Never fails..

The rain outside our offices is Biblical in nature.. and there's always the comedian/co-worker who can't resist asking me, "So, you gonna ride home tonight!?"

CP1=638

I tried one of those out-of-the-saddle-one-full-minute-of-sprinting-intervals again today. This time, it was not preceded by a three mile time trial. Instead a good 30 minute warm-up at tempo pace. This is something I've been experimenting with lately and I plan to do it at least once a week. Being one who sticks primarily to crits (my last road race was Sturbridge) I think that the strength to get out of the saddle and sprint for a full minute (without sitting down) is going to pay dividends. Too many times I've been a contender in a crit with 1/2 lap left and I've been forced to sit and spin to the line with 50 meters to go. I want to be able to punch it early and keep accelerating the whole way, or at the least outlast all the others. I'm also prone to being the "when in doubt, lead it out" guy in a crit, so this kind of anaerobic endurance is going to make a difference I think. People tell me I have a good sprint. It's time to work on sharpening one of my few strengths.

Okay now I feel old..

The kid who lapped me at the 1989 Cyclocross National Championships in Milwaukee, has retired.

What!!! what!!! what!!!

Kyle's mom, upon hearing this news:

Lance Armstrong will come out of retirement next year to compete in five road races with the Astana team, according to sources familiar with the developing situation.
Armstrong, who turns 37 this month, will compete in the Amgen Tour of California, Paris-Nice, the Tour de Georgia, the Dauphine-Libere and the Tour de France — and will race for no salary or bonuses, the sources, who asked to remain anonymous, told VeloNews

Just what the sport needs? A Cinderella Man? I'm not surprised. You don't go from 1000 miles an hour to zero without some regrets or unfinished business. I hope to race into my sixties, personally. Who doesn't? Our sport is a fountain of youth. Our hearts are enlarged and they're super-strong. Big strong heart = long life.

Weekend Without Wells

For the early birds. Saturday was a rest day- no riding at all. Today I overslept and ended up blowing off Wells Ave. I could have made it if I snuck out of the house solo, but we had a birthday party right on Needham St at 3:00, meaning I would be making two round trips to Newton, not a good idea. As much as I love racing at Wells, the extra sleep was worth missing it. There's always Ninigret on Wednesday. At about 6:00 pm I went out and did a punishing hilly 80 minute ride. Wore my Polar HRM and the average HR of my CP60 (the first hour) was 164. Sounds kind of low to me? I'm wondering how much my form has evolved since my illness in Rochester- where the stomach bug kept me off the bike for 4 days. CTL is down to a very weak 75.. it was 105-110 back when I was averaging 200 miles a week for five months in a row.. These past 7 days- 134 miles and no racing. My numbers at Ninigret Wednesday should be a good indication of where I stand. I can also look back at the data for the two weeks before 2007's Bob Beal and compare it to my latest CP values. Holy crap Bob Beal is next weekend! The easier road course is going to be cool. Now to find a TT bike so I can improve on last year's time, which was a mediocre 6:56.

Nice kit Paolo

Very cool. I like white uniforms, except when it rains.. Velonews reports that Paolo Bettini yelled some expletives in Italian as he fisted the air here. What could he have said? I saw Bettini in person and in the circuit race at the 2007 Tour of California in Long Beach, where I did the Masters crit on the same course earlier in the day. The masters field averaged 27.5 mph, in February! A nasty crash split the field about 2/3 through the race and the ignorant officials pulled all the chasers without any consideration. The course was big enough that it would have been impossible to get lapped- but they pulled us just the same. Idiots.. made me use some Turkish expletives too..

Narragansett Town Beach or Bust

It was de-ja-vu last night. Regulars here will remember I rode down to the beach after work last week, with a tailwind, really fast, met up with wife and brother and son and mother in law and ate clam cakes and went swimming blah blah blah. I did it again last night! This time: typical headwind! This time: 4 minutes slower! This time: a new CP60 of 254 watts! (last week was 248) This time: Waves were BIG and the water felt cooler going into it.
I know some of you snicker and roll your eyes at the data. I'm okay with that. Forgive me for sounding like Michael Ball, but at the end of the day.. the power data makes training and racing more fun.
When you train alone as much as I do, you need someone or something to half-wheel. For most it seems, it's other riders. For me, it's just the data I'm riding against.

