Follow up from the 40'

I'm a bit late in getting the latest report out but here it is, after running for 40 minutes at a moderate tempo, my leg is doing well. This gives me some confidence with just under two weeks until the Akron Marathon that I will be able to finish the 10k test there with a somewhat reasonable time. In fact, I've already run twice for that duration and I'll be back out there early tomorrow morning to test it again, this time a bit faster perhaps.

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New Milestone

Tomorrow I'm taking a big step, or to put it more accurately, about 1200 more big steps. I'm going to attempt my first 40 minute run since recovering from the stress fracture. This will be my longest run in almost 7 weeks. 40 minutes should put me somewhere over 5 miles for the day. I'm a bit nervous because I really don't know how my leg is going to feel. Running at 30 minutes this past week my leg has felt great but I just don't know how I'll respond to adding 10 additional minutes. I need to make this step and get past the mental fear if I want to make it to the next goal, which is running the opening 10k leg in two weeks at the Akron Marathon. I have a goal in that race of finishing somewhere around 45 minutes. That will be the slowest that I've ever run it but given the fact that I'm still in recovery mode, 45 minutes will be a great accomplishment. I'll post something tomorrow on how it went. That's saying that I actually make it out with all of this rain that we're having.

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Getting Back into the Groove.

A few posts ago, I talked about the5/5/5/ plan that my doctor put me on to allow my femur to fully heal. He also prescribed several weeks of physical therapy so I can work on some deficiencies that may have led to the fracture. I only use the word 'may' because unfortunately determining the exact cause that led to the injury is somewhat hard to determine and in all actuality, it was probably caused by several factors. What I've learned in PT is that I have a weak core and running really utilizes those muscle groups. There was a point in time where I used to weight train but that was prior to having kids and thinking back, I'm not sure that other than performing a few crunches here and there that I really ever worked on core muscle development. I'd say the last time I truly did core exercises was when I was in the Army and we were getting 'smoked' by our drill sergeants for doing something wrong.

This past weekend was the end of the 5/5/5 plan and I was free to start running again, well sort of. With the longest run being only about 2 miles long and at a 10 minute/mile pace, I was a long ways away from the previous distances and times I had been clocking in prior to the injury and I was even further away from being really ready to run in Columbus in now less than 8 weeks. Sunday I decided to push the distance a bit but keep the tempo right around the 9'30" tempo. Instead of 20 minutes, I'd try running for 30 minutes. The run felt great and I knew I had begun to slowly increase the tempo up a bit but I was feeling good so what could it hurt, right? So how did my leg feel? Well, unfortunately I never feel the pain during the run so it's hard to know whether I'm pushing it too far until the next day. Monday morning I woke up and felt the dull pain where the fracture occurred. It didn't hurt, I wasn't limping around but my leg didn't feel like it did the day before so I know that I pushed it too far too soon. Time to throttle the training back down again and give my leg a bit more time to heal. My PT tells me that broken bones typically take 6 to 8 weeks to heal. I'm now at 5 weeks since I last truly ran on it so I should be getting close to moving past this.

This morning I did another run. This time I went back to the last phase of the 5/5/5 plan and I ran for only 20 minutes around the 9 minute/mile pace. Again, I'll have to wait to know for sure but I'm hoping that I can push it just a bit more this weekend. Fortunately, I have a follow-up visit with my Doctor and Physical Therapist this Friday so I'll be able to get some advice on where to go from here. It's frustrating, without a doubt.

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Oh Lord, it's hard to be humble...

Last night was my first attempt at a 'jog' since determining that I have a stress fracture in my left femur. After a new shoe purchase at my local running shop called Second Sole, I headed up to the local towpath trail to find softer running surfaces than the concrete sidewalks in my neighborhood. As in cycling where my philosophy has been why drive to start a bike ride when I can bike from my house, I've always tried to run directly directly from my front doorstep. This not only saves a few dollars in gas but helps minimize how long I'll be away from the house; and ultimately how long I'll be away from the kids and my wife.
With my leg finally feeling good and the limp in my step gone, I wanted to play it ultra safe and run somewhere a little more forgiving concrete so the towpath would have to do as I don't have a gym membership to find a treadmill. Pulling into the closest trail head at Sand Run, I was reminded of how busy this place is. If running ultra slow in privacy was my goal, I wouldn't find it here. Sand Run is to running what Bally's is to working out. Essentially if you're into being seen or seeing others, this is where typically go. Don't get me wrong, it's a great place to run but there's more to look at than the trees and wildlife. I didn't want to be seen but it was the closest place so I'd have to suck it up, after all, Doctor's orders was jogging for no more than 20 minutes so how bad could it really be?

Bad enough to be passed by every runner, walker and three legged dogs in the area. The only people who didn't pass me were the 80+ year old crowd, but that's probably because they were home getting ready for bed. It was so tough to not try to pick it up to save some dignity but better to be safe than sorry I guess. Truly a humbling experience. I think I will make a T-Shirt the next time that says "Fractured Femur on Board" or something.

