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First race of the year

Friday, April 27th, 2012

“We’ll race tonight.” “No, we won’t race tonight.” “Well, maybe we will race tonight.” “I’m on my way. We had better race tonight!”

That is how the weather went yesterday. I woke up to a beautiful morning, but before lunch the skies darkened and by 2 PM there were some heavy storms in our area. A friend of mine even had his windshield cracked by hail that he said were the size of tennis balls!

However, the skies cleared and things began to dry. By the time I got off work and started to prep for the racing at the BMW Performance Test Track I could even see some blue sky. At the same time, the reports I was hearing threatened a huge storm for later in the evening. I decided to take my chances.

Here is my number for the POA Summer Series

The Masters race was slated to go off at 6:45 PM. I got there in time to get my bike set up and start spinning a bit. The Category 4/5 race started about the time I got on the bike. A few raindrops started to fall as well.

I held off registering because I didn’t want to pay the fee just to find out the race was called due to storm. Frankly, I also had no desire to race on a wet track. I decided to wait and register at the last moment.

The rain did stop and I got registered. By the time we lined up, the ground was nice and dry and the weather was holding. To our north we could see clearer skies. To the southwest, we could see an ominous wall of clouds. The wind was blowing in such a way that you couldn’t tell which one we would get.

I also had no idea how I would ride. It was just nice to be on the line again. My mind was made up to just have fun and finish.

It was going to be a points race. In this case, that meant that you there would be a sprint for the line every third lap. The top four riders to cross the line would get points. On the final lap all the points doubled. Simply enough, the guy who had the most points at the end would win.

Only 12 of us rolled off at the start. In a way, I was happy for that because it meant that things wouldn’t be crowded on my first race back. It gave me a chance to get comfortable riding the short track in a group at up to 28 mph.

I was also alone in this race. I had no teammates since I was riding “unattached.” That means that I am not riding for a team. I have no teammates to help or to help me.

Knowing that I normally take awhile to get my legs going, my thought was to stay in the group until I was able to warmup. Of course, that all went out the window as we went into turn 3 coming around for the end of the third lap. My momentum was carrying me around the outside of the field as we came into turn 4. Maybe I could grab some points early.

As we continued in turn 4 I kept my cadence high and as other riders were starting to accelerate I was already passing them. There was only one problem. I had started from too far back in the field. I was sprinting it out with about 50 meters to go with two riders ahead with a decent gap. I was wheel-to-wheel with a third rider and he was inching ahead of me.

That is where I had a mental lapse. My logic said, “Hey, it looks like you are not going to get third place and why put out all this energy for nothing. You need to shut down and save it.” There was only one problem with this. Fourth place got points! Just yards from the line I got swallowed. It wasn’t until later that I realized my mistake.

I don’t think it would have mattered much. From that point on, I was pretty much just hanging on. Sure, I was moving about in the field and even tested trying to get in a break here or there, but by 20 minutes in I was in no place to pressure anyone.

At 20 minutes, I was saying to myself, “I’m halfway through. I can do this.” I just wanted to finish. At no point did I lose touch with the field, but I was spending a good amount of time getting pulled along in the back. Attacks were coming and going up ahead of me, but I did only what it took to stay in touch.

Shortly after that at about the 25 mark, I thought, “You can do anything for 15 minutes.” As we passed the line that next time, Blair called out, “Two laps to go!” Hmmmm, that wouldn’t be 40 minutes. That would have us finishing at around 30 minutes.

As we crossed the line the break that had formed was going into turns 1 and 2. I knew we would have a tailwind until the turns and that they would have a headwind coming out of them. Why not give it one last effort to close the gap. So, I went to the front and started to pull.

I could tell from comments behind me that some of the riders thought I was stupid… especially riders in the teams that had guys in the break. However, at this point, I wasn’t riding for tactics. I was riding for fun. My objective was simply: Close down as much of the gap to the break as possible.

It did come down a little, but we never made the connection. I pulled into turns 3 and 4. It was all over at that point. I just got out of the way and soft pedaled into the finish a lap later.

