5-31-11 Scituate Time Trial- New PB Yay!

I rode to the time trial in the perfect conditions on Tuesday afternoon. Light winds, sunny, dry, a gorgeous day all around. After careful depilation of the legs to avoid shaving off my road rash, I donned my new "Grape Crush" skinsuit, packed my backpack with some essentials and filled a couple bottles with 1/2 Coke and 1/2 H20. Heading out, I had a few feelings of doubt, and resolved to accept the fact that it would not be my best result at this 14.3 miles around the Scituate Reservoir. My hand was (and still is) swollen and achy right behind the knuckles. Earlier in the day I snipped the stitches and removed them. I actually pulled one of them the wrong way and lodged the quadruple knot deep into the scab- and then had to fish it out with the pointy end of my Swiss Army knife. Ouch. I popped a couple Advil, a B vitamin and a multi vitamin and set out toward Crazy Corners. The one aero advantage I took with me (besides the skinsuit- if that even counts) is my Louis Garneau aero helmet. I had used it once before and it really didn't make a difference. Today though, I was racing with an injured hand and nursing road rash, so I justified that the helmet would make me Even-Steven. One other difference- I had my 1600 gram Easton race wheels instead of my heavy Powertap wheel. Overall about a one pound difference, but mostly at the hub, not a rotational weight difference. One other ommission- no Power wheel means no power data. I haven't had any of that since I fell down at Wells..
Long story short, this TT hurts like a bastard. The climbs are short but challenging A couple are deceiving- you think you're done but then realize that you still haven't crested. The 2nd climb and the 5th climb are the hardest. My approach is to do the whole thing in the big ring, gain big time on the climbs. I pay dearly for this after cresting because it's tough to get back to top speed on the descents with legs that have been redlining for the past 2-3 minutes. I make up for this by getting into the most miniature tuck as I possibly can on the steeper descents (except for the last one- you really have to power down the backside of that one and ideally spin out the 53x11- it's not a steep descent so it needs some input) For whatever reason, maybe a local triathlon on the weekend, a lot of the big engines passed on this weeks TT. There weren't any leg breakers doing it and so it looked as though I could fall ass-backwards into the fastest time. This motivated me because if I was to have the fastest time, it needed to be a respectable time. As it turned out, my hand did not slow me down. The helmet made a difference. The wheels saved me lots of seconds. The diluted Coke was a good choice for hydration- it always agrees with me. My previous attempt was 38:56 (3 weeks prior). This week's result was 38:06. Woo-hoo! Good enough to stand as the 2011 season-to-date record, fwiw. I'm sure it will be smashed next week, but who cares? I'm way faster than my peak form in 2010, and it's only May. Cool.
Now if only I can get Providence Bike to correct the results so that my last name is correct!
Next time you are looking for a challenging Tuesday afternoon workout, head out to the Scituate Time Trial sponsored by Providence Bicycle. It's free and the first rider rolls off at 6:00. All abilities welcome.
Thanks for reading.

Crash update

I took three days off the bike- Monday thru Wednesday. On Thursday I was going stir crazy and went out for about 3-1/2 hours. My left hand was wrapped with gauze and my road rash was still bandaged under my kit. Friday I rested and didn't ride. Saturday I went out to meet the ArcenCiel North ride and it ended up being a 93 mile day, with some really bad cramping in the last hour of riding. On the final hill going up Central Pike towards our starting point in Scituate, I had to shut it down and just whimper up to the top to a waiting group populated with men and women in their fifties. But to be fair, my hand was throbbing all day, I couldn't climb out of the saddle or grip the handlebar with my left hand, and every tiny bump and crack in the road made my hand ache and burn pretty badly. If I saw a rough patch coming up I'd usually take my left hand off of the bars. This also made it hard to ride in a double paceline. With a weakened left hand that's not good for front-braking, I had to let a gap open up in front of me to allow more braking distance pretty much all day meaning that I really never had the full benefit of a draft for 4-1/2 hours. I could barely shift into the big ring without wincing in pain.. so I'll go ahead and forgive myself for cramping and falling apart on the last climb, thank you very much! Saturday I completed my wife's new road bike and we headed to the bike path for an easy 10 miles with our son Reis. Memorial Day I got up early enough to meet up with the ArcenCiel South crew at 8:00 but an abundance of lolly-gagging meant that I left too late to make it under the circumstances (my hand) Normally I can gun it and get down there in 40 minutes flat. Today though, the hand was exceptionally tender, and a stiff wind was blowing in my face the whole way down. With some bad showers showing up on the radar I was apprehensive about a successful ride. Still I puttered down towards the starting point and got there in 55 minutes- almost 20 minutes late. After checking the radar again on my Crackberry and the Advil finally kicking in, I continued straight down Route 2 to Charlestown, all the way to route 1 (very close to Ninigret) and then headed back north on route 1. In Naragansett I detoured back south on 108 and jumped onto 1a North down by Point Judith. It was pretty fast until I got to Narragansett Town Beach but the winds shifted and made the last 20 miles home pretty much miserable. Another 66 miles logged and boy did it feel good to ice my hand when i got home at 11:00. My stitches need to come out tomorrow. I no longer cover up my bloody knuckles and some dark scabs have formed. Road rash is all skinned over- still pink/red/tender and peeling. Sometimes it itches like crazy. No more bandages since day 5 though (Friday). Tomorrow I need to go to Quad Cycles and drop off my pretzeled Powertap wheel for re-build or something.. I also need to check out a lightly used pair of Shimano 7801 carbon tubulars which are available to me for a great price. Selling my OVAL CONCEPTS carbon wheels on Ebay if anyone is interested. They are very fast and very nice looking eye candy but my svelte 154 pound frame does not require such an indestructible pair of wheels in a crit where the name of my game is accelerations.. i've also resolved to begin using only 12-21 cassettes from now on. Yes that's what they call a "straight block" or "corn cob", and back in the 80s it looked a lot more impressive to have a 11-12-13-14-15-16 freewheel. I don't need the 11. I don't need the 23. I want to have an 18 and a 20 for use in the more challenging/undulating crits like Fall River, Attleboro and New Britain. Jumping from a 19 to a 17 tooth cog does not please me, neither does going from 23 to 21.. They don't offer the new 7900 cassettes in 12-21- only the older 7800 is still available in this configuration, and I need to buy a couple- one for the [to be] re-built Powertap wheel and one for the new carbon wheels. I have an 11-23 cassette lightly used which will probably go on to my wife's bike.
I'm tired. Thanks for reading.

