tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58863242490376333452024-03-13T00:36:55.786-04:00The Journey of an Amateur CyclistA few years ago I decided that I was going to dedicate the next year to racing as hard as I can and see what I have achieved by winter's end. Due to life and a few other things, that year got postponed to 2012. So here is a blog of my journey.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16072459232599309133noreply@blogger.comBlogger47125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5886324249037633345.post-87408540906112825532013-05-11T11:46:00.000-04:002013-05-11T11:46:11.026-04:00The Comeback<h2>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;">Thoughts</span></span></h2>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Over the last month
I have allowed my personal cycling life take second stage to numerous
other items. Honestly, I am not happy about this at all. After
numerous texts, Facebook messages and other social media inquiries, I
am planning my Comeback. This Blog will be the first step. I am
using it as a means of social intimidation basically making myself
accountable to you, the readers. </span><br />
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Each Sunday I am going to post what
my next week’s workouts are and how I did last week. The biggest problem
with self-coached athletes is that they (we in my case) are not held
accountable to anyone but ourselves. This is a recipe for failure.
I can write some of the best plans to get athletes anywhere
they want to go in our discipline, I have a fantastic one sitting in
my inbox, but without execution, it simply is a plan, nothing more.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Looking at the race schedule I have
identified two races that I want to be prepared for, the <a href="http://www.mcdonaldstristatecrit.com/" target="_blank">McDonald's Criterium</a>
in my hometown of Huntington WV, and <a href="https://www.bikereg.com/Net/19338" target="_blank">Tour of Washington County</a> in Hagerstown
MD. Both races are pretty close calendar wise, but it’s not like I have
taken months off, just slacking since Jeff Cup.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<h2>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;">Strategy</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The first race is the McDonalds Crit
in Huntington WV. This is a very simple crit, with four turns in a downtown
area, fairly fast.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFoGINm6jiUYyjAuxJSC1Ir1M7Ks-PfvpXw9ArzI4al71mNlN2QT9E34A3QMRODFYBd0nt8iyJqdfbq3oju6CuuV8z1npDDAqU35p6DUfaF_eLVCqKwC-mF7LPGkXMdOMai0sVQjwKQyw/s1600/Huntington+Crit+Power+Chart+-+June+2011.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="155" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFoGINm6jiUYyjAuxJSC1Ir1M7Ks-PfvpXw9ArzI4al71mNlN2QT9E34A3QMRODFYBd0nt8iyJqdfbq3oju6CuuV8z1npDDAqU35p6DUfaF_eLVCqKwC-mF7LPGkXMdOMai0sVQjwKQyw/s320/Huntington+Crit+Power+Chart+-+June+2011.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Power Profile - McD Crit 6/11</span></td></tr>
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<h2>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Building a plan for Criteriums</span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">As seen in the chart above, fitness
for criteriums is very focused. The unfortunate part of the
chart above is where the power numbers lay. Zone 1, active recovery, well
do not need to train for that part. Zone 6, anaerobic capacity, well that
means suffering and a lot of it. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This means that the workouts over
the next month will be focused in on VO2Max efforts,
shorter lactic acid, and sprints.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The VO2Max Efforts will be between 3
and 5 minutes, while the higher Anaerobic Capacity efforts will be closer to
one minute. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">For the VO2Max, I will employ a
combination or 3 to 5 minute efforts, with equal amounts of rest between.
As my fitness increases I will slowly decrease the rest intervals and
increase the intensity of the rest intervals. These efforts will be high
on the normal suffer scale but mid-range on the <a href="http://www.thesufferfest.com/" target="_blank">Sufferlandian</a> scale.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Now
the AC effort are a completely different beast. This is where the
suffering will max out. The Anaerobic Capacity workouts will call upon my
anaerobic glycolysis system. This is the one that mainly used for 30
seconds to 2 minutes. This 121 to 150% of your<span style="font-family: inherit;"> LT </span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;">(Allen and Coggan 2010)</span><span style="line-height: 107%;">.</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This means lots of 1 x 1 min intervals, when
I say lots, I am talking 60 per week lots. The method of 1 x 1 that works the best for me is <a href="http://www.thesufferfest.com/video-sufferfests/details-revolver/" target="_blank">Sufferfest Revolver</a> and <a href="http://www.thesufferfest.com/video-sufferfests/a-very-dark-place/" target="_blank">Sufferfest A Very Dark</a> Place on the CompuTrainer, no cheating there. This will not be easy, but
will be necessary for success. I will
have to watch my ATL to ensure that it does not climb more than 7 TSS per week,
to ensure that I am not ov<span style="font-family: inherit;">er reaching <o:p></o:p></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><w:sdt citation="t" id="1815987950" style="line-height: 107%;"> (Coggan 2013)</w:sdt><span style="line-height: 107%;">.</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The
last area that I will focus in on are my sprinting efforts. This will help develop the Creatine Phosphate
system. This system is used for those
all out 5-15 second sprint effort. I
will have to do a ton of these around Hains Point to build muscle and the
coordination to execute. This will not
be nearly as painful as the AC efforts but will require absolute all out
efforts.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So
that is the basic plan. I will post each
ride on Strava and TrainingPeaks for your amusement. Time for three solid weeks of pain,
Sufferlandrian style.</span></span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<h2>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Works Cited</span></h2>
<h1>
<w:sdtpr></w:sdtpr></h1>
<div class="MsoBibliography" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<!--[if supportFields]><span
style='mso-element:field-begin'></span><span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>BIBLIOGRAPHY <span style='mso-element:field-separator'></span><![endif]-->Allen, Hunter, and Andrew Coggan. <i>Training and
Racing with a Power Meter.</i> Boulder: Velopress, 2010.<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-no-proof: yes;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBibliography" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
Coggan, Andrew R. <i>The scientific inspiration for
the Performance Manager.</i> 5 4, 2013. http://www.peaksware.com/articles/cycling/the-science-of-the-performance-manager.aspx.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16072459232599309133noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5886324249037633345.post-3458804603883603632013-04-22T16:26:00.001-04:002013-04-25T20:19:25.301-04:00Race Report: 2013 Fort Ritchie Criterium <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Category 35+
3/4<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDix_TaAUYx2ZooQLMtEh3QuqLRhebr99klBMVRjEP5yClf1hbees0xbAowMXU3iL9GkniAyk6WE4-Yw65P0S4JfivbO0T9GtjslBNYq8ebcQ44dYAmzcLNJzwXzFrLikQkL07trs6xHk/s1600/2013+04+20+Kyle+Coaching+056.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDix_TaAUYx2ZooQLMtEh3QuqLRhebr99klBMVRjEP5yClf1hbees0xbAowMXU3iL9GkniAyk6WE4-Yw65P0S4JfivbO0T9GtjslBNYq8ebcQ44dYAmzcLNJzwXzFrLikQkL07trs6xHk/s200/2013+04+20+Kyle+Coaching+056.JPG" width="133" /></a><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Cascade, MD<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Number of
starters:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>28<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><a href="http://www.road-results.com/?n=racers&sn=pred" target="_blank">Road-ResultsPredictor</a>:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>23rd<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<br />
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</div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Course
description: This is a 1.3 km loop that travels clockwise. There is a slight
incline just past the start/finish line and a fast chicane on the front half of
the course. This venue consists of six turns and runs past a very scenic lake.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Weather:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sunny but chilly, at the start, temperature
was around 45 degrees<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoQuote" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><em>That's
a fixable tactical problem.......</em></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoQuote" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;">
<em><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Jim
Weinstein</span><br /><span style="font-family: Calibri;">
</span></em></div>
<h1 align="center" style="margin: 24pt 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #365f91;"><span style="font-family: Cambria;">Training<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></h1>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Over the
last several months I have been pouring over my data for MABRA criteriums.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What I have found is that ALL of the data
shows the same formula, 30-40% Active Recovery and 30-40% Anaerobic
Capacity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I switched my training
strategy to maximize the AC intervals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Using the CompuTrainer, <a href="http://perfprostudio.com/" target="_blank">PerfPro</a>, and <a href="http://www.thesufferfest.com/" target="_blank">Sufferfest</a> Video, in particularly
<a href="http://www.thesufferfest.com/video-sufferfests/details-revolver/" target="_blank">Revolver</a>, I have built into the training strategy sixteen, 1 minute intervals
at Zone 6, perfect for crits.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fort
Ritchie was not considered an “A” Race for me, but a great place to test my
fitness before the McDonald’s Crit and Air Force Classic.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<h1 align="center" style="margin: 24pt 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #365f91;"><span style="font-family: Cambria;">Dana’s Race<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></h1>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I arrived at
Ft Ritchie with plenty of time to spare, since I was there at ten to watch Dana
race the W1/2/3.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a pretty
exciting race including a solo breakaway from NCVC Alexis Zink.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then a 4 man break with <a href="http://evofemme.blogspot.com/2013/04/2012-ft-ritchie-criterium-evo-me-money.html" target="_blank">Dana</a>, Cat Freck
(Syn-Fit), Dori Buckethal (NCVC), and Colleen Gullick (Kenda); that stuck
giving Dana a solid 5<sup>th</sup> for the day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>She also got a beer preme, something that I would remember in my race.</span></span></div>
<h1 align="center" style="margin: 24pt 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #365f91;"><span style="font-family: Cambria;">Warm-up Monnett’s Style<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></h1>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">As I was
watching the women’s race, Mark Monnett from SRAM offered me a chair to so I
could stay off of the legs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mark is a Cascade
native and started talking about a great warm-up around Ft Ritchie. Given that
my plan was to just head back to the truck around 1 and get on the trainer, he
offered to go ride and I took him up on it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Lesson Learned for next year?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Use
Mark’s loop for a warm-up, great loop and really gets the legs warm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We rode for about 30 minutes over a mountain,
pulled back onto Ft Ritchie, I changed into my race kit and rolled to the line.</span></span></div>
<h1 align="center" style="margin: 24pt 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #365f91;"><span style="font-family: Cambria;">The Race<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></h1>
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRUFavLZiYw0sZk8vIQyXqsZ4xdn6iJTiB6kKGQh0kXQtuuAMqVfTD2ik19mR0ThgWGNkpp4NzJADb749tg-S6cQOrkxUIhW7UObg2sfvBJE8xiMzIpXhghLm4KSOdPnMScN1E-FVcoQ0/s1600/ft+ritchie+pre.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRUFavLZiYw0sZk8vIQyXqsZ4xdn6iJTiB6kKGQh0kXQtuuAMqVfTD2ik19mR0ThgWGNkpp4NzJADb749tg-S6cQOrkxUIhW7UObg2sfvBJE8xiMzIpXhghLm4KSOdPnMScN1E-FVcoQ0/s200/ft+ritchie+pre.jpg" width="150" /></a><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">My strategy
was simple; sit in top ten for the first 56 minutes and then sprint to see if I
could beat the race predictor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As they
say “no <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">plan</span> survives <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">contact”, well or an antsy Chuck.</span> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I get lined up slightly back on the first row,
officially the second row, and the official says go, or start, or whistle…
something and we were off.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A few riders
upfront took off and we went into the chicane like a cross hole shot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was already heading faster backward then
forward.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Through the chicane, a quick
right and a quick left heading toward the back side of the course.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With the beginning of every race, there are
always the race jitters, some riders braking, and the occasional scream of
“watch your line”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For the first two
laps I was doing okay and then my legs started to burn and hands started to
shake, a combination of both race effort and Carl Dolan stress.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I needed to make a decision, fight or
flight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Flight could be one of two
directions, off the front or off the back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Off the back meant that I was going to quit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For those who know me, quitting has never
been an option.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I am going to have
to redefine quitting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the past I
defined quitting as purposefully DNFing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Is rolling off the back and just pedaling the course until either the
officials pull you or the race ends any different?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On lap two I realized that quitting is also
giving up and watching the field pull away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>So decision time, fight or off the front.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here goes Chuck again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So the field gratuitously let me sit either
off the front or on the front for the next 6 laps.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I pulled around the course averaging 24 mph
and 359 watts for the next 12 minutes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>My nerves were calming and I felt pretty good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now I have no idea how far off the front I
was or if I was simply sitting on the front, I am sure it was the latter not
the former.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then we had a preme lap, I
jokingly hollered at the officials that after pulling for 6 they rang the
bell.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The group let me dangle out in
front all the way on the backside and to the final turn.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I actually heard Jamey Lees from Syn-Fit
negotiating with the group to let me have the beer preme because “he deserves
it”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As we turned on to the main straightway,
that was not going to happen and a few rides passed sprinting for the
preme.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiciOek1baOG1uRhl1vD_CCBLgPYN14iBiJfH2BQzFPH8wTZs-CpuTtcUWXCfNKkRuPSJfkvJ0YEWAvz44PL5kFloWWdwpt9idXY9BW-U05kPOxZi6hned0uHwwDeJKsm5b0lJ1XzfEfTk/s1600/on+the+front+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiciOek1baOG1uRhl1vD_CCBLgPYN14iBiJfH2BQzFPH8wTZs-CpuTtcUWXCfNKkRuPSJfkvJ0YEWAvz44PL5kFloWWdwpt9idXY9BW-U05kPOxZi6hned0uHwwDeJKsm5b0lJ1XzfEfTk/s320/on+the+front+2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jamey Lees' got a good draft</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I then
settled back into the group sitting behind Clifton Gray from Artemis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Clif is one of the few guys (from quick data
sampling, Artemis must have a height minimum for the guys in my race!) that I
can draft behind. Well anyone of the three Artemis riders, Clif, Howard Tyndle, or Ted Dorsey. All three have a good
eye for riding in the peloton, a skill no doubt learned from Super Dave Osborne,
so I was confident I had a good wheel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For
the next 10 laps, I set behind the Purple Train of Artemis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After a few seconds of mental lapse I found
myself behind and unfamiliar wheel that all of a sudden braked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had to do the same, my rear wheel skipped
to the side, I stayed up, and Clif was to my right and commented, “Way to stay
up Chuck!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Heart began to race, hands started
to shiver, fight or flight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We passed by
the start finish line and I heard the familiar sound of a bell lap meaning another
preme up the road.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I wanted the
preme. I was still thinking about the flight, so I went off the front, pushed
hard this time and got a pretty good gap.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Crossed the start / finish line and looked back; they were just
finishing the turn.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had room.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I dangled out there for four laps, about 9
minutes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At some point I got pulled back
into the group but I don’t remember exactly how that happened, like before I
kept the same 24 mph 310 watt pull but just got caught.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had about 6 laps to go, I was feeling
good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Found an Artemis wheel and settled
in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I knew that I could not win the
field sprint.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Race predictor had me in
the bottom third, so I figured with 3 to go I would give it a last try.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So with 3 to go, I sprinted off the front
again and <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was able to hold this until
the last lap. On the backside of the course, the group swarmed me andmy race
was done.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I felt great, I raced my ass
off.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Post-race discussion with my mentor
and friend Jim Weinstein, he had some great words to say, <i>That's a fixable
tactical problem.......</i><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes Jim, let’s do that.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<br />
<h1 align="center" style="margin: 24pt 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #365f91;"><span style="font-family: Cambria;">Kudos<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></h1>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">There was
lots of great racing going on that day, thanks to Joe Jefferson for putting on
such a great race.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Congrats to Jamey Lees of Syn-Fit for an outstanding win.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Artemis
thanks for the Purple Security blanket keeping me from bailing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Super Dave…<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Always a pleasure to watch, you are always in a break.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I working at matching your success and I will
be there some day. Dana for always being at the race even if you had to sit
around for 5 hours after yours.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">By the
numbers<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></o:p></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">By the numbers:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikVsP_bIlQ71QcvgfrtgFR7rYbOHTmM1N0XzqgmLJWHdBWrDPcS-3isWJCefpt__cAeX9B6VOLGIrV8K0rNwH6OJmyLvvVI43M0Rl-2Is2-hfBLBA-XU7ky5qa2c1hfeU-3DGIqvVhdvo/s1600/ac.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikVsP_bIlQ71QcvgfrtgFR7rYbOHTmM1N0XzqgmLJWHdBWrDPcS-3isWJCefpt__cAeX9B6VOLGIrV8K0rNwH6OJmyLvvVI43M0Rl-2Is2-hfBLBA-XU7ky5qa2c1hfeU-3DGIqvVhdvo/s320/ac.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">AC greater than AR this time</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Duration:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>57:32<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Norm
