Yesterday I finally managed to sneak in a little ride. Looking back at my yearly training log, I can see that I managed to sneak in three rides during the month of October, three rides during the month of November and wait....only two rides this month. Not wanting to be considered a slacker, I figured I'd better step it up a bit and at least match these great numbers that I've been putting in the past several months :)
I'm usually a bit of a sissy when it comes to riding this time of the year and 40 degrees has been my typical cut-off for riding outside. I don't mind putting in two hours on the trainer so my feeling has sort of been why beat yourself up in the cold if you don't have to? Well, seeing how tough Scott Thor is out in SoCal by braving temps in the low 50's, I figured with the proper clothing I should be able to ride in the mid 30's brr...brr. Actually, the conditions couldn't have been better for this time of year (well, actually they could have). With no wind and endless dry roads, I knew the timing couldn't be better to make it out for my first ride in almost a month.
Getting my bike and gear ready, it hit me that it's been an awful long time since I've really ridden my Cervelo. You know it's been a long time when you go to inflate your tires and instead of the 120psi that you're accustomed to seeing, you see 80psi. You also know its been too long when you have to dust your bike off and knock a few spider webs down. I think someone wrote in the dust "Ride Me." Vowing to make the best of my ride, I jokingly told my wife I'd see her in five minutes and left towards the Valley. I thought I would forgo my typical iPod in favor of pure silence. In the back of my mind I also knew that during the warm months, motorists aren't watching for cyclists, I was sure that on a winters day there would even be less people expecting a cyclist on the road. Not taking the iPod also proved great because I was able to experience the calmness of the Valley. Most weekends when I'm riding the valley is packed with motorists and motorcycles wanting to get a taste of the outdoors behind their glass windows. Today, it was literally just me and the road. I probably saw a dozen cars during my two hour outing. The day ended in my putting in just under two hours. Not bad considering I had only really intended on riding 60 to 90 minutes tops. It was just one of those days, and I know we've all had them, when you just didn't want to turn around.
Here are the numbers for the day, nothing too crazy as I will be in a major rebuilding phase of my fitness for a long...long...time.
brian
Duration: 1:57:55 (1:58:50)
Work: 1289 kJ
TSS: 106.9 (intensity factor 0.738)
Norm Power: 214
VI: 1.17
Distance: 30.097 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 531 183 watts
Heart rate: 88 184 155 bpm
Cadence: 29 141 87 rpm
Speed: 2.2 43 15.4 mph
Pace 1:24 26:49 3:54 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 482 95 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 1235 192 lb-in
12.31.2007
11.23.2007
Gorge Metro Park to Cascade Metro Park Run
Two blog entries in one day....I must be going crazy or something. A coworker of mine passed this website along to me www.mapmyrun.com . It's been a good site for my running because being a data junkie, I can go home and map my routes to see how far I've run. Today I wanted to do a little exploration so I decided to run down to Gorge Metro Park and see where it took me. I ended up running all the way down into the Valley to another Metro Park called Cascade Valley. I'd ridden my bikes by all of these places before but never ventured in. Absolutely beautiful. It's a shame that the parks are closed to bikes because I kept thinking how great it would be to take the cross bike down there and ride around. There are a lot more trails down there but I was just trying to find the quickest way out since daylight was quickly fading and I was starting to get cold. Anyway, an hour after leaving the house I returned, a little tired but happy I completed my route.
brian
Here's the route:
brian
Here's the route:
Elving, Training and just general Loafing
With Scott Thor's departure to sunny SoCal I'm going to have to step it up a bit with my blogging entries now that it looks like I'm the premier 'local' blogger for SV by default. Note I said local as Thor will always be a Velo at heart.
I can tell you that the past month has flown by and it looks like December is all setup to do the same. I wish I could say I've been putting in mega-miles on the bike but the truth is I've barely even wanted to look at my bike, let alone ride it. The last time I was out on the road was about three weeks ago when I hooked up with teammates Tim House and Darrin Kert for a 40 miler. I'm usually in a mindset this time of year where I welcome the break from the bike but am looking forward to kicking off my training again. This year I'm in a totally new situation where I really am not in a hurry to ride again; not sure what the change has been for me but I hope I kick out of it soon as my waistline can't take much more time off.
Elves and More has been keeping me busy and like I said previously, I'll be even busier as we begin to receiving our bikes and get ready for the assembly and delivery. If you haven't already, please go to our website to see how you can become involved. There is no better way to kick off your holidays, I can guarantee you.
In my previous blogs, I talked about my experience running in the Akron Marathon. This has me motivated for 08 to run my first full marathon. I figured that I'm turning 35 next year and what better way to celebrate (besides being race eligible in the masters category now) then by running 26.2 miles for the sheer fun of it. I'm working with my cousin who has raced several of them to setup my training program for next year. This is what it looks like so far:
It's a fairly ambitions schedule for a first timer. I think I'll know fairly early in the schedule on whether its attainable or not but my goal is to run a Boston Qualifier with for me will be 3 hours and 15 minutes. Some people approach Boston as wanting to run a few warm up marathons first before trying to qualify. My thoughts are why go through all that suffering, just go for it and see what happens. Starting off the program with 6 mile runs means that my running can't begin on day one of the program. I've made an effort to keep running at least a few days a week and hope to continue to do so through the winter and spring while trying to enter some half-marathons and 10k events along the way. One of my favorite runs that I've recently found is from my house down to a park called Babb Run. From my place, through the trails and back it makes for a very nice 5 miler. Everytime I've gone down I've always wanted to keep running and exploring but couldn't because of time constraints. That's a first for me as usually I'm always very happy to be finished running. Down there I didn't want to stop. What's amazing about this place is that its so close to home and nobody knows its even there, giving you your own private park in the middle of suburbia. About five years ago there was a lot of flooding in the area which washed out the road leading down into Babb Run. Because no repairs have been made to it, the place is completely empty. Here's a picture that I was able to find looking down into Babb Run.
Well, that's it for now. I will do my best to keep updates coming a little more frequently.
brian
10.05.2007
9.30.2007
Akron Road Runner Marathon
Yesterday, along with several coworkers, I participated in the Fifth Annual Akron Road Runner Marathon's team relay. This is actually the third time in four years that I've run this event (I missed last years event due to the birth of William), each time running the same 10k (6.2 mile) leg (the one that runs through the University of Akron and finishes up in Sand Run park). I enjoy this route because it gives me the best of both worlds, one being running through downtown with all the crowds and excitement and the other running on the trail in nature and solitude.
So this race kicks off early. 7:00 a.m. start time. Not too bad but considering that we wanted to meet at 6:30 downtown for some group pictures made it an early wake up. Running competitively is something new to me. I have what I need to do to prepare myself for a bike race down to a science, whether it is a criterium or road race. Running I just don't have figured out yet so I figured a safe bet would be to try to utilize the portions of my pre-race preparations that I could for this one which would be my pre-race meal, oatmeal and juice. I knew oatmeal is probably a little heavy but with my start time somewhere around 8:15 I assumed eating it two hours early would be perfect timing for when my body needed that fuel.
After the start, I went with two of my coworkers down another block to watch the runners go through downtown and cheer on my teammates Bob Medziuch and Ben Rantilla (Hasenstab Architects fielded two teams, a 'competitive' team that I was a part of and a 'fun team'.) Once we saw them come though as scheduled, we began the long walk to our start point for our warm up and stretching. At my start point, the place is littered with runners of all shapes and sizes. It's amazing to see how many people come out to partake in this event. It's been fun to be running in the parks and just seeing the mass of runners out doing their training runs as well. After a thorough stretch and last minute run to the bathroom, I waited in the mob for my teammate, Ed Paine to come through. We had loosely calculated times so we knew when to expect them to get there, but with the mass of people, it could get very confusing so we wanted to be safe and make sure we were attentive really early so we didn't loose any time trying to find each other in the transitions. (I noticed several teams have this issue this year). Once I received the bracelet from Ed I was off. Within the first few hundred feet I heard the shouts of support from several coworkers who came out to cheer us on. I'm glad they saw me then because who knows how lousy I will look at the end of this thing. The last time I ran this I completed it in 43 minutes, 20 seconds. This year my only goal was to complete my leg in under 45 minutes as I wasn't real confident in my fitness this year. Straight out of the gate I was running fast, too fast in hindsight but our office was having a competition against another architect in town and I knew those guys had a four minute head start on me....I was hoping to close that down and ideally gain some time in my leg. Running through the University and downtown I felt great. One thing about bike racing is that besides the few supportive spouses that come out, there's nobody to cheer you on. At this event, there are literally thousands of folks out there cheering you on and being supportive. If only cycling could capture some of that fan base....I digress. I'm running through downtown and I finally find my stride, somewhere I thought to be around 7 minute per mile pace. I'm finally feeling good and passing tons of people like they're marching in the Macy's Day parade. As I make the right hand turn onto the towpath trail by the Mustill Store I look at my watch.....just over 13 minutes. OK, this is about two miles in and I'm at 13 minutes....6 minute, 30 second pace...too fast. I might pay big time for this early effort as I know there is no way I can sustain this effort for the next 4.2 miles. It's probably best to slow it down a touch so I don't completely explode out here and leave my teammates in a bind trying to collect the thousands of little pieces that will be me stretched out over the trail. As I'm running on the trail I find myself trying to focus on the task at hand. One part of me is wondering how Nicholas is doing in the kids fun run another part of me is wishing I had my iPod with me and the last part is beginning to realize that I'm beginning to hurt a little bit. Focus Miner, focus. I switch back to the mode of concentrating on nothing else but my breathing and my stride. If I could stay focused on that I wouldn't focus on the pain that was settling in. At the halfway point I took one last look at my watch and saw just under 21 minutes. Perfect. I had slowed down a little bit too much but if I could pick it back up a little I had a legitimate shot of finishing this thing somewhere around 42 minutes. The next two miles became difficult. In cycling I know what it's like to suffer and work through this. I can honestly say that I have never suffered like I did that day running that leg. That oatmeal was settling right with me and I learned that if I didn't throttle things down a little bit, I would be getting sick. So, the trick became run as fast as I can until I feel like I'm going to get sick and then slow up a tad until that feeling goes away. It worked, I didn't get sick but next time I'm going to stay away from the oatmeal and find something a little lighter, at least for a fast 10k event. Knowing I needed to slow down a little bit I was really worried about my goal time of 45 minutes. I figured it was totally lost now because I felt like I was running a 10 minute per mile pace between miles 3.5 and 5. Once I hit that last mile I knew I was virtually in the finishing stretch and I pushed it as hard as I possibly could. Finally emerging from the towpath on Akron-Peninsula road I had several coworkers and teammates there to cheer me on which was huge because at this point I felt like (and probably looked like) the walking dead. One last tough section of my course to finish, the hill up Portage Path to finish in Sand Run parkway. After 6 miles of running, any slight change in elevation seems huge but I felt like I was trying to climb up Mt. Everest at this point. Fortunately I had another coworker further up the road to cheer me which helped carry me through to my transition point. As I made the last turn onto the parkway, I took off that bracelet in anticipation of the exchange but also as a sign of get this thing off of me...I am done. Nevermind I still had a few hundred feet to run, if only I could take off these few additional ounces maybe that would lighten the load on my feet and get me there quickly. Safely making the exchange to Chris Betts I stopped my watch, 43minutes, 33 seconds. Wow, for as badly as I felt in those last few miles, I never would have imagined that I would have finished up with a time like that.
