Sunday: LICX #2. See race report.
Saturday: Rested and iced my knee some more. Ate too many cookies, then hung out with haley and gina. No riding.
Friday: I wanted to do the kreb ride, but I woke up late again. Instead, I eventually got out the door late, with zero motivation. I got out to yaphank, feeling no power in my legs, when I saw Karl and Jeff going the opposite direction. Because I'm a glutton for punishment, I turned around and chased up to them. They were just leaving, so I figured I would sit on for another hour or so. Karl started a 20min effort, I sat back to talk to Jeff, then tried to catch up, which didn't go so well. Karl let up so I could get on his wheel and that is where I stayed for the rest of the interval. By the end of mill road, my knee was killing me, though. I think the bottom material on my winter bootie was caught between my cleat and pedal, eliminating my float. I told Karl I wasn't in the same to sit on his second 20min interval, so we parted ways. My knee got worse as I went along, shooting with sharp pain when I would stand. I hobbled as far as port jeff station, where I finally threw in the towel and called the team car.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/255125685
NP/IF/TSS: 169W/0.768/197
*This reflects a new CP of 220W
Thursday: No riding. Work, again. I did do 3x10 squats, 3x30 transverse planks, 2x10+5 pushups.
Wednesday: No riding. Work. We played around with my track fit on the DFU.
Tuesday: Christmas. No J-Crew ride this year, plus my family wanted me to actually be around for once, so no riding.
Monday: I aimed to ride out to Percy's special holiday edition of RP2IPBP-JP-ETC, but I woke up too late, which was probably because I really didn't want to ride 40 miles to/from a 100 mile ride. Instead, I got a later start and aimed to backtrack the ride to meet up with Percy and the rest of the crew. As it would turn out, his ride was trimmed down to the standard length of 60ish miles, so I met them right past the railroad crossing on mill road. Had I left a minute or two later, I probably wouldn't have seen them. I took some pulls into the wind on the way back, the two other riders took 25a back, and Percy and I took North Country by ourselves. Afterward, I stopped by his house for some delicious espresso and a tour of the new (to me) house. On the way back, I stopped by Cedar Beach to see if any boats were decorated for christmas, which none were. I also went past the shore road shipwrecks, which were nice and visible in the low tide. I felt decent on the ride, but definitely dressed too light. The temperature was in the high 30's-low 40's, but it was damp, so it felt extra cold.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/254122962
NP/IF/TSS: 192W/0.930/328
23.12.12
2013.04: Base 1.4 - 12/17-12/23
This week is a rest week. Which is good, because I'm feeling rather lazy. My training challenge is going well. I've completed two of the weeks with over 10 hours per week and I only need to add just under 3 hours for this week. Shane has been talking about extending the challenge, which I would like to do, but since work is picking up now I'm not sure I'll have the time to ride that I had before.
Sunday: Work. No riding.
Saturday: Despite high winds and occasional snow/sleet, I met up with Karl and George to have my ass handed to me. The entire way out with the wind we were cruising at around 27mph, with me hanging on for dear life at the back. The way back into the wind dropped to more reasonable 19mph, and I was able to take a couple of pulls, but by the time the ride ended I was cooked. This probably was not the best idea after how I felt yesterday, but sometimes you just need to get your legs checked.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/253601592
NP/IF/TSS: 203W/0.982/295
Note: this reflects a new CP of 207W as of today.
Friday: No riding. Lots of lounging. I tried to do an LT test, but after putting on my HRM I decided that it just wasn't in me. I opted for more rest and rehydration instead.
Thursday: Went to a holiday party the night before and drank a bit more than I thought. Waking up was rough, so I got a late start. I had another more respectable holiday party this night, so I didn't have a whole lot of time to ride. This was fine, as my legs just weren't there to begin with. I went out with a goal of 2 hours to complete my training challenge, and that is exactly what I did. The inside of my thighs were completely raw by the time I got home, though. I seem to have a problem with wearing shorts and legwarmers. It just leads to massive chafing. I'm trying to remember if anything noteworthy happened on this ride, but I don't think so.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/253150442
NP/IF/TSS: N/A (no powertap)
Wednesday: Went to work in the morning. Eventually, we ran out of things to do, so rather than sort boxes, I offered to just go home so I could get a ride in. Russell was happy with that, so that's what I did. I had a decent chunk of daylight, so I figured I would head to old field by roundabout way of port jeff. There were some heavy winds in spots, but for the most part it wasn't bad. In the evening, I tried to recable the guru, but while re-adjusting the limits on my RD, I noticed the hanger looked bent. In bending it, I noticed that it felt very soft, so I took a closer look and lo-and-behold the hanger was cracked. For some reason, this hanger uses two phillips head screws which are screwed in from the inside, which means the other dropout gets in the way of using a screwdriver. I have no clue how this was installed in the factory, but I made quick work of stripping both screws. In the end, I was able to remove one screw, but I had to snap the hanger into a few pieces to get to the second screw. Long story short, my guru is out of service for an unknown amount of time.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/252981080
NP/IF/TSS: N/A (no powertap)
Tuesday: Work. No riding.
Monday: Rest day. Worked.
Sunday: Work. No riding.
Saturday: Despite high winds and occasional snow/sleet, I met up with Karl and George to have my ass handed to me. The entire way out with the wind we were cruising at around 27mph, with me hanging on for dear life at the back. The way back into the wind dropped to more reasonable 19mph, and I was able to take a couple of pulls, but by the time the ride ended I was cooked. This probably was not the best idea after how I felt yesterday, but sometimes you just need to get your legs checked.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/253601592
NP/IF/TSS: 203W/0.982/295
Note: this reflects a new CP of 207W as of today.
Friday: No riding. Lots of lounging. I tried to do an LT test, but after putting on my HRM I decided that it just wasn't in me. I opted for more rest and rehydration instead.
Thursday: Went to a holiday party the night before and drank a bit more than I thought. Waking up was rough, so I got a late start. I had another more respectable holiday party this night, so I didn't have a whole lot of time to ride. This was fine, as my legs just weren't there to begin with. I went out with a goal of 2 hours to complete my training challenge, and that is exactly what I did. The inside of my thighs were completely raw by the time I got home, though. I seem to have a problem with wearing shorts and legwarmers. It just leads to massive chafing. I'm trying to remember if anything noteworthy happened on this ride, but I don't think so.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/253150442
NP/IF/TSS: N/A (no powertap)
Wednesday: Went to work in the morning. Eventually, we ran out of things to do, so rather than sort boxes, I offered to just go home so I could get a ride in. Russell was happy with that, so that's what I did. I had a decent chunk of daylight, so I figured I would head to old field by roundabout way of port jeff. There were some heavy winds in spots, but for the most part it wasn't bad. In the evening, I tried to recable the guru, but while re-adjusting the limits on my RD, I noticed the hanger looked bent. In bending it, I noticed that it felt very soft, so I took a closer look and lo-and-behold the hanger was cracked. For some reason, this hanger uses two phillips head screws which are screwed in from the inside, which means the other dropout gets in the way of using a screwdriver. I have no clue how this was installed in the factory, but I made quick work of stripping both screws. In the end, I was able to remove one screw, but I had to snap the hanger into a few pieces to get to the second screw. Long story short, my guru is out of service for an unknown amount of time.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/252981080
NP/IF/TSS: N/A (no powertap)
Tuesday: Work. No riding.
Monday: Rest day. Worked.
R13.03 - Race: LICX / KPCX / Kreb Cyclocross #1
I am really not doing well at keeping up to date with these 'cross reports. So this race was about a week ago. The forecast called for on and off showers during the day. Temperatures in the low-mid 40s if I remember correctly. I was going to get up early to help set up the course, but I didn't sleep well again, so I got up late. I still came in time to help set up the maze and a few other sections before changing and warming up. My warmup consisted of a single half-assed lap around the course to get a sense of what it was like. It was actually super fun, with two separate single barriers and one concrete ledge used as a step-up type barrier. As for changing, all I wore was my long sleeve skinsuit, a cycling cap, and some embrocation on my legs. I was very cold before the race and many people made a point of telling me how cold i would be during.
I lined up on the right side at the front of the group, Gregory talked about some stuff like how the manhole covers got stolen so watch out, and then he counted us down. We went off, and I sprinted to the front, trying to stay near Brian Wolffe. I was in fourth place, but was able to pass one rider to slot into third. A BH rider was behind me and getting close as the laps went on. Eventually, he passed me on the back stretch and I sat on his wheel to try to recover a little bit, but he slid out going into the maze, and I passed him again. From that point on, he dropped back and I didn't really see much of him. After the race I talked to him and he said he lost his rhythm. In the meantime, I was in no man's land 30 seconds behind 2nd place and who knows how far behind Brian in first. John Shea and Karl were walking along the course cheering me on, and so was Tori later on after she wrapped a course stake around her seatstay/chainstay/hub/RD/cassette. That was a tangled mess.
Long story short, I was able to cruise my way in to third place overall in an open category field of 34 riders. The drizzle started picking up right after the race, so I threw on my foul weather sailing gear and started tearing down the course. We finished that around 1pm or so and I headed home to pass out. It was a great race, and I'm glad I did so well. Hopefully I do at least this well the next race on the 30th.
Warm up:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/252305076
Race:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/252305056
Results:
http://krebcycle.com/about/cyclocross-results-december-16-pg456.htm
I lined up on the right side at the front of the group, Gregory talked about some stuff like how the manhole covers got stolen so watch out, and then he counted us down. We went off, and I sprinted to the front, trying to stay near Brian Wolffe. I was in fourth place, but was able to pass one rider to slot into third. A BH rider was behind me and getting close as the laps went on. Eventually, he passed me on the back stretch and I sat on his wheel to try to recover a little bit, but he slid out going into the maze, and I passed him again. From that point on, he dropped back and I didn't really see much of him. After the race I talked to him and he said he lost his rhythm. In the meantime, I was in no man's land 30 seconds behind 2nd place and who knows how far behind Brian in first. John Shea and Karl were walking along the course cheering me on, and so was Tori later on after she wrapped a course stake around her seatstay/chainstay/hub/RD/cassette. That was a tangled mess.
Long story short, I was able to cruise my way in to third place overall in an open category field of 34 riders. The drizzle started picking up right after the race, so I threw on my foul weather sailing gear and started tearing down the course. We finished that around 1pm or so and I headed home to pass out. It was a great race, and I'm glad I did so well. Hopefully I do at least this well the next race on the 30th.
Warm up:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/252305076
Race:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/252305056
Results:
http://krebcycle.com/about/cyclocross-results-december-16-pg456.htm
16.12.12
2013.03: Base 1.3 - 12/10-12/16
I've had a good amount of work this week, which is nice for making money, but bad for riding bikes.
Sunday: LICX numero uno. See race report.
Saturday: No riding. I went into the city to eat lots of barbecue and watch "A Prarie Home Companion". It was also santacon, so I had the delightful opportunity to ride from penn to ronkonkoma with a ton of drunk santas.
Friday: I wanted to do the kreb ride, but I almost slept in instead. I was able to roll out of bed an hour after I wanted and got out the door by 8:15 for the 9am start. It takes a little over an hour to get to the ride, so I decided to cut up through yaphank and try to meet up with the group somewhere between there and river road. I found them just coming through the railroad trestle on river, so I turned around and joined up. There was a triathlete riding with the group who shredded his rear derailer turning from bartlett to 25. Par for the course, I suppose. The second time around bartlett, I tried to stay on JoeZ's wheel, which was very difficult and eventually I let a gap form that I tried to bridge the rest of the way to the next wait up. We had some good fast pacing along 101, including my attempt at motorpacing a truck for a little. After the ride, we stopped at the deli, which is always nice, then I rode to Patchogue with the Tom that I always forget the last name of. By the time I got to Ronkonkoma, I really had to piss, but thanks to the massive drug problems in the area, every out-of-the-way-wooded-area had a police car in it. Really. It happened three times. I stopped by Kristie and Haley, used their bathroom, chatted for a bit, headed off, rode to long beach to get some extra time in, and finally got home.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/251715428
NP/IF/TSS: 179W/0.879/344
Thursday: Work again. No riding.
Wednesday: Bike day. I went out with a goal of riding out to Jamesport. I followed a loose rendition of Percy's RP2IPBPJP ride between ridge and jamesport, where I stopped for coffee. The way back, I found a cool rusted pair of pliers, which I rode home with. I really hoped to bring my ride up to 5 hours, but by 4:55 I was completely tired of dicking around the neighborhood.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/251374115
NP/IF/TSS: 172W/0.842/396
Tuesday: Work day. Worked.
Monday: Rest day. Worked.
Sunday: LICX numero uno. See race report.
Saturday: No riding. I went into the city to eat lots of barbecue and watch "A Prarie Home Companion". It was also santacon, so I had the delightful opportunity to ride from penn to ronkonkoma with a ton of drunk santas.
Friday: I wanted to do the kreb ride, but I almost slept in instead. I was able to roll out of bed an hour after I wanted and got out the door by 8:15 for the 9am start. It takes a little over an hour to get to the ride, so I decided to cut up through yaphank and try to meet up with the group somewhere between there and river road. I found them just coming through the railroad trestle on river, so I turned around and joined up. There was a triathlete riding with the group who shredded his rear derailer turning from bartlett to 25. Par for the course, I suppose. The second time around bartlett, I tried to stay on JoeZ's wheel, which was very difficult and eventually I let a gap form that I tried to bridge the rest of the way to the next wait up. We had some good fast pacing along 101, including my attempt at motorpacing a truck for a little. After the ride, we stopped at the deli, which is always nice, then I rode to Patchogue with the Tom that I always forget the last name of. By the time I got to Ronkonkoma, I really had to piss, but thanks to the massive drug problems in the area, every out-of-the-way-wooded-area had a police car in it. Really. It happened three times. I stopped by Kristie and Haley, used their bathroom, chatted for a bit, headed off, rode to long beach to get some extra time in, and finally got home.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/251715428
NP/IF/TSS: 179W/0.879/344
Thursday: Work again. No riding.
Wednesday: Bike day. I went out with a goal of riding out to Jamesport. I followed a loose rendition of Percy's RP2IPBPJP ride between ridge and jamesport, where I stopped for coffee. The way back, I found a cool rusted pair of pliers, which I rode home with. I really hoped to bring my ride up to 5 hours, but by 4:55 I was completely tired of dicking around the neighborhood.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/251374115
NP/IF/TSS: 172W/0.842/396
Tuesday: Work day. Worked.
Monday: Rest day. Worked.
R13.02 - Race: Supercross Cup - Saturday - Cat 2/3/4
eh, this is still a placeholder. lorem ipsum capybara unterhosen, etc.
Well it's now been over a week since the race and still no race report. This is an excellent metaphor for my motivation for the time leading up to the race.
I didn't really sleep much the night before (what else is new) and honestly, I wasn't even sure if I wanted to race. I hadn't registered, so I'd have to register day of for the 2/3/4 combined field since I thought the cat 4 field was filled up. I still threw the bike and my shoes/helmet/clothes in the car and headed over to watch at least. It was slightly rainy all morning, but not super cold, maybe high 40s. When I got there, I got more excited about racing, so I registered, which ended up being only $40, not the $45 that I had thought, though it still seemed like an awful lot to spend on a cyclocross race.
I got dressed in just my skinsuit and embro, no glasses, but cycling cap. I rode around in the parking lot until the course was open, then did some laps to check the course and "warm up". The course was pretty short and simple. Lots of flat power straights with a few off camber turns, one set of barriers with a turn you had to run down and back up again. There were a couple of muddy patches as well.
