a2 training blog

CTS !

2009-09-18T15:24:00.004-04:00

Again, no posts for a long time. Things have been astonishingly busy since the last post and of course the first thing to go is the blog. Since July I have done a few 100 mile mtb races, an xc race on the tandem with Cara and a few other endurance events....but the BIG news is that I am now coaching with Carmichael Training Systems. This is a big move for me and I am very excited about it. I am just finishing up my fist week at the office and so far things have been going great......

hometown racin'

2009-08-05T09:02:00.002-04:00

Sorry , no posts for a while...but that doesn't mean I have not been up to anything! After Fitchburg I had a nice run of events right close to home. It was great not to have to travel for a few weeks. First up was the Hot Doggett 100 ride which for my $$ is about the best century course in the southeast.

After that was the French Broad Classic omnium weekend. I was able to pull off a personal best TT on friday evening. With 24:32 for the 20KM rolling course I was really pleased. I have been trying to beat my previous PB time for almost 9 years! The conditions were great and I was motivated....it came together for the fastest time of the night. The next morning was a new road race...only 40 miles but tons of climbing. It was a blast, but I didn't climb particularly well and my place reflected that. The sunday crit was a tough one as well. I was hoping to get $Rich$ into the winning move...but he crashed and dislocated his shoulder....but still got back in and finished...

Next up was the Off Road Assault on Mt Mitchell (ORAMM). This is my home town course on the trails I train on all the time....and I was hoping for a great result. I rode well for the first couple hours, then we hit the 60 minute curtis creek road climb and I suffered. I felt a little better on the following climbs ...but I lost too much time. I pushed it a little too hard on the final climb and suffered some calf and adductor cramps for it....but I finished ok. I was 5th in the open men category and 8th overall....not bad, but I can't say I was pleased with my performance.

Next up was the Wilderness 101....but that is another post.

washed up

2009-07-08T21:33:00.002-04:00

Yup...that is me. At least as far as national elite level road cycling is concerned. Of course I already knew this and have for about a year, but the Fitchburg Stage race last weekend served as confirmation...but let's back up a bit:

After our tandem road race at nats we had a couple days to preview the TT course. It was really quite a difficult course with lots of up and down and exposed to the wind the whole time. The pic above is the file from my individual TT. I put in a solid ride...at least I thought I did with an average of 336 watts (340 NP)...which is ok considering the huge speed fluctuations. This was only good enough for 9th in my age group! Oh well...I guess I can't complain as I really have not been focusing on TTs at all this year and have only been on my TT bike a few times ...which is different than the last 10 years.

After my TT I had about 2 hours to recover for our tandem TT. The wind picked up throughout the day but we still managed a really great ride on the big bike...for 31:01..... 16 seconds faster than my individual ride.....to win the mixed elite tandem TT title.

After that the fun began: I had to pack and hit the road to drive up to Fitchburg Mass. I had about 21 hours to drive 16+ hours and be at my TT start. I drove about 8 hours, slept for about 4 and drove the rest of the way thursday morning. I pulled into the parking lot about 45 minutes before my start time. I got the bike out , kitted up, warmed up for about 5 minutes (literally)...and headed to the start ramp. I breathed a sigh of relief that I had made it, but sitting on the start ramp in the cold rain, looking down the road I realized that I had no idea what I was in for on this course. Usually I am over prepared for TTs...I know the course and have ridden it...but this course: no idea. It actually turned out ok and I was surprised I was able to put in a decent ride considering my travels. I think I ended up 50-something out of 170+ riders....but things went steadily down hill from there.

Stage 2 is the circuit race. 75 miles, 25 laps around a 3 mile course with a nasty hill. I started hard and got harder, but I was ok....until my speed sensor on my fork slipped into my spokes about 8 laps in. With the fear of breaking a spoke, I stopped to fix it....and that was essentially the end of my race. I rode hard after and was lapped at just about the half way point. Unfortunately it had just started pouring rain as the field caught me at the base of the climb. Attacks were going and I was out the back again before I even had a chance to blink. Oh well...I kept hammering on and finished well inside the time cut...albeit a bit dejected.

The road race was even worse. I was dropped early ...it seems you need to be able to do 500 watts for several minutes to stay on in these races anymore...which I cannot do. So again I was OTB...but this time I ended up in a big group of 30 or more riders. We rode a nice fast pace and it was actually a pretty good day. I set the pace up the steep part of the climbs for our group most laps and after a while we realized that the time cut was not going to be an issue. We were lapped by the field with just about 8 miles to go which worked out perfectly.

I hung in the crit until about 17 laps top go (out of 55)....and I was happy with that as I knew I would get a pro rated time and make the final GC. I was certain I would be lantern rouge, but I missed that by just one place and a few minutes :)

Post race Scottie Weiss and I hit the road and drove all the way back to his place in VA. I slept for 4 or 5 hours then drove the rest of the way home. I am still pretty tired from the travel.

So I had an inauspicious final NRC pro stage race....and it will most likely be the last big pro level national race I do....time to realize that I just can't compete with those guys anymore. That is ok though...I have had a good run over the last nearly 20 years of racing and there are plenty of other races to do!

tandem road race smack down

2009-06-28T22:42:00.003-04:00

Unfortunately we were on the receiving end of said smack down.
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Well...... the Shogrun's finally pulled the stars and stripes away from us with a a strong chase down and a well timed jump at just 200 meters to go on the uphill finish.
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The race actually ended up being very tactical and even slow for much of the time. With 3 bikes in with a shot at the win, there was a lot of attacking and covering, riding slow and attacking again. The Eppens seemed to be strongest on the short climbs, but were not keen to keep the pace high...and in fact worked to keep things together and slow. We put in many attacks only to be covered every time. We were frustrated at every attempt, but we knew if we let it come to a 3 or 4 bike sprint we were only getting 2nd or 3rd.....so we kept trying.
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Finally at the top of the steepest hill with just over a lap to go we tried again and got a small gap. It was ON and we put in 100% to try to stay clear. We held our slim advantage through most of the lap, but on the steep hill again the Shogruns were closing. Coming into the final climb they had just made contact and for us the only thing to do was to try and go fast enough that they couldn't come around.....apparently we couldn't. At 200 meters they came around with a strong move and we had nothing left to respond. They posted a well earned victory just a few seconds ahead of us.
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Our consolation prize was that they bought us a nice dinner :)
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Well played Betsy and Gunnar!
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a2

cycling extravagaaaaaaanza

2009-06-26T10:54:00.002-04:00

sunday, sunday, sunday. not to be missed: the throw down of the year......dreams will be crushed and feelings will be hurt. The tandem national championship road race in Louisville, Kentucky.
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Seriously though this is going to be a great race. We have won it the last 2 years, but Betsy and Gunnar Shogrun have plans to end that streak. Also coming into play will be the mtb tandem superstar team of the midwest the Eppens. Should be an exciting race to watch .....

catchin up

2009-06-22T13:36:00.002-04:00

Soooooo....the weekend after the mohican 100 I headed over to a great little race in TN called the Disc Burner. This was a 12 or 6 hour race in a really nice park. After my last couple weeks' adventures there was no way I was going to do a solo 12 hour effort, so I opted for the solo 6. I felt great. I rode well and won finishing quite a bit ahead of 2nd place. Here are my lap times:
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1- 45:05 (includes Lemans start and I didn't get to pre-ride the course)
2-42:01
3-42:40
4-42:44
5-43:18
6-44:51
7-47:01 ( I held back a bit on this one on purpose so I could do the last lap faster)
8-46:44
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I was pleased with the effort. I can highly recommend this race for anyone interesed next year...I hope to do the 12 hour next time.
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The day after this Cara and I did the fletcher flyer full century on the tandem. We rode HARD...lots of attacking and stayed with the lead group until we had to stop for fluids with just 18 miles to go....I was pretty much smoked at that point anyway.
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The following weekend I took off...no racing, no traveling , just 2 solid 5 hour training days...sweet.
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That brings us to this past weekend. The Cowbell Marathon at fischer farms in Davidson NC. 50+ miles...6 laps of an 8. something mile course and a 5 or 6 mile run-in from town at the start. In a word: HOT. I think the temperature was near 100 degrees and the humidity was right there around the same number. I made the lead group on the run-in to the course....then was pretty much on my own. I passed a couple riders on lap 2 or 3, but after that there was no one close ahead or behind. I was fine with the heat until the last lap and a half. Knowing I was not moving up or back I rode pretty easy the last lap to avoid cramping or worse. I ended up 6th.
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I felt ok when I finished, but about 15 -20 minutes later heat exhaustion hit me HARD. I felt horrible and sick. It took me forever to get packed up (sorry Ddub!). I lost my voice and my hearing ?! Very strange but as I started to feel bad all of a sudden I lost about 50% of my hearing...like I had water in my ears...weird. I wasn't too bad off, but I had never had that happen before. I was cured on the drive home by blasting cool air conditioning in my face the whole way.
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At this point my legs are fine, but I still think I am recovering from the heat thing...at least the temps here in the moutains are nice 80s.
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Next up: tandem nats and Fitchburg!!!
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a2

The Mark Hekman Podcast Interview !

2009-06-04T23:30:00.003-04:00

Ladies and gentleman...the moment you have all been waiting for! : a podcast interview with the legendary Mark Hekman....an absolute must listen!

http://www.velosportsperformancecenter.com/downloads/velosports7.mp3

24 solo #1

2009-06-03T23:20:00.004-04:00

The Burn 24. 2 weeks ago: my first SOLO 24 hour race. After having done many team 24s (all the way back to 1994), a couple of solo 12s and some duo endurance races it was time to give the full show a shot. What a learning experience!

I went out a little hard, but stayed strong though about 12 hours ...then fell apart a bit. It rained overnight and things got tough. I started taking short breaks after every lap as I began to have trouble eating on the bike...so the breaks allowed me to continue to take calories in. I knew if I didn't do this I would completely fall apart. At around 4 am I thought I was done. I hurt in every imaginable way and thought we were going to pack up right then and go home. I took a 20 minute "nap" in the car...which resulted in about a 40 minute break all told. I woke up, and got back on the bike. It took just a few minutes , then things opened up and I started to feel really good....REALLY good.

I had fallen from 3rd when I started my break , down into 5th.....and was about 11 minutes behind 3rd at 6 am. I started flying...getting better and better every lap. By about 9 or 10 am I had moved into 2nd....which I held through to the end. 24.5 hours, 28 laps and about 200 miles of single track riding later I was done. I felt better at the finish than I did at midnight.....

In the morning when I was moving so fast after having such a rough night I knew that my primary questions that would come from doing this race were answered...#1 is will I focus on this discipline in the future?: yes.... I think it suits me well.

Big congrats goes out to Erik Nielsen on his win. He led the entire race and while he had a rough time early in the morning....he pulled through nicely to win (it was also his first solo 24).

A big thanks also goes out to my support crew of my old friend Mark Wolff from colorado who worked the bikes and of course Cara who held me together....

This past weekend with less than a week of recovery I headed up to the Mohican 100 ...100 mile MTB race in Ohio which was stop # 2 of the NUE series. All the big boys were there to play. We started and I moved like a snail for the first 30 miles....and I mean SLOW. I watched the lead group ride away ..then the middle of the pack riders ride away....then I finally got things going. As the day went on I again got stronger and stronger and finished fast, feeling great. Unfortunately I lost a ton of time early and my time was just 8:12....WAY off the pace of the top 10. I think my official place was 25th. So the lesson for the week was: don't race the week after a 24 hour solo! Or at least if you do: don't expect to get a good result :)

Things are just starting to get fun......

new post!

2009-05-13T12:30:00.003-04:00

ok...it has been a VERY long time since I have posted to the blog. Things have been busy and there have been lots of great events we have done that are worth of reporting on ( including 2 x 6 hour races, the tour of the battenkill and a 12 hour duo race I did with Cara)....but they will have to wait.

Last weekend we headed over to TN for the big Dirt Sweat and Gears 12 hour race. I hope to get a real report up soon...but as you can tell I did pretty well (3rd). Now this was not really a bike race...it was more of a mud running/ walking race. Take a look at these videos to see what I mean:

http://www.cyclingdirt.org/videos/coverage/view_video/234968-2009-dirt-sweat-gears/177599-andy-applegate-3rd-pro-solo-mid-race-interview-lap-4

http://www.cyclingdirt.org/videos/coverage/view_video/234968-2009-dirt-sweat-gears/177746-andy-applegate-pro-solo-3rd-post-race-interview

http://www.cyclingdirt.org/videos/coverage/view_video/234968-2009-dirt-sweat-gears/177733-pro-mens-solo-podium

Hopefully I can get to a real report soon...but the videos tell most of the story.

Right now I am covered in poison ivy and have some strange kind of illness that is sucking all the energy out of me and wreaking havoc on my digestive system....must have been something in all the mud I ate on saturday. I have not been on the bike in more than 3 days and with my first 24 hour solo race just a week away I am getting a bit worried. Hopefully I can get rid of what ever this is soon...I am going to try a bit of an MTB ride in a few minutes before heading over to work registration for our "ring of fire" race series event tonight.

break a commandment and .....

2009-03-20T13:51:00.004-04:00

Train moderately and train consistently are two of Joe Friel's "training commandments". As Joe has been a mentor of mine...both as an athlete through his books and methodology and as a coach as part of his Ultrafit Associates group for 7 years you would think that I would know better than to break one of these rules. Well I did...and now I am sick.

Cara had been sick for almost a week and I was holding it off well. After last weekend I was a bit disappointed in myself that I faded after about 5 hours of racing (even considering my mishaps). This week the weather has been nice and I had two days with no appointments scheduled, so I decided to get a couple of killer rides in. On tuesday I did the ride above. Out to Hot Springs from Black Mountain going over Doggett Mountain on the way out. 121 miles in just under 7 hours of ride time. I was very conservative with my pace and actually felt really good. I limited my power to just 70-80% of FTP on the longer climbs and this worked well to keep me comfortable...until about 10 miles to go. At mile 110 with home just about 30 minutes away I fell apart and struggled in. No worries...I still didn't feel too bad, but I think I pushed the limit a bit too far for what I was ready for right now.

I started to feel like I was getting sick, but denied it and set off for a 4 hour off road ride on wednesday. I rode up through montreat, down rattlesnake, did kitsuma, then on the road through old fort, up curtis creek to jarrett creek, over star gap , down lower heart break and up mill creek to get home. Stephen Janes has some good photos of the fire damage from last week around lower heartbreak here: http://ashevillejanes.blogspot.com/2009/03/burn.html

As soon as I got on the long climb up jarrett creek I lost all my energy and knew I had gotten in too deep. I crawled along knowing I was digging myself deeper into illness, but there were no shortcuts home from there. I got home and I was sick. I think it is just a nasty head cold, but the bottom line is I have not been able to ride for a couple of days...and probably won't be able to do any real training for a few more days...and if I do race on sunday, I will really just be riding without being able to push it much.

So there is a lesson here...and I have learned it before...I guess I just have to make the mistake and re-learn it every few years. If you push the envelope too much and go far above what would be considered "moderate" in training, you get sick...or worse yet, injured. This causes you to break the other commandment of training consistently...if you are sick or injured and can't train, consistency goes out the window...and you lose fitness. SO I am not saying that athletes should not train really HARD when appropriate....or even for very long durations when trying to prepare for endurance events (like I am this season), but care needs to be taken to ride within certain limits in order to stay healthy and injury free. Playing around on that fine line is ok....but take a big leap over the line on a particular day and there will usually be less than beneficial consequences.

Instead of doing an extreme ride on tuesday , I should have scaled it back a little and done 3 more moderate endurance days in a row. This more than likely would have left me healthy...able to train and race the rest of the week and would still have caused a significant training adaptation.....

dirty spokes 6 hrs...ouch

2009-03-15T13:43:00.006-04:00

Yesterday was the first endurance race of the season for me...the dirty spokes 6 hour at Heratige Park near Athens, GA. I was hoping for a good ride, but realized after pre-riding friday evening that the course was not particularly suited to my riding strengths...i.e. very twisty and rooty with hardly any sections to really open up and ride hard, short punchy climbs (but nothing extended) and lots of narrow, tight wooded sections. At any rate, I think my fitness is coming along and I still had hopes of a good finish.

Forecast was for rain and temps in the 40's. We had light rain on and off through the day, but for the most part, while it was cold, humid and cloudy, the course did not get too wet (other than lots of slick roots).

I got off to a pretty good start and the front group was close together for the first half of lap one. 4 miles into this initial lap I was in about 5th position when I got "clotheslined" by a low hanging vine on a downhill. Ever wonder what would happen if you were cruising on a downhill and ran into a cable hanging right at neck height? I found out. It was a scary moment to be sure...feeling the vine rip into my neck bringing me to a stop...worse still was that this vine had THORNS on it of which I felt every one. Ouch.

As a few riders stopped behind me I felt bad about holding them up and asked if there was any foreign objects sticking out of my neck....then I was off ...although a bit shaken up and definitely not in the groove. At the end of the lap I stopped to be sure I was not bleeding too badly ( I wasn't) and the promoter and announcer (thanks guys) swabbed off my neck with some alcohol. I was glad I didn't have to pull out of the race and took off on the next lap. I got back into the groove...and as soon as I felt I was really back into it I skipped off a rock and a couple of trees played ping pong with the back of my rib cage. Damn. I had the wind knocked out of me and again it took me a bit to get going again....but I did. I finally got rolling again on lap 3 and 4 and passed a few riders.

At the start of lap 5 Cara yelled at me that I was just 1 min behind 3rd place and I turned it on. I caught Erik about 3/4 of the way into the lap. We rode together until the start of lap 6....which was cool..... Shortly into lap 6 (which would be my final lap) I realized that I spent a bit too much energy chasing Erik and had to let him ride away. I cruised through lap 6 feeling pretty worked over the second half....and glad that I wouldn't have to go out for a 7th round.

Just a couple miles before the finish I caught Cara (who was racing in duo class with Dwight Wyatt). I was surprised when she caught back up to me and we crossed the line together at the finish.

So I ended up 4th. Big congrats to Nathan Wyatt on the win, Shey Linder 2nd and Erik 3rd. I turns out that Erik was able to get within a minute of Shey on the last lap...so I was not too far off the mark today even with some bad luck. Cara and Dwight were 2nd in the duo class.

My neck looked pretty bad, but is starting to heal up already just 24 hours later. I also have a nasty cut on my left shoulder from the vine...where it burned a nice hole through my jersey. That blood spot on my chest in the pic above, while it looks like a gunshot wound, is really just where the blood from my neck pooled. My back right lat is pretty torn up too...but didn't keep me from getting a good night's sleep. I am already amped up for the next endurance race...I just need to do a better job of avoiding obstacles :)

kenda pro team camp

2009-03-13T14:07:00.003-04:00

The big Kenda pro road team camp has come and gone. This year we gathered in Greenville SC for a 5 day marathon of fitting, analyzing, meeting, learning and getting a couple of decent rides in. When I say "marathon" I mean it. 4 of my days there were going for almost 15 hours straight. Trying to get all the riders fit on the new rigs was a time consuming project....but we got the work done and I am sure it will pay off. The team this year is outstanding. This program started as a small grass roots venture 5 seasons ago and has grown into what is a real uci pro team with some amazing new talent along with some seasoned vets as well.
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Watch for the team at some of the big races this year. With seasoned pros like Jake Rytlewski, Scottie Weiss, Russel Stevenson along with some great neo pro talent the team is more well rounded than in years past where crits have been the focus. Good stuff. While I am still not planning to do many of the big road races this season, coming home from camp I was really motivated and looking forward to lining up with the guys whenever possible.
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For now though it is off to a 6 hour mountain bike race tomorrow (in 50 degrees and rain :( ). Last week was the final of the snake creek gap series and I posted my best time yet again: 2:58....
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a2

February is camp month

2009-02-20T09:04:00.004-05:00

February has become a month of training camps....and why not? With the race season starting in earnest right at the beginning of March, Feb is the perfect time to get in some specific training and learning.
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First up was the CCN / Cannondale MTB team mini-camp last weekend. Nothing super organized and we simply gathered here at the house in Black Mountain, but it was a great couple days of off road riding. The team is basically 3 fast young guys (Alex, Travis and Daniel) along with a token old guy (me). On saturday we did a Pisgah semi-epic 4.5 hr ride including horse cove, squirrel gap and some of the Black Mountain trail. Sunday was a long big climbing ride on most of the ORAMM course for just about 6 hours. The guys are riding really well and you can expect to see some really great results from them this season.
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Next up is the VeloSports MTB camp this weekend. This will be a another 2 day camp in Asheville that is primarily a skills building weekend. It looks like the weather saturday will be cooperative, but we may be a little cold sunday....that is ok, we will still have fun.
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Next week, wed through sun is the big Kenda Pro Road Team camp. While it will be great to see all the guys and the atmosphere should be electric with it being the first year the team has pro status, for me it is a lot of work. There will be bike fits, bike fits and more bike fits to do .....which entails a lot of crawling around on the floor measuring things. Last year I pulled muscle in my back at camp and hope not to repeat that. This year I am not an official team rider (or am I?) , but more in the role of a staff member......not sure if that will make things easier or harder for me :)
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After that the race season is REALLY here. Snake Creek Gap #3 is March 7th, then I will do the Dirty Spokes 6 hour race in GA the following weekend.
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a2

southern cross etc

2009-02-06T10:42:00.007-05:00

I have done some decent training and a couple of cool events since my last post. Two weeks ago Cara and I did the Southern Cross race on the MTB tandem. I still can't decide whether this was fun or not...ok I am just kidding, of course it was fun...well maybe with a few exceptions. There was a (no joke) 1 hour and 20 minute long climb (for us) right in the middle of the course. With our nearly 50 lb bike and squishy wet roads this was a bit trying. We rode pretty well on the first 45-50 minutes of the climb, but the last bit was, well, hard. We were fine after that until we started getting really bad chain suck every time we went to the middle or mall chainring over the last 10 miles or so.....frustrating. A great event though and we will certainly be back next year....not sure if it will be on the tandem though :)

Cara put up a better race report here: http://caraapplegate.blogspot.com/2009/02/southern-cross.html

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Last weekend I did the Icycle MTB cross country race out at Fontana Village. The course was fast and fun and the field was surprisingly big. We began with a leMans style run start then went straight into the first climb. I had an ok start and was riding in about 6th when I flatted on the first downhill :( . I totally botched the repair and lost about 10 full minutes. Losing 10 minutes in a race that the leaders finish in an hour fifteen does not bode well for results...but I did ride pretty well, had fun and got a killer good workout in which is exactly what the goal for the day was. I even went out and rode an extra lap near race pace before I packed up to head home.

Off to Snake Creek Gap #2 tomorrow....weather looks to be good and while my form is nowhere near good right now, I am still hoping to go for my best time on the course. If this happens I know it will be to dramatically improved technical riding skills since last year.

29er Love

2009-01-20T18:36:00.005-05:00

I have been riding my cannondale 29er for over a month now and while I knew it was a perfect fit for me on the very first ride, I can now say for sure that I am in love with this bike. Since Cara has inherited my old hardtail, when I gave back my team bike last fall I decided to get the 29er as my own bike for training and what I thought would be a "different" bike to use for some of the endurance races I am planning on doing in 09. It didn't take but a few rides to determine that I wanted to race the 29er exclusively for the coming season. Why?...and why would I rather race this bike than the scalpel I raced last season??? Good questions.

The scalpel is an amazing state of the art race bike, no doubt...but there are several things about the 29er that just fit my rider profile even better. What is my rider profile? Well first off I am NOT a "punchy" rider.....basically I seem to have a switch that is either "on" or "off"...steady if you will. The 29er seems to carry this sort of momentum that just feels right for me. I was afraid that the big wheels would be slow on climbs...but I was wrong. In fact I feel like I can climb as fast , or faster on the big wheels...again, I think this has to do with my steady riding style. Next is that I am a bit slow in the handling department. I am not the kind of rider who comfortably flicks the bike around direction changes on a twisty course....I have a tendency to do more "carving" around turns....and again the big wheels give me that flow. Confidence: In general I am not the most confident in my technical abilities...or maybe I would more accurately characterize this as too much of a survival instinct. When I dive into a rocky/ rooty technical section, or go over a drop-off I usually have a sense of tentativeness....and this is where the big wheels seem to help me most. The 29 inch wheels give me a sense of confidence in the rough stuff and taking on bigger drops. The wheels roll over rocks and roots substantially easier....with less tendency to "catch". On technical uphills I seem to be able to get up and over obstacles with greater ease....and I can say for sure that I have been able to clear more tough, steep uphill sections than I could on any of the 26 inch bikes I have ridden.

