Tomorrow is my second road race of the year, the inaugural O'Fallon Grand Prix. My first road race, Froze Toes back in February, will seem like a ride around the neighborhood compared to this race. The course involves a great deal of corners (18-20 or so), narrow backcountry roads, and a few short, but strategic climbs. The chatter on the local boards hasn't been too excessive, so I don't know if others don't know what to expect, they don't care (just show up and race), or they're skipping the race altogether.
As prep, I put in a few hours this week of spinning to open up the legs. A few hard sprints and hill attacks here and there, but nothing too sustained. This morning was an hour on a small loop down Clayton road to Spoede and back along Conway to Mason. Nothing major but enough to get a little oxygen into the lungs and some tightness out of the legs. Saw several riders out this morning including local mtb star, Drew Black, replete in his Mesa digs. Drew's off to a great season on the mtb and as soon as he's wrapped up the Sport series title, will be thrashing riders in the Expert class.
Our team seems to be ready and I look forward to riding with them tomorrow. We've got a great group of racers and I'm honored to get to put a wheel on the line with them. Tomorrow's bible verse to be placed on the bike will be from Psalm 7:1, "O Lord my God, in you I have taken refuge; Save me from all those who pursue me, and deliver me." Let's have a great race!
Friday, May 30, 2008
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Wiffle Ball
Tonight, I got home and was greeted by my son and his friend. They were looking to install a video baseball game on the computer and were asking for my permission. My response, "No. By the way, go outside and play catch or something." Amidst the grumbles and huffs, I decided it was time to teach the boys a new game. Wiffle ball. Yeah, they've messed around with it, but they've never played with the lawnchair, 1 pitcher, and 1 fielder.
I changed clothes, asked my wife to hold dinner for a while, and proceeded to explain the rules of the game. Within a matter of minutes they were hooked by the game and the physics of the pitches. While I'm no pitching ace with the ball, I can make it move around with enough movement to buckle your knees or fool you into thinking this pitch has no chance of making the strike zone. After 1 hour of playing, we had a brief intermission for dinner and resumed the game. The boys love it now. Hopefully, they'll play during the day, but I think the video games may lure them back. I recall my father and his best friend taking me, my brother, and the best friend's son on in a game of wiffle. They beat us like rented mules. They could hit and throw mesmerizing pitches. After that, we played for hours on end trying to get good enough to beat them. It never happened.
In an attempt to learn even more pitches, I stumbled across this dude's video which shows how to really throw a wiffle ball. Amazing stuff. Perhaps with a little practice, I'll be in his league. More likely, the boys will learn how to throw it like this and start schooling me.
I changed clothes, asked my wife to hold dinner for a while, and proceeded to explain the rules of the game. Within a matter of minutes they were hooked by the game and the physics of the pitches. While I'm no pitching ace with the ball, I can make it move around with enough movement to buckle your knees or fool you into thinking this pitch has no chance of making the strike zone. After 1 hour of playing, we had a brief intermission for dinner and resumed the game. The boys love it now. Hopefully, they'll play during the day, but I think the video games may lure them back. I recall my father and his best friend taking me, my brother, and the best friend's son on in a game of wiffle. They beat us like rented mules. They could hit and throw mesmerizing pitches. After that, we played for hours on end trying to get good enough to beat them. It never happened.
In an attempt to learn even more pitches, I stumbled across this dude's video which shows how to really throw a wiffle ball. Amazing stuff. Perhaps with a little practice, I'll be in his league. More likely, the boys will learn how to throw it like this and start schooling me.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
A 'Perfect' TT
Yesterday was Ghisallo's Velo in the Valley Time Trial. Over 130 racers lined up to test their meddle against the clock for a 12 mile race of truth. Originally, the TT was to be on Saturday and a criterium was to be held on Sunday. Unfortunately, after a great deal of work the plans with Chesterfield just wouldn't come together and the crit had to be scrapped. Let me say the good folks from Ghisallo made up for the cancelation of the crit by putting together a fantastic TT for racers. Kudos all around.
I was 9th man (or racer to be politically and technically correct) off the line. I did my warm-up, settled into the line-up and soon enough was off. My goal this race was to get to my target heart rate as quickly as possible and stay there for the entire race. For me, that's a HR of 165 beats a minute. I averaged 166 beats a minute for the race. My other goal was to finish in 28 minutes. I finished in 28:32. That's close enough for me. Albeit in the world of TT, 32 seconds can be the difference between 1st and 20th. Although in this race, the difference between 1st and my 5th place finish was 74 seconds. During the race, I used two gears. I would shift up to keep my cadence over the rollers while attempting to keep the lactic acid buildup in my legs down. Cresting the rollers, I would downshift and use the incline to pick my pace back up. Talking to several racers afterwards, they did the same.
