2009 Norwell Pro-Am

I trained more in January than I did in June, and the same can be said for July, unless I crack about 100 miles this week- who knows.. My form is systematically being stolen from me week after week by a completely unpredictable, highly demanding and stress-intense career. It wasn't always like this, as you can see from the nice graphic chart I've shared with you showing how my CTL and ATL evolved since January. Look at the blue line during the time between May 20 and May 31, where I can tell you that I was the strongest all year. It comes as no surprise- I did almost 54 hours and over 1000 miles of riding in May. But in June- after returning from Turkey- I was saddled with a new project at work which needs constant nurturing- and it's so large that I'm co-managing it with another PM. Management changes at work make it even more sensitive of an issue because all new eyeballs are looking at this thing extremely closely. There's enough dick-wagging and pissing matches going on that anyone can be violently thrown under the bus at any given moment, even though this train wreck of a project was inherited from a person who drove it into the ground and then got fired. My job is to turn it around, and it has basically consumed me. I've averaged about 100 junk miles a week since returning from Turkey in early June. This is going to change beginning this week, because it's now time to engage in a bail-out plan of my own. I'm going to look very closely at the training I did in April/May and with a few adaptations relative to intensity and volume, I'm going to shoot for a CTL of at least 100 for the week leading up to Chris Thater. That's only 5 weeks from now. At Norwell there were no surprises and I performed about as lousy as I expected to, maybe a little more. The good news is that my 60 minute normalized power has not fallen dramatically- it's still pretty strong even though it's dropped under 300. I was torn between using my light rear wheel and my Powertap, but the need for some quality data made the decision easy- at a race where my participation was purely for enjoyment- who cares about an extra 300 grams at the hub? What's that, half a water bottle's weight? Yes so this is not really a race report- sorry if Google led you here in anticipation of reading something exciting. I finished Norwell even though I was dropped on lap 4. I finished it even though I was lapped.
A bad day of racing is always better than a good day at work!
Thanks for reading.

Above, my son and I at Goddard Park. The bike is a FELT. I bought it a year ago, but never pressured him to ride it- he always preferred scooting around on his pedal-less LikeaBike Jumper. The nice thing is that he went straight to a big boy bike, without falling down once, without ever using training wheels, and without any of the "can only ride in a straight line" syndrome which infects all training wheel users. He corners like he's on rails. After getting on the podium at Attleboro and winning a "nickel", he says he wants to race a thousand times and win a thousand more "nickels". That's what he calls the medal they gave him.

Curses

Curses to this weather. Its become such that I get headaches when its sunny out- not used to it.
I raced Ninigret last night, it was nice and warm and fun. Jumped onto a late flyer with two to go and got smoked. The field swarmed us with one to go and I coasted home, watching a winnable field sprint unfold before me. Bad judgment like that makes my skin crawl, but I should remind myself that I wasn't there to win, I wanted to test limits and see where I stand. I already know that I have a decent sprint. What I really need to learn how to do is hold 27 mph for an extended period of time, as in a breakaway- seeing as the typical masters crit averages about 26 mph..
So lately, I'm less interested in watts and more interested in speed. I want to practise going 30+mph for 2-4 minute durations, such as during the last 2-3 laps of a crit. I didn't even use my power meter at the Attleboro Crit- instead I used my much lighter Easton wheel.
I'm pre-registered for Norwell, now if only I could train a little bit for it.. I'm averaging 2-3 rides a week lately.
Thanks for reading.

Scene from a 2008 Crit

This is one of my favorite pictures. I am populating a smart little rotation with a couple of cool guys. Its pretty pathetic when your best result for an entire season is 6th place in a crit. Or 7th. but you take what you can get and you must avoid second guessing yourself because no matter the result, remember that our class of athlete usually isn't satisfied until we've pushed ourselves to the point of cramps, nausea, tendonitis, dehydration, road rash, broken ribs and collarbones. No one can push you harder, than You. There's always a few times in a race where you either crack, or don't crack, ("the moment") but you never discover that breaking point unless you're on the rivet and going for broke. Hopefully my rambling does not pollute an otherwise serene scene. We were in between the 4 guys up the road and the 40 behind us, and that's how it finished. Sure I cracked and had no choice but to excuse myself from the winning break, but persistence paid off and after about 5 solo laps, two others reached me, as you can see. It was a good day no matter how you look at it. Thanks for reading.