Power:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>311<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Distance:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>22.88 mi<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Power:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Max 1117 Avg 305 watts<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Heart
Rate:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Max 190<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Avg 176 bpm<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Speed:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Max 33.6<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Avg 23.8 mph<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<a href="http://www.trainingpeaks.com/av/SAXY6EOOCEBYWLT7LIQTDCISHY" target="_blank">Full Ride Link to TrainingPeaks</a><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Good
decisions: I RACED!!!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Stupidly but RACED
<br />
Bad decisions: see above.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Overall
finish: 28th.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Thoughts for
2014:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Use
</span></span><a href="http://www.thesufferfest.com/video-sufferfests/details-revolver/"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">Sufferfest Revolver</span></span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> on the CT as a main training aid in
Jan / Feb / Mar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My prediction was
correct, 42% active recovery, 34% anaerobic capacity.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Laps run just at 2
minutes each.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Prepare yourself for
plenty of AC intervals during the lap.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Practice moving up
the center of a race, you can use the sides for explosive moves, but for proper
positioning get use to moving up the middle.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16072459232599309133noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5886324249037633345.post-47398635728223483472013-04-02T16:11:00.001-04:002013-04-02T16:40:32.373-04:00Race Report: 2013 Morgantown Road Race<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij4xZt6v75sWW__twhewejn0Ae0Wx-33amyytGqx0VAJyFLngFL3rqcCwL-abv8UpuARl7VXn09ukgZvcFfa5w9HN77X-vtbqYxvcEHrg4O2L96Ws7AaiYGSBCBjOTQnuMJkfYr1pRnTY/s1600/CA.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij4xZt6v75sWW__twhewejn0Ae0Wx-33amyytGqx0VAJyFLngFL3rqcCwL-abv8UpuARl7VXn09ukgZvcFfa5w9HN77X-vtbqYxvcEHrg4O2L96Ws7AaiYGSBCBjOTQnuMJkfYr1pRnTY/s200/CA.jpg" width="158" /></span></a><b><span style="font-family: inherit; mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></b><br />
<b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span></b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Category 3/4</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Morgantown</span>,
WV/Mount Morris, PA<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Number of starters:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>59<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Road-Results Predictor:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>51st</span><br />
<o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></o:p><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Course description:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b>45 mile course on country roads through
PA and WV.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First 10 miles consists of
rollers then an area of about 5 miles that goes from 1% to 5%.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not a major climb, just up hill.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was followed by a decent climb at the 25
mile mark for 3 miles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One more climb for
1.5 miles and then off to the finish, with a short little bump before the line
of about 5%.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Weather:</b> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It would be hard to ask for better
weather.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>High 50s and sunny.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6DP8MfrtfJjE5VX8n989VmVNU4D1PMRFvxRjB4J8lLKyudic2foQEWRvIA1g-V6aB-CoGpuiQoRz4yK5qksGxplubP8Q9lAqze0fQe89MDJ1sqxGb8_x4RDbJnMNgcaiI2-9-jSPEB2g/s1600/pack.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6DP8MfrtfJjE5VX8n989VmVNU4D1PMRFvxRjB4J8lLKyudic2foQEWRvIA1g-V6aB-CoGpuiQoRz4yK5qksGxplubP8Q9lAqze0fQe89MDJ1sqxGb8_x4RDbJnMNgcaiI2-9-jSPEB2g/s200/pack.jpg" width="141" /></span></a></td></tr>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Photo Credit: Fred Jordan</span></td></tr>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><v:shape id="Picture_x0020_6" o:spid="_x0000_s1029" style="height: 2in; margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 5.2pt; mso-position-horizontal-relative: text; mso-position-horizontal: absolute; mso-position-vertical-relative: text; mso-position-vertical: absolute; mso-wrap-distance-bottom: 0; mso-wrap-distance-left: 9pt; mso-wrap-distance-right: 9pt; mso-wrap-distance-top: 0; mso-wrap-style: square; position: absolute; visibility: visible; width: 102.2pt; z-index: -251658752;" type="#_x0000_t75">
<v:imagedata o:title="" src="file:///C:\Users\kylecm\AppData\Local\Temp\2\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image003.jpg">
<w:wrap type="tight">
</w:wrap></v:imagedata></v:shape>With the race season
in full-swing, the weekdays between races are filled with training and race
prep. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While I have written race reports for several
seasons, this year I want to incorporate past lessons learned in order to race
smarter and get stronger.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have spent a
tremendous amount of time looking over years of data from my races and training
rides in order to better understand my own strengths and weaknesses, oh I mean
limitations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">One of the limiters I identified is how quickly I fatigue at
VO2Max, specifically 1 to 2 minutes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To
mitigate this “deficiency”, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I added
Sufferfest Revolver each week to work on those intervals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have also started adding a section to my
race reports that lists my lessons for racing / training in general and then
specifically for that race next year.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Quick pre-race strategy:</b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
plan was to start out in the top twenty, sit in until the climb, and do
everything that I can to stay with the field up the hill, descend and do it
again on the second climb.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had no
intention of covering any breaks or trying to create one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had pre-ridden the final climb and sprint, and
knew that I could use this to my advantage at the end of the race.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here I would be testing my VO2 numbers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">How the race played
out from my vantage point:</b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We rolled
out at a fairly calm pace averaging around 21 mph.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Somewhere in my lack of focus, I started
thinking about my pre-race plan and became annoyed with myself for just
participating and not racing at Black Hills.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I made a rash decision. I am going
off the front.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I attacked and got
away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At one point the moto ref gave me
an update that I was about minute to two off the front with a four man chase
trying to close the gap.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A few minutes
later the ref informed me that the chase had grown to seven.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I will say, it is the first time I have been
in a position to receive updates.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was
pretty cool.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I could imagine Phil Ligett
or Bob Roll’s commentary on my break, with the former making some
prognostication about my potential for cracking on the hill and the surprise in
his voice as I held on for the win.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">After being away for about 45 minutes, I was caught by the pack
of seven.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I reintegrated with them and
hoped we could work together but those guys were either not willing or able to
do some work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I put in a couple of
efforts trying to get away again, but without sustained success. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I thought it was just the eight of us, but
after the race, Jordan Cross from Evo told me that the main field was only a
few seconds behind the eight of us, which explains why the others were not trying
to increase our break.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No one was dumb
enough to pull the entire field, well except me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<v:imagedata o:title="Crevasse1" src="file:///C:\Users\kylecm\AppData\Local\Temp\2\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image005.jpg">
<w:wrap type="tight">
</w:wrap></v:imagedata></span></v:shape><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSgHb34T4aukd6UgvhUUpIfd3fyEFLydpb1BGZtQK1vwJqSstLGiqsWIfpFytOncHpjFlHNnOm21TpWs8FLQcBvYr3E5nZFvQ0EPi-fFvsCrVtoSXbBzep0okBsSgaa160iQyuTIpP4SU/s1600/photo+5.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSgHb34T4aukd6UgvhUUpIfd3fyEFLydpb1BGZtQK1vwJqSstLGiqsWIfpFytOncHpjFlHNnOm21TpWs8FLQcBvYr3E5nZFvQ0EPi-fFvsCrVtoSXbBzep0okBsSgaa160iQyuTIpP4SU/s200/photo+5.JPG" width="200" /></span></a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">We
came to the first ‘big’ climb, and I got engulfed <v:shape id="Picture_x0020_2" o:spid="_x0000_s1027" style="height: 93pt; margin-left: 326.75pt; margin-top: 17.35pt; mso-position-horizontal-relative: text; mso-position-horizontal: absolute; mso-position-vertical-relative: text; mso-position-vertical: absolute; mso-wrap-distance-bottom: 0; mso-wrap-distance-left: 9pt; mso-wrap-distance-right: 9pt; mso-wrap-distance-top: 0; mso-wrap-style: square; position: absolute; visibility: visible; width: 124pt; z-index: 251655680;" type="#_x0000_t75">
<v:imagedata o:title="" src="file:///C:\Users\kylecm\AppData\Local\Temp\2\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image007.jpg">
<w:wrap type="square">
</w:wrap></v:imagedata></v:shape>by the main
field.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My new plan?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sit in until we descended, move back to the
front and try to escape again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wanted
to race; I felt good and liked the feeling.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The main field got a little gap on the climb but I knew I could reattach
on the descent and then just move through and off the front.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I got passed by the Moto Ref and the Wheel
Van but I was still doing okay, main field only 100 meters in front.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span> </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmcvulP1U7-Sp-1rUl9JPVWsoxN9ppSpZN6gT08E0kS6-couVcR-lcRgg-lIXNcKk9bwlCq2jdedcY7kIi_Ql_LSCII4M4OyvQEBualPKLjIL-0sCcWLdvmU-nOyMBmB-hO9eRcPz6_xQ/s1600/crev.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmcvulP1U7-Sp-1rUl9JPVWsoxN9ppSpZN6gT08E0kS6-couVcR-lcRgg-lIXNcKk9bwlCq2jdedcY7kIi_Ql_LSCII4M4OyvQEBualPKLjIL-0sCcWLdvmU-nOyMBmB-hO9eRcPz6_xQ/s200/crev.jpg" width="133" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Then at the 32 mile mark there was a long crack across the
road, I didn’t see it until it was too late.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I hit it hard and the all too familiar sound of carbon cracking on a
Zipp wheel echoed in my ears.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>West
Virginia roads were not two for two on cracking my Zipps<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I got out of the away of the guys behind me
and pulled off the road.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I watched the
main field and the wheel van roll away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Two more races passed and a wheel vehicle from the 4/5s
rolled up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had been standing there for
15 minutes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I got a wheel while Mike
Russo from the 4/5 field grabbed one too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He had met the same fate as me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We took off with about 10 miles left including one ‘big’ climb and then
the final climb.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As I started on the
final climb something felt odd, I looked down and the wheel out of the van had
a 23.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A 23 for the final two climbs?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Really?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Ha!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I soft pedaled up the hills
and crossed the finish line.</span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk4nqIuBy2aiU9lWPT41ZEg27k9RtvJcP1bFBJpr_oX_Cs8osTFT-43ThdNoNl8ZJpFokyn_PTG-O5oaBR9eljdzR0tYs71MrAVWXZW464foaHwidm8JAOdeb9La4ZdYCkMmWRh34YR8w/s1600/Chart+50.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk4nqIuBy2aiU9lWPT41ZEg27k9RtvJcP1bFBJpr_oX_Cs8osTFT-43ThdNoNl8ZJpFokyn_PTG-O5oaBR9eljdzR0tYs71MrAVWXZW464foaHwidm8JAOdeb9La4ZdYCkMmWRh34YR8w/s1600/Chart+50.jpg" /></a></div>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></b><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">By the numbers:<o:p></o:p></span></b>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD9_y-o5a9jCh07Le-LummQ2il08vtKi9eZVkilCI9A2nOWd4LLg06qk254qOoT1ZwnbyJZCNzYkmVSEnI-ZOttcV5Cci_CHXh4I3VcU4S6qC8q5jxrp8x2WLDtXVECtCVH6QcallRc-w/s1600/549500_10201102872478594_1199779528_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD9_y-o5a9jCh07Le-LummQ2il08vtKi9eZVkilCI9A2nOWd4LLg06qk254qOoT1ZwnbyJZCNzYkmVSEnI-ZOttcV5Cci_CHXh4I3VcU4S6qC8q5jxrp8x2WLDtXVECtCVH6QcallRc-w/s200/549500_10201102872478594_1199779528_n.jpg" width="132" /></span></a></td></tr>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Photo Credit: Fred Jordan</span></td></tr>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></tbody></table>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Duration:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>2:12<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Norm Power:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>First 1:30 – 321 Watts </span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Distance:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>45.6<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Power:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Max 1120 Avg 263 watts<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Heart Rate:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Max 185<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Avg 166 bpm<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Speed:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Max 44.7 Avg 20.92 mph<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Good decisions: I raced, not just participated <br />
Bad decisions: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe thinking a 43 mile
TT was a good thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Situational
awareness or pre-riding the course should have seen the crevasse.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Overall finish: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>59th<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Thoughts for 2014:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Get to the front of the race as soon as possible<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Use the climb and the follow on flat to get some
space on the group<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Be in a position to make a decision to go off
the front on the last big climb<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Use </span><a href="http://www.thesufferfest.com/video-sufferfests/details-revolver/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: inherit;">Sufferfest
Revolver</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> on the CT as a main training aid in Jan / Feb / Mar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My prediction was correct, 42% active
recovery, 34% anaerobic capacity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: normal; margin: 6pt 12pt 10pt 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Race, don't participate </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16072459232599309133noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5886324249037633345.post-26654595507759930012013-03-25T10:30:00.001-04:002013-03-25T17:54:31.122-04:00Race Report: 2013 Black Hills Circuit Race in Honor of Sean McCormick<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Category 3/4 <br />Boyds, MD<br />Number of starters: 78<br />Road-Results Predictor: 61st<br /><br />Course description: Course was a 1.5 mile on rolling terrain in clockwise direction. One short, small ring climb. Lots of twists and an uphill sprint finish, all within a great park setting. Yellow/centerline rule in effect.<br /><br /> Weather: cloudy and overcast, start was around 40 degrees</span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmaUov7Tw0qdlGBnKNmBFlYvZvNNlGsNDSPR_1LLuvWn2YUyj9FWkyDBl7ZfHbRGQ-2npuHxrdK6FKkftwZucuFXwfgN2XOE0mNV2LxVzNiiB5KIKy2TNAWHdksvx2duK09ae4TJvCB0A/s1600/image.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmaUov7Tw0qdlGBnKNmBFlYvZvNNlGsNDSPR_1LLuvWn2YUyj9FWkyDBl7ZfHbRGQ-2npuHxrdK6FKkftwZucuFXwfgN2XOE0mNV2LxVzNiiB5KIKy2TNAWHdksvx2duK09ae4TJvCB0A/s320/image.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Climb</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="clear: right; float: right; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">This is going to be another of Chuck’s ‘would’ve could’ve should’ve’ excuse filled race report. We entered the park with plenty of time for the race only to find an ambulance on the course working on an Evo rider in the CAT 5 race. My nerves went hay wire, thinking back to what others have told me the scene was for my race almost a year ago next month. After a few minutes of shaky hands, sweaty palms, we found out the guy was going to be okay after a short trip to the hospital. (Side note: we got an email last night, from the rider, saying he was home and doing well). <br /><br />For the next couple of hours we watched some of the racing while Dana got prepared for the Women’s 1/2/3 race. Got to hang out with some fellow US Military Cycling Teammates; Jim Weinstein, Sunny Gills, Scott and Katy Giles. My race was immediately following Dana’s so I decided to head out and get a few laps in to warm-up. I had pre-ridden the course on Saturday so I was already familiar with what was in store for today.<br /><br />Quick pre-race strategy: The race would start out in the parking lot, right turn and then immediately had about a 30 second climb (.2 miles) around 8-12% grade. I had grabbed a 28 cog so I could climb in my 53. Then there was a sharp right turn with a winding road down to another small incline. I figured that at the top of the climb some folks would attempt to rest and jam up the turn, while others would carry the momentum down the backside. On my pre-ride, I was able to ride the entire course pretty hard and never touch the brakes. After the small incline there was another sharp left turn, more winding roads, another left turn, then the road would bend back to the climb, total of 1.5 miles. I knew that the climbs would be Zone 6 (anaerobic) and the flats zone 1. So my race should pan out to be about 50% Active Recovery and 30% Anaerobic Capacity, just like a crit.</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">How the race played out from my vantage point: </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">It was hard to tell the total number of riders but it was close to 60. We got to the first climb pacing around 16 mph and 600 watts. It was jammed pack, lap one and I was having to make left and right maneuvers to get around guys who either couldn’t climb, wrong gear, didn’t like the tight quarters. Made it to the top and was correct, log jam.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"></span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq7-Hdbta-_cRSAJu9hG4eF5BXG9FN8PnPVK58tsGgkYoqdLspSJwNn_6J8533s98UymvTGTVnjwFnz6VcEcSgmynBnUfnrmFDVyMybfu1VQQZXxntBrdiQ2sK647585_FFSY9azXonk0/s1600/image4.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq7-Hdbta-_cRSAJu9hG4eF5BXG9FN8PnPVK58tsGgkYoqdLspSJwNn_6J8533s98UymvTGTVnjwFnz6VcEcSgmynBnUfnrmFDVyMybfu1VQQZXxntBrdiQ2sK647585_FFSY9azXonk0/s200/image4.jpeg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Corner finally clearing </span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Finally got around them and to the flats, but it took very little effort to be back in the pack. Rinse and repeat the last few lines 13 more times. The only other little bit of info; I could not believe how much I had to us the brakes. Every time we would come to a little climb the full accordion effect would occur and I had to apply the brakes. At 200 lbs the last thing you want to do is brake before a climb. Tactical mistake number one. I was just field fodder. I must have missed the part that I should be racing and not just sitting in. I was conserving my energy to do nothing more than a pack finish. I am very disappointed in my lack of racing. I remember thinking on the fourth lap remaining that if I was on the front, I had the power to go off the front. But I did nothing to get there. I continued to sit in.</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTDR2v-s9OXp0SILgNnMgrbhdMlreE8KYegBZWBk5etcD-3UJB5Ed4zfNvBi1iMipRgceTQtEtGwsjAXRFrAgL3Kk7bAtntKlaBwJuLLCGNIw8tKcmnQMUpId0bsEQNIK4lER13bHi748/s1600/image7.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTDR2v-s9OXp0SILgNnMgrbhdMlreE8KYegBZWBk5etcD-3UJB5Ed4zfNvBi1iMipRgceTQtEtGwsjAXRFrAgL3Kk7bAtntKlaBwJuLLCGNIw8tKcmnQMUpId0bsEQNIK4lER13bHi748/s200/image7.jpeg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">The last lap I finally decided to do something. I started moving up from probably around 50th. I was pushed to the edge of the double-yellow line due to the five or six riders across. Apparently there were several well represented teams that decided that the yellow-line rule did not apply to them as three (on the same team) passed clearly to the left. Interesting. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">How to stay within the rules and still move forward if there was a sift flowing of unimpeded riders on the left, but I digress. STAYING WITH IN THE RULES, I continued moving forward as I SAFELY could. Finally we came to the bottom of the climb, the road opened up and I made great Finishline Poster Filler for the 30 guys in front and to the right of me. The sad part is this is a great race for someone like me; it plays to my power and minimizes my limiters. Two good parts: Rubberside down and beat road-results. As we always say, if it didn't happen of Strava it didn't happen, so here is the link.</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br /><br /><br /> By the numbers:<br /></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Duration: 52:36</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br />Normalized Power: 357<br />Distance: 20.56 mi<br />Power: Max 999 Avg 243 watts<br />Heart Rate: Max 183 Avg 153 bpm</span><br /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Speed: Max 35.4 Avg 23.5 mph</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Good decisions: I participated; better race prep</span><br /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Bad decisions: positioning for the start of the race, not racing, just riding</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Overall finish: 32nd. Well officially even though the picture above of the finish line 374 was 21st and two guys I know for a fact I passed are listed 29th and 30th. Another reason to be in the top 5.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">2013 Lessons to learn:</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"></span><br />
