Quality time on the time trial bike

Well, the Orca has been in the shop over the holiday due to a frozen carbon seatpost stuck in the frame. My seat kept sliding back on me so I decided to swap out the post for the one on my 5200. HEY! I can't get the dang thing out. As opposed to me potentially doing something hazardous to my bike, I took it to where I bought it (Ipro) to have Roger give it a try. Hopefully, I'll get it back today but in the meantime I've been riding my time trial bike as that's the only other bike I currently have ready to ride. I did my weekly time trial on it this past Wednesday and bombed out as that TT course doesn't suit the TT bike (how's that for stupid?). Anyway today was no different as I locked the bike on the trainer for an hour of tempo. Tempo wattage is much easier on the time trial bike than the Orca. The more forward I sit, the more wattage I can push, but the more tired I get. I threw in a bunch of 20-60 second intervals as well.

T-minus one week and one day until the first race of the season. Crap, that's quick!

Did I say 282?

I meant 267. Oops. my time this week was 16:06, not my worst or my best. I chose to eat a bagel with salmon on it two hours before the ride. That shall be my excuse for the sad effort.

Anyway, I hit the trainer for 24.82 miles today, most of it (including the time trial!!) at a high intensity. Hopefully, schedule will allow for a longer ride tomorrow. It's supposed to be dry and mid 30's. If it's dry, I'm heading out during the day as I'm quite sick of the trainer even though I'm doing low volume. It's hard for me to fathom that at this time last year I was riding 3 hours on that damn thing at a clip. No thanky.

I hate the long range forecast as it says it will be nearly 50 and dry on Saturday. I doubt that will happen for some stupid reason. BUT if it does, the Orca will once again be yanked off the trainer to meet some pavement.

First race of 2008 coming sooner than I thought

Neo Limits is hosting a computrainer time trial series with the first race being January 6th. Good thing I've been doing simulations every freaking Tuesday for the last month of the course! It will be interesting to see how my simulation goes tomorrow as I rode today since I missed Sunday due to working all day. The last week and a half have been full of short (1 hour) rides, but hard. Been a combination of short length intervals and "micro intervals" mostly. Anywhere from 10 seconds to 5 minutes. What has been great is how easy 300-350 watt intervals are when you just wrapped up a few at 500. If I only weighed a buck forty!

Of course tomorrow will be a 15-16 minute "interval" shooting for 282 or higher average.

I really really really want this for Christmas:

It would make my TT bike a full pound lighter than it is with the current VisionTech base bar/Profile Design T2 combo. And an 808 front wheel to go with my Powertapped 808 rear.........dreamy

Rest week - sort of

Yesterday's ride (on the trainer) sucked. Lack of motivation, general grumpiness and a restless night of sleep last night earns a day off and an easy ride for Saturday.

Tuesday I did my 6.4 time trial simulation in exactly the same time as last week BUT with 14 more watts. Huh.

Wednesday was more SST/Hard-Tempo/zone 3/3.5/4/whatever-you-want-to-call-it and some micro intervals. I love all these sweet new words now that I have a power meter. It makes me an automatic superstar. Now I can impress my wife with acronyms like FTP, CP, W/Kg, SST. I think I just heard her yawn. "Guess what honey, I rode SST intervals at 85% of FTP for a heart rate of only 80% LT!" I feel like an idiot sometimes. She sees me on the trainer and says "You're not riding hard enough" and I am forced to retort that "I am on a rest interval"...nah nah nah.

There are a lot of debates (arguments really) currently going on about the use of power meters for non professional riders. Some find it a total waste of money, and others justify it through all the bells and whistles and feedback it gives you. I simply enjoy riding more with one. I am a techno geek and love gadgets. Will a PowerTap make me a better rider over the winter than I would be without it? Who knows? It's not up to someone else whether or not I'm a poseur for riding an expensive bike with a power meter during a training crit along side some crash happy monkeys. My justification is not up for debate. It's like a debate of expensive bikes vs inexpensive bikes (or really more like overpriced vs REALLY overpriced bikes). I don't care what bike this or that guy has. If you show up and ride the shit out what you brought, no matter what you brought, I love you for it.

That being said, I do cringe every time I see a guy in a cat 5 crit wearing a full US Postal kit, with matching Giro helmet riding a Trek, but I'm an ass like that. Hey, I have a Trek too, but I was more fond of the ONCE team kit. While I was riding my Giant TCR. With my ONCE labeled Giro Pnuemo helmet. Shut up.

2.5 weeks in...

That ended my 2nd full week back. Low in volume, but stupid in intensity.

Tuesday I took 30-some seconds off my 6.4 mile time trial. It's 6.4 miles and change as measured by the powertap vs 6.2 on the RealAxiom....? I know the PT to be accurate, so ok. Anyway, the weekly time trial was 15:47, 24.4mph, 268 watt average, 170 heart rate average (low). I get to do this every week on Tuesday.

Not much else to talk about since 5 of my 6 rides last week were on the trainer. Due to the lack of a whole lot of riding time, I'm at least trying to make up for it in intensity. It seems like I'm on conference calls for hours every day. Sucks the wind right out of you.

ok.....

It's high 30's and raining and I see more people (5 not including myself) out riding today than on a typical warm summer day?

Had a guy on Swailes road ride up next to me in his SUV and yelled "Nice bike", then at the intersection of Swailes and Peters yelled "CLEAR". Days like these make me happy.

This brings to a close the first full training week. Tuesday was time trial day as I simulated the 6.2 mile computrainer TT course. Wednesday was an hour of full tempo on the trainer. Thursday was an hour on the trainer with some intervals - Friday was more of the same but less and shorter intervals. Saturday I simulated the 45 mile St Leon race course on the RealAxiom and today I made it outside for a little over two hours.

Great day for a ride

Even though I overdressed, it was a great day out yesterday. For the first hour it was my intention to do as much continuous tempo as I could stand and then just ride around. I headed off to the Fred's Ride routes because the terrain is great for tempo and the traffic is nice and light (especially on a Saturday morning). As I finished up I saw Craig and Brian out for a ride- it's always nice to see other riders out as it makes me feel like less of a weenie on a chilly day. Maybe I'll see more riders today (another 40 degree day).

Ended up with a little over 45 miles in 2:30 as after the tempo ride I just cruised around for a while on the roads near my house. Overall I averaged 175 watts for the ride, but the tempo section was where it needed to be hovering between 210 and 270.

The first "week" of training for 2008 is nearly complete. I only started this past Wednesday though, but that day's ride and Thursday's rides were pretty tough. Short rides, but very hard. Saturday's ride was hard for that first hour as every time I saw my power was low I forced myself to ramp it up. Today's ride is a free ride, meaning just ride how I feel. Right now I feel great, but the first turn of the pedal can prove otherwise. We'll see.

Today was nice too. A little chilly, but I got 2 hours of easy riding in.

2007 season in review

2007 was a season full of ups and downs. My race results were absolutely pathetic, save for a couple of time trials. It was nice though, watching my new team mates have great success over the year.

Toward the end of 2006, I transferred from Team Dayton to Project Velo, following 5 other team mates. Most of the people on Team Dayton were great guys, but it seemed like there was a complete lack of any team unity. I guess that goes hand in hand on a team with open eligibility. For reasons I won't go into, I was prepared back in July to leave Team Dayton and ride for myself in 2007. I was offered the last spot on Project Velo late in the year and decided to take it. Closed eligibility of hand picked riders is a nice change! It allows team management to keep the egos, the jerks and the people that think they are owed something that are all to prevalent out.

2007 started with a couple of indoor time trials in Centerville, then it was straight off to Mentor for the first race of the year. 20 degrees was not an ideal racing temperature. The OVR spring series brought quite a bit of success to the team and made our guys (and gals) watched riders.

