This race series has always been one of my favorites. It's hard to turn down a road race that's only a few miles from my house and that's on some of my favorite training roads, so when I saw Brad Hanson was bringing the series back, I knew I would do my best to include as many of these races as possible on my calendar. This morning I was joined in the Cat 4 field (B race) with fellow Velo's Marshall Leininger, Chris Smith, new velo Jason Leaman and honorary member from Chicago, Pat Papczun. This was Pat's first race but anyone who's gone to Boone with us the past two years will tell you that this guy can ride and I would put him up against anyone in our field and probably most people in the A race if he had a little bit of racing experience.
Our field had about 40 people which from what I hear was a little smaller than the field size last weekend. I told Pat that the first lap would probably be pretty mellow but I turned out wrong as a couple of Orrville riders opened up a small gap early into the first lap and it was an all out chase from there to bring them back. With them safely back in the group, it would be one small attack after the other, but nothing would get away for the day. There was a strong wind coming out of the west, probably a little too strong for the small groups of two or three riders trying to get away to really make any progress so it looked like this race would come down to a bunch sprint. Going into the bell lap, I decided it was time to make my way back up front and keep myself there. Shortly after, a PDQ rider made a strong move off the front and quickly opened up a decent gap on us. Pat made a great effort and in no time he bridged up to the rider. Pat then went past him and started a solo effort with a half lap to go. Once on Riverview, the strong winds took their toll on him and we slowly started to bring him and the PDQ rider back into the group. As we neared the little climb on Riverview Rd, that PDQ rider from the breakaway exploded in front of me which caused me to get stuck behind him and allowing everyone behind me to come around. Just a few seconds earlier I was riding in the top 8 positions, now I was finding myself at the back of the field, trying to chase hard to work my way back up the front of the group. Not wanting to be one of those riders who exploits the yellow line rule to make up position, I decided not to go left of center and wait until I found an opportunity and an opening to come up through. That opportunity didn't happen until only a few hundred meters before the finish line when I was able to go on the far left and make up some spots, not enough to contest the wind but enough for me to at least finish in the top 15 places and to see Chris Smith sprinting for the victory.
At the end of the race, I was satisfied with my performance, disappointed that I couldn't have kept myself in better position for the finish, but happy that I felt decent with what seemed like an entire week off the bike.
Here's the data from today's race:
Duration: 1:09:56 (1:13:46)
Work: 962 kJ
TSS: 106.6 (intensity factor 0.957)
Norm Power: 278
VI: 1.21
Distance: 27.056 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1104 229 watts
Heart rate: 101 200 154 bpm
Cadence: 29 141 100 rpm
Speed: 2.7 35.5 23.2 mph
Pace 1:41 21:57 2:35 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 378 70 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 1547 193 lb-in
4.21.2007
Race at the Lakes #1
This morning started with Nicholas waking up earlier than normal to watch his favorite TV show, Grossology. This gave me the opportunity to spend a few minutes with him before heading over to Munroe Metro Park to race the first week of the Race at the Lakes Series. The only reason I bother to bring this up is because on the way out the door, he says to me, have fun, make sure you win a trophy and that if I win a trophy, he'll be very proud of me. Where does a four year old learn this stuff? Must be from his mother! Time to have a little talk with him about sportsmanship and the thrill of competition.
Riding in the Cat 4's today for Stark Velo were Tim House, Marshall Leininger, Darrin Kert, Matt Turi and of course myself. The plan for today was to let Summit drive the pace as they came to the start line with about a bazillion riders and they are always very ambitious at their home race. This year, Summit made a change in the start finish lines and moved the finish to the hill on the backside of the course. This was done to try to eliminate some of the nasty crashes that have happened on the course. I have to admit that at first, I was a little sceptical of the new layout but after racing today, I will admit that I think this was a good move. (Note that for a truly safe race, I thought it would be better to just eliminate the parking lot section all together and just ride on the park roads).
So back to the race. The race was typical for the Cat 4's at RATL, sit, chase down everything and wait until the final for the sprint. Today's race played out exactly like this with several people trying to get off the front, it coming back, and then waiting until someone would try it again. One of those times was on one lap to go when Noah (Allied Decals) and one of his teammates got off the front. A chase was of course underway which was led by Tim. Coming into the parking lot Tim brought him back and I decided that I wasn't going to let his effort go in vain so at the moment we caught the first rider in the breakaway, I launched off the front. My hopes were to bridge up to Noah and work with him but I shot right past and before I knew it I had a healthy little gap on my hands. Maybe today would be the day I would bring that first place trophy home for Nicholas but at that very moment, all I could do was concentrate on getting to the finish line first. All that stood between me and certain glory, at least in my own mind, was two small little rises in the pavement (After Boone, I can no longer classify this as a climb). With the first rise finished, I was on the false flat section; suffering of course and just as I began the second little climb, I heard and then saw the pack catch me. I was that breakaway rider you always see getting swept up by the field in the final few meters before the finish.
Here's the data from today's race:
Duration: 51:53
Work: 712 kJ
TSS: 89.7 (intensity factor 1.019)
Norm Power: 296
VI: 1.29
Distance: 20.405 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 974 229 watts
Heart rate: 128 189 167 bpm
Cadence: 30 141 99 rpm
Speed: 4.7 34.5 23.6 mph
Pace 1:44 12:52 2:32 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 298 66 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 1259 191 lb-in
brian
Riding in the Cat 4's today for Stark Velo were Tim House, Marshall Leininger, Darrin Kert, Matt Turi and of course myself. The plan for today was to let Summit drive the pace as they came to the start line with about a bazillion riders and they are always very ambitious at their home race. This year, Summit made a change in the start finish lines and moved the finish to the hill on the backside of the course. This was done to try to eliminate some of the nasty crashes that have happened on the course. I have to admit that at first, I was a little sceptical of the new layout but after racing today, I will admit that I think this was a good move. (Note that for a truly safe race, I thought it would be better to just eliminate the parking lot section all together and just ride on the park roads).