So, there it is, my running performance and finally another blog post for everyone to enjoy. Congratulations to all my teammates and coworkers for putting in an amazing performance. In the end, Hasenstab Architect's competitive team finished with a time of 3 hrs, 10 minutes and 49 seconds. The best ever performance by our group and good enough to put us in seventh place overall in the Men's Team Relay division. I've said it before but for a bunch of non-runners who don't train more than a few months prior to the race, I think that's really an incredible effort. I also begin to question my ability. Given that I trained for this, but not intensely, would I make a better runner than cyclist? Should I consider switching my focus? Who knows. One thing I do know is that at some point in the near future, I would like to complete a marathon. Maybe next year.
brian
So this race kicks off early. 7:00 a.m. start time. Not too bad but considering that we wanted to meet at 6:30 downtown for some group pictures made it an early wake up. Running competitively is something new to me. I have what I need to do to prepare myself for a bike race down to a science, whether it is a criterium or road race. Running I just don't have figured out yet so I figured a safe bet would be to try to utilize the portions of my pre-race preparations that I could for this one which would be my pre-race meal, oatmeal and juice. I knew oatmeal is probably a little heavy but with my start time somewhere around 8:15 I assumed eating it two hours early would be perfect timing for when my body needed that fuel.
After the start, I went with two of my coworkers down another block to watch the runners go through downtown and cheer on my teammates Bob Medziuch and Ben Rantilla (Hasenstab Architects fielded two teams, a 'competitive' team that I was a part of and a 'fun team'.) Once we saw them come though as scheduled, we began the long walk to our start point for our warm up and stretching. At my start point, the place is littered with runners of all shapes and sizes. It's amazing to see how many people come out to partake in this event. It's been fun to be running in the parks and just seeing the mass of runners out doing their training runs as well. After a thorough stretch and last minute run to the bathroom, I waited in the mob for my teammate, Ed Paine to come through. We had loosely calculated times so we knew when to expect them to get there, but with the mass of people, it could get very confusing so we wanted to be safe and make sure we were attentive really early so we didn't loose any time trying to find each other in the transitions. (I noticed several teams have this issue this year). Once I received the bracelet from Ed I was off. Within the first few hundred feet I heard the shouts of support from several coworkers who came out to cheer us on. I'm glad they saw me then because who knows how lousy I will look at the end of this thing. The last time I ran this I completed it in 43 minutes, 20 seconds. This year my only goal was to complete my leg in under 45 minutes as I wasn't real confident in my fitness this year. Straight out of the gate I was running fast, too fast in hindsight but our office was having a competition against another architect in town and I knew those guys had a four minute head start on me....I was hoping to close that down and ideally gain some time in my leg. Running through the University and downtown I felt great. One thing about bike racing is that besides the few supportive spouses that come out, there's nobody to cheer you on. At this event, there are literally thousands of folks out there cheering you on and being supportive. If only cycling could capture some of that fan base....I digress. I'm running through downtown and I finally find my stride, somewhere I thought to be around 7 minute per mile pace. I'm finally feeling good and passing tons of people like they're marching in the Macy's Day parade. As I make the right hand turn onto the towpath trail by the Mustill Store I look at my watch.....just over 13 minutes. OK, this is about two miles in and I'm at 13 minutes....6 minute, 30 second pace...too fast. I might pay big time for this early effort as I know there is no way I can sustain this effort for the next 4.2 miles. It's probably best to slow it down a touch so I don't completely explode out here and leave my teammates in a bind trying to collect the thousands of little pieces that will be me stretched out over the trail. As I'm running on the trail I find myself trying to focus on the task at hand. One part of me is wondering how Nicholas is doing in the kids fun run another part of me is wishing I had my iPod with me and the last part is beginning to realize that I'm beginning to hurt a little bit. Focus Miner, focus. I switch back to the mode of concentrating on nothing else but my breathing and my stride. If I could stay focused on that I wouldn't focus on the pain that was settling in. At the halfway point I took one last look at my watch and saw just under 21 minutes. Perfect. I had slowed down a little bit too much but if I could pick it back up a little I had a legitimate shot of finishing this thing somewhere around 42 minutes. The next two miles became difficult. In cycling I know what it's like to suffer and work through this. I can honestly say that I have never suffered like I did that day running that leg. That oatmeal was settling right with me and I learned that if I didn't throttle things down a little bit, I would be getting sick. So, the trick became run as fast as I can until I feel like I'm going to get sick and then slow up a tad until that feeling goes away. It worked, I didn't get sick but next time I'm going to stay away from the oatmeal and find something a little lighter, at least for a fast 10k event. Knowing I needed to slow down a little bit I was really worried about my goal time of 45 minutes. I figured it was totally lost now because I felt like I was running a 10 minute per mile pace between miles 3.5 and 5. Once I hit that last mile I knew I was virtually in the finishing stretch and I pushed it as hard as I possibly could. Finally emerging from the towpath on Akron-Peninsula road I had several coworkers and teammates there to cheer me on which was huge because at this point I felt like (and probably looked like) the walking dead. One last tough section of my course to finish, the hill up Portage Path to finish in Sand Run parkway. After 6 miles of running, any slight change in elevation seems huge but I felt like I was trying to climb up Mt. Everest at this point. Fortunately I had another coworker further up the road to cheer me which helped carry me through to my transition point. As I made the last turn onto the parkway, I took off that bracelet in anticipation of the exchange but also as a sign of get this thing off of me...I am done. Nevermind I still had a few hundred feet to run, if only I could take off these few additional ounces maybe that would lighten the load on my feet and get me there quickly. Safely making the exchange to Chris Betts I stopped my watch, 43minutes, 33 seconds. Wow, for as badly as I felt in those last few miles, I never would have imagined that I would have finished up with a time like that.
So, there it is, my running performance and finally another blog post for everyone to enjoy. Congratulations to all my teammates and coworkers for putting in an amazing performance. In the end, Hasenstab Architect's competitive team finished with a time of 3 hrs, 10 minutes and 49 seconds. The best ever performance by our group and good enough to put us in seventh place overall in the Men's Team Relay division. I've said it before but for a bunch of non-runners who don't train more than a few months prior to the race, I think that's really an incredible effort. I also begin to question my ability. Given that I trained for this, but not intensely, would I make a better runner than cyclist? Should I consider switching my focus? Who knows. One thing I do know is that at some point in the near future, I would like to complete a marathon. Maybe next year.
brian
9.09.2007
Fall Challenge
I awoke Sunday morning to the sound of rain drops falling outside. There’s something about lying around in bed listening to the sound of rain outside, it’s another thing knowing that you plan on actually racing your bike outside in it. Living only about 5 miles from the course, my intent was to get up early and ride over to the course to get my warm up in, that was until I saw the ark floating down the street with all the animals in it. Better just drive over there, take the trainer and setup under the entrance canopy to get a little bit of a warm up. There was no doubt that I would be getting wet for the day, no reason to get a jump start on it. After my quick warm up, I was off to the start line in the Cat 4/5 race. The rain unfortunately kept a lot of people away as our field only looked to be about 20 deep and the maters field didn’t look to be much bigger. It’s really a shame that more people didn’t come out to race. Although the weather was less than ideal, the course is challenging, scenic and most of all safe. I was impressed by the amount of support that Summit had for the course. Every corner was well marshaled and the amount of support vehicles that they had was amazing, almost seemed like one vehicle per rider. The only thing that was missing was the overhead helicopters but maybe they were grounded because of the rain.
As we rolled out at the start, I was able to count jerseys and Summit definitely had the numbers with what appeared to be 6 riders. After that, it was Orrville with 2 and Stark with Jason Leaman and me. I knew going into today that if I could hang onto wheels for the entire race; that would be a substantial victory for me. As I said earlier, this is a challenging course. You’re either climbing or descending, nothing in-between. Granted, the majority of climbing besides the first climb up Quick Road is false-flat but there are some rollers in there up by the humane society that I thought could be decisive depending upon how much recovery you were able to get through the false flats. The first lap went as well as could be expected. The first true attack came from Joel of Orrville on the decent on Wetmore road. It was in the little valley section right before the little climb that takes you back down to Akron-Peninsula road. I was sitting second wheel behind a rider from Summit and knowing that this was very early in the race for any moves to stick, I made no effort to chase. I also figured with Summit having the numbers, it would be up to them to control the race which is what happened. The rider I was following brought him back and I comfortably rode wheels back up. The big test for me was just about to come as we made the right hand turn to head up Quick Road. I knew this would be where the selections were made; I was just hoping that it wouldn’t be on lap 1. Still sitting up front, I found myself almost comfortably spinning a nice cadence while sitting in the group. I knew it wasn’t going to be this easy and as the road started to level off, the attacks came from Summit. Not so much of a hard effort but they picked up the pace enough that it strung out the field and tested my legs. Fortunately, I was at the front of the group and as the field came by me, there were enough of them that I could slightly recover by the time the back of the field came by. Although my legs were stinging, I slipped in and safely began making my way back up to the front of the group again. One lap down, 3 more to go. Not sure if I can make 3 more of these with the group or not. Turns out I couldn’t. On the next lap heading up Quick Road, my strategy of starting in the front and then slowly drifting back failed as I started the climb near the back. By the time I made it to the top of the bump, the group was just a tad too far in front of me as I just couldn’t close the gap back up. I was on my own now. I thought about quitting when I got back up to the school but figured I’d ridden this course enough times solo in practice; I could at least finish it up solo during the race. After all, I paid my money and was already soaking wet, it couldn’t get much worse than this. So I joined up with two other riders who were also off the back and we finished the race together, I’m sure much faster than I would have finished by myself.