By the time summer rolled around most of the development riders had their own agendas and goals so a lot of times I was racing by myself. I did most of the Ohio Cup races as a Master 3/4/5, and I'm the only rider on the team who qualified for that field.

This year, there was no time trial series in Casstown, but Colavita's local chapter picked up the slack with a 20k TT that was held once a month in Greenville. Although I did not have great results (speed wise), I was able to win the season series in my age group by being pretty consistent over the entire series. That was the highlight of my season.

Toward the fall, the races tapered down with a two week vacation to Scotland and the planned surgery. I ended up doing 36 races this year in the time available.

Hopefully with a new game plan, I won't have a repeat of 2007's struggles. My aim is to be 20 pounds lighter at the first race of 2008 than I was at the first race of 2007.

Time and hard work will tell.

Here we go!

Just a photo I found...I miss that helmet (cracked it)

Today starts "training". I've decided to simplify my training down to two things; raising FTP and race surges. Race surges have been a weak spot for as long as I've been racing and I lose too much energy every time I burn a match to connect back to the wheel in front of me. Raising FTP will help specifically in time trials and generally will help my overall cycling fitness.

Then there is the weight loss goal - I'm trying to get back to my cat5 weight of 165 by mid January. That's only 10 pounds away, but I want to make it a slow weight loss so I don't crash and burn from not enough calories in my body (been there, it's ugly).

If (if) I can raise FTP and lose weight at the same time, that will make me way better off when the time trials start in the spring.

Saturday 11-10

Why is it becoming difficult to title these things?

Today was pretty nice out for November in Ohio. It was maybe 40 degrees at the start of my ride. My plan was to ride out and do one of the Fred's Ride routes as it's been a while since I've been out there. That plan went away as I took a sip from the only bottle I brought and it disintegrated in my hand. Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink (as it ended up all over the road!). So I got back home after an hour of riding, got another bottle and rode a while longer. Overall I ended up with 2 hours and 10 minutes of riding, the longest ride since the surgery. I STILL don't like riding over rough roads, but my comfort level is pretty high now. I have a couple more days of just riding around before the actual training starts (November 14th).

Transfer notice 11-6

RFG Solutions has more transfers in the news. They added some real depth to their team for 2008. I didn't see them much in this neck of the woods (being southwest Ohio) this past season, but they are sure to light it up for Team Columbus' races next year.

Etc

Today ended my streak of 7 whole days in a row riding. Now I'm totally pain free on the bike, but today's schedule didn't allow for any time to ride. Tomorrow I am leaving for Grand Rapids where there's a woodworking trade show. No riding will happen until Friday at the earliest as that's when I'll be back in town. It seems like there are thousands of manufacturing companies in Michigan but not many designers or engineers. That bodes well for me, not that there is a lack of work at the moment though.

As for the riding, like I said I am pain free. The power seems to be there but the 5 weeks off hurt the endurance the most. Maybe it's just that before the layoff it was warm out and now it's not. That sure plays into my desire (or lack thereof) to wipe the snot off my nose every 20-25 seconds while riding outside. Maybe I'll get lucky this weekend. It will be a good week to test my power since I'll have the next couple of days off. We'll see.

Transfer notice

Keeping as up to date as possible with local transfers of interest...

David Hutton tranfers from Project Velo to Hincapie's new U23 squad in South Carolina.
Read more about it here.

Scott Thor is moving to California and thus transferring from Stark Velo.
Scott's Website
Stark Velo's website

Jeff Braumberger transfers to Inferno Cycling (Abercrombie & Fitch) from Texas Roadhouse.
Inferno's website

Ray Huang transfers to Team Columbus.

Jeremy Grimm transfers to RGF Solutions.

Good luck next season to everyone!

Flat land time trialler to hill climber?

Can it be done? With our upcoming move to Cincinnati, it looks like where we'll end up is in a rolling to hilly area with some steep pitches in the very subdivision we've been looking at. Since I started riding in 2001, I've basically (and for the most part literally) lived in the middle of a corn field. Other than a couple of short climbs like Horseshoe Bend, Meeker and Fred's "green" route, I ride on flat farm roads. It's made me into a decent time trial rider, but a climber I'm not. Although I am bound and determined to start next season up to 20 pounds lighter (I was 184.5 for the first race of last year) than the beginning of last, which is sure to help, I'm really excited to be moving somewhere that has actual climbs to train on! Between the hills, the weight and more cyclists to train with the goal is to do MUCH better as races like St. Leon, Wilkesville and Hueston Woods.

The sooner we break ground on the clinic, the sooner we start shopping for houses, the sooner I start riding hills. As a plus, Alan told me it's always 60 degrees in Cincinnati, even in the winter. He better be right...

On a side note, I may actually be cleared to ride today. It may be a few minutes on the trainer, but it's a start.

What do you do when you're bored stupid?

What do I do? Ramble on and on about nothing in particular.

I guess it's a good thing that work picked up some 300% since getting back from vacation. Several new projects from several old clients have kept me very busy lately. That's a good thing since it brings more money into the house AND I get to forget about the fact that I can't ride yet. It's a good thing I've given up my "over concern" with mileage goals or I'd pull what's left of my body hair out. On that note, my leg hair length is at a 5 year high. Not cycling=no shaving. They're going to look real odd by the time I'm ready to ride again.

It's been a weird couple of days. I fall asleep every night picturing myself on my time trial bike. Of course, my form looks much better in my pre-sleep thoughts than in real life, but what can you do?

Also in the downtime, I've been playing with my "training" program for 2008. I've decided to forgo 20 minute testing until April in favor of 5 minute testing. 20 minute testing at this time of the year feel counter productive until time trial season gets underway. Hopefully, I'll be back on the bike prior to November 1st or else more tweaking will be needed. I gave myself the first two weeks of November to take it REAL easy on the bike just to get back into the swing of things before ramping up the tempo. Time is already short, so I have to put more emphasis on tempo wattage and less on "e2" type rides to get my legs and lungs ready.

Down for the count

Being lazy sucks. I'm told to not do much this weekend after surgery. I've watched TV since 6 this morning as I couldn't sleep very well. Maybe I should clean my bikes or something...

Surgery went just fine, by the way.

Ride 'em

In the last two days I've ridden my main road bike, my mountain bike and my time trial bike. There is a new MTB park that opened up not far from me at Huffman Dam and I went there yesterday. It's only the 2nd time ever to ride single track and I am not real good at it. Now I can see why mountain bikers have good control over their bikes. Riding with an inch on either side of my handlebars between two trees is hard and unnerving!

Anyway, today is nice out so it will be back on the road bike for a little ride. I'm still recovering from a cold/cough that I got two weeks ago while hiking in Scotland so my rides this week won't be too hard unless I somehow recover in the next two days.

Back from vacation

Two weeks in Scotland, and now it's time to lose the weight from the sticky toffee pudding and cask ales.

Need to get on the bike again...soon!

Lots of riding and enjoying it

As the season comes to a close, I feel that I'm probably at my peak form. It's weird because usually at this time of the year I am fairly burnt out and ready for a break. I guess the looming layoff is making me appreciate every day I get to ride outside in shorts!

Saturday I rode 52.17 miles - out to Culvers to the group ride, rode the group ride and rode home. Just a shade over 3 hrs total.

Sunday was a solo ride of 43.57 miles in 2 hours 25 minutes.

Monday was the hilly green route (my last of the year). 25.83 miles in 1hr 7 minutes for an average of 22 (261 norm power)

Tuesday was more or less a long solo recovery ride of 39.04 miles in 2 hrs 22 minutes.