So back to the race. The race was typical for the Cat 4's at RATL, sit, chase down everything and wait until the final for the sprint. Today's race played out exactly like this with several people trying to get off the front, it coming back, and then waiting until someone would try it again. One of those times was on one lap to go when Noah (Allied Decals) and one of his teammates got off the front. A chase was of course underway which was led by Tim. Coming into the parking lot Tim brought him back and I decided that I wasn't going to let his effort go in vain so at the moment we caught the first rider in the breakaway, I launched off the front. My hopes were to bridge up to Noah and work with him but I shot right past and before I knew it I had a healthy little gap on my hands. Maybe today would be the day I would bring that first place trophy home for Nicholas but at that very moment, all I could do was concentrate on getting to the finish line first. All that stood between me and certain glory, at least in my own mind, was two small little rises in the pavement (After Boone, I can no longer classify this as a climb). With the first rise finished, I was on the false flat section; suffering of course and just as I began the second little climb, I heard and then saw the pack catch me. I was that breakaway rider you always see getting swept up by the field in the final few meters before the finish.
Here's the data from today's race:
Duration: 51:53
Work: 712 kJ
TSS: 89.7 (intensity factor 1.019)
Norm Power: 296
VI: 1.29
Distance: 20.405 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 974 229 watts
Heart rate: 128 189 167 bpm
Cadence: 30 141 99 rpm
Speed: 4.7 34.5 23.6 mph
Pace 1:44 12:52 2:32 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 298 66 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 1259 191 lb-in
brian
4.18.2007
Boone Training Camp
Last week marked the 2nd annual Stark Velo Boone Training camp. Having also been on the trip last year I knew fully what I was getting myself into and still, I was excited to go back and tackle the mountains. This years trip really exploded in terms of the number of riders going which was exciting to see such a big interest from my fellow teammates and hopefully for all the firs timer's, they would enjoy this trip as much as I did.
Thursday's ride was a quick warm up after sitting in a car for 8+ hours. We unfortunately got started a little later than planned which meant we would be chasing daylight to get back to the cabins in time. This day's adventure would be navigating Payne-Branch road to the Parkway. Last year the road was hard pack which made for a fun-off road adventure but this year the road department recently dumped a ton of fresh gravel on the road making it very difficult to navigate through on skinny tires. By the time we got out of the gravel pit and to the Parkway, 5 out of our 25 riders suffered flat tires. Fortunately, I wasn't one of them.
Stats from Thursday's Ride:
Duration: 2:19:30
Work: 1675 kJ
TSS: 165.1 (intensity factor 0.844)
Norm Power: 245
VI: 1.22
Distance: 36.868 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 631 201 watts
Heart rate: 64 178 153 bpm
Cadence: 30 141 83 rpm
Speed: 0 44.7 15.9 mph
Pace 1:21 0:00 3:47 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 605 117 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 986 212 lb-in
Friday's ride offered two route options, the short route coming in at 64 miles and the long route at over 90 miles. Knowing the difficulty I and several others had last year, I decided early on that I would give myself a fighting chance of completing the day and just ride the short route. Once again, the day started out like the previous day with several flat tires but once those gotten take care of, it was smooth sailing all the way to the day's biggest climb, Beech Mountain. Never having ridden Beech, I had no idea what I was about to undertake. The climb would be by far the most difficult of the trip due to its steepness (average grade of ~11%) but because it was only about 3 miles in length, it wouldn't be difficult. The beauty of my powertap (note that I will not get all PT geeky here) was that knowing what my FTP was, I set a sustained power output goal for each of the major climbs that I wanted to stay near. Knowing that I currently have a FTP of around 290 Watts, I set my climbing range to try to stay between 260W and 280W. This turned out to be a great approach to all the climbs that I did; even as the day went along I never found myself in extreme difficulty but always found myself situated within the group. This was a nice change of pace from last year where I seemed to be continually suffering on each and every climb as well as being the last guy up the hill. On the last climb of the day, Schull's Mill, I even found myself for a while off the front of the group, until Stuart came by and passed me. Even though I got beat up the hill, it was a blast to try and stick with him (and I hear rumors that I even pushed Stuart a little bit as he didn't want to get caught!) and to have been the second one to complete the day's climb. It was almost so much fun that I contemplated for a split second descending it just to do it again. Actually, I just wanted to descend it and I would have called Jen to come pick me up so I didn't have to do it again.
Friday's Stats:
Duration: 4:12:05
Work: 2730 kJ
TSS: 265.8 (intensity factor 0.798)
Norm Power: 231
VI: 1.27
Distance: 60.909 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 540 182 watts
Heart rate: 70 176 145 bpm
Cadence: 29 141 82 rpm
Speed: 0 43 14.5 mph
Pace 1:24 0:00 4:08 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 598 121 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 851 198 lb-in
Saturday's ride saw our large group split into two different areas of the State. The majority of the group decided to pack up the van and trailer and to head 30 miles south. The thought was that the radar showed rain for the day everywhere but if it was going to rain, better to be at a lower elevation where it would be warmer. The other group of riders which was mostly composed of people in my cabin decided not to give up on Boone and risk riding in the area (Note that we also didn't realize what time people were leaving and when we got a phone call to go, most of us were just then rolling out of bed...oops). So, after a good, relaxed breakfast, about 10 of us kitted up and slowly rolled our way out to the main road to find our way to the small town of Todd. Scott did a great job of mapping the routes for us so feeling comfortable with where we were heading to, we didn't think twice about venturing out alone. The first issue came in about 6 miles into the ride when we were supposed to find a parkway connector road off of the small back road we had been traveling on for a while. A few miles and hills down the road, we made the right decision to stop and ask for directions. I rolled up to a gentleman who was out using a weed-whacker to mow his lawn. Finally getting his attention, I asked how to get back to the Parkway. Unfortunately, his response was more like "Parkway, no speak English good." OK, time for plan B, I took two years of French in High School, one year of Spanish is College, one and a half years of Italian in College and I also traveled through Italy so having tackled every one of the romance languages, I was sure I could break through this language barrier and get our group rolling in the right direction. Second problem, native Spanish speakers speak muy rapido mi amigo and all I could translate was, and I'm still not sure about this but it was either we were way off target to finding the Parkway or that he really thought I looked good in cycling shorts with shaved legs and he wanted me to hang out for a cerveza. OK, so I decided for my safety that it was time to roll back up to where we had seen the Parkway and take our chances elsewhere.