The field got called to line up, and then they did call-ups. These were done in order of registration, which meant I started dead last. I didn't really mind, since that was my plan to begin with. I would just see how many people I could pass and call it another training day. Keith was also in the 2/3/4 field, as he recently upgraded. While waiting for the start, I threw my bike into the big ring, figuring I could sprint up faster on the road stretch. In reality, the whistle blew or whatever they had, and I got bogged down and had an immediate gap of maybe 20 feet or so. Fortunately, everyone I knew was in the first turn yelling at me already, so I used that motivation to bridge up quick.
The details of the race itself are fuzzy, but I passed a handful of people. I think ten or so. There was a BVF rider that I was afraid would catch me, so I was constantly looking back to try to keep away. At one point, I thought I would be smart and try to remount right after the barriers instead of running down and up the following hill, but I hooked my skinsuit on my saddle, so I couldn't clip in in time to power back up. Instead I kind of just kicked my bike along, losing time and looking dumb. Fortunately, I was still able to stay away.
My other goal beside staying ahead of BVF was to catch up to Rick Jones, who I've seen at KPCX races before. I was able to get within a bikelength on the penultimate lap, but I let a gap form again on the last lap. In the end I rolled in for 20th place, which was 3rd among the cat 4's in the race. Shrug. Good enough.
The time after the race was spent riding around the park looking for a working water spigot to wash my bike off with, failing to do so, then watching races, drinking brooklyn bears, and talking to Mike the SRAM NRS guy. He was cooking up some killer looking brats, but I didn't get to try them. I'm going to give the recipe a shot, though.
I also talked to Paul, Percy, and Chris from East End for a little bit. They're all great guys. After the cat 4 race, which I spent heckling Ron Ferraz (of track and roller racing fame) and another guy that I forgot the name of, I went home, washed off my bike and called it a day.
Anything else? Don't think so. I thought about racing on Sunday, but I couldn't justify spending $80 to place midpack for a weekend.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/250350547
Well it's now been over a week since the race and still no race report. This is an excellent metaphor for my motivation for the time leading up to the race.
I didn't really sleep much the night before (what else is new) and honestly, I wasn't even sure if I wanted to race. I hadn't registered, so I'd have to register day of for the 2/3/4 combined field since I thought the cat 4 field was filled up. I still threw the bike and my shoes/helmet/clothes in the car and headed over to watch at least. It was slightly rainy all morning, but not super cold, maybe high 40s. When I got there, I got more excited about racing, so I registered, which ended up being only $40, not the $45 that I had thought, though it still seemed like an awful lot to spend on a cyclocross race.
I got dressed in just my skinsuit and embro, no glasses, but cycling cap. I rode around in the parking lot until the course was open, then did some laps to check the course and "warm up". The course was pretty short and simple. Lots of flat power straights with a few off camber turns, one set of barriers with a turn you had to run down and back up again. There were a couple of muddy patches as well.
The field got called to line up, and then they did call-ups. These were done in order of registration, which meant I started dead last. I didn't really mind, since that was my plan to begin with. I would just see how many people I could pass and call it another training day. Keith was also in the 2/3/4 field, as he recently upgraded. While waiting for the start, I threw my bike into the big ring, figuring I could sprint up faster on the road stretch. In reality, the whistle blew or whatever they had, and I got bogged down and had an immediate gap of maybe 20 feet or so. Fortunately, everyone I knew was in the first turn yelling at me already, so I used that motivation to bridge up quick.
The details of the race itself are fuzzy, but I passed a handful of people. I think ten or so. There was a BVF rider that I was afraid would catch me, so I was constantly looking back to try to keep away. At one point, I thought I would be smart and try to remount right after the barriers instead of running down and up the following hill, but I hooked my skinsuit on my saddle, so I couldn't clip in in time to power back up. Instead I kind of just kicked my bike along, losing time and looking dumb. Fortunately, I was still able to stay away.
My other goal beside staying ahead of BVF was to catch up to Rick Jones, who I've seen at KPCX races before. I was able to get within a bikelength on the penultimate lap, but I let a gap form again on the last lap. In the end I rolled in for 20th place, which was 3rd among the cat 4's in the race. Shrug. Good enough.
The time after the race was spent riding around the park looking for a working water spigot to wash my bike off with, failing to do so, then watching races, drinking brooklyn bears, and talking to Mike the SRAM NRS guy. He was cooking up some killer looking brats, but I didn't get to try them. I'm going to give the recipe a shot, though.
I also talked to Paul, Percy, and Chris from East End for a little bit. They're all great guys. After the cat 4 race, which I spent heckling Ron Ferraz (of track and roller racing fame) and another guy that I forgot the name of, I went home, washed off my bike and called it a day.
Anything else? Don't think so. I thought about racing on Sunday, but I couldn't justify spending $80 to place midpack for a weekend.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/250350547
5.12.12
2013.02: Base 1.2 - 12/3 - 12/9
Sunday: I skipped racing supercross in order to save money and also try to do a long base ride, but the weather was wet and wild again, and I had just cleaned all my bikes the night before. Instead Shane somehow convinced me to ride the rollers for an hour. That's a really long time. I started by just riding with no intent, got bored, switched to 5 sets of 1 minute single-leg drills alternating between 30 seconds and 1 minute off (R-30s-L-1m-R-30s-L-1m...), got bored, spun around, got bored, did one 20 minute interval which I had to crank up the resistance for, and then spun for 10 more minutes. One interesting thing about the 20 minute interval was that as I went further into it, my power would drop for a given cadence, so I'd have to shift up. I don't know if this is me getting better, or something slipping in my resistance unit over time, reducing resistance as I go.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/250749809
NP/IF/TSS: 166/0.830/72
Saturday: The second race of my 2013 season. I raced the Supercross Cup 2/3/4 field. See the race report.
Friday: I planned on getting up early for the kreb ride, but I slept in too late. As usual. By the time I finally got up, the weather was taking a turn for the worst and was now a light cold drizzle. Shane guilted me into riding, so I went out for an hour, which was absolutely terrible.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/249992812
NP/IF/TSS: 144W/0.720/60
Thursday: Went in to work. No riding.
Wednesday: Went for another long base ride. If I remember correctly, I was aiming for at least two hours, and I ended up with just over three. On the way out, some lady pantomimed that she liked the rhino logo on my jersey and then proceeded to give me the rhino horn while sitting at a light. I stopped by crazy beans on the way back to get some coffee and then visited cedar beach.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/249556237
NP/IF/TSS: 173W/0.867/258
Tuesday: I was going to ride in the city in the morning, but it was a little too wet out for me. I rode back from the ronkonkoma train station, though, so that's like a half hour. I then cleaned my bike, looked at my broken shifter, and moved my powertap from Gigi to Aria. Beyond that, I'm calling this a rest day.
Monday: Andy and Shane came out to do a long base ride on the island with me. We were all very tired and all of our bikes had shifting problems. My right shift lever snapped off on east bartlett. I might have accidentally screwed up my estimates for the length of the ride a few times. I'm pretty sure Andy might hate me for that now.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/249277065
NP/IF/TSS: 154W/0.772/274
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/250749809
NP/IF/TSS: 166/0.830/72
Saturday: The second race of my 2013 season. I raced the Supercross Cup 2/3/4 field. See the race report.
Friday: I planned on getting up early for the kreb ride, but I slept in too late. As usual. By the time I finally got up, the weather was taking a turn for the worst and was now a light cold drizzle. Shane guilted me into riding, so I went out for an hour, which was absolutely terrible.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/249992812
NP/IF/TSS: 144W/0.720/60
Thursday: Went in to work. No riding.
Wednesday: Went for another long base ride. If I remember correctly, I was aiming for at least two hours, and I ended up with just over three. On the way out, some lady pantomimed that she liked the rhino logo on my jersey and then proceeded to give me the rhino horn while sitting at a light. I stopped by crazy beans on the way back to get some coffee and then visited cedar beach.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/249556237
NP/IF/TSS: 173W/0.867/258
Tuesday: I was going to ride in the city in the morning, but it was a little too wet out for me. I rode back from the ronkonkoma train station, though, so that's like a half hour. I then cleaned my bike, looked at my broken shifter, and moved my powertap from Gigi to Aria. Beyond that, I'm calling this a rest day.
Monday: Andy and Shane came out to do a long base ride on the island with me. We were all very tired and all of our bikes had shifting problems. My right shift lever snapped off on east bartlett. I might have accidentally screwed up my estimates for the length of the ride a few times. I'm pretty sure Andy might hate me for that now.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/249277065
NP/IF/TSS: 154W/0.772/274
1.12.12
R13.01 - Race: Chair - Let the sun shine in - A CRCA Junior Fundraising Roller Race
For starters, I think this is the longest post title yet.
With that out of the way, let me begin. I got a pretty poor night's rest, and I actually had to work for once, so I sucked it up and drove over to syosset. There wasn't a whole lot to do at work, but it was nice to meet Russell and get a better sense of what the new shop will be like. We drove to the manhasset store to pick up some test bikes for the new bike racks that were being installed, and while I was there I picked up my 14t cog that Steve dropped off. The last piece of the roller racing puzzle. I changed my cog at the end of the day when things got slow, and just sat around to wait for my train.
Race registration started at 7, so I got a 5:22 train from Syosset to get into penn at 6:20. There were three problems with the train ride, though. For starters, there was a justin bieber concert in MSG, so the train was full of screaming fangirls. Second, sitting behind me was the most annoying girl I have ever heard talking on the phone the whole time about how annoying the bieber fans were. Finally, the massive throngs of beiber lovers/haters meant that the train was 10 minutes late getting into Penn.
I headed over to the 2/3 turnstiles, somehow was able to shove myself, my messenger bag, my pump, and my bike through and had to wait 10 minutes for a train. I changed at 14th street, which always involves getting completely lost, finally got on the F downtown after a short stint on the uptown F platform, and got to the Houston/2av stop. Hustling down Houston with my bike over my shoulder, I finally got to the bar at around 5min to 7:30. I gave my bike to Alan to check rollout (on a side note, I used my standard 51x14, which I seem to always neglect to write down) as I filled out the rider release and changed into my Pink Rhino kit. Somehow I managed to drop the elastic part of my heart rate monitor strap in the 15 feet between my bag and the bathroom behind the stage where I changed. I searched and searched, but couldn't find it, so I just went without. I warmed up for a little bit, without doing any really high efforts and figured I was good enough. One thing I realized immediately was that it was realllly hot underneath those lights on the stage. I made sure to sneak some ice from the bar from time to time and otherwise generally hung out in the men's bathroom with the rest of the riders. Eventually I was able to find an outlet to plug in a fan that we found in the bathroom and it was downright tolerable.
For those who were wondering, there were 13 riders registered and 11 riders who actually showed up. For those of you who don't care about backstory, the actual race data will follow:
The evening started with 500m timed seeding. These were done two-up, with only Alan officiating. This just goes to show how awesome he is at officiating things. Most of the time I can't even handle timing one rider. I went up against Sree. He was on the red rollers, I was on the green (I actually took the time to write down the race details this time). I got a good start, spun up quick and eventually I was told I was done. I slowed down, but alan still looked like he was pretty intensely focused on us, so I suddenly got really confused if I screwed up or not. Eventually he yelled "TIME!" and explained that he didn't want to say it when i was done so he could get Sree's time. Fair enough. I completed my seeding in 16.68s, which was the 4th fastest time. Ahead of me was Calan with a 16.3, Diefenbach at 16.39 after flatting three tubulars, and Al with a 16.41.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/248106001
After a short break came the first round. These were done three up. My round consisted of Calan on the red, me on the green, and Joe Masser on the blue rollers. I got a good start, which gave me an early lead, which I tried to barely hold on to. I was waiting for my holder to tell me at any moment that I got passed, but it didn't come. Alan called time and announced that for the first time that he's ever officiated roller racing, there was a round 1 tie. Hooray! History in the making.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/248105999
We all went back into the relative cool of the men's room and after the rest of the first round races, Alan said that the decider for our tie would be a 500m roll-off. Alan gave us a good long warmup, which I was debating may or may not have helped as those lights got real hot real quick. Stopping to get ready for the start, my bike was cocked slightly to the left and Dave - who was my holder this round - leaned me a little to counter, but I didn't like that so much, so I asked him to lean me the other way. Regardless, my start was a little tentative, which meant I didn't get the lead, and Calan won the roll-off. I was on the green rollers again, Calan was on the red.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/248105997
After this was another break and then the repechage rounds. These were three rounds of two-ups. I raced against Ron Ferraz, with him on the red and me on the green rollers again. You might notice a theme here on my roller choice. I was able to pull away from Ron and maintain my lead on this round, which put me back into the semis. I think he was happy to be able to hit the bar, and to be honest, I was a little envious. At this point I was also debating eating a gel, specifically whether the boost of energy would be worth the potential for throwing up on the rollers.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/248105992
I think there was another break here and then the semi-finals. There were two of these with Diefenbach vs Chambers vs Calan and my round which was Bobby Lea on blue vs me on green vs Al on red. I got a good start again, which got me the lead, but at around 400m or so, I lost it. I then dug as hard as I could to try to get it back. My holder was shouting in my ear that I was closing the gap and we were almost at the finish. In the end, Alan yelled "TIME!" and I thought for sure I was in second place, but then Alan pointed to me. I was confused as hell as to why he was pointing until it was explained that I took the lead back and won! This took a little bit to register, but when it did, I was the happiest racer alive. A victory dance on the stage, and I went back to the bathroom to cool off. My holder, who sadly I didn't catch the name of, carried my bike off stage for me. He was a really cool guy.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/248105990
After this came the 5/6 finals, the 3/4 finals and then my finals for first and second place. This race was once again between Calan and me. He was on the red (again) and I was on the green (again). Just like in the roll-off, my wheel was cocked to the side a little and I thought about asking if I could spin around again to straighten out, but I didn't. This meant I got a slow start, so I was behind to begin with. I tried my hardest to keep up, almost riding off the rollers in the last 300m or so, but Calan kept pulling away. By the end I basically turned off the gas and accepted my fate. When I got off the rollers, I had a sharp pain on the left side of my upper back and had trouble standing for a few seconds. I think maybe I pulled something trying to pull my bike back into line when I almost rolled off the side. Either way, I was completely satisfied with my second place and couldn't really ask for better. I just hope I gave the final rounds the level of excitement they deserve.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/248105987
After this was the crowd favorite rider award, which went to the only woman racer, Amy, who was able to beat Sree in a best out of three race set. Poor Sree...
I picked up my sweet prizes for second place, took some photos, chatted for a little, got a gin&tonic on the house and then packed up and got ready to head out. After the rest of the racers cleared out, I found my HRM strap on the ground, so that was nice. Al asked if I wanted to get some tacos with him, which I thought was a great idea. I talked to Taliah for a little bit outside while he looked up directions, then we headed out. Between the cold air and my race gear still being on my bike, I thought my legs were going to explode, but the tacos were delicious and the conversation was good, so it was worth it.
I walked back to the subway, where I ended up bumping into Dan and Andy from nyvelocity.com, who put on the event, which was pretty cool. We talked some more, including debating if a rider could do a trackstand on the subway, which I thought about trying but wussed out (next time!), and then got lost walking from the 32st F station to Penn. Eventually I made it, found out I had 40 minutes until my train, so I got a foster's can from the news stand. The train came, I fought off sleep until Syosset, threw my bike in the car and blasted the best bluegrass I had on the trip back home. I finally rolled in at 3am, tired but happy.
Thanks to everybody who put on the roller race, officiated the race, watched the race, raced at the race, sat in the bar next to the race. Thanks to Shane and the rest of Pink Rhino for motivating me. And thanks to Al for the taco suggestion. I'm telling you, he's a classy racer. I'm looking forward to his next season on his new team.
