Lost Valley Luau

My Quantum Mesa cycling team put on the Lost Valley Luau mountain bike race this past weekend. I volunteered to help out with the race, but I kind of really wanted to participate in the race as well. The organizer was kind enough to put me on registration duty so after registration closed I’d be able to hop into the race.

I’ve never done a mountain bike race before. The closest I came was in the Tracks N Treads off road duathlon last spring, but in that race the run came first and I had a huge lead going into the bike leg. This was going to be a mass start mountain bike race with everyone making a mad dash down a gravel path in order to get to the single track trail first. I was quite curious how this would play out, yet utterly terrified at the same time. Complicating matters was the fact that I missed the beginner race earlier in the day due to my volunteer duties, so I was racing in the sport class (above beginner level, but below expert). Also, I’ve only ridden my mountain bike once in the past 14 months.

What’s the worst that could happen?

My expectations were low. I wanted to finish the race. I didn’t want to crash. I didn’t want to cause someone else to crash. I didn’t want to have a mechanical. I believed there was a realistic chance I could finish dead last, but that didn’t bother me. I was there to have fun and to learn.

The start of the race was much faster than I expected, and rather than go into oxygen debt at the start of a 2 hour race I just let the fast guys go. After the scariest steep gravel descent I’ve ever ridden (my arms were shaking violently from side to side, which is not what you want when you’re traveling 30+ mph) we made it to a long ascent–Rob’s time to shine. I passed a lot of people who had gone out faster than me and I got into a good position for the single track.

It was immediately obvious I was outclassed by the technical skills of the riders around me. I tried to stay in contact with them for as long as possible. A couple riders passed me in the early miles, then a couple more a bit later. We came out of the woods onto another gravel road and I cranked up the speed a bit and gained some ground back on my fellow riders. In the next two section of single track I did a bitter better, and my confidence grew a bit.

The whole time we were constantly passing people on the side of the trail who were stopped with mechanicals, or picking themselves back up after a crash. I expected to see a few mechanicals, but there were far more than I would have guessed–dozens, I’d say.

I passed another handful of riders on the gravel road leading to the finish line at the end of the first loop. I headed back out for my second 11 mile loop with nobody in sight ahead of me.

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Photo courtesy of Karen Einig

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Photo courtesy of Karen Einig

I was cooked at the bottom of the long gravel ascent, so I took it much slower than the first lap. Just before I reached the single track I felt raindrops. Then a few minutes later it began to pour. I was stuck behind a guy going a little slower than I would have liked and I thought about passing him. But the dark skies made it difficult for me to see (my transitions lenses got me again) and the muddy trail slowed me down even more. I eventually took off my glasses, but then I had to deal with mud in my eyes, which was almost as bad. I stuck with him for several miles until we reached the gravel road again, then I finally passed.

The last two sections of single track again went fairly well for me, though they were much slower on account of the mud. I passed 1-2 more riders in the final gravel road section before the finish line. It was still pouring down rain at the finish so I had to wait until later in the day to find the results online. I finished 13th of 43 in the sport race, and 4th of 12 in the 30-39 age group. So it went pretty well (even if it did end my streak of 11 consecutive top ten race finishes).

Muddy

Another rider in the sport race captured his first 20 minutes on video, which was fun to watch. About 1 second into this video you can see my orange jersey on the far left side about two rows ahead of the camera. Enjoy.

The least prepared I’ve ever been for a race

Better late than never.

Each fall there is a cyclocross race a half mile from my house. I missed out on racing it last season (2011) due to absent-mindedness. I almost missed out on racing it this season (2012) for the same reason. I remembered which weekend the race was, and I thought I knew which day it was on (Sunday). I just finished eating a big lunch on Saturday when I sat down on the couch to check on the start time of the race tomorrow. The race starts at 1 pm. Today. It’s 12:25 pm. I have a full stomach. I haven’t ridden my cyclocross bike in weeks. This is the least prepared I’ve ever been for a race.

I spent about three minutes deciding whether or not to go. I quickly changed clothes, grabbed my bike (which thankfully was in working order), and rode over to register for the race. By this time it was 12:50-ish.

