Catching up…

Since I got bashed for being too wordy on the last post… I will keep this short. Well, at least for each individual race.

Waterford/AAVC training races:
It was good to get out and hammer a little on the road bike to test the legs. Waterford went pretty well, nothing too exciting as I just sat in for the most part as I wanted to practice positioning. I rode up from home thanks to a little motivation from Adam York, which was a good warm up. It was quite the urban adventure. The race went well and I never felt in distress. I was about 10th wheel through the S at the end, didn’t have to check the brakes (This was a first) and sprinted to a 4th place finish. Rode home with another group that came up to watch, it was nice to have a little company and a larger group to be more visible.

AAVC was fast and furious with Rainman constantly attacking… I wanted to just sit in, but found myself chasing a lot. There was a wreck at the first corner on the first or second lap, which always makes you think a little. I stayed towards the front, but had nothing for the uphill sprint and finished in the pack for 18th.

Yankee TT:

I was pretty excited for this race as it would be my first SS race. I rode 3 laps the week before, so I felt I had a pretty good feel for the trail. My warm up went good and my legs were ready to go. I preregistered early so I had a reasonable starting position. I felt good from the start and managed my efforts well. I passed a fair amount of people and cleared all the climbs. I knew I was close to being under 50 mins (Which was one of my goals), so I pushed hard at the end of the first lap and made it just under at 49:56. I backed off slightly the second lap but kept the effort steady and tried to be smooth. Passed some more guys and had yet to be passed, which is always a good feeling. I cleared everything the second lap except the belt climb as a geared guy was going too slow and I had to hesitate and stalled. I finished the lap strong for a 51:05 min lap. Last year there were only 3 laps under 50mins in SS, so I thought that I would place pretty well. When I looked at the results, I was 9th out of 26 guys. A little disappointing at first but the spread from 10th to 5th was only a minute which indicated a high level of competition. I was happy that I ran my fastest lap ever at Yankee and had a great time. My new Quiring SS is the best riding bike I have ridden. I can’t wait to get some more time on it.

Willow TT:
This is a fun race that my friend Wayne got me doing. He does Ironmans and Triathlons, so he is all about the TT bike and going fast. I did this race last year and had fun. I had a “ghetto” TT set-up on my road bike (Aerobars) and borrowed an aero wheel and helmet. It was fun, but my results were just ok at 33:58 and 23.4 mph. This year I was lucky enough to borrow a demo Felt B12 from Roll Models Bike to see what I could do. My friend Tony also lent me his Zipp Sub9 rear disk for the set up. Mark got me fitted up on the bike and I did a few rides to try and get comfortable on it. I decided that I needed a support for my head!!

Arianna was also going to do the event on her new bike, so we got up early, loaded up and head down. Arianna went first and finished in 1:02:42 for 2nd place in the girls 10-12 class. I was feeling pretty good and rolled out strong but quickly found that the TT position was work my legs in a weird way so I backed off a little. After a couple laps, I was feeling comfortable and was maintaining a good pace. I rolled across with a time of 31:11 with an avg speed of 25.5mph… which was only 3 sec slower than the winner last year. I felt pretty good about the time and figured I would be in the top 5, but it was only good for 7th in CAT4. Again, the competition was high and 3rd place was only 16s faster! Still a great time and going fast is fun… although I was really happy to be back on my road bike!

Pontiac Lake TT:
I love racing at Pontiac Lake. It is a fast and flowing trail with a little bit of everything. I did an easy lap earlier in the week, but wasn’t sure how I would feel at race pace on the SS. I was also a little unsure about how my legs would respond to back to back races, but they seemed be up to the task. I had preregistered early, as did Patrick Russell, so we were the first SS riders out. I took the lead at the start and set the pace for the first 3 miles or so. I could hear him behind me the whole time and especially on the climbs. He called out to pass and I let him by… but jumped on his wheel. We yo-yoed a bit as he was stronger in some areas and I was stronger in others. As we got near the end, I could tell he was slowing a little as I would buzz his tire on some climbs. He was a competitor though and wasn’t going to let me by! As we got near the end, I let my inner roadie take over and just rode his wheel and let it come down to a sprint. I barely edged him out… probably could have called it a tie. It was a great race. We both set our fastest laps at Pontiac with a 40:40 finishing 2nd and 3rd. It was fun day with perfect weather!