Post 701 = Millwork One Racing slideshow

Hope you like it.

My new favorite park:

Goddard Park
There is a one mile loop in the middle of the park  that's ideal for intervals of one minute or less. Also ideal for an early Sat morning crit a la Prospect Park. Goddard is also just a mile or two from my house.

3667 miles thru 6/30

2009 Attleboro Criterium Results

I have a few pics that I will add later.

A day in the life

Alarm goes off at 5:30
Out the door at 6:25
Bike ride to work is 29 minutes
Change into street clothes in time for 7:00 am meeting
Meeting ends at 8:30
Head out for Boston at 9:00, after a pit stop at DD for toasted sesame bagel and coffee
Arrive on Beacon Street 10:30
Go to work at project- keep busy til 12:30- time to feed the meter, change parking space and get lunch
Walk to Viga and use Davio's bathroom
Line at Viga is out the door all the way to the corner- I grab two slices of pizza and a Coke.
Walk over to the Park and grab a park bench, eat pizza, drink Coke, feed pigeons and squirrels (you can't spell "Pigeon" without P-I-G! These things were huge!) Squirrels get right up on park bench and beg for piza crusts. Awesome.
Head back to project for more project managwr stuff. Leave Beacon St at 4:30- lots of traffic.
Get back to the office at 6:30
Suit up and hit the road- head down to Narragansett Town Beach on Route 1/1A. Takes 1:15 to get there- a city bus almost kills me- - catch the mofo at a red light and have words (he could not hear, with elderly driver, who keeps pointing to the sidewalk.. Get to beach at 8:00 to meet wife and son. They're packing up, but there's time to stick my feet in the water and have a beer.
Wife drives us home- we quickly change and we're walking up Main Street to get ice cream for dinner. We stroll around for a bit and get home at 10:00. Time for bed.
Tomorrow I'm up at 4:30 so I can be in Bridgeport by 8:00.

Life gets in the way

Where I work, two project managers were fired last week. Another project manager committed suicide the week before.. Requiring me to move from my cushy new estimating position to their former office, in order to co-manage and "turn-around" a $3 million hospital project that's in a nosedive death spiral. I'm going to work earlier and earlier, getting home later and later.. Not only am I missing a lot of training, I'm also feeling more stressed and fatigued than ever, so even if there were 27 hours in a day, I'd probably not spend the 3 extra hours training. So, as much as I would have loved to race Attleboro on Saturday all pumped and primed and ready, I'm going to have to just do it for the fun of it, if I do it at all. I think I'm expected to be in the office Sat and Sunday.. It's another cool gray New England morning and I'm headed up to Beacon Street to babysit some carpenters. Thanks for reading.

2009 Keith Berger Criterium 30+

I always enjoy racing in East Hartford. So much so, that I avoid missing it even when I haven't been training right for 2 weeks and on a weekend when I'm in the middle of moving all our furniture and belongings to a new residence. My balls are bigger than my brains I guess, and it's a miracle my wife didn't leave me, but I pulled it off somehow. I traveled to East Hartford, registered, raced as best I could (14th out of 65 starters) and headed straight home for more packing and furniture humping. I'm still doing it and it's 8:30. This morning, every muscle was screaming in pain from Saturday's movement of possessions. I debated for many many minutes what I wanted to do, and in the end, I found myself throwing the bike, shoes and helmet in the car and taking off.
Race-wise, I have little to report since I did nothing of great merit, there is little to tell. Five good riders broke away and the rest of the field sprinted for 6th or 7th. Targettraining and Spooky seemed to dominate and to wit, their lead out person (SB?) sat up and coasted just before the final corner where everyone was trying to accelerate. This caused a bunch of us to grab the brakes and avoid stacking it up on top of him, and this could not have hurt his team mate take the field sprint for 6th.. Well played I guess.. I ended up 8th or 9th in the sprint and 14th overall. One crash took me out of the race completely- I had to come to a complete stop, to avoid smooshing a certain recently crashed GA who was curled up in fetal position, eyes closed, under his bike. I only really stopped to make sure he was okay, and he was just bracing for me to leave tire tracks on his cadaver I think. He and I and a few others took a free lap for this delay. I wish I could have cracked top 10, but I've ridden one time all week since Harlem, and only twice the week before. Feeling fresh, but not particularly fast. Thanks for reading.