Rolling back towards where we had seen the parkway, we finally found that critical turn we needed to make. It was marked with a small broken piece of wood that was hand painted with the word "Parkw" on it. That would end up being the biggest challenge of the day as would find ourselves rolling smoothly on the Parkway back to our turn around point in Todd. We did a portion of this route last year and I really enjoyed it because even though we were still doing some climbing, it wasn't the constant up and down that we did yesterday. Instead, the climbs on the parkway tend to be long, gradual and are very scenic which is why this is a favorite destination for several travelers.
Saturday's Stats:
Duration: 3:26:30
Work: 2084 kJ
TSS: 205.1 (intensity factor 0.775)
Norm Power: 225
VI: 1.32
Distance: 53.84 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 548 170 watts
Heart rate: 73 236 134 bpm
Cadence: 29 141 83 rpm
Speed: 0 42.6 15.8 mph
Pace 1:25 0:00 3:49 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 569 98 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 817 180 lb-in
Well, that raps another successful year for the Stark Velo training camp. I'm left at the end of this year satisfied in how much riding I did and how I felt on the bike. What makes this year different from last is that I'm anxious to go back again, only hoping that I can wait for a whole year. What makes this trip so much fun? Well, for one thing it's the great riding that this area of the country has to offer. The second and most important thing is, it gives me the opportunity to bond with my teammates and friends as this is the only time of the year that I get to ride and converse with almost everyone at the same time.
brian
Thursday's ride was a quick warm up after sitting in a car for 8+ hours. We unfortunately got started a little later than planned which meant we would be chasing daylight to get back to the cabins in time. This day's adventure would be navigating Payne-Branch road to the Parkway. Last year the road was hard pack which made for a fun-off road adventure but this year the road department recently dumped a ton of fresh gravel on the road making it very difficult to navigate through on skinny tires. By the time we got out of the gravel pit and to the Parkway, 5 out of our 25 riders suffered flat tires. Fortunately, I wasn't one of them.
Stats from Thursday's Ride:
Duration: 2:19:30
Work: 1675 kJ
TSS: 165.1 (intensity factor 0.844)
Norm Power: 245
VI: 1.22
Distance: 36.868 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 631 201 watts
Heart rate: 64 178 153 bpm
Cadence: 30 141 83 rpm
Speed: 0 44.7 15.9 mph
Pace 1:21 0:00 3:47 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 605 117 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 986 212 lb-in
Friday's ride offered two route options, the short route coming in at 64 miles and the long route at over 90 miles. Knowing the difficulty I and several others had last year, I decided early on that I would give myself a fighting chance of completing the day and just ride the short route. Once again, the day started out like the previous day with several flat tires but once those gotten take care of, it was smooth sailing all the way to the day's biggest climb, Beech Mountain. Never having ridden Beech, I had no idea what I was about to undertake. The climb would be by far the most difficult of the trip due to its steepness (average grade of ~11%) but because it was only about 3 miles in length, it wouldn't be difficult. The beauty of my powertap (note that I will not get all PT geeky here) was that knowing what my FTP was, I set a sustained power output goal for each of the major climbs that I wanted to stay near. Knowing that I currently have a FTP of around 290 Watts, I set my climbing range to try to stay between 260W and 280W. This turned out to be a great approach to all the climbs that I did; even as the day went along I never found myself in extreme difficulty but always found myself situated within the group. This was a nice change of pace from last year where I seemed to be continually suffering on each and every climb as well as being the last guy up the hill. On the last climb of the day, Schull's Mill, I even found myself for a while off the front of the group, until Stuart came by and passed me. Even though I got beat up the hill, it was a blast to try and stick with him (and I hear rumors that I even pushed Stuart a little bit as he didn't want to get caught!) and to have been the second one to complete the day's climb. It was almost so much fun that I contemplated for a split second descending it just to do it again. Actually, I just wanted to descend it and I would have called Jen to come pick me up so I didn't have to do it again.
Friday's Stats:
Duration: 4:12:05
Work: 2730 kJ
TSS: 265.8 (intensity factor 0.798)
Norm Power: 231
VI: 1.27
Distance: 60.909 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 540 182 watts
Heart rate: 70 176 145 bpm
Cadence: 29 141 82 rpm
Speed: 0 43 14.5 mph
Pace 1:24 0:00 4:08 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 598 121 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 851 198 lb-in
Saturday's ride saw our large group split into two different areas of the State. The majority of the group decided to pack up the van and trailer and to head 30 miles south. The thought was that the radar showed rain for the day everywhere but if it was going to rain, better to be at a lower elevation where it would be warmer. The other group of riders which was mostly composed of people in my cabin decided not to give up on Boone and risk riding in the area (Note that we also didn't realize what time people were leaving and when we got a phone call to go, most of us were just then rolling out of bed...oops). So, after a good, relaxed breakfast, about 10 of us kitted up and slowly rolled our way out to the main road to find our way to the small town of Todd. Scott did a great job of mapping the routes for us so feeling comfortable with where we were heading to, we didn't think twice about venturing out alone. The first issue came in about 6 miles into the ride when we were supposed to find a parkway connector road off of the small back road we had been traveling on for a while. A few miles and hills down the road, we made the right decision to stop and ask for directions. I rolled up to a gentleman who was out using a weed-whacker to mow his lawn. Finally getting his attention, I asked how to get back to the Parkway. Unfortunately, his response was more like "Parkway, no speak English good." OK, time for plan B, I took two years of French in High School, one year of Spanish is College, one and a half years of Italian in College and I also traveled through Italy so having tackled every one of the romance languages, I was sure I could break through this language barrier and get our group rolling in the right direction. Second problem, native Spanish speakers speak muy rapido mi amigo and all I could translate was, and I'm still not sure about this but it was either we were way off target to finding the Parkway or that he really thought I looked good in cycling shorts with shaved legs and he wanted me to hang out for a cerveza. OK, so I decided for my safety that it was time to roll back up to where we had seen the Parkway and take our chances elsewhere.