Wells Ave May 22 2011: crash and dnf and pictures added

Photo courtesy of this guy ..Not that I asked permission, but there are definitely a few cool shots in there I am willing to pay money for, and will. Follow the link and you will see the whole sequence of events, from the time I had a nice open lane, to when my lane abruptly disappeared and I had little choice but to start keeling over. The Garmin indicates that our speed at this point was 35+ mph.

I knew I should have just stayed in bed.. I had my heart set on going to NYC for the Tour de Parc Criterium. No can do says the wife. Okay.. then I either do a 4 hour early morning ride or head up to Wells Ave to ride really fast in circles. I chose the latter because I could sleep-in until 8:30. Oh well.. No sense beating myself up about it. Here's the brief race report I wrote to my teammates:

Thanks Adam for hanging out with me today- it's a big comfort to have a friend there. Yeah after a pretty solid day of racing, I fell short of finishing the damn race by about 75 meters...

I blame myself for not being at the pointy end of the field when it counted but with 3 laps to go I had to sprint full gas for 300 meters to get across to the little group that got away (Adam you were up there I hate to admit, but I figured you would rather have my company than not) which included Gavin, Thad, Tobi, Dan G., etc.. Once across I almost puked hanging on up until the bell rang for 1 to go. Barely recovered and not fresh enough to get to the front, I ended up behind a 4-5 wide band of dead legs to get past for a possible top 5. I used poor judgment when I tried to pass on the right. I should have predicted that someone was going to drift in to me. Once my wheel overlapped I felt committed and within a split second I had my front wheel being pushed to the right. Game over.
I have little silver dollar sized scrapes on my ankle, knee, elbow and shoulder. My hip and back have hand-sized abrasions. My left hand took a beating (he..he..) The first two knuckles were both punctured completely and embedded with the wool fibers from my gloves. They took x-rays and stitched em both up after injecting the skin with numbing medicine and scrubbing out the contaminants.

My biggest regrets, now that I know I'm okay, is the rear Powertap wheel is kaput, brand new Schwalbe Durano tire is damaged, brand new Easton front wheel is not what it used to be, it's brand new Schwalbe Ultremo tire had it's side wall shredded, my carbon handlebars will go to the trash due to impact, my Rudy Project Kontact helmet is cracked in three places, and my left DMT Prisma shoe is torn up including part of the carbon sole. Oh and dont forget a ruined pair of DeFeet wool gloves, brand new Pactimo bib shorts & jersey, and Hasyun merino wool base layer.. I'm pretty sure that the Wells Ave asphalt bears a sexy impression of my ass and left fist, so take that!

I can't make a fist for a few days (good thing I'm not a southpaw) So racing in Baltimore at the Kelly Cup is a longshot I guess. I was so psyched for that too.. We'll see how quick the stitches heal up. I hate to waste the good form that I've worked 5 solid months to get. I guess a week of rest can't hurt if I want to take it to the next level later on in July. Last year I did not touch the bike at all in June and after some focused training in July I was flying in August/September.. Thanks.

So that's my story. The Training Peaks chart gives a low-down of my last 3 laps of the race, from the time I hit it hard to get across (and regrettably, the whole field followed) to the instant that I fell down going 35+ mph, finish line in sight..

