No takers

On my offer to train on Big Blue last night. There was no shortage of riders on the hill though. I rolled out of work a bit later than planned. As I got ready to leave, I realized it made more sense to just leave my car there and ride home after my hill session. Now I get to ride back in this morning for a little recovery spin. After getting the logistics sorted out, I went around the short loop, taking in the Hillside Road climb in each direction before doing some tempo up Unquity to wake up the legs. My HR still wasn't elevating normally, and my legs are surely fatigued, but after a half an hour of riding I felt good enough to head over to the access road.

This would be my first time this year on the race bike. It's a few pounds lighter than my Slim Chance, but it also sports 36/52 chainrings. Combined with the 12-25 cogset currently installed on the rear CR-420, this gave me a slightly lower gearing option than the 41/27 low gear I've been using on the Slim. In theory, I could have used this for a slow warm up run. Instead, planning to do two ascents, with the first a trial run and the second a speed test, I started the first one in the 36x21. This proved too easy to stand and too hard for sitting. Not a good sign, as when you are feeling good, whatever gear you are in always feels like the right one, and you just motor. I chose to stand on the first steep section but turning this slightly easy gear got me breathing hard pretty early. I was supposed to be doing this run as a warmup and wanted to save something for the second trip. When I got to the flat spot for the first time check, glancing down and seeing 1:23 reassured me that I wasn't going too hard.

Over the middle of the climb, a bunch of riders were coming down. A few of them looked like gumbies and sure enough they were recklessly descending and used a lot more road than they should have, but it didn't really slow me down. Over the steep top portion I didn't really find a rhythm and got to the top at 5:35. Hmmm. Faster than I wanted to go on the first run, but not bad considering I conserved a little.

I spun down and the others were coming back up. There was also a Landry's guy doing the hill himself, and he looked faster than the gumbies. At the bottom I selected a 36x17 to start run two and turned around. This felt better while standing on the bottom section, but I wasn't turning it too well when I sat. Time check one was 1:19, hardly stellar. I sat down and pushed it across the "flat" as long as I could before going to the 19 for the switchback. Standing and sitting depending on the steepness, I think I even went to the 21 for a bit in order to sit passing the ski slope. For the last rise and run into the top I went back to the 19 and gave it all I had.

I've done this hill enough times to know what a good ride feels like. Most rides up have at least one "dead spot" where you're barely moving as you climb off the saddle. On a good run, you have more momentum and that feeds you to power over the obstacles and never let your speed drop to pedestrian levels. Tonight was not one of those runs. At the top I clicked the watch at 5:27. My fastest this year, but a disappointment since we're into June and this was all out on my race bike. I was sucking wind pretty good as I circled the tiny lot at the weather station, and one of the gumbies (still sitting there after their ride up) quipped "that good, huh?"

I muttered, "no, not really" and rode down. They came racing by when I reached the bottom. Not very wise. I hope they don't take out some dog walker and get us all kicked off the road. They turned around to go back up, and I thought briefly about going up again to teach them a lesson, but as I've lectured Gewilli before, never race people you just run into out on the road. Races are for racing, and when training stick to your plan and don't mix it up with people whose skills you can't trust. As an aside, since we spoke of gearing, the first run had an average cadence of 68, and the second 63. High rpms just don't seem to work (for me) on a climb this severe. Maybe you power aficionados can comment on that. If I were doing a 5 minute all out effort on the flat, like a pursuit, I know I'd feel best at 95-100 rpm. On a climb like this though, trying to gear down and hold that just doesn't work. It is an interesting problem, as in theory your CP5 should be the same whether you're going uphill or not. I'd guess that maybe the pitch changes of the climb require spikes that can only be produced by standing, but even on a constant grade I think I feel better climbing at a lower cadence than is best for the same duration of effort on a flat.

I headed home down 138 and through Canton. When I got there, I realized how tired I was. This past week has been a big step up in mileage for me. Last night I didn't sleep too well (hey, that's why I'm up at 5 writing this). It's been so long since I've even been close to overtraining, I'd forgotten what the symptoms were. Today I'll just ride in to work easy, which will push me over 50 hours on the bike for the month, 55 including running. The weekend is still up in the air. Since I skipped the duathlons the past two weeks, I feel sort of obligated to give Rye a shot on Saturday, but part of me says just save the money and finish off this block with a pair of long rides. There are also races each day up in Maine, which normally I would skip, but they're being promoted by a teammate and so I'd like to support them as well. Driving to Maine and back on a summer weekend though, not my favorite activity. I'll just have to see how I feel about it tomorrow night.