This was also my first TT with my new rear wheel. Mark at Ballwin Cycles provided me with a sweet team deal on a Mavic Comete for my TT bike. The wheel was definitely a plus during the ride and I'm thankful to Mark for the help. My good buddy, Mark Ewers, took advantage of his recent upgrade to the Cat 4's to put his foot down and acknowledge his presence as a super solid contender for today, and future TT's, with an impressive 2nd place and a time of 27:25. Also, it was good to see a couple of my teammates, Theo Vander Velde and Rob Oellermann racing in the Cat 3's. Theo finished in the money with a 4th place and Rob got himself a top 10 place. Well done gentlemen!!
Looking back on my race I really couldn't have changed much. Technically, I messed up one of the only 90 degree corners on the course, but that was with the help of a non-racing rider on the course. He cut across the apex of the corner on my line and I had to seriously come out of the pace. Didn't cost me any finishing spots, but certainly took me out of my rhythm. I'll just say it was a good thing I have been racing crits because I ended up taking a very aggressive line on a bike ill-suited for such cornering.
Finally, I must mention the bible verse I put on my bike. 2 Samuel 22:33 "It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect." While I didn't win my race, God certainly was with me and made my way perfect.
I was 9th man (or racer to be politically and technically correct) off the line. I did my warm-up, settled into the line-up and soon enough was off. My goal this race was to get to my target heart rate as quickly as possible and stay there for the entire race. For me, that's a HR of 165 beats a minute. I averaged 166 beats a minute for the race. My other goal was to finish in 28 minutes. I finished in 28:32. That's close enough for me. Albeit in the world of TT, 32 seconds can be the difference between 1st and 20th. Although in this race, the difference between 1st and my 5th place finish was 74 seconds. During the race, I used two gears. I would shift up to keep my cadence over the rollers while attempting to keep the lactic acid buildup in my legs down. Cresting the rollers, I would downshift and use the incline to pick my pace back up. Talking to several racers afterwards, they did the same.
This was also my first TT with my new rear wheel. Mark at Ballwin Cycles provided me with a sweet team deal on a Mavic Comete for my TT bike. The wheel was definitely a plus during the ride and I'm thankful to Mark for the help. My good buddy, Mark Ewers, took advantage of his recent upgrade to the Cat 4's to put his foot down and acknowledge his presence as a super solid contender for today, and future TT's, with an impressive 2nd place and a time of 27:25. Also, it was good to see a couple of my teammates, Theo Vander Velde and Rob Oellermann racing in the Cat 3's. Theo finished in the money with a 4th place and Rob got himself a top 10 place. Well done gentlemen!!
Looking back on my race I really couldn't have changed much. Technically, I messed up one of the only 90 degree corners on the course, but that was with the help of a non-racing rider on the course. He cut across the apex of the corner on my line and I had to seriously come out of the pace. Didn't cost me any finishing spots, but certainly took me out of my rhythm. I'll just say it was a good thing I have been racing crits because I ended up taking a very aggressive line on a bike ill-suited for such cornering.
Finally, I must mention the bible verse I put on my bike. 2 Samuel 22:33 "It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect." While I didn't win my race, God certainly was with me and made my way perfect.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Gone Fishin'
Today is going to be a beautiful day. I'm skipping work and going fishing with my son. How nice, eh? What a dad, you say? Keep this in mind. Joining us will be the remainder of my son's 4th grade class. All 61 of them! Yep, I'm one of the parent sponsors for the field trip and my job...baiting hooks and removing any fish which may be caught.
Joking aside, my wife is joining me and I'm actually looking forward to spending the day with her, my son, and the kids. Fishing is a great way to pass the time and relax the body. If you're a parent and you've never taken you child(ren) fishing, you're missing a good opportunity to connect with them in God's nature. The goal is never to catch a lot of fish or even your next meal, just relax and have fun. And that is exactly what I intend on doing today.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Chasing a Dream
Yesterday I decided to get in one of the Monday night rides. This ride is fast group ride and it usually draws a large group of diverse cyclists. Generally, all of the hammering starts out early and the pack dwindles as riders are spit out the back the further the ride continues. Last night was a particularly fast ride and early on, Shawn O'Neal decided the pace was going to be kept high. Immediately, we rolled out stringing the group down the road. I was joined by Kent Jones from my team and we took up spots near the front of the pack. As we rolled out of the first turn, we decided to slide back to recover.
As we rolled along, the traffic was a little heavy and the front of the group used that to their advantage by blocking off the back half of the group. They immediately sensed blood and surged the pace. Gapped, we fought to get back into the crowd. Kent and I found ourselves with 11 other riders in a chase group. The lead group kept the pace high and with the headwinds, we organized into a good rotating paceline to keep our own pace high. We seemed to be gaining some ground, but never enough to close the deal. Our group eliminated 1-2 rider and then it was 9. One two occasions, I decided to ride off the front of the group. While I wasn't expecting to bridge up, I was effectively working on the effort it would take to do so under race conditions. Suffice it to say I need more work in this area. I'm not sure it was the wind or the unrelenting gears we were pushing but my back was really starting to ache.