brian

Running Pains Part II

As an endurance athlete (if I can call myself that), you become somewhat accustomed to at least some level of discomfort when training for your specific sport. Running definitely falls into this category. At first, there's nothing pleasurable about running and typically every step hurts so when I started feeling some pain in my thigh about a month ago I figured it was just the next level of discomfort that I needed to work through to get to that next great plateau. After a few weeks I noticed this pain wasn't going away but it certainly wasn't getting any worse so I figured I'd do my best to run through it in hopes that it would eventually disappear. The trick for me was to run the first quarter mile or so (usually with a limp) in pain but know that after those first few minutes the pain would go away and I'd be back to running my normal stride pain free. After the run, I'd feel better than ever before and think that I was finally through this hurdle but like that one loud neighbor that everyone has, it would always return the next day. Two weeks ago when I was out running one of my 8 mile runs, the pain didn't go away. In fact it got worse during the run. It was at this point that I knew something was wrong. It was also at this point that I could no longer hide the pain from my wife as I came hobbling through the door. Atypical for me and probably most males in the continental United States, I made a doctor's appointment the very next day to rule anything serious out. To shorten the story, once I worked my way through my primary physician I was finally able to get to see a sports medicine professional. There I had some x-rays done which showed nothing. Yes!!! No stress fractures so it's something muscular and I can keep my running hopes alive. Not so fast, the doctor wanted to perform a Bone Scan just to rule out any fractures that might be too small to show up on the usual x-ray. I had the test this past Friday and I'm happy to say that I'm no longer radioactive, but I did find out some bad news in the process. My worst fear came true, actually my two worst fears came true. The first one is that I do indeed have a stress fracture in my left femur. The second fear that came true is that unlike what I was telling everyone in grade school, the scan shows that I am not big boned but in fact, I am just fat. So much for being able to use that excuse!

In all seriousness, finding this out is horrible news. It completely redefines what I'm going to be doing for Columbus and in fact there is even a big question mark on whether I can even compete in Columbus which happens in only a few months time from now. My physician who is an avid marathoner who feels that there is still a chance I can do it, but I will have to throw out all ambitions of running a fast time and only focus on trying to finish it. As he said, I might have to settle for walking a portion of the race. Walking is a long ways away from my Boston qualifying time, but I guess I should be happy that it's nothing more serious than it is.

So what's my next step to recovery? Well, take it slow day by day and manage my recovery by what level of discomfort that I'm having. I will do what my doctor calls the 5/5/5 plan. For the first five days, starting today I will walk briskly every other day for 20 minutes. If I feel any pain doing this, then I'll stop and rest more. On the days that I'm not walking, I'll do some cross training like riding my bike or doing an elliptical machine or something at the gym. During the next 5 day cycle, I'll start to jog for 20 minutes. This jog will be at a slightly faster pace than my walk. Not fast enough to get cardio benefit out of it, only fast enough so that my left leg is striking the ground with all my body weight on it without the support of my right leg. Again, I will cross-train like crazy at this point to keep my cardio up high. If I feel any pain, I go back half a phase and start over. It's my hope that I don't feel any pain. The last cycle of 5 days will be running for 20 minutes. Again, not running for cardio but running a bit quicker than before so I get more repetitions on my left leg during the 20 minute time period. These will be run at about 2 minutes slower than my normal running pace, so for me I will target about a 9 minute/mile tempo. Most likely, I will even try to run these a bit slower like around 10 minute mile tempo just to take it a bit easier. If after all of this, I'm still pain free, I'm good to go on training, only I will take the schedule much, much, much easier at this point as I will be only running to condition myself for long runs and not necessarily for fast running. Here's to the hope that I can go pain free!

brian

Running Data!

I've admitted several times before in previous posts that I'm addicted to data. I don't get the shakes or cold sweats if I'm not looking at charts and graphs showing me my daily training, but knowing that there is relatively cheap technology out there that I can use to help me train more efficiently and effectively keeps me saving my pennies. When I started running, I stepped back in time in terms of training aids. The best that I had was my old Timex Iron Man watch that was replaced after the previous one got ruined while swimming in Italy (Good story here about "Naked Lady Cove"). As for heart rate, pacing, mileage, I was taking a non-approach to training and just winging it which after being so heavily involved in power based training on the bike felt very foreign.
I needed to look for something to help me out. As with the bike, there were also lots of options here, watches, heart rate monitors, GPS Systems, etc. I quickly narrowed in on the GPS but decided that for the high dollars that these systems cost, I couldn't justify it....yet. It wasn't until I visited my local running shop Second Sole that I learned about another option, the Nike+ Sportband. For a moderate $65, here is a device that is supposed to tell me current time, duration, pacing, mileage and calories burned. Everything that I was looking for and for the right price. So how did it go? Test run number one was 13 miles long. It said I ran 2.5 miles. Test run two was a 6 miler, ended up recording only about a mile and a half. I started keeping an eye on it and noticed that it was recording my pace at accurately one second and then in the next second it would be something crazy like a 45 minute/mile pace. Frustrating to say the least. I ended up taking it back and exchanging it for another, hoping better results would come on the second one. How did this one do? Yesterday was a 14 miler....and it recorded 14 miles. I'm hopeful that this thing is close but I still plan on taking it to the track this week to make sure its calibrated right on. So what did I learn from this technology? Well primarily that my pacing is way off. On my long runs I'm trying to run about an 8minute, 30 second pace. I ended up averaging 8'17 seconds overall but that for over half the run I was running at 7 minute pace. I'm happy that I've now got something to help me out and I'm glad I've still got some time to get the feel of running all dialed in. It's a bit week in terms of graphics but here's what the data looks like from my run. (Note that all the dots represent the miles. On the website where my data is listed, each of those dots are active points that give me info for the run at that point in time. Helpful there, not so much here :)

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Miner's blog, jr?

