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.