2010.40-41: 8/30-9/12 (i'm rollin' on, just rollin' on)

well, if you haven't guessed now that my season is over, this blog is going to get pretty quiet. i'll see you in december. as for riding and/or training, here we go:

Week of 9/6:

Thursday: rode to roadworx (shop of the gods, they say) to order some parts for my powertap wheel. i don't know if i've mentioned this before, but i'm building up a powertap wheel. in case that wasn't obvious from the previous sentence. as for the ride, it was windy, and i felt slow. same old, same old. one interesting anecdote to add though: i rode past a building with two flagpoles, maybe 20 feet apart. one flag was pointed straight out from the wind, and the other was hanging straight down, seemingly without any wind. weird.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/48424412

Wednesday: rode before work. felt sluggish again. i've been feeling that way a lot lately.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/48424423

week of 8/30:

Friday: Rode with Kurt through the hurricane. We were hoping to stop at roadworx (the crown jewel of bike shops) so he could get fit on his new cannondale, but things didn't work out. instead, we did some hills and whatnot.

Time: 02:37:27

Distance: 40.30mi

Speed: 15.4/35.5mph

Cadence: 84/120rpm

HR: 141/185bpm

wednesday: rode with danny. we both kind of felt like crap.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/47596132

Time: 01:30:12

Distance: 25.55 mi

Speed: 17.0 / 35.1mph
Cadence: N/A

HR: N/A

2010.37-39 Peak and Race weeks

Alright, so my adoring readers might have noticed a lack of posts lately. I've been away. I like to fine tune my form by not riding and instead gorging myself while on a cruise to alaska. I did ride the exercise bike on the ship 3 times. it was painful, but not in any good way. See the race report post for, well, my race report of state championships.

Looking at my garmin calendar, I did ride the day before states. so here's some data:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/46782976

Time: 00:49:52

Distance: 14.71 mi

Speed: 17.7/35.6 mph

Cadence: 93/141 rpm

HR: 169/194 bpm

RACE: New York Track Cycling State Championships

Alright. Weather: warm to hot. not very windy to slightly windy. sunny. definitely sunny. Saturday: Managed to do the same as at opening weekend, which was spend so much time on my warmup gear (49x16) that I didn't warm up in my race gear (49x15) at all for the kilo. That's always a fun suprise trying to turn that over for the first time in the day.

Kilo: Started on the backstretch, which meant finishing on the homestretch. I felt like the start was good. I sat in turn 3 already, which i think might have been too early. Stood up again on the homestretch on the first lap to kick it up a little. had the usual trouble staying on the red line (what else is new?). I felt strong at the end, and ended up with second behind mike W, who i've been told has basically been training for that event and that event alone, so more power to him. he deserves it. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/46782968

Points: Don't really remember what happened anymore, maybe someone will post video. All i remember is Steve Marmo was really breaking my legs with the pace. He's a strong guy. He won it, I got second again. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/46782966

Win'n'out: not a state event, but still for the omnium. I tried to jump later than normal, and kept it up. first for me. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/46782961

Sunday: got to the track really early. rode in both gears, even put on the 50t chainring.

Flying 200's: wound up a little late, i think. took my own personal line, which is the opposite of everyone else's line. got 8th seed with a 13.454 or something. i didn't really care. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/46782958

1st sprint: 3-up against scott savory and andy da silva. andy tried to help me out, but i didn't even really try. scott just psyches me out way too much. he has more endurance, more sprint, and more experience/tactics, so how can i win? dumb luck. regardless, scott advanced. I also have to add in here that Karl showed up to race today. In his first sprint, he kilo'd to the win. and it was glorious.

1st sprint repechage: i think it was a 4 up with marmo being the main rival. i almost got it, but was half a bike behind marmo at the line. that ended my sprint.

