Cross country ski day #1

I won! I made my siberian husky so tired he followed my tracks in the snow! If you own a high energy dog you understand the magnitude of this accomplishment.

Of course if you know my dog you also know he's a whimp, definitely not the stereotypical "I can run for days" husky.

We actually both won. We went to Snowbasin for a little "classic" cross country skiing which turned out to be a trail breaking session. THAT's a good workout. There was over a foot of new powdery Utah snow without ski, foot, or snowshoe tracks for probably 3/4 mile. We traveled from the Snowbasin road to the Maples campground, did both campground loops, and returned. I estimate approximately two and a half miles.

Funny, one week ago we were mountain biking in 50 degree weather. Today at Snowbasin was 18 degrees.

Where are my skis?

No tracks (until the dog ran by), no grooming, all natural.

Neck deep in snow. He's loving it

Maples picnic area

Hey! I have a personal trainer!

She is skilled in fitness disciplines through experiences with her own previous personal trainers and gyms. She is flexible with regards to workout times, locations, and equipment. She is Vanessa, not only my significant other, best friend, lover, life planner (she loves that one), crew chief, and now personal trainer and training partner.

It's been a great few weeks. I have learned some new stuff and we have made each other accountable which is a good thing. We can already see improvements in our workouts in a little over two weeks. It is definitely helping keep me fit.

Feels like the natural evolution of a control freak adrenaline junky cyclist that needs to excel at everything he takes on.

One more reason why this training is a good thing: I seriously considered going back to indoor soccer after a work email was sent asking to put a team together. Why? I was getting restless, feeling the need for adrenaline, for a workout, for competition. Indoor soccer was fun, don't get me wrong, but it was good I stopped playing. Cycling is much preferable for me.

Excellent late season ride

50 degrees and sunny on December 7th. A beautiful day to take the mountain bikes out for a little more than 8 miles in. Vanessa got over 5 miles in and a good workout. It was fun; it was really fun if you consider we can still ride around our place in December.

2009 racing goals

• Compete in mountain bike races.


• See my race team on the podium. More specifically place in 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place.


• Improve results from last year's East Canyon Road Race, Bear Lake Classic, and Garden Creek Gap.

Embrace the red

Nah, not SRAM RED, although that would probably be awesome. Got a red saddle a little over a month ago, followed up by some red handlebar tape. And you know I got rid of a few more ounces here It's like a new bike for a fraction of the cost!

Before - bone stock. What a gorgeous ride.

After. Gorgeous + red

Mmmmm, grub

Yeah, look at that patty melt baby!

This most excellent September 29th dinner was created using Stan's homemade bread, freshly cut onions grilled to perfect softness using chili pepper oil, and sharp cheddar cheese.

I would like to thank Mickey for enlightening me regarding the fine art of food photography.

Lunch ride in mid-November

Got a lunch ride in today wearing a long sleeve jersey, bike shorts, leg warmers, and shoe covers. I was glad to have the long sleeve parts on the downhills but was actually quite warm during climbs, to the point I wanted to take something off. I believe the temperature reached mid-50s during this ride. Hehehe.

Really, make time for lunch rides, it is SOOO nice!

A quick race on Saturday

The City Creek bike sprint is over. This is a less than 6 mile race up a paved road without motorized travel, totaling 1300 feet of climbing. It was tougher than I expected as I found myself working extremely hard to keep up with the lead group within the first 1/2 mile before getting dropped. I got dropped entirely too quickly, then caught by the second pack, then passed by a few others for the remainder of the race. Not exactly how one expects a race to play out.

This race was the quickest and shortest I completed, finishing in 26:50. This is a decent result, earning me my first race hardware for a third place finish in the 30-39 year old age category. I ended up at 18th overall among a group of 56. The course record is 20:54 and Saturday's overall winner achieved 21:46.

I am glad the race was rescheduled to November 1st as mother nature granted us beautiful scenery and excellent weather for a race at approximately 55 degrees.

I hoped I could have stuck with the lead group and been more competitive for certain. It took me a few hours to realize I was racing against a bunch of different race categories and I really didn't have a chance for an overall victory beacuse those more powerful people are all in the mix. Kind of a change of pace from the whole season as a Category 5 racer always competing against Category 4 and 5s.

This may well become a baseline race similar to the Snowbird hillclimb for me. I like the idea of racing this one in the spring and fall to see the improvements through one year, and to get a gauge of what the winter did for my fitness.

BCC Racing posted an entry for this race as well. Thanx Audrey!

Beautiful day for a ride

I just returned from a quick ride from work to the Antelope Island entrance shack. What perfect weather! I'll say it again: Make time for lunch rides they are awesome!

Still going

I am still getting out to ride, now without the pressure to train for ridiculous events. We made it to Moab last weekend which allowed me to get out on three awesome trails (Klondike Bluffs, Amasa Back, and Flat Pass) with great company and beautiful weather. My ten year old mountain bike still kicks ass. Stan happened to catch this video of me almost crashing and making a girly noise. Just my luck.

I also managed an after work 17 miler in 52ish degree weather which was quite nice. Too bad I had to race against darkness. Got to get out on some lunch rides as long as the temperature agrees. This Sunday is a planned ride with the race team. Weather appears it will cooperate, should be a blast.

The racing retreat

BCC Racing had a retreat last weekend to discuss a number of topics. The location, facility, and food was fabulous (can I say "fabulous" if I don't have a rainbow sticker on my car?) thanx to Todd.

I learned quite a bit. For example, Friday evening's ride taught me about "The Punisher". Here's a warning: If you ride with this person you will feel punished. Maybe you should.