Thanks to everyone for showing concern for me afterwards and especially to Marvin W., MD, for taking the time to make sure I wasn't cross eyed or broken someplace. Until next time.. You can be sure that if I race Wells again, I will not be sprinting unless there's nothing but daylight in front of me.

2011 Mystic Velo Crit Race Report 35+/1-2-3

The weather has turned to crap. It's Monday night and I'm in the basement on the trainer doing a 90 minute active recovery spin. May as well multi-task and tell you about Sunday's action. I have a nice Youtube playlist on the computer showing me Giro highlights. I've watched so many race videos this winter.. Anyway.. Matt K and I headed to Ninigret in spite of the iffy weather. In fact it was raining at my house when I left, but the radar was showing a band of rain already past Charlestown. I crossed my fingers and headed out in plenty of time to give Matt his team-issue socks courtesy of our new sponsor, SoxySox. (WeeBIKE will soon be a stocking dealer.) Matt had 1/2 hour to warm up and I had 90 minutes to get ready. At the course, it was dry but overcast. Winds were surprisingly light. The usual chill in the south county air was enough for most to wear arm warmers, but I warmed up on the trainer for 30 minutes and went with bare arms- but I did have a merino wool base under my skinsuit, which proved to be the perfect choice..
Matt rolled off with a smallish 45 field at 2:00 while I continued to warm up. I could see right away that the local Arc team was not going to make it easy for anyone. Matt was gritting his teeth on the very first lap as he covered strong attacks by the Arcs. Then a terrible crash happened at the beginning of the final straightaway - I think it was the end of lap 2 or 3. I was on my trainer and couldn't see much. The race was neutralized while the fallen were attended to. Apparently Tony Hill's fork disintegrated from under him and sent him into a violent face plant. Makes you wonder if it's worth it to buy a frameset made from 2 pounds of plastic doesn't it? This was a relatively new frameset with no apparent defects. Tony was out cold, as I'm told, and an ambulance picked him up from the blood soaked course and to the hospital. He suffered some very bad road rash and a fractured face! It looks like there are no life threatening injuries, but I'm certain that it was scary as hell to hit the deck like that. Speeds were very high. His ArcenCiel Team attended to him like true soldiers of our sport, making sure he was taken care of, making sure his family was notified, his car and bike accounted for, and I'm sure he felt a lot of relief at the site of his teammates fussing over him. We should all highlight the Arc Team's crisis management as exemplary. Bravo.. And may Tony's pain pass quickly.
With the course cleared, except for about a 1/2 pint of blood, it was announced that the 45s would be reistarting their race combined with the 35s. This made perfect sense because all of the Arcs withdrew and followed the ambulance to the hospital. Only about 8 guys registered for the 35 race. Combined, I think we added up to about 20 guys, if that. We were going to be scored separately, meaning that I needed to take care not to let any 7-- bibs out of my sight. A small field means there is really nowhere to hide. All of your weaknesses are exposed. The usual attacks were launched pretty much every lap- Billy Mark, Gary Aspnes, Wade Summers, Zane Wenzel and John Gadrow all gave us some wicked accelerations to match. I took up chasing duties for a lot of these attacks, and it wore me down.. When the first prime was announced, I took pole position and picked up the pace a bit. I wanted to see either Thad or Matt come around and it ended up being Matt. He took the prime and kept going, solo. The small field watched him get smaller and smaller for about 2 laps, after which he got bigger and bigger. It was a bit early to drive it home solo. After we caught up to Matt, I took to the front and kept the pace a little bit high to discourage a counter attack. Without meaning to, I was making it needlessly hard for Matt to recover from the 4 lap time trial he had just completed. Poor judgment on my part. A few laps later we were offered prime number two. Again I made an effort to get the speed up by sprinting into the penultimate corner and putting myself on the rivet all the way to the final corner. Again, Matt easily comes around and takes it. Now there's about 9 or 10 laps left. The field slowed to a crawl and I decided to attack. Not the smartest move on my part, but I was feeling really good and willing to go ALL-IN. I opened a modest slim 10 second gap and held it for about 3 laps. I needed to hold that 25 mph speed for 6 more laps, and I could tell I was fading and didn't have it. I cooled it and let the field sweep me up, though I recall this to be the most difficulty I'd felt all day- accelerating on to the back of the skinny field after my attack. Now I knew how Matt felt.. But these situations are exactly what we train ourselves for, these moments of do or die. I look down at my shiny new team kit where it reads "FORTITUDINE VINCIMUS" and the pain lessens. Determination takes over. A lap or so later, I'm fully recovered. About 5 to go, Wade attacks again, and chasing duties fall to just a few of us, mainly Thad Lavallee, Gary and myself, though I could swear Gary was soft pedaling a little bit for his former teammate. We came right to Wade's wheel with 2-1/2 to go, but the gap opened slightly again. Someone attacked and got across to him. We crossed the line at 2 to go and I could be heard encouraging others to help close the gap. We crossed the finish for the bell lap and then speeds really ramped up to eye-popping. We caught the two escapees right before the penultimate left hander and just kept accelerating. I was not leading this out- I was very tired. Two lines seemed to form right before the final corner- Matt followed by Billy Mark followed by me, and on the right, Gary Aspnes followed by Thad followed by others. Gary dropped his chain, effectively shutting Thad down and costing him dearly. I hung on to Billy's wheel the best I could, hit it HARD for the last 100m, always accelerating. No one came around me, and I was the 3rd overall to finish, 1st of the 35s. The finish line camera shows me crossing alone so I think I metered my very last effort nicely.
The 1-2-3s lined up almost immediately while Matt and I scrambled with race numbers and topping off bottles. Another 35 laps of this?! My confidence was juiced from the last race, but this field was filled with the usual cat 1s, many of them half our age. Resolving to finish no matter what, I took my place in the sweet spot of the field and just made sure to position myself in the correct places, on the correct wheels. The field of 40 split at one point, and Matt got himself across to the break of about 11-12 guys. One of the younger Arc riders, Ian, took to the front and, with myself and another CF blocker on his wheel, proceeded to take a violent pull of about 2-1/2 laps, and all it took was a couple of more attacks by others to finish off the catch and make sure that this came down to a field sprint. I will admit the first 20 laps were hard, even in the protection of the field, but I was feeling better and better towards the end. I could see that Matt was moving up towards the front with two to go and I tried very hard to get close to him. At one lap to go in a 1-2-3 race there are a lot of [sacrificial] bodies seemingly going reverse. Maneuvering through such traffic takes some skill and experience- I like to think I have some of that. To my delight I found enough daylight to sprint to 9th place while Matt took 5th in a very fast 37+ mph sprint. We celebrated afterwards with a pair of ice cold Stellas I brought with me. I collected our prize money and Matt collected his 3 primes, including one from the 1-2-3 race. Hindsight is 20/20, but I already knew that I would have a good day if I did big volume Wednesday (with a crit inthrown in the middle), which was 85 miles to the Ninigret Crit and back. With all of Sunday's racing, I cracked 300 miles last week. And it was very pleasing to see in the 1-2-3 results that I actually finished 9th, when I was expecting 10th. This has been long winded, but hey my 90 minute spin is just about complete. Hope you enjoyed reading. Thanks.