Wednesday was the red route where we went 28.8 miles in 1hr 24 minutes. I pulled about 80% of the way on this group ride, normalized power was 242.

188.41 miles in the last 5 days. That's pretty good for me this year with everything that's been going on.

The weather is looking great for at least the next several days. My goal is to ride every day until we leave next Thursday for our vacation.

Green route Monday, one more time

Good group out last night for the green hilly ride. I felt pretty good so I spent some time pulling and hit the hills as best I could. It was probably the best I felt in a month or so. Craig and Dobo did most of the work and it seemed like every time I went to the front, one of those two would immediately go around me. Made for a pretty quick ride. Unfortunately, I had no sprint as it came down to Craig, Dobo and myself and there was no way to crack those guys. Craig just took off and I couldn't hold his pull and Dobo came around me at the line. That's fine. It's not like I'm ever going to win races via sprinting any time soon!

1:08
24.877 miles
TSS 99.9 (0.937)
Norm 262
PWR 0 886 213
HR 83 189 156
SP 2.3 33.7 21.8

I'm pretty happy with the average considering it was the hilly route.

Rainy day blues

Crap crap crap. Here I have an entire weekend to do nothing but ride and the weather is working against me. The radar kept me from going out as it looked like it would rain any minute. Well it didn't rain until late in the day and I wasted (spent) my time on the trainer. At least it gave me a chance to push it on my TT bike as part of the ride was spent doing a CTS video (on time trialling, how about that?). Now this morning I woke up to it absolutely pouring down. Nutz. Mr Radar is looking a bit friendlier as it looks like it may stop after while. If not, it's back on the trainer.

Right now my motivation for training is low, but motivation for group riding is at an all time high. Doing Fred's Ride (www.fredsride.com) this summer has been great and I've had the chance to ride hard with several good riders. Unfortunately, I'm about done for the season out there. With my two week vacation coming and surgery the week after I come back, by the time I'm ready to ride again it will be November and cold rides in the dark are not my thing. I won't have the fitness anyway by the time I get back on the carbon horse.

On another note, unofficially, I have signed back up with Project Velo Racing for 2008. I thought I was going to get sacked due to my lack of performance, but that's not the case. Once I'm able to get back on the bike post surgery, it's got to be balls to the wall to get ready for spring. Between now and November, it's necessary to come up with a plan to get my ass ready. There are a couple of races I want to key on for 2008 and certain weight checkpoints I want to hit along the way, but other than that, I have very little idea what my training will be like this winter. Now that I have a Powertap on both my road and TT bike, I hope that will help me along the way.

The rain is slowing down a little....

White route Friday - somedays you just don't have it

Funny, Craig, Bruce and I were talking about days when you just don't have it right before the ride. Well, today it wasn't there. A big tailwind going out would lead to a bad headwind coming back and I kind of blew my nut trying to ride too fast with the sweet tailwind. Craig took off and Bruce cut the route to ride home so I had my own little personal hell into the wind.

Overall my average speed was 19.8 over the 24+ mile course, averaging 197 watts. Going out I averaged almost 23 and back was about 17.

Hopefully, the rain holds off long enough to get some miles in tomorrow and Sunday!

Another green route Monday

After 2.5 days of non-stop eating and loafing I rode over to the Fred's Ride to do the green route. Four other guys made up the fast pack and I was helpless for the most part as they all rode pretty strong. Like last week, I cut the route short and turned right at 571 to head home before the sun got too low.

The green route:
57 minutes
21.11 miles
TSS 72.8 (0.875)
Norm Pwr 245
PWR 0 905 199
HR 83 186 158
SP 2.7 35.5 22.2

My overall ride was 34.6 @ right around 20 mph average.

I weighed myself last night and was surprised that I didn't blow up by 5 pounds after the non-stop eat fest. I was up 1 to 172.5. I'm shooting for 169 by week's end. The goal is to be in the high 160's over the winter (IE: NO hypertrophy lifting this year!!!!) and shave down to the mid-low 160's by 2008's opening race around March.

#35

Race #35 for the year was my last time trial of the season and my 5th of the Colavita Greenville series. Even with my new 808, the headwind was a big pile of suck and averaged on 21mph for the 7 mile out trip. Only averaging 26 mph with a tailwind on the way back made for a bad overall day where I finished 3rd in my age group. All of us in our division finished within 2 minutes and 30 seconds of each other. I had my worst time of the year.

STILL...with the 5 required qualifying rides I locked up the season championship with 1 first place, 1 second place, 2 thirds and a fourth. I'm pretty happy about that at least.

Last night was "Fred's" Monday ride in Tipp. There were several good riders out there and I ended up with a 22.7 average for the 21.2 mile hilly ride. I did have to cut the ride a little short so I could ride home in what was left of the daylight, but overall I rode about an hour and 45 minutes.

A different kind of race

Saturday night was spent in the woods of Scioto Trails State Park as part of a 6 hour orienteering race. I've done this once before, but the last time there was daylight to work with! This time, we started at 8pm and it quickly became dark so it was on with the headlamps and flashlights to try and find the checkpoints. An hour before the race we were given maps with the locations of the checkpoints so we were able to come up with a game plan. The checkpoints are 12"x12" orange and white "things" with about a 1"x1" reflective piece of tape on it. Very hard to see when it's pitch black out!

The team of my wife and I finished 9th out of 15. We really had no expectations except to have fun. My legs are completely trashed from running through sticker bushes and I had long pants on. Ouch.


Link to race website...
http://nsfadventures.com/

The Wednesday ride

Only 5 people showed up to last night's "Fred's Ride" and that was quickly whittled to 3 then to 2 as Bruce is racing tonight and didn't want to push too hard. So it was me and a new guy (I'm still new myself) Eric. We swapped some pulls for about half of the ride and chatted a little so the pace and power were a little lower than usual.

30.65 miles
1:32
TSS 107.9 (0.84)
Norm Power 235
PWR 0 899 204
HR 70 174 148
SP 2.9 32 20.0

One thing I tried to do was shoot up the rollers as hard as possible as that's a definite weakness.

On Tuesday I rode the Green route because I missed Monday night's ride. Again, I tried to hit the rollers hard.

Sunday's ride was about 50 miles with team mates in the Beavercreek area. Terrain was rolling, again a good thing, and I hit them as best I could.


My Zipp came in yesterday as well! Stupid me forgot to buy rim tape so I put in an order for some. It will be all good to go by next Saturday's Greenville time trial which is probably my last race of the season.

Random thought

A while back I heard a quote by the great coach Scotty Bowman talking about Nicklas Lidstrom. Bowman said that Lidstrom "Shows up, shuts up, plays hard and goes home.". Re-arranging this quote for cycling can be "show up, shut up, ride hard, go home". I like this quote and I wished it happened more in our little cycling world.

#33 last Tuesday crit of the season

Hot hot hot. Very low attended race due to the heat (I guess). After yesterday's sad lunch I was sluggish and didn't ride well at all. Not the way I wanted to end crit season, but what can you do? Eat better I guess.

48:31 (race cut short because a Team Dayton guy was off the front solo?)
16.94 miles
TSS 59.6 (0.86)
Norm PWR 241
PWR 0 979 206 (low)
NO heart rate - forgot to "FIND" it after the warm up
SP 5.1 29.3 21.0

#32 PUR Tour

I like this race. This was my third time at this course and every time it's been 90+ degrees. Saturday was no exception. Two years ago it was a combined 3/4 group of around 80 riders. Last year was cat 4 only with maybe 40 (if memory serves). This year's cat 3 field had around 30. Directly after the first left hand turn I found myself on the front. My main goal was to pull back breaks so Alex could have a chance to sprint. Break aways usually work on this course. The other reason to be toward the front was so I could climb the little hill at my own speed and fall back through the pack without getting dropped. So I spent the whole of the race either at the very front or very back. On lap 9 (of 13) my left calf cramped hard. This was as I was working my way to the front for the climb. Needless to say I got dropped on the climb and called it a day with a bum leg. This was the best I've felt all year at a race, and the course doesn't really suit me.