Is a 29er the best choice for everyone or every trail/ course? Certainly not. Punchy riders will find the acceleration slower with the big wheels and the handling "sluggish" while trying to make quick directional changes on tight twisty trails....but for me it is perfect...and I am very happy to say that I will be racing the c-dale 29er all year! Now I am basically using the stock 29er 1 model. I did have to change the stem to a longer and steeper down angle ...and get a longer seatpost....and of course change the saddle....but that is it.

The pic above is from the first of the snake creek gap TTs a couple weeks ago. It was foggy, rainy and wet.....yet I felt fully confident on the new bike...even on the rocks.

Baby It's Cold Outside

2009-01-15T22:54:00.003-05:00

Ok, so it seems it is cold pretty much everywhere in the sates this week..excepting maybe so cal and the greater southwest... but the rest of us are stuck with conditions not exactly conducive to riding outside...so here are a few reasons you might just want to get on with your workouts inside on a stationary trainer.....rather than skippping them:

1. because you KNOW your competition is doing it

2. because you need the endorphins and you will feel miserable if you don't get your daily dose.

3. because to accomplish your race goals for next year, you need to build your fitness...and these workouts build your fitness!

4. because in many cases you can actually get a BETTER workout on the trainer since it is easier to precisely control intensity vs. the same workout on the open road

5. because in one of your past lives you MUST have done something to deserve this type of punishment :)

6. because your coach told you to

7. because if you don't you will be grumpy and your family and/ or co-workers will suffer the brunt of your grumpiness

8. because it will help you improve your mental toughness and focus

9. because you love to ride your bike....no matter when or where, inside or out

10. because RIGHT NOW your competition is doing a tough 2x20 min threshold workout on the trainer thinking of how they are going to crush you next season....and you know the only way to combat them? GET ON THAT TRAINER AND GET YOUR WORKOUTS DONE!

:)
a2

PRO !

2009-01-07T21:11:00.004-05:00

Yes that is right. After almost 20 years of racing I am offically a professional bike racer in the eyes of USA Cycling....on a mountain bike. I find this absolutely hilarious. I would have given my right arm to get a pro mtb license 10 years ago, and now at the young racing age of 43, I am a neo-pro. How did this happen???
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A little history:
I started racing mountain bikes in 1992. I was not very good. In fact at my first race as a "beginner" I finished square in the middle of the pack ....something like 52nd out of about 100 riders. Stellar right?...but I was instantly in love with racing. Exactly one year later at the very same race I was an "expert" racer in the pro/expert category. I finished 3rd. OK, so that was not bad. After another year on the east coast racing expert I moved out to Boulder, CO thinking I was going to be the next Tomac...or Tinker...or maybe Shogren :). I trained hard ...maybe too hard...had some great early season results, followed by a serious bout with overtraining (whoops so much for that season). I got my act together and moved back east in 96. I had a great season that year and was ready to upgrade...but that was the year the "semi-pro" category was introduced. This was the heyday of MTB racing and the pro races were overcrowded....another category was needed to bridge the gap between expert and pro racers. At the time this worked, but unfortunately that gave me an extra step. I raced as a semi-pro, mostly in New England for a couple of seasons when the races were huge, the competition unbelievable and the prize money outstanding. I was a solid top 10 new england series guy, but at the national level (which is where the upgrade results were needed) I was nothing but mediocre.
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In 1999 I got my first road team contract (NOT pro) and switched over to racing on the pavement full time....which I did for the better part of 10 years as an elite amateur.
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Now I am back to racing mostly in the dirt and the powers that be decided to scrap the semi-pro category entirely....giving us the choice of getting a pro license or dropping back down to expert. You might think it would make more sense for an old codger like me to drop back to expert....and you would probably be right. The trouble is that at 40+ years old, as an expert, the cross country races are usually short....too short. That and I like chasing around the fast young guys...and making fun of them on the rare occasion that I might beat a couple of them. Also, since my primary race objectives are endurance races (where there is really just an "open" race with no categories), the ability listed on my license is pretty much irrelevant.
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Now, many people have asked me : weren't you a road pro?? No, never was and never will be. While the road team I have been associated with has taken out a uci pro license for 2009, I am most decidedly NOT on the pro roster....no way I am good enough for that :) let alone being at least 15 years too old.
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So there you have it...the reason I may very well be the world's oldest neo-pro.
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a2

New Year, New Podcast

2009-01-04T22:00:00.002-05:00

New Years Resolutions Podcast:
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http://www.teamctm.com/podcasts/velosports3.mp3
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be patient while it loads....
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a2

cross nats 08 : back to KC

2008-12-20T23:27:00.006-05:00

The 2008 season is over. It ended with cross nats back in Kansas City again, but this year at a different venue and with some different weather as well. We made the drive out starting on Wednesday, stopping in St Louis and arrived at the venue on thursday afternoon. The course was awesome! Not your typical cross course, this one was on the side of a pretty serious hill....so the majority of the course was uphill, then back down again...nice and wide with very little in the way of technical sections. For me this course was about as good as it gets...pure fitness not finesse. At first the course was pretty sloppy from previous rain...but by the time of Cara's master's race on friday it was nice and tacky...soft, but not messy at all. Cara had a very good ride for 9th in a tough 30-34 yr age group.

My age group race was friday..and the conditions were just as good. Temps in the 50s and soft but grippy ground. To top it off I was 9th on the call-up and with one no-show I ended up with the last place on the front line. With 120 of my closest friends next to and behind me, it was going to be a battle. Even with a course that suited me and a primo start position, I didn't come into the race this year with lofty goals. I didn't have anywhere near the fitness I had for my couple of 2nd place finishes a few years back....it has been a strange and long season...but I WAS hoping to get the best out of myself. Was a podium (top 5) out of the question???

The whistle blew and I had a good start, found my pedal and had a good first few pedal strokes (it is unbelievable how important those first few seconds are in a big cx race). Then, just as we were about to get off the pavement I had the sensation of being pulled backwards....did I go too hard? I figured out pretty quickly that my rear wheel was rubbing my brakes, but was not sure why...no time to think too much about it yet...I just needed to drive hard. I managed to stay in a decent position...probably just outside the top 10, but my gears were slipping and something just was not right with the bike. Near the end of the lap, just after the barriers, I reached down to try to tighten my rear skewer....it was WAY loose: problem identified. I reset the wheel and tightened the skewer. I thought I had it fixed, but the gears were still slipping so I knew I would have to change bikes. In the meantime I had lost a whole bunch of spot and after my bike exchange I was back in the mid-20s.

With a fresh, properly working bike, now it was time to see how far up I could battle. I actually did a really good job...rode to my abilities (read: really, really hard) and made it back up to 11th at the finish. I was pleased that I was able to make myself suffer so hard and go well...but something about 11th place is not particularly satisfying. No excuses here...even without my first lap difficulty I figure the best I could have done was something like 8th...just a few spots better than I was....it really comes down to simply not having the fitness to hang with the amazingly strong guys at the front of that race. I will get back up there...but cross is becoming more and more competitive at every level, and to get there I am going to need to make it a focus of the entire season. This will not happen next year, but sometime in the next few years this will become the number one goal. I was really hoping that fellow ashevillean Will Black was going to win, but he had a bit of a bad day and bailed...my guess is he will be back for it next year with a vengeance.

Sunday was elite race day. Here is where the weather story of the weekend comes in. When we got up in the morning it was 60 degrees (no joke!) but at the start of the women's race it was somewhere around 25 degrees....crazy. At least we knew it was coming...but we didn't think it would be that sudden. I was able to see a little of Cara's race while I was warming up...enough to see Katie Compton crush all....and Cara have a decent mid-pack finish on the lead lap.

The elite men's race was crazy-insane as usual. I have no illusions here...I was doing it for fun and to be part of the big show....if I could make it to 1 lap to go before being lapped by the leaders I would have been happy. The worst part of the race was standing at the start waiting in the cold. Once we were off I just tried to stay safe and ride hard....which is exactly what I did. I started mid-pack and that is about where I ended up being scored. By the end of the first lap my hands were screaming in pain from the cold...but I was able to push that out of my mind with the help of hundreds and hundreds of screaming spectators. If you have never been to a cross nats....you need to get your butt to one to see what I am talking about. I will gladly hand over my $50 entry fee to be in the elite race for just that experience...it is always a highlight of the season and a great way to end the year. I rode hard. My gears started skipping again about mid-race. I still can't believe I went all year with my bikes working PERFECTLY other than a couple of punctures..then they don't work at nats?!?!?! I changed bikes with about 4 laps to go, but knew my time left in the race was limited. Ryan (the winner) lapped me as he was heading in for his 2 to go. In the big uci events (nationals IS a uci race) you get pulled from the course either just before you are lapped, or at the start/finish just after you are lapped. I was pulled when I would have seen 3 to go ...which is why in the results I am listed as 3 laps down...no I wasn't lapped 3 times in an hour...I am slow, but not THAT slow :)

It was so cold after the race we didn't really hang around ...we just packed up and hit the road. Unfortunately we didn't get to say goodbye to everyone. One of the other great things about cross nats is just seeing everyone one last time for the year. Some of the guys from the west coast we actually ONLY get to see at nats...and it is something that I will miss if we don't get to go next year. So that was it: the 2008 season is in the books. Was it good? bad? It was certainly a strange one. I will do a season summary soon and see if I can't objectively quantify how I feel about it......

We headed east and spent a couple of days in (very cold) St Charles, MO..had a nice holiday visit with Cara's family, then made our way back to our lonely cats in Black Mountain. I won't be taking too much time off the bike this year.....while I am somewhat "retired" from road racing...I am still cooking up some cool plans for 2009. In fact I did get out for a couple short rides on the new cannondale 29er....more on that later.

one week to go!

2008-12-07T22:27:00.003-05:00

The final weekend of local cross racing was great. We raced at the MSG series in TN on saturday in a nice snowstorm. I was able to take my first "A" race win of the season....really I was able to benefit from a couple other riders bad luck. It went like this: Of fthe start we had a lead group of 5...4 Lees McRae riders and me. Not looking good for me. We drop one, then 2 get a gap...so it is me chasing 2 leaders with one of their teammates on my wheel. I lose the teammate and one of the riders ahead drops back. Now it is me chasing the leader with one of his teammates on my wheel. OK, 2nd or 3rd is acceptable. Then, we pass the leader who is running after he flatted...now it is me leading, towing the other rider around who (rightly so) is hoping his teammate will catch back. Into the final laps when it is obvious no one is coming back to us he is just waiting to jump me....he comes around strong just before a slick off campber downhill turn. I see it coming as he lays it out in the turn. I carefully get around him without going down myself and hang on for the very unexpected win.....hey...I will take it when I can get it!

Sunday was the NC series final. I was in 3rd going into the race, with no chance to move up, but with 2 strong riders breathing down my neck to get ahead of me. I needed to have a good race...and honestly I did. I was able to have a decent start(or in my case simply not as bad as usual) and I was ahead of both my rivals after the first lap. We ended up in a gorup of 3 chasing the 2 leaders...who were gone.....so it was a battle for 3rd with me knowing I needed to finish ahead or right behind Noah (currently 4th in the series). I felt good and tried attacking with one to go, but was brought back. I stayed on Noah's wheel and finished 5th...just behind him to hold on to my 3rd overall in the series.

To top it off: Cara won her races both days and won the NC series overall....

Tomorrow we hit the road for Nationals in Kansas City!
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a2

nccx uci races

2008-11-23T21:18:00.004-05:00

Our big hometown cross races were this weekend. Well....as close to hometown as we get since they are down in Hendersonville about 40 miles away. Friday we headed down to recon the course and help set up....nothing like pulling metal barrier fencing off trucks for an hour or so as a pre-race warm-up. With a little cold snap happening the temps were low, but the course was great...fast, fast, fast. Some nice little problems, but for the most part a full on speed course.

I watched Cara ride to 5th on saturday, then lined up for the elite race. We had about 30 guys ...and the field was pretty deep...with quite a few traveling from far away to try to grab a couple of uci points before nationals. I had a second row start position, which was fine, except I pulled out of a pedal on the third stroke! Damn, my starts are bad enough without that kind of trouble and I found myself pretty much at the back after the first couple of turns. I obviously missed the front group and struggled to find a group to ride with. I got in with 3 others at about the half way point and we kept a good pace. I felt stronger as the race went on and with 2 to go I started pushing the pace....one to go and I dropped all but one of the guys I was with. I was having a great last lap and we closed in on 10th and 11th place and caught them with just a couple hundred meters to go....unfortunately I made a couple of small handling errors and ended up at the back of that group for 13th place at the finish. Fitting as my bib number was 13. Overall I was pleased with my ride....my cross season thus far has been less than stellar, but not terrible either considering the lack of specific training....this lack of specific training is for psychological reasons more than anything. I have just had this gut feeling all Fall that if I pushed the specific intensity workouts I would burn out and not want to race the rest of the season.
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Today (sunday) was a little warmer and the cast of characters was about the same. Cara had a great ride..and was 4th after dangling behind the front group , then catching, and attacking, dangling again, then catching and attacking again...very fun to watch. I had a much better start than the day before (which is still not great). The winning group of 3 took off on the first lap and there was a big chase group....I was just behind this group for lap after lap...I felt like I could reach out and touch them, but I just could NOT get there. I was with a couple other guys and we passed Johnathan Baker who had flatted. He got a bike change and came back through us. We were still really close to the group ahead and I thought by staying with him I could get there. I dug DEEP. We were just 5 seconds ...maybe even less ...off the back of the group and I made a small bobble and lost contact. I chased hard and then blew up. Unlike yesterday where I went stronger as the race progressed today I used it all trying to get to the group riding for 4th. After I blew I was riding at a steady mediocre pace....and was unable to catch anyone else. I suffered in for 15th place. Actually I was not all that far behind the big group ahead...or even the winner for that matter, but it felt like a million miles. Definitely less happy with my performance today. I should have been able to stick that group on the first lap and stay there...even if I would not have placed much better, it would have been a more pleasant day. After the race we stayed and helped tear down the course. Loading those metal barricades back on the trucks after a hard race is tough.
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Only 3 more weeks of cross left! While I have not been training hard...I have still been riding...and I am still really enjoying the racing....and as it is with every season, I will be sad when it is over....but I am already excited about 2009.

new podcast up !

2008-11-20T13:30:00.002-05:00

In this edition we discuss goal setting and base training intensity.... enjoy
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"Goal Setting and Base Training" Winter is the time to make some plans and get in some base training. Listen to Andy talk about how to do each of these with QUALITY.
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www.velosportsperformancecenter.com
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a2

wind tunnel

2008-11-13T21:46:00.003-05:00

Yes today was extremely interesting. I got to spend the whole day in the wind tunnel with Floyd Landis and Rory Sutherland. I was not there in a technical capacity, more just to help out and take some pics and video. It was a blast..... I will write a full post on the experience later....
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a2

bad weekend and some Fall work

2008-11-08T21:14:00.004-05:00

Last weekend was miserable racing for me. I flatted both days. Saturday in Bristol TN riding in 2nd I clipped a course marking stake with my front wheel and tore the sidewall out. One dead tire and a lot of coasting and running to the pit had me fighting back from just about last place. I got back to 6th, but no better.

I managed to salvage the day by winning the single speed race immediately following the elite race....it was just 30 minutes, but I had to really dig deep as 2nd was chasing @ 10 seconds or so the whole time.

Sunday we raced in Lenore, NC. The course was awesome for me...lots of fast, straight pedaling sections. Unfortunately I missed the lead group of 4 or 5 (again) and was chasing with 2 others, when...you guessed it....I flatted....and just past the pit on a very long course! By the time I made it around to change my wheel I was about 2 minutes BEHIND LAST PLACE! I was very close to throwing in the towel, but I put in a challenge to myself: don't get lapped and don't get last. I rode really hard...probably as hard as I would have ridden in the front group...and managed to accomplish both my goals. I rolled in for an exhausted 15th place. Damn, that was a hard ride for 15th!

Funny thing is that I have been racing cross for what....like 12 or 13 years now... and honestly I can almost count my flats and major mechanicals on one hand. Well...maybe two hands, but the point is there have not been too many so I can't complain.....and after all, while I could call it bad luck....in reality we usually make our own luck in cycling. Saturday I cut the course marker too tight and paid the price, operator error for sure. Sunday I am not certain exactly what happened but I might have hit a lip on a bridge just a little too hard...again probably my own fault.

Hoping for better luck at the sate championships tomorrow.

In the meantime, over the last couple of weeks we have been working on preparing to move the home office to a different room in the house. If I had all day for a few days I probably could have gotten this done in 3 days....as it was, squeezing in a couple hours here and there between writing schedules, email, phone calls and fit sessions it took 3 weeks! But now we are ready to move which will give us a nice downstairs guest bedroom and a place for Cara to study for her CPA exams.

VeloSports Podcast #1

2008-11-05T17:52:00.002-05:00

I should have posted about this a couple of weeks ago when we got it going...but we are rolling with podcasts now! Podcast #1 is dedicated to thoughts on cyclo-cross racing...check it out by going to: http://www.velosportsperformancecenter.com/ look for the link to listen in the middle of the page.

Josh Whitmore is working with us to put these together...and has done a great job. Look for #2 to be live soon (in a week or two). The next topics will include winter base training pacing questions and goal setting.

If you have any ideas you think would make for good subjects let us know by posting a comment!

what a weekend...Oktoberfest and Boone CX

2008-10-31T09:45:00.002-04:00

Last Saturday was my final MTB event for the season: the 8 hour endurance race at the National Mountainbike Oktoberfest. With rain on friday night the course was quite slippery...while it was not super muddy, the roots were wet and most of the track slick. The field was small...but there was a host of the top guys there. I love the pic of the start above. Nat Ross is on the front, I am to the right, Tinker and Jeremiah Bishop are on the left, Harlan Price is in there as is Ernesto Marenchin.
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The start was fun....not too fast and I snagged third wheel for a while, then rode on Tinker's wheel for a bit....then we hit the woods. I was really tense on the slippery stuff and quickly fell off the pace of the leaders. In fact every time I felt like I was getting into a groove and gaining some confidence to go faster I would crash or slide out causing me to back off. After a few laps my arms were super tired from being tense. Laps were short...my first few were around 36-37 minutes.
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I was running about 7th or 8th for the early part of the race, but I decided not to worry about that much and I didn't even know for sure where I was or what the gaps were. Because of the short laps, and that I had Cara there pitting for me, I decided to go with bottles vs a camelbak. This can be dangerous for me as I tend to not drink enough with bottles.....but I got into a system of exactly where I would drink every lap and was going through about 2/3 to 1 full bottle most laps. Nutrition - wise I was eating something every lap. Either 1/2 package of bloks, or a gel...I kept on schedule and finally felt like I got it right.
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Right about dusk Jeremiah and Harlan lapped me and I was able to ride with them for a while. These guys are some of the best in the business and it was a blast for the 10 minutes or so I was able to stay with them. Riding with them I realized how much I need improve my riding! Talk about smooth....and while I am pretty good at holding a normal conversation at race pace, they were full on trading recipes the whole time. In general though I was feeling good...and riding to my limit because of my skills and not my fitness. I passed at least one solo rider and the attrition rate was high so I knew I had moved up some, but still was not sure where I was.
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As darkness fell, the track became even more slippery....or maybe it was just because I couldn't judge the roots as well. My 11th lap was mediocre and with one to go before the 7:30pm cutoff to go out on another lap, I was dreading the last long technical trail section. Tinker lapped me as I slid out on a root so I was not able to ride with him at all :(, then just as I entered the long singletrack, rooty part of the course Nixon (an asheville guy) caught me up and we rode together ...this was great as it kept my mind off the slppery-ness and my growing fatigue. As we hit the final climb that had been a steep muddy unrideable hike-a-bike the whole race, I put it in my easiest gear and made it about half way up before dismounting to slog the rest of the way. Nixon, to my chagrin, rode the whole climb! Good thing I was a lap ahead of him or that would have been demoralizing.
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I finished 6th....the first guy behind all the superstars. In fact the next rider ahead of me was Nat Ross, so I couldn't complain. It was nice to be able to pack up and head out quickly without having to wait around for anything.
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The next day was the NC CX series race up in Boone. This race is up in Seven Devils at an old golf course, literally on top of a mountain. Pretty cool. Only problem was that it had huge amounts of elevation changes...not so great just a few hours after an 8 hour race for me! I saw large amounts of suffering coming and I was right. I had an absolutely miserable start (as expected) and faded all the way back to 14th after the first lap. I was able to steadily move forward after that and found I was rolling pretty well...a surprise. I was hurting, but the course was really fun and I was moving up every lap. I made it up to 7th, then 6th, then finally 5th for the last couple of laps which is where I finished. I was really happy with that result considering my condition....
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Cara had a good race as well and was 2nd....so it was a successful weekend. One more endurance race for experience and a respectable finish on sunday. This week's training has been fairly light. One day of near 3 hours, otherwise short rides....most of my time has been working and doing house projects.
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Next up: Cross in TN saturday and Lenore NC sunday.
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a2

Iron Cross VI - finally!

