Hero of the Week

Il Marco is the hero of the week, for encouraging me to grab his wheel on the final lap of the crit today during the San Dimas Stage Race.

The guys at the front were drillin' it hard, and I was pegged pretty good with four corners to go, when all of a sudden I here my name from someone on my left. yeah, it was Il Marco and all of his Platinum Performance makin' a go of it up the left hand side of the long, thin, angry line of the field.

Ouch! I grabbed his wheel, but damn, put on some weight Mark, I can't get much of a draft of you climber doodz! :-)

Thanks for the tow! Though, sorry to disappoint, as it was going so fast I couldn't make up much ground from where you dropped me off. Those "first tier" sprinter guys just reinforce how "second tier" guys like me are...

One of these days, though, guys like us might sneak one past 'em eh? ;-)

I was never really comfortable in today's race - I almost felt like I could make a go of it a time or two, but dang, it was pretty fast out there for anything to stay away.

Anyway, FWIW, that circuit race yesterday was one of my season objectives, and although I didn't make the winning move, I was pretty satisfied with how it turned out. Definitely a hard day with lots of selection happening, and I was there at the end. I'm happy with that.

So, I'm rewarding myself with a week off from racing and a bit of a vacation to the mountains of Mexico before trying to get back into the swing of things during May/June.

Keep it real out there, folks!

-kraig

Alto Velo, Base, and Potential

I was pointed to this thread on a yahoo-based message board:

http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/AltoVelo/message/17061

That article about base training that Kirk wrote has been all over cyberspace, it seems. Cool to see that folks are still discussing it this many months past its initial publication! That is the sign of a real good article, IMHO...

I don't know if Kirk would respond like Warren refers to here:

http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/AltoVelo/message/17094

However, my personal experience is that I've trained the last couple of years pretty much like I laid out in the second "stripped down" article. I'll fill the right on occasion, as the event demands, or according to my weight goals - and I really consider this type of riding as the "frosting" Warren alludes to - I guess - on a conceptual level at least. Really, though, I pretty much adhere to "base/foundation" as raising the left portion of the power duration curve via "in the red" style of efforts.

On the average, I train less than five hours a week on an annual basis, I reckon - and am reasonably competitive here in the pro masters 35+ class here in socal for events that last from less than an hour to aroudn two and a half hours or so. But I can see how there are multiple paths to the same "potential" so to speak.

Personally, I don't think that one can ever really know if they have reached their "potential", as it is such a ubiquitous/vague concept - the concept of "potential" for me, is kind of like psuedo-science at its core - ya'know, no testable hypothesis...

How do you know if you've reached your potential, anyway? If anyone knows how I can answer that question, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

The caveman way of thinking is that one can only "run what you brung" on a given day so to speak! ;-)

Anyway, Kirk's article is good fodder for discussion all over cyberspace, and I for one, appreciate the time Kirk took to share his perspective and experience on the topic!

Perspective Shifting

Not more than 30 seconds (for me) after the finish of today’s SDSR Bonelli Park Circuit Race, I had a perspective shifting chat with a rider whom I respect, and at the end of the day, am a wee bit envious of.

His comment to me, as I was trying to catch my breath after giving it all I had in the finale, was simple and to the point:

“You might have gone faster yesterday if you hadn’t been looking at your
computer.”

A simple comment, from a man of few words, yet, these words kind of felt a bit like they were cutting to the bone – I was taken aback a bit, to be honest - probably because I didn’t really recall focusing on the flashing SRM outside of the first 1k or so (and in fact, I am a proponent of taping the display over during timed efforts once one has settled in after the first few minutes of the effort – due to the distraction factor and the core belief that information can limit one’s potential on the day).

