Race at the Lakes #2

Hats off to the Summit Freewheelers/Allied Decals for running a great race. I pulled in this morning to a parking lot full of people, vendors, trailers and photographers. You would have thought I was there to race the Amstel Gold race or something. I was looking for the helicopters following the race but they must have been busy somewhere else, we'll see if they're there next week.

Today we increased our numbers in the Cat 4 field. Joining me today was Tim House, Mike Schiltz, Jim Flesher, Matt Turi, Carl Peshoff and Stuart Hamilton. I was looking forward to racing with these guys and excited to see that Carl had received his upgrade as he is a great asset to the squad. My goal for the day was to work on positioning in the field and trying to keep myself more aero in the field. I did well with that concept for the first half of the race, until I found myself conveniently going off the front of the field on the top of the climb. I had no ambitions to try anything but an Allied Decal rider had a small gap and I bridged up to him, he slowed down and I kept rolling. I was thinking at that point to keep the pace high and when I roll near the start/finish line, increase the pace a little more and see what happens. Turned out that gave me a little bit of a gap but by the time I was approaching the climb again, I noticed I didn't have much more of a gap or anyone to work with so I sat up to begin the recovery process. Fortunately for me the pace didn't pick up anymore at that point so I was able to sit in and catch my breath. I had burned a few matches on that effort, but I wasn't too concerned because there wasn't a whole lot of race left and I knew I'd finish.

A few laps later and my goal of positioning somehow not as important to me (note, it should have been and I will be better next week), a small group of 7 or 8 riders got up the road. I was too far back to go with it and seeing a teammate up there, I wasn't too concerned. That's when it happened, going into the first 90 degree corner and my teammate in the breakaway, Stuart Hamilton went down. Oh no! My first thoughts were I hope he is ok, my second thought then was that Stark Velo wasn't represented in the breakaway. At this point I was up near the front of the field so I made an all out effort to catch the break. Those matches I burnt earlier would come back to haunt me because I couldn't dig deep enough to catch those guys and I would have to sit up to wait for the field and hope that together, we could bring them back. Swinging by the corner of the accident, Stuart was down and our race went neutral. We would remain that way for over 30 minutes according to my power data. When we went neutral, there was 5 laps remaining, when they started up back up, they reduced that down to two laps. Two laps would not be enough as everyone knew it would be a sprint for those two laps. Matt Turi was an animal as he single handedly pulled the breakaway that they let go off a few seconds early back. I only wished that I felt decent enough to do something other than sit in. I could see some of my teammates up front but the pace was too high for me to get up there to do anything. In the end, I ended up sprinting for possibly a top 20 finish for the day.

As an FYI, I spoke with Tim this evening and he's informed me that Stuart has a broken collarbone and a broken rib. Hope you're not in too much discomfort Stuart and I look to seeing you back out on the bike in a few months.

brian

Can you say suffering.....This is an early move that I tried to go with. I think we were caught by the bottom of the hill but it's nice to see we had at least a little gap on them. Things to work on for next week.....be more aero! I'm giving 'watts' away just being as upright as I am here. Special thanks should go to Vicki Flesher for acting as the teams official photographer. 

A portion of the cat 4 velo's in last Saturday's race from left to right are: Jim Flesher, Matt Turi and myself. 

Project Completion

Buildings take time. Time to design and time to build. The image on the left is of a recently completed project of mine for the Veteran's Affairs Medical Center in Cleveland. From start to finish, I was involved with this project for over three years. 18 months of that was involved with the construction alone. Who knows how long discussions within the VA started about this addition prior to my involvement. Three years of my life and a lot has changed for me. I'm now over 30, I have a three year old son and the car we purchased is almost paid off.

I've learned that we have to pick where we can design in our projects. Going through design school, I was under the impression that everything would be 'high-design.' If you're one of the fortunate people who get projects like art museums or other high-profile public projects then that's probably a fair statement to make. For everyone else, you have to pick what and where you can make a space special. In this project, there were two locations. One location was in the main waiting room. The second place is shown in this picture. It's the curved corridor along the perimeter of the building. It's not much, but it's something and its a space that turned out well. Of course, being involved so intimately with the project I can see the annoying little details that came up in construction in this image. But if I forget about those for a second and stand back, I can see a nice piece of architecture.

brian

Race at the Lakes #1

Today I started my 2006 racing season at the Race at the Lakes Series presented by the Summit Freewheelers. This is always a great event that I look forward to every year, especially considering that it's only a 15 minute bike ride from my house to the start line. It's hard to turn down races so close to home, especially when my wife and son are able to come out to watch and/or play at the playground. Ok, so Nicholas was more into playing with his best friend Gavin then watching the bike race, but it was cool knowing that they were at least within shouting distance.