I started mid-pack and spent the first few laps moving up. By half way through the race I could only see one guy ahead of me and I was catching up to him. With two laps to go I dropped my chain and lost some time. With one and a half laps to go I dropped my chain and lost some time. With one lap to go I dropped my chain and lost some time. I had no chance of catching up after that triple whammy.

Concordia Cross

I ended up finishing, wait for it, 3rd. Apparently there was a guy off the front who I never saw. Anyway, considering my complete and utter lack of preparedness I was quite pleased with the result.

This ended up being my last race of 2012, and it capped off what I consider to be a breakthrough year for me. I raced 26 times (not including the weekly practice crits). I had 3 wins (in 3 different sports), 9 podium finishes, and 18 top ten finishes. Furthermore I made it through such a tough year with no major injuries. Hopefully I can maintain this momentum into 2013.

October, November, December 2012

Well, it’s been a while. November and December were a little bit crazy for me on account of a project I was working on in my spare time.

Running

I haven’t raced since October, but I’ve been doing a lot of high quality training in my build up for the Fuego y Agua 50K in February. As you can see from the chart below, I ran farther in 2012 than any of the past 11 years. This is also the longest I’ve gone without a sidelining injury during that time. June of 2012 was the only month with low mileage, and that was when I intentionally took a break to recover from my spring races.

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 78.06 Mile 9 8.67333 Mile
February 75.2586 Mile 9 8.36206 Mile
March 126.15 Mile 14 9.01071 Mile
April 146.28 Mile 16 9.1425 Mile
May 166.75 Mile 18 9.26389 Mile
June 54.83 Mile 7 7.83286 Mile
July 115.76 Mile 9 12.8622 Mile
August 91.81 Mile 9 10.2011 Mile
September 123.61 Mile 15 8.24067 Mile
October 115.4 Mile 12 9.61667 Mile
November 118.23 Mile 13 9.09462 Mile
December 129.98 Mile 14 9.28429 Mile
Total 1342.12 Mile 145 9.25599 Mile

Running 2012 12


Cycling

Concordia Cross

Some other guy (not me)

Cycling was virtually non-existent for me the past few months. I did one cyclocross race in November on no training and somehow still wound up with a good result. The lack of bike miles towards the end of the year almost allowed my modest running mileage to catch up.

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 25.33 Mile 2 12.665 Mile
February 40.08 Mile 3 13.36 Mile
March 213.43 Mile 20 10.6715 Mile
April 253.27 Mile 23 11.0117 Mile
May 322.147 Mile 24 13.4228 Mile
June 282.57 Mile 13 21.7362 Mile
July 260.12 Mile 16 16.2575 Mile
August 81.87 Mile 8 10.2338 Mile
September 45.46 Mile 8 5.6825 Mile
October 35.37 Mile 8 4.42125 Mile
November 10.58 Mile 1 10.58 Mile
December 22.7 Mile 6 3.78333 Mile
Total 1592.93 Mile 132 12.0676 Mile

Cycling 2012 12


Walking & Hiking

Babler hike

There was a big drop off here as well, mostly because I needed the extra hours to work on my project.

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 51.53 Mile 16 3.22063 Mile
February 42.92 Mile 18 2.38444 Mile
March 41.15 Mile 14 2.93929 Mile
April 31.89 Mile 12 2.6575 Mile
May 37.5107 Mile 13 2.88544 Mile
June 39.4 Mile 18 2.18889 Mile
July 2 Mile 2 Mile
August 64.99 Mile 25 2.5996 Mile
September 85.88 Mile 25 3.4352 Mile
October 32.34 Mile 10 3.234 Mile
November 16. Mile 5 3.2 Mile
December 15.22 Mile 4 3.805 Mile
Total 460.831 Mile 162 2.84463 Mile