Barry Roubaix 2012

First race of the year is out of the way. I must admit I was nervous about how this was going to go. With no intervals on the legs at this point in the program, I wasn’t sure what was going to happen when things got amped up and the hills started coming. The good part was that I had been sleeping well and my legs felt pretty fresh. I got up early and drove over the day of with plenty of time to get ready and socialize a little. With 1500 people all trying to warm up at one time in the parking lot, I am surprised there weren’t any incidents… at least that I know of!

I lined up early to get a front row spot, as I knew that Sager Rd. was going to be a parking lot. I saw a few of the major players’ right there with me… Simon, Osgood, JMak, Messing and McKibbons. This was Simon’s kind of race, so I knew he was the guy to keep in my sights. The neutral roll out heading out the main park road was pretty mellow. We turned onto the main road and the pace amped up. I stayed towards the front on the pavement and all the way to Sager. I knew we were in trouble when we were catching wave two people almost a mile before Sager. As we rolled into Sager, it was hard to tell who was in what group. It was 4 wide with people riding really slow, walking or crashing. I picked the left line and someone immediately stopped in front of me. I jumped off the bike and started to run. I was forced off my bike once more before getting out of the sandy 2 track and on to the gravel road.

At this point, I had little to no frame of reference as to where I was in the group… so I just buried myself until I could find a group that I recognized. After almost losing it at the blind left a few miles up the road, I found my group. I could see my teammate Josh, as well as McKibbons, Messing and Osgood. I caught the group and recovered a bit. We hammered along until the wall and then the group thinned out a bit. Messing, Osgood, McKibbons and I were still together and would keep the pace high. After a while JMak showed up to the party and would join the group. At one point a couple guys got together right in front of me and went down, but I managed to avoid it, as did Messing! The rest of the race was a little bit of a blur, till the Sager/Shaw saga towards the end of the race. At this point, I don’t remember much about the people around me other than they were slow and riding odd looking bikes with racks and handle bars that seem to be at shoulder height?! I realized at this point that we had caught the 24 mile group. We were dodging puddle, people and sand pits till there was nothing but sand, at which time I dismounted and started running. I am NOT a runner, so I was expecting the other guys to just run on by me… but it didn’t happen. I walk for a few secs here and there, as I was certain that my calves were going to cramp. As we topped the hill on Shaw the only one by me was JMak. We both mounted and hammered down through the puddles and sand on the other side of the hill headed for the pavement all the way dodging odd looking bikes.

Once we made the turn onto the pavement I could see McKibbons with a group just up the road. I also knew that once I got over this climb it was mostly downhill to the finish. I put the hammer down and slowly closed the gap. Once we got over the top, I was assisted by some guys and closed the gap to McKibbons. Shortly after Messing and JMak join back on. Messing didn’t like the pace, so he went to the front and pulled us to the park entrance. There were a few moves, but all were covered quickly. In 2010, I went too early (At the end of the bridge)… so this year, I decided to wait till the end of the parking lot. I made my move and laid down everything I had left… I kept waiting for the finish line to show up but it didn’t come soon enough and as my legs started peddling squares and a few guys went by. I put in one last burst and managed to hold on for a middle pack finish. Next year, I will cover moves and wait till I can see the finish banner!

Finish time was 1:50:41 with an average speed of 19.5mph which was good for 6th place in my age group and tied for 31st overall in the 36 mile race. This was an improvement of almost 1mph avg and 4.5 mins over my finish in 2010 which didn’t have the second Sager/Shaw section. I will always remember this race as I got to ride/race with my friends for almost the whole race!!

Winter Training Update...

First train block is almost complete, so I figured I would put some thoughts on paper…. or at least virtual paper. One of my training goals this year was to have a more structured approach. Part of what I wanted to do within the structure is to do a “push up” approach instead of a “pull up” one. For those that don’t know these terms, it has to do with how you achieve better functional threshold power or FTP. The “pull up” approach is where you focus on threshold power and above to raise your FTP by improving the anaerobic portion. This has been more or less the approach I have taken as it is easier to do hard short intervals and/or basically ride hard all the time. This works great for short term gains, but you hit a wall and then crash and burn part way through the season. The “push up” approach starts with a base phase that is composed of longer easier rides that build muscle endurance and efficiency. This process builds the aerobic engine which makes up the other part of the fueling of the muscles at FTP. The first step is to build a “base” (i.e. Base Miles), which will be the foundation for the harder efforts later on. Since base is mainly endurance riding, the time on the bike is\can be a lot longer in order to stress the system. To accomplish this, Brian and I decided it would be best to ride in the morning before work. I was a little apprehensive about this (5AM or earlier is well... early!), but it has worked out for the most part thus far. It’s nice to ride when your legs are fresh in the AM and your mind isn’t stressed from the day’s events. It also is nice to have time in the evening to spend with Mary Ann and the kids, without thinking about having to get on the bike.