As I mentally re-evaluated yesterday’s hillclimb effort on the drive home after the race today, I came to the realization that this fellow I had the conversation with was more than likely correct in his commentary. I do distinctly recall looking at the SRM with 1k to go and about crapping my pants at how slow I was going. That knowledge probably did slow me down at the end of the day.
So yeah, yesterday, I simply had bad legs and knew I was in trouble in short order, and probably would have gone faster if I hadn’t looked at the SRM display. An extra 15watts would have come in handy too! :-)

The initial comment by this great rider, did however, allow me an opportunity to chat a bit about head position when racing against the clock. Based on my experience of testing over 100 folks in the wind tunnel here in San Diego, I can tell you that how one holds their head while going hard matters.


Yesterday, I kept the ol’ melon low on purpose (that whole concept of reducing CxA drives behavior even on hillclimbs..) , and I probably sighted 20 meters up the road at a given time – and maybe even looked straight down for big chunks of time – one can do that when you go as slow as I do! LOL!

So yeah, I can see how someone watching me during that effort up Glendora mountain yesterday might have the perspective that I was staring at my computer. The interesting thing was from my perspective, I was keeping my head in the right spot. Crazy how things can be viewed so differently, eh? Seeing a situation from someone else's perspective is difficult sometimes - I know I can improve in this area! :-)

Anyway, at around 6 m/s, sighting 20 meters down the road is like me looking 3-4 seconds up the road in order to take the best line through the switchbacks. How were my lines compared to last year? Well, since I raced this year and last year with the SRM and the same set of wheels, I checked it out. Turns out I covered 40 fewer meters this year compared to last year – but crap, I could have missed controlling tire pressure by a few psi and so that “computer distance” doesn’t really mean much, eh?

My global message, after talking a bit about head position, to this talented rider during our chat was simply, “sometimes it happens” – sometimes, despite what we really want to occur, life just gets in the way and as a result, our performance isn’t what we desired. It’s how one reacts, recovers and moves forward from those disappointments that holds some deeper meaning for me…

Today, I moved past yesterday’s disappointment, and rode well, nearly notching a top ten result on a day that the 100 rider field was whittled down to around 30-40 guys at the finish. Ya know, I’m not as powerful as a lot of the guys out there, but am reasonably competitive given the constraints the ol’ motor has. Most importantly, though, I have fun in the process of racing my bike.

FWIW, here’s a comparison of last year’s race (bottom trace) and this year’s race (top trace). This year was way faster, but somehow, I didn’t suffer quite as much… I guess being two kilos lighter helps when tryin’ to haul your ass up those hills, eh?




Keep moving forward, folks! :-)

-kraig

Sometimes it happens...

D'oh! Really bad legs today at the san dimas hillclimb. Thirty seconds slower and fifteen watts less than last years effort. Pretty silly, as I can usually knock out 291 watts for this duration at the nadir of my yearly fitness.

I've got a pretty good idea as to why things were a wee bit amiss today. Sometimes life just gets in the way of going hard on your bike! ;-)

Tomorrow is another day, though!

Tough field and tough circuit race will really test my limits, I reckon.

See ya out there,

kraig

Slotting In

SRM screenshot of Ontario Racing (M35+ and Pro 1,2,3)

It was a fun weekend of bike racing here in socal. Toed the line in the finale of the DelMar Crit series in the M35+ field on Saturday, then did a couple more crits up in Ontario on Sunday -> M35+ followed by a 90 min drag race in the Pro 1,2,3 race.

Del Mar was a crazy one. Our race was delayed for over an hour, as the M45+ race had a bad crash, where a guy hit the barricades hard after turn 1 and from what I hear, almost didn’t make it after receiving 100+ stitches in his head. All I know is that when they carted him off in the ambulance, the pavement looked pretty bad – I don’t think I’ve ever seen that much blood before. They had to bring out a zambonie looking street cleaner to help clean up the mess.
I sure hope the fella makes a full recovery. In those moments shortly after seeing the aftermath, I felt a wee bit uncomfortable – I tend to overthink at times, and seeing that made me think about all the near misses I’ve had racing my bike over the years. It shook me a bit…