Wells Ave Crit versus a hard solo ride

Last week I did a 25 mile ride from work down to Narragansett Town Beach. A few posts ago I reported an average wattage of 248, with a normalized wattage of 273, for said ride.
Isn't it interesting that at Wells Ave on Sunday, the average wattage for the 45 lap race was a measley 200, and normalized watts were 260? It's not that surprising, really. We look for ways to conserve during a race, and really pour it on when we go fast. Notice the normalized power values are not that different- 273 vs 260. Normalized power, in case you wondered, is the Peaks software's feature where it magically calculates what your average power would have been if you didnt't coast/draft/slow down and then accelerate so often- it's the measure of what you would have done for average watts if the effort was metered out at a constant value for the whole duration.

531

Oh no! More data! Not really.. I just wanted to share the number of watts I can do for 60 seconds, out of the saddle. Yes- a one minute sprint interval. The effort totally wastes you for the next 10 minutes. I'm thinking it does some good for my ability to start a sprint from 4-500 meters out and hold speed all the way to the line. My goal is to do the 60 seconds at 200% of FT, or 570 watts. Keep in mind, I'm 77-78 kg, so it's all relative. I've only done these a few times, when the mood strikes, which isn't often. Last night I had to ride straight home, so I made the best of it- intensity wise- I also did a three mile interval a little before the one minute sprint. A Bob Beal simulation of sorts. My time was pathetic, but compatible with the conditions. What's this about there being NO POINTS for the TT portion of the Bob Beal Stage Race?? Did I read that right on the MCRA site?

10,000

I'd say that the Powertap 'flipped', but it does indeed show all 5ive digits. It was put into service on May 12, 2007.. the 10,000 miles does not include the days when I rode my cross bike, fixed gear, or the days when the batteries were dead in the 'puter and the hub. Now that I think about it, the Look 486 bike I've been using riding and racing since July 2006 has probably 15,000+ miles on it. I'd have to check the old fashioned 'Polar' files of yesteryear.. My saddle is beginning to show the kind of wear that only Solobreak is too cheap care about. Wells Ave Sunday was a success. We got our man in the break (Adam finished fourth on the heels of Bill Yabroudy, Skip Foley and Thom Norton), I took the first prime in a three lap solo move and Matt Kressy took the halfway prime, Mike Samartano lead out the field sprint and helped Matt win it commandingly.. Good times were had by all! I arrived there just as the combined field was lining up to start. Good thing I changed into my skinsuit, pre-wrote my check and pre-filled my release form, on the way there in the car.. Intuitive, eh? The adrenaline of a last minute start is sometimes more effective than a 1/2 hour warm-up, I think. Is it Friday yet?

Winds of change..

No cryptic meaning there, other than the fact that the prevailing Southerly winds I usually battle heading down Route 1 yesterday, were reversed for the most part. They shifted around a bit, going from a general cross-tailwind to a cross-headwind occasionally. So my 25.5 mile ride to Narragansett Town Beach was fast and furious for a change, in an elapsed time of 1 hr 7 min. I used it as a TT/FT workout. My brother left the house in W. Warwick about 30 minutes ahead of me and I used that as a carrot to go faster. I didn't catch him, but I did imagine him being just around the next bend and got to the beach parking lot only a few minutes after him. Average speed was a cool 22.7 mph, in spite of about 8-10 stops at red lights where I had to squeeze hard to go from 33 mph to zero. Go ahead and roll your eyes: my average power was 248 and normalized power was 273, which isn't bad, all things considered. (Yesterday's avg power was 143 watts btw, Solobreak) so definitely an active recovery zone 1 ride.) Anyway, that's 3.22 watts/kg- not impressive, but relative to me personally, it's pretty good. (No HRM this time, but it would have been interesting, eh?) Last time I did more watts in the span of an hour was at the Blue Hills Classic in May, believe it or not. But at that event, I was in an early break for a lap, and then the hills really juice the output, especially when you're forced to hold onto the wheel in front of you for dear life. Going solo on a relatively flat road is completely different than a road race on rolling hills. Anywho.. enough about that. The fun part was meeting the family down at the beach and eating fresh hot clam cakes that they got for us down near Point Judith. Then brother and I went for a very invigorating swim in the big waves just as the sun was disappearing. We froze our balls off when we got out of the water though. Man alive.. The same wind which carried us there really gave us the 'pencil tips'. Oh- and who do I bump into just as we're going onto the beach- Kip "need to ride more" Bradford. Good man.
In other news: We're looking for renters to occupy our third floor apartment. Please share this link with anyone you know who is looking for a squeaky clean place to live, almost everything included, and partially furnished too!: http://providence.craigslist.org/apa/817880995.html It's been vacant since March and I've been too busy/lazy to find new occupants.

