Racing Update
OK, there has been quiet a lot of action since the last time I updated the site. First and foremost were the two crashes that I experienced in a period of 4 days. Tyler, Rick and I headed down to Galena Illinois for the inagural Tour of Galena omnium race. This consisted of a short TT, 90 mile Road Race and a criterium. I had signed up for the TT and RR as I could not stay late Sunday to race the Crit.
The TT course was rolling hills with one steep decent / climb. This was an out and back course and the promoters were very specific that this course suited a stock bike set-up vs. a TT rig. Their main concern was a sharp left turn in the decent. However, after racing the course, a TT bike would have been faster, specifically on the rolling hills sections. While you may have lost a bit of time on the climb due to the TT bike, you would have made it up and more on the rolling sections. I felt good at the end of my effort and came in around 11:24 for the course. However, I quickly learned that I did not run a good time, as the winning time was 10:09, which was done on a TT rig. I think Tyler, Rick and I were a bit deflated that none of us broke the top 10 in the TT.
We had a lot of time between the TT and the Road Race on Saturday, about 6 hours. We had lunch and hung around the start area. The weather was cool, but there were no real winds to speak of. As the start time neared, we did some warm-up and previewed the first hill up to the feed zone. Based on that hill, it was going to be a tough race. The start was neutralized through the feed zone, which was good, cause I was not in a mood to deal with attacks up the first hill, not even 10 minutes in the race. After the feed zone, the course had a few rollers and then its first major decent that ended in a hard right hand turn. There was a lot of burnt carbon/rubber smell as everyone was riding their brakes coming into the turn. From there, there was a few miles of rollers that started to level out. A few more climbs and then another decent that ended in a S-curve over some rail road tracks. This was a very sketchy area and while signs were posted, you really did not know what to expect. After the tracks, we had a few steep climbs that ended in a short decent past the Galena Winery. Right after that was the queen climb with a very steep section. From the bottom, an attack went and I was immediately out the back. I rode my tempo to the top and then started to chase. Rick was with me and there were two others helping the chase effort. As we came into a hard right hand turn after a long decent, the rider in front of me crashed hard. I was able to make it around him and then on the next hill, we were down to two chasers. We worked hard to reattach and ended up back in the group just before the climb to the feed zone. Rick also made it back on.
From there, it was a moderate tempo through first 1/3 of the course. A few riders started to sneak away just prior to the rail road tracks and I went to close that down. I was on the front leading the group through the tracks when I decided to try and take a more aggressive line through the S-curve. This was a big mistake. I took too much speed into the corners, the pavement was uneven and I ended up with my rear tire in the air as I came over the tracks. As I brought my rear wheel down, it snapped in half essentially due to the downward force and the lateral force. This put me straight into the ditch (thankfully). The wheel truck was right there, but it took me 5 - 10 minutes to get the wheel changed and re-insert my brake pads (which somehow came out during the crash). I had some minor road rash and scrapes on my leg, but otherwise felt ok. I chased hard for the remainder of the lap, but never even saw the group again. I rode a 3rd lap, but as I rode up the feed zone hill for the last lap I realized I would be riding on an unprotected course as I was probably the last rider on course. I called it a day and packed it in. When I got back to the start/finish I found out Tyler and Rick had also packed it in early. Not a great day for Synergy all around.
I loved the Galena course and format. The race was very well supported and I would do it again in a flash.