See what a piece of crap this post is? I told you my creative mind was still on vacation. Think of this next time I have no post at all. Which would you rather have? Thanks for reading.

Blog Inactivity

Yeah, I know, sparse postings lately. Not much to write, unless of course I bore you with the details of my training. There aren't many of those either, just lots of miles, at least relative to a "normal" month. Sorry. I've been riding too much to stay connected to the outside world, so I don't have any wise-assed commentary either. Of course I've been keeping one half-closed eye on the goings on in the world of pro cycling, but as noted a few weeks ago, others seem to be doing a better job of providing insight than I would. All I can add today is that I hope some of the quotes we've been provided with in the online cycling "media" are either inaccurate or taken out of context, or else there are more bozos at the top of this sport than I thought.

Last night Wompatuck was pretty good, different crowd, it averaged 42.3 kph for the 52k so that is the fastest it's been this year, at least on the nights I was there. Nothing ever really got away, but I made some efforts that I was happy with. I'm trying to keep the build going for another week. Haven't been running at all; it might be time to table that for the summer, but we'll see. For anyone who is interested, I'm thinking of heading over to Big Blue tonight for a few repeats and/or a performance test. I'll be rolling out of the Garage Mahal around 6 pm so drop me a line at jellysidedown at gmail.com if you want to participate. Thanks for reading.

Mo no blog

Yes, that's right, I haven't treated you to any blog entries this week, but here is some photographic evidence that I've been doing my part to support the cause by wearing my Bike Racer tshirt.

Since last Saturday's wet day at Sunapee, the weather has been mondo cooperative for my vacation. I pounded out over 600k and 21+ hours the past seven days, learning a few new routes in the process. This was more a mileage/duration rather than intensity week, but I needed it. There were a few intensity highlights, such as climbing Killington Road and the TT back to Ludlow, as well as a 22 minute climb at LT during Thursday morning's 80k solo. Later that night, it was over to Loudon for the weekly training race on the NHIS road course.



I've been doing this race occasionally since way back when this venue was known as Bryar Motorsport Park, when it nothing more than a serpentine strip of asphalt along the floor of a gravel pit. The grandstands back then were wooden bleachers like at a high school.



The bike races don't exactly fill the grandstands... They get a good crowd of racers though. There were over 40 in the A race, including at least ten guys from Sunapee. I had a few BOB mates there too. Every three laps of the 1.6 mile road course, there is a sprint for points with first, second, and third across the line scoring. Halfway and the final are double points. I always seem to get up the road at Loudon, always have. My legs were pretty fried from all the riding this week, but I got away early with some other guys, but it ended up with a group of six and I got no points on the first one. For the halfway I bridged up to a group and took 3rd, so since it was doubles it was worth it. For the six to go sprint I got on the Sunapee train, but did not sprint, instead attacking just after the line. One Sunapee guy, Ryan Kelly (no, not the UNH guy who blogs and shares this name), came with me. We stuck it out and got a good gap. I gave him the three to go sprint because he had so many teammates counting on him and I didn't want us to endanger our break by sprinting against each other. We stuck till the end, and I tried to lead it out slow to keep it short but he jumped hard and blew me off. So I ended with a third and two seconds, good for a tie for second on points in the overall. Nice way to end a 145k day. Thanks for reading.

VT Photos

The A-man tools down scenic Route 131 along the river.



The amigos pose for animal crackers (should have sucked in those guts, except for Less the rail) at the top of Killington road.



Yours truly looking pudgy next to Mr. Skinny. Thanks for reading.

