Schedule

It is becoming more and more obvious that my 2011 schedule is going to be the QCW Tuesday night time trials and that is about it. That may not even start until after June. I have work deadline around June 14 that is my industry's main worldwide trade show that I am trying to get a product completed by. This involves me working in Vandalia quite a bit. Yes, I understand the irony of moving FROM Vandalia to West Chester only to take on a major project back in Vandalia. The good news is that once it warms up (hurry!), I'll be taking my bike up north to ride the friendly flat roads as much as possible.

Depending on who earns the right to promote the state TT championship, I may or may not be doing it. I am only going to do a couple of the Colavita time trials this year (Bellbrook and Casstown come to mind). Due to work, I already have to get up and hit the road quite early to make it to Vandalia before the traffic hits and I am NOT likely to get up early on the weekends anymore to drive x hours to race. I don't have that in me anymore.

My lack of an early season may lead to doing more cyclocross stuff in the fall. That would be cool.

Change of scenery

I received word a couple of days ago that our team was disbanding. It really wasn't a shock as I had heard rumors for a while now. For the thousands of readers of this blog, I won't go into details, but the end result is that I am team less. Actually, I had been debating not being on a team for the past several months. Since I've only done two 'road' races in the past two years to go along with my 70 time trials in the same time frame, having team mates did not help.

Anyway, I'll miss the team but I'll see the riders again (if any of them choose to do a time trial!).

So the option are:
1. Join another team
2. Do my own thing

The only team I would entertain joining at this point would be QCW, but there are things I wouldn't like about that. Again, it wouldn't help me from a racing standpoint and the only thing that would be a positive is that I could race Pur Tour and Ault Park for free. Of course, I haven't done Ault Park since I was a hotshot cat 5 who was wrecking every other week back in 2005 and I don't know that I will be able to do it in 2011.

So it looks like I am on my own. I bought a ProBikeKit skin suit and a jersey with the flag of Scotland on it so it appears I am racing for team UK. Or team Bryan if you prefer.

Now all I have to do is ride the bike. It looks like next year is going to be not so great due to schedule. I have penciled in all of the Tuesday QCW/Cleves time trial and that is it so far. This will be the first year I won't do all of the Colavita time trials. I love them, but they are just too far away for me.

Training part 3

More lifting. Been at the gym roughly 2x per week for the past five weeks. Mostly upper body but I do like the leg press. Gradually I'm getting stronger. I'm going to up the gym work to at least 3 days per week and split the work outs up instead of doing everything twice a week. This way, I won't be so tired by the end of each workout.

As far as riding the trainer goes, I've missed four days in the past 28. Riding has been nothing but going as hard as I can for 45 minutes - kind of like my races. My wattage has had a gradual increase as my overall strength is getting better. Cadence has been intentionally low as part of the new plan. Haven't done many intervals as I'm just concentrating on high overall wattage at the end of the workout.

Training part 2

Yesterday marked the first day of official "gym" work. Having received a free one month pass to a local gym, I use that opportunity to test it out and see how many times I can actually go over there and workout, then possibly get a membership. For the last month I have been lifting in the basement but there is only so much I can do with what I have. The chest, arms, abs (yuck) and legs all got a beat down before finishing with 20 minutes on the elliptical thingy.

I've decided that having twigs for arms is no way to go through life so I am lifting heavy. It should effectively kill any desire for road racing, because I won't be able to get up the climbs any easier, but that's fine. It won't affect time trialling and it may actually help as long as the time trial is not hilly. It should even help on the rolling Cleves TT which I am guessing that I'll be riding at least as many times in 2011 as I did in 2010.

As far as the bike goes, the TT bike is still on lockdown and I'm chugging through 45 minutes at a time at a minimum of tempo if not a harder level. That will continue for a while.