Last night Nicholas started racing his bike. This process started a few months ago when he asked me when he could start racing like me. After I explained to him that he was still a bit too young at only 5 years old to start road racing, I let him know that there was an alternative and that was BMX racing. He seemed interested in seeing what it was all about so we ventured over to the Akron Derby Downs BMX track. His good friend Gavin Parr has been out there a few times so it was a good opportunity to ease any fears that he might have about the sport. Wanting to make sure that he really wanted to do this, I took him out there multiple times, just so he could get a good feel for what he would have to do to make it from the start line to the finish line, and to make sure he was sure he wanted to do it. Sometimes with kids, their opinions can change fairly quickly on what they want so before we made any financial commitment on equipment, race license, etc., I wanted to make sure he was serious. Tuesday night when I asked him if he wanted to go to swim lessons or race his bike, it was a quick decision...race his bike.


Once we got to the track last night, we quickly got Nicholas registered and almost immediately found that the volunteer staff out there is absolutely amazing. It was really cool to see how everyone there was so helpful to Nicholas and I. He quickly found a mentor named Greg who had two sons also racing who took him up to the start gate and helped him around the track several times until he could get the hang of it. I'm really thankful for him being there because it took a few turns before he realized how much speed he really needed to have to get up and over those big ramps. I always thought Nicholas was a big kid until I saw him out there. He looked as small as the day he was born. What impressed me most about Greg and the other volunteers out there who make the races possible, is that they love the kids and the sport, and are willing to do whatever they can to make sure you have a positive experience. Not sure I've seen that kind of expression of interest in any of the local races that I've competed in. Not saying I've had bad experiences because for the most part, they have all been positive. I'm just saying it was totally different.

Nicholas did well, I can't really give a good race report and let's face it, you probably don't want to hear one from me. I was just happy to see that at the end of the evening he was thrilled with the trophy that he won (he slept with it) and that he's anxious to go back again.

brian

Back at the Races!

When rolling across the finish line at the Race for Alex almost a month and a half ago, I had hoped that between my running and my commuting to work via bike, that I'd have some type of fitness to participate in the annual Chapel race. I always look forward to this race as it's close, cheap and lots of fun. With being off the bike for so long I was also looking forward to seeing and racing with all my teammates again. Rolling up to the start line, I really had no expectations for the day but to hopefully stay with the pack. I thought if I could do that, then it would be a successful day. Quickly into the day, Tim pushed the pace to try to get off the front. He didn't have much luck but than Marshall came up and tried the same thing. I figured that I'd give it a shot as well. We had the field packed so I thought I could at least make the race difficult for as long as possible, even if that meant my day would be early. As it turns out, I'd be good for a few more attacks along the way and surprisingly, I felt as good as I ever have on the bike. They say rest is important, apparently I need 6 weeks! In all honesty, I never felt good to go solo for the distance, but if any of the breaks that I was trying to initiate would have been successful in working, I think I could have made it stick. With 5 to go, I knew it was most likely heading down to the bunch kick so I restrained myself for the finish. With a half lap to go, I let it all go and attacked one last time on the backside of the church. I went through the final few turns still up in front but not with enough power to hold on. I ended up rolling in for 7th place for the night but with the satisfaction of making the race difficult and hopefully setting up some success for my other teammates. I'm looking forward to racing again this week.

Unfortunately I'm having some issues with my PowerTap computer as Cycling Peaks had some issues saving the data for me. From a quick glance, I remember seeing a normalized power of 305 W for the approx. 39 minute effort. This really surprised me that my power output would still be that high after so many weeks at sub-threshold riding. Maybe there really is something to this rest thing :)

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Commuting Woes

I suffered what I'm sure will be the first of many flat tires on my commute home yesterday. I was riding the cross bike with the knobbies on it but I guess those do little to protect me from what seems like endless miles of broken glass and other sh%t along the streets of Akron. It really is amazing to see how much trash is along the sides of the road here. Maybe that's part of Akron's problem, if the citizens who live and work here can't have enough respect for their own neighborhoods to at least keep their sidewalks clean, what hope is there to attract new talent, businesses, etc. into the area; guess that's just my philosophical self talking. Just call me Bri-istotle. Is there something really fun about smashing glass bottles? I'm just not sure that I really get it.

One thing that I've learned is that 700c x 32 cyclocross tubes aren't successfully replaced with tubes that are for 23mm road bike wheels. I rode the rest of the ride along the towpath home really slow as I couldn't put enough volume of CO2 into the tube to fully inflate the tire. Lesson learned I guess. Better hit the bike shop this weekend for some new tubies and patch kit.

I'm looking forward to the long weekend which will hopefully allow me to get some bike riding in. I've got to take it easy because I don't want to compromise my running schedule but I'm hoping to get at least a bit of feeling back in my legs so I can race in the upcoming Chapel Series. I don't have any expectations of even staying in the field until the finish, but for those of us who drop off the back of the main field....I will so kick your butt for the sprint for 25th place! :)

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Running Pains

Ouch. I really forgot how hard running is. I've been running 4-5 days a week now, fairly consistently for the past month, mostly consisting of smaller runs around 3 miles long in the first few weeks and then progressing to 5 mile runs the past few weeks. I'm finally starting to feel good (if that's even possible while running) when I'm running so I don't feel completely thrashed by the end of my workout until I started doing big miles. For me, a big run used to be anything longer than running from my living room to my kitchen for some more snacks. Now, I've had to redefine it a bit to say anything in miles that was two digits long. Two weeks ago I did my first big run of 10 miles. This wasn't my first attempt at running big distances. I've done big miles while in the army and a few years ago, I was routinely running 15 milers for the fun of it. For some reason, who knows, maybe its the age but this 10 miler affected me big time. While running, I felt awesome. The kind of feeling that I knew I still had a lot more left in the tank and I could definitely keep going. Fortunately I was sensible and wrapped it up. It wasn't until I got back in the house and cleaned up that I noticed a pain in the ball of my left foot. Ouch, hurts to walk on it. A few days go by and I'm able to do some of my 5 mile runs through the week without issue but on yesterdays 11 mile run I'm feeling it now worse than ever. Funny because I was pretty conscious about it during the run and I never had any issues with pain. I'm hoping this is one of those things that I just have to get through and that there are no serious issues. To be safe, I'm going to head down to the local running store tonight and have them take a look at my running shoes. Better to get this solved now. I can't have anything compromising Columbus.