Overall I left feeling the same way I arrived. And I spent the week reviewing and revisiting the weekend. I am uncertain.

Should a race team disagree on their priorities? Aren't we here to race? Should a race team create bureaucracy? It seems every one that showed up - approximately 15 of us - left with at least one "role" to fill. What? Aren't we here to race?? Should a race team put on an event to finance their racing? HELL NO! Let's race! Should a race team try to "own" a bike club to take over the cash cows to finance their racing? I can't even answer that.

Talks regarding structured training and race strategy are interesting. Talks of the races to participate in are exciting. Talks of racing with friends are comforting. But the uncertainty remains.

Is it time to find a team to race with?
Is the grass greener on the other side?
I can't imagine other race teams have such meetings.

Yeah I squeaked in a ride!

Tuesday evening I planned on riding after work. I thought a good Emigration ride was in order and I knew the BCC club had the ride planned. Didn't make it.

Fortunately I left all my gear in the car and a gorgeous Wednesday came around so I was able to take some time to ride Around the base for lunch. Aaaaah, much better, and much cheaper than therapy. Lessons learned: Keep gear in vehicle, make time for rides.

P.S. My apologies to any coworker if this caused less than desirable fragrances in the office.

Rankings

Before I requested to upgrade my racing category to Cat 4 I viewed the USA Cycling full ranking report:

1	Rank in your zip code (84041)
2	Rank in your state (UT)
4	Rank in your riding age (37)
13	Rank in 5 year age range (35-39)
18	Rank in 10 year age range (30-39)
52	Overall Rank

If I understand this report correctly I was #2 in the state and #52 out of 2135 in the nation out of all Category 5 racers. Cool.

Now that I have seen this I am extremely curious to know what LOTOJA did for my rankings (I may be a little competitive) but unfortunately the USA Cycling web site doesn't display Cat 5 results now that I am Cat 4. Being an anti-social computer geek I know there's some web / database guy back there going "yeah, you're Cat 4 now, so your Cat 5 results don't show up, duh". Well bullshit. Your website should display all results for the whole racing year buddy. Read up on many-many relationships; it can be done.

So I attempted to read, understand, and calculate the ranking calculations. It is a little bit involved but I can see how the formula creates a fair ranking system given many variables including a race's difficulty and attendance. From My USA Cycling you can select the Rankings FAQ then find 'How are rankings calculated' to find the formula document.

Using my understanding of the variables involved I would have 2210 points as Cat 5 this season, putting me at #33 nationwide and remaining #2 in UT.

Here are my points for the races that matter this year based on my calculations.

2198 = LOTOJA
2259 = tour de park city
2175 = chalk creek
2288 = little mountain
2301 = garden creek gap

And a bruised tailbone

It is surprising how much impact a bruised tailbone has on everyday life. This seemingly unused part of the human anatomy comes into play during every single move of one's body. I'm talking every position change while in bed, using a clutch while driving, and the obvious walking and sitting. Bending bad.

It's gonna be a long day tater.

So THAT's what a crash feels like

I had a brilliant idea - Let's go to RMR tonight for some fast criterium fun to see if I improved at all during the season. Plus I have this relatively new fancy bike computer that tracks my heartrate and I want to find my max.

2 1/2 laps to go I decelerate from 30 to 0 miles per hour in 0 inches due to some person falling in front of me. He falls, I don't know why, and I'm the #2 guy. The #2 guy has a unique responsibility. He is in charge of being a ramp for everyone behind him to help them fly over the #1 guy.

I was fortunate enough to get away with some road rash with all body parts remaining in working order. Somehow I found myself sitting up on the road as others were slamming in the back of my helmet to slow their momentum. I still don't understand how I can go from crouched on my bike at 30 miles per hour to sitting on the road, legs forward, bike to my right, stopped. The last thing I thought (after thinking OH F***) was "this is going to be a spectacular superman trip." Somehow I ended on my ass.

My poor bike. My poor front wheel. My baby. I get to figure out if this wheel can be fixed but I doubt it. And my race shorts are dead, but that's not as big of a deal cause I bought 2 race kits, and I can replace them with black shorts. I like my soccer ball as a placeholder for my ass, what do you think?

Oh, Max heartrage: 196 bpm. Did I improve? Donno. It was actually intimitading to race in a criterium again after taking a break for a few months. I was feeling pretty nervous, but I had the strength to cover the accelerations.

Woohoo! I'm Cat 4!

I hope this means I just said goodbye to the majority of sandbaggers.

Main Entry: sandbag
Function: verb
Date: 1860
transitive verb
1: to bank, stop up, or weight with sandbags
2 a: to hit or stun with or as if with a sandbag b: to treat unfairly or harshly c: to coerce by crude means d: to conceal or misrepresent one's true position, potential, or intent especially in order to take advantage of

What's next?

The season is not over. See all the options in the next few weeks:

2008-09-20 - Randy's Fall Color Classic superseries.
2008-09-27 - Heber valley century - http://web.bike2bike.biz/Rides/HeberValleyCenturySept272008/tabid/111/Default.aspx
2008-09-27 - Bingham's Cyclery Mountain-2-Metro Criterium http://www.mountain2metro.com/
2008-09-27 - Mini-Me #14 Heber Valley Color Ride.
2008-10-03 - BCC Racing Retreat. Rides on Friday and Saturday
2008-10-11 - Josie Johnson memorial ride. http://josiejohnsonride.com/
2008-10-11 - City creek bike sprint - http://www.sports-am.com/events/index578.htm
2008-10-16 - 2008-10-19 - Moab!!! Come to Moab! We'll be doing some mountain biking.