With that out of the way, let me begin. I got a pretty poor night's rest, and I actually had to work for once, so I sucked it up and drove over to syosset. There wasn't a whole lot to do at work, but it was nice to meet Russell and get a better sense of what the new shop will be like. We drove to the manhasset store to pick up some test bikes for the new bike racks that were being installed, and while I was there I picked up my 14t cog that Steve dropped off. The last piece of the roller racing puzzle. I changed my cog at the end of the day when things got slow, and just sat around to wait for my train.
Race registration started at 7, so I got a 5:22 train from Syosset to get into penn at 6:20. There were three problems with the train ride, though. For starters, there was a justin bieber concert in MSG, so the train was full of screaming fangirls. Second, sitting behind me was the most annoying girl I have ever heard talking on the phone the whole time about how annoying the bieber fans were. Finally, the massive throngs of beiber lovers/haters meant that the train was 10 minutes late getting into Penn.
I headed over to the 2/3 turnstiles, somehow was able to shove myself, my messenger bag, my pump, and my bike through and had to wait 10 minutes for a train. I changed at 14th street, which always involves getting completely lost, finally got on the F downtown after a short stint on the uptown F platform, and got to the Houston/2av stop. Hustling down Houston with my bike over my shoulder, I finally got to the bar at around 5min to 7:30. I gave my bike to Alan to check rollout (on a side note, I used my standard 51x14, which I seem to always neglect to write down) as I filled out the rider release and changed into my Pink Rhino kit. Somehow I managed to drop the elastic part of my heart rate monitor strap in the 15 feet between my bag and the bathroom behind the stage where I changed. I searched and searched, but couldn't find it, so I just went without. I warmed up for a little bit, without doing any really high efforts and figured I was good enough. One thing I realized immediately was that it was realllly hot underneath those lights on the stage. I made sure to sneak some ice from the bar from time to time and otherwise generally hung out in the men's bathroom with the rest of the riders. Eventually I was able to find an outlet to plug in a fan that we found in the bathroom and it was downright tolerable.
For those who were wondering, there were 13 riders registered and 11 riders who actually showed up. For those of you who don't care about backstory, the actual race data will follow:
The evening started with 500m timed seeding. These were done two-up, with only Alan officiating. This just goes to show how awesome he is at officiating things. Most of the time I can't even handle timing one rider. I went up against Sree. He was on the red rollers, I was on the green (I actually took the time to write down the race details this time). I got a good start, spun up quick and eventually I was told I was done. I slowed down, but alan still looked like he was pretty intensely focused on us, so I suddenly got really confused if I screwed up or not. Eventually he yelled "TIME!" and explained that he didn't want to say it when i was done so he could get Sree's time. Fair enough. I completed my seeding in 16.68s, which was the 4th fastest time. Ahead of me was Calan with a 16.3, Diefenbach at 16.39 after flatting three tubulars, and Al with a 16.41.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/248106001
After a short break came the first round. These were done three up. My round consisted of Calan on the red, me on the green, and Joe Masser on the blue rollers. I got a good start, which gave me an early lead, which I tried to barely hold on to. I was waiting for my holder to tell me at any moment that I got passed, but it didn't come. Alan called time and announced that for the first time that he's ever officiated roller racing, there was a round 1 tie. Hooray! History in the making.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/248105999
We all went back into the relative cool of the men's room and after the rest of the first round races, Alan said that the decider for our tie would be a 500m roll-off. Alan gave us a good long warmup, which I was debating may or may not have helped as those lights got real hot real quick. Stopping to get ready for the start, my bike was cocked slightly to the left and Dave - who was my holder this round - leaned me a little to counter, but I didn't like that so much, so I asked him to lean me the other way. Regardless, my start was a little tentative, which meant I didn't get the lead, and Calan won the roll-off. I was on the green rollers again, Calan was on the red.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/248105997
After this was another break and then the repechage rounds. These were three rounds of two-ups. I raced against Ron Ferraz, with him on the red and me on the green rollers again. You might notice a theme here on my roller choice. I was able to pull away from Ron and maintain my lead on this round, which put me back into the semis. I think he was happy to be able to hit the bar, and to be honest, I was a little envious. At this point I was also debating eating a gel, specifically whether the boost of energy would be worth the potential for throwing up on the rollers.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/248105992
I think there was another break here and then the semi-finals. There were two of these with Diefenbach vs Chambers vs Calan and my round which was Bobby Lea on blue vs me on green vs Al on red. I got a good start again, which got me the lead, but at around 400m or so, I lost it. I then dug as hard as I could to try to get it back. My holder was shouting in my ear that I was closing the gap and we were almost at the finish. In the end, Alan yelled "TIME!" and I thought for sure I was in second place, but then Alan pointed to me. I was confused as hell as to why he was pointing until it was explained that I took the lead back and won! This took a little bit to register, but when it did, I was the happiest racer alive. A victory dance on the stage, and I went back to the bathroom to cool off. My holder, who sadly I didn't catch the name of, carried my bike off stage for me. He was a really cool guy.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/248105990
After this came the 5/6 finals, the 3/4 finals and then my finals for first and second place. This race was once again between Calan and me. He was on the red (again) and I was on the green (again). Just like in the roll-off, my wheel was cocked to the side a little and I thought about asking if I could spin around again to straighten out, but I didn't. This meant I got a slow start, so I was behind to begin with. I tried my hardest to keep up, almost riding off the rollers in the last 300m or so, but Calan kept pulling away. By the end I basically turned off the gas and accepted my fate. When I got off the rollers, I had a sharp pain on the left side of my upper back and had trouble standing for a few seconds. I think maybe I pulled something trying to pull my bike back into line when I almost rolled off the side. Either way, I was completely satisfied with my second place and couldn't really ask for better. I just hope I gave the final rounds the level of excitement they deserve.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/248105987
After this was the crowd favorite rider award, which went to the only woman racer, Amy, who was able to beat Sree in a best out of three race set. Poor Sree...
I picked up my sweet prizes for second place, took some photos, chatted for a little, got a gin&tonic on the house and then packed up and got ready to head out. After the rest of the racers cleared out, I found my HRM strap on the ground, so that was nice. Al asked if I wanted to get some tacos with him, which I thought was a great idea. I talked to Taliah for a little bit outside while he looked up directions, then we headed out. Between the cold air and my race gear still being on my bike, I thought my legs were going to explode, but the tacos were delicious and the conversation was good, so it was worth it.
I walked back to the subway, where I ended up bumping into Dan and Andy from nyvelocity.com, who put on the event, which was pretty cool. We talked some more, including debating if a rider could do a trackstand on the subway, which I thought about trying but wussed out (next time!), and then got lost walking from the 32st F station to Penn. Eventually I made it, found out I had 40 minutes until my train, so I got a foster's can from the news stand. The train came, I fought off sleep until Syosset, threw my bike in the car and blasted the best bluegrass I had on the trip back home. I finally rolled in at 3am, tired but happy.
Thanks to everybody who put on the roller race, officiated the race, watched the race, raced at the race, sat in the bar next to the race. Thanks to Shane and the rest of Pink Rhino for motivating me. And thanks to Al for the taco suggestion. I'm telling you, he's a classy racer. I'm looking forward to his next season on his new team.
28.11.12
2013.01: Base 1.1 - 11/26 - 12/2
My astute readership might notice two things about this first post of my 2013 season. For starters, I'm trying a new naming convention for the different periods (Base 1.1 instead of Base 1 Week 1). I've decided on this so I can also add the applicable dates without a super long post title. Plus decimal points look cooler.
The second thing is despite saying "Oh yeah, I'm totally going to do more testing this season" in my pre-season goal post, I have completely forgotten to do any kind of testing last week. Whoops.
Sunday: My brother felt better, so we went to lunch today. I don't really remember why I didn't ride earlier in the morning, but I didn't.
Saturday: I was supposed to go to lunch with the family, but my brother wasn't feeling well, so that got cancelled. Karl was in the area, though, so I met up with him and we did an "easy ride on a hard course". I think that was what Karl's coach had prescribed. Basically we did hills out to northport. My legs were still sore from the rollers, so I wasn't really feeling it, but it was nice to get out.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/248475778
NP/IF/TSS: 204W/1.018/215
Friday: Somewhere deep in the back of my mind I thought I could get up in time for the kreb ride after having gotten home from racing at 3am. That didn't happen, of course, so I slept in and eventually get on the mountain bike around 1pm. I rode for roughly 2 hours and it was just getting dark by the time I got back.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/248105982
NP/IF/TSS: N/A
Thursday: Rolllllller races! Check the race report. Also, I picked up my replacement replacement zipp disc wheel at work. It spins smooth, so that ends that saga.
Wednesday: I wanted to get some riding in, but I wanted to make sure my legs were as fresh as possible for the roller races tomorrow. I aimed for an hour of riding, which took a little creativity by the end of the ride, but I got it done. I did one or two little efforts to open my legs, but really I didn't feel as rested as I had hoped I would.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/247628326
NP/IF/TSS: 154W/0.769/61*
Tuesday: Cold, wet, rainy day. I stayed indoors doing mostly nothing. Eventually I did my last set of spinbatas. I was able to hit 219 rpm despite being on my 16t.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/247471306
Monday: While mondays are typically designated as rest days, I figured I would get a long base ride in since tuesday is supposed to rain. This is exactly what I did. I finally wore my winter jacket, which on the way out I thought might have been a mistake, but turning back into the wind with the setting sun, I was glad to have such warmth. In yaphank, I had to sneak through a LIPA blockade, and I had to skip coffee in middle island as I was running low on daylight. Two people complimented me on my ride, one guy on rocky point road, and a kid on mt sinai-whatever road.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/247140215
NP/IF/TSS: 152W/0.758/172*
*You might notice these values are crazy high because I still need to figure out how to change my CP in my new 2013 training file. EDIT: values have been changed to reflect new CP as of 12/3 of 200W
The second thing is despite saying "Oh yeah, I'm totally going to do more testing this season" in my pre-season goal post, I have completely forgotten to do any kind of testing last week. Whoops.
Sunday: My brother felt better, so we went to lunch today. I don't really remember why I didn't ride earlier in the morning, but I didn't.
Saturday: I was supposed to go to lunch with the family, but my brother wasn't feeling well, so that got cancelled. Karl was in the area, though, so I met up with him and we did an "easy ride on a hard course". I think that was what Karl's coach had prescribed. Basically we did hills out to northport. My legs were still sore from the rollers, so I wasn't really feeling it, but it was nice to get out.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/248475778
NP/IF/TSS: 204W/1.018/215
Friday: Somewhere deep in the back of my mind I thought I could get up in time for the kreb ride after having gotten home from racing at 3am. That didn't happen, of course, so I slept in and eventually get on the mountain bike around 1pm. I rode for roughly 2 hours and it was just getting dark by the time I got back.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/248105982
NP/IF/TSS: N/A
Thursday: Rolllllller races! Check the race report. Also, I picked up my replacement replacement zipp disc wheel at work. It spins smooth, so that ends that saga.
Wednesday: I wanted to get some riding in, but I wanted to make sure my legs were as fresh as possible for the roller races tomorrow. I aimed for an hour of riding, which took a little creativity by the end of the ride, but I got it done. I did one or two little efforts to open my legs, but really I didn't feel as rested as I had hoped I would.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/247628326
NP/IF/TSS: 154W/0.769/61*
Tuesday: Cold, wet, rainy day. I stayed indoors doing mostly nothing. Eventually I did my last set of spinbatas. I was able to hit 219 rpm despite being on my 16t.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/247471306
Monday: While mondays are typically designated as rest days, I figured I would get a long base ride in since tuesday is supposed to rain. This is exactly what I did. I finally wore my winter jacket, which on the way out I thought might have been a mistake, but turning back into the wind with the setting sun, I was glad to have such warmth. In yaphank, I had to sneak through a LIPA blockade, and I had to skip coffee in middle island as I was running low on daylight. Two people complimented me on my ride, one guy on rocky point road, and a kid on mt sinai-whatever road.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/247140215
NP/IF/TSS: 152W/0.758/172*
*You might notice these values are crazy high because I still need to figure out how to change my CP in my new 2013 training file. EDIT: values have been changed to reflect new CP as of 12/3 of 200W
22.11.12
2012.52: 11/19 - 11/25 - End of Season
Well here is the last week of my 2012 season. With these colder temperatures, my motivation is already getting tested, but I think I should be able to train harder than last year.
Sunday: Andy came by so I could help him with his bike. We were hoping it would be a quick fix followed by a nice 3 hour base ride. Things ended up a bit more complicated than we figured, and in the end we only had time for a short mountain bike ride, which I thought was still pretty fun. I felt really smooth by the end of the ride. A lot better than yesterday, where I felt like my depth perception was wayy off. This of course means I've already gone way under my 10 hours per week goal, but Shane and I agreed that it's an average, and we now added one rest week, so the challenge is now 40 hours in 5 weeks. Phew.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/247140227
NP/IF/TSS: N/A
Saturday: It was really windy today, and I was still feeling lazy, so I figured instead of hating everything by facing a wall of wind for a few hours, I hid away into the woods on the monocogo. I tried another black diamond section, which was way too hilly for me and got me completely lost. I managed to make it out of the woods again, though, but somehow I still only logged just over two hours of riding. Who knows how that works. On a side note, I found one of those rubber bracelets on the trail. It said 'secret service' and had a phone number and secretservice.gov on it. It intrigued me, but I just hung it on the trailhead board when I left. Hopefully the rightful owner finds it again. EDIT: Also, I shifted my SPD cleats back about 1cm or so. In the evening I cleaned and retensioned my chain. This wouldn't be big news on any other bike, but I do so little maintenance on the monocogo that I figure it warrants a mention here.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/246377413
NP/IF/TSS: N/A
In the evening I did spinbatas with my regular 16t.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/246446082
Friday: I was definitely feeling tired today. Generally, I would just lounge around in bed all day, but since Shane and I have this challenge going of riding at least 10 hours a week. This gave me the motivation to get out and ride for a little bit. I just went to the regular beaches real slow. On the way back a guy in a panel van passed me way too close, so I chased after him and gave him a piece of my mind. He apologized profusely, which made me feel like a jerk then. Oh well.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/246059465
NP/IF/TSS: 192W/0.832/80
Thursday: Thanksgiving day, which means one thing: Ron's 'Wild Turkey' ride. There was a good group of guys and girl that showed up, with the weather warming up as the day went on. My legs were feeling pretty beat up, but I was still able to keep up fine. My two-year-old KOM for the powerplant climb finally got beat by both Jeremy and me.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/245751884
NP/IF/TSS: 206W/0.890/249
Wednesday: More low resistance spinbatas. These felt harder, and my data seems to reflect that with lower max cadences per interval. Shane and I are also creating training challenges for each other. Details to follow.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/245591530
Tuesday: I switched the track bike to a 49x15 gearing to see how my spinbatas would change. I hit higher cadences, but it seems the slope of my fade was still similar.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/245332880
Monday: I seem to have screwed up my achilles again on my ride yesterday. Rather than make matters worse, I tried my hardest to do nothing all day. In reality, I did ride to take care of a drug screening for that oyster sloop that I volunteer on. In the evening, I did 3x10 squats.