2008-10-24T10:38:00.003-04:00

So it took me 2 weeks...but finally an Iron Cross report.
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I have come to realize after racing Iron Cross for 6 years that it is currently in fact my favorite event on the calendar. A great course, promoters, swag, prizes and tons of fun make this a must do ...even if it means skipping the 3 big uci cross races that were even closer to home that weekend :)
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Usually I hit up a cross race in TN the day before IC, but this gets me to the venue late saturday night and with a 9am race start sunday, this year I decided to forgo racing saturday and just make the drive up to PA earlier. I got in at dusk and had just enough time to do a bit of a leg opening ride before darkness fell. I stayed in one of the bunkhouses right on the course this year which sure makes morning preparation easy....as well as fun hanging out with some old (and new) friends. One of my race kit essentials is ear plugs.....unfortunately we had a snoring bunk mate and I forgot my ear plugs! Oh well.
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Race day weather was perfect...sunny and warm....not even as cold as usual as the 300 riders lined up for the start. Off we went and I took 2nd or 3rd wheel as we headed around the "traditional" cross course then out onto the big loop. The pace was not as fast early as in previous years...which was fine with me because I almost immediately developed a nasty side stich. I am pretty sure this was caused by my poor last minute decision to take a gel just 5 minutes before the start. I had one of my normal pre race meals (granola w/ soy milk and a banana), but for whatever reason paniced and thought I needed more calories for the 4 hour event. Not a good decision.
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Up the first climb, across a rolling dirt road, back onto pavement and onto the KOM climb we had a large lead group of almost 30 riders...the biggest I can remember. We shed some of them after the KOM, but it was still a big group. As we approached the turn for the technical lippencote trail climb there were 3 riders just dangling a few seconds off the front. I saw them sit up and start looking around (for the turn) as we got close to the trail. I had a good idea where it was so I blew past them and was able to get the lead as we hit the trail. Perfect! This trail is quite difficult on a cx bike and guaranteed to be frustrating if you get stuck behind other riders. I was able to take my line at my speed. I was not in too much of a hurry, more just concentrating on being smooth and not making any mistakes. As the trail leveled out, Ray Adams came around me and I was able to follow his good lines as we descended to the pavement. Out onto the road we now had a lead group of 7 which quickly became 9....with no other riders in sight behind.
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Down route 30 and onto more up and down dirt roads, Cameron Cogburn attacked as the group was setting a moderate pace (a good move). I was not in a hurry to follow (still battling my side stich at this point) but 2 riders did ...one of whom was eventual winner Chris Beck. Not long after that we hit the big wig wam run up .... which is really a very steep "slog" up a rocky grade. I love this part of the race and, one foot in front of the other, pushed the pace as best as I could. Over the top of the next "run up" we had a group of just 3....chasing the 3 already up the road. We were 3 chasing 3 with a time gap (that held for quite a while) of 3 minutes....interesting.
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As we traveled up and down the dirt roads, then some pavement, I was feeling pretty rough. In fact, the other 2 guys seemed to be going a little better than me and I was preparing myself for a tough battle to hang on going up the next long climb. As we hit this climb (one of the toughest on the course ...I think it is calld hog back) I went to the front, set it in my easiest gear and just started churning out my "I can ride like this for a long time" pace. After just a couple minutes things got quiet. I didn't allow myself to look back for a few more minutes, but when I did I saw I had a sizeable gap. Nice. That was a dangerous point though....go too hard and you blow up, get caught and can't hang on....go too easy and lose the gap. I was good and kept my comfortable, but solid pace. Over the top of the many false summits on this section and I was out of sight....onto a descent and the next long trail section. Everything was going well...I was riding smooth, then I hit a detour from the old course that shoots us down a rocky descent that we were warned about. I started down and thought I was ok, until the trail dropped away and I decided it best to get off the bike. A little too late as I ended up not only off the bike, but in a nasty sticker bush that tore up my legs. Oh well a little blood makes it look like a harder race....off again and back onto the regular course...into the groove and heading to the last section. I was flying down a grassy trail, looking ahead when my front tire hits a groove and next thig I know I am sliding on my back. Great , 2 crashes in just a couple I miles ....I need to get things straight. I got up and was a little worried about the bike as the shifters took the brunt of the impact, but I was able to twist them back into place and carry on.
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One more nasty trail section, a run-up and a really steep short ride up, a mile or so of gravel, then onto the downhill pavement! As I made the left hand turn at the bottom of the descent with just a mile or two to go, I looked back. Sweet, no one in sight....I could be a little conservative on the run in.... save just a little in case there is a last minute charge from behind. Nope....back to camp thompson and across the finaish line....for 4th overall...but wait! As I crossed they told me I was 3rd overall! Cameron had taken a wrong turn and lost a bunch of time...so I was in fact 3rd across the line and 1st for the old guys (>40). A great day.
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IC takes a lot of specific bike preparation to do right. I spent an entire day getting my regular cannondale cx bike "iron crossified". This year ...after 6 tries ...I finally got my wheel /tire combination right. I used huchinson bulldogs set up tubeless with stans on a set of spinergy x-aero wheels. I mounted top mount brake levers and changed out the right shift/ brake lever for a 9 speed. This allows me to run a MTB 11-32 cassette in the back (of course causing the need to change to a long cage rear derailleur). I happen to have 46x36 chainrings, so this gave me an easy gear of 36x32....perfect for sections like lippencote.
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The tuesday after the race I felt like I was recovering well...leg-wise anyway...but picked up a head cold. I felt crappy all week and while my legs felt fine, I was not well enough to do any real training (just about an hour a day). Leading into the first weekend of the NC cross series I was not feeling particularly "snappy". I did have a good race saturday for 4th on a sloggy / windy course in Raleigh. Sunday I blew it and missed the lead group on the first lap. I chased hard essentially alone the entire race with no hope of getting back to the front of the race. I finished a disappointing 7th. I was pretty bummed with that result....but I have to remember how I felt during the week and most likely what Iron Cross took out of me. Historically I don't think I have done well the weekend after IC, but still.....
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Next up: tomorrow a solo 8 hour MTB race near charlotte against some of the best in the business (Tinker, Nat Ross....etc). I hope to see where I stack up and have some fun in the process...hopefully the rain today will be through by race time tomorrow. Then a cx race on sunday in Boone where I know I will be suffering and exhausted......all in good fun eh?
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a2

12 Hours of Dauset Details

2008-10-09T18:45:00.003-04:00

After having a couple of weeks to look back on the 12 hours of Dauset, I can put together a bit on what I did right and what I could have done a bit better. First a race summary:
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I went out pretty quick, but at a sustainable pace. I had the lead, but didn't know it until lap 4. I really concentrated on driving the bike around the course conserving as much energy as possible while maintaining speed. This meant really nailing the turns at the right speed, braking less and shifting at the right times. The course was all single track, but it was not particularly technical and while there were a few climbs they were not particularly long or steep.
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I was really strong through 6 or 7 hours and was feeling good but a little apprehensive going into the last 1/3 of the race. I had a decent lead at this point, but I knew that the guys chasing me had more solo experience....so I could not let up. I had one really rough lap...lap 10...I think this was a mental issue more than anything at a frustrating point in the race. Fatigue is setting in and there is still quite a bit of racing left. This was also probably my low point as far as fueling...I suspect I had low blood sugar and it made me cranky. I took a long pit after this lap...mounted up my lights and had some food. The next lap was much better and I was able to stay relatively consistent through lap 13. As I came through after 13 I was not sure if the guys behind would make the time cut to start another lap or not....so I headed out for #14. After riding about 15 minutes I heard Cara calling for me as the course looped back past a parking lot. She told me the other guys missed the cut and I had won...but I had to finish my lap. This made me feel good...but at the same time now that I knew I won, pedaling the bike started to get really hard! I took that last lap SLOW.....I think it was quite a bit over 60 minutes.
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I did 140 miles of single track in about 12 and a half hours....what a day! Here are my lap times:
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APPLEGATE
ANDY
46.17- includes leMans run start
45.65 - my fastest lap
47.42
50.81
49.70
51.94
53.48
51.71
52.67
60.40 - worst lap...but this time does include a 5+ minute pit stop
53.10
56.56
56.30
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So I learned a lot about solo endurance racing....here are some things I could have done better:
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Pit - My pit was a bit disorganized, I was not sure what I would need so I was a little haphazard setting it up. Once I realized this during the race it made me a bit flustered more than once.

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Nutrition- good and bad here. I need to train my body to take in more calories while riding. I know if I can do that I will be stronger late in the race....but I usually end up with a slight nausea that makes it difficult. This will be an ongoing challenge
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gloves! - I usually wear gloves with no palm padding....ouch my palms were bruised for days after the race.
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Chamois creme - I put plenty on to start, but need to make sure I reapply several times...again...ouch!
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What I did right:
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Pacing! It seemed like I nailed the pacing right from the gun for a race of this duration. Of course it would be nice to go faster...but I got it right that day.
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nutrition- I know I need to work on it, but in this case I got what I needed to keep a relatively steady pace except for one lap....so not too bad.
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equipment - the scalpel was absolutely perfect on this course
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event choice - A fantastic race for my first long solo effort.
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OK....after that weekend we did 2 weekend with cross clinic on saturday and races sunday. next up: Iron cross this weekend, then NC cross races, followed by an 8 hour endurance race then cross races every weekend until nationals in december!
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a2

12 Hours of Dauset - short version

2008-09-27T21:32:00.002-04:00

Last weekend I did my first solo 12 hour mountain bike race on the Dauset trails south of Atlanta, GA......and I won! It was a great experience and I learned a ton. I will post more details later.
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check out cara's post on the race here: www.caraapplegate.blogspot.com
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a2

Bookends - Univest GP 08

2008-09-13T10:52:00.005-04:00

Last weekend was most likely the final big road race of my road campaign that has lasted 10 years. I can't say I did very well, or that I was even prepared for Univest this year, but it was a fitting end as exactly 10 years ago at the very first edition of the Univest GP in 1998 I competed in my first elite level road race.
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Previously I had been doing a handful of big road races every season (like Fitchburg, Altoona and the Iron Horse Classic) as a cat 3 while focusing on MTB racing. By end of the 98 season I had some good road results in big events and was just coming off a 2nd place on GC at the Killington stage race. I upgraded to a cat 2 and was asked to ride for a regional all star team for the inaugural Univest race. That team was sponsored by a bakery called "Yum Yum Doughnuts".
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In that race I was in WAY over my head....I had no idea what I was getting into. For this race, the promoter had invited several European development teams and all the best US amateur teams to compete (no US PRO teams). I thought as an amateur event, how bad could it be?? It was incredible....I remember vividly being amazed at how fast we went out for that 100 mile race. I suffered in the crosswinds, riders were being shelled all over the place in the first 10 miles. I made it exactly an hour in before being dropped on an uphill crosswind grade. At that point there was less than half the 120+ rider field left in the race. I limped back from the big loop and watched the finale play out (the race is a 60+ mile loop followed by 11 laps of a 3-4 mile in-town circuit). Watching those riders suffer at the end of the race was a life changing experience. In particular I remember watching a young Jon Hamblen battle it out with 2 French riders in the 3 man break at the end. I was transfixed. I was hooked. I knew that I had to start racing on the road full time to see what I could do with it.
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Shortly after that I signed on with a regional elite road team Ideal Tile. In 1999 we went to Univest again. This time my goal was to finish...and I had great fitness going in. I rode well and made it back to the circuits with the lead group...perfect...I felt great and I was going to finish and do well. Then I was taken down by an inattentive rider in a turn. I was up quickly and back on the bike before any of the service vehicles arrived. Riding in the caravan, I was not going to have any trouble getting back to the field. Then my front tire went flat. I stopped and looked back to see all the support cars (including my team car) stopped at the crash 200 meters behind me. By the time I got a new wheel mounted, I was way back. I rode 2 laps of the circuit, then was pulled from the race, extremely disappointed. If memory serves, this is the year that an up and coming guy named Tom Boonen won the race....which I got to see from the sidelines once again.
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In 2000 I returned yet again to Univest with the Ideal Tile team....and again since this was one of my season goal races I had great fitness. Again I made it back to the circuits and was feeling ok. This time however, I had done a poor job with fueling while out on the course and started suffering for it with 25 or 30 miles to go. I was not too far away when the winning move went and had I been smart with fueling and hydration may have made the split. As it was, I suffered and hung in with a large 2nd group to finish somewhere around 60th place. But I finished on the 3rd try! Once again my goal was to come back and get a real result in this special race.
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In 2001 I had moved to NC and had hands down my best season ever. I won my age group road race at the national championships in Spokane and myself and my new Cane Creek teammates had won a huge amount of races in the southeast. Again I had absolutely the form of my life coming into Univest week and things looked great. On top of that Cara and I were married on Sept 10th and were going to head up to visit my parents in NJ before heading over to the race Saturday. Then came 9-11. We were driving TO the NY area when we heard the news. The race was cancelled...and rightly so IMHO. A couple years later I did the race in a tropical storm where the course was shortened to just the 4 mile in town circuit,,,,it was miserable and I didn't finish. There was also a sunday crit added this year ..which I did finish.
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It was a couple of years before I was on a team invited to (the now PROs included) Univest again. I had a couple of miserable experiences where I got dropped early ...even though my form was good. This year (2008) when I was put on the squad going I can't say I had much confidence for a result. My modest goal was to survive and make it back to the circuits in town with the field.... Again the weather forecast called to tropical storm remnants to hit the area on race day.
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We rolled in Friday and stayed with some great host families near Souderton PA. A light rain was falling as we lined up on Saturday morning. The start was again blazing fast. We were doing 38-40mph for the fist 10-12 miles on the flat part of the course. This was fun, but a little sketchy on the wet roads. I was quite worried about what would happen when we hit the hilly part of the course where there are numerous tight turns. I was suffering, but doing ok riding up in the front half of the field. Then, the legs came apart. I lost power on a long uphill and could not keep the power up. I watched helplessly as nearly 100 riders went by. I was done. I tried to recover and rode hard staying in the caravan for a few miles...then I started coming up on crashes, slowing me down. On one downhill off camber turn there was a crash and I was riding up next to the broom wagon....as I moved left to go around so did the car and I was run off the road entirely. Kind of funny, but the time I lost killed me. The rain and wind was picking up and I joined up with one other rider to get through the 65 mile big loop to get back to town. At some points it was raining so hard I thought I would drown....but in some ways it was kind of fun also. We rode quite hard and caught up to a large group just before we got back to the circuit. As expected we were not allowed to enter the circuit and our race was over.
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That was it, an inauspicious finale to my big road race experiences. That is not to say I am quitting though! I will focus on some different kinds of racing in the upcoming season, and while you won't see me lining up at any more uci, or probably even nrc road races, I will still do some road events.
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So 10 years of Univest. It is kind of fitting that I started and ended on the same big event....bookends.
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a2

Race Across the Sky – Leadville 100 - 08

2008-08-26T13:24:00.001-04:00

Here is a race I thought I would never do. After moving away from Colorado in 1996 I didn’t think I would ever be up for competing in a race that takes place between 10000 and 12600 ft of altitude. Well….after a call from my old friend Mark Wolff last winter who said he could get us into the race, how could I refuse? Mark’s friend Reid is a sponsor of the 100 mile running race in Leadville and as such had a couple of reserved entry spots available that we could take advantage of….thanks Reid ! (I think :) ).
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I figured I would make a late season trip out of the event and drove out to stay with Mark in his Airstream trailer in Buena Vista, CO. Buena sits at about 8000 feet in the Arkansas river valley in the shadow of the Collegiate range mountain peaks….very cool. I arrived late Monday night the week before the race. Tuesday I was so tired from travel and affected by the altitude that I was useless and didn’t even ride. Wednesday was a little better and I got out for a couple hour ride on some fun trails near town. Thursday was feeling like I was adapting at least a little to the altitude and again went for a moderate ride near Buena with Mark. The weather was cool and rainy and we hoped that race day would be a little nicer. Friday we headed up to race registration in Leadville (just 35 miles north) and after the race meeting drove to look at a couple of key points on the course. I was a little bummed that I didn’t actually ride any of the course before hand, but it just didn’t work out.
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The pre race meeting was an interesting affair and it was cool that Lance Armstrong showed up and said a few words….he played down his chances in the race, but I suspected he would give 5 time winner Dave Weins some serious competition the next day. There were about 1000 registered riders….but the registration process was so well organized that we were in and out in just a few minutes. With a 6:30 am race start we decided on a 3:45 wake up so we could get organized and up to the line with plenty of time. I am definitely not a morning person, but somehow early race starts don’t bother me once I have my mind set to what is needed for proper waking/eating/travel/ arrival at venue times.
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With the shotgun blast we set out on the 100 mile course. The neutral start was a little sketchy, but I was able to stay safe and end up near the front as we hit the dirt and the official race start. I was about 10-15 riders back at the beginning of the first climb just 5 or 6 miles into the race. This climb went well and I crested about 11000 ft in 19th position. Onto the road for a fast paved downhill I was in the 2nd group (Lance, Dave and about 8 or 9 other guys were just up the road). This descent bottoms out and goes right into the next climb. It was not long after the start of this one when I realized the altitude was already starting to get to me. I was feeling nauseous with every pedal stroke. Oh well…nothing to do about it, just keep riding.
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This climb went up to around 11.5, the last couple of miles being pretty rough….then comes the power line descent. I had to back off a little on the climb, trying to stave off the ugly feeling of altitude sickness and I gave up quite a few spots, but I was surviving. The power line descent was really fun…although I was kicking myself for not having pre-ridden it during the week. Off the descent and onto the rolling / flattish portion of the course I was in about the 3rd group on the road and at aid station 1 was riding in a group of 20 or so. After that the sensations started to degrade and I had to continue to let off the pace. Every time I pressed hard on the pedals I felt like I was going to be sick….not a good feeling. I kept hoping I could “ride through it” and feel good on the big upcoming climb….but that was wishful thinking. My big panic was that I felt so sick that I could not properly fuel or hydrate. I did my best, but I knew I was fighting a losing battle there…..so for once I did something really smart: I went into conservation mode. Don’t get me wrong, I was not poking along (yet) but I was definitely holding way back…not riding fast …and not worrying about other riders. I let plenty of riders go by and tried not to be concerned about them. Now, instead of racing for what I had hoped to be a high placing, I was going for that 9 hour mark. I knew I could make it IF I stayed within myself and managed the nausea.
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I actually rode through aid station 2 at twin lakes only about 5 minutes slower than my predicted time…not bad so far, but I had not counted on feeling so poorly…and with a climb over an hour long coming up I knew my time would fall WAY off soon. The area around twin lakes was a mass of people…it was incredible all the people out cheering and supporting riders. For about a mile I felt like I was riding Paris Roubaix or something….I guess Lance really does get the spectators out. Just past twin lakes was the “crew only” aid station where Mark’s wife Kitty had set up shop to support us. I pulled in and took my time getting some food and drink in preparation for the climb up to the Columbine Mine.
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The first long part of the climb was uneventful….in fact I didn’t see many riders at this point. I passed a couple of riders and a couple of riders passed me, but we were all going our own pace. After maybe 40 minutes of climbing the road degrades into a rocky trail. This part was fun for about a mile and this is where I saw Lance and Dave come flying down the mountain…and I still had over a mile to climb! Further along and the trail turns into a rutted path that has very steep pitches. All of a sudden I was above tree line and could see for a long way up the mountain: a long line of riders struggling up, walking at times. I had been climbing for over an hour and still could not see the summit and turn around. The closer I got to the top the faster the riders were coming at me on their way down. This part of the race is pretty sketchy as the uphill riders stay to the right and the downhill riders are forced into a rutted, rocky gully. I was able to ride most of the last uphill portion…I was only off the bike for 2 or 3 small steep sections. I suspect if I was fresh (or closer to sea level) these sections would be easily rideable. As sick as I felt I did still take the time to look around…. Amazingly beautiful….even if there is no oxygen to breathe. Over the crest of the high point of the trail there is a short downhill to the summit aid station and the turn around. This is kind of comical as you actually have to ride back uphill after the turn around…just about the last thing I wanted to do at that point.
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Onto the downhill …which was a blast…seeing the endless line of riders struggling up as I was blasting down the mountain was sadistically fun. I didn’t stop at the crew aid station on the way back and decided I would wait and make one more stop at the final aid station which was still between 2 and 2.5 hours from the finish. Across the rolling part of the course I was feeling worse and worse, trying to eat and drink, but knowing my caloric deficit was increasing. Now I started to ride slow. From this point on I felt like I was racing in slow motion, just turning over the pedals trying to manage the altitude problems as best as possible…..looking for that last aid station where I promised myself I would actually get of the bike for a few minutes. I was playing numbers games with myself, guessing exactly when I would get to the stop and setting time tables as to how long it would take me to finish from there. I figured if I left the station after about 6 hours of riding I could easily make the 9 hours total.
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When I finally made it to the stop I was suffering pretty badly. The “flat” part of the course actually has some really steep and difficult hills. I got off the bike and looking at my watch gave myself 5 minutes of recovery. Several riders passed but I was not worried…I thought I heard someone say I was in 69th pulling into the stop….so I told myself I would be happy with a top 100 placing. Out of the aid station with *just* 25 miles or so to go, I knew I was about to face one of the toughest parts of the course: riding UP power line. My thoughts went something like this: how hard could it be? This is the last really difficult climb (not!), after power line everything is easy, how long could it take? 30 minutes? HA! Power line on the way back IS the most difficult part of the ride. It is steep and it is long. I rode all but a few short sections and that was just because I had that nausea when pressing too hard on the pedals. There are 3 or 4 false summits. You think you can see the top, then you get there only to see another summit in the distance. On top of this it started to rain pretty hard just as I was nearing the top. As I finally crested…after what felt like hours of climbing in my easiest gear (really probably 45-50 minutes) I stopped briefly to put my rain jacket on for the descent. This descent was interesting as it was muddy and my glasses became useless….oh well, I still got down pretty quickly and next thing I knew I was on that real final climb….mostly pavement…but still a tough bit of ascending. I passed a rider who was having the same thoughts as me….just wanted to finish in under 9 hours without needing a trip to the hospital afterwards. I figured that the finish would be just about an hour or a little less from the top….and as it turns out I was pretty close with that estimate. I crested the last climb and felt a small surge of energy as I got back onto the dirt. I was hoping for an immediate downhill, but the trail rolls around a bit on the crest before the final descent. Once my wheels pointed downhill I got some confidence, but I knew that at the bottom I still had a 5 plus mile gradual uphill grind back to town.
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The return to town is slightly different that the route at the start…and slightly longer as well, just to add a little bit of extra cruelty. When I hit the pavement I thought I was home free….but in fact I still had a bit of suffering to complete. Instead of mostly pavement to get back, they send you off onto a loose gravel road called “the Boulevard”. Here is where I was cursing myself for not having looked at the finish section. I was on the boulevard, grinding away, but the town was nowhere in sight! I kept thinking “how far could it be!”....but it just would not come into view. Finally I asked a couple of spectators who walking along the course (almost going the same speed as me) how far it was and I think I heard a little chuckle as they said less than 2 miles. OK, I can walk 2 miles if I have to, so this set my mind at ease. I was crawling…but I would finish…and well under 9 hours. I made the final turn onto the road and hit the last couple of rollers up to the finish. It was awesome…there were hundreds of people out cheering for ALL the finishers….and since Lance and Dave had finished almost 2 hours earlier it was incredible to see this much support. I crossed the line in 8 hours 39 minutes in 71st place overall and somehow managed to hide my exhaustion because a few people were talking to me and I can’t really recall much of anything. I felt so sick, I still couldn’t eat and I went up to the car and just sat in the passenger seat trying to relax and let my stomach settle enough to start replenishing calories. This took a long time, but I had to wait for Mark to get in so I had time before I had to move around much.
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I went back to the line to wait for Mark and as 11 hours passed I was getting a little worried that he would not make the official finish cut off of 12 hours….on such a brutal course anything can happen. He made it in at about 11:22….great! As we were starting to get ready to leave and the 12 hour mark was approaching, the countdown began. One minute! At the finish you can see for several minutes down the road so you can see the riders suffering trying to make that 12 hour mark. 3, 2, 1 Bang! They fire the shotgun again at 12 hours signifying the end of the race….All I could think of was riders who were still out there hearing that gunshot and knowing they missed the cut off.
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We headed back to Buena, a big meal, and thankfully a couple thousand feet lower altitude. After an hour or so I started to feel better and the appetite came back nicely. The awards ceremony was at 8:30 am the next morning and it really was quite an affair. The race promoter actually reads off the name of every finisher under 12 hours. You get a belt buckle for under 12 and a bigger buckle for under 9 hours. Pretty cool. The winning tandem time was 10 hours and 17 minutes….there were actually quite a few tandems….and believe me I took note of that time….hmmmmm.
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After the awards I wandered around town a little, and then hit the road for the 2 day drive back to NC. What an experience this event was…I am so glad to have done it. I didn’t even come close to my potential time on the course….I suspect with the right acclimatization and training I could get close to 8 hours….but that will have to wait. Maybe next year?

a2

HEKMAN 3RD AT US PRO CRITERIUM CHAMPIONSHIPS !!!!!

2008-08-17T21:08:00.004-04:00

Let me repeat that: Mark Hekman just grabbed the bronze medal at the US PRO criterium championships in Downers Grove, IL. This comes exactly one year after crashing and breaking his heel in the 2007 amateur edition of the race. I couldn't be happier for Mark. The pic above is not from crit nats, but will have to suffice until we get one.

Those who know Mark are familiar with his laid back style and sense of humor. What they often don't realize is the unbelievable amount of work he puts into his cycling profession. Of all the athletes I have had the pleasure to work with over the years, Mark has by far the ability to sustain the highest training work load. The other thing that really stands out is his consistency of race results. Week in and week out all year long Mark performs.....He has had some really good results this season, but 3rd today is some great payoff for all his efforts.

Also a big congrats to Marco Aledia and the entire Inferno Racing team for Marco's 2nd place in the elite amateur crit championships earlier in the day!

And it doesn't stop there! Asheville superstar Lauren Franges (Tibco) won the Saturday warm up race in Downer's where VeloSports coach Laura Bowles (Advil) was a driving force in the 4 woman winning break.

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a2
Leadville report coming soon...I promise!

Nationals TT Details....

2008-07-09T09:49:00.008-04:00

My individual TT was at about 9am. As luck would have it, the rain started about 5 minutes before my start time. It rained for about 90% of my time on course, but I don't think it affected my ride at all. The Power file above is my individual ride....here are the numbers:

entire ride:

Time: 50:52 ( I think my official time was 50:53 or 54)

Average (and normalized) power: 344 watts

avg cadence: 92 rpm

distance: 24.13 mi

speed:28.5 mph

Splits:

Out:

time: 24:46

power:342 watts

cadence:93 rpm

speed:28.94 mph

return:

time:26:04

power:345 watts

speed:28.03 mph

cadence 91 rpm

I really felt pretty good during the ride and knew pretty early on that I was going well. My target "cruising power" was about 340 watts. I knew I was good as every time I checked I was at or above 340 and feeling comfortable....or at least as comfortable as one can feel while riding nearly all out.

What can we glean from the numbers above? One thing is pacing: note that the return was significantly slower than the out leg, but the power was higher. This is due to the tailwind out , headwind return...and I also suspect that there was a net elevation loss going to the turnaround as we were going downstream along the Ohio River. This is good pacing. It would have been easy to overcook the first half, feeling good riding with a tailwind. I held back slightly and it paid off. My weight was about 147lbs or 66.82kg. The power over this TT gives me about 5.15 watts per kg @ FTP. Not bad. I am quite happy I was able to do that...for 4th place in my age group..., and I believe it was about the best I could have hoped for given my current fitness level.