Next season may be a heavy mountain biking season. Maybe I'll race a few mountain bike races. I definitely want a rematch with the East Canyon road race and Garden creek gap.

I requested to move to Category 4. I hope I'm done with sandbaggers! I also hope my team will follow my lead as I aspire to feel what it's like to race in a team instead of a bunch of individuals wearing the same jerseys.

Post mortem - LOTOJA

In my professional life we conduct post mortems, or retrospectives, on a project where we capture the good, the bad, and suggestions for improvement. Here's my post mortem of LOTOJA.

Good

• Recon. Pre-riding the course proved to be as important as I wrote about in a previous blog. I was mentally prepared for the whole course. No surprises.
• Pre race nutrition. I consumed A LOT of decent power food all week leading to the race, including plenty of pasta, pizza, and a huge hashbrown, french toast, and bacon breakfast Friday morning. I had "my usual" breakfast of oatmeal with brown sugar, Naked Juice, and banana 2 1/2 hours before the race start.
• Race nutrition. I only consumed approximately 1800 calories even though I planned for 5300 but it worked out fine. I gave priority to my Cytomax drink before water, causing me to drink most of the electrolyte drinks I planned which is a huge improvement over previous races. I also ate a few Payday bars, and a shitload of shot blocks.
• Cola shot blocks good. Orange shot blocks good.
• Training. I put in 3300 road miles or so including a dozen race events. Good thing. I felt strong all day. Long rides, short rides, climbing, Death Ride, Tour de Park City, bring it on.
• Finish. All this translated to a strong finish. I did quite a bit of the work in the pack for the last 47 miles and was fine doing it.
• Musettes. Use them in combination with a killer support crew that understands racing. Proved to be a great advantage as it allowed to reduce the time during the chase, allowed to get ahead of the pack enough to pull over and take a leak, and allows for customization of nutrition.

Bad

• Last minute shopping. As much as I would prefer buying from local shops it just doesn't make sense to pay $3 for a bag of shot blocks where they can be purchased for $1.40 ish online.
• Chasing the lead pack. This took more effort than I had. Looking at the splits we got within 2 minutes of the lead pack at Ovid, but we never caught them.
• Urinating. Stopping takes too much time. On the bike is ridiculous.

Suggestions for improvement

• Use new tires. Turns out "everybody knows" to get brand new tires just for LOTOJA. I didn't know. My tires had a few hundred miles on them and were starting to look square. I wasn't worried until I got help in the worrying department. It really turned out ok; I changed my tires Friday before the race.
• Race as a team. If one of the team leaders has a mechanical problem maybe the majority of the team should help pace the leader back to the lead group. I know, this involves selflessness, team spirit, and team ability.
• Be selfish. I had to do my own training at my own pace, which meant not riding at most people's pace.
• Get whooped. Find ridiculously fast people to try to stick to. Riding above my pace and getting dropped increased my pace.
• Plan your nutrition. Just the effort of calculating food intake and output is quite the eye opener. Makes you believe in carbo loading. Makes you pay attention to your nutrition on the bike. I planned to intake 5,300 calories. I estimated an output of 10,000 calories. I estimate an actual intake of 1,800, and my GPS shows 11,472 calories burned.

Summary

Overall I am quite pleased with this race. I made a decision to stop early in the race at approximately 20 miles to help pace a buddy back to the group which turned out not to happen. I had to take a leak anyways. It was hard work for a long time, and being in race mode - trying to catch the leaders - likely helped my time.

Less than one week has passed and I truly can't remember this race being tougher than a hard century. I raced ULCER and fell over afterwards. I raced the Tour de Park City and fell over afterwards. How many times in the last two years did I finish something and say 'this was the toughest thing I've enver done on a bike'? I didn't say that for LOTOJA. I didn't fall over at the end of LOTOJA. I sprinted to the finish to pass the punk that tried to beat me after I pulled him home for 47 miles. I am sure it is tougher than a century. It is a hell of a long time on a bike. It is a hell of an accomplishment. I believe I peaked perfectly for this race. Sorry if it sounds like ego or bullshit.

I have extremely high expectations of myself.

I really thought I could do LOTOJA in 9 1/2. I wanted to, and wanted to do it with Brent, especially cause it would have been his best time and I would have helped. How selfish is that? First LOTOJA ever, and I want to beat most everyone. The dream was 9 1/2, the expectation was 10.

My time was officially 9:59:46.185, 11th place in my group, 22nd in all of Category 5 racers, 149th overall. Pulling off 9:30 this year would have meant a first place finish in my category with 7 minutes to spare. I could list the excuses and comments here to embellish this...

This was a nearly perfect day. Thanx to all that helped, especially my killer support crew and BCC Racing for the thousands of miles of training and companionship.

Now I resume my quality time in Jackson, wy.

LOTOJA is just about over

The only little thing left is the actual race. I'm done worrying, I'm done training, I'm done planning, I'm done with everything except sleep, eat, ride.

I feel I did well preparing physically. I ate quite well and I have a great breakfast planned. I learned quite a bit about nutrition this season including getting some late nutrition data to chew on and applying what I can to the plan.

I did everything possible to my bike short of replacing it. I mean everything: new 205g tires, new 49g tubes, cleaned and lubed the drive train, lubed cables, and even got killer new wheels earlier this season (see Williams Cycling). As I told a buddy: This wheels are so fast I just need to keep the rubber side down to win every race. That's right I said it. Would be awesome.
Here's a hint of my mental preparation...