<ul><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
<li> Race, don't participate</li>
<li>Get to the front of the race as soon as possible </li>
</span></ul>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
<div>
</div>
<div>
Thoughts for 2014:</div>
<ul>
<li>Get to the front of the race as soon as possible</li>
<li>Use the climb and the follow on flat to get some space on the group</li>
<li>Be in a position to make a decision to go off the front with 3-5 laps left</li>
<li>Use <a href="http://www.thesufferfest.com/video-sufferfests/details-revolver/" target="_blank">Sufferfest Revolver</a> on the CT as a main training aid in Jan / Feb / Mar. My prediction was correct 42% active recovery, 34% anaerobic capacity.</li>
</ul>
<br />
</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyF5Q6Pb5wsGerXkXevYVAZxWYR-Eom3OiIOTRnQtazOtQ5WUtrGJfL8Hju7dCemz9S-eNM1HX0h3emF8mrRVTfjCJZtPkJgDBb_Z684OX6gw-JF55_K86gndGi7gGUaPdYYwDzR_xxdk/s1600/Chart.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="182" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyF5Q6Pb5wsGerXkXevYVAZxWYR-Eom3OiIOTRnQtazOtQ5WUtrGJfL8Hju7dCemz9S-eNM1HX0h3emF8mrRVTfjCJZtPkJgDBb_Z684OX6gw-JF55_K86gndGi7gGUaPdYYwDzR_xxdk/s320/Chart.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Power Distribution Chart</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16072459232599309133noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5886324249037633345.post-89241990834996015212013-03-18T11:13:00.004-04:002013-03-18T17:56:38.590-04:00Race Report: 2013 Shamrock Criterium<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Category 3/4</span><br />
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Virginia
Beach, VA</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Number of starters:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>50 <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Course description:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>40 minutes, flat, four corners.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Weather:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>cool and
clear, around 60 degrees<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">How the race played out from my vantage point: <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This year I changed things up a little then last
year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had an issue with my race wheels
last year, so this year they were on the bike prior to the warm-up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Did a really good warm-up and had timed
things about right. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This included getting
to the race with plenty of time and not rolling in 15 minutes before the
registration closes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With 20 minutes to
race time I went out on the course to do a few laps, and they were already
lining up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, like last year, I was now
I was lining up dead last. NOTE:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>first bad decision.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Looking at last year’s numbers and this year’s, they are
almost identical, including my weight, back down to 202 lbs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So again, the race started off very fast!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first 10 minutes the average speed was just
less than 29 mph.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was tail gunning
trying to move forward unfortunately due to my bad positioning with the start,
I was trying to bridge between guys getting shelled off the back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not a winning strategy.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I never gained much ground and was on the back of the
pack as long as I could hold on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Given
that the average power for the first half of the race was around 325 watts, I
should have been able to stay on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I
finally got detached and found myself alone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>After a few laps I caught a Conte’s rider, James Schaefer, and we took
turns pacing around the course.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Finally
the lead group came around and we reattached.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>By this time I was basically cooked, instead of coming back midway in
the pack I tried to hop on the tail end, apparently learning nothing from being
there in the beginning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I hung on a few
laps then dropped off and promptly my race was over, ending up 32<sup>nd</sup>
of 50.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So road-results was close, which
really sucks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The worst part of it all,
is having the data from last year, there is no reason I should not have stayed
and bettered by 18<sup>th</sup> place finish last year.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Like last year, poor luck in the beginning and tactical
failure at the end.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Good decisions:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
raced; better race prep <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Bad decisions:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>positioning
for the start of the race <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
</div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Overall finish:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>32th.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
</div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Thoughts for 2014:<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.)<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>This race
will be fast, anticipate at 28-30 mph for the first 10 minutes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For me at 202 lbs, that is a 340 watt NP
effort.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>3.74 w/kg effort<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.)<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Course is flat with 4 corners – Cassette selection
11/2x<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.)<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Va Beach riders line up early, anticipate being
at the line by 15 minutes before<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.)<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Trainer warm-up (yes there are roads out of the
park, but pretty busy)</span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16072459232599309133noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5886324249037633345.post-72332340120394869652013-02-06T16:25:00.003-05:002013-02-17T09:23:28.276-05:002013 Cycling Season<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr2mkOhyphenhyphenpB1zUBDF2Pjb86j1xCoXBrVai3G5MUpReRQCLsjq_U35UpHYczJr_1Q4aCZMlY8Odfm6JGHwv59AKi65vGDF6utM3XcTRTvtxKl18Wip4xS7Yf0lbe1PlOxQjVxV8c5Av2EdY/s1600/IMG_1890.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr2mkOhyphenhyphenpB1zUBDF2Pjb86j1xCoXBrVai3G5MUpReRQCLsjq_U35UpHYczJr_1Q4aCZMlY8Odfm6JGHwv59AKi65vGDF6utM3XcTRTvtxKl18Wip4xS7Yf0lbe1PlOxQjVxV8c5Av2EdY/s320/IMG_1890.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Over the next couple of days I will be updating my blog to talk about a few items in preparation for the 2013 Race Season. This year I want to use the blog to accomplish a couple of objectives. <br />
<br />
First, accountability Yes, accountability. If I am laying out every aspect of the season, then I have to execute. There is a great story that Chris Carmichael tells about when LA was coming back from cancer. The way Chris tells it, LA whispered something. Chris leans forward and says, "What?". LA repeats, "I want to win the Tour de France". Chris replies in a loud voice, "You want to win the Tour?", LA immediate hushes him as if this is some big secret. Chris later uses this as a learning point, you have to setup your objectives and be accountable to others. Tell them what you are going to do. So this will be my way of doing that. Here goes: "I will podium in 2013."<br />
<br />
Second, I have tons of tools that I us to map my season, WKO+, <a href="http://www.trainingpeaks.com/" target="_blank">TrainingPeaks</a>, etc. I really have never "journalled" a race season, I have for many other items, but never cycling. So this will be my Journal, warts and all.<br />
<br />
Upcoming Blog Entries<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>2012 Year in Review</li>
<li>2013 Race Calendar</li>
<li>My Objectives and How I am going to get there</li>
<li>Nutrition</li>
<li>Efficiency</li>
<li>Team</li>
<li>BTC</li>
<li>KyleCoaching</li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16072459232599309133noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5886324249037633345.post-83049855024358420462012-07-03T10:08:00.003-04:002012-07-03T10:09:33.329-04:00Race Report: 2012 Tour of Page County Stage Race<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.pagevalleycycling.com/Tour_of_Page_County.html" target="_blank">2012 Tour of Page County Stage Race</a></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Category 3/4</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Luray, VA</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Starters: 74</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">This was supposed to be three event stage race.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Due to the storm on Friday night, the road race was cancelled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So instead we headed out for a few hours of hill climbing.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Day two was the time trial and the Criterium.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The TT report is below; I did not do the Criterium.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was very technical; the temperature was peaking at the high 90s and decided that this was not the crit for me to really get back into the swing of things with.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Luray Caverns Time Trial</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The course was smooth, started on a fairly steep descent then entered a good set of rollers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was an out and back 9 mile TT.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first half the elevation loss was greater than the gain so overall it averaged more of descent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There were several turns that made it easier to break it down into quarters since there was not marking other than the actual course.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Weather was pretty warm; temperature at the start was 79 degrees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was no wind to speak of during the race.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The plan was to use my LT from prior to the wreck, around 300 watts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I set my Garmin for time, power zones, distance and cadence; learning from the last TT.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The plan was to shot for less than 24 minutes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I wanted to stay in Zone 4 and hit each of the quarter segments at about 5 min and 40 seconds each.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I did not pre-ride the course but drove it several times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Did a good warm-up for about 45 minutes but had to wait a little while for my start time.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I had a good start and a good descent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="http://www.road-results.com/racer/8035" target="_blank">Scott Giles</a> voice continued to ring in my head, don’t rest until you have the bike back up to speed on the climbs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So that is what I did across each roller.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I averaged about 25.13 mph on the outbound and hit each of my segments on time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The return was more of a gradual uphill but was able to stay in zone (for the most part) and hit my times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I ended up at 23:57 just barely under 24 minutes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had seriously miscalculated my goal; I should have been aiming more towards 20 minutes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>23:57 got me 41st out of 74, at 4 minutes down on the GC.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Stats:</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Normalized power:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>first half, 305w (average 264w); second half, 283 w (average 265w)</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Average Heart Rate: first half, 171 bpm; second half, 180 bpm</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Average Cadence:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>80, really tried to pay attention to the cadence but very little of the race was flat; so this is actually more of a climbing cadence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The area that was “flat” the cadence was closer to 88, still lower than my 90-95 goal.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">VI:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>1.11</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Criterium</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I did not have a good feeling about the crit, there were several pretty good descents and 9 turns.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I decided to bail on the crit.</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">NEXT EVENTS:</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="title" id="ctl00_ContentPlaceHolder1_EventHeader_LabelEventName"><a href="https://www.bikereg.com/Net/16738" target="_blank">2012 Hagerstown Challenge Criterium</a> </span>(July 7)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="title" id="ctl00_ContentPlaceHolder1_EventHeader_LabelEventName"><a href="https://www.bikereg.com/NET/Confirmed/15869" target="_blank">RGS Title/Prosperity Mortgage Chantilly Criterium 2012</a> </span>(July 8)</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16072459232599309133noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5886324249037633345.post-31227172706530914912012-06-25T16:13:00.000-04:002012-06-25T16:23:17.218-04:00Race Report: 2012 Church Creek Time Trial<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">2012 Church Creek Time Trial</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Category 4</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Cambridge, MD</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Starters: 22</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The course was smooth, flat, scenic, but was not well marked with 20 and 30k markers but did have with a wide shoulder available on most of it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Race course was about 12 km to a right turn,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>then another right at about 25 km mark, then 1 last right turn giving us about 6 km to the finish,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was a 5 km left sign and a 1 km left sign.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Weather was pretty warm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Start of the race was in the low 80s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sunny with a pretty strong head wind on two of the segments.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The plan was to use my LT from prior to the wreck, around 300 watts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I did not do a good job of checking the wind for the entire course so I broke it down into 10km segments.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I set my Garmin for two screens only Power Zones and time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The plan was a sub 1 hour 40k.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I wanted to stay in Zone 4 and hit each of the 10km marks in under 15 minutes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My plan was to make up time in segment 3.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Meaning that if I crossed 20k mark (10-20km segment) in 15:20, then I knew I needed to make up 20 seconds on segment 3.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wanted to use 1 and 2 to settle in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>4 is always faster for me because of the adrenaline rush at the end.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I had a good start, and crossed the 10 km at 14:38.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I did realize a little too late that I had a tail wind, but I did keep it in Zone 4 so I probably would not have changed that much.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First big problem, either did not see or there was not a 20 km marker.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(note to self:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>add distance to the Garmin TT</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">screen).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I estimated where the 20km should have been based on my time being right around 30 minutes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But this destroyed my timing strategy because it was based on distance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was pacing fairly well, but could tell my power was decreasing to lower LT, higher Tempo.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After about 35 minutes I could no longer hold a good aero position.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This had more to do about not being</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">use to the position then bike fit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Next problem was the lack of 30km marker, so once again having to guestimate my time and had no idea if I was over or under my plan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I figured based on my decreasing power<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>numbers that I was over.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Got to a 5 km marker and knew that I was over time but got the bike back up to my zone goal and finished up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Overall time was poor, 1:03:52.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Stats:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Normalized power:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>245 watts (55 watts lower than my goal) Average Heart</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Rate: 172 Average Cadence:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>76</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Here are my splits:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">10k - NP 261<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>HR 171</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">20k - NP 239<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>HR 173</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">30k - NP 241<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>HR 173</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">40k - NP 228<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>HR 172</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Feedback questions from (Jim Weinstein)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Q. Was your HR in Zone 4 also??<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">A. </span>I have not really gone out and did a field test on HR.