I don't miss blogging

Don't take it personally, but after five glorious computer-free days, I'm just not ready to get back into the 'sphere. I spent some time to try and catch up this morning, but after twenty minutes it's already time to sit up, unpin the numbers and climb into the broom wagon. Good thing I got some practice doing just that at Sunapee on Saturday. That's right folks, after a mixed week of sickness and dumb training sessions, your hero topped it off with a stiff day/night of packing, driving in the rain, and sleeplessness Friday, and all this added up to one shitty day (more like an hour) on bike Saturday morning. After making it over the first few climbs without difficulty, the Cat 3 field strung it out on a flat in a little valley and I was gone. File this one under "just a bad day." The remaining ten miles back to the start were spent in typical 40 degrees and pouring rain solo at Sunapee hypothermic fashion. At least I had plenty of company shivering back at the base lodge struggling to produce the motor skills needed to peel off the layers and get dry. The first, and hopefully only miserable failure of the racing season.

Logistical challenges (such as wet bike, wet car, wet clothes, empty wallet, and frozen body) led me to forego the trip to the Glastonbury duathlon. At least I'd entered on a two for one deal and KL, who'd wisely skipped the Sunapee deluge, went down alone and took full advantage, finishing sixth overal and first female. I opted to caravan with the team mates over to bro Armand's family vacation home in Ludlow Vt for our three day mini camp. JWR4, Dick Ring look-and-soundalike Les, and Armand were the only ones to keep the date and brave the weather. Well, the jokes on you Chumleys, because after the dire forecast Saturday night (which we took in whilst dining on superb, prepared by Nona Pantalone, who Armand had flown in to be our resident chef and Italian Mom about the house) cuisine, the clouds broke Sunday and we managed a 3.5 hour, 100k cafe ride over to Woodstock and back.

The only roads that seem to be paved in Vermont are the state highways, but since this was supposed to be a rainy weekend, and this was the off season anyway, there were no locals nor tourists to share with. Even normally busy Route 4 allowed us to double file all the way into town. To the BOBers who stayed home to either ride the couch or get a repeat of the soaking NH rains from Saturday, hah! to you. After our ride, we quickly got cleaned up and booked it over to Okemo Valley Golf Club to play nine holes on an absolutely deserted, yet fabulous mountain course. After a rough start I finished birdie-par-par-par, skinning the other duffers by 11 strokes! Kind of made up for Sunapee. Back at the ranch, Nona had prepped us a fresh salad to go with the hot dogs and beans we grilled out on the porch, and Armand had stocked the fridge with Otter Creek Stovepipe Porter to wash it down. Oh yeah.

JWR4 had to head home Sunday night to meet with a client, but Les hung with us for Monday's epic. The day dawned cloudless, but a bit chilly, so we stayed in for a bit and loaded up on omelettes and pancakes before hitting the road at 11:30 am. Vermont is hilly, but most of the state roads follow the floors of the valleys, so the dominant feature was the constant 15 mph breeze out of the north. Nothing like three mile grades of 3% into a steady wind to make you work on your seated technique. We looped down to Chester before crossing the state heading west on Route 11. We then picked up 100 North (straight on wind here) where we hit the first categorized climb, a stretch of three miles or so at 5-7% that climbed back to Ludlow. We refueled at a convenient store and kept going up 100, then to 4 west. Destination - Killington Access Road and the base lodge. We had 3:50 on the stopwatch and 1100 meters of climbing already behind us when we hit the white church. Rather than take the longer, and not so steep main road, we cut up the 15% West Hill Road. Twelve minutes of anaerobic suffering later, I was on the access road at the start of the old stage race prologue, where I hit the lap counter again just for old times sake. The mates were back there somewhere... The really good news was the wind was blowing straight up the mountain. My 16:30 TT time to the end of the road was about four minutes slower than my best ever in the race (a decade and a half ago), but maybe my four hour warmup had something to do with that. Haven't downloaded anything yet, but I think from the church to the top is 5-600 meters of total ascent.

The boys showed up about five minutes later and after a photo op we put on the jackets and started the fast and frozen ride down. We made the mountain variety store the second fuel stop and I scarfed down a sleeve of my secret weapon, powdered mini-donuts. Rolling out, we did another three miles of descending before hitting Sherburne Flats, where the donuts kicked in. It's alway a good idea to finish your long rides strong, and we had 4.5 hours on the watch in the past, and 22 miles of rolling 100 with a ripping tailwind in our futures. Those guys fought gamely, but I lost them on the climb up the old Pepsi road race finish and then TT'd solo all the way back to Ludlow, covering the distance in just under an hour. Now, the Casa Pantalone sits at the top of a one mile climb that is over 10% at the bottom before turning to dirt during the latter half. Just the way to finish a 152k ride. Feeling bad for dropping those guys, I did my best to make time, and quickly jumped into the car to retrieve them at the bottom and spare them the effort. Alas, they were already more than halfway up by the time I got there, so they obviously didn't soft pedal it in. Good job guys.