Sorry, no data but I am trying to convince my wife that I need to Purchase the Garmin 405 watch. Man, if there's one thing that I've learned, it's that I'm addicted to data.

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Miner goes Commuting!

Commuting to work via bike is something that I’ve wanted to do for the past few years. The excuses for not doing it always came easy and I never seemed to take it too seriously until this year. Inspired by my buddy Pat up in Chicago who commutes to work via bike every day of the year and along with the outrageously high gas prices I decided it was time to get serious about starting. As I just mentioned, it was the excuses that kept me from doing it previously. Specifically some of these were what do I do about my work clothes since I have to dress professionally here at work, what do I do about a shower and what do I do if I need a car to drive out to a clients project site? I realized that my whole problem was that I thought commuting to work meant I had to do it every day of the work week. Once I got it into my mind that this wasn’t true, two out of the three issues above simply went away. What I do is that on the days that I have to drive into work (if I need to drive to a project site, pick up kids after work, etc.) I bring my clothes that I’ll need for the days that I plan on riding and just leave them in my office, hence keeping everything looking wrinkle free! As for the shower, my building does have a shower facility here in the building should I need it. I say should because so far I haven’t. My commute is just under 5 miles and what I find is that even with some of the small climbs that I have, I’m just getting warmed up by the time that I get here. So, showering before I leave the house is still working out well. This might change once the temperature gets a bit warmer and muggier, but I’ll deal with that issue when it arises.

Commuting to work also helps me feel connected to riding. Having for the most part stopped seriously training so I can better prepare for the Columbus Marathon, riding in three days a week at least keeps me feeling like I’m not completely throwing away all that fitness I gained through the winter and spring. In the back of my mind I’m really hoping that these commutes along with the occasional team training ride can keep me somewhat in shape (along with tons of running) so I can get back on the bike just in time for cyclocross season. As for my daily commute, pretty straight forward really. I’m treated each morning with an amazing view of the City as I roll behind Saint Thomas Hospital and down Howard Street. I’ve also found this amazing street that I wouldn’t have known about otherwise called Bluff. It’s got some amazing cobbles to it, and I mean true cobbles, not just brick pavers. Check out the picture below. If it was located in a more convenient location, it would be awesome to try to race up.

Until next time,

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Columbus Marathon, here I come..

Well, it's official. I'm now registered for this years Columbus Marathon which will be held on October 19th.

I had an opportunity to run a 4 miler Tuesday night in the midst of a downpour which unfortunately was my first real run for the year. Funny how not one person yelled at me from their car, threw things at me or came dangerously close to hitting me while I was out there. The first mile I felt lousy; mile 2 and mile 3 I felt awesome and then mile 4 I felt lousy again. It's a long way to get to 26.2

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Race for Alex

When I made the decision to run the Columbus Marathon this fall (and be competitive in it), I knew I would have to cut short my cycling season to achieve some of the goals that I set. I barely seem to have time to train for one sport, let alone try to train for two so something has to go and it won't be family or work so I guess that means I'm voluntarily letting my CTL drop a bit until later this fall. With the shortened season, I picked the Race for Alex as the event to say goodbye to my 2007 season. I raced it last year and remember having a lot of fun on a course that really suited me.

Sunday morning I lined up in a field of 54 riders in the Cat 4/Cat 5 field, by far the largest group that I've raced with in awhile. Joining me from Stark Velo was: Matt Turi, Tim House, Chris Smith, Don Bunker, Greg Banic, Bill Fletcher, Tim Graichen and James Votaw. With such a large group of teammates racing, we should hopefully be able to do something productive for the day as we certainly had the numbers. With such a large group and a strict yellow-line rule, moving up was going to be difficult so I did my best to get myself in the top 20 places as we rolled out of the parking lot. Being even this far back would prove to be disaster for the day. It was nice from the sense that I always had someone to block the strong winds, but difficult to move up into any better position. I always like to keep an eye on the front and make moves when necessary. Sitting pinched in the middle of the field sort of makes that logic impractical. A prime example came when Turi took a solo flier off the front on lap 2. I was doing my best to move up in the field to the front to try and slow things down but it was impossible. There were only three ways to do it. Flagrantly breaking the yellow-line rule, take my luck riding in the gutter or be stupid/dangerous and try to squeeze through riders in the field. I decided I'd try to ride near the gutter in hopes that enough openings would happen on that side that I could jump into and leap frog my way to the front. Unfortunately, after almost a lap of Matt being out front, I was nowhere closer to helping him out and he was quickly moving back to us.

The race was fast but I was able to notice some things along the way. Firstly that there was a rider who was walking back to the start line (opposite race direction) who was pushing his bike with a severed handlebar. Wow, wonder how that happened and where. Two, the railroad tracks on the course are absolutely horrible. I still need to take a good look at my Zipps but on one outing over them; I heard a nasty crack when I rolled over it. Hopefully, it was the guy next to me and not my fine 303 hoops.