2011 Mystic Velo Criterium Results 35+/45+

Sorry this was all I had time to get. Matt also took 5th in the 1-2-3 which followed and I think I was 10th- it was a field sprint. We also took 3 primes!
2011 Mystic Velo Criterium Official Results
Correction: I was 9th in the 1-2-3 race.

2011 Sterling Road Race 35+ Results

Full results will be on Bikereg in a couple of days. Maybe a short description of my first attempt at this race too. I'm a happy finisher.
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile
As promised:
Adam S and I did the 35+ race at Sterling today. I was not expecting to be put into this much difficulty, but the 2nd time up the climb I knew I had NO game. My engine runs very hot and when I reach a certain point the only thing that will help me is to back off and cool my jets. I was disappointed but not surprised- I'm in the thick of my training- fatigue is high and I'm in a weakened state. I do not taper or try to peak for road races, but it was apparent pretty early that lots of guys were there to rip legs off, not to add to a block of training. Our race was 6 laps. After getting popped at the beginning of lap three, I just put my head down and went to work, trying to meter my effort so that I can last four more laps. I caught and passed a lot of others who were dropped. A few tried to get in a rotation with me, but I was not in the mood for a collaborative effort and I rode away from them all. Kept catching guys here and there and just leaving them behind.. I was about 1/2 way through Lap 6 when the 45 field caught up to me. I took a place at the back of the field, and still, people thought it necessary to tell me not to "be in the way" at the end. I had a LOT of choice words for their poor choice of adding insult to injury. They were at the back of the race telling me to go to the back so that I would not impede their shot at 50th place? Wtf.. Try time trialing this course by yourself for 3-1/2 laps before dishing out unsolicited advice.
Anyway, I was in the 45 group for all of 5 minutes when a bad crash happened right in the gutter. I swerved carefully to avoid, I'm sure a lot of guys were shelled at this point because I was close to the back but lots of guys behind me.. Many handfuls of brakes were squeezed. We turned on to the final state road leading to the finish and I chatted with Marro a bit just as we approached the final turn, where I backed off and let these guys kill each other for 2nd (Tom Francis passed me solo on this stretch on my 5th lap) I crossed the line and made sure to let the crew know that a 35 rider was finishing. Nothing burns me more than going full gas by myself to complete a race, only to be omitted from results. So that's my story. I hope Adam had a better time. As predicted, this turned out to be an expensive training day- hopefully it pays some dividends in a month or so. At least I got some good tan lines.. These abdominal cramps and intestinal distress I've been having for the past hour are proof that I raced hard and didn't dilly-dally. Now.. If only I could have deposited three huge eliminations BEFORE the race started! Wow. Don't brag to me about making islands, these were friggin Continents.