So that was crash number 1. Crash number 2 happened three days later at the second State Fair Affair race. I was itching to race and get some revenge on the mishaps that occured at Galena. Unfortunately the skies opened up and the rain came down hard just as we pulled up to registration. The course was a bit different with 2 more turns added as well. I normally don't race crits in the rain as I just don't need the extra risk of crashing, but I was out to work for Timmer and to try to better my place in the overall series. From the gun Flanders worked the front of the race hard sending off rider after rider on attacks. I worked hard in the first 8 - 10 laps chasing riders and keeping things in check. I drifted back to recover and Matt went to the front to resume the duties of chasing. As I started to feel good again, I moved up towards the front. I noticed on the final turn before the start/finish that my front tire was sliping a bit on the wet pavement. Then a lap or two later, on the same corner, the tire washed out and crashed and slide across the pavement. I cut up my hip, knee and forearm pretty good and cut a 5 inch hole in my left shoe from scraping on the pavement. The rest of the bike seemed ok. I was cold, wet and stiff. I turned in my chip and immediately headed to my car. I had to ride about 7 miles back to the parking ramp and while it was a miserable ride, I think it helped loosen me up and helped in the long run. The road rash was not too bad and I was back on the bike on Thursday and Friday of last week. I also got a nice new shoe from Giro out of the crash since my Shimano shoes were trashed.
It's supposed to rain again tomorrow for the State Fair crit... I am hoping that is not the case, but either way I will be out there again.
May 24 TNT Time Trial
Last night I lined up for my second time trial of the year. This time on very familar roads at the TNT time trial. The course is an out and back with rolling hills. The turn around is at the bottom of the largest hill, so you carry a lot of speed into the u-turn (I hit 41.5 MPH coming into the u-turn), to only have to reset your tempo to a steady climb. Prior to starting this event, I made sure I would have no mechanicals and tightened down the lock-nut on the freewheel.
The weather was just about perfect for this race. Overcast, cool and very light winds. The first section had a tail wind that made it very fast. My strategy was to ride tempo and recover up the hills and power down the hills and across the flats as fast as possible. This worked really well and I had the fastest TT time and average speed I have ever pulled off. I was also able to play with my position quiet a bit, stretching my body out on the downhills and flats, and scooting my hips back and repositioning my hands further back on the extensions when going up hill. Overall, I came in 11th at a time of 25.04 for an avg. speed of 26.34. I was very happy with that.
In retrospect there are several improvements I think could have made, first being that as I topped hills, I did not jump fast to get back up to speed. I think I can improve that and come into the downhill closer to a top speed. Second, as I was starting out the first section was relatively flat. I did not push it too hard as I was afraid of blowing my HR to high, I think I could have pushed that a bit harder, the same was true on the final mile or so, I could have pushed my limits more. Finally, on the turn around I think I could have attacked that hill a bit better and certainly come off that hill with more speed than I did.
The good news is I can race this course again in a few weeks time.
2011 Birchwood RR
This is one of my favorite races of the year. The course is great with 2/3rds of the roads gravel, making it interesting to say the least. Birchwood does a really nice job organizing and staging the race and provides neutral water support, which is critical when you are racing 3+ hours. Last year the weather was spotty, but dry for the most part until the very end. I ended up winning last years Cat 3 race, which was a highlight of my 2010 season. This year I was lining up with the Cat 1/2 field and I knew I would not be in contention to win this race. In fact, my goal was to support the team and finish. Especially since I have DNF'd the first two road races I entered as a Cat 2.
We had a strong team showing with both Timmer and Toftoy, Adam, Brandon, Matt, Rich, Taylor, Stick, and myself. 9 guys meant that we would be expected to work this race and we hoped to put one of our leaders on the podium. The first lap started out with rain coming down, which may have attributed to a bit slower start than what I have experienced in my prior races. I also knew that as we came onto the first dirt section, the pace would ramp up immediately. It did just that. The first mile plus of the dirt section was hard packed and besides dirt being spit up into your glasses, blinding you, the surface was very rideable. However, as we turned onto the second half of that first section, ruts started to form in the gravel road. Sucking your tire down, making you feel like you are climbing a hill at all times. I was able to keep up with the pace and was focused on picking a clean line through the dirt roads. Recovery seems to happen for the most part on the paved sections, which was a nice change.