Starting lap 4 and I'm finally feeling better. It had been a few days since I had an opportunity to ride and I needed a few minutes of high intensity to bring my legs back. I knew with only two laps to go, there was no way I was going to get dropped and hopefully I could find a way up front to get competitive in this thing. After all, it was my last race. So we roll over the track on lap 4. Guys do like they always do on every lap and try to bunny hop them at 35 mph. Something happens and all of a sudden there are bodies and bikes everywhere. I slam on my breaks hoping nobody behind me crashes into me and I safely navigate my way through the carnage that lies on the street. The field moves away from me at that point. I pretty much stop to see if anyone who was involved in it is really hurt or not. I notice that there was a follow vehicle that is there and decided that I can try to catch the main field which at this point was probably down to 25 guys or so.

Well, the wind was too strong and/or they were too fast so I never could catch them. Rode the last lap and a half by myself but nobody ever caught me...for whatever that's worth. Riding solo did give me an opportunity to reflect on that crash though. My thought was that the Race for Alex is a race that was setup to benefit a recovering spinal cord injured racer. Why is this race trying to setup future injuries? I know that may seem a bit harsh and you can call me a p#%ssy if you like but let's face it, bike racing is inherently dangerous as it is even on the safest of courses. Throw in things like crappy, rough railroad crossings and the risk level just gets raised that much higher. I haven't found too many races that I feel are worth the risk of racing and boycott from (Medina Twin Sizzler is the only one right now), but I think I'm going to have to add the Race for Alex to the list that I'm going to avoid from now on. I hate to say it since MVC is a good club, it has great organization and Bob seems to have a lot of passion for this race, but there are better things I can be doing with my time than risking my life.

So, not the way that I wanted to wrap up my season, but I can’t control those things. If I could, I would have won every race that I’ve ever entered. I look forward to really getting into running here this week. I’m hoping to keep riding, at least with commuting to work and maybe the occasional team ride in hopes that I can still race the Chapel Series. I need something to blog after all…..

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Here's the data for the day's race:

Race for Alex:
Duration: 58:14
Work: 877 kJ
TSS: 98.2 (intensity factor 1.006)
Norm Power: 302
VI: 1.2
Distance: 21.978 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1057 251 watts
Heart rate: 94 205 169 bpm
Cadence: 31 141 97 rpm
Speed: 2.6 35.8 22.6 mph
Pace 1:41 22:59 2:39 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 345 79 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 1165 220 lb-in

I knew I always looked sexy in this kit!

This past weekend, Jen and I took our annual trip up to Chicago to visit our good friends Pat and Kristy. I hate missing a good local race like RATL but the opportunity to head up to Chi-town without the kids just couldn't be passed up; besides, Pat is a great rider and I was sure we'd get some decent riding in while there.

The weather forecast for the weekend showed Saturday as the best opportunity to get some miles in. What Chicago lacks in elevation (i.e. hills) they more than make up for in wind. The wind was something like 25 mph sustained with probably 30-35mph wind gusts, definitely a lot of work to keep any type of momentum going while heading north along the lake. Fortunately we'd be heading into the wind in the beginning and then taking advantage of mother nature on the return trip home. The plan for this ride was to leave from their place down in Hyde Park and then work our way over via the city streets to the bike path along the lake shore. This isn't the first time I've ridden up in Chicago and I knew what to expect while riding on the roads with Pat. Everyone has probably seen the video of the bike messenger races in NYC and getting around here in Chicago isn't much different. It's a lot different than riding here in Northeast Ohio but after experiencing this a few times I now really love the rush of adrenaline that flows when you're dodging through moving traffic! Who knows, maybe I'll give up my gig as an architect and become a bike messenger!

OK, I'm not really going to blog every twist and turn of the bike path for you. I would just say that first of all, if you haven't been to Chicago, go. This is by far my favorite American City and I could feasibly see the Miner's relocating up there someday (soon?). Second of all, when you get to Chicago, make sure to spend some time down on the Lakefront. Being down there, whether you're walking, riding or people watching, it really makes you think about how bad Cleveland messed up on the development of their waterfront. Lots of missed opportunity up there but I digress.

So, here's where my fun morning of dodging through rollerbladers, dog walkers and recreation riders takes a turn for the worse. I have always been completely honest and transparent in my blog, but if you're under the age of 18, you may not want to continue reading as I don't want to be responsible for the corruption of any minors. Back to the story.....we made it all the way to the end of the bike path which is about 18 or so miles north of where we started. Anticipating a fun and fast return back to Pat & Kristy's condo, I decided the half-way point would be a good place to make a quick pit stop before turning around. Fortunately, there was a public restroom right there...what luck! As we roll up, there's a guy walking down the path and like anybody would probably do, I tossed out a hello and what's up. He mumbled something that I didn't really hear as I was concentrating on getting to the bathroom before the Gatorade that was inside of me made a forceful exit. So, I unclipped out of my pedals, put the bike against the wall and here comes this same guy again into the restroom. I thought it was a bit strange as he had probably just left there but who knows, maybe he was having some issues and couldn't venture far away from the safety of a toilet. Who was I to judge? Another second of taking off and stashing my gloves and in I went. To my surprise, the restroom was somewhat large with 4 urinals and this guy was at the far end. Thank God I know enough about the unwritten rule of not standing next to someone so I went to the one that was two away from him because the last one was in plain view of the exterior and I do like a bit of modesty. You know how you see things out of your peripheral vision that you don't really want or intend to see? Well, I can tell that this guy has got some 'weird' type of movement there for going pee. I chalked it up to maybe a Chicago thing and that he was just finishing up. I've always said and been told that shake it three times and any more than that you're playing with yourself. Well, out of my peripheral vision, I could see that this guy was looking at me and he probably wasn't peeing, I couldn't be sure but damn it really seemed weird. Of all the times to get stage fright while going to the bathroom and all I could do was stand there and pray for me to pee soon. I was frantically thinking, pee or leave, pee or leave.....My decision was immediately made when his random, slow hand movements sped up and some moaning occurred. That's it, I had all the evidence that I needed, this guy wasn't peeing, how do I say it discreetly...he was choking the chicken, polishing his knob, pleasuring himself and he was using me as his sexy pinup boy. AUGH!!! AUGH!!! AUGH!!! I quickly got out of there, still not having went and left immediately. I remember having the thought, do I say something to this guy, do I tell Pat to come in and we can laugh at him for being insane, do I kick his ass, maybe call the cops on him? My first intuition was to just get on the bike and go which is what I did. This guy was a Freak with a capital F and who knows what else he was capable of. So, there you have it Miner getting violated in Chicago while on a bike ride. I will always be careful now when venturing into a public bathroom. Maybe I will do what women do and have a friend go in with me or something.