Walking 2012 12


Stairmaster

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 0 0 0
February 0 0 0
March 0 0 0
April 0 0 0
May 0 0 0
June 0 0 0
July 0 0 0
August 0 0 0
September 13.85 Mile 4 3.4625 Mile
October 12.87 Mile 3 4.29 Mile
November 0 0 0
December 9.34 Mile 2 4.67 Mile
Total 36.06 Mile 9 4.00667 Mile

Stairmaster 2012 12


Swimming

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 0 0 0
February 0 0 0
March 0 0 0
April 1750. Yard 2 875. Yard
May 8050. Yard 7 1150. Yard
June 4100. Yard 3 1366.67 Yard
July 2993.61 Yard 3 997.871 Yard
August 2150. Yard 3 716.667 Yard
September 0 0 0
October 0 0 0
November 0 0 0
December 0 0 0
Total 19043.6 Yard 18 1057.98 Yard

Swimming 2012 12

Blowing It

A little over a week ago I raced the Veldrijden Columbia cyclocross race. My friend and teammate, Mark, did an excellent job organizing the event. I was in the Cat 4 (newb) race. Warming up before the start I got a pretty good idea what was in store for me… I was out of breath and I had to get off my bike to walk up a hill that was so muddy my tires just spun and I started to slide backwards when I tried to ride up it.

A last minute bathroom trip left me at the back of the pack of 30 or so riders for the start. Which is exactly where I didn’t want to be. The start of a cyclocross race is so important to one’s chances of success. I took off like crazy, passing several people, to get up into 12th or so place by the first turn. Then there was a fast section where I moved up a few more places before we hit the challenging parts of the course.

I handled my bike well and I remained patient. I would seize any opening I could find to pass somebody and move up a bit. There was one guy way off the front and nobody had a chance of catching up to him. By about halfway through the race, though, I had caught up with the chase group. My teammate Mike was in 2nd, some other guy was in 3rd, and I had moved up into 4th. It took a while, but I eventually passed the guy to move into 3rd. Then Mike and I opened up a bit of a gap. I passed Mike, he passed me back, then I passed him back. The longer the race went on the stronger I felt and the more I could see the other riders fading.

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With one lap to go in the 35 minute race I was in 2nd place and I started to pull away from Mike a bit. I took a few unnecessary risks and got away with them. Then I blew it. On a fast, muddy downhill section I lost control of my front wheel and went down hard, smacking my (helmet-protected) head on the ground. I slid to a stop and quickly moved my bike out of the way so Mike didn’t go over top of me. My first reaction (as is the case any time I’ve crashed on a bike) was that I was seriously injured. My head was killing me. My next reaction was damn, I just crashed out of the race with half a lap to go when I was in 2nd place. After wallowing in self pity for a few moments it occurred to me that nobody besides Mike had passed me yet–I was still in 3rd place. I was still in podium position. Was I really injured? Could I actually get back on my bike and ride half a lap?

I decided to try, just as I saw two more guys coming down the hill. I jumped on my bike to get out in front of them only to discover my chain had fallen off. Crap. I pulled over to the side to let them pass as I put the chain back on, then I took off behind them, but I was unable to catch back up. I held on to finish 5th place. My head hurt, but I wasn’t injured. My body was fine. My bike was fine.

Looking on the bright side, I had a really good race. I moved up from a long way back up into 2nd place. I stayed strong throughout the whole race while other riders were slowing down. I have the fitness. I just need to learn to ride my bike.

September 2012

Running

Forest Park XC Festival

I continued doing a lot of shorter runs throughout September (if 8+ miles per run can be considered short). More importantly I got back on track of running 3-4 times per week. I raced the Forest Park Cross Country Festival, my first race after the epic Howl. Later in the month I gradually started ramping my mileage up in preparation for The Next Ultra in October.

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 78.06 Mile 9 8.67333 Mile
February 75.2586 Mile 9 8.36206 Mile
March 126.15 Mile 14 9.01071 Mile
April 146.28 Mile 16 9.1425 Mile
May 166.75 Mile 18 9.26389 Mile
June 54.83 Mile 7 7.83286 Mile
July 115.76 Mile 9 12.8622 Mile
August 91.81 Mile 9 10.2011 Mile
September 123.61 Mile 15 8.24067 Mile
Total 978.509 Mile 106 9.23121 Mile

Running 2012 9


Cycling

MVI_1289

Unfortunately, I missed out on Gateway Cup this year. My knee just wasn’t ready for bike racing yet. I took a few more weeks off before starting to get back into the swing of bike racing at Gateway Cross Cup.