Afterwards we made three racks of ribs and a two pound London broil dissappear. We even amazed ourselves. Les then had to split as he had a 24 hour shift at the firehouse awaiting on Tuesday morning. A-man and I stuck it out and rode again on another cloudless day, but our par-boiled legs prevented any heroics. This was a day for exploring scenic back roads (yes, we even found one that was paved) taking photos, stopping to pat friendly dogs, and just spinning along. After three hours of that it was back to Okemo Valley to play the back nine, but without functioning legs, the knees were buckling at impact and the errant shots were many. Dinner and ale on the outdoor patio and training camp was over. Now I've got a couple more days to relax and ride here at the KL north. Thanks for reading, will post photos soon.

Vacation

That's right folks, no work for 11 days! The rain is here just in time, right on the heels of my cold. The good news is my throat is feeling better, with the sickness moving on to my sinuses, but even that isn't so bad today. Last night after work things were quite chilly for May, with temps in the low 50's, so I took this as a last chance to do my Blue Hills trail run sans mosquitoes. The Timex GPS had a fresh battery and finally stayed functional for this entire loop, which turned out to be 8.9 miles with 275 meters of total ascent, including an 8:04 trip up the Big Blue access road. The whole thing took me an 1:15, so the pace is over 8 min/mile, but not bad considering it's 60% gravel fireroad.

Lot's to do to get ready to travel. Racing tomorrow against the road-raging u.m.c. white boy in a Jetta at Sunapee looks like it could be cold and wet. Surprise! I've got a team of four on board, and the start list filled out to over 40, so it should be OK.

Here's a link just for Britney, I mean Gewilli. Thanks for reading!

Sunapee Preview

This Saturday I'm racing up at the Lake Sunapee Bike Race in west central New Hampshire. Sunapee is one of the oldest events still on the New England calendar, and is one of the few events remaining that has been around longer than me. Because on Sunday I'm also signed up for The Shamrock Duathlon in Glastonbury, CT, I'm harboring a bit of concern regarding par-boiling my legs on Saturday's rolling course. The 45+ Masters race will likely feature numerous attacks and long breakaways, because let's face it, the 45+ race always does. Not the best warmup for a duathlon, so, I made an executive decision to skip the masters race in favor of competing with the Cat 3s.

Will racing with the kids be any easier? I doubt it, but I've convinced a few of my other mates from the 35+ group to join me, and we'll be helping youngster Feltslave take on the likes of the Automaton in the 46 mile event. A fairly sparse field of only aroung 35 riders is signed up right now, but maybe it will fill in some more today. NEBC has about eight riders on the list, so they'll be responsible for dictating the race.

The Sunapee course is deceivingly hard. Here is a section of last year's Polar graph, showing approximately one lap of the course. I did not have mileage for this, so the x-axis is time, which distorts the hills a little bit.



Take note of the little climb right over the 41 minute mark. This is the one that seems to be the most trouble. I did some checking here, and it seems we climbed just over 50 meters in 2.5 minutes. That's a VAM of over 1200m/hour. No wonder my HR was maxing out. Yeah, sure, this isn't anywhere near the 1600m/hour the big boys churn out on the alpine passes in the Tour, and it's only for 2.5 minutes, not 25 minutes, but this kind of pace on the climbs is what makes racing more than just training. Lather, rinse and repeat this process over the five or six lumps on the Sunapee course profile (and then do it for two laps, or in the case of the 1-2-3 race, three) and you have a tough little rolling race. I'm looking forward to it as usual. Thanks for reading.

Crappy Photos Day

Not much else to write. I'm not going to go down the Floyd-Basso-doping road. I think everyone else has pretty much got that covered. Sure, I have opinions, but nothing I haven't spewed out already, and I'm just as misinformed as the rest of you. Besides, from some of the insightful commentary I've read, others are putting way more thought and research into this than me.