So, the road race season for me has come to a close, thank goodness. In the next month or so, I plan on writing a post on my 2007 season, the high points, the mostly low points, my training plan (or lack thereof) and what I could have done better. In the meantime, I plan on still riding to build my fitness back up so I can hope to be somewhat competitive in cyclocross this fall which will all be new to me.
brian
Data from today's race
Entire race:
Duration: 1:32:37 (1:34:20)
Work: 1250 kJ
TSS: 134.5 (intensity factor 0.934)
Norm Power: 271
VI: 1.2
Distance: 32.646
mi Min Max Avg
Power: 0 953 225 watts
Heart rate: 117 183 160 bpm
Cadence: 29 141 96 rpm
Speed: 0 42.4 21.1 mph
Pace 1:25 0:00 2:50 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 383 82 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 837 199 lb-in
Lap#1
Duration: 22:02
Work: 290 kJ
TSS: 37.4 (intensity factor 1.01)
Norm Power: 293
VI: 1.33
Distance: 8.209 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 953 220 watts
Heart rate: 117 183 158 bpm
Cadence: 30 141 99 rpm
Speed: 0 41.3 22.3 mph
Pace 1:27 0:00 2:41 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 318 75 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 837 186 lb-in
Lap #2:
Duration: 23:29
Work: 315 kJ
TSS: 35.2 (intensity factor 0.949)
Norm Power: 275
VI: 1.23
Distance: 8.41 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 868 224 watts
Heart rate: 130 179 161 bpm
Cadence: 31 141 97 rpm
Speed: 10 42.4 21.5 mph
Pace 1:25 5:60 2:48 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 311 83 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 808 194 lb-in
Lap #3:
Duration: 22:27 (24:10)
Work: 303 kJ
TSS: 28.8 (intensity factor 0.879)
Norm Power: 255
VI: 1.13
Distance: 7.774 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 692 226 watts
Heart rate: 127 171 159 bpm
Cadence: 29 141 96 rpm
Speed: 0 39.8 20.8 mph
Pace 1:30 0:00 2:53 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 319 81 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 712 204 lb-in
Lap #4:
Duration: 24:38
Work: 342 kJ
TSS: 33 (intensity factor 0.897)
Norm Power: 260
VI: 1.12
Distance: 8.251 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 720 232 watts
Heart rate: 140 176 163 bpm
Cadence: 29 141 94 rpm
Speed: 4.6 39.5 20.1 mph
Pace 1:31 13:03 2:59 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 383 90 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 813 212 lb-in
As we rolled out at the start, I was able to count jerseys and Summit definitely had the numbers with what appeared to be 6 riders. After that, it was Orrville with 2 and Stark with Jason Leaman and me. I knew going into today that if I could hang onto wheels for the entire race; that would be a substantial victory for me. As I said earlier, this is a challenging course. You’re either climbing or descending, nothing in-between. Granted, the majority of climbing besides the first climb up Quick Road is false-flat but there are some rollers in there up by the humane society that I thought could be decisive depending upon how much recovery you were able to get through the false flats. The first lap went as well as could be expected. The first true attack came from Joel of Orrville on the decent on Wetmore road. It was in the little valley section right before the little climb that takes you back down to Akron-Peninsula road. I was sitting second wheel behind a rider from Summit and knowing that this was very early in the race for any moves to stick, I made no effort to chase. I also figured with Summit having the numbers, it would be up to them to control the race which is what happened. The rider I was following brought him back and I comfortably rode wheels back up. The big test for me was just about to come as we made the right hand turn to head up Quick Road. I knew this would be where the selections were made; I was just hoping that it wouldn’t be on lap 1. Still sitting up front, I found myself almost comfortably spinning a nice cadence while sitting in the group. I knew it wasn’t going to be this easy and as the road started to level off, the attacks came from Summit. Not so much of a hard effort but they picked up the pace enough that it strung out the field and tested my legs. Fortunately, I was at the front of the group and as the field came by me, there were enough of them that I could slightly recover by the time the back of the field came by. Although my legs were stinging, I slipped in and safely began making my way back up to the front of the group again. One lap down, 3 more to go. Not sure if I can make 3 more of these with the group or not. Turns out I couldn’t. On the next lap heading up Quick Road, my strategy of starting in the front and then slowly drifting back failed as I started the climb near the back. By the time I made it to the top of the bump, the group was just a tad too far in front of me as I just couldn’t close the gap back up. I was on my own now. I thought about quitting when I got back up to the school but figured I’d ridden this course enough times solo in practice; I could at least finish it up solo during the race. After all, I paid my money and was already soaking wet, it couldn’t get much worse than this. So I joined up with two other riders who were also off the back and we finished the race together, I’m sure much faster than I would have finished by myself.
So, the road race season for me has come to a close, thank goodness. In the next month or so, I plan on writing a post on my 2007 season, the high points, the mostly low points, my training plan (or lack thereof) and what I could have done better. In the meantime, I plan on still riding to build my fitness back up so I can hope to be somewhat competitive in cyclocross this fall which will all be new to me.
brian
Data from today's race
Entire race:
Duration: 1:32:37 (1:34:20)
Work: 1250 kJ
TSS: 134.5 (intensity factor 0.934)
Norm Power: 271
VI: 1.2
Distance: 32.646
mi Min Max Avg
Power: 0 953 225 watts
Heart rate: 117 183 160 bpm
Cadence: 29 141 96 rpm
Speed: 0 42.4 21.1 mph
Pace 1:25 0:00 2:50 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 383 82 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 837 199 lb-in
Lap#1
Duration: 22:02
Work: 290 kJ
TSS: 37.4 (intensity factor 1.01)
Norm Power: 293
VI: 1.33
Distance: 8.209 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 953 220 watts
Heart rate: 117 183 158 bpm
Cadence: 30 141 99 rpm
Speed: 0 41.3 22.3 mph
Pace 1:27 0:00 2:41 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 318 75 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 837 186 lb-in
Lap #2:
Duration: 23:29
Work: 315 kJ
TSS: 35.2 (intensity factor 0.949)
Norm Power: 275
VI: 1.23
Distance: 8.41 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 868 224 watts
Heart rate: 130 179 161 bpm
Cadence: 31 141 97 rpm
Speed: 10 42.4 21.5 mph
Pace 1:25 5:60 2:48 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 311 83 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 808 194 lb-in
Lap #3:
Duration: 22:27 (24:10)
Work: 303 kJ
TSS: 28.8 (intensity factor 0.879)
Norm Power: 255
VI: 1.13
Distance: 7.774 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 692 226 watts
Heart rate: 127 171 159 bpm
Cadence: 29 141 96 rpm
Speed: 0 39.8 20.8 mph
Pace 1:30 0:00 2:53 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 319 81 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 712 204 lb-in
Lap #4:
Duration: 24:38
Work: 342 kJ
TSS: 33 (intensity factor 0.897)
Norm Power: 260
VI: 1.12
Distance: 8.251 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 720 232 watts
Heart rate: 140 176 163 bpm
Cadence: 29 141 94 rpm
Speed: 4.6 39.5 20.1 mph
Pace 1:31 13:03 2:59 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 383 90 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 813 212 lb-in
9.05.2007
Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful….
This past weekend I was fortunate enough to sneak in a bike ride in between working on the renovation of our bathroom. Because my time was limited, I decided to roll down into the Valley to get my biggest bang for the buck and tackle some of the climbs down there. One of my favorite descents there is Wheatley Road. For those who are somewhat familiar with the Valley, Wheatley will tie into Everett Road which is where the classic Covered Bridge Series is held each year. Wheatley, unless it’s an evening where there’s a concert happening over at Blossom, is lightly traveled by cars, smooth and has a fast descent which includes some s-curves on it. My point of this apparent rambling? Only to introduce the meaning behind the title of this post. When I made the juncture onto Everett, I noticed I started passing quite a few cyclists going in the opposite direction. Seeing cyclists in the Valley isn’t uncommon, in fact on the weekends the place is packed with overfilling lycra. However, the numbers of riders I was seeing was way more than the common group ride heading out from Szalay’s Farm. Turns out, these riders were taking in the morning’s charity ride called STOMP. I wish cyclists were like motorcycle riders in terms of their customs and traditions. Next time you’re out riding, take notice when you see two bikers passing each other. Without hesitation, you see their left arm drop down to the ground for a way cool sign of….hey. Doesn’t matter if it’s a 20 something on a crotch-rocket or a member of the Hells Angels passing each other, they recognize that there is a commonality between them. Even if its only riding on two wheels, they know that they’ve found a secret that most of society hasn’t, traveling through life on two wheels is just more fun. A quick google search on this even found tons of articles and discussions on this subject alone. Back to my point and all the riders I was seeing. I like to be friendly when I’m out riding, but I don’t quite get what others are thinking. I’m passing dozens and dozens of riders, I’m waving, nodding my head, saying good morning, everything but the majority of my fellow cyclists don’t respond at all. I could understand if they were in the middle of a race, but this is a charity ride for Christ’s sake, riding for the pure enjoyment of it without all the suffering. Maybe it’s my goofy smile like a virgin on prom night that scares them away. Maybe it’s my shaved legs or matching kit that they seem to think makes me “so-pro” that they mistakenly get the impression that we’re not the same. Well, we are. Just like the motorcyclists, cyclists have found out that riding through life on two wheels is just more fun.
brian
8.12.2007
Orrville - "Smith Dairy Milk Race"
This morning I woke up with that new Rihanna song "Umbrella" stuck in my head, all thanks to my 4 year old Nicholas. "You can stand under my umbrella, ella, ella, ey, ey, ey...." By the way, there is no way that Nicholas is watching that video....I had to watch it at least a dozen times just to confirm that it wasn't appropriate for children. I actually may need to watch it a few more times just to confirm....
After a quick bowl of Oatmeal and loading up the car this morning, I was on my way to Orrville to race at the Milk Race. This is the third time I've raced it. The first year, I was involved in a crash that left me chasing for 2 out of three laps. Last year I finished in the field but kept thinking about my wife going into labor (actually, I was hoping she would so I could pull out of the race). Would this year be any different? I didn't have any expectations with the little bit of training I've had in the past month, but after the ride I did with some of my teammates up in the valley on Wednesday, I was at least optimistic that I could hang in the field.
"You can stand under my umbrella, ella, ella, ey, ey, ey" Augh!!!
Rolling with me in the Cat 4 field was Darrin Kert, Tim House, Marshall Leininger, Matt Turi, Don Bunker and entering his first Cat 4 race since receiving his upgrade was Frank Kolasa. The usual suspects lined up with us this morning and our field size looked to be about 35 guys strong. I knew the guys to really keep an eye on would be Paul Kinney from Orrville and Noah Gurney from Summit. After Noah's incredible performance at Zoar last weekend, I knew he was riding, as always with good form. Paul is always good. With Breakaway up front setting tempo as we rolled out of the parking lot, one of their riders road off the front to open up a decent little gap within the first few miles of the race. I never like to be just pack fill so it was very tempting to try to bridge across to him. I just kept telling myself that this is a 30 mile race and there is no way that someone is going to go solo for 30 miles. Not in a Cat 4 field. Mile after mile ticked by and this rider would be joined by others bridging up to him. What once was only one rider now looked to be five strong. Should I have tried to get across? I kept telling myself that the objective for the day was just to finish with the group so stay put and stay patient, it'll all come back. Sure enough, as we were finishing the first lap, enough riders felt that it was a worthy move that they tried to bridge up, only carrying the rest of the field with them. Ok, so I raced the first lap smart, saved a whole bunch of matches and now I was only looking at two more laps to go until the finish. Lapped two ticked away fairly uneventful with the exception of me marking Noah's attempt to get away. Fortunately, everyone was still together and Noah didn't try to push it too hard so I hadn't wasted too much energy in the effort. What it did do however was to put me up on the very front of the group. Not the place that I ever like to be, let alone when my whole strategy for the day was to simply stay protected in the group. There were several miles on this lap where I was pulling the group around. It finally dawned on me that it wasn't really my responsibility to pull everyone around as fast as I can at this stage of the race so why not sit up, pedal leisurely and if someone wants to go faster then they can come around me. It didn't take long until someone else got the message and in no time, I was back safely in the group.
