Last year I created my best of 2005 series which was more reminiscing than anything, but it was fun so without further ado, here is my best of the 2006 season…..
Teammates: You learn about your teammates when you spend so much time with them. Forget about CSC’s survival training camp….StarkVelo has Boone! Nothing builds camaraderie like a little suffering on the Blue Ridge Parkway and a little dinner at the ole’ Golden Corral. By the way, never eat at the Golden Corral. Stark Velo is made up of some great individuals. Everyone is selfless and I have learned that I have made some very good friends by simply riding my bike. I am so looking to next year’s trip. Is it April yet?
Best Race. While working to protect team leaders Carl Peshoff and Mike Schiltz, I was able to snag my best result of the season during the first road race of the Summer Solstice stage race.
Worst Race Experience, Part I: My worst experience while in a team kit was at the same race I mentioned above. Here I was witness to a talented racer named Bret Neylon seriously injure himself in the Cat 3 finish. Seeing an accident like that tends to make you think about whether this is really worth it or not.
Worst Race Experience, Part II: The Summer Solstice Stage Race. Ok, so it seems sort of contradictory that I list this as my best and worst race. The races were fine, except for the Friday evening Crit, it was just the organization, or lack thereof that made it a horrible experience. I said this in a previous post but although I congratulate them on their enthusiasm, I have to criticize them on their ability to successfully pull this off. Next year, please do some more planning and get some more help to pull this off. A team of two or three people obviously doesn’t work.
Miles: I rode 5,274 miles this year. Not bad considering I essentially stopped riding in mid August with the birth of my second son, William.
Best Investment, Part I: I’d say working with Charles Howe to set up a structured training plan this year. With the purchase of a Power Tap last fall, I wanted help figuring this thing out. Working with a coach or consultant was sort of like getting the cliff notes to “The Grapes of Wrath.” Cliff Notes are a nice way to get an easy and quick understanding of a big concept. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still reading the novel, but for me the novel is a lot easier to digest when you have an understanding of the concepts described within.
Best Investment, Part II: Cervelo. Need I say more?
Goals: My big goal for next year is to upgrade to Cat III sometime during the later part of the season. This is fairly lofty considering my lack of intense riding these past few months. This will be the comeback of the century!
brian
12.28.2006
12.27.2006
Elves & More Delivery Day!
I apologize for not keeping more up to date on the blog. I think I’ve apologized before in the past but in all honesty, it’s been so long since I’ve written anything I sort of forget where I left off at. As most of you are aware by now, I’m involved in a charity with two of my friends (Tim House & Jim Flesher) called Elves & More, Northeast Ohio. I won’t go too much in depth about who we are or what we do, instead let me refer you to our website for more information. The past few weeks have been chaotic to say the least. There are a lot of stories that Tim, Jim and I could share about everything it took to put this together, but the truly important thing is that on the day it mattered, everything went off without a hitch.
When Saturday morning came, I was like a kid at Christmas, filled with so much anticipation that sleeping was difficult. I’d had sleepless nights earlier in the month, but that was due to some stress of pulling this thing off….again, going back to some of those stories I mentioned earlier. In our first year we were able to gift over 400 kids! That’s amazing considering we only started fundraising in June and our expectation was to reach 100 kids. On Saturday morning, all of the hard work and planning had paid off. I’m not sure it really hit me that we were really doing this until I was sitting in the bus, driving down Cedar Avenue in the middle of a long police escort on the way to our first neighborhood. I had to take a second to compose myself before I could even finish the conversation that I was having. Seeing the big train weaving its way through Akron was a beautiful site, almost as touching as seeing the kids we were visiting smile, laugh and most importantly of all play! The other thing that touched me was seeing everyone run out to the edge of the street as we were leaving waving goodbye and thanks.
Rolling into each of the neighborhoods was a ton of fun. Here was this huge train of vehicles coming and they had no idea what we were up to. All of those kids woke up that morning having no idea how their life was about to change. As one of the organizers of the event, I spent a lot of time near the truck off-loading bikes and getting gifts into the volunteer hands (Just like Tim & Jim did). On one of the few runs that I did get to make, I saw one of the mothers of two kids crying in joy for what we were doing for them. Seeing that sight confirmed that what we were doing was right. Its so cliché but the joy of this time of the year is in the giving and not in the receiving. For so many years I’ve always said that but it probably wasn’t until this year that I really truly grasped this concept. I can honestly say that I could have received absolutely nothing for Christmas and that the experience I had of doing all of this was more than enough for me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m way grateful for that iPod shuffle I got, but it wasn’t necessary at all. I am looking forward to driving by these neighborhoods in the near future and seeing the kids out playing on the bikes that I played a small part in getting for them.
So what’s next? Well, first off I need to get back on the bike. Once that happens, I can begin thinking about our 2007 campaign. We’ve said, and it’s been published now that our goal for next year is to provide 1000 bikes. Sitting here today, a year away, I can see that this is a very realistic goal. I hope that each and everyone of you reading this can be a part of next years experience.
brian
When Saturday morning came, I was like a kid at Christmas, filled with so much anticipation that sleeping was difficult. I’d had sleepless nights earlier in the month, but that was due to some stress of pulling this thing off….again, going back to some of those stories I mentioned earlier. In our first year we were able to gift over 400 kids! That’s amazing considering we only started fundraising in June and our expectation was to reach 100 kids. On Saturday morning, all of the hard work and planning had paid off. I’m not sure it really hit me that we were really doing this until I was sitting in the bus, driving down Cedar Avenue in the middle of a long police escort on the way to our first neighborhood. I had to take a second to compose myself before I could even finish the conversation that I was having. Seeing the big train weaving its way through Akron was a beautiful site, almost as touching as seeing the kids we were visiting smile, laugh and most importantly of all play! The other thing that touched me was seeing everyone run out to the edge of the street as we were leaving waving goodbye and thanks.
Rolling into each of the neighborhoods was a ton of fun. Here was this huge train of vehicles coming and they had no idea what we were up to. All of those kids woke up that morning having no idea how their life was about to change. As one of the organizers of the event, I spent a lot of time near the truck off-loading bikes and getting gifts into the volunteer hands (Just like Tim & Jim did). On one of the few runs that I did get to make, I saw one of the mothers of two kids crying in joy for what we were doing for them. Seeing that sight confirmed that what we were doing was right. Its so cliché but the joy of this time of the year is in the giving and not in the receiving. For so many years I’ve always said that but it probably wasn’t until this year that I really truly grasped this concept. I can honestly say that I could have received absolutely nothing for Christmas and that the experience I had of doing all of this was more than enough for me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m way grateful for that iPod shuffle I got, but it wasn’t necessary at all. I am looking forward to driving by these neighborhoods in the near future and seeing the kids out playing on the bikes that I played a small part in getting for them.
So what’s next? Well, first off I need to get back on the bike. Once that happens, I can begin thinking about our 2007 campaign. We’ve said, and it’s been published now that our goal for next year is to provide 1000 bikes. Sitting here today, a year away, I can see that this is a very realistic goal. I hope that each and everyone of you reading this can be a part of next years experience.
brian
11.22.2006
Will I ever make it back?
For as long as its been that I've posted anything here even remotely related to cycling, its been at least that long since I felt like I truly have been out training. Sure, I've been on my bike once a week (maybe), but those were fun rides down into the valley and nothing too serious. As I've seen one of my teammates jokingly post recently, I'm currently in my de-training program and any true physical exercise would just throw my plan off. In fact, I think I'm now starting to train towards a new goal....making it to NBC's hit show "The Biggest Loser." OK, so I've not really been that bad but it is funny how quickly all that hard work in weight loss and fitness disappears. It takes months of effort to get your body in shape and it can all be gone in a few bad weeks.So when do I get out of this rut? Well, I've been waiting for Will to start sleeping through the night so I can get up before work to ride but I'm not sure when that's going to happen any time soon so I need to commit. I'm committing to December 2nd for my serious program to begin. I've got some big ground to make up but putting the ice cream away and shaving the legs once again just might be that little bit of extra motivation that I need.
Until next time,
brian
11.15.2006
10.21.2006
Lake High School Class of 1991, 15 year reunion
Well, tonight was my 15 year high school reunion. This was the first time in 15 years that I would be seeing most of my classmates as my graduating class didn’t have a five year reunion and when the 10 year occurred; my wife and I were traveling through Europe. I did decide however that I had to go this year. There was no way I could wait another five years, after all I’m still relatively fit and I still have all of my hair. Who knows, in another five years I could be an absolute mess. The other added benefit for me was that it was being held only a few minutes away from my house and that it cost only $5. I kept saying that even if it was lame, I could leave early and at least I knew it sucked.
After getting all cleaned up and putting on a new pair of clothes, Jen and I ventured over to the Olde Harbor Inn in the Portage Lakes. I knew for a fact that two of my good friends with whom I still keep in contact with weren’t going to be there, but I was hoping that some of my friends who I had lost contact with would be. Walking into the space, I was relieved that I could recognize peoples faces but that was probably due to the fact that I had looked through my old yearbook a few nights prior to. In no time, I began finding old acquaintances to talk with. The problem is because they were just acquaintances in school, the chit-chat ended fairly quickly as the questions and answers became very routine from person to person. I told Jen going into this that this night would either be over very quickly, or it would be very late. You can guess for yourself since I’m home writing this in the same evening which of the two it turned out being. The problem I have is that I wanted much more out of this reunion then what I got. I don’t know if that’s my fault or if there’s really anyone to blame but standing there, looking and talking with everyone, it seemed as though everything was the same and no one really changed. The same people who hang out together in high school hung out there tonight and didn’t socialize much further than that small circle. Snobs were still snobs, jocks were still jocks and punks were still punks. I will admit that there were a couple of guys that I didn’t know well in school who I had some good conversations with and they appeared to be genuinely nice people. Makes me wish I had more opportunities in school to get to know them better.
One thing I learned tonight was that success can be measured in many different ways. The old cliché of trying to outdo others to show success is bull shit. So much of high school and even college was trying to outdo the competition (i.e. classmates) to make you feel better about yourself by getting good grades. For a part of my life that I thought defined who I was, it turned out that it didn’t at all. It’s not important whether I ended up being a professional athlete, a world famous rock musician or a trash man as long as I’m happy in what I’m doing. From this architect, a husband of almost 10 years and father of two happy and healthy boys, that’s all the success that I need in life, everything else is just icing on the cake.
The bottom line is that there is no bottom line. I left there feeling disappointed that the night didn’t turn out differently. I’m not sure what I expected, but it certainly wasn’t that. Will I go to the 20 year reunion? Probably not. It’s not enough for me to be drawn back wondering who got fat, bald and divorced. Maybe I’ve grown up.
brian
After getting all cleaned up and putting on a new pair of clothes, Jen and I ventured over to the Olde Harbor Inn in the Portage Lakes. I knew for a fact that two of my good friends with whom I still keep in contact with weren’t going to be there, but I was hoping that some of my friends who I had lost contact with would be. Walking into the space, I was relieved that I could recognize peoples faces but that was probably due to the fact that I had looked through my old yearbook a few nights prior to. In no time, I began finding old acquaintances to talk with. The problem is because they were just acquaintances in school, the chit-chat ended fairly quickly as the questions and answers became very routine from person to person. I told Jen going into this that this night would either be over very quickly, or it would be very late. You can guess for yourself since I’m home writing this in the same evening which of the two it turned out being. The problem I have is that I wanted much more out of this reunion then what I got. I don’t know if that’s my fault or if there’s really anyone to blame but standing there, looking and talking with everyone, it seemed as though everything was the same and no one really changed. The same people who hang out together in high school hung out there tonight and didn’t socialize much further than that small circle. Snobs were still snobs, jocks were still jocks and punks were still punks. I will admit that there were a couple of guys that I didn’t know well in school who I had some good conversations with and they appeared to be genuinely nice people. Makes me wish I had more opportunities in school to get to know them better.