I went to Wompatuck last night. Despite being sick, it didn't go too badly. I didn't even leave work until around 5:15. Traffic looked bad, but I rolled through it slowly and smoothly and was dressed and on the bike by 6:05, just making the start after riding in from the front gate. Good group, all the usual suspects plus the return of some stronger guys like Sammy, Adam, and Mark. The race still wasn't all that fast, I think we covered 25 laps in 1:15, so that's around 41.5 kph. It gets boring sitting in for 25 laps, so I made some forays to the front to tow the group up closer to some breaks. At the end I thought I had a good spot in the train but it wasn't fast enough and I got swarmed on both sides.

As the title says, here are some crappy pictures, just because. We have the Wompatuck sign and a bunch from the cube farm. Thanks for reading.



The Wompatuck front gate.



One of the few sucky parts of the commute to the cube farm.



The outside of the cube farm, and the livestock.



The veal pens, and the atrium inside the cube farm.

Sick and Busy

Somehow I managed to avoid any sort of sickness all winter. My luck has run out. Something has been growing in my throat (huh-huh) for the past few days and this morning when I woke up it felt like it was swelling shut. I'm trying to fend it off with lightweight weapons like Advil and Listerine, because that is all I have. I'm way too busy at work to stay home sick, especially with next week planned as vacation. If this does pass by then I'm going to be quite pissed. Back to work... Thanks for reading.

Wall of Death

Well, it's carnival season (just imagine how I'd say it), and I'm sure you've all enjoyed a trip to see the wall of death. Every wonder what it would be like to ride your bike in there? That would be cool, huh-huh. Thanks for watching.

Commuting Images

Because it's easier than writing.



Here we have the swan pond at the cube farm, under reconstruction. The swans are barely visible at the far end. The laborers have already gone home for the day, but you get the idea - this is bust ass work. They are certainly working harder than anyone else on the property.

Then we have a quick shot of Long Pond, and people fishing on the causeway. Years ago we had a 4.1 mile TT here on Thursday nights, and the start/finish was what you see.



Here is the requisite handlebar shot. Just 36 minutes into it and I'm almost home. Below, the movie. The cattle were not out tonight, so they aren't in the movie, but this is their field. It's quite pungent. To download the mov for viewing in QT, go here for the 2MB file.



Fridays seem to be a slow day on Blogger. How about putting up something interesting? Thanks for reading.

Free (Ge) Willi!

First we had CTodd and his stolen camera and struggling benefit charity T-Shirt venture. Now we have another brother in need. Gewilli has gone missing, the victim of doing intervals on every single ride, too much caffeine, too little racing, an obsession with cyclocross (even though/because he's only done like four CX races in the past 5 years), the pressure of parenting, and the overwhelming guilt that comes with a cushy job complete with shabby clothes and not too shabby paycheck. Help this downtrodden mofo out by visiting his blog and leaving a cheerful comment. Commuting, violins, pinhole cameras, unicorns, lilacs, rice pudding, raindrops on roses, stuff like that. You get the idea. Thanks for reading and helping!

This post is meaningless

Not a river, not a stream, more like a leaky faucet of consciousness. I'm on an easy week. At first I had some doubts about it, as my past three week's block only amounted to about 28 hours duration, but the quality was there, and with age I've acquired the wisdom to know that too much rest is always better than not enough, so I'm going easy. Monday I spun for 15 minutes in the morning just to get the blood flowing and get Sunday's long drive home from NY out of my legs. Monday night I got a much needed (and much kneaded, pun intended) massage. Tuesday night I went home from work and lay down for a second at 7:45, woke up at 2 am, stayed awake long enough to brush my teeth, then slept in until 7 yesterday. I've been sleeping a lot this week, which is odd, but good.

Yesterday morning I rode for 45 minutes super-easy. Then I telecommuted. It got really warm, almost 90, by the afternoon. For lunch I did a 5.5 mile tempo run in the fields with the first five rolling off like clockwork at 7:30/mile, then cooled down the last half. After work I got back on the bike and rolled over to Sharon to pick up an elbow of coffee beans, enjoying a mocha at the sidewalk tables before riding home. So all in all I got in 2.5 hours of "workouts" even though it was a rest day. Very cool.