Starting the third lap, things really slowed down. I heard a lot of chit-chat and I knew things were too easy, lets face it, I was still there and feeling pretty good. Looking around I saw that the whole group was essentially all together. Not sure why I didn't stick to my game plan at this point, probably because of this stinking "You can stand under my umbrella, ella, ella, ey, ey, ey" that was still rolling around in my mind but I decided to attack shortly after starting the third lap. It was my hope that maybe I'd get a shot at it but knowing that most guys had fresh legs back there, it would be no problem to chase me down. Sure enough, they were all over my move. I knew this move would probably be the death of my plan for staying with the field, but as most of you know by now, I'm not one to be content to just sit. I'd rather race aggressively and loose, then to just sit and loose. I want to say that I left it all out on the road, no matter what my fitness level might be. OK, back to the race. It was none other than Paul Kinney who came around me shortly after the field came back together. As we rolled into the right hand turn onto Egypt road, I rolled up beside him and said ..."Remember that time at the last Chapel Race where I said I didn't have enough to get around you? Well, I don't have a whole lot more today either." He just laughed. I like to play fair, he was putting in a tremendous effort and with six other teammates tucked safely in the field, I would have had no problem working with him to thin the group out. The only problem was I just needed a few more moments to recover which is something I never got as I saw the rest of the group beginning to pass me and then shortly leaving me behind to chase on my own. Well, I made it for almost 2 1/2 laps with the field. Happy for the day that I was able to truly race. I wish I could write about how exciting the finish was, but in all honesty, I really have no idea of how it even ended up playing out. Maybe someone reading this who knows can write a response letting me know more.
Thanks to Orrville for once again putting on a good race and thanks to my competitors for making it a safe one. We all finished upright which in my book makes a successful day. I hope to be back again next year, only with more fight in my legs. It was good to be back in the saddle racing again, it seems like its been a really long time.
Here's the power data from today's race.
brian
Duration: 1:19:48
Work: 1077 kJ
TSS: 120.6 (intensity factor 0.952)
Norm Power: 276
VI: 1.23
Distance: 30.01 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1003 225 watts
Heart rate: 88 182 161 bpm
Cadence: 29 141 94 rpm
Speed: 7.6 39.8 22.6 mph
Pace 1:30 7:55 2:40 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 401 73 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 1405 203 lb-in
After a quick bowl of Oatmeal and loading up the car this morning, I was on my way to Orrville to race at the Milk Race. This is the third time I've raced it. The first year, I was involved in a crash that left me chasing for 2 out of three laps. Last year I finished in the field but kept thinking about my wife going into labor (actually, I was hoping she would so I could pull out of the race). Would this year be any different? I didn't have any expectations with the little bit of training I've had in the past month, but after the ride I did with some of my teammates up in the valley on Wednesday, I was at least optimistic that I could hang in the field.
"You can stand under my umbrella, ella, ella, ey, ey, ey" Augh!!!
Rolling with me in the Cat 4 field was Darrin Kert, Tim House, Marshall Leininger, Matt Turi, Don Bunker and entering his first Cat 4 race since receiving his upgrade was Frank Kolasa. The usual suspects lined up with us this morning and our field size looked to be about 35 guys strong. I knew the guys to really keep an eye on would be Paul Kinney from Orrville and Noah Gurney from Summit. After Noah's incredible performance at Zoar last weekend, I knew he was riding, as always with good form. Paul is always good. With Breakaway up front setting tempo as we rolled out of the parking lot, one of their riders road off the front to open up a decent little gap within the first few miles of the race. I never like to be just pack fill so it was very tempting to try to bridge across to him. I just kept telling myself that this is a 30 mile race and there is no way that someone is going to go solo for 30 miles. Not in a Cat 4 field. Mile after mile ticked by and this rider would be joined by others bridging up to him. What once was only one rider now looked to be five strong. Should I have tried to get across? I kept telling myself that the objective for the day was just to finish with the group so stay put and stay patient, it'll all come back. Sure enough, as we were finishing the first lap, enough riders felt that it was a worthy move that they tried to bridge up, only carrying the rest of the field with them. Ok, so I raced the first lap smart, saved a whole bunch of matches and now I was only looking at two more laps to go until the finish. Lapped two ticked away fairly uneventful with the exception of me marking Noah's attempt to get away. Fortunately, everyone was still together and Noah didn't try to push it too hard so I hadn't wasted too much energy in the effort. What it did do however was to put me up on the very front of the group. Not the place that I ever like to be, let alone when my whole strategy for the day was to simply stay protected in the group. There were several miles on this lap where I was pulling the group around. It finally dawned on me that it wasn't really my responsibility to pull everyone around as fast as I can at this stage of the race so why not sit up, pedal leisurely and if someone wants to go faster then they can come around me. It didn't take long until someone else got the message and in no time, I was back safely in the group.
Starting the third lap, things really slowed down. I heard a lot of chit-chat and I knew things were too easy, lets face it, I was still there and feeling pretty good. Looking around I saw that the whole group was essentially all together. Not sure why I didn't stick to my game plan at this point, probably because of this stinking "You can stand under my umbrella, ella, ella, ey, ey, ey" that was still rolling around in my mind but I decided to attack shortly after starting the third lap. It was my hope that maybe I'd get a shot at it but knowing that most guys had fresh legs back there, it would be no problem to chase me down. Sure enough, they were all over my move. I knew this move would probably be the death of my plan for staying with the field, but as most of you know by now, I'm not one to be content to just sit. I'd rather race aggressively and loose, then to just sit and loose. I want to say that I left it all out on the road, no matter what my fitness level might be. OK, back to the race. It was none other than Paul Kinney who came around me shortly after the field came back together. As we rolled into the right hand turn onto Egypt road, I rolled up beside him and said ..."Remember that time at the last Chapel Race where I said I didn't have enough to get around you? Well, I don't have a whole lot more today either." He just laughed. I like to play fair, he was putting in a tremendous effort and with six other teammates tucked safely in the field, I would have had no problem working with him to thin the group out. The only problem was I just needed a few more moments to recover which is something I never got as I saw the rest of the group beginning to pass me and then shortly leaving me behind to chase on my own. Well, I made it for almost 2 1/2 laps with the field. Happy for the day that I was able to truly race. I wish I could write about how exciting the finish was, but in all honesty, I really have no idea of how it even ended up playing out. Maybe someone reading this who knows can write a response letting me know more.
Thanks to Orrville for once again putting on a good race and thanks to my competitors for making it a safe one. We all finished upright which in my book makes a successful day. I hope to be back again next year, only with more fight in my legs. It was good to be back in the saddle racing again, it seems like its been a really long time.
Here's the power data from today's race.
brian
Duration: 1:19:48
Work: 1077 kJ
TSS: 120.6 (intensity factor 0.952)
Norm Power: 276
VI: 1.23
Distance: 30.01 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1003 225 watts
Heart rate: 88 182 161 bpm
Cadence: 29 141 94 rpm
Speed: 7.6 39.8 22.6 mph
Pace 1:30 7:55 2:40 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 401 73 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 1405 203 lb-in
8.06.2007
Letter to the Editor
For anyone who knows me, they'll confirm that I'm normally a fairly quite and laid back person. Part of that is just my personality and the other part is that over the years I've learned that anytime I open my mouth, I typically say something stupid so its best just to keep it shut. Well, I've opened my mouth again, this time in a "Letter to the Editor" that I sent earlier today to the Akron Beacon Journal. For those reading this who may not live in Northeast Ohio, last Friday there was a report in the Media that one of the Cleveland Browns players tested positive for steroid use and would therefore be handed a four game suspension. I awoke Saturday morning and read the sports page to find the following article.
Akron Beacon Journal Article
After reading it, I was a little discouraged in the fact that the sports writer seemed to care more about the loss of the player for four weeks and what that did to the team in lieu of the fact that here was just one more sports star who was caught cheating. I was also upset that the mainstream media can only discuss cycling when there's a doping story or scandal taking place. When its a mainstream sport, its addressed very lackadaisically in an almost 'oops' sort of way. The difference must be due to the tremendous amount of money that is generated by the NFL versus what is done through cycling. For instance, Joe Thomas's (Brown's first round draft pick) 5 year deal that he signed with the brown is worth $42.5 million, $22 million of that is guaranteed money. Joe could afford to sponsor the Tour de France winning Discovery Squad which is seeking a new sponsor and which would only cost around $15 million. I'm as big of a football fan as anyone (O-H-I-O) but like so many others, I've become turned off by the multi-million dollar athletes who I don't think realize how good they have it. Consider this; Joe Thomas will get more guaranteed money, even if he never plays a game than the average American family will ever see in their lifetime. Forget one family, make that all my aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings and friends combined.
The following is my letter which may or may not be published, but with the power of my blog, I'm able to make it public now.
Saturday’s story of Brown’s offensive lineman Ryan Tucker should have been entitled something more like “Cheater cheater pumpkin eater” since the article seemed to address the seriousness of steroid abuse fairly lightly. Nobody likes playing with the kid who cheats on the playground and that’s what Tucker did; cheat to gain a competitive edge over his colleagues in the NFL. It’s interesting that he was quoted as saying “….I am going to fulfill this punishment, if that’s what you want to call it, and get it behind me.” Ryan should consider himself lucky that he plays in a sport where the punishment for such offensives isn’t nearly as severe as an IOC regulated sport such as professional cycling or track and field. The penalty for such an offense if Tucker was a cyclist is that he would be immediately fired from the team (upon verification of the doping offense) and he would have been served a two year ban from competition. Upon completion of the ban, he then would serve two years playing in the ‘minor’ leagues before he could return to play the game at the highest level. In addition to all of that, professional cyclists are now required to pay back a year’s salary to their governing athletic bodies doping control program. Instead, Tucker will practice with his team, play in some preseason games and then sit out for four regulation games while not receiving a minimal portion of his multi-million dollar contract. You’re not alone Ryan in your assessment, this does not seem like much of a punishment to me either.
In the past month doping stories have plagued the sports world. The Tour De France saw several riders and teams be pulled from competition after riders were shown to test positive for banned substances. Currently on the west coast, Barry Bonds is trying to break Hank Aaron’s all time home record under a cloud of suspicion for using steroids. WWE Wrestler Chris Benoit murdered his family and committed suicide while reportedly suffering the effects of ‘Roid Rage’ and now the Ryan Tucker incident. These are just the latest in a long list of cheaters that begin to make it hard to cheer and support guys making more money in a single year than the average American will see in a lifetime. I applaud the NFL for conducting out of competition testing but as a sports fan I wish that the NFL in addition to MLB and the NBA would do more; certainly tougher penalties would go a long way in this effort.