After my individual ride the weather cleared, but the wind kicked up significantly. I had just under 3 hours between this ride and the tandem ride. Unfortunately I didn't rest as much as I should have. I found myself walking around, talking to other riders....which was great, but not the best for recovery. Just as Cara and I were headed to the start on the tandem, I noticed my age group was on the podium. I ran over, jumped on my step, raised arms for the photo then ran back off to get on the big bike. The whole thing took about 15 seconds and was really quite funny.

With a huge wind behind the tandem on the out leg of the TT course we were FLYING. I have no metrics, but we were riding 29-34 mph most of the way out. Since they started the tandems at 2 minute intervals it was difficult to tell where we were in relation to our competition. I knew the return into the wind would be very tough and tried to hold back some. At the turn we saw we had only gained 15 or 20 seconds on the team ahead of us. I admit I felt a little panic. We would need to ride hard to the finish. Everything was great....we were riding fast and strong until about 109KM to go when the fatigue really started to hit me. i have to say that the last 5 miles of that ride was one of the most excruciatingly painful things I have ever done. I suffered....knowing that we needed to push all the way through. We did and we won....but ouch. Our time was something like 50:42...faster than my individual time! We have never done that before....usually we are close but just a little slower.

We had the fastest mixed tandem time of the day by about a minute and were faster than all but a few of the men's teams.

Tuesday I was wrecked.....

Hekman wins Iron Hill edition of USA CRIT SERIES

2008-07-05T23:24:00.002-04:00

Congratulations to Velosports Performance Center athlete Mark Hekman on his win at the Iron Hill Twilight Criterium in West Chester, PA, the 5th stop in the USA Crit Series.

When the phone rings late on a weekend night and a coach sees it is an athlete we work with on the caller ID, it is usually either really good news or really bad news. Thankfully it was all good tonight.

Hekman went on a solo break during the 60 kilometer long race, eventually lapping the field.

Nice work Mark!

4th of July: Natz mission accomplished

2008-07-04T12:05:00.002-04:00

We won a hard fought tandem road race yesterday afternoon. It was wet and there were plenty of crashes. Hopefully a real report later, but of my 3 events here in Louisville I won 2 national championships and got on the podium for the other....so needless to say it was a good trip..

Time to head home!

a2

quick update: masters road nats

2008-06-30T21:31:00.002-04:00

Cara and I are in Louisville, KY this week at masters road nationals. Today was the TT. My individual TT was at about 9am this morning. I was pleased to get 4th in my age group with a time of about 50:54 for the 38KM undulating course. It was raining for most of my ride, but I don't think it slowed me down any. I averaged 343 watts which gives me slightly over 5watts per Kg....about as good as I could have expected today.

At about 1pm Cara and I set off for our tandem TT. We rocked it even though the wind had picked up dramatically. We did 50:43 ! Faster than my individual time ! We have never done that before. The return leg had a serious headwind and the last 5 miles were excruciating.....one of the hardest things i have done in a long time. We had the fastest mixed tandem time by about a minute.

Mission accomplished so far: one podium and a national championship......

Tandem road race is thursday.

a2

pics from the trials road TT

2008-06-12T11:25:00.007-04:00

GAME OVER: paralympic trials road TT

2008-06-06T14:20:00.003-04:00

Just finished the road time trial for paralympic selection. We rode really well and did 100.9 % of our time standard of 1 minute 17.6 seconds per kilometer. We rode a 17:56 on a tough little course with some difficult turns and hills. Unfortunately it was not good enough to get selection for the team. The hand cyclists and amputees ruled the day. 3 of them did 95% of their time standard! I don't know just what their standard was, but that is incredible. With only 6 male slots for the team and 3 of them "ring fenced" we would have needed to ride about 97% of our standard to get selection . We rode over 28mph average....and honestly no matter what we could have done we would no way have been able to ride fast enough to do 97%! To do a 97% for the pursuit we would have literally had to come close to setting a world record!
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So in the end...after all the hard work and time....training for an event I had never done before (pursuit) and travel, we never really did have a shot at making the team. The way the selection rules are written, and the small size of the team the US had qualified for the paralympics we were fitghting a losing battle from the onset.....of course we did not know this until recently....most of this is new for this paralympics as the uci recently took control of the cycling events and new rules are in place for Beijing.
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I do know that we trained hard and raced well....to the best of our abilities....and for me, the experience was truly amazing.
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I hope to have some pictures and more thoughts up here soon....
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a2

4:43 something

2008-06-04T23:57:00.003-04:00

That was our time for the 4KM pursuit today. We rode really well..especially for a team that had never done this event before. I was hoping for better, but we rode to our ability and this is what we came up with.
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We did start a little too hard. The start itself was near perfect about 28.0 sec for the first lap....then the big problem: 21 seconds for the 2nd lap!...too fast!!!! We knew this, but the damage was done....we needed to hold speed as long as we could.....and we were doing really well. Lots of low 22 sec laps...then into the 23s ...we made it past 5 to go with good times...then started to pay for the early effort with 24 second laps for the last 3......ouch.
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What an incredible experience though....this event is crazy hard..the focus it demands is complete. During the ride it was like we were on another planet....there was nothing else in the universe except us, our effort and the patch of track in front of us....
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When we finished all I could think was that I did not want this to be my first AND last pursuit with Matt...we have one more chance to move up and make the team.
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Our ride gave us the bronze medal for the national championship....but was 105% of our time standard....so we are still in 4th for the team selection ranking with just the road TT left on friday. We will need to ride FAST.
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No pics from today yet....maybe tomorrow.
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a2

Paralympic Trials Day 1

2008-06-04T00:13:00.003-04:00

Today was day 1 of the trials. The pic is Matt and Anton starting the kilo. They had an unbelievably fast start and ended with a 1:06.8 . This gave us a 102% ranking...meaning they were 2% off of the elite standard for this event. 3 riders (one tandem team and 2 individuals) had better rankings so we are now in 4th. This means we have to go FAST tomorrow and friday.
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It was a little stressful for me to be out there watching and not riding. I have to say I was a little underwhelmed by the amount of spectators (look at the throngs of people in the stands above!)..and even by the amount of competitors....but even though the fields are small for the track events the times were wicked fast and the competition is extremely fierce to get those team spots for Beijing.
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After the event Matt and I did a short road ride, then I headed out again after lunch and did some leg opening efforts. I can't say I felt great, but I was putting out the power so I think I will be ok for tomorrow. Conditions were great today....if they are the same for tomorrow we should be able to ride a fast time.
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Hopefully I will be able to put up a good post tomorrow.....but now to bed.
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a2

Almost Time for Trials !

2008-05-31T00:02:00.005-04:00

Pictures courtesy of cycling photographer extraordinaire Casey Gibson. Team King is the one on top....that is Anton, Matt, and me.......extra points if you can tell who is the sprinter and who is the endurance guy. Between Matt and Anton that is a lot of quadriceps muscle!

This was essentially our last real week of preparation for the trials next week. Now we are in "taper" mode. We did some hard work Tuesday-Friday on the track....well except Thursday when a car ran into the track overnight and they would not let us do a workout....no joke.

Honestly the workouts this week are a blur. I know they were hard. We did get 2 motor paced sessions in as well. OK.....motorpacing is relatively challenging. Now: do it on a tandem, with a fixed gear, on the track, in the aerobars, and on a really windy day. Let's just say the learning curve was pretty steep.....but it was an absolute blast. Today we tried to do a 4 KM slightly above race pace with 1 lap on and 1 lap off the motor. That was somewhat of a disaster with the wind....we really got less than half a lap recovery each time....so while we didn't get exactly the effort we were looking for, it sure was hard. Next we did a 4KM effort on the motor the whole time. This went pretty well. The first couple laps were a little ragged, but then we settled into low 21 second pace for most of the effort...until the last couple laps when we fell apart. After a rest we did 6 or 7 KM behind the motor in an easier gear and at a more moderate speed. After this I FINALLY really got the hang of it...too bad the session was over!

As far as fitness we now have what we are going to have for trials....time to do some easy workouts, rest, get all the race gear dialed in, and try not to stress too much....which is easier said than done.

out for now

tour of leelanau

2008-05-30T23:38:00.002-04:00

After a week of training on the track in Colorado I flew to northern Michigan for the 110 mile uci road race near Traverse City. I knew the travel would be tough....but after landing in Chicago and sitting on the tarmac for 45 minutes I missed my connecting flight and the day became super stressful. For a while i thought I was going to have to rent a car and drive the 5+ hours the rest of the way....but luckily I got onto an evening flight.

The race course was beautiful....lots of tough hills. I actually RACED at the front for at least a while. I was feeling good and went with the very first attack.....ummmm....not such a good idea. We were looking good for the first hour....riding well, then it started to rain. I managed to get gapped off on the first KOM climb and had to chase back for a few KM...ouch, but no worries....got right back to the front and was able to mix it up a little more....then we hit a twisty/ wet/ pot holed descent. I was still in contact with the group as I passed a teammate right near the bottom. I waited for him and tried to pull him back to the bunch. Just as I was making contact I looked back and saw he was behind, so I slowed again....big mistake. the field was going fast and as it turns out he was not really having any problems....Ryan Gamm came around us and drilled it to get us back on. Ryan pulled off and I went hard up the base of a small climb. Joe was able to jump around and get right back on the group and I ...well....I got dropped. Of course at that point there was only about 50 riders out of the 110+ starters in the field....but still. I chased hard for a bit but was soon caught by a group of about 6 riders from behind. These guys were motoring and I slotted right in. We kept the gap at 15 to 20 seconds for several miles...then the gap blew out and we lost sight of the field.

I had good company with ex teammate Shaun Adams and MTB superstar Mike Simonson. We kept the pace high enough to hurt, but our goal was to make the tight time cut as we knew we would not see the field again until the finish. We rode hard for the rest of the course but still managed to miss the time cut....what a drag to see a DNF next to your name when you did actually finish the race....oh well ...that is what you get when you try to play with the big kids.

The highlight of the day was as our group was finishing up the final steep hill. Simonson and I were going really hard....not sprinting mind you but riding hard for the finish. Just as we got about a half a meter from the line, neither of us wanting the distinction of sprinting the laughing group we both jammed on our brakes and came to a virtual track stand at the line..... I am not sure who won that contest :)

After the race I got to spend some quality time with my teammates....while we were bummed that the team performance was not the best, we did manage to have some fun.

Up at 4:15am on monday morning and back to Denver and the drive back to C-Springs by noon.

Next competition: the Paralympic Trials !!!!

back on TRACK

2008-05-22T00:35:00.004-04:00

I am not even sure if I can remember everything that has gone on since my last post....but I will try.

OK, so I went home from CO Springs, did the Rock Hill road race weekend with Inferno (a great team weekend), then did the Cohutta 100 mile MTB race ...(where I finished 16th and which really deserves it's own post)...then did the Airforce uci road race (where I was dropped like a rock), came back to C-Springs for a week of intense track pursuit training with Matt, flew back to Asheville for a whopping 5 days and had a great time doing the 12 Hours of Tsali MTB race with my Kobold / Cannondale teammate Daniel Corum last saturday(where we were 3rd in the 4 person open team category with just 2 riders...hope to do a post on this race individually as well). Got up the day after the 12 hr race, packed and DROVE 2 days (10 hrs sun, 12 hrs mon) BACK to Colorado Springs again,.......which leads us to this week.....keeping up??? I am not sure if I am !

Now things are hotting up with our training for the Paralympic trials. We have been KILLING it with our workouts on the track. I have to say in my almost 20 years of racing bikes I have NEVER done this much specific all out intensity work...nor have I put this much energy and sacrifice into preparing for a certain event....and I suppose that is saying something. I am convinced it will pay off.

Training for the 4 KM pursuit on the track is quite complicated and specific. I am certainly learning a lot. Matt enlisted Chris Mirabella to help with our training program (husband of famous track star Erin Mirabella)...so a special thanks from my aching legs goes out to him :) > I should also mention the incredible help we have had from Bill Lahman ..who has done everything from airport runs, to lap timing to wrenching for us....not to mention training with Matt. So far this has been a real team effort.

Today's bout of pain was a long track workout consisting of a nice warm-up punctuated with a 4KM effort building to 130 rpm or so in a light gear (51x17 I think). Then the fun began with 4x 3KM all out efforts in our expected race gearing. It was super windy and our lap times were not great...but our effort was really good. We finished off doing 2 start efforts from a real starting gate...which was good practice. This workout left us completely spent. We then took about 30 minutes off followed by a 2 hour easy ride up through the Garden of the Gods (pictured above).

The picture on the top is Katie Compton doing a serious motor paced track session......

Now I need to recover for tomorrow's killer session again...

US Air Force Cycling Classic

2008-05-04T12:27:00.002-04:00

Andy is racing in the US Air Force Cycling Classic as I type this, with his team, Inferno Racing.

Read the live report here: http://live.cyclingnews.com/?id=latest

Colorado Springs

2008-04-01T01:10:00.002-04:00

So since last tuesday i have been out in Colorado Springs training with Matt King on the tandem. This trip has been focused on track specific work looking toward qualifying for the Paralympic pursuit.
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I was up @ 3:30 am last tuesday morning and in Denver by 9:30 am. Matt's riding partner Bill picked me up at the airport...and we were on the track in the Springs by 1:30pm This was a tough session with 2 and 3KM efforts and some starts. This was my first experience ever on a banked track....and to do it on a tandem , in aerobars, and near race pace was quite the challenge.....and it was a blast. I had no trouble at all...although trying to hold the tandem on the pole line @ 34 mph and 120+ rpms is quite ineresting.....I didn't feel too bad at altitude (the springs is @ 6000+ft), but after the track session I felt like death. We took a 45 minute spin after and I thought i was not going to make it :)
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Thursday was another productive track session with a series of flying 500 meter (2 laps) and 3 lap efforts....and of course some starts. We went FAST this day, but to think of sustaining that pace for 4KM not just 500 meters is a bit daunting. After this session I was COOKED. I went back to Matt's house and slept most of the afternoon.
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Friday we were rained out of the track....but it cleared up enough for us to go out and do some road TT specfic work....which turned out to be 2x20 min @ TT pace up a 3-5% grade....a GREAT workout and we felt strong.
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Saturday was ENDURANCE day. we set out to do a 5 hr ride, mostly rolling north through the Air Force Academy then out east. The wind was moderate at the start, but was picking up all day....when we turned south we had a full on gale for a cross headwind....which of course was changing constantly to give us a headwind for about 3/4 of the entire ride. When we turned west again we were crawling into the wind. On small descents where the tandem would have easily been doing 30+ MPH COASTING, we were pedaling hard @ 15MPH. this turned out to be a 6 hour tough ride....character building my Dad would likely say.
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Sunday was cold and a well needed recovery day.....we did about 90 minutes easy mostly on bike paths.
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Monday (today) it was back to the track for some more solid work. We did 4x5 KM (15 lap) efforts. We didn't quite hit our performance goals...but it was really windy again and Matt and I were both not @ 100% ( I was just still feeling fatigue from saturday and Matt was up all night with his son who was sick). We still got a killer good training day in though....capping it off with some really good start efforts, then a 45 minute spin on the road.
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2 more days of track work to come before I head home on wednesday night. Tomorrow we plan to head up near Denver after the track workout to recon the road TT course for trials.
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Matt has such a great support system here. His regular training partner Bill is a huge asset, and his family (wife Kim and kids Lavyn and Spencer) are completely behind his bid to get back to the games.
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Another note is that while we have been at the track some other Paralympic athletes have been there as well.

It is amazing to see these folks training. You have not seen anything until you have seen a rider with one leg doing standing starts in pursuit race gearing....unbelievble.....
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a2

catching up again....

2008-03-28T01:17:00.004-04:00

The problem with my blogging is that if I let it go without posting for more than a week, so much happens it is tough to get caught up with any amount of detail. Oh well...I will give it a try:
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After the TT from the last post I got back with a solid training week (about 23 hours) including 2 great days of training with Mark Heckman who was staying in Brevard for a few days. The week was capped off with a super fun 6 hour MTB race down in Georgia. I rode ok, not great, for 6th place and it was a blast. Other than having some serious foot pain from over supinating on the technical trails, I had no major issues....hydration and fueling were perfect. The course was quite technical (twisty with plenty of roots), so it was good practice for my less than stellar single track skills.
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The following week (last week) was slated to be a very high volume week. I got right back to riding after the endurance race....which was a mistake. After 2 days of lack lustre riding I finally took a day off (wed). When i got back to it on thursday I felt reinvigorated. Lesson learned: take a day off after an endurance MTB race in order to recover enough to train properly! I should know that already.
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Friday was the beginning of what has become an a2 annual tradition of a killer training block over Easter weekend. Since there are never any events this weekend it is the perfect time to get a nice crash block in. Friday Cara and I did a solid almost 4 hour ride on the tandem. Enough to properly fatigue me for the hardest training weekend of the season.
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Friday night Mark Hekman and $Rich$ "showtime" Harper drove over to stay and train for sat/sun. Saturday we set out to do a ride I have been thinking about since we moved to Black Mountain. My idea was to do my 100 mile (from Asheville) Hotsprings/ Doggett Mountain loop....but from Black Mountain. I knew this ride would be over 6 hours and probably over 120 miles. Of course we set out at a pace that was just above my normal solid endurance pace (which is about 245 watts). Everything was fine until we hit the Dog (Doggett Mtn) climb 80+ miles in. We had a cross tail wind on the stretch from Hot Springs through Spring Creek and Mark decided to pin it...and pin us in the gutter most of the time. We were too tired to complain and just rode.....About a mile from the base of the climb I cracked HARD and struggled up the 30 minute climb alone. After the descent I was feeling a bit better, but we still had (ouch) more than 40 miles to go. Thankfully the last 15 miles from Asheville back to Black Mountain was with a nice tail wind....and it was awesome to watch $rich$ and Mark suffer as much as I was for the last 30 minutes :) ...Ok maybe not suffering quite as much as I was. We ended up with 130 miles and almost 7.5 hours of riding on the day.
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Saturday night while I sat pondering how exhausted I was, the guys drank more beer than imaginable....I have no idea how they do that and still ride....quite amazing actually.
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Sunday we saddled up the mountain bikes and headed out for a nice 5.5 hour ride on most of the off road assault on Mt Mitchell course. This was done at a pace considerably slower than saturday...but it was great. We included what i call the "endless climb" up Curtis Creek road to the Blue Ridge Parkway..then continue the climb on the parkway to the old Mt Mitchell toll road. The Curtis Creek climb is about an hour long (14 miles?)...then the climbing on the parkway just seems endless before the turn back down the mountain.
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We survived.... and so ended the epic weekend.
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That brings us to this week and the next post........
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a2

Camps and Such

2008-03-08T23:23:00.003-05:00

As usual much has been going on since my last post. After Matt left, VeloSports put on a very successful MTB skills camp, then a few days later I headed off to the Inferno road team camp in Macon GA. This camp was tough...not from a riding perspective, but from a work perspective. Since Wobble Naught is a sponsor of the team we had to fit all the riders in just a couple of days time. We had "king wobble" himself (Tom Coleman) helping with fits and doing video analysis with Dartfish (more on that in an upcoming post)....along with myself, team rider and fitter Jim Baldesare and 55-Nine WN fitter Eddie O'Day. Even with all of us working non-stop it took 2 full days to get everyone set up. I spent so much time crawling around on the floor taking measurements and setting up bikes it left my back in a terrible state, BUT we got everyone set. One really cool note is that Thomson was the main sponsor of the camp (special thanks to Dave Parrett)....and at one point we had a few riders having trouble getting proper saddle set back (including myself) due to the Masi frame geometry, saddle rails on our new SDG saddles and the 1.6cm setback of the Thomson posts. How to solve the problem? Simple: have Dave custom bend some posts at the Thomson factory to get additional set-back......I feel pretty special now :) . Kudos to Chad Thompson for putting together an incredible team for 2008 and all the team sponsors for the support. There are a few sponsors in particular I will be talking about in future posts....stay tuned.

So after a couple of tough days with that work and other logistics, we got to some good riding in great weather. We actually cut loose a few times and let some of the riders with a little better early season fitness kick it up.....the last 10 miles of the saturday ride was particularly fun. Sunday was a short ride dedicated to photos and the like....then after everyone headed home, I was able to get Tom to take a look at my TT set up and make a few really cool refinements. After that it was the drive home and back to work.

My back was pretty darned sore when I got home from all the fitting work, and Tuesday I somehow managed to make a wrong move and pull a muscle in my lower back. Ouch. It was pain, pain , pain....so much I could hardly move, let alone get on a bike. The closest pain that I can compare it to was my hernia repair back in the early 90s.....yes the pain was THAT bad. It was frustrating not being able to ride for a few days....and the recovery was gradual, but is almost complete. I was worried about the TT we were going to on Saturday , but it turned out that my back was not a limiting factor in performance at all.

Friday night we headed over to TN for the Spring Forward 40KM TT. The weather forecast was dismal, more like cyclocross weather, but we were determined to get it done. The weather was in fact abysmal: 30 degrees, snowing and gale force winds made for an interesting event. The course was quite rolling....not much flat, mostly big rollers....more down on the way out and more up on the way back. Cara finished with a couple of inches of ice caked on her bike. The wind was close to a full on head wind going out and it was a struggle to keep the bike up to speed and going straight. I dressed with multiple layers and heavy gloves...which was a good choice. I took the turn -around at about 30 minutes....slow! and my power was all over the place, very difficult to keep a steady rhythm with the conditions. After the turn was easier to be steady and even though there was more elevation gain, I was FLYING getting through sustained sections at around 38MPH....ahh tailwinds feel good. I was over 5 minutes faster coming back. I felt good about the ride even though power and time was poor. I felt I managed the conditions well and put in a solid ride. Turned out I had the fastest time of the day by quite a bit....and Cara had the fastest women's time as well...so it was worth the trip.

out for now

Bid for Beijing : the Big News....

2008-02-17T23:10:00.005-05:00

Ok, so here it is...the big goal for 2008 I was holding out on: Matt King and I will be vying for a spot on the US team for the Paralympics in Beijing this coming September.

Matt is a blind cyclist from Colorado Springs and has been to 3 Paralympic games. He claims he is a track specialist, but I would argue that he seems to be a great "all around" rider. He found me to be his "endurance" pilot....so the events he will focus on with me are the pursuit and the road time trial. Of course I sure would like to do the road race as well.

So Matt arrived here in Asheville last wednesday night. I picked him up at the airport in Charlotte....complete with 2, yes 2 tandems (one road, one track). We started riding on thursday of last week and it immediately felt great. We hit the track for the first time on monday and had some good speed as well. This weekend we headed down to the Tundra TT near Atlanta GA to give ourselves a real full on performance test. We rode early in the rotation and did the 9.5 miles in 20:28. Not bad at all. I went out about an hour later solo and pulled a 20:07....but I was beaten for the win by just one tenth of a second! The conditions were perfect for fast times and my power for my solo run was about 4% lower than last year for a time almost 50 seconds faster! Not sure how much time doing that first effort on the tandem cost me, but I don't care, it was a great day all around...Cara had a great ride too, for the fastest women's time of the day.

Back to the Paralympics subject: So Matt will have been here for 2 weeks by this wednesday when he heads home. We know we have some serious training to do, but I think the prognosis for making the team for the games is pretty good. The qualification process is a little complicated and confusing....but there are time standards that need to be met regardless. I think we can smoke the road TT time standard, and I hope we can get the pursuit standard as well. I will need to do a lot more anaerobic work this spring.

So that is the latest....and for me this is really an exciting prospect. I have already learned so much working with Matt. Honestly I can't say that I had ever had much interaction with anyone who is blind before. I was a little nervous at first, now of course I have no idea why, and the riding part was soo much easier than I thought it was going to be. Heck, I have to give Cara as much information while she is stoking the tandem as I do for Matt.....and Matt doesn't yell at me to slow down on fast winding descents :)

I will post much more about our quest and what we need to do to get to Beijing. This is really just the beginning of what will probably be to say the least, an interesting adventure.....

Chack out more info on the Paralympics here: http://www.usparalympics.org/

quad

2008-02-10T23:04:00.000-05:00

Just rediscovered this pic from near winston-salem last year. I felt I needed to share it with everyone.... I am pretty sure that bike isn't uci legal :)

Relevant and interesting new posts coming soon...I promise!

Wobble-Naught on VeloNews.com

2008-01-27T23:20:00.000-05:00

Hey! Check out the video of Tom Coleman going through parts of a Wobble-Naught fit, and Dartfish analysis on the new Velonews.com website: http://beta.velonews.com/index.html
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look under: latest video.
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The editing of the video really just leaves pictures and dialogue that only scratch the surface of what we do during a full fit session.....
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a2

2 posts in one day ? !

