another TNWC

Good TNWC despite a small field. I think after 15 min there were only about 10 guys actually left racing. I missed the break (grrrrrr...) and ended up chasing with a good small group. We worked it and kept the break in sight but just could not close it. I decided to just pull as hard and as long as I could to get a good workout.

dirt

Today I got out with Jay and Mark D for a mtn bike ride at Harbison...it's been *a while* since I've ridden off road. At least a few years. When I lived in Salt Lake in 1989 I used to spend weeks and weeks riding around Moab and other places in UT and Colorado. I had a nice road bike but just never rode it as I had great trails leaving right from my place up Emigration canyon in SLC and it was too much fun.

This morning we hammered the trails for a couple hours...for the first hour I was pretty gripped, trying to ride fast when my reflexes and technical skills were lagging behind. The last hour I started feeling like a rider again. Good fun and I'm sure I'll do more this winter.

TNWC

I wasn't feeling that super today. Yesterday I did about 90' with 45' of 85% and my lower back was a little tweaked (I think from doing several no-hands laps to mix it up!). I basically just sat in tonight and cruised the back. I wasn't gonna do ANYTHING before 35' in to save my single match.

At 35' I started to get a little active and went with a couple moves but nothing would stick. The last 20' was pretty good racing. With 3-4 laps to go 4 guys got a little gap and the diminished field was left to chase. It seemed that lots of guys were pretty tired and I tried to bridge once at 2 to go but just dragged everyone up a ways till I pulled the plug.

With one to go I tried again, jumped pretty hard and got a gap. Derek managed to get my wheel so I figured I'd just drag him to the break. Right when I made contact he attacked (textbook!) and blew it apart...including me. End of my night and I rode home at a steady pace for some more exercise.

I have no idea who won. I was a little impatient at the end but it was fun none the less and a good workout. I was really comfortable on the bike tonight. I continue to be amazed at how well I'm riding with hardly any training since July.

Saturday

Karl and I did 3 hrs today out and around Eastover. We both felt pretty good so we rode pretty steady with him killing it on the front for 60% of the time. I didn't feel awful despite not having ridden this far in a long time. My batteries died on the PT so I was going by PE. I was gonna do 2 easier rides this weekend to get my TSS but one harder one works out about the same.

TNWC

Cool race tonight...lots happening and it was pretty fast. LL told me he was gonna launch after the first catch at 15' in but with my diminished fitness I figured I needed to burn that one match I had nearer to the end. LL, Karl and Ward were away for a long time and it took a hell of a chase to pull them back. I had to take a couple big pulls even though I didn't really want to but the chance of those guys staying away was pretty huge.

For the last third of the race I just sort of surfed and kept an eye on things...with everyone in the group chasing like mad I figured it would come down to a bunch sprint so I went into chill mode. It all stayed pretty much together and I was sitting 20th wheel with a half lap to go so I inched up towards the front following Marc W. Someone then put in a massive attack at 1k (Ward?) and I just put my head down and stayed glued to the wheel in front of me. That friggin hurt!

Coming into turn 4 I was sitting 3rd on Marc W's wheel...James (?) was leading it out. Coming out of 4 the train was starting to die and MW was again just sitting on and looking around for a wheel. At around 200m to go I saw my opportunity as the leadout was riding on the left gutter. I thought that if I could attack and ride just off the lead guy's shoulder and taking some people with me that I could maybe box MW in and have a shot at winning. I didn't know how many were following me but it was not enough and MW made it through and won pretty easily (but those tactics have a zero % chance of working in a 1-2 race). I got 2nd.

Damn these races can be fun...

400

Ok...my 5 week siesta is over. Time to start keeping the weight in check and maintain some fitness. My goal for the next month is 400TSS a week. Not huge but it will require riding 3-4x per week with 2 good days. I'm gonna keep the volume down and make it all about quality...SST will rule.

Today I did about a 90' ride with 55' at 85-90%. My new FTP is around 275w but is probably a little bit lower than that.

On a side note my shoulder is still pretty jacked from the crash last tuesday...I came soooo close to a major rotator cuff injury and I'm still not completely satisfied that I didn't tear something. I'll give it another week before I think about an MRI.

US Pro

I headed up to Greenville on Sunday to catch the US Pro road race. It's always a fun time and Ella wanted to do the kids world championships. Mike Tamayo had said I could catch a ride in the Ouch team car so I found him in the caravan before the race but there was a USA Cycling dude riding so he was going to try to get me on one of the other laps.

That didn't work out so Crusty's like "just jump on that moto" and I ended up with Trey Smith who was driving one of the press moto's. I had to wait a few minutes until Mrs. Hincapie decided she didn't want to go...yeah, really. I don't know what was more fun...watching the riders up close or having Trey going REAL fast down Paris Mtn and railing the corners! It was an incredible ride.

compare that to the ride in the Healthnet car...I'll take the moto!

State RR

After feeling good on tuesday and being shamed into going by Derek I headed up to do the State RR today at Fork Shoals. They changed the course from an earlier race we did there this year and added a pretty tough small ring climb and the approach to the finish was more uphill. A nice course.

My goal was survival...and not to do anything stupid like get into a break or to ever be on the front. I've done about 6 rides this month (and 6 weeks since quitting for the season) so my experiment was if I could hang with my diminished fitness. After the tnwc I did zero rides to get ready for this race, my CTL is sub 40 and TSB is ridiculous.