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But using Friel's standard and have an actual max HR (203 in a crit), for this race I would have been about 95% in Threshold according to HR.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Q. Also, how far away was your avg power from Norm Power??<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">A. </span>My average power was 240 and my normalized power was 245.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So within 5 watts.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Q. How was your warmup??<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">A. </span>Did 30 minutes of warm-up plus a 20 minute ride to the start point.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The warm-up was okay but should have used the structured one that I normally use.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Q. Did you stay well hydrated?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">A. </span>Drank 1 bottle on the bike.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Straight water should have added cytomax.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>BUT my prerace hydration was lacking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Really did not drink my normal days' worth the day before</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Q. And what was your VI for the race?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">A. </span>1.02</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I tried to keep the cadence up but was not successful, so I just went with what seemed to be more comfortable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I normally have a cadence of upper 90s at LT.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why I could only mash the gears?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not sure.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Overall I am trying to race back to fitness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Very concerned about my average cadence, this is a significant drop in the last 70 days.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I thought that power was going to be down, that is just a function of a tragic loss in fitness over the last 70 days.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">17th Place over all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Winning time:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>54:25.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Majority of the group:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>10 </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">riders between 59-1:01</span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16072459232599309133noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5886324249037633345.post-63134917412768226572012-05-24T09:43:00.003-04:002012-05-24T11:28:53.640-04:00Base miles for Cross Season<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Well this season has basically blown or sucked depending on your preference of terms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first glitch was knee pain while down in Florida in early spring training with the team.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The positive outcome was Paul with Freshbikes and hours of bike fitting consultation, figured it out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Combination of saddle height, offset, and cleat placement, oh don't forget a genetic leg length discrepancy and slight bend of the spine to add a little extra fun to the fit.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The next faux pas was falling down a flight of steps, adding a few broke ribs, then the accident down in Virginia Beach.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Positive thing about Virginia Beach is I know that there is nothing that I could've done, was in the front of the peloton and got taken out by an overzealous rider diving the corner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I walked away from that wreck with a little road rash, added another broke rib, trashed shifter and blown tubular.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsxdzgcKy2Nn8NO2MgfLawZNrwlLub-zM-H6UbFlE8Z88dXPFrjAflPLE8o6MGGcwcW1NlRzDipQ6pSeeZBOa53jmQ6CLC0lKTaUOw8xtyNvTe4oFZp6Z6DEuy4ZAF056DwlpP9Evo0d4/s1600/1.3.46.670589.30.1.5.1.963334814155.1335790591349.2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="200" qba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsxdzgcKy2Nn8NO2MgfLawZNrwlLub-zM-H6UbFlE8Z88dXPFrjAflPLE8o6MGGcwcW1NlRzDipQ6pSeeZBOa53jmQ6CLC0lKTaUOw8xtyNvTe4oFZp6Z6DEuy4ZAF056DwlpP9Evo0d4/s200/1.3.46.670589.30.1.5.1.963334814155.1335790591349.2.jpg" width="138" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Now the latest accident, Carl Dolan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No idea what happened there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I mean no memory either.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the accident did leave its bruises.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Two temporary pins in the thumb due to a </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bennett's_fracture" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: inherit;">Bennett's Fracture</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">, </span><a href="http://www.orthogate.org/patient-education/shoulder/acromioclavicular-joint-separation.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: inherit;">AC Joint Strain</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">, more broke ribs, and ton of road rash... and destroyed Cannondale frame, another broke shifter, skinsuit in two pieces, and destroyed Lazer Helmet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now I sit 45 days after the wreck and have a total of about 10 hours total on the bike (4 in the last week).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Freshbikes did help get the bike replaced, campy groupset is now replaced with SRAM Red.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My fitness has tanked, time on the bike is painful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I finally got the pins taken out of the hand (Monday) and start occupational therapy today, and I have a perpetual thumbs-up until I get movement back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The AC Strain requires physical therapy but do not start that until the 6th.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Diagnosis is that is a 5 month process, but will not keep me off the bike. The slight silver lining, if there was one, is that after 45 days of getting my blood pressure checked, they determined that I need to be on blood pressure medicine. So that started yesterday. I went with an ACE inhibitor that should not screw with my VO2 max like others can.</span></span><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I look at my trainingpeaks calendar of races that I had planned to do and they are ticking by fast, Wilmington GP, Tour of Somersville, </span><a href="http://www.mcdonaldstristatecrit.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: inherit;">WV McDonald's Criterium</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">, </span><a href="http://www.airforcecyclingclassic.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: inherit;">Air Force Classic</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">, all a wash for this year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Looks like I might be able to do a few time trials, but other than that, nothing but base miles for Cross.</span></span></div>
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</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16072459232599309133noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5886324249037633345.post-92020737345807623042012-04-30T21:53:00.001-04:002012-04-30T22:15:25.539-04:00Race Report: 2012 Carl Dolan Circuit Race<br />
Warmed-up. Started race. Wrecked. Woke up eight hours later in a hospital. <br />
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If you want to know more, such as the long list of thank yous that are required and the road ahead, continue to read.<br />
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To state that the Carl Dolan circuit race was a blur would be an understatement. Now I know, the race was over two weeks ago, but bear with me for a few minutes and you’ll understand why it's taken two weeks to do the race report.<br />
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It was 15 April, a beautiful morning, and I headed up to the race to watch the women's race and then prepare for my race at around one o'clock. I learned that another one of my team members, Don, was also racing, so I was excited. After watching the women’s race, I started thinking about little strategy and then broke out the trainer and set the bike up. After a solid 40 min. of warm-up, I was ready to go.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTw-f-G1JcQ-21NKzUQrng0QIG9WSw9k6P55ZZzqF3_Z1z2Cfmtr56evepSZjWnwYeyO_svMMgKjeHBAFXV2r7aFmkI5lJIy4wbjaEasQg415-DqSE4LfwE80GiISYoUIN-Cqph62XIUA/s1600/IMG_1355_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTw-f-G1JcQ-21NKzUQrng0QIG9WSw9k6P55ZZzqF3_Z1z2Cfmtr56evepSZjWnwYeyO_svMMgKjeHBAFXV2r7aFmkI5lJIy4wbjaEasQg415-DqSE4LfwE80GiISYoUIN-Cqph62XIUA/s200/IMG_1355_2.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
My closest 120 friends and I rolled up to the line and got prepared. The race started, and I remember the guy in front of me having a hard time getting clipped in, which provided some initial excitement. I quickly got around him, moved to the front, and then pulled for the first couple laps. The course was nice and fast and it seemed as if it was going to be a decent 21 miles in the saddle. I stay toward the front for the first 30 min., I was doing well, and that's as much as I remember. So I guess I will have to repeat what others told me.<br />
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<strong><em><u>Thank You to…..</u></em></strong><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjefgawIHcyuW-wcqR2-Ccib8WvGyBQkKUsrdtql8BOBReBcB7o8rFQxJIFDBhB0ofEJ1MmVOYUOnU35m4XKKy7NlQ4_37N1CJOeJdBJrPqAfdbdZYGFoYQ6E-5CjmzHCl7Leg8F4S-PA0/s1600/IMG_1344.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjefgawIHcyuW-wcqR2-Ccib8WvGyBQkKUsrdtql8BOBReBcB7o8rFQxJIFDBhB0ofEJ1MmVOYUOnU35m4XKKy7NlQ4_37N1CJOeJdBJrPqAfdbdZYGFoYQ6E-5CjmzHCl7Leg8F4S-PA0/s200/IMG_1344.jpg" width="149" /></a>Apparently there was a fairly large crash, approximately 20 of us. My understanding is that I took the worst of the crash. I was evacuated to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center. The next thing I remember is about seven hours later. I was unconscious for about 20 minutes and in and out of it for the next several hours. Apparently, during the seven hours, there were many people who came to my aid and also who facilitated phone calls and other support. Some of which I may not know occurred but will always be grateful. To Andy, Chris, Sunny, Alex, and Dana who helped not only at this site but also at the hospital I'm eternally grateful. To Jim and Bill, and other members of the <a href="http://www.usmilitarycycling.com/" target="_blank">US Military Cycling Team</a> that made phone calls and other items I'm equally grateful. To the <a href="http://teambikedoctor.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Bike Doctor Doc</a> at the scene and the EMTs who rendered aid, thank you. To the pink-clad Team B of Shock/Trauma who scanned my head, Xrayed 100% of my body, and took care of both me and the friends who were with me at the hospital, thanks. For the rest of MABRA, that sent texts, email, phone calls, flowers, each meant so very much, thank you so much. <br />
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<strong><em><u>Bike status</u></em></strong><br />
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As of right now the bike is still recuperating at <a href="http://www.freshbikescycling.com/" target="_blank">Freshbikes in Arlington</a>. It does appear as if 50% of the campy shifting mechanism is destroyed, and that the frame has seen its better days.<br />
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<strong><em><u>Equipment status</u></em></strong><br />
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Skin suit, destroyed. <a href="http://www.lazerhelmets.com/" target="_blank">Lazer Helmet</a>, faithfully did its job, but destroyed. Glasses, not to be left out, destroyed. Even my heart rate strap somehow found its demise underneath the skilled hands of a paramedic who instead of unsnapping it decided a good pair scissors would work instead. So basically the only thing that I had on that survived was a pair of socks. Funny enough, given the above equipment status, showing up at shock trauma in only a pair socks left quite an impression on the nurses.<br />
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<strong><em><u>Body status</u></em></strong><br />
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There was some initial concern with the amount of time that I was knocked out but I can report the hardhead is still hard. The road rashes healing fairly well, and now I have a nice blue cast on my left arm covering the pins that are holding together my thumb.<br />
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<strong><em><u>Prognosis</u></em></strong><br />
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I was given permission by the doctor to get back on the trainer. Lazer helmet and skinsuit will have to be reordered from the team. Freshbikes will help get the Cannondale back on the road. The cast will be on my thumb for about three weeks and then it will be exchanged for a brace for week. By that time all road rash will be raceable, the thumb will be good, and I'll be back at the line for Bike Jam / Kelly Cup.<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16072459232599309133noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5886324249037633345.post-40532982733729904852012-03-19T16:32:00.001-04:002012-04-30T21:53:40.407-04:00Race Report: 2012 First Annual Red Wing Park Shamrock Criterium<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Well I headed down south of DC to the Virginia Beach area for the <a href="http://www.facebook.com/#!/events/316769641714260/" target="_blank">First Annual Red Wing Park Shamrock Criterium</a>. I hopped in the Cat 3/4 race noticing on bikereg that about 40 had signed up. Quickly flipping over to road-results race predictor to see how I was to do, I saw a pretty promising 15th. Noticed my buddy Alex Rapavi was going to be in the race, so I figured I would know at least one. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I arrived at Red Wing Park with plenty of time to get warmed up and look over the course. The weather was </span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">cool and clear, around 55 degrees, and the course was flat with four turns and one straight with a head wind.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">For those who follow this blog, it is odvious that one of my week points is getting in a good warm-up. So this race I wanted to really try and do everything by the book. So here is my warm-up:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">20 min easy in the small ring-start to break a little sweat<br />10 min tempo pace, build to sustained threshold by the end of the last minute<br />2-3 min easy recovery spin<br />2-5 min at sustained threshold<br />3-5min easy recovery spin<br />1-2 min hard VO2/anaerobic threshold pace<br />3-5 min easy<br />30 sec spinups to max RPM, easy gear<br />3-5 min easy—GO RACE!</span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">id a really good warm-up and had timed things about right, went to throw on </span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">my race wheels and for some reason my rear wheel hub was seized, hastily put </span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">the training wheel back on and rolled to the line.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I knew that I was </span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">screwed because I now had a 13-28 rear cassette in a crit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The other </span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">negative was now I was lining up dead last.</span> <br />
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With that said, I did a really good warm-up and had timed things about right, went to throw on my race wheels and for some reason my rear wheel hub was seized, hastily put the training wheel back on and rolled to the line.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I knew that I was screwed because I now had a 13-28 rear cassette in a crit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The other negative was now I was lining up dead last.<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Race started off very quick!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first 10 minutes the average speed was </span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">just over 27 mph, then settled down to 25.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was tail gunning trying to move forward but there were </span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">only two long straights so I would move up as far as I could not to dive the </span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">left hand corners.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A break went off the front about lap 2, 4 guys, but I </span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">was so far back there was nothing that I could do.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I stayed about top ten for the next 25 minutes and decided with about 6 laps to </span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">go, to get all the way to the front and see if I could make anything happen. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I got away a little but the head wind dropped my speed down enough for the </span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">group to catch back on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With 4 to go the breakaway crashed, taking out </span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">three of the four.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The single was far enough off the front that we could </span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">not catch him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The last lap I got a little out of position and came into </span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">the final straight sitting about 17th.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I could not gain on the ones in </span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">front nor get caught by the ones behind and crossed the finish line in 18th. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Post-race headed out with Alex and Dana and did another 2 hours.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All in all a good race, poor </span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">luck in the beginning and tactical failure at the end. Funny side note, on our post-race ride we stopped at Schlotzsky's for lunch. With my US Military kit on, a little guy about 5 years old, told his mom that he thought I was Captain America, guess I am going to have to get a warm-up cape.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Good decisions:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>placement in the peloton </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Bad decisions:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>warming up on my non-race wheels.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not staying 100% focused </span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">on the last 2 laps, I need to start "racing" the last two laps, get in </span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">position and just go for it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Overall finish:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>18th.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Fitness is coming together should be ready for Jefferson Cup, my first "A" </span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">race.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Next race: Smackdown Criterium on Saturday and Dismal Dash TT on Sunday. Check <a href="http://www.road-results.com/?n=racers&sn=pred" target="_blank">road-results perdictor</a> to see how I am suppose to do.</span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16072459232599309133noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5886324249037633345.post-72179288423505190822012-02-25T22:13:00.001-05:002012-02-27T11:25:17.736-05:00Race Report: Fork Shoals Road Race<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This week I traveled down to Traveler’s Rest South Carolina to get in a few days of serious climbing, like 21K by the week’s end.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Several of us decided to head over to the Greenville Spring Training Series and hop in the Fork Shoals Road Race.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I through my hat into the CAT4 race with about 90 others, including Mike Gurtzweiler who traveled down from DC with me.</span></div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">After doing a little research on </span><a href="http://www.strava.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Strava</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> and Mapmyride, it looked as if the course was three 14.5 mile loops.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Two climbs per lap with one climb about .5 miles at 3.1%.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The weather was cool and clear but had a pretty solid cross wind.</span></div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The night before we set around and discussed possible race strategies, sit in, go off the front etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had pretty much decided that I wanted to mix this race up a little and not be pack fodder.</span></div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The race started off fairly tame, I had just come off of climbing Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Basically had 15 hours and 18k of climbing under the legs and felt pretty taxed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I had little expectation for the race.