One thing I learned tonight was that success can be measured in many different ways. The old cliché of trying to outdo others to show success is bull shit. So much of high school and even college was trying to outdo the competition (i.e. classmates) to make you feel better about yourself by getting good grades. For a part of my life that I thought defined who I was, it turned out that it didn’t at all. It’s not important whether I ended up being a professional athlete, a world famous rock musician or a trash man as long as I’m happy in what I’m doing. From this architect, a husband of almost 10 years and father of two happy and healthy boys, that’s all the success that I need in life, everything else is just icing on the cake.
The bottom line is that there is no bottom line. I left there feeling disappointed that the night didn’t turn out differently. I’m not sure what I expected, but it certainly wasn’t that. Will I go to the 20 year reunion? Probably not. It’s not enough for me to be drawn back wondering who got fat, bald and divorced. Maybe I’ve grown up.
brian
10.18.2006
Site Redesign
Like all things in life, this site was ready for a redesign. I'm not sure I'm totally sold on it yet as its hard to go away from the classic black, but I'll keep tweaking it for the next few days until I find something I like.
brian
brian
10.17.2006
William's Baptism
It's been a long time since I've posted here, just way too much going on to take a few moments away from the family to do a little posting. Last weekend was Will's baptism. This picture shows him in his outfit. It's hard to believe that he's already 8 weeks old. Actually, what's hard to believe is that I haven't been on my bike more than once or twice a week for the past 8 weeks! Better get started soon or else next season will be painful.
brian
9.09.2006
Elves and More, North East Ohio
It’s been a few weeks since I’ve last updated the blog so I figured it was time I do something with this. As you can all imagine, things have been fairly hectic with the new baby in the house, so riding time has been fairly minimal, and hence no racing and no race reports. So, what else have I been busy doing besides changing diapers? Helping out with a local non-profit that two of my teammates, Jim Flesher and Tim House started; Elves and More, NEO. I remember reading in my Bicycling magazine a few years ago about this guy in Texas who was giving away 20,000 bikes a year to underprivileged kids in the Houston area and I thought what a cool idea and how nice it would be to be a part of something like that. Well, I’m happy to say that I’m now apart of something like that, only not nearly on that scale, yet. This year our hopes are that we can give away 100 bikes to kids in the Akron area. The concept is that we give every kid a Christmas gift in a selected area, so that every kid gets something and no one is left out. There are no prequalification that kids have to do, no forms to fill out, they just need to be a kid and they just need to be home when we come to their area. This is a crazy concept and something that is never done, so it will be interesting to see how it works out. The other idea behind this that makes it somewhat unusual is that we will simply arrive in an area, with no notice to the residents. This helps it be a complete surprise, and it will also guarantee that kids from outside the neighborhood don’t show up looking for bikes. I know this seems cruel but lets face it, whether we are giving away 10 bikes or 20,000, if everyone knew where and when you were giving away a free bike, then there would be no way you could ever have enough bikes for everyone. There’s always next year and the chance that we’ll visit their neighborhood.
So why am I telling this? Why of course because we are still in need of donations. I’d recommend if you haven’t done so all ready, please visit our website: http://www.elvesandmoreneo.org/
On the website, you will find more information on us and how you can help us reach our goals. Thanks.
brian
So why am I telling this? Why of course because we are still in need of donations. I’d recommend if you haven’t done so all ready, please visit our website: http://www.elvesandmoreneo.org/
On the website, you will find more information on us and how you can help us reach our goals. Thanks.
brian
8.20.2006
Another Picture
This is William's namesake, my grandfather and his great-grandfather, Ned Bair Miner.
8.17.2006
William Bair Miner
This morning, at 8:18 a.m., our son William Bair Miner made his appearance onto this grand stage called life. Let me just say first here as I'm sure that there are questions on the middle name. Bair is a family name on my side. It is my grandfather's middle name along with my great-grandmothers maiden name. As I'm finally sitting down to write this thing at 10:00 at night, please note that I've only had about one hour of sleep since Tuesday, so I apologize in advance if I start not making sense at some point during this post. William is our second son so you can say that if my goal was to produce boys, I'm batting 1000 right now. That's a much better batting average than any MLB hitter. Of course, our hopes were only for a happy, healthy baby and that's what we've been blessed with.
The story of how he entered this world is fairly straightforward and for the sake of not being too graphic I'll give you the condensed version. Having a hunch that this baby would follow in the footsteps of his older brother, we weren't too surprised by having to go to the E.R. today at 1:00 in the morning, almost 3 weeks prior to his official due date. Of course I'm thinking why are all of my kids refusing to be born in the evening, allowing me a great nights sleep prior to the delivery? Actually what I should have been thinking was allowing Jen a decent nights sleep prior to delivery as she's the one doing all the work, I'm only a mediocre coach at best. After a bad experience in the first delivery with a bad epidural, Jen decided to try and go au' natural on this one. I was a little worried as I've seen those movies where women are screaming at their husbands, threatening their lives while pulling the hair out of their heads in the midst of delivery and I didn't want to be in that guy. Fortunately, Jen is awesome and even when she's feeling her absolute worst; she is still a remarkable woman to be around. I'm very lucky to have found her.
After some rough contractions and a few moments of pushing, William graced us with his presence. It turns out that being three weeks early isn't the only thing he has in common with Nicholas. They both weighed exactly the same, 7 lbs., 14 oz. and their length was similar as well with William coming in at 21 inches long. Both Jen and William are doing great, tired but great.
I'd like to say thank you to the nurses in the labor department at Akron City Hospital. Our nurses, Chris and Linda were absolutely amazing professionals. I don't know what the hospital is paying them, but it's not nearly enough. I only wish that everyone was as dedicated, knowledgeable and enthusiastic about their job as these two ladies are. I can say without a doubt that with their help, it made the experience much easier on Jennifer and me.
brian
The story of how he entered this world is fairly straightforward and for the sake of not being too graphic I'll give you the condensed version. Having a hunch that this baby would follow in the footsteps of his older brother, we weren't too surprised by having to go to the E.R. today at 1:00 in the morning, almost 3 weeks prior to his official due date. Of course I'm thinking why are all of my kids refusing to be born in the evening, allowing me a great nights sleep prior to the delivery? Actually what I should have been thinking was allowing Jen a decent nights sleep prior to delivery as she's the one doing all the work, I'm only a mediocre coach at best. After a bad experience in the first delivery with a bad epidural, Jen decided to try and go au' natural on this one. I was a little worried as I've seen those movies where women are screaming at their husbands, threatening their lives while pulling the hair out of their heads in the midst of delivery and I didn't want to be in that guy. Fortunately, Jen is awesome and even when she's feeling her absolute worst; she is still a remarkable woman to be around. I'm very lucky to have found her.
After some rough contractions and a few moments of pushing, William graced us with his presence. It turns out that being three weeks early isn't the only thing he has in common with Nicholas. They both weighed exactly the same, 7 lbs., 14 oz. and their length was similar as well with William coming in at 21 inches long. Both Jen and William are doing great, tired but great.
I'd like to say thank you to the nurses in the labor department at Akron City Hospital. Our nurses, Chris and Linda were absolutely amazing professionals. I don't know what the hospital is paying them, but it's not nearly enough. I only wish that everyone was as dedicated, knowledgeable and enthusiastic about their job as these two ladies are. I can say without a doubt that with their help, it made the experience much easier on Jennifer and me.
brian
8.14.2006
Orrville Milk Race
It was nice to see some friendly faces at this morning’s Orrville Milk Race. The 8 friendly faces of my teammates who would line up with me in the Cat 4 field were; Mike Schiltz, Scott Brunner, Don Bunker, Jim Flesher, Tim House, Marshall Leininger, Erik Lesco, Carl Peshoff. I had originally sworn this race off last year when it was a combined cat 4/5 field but when I saw it was broken out into separate fields, I had to take another stab at it. Hats off to the Orrville cycling club for a well run event. Easy registration, plenty of marshals on all the road intersections, nice smooth roads and a police escort have all the makings for a good event.
Being officially on baby watch (I didn’t have my cell phone on me during the race, but I did give it to Jim’s wife Vicki) I was hoping I would make it through the race without getting ‘the call.’ This race was three laps long and the race can be described fairly generically lap by lap:
Lap 1: Fast with several attacks. Our own Jim Flesher led a move that looked good except that one of the three teams with significant numbers racing, Allied Decals wasn’t present. I didn’t think they could do it, but between their efforts and the riders off the front beginning to tire, the break was brought back right before the start/finish line. That was a bummer because I was looking to get off the front at the start line once they were back to try and grab one of the primes but with the high speed and pseudo mass confusion usually present by overtaking riders, I didn’t go for it. I was also suffering too much at this point to try and elevate the already high pace and I was just looking to conserve some energy to finish the remainder of the race. It was also at that point that I began thinking that maybe it would be nice if I did indeed get ‘the call.’ Not being waved down from Vicki, I decided to stick it out for at least one more lap.
Lap 2: Things seemed to slow down on this race as everyone was probably suffering as much as I was. I don’t remember any moves at all going on this lap until we got close to the second prime, which was won by Mike. No ‘call’ waiting for me so why not finish this thing out!
Lap 3: This lap picked up momentum once again as the official tour guide, Marshall pulled the field around the course. On the last time up the climb, a small group got off the front containing Don, Steve from Orrville and one rider I wasn’t familiar with. This turned out to be the move as Stark and Orrville became effective at shutting things down, as there were a lot of attempts at guys trying to get across the gap. It was nice to see all the teams racing strategically for a change. That’s not typically what you see in Cat 4 races which have been stereotyped as ‘sit and sprints.’ With the break safely up the road it would come down to the bunch sprint for scraps in the main field. I didn’t have great position in the field so I decided that since the payout was the same whether I placed 8th or 20th, I’d take it easy and not contest it. Better to finish with both wheels upright.
For all those wondering, I’m still waiting for ‘the call’ from my wife. I’ll keep you posted.
Here are the numbers for the day. Much tougher race than I thought while racing it. (Note, I was suffering but I thought it was just because I haven’t been able to log in quality miles.)
Duration: 1:15:36
Work: 988 kJ
TSS: 112.2 (intensity factor 0.944)
Norm Power: 283
Distance: 30.094 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 979 218 watts
Heart Rate: 50 185 164 bpm
Cadence: 29 141 96 rpm
Speed: 2.7 40.9 23.9 mph
Torque: 0 342 65 lb-in
Being officially on baby watch (I didn’t have my cell phone on me during the race, but I did give it to Jim’s wife Vicki) I was hoping I would make it through the race without getting ‘the call.’ This race was three laps long and the race can be described fairly generically lap by lap:
Lap 1: Fast with several attacks. Our own Jim Flesher led a move that looked good except that one of the three teams with significant numbers racing, Allied Decals wasn’t present. I didn’t think they could do it, but between their efforts and the riders off the front beginning to tire, the break was brought back right before the start/finish line. That was a bummer because I was looking to get off the front at the start line once they were back to try and grab one of the primes but with the high speed and pseudo mass confusion usually present by overtaking riders, I didn’t go for it. I was also suffering too much at this point to try and elevate the already high pace and I was just looking to conserve some energy to finish the remainder of the race. It was also at that point that I began thinking that maybe it would be nice if I did indeed get ‘the call.’ Not being waved down from Vicki, I decided to stick it out for at least one more lap.