Sunday: Andy came by so I could help him with his bike. We were hoping it would be a quick fix followed by a nice 3 hour base ride. Things ended up a bit more complicated than we figured, and in the end we only had time for a short mountain bike ride, which I thought was still pretty fun. I felt really smooth by the end of the ride. A lot better than yesterday, where I felt like my depth perception was wayy off. This of course means I've already gone way under my 10 hours per week goal, but Shane and I agreed that it's an average, and we now added one rest week, so the challenge is now 40 hours in 5 weeks. Phew.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/247140227
NP/IF/TSS: N/A
Saturday: It was really windy today, and I was still feeling lazy, so I figured instead of hating everything by facing a wall of wind for a few hours, I hid away into the woods on the monocogo. I tried another black diamond section, which was way too hilly for me and got me completely lost. I managed to make it out of the woods again, though, but somehow I still only logged just over two hours of riding. Who knows how that works. On a side note, I found one of those rubber bracelets on the trail. It said 'secret service' and had a phone number and secretservice.gov on it. It intrigued me, but I just hung it on the trailhead board when I left. Hopefully the rightful owner finds it again. EDIT: Also, I shifted my SPD cleats back about 1cm or so. In the evening I cleaned and retensioned my chain. This wouldn't be big news on any other bike, but I do so little maintenance on the monocogo that I figure it warrants a mention here.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/246377413
NP/IF/TSS: N/A
In the evening I did spinbatas with my regular 16t.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/246446082
Friday: I was definitely feeling tired today. Generally, I would just lounge around in bed all day, but since Shane and I have this challenge going of riding at least 10 hours a week. This gave me the motivation to get out and ride for a little bit. I just went to the regular beaches real slow. On the way back a guy in a panel van passed me way too close, so I chased after him and gave him a piece of my mind. He apologized profusely, which made me feel like a jerk then. Oh well.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/246059465
NP/IF/TSS: 192W/0.832/80
Thursday: Thanksgiving day, which means one thing: Ron's 'Wild Turkey' ride. There was a good group of guys and girl that showed up, with the weather warming up as the day went on. My legs were feeling pretty beat up, but I was still able to keep up fine. My two-year-old KOM for the powerplant climb finally got beat by both Jeremy and me.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/245751884
NP/IF/TSS: 206W/0.890/249
Wednesday: More low resistance spinbatas. These felt harder, and my data seems to reflect that with lower max cadences per interval. Shane and I are also creating training challenges for each other. Details to follow.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/245591530
Tuesday: I switched the track bike to a 49x15 gearing to see how my spinbatas would change. I hit higher cadences, but it seems the slope of my fade was still similar.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/245332880
Monday: I seem to have screwed up my achilles again on my ride yesterday. Rather than make matters worse, I tried my hardest to do nothing all day. In reality, I did ride to take care of a drug screening for that oyster sloop that I volunteer on. In the evening, I did 3x10 squats.
14.11.12
2012.51: 11/12 - 11/18
I was hoping to do supercross cup this week, but it has been postponed.
Sunday: Tried for a good, long ride. It was pretty good, and pretty long. I overslept Trevor's, so I just went out at noon or so to follow some selected sections of the route. I had a good headwind on the way out, so by the time I turned around by North street I was starting to bonk. I ate my gel and told myself that I would stop at the deli to get something else to eat. Well, I felt good by the yaphank deli, so I kept going and even gave the mill road hill a dig. Then I bonked hard again, stopped at the stony brook 7-11, pigged out on candy bars, rode home, ate more food. Oh well. EDIT: in the evening I re-cabled my cross bike and rewrapped the bars.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/244668918
NP/IF/TSS: 161W/0.698/180
Saturday: spinbatas. I was running late to go to the bar, so my warm-up and -down were shorter than normal.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/244297324
Friday: I got called to help downrig the oyster sloop that I've been volunteering on. Between that and raking, I felt tore up at night, so I skipped my spinbatas that I was planning on doing. I think it was today that I did some pushups and 3x30 transverse planks.
Thursday: rest day. no riding. raked leaves. now I'm achy.
Wednesday: I aimed for a long road ride, but it was cold and my bed was warm, so I woke up late instead. I finally got out on the monocogo to check out the east setauket trails. There were still a bunch of trees down on the north side of the far east section, and a couple of sections with standing water and mud. I forgot it rained recently.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/243388000
NP/IF/TSS: N/A
In the evening I did spinbatas.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/243439990
Tuesday: While it's now technically wednesday, I'll call my spinbata workout a tuesday night workout. My plan for this week is to do two back to back spin workouts with one day's rest between. So it'll be spin, spin, rest, spin, spin. On the plus side, I nearly finished all my tabata intervals tonight. I just gave up early on the last one because I almost fell off the rollers. Congrats to me.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/243183731
Monday: Rode fixed gear bikes with Dan. Maybe like 30 miles, give or take. We checked out this new coffee shop that his friend started. I was planning on also doing spinbatas tonight, but I went to the bar instead.
Sunday: Tried for a good, long ride. It was pretty good, and pretty long. I overslept Trevor's, so I just went out at noon or so to follow some selected sections of the route. I had a good headwind on the way out, so by the time I turned around by North street I was starting to bonk. I ate my gel and told myself that I would stop at the deli to get something else to eat. Well, I felt good by the yaphank deli, so I kept going and even gave the mill road hill a dig. Then I bonked hard again, stopped at the stony brook 7-11, pigged out on candy bars, rode home, ate more food. Oh well. EDIT: in the evening I re-cabled my cross bike and rewrapped the bars.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/244668918
NP/IF/TSS: 161W/0.698/180
Saturday: spinbatas. I was running late to go to the bar, so my warm-up and -down were shorter than normal.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/244297324
Friday: I got called to help downrig the oyster sloop that I've been volunteering on. Between that and raking, I felt tore up at night, so I skipped my spinbatas that I was planning on doing. I think it was today that I did some pushups and 3x30 transverse planks.
Thursday: rest day. no riding. raked leaves. now I'm achy.
Wednesday: I aimed for a long road ride, but it was cold and my bed was warm, so I woke up late instead. I finally got out on the monocogo to check out the east setauket trails. There were still a bunch of trees down on the north side of the far east section, and a couple of sections with standing water and mud. I forgot it rained recently.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/243388000
NP/IF/TSS: N/A
In the evening I did spinbatas.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/243439990
Tuesday: While it's now technically wednesday, I'll call my spinbata workout a tuesday night workout. My plan for this week is to do two back to back spin workouts with one day's rest between. So it'll be spin, spin, rest, spin, spin. On the plus side, I nearly finished all my tabata intervals tonight. I just gave up early on the last one because I almost fell off the rollers. Congrats to me.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/243183731
Monday: Rode fixed gear bikes with Dan. Maybe like 30 miles, give or take. We checked out this new coffee shop that his friend started. I was planning on also doing spinbatas tonight, but I went to the bar instead.
7.11.12
2013: A Look Ahead
My start for next season is rapidly approaching, so let's break down my goals for next year:
1. Sub 1:15 kilo
2. Win Opening Weekend and/or States
3. Race Pro-Am (Upgrade to Cat 2)
These are some pretty steep goals this year, but I don't think they're unattainable. Right now my motivation levels are much higher than last year, so hopefully this will help me keep up higher training levels. In addition, I'm planning on placing a greater emphasis on proper rest, nutrition and most importantly testing. I'd like to start incorporating rest week testing including a graded test and a kilo to ensure I'm headed in the right direction. I'm also going to try to complete more interval sessions and incorporate high geared hill climbing instead of weight lifting. Off the bike, I'll still keep up with my core work, and throw some plyos in for good measure.
As for A races, same as always, opening weekend and states. The big thing is instead of top 5 or even top 3, I'd like to actually all-out win. With the help of the team and my training changes, I think this will not be too hard to do.
1. Sub 1:15 kilo
2. Win Opening Weekend and/or States
3. Race Pro-Am (Upgrade to Cat 2)
These are some pretty steep goals this year, but I don't think they're unattainable. Right now my motivation levels are much higher than last year, so hopefully this will help me keep up higher training levels. In addition, I'm planning on placing a greater emphasis on proper rest, nutrition and most importantly testing. I'd like to start incorporating rest week testing including a graded test and a kilo to ensure I'm headed in the right direction. I'm also going to try to complete more interval sessions and incorporate high geared hill climbing instead of weight lifting. Off the bike, I'll still keep up with my core work, and throw some plyos in for good measure.
As for A races, same as always, opening weekend and states. The big thing is instead of top 5 or even top 3, I'd like to actually all-out win. With the help of the team and my training changes, I think this will not be too hard to do.
5.11.12
2012.50: 11/5 - 11/11
Sunday: With the weather so nice lately, I decided to go out for a short recovery ride. My achilles was bugging me a little bit, so I mostly kept it light, but I did throw in three good efforts, and got two KOMs out of it. At the top of the sand street climb, I had a squirrel bounce off my front wheel, then off my shoe, then off my back wheel and back into the bushes.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/242507646
NP/IF/TSS: 178W/0.773/83
Saturday: Karl was interested in going for a ride down to babylon bikes. I had thought he said long, slow distance ride, which sounded great. It ended up as long, steady distance, which was still fun, but a lot harder than I was planning on. On the way out, we saw a group of SBRA riders going the opposite direction. Speaking of the SBRA, some lady asked if we were SBRA members at the train station, but didn't elaborate further when we said "no". shrug. Oh, I also wore my R1's today. They felt great. My knee was tracking a lot better with them, but I was getting some discomfort on the outside of my leg just above knee level. By that tendon thing.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/242020938
NP/IF/TSS: 172W/0.746/183
In the evening I did some more spinbatas. They were particularly half-assed, with a lot of 15/15 intervals instead of the 20/10.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/242507660
NP/IF/TSS: N/A
Friday: Had my face drilled off at the dentist. Luckily, he was running over a half hour late, so I went to the Kreb for a while before-hand. I talked to Gregory for a while. He gave me some solutions to look at for my impending tendinitis. In the evening I set up my new shoes that I picked up from Roadworx (Colorado, you lucky bastards!). Fizik R1's. Hell yeah. No riding, though. Mostly just sulking around the house with my tail between my legs.
Thursday: Day two of spinbatas. They felt less painful than last time, so that's good. I pointed my aft-facing bow fan (I make no apologies for the nautical terminology I throw into this blog) a little bit lower so it wasn't blowing wind straight in my face, which I think helped with being able to breathe in a halfway useful manner. I was able to complete maybe 5 of the intervals fully this time? It's an improvement!
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/241534598
NP/IF/TSS: N/A
Wednesday: No riding. Did some transverse planks 1x50 and some pushups.
Tuesday: Started up my spinbatas again as there's a roller race at the end of the month. Doing this caused me to realize a few things. First, I don't remember at all what gear i used to use for roller work. I stuck with a 49x16 as i figured it would be nice and light, but I'm wondering if I used to put my 15 on. Second, I'm having knee tracking issues again. Riding the rollers no-handed really shows this. I also feel tension on my hip by the joint, the back inside of my knee, and I feel like I want to rotate my foot ankle-in. Also, my achilles is starting to feel sore approximately 2 hours after training. Third, I suck at these spinbata things. I compared how I felt this time vs the last time I did them and both occasions my main thought was 'holy crap, my throat is burning from this cold, dry air'. I'll have to figure out what to do about this leg issue. EDIT: I also did 3x10 squats
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/240993386
NP/IF/TSS:
Monday: No riding.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/242507646
NP/IF/TSS: 178W/0.773/83
Saturday: Karl was interested in going for a ride down to babylon bikes. I had thought he said long, slow distance ride, which sounded great. It ended up as long, steady distance, which was still fun, but a lot harder than I was planning on. On the way out, we saw a group of SBRA riders going the opposite direction. Speaking of the SBRA, some lady asked if we were SBRA members at the train station, but didn't elaborate further when we said "no". shrug. Oh, I also wore my R1's today. They felt great. My knee was tracking a lot better with them, but I was getting some discomfort on the outside of my leg just above knee level. By that tendon thing.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/242020938
NP/IF/TSS: 172W/0.746/183
In the evening I did some more spinbatas. They were particularly half-assed, with a lot of 15/15 intervals instead of the 20/10.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/242507660
NP/IF/TSS: N/A
Friday: Had my face drilled off at the dentist. Luckily, he was running over a half hour late, so I went to the Kreb for a while before-hand. I talked to Gregory for a while. He gave me some solutions to look at for my impending tendinitis. In the evening I set up my new shoes that I picked up from Roadworx (Colorado, you lucky bastards!). Fizik R1's. Hell yeah. No riding, though. Mostly just sulking around the house with my tail between my legs.
Thursday: Day two of spinbatas. They felt less painful than last time, so that's good. I pointed my aft-facing bow fan (I make no apologies for the nautical terminology I throw into this blog) a little bit lower so it wasn't blowing wind straight in my face, which I think helped with being able to breathe in a halfway useful manner. I was able to complete maybe 5 of the intervals fully this time? It's an improvement!
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/241534598
NP/IF/TSS: N/A
Wednesday: No riding. Did some transverse planks 1x50 and some pushups.
Tuesday: Started up my spinbatas again as there's a roller race at the end of the month. Doing this caused me to realize a few things. First, I don't remember at all what gear i used to use for roller work. I stuck with a 49x16 as i figured it would be nice and light, but I'm wondering if I used to put my 15 on. Second, I'm having knee tracking issues again. Riding the rollers no-handed really shows this. I also feel tension on my hip by the joint, the back inside of my knee, and I feel like I want to rotate my foot ankle-in. Also, my achilles is starting to feel sore approximately 2 hours after training. Third, I suck at these spinbata things. I compared how I felt this time vs the last time I did them and both occasions my main thought was 'holy crap, my throat is burning from this cold, dry air'. I'll have to figure out what to do about this leg issue. EDIT: I also did 3x10 squats
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/240993386
NP/IF/TSS:
Monday: No riding.
4.11.12
2012: A look back
I know I still have a few weeks until my season is officially over. I might even do a couple of cyclocross races during that time. But I'm bored, and I figure I might as well get this season review done and over with. So let's see how my year went.
Here were my goals for the season:
1. 1:15 Kilo - nope
2. Top 5 at Kissena Opening Weekend and State Championships - check
3. Qualify for Elite Track National Championships - sorta
Once again my hope for a sub 1:15 kilo has evaded me. I'll probably give it another try next year. I have succeeded in staying top 5 for both opening weekend and states, despite my best efforts to screw up at opening weekend. Finally, there were no qualifiers for elite nats, so I could have gone and done timed events, but the real spirit of the goal was to get to cat 2 and race all mass-start events. I call this 50%. Could be worse, I suppose.
That said, let's look at some of the highlights:
1st - Lehigh Laps
1st - Labor Day Meet
2nd - NY State Track Championships
3rd - Kingsbridge Armory Velodrome Roller race
4th - Kissena Opening Weekend
I also was able to race Tandemonium at T-town, and I won money at Kissena (opening weekend), Garden State Velodrome (keirin final), and four times at T-town - once each in stagiares, pro/am (combined with stagiares), friday night (tandemonium), and lehigh laps.
Beyond this, the team has really picked up. We got some fast new riders, fast new kits. I'd call this season a success. Thanks, everybody!
Here were my goals for the season:
1. 1:15 Kilo - nope
2. Top 5 at Kissena Opening Weekend and State Championships - check
3. Qualify for Elite Track National Championships - sorta
Once again my hope for a sub 1:15 kilo has evaded me. I'll probably give it another try next year. I have succeeded in staying top 5 for both opening weekend and states, despite my best efforts to screw up at opening weekend. Finally, there were no qualifiers for elite nats, so I could have gone and done timed events, but the real spirit of the goal was to get to cat 2 and race all mass-start events. I call this 50%. Could be worse, I suppose.
That said, let's look at some of the highlights:
1st - Lehigh Laps
1st - Labor Day Meet
2nd - NY State Track Championships
3rd - Kingsbridge Armory Velodrome Roller race
4th - Kissena Opening Weekend
I also was able to race Tandemonium at T-town, and I won money at Kissena (opening weekend), Garden State Velodrome (keirin final), and four times at T-town - once each in stagiares, pro/am (combined with stagiares), friday night (tandemonium), and lehigh laps.
Beyond this, the team has really picked up. We got some fast new riders, fast new kits. I'd call this season a success. Thanks, everybody!
31.10.12
2012.49: 10/29 - 11/4
Well, for those who are unaware, we got hit pretty good (or bad) by Sandy the Hurricane. As such, I'm writing this wednesday by the power of a gas generator. Hey, I need the bare necessities just as much as the next guy. This just happens to include internet access.