Turkish Eye Candy: Nil Karaibrahimgil

Yes and the next puke to ask me about deserts and camels or other ignorant shit gets a swift backhand to the mouth. I swear..

The Masters Nationals Results and Data and more Pining

The chart below is the 10k Nationals time trial I rode in Turkey- 292 watts (3.9watts/kilo) for 14:43. That's nothing to sneeze at, [if you're me..] You will notice the speed going out is much higher than the return, but the watts are pretty close- almost dead nuts averages for both the out leg and the return leg. ( wonder what Nega Coach and Friel would have to say about my pacing here?) Winds were kind of wild and the roads were awful. If you didn't weave across the lanes to find the fastest line, the road was beating the crap out of you. They shut down one side of a four lane highway- with cops at every intersection. Chips were used for timing- a good PRO set-up was used with a huge red, inflatable finish "kite". What a site for sore eyes that was as I rounded the final bend, smoking my BB with an insane 97 rpm cadence.. Good times. I can't wait to go back. For that matter, I can hardly wait for the Bob Beal Omnium! I've already set up my old epx road bike with clip ons and I've been trying out different positions- it definitely needs a shorter stem.

The infamous 10k Nationals time trial where I thought I was 8th- apparently someone bellyached about being delayed or something and had their name shoe-horned in there, so now I'm 9th. Ugh. This was such a mind-fuck. Think of it- me -a good time trialist? I knew I'd be top 10- life is harder in Turkey- these guys can't train 1/2 as much as we can, they race 2-3 times a year, not 20-30 like we do. So being the 11th finisher, I was told I had the fastest time- one of the officials said that he doubted anyone would beat my 14:43. It held up pretty good for about 1/2 hour. I could hardly believe it- so I did not celebrate. though all my friends were patting me on the back and I let them.. Sure enough, the last guys to roll off were the ones with the best results from last year's nationals.. so eventually, I was knocked down to 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th,.. and finally 8th. That really sucked donkey balls. My benchmark was public information and everyone knew what time they had to beat, relative to beating me anyway.. So if you scroll down and look at the times, you will see that only 21 seconds separated me from the podium. I will probably pine about this for years and years, but I had no aero helmet, wheels, tt bars, skinsuit or disk. I was cannibal except for lycra shoe covers. I am soooo going back there next year and returning with a medal. But don't get me wrong, I know my place here. If I tried the US Nationals TT, I'd be hard pressed to do better than an anonymous low-mid field finish, at best. I can live with that, really.
I don't mind pointing out that in the road race, I was popped on the first big hill, and then turned myself inside out catching back up to the leaders, which happened right at the turn-around.. Needless to say, the road tilted up again at that point, and your hero was gassed.. I chewed through the handlebars to stay with the leaders, but the next hill was a wind-swept ball-buster, and I fell apart completely about 200m from the top. I was alone, completely alone.. Only about 12 guys were behind me all blown apart, and about 20 guys ahead of me- also blown apart.. But 6 of them opened a gap and that was that. I did another pursuit after this hill and picked up two guys to work with and we drilled it to catch back on to the primary chase group. When we caught up, we were 1 minute down on the leaders, and there was still about 40k left to race. Team mate Murat Akyazi and I had this group strung out the whole entire way to the finish. No one could be bothered to take a pull, and a few guys were dropped along the way. The gap kept growing though- there was not enough help. When it came down to 1k2go, I took a position at the front and watched everything. Someone launched a sprint from 500m out (they painted this on the road) and I followed.. After he blew his wad, I opened up my sprint and was passed by one of the guys who used the "It's not in my best interest to take a pull" tactic the whole way.. Check his TT time. Such is bike racing. That's all I'm gonna say.