Lessons learned? 1) I can handle the pace. It is more of a matter that I need to get acclimated to it. 2) I need to learn better how to get off the front. I spent a little too much time there early on. 3) I need to work on my sprint. I used to regularly turn 1200 – 1300 watts. Last night at my best I was at 1100 watts.

Oh, as soon as I got my bike in the car we got slammed with a huge lightening storm. I didn’t hang around to find out, but I’m betting that is why the race only went 30 minutes. All that being said, my objectives were accomplished: have fun and finish.

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Love. Hate. Love. Hate. Pro cycling

Monday, January 23rd, 2012

I knew the Santos Tour Down Under was underway last week. It was just something in the back of my mind the first couple of stages. Then I sat down to look up a show I had recorded on my DVR and found that because of my automatic setting from last season my DVR was recording the NBCSports coverage of the race.  So, while doing some stretching exercises on a rainy Saturday morning I pushed the play button.

Ahhhh, pro cycling. It is a love hate relationship. I won’t get into all of the baggage here, but will just say that much of the past has left me jaded. Granted, last year seemed to be an improvement over some previous ones. Perhaps the peloton truly is casting out its demons… but like most demons, the specters won’t go quietly. I fully expect that we’ll have our share of announcements during this year.

Still, despite the times in the past where I’ve flown too close to the flames of disappointment, the first few stages that displayed on my TV screen awakened the love for the sport. I realize that if you have never competed in cycling it might be hard to understand. However, if you have ever felt the pain of riding to the edge of your endurance to advance a teammate or maintain a breakaway — not to mention the exhilaration of having that pain pay off with victory — you understand.

I’ve said it before, but that is the thing that makes the sport so intimate. Watching most other sports and you can plainly see that the ability of the participants vastly exceeds your own. I admire watching my favorite basketball player soar to a thunderous dunk. However, I’ve never experienced that feeling first-hand (except maybe the times I played on an 8ft. goal). I’ve played backyard football before, but it isn’t anything like what we saw this weekend with the AFC and NFC championship games.

Pro cycling is deceptive. “Hey,” I’ve even heard, “It’s just a bunch of grown men riding bicycles.” How many times have I been asked, “Are you ever going to ride in the Tour de France?” It is in that way that pro cycling — especially on TV — is deceptive. It is harder to tell the difference between the professional and the amateur.

Is there a difference? You betcha! The power output, the speeds, the skill, the close quarters of the peloton… they are steps above. At the same time there is a relative similarity. A top sprinter is putting out 1800+ watts going toward the line. I’m pegged at 1300 at best. Those guys would leave me like I was sitting still. However, if you were to look at our faces and attempt to judge our efforts, you couldn’t tell that much of a difference. The uninitiated would not have the same sense of awe that I would.

While I was watching Will Clarke riding to hold off the rushing peloton around Sterling I not only got caught up in the excitement of the chase, I also had an inkling of what the Tasmanian was going through. I was on that bike with him willing the break to succeed. As he rolled across the line with his limbs shaking I could empathize.

I climbed on the trainer later that day with a little more motivation than usual. Watching the pros helped awaken a little more of the desire. During one stretch on the trainer when I set a goal to hold a certain wattage for a certain period of time, Clarke came to my mind as my mind started questioning my ability to do it. I imagined myself trying to hold off the peloton and if I could just hold the wattage until that time I would be the winner!

Of course, I was reminded once again of the darker sides of cycling when Alejandro Valverde took the fifth stage. I guess that is part of the story as well. I guess we all hope for forgiveness and redemption. In a way, I’m looking for a little of that myself in 2012.

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Just ride your bike

Thursday, July 21st, 2011

Sometimes I can get a little melodramatic. I think it is something that comes with a good imagination. It can actually be helpful when it comes to writing, but isn’t always best for living in reality.

I imagine myself being an above average racer. It isn’t that I think I’ll be up there challenging for a bunch of wins. However, I do visualize myself being a mover in breaks and a consistent top-ten finisher.

More than that, it has been my desire to “fit in” — be accepted as a player in the peloton. It really isn’t that hard to look the part. Finding my way onto the POA Cycling Team certainly didn’t detract from the perception.