To all competitors out there: I am going to destroy myself tomorrow trying to stick with you. I am going to find new levels of physical ability. I will NOT finish this race wondering if I could have done more. Note: This is not ego this is challenging myself through competition.

Oh, and I have some really cool new racing team arm and leg warmers! Even though the weather is cooperating it will be cold.

Hopefully I am still alive after this ride to comment on the results

LOTOJA is imminent

It has been quite a ride this year, as in adventure.

I have 3400 miles on my bike computer; over 3300 on the road. According to one of the LOTOJA veterans on lotojaclassic.com I am less than half way to where I need to be if I want to be competitive. Unfortunately I have a life, sort of. It already feels like my life was dedicated to riding this year; I donno how people can put in twice this much mileage and have a full time job.

I made great friends during this training year. If they knew about this blog thingy they would get all teary eyed right here...

I learned a bunch about myself during this training year. Interesting how a hobby can do that.

I learned about racing, criteriums, nutrition, endurance, energy management, and a slew of other freaky things to get that little tiny edge.

Yep, similar to everyone else it sure sounds as if this is the end of my season. I hope not but we'll see.

I need to learn a bunch more about how to be generous. I cannot comprehend the level of generosity it has to take for my woman to watch, support, and suffer through this kind of thing. Truly amazing. She can teach me a lot.

I need to learn a bunch more. Period.

Huh, not much of this is about LOTOJA. I am excited, ready, nervous, and I wish I coud write "optimistically cautious" but I need to keep telling myself I am going to kick its ass. I AM going to kick its ass.

It has been quite a ride getting here, let's see what happens next.

2 weeks to LOTOJA

Excited. Nervous. Beat.

I am quite glad Stan and I spent the last Friday and Saturday on our bikes previewing portions the LOTOJA course. I would say it was invaluable even before actually going through the event itself. Seeing and experiencing the climbs, the rollers, the long stretches of "flat" lands were useful and fun. Oh, and painful. My GPS logged over 8600 feet of climbing. My body felt many miles of headwind. My legs felt pain. We're doing all of this in one day? Holy shit.

But I am still glad I saw it before the event.

There's a chance I can do well at this race. I have two more weeks to prepare, and I believe the preparation will be mental and logistical. The physical preparation is done; if I don't have it by now it's truly too late. It could happen.

Token picture: This is what the finish looks like:

Reflecting on the ULCER

This year's ULCER hosted a team time trial as it did last year. Here's my perception of the race.

We begin this time trial in a bunch start. I suppose this makes it easier, and it is possible there just isn't enough time in an hour to start the number of teams there were signed up. At first I thought this would just turn into a road race instead of a team time trial. It turned out to be a good mix of road racing and time trialing; I'm glad I was wrong.

As usual a group of 50+ people in a small group can cause some scary moments. I heard of a crash not too far behind us, and there was a near crash directly in front of me involving a team member which did a phenomenal job staying upright. The person in front of him swerved and caught his front wheel, he reacted and gained control, we scattered and I believe all stayed rubber-side down. Good stuff.

The rough roads at the beginning of this course don't help either. Plenty of potholes cause plenty of sketchy riding, even though the roads were marked extremely well. At least I didn't lose a water bottle due to road conditions this time, as happened in my last two races. I hear there is a chance the ULCER will go to the west of Utah lake and through Eureka next year; I hope that's the case. I really don't care for the course weaving around the little towns of Lehi, Springville, etc. Too many turns, too much traffic, too many stop lights and signs, and definitely too many road obstacles.

Once we got going as a team - after our 22 mile stop - we did extremely well. We caught the pack nearly at will, did it again at 44 miles, and just worked quite efficiently. Everyone ended up doing a great job, we worked as hard as we possibly could, we put on a killer chase at the very end, and we just barely missed the win in our category by 12 whole seconds. Rogers did a superb job, I mean superb, at chasing for the last section of the course. Turns out we were 3 minutes back from the overall win, that's amazing!

Overall a great day. A little annoying to be that close to the win, but we gave it all. We had great weather and great support!

Tour de Park City: Check too!

I ended up with a 10th place finish which is spectacular for me.

It was a great race team day in my eyes. We worked as small groups throughout the race, helping each other through wind, flats, downhills, and uphills. Our team got amazing results of 5th place, 7th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 17th and 18th in the top 20. I believe everyone in our team that started this race finished - a feat in itself!

I don't know how many times I've said or written this: This was the toughest thing I ever did on a bicycle. The first 100 miles were great, well except for the complete lack of racing etiquette from the Category 5 racer assholes. Any racers out there let me explain neutral zones to you: You back off the tempo until the crowd gets through the feed zone and catches up. Back off you assholes. Let's have a real race. Are you truly afraid of finding out if you have a chance to win if you play fair?

That stupid climb past Mirror Lake was so hard I remember having a tough time just keeping my body upright, holding my hands on the handlebar, being completely out of energy. I mean out. I stopped and laid on the side of the road for a minute or two. That really really really sucked.

But things worked out well after that. 4 of us caught back up at the top of the climb and rode into Kamas together. Great times! Until that evil climb back to Park City...but by that time it was just survival. It was sweeeet to get a 9th place finish out of the deal. Yeah, it was a 9th place when I first showed up. Then some Category 5 racer appeared in the top 9 after I showed up, dropping some of us down one spot. Speaking of race organization...