Thanks for reading.

2009 Harlem Skyscraper 35+ Criterium Report

My little boy gave me a cold for Father’s Day!.. So Sunday morning I had a raw scratchy painful cough and congested lungs.. I went to Harlem anyway as planned. It’s been a year of waiting! They combined the 35+ and 45+ for about 40 total guys.. separate prizes and rankings though.. Three guys broke free fairly early- I’m pissed that I didn’t bridge across when they went.. but I guess if I believed I could have, then I would have. Confidence is such a huge factor.. Duh. On the bright side, the rain held off- not sure how the pros made out.. The small field was more or less strung out the whole way.. No primes that I can remember.. With 6 to go, someone attacked, I followed, I pulled through, and rode him off my wheel. So now I had a ½ block gap to try to hold for 4 more laps. I was committed- riding with my wrists on the tops, I was holding them off pretty good. Coming up on 3 to go, just before the final corner, I hit a hole in the road so big that I’m amazed my fork didn’t break. It threw me partially over the bars, but I recovered and avoided falling. Speed dropped, nerves were shattered and I lost momentum and was swarmed during the following lap. Two to go.. I’m hanging on in the field as best I can- breathing in short gasps- wishing it were over, or wishing I had my late May form.. With one to go I’m nurturing my position- or rather- fighting for it literally- this is Harlem. Guys were PUNCHING eachother at one point- and lots of yelling.. I’m one of the top guys through the 2^nd to last corner, but it cost me dearly- Everyone went to Mach 5 on that final run-in before the final corner, and I had nothing left- could not get up to the proper speed.. but I tried so damn hard. I sprinted- if you can call it that, to minimize the number of guys passing me. It was an all out effort that had me slowing down just before the line.. A few bottom feeders passed me with a like 5 meters to go- I was done.. They ranked me 10^th in the 35+.. Better than last year when I was 18^th out of about 71 starters- on a soaking wet course- but I was there to do better than 10^th. Wish I could have delayed getting a cold by one day..

Now if Sunday were as prestigious as the 2008 edition, this would have been good enough for 16 rank points.. but I’m not so lucky- this year it’s a “D” event instead of an “A” event, so 10^th place is only worth 1 point. I’ll take it. I know I did my very best physically, because when I do, my head feels like it will explode after the finish, followed by nausea and dizziness. Check, check and check.. It’s partially because I’m sick, but mostly because I didn’t sit up at the end, no matter what. In a mixed category event, you never know for sure who is passing you- it’s best to go full tilt no matter what.

Thanks for reading.

Next up: Keith Berger Criterium on Sunday. My favorite.

 

It passes you by

And you think the curve is still going steeply upwards- it's not. It reverses course and sends you into the death spiral of form which follows peaking.. You know- those weeks when you always feel like you have two flat tires and begin to reflect on how unbeatable and fast you felt a few weeks ago. Sadly, if you knew at the time that you were peaking back then, your whole outlook, attitude and confidence would have been on a different level.
My volume is down in June, for a lot of reasons.. May was 1000+ miles though- with five consecutive 240 mile weeks. Friday afternoon I just had to go out and do a field test- a 20 mile loop of rolling hills. Personal best last year was 58 and change. This year I had yet to break 1:01. Friday's time was 58:30.
By the way- I broke the bb spindle of my ergomo while tightening a crank arm. I'm now using my new-to-me Bontrager Powertap set and I gotta say- it's quite stingy with the watts compared to the Ergomo.. But that's also partly due to weight loss.
Hope to throw it down tomorrow in Harlem.
Thanks for reading.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Post this on your refrigerator tonight!