Slept like a baby again last night. Weather looks good again, so I rode in to work. Very stress free ride, using only very modest pedal pressure and a good cadence I got here in 41 minutes door to door. Passed about 100 cars backed up in a line on Washington Street in Canton at the Ponkapoag light. Tonight will be another easy ride home. I'm thinking of working Saturday too in order to catch up on some things and bank a day off for the future. Next week I'll ramp up a bit because after that I've got some racing and a week off work for some big mileage. Maybe tonight I'll take some commuting pictures, no promises. Thanks for reading.

Public Service Announcement

It pains me to do this, but the blogosphere has brought to my attention the fact that many, many, otherwise capable riders have some kind of issue with dropping their chains. Never mind that this is a design issue brought on by the component companies need to take the skill out of shifting your bike. I've ranted about 39/53 shifting poorly before too, so I'll let that go (especially since I've been running a 36/52 lately because I'm too lazy to find the 38 and put it back on, not that it's any better than the 39/53). WTF are you talking about solo?

Just read saw the latest Toddcast where the boy wonder laments about dropping his chain at the Blue Hills Classic and "having to get off his bike to put it back on." I can't believe I need to write this, but people, if you drop your chain (which usually happens during a careless, panic move from the big ring to the little), relax, keep pedalling, and just use your front shifter to push the chain back on to the big ring where it started, then downshift like you wanted to, just more carefully this time. If this doesn't work for you, then you were either going WAY too slow when you made the misshift in the first place, or you are just one unlucky bastard. Glad I could help, thanks for reading.

PS - do not confuse this issue with what happened to me at the Gloucester cross race. That was overshifting when going into the big ring and throwing the chain overboard on the outside. Come to think of it, I still haven't adjusted that derailleur on the cross bike...

Link of the Day

Brought to you by google ads. Don't ask me about the content of the email that lead to me getting this ad.
CleanButt.com

Zoo found this picture from Jiminy on flickr. In case you don't know, I'm the one in the Shift kit, without carbon wheels. I think this was the second lap, because I still have fluid in my bottles. All I can say is the camera adds more than 10 pounds. Masters (except John Funk) always look so fat compared to real bike racers. Thanks for reading.

Jiminy - Hollenbeck Race Reports

I'm pressed for time, but these were already mostly written via emails to others, so you get a crude paste up entry. Saturday was a trip out to Jiminy Peak. The past few years, this race has been a struggle for me, but I keep going back, thinking the moderate hill at the finish suits me well. You see, way back on June 9, 1991, JP was the site of the USCF district 16 (MA/RI) championships, and my first USCF win (30+). Well, the bad news is that was a LONG time ago.

This year in the 45+ race we had a full field of 100 pre-registered (only 84 showed up), plus 25 guys from the 55+ field started with us, but competed for separate prizes. The race filled up several weeks before the start. There were a lot of the best riders in there, but a lot of new faces as well. All I can say about that is, after riding with them, I think it's time for promoters to think about making Masters races Cat 1-3, and giving the Cat 4 masters a separate race. We may be old, but there are a lot of experienced, hard core racers who did not get in because the field was full. The riding was very clumsy and sketchy, and a third of the field was gone the first time up the climb. The second time up, a bunch more were off and we were down to less than 50 riders, and that included the many 55+ strongmen who hung in.

Our race wasn't slow (88k in 2:16), but at seven minutes slower than the 35+ race, it wasn't all that fast either. Many of those who entered were simply outclassed. A five man break went up the road early, and there was some spirited chasing, but nothing that should have blown people out. On the last lap the break was brought very close, with a couple of guys coming off, but with three soldiering on in a struggle to stay clear. The last time up the hill I just didn't have it at the base and lost ground to the lead group who broke clear. The break ended up getting swallowed right at the top. I fought to the end but was not quite in contact with the sprint by the line. I counted about 20 ahead of me, and ended up 22nd on the official results. My legs just didn't produce at crunch time. I haven't worked on my endurance and is showed. Having the shits twice during the week didn't help, but I ate normally Saturday morning, so I think it was a training issue. The Cronoman rode a good race and crossed in 16th.