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was there for training purposes.</span></div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The field had LOTS of juniors so I moved forward fairly quickly; I did not want to get caught up with them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I sat in for the first 10-15 minutes still deciding what to do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Did I want to just sit there and be field fodder or do something more exciting?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I looked back at the race in Florida and decided that I should just go to the front, keep covering breaks until either I popped or the finish line appeared.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I did not "attack" the field but I did pull a lot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I talked to a few guys in the main field and they knew other </span><a href="http://www.usmilitarycycling.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit;">US Military Cycling</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> Members so, against all good judgment, felt that I should represent the kit, so I moved forward. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I even had one guy talk about the magazine article from a few weeks ago, so that sealed the deal, forward I went. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I sat on the front for close to 30 miles (pulled the entire second lap, no change of positioning).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The one section with the cross wind, I absolutely buried myself trying to split the pack.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Post race, I had SEVERAL riders come up and make statements like, 15 more seconds and the whole back end would have just shattered.</span></div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The last lap I knew that I was going to have trouble with the hill.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was 3.1% over about .5 miles, should have been a minute and a half climb.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I went off the front to get down as fast as I could but being a poor descender I did not gain as much ground as I needed to.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In hindsight, I should have attacked before the descent to gain more ground to give myself time to crawl up the other side.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I did still average 340w on the climb but floated through the pace and out the back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I chased for 10 miles, could see the group but could not get back on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While part to the peloton and pulling my normalized power was </span><a href="http://www.trainingpeaks.com/sw/2H4DL7YIWRUBI5M3YU4ZAXRXPM" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit;">296w and average power 239w</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Post-pop, NP was 272 and average was 253w.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I worked harder alone for 43 minutes then I did earlier so I know my fitness was pretty good. I did have a little help in the last five miles, a rider for Krystal out of Tennessee, Larry Russell. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mike did the right thing a set in finishing 20<sup>th</sup>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was happy to hear that Clayton Burke from the </span><a href="http://www.facebook.com/JuniorFlyersCycling" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Junior Flyers</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> that rotated though the front a few times with me ended up 2<sup>nd</sup>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Last kudos goes out to Veloshine and RTO riders, they seemed to be the only ones that shared the work on the first two laps.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Possible that several others did on the third, but I wouldn’t know, Larry and I were doing a two man team time trial.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Given that I planned on staying up front and not just being field fodder I am very happy with the race.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was not looking to win nor gain points on this one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As far as representing, I had a hellava a lot more people commenting and photo ops being up front then in the back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hopefully some of those will appear on the internet over the next couple of days.</span></div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Good decisions:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>not just sitting in;</span></div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Bad decisions:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>just not sitting in; trying to break apart the field</span></div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><a href="http://www.pre-reg.com/Users/RacerMain.aspx?EventID=643&CatID=12898&RegManFinish=Day03Event08" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Overall finish:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>65th.</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Missed the field finish by 1 minute and 24 seconds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If this was NASCAR the sponsors would have been happy, crossed finish line in front of the crowd, twice in 1st and one in 65th.</span></div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Overall fitness was not an issue, climbing and weight was!!!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16072459232599309133noreply@blogger.com0Pelzer, SC 29669, USA34.6423372 -82.45595980000001634.6364267 -82.463412300000016 34.6482477 -82.448507300000017tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5886324249037633345.post-76642866533170068762012-02-12T01:00:00.002-05:002012-02-16T13:55:30.028-05:00Race Report: Race for Humanity Road Race, San Antonio Florida<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';">First and foremost, I was a little apprehensive of the race on Saturday due to a couple of competing factors. First, my knee had shown a great deal of weakness the week before and second, I was not confident of my fitness for an early season road race. Lastly, I knew that my form would be in the cellar because of a solid week of long rides.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';">The race plan as a group was fairly simple. I would cover as many of the early race attacks as I could and if by some chance was still in the pack toward the end, move forward and support <a href="http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=100002526358896" target="_blank">Kurt</a> and Sam with the final sprint. Knowing that my fitness was not at the highest level possible, mainly due to 12 hours of training miles a week and not really being out on the road due to short days of sunlight and long work hours, I figured that I would just continue to counter attacks until I was shot off the back.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';">The course was 51 miles in length constructed over 3 laps of undulating hills. None of the hills could be considered very steep or long, but with the possibility of a head wind would be tragic if one was stuck out time trialing off the back, a prophetic fear that I had from the beginning.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';">One of the coolest things happened at the beginning of the race. The entire 3/4 US Military Cycling Team was given a call up. As we moved forward, you could hear the claps of several of the 82 riders. Not something that I had experienced before, so pretty cool.</span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7c3JACSbwJKk7BU9O1x-j2iF-uzEi-53jBlXDMzLSGooti9eltPGY14CTewgzJI5qgAiFoeYmsdHkToZXZTztrMC5KVOgTpSWt71aVDeEb54WudPmxbXwhpc-9asGJoDyfkwFiiF4ygI/s1600/Call+up.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="216px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7c3JACSbwJKk7BU9O1x-j2iF-uzEi-53jBlXDMzLSGooti9eltPGY14CTewgzJI5qgAiFoeYmsdHkToZXZTztrMC5KVOgTpSWt71aVDeEb54WudPmxbXwhpc-9asGJoDyfkwFiiF4ygI/s320/Call+up.jpg" width="320px" yda="true" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Call-ups before the race</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';">The first attack came within minutes of the gun. <a href="http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=12007143" target="_blank">Peggy</a> had planned on taking either the first or second attack, so off the front she went. Once the second attack occurred, <a href="http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=100002526358896" target="_blank">Kurt</a> went off with it, as I watched Peggy slowly move back into the pack. Once that attack was reeled back in, other took off. Sam and Kurt gently prodded by elevating their voices and telling me it was my turn. The hope of finishing in the pack evaporated and out of the saddle I went. Due to the hesitation, and desire to just sit in, I felt the first of many matches being lit. I was able to get up to the group and latch on. Slowly we got sucked back in and a pattern began to develop. I would see Peggy go flying by; get reeled in; then my turn. The last break that I got involved in started out with 10. Once up the road, the group of 10 broke into two groups of 5, so off I went with the front group. Finally, it was just me and a rider from USF. Looking back at my power file, USF and I were out in the wind for 20 minutes. My first hour of the race, my normalized power was over 355w. </span></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeVaagNBCZnzONItuTbHQ7fEjiXooDYjG1pbLgUJFeKeNF7BKjfH4b2s-8DQIQ2RRlVP-hlWpxprYGVbW2MW_s3AfV0qBeP3tiopYUp4JomZi-NK1fVLTpyk9oT_yWo46RTwzU8e0Zwms/s1600/IMG_0804.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="135px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeVaagNBCZnzONItuTbHQ7fEjiXooDYjG1pbLgUJFeKeNF7BKjfH4b2s-8DQIQ2RRlVP-hlWpxprYGVbW2MW_s3AfV0qBeP3tiopYUp4JomZi-NK1fVLTpyk9oT_yWo46RTwzU8e0Zwms/s200/IMG_0804.JPG" width="200px" yda="true" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';">This time my passing back through the peloton was at the worst moment, on a climb. I went from the front, to the middle, and shuttled off the back, destine for day of time trialing. Fortunately for me, unfortunately for the team, two other <a href="http://www.usmilitarycycling.com/" target="_blank">USMil</a> riders had met the same fate. I hopped on with them and two other riders. The five of us worked together until I could no longer keep a wheel. My knee was on fire; backward I went again. At this point I did not know if I was dead last, bottom third, nothing.</span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 14.4pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';">I did come across another group of riders, including USF from earlier, and began working with them, but it became evident that they all had popped and could not do much. I connect with a rider and we began working together upping our speed. After thirty minutes or so, I came upon the 2 USMil riders, but they were done for the day, and we just passed through them and continued. About 17 miles left, the other rider looked at me and in Spanish said, “<span style="color: black;">me acaban”, loosely “I am finished”. I pulled away and time trialed to the finish line.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';">Overall, I am happy with my finish. I wish that my fitness had been better so that I could have accomplished more for the team and my personally. I think I was 27<sup>th</sup> in the 4s and 58<sup>th</sup> overall. I found some solace in the comment of one of my teammates who post race said that I had “done exactly what I was suppose to”, well with the exception of being with the team on the finish line. </span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';">Not the finish that I wanted but a great end to an incredible week of riding and racing with my new teammates.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"></span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16072459232599309133noreply@blogger.com4San Antonio, FL, USA28.3361142 -82.27453070000001428.3233947 -82.284026200000014 28.3488337 -82.265035200000014tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5886324249037633345.post-751013682019195242012-02-10T22:40:00.001-05:002012-02-15T21:46:00.686-05:00US Military Cycling Team Camp: Day 5<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Bookman Old Style;">As I stated last night, the time trial went pretty good for me, so I am happy with the results. The one negative? I now have to go into <a href="http://www.trainingpeaks.com/" target="_blank">WKO+</a> and adjust my FTP and then do the same on the <a href="http://www.racermateinc.com/" target="_blank">Computrainer</a>, my tempo workouts in the BTC just got harder.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Bookman Old Style;">Friday morning we went for a leisure ride out the <a href="http://www.dep.state.fl.us/gwt/guide/regions/westcentral/trails/suncoast.htm" target="_blank">Suncoast Trail</a>, the same one that we have each day, but found an spur to go out and look <span style="font-family: inherit;">around <span style="color: #333333;">Jay B. Starkey Wilderness Park</span>. It was an absolute blast, just pedaling around, chatting and taking in the scenery. We even came upon some wildlife and stopped for</span> a petting and photo op with a snapping turtle. As bad as that sounds, fortunately, no lost digits. So basically it was 30ish mile ride over a couple of hours. Very enjoyable pace.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Bookman Old Style;">Post ride consisted of the norm, back to the hotel, lunch, nap, get the bike ready for the next ride. Today we were going to get to do something t special, we loaded up and went out to MacDill AFB to ride with the local “lunchtime” riders. With our twenty and their twenty, we had a fairly sizable group to go riding around the base. Between the 300 miles we had put in during the week and the race weekend coming up, we were all quit content with just doing another easy afternoon ride. I will say, showing up on base, all kitted up and going for a ride with the ‘locals’ was really cool. Doug from <a href="http://www.frs.com/" target="_blank">FRS</a> was also on site and setup at tent, so upon return, we all hung out until time to roll back to the hotel.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS8fUHMIBJFOxfAui8baoMeUaQUGZcEvUKetIvBnZQFy0sFzNPJhuXHS5yFqrTuqw568qo0m2c21DXdW1TngEmvTJNKhCvj8xjRXJ-DPlUE3yLyxH6nxP3ijr6oQradnW3Y1Kvd_7eZi4/s1600/429227_341579859216178_101441499896683_1002084_143347262_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS8fUHMIBJFOxfAui8baoMeUaQUGZcEvUKetIvBnZQFy0sFzNPJhuXHS5yFqrTuqw568qo0m2c21DXdW1TngEmvTJNKhCvj8xjRXJ-DPlUE3yLyxH6nxP3ijr6oQradnW3Y1Kvd_7eZi4/s320/429227_341579859216178_101441499896683_1002084_143347262_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="caption"><span class="text_exposed_show">Approach of "retreat," the instantaneous transition from cyclists to Soldiers. It's not what we do, it's who we are.</span></span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Bookman Old Style;">Once back to the hotel, another shower and it was time for dinner. Spending a few years on different teams, I was use to the normal “team” meeting to talk race strategies and whatnot. Bill started us out and then Sean took over. I will admit I have never been in a meeting like that. 30 minutes and I learned more about racing then in the last 10 years for riding. We then broke into our selective squads and talked specifically about our race.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Bookman Old Style;">Since there wasn’t a women’s race, Peggy a strong CAT 2, was going to drop in with us. Thus giving us seven riders in the 3/4 race. The plan was fairly basic, Peggy was going to either cover or initiate the first break. I was going to cover the second, Don and Mark to follow suit. Kurt was going to be the lead-out for Sam, and if the opportunity arose, Brad was going to try to get in break and make it stick.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Bookman Old Style;">I came back to the room nervous. I am suppose to cover the attacks, hmmm… will my fitness allow for such early race match burning??? Will I be relegated to time trialing by the end of the race????</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16072459232599309133noreply@blogger.com0Lutz, FL, USA28.1511243 -82.46148310000000928.110358299999998 -82.515697100000011 28.1918903 -82.407269100000008tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5886324249037633345.post-34347072226543787092012-02-09T22:46:00.000-05:002012-02-09T22:46:32.530-05:00US Military Cycling Team Camp: Day 4Thursday morning came and after a night of thinking about Jeff Cup and my knee, I had a decision to make. Should I or should I not do the individual time trial this morning? I decided that I would go out, do a warm-up and then hit the line. My start time was 9:17, the course was 9.5 miles out, turn around and return. All of us headed over to the course and did some warm-up loops. I hopped on with Jim Weinstein and road for about thirty minutes. The knee felt okay, simply, just didn't hurt too bad. So I figured that I would give it a go, still trying to recover from the embarrassment of the day before.<br />
<br />
I noticed that there was a head wind all the way out and then a killed tail wind for the return. After some LT testing a few weeks before, I knew my LT was around 280. So I figured with the head wind, I could head out at about 305 watts, turn around and ride the tailwind back at around 285. <br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0Ypw48xj8oNicz2KXLBfKl1ygZsyQ0HbVr-3W8YF8RNEBF7SF28hA-xeOUKMuOcB87ZwcncSKmhjQxUHOlMUrNS0ojB6Vxa7VLh5iqlittM88cefBZJboGrl15eqnvrDBuUZZ-8c-1DU/s1600/TT+Results.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0Ypw48xj8oNicz2KXLBfKl1ygZsyQ0HbVr-3W8YF8RNEBF7SF28hA-xeOUKMuOcB87ZwcncSKmhjQxUHOlMUrNS0ojB6Vxa7VLh5iqlittM88cefBZJboGrl15eqnvrDBuUZZ-8c-1DU/s200/TT+Results.JPG" width="149" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">TT Results</td></tr>
</tbody></table>I lined up and waited, 5-4-3-2-1, and I was off, well sort of, could not get the left foot clipped into the pedal and lost a few seconds, but got the bike up to speed with a 1200 watt kick. I settled in, got my cadence up and looked in at 305 watts and maintained that for the next 27 minutes. Little slower than I wanted but it was a strong head wind. I hit the mid-way point and headed back. instantly i could tell my power was dropping off, so I got it back to 285 and held it there. Figuring 50 minutes a little over threshold would work out. The knee was killing me, I kept repeating my mantra, and watched the miles go by. I crossed the finish line at 51:08, I cut nearly 4 minutes off of the second half. I am really happy about my performance. How did I compare to the others? Well 16th of 19. Wouldn't score a lot of points on Road Results but for me it was a good day.<br />
<br />
After coming back from the ride, most of us kicked around for the day and got ready to head over to Plantation Palms Gold Club to have dinner with American Classic, one of our sponsors.<br />
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Other exciting news of the day, Lance Armstrong, <a href="http://www.jpows.com/" target="_blank">Jeremy Powers</a>, Lazer Helmets, and Van Dessel Sports were tweeting about the US Military Cycling Team. VERY COOL!!!<br />
<br />