Rolling back towards where we had seen the parkway, we finally found that critical turn we needed to make. It was marked with a small broken piece of wood that was hand painted with the word "Parkw" on it. That would end up being the biggest challenge of the day as would find ourselves rolling smoothly on the Parkway back to our turn around point in Todd. We did a portion of this route last year and I really enjoyed it because even though we were still doing some climbing, it wasn't the constant up and down that we did yesterday. Instead, the climbs on the parkway tend to be long, gradual and are very scenic which is why this is a favorite destination for several travelers.
Saturday's Stats:
Duration: 3:26:30
Work: 2084 kJ
TSS: 205.1 (intensity factor 0.775)
Norm Power: 225
VI: 1.32
Distance: 53.84 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 548 170 watts
Heart rate: 73 236 134 bpm
Cadence: 29 141 83 rpm
Speed: 0 42.6 15.8 mph
Pace 1:25 0:00 3:49 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 569 98 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 817 180 lb-in
Well, that raps another successful year for the Stark Velo training camp. I'm left at the end of this year satisfied in how much riding I did and how I felt on the bike. What makes this year different from last is that I'm anxious to go back again, only hoping that I can wait for a whole year. What makes this trip so much fun? Well, for one thing it's the great riding that this area of the country has to offer. The second and most important thing is, it gives me the opportunity to bond with my teammates and friends as this is the only time of the year that I get to ride and converse with almost everyone at the same time.
brian
4.01.2007
Malabar Farms Road Race
With the Boone Training camp only a week and a half away, I had debated on whether I wanted to race this weekend or not. On one hand, I haven't raced since last August at the Milk Race, but on the other hand I have yet to do anything longer than a two hour ride outdoors and with big days down south right around the corner, I was contemplating putting in a long training ride. In the end, it came down to a simple question from Scott Thor that settled my dilemma...."What's your power meter telling you?" Oh yea, I almost forgot about that thing. Scott said if I was within 10% of what I was producing last year, than he suggested going ahead and racing. Well, my power meter was telling me to race because I'm consistently producing more power on all of my workouts. So with that decision made, it was time to pack the bags and get ready to race!
This was my first time ever racing at Malabar but knowing that the State road race was going to be held on the same course, I figured what better way to preview it than during an actual race. All I knew was that there was supposedly one big hill that was the real killer. No one remembered to mention that there were a ton of little rollers scattered throughout the course, that was something that I found during a preview lap with John, Scott and Rick. Knowing that I was no where in the same league yet to race with those guys to race in the Cat 3/4 field, I opted to race with the Cat 4/5's. Joining me from Stark Velo were Matt Turi, Tim House, Marshall Leininger and newcomer to the team, Josh Troche. The Cat 4/5 field was big, I would have to guess somewhere between 40 and 50 people racing. That was a shocker for me to see so many people so early in the season but maybe that's because I don't typically race until mid April.
The race started off somewhat mellow, all taking the first climb as directed...neutral. After that, it picked up as we started making our way through the rollers. I was feeling fairly good but I remembered at this point that I hadn't eaten anything since breakfast and that was only one waffle. I guess this first race through me off schedule and I had forgotten to follow my usual pre-race routine. Time to down a little gel and drink to help me get through. The first two laps were fairly uneventful, I was hanging comfortably within the group but didn't feel comfortable to try anything, but neither did anyone else. The last time up the 'big' climb and I let a small gap open up between me and the main field. Time to chase and chase and chase. Unfortunately, all my chasing was in vain because I never caught the group. There were times where I could still see them, but there was no way that I was going to catch them. My only hope was to catch a few of the stragglers ahead of me and at least make it back to the finish a little sooner. First I picked up an Orville rider, I think it was Joel but I forgot to confirm...sorry. Next it was a Team Echelon rider and finally a team breakaway rider. That was actually the most fun part of the race just flying back with those guys to the finish in a nice working paceline. Made me wish we were working that well off the front of the group instead of at the back of the field.
At the end of the day, yes I didn't finish with the group but I did finish with both wheels upright which in my book is a good day. Check out my power stats below. I took a look at my race data from last year and there were only two races that had numbers higher than this. One was a time trial I did during the Summer Solstice stage race and the other was at Snitger's. Ouch, this was a tough day but I was happy to see that I was able to produce these types of numbers.
brian
Malabar Farms Race:
Duration: 1:31:30
Work: 1263 kJ
TSS: 152.1 (intensity factor 0.999)
Norm Power: 284
VI: 1.23
Distance: 31.192 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 819 230 watts
Heart rate: 78 203 163 bpm
Cadence: 29 141 89 rpm
Speed: 0 38 20.5 mph
Pace 1:35 0:00 2:56 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 409 95 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 925 221 lb-in
This was my first time ever racing at Malabar but knowing that the State road race was going to be held on the same course, I figured what better way to preview it than during an actual race. All I knew was that there was supposedly one big hill that was the real killer. No one remembered to mention that there were a ton of little rollers scattered throughout the course, that was something that I found during a preview lap with John, Scott and Rick. Knowing that I was no where in the same league yet to race with those guys to race in the Cat 3/4 field, I opted to race with the Cat 4/5's. Joining me from Stark Velo were Matt Turi, Tim House, Marshall Leininger and newcomer to the team, Josh Troche. The Cat 4/5 field was big, I would have to guess somewhere between 40 and 50 people racing. That was a shocker for me to see so many people so early in the season but maybe that's because I don't typically race until mid April.