Today I would be joined by fellow Velo's Tim, Marshall, Matt, Jim and Mike in a field of around 40 riders, and with the sky beginning to clear we were off. Jim had a lot of energy stored up in his legs as he went immediately off the front at the start. He was brought back within the first lap but it was good to see Velo beginning to ride aggressively. There were no immediate counter attacks and the field stayed together for the next several laps. Somewhere early on in the race, I was following the wheel of a COBC rider when he made a move on the back climb. I decided to give it a shot and followed his wheel. I was ready to work but too out of breath to say anything to him, and being nearly on the rivet I just didn't quite have enough power to go around him and by the time I was able to recover to help our cause the field was reeling us back in. Time to sit up and recover back in the field. The remainder of the race was uneventful, but fast. The pace was really too fast for any breakaways to really stick so any attempts of going off the front would be destined to come back. I was one of those attempts with about 4 laps to go when I decided to try my attempt in the predictable location on the climb but as with every other attempt, I was quickly brought back. It was fun hearing someone shout out to the rest of the field to watch me, not sure that I'm that dangerous but I was flattered. This race, seemingly like all Cat 4 races at RATL would end up coming down to the bunch sprint. I was sitting in a comfortable position on the last half lap (+/-6th position) when I decided to follow the wheel of a rival team (I won't mention names because I don't want to make accusations) but he braked hard going into the last turn which forced me to brake hard which allowed most of the field to come flying around us at that point. I figured at that point that I might as well just sit up because a field finish is the same whether I rolled to the finish in 30th position or 15th.
The first race of the season went well. I was able to test myself, see where my fitness lies and have some confidence for the next three in the series. I had a blast racing with my teammates again and I look forward to racing aside them again next week.

brian

I get published!

I always thought the first time I got published that it would be in a magazine like "Architectural Record" or "Architecture." That's ok, I'll be happy with Laboratory Design Magazine. If I knew this was going to be submitted, I would have spent a little more time on the rendering. Autographs are available upon request!

brian

Boone Training Camp Day 4 (4.9.06)

Like all good things, the Boone Training Camp had to come to an end. Because time constraints on us having to be out of the cabins on time, the days scheduled ride out to Beech Mountain had to be canceled. Instead, the group decided to head out to the parkway for an out and back ride. The way to the parkway took us to the same climb and dirt roads from the first day. Maybe it was the familiarity or the fact that I was finally feeling decent, but the climb seemed much easier than on Thursday and the dirt roads were a blast to cruise through, sort of like Paris-Roubaix only without the cobbles and thousands of screaming fans. The parkway, as always was quiet with little vehicular traffic, so it made for an enjoyable last ride. Being only concerned about time in the saddle and not the quantity of miles, in lieu of hammering with the group I decided to sit up and soak in some of the scenery in the area, something I had mostly missed during the past 3 days.

The trip to Boone was an absolute blast, even being somewhat sick. Although I got the ball rolling for the group, I think everyone chipped in and contributed to the trip making it a true team effort. From Pat in Chicago who was able to join us: ".... had a great weekend with you guys; that's quite a group you've got there with StarkVelo. Definitely one of the better trips
i've been on, and by far, one of the most rewarding....... Maybe another trip in the fall? Just planting the seed."

Thanks to everyone who was able to make it to this years training camp, you made the camp that much better and I look forward to next year.......or this fall.

brian

Boone Training Camp Day 3 (4.8.06)

Campers arose to cold rainy weather on day 3 in Boone. During the night bad storms moved through central Tennessee which spurred several deadly tornadoes. Fortunately for us, the only damage that was done in our area was a loss of around 15 degrees in temperature and some wet roads. We decided to hold off a little while to let things dry out which gave some people the opportunity to go into town to do some shopping. I think everyone seemed to enjoy the extra recovery after the previous day's hard effort, I know I sure did. I also enjoyed the fact that there would be no direct sun shine and with the cool temperatures, I could comfortably wear arm warmers, knee warmers and gloves which would help protect my skin from anymore damaging UV.

