Get Real

Just in case you haven't noticed, there hasn't been a whole lot of bloggin' goin' on. Nor training. Perhaps there's some relationship there. But not much. It's been just over a month since Ice Weasels, coincidentally the last time I rode a bike outdoors. Don't worry; you can rest assured I haven't been killing it on the trainer either. As proud as I am of all of you who've been out there slogging through the slush of the worst winter for riding in recent memory, personally I've been quite grateful that the cold and snow has come in January when it's supposed to. I needed an off season, for several reasons. Grateful to be gainfully employed, and fully aware that I spend most of the summer primarily concerned with getting out the door in time to get to Wompatuck or Londonderry, there's no time like winter to put work on the front burner. And I'm actually enjoying it. Because I needed the break from cycling. I'm remembering why I stopped racing cyclocross in years past. Sure, it makes the fall fly by, which is great, but it makes the fall fly by. I'm not exactly itching to get back on the bike right now.

Last year at this time, I was doing a lot of running, and had already raced a few times. Hell, the Raynham Frostbite 15k is this week. With all the snow and ice, running conditions this year haven't been so good either. Neither has my foot. I've run on it a few times, nothing far or intense, and at first it seemed OK, but last Saturday I ran just 7 miles and it was pretty much back to where it was in November. Which makes sense, as I didn't really do anything to find and correct the original cause of the issue. Rest and cortisone made the pain go away, but I've come to the conclusion that my foot is simply not strong enough to do what I've been asking it to do. Sure, an orthotic might help keep the foot from flattening out on impact, and may be necessary if I wish to continue higher-mileage running, but for now I'm focused on strengthening the muscles that support the foot. And I can do that indoors.

All that said, January 15 has always been the traditional start of my road training season. This used to be considered "early," but now they've moved the race calendar up by over a month, so it's not so. But I'm still not into it. I did climb on the trainer last night, throwing out the ceremonial first pitch, but that's about it. And no, I'm not dumb enough to take the bait and start going on group rides with those of you who've been out there riding four hours every Sunday. We don't call you January National Champions for nothing. I know you'd love the opportunity to slay my ass while the gettin' is good, but it won't happen. I know better. And I also know in June when I ask you to do six hours, you'll say you "don't need to," or "you're resting for a race." That's fine. I enjoy riding alone anyway.

I know that was weak, but it beats a "Best of Solobreak" post, doesn't it? Well, you're in for a treat anyway, as I'm cleaning out the drafts folder. Sometimes posts are conceived, but never make it past the embryo stage. As a special mid-winter feature, I'm just putting up the snippets here.

Originally drafted on July 18, 2008

Here's my entry that goes where the Workingman's Stage Race race report would normally go. You see, for a couple of reasons, one being that I'm a racing member of the host club, and two, this race suits my "talents" well, the WMSR has been my "A" event for the past few seasons. As far as we know, this is the only night time stage race in the world. This was the 21st annual, a tenure that only a handful of New England races can match or better. Running midweek each July, we start with a time trial on Tuesday evenings, followed by a circuit road race on Wednesday, and a points race under the lights at a local speedway on Thursday night. The latter is run under track racing rules, but with road bikes. The overall is scored based on a points omnium type format based on placing from each of the three stages. Got it?

This year I wasn't as psyched about peaking for this race, so I didn't. I'd adjusted my seasonal training in order to be more competitive in the spring races, therefore July finds me still in a bit of a summer lull as I ramp up for some more tough racing late in the summer. We (Team BOB) had a plea for more volunteers to help with the event, and I thus planned to just ride the TT, then drop out and drive a pace car or marshall or something on Wednesday night. It was the right thing to do. Some clubs don't even permit any of their riders to race in the club event, as it's all hands on deck to make the show happen. We might have to do that sometime too, but not this year.

I usually ride a decent TT at this race. This year, the entry numbers were a bit light, and I had a better than average ride, ending up with the 3rd best time in the masters field, albeit only 1/100th of a second better than the poor 4th place guy. This was surprising to me, about six seconds faster than last year's time, even though I eschewed my TT bike for my every day road bike with clipons and medium dish rims. I did wear the aero helmet. Short version, I had great legs, pushed a bigger gear than usual (52x13 on the flat, 14 and 15 on the rollers, 16 on the climb, 12 on the descent), and paced it close to perfect, hit all the corners nicely, just a few little mistakes misjudging a roller or two. Good job.

Wednesday I had the day off, and the weather was gorgeous, just as it was all week. I went for a nice 2.5 hour ride, mostly with the Cronoman. We then watched the tour stage on tv, then headed over to the race venue, where Captain Duano informed me I was officially drafted into racing for the team. He'd strongarmed his brother into taking over my pacecar duties. Ok, kit up...

This wasn't supposed to be a race report,

You might remember, Wednesday night ended up pretty decent too, although I blew the field sprint for 5th. Finished up a 100 mile total for the day though.

Over the Hill - originally drafted September 9, 2008

This year, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't hurt people at Wompatuck. So I stopped going. Then this past Sunday, I went to Wells Ave, where the bottom feeders of the bike racing world go to, uhh, feed. I'm pretty sure that half the riders in the combined A/B field only own one kit. Either that or it's their Sunday best, as I can recognize the Wells Warriors

That had the makings of a great post. Too bad.

Il Brucie on triathletes

Last but not least, but needing some explanation. This was just a note about the highlight of the winter, and I never got to do it justice. A few weeks back, just after taking in the Pats final game of the season at the BBC, Fox 25 news interviewed Il Bruce about how it felt to be rooting for the Jets (who of course would have had to win the evening game in order for the Patsies to advance to the playoffs). Brucie gave some pretty dry and boring answers to the series of questions, and I doubt that it made the air. Too bad the camera crew was elsewhere later that night, when after several more pints of England's finest ales, our esteemed commentator gave us his bike shop employee's view of the "life journey of the wannabee triathletes." You had to be there, but take my word that it's truly a shame the camera wasn't rolling. Thanks for reading.