The race started off somewhat mellow, all taking the first climb as directed...neutral. After that, it picked up as we started making our way through the rollers. I was feeling fairly good but I remembered at this point that I hadn't eaten anything since breakfast and that was only one waffle. I guess this first race through me off schedule and I had forgotten to follow my usual pre-race routine. Time to down a little gel and drink to help me get through. The first two laps were fairly uneventful, I was hanging comfortably within the group but didn't feel comfortable to try anything, but neither did anyone else. The last time up the 'big' climb and I let a small gap open up between me and the main field. Time to chase and chase and chase. Unfortunately, all my chasing was in vain because I never caught the group. There were times where I could still see them, but there was no way that I was going to catch them. My only hope was to catch a few of the stragglers ahead of me and at least make it back to the finish a little sooner. First I picked up an Orville rider, I think it was Joel but I forgot to confirm...sorry. Next it was a Team Echelon rider and finally a team breakaway rider. That was actually the most fun part of the race just flying back with those guys to the finish in a nice working paceline. Made me wish we were working that well off the front of the group instead of at the back of the field.
At the end of the day, yes I didn't finish with the group but I did finish with both wheels upright which in my book is a good day. Check out my power stats below. I took a look at my race data from last year and there were only two races that had numbers higher than this. One was a time trial I did during the Summer Solstice stage race and the other was at Snitger's. Ouch, this was a tough day but I was happy to see that I was able to produce these types of numbers.
brian
Malabar Farms Race:
Duration: 1:31:30
Work: 1263 kJ
TSS: 152.1 (intensity factor 0.999)
Norm Power: 284
VI: 1.23
Distance: 31.192 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 819 230 watts
Heart rate: 78 203 163 bpm
Cadence: 29 141 89 rpm
Speed: 0 38 20.5 mph
Pace 1:35 0:00 2:56 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 409 95 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 925 221 lb-in
2.28.2007
Another pic from the Arizona campers.
Thanks to Scott for sending me this picture of an Arizona local that they met yesterday on the rest day. Ladies, this guy is apparently looking for a little lovin'. His interests are long romantic walks on the beach, reading his comic books and braiding his mothers hair.
2.27.2007
Dreaming away...
Ever wondered what people are dreaming? Here's a look at what Rick has going in his mind at this moment. Sugar plums have nothing on the Double Whopper!
Behind the Scenes at the Arizona Training Camp
Apparently, Dan's fellow campers didn't appreciate him winning the KOM yesterday on Mt. Lemmon and have resorted to some mighty cut-throat tactics to level the playing field....
2.26.2007
2.16.2007
2006 Season in Review
The nice thing about having a Power Tap is that it allows you to step back and look at your season from an almost scientific viewpoint rather than trying to remember by feel what I was going through during any given part of the season. One of the benefits about being friends with Scott Thor is he can make some pretty cool images for you if you ask nicely and send him a little data. Thanks to Scott for putting the images together for me. Below is a chart that shows my TSS (Training Stress Score) rolling totals for the 2006 season. I’ve highlighted some key points on these to try and put some reason to why things look the way they do. (You will want to click on the image to make it larger for you to view the fine points).
So what does all of this really mean? That’s a good question and I’m not sure if I fully know or understand yet how I will fully use this information for my 2007 season. What I can tell you is this, last year I felt like there were times when I had the best form of my life and was unstoppable, and then there were those times where I just felt absolutely lousy. All of that is typical for any rider I guess. The thing for me to do is to now evaluate what I was doing during each of those bad times to determine whether I was feeling off due to my training load, work load here in the office, illnesses or whatever and then determine what I need to do to try and avoid having those severe lows when I'm aiming for those few races where I really want to do something special. I can also take a look at those times when I was really feeling on form, try to match that up to what my CTL was during that time period and try to shoot for that as an optimal goal for my peak events here during the 2007 season.
One thing I want to make mention of is the loss of my power tap for several weeks. That didn’t mean I stopped riding while it was back at the shop, that just meant I wasn’t collecting data which explains why all three values above drop sharply off. Unfortunately, Cycling Peaks doesn’t allow me to manually insert my workouts so I regrettably have to interpolate my data for the remainder of the season. This is a good reason to have a backup PT, now if I could only convince my wife!
To further complicate things, Scott has included for me a chart showing my Peak Normalized Power for the 2006 season. The interesting thing is that my peak FTP for the season (314 Watts) comes after my goal event. After that event, I honestly let up on my structured training program and went more to riding with my buddies in lieu of the interval workouts I had been doing previously. I would theorize that if I had stuck with the program further into the year, that I could have been able to push that FTP up higher, or at least kept it a little more stable as it begins to show a slight downward slope.
This chart showing my ATL, CTL and TSB. Together, I could have used this to predict and tailor my peaks a little more accurately.
So what does all of this really mean? That’s a good question and I’m not sure if I fully know or understand yet how I will fully use this information for my 2007 season. What I can tell you is this, last year I felt like there were times when I had the best form of my life and was unstoppable, and then there were those times where I just felt absolutely lousy. All of that is typical for any rider I guess. The thing for me to do is to now evaluate what I was doing during each of those bad times to determine whether I was feeling off due to my training load, work load here in the office, illnesses or whatever and then determine what I need to do to try and avoid having those severe lows when I'm aiming for those few races where I really want to do something special. I can also take a look at those times when I was really feeling on form, try to match that up to what my CTL was during that time period and try to shoot for that as an optimal goal for my peak events here during the 2007 season. brian
2.12.2007
We need your help!
OK, so I'm not as desperate as what that heading sounds like, but I could use your advice. Jen and I will be celebrating our 10 year wedding anniversary this year and we're trying to finalize where we want to go. I couldn't quite convince Jen to go white water rafting for 6 days up to the Arctic Ocean (Apparently roughing it for six days in the Arctic isn't quite so romantic) so the problem that we have now is that we can't pick the one place, so I'm hoping that you can help us out with that by giving us your thoughts. In the picture to the left (click on to enlarge), you will see what we consider to be our four final choices, of course I do reserve the right to add or subtract from this list as I find other sweet places that we'd like to go :) Our four finalists are: Northern California, Arizona (the Grand Canyon area to be exact), the Canadian Rocky Mountains and lastly New York City. Three out of the four vacations would be similar in that we would want to do some type of Eco vacation which would include some biking, hiking, paddling, etc. New York City is the obvious exception where we would be doing the typical tourist type of thing, sightseeing, Broadway shows, etc. So, please, I'm begging you, please feel free to send us your thoughts.