32:24 minutes of racing
12.623 miles
TSS 53 (0.999)
Norm PWR 280
PWR 0 817 243
HR 101 189 176
SP 2.2 35.5 23.8

Peak 5 minute 330 - highest recorded since I bought the PowerTap

Days 2 and 3

The grass was cut at the Tuesday crit so I didn't make it far. Ugh. What a waste of two hours round trip driving.

31:27
11.06mi
TSS 38.3 (0.855)
Norm 239
P 0 940 206
HR 79 174 150
SP 5.2 33.8 21.1

Last night was the usual Wednesday red route. It ended up with 5 of us pulling hard. This marked the first time I didn't get dropped on the hill on Widener road! I worked hard on the climbs and tried to pull as much as possible. That being said, I had nothing left for the sprint, but it was a great day on the bike regardless.

1:24
30.76mi
TSS 114.9 (0.9)
Norm 252
P 0 771 219
HR 64 187 161
SP 2.4 37.1 21.8

Hard riding - day 1

Fred's Ride - green route

This was my first time riding the green route. It's certainly more rolling than the other two routes. Due to not knowing the course, I held back at the intersections and didn't think I worked hard enough until we got to a section where I knew the route. The routes are painted but I had a hard time seeing the green paint on the road. Ended the day with a weak sprint, but had a good overall effort for the ride.

25.1 miles
1:10
tss 101.5 (0.929)
Norm Pwr 260
PWR 0 823 222
HR 90 192 166
SP 2.3 34.2 21.3

Now it's rest mode until tonight's crit!

Orca

Time to throw the Orca back into the mix in a big way this week. Tonight, my schedule freed up to do Fred's Ride. I've never been there on a Monday and it appears on the map to be the most hilly route of the three. Tomorrow is the typical Tuesday crit and Wednesday it's back for another Fred's Ride. Not sure what Thursday or Friday will bring, but Saturday is the PUR Tour in Mason. I've not done well either time at this race, but I like the course. Last year, a team mate spent most of the time in a break with a rider from 7hills so my job was to cover attacks, which Kippy from 7Hills and I did the whole race.

Anyway, it should be a good week with lots of data to digest. I'm in need of that since I spent the last two weeks on the Giant.

Also this week, I'm ordering a Powertap for my time trial bike, laced to a Zipp 808. This should help quite a bit as I can keep track of data for the first time on that bike.

#31 Colavita time trial

Finally, my first win in cycling. It came on a foggy morning in a low attended time trial, but who cares! Out of the four time trials I have done in Greenville, this was my slowest time, so I know there were several people who skipped this race due to the weather or other factors. Today the new chainring did it's part without problem and there were no shifting issues.

#30 Tuesday crit

No power data as I don't have the Orca back yet. I'm not sure how many started the "A" ride, but there were some good riders so it was going to be hard. 15 minutes into it, Team Dayton's manager Ron went down hard. It looked like there was a touch of wheels. Ron is a good, experienced cat 1 rider, but there was a slow down (the race was herky-jerky the whole time) and it looked like a touch of wheels brought him down. After 30 minutes of clean up including an ambulance and police cruiser, we re-started the race for another half hour of racing. Kyle sprinted off right at the start (?) and my old legs were cold and missed it. Dave missed his clip in, so the two of us team time trialled for 30 minutes +3 laps. All in all, a hard day in the saddle.

What is with all the crashing lately? Being in races and reading reports of others, it seems like there have been an over abundance of crashes lately. Funny, I always felt like I was the worst bike handler in the field, but either I got better or SEVERAL people around me got worse.

#29 Troy Classic

This marked the first race on the Giant since 2005, I think, as the Orca is not ready yet. I rode the Master's 35+ race over the 1 mile, 9 corner crit. The thoughts of "don't do anything stupid" went out the window on the 2nd lap where I bridged up to an Olympus Homes rider who has a nice gap. Soon, we were caught and I died. I spent the last 10-11 laps in my own personal time trial, banging as hard as I could until the finish.

Time trial bike picture

I found this picture on my computer so I thought I would upload it. What?

Next season will find a Zipp 808 with Powertap for the rear on it. I have changed the 53 ultegra chain ring to an FSA aero 54 tooth already and the saddle has been swapped with a Fizik Arione Tri. Depending on if my Alps made it through Sunday's wreck that may need changing. The only other future change may be swapping the bars for the new Easton Attack TT's.

2000 Giant TCR vs 2005 Orbea Orca

Due to the Orca still being in the shop, I rode the Giant for "Fred's Ride" last night. This bike has been sitting in the garage since I've been married and I don't remember the last time I rode it (well, I rode it Tuesday night on the trainer but that doesn't count). Last season, I was on the Fuji that Team Dayton gave me so when I gave that bike back, all the components were put on the Giant. With a mish-mash of components and wheels (and tires), we took off for a 30 mile ride. First thing out of the gate, I remembered how stiff this bike is. Second thing out of the gate was remembering how much I HATE Ultegra 9 speed STI hoods. They are so uncomfortable since I've gotten used to the Dura Ace 10 hoods that the Orca has. I really like stiff bikes for crits as I don't feel any power loss when sprinting or coming out of corners. This is the only advantage the TCR has over the Orca as the Orca is not a sprinting bike even for the (low) quality of sprinter I am.

Anyway, I wasn't sure going out how my body would react coming off Sunday's wreck. I was happy to find out that my body felt great. The only thing that slightly bothered me was my bib straps rubbing over the road rash on my left shoulder but it really wasn't that big of a deal.

We ended up with a 30.5 mile ride in 1 hour and 24 minutes, give or take. I felt good on the flats and ok on the rollers. I may not have my Orca back by Saturday's race so it was nice to get out on the TCR and test it out just in case. I kind of wish I could "rebadge" this bike and race it in crits all year due to the stiffness. Putting the Orca in crits is somewhat scary due to the cost of the bike.

No power data since the TCR is 9 speed and my American Classic Powertap wheel is in the shop with the Orca.

#28 Team Dayton crit - ouch

Only 7 "35+" masters showed up this morning for a little 30 minute crit. But I knew three of them were hard riders, Todd Frye, Dan Waite and Rick Toler. While Rick and Dan were in a break about an 1/8 lap ahead, we rounded turn 3 and Todd's front wheel flatted. He originally survived the initial shock, but a second later met pavement. I was right behind him and wasn't able to miss burying my front wheel into his back as he was laying on the ground. Had I tried to "make the turn", I could have quite possibly run over his head, but I didn't have the time to make the call as it all happened instantly. We were going quite fast at the time.

The laundry list...
BIKE
Bent shifter (fixed)
Torn bar tape
Gouge in the FSA K-wing
Wheels need re-trued

BODY
Hematoma on my head (cracked and destroyed my Bell Sweep) that's now almost gone
Bruises on my head from the helmet
Headache
Small cuts on my elbow and hip
Big cuts on my shoulder (where there was already scar tissue from two previous wrecks years ago) which are covered in tegaderm.
Bruised hip - this hurts the worst.


But - I've been able to speak coherently (well, as coherent as I can get) so it looks as if I avoided my third concussion.

No cat 3 race today as I left the park early and went home to recover.

Group rides

This past Wednesday and Friday I did "Fred's Ride" ( http://www.fredsride.com/ ), a local group ride where you can ride as fast as you want with other people who like to ride fast. Over my cycling "career" most of my riding has been solo with my only real group riding being in races. It's nice to go out and and work on some rolling terrain with others to push me to go harder.