5-3-2011 Scituate Time Trial No 2

It's funny- those days when you know that fatigue is high, leg soreness is there, and finding the will to suffer seems impossible- sometimes all of those signs are leading you into the weeds about your performance. Tuesday of this week I decided to do the TT in Scituate again. On the way there, it was cool, windy, cloudy.. and every pedal stroke was giving me the "wrong" sensations. I practically resigned myself to just having a shit time and caulking it up for good training. Smaller group turned out this time- a lot of fast guys were absent, which seeded me as the last one to start. I did not feel like I should be there. Long story short, what feels like a terrible day can and often does end up being a decent ride. It makes sense that it hurts more when you're going faster. The misperception of those times that it hurts more is that you simply don't realize that you're going faster than when it hurts less. I ended up doing a time that almost matches my best time of 2010- missed it by 10 seconds, but still- I took about 20 seconds off of the previous attempt a week ago. I give most of the credit to riding the whole course in the big ring. I make up a lot of time on the climbs- though I find that on the flats and downhills I lose time to others.. but that's partly because I am going cannibal and they are all aero'ed out. My Garmin read 38:50, the timer (Sean) scored me at 38:55. Good enough for a top three I think. Thanks for reading.

How do my spokes bend like that?

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4-26-2011 Scituate Time Trial No 1

Been dying to test the legs in a TT and get a sense of where I stand so far this season. The Scituate Time Trial circles the Scituate Reservoir clockwise. It's a challenging route, punctuated with 4 short punchy climbs of about 1km or so, and a 5th longer climb of about 1.2 miles rising 220 feet. Ordinarily I don't like to do time trials, but the profile of this course suits me much better than a flat course. I have accepted the fact that I am built for repeated short bursts of VOmax efforts and accelerating. I do poorly at any kind of prolonged steady grind. The ascents and descents of this course give me a fighting chance to use my strengths.
I rode to the TT in my skinsuit, on my road bike, with backpack to hold my spares, some long sleeve stuff for afterward, and extra water. Moments before heading out at 5:00, I hear a funny sound from downstairs. It's like a dying animal. It crossed my mind but I couldn't believe it- my front wheel went flat all of a sudden. I had just topped off the air a few minutes prior. I ended up changing the tube and heading out a few minutes late. Front wheel carbon aero, rear wheel Powertap. It's a 16 mile ride to the start of the TT, mostly uphill. Got there just in time to get in line in front of M. Maloney. Not a huge turnout- maybe 2o or so riders.
I ended up doing a decent ride- two seconds faster than my last attempt back in September 2010. My form was pretty sharp last September so I don't feel bad about this performance. The first TT of the season feels a lot like the first cross race of the season- it's a shock to the system- the urge to stop pedaling is very strong on that second climb.. The training benefit of riding full gas for 39 minutes is pretty good I think, and combined with a 55 minute ride out there and back, makes for a solid day of training. So much so I will probably skip Ninigret tonight. The weather looks iffy and the legs are tired. Maybe I'll roll around on the floor humping my new Trigger Point massage drum. Picked it up at the Boston Marathon Expo. That thing is painful- I'm still working on my technique.
Here's the profile of the Tuesday night Scituate TT course, above. The course distance is 14.3 miles. I think the course record can be found HERE, set on July 28th by a current master TT champion. Thanks for reading.

Training plans, Wells Ave report, ToT Stage 1 Vid

Not a bad week of volume.. 12-1/2 hours training for about 225 miles. This morning I was expecting to skip Wells Avenue in favor of more riding. The drive to Newton is a big time killer- which is time better spent tuning the engine here locally. I received this race report from teammate Adam S:

Brief Welly recap for those on Easter duty or recovering from hypothermia:
Unfortunately, just two laps in, there was a serious crash. Kyle S (Embrocation) went down hard and had to be ambulance'd out. I was in my customary spot at the back of the field so I can't provide causes or details. Hope he's okay...
After a restart, I jumped into an early break of nine including Jazzy-M (A. Myerson), J-Pow (Jeremy Powers - Jelly Belly), J-Spin (J. Spinelli), Thad L., and Marvin The Wangster. Now, it's long been a "pet" theory of mine that having 3 pros in a break can significantly increase its chances of success. Someday science may bear this out. Sure enough, after the halfway prime, the field was in sight. A major surge to catch and blow by the field whittled the break to 6.
And...yes, WeeBike was still represented :-) At 6-to-go, Myerson attacked, taking 2 with him. I was now caboose in the chase group with Thad and Powers. Three laps later, Powers spanked his cranks and I was popped. Cruised in for 6th. Ended up Myerson winning, Powers 2nd, Thad 3rd.