2008-01-20T22:30:00.000-05:00

Ok, So no pictures or power files, but the ride today was worth writing about. All everyone is talking about is the cold weather this weekend in the East. Yesterday Cara and I did a soggy, snowy miserable 90 minute MTB ride in Bent Creek where we plowed through several inches of crusty snow before getting soaked and heading back to the car. Not too fun, but a decent strength workout nonetheless. With the temps below 30 and the forecast for even more frigid conditions sunday, the ride outlook was pretty bleak. Just before we headed out we ran into some friends who were planning a nice long off road ride up the Mitchell toll road and down heartbreak ridge. Of course I said I would go....that is now my hometown ride.....we were to meet @ 12:30 sunday.
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I think it was about 12 or 13 degrees when I headed out the door. At first I thought I was overdressed, but then I realized I had a tailwind heading over to the meeting spot. Turns out all but 2 other riders bailed...too cold for them! So it was just Marv Masson, Trish Stevens and me. We hit out to climb for over an hour on what were to be interesting trail conditions. I was afraid that we would get wet, but the snow was not melting, so we had mostly crunchy good traction...way better than expected. there was plenty of ice as well.. but not too much trouble going up hill. It was cold...oh yes it was cold, but we were in no huge hurry and stopped to warm hands and feet numerous times on the way up. The snow added resistance to the ride, but at times it actually made riding up the rocky toll road on the hardtail even smoother that usual. As we topped out near the Blue Ridge Parkway and turned onto upper Heartbreak I was a bit worried that the slippery conditions would make the downhill treacherous....and man was it cold up there over 5000 ft!
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As it turns out the downhill conditions were AWESOME. It was super fun riding on the crusty snow. There was very little ice and where there was not snow the trail was dry.....it was so different from any other time I have ridden that trail...it was a blast. By the time we got down to Old Fort we were all actually feeling plenty warm for the trip back up the climb to Black Mountain. I made it home after being out close to 5 hours. Sure, we didn't break any speed records, but we didn't freeze to death either and had a great time......
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Just goes to show that if you are prepared for the conditions...both with the right gear, and the right mental outlook...even "challenging" conditions can be a lot of fun to ride in.
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a2

first couple of training weeks 2008

2008-01-20T10:32:00.000-05:00

So the first couple of training weeks for 2008 are in the books with relative success. The first week was really solid with about 19 training hours capped off with the Snake Creek Gap MTB TT...which was a blast. The 2nd week saw a few less hours due to work/time commitments and less than perfect weather....for about 16 hours. This week (week 3) has seen even fewer training hours, but a couple of really solid sessions.

I have posted a couple of files above. Unfortunately the dates on the files are wrong, as I forgot to check my power control ...and it thought it was 2003 for some reason. The second is what I would call a "typical" endurance ride for me. I like the look of the srm software graphs for seeing the ride all at once. It gives an instant visual of the climbs, descents and steady portions of the ride....as opposed to the analysis that is possible in the WKO+ software. Notice that while the average power looks low (just over 200 watts), this was actually a pretty solid ride with lots of time around AeT. Living in the mountains the average power is skewed because of all the low power soft-pedaling on descents.

The file posted at the top is a 30-30 workout I did the other night inside on the computrainer. I thought the contrast between the outside endurance ride and the controlled short interval workout inside would be interesting to put side by side. This file is only the "work" part of the training session. I did a 1 min effort at about FTP, then did 16x 30 seconds @ 125% of FTP, with 30 seconds recovery. This is a hard workout. My goal was between 15 and 20 efforts. I stopped after 16 mostly to be sure I could get enough recovery for a long endurance ride the following day. Another thing to note is the heart rate curve. Check out how HR does not reach max after each effort until 15 + seconds into the recovery. Also note that the "depth" of recovery is less and less as the session goes on. Each effort was about 420 watts average....my estimated off-season FTP now is probably about 330 watts or so.....in the future I would hope to see several things occur with this type of workout: increased avg wattage for efforts (but probably the same % of FTP as FTP improves), increased depth of HR recovery between efforts, and of course the ability to complete more efforts without feeling like dying.

OK, I promise a more interesting post next time ... :)

"42"

2008-01-14T23:58:00.001-05:00

If I remember correctly, according to the Douglas Adams Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy, "42" is the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything........well today I turned 42 years old.
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Maybe this will be a year of particular enlightenment?
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a2

2007 Season Summary

2008-01-06T11:07:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year!

I have been meaning to post my 2007 season summary for a while....I ask all the athletes I coach to answer these questions for me at the end of each season, so here are my answers to those same questions. The important thing I try to get out of this is honesty. If you can honestly assess the season you are already a long way down the road to reaching the goals for the next year.
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So, 2007 was a year of very good and well...some bad. Usually I have good consistent seasons, or not -so- good seasons. Last year was both. With everything else going on (like new business commitments, and buying a new (old) house) my training volume took a huge hit compared to previous years. However, some really great results happened in 2007 as well.....so here it is:
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Season Summary
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Name: a2
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Race Season/Year Just Completed: 2007
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1. What was the highlight of your season (for example, best race or greatest accomplishment)? Please explain why.
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Tandem national championship road race….most fun on a bike ever.
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National TTs, both masters and elite. I only lost the master title by 9 seconds or so…it was what I would consider a great performance and I really don’t think I could have given any more. Then I was able to maintain focus and take another top 10 in the elite TT with an even faster time….too bad I couldn't hold focus and fitness through the elite road race.
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All the races Hekman, Harper and I did together….it was like magic, we never even had to talk about anything, we knew each other so well and what each of our roles was to get results…perfect.
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Winning 6 hrs of Tsali, and 5th @ ORAMM….. Rediscovering my MTB roots, especially at long distances.
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1a. In what areas do you feel you improved most this season?
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Crits? I had a few performances in crits where I even surprised myself…particularly at the Raleigh nrc race…me on the front of an nrc crit…who would have believed it?! (and I have at least one picture to prove it...posted above)
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Learning how to go fast on the MTB again
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2. What was your greatest disappointment? Why?
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Worlds: I put in a very good performance in the TT, I went 35 seconds faster than last year in tougher conditions (more wind), for only 11th place. “Very Good” does not make a world championship performance…..everything needs to be perfect: preparation, mental aspects, and giving it ALL. My preparation between nationals and the worlds trip was not up to the necessary standard to get the result I wanted. Between a slight loss of focus, too much travel and business commitments the proper training just didn’t happen. My own shortcoming with time management, I believe, was the primary cause….the trip was still wicked fun, and to share it with Cara was great, but the results left me thinking I didn’t live up to my own expectations.
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Elite road nationals: After spending 10 days living out of hotels in Nowheresville PA I completely lost focus, fitness and determination to do well in the road race….I was ready to go home after the TT and my riding showed it…after making a stupid attack on the big climb on the first lap, getting caught and promptly dropped, I proved that you can’t help your teammates perform when you are off the back.
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2a. What do you feel you need to improve most next season?
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Time management! The business is going to be even more demanding in 2008 and I need to manage training, work and everything else precisely to get the form I want….I am motivated to make this happen correctly…..
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3. If you could change your training, mental preparation, or race tactics/strategy in this past season, what would you do differently?
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I believe I am lucky to some degree that I seem to have the mental skills I need as an athlete….I have worked on these skills for years, mostly without even realizing it. I find that I am relaxed and ready to go even for most of the big races where other riders are nervous….so no problems there. I would however like to get back to my old aggressive style of road racing rather than being conservative in order to help the team leaders like this year. Being off the front is one of the best ways to help your teammates!
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4. If you've started thinking about next season, what would you most like to accomplish?
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Ahhh I am not going to spill too many beans here…let’s just say I have a few exciting new possible goals for 2008. Stay tuned for more info on that. Although certainly defending our tandem RR and TT titles at nationals is on the list…as is helping the revamped Inferno road team accomplish what ever goals they have. I have several goals for off road racing in 2008 as well.
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a2

CX Nats 07...Kansas City

2007-12-18T23:21:00.000-05:00

I was not really looking forward to writing this post after a somewhat miserable weekend in Kansas City for cross nationals. After the previous week's good performances and improving fitness I allowed myself a little confidence going into the final big show of the season......unfortunately Mother Nature had plans to put me in my place.

We left Wednesday on the long drive West and stopped in St Louis to visit Cara's family which included a trip to the hospital to see her sister and 2 day old niece. Thursday we completed the drive over to KC. When we arrived at the venue we got to pre-ride the course in beautiful mud. It was great and I had a blast riding 4 or 5 laps in slow, energy sucking mud. I loved it. No joke. In fact I honestly thought that if we had those conditions for my age group race I would have had no trouble at all getting on the podium...unfortunately the weather report called for frigid temperatures and a snow storm Friday night and Saturday. For Cara's race on Friday the course was still awesome....a bit more frozen and slippery than Thursday, but still good. She rode well to 11th in her master's event......that night came even lower temperatures and snow.

For my race Saturday the temp was about 21 degrees and the course was covered in rock hard slippery, icy ruts....on top of that was about 2 inches of snow....and it was still coming down. I didn't know exactly how the course would "feel", so I just warmed up and hoped for the best. I had a front row call up and managed a really good start (for me) and was able to stay ahead of a huge pile up in the first turn. I was 6th or 7th heading out onto the course.....then we hit the ice. I was riding, but 2/3 of my energy went into keeping the bike upright as opposed to going forward....riders were passing me and I was terrified. Give me mud, even snow, but ice and I have had a very unhappy relationship for years....going all the way back to 2004 when I broke my leg quite badly falling on black ice while working as a messenger in Philly (that is a whole other story).....since then I can't seem to get the nerve to ride fast on ice.....I just ride scared... which is what I did Saturday. I watched riders pass me, then crash, get up and pass me again. I actually managed not to crash until about half way in ..then I had two or three falls that were pretty hard. After a rider right in front of me slid face first into a metal pole...and I was already out of the top 20.....I turned off the gas and just rode in survival mode to finish. I was disappointed to say the least...and was not even physically tired. Kudos to the guys at the front ...they had the fitness AND the skill needed on this course.

Sunday was the elite race, and while it was still cold (below 30), the sun was out. I decided that today I was going to have fun....no pressure for results, just ride in the mud (it was still very icy, but much more rideable and faster than Saturday)....until someone tells me to stop. I was #41 on the starting grid out of about 160 registered...and I managed a great start again. I was maybe 25th going onto the course. The last few years I have second guessed my participation in the elite race at nats. I am usually somewhere between 30th and 50th...a bit better than the middle, but not much. I have made it to the end on a bunch of occasions and have been pulled just as many times....but regardless of results, being part of the big show at nationals is just too much fun to pass up. It is unlike any other cycling event I know of....so many fans screaming at you....either heckling or encouraging....and as opposed to a road race, you are actually going slow enough to hear everything they say....and it is a blast. This race was no different, and the crazy icy, muddy difficulty of the course made all that much more insane. I had a grin on my face from the starting gun to the moment they pulled my sorry butt off the course when the leaders got close to lapping me half way in. On the second lap I had a spectacular crash when my muddy glove slipped of the bars as I was coming out of a nasty gully....Sure it hurt and it took me a while to get untangled from my bike and going again amid the cheers of many witnesses....but I am pretty sure I was laughing out loud the entire time.

So after some disappointing results, but, none the less, a fun experience, I am already looking forward to next cross season!

Thanks again to my cross team sponsors! ... and especially Mark Hekman for putting it together....

MSG & NC Cross Series Finals

2007-12-11T21:47:00.001-05:00

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The Series finales of both the MSG and NC Cross series were last weekend. Saturday was the last MSG race up in Tennessee. The weather was bleak: cold and light rain: cross weather. After a weekend off from racing last week, I was not sure how I would feel ....but things went well and I managed 2nd behind Dan Timmerman. It was a fun race and 3 of us rode together behind Dan until the last run-up @ 100 meters to go...the only reason I managed 2nd was because Will Black was on his single speed! This gave me plenty of points to take the overall series win.

So after that race I ran back to the car and had just enough time to switch skin suits and get to the start of the real single speed race. So for this final race, Dwayne, the series promoter has this idea to have a "Little Debbie short cut". For anyone who doesn't know, Little Debbie snacks are the ultimate in inexpensive sugary, fatty junk food. The rule was: after the barriers you could pull over, stuff a little Debbie snack cake in your mouth (various varieties available) then take a short cut on the course that would save about 10 seconds. I do believe that when I heard this my smile could have powered a Russian nuclear attack submarine. No doubt about it...this race was MINE. At the first snack stop I grabbed an oatmeal cream pie. Getting the whole thing in my mouth while trying to breathe after several minutes of all out cross racing was a challenge....and I think a large portion of it got sucked into my lung, but I made it and had a nice gap on the field after the short cut. Next lap was a swiss cake roll....much easier to get in the mouth..and I was getting the hang of the process: stuff cake in mouth, breathe through nose and swallow as the lap progresses....hopefully well before the next stop. 3rd lap was a zebra cake ...and on the 4th lap I got cocky and had a swiss cake roll AND an oatmeal creme pie....and cruised to the finish unopposed. I suspect if there was a "Little Debbie short cut " at nationals you would see me on the podium for sure :)

After the series awards I hopped in the car with Josh Whitmore and took the long drive across state to Raleigh....the NC cross series final was to be in nearby Cary where the temps were in the mid 70s! The Cary course was quite technical and bone dry with lots of loose corners, a run up and a really steep ride-up. At first I thought I would not do well...but it ended up being a great day. After a mediocre start (as usual) I worked my way up to chasing for 4th with Charlie Storm. Charlie was just ahead of me in series points and we both knew that there was some cash at stake so we rode our butts off....it was great. We passed Charlie Pendry who was having some mechanical and crashing issues, then were closing on Travis Livermon who was riding in 2nd. Charlie was killing it, but I suspected I could outlast him. I did, and caught Travis by myself with 2 laps to go. I attacked when I felt t was a good spot for me and stayed away in 2nd to the end. Jon Hamblin rode away with the win. So 2nd in the final race and I managed to pull out 2nd overall for the series....a great way to lead into nationals next week.

Tomorrow we get in the car and head to nats in Kansas City. We will drive to St. Louis and stay with Cara's parents tomorrow night , then cruise over to KC on thursday. The temperature has been over 70 degrees here the last few days...but will be in the 20s and 30s over there! Not sure I am ready for that...

A couple other weekend notes:

Hekman is back racing! and we have the pictrures to prove it....

We got the new HED Stinger Wheels ...awesome...just in time for Nats
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New Logo !

2007-12-07T21:47:00.000-05:00

Here is the new company logo.... a cool new website is on the way as well...stay tuned ....

258

2007-12-04T22:38:00.000-05:00

258 ....yes that is my current uci world cyclocross ranking with 4 points. Actually I am tied for 250th with like 20 other guys. I find this kind of funny actually. These days uci points are like gold on the US cross circuit....or it seems that way at any rate with riders traveling thousands of miles vying for just a couple precious points to get them one row closer to the front of the starting grid at elite nationals. I plan to have fun racing with the elites at nats, but honestly a few points and a couple rows closer to the front won't make much difference to what will be a slightly better than mid-pack finish for me. Don't get me wrong...I will race...and race hard pushing my limit for the best result possible, but I have no illusions.....the master's race is a different matter, but even there my goal is a little more modest than in past years due to the reality of talented competition. Now if only I could auction those points to the highest bidder.....or maybe even just give them to someone who could put them to better use :)

The End is Near...

2007-11-30T08:30:00.000-05:00

I just realized yesterday that the end of the cross season.....and the entire 2007 racing season is just over two weeks away.....with just 4 or 5 race starts left for me in that time. Cross season is so short it seems to just fly by. My form seems to be continuing to improve, so we will see what happens at the last few big races.
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This weekend I head the Ultrafit Annual Meeting in Arizona. Unfortunately this will cause me to miss the racing here at home, but maybe it will add a little freshness to the legs for the last two weekends.
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The trip will be a quick, no nonsense affair. I travel all day today, will be at the meeting all day tomorrow, then travel home all day sunday, so no time to enjoy the southwest weather...I hope to come home with new knowledge and maybe some new business ideas.

CX Bikes 07

2007-11-24T10:12:00.000-05:00

I hope everyone has had a great Thanksgiving. With just a few race weekends left in the season, I thought I would list the gear I have been using for the 2007 CX campaign. Basically I have been using stock Cannondale CX 4 s with a few modifications to suit my needs.

The stock bikes are awesome and I have 2 x 52 cm bikes to race this season. I had a cannondale cx bike I loved back in 1999-2001....but these new rides are so much more advanced than the one I rode back then. The drive trains are sram rival (shifters, derailleurs), and the fork is Easton's carbon cross. The stock brakes are TRP carbon and are really nice. The black bike has cannondale's carbon si cranks (172.5mm) and comes stock with a control tech bar.

Ok, now for my mods: The bikes came speced with 170 cranks. I was able to get 172.5 si for the one bike, but put in an adapter sleeve and good old dura ace cranks on the other. The rings are 46 x 36 and 46 x 38 (dura ace). I use 12-26 or 12-27 on the back. One of the bikes came with a really wide bar, so I put on a deda 42 c to c. the Other has the stock Control Tech which I love. The Control Tech is 44cm outside to outside, so it is just slightly bigger than the deda and feels really nice. It also has a shallow drop and I find myself riding in the drops more because of that. The stems are 120mm, one cannondale the other deda. I put Thomson posts and WTB saddles on both rigs. After breaking a carbon seat post on the last lap at nationals last year I like the solid aluminum post now. Pedals are Crank Brother's candy, but you will notice I have eggbeaters on one bike in the picture. I am trying them for the first time and really like them.

The red bike has top mount brake levers that I call my "Iron Cross" levers. They are necessary for the IC race and for technical trail riding.....but for regular cross racing I find they really just get in the way. I would have taken them off after Iron Cross...but I am too lazy :)

Now the fun part: wheels and tires. The team was slated to get HED wheels, but they are lost in transit or something and I haven't seen them yet....so I am using the old cane creek carbon wheels circa 1999. I bought these 2 sets of wheels when I was on the Cane Creek road team years ago. These are not the new lightweight carbon wheels of today...but the solid old (read "heavier") wheels of yesteryear. For cross they are great. In fact, I rode at least one of these wheels to my win in the 35+ road national championship in 2001.....and I rode both sets at my two 2nd place finishes at cross nats in 2002 & 2003. Needless to say I have an affinity for these particular wheels. My new favorite tires are Dugast Rhinos. I went out on a limb and bought the big 34mm tires at the beginning of the year....thinking they would be great for bad weather. Of course we have not had one bad weather race yet this season! ...but that may change soon. These tires rock. Even though I give up a little with increased rolling resistance on pavement or smooth, hard surfaces, I gain all that back by having a tire that soaks up more bumps and grabs the corners much better than any tire I have used before....and for me...who is not exactly the best at cornering.....this gives me more confidence to get through the turns faster....which leads to less energy expended in the long run. The other set of wheels was supposed to be my "fast course" set. I couldn't spend the $$ for a 2nd set of new tires, so I have a 2 year old Challenge Griffo 32 on the back and an old Dugast 34 with a michelin mud tread on the front.

I think that is about it. These bikes are fantastic and I love them. They are light and fast with a great geometry. I will do another post about cx bike fit and positioning in relation to road or MTB in the near future.

I owe a huge thanks to the Landrover / Cannondale team and in particular Mark Hekman and Charles Stanley for getting it together for me....along with Paceline Bikes and all the other team sponsors. Thanks Guys !!!

uci points!

2007-11-20T15:25:00.000-05:00

Last weekend we had our "home town" uci races in nearby Flat Rock. It turned out to be a really fun yet tough racing weekend and it sure was nice to have the racing come to us instead of having to travel.

On Friday evening we got to check out the course. We had raced at the Flat Rock middle school venue in the past, but this year the switch of the uci races from Jackson Park to Flat Rock had me a bit skeptical about the course quality. One look on Friday and all my doubts were put to rest. Tim Hopkin and his crew put together an awesome course.....one much different than what we usually see here in NC. For the most part our courses tend to be on the technical side...but this one was wide open and fast. Plenty of turns, a set of barriers, a steep ride-up, and a nice sand pit with a 90 degree turn....yet the course would lend itself to group riding rather than the usual one or two riders suffering alone for most of the race....and this is just what occurred on both days.

Saturday:

I actually had a good start! The legs were good and I had more snap than usual. I was able to make the large lead group on the first lap and hang on. Eventually there were attacks that went and a front group of about 6 formed, but I wasn't concerned with that. I just wanted to hold my ground in the 5 rider group I was in riding for 7th through 11th place. This group stayed together until the last third of the last lap when one rider gunned it at the top of the ride up. I stayed 2nd wheel of the remaining 4 riders going into the sand pit. I dove into the sand just behind the rider ahead planning to ride the first half then dismount and run the second half ...when the guy ahead drifted into my line, stalled and came to a stop. Of course I was already starting my dismount at this moment and ran right into him.....but I was able to get myself and my bike clear, remount a few steps ahead of the rest of the group and cruise to the finish for 8th place and a few coveted uci points.

Sunday: Not quite as good as saturday. I had a lack lustre start mostly from not being aggressive enough and missed the big front group...leaving me chasing all day. Eventually I was in a group of 3, chasing a group of 4. The group ahead was riding for 8th and we were riding for 11th. I was giving it everything I had and we just could not make contact, even though we got within 5 seconds at one point. I ended up an exhausted and a little frustrated 12th place. I didn't ride poorly, I just didn't have quite the snap and power I had saturday. Following the race I got my extra upper body workout by helping load metal fencing from the course onto a truck.

Cara had a similar weekend with a great 3rd place ride saturday and a little tougher go of it sunday for 5th place.

Special thanks to Tim Hopkin and the volunteer crew for putting on a great racing weekend. I certainly know how tough it is to pull off a big event like this and cheers to all who helped make it a great success.

I'm Baaaaack.....and it's about time

2007-11-14T17:53:00.000-05:00

OK, so I started this blog with the good intentions of allowing people to keep up with my training and racing as well as to provide an outlet for general training and racing observations as they relate to me and the athletes I work with. My lack of posting really is about time, or lack of it. However I am renewing my commitment to getting this thing back on track....so here it goes.

It is about time that I had a decent cyclocross race weekend. Not that things have been going poorly...just that I finally feel like my fitness is coming around and the racing sensations are getting good. This is usually how my cx season goes:.....start strong.....have a bit of a dip in form...then steadily build through november to have a strong last few race weekends ending with nats in mid december. I am consistent with that pattern again this year...and it is not a bad thing....just that it gets a bit rough while I am waiting to feel good again after the long, long, long road season.

This past weekend I was finally able to win a couple of races (MSG p/1/2 and single speed) and was 2nd at the Southern Pines NC series race sunday. The lack of a couple fast guys showing up helped the results.....but it was the feeling of really being able to push myself ...and the body responding well ...that I feel good about. To top off the good weekend I now find myself leading the MSG series in TN and am currently 3rd in the NC series. I am not so sure I can hold either of those spots, but as long as the form keeps improving through nats I will be happy.

Ok, so that's it for now.....stay tuned because I have lots of great topic ideas for the blog.....and I promise to make the time to get them posted.....

a2

Podcast: Late Season Fitness

2007-09-17T15:04:00.000-04:00

Yesterday Andy was interviewed by a Velonews staffer to discuss Late Season Fitness.

Click here for the link.

His schedule for the next few weekends:

September 22/23: KTR Michigan Double Cross Weekend (UCI) Michigan
September 29/30: Cyclo-cross clinic & Ed Sander Cross Race in conjunction with NCVC and Dee Dee Winfield in Maryland
October 6/7: Cyclo-cross clinic in Asheville

If you're interested in learning about cyclo-cross, come on out to one of the clinics!

World Championship Road Race

2007-08-25T10:37:00.000-04:00

Andy's road race on Friday, August 24th had 183 guys in it. One Hundred and Eighty Three, yes, 100 of whom appeared to be Italian.

Near the end of the second lap, a lone Austrian rider was about 10 seconds up the road and Andy burned a match to get up to him. Eventually two other guys came up to them, too, and Andy was trading pulls at 500+ watts. When they hit the climb for the second time, Andy came out of it. All I saw, spectating on the side of the road, was the break motoring up the climb, then about 10 - 15 seconds back the Italians stringing out the field in what looked like a full on sprint (uphill, mind you), and andy moving backwards at the front of it all, redfaced with a grimace, saying "I came out of the break." Sadly I know all too well what that heartbreak is like.