Sunday: tried the east setauket trails with Dan. The first section to the west of the power lines was blown clean and really nice, the far east section was leafy, but passable, but then as you got to the north section it became impassable. lots of trees down, branches, leaves, etc. we were running out of daylight, so we ducked out and tried the black diamonds on the west side, but ran out of light for that, too. That's some serious stuff up there. I have some new trails to work on.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/240339189
NP/IF/TSS: N/A
Saturday: Did a little bit of 'cross training on my short course that I came up with. The park was actually really hopping as I guess nobody knows what to do with themselves with the electricity out. It's a shame that this is what it takes for people to actually use the local parks. I did 10 repeats, then felt like dying so I took a break, then 5 more, though my lap counter got screwed up from those.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/239801336
NP/IF/TSS: N/A
Friday: Rode the 'cross bike down to the beaches to check out the damage. The beaches themselves look very clean and sandy, but you can tell there was a good amount of erosion. One sailboat broke loose by long beach and was leaning up against an electric pole in the parking lot.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/239468923
NP/IF/TSS: N/A
Thursday: Again, no riding. Boo.
Wednesday: Raked leaves in the front yard, helped some guys cut down the branches that fell in the back yard. No riding.
Tuesday: Post-Hurricane. Rode the 'cross bike around the neighborhood and down to cordwood beach. Later, I rode through some of the other neighborhoods and visited walter and dan. This bike is great for getting around. No data.
Monday: Hurricane. No riding.
Sunday: tried the east setauket trails with Dan. The first section to the west of the power lines was blown clean and really nice, the far east section was leafy, but passable, but then as you got to the north section it became impassable. lots of trees down, branches, leaves, etc. we were running out of daylight, so we ducked out and tried the black diamonds on the west side, but ran out of light for that, too. That's some serious stuff up there. I have some new trails to work on.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/240339189
NP/IF/TSS: N/A
Saturday: Did a little bit of 'cross training on my short course that I came up with. The park was actually really hopping as I guess nobody knows what to do with themselves with the electricity out. It's a shame that this is what it takes for people to actually use the local parks. I did 10 repeats, then felt like dying so I took a break, then 5 more, though my lap counter got screwed up from those.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/239801336
NP/IF/TSS: N/A
Friday: Rode the 'cross bike down to the beaches to check out the damage. The beaches themselves look very clean and sandy, but you can tell there was a good amount of erosion. One sailboat broke loose by long beach and was leaning up against an electric pole in the parking lot.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/239468923
NP/IF/TSS: N/A
Thursday: Again, no riding. Boo.
Wednesday: Raked leaves in the front yard, helped some guys cut down the branches that fell in the back yard. No riding.
Tuesday: Post-Hurricane. Rode the 'cross bike around the neighborhood and down to cordwood beach. Later, I rode through some of the other neighborhoods and visited walter and dan. This bike is great for getting around. No data.
Monday: Hurricane. No riding.
24.10.12
2012.48: 10/22 - 10/28
Sunday: Finished building the CX bike, so I decided to take it down to the park for some little practice. I made this short course with a downhill, long straight, turn, straight, off camber turn, straight, turn, straight, stair climb, round a tree, repeat. I did two sets of 5 repeats of that. It hurt, so I think I was doing it right.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/238073968
NP/IF/TSS: N/A
Saturday: My aim was to finally ride Percy's RP2IPBP-JP ride. But I overslept. As per usual. Instead, Dan had the day off so we decided to do some sweet mountain biking. We went to Cathedral Pines, which was rocked, including very likely all of the black diamonds, then we got pizza, then I suckered Dan into riding East Setauket. I ate shit at the start, but beyond that things went well. We added one black diamond.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/237628801
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/237628786
Friday: Thought about doing the kreb ride. Woke up late instead. I managed a shortish endurance-style ride eventually. I tried to hunt one KOM on the way out, but the blinkie light I was borrowing from walter exploded on the way up, so that screwed that one. On the way back, I tried to meet up with an SBRA ride, but apparently I had the date wrong. Whoops.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/237296616
NP/IF/TSS: 175W/0.758/166
Thursday: Again, no riding. More volunteer work on the Christeen.
Wednesday: No riding again (what a week). Another on-and-off rainy day. I spent it out on the Christeen volunteering as crew for a marine education class. I didn't educate, I just did lowly sailor stuff. EDIT: I also did some pushups, calf raises, and squats in the evening.
Tuesday: No riding. It looked nice out in the morning, but by the time I got myself situated, the clouds started rolling in. I helped Jen with her ATP for next year a little bit while having my noon breakfast, then Danny asked if I could help with some more seat deletes. We knocked those out, moved his bmw into the garage, and by then it was raining on and off.
Monday: No riding. Helped walter split and stack wood for the day. It was fun. The weather was great, so maybe I should have rode.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/238073968
NP/IF/TSS: N/A
Saturday: My aim was to finally ride Percy's RP2IPBP-JP ride. But I overslept. As per usual. Instead, Dan had the day off so we decided to do some sweet mountain biking. We went to Cathedral Pines, which was rocked, including very likely all of the black diamonds, then we got pizza, then I suckered Dan into riding East Setauket. I ate shit at the start, but beyond that things went well. We added one black diamond.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/237628801
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/237628786
Friday: Thought about doing the kreb ride. Woke up late instead. I managed a shortish endurance-style ride eventually. I tried to hunt one KOM on the way out, but the blinkie light I was borrowing from walter exploded on the way up, so that screwed that one. On the way back, I tried to meet up with an SBRA ride, but apparently I had the date wrong. Whoops.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/237296616
NP/IF/TSS: 175W/0.758/166
Thursday: Again, no riding. More volunteer work on the Christeen.
Wednesday: No riding again (what a week). Another on-and-off rainy day. I spent it out on the Christeen volunteering as crew for a marine education class. I didn't educate, I just did lowly sailor stuff. EDIT: I also did some pushups, calf raises, and squats in the evening.
Tuesday: No riding. It looked nice out in the morning, but by the time I got myself situated, the clouds started rolling in. I helped Jen with her ATP for next year a little bit while having my noon breakfast, then Danny asked if I could help with some more seat deletes. We knocked those out, moved his bmw into the garage, and by then it was raining on and off.
Monday: No riding. Helped walter split and stack wood for the day. It was fun. The weather was great, so maybe I should have rode.
16.10.12
2012.47: 10/15 - 10/21
Sunday: No riding. Did 4x1.5 min planks with 1.5 min rest, then 3x30 rep transverse planks.
Saturday: I finally was able to attend a Kissena 150 ride. This is an end-of-season group ride put on each year consisting of (roughly) 50 laps at the rail, 50 at the stayers, 50 at the pole. This year was dedicated to Dave Jordan, who passed away earlier in the year. There was a nice group of riders out, including MikeW, ChrisB, LaCorte, (new world champ) Kim, Colin and his father, and team-mates Jen, Dave, and Aaron. The ride itself was a little unsteady, which I think was a combination of wind and a broad range of abilities, but it was still a beautiful day out. Afterward, I talked with Colin and LaCorte for a bit. It was nice to see both of them, particularly Colin since he's generally busy doctoring now.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/235405975
NP/IF/TSS: N/A
Friday: No riding. Visited Dan at the shop. I think that is all.
Thursday: Pink Rhino Ultimate Team Meeting. I headed in to Atlantic terminal early to try to meet up with Aaron and Dave at PP to do some laps. Too bad I didn't start my garmin for the ride to the train, because I was on the rivet the whole time to make it to the train on time. As for PP, I rode down, did one slow lap without seeing the team, stopped for 15 minutes, still didn't see them, did some half-assed laps with one or two legit digs, then rode to the meeting. Turns out they wanted pizza instead, so they didn't get down to the park. Oh well. On the plus side, I'm now team president.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/234826555
NP/IF/TSS: 151W/0.652/46
Wednesday: Tried for a longer ride in the morning. It ended up being shorter distance-wise than I thought, but it was still good. I was hoping for 40-45miles. Afterward, I met up with Karl as he was trying some Shen/Cheung stuff at the track to work out his aero position. I was more interested on working on my slow riding and track standing. In between Karl's aero tests, we tried some match sprint tactics on each other. I can still use some practice, but I feel a lot more confident.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/234525309
NP/IF/TSS: 151W/0.652/46
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/234525225
NP/IF/TSS: N/A
Tuesday: Rode around on the peugeot with Dan. Not really sure how far we went. Maybe 10ish miles? Down browns to lake ronkonkoma and back along gibbs pond, stopping at parks and little vinnies along the way. It felt good, despite the cold wind. No data.
Monday: It was warmish but windyish, so I went out for a short, easy ride. It was surprisingly painful. I don't know if that was wind or just the fact that I hadn't been riding for 2+weeks. Not much to really say. Talked to a guy fishing at stony brook. At west meadow, I had fun with the apparent wind. Heading from spit to beach at ~16mph, it felt like there was no wind, so I turned around again and immediately got blasted with wind. From this, I would have to say that the wind was blowing at about 16mph. hooray.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/233883166
NP/IF/TSS: 169W/0.733/109
Saturday: I finally was able to attend a Kissena 150 ride. This is an end-of-season group ride put on each year consisting of (roughly) 50 laps at the rail, 50 at the stayers, 50 at the pole. This year was dedicated to Dave Jordan, who passed away earlier in the year. There was a nice group of riders out, including MikeW, ChrisB, LaCorte, (new world champ) Kim, Colin and his father, and team-mates Jen, Dave, and Aaron. The ride itself was a little unsteady, which I think was a combination of wind and a broad range of abilities, but it was still a beautiful day out. Afterward, I talked with Colin and LaCorte for a bit. It was nice to see both of them, particularly Colin since he's generally busy doctoring now.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/235405975
NP/IF/TSS: N/A
Friday: No riding. Visited Dan at the shop. I think that is all.
Thursday: Pink Rhino Ultimate Team Meeting. I headed in to Atlantic terminal early to try to meet up with Aaron and Dave at PP to do some laps. Too bad I didn't start my garmin for the ride to the train, because I was on the rivet the whole time to make it to the train on time. As for PP, I rode down, did one slow lap without seeing the team, stopped for 15 minutes, still didn't see them, did some half-assed laps with one or two legit digs, then rode to the meeting. Turns out they wanted pizza instead, so they didn't get down to the park. Oh well. On the plus side, I'm now team president.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/234826555
NP/IF/TSS: 151W/0.652/46
Wednesday: Tried for a longer ride in the morning. It ended up being shorter distance-wise than I thought, but it was still good. I was hoping for 40-45miles. Afterward, I met up with Karl as he was trying some Shen/Cheung stuff at the track to work out his aero position. I was more interested on working on my slow riding and track standing. In between Karl's aero tests, we tried some match sprint tactics on each other. I can still use some practice, but I feel a lot more confident.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/234525309
NP/IF/TSS: 151W/0.652/46
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/234525225
NP/IF/TSS: N/A
Tuesday: Rode around on the peugeot with Dan. Not really sure how far we went. Maybe 10ish miles? Down browns to lake ronkonkoma and back along gibbs pond, stopping at parks and little vinnies along the way. It felt good, despite the cold wind. No data.
Monday: It was warmish but windyish, so I went out for a short, easy ride. It was surprisingly painful. I don't know if that was wind or just the fact that I hadn't been riding for 2+weeks. Not much to really say. Talked to a guy fishing at stony brook. At west meadow, I had fun with the apparent wind. Heading from spit to beach at ~16mph, it felt like there was no wind, so I turned around again and immediately got blasted with wind. From this, I would have to say that the wind was blowing at about 16mph. hooray.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/233883166
NP/IF/TSS: 169W/0.733/109
10.10.12
2012.46: 10/8 - 10/14
I think some time this week I'll start to work on my annual training plan for next year. How exciting! I'm also looking into getting a squat rack to bring my training to the next level. We'll see how that goes.
Sunday: Ditto to saturday.
Saturday: No riding. Got to crew on the oyster sloop Christeen for the day.
Friday: Went sailing in the morning. I tried to make it out before the winds picked up to a small craft advisory, but I think I got too late of a start. Buried the rail a few times, but didn't have enough hands to bail the cockpit while also tending the main, jib and rudder. Let the jib flog for a bit until I could get it down, but then I ended up blown against some reeds that I couldn't get out of. Eh, could have been worse. As for bike related stuff, I did some more core work. 3x1.5min planks with 1.5 min rest and 1 more 1min plank. Then 3 sets of 30 transverse planks, and 2x25 calf raises.
Thursday: It was cold and windy, I gave thought to riding the trails, but I wasn't sure if they'd be muddy from some rain we had last night. Just visited dan again. No riding. EDIT: I think I worked on my ATP for next year today. I'll write a post about that eventually.
Wednesday: I was going to (side note, I feel like I start a lot of entries with this) go sailing early in the morning as the tide was going to be high and the winds low. Then I check at like 4am and now there's a small craft advisory and thunder forecast for right when I was going to put in. So I slept in instead, woke up to a beautiful day, visited dan at the bike shop and afterward rode down to the water. The weather and water were perfect, but the tide was still less than half with only an hour or so until dark, so no sailing. Long story short, I rode the fixed gear for like 4 miles. Of course no data.
Tuesday: Rainy day, no riding. No way am I going to start riding rollers already. Did some core/leg work in the evening. 5x1min planks with 1 min rest, 3x30 transverse planks, 3x10 unweighted squat jumps.
Monday: Nothing.
Sunday: Ditto to saturday.
Saturday: No riding. Got to crew on the oyster sloop Christeen for the day.
Friday: Went sailing in the morning. I tried to make it out before the winds picked up to a small craft advisory, but I think I got too late of a start. Buried the rail a few times, but didn't have enough hands to bail the cockpit while also tending the main, jib and rudder. Let the jib flog for a bit until I could get it down, but then I ended up blown against some reeds that I couldn't get out of. Eh, could have been worse. As for bike related stuff, I did some more core work. 3x1.5min planks with 1.5 min rest and 1 more 1min plank. Then 3 sets of 30 transverse planks, and 2x25 calf raises.
Thursday: It was cold and windy, I gave thought to riding the trails, but I wasn't sure if they'd be muddy from some rain we had last night. Just visited dan again. No riding. EDIT: I think I worked on my ATP for next year today. I'll write a post about that eventually.
Wednesday: I was going to (side note, I feel like I start a lot of entries with this) go sailing early in the morning as the tide was going to be high and the winds low. Then I check at like 4am and now there's a small craft advisory and thunder forecast for right when I was going to put in. So I slept in instead, woke up to a beautiful day, visited dan at the bike shop and afterward rode down to the water. The weather and water were perfect, but the tide was still less than half with only an hour or so until dark, so no sailing. Long story short, I rode the fixed gear for like 4 miles. Of course no data.
Tuesday: Rainy day, no riding. No way am I going to start riding rollers already. Did some core/leg work in the evening. 5x1min planks with 1 min rest, 3x30 transverse planks, 3x10 unweighted squat jumps.
Monday: Nothing.
7.10.12
Race: GSVA Fall Track Classic
I was looking forward to this race for a while. Originally I thought it was at the end of September, because I fail at reading things. When I realized it was the same week as when I would be in Jersey City, I started to think I wouldn't actually be able to race. This is ironic, as getting to the track is actually a whole lot easier from Jersey City. The problem lays in that I had no way of getting my track bike. Were I smart, I could have left it in the shipping container at kissena after sprint training last sunday. Oh well.
So Josh asked me if I wanted a ride down to the race, and originally I said no, it wouldn't work out. Then I thought about it more, and I figured I might as well just go to spectate and see what the track was all about. I told Josh my situation and a little while later he said he would check with Andrew B about letting me borrow a bike. The next thing I know, I have a ride down to the track, and a bike to use when I get there. Sweeeet. Now the big problem was the squats and cleans I did with Lucas the day before.