Lap 2: Things seemed to slow down on this race as everyone was probably suffering as much as I was. I don’t remember any moves at all going on this lap until we got close to the second prime, which was won by Mike. No ‘call’ waiting for me so why not finish this thing out!
Lap 3: This lap picked up momentum once again as the official tour guide, Marshall pulled the field around the course. On the last time up the climb, a small group got off the front containing Don, Steve from Orrville and one rider I wasn’t familiar with. This turned out to be the move as Stark and Orrville became effective at shutting things down, as there were a lot of attempts at guys trying to get across the gap. It was nice to see all the teams racing strategically for a change. That’s not typically what you see in Cat 4 races which have been stereotyped as ‘sit and sprints.’ With the break safely up the road it would come down to the bunch sprint for scraps in the main field. I didn’t have great position in the field so I decided that since the payout was the same whether I placed 8th or 20th, I’d take it easy and not contest it. Better to finish with both wheels upright.
For all those wondering, I’m still waiting for ‘the call’ from my wife. I’ll keep you posted.
Here are the numbers for the day. Much tougher race than I thought while racing it. (Note, I was suffering but I thought it was just because I haven’t been able to log in quality miles.)
Duration: 1:15:36
Work: 988 kJ
TSS: 112.2 (intensity factor 0.944)
Norm Power: 283
Distance: 30.094 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 979 218 watts
Heart Rate: 50 185 164 bpm
Cadence: 29 141 96 rpm
Speed: 2.7 40.9 23.9 mph
Torque: 0 342 65 lb-in
8.03.2006
2026 Tour preparations start
I never thought riding along at 6 mph would seem fast and dangerous. That was before I began following Nicholas around the neighborhood. We purchased him his first two-wheeler a few weeks ago and much to my delight, it's been almost nonstop riding for him ever since. I'm sad to say however that at first glance, it appears as though he's taking after me in his riding strengths and weaknesses. I determined this when he was looking for a friendly push up the small 'hills' in our neighborhood. Our favorite loop right now is riding down to Chestnut Blvd. and back which offers just over 2 1/2 miles worth of riding. I was extremely impressed the first time we did it and he wanted to keep going. I quickly talked him into going in the house for a bowl of ice cream however as that first ride took us about one hour to complete. Fortunately as he is getting more and more comfortable on the bike, the ride time has been getting reduced while we've begun to increase our distances.
As a guy who typically rides on roads the majority of the time and is always searching to find the 'smoothest' line, it was a nice reminder on how much fun it is to actually go out of your way to go through puddles, ride over manhole covers or to find every rise in concrete.
brian
7.23.2006
Chapel Series - Race 3
Last Thursday was the final race of the Chapel Series. This is a very well run event on a safe course so I'd recommend it to anyone wanting to try a race to come out next year and give it a try. My only suggestion to the organizers (If only I knew them personally!) would be to have another field which would be for the true citizen class. Since this race is sponsored by The Chapel, it always has parishioners coming out to give it a try. It would be nice (and safer) for those guys not to have to compete against guys who've been racing for years, and it might keep them hooked on the sport. Just my 2 cents.
This race once again saw another large field with 30+ riders taking the start line. I think we had 1/3 of the riders in the field. If memory serves me right, we had Tim and Samantha House, Marshall Leininger, Jim Flesher, Carl Peshoff, Matt Turi, Chris Smith, Eric Lesco, Karen Palmer and myself. I was a little worried that I may not make it when I got a flat tire during my warm up with about five minutes before the official start. Thanks to Jim for holding the start a few minutes for me and thanks to Carl for assisting in the quick change. With both tires fully inflated, we were off. The pace was quick all evening with several breaks taking place. Nothing seemed to stick since there was never an instance when all three teams were represented, so each and every time the missing entity would pull it back. Midway into the race Darrin took a solo flier off the front that lasted for about 8 laps. Since he wasn't a threat to the overall g.c. standings, everyone was content to let him hang out there, knowing full well that once the laps began counting down, we'd pull him back quickly. Sure enough, once we got to within a few minutes until they began counting down, Darrin was reeled back in. Like a good team, several attacks came but nothing was able to stick due to the quick pace of the group and everyone getting anxious about the finish. It was at this point that I decided that I'd better begin moving up closer to the front because up to this time, I was fairly content to sit mid-pack and watch what developed. Just as we were approaching two more laps to go, I decided to take a stab at getting off the front. This was a little sooner than I had hoped but all the cheering from the fans got the better of me and I decided to give it a go. Just like every attempt prior to this, this wasn't going anywhere. Carl and Noah (Allied Decals) were on my wheel and we had a small gap, but it was closed down quickly by Orrville. It was at this point that my breakaway move turned into a leadout. I knew that my fourth place overall wasn't worth defending and since there was little chance of me moving up into the final podium, I'd give it all I had to deliver Carl to the line as fresh as possible. This worked as I was able to get him to the start line and from there it was only a few hundred meters for him sprint in for first place in the race and to take the overall win for the series. From the start line to the finish line for me on the other hand was the longest ride of my life as I had completely spent myself and got passed by I think almost every rider remaining in the field. Oh well, I wasn't looking for glory that day.
brian
Here's the data for the evening:
Duration: 37:54
Work: 571 kJ
TSS: 58.8 (intensity factor 0.964)
Norm Power: 289
Distance: 15.531 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 953 251 watts
Heart Rate: 96 191 176 bpm
Cadence: 30 141 98 rpm
Speed: 2.9 30.1 24.5 mph
Torque: 0 352 68 lb-in
This race once again saw another large field with 30+ riders taking the start line. I think we had 1/3 of the riders in the field. If memory serves me right, we had Tim and Samantha House, Marshall Leininger, Jim Flesher, Carl Peshoff, Matt Turi, Chris Smith, Eric Lesco, Karen Palmer and myself. I was a little worried that I may not make it when I got a flat tire during my warm up with about five minutes before the official start. Thanks to Jim for holding the start a few minutes for me and thanks to Carl for assisting in the quick change. With both tires fully inflated, we were off. The pace was quick all evening with several breaks taking place. Nothing seemed to stick since there was never an instance when all three teams were represented, so each and every time the missing entity would pull it back. Midway into the race Darrin took a solo flier off the front that lasted for about 8 laps. Since he wasn't a threat to the overall g.c. standings, everyone was content to let him hang out there, knowing full well that once the laps began counting down, we'd pull him back quickly. Sure enough, once we got to within a few minutes until they began counting down, Darrin was reeled back in. Like a good team, several attacks came but nothing was able to stick due to the quick pace of the group and everyone getting anxious about the finish. It was at this point that I decided that I'd better begin moving up closer to the front because up to this time, I was fairly content to sit mid-pack and watch what developed. Just as we were approaching two more laps to go, I decided to take a stab at getting off the front. This was a little sooner than I had hoped but all the cheering from the fans got the better of me and I decided to give it a go. Just like every attempt prior to this, this wasn't going anywhere. Carl and Noah (Allied Decals) were on my wheel and we had a small gap, but it was closed down quickly by Orrville. It was at this point that my breakaway move turned into a leadout. I knew that my fourth place overall wasn't worth defending and since there was little chance of me moving up into the final podium, I'd give it all I had to deliver Carl to the line as fresh as possible. This worked as I was able to get him to the start line and from there it was only a few hundred meters for him sprint in for first place in the race and to take the overall win for the series. From the start line to the finish line for me on the other hand was the longest ride of my life as I had completely spent myself and got passed by I think almost every rider remaining in the field. Oh well, I wasn't looking for glory that day.
brian
Here's the data for the evening:
Duration: 37:54
Work: 571 kJ
TSS: 58.8 (intensity factor 0.964)
Norm Power: 289
Distance: 15.531 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 953 251 watts
Heart Rate: 96 191 176 bpm
Cadence: 30 141 98 rpm
Speed: 2.9 30.1 24.5 mph
Torque: 0 352 68 lb-in
7.18.2006
Chapel Race - Week 2 pics
A nice sized field takes the start at the second race in the Chapel Series.
7.14.2006
Chapel Series - Race 2
Thursday night was the second of three races in the Chapel Series. I was joined by teammates Marshall Leininger, Jim Flesher, Carl Peshoff, Darrin Kert, Matt Turi and new comer to the team Chris Smith who was secretly riding for SV since he was sporting an FD Jeux jersey. A potential future Stark Velo rider, James Miller also came out to test his legs in his first race. Congratulations to James and for all those guys and gals who come out to this event to participate in the race. If there's one bit of advice that I can give, hang in there and have fun.
I was surprised how quickly a break of five riders went up the road which included Jim, Carl, Darrin and two Orrville riders. Knowing that the Allied Decals weren’t represented in the break, super-domestique Marshall did his best to control the front of the field to discourage A/D from shutting it down. By the time A/D were able to organize some of their riders, the gap had grown enough that bringing it back became impossible for them. With the break safely up the road, it came down to us to keep an eye on things. The race at this point became fairly uneventful with the only excitement coming from me running my mouth. I don’t know what it is but I’ve become lippier lately. Maybe it’s because I knew I had teammates there to protect me from a certain ass-beating. Anyway the story goes like this, before one of the 90 degree corners, a rider from midfield yells something out about going faster through the corners. Being aggravated from guys who complain about the pace of a race while never doing anything about it, I reminded him that it was truly a race and that if he wanted it to be faster, he could feel free to come up front to do some of the work. In hindsight, I probably could have kept my mouth shut because I think he may have been an ‘A’ racer who was just using my race as a warm up for his and was probably aggravated by the ‘slow’ pace of our event. Understand, I would have liked to have gone faster than 23 mph myself but I certainly wasn’t going to up the pace to give 'A' racers a decent warm up and possibly ruin it for my mates up the road.
In the end, the break succeeded for the day and Jim Flesher took first place after a fabulous leadout from Carl who ended up third with Darrin taking fourth. I won the field sprint finishing in sixth and Chris took seventh in his first ever race!
brian
Here are the stats on the race:
Duration: 39:12
Work: 565 kJ
TSS: 57.4 (intensity factor 0.938)
Norm Power: 281
Distance: 15.712 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1085 241 watts
Cadence: 29 141 95 rpm
Speed: 3.5 34.2 24.1 mph
Torque: 0 313 65 lb-in
I was surprised how quickly a break of five riders went up the road which included Jim, Carl, Darrin and two Orrville riders. Knowing that the Allied Decals weren’t represented in the break, super-domestique Marshall did his best to control the front of the field to discourage A/D from shutting it down. By the time A/D were able to organize some of their riders, the gap had grown enough that bringing it back became impossible for them. With the break safely up the road, it came down to us to keep an eye on things. The race at this point became fairly uneventful with the only excitement coming from me running my mouth. I don’t know what it is but I’ve become lippier lately. Maybe it’s because I knew I had teammates there to protect me from a certain ass-beating. Anyway the story goes like this, before one of the 90 degree corners, a rider from midfield yells something out about going faster through the corners. Being aggravated from guys who complain about the pace of a race while never doing anything about it, I reminded him that it was truly a race and that if he wanted it to be faster, he could feel free to come up front to do some of the work. In hindsight, I probably could have kept my mouth shut because I think he may have been an ‘A’ racer who was just using my race as a warm up for his and was probably aggravated by the ‘slow’ pace of our event. Understand, I would have liked to have gone faster than 23 mph myself but I certainly wasn’t going to up the pace to give 'A' racers a decent warm up and possibly ruin it for my mates up the road.