The reality has been something different. After a breakout year in 2010 when it looked like I could be a force to be reckoned with, everything changed. I found myself being a non-factor in most races. I was unable to do anything significant to help advance my team. There were times when I even made mistakes that hurt my team. As for personal success, that has been quite a ways in the past.

On top of that, in 2009 I had gotten a reputation for not being able to keep my wheels on the ground. Most of that was undeserved since I was typically a victim. However, my horrendous crash in 2010 seemed to cement it.

This year I was getting quite proud of myself. I had not crashed and have been able with bike handling to avoid a number of mishaps around me. While I haven’t had the finishes that I hoped for, I at least have avoided finishing on the ground! Maybe with a clean season, I could put the reputation behind me.

Then Saturday happened. Do you know how embarrassing it is to just fall over on your bike about three feet from the start line? That, my friend, is what you call a “rookie mistake.” It was a definite punch to my ego and my melodramatic tendencies kicked in.

I slunk back to my car that Saturday hoping that I wouldn’t see any of my team mates. I told myself that the next time I showed up for a race – whenever that might be – I would participate in my Low Cadence kit instead of the POA colors. It would be my way of doing penance for bringing disrepute on the team.

It was then it hit me that I definitely was not having fun racing anymore. The reason why was because I was racing for the expectations of my imagination rather than grabbing a hold of the moment and enjoying it. Bottom line is that I have been making my success or failure WAY too important for a weekend warrior.

I’ve determined that I am going out tonight with a different mindset.  I’m not going to go there pushing myself to live up to my imagined perception of myself. My goal is to go out there and let the race come to me. I’m not going to ride to avoid mistakes. I’m going to ride to participate.

If that approach lives up to expectations, then great. If it doesn’t, then – hey – I am who I am. Somehow, I have the funny feeling that if I ride that way, I’ll have greater success than I would otherwise.

Perceptions be hanged. Just ride your bike.

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Sometimes a finish is a victory

Tuesday, May 31st, 2011

The US Pro Championship race on Memorial Day here in Greenville was quite the event.  No one can complain about negative racing from that peloton! It made for a very exciting finish — though for those of us here in Greenville, it wasn’t quite the finish we hoped for.

There was some more racing going on in the Upstate this weekend. Saturday, of course, was the US Pro Championship TT. Sunday found hundreds of riders converging on the rural roads of Pelzer, SC for the SC State Road Racing Championships. I was one of them.

POA Cycling Team had riders in three of the Masters fields. 35+, 40+, and 50+. I was helping out in the Masters 40+ race. Mark Caskey, Rodney Dender, Reece Jackson, and I would be working to get Mark into a break or if needed set Rodney up for a sprint finish. My only concern personally was that I wanted to take as much work off of our top two guys as possible.

We rolled off early – around 8:10 AM. At first I wasn’t happy with the early start time. I just don’t seem to ride well in the morning. It is probably due to the fact that most of my training has to take place after I get off work.

However, by the end of the race, I was very thankful for the early morning start! Even as we were finishing up two and a half hours later the temperature was beginning to rise and it was hot. I was feeling for the racers who came after us.

We had our own work to do. The course was altered the morning of the race so that it added about two extra miles per lap for us to cover. However, the selection hill up to the traditional finish was taken out. We would only have to deal with hills on the back part of the course.

We got started slowly. One rider went off the front and the field let him go.  He got a relatively good gap but then the distance stuck and we would see him off in the distance on some of the straighter sections. Then action started picking up as we turned onto Dunklin Bridge Road. Mark and Rodney were near the front as a break began to develop.

I moved up to cover it and took a long pull on Dunklin and then onto the finishing straight. As we kept it going the gap began to close. Funny, but the thing that was going through my mind was after this effort I didn’t know how long I would last and I hoped I could stay pulling until we reached the line. At least then people would know I had been there!

That didn’t happen. I started to wane just in sight of the officials’ trailer. Others came around me and took up the chase. At that point I just tried to tag onto the field. The surge put me in difficulty and a gap began to form. “No!” I yelled in my mind, “I am NOT going to drop now.” I knew if I could just hook back onto the tail of the riders in front of me, I could recover.