With a large threat of rain still in the forecast, I decided to treat the day as a big experiment. At the least, I would learn how to get to the track, and how long it would take. On a larger scale, if the rain didn't show up, I would be able to see just how my body reacts in a race situation right after lifting weights. As fate would have it, the rain held off until we packed up the car to leave the track, when it came down as a light sprinkle. The sky actually cleared for a little bit.
Backtracking a little bit, I met Josh, Jen, and Amira down by Reade street, we packed the car, threw on the bikes and headed out. The trip down actually seemed pretty straight forward, though we did overshoot the exit, which was more of a pain than I realized with the 50 cent toll each time. We got to the track, changed, registered, I adjusted my loaner bike (care of Andrea B), and did some laps. There are some scary concentric cracks along the track, which Andrew pointed out in a slow lap before the A field went to the line for the first race.
Our first race was a miss and out. I figured this would really tell the theme for the rest of the night. We started out and my legs were screaming in pain. Just clipping in, I had trouble using my leg strength, and had to push my heel down by hand. Either way, I was able to stay ahead of some riders, but on the fourth place pull, I just couldn't get my back wheel ahead of Josh's. This seems to be a recurring theme for me with these races.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/230299234
Next was a 20 lap Points race. A good bunch of us seemed none-too-excited about the length of the race. I think a big part of it was that the humidity must have been 100%. Just sitting on the ground, my helmet, glasses, notebook, et cetera all had condensation covering them. We started the race just rotating pulls at a moderate pace. The first sprint, I was maybe around 4th or so? We kept rotating pulls again, and I found myself leading into turn 4 just before the bell lap for the second sprint. I just stayed on the front trying to keep the pace hot. This was enough to give me first place on that sprint. After this, the pace slowed a bit, so I gave an attack over the top a try. The group caught back up with me, and the pace slowed again. My glutes were really killing me at this point, so I figured I should try another big move to get the blood flowing, maybe win another sprint and probably blow up magnificently doing so. The group moved uptrack a bit, so I attacked down below in the sprinters lane and was able to get a gap going. I kept my head down for a few laps to win the third sprint, where I then swung up track again to wait for the group, but the gap wasn't really closing down. I resolved to put myself deeper in pain, and kept soloing off the front to get the final sprint. This gave me first overall in the points race.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/230299222
The final race in the omnium was the Keirin. This was the race that I was really looking forward to. GSVA happens to have a legit straight-from-europe derny. I was sad that I didn't have my casco to wear to really get into the mood, but I was still happy to race. We drew lots to start, I think I was fourth or fifth. The start order didn't really seem to make much of a difference after the derny came around, though. It was a little bit hectic. Rather than slot in line, I opted to sit next to the second or third rider behind the moto. This worked pretty well as the pace ramped up, but I did find myself starting to fade by the last lap with the bike. I actually completely lost track of the laps we did, so I was slightly surprised when the moto pulled off. My timing was a little off for my sprint, but I was still able to come in fifth.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/230299219
This concluded the omnium, and since my legs were shot and Amira had to catch an early flight, the four of us decided to call it a night and not do the feature race. Andrew B and Sam were understanding, so we did the podiums quick, where I came in third overall in the A's. This won me $20 and a pumpkin. We packed up quick, and headed off to a diner to get some food. It was delicious. We got back on the road, listened to some good music, had some good talks, and Josh was kind enough to drop me off right in Jersey City. All in all, I'd say it was a successful evening. Thanks, everybody! I certainly hope to race at the GSV more next season.
Finally, what's the verdict on racing after lifting? My snap definitely wasn't there, nor was my top end. Steady state seemed about the same, though certainly a lot more painful. My quads just above my knee and my glutes hurt the most. My lower back also wasn't too happy. I certainly wouldn't recommend it. Especially since I felt even worse the next day than the day after just lifting. I thought my legs would collapse on me a few times while walking around the apartment. So there's that.
So Josh asked me if I wanted a ride down to the race, and originally I said no, it wouldn't work out. Then I thought about it more, and I figured I might as well just go to spectate and see what the track was all about. I told Josh my situation and a little while later he said he would check with Andrew B about letting me borrow a bike. The next thing I know, I have a ride down to the track, and a bike to use when I get there. Sweeeet. Now the big problem was the squats and cleans I did with Lucas the day before.
With a large threat of rain still in the forecast, I decided to treat the day as a big experiment. At the least, I would learn how to get to the track, and how long it would take. On a larger scale, if the rain didn't show up, I would be able to see just how my body reacts in a race situation right after lifting weights. As fate would have it, the rain held off until we packed up the car to leave the track, when it came down as a light sprinkle. The sky actually cleared for a little bit.
Backtracking a little bit, I met Josh, Jen, and Amira down by Reade street, we packed the car, threw on the bikes and headed out. The trip down actually seemed pretty straight forward, though we did overshoot the exit, which was more of a pain than I realized with the 50 cent toll each time. We got to the track, changed, registered, I adjusted my loaner bike (care of Andrea B), and did some laps. There are some scary concentric cracks along the track, which Andrew pointed out in a slow lap before the A field went to the line for the first race.
Our first race was a miss and out. I figured this would really tell the theme for the rest of the night. We started out and my legs were screaming in pain. Just clipping in, I had trouble using my leg strength, and had to push my heel down by hand. Either way, I was able to stay ahead of some riders, but on the fourth place pull, I just couldn't get my back wheel ahead of Josh's. This seems to be a recurring theme for me with these races.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/230299234
Next was a 20 lap Points race. A good bunch of us seemed none-too-excited about the length of the race. I think a big part of it was that the humidity must have been 100%. Just sitting on the ground, my helmet, glasses, notebook, et cetera all had condensation covering them. We started the race just rotating pulls at a moderate pace. The first sprint, I was maybe around 4th or so? We kept rotating pulls again, and I found myself leading into turn 4 just before the bell lap for the second sprint. I just stayed on the front trying to keep the pace hot. This was enough to give me first place on that sprint. After this, the pace slowed a bit, so I gave an attack over the top a try. The group caught back up with me, and the pace slowed again. My glutes were really killing me at this point, so I figured I should try another big move to get the blood flowing, maybe win another sprint and probably blow up magnificently doing so. The group moved uptrack a bit, so I attacked down below in the sprinters lane and was able to get a gap going. I kept my head down for a few laps to win the third sprint, where I then swung up track again to wait for the group, but the gap wasn't really closing down. I resolved to put myself deeper in pain, and kept soloing off the front to get the final sprint. This gave me first overall in the points race.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/230299222
The final race in the omnium was the Keirin. This was the race that I was really looking forward to. GSVA happens to have a legit straight-from-europe derny. I was sad that I didn't have my casco to wear to really get into the mood, but I was still happy to race. We drew lots to start, I think I was fourth or fifth. The start order didn't really seem to make much of a difference after the derny came around, though. It was a little bit hectic. Rather than slot in line, I opted to sit next to the second or third rider behind the moto. This worked pretty well as the pace ramped up, but I did find myself starting to fade by the last lap with the bike. I actually completely lost track of the laps we did, so I was slightly surprised when the moto pulled off. My timing was a little off for my sprint, but I was still able to come in fifth.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/230299219
This concluded the omnium, and since my legs were shot and Amira had to catch an early flight, the four of us decided to call it a night and not do the feature race. Andrew B and Sam were understanding, so we did the podiums quick, where I came in third overall in the A's. This won me $20 and a pumpkin. We packed up quick, and headed off to a diner to get some food. It was delicious. We got back on the road, listened to some good music, had some good talks, and Josh was kind enough to drop me off right in Jersey City. All in all, I'd say it was a successful evening. Thanks, everybody! I certainly hope to race at the GSV more next season.
Finally, what's the verdict on racing after lifting? My snap definitely wasn't there, nor was my top end. Steady state seemed about the same, though certainly a lot more painful. My quads just above my knee and my glutes hurt the most. My lower back also wasn't too happy. I certainly wouldn't recommend it. Especially since I felt even worse the next day than the day after just lifting. I thought my legs would collapse on me a few times while walking around the apartment. So there's that.
3.10.12
2012.45: 10/1 - 10/7
Sunday: Nada. Rainy, rainy day.
Saturday: Headed back from Jersey City. Rode from Ronkonkoma up home. It wasn't really a data-worthy ride.
Friday: Ohhh man, my legs felt completely wrecked today. I thought I was going to fall down the stairs when I went to get the mail. I still got out to spin around the block a few times, but nothing garmin-worthy.
Thursday: Got talked into racing the Fall Track Classic at the Garden State Velodrome. See the race report. My legs felt sore from yesterday.
Wednesday: Lucas was willing to meet with me a bit this morning, so we did some squats, cleans, and a lat/hamstring/other stuff circuit. I've come to realize my form is a bit off, but lucas is a good coach. My clean is ugly as hell. good to know.
Tuesday: Rainy day. Went to lift weights with Lucas, but as it turns out, he can only check in two guests, so Andy and I went and got burritos and coffee instead. We then met up with Heather and Josh after they finished lifting, talked about the team a bit, then I headed back.
Monday: This week I'm in Jersey City watching my brother's cats. Today I walked around a bunch. Went down to the water and picked up some pottery shards along the waterfront.
Saturday: Headed back from Jersey City. Rode from Ronkonkoma up home. It wasn't really a data-worthy ride.
Friday: Ohhh man, my legs felt completely wrecked today. I thought I was going to fall down the stairs when I went to get the mail. I still got out to spin around the block a few times, but nothing garmin-worthy.
Thursday: Got talked into racing the Fall Track Classic at the Garden State Velodrome. See the race report. My legs felt sore from yesterday.
Wednesday: Lucas was willing to meet with me a bit this morning, so we did some squats, cleans, and a lat/hamstring/other stuff circuit. I've come to realize my form is a bit off, but lucas is a good coach. My clean is ugly as hell. good to know.
Tuesday: Rainy day. Went to lift weights with Lucas, but as it turns out, he can only check in two guests, so Andy and I went and got burritos and coffee instead. We then met up with Heather and Josh after they finished lifting, talked about the team a bit, then I headed back.
Monday: This week I'm in Jersey City watching my brother's cats. Today I walked around a bunch. Went down to the water and picked up some pottery shards along the waterfront.
27.9.12
2012.44: 9/24 - 9/30
Sunday: Another sprint training day at Kissena. I felt slow today. My little peak that I had a few weeks ago has definitely come and gone now. I pulled out a 12.81 flying 200. My first sprint was against Mike(?) and HarryZ. I started in the lead and just slowly ramped up the whole time. Since rain clouds were coming over the horizon, Josh and I asked if we could sprint against each other. I had the obligation to lead again, so that is what I did. I must have been having an off day or something, because I wasn't following any of my usual sprint checklist. Long story short, Josh beat me pretty handily with an early jump that I took too long to respond to. Before the jump, Chris B was telling me to close up my gap in front of him, which I was trying to do, but I just couldn't ride slow enough to get him to come back up to me. I guess that's something I'll have to work on.
Flying 200: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/228765607
Sprint 1: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/228765601
Sprint 2: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/228765590
Saturday: Went on a boat. Fuck yeah, boats!
Friday: No riding. Perhaps it was raining?
Thursday: I decided to ramble over to Northport in front of some mean looking clouds. Fortunately I stayed dry the whole time. I spent a lot of the ride checking out new areas that I've always meant to look into. I found a nice climb that parallels landing ave, went to a couple of beaches, checked the progress on demolishing the psych center. In Northport propper, I got a terrible latte. Now I'm down another shop that I trust to make me coffee. The ride back was uneventful.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/227569216
NP/IF/TSS: 199W/0.862/186
Wednesday: No riding. Did 5x1 min planks and 2x25rep transverse planks. 2 minutes rest between.
Tuesday: No riding. Did some errands, raked some leaves.
Monday: Figured I would ride out on the mountain bike again. I think I felt more confident this time. I still dabbed two or three times. The couple of steep curvy climbs at the north end still screw me up. There also was a group of like 20 high school girls trail running in the opposite direction. I would probably be annoyed if it wasn't a group of high school girls.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/226615608
NP/IF/TSS: N/A
Flying 200: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/228765607
Sprint 1: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/228765601
Sprint 2: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/228765590
Saturday: Went on a boat. Fuck yeah, boats!
Friday: No riding. Perhaps it was raining?
Thursday: I decided to ramble over to Northport in front of some mean looking clouds. Fortunately I stayed dry the whole time. I spent a lot of the ride checking out new areas that I've always meant to look into. I found a nice climb that parallels landing ave, went to a couple of beaches, checked the progress on demolishing the psych center. In Northport propper, I got a terrible latte. Now I'm down another shop that I trust to make me coffee. The ride back was uneventful.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/227569216
NP/IF/TSS: 199W/0.862/186
Wednesday: No riding. Did 5x1 min planks and 2x25rep transverse planks. 2 minutes rest between.
Tuesday: No riding. Did some errands, raked some leaves.
Monday: Figured I would ride out on the mountain bike again. I think I felt more confident this time. I still dabbed two or three times. The couple of steep curvy climbs at the north end still screw me up. There also was a group of like 20 high school girls trail running in the opposite direction. I would probably be annoyed if it wasn't a group of high school girls.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/226615608
NP/IF/TSS: N/A
18.9.12
2012.43: 9/17 - 9/23
Sunday: I was going to head to Kissena for another sprint training session, but I did not get much sleep at night, so when I tried to wake up, I just kept falling asleep again. I figured this probably wasn't a safe condition under which I should drive to the track, so I just passed out again. Eventually I got up and got guilted into riding despite a complete lack of motivation to do anything. I ended up riding to Port Jeff, looked at that wooden boat rotting away next to the Bayles boat shop, took some photos of some people, then headed back. I saw a lot of squished squirrels on the way back. I guess it's that time of year.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/226274296
NP/IF/TSS: 178W/0.771/84
Saturday: No riding. Did harvest type things with Haley.
Friday: Worked on bikes in the morning with Walter, then headed to syosset to pick up another pair of cleats. On the way in, I almost got hit by a postal truck that was upset I took the lane to cross some very angled railroad tracks. So I took down the truck number and followed it to the post office in syosset, where I complained to the management. Whether they actually did anything about it, I have not a clue, but whatever. I felt good today, and my speed seems to show that.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/225338430
NP/IF/TSS: 214W/0.926/195
Thursday: No riding. I don't really remember why. EDIT: I just remembered I was going to head to NJ to race on their track and then stop at a bicycle film thing in brooklyn on the way back. Why I didn't I still don't remember. Possibly the weather was looking iffy.
Wednesday: I thought about riding the trails again, but I figured they'd be muddy. Instead, I just rode to the usual beaches. I wasn't really feeling it today, so it was mostly an easy ride. I sat on the jetty at west meadow for a while, wishing I was out sailing instead. On the way back, I ran into Ben in stony brook, so we talked for a little while. In the evening I did some planks again. 5x1 min, 2 min rest.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/224708918
NP/IF/TSS: 195W/0.846/160
Tuesday: No riding. Rainy, and I felt like death. I might be getting sick. I mostly just slept and drank lots of water all day.
Monday: Worked on bikes to get some cash to spend on bike parts. I did some planks in the evening. 5x1min with about 2 minutes rest. That's going to be my new off-season thing.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/226274296
NP/IF/TSS: 178W/0.771/84
Saturday: No riding. Did harvest type things with Haley.