In the future, I'm going to write an article that illustrates the differences between the UCI, NBA, NFL and MLB in terms of their anti-doping procedures and penalties. Until then.
brian
Akron Beacon Journal Article
After reading it, I was a little discouraged in the fact that the sports writer seemed to care more about the loss of the player for four weeks and what that did to the team in lieu of the fact that here was just one more sports star who was caught cheating. I was also upset that the mainstream media can only discuss cycling when there's a doping story or scandal taking place. When its a mainstream sport, its addressed very lackadaisically in an almost 'oops' sort of way. The difference must be due to the tremendous amount of money that is generated by the NFL versus what is done through cycling. For instance, Joe Thomas's (Brown's first round draft pick) 5 year deal that he signed with the brown is worth $42.5 million, $22 million of that is guaranteed money. Joe could afford to sponsor the Tour de France winning Discovery Squad which is seeking a new sponsor and which would only cost around $15 million. I'm as big of a football fan as anyone (O-H-I-O) but like so many others, I've become turned off by the multi-million dollar athletes who I don't think realize how good they have it. Consider this; Joe Thomas will get more guaranteed money, even if he never plays a game than the average American family will ever see in their lifetime. Forget one family, make that all my aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings and friends combined.
The following is my letter which may or may not be published, but with the power of my blog, I'm able to make it public now.
Saturday’s story of Brown’s offensive lineman Ryan Tucker should have been entitled something more like “Cheater cheater pumpkin eater” since the article seemed to address the seriousness of steroid abuse fairly lightly. Nobody likes playing with the kid who cheats on the playground and that’s what Tucker did; cheat to gain a competitive edge over his colleagues in the NFL. It’s interesting that he was quoted as saying “….I am going to fulfill this punishment, if that’s what you want to call it, and get it behind me.” Ryan should consider himself lucky that he plays in a sport where the punishment for such offensives isn’t nearly as severe as an IOC regulated sport such as professional cycling or track and field. The penalty for such an offense if Tucker was a cyclist is that he would be immediately fired from the team (upon verification of the doping offense) and he would have been served a two year ban from competition. Upon completion of the ban, he then would serve two years playing in the ‘minor’ leagues before he could return to play the game at the highest level. In addition to all of that, professional cyclists are now required to pay back a year’s salary to their governing athletic bodies doping control program. Instead, Tucker will practice with his team, play in some preseason games and then sit out for four regulation games while not receiving a minimal portion of his multi-million dollar contract. You’re not alone Ryan in your assessment, this does not seem like much of a punishment to me either.
In the past month doping stories have plagued the sports world. The Tour De France saw several riders and teams be pulled from competition after riders were shown to test positive for banned substances. Currently on the west coast, Barry Bonds is trying to break Hank Aaron’s all time home record under a cloud of suspicion for using steroids. WWE Wrestler Chris Benoit murdered his family and committed suicide while reportedly suffering the effects of ‘Roid Rage’ and now the Ryan Tucker incident. These are just the latest in a long list of cheaters that begin to make it hard to cheer and support guys making more money in a single year than the average American will see in a lifetime. I applaud the NFL for conducting out of competition testing but as a sports fan I wish that the NFL in addition to MLB and the NBA would do more; certainly tougher penalties would go a long way in this effort.
In the future, I'm going to write an article that illustrates the differences between the UCI, NBA, NFL and MLB in terms of their anti-doping procedures and penalties. Until then.
brian
7.30.2007
Where in the world is Brian?
In one of my somewhat recent posts, I mentioned being absent from racing and blogging but that I was hoping to make a change. Well apparently that hasn't happened yet. I'm not really sure what is going on right now but I can't seem to get out of this rut of not being able to do any riding, let alone racing. Apparently, Life doesn't understand that this mediocre Cat4 racer needs substantial time on my bike to be at least somewhat competitive. With what used to be 4 or 5 days of riding per week has now trickled down to maybe one day...if I'm lucky.
At the end of last season, my goal for this year was to be riding well enough to upgrade to Cat 3.....maybe next year. I'm not complaining here (well, sort of I guess) as my ride time seems to have been replaced by more family time, working with my co-director at Elves & More on the upcoming bike giveaway and of course...work. I hope to somewhat salvage something of this season shortly but there are two races that I am committing myself to race in. One is the Orrville Smith's Dairy Milk Race in Mid-August and the other is Allied Decal's (Summit's) Fall Challenge. The guys at Orrville always put on a good event and since the route is mostly flat, I have a chance of at least hanging onto the back of the group. The Fall Challenge race course is about 5 miles from my house so it's hard to turn that one down, even considering all of the climbing that will be involved. Again, the guys at Allied Decals do so much for the sport in terms of all the events that they hold, that I like to make as many of their events as possible.
In addition to planning on racing in those two events, I'm currently back into training to compete in a 10k leg of the upcoming Akron Marathon. My office always has two teams in this fun event and for the past several years I have run the leg that goes from the University of Akron down to Sand Run Parkway. The last time I ran, I completed it in just over 43 minutes. This year my ambition is to run it in sub 40 minutes. Not sure how feasible this is but because of that aggressive goal, I've been doing a lot more running the past month then I typically like to do (which by the way, I don't really enjoy running). It's always at this time of the year when I always ask myself, why am I doing this and why didn't I just continue running throughout the year as then it wouldn't hurt so much. I never seem to learn my lesson because now I am trying to come back after not running for almost two years. Ouch.
Well, I'll do my best to keep my blog updated with some relevant info over the next few weeks until I can post another race report. Here's hoping that your season is going much better than mine.
brian
At the end of last season, my goal for this year was to be riding well enough to upgrade to Cat 3.....maybe next year. I'm not complaining here (well, sort of I guess) as my ride time seems to have been replaced by more family time, working with my co-director at Elves & More on the upcoming bike giveaway and of course...work. I hope to somewhat salvage something of this season shortly but there are two races that I am committing myself to race in. One is the Orrville Smith's Dairy Milk Race in Mid-August and the other is Allied Decal's (Summit's) Fall Challenge. The guys at Orrville always put on a good event and since the route is mostly flat, I have a chance of at least hanging onto the back of the group. The Fall Challenge race course is about 5 miles from my house so it's hard to turn that one down, even considering all of the climbing that will be involved. Again, the guys at Allied Decals do so much for the sport in terms of all the events that they hold, that I like to make as many of their events as possible.
In addition to planning on racing in those two events, I'm currently back into training to compete in a 10k leg of the upcoming Akron Marathon. My office always has two teams in this fun event and for the past several years I have run the leg that goes from the University of Akron down to Sand Run Parkway. The last time I ran, I completed it in just over 43 minutes. This year my ambition is to run it in sub 40 minutes. Not sure how feasible this is but because of that aggressive goal, I've been doing a lot more running the past month then I typically like to do (which by the way, I don't really enjoy running). It's always at this time of the year when I always ask myself, why am I doing this and why didn't I just continue running throughout the year as then it wouldn't hurt so much. I never seem to learn my lesson because now I am trying to come back after not running for almost two years. Ouch.
Well, I'll do my best to keep my blog updated with some relevant info over the next few weeks until I can post another race report. Here's hoping that your season is going much better than mine.
brian
7.16.2007
Boonen & Bettini Video
Are these guys kidding me? This is just too good not to share. I found this at http://www.velocitynation.com/
7.12.2007
Chapel Series - Race 1
Thursday night began the first of a three race series hosted by The Chapel of Green. Having done this race the past two years, I looked forward to coming back out for a bit of good training as knowing where my fitness level is at, I had no ambitions other than working on raising my overall FTP. This race is a lot like the TOP series that I described in my last blog in that with a cheap entry fee, everyone seems to ride a little more relaxed and a little more tactfully. If nothing else, everyone knows that at least they’ll get a good picnic dinner at the end of the series for all of their hard work.
As has been my experience, the race usually consists of a majority of the peloton having riders from the three local teams, Stark Velo, Orrville and Rainbow Inks (Summit) with a handful of independents and first time racers sprinkled in there for good effect. Thursday night was no different with these three teams making up the majority of the field. Because three teams essentially control the race, the pattern has typically been in the past that somewhere during the first few laps (the race is 30 minutes + 5 laps) a break occurs with riders from all three in it which allows the field to settle down to let the break establish. I figured that would be the case once again for this race but I figured incorrectly. This race became a race of attrition where it was a fast and furious pace from start to finish. I was doing my best to keep myself upfront and attentive, trying to join moves, when I saw them happen but in no way was I going to initiate them as I that burns a whole lot of matches. I knew I was in trouble for the evening when I was trying to follow Paul Kinney’s (Orrville) wheel and I was struggling not to open up gaps. He kept looking for me to come around and help out but all I could do was shrug my shoulders, it was an effort just to stay in his draft. Man, how far had my fitness really fallen? With a soon to be small gap opening up in front of me, Doug Williams (Rainbow Inks) asked if I had anything left in the tank, and not having enough left to close it, I said no and moved over so I wasn't forcing all the guys behind me to burn unnecessary matches to close it back up. I think this came between 20 and 25 minutes of racing. We started the race with I believe 33 riders (some of those where riders who would be competing in the ‘A’ race who wanted to use this race to be noncompetitive and to warm up) and when it came time to contest the finish, I think there was only 6 left. At the time I fell off, I counted 9 other riders in front of me. If I could finish the race with nobody passing me, at least I could say I came in 10th pace…whatever good that does me. Although I didn’t finish with the group, I got out of the evening exactly what I wanted….good training. I’ll keep focusing now on my training which will hopefully get me a little closer to the finish line next week.
Duration: 40:05
Work: 620 kJ
TSS: 62.7 (intensity factor 0.969)
Norm Power: 281
VI: 1.09
Distance: 15.414 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1002 258 watts
Heart rate: 96 205 168 bpm
Cadence: 32 141 98 rpm
Speed: 2.9 28.7 23.1 mph
Pace 2:05 20:59 2:36 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 320 75 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 948 225 lb-in
As has been my experience, the race usually consists of a majority of the peloton having riders from the three local teams, Stark Velo, Orrville and Rainbow Inks (Summit) with a handful of independents and first time racers sprinkled in there for good effect. Thursday night was no different with these three teams making up the majority of the field. Because three teams essentially control the race, the pattern has typically been in the past that somewhere during the first few laps (the race is 30 minutes + 5 laps) a break occurs with riders from all three in it which allows the field to settle down to let the break establish. I figured that would be the case once again for this race but I figured incorrectly. This race became a race of attrition where it was a fast and furious pace from start to finish. I was doing my best to keep myself upfront and attentive, trying to join moves, when I saw them happen but in no way was I going to initiate them as I that burns a whole lot of matches. I knew I was in trouble for the evening when I was trying to follow Paul Kinney’s (Orrville) wheel and I was struggling not to open up gaps. He kept looking for me to come around and help out but all I could do was shrug my shoulders, it was an effort just to stay in his draft. Man, how far had my fitness really fallen? With a soon to be small gap opening up in front of me, Doug Williams (Rainbow Inks) asked if I had anything left in the tank, and not having enough left to close it, I said no and moved over so I wasn't forcing all the guys behind me to burn unnecessary matches to close it back up. I think this came between 20 and 25 minutes of racing. We started the race with I believe 33 riders (some of those where riders who would be competing in the ‘A’ race who wanted to use this race to be noncompetitive and to warm up) and when it came time to contest the finish, I think there was only 6 left. At the time I fell off, I counted 9 other riders in front of me. If I could finish the race with nobody passing me, at least I could say I came in 10th pace…whatever good that does me. Although I didn’t finish with the group, I got out of the evening exactly what I wanted….good training. I’ll keep focusing now on my training which will hopefully get me a little closer to the finish line next week.
brian
Here's the data...Duration: 40:05
Work: 620 kJ
TSS: 62.7 (intensity factor 0.969)
Norm Power: 281
VI: 1.09
Distance: 15.414 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1002 258 watts
Heart rate: 96 205 168 bpm
Cadence: 32 141 98 rpm
Speed: 2.9 28.7 23.1 mph
Pace 2:05 20:59 2:36 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 320 75 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 948 225 lb-in
7.08.2007
TOP Series - Franklin Twp. Road Race
I've been absent lately. Not riding much and certainly not blogging much. Here's one of the reasons why: Jen and I found ourselves in a position a few weeks ago where we had found a house in the area that we really, really liked. It had everything that we decided the 'next' house should have. To make the story somewhat short, we knew that there were a lot of projects around our house that had been neglected for the past few years that we needed to quickly finish up in order to get our house ready to be put on the market. So for the past several weeks, I've been busy doing things like hanging and finishing drywall, painting, etc. instead of riding. Well, we put an offer on the new house, a fair offer I might add, but they didn't accept it....so, with that we decided we liked our house well enough that we wanted to hang out here for awhile longer (unless the Owner of the for sale property comes back to reality)and get back to living life.