Rolling out around noon, the dry roads we were waiting for quickly disappeared as the drizzle began falling again. Being all suited up with nowhere to go, we decided to keep rolling. Because some of the roads in the area weren't exactly as shown on the map, a new route for the day's shortened ride was found which included a long climb right at the start with grades that probably reached 20% in the switchbacks. Ouch, I'm so glad I sprung for that massage the day before as I would need to do everything I could to give me a positive edge. The ride was fairly uneventful with most of the excitement coming from taking wrong turns. About 16 miles down the road, Samantha, Tim, Stuart and MEB decided to turn around and head back to the cabin. I was tempted but for the first time I wasn't feeling any flu symptoms anymore so I wanted to push on a little further.

I was beginning to think there was no flat roads in this part of the country, but we found a nice little stretch on our way into the town of Todd. Here miles slipped away effortlessly while everyone was having a great time enjoying the relative flatness of this area. In Todd, we got to enjoy the days only rest stop at the local store. The architecture here has to be century old building and some of the items being sold in there might be original with the building. Neverless, the locals are all very friendly to cyclists and always eager to hear stories and find out where we've come from and how far we're going. Funny thing, on yesterday's ride, we had to leave our cabin road, go out onto Rt. 221 South to the Parkway. Rt. 221 is a 4 lane road and while we're waiting to make the left hand turn and cross over 3 lanes of traffic, all the traffic literally stops and lets us cross. I've never seen that anywhere before and I doubt I'll see that back home.

Once we left the rest stop, the rain began to fall again, but it was never hard enough to get us completely drenched so we kept rolling in lieu of finding shelter. The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful, but that's a good thing because that means I was feeling much better so I was no longer suffering from being sick. The ride for me finished up at a little over 40 miles. I split off from the remaining group when the route took us right by the cabin and the temptation was just too much so I decided to call it a day.

brian

Boone Training Camp Day 2 (4.7.06)

Crickets, Ants and Lobster

What do the three items have in common? All would be living in our cabin by the end of today’s training ride. We woke up this morning after a well deserved nights rest to cloudy skies but to the weatherman’s promise of warm temperatures. That being determined, breakfasts were ate, tires properly inflated and PowerBars and Gu were gathered as we began to roll out of the cabin at around 10:30. Today there would be two options for riding, either a short route or a long route. Prior to leaving for the trip, I had only looked at the long route options in the training bible as I thought I would have no problems keeping up on the longer rides. Still not feeling well and suffering from the sinus infection, I decided I’d make that decision when we reached the break-off point at mile 15. The ride to this point was fabulous and went very well. The skies became sunny and there was only one significant climb to this point. The great thing about significant climbs is that it usually means there’s a significant descent soon to follow. This mountain held to this rule of thumb and we were in no time flying downhill reaping the benefits of all of our hard work. This was the first time I’d ridden anything like this, so I was a little tentative to go all out and instead decided to ride slightly more conservatively than some of my teammates.
At the first rest stop, the decision needed to be made…..long route or short route. The weather finally cleared up and I debated and debated about what it was that I wanted to do. Fortunately I had the thought that if I went the shorter route I could always add miles once I got back near the cabin if I was felling good. Thank God I thought that because looking back, there’s no way I could have finished the longer route as the short route was about to kick my butt.

The group split into two equal smaller groups, riders going the shorter option included Carl Peshoff, Karen Palmer, Marjorie Parr, MEB, Mike Schiltz, Frank Kolasa, Tim House and me. Those left in the larger group were Scott Thor, Rick Parr, Pat Papczun, Bob Grimm, Samantha House, Darrin Kert, Jim Flesher and Stuart Hamilton.
Once making our separate ways, we were treated to a wonder 4+ mile climb. I instantly was hoping that this was one of Scott’s categorized climbs but being unfamiliar with the cue sheets, I was unclear. As luck would have it, bad luck in this case, Frank’s chain decided to break at this point so we came to another stop while the unofficial team wrench Tim took care of business. Working way too fast, we were off again continuing on that climb working our way to the top where we would enjoy another great descent and a few carefree miles while we made our way to the days next scheduled rest stop in Banner Elk. The mountains in these areas are gorgeous and I found myself regularly looking over to try and catch a glimpse of landscape. This also became a nice distraction to keep me from realizing how much I was suffering. If I ever had dreams of being a climber, those mountains crushed them there that day.

