Ninigret with a cold..

Raced hard at Ninigret last night.. in spite of being badly congested and stuffed up. Let's just say that the old wrist band was not/could not be used to evacuate the milky white shit clogging my nostrils.. I had to blow it many times.. ambidextriously.. meaning I must turn head left for left nostril, right for right.. I think I got some on Mark McCormack by accident.. Sorry.. My goal last night was to finish, not let anything get away, chase everything and rack up a few hard intervals. Check, check and check. Got a lot of attaboys from people I've never met, pats on the back even. Thought I was getting all famous and stuff for a split sec, then remembered my name is on my bike, right above the rear brake. Very cool of people to give praise. Puts a spring in your step/pedal stroke even.. Thanks.. I slipped far far back with a few laps to go and just did a final interval with 1/2 lap to go, winding it up all the way to the finish somewhere mid-pack. Our boy Rick Kotch almost did a repeat of Womp and attacked solo with three to go. Was caught on the back straight and sat up.. Nice sized field. Great weather.. friggin perfect actually.  Today I see that my infection has moved down to the bronchial tubes, where it always ends up. Coughing a bit today, but that nasty soreness is gone from my throat. Best thing for a sore throat- anything with Pectin in it. Don't buy cough drops that don't have Pectin- or else they're useless. I'm racing Silver City and Fall River this weekend. Weather such that it is, hard to believe at this point. I plan to hit the sack at 9:00 tonight. Have not slept a full night in a couple of months. I'm in the habit of waking briefly at 2-3:00 AM every night for whatever reason. I grab a bite to eat and go back to sleep, but it's taking it's toll. I'm sleep deprived. Surely it's affecting my performance at work and on the bike. Just in denial I guess. What can I do? I take no medications whatsoever, and don't want to start.. especially anything sleep related. Those kinds of pills scare me. Stay dry.   

See you in two weeks, Antalya

People enjoy the slides in an aquapark in the Mediterranean coastal city of Antalya August 8, 2007. REUTERS/Fatih Saribas

Andrey Kashechkin Busted in Belek, Turkey

Ha! He was no doubt there on holiday when the UCI tracked him down (?) Belek is a Mediterranean tourist trap populated mostly by Russians, Germans, and other Eastern Europeans. Interestingly, Joe Papp was also tested and caught in Turkey last year, where he competed in the Turkish Presidency Tour and won a few stages. Months later I purchased a new helmet on ebay, where the seller turned out to be none other than.. Joe. Weird. I had been chatting with him via e-mail to get his insight on racing with the elites in Turkey. My point is not to disrespect Joe. He's paying the price like a man and I find him to be a good person.. my point is that Turkey, while lacking any road racer superstars, is no slouch in the fight against doping. It's taken quite seriously.

Back to work..

..but not quite 100%. Back of the throat is still suffering from a bit of nastiness.. No ride to work today. Probably spin on the rollers for 1/2 hour tonight instead. It was a scheduled recovery day anyway. Besides, need to change the rotors on the Hyundai.. Asked Firestone for a price. They wanted $340 to change the rear rotors and pads. I told them to put the car back together and forget it. Rotors from NAPA cost $25 each. I already have the pads. Besides, I asked them to check out the shaking in the front end, which they didn't do.. They wanted me to sign on for the rear repair before they even looked at the front end. I was born at night, but not last night.. Besides, it's apparent that I overtorqued the lug nuts and warped the front rotors, causing the front wheel wobble (which did not exist before I installed the new front pad over the weekend). Okay so new front rotors are $30 each at NAPA.. Disappointed. Bought four tires from these guys a week ago, and they treat me like some kind of ignoramus this time around. They charge $60 for $20 pads and $60 for $25 rotors.. Whatever.. I am so close to just trading it in for a new Rabbit..