Two hours - 106 bpm avg

To think that the tot whose diapers I changed 25 years ago would grow to be a 240 pound 6 foot 4 hercules, trying to draft me for two hours on the back roads of Coventry.. If you told me back then I would have laughed. We did a leisurely 2 hours on rolling terrain. The ride was zone 1 for me and more like zone 4 for him.. but I don't think he minds. We pushed our luck a touch and got home just when it was getting kind of dark. Tonight we'll probably ride down to Narragansett Town Beach to meet my wife and son after work.. That's always a fun ride from Cranston- 25 miles into a stiff headwind down Route 1 and later Route 1A. I need to do some intervals though.. My TSS is way down from June/July levels, when it was over 100 for both CTL and ATL. Now I'm in the 70s and not training all that hard, but I plan to ramp it up next week.

Change of seasons.. change of bikes

Oh man here it comes.. I actually wore my wind jacket yesterday on the morning commute. I drove in this morning (will be riding home) but man it was definitely cool enough for a long sleeve jersey. I'm very sensitive to temperature, and if I'm cold I'm unhappy. What's with the weather though, seriously.. It feels like October and it's still August. Hopefully we get some nice warm beach days this weekend. Not looking forward to heating my house this winter-and it seems like winter's going to make an early appearance.. Grrrrr. In other news, I gave our son Reis his b-day gift early- a FELT Sector Mini bike (available at Providence Bicycle), designed for 4-6 year olds. He didn't take to it right away, and kept asking "where are the training wheels?". We did a few tours in a local park and he doesn't even realize that I wasn't holding him half the time. He has the balance thing down pat with two years riding the Likeabike Jumper. Now he just needs to get used to the higher center of gravity, and to creating momentum by pedaling. He looooves having the hand break though! We got some of it on video. Maybe I'll post it.

From this:

..to this:

That saddle is a brick- we're going to retro fit the nicely padded Jumper seat onto it.

Explanation?

Okay maybe my last post was insufficient. Who drives five hours to a crit, drills it with some of the best in the country, then suddenly sits up after 20 minutes, and then drives home five hours? It's been a depressing day, and I've been craving a beer since the afternoon, and failed to get my hands on one. No doubt I've been beating myself up, but that's typical- no one is harder on Murat, than Murat. I have yet to look at the Powertap chart, but I know that there came a point in this race where I was into the red zone pretty deep while trying very hard to be in the top 1/2 of the field. My breathing was labored, lungs felt tight, and legs felt like they were sprinting non-stop.. Even so, this wasn't even as hard as I worked at the Fall River Crit, where the hill is at least twice as long as at Chris Thater. So even though I had traveled so far, something kept me from burying myself to stay in the race. Somehow I forgot, or didn't care about how far I'd traveled and somehow I got it into my head that I was outgunned by every rider in the field and that it was hopeless to continue and that it wasn't any fun anymore and that I hated racing and wanted to stop and go home as soon as possible. Sound familiar? I hope not, because if you have ever gone through such a melt-down, then it means you're a crazy fool just like me. It happens to me sometimes, maybe even to the best of them.. I could point at a lot of things and say "that's why".. but this time I was wondering if maybe what happened during Chris Thater could be something like an anxiety attack. A very sudden mood shift that takes me someplace where I suddenly feel powerless and just surrender to the stresses I'm under. In other words, I quit. To be fair to myself, I did drive five hours and wear myself out stressing about how much driving I was doing and about getting there in time. Then I arrived with 35 minutes to start, I registered and got back to my car with only 20 minutes to get ready to race. All of it sucked. I mis-judged the distance and the time it would take to get there. Things might have been different if I drove in the night before, slept in until 10:00, and took my sweet time getting ready and warming up.. Woulda been nice.. It's time to move on, I know. There are quite a few more road events coming up, from Topsfield to Jamestown.. and I'll be back in the hunt pretty soon.. with an ax to grind.