Training

Dungeon (basement really but close as one can get without bolting chains to the wall)

Time trial bike locked into position

5 minutes to warm up

10 minutes as hard as I can

1 minute to recuperate back to 'living' status

5 minutes as hard as I can

2 minutes to resuscitate myself

2 minutes all out

5 minutes of "thank god that's over"

Then I lift weights

Welcome to the 'off season' knucklehead.

Season finale Colavita Greenville #39

Great weather lead to a really good turnout even though it's late in the season. The highest number I saw was 104. I was 7th to go off and had a decent 30 minute warm up in the parking lot. I overheard someone saying there was a headwind going out. Looking at the top of the trees I considered him a knucklehead who didn't know what he was talking about. Dead still.

Off I went. Into a headwind. Knucklehead was right. It was a painful little headwind that kept my speed around 22. Dismal. Since the series was all over this season, it was only the 2nd time this year on this course and I forgot everything I used to know. It made it harder! Got to the turnaround and got my tailwind...wheee. Of course, in a tailwind it's harder to think about your power output because you are already going fast. So I tried to focus on that instead of speed as best I could. Not sure what my exact time was, but it wasn't good, my speed wasn't good (24.0) and my power sucked. Trifecta! No better time to have the season end than right now. I need a break.

I was 4th in my division as a result and ended up 2nd in the season series. The championship medals are cool.

The crew that puts on this time trial series does a great job and you can tell that they care about what they are doing.

Brings me to the point of racing in general. It's a shame that more organizations don't put forth as much effort as these people do to put on events. I guess this series has spoiled me. It's not about door prizes, free drinks, free yogurt, bag of stuff at registration, medals/prizes for winners, etc, etc. It's combination of all the above along with the fact that they have openly listened to what the racers have to say and made changes to their events as a result.

1. Different courses? Done. It could have been incredibly easy to keep the race in Greenville every month. I still would have went and so would have several others, but changing the venue brought new people to racing. At Bellbrook, I parked next to a guy who have never done a race before and only did this one because it was on his home roads. Maybe he'll do another race as a result? Regardless, he had fun and along with a few others that day he was recognized by Roger and applauded by the group for being a 'first timer'. He won a door prize too.

2. Choose your own time slot? This feature made me better able to plan my drive so on a personal note it helped. I had a couple of long drives to plan around this season.

Those are just two things that stuck out in my mind.

I applaud what Roger is doing for the betterment of the sport. I also want to make mention of David Riemenschneider (Big Dave Sports) for taking the ball and running with the sport of road bike racing which many people around here think is dying. For the most part (at least as far as I know) promoting races is an almost thankless job where participants would rather bitch about everything and then do absolutely nothing to attempt to fix whatever it is they are bitching about.

Anyway, that's enough rambling for now. Stay tuned to this blog for exciting posts about winter trainer rides. Today, the time trial bike goes into the basement where it will be in lock down mode on the trainer until March.

There was a race today...

...and I wasn't in it. You know what, that's okay. After three treatments so far, my back is feeling a little better. One more to go then it's off to a chiropractor for different kinds of treatment. It seems that my pelvis is misaligned, mostly due to the fact that I've sat in front of a computer drawing things for xx hours a day for the last 20 years. I sit a certain way when I draw and that's got my body all fubar'd.

Anyway, today's race was a cross race. Can't do cross right now. I can barely ride my full suspension mountain bike. So I didn't go. I would like to go to the race tomorrow to watch the pros do their thing and cheer on some people.

One more race this Sunday and then I am shutting it down and spending the rest of my time trying to enjoy riding a bike again.

Race #38 Cleves

This was the final Cleves time trial for 2010. Out of the 22 weeks, I rode 17 times. For 10.25 miles, the difference between my fastest and slowest race was 1 minute 19 seconds which is right about 1 mile per hour. Wattage was more variable between 239 and 270. Later, I'll have to figure out averages for both wattage and time and aim for that to be bare minimums for 2011. I think this means lots of 25 minute intervals at at least 255 watts on the trainer over the winter. But I'm ahead of myself...