I see that Solobreak is at it again.. bad knee and all.. trading pulls with my team mate at Womp.. 2nd place was no fluke this time. We salute you.. and Rick Kotch of course.. Come out to Ninigret tomorrow so we can thrash everyone with two to go.. Oh and thanks for the flashback from grade school.. when rotten little classmates would also call me "rat". Just undid three years of therapy.

It may come as a surprise to some that I was born in Flushing Hospital, Queens New York, funny name and all.. When I asked childhood friends to begin calling me "Mark", it was for my mental health.. Nowadays, I'm known as "Mark Basak" in my professional life. Saves me oodles of time spelling and re-pronouncing my name to idiots who can't even pronounce "park" or "car"..

Recycle those race numbers

I have found another great use for the growing pile of race numbers. Not only do I reuse the No 1s, 2s and 3s at Wells Ave.. (having a name beginning with "A" gets low numbers in pro events) Now that my training programs are focused more on intensity than endurance.. they are more complicated and harder to remember. So now I take a permanent marker and write the more detailed programs on the back of an ols race number and stuff it in jersey pocket. Not only is it indestructible, it can be used again whenever said workout is repeated. I am the Martha Stewart of bike racing.

Out sick

Our little one has had a nasty cough for a few days, and last night my throat felt like I had swallowed crushed glass. This morning was even worse. I called in sick and went back to bed.. until 11:00. Ran a couple of errands and I'm about to leave the house for a ride because I know that increasing the rate of blood flow tends to speed up my recovery. Probably just mental.. going for a ride always makes me feel better. Question is, should I do the prescribed intervals? I'll play it by ear. If the legs don't want to go, then I'll give them another rest day. I expect to feel better tomorrow morning. I haven't had a cold since late winter, so I think I was due for one.. Better to get it behind me now than during all those crits which I've planned for the coming weeks.

Distracted as HELL

With a string of criteriums coming up (see below) and a two week vacation overseas in three weeks, Murat has the attention span of a four year old. Here's a snippet of a recent e-mail between me and coach:

 

[Murat] Please suggest some exercises to tone up my upper body, especially pectorals. You said no push-ups! Seems the more weight I lose, the flabbier my chest appears. I don't mind adding a pound or two of muscle to look/feel better! I have 10, 15 and 20 pound dumbells and a bench at home.. Sit-ups? Crunches? I want to do 10-15 minutes a day working on this. In spite of all the weight loss, there's still flab!

[Scheske] so what – do you want to ride fast or look good at the beach!  Losing some weight has likely caused some flabby look – it'll go away as the weight stays off.  We'll do some minimal upper body over the winter – but certainly not to build you up – just some toning stuff – lots of reps, low weight.  Your pecs don't propel your bike – so you won't look all buff on the beach, but who cares when you ride fast!

 

..Todd is such a no-nonsense, cut-the bullshit, eye-on-the-prize type of person.. Lucky to have him keeping me focused on what really matters. I'm easily distracted and need that.

Clarity

Murat hasn't been thinking clearly.. take that last post over at Amerikan Turk as evidence.. but I'm much better now. A day off the bike felt good and I had no separation anxiety. The rest-of season outlook looks like this:
Thurs 8/9: Ninigret training race
Sat 8/11: The Silver City Flyer Criterium
Sun 8/12: Blount Seafoods Fall River Criterium
Wed 8/15: Witches Cup Criterium
Sat 8/18: The Mystic Velo Criterium
Sun 8/19: Keith Berger Memorial Criterium
Sat 8/25: depart for Turkey
Sun 9/9 return from Turkey
Sat-Sun 9/15-16: The Bob Beal Master's Weekend
10/8: 32nd Annual Jamestown Classic Bike Race
Looks like I am going to miss the Topsfield Road Race this year.. Too bad. Jamestown should conclude my season, unless the weather on that day is cold and wet, then Bob Beal will end up as my finale. Then I'll grab the cross bike and try to have some fun off road until the weather goes to complete crap. Cross races? Don't really appeal to me, especially with my bad right foot/ankle. It can handle the riding, but maybe not the running and jumping. Been sensitive ever since that bad sprain in June '06. I may still do a couple of events close to home for fun and fitness, we'll see.

