With the scandal happening in France right now regarding the fallout from "Operacion Puerto," I feel that I need to make an official statement that I have and never will use performance enhancing drugs. I know there are a lot of you out there who are saying, “Hey Miner, how can you explain that miraculous 5th place finish at the Saturday morning stage of the Summer Solstice race?” True, this is my best result racing as a Cat IV but I owe that finish to great teammates and great training. In addition, I would like to say that although there are reported rumors of bags of blood with the code name “Son of Alan Miner, born in Canton, Ohio in March of 1973”, I’m sure there are lots of mediocre Cat IV racers who fit that same description. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I would never undergo a blood transfusion, they’re just too risky. My wife and I are fully educated of the risks on this as we faced this procedure a few years ago to save the life of our 25 year old parakeet, Tweety. I’m sad to say that Tweety is now buried in an old shoe box in the backyard but that’s neither here nor there. Again, I will never use performance enhancing drugs unless I get to that point in my life where I’ll need that little blue pill to help my performance…bad da bing!
brian
6.19.2006
Summer Solstice Stage Race
They say a rider’s first tour really changes them. I’ll never ride the Tour de France so races like this past weekends Summer Solstice stage race is as close as I will most likely ever come to feeling what a tour really feels like. Never having raced two days back to back before I was a little nervous at the idea of riding 4 stages in three days but I was confident that I had decent fitness and that if I was lucky, that I could possibly just finish on the famed Caesar’s Creek Dam on Sunday. This event was hosted by OVR and I would like to say first and foremost that I thank them for their effort and willingness in putting together an event this big as it takes a tremendous amount of work to pull something like this off. That being said, I sincerely hope that if they plan on ever trying this again that they really evaluate this years event and solicit feedback from riders and teams on how the event can better and safer.
Friday Evening
Friday’s stage was a Criterium on the campus of Wilmington College which was described as a lazy 8 route. While walking to registration, I heard a rider describe this as officially the worst crit course ever. I was a little skeptical but while continuing my walk along the course I could see exactly what he was talking about. Lazy is the wrong word to describe the course. Risky is probably a better choice of words in my opinion. The course had two 180 degree turns at the both ends of the loop which took you into parking lots and then 90 degree turns taking you out of the parking lots. Getting into and out of the lots meant going over curb cuts that were two inches +/- high which meant rims would be taking a beating four times per lap. It looked like they were aware that most people would be upset about this so it seemed like there was an attempt to level this out by either placing some Quikrete or sand there. All this did though was make those corners sketchier as this material broke up and made sliding out a possibility which resulted in a crash in the race prior to mine. Going into this series, I didn’t have any ambitions as this was a last minute addition to my schedule and not one of my goal races. Being a crit however and typically riding well in crits I did want to make a good showing here. However, seeing the course and having 46 guys on it all at once, I decided it was better to ride safe and if need be to abandon the race if I thought things were out of control but if there was a chance at the end that I would go for it. The shortened race was fast as expected with a crash or two, but for the most part it was uneventful and fairly safe. All the other races seemed to have big splits in them but ours seemed to stay together, although there were a few stragglers who were pulled off the course when they lost contact with the group. I ended up finishing this race safely in 20th place and most importantly with no time loss.
Saturday Morning
Saturday would be a big day of racing with a 54 mile road race in the morning and a 5 mile time trial in the evening. The morning race was scheduled to kick-off at 9:00 but we didn’t end up rolling out of the parking lot to the neutral start until just after 10:30, so much for planning on my energy needs for the day. The race was also shortened to 45 miles, which I had no objections with. The plan for the team for the weekend was to protect Carl and Mike as they are riding really well right now. That would leave the remaining five of us making up the Cat 4 field (Tim, Marshall, Jim, Don and I) to watch the field and cover any dangerous moves that might take place. This was my first road race of the season and I was looking forward to it as all I’ve been doing so far this year is crits and I’m not typically fond of those. The day’s weather was hot and very windy. This made racing a little slower and somewhat uneventful except for the constant braking that seemed to happen in the field. The first two (out of three) laps we did there were a few break-away attempts but they were usually one or two man moves and that wouldn’t be enough to survive out in the wind for very long. Tim and I worked hard on the second lap to try and get away but all that did was string things out. We looked back and when we saw that everyone was still with us, we sat up waiting for someone else to come around to take some responsibility which took some time. The longer it took, the slower we went until finally a group of riders must have gotten irritated enough to come around us. As expected on the last lap, the pace picked up about 5 miles from the finish to try and shell a few more riders. I found myself in good position along the right hand side of the road and as we came into town and close to the finish line a hole opened up in front of me and I was able to dive into it, finding myself in third position. The problem I had was that at that point a gap had opened up between the first two riders and us and I was now no longer in someone’s draft and I was now sprinting from a little further out than what I would have liked to. My only hope was that a teammate was on my wheel that I could lead out. Coming up to the line, I let third place slip out of my hands but I still hung on for fifth place. This was a great moment and I was thrilled as this was my best result so far as a Cat 4. All of the excitement would soon enough go away as I watched the finish of the Cat 3 field. Hindsight is always 20/20 I guess, but I can’t believe the organizers didn’t see the dangers in having cars lined along both sides of the road at the finish. Guys are pumped up and taking chances and using every inch of road possible to get to the finish line first. Unfortunately bad things happen and in this case, a small crash caused one rider to collide into a pick-up truck along the side of the road. This crash happened in front of me and I was the first one on the scene to make it over to him. All I could do was yell “Medic’ as I could tell that this poor guy was hurting. Fortunately Carl was close by and he was able to immediately move into triage mode. It took several minutes for the ambulance to show up (why wouldn’t the organizers have someone on the scene?) and then he was flown away on a life-flight shortly afterwards. My thoughts and prayers are for this rider and I hope everything will work out well for him. So far at this point in the stage race, the organizers are 0 for 2. Hopefully the evening’s time-trial would go better.