Wednesday's ride:
Time 1:27
Dist 30.74
TSS 118.7 (0.903)
Norm PWR 253
PWR 1 1038 220
HR 99 193 163
SP 4 35.8 21.9

Friday's ride:
Time 1:08
Dist 24.64
TSS 95.6 (0.912)
Norm PWR 255
PWR 0 1005 218
HR 83 183 161
SP 3.9 34.3 21.4

#27

After being rained out two weeks ago and there not being a race last week due to the holiday, this was my first race here in three weeks. This would also mark the last time I could ride the course before the official team Dayton criterium this Sunday. Only about 15 people showed up so we rode one combined group.

55:20
20.53 miles
TSS 75.7 (0.906)
Norm PWR 254
PWR 0 862 223
HR 110 192 170
SP 6 30.6 22.3

Testing 1...2...3

As part of my new training program, once a month I am going to perform power testing alternating between 5 and 20 minute averages. Yesterday was the first 5 minute test in the middle of a short, one hour ride. That's becoming the real beauty of the Powertap as "watts don't lie". Since buying the powertap, I've been able to find my weaknesses and now it's time to adjust the training to address them. 5 minute power has been a REAL issue so one goal is to increase it. I'm also keeping track of 20 minute power because I don't want to forsake time trialling power for shorter power. The other goal is dropping weight and limiting the fluctuations. My power is ok, but my power to weight ratio is pathetic. So by lowering weight and raising power, that is the best of both worlds.

#25 & 26

Saturday was the monthly Greenville time trial put on by Colavita Ohio. The road is chip seal to within 2 feet of the yellow line on each side of the road so therefore most riders ride close to the yellow. Apparently there was an issue at the May TT (which I didn't go to) with 5 cars stacked behind a rider because they weren't able to pass as the rider was on the centerline. We received a stern warning that anyone would be DQ'd if they rode the center. So the whole 20k was spent riding the damn bumpy chip seal. Yuck. My time ended up better than my two previous efforts on this course. Ended up with a time of 30:23, besting my fastest time by 5 seconds, with an average around 24.5 mph. This was enough for 4th out of 10 in the 30-39 division and 9th out of 48 overall. The goal is to break 30 minutes and I have two shots left to do just that.

Sunday was the Ohio Cup's Tour de Grandview. This was my first time on this course and if I knew ahead of time that there was a hill, I would have saved the long drive and race fee. I was in the 35+ division. Right from the get go I missed clipping in (twice). I haven't had that issue in two years (Pur Tour 2005). Right OTB before the first turn. I lasted 8 or 9 laps out of 18 before getting pulled by the official. That's the first time I've been pulled from a race. James Raddin from Bandwidth solo'd away for several laps for an uncontested win. Nice!

I was very impressed with the Tour de Grandview. It had a "big time" feel to it. It was organized, run well, low race fee, had a great announcer and it seemed like the whole community turned out in force to cheer the racers on. Normally the only crowds out there are family and friends of the racers!

#24 Ohio State TT Championship

Last year I was 3rd place in the "cat 4" division. This year I opted for age group (35-39) instead of cat 3. Result would have been the same regardless!

After a few bad weeks of training, lethargy and apathy, I had few expectations of a good ride. In the end, even though my placing was poor, I was happy with my ride. The Groveport course is rolling for the first 7 miles or so then flattens out nicely for a quick ride back to the finish. I passed 7 riders (1 minute intervals at the start) and had 2 guys pass me on route to a 24.19 mph average finish. My time was 58:31 on the "not quite 40k course". I think it was 23.5 miles or thereabouts.

Team COBC did great job as usual with organization, however, I do wish the start times were posted on their website as opposed to just being emailed. We lost a rider from our team due to a mistyped email regarding his start time.

Anyway, next up is the Greenville TT this coming Saturday.

Upcoming Schedule

The rest of the season is shaping up like this:
Tomorrow - State time trial (duh)
6-30 Greenville TT
6-31 Grandview (masters 35+)
7-15 Team Dayton crit (masters and cat 3)
7-21 Troy Crit (masters)
7-22 Tour d'Burg (cat 3)
7-28 Greenville TT
8-4 Pur Tour (cat 3)
8-5 is the last race of the Ohio cup - it's the Zoar road race in northeast Ohio. Not sure about this one as it will totally depend on how I feel. Right now I still don't have many positive vibes to my riding/training/racing.

Unfortunately, I'm going to miss the Newmark Crit for the first time due to being out of town. I really like this course. Last year it was pushed back so late that very few people showed up. I did the 2/3 race (my first race as a category 3) and only a dozen people showed up so they let anyone join us who wanted to.

Fudge

Moving massive amounts of furniture the week of the biggest race of the season is pretty dumb. First, we're getting carpet at the house so we have to move our couches, chairs, tv, etc Sunday night. Second, for the last two days I was installing the custom office furniture that I designed for a client. This stuff is made out of 2" MDF (Medium Density Fiberboard).

The laundry list:
Scraped & bruised right shin
Bruised knees
Strained right groin
Strained right hamstring
Sore back
Tweaked right knee


Super. No riding last night as I got home too late.

Leading up to the State Time Trial

Ok, so I've NOT done a 40k tt yet this year. Oops. What I have done is gotten myself dropped in so many road races that I basically turn them into time trials. Not the best training, but hey, what can a guy do? This week is going to be a relaxing week with Friday and Saturday off to rest up for Sunday's race. Barring thunderstorms, I'll hit the training crit Tuesday, do some intervals on the TT bike Wednesday and a tune up ride on the TT bike Thursday. After Sunday, I'll be picking and choosing races including the Troy Classic, Team Dayton Crit and Colavita's Time Trials.

Bad beer for $6.50? I went to a Reds game Saturday night for my birthday (37!) and saw that beer was $6.50 a bottle. Now this was not Oberon, Smithwicks or even Blue Moon. This was Miller freakin' Lite, Bud and Bud Light. Yuck.

Summer Solstice stage race

What a bust of a weekend! The shocking disappointment of the race has lead me to re-evaluate the amount of racing that I wanted to do. I definitely should not have upgraded when I did. Morale is at an all time low so I'm shortening up my race schedule a bit and increasing my training.

In the stage 3 time trial, my 25.17 mph effort was good enough for 23rd in my category (out of 50+). Reviewing the other categories, I would have been last in the 1/2/3 race, 4th in the cat 4's and 1st by a big margin in the cat 5's.

One great benefit of the Powertap is that I've been able to assess the real reason behind getting dropped. All these accelerations over and over again kill me quick. My training is also the reason why I am pretty decent at time trialling. Now I have to choose. Less of time trial training and work on the acceleration problem, or continue working on time trialling and screw thinking I'll ever be good at road racing?

Last night was race #23 - Tuesday crit
55:12
20.33 mi
TSS 81.7 (0.943)
Norm PWR 264
PWR 0 886 242
HR 93 181 164
SP 8.3 33.7 22.1

#18 - Tuesday crit

Now that the cut grass had a week to settle down, I didn't have any chest pains or breathing issues from allergies. That was nice. The race was low in attendance, and I'm guessing that's due to the Ault Park race tonight. 9 guys started the A race I think. 8 of them did not get dropped. har har.