The race:
The warm up went pretty decent. The temperature was great but dropping fast. By the actual start time, my warm up wore off and I was getting cold. For the first couple of miles it was hard to get up to speed. Half way through I got into my groove but by then my speed was about 23.something. Ended up with my average at 24.0. Finished 8th out of 39 I think.

Next up is the season finale on October 10th in Greenville.

Week 22 24.2 average @ 252 watts = 25:45 (official)
Week 20 24.7 average @ 264 watts = 24:56 (25:01 official)
Week 18 24.4 average @ 264 watts = 25:26 (official)
Week 16 24.4 average @ 259 watts = 25:25 (official)
Week 15 24.0 average @ 239 watts = 26:01 (official)
Week 14 24.4 average @ 262 watts = 25:13 (official)
Weak 13 24.2 average @ 249 watts = 25:53 (official)
Week 12 24.7 average @ 265 watts=24:58 (25:00 official)
Week 11 24.4 average @ 270 watts = 25:13
Week 10 25.0 average @ 259 watts = 24:52
Week 9: 25.0 average @ 259 watts = 24:42 (official)
Week 8: 24.5 average @ 255 watts = 25:10 (powertap) 25:18 (official)
Week 5: 24.7 average @ 257 watts = 25:00 (my time), 25:07 (official)
Week 4: 24.7 average @ 257 watts = 25:13 (official time)
Week 3: 24.4 average @ 271 watts (wrong) = 25:17
Week 2: 24.3 average @ 250 watts = 25:33
Week 1: 24.2 average @ 242 watts = 25:47

Race #37 Cleves

190th race since 2005.

The weather was absolutely perfect and led to a good third of the field getting personal best times. Not my case though but it was my third fastest time this year in 16 attempts. From the get-go on the warm up I did not have that heavy feeling in my legs. My guess is that is heat related since I spend most of the day in air conditioning then when I go outside to race it feels much more hot than if I spent the day outside. I guess.

Earlier in the day, we had a laser therapy sales rep in the office. I had him do a five minute treatment on my right knee (the bad one) just so I could get a subjective opinion on the thing. I had been having some pain there recently so it was cool to check it out. During the warmup and race there was absolutely no pain. That was cool.

Anyway, I felt pretty good on the bike overall and had a decent power output and time. Nothing real exciting to report about the race. I did get passed by someone around the 8 mile mark and after he had a good enough gap to not be drafting, I tried to pace him back to the finish. That helped out my time quite a bit.

Two more weeks of this race then it's over until next year.

Week 20 24.7 average @ 264 watts = 24:56 (25:01 official)
Week 18 24.4 average @ 264 watts = 25:26 (official)
Week 16 24.4 average @ 259 watts = 25:25 (official)
Week 15 24.0 average @ 239 watts = 26:01 (official)
Week 14 24.4 average @ 262 watts = 25:13 (official)
Weak 13 24.2 average @ 249 watts = 25:53 (official)
Week 12 24.7 average @ 265 watts=24:58 (25:00 official)
Week 11 24.4 average @ 270 watts = 25:13
Week 10 25.0 average @ 259 watts = 24:52
Week 9: 25.0 average @ 259 watts = 24:42 (official)
Week 8: 24.5 average @ 255 watts = 25:10 (powertap) 25:18 (official)
Week 5: 24.7 average @ 257 watts = 25:00 (my time), 25:07 (official)
Week 4: 24.7 average @ 257 watts = 25:13 (official time)
Week 3: 24.4 average @ 271 watts (wrong) = 25:17
Week 2: 24.3 average @ 250 watts = 25:33
Week 1: 24.2 average @ 242 watts = 25:47

Race #36 Colavita Centerville Indiana 20k

Sunday was a time trial at a new course for the series. A 20k out and back over mostly flat rural roads. My kind of race course! My start time was 9:07 so per usual I was up and out early with a 1.5 hour drive ahead of me. After too much loitering around I took about 20 minutes to warm up on the trainer then headed to the start house for the pregame meeting and finished warming up around the finish line.