Well, an optimistic person might say there is some room for improvement with race organization. I think they did ok, could have been worse, but there were some critical problems. Twist-off bottled water that do not fit snugly in bottle cages at the 25 mile stop? 3 or so people to handle all the water at the 50? COMPLETELY OUT OF WATER AT THE 75??? Um, Category 5 racers were the 5th group to start thus 0there were 20 other groups following, where did all the water go? And where the hell are two of my three musette bags? I personally handed my last one back to the person that handed it to me at mile 125. It didn't come back. How can it not come back? It was in the guy's HANDS. I was there. Somewhat delirious, but really I was there.

Ok, the feed bag handout at 100 was awesome! Of course, 100 was actually 106 ish; that's pretty important info to give us. Water handout was good for 2 of the 4 of us at the 150. The other two of us didn't realize there was a water stop coming and didn't have time to grab a bottle. That cost them an extra stop in Kamas cause they didn't have enough water to finish.

Whew. This one is checked off. It was rough. I am quite happy I made it in 9:20 - way under the 10 to 11 hour expectation I had. Now on to LOTOJA for the grand finale.

Mis-quoting a riding buddy: "Dude this was fucking nuts / stupid / crazy. See you next week."

Holy wheelset batman!

My new wheelset is just amazing. I wish I could be objective here by having controlled test environments but I cannot; there are so many variables at play. I can just say WOW!

I put the wheels together after I received my favorite tires - Continental Ultra Race kevlar - on Wednesday evening. My first ride on the new wheels was a totally relaxed commute to work of 3.5 miles each direction. I admit I did not feel much difference uphill. But downhill, wow, I can't believe how smooth these wheels were, and how FAST! These things just zipped down the hill without any effort. I'm talking a 1/2 mile downhill here, where I usually play around and try to see how fast I can go. I reached 35 mph without even realizing it; this is the number I typically attempt really hard to reach. Promising...

Saturday comes and I go to race at Chalk Creek, which is 25 miles of uphill rollers, a turnaround, followed by 25 miles of the same rollers downhill. During my warmup I play around with a few hills and again am amazed of the downhill ease and speed. I stand and accelerate up a little hill in town and start thinking "hmmm, maybe there is something to these wheels uphills".

As the race goes on I find myself working pretty hard to stick with the lead pack. They put up a ridiculous uphill pace as usual - probably still a bunch of sandbaggers but I digress - and I am able to stick with it until the turnaround. On the way down our team really starts working. I cover attacks which takes some stiff accelerations. I stick around during significant uphill accelerations, and by the end of the race I realize I actually have to reduce my effort during such uphill accelerations by the pack because I am accellerating too fast and end up having to slow down. I also realize the flat sections were just handled instead of fighting to hang in there.

How much of this is training? I donno, probably some. How much is just due to these killer wheels? I donno but I am pretty confident it is a significant amount. That's something else: confidence. I have gained confidence I won't just suffer through flats and downhills. WOW!

Here are some facts / variables to consider:
- 260 grams is the weight difference between my Bontrager Race Lite wheels @ 1660 grams and Williams Cycling System 19 wheels at 1430 grams.
- Tires on the Bontrager wheels are Hutchinson Fusion Comp rated at 210 grams. Tires on the Williams wheels are Continental Ultra Race kevlar rated at 220 grams.
- Tubes on the Bontrager wheels may be Forte Ultra light at approximately 70 grams or no-name cheapos at 107 + grams. Tubes on the Willams wheels are Forte Ultra light.
- I had never raced Chalk Creek although I have ridden it 4-6 times. I was in much better shape than I have ever been for this race.
- I had not raced in over a month. I trained significantly in the time period between races.

what a race!

How can I be excited about an 11th place finish at Chalk Creek? Let me list the reasons:

1. Our team got 5th place.
2. I did my job. My duty was to help the team leader and I did. I covered some attacks during the last 24 miles, but most importantly the last 1/2 to 1 mile I believe I hurt some of the pack and set a fast enough pace to avoid last minute attacks. I led my team leader to the last 1k of the race.
3. I stuck with the lead pack. That is quite an accomplishment for me. Much easier said than done; those guys were tough as hell on the way up and down.
4. Our team executed the plan extremely well. I am quite proud of the whole team; everyone was willing to do their part for the team leader. Jerry kicked some serious ass setting tempo and Adam was able to be patient and let the race happen around him.
5. The race was simply a lot of fun.
6. It was great to have a cheering section. As boring as it has to be it's fun to get to the end and have people be there that care.
7. It was an impressive team showing. 14ish people wearing the same team kit in the same group had to make an impact.

On a more somber note, I hope the person that crashed behind my back wheel is ok. I doubt I had anything to do with it; from what I was told he accelerated and looked away just as the pace slowed, although still in the mid 20mph I am guessing. Sounded like it hurt badly though. Shitty deal.

Turns out there was no need for the jitters. It was awesome, and, additionally gave me confidence for the upcoming two crazy ass races of 170 and 206 miles.

Why the nerves?

The Chalk creek road race is in 12 hours. I am nearly in a panic, why?

Maybe because I haven't raced for over a month? Maybe because I have high expectations? Is it the hype of the team? Is it the new wheels? WTF??

I walked my dog an hour ago telling myself: I can do it. I will do fine. I can do it. I can do it.

Maybe criteriums are good to stay sharp and reduce the racing cobwebs.

Death ride: Check!

It is done. It wasn't easy, it wasn't anywhere near "as easy as" last week's 3 canyons effort even thought the numbers seemed to be right. Again, depending who you believe, the elevation gain was either 13,8xx, 17,714, or 19,928 feet. All of which are significantly more than last week's effort.

But, we made it. A shitload of climbing later we have our exclusive 'Five pass finisher' jerseys! I conquered it, I am happy with it, I don't need to do it again. My buddy is already talking about doing it again. Freak.