b

Race at the Lakes - Round 3b

I don’t get many opportunities to ride outside. I can get all the early morning rides on the trainer that I want, but in all honesty getting up at 5:00 a.m. to get an hours workout in before going to work is getting old, especially now that the weather’s getting so nice outside. I would say that on average, I only ride about 6 hours a week. On a good week, I might see 8 hours. I don't think, with the exception of the Boone, North Carolina trips that I ever have any weeks that have more volume in it than that so needless to say, I jump on any opportunity I might have to ride. With the lousy weather we had yesterday, today seemed like an absolute dream and I started thinking during the middle of mass this morning on which of my favorite routes I would be doing this afternoon. As I was getting my things ready to go, I looked outside, saw my son Nicholas playing and decided that I’d rather spend some time with him on the bike, rather than training down in the Valley. He had been asking for a few weeks about riding with me out at the RATL course and I figured today was as good as any day to do that. It’s so close and I figured after a few laps, we’d be done and I’d still have time for a quick workout.

I’ll be honest, this might be the best way to race out there. Nicholas and I grabbed some chalk, made a quick start line and we were off, me riding the Cervelo and he on his slightly undersized Specialized. I keep meaning to give Sherman up at Bike Authority a call to see what we can do about getting him something more his size and this might just be the nice reminder that I need to do just that. Each lap around the course had plenty of breaks, either to look at the water, pick up Dandelions, play on the playground equipment or just to grab a drink of Gatorade. I’d even say that this was by far the best time I’ve ever spent out there on this course. I don’t think I’ve ever had an opportunity to really see the beauty that this park has to offer, especially when accompanied by a 5 year old. It’s nice to slow down every once in a while. Oh, by the way, just like all the previous races I’ve done out there, I didn’t win this one either and I didn't get any more training in afterwards. Guess I'll be getting up really early tomorrow.

b

Here’s the data for today’s race:

Entire workout (38 watts):
Duration: 55:50 (1:54:33)
Work: 122 kJ
TSS: 4.9 (intensity factor 0.234)
Norm Power: 66
VI: 1.73
Distance: 5.891 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 240 38 watts
Cadence: 29 141 56 rpm
Speed: 2.2 15.1 6.5 mph
Pace 3:58 26:49 9:15 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 304 45 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 378 60 lb-in

Race at the Lakes - Round 3

This morning when I woke up and I saw the weather radar, there was absolutely no chance that I wouldn’t be racing today. I like having a little diversity and bad weather always leads to a more selective field. The only question for me was would I ride my bike over to the race or drive myself instead? I made my decision quickly when the rain started coming down around 8:00 this morning. I decided to opt for the warm and dry car ride instead of the bike ride over. I recalled seeing a picnic shelter that I could go set up shop in and stay warm and dry and that seemed a lot better to me than riding in the cold rain. Don’t get me wrong, I knew that there was no chance in hell that we would stay dry during the race, I just figured why get wet any sooner than absolutely necessary.

The Cat 4 field was expectedly smaller than the previous two weeks races when the weather was a bit nicer. I would estimate that maybe we had about 25 guys in the field which I thought for such lousy conditions really wasn’t too bad. Joining me from Stark Velo today were Tim, Matt, Marshall and Josh.

This was a weird race today for some reason as it just didn’t seem to play out the way they typically do. Typically it’s a sit and sprint situation with one large field. Today this race ended breaking up more often than Pam Anderson and Tommy Lee. It all started off with Matt taking a solo flier early into the race, maybe around lap 3 or 4. He did a great job opening up a small gap but after a lap, he was back in the field. Summit did a great job of immediately countering Matt’s move. They didn’t get far but once we were all back together I noticed that these two small efforts split the field in several groups. What once was a group of 25 was now a small select group of 10. Nice, if this could work I’d be looking at a top 10 finish for sure! We managed to stay clear for several more laps but I don’t know whether it was guys killing themselves to win primes or what but there was never a consistent tempo that would have been helpful to keep us clear. We were soon joined by about 4 or 5 other guys who managed to bridge back up to us. I was happy to see that two of them were Tim and Josh because I knew by this time that I just didn’t have the legs for the race today and I felt bad not being able to help Matt out. Having two additional teammates who could help cover any dangerous moves meant I could almost just concentrate on getting myself to the finish line as I was struggling just to stay with this lead group. I don’t know how I go from feeling so strong one day to feeling horrible the next but I just never felt good in the race. Needless to say I had nothing left in the tank so when the tempo got really hot with one lap to go; I lost contact and rode in solo to finish up another mediocre performance for ‘08. Matt was the best placed Velo rider in 6th place with Josh and Tim finishing up just in front of me. I think Team Spin won today’s round but there’s one more opportunity for Stark Velo to pull out a win or podium at next weeks event.