Scratch: Karl and I couldn't figure out any tactics beforehand, so we decided to just wing it. it ended up being karl, steve and me rotating on the front (why did i feel the need to be there?) until i asked karl to push the pace at around 4 to go. at 2 to go i had the genius idea to try to jump off the front and try to suprise everyone. little did i know scott was right behind me. they all passed in turn 4 on the last lap, and i sat up to come in 6th out of 7. keep this in mind, as omnium points only go 5 deep. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/46782954

then there were more sprints.

then there was the team sprint. There was a small amount of drama regarding the teams, with harry and scott supposing to be on a team, then scott moving to a different team, siraaj not being sure if he'd race, me not being sure if i could make it friday, the whole race being moved to sunday, etc. eventually it was steve, mike mahesh, stephen smith on one team, siraaj, scott, anthony freeman on another, and karl, andy da silva and me on the third. scott's team went up against a cat 5 team, and we went up against steve. scott beat the cat 5's (suprise, suprise), and we beat steve, but we didn't know the times. in the end scott's team got first, we got second. the results just came out today, turns out we were only .05 off from them. i'm sorry, but that's bullshit, at least when they're timed with stopwatches. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/46782950

omnium: i was in the lead from the second race on, until the team sprint. scott savory ended up with the same number of points as me, and ended with the gold as he had more firsts. i got second again. that's 4 silvers for me, 4 golds for him. he certainly deserved it as he absolutely is the fastest cat 4, and i had more than ample chance to maintain my points. for the future, i'll try not to screw up so much.

RACE: Kissena Twilight Track Series 8/4

Well the forecast originally called for thunderstorms, but they cleared the radar in time to race. I took the train in this time, as karl was doing stuff that wasn't racing. I met a guy on the train going in that said his brother won the gold in rome in 1960 for the kilo. i assume he meant the olympics, but wikipedia does not agree. shrug. anyhow, got to jamaica, rode to the track in time. raced. here's a rundown:

Chapter 1: Unknown Tempo. Basically a tempo race at unknown distance. scott tried to break off the front at first, i bridged and tried to keep a two man break type deal. he gave up though, so i just kept off the front for the rest of the race. i just got lucky with the distance they decided on. another lap and i would have been toast. data:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/43208901

Chapter 2: 4 lap scratch. somehow I managed to get myself at the front and then lead the entire scratch, until around turn 3 of the last lap. where i was promptly passed by just about everyone. siraaj was pretty firmly on my wheel, and despite my elbow flickingest, he stayed behind me. whatever. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/43208898

Chapter 3: Points race: almost took the first set of points, but siraaj pipped me at the line. nothing to write home about on the next two sprints. I think it was 5th and 5th for one point each. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/43208897

Thus ended the omnium. savory took lead, siraaj eked out 2nd, i sucked it up into 3rd.

Epilogue: A feature. Tailgunned until about 2 to go where I happened to have moved up the pack just as an attack went. I attacked, too. ended up passing attack the first, tried to hold it until the line, but prensky and savory passed me like i wasn't moving in turn 4 on the last lap. took 3rd though. at least i got that much. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/43208893

In conclusion: I raced. Didn't necessarily race tactically. word on the street is savory might do cat 4 track states. there goes my chances.

2010.36: 8/2-8/8 Build 2 Week such-and-such

Sunday: probably no riding. I don't really remember.

Saturday: recovery ride before work. it was fun. yup.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/43508037

Time: 00:45:30

Distance: 12.12mi
Speed: 16.0/31.4mph
Cadence: 88/116 rpm
HR: 132/168bpm

Friday: ffffuuuuuudge. woke up early for the friday kreb ride. what a clusterfuck. It's been a while since I've done it, and I guess now that it's summer every lance wannabe thinks he can hang at the front. The pace was retarded, constantly surge and brake, surge and brake. And since the fucking idiots up front were too busy pretending they were hot shit, they didn't point out a few garbage cans that almost took me and a few others out. I ended up pushing the cans out of the way as I passed, which some lady bitched at me for after the ride. "You know, I didn't appreciate that". Well know what? I didn't appreciate almost fucking running into them, so you can fuck off. I ended up jumping off the front and taking a longer route for a bit just to cool off a bit. Any more time with those knuckleheads and we would have come to blows. In the end, my average dropped a half mph between getting to the ride and finishing it. That's just wrong.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/43426366

Time: 02:23:34

Distance: 46.32 mi

Speed: 19.4/31.6 mph

Cadence: 97/129 rpm

HR: 163/196bpm

I rode again in the evening with some friends from work. One of them is just getting into cycling. It's awesome. Coincidentally, we rode to bellport again, where we got root beer floats and some fries. all in all, it was a blast. i tried the ol' superman descending technique on the way back. I can get into it, but I still don't know how to clip back in once i'm all horizontal like. fortunately for me, i just kind of rode into some dirt and fell over. graceful? no. effective? sure. good thing i think at this point they expect me to do something stupid at least once in a day.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/43426362

Time: 02:16:08

Distance: 35.08mi

Speed: 15.5/33.5mph

Cadence: 87/138rpm
HR: 145/180bpm

Thursday: took it easy. I don't want to get too strong, you know. Then I would just make everyone else feel bad about how much slower they are than me. yeah, that's it...