I ended up leaving the now-named Super Death Monkey early in the day. I didn't mean to, I just thought the top of the first climb was imminent so I stepped it up a few notches. I was wrong, soooo wrong about the top of the climb, but by then I was a ways away. I waited at the bottom of the first descent but he never caught up.

As many people as there were it was an individual effort for the majority of the day. A few people fit my tempo a few times during the day, which allowed for some good conversations if the oxygen allowed for it.

Here's what my day looked like: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/6258865 or http://connect.garmin.com/activity/359884.

This one is checked off the list.

In preparation for Death...ride

Our last training ride before the Death Ride was held yesterday during what turned out to be a gorgeous cycling day. I had to wake up entirely too early to meet in Salt Lake at 6:00 but I have to admit it was nice to beat the heat for the two of three major climbs of the day.

I am thankful I was...um...how would I say...suggested to do this one last ride on Sunday even though I had just done a 95 mile ride Friday. The biggest reason: Ride statistics show that we actually climbed as much as the Death Ride in 30 less miles and 2 less climbs. That means we worked harder yesterday than we're going to Saturday. That is good. That is really good for physical and more importantly mental conditioning.

Comparing the elevation chart on yesterday's ride at http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/6182144 vs the Death Ride at http://deathride.com/elemap.html you can see we climbed for longer durations, which translates less breaks between climbs, which translates to less recovery time, which means it was tougher. Work with me here.

Now to get ready for a 1200+ mile road trip...

4:54:16 baby!

There it is - First century under 5 hours at the MS150 on Saturday! Without much help from faster people, I spent approximately 50% of the day either leading a pack or riding solo. There is actually plenty of room for improvement because I stopped and ate lunch (not part of the 4:54:16) which really bogged me down for the last 32 miles. Eeeexcellent!

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/episode/view.do?episodePk.pkValue=6119164

Have you heard of the MS150?

To me it meant 170 miles in two days. It was supposed to be 175 miles but in our haste to complete the day we missed a 5 mile loop.

Again I spent some time in Cache valley this weekend and again it is a beautiful place and again the weather cooperated quite nicely.

Sadly this may very well be the last time I participate in this event. I just don't know if I want to partake in an event where so many people are at the same place at the same time; it causes friction and safety issues. I chose to drive my trailer up Wednesday evening to have a chance at a camping spot for the weekend. Of the dozen people with the same idea there were people who felt entitled to more space than others because they have a larger team coming a few days later or they have been doing this event for many past years. I don't care. If you're here you get a spot, if you're not, you don't. Friday evening I show up at my trailer which I had left Thursday morning and I get crap from people in a tent - in front of my trailer - because I parked my truck too close to their tent spot. Uh, I got here Wednesday and there's my trailer, where should I park? Again, too many people in one spot.

And there's the fundraising thing. I DO NOT like asking for money. Yes I can donate it all myself. Yes it is a good cause.

Riding is interesting as well. People taking the whole road while two abreast, and/or weaving all over the place not caring about their own safety. I guess I am that "ricky racer guy" now. I sometimes come up on people so fast I startle them or happen to catch them weaving their bike right into the spot I'm passing. Scary shit. I can only yell "ON YOUR LEFT" from so far away, and they can only hear if they don't have headphones on. So it turns out I am enjoying those large crowds less and less. I didn't miss the Cycle Salt Lake Century this year probably because I had a scare last year due to the number of riders.

PNP right? On to the positive stuff.

I rode well. I spent a lot of Saturday leading or solo and it made me work pretty hard although the statistics don't show anything near a race pace or being pushed by the "freaking nuts" ones of BCC Racing. Sunday was going to be a cruise with my buddies. Sorry that didn't work out too well for them, although I ended up having a great 70 mile ride in 3:36 ish with Todd, which is quickly joining the ranks of the "freaking nuts". He pushed me pretty good today too. No rest for the wicked canadian.

Non-riding time was completely spent at the fairgrounds which I really enjoyed. Fort Team BCC was a blast with the usual camping suspects and the addition of Team AdvancedMD.

Weather was gorgeous. Scenery breathtaking. Company awesome. Route terrific. Let's do it again Friday.

It was a good day tater

Today I rode a bicycle for 100 miles, 6 hours, and climbed over 6600 / 8800 feet (see The Elevation Game), at a temperature reaching 95 degrees. And it turned out to feel just awesome; the last descent down Emigration made me think I could keep going. Yep I've lost my marbles.

I dreaded the north facing climb up Big Mountain until I reached it. I then spun myself in a funk, hated everything, doubted my abilities, stopped, got off my bike, rearranged my thoughts, and kicked its ass. I had been kicking everything's ass all day so why would this 7ish mile climb be any different? It shouldn't have been. Lesson learned (again): Positive thoughts are the way to go. BIG lesson. Again.

BCCUtah.org has a killer group of people to ride with. I keep hearing compliments everytime I ride with these people; it's great. We end up having quite the group of compatible riders that like to push hard, play hard, and at the end of the day are all out to help each other.

It got damn hot. My feet hurt terribly due to my new shoes. It was a good day tater.

Challenge == stress?

Have you seen my calendar? Holy shit. Superseries everywhere, Death Ride, Tour de Park City, lotoja. I'm scared just writing this. This is the year baby, no turning back. I don't even know which emotion to stick with. Scared, excited, challenged, nuts?

What's funny? MS150 - 175 miles in two days - bah, that's child's play, that's just a party on wheels. Maybe the MS150 is going to be my first sub-5 hour century. There's a challenge, just in case I don't have enough.