The hours on the bike, year to date, have been pretty crazy relative to years past. To give a relative indicator, I have ridden almost as many hours this year as I did the first 6 months of last year!! The cool part is that I have actually been able to put a fair amount of the time in outside. I am finally starting to get this cold weather clothing choice dialed in to where I can be comfortable, although hopefully most of the cold is behind us!

Barry Roubaix is coming and since it is not an “A” race, I am not doing any specific training. It will be interesting to see how well I can manage my matches on the hills with no top end training. I am excited to see how the time on the bike thus far will translate into speed and time at the race.

See you guys in a couple weeks!

2012…The Season Ahead.

Last season was like a roller coaster with no winter training then ramping by "Racing" to Fitness training in April. I was reasonably fast by June, but then headed out west with Mary Ann and the kids followed by 2 weeks in New Zealand. When I got back to riding in August, not all cylinders were firing. Ramped back up by September, sick in October and then limped through the rest. I managed to keep riding during my off season time at least once a week and got some good ski time in with trips to Breckenridge and Utah!! Even bought new skis that are the bomb!!

The best part of the off season was proposing to Mary Ann at Breckenridge!! She is an incredible woman!! <3

Tucson, AZ Here We Come:
OK… back to cycling. Semi structured training started in January and went pretty good. Not a ton of hours on the bike but enough to maintain a reasonable amount of fitness and have some fun on the bike. My friend Wayne, Mary Ann and I headed to Tucson, AZ a few weeks ago to put in some miles to jump-start the season and plan for the year with my Coach Brian Matter of Momentum Endurance. We stayed at an awesome Bed and Breakfast called Jeremiah Inn near the base of Mt. Lemmon, Bob and Beth made sure we were fed very well each morning. Mary Ann brought her MTB and rode some trails on Thursday and Friday with Brian’s wife Andrea. Wayne and I did a fun out and back ride to Colossal Cave with a loop through Suguaro Park on the road bikes. Suguaro Park is like mountain biking for road bikes. The paved road had mostly short climbs with twisty turns, which we hammered through at speeds up to 34mph with one grinding climb at the end. Friday, Brian and I headed out to the Arizona trail for some MTB riding. I rented a BMC 29er from Pro Bike, which took a while to get used to. One of the “features” of the trails in this area is what Sam Schultz calls the 4th dimension… or also called Cactus! The trail snakes its way around tons of Cacti and the price for making a mistake is being stuck by the many different types of needles on the variety of Cactus on the side of the trail. Luckily, all of us manage to not get poked by any of them. The other feature of these trails is that rocks… lots and lots of rocks. Big ones, small ones, flat ones and round ones. It was very challenging in places as the pace was slow and you had to power your way over some rocky uphill areas. Saturday was the climb up Mt. Lemmon. I figured I would be spent and struggle, but was actually feeling pretty good. Mt. Lemmon is 8000ft at the highest point (On the main road, which you hit twice) and at the 0mile marker it is 2600ft for a total net climb of about 5400ft. The first peak is at mile marker 21 where there is a short downhill and then a climb back up to 8000 ft. Brian was saying it would take 2:45min to get to the top. I set a pace that I felt was sustainable and set a goal to not stop the whole way up. The views were breath taking and the change in vegetation as you went up in altitude was interesting. I even saw a guy rock climbing at about mile 12, which looked really fun!! The funny thing is that I said something to the climber and then Brian rolled up behind me out of no where thinking I was hollering to him, but never looked back to even know he was coming. I met my goal of not stopping the whole way up and finished the climb in under 2:30 and still felt good. I waited for the rest of the group, which ended up being just Wayne and Brian, since the women turned back at mile 18. I was really impressed with Mary Ann as she barely rides her bike and then goes on these crazy outings with me and does amazing. We inhaled a pizza and finished another guy’s cookie at the Cookie Cutter and then headed back down the mountain. The way down was interesting as I had not spent a lot of time at 30+ on my road bike and there was a lot of wind, so we took it easy for the first 10 miles. Once I got more comfortable and the wind calmed down a little, I started to push a little harder. The way down was little faster than the way up at about an hr with a peak speed of 46+mph. Total climbing for the day was around 6500ft! The last day, we did a short out and back that ended at LeBuzz which is the local biker hangout for coffee and other goodies. It was a great trip and Mary Ann and I plan on going back every year for a nice winter break! Another highlight of this trip was a place called Frost, which was a Gelato bar… we went every day!