There's a good day's work! Almost regret missing it, although I can honestly say that my fatigue level this week is on the rise and if not for missing the registration for Blue Hills, this week would have included more rest, less TSS. I'll probably go next Sunday, except that it's my wife's birthday. Oh well, maybe later in the summer. Wells Ave is never a priority for me- it's a last resort. I like racing down at ninigret Wednesday nights, which is the plan for this week, weather permitting. I'm going to ride down and back, meaning that I'll need a fully charged headlight. Tuesday I expect to do the Scituate Time Trial (around the reservoir- starts at 6:00 from "crazy corners" where 102 & 14 cross) Again, I'll ride there and back. So my two big days will be Tues/Wed. Tomorrow, rest.
Checking the WKO data I see that I'm slightly ahead of 2010 relative to CTL, not by much. (in 2010, my training volume took a nosedive after 4/25, and I didn't get back up to 100 TSS/day until the middle of July) I'm definitely ahead in mileage for the year- about 2750 year to date as of today. This week ahead will be the one where I break through the 100 TSS/day barrier and hopefully sustain it through May unlike last year. I'm very psyched about the racing in Rochester NY on 6/3-4-5. Two crits and a circuit race, back in my hometown. It's been so long since I did a crit there. The last one was probably the 1989 edition of the Criterium at Cobbs Hill Park, where I got 3rd place out of a field of about 50 juniors, many from Canada. It will feel good to race there again. So I was saying.. One more week of building and I will take it easy that first week of May, hopefully show some good form at Sterling (and Maybe Bear Mountain). Then another three week period until I take another easy week at the end of May. I should arrive in Rochester with very fast legs for the Genesee Valley Park Criterium, The Powder Mills park Road Race and the Seneca Park Criterium. The weekend which follows is the Nutmeg/New Britain ordeal, where I can actually race 4 times, if the mood strikes (my record there is 3). Then what? Then I'll keep my eyes and ears peeled for info relative to Masters Nationals in Turkey- they like to wait until T-minus 3 weeks to announce the date and location, making it kind of difficult to buy a cheap plane ticket. I'll have to play it by ear.
Speaking of Turkey, the Tour of Turkey (ToT) is ON. This is a world class production with mega Euros at stake among the world's best pro teams. Don't dismiss it for it's location. Even VeloNews is finally giving it some coverage. A Turkish pro almost cracked the top 10 today- his name is Mirac Kal. If you're going to show interest in how the Turks do this year, he's the one to watch. Here's the finish below. Notice at the end how Pettachi lands a fist on the back of an opponent, relegating himself to last place with a time penalty. Farrar gets 2nd. Greipel flatted within 3k to go..


Thanks for reading.

No weenies allowed

Murat's "hilly" ride by hasyunusa at Garmin Connect - Details
When you fight to overcome the urge to skip training and force yourself to do the work, it sometimes ends up being a religious experience. I'm walking on air after this ride.
You can view the route and profile of my workout with the above link. It was dark when i got home at 8:00!

Meee-mor-eeees...

I was just perusing some blogs I hadn't checked in to for a long time and came across this entry from the 2008 Keith Berger Criterium (one of my FAVORITE RACES) It's nice to get recognition for a hard day's work.
It was a tough time for me in 2008. I had recently returned from Turkey after laying my father to rest. Emotionally, I was a MESS. The day before Keith Berger, I had a total meltdown in the 35+ race at the COX Criterium and again in the Cat 2 race I had NO GAME.
The following day though at Keith Berger, something clicked into place. I think it was the "stop being a fucking weenie" hormone finally kicking in. The week or so leading up to this day, wife and son were still in Turkey. I was curling up in the fetal position every night alone and mourning my dad. I was downing a glass of wine after work, before I headed out to train. I lined up at Keith Berger that day feeling like I had four legs not two. When they said 'go' I took off. (see above) Two laps later I was joined by about 12 guys. (See above) After surviving solo for 6 laps (I was the last one to fall off the break's pace), I am joined by Patrick R and I think Todd.. We worked together to keep clear of the field and finished together. There's a quick little race report I entered about it, HERE, but I like the other race report linked above much better. I was cruising towards 5th place in the sprint that day and my foot pulled out of my pedal. Getting 6th was still pretty sweet, all things considered. I even took a $10 prime, which still occupies the white envelope in which it came. This year I get to do the 40+ edition for the 1st time. I'm sure it will hurt just the same.

2011 Rick Newhouse Photos? I dont hava any

Hey if anyone comes across some pictures from the racing on Sunday, please let me know where to find them. It got so warm at Rick Newhouse that I ended up wearing my one piece fat suit.. worried about how pear shaped I might have looked.. That and I was really hoping to see a picture of myself on the new FUJI, just so I can form an opinion of my bike position, relative to my old bike.. which is now being ridden by someone in Japan. Sunday was one of those criteriums where you're in the drops all the time. It was that windy.