Bike Distance # Rides Avg per Ride
Bianchi 16.65 Mile 2 8.325 Mile
Pocket Rocket 17.2 Mile 5 3.44 Mile
Thundercougarfalconbird 11.61 Mile 1 11.61 Mile
Total 45.46 Mile 8 5.6825 Mile

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 25.33 Mile 2 12.665 Mile
February 40.08 Mile 3 13.36 Mile
March 213.43 Mile 20 10.6715 Mile
April 253.27 Mile 23 11.0117 Mile
May 322.147 Mile 24 13.4228 Mile
June 282.57 Mile 13 21.7362 Mile
July 260.12 Mile 16 16.2575 Mile
August 81.87 Mile 8 10.2338 Mile
September 45.46 Mile 8 5.6825 Mile
Total 1524.28 Mile 117 13.028 Mile

Cycling 2012 9


Walking/Hiking

Walking home

I found walking and hiking to be the best thing for helping my knee recover. I could stretch out my legs and get blood flowing to the problem areas with no impact and little risk of further injury.

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 51.53 Mile 16 3.22063 Mile
February 42.92 Mile 18 2.38444 Mile
March 41.15 Mile 14 2.93929 Mile
April 31.89 Mile 12 2.6575 Mile
May 37.5107 Mile 13 2.88544 Mile
June 39.4 Mile 18 2.18889 Mile
July 2 Mile 2 Mile
August 64.99 Mile 25 2.5996 Mile
September 85.88 Mile 25 3.4352 Mile
Total 397.271 Mile 143 2.77812 Mile

Walking 2012 9


Stairmaster

And now for something completely different. I found a reasonably priced, high quality, used StairMaster stepper machine on Craigslist and bought it. I have wanted one of these for years. I first started using a machine nearly identical to this during the winters at the UIUC gyms a few years back. I wanted to do it more, but going to the gym was a bit of a hassle. Here in STL I don’t have a gym to go to, and going would still be a hassle. With this machine at home I can use it whenever I want. I’ve mentioned repeatedly how I don’t run on consecutive days as a rule. With this stepper I can get a comparable workout with zero impact on my knees. As a side effect, I’ve already noticed (after less than 20 miles of stepping) that my hill running has dramatically improved. I might just have a chance on the slopes of Volcan Maderas next year…

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 0 0 0
February 0 0 0
March 0 0 0
April 0 0 0
May 0 0 0
June 0 0 0
July 0 0 0
August 0 0 0
September 13.85 Mile 4 3.4625 Mile
Total 13.85 Mile 4 3.4625 Mile

Stairmaster 2012 9

Gateway Cross Cup

Cyclocross

Gateway Cross Cup snuck up on me this year. I was out of town at a conference in Chicago the weekend before the race. The Cat 4 race was 40 minutes. I hadn’t ridden a bike for 40 minutes in several weeks, let alone raced. But, whatever.

IMG_1536

I took the afternoon off work and went over to Heman Park. It had rained heavily the entire day before the race and the course was ridiculously muddy. I was the last person to register for the race and was unfortunately placed at the very back of the pack for the start (last year I was in the front row). This made things difficult. I spent the entire race going slower than I needed to and trying to find the right place to pass people. I steadily moved up the whole time. I caught up with my teammate Mike with about a lap to go and passed him with half a lap to go. We finished 14th and 15th. I moved up through more than half the field, but I just started too far back to have a chance at a good result.

Cross Country

A couple hours after the bike race was the “5K” cross country run. This year it was only a half mile longer than advertised (last year it was a full mile longer). The turnout was even smaller than last year with just 9 starters. From the gun one guy took off and would never be seen again. I hung back in a small pack but broke free about a mile into the run. I ran the last 2.5 miles alone and finished in 2nd place. Just like last year. There was a payout for finishing 2nd that exactly covered my entry fees for both races, so I broke even on the day. Just like last year. I also received a bottle of Michelob Ultra, which I gave to Melissa.