2009 NUTMEG Pro Criterium Photo Finish and Results

The first crit in New Britain usually blows for me- I always do better in the July edition- this year will not be an exception. I did so much screwing around before the start of the 35+ that I got no warmup and rode straight from the car to the line. That sucked. Not a good race for me- I felt like I had a flat the whole time. When it came time to sprint, I was lethargic and fatigued (forgot to down my Red Bull before the start, too) and with no room to go anywhere, I practically coasted to a finish in the mid-20s.. The 30+ race which followed was no better. In fact, after three laps I took myself right out of it. Head was not on straight- my son Reis was throwing a tantrum when I went to refill bottles and change numbers- and it became un-fun to the point of wanting to stop and lie down. I forgive myself now, but at the time a sickening sense of self hate came over me for being such a pussy. This forfeiture meant that I had nearly 2 hours to kill before the Pro race. I can write thousands of words about the dozen or so times that wheels touched and squealed, handfuls of brakes were grabbed, and bikes swerved in anticipation of horrible crashes. This was probably the most dangerous crit I have ever raced. 125 guys do not fit too well on this venue, where in three places, the course narrows and funnels everyone into eachother. With 3 laps to go Ka-BOOM! huge crash takes out 6-7 guys. Two laps to go, another crash crackles like lightning and takes aout another 3-4.. One lap to go- going into the final uphill chicane- Ker-POW! 4-5 bodies go flying and push me into the curb at eye popping speed. I stay upright, but the lead 25 guys are pulling away from the huge gap. I sprint to get back on but by this time the front of the field is single file and leading into the final corner. I catch up and dive-bomb into the corner when SPLAT!- three more guys take eachother out while cornering at MACH 3. I get inside of the carnage and uncork the fumes left in my tank. The results were posted and right where I expected to see my name is an "X". So naturally I go to the camera tent and advise them that "I'm the guy who is your 26th place, Bib No 1". Done.
The last three laps were a lottery. You were either lucky or unlucky. Don't anyone give me any crap about there not being any luck in bike racing. I did not survive all the close calls and the crashes by being an awesome bike racer. The Red Bull sharpened my senses and that helped a lot- I felt totally wired- but I had luck on my side today. 125 or so starters and 80 finishers.. 80 lucky finishers..
Gotta hand it to CCB! They lined up their team at the front for three laps, fighting like mad to reel in the two guys who were up the road. Not only did they succeed- without any help from any other team- they also launched Colin J to victory with an armchair leadout. I salute their excellence today. Tomorrow I expect to feel a little more opened up than I did today. Breathing was short for some reason, maybe having ridden only once at Ninigret all week, a definite loss of form was detected today. It's no surprise, really.. I will sharpen up with some proper volume in the next two weeks. Thanks for reading. Whaling City Cyclone tomorrow! No rain!

RIP

Today I am asked to move into the cubicle of a person who took their own life over the weekend.

He will be missed.

Few pics from the trip

Bursa in the distance, nestled against Uludag Mountain with ski reort on top- I've climbed it, it's over one mile of vertical distance you see there.Europe on the left, Asia on the right..
Murat x 2 = trouble
Snake tattoo
"Feribot"

Ninigret No 5: Sleep-racing

Past two years I’ve gone to Turkey and returned on a Sunday and raced Ninigret the following Wednesday. Last year, I was somehow able to win the field sprint and get 7^th, but I just wasn’t feeling the love last night and it was all I could do just to avoid quitting. A few accelerations early on really put me in the red, and it took forever to shake the effects. I’m a little bit discouraged, but the jetlag and the fatigue of my vacation still lingers in a big way, if that makes any sense. Technically, at 7:00 pm Ninigret time it’s really 2:00 am for me.. Anyway, I like the way that I’m accelerating but I don’t like the amount of recovery time I’m needing between big efforts. Also worth mentioning, I almost crashed last night when another rider who I’d overlapped shifted suddenly left, and my front wheel started to hug their rear wheel. Some quick thinking and weight shifting freed me from this, but then sent me careening off at high speed into the grass on my right. If this had happened from the inside of the course, everyone to my right would have been taken out like bowling pins. From that point on, I resigned myself to tail-gunning the field and just finishing in one piece.

Sad week so far..

This wonderful April-like weather isn’t enough of a downer- a co-worker here at MW1 commited suicide over the weekend. And just now I discover that the Turkish cycling legend Rifat Caliskan (2^nd from the right- my father Irfan is on far left) has passed away from a heart attack. He was a friend of the family who raced with my father in the late 60’s, who coached me in the summer of 1989, and who was Turkey’s answer to Eddy Merckx at one time. RIP.