With 5 or 6 miles to go, I again decided to ride off the front to see if we could get our group's pace up and reel in the lead pack. While I did get off the front for a while, I basically burned my self up in the process and was done for the night. With 4 miles to go, I was fighting to stay in the chase group and once that feeling hit me, I shut it down and cruised solo at 23mph in no man's land finishing 45 seconds behind the chase group.
After I finished I cooled down with Kent and listened to his advice. Don't pull too hard into the headwind and don't do more work than you need to. I've got a lot to learn in this sport. I'm thankful men like Kent are there to help point out my faults and keep me coming back. In the end, it was one of the fastest rides I've done this year and that includes all the races I've done. I'm shutting it down for the rest of the week and only doing recovery spins until the TT on Saturday. And then, I'll chase down that elusive dream. A dream of speed.
As we rolled along, the traffic was a little heavy and the front of the group used that to their advantage by blocking off the back half of the group. They immediately sensed blood and surged the pace. Gapped, we fought to get back into the crowd. Kent and I found ourselves with 11 other riders in a chase group. The lead group kept the pace high and with the headwinds, we organized into a good rotating paceline to keep our own pace high. We seemed to be gaining some ground, but never enough to close the deal. Our group eliminated 1-2 rider and then it was 9. One two occasions, I decided to ride off the front of the group. While I wasn't expecting to bridge up, I was effectively working on the effort it would take to do so under race conditions. Suffice it to say I need more work in this area. I'm not sure it was the wind or the unrelenting gears we were pushing but my back was really starting to ache.
With 5 or 6 miles to go, I again decided to ride off the front to see if we could get our group's pace up and reel in the lead pack. While I did get off the front for a while, I basically burned my self up in the process and was done for the night. With 4 miles to go, I was fighting to stay in the chase group and once that feeling hit me, I shut it down and cruised solo at 23mph in no man's land finishing 45 seconds behind the chase group.
After I finished I cooled down with Kent and listened to his advice. Don't pull too hard into the headwind and don't do more work than you need to. I've got a lot to learn in this sport. I'm thankful men like Kent are there to help point out my faults and keep me coming back. In the end, it was one of the fastest rides I've done this year and that includes all the races I've done. I'm shutting it down for the rest of the week and only doing recovery spins until the TT on Saturday. And then, I'll chase down that elusive dream. A dream of speed.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Castlewood 2, Boz 0
Sunday marked my return to the 'wood for a few hard race laps and a strong desire to even the score. As you recall, Grotpeter knocked me out 2/3rd's of the way through last weekends race. I needed to put in 2 hours of hard hill efforts and after a 30 minute warm-up, that's exactly what I intended to do. Unfortunately, the 'wood had other plans for me.
The river trails are worthless right now. I didn't know that and cluelessly headed down to find repeated sections of either mud, water, or large sections of fallen treelimbs and many cases large fallen trees. After hiking the bike in several sections, I made a beeline back to the front of the park and some race loop laps. However, by this time my bike was considerably caked with mud. (Sorry GORC-sters, but trust me on this you have fewer issues to deal with than my muddy groves in already decimated trails.)
I began the loops on the painful Lone Wolf climb, my Garmin was registering 22% gradient on that beast, but I wasn't buying into the pain. I kept the cadence strong and the power on until the chainsuck started. At all of the right places, I would have to come out of the gas, backpedal, and restart the spinning. Happened 4-5 times until just before reaching the castle and bang, the chain breaks. Luckily, it was the Connex quick link which separated and after working with it for what seemed like 10-15 minutes, I got it to re-connect and I rolled down towards the parking lot. Being slightly angry, I was hammering the downhill and entering the small hairpin ditch crossing (the one armored with rocks that you cross when coming off the downhill of LW) I pressed a bad line and paid dearly. The result was an ejection seat like dismount over the handlebars. The kind where you get propelled over the bars but have enough time to attempt to jump from the bike as a rodeo cowboy leaves a buckin' bronco. The damage? A rather large bruise on the front of my right shin.
Mumbling under my breath, I rolled back to the truck to cleaned the chain as best I could and apply some White Lightning lube to help coax the chain into another hour or so of riding. The chain seemed fine as I rolled up Love trail passing several riders moseying along. The park was packed with picnics, hikers, and bikers. As I passed several riders of all levels at what seemed like a breakneck speed, I wondered if this is how the race felt for Matt Keevan last weekend? The upper trails were in remarkably fast shape and I was hammering along grinning like Dwayne G. Dropping out of the upper waterbars I muttered a few words that had something to do with renovation plans for said area that included a pickaxe and shovel. (See prior post for reason why.)