The terrain worked in my favor. The road dipped before we reached two significant climbs. It was just enough for me to work my way back onto the field and recover before grinding up the climbs. I fell back a little, but stayed in the group.

About a third of the lap through, I was feeling recovered and started picking my way through the field to get back to the front. I didn’t know how much I could help at this point, but I wanted to be in position should the need arise. The opportunity came once again on Dunklin Bridge.

A break had formed again and as I looked ahead, I could see Mark on the point pulling the field at a tempo pace. In my mind, he didn’t need to be there. He was taking wind and if a counter started he would not be in position to hop in it without bringing the rest of the field with him. Of course, Rodney was not much farther behind him and it crossed my mind that Mark was there to help spring him into a break.

Whatever the case, I figured it was my job to be taking the wind for Mark. I moved up the right side of the field and slotted into the point position. “Steady tempo,” Mark said. “Just hold a steady tempo.” I found a comfortable power range and settled in. We continued this way until a flurry of activity started to my right and attacks started. I saw Rodney going.

I stood to cover another rider and felt immediately that if I wanted to be a help closer to the end, I would need to conserve a bit. So, I covered myself in the field and tried to stay near the front. Thankfully, I wasn’t needed at the front as the field was coming together again.

For most of the third lap, I tried to sit in. However, as we reached the hills on the back side of the course I once again found myself toward the front. Two riders attacked and I went with them. One other rider was working to create a gap. On the last climb before turning onto Dunklin Bridge, I had to shift down and fight to stay on. However, I made it onto the fourth and final lap!

I knew there were several riders up on this last lap. From my perspective I guessed there where two — a single rider and a smaller chase group. As we continued into the final lap, I started to get concerned that we would not be able to bring them back. You got the feeling everyone was aiming for a field sprint, but if we didn’t catch the break, it wouldn’t matter.

Once more I moved to the front. I figured I would do what I could to cut into the 40 seconds or so. At that point, I knew I wasn’t going to be crossing the finish line with the field. My hope was that I could help cut down the time and then Reece could take over and help get Mark and Rodney into a better position.

My mind was filled with disappointment as I reached my limit on one of the final climbs. My brain was sending the same signals to my legs, but they weren’t reacting the same way. “Disney has caught up to me again,” I thought. The field started surging pass me and I knew if I went after them, I would absolutely blow.

Funny thing, once I got back on Dunklin Bridge my legs started to some back. That was especially the case when I got caught by a two-man break from the Masters 35+ group that had started behind us. At least it gave me a chance to cheer on my teammate, Thomas Smith, who ended up taking the win! However, I knew the main field would soon overtake me and I didn’t want to get caught up in that.

With 1K to go, I looked back and could see the glint of the Masters 35+ field coming behind me. I knew I could beat them to the line if I gave it one final effort. It didn’t really mean anything, but every little success would help me going forward. Plus, I didn’t want to get caught up in their sprint!  I got across the line about 30 meters in front of them.

Turns out Rodney was able to bridge over to the chase group and win the sprint among them. That meant he ended up third in the race, but second in the state since a rider in front of him was from North Carolina. I just wish I had started working to bring back the break a bit sooner. The terrain would have worked more in our favor.

As it was, I was the last rider scored in 20th place. Considering that we started with a lot more, getting a finish was a victory. It is a little bit of confidence to put in my bag for later.

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Racing can be humbling

Saturday, February 26th, 2011

I finished my first race of the season today. It was a 47 mile three lap loop of the Fork Shoals course. I participated with my teammates in the Masters 35+ field. It was a humbling experience.

I can’t say it was humbling physically. Due to the dynamics of the race, it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. Yes, there were some times when I was just hanging on, but I ended the race with something still in the tank.

I say it was humbling because I always seem to do stupid things tactically. I feel like I am out there spinning my legs with everything happening around me. Today was no exception.

