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.
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