On the second lap, more of the same. However, this time just as I reached the connector turn-off to head to roller coaster I heard the screech of car tires, a very loud boom, and then a car horn blaring non-stop. Immediately sensing this was a car wreck I turn and start pedaling for Ries road to see if I could help. As I pedal I'm thinking I'm not a doctor, I don't have any medical experience, and I nearly faint at the sight of someone getting a shot. Yeah, I'll be helpful.
I pop out onto the road and sure enough it's a head-on collision. The occupants are standing outside of their cars, airbags are all out, and one driver has bloody hands. As I ask if everyone is okay, they all respond 'yes'(thank God.) As I continue to ask them if they are okay they keep saying something about the other driver. I look back at the cars and don't see another person in or near the cars. Then they say the other driver took off running. Now I'm trying to decide if I need to ride after the runaway driver. After confirming they were okay (they were talking with family and friends on their cell phones) I decide to go get the park ranger. About this time the other driver (shirtless and looking rather angry) comes walking back up the hill. I turn around and see the park ranger coming and ride up to point out the runaway driver to him and explain what the people told me. He shifts into serious mode, cuffs the driver, and proceeds to get the situation under control.
I get back to my riding, say a prayer for the people involved in the crash, and attack roller coaster one last time. I pour out everything I have into the trail and scoot on down to the truck. I'm thankful for the day, but feel the 'wood took another bite out of me. I'm keeping score and I'll be back. The ride wasn't a complete waste of time and I got in some hard efforts. My legs are feeling great and my mind is getting stronger. That's the plan and the plan is coming together.
The river trails are worthless right now. I didn't know that and cluelessly headed down to find repeated sections of either mud, water, or large sections of fallen treelimbs and many cases large fallen trees. After hiking the bike in several sections, I made a beeline back to the front of the park and some race loop laps. However, by this time my bike was considerably caked with mud. (Sorry GORC-sters, but trust me on this you have fewer issues to deal with than my muddy groves in already decimated trails.)
I began the loops on the painful Lone Wolf climb, my Garmin was registering 22% gradient on that beast, but I wasn't buying into the pain. I kept the cadence strong and the power on until the chainsuck started. At all of the right places, I would have to come out of the gas, backpedal, and restart the spinning. Happened 4-5 times until just before reaching the castle and bang, the chain breaks. Luckily, it was the Connex quick link which separated and after working with it for what seemed like 10-15 minutes, I got it to re-connect and I rolled down towards the parking lot. Being slightly angry, I was hammering the downhill and entering the small hairpin ditch crossing (the one armored with rocks that you cross when coming off the downhill of LW) I pressed a bad line and paid dearly. The result was an ejection seat like dismount over the handlebars. The kind where you get propelled over the bars but have enough time to attempt to jump from the bike as a rodeo cowboy leaves a buckin' bronco. The damage? A rather large bruise on the front of my right shin.
Mumbling under my breath, I rolled back to the truck to cleaned the chain as best I could and apply some White Lightning lube to help coax the chain into another hour or so of riding. The chain seemed fine as I rolled up Love trail passing several riders moseying along. The park was packed with picnics, hikers, and bikers. As I passed several riders of all levels at what seemed like a breakneck speed, I wondered if this is how the race felt for Matt Keevan last weekend? The upper trails were in remarkably fast shape and I was hammering along grinning like Dwayne G. Dropping out of the upper waterbars I muttered a few words that had something to do with renovation plans for said area that included a pickaxe and shovel. (See prior post for reason why.)
On the second lap, more of the same. However, this time just as I reached the connector turn-off to head to roller coaster I heard the screech of car tires, a very loud boom, and then a car horn blaring non-stop. Immediately sensing this was a car wreck I turn and start pedaling for Ries road to see if I could help. As I pedal I'm thinking I'm not a doctor, I don't have any medical experience, and I nearly faint at the sight of someone getting a shot. Yeah, I'll be helpful.
I pop out onto the road and sure enough it's a head-on collision. The occupants are standing outside of their cars, airbags are all out, and one driver has bloody hands. As I ask if everyone is okay, they all respond 'yes'(thank God.) As I continue to ask them if they are okay they keep saying something about the other driver. I look back at the cars and don't see another person in or near the cars. Then they say the other driver took off running. Now I'm trying to decide if I need to ride after the runaway driver. After confirming they were okay (they were talking with family and friends on their cell phones) I decide to go get the park ranger. About this time the other driver (shirtless and looking rather angry) comes walking back up the hill. I turn around and see the park ranger coming and ride up to point out the runaway driver to him and explain what the people told me. He shifts into serious mode, cuffs the driver, and proceeds to get the situation under control.