Saturday Evening
I was a little hesitant at first to try this time-trial but I will say that this was only because I had never done one before. Working with a power meter I was comfortable in knowing what kind of power output I could put out for the 11 or 12 minute effort that I suspected it would take (I joked it would take me a solid 30 minutes). Having no aero equipment other than the addition of some shoe covers I took the start line and was off speeding down the course. The race started an hour later than normal but that was because they needed to give a local business an additional hour of operation prior to closing down the road. After this morning’s incident, I was happy to wait the additional hour for some more safety. Speeding down the course all I could do was watch the power meter to make sure I was in my targeted range and try to stay as aero as possible. I was also hoping that the guy who left 30 seconds behind me wasn’t going to pass me. He never did and I crossed the line in 10minutes, 50 seconds, according to my power meter. Official results posted me at 11:02. Now, funny thing here; we were given timing chips for the stage race so official times could be easily tracked and standings determined. Of all races where time is critical I would think a Time Trial is it as this is really the only place where major time differences would occur this weekend but for some reason these weren’t used out there. That explains the additional 12 seconds added to my time along with several other people that I had talked to.
Sunday Morning
Sunday’s stage was supposed to be another long stage, 64 miles and was also the State Road race. Riding over to the race course with Rick, we joked about how the race wouldn’t get started on time and sure enough when we got there; it was delayed from starting at 9:00 to 11:15. They said they were also going to shorten the course but there was no information on how it was going to be shorted so total mileage was now going to be a guess. This delay came because there was a lack of coordination in knowing that there was another race event occurring on the course at the same time and because there wasn’t enough support to run every field on the course simultaneously. Making the best of the situation, we pulled out some blankets and camped out under a tree to pass the time. The nice thing about this break was that we were able to learn that Carl was in the lead in the G.C. after a fabulous time trial the previous evening. With the race finally underway hours later Jim and I went to the front setting tempo. We didn’t set an incredibly fast pace with the strong winds and our job wasn’t to set a fast pace but to just control things and to make sure nothing dangerous got away. I was feeling a little like Jens Voigt out there on the Cervelo watching over my team leader. There’s a little stretch of the course that has a screaming downhill. I luckily was able to go down that hill first so I could set my own tempo. Turns out a small gap opened up with a few other riders and one guy then made a jump for it. I thought he was one of our marked men for the day so I quickly covered it and as it was my turn to pull through; I lightened up the pace just slightly to keep things under control to get everyone back. When it was all back together again I was still on the front and as we were approaching the climb of the day I decided to ramp things up to try and make the pace on the climb high to discourage any attacks. I also was hoping that some of my momentum would get me up the hill and knowing that as I would be undoubtedly sliding back in the field that as we crested the top that I would at least be at the back of the group. This strategy started to work but half-way up I noticed what looked like Carl on the side of the road. Turns out that I was right and I saw Carl and Jim there. Jim selflessly gave up his rear wheel to Carl to try and keep him in the hunt for the G.C. At this point I’m thinking, man I’m going to have to work way harder than what I was hoping for as I was looking for a little recovery but I knew at this point my race was to only get Carl back into the race. Tim and I worked together for the next several miles taking pulls at fast speeds picking up riders who became unwilling or unable to work. I saw that we were getting close to Marshall and I was thinking that he must be waiting for us and that he will help pace us back into the field because he’s an absolute motor. When I came up to him he looked over and said “I’m sick.” Man, that sucks and I knew that it would be up to Tim and I to get him back. Unfortunately this just never happened as I had nothing left shortly after starting the second lap, probably a victim of working harder than I thought I was on the first lap. The saving grace for the day was that Mike finished the race off with a win for the team. Congratulations to Mike on a well done race.
Final thoughts
Fun weekend but I’ll really think twice about coming back again next year unless there are some major changes implemented prior to me risking my life and shelling out my hard earned cash.
brian
Friday Evening
Friday’s stage was a Criterium on the campus of Wilmington College which was described as a lazy 8 route. While walking to registration, I heard a rider describe this as officially the worst crit course ever. I was a little skeptical but while continuing my walk along the course I could see exactly what he was talking about. Lazy is the wrong word to describe the course. Risky is probably a better choice of words in my opinion. The course had two 180 degree turns at the both ends of the loop which took you into parking lots and then 90 degree turns taking you out of the parking lots. Getting into and out of the lots meant going over curb cuts that were two inches +/- high which meant rims would be taking a beating four times per lap. It looked like they were aware that most people would be upset about this so it seemed like there was an attempt to level this out by either placing some Quikrete or sand there. All this did though was make those corners sketchier as this material broke up and made sliding out a possibility which resulted in a crash in the race prior to mine. Going into this series, I didn’t have any ambitions as this was a last minute addition to my schedule and not one of my goal races. Being a crit however and typically riding well in crits I did want to make a good showing here. However, seeing the course and having 46 guys on it all at once, I decided it was better to ride safe and if need be to abandon the race if I thought things were out of control but if there was a chance at the end that I would go for it. The shortened race was fast as expected with a crash or two, but for the most part it was uneventful and fairly safe. All the other races seemed to have big splits in them but ours seemed to stay together, although there were a few stragglers who were pulled off the course when they lost contact with the group. I ended up finishing this race safely in 20th place and most importantly with no time loss.