We started off and right away there was an acceleration around the first turn. “Wow,” I thought to myself, “I hope we don’t go at this pace the whole time!” However, as quickly as the acceleration started, it slowed.

I found myself toward the front. I sat on a wheel for a bit and then that rider rotated off which put me on the point. I settled in to a pace I felt comfortable with and waited for someone to come around.

That person was my teammate, Mark. He attacked around me with about three other riders. I let him go and started soft pedaling. I watched the gap begin to grow. “Hey, I’m helping!” I thought. “Mark is getting away.”

We made our first turn and my teammate Thomas got relegated to the back for crossing the yellow line. I slowed to see if he had any need for help. At that point, Rodney pulled up beside me, “Dude!” He exclaimed. “You can’t be pulling the whole field around like that!” Hmmmmm, I guess I wasn’t helping after all.

“We have the numbers,” he continued. “You, Mark, and Phil are supposed to attack, attack, attack.” They made sense to me. I said, “Okay.” “Also,” he explained, “we have a rider up the road. You should NEVER be on the front.” He pointed at the rider currently on the front, “He can’t cover any counter attacks from there.” That made sense to me. I said, “Okay.”

I started to watch to see when we would bring Mark back into the fold. If I was supposed to attack, then I would do it as soon as we overtook him. I was starting to feel good about myself again because I figured a good attack would redeem me.

The chance never came. About halfway through the first lap everything just started going crazy! There were attacks and counter attacks. I didn’t know which ones to go with. I had teammates covering several moves at the same time and I was afraid I would do something stupid and mess things up.

Finally, I just had to put that out of my mind. With a couple of teammates forming gaps in groups ahead, I just waited for the next wheel to come by and jumped on it. I kept doing that trying to discourage anyone from bridging up to them.

Going into the second lap, things began to settle down. There were now three groups on the road. The first group contained three of our guys. The second group had two or three. Then there was our group with Phil Ball, Jae Bowen, and myself.

In that set, Jae was our lead man. Phil and I would work to help Jae. He was having to keep an eye on Ryan Jenkins who had missed the breaks and was now stuck in the field.

Everyone in the field was watching those two riders. They were playing a game of cat and mouse. For almost the entire second lap this continued.

Once we reached Dunklin Bridge, Ryan attacked and I covered his wheel. I looked down and saw 500 watts flashing across my Garmin. I knew I couldn’t keep this up for much longer. Just about the time I thought he was about to ride me off his wheel, he looked back at me and said, “You’ve got to ******* contribute!”

I was torn. The male in me wanted to pull through. However, the thought that I would be helping a threat get farther down the road didn’t seem like the right thing to do. “This is my job,” I said meekly. Exasperated, he let up and we were swallowed in the field.

Then I started to think about it. We were two minutes behind the second group. The front group was, in the words of the motorcycle official, “long gone.” What would hurt to catch the second group? Maybe I should have pulled through — with what little power I had left.

As we turned onto Cedar Falls road, I pulled up to Jae, “Hey, should we try to get up to the second group?” “No,” he replied emphatically. “We just watch Jenkins. If he goes, I go with him and you and Phil cover anybody trying to bridge up to us.” This made me feel a little better about my earlier decision. “So, we just ride in controlling the field?” I asked. Jae nodded.

Jenkins attacked once again as we neared the start/finish line for the third loop. I got caught behind a slowing rider and then had to work hard to catch the end of the group. In the process, I pretty much pulled the rest of the field to them.

Thankfully, things slowed just long enough for me to recover, but after the turn by the fire station Ryan Jenkins let it all hang out! He started pulling and the field stretched into a single file line. I was just trying to stay on the wheel in front of me.

On the back side of the course which is full of rolling hills, I looked down and saw that riding the wheel in front of me — in the draft — I was putting out 400 watts. I was about to get dropped from inside the field!

I recovered on a downhill and started up the final climb before we turned right again on Dunklin Bridge. “I’m going to make it!” I thought to myself. This would be the first race back since I broke my neck that I would finish. I started to think about the finish.