Anyway, the race finally got going, and it was a barn burner. Lots of guys makin’ a go of it, and I tried to keep an eye on the three guys that finished ahead of me in the first del mar crit – just for the heck of it. About 15 minutes from the end, I seized an opportunity to try and sneak up the road, as Mark Scott, Brett Clare, Joel Stangeland, and the SDBC guys were working each other over. SDBC had just about reeled in a break that had Scott, Stangeland, and Clare when I hit it hard. Just so happened that another guy had the same idea, and we were in business.
A group of 5 quickly formed, and I struggled to contribute much. I had to miss some pulls, and over the course of 10 minutes or so, I finally detonated and basically gapped myself off of the winning break… That pretty much sucked to be in the winning move, and then ride like an idiot…

Ontario was almost a repeat performance of Saturday. Really easy racin’ until Karl Bordine and Chris Demarchi of the 5 star crew (new full on green kit for them this year – cool!) went hard just before a series points prime. They kept on drillin’ it and soon enough we were probably a group of 8 – Chris Daggs made the group as well. Not everyone was contributing, and I did my best to keep it going. Problem was that in the “rotation” it seemed that as soon as I would come off the front, Bordine and DeMarchi would just kill it. Uggh, that was a painful experience…

The break and the main field basically came back together (I say basically, simply because I think the back of the break merged with the front of the field but never fully bunched up) and Bordine, whose wheel I was on opened up a gap. I’m a weak ass dude in general, and had no intentions of closing that gap in that situation, so I sat up and that gap grew and grew… Meanwhile, Demarchi was drillin’ it at the front of the break…

A half lap later with maybe a lap and a half to go, Bordine bolts from the field, and I could not follow. I kind of figured the Schroeder Iron guys (who were not represented in the break, and who had like 8 guys in the race) would at least try to bring it all back together – but they lacked the horsepower. Bordine eventually won the thing, and I recovered while sitting in the field before slotting in to have a go at the field sprint. I think I was second in that sprint, but 12th on the day – but damn, it was a bike race!

Pro 1,2,3 race was pie – total vacuum cleaner on that course, and was sucked along at 45kph on about a 160 watt average. I didn’t know what to expect, and my real goal was to just burn some KJ’s, but felt good enough to try and duke it out with the fast guys in the sprint. With a couple laps to go I weaseled my way into probably the first 20-30 guys, just in time to see Hilton Clarke start pushin’ on some guy that moved over on him – these pros take this job seriously!!

Anyway, I slotted myself into the top 30 on the last lap and basically stayed there to the finish – rolled to the line and dodged a few guys that had sat up. Turns out I wound up 17th on the day – I think the last time I was top 20 in any kind of a pro 1,2 race was 10 years ago.

Hopefully, this weekend of slotting into the winning moves will stretch over to the San Dimas Stage Race in a couple days. It’s going to be a tough field up there, though – lots of skinny climber doodz that will put a hurtin’ on me.

Hope to see you out there!

LA Circuit Race

It's gettin' late, so this will be a short one...

Did the LA circuit race last weekend as the second day of hard-ish ridin'. Laid down a maximal 20MP effort on Saturday, where I'm still a handful of watts behind where I was at this time last year. Then set out to get some fill/racing in up in LA.

Whoa, super windy day of racing on Sunday. Seems as if we were going 55-60 kph in the tailwind section and 30 kph in the headwind section. I hadn't done this course yet, and it reminded me of the Long Beach Grand Prix from last year. Basically a big 2 mile straightaway, make a u-turn then do another 2 miles before flippin' another u-turn.

I put myself in to a spot of bother a couple times during the 35+ race - drilled it hard in the headwind section just prior to making the turn into the tailwind section. huh, it's hard to get much of a draft with a 40kph tailwind!!!

There was one point where I got into the descending tuck position and managed to go the same speed as trying to spin out the 12... crazy.

The finale was one of the harder ones of the past couple years. the finish was probably 2k from the last 180 turn and it was all tailwind. The main group overhauled a breakaway with maybe 1500m to go, and I was maybe 4th or 5th wheel -> sitting nicely on Joel Stangelands wheel, as a matter of fact. I maintained that position, but got my doors totally blown off in the sprint and wound up thirteenth on the day.