Friday: Worked on bikes in the morning with Walter, then headed to syosset to pick up another pair of cleats. On the way in, I almost got hit by a postal truck that was upset I took the lane to cross some very angled railroad tracks. So I took down the truck number and followed it to the post office in syosset, where I complained to the management. Whether they actually did anything about it, I have not a clue, but whatever. I felt good today, and my speed seems to show that.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/225338430
NP/IF/TSS: 214W/0.926/195
Thursday: No riding. I don't really remember why. EDIT: I just remembered I was going to head to NJ to race on their track and then stop at a bicycle film thing in brooklyn on the way back. Why I didn't I still don't remember. Possibly the weather was looking iffy.
Wednesday: I thought about riding the trails again, but I figured they'd be muddy. Instead, I just rode to the usual beaches. I wasn't really feeling it today, so it was mostly an easy ride. I sat on the jetty at west meadow for a while, wishing I was out sailing instead. On the way back, I ran into Ben in stony brook, so we talked for a little while. In the evening I did some planks again. 5x1 min, 2 min rest.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/224708918
NP/IF/TSS: 195W/0.846/160
Tuesday: No riding. Rainy, and I felt like death. I might be getting sick. I mostly just slept and drank lots of water all day.
Monday: Worked on bikes to get some cash to spend on bike parts. I did some planks in the evening. 5x1min with about 2 minutes rest. That's going to be my new off-season thing.
13.9.12
Race: T-Town Fuji Super Tuesdays 8/14 - Pro Men
Tuesday was the final race at T-town for the season. I met up with Keith, Andy and Jen in Brooklyn and we drove over. Steve was able to sneak out of work early and meet us there. We stopped in Jersey for some pizza again, but I wasn't really hungry, so I just had an RC cola. I don't really remember what I ate in the morning, but if it comes to me I'll edit this.
I feel like I say this a lot, but the weather really was near perfect. Zero winds, A few nice looking clouds. It just was getting a little bit chilly through the evening. I think it would have been worthwhile to crack out the leg warmers for between races. Non-team Andrew and Keith were there, as well as Joe. Despite the Pink Rhinos bringing almost half the minimum field size, the fields were combined into one Pro/Stagiare mix. It ended up being a total of 18 riders in our field. To be honest, this dropped my very high spirits a little bit, as I really felt it meant I wouldn't factor at all into the races.
The first race was a 20 lap Points race. The details are fuzzy, but here's what I remember. Steve attacked early, but got brought back around the first sprint. The bell for the first sprint was rung when the lap card said 17 to go, actually. I don't know if that was an error on the bell ringer's part or the lap card guy's part, but either way, the field didn't seem to respond to the bell, so I worked my way up. I think I was either fourth or fifth on that sprint. After this, Keith went off the front with two other guys. I ended up on the front of the pack while they were trying to break away, so I just set a tempo pace. one of the pro riders yelled something at me and came around to set a higher pace. I didn't hear what he said and didn't really care much. They got reeled back in before the second sprint, though. The third sprint saw nothing noteworthy in my mind, and the same could probably be said of the final sprint. I did put in an effort to try to move up, but I was still like 6th place, so I sat up.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/221787609
Next was an elimination. I went into it thinking I could maybe make some moves in this one. We all lined up to the line and were told to roll off. The roll off ended up being a straight up sprint the whole neutral lap with the field already falling apart. Now, I'm not one of those "let's go as slow as we can" neutral lap kind of guys, but I feel like if the field is shredding before the race even starts, the gun probably shouldn't fire until everyone agrees to at least start together. I bet Alan wouldn't have started that race, but I'm sure Marty just wanted to get home to polish his medals or whatever he does. Regardless, Andy was the first one out, Steve came out second, and on the third lap I was confident that I pipped Andrew B at the line, but they called me out. Oh well. Keith stayed in longer and helped to represent the rhino.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/221787602
Around this time was the women's 500m Chariot. Jen was pushed by Steve - the master chariot holder - on the backstretch. I could swear she didn't even have to pedal until turn 1 of the final lap. In the end she held on for fifth place.
After this was the ten lap Scratch. I don't really remember the early part of the race, but eventually Andrew Berstein (another andrew? really?) attacked and I jumped on his wheel. Steve was able to bridge up and we traded some pulls. Andrew would do two lap pulls, I managed half lap pulls. Steve's legs still weren't there so we told him to skip his pull, actually. He ended up sitting up out of the group, but Andrew and I kept chugging. We had about a quarter lap gap on the bell where I was leading my pull. I gave the sprint my best effort, but Andrew came around me for the win. I was completely expecting this and happy to stay ahead of everyone else for second place. Keith was able to get 4th place sprinting in the group.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/221787593
This concluded the omnium. There was a feature race of a 10km (30 lap) Scratch. I was happy with my results for the day, so I sat out and got some beers instead since the beer stand is always closed by the time the feature race is done. Keith also sat out, but Andy and Steve raced. Keith put in a $20 rhino prime, which was a nice gesture. Steve put in some good time at the front of the race and in the end Andy and he came in 6th and 7th.
We all packed up, I stopped by the window hoping that somehow that second place in the third race would get me into the omnium. As fate would have it, it did, and I got $15 for 5th place. Moving up in the world, my friend. After this, Steve and I finished our beers in the shower, and then the five of us headed to a diner to celebrate our last race of the season. Despite some rough bits in the middle of the evening, I know I went into it really excited, and finished on a high, and that's really all I could ask for.
Gearing note: all races were done with a 51x15.
I feel like I say this a lot, but the weather really was near perfect. Zero winds, A few nice looking clouds. It just was getting a little bit chilly through the evening. I think it would have been worthwhile to crack out the leg warmers for between races. Non-team Andrew and Keith were there, as well as Joe. Despite the Pink Rhinos bringing almost half the minimum field size, the fields were combined into one Pro/Stagiare mix. It ended up being a total of 18 riders in our field. To be honest, this dropped my very high spirits a little bit, as I really felt it meant I wouldn't factor at all into the races.
The first race was a 20 lap Points race. The details are fuzzy, but here's what I remember. Steve attacked early, but got brought back around the first sprint. The bell for the first sprint was rung when the lap card said 17 to go, actually. I don't know if that was an error on the bell ringer's part or the lap card guy's part, but either way, the field didn't seem to respond to the bell, so I worked my way up. I think I was either fourth or fifth on that sprint. After this, Keith went off the front with two other guys. I ended up on the front of the pack while they were trying to break away, so I just set a tempo pace. one of the pro riders yelled something at me and came around to set a higher pace. I didn't hear what he said and didn't really care much. They got reeled back in before the second sprint, though. The third sprint saw nothing noteworthy in my mind, and the same could probably be said of the final sprint. I did put in an effort to try to move up, but I was still like 6th place, so I sat up.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/221787609
Next was an elimination. I went into it thinking I could maybe make some moves in this one. We all lined up to the line and were told to roll off. The roll off ended up being a straight up sprint the whole neutral lap with the field already falling apart. Now, I'm not one of those "let's go as slow as we can" neutral lap kind of guys, but I feel like if the field is shredding before the race even starts, the gun probably shouldn't fire until everyone agrees to at least start together. I bet Alan wouldn't have started that race, but I'm sure Marty just wanted to get home to polish his medals or whatever he does. Regardless, Andy was the first one out, Steve came out second, and on the third lap I was confident that I pipped Andrew B at the line, but they called me out. Oh well. Keith stayed in longer and helped to represent the rhino.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/221787602
Around this time was the women's 500m Chariot. Jen was pushed by Steve - the master chariot holder - on the backstretch. I could swear she didn't even have to pedal until turn 1 of the final lap. In the end she held on for fifth place.
After this was the ten lap Scratch. I don't really remember the early part of the race, but eventually Andrew Berstein (another andrew? really?) attacked and I jumped on his wheel. Steve was able to bridge up and we traded some pulls. Andrew would do two lap pulls, I managed half lap pulls. Steve's legs still weren't there so we told him to skip his pull, actually. He ended up sitting up out of the group, but Andrew and I kept chugging. We had about a quarter lap gap on the bell where I was leading my pull. I gave the sprint my best effort, but Andrew came around me for the win. I was completely expecting this and happy to stay ahead of everyone else for second place. Keith was able to get 4th place sprinting in the group.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/221787593
This concluded the omnium. There was a feature race of a 10km (30 lap) Scratch. I was happy with my results for the day, so I sat out and got some beers instead since the beer stand is always closed by the time the feature race is done. Keith also sat out, but Andy and Steve raced. Keith put in a $20 rhino prime, which was a nice gesture. Steve put in some good time at the front of the race and in the end Andy and he came in 6th and 7th.
We all packed up, I stopped by the window hoping that somehow that second place in the third race would get me into the omnium. As fate would have it, it did, and I got $15 for 5th place. Moving up in the world, my friend. After this, Steve and I finished our beers in the shower, and then the five of us headed to a diner to celebrate our last race of the season. Despite some rough bits in the middle of the evening, I know I went into it really excited, and finished on a high, and that's really all I could ask for.
Gearing note: all races were done with a 51x15.
11.9.12
2012.42: 9/10 - 9/16
Sunday: Attended an informal sprint training day at Kissena. See the (non)race report. EDIT: I'll just write it here. Nice temperatures, but a bit gusty. Did my flying 200 in a 50x13, switched to 50x15 for the sprints. My 200 time was the fastest of the day at 12.7s. All the other times were really close, though in the low-mid 13s. I forgot who I sprinted against in the first round, second round was the same guy and Kim, third was Kim, fourth was Chris. We tried some trackstanding, but I still suck at doing it on the banking. Another thing to work on. All in all, it was a great time and some good learning. I think we had 10 riders total.
Flying 200: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/224091883
Sprint 1: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/224091878
Sprint 2: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/224091875
Sprint 3: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/224091870
Sprint 4: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/224091862
Saturday: I decided on a whim to take to the dirt today. I want to incorporate more mountain biking over this off-season and winter. I figure it could help with my core and some different bike handling. My lower back certainly felt tired by the time I was done. I only did one loop of the blue square trail without any black diamonds. This seemed hard enough for me on my SSMTB. That, and it was another late start, so the sun was getting low. Maybe next time I'll aim for a loop and a half or two loops.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/223070410
NP/IF/TSS: N/A
Friday: despite my best efforts to get a terrible night's sleep, I got up in time to head down to Bellport for the friday morning Kreb ride. I probably would have just skipped it again, but I needed to get in touch with Charlie. Fortunately he was there, so that was good. There were a couple of sketchy riders again, which actually might have ended up saving my skin. Heading down from yaphank toward bartlett the pace kept yo-yoing, so I let a gap form so I could stay steady. Just then some car starts to pull out of a driveway and everybody in front of me locks up their brakes instead of just swerving around. Suddenly I had nowhere to go and ran my front wheel into the cassette of the rider in front of me, pushing me into a bit of an endo. I stayed up though, and once again was reminded why I don't bother with that ride much anymore. The rest of the ride was pretty quiet. Charlie and I did some sprints on the backroads at the end of the ride.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/222569372
NP/IF/TSS: 195W/0.845/262
Thursday: Another late start meant just enough time before dinner to head up into Old Field. I originally was just going to hit west meadow beach, but I decided to add in the light house as well. I made a conscious decision to not try for any Strava segments, though. It was a lot of fun to leisurely ride around without any strava pressure.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/222569469
NP/IF/TSS: 192W/0.831/83
Wednesday: Got a late start as I took a nice long nap in the afternoon. Decided to just ride around for the sake of riding around. I hit up the usual beaches, saw Dan's father riding along the way. I think I also saw the guy who almost hit me last year with his boat trailer.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/222063449
NP/IF/TSS: 195W/0.843/81
Tuesday: The final tuesday night race at T-town. See the race report.
Monday: No riding. I thought about it, but when I took my bike out to spin over to the bike shop, I noticed that my gears were slipping and my RD looked tweaked. Turns out my dad knocked my bike over yesterday and didn't feel the need to tell me about it. I re-aligned it in the evening.
Flying 200: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/224091883
Sprint 1: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/224091878
Sprint 2: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/224091875
Sprint 3: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/224091870
Sprint 4: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/224091862
Saturday: I decided on a whim to take to the dirt today. I want to incorporate more mountain biking over this off-season and winter. I figure it could help with my core and some different bike handling. My lower back certainly felt tired by the time I was done. I only did one loop of the blue square trail without any black diamonds. This seemed hard enough for me on my SSMTB. That, and it was another late start, so the sun was getting low. Maybe next time I'll aim for a loop and a half or two loops.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/223070410
NP/IF/TSS: N/A
Friday: despite my best efforts to get a terrible night's sleep, I got up in time to head down to Bellport for the friday morning Kreb ride. I probably would have just skipped it again, but I needed to get in touch with Charlie. Fortunately he was there, so that was good. There were a couple of sketchy riders again, which actually might have ended up saving my skin. Heading down from yaphank toward bartlett the pace kept yo-yoing, so I let a gap form so I could stay steady. Just then some car starts to pull out of a driveway and everybody in front of me locks up their brakes instead of just swerving around. Suddenly I had nowhere to go and ran my front wheel into the cassette of the rider in front of me, pushing me into a bit of an endo. I stayed up though, and once again was reminded why I don't bother with that ride much anymore. The rest of the ride was pretty quiet. Charlie and I did some sprints on the backroads at the end of the ride.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/222569372
NP/IF/TSS: 195W/0.845/262
Thursday: Another late start meant just enough time before dinner to head up into Old Field. I originally was just going to hit west meadow beach, but I decided to add in the light house as well. I made a conscious decision to not try for any Strava segments, though. It was a lot of fun to leisurely ride around without any strava pressure.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/222569469
NP/IF/TSS: 192W/0.831/83
Wednesday: Got a late start as I took a nice long nap in the afternoon. Decided to just ride around for the sake of riding around. I hit up the usual beaches, saw Dan's father riding along the way. I think I also saw the guy who almost hit me last year with his boat trailer.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/222063449
NP/IF/TSS: 195W/0.843/81
Tuesday: The final tuesday night race at T-town. See the race report.
Monday: No riding. I thought about it, but when I took my bike out to spin over to the bike shop, I noticed that my gears were slipping and my RD looked tweaked. Turns out my dad knocked my bike over yesterday and didn't feel the need to tell me about it. I re-aligned it in the evening.
10.9.12
Race: Lehigh Laps - Men's Open
I suppose this race deserves a preface. Here's the deal. I didn't know this race existed until Andrew B posted about it on facebook. Looking at it, I got really excited about racing, but then I realized I'd have to get up stupidly early in order to get to t-town on time. Further to that, I realized I would be at my cousin's wedding the day/night before, so I would most likely be hung over and aching from dancing. At this point it was pretty much decided that I wouldn't race, but then I got a call from Steve during the wedding service. As it turns out, he was the only 1/2/3 registered so far, with some pretty good prize payouts. So there I am in the parking lot after the newly weds walked out of the church registering for a race on Amanda's iphone. I tried to play it conservative the rest of the night. I still stuffed my face with all kinds of delicous wedding goodness, but I kept the dancing and drinking light and actually headed home before the cake cutting (it was like 10pm already).
Sunday morning I woke up at stupid o'clock (roughly 4:30am EST), threw on some clothes, added some more bluegrass to my mp3 player, and headed out the door. Fortunately, I had the presence of mind to pack the night before - although I did forget my aero bars for the 4km pursuit. I got on the road about 5am, and got to Steve's by a few minutes after 6. Interesting side story: the gate to Steve's place was closed, which is on a nature preserve type deal, so I also didn't get any cell reception. I was able to send off a text to him, but I really wasn't sure if it would get lost in the aether of space, so I took a look at the gate system. Lucky for me, the side gate next to the main gate wasn't actually locked, so I just popped that open and drove through. I did end up meeting steve along the driveway, so I guess he got my text.