The race started with an immediate left then right turn before settling into things. Legs felt as good as they have all year and my average was 25 at the turn. After turning, I realized there was a slight tail wind going out! It was just enough to hold my speed down by 1 mph. I finished with a 24.5 average good enough for 7th out of 12 in the 40-49 division. A couple of Zipp Factory riders took first and second in our group. They don't usually race in Ohio so we don't see them very often.

As a door prize I won a Spinervals DVD which will certainly get used over the winter.

The long drive home gave me ample opportunity to internally debate what lies ahead.

Number 1 - Due to my back problems, I am not doing any more cyclocross stuff this year. I end up in too much pain the next day to justify the riding. It’s over and above what’s now the ‘normal’ back pain I am having. As opposed to buying any more cycling gear I am going to be spending money to fix my back. It’s going to be a long process, so I guess it’s good that the season is almost over (for me). The back won’t be fixed overnight.

Number 2 – With the long drive and bad results it’s making me really debate doing the series next year. In the four years that the series has been around I think I have missed two races, one when I was in Peru and the other was when I was in Scotland, both acceptable reasons for no showing! Until I get the other health situation straightened out it makes no sense to make the long drives to Celina/St Marys/Portland In., etc. Over the winter, I intend to train very hard, among other things to get myself back to health to a standard acceptable. Before all this crap started, I was approaching 27.5 mph average (even hitting 28.0 once) in my 5 mile training trials and was nearing the 26.0 barrier in actual races. I’ve hit the 25mph twice this year with an even slicker position than ever. Wattage went from high 200’s (I hit 313 average for a short tt) down to the 250-260 mark.

I love the series and the effort that is put out by Roger and Christina (and everyone else), but a four hour round trip drive to ride 24 mph is stupid and depressing.

Number 3 – I’ve racing four more times this year. I’m finishing out the Cleves and Colavita series. Three more races at Cleves and one race in Greenville for the Colavita series. Luckily, my back doesn’t hurt during time trials.

Next up: Tomorrow at Cleves!

#35 Kings CXTT

Last race of the series. Running start again so that meant I had to jump on the bike 9 times (and off of it 8 times). Can't ride through the sand traps yet so I had to jump off and run through them. Plus I had to jump off on the little section in the woods, jump the little log, run the sand and run up the hill. Twice.

My back was completely destroyed after 1.5 laps but kept riding gingerly for the last half lap. I think I need shocks on my cross bike or something. Ouch. My ability to generate power was drastically cut from my back being out.

I placed 8th overall in the series. For some reason last week's score for me wasn't calculated so it has me at 10th overall or something officially but there's no money in it and it was for fun so no big deal.

Next up: Colavita Centerville Indiana Sunday.

Race #34, etc

Last Thursday was the Kings Cross time trial. Lots has happened since.

1. I can't do the kings cross races. I previously committed to something else about 6 months ago and just realized it.
2. I raced the time trial and did okay. 12th out of 17. The woman on the single speed passed me again! She gave me a 'good job' and all I could retort with was some sort of grunt.
3. Rode the MTB Saturday on 6 miles of single track at Mitchell Memorial. Got home and took the cross bike to Kingswood for some solo practice.
4. Wrecked hard within 10 minutes, beating my shoulder and head to the hard ground. No cracked helmet but it gave me a head ache for all of Sunday. Shoulder is still bothering me. Bike is fine.
5. Skipped out on the Cleves time trial last night since I was working in Dayton. As is the new norm, I took my Orbea with me and did some road riding on the old school roads late in the evening. Windy every direction - there's no place like home.
6. Last cross time trial is tomorrow. I should be able to make it.

Race #33 Cleves TT

Unfortunately, the illness still lingers and the unrelated meds are making me sluggish (and incredibly hungry which sucks big time). I was hoping that would not be the case. Anyway, it was another hot Tuesday and I was met with fresh pavement on the finishing climb (as I reversed the course per usual).