Felt good about the race, as I was really active, covering some moves, bridging others, and even completely detonating at one point - and better yet, I didn't have any major issues with my calves...

The three's race was immediately after the 35+ race, and the legs could definitely feel it. I put in a couple digs during that race, but basically sucked wheel for quite some time. You can see in the screenshot above, that the 3's race was something like 40 watts lower in average power. Crap, drafting really does work! Majorly crappy positioning for the finish, and was nowhere near the action.

This weeks rides:

Sat - 1 hr - couser @ 17:07 and 4.4 W/kg
Sun - 3 hr - LA circuit race
M- off
T-50 mins with 20 min @5.5 W/kg in 3-4 min chunks
W - 60 mins with 10 min @ >6W/kg in 2 min chunks
Th-off
F-20 min with openers

Couple more races this coming weekend: Del Mar Crit on sat, and Ontario#2 on sun.

See you out there!

Mid Week Del Mar Crit

Well, I still had some leg stuff going on, but managed to snag my best result since trying my hand at the masters racing here in socal a year or so ago.

There was a midweek crit in Del Mar - pretty crazy to see what, about 50 guys??? toe the line at 3:45PM on a wednesday.

Don't these people have jobs? ;-)

Here's some in race footage I found over at http://www.delmarcrit.com/:





BTR forum member Chris Daggs gets some pretty good camera time in this race.

There's also some footage of a really scrawny and really white dood going across a small gap to join a dangerous looking breakaway at around 19:00-20:00 minutes into that clip.

You can see that effort (it's marked at about 17:30) in the srm screenshot below - I went kinda hard there to go across that gap):

I made it across and followed wheels in that break, which was quickly brought back into the fold. Not much really happened after that and watching the finish above was pretty funny - when you are pedaling the gaps don't seem that big, but damn there was a lot of real estate between third and where I eventually wound up in fourth. I'm not sure what was up in that sprint, but I actually passed people going to the line - that doesn't happen very often.

FWIW, the guy who won, I'm pretty sure his biceps are bigger than my quads - and I'm definitely sure that his tan is better than mine!!! LOL!

Murrieta

One of these days, I'll have to write up a little review of the Cannondale system six bike I tried to get used to over the past four months. In a nutshell, the caveman review would not be so good...

I never got that bike where I needed it to be position wise, and I had kind of forgotten that bottom brackets are not supposed to creak and groan with every pedal stroke.

Last wednesday, I pedalled the old pinarello for the first time since November. It felt like I had ridden it just the other day - kinda like a comfortable pair of old slippers - ya know, the slippers your dog has abused... the one's that look kind of funky, or smell funky, yeah, the one's that are molded to your feet and have some distinctive signs of personality and uniqueness...

yeah, that's what the pinarello is like for me - felt good on the bike for the first time in awhile.

Here was my training week:

M - off
T - off
W - 45 minutes with 14 minutes above 5.2 W/kg
th - off
F - 30 minutes with openers
Sat - tour de murrieta crit (1:15)
Sun - tour de murritea circuit race (2 hrs)

that's a pretty typical week for me - I usually do one more day during the week where I get 20 minutes in the 5-5.5 w/kg range.

I still am having the leg problems - not so bad on saturday, though, I had to modulate effort to avoid what I feel as if are calf cramps.

Sunday I felt good, and was doing my best to cover important moves in the circuit race - followed three distinct ones that I remember in the last 30 k or so? Covered one with Mark Scott, one with Thurlow - countered that one with a dig of my own. I spent another chunk of fun tickets covering a big dig by Pat Caro. You can pretty much see those efforts in the srm screen capture above (the circuit race is the upper plot, the crit is the lower). Whaddya know, "the move" that finally succeeded included Thurlow, Scott, Noble, and Caro...

I really had to modulate my left leg on some of those efforts - I am getting pretty good at bringing the effort right up to the point just before my left calf just wants to curl up into a little, knotted, painful ball...