Sunday was much the same story. Saturday afternoon we headed out to the Finger Lakes region of New York for the Hollenbeck Spring Classic. We had wonderful hosts put us up for the evening. Thanks to Abby and her parents Chris and Helen. That was awesome.

The race was hard. It was a 3/4, 45 riders starting, including a lot of masters(master race was only one lap, so many opted for the two lap 3/4).
I went at the gun just to warm up. Got about thirty seconds, then six guys
bridged. Five of them were working. We only had 15-20 seconds on the
pack at that point, but it got us to the first big climb. It is 400 feet
in about a mile, so 7-8%, pretty tough climb. (check this out. Coolest mapper yet) They dropped me but the
pack didn't catch me until the steepest pitch at the end so I crested in
good shape. Then it was single file in the 12 with crosswinds. I'll tell
you, this race is like a classic. Wide open fields, tough grades and
fall flats, bumpy roads with cow shit on them, and major crosswinds.

The field was split and of course the echelons were not that well
formed, but we did catch the break, but only a few made it across from
the back group, even though they were close. It was that windy. So now
we had about 30 in the front. Three guys got away approaching "the wall"
a short steep hill, maybe a quarter mile at 11% or so. Then one guy
bridged and there were four at 30 seconds. That concluded lap one. There
was only one team of three that did not get a guy in the break, but they
chased hard. I tried to help, but I backed off before we got to the hill.
There was some very skilled blocking going on, very impressive the way
these guys race.

On the big hill the second time I just put my head down and suffered. I
made it over, barely. Nobody was pushing it too hard. Then it was back
in the chase over the crosswinds. We were down to 17 guys in my group
with four up the road. We got closer to them on the wall and coming into
town they were at about 10 seconds.

The finish road ends on a 600 meter climb of almost 15% We were catching
the break, and I moved up as far as I could but when we hit the steep
part at the end I had to downshift and just put my head down until I saw
100m painted on the road and then I went all out but one guy got me at
the end. I was credited with 15th. It was a hard race, lots of fun.

That concludes 20 days of consistent training, with two training crits at Wompatuck, a duathlon, and five road races. This will be a recovery week, probably no racing this weekend. I'm skipping Wompatuck tonight too. I'll try to rest up as well as get caught up at my job, then finish the month with another good few weeks of racing and training. Hope you all had a great weekend too. Thanks for reading.

Bike Racer Haircut Live! Part One - Nodcast 6

For a higher quality movie, download this 23 MB file for viewing with Quicktime player.

This was recorded a few weeks ago, so time references are out of date. Tune in soon for the dramatic conclusion! Thanks for watching!

You may remember

You may recall my mention of Stonyfield's Eartha the Flying Supercow of the Planet Protectors line of yogurt products back in an early nodcast. Well, after Palmer, I returned to my vehicle to find the pictured Eartha waiting for me. Thanks to Feltslave for providing our humble team with such an awesome mascot.

Yesterday on my ride home I passed McNamara's Farm on West Street in Stoughton, and there were a number of cattle out grazing under the setting sun. I should have stopped and taken a photo for the blog, ala Gewilli, but I was a dumbass and instead kept going because I was too lazy to dig the camera out of the messenger bag, and because even though I was riding at a snail's pace, I am too tied to the "training" mentality to ever stop on a ride unless it is absolutely necessary. I'll have to smarten up in the future, or rig up a camera holster for photos on the fly. Thanks for reading.

In the gutter

Well, I rode to work again today. Yesterday morning I took the same 11 miles and change route in my car and it took me 39 minutes door to door. Today on the bike, 47 minutes. This was no hammerfest. I had some reservations about riding at all, as a day of complete rest might have been a better idea.

Why? Rewind to last night. After work, I laced on the trail runners and hit my mixed fireroad/paved woods road loop to the top of Big Blue. I was surely tired from the bike racing in the days prior, but I kept up a decent pace, hitting LT or near it on all the climbs. When I got to the Big Blue access road, this time I decided to descend to the base and run the entire hill to get a true comparison to my bike times. I was careful not to start out too hard, and when I got a minute or so up, another runner came out of the fireroad and turned left up the hill just in front of me. Great, a race.