Wednesday: just raced at the track. no pre-race ride or anything. check the race report.

Tuesday: Rode the rollers after work. Painful, that's what it was. I don't know if I had the resistance higher than normal, or i'm just slower than normal, but it wasn't easy. 2x15min's.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/43083261

Monday: rest day. as if i needed it.

RACE: Kissena Twilight Track Series 7/28

Alright, raced yesterday. As such, lets us take a romp down old memory lane....

It seemed like it was only a week ago, that fateful day...that happened to be yesterday. The distant past.

...Anyhow. Yes, racing. Went in with Karl. The track schedule was as such: 12 lap win and out, 6 lap snowball, (stupid) chariot, and if possible, the A feature, a 12 lap (which ended up only being 10 lap) devil's scratch.

Karl and I decided on some good old fashioned tactics again, for the first race we decided that i would try to jump off the front (as is my way), and try to win the first sprint. after that, who knows. in order to be sneaky, I aimed for the second lap instead of straight from the gun. Well, it ended up working, but slightly. Siraaj made a good effort and almost caught me, but didn't. so there's that. Then Karl won the second place sprint. Talk about domination. here's data:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/42257155

Second race was the snowball, Karl and i decided that he would go for the early points, and I would try to win the big points at the end. I don't think we could have worked it better. Karl made sure to point out one useful piece of advice to me: don't end up in the back. Well, suffice it to say, by the end of the neutral lap i was all the way in the back. I thusly spent the next few laps trying to get to the front while karl swept the points. In a bit of perfect timing, right as he sat up, I made it to the front and jumped, staying ahead for the last 3 laps. boo-yah. Again it was 1st for me and 2nd for karl. more data:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/42257150

Then there were the chariots. Alan decided on doing two heats to determine the final chariot group. Karl and I were in the same heat, along with siraaj. Unfortunately, he pulled out of his pedal, which happened to be fortunate for me because i'm sure i wouldn't have advanced if he were in it. Both Karl and I advanced to the final, which Karl won, and I got fourth. No data, I didn't even bother to record it.

This put Karl and me into the A feature, with Karl one point ahead of me. I decided on the same strategy the last time I did a devil's scratch A feature, which was set tempo until people stopped getting pulled. Karl wasn't feeling it, I think, so he got pulled. Anyhow, in the end, Alan sat on the wheels of Dan Lim and I until the end and jumped. Alan won, Dan got second, I sat up, got fifth. whatevs. A series of datum points:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/42257148

There you go boys and girls.

2010.35: 7/26-8/1 Build 2.3

Sunday: no riding. boo.

Saturday: no riding.

Friday: rode for a bit today. I woke up late, and just plain old wasn't really feeling it. By the end of the ride, I was also having trouble breathing. Exercise induced asthma or something, i think. I think my sinuses were just dried out or something. data:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/42451637

Time: 02:04:00

Distance: 36.51 mi

Speed: 17.7/37.2 mph

Cadence: 91/159 rpm

HR: 154/187 bpm

Thursday: took it easy today. No riding.

Wednesday: Planned on racing at the track, which i did. Look to the race report for that data. Look here for my pre-race ride of warming up. Went to the lighthouse and back. I felt good on the out, kind of bad on the back. I think it was a lack of foodstuffs. Fortunately, I had time to eat and get ready before the track. Have some data:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/42257165

Time: 01:10:22

Distance: 21.06mi

Speed: 18.0/32.4mph

Cadence: 92/130rpm

HR: 153/185bpm

Tuesday: Did some spin intervals. 5x1min. I tried to do a pyramid type deal, where i maintained at least 140 rpm, 150, 160, 150 and back to 140. 140 rpm felt easy, 150 harder, 160 i'd say was rather difficult to maintain. but i still completed it, so props to me.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/42131396

Int1:

Cad: 142/145

HR: 147/158

Int2:

Cad: 151/155

HR: 154/166

Int3:

Cad: 161/166

HR: 161/179

Int4:

Cad: 151/155

HR: 155/170

Int5:

Cad: 143/148

HR: 154/164

Monday: nada again. work tore me up.