Saturday Morning
Saturday would be a big day of racing with a 54 mile road race in the morning and a 5 mile time trial in the evening. The morning race was scheduled to kick-off at 9:00 but we didn’t end up rolling out of the parking lot to the neutral start until just after 10:30, so much for planning on my energy needs for the day. The race was also shortened to 45 miles, which I had no objections with. The plan for the team for the weekend was to protect Carl and Mike as they are riding really well right now. That would leave the remaining five of us making up the Cat 4 field (Tim, Marshall, Jim, Don and I) to watch the field and cover any dangerous moves that might take place. This was my first road race of the season and I was looking forward to it as all I’ve been doing so far this year is crits and I’m not typically fond of those. The day’s weather was hot and very windy. This made racing a little slower and somewhat uneventful except for the constant braking that seemed to happen in the field. The first two (out of three) laps we did there were a few break-away attempts but they were usually one or two man moves and that wouldn’t be enough to survive out in the wind for very long. Tim and I worked hard on the second lap to try and get away but all that did was string things out. We looked back and when we saw that everyone was still with us, we sat up waiting for someone else to come around to take some responsibility which took some time. The longer it took, the slower we went until finally a group of riders must have gotten irritated enough to come around us. As expected on the last lap, the pace picked up about 5 miles from the finish to try and shell a few more riders. I found myself in good position along the right hand side of the road and as we came into town and close to the finish line a hole opened up in front of me and I was able to dive into it, finding myself in third position. The problem I had was that at that point a gap had opened up between the first two riders and us and I was now no longer in someone’s draft and I was now sprinting from a little further out than what I would have liked to. My only hope was that a teammate was on my wheel that I could lead out. Coming up to the line, I let third place slip out of my hands but I still hung on for fifth place. This was a great moment and I was thrilled as this was my best result so far as a Cat 4. All of the excitement would soon enough go away as I watched the finish of the Cat 3 field. Hindsight is always 20/20 I guess, but I can’t believe the organizers didn’t see the dangers in having cars lined along both sides of the road at the finish. Guys are pumped up and taking chances and using every inch of road possible to get to the finish line first. Unfortunately bad things happen and in this case, a small crash caused one rider to collide into a pick-up truck along the side of the road. This crash happened in front of me and I was the first one on the scene to make it over to him. All I could do was yell “Medic’ as I could tell that this poor guy was hurting. Fortunately Carl was close by and he was able to immediately move into triage mode. It took several minutes for the ambulance to show up (why wouldn’t the organizers have someone on the scene?) and then he was flown away on a life-flight shortly afterwards. My thoughts and prayers are for this rider and I hope everything will work out well for him. So far at this point in the stage race, the organizers are 0 for 2. Hopefully the evening’s time-trial would go better.
Saturday Evening
I was a little hesitant at first to try this time-trial but I will say that this was only because I had never done one before. Working with a power meter I was comfortable in knowing what kind of power output I could put out for the 11 or 12 minute effort that I suspected it would take (I joked it would take me a solid 30 minutes). Having no aero equipment other than the addition of some shoe covers I took the start line and was off speeding down the course. The race started an hour later than normal but that was because they needed to give a local business an additional hour of operation prior to closing down the road. After this morning’s incident, I was happy to wait the additional hour for some more safety. Speeding down the course all I could do was watch the power meter to make sure I was in my targeted range and try to stay as aero as possible. I was also hoping that the guy who left 30 seconds behind me wasn’t going to pass me. He never did and I crossed the line in 10minutes, 50 seconds, according to my power meter. Official results posted me at 11:02. Now, funny thing here; we were given timing chips for the stage race so official times could be easily tracked and standings determined. Of all races where time is critical I would think a Time Trial is it as this is really the only place where major time differences would occur this weekend but for some reason these weren’t used out there. That explains the additional 12 seconds added to my time along with several other people that I had talked to.
Sunday Morning
Sunday’s stage was supposed to be another long stage, 64 miles and was also the State Road race. Riding over to the race course with Rick, we joked about how the race wouldn’t get started on time and sure enough when we got there; it was delayed from starting at 9:00 to 11:15. They said they were also going to shorten the course but there was no information on how it was going to be shorted so total mileage was now going to be a guess. This delay came because there was a lack of coordination in knowing that there was another race event occurring on the course at the same time and because there wasn’t enough support to run every field on the course simultaneously. Making the best of the situation, we pulled out some blankets and camped out under a tree to pass the time. The nice thing about this break was that we were able to learn that Carl was in the lead in the G.C. after a fabulous time trial the previous evening. With the race finally underway hours later Jim and I went to the front setting tempo. We didn’t set an incredibly fast pace with the strong winds and our job wasn’t to set a fast pace but to just control things and to make sure nothing dangerous got away. I was feeling a little like Jens Voigt out there on the Cervelo watching over my team leader. There’s a little stretch of the course that has a screaming downhill. I luckily was able to go down that hill first so I could set my own tempo. Turns out a small gap opened up with a few other riders and one guy then made a jump for it. I thought he was one of our marked men for the day so I quickly covered it and as it was my turn to pull through; I lightened up the pace just slightly to keep things under control to get everyone back. When it was all back together again I was still on the front and as we were approaching the climb of the day I decided to ramp things up to try and make the pace on the climb high to discourage any attacks. I also was hoping that some of my momentum would get me up the hill and knowing that as I would be undoubtedly sliding back in the field that as we crested the top that I would at least be at the back of the group. This strategy started to work but half-way up I noticed what looked like Carl on the side of the road. Turns out that I was right and I saw Carl and Jim there. Jim selflessly gave up his rear wheel to Carl to try and keep him in the hunt for the G.C. At this point I’m thinking, man I’m going to have to work way harder than what I was hoping for as I was looking for a little recovery but I knew at this point my race was to only get Carl back into the race. Tim and I worked together for the next several miles taking pulls at fast speeds picking up riders who became unwilling or unable to work. I saw that we were getting close to Marshall and I was thinking that he must be waiting for us and that he will help pace us back into the field because he’s an absolute motor. When I came up to him he looked over and said “I’m sick.” Man, that sucks and I knew that it would be up to Tim and I to get him back. Unfortunately this just never happened as I had nothing left shortly after starting the second lap, probably a victim of working harder than I thought I was on the first lap. The saving grace for the day was that Mike finished the race off with a win for the team. Congratulations to Mike on a well done race.