2011 Rick Newhouse Criterium Results

Click here for results! Cheers for getting them up on Bikereg so quickly! It's so much nicer when the number of entrants are indicated, relative to it's effect upon Road-Results rankings, NEBRA rankings and probably NEMCA rankings too. Just sayin.. I enjoy following such data and seeing who's doing what- it's all a part of the bigger package of bike racing. FYI the winner of the 35+ race was not DQed, they were a lapped rider mixed up in the finish.

Guess where I am

I'm at the finish of the Boston Marathon in support of good friend Derek Larson from Columbia GA (orig from Western NY). We dropped him off at the shuttle buses at 7:30.
FYI everyone: Do you want to track someone who is running today? If you text the word "runner" to 345678 you will receive a reply asking for a bib number. Send a friend's bib number and you will automatically receive text updates at 10k, 1/2, 30k and finish.
My friend Derek's number is 8372.

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Rick Newhouse Vitality prime

The socks are part of another prime that I won, but the rest of the stuff pictured occupied a doubled up brown paper bag that is the "Vitality Prime", along with a 12 pack of Mountain Dew and a six pack of Newport Storm. The last items in the bag are hidden where family will hopefully not find them.
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2011 Rick Newhouse Criterium

I won't try to speak for teammates Dave or Adam. I had decent sensations in the legs today, but not good enough for being in the break with Vollers, Mark, Tobi and Ciaran.. On the bright side I took the infamous "Vitality Prime" (this is my 2nd time- I also won it in 2009) and scored a big sack of schwag including some playboys. Even better, I also won the prime on the lap right before, which made me feel pretty manly. It was a race of attrition- the wind was brutal. It was strung out single file and often in echelons all day. There was never any rest because if you let any kind of gap open in front of you it was over. Many guys cracked and lost contact and most of them already had a race in their legs. With 5 up the road there were 3 paying places left. John B attacked on the final lap and did exactly what I wanted to do. He held it to the line for 6th! Good for him. I set myself up for the sprint less than optimally, got caught out in the wind and couldn't pass Bill Y or Gary A so I ended up 10th. Lots of 45+ starters at the beginning made it a pretty good sized field of about 45-50 I think. The wind today was INTENSE! We were in the gutter all day getting blown around and into each other. Peter V won. I jumped into the Pro race afterwards and fell apart around 8 to go. I felt okay for about 50 minutes but the 35+ fatigue caught up with me eventually. Didn't feel so bad when I saw some other big engines pulling off as well. Actually, I got pulled or else I would have grinded it out solo to the finish. I hate not finishing. Overall a good day with great weather, sunny skies and no crashes. My only regret is letting someone else execute my plan on that final lap. I could have caught up to him but I'd also be bringing a bunch of opponents with me. I'm not anywhere near any kind of peak right now so all things considered, I'm pleased. This was a great practice race for me.. And the 3rd time in 4 tries that I finished 10th (I was 12th in 2009)
Big huge hat tip to Todd B and Randy R for making bike racing look so easy. Also salute Tim M for winning the Pro race and Dave K for winning the 45+.
Thanks for reading.
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2011 Flat No 1: in the rain

I checked the radar. I could see a band of rain approaching from NYC but it was a long way off and headed towards Boston not RI.. So when I left at 1:30 the plan was to ride for at least 3 hours..
The rain started after 40 minutes- light at first.. then it got more intense when I turned north onto route 3 from Division Street (right there at the mouth of Big River) M original plan was to go south on Route 3, all the way to 138/Switch Road/Kings Factory to Route 1 North all the way home- about 70 miles. With the rain I ended up heading north on 3 and did my usual 32 mile loop.. but not before a puncture on 117. I had a spare tube and all- no patch kit though. Normally I carry two tubes, not today. The flat repair took a few minutes- no problemo.. but now the rain had stopped. Dilemma- do I try to salvage my ride plans and risk it without a spare tube? Of course not. By this time I was cold and pissed and my new shoes were soaked through. After getting going again and warming back up I thought about doing another lap of this 32 mile route- i could always stop at the house and grab a a patch kit.. but getting my brand new road bike and shoes soaked like this was unbearable to me. Especially the new DMT shoes. The bike could handle it, but road shoes stand to degenerate in many ways from being wet. At least i wore my shoe covers so the DMTs were spared form road dirt and grime- just wet but clean. It sucks that it was nice all morning but I was too busy to get out there in time to miss this rain. Oh well. I got a decent workout. It's pouring now. Tonight I'll put my bike on the new Kinetic Road Machine and make it scream for a couple of hours. Racing Sunday at Rick Newhouse, if the weather doesn't suck too badly. One of our new teammates has a title to defend in the 45+ race. So does my boy Reis in the kid's event, though he is less enthusiastic for whatever reason.