55:22
20.35mi
TSS 84.7 (0.962)
Norm PWR 269
PWR 0 912 249
HR 98 180 165 (lower than normal average)
SP 3.4 31.6 22.2

Races aren't coming fast enough (but that's about to change)

Due to insomnia I decided to avoid the two and a half hour drive to Indiana on Saturday. The alarm was due to go off at 3:45am and I was still awake at 2 so I made the call to bag it. It sucks because that was my final chance to get an official 40k in before "the state". The drive along I-70 is enough to cure insomnia itself, so I felt it was risky to chance it. I opted to join my team, who was participating in the Troy Strawberry festival parade. Most of the team was there so after the parade we went for a short group ride, a photo op, then I rode home.

This weekend (barring the fore casted thunderstorms) is the Summer Solstice Stage Race in and around Wilmington. Three road races and a time trial on the schedule. Tuesday is also the regular training crit (again, barring thunderstorms).

Back from San Francisco

We spent 4 days walking around the town and eating sushi, just as anticipated. There is a great sushi place in Japantown called Isobune where plates of sushi are placed on little boats that are floating in front of customers.



Take all you want! We ate there twice.

All the walking justified all the eating so luckily my weight is the same as it was before the trip. Walking up Lombard street felt like it burned 1,000 calories by itself!


My first ride back was the Team Dayton Tuesday crit. Unfortunately for me the grass at the park was just mowed. Last year just after the mowing, I couldn't breathe and had to leave the park asap. Same thing happened last night as I lasted 10 minutes of racing until I felt like my chest was going to explode. Ouch.

Next up is a 4 am drive to the other side of Indianapolis on Saturday for the Monrovia time trial. This is my last (and only!) shot at a 40k prior to the state championships.

#17 Tuesday crit #4

Due to it being a really nice day in the area, there was probably the best turnout I've seen in three years at the Tuesday training crit. There were 25 or so people in the A race, and probably that many in the B race. Team mate Dave showed up and was the instigator the whole time. Dude is strong, taking off constantly. I spent time all over the peloton, covering, chasing, recovering, bridging. Probably the best I've felt all year.

I had a couple of near misses where I nearly hit a kid walking on the course. I swerved only to nearly take out another team mate. On the final lap, some knucklehead dove corner number 1 on me to nearly take ME out. After killing myself to catch back up with the group, I had nothing for the sprint. All in all, it was a good effort and I finished mid field.

22.02mi
55:36
TSS 86.5 (0.966)
Norm PWR 271
Pwr 0 1028 234
HR 109 188 173
Sp 7.8 33.7 23.8

No more updates for a few days as we're off to San Francisco to eat sushi over the holiday weekend!

Next up - Monrovia TT on June 2nd.

#16 Lancaster

Going in with hopes high after a couple of good weeks at the training crit, I end up OTB in relative short order. Within about a minute of the start of the race, I had 2 efforts over 900 watts.

31:36 minutes that I was in it
12.47mi
Norm Pwr 288
TSS 55.7 (1.028 if)
Power 0 927 267
Hr 110 184 173
Sp 9.2 30.3 23.7

Leaving the race with relative depression, I'm grasping at straws to find something positive out of the experience. At least it was a nice day out.

The Powertap/cycling peaks software combo has been a humbling experience so far. Of the four watts/kg (1 sec, 1 min, 5 min, ft) entries on the power profile, I "all the way up" to cat 4 on just one of them (5 minute). That means I need to get stronger and lose weight!

Race #15 - AKA training crit #3

The wind out of the south took it's toll on the fastest part of the course, hence my top speed of 30.0mph. A two man break went early - 2nd lap early. I was getting ready to bridge up and thought "nah, it's way too early to waste that kind of energy'. D'oh - they stayed out the whole race.

Distance - 21.29m
Time - 56:09
Power 0 940 246
HR - stopped working after my warm up...?
Speed 8.7 30 22.7
TSS 90.6 (0.984)
Normalized Power 275

Yesterday I had my 2nd highest 20 minute power reading since I've had the Powertap.

Next up - Lancaster Grand Prix, my first real crit of the season. I'll be in the 3/4 race.

Race #14 Tuesday Crit #2

This week's crit was much nicer than last week. Just a slight breeze and warm temperatures. The A group had about 20 people at the start. This week I fell OTB a few times but was able to make my way back to the field each time. I tried for a prime not realizing that a guy way ahead of me was in my race (two races are run at the same time). The pack came flying by and I thought that was the end of my day but I was able to make it back. Finished in 6th as I mistakenly led the 2nd to last lap and ended up cramping on the last lap a little.

55:21
power 0 1041 238
HR 101 191 172
Sp 8.7 35.6 24.8 (now that's more like it)
TSS 89 (0983)
Norm power 275

Race #13 Wilkesville to Wilkesville

When I got home, thanks to the Powertap and Cycling Peaks software, I was able to pinpoint exactly what was going on when I got dropped. I spent 5 minutes averaging too high of a wattage and that jacked my heart rate to LT and my legs blew up. I was blaming bad finishes on this and or that, but the simple fact is that I'm not fit enough to hang.

Pictures from the last time trial

Warm up

Hurting!

Spoils!

Credit goes to Noah Hutson
Other pictures at the address below.
http://s205.photobucket.com/albums/bb150/colavitaohiocycling/

Race #12 Tuesday crit

Last night was the first Tuesday crit of the season put on by Team Dayton. Although there were only about 8-10 guys in the 1/2/3 race it didn't mean it wasn't a good workout. There was a strong wind from the south that made half of the 0.8mi course pretty rough.

50 minutes +2 laps

56:09
Power 0 943 228
HR 103 187 173
Sp 7.4 30.9 20.8 (low!)
TSS 81.7 (0.934)
Norm PWR 261

Now I need to figure out what this all means.

Race #11 Colavita TT #2

I'll have to wait until the official times are posted until I know what it was, but it was close to the time I had last month. Due to Scott Spees not being there I improved one place to 2nd. Won a silver medal and some pasta.

Monday update - I beat my previous time by all of 3 seconds. 30 minutes, 28 seconds.

The headwind going out was depressing and near demoralizing. I found myself in my 21 gear (lowest on the cassette, but still on the bi ring) doing 18mph at one point. Ouch! Coming back was nice and fun where I hit 34mph on one stretch with the tailwind.

It looks like next week the pain really starts as I head to Monrovia for a 40k test run. Double ouch!

Race #10, Vandervort's Corner

Too much like every other road race this year so far. However, this was my first race with the powertap. Now I know exactly how much energy I waste (and it's a ton)

Next up is the 2nd Greenville TT of the year.

My bike

Here it is! Just installed is the new back wheel (American Classic Sprint 350), Powertap and my time trial front wheel (HED Alps).

A little different

Owning my own design service business has opened my eyes even wider than I thought they could be. Back in my heyday of being a "CAD drafter" I took pride in that my projects were done on time, with as few billable hours possible. It was a contest for a few of us old schoolers to see how few hours it would take us to complete a full set of construction drawings. Every now and then, we would have to work in someone else's drawing and 99.9% of the time it would be EXACTLY how I would have drawn it.

It seems that a shift happened in the last several years. Good drafting practices are the exception now. More often, it's up to engineers to "lower" themselves to drafter status and the end result is (usually) shoddy work. Why do Pipeworks when you can just draw it by hand, take 10x longer to do it, and have the data be "dumb", when you can just bill the client for the length of time it takes? Sorry if you don't know what my reference to Pipeworks means, it's a Land Desktop application to draw storm or sanitary pipes in a plan & profile sheet.

That's just one of many examples of what happens when people simply don't care about the work. Pride in having your drawing correct and to standard is gone. CEO's and Presidents have a misconception that a $10/hr employee will either care about his job or produce good work just to avoid paying a more experienced drafter $20/hr+. What they fail to realize is if a $10/hr clock watcher takes 10x longer to do the work, the budget goes out the window.

It seems pretty simple to me sitting over here. Is there something I'm missing?