A fellow American & regular on the SE circuit, Dirk Pohlmann, did manage to make it to the break, which eventually grew to 7 strong. At the sprint I saw Dirk at the front but he was crushed by the big Austrian who had initiated the break (last year's world champion as well!) So, Andy was disappointed he didn't make the winning break, but happy that an American (and fellow southeasterner) took 2nd.

I took this picture of Andy coming up the climb just before I handed him a feed - I'm quite impressed with my handiwork.

Everyone rushing to the line, all 183 of them. You have to get your number checked off on a clipboard before you can go to the line, so they send people through 1 by 1.

Worlds

2007-08-22T12:26:00.000-04:00

Andy is currently in Austria competing in the Masters World Championships. He asked me to update his blog for him but internet is spotty and I've already spent way too much time on my own posts. Check them out here:

http://caramccauley.blogspot.com

Seven Springs

2007-07-08T22:18:00.000-04:00

Well, the McApplegates are in Seven Springs, PA this week (and the following) for the USA Cycling National Road Festival. Thus far, Andy has competed in the Elite Tandem Time Trial and the Masters 40+ Time Trial, bringing home the gold in the tandem and the silver in the 40+.

Monday, the 9th brings the Masters tandem road race with his wife (your humble scribe), followed by an early morning 40+ road race on Tuesday. He'll then be taking a quick break before the racing starts up again on Friday, the 13th, with the Elite Time trial.

We hope to update his blog more frequently than once every 6 months, so stay tuned for more details about what's been going on the past many months.

on the way to gold in the elite tandem TT

40+ podium, plus a photographer's back...

More catching up....Ed Sanders Cross

2006-10-21T11:36:00.000-04:00

Ok, so after the first CX races in Michigan I came home and managed to break my bike while training for Iron Cross. I was out hammering around on MTB trails trying to work on my technical skills and I guess I went a bit too hard on the equipment ending up with a broken frame (both down tube and top tube). At least this was an older bike, and not one of the new team bikes. This left me scrambling to borrow a bike for the weekend race up in Maryland. Joe Coddington came to the rescue with his Cannondale that was just my size :)

That Saturday we drove up to Maryland to do the Ed Sander's Cross race on Sunday. Last year I did both the masters and elite race here....but this year I just registered for the elite race....maybe I am getting lazy? Cara was 2nd in her race. The elite field was relatively small at 25 riders.

I had a miserable start and was pretty far back for the fist part of the first lap. I was able to move up but there was 2 riders off the front and one had a significant lead. I ended up riding with 3 other riders chasing....while the rest of the field fell away a bit. At about 1/3 in I didn't think I would ever see the front of the race...but top 5 or even top 3 was possible....things unfolded a bit differently: The lead riders were fading, but it became 2 together at the front, chased by 1, chased by me and one other rider...although all the gaps were closing and it looked like we might have 5 riders together with 2 to go. The the rider in 3rd rolled a tire and we went by him, then the 2 front riders started fading fast as we were working hard to close the gap. All of a sudden we were on them, passing one after he dropped his chain on a run-up, then the other as he completely imploded from his first half race effort. Now I was in the lead with just one other rider.....

We hit the last lap riding tempo, I knew just where I wanted to attack on the back side of the course, and I guess he (Nathan Diebert) figured he could match me and beat me at the finish. I attacked just where I wanted , but he held me in check (especially since I overcooked a turn) and we were together coming into the last part of the course. There was only about 50 meters of pavement between the last loose gravel turn and the finish...so I knew my best chance was to lead, go as hard as I could through e last couple of turns and hold on.....which I did. Not often I win a sprint finish, but it was a nice win and an exciting race.

You can see a video of some of the race (including the sprint finish and an interview with me) here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJQjTH_Leng

pic of the day:

2006-10-20T21:03:00.000-04:00

Cross!

2006-10-05T14:45:00.000-04:00

So we took a weekend off after the last road race trip...then it was baptism by fire for the cross season. We headed up to Michigan for the first UCI races of the season. It rained overnight both days...making for a nice slightly muddy/soft course, but the weather during the racing was great.

Cara was 4th and 5th...while I pretty much got my butt kicked both days. Saturday was extremely painful...as the first cx race of the season always is....but 10 hours in the car friday didn't help any either. The field was a bit bigger (about 40) and stronger(some west coast& colorado guys) than expected which put me in over my head for the first race of the season. I got off to my usual mediocre start, but I could never get things going. I developed a side stitch (diaphragm cramp) on the first or second lap and I couldn't get rid of it. I was riding hard, but not really going anywhere...and in pain the whole time. I ended up 17th.....mediocre for sure.

Sunday was a bit better....after my usual start, I actually felt ok.....well, as "OK" as one can feel while trying to ride so hard your guts come out....but I was able to find a nice rythm and move up constantly. The result wasn't much better (15th), but the sensations were.....funny what a difference a day can make.

The drive home was very difficult and we got in about 3am. I cracked about 5 hrs from home and Cara piloted the last half.

doping?

2006-09-29T13:51:00.000-04:00

Ok I just read something that kind of raised my ire and I had to write a bit about it. In a relatively prominent cycling mag, a relatively prominent person involved in US cycling wrote that blood doping and sleeping in an altitude tent are the same: " both are artificial and both have the same effect." ARE YOU KIDDING ME !!!!!!! Come on now...there are so many things wrong with this statement in my mind that I couldn't let it go. To me this is like saying drinking a beer and shooting heroine are the same thing because "both are drugs and both get you high". Please!!!....artificial? I would consider the difference between going to real altitude and using a tent the same as riding your bike out on the road versus using a stationary indoor trainer. Is using a trainer "artificial training" ...I think not.

This reminded me of a similar reaction I had to a statement by Dick Pound (head of the world anti doping agency "WADA"). He mentioned that they were going to discuss the use of altitude tents in an upcoming meeting. He said something like....tents allow athletes to gain the benefits of altitude without having to endure the inconveniences of actually going to elevation....not an exact quote, but pretty close. INCONVENIENT??? Has Dick Pound ever BEEN to Colorado??? Heck, living in a place like Boulder or Durango must be extremely inconvenient! My heart BLEEDS for all the athletes who are stuck in such miserable places that are so horrible to live in! How can they even compete when they are put through such a miserable inconvenience! PLEASE!, inconvenient my a**.

OK, so there is a doping problem in cycling....and suspicions tell me that the problem is pretty bad here in the states as well as Europe.....but altitude tents? Come on....they can hardly catch guys using EPO, blood doping, testosterone, HGH or any number of other HARMFUL doping products....time and money needs to be spent on testing procedures to catch these cheats....not sitting around talking about the ethics of altitude tents.

I don't want to get into a huge discussion about the ethics issue, but to me there is a very clear line as to what constitutes doping.....and while this line may shift slightly from person to person, certainly altitude tent use, which is essentially an external stimulus to which your body may or may not respond, sits on one side and using a dangerous product like EPO or procedure such as blood doping sit on the other.

We all want fair play in sport, but I believe the bigger issue is the health and well being of athletes. Doping rules are in place to 1) keep the playing field even and 2) to protect athletes from the use of dangerous products and procedures. The rules themselves can be purely arbitrary....in football some forms of blocking are legal and others are not....in soccer the height and width of the goal needs to be a certain size....a shotput needs to be a certain weight etc, etc....but the health issue is pretty cut and dry.

Doping sucks and dopers suck, but we need to keep our eye on the ball and on the important issues. Before this year I never had the "that guy is fast, so he must be doping " mentality....and I don't want to think that....but this season things were a bit weird....and I hate to admit I found myself thinking this more than once. On a personal level it does not bother me too much , because I really don't put too much stock in my own results. Sure I like to win a race now and again, or place well....but I don't have a particular need to win. I enjoy pushing myself as hard as I can to see where I end up....sometimes it is at the front, other times it is off the back. As long as I gave what I could I usually feel good about the experience. On the other hand I can see where some guys would be drawn to doping. Some personalities NEED to win, or need to succeed in sport, and if they think other guys are doing it...they will too. This is the vicious cycle that we need to stop.

Money? Certainly much of this problem comes down to money. Doping controls cost money. I would LOVE to see mandatory doping controls at all NRC level road events....make it part of the criteria: if you want to be on the NRC calendar, you need to pay for controls ...even if it means reducing your prize purse....or how about mandatory doping controls at races offering over a certain amount of prize money? This would at least be a start. Of course large amounts of money need to be put into researching better testing methods and protocols. You would think that they would have some of these things down, but obviously from recent events they have a long way to go.

Argggh, this was way more than I wanted to write...but I hope I have made my point.....

catching up

2006-09-28T23:23:00.000-04:00

ummmm....ok, so my foray into the blogosphere for the 2006 road season was ...well....not so successful as far as the part that includes me actually getting posts up regularly. So I'll try again....this was a very strange season to say the least. I'm not getting any younger, but this season took a lot out of me, mostly from a traveling perspective.

After worlds in Austria I came home and was in a funk for a week or so...I won't call it depression...more like sustained disappointment that took a while to dissipate. A week after coming home I did the US 10K Classic in Atlanta on Labor Day. The field was stacked and the race was super fast...and even fun. We rode well, but somehow managed to miss a 20 rider split with 2 laps to go.....ooops. I have always ridden well at this race, but never nailed a result (I think my best was like 15th?).

The following weekend was the Univest Grand Prix up in PA. This is one of the only uci races held in the states ...and the ONLY one an amateur team can even get into. While I was not personally looking forward to this race, I was psyched that the team was invited...especially for the younger riders to get the experience with the European riders etc.

Univest has a special place in my racing memory. It was the first "real" big time bike race I ever did ...in its very first year back in 1998. I had just catted up from 3 to 2 and was asked to ride on a regional all star team for the inaugural edition. I lasted one hour going flat out as hard as I could to try to stay with the field.....I was blown off the back and destroyed. I couldn't believe how fast these guys could go.....needless to say THIS was the racing I wanted to be doing. I got to watch a young Jon Hamblen duke it out with 2 French guys for the win (Jon was 2nd). In 99 Univest was a big goal for me...I was riding well and made it off the big loop with the field...40 miles to go, feeling great....then got taken down in a crash. I got going and would have made it back to the field, but I got a flat just as I was about to make contact....no support around: game over. In 2000 I FINALLY, on the 3rd try, finished ! (63rd??), this was the year some no-name called Tom Boonen won....exciting stuff. The 2001 version was cancelled due to 9/11, 2002/2003 we were not invited and 2004 the race was shortened due to a tropical storm ( I was there, but DNF'd). No invite again for 2005 which brings us to this year.

We had a team with a couple of guest riders and our team leader (Hekman) broke his hand 2 days before the race. Even though I knew my form was nowhere in sight , I love the course and was hoping to finish the race. In the past this event had been amateur and U23 pros only...this year it was full-on pro team racing.....and it got ugly quick. We started fast and I was comfortable....enough so that I started to gain confidence....but that only lasted about 30 miles until the field splintered on a long gradual uphill. Again, I was OTB. I went as hard as I could and made it back into the caravan of follow cars....where I languished for about 5 more miles. I almost got back to the field, then we hit a big hill and it was over. An easy ride back to town with a teammate after that....to watch the finish of the race.

Even though I didn't fare too well, one of our guest riders, Graham Howard (22 years old), had an amazing ride to finish 12th. It was inspiring to watch this guy pull himself inside out to stay at the front of the race. ...just seeing this made the trip worth the effort. The following day was the Univest criterium...and ...well...nothing more needs to be said about that....except good job to Ryan Gamm for finishing that thing.

Richard Fries did let me know that I was in fact the oldest rider in the race ...had I done well this would have been something to be proud of.

The Univest weekend concluded my 2006 road race season: next up ......CYCLO-CROSS !!!!!

Photos from Worlds

2006-09-02T20:06:00.000-04:00

TT Start on Borrowed Bike

During the TT

Receiving my award - small consolation

Before the start of the RR

Masters Worlds Road Race

2006-08-26T03:04:00.000-04:00

First of all thanks to EVERYONE who sent encouraging emails....at this point I am just trying to move on and concentrate on the future. Although little reminders about the theft (like the Austrian Police report I got last night) keep cropping up.

Ok...so....the road race. A little anti climactic after the TT....mentally anyway. We had almost 180 riders in my category from all over the world! Pretty cool. I got there early and had a decent start position. I wanted to be able to get near the front without working too hard for the first climb. We went out hard and the legs felt good. Weather was perfect....cool and mostly sunny. The first half lap was chaotic as expected. It lined out on the first climb and stayed pretty fast. My goal was to wait...then try to cover moves on the second lap. After the 2nd climb on the course, things seemed ready to go , so I started covering attacks...I know, a little early, but it felt right. I would get in a group of 3 or 4, then we would get hauled back, then the italians would counter...I would recover and go a gain. This happened a few times taking us over to the TT course area with more open roads. Finally after a move I was in came back, I was spent and watched yet another italian counter.....and that move stuck. Just lauck really as to which one got off....too bad it was not one with me. The move hung at 10-15 seconds for a while, then went out. At this point we needed to sit, hope it comes back, then go with the counter....or if it doesn't come back, try to get a split or chase on the last lap.

We had 4 americans in the race and we had a loose plan....at least it was my idea to either get in a move, or help chase or keep things together in the finale for the faster sprinters. Belive me I had NO ointention of getting mixed up in a 180 rider bunch sprint on narrow roads with these guys. So as usual....my plan waqs all (top10?) or nothing for me.

The 2nd lap was pretty uneventful...the speed was moderately fast, but the break of 6 (?) got out to about 2 minutes. On the first climb on the 3rd and final lap I started to dig. I went hard on the climb....a little later I countered another american who had been up the road a bit...but the well organized italians were keeping everything in check. With about 12 miles to go it was time to get to work. Nothing was getting clear, so I figured I could use my energy to try to help the other guys. I went to the front and just gave it everything I had for almost 5 miles. One other rider helped...I have no idea where he was from, but he was strong. I came off the front just as we turned on to narrow roads about 6 miles to go. I was shuffled pretty far back in the group, but wanted to get to the front again....It took a while, but I did get one more good did about 5km out. I hit the front at 30...held it for a bit, then as my speed started dropping I pulled off...game over for me.....at least no more at the front. At 3k to go things got really dicey. Pushing and shoving to get in position for the sprint. A couple of turns on hte run-in were just insane....guys riding off the road.....but it was easy to hang on. I came across nice and safe, in 84th place.

A geat experience to be sure and a very exciting race. I'll chalk it up to a learning experience this year.....great course, strong field.....and I felt like I was able to at least make a little bit of impact on the race.....but I know for sure I did not have the ability to win...even if I had made the move (which we brought back to 23 seconds)......ok, out for now

a2

Master's Worlds Time Trial

2006-08-24T09:21:00.000-04:00

Woke up wednesday morning to a perfectly sunny sky and the news that my TT bike and road wheels had been STOLEN along with about 6 other bikes and 10 pairs of wheels from the garage where our group's gear is being stored.

My Specialized TT bike with my Dura Ace SRM - GONE
My Spinergy Stealth PBO road wheels - GONE

I sat in a state of dazed bewilderment for quite a while....my heart sinking. Why today? The day of my most important event...couldn't they have waited till tomorrow at least?

I had a hard time eating much breakfast...just enough calories to get by...then I had to start thinking about HOW I was going to ride my TT at 2:20 this afternoon....not IF, but HOW and WITH WHAT. Dave who had broken his collar bone on sunday offered up his Felt TT rig and it fit pretty well. I got the saddle setback right, saddle height close, drop close, but the reach was a bit long and un-adjustable....but hey, not bad for the last minute...I´ll roll with it.

I tried to put everything else out of my mind....concentrate on getting used to the bike, and getting the legs prepared....Physically I felt GREAT. I could tell the legs were turning over and felt strong....mentally could I hold it together? I spun the 5 miles out to the TT start and back in the morning trying to get dialed in. I was using my 9 speed disc (my TT wheels and road frame were spared). with Dave's 10 speed shifters on friction. It was working ok.

Back to the room, relax, try to eat a little more, then back out to the TT start. We had a tent and some trainers out there for the whole group to use...a good set up and I was able to get a decent warm-up in. I was as ready to go as I could be....relatively relaxed.

Off the start ramp I knew something was wrong. The bike just would not stay in a gear. It kept wanting to shift to a harder gear, unless I held the lever...even then it was difficult to maintain a gear. This caused me to have to extend my arms futher than normal and I think it helped cause a bit of a diaphragm cramp about 2/3 into the course. No matter, I did the best I could and hammered away. It was a headwind out ...up the hill, turn around , then a cross tail/ tailwind home. My 30 second man was fast and I held him steady but could not reel him in until close to the end. I rode hard, battling the cramp...but had good speed. I kept my concentration, but it was tough with the hand position I needed to keep. I crossed with a time of 26:02 for the 20KM course. I think I did the best effort I could have given the circumstances. My situation did not affect me mentally or physically too much....it was only the uncontrollables that negatively affected my time....the less than perfect set up and gear problems.

I didn't catch my placing as I crossed....all in german!....but I knew I was not top 3. Went and watched the finish board until the end of my category....I figured I was top 10 but not sure where. As it turnes out I was 5th! Just 32 seconds off the WIN! and ONLY 11 seconds out of 3rd!!! If it is possible to be happy and upset at the same time, that would describe my emotion: happy that I was able to pull off 5th with the circumstances, but extremely upset knowing that I WOULD HAVE BEEN TOP 3 FOR SURE....AND....I REALLY THINK I WOULD HAVE HAD A SHOT AT THE WIN.

Was my bike with my perfect TT position worth 32 seconds?? I will never know.

The awards ceremony was another mix of emotions. Seeing the top 3 on the podium in my category was devestating....but knowing that I have the ability to get there is a little consolation.

Mike Olheiser from our group put in a blazing time to win the 30-39 age group...so it was great to see him get the jersey in teh presentation.

Today I took an easy spin around the road course and am trying to relax for the road race tomorrow. Yesterday was the event I had been waiting for and evything else seems a bit anti-climactic.....but when the gun goes off tomorrow.....I will forget everything and RACE.

a2

masters worlds part 2

2006-08-22T11:49:00.001-04:00

not much to post today....lots of rain. Rode the TT course yesterday and today in preparation for tomorrows big event....

I race at 2:25 pm.....I can`t wait! Over 100 riders in my class. I hope I can pull off a good ride!

I swung by the awards ceremony inthe sqaure last night. It is HUGE...100s of spectators. I WANT TO GET ON THAT PODIUM TOMORROW NIGHT !

OK now to relax, visualize...prepare.

out
a2

masters worlds part1

2006-08-21T05:12:00.000-04:00

hello from Austria!

This has been quite a trip already. I flew into Munich overnight friday...arriving saturday morning....then a nice 2.5 hour drive into the alps. After a nice ride on the awesome TT course it was time to catch up on sleep.

Sunday I did a masters world cup road race on the course where the world champs road race will be next friday. The course is sooooo cool. Lots of twisting beautiful roads. A couple of climbs , but nothing too long. We had about 100 riders in my age group. We did 3 laps of a 23 mile circuit. The weather was cool and cloudy....

The first lap was extremely scary. I knew I should be at the front, but was too scared to move up...these guys have no problem pushing you off the road. Then it started to rain....not just rain...but POUR....now I was scared AND I couldn´t see anything. The second time up the first climb I started to come around....but not soon enough as the movewent over the top of the climb, just as I was gettting my confidence. Now, after 35 miles of racing I was able to stay in good position...and wait for a chance to attack. My goals for the race were 1) don`t fall down, 2) learn the course and 3 get in a few good attacking or covering moves efforts. On the last 15kms of the 2nd lap I put in a couple of attcks and got nowhere...but I was coming around. On the third lap I rode the front on the downhill...then put in a buch of good attacks....even getting clear for a km or 2....and then covering some moves as well...of course this was all behind the break that was never coming back. As we hit the last 5 km in the hard rain and narrow roads, I sat up , went to the back and coasted in for 77th place....mission accomplished.

There were several other americans in the race....one from our group, unfortunately went down on the first lap and broke his collarbone....

Now it is all about the TT on wednesday...the event I came here for. The course is 20km, mostly flat through a valley, with a nice little hill just before the turnaround. It is a course I can do well on.....but will it be good enough?

a2

National Champs!

2006-07-16T13:33:00.000-04:00

I am a bad, bad blogger. The bottom line is that I have been home for a total of like 3 days in the last 4 weeks. Traveling, racing, and being stressed about getting work done has led me to ignore the blog......ok

So the big news is: I won the masters 40+ national time trial AND Cara and I won the Elite mixed tandem time trial! The masters TT has been a goal of mine for YEARS...so needless to say I was quite satisfied.

Between my last entry and now, I managed to win the Avery Trace time trial...then headed out and did the 5 stage tour of Ohio where I was top 10 on 4 stages and 9th overall....then we headed up to Elite nationals here in Seven Springs PA. I was 8th in the eilte TT...which was a good sign and my best elite TT finish by far (no pros this year). In the death march of an elite road race, I made it 3 of the 4 27 + mile laps then pulled the plug after coming off on the final climb of lap 3. This was very distressing for me. I had made the selection of 30 riders up to that point and all I had to do was ride around the course one more time for a top 25 finish.....but all I could think about was recovery for the masters and tandem TT wednesday, so I quit. It bothered me for a few days.....but now I believe it may have made the difference allowing me to win on wednesday....so I'll call it the best decision I have ever made.

OK...so I hope to get more details and pics up from natioanls, but for now I have to rest up for the final event of the festival: the masters tandem road race. My partner Ken Stamm and I were 2nd in this race last year and we want redemption!

a2

river TT etc....

2006-06-15T23:48:00.000-04:00

Ok...So I had to post this file because it is a pretty good example of TT pacing and a decent time. I did the 20KM course in 25:01...which is my 2nd fastest time on this course. Avg power was 347. Good for a flatTT for me. Notice the HR curve continues to go up all the way to the finish...and the power in the 2nd half is close to or better than the first half split...even though the 2nd half is slightly downhill. I might have sprinted a little too hard out of the turnaround though.

The cool thing is that I went off 2nd and Cara 3rd. We did our individual rides, then we immediately hopped on the tandem and did another 20 Km TT. I had about 5 min recovery between TTs...but cara only had about a minute and a half! Talk about pain....but we went well...putting in a 25:17....so I think I had the 1st AND 2nd fastest times of the night :) Cara said she felt like she had no power and was not happy with either ride....but I didn't notice too much on the tandem...in fact I was surprised we were able to go so fast in our 2nd event.

The big news of the day is that I committed to going to the Master's Road World Championships in Austria this August. This is something I have been thinking about for years....but I have finally decided to do it. It is no secret that one of my lifetime goals is to win a world championship....even if it is Masters. Could this be the year? If everything goes perfectly with preparation, training, recovery, nutrition etc I might have a shot...but certainly a lot could go wrong between now and then.

I PROMISE I'll get to a report on my Boise / Wobble Naught training trip soon!

a2

Dahlonega

2006-06-13T10:43:00.000-04:00

With a 5 mile hill climb saturday morning, a tough circuit race saturday afternoon and one of the most difficult 90 mile road courses anywhere on sunday this race was quite the weekend outing. I felt great during the TT and was really happy with my time (18:13)...but was only fast enough for 4th! I was a bit bummed about that until I found out how good the guys were who beat me and after seeing my power numbers. The 352 watt average power you see above is closer to my best (and expected ) output for this type of event. This puts me at about 5.27 watts/Kg...acceptable.

The circuit race was on a difficult course with a nasty steep little climb and plenty of rollers. The field was strong and it was hot. Since I won this event last year all eyes were on me and I could not do ANYTHING without being covered....kind of frustrating, but of course that didn't stop me from trying. On the last of 3 laps 2 guys did sneak up the raod and the field was content to let them go. After the last real climb it made sense for me to work for my only teammate Reid who certainly has a faster sprint than me. I tried to help keep it together on the run-in then got the heck out of the way for the fast/narrow downhill sprint. Reid looked good and was right at the front, poised to win the field sprint...then all of a sudden there was a bike and dirt flying through the air. As I passed at 30mph I saw it was Reid......I crossed the line and rode back to him. At first I thought he was seriously injured....but amazingly he came out with just a few cuts and bruises. He had been forced into the curb in full sprint.