Stay near the front. Really. Really-really.

Everyone sais it, writes it, recommends it. Me too. The effort it takes to stay near the front of a race pack is quite a bit less than the back of a pack, which is quite a bit less than a solo mission.

I wasn't aware of the amount of spring / yo-yo / accordeon effect there was in a peloton until I started racing. It's significant. Staying near the back of the pack will cause you effort of catching up every few pedal strokes. Staying in the top 10 ish of the pack is much easier, and it helps tremendously when setting up for climbs. Understand easi-ER is still not easy, not one bit.

That is my lesson learned from the Little Mountain road race. I stuck with the lead pack for 1 3/4 laps, through the first violent climb at the end of the first lap, and easily throught the little climb at the beginning of the second lap. I barely missed the pack at the end of the second lap partly because I was too far back when that climb started. I decided to stick to my pace instead of try to stick with that front group. Oops. They got a tiny bit of a break and TOOK O-F-F. Those guys knew they drew blood and went for the kill by dropping a bunch of us, more than half of the group went away. Again I kick myself thinking I could have suffered that little bit more to stick with them. End result - 16th place out of 38. I'll take it.

And what a great day for a race, and what a beautiful venue for a race. I need to own Cache valley someday.

Say I was going to petition for Category 4

I would need a racing resume. Here are the USAC sanctioned race events I entered so far:

2008-04-26 - East canyon road race. Result: 28th, group 1.
2008-04-29 - RMR criterium. Result: I survived.
2008-05-06 - RMR criterium. Result: I am still alive.
2008-05-13 - RMR criterium. Result: DNF - flat tire.
2008-05-17 - Bear lake classic. Result: 33rd.
2008-05-18 - Bear lake team time trial. Result: 5th.
2008-05-24 - Garden creek road race. Result: 20th.
2008-05-27 - RMR criterium. Result: Finished.
2008-06-03 - RMR criterium. Result: Top 15 ish.

Are weekly criteriums really good for me?

I believe this one deserves my favorite answer: Depends.

Are criteriums good? Absolutely. I feel much more confident in a pack. I feel I am improving at sprints - except for that last one, you know, the one that counts. I am definitely improving at recovering quickly after an attack.

Are the weekly RMR criteriums going to help me get to be a Category 4? Donno. Some say it will. Some say no. Unfortunately the people that say no are the same people that handle the money and paperwork.

This stuff should be automated. If there is a rule somewhere that says 10 races including up to 8 criteriums gets you to Category 4, let's automate it. Make these people send in their weekly paperwork and make a computer determine when someone goes to Category 4. Remove the human factor and reduce sandbagging. Ok maybe my professional career is bleeding in here...

The RMR criterium two days ago was possibly my best yet. I donno if I am going to continue thouhgh; I am definitely taking a break to get some climbing in. Can you say Trapper's loop?

may cause unreliable shifting

Lesson learned: don't wait 3+ years to give your road bike some maintenance love.

Nice

Nice evening for a race. Nice pace - over 25mph for 30 minutes. Nice workout too.

So last time we were on the race track I felt I didn't get enough of a workout. This time I made sure to take off out the front for a little while to get my heart pumping. Nice little attack; it felt good and I kept a good pace in front of the pack for almost a full lap. Next time will be better.

At 24ish minutes elapsed I get ready for the next attack. I asked Stephen H if he was ready; I'd lead him out. I work my way up front, and by the time I'm ready we hear the '3 laps to go' notice, and the bastards just take off. They just go. The pack easily gains 3mph. Damn kids. Lesson learned: Don't wait until the 3 laps to go notice. And make sure you have enough juice to last more than four laps ahead of the pack. It can happen.

Really, it was great fun. I said it before and I'll say it again: it is a RUSH. Try it.

butt ugly

Ever seen a vehicle uglier than an AMC Pacer? I did today, it is called a Jeep Rallye. Yes, with an 'e' to make it seem french or some other idiotic reason. Amazingly enough AMC == Chrysler == Jeep. So sad. The saddest thing: This vehicle has no chance of ever succeeding in a rally. I doubt it would ever be allowed.

Ok, it's really a Jeep Compass Rallye edition. Yuck. My most sincere apologies to anyone that would stand up for this vehicle.

Road racing through the eyes of an old man

I'm at the age where pro racers have retired, or at least are about to, and this is my first year racing a bicycle. What am I doing?

It seems like the natural evolution for a slightly - ok, a little more than slightly - competitive person. I rode mountain bikes for years, I ended up on a road bike, I ended up doing a few centuries, I ended up spending a lot of time on a bicycle, and I ended up racing. Logical.

So the competitive part is annoyed about the whole Category 5 racer group just staying in Category 5 instead of moving on to Category 4 as they should. I guess it's called sandbagging: where people rather beat up on less experienced people instead of get beaten by people that more closely match their experience level. Sucks for me. Sucks for all the people trying to size themselves up to like-experienced people. Sandbaggers have plenty of reasons for doing this. I don't care.

I joined a race team and have recently completed my fourth road race, all in a 5 week span. I have done a few criteriums too, so I'm up to a total of six racing events this season. Most of the racers are pretty cool, the venues are way cool, the workout is unmatched, and the experiences have been quite interesting. Experience wise I have been spending time learning about how I rank in the Category 5 group and how I rank in my team, which gives me an idea of how much training is necessary to be a contender. I really feel I should not consider winning anything during my first racing season, but, well, I want to, and my team is always hyped up on winning, whether or not it is realistic.