Barely even seeing my bike the past few weeks, I decided it was time to dust it off if I wanted to salvage something from this season. Normally when I take a big chunk of time off the bike, I like to ramp back into my training but instead I thought it would be nice to do a test on where my current fitness is(or lack of fitness). I decided what better way to do a test than to jump into a race. Today's TOP race would be the perfect place. This race also fell on the same day as the State Road race so figuring all the heavy hitters would be down south battling it out, I figured that the pain level for today would be somewhat tolerable (somewhere between watching reruns of "The Simple Life" and "The View". Summit Freewheelers do a great job of putting on these local races. If you have the opportunity to fit these into your schedule I highly recommend it. First off, they only cost $5 which is a bargain in today's world and secondly because they only cost $5, the field is usually a little more relaxed and willing to play and try tactics which makes the races that much more enjoyable.
This morning's race in Franklin Twp. is part of one of my training routes, the Portage County White Trash Ride (PCWTR) so I knew the route extremely well. The course is deceptively difficult because there are so many rollers out there. Nothing too big that they can't be powered over, but considering the race would be a minimum of 6 laps, it would take careful planning, conservation and strategy to maintain some power for the end of the race should it end in a bunch kick. My only ambition for the day would be to just ride wheels and hang onto the group. If I finished with the field, than I would consider that a victory for me. The only heavy hitter to join us that I was familiar with was Ed Delgros from Summit. I've heard a lot about him from reading Thor's race entries so I knew he would be tough and would make it much more than a normal training ride for us. My hope was that he would decide early on that he wanted some TT practice and take a solo flier off the front and leave the rest of us for a casual ride back to the finish line. Well, Ed did try several times but there were always interested people in the group willing to bring him back, bringing my pain level closer towards the "simple life" on my scale.
Half way into the race, I lost touch with the group and found myself dangling a few meters off the back. Slowly I saw the selective group leaving me behind. I tried and tried to catch back on but could never find the extra little oomph to do it. Funny thing is I can remember thinking that ok, at least I hung on this long and I was happy to ride the remainder of the race solo. After half a lap of riding solo, I noticed that they were coming back to me. Great! They slowed up just enough and I had maintained my tempo enough that they were well within a distance that I could bridge back up to them. So, pushing my tempo that much more, I finally managed to bridge back up to the group. Down to the last lap and a half, I decided to suck wheel, recover and see what can happen. As we were coming into the finishing stretch, I started to move myself up the right hand side of the group to make a move. I was sitting third wheel and was just about to go for it off the front when another rider beat me to it. The group chased hard and I was left with me legs telling me....see what would have happened if you tried to do that? Yep, my legs were done but I'm glad that I finished the race exactly how I had hoped to, with the group, sort of.
Here's the data for the day:
brian
Road Race:
Duration: 1:37:30
Work: 1365 kJ
TSS: 146 (intensity factor 0.948)
Norm Power: 275
VI: 1.18
Distance: 37.321 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 898 233 watts
Heart rate: 102 184 166 bpm
Cadence: 29 141 91 rpm
Speed: 8.6 37.4 23.0 mph
Pace 1:36 6:57 2:37 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 343 71 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 1231 216 lb-in
Barely even seeing my bike the past few weeks, I decided it was time to dust it off if I wanted to salvage something from this season. Normally when I take a big chunk of time off the bike, I like to ramp back into my training but instead I thought it would be nice to do a test on where my current fitness is(or lack of fitness). I decided what better way to do a test than to jump into a race. Today's TOP race would be the perfect place. This race also fell on the same day as the State Road race so figuring all the heavy hitters would be down south battling it out, I figured that the pain level for today would be somewhat tolerable (somewhere between watching reruns of "The Simple Life" and "The View". Summit Freewheelers do a great job of putting on these local races. If you have the opportunity to fit these into your schedule I highly recommend it. First off, they only cost $5 which is a bargain in today's world and secondly because they only cost $5, the field is usually a little more relaxed and willing to play and try tactics which makes the races that much more enjoyable.
This morning's race in Franklin Twp. is part of one of my training routes, the Portage County White Trash Ride (PCWTR) so I knew the route extremely well. The course is deceptively difficult because there are so many rollers out there. Nothing too big that they can't be powered over, but considering the race would be a minimum of 6 laps, it would take careful planning, conservation and strategy to maintain some power for the end of the race should it end in a bunch kick. My only ambition for the day would be to just ride wheels and hang onto the group. If I finished with the field, than I would consider that a victory for me. The only heavy hitter to join us that I was familiar with was Ed Delgros from Summit. I've heard a lot about him from reading Thor's race entries so I knew he would be tough and would make it much more than a normal training ride for us. My hope was that he would decide early on that he wanted some TT practice and take a solo flier off the front and leave the rest of us for a casual ride back to the finish line. Well, Ed did try several times but there were always interested people in the group willing to bring him back, bringing my pain level closer towards the "simple life" on my scale.
Half way into the race, I lost touch with the group and found myself dangling a few meters off the back. Slowly I saw the selective group leaving me behind. I tried and tried to catch back on but could never find the extra little oomph to do it. Funny thing is I can remember thinking that ok, at least I hung on this long and I was happy to ride the remainder of the race solo. After half a lap of riding solo, I noticed that they were coming back to me. Great! They slowed up just enough and I had maintained my tempo enough that they were well within a distance that I could bridge back up to them. So, pushing my tempo that much more, I finally managed to bridge back up to the group. Down to the last lap and a half, I decided to suck wheel, recover and see what can happen. As we were coming into the finishing stretch, I started to move myself up the right hand side of the group to make a move. I was sitting third wheel and was just about to go for it off the front when another rider beat me to it. The group chased hard and I was left with me legs telling me....see what would have happened if you tried to do that? Yep, my legs were done but I'm glad that I finished the race exactly how I had hoped to, with the group, sort of.
Here's the data for the day:
brian
Road Race:
Duration: 1:37:30
Work: 1365 kJ
TSS: 146 (intensity factor 0.948)
Norm Power: 275
VI: 1.18
Distance: 37.321 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 898 233 watts
Heart rate: 102 184 166 bpm
Cadence: 29 141 91 rpm
Speed: 8.6 37.4 23.0 mph
Pace 1:36 6:57 2:37 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 343 71 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 1231 216 lb-in
6.27.2007
My Cervelo Video
Well, since the fine folks at Cervelo have apparently missed my genius in regards to my video entry, I am no longer in the running for the grand prize. For those who may have missed it...here it is.
brian
brian
6.21.2007
Vote for Brian!
As everyone knows by reading my regular blog entries, I’m a somewhat avid cyclist who sometimes takes my love for riding bikes somewhat too far (i.e. trying to find bike races to compete in while I was in Mexico with Jen on our 10 year wedding anniversary trip for instance). Anyway, the bike that I’m riding (Cervelo) is holding a competition entitled “Tell us why you like your Cervelo.” Always loving a competition and not wanting to let a sweet opportunity go by without at least entering, I have put together a quick 15 second commercial stating why I really like this bike. My commercial has been chosen by Cervelo as one of their finalists so if you all don’t mind helping out, I’m begging you for your vote. Here is the link to the website where you will find the screen shot below. Just click on my entry (highlighted in red in this image on the far right and you’ll be able to see my high quality production as well as vote that you absolutely love it….hopefully that’s what you vote for. The winner of the competition gets of all things; the video played during the three week Tour de France on Versus (formerly OLN) as well as a one week trip to this years tour. Together, we can make this poor boy from Hartville’s dream of going to France a reality! I've also seen here in the office that the playback is a little choppy based upon how much bandwidth we have. I'll post the video shortly on the blog but in the meantime, lets pretend this is American Idol and vote and get all of your friends, family and coworkers to vote!
brian
brian
6.11.2007
Summer Solstice (Sunday's Stage)
After I blasted this stage race for the lack of organization and safety, I thought it would be awhile before I did another OVR race let alone come back for this series. If it wasn't for some teammates who were doing it and the fact that I was already down in Columbus, I would have been completely satisfied staying home for the weekend doing a little training ride and working with Nicholas on riding his bike without training rides. Regardless, I was happy to be joining Darrin Kert and Chris Smith this morning on the stages longest race, 64 miles. I have yet to try a road race this long in my short career, and in fact I only have one ride of that length all year long back in April when we were down in Boone. Although a little short on training miles for the year, I was feeling confident that I had plenty of fitness in my legs to help Darrin keep his third place in the overall GC. Darrin and Chris both brought me up to speed on who to watch and how the race would probably play out. They mentioned that the PH+B team? (not sure who they are or what that means) would most likely start things off fast but after a few miles settle into a comfortable rhythm. Sure enough, from the start line these guys lit it up and I’m beginning to think I hope these guys slow down a little bit because this is not my ideal way of warming. Sure enough, they did and I was able to recover.