In the end, the break succeeded for the day and Jim Flesher took first place after a fabulous leadout from Carl who ended up third with Darrin taking fourth. I won the field sprint finishing in sixth and Chris took seventh in his first ever race!
brian
Here are the stats on the race:
Duration: 39:12
Work: 565 kJ
TSS: 57.4 (intensity factor 0.938)
Norm Power: 281
Distance: 15.712 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1085 241 watts
Cadence: 29 141 95 rpm
Speed: 3.5 34.2 24.1 mph
Torque: 0 313 65 lb-in
7.08.2006
Hale Farm Circuit Race
This morning was the Hale Farm circuit race hosted by Allied Decals. I was joined by teammates Carl Peshoff, Tim and Samantha House, Marshall Leininger, Frank Kolasa, Darrin Kert and Jim Flesher in the 'B' field. It always surprises me that this race is never heavily attended as it's on a great course with lightly traveled traffic and it only costs $5, what could be better? Nevertheless, there was a nice group of around 25 riders, mostly consisting of my teammates and Allied Decals who rolled out of the parking lot from Old Trail School to undergo 25 miles of suffering. The race was fairly uneventful for the first lap and a half with a few breakaway attempts, none of them sticking as A/D was chasing them down, even when they had teammates up there. On the second lap I made a jump on the small hill on Riverview. It was one of those moves that was done half-heartedly because I really only wanted to pick things up and not get away but when I saw I had a sizeable gap I decided to give it a go. Thanks to my teammates for blocking for me because I'm sure I couldn't have been out there that long without you. I was solo for almost 3/4 of a lap, but when I saw the field slowly reeling me back in I decided to ease up and get ready for the counter attack. I think I should have been able to hang out there for the remainder of the race, but my sustainable power seems to be lacking a little bit right now. I guess it's time to hit those 2x20's again and ease up on the ice cream and cookies.
The counter attack came as expected and I was glad to see it was one of my teammates, Darrin who led it. There's nothing more rewarding than seeing one of your teammates capitalize on the hard work that you just did. Darrin was more fortunate than I since his move brought an Allied Decal rider with him which he was able to drop him further into the race and ended up soloing in for the win. As for the rest of the team, we controlled the race very well, successfully shutting down any attempts at bring the break back or guys bridging. A congratulations should be given to Marshall who is an absolute animal in the field. I would venture a guess that he pulled the field around for 80% of the race, no questions asked, definitely the hardest working guy out there today.
brian
Here's the stats on the race:
Duration: 1:15:02
Work: 1048 kJ
TSS: 114.4 (intensity factor 0.956)
Norm Power: 287
Distance: 28.346 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 941 233 watts
Heart Rate: 74 191 167 bpm
Cadence: 29 141 96 rpm
Speed: 2.7 35.1 22.7 mph
Torque: 0 376 72 lb-in
The counter attack came as expected and I was glad to see it was one of my teammates, Darrin who led it. There's nothing more rewarding than seeing one of your teammates capitalize on the hard work that you just did. Darrin was more fortunate than I since his move brought an Allied Decal rider with him which he was able to drop him further into the race and ended up soloing in for the win. As for the rest of the team, we controlled the race very well, successfully shutting down any attempts at bring the break back or guys bridging. A congratulations should be given to Marshall who is an absolute animal in the field. I would venture a guess that he pulled the field around for 80% of the race, no questions asked, definitely the hardest working guy out there today.
brian
Here's the stats on the race:
Duration: 1:15:02
Work: 1048 kJ
TSS: 114.4 (intensity factor 0.956)
Norm Power: 287
Distance: 28.346 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 941 233 watts
Heart Rate: 74 191 167 bpm
Cadence: 29 141 96 rpm
Speed: 2.7 35.1 22.7 mph
Torque: 0 376 72 lb-in
7.07.2006
Chapel Series - Race 1
I don't know what it is about this race series, but this is one of my favorite races to compete in. If I had to take a guess, its partly because it only costs $10 to race which makes it an extremely cheap event. I think the low cost does one more important thing besides not emptying the check book, it gives the race an appearance and feel more like a tough training ride rather than an important race which makes everyone in the field a little more relaxed. Because of this, teams seem to try more team tactics rather than chase down every rider who tries to get off the front and I think its this reason that I really, really like this race.
Last night's race saw a large field of 24 riders take to the start line. Stark Velo was heavily represented with 9 riders: Carl Peshoff, Marshall Leininger, Matt Turi, Scott Brunner, Samantha and Tim House, Erin Quinlan, Jim Flesher and myself. Allied Decals and Orrville were also well represented. Going into this race, I didn't have any ambitions other than loosen the legs up since my riding the past week has been hampered by the lousy weather and the cold I can't seem to shake. Somehow though, early in the race I sluggishly initiated a breakaway. I had no intentions of going and my move was more about moving up to gain some better position rather than about getting off the front but after going through a few of the tight corners, there was total of four of us who opened up a small gap on the field. I was joined by Carl, Doug Williams (Allied Decals) and Paul Kinney (Orrville). With all three of the teams represented in the move, I was feeling confident that this move would stick if we could open up a larger gap to help discourage guys from bridging. After a little convincing, everyone agreed to work equally to make the move work. This went well for me until we began lapping riders. It was at this point where one of them mixed in with us and I got stuck being them in the most technical portion of the course. This rider opened up a gap between my three breakaway companions and as soon as the opportunity opened up for me to get around them, a gap too large opened up that proved too big for me to get across. It was at this point that I thought about hanging out there in no-man's land by myself but I decided to take it easy and return to the field to save my strength for the finale.
Once safely back in the protection of the diminished group, I tried to sit in to recover a little bit. Things were fairly uneventful as the time and laps ticked down. With about two laps to go, Matt Turi went off the front with an Orrville rider (I'm sorry, I don't know his name but he's the rider who ended up in 4th place). They opened up a small gap which Noah from Allied Decals tried to close down. I felt sorry for him because at that point it was up to him or his team to chase that move down. He gave it his best but with just over a half lap left he was done. It was at that point where I perfectly timed another move off the front and I was surprised to see that I had opened up a small gap. Knowing that the race was almost over, I buried myself with the goal of staying away and potentially catching the two riders just in front of me. As we approached the finish I caught Matt but just didn't have enough power to get past the Orrville rider. At the end of the day, Stark Velo walked away proudly with a second place, my fifth place and Jim Flesher taking sixth place. Together, we chipped in all of our race winnings to Bikes for Kids program that this race series is helping to support.
brian
Here's the race data:
Duration: 38:52
Work: 624 kJ
TSS: 67 (intensity factor 1.017)
Norm Power: 305
Distance: 15.53 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1005 267 watts
Cadence: 29 141 97 rpm
Speed: 10.7 31.4 24 mph
Torque: 0 363 73 lb-in
Last night's race saw a large field of 24 riders take to the start line. Stark Velo was heavily represented with 9 riders: Carl Peshoff, Marshall Leininger, Matt Turi, Scott Brunner, Samantha and Tim House, Erin Quinlan, Jim Flesher and myself. Allied Decals and Orrville were also well represented. Going into this race, I didn't have any ambitions other than loosen the legs up since my riding the past week has been hampered by the lousy weather and the cold I can't seem to shake. Somehow though, early in the race I sluggishly initiated a breakaway. I had no intentions of going and my move was more about moving up to gain some better position rather than about getting off the front but after going through a few of the tight corners, there was total of four of us who opened up a small gap on the field. I was joined by Carl, Doug Williams (Allied Decals) and Paul Kinney (Orrville). With all three of the teams represented in the move, I was feeling confident that this move would stick if we could open up a larger gap to help discourage guys from bridging. After a little convincing, everyone agreed to work equally to make the move work. This went well for me until we began lapping riders. It was at this point where one of them mixed in with us and I got stuck being them in the most technical portion of the course. This rider opened up a gap between my three breakaway companions and as soon as the opportunity opened up for me to get around them, a gap too large opened up that proved too big for me to get across. It was at this point that I thought about hanging out there in no-man's land by myself but I decided to take it easy and return to the field to save my strength for the finale.
Once safely back in the protection of the diminished group, I tried to sit in to recover a little bit. Things were fairly uneventful as the time and laps ticked down. With about two laps to go, Matt Turi went off the front with an Orrville rider (I'm sorry, I don't know his name but he's the rider who ended up in 4th place). They opened up a small gap which Noah from Allied Decals tried to close down. I felt sorry for him because at that point it was up to him or his team to chase that move down. He gave it his best but with just over a half lap left he was done. It was at that point where I perfectly timed another move off the front and I was surprised to see that I had opened up a small gap. Knowing that the race was almost over, I buried myself with the goal of staying away and potentially catching the two riders just in front of me. As we approached the finish I caught Matt but just didn't have enough power to get past the Orrville rider. At the end of the day, Stark Velo walked away proudly with a second place, my fifth place and Jim Flesher taking sixth place. Together, we chipped in all of our race winnings to Bikes for Kids program that this race series is helping to support.
brian
Here's the race data:
Duration: 38:52
Work: 624 kJ
TSS: 67 (intensity factor 1.017)
Norm Power: 305
Distance: 15.53 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1005 267 watts
Cadence: 29 141 97 rpm
Speed: 10.7 31.4 24 mph
Torque: 0 363 73 lb-in
6.30.2006
Let's set the record straight....
With the scandal happening in France right now regarding the fallout from "Operacion Puerto," I feel that I need to make an official statement that I have and never will use performance enhancing drugs. I know there are a lot of you out there who are saying, “Hey Miner, how can you explain that miraculous 5th place finish at the Saturday morning stage of the Summer Solstice race?” True, this is my best result racing as a Cat IV but I owe that finish to great teammates and great training. In addition, I would like to say that although there are reported rumors of bags of blood with the code name “Son of Alan Miner, born in Canton, Ohio in March of 1973”, I’m sure there are lots of mediocre Cat IV racers who fit that same description. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I would never undergo a blood transfusion, they’re just too risky. My wife and I are fully educated of the risks on this as we faced this procedure a few years ago to save the life of our 25 year old parakeet, Tweety. I’m sad to say that Tweety is now buried in an old shoe box in the backyard but that’s neither here nor there. Again, I will never use performance enhancing drugs unless I get to that point in my life where I’ll need that little blue pill to help my performance…bad da bing!
brian
brian
6.19.2006
Summer Solstice Stage Race
They say a rider’s first tour really changes them. I’ll never ride the Tour de France so races like this past weekends Summer Solstice stage race is as close as I will most likely ever come to feeling what a tour really feels like. Never having raced two days back to back before I was a little nervous at the idea of riding 4 stages in three days but I was confident that I had decent fitness and that if I was lucky, that I could possibly just finish on the famed Caesar’s Creek Dam on Sunday. This event was hosted by OVR and I would like to say first and foremost that I thank them for their effort and willingness in putting together an event this big as it takes a tremendous amount of work to pull something like this off. That being said, I sincerely hope that if they plan on ever trying this again that they really evaluate this years event and solicit feedback from riders and teams on how the event can better and safer.