A look at the data afterwards reveals that the race was much harder than I had perceived it being during the race.

Duration: 51:19
Work: 774 kJ
TSS: 99.5 (intensity factor 1.079)
Norm Power: 302
VI: 1.2
Distance: 19.81 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 883 252 watts
Heart rate: 101 183 168 bpm
Cadence: 29 141 100 rpm
Speed: 0 32.8 23.1 mph
Pace 1:50 0:00 2:36 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 342 76 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 1296 213 lb-in

Race at the Lakes - Round 2

Well, I stand corrected from last weeks race report, it is possible for a breakaway to be successful in the Cat 4 field at RATL. The Cat 4 field size was a bit smaller than last weeks, I guess the threat of rain kept a few of the riders from last week away which was OK with me. I for one was hoping that it would be a serious downpour as I tend to like those nasty conditions a bit better. I'm 1/1000 Belgium so I kept my eye on the heavens but of course, I also think that I'm 1/1000 Kenyan (which I'll be calling on for the Columbus Marathon later) so those two heritages actually cancel themselves so I wasn't left with much of an advantage.

Joining me in the Cat 4 field for Velo were Tim House, Josh Troche, Matt Turi, Chris Smith and Jason Leaman. With the strong wind, my plans were to stay safely in the field, keep attentive and if anything promising happened, try to follow it. Well, I found myself very early in the race going with moves that were destined to fail. One move was with a solo Summit rider (who happened to win the race later) but it was all brought back within the lap. We needed more people to make that one stick. Another move a bit later was with a few other guys with each of the teams being represented so I figured it would stick. Nope, it got pulled back too. Another move was a counter attack to Tim's initial attack. What failed my move (besides not being a great athlete) was it was also a prime lap and my attack came near the hill. I wasn't attacking to try to win $5, I was attacking so my buddies efforts weren't in vain, and I wanted to win the race. I was caught just before the line so I didn't even win the lousy $5. It was nice to see Josh counter my move right away. For a guy who proclaims that he doesn't like to climb anything greater than the natural curvature of the Earth, it was impressive to see him make the effort at the top of the climb. From here, things settled down a bit for a few laps until another move made its way off the front. Seemed to have representation of every team in it except Snake Bite. There was no immediate response to bring it back and so the break slowly gained some time on us. Matt Turi was up there representing Velo and I felt confident knowing that I could just cruise on in to the finish line as I was definitely feeling the days earlier efforts. All of a sudden I see a Velo rider coming back. Crap, now it's time to try to make a move, only problem was that I was suffering just to keep the tempo, let alone try to bring it back or bridge. Now I was cursing my earlier failed efforts, but you never know how these things work out. Chris Smith made an effort to get across but only made it about halfway in the bridge attempt before coming back. Then Jason made the effort and was able to pull everyone up to two of the breakaway companions but the days winner had shed them earlier, taking the solo win.

Looking at the data, it's no wonder why I had nearly nothing left. With a normalized power of 307 watts for the race, that's well above what I thought was my current FTP level. In all honesty, I've never had any power levels that high in any race that I've done before. The closest that I've come is 300W out at Snitgers and I would have considered that the toughest race in the area. I guess a lot can be said about racing smart and not trying to make unnecessary moves. Just shows the amount of energy and fitness needed to race really aggressive. That being said, I'll be back at it again next week as I'd rather lose the race trying to win it than be pack fodder. My racing $.02 of course.

b

Here's the power levels for the day:

Duration: 49:29
Work: 742 kJ
TSS: 98.9 (intensity factor 1.095)
Norm Power: 307
VI: 1.23
Distance: 19.901 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1098 250 watts
Heart rate: 103 188 171 bpm
Cadence: 30 141 102 rpm
Speed: 7.7 34.1 24.1 mph
Pace 1:46 7:47 2:29 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 304 72 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 1028 207 lb-in

Race at the Lakes

Wow. What a difference some sunny, warm weather will make. Seems like anyone who rides a bike in Northeast Ohio was out at Munroe Falls Metro Park this morning for the annual Race at the Lakes. This is always a fun race to be in and the Summit Freewheelers/Rainbow Inks team always does a great job at putting this series together. This morning I was joined by fellow Starkies, Matt Turi, Tim House, Marshall Leininger, Josh Troche and Jason Leaman in the Cat 4 field along with about 50 other riders. From a quick glance it seemed like all of the local teams had a major presence, Spin, Snake Bite, and Summit all had a lot more guys there this morning then we did. The history of this race is that the probability of a breakaway actually being successful is next to zero. No way, not going to happen, not in the Cat 4 field anyways. The last time I remember seeing it happening was when I was a Cat 5 and I watched Rick Parr get away Jimmy McDonald about 3 years ago. It’s not that the Cat 4 field is organized and lets something get away until the very end where it gets swallowed up in the last lap or two; it’s just that any move that is made is immediately reacted to. Possibly because this race is just that the race is so short and guys know they’re only a few miles from the finish line, even when they just roll out of the starting gate. (This is of course my best guess). Today I thought could be the exception to this rule with so many teams here. If the right move went up the road with all the major players in it, maybe there was a chance unless teams started chasing down their own teammates, which in the Cat 4 field turns out to happen more often than not. (Again, my editorial comment). My goal this morning was to ride conservatively and be attentive and see if anything happened. If I saw a move developing that had the major players in it, I would do my best to get in it as well. I decided to play it conservative and to try not to initiate it. The race started like it normally does, guys trying to get away but inevitably being swallowed back up in no time. It wasn’t until about half way through the race when I saw a move that looked promising. I quickly make the jump and bridged up to them but by the time we hit the ‘hill’ we were all back together. Turns out, every other Cat 4 wanted to be there as well. The race would follow this routine for the remainder of the race, only to be broken up by the sound of a blown tire and then a savage sounding wreck behind me. Fortunately nobody was seriously hurt. The race finished as predicted, in a mass sprint. Congratulations to today’s winners, I believe the Spin guys took first and third, not sure how the rest of the field placed. I know that I finished somewhere in the top 15 or 20 guys and Matt was the best place Stark Velo in seventh. I can’t wait until next week.