Race #9 Deer Creek

It was windy, ok? At one point after getting dropped I was pushing as hard as I could only to see 10mph on the computer. Stupid computer!

Big ups to Alex for taking the cat 3 win!

Ohio Cup races announced

http://ohiocycling.org/modules/news/article.php?storyid=12


I'm looking at the Masters 3/4/5 races as I'm certainly not ready for the 1/2/3. Hopefully this goes well for the newly formed Ohio Cycling Association.

Race #8 OVR Lynchburg

Today saw one of our guys hit the pavement hard in the 1/2/3's. Racing in the rain on a curving course with 40 people in one 12 foot lane scares me. There, I said it. I gave up. Luckily, no cramping!

Race #7 - Colavita Time Trial

3rd place - I won a medal and some pasta. More to come when I wake up. Need coffee. Lynchburg tomorrow. The results are in and I finished 5th overall out of 22. I liked that course. A little rolling but nothing major. The chip/seal sucked and I stayed real close to the yellow line where there was standard asphalt pavement. Luckily, there was not much traffic.

Race #6 the other Hueston woods, or was it?

OVR ran the race clockwise, just like Tym the week before. Result? I get dropped in the exact same place. 2nd climb of the 2nd lap. I need to fix my leg asap.

The good news is that Allen won the cat 3 race for us!

Next up - Greenville TT (Saturday) and Lynchburg (Sunday).

Race #5 Heuston Woods

Another chilly day in this part of the world. Team Columbus put on this week's Heuston Woods race and OVR's version will be next week. This time around we did the course clockwise which I've never done before. I think that way is actually harder. The rollers aren't as steep, but they seem longer. It looked like about 30 or so riders started the 3/4 race. I felt really good up until one of the rollers on the 2nd lap (of 6) where I cramped, yet again. I'm not understanding this. I'm cramping in places where I've never cramped before, as well as all the usual places! Not wanting to DNF like last week, I kept going and eventually hooked up with Bret of Darkhorse and a MOB Squad rider and we short pulled our way around the loop a couple more times. The MOB rider stopped with one lap to go and Bret and myself finished the race pulling each other along. I'm glad he was there or else I probably would have ditched from the cramping.

Another day, another called off race. Today's St Leon race was cancelled due to "miscommunication" whatever that means. That makes three races so far this year that I've scheduled that has been cancelled (well, I self cancelled one time trial due to freezing rain!)

Next up, Heuston Woods....AGAIN!

Race #4 Reily

The weather was perfect and the fields were large for this early in the year. It was so nice that I actually got a bit of a sunburn on my face. I didn't expect that! The cat 3 race had 40 people with 5 of those being Project Velo riders. Several Anthem and Team Dayton riders were out there as well. The Reily course only had one little climb per loop. The fourth time up it I realized that I didn't take my Enduralytes as my whole lower body cramped up. I was able to make back to the field, but right after the first train tracks there was an accelleration and having just caught back up, I was toast. I finished the lap limping slowly back to the parking lot.

Next up - Acton Lake on Saturday and St Leon Sunday (ouch!)

There we go....

Snowed out! Apparently, it decided to snow ONLY on the race course and no where else in the county. Everything was ok at my house except the cold, but there was snow on road in Germantown. One road was closed due to high water, that was actually a mud pit. After driving through that section I was wishing I had my wife's cross bike. Yuck. Then I found out that the race has been cancelled. Ended up spending three hours on the trainer Sunday - yeehaa.

Let's hope the conditions are better this Sunday in Reily. It's supposed to be 50 and raining. Great.

Here we go!

This Sunday marks the beginning of the season for most of us in Southwest Ohio. It's the first race of the OVR (Ohio Valley Racing) series. OVR is putting on eight races on the next nine Sundays as part of their annual spring series. New for this year is Germantown and Rabbit Hash as well as the standbys of Reily, Deer Creek, Vandervort's Corner, St. Leon, Hueston Woods and Lynchburg. It will be interesting to see who has done their homework over the winter. Good luck to everyone out there!

Tifosi Optics

My Tifosi Forza's arrived yesterday! It's necessary for me to wear prescription glasses when I ride so when the option to get a new pair of shades came around I jumped on it.

For the previous few years I have used Oakley prescription glasses exclusively (M-Frames and Valves). M-Frames have the Rx part integrated into a standard lens. You can look at pictures of Bobby Julich or Tyler Hamilton when he was with CSC to see what they looked like. Well, those glasses cracked on me twice and were repaired under warranty once. Then I bought a pair of Valves. Those have been nice since they have flown off my face in wrecks a few times and are still gold. The only bad thing about them is that the frame is pretty thick and it's hard to see what's behind you when you turn your head in a race.

Enter the Forza. The first thing I noticed was how light they are. Not light as in "it's built cheap", but light as in "wow, cool!". They seem like a solid pair of glasses. I'm not sure how they'll handle flying off my face at 25 miles per hour, but I can always hope to never find out. I tried them on our frigid training ride yesterday. Perfect! Great visability. There is one thing that bothers me about wearing some sunglasses while riding and that is the air flowing through and hitting the corner of my eyes. That's not the case with these. We did some rollers yesterday and hit over 40 mph with no problems.

Yaaargh

Race #4, Alexandria, was postponed until later due to the weather. That will make OVR's Germantown as the next race on my list. Frosty Toes is this Saturday, but it's been decided that previewing Germantown's course is better use of my time. It's probably best that I not race in my condition anyway...

This has been a bad training week. Yesterday's cruise interval workout was stopped short due to my inability to maintain wattage. Today I was able to manage 35 whole minutes on the trainer before cashing it in. I do plan to hook up the Orca and pedal around a bit while watching Hockey tonight though. My legs feel like sandbags and there's just no zip in my pedalling. Last week I pushed it hard through my intervals and I think it caught up with me.

On a good note, I actually rode on the road yesterday! Albeit a short ride, but since it was 44 degrees and sunny, I had to get out there.

Race #3 Mentor

Where did the sunshine go? Today's race was probably in the low 20's for temps. With a low turnout the 1/2/3 field was combined with the 3/4's. Three shirts, armwarmers, tights, leg warmers and shorts kept me sort of comfortable. Two gloves on each hand helped as well. My feet were bad off though. I opted for the lycra shoe covers and left the neoprene ones at home. Yeah, that was prett stupid.

My race started bad and got worse. One small hill on the course and I got dropped. It didn't help that I had to avoid a one man crash at the base of the hill, but that's no excuse, that's what I get for being behind him. Spent the rest of my race in an attempt to time trial my way back to the field. Thirsty, I reached for a drink to find both water bottles had frozen on me. That was it. Mentor is an out and back course so I made my own personal turnaround early and called it a day. 25 miles into the drive home I could actually feel my feet again.

Next up - Alexandria (if the weather cooperates!!)

Race #2 Indoor Time Trial

Race #2 of the season is in the bag. After my longest volume week (in miles) since last March, it was no surprise that I was pretty tired coming into Sunday's race. Since it wasn't an important race or anything, the best bet was to keep training through. This coming week is a "rest" week anyway.

A month ago my time was 16:05 with a Computrainer wattage of 305 average.
This week my time was 16:35 with an average of 297 watts. I am also 4 pounds lighter than a month ago, but I'm not sure that got factored into the system.

Next up (hopefully) Mentor! It's supposed to get warm late this week and by warm I mean 30 degrees. Anything above high 20's and I'll race.