Continuing to work on my positioning in the field, I quickly made my way up front to safer grounds and also to keep an eye on things. Several moves were made but it being the first lap of the race, they were destined to come back. It wasn't until the second lap of the race where things began to heat up. I had just come off the front of the field where I had been pulling them for several miles. (I don’t like pulling everyone around and it’s not that I wanted to do that much work, it’s just that nobody else was interested in doing anything. At one point I was literally riding at 16 mph but nobody had any interest in coming around, lazy bastards they were stuck to my wheel like Paris Hilton is now stuck to her cell mate. Anyway, it was just after we made the right hand turn onto the one lane road that a rider from Team Anthem made a move off the front. Being the closest, I made the move to grab his wheel immediately. I figured that the field was on us but when I looked back, we had a little gap on the field. It was at this point that I looked and this guy and made the decision not to put any effort into holding onto his wheel or making the move stick. I can’t believe that I did it because normally I’m all about the breakaways but he didn't seem strong enough to stay away for another 3 ½ laps and I didn't want to burn my entire match book trying to make this move stick so with the field only a few seconds behind me, I sat up and waited for them expecting a hearty chase effort. I expected a chase, but it would take awhile for it to develop. Turns out there were a ton of these Anthem guys in the field and the other team I mentioned (PH+B?) was working with those guys. So essentially, out of a field of about 45 guys, 10 of them were racing as one team. I suspect that there were a few others who joined into this alliance but that’s bike racing I guess. Normally being a quiet guy, I started running my mouth to see why people weren't working. One guy responded back to me with a “Why do you care?” My response was I’m hear to race to win, not for second but what I was thinking was that I’d like to know how large of a team or alliance was working together. Was it 5 guys, 10 guys or 15 guys? (As a side note, I can also be somewhat spiteful so I was happy to see that this guy would roll in to the finish at the back of the field). Not knowing where the breakaway rider stood on GC, I felt that it would probably be a smart thing to bring him back into the group. I was really kicking myself now because here I was burning matches like they were going out of style to bring him back where I really could have been burning that energy trying to make the break work if only I had stuck with the earlier move. So, with determination not to get burned by this possible poor decision, I tried to make a bridging move up to him. When I looked back to see if I had made a dent, I had the entire field on my wheel. Here I was, trying to get someone to work and all they could do was follow. It was beginning to tick me off so pulling my best Mary Ellen move, I put my head down and began hammering. If they were going to ride my wheel, I was bound to make them suffer. Darrin tells me that when I did this, the group was all strung out and working hard to stay with me. I’m glad I did my job well.
Doing that burned a few matches but I was bound and determined to bring him back. I got him back to within 10 meters and then figuring someone would pull it back since we were so close, I pulled over. Funny thing, those guys sat up as well and what was at that point only a few seconds worth of a gap, opened quickly back up to 40 seconds. So running my mouth once more, I think I said something like “Lets have some fun, lets work hard to pull him back to within a few seconds again, and then let him go.” People just stared at me. I think next time I’m going to start foaming at the mouth and sing some Partridge Family tunes so I become known as “The crazy kid” in the peloton, that way people will give me some space in the field. It took a solid lap and a half for that rider to come back. I don’t think it was that we were trying to bring him back, because we weren't, it was just because he had cracked. The rest of the race became fairly uneventful in the sense that several moves were tried; some by me but all came back. It looked like unless there was a miracle, it would come down to a bunch sprint. Rolling into the final few hundred meters, I tried making up some position as I had begun drifting backwards in my tired state. Standing up and moving forward reinforced that my legs were done for the day, I had nothing left in the tank to contest the sprint.
Although I rolled in near the back of the group, I’m really pleased in how I raced today. First off, I helped to protect a friends place on GC. Secondly, the fact that I was able to finish this race after how active I was in the group, made me feel really good about where my fitness is currently at. If how I felt physically after the race was any indication, than this was by far the hardest race that I think I have ever done. Sitting here at 9:30 at night, my legs still ache, I still can’t quench my thirst and I want to get some sleep.
Here’s the data from today’s race:
brian
Duration: 2:39:35
Work: 2124 kJ
TSS: 220.9 (intensity factor 0.911)
Norm Power: 264W
VI: 1.19
Distance: 60.516 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1240 222 watts
Heart rate: 114 185 161 bpm
Cadence: 30 141 93 rpm
Speed: 10.3 35.9 22.7 mph
Pace 1:40 5:51 2:38 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 380 65 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 1309 201 lb-in
Continuing to work on my positioning in the field, I quickly made my way up front to safer grounds and also to keep an eye on things. Several moves were made but it being the first lap of the race, they were destined to come back. It wasn't until the second lap of the race where things began to heat up. I had just come off the front of the field where I had been pulling them for several miles. (I don’t like pulling everyone around and it’s not that I wanted to do that much work, it’s just that nobody else was interested in doing anything. At one point I was literally riding at 16 mph but nobody had any interest in coming around, lazy bastards they were stuck to my wheel like Paris Hilton is now stuck to her cell mate. Anyway, it was just after we made the right hand turn onto the one lane road that a rider from Team Anthem made a move off the front. Being the closest, I made the move to grab his wheel immediately. I figured that the field was on us but when I looked back, we had a little gap on the field. It was at this point that I looked and this guy and made the decision not to put any effort into holding onto his wheel or making the move stick. I can’t believe that I did it because normally I’m all about the breakaways but he didn't seem strong enough to stay away for another 3 ½ laps and I didn't want to burn my entire match book trying to make this move stick so with the field only a few seconds behind me, I sat up and waited for them expecting a hearty chase effort. I expected a chase, but it would take awhile for it to develop. Turns out there were a ton of these Anthem guys in the field and the other team I mentioned (PH+B?) was working with those guys. So essentially, out of a field of about 45 guys, 10 of them were racing as one team. I suspect that there were a few others who joined into this alliance but that’s bike racing I guess. Normally being a quiet guy, I started running my mouth to see why people weren't working. One guy responded back to me with a “Why do you care?” My response was I’m hear to race to win, not for second but what I was thinking was that I’d like to know how large of a team or alliance was working together. Was it 5 guys, 10 guys or 15 guys? (As a side note, I can also be somewhat spiteful so I was happy to see that this guy would roll in to the finish at the back of the field). Not knowing where the breakaway rider stood on GC, I felt that it would probably be a smart thing to bring him back into the group. I was really kicking myself now because here I was burning matches like they were going out of style to bring him back where I really could have been burning that energy trying to make the break work if only I had stuck with the earlier move. So, with determination not to get burned by this possible poor decision, I tried to make a bridging move up to him. When I looked back to see if I had made a dent, I had the entire field on my wheel. Here I was, trying to get someone to work and all they could do was follow. It was beginning to tick me off so pulling my best Mary Ellen move, I put my head down and began hammering. If they were going to ride my wheel, I was bound to make them suffer. Darrin tells me that when I did this, the group was all strung out and working hard to stay with me. I’m glad I did my job well.
Doing that burned a few matches but I was bound and determined to bring him back. I got him back to within 10 meters and then figuring someone would pull it back since we were so close, I pulled over. Funny thing, those guys sat up as well and what was at that point only a few seconds worth of a gap, opened quickly back up to 40 seconds. So running my mouth once more, I think I said something like “Lets have some fun, lets work hard to pull him back to within a few seconds again, and then let him go.” People just stared at me. I think next time I’m going to start foaming at the mouth and sing some Partridge Family tunes so I become known as “The crazy kid” in the peloton, that way people will give me some space in the field. It took a solid lap and a half for that rider to come back. I don’t think it was that we were trying to bring him back, because we weren't, it was just because he had cracked. The rest of the race became fairly uneventful in the sense that several moves were tried; some by me but all came back. It looked like unless there was a miracle, it would come down to a bunch sprint. Rolling into the final few hundred meters, I tried making up some position as I had begun drifting backwards in my tired state. Standing up and moving forward reinforced that my legs were done for the day, I had nothing left in the tank to contest the sprint.
Although I rolled in near the back of the group, I’m really pleased in how I raced today. First off, I helped to protect a friends place on GC. Secondly, the fact that I was able to finish this race after how active I was in the group, made me feel really good about where my fitness is currently at. If how I felt physically after the race was any indication, than this was by far the hardest race that I think I have ever done. Sitting here at 9:30 at night, my legs still ache, I still can’t quench my thirst and I want to get some sleep.
Here’s the data from today’s race:
brian
Duration: 2:39:35
Work: 2124 kJ
TSS: 220.9 (intensity factor 0.911)
Norm Power: 264W
VI: 1.19
Distance: 60.516 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1240 222 watts
Heart rate: 114 185 161 bpm
Cadence: 30 141 93 rpm
Speed: 10.3 35.9 22.7 mph
Pace 1:40 5:51 2:38 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 380 65 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 1309 201 lb-in
6.03.2007
Race for Alex
This was the first opportunity I have had to participate in the Race for Alex held by MVC. Not knowing much about the race, I asked everyone I knew what their thoughts were. I kept hearing good things like good roads, lots of rollers, decent sized fields and well marshaled corners; everything I like to hear about a race I'm going to jump into. After a rainy, story drive over to Crestwood, the skies settled down as we drove into the parking lot in time to register, change and get a few moments start up. Normally when you have a chance for bad weather, the race attendance drops off significantly (I’m guilty of hitting the snooze button when I see its raining outside as well) but not today. Today’s Cat4/Cat 5 field had around 60 riders in it, by far the largest race I’ve been in for the year. Racing for Stark Velo this morning was Tim House, Marshall Leininger, Chris Smith and our honorary Velo from Chicago, Patrick Papczun.
Between work, vacation and family the past few weeks or maybe even month now has been crazy in terms of getting enough training in. With the exception of the team's Tuesday night training rides, I haven't done any high intensity training and I've noticed that my legs haven't been responding the way they have in the past so with no great expectations for what I could do, I went into this race just wanting to put in a good test for where my current fitness level stands and work on my positioning in the field. Someone once told me “If you’re not moving forward, you’re moving back.” I’ve been trying to keep those words in my mind recently as I’ve been racing because I’ve been guilty more than once of finding myself quickly in the back of the group and then not being able to get myself back up to where I should really be racing. So with those words in my mind again this morning, I worked hard to keep myself within the top 10 positions for the majority of the race and was for the most part, successful. Only at one point mid-race did I get squeezed to the back and with wanting to obey the “yellow line” rule, it took me nearly an entire lap to get myself back up to the front.
So enough about my strategy thoughts and more to the race. Thankfully the race started off slowly this morning as I didn’t nearly have enough warm up time. It was Joel from Orrville who threw down the first glove as we made the right hand turn onto Kelly Park Rd. and started climbing back up the small succession of rollers halfway through the first lap. My legs responded nicely in the chase effort and in no time, we were all back together. After two trips around the course, it became apparent that the breakaway attempts would play out like this: at the one spot where Joel previously tried to and also on Crestview Road just after you pass over the railroad tracks and start climbing back up towards Fairfield School Road. I know that this is bike racing, but I’m not sure how I feel about attacking at railroad tracks. Maybe if they were as smooth as butter it would be one thing, but tracks where it’s safer to bunny hop over than ride because they’re in such bad condition is another. In any case, I don’t think we had any incidents other than a few lost water bottles in the effort. Safely in the race and maintaining my position well, I decided that if the opportunity arose, I’d try and make a move of my own. My decision however was not to try it where everyone else was going, but instead to try it over on the climb on Middleton Road. I liked this location was because it was gradual it was one of the longest climbs. I also liked that at the top of the hill there was an immediate right hand turn onto Kirk Rd. and then another right hand turn shortly after onto Crestview Road. I figured if you could get enough of a gap on the hill, the momentum going into the turns along with the fact that the group would slow down there might be enough to get away. Unfortunately, I never found myself in the right place at that point of the race to try it, usually I was back around 8th or 9th or I was leading the chase, two of the places that aren’t really all that ideal for attacking as I’d be blowing too much energy to get away. So, with me not making an attempt it came to sitting in until the finishing sprint. (This is somewhat out of order, but there was a nice breakaway attempt by a rider and team that I’m unfamiliar with. He lasted out there for just over a lap but with a lot of effort by mostly Stark Velo riders, he came back). Going into the right hand turn onto Kirk Road, I heard Tim behind me saying drill it on the inside of the corner and lets move a little further up, which is what we did. Only one more turn left. I tried the same tactic and was somewhat successful but I found myself somewhat trapped as I approached a rider who didn’t have enough left in his legs to contest the win. By the time I got around him, I found myself once at 5th or 6th now back around 13th place. I was able to pull a few of those guys back to finish in 11th place.