Final thoughts
Fun weekend but I’ll really think twice about coming back again next year unless there are some major changes implemented prior to me risking my life and shelling out my hard earned cash.
brian
6.11.2006
Hilton Head - Final Days
The vacation is over and we're home once again safe and sound. It was a long drive with what seemed like a million 'potty' breaks on the way but we finally made it. Friday was our last day and it was just as relaxing as all the previous days were. Nicholas and I went to the pool to play on Friday morning and saw a surprise in the adjacent lake....an 8 foot alligator! Nicholas was surprisingly unimpressed so it was back into the pool for more fun! Later in the afternoon after his super long nap, we finally ventured down to the beach for the last time to hang out in the sun and sand.
All in all this was a very fun vacation. As I had mentioned in a previous post we're not typically beach goers but Hilton Head was very, very nice and I could definitely see us going back there again soon. I should have played every state's lottery between here and there just to see if I could get lucky and permanently extend that vacation!
Before closing the vacation posts and getting back to normal life, there are a few observations from my trip that I would like to share:
1. Ohio drivers are horrible. The left lane on the highway is for passing people and not for camping. If it takes you longer than 5 minutes to pass a vehicle, give up and try again when the mile long string of vehicles you've bunched up passes by.
2. Ohio drivers are horrible. When I'm passing a vehicle and I'm already doing 15 mph over the speed limit, give me a second to get around the car. Me popping the trunk of my car so you can get one inch closer isn't going to get you to your destination any sooner. Relax brother!
3. It's been a while since I've been to the beach but it appears as those bikini wraps (i.e. skirts) are popular now. I noticed way too few women wearing those who probably should have. I'm not as comfortable with your body as you are.
4. A disturbing fashion statement that I saw down there was wearing polo shirts with the collars sticking up. I thought that statement died when "SilverSpoons" went off the air.
brian
6.08.2006
Hilton Head - Day 5
Day five on vacation and so far no sunburns to report. I am happy to say though that the pasty white skin we all came down with is now one shade darker, still white but no longer eye blinding white! That SPF 50 is working wonders.
We enjoyed another great weather day here with temps in the upper 80's with a warm breeze coming off of the ocean. We let Nicholas make the decision this morning on where he wanted to go and it was an easy decision for him, to the pool. He met a couple of friends there last night that he enjoyed playing with and he just seems to have more fun splashing and kicking around the pool. The favorite game right now is to play boat. I'm the boat and he's the captain. Do I see a future profession here for him? After a nice long nap (all that kicking around really wore him out), we were off to do a little more exploring around the island. Everyone we had spoken to prior to the trip recommended a trip for dinner to the Crazy Crab restaurant. It was well worth the trip as we enjoyed some great seafood while sitting along the coastline. Nicholas even got to try some new food, my swordfish and Jen's Sea Scallops. He enjoyed the scallops a little better then the swordfish. Not sure I ever got to try these cool foods when I was his age.
After dinner we headed down to Harbor Town to see what all the hype we've been hearing was about. After paying an entrance fee??? We found our way to the Harbor. Jen was game for climbing the historic lighthouse, something like 115 steps. I did 114 carrying Nicholas. After that we went to a great little park where Nicholas could spend his last bit of energy before heading back to the house and falling asleep.
Well, that was our Thursday. One more full day left. Time sure fly's when you're having fun.
brian
6.07.2006
Hilton Head Picture
Here's a picture of Nicholas on the way down to the beach. Before this vacation, you couldn't catch him walking around without a shirt on as he considered that being 'naked.' Now we can't get him to keep one on.
brian
Vacation Catch-up Day's 2, 3 & 4
We've been very busy the past few days and the computer's been put on the back shelf, thankfully. I'll try and do a quick recap of the past three days worth of adventures. On Monday we planned on doing the same thing we did on Sunday, Beach in the morning, lunch, pool, dinner, etc. Vacation down here is nice in the sense that you never really have to be anywhere at any given time and when you get there, you get there. So rolling out of bed, eating a casual breakfast and finally strolling down to the beach around 10:00 is no big deal in my world. Playing a few hours in the sun and sand makes it even better. The problem we had today is that apparently with all of that casualness, we were all very tired. After the late lunch and showers, everyone fell fast asleep. Next thing I know it's 6:30 p.m. and I'm waking up to some 80's sitcom on the TV. So much for hitting the pool. That was our Monday.
