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.