2011 Wells Ave Crit No 1

Missed the opener the weekend before and with the nice weather predicted, I informed my dear wife well in advance that I was not going to miss it this time.. Still, I always entertain the possibility that waking up or being properly rested might be a challenge.. as was the case this morning. I slept in fits and starts from about 5:00 am until 8:30, when I finally got up. Where I live, you can't reach Wells Ave on time unless you hit the road by 9:00. No coffee left in the house and skipping the raisin bran meant that I did not have the pleasure of my daily morning elimination. Yeah, since turning 40 I find it okay to talk about my plumbing. When it's working smoothly I'm happy.. Anyway.. sorry. I had 30 minutes to get going. Two Eggo waffles with butter and Aunt Jemima Lite Syrup, one english muffin toasted with butter and slathered with honey, one multivitamin, one paper sack with all my clothing and bottles and gear piled into it like sedimentary rock. I made it there with plenty of time to spare- the Bs were just rolling off when I parked.
My form has been feeling a little bit short circuited this week. Chris Hinds Crit- 90 minutes of torture- took more out of me than I realized at the time. I dug very deep to be in there, and my lack of performance in the 35+ race which followed tells us the same thing. Sunday I took an easy bike path ride with my son- like 15 miles. That's a lot for a 7 year old- but he loves it. Mon and Tues I rested. I felt horribly tired. Wed and Thurs I went out and did some long rides, mostly in zone 3 but a lot of 2 and 4 in there between the climbs and the descents. Friday I wanted to do an easy spin but no time.. Saturday I eeked out a 2 hour ride which was relatively easy-going and just what I needed to shake out the cobwebs. Would I feel like total poo at Wells Ave? I wasn't feeling so sure. Sensations in the legs had not been encouraging at all this week..
Meeting up with my team was a relief. We had a shit year in 2010.. not to mean our results were horrible but rather that our morale was very low. This year is going to be a lot better. We lined up and couldn't begin racing because there were not enough marshals to monitor and direct traffic. Finally we got a late start but the course was down one marshal. Lots of traffic, OMG! We had to slow down damn near every other lap for cars which were parking, turning, stopping in front of us. It's a relief no one was hurt.
So on to the racing. Nothing got away. Before the start we decided that our best scenario is always going to be a field sprint, and we had two opportunities to show our colors: at the 1/2 way prime and at the ending. Long story short. On the 20th lap there's a 2 place cash prime and there were 3 guys with a 5-10 second gap. Matt, Kyle and I moved to the front with 1/2 lap to go. The field opened up on the right allowing me to go full gas with Matt and Kyle on my wheel. We went out of the saddle before the curve even begins and I buried myself long enough to reach the break and give Matt and Kyle an armchair ride to the finish. We were 1-2 in the 1/2 way prime. I was smoked for a couple of laps and retreated to the back of the field to recover..
20 laps later we executed it a bit differently. I was caught up in some traffic while I tried to hang on to the coattails of my teammates, but the last lap was neutralized due to traffic and so we had to do another lap. This time, all kinds of tired legs crowded the last lap and made it hard to find the space needed to change lanes and go. I made sure to plan my moves through the other sprinters and by carefully maneuvering through the dead legs I got clear and almost finished 3rd behind my two teammates.. but the finish line came too soon. I needed another 10 meters.. But hey I'll take 4th- there's no shame in that. Matt won and Kyle was 2nd. We took all but $5 of the cash payouts and divided it up between us, as it should be.
Next week is Rick Newhouse and maybe this time I will skip the Pro race to focus on the 35+. I'm getting too old to be doubling up on race day. I'd rather have one great result than have two mediocre ones..
Thanks for reading.

Thursday: Another 200 TSS

I am still in this fatigued state and wondering if maybe I am fighting an infection or something.. It's peculiar.. Up until the day I ran out of a supplement that I've been taking for a month or so, I was fine. Then I ran out and I feel tired, sore, unmotivated, and irritable. Withdrawel symptoms? I didn't know that BCAAs can do that! One things for sure, when I take them regularly I feel like a million bucks. Thursday I did another 52 miles- an out and back ride to Pt Judith in about 2:45. Route 1 is in a sorry state until you get down to 1A, after that it's pretty okay.. Winds were out of the East, but the ride south was a lot slower than the ride home. I've done this round trip in as little as 2:28 and yesterday it seemed like an unbeatable benchmark to me. No way I can go that much faster, I thought to myself. Then as I was perusing old charts in Training Peaks I stumbled into my 2010 Chris Thater Crtiterium data. I didn't realize it at the time, but the final 60 seconds of the 2/3 crit averaged 32.1 mph. The final 30 seconds: 32.8 mph, 20 seconds: 36 mph, 10 seconds: 38.7 mph and the last 5 seconds to the line: 39.7 mph. I had never ridden so hard and so fast for a 24th place finish before.. and this was my 2nd race of the day. The Chris Thater Crit pays 20 deep, in case you wonder why I was sprinting. When you're cross eyed like that it can be hard to tell if you're in the money, so it's better to assume that you have a shot at it. I will definitely be going back this year- I love that venue.