There were at least a half dozen riders coming down. A couple of them were gumbies, then two guys in BHCC kits, and then a guy in the IBC barbershop quartet jersey came down with a woman companion in an unfamiliar jersey. Through the middle of the climb, the guy I was following kept pace in front of me, but at the switchback he slowed and I kept going. I kept my HR out of the stratosphere, but running the top portion where the grade is 13% or more is tough. At the top, I ran right up past where I normally stop the clock on the bike and clicked the button at 8:09, just over two minutes slower than this year's best on the bike, and 3:30 or so off my all time best. Hmmmm.

Running down I tried hard not to strain any muscles. The other guy was still a hundred meters from the top when I passed him. The riders were all coming back up, looking pretty good. I turned off on the fire road and headed back, keeping up a decent, but relaxed pace. Near the end, the other runner caught me from behind and ran right through me. Once I get back out of the woods, it's about 1.5 miles back to work. I was going to try to pick my pace up and finish strong, but then it happened...

Apparently bouncing along down the fireroad did not agree with my digestive system. Things started feeling bad right when I came out of the woods, but I thought I'd be fine. Wrong. After another half mile of worsening gas pain, I realized I was experiencing a bad attack of the Bangorhard Bowel Blast. I guess this stuff happens to runners. I was still almost a mile from work, and no, I wasn't going to make it. Luckily, the Blue Hills is all woods, and I had worn my training jacket, and low and behold, there was a lonely single paper towel in the pocket. Exit stage right, up the hill, hey, there is even a convenient outbuilding of some kind on the trail to block the view from the road should anyone driving by decide to look up the hill. Shit that sucked.

After I got home, the gas demons resurfaced and I was in for more discomfort. So, this all left me wondering if riding to work was such a good idea. I have the Jiminy Peak road race on Saturday, then Hollenbeck on Sunday. Originally I'd planned this week as the last of three hard training weeks in a row, so piling on saddle time made sense. However, after Tuesday I started wondering if I was prematurely coming into form, and that maybe I should taper a day or two into Jiminy and try to do well at this site of my first ever win. Then I came to my senses. Since I don't have a power meter, I can't possibly be coming into form. There's just no way my training could be effective. So I rode to work. I rode easy, just taking what the terrain will give me, not fighting it. I think this is what Gewilli calls 2.14359 w/kg, but I'm not sure. Tonight I'll do the same on the way home. Hopefully I'll be able to telecommute tomorrow. Keep smiling, thanks for reading!

Repeat

Last night's Wompatuck went almost exactly the same as last week's, so you can just refer back a few entries for the lowdown. Actually, I got there a bit late this week and missed the start while irrigating the bushes, so I had to chase for a half lap, adding some excitement. After that it was much the same, sat in some, then went up front for a bit. At 13 to go I ended up in a series of attacks/reshufflings of the front group that lasted until about 5 to go. It seemed pretty easy to me but the other riders (except for one or two) seemed to be suffering. That really fast young kid was riding like a juvenile, not fun to be around. Someday (probably soon) he'll have his first really bad crash and then we'll see if he's still so ballsy.

At the end I again just rode the train while the herd thinned, got pushed into the woods by my buddy Colman at about 500 meters out, but managed to dance along the pine needles and get on his wheel until he faded off in the final 200. With the line in sight I thought I might have a shot but an NEBC guy, who was the only one on the left side where I was, died at the end and I checked up a touch before getting around him. The 3 man sprint for the win was going up the right by then, and at the last second a Union Velo guy (might be N. Hall?) stormed by, relegating me once again to 5th.

I was getting excited about doing so well at the 'tuck this year, but when I think about it the field just hasn't been too deep these two weeks. Half the group is the local red and yellow team, many of whom don't race anywhere outside of the park and just follow wheels and ride in circles for fun. Then a bunch of the rest are the Boston guys who ride/race down in a big group and look half-knackered by the time they get to the starting line. That leaves about ten guys who are willing/able to make it fast. It will pick up later in the year I'm sure.

Three races in four days has left me pretty tired too, so I'm off the bike today. I brought my running shoes, so if I get out of here soon enough maybe I'll do my Blue Hill trail run. Monday night was my first run since the duathlon, and I only did 3.5 miles. I need to keep it up at least a little in order to have some legs for the next few duathlons. Thanks for reading another boring post!