The finale was a pretty good demonstration of how sprinting is not really all about being able to put out gobs of power. I had full-on double calf cramps during the last 150 meters (basically from the moment I started pedaling out of the last corner before the finish) and was unable to stand or make maximal power. Because of pretty good positioning, I was able to sneak into the top 10 in the field sprint.

Here are the weekends results:

http://www.scnca.org/schedule2008.asp?category=Masters+35%2B&event=Tour+de+Murrieta+Stage+1&rank=0

http://www.scnca.org/schedule2008.asp?category=Masters+35%2B&event=Tour+de+Murrieta+Stage+2&rank=0

and the overall:

http://www.scnca.org/schedule2008.asp?category=Masters+35%2B&event=Tour+de+Murrieta+GC&rank=2

I'll give the legs another go with a midweek crit here in Del Mar (shhhh... don't tell my boss I'm leavin' a wee-bit early! LOL!) tomorrow and then we'll see about a really hard weekend of training/racing in the run up to the San Dimas Stage Race for the end of the month!

see ya out there,

31 k to Yuma

(cell phone pic watching the sunrise from Mexico last weekend)

I'd like to see that movie that sounds kinda like the title of this entry:

http://www.310toyumathefilm.com/

I've gotten mixed reviews from buddies at work, but I reckon I'll probably catch it one of these days.

So, I've got family that lives 31k from Yuma - just across the border in San Luis RC, Sonora, MX. There was a little get together we committed to going to, so I tried to work in a bike race amongst the festivities.

Not such a good idea, as it turns out...

The North End Classic crit on saturday was pretty crazy - kinda hard course which really reminded me of the Bellingham crit that was part of the old Fairhaven Classic back in the day.

The north end classic isn't flat, and there is only one long straightaway - there was something like 10 corners on the 1 mile course. it was a real crit - not an industrial park socal deal!

I generally race as the sole member of my team at a lot of these races, and I'm not that good a bike racer, so I have to roll the dice lots of times in terms of trying to make sure I'm in "the move" that sticks. cuz, in these small fields with lots of big # teams, as soon as "the move" goes, you're racing for 8th place.

I saw the winning move go, and tried to go across the 10 second gap (usually not a problem for me - it becomes a problem when the gap gets to 20 seconds...) - I was on the last guy's wheel to make it across when he just rode away from me. I still can't get everything out of my left leg - normally, i don't like making excuses, but dang, this is a bit frustrating...

I had to sit up and go back to the field and pedal around for another 20 minutes trying to understand what was going on with the ol leg.

Sunday was worse - I didn't really feel like pedaling much. And guess what, I didn't pedal much. Windy as hell, and for the first time in a flat road race since I started doing this bike racing thing again I got shelled, pretty much immediately. I did one lap in what was probably a steady 20-30mph northerly wind. I rode hard tempo with another guy, and by the last 20 minute of my 70 minute "ride" the leg was having difficulty making any kind of real power. Not so good. I'm still not recovered from this and it's tuesday evening...

I'm going back to ground zero on this deal - with respect to the bike - the pinarello got rebuilt on sunday evening, and the cdale is hangin' in the garage. I am going to see if the pinarello position helps things. I couldn't get things quite right on the cdale (both in terms of saddle setback and reach).

I reckon I'll try to give it a go tomorrow. We'll see.

Tour de Murrieta is next weekend... tough spot I'm in, it seems... Oh well, we'll git 'r dun one way or another!

Ontario #1

This here is the dual crits I did up in Ontario the weekend before last. Interesting to see that the average speeds and powers for the 3's race and the M30+ race were very similar. 'Cept, you'll see that the speed of the second one was not as variable, eh? Much smoother in the old farts race!

Anyway, felt pretty good in the threes race, basically just hung out and covered any moves that had representation of each of the bigger teams - I don't know any of these guys, so if the break has a good mix of jerseys, i reckon I need to cover it. Big long drag race to the finish line, and I got boxed in real good - if I was a real sprinter I'd have found a way to slip through some cracks and unleash my mega 1150 watt sprint, but nay, I don't have cajones that big...