More Cyclocross

I stuck around for the Men’s Open race, the Women’s Pro race, and the Men’s Pro race. It was a lot of fun to watch really good riders on the extremely sloppy course. Here’s a bunch of photos.

Quantum Mesa Cycles in the open race:

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Pro race:

IMG_1728

IMG_1881

IMG_1894

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IMG_2016

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IMG_2124

August 2012

Running

Howl at the Moon

August was consumed by tapering for Howl at the Moon, running Howl at the Moon, and recovering from Howl at the Moon. Over half of my miles in August came in that one day. The rest of my runs were very short, but the average distance per run was heavily skewed by Howl. My knees took a real beating during the last 10 miles of that race, so I’ve been super cautious with my recovery to ensure I don’t have any long-lasting injuries as a result.

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 78.06 Mile 9 8.67333 Mile
February 75.2586 Mile 9 8.36206 Mile
March 126.15 Mile 14 9.01071 Mile
April 146.28 Mile 16 9.1425 Mile
May 166.75 Mile 18 9.26389 Mile
June 54.83 Mile 7 7.83286 Mile
July 115.76 Mile 9 12.8622 Mile
August 91.81 Mile 9 10.2011 Mile
Total 854.899 Mile 91 9.39449 Mile

Running 2012 8


Cycling

Team & race volunteers

The weird thing about my knee pains is that while I have recovered reasonably well with respect to running, I can’t say the same about cycling. 10 days after Howl I went to my regular Tuesday night practice race and by the end my knee was killing me. I took another week off of cycling. The next week I intended to go back but I didn’t make it 2 miles from home before my knee started to hurt. I took 2 more weeks off of cycling. At this point I’ve only done one serious ride in the past 6 weeks, and that one didn’t go well at all. Now that road racing season is over I can just wait this thing out and make sure it’s gone before starting up in earnest again. I’d like to do some cyclocross racing this fall, so hopefully I’m back to 100% soon.

Bike Distance # Rides Avg per Ride
Pocket Rocket 18.7 Mile 5 3.74 Mile
Thundercougarfalconbird 63.17 Mile 3 21.0567 Mile
Total 81.87 Mile 8 10.2338 Mile

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 25.33 Mile 2 12.665 Mile
February 40.08 Mile 3 13.36 Mile
March 213.43 Mile 20 10.6715 Mile
April 253.27 Mile 23 11.0117 Mile
May 322.147 Mile 24 13.4228 Mile
June 282.57 Mile 13 21.7362 Mile
July 260.12 Mile 16 16.2575 Mile
August 81.87 Mile 8 10.2338 Mile
Total 1478.82 Mile 109 13.5671 Mile

Cycling 2012 8


Walking/Hiking

In the pack

I made up for the lack of cycling with a bunch of walking and hiking. This doesn’t hurt my knee at all, and I’m more convinced than ever that walking/hiking is actually remarkable effective training for long/ultra distance running. It allows you to put in a lot of time on your feet, working your legs, without the impact of running.

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 51.53 Mile 16 3.22063 Mile
February 42.92 Mile 18 2.38444 Mile
March 41.15 Mile 14 2.93929 Mile
April 31.89 Mile 12 2.6575 Mile
May 37.5107 Mile 13 2.88544 Mile
June 39.4 Mile 18 2.18889 Mile
July 2 Mile 2 Mile
August 64.99 Mile 25 2.5996 Mile
Total 311.391 Mile 118 2.6389 Mile

Walking 2012 8


Swimming

It’s both fortunate and unfortunate that I don’t have to swim much to maintain my fitness for swimming. I just have little motivation to spend time in the pool, when I could be doing any number of things that are even more enjoyable. There’s a chance I might to one more triathlon this year, but that depends on whether my knee feels well enough to bike.