Tomorrow should be a pretty packed day. Getting up in the morning, breakfast, kit up, and head out for a 40 miles ride. Then comeback, lunch, kit up again and head over to Macdill AFB. We are going to ride with some of the military members and their families tomorrow evening for another 40 miles. After that, we will have a few team meetings to talk about Saturday's race strategy.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16072459232599309133noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5886324249037633345.post-20065356587945856382012-02-08T22:08:00.000-05:002012-02-09T22:47:10.122-05:00US Military Cycling Team Camp: Day 3<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBGep1OY83F69XsmjIUNOLnPZmuLuPhDmZTXnWNJM1b8kcw8zY9Z7k9uG6-zZErltLzJjtS4kXcQbCXl2eVXBykMzkwfA7AhnO6vjBBNoGoDyTh-fwBqiwRqP_OyVCSI98Sm93vySpiDU/s1600/Profile+photo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBGep1OY83F69XsmjIUNOLnPZmuLuPhDmZTXnWNJM1b8kcw8zY9Z7k9uG6-zZErltLzJjtS4kXcQbCXl2eVXBykMzkwfA7AhnO6vjBBNoGoDyTh-fwBqiwRqP_OyVCSI98Sm93vySpiDU/s200/Profile+photo.jpg" width="133" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal">Wednesday morning was a beautiful Florida morning. Temperature was hovering just below 60 with promises of climbing to the mid-70s. Unlike the rest of week in which there was a possibility of rain, today would not bear such predictions, the sky was perfectly calm. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">After the morning meeting we headed out for what was to be around a century. The pace was pretty calm. The groups was slit into two again, the elites off in on and Masters / devo in the other. I got to do a couple of things that I had not done before. First time I have ever dropped out of a pace line, floated back to a chase vehicle, grabbed food and water and pedaled back up to the group. Pretty neat experience if you haven’t had the chance to try.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">But the bad news for the ride. Several times last year I got a reoccurring dull pain on the back of my knee. I have gone in to get a fit several times, but each time, all the measurements look correct. So the idea of the saddle to far back, cleat positioning, float, etc had been checked out and seemed ok. Typically, I would have the pain for a day or two and go away. Then the 1<sup>st</sup> of January came around. I went on a fairly lengthy ride with <a href="http://teamstickyfingers.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Team Sticky Fingers</a>, nothing like the distance here, but for winter in DC, it was a good ride. After going out MacArthur, we headed up Anglers. By the time that I got to the top, the knee started to ache. So I settled in and just rode for the next 50 miles, thinking that it was the same type of pain as I had last year. Knowing that I was coming to Tampa in about a month, I backed off for a few weeks. Unfortunately, Monday, the pain returned. By Tuesday afternoon, it was really bad. So on Wednesday, I had to bail at the 40-mile marker and ride the chase vehicle back to the hotel. So embarrassing!!!!</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Wednesday night, we all got together, had dinner then another great lecture. We talked some training and racing psychology. It helped me refocus and think again about the big picture and not the individual days. My mantra?? I will win Jeff Cup. Something that I was going to have to repeat to myself several times the next day.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16072459232599309133noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5886324249037633345.post-54239239353236235502012-02-07T22:08:00.000-05:002012-02-07T22:21:48.909-05:00US Military Cycling Team Camp: Day 2<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGLTVJkxVsClEBM8tg-Dr0xuWxRYxdMkF-lJUeefSeLmuzBJaY2vPm-G5nugGH32LvgEaU8Ry9qVUBetZeFEJYO69W7B0ngiHlGaqH4ckDF6F0ciccMUMjOl-fSdIyCL69OMGAjcDqv10/s1600/335240_152009158249616_100003215975348_200793_1338011178_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGLTVJkxVsClEBM8tg-Dr0xuWxRYxdMkF-lJUeefSeLmuzBJaY2vPm-G5nugGH32LvgEaU8Ry9qVUBetZeFEJYO69W7B0ngiHlGaqH4ckDF6F0ciccMUMjOl-fSdIyCL69OMGAjcDqv10/s200/335240_152009158249616_100003215975348_200793_1338011178_o.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal">Each day I find this team more and more interesting. As always, on a 4-hour ride, you have to make the time pass by talking to those around you. So as I was struggling to keep a close to 26 MPH pace along side Jim Elliott, I decided to inquire about a few things that were said during the introductions. So on Monday night, when everyone was telling thee story, Jim was a little laissez faire about his background. I caught the idea that he was a former Marine, now Hartford Connecticut Police Officer, but not much more. As I have remarked before, Bill had started naming off a few accomplishments of some of the riders. He brought up Jim. Apparently Jim’s passion for cycling has carried him great distances. I mean like from Boston to New York, 220 miles in 11 hours to bring awareness for Livestrong (video: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mw0BfyYhomc">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mw0BfyYhomc</a>). Funny thing is the 220 was probably easy due to the fact the he has also ridden 343 miles around the perimeter of the state, yes in one continuous ride.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">So the morning started off with the normal 0630 wake up and grab breakfast. I deviated a little and headed out to grab a Starbucks. Twenty minute walk to and from to have a cappuccino. Probably will not do that one again, but figured I would give it a shot. Made it back to hotel for a photo op, then out on the road.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg45ieKh63D0nxBNqQ5EJeXpqk8abebAzRAiQB_UmE800Rx-I0f3DPUb-dP3L8ODpfC6J1LBhVfcKyaH7bf-2vj_EXptcJGWEcnEGCGhic_bd3c8yHRn84JYUvojzkbTJw-wg3gnqR-Q4/s1600/421856_339199926120838_101441499896683_996817_1731875016_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="182" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg45ieKh63D0nxBNqQ5EJeXpqk8abebAzRAiQB_UmE800Rx-I0f3DPUb-dP3L8ODpfC6J1LBhVfcKyaH7bf-2vj_EXptcJGWEcnEGCGhic_bd3c8yHRn84JYUvojzkbTJw-wg3gnqR-Q4/s400/421856_339199926120838_101441499896683_996817_1731875016_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The plan was to head out for about a 80-90 mile ride. The weather was a little crappy, but we were all styling with the new kits. I will say, the Primal Wear kits look great. I also tried the Chamois BUTT'r Eurostyle, pretty impressive. In the past, I have seldom used anything, but… this is one that I am going to keep using. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The ride left and we immediately went into pace lining. Bill split us into two groups of five, from there we took turns simulating the front group rotating and the back group just sitting in. We did this for almost four and a half hours. The last 20 miles, my group was sent off the front while the other group was held back, then released to catch us. So for 47 minutes, five of us went as hard as would could, while maintaining the integrity of the group. We tried to keep it at about 27 MPH, but ended up averaging 25 MPH. My Normalized Power was 253 over the 47 minutes. We held off the other group, but only by a mere 30 seconds or so. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">After getting back to the hotel, we showered up, talked some long term strategies, had a fantastic nutrition discussion with Jim Weinstein and now calling it a night. Tomorrow’s schedule… 80-100 miles ride, I am sure that Jim and Bill will have plenty of pace lining and learning to feed from a vehicle.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">If you are on Facebook click <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/US-Military-Cycling/101441499896683" target="_blank">here</a> and 'like' the team. </div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16072459232599309133noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5886324249037633345.post-57846716273985053582012-02-06T21:27:00.000-05:002012-02-06T21:33:55.724-05:00US Military Cycling Team Camp: Day 1Not much to report about the flight down to Tampa, except that Air Trans did not charge me for the bike box, which was completely awesome. <br />
<br />
So I checked into the Residence Inn in Lutz Florida to get my room and roommate assignment. After checking in, everyone was scrambling around getting bikes reassembled, unpacking luggage, the normal things that go on if you are staying for a week. I meet my roommate Donald Davis, then a few of us went off to dinner. Conversation had more to do about figuring out the professional, non-cycling, attributes and the standard small talk that is required when thrown together with a bunch of strangers. Being Super Bowl Sunday and the military aspect, it didn't take long for everyone to get acquainted. That was Sunday, day 0, for us, Monday was truly day 1.<br />
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Morning came early, especially after a restless night of Christmas like jitters and excitement. We all headed down for breakfast around 6:30, then headed over to the team meeting at 7:30. The next hour was spent talking about expectations, conduct on and off the bike, and signing of the 2012 rider contract. The interesting part was listening to each of the riders talk about their accomplishments, but once again, it seems to fall back to our military profession. After a few minutes, the race director, Bill, stopped the intros and then started to point out the cycling accomplishments of a very humble crowd. I sat there for a few minutes and listened, very quickly questioning, then why the heck am I here?? These are legit racers, I think I am the only one running around sporting Cat 4 on their license. After that we were off to change kits for a leisurely meet and greet ride. <br />
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I felt like it was the first day of school, trying to make sure that I had everything together and functioning correctly. With our rainbow of colors for kits, we all paired up and started out. We stayed in a double pace line for 80 miles and 4 hours. First time that I have ever stayed that long, in the saddle and in a pace line. Sure I have tons of rides over 4 hours and much longer than 80, but never that smooth and consistent. I remember pulling for a little while then dropping off to the right, watching 12 pairs of riders go by, pretty cool train. The only skill for today, move back and forth in the pace line, doing introductions. We were told that we do not stop for mechanicals. So if someone flats, they just go off the back, fix the flat and work yourself back to the group. If you are too far off, then in the SAG wagon and get dropped off in front of the group to hop back on. I guess there is one other skill I am going to have to learn this week, is how to answer nature's call while riding, apparently we will no longer stop for that one either, now that will be interesting.<br />
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Post ride, back to the hotel, lunch, showers, kit and soft equipment issue, another team meeting and dinner. The Primal kits are great looking, so I stoked about that in the morning. There will be 26 of us rolling out of the Residence Inn, all kitted up. Hopefully a photo for tomorrows night blog. Now it is 9:30 at night, I am feeling a little bit of the fatigue from the day, and cannot wait till tomorrow's ride. Oh yeah, we doing 90 tomorrow. Gonna be fun.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16072459232599309133noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5886324249037633345.post-35798518610936095412012-01-27T14:24:00.001-05:002012-01-27T14:24:48.244-05:002012 Road Race Season<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Bookman Old Style;">The 2012 Cycling Season is well on its way, at least training wise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After rethinking the first sentence I guess I should clarify and state that the calendar is moving right along, training, let’s just say that it has had it bumps and bruises. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Bookman Old Style;">December 16<sup>th</sup>, while descending (a set of stairs), I had the sock incident of 2011.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I swear there was no alcohol involved, but was heading down the stairs to close the door to go out and get some chow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I foot, covered with a sock, slightly too far forward over the stair and I found myself airborne and crashing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Knocked the wind out of my and hurt </span><a href="http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/233450.html"><span style="font-family: Bookman Old Style;">like the dickens</span></a><span style="font-family: Bookman Old Style;">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I decided to abandon Sundays ride to recoup.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The ribs SEEMED okay, then came Monday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was getting ready for work, felt a sneeze coming on, sneezed heard (and felt) a pop in my back then proceeded to lie on the floor for 45 minutes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I guess the fall had fractured a rib and the sneeze just finished the job.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So for the last 4 weeks I have been training through 2 broken ribs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Really as not affected the trainer time, but strength workouts have been on the back shelf.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Bookman Old Style;">Training has gone pretty well so far since developing my early season plan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My first “A” race is Jefferson Cup on the first of April.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Before that I have two races in Tampa Florida, 11/12 February.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have been able to get about 12-15 hours a week in on the </span><a href="http://www.racermateinc.com/computrainer.asp"><span style="color: purple; font-family: Bookman Old Style;">CompuTrainer</span></a><span style="font-family: Bookman Old Style;"> and have slowly built my LT with a ton of sweet spot training sessions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am working through my collection of 1980s movies with an addition of the Tour Down Under last week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All of this is to prepare for my two training camps in February.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Bookman Old Style;">First training camp will be with the </span><a href="http://www.usmilitarycycling.com/"><span style="color: purple; font-family: Bookman Old Style;">US Military Cycling Team</span></a><span style="font-family: Bookman Old Style;"> from February 5<sup>th</sup> to the 12<sup>th</sup> in Tampa.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Should be pretty exciting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The week will culminate with some racing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My early season goal is to podium at Jeff Cup and get accumulate enough points by May to upgrade to 3.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So lots of early season crits for me.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Bookman Old Style;">Second training camp is going to be in Traveler’s Rest South Carolina from the 22<sup>nd</sup> to the 26<sup>th</sup> of February.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lots of climbing Paris Mountain and Caesar’s Head.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Bookman Old Style;">Next update will be from Tampa Florida.</span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16072459232599309133noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5886324249037633345.post-58670560860603263172011-12-06T15:30:00.000-05:002011-12-07T09:57:06.850-05:00Race Report - Capital `Cross Classic - Race #8 of the 2011 BikeReg.com MABRAcross Super 8 Series - SERIES CHAMPIONSHIP<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I had initially thought about heading to Taneytown for last weekend's races but due to Thanksgiving and my work schedule, it just didn't make sense to drive up for the races.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So that meant two things. My freshness was good, but I really had not been on the cross bike for two weeks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then there is Capital 'Cross Classic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Two years ago the race greeted me with sub 40 degree weather and 4 inches of snow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This year we were not going to be as fortunate, another crisp morning in Reston, which guaranteed the course would be fast.</span></div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A brief recap of the journey thus far...<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was sitting fourth in the 45+ 3/4 overall series, with Eric Sloman seven points ahead of me and Steve Klose thirty-six behind, not that the 45+ means anything, but hell if they are going to track it, I might as well act like it matters. Crossresults predictor gave me a solid 61st.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This season that forecasting model has been off by about 20 to 30, so I have been finishing in somewhere between 5<sup>th</sup> and 10th of the 45+.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have started in the back quarter of the field in every race and accumulated over 200 kills to date.</span></div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Back to Sunday....Giving myself plenty of time for breakfast and coffee, I rolled into Lake Fairfax Park in Reston.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As I alluded to earlier, today was a much different day since the last time I raced here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The morning was a little crisp but the sky was clear and the fog was lifting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The early Christmas gift of six inches of snow I had prayed for did not come true, not even a little rain. Guess I am on Santa’s naughty list.....</span></div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I had left all hope of a decent starting point back home in a notebook entitled "2011 Cross Lessons Learned"...that early season points will get me a good spot next year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I signed in and got my back side of the pack number, 360.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After a quick pinning of the number I once again forwent the warm-up lap, figuring the excellent video from cxhairs.com would suffice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I did walk over to the illustrious "Chute" to see what all of the humbug was about.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My timing was impeccable; the CAT4 race had just begun.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I stood there and watched as they road down with ease, so I was not too concerned about my race.</span></div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">I made it back to the truck, hopped on the trainer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes, imagine that, I do at least some type of warm-up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After wearing far too many articles of clothing at Ed Sander, I decided to go sans arm and leg warmers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Good decision on my part.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Made my way down to the start finish and began to stage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I ran into most of my nemeses and victims and was reminded that my jersey not only had my number but also a bull-eye on the back.</span></div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpfHStGJl7ANuTK03FmzqYDbVrwatZbtG77jyODKnWfNsfILr9C9BoSY3zRJKvrooVxZN9hiHY-5Nok99nTFqx09nuC0wpP6n-4Rsq1-6ITfaqo4EkFCjBGLEkoUpp07InTlRxzJD07KA/s1600/340549_10150500267993764_503438763_10597764_988831784_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" dda="true" height="148px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpfHStGJl7ANuTK03FmzqYDbVrwatZbtG77jyODKnWfNsfILr9C9BoSY3zRJKvrooVxZN9hiHY-5Nok99nTFqx09nuC0wpP6n-4Rsq1-6ITfaqo4EkFCjBGLEkoUpp07InTlRxzJD07KA/s200/340549_10150500267993764_503438763_10597764_988831784_o.jpg" width="200px" /></a></div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The race started and we were off.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first part of the course was fairly easy to negotiate, after three months of racing, the skill level of the pack had greatly increased. Very few were getting tied up in the tape and most handled the curves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Up and over the barriers, I had Dave Tambeaux in sight and Knight Elsberry right behind me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The front of the field was already gone; I figured the normal Jon Hicks crew was leading the way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We crossed back to the south side of the course over the bridge and to the run up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The only odd part of the race so far, is that Dave, Knight and I had passed four of five riders that seem to have already sat up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Odd, why were they not racing?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why such a passive stance?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Up and over the hill, paced by a violinist, the next obstacle was going to be "The Chute" followed by a pretty decent mud section.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No problem, we jetted down the chute, hit the mud and powered on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The only place that I had an issue was on the far side of the race, there was a pretty significant climb, and the first two times were simple but the third a little more challenging.</span></div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The third lap, which I was hoping was the penultimate, actually became the middle lap.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we started, I was hoping for four laps but the race was going to be five.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We came to "my" problem area again and while climbing, I lost contact and put a foot down, giving Knight no room.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sorry, wasn't on purpose.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We both dismounted, he took the lead and it was the last time I saw him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think he actually climbed another 10 spots after passing me.</span></div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The fifth lap approached, I was feeling okay, but not great after redlining for the last 4 laps.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All went well up till the problem spot; I just dismounted and ran up it giving a Kelly Benefits rider a little advantage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So it came down to a sprint for 39th and 40th.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had enough left to get a jump and hold onto 39th.</span></div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Like I said earlier, Knight clawed another 10 positions up for 29th. Gary Moon rocked it to 20th, his kill points has to have climbed to close to 400.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jon Hicks and crew got top honors, giving them the podium and automatic upgrades to CAT 2.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I may have maintained enough points to be tied for third in the overall 45+ series.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> The rest of the results can be found at <a href="http://thebikelaneteam.wordpress.com/">http://thebikelaneteam.wordpress.com/</a>. It was great to see Doug Owens, Thom Moore, and Adam Austin; all of whom I have battled all year round. </span>Cross season has come to an end for me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have lots of lessons learned and a plan for next year. I am taking a full week off and then transitioning to road.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jefferson Cup is about 198 training hours away.</span></div><br />