Coming off the first lap, I found myself off the front between two guys in a break and the peloton. This was not a position I wanted to be in. I rode tempo figuring I would either catch up to the break or be caught by the peloton. Either way the team did not need to do any work for the moment. As I came through the feed section, I was caught by the group. I simply worked myself right back in. Shortly after, I saw Adam roll off the front. Not really an attack, but just a slow movement. As he gained some distance, a few guys jumped across and a group of 6 or 7 were gone. The peloton were content to just work through the dirt sections, but as we came off the final dirt section onto the start of the 3rd lap Synergy moved to the front and started to pull back the break. Even though we had Adam up there, I think the concern was that the break would not last. Very quickly we had 6 - 7 guys working in rotation pulling the group along at 30+mph. It was really cool to be a part of that effort. Once we saw the break in our sites, we definitely maintained the effort into the dirt section and were working just as hard. Here is where I started to come undone.
As we came into the rutted sections, I dropped back and sat in the group trying to recover. The pace did not settle down as we came into the second paved section, and I was not getting the recovery I needed prior to the hill. As we turned left into the hill climb in the second dirt section the pace ratched up as the break was just a few hundred yards off the front. Quickly I joined 4 of my teammates on the back side of the climb. We had popped and started to chase and keep a strong tempo. I had trouble regulating my pace to start and kept pulling through too hard. This did no one any favors, but I started to get the hang of the pace. We rolled through lap 4 together and picked up a few stragglers that had stopped at the feed section with the intent of dropping out I assume. Their fresh legs upped our pace and really put the hurt on me. As we came into the rutted section of the first dirt section, I came unglued for good. I slowed down and just rode as my body let me. The biggest issue was my rear derrailure had gotten stuck and I could only get my top 2 - 3 gears in the back, but could shift my front derrailure just fine. It could have been much worse, but I was either slightly under geared or over geared depending which chain ring in the front I was in.
I finished the the last part of the 5th and 6th laps on my own. I was trying to not get passed by the Cat 3's behind me, but with about 5 miles to go, 2 guys from that field passed. Then a few minutes a later the another rider came by and finally a fourth rider passed with about 2 miles to go. That was it though. I felt pretty good for finishing and that I did not get totally swamped by the Cat 3's. I assumed I had come in last, but later found that I had come in 3rd from last. Adam got 4th, which is awesome considering he was in the break all day long.
In retrospect, I would say we pulled the break back too fast. We should have kept our pace a bit more moderate so as to keep more of the team in tact. Once we hit the dirt section, we should have pulled off and forced other teams to work. We could have kept a few guys rotating through if other teams joined, but if not, we could have rode tempo through the dirt sections and made up time on the pavement sections. Ideally we would have pulled the break back on the 5th lap or the start of the 6th lap. Anyway, its always easier to judge when looking backwards.
Double Dog TT
The Double Dog TT was a couple of weeks ago. As usual the weather sucked with rain and mid-40's temperatures. However, it was the first race where I was pulling out my new TT rig with the ZIP 1080/808 combo wheels. I was pretty excited, but was not sure what to expect from my performance considering the weather conditions.
I warmed up well and was 4th to go in the line up. The course was 8 miles with two u-turns. The first few miles the road had a gradual climb with a small decent into the u-turn. Then the right hand turn a mile later took you up a steeper climb to the next u-turn. From there it was pretty much downhill to the finish.
Just before the right hand turn up to the final u-turn, I passed the lead rider and found myself with no carrot to focus on. I knew that Nick Kimpton was chasing me down and I had expected him to pass me much earlier. As I came through the final u-turn I could see Nick was just 5 or 10 seconds behind me. About 1/2 back to the final stretch of road I started to feel a weird sensation in my pedaling. I chalked it up to being tired, but the feeling was that my cranks were not able to turn over smoothly. As I put in my final efforts, I found myself really mashing the pedals and as soon as I blew through the finish line and started my cool down, I actually got off the bike to see what was wrong. I could not see anything. I continued on my cool down for a about a mile and soon found myself unable to turn the cranks at all.