brian
2.07.2007
2007 Season Preperations
With the whole Elves & More thing happening in December, I found myself at the beginning of January almost two months behind schedule from last year. After I settled myself down a little bit and had a chance to really think about my situation, I realized that I was actually more like four months behind. I forgot the fact that once Will was born in mid August my average riding time went down to really only a few hundred miles per month at the very best. Now statistically I was even worse off than I had previously thought. That was before I started riding again and started looking at my power outputs on some of my tests (I can't say enough how great power meters are in the overall scheme of training). As it turns out, yes I indeed am a thousand or so miles behind where I was at last year but I am no longer thinking about my fitness in terms of miles but in terms of power output. My power output today is actually higher than at this exact time from last year. What do I chalk this up to? Well, probably a portion of that has to be contributed to the fact that last year I didn't fully know my limits or training levels, so I was most likely training at a slightly lower level than I was capable of. Outside of that, I also like to think that with several seasons of racing in my legs now, my body is able to come back around quicker to its previous levels. I've been riding consistently now for 6 weeks and am feeling stronger every day. Here's one of my favorite workouts that I try to do 2 to 3 times a week which makes for a great one hour ride on the rollers or fixed trainer:
10 minute warm up
20 minute effort @ approx. 90% of my seasonal FTP
5 minute recovery
5 minute effort @ approx. 100% of my seasonal FTP
5 minute recovery
5 minute effort @ approx. 100% of my seasonal FTP
10 minute cool down
I'm also working on doing an analysis of my 2006 season. In the next several weeks I hope to try to post some data images that Scott Thor has put together for me. Thanks for reading and I hope now that my mindset is back on riding, I'll be able to post a little more consistently.
brian
10 minute warm up
20 minute effort @ approx. 90% of my seasonal FTP
5 minute recovery
5 minute effort @ approx. 100% of my seasonal FTP
5 minute recovery
5 minute effort @ approx. 100% of my seasonal FTP
10 minute cool down
I'm also working on doing an analysis of my 2006 season. In the next several weeks I hope to try to post some data images that Scott Thor has put together for me. Thanks for reading and I hope now that my mindset is back on riding, I'll be able to post a little more consistently.
brian
1.02.2007
Elves & More Media Coverage
Here are some links to the press coverage we received on the Elves & More delivery day:
Akron Beacon Journal
WKYC Channel 3
brian
Akron Beacon Journal
WKYC Channel 3
brian
12.28.2006
Best of 2006
Last year I created my best of 2005 series which was more reminiscing than anything, but it was fun so without further ado, here is my best of the 2006 season…..
Teammates: You learn about your teammates when you spend so much time with them. Forget about CSC’s survival training camp….StarkVelo has Boone! Nothing builds camaraderie like a little suffering on the Blue Ridge Parkway and a little dinner at the ole’ Golden Corral. By the way, never eat at the Golden Corral. Stark Velo is made up of some great individuals. Everyone is selfless and I have learned that I have made some very good friends by simply riding my bike. I am so looking to next year’s trip. Is it April yet?
Best Race. While working to protect team leaders Carl Peshoff and Mike Schiltz, I was able to snag my best result of the season during the first road race of the Summer Solstice stage race.
Worst Race Experience, Part I: My worst experience while in a team kit was at the same race I mentioned above. Here I was witness to a talented racer named Bret Neylon seriously injure himself in the Cat 3 finish. Seeing an accident like that tends to make you think about whether this is really worth it or not.
Worst Race Experience, Part II: The Summer Solstice Stage Race. Ok, so it seems sort of contradictory that I list this as my best and worst race. The races were fine, except for the Friday evening Crit, it was just the organization, or lack thereof that made it a horrible experience. I said this in a previous post but although I congratulate them on their enthusiasm, I have to criticize them on their ability to successfully pull this off. Next year, please do some more planning and get some more help to pull this off. A team of two or three people obviously doesn’t work.
Miles: I rode 5,274 miles this year. Not bad considering I essentially stopped riding in mid August with the birth of my second son, William.
Best Investment, Part I: I’d say working with Charles Howe to set up a structured training plan this year. With the purchase of a Power Tap last fall, I wanted help figuring this thing out. Working with a coach or consultant was sort of like getting the cliff notes to “The Grapes of Wrath.” Cliff Notes are a nice way to get an easy and quick understanding of a big concept. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still reading the novel, but for me the novel is a lot easier to digest when you have an understanding of the concepts described within.
Best Investment, Part II: Cervelo. Need I say more?
Goals: My big goal for next year is to upgrade to Cat III sometime during the later part of the season. This is fairly lofty considering my lack of intense riding these past few months. This will be the comeback of the century!
brian
Teammates: You learn about your teammates when you spend so much time with them. Forget about CSC’s survival training camp….StarkVelo has Boone! Nothing builds camaraderie like a little suffering on the Blue Ridge Parkway and a little dinner at the ole’ Golden Corral. By the way, never eat at the Golden Corral. Stark Velo is made up of some great individuals. Everyone is selfless and I have learned that I have made some very good friends by simply riding my bike. I am so looking to next year’s trip. Is it April yet?
Best Race. While working to protect team leaders Carl Peshoff and Mike Schiltz, I was able to snag my best result of the season during the first road race of the Summer Solstice stage race.
Worst Race Experience, Part I: My worst experience while in a team kit was at the same race I mentioned above. Here I was witness to a talented racer named Bret Neylon seriously injure himself in the Cat 3 finish. Seeing an accident like that tends to make you think about whether this is really worth it or not.
Worst Race Experience, Part II: The Summer Solstice Stage Race. Ok, so it seems sort of contradictory that I list this as my best and worst race. The races were fine, except for the Friday evening Crit, it was just the organization, or lack thereof that made it a horrible experience. I said this in a previous post but although I congratulate them on their enthusiasm, I have to criticize them on their ability to successfully pull this off. Next year, please do some more planning and get some more help to pull this off. A team of two or three people obviously doesn’t work.