Tuesday we strived to be a little more productive, if you can call it that. After carrying the new Cervelo down on the bike rack, I decided I needed to take it out for a spin to make it worth while. I've been trying to contact a local rider to find out the hot spots for the local riding scene. Up until now, I was unsuccessful so I plotted a small route that would take me off the island back to the mainland. Before I left, my boss told me sort of where he rode his bike around here. I have to say that he's absolutely insane on riding on Route 278. For those of you who don't know, this is the only way on and off the island so it's very heavily traveled. I'm comfortable riding in traffic, but when the traffic is doing 60 mph and there are no shoulders to ride on, I become a little worried. I decided that my life is worth way more than this and I will never ride on that road again. I ended up calling Jen when I got to the mainland and got a few more miles in to have her come pick me up. I figured I was very lucky for not getting into trouble on the way out, I wasn't going to try and push my luck on the way back.
Neglecting the pool on the previous day, we started out there on this day just to make sure that we got it in. We were able to play around in the pool for a few hours before lunch and a quick nap. The plan was then to go on a dolphin "seafari" in the afternoon. This is where they take you out on a glorified pontoon boat in the harbor for a 90 minutes or so, so you can catch a glimpse of some sea life. It was more fun to take Nicholas out on a boat for the first time. He seemed to do ok but I think he was a little unsure about the whole experience. He spent most of the time on Jen's and my lap, I think the waves were a little too much for him. Once he got distracted by the fish they caught in their net and the crabs they keep on board, he did much better. He also liked playing "Captain" as you can see in the picture.
After our high seas adventure, we made our way back to the central island to Shelter Cove to see the ritual Tuesday evening fireworks. This was a fun place to do some people watching and take in some of the local flavor. I must appear like a local because everyone was asking me questions about where the fireworks would be, what time they went off, etc. Sure enough, all of my predictions that I was telling everyone was wrong, but that's ok, I'll never see them again. The fireworks were fun, a little short but always a fun time.
Wednesday (Today) we got ourselves back on track to our normal routine. Back down to the beach for several hours of playtime in the sand and sun. I think Nicholas is becoming scared of the water, so we're not pushing the idea. I think part of the problem is the jelly fish. We saw one on Monday in the water and then there were several more out there today. Probably best to keep it safe as we don't want to be nursing boo-boos and there is still plenty of fun to be had in the sand. Jen and Nicholas tried making sand castles, but it seems like every time one tower was built, a storm, a.k.a. Nicholas's hand would come by and knock it down. I'm not sure anything ever got built, but Jen got buried along with all of our feet. It was a fun, but suprisingly a relaxing day on the beach.
This evening I left Jen and Nicholas to go swimming in the pool and play in the park while I ventured south to Savannah, Georgia to do some riding. I had contacted a local bike club/race team down there and they let me know about their weekly group rides. I wasn't planning on driving down there, but based upon my previous days attempt, I needed some good training miles as I could feel my fitness slowly leaving my body from my inactivity, or all of those chocolate chip cookies I've been munching on. The group ride turned out fun. I was a little worried at first about it being too slow because the pace was a constant 20 mph but my power meter was only registering 100W. That feels almost like coasting for those not familiar with what a watt feels like. Fortunately on the return trip, a local racer kicked things up a little bit, I was able to grab his wheel and before I knew it, we were cruising at 26 mph+ and I was assured that my power meter was working properly when I saw 300+ Watts for that duration. What started out as a large group ended in about 5 of us rolling back into Historic Savannah on our own. It was a fun way to end the day and cool when they invited me back for the "fast" sessions.
brian
6.04.2006
The Miner's are on Vacation - Day 1
After an exhausting drive down yesterday and a good dinner last night, we made our way down to the to the sandy beaches last night here at Hilton Head Island for Nicholas to get his first taste of the Atlantic Ocean. This being his first time at the ocean we've been excited for weeks to see how he would react to it. It would have been nice to remember to bring the video camera but fortunately our digital camera can shoot some video so that will have to suffice. His first time in the water didn't go so well. He was only a few inches into the water and he was walking one way, the water was rolling back out and that sort of false perception about the ground moving under your feet caused him to loose his balance and fall into the water. It was actually very funny but the sort of thing you hate to laugh too loud at as he didn't find it as funny as we did. After some reassurance in the form of some chocolate ice cream, we would hope that this mornings outing would go a little smoother for him.
Nicholas was a little timid at first as I think all kids his age are, doing the typical run into the ocean and then as a wave comes his way, go sprinting back to the safety on the shore. It didn't take long though before he was venturing way out into the ocean, well maybe only knee deep but it's a start, I mean he can't swim yet so that's probably not a bad thing for him to be conservative. We had plenty of fun building sand castles on the shore and letting the water tear them down. I forgot how fun the beach can be.
Jen and I typically take beach vacations once every four years or so. I've come to think we have a long time in between visits because that's how long it takes us to forget how badly we got burned the previous trip. It was even so bad one year I even went to the emergency room after a trip to get treated. This year, we came prepared. SPF 50 for the little guy and SPF 30 for us. It's one thing for me to get burned but if Nicholas did then I'd feel even worse. I was a machine this morning and lathered us up 60 minutes prior to heading out, and then something like every hour on the hour afterwards just to make sure we didn't get toasted. I even stopped mid morning and made him (along with myself) put back on his shirt just to give him a break. I'm happy to say that all of our efforts paid off as we are just as pale white now as when we were this morning. Tomorrow, I will repeat the same procedure for him and probably cut back on my protection to try and get rid of this farmers tan.
brian
5.31.2006
5.28.2006
Snitger's Classic
When setting up my training plan and goals for the year, the first event that came to mind was this race, the Snitger's Classic located in Beaver, Pennsylvania. Last year when I raced here, it was my first time racing as a Cat four and although I had some decent results in the fives, I was in no way prepared for this race as I was shelled on lap 1 of 11. This year I vowed to do better and to help get me there, I started working with Charles Howe of Velodynamics to try and plan my first peak for this race.