Friday Evening
Friday’s stage was a Criterium on the campus of Wilmington College which was described as a lazy 8 route. While walking to registration, I heard a rider describe this as officially the worst crit course ever. I was a little skeptical but while continuing my walk along the course I could see exactly what he was talking about. Lazy is the wrong word to describe the course. Risky is probably a better choice of words in my opinion. The course had two 180 degree turns at the both ends of the loop which took you into parking lots and then 90 degree turns taking you out of the parking lots. Getting into and out of the lots meant going over curb cuts that were two inches +/- high which meant rims would be taking a beating four times per lap. It looked like they were aware that most people would be upset about this so it seemed like there was an attempt to level this out by either placing some Quikrete or sand there. All this did though was make those corners sketchier as this material broke up and made sliding out a possibility which resulted in a crash in the race prior to mine. Going into this series, I didn’t have any ambitions as this was a last minute addition to my schedule and not one of my goal races. Being a crit however and typically riding well in crits I did want to make a good showing here. However, seeing the course and having 46 guys on it all at once, I decided it was better to ride safe and if need be to abandon the race if I thought things were out of control but if there was a chance at the end that I would go for it. The shortened race was fast as expected with a crash or two, but for the most part it was uneventful and fairly safe. All the other races seemed to have big splits in them but ours seemed to stay together, although there were a few stragglers who were pulled off the course when they lost contact with the group. I ended up finishing this race safely in 20th place and most importantly with no time loss.
Saturday Morning
Saturday would be a big day of racing with a 54 mile road race in the morning and a 5 mile time trial in the evening. The morning race was scheduled to kick-off at 9:00 but we didn’t end up rolling out of the parking lot to the neutral start until just after 10:30, so much for planning on my energy needs for the day. The race was also shortened to 45 miles, which I had no objections with. The plan for the team for the weekend was to protect Carl and Mike as they are riding really well right now. That would leave the remaining five of us making up the Cat 4 field (Tim, Marshall, Jim, Don and I) to watch the field and cover any dangerous moves that might take place. This was my first road race of the season and I was looking forward to it as all I’ve been doing so far this year is crits and I’m not typically fond of those. The day’s weather was hot and very windy. This made racing a little slower and somewhat uneventful except for the constant braking that seemed to happen in the field. The first two (out of three) laps we did there were a few break-away attempts but they were usually one or two man moves and that wouldn’t be enough to survive out in the wind for very long. Tim and I worked hard on the second lap to try and get away but all that did was string things out. We looked back and when we saw that everyone was still with us, we sat up waiting for someone else to come around to take some responsibility which took some time. The longer it took, the slower we went until finally a group of riders must have gotten irritated enough to come around us. As expected on the last lap, the pace picked up about 5 miles from the finish to try and shell a few more riders. I found myself in good position along the right hand side of the road and as we came into town and close to the finish line a hole opened up in front of me and I was able to dive into it, finding myself in third position. The problem I had was that at that point a gap had opened up between the first two riders and us and I was now no longer in someone’s draft and I was now sprinting from a little further out than what I would have liked to. My only hope was that a teammate was on my wheel that I could lead out. Coming up to the line, I let third place slip out of my hands but I still hung on for fifth place. This was a great moment and I was thrilled as this was my best result so far as a Cat 4. All of the excitement would soon enough go away as I watched the finish of the Cat 3 field. Hindsight is always 20/20 I guess, but I can’t believe the organizers didn’t see the dangers in having cars lined along both sides of the road at the finish. Guys are pumped up and taking chances and using every inch of road possible to get to the finish line first. Unfortunately bad things happen and in this case, a small crash caused one rider to collide into a pick-up truck along the side of the road. This crash happened in front of me and I was the first one on the scene to make it over to him. All I could do was yell “Medic’ as I could tell that this poor guy was hurting. Fortunately Carl was close by and he was able to immediately move into triage mode. It took several minutes for the ambulance to show up (why wouldn’t the organizers have someone on the scene?) and then he was flown away on a life-flight shortly afterwards. My thoughts and prayers are for this rider and I hope everything will work out well for him. So far at this point in the stage race, the organizers are 0 for 2. Hopefully the evening’s time-trial would go better.
Saturday Evening
I was a little hesitant at first to try this time-trial but I will say that this was only because I had never done one before. Working with a power meter I was comfortable in knowing what kind of power output I could put out for the 11 or 12 minute effort that I suspected it would take (I joked it would take me a solid 30 minutes). Having no aero equipment other than the addition of some shoe covers I took the start line and was off speeding down the course. The race started an hour later than normal but that was because they needed to give a local business an additional hour of operation prior to closing down the road. After this morning’s incident, I was happy to wait the additional hour for some more safety. Speeding down the course all I could do was watch the power meter to make sure I was in my targeted range and try to stay as aero as possible. I was also hoping that the guy who left 30 seconds behind me wasn’t going to pass me. He never did and I crossed the line in 10minutes, 50 seconds, according to my power meter. Official results posted me at 11:02. Now, funny thing here; we were given timing chips for the stage race so official times could be easily tracked and standings determined. Of all races where time is critical I would think a Time Trial is it as this is really the only place where major time differences would occur this weekend but for some reason these weren’t used out there. That explains the additional 12 seconds added to my time along with several other people that I had talked to.
Sunday Morning
Sunday’s stage was supposed to be another long stage, 64 miles and was also the State Road race. Riding over to the race course with Rick, we joked about how the race wouldn’t get started on time and sure enough when we got there; it was delayed from starting at 9:00 to 11:15. They said they were also going to shorten the course but there was no information on how it was going to be shorted so total mileage was now going to be a guess. This delay came because there was a lack of coordination in knowing that there was another race event occurring on the course at the same time and because there wasn’t enough support to run every field on the course simultaneously. Making the best of the situation, we pulled out some blankets and camped out under a tree to pass the time. The nice thing about this break was that we were able to learn that Carl was in the lead in the G.C. after a fabulous time trial the previous evening. With the race finally underway hours later Jim and I went to the front setting tempo. We didn’t set an incredibly fast pace with the strong winds and our job wasn’t to set a fast pace but to just control things and to make sure nothing dangerous got away. I was feeling a little like Jens Voigt out there on the Cervelo watching over my team leader. There’s a little stretch of the course that has a screaming downhill. I luckily was able to go down that hill first so I could set my own tempo. Turns out a small gap opened up with a few other riders and one guy then made a jump for it. I thought he was one of our marked men for the day so I quickly covered it and as it was my turn to pull through; I lightened up the pace just slightly to keep things under control to get everyone back. When it was all back together again I was still on the front and as we were approaching the climb of the day I decided to ramp things up to try and make the pace on the climb high to discourage any attacks. I also was hoping that some of my momentum would get me up the hill and knowing that as I would be undoubtedly sliding back in the field that as we crested the top that I would at least be at the back of the group. This strategy started to work but half-way up I noticed what looked like Carl on the side of the road. Turns out that I was right and I saw Carl and Jim there. Jim selflessly gave up his rear wheel to Carl to try and keep him in the hunt for the G.C. At this point I’m thinking, man I’m going to have to work way harder than what I was hoping for as I was looking for a little recovery but I knew at this point my race was to only get Carl back into the race. Tim and I worked together for the next several miles taking pulls at fast speeds picking up riders who became unwilling or unable to work. I saw that we were getting close to Marshall and I was thinking that he must be waiting for us and that he will help pace us back into the field because he’s an absolute motor. When I came up to him he looked over and said “I’m sick.” Man, that sucks and I knew that it would be up to Tim and I to get him back. Unfortunately this just never happened as I had nothing left shortly after starting the second lap, probably a victim of working harder than I thought I was on the first lap. The saving grace for the day was that Mike finished the race off with a win for the team. Congratulations to Mike on a well done race.
Final thoughts
Fun weekend but I’ll really think twice about coming back again next year unless there are some major changes implemented prior to me risking my life and shelling out my hard earned cash.
brian
Friday Evening
Friday’s stage was a Criterium on the campus of Wilmington College which was described as a lazy 8 route. While walking to registration, I heard a rider describe this as officially the worst crit course ever. I was a little skeptical but while continuing my walk along the course I could see exactly what he was talking about. Lazy is the wrong word to describe the course. Risky is probably a better choice of words in my opinion. The course had two 180 degree turns at the both ends of the loop which took you into parking lots and then 90 degree turns taking you out of the parking lots. Getting into and out of the lots meant going over curb cuts that were two inches +/- high which meant rims would be taking a beating four times per lap. It looked like they were aware that most people would be upset about this so it seemed like there was an attempt to level this out by either placing some Quikrete or sand there. All this did though was make those corners sketchier as this material broke up and made sliding out a possibility which resulted in a crash in the race prior to mine. Going into this series, I didn’t have any ambitions as this was a last minute addition to my schedule and not one of my goal races. Being a crit however and typically riding well in crits I did want to make a good showing here. However, seeing the course and having 46 guys on it all at once, I decided it was better to ride safe and if need be to abandon the race if I thought things were out of control but if there was a chance at the end that I would go for it. The shortened race was fast as expected with a crash or two, but for the most part it was uneventful and fairly safe. All the other races seemed to have big splits in them but ours seemed to stay together, although there were a few stragglers who were pulled off the course when they lost contact with the group. I ended up finishing this race safely in 20th place and most importantly with no time loss.
Saturday Morning
Saturday would be a big day of racing with a 54 mile road race in the morning and a 5 mile time trial in the evening. The morning race was scheduled to kick-off at 9:00 but we didn’t end up rolling out of the parking lot to the neutral start until just after 10:30, so much for planning on my energy needs for the day. The race was also shortened to 45 miles, which I had no objections with. The plan for the team for the weekend was to protect Carl and Mike as they are riding really well right now. That would leave the remaining five of us making up the Cat 4 field (Tim, Marshall, Jim, Don and I) to watch the field and cover any dangerous moves that might take place. This was my first road race of the season and I was looking forward to it as all I’ve been doing so far this year is crits and I’m not typically fond of those. The day’s weather was hot and very windy. This made racing a little slower and somewhat uneventful except for the constant braking that seemed to happen in the field. The first two (out of three) laps we did there were a few break-away attempts but they were usually one or two man moves and that wouldn’t be enough to survive out in the wind for very long. Tim and I worked hard on the second lap to try and get away but all that did was string things out. We looked back and when we saw that everyone was still with us, we sat up waiting for someone else to come around to take some responsibility which took some time. The longer it took, the slower we went until finally a group of riders must have gotten irritated enough to come around us. As expected on the last lap, the pace picked up about 5 miles from the finish to try and shell a few more riders. I found myself in good position along the right hand side of the road and as we came into town and close to the finish line a hole opened up in front of me and I was able to dive into it, finding myself in third position. The problem I had was that at that point a gap had opened up between the first two riders and us and I was now no longer in someone’s draft and I was now sprinting from a little further out than what I would have liked to. My only hope was that a teammate was on my wheel that I could lead out. Coming up to the line, I let third place slip out of my hands but I still hung on for fifth place. This was a great moment and I was thrilled as this was my best result so far as a Cat 4. All of the excitement would soon enough go away as I watched the finish of the Cat 3 field. Hindsight is always 20/20 I guess, but I can’t believe the organizers didn’t see the dangers in having cars lined along both sides of the road at the finish. Guys are pumped up and taking chances and using every inch of road possible to get to the finish line first. Unfortunately bad things happen and in this case, a small crash caused one rider to collide into a pick-up truck along the side of the road. This crash happened in front of me and I was the first one on the scene to make it over to him. All I could do was yell “Medic’ as I could tell that this poor guy was hurting. Fortunately Carl was close by and he was able to immediately move into triage mode. It took several minutes for the ambulance to show up (why wouldn’t the organizers have someone on the scene?) and then he was flown away on a life-flight shortly afterwards. My thoughts and prayers are for this rider and I hope everything will work out well for him. So far at this point in the stage race, the organizers are 0 for 2. Hopefully the evening’s time-trial would go better.