***<br />
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Kudos to Bruce Buckley and the Bikelane crew who setup this course. Each week the MABRA Series 8 has stepped it up and Capital Cross was no exception. Great job guys, excellent race.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16072459232599309133noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5886324249037633345.post-55884818148410766882011-11-20T20:51:00.000-05:002011-11-20T20:52:55.493-05:00Race Report - Rockburn Cross - Race #7 in the 2011 BikeReg.com MABRAcross Super 8 SeriesAt the end of last week, I decided that I would take a little different approach to this weekend. My goal was to get in the top 25 of the field to gain one precious point to possibly get ONE decent start position before the end of the MABRAcross Super 8 Series. I also planned a little different race strategy. I would get there early, warm-up and pre-ride the course. I know those things sound crazy and all, but I am looking for some trick to pull out of my hat. For the actual race, I planned on gutting myself on the first lap to try and get gain many spots during the prologue and then see how long I could stay in the top 25.<br />
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The drive to Rockburn was only slightly different from all of the other northern bound Maryland races. The difference was simply putting in a different address into the Garmin and following the route. I arrived around 8 giving me approximately 30 minutes to unpack and get on the bike. Not so fast, it looked as if I would spend the first thirty minutes, unpacking and visiting the ever so nice port-o-johns. So I missed the pre-ride before the CAT 4 race, no worries, I would have a few minutes between the Men's and Women's races. I spent the next 45 minutes getting everything together and waiting for the first race to end. <br />
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The pre-ride was good. As I rode the course, I was looking for roots, bumps and other obstacles that would assist in my decision regarding tire pressure. I was starting with 32 psi and debating on whether to go up or down. This course was well laid out, long paved start uphill, followed by a few serpentine turns, then over to a sand pit. The pit was completely ridable, if you and seventy of your closest friends were not sprinting into it like a herd of cats bolting for the litter boxes after devouring a can of bad tuna. And that is precisely where I expected to be on the first lap. After the pit, the course weaved back and forth, dove into the woods for some single tract action, then back in front of the crowd for the standard barriers. After that, back to some single track, followed by a run-up peppered with four angle stairs. During the pre-ride, I was able to ride the stairs, but the risk-to-reward was too great. I would run these during the race. After that, the course continued through the woods and eventually back to the road. I knew from the pre-ride this one was gonna be fast.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijb3hqUFk_X_KTOeRmdGdsIac2lwLxGdHOnOYsJDZTX7OZuykwAo0Y0uzlTnCwwxx6f50oWdjDxInJNGq71t5eJj5mC4vlZFE1-v9B4nHYJ73D7QXjdOtEbZGgzeEOdBZTXev3dyZ0LUc/s1600/Image+9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijb3hqUFk_X_KTOeRmdGdsIac2lwLxGdHOnOYsJDZTX7OZuykwAo0Y0uzlTnCwwxx6f50oWdjDxInJNGq71t5eJj5mC4vlZFE1-v9B4nHYJ73D7QXjdOtEbZGgzeEOdBZTXev3dyZ0LUc/s320/Image+9.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>After pre-riding I went over to registration and collected my number. Crap, 676, again. Not all the way in the back but with 112 of us, it was far enough that my kill opportunities would be quite high. I went back to the truck, setup the trainer and began to warm-up. Grabbed a little Cytomax, some tunes and began to spin. Then came race time. I was giving myself about 15 minutes to get over to the start-line but this was interrupted by yet another stop at the port-o-pot, the stomach was not feeling well. Race weight: achieved! Stomach cramps: achieved! Feeling best for the race: failed!<br />
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Regardless, I made it to the start-line and found my spot, off the grid, and 11 rows back. I looked toward the front to see if I could find any of the regulars, spotting Thom Moore, Doug Owens, Jon Hicks, and a few more. A few seconds later, Adam Austin rolled up, but not on his bike. He had broken his hanger during the warm-up, grabbed Larry Sterrett's bike, raised the seat and posted right in front of me. Well my first Rapha Challenge was sitting in front of me on a bike two sizes two small. This provided an opportunity and an issue. With Adam on someone else's bike I knew I would smoke him fairly quick, but with 75 guys in front, it might be hard to get around him during the prologue. Then my worst nightmare, appeared. In the spot in front of Adam, a guy hopped in with a mountain bike and CAT 5 tattoos on his right calf. Objective 1 for the race was now shot.<br />
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Quick side note: While we were lining up, one of the racers, Gunnar, said, "Hey, aren't you Chuck Kyle?". Shocked, I simply replied, "Yes". He told me he reads the blog, enjoys it since it gives him a goal. I initially thought this was pretty cool, glad someone is reading it. Then several other guys who start in the back and fight their way forward told me the same thing. I don't want to speak for Gunnar, as he did not tell me his actual race goal, but some of the others did. Their goal? Catch me. Yes, I am a marked man in the middle of the pack. Now that is pretty cool since we can't get all the way to the front and chase the leader. Instead, the gantlet has been dropped and we have a race for the leader of the (middle of the) pack. If you are one of these guys and racing Capital Cross, hit me up with a cross results Rapha Challenge, chuckkyle@me.com. <br />
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Back to the race....<br />
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The race started and Adam got a pretty good jump, but we were all bound up. I got around him only to have to slow pedal behind the mountain biker. After what seemed like an eternity, I finally (and safely) maneuvered around him and hit it as hard as I could. When we hit the grass my prized position of 25th was still 30 in front of me, I gained no ground. The race was fast, we went back and forth through the turns and eventually made it to the sand-pit. It was chaos. Some mistakenly tried to ride, others were in the tape, a few just were flopping around the sand making snow angels. Post race discussions revealed that the top 15 or so had the choice of run or ride and went through it seamlessly. Not my pack. Out of the pit I was sitting 48th. I was in the top 50 but still a long way from 25th. The next two laps were pretty normal, hard racing. Plenty of places to pass, but most everyone was running hard, so even though there was room, the pace made it fairly prohibitive. Only if someone screwed up was there time to get around them. I had worked my way to 39th and was continuing to climb. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKcg-S81ReyeriLIfFO_oR4vJ-uB_wq956IUV2TZ_5UIplYFoToGZdrFoWunv3J3kxG96bZP51r19NvsKfMpJYFm5JTku5JTkKzPCArz-btZ5cc1fv1zrwvgx03_LpXJ25VFOCWxN5idc/s1600/Image.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKcg-S81ReyeriLIfFO_oR4vJ-uB_wq956IUV2TZ_5UIplYFoToGZdrFoWunv3J3kxG96bZP51r19NvsKfMpJYFm5JTku5JTkKzPCArz-btZ5cc1fv1zrwvgx03_LpXJ25VFOCWxN5idc/s320/Image.jpg" width="241" /></a></div>On the penultimate lap, I was following a rider up one of the embankments when all of a sudden his forward motion decreased and reverse kicked in. I was unable to go anywhere and we got tied up together. I grabbed my bike out of the pretzel of carbon bikes, ran around him and started to remount on the descent. Catastropic failure for when I went into the back of his bike, it had knocked my wheel crooked and pinned against the brakes. Downhill plus locked front wheel equals Chuck over the handlebars and sliding chest first down the hill. I recovered, grabbed the bike, but had to open the brakes and unscrew the skewer. I have no idea how much time I spent jacking with the bike, seemed like days, but I am sure it was only 10 or 15 seconds but at least ten riders went by. Once back together, I was off. I did a quick check and realized that I was stuck in the small chainring, no shifting available. So it looked as if the best I would have is the 38.<br />
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Once I was back on the road, I saw Bill Schieken, off the side of the road with his bike. Though Bill will say it was a mechanical, I think he was just waiting for me. Bill normally gets in the top 7 or so, but I am sure he just wanted the change to bet me twice in one race, and that he did, wasn't long, Bill was behind me giving me a little heckling encouragement, rolled up beside of me smiled, and then was off like a bullet. Damn, how does he get so fast? Back to my peer group I went.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0caWKVW9KrnW0dk3bOtmcHjZQk-mFcTPqxYxqWjYVDF6Klcp2QXG71ohneASDhH_04iyRWTCl0OXne5BaZqMJ2OIFR1Qu7SsBke8nD7cUR_nlh0LYUf0gsUgj4CdrCiMfKjqRs2ikGGU/s1600/Image+6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0caWKVW9KrnW0dk3bOtmcHjZQk-mFcTPqxYxqWjYVDF6Klcp2QXG71ohneASDhH_04iyRWTCl0OXne5BaZqMJ2OIFR1Qu7SsBke8nD7cUR_nlh0LYUf0gsUgj4CdrCiMfKjqRs2ikGGU/s320/Image+6.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>The last lap a few of us went back and forth, I saw Dave Tambeaux ahead of me. Dave and I have gone back and forth in the results over the last few week. Gary Moon had got a jump on me after my last flop on the ground and Chas Ryan was hot on my heels. We entered final sprint, Gary was just out of reach and I beat off Chas by just a few seconds, another hundred feet and I would have been toast.<br />
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Not a great race for me today. I ended up 45th overall. Still beat my cross results predictor but by only 5 and that sucks. I ended up 8th in the 45+, that means only 28 points to the overall series. Unfortunately, cross results is no longer showing the points for the Masters 3/4/ 45+, so I am not sure if I am going to maintain 4th. I figure that I am may drop a position. A quick stop by Freshbikes and Greg was able to get the shifters back in place, fix the front derailleur and clean out a neglected bottom bracket. The bike is ready for next week, now I simply have to do the same for me.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6GodQoS5vrueHfhkSq_dPqcTkXgfY98Dfk4PxD1lH_JksLYqXcAqpFdu-8K534UjVyLufdSOvbiYM7iOCcXVmQidP9I4hUSPDEW-dZuBQri2ewJsNagApm_ciYLPskK-WOU0K-L9s8eU/s1600/Image+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6GodQoS5vrueHfhkSq_dPqcTkXgfY98Dfk4PxD1lH_JksLYqXcAqpFdu-8K534UjVyLufdSOvbiYM7iOCcXVmQidP9I4hUSPDEW-dZuBQri2ewJsNagApm_ciYLPskK-WOU0K-L9s8eU/s320/Image+2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div>Next race? 2011 MABRA Championship, Thanksgiving weekend. Crossresults Predictor? 30th out of 60. Hey I might get a good start position. Hopefully the leaders will be full of turkey.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16072459232599309133noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5886324249037633345.post-11390491730607060612011-11-14T11:46:00.000-05:002011-11-14T21:38:08.071-05:00Race Report - Schooley Mill Cross - Race #6 in the 2011 BikeReg.com MABRAcross Super 8 Series<div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The days between getting to race cross seem to be getting longer. I initially thought to blame the change to daylight savings time but the reality is I just love this damn sport. So each day I worked on something that would make me more competitive, whether it was a decision on a Hersey kiss or grapes, sleep, training stress scores, or simply a little extra time on the bike. I am actually having some success with weight loss and was thrilled to step on the scale each day of this week to see a gradual and slow decrease. By Sunday morning I was around 204 lbs, not much weight loss for many, but for me it was climbing Mt Everest, okay maybe a little exaggeration but still.</span></div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoPlainText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I was able to get a few CompuTrainer sessions in this week, two great days of riding outside, so I met my week's training goals. Dropped a few pounds and was all set, till Saturday. Some days it is harder for me to get to the race then it is to race. I am not talking about family or work issues but simply the mental state, it just becomes a battle. So Saturday, I just putz around the house, trying not to think about Sunday. By the end of the day, I found myself looking at crossresults to see where the race predictor had me for Schooled Mill, 65 out of 110. </span><br />
<br />
Sunday I packed up the 4Runner, made my traditional stop at Starbucks, and headed up the road. I have noticed a trend, it is generally 10 to 15 degrees cooler in upper Maryland then my cal de sac in Northern Virginia, but with sufficient gear in the truck, no worries. Once arriving at Schooley Mill Park, I found myself having to park somewhere in the next county over, this played a little in my decision on whether or not to put a bike in the pits, but fortunately played little in the overall day.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfoRKT-J28XDtbPwS91F2aQ9jsh4kmDTVk9SSQ7UmVaXml5AQHg7XNOzpmwF8xWYtAMpVjEhFgdE5FR7pg8Mp-tDi87M2Ji6VZVXo1uKdea89N5CHtTHkAAZ0GawT6Na3LBH-ELtdI81Q/s1600/IMG_1218.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150px" nda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfoRKT-J28XDtbPwS91F2aQ9jsh4kmDTVk9SSQ7UmVaXml5AQHg7XNOzpmwF8xWYtAMpVjEhFgdE5FR7pg8Mp-tDi87M2Ji6VZVXo1uKdea89N5CHtTHkAAZ0GawT6Na3LBH-ELtdI81Q/s200/IMG_1218.jpeg" width="200px" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Back of the pack</td></tr>
</tbody></table>I grabbed my Morning Joe and did the trek over to the registration area. What a great location, the facilities were fantastic. My next bit of anxiety was waiting to see how my double-click action had worked registering for the race, then I got my race number, 474. Crap, all the way in the back, AGAIN. I am going to have to figure out, for next season, how to get in the front. Having to work through this many riders is killing me. <br />
<br />
I did my traditional unenthusiastic warm-up and opted not to pre-ride the course. This had more to do with timing then anything. So I mounted my pit bike on the trainer and began to warm-up. Unfortunately, my race was to begin in less then 45 minutes, so warming up, simply meant spinning the legs around a little. Hmmm... I wonder how this truly affects my race? Possibly a little test? Get to Rockburn early, pre-ride the course and do a proper warm-up. I preach this to the racers that I coach, so I should probably practice what I preach. Next weekend!?!?<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIGB6sQM_3u_dmZONBUzyLne4_WWM1rPyWHKOpvbymPPBUP3bWPMzu0ATBY9d3HlIJuD4cOzOkCVwlb3jcsKuwToG-HD5uoqv7lK9hamzQhqni4sDqQHCs2dHv0lkBUbmbPy_90ZF-Nhg/s1600/photo.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150px" nda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIGB6sQM_3u_dmZONBUzyLne4_WWM1rPyWHKOpvbymPPBUP3bWPMzu0ATBY9d3HlIJuD4cOzOkCVwlb3jcsKuwToG-HD5uoqv7lK9hamzQhqni4sDqQHCs2dHv0lkBUbmbPy_90ZF-Nhg/s200/photo.jpeg" width="200px" /></a>I got to the start line on time and found my place four rows from the back. All of the normal victims and nemeses were there, most of them in the 430s so I knew I had some work ahead of me. Though for the Masters 45+ 3/4 the overall series is for nothing more then bragging rights and blogging, I still wanted to maintain my 5th overall. This meant that I had to get in the top five of the 45+.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">My next bit of anxiety was the start. Am I concerned about my ability? Nope, but the last couple of races, there has been a few pile-ups and this was a fairly long stretch of pavement. My only desire is that we all make it to the hole shot area. This start, well at least toward the back, was fast but almost neutral, where you started is where you hit the hole shot. Good enough for me.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.joemallis.com/Sports/2011-Cyclocross/Schooley-Mill/i-xk49Zp6/0/M/Schooley-Mill-05507-M.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200px" nda="true" src="http://www.joemallis.com/Sports/2011-Cyclocross/Schooley-Mill/i-xk49Zp6/0/M/Schooley-Mill-05507-M.jpg" width="133px" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One Giant Leap over the Steeple Chase<br />
captured by joemallis.com</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">The course was pretty flat and technical. In the past, the flat part has been positive and the technical, well challenging for me. But as the season has progressed my skills have as well. Now the technical areas are ones in which I can gain some ground. One area in particular was a fairly sizable steeplechase that alot of people were dreading. But being 6'2" has it advantages, another place to pass the 73 guys in front of me. I hit this one with about 20 of my closest friends and gained a few spots. Over the next five minutes we went back and forth through some switch backs and continued to the next set of barricades. These were your traditional 18 inch high MABRA planks, immediately following a sharp left turn. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.joemallis.com/Sports/2011-Cyclocross/Schooley-Mill/i-gPKvrnq/0/M/Schooley-Mill-00258-M.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="190px" nda="true" src="http://www.joemallis.com/Sports/2011-Cyclocross/Schooley-Mill/i-gPKvrnq/0/M/Schooley-Mill-00258-M.jpg" width="200px" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">The crowd was gathered around as In the Cross Hairs, Bill, gave the blow by blow. At this time I figured that I was in the top fifty, still driving as hard as I could, none of my nemeses were in sight, not yet at least. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">The next couple of laps were about the same, catching more than I was being caught. I did get tied up in the tape during one particularly bad remount after the stairs run up. I stood there trying to get myself out of the tape and watched four guys go screaming by. I was able to catch on and finally get by each one. The cost was high, I really did not have the extra energy to waste on a chase. I kept thinking about the scene in 9 Ball Diaries when TJ tapped into a little extra adrenaline to chase back on, that I did not have, and that is why I am still a 3. By then, I had worked myself into the 420s and when I went by the crowd was told I was sitting 30th. Great!! Now can I get into the 20s with one lap to go. I settled in behind one of the Virginia Wheelmen, which I should not have down. Not that I could have caught the next group in front but I really didn't even try. Last lap and I slacked off, shame on me. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.joemallis.com/Sports/2011-Cyclocross/Schooley-Mill/i-K4hHrfT/0/M/Schooley-Mill-05630-M.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200px" nda="true" src="http://www.joemallis.com/Sports/2011-Cyclocross/Schooley-Mill/i-K4hHrfT/0/M/Schooley-Mill-05630-M.jpg" width="133px" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Then 501 came flying by, Sam Mercer, I figured he had passed at least 60 so far, so I tried to get the VM guy to hop on, but I think he was like me redlining it and doing everything he can to keep it together. Sam rode off and passed the two in front of us. Back to 32nd I figured, then the Potomac Velo rider and another got tied up together and went down, VM passed and I followed, great we are now 29th and 30th. Once out on the road to the finish, I was able to get a decent sprint on passing VM and gaining on Sam, but he was just too far in front, 26th, 27th and 28th came across just 4 seconds in front of me. Should've Would've Could've, if I had just hammered a little harder on the last lap, that could have been the sprint.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Overall I was very pleased. I ended up 29th in the race and 3rd in the 45+. My overall standings for the series, I moved from 5th to 4th. I bet my cross results predictor by 30, added another 45 to my kills, and caught my nemeses and Rapha Clash Challenges. Rockburn looks as if I am suppose to be 61st. I am hoping for a little better start position, better warm-up and keepin' my eye on the prize.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