I should start by saying that my goal for the race was to finish in the field. Don't get me wrong, I don't enter any race not wanting to win and with all the work I've done I wasn't going to just sit in, but knowing how difficult this race is I knew just finishing in the field would be a big accomplishment and anything more than that would icing on the cake. Today racing with me in the 4 field was Tim House, Jim Flesher, Carl Peshoff, Marshall Leininger and Don Bunker. Just getting to the start line turned out to be an adventure for me. While doing a warm up, my front tire blew. Unfortunately, I was as far away from the course as possible, so I quickly gave my wheel to Jim along with instructions on where to find my car key so he and Tim could get started working on my wheel. I looked at my clock and it said 1:45; our race was scheduled to start at 2:00 and I was a mile or so down the road. So facing a little bit of a crisis, I decided to start my marathon training a little early and I picked up the bike and started running back to the car. By the time I made it back, my cleats were a little shorter and Tim and Jim just about had that tire changed. Thanks guys for taking care of that for me. Not quite the warm up that I was expecting but I was ready to do some racing now.
Last year, I remembered the start being a sprint to the first turn. This race seemed to be the same way but knowing what to expect, I started off in the right gear and was ready to move up into position quickly. I tried to keep remembering that "if you're not moving up, you're moving back" which are some words of advice that Rick Parr gave to me earlier in the week. With that in mind, I constantly tried to keep myself in the top 10 positions in the field. This strategy seemed to be working well because as the laps ticked down, the field kept getting smaller and smaller but I was still sitting roughly where I wanted to be. Through the race, small groups of one or two guys would try and get off the front but each attempt was brought back. This race would come down to the guys in the front shelling everyone down to the last race and then fighting it out from there. Hopefully I would be one of those guys.
Turns out, with three to go I lost my place in the final selection. A small gap opened up a few riders in front of me and as I tried to get around them to get caught back on, I found I didn't have enough left in the tank to close the gap on my own. This was the product of two factors, the heat and the tremendous pace, especially climbing up the "hill" on the backside of the course. The problem with riders who get shelled are that they are too tired to work so it was left to me to chase. If nothing else, I wanted to race for my own bragging rights and not have the main field catch me, whatever was left of them. The last two laps were my own individual TT, slowly catching and passing riders who were falling off the pace up front.
Coming into the finishing straight for the last time, I thought I was clear but I had a rider from MVC who came around me at the last minute to snag 16th place, putting my in 17th.
I have mixed emotions about today's race. In one hand, I did better than my goal of finishing in the field as I finished in the top third in the race. On the other hand, I can't help but to think what would have been if only I had made that last split. Would of, could of, should of I guess, that's bike racing.
brian
Here's some data numbers on the race:
Duration: 59:04
Work: 879 kJ
TSS: 107.1 (intensity factor 1.045)
Norm Power: 293
Distance: 24.118 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 939 249 watts
Ht Rate: 155 186 174 bpm
Cadence: 29 141 97 rpm
Speed: 0 34.7 24.5 mph
Torque: 0 272 70 lb-in
I should start by saying that my goal for the race was to finish in the field. Don't get me wrong, I don't enter any race not wanting to win and with all the work I've done I wasn't going to just sit in, but knowing how difficult this race is I knew just finishing in the field would be a big accomplishment and anything more than that would icing on the cake. Today racing with me in the 4 field was Tim House, Jim Flesher, Carl Peshoff, Marshall Leininger and Don Bunker. Just getting to the start line turned out to be an adventure for me. While doing a warm up, my front tire blew. Unfortunately, I was as far away from the course as possible, so I quickly gave my wheel to Jim along with instructions on where to find my car key so he and Tim could get started working on my wheel. I looked at my clock and it said 1:45; our race was scheduled to start at 2:00 and I was a mile or so down the road. So facing a little bit of a crisis, I decided to start my marathon training a little early and I picked up the bike and started running back to the car. By the time I made it back, my cleats were a little shorter and Tim and Jim just about had that tire changed. Thanks guys for taking care of that for me. Not quite the warm up that I was expecting but I was ready to do some racing now.
Last year, I remembered the start being a sprint to the first turn. This race seemed to be the same way but knowing what to expect, I started off in the right gear and was ready to move up into position quickly. I tried to keep remembering that "if you're not moving up, you're moving back" which are some words of advice that Rick Parr gave to me earlier in the week. With that in mind, I constantly tried to keep myself in the top 10 positions in the field. This strategy seemed to be working well because as the laps ticked down, the field kept getting smaller and smaller but I was still sitting roughly where I wanted to be. Through the race, small groups of one or two guys would try and get off the front but each attempt was brought back. This race would come down to the guys in the front shelling everyone down to the last race and then fighting it out from there. Hopefully I would be one of those guys.
Turns out, with three to go I lost my place in the final selection. A small gap opened up a few riders in front of me and as I tried to get around them to get caught back on, I found I didn't have enough left in the tank to close the gap on my own. This was the product of two factors, the heat and the tremendous pace, especially climbing up the "hill" on the backside of the course. The problem with riders who get shelled are that they are too tired to work so it was left to me to chase. If nothing else, I wanted to race for my own bragging rights and not have the main field catch me, whatever was left of them. The last two laps were my own individual TT, slowly catching and passing riders who were falling off the pace up front.
Coming into the finishing straight for the last time, I thought I was clear but I had a rider from MVC who came around me at the last minute to snag 16th place, putting my in 17th.