When I got back to my car, I realized that my cassette was loose. The lock ring that holds the cassette on to the rear wheel had come loose and lodged itself up against the inside of the rear chain stay. I am not sure if this truly impacted my performance, but mentally I was pissed. Either way, I came in 5th in the open category with some serious riders in front of me including, Toftoy who won. All in all, I was pretty happy with the first outing of the new TT rig.
Florida Riding
We went down to Orlando, FL for vacation last week. We did a bit of Disney, a bit of swimming, and I got in some riding. I rented a bike from www.advanced-cycles.com for the week. We were staying on the Disney Property, which was a horrible place for riding. The roads were confusing, no shoulders, and lots of buses. I was able to get out on some normal roads, but in Florida, those are 4 - 6 lane roads with lots of traffic. They are also pretty ugly, nothing to really look at.
One thing that I forgot about in Florida was how flat it is. On the Garmin, I never got above 1% unless I was on a bridge. The winds were strong, but with such flat roads, they never felt horrible. It was fun to get the bike up to speeds of 25 - 30 mph easily due to the flat roads. The first two rides I did were boring and most of the time I felt lost. There were also lots of stop lights, which really disrupts your ride rythm. On Friday, I joined up with the bike shop I rented my bike through for their ride. It was fun, there were about 10 of us and we did some nice rotations. I moved to the front quiet often, to prove that I can ride with the best of their group and quickly gained respect from the others. The winds were high, but we could keep a good pace. The route was in and around the Orlando Airport. We did a few out and back sections and loops, but got in just under 50 miles.
On Saturday, my intent was to hook up with some of the racers from the bike shop to go do a fun race with them. Unfortunately I got pulled over for speeding and ended up missing the group. Instead I headed over to the Lakemont ride. This is a large group ride with an A, B, and C groupings by skill. I hit the A ride for a 70 mile jaunt through the Florida "country" side. The ride started out a bit slow, but then seemed to turn into a suffer fest / race. Within about 20 miles our A group was down to about 6 - 10 riders and we were off the front but quiet a bit. Most of the time we seemed to be pushing the pace at about 26 - 28 mph. There were a few different levels of skills in the group and we had a few that just did not seem to want to work with the rest of us. After about 60 miles of beating on each other, we rolled the last 5 miles back to the start easy. It was fun to get to know some of these guys. They had a lot of power and were quiet lively. I would definitely join up with them again. All in all, I got in 8 hours of training on vacation and 170 miles. Ton's of fun!
2011 Campus Crit
- 2011 Campus Crit - Pic by Minneapolis Musette
The 2011 Campus Crit was this past Sunday. I was not sure how I would do in the race, but wanted to get some intensity in my training. Especially with the way I have raced the first two road races of the season, I also needed a confidence booster. I was riding solo today and my goal was to ride in the front the whole race and be in the top ten. The main two teams active for the day were Grandstay and Flanders. With Dan Casper, Ian Sanford and Brandon Krawczyk and the Cullen's active the whole race, it was a fast pace. Nothing really got off the front for any length of time. Hollywood was also very active, keeping the pace high. I rode between 2nd and 5th wheel most of the race. I felt no obligation to pull through being solo.
2011 Ken Woods
Chad, Myself and Mike rolling up the big hill
Last year at Ken Woods I remember driving to the race and thinking that there was no one I could not beat at the race. I went in with a lot of confidence and even decided to attack at the first corner. While that did not stick, I did get away in a break after the first time up the big hill and put it all out on the line. I finished 9th, but I knew I put my all into it.
