Here is the plan for 2012 Ride for Mike

May 17th, 2012

Some call it coincidence. I call it Providence, but there are those times when small things happen that really encourage you along the way or let light into a time of confusion. One of those instances happened to me yesterday.

If you read yesterday’s post, you probably sensed that I have been struggling with how I planned to approach the 2012 Ride for Mike. I hinted at a short-term goal (that I will share this morning), talked about the longer-term goal (idoitfor.org) and then expressed my loss at what to do on a “big scale” as I have in years past. Well, yesterday afternoon someone showed up in my office unexpectedly and cleared it all up for me.

So, here is the plan for the 2012 Ride for Mike.

Stars and Stripes Challenge

The short-term plans for the 2012 Ride for Mike is for me to participate in the 2012 Stars and Stripes Challenge. Yes, I realize that it is less than two weeks away.  You may ask why the sudden decision to make this charity event a focus this year.

The first Ride for Mike website

I need to take you back to the first ever Ride for Mike. Though not called the Stars and Stripes Challenge at that time, September 2, 2007 was the first one. Now, I bring you up to this month when we learned that the US Pro championships would now be leaving Greenville for Chattanooga. While I am sure that the P3 organization will continue to have a charity ride in Greenville, the entire nature of the ride will change because it will not be associated with the Pro race.

That is why I want to make this event part of the 2012 Ride for Mike. It could very well be the last opportunity to repeat that first ride that started all of this! No doubt it will be emotional for me as it brings together so many aspects of the last five or six years.

So, I do ask for your support. If you have enjoyed LowCadence.com over these years, consider a gift. If you want to join in the battle against cancer, consider a gift. I realize the time is short. I realize that finances are tight for many of us. Just know that your gift is appreciated more than you know.

Objective: Finish what I started. In that first ride I set a goal to ride the Pro course three times before the time cutoff. In 2007, I only did two laps. This year (depending on what we are allowed) I want to get in that third lap.

How do you give? Go to the Palmetto Peloton Project’s website and access the giving form. There is a drop down list for participants. Find my name, Jonathan Pait, and then finish filling out the form. Proceeds from the event will support Breakaway from Cancer’s Nonprofit Partners, and the Greenville Hospital System’s Institute of Translational Oncology Research.

I’m excited about that opportunity, but not nearly as excited about the next one! This will help explain what I was talking about in the first paragraph.

Mike Rides a Century for Mike

I was sitting in my office when I heard a familiar voice out in the lobby. The voice said, “Is Jonathan Pait in?” The receptionist came to my door and said, “There is someone here to see you. Are you available to speak with him?” I jokingly replied, “Well, it depends on who it is!” I then stood and approached the door to find Michael T. McCaskill’s dad standing just on the other side.

This was a surprise! I didn’t expect him to come in my door (the McCaskill’s live in Tennessee) — especially on the very day that I wrote the post about the 2012 plans. We talked a bit and then I brought up my blog post and the change of plans from my initial big dreams of a multistaged charity ride in Memphis. I didn’t want to disappoint Mike.

As always, Mike was extremely gracious and understanding. He expressed that he and the family were behind anything that I decided to do. He reaffirmed his desire to see the I Do It For Foundation go forward in his son’s memory.

I then brought up another subject. That subject was his first ever century. We had talked about it during the Family Fun Ride in 2011 and mentioned it in passing since that time. However, this time, I wanted to nail him down on a date.

That is when Mike gave me the best idea of all for the 2012 Ride for Mike. Why not make Michael T.’s dad’s first century ride the 2012 Ride for Mike? Talking about an emotional culmination of purposes! This would be huge!

Mike tied up the loose ends by saying, “Why don’t we do that and use it as the springboard for the I Do It For Foundation?” So, now we had an event with incredible meaning and a cause that would extend that meaning into many other lives. In a future post, I will tell the whole story. When you read that story, you will understand why symbolically that 100 miles means more to me than the hundreds of miles I have ridden over the years for the Ride for Mike.

So, stay tuned! That story will be coming. Also, we’ll be sharing the date and place for the event. Both Mike and I wouldn’t mind having some company should anyone decide to join us. Finally, we’ll be working to provide the logistics of how you can give toward the I Do It For Foundation — the purpose of the funds will go to getting the foundation off the ground and get us started funding the development of the tools the foundation seeks to create to serve others.

Hey, I’m starting to get excited!

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2012 Ride for Mike – kind of

May 16th, 2012

Regular readers of Low Cadence know that each year since 2007, I have completed a ride in memory of Michael T. McCaskill. It has been my intention since the time of his passing from a brain tumor to ride an event in his memory each year. Those events have gotten ever more complicated over the years with the last two — a 740 mile ride in 7 days and a 220 mile ride in one day — being quite a physical and logistical undertaking! This brings us to 2012 and the status of this year’s ride.

2011 Ride for MikeAs I finished last year’s event, I was already thinking of 2012 and beyond. It was — and is — my desire to start a foundation in Mike’s honor. The I Do It For Foundation would exist to provide support and tools for individuals and groups who want to show support to for individuals going through a trial. While I am supportive of groups such as Livestrong and other large organizations pooling resources to fight cancer, etc., I also see that sometimes it is easy for individual needs to get lost in the larger “corporate” focus.

It was what we were able to do for the family of little Rebekah Ellis during the 2011 Ride for Mike that really convinced me this could be a possibility! What if there were hundreds of people around the country who given the knowledge and tools would go out and create their own Ride for “Mike” or “Rebehkah” or “Steve” or “Holly”… you get the idea. These individuals would be able to receive direct encouragement and help for their immediate needs.

Sounds like a great idea, doesn’t it? It is. However, it isn’t always easy to pull something off like this. 2012 would be a busy year setting up the foundation and planning its first event. That event I had hoped would be a fund raising ride for the foundation in the Memphis, TN area.

Unfortunately, 2012 has been an interesting year for me with my time and my finances. The freedom I once had in these two areas has been curtailed a bit. The bottom line is that I have gotten behind in my plans for both the foundation and the Memphis ride. While I am still committed to taking steps to get the foundation underway in 2012, I do not believe we will be able to have an organized charity ride in 2012.

Tomorrow’s blog post will give you an explanation of part of my 2012 Ride for Mike goals. It is going to be a really short time frame! However, I hope some of you will be able to support me in the event. I think after you read the post, you will understand more why I am targeting this event.

I have not closed the door on a more “epic” ride in the fall of 2012. Do you have any ideas? In what way would you like to see me suffer? :-)

Also, as I take steps in my foundation, there are things I need to do. I am looking for help in these areas:

  • Forming a board
  • Forming a 501c3
  • Branding materials for the foundation
  • Programmers to help create an online tool that will be the key to the foundation

I’m sure the list will continue to grow. If you are interested in helping in any way, please contact me at lowcadence@pait.org. Be sure to read tomorrow’s post for the next steps in the 2012 Ride for Mike.

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He won’t grow up to be a cowboy

May 15th, 2012

One thing I determined when I had children is that I would never pressure them into living out fantasies of my own childhood (or adulthood for that matter).  Of course, most fathers think that their children are going to end up liking what they like, so as they begin to grow we don’t think too much about it. That is until they reach an age when they have the capability to “like what we like.”

There are those sons and fathers who do have a shared love for a particular sport. I see it with some of my friends who ride. I see it in other sports as well. However, for some fathers and sons there isn’t a natural connection with an activity. So it is with me, the bicycle and my son.

Thing Two is now 12 years old, 5′ 8″ and weighs 120 pounds. He, like his dad at that age, is just bone and muscle. Though appearing skinny, he is deceptively strong.

Jonathan Jr. and Jonathan Sr.

Thing Two and I head out for a ride

He is built like a climber. I’d love to know his power-to-weight ratio! There is no doubt in my mind that he could fly on a bicycle. There is just one problem with that. He doesn’t like to fly on a bicycle.

Thing Two is careful. He does not like to take physical risks. I first took him riding when he was 8. Unfortunately, it is hard to ride around where we live without going up and down hills. Going up didn’t bother him that much. Going down was another matter. It was hard to get him back on the bicycle after those nervous excursions out on the road.

Age and the Swamp Rabbit Trail has helped, but still he carefully rides along without an once of aggression. He would much rather follow cautiously on my wheel than to ride beside me. I have no fear of him doing anything intentionally reckless. If he was sixteen, I would have no reservation handing him the keys to the car.

On Sunday, I saw him playing around with my old Garmin 705. He had used it on a couple of rides and now he was interested in it again. “Hey, Jonathan,” I said, “Why don’t you use the heart rate strap that goes with that and we can go for a ride and it will record your heart rate.” That got his attention! On Monday before I left for work, I handed over the strap and we paired it with the computer.

Later in the day I received a text from the Beautiful Redhead, “Jonathan is out walking up and down the road with the Garmin in his hand to measure his heart rate.” Here he was showing interest in things we both are attracted to… devices, data and experimentation. It would be interesting to see if that interest could be combined with the bicycle.

Once home, we got the cadence unit attached with all the necessary magnets to his Specialized Allez. He actually seemed excited about the opportunity to go out. I was excited that he was showing interest.

The hills he struggled with as an 8 year old were nothing for him as we made our way out of the neighborhood to the bicycle lane on East North Street. I was well aware that this would be a stretch for him. I instructed him to go ahead of me and stay in the lane while I followed along behind as a buffer.

He handled the clipless pedals (he is large enough to wear much of my old gear) like a pro at the few stops at lights along the way. However, the downhills were definitely approached gingerly. We made it to Cleveland Park and the Swamp Rabbit Trail without incident.

From there it was smooth sailing. I still wasn’t exactly sure what he was thinking. The other thing about my son is that he isn’t always very expressive. Sometimes you look at him and think he is upset, but find he is happy as a lark. At other times you inadvertently step on a land mind because you didn’t realize that he was actually perturbed at the moment. His face isn’t going to give it away!

The hints that he was enjoying himself came when I would see him looking down at the Garmin and switching between the screens to see the data. Then on the last climb of the day, I could see him really pushing it a bit. I heard him call back in a matter of fact tone, “I got my heart rate over 160.”

Getting home, I created a private Strava account so that he could see the data… and check out the Strava power calculation function. I could tell he was cautious about expressing his thoughts. He wasn’t about to commit to anything here! Still, I praised him for his solid ride and pointed out his 300+ watt climb near the end. I let it go at that.

Now it is time to help him with his baseball — a sport I never really got into, but one that interests him. It is a pleasure to watch him grow to be his own person. I’m thankful for the confidence he is showing as a catcher and pitcher. He is already playing the game better than I ever did in my Little League days.

He towers above his teammates, but he is a gentle giant. I wonder if there is a bit of my competitive fire in there somewhere. I believe it is, but he just needs to find that thing he is passionate about.

I’ve come to realize that competitive passion won’t be for the bicycle. I’m okay with that. The racing lifestyle isn’t really one I want him to follow. However, I do hope that the future will find father and son (sons — don’t forget Thing Three!) exploring together on the beautiful roads of our Upstate.

Still… I have to admit that I would love to see the data if he just up and uncorked a sprint!

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Time-Crunched Cyclist Plan is over

May 14th, 2012

Now what? Saturday was my final official Time-Crunched Cyclist Plan workout. Well, the first thing for me to do is to look back on the affect the plan has had on my cycling.

The Time-Crunched Cyclist

The Time-Crunched Cyclist plan

The first obvious thing to me is that the plan rescued my cycling. This is attributed directly to the point that the plan is for the “Time-Crunched” cyclist. At a time when I felt I wouldn’t be able to ride my bicycle at the same level of years past, this plan gave me something to test. Perhaps it wouldn’t deliver. Perhaps it would. However, for at least 12 weeks, it gave me something to motivate me to go forward.

Regardless of how the plan might have improved my power, it was worth it. It got me through a time when I was thinking about hanging up the bike and got me back into the saddle. It didn’t take too long after that to have the thrill and love of the ride to return. To compound things the plan helped keep the training from becoming a burden and thus taking away what it gave.

But what about that power? Has the plan lived up to what Chris Carmichael says it can do? Well, I can share with you some initial anecdotal evidence of its success. I hope that within a week, I will be able to share more specific data that compares where I was at the start of the plan with where I am now and farther in the past.

On my last workout, I finished in shock and not sure I could really accept the data I was seeing. If it is accurate then there is no doubt that the plan has delivered, and I’ll be using it again. Here’s hoping that it is!

My plan called for an Over/Under workout. This is a part of the plan where the rider is to complete a SteadyState Interval at 254 to 266 watts (this is the Under portion). Then you do a ClimbingRepeat Interval at 288 to 296 watts (this is the Over portion). Finally, you finish things off with another SteadyState Interval.

I headed for the CVS side of Paris Mountain. This would be a challenge to keep the wattage low enough. I gingerly started the climb trying to keep the average at a manageable 270 watts. After 13 minutes, I pressed the lap button with an average of 277 watts. It is safe to say that it was pretty easy.

Returning to base of the mountain, I decided to extend the ClimbingRepeat Interval to go to the top of the mountain. If I was lucky, I might land a PR on the climb. That would put me at the top in about 15 minutes.

I decided to set 320 watts as my targeted average. No matter how I felt, I would keep it under control. Granted, that was well above the prescribed wattage target. However, I have been exceeding that direction for the entire time I’ve been using the plan.

Fifteen minutes and thirty-eight seconds later I reached the top. It was my fastest climb since I’ve made attempts on time. Not only that, it moved me up into the fourth fastest time on the Strava leader board. Beyond that? I reached the top with more left in the tank. That was after climbing for 15 minutes at 350 watts.

As I was finishing the climb, I heard Matt Jaeggli call my name on the tower road above me. I rode up and we spent a bit of time talking. It gave me an opportunity to recover farther. As we talked, I mentioned that I doubted I would make an attempt on the Furman side anytime soon.

We rode to the bottom and I turned right toward Travelers Rest and Matt turned left back toward Greenville. However, it wasn’t but a few yards from the turn that I felt the temptation to attempt another climb. I was feeling so very good, I thought I might as well go ahead and turn my final SteadyState Interval into a ClimbingRepeat.

My approach was to go up the Furman side the way I did the CVS side. I had climbed the CVS side at 350 watts. I would do the same here on the Furman side. Even at times when I felt I could push it, I would keep the wattage under control. Then, I would attack on The Wall with what I had left.

As I started spinning up the climb, I was amazed at how I was feeling. I kept glancing down and seeing the wattage staying above 300 watts. To my knowledge, it never dipped below that threshold. I can’t remember the time I’ve done that before.

I refused to look at the time. I just kept checking the power. Then I reached The Wall. I waited until my traditional starting point for the attack and then went at it. I was able to drive to the KOM line with power. Again, that is something I have not been able to do in many months.

I finished the climb in a time of 12:23 — 2 seconds slower than my PR for 2012 (which, by the way, I managed to reach on the previous Thursday). My average power was 380 watts. It was impossible to compare my wattage results this time with my PR because I did not use my power meter on the PR attempt.

Returning home, I had time to think about my experience of the day. I was left wondering if my power meter was off. I had reason to wonder because I had just had the chain rings replaced and this was the first climbing attempt since the replacement. What if the Quarq CinQo was knocked off its calibration when the chain ring it was integrated into was replaced?

The counter argument was the fact that my perceived exertion was surprisingly low for the efforts. I’m not saying the final climb was easy, but I kept looking down and feeling shocked that I was getting the wattage I was with the exertion I felt. However, a time of 12:23 was hard to argue. A Personal Record at a managed perceived exertion gave a bit of credence to numbers.

So, what to think… I think I am going to have to do a power test. That will give me something concrete to evaluate. If it is an unreasonable increase in power, then I’ll know the power meter is off. If it is a reasonable increase in power, then I’ll have reason to believe that the Time-Crunched Cyclist Plan is something I’ll be using again.

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The anti-Strava ride

May 12th, 2012

You may have noticed that Strava has come up repeatedly in posts here over recent weeks. It seems that each year I find something new to add to the experience on the bicycle. This year that has been the online community that tracks your workouts and compares it with others who have joined the community.

It can be quite addictive because it is competitive. As you ride from point A to point B, you use a GPS unit (for me it is the Garmin 800) or a cell phone with GPS capability to track your position. Once you get done with your ride, you upload the data to the Strava website.

That is when the magic happens. Strava takes your data and maps it out showing the route you just completed. Along that route are short distances called “segments” that users of the community have created. They do so to measure their performances over those segments each time they ride.

That is where the competition comes. Everyone participating can see the segments and each person’s performance is measured against all the others who have uploaded data. Awards are given for each segment to the fastest times.

Needless to say, there are multiple segments along some of my favorite routes. It is hard not to have them in your mind as you are out riding. What starts out as an easy spin and end up being a workout as you think to yourself, “Wow, I’m feeling pretty good. There is a segment coming up here…”

Last night I went out determined to have an anti-Strava ride. I set out to go from my home to Travelers Rest without crossing over a segment. Right away, I knew that would mean I wouldn’t be taking the Swamp Rabbit Trail. I also knew that Buncombe Road would have a segment as I neared the base of Paris Mountain. Other than those, I wasn’t sure what might be out there.

I didn’t look ahead of time to see where the segments were. I tried to go from memory. It would be kind of like riding through a mine field. The only thing is that I wouldn’t know if I rode over a mine until I got home and logged into Strava.

I made it to TR pretty confident I had avoided a segment. Now it was time to go back home and I couldn’t take the same route. So, I would be branching out on new territory as far as my Strava knowledge was concerned.

I figured if I cut through neighborhoods, I would stand a better chance of avoiding a segment. My rarely used Garmin 800 mapping feature came in handy for this. I began to turn into neighborhoods and follow roads that appeared to come out closer to where I needed to be.

By doing this, I made my way to Highway 25. Now I knew that there probably wasn’t a segment on this main road, but I also knew it is a road with a lot of traffic. Still, I had ridden the road many times and found that the three lanes actually made me feel safer as most of the cars tend to take the two lanes away from me.

The question was where to get off 25. Some of the options I knew would send me toward a segment. So, I decided to stay with the main roads until I got into downtown Greenville. Then I would take the route through Cleveland Park and home from there.

The only hiccup I had with that plan is that I ran into an event downtown — Artisphere? The event organizers made me get off my bike and walk, or change my route. I decided to change my route. It turned out to be a short detour and I was back on track.

An hour and a half after leaving home, I was back and uploading my data. As I clicked on the link that would take me to the segment page, I held my breath. Would I survive the anti-Strava ride? Would I step on a segment?

Success!

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I am Yertle the Turtle

May 9th, 2012

Back at the turn of the 20th century, there was a resort in Taylors, South Carolina named Chick Springs. It got its name because of a mineral spring located on some land owned by a man named Chick. There was even a large hotel at which travelers from all over would come to and stay. Now, a factory stands where the hotel once stood. One of the last reminders of the heyday of the resort is a road named Chick Springs Road.

Now, that is over in Taylors, but about 15 minutes away by car you come to my neighborhood in Greenville. Only about 4 minutes from my house is a short road — just over a mile — named Chick Springs Road. There is no spring near by on land owned by a man named Chick. I’m not sure how the road ended up with the name. Could it be that back around 1900 Wade Hampton Blvd. was Chick Springs and this road in Greenville once connected with the road in Taylors?

I’m sure you could care less. You’re wondering what a road named Chick Springs has to do with Yertle the Turtle. Believe it or not, there is a connection.

My Chick Springs — as opposed to the Taylors’ Chick Springs — is home to the Strava segment named “Chick Springs TT.” The story I hear is that it was created by some guys who used the section of road to do team time trials when coming back toward Greenville after riding out beyond Paris Mountain. That team drafting led to a pretty low segment time of 2:05.

When I discovered that I was within 10 seconds of the mark after trying for it, I got a little obsessed with owning the KOM award for the segment. I tried and tried and kept coming up short by one or two seconds. Well, Tuesday, I tried once more.

Monday I played golf and I woke up on Tuesday hurting in places I’m not normally sore. The extent of me playing golf is one or two charity events a year. So, I measure success more by how many balls I have left at the end rather than my score.

I got off from work around lunch so that I could get home and start working on the house in anticipation of an appraisal. I was climbing up ladders trying to clean the mildew off of my gutters and preparing to paint some trim. Finally, around 5 PM I decided to straighten things up and go ride my bike.

The Time-Crunched Cyclist Plan called for me to do 6 x 2 minute Power Intervals. Ahhhh, the perfect opportunity to go attack Chick Springs. I would do like I did before and give one good all out effort to get the KOM. Then I would back off and do what I should be doing and keep the wattage between 300 and 320 for the other five intervals.

As I headed out onto Rutherford Road to warmup, I had a bit of excitement start creeping into my thoughts. The legs were feeling really good. I was making the first climb up to the Farmers Market without a problem. I knew I would be able to get a bit more out of my legs.

I’ve learned a bit about the technique I needed to get a good time. 1) go hard on the beginning downhill section, but not too hard, 2) keep it clean through the turns, and 3) don’t stay in the normal time trial position when the road begins to kick up.

That last idea I learned the last time I attempted the segment. I came within a second of a tie for the KOM even after I had to brake because of a car turning in front of me. After the car turned, I came out of the extended bars and grabbed the bars out too the side. However, I also lowered myself so that I was nearing touching the bars with my chin. I was able to produce more power this way on the upward grade.

So, with all this in mind, I came onto the road. The gearing was perfect. I was spinning at a high rate, but still was not spinning out. Traffic was perfect. There was just one car a distance ahead of me and I soon lost sight of it in the turns.

When I hit the upward grade, I stayed seated but adjusted my grip. I used my upper body along with my legs to squeeze a bit more power into the pedals. I tucked back down as I began to go into the last turn — which I finally made (along with the other turns) without altering my line.

Now I just had to climb the few meters up to the stop sign. It seemed like it would never come and I could feel myself losing momentum. I had a moment of panic and tried to kick start again. Finally, I threw the bike forward to the line and pressed the lap button on my Garmin.

At first I couldn’t see it clearly. The contacts had dried a bit from the wind. Was that a 2:08 or a 2:03? I blinked several times and finally got focused. 2:03! It was a 3! If Strava matched up with my Garmin time, then that would mean that I beat the current KOM time by 2 seconds.

I would have to wait, I still had five more intervals at power to do. However, the possibility that I would get the KOM made the bike seem lighter and I had no trouble wrapping up the intervals and then cooling down with a ride through town.

Sure enough, Strava showed me the crown. Now, I am king of my domain. Like Yertle the Turtle I am the king of all that I see.

Of course, that is until someone burps and I come crashing down! Without thinking very hard, I can count off on two hands some folks who could go out there and knock me off the top. The point is, it isn’t the fact that I’ve “beaten everyone” that makes the award mean something. It is the fact that I beat myself and reached a goal that I first questioned.

I’ll just enjoy it while I have it!

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Browne nosing

May 7th, 2012

No time for a blog post this morning. With the Giro d’Italia underway and Taylor Phinney having two headline grabbing performances in a row, I’ll just point you over to the Browne Eye blog for an interesting post on the subject. I’ll be back Wednesday.

Can Phinney save cycling in America?

Americans love winners. It’s a cliché, but true. Taylor Phinney’s win in stage 1 of the Giro d’ Italia won’t project him onto the front page of newspaper’s here in the States as that’s reserved for the one bike race Americans know – the Tour de France. However, I’m hoping Phinney’s victory in Henning helps save cycling in the U.S. – continue reading…

The Browne Eye blog is written by Neil Browne.

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More news on US Pro move

May 4th, 2012

Here is an updated list of news stories regarding the move of the USA Cycling Professional Championships. The Greenville News has a couple of good articles giving more insight into the reasoning behind the change. Here is hoping that Greenville will be able to capitalize on the opportunities ahead.

It is certainly understandable that the event would want to find a new venue to keep it fresh and expand its draw. As I commented recently on Facebook, “As a fan of cycling, I’m fine with the event moving to Chattanooga. As a fan of Greenville, I wish we could have kept it here.” Of course, Greenville is still the same place that drew the race here in the first place. It will draw other events.

Who knows what the future holds?

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Spinners trials is a fun test

May 4th, 2012

Time trials. You love them and you hate them. Thanks to the Greenville Spinners, you get the chance to love what you hate several times this summer with their annual time trials series. While riding a time trial can be something you hate, its hard not to love hanging out with the Spinners.

My number for the Spinners Summer Time Trial Series

This Thursday was a trial just getting to the event! I had busted one of my aero wheels and Boyd Johnson let me borrow one of his while he was putting together a permanent replacement. I didn’t get a chance to put the wheel on the bike until 4:30. When I did, I discovered that the rear derailleur was doing something funky — like the chain was hanging up.

This got me out the door late and then it was time for the criterium race through traffic on Pleasantburg Drive — just as everyone was getting off work. I was starting to get a bit nervous because I needed to start early in the queue so that I could get to my son’s baseball practice to pick him up. My window for registering, warming up and getting to the line was shrinking with each delay.

After registering, I unloaded the bike and took it over to The Great Escape mechanic who was there supporting the riders. I got into my skin suit and then went to pick up my bike. A moment of panic flashed into my mind as I realized that my start time was only 15 minutes away! The mechanic was informing me that the chain was not meshing well with the cog on Boyd’s wheel. I told him to get it working the best he could on a particular gear and then I would go with that.

I went out and did my best to get my legs loose before returning to the line. However, I knew it was going to be a painful experience as my legs were complaining to me that they weren’t ready as I rolled up to the line. I figured I was just going to have to use the out portion as my warmup. If I could just hang in there, my legs should come around on the return.

There isn’t much to say about the actual attempt. I almost immediately started to feel that my legs were bricks. The battle was to fight the negative thoughts that I was just wasting my time. Still, each turn closer to the turn around lifted my spirits.

I looked down at the time and saw I was rolling toward the halfway point at around 11 minutes. In the past, I made this point in just over 10 minutes. Considering how I was feeling, that was actually a relief. The turn came and I determined I wouldn’t look at the wattage. I was just going to ride as best I could back to the finish.

My legs did lose that “brick” feeling. However, now they were starting to feel like noodles. As I soldiered on, I could see other riders making their out attempts. I had been passing some riders, but I couldn’t tell for sure if they were on their attempt or just out warming up. Regardless, I tried to use each one as a rabbit to overtake.

I was thankful that the gearing didn’t give me a problem. The bike was shifting well — not that I was doing a lot of it. However, I did go down to a bit harder gear as I made my way within sight of the finish. The clock stopped at 23:32 for the 10 miles.

That wasn’t what I wanted by any stretch. At the same time, I was much better than I felt I did. I had pretty much convinced myself it was going to be a 24:00+ time. Only being 20 some seconds off my best time was a surprise.

Turns out my out portion took about 11:50. That is significantly slower than previous attempts. However, the back portion took around 12:20. That is significantly better than previous attempts. I imagine there is something to learn in there… I’ve just got to figure out what it is an capitalize on it.

I had to leave before the winning times were announced. However, I figured that since I was competing in the Cat. 1/2/3 field that I wouldn’t be seeing “the podium.” Later, I was surprised to get a tweet from my friend, David McQuaid, who informed me that I had taken second by a second. Chris Calder, having returned from racing with the USA development team in Belgium, crushed all of us with a sub-twenty-one minute effort.

We’ll see how things go next time when most likely there will be a few more heavy hitters who I assume were holding off from the time trial in anticipation of the criterium in Spartanburg tonight. Folks like Eric Christophersen and Matt Tebbetts regularly turn 22 and sub-22 minute efforts. I’ll be on the outside looking in at that point!

However, that is what is so fun about the Spinners series. It really is a relaxed atmosphere. Really, for the majority of the participants it is as though we are a support group cheering each other on against the clock. If you are interested in turning your pedals in competition, this is a great venue to start with.

As for me, I’m determined to improve my time during the next few events. I’ll start by making sure I schedule things better!

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US Professional Championships leaving Greenville

May 3rd, 2012

UPDATE: New story link added

I knew the time would come. Really the presence of the USA Cycling Professional Championships has always been tenuous here in Greenville. Now that tension is broken as word is out that the event will move to Chattanooga, Tennessee in 2013.

Perhaps it was the fact that Philadelphia had hosted the event for a couple of decades lulled us into thinking that the event might find a new home that could give it the same longevity. However, the hints came early that the event was more likely to be “shopped” around on a regular basis.

Seems like just yesterday this sign appeared in Cleveland Park

I remember distinctly the behind the scenes movements to get the race to come back to Greenville. It seemed that each year was another crisis. While on the outside it was given a positive spin, behind the scenes it was pretty clear that at any moment the decision could come down from USA Cycling to move to a new venue.

It wasn’t a matter of Greenville being a good venue. The racing was good. The hospitality was great. Medalist Sports clearly stated they liked the Greenville locale. It all seemed to balance on money and exposure. Would USA Cycling keep looking for ever greener grass after getting loose from the corral in Pennsylvania?

Could we have kept the event? Well, the simple answer to that is that with enough money, sure we could have. However, I wonder if ultimately even money could have kept the event here. Beyond money is the opportunity to expose new audiences to the sport and bring the freshness and excitement that a new venue brings.

So, good for you, Chattanooga. Having the USA Cycling Professional Road and Time Trial Championships in your city will be something you will enjoy. It is a wonderful opportunity for you and as one friend said, “At least it will stay in the south!”

We shouldn’t mind too much here in Greenville. We enjoyed the race for several years. We’ve proven we can handle world class cycling events. Who knows, if USA Cycling continues to take this approach, we may see the pros racing down Main Street once again.

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