I have mixed emotions about today's race. In one hand, I did better than my goal of finishing in the field as I finished in the top third in the race. On the other hand, I can't help but to think what would have been if only I had made that last split. Would of, could of, should of I guess, that's bike racing.
brian
Here's some data numbers on the race:
Duration: 59:04
Work: 879 kJ
TSS: 107.1 (intensity factor 1.045)
Norm Power: 293
Distance: 24.118 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 939 249 watts
Ht Rate: 155 186 174 bpm
Cadence: 29 141 97 rpm
Speed: 0 34.7 24.5 mph
Torque: 0 272 70 lb-in
5.25.2006
New Cervelo
Here's my new Cervelo Soloist Team that I picked up last week. Thanks to Rick Parr for helping, well actually building it up for me. The Klein frame and fork will be for sale so anyone who may be interested feel free to drop me a line. As for this bike, I'm still breaking it in but with several 2 hour rides in on it, I'm absolutely loving it. It was definitely well worth the purchase which can now be backed up with a total of 5 of us on the team now riding these bikes.
For those interested, the picture is taken in my office here at work. We have 20' exposed concrete ceilings so it makes for a great piece of suspended artwork in the space. As a point of reference for how high the bike is off the ground, my wheel is just below the door height.
brian
5.17.2006
5.13.2006
Race at the Lakes #4
The weather this morning came to no surprise as it's the same weather we've been having for the past 3 days. I figured the cold and rain would keep some people away and I was right. What was nearly a field of 50 last weekend in the Cat 4 field only had a little over 20 this morning. The good news is I was nearly guaranteed a top 20 placing today just based upon mathematical probability, the bad news is that there would only be serious riders out there braving the weather so the race wouldn't be a walk in the park.
Joining me from the team was Tim House, Jim Flesher and Marshall Leininger. Today being the last of the series, I wanted to mix it up a little bit and see what kind of results I might be able to get. I was unfortunately racing without the power meter today but in all honesty, I never look at that thing during races and I only use it afterwards to help analyze my race. Last week I determined that I conserved a lot of energy by hanging in the field and came to the finish feeling fresh. Today, I would want to race a little more aggressively and see if I could get myself into a good position or help setup one of my teammates. The organizers must have had a lot of merchandise left over gear because at the start line it was announced that there would be a total of 6 primes. I decided I might try for one this week, what do I have to loose. As we started rolling, I settled into a good position in the front of the field. The pace was brisk but that was most likely to keep everyone warm in the damp conditions. Rolling through the the finish/start line for the first time, they announced the first prime, wow that came early. I had no intentions of going for one so soon but I was sitting in second position on Pete Baughman's wheel (October Lake Effect) and what better time to test yourself than on lap two as there would be plenty of time to recover from any hard efforts. As we crested the top of the climb, I hear someone yell "Go Brian!" At the time, I thought it might have been God, but I later learned that it was actually Tim. I went around Pete on the far right and hammered through the S curves. Its nice going through there solo because you can take those things as fast as you want to and not worry about the guy in front of you. Through the final curve and I was hammering on the pedals trying to get to the finish line first...All for some sweet merchandise. I'm sad to say Pete grabbed it by a half-wheel length but it was fun trying. I had a good laugh with Pete and sat up to start my recovery. I later learned after the race that Tim and Marshall blocked the field from catching us which helps explain why it was only Pete and I up there. It took what seemed like a few laps to recover and during that time I was dangling dangerously near the back of the field. History has shown me that this is the worst place to be in a race so I fought to get myself back up near my teammates. While in the process, I noticed that Jim had managed to get himself into a little breakaway. I was still working my way up to Tim in the front to help try and slow things down in the field but never made it in time as they were coming back quickly. The breakaway either never worked well enough together or our pace never slowed down enough because a lap later, we were all back together. As we were catching them, I decided to give Jim a little "well done" pat on the back for a good effort. As I did it I was thinking, man I hope I didn't scare him and cause him to crash. I'm not sure I even finished that thought when I heard a loud noise coming from behind me. Oh man, oh man please don't let it be Jim......Sure enough I look around and I see Jim with his feet on the ground doing his best Scott Hamilton impersonation. Augh, please don't let it be me, please don't let it be me that caused that! I felt bad and contemplated sitting up and waiting for him, but Marshall said he was ok and I could see the field moving up the road without me. If I was going to get caught back on, now would be the time to go. Figuring that if I had taken Jim down, I at least owed it to him to finish the race I made the bridge back up to the field. Laps ticked down and the race was animated, much more so than last week which made this race so much more fun than the previous three. I think I was either on the front of the race working or on the back recovering from my efforts. With two to go, I was sitting on Pete's wheel again rolling throughout the start/finish line when he said lets go. Pete, a guy named Jeremy (unattached) and I made our move through the tight 90's hoping that this would give us a little bit of an edge to get a gap. The field wasn't going to let us go easily so we were working hard. So hard in fact that this effort, combined with everything else I had previously done had caught up to me, I was suffering so much I couldn't get around them to take my turn to pull. I could see Tim working to try and bridge up to us so I thought that once he got here, I'd sit up, let him take over and I'll go back to the group to try and slow things down a little bit. It's hard for one person to slow things down so I was pretty ineffective in my efforts. This would mean it was coming down once again to a sprint finish. Try to recover was my main goal, but it didn't happen quick enough as I sprinted for somewhere near 10th place.
At the end of the race, my only thought was to find Jim and find out what happened. Catching up with him, he assured me that I was in no way responsible for what had happened. I figured he was just being nice so I kept asking to make sure. Finally, it took an email from him later in the day to convince me that I wasn't involved. Sorry about your race Jim.