Saturday Evening
I was a little hesitant at first to try this time-trial but I will say that this was only because I had never done one before. Working with a power meter I was comfortable in knowing what kind of power output I could put out for the 11 or 12 minute effort that I suspected it would take (I joked it would take me a solid 30 minutes). Having no aero equipment other than the addition of some shoe covers I took the start line and was off speeding down the course. The race started an hour later than normal but that was because they needed to give a local business an additional hour of operation prior to closing down the road. After this morning’s incident, I was happy to wait the additional hour for some more safety. Speeding down the course all I could do was watch the power meter to make sure I was in my targeted range and try to stay as aero as possible. I was also hoping that the guy who left 30 seconds behind me wasn’t going to pass me. He never did and I crossed the line in 10minutes, 50 seconds, according to my power meter. Official results posted me at 11:02. Now, funny thing here; we were given timing chips for the stage race so official times could be easily tracked and standings determined. Of all races where time is critical I would think a Time Trial is it as this is really the only place where major time differences would occur this weekend but for some reason these weren’t used out there. That explains the additional 12 seconds added to my time along with several other people that I had talked to.
Sunday Morning
Sunday’s stage was supposed to be another long stage, 64 miles and was also the State Road race. Riding over to the race course with Rick, we joked about how the race wouldn’t get started on time and sure enough when we got there; it was delayed from starting at 9:00 to 11:15. They said they were also going to shorten the course but there was no information on how it was going to be shorted so total mileage was now going to be a guess. This delay came because there was a lack of coordination in knowing that there was another race event occurring on the course at the same time and because there wasn’t enough support to run every field on the course simultaneously. Making the best of the situation, we pulled out some blankets and camped out under a tree to pass the time. The nice thing about this break was that we were able to learn that Carl was in the lead in the G.C. after a fabulous time trial the previous evening. With the race finally underway hours later Jim and I went to the front setting tempo. We didn’t set an incredibly fast pace with the strong winds and our job wasn’t to set a fast pace but to just control things and to make sure nothing dangerous got away. I was feeling a little like Jens Voigt out there on the Cervelo watching over my team leader. There’s a little stretch of the course that has a screaming downhill. I luckily was able to go down that hill first so I could set my own tempo. Turns out a small gap opened up with a few other riders and one guy then made a jump for it. I thought he was one of our marked men for the day so I quickly covered it and as it was my turn to pull through; I lightened up the pace just slightly to keep things under control to get everyone back. When it was all back together again I was still on the front and as we were approaching the climb of the day I decided to ramp things up to try and make the pace on the climb high to discourage any attacks. I also was hoping that some of my momentum would get me up the hill and knowing that as I would be undoubtedly sliding back in the field that as we crested the top that I would at least be at the back of the group. This strategy started to work but half-way up I noticed what looked like Carl on the side of the road. Turns out that I was right and I saw Carl and Jim there. Jim selflessly gave up his rear wheel to Carl to try and keep him in the hunt for the G.C. At this point I’m thinking, man I’m going to have to work way harder than what I was hoping for as I was looking for a little recovery but I knew at this point my race was to only get Carl back into the race. Tim and I worked together for the next several miles taking pulls at fast speeds picking up riders who became unwilling or unable to work. I saw that we were getting close to Marshall and I was thinking that he must be waiting for us and that he will help pace us back into the field because he’s an absolute motor. When I came up to him he looked over and said “I’m sick.” Man, that sucks and I knew that it would be up to Tim and I to get him back. Unfortunately this just never happened as I had nothing left shortly after starting the second lap, probably a victim of working harder than I thought I was on the first lap. The saving grace for the day was that Mike finished the race off with a win for the team. Congratulations to Mike on a well done race.
Final thoughts
Fun weekend but I’ll really think twice about coming back again next year unless there are some major changes implemented prior to me risking my life and shelling out my hard earned cash.
brian
6.11.2006
Hilton Head - Final Days
The vacation is over and we're home once again safe and sound. It was a long drive with what seemed like a million 'potty' breaks on the way but we finally made it. Friday was our last day and it was just as relaxing as all the previous days were. Nicholas and I went to the pool to play on Friday morning and saw a surprise in the adjacent lake....an 8 foot alligator! Nicholas was surprisingly unimpressed so it was back into the pool for more fun! Later in the afternoon after his super long nap, we finally ventured down to the beach for the last time to hang out in the sun and sand.
All in all this was a very fun vacation. As I had mentioned in a previous post we're not typically beach goers but Hilton Head was very, very nice and I could definitely see us going back there again soon. I should have played every state's lottery between here and there just to see if I could get lucky and permanently extend that vacation!
Before closing the vacation posts and getting back to normal life, there are a few observations from my trip that I would like to share:
1. Ohio drivers are horrible. The left lane on the highway is for passing people and not for camping. If it takes you longer than 5 minutes to pass a vehicle, give up and try again when the mile long string of vehicles you've bunched up passes by.
2. Ohio drivers are horrible. When I'm passing a vehicle and I'm already doing 15 mph over the speed limit, give me a second to get around the car. Me popping the trunk of my car so you can get one inch closer isn't going to get you to your destination any sooner. Relax brother!
3. It's been a while since I've been to the beach but it appears as those bikini wraps (i.e. skirts) are popular now. I noticed way too few women wearing those who probably should have. I'm not as comfortable with your body as you are.
4. A disturbing fashion statement that I saw down there was wearing polo shirts with the collars sticking up. I thought that statement died when "SilverSpoons" went off the air.
brian
6.08.2006
Hilton Head - Day 5
Day five on vacation and so far no sunburns to report. I am happy to say though that the pasty white skin we all came down with is now one shade darker, still white but no longer eye blinding white! That SPF 50 is working wonders.
We enjoyed another great weather day here with temps in the upper 80's with a warm breeze coming off of the ocean. We let Nicholas make the decision this morning on where he wanted to go and it was an easy decision for him, to the pool. He met a couple of friends there last night that he enjoyed playing with and he just seems to have more fun splashing and kicking around the pool. The favorite game right now is to play boat. I'm the boat and he's the captain. Do I see a future profession here for him? After a nice long nap (all that kicking around really wore him out), we were off to do a little more exploring around the island. Everyone we had spoken to prior to the trip recommended a trip for dinner to the Crazy Crab restaurant. It was well worth the trip as we enjoyed some great seafood while sitting along the coastline. Nicholas even got to try some new food, my swordfish and Jen's Sea Scallops. He enjoyed the scallops a little better then the swordfish. Not sure I ever got to try these cool foods when I was his age.
After dinner we headed down to Harbor Town to see what all the hype we've been hearing was about. After paying an entrance fee??? We found our way to the Harbor. Jen was game for climbing the historic lighthouse, something like 115 steps. I did 114 carrying Nicholas. After that we went to a great little park where Nicholas could spend his last bit of energy before heading back to the house and falling asleep.
Well, that was our Thursday. One more full day left. Time sure fly's when you're having fun.
brian
6.07.2006
Hilton Head Picture
Here's a picture of Nicholas on the way down to the beach. Before this vacation, you couldn't catch him walking around without a shirt on as he considered that being 'naked.' Now we can't get him to keep one on.
brian
Vacation Catch-up Day's 2, 3 & 4
We've been very busy the past few days and the computer's been put on the back shelf, thankfully. I'll try and do a quick recap of the past three days worth of adventures. On Monday we planned on doing the same thing we did on Sunday, Beach in the morning, lunch, pool, dinner, etc. Vacation down here is nice in the sense that you never really have to be anywhere at any given time and when you get there, you get there. So rolling out of bed, eating a casual breakfast and finally strolling down to the beach around 10:00 is no big deal in my world. Playing a few hours in the sun and sand makes it even better. The problem we had today is that apparently with all of that casualness, we were all very tired. After the late lunch and showers, everyone fell fast asleep. Next thing I know it's 6:30 p.m. and I'm waking up to some 80's sitcom on the TV. So much for hitting the pool. That was our Monday.
Tuesday we strived to be a little more productive, if you can call it that. After carrying the new Cervelo down on the bike rack, I decided I needed to take it out for a spin to make it worth while. I've been trying to contact a local rider to find out the hot spots for the local riding scene. Up until now, I was unsuccessful so I plotted a small route that would take me off the island back to the mainland. Before I left, my boss told me sort of where he rode his bike around here. I have to say that he's absolutely insane on riding on Route 278. For those of you who don't know, this is the only way on and off the island so it's very heavily traveled. I'm comfortable riding in traffic, but when the traffic is doing 60 mph and there are no shoulders to ride on, I become a little worried. I decided that my life is worth way more than this and I will never ride on that road again. I ended up calling Jen when I got to the mainland and got a few more miles in to have her come pick me up. I figured I was very lucky for not getting into trouble on the way out, I wasn't going to try and push my luck on the way back.
Neglecting the pool on the previous day, we started out there on this day just to make sure that we got it in. We were able to play around in the pool for a few hours before lunch and a quick nap. The plan was then to go on a dolphin "seafari" in the afternoon. This is where they take you out on a glorified pontoon boat in the harbor for a 90 minutes or so, so you can catch a glimpse of some sea life. It was more fun to take Nicholas out on a boat for the first time. He seemed to do ok but I think he was a little unsure about the whole experience. He spent most of the time on Jen's and my lap, I think the waves were a little too much for him. Once he got distracted by the fish they caught in their net and the crabs they keep on board, he did much better. He also liked playing "Captain" as you can see in the picture.
After our high seas adventure, we made our way back to the central island to Shelter Cove to see the ritual Tuesday evening fireworks. This was a fun place to do some people watching and take in some of the local flavor. I must appear like a local because everyone was asking me questions about where the fireworks would be, what time they went off, etc. Sure enough, all of my predictions that I was telling everyone was wrong, but that's ok, I'll never see them again. The fireworks were fun, a little short but always a fun time.
Wednesday (Today) we got ourselves back on track to our normal routine. Back down to the beach for several hours of playtime in the sand and sun. I think Nicholas is becoming scared of the water, so we're not pushing the idea. I think part of the problem is the jelly fish. We saw one on Monday in the water and then there were several more out there today. Probably best to keep it safe as we don't want to be nursing boo-boos and there is still plenty of fun to be had in the sand. Jen and Nicholas tried making sand castles, but it seems like every time one tower was built, a storm, a.k.a. Nicholas's hand would come by and knock it down. I'm not sure anything ever got built, but Jen got buried along with all of our feet. It was a fun, but suprisingly a relaxing day on the beach.
This evening I left Jen and Nicholas to go swimming in the pool and play in the park while I ventured south to Savannah, Georgia to do some riding. I had contacted a local bike club/race team down there and they let me know about their weekly group rides. I wasn't planning on driving down there, but based upon my previous days attempt, I needed some good training miles as I could feel my fitness slowly leaving my body from my inactivity, or all of those chocolate chip cookies I've been munching on. The group ride turned out fun. I was a little worried at first about it being too slow because the pace was a constant 20 mph but my power meter was only registering 100W. That feels almost like coasting for those not familiar with what a watt feels like. Fortunately on the return trip, a local racer kicked things up a little bit, I was able to grab his wheel and before I knew it, we were cruising at 26 mph+ and I was assured that my power meter was working properly when I saw 300+ Watts for that duration. What started out as a large group ended in about 5 of us rolling back into Historic Savannah on our own. It was a fun way to end the day and cool when they invited me back for the "fast" sessions.
brian
6.04.2006
The Miner's are on Vacation - Day 1
After an exhausting drive down yesterday and a good dinner last night, we made our way down to the to the sandy beaches last night here at Hilton Head Island for Nicholas to get his first taste of the Atlantic Ocean. This being his first time at the ocean we've been excited for weeks to see how he would react to it. It would have been nice to remember to bring the video camera but fortunately our digital camera can shoot some video so that will have to suffice. His first time in the water didn't go so well. He was only a few inches into the water and he was walking one way, the water was rolling back out and that sort of false perception about the ground moving under your feet caused him to loose his balance and fall into the water. It was actually very funny but the sort of thing you hate to laugh too loud at as he didn't find it as funny as we did. After some reassurance in the form of some chocolate ice cream, we would hope that this mornings outing would go a little smoother for him.