After a much needed rest stop and refueling in the small town of Banner Elk, we were on our way for another climb up Grandfather Mountain. We climbed this mountain yesterday, only from a different direction but ended up taking the same descent. It was nice to see some familiar territory and I felt more comfortable pushing the descents since I could remember the road from being there less than 24 hours earlier. Enjoying scenery and trying to keep up with my team mates, the miles ticked away, although I was noticing with a little more effort than a few hours earlier, even while going downhill. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was beginning to bonk. I have only bonked once before and that was during my first century. I knew that feeling and I didn’t want to live through it again so I took steps to make sure I was well hydrated and ate well enough. During this day I would go through 4 large bottles of Gatorade, one PowerBar and 3 Gu’s, but this apparently wasn’t going to be enough for me. It wasn’t until we made another stop to fix a flat tire that it caught up with me. I knew at that moment I had better start rolling home or I might never make it. We were at mile marker 50 and although there were only supposed to be 4 more to go, I knew we were at least 10 miles away with several more small climbs. Boy was I glad I wasn’t on the long route. Once rolling again, we found ourselves back to the cabin in another 45 minutes and having to tackle the 15% grade (+/-) back up to the cabin. I was done, I ended up getting off the bike and walking up, no way was I going to be riding up this one today. Along the walk, Dr. Carl came up and gave me a hand with the bike. Big thanks goes out to Carl because without him looking out for those first few moments back at the cabin, it would have taken me much longer to recover, possibly putting into jeopardy the riding for the next day or two. After several small helpings of pasta, I was feeling back to normal and looking forward to what the day had in store for tomorrow.

Oh, almost forgot about Crickets, Ants and Lobster. Ants were what had invaded our kitchen in the morning, Crickets were what had invaded the rest of the house, and Lobster is what I looked like from my sunburn after neglecting the sunscreen.

brian

Boone Training Camp Day 1 (4.6.06)

The last time I witnessed 4:00 a.m., I was sneaking back into Taylor Hall over at Kent State University to finish up my fifth year architecture project. Today it was to get up in time to meet some of my closest buddies to head south to Boone, North Carolina for four days of cycling in the Appalachian Mountains. The goal was to get into town in time for a 40 mile warm up. I should have been a little less motivated to get in some miles and gotten a little more sleep as I would definitely need it after the draining 8 hour drive while still suffering from a sinus infection.

After making our way to the cabin and getting kitted off, we were off on our way to do some riding in what appears to be some of the most beautiful country in the world. Due to the late start (5:00), we needed to cut the route short so we could get back before sunset.

I knew I was going to be hurting when I woke up in the morning, weighed myself and realized I lost 5 pounds in 4 days. No weight loss secrets here, it came from being sick, having zero appetite and not being able to drink much. There was just no way I could get myself re-hydrated in such a short period of time. In no time, I found the effects of my sickness caught up to me as I slowly began to go off the back of the group. Finding a comfortable rhythm, the miles began to tick away and I found myself gaining some riding partners while taking in some great scenery but secretly praying that we would be back at the cabin as I wasn’t feeling well at all. All I could hope for was a decent dinner and a good night’s sleep to get me back into shape for tomorrow’s big ride. At the end of the day, we finished up at 38 miles, not that much shorter than what were originally planned but at least there were a few miles saved on my tired body.

brian

The Eleventh Hour

Well, here I stand just hours away from embarking on the biggest cycling trip in my career so far and what do I have....a stinking sinus infection. After 4 months of planning there's no way I'm letting this opportunity slide by and since my Doctor says I'm not contagious (I'm assuming he's talking about the sinus infection and not my personality!) I'll be heading south with 18 of my closest, or soon to be closest riding buddies. I'll do my best to upload some pictures and some thoughts each night to keep everyone posted.

brian

Exploring Portage County

This past week I realized that there are only a few more days until Boone and I barely have any long rides over 2 hours in my legs this year. Dodging raindrops, I decided today would be the day I venture out for a 3 hour ride into some unfamiliar territory for me....Portage County. Living near the valley I've been somewhat blinded in the past by the feeling that you just can't beat the valley for riding, so why bother looking. Well, today I decided to break from my typical routines and venture into some new country. Portage County in the past has been a place that I typically make fun of, saying things like Portage County White Trash and needlessly torturing my buddies who grew up there. Today's exploration came with no expectations, only trying to explore some new roads, find some new potential training routes and meet my goal of 3 hours in the saddle. I was pleasantly surprised by what I found, generally smooth roads, few cars and some great scenery. Sure, some of that scenery included trailer parks with cars up on jacks in the front lawn, but there were other areas that seemed so secluded and untouched that I swore at times I could hear the banjo playing in Deliverance...which only drove me to pedal faster. All in all it was a great day. I still think its tough to beat the valley, but I've learned that there are some other great area nearby to pedal thru.

brian