Training on the trainer

Ride the trainer much? In the 20 rides I've done this year all of them have been on the trainer, including the first race of the year! When I bought my first trainer it was difficult to ride for even 30 minutes at a time due to boredom. Today, some of my scheduled rides call for riding up to 3 hours and with the weather as it is, it's necessary to ride the trainer. Getting over the boredom is a hot topic this time of year. Training plans get ditched for some simply because they can't handle long hours riding inside. Here are some of the tricks I've used to keep me riding:

-Have a scheduled, time based workout! Breaking up your workout into 1 to 20 minute chunks really helps the time go by. Just sitting there riding zone 2 for 2-3 hours will bore most people to death. Breaking up the workout into tempo, intervals, rest, ramps, etc will keep your eye on the clock but in a good way. Several sets of XX minute intervals with XX minutes of rest between really helps the time fly.

-Keep your mind occupied! I've spent time watching and rewatching the 2004 Tour that I have on DVD. If the workout calls for hills, I'd watch a hilly stage (stage 10 was my favorite), tempo I would watch a flat stage and sprint at the end for fun. Go to NBC's website and re-watch all the episodes of Heroes or ABC's site and re-watch LOST. At 45 minutes per episode, you can catch up on shows you missed AND get quality time on the bike. Watching TV doesn't really work with intervals though as it's hard to pay attention when your eyes are bleeding from your heart rate being way too high!

-Music! Listening to music is necessary for long inside riding at least to me.

-Virtual trainers! I have a Travel Trac RealAxiom V2 trainer that I got last June. Hooked up to my laptop, I can watch my heart rate, time, distance and wattage while riding a course that I programmed myself (it also comes with pre-programmed courses). It works great because I program courses to suit my necessary workouts. There are many different options out there for virtual riding, but I chose the RealAxiom mainly based on price, and I've not been disappointed with the quality of the unit.

Now there are no excuses not to do long rides on cold, crappy days (like today).

The jerseys are in!

Update - laundry is done...

The team jerseys arrived at my house last night, and it's still January! Pictures will come later as they are in the washing machine right now. The team chose Champion Systems as the jersey provider due to their low minimums, great prices and unlimited colors. They look great! Short sleeve jerseys, long sleeve winter jersey, arm warmers, leg warmers, shoe covers, winter AND summer gloves and a hat were all included in the package. A skinsuit was also in there.

We have the bikes (Orbea), the helmets (Bell Sweep) and now the kits in hand. Time to race hard!

Bags of sand and why you should care

Career Sandbaggers. We've all raced along side them. They've been our team mates and our competitors, the guys you hate to race against. Part of me couldn't care less about them, but another part of me hates them. Let me explain. When I race along side a sandbagger, it doesn't bother me personally. It forces me to train harder knowing that I'm along side guys who should be a category higher (in part, that's why I race masters category in a lot of crits). What I don't care for is lower category guys who refuse to upgrade. All that does is promote more animosity in a sport known for extreme snobbery. Whether it's ego or fear that keeps people from upgrading, I don't know, but being the highest rated guy in the lower categories would embarrass me personally.

1. It's not good for your team. If you are a team leader, you need to lead by example. Refusing to upgrade when you are past the "mandatory" point, is not being a leader. Getting wins for your team may or may not be important to your sponsors, but having a bad reputation is certainly worse for your sponsors.

2. It's not good for you. Reputations are hard to shake, for the good or bad. There's a small group of riders of riders in Ohio and whether or not we know everyone's name, people know other's by sight. If you have a reputation for being a good sprinter, people know it. Bad climber, people know it. Won't work in a break? People know it. Sandbagger? Everyone knows it.

3. It's not good for the system. That's why categorization exist.

It comes down to personal choice whether or not to upgrade as there has been no mandatory submission of race result and/or no forced upgrading. Hopefully the new Ohio Cycling Association will help fix this problem. Mandatory result submissions in my opinion is a great place to start.

I'm not saying to upgrade before you are ready, BUT if you are on the podium every week, it's time to move on up.

2006 in review

The main thing I learned early on is that long winter base mileage without intensity does nothing for me. I spent hours and hours (and hours) of "zone 2-ish" mileage early in 2006 and it accomplished nothing but getting myself dropped in the early road races. My coach and I have worked to change that this time around.

My race season started off on March 5th with the Reilly road race. While the team I was on was having success, I was not off to a good start. Other than the lack of intensity in winter training, my head was also somewhere else. In 2005, I crashed 5 times. Three times on training rides and twice in races. Several near misses were in the mix as well. Once the first race came around in 2006, I found myself gun shy and nervous in the pack. That had to change asap or I wasn't going to race. My coach told me about the "Ultimate Cyclist" cd which blends hypnosis with positive reinforcement. Whether it works or I developed the placebo affect I don't know, but it worked for me and I became comfortable in a pack again.

In 2006, I put a heavy emphasis on time trialling. I upgraded my TT bike with some fancy new gear and I was off. Time trials are not heavily attended races, but those who do show up, are time triallists for the most part. My best success was breaking the hour twice at Monrovia's 40k tt (out of 4 total times), with my best time being 58 minutes, 45 seconds. I faltered, however, at Groveport's tt (home of 2007's state championship) and the state championship. I won the bronze at the state, but I should have done better. Groveport was one day after 7hill's woodlawn race where I got hammered in the master's race in 90 degree heat. Each time I was beaten by Bill Lawhorn of Team Dayton, who I had quite a rivalry with last season.

In September I upgraded to catagory 3 and transfered to a new team for 2007. Project Velo Racing has a goal of youth development and I'm proud to be with this organization! I just hope I can do my part to help our guys to bigger and better things in the future.

Only time will tell how 2007 shakes out, but with an improved winter training plan and a TEAM concept of racing, it certainly looks bright!

Goals, got to have 'em.

Before figuring out a plan of attack for 2007, goals had to be determined so we could work backward from there. It appears that all my priority races fall in June. Originally, I had designs on a double peak season, first for the OVR spring series and again in June, for the Ohio State time trial championships (as well as Summer Solstice and Tree City, if it's being held this year). This would allow for the month of May to be a prep period for the ajor races. As luck would have it, there are several 40k time trials in Monrovia in May!

So here they are in random order:
Ohio State TT Championship - top 3 age group (I'm 36)
Summer Solstice Stage race - top 10 cat 3
Tree City Stage race - top 3 cat 3

I raced Tree City as a cat 5 in the 4/5 division in 2005. The best thing about this race for me was that the stage race was time based instead of points based. That favors time triallists. I was sitting 2nd overall after the time trial but unfortunately crashed in the crit and ended up 9th overall. Boo! I wanted revenge in 2006, but the race was cancelled. Hopefully, it's back in 2007!

Time Trial results

The results are in. I finished 2nd in my catagory (age 30-39) out of six and 5th overall out of 25. My finish time for the 6.2 miles was 16:08.7 so that gives me a mark to shoot for next time. Average speed was 23.04 mph with my average watts being 304.93 (peak at 507). I didn't wear my HRM so I have no data there. Average RPM was over 97 and that seems odd given I've been intentionally lowering my cadence over the last several weeks.

Race #1

The first race of the year is in the books. It was a 6.2 mile computrainer time trial. I won't know the overall results for another day or two, but I didn't even win my heat. Over the winter, I've tried to keep some intensity to my workouts (as opposed to last year where it was riding "base" miles) and that helped me yesterday. All that being said, it was only the second time I've ever rode the Orca on the trainer.

The computrainer felt way more smooth when changing grades than my RealAxiom does. Time to play with some of my courses to figure out how to make it better.

Indoor time trial #1

Sunday is my first race of the year and my first indoor time trial ever. We'll be riding computrainers over a 10k rolling course. Being no stranger to riding the trainer, I hope to do well but really this series is for checking my fitness level at the moment. Sadly, there are very few people signed up for the first of three races in the series.

The Orca will be my weapon of choice.

Ok this is a test

Just to see how it works.