Bridges

Yesterday I had to drive to Falmouth, MA and this required me to cross the bridge in Fall River and the Bourne Bridge, twice each. I don't mind admitting that the recent awareness which has been stirred with the epic failure of that bridge out west, seems to have given a lot of people the willies. I couldn't help noticing that [myself included] people were accelerating towards the end of the bridges, just to get off the damn things quicker.

Today I'm traveling to Vernon CT again in this oppresive heat and humidity.. Rode in using the short cut and will be riding home real easy. Did 10 sprints last night and I'm hurting. First time all season that I've had sprints in the training program.. and let me tell you.. I have the grace and form of a one legged ostrich.. explains why I've been doing my sprints seated all season- if I get out of saddle I'll crash, it seems. Funny, I was a very crafty sprinter in a past life. I wish my handlebars ware a bigger diameter in the drops and I wish they were wider. Might switch to 44s and double up the tape on the drops.

Tomorrow AM I do an extremely difficult program which includes intervals at both 135% and 200% FT. Then we're off to NYC to visit family and deposit someone at JFK. Not riding on Sunday. Remember, Ninigret is Thursday next week, so you can do three training races in a row, if so inclined.  

New Pictures in the Flickr badge

Taken at the Attleboro Criterium and at the Cox Classic by Peter Hall.

That's the way you do it... lemme tell ya

A salute! A toast! Lift your 40 oz Colt 45 Malt Liquor in the air with me and rejoice! When a fellow blogger wins a race, it's a special occasion, even if said blogger is an aging, stubborn, self coaching, self hair-clipping, blogging, technology shunning piss head. Our esteemed Solobreak has been throwing a good amount of mud on the wall lately, including at the Hartford Crits and the Attleboro Crits, taking two-to-go solo flyers off the front. Last night at Wompatuck some of the mud finally stuck, and SB took top honors. Opportunity knocks once. I practically soil myself when I win a prime, so I have to assume that he's walking on air today. Why, just the other day he was pining about how the final lap at Wompatuck is too fast for anyone to jump out from. There are better ways to win a race, as Solo convincingly demonstrates. I'm jealous but in a good way. See [his/all] pictures from the Attleboro Criterium [offered for purchase]. Nega Coach must be proud... or not.

Second Thoughts (?)

As I said earlier, tonight was scheduled to include some hard intervals.. but as I was warming up, soon after getting on the bike path in Cranston, this twisted evil grin appeared on my face, kind of like The Grinch.. which is ironic because lately it's Solobreak who's stealing my fire with his Nega Coach alter ego.. At any rate... after 20 minutes of warm-up I reset the Powertap and started to accelerate.. Set the display to show me distance (speed and watts are on there too). Put my hands on the hoods and resolved to increase the watts gradually, beginning just under my FT (275) and working my way up. By the time I reached the one intersection which I'd have to cross before completion, I had the average up to 290. Then as you can see, I needed to coast for many seconds before grabbing the breaks and checking for traffic. By the time I crossed and began to accelerate again, I had lost quite a bit of momentum (speed dropped to 9 mph), but I made some of it up by getting out of the saddle for a few seconds on the other side. Back on the hoods and trying to make up time.. until an obstruction clipped my wings again. Dang. I wasn't worried too much, as all I wanted to do was give a nice sustainable effort the whole three miles, slightly over FT. The path is pancake flat, but the last minute or so of my tt I had a very gradual downhill. I was able to keep adding watts until the very end, which is a good sign. A half-hearted effort? Not quite. I worked hard, sort of. But if you examine the average heart rate and compare it to my Bob Beal TT chart from 2006, there's a huge difference: 161 bpm versus 182. Add to this the fact that riding south (per usual) means going into a slight head wind, then the results are even more interesting. Granted I didn't do a 42 mile road race beforehand, but a tough day at work might be the equivalent. It's seems pretty conclusive to me that I am fit enough to take 30 seconds off of last year's time, which was officially 7:12. Add some niceties such as a skinsuit, tt bars, aero wheels and helmet, and it would appear that a top five result is within reach this September, especially considering that I still have about 6 weeks to improve my form. Thank you Nega Coach for lighting a fire under my ass. I am more motivated than ever.