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 0 0 0
February 0 0 0
March 0 0 0
April 1750. Yard 2 875. Yard
May 8050. Yard 7 1150. Yard
June 4100. Yard 3 1366.67 Yard
July 2993.61 Yard 3 997.871 Yard
August 2150. Yard 3 716.667 Yard
Total 19043.6 Yard 18 1057.98 Yard

Swimming 2012 8

July 2012

Running

Tired legs

The slight knee pain that started in June effectively disappeared in July. I took it easy by only running twice per week, but I made my runs really count. With the Howl at the Moon 8-hour ultra coming up in August I did a lot of long runs. The first week of July I ran a total of 8 hours in 100˚F+ temperatures, and I didn’t back off from there.

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 78.06 Mile 9 8.67333 Mile
February 75.2586 Mile 9 8.36206 Mile
March 126.15 Mile 14 9.01071 Mile
April 146.28 Mile 16 9.1425 Mile
May 166.75 Mile 18 9.26389 Mile
June 54.83 Mile 7 7.83286 Mile
July 115.76 Mile 9 12.8622 Mile
Total 763.089 Mile 82 9.30596 Mile

Running 2012 7


Cycling

Aero

I didn’t ride that frequently, but I had some good quality training and racing. I did several practice crits and time trials in 95˚F-105˚F temps. I had a strong race at the New Town Triathlon. I finished 2nd in the Great Egyptian Omnium TT and 1st in the masters 30+ 4/5 crit. This may be the first month ever I’ve ridden my TT bike more frequently than my road bike.

Bike Distance # Rides Avg per Ride
Lynskey 98.13 Mile 7 14.0186 Mile
Pocket Rocket 14.5 Mile 4 3.625 Mile
Thundercougarfalconbird 147.49 Mile 5 29.498 Mile
Total 260.12 Mile 16 16.2575 Mile

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 25.33 Mile 2 12.665 Mile
February 40.08 Mile 3 13.36 Mile
March 213.43 Mile 20 10.6715 Mile
April 253.27 Mile 23 11.0117 Mile
May 322.147 Mile 24 13.4228 Mile
June 282.57 Mile 13 21.7362 Mile
July 260.12 Mile 16 16.2575 Mile
Total 1396.95 Mile 101 13.8312 Mile

Cycling 2012 7


Swimming

Despite a race with a decent swim performance, swimming is kind of in maintenance mode right now. I just don’t have the time to devote to really improve.

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 0 0 0
February 0 0 0
March 0 0 0
April 1750. Yard 2 875. Yard
May 8050. Yard 7 1150. Yard
June 4100. Yard 3 1366.67 Yard
July 2993.61 Yard 3 997.871 Yard
Total 16893.6 Yard 15 1126.24 Yard

Swimming 2012 7

Race to your strengths

Or: The Great Egyptian Omnium

My cat 4 teammate Jason and I rode the Great Egyptian Omnium in southern Illinois last weekend. It was a good event that both of us enjoyed.

Road Race

We started the rolling 20 mile loop into a headwind, so it was pretty slow. Nobody wanted to be at the front. There were mostly teams of 1-3, except for one team with like 7-8. A few miles in the leaders finally started looking organized with a rolling pace line. I pulled when it was my turn and… nobody pulled through after me (I was at the end of the line). So much for organization.

When we turned back into the tailwind the pace picked up and the race split a few times, but nobody was willing to push the speed to take advantage of the splits. There were omnium points available at the end of the end of the first loop, but I didn’t go for it. I was hoping to save everything for the end of the race.

The second loop was much like the first, though the pack had thinned out a bit. There was a bit more cooperation and we were able to ride a bit harder into the wind. I was staying well hydrated. I had eaten reasonably well. I even took a few S!CAPS. I was feeling great when we turned to head back to the finish. A 40 mile road race with an uphill finish should suit me about as well as I could hope. Unfortunately reality hit me on the 3rd to last uphill section where I stood up to pedal and my quads cramped up really badly. Crap. I recovered over the next few miles. On the 2nd to last hill I stayed seated in the hope of avoiding cramping up, which worked. I lost my good positioning though. We quickly reached the final hill. I was able to stand and pedal. I passed a few people, but I started way to far back to have a good result. I finished 15th, with no omnium points.