30+ race started slow and was on the right wheels when the winning move went. Karl Bordine drove it hard, and I knew it was the move... Problem was that my left leg was just not cooperating - I basically have to stop pedaling in order to manage some pain I am experiencing when trying to give it full stick. It's not quite right...

I watched the break go, and that was that. Drag raced it to the finish, and with the headwind, managed to sneak into the top 10 of the field finish. Maybe top 15 on the day...

Lots of fast riding on that circuit - and lucked out with the weather - rained all morning, but for both of my races the road was dry.

Anger Management Crit

Catching up on races I've done over the past few weeks.

That there is the Anger Management Crit SRM screenshot. Probably the most sketched out I've been on a bike in quite some time. I didn't do this one last year... and will think real hard about doing it next year.

Windy, no corners, wide roads, botts dots, and amped up bike racers. That was a recipe for lots of "erratic" moves in the middle of the field. Just about crapped my pants with two to go when Mark Scott brake checked Joel Stangeland who is right next to me. Not sure if it was intentional, or what. He did raise his hand and duck his head a bit just after the brake check- ya'know kinda like when you are in traffic in your car and you know you screwed up or did something idiotic?

You kind of bow your head, do the ol' hand wave and mumble to yourself, "oops".

Our team plan never materialized in the waning moments of the race and I spent way too much time with my nose in the wind during the last two laps to contest things.

I seemed to be having some left leg stuff going on during this one. Just really tight for the entire race. More on this later.

I had signed up for the 3's race which started just after the m30+ deal. I did a lap after a maximal effort in the finale, and 300m short of the line, I see the promoter start the 3's race. I tried to catch the field and got within a few seconds but cratered and rolled back to the start line to provide a bit of feedback to the promoter/let him know what happened to me (and the other guy that I tried to trade pulls with to catch the field).

I had read some stuff from the promoter's blog:

http://californiabicycleracing.blogspot.com/2008/01/officially-i-am-done-with.html

so approached the situation in a laid back manner, knowing that I was going to potentially get cussed out and generally be treated like an eight year old.

I wasn't disappointed.

I communicated what happened in a non-threatening way, knowing in my heart that I wasn't going to get anywhere. I basically just wanted to have some dialogue with someone about the situation.

I appreciate Chris' efforts to promote races, and told this to him in person a few weeks back, and I still do appreciate his efforts to grow the local scene. I don't understand the anger, though. Reminds me of another saying/proverb: "One can catch more flies with honey than vinegar."

Here's a goofy, short, inspirational slideshow that I just googled (I thought of the book it is put together to sell, which I read a few years ago as a part of one of my company's customer service initiatives). A bit cheesy, but there is a good message in there.

http://www.stservicemovie.com/

Maybe Chris will come around, maybe he won't - I hope he does. In the meantime, I'm happy to donate my $10 cat 3 race fee to the cause of growing the sport of bike racing here in socal. Next time, I hope Chris is more respectful to his customers, and I'll be sure to make a U-turn after finishing the 30+ race! ;-)

New Site

Whoa, that took a few more hours than I had planned for. I had lots of help from my wife reformatting things and moving articles over to the new format.

I've got a bunch more articles done right now in the misc section, but need to add links to the basic site overall template. Probably a one hour job, but man, I need a bit of a vacation from the whole microsoft expression deal right now! :-)

Here's the super secret link to the misc section:

http://www.biketechreview.com/misc/index.htm

Anyway, you all may be wondering why it was that I reformatted things. A few reasons:

• I was getting sick of that shade of blue
• I needed a shot of a different sort of creativity challenge
• Change is good

That last one reminds me of a quote I heard recently:

"In times of change, the advantage goes to the learner... While the learned are perfectly equipped for a world that no longer exists." -???

I've probably stuffed up some details of that quote, and I'm going from memory here, so maybe someone can google this sucker and correct the details and the originator?