After about 30 minutes of recovery pace I did my three intervals without as much difficulty as last week (same workout) and without losing many watts at all on the 2nd and 3rd tries. Even did a gratuitous 4th interval after 30 minutes of zone 2. I call this a good day of training.

Intermission (2)

Just lost a nice blog post due to clicking on a link in Outlook.. Grrrrr. Now to recreate..

Nose to the grindstone at work trying to get caught up on my projects.. More accurately, I am trying to avoid the guilt of accepting a paycheck every week. That's some brutally painful truth.. More intervals of pinpoint precision intensity await me tonight. For those pretending not to care, it's the same workout as last Tuesday, when I felt like throwing chunks at the end: 3 minutes at 120% FT with 3 minutes rest in between, three times. Sounds easy, I'm sure. My 120% FT is 330 watts, no big deal right? Well it's not the intervals which get you, it's the short rest in between.. Last week is fresh in my mind. The first one I was like "Pffft! this is easy! bring 'em on!" Second one was I was like "why don't my legs want to go like they did last time? Phuc. Ouch". Then the third one hit me like the last km of a crit, I was like "What is that burning taste in the back of my mouth? Did I eat recently? Nope!".. Needless to say, I can't wait to get going..

Coach and friend Todd Scheske got some nice street cred recently via Rochester's Democrat and Chronicle.. Here's a nice read: When Roadies Hit the Trails

Avoid junk miles. Use a power meter.

Discovery

Last night riding home I can feel some tenderness just above my left knee. Hmmm. My inner thighs also seem to be touching the seatpost more than I've noticed before. <Shrug> The handlebars.. seems like I'm constantly reaching for them. ???

This morning the coin dropped and I figured it out. Pulled over on the bike path, looked at the saddle and found that it was jammed alllll the way back as far as it could go. No amount of painful whacking with my hand would free it, and I don't carry tools (huh-huh, except for one) This probably happened at Attleboro. Three consecutive races and 135 laps seem enough for such a malfunction. Those last two lefts on the course aren't exactly smooth.

And yes, as long as there are no preconditions about equipment, I accept the challenge to ride a 6:32 at the Bob Beal TT this year. (Last year I did a 7:12 with no aero advantage whatsoever) Let the taunting begin.

Should I do intervals at my CP6? Should I do 3 mile intervals? Should I do CP6 intervals for 6:30?.. or for 3 miles?.. whichever comes first? Decisions.. Help me NegaCoach. Read some more articles about power and get back to me please.  

Once a pickle, always a pickle (?)

I can't comment from work...so...
Nega-Coach chimes in:
"You and what seems like a hundred other people I know buy the power tap and then start training, rather than the other way around. It's not the gadget that makes you stronger, it's the training.
Point taken... but let's make one distinction.. I also pay a coach to tell me how to train, and it's centered around the FT established by the PT. The Powertap does not tell me how to train. It's just a tool to make it possible to follow very precise instructions and record progress. Me with just the PT and no coach would not be much better than me and just a HRM.
That said, there is one thing about your strenth/weakness that is obvious from looking at this power file summary. Do you know what it is?"
No friggin idea. I have many weaknesses, NC.. power output being one of the foremost..