Sunday was the killer 90 + mile 3 Gap road race. We were to do 2 laps of the 3 Gap loop then continue up to finish at the top of Woody's Gap. That meant 7 big climbs with vitually no flat roads between. I love this course...it is one of the best I have ever raced on. Since I knew that the field was not going to let me go anywhere today I had a little fun and attacked right from the start and continued attacking until I finally got away with 2 other guys just a few miles in. Dumb idea I know, but I was just having fun...and really thinking more about training for nationals. I thought if we had a little breathing room when we got to the rockpile (the start of the Woody's climb) we had a shot of staying away for a while. No....they didn't want to let us get anywhere so we were caught at about mile 9 or 10. The first time up Woody's was a nice fast tempo...not too hard...but hard enough. The guys at the front really gassed it for the last KM though and it was hard for a bit. Down the descent on the way to Wolfpen I tried attacking again...usually at times when I was hoping to catch the groupo off guard...still no luck. Wolfpen is fairly steep, but I was comfortable and went over the top about 10th position. The guys rode HARD down the Wolfpen descent....WAY faster than last year. For some reason I was very comfortable descending today and had no trouble staying with the leaders. We bottomed out and hit the Neal's climb immediately. I looked back and there was a huge gap behind...we had the field down to about 20 guys. I told Reid this and we drove it up the first half of the climb to keep the split. It worked. By the time we let some other guys take over there was nothing is sight behind. Cool. I was tired, but feeling more and more confident. I knew I would not win this race, but a top 5 was very possible.

We hit the long descent and again were flying. I felt my chain jam and backpedaled to clear it then cranked forward out of a turn. I felt it twist and snap. Next thing I knew I was grabbing the brakes as the chain was whipping my ankles and the rear wheel was intermittantly locking up at 40MPH. I got the bike stopped, but that was it: Game Over. I caught a ride back to the top of the climb and coased back down to the feed zone. I fixed the chain by taking out the twisted links and put in a new connector. I got back on the bike and rode the course backward until I met up with Reid who had gotten dropped on the 2nd time up Woody's. We rode back together and watched the guys come up past the Rockpile for the last time, then watched as the Women came by at the start of their race.

I sat in the hot parking lot near the start for hours waiting for the women to return after their finish. It turns out that there was a serious motorcycle wreck on the Neal's descent and they had to stop all the afternoon races for almost an hour! It turned into quite a long day. I was pretty dissappointed in not getting to finish the road race....but I raced HARD for about half the race, and was able to ride almost the full distance. there is always another race.

Information Overlaod!

2006-06-09T18:03:00.000-04:00

Ok...so I did a bunch of great training alone and with teammate Ryan Gamm, then was scheduled to go to Boise Idaho to spend 3 days learning the Wobble-Naught fit system and Dartfish/EMG pedaling analysis tools. I drove down to the Greenville airport that tuesday and was told that my flights were all delayed and I could not get there at all until the next day. Great....after scrambing and spending way too much time on the phone, I got everything rescheduled for the following sun-thurs. I went home and put in another bunch of killer training days and headed out west Sunday evening.

I just returned last night and let me tell you my head is spinning. I have SOOOOOO much information bouncing around in there it is going to take a few days to sort it all out. I can say that I learned more in 3 days than I have in the last couple of years about pedaling a bicycle....this is exciting. I ordered my laser (think Dr. Evil from the Austin Powers movies) and hope to start offering bike fits within the next couple of weeks.

I was scheduled to go to the Nature Valley Stage Race in Minnesota next week, but gave up my spot to another teammate. Part of this is because I am a little burned out on travel right now and with my big gaol races quickly approaching I need to stay focused and fresh...and the other part is that I want to start setting up my space to do fits and analysis.

Tonight we head down to Dahlonega GA to race an omnium that consists of a hillclimb TT, a circuit race and an awesome road race that does 2 laps of the famous 3 Gap loop. I figure the road race sunday will be the closest thing to the Natioanl Championship road race that I will get to do, so we will see how it goes.

Remember Form = Fitness + Freshness

I know I am fresh after not riding much this week, we will see what the fitness is like tomorrow.

OK ...expect some long detailed posts next week about Wobble-Naught and my experiences out in Boise as well as (hopefully) a good report from the weekend races.

a2

Racing and Recovering

2006-05-28T18:39:00.000-04:00

Racing and recovering is not for me. Some guys can get away with it and even thrive on it...but my body seems to like a steady diet of high volume aerobic training...and specifically lots of time @ AeT (about 20bpm below LTHR). After coming back from Arkansas physically and mentally fried, I took a few days off the road bike. One might suspect overtraining as the culprit for the way I was feeling, but in fact I believe it to be just the opposite. Not enough training due to the need for race freshness....along with some mental burnout from travel.

I took monday off completely, then did some easy MTB riding tuesday. Wednesday was a steady /tempo 2 hr ride on the TT bike (always does me good). On thursday I headed back into the woods again , this time with our pro MTB friend Karen Masson. This was an awesome and inspiring ride. She took me on some wicked technical sections on some trails over in Pisgah where I had not been before. One particular section was a bunch of technical rock drop-offs. I had not done anything like that in many years....but since I was following her I just got it done. I was terrified , in a good way, and felt great after getting through it. I could feel myself coming back to life and feeling inspired on the bike again. It should be noted that Karen is an absolute stud on the bike ....she was riding her singlespeed. She dusted me on all the downhills and, though we weren't going hard on the climbs, I always felt like I was going harder than her....and I had gears!

On friday I came out of my self imposed nightime crit retirement to line up at the big NRC crit in Raleigh. I asked team director Chad if he would rather have me there racing, or supporting the guys on the radio, and making sure they were all taken care of. I got the impression he wanted me racing, so it was to be....at least for a little while. It was a fantastic event and 100 of the best crit riders in the states were on hand. The start was WICKED fast and the course had like 9 turns in the 1 mile. 50 laps starting at 8:15PM meant not much daylight. I have enough trouble with crits during the day, when the visibility gets low I am useless....but I wanted to try.

So we do a few fast laps and my position is not bad ...about mid-pack. Then it starts raining. OK...me+ crit+ dark+ rain= freakout . I started sliding back through the field in every turn. It actually took quite a while before I was at the back....when I was... I got about a lap, then was gapped out of a corner and goodbye. I stopped on the back stretch to watch for a few laps. Right before I got dropped I did see the classy pro trick of a guy getting off his bike and letting air out of his tire to get a free lap. LAME. I won't name names even though I should. ...the only redeeming fact is that this PRO guy still didn't finish. After watching just 2 laps the race is completely blown apart...guys coming off everywhere and soon there is less than 1/2 the field left. Hekman is in GREAT position the entire time and Rich is tailgunning, but making it....cool. After some light rain the skies finally open up with a deluge and things get really interesting...the field gets smaller and smaller as the winning break is established. Heckman looks great and with 2 to go I am convinced that he will get top 10. Rich is OTB, but there is less than 30 guys left in the race so he will get paid. At the bell the group comes through but Heck is off the back chasing....number flapping in the breeze and some road rash. He crashed, but got going pretty quick and finished up 21...Rich was 25th...so a great showing for A&F at a big race...good work guys!

Instead of staying over we decide to drive back to A-ville and get home at 3 am. Saturday starts me back to my road endurance training and I get 5 HARD mountain hours in on the Doggett -Hot Springs loop. It was hot and I ran out of fluid with 20 miles to go.....I was shattered when I got home....but it felt great.

Today, Sunday, Cara and I did 4.5 hard hrs on the tandem with a small group...lots of climbing...again I was feeling it at the end, but in a good training sort of way.

I am on my way back to form.....

Packfill in Russellville

2006-05-23T11:09:00.000-04:00

Arkansas: round 2. After Joe Martin, we headed down to Russellville AR for the Tri - Peaks Stage race. We stayed in a hotel mon-wed nights and moved into our host housing on thursday evening. During the week we did recon on the new road courses....both of which were diffrent than previous years. As with most of the big races this season the field for this event would be much larger than last year...and tougher....with more of the big teams attending.

Friday evening's crit was every bit as hard as last year's for the first half. So hard in fact that I was dropped from the lead group 2 or 3 times...having to claw my way back. In one instance I was dropped so hard it took me (and 2 other guys) a full lap to get back onto the lead group...and this was only possible because the front slowed a bit. Finally a break went and the field slowed down to a manageable...even pleasant pace for the remainder of the race. The large break of 11 finished about 40 seconds clear of the field. I was certainly not concerned about that. 4 of us finished with the field and 2 lost a couple of minutes ...not bad....Mark even managed 2nd in the field sprint.

This race finishes on sunday with a 2 mile 20%+ climb to the top of Mt. Nebo. This is where the GC is decided and much time is gained or lost. With this in mind the team tactic/goal was to conserve, try to make the splits in the road races, finish with the field saturday and stay with the front group sunday getting to the last climb with as little time loss as possible....then do a good climb. This was not going to be as easy as it sounds with 3 tough climbs on saturday before the finish and 2 before the last one sunday.

The race stated at 7:30 AM saturday...95 miles with 3 substantial climbs and a flat run-in to the finish. Shortly after the first climb a break went up the road...ok...then another large chase group went. I thought that with such a large group up the road and the majority of team leaders still in the field we would see a big chase toward the end of the stage and either catch the group or finish close behind. I was wrong. The big teams gambled, no real chase happened, and the break finished 2 minutes up on us....with over 20 guys! I was a bit confused by Toyota and Health Net's tactic here...but I figured they must have something up their sleeves for tomorrow. I was really dissappointed after the race. We basically just rode around with the field all day. While I thought this was an ok idea, it dawned on me that we didn't really RACE. We should have had at least one guy in the break....we needed to at least try to race with these guys...otherwise we are just packfill. On a positive note AEG Toshiba stole the glory from the big boys today...score one for the underdogs....Toyota had 3 guys in the break and didn't even get top 3 on the stage....AND lost the lead of the race.

Stage 3: 85 miles with 2 intermediate climbs and the mountian top finish. We started fast again today, but a few miles later AEG had the race under control setting tempo on the front. 2 riders got up the road. I was riding near the front talking to Reid telling him I was going to wait until after the first climb to try to go with a move. I was afraid that if I went too early, and was caught before the climb I might get dropped for good. As I was riding up the line I passed the race leader who was telling his guys on the radio that they didn't need to chase the riders off the front down, but just keep a steady tempo. It dawned on me that this was the perfect time to get a break going. With a team controlling the front riding steady, but not chasing a small less than dangerous breakaway. The next thing I knew I was attacking, trying to get to the 2 riders up the road.

I probably waited too long to attack because it was a difficult bridge that took over a mile...ouch...but I got there and felt surprisingly good. We rolled along pretty well and got out of sight. All 3 of us knew that we needed to get some time before the first climb. If we could make it over clear of the field, we had a chance to stay away for a long time....I had no illusions of making it all day....but at least I was racing. We hit the climb and it hurt. Stu Gillespie (TIAA CREFF) did most of the pace setting on the climb, I pulled through some, but the other guy was just hanging on. We were going as hard as we could and it hurt. On the second to last pitch I still could not see the field, but we could feel that we were peing pressed from behind. Just as we hit the last pitch Tony Cruz comes flying by with about 6 guys in tow. Damn...I thought this might be a break...not that I could have stayed with them over the top, but I looked back and the field was strung out chasing right behind. It took every last ounce of energy I had to remain in contact with the group going over the top. So much for a long break...it lasted all of 8 miles. I was bummed....but realized that now it was time to sit in, and try to recover for the 2nd climb, then the final race to the top of Nebo.

The field rolled fast and no other real breaks materialized the rest of the day. I had a spot of trouble on the 2nd climb, but was able to chase back on the downhill. As we rounded the final turns to the last climb the big teams lined out the field and there were gaps everywhere. At this point I was really feeling the heat (over 90 degrees) and just could not make the front as we hit the climb. The climb up the face of Nebo is like nothing else I have seen. It is just over 2 miles, and only takes about 15 minutes, but it is the steepest bit of road I have ever raced on. At one point there are 8 switchbacks that are over 23% grade. Unlike previous years where I have raced this climb well....this year I was spent, and feeling the early effects of heat exhaustion as we hit the lower steeps. It was hard enough just to get up it this year....I suffered badly. Last year I was only 2.5 minutes behind the stage winner going up this thing...this year I don't even want to know how far back I was. All of the team finished within a short time of each other...except for Reid. We had decided to wait at the finish and all ride back to the cars together. Reid had crashed on the first climb and never made it back to the field. We waited a while, but then realized he may already be back at the cars waiting depending on how serious his crash was...so we headed down. 2/3 of the way down we saw Reid heading up....cool....we were all going to finish. We waited at the bottom for him to come down and heard his story. He had not been able to regain contact after the crash...and rode 70 miles essentially alone....and I thought I had a tough day!

After showereing and packing at our great host families house (Gary and Jane Barnes) we hit the road for a long 11 hour drive back to Asheville. I have to say I am a bit down on my performance over the last couple of weeks. I feel mentally and physically exhausted. While I think my general fitness is good...my climbing is not up to par...not even as good as last year at this time....Now I need to regroup, recover, analyze my training and do what needs to be done to get where I need to be for my goal races.

a2

Joe Martin Stage Race - trouble in Arkansas

2006-05-17T00:01:00.000-04:00

Last Thursday Mark Hekman and I headed out for the double header stage races of Joe Martin and Tri-Peaks in Arkansas. After a 13 hour drive from Ashevegas to Fayetteville we made it just in time for the “manger meeting” at the JMSR. Since we have no team car here the meeting was pretty much useless to us except for the fact that with over 200 riders in the race they were going to enforce a 15% time cut for all stages…including the hill climb TT. The trip out was uneventful…mark likes Howard Stern so we got our fix of that….but we did discover what Mark called “the best fast food combination meal ever” at a Taco Bell/ KFC. Yes folks the #11 at this fine establishment contains: 2 tacos, 2 chicken strips, potato wedges and a drink ….all for about the price of 1.5 gallons of regular gasoline.

Ok, Ok to the racing….but I’ll warn you: there is not a lot of positive experiences to follow. JMSR is a 3 day/4 stage affair staring off with a 110 mile road race Friday afternoon. This race is on beautiful rolling roads and has a not-so steep, but almost 10 mile long climb about 25 miles from the finish downtown. We rolled out at a quick pace …all 200 + riders… and a break was established almost immediately. My initial intention was to try to get into the early move…and stick with being aggressive….but with all the very best pro teams and the size of the field, I pretty much chickened out. Of course I knew a break would most likely be suicide…..but my chances for any result here were nil to begin with anyway. Soooo after a long, fast, but not too difficult first half of the race, things started to get interesting. On a set of rail road tracks there was a HUGE crash….over 20 riders involved with some serious carnage….mostly to equipment. Turns out A&F teammate Ryan Gamm was involved….but we didn’t know for sure until later. The rest of us attempted to conserve and save energy for the big climb. As the climb started I was in OK position, but I didn’t see any of our other guys….HealthNet hit the front and set a solid field-reducing pace. I struggled at the back for the first few miles of the climb…then ….I was reduced myself. As I was yo-yoing off the lead group I saw teammates Mark and Abe in the next group behind so I let up a bit and went back to them. The three of us actually drove this group all the way to the top of the climb….picking up the shrapnel coming back from the front along the way. As we topped out the climb it became clear that we were NOT getting back to the front of the race. Turns out the front group was about 65 guys….this was THE split and none of us made it. You could have called us a “chase” group, but in fact we were the “laughing group”….essentially out of the race. I knew no matter how hard we rode with our group of now almost 50 riders we would lose between 5 and 10 minutes (we lost 8).

A little bit about etiquette in the laughing group: when you get “stuck” in this group there are generally some guidelines to follow…first you have to realize that you are out of the race for the day…save some of your energy for the next race. The group will most likely have some VERY experienced riders in it…and maybe even some really good riders who did their work for their team and are now just getting to the finish. They will know what they, and the group, need to do to make the time cut. Don’t attack the group!….you won’t get away and you won’t make any friends. You can ride as hard as you want at the front on the flats, but make sure you don’t ride so hard as to drop riders out the back on any climbs...also: if there is a crosswind….DON’T gutter the group…this is just common courtesy…you are not going to win the race today.

Ok, so we get to the finish and the 3 of us are a bit bummed that no one made the front group. Mark has been sick for a week and is still not feeling well, Abe is in his first race of this size, but I really don’t have any other excuse than I just didn’t make it. Shawn is the next rider in, but no Ryan. After a while I start asking around about crashed riders. The SRAM guy points to a DESTROYED Masi on the ground near his car. Ouch. The time cut is 40 minutes…Ryan arrives on his neutral support bike at 39 minutes down…but he is physically ok.

Saturday morning at 8 am was another 92 mile rolling race…. super fast with a pair of short climbs each 23 mile lap that were testing. On the 3rd lap the field splits on these climbs… Abe makes it and Ryan and I catch on after a bit of a chase. About 100 riders speed toward the finish…half the field left. The run-in was super high speed… 35 mph for about 10 miles. A crash at 5km to go made things a little scary, but we finished on same time as the leaders. Where were Shawn and Mark? We go the car and see Mark’s bike….but Shawn is there. Turns out Mark broke his chain at the decisive moment in the race and Shawn gave him his bike. With neutral support ahead of them, Shawn had to hitch a ride back. Mark comes in about 15 minutes down on a bike about 4 sizes too small. Man… we just cannot seem to catch a break this weekend!

Saturday afternoon was a 2.5 mile uphill TT. We went off in number order, so the team was all together as opposed to GC order….this was cool….and the only good news was that since Mark was on Shawn’s bike, they recorded both of them as finishers and Shawn was able to ride the TT. This might be stretching the rules a bit….but it didn’t hurt anyone or affect the results at all. I rode well…or I thought I did but my time was extremely mediocre…disappointing in fact. With a 15% time cut we knew none of us was assured a start in the crit Sunday. I ended up like 70th….damn….last year I was in the 20s here.

Sunday was the notoriously hard crit on one of the most difficult courses I have ridden. My moral was low, but I was determined to at least stay in long enough to get a finishing time and GC place. I suffered for the first 3 laps near the back, but was not going to give up. Then, just after a tough chicane, I stood to sprint and my bike just went sideways. I flailed and slammed my shin on my pedal but kept the bike up. I thought I had broken the pedal and rode around the course, pedaling mostly with one leg, headed for the pit and a free lap. At fist I thought we could just put a new pedal on and get me pushed back into the race…and it took me more than a few moments to realize that my cleat had broken off the plate on my shoe and was still stuck to the pedal. Without another shoe, I was out of luck: race over. That was almost the shortest amount of time in a race…4 laps and about 8 minutes…..wow, an incredibly disappointing weekend for me. Mark actually stayed in and finished the race with only about 55 guys…impressive.

All in all not a particularly auspicious weekend for team A&F…however, the road races were a great experience…riding in that big a field at those speeds should have a positive training effect…..let’s hope for better luck at Tri-Peaks next week….

a2

Town Mountain Road Hill Climb

2006-05-07T10:40:00.000-04:00

Friday was the Town Mountain Road Hill Climb here in Asheville. This is a 5 mile course that starts right downtown and climbs up about 1500 ft. The first 1.5 miles is super steep (15%?), then it levels off and kind of stair steps up to the top. I held the record on the "new" course with 18:24. I say new course because in 2002 the course was about 300 meters shorter and that year was the revival of the race. At that time there was a $1000.00 bonus offered to the rider who could break the standing record and none other than Scott Moniger showed up and decimated it with something like a 16:09. I think I rode an 18:12 that year....for 5th place behind a bunch of pros like Chris Sheppard and Ceasar Grajales. The new course is between 20-30 seconds longer (downhill) than the old one. I set the new course record in 2004 (I think) on a beautiful spring day.

OK, enough ancient history. This year there was a $500.00 bonus on offer to break my record...which in my estimation was extremely breakable by anyone who is a real climber. I figured my fitness is at least as good as a couple of years ago and I came within about a minute of my time in training a couple of weeks ago, so I thought I could go better than the record. The question was: would anybody faster than me show up? Potential candidats were: Dan Timmerman just off his 2nd place GC at Shenandoah, Larry Perrera, or Hugh Moran. All are in the area and could come out and best me. Justin England who would surely KILL the record was out doing the Tour of the Gila.

The event got started in a steady cold rain on friday evening. Dan and Larry showed up....seeing Dan I was sure that I would not get the best time of the night...but would the record fall? I hoped that I could at least beat my old time, regardless of how much faster Dan went. I got a great warm-up and my legs actually felt supple and rested. My only complaint was that with all the pollen out lately I have had some breathing troubles.....but whatever. I put tons of warming oil on my legs and was off to the start. It was cold, but during the ride up I was completely comfortable.

I started well and did the first 1.5 miles within myself and was right on target, or even a little ahead of my goal to that point. The bike actually felt fast, my speed looked good and legs felt ok. Onto the flatter part, the air felt a little heavy with some serious fog and still steady rain....it was actually kind of epic...although you can hardly call a <20 minute event epic. As I entered the last mile or so I noticed that my power was a little lower than what I would have expected to be pushing....but I couldn't really get any more out of myself, so I just rode. I remember crossing the "old" finish line at about 18 minutes flat (which would have been exactly even with my old record split to that point) so I knew it was going to be close. I finished in 18:30...just outside the old record :( ...but I felt pretty good about the ride.

As I was heading down I stopped to cheer on Cara, and then was waiting for her to ride down. This was a bit of a mistake as I just got really cold and eventually left to go down before she showed up. The ride down was absolutely freezing...I think it was harder than going up. So Dan smashed the record with a 17:50...a good time, but I wager he will go even faster if he is around next year. I was certainly not surprised...I figured he would beat me by about 30 seconds, but it was in fact 40. Ahhh to be 23 again! Dan is on track to be a big pro road race star in the next few years, so I cetainly can't feel too bad about coming second to him.....

As per the graph above: my average power was 346 watts for the 18:30. This is a little lower than I would have expected....but not too much. At about 146lbs (66.36Kg) that puts me at about 5.21 watts/Kg. You will notice that the power/speed / cadence all fluctuate a lot over the ride. This speaks to the fact that the course in quite variable as far as grade etc.... While it IS certainly a hillclimb, it is technical in respect to pacing and gearing. I did use my mini clip-on aero bars and spent proably half of the distance (but less than half the time) in them. I think if the weather was nice I WOULD have bested my old record and considering the conditions I was relatively happy...hopefully next year I can put up a bettter time...and it is good to know that I am not getting any slower...but I don't think I will ever break 18 minutes on this course....a2

mon - thurs 5/1-5/4

2006-05-07T10:25:00.000-04:00

Not much in the way of training this week after the tough stage race last week. I went out and did 3 hours with some climbing tuesday: mistake. I knew I was tired, but it was a nice day and I wanted to get out and ride a fun loop. I realized about 2 hours in that I was still exhausted and probably just delayed full recovery by riding too long.

Most other rides this week were about 2 hours. Thursday I went on a nice low-key mountainbike ride at bent creek. This was super fun....not many other riders out in the middle of the day and I really enjoyed it. Every time I get on the mountain bike I wonder why I don't do it more. Part of the reason is that even though we have some of the very best trails in the country close...you still have to drive to get to them. Even 30 minutes each way adds extra time, when I can ride on great roads right from my front door. Still...I hope to get more MTB time this season than last. If nothing else it is a great change of pace and helps recharge desire to ride. I find it funny that since I started out exclusively riding and racing MTB back in the early 90's, I always had the cutting edge gear.....now ....even though I do have a new KONA hardtail frame (2004), my components are stuck in 1998. I still have SRAM 8 speed grip shift, and of course to top it off a lovely 1998 Rock Shox Judy SL, which has like 20mm of travel. Believe it or not though, it all works relatively well. If I find myself on the MTB much more though, I hope to at least upgrade to some 9 speed XT drivetrain parts.

Another thing that is really nice about getting on the MTB once in a while is that it really helps balance muscles and works on focus....especially on the more technical trails. AND with the huge variety of gearing and cadence when going up and down it is a very different stress than riding on the road. My legs usually feel refreshed after a couple hours of moderate MTB riding.

Tour of Shenandoah Report

2006-05-01T14:11:00.000-04:00

Tour of Shenandoah

April 26-30^th 2006

The first big stage race of 2006 for me…and what a race! This year’s edition was 6 days, 7 stages over some of the toughest courses I have ever raced on….and that includes the big NRC events I have done in the last 15 years.

My A&F teammate Jered Gruber and I partnered up with Phil Southerland to form Team Type 1 / A& F. Phil is a diabetic, as is the promoter of the Tour of Shenandoah. Phil’s goal is to raise $$ for diabetes research and promote awareness. On Wednesday evening they had a silent auction to raise $$ and Phil gave a great talk. I actually learned quite a bit, and was happy to be a part of the event.