During the warm up I kept checking to see if my brakes were rubbing at the top of every little roller. Rats! They weren't, but I checked about 15 times anyway. And checked again after the warm up and checked once more at the start line.

The goal was to try and maintain 25.0 mph. Oops I think I maxed out at 24.9 before settling into 23.9 toward the flat run up to the finish (last 2.5-3 miles). Ended up at 24.4 for the night.

Week 18 24.4 average @ 264 watts = 25:26 (official)
Week 16 24.4 average @ 259 watts = 25:25 (official)
Week 15 24.0 average @ 239 watts = 26:01 (official)
Week 14 24.4 average @ 262 watts = 25:13 (official)
Weak 13 24.2 average @ 249 watts = 25:53 (official)
Week 12 24.7 average @ 265 watts=24:58 (25:00 official)
Week 11 24.4 average @ 270 watts = 25:13
Week 10 25.0 average @ 259 watts = 24:52
Week 9: 25.0 average @ 259 watts = 24:42 (official)
Week 8: 24.5 average @ 255 watts = 25:10 (powertap) 25:18 (official)
Week 5: 24.7 average @ 257 watts = 25:00 (my time), 25:07 (official)
Week 4: 24.7 average @ 257 watts = 25:13 (official time)
Week 3: 24.4 average @ 271 watts (wrong) = 25:17
Week 2: 24.3 average @ 250 watts = 25:33
Week 1: 24.2 average @ 242 watts = 25:47

Next race tomorrow - Kings CXTT.

Speed post

Race #32 Colavita Portland. 3rd place in the 40-49 group. Bad bad bad power, okay speed for the lack of power.

No time trial tonight as I worked in Dayton. At least I took my bike with me and got 1.5 hours in on my old flat windy roads of Butler Township!

No race Thursday either. Next race is next Tuesday.

Byeeeeeeeee..............

Race #31 Kings CXTT

Short and sweet. 17 riders, 12th place. Saw another single speed racing as she zoomed past me. Course was much more technical this week. Well, it wasn't actually technical before. My back wheel went out on me a few times, mostly because of the off-camber stuff. Opted to run through the sand pit than to even attempt to ride through it.

Next up, 20 mile Colavita time trial in Indiana on Sunday.

Race #30 Cleves TT

Still sick, had no lungs so I opted for a slower cadence. My new cassette really helped. I now have a 13-23, replacing the 12-27 resulting in a tighter group. 13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,23 I think.

Next up is replacing the Giro. Yuck.

Week 16 24.4 average @ 259 watts = 25:25 (official)
Week 15 24.0 average @ 239 watts = 26:01 (official)
Week 14 24.4 average @ 262 watts = 25:13 (official)
Weak 13 24.2 average @ 249 watts = 25:53 (official)
Week 12 24.7 average @ 265 watts=24:58 (25:00 official)
Week 11 24.4 average @ 270 watts = 25:13
Week 10 25.0 average @ 259 watts = 24:52
Week 9: 25.0 average @ 259 watts = 24:42 (official)
Week 8: 24.5 average @ 255 watts = 25:10 (powertap) 25:18 (official)
Week 5: 24.7 average @ 257 watts = 25:00 (my time), 25:07 (official)
Week 4: 24.7 average @ 257 watts = 25:13 (official time)
Week 3: 24.4 average @ 271 watts (wrong) = 25:17
Week 2: 24.3 average @ 250 watts = 25:33
Week 1: 24.2 average @ 242 watts = 25:47

Races #28 and #29

I forgot to write up about the Cleves time trial on Tuesday so this post is a 2-for-1!

I've been sick all week but that didn't stop me from racing two out of the last three days. Yes it was quite stupid and now I'm probably not going to ride until 'whenever'. Maybe next Tuesday.

Cleves was bad and I couldn't generate any power whatsoever. Worst time of the year and naturally the worst wattage.