Anyhow. We packed up and headed out around 6:30. The traffic was light for once, so we had no trouble there. We did accidentally put ourselves on the 22 for a while, though, but it's still pretty direct. Along the way, we also stopped for some coffee and cheese danishes at a truck stop with a very energetic cashier. I certainly was not energetic at that point in the morning. At this point, we realized we might have actually left too late, which really would have sucked. Technically registration ended at 8:45am, with racing starting at 9am. We arrived at 8:59. Steve unpacked all the gear, while I ran over to the promoters to make sure we were still good to ride. The group running the race were really nice, though, and they had no problem with us still racing.
Up first for us was a flying 200. I changed my gear to a 50x13, put my skinsuit on and suddenly I hear my name called for staging. No number, no warmup, shoes in hands I ran over to the starter. The 200's were started right at the transition from the infield ramp to the warm-up circle, so the ride would be 2.5 laps. I put my shoes on (sans shoe covers), hopped on my bike and rolled off. My legs were cold and I was tired, but I gave it my best half-assed effort. First lap low and slow, moving up track, picking up speed. The bell rings and I start to put on the gas. I realized I wasn't really super high up by the rail before I swung down, which Steve called me out on later. Oh well. I dropped down right about the middle of turn 2 and just kept my head down. The high gear felt alright, I didn't feel fully on top of it, but I wasn't bogged down. Regardless, it was good enough for the fastest flying 200 time of anybody with a 12.20.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/220968645
Next came the 4k pursuit. We were the last group in the schedule with collegiate women and C/D riders doing 500m, A/B with kilos, then women 2km pursuit, A/B 4km, C/D 2km. It was a long enough wait that I realized a couple of times that I've only done 1 race so far in the day. I would hop on the rollers from time to time, but mostly I just sat around. I talked to Travis a bit. He's a C/D rider who was at the labor day meet. It'll be interesting watching him progress on the track. Steve and I were finally called up to stage for our pursuits. I was debating on stepping up my gear, but Steve convinced me to stick with a gear that I'm used to riding, so I stick with my 50x15. I started on the backstretch, Steve on the homestretch. The gun fired and I started the dullest 12 laps of my life. I threw advice to the wind and went for a hard start up to speed, which gave me a few seconds on Steve. From that point, I just tried to maintain a fast pace, and always check that I was ahead of him at the pursuit lines. Our first lap was around 30mph, and it slowly dropped through the race to just under 27mph. I was still feeling pretty fresh with 2 to go, but I didn't want to risk blowing up just before the end, so I waited until the bell lap to ramp up the pace. I got it back up to 30mph and brought it home. I think Steve ended up doing the exact same thing, as our splits were consistently about 2 seconds different. I finished with a final time of 5:27.40, which was the second fastest time across all riders.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/220968633
The schedule originally had a separate 1/2/3 and 3/4 field, but since Steve and I were the only 1/2/3's and Mark and Sean were the only 3/4's racing the mass start events, we were combined as a 1/2/3/4 field. This still left us with only 4 racers for a 24 lap points race, which sounded none too fun, so the promoters also added in the collegiate A/B field for a super-combined 24 lap Points mega fun race. From what I could tell, the two fields would be scored separately, but I figured it would be in my best interest to win it outright, just to be sure. Steve and I agreed that the biggest threat to that would be west point, who had something like six riders in the field. The pace started hot, which I think was set by me and then Steve. Army had a few riders who were content with setting a fast tempo, which was fine with me. The first sprint saw Sean attacking the group, but I was able to come around him. We pulled up track and waited for the group. It's interesting to see how the race dynamic changes depending on the number of laps between sprints. This race had sprints every six laps, which I felt resulted in a less overall aggressive race. It certainly gave you plenty of time to recover between sprints. From what I remember, the second sprint saw me leading the pack in turn 4 before the bell, so that one was a long sprint around, which I also took. The race was starting to split up around this point, so the front was three army guys, steve and me. I think somewhere between the first and second sprint Steve looked set to break away with me, but I wasn't sure how easily Army would be able to reel us back in, so I opted to just sit in the pack. The last two sprints basically played out the same. We all took even pulls, except for one of the army guys, so I figured he was probably the sprinter to look for, but I never really saw him trying to come around me on the bell laps. I took both sprints, and the overall win. The promoters were originally not too sure about combining the A/B riders with us, but I think it definitely played out to a much more interesting race.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/220968620
After this was a 5km Scratch with just the 1/2/3/4 field. Since there was only four of us at the rail, the official asked if we would be too deeply upset if they dropped it down to 4km. We all were fine with that with both Steve and me separately saying "Well, that's 1k per person". That's how you know you're team mates. We rolled off and the race started. There were two $25 primes mixed in to the race. The first one seemed to come right away, maybe the second or third lap. Sean gave it a go, but I was able to catch him and pass him to pick it up. The second prime came around halfway through the race, where I attacked and Sean tried coming up around me. I got that one, too, and the race continued. At the final sprint, Steve attacked at the beginning of the bell lap, and I drag raced him to the line. I took the win, Steve second. Afterward, I started to think about how I presented myself in that race, specifically the primes. On one hand, I really wanted the money (as it turns out with all my payouts and expenses, I only netted $10) and I figure it's almost disingenuous to not put your best effort into a sprint, but on the other hand Sean did work really hard for both of those sprints, and I don't think he came out with a payout. What would a classier rider do? Is winning really everything? I'm not sure. I think If I did it again, I would probably let him win one.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/220968603
The final event on the schedule was the match sprints. There was one other rider registered for the 3/4 field who only wanted to do the sprints, Camille. Since this left us with an odd number of sprinters in the 1/2/3/4 field, it was somehow decided that since I had the fastest flying 200 time, I got a 'bye', or basically instant entry into the finals. I had never heard of that before, but I was all for it. In the end, Sean had to head out early, so we were back down to four racers. It was run as Steve vs me for 1st and 2nd, Mark vs Camille for 3rd and 4th. One run each. I decided to up my gear a little bit to 51x15, to hopefully get a little more top end. Our race started pretty innocent. Steve had the obligation to lead, but we stayed pretty much even with each other the whole race. I went straight up to the boards and the pace slowly picked up the whole way around. It's funny, I thought steve was forcing the pace, but really he was just trying to box me in and I was trying to get ahead of him. At one point, I tried to get behind him to cut downtrack, but he wouldn't allow it, so I had to try a long attack over him. He cut down to the pole lane to try to force me to go around him the long way, but I was able to get ahead of him for the win.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/220968590
This concluded the omnium, with me in first, steve in second. Since there were less than 10 starters, the prize list was cut in half, but I still won $40 and steve won $25. I split my primes with him for gas money. We packed up as some angry looking clouds floated by, but there was no rain. A quick shower, then we talked to the promoters for a bit. We talked about what we felt was good with the event and what could be improved, but the overall impression of the race was really positive. We agreed that doing both sprints and pursuits leads to a very long day, so we'll see what the schedule looks like next year. I certainly look forward to racing at it again.
On a final note, thank you to Lamprey Systems for the prime donations. Thanks to the officials and promoters, and of course everyone who raced. It was a ton of fun.
EDIT: two other notes:
1- My shoes were really killing my feet by the end of the day. I wonder if this means I'll have to invest in different track shoes. It's not like they feel too tight, I think the problem is that right by where my little toe sits are these circular ventilation holes in the inside layer of leather, which presses into my toe. Maybe I can pad that area some how.
2- Granted, as army cadets, the USMA riders are probably used to being yelled at a lot, but it was rather off putting to me to hear their coach yelling at them all the time. Particularly to the women riders. Generally with bad coaching advice. I feel like if something like this happened when I was first getting into racing on my collegiate team, I would have given up out of sheer annoyance.
Further edit:
results are posted here.
Sunday morning I woke up at stupid o'clock (roughly 4:30am EST), threw on some clothes, added some more bluegrass to my mp3 player, and headed out the door. Fortunately, I had the presence of mind to pack the night before - although I did forget my aero bars for the 4km pursuit. I got on the road about 5am, and got to Steve's by a few minutes after 6. Interesting side story: the gate to Steve's place was closed, which is on a nature preserve type deal, so I also didn't get any cell reception. I was able to send off a text to him, but I really wasn't sure if it would get lost in the aether of space, so I took a look at the gate system. Lucky for me, the side gate next to the main gate wasn't actually locked, so I just popped that open and drove through. I did end up meeting steve along the driveway, so I guess he got my text.
Anyhow. We packed up and headed out around 6:30. The traffic was light for once, so we had no trouble there. We did accidentally put ourselves on the 22 for a while, though, but it's still pretty direct. Along the way, we also stopped for some coffee and cheese danishes at a truck stop with a very energetic cashier. I certainly was not energetic at that point in the morning. At this point, we realized we might have actually left too late, which really would have sucked. Technically registration ended at 8:45am, with racing starting at 9am. We arrived at 8:59. Steve unpacked all the gear, while I ran over to the promoters to make sure we were still good to ride. The group running the race were really nice, though, and they had no problem with us still racing.
Up first for us was a flying 200. I changed my gear to a 50x13, put my skinsuit on and suddenly I hear my name called for staging. No number, no warmup, shoes in hands I ran over to the starter. The 200's were started right at the transition from the infield ramp to the warm-up circle, so the ride would be 2.5 laps. I put my shoes on (sans shoe covers), hopped on my bike and rolled off. My legs were cold and I was tired, but I gave it my best half-assed effort. First lap low and slow, moving up track, picking up speed. The bell rings and I start to put on the gas. I realized I wasn't really super high up by the rail before I swung down, which Steve called me out on later. Oh well. I dropped down right about the middle of turn 2 and just kept my head down. The high gear felt alright, I didn't feel fully on top of it, but I wasn't bogged down. Regardless, it was good enough for the fastest flying 200 time of anybody with a 12.20.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/220968645
Next came the 4k pursuit. We were the last group in the schedule with collegiate women and C/D riders doing 500m, A/B with kilos, then women 2km pursuit, A/B 4km, C/D 2km. It was a long enough wait that I realized a couple of times that I've only done 1 race so far in the day. I would hop on the rollers from time to time, but mostly I just sat around. I talked to Travis a bit. He's a C/D rider who was at the labor day meet. It'll be interesting watching him progress on the track. Steve and I were finally called up to stage for our pursuits. I was debating on stepping up my gear, but Steve convinced me to stick with a gear that I'm used to riding, so I stick with my 50x15. I started on the backstretch, Steve on the homestretch. The gun fired and I started the dullest 12 laps of my life. I threw advice to the wind and went for a hard start up to speed, which gave me a few seconds on Steve. From that point, I just tried to maintain a fast pace, and always check that I was ahead of him at the pursuit lines. Our first lap was around 30mph, and it slowly dropped through the race to just under 27mph. I was still feeling pretty fresh with 2 to go, but I didn't want to risk blowing up just before the end, so I waited until the bell lap to ramp up the pace. I got it back up to 30mph and brought it home. I think Steve ended up doing the exact same thing, as our splits were consistently about 2 seconds different. I finished with a final time of 5:27.40, which was the second fastest time across all riders.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/220968633
The schedule originally had a separate 1/2/3 and 3/4 field, but since Steve and I were the only 1/2/3's and Mark and Sean were the only 3/4's racing the mass start events, we were combined as a 1/2/3/4 field. This still left us with only 4 racers for a 24 lap points race, which sounded none too fun, so the promoters also added in the collegiate A/B field for a super-combined 24 lap Points mega fun race. From what I could tell, the two fields would be scored separately, but I figured it would be in my best interest to win it outright, just to be sure. Steve and I agreed that the biggest threat to that would be west point, who had something like six riders in the field. The pace started hot, which I think was set by me and then Steve. Army had a few riders who were content with setting a fast tempo, which was fine with me. The first sprint saw Sean attacking the group, but I was able to come around him. We pulled up track and waited for the group. It's interesting to see how the race dynamic changes depending on the number of laps between sprints. This race had sprints every six laps, which I felt resulted in a less overall aggressive race. It certainly gave you plenty of time to recover between sprints. From what I remember, the second sprint saw me leading the pack in turn 4 before the bell, so that one was a long sprint around, which I also took. The race was starting to split up around this point, so the front was three army guys, steve and me. I think somewhere between the first and second sprint Steve looked set to break away with me, but I wasn't sure how easily Army would be able to reel us back in, so I opted to just sit in the pack. The last two sprints basically played out the same. We all took even pulls, except for one of the army guys, so I figured he was probably the sprinter to look for, but I never really saw him trying to come around me on the bell laps. I took both sprints, and the overall win. The promoters were originally not too sure about combining the A/B riders with us, but I think it definitely played out to a much more interesting race.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/220968620
After this was a 5km Scratch with just the 1/2/3/4 field. Since there was only four of us at the rail, the official asked if we would be too deeply upset if they dropped it down to 4km. We all were fine with that with both Steve and me separately saying "Well, that's 1k per person". That's how you know you're team mates. We rolled off and the race started. There were two $25 primes mixed in to the race. The first one seemed to come right away, maybe the second or third lap. Sean gave it a go, but I was able to catch him and pass him to pick it up. The second prime came around halfway through the race, where I attacked and Sean tried coming up around me. I got that one, too, and the race continued. At the final sprint, Steve attacked at the beginning of the bell lap, and I drag raced him to the line. I took the win, Steve second. Afterward, I started to think about how I presented myself in that race, specifically the primes. On one hand, I really wanted the money (as it turns out with all my payouts and expenses, I only netted $10) and I figure it's almost disingenuous to not put your best effort into a sprint, but on the other hand Sean did work really hard for both of those sprints, and I don't think he came out with a payout. What would a classier rider do? Is winning really everything? I'm not sure. I think If I did it again, I would probably let him win one.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/220968603
The final event on the schedule was the match sprints. There was one other rider registered for the 3/4 field who only wanted to do the sprints, Camille. Since this left us with an odd number of sprinters in the 1/2/3/4 field, it was somehow decided that since I had the fastest flying 200 time, I got a 'bye', or basically instant entry into the finals. I had never heard of that before, but I was all for it. In the end, Sean had to head out early, so we were back down to four racers. It was run as Steve vs me for 1st and 2nd, Mark vs Camille for 3rd and 4th. One run each. I decided to up my gear a little bit to 51x15, to hopefully get a little more top end. Our race started pretty innocent. Steve had the obligation to lead, but we stayed pretty much even with each other the whole race. I went straight up to the boards and the pace slowly picked up the whole way around. It's funny, I thought steve was forcing the pace, but really he was just trying to box me in and I was trying to get ahead of him. At one point, I tried to get behind him to cut downtrack, but he wouldn't allow it, so I had to try a long attack over him. He cut down to the pole lane to try to force me to go around him the long way, but I was able to get ahead of him for the win.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/220968590
This concluded the omnium, with me in first, steve in second. Since there were less than 10 starters, the prize list was cut in half, but I still won $40 and steve won $25. I split my primes with him for gas money. We packed up as some angry looking clouds floated by, but there was no rain. A quick shower, then we talked to the promoters for a bit. We talked about what we felt was good with the event and what could be improved, but the overall impression of the race was really positive. We agreed that doing both sprints and pursuits leads to a very long day, so we'll see what the schedule looks like next year. I certainly look forward to racing at it again.
On a final note, thank you to Lamprey Systems for the prime donations. Thanks to the officials and promoters, and of course everyone who raced. It was a ton of fun.
EDIT: two other notes:
1- My shoes were really killing my feet by the end of the day. I wonder if this means I'll have to invest in different track shoes. It's not like they feel too tight, I think the problem is that right by where my little toe sits are these circular ventilation holes in the inside layer of leather, which presses into my toe. Maybe I can pad that area some how.
2- Granted, as army cadets, the USMA riders are probably used to being yelled at a lot, but it was rather off putting to me to hear their coach yelling at them all the time. Particularly to the women riders. Generally with bad coaching advice. I feel like if something like this happened when I was first getting into racing on my collegiate team, I would have given up out of sheer annoyance.
Further edit:
results are posted here.
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