-bodied people will be more likely to understand and accept disabilities. It will also expedite the medical understanding and treatment of disabilities. Tertiarily, I feel that as a person with Paralympic aspirations I have chosen to put my disability on display for all to see. I am going to be representing this country so it is my responsibility to let the people I am representing know why I have this opportunity.

What the heck is Cerebral Palsy (CP)? CP is a blanket term for a group of disabilities caused by brain damage. It usually occurs prior to birth, by complications during birth, or by trauma during infancy. CP is non-progressive and non-degenerative although the secondary effects can progress rapidly during adulthood. CP is classified by local and affect of the disability.

My disability is classified as Spastic Hemiplegia. Spastic meaning that the affected areas do not receive signals from the brain as quickly and the muscles in that area tend to be tight. Hemiplegia means I am only affected on one side, in my case that is my left limbs.

I arrived in the winter of 1986, I was born a healthy and perfect little boy (though my mother and ex-girlfriends may disagree with the perfect part). When I was 4 months old I became sick and was prescribed penicillin, this was to be the decision that would forever my life. I had a severe allergic reaction to the antibiotic and became dangerously dehydrated. When I was seen in the ER it took 26 (yes, twenty six on a 4 month old) needle pricks to draw enough blood for testing. Then I had a stroke. A few years later I was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy, apparently I was displaying impaired motor functions such as dragging my left foot and an inability to pick things up with my left hand. I did physical therapy for a while, but I don't remember anything I've recounted to this point.

Fast forward to age 12 when I had my first surgery at the Shriners Hospital in Greenville, SC. I was fortunate enough to attend Church with a few men involved with the Shriners and they introduced me to the Shriners Hospital system. After countless trips to Greenville for initial overviews and pre-ops I had a muscle release and 2 tendon transfers in my left wrist. Then there were another set of countless trips for post-ops, rehab, and therapy. I gained a tremendous amount of functionality in my left hand after that operation. 4 years later I received a botox injection in my arm to relax the spastic muscles in the my arm. Intense therapy left me with even more use of my left hand. I'd like to pause now and thank my Mom for driving me on all of those countless trips to Greenville, I know it wasn't easy with the other kids and everything she had to do. And while I'm on a roll I have to thank the Shriners for fixing me at no cost to my family. You made my life better, and I mean that with the deepest sincerity.

That brings us to the present and how having Cerebral Palsy affects my life and athletic pursuits. My disability is more severe and noticeable in my left arm. There is a permanent bend in my elbow that does not allow me to extend it all the way, my left hand is smaller than my right hand and does not work as well. It is weaker and slower to respond to brain commands. I find that my fine motor control is more affected than gross motor control. In real life, I type with one hand and do a lot of other things with one hand. Picking things up can be awkward. On the bike I have all shifting duties handled on the right side. I use a bar-end shifter to control the front derailleur and I have rerouted the brake cables so my right hand controls the front brake where all the stopping power is.

My left leg is smaller than my right leg and is putting out a smaller amount of power than my right leg. I also have issues with ankle flexibility and leg suppleness. When you see me spinning out at 160+ RPMs it is the result of a lot of practice at high RPMs. Skills come hard and leave quickly with my left limbs, but I know that and train with that in mind. I also have issues with the cold increasing the spasticity of my muscles so I tend to ride slower and slightly less smooth in my pedal stroke when the mercury drops.

My Paralympic classification is CP4 which is the category for the least-disabled people affected by CP, stroke, and brain damage.

I think that is a pretty good summary of my disability, and if you have any questions feel free to post them in a comment or ask me in person.

The Columbia 6 Days

No, sadly the Greater Columbia area does not have a velodrome and is not hosting a 6 Days race. Rather, the Columbia 6 Days was the number of consecutive I was on the bike. 5 days of training, 1 recovery ride, and one set of tired legs.
I went out for 3:45 with a group today, it was a good ride to finish my training week. I played on some hills and rode in a nice quick paceline down Airbase. After everyone turned for home I went into Cayce with Casey to ride the riverwalk and get some extra miles. It was about as entertaining as Riverfront yesterday.
So here is my question, and I have two. Whenever I go on a group ride it seems like people want to stroll up the hills and hammer the flats. Don't get me wrong, I love hammering the flats, but I think we should not discriminate against the hills.
Second question. Why do people in the blog world use initials instead of names? Just curious.