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</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16072459232599309133noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5886324249037633345.post-80174388221600230432011-11-08T15:29:00.000-05:002011-11-08T21:00:33.929-05:00Race Report - Ed Sander Memorial Cyclocross - Race #5 of the 2011 BikeReg.com MABRAcross Super 8 Series<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Bookman Old Style;">Preparation for the Ed Sander Memorial Cross race began early in the week, though I should say for the 2012 season. Yes it is November; I am already beginning to look at next season; mainly because of a few goals that I have discussed in previous blogs that would be achieving my optimum race weight for next year. So over the last seven days, I have logged every morsel of food that I have ingested, used </span><a href="http://chuckkyle.blogspot.com/2010/01/book-review-racing-weight.html"><span style="color: purple; font-family: Bookman Old Style;">Matt’s Fitzgerald’s formula</span></a><span style="font-family: Bookman Old Style;"> for my goal weight (or % body fat), and spent a morning in a </span><a href="http://www.cosmed.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1364&Itemid=420"><span style="color: purple; font-family: Bookman Old Style;">bod pod</span></a><span style="font-family: Bookman Old Style;"> to get a good baseline. Interesting enough, just logging my meals cut a pound or two, I guess it is easy to eat a cheeseburger but hard to write down that you did.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Bookman Old Style;">I had initially planned to race at Patapsco on Saturday so I went ahead and made my donation via </span><a href="http://www.bikereg.com/"><span style="color: purple; font-family: Bookman Old Style;">bikereg</span></a><span style="font-family: Bookman Old Style;"> around Wednesday. By Friday night I was pondering my decision and by Saturday morning, determined that I wanted to wait and be fresh for the Lilypons. I was able to get a few outdoor rides in, nailed the </span><a href="http://www.racermateinc.com/computrainer.asp"><span style="color: purple; font-family: Bookman Old Style;">CompuTrainer</span></a><span style="font-family: Bookman Old Style;"> a couple of times, and like always, checked out my race predictor on </span><a href="http://www.crossresults.com/"><span style="color: purple; font-family: Bookman Old Style;">crossresults</span></a><span style="font-family: Bookman Old Style;">, this week, looking like 61<sup>st</sup>.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Bookman Old Style;">Sunday morning, with an extra hour sleep because of daylight savings, I loaded up and headed to the </span><a href="http://www.lilypons.com/"><span style="color: purple; font-family: Bookman Old Style;">Lilypon Water Gardens</span></a><span style="font-family: Bookman Old Style;">. I had been sent a preview of the race from my buddy and clash challenger Doug Owens and it sounded as if this year the course was completely different. The sun had begun to bake off the morning dew and harden up the ground. I went back and forth on whether or not embrocation was necessary and if I should wear arm-warmers. I decided this decision could be made closer to race time. So, I had plenty of time to warm-up and pre-ride a bit of the course, seemed fairly technical, but had some pretty open areas that could be used for passing and gaining ground. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Bookman Old Style;">I ventured over to the registration tent to see how my double-click action had done for start position. Sh!!!t, once again, at least eight rows back, starting in 76<sup>th</sup> place. Well to meet crossresult predictor, I need to make up 15 positions, but this would not help me with the overall series. I knew to climb that ladder I needed to be close to 30<sup>th</sup>. As of Sunday morning, I was sitting 9<sup>th</sup> overall with Dave Tambeaux only a few points behind. I looked around for my clash challenges, Adam and Doug. Both of them had faired fairly well in the double-click race and were around 30<sup>th</sup>. Oh, my second goal, catch’em.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ0u2W1zULwb-C8VKwyHPuGcT8HumFKej2V1YifPolVlHSOUtWCh_oyHBW_2qwIbiv2e-RKPp_gB7qp6dRulVabd2X2tXSvLCV_oeek17P0QOElw_hUzzBOB3B773xRM6vLERkNHY_Ruc/s1600/Ed+Sander+Cross+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320px" ida="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ0u2W1zULwb-C8VKwyHPuGcT8HumFKej2V1YifPolVlHSOUtWCh_oyHBW_2qwIbiv2e-RKPp_gB7qp6dRulVabd2X2tXSvLCV_oeek17P0QOElw_hUzzBOB3B773xRM6vLERkNHY_Ruc/s320/Ed+Sander+Cross+1.jpg" width="213px" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sitting in and following JB</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: Bookman Old Style;">The race started, then the back half of the race started, well that is what happens when starting 76<sup>th</sup> of 98. There was no prologue to this race but a fairly long uphill paved road. It appeared that in this race we all stayed up right on the road, so no carbon clashing. The first half dozen turns were bottle-necking but I was able to squeeze a few places here and there. Then there was a long straight stretch that dove down, a drop in to a mud area. Jason Berry came flying around on the inside and threw his leg over bike and prepared to dismount, this amongst the dozens attempting to ride the drop in. Great idea JB, I am following. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Bookman Old Style;">There were several guys tied up with each other, an one of my nemeses, Thom Moore, fell victim to a pile up, nothing he could do. JB took off and I stayed behind him. Over the next lap, I was doing everything I could to stay with him, in the past he finishes in the top 25. After exiting the lilypons area and heading to the back half acre there was a small gravel section, I was only 20 feet behind JB when his bike lost traction and he went down, before I was upon him, he was up and gone, so I followed suit and went down too. Both of us hit the same gravel area. But I recovered fairly quickly and was back racing. Over the next forty minutes I continued to chase and catch the riders in front, occasionally giving up a position but passing more than being passed. By the last lap, I was cooked. The decision to wear a long sleeve base layer was ill advised, I should had gone with just the jersey. I even contemplated stopping and removing the base layer, but soldiered on. At one point I heard someone in the crowd shout that I was in 27<sup>th</sup> position. But on the last lap, two more went by. Here is where situational awareness failed, both were 45+ riders, they were in 3<sup>rd</sup> and 4<sup>th</sup> place (for 45+). I could see a group of five trying to bridge up, so I just turned myself inside out and pushed through the last lap.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Bookman Old Style;">By the end I had added another 44 to my kills, I moved from 76<sup>th</sup> to 32<sup>nd</sup> which was 5<sup>th</sup> in the 45+. Good day. I gained more points on the </span><a href="http://www.crossresults.com/?n=results&sn=mabra2011&series=M11+34_45%2B"><span style="color: purple; font-family: Bookman Old Style;">series</span></a><span style="font-family: Bookman Old Style;"> moving from 9<sup>th</sup> to 5<sup>th</sup>. With three races to go I am 23 points out forth, maybe a hard road to climb and I still have Dave Tambeaux breathing down my neck, with 6<sup>th</sup> to 10<sup>th</sup> place only 10 points apart, anyone’s game. Doug once again fell to mechanical issues; somehow he ripped off his rear derailleur. I didn’t see Thom again, figured the pile up cost him a bunch of time. Saw Adam on the first lap, he was looking good going through the mud, but with the help of JB, I got far enough away that he didn’t catch up. So I am up 3-0 on my </span><a href="http://www.crossresults.com/raphafocusclash"><span style="color: purple; font-family: Bookman Old Style;">Rapha Cross Clashes</span></a><span style="font-family: Bookman Old Style;">, sitting 5<sup>th</sup> overall in series, and finishing higher each week. The only thing that I hated doing for the day was writing down two beers and two waffles at 180 calories each. Hmmm were those whole wheat or not? Okay, another 360 calories and that should work, but they were sooo worth it. On training peaks where it makes you select which meal, I just put 'special'. If I can continue to drop weight and ride, I am hoping to ride this trend for the rest of the season, that would be the riding not the beer and waffles.</span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16072459232599309133noreply@blogger.com0Lilypons Water Garden, 6800 Lily Pons Rd, Adamstown, MD 21710, USA39.2966096 -77.42573190000001739.2912696 -77.437074400000014 39.301949599999993 -77.414389400000019tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5886324249037633345.post-16420185892172063932011-10-31T15:02:00.000-04:002011-10-31T21:08:35.115-04:00Race Report: 2011 Kinder Kross Cyclocross Race - Race #3 in the Sportif Cross Cup Series<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';">What would you like from a blog? That is the question that I have pondered as I sit in front of the keyboard thinking of what to say. A little advice that I was offered from a friend suggested that I give a little more course description, since not everyone races the races that I do, and to provide a little more insight to what is going through my mind during the race. Most of the guys that race with me wonder if I am thinking about chasing butterflies through a field, while others wonder if, like them, I can’t think of anything due to the sound of my pounding heart, beating at over 190 bpm as a move along. So if you have and thoughts, either place them in the comments or email me at </span><a href="mailto:chuckkyle@me.com"><span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';">chuckkyle@me.com</span></a><span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';">. So here it goes.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';">Saturday morning I woke up looking out to see snow flurries in October in Virginia… what the hell is going on? After a couple of <a href="http://www.racermateinc.com/" target="_blank">CompuTrainer</a> sessions in my garage, affectionately called the Bike Torture Chamber, BTC for short, I spent a few minutes seeing what was going on in MABRAland courtesy of <a href="http://gamjams.net/">gamjams.net</a>. After a few hours making sure that I had the appropriate tire setup and prepared for the race, I looked out, it was still snowing, but the decision was made; neither cold, nor the rain, rollers be damned, for me it was 'Occupy Kinder Kross'.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy-AaJls65AKNHD4W5o-gSK5aUUV3lLBS2Dvv2zm_oAocDd-bkJsUhtQOQBJnPge5lentylOFev-O17ilt42ah773k_EORiLuRYBStOGVU5IaQBBz-CJVT1yvPno8zvK00iJJDlpiYxIU/s1600/IMG_1149.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy-AaJls65AKNHD4W5o-gSK5aUUV3lLBS2Dvv2zm_oAocDd-bkJsUhtQOQBJnPge5lentylOFev-O17ilt42ah773k_EORiLuRYBStOGVU5IaQBBz-CJVT1yvPno8zvK00iJJDlpiYxIU/s200/IMG_1149.JPG" width="200" /></a></div><span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';">My race was at Kinder Farm Park, up in Severna Park, Maryland. The weather had cleared as far as rain but the temperature was still sitting around 39 degrees. The course appeared fairly dry except in a few areas and flat. The technical aspect was more of the serpentine turns and curves then steep hills and turns like <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/DCCX/137070666858" target="_blank">DCCX</a>. I forgo the traditional course preride due to the flatness of the course and the concern of getting completely soaked and waiting for my race. Also, based on my past finishes I knew I would not be off of the front, so discovery learning could be accomplished by simply watching the guys in front of me.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';">I was fortunate enough to have a descent starting position, about the forth row and the preregistered field as around 72. I am not sure how many racers showed up but I would estimate it was around the mid-sixties. I looked around for both my cross results nemeses and cross clash challengers. I spotted Thom, Adam and Doug, so I knew I had a challenge for the day. Interesting enough, Doug pulled up on a 29er. Typically I would have seen this as an instant advantage for me, but earlier the winner of the CAT 4 was on a 29er. One note, that guy was also wearing a dress for the day, I am assuming it was a Halloween outfit.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';">We got lined up and ready to race. After the gun there was a little calamity behind me but the front got off pretty good. I was sitting in the top thirty for the hole shot. Once on the grass we had a few S-turns that dove in and out of one of the three muddy sections of the course. Completely ridable when alone but much more challenging with you and fifty of your closest friends are attempting to nail ot. A guy went down in front which caused us to dismount and shoulder the bikes. This was the first and last time I saw <a href="http://www.facebook.com/Ifly4u" target="_blank">Jon Hicks</a> who would later win the race.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8nEhL5qLBOlBNcnoYUn-l3ijyHPqE3qSacN21Cin7bU87w93G2R3e0Gb3LP9Tiv_v2XmpTqBkIxYRGwJEHfL8SMqd0kKrUw2mztwej9Xlw1zGae9f1XjHtqS8IUA5iU1maXK1GYH6L0M/s1600/IMG_1162.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8nEhL5qLBOlBNcnoYUn-l3ijyHPqE3qSacN21Cin7bU87w93G2R3e0Gb3LP9Tiv_v2XmpTqBkIxYRGwJEHfL8SMqd0kKrUw2mztwej9Xlw1zGae9f1XjHtqS8IUA5iU1maXK1GYH6L0M/s320/IMG_1162.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';">After this section of the race I began moving through the crowd, passing some and being passed. I settled in behind <a href="http://www.facebook.com/david.tambeaux?ref=ts" target="_blank">Dave Tambeaux</a> and kept <a href="http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=682373887" target="_blank">Thom Moore</a> in my sights. No matter how hard I would go, Thom would keep the exact distance between us, there was nothing I could do to close the gap. Back to following Dave. Dave was taking great line and seems to be gaining on the riders in front of him so at this point it seemed better to stay on his wheel, which was pretty tough. We came to the second mud area and he went though clean. I went high and found myself in a rutted area causing a little problem and creating a gap. On hindsight, the gap is probably the best thing that happened to me for the day. As we came up to the virtual lake, basically a 12 foot by 6 foot, six inch deep water /mud puddle, Dave too the center line, once in the middle, his front wheel just dug in and he flipped over the handlebars creating an addition crater in the mud. Instantly he was digging to get up and back on the bike, this forced me to the left, which is what I figured would be the worst line, but was one that I was able to ride each time without issue so discovery learning at its best. Thom was still ahead of me so that was my next racer to chase. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';">The next four laps went pretty uneventful. I will say that on lap two I was ready to bag the race. My heart felt like it was going to break through my ribcage. I was praying for a rolled tubular or something, but Thom was still up there nailing each of the turns so I continued to chase.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuDLv0YN2zZS9H5ETSmy7QdAbbhJ3-bbo9JkRBfWvLQnUaJv_n3Ai9JrJL0tVgvz77heP1faOkxo1mURvapu9YdhxAYp_OwVbY0jP6mqgYy9gqTDlfKwkoxEt5NxXtYD0euKfhDyRqp_c/s1600/IMG_1172.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuDLv0YN2zZS9H5ETSmy7QdAbbhJ3-bbo9JkRBfWvLQnUaJv_n3Ai9JrJL0tVgvz77heP1faOkxo1mURvapu9YdhxAYp_OwVbY0jP6mqgYy9gqTDlfKwkoxEt5NxXtYD0euKfhDyRqp_c/s320/IMG_1172.JPG" width="290" /></a></div><span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';">On the penultimate lap I began to gain a few seconds on Thom, I am not sure if he was slowing or I was getting a little faster. We came off of the asphalt and into the hole shot twisting curves, Thom went cleanly though all of the turns and on the very last little climb his front wheel lost traction and he went down. I made it by him and then went as hard as I could. I settled in and looked back but could not find him. During this time one other rider grabbed my wheel and was pursuing closely. I didn’t recognize the dark blue kit but I think the race number was 469. I could be absolutely wrong, but … As we approached one of the “right turn out and around a tree section”, the rider in front took out the tape. It left a pretty good gap and if you lacked integrity, a perfect opportunity to just turn left. I went right and the rider behind me went left. Complete crap!!! Over the next half a lap I tried to chase but it gave him a solid thirty second advantage, I could only hope Karma would met him in the mud pits, but today, he took a chance and it paid off. (Note: this does not mean I would like to see someone hurt, that is not true, but flopping around in the mud, would have been okay) I didn’t see the rider again so I don’t know if it gave him a place or two in front of me or much more. Where he finished I have no idea. I worked my way around the course caught a few more, made it through the lake and up on to the hardball. After a few good pedal strokes I finished in 27<sup>th</sup>. <a href="http://www.crossresults.com/?n=racers&sn=pred" target="_blank">Crossresults predictor</a> had me at 52<sup>nd</sup>, so 27<sup>th</sup>, I will take.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';">As far as the <a href="http://www.crossresults.com/raphafocusclash" target="_blank">Rapha Focus Clash Challenges</a>, I think I got Adam and Doug. The results are still not published but I didn’t see Thom for the rest of the afternoon so I might have gotten my nemesis too. Thom, thanks again, you made me ride my tail off.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16072459232599309133noreply@blogger.com7Alexandria, VA 22315, USA38.7510606 -77.16577159999997138.7184016 -77.200909599999974 38.783719600000005 -77.130633599999967tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5886324249037633345.post-66644745465105571222011-10-24T15:19:00.000-04:002011-10-25T07:47:59.320-04:00Race Report - DCCX Presented By Dogfish Head Alehouse and Family Bike Shop - Race #4 in the BikeReg.com MABRAcross Super 8<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Bookman Old Style;">I didn’t blog about last weekend due to the fact that I was in the </span><a href="http://www.cyclingdirt.org/coverage/240328-Granogue-Cross-2011/video/510408-Granogue-2011-Masters-Race-That-Never-Was"><span style="color: purple; font-family: Bookman Old Style;">Master Race that Wasn’t</span></a><span style="font-family: Bookman Old Style;"> at Granogue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am glad to see the two riders are doing well and both will be racing soon.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Bookman Old Style;">I am continuing down the path of weighing 210 lbs, not sure what to do about that one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes I eat lean meats, avoid anything fried, no sugared colas, drink about 6-8 20oz bottles of water a day, go to the gym three days a week, and run/ride about 12-15 hours.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hey anyone know of a cheap place to get liposuction or a tape worm?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Bookman Old Style;">Saturday I went out to the DCCX course and pre-rode.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What a great venue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The course looped like something </span><a href="http://www.mcescher.com/"><span style="color: purple; font-family: Bookman Old Style;">M.C.Escher</span></a><span style="font-family: Bookman Old Style;"> would have drawn up, I am not sure how a course that starts and ends in the same place can be all up hill, so I knew it was going to be a challenge (look at paragraph two if you want to know why… hint?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>210 lbs).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Bookman Old Style;">Sunday I was up early and heading to the District.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I got a few more laps in and gathered my race number, 701…<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes, 01 then the realization, everybody else’s numbers are in the 600s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Damn, I am starting 101<sup>st</sup>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Bookman Old Style;">So I lined up in the very back of the pack looking for </span><a href="http://www.crossresults.com/racer/12337"><span style="color: purple; font-family: Bookman Old Style;">Adam Austin</span></a><span style="font-family: Bookman Old Style;">, who had unleashed a </span><a href="http://www.crossresults.com/raphafocusclash"><span style="color: purple; font-family: Bookman Old Style;">Rapha Clash Challenge</span></a><span style="font-family: Bookman Old Style;"> on me earlier that week and </span><a href="http://www.crossresults.com/racer/6382"><span style="color: purple; font-family: Bookman Old Style;">Doug Owens</span></a><span style="font-family: Bookman Old Style;"> whom I had done the same.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Doug was 652, staging 49 places in front of me and I could not find Adam in the sea of jerseys.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was also looking for my cross results <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">nemeses, <a href="http://www.crossresults.com/racer/2873"><span style="color: purple;">Thom Moore</span></a> (who I do know) and <a href="http://www.crossresults.com/racer/36184"><span style="color: purple;">James Earl</span></a> (whom I still do not personally know).</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: Bookman Old Style;">The race started with an eerie reminiscence of Granogue, with the cracking of carbon and rattle of brakes, but by time I go there it appeared as if everyone was okay and the sprint was on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Over the next 15 minutes I slowly gained ground on the front and increasing my kill points.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I looked at numbers slowly clicking off the 690s, 680s, 670s, and 660s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Looking for the 650s where Doug should be lurking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At that time I ran into, figuratively for now, Thom, Rick Mellendick, and Dave Tambeaux.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Over the next 20 minutes the four of us would go back and forth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Post race Thom told me it was the hardest race he has ever done going for 50<sup>th</sup>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: Bookman Old Style;">The last lap came and our group of five was battling it out, bumping on the run-up and fighting through the barriers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had a slight advantage going into the last off camber double S-turn whatever you want to call it, I had ridden it each lap and would do the same, but we came upon a lapped rider that went down right in front of me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Off the bike I went and saw Thom squeeze by chasing a Kelly Benefit rider.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once on the road it was an all out sprint, with about 10 meters left in the race I was passing Thom on the left when he got forced over into my line and into the crowd I went, but across the line, Mimi confirmed that bike and body both crossed the line.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Luckily a few bikes took the brunt of the wreck, mine was unscathed but later I heard that one of the women’s bikes got a bent rear hanger.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thom squeezed out 52<sup>nd</sup> and I got 53<sup>rd</sup>, which should be good enough to put me in the top 10 for the overall 45+ series.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a great race, lots of fun, and what a fantastic venue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: Bookman Old Style;">As for the Ralpa Challenges, I got Adam fair and square but Doug, I feel a little guilty about.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He rolled a tubular on the first lap, bad part?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am the one that glued it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sorry Doug.</span></span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16072459232599309133noreply@blogger.com2