I thought I could climb well. I am learning the majority of the Category 5 racers can outclimb me, and that really annoys me.

This season is dedicated to some tough events: Death ride and Lotoja. After this season maybe I'll revisit my goals for cycling. Until then step it up - I need to see how well I can really do, a team kinda depends on me, and I am not getting any younger. Ride often, ride hard, and make time for social rides.

I should be independently wealthy by now. I wouldn't have to balance work and play. Yeah, unrealistic expectations at a very young age. Those we called 'dreams' at one point.

Improving at criteriums, I think

So last week's criterium was good. I should have written a note about it; I wanted to, I thought about it, I had the title of 'Muuuuuch better', but I never did.

Last week's race was inside the RMR race track so I'm guessing it resembled actual track racing. It was a fast constant pace and it was a completely different feel than my first race. I felt good at the end. Interestingly enough I didn't feel I got that much out of it, maybe people launch attacks to get a better workout rather than to try to win.

This week a sh**load of our team showed up - 7 or 8 of us raced on the outside perimiter of the track. I feel better about the few turns I got in before my front tire went flat at the end of the second lap. $10 for two laps, pretty sad.

Lessons learned: I stuck to my line quite well. I think last week's pace and consistency helped greatly. I am glad I stayed upright as my tire folded through the hairpin turn.

The elevation game

I get fired up for what sounds like a massive training ride Sunday. My buddy tells me he wants to climb Big cottonwood canyon and Suncrest, a total of 10,000 feet of climbing he says. Wow, 10,000 feet! That's a lot. I bring my Garmin eTrex Vista cause I like to see a bunch of useless stats; elevation being one of my favorites.

At the top of Big Cottonwood canyon we're registering around 4,500 feet of climbing from his house near I-15. I guess that makes sense, we may be 1/2 of the way through our day.

End of the day: 6553 feet on the GPS. Upload to MotionBased, a Garmin web site, it shows 8787 feet (http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/5575238). They have this blurb about barometric pressure elevation that may be more accurate than other sources, buuuut can also be less accurate, so they have this service that adjusts elevations based on database data for gps coordinates. This ride is now adjusted to 10,268 feet (http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/5575267). Now I have 3 significantly different numbers, which one is true?

Many times since I started riding with a GPS have people told me my elevation is wrong; their numbers differ significantly to mine. Very interesting.

I gotta say, this ride was great fun. 10,000 feet or not, it was a beautiful day with great company. Makes one feel they may actually enjoy the Death Ride.

Regarding the East canyon road race

My goal: Start a race. Mission accomplished.

Here are some pictures of the race team
http://www.zazoosh.com/photos/130010073 - Steve M, Stephen H
http://www.zazoosh.com/photos/130030245 - Steve M
http://www.zazoosh.com/photos/130030246 - Steve M
http://www.zazoosh.com/photos/130030247 - Steve M
http://www.zazoosh.com/photos/130030250 - Stephen H
http://www.zazoosh.com/photos/130010183 - Stephen H

Here are some pictures of me posing as a racer - but really out for a club ride
http://www.zazoosh.com/photos/130030083
http://www.zazoosh.com/photos/130030084
http://www.zazoosh.com/photos/130010027
http://www.zazoosh.com/photos/130030464
http://www.zazoosh.com/photos/130030465

The plan was to ride with Steve M and Stephen H. Didn't happen cause I never saw them at the start. Turns out they had a different start time than I did. Lesson learned: The whole team may want to register together.

I secretly thought I could do well climbing and was happy this race had a few decent climbs. First thing I'm told: one of the climbs is taken away; we're not going to Lost Creek. Race starts, goes for a few miles before the only real climb. The pack is lurching, weird tempo. Makes the start of the climb really odd and makes me lose touch of the front group. I don't feel I need to push too hard since I have 50+ miles to go; I'll catch up. Where is this pack of Cat 5 racers going? Bah, there's a slower pack behind me, I'll wait for them. Where's the slower pack at? Good thing this was an out-and- back, otherwise I would have never seen either packs again. At the turnaround point the faster pack was approximately 4 miles in front of me, and I was probably 5-6 miles ahead of the slower pack. I was pretty much on a solo mission. Lesson learned: Maybe try harder to stick with the pack, it may help for the 50+ miles later.

My first criterium

I drive up. Stephen H is in the parking lot. Cool, I won't be alone. Brent W is there but not dressed to ride. He tells me his knee hurts; I think he wanted to watch us guinea pigs before trying it. Stephen and I eventually get to the start line, we discuss the risk of 'people that haven't done this before' and how many of them may be around us. We are not interested in crashing. We just want to try this out.

Turns out I was that person to be scared of. I touched wheels with someone, swerved to stay upright, poor guy to my left almost crashes. I took corners as if I were racing a car or go-kart: momentum is key. Start the turn high, dip into the inside, get out of it scuffing the minimum amount of speed. Great racing technique for most vehicles but not so much for bike racing. I get yelled at cause this is not the way to make turns and I nearly cause a number of crashes. I m sooo glad everyone there was skilled enough to overcome my ignorance. I suck. Lesson learned: don't suck.

One turn to go - Stephen takes the last turn nicely, positions himself to the left of our pack of 8-10, takes off. He said he got beat by one person at the very end of the sprint. From my viewpoint he had a great sprint. Well done.

This experience my friends, is a RUSH. It's a 30 minute violent effort filled with sprints - partly because of the way people slow down at each turn and stand on it as they get out of a turn, partly because some people try to sprint out the front. Lessons learned: good workout, completely different than a club ride or 60 mile race, will improve my riding overall.