After I took a nap I tried to play some Wii Fit, and my legs were burning after 5 minutes, so I'm guessing I racked up a lot of training stress this week. Fortunatly, I did not injure myself Mark Cavendish style.

Mountain

I missed the group road ride this morning, so after 45 minutes I decided to get off the road bike and head to Harbison to shred trails. It took me a while to warm up but half way through Lost Creek my legs opened up and Romey played cat-and-mouse through the trails. We hit Spiderwoman and hauled through much faster than I have ever gone before. It was a good general SST style effort, not at race pace but pretty quick. We ended up with 20 miles in a little over 2 hours.

Then we lost our minds and went to Riverfront Park to ride 5 miles on a MUP in full (muddy) kit, clipless pedals, and mud-covered carbon bikes. It was fun and stupid but I was entertained.

Reality

I just suck at Threshold and Time Trial efforts, anything over 5 minutes and I feel slow. I did a set of 2x20 minutes yesterday at the end of a 2 hour ride with Casey and Maria and I couldn't help but feel lame pulling them around and not going very fast. The stiff wind did help my cause either. Wind or not, these workouts are something I need so I can suck less. The amazing thing is how much faster I can go with just one other person, that little bit of rest gives the boost I need to get on it. This leads me to think my 5 minute power is a bit higher than what I tested and I didn't really know how to 'game' the test to hit my highest numbers.

The real world application is that I need to look for a break-mate or few in the spring races while I'm looking to collect points for getting to Cat3, that or just try to Kilo the sprint from a long way out. I also need to put my head down during those Threshold intervals and learn to embrace the suck.

Threshold

My coach is an overt sadists.

My January schedule is full of Time Trial and Lactate Threshold workouts, so yesterday I rolled out of bed at 6:15 to discover that it was still very dark. Sunrise was not until 7:29 so I got back in bed. I did my workout in the afternoon, it was 3x 12 minutes at TT effort/HR. So it was my first workout that was truely pain inducing for the year.

I've been bouncing around between my bike and my Dad's bike while I try to replace everything that's worn on mine. I think the poor frame has just about had it, though. The seat is also too low and I didn't bring my mini-tool so I did TT intervals with scrunched up legs. It's a good thing the season doesn't start for another 6 weeks so I can get my ish straight. I should probably bite the bullet and build up the Giant TCR frame I have lying around.

Just a bland Update

I admit to having been slack with the blog updates, fortunately I have not treated my bike(s) with the same neglect. Last Sunday was a 60 mile jaunt out to St. Matthews with 3 others. The pace was a bit brisk and the wind kept us single file for most of the ride. We rode up one decent hill and I experienced a bit of self-realization; if I pace it right I can ride up hills at a good clip and still blow over the top strong. I just have to be smart at the bottom and not spend all my cookies.
Rode Tuesday, pretty easy.
Rode Wednesday, did a sub LT interval. Then I hopped in a car and headed to Carolina Adventure World to ride the fat tire knobbies. They built a tough network of trails out there with a lot of hills, not much technical riding, and no-where to freaking ride tempo. It was fun, but being the roadie I am, I love riding tempo on double-track and logging roads.
Thursday was skills.
I went out for 3 hours with a group of 5. It was a good ride, I was having some FD issues so I didn't have anything bigger than a 39x15 (aka, really little gear). It made the fast sections interesting since I was spinning out like mad and having to hold that cadence. We stopped at G-Mart and I fixed my FD so I had access to my full cluster which was easily enough gear for the rest of the ride. I was able to sit a meter behind Mark and Nick while they vied for the Air Base sprint point. but lacked the juice to come around. I jumped for the Shop Rd sprint from a long way out but I'm not sure if anyone even tried to contest. Either way, it was good practice. If I'm going to win any races I can't wait for the 200m sign.
Tomorow will be a long ride provided the weather isn't total crap.