Time Trial

We had a few hours to kill between the road race and the Time Trial. We ate some lunch, sat around in the shade (it was over 100˚F by this point), and prepared our bikes. When my start time approached I did a short warmup, which sucked. My quads were completely trashed from the road race. A semi-hilly time trial is normally my cup of tea, but I wasn’t looking forward to this.

The start was uphill. By the time I reached the top my quads were screaming. This is going to suck. Then the first downhill I hit 41 mph, which is a record on my TT bike. Suddenly everything was okay and I was flying. The rollers weren’t slowing me down. Before I knew it I turned into a cross-tailwind and I sped up even more. Finally, I turned onto the highway back into town and I was doing 37 mph on flat sections. I worked the uphills. It was so fast. I finished at the top of the hill in 18m55s for the 7.5 mile loop, which was good enough for 2nd place. I almost caught my 1-minute man, but I did catch the riders who started 2, 3, and 4 minutes ahead of me.

I misread the race information and I thought I would only get 2 omnium points for my 2nd place finish, so I thought I was completely out of contention for the overall win. Actually I received 12 points and I was in 4th place. I didn’t figure this out until after the crit the next day, at which point it no longer mattered.

Crit

The next morning I drove back to southern Illinois for the crit. I had to work on my bike before the race, after which I only had a few minutes to warmup. Oh well. The race was challenging, but not super-hard. I was able to move up and back through the field fairly easily. There were a couple of breakaways that never gained more than 5-10 seconds before the race would come back together. I was in pretty good position with half a lap to go, but I waited just a bit to long to sprint. I passed a bunch of people and finished 6th place, my highest placing yet in a cat 4 crit. I didn’t end up in the top 3 for the omnium.

A couple of my teammates who were racing later in the day came out early to watch me and we chatted a bit after the race. The race didn’t take that much out of me, and there were two more races I was eligible to ride, so (after some egging-on by my teammates) I registered for the Masters 30+ 4-5 race a couple hours later.

Crit #2

As soon as I came back to the team tent after registering for the second crit we began to talk strategy. It was a very interesting conversation that went something like this:

Me: I registered for the Masters/4/5 race.

BJ & Nick: So how are you going to win this race?

Me: Hmm, good question.

Them: But you are going to win, right?

At this point I’m thinking this is a bit absurd. I don’t win bike races. Running, sure. Triathlon, sure. Cycling, I’m just not as good. And a flat criterium is the type of race I am worst at.

Me: I suppose it depends who else is in the race.

Them: No, it doesn’t. Race to your strengths, not to your opponents weaknesses. What are your strengths? Can you sprint?

Me: Nope.

Them: But you can ride a good TT. You finished 2nd in the TT yesterday. There you go.

Me: Alright.

Them: Here’s what you’re going to do. You’re going to jump at two laps to go and you’re going to ride all out by yourself for the last two laps and you’re going to win. But you have to fully commit… so much so that if you get caught you can’t even finish with the group. Just leave it all out on the course.

I’ve never tried something like this before, so I was game to give it a go. I didn’t actually think it was going to work, but these guys know a lot more about bike racing than I do and, what the hell, what can it hurt to try. I already did the race I came here for, this is just a bonus.

The race was easy and I just sat safely in the pack the whole time. With 3 laps to go I started dropping back in the field. With two laps to go I jumped hard from the back of the field. By the time I passed the guys at the front I was going 10 mph faster than they were and they weren’t able to grab my wheel. I settled into TT mode and rode as hard as I could for 2.5 miles. I took all the corners so much faster by myself than I was able to in the big group. A few times I looked back. There were a couple half-hearted attempts to chase me down, but nobody wanted to ride at the front of the group. And by the time the realized they need to shut down my attack it was already too late.

As I rounded the final corner my teammates were going crazy. As soon as I heard one of them say “enjoy it” I knew I had won the race. I took a quick look behind and saw nobody. I sat up and pedaled across the finish line with my arms in the air. I never thought I’d win a bike race.