Nicholas was a little timid at first as I think all kids his age are, doing the typical run into the ocean and then as a wave comes his way, go sprinting back to the safety on the shore. It didn't take long though before he was venturing way out into the ocean, well maybe only knee deep but it's a start, I mean he can't swim yet so that's probably not a bad thing for him to be conservative. We had plenty of fun building sand castles on the shore and letting the water tear them down. I forgot how fun the beach can be.
Jen and I typically take beach vacations once every four years or so. I've come to think we have a long time in between visits because that's how long it takes us to forget how badly we got burned the previous trip. It was even so bad one year I even went to the emergency room after a trip to get treated. This year, we came prepared. SPF 50 for the little guy and SPF 30 for us. It's one thing for me to get burned but if Nicholas did then I'd feel even worse. I was a machine this morning and lathered us up 60 minutes prior to heading out, and then something like every hour on the hour afterwards just to make sure we didn't get toasted. I even stopped mid morning and made him (along with myself) put back on his shirt just to give him a break. I'm happy to say that all of our efforts paid off as we are just as pale white now as when we were this morning. Tomorrow, I will repeat the same procedure for him and probably cut back on my protection to try and get rid of this farmers tan.
brian
5.31.2006
5.28.2006
Snitger's Classic
When setting up my training plan and goals for the year, the first event that came to mind was this race, the Snitger's Classic located in Beaver, Pennsylvania. Last year when I raced here, it was my first time racing as a Cat four and although I had some decent results in the fives, I was in no way prepared for this race as I was shelled on lap 1 of 11. This year I vowed to do better and to help get me there, I started working with Charles Howe of Velodynamics to try and plan my first peak for this race.
I should start by saying that my goal for the race was to finish in the field. Don't get me wrong, I don't enter any race not wanting to win and with all the work I've done I wasn't going to just sit in, but knowing how difficult this race is I knew just finishing in the field would be a big accomplishment and anything more than that would icing on the cake. Today racing with me in the 4 field was Tim House, Jim Flesher, Carl Peshoff, Marshall Leininger and Don Bunker. Just getting to the start line turned out to be an adventure for me. While doing a warm up, my front tire blew. Unfortunately, I was as far away from the course as possible, so I quickly gave my wheel to Jim along with instructions on where to find my car key so he and Tim could get started working on my wheel. I looked at my clock and it said 1:45; our race was scheduled to start at 2:00 and I was a mile or so down the road. So facing a little bit of a crisis, I decided to start my marathon training a little early and I picked up the bike and started running back to the car. By the time I made it back, my cleats were a little shorter and Tim and Jim just about had that tire changed. Thanks guys for taking care of that for me. Not quite the warm up that I was expecting but I was ready to do some racing now.
Last year, I remembered the start being a sprint to the first turn. This race seemed to be the same way but knowing what to expect, I started off in the right gear and was ready to move up into position quickly. I tried to keep remembering that "if you're not moving up, you're moving back" which are some words of advice that Rick Parr gave to me earlier in the week. With that in mind, I constantly tried to keep myself in the top 10 positions in the field. This strategy seemed to be working well because as the laps ticked down, the field kept getting smaller and smaller but I was still sitting roughly where I wanted to be. Through the race, small groups of one or two guys would try and get off the front but each attempt was brought back. This race would come down to the guys in the front shelling everyone down to the last race and then fighting it out from there. Hopefully I would be one of those guys.
Turns out, with three to go I lost my place in the final selection. A small gap opened up a few riders in front of me and as I tried to get around them to get caught back on, I found I didn't have enough left in the tank to close the gap on my own. This was the product of two factors, the heat and the tremendous pace, especially climbing up the "hill" on the backside of the course. The problem with riders who get shelled are that they are too tired to work so it was left to me to chase. If nothing else, I wanted to race for my own bragging rights and not have the main field catch me, whatever was left of them. The last two laps were my own individual TT, slowly catching and passing riders who were falling off the pace up front.
Coming into the finishing straight for the last time, I thought I was clear but I had a rider from MVC who came around me at the last minute to snag 16th place, putting my in 17th.
I have mixed emotions about today's race. In one hand, I did better than my goal of finishing in the field as I finished in the top third in the race. On the other hand, I can't help but to think what would have been if only I had made that last split. Would of, could of, should of I guess, that's bike racing.
brian
Here's some data numbers on the race:
Duration: 59:04
Work: 879 kJ
TSS: 107.1 (intensity factor 1.045)
Norm Power: 293
Distance: 24.118 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 939 249 watts
Ht Rate: 155 186 174 bpm
Cadence: 29 141 97 rpm
Speed: 0 34.7 24.5 mph
Torque: 0 272 70 lb-in
I should start by saying that my goal for the race was to finish in the field. Don't get me wrong, I don't enter any race not wanting to win and with all the work I've done I wasn't going to just sit in, but knowing how difficult this race is I knew just finishing in the field would be a big accomplishment and anything more than that would icing on the cake. Today racing with me in the 4 field was Tim House, Jim Flesher, Carl Peshoff, Marshall Leininger and Don Bunker. Just getting to the start line turned out to be an adventure for me. While doing a warm up, my front tire blew. Unfortunately, I was as far away from the course as possible, so I quickly gave my wheel to Jim along with instructions on where to find my car key so he and Tim could get started working on my wheel. I looked at my clock and it said 1:45; our race was scheduled to start at 2:00 and I was a mile or so down the road. So facing a little bit of a crisis, I decided to start my marathon training a little early and I picked up the bike and started running back to the car. By the time I made it back, my cleats were a little shorter and Tim and Jim just about had that tire changed. Thanks guys for taking care of that for me. Not quite the warm up that I was expecting but I was ready to do some racing now.
Last year, I remembered the start being a sprint to the first turn. This race seemed to be the same way but knowing what to expect, I started off in the right gear and was ready to move up into position quickly. I tried to keep remembering that "if you're not moving up, you're moving back" which are some words of advice that Rick Parr gave to me earlier in the week. With that in mind, I constantly tried to keep myself in the top 10 positions in the field. This strategy seemed to be working well because as the laps ticked down, the field kept getting smaller and smaller but I was still sitting roughly where I wanted to be. Through the race, small groups of one or two guys would try and get off the front but each attempt was brought back. This race would come down to the guys in the front shelling everyone down to the last race and then fighting it out from there. Hopefully I would be one of those guys.
Turns out, with three to go I lost my place in the final selection. A small gap opened up a few riders in front of me and as I tried to get around them to get caught back on, I found I didn't have enough left in the tank to close the gap on my own. This was the product of two factors, the heat and the tremendous pace, especially climbing up the "hill" on the backside of the course. The problem with riders who get shelled are that they are too tired to work so it was left to me to chase. If nothing else, I wanted to race for my own bragging rights and not have the main field catch me, whatever was left of them. The last two laps were my own individual TT, slowly catching and passing riders who were falling off the pace up front.
Coming into the finishing straight for the last time, I thought I was clear but I had a rider from MVC who came around me at the last minute to snag 16th place, putting my in 17th.
I have mixed emotions about today's race. In one hand, I did better than my goal of finishing in the field as I finished in the top third in the race. On the other hand, I can't help but to think what would have been if only I had made that last split. Would of, could of, should of I guess, that's bike racing.
brian
Here's some data numbers on the race:
Duration: 59:04
Work: 879 kJ
TSS: 107.1 (intensity factor 1.045)
Norm Power: 293
Distance: 24.118 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 939 249 watts
Ht Rate: 155 186 174 bpm
Cadence: 29 141 97 rpm
Speed: 0 34.7 24.5 mph
Torque: 0 272 70 lb-in
5.25.2006
New Cervelo
Here's my new Cervelo Soloist Team that I picked up last week. Thanks to Rick Parr for helping, well actually building it up for me. The Klein frame and fork will be for sale so anyone who may be interested feel free to drop me a line. As for this bike, I'm still breaking it in but with several 2 hour rides in on it, I'm absolutely loving it. It was definitely well worth the purchase which can now be backed up with a total of 5 of us on the team now riding these bikes.
For those interested, the picture is taken in my office here at work. We have 20' exposed concrete ceilings so it makes for a great piece of suspended artwork in the space. As a point of reference for how high the bike is off the ground, my wheel is just below the door height.
brian
5.17.2006
5.13.2006
Race at the Lakes #4
The weather this morning came to no surprise as it's the same weather we've been having for the past 3 days. I figured the cold and rain would keep some people away and I was right. What was nearly a field of 50 last weekend in the Cat 4 field only had a little over 20 this morning. The good news is I was nearly guaranteed a top 20 placing today just based upon mathematical probability, the bad news is that there would only be serious riders out there braving the weather so the race wouldn't be a walk in the park.
Joining me from the team was Tim House, Jim Flesher and Marshall Leininger. Today being the last of the series, I wanted to mix it up a little bit and see what kind of results I might be able to get. I was unfortunately racing without the power meter today but in all honesty, I never look at that thing during races and I only use it afterwards to help analyze my race. Last week I determined that I conserved a lot of energy by hanging in the field and came to the finish feeling fresh. Today, I would want to race a little more aggressively and see if I could get myself into a good position or help setup one of my teammates. The organizers must have had a lot of merchandise left over gear because at the start line it was announced that there would be a total of 6 primes. I decided I might try for one this week, what do I have to loose. As we started rolling, I settled into a good position in the front of the field. The pace was brisk but that was most likely to keep everyone warm in the damp conditions. Rolling through the the finish/start line for the first time, they announced the first prime, wow that came early. I had no intentions of going for one so soon but I was sitting in second position on Pete Baughman's wheel (October Lake Effect) and what better time to test yourself than on lap two as there would be plenty of time to recover from any hard efforts. As we crested the top of the climb, I hear someone yell "Go Brian!" At the time, I thought it might have been God, but I later learned that it was actually Tim. I went around Pete on the far right and hammered through the S curves. Its nice going through there solo because you can take those things as fast as you want to and not worry about the guy in front of you. Through the final curve and I was hammering on the pedals trying to get to the finish line first...All for some sweet merchandise. I'm sad to say Pete grabbed it by a half-wheel length but it was fun trying. I had a good laugh with Pete and sat up to start my recovery. I later learned after the race that Tim and Marshall blocked the field from catching us which helps explain why it was only Pete and I up there. It took what seemed like a few laps to recover and during that time I was dangling dangerously near the back of the field. History has shown me that this is the worst place to be in a race so I fought to get myself back up near my teammates. While in the process, I noticed that Jim had managed to get himself into a little breakaway. I was still working my way up to Tim in the front to help try and slow things down in the field but never made it in time as they were coming back quickly. The breakaway either never worked well enough together or our pace never slowed down enough because a lap later, we were all back together. As we were catching them, I decided to give Jim a little "well done" pat on the back for a good effort. As I did it I was thinking, man I hope I didn't scare him and cause him to crash. I'm not sure I even finished that thought when I heard a loud noise coming from behind me. Oh man, oh man please don't let it be Jim......Sure enough I look around and I see Jim with his feet on the ground doing his best Scott Hamilton impersonation. Augh, please don't let it be me, please don't let it be me that caused that! I felt bad and contemplated sitting up and waiting for him, but Marshall said he was ok and I could see the field moving up the road without me. If I was going to get caught back on, now would be the time to go. Figuring that if I had taken Jim down, I at least owed it to him to finish the race I made the bridge back up to the field. Laps ticked down and the race was animated, much more so than last week which made this race so much more fun than the previous three. I think I was either on the front of the race working or on the back recovering from my efforts. With two to go, I was sitting on Pete's wheel again rolling throughout the start/finish line when he said lets go. Pete, a guy named Jeremy (unattached) and I made our move through the tight 90's hoping that this would give us a little bit of an edge to get a gap. The field wasn't going to let us go easily so we were working hard. So hard in fact that this effort, combined with everything else I had previously done had caught up to me, I was suffering so much I couldn't get around them to take my turn to pull. I could see Tim working to try and bridge up to us so I thought that once he got here, I'd sit up, let him take over and I'll go back to the group to try and slow things down a little bit. It's hard for one person to slow things down so I was pretty ineffective in my efforts. This would mean it was coming down once again to a sprint finish. Try to recover was my main goal, but it didn't happen quick enough as I sprinted for somewhere near 10th place.