Another hot one at Wells Ave

Last weekend, I completely fell apart 1/2 way through the crit. It was hot, muggy and the air quality was just plain poor. Today was no different! Hotter even. But I was better prepared.. I ate something in good time, carried two water bottles, didn't jump into any early breaks.. The highlight of my race was a prime lap with 28 to go.. I had resolved to attack just past the start/finish, just before the right hand corner. I'm moving up the left hand side, gathering speed, when the bell sounds! Perfect. By the time I am through the corner, I have a nice gap, so I continue to accelerate, into the wind. Cresting the part of the course where the tractor trailers are usually parked, I started to lose steam, but not speed.. At one point I thought for sure I was going to blow up. Looking back, I see no one. Head back down, drilling it up the long finish straight.. look back again, and one lone rider is in no man's land, impossibly far from catching me. I don't win primes too often, or even go for them, but this was a textbook case of doing the right thing at the right time. I juiced the watts all the way to the line. It wasn't until over 1/2 lap later (near the trailers) that I was consumed by the field. They let me go, I know this. But I don't believe that just anyone could have done it without falling apart. Those intervals I've been doing are bearing fruit.. Heart rate reached 189 towards the end.. Average speed for the two minutes pictured is 28.6 (46 km).. Mind you this is not a sprint. It's a vein popping two minute interval at 410 watts (443 watts if you look only at the duration of the attack, which was exactly on lap-see above) Won a large 40 oz sized banana flavored Shaklee drink mix. Banana? WTF?

At the end with two to go I was setting up nicely when someone's front spoke popped and the field scattered like pigeons.. No one knew which way to swerve. This shook up the field a little, with only about one lap left to go. I chose the wrong wheel and thusly erased any hopes of a top three, then came to my senses, powered around said mistake and up the road, snagging 8th. Knowing that I had the legs to do much better, I guess I can live with that. Here's the final lap below. Average speed is 31 mph, and tops out at only 34. You can see my moment of hesitance (and cursing) before I just emptied the tank in the last 20 seconds, seated the whole way. That was my top 20 seconds of the race: 666 watts. Not quite a sprint, but enough that I picked off about ten guys, and no one came around me.

Forgive me for the arrogant chest beating.. Yeah 8th at Wells is nothing to write home about, neither is getting a prime.. but I'm getting fired up about what the rest of this season will bring. Modesty is never a good fuel for success..

A note about the Powertap. Today I expressed my love for the thing to a team mate as follows: "I'd give up my STI shifters and switch to down tube levers, before I ever gave up the Powertap." Said team mate was shocked. It's true. Knowing the power is No 1.. Heart rate monitors teach you nothing. My average HR today was 164. What does that tell you? Not much.

T minus four weeks..

..and then it's time to blow $6000 on my bi-annual vacation! Yes it's been two years and three months since Murat had any real pampered rest.. We drive to JFK and fly direct to Istanbul on the 25th. Then a connection to the south coast city of Antalya, where an air conditioned room awaits us at either the Ela Quality Resort We are as yet undecided and may choose another place. All of the resorts all-inclusive and are populated mostly by Germans, Eastern Europeans and Russians. Prices range from 50-300 Euro per person per night.. Back in 2005, I went riding up into the mountains and discovered later on that I was riding on the Kemer leg of the WRC stage.. After a week on the south coast we migrate to Bursa, former capital of the Ottoman Empire, and formerly called Busra. Modern Bursa is situated on the lower slopes of Uludag Mountain. It's the city I've called home since I first visited there at the age of one. I know my way around, all the good training roads and the attractions. The beach is only a one hour bike ride away. There's an outdoor velodrome, believe it or not.. It's poorly built and used mostly for soccer games on the infield. I once tried riding on it and almost hurt myself. The road bike will accompany me on this trip of course, and I will fine tune my form for two weeks, in advance of returning and winning the Bob Beal Stage Race.