Stage 1 was a 2.6 mile prologue TT in Dayton, VA, starting downtown and, after a mile of so of flat, climbing up Mole Hill. The course was a fantastic prologue, fast to start and hard. Since they sent us out in alphabetical order, I was first off out of close to 100 riders. Normally I hate being the first to go, with nothing but empty road to see ahead, but this day it was great. I got lots of announcer time as I was the first to kick off the tour. I went well, but short TTs are not my specialty. I opted to use the full TT rig which was a good choice and put up a time of about 7 minutes flat, only good enough for 30 somethingth place. Tom Zirbel from the Priority Health team put in an unbelievably fast time to take the first leader’s jersey.

Stage 2 was a 30 mile flat/fast evening criterium in downtown Harrisonburg, VA. Good crowds and an average speed of nearly 30mph made the race fast, but not difficult to hang in. I made 2 pointless attacks to test the legs and generally felt good. 2 Fiora di Friutta riders got away with 2 laps to go and stuck it for the win. Local Asheville part-time resident Dan Timmerman was the impressive winner.

Stage 3 was the start of the 3 back to back 100 mile mountain road stages. Starting in Staunton and finishing 105 miles and 2 huge climbs later in Hot Springs, the race was aggressive from the start and I was right there. For some dumb reason I really wanted to be in the early break today, so I went for it…again and again, making all the splits in the first few miles until something finally stuck. This initial group of 5 or 6 quickly turned into a group of 12-15 and the cooperation disappeared. That means more attacks. I must have covered 100 attacks in the first 5 miles, but it was worth it and we soon had a split of 7 riders working hard together: 2 riders from Priority, 2 from AEG Toshiba, 1 Fiora, 1 RiteAide (Christoph!) and me. We HAMMERED for miles. The roads were rolling and fast. We built a significant advantage that by mile 50 had turned into over a 5 minute lead. The first big KOM climb of the day was at mile 57. I thought I could make it with these guys, but I was wrong. They attacked like crazy before and on the climb and guess who was off the back chasing….me. The break split in 3 parts: 3 x 3 x 1. I was only 15 seconds behind the guys in front of me going over the top, but when they regrouped with the other 3 and started working together on the downhill I started losing ground quickly..and my legs started to give out. I took the downhill alone and started across the flat section. At this point Josh Dillon had come across to me from a chase group and I hopped on his wheel. We got about 20 seconds to the break, then I couldn’t hold on any more and was back to riding alone watching him ride across solo. A few miles later the remains of the chase caught me …but again I couldn’t hold on and rode the next 10 miles alone until the field finally caught me with only about 5 miles to go before the last big climb of the day. I was spent and when we hit the climb I went out the back like a brick. I struggled the last 10 miles with 4 or 5 other riders, and then caught a bigger group with just a couple miles to the finish to lose a whopping 18 minutes on the stage. At least Mike Cody who was in the early break with me ended up in this group as well. Christoph had come apart on the last climb and lost 6 minutes also. All in all only 2 of the original 7 man break made it to the finish in front.

I was quite disappointed after the stage with losing so much time and with coming apart so badly. I made the mistake of thinking I could ride toe to toe with the young pro guys…but the big hand of reality came down and put paid to that notion….still.. I guess I am glad I tried. Jared had a good race and finished in the second group just a couple of minutes back from the leaders. This night we stayed at the beautiful, historic Homestead Resort. The Homestead was opened in 1766 and is a posh resort…not the kind of place bike racer get to frequent often.

Stage 4 was another mountain road race day. 110 miles from Hot Springs to Buena Vista, over numerous big climbs including the daunting Vesuvious climb. It was fast from the start again and a break finally got off and up the road. Vesuvious was just past the mid-way point in the race and I was hoping I could do a good enough climb to keep me near the front of the race. We hit the climb with the break just a couple minutes ahead of the field. They hit it hard too. I remembered this climb from last year…almost 30 minutes of steep climbing. I set into my long climb mode and while I couldn’t hang with the front 10 or 15 riders I was not too far behind, picking up the shrapnel the was being shelled out of the front group. I went over the top after a solid steady (painful) climb less than a minute behind the leaders. We had a group of 10 or so and chased hard on the extremely long downhill. When we hit the flat at the bottom we could see the leaders and after a few more miles we were with them. Of course I attacked right away, but was chased immediately. We rode fast but mostly steady toward the final 2 back to back climbs of the day. I was feeling good. With about 17 miles to go, just before the base of the second to last climb I put in a solid attack and got the company of about 5 riders…..and the group was letting us go. We quickly got a gap of 30 seconds, but only 2 or 3 of us were working. Finally an LSV rider attacked and was going away from our group. I set out after him alone just as the climb started. I chased him all the way up the climb about 10 seconds behind, but could not make it up to him. I felt great and was well out of sight of any chase until about 1km to go on the climb. At this point I saw the hitters coming after us. 3 riders passed me and I could not even think about getting the wheel, then Josh Dillon (again!) came flying by. At this point I could see the summit, but I could also see what was left of the group behind coming up quickly. I rode hard until the road started to top out, then soft pedaled and waited for the group which was now less than 25 riders. I held them on the down hill and part way up the final climb, but again had to let them go…they were breaking into small groups at this point. Unfortunately I had to do the final descent to the finish alone into a headwind, but it was quite fun to have the entire road to myself…both lanes, all out as fast as I could go. The crowds were great at the finish and I came in just a couple minutes down with only about 20 riders ahead of me. I was very pleased with the ride today.

Stage 5 was a relentlessly rolling 95 mile course from Lexington to Bedford. My legs hurt today. I tried to go with an early move and just could not get my legs to go. I almost went out the back on the first climb! After going over this climb and rolling down a fast downhill, we hit a stretch of dirt road. There were lots of punctures. I thought I was OK, but just at the end of the section my rear wheel went flat. The guys were hammering all out at the front and here I was waiting a couple of minutes for neutral support to give me a wheel. SRAM support finally hooked me up and I was on my way…but I was sure I would never get back on …and it was just 10 miles into the race! The thought of 90 miles alone was not pleasant…but the SRAM guy came to the rescue pacing me and 2 other riders back to the group. Doing 35mph behind a support car with no visibility on twisting up and down narrow roads was a harrowing experience and I almost came off a couple of times. We made it back…..but there was still 80 miles to go. My legs felt bad at the start, but now they were destroyed and I suffered horribly through most of this stage. The longest climb was just a few KMs long and not too steep, so I survived that. Christoph had been in the break again and secured the KOM jersey, so that was good. This stage just got harder and as we went. We turned onto extremely narrow, winding, up and down roads that split the field at about mile 60. After much chasing it came back together, but a break of 15 had gotten away, never to be seen until the finish. With about 10 miles to go, the race just turned off. The leaders were gone and we finally started riding slow for the first time in 4 days…until, of course, about 5 miles to go, when the after burners were lit again. The run-in to the finish was really fun. Jared and I actually went to the front and led out the field sprint. I took it from about 1KM to less than 200 meters before the guys came around….it felt great to finish the stage strong after such a tough day. After this stage we had to bum a ride off the lovely podium girl Rene to get to our hotel for the last 2 nights in Natural Bridge, VA.

Stage 6 was a 14 mile difficult rolling time trial. With tired legs and a low GC position it was a little difficult to force the effort today…but I put in a good ride, suffering all the way for a time of 32:30 and 15^th on the stage. Very rarely do I finish a TT unhappy with my performance, but today was one of those days…I felt like I could have gotten a top 10 time.

Stage 7, the final stage of the race was a tough crit in downtown Waynesboro. With a nasty hill to negotiate 33 times it was not a foregone conclusion to stay in the race. With some cold symptoms coming on and very sore legs I was a little worried…but it turned out fine. It was a fast, hard race, but I stayed out of trouble and finished with the field, as did Jared.

I had a great time doing the race this year. The courses and the organization were the best ever for this 4 year old event… and the people, competition and scenery was top notch. I was very surprised at the level of the racing from the teams present. The young pro riders who dominated this event are the ones who we will be reading about racing in Europe in just a few years. Overall winner Brent Bookwalter is soon to be a super star and there are more lining up behind him. A big thanks and congratulations for such a great event go out to race organizers Matt Butterman and Dave LeMay.

testing , camp, and sickness

2006-04-24T11:29:00.000-04:00

After the Tundra TT I headed up to Appalachian State in Boone NC to take part in a study. This study included riding 3 hours to exhaustion for 3 days (with no caloric intake during the rides). Before and after the rides on days 1 and 3 they took muscle biopsies from our quads. Before and after each day they took a ton of blood samples.

The actual riding was not bad but the rest of the experience was quite stressful....

After the studay I headed to team camp number 2 in Winston , NC....where I became extremely sick during our ride on friday. I left camp early on saturday after having a bike fit by Tom Coleman of Wobble-naught (you will hear more about this later!). On Sunday when my fever went over 103 degrees Cara took me over to the urgent care center where I tested positive for the flu.

Ok, I have had many cases of the flu throughout my life, but this one just totally kicked my butt. I was literally IN BED for the entire week. I was only able to get out of bed to do a little work for like an hour at a time.

The following Saturday I actually rode the bike for an hour....very slowly...and coughing every few pedal strokes, but it was the beginnning of getting going again. Of course this is when the wheels totally fell off of my training blog here. Between getting back some fitness after being sick, catching up with work and then the race season starting I have had a hard time keeping up. I hope to have reports form the road to recovery and the early season races posted here soon...

thanks for your patience :)

Sun Feb 19, 2006

2006-03-25T22:53:00.000-05:00

2 hrs / 30 miles

easy tandem ride with cara.....

Sat Feb 18, 2006

2006-03-25T22:43:00.000-05:00

Tundra TT Near Atlanta GA.

Ahhh the beautiful trophy. First race of the year a 9.5 mile TT on the Silver Comet trail near Atlanta. It was a cold , damp morning, but the rain held off. I felt pretty stong. Legs were good even though it was a bit of a shock to do the first race effort of the season....here are the metrics:

tundra TT:
Duration: 20:51
Work: 449 kJ
TSS: 43.6 (intensity factor 1.121)
Norm Power: 359
Distance: 9.252 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 874 359 watts
Heart Rate: 103 200 164 bpm
Cadence: 43 115 89 rpm
Speed: 8.8 31.6 26.6 mph

I was happy with the effort and got the cool trophy to boot...I even got to open a champagne bottle and spray what was left of the cold people hanging about. Cara had a decent ride, but crashed at the turnaround...ooops. After the race we went to Ikea in Atlanta...man, that took more out of me than the race...what a madhouse!

Feb 15-17 2006

2006-03-25T22:39:00.000-05:00

Back to the data for a few days....sorry ....

Wed Feb 15th
TT bike - river
Entire ride (229w):
Duration: 2:10:57
Work: 1798 kJ
TSS: 127 (intensity factor 0.763)
Norm Power: 244
Distance: 45.936 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 903 229 watts
Heart Rate: 0 252 127 bpm
Cadence: 30 184 90 rpm
Speed: 0 38.5 21.1 mph

Thurs Feb 16th
Entire ride (190w):
Duration: 3:12:06
Work: 2189 kJ
TSS: 144.8 (intensity factor 0.672)
Norm Power: 215
Distance: 55.915 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 442 190 watts
Heart Rate: 0 229 124 bpm
Cadence: 29 142 88 rpm
Speed: 0 41.4 17.5 mph

Fri Feb 17th
TT bike riceville Rd
Entire ride (190w):
Duration: 3:12:06
Work: 2189 kJ
TSS: 144.8 (intensity factor 0.672)
Norm Power: 215
Distance: 55.915 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 442 190 watts
Heart Rate: 0 229 124 bpm
Cadence: 29 142 88 rpm
Speed: 0 41.4 17.5 mph

Feb 14, 2006

2006-03-24T22:39:00.000-05:00

Feb 14, 2006 2.75 hrs, 48 miles / 1702 Kj

Easy/moderate ride out through Fairview out to Rt9, Black Mtn. and home. I hit it a little on some hills, but mostly kept the pace HR zones 1-2. Legs feel a bit sore fom yesterdays weights and intervals.

Fe 13, 2006

2006-03-24T22:38:00.000-05:00

Feb 13, 2006 / 1.25 hrs / 25 miles / 953 Kj

I did a nice heavy weight workout this morning, then intervals on the trainer in the evening. It was wicked cold outside all day so I decided to get some TT intervals in on the computrainer. I did a bit of a test: First I warmed up on the road bike and calibrated the computrainer. Next I rode at a few different effort levels for several minutes at a time. The new SRM seems to match perfectly with the CT. Then I mounted up the TT bike, warmed it up for about the same amount of time and re-calibrated. It was immediately evident that the old SRM is reading WAY low. Between 40-50 watts low! I did 5 x 5 min CP30 efforts with 2 minute recoveries. Averaging between 340-350 watts each. After loading the data I messed around with the slope of the old SRM until I came up with numbers that matched the efforts. Now I have a ballpark idea of where the slope needs to be set…but I will have to go through a real calibration process to get it exact. Not a lot of workout time today…but a killer good workout.

Feb 7-12 , 2006

2006-03-24T22:27:00.000-05:00

Feb 7 tues:
Entire ride (217w):
Duration: 3:16:15
Work: 2553 kJ
TSS: 197 (intensity factor 0.776)
Norm Power: 248
Distance: 66.232 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 707 217 watts
Heart Rate: 0 254 137 bpm
Cadence: 29 140 90 rpm
Speed: 0 38.3 20.3 mph
Torque: 0 885 212 lb-in

Feb 8 wed:
Entire ride (195w):
Duration: 5:13:00
Work: 3665 kJ
TSS: 251.7 (intensity factor 0.695)
Norm Power: 222
Distance: 91.35 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 705 195 watts
Heart Rate: 0 254 125 bpm
Cadence: 30 162 86 rpm
Speed: 0 41.3 17.5 mph
Torque: 0 748 196 lb-in

Feb9 thurs - easy riceville road loop - TT bike
Entire ride (188w):
Duration: 59:09
Work: 668 kJ
TSS: 45.2 (intensity factor 0.677)
Norm Power: 217
Distance: 18.97 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 566 188 watts
Heart Rate: 0 251 126 bpm
Cadence: 29 124 87 rpm
Speed: 0 33.1 19.3 mph
Torque: 0 737 195 lb-in

Feb 10 fri: - with Justin England and Lauren ...my legs were DEAD today I suffered the entire time and Justin was riding like he was not even working.....damn
Entire ride (188w):
Duration: 4:18:36
Work: 2914 kJ
TSS: 216.7 (intensity factor 0.709)
Norm Power: 227
Distance: 77.103 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 571 188 watts
Heart Rate: 0 254 123 bpm
Cadence: 30 195 86 rpm
Speed: 0 49.8 17.9 mph
Torque: 0 946 192 lb-in

ok, ok...no more of this data only crap...it is WAYYYY too boring.

Feb 11, 2006 / 0 hours / 0 miles

Bad weather and bad legs. After feeling so bad on the ride yesterday I took the day completely off. I had planned to get a weight workout in, but decided my legs needed some full recovery…probably a good idea. And since it was wet/cold/freezing rain/ snow outside it was a good day for it.

Feb 12, 2006 / 4.5 hrs / 80 miles / tandem

After the snow yesterday and last night as well as cold and high winds, we decided to take the tandem down to Greenville and ride the Tigerville metric century loop. It was windy, but at least 10 degrees warmer than Asheville. Just after we started Cara announced that she lost our cue sheet. No worries, we knew the first 40 miles and the course seemed well marked. No problems for the first 2/3 of the ride and we got through it pretty quickly and comfortably. As we hit out on the last 25 miles I noticed that the arrows we were following looked a little different….but they were nice big white arrows on the road…how could we go wrong? Well….let me tell you: after flying along with a huge tailwind and mostly rolling downhill we finally decided that we must be following a different course. Who knows where it would lead. We finally turned around. I was dreading it…I knew we would have to pound uphill into a headwind for a LONG time. So we did. I was a bit…angry…. About the situation, but I didn’t say much I just rode harder. Cara later told me that she did the same….so while we were into a 20 mph wind we kept up clost to 20mph most of the way back. When we finally got back to the car we had done over 15 extra miles and were out about an hour longer than we planned. All was good once we got loaded up and had the heat warming us. Of course just as we were changing….Cara FOUND the lost cue sheet somewhere in her pocket! Oh well..I can’t complain that we got an extra solid hour of riding in. We seem to finally be getting better at standing while riding the tandem. I think it has taken us so long to get it because we have both been riding singles so long and have our own styles. It has taken us a while to adapt them to the team.

Weekly Summary: 20.5 riding hours / 380 miles

Feb 6, 2006 Mon

2006-03-24T22:25:00.000-05:00

Entire ride (189w):
Duration: 2:20:33
Work: 1597 kJ
TSS: 101.7 (intensity factor 0.659)
Norm Power: 211
Distance: 46.245 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 609 189 watts
Heart Rate: 0 254 124 bpm
Cadence: 30 112 85 rpm
Speed: 0 36.7 19.8 mph

I sure can't remember exacly what I did this day...but the data says it all....

Jan 30-Feb 5, 2006

2006-03-24T22:08:00.000-05:00

Jan 30 mon: 35 miles - 1.75 hrs - Black Mountain on TT bike

Jan 31 tues: 56 miles - 3 hrs - back route to Marshall...home on river

Feb 1 Wed: 99 miles - 6 hrs - Lake lure loop counter clockwise with Larry Perrera....nice day

Feb 2 thurs: 65 miles - 3.8 hrs - rode tandem solo, picked up cara @ biltmore park then did 2.5 hrs with her. Dropped her off and rode solo home...man, riding the tandem solo is interesting. I think if I work on some climbing with the 40 pound bike I might feel fast on the single bike :)

Feb 3 fri : 80 miles - 3.25 hrs - Bat Cave with Lauren

Feb 4 sat: 40 miles - 2.25 hrs - fist day of intervals for the season...did 2 x 15 up folk Art @ about 340 watts avg each....ouch cold and even some snow/freezing rain on the ride.

Feb 5 sun: 73 miles - 4.3 hrs - Tandem w/ Cara down in Greenville. We tried to do the full Tigerville Century loop. Once we climbed up the watershed into North Carolina we realized how much this ride absolutely kicked our butts. We bypasesed the last 25 miles of the ride because we were completely defeated...cold day, but it was still a great ride. Tandeming is so different than riding alone...something everyone should at least try.

Week Summary: 26.35 hours plus 1 hr weights (27.35 hrs total) / 448 miles

Jan 23-29, 2006

2006-03-24T21:58:00.000-05:00

Jan 23 Mon: 31 miles easy 1.5 hrs / weight workout

Jan 24 Tues: 96 miles 5.75 hrs - Hot Springs/Doggett loop

Jan 25 Wed: 45 miles 2.25 hrs / weight workout

Jan 26 Thurs: 16 miles 1 hour easy ride - then up to Boone for baseline & Vo2 max testing
Vo2 max was a mediocre 64, body fat is 9% , power @ Vo2 & threshold was not so good...I'm not even gonna post it because I felt crappy and definitely didn't come up with good numbers...but at least the VO2max should be accurate :)

Jan 27 Fri: 67 miles 3.75 hrs - Black Mtn - Bat cave loop / weight workout

Jan 28 Sat: 96 miles 5.25 hrs - Doggett Hotsprings again this time with Rich Harper....he KILLED me today, I sufferered hard the last hour

Jan 29 Sun: 76 miles 4.25 hrs - South over Terry's Gap , Bear Wallow and Rose Hill...today I got back at Rich as he bonked about an hour from home :)

Week Summary: 24.5 hrs bike / 27.5 hrs including weights / 427 miles

sorry!

2006-03-15T09:42:00.000-05:00

Wow...talk about dropping the ball. My intent when starting this blog was to stay on top of things and really keep the updates frequent. I blew that one. Heavy workload, travel and illness have all contributed to my lack of posting. Hopefully that will change and I will get back to it. I have lots of info and data on paper and in files...I'll try to get the blog updated soon! I guess I have not been too worried since I have not really told but a few people I was starting this blog...maybe I should tell everyone I know ...then it would put pressure on me to keep up with it..

Jan 20-22, 2006 - 0 hours / 0 miles

2006-01-22T19:54:00.000-05:00

Friaday morning I headed out to the power training clinic at the Olympic Training Center near San Diego. It was a full day of travel and after dinner I just relaxed in my room a bit before bed.

Saturday we were in "class" from 8:30 am- 5:30 pm. This was a great learning experience with Hunter Allen and Andy Coggan as instructors. I can't say I learned anything completely new...but it solidified some ideas, and a few things that I only had a small amount of information on. I expect to be able to make my coaching for athletes training with power quite a bit more effective by utilizing some of the knowledge I gained here.

Sunday we went from 8:30 to 2pm. The weather here is beautiful...I sure wish I had a bike....but I did get a nice 40 minute walk around the "compound". I also took a walk down to the running track and walked down the pole vault runway. Ahhh memories of high school track. I wonder how different things would have been had I applied myself to that sport. I was a decent pole vaulter and showed some promise. I cleared 12 ft my sophmore year. 13 ft was the mark at that time to be considered for a college team. Without going into too many details....my priorities changed my junior year....and while I continued to be on the track team as a junior and senior, my maximum height never improved. Memories....

Ok enough of that. If you ever get the chance to stay "on complex" at one of the USOTCs, do it! If for nothing other than the food! Our olmypic athletes do not live in high style. The dormitories are about as charismatic as a hospital room....but the food! It is free! it is all you can eat! it is good! it is bad!.....Basically you can eat as well or as poorly as you would like. You can have a salad with tuna at every meal....or you can have things like pasta and BBQ ribs, with ice cream for dessert. I will be scared to step on a scale when I get home tomorrow.....thousands of calories a day and no exercise for 3 days! The decadence!

The funny thing is that I have to go up to App State to have a Vo2Max test and hydrostatic weight measurementthis coming thursday. This is where they submerge you in water to get an accurate measurement of your body fat %. ohhhhh I'm gonna be FAT! At least I know it will only get better as the training season continues.

As I type... I have one more meal here before I catch the shuttle to the airport...hmmm...what's for dinner tonight?

Thurs, Jan 19th 2006 - 5:45 / 94 miles

2006-01-22T19:41:00.000-05:00

Day 2 of the A& F training camp. The weather was great and we headed out on a nice long ride over the rolling roads around Athens led by Jacob Fetty. On the way back we hit a bunch of dirt roads at a "sprited" pace, which unfortunately led to a few flat tires. We actually ended up not getting back until very close to dark. Mark Hekman won the crash of the day award by stacking in a stream crossing on one of the dirt roads. It was great to ride with the guys and I continue to get to know them. Actually it was quite impressive that eveyone rode damn well...we were not going too hard...but still....no slackers in this group!

I was kind of bummed that I had to leave after a burrito dinner. I head out to San Diego for a USAC Training with Power Clinic tomorrow morning.

I could feel myself adapting to the new bike today as we rode. I imagine by the middle of the week next week I will have it 100% dialed in.

Wed Jan 18, 2006 - 2:45 / 47 miles

2006-01-19T08:34:00.000-05:00

First day of the A&F p/b Inferno Team training camp. I drove down to Athens GA early morning. I had a bit of stress as I needed to get my new Masi team bike put together before I could ride. Somehow I managed to get it completely together in just about an hour...including cutting the fork steerer tube....sweet! Special thanks to teammate Jim Baldesare for having a couple of the tools I didn't and helping out. The bike is beautiful. I seem to be a bit in-between sizes though. I am using a 53...which has an effective 55cm top tube. Just a little short for me so I need to switch out my 120 stem for a 130 and I think I will be set up just right.

Every time I change bikes I am meticulous about getting all the measurements from the old bike before even starting to set up the new one.....I have gotten to the point where I can set up a new bike with a tape measure in just a few minutes on the first try. I think I needed to stop only once to adjust my saddle height about 1 mm on the first ride. The lesson is to make sure you keep a good written record of every possible measurement on all bikes.

The Masi is great...aluminum front with a carbon rear triangle.....stiff and smooth...very nice.

We also got out new Verge team clothing. I did a bit of guesswork with the sizes I ordered...fortunately everything fits perfectly...I was a bit worried.

About 10 of us headed out for an afternoon ride. Chad crashed his brand new kit in the first 5 minutes....but he was not hurt and other than a slight wheel misalignment and some clothing damage no harm was done. It was windy and cool, but sunny as we wound our way around the rolling roads near Athens. Tomorrow will be the real ride of 5+ hours. Unfortunately I will only be here at camp with the team for 2 days as I head out to San Diego Friday for a training with power clinic at the OTC in Chula Vista.