After my 2nd crit I stayed around to watch my teammates in the cat 3 race where my teammate Keith won from a long (8 laps) solo attack. Mike & Nick finished 3rd and 4th from the main field. Then was the 1/2/3 race where Mark finished 2nd in a field sprint. So we all had a good day.

Keith wins

Keith wins the cat 3 race

Photo finish

Mike & Nick finish 3rd & 4th in a photo finish

Mike and BJ leading the race

Mike & BJ lead the 1/2/3 race

Mark goes for the sprint

Mark narrowly finishes 2nd

New Town Triathlon

Early in the season I found the New Town Triathlon outside of St. Charles and thought it would be a good race to try. Then I took a break from racing and completely forgot about it. A friend at the weekly Wednesday night TT reminded me of it a few days beforehand, and I thought, what the heck… I’ll do it.

Last Sunday morning I arrived with plenty of time to setup my stuff. I did a very brief warmup on the bike, running, then swimming before they cleared the water to start the race. The (longish) 1000m swim had a staggered start, with competitors beginning the race every 3 seconds. Unfortunately, since I was one of the last people to register for the race, I started near the very end and I had a long time to wait for the 600 people in front of me.

When it was time the line moved very fast and I was in the water before I knew it. A few minutes in I realized that with all the commotion I forgot to start my watch, so I hit the button and kept going. I was very concerned that the swim would be a complete clustercuss, but it was actually the most pleasant open water swim I’ve ever done. Sure I was passing a lot of slower people (and a handful passed me as well), but we weren’t running into each other at all. There was plenty of room for everyone to get by. 17-18 minutes later I exited the water. It was a good hard effort, but I didn’t kill myself.

Aero

I had an awful first transition. Something went wrong with my bike helmet straps and I couldn’t get the dang thing on my head. I must have wasted 30 seconds fumbling with it. Then I left the transition with my bike only to get caught in a traffic jam at the bike mount line. I couldn’t get around the slower people so I just had to stop and wait before I could get on my bike. Once mounted, I ripped the hell out of there, a bit pissed off. I started too fast, but things settled down quickly enough. About halfway through the 20 mile effort I started experiencing severe, um, discomfort in my saddle area. Something wasn’t right and I was in quite a bit of pain for the last 10 miles. It slowed me down, as I had to frequently stop pedaling when my legs felt fine just to readjust things in an attempt to relieve the discomfort. I was disappointed my bike wasn’t as fast as I wanted, but I was incredibly relieved to get off the bike.

My second transition was better and I was out on the run quickly. This is usually where I excel, and this would be no different. Having started at the back, I had been passing people the whole race, but now it was a steady stream. Speaking of streams, several residents along the course pointed their sprinklers and garden hoses out into the course so competitors could cool down. It was well into the 90’s at this point and most of the people seemed to enjoy it. Not me. I tried to avoid it like the plague, but the sprinklers covered the entire course in many places and some people actually sprayed me with their hoses after I did my best to ask them not to. The result of this is that my shoes were soaking wet for about 3 of the 4 miles during the run and I developed horrible blisters that made running very painful. My legs felt fine and I wasn’t having trouble breathing, but with the intense effort the heat was starting to get to me and my stomach was feeling a bit queasy, so I couldn’t really go any faster.

After the finish I gulped as much water as I could. It was brutally hot. I hobbled around for a while trying to find some shade. Once the race started to thin out a bit I was able to get back into the transition area and pack up my stuff and take it back to my car. It didn’t take long to get results (since I started near the end) and I was quite surprised that, despite feeling like crap for much of the race, I actually had a pretty decent result. I finished 30th overall (including the elites, 14th not including them) out of over 600 participants, 3rd in my age group. I averaged 1:35/100 in the swim (about what I expected), 22.9 mph on the bike (a tad bit slower than I hoped), and 6:04/mile (the course was short, my actual pace was closer to 6:28/mile) on the run.

So it turned out to be a good race.