Recovery Day.. easy commute

Not racing this weekend, except for maybe Wells Ave, if it isn't too hot. Tomorrow promises to be a day of extremely high intensity, judging from the instructions received from Coach. Intervals at 200% FT.. Yikes.. with recovery intervals in between at FT! Who wants to come along? Leaving the house early. Would love to see a regular Saturday morning ride near my house. We meet at the Holy Apostles Church every Tues and Thurs night.. Why not Saturdays? Who wants to go tomorrow at 7:00? It's on route 12 in Cranston, intersection of Pippin Orchard Road. On that note, why isn't there a training race on the roads which surround the Scituate reservoir? That used to be a regular road course, I believe.. Route 116 to route 12 to route 14, back to route 116. Challenging triangle of about 10-12 miles.. Why don't we just show up and do it every Tuesday night? Something to plan for next year? Just need permission from the Town of Scituate.. I'll ask Todd Scheske how he arranges all the training races for the Genesee Valley Cycling Club. They've been doing it week after week for about 25 years, on road courses all over the greater Rochester area. We seriously lack any training ROAD RACES in the New England area. Nothing but crits, which do not help one to become a better road racer, IMHO.

25 July 2007: Ninigret Criterium Domination

Pretty happy with the way it went down last night. I missed the start of the race due to unforeseen delays, but only by about 5 minutes.. Upon arrival, all I had to do was shed my pants, put on my shoes and helmet, attach front wheel and water bottle. This all occurred in about 30 seconds flat, I kid you not. A run up to the sign-in and I was ready to go within one lap of arrival, and I jumped in there on the next fly-by.. (Seems I missed only two laps) Our team had four riders represented. It was a fast race, averaging 26.6 mph and it wasn't long before a break developed and opened a gap. Initially, I spied one Union Velo kit up the road, but later discovered there were actually two. At first I took about 3-4 laps to rest, because just before this latest attack/break, I was up front making myself work.. to the point where I got that tingly sensation in the legs, from the ankles to the knees.. Ever feel that? It means you're in oxygen debt.. Watching people thrash themselves at the front to shut down this break motivated me to add to the effort. That, and I didn't want to see my average watts drop much below 250.. So I went to work. This is a training race after all, and the team mate who I knew was up the road often tells us to chase chase chase no matter what. Get what we came for- training. So by the time there was only one lap to go, I can assure you that myself and about 4-5 others, including a TargetTraining guy, a Benidorm guy (Gary), a GearWorks guy and others, were the main contributors to the average speed of the field. With about 3 laps to go, I cooled my jets a little bit, took some recovery shelter, then started moving to the front in stealth mode. By the time we were on the semi-final straightaway, after the last sharp left-hander, I had a clear opening on the left side of the field and I accelerated. Hearing "Left! Left! Left!" put a grin on my face.. because I know that I'm not exactly a person who is marked for such performance or behavior. I couldn't have planned it better. My jump wasn't nuclear explosive.. it was a more deliberate, metered effort at first.. wanted it to last all the way to the line. I went from 25 to 34 mph in about 10 seconds, according to my chart. Someone on my wheel said "Go! Go! Go!", don't know who, but it helped to get me commited.. I led the field around the sweeping left hander before the long finish, and then made sure to get on top of the gear completely, full gas, all the way to the line. The speed shown on the chart speaks for itself.. I accelerated and nailed the top speed almost the whole way, seated except fo the initial jump. Lost only 1 mph in the final 10-20 meters and only 3 guys came around me- one of which was a team mate. By this time we were on the heels of the breakaway.. so close. (The chart shows you the final minute of racing) Pretty sure one of our Union boys took the win, and the rest of us all in the top 10 or 11. Can't complain about that.. it's a pretty good example of domination. Already looking forward to next week. Thanks for reading.

Oktoberfest: Alexandra Unger (No relation to Felix)

Model Alexandra Unger displays the official Oktoberfest beer mugs during a presentation in Munich July 24, 2007. The Oktoberfest, the world biggest beer festival starts on September 22, 2007. (GERMANY)  REUTERS/Michaela Rehle