Here's the data for the race today.

b

Work: 677 kJ
TSS: 86.1 (intensity factor 1.034)
Norm Power: 290
VI: 1.24
Distance: 19.374 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 972 234 watts
Heart rate: 115 185 164 bpm
Cadence: 29 141 100 rpm
Speed: 2.4 35.1 24.0 mph
Pace 1:43 24:46 2:30 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 355 67 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 904 194 lb-in

Tour of Richaland County

Yesterday was the kick off for my 2008 racing program. I wanted to race a bit earlier this year but as everyone knows in Northeast Ohio, almost every race prior to this one had been cancelled due to weather. It was for this reason that I was expecting a huge turn out at this race. I know it wasn’t super warm out, but it was above 40 degrees and sunny and couple those two elements with cabin fever, I would have imagined that every race within a 200 mile radius would want to get out to test their fitness on this challenging course. You can imagine my surprise when I only saw about two dozen racers in the Cat 4-5 race. Oh well, better odds for me, especially with the finish line at the bottom of the climb this year. Wow, maybe I have a shot this year.

It was nice to see a lot of Stark Velo at this race. There was almost so many it appeared like it was a training ride where we invited other riders. I think every field (with the exception of the 1/2/3 and the women’s) had 4 or 5 riders. Joining me in the Cat 4-5 race were Matt Turi, Sebastian Birch, new guys Greg Fletcher and Greg Banic. Everyone talks about this race and the big climb on it. Now racing this course for the second time, I don’t think that climb is as decisive as everyone feels it is. In my opinion, it’s the miles of steep rollers that come after it that are much more painful and selective. Just like last year, that’s what would cause my undoing. For me, it came on the second lap, on the last steep roller just before making the final right hand turn onto that valley road. I lost contact with them and although they stayed within eye site, I could never bridge back up to them. Getting dropped sucks big time, but it gives some time for reflection. I guess this is the case with every race but if only I would have had a bit more fitness, I really think I could have had a shot at this race. Tactically this race was easy. It’s not like there were guys attacking all over the place on the hills. In fact, it was completely the opposite, it was just a steady grind all the way through and the course is what selected who finished and who didn’t. In the two dozen or so starters, I counted 9 in front of me when I fell off the back. In some weird sense, I was happy to have lasted to at least to that point. If I could keep anyone from catching me, I could have a top 10 place for the day! I just wouldn’t tell anyone, except for the blogging community that it came a minute after the rest of the winners….

On the last half lap, again on those darn rollers, I could see a few riders coming up from behind me. All of a sudden I heard “Is that you Miner?” I looked back again and saw a bit of yellow so I figured it was one of my teammates and said yes. Turns out the yellow was of an independent rider and the one who knew me was Jay from Breakaway. Check out his blog when you get the chance, always good reading. Anyway, turns out Jay and the indy were in my field so now I had a few guys to ride to the finish with and make it a bit more interesting. We rode along well together for the next several miles where we picked up another indy rider from our field. Yes, if I could now out sprint these guys I could get ninth place! Ok, not so big of a deal. When we were on the last miles of the valley road, we were doing a paceline at the urging of one of the independent riders. I don’t mind doing this and it helps everyone get to the finish quicker, but the problem was it was so slow. Watching my speed and power meter, I had gone through this section solo on the previous lap about 3 mph and a few dozen watts faster. I thought to myself, when should I attack this group and just ride in by myself? I also thought, would that make me a jerk to attack this group? I don’t want to be viewed as that, but I also didn’t want a bunch more riders catching me from behind because we were barely doing 20 mph. So fortunately, it wasn’t me but Jay who put the hammer down. I quickly found his wheel and a quick glance of who was left and we were down to three riders. From there, it was a nice steady rotation until about a mile until the finish where I found myself stuck in front, it seems as though the indy rider didn’t want to come around me anymore. Funny how we fight for the scraps. Ok, no big deal, that’s bike racing and if I’m going to lead you out, I’m going to do my best to make you suffer a bit while doing it. I quickly ramped it up into the finish and soon we were doing 29/30 mph going into the last few hundred meters. I took a quick look behind me and saw Jay furiously sprinting to make up a small gap on my wheel. I started sprinting but couldn’t quite hold him off; he nipped me at the line. D@#n you Jay….D@#n you!!! Just kidding, it was a blast. Not sure where I ended up finishing but I guess it doesn’t really matter.

Ok, so that was my race in no man’s land. One of these days, I’ll have a sweet report from the front of the race.

B

Malabar Farms Race:
Duration: 1:34:22
Work: 1375 kJ
TSS: 166.7 (intensity factor 1.029)
Norm Power: 283
VI: 1.17
Distance: 30.59 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 774 243 watts
Heart rate: 63 204 166 bpm
Cadence: 29 141 91 rpm
Speed: 2.7 37.4 19.5 mph
Pace 1:36 22:27 3:05 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 442 104 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 817 229 lb-in

Another AZ. Pic

I'm really off my game this week. Thanks to jal for giving me the heads up on this one....