At the end of the race, my only thought was to find Jim and find out what happened. Catching up with him, he assured me that I was in no way responsible for what had happened. I figured he was just being nice so I kept asking to make sure. Finally, it took an email from him later in the day to convince me that I wasn't involved. Sorry about your race Jim.
Hats off to the Summit Freewheelers/Allied Decals for once again hosting another great event this year. I look forward to your upcoming races this summer and fall and look forward to this event again next spring.
brian
Joining me from the team was Tim House, Jim Flesher and Marshall Leininger. Today being the last of the series, I wanted to mix it up a little bit and see what kind of results I might be able to get. I was unfortunately racing without the power meter today but in all honesty, I never look at that thing during races and I only use it afterwards to help analyze my race. Last week I determined that I conserved a lot of energy by hanging in the field and came to the finish feeling fresh. Today, I would want to race a little more aggressively and see if I could get myself into a good position or help setup one of my teammates. The organizers must have had a lot of merchandise left over gear because at the start line it was announced that there would be a total of 6 primes. I decided I might try for one this week, what do I have to loose. As we started rolling, I settled into a good position in the front of the field. The pace was brisk but that was most likely to keep everyone warm in the damp conditions. Rolling through the the finish/start line for the first time, they announced the first prime, wow that came early. I had no intentions of going for one so soon but I was sitting in second position on Pete Baughman's wheel (October Lake Effect) and what better time to test yourself than on lap two as there would be plenty of time to recover from any hard efforts. As we crested the top of the climb, I hear someone yell "Go Brian!" At the time, I thought it might have been God, but I later learned that it was actually Tim. I went around Pete on the far right and hammered through the S curves. Its nice going through there solo because you can take those things as fast as you want to and not worry about the guy in front of you. Through the final curve and I was hammering on the pedals trying to get to the finish line first...All for some sweet merchandise. I'm sad to say Pete grabbed it by a half-wheel length but it was fun trying. I had a good laugh with Pete and sat up to start my recovery. I later learned after the race that Tim and Marshall blocked the field from catching us which helps explain why it was only Pete and I up there. It took what seemed like a few laps to recover and during that time I was dangling dangerously near the back of the field. History has shown me that this is the worst place to be in a race so I fought to get myself back up near my teammates. While in the process, I noticed that Jim had managed to get himself into a little breakaway. I was still working my way up to Tim in the front to help try and slow things down in the field but never made it in time as they were coming back quickly. The breakaway either never worked well enough together or our pace never slowed down enough because a lap later, we were all back together. As we were catching them, I decided to give Jim a little "well done" pat on the back for a good effort. As I did it I was thinking, man I hope I didn't scare him and cause him to crash. I'm not sure I even finished that thought when I heard a loud noise coming from behind me. Oh man, oh man please don't let it be Jim......Sure enough I look around and I see Jim with his feet on the ground doing his best Scott Hamilton impersonation. Augh, please don't let it be me, please don't let it be me that caused that! I felt bad and contemplated sitting up and waiting for him, but Marshall said he was ok and I could see the field moving up the road without me. If I was going to get caught back on, now would be the time to go. Figuring that if I had taken Jim down, I at least owed it to him to finish the race I made the bridge back up to the field. Laps ticked down and the race was animated, much more so than last week which made this race so much more fun than the previous three. I think I was either on the front of the race working or on the back recovering from my efforts. With two to go, I was sitting on Pete's wheel again rolling throughout the start/finish line when he said lets go. Pete, a guy named Jeremy (unattached) and I made our move through the tight 90's hoping that this would give us a little bit of an edge to get a gap. The field wasn't going to let us go easily so we were working hard. So hard in fact that this effort, combined with everything else I had previously done had caught up to me, I was suffering so much I couldn't get around them to take my turn to pull. I could see Tim working to try and bridge up to us so I thought that once he got here, I'd sit up, let him take over and I'll go back to the group to try and slow things down a little bit. It's hard for one person to slow things down so I was pretty ineffective in my efforts. This would mean it was coming down once again to a sprint finish. Try to recover was my main goal, but it didn't happen quick enough as I sprinted for somewhere near 10th place.
At the end of the race, my only thought was to find Jim and find out what happened. Catching up with him, he assured me that I was in no way responsible for what had happened. I figured he was just being nice so I kept asking to make sure. Finally, it took an email from him later in the day to convince me that I wasn't involved. Sorry about your race Jim.
Hats off to the Summit Freewheelers/Allied Decals for once again hosting another great event this year. I look forward to your upcoming races this summer and fall and look forward to this event again next spring.
brian
5.10.2006
Thomas, he really is a useful engine
For those who have little boys who are into Thomas the Train, you will completely understand where the title of this entry comes from. For those who don't, go ahead and head down to your local library to immerse yourself in some true literary classics.
Last year, I was taking a ride down in the Valley and when I was came up to Boston Mills Ski Resort, I noticed off to the side on the railroad tracks there was a working, big blue engine with a big smiley face on the front. At the time, Nicholas wasn't into this scene so I thought..."What the???" It wasn't until later in the summer when the trains started coming home that I was able to put two and two together. Well, this year I'm proud to say that I will be taking my first official train ride on Thomas. I say official only because Nicholas thinks he's already ridden on him in the past (i.e. the 'L' in Chicago and the train ride earlier this year on the Cuyahoga Valley Railroad). If you see Nicholas, play along please.
Thomas has become really useful to me because it just so happens the day that we have tickets for this magical ride, is the same day as the Chippewa Creek Road Race. Normally I try to support all the road races in the area as its hard to turn something down when it's in your own backyard but in all honesty I won't be terribly let down by not being able to attend considering all the climbing this course has to offer and given the fact that I am in no way a climber. I will be a little disappointed though because as I'm nearing peak fitness it would have been fun to see just how well I could do out there. There's always next year I guess.
brian
5.08.2006
5.06.2006
Race at the Lakes #3 - Welcome back old friend
I've been involved with bikes most of my life. My mom brags that I began riding a two wheeler without training wheels at the age of two. Not sure how true that story is but regardless, I've been on 2 wheels for a long time. Like all kids, that freedom of being on a bike became somewhat diminished at the age of 16 when I obtained my drivers license. Fortunately for me, I was only away from the bike for a few years, rediscovering cycling in the form of a mountain bike through a coworker of mine at the time named Tom Cartwright. I credit Rick Parr for getting me into road cycling, but it was Tom who got me back on a bike. That's why it was nice to hear he was getting back into road racing again after a few years away from the scene and would be suiting up in the black and yellow. Today, Tom made his debut at the third of 4 races in the Race at the Lakes series hosted by the Summit Freewheelers/Allied Decals. Unfortunately his race didn't go as he had planned, but in time I'm sure it will.
Stark Velo would be well represented in the Cat 4 field with Tom, Marshall Leininger, Tim House, Jim Flesher, Mike Schiltz, Matt Turi, Carl Peshoff and myself. My plan for the day was to sit protected in the field, keep my position and wait for the sprint at the finish. I decided that there was no way that a group would get away so I wasn't going to spend my energy chasing someone who couldn't stay out there all day. I'll admit I got a little nervous when a group of 6 or 7 riders went away on lap one. We had Matt Turi representing us so I was content to stick with my race plan and sit in the field to see what happened. Normally, I would think that a group that large has a chance of staying away, but not on such a windy day and not when it happens on the first lap. Sure enough, within two laps we were all back together. There were several attacks but like all attacks in the first two races, nothing would end up sticking. I was feeling confident that I had made the right decision today to sit in and wait. Normally I'm not content to sit in and be pack fill, but my legs were feeling surprisingly good and I thought if I could get good position at the finale, I might have a chance for a decent finish today.
Going up the last 'climb' of the day, the pace was really motoring. My legs were feeling great at this point and I was telling myself that I can endure anything for the last two minutes of the race. Coming down the backside of the hill things got really squirrelly as everyone was fighting for position. It's at this point when my plans for the day were cashed in. As I was moving up the side, a rider didn't hold his line came into me and forced me off the side of the road. I was able to safely get back on the road, but only after the field all got by ad I didn't want to jeopardize someone else's race just because someone ruined mine. I was a little upset at this point and decided that I would give it all I had to salvage the race. I think I finished somewhere mid-field for the mass sprint. After several minutes (ok, it was actually an hour or so) of being ticked about this, I got over it as its just part of racing. I'm sure this guy is a good guy and I'll make the assumption he was unaware of his surroundings. Next week though, I'll make sure he stays behind me.
brian
Stark Velo would be well represented in the Cat 4 field with Tom, Marshall Leininger, Tim House, Jim Flesher, Mike Schiltz, Matt Turi, Carl Peshoff and myself. My plan for the day was to sit protected in the field, keep my position and wait for the sprint at the finish. I decided that there was no way that a group would get away so I wasn't going to spend my energy chasing someone who couldn't stay out there all day. I'll admit I got a little nervous when a group of 6 or 7 riders went away on lap one. We had Matt Turi representing us so I was content to stick with my race plan and sit in the field to see what happened. Normally, I would think that a group that large has a chance of staying away, but not on such a windy day and not when it happens on the first lap. Sure enough, within two laps we were all back together. There were several attacks but like all attacks in the first two races, nothing would end up sticking. I was feeling confident that I had made the right decision today to sit in and wait. Normally I'm not content to sit in and be pack fill, but my legs were feeling surprisingly good and I thought if I could get good position at the finale, I might have a chance for a decent finish today.
Going up the last 'climb' of the day, the pace was really motoring. My legs were feeling great at this point and I was telling myself that I can endure anything for the last two minutes of the race. Coming down the backside of the hill things got really squirrelly as everyone was fighting for position. It's at this point when my plans for the day were cashed in. As I was moving up the side, a rider didn't hold his line came into me and forced me off the side of the road. I was able to safely get back on the road, but only after the field all got by ad I didn't want to jeopardize someone else's race just because someone ruined mine. I was a little upset at this point and decided that I would give it all I had to salvage the race. I think I finished somewhere mid-field for the mass sprint. After several minutes (ok, it was actually an hour or so) of being ticked about this, I got over it as its just part of racing. I'm sure this guy is a good guy and I'll make the assumption he was unaware of his surroundings. Next week though, I'll make sure he stays behind me.
brian
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