It was a good day for Stark Velo riders. We worked really well as a team and were active near the front for a lot of the race. Chris took another win for the year, Patrick took third place in only his second race Tim took sixth place and of course I took 11th. I achieved my goals for the day, worked hard to keep good positioning and tested my fitness. Although I’m still a little off from where I’d like to be at this time of year, I’m happy in knowing that my fitness isn’t nearly as bad as I thought it was. I guess I have no more excuses but to just get out and ride more.
Here are the stats for the day. Once again my normalized power is getting close to 300 watts. I will start to throw in much more intensity now into my training to push that up to try and get ready for some key races this month.
brian
Between work, vacation and family the past few weeks or maybe even month now has been crazy in terms of getting enough training in. With the exception of the team's Tuesday night training rides, I haven't done any high intensity training and I've noticed that my legs haven't been responding the way they have in the past so with no great expectations for what I could do, I went into this race just wanting to put in a good test for where my current fitness level stands and work on my positioning in the field. Someone once told me “If you’re not moving forward, you’re moving back.” I’ve been trying to keep those words in my mind recently as I’ve been racing because I’ve been guilty more than once of finding myself quickly in the back of the group and then not being able to get myself back up to where I should really be racing. So with those words in my mind again this morning, I worked hard to keep myself within the top 10 positions for the majority of the race and was for the most part, successful. Only at one point mid-race did I get squeezed to the back and with wanting to obey the “yellow line” rule, it took me nearly an entire lap to get myself back up to the front.
So enough about my strategy thoughts and more to the race. Thankfully the race started off slowly this morning as I didn’t nearly have enough warm up time. It was Joel from Orrville who threw down the first glove as we made the right hand turn onto Kelly Park Rd. and started climbing back up the small succession of rollers halfway through the first lap. My legs responded nicely in the chase effort and in no time, we were all back together. After two trips around the course, it became apparent that the breakaway attempts would play out like this: at the one spot where Joel previously tried to and also on Crestview Road just after you pass over the railroad tracks and start climbing back up towards Fairfield School Road. I know that this is bike racing, but I’m not sure how I feel about attacking at railroad tracks. Maybe if they were as smooth as butter it would be one thing, but tracks where it’s safer to bunny hop over than ride because they’re in such bad condition is another. In any case, I don’t think we had any incidents other than a few lost water bottles in the effort. Safely in the race and maintaining my position well, I decided that if the opportunity arose, I’d try and make a move of my own. My decision however was not to try it where everyone else was going, but instead to try it over on the climb on Middleton Road. I liked this location was because it was gradual it was one of the longest climbs. I also liked that at the top of the hill there was an immediate right hand turn onto Kirk Rd. and then another right hand turn shortly after onto Crestview Road. I figured if you could get enough of a gap on the hill, the momentum going into the turns along with the fact that the group would slow down there might be enough to get away. Unfortunately, I never found myself in the right place at that point of the race to try it, usually I was back around 8th or 9th or I was leading the chase, two of the places that aren’t really all that ideal for attacking as I’d be blowing too much energy to get away. So, with me not making an attempt it came to sitting in until the finishing sprint. (This is somewhat out of order, but there was a nice breakaway attempt by a rider and team that I’m unfamiliar with. He lasted out there for just over a lap but with a lot of effort by mostly Stark Velo riders, he came back). Going into the right hand turn onto Kirk Road, I heard Tim behind me saying drill it on the inside of the corner and lets move a little further up, which is what we did. Only one more turn left. I tried the same tactic and was somewhat successful but I found myself somewhat trapped as I approached a rider who didn’t have enough left in his legs to contest the win. By the time I got around him, I found myself once at 5th or 6th now back around 13th place. I was able to pull a few of those guys back to finish in 11th place.
It was a good day for Stark Velo riders. We worked really well as a team and were active near the front for a lot of the race. Chris took another win for the year, Patrick took third place in only his second race Tim took sixth place and of course I took 11th. I achieved my goals for the day, worked hard to keep good positioning and tested my fitness. Although I’m still a little off from where I’d like to be at this time of year, I’m happy in knowing that my fitness isn’t nearly as bad as I thought it was. I guess I have no more excuses but to just get out and ride more.
Here are the stats for the day. Once again my normalized power is getting close to 300 watts. I will start to throw in much more intensity now into my training to push that up to try and get ready for some key races this month.
Duration: 56:29
Work: 789 kJ
TSS: 99.2 (intensity factor 1.027)
Norm Power: 298
VI: 1.28
Distance: 21.962 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1175 233 watts
Heart rate: 80 188 167 bpm
Cadence: 29 141 98 rpm
Speed: 2.7 39.3 23.3 mph
Pace 1:32 22:27 2:34 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 350 71 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 1091 201 lb-in
Work: 789 kJ
TSS: 99.2 (intensity factor 1.027)
Norm Power: 298
VI: 1.28
Distance: 21.962 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1175 233 watts
Heart rate: 80 188 167 bpm
Cadence: 29 141 98 rpm
Speed: 2.7 39.3 23.3 mph
Pace 1:32 22:27 2:34 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 350 71 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 1091 201 lb-in
brian
5.09.2007
5.05.2007
Race at the Lakes #3
This morning was the third race of the Race at the Lakes series presented by Allied Decals. Lining up for Stark Velo in a field of just over 30 riders was Matt Turi, Erik Lesco, Marshall Leininger, Darrin Kert, Tim House, Jim Flesher and of course myself. The plan for the day was to sit in for the first five or six laps, and let others control the race. After five laps, we'd wait to see what would happen, most likely not initiate any moves but try to cover, go with them or when brought back, counter attack. My idea was that the only way a breakaway was going to work here is if the attacks were relentless and the field became too tired to chase them down. Early into the race the need to implicate the plan almost wasn't necessary when a very good looking breakaway of four riders, one of them being Darrin occurred. Since the majority of the well represented teams for the day were present, I figured this was as good as gone. My suspicion was reinforced when you could feel the tempo of the field begin to slow to give the breakaway a fighting chance. And then....one rider, lets just say his first name rhymes with Lug decided to chase down the break, even though he had a teammate in it. Not sure if he didn't trust his teammate to stick with the move, he was greedy and wanted to get up there as well or just didn't know it was sort of bad form to chase down your teammate, but in no time, we were all chasing this rider down and therefore bringing the breakaway riders back.
A lap or two later, I decided to test the waters a little bit, not by attacking, but slowly riding off the front of the field. I didn't have any expectations of getting away, but just wanted to speed things up as the field seemed to be slowing down. I was brought back by the time we reached the start/finish line. Once back in the protection of the group, I decided to really try to attack again and hope this time that someone comes with me. Once we reached the parking lot, I attacked off the right side of the group just like I did in the first race of the series. And just like the first race, they would catch me on the climb. Needing to recover for the upcoming finish, I quickly found a wheel I could hold onto with the hopes of recovering fast enough to try one more attack. My goal for the day was to attack, attack and attack. I'm not able to race next week so I didn't want to leave anything in my legs today. Turns out, I wouldn't get that other opportunity to attack as my mind was telling me to sit in for the finish and try my luck then. I should have tried to make another move because that last lap became really sketchy with people fighting for position and I ended up getting pushed off the road. At the end of the day, I was satisfied that I finished upright which in the end is the most important thing but still I felt a little disappointed that I didn't leave it all out on road. Next race I guess.
Here's the stats for the day:
Duration: 49:01
Work: 725 kJ
TSS: 85 (intensity factor 1.02)
Norm Power: 296
VI: 1.2
Distance: 19.845 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1040 246 watts
Heart rate: 30 188 168 bpm
Cadence: 29 141 99 rpm
Speed: 4.1 34.8 24.3 mph
Pace 1:43 14:38 2:28 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 363 70 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 982 208 lb-in
A lap or two later, I decided to test the waters a little bit, not by attacking, but slowly riding off the front of the field. I didn't have any expectations of getting away, but just wanted to speed things up as the field seemed to be slowing down. I was brought back by the time we reached the start/finish line. Once back in the protection of the group, I decided to really try to attack again and hope this time that someone comes with me. Once we reached the parking lot, I attacked off the right side of the group just like I did in the first race of the series. And just like the first race, they would catch me on the climb. Needing to recover for the upcoming finish, I quickly found a wheel I could hold onto with the hopes of recovering fast enough to try one more attack. My goal for the day was to attack, attack and attack. I'm not able to race next week so I didn't want to leave anything in my legs today. Turns out, I wouldn't get that other opportunity to attack as my mind was telling me to sit in for the finish and try my luck then. I should have tried to make another move because that last lap became really sketchy with people fighting for position and I ended up getting pushed off the road. At the end of the day, I was satisfied that I finished upright which in the end is the most important thing but still I felt a little disappointed that I didn't leave it all out on road. Next race I guess.
Here's the stats for the day:
Duration: 49:01
Work: 725 kJ
TSS: 85 (intensity factor 1.02)
Norm Power: 296
VI: 1.2
Distance: 19.845 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1040 246 watts
Heart rate: 30 188 168 bpm
Cadence: 29 141 99 rpm
Speed: 4.1 34.8 24.3 mph
Pace 1:43 14:38 2:28 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 363 70 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 982 208 lb-in
5.03.2007
And the winner is....
A few months ago, I wrote a post looking for some assistance in determining the final location for our vacation this year (choices were New York City, Canadian Rockies, Grand Canyon and Nor Cal). With an outstanding turnout in the polls, reminiscent of any election, 2 out of the 4 votes received indicated that the Canadian Rockies would be the place that we would be heading to. So with that, I am pleased to announce that this year, the Miner's (sans children) will be heading to.......Riviera Maya, Mexico! I know, I know, that wasn't one of the original choices but I did throw in there a little disclaimer that I reserved the right to change my mind at any time, which is what I am doing now.
Why the change you may say? Well, why would we want to celebrate 10 glorious years of marriage by hiking and swatting at mosquito's, running from bears, etc. in the mountains when we can spend it by simply laying on the beach just "Maxin and Relaxin" as Billy Dee Williams used to say on those Colt 45 commercials.
brian
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