Chris Thater 30+

When you see Amos Brumble squeeze his hand and congratulate him for solo bridging up to Mark Warno, then being joined by Ray Benitez, then being attacked by both in the final laps, then the three of them almost lapping the field and then easily beating them both in the final sprint by more than a bike length. Not even close.. That's two wins for A.B. in this race. Mark and Ray are ranked 4th and 6th crit masters in the country.. I was very happy to see him take it. I believe Ernest Tautkus won the field sprint for 8th. Nice work! I arrived exactly 35 minutes before the start.. Which pretty much killed whatever good mojo I had in me. The race stopped being fun around lap 11 and my willingness to suffer disappeared very suddenly and that was that. No regrets.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Ninigret: Tied for 7th

It was almost 1 mph faster than last week, and it's no surprise because in spite of the added HP of Fuji and Gearworks, nothing got away. We averaged 26.8 mph last night and only 26 mph the week before. I wasn't super aggressive, but I did put myself out there a few times and on one occasion, I was almost swallowed up and spit out the back, I was hurting so much. I took a few laps to regain composure and with four to go I started picking my way towards the front. In the end, I jumped a split second late, got myself pushed right without losing much momentum, but still made it across the line with only six guys head of me. Of course Gary A. of the Horst Benidorm team might have a different opinion- I was far right and he was far left in the sprint and he might have narrowly beat me with a bike throw.. but heck I sat up with 10m to go, so what's the difference, we both missed being in the money! I respect Gary a lot- always agressive, always involved in the action up front, fighting and suffering like a dog. Gary's a good man and usually finishes either a place in front or a place behind me. Benidorm had two guys in the race last night, which is a first I think. There is NO Ninigret Crit for the next two weeks. When they resume on September 10th the start times will be moved up 1/2 hour, so 5:30 for the Bs and 6:00 for the As. Check the www.NBXbikes.com site for details under the "Rides and Events" heading. I'm off to work by car, then an easy ride home tonight. Chris Thater's 35+ Crit is my plan for Saturday. 'Ta!

Vest weather

It's going to be a cool one down at Ninigret tonight! I'm thinking long sleeve jersey even. The vest this morning was barely enough to keep the shivers away, especially in the shade of the Cranston Bike Path, which was deserted except for a lot of walkers trying to burn off the calories of the mega sized iced coffees in their fists. No bikers. There was a guy last night walking his [dead] electric scooter down the bike path. I averted my eyes because it was so lame to watch a person push a vehicle which was purchased in order to avoid doing actual physical work- as though soft pedaling yourself around on a bike is so g-d damned hard.

Worth Repeating: Millwork One Racing has 3 podiums this weekend

Three Podiums This Weekend!
Frontier-Criterium in Loudon, NH
Adam Sternfield is 1st place in the 45+ and 3rd in the 35+ which follows.

Blount-Seafoods-Fall-River-Criterium
Adam Sternfield is 5th in 45+ race.
Matt Kressy (above) is 2nd in the 35+ race
Adam Sternfield is 27th in the 35+ race

170

My metabolism seems to have been turbo-charged ever since I recovered from the stomach bug. Before I got sick I was about 175. Five pounds gone in ten days.. and now that there's momentum I'll be extra careful with my portion sizes. Maybe 165 in time for Topsfield or Bob Beal? It's about time, almost too late.. So it's no surprise that I felt pretty good on that power hill at the Fall River Crit on Sunday. I positioned myself 3rd to 10th wheel every time up the climb and had little trouble spinning to the top in the 53x19. Two previous editions of this crit had me over my limit and gasping for air. 2006 it was 110 degrees out, and in 2007 I had a bad chest cold.

2008 Fall River Criterium Results