This year, I went into the race feeling pretty timid. Being my second Cat 2 race, knowing that the week before at Durand, I had a lack luster performance. My hope was to make it around with the peloton for at least 2 laps. I knew that the first time up the hill, the decisive break would most likely be formed. I wanted to be there for my teammates and finish the race. Here is what happened instead:
Lap one: The first section of the race had a nice cross tailwind and we rolled out the first 5 - 7 miles at just about 30mph. Grandstay was on the front and the rest of us just lined up behind them. I stayed in the first 10 or so riders. As we neared the first turn, which would be an all out headwind, the attacks started immediately. Everyone was guttered at the yellow line and lots of confusion and wheels were mixing. I was immedately put into the red, but was able to hang on. As we came into the back side of the course, things calmed down. Even over the two small rollers, the pace was reasonable. As we came onto the big hill I was in the top 4 just riding tempo on the hill. I knew there would be an attack at the top, but was just riding my pace. I was relatively comfortable, but when the attacks came, the pace was unbelievable and I just could not find a wheel.
Off the back and into a few of the small chase groups. I could not hang with the first one that went by and settled in for a long three laps to the finish. I hooked up with another small group and we worked well together in the cross tail wind section. When we hit the head wind section, my two compatriots dropped off. I plowed ahead and hooked up with Mike Moriarity. Mike and I traded pulls and were doing well. As we came onto the back section, we were joined by Chad from Synergy (teammate). The three of us worked well together until just before the next time up the hill. Then we decided to call off our chase effort and went into riding mode. We rolled through the 3rd lap and as we came across the finish line we all decided to bag the day. DNF #2. That did not feel good, but I felt like I got some good training and intensity in.
What I am learning is that the Cat 1/2 road races start out very fast. You have to be prepared to cover the accelerations and latch on to the peloton. You have to get through the first 60 - 75 minutes to be able to get into a big enough group so you can have time to recover. I hope to be able to come back a bit stronger later in the season. I definitely don't have that confidence of last year in the group. I feel like I am still feeling my way at this level and building that confidence up. My goal for the season would be able to help my teammates and finish my races. The great news is that the knee is doing pretty good.
16:54 of Racing
Durand was today, the first race of the season. I was pretty excited all week. The weather was predicted to be pretty nasty, which it usually is for Durand and Mother Nature held up her end of the bargain. At the start it was 37F with snow on the ground. This was my first Cat 2 race as a Cat 2 and my first race with my new team, Synergy. We were all shivering at the start and anxious to get started. We rolled out with a strong tail wind and the pace was very high. There were several larger teams there, GrandStay, Flanders, ISCorp, and Synergy. The front was well covered. I was feeling ok and following wheels just fine. As we topped the final hill on this section, the pace really picked up on the downside and I found myself in the wind and drifting backwards. I was trying to close a small and gap and having a heck of a time of it. As soon as we made the turn into a bit of a cross wind, I lost the wheels and my body just froze up. My lower back, upper back, arms and neck just felt tired, like I had lifted really heavy weights. I tried to grab onto the wheels of a small group that passed me and I could not even keep those wheels. Lights out, race was done in less than 17 minutes. Not a great way to start the season. I rolled on for 3 laps with the hope to get in all 5 laps and at least claim the last place for the race. However after 3 laps my back was screaming at me to stop so I did.
Totally sucked today. Most of the ride I was just trying to figure out why my back was hurting so bad. It just sucked the power right out of me. My bad knee is also sore today, but who knows why that is. It has not bothered me most of the past few weeks, not sure if the cold had anything to do with it.
When I look back at the week, I can pin point a few potential issues. First, I have not slept great for the past 5 days or so. I had a hard work out on Tuesday, harder than I think I realized, followed by a power lifting session on Wed for 30 minutes. Thursday I did yoga to stretch out the body and Friday I took off. I thought I had enough recovery in the body this week, but that may not have been the case. Let's hope next week is better at the KW RR.