Hats off to the Summit Freewheelers/Allied Decals for once again hosting another great event this year. I look forward to your upcoming races this summer and fall and look forward to this event again next spring.
brian
Joining me from the team was Tim House, Jim Flesher and Marshall Leininger. Today being the last of the series, I wanted to mix it up a little bit and see what kind of results I might be able to get. I was unfortunately racing without the power meter today but in all honesty, I never look at that thing during races and I only use it afterwards to help analyze my race. Last week I determined that I conserved a lot of energy by hanging in the field and came to the finish feeling fresh. Today, I would want to race a little more aggressively and see if I could get myself into a good position or help setup one of my teammates. The organizers must have had a lot of merchandise left over gear because at the start line it was announced that there would be a total of 6 primes. I decided I might try for one this week, what do I have to loose. As we started rolling, I settled into a good position in the front of the field. The pace was brisk but that was most likely to keep everyone warm in the damp conditions. Rolling through the the finish/start line for the first time, they announced the first prime, wow that came early. I had no intentions of going for one so soon but I was sitting in second position on Pete Baughman's wheel (October Lake Effect) and what better time to test yourself than on lap two as there would be plenty of time to recover from any hard efforts. As we crested the top of the climb, I hear someone yell "Go Brian!" At the time, I thought it might have been God, but I later learned that it was actually Tim. I went around Pete on the far right and hammered through the S curves. Its nice going through there solo because you can take those things as fast as you want to and not worry about the guy in front of you. Through the final curve and I was hammering on the pedals trying to get to the finish line first...All for some sweet merchandise. I'm sad to say Pete grabbed it by a half-wheel length but it was fun trying. I had a good laugh with Pete and sat up to start my recovery. I later learned after the race that Tim and Marshall blocked the field from catching us which helps explain why it was only Pete and I up there. It took what seemed like a few laps to recover and during that time I was dangling dangerously near the back of the field. History has shown me that this is the worst place to be in a race so I fought to get myself back up near my teammates. While in the process, I noticed that Jim had managed to get himself into a little breakaway. I was still working my way up to Tim in the front to help try and slow things down in the field but never made it in time as they were coming back quickly. The breakaway either never worked well enough together or our pace never slowed down enough because a lap later, we were all back together. As we were catching them, I decided to give Jim a little "well done" pat on the back for a good effort. As I did it I was thinking, man I hope I didn't scare him and cause him to crash. I'm not sure I even finished that thought when I heard a loud noise coming from behind me. Oh man, oh man please don't let it be Jim......Sure enough I look around and I see Jim with his feet on the ground doing his best Scott Hamilton impersonation. Augh, please don't let it be me, please don't let it be me that caused that! I felt bad and contemplated sitting up and waiting for him, but Marshall said he was ok and I could see the field moving up the road without me. If I was going to get caught back on, now would be the time to go. Figuring that if I had taken Jim down, I at least owed it to him to finish the race I made the bridge back up to the field. Laps ticked down and the race was animated, much more so than last week which made this race so much more fun than the previous three. I think I was either on the front of the race working or on the back recovering from my efforts. With two to go, I was sitting on Pete's wheel again rolling throughout the start/finish line when he said lets go. Pete, a guy named Jeremy (unattached) and I made our move through the tight 90's hoping that this would give us a little bit of an edge to get a gap. The field wasn't going to let us go easily so we were working hard. So hard in fact that this effort, combined with everything else I had previously done had caught up to me, I was suffering so much I couldn't get around them to take my turn to pull. I could see Tim working to try and bridge up to us so I thought that once he got here, I'd sit up, let him take over and I'll go back to the group to try and slow things down a little bit. It's hard for one person to slow things down so I was pretty ineffective in my efforts. This would mean it was coming down once again to a sprint finish. Try to recover was my main goal, but it didn't happen quick enough as I sprinted for somewhere near 10th place.
At the end of the race, my only thought was to find Jim and find out what happened. Catching up with him, he assured me that I was in no way responsible for what had happened. I figured he was just being nice so I kept asking to make sure. Finally, it took an email from him later in the day to convince me that I wasn't involved. Sorry about your race Jim.
Hats off to the Summit Freewheelers/Allied Decals for once again hosting another great event this year. I look forward to your upcoming races this summer and fall and look forward to this event again next spring.
brian
5.10.2006
Thomas, he really is a useful engine
For those who have little boys who are into Thomas the Train, you will completely understand where the title of this entry comes from. For those who don't, go ahead and head down to your local library to immerse yourself in some true literary classics.
Last year, I was taking a ride down in the Valley and when I was came up to Boston Mills Ski Resort, I noticed off to the side on the railroad tracks there was a working, big blue engine with a big smiley face on the front. At the time, Nicholas wasn't into this scene so I thought..."What the???" It wasn't until later in the summer when the trains started coming home that I was able to put two and two together. Well, this year I'm proud to say that I will be taking my first official train ride on Thomas. I say official only because Nicholas thinks he's already ridden on him in the past (i.e. the 'L' in Chicago and the train ride earlier this year on the Cuyahoga Valley Railroad). If you see Nicholas, play along please.
Thomas has become really useful to me because it just so happens the day that we have tickets for this magical ride, is the same day as the Chippewa Creek Road Race. Normally I try to support all the road races in the area as its hard to turn something down when it's in your own backyard but in all honesty I won't be terribly let down by not being able to attend considering all the climbing this course has to offer and given the fact that I am in no way a climber. I will be a little disappointed though because as I'm nearing peak fitness it would have been fun to see just how well I could do out there. There's always next year I guess.
brian
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