We went into the turn onto Dunklin Bridge in a wide arching line. As I entered the apex, it felt as though my rear tire was about to roll off the rim. I corrected and once we got straight I looked back. “No way!” I thought, “I’m going flat!” Knowing that we had some tricky descents ahead I didn’t think it wise to try to stay in the field.

I threw up my hand to indicate I had a problem and then moved left to the yellow line. As the field streamed past me and on ahead I took a closer look at my tire. It was not completely flat. It seemed to be a slow leak. I knew I had been having some trouble with the stem, so I figured that must be what was causing it.

Thankfully, there wasn’t much more distance to cover. As the tire got lower the effort it took to pedal increased. I was now alone with a slight wind and a flat tire. I was only hoping that the tire would stay up enough for me to ride to the finish.

Finally, I crossed the line with a sheepish look on my face. The desire was great to do something to let people know that I finished so far back because of the flat. I saw someone I knew over to the side of the road and pointed back at the wheel. I’m not even sure they saw me because everyone’s attention was turned to the Masters 45+ field that was coming up to their finish.

Being humbled isn’t always a bad thing. I learned a lot out there today. Being humbled and learning is wisdom. Being humbled and repeating your mistakes is stupid. I’m sure next race I’ll be humbled again… I just hope it won’t be because I’m stupid.

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How about a break?

Thursday, October 7th, 2010

Just over 48 hours from now, I’ll be toeing the line for my first race since May 22, 2010. I think my body is coming around a bit, but the big question remains — how will I respond mentally? Right now, I’m just trying to approach it with an open mind.

It is that time of year when you have to start thinking about the next one. The problem is that it is hard to think about 2011 when I seem a little lost here at the end of 2010. I’m arguing with myself as to what I want to accomplish. What really are my goals? Do I really want to put out the dedication to make those goals — whatever they happen to be — a reality?

I had three goals for the 2010 season. One was a smashing success — I met every goal I had for the 2010 Ride for Mike. The other two goals I didn’t meet, but not reaching one of them was not indicative of the overall success of the year. The final one I never got a chance to try before I ended up trying to recover from my accident.

It was my goal to win a Category 4 race in the 2010 race season. Interestingly, it was my success that kept me from accomplishing this goal. With multiple podium finishes I collected so many points that I was feeling the pressure to upgrade. So, while I didn’t win an individual race, I do consider my 1st place omnium finish in the Spring Series to kind of fulfill that goal. Besides, the idea that I would end the season as a Category 3, was not on my radar.

The final goal that my coach and I were aiming for was to climb Paris Mountain’s Altamont Road in 11:15. Looking at my TrainingPeaks goals I noticed that Jim had me doing the record breaking attempt last week. Of course, that was before all the changes that have come about due to my injuries and the Ride for Mike. So, I have not attempted the climb for the purpose of meeting my goal. The only strong effort I gave was in one of the Paris Mountain Time Trials held this summer. That was back in April I believe and I managed a time of 11:24 — 14th fastest time for that day and 9 seconds slower than my goal.

However, the big event that still hangs over my head and changed everything for me was the wreck. I know there are people out there that have said I wouldn’t return to racing. I’ve got to toe the line at least one more time to show them that I am back.

That leads me to the final conundrum. The bike has taken a lot out of me this year. I’ve been on highs and I’ve hit some pretty bad lows. Physically and emotionally, I’m feeling pretty beat up right now.

It is another reason I want to compete on Saturday. I want to know how I react. What am I going to feel as I pull into my slot. Before, I would feel the rush of competition. I would look around and wonder how I would match up with the guys around me. I had a desire to perform well to win the praise of my teammates.

At this moment all that seems… well, childish. In the great scheme of things, I really don’t care. Now I’m quick to add that is how it appears to me now. My question is, how will I view it Saturday morning? One thing is for certain, I’ll never approach racing the same way again. I’m not going to risk all for that next position. However, I am drawn to this race because there is something missing. It isn’t the most important thing — not even one of the most important things in my life, but there is something calling to me from some distant experience.

I’ve got to race Saturday morning to find where that voice is coming from. Perhaps I will find it is a siren call that is leading me to a mirage. Perhaps I’ll find that it is leading me back to a bit of a spark that will help me on the bike and off. I’m not expecting to make up my mind based on what happens Saturday, but it will be a start.