Training and Racing:
So my real training starts now, this will be me for the next 4 weeks.

My first race of the year will be Barry Roubaix which will be here before we know it. I have no big expectations for this race. I finished well in 2010 and it would be nice to see an improved finishing time and avg. speed, but some of that will be dependant on conditions and whether I can get into and hang on in a good group as drafting is huge at this race. My real focus will be getting to CAT3 on the road this year and the road season doesn’t really start until May. I am even more excited about racing the road this season, as the MCG squad will be pretty strong in CAT4. Hopefully we can utilize some team tactics and get some wins. I wanted a change to liven up MTB racing, so I figured I would race SS. I rode my friend Chuck’s SS last year and had a great time; I have also been riding a SS winter bike. I should be getting delivery of my new Quiring SS in the next couple weeks. My SS debut will be at Yankee in April. Looking forward to a great year!!

Back on the "Program" - Bloomer CX

Since the USGP weekend, I have started to feel more like myself on the bike. I stayed with the “Program” and things are back to normal. The next race was Bloomer, which is a cool course. My plan was to stay towards the front at the start, be smooth in the corners and hit it hard on the hills and long straights. They decided to add a holeshot prime at this race, so the start was fast. I was about 5^th wheel as we hit the wood chip pile (Yes… wood chip pile), when the first incident happened. The 3^rd or 4^th wheel guy lost it as did the guy in front of me and as I tried to split the two of them, I got “hooked” by a saddle. As I was trying to pull it off, he was pulling it back. Eventually we broke free and I was somewhere around 8-10^th, but wasn’t 100% sure. I started to pick people off, then unclipped on a technical downhill and couldn’t get back in on the climb out, letting some people pass. Shortly after that, I hit an uneven patch on a climb and pull the bike over crashing on the hill and more people went by. I think I was 13^th as we finished the first lap. At this point I wanted to quit, but as I started the second lap things began to click. I started closing the gaps and just focused on each group that was ahead of me. With 2 laps to go a younger guy on a mountain bike passed me on the downhill, but I was quickly back around him on an uphill pavement section. I attacked a few times to try and drop him, but he was stuck on my wheel. I kept a steady hard pace on the last lap and punched it hard on the long flats and uphills. As we approached the last straight to the finish, I ramped it up and pegged it as we hit the pavement as I know he was going to try to beat me in the sprint. But it wasn’t going too happened today… I rolled in for 6^th on the day about a bike length ahead. Next up is the Tailwind Michigan CX Championships at Springfield Oaks on Dec 4^th and it is looking like a muddy one. Osgood is going to be excited!!