Miles: I rode 5,274 miles this year. Not bad considering I essentially stopped riding in mid August with the birth of my second son, William.
Best Investment, Part I: I’d say working with Charles Howe to set up a structured training plan this year. With the purchase of a Power Tap last fall, I wanted help figuring this thing out. Working with a coach or consultant was sort of like getting the cliff notes to “The Grapes of Wrath.” Cliff Notes are a nice way to get an easy and quick understanding of a big concept. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still reading the novel, but for me the novel is a lot easier to digest when you have an understanding of the concepts described within.
Best Investment, Part II: Cervelo. Need I say more?
Goals: My big goal for next year is to upgrade to Cat III sometime during the later part of the season. This is fairly lofty considering my lack of intense riding these past few months. This will be the comeback of the century!
brian
12.27.2006
Elves & More Delivery Day!
I apologize for not keeping more up to date on the blog. I think I’ve apologized before in the past but in all honesty, it’s been so long since I’ve written anything I sort of forget where I left off at. As most of you are aware by now, I’m involved in a charity with two of my friends (Tim House & Jim Flesher) called Elves & More, Northeast Ohio. I won’t go too much in depth about who we are or what we do, instead let me refer you to our website for more information. The past few weeks have been chaotic to say the least. There are a lot of stories that Tim, Jim and I could share about everything it took to put this together, but the truly important thing is that on the day it mattered, everything went off without a hitch.
When Saturday morning came, I was like a kid at Christmas, filled with so much anticipation that sleeping was difficult. I’d had sleepless nights earlier in the month, but that was due to some stress of pulling this thing off….again, going back to some of those stories I mentioned earlier. In our first year we were able to gift over 400 kids! That’s amazing considering we only started fundraising in June and our expectation was to reach 100 kids. On Saturday morning, all of the hard work and planning had paid off. I’m not sure it really hit me that we were really doing this until I was sitting in the bus, driving down Cedar Avenue in the middle of a long police escort on the way to our first neighborhood. I had to take a second to compose myself before I could even finish the conversation that I was having. Seeing the big train weaving its way through Akron was a beautiful site, almost as touching as seeing the kids we were visiting smile, laugh and most importantly of all play! The other thing that touched me was seeing everyone run out to the edge of the street as we were leaving waving goodbye and thanks.
Rolling into each of the neighborhoods was a ton of fun. Here was this huge train of vehicles coming and they had no idea what we were up to. All of those kids woke up that morning having no idea how their life was about to change. As one of the organizers of the event, I spent a lot of time near the truck off-loading bikes and getting gifts into the volunteer hands (Just like Tim & Jim did). On one of the few runs that I did get to make, I saw one of the mothers of two kids crying in joy for what we were doing for them. Seeing that sight confirmed that what we were doing was right. Its so cliché but the joy of this time of the year is in the giving and not in the receiving. For so many years I’ve always said that but it probably wasn’t until this year that I really truly grasped this concept. I can honestly say that I could have received absolutely nothing for Christmas and that the experience I had of doing all of this was more than enough for me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m way grateful for that iPod shuffle I got, but it wasn’t necessary at all. I am looking forward to driving by these neighborhoods in the near future and seeing the kids out playing on the bikes that I played a small part in getting for them.
So what’s next? Well, first off I need to get back on the bike. Once that happens, I can begin thinking about our 2007 campaign. We’ve said, and it’s been published now that our goal for next year is to provide 1000 bikes. Sitting here today, a year away, I can see that this is a very realistic goal. I hope that each and everyone of you reading this can be a part of next years experience.
brian
When Saturday morning came, I was like a kid at Christmas, filled with so much anticipation that sleeping was difficult. I’d had sleepless nights earlier in the month, but that was due to some stress of pulling this thing off….again, going back to some of those stories I mentioned earlier. In our first year we were able to gift over 400 kids! That’s amazing considering we only started fundraising in June and our expectation was to reach 100 kids. On Saturday morning, all of the hard work and planning had paid off. I’m not sure it really hit me that we were really doing this until I was sitting in the bus, driving down Cedar Avenue in the middle of a long police escort on the way to our first neighborhood. I had to take a second to compose myself before I could even finish the conversation that I was having. Seeing the big train weaving its way through Akron was a beautiful site, almost as touching as seeing the kids we were visiting smile, laugh and most importantly of all play! The other thing that touched me was seeing everyone run out to the edge of the street as we were leaving waving goodbye and thanks.
Rolling into each of the neighborhoods was a ton of fun. Here was this huge train of vehicles coming and they had no idea what we were up to. All of those kids woke up that morning having no idea how their life was about to change. As one of the organizers of the event, I spent a lot of time near the truck off-loading bikes and getting gifts into the volunteer hands (Just like Tim & Jim did). On one of the few runs that I did get to make, I saw one of the mothers of two kids crying in joy for what we were doing for them. Seeing that sight confirmed that what we were doing was right. Its so cliché but the joy of this time of the year is in the giving and not in the receiving. For so many years I’ve always said that but it probably wasn’t until this year that I really truly grasped this concept. I can honestly say that I could have received absolutely nothing for Christmas and that the experience I had of doing all of this was more than enough for me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m way grateful for that iPod shuffle I got, but it wasn’t necessary at all. I am looking forward to driving by these neighborhoods in the near future and seeing the kids out playing on the bikes that I played a small part in getting for them.
So what’s next? Well, first off I need to get back on the bike. Once that happens, I can begin thinking about our 2007 campaign. We’ve said, and it’s been published now that our goal for next year is to provide 1000 bikes. Sitting here today, a year away, I can see that this is a very realistic goal. I hope that each and everyone of you reading this can be a part of next years experience.
brian
11.22.2006
Will I ever make it back?