It’s about rest stupid
When ever I read about how to train one thing always sticks out in my mind, fitness gains are truly made when you rest. Rest is required to perform at your peak. Now let's talk about how I apply rest to my workout regime. First, during the off-season I was working out 6 days a week with my rest day on a Monday. The issue being that Monday's are a stressful day of the week as you jump with both feet back into work. My rest did not consist of sipping on water, sitting on the couch with my legs propped up, or getting a massage. Instead it was cranking through emails, drinking water, sitting in a chair all day, running to get home to the family and do everything that I did not do on the days I workout.
As I started to ramp up the volume of my training in a given training session (i.e. going from an hour ride to a three hour ride), my knee was not responding the way I wanted it too. After two weeks my legs and knee felt weak and unhealthy. I was taking my rides easy, but I stayed committed to whatever workout was scheduled that day. Last week, I made a change. My knee and my quad muscles in general on my right leg felt fatigued. I took off both Thursday and Friday (not necessarily by choice). Thursday I chose to sleep in and take the day off. Friday, I had planned a long ride, but work got in the way. So Saturday I headed out with some friends for a 4.5 hour jaunt around town. Amazingly, my leg and knee felt great. No pain that night and no pain the next day. On Sunday I did a 2 hour ride with 4 key efforts, a sustained 5 minute effort, an all out sprint, 4 hill repeats and crit corner accelerations. Through all the efforts I felt great. The leg felt strong and most important after the ride, I felt strong with no pain or aches in the leg.
I attribute the quick change in my body due to the two days of rest and 8 hours of sleep I got each night. I continued the full sleeping regime on Saturday and Sunday night. I continue to feel good. So, while each individual training session is getting longer, I am cutting out the meaningless spinning that I was doing in between. I have added a rest day to my week as well and am ensuring on those rest days I am getting as much rest and water as I can handle. I have another long ride this weekend and then next week it is off to the races!
Loading and Squats
Over the past week, I dramatically increased the volume of my training, especially in a single work out. The 6 hours of outdoor riding in two days definitely took a bit out my legs. Sunday I did a strength session and I could feel that my whole body was tired. Monday's are my day off and even then, I felt tired and worn down.
One challenge I have as an amateur athelte is getting enough sleep. Never do I have time to take a nap after a long ride or a race. I am often up at 5 AM to get an hour workout in and if I am doubling up that day with a strength or Yoga session, I am definitely tired for that second session. Caffeine is a strong friend of mine. I find myself going into a sleep deficit every week and I need to use the weekends to catch up. There are also times, where I just know I would be better off getting that extra hour of sleep than dragging myself off to another workout.
This morning was one of those times. As my alarm went off at 5:00 AM my body just felt tired and my legs were sore from my double work out yesterday. When I reflect back on the past 6 days, I had 9 hours of combined work out time. Roughly 50% more than I had the prior week. The loading was good, but I knew I needed to rest to let it take effect. So today, is an off day. My main goal is to control my calorie intake in the off-day as not to disrupt my goal of losing 2lbs to get back to my race weight (yeah, I know that sounds a bit girlish, but whatever...).
As for the word Squat in the title of this post, the past few weeks I have been learning how to perform a proper squat. What is interested to me is that throughout my life of working out and my use of trainers, I have never been taught a perfect squat. Nor had the advice I have been given even come close to representing what a perfect squat would look like. I started reading a book called Starting Strength Training: Basic Barbell Training by Mark Rippetoe. The book really focuses on the Olympic style lifting and gets very detailed in every aspect of form for an exercise. For example, the Squat section alone is 50 pages. I realized that I have been using too much weight in my squats, not keeping my legs wide enough and not turning out my toes, let alone that I never went down below parallel with my quads. Little did I know how wrong this form was. After reading the book from Rippetoe, I reduced my weight dramatically and essentially started from scratch. As a return I have seen increased strength in my Hamstrings and Glutes, reduced discomfort while performing a squat and increased flexibility in my Hamstrings as well. The next chapter is on the chest press, should be interesting to see how wrong I am doing that exercise as well.