Louisville USGP CX

Wow… what an awesome trip. Mary Ann and I had been looking forward to this trip for a while. It is nice to just get away for the weekend. We loaded up the Fit and headed out Friday morning to Louisville. The weather was great and we only had one traffic issue in Cincinnati on the way down. We headed straight to the venue and I geared up to take a few laps of the course. It is exciting to see the sport of cyclocross growing to the point that they are building dedicated venues like this one in Louisville. The course was challenging with a few 2-3’ rollers, some technical sections in the trees, a flyover (Permanently installed), a steep off camber section, a steep run up… and lots of bumps! We stayed with Mary Ann’s friend Laura and her family. It was nice, as breakfast was a non issue and they even cooked us a homemade meal that night. The next morning came quick. I was a little nervous as this is a big time event and I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t register until the Monday before the race and since riders are called up based on when they registered, I was in the back of the 100+ field of CAT 2/3 riders. I could barely see my fellow Michigan riders Mark Caffyn or Ryan McKinnie who were towards the front. We didn’t move for a bit at the start being such a big group, but were soon under way. It was like a big slinky on the first lap as people slowed for the obstacles… first it was the couple roller bumps, then the barriers and lastly the flyover. Based on the data, I stood still for 20sec waiting to go over. After the flyover things were strung out. I passed a few people and soon could see Ryan Mckinnie and pushed to catch him but ran out of time. At the finish, I put it in my head to get around the 2 people in front of me and even thou it was for 90^th place… I sprinted and won. After a nice dinner with Laura and her husband Jesse at Mitchell’s, day two was upon us and I was warmed up and at the starting line. The course layout changed a little and they made us climb a hill after a 180 which separated a lot of people. I didn’t think this tight little turn they put right before it was the best idea as there was some yard saling going on as the not so skilled bike handlers tried to get through it. Some guys dismounted and ran up, but I stayed on the bike and rode to the top passing about 4-5 people. I must admit that this helped with the congestion at the flyover as there was a much shorter wait. I was feeling good and was leap frogging forward from group to group. I was feeling good and started to see Ryan Mckinnie, so I pushed harder. I caught him and passed him, but got behind a slower rider and he passed with a train of guys. I jumped on and got around the group and never looked back. With one lap to go, I also saw Mark Caffyn and pushed to catch him. I had a good racing going with another rider and had fun being aggressive on a pass and also attacking before the final technical section. I again sprinted to beat the guy ahead and ended up finishing right behind Mark in 79^th place. Watching the Pro’s race was really cool and educational. I learned a lot on how to attack different sections and recover. Major props go out to Mike Wissink from Michigan who won the Master’s 35+ class on day one with an incredible ride and placing 3^rd on day 2 when he could have gone for the win. I was amazed at the Michigan contingent at the race, it’s nice to see. I will definitely be back to another USGP and Mary Ann is starting to get the CX bug... she is a little crazy like that!!

Iceman

Well another Iceman has cometh and wenteth. This year was a niceman year and the trail was fast… although I wasn’t. I finally snapped out of my funk the weekend before and got out on the bike which was nice. I car pooled up with Jason Weida from the team and we piled our stuff into his Subaru WRX and headed up Friday morning. Having a Subaru at this event has its advantages as it make parking easier because they are a major sponsor and give people with Subaru’s VIP parking. We headed straight to the finish to preride the end of the course. The weather was beautiful and we had a fun ride. We packed up, checked into the hotel, went to Ice Expo to get our numbers and then went to dinner at the Blue Tractor with some guys from the team and headed to bed. It was a little brisk in the AM but not too bad. After modifying my clothing choice a couple times, we headed to the start. It was hard to get the legs warmed up in 34 deg air, but I did my best and lined up at the start. My ass and arms were shaking so bad the guys next to me told me to stop shaking because it was making him cold!! The gun went off and I couldn’t get clipped in, so I had to hammer to catch the group just to have to slow down to make the first corner. It was a little bit of a mess going when we hit the dirt by the water tower, but everyone made it through cleanly. I tried to grab some wheels, but my legs were already feeling flat and heavy. I rode with Ray Dybowski for a while thinking that I could draft in the flats and be able to hang on the hills. It worked for a while, but soon I found myself in no man’s land. In a single track section about a third of the way through the race, I heard some noise behind me and was soon passed by the Tim Finkel/Simon Bailey freight train. Soon after, I was caught by Collin Snyder from my road team who harassed me and then motored by. The rest of the race was pretty uneventful. Some groups from later waves would catch me and I would grab a wheel where I could. I manage to pedal my way up all the hills at the end. Looking at the time, I started to worry that I wouldn’t make it under 2hrs. When I rolled through the campground the first time, I was at 1:52. I knew that the finish would be slow due to the singletrack and wood chip climb at the end, so I pushed a little harder and rolled through with about 30secs to spare. It wasn’t the Iceman that I wanted it to be earlier in the year, but a day in the woods on your bike is always a good day. We headed back to the start of the pro race, picked-up the car and returned to watch the Pro’s finish. It was good to see everyone at the finish. After the race, we went to the Mom and Pop Racing party and then to the Loading Dock for the Bell’s Party. I’d like to thank Jeff for the invite, the food was awesome. Somebody made some pumpkin cheesecake that was incredible… I had way too much. Looking back at this race… the thing that brings me back year after year is the atmosphere. It is the end of the year, everyone is relaxed and just has fun. It also helps that the race is very well organized. Thanks Steve!!

Congrats to Osgood, JMak, Joe Thomas, Adam Naish, Jay Click, Collin Snyder, Jim Bonnell, Jimmie Colflesh, Tony Bastuk, Mark Olin, Finkel, Dybo, Randy Rodd, and Tom Clark for some awesome results!