For as long as its been that I've posted anything here even remotely related to cycling, its been at least that long since I felt like I truly have been out training. Sure, I've been on my bike once a week (maybe), but those were fun rides down into the valley and nothing too serious. As I've seen one of my teammates jokingly post recently, I'm currently in my de-training program and any true physical exercise would just throw my plan off. In fact, I think I'm now starting to train towards a new goal....making it to NBC's hit show "The Biggest Loser." OK, so I've not really been that bad but it is funny how quickly all that hard work in weight loss and fitness disappears. It takes months of effort to get your body in shape and it can all be gone in a few bad weeks.So when do I get out of this rut? Well, I've been waiting for Will to start sleeping through the night so I can get up before work to ride but I'm not sure when that's going to happen any time soon so I need to commit. I'm committing to December 2nd for my serious program to begin. I've got some big ground to make up but putting the ice cream away and shaving the legs once again just might be that little bit of extra motivation that I need.
Until next time,
brian
11.15.2006
10.21.2006
Lake High School Class of 1991, 15 year reunion
Well, tonight was my 15 year high school reunion. This was the first time in 15 years that I would be seeing most of my classmates as my graduating class didn’t have a five year reunion and when the 10 year occurred; my wife and I were traveling through Europe. I did decide however that I had to go this year. There was no way I could wait another five years, after all I’m still relatively fit and I still have all of my hair. Who knows, in another five years I could be an absolute mess. The other added benefit for me was that it was being held only a few minutes away from my house and that it cost only $5. I kept saying that even if it was lame, I could leave early and at least I knew it sucked.
After getting all cleaned up and putting on a new pair of clothes, Jen and I ventured over to the Olde Harbor Inn in the Portage Lakes. I knew for a fact that two of my good friends with whom I still keep in contact with weren’t going to be there, but I was hoping that some of my friends who I had lost contact with would be. Walking into the space, I was relieved that I could recognize peoples faces but that was probably due to the fact that I had looked through my old yearbook a few nights prior to. In no time, I began finding old acquaintances to talk with. The problem is because they were just acquaintances in school, the chit-chat ended fairly quickly as the questions and answers became very routine from person to person. I told Jen going into this that this night would either be over very quickly, or it would be very late. You can guess for yourself since I’m home writing this in the same evening which of the two it turned out being. The problem I have is that I wanted much more out of this reunion then what I got. I don’t know if that’s my fault or if there’s really anyone to blame but standing there, looking and talking with everyone, it seemed as though everything was the same and no one really changed. The same people who hang out together in high school hung out there tonight and didn’t socialize much further than that small circle. Snobs were still snobs, jocks were still jocks and punks were still punks. I will admit that there were a couple of guys that I didn’t know well in school who I had some good conversations with and they appeared to be genuinely nice people. Makes me wish I had more opportunities in school to get to know them better.
One thing I learned tonight was that success can be measured in many different ways. The old cliché of trying to outdo others to show success is bull shit. So much of high school and even college was trying to outdo the competition (i.e. classmates) to make you feel better about yourself by getting good grades. For a part of my life that I thought defined who I was, it turned out that it didn’t at all. It’s not important whether I ended up being a professional athlete, a world famous rock musician or a trash man as long as I’m happy in what I’m doing. From this architect, a husband of almost 10 years and father of two happy and healthy boys, that’s all the success that I need in life, everything else is just icing on the cake.
The bottom line is that there is no bottom line. I left there feeling disappointed that the night didn’t turn out differently. I’m not sure what I expected, but it certainly wasn’t that. Will I go to the 20 year reunion? Probably not. It’s not enough for me to be drawn back wondering who got fat, bald and divorced. Maybe I’ve grown up.
brian
After getting all cleaned up and putting on a new pair of clothes, Jen and I ventured over to the Olde Harbor Inn in the Portage Lakes. I knew for a fact that two of my good friends with whom I still keep in contact with weren’t going to be there, but I was hoping that some of my friends who I had lost contact with would be. Walking into the space, I was relieved that I could recognize peoples faces but that was probably due to the fact that I had looked through my old yearbook a few nights prior to. In no time, I began finding old acquaintances to talk with. The problem is because they were just acquaintances in school, the chit-chat ended fairly quickly as the questions and answers became very routine from person to person. I told Jen going into this that this night would either be over very quickly, or it would be very late. You can guess for yourself since I’m home writing this in the same evening which of the two it turned out being. The problem I have is that I wanted much more out of this reunion then what I got. I don’t know if that’s my fault or if there’s really anyone to blame but standing there, looking and talking with everyone, it seemed as though everything was the same and no one really changed. The same people who hang out together in high school hung out there tonight and didn’t socialize much further than that small circle. Snobs were still snobs, jocks were still jocks and punks were still punks. I will admit that there were a couple of guys that I didn’t know well in school who I had some good conversations with and they appeared to be genuinely nice people. Makes me wish I had more opportunities in school to get to know them better.
One thing I learned tonight was that success can be measured in many different ways. The old cliché of trying to outdo others to show success is bull shit. So much of high school and even college was trying to outdo the competition (i.e. classmates) to make you feel better about yourself by getting good grades. For a part of my life that I thought defined who I was, it turned out that it didn’t at all. It’s not important whether I ended up being a professional athlete, a world famous rock musician or a trash man as long as I’m happy in what I’m doing. From this architect, a husband of almost 10 years and father of two happy and healthy boys, that’s all the success that I need in life, everything else is just icing on the cake.
The bottom line is that there is no bottom line. I left there feeling disappointed that the night didn’t turn out differently. I’m not sure what I expected, but it certainly wasn’t that. Will I go to the 20 year reunion? Probably not. It’s not enough for me to be drawn back wondering who got fat, bald and divorced. Maybe I’ve grown up.
brian
10.18.2006
Site Redesign
Like all things in life, this site was ready for a redesign. I'm not sure I'm totally sold on it yet as its hard to go away from the classic black, but I'll keep tweaking it for the next few days until I find something I like.
brian
brian
10.17.2006
William's Baptism
It's been a long time since I've posted here, just way too much going on to take a few moments away from the family to do a little posting. Last weekend was Will's baptism. This picture shows him in his outfit. It's hard to believe that he's already 8 weeks old. Actually, what's hard to believe is that I haven't been on my bike more than once or twice a week for the past 8 weeks! Better get started soon or else next season will be painful.
brian
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