One thing I know for sure. After this Saturday’s events, I need a break.

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I hope I do not drown Saturday

Tuesday, October 5th, 2010

First, for those who were concerned about me let me give an update on my swelling issues. Earlier I reported that I was having significant swelling in my legs. I also saw fast weight gain taking me up to 176 pounds within a couple days of the conclusion of the Ride for Mike. I was a little concerned and started doing some asking around.

This morning I weighed in at 169 pounds. That isn’t far off my normal weight. Typically in the middle of a season I will be 160 to 165. When I am not training hard, I typically land somewhere between 165 and 170. So, I would say weight-wise, I am on target.

It was kind of funny. On Monday I think my body finally decided to clean out my system. I seemed to be heading to the restroom every hour. What it appears happened is that my body was retaining fluids due to the stress of the previous weeks ride. It was out of wack and wasn’t processing things properly. It showed up in my appetite, the fluid retention, and my sleep cycles. Then my body started swinging back into normalcy. It started Monday and now on Tuesday, I am finally starting to feel myself again.

Good thing because Saturday is a big day for me. It will be my first race since my accident. My goal for the race is not to go out there and win anything. It isn’t even to be a factor in the race. My goal is to go out and stay in the field as long as possible and do my best to finish.

It is going to be tough. I’ll be racing in the Masters 35+ field. This means I’ve got to last for about 55 minutes. I’m definitely going to have to use my brain to accomplish this. My body isn’t ready.

Some folks say, “Well, you should be ready to tear up the race course with all that strength you built during the Ride for Mike.” I wish that was the case. Unfortunately, the Memphis to Raleigh ride hurt me when it comes to this race.

Let me explain why. The Ride for Mike was great for me in the long term. It would have been even better had I completed the ride in the very early spring. The reason is that the type of riding I was doing is considered “base miles.” Base miles are good for getting your legs use to the motions of pedaling, getting oxygen to your muscles, and building strength for more regimented training. It is a primarily aerobic activity.

The problem is that racing is an anaerobic activity. During my Ride for Mike I was tooling along at an average heart beat of 130 bpm (see this ride from that week). This is well within my aerobic capacity. Other than the fact that it was a long distance, you would call it a recovery ride. So, my body was used to riding along getting plenty of oxygen to my muscles and training my muscles for long steady endurance.

Hello, race day! It is a different world. Here I riding on the tipping scale between aerobic and anaerobic efforts. Anaerobic is that state when your body simply can’t get enough oxygen to your muscles to meet the demand. Your muscles have to start doing their jobs by pulling from reserves. It is a totally different activity from a recovery ride — and the Ride for Mike!

Check out this report from my TrainingPeaks showing the last Category 4 race I completed. Understand that the effort I put out here (an average heart rate of 177 bpm) is not quite the effort that I have to put out to stay with the Masters guys. Still, this average barely stays in my “sub-threshold” range. There are spikes that take me beyond my threshold. My threshold is that point where my body starts having lactic build up in the muscles. This is what gives you that feeling of your muscles are turning to rock.

Once my heart rate starts operating at 180 to 189 bpm I am at the capacity of my body to get the needed oxygen to my muscles. It is not unusual for me to race at 184 bpm for some time. The next step is moving into that anaerobic state. Thankfully, I typically don’t hit that level until going for a sprint or attempting a major bridge up to a breakaway. However, when it comes to race endurance, you don’t have to do that many times to “burn the matches in your match book.”

To prepare for this type of effort, you need to train your body for it. At the peak of my season, I was doing short intervals that would take my body right up to the edge and then release me so that I wouldn’t wear myself out. This built up a memory in my muscles to operate in these race conditions.

So, imagine my body that has gotten used to these long “recovery rides” suddenly being thrown into this high-effort, oxygen depriving pool of racing. It would be like a sleeping sunbather by the pool suddenly being dumped into the water. SHOCK! Hopefully, the sunbather will react to previous conditioning and become a swