Race: LI Cyclocross #2 12/4

Today was race number two of the LICX series. I had said that I would help set up and possibly race, but I was very tempted to just stay home and sleep through it, as I got minimal sleep throughout the night. However, my current aspirations to not be an asshole prevailed and i dragged myself out of bed. After having a minimal breakfast due to bugs eating my chocolate chips (stupid bugs), I rode to the course and got to work. After set-up, I did some warm-up laps of the course trying to think of any excuse not to race. This is what I came up with:

-Too tired

-Not enough nutrition

-Sore from roller racing

-Should probably help as a course marshal

-Poor shifting

-Forgot my race license

Of course, Gregory and Chris convinced me to still give it a go, even if to ride easy. I did another lap and felt a little better and then lined up for the start. I started mid-rear of the pack, as I had no aspirations to do well at all. The start of the first lap up until the barrier I was able to make up some ground, however, but then over the next lap or two, I started dropping back again. My lower back started killing me and I decided to throw in the towel after the third lap. I went through half the race, which was good enough for me. In hindsight, had I kept up with it, I probably would have done better than I thought, but whatever. There's always next week.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/132784965

2012.01: Base 1 Week 1

I never get used to the feeling of writing the first post of each training year.

Total Time: 07:02:25

Sunday: Helped out at LICX race number two. See the above race report. Here's the data coming and going, however:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/132784969

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/132784963

Saturday: Still sore, late start, so just a short ride. I didn't bring my gloves, since I thought it wasn't too cold out. Must just have been a warm air bubble around my house, because I was freezing as soon as I left.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/132460213

NP/IF/TSS: 166W/0.639/41

Friday: My legs were pretty sore from the previous night's activities, so I just rode a simple recovery/base ride to the lighthouse and back.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/132460224

NP/IF/TSS: 169/0.649/64

Thursday: Raced in the city at nyvelocity's 'Drink Floyd' CRCA Junior fundraiser roller races. I didn't do as well as I had hoped, but completely as well as I had expected, so no loss there. I more or less ended up 5th, behind two national champs and big Al and his teammate. But really, if you think about it (il)logically, since Al and his teammate were sharing the same shoes and bike, that's basically like one person, and pros really are in their own league, so naturally I came in second among the local amateurs. Thank you, positive spin. In reality, I was very happy to be out of the running by the time I did, because for a little while after my 3rd round, I thought I might pass out and/or die. Fortunately, a short time of wretching on the floor and clinging to walls and I was good as new. Insert a useful lesson on proper nutrition and not overexerting yourself here. Here's the gconnect data:

Seeding TT:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/132220252

1k Rounds:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/132220249

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/132220246

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/132220241

500m Rep:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/132220237

Wednesday: Did some acceleration and max cadence work on the rollers to prep for roller racing tomorrow night. We'll see how that goes.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/131985787

Tuesday: Endurance ride with a stop at the Kreb Cycle to pay for a friday night race that I didn't have cash for at the time. Upon leaving, I heard a clicking by my front tire which I couldn't wipe away with my hand. Turns out it was a carpet tack jammed into my tire. My natural reaction was to pull it out to see how long it was, but this of course meant my tire deflated immediately, and I had to walk back to the shop which was fortunately right down the street. I changed tubes at the shop so I could use the floor pump instead of my C02 inflator and continued on my ride. I abbreviated it slightly on account of the delay as well as an excuse to check out some less traveled roads.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/131767561

NP/IF/TSS: 159W/0.611/132

Monday: Rest day. Did some rock climbing with Dave for an hour or two.

2012: A Look Ahead

The next season is upon me. I look to it with indifference and a lack of motivation. I think it was the extra time off that I took this year, but I just do not even want to begin the training regimen. However, the fact of the matter is here we are, so training must occur. I've decided that my main focus for next year will be track racing. I'm hoping to go to more wednesday night races, as well as a few (or more) tuesday night t-town races. Perhaps if the season goes well, even some Friday nights. Oh Friday nights. The big league.

Here are the goals that I've come up with for this season:
1. 1:15 Kilo - This is the same time as I foolishly chose two seasons ago. Let's hope I can come out ahead this time.
2. Top 5 at Kissena Opening Weekend and State Championships. Don't fix what ain't broke.
3. Qualify for Elite Track National Championships. I have my eyes to the stars this year. Of course I'll have to change this if they don't have qualifiers again. In that case, I'll probably switch to qualify for all races at elite nats (via a Cat2 upgrade).

The A races that I've chosen so far are Opening Weekend at Kissena and NY State Champs. In addition to this, I have the elite international omnium nationals and standard elite nationals dates on my calendar. My training plan is still a little fuzzy as to what I will do to peak for these after opening weekend, but I'll just play it by feel.

2011.51: 11/14-11/20 - two weeks left

Well there are only two weeks left until my 2012 season. I'm still having trouble getting motivated for the riding in the cold. Hopefully once it hits I'll just learn to deal. But I sure won't be happy about it. I haven't been riding much lately as I've been getting over an achilles tendon problem after doing two long rides a couple of weeks back. I'm starting to think maybe I'll post my rides as those little embedded strava things. maybe i'll stick with gconnect, but embed as well. The times are changing.

Thursday- Did 3x10 squats, then some pushups.

Wednesday- Transverse planks, crunches.

And here, I'm going to test this embedding stuff. Here's my ride to bear mountain that destroyed my achilles:

NP/IF: 173 / 0.66

2011.49: A look back.

Here we come to the end of the season. I actually still have a few weeks left, but I'm just bored, I figured I would get this out of the way and move on to prep for 2012. So how did I do this year? Let's take a look:

Season Goals:

-1.16.5 kilo

-Top 5 Opening Weekend and States

-Top 10 cat4 road race

As for the kilo, my fastest time was at States this year with a 1:16.11, so hooray for me! 1-0

Opening weekend I managed first overall after winning the kilo with a 1:17.41, the team sprints with Andy and Siraaj at 1:31.33, the points race, and the miss and out. I also had a second place in the scratch and third in the match sprints. Good job me, that's half the goal.

At states I was able to get second overall with a first place team sprint with Colin and Alan at 1:28.28. I also got second in the kilo with the 1:16.11, as well as third in sprints and second in the points race. All of this I attribute to only 8 1/2/3's showing up. Regardless, this means my goals are now 2-0. woo-ha!

Goal 3? yeah, fuck goal 3. I didn't do a single cat 4 road race. I registered for one. But I didn't go. 2-1, I'll still take it.

Notable other accomplishments for this season include:

-Upgrade to 4 on the road. hey, it's a start

-Upgrade to 3 on the track. Riding with the big boys.

-First overall at the International Omnium

All told, I'd say this was another successful season, and I look forward to 2012. Thanks to all who helped me out this year.

2011.47-49: Weekly recap

So what have I been doing lately, you ask? Well let me tell you. nothing. Actually, that's a slight lie, two tuesdays ago (10/18) I went to Kissena to do some work with my aerobars as well as some flying 200's. I used a 50x16 gear, so nothing race pace. Mostly just trying to find a better line. Here's the data:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/122766785

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/122766780

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/122766778

Feel free to analyze that until your heart's content. And then let me know what the data says, because I still haven't even looked at it. I've been too busy since then with a sore throat turned sinus infection. It's been kicking my butt so much.

I finally got out on the road on 10/28. It was the first really cold day here. I rode with Ron and Art of SBRA. Not much to report, all three of us had a hard time with the ride at one point or another.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/124971821

You know what? I was going to do a seasonal recap of 2011, but I'm going to save that for its own post.

2011.41-44: 9/5-10/2

um...Well hello there. I seem to have had a blog at some point. I guess I should get back into this.

But in reality, what has been happening in the past few weeks? Not much. I've been riding the fixie occasionally. Then I did this bike tour in mid september. It was pretty cool. Then I didn't ride at all. So there's that. Looking to the future, I'm going to say don't really expect many updates until next year's season starts up again. There's been some talk about maybe doing some fall training sessions at the track, so I'll try to hit those up. I think next year I'm going to race track more or less exclusively (which isn't much different from this year), but with the goal of going to nationals. And hopefully doing well there. Up until next season starts though, I'm still planning on taking it easy, maybe doing some sailing. Time will tell. Just keep looking here occasionally. There'll be some updates soon.