Week 15 24.0 average @ 239 watts = 26:01 (official)
Week 14 24.4 average @ 262 watts = 25:13 (official)
Weak 13 24.2 average @ 249 watts = 25:53 (official)
Week 12 24.7 average @ 265 watts=24:58 (25:00 official)
Week 11 24.4 average @ 270 watts = 25:13
Week 10 25.0 average @ 259 watts = 24:52
Week 9: 25.0 average @ 259 watts = 24:42 (official)
Week 8: 24.5 average @ 255 watts = 25:10 (powertap) 25:18 (official)
Week 5: 24.7 average @ 257 watts = 25:00 (my time), 25:07 (official)
Week 4: 24.7 average @ 257 watts = 25:13 (official time)
Week 3: 24.4 average @ 271 watts (wrong) = 25:17
Week 2: 24.3 average @ 250 watts = 25:33
Week 1: 24.2 average @ 242 watts = 25:47

Thursday I did the Kings Cross time trial. As said earlier, I upgraded to the two lap intermediate division. Still feeling sick I gave it a go anyway. Lap one went fine but halfway through lap two my back locked up. I've been having back issues for a long while now and it really affected me. Due to the layout of the course, I could have easily quit twice on the last lap, but gutted it out and finished 13th out of 16 riders. Out of 42 total riders, I was the only person with a single speed. It was still fun, but my back was killing me when it all was said and done.

Now it's time to get back to health and get over this cold or whatever it is. Yuck!

Rest of the year

Tentative schedule with anticipated race number for the year (because I can't add)

8-10 cleves #28
8-11 Blue streak - MAYBE
8-12 kings CX #29
8-17 Cleves #30
8-19 kings cx #31
8-22 Colavita Richmond (racing twice) #32 #33
8-24 cleves #34
8-31 cleves #35
9-2 kings cx #36
9-7 cleves #37
9-8 blue streak - MAYBE
9-9 kings CX #38
9-12 Colavita portland In (racing twice) #39 #40
9-14 cleves #41
9-18 kings cross (at least doing the single speed division) #42
9-19 kings cross (same as above) #43
9-21 cleves #44
9-28 cleves #45
10-10 Colavita greenville (racing twice) #46 #47
10-13 blue streak (maybe)

Not sure how many cross races I will do, but I will at least do the first of the OVCX series because of the single speed category. Anything else will be 35+ cat 4 group.

Rumor has it there are going to be some winter cross races down here. If that becomes fact, I'll try to get there...

Race #27 PUR Tour

The last road/crit/circuit race I did was in fact the PUR Tour of 2009 over a year ago. I've done one group ride since then that I can remember and that was in February.

22 old farts started the 40+ race. Three guys from Huntington and a smattering of other teams. Huntington played it smart and kept sending out one guy at a time. He was caught and another went, etc. I found myself on the front chasing for a lap and died on the hill. Popped off with 1.5 laps to go. Finished by myself in 22nd place. Huntington took 1st, 2nd and 3rd place. It was necessary for me to maintain about 420 watts up the hill each time (I forget how long each climb was in seconds). I couldn't keep that up the 2nd to last time, that's why I popped.

Results

This week - Cleves TT, Blue Streak (maybe) and Kings CXTT

Race #26 Kings CXTT

Oops.

Not having ever done a cross race, I opted for the one lap beginner category. Then I noticed there were a bunch of kids and no kids category.

At least I was on a single speed cross bike. That's my excuse for the 2nd place finish.

The course was awesome, up and back three times along an old, no longer open golf course. 4 miles total. Luckily, there were only a few bumps on the edges of the old fairways that resembled hills. Overall, it was hard with the single speed, but I managed a good time for my one lap. But I did get beat. By a 12 year old. Oh well, looking at his results he has been in many more cross races than me and had gears. So there!

Next week (it's a six week series) I will ride the intermediate, two lap race where if I took my single lap time and doubled it would put me toward the bottom end of the field. But that's cool, there's no money in it and it's really fun.

Next race, the PUR Tour tomorrow.