I get back to my riding, say a prayer for the people involved in the crash, and attack roller coaster one last time. I pour out everything I have into the trail and scoot on down to the truck. I'm thankful for the day, but feel the 'wood took another bite out of me. I'm keeping score and I'll be back. The ride wasn't a complete waste of time and I got in some hard efforts. My legs are feeling great and my mind is getting stronger. That's the plan and the plan is coming together.
Friday, May 16, 2008
Just Ride
This week is filled with a lot of recovery rides. Totally cool. Seems like a gift in a way. Riding a bike with the sole purpose of doing nothing. Recovery rides call for keeping my heart rate under zone 2, which for me is under 142 beats per minute. In the flats to rollers, that means I can still get up to a little over 20mph without moving the needle on the HRM above the governor limited 'redline.'
Tomorrow, I hope to 'just ride' a few miles with my good friend Scott Thompson as he begins his 400km brevet ride. Nope, I wrote 400km. Yep, that's 248 miles in one day. Scott's done several of these before, too. Why do you think his blog is called Ultra Scott? Last year, Ultra Scott completed the 248 miles in just under 20 hours. While I know Scott isn't usually focused on the speed of a ride, I'm sure he's looking to improve his time overall. Based on the weather forecast for the weekend, looks like he'll have favorable conditions for his effort.
If things go well, I'll roll out with him for the first hour and a half and then bid him well. I'd ride longer with him, but my son has a full slate of baseball and soccer tomorrow. Besides, I just need to ride a little, not a lot. I'm not going to deviate from my training, either. I can really feel my legs coming on now and I'm optimistic for some upcoming races. While I've been just riding this week, I have never felt stronger on the bike and I'm sure the best is yet to come. The good news is that the fun factor of being on the bike has never been higher.
Tomorrow, I hope to 'just ride' a few miles with my good friend Scott Thompson as he begins his 400km brevet ride. Nope, I wrote 400km. Yep, that's 248 miles in one day. Scott's done several of these before, too. Why do you think his blog is called Ultra Scott? Last year, Ultra Scott completed the 248 miles in just under 20 hours. While I know Scott isn't usually focused on the speed of a ride, I'm sure he's looking to improve his time overall. Based on the weather forecast for the weekend, looks like he'll have favorable conditions for his effort.
If things go well, I'll roll out with him for the first hour and a half and then bid him well. I'd ride longer with him, but my son has a full slate of baseball and soccer tomorrow. Besides, I just need to ride a little, not a lot. I'm not going to deviate from my training, either. I can really feel my legs coming on now and I'm optimistic for some upcoming races. While I've been just riding this week, I have never felt stronger on the bike and I'm sure the best is yet to come. The good news is that the fun factor of being on the bike has never been higher.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Castlewood 1, Boz 0
Saturday was the do or die day. Depending on my results in the race, I was either sticking to the roads for the rest of the season or continuing my plans to race both mountain and road for the remainder of the year. Specifically what sort of result was I looking for? Depended on the field. As it turns out, we had 40 racers in the Sport class field. Nope, that's not a misprint, 40 racers. It was an awesome sight for sure. Actually looked like the start of a crit race. The only sight that surpassed that was the sight of 7 of my ICCC brothers lined up to represent.
I felt good coming into the race. I had two weeks of good training coming into the race and took a few days off before the race. I lined up near the front, but I wasn't overly worried about staying in front leaving the field. I knew there would be plenty of legs and lungs exploding on the Lone Wolf climb. My plan was to start hitting the gas near the top waterbar and begin picking off riders. I was fairly successful, but watched the top 5-6 guys immediately open a gap as we neared the castle. About that time, Superman Matt Keevan was killing the pace on his singlespeed (his race started 1 minute behind ours) as he began picking his way through our field. I rode behind him until the first bridge on Love and then he was gone like a rocket.
The first lap was a train of riders heading through Love and Rollercoaster. Good clean racing all around. As we neared the lower Grotpeter fireroad descent, I grabbed a little gel and drank three big swigs of Heed and settled in for the second climb of Lone Wolf. As we climbed Lone Wolf, our pack of riders splintered a little but regrouped closer to the Ranger Station. The pace was not overly fast, but it was strong as we rolled towards the top of Love. As we started to dump onto the connector I missed two upshift attempts and that brought the group right on me. Having snapped out of my rhythm, I also fought hard to get back into the flow of the trail and that brought everyone onto my tail.
I was second in the train of 5 riders all within seconds of each other and I knew I needed to keep it moving. About that time, John Peiffer made a totally legit, albeit stealthy pass on me. Surprising, with plenty of trail for all, and as quietly as a tiger. Within the blink of an eye, he was riding second in the train and putting pressure on our leader. At the next possible chance he took over on the front of the pack and was immediately gapping us by busting down Grotpeter. I didn't want to get gapped badly and was beginning to get anxious to get around my rider. As we neared the upper waterbars, I decided to back off a little, recover, and then hit the gas hard coming out of the tree root hairpin. As we flew down the last waterbar, I aggressively grabbed a little too much air and landed hard on a rock immediately blowing my front tire off the rim. The tire exploded with a large crack similar to the sound of a rifle. The rider ahead of me yelled out, "What was that!" while I rode the rim down the rocks and narrowly avoided a massive crash.
As I assessed the situation, I realized I had rocks in my rim and tire and not much Stan's left. Within seconds, I removed the valve core and put in a tube. As I wiped the Stan's and rocks from my tire and got it all put together. As soon as I hit the valve with the CO2, the side of the tire blew out and the tube swelled to the size of a football. Disgusted, I threw everything down and knew it was a DNF. A good friend, Greg Suter, caught it all on video tape and as soon as I've got it loaded up, I'll have the whole thing on the blog for your viewing pleasure. (Inspecting the rim after getting back to the car revealed several chunks of the rim have been burred or ground down. Good thing I purchased the Mavic MP3 protection plan.)
Walking down the trail, I knew a top 10 was thrown out the window. I had the legs, the lungs, and the positioning. I discovered our group had almost 2 minutes on the rest of the field and while we weren't going to catch the top guys in the race, the field wasn't likely to catch us either. In the grand scheme of things, it was just one race and I didn't get hurt. That's cool. God has plans for all of us and this was his plan for me in this race. While I had a hard time dealing with the DNF, once I got my head around the bigger picture, I was okay with it.
It was so awesome seeing out ICCC'ers out there in full force. Congratulations to all of them!
3rd Zak Hafner
13th Bert Carlen
16th William Cahill
19th Rich Pierce
26th Todd Harris
30th Rob Oellermann
DNF Eric Lewis
DNF Scot Wallace
Thanks to Jim Moore, Kent Jones, and Scott & Babette Melies for cheering us on and giving us race support, too.
I'm definitely going to be mountain biking the rest of the season, along with the road events. I knew the sport would keep me tied in and I'm glad to see I'm ready to compete. Thanks to Bob Arnold and the DRJ crew, for putting together such a great race and Bill Howard for his officiating duties. It was a great day all around. I'll be back.
I felt good coming into the race. I had two weeks of good training coming into the race and took a few days off before the race. I lined up near the front, but I wasn't overly worried about staying in front leaving the field. I knew there would be plenty of legs and lungs exploding on the Lone Wolf climb. My plan was to start hitting the gas near the top waterbar and begin picking off riders. I was fairly successful, but watched the top 5-6 guys immediately open a gap as we neared the castle. About that time, Superman Matt Keevan was killing the pace on his singlespeed (his race started 1 minute behind ours) as he began picking his way through our field. I rode behind him until the first bridge on Love and then he was gone like a rocket.
The first lap was a train of riders heading through Love and Rollercoaster. Good clean racing all around. As we neared the lower Grotpeter fireroad descent, I grabbed a little gel and drank three big swigs of Heed and settled in for the second climb of Lone Wolf. As we climbed Lone Wolf, our pack of riders splintered a little but regrouped closer to the Ranger Station. The pace was not overly fast, but it was strong as we rolled towards the top of Love. As we started to dump onto the connector I missed two upshift attempts and that brought the group right on me. Having snapped out of my rhythm, I also fought hard to get back into the flow of the trail and that brought everyone onto my tail.
I was second in the train of 5 riders all within seconds of each other and I knew I needed to keep it moving. About that time, John Peiffer made a totally legit, albeit stealthy pass on me. Surprising, with plenty of trail for all, and as quietly as a tiger. Within the blink of an eye, he was riding second in the train and putting pressure on our leader. At the next possible chance he took over on the front of the pack and was immediately gapping us by busting down Grotpeter. I didn't want to get gapped badly and was beginning to get anxious to get around my rider. As we neared the upper waterbars, I decided to back off a little, recover, and then hit the gas hard coming out of the tree root hairpin. As we flew down the last waterbar, I aggressively grabbed a little too much air and landed hard on a rock immediately blowing my front tire off the rim. The tire exploded with a large crack similar to the sound of a rifle. The rider ahead of me yelled out, "What was that!" while I rode the rim down the rocks and narrowly avoided a massive crash.
As I assessed the situation, I realized I had rocks in my rim and tire and not much Stan's left. Within seconds, I removed the valve core and put in a tube. As I wiped the Stan's and rocks from my tire and got it all put together. As soon as I hit the valve with the CO2, the side of the tire blew out and the tube swelled to the size of a football. Disgusted, I threw everything down and knew it was a DNF. A good friend, Greg Suter, caught it all on video tape and as soon as I've got it loaded up, I'll have the whole thing on the blog for your viewing pleasure. (Inspecting the rim after getting back to the car revealed several chunks of the rim have been burred or ground down. Good thing I purchased the Mavic MP3 protection plan.)
Walking down the trail, I knew a top 10 was thrown out the window. I had the legs, the lungs, and the positioning. I discovered our group had almost 2 minutes on the rest of the field and while we weren't going to catch the top guys in the race, the field wasn't likely to catch us either. In the grand scheme of things, it was just one race and I didn't get hurt. That's cool. God has plans for all of us and this was his plan for me in this race. While I had a hard time dealing with the DNF, once I got my head around the bigger picture, I was okay with it.
It was so awesome seeing out ICCC'ers out there in full force. Congratulations to all of them!
3rd Zak Hafner
13th Bert Carlen
16th William Cahill
19th Rich Pierce
26th Todd Harris
30th Rob Oellermann
DNF Eric Lewis
DNF Scot Wallace
Thanks to Jim Moore, Kent Jones, and Scott & Babette Melies for cheering us on and giving us race support, too.
I'm definitely going to be mountain biking the rest of the season, along with the road events. I knew the sport would keep me tied in and I'm glad to see I'm ready to compete. Thanks to Bob Arnold and the DRJ crew, for putting together such a great race and Bill Howard for his officiating duties. It was a great day all around. I'll be back.
Friday, May 09, 2008
Izzy Isn't
After blowing your 5th save of the year and the second Friday night in a row, perhaps he doesn't have the arm anymore. Who knows? Frustrating. Sad. I hope he figures out his funk. At this point, it's gut wrenching for everyone.
Thursday, May 08, 2008
Losing Time and Tubes
It's been another crazy week of work. I finally get a recovery week from the bike and work goes crazy. Nothing bad, mind you, just busy with an assortment of things coming to a boil at the same time. Today was the peak of the week's activity and in anticipation of it I slept like crap last night. (My sleep has been hit or miss at best. I finally broke down and went to the doctor seeking help and he recommended I start taking Melatonin, which works for approximately 5-6 hours before I wake up for good. That's an entirely different story, however.)
Today, I was scheduled to be in two places (30 miles apart from each other) at the same time, but I worked out an arrangement to be at one meeting until noon and then get to the other meeting by 1pm. To make matters worse, I was told I'd have a lunch waiting for me when I got to the second meeting only to find out that was bungled up. (No big deal really, I'll just use some of the glycogen I'm trying to store up for this weekend's race.) I covered both meetings and felt the day was positive, but mentally exhausting.
Driving home I was thinking I'd still give tonight's TT a try when I discovered my kids needed some help around the house and it was more than I needed to ask my wife to cover. I hate to skip a day of training, but my family is more important and after the day I had, it was really what I needed most.
On another front, I've finally gone tubeless for the mtb. I removed the tubes from the Schwalbe Little Alberts, added some Stan's, and converted the valve cores on the Mavic Crossmax 29er wheels for the no-tube experience. So far, the conversion seems to be holding. It was far easier than I thought to make the switch. The tires mounted without problem and have held air for a day now. Hopefully, they hold up well for the race. My greatest concern is the fact that I saw Pfoodman's Little Alberts at the shop and they look like he ran through razor wire with them. I know he hammers the terrain, but the knobs on the tires were ripped off in several places. Ain't enough Stan's in the world to hold a tire together if it does that. We'll see where it goes from here. Hopefully no more pinch flats and greater traction. All you guys who busted my chops for the past year, look out.
Today, I was scheduled to be in two places (30 miles apart from each other) at the same time, but I worked out an arrangement to be at one meeting until noon and then get to the other meeting by 1pm. To make matters worse, I was told I'd have a lunch waiting for me when I got to the second meeting only to find out that was bungled up. (No big deal really, I'll just use some of the glycogen I'm trying to store up for this weekend's race.) I covered both meetings and felt the day was positive, but mentally exhausting.
Driving home I was thinking I'd still give tonight's TT a try when I discovered my kids needed some help around the house and it was more than I needed to ask my wife to cover. I hate to skip a day of training, but my family is more important and after the day I had, it was really what I needed most.
On another front, I've finally gone tubeless for the mtb. I removed the tubes from the Schwalbe Little Alberts, added some Stan's, and converted the valve cores on the Mavic Crossmax 29er wheels for the no-tube experience. So far, the conversion seems to be holding. It was far easier than I thought to make the switch. The tires mounted without problem and have held air for a day now. Hopefully, they hold up well for the race. My greatest concern is the fact that I saw Pfoodman's Little Alberts at the shop and they look like he ran through razor wire with them. I know he hammers the terrain, but the knobs on the tires were ripped off in several places. Ain't enough Stan's in the world to hold a tire together if it does that. We'll see where it goes from here. Hopefully no more pinch flats and greater traction. All you guys who busted my chops for the past year, look out.
Saturday, May 03, 2008
Chicago Cubs
In St. Louis it's always been popular to 'hate' the Cubbies. I guess being a fan of baseball, I love all teams who've pulled for their the fans in regardless of their post-season prowess. Besides, the Cards and Cubs rivalry is one of the oldest in baseball and it's as good today as it's ever been. Having said that, you just have to chuckle at some of the Cubbie jokes that have circulated for years. Here a sample of a few:
How do you stop a red hot Cubs team???
Wait until the end of June.
**************
What does a bear on the pill and the World Series have in common?
No Cubs.
**************
A man was at Wrigley Field watching a Cubs game, when he called a security officer over and said, 'Those people are bothering me.' The security officer looked around him at all the well-behaved spectators and said 'Who, sir?' Wearily, the man pointed out to the Cubs players on the field and said 'Them'.
**************
What's the difference between the Cubs and tissue paper?
The Cubs fold easier.
**************
A little boy is walking down the street one day and finds a genie jar. He opens it and out comes a genie.
Genie: I'll give you three wishes.
Boy: I wish for an XBOX 360, and a PSP and....peace in the middle east.
Genie: Where is the middle east little boy?
The boy pull out a map and shows him where the middle east is.
Genie: Uhm, I dont think I can do that little boy. Do you have another wish?
Boy: Well, could you make the Cubs win the World Series?
The genie pauses and then says:
Genie: Lemme see that map of the middle east again.
How do you stop a red hot Cubs team???
Wait until the end of June.
**************
What does a bear on the pill and the World Series have in common?
No Cubs.
**************
A man was at Wrigley Field watching a Cubs game, when he called a security officer over and said, 'Those people are bothering me.' The security officer looked around him at all the well-behaved spectators and said 'Who, sir?' Wearily, the man pointed out to the Cubs players on the field and said 'Them'.
**************
What's the difference between the Cubs and tissue paper?
The Cubs fold easier.
**************
A little boy is walking down the street one day and finds a genie jar. He opens it and out comes a genie.
Genie: I'll give you three wishes.
Boy: I wish for an XBOX 360, and a PSP and....peace in the middle east.
Genie: Where is the middle east little boy?
The boy pull out a map and shows him where the middle east is.
Genie: Uhm, I dont think I can do that little boy. Do you have another wish?
Boy: Well, could you make the Cubs win the World Series?
The genie pauses and then says:
Genie: Lemme see that map of the middle east again.
Friday, May 02, 2008
Training and Training...for what?
I'm on the tail end of a stretch of 13 day stretch of training and racing. The legs are starting to respond less and less and I'm certainly feeling it throughout the rest of my body. Over the next two days, I'm going to get another 5 hours of effort in and then begin a little recovery week in preparation for the Castlewood mtb race on 5/10. The race will be the first time I've been back on a mountain bike (for any reason) since the St. Joe's race back on March 2nd.
I'm enjoying the road bike quite a bit right now and based on how I do at the 'Wood will determine whether or not I commit to the rest of the mtb season or shift my focus over to the roads. I really enjoyed the TT and I'm enjoying the crits, as well. The weird issue on the crits is that there is such a steep learning curve for me. The races aren't necessarily about who's the fastest. They are much more about strategy and positioning than I ever realized. That appeals to my problem solving mentality so much more than the mtb races ever did. Yes, they may be easier than a mtb race (based on duration and effort) but I'm amazed at how the races unfold and how experience will trump power almost every time.
The biggest problem will be this. Bob Arnold and the DRJ-ers are hosting the C'Wood race again and I know I'll have a blast. After the race, I'm sure I'll rekindle the love I have for the mountain bike and make the decision that much more difficult. That is, if there is a decision to be made. Stay tuned. Perhaps I'll know. Bugman raced a mountain bike last year and I made a commitment to try road racing in return. What did he know when he offered the challenge???
I'm enjoying the road bike quite a bit right now and based on how I do at the 'Wood will determine whether or not I commit to the rest of the mtb season or shift my focus over to the roads. I really enjoyed the TT and I'm enjoying the crits, as well. The weird issue on the crits is that there is such a steep learning curve for me. The races aren't necessarily about who's the fastest. They are much more about strategy and positioning than I ever realized. That appeals to my problem solving mentality so much more than the mtb races ever did. Yes, they may be easier than a mtb race (based on duration and effort) but I'm amazed at how the races unfold and how experience will trump power almost every time.
The biggest problem will be this. Bob Arnold and the DRJ-ers are hosting the C'Wood race again and I know I'll have a blast. After the race, I'm sure I'll rekindle the love I have for the mountain bike and make the decision that much more difficult. That is, if there is a decision to be made. Stay tuned. Perhaps I'll know. Bugman raced a mountain bike last year and I made a commitment to try road racing in return. What did he know when he offered the challenge???
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