Eric Christopherson attacked from the word "G...." and took Scott Minor with him. They instantly had over a minute. This pretty much shot my plans to hell as I worked my way up on the first lap--Jay said "this is a disaster" so I went to the front and put in one big effort. I led up the big climb and figured if we meandered up it then Eric C would add minutes so I just went as hard as I could go (which wasn't really that fast). Soon after that Jay got away with 2 others and bridged the 2+ minutes to the leaders and ended up getting 2nd. Incredible effort on his part...will be some good reading over at his blog. Ken O did some good chasing too.

Once Jay was gone the group shut down. I rode near the front and covered pretty much all the moves. I didn't do any real blocking as we had lots of guys from Columbia there and I didn't want to be a jerk. If Tom Sunday or Brian or Ben or Derek would attack I'd let them go.

At the start of lap 3 (of 4) a guy put in a huge attack and I went across to him with another guy. They were pretty strong and I told them that I had a teammate up the road but that I'd work on the last lap if they could keep the gap. They were cool with that. Crusty says it's better to give guys a carrot so they keep riding. The funny thing was 30 seconds after saying this I looked back, reassessed the gap and said to the guys "I've changed my mind, Let's Go!" And I hit the front and put in a some big pulls. It all eventually came back together for the last lap.

On the last lap I was sag climbing all the hills...It was easy to get to the front then I would just drift back and climb at my own tempo ending up near the back. Then repeat. With 3-4 miles to go there was an acceleration and both of my legs seized up...massive cramps and I abruptly lost contact with the group. I was hurting and was popped, gone, adios. Luckily the group kindof sat up right at that time and I managed to claw my way back on. A few minutes of easy riding and lots of stretching and contortions helped a lot. On the last climb I was sitting delicately ON the back and stayed there till the turn at 1k to go. It was now or never so I started to move up, looked for Derek's wheel, found it, lost it, then latched onto Lang and he gave me a beautiful smooth ride to the line. I finished 10th 40+.

It was really a fun race and I'm glad I did it. Now I'm really done for the year...promise.

E=mc2

I'm putting together a little physiological/psychological experiment this weekend...Stay tuned.

TNWC 8/25

Another tuesday, another crit. I was thinking I might get dropped tonight...haven't really been riding a lot (5 rides this month!)...just eating bad food and drinking beer. After the first few laps I felt pretty good and then rolled off the front...not as much of an attack as just riding a bit faster than the group (I wouldn't chase me either HaHa). I got a ridiculous gap and after a lap or two at VO2 intensities I settled in at threshold and just waited for the catch. It was a good workout, I felt strongish and was cruising at 280-300w.

My plan was that once the group got sortof close I would duck into one of those driveways after a turn and sortof "disappear". I thought that would be funny but then Lang bridged and we were off again for a while.

The rest of the race was just sortof riding around in circles...we had to organize a chase as there was a pretty strong break late in the race but it came back and it all came down to a field sprint. I was surprised that I never really suffered.

In the end I just wanted to sit on Derek's wheel and see what happened...but so did everyone else so I had to do a bit of creative riding to "move" some people and establish myself. (Treze: "that's my wheel" Really? Not anymore! ;-) ). The sprint happened and I just sat on Derek who rode fast and had to do a fair bit of work to get to the line due to things getting stalled after turn 4. I got 3rd.

autopilot

Crit course today for 45' of SST...couldn't really muster much more than that, nor did I want to.  

burning calories

Back from a week in seattle...lots of food, very little exercise. Yesterday I was totally spent from travel and work so I did some quality napping.

Today I went out to the crit course and just wanted to do an hour hardish to get some exercise. I managed a pretty solid SST workout keeping the wattage around 85-90% for 45 min. My FTP has probably dropped a bit so I'm gonna adjust WKO a few clicks south...lets call it 279w (and that's damn optimistic).

yet another TNWC

The threat of heat kept a lot of people inside but there were enough strong guys out tonight to make it fun. It wasn't really that hot...we rode around in circles for an hour. I found myself in quite a few breaks but I wasn't that willing to do any real work, except once with LL and Karl...I thought that had a shot at sticking so I took a couple hard pulls. Mostly I just would find the biggest guy and sit on his wheel (Helllllo Henry and Jamie!)

It all kindof came together at the end and James and LL sortof rolled off the front with one to go. I was sitting back waiting for the catch so I could do a hard counter and take the win...that didn't quite work out. LL won. I'm off to Seattle till Monday.

Last NE ride

This morning we did the usual 76 mile NE loop. LL, Jay, Kevin, Gordon, Paul, Aaron, James. I was just looking for some exercise and with my lack of any real training for the last 4 weeks I knew I needed to conserve a lot to survive. We averaged right at 23mph and I didn't really pull at all...I'd stay on the front for a minute or two the come off regardless if I felt good or not. I didn't want to take any chances of cramping up or getting dropped. So for me it was a really nice cruise for the most part.

I don't think I'll be doing any more real long rides like this for a while. Speaking of long rides, Rob and Karl rode to charleston today--130 miles and averaged 20mph...you do the math.

TNWC

Ok...back to some regular updates. Not really much to write about lately. I've been doing 3-4 good rides a week. When I do ride it's nice because I always feel really good and rested. My goal is just to enjoy it and try to do some hard efforts for exercise. Surprisingly my form is still really good.

Tonights TNWC was hot but not too bad when we were cruising around. I just sortof went with the flow of things but no breaks were sticking. Again I knew I wasn't gonna win a field sprint so with half a lap to go some people were attacking and I countered one by Toby with about 800m to go. I got a really good gap and gave it all but died at the end and was passed with 20m to go by MW who won. The huge VW guy got 2nd, he was really strong and put in a couple really big attacks near the end.

Weird: Right before turn 3 my bottle popped out and I wedged it against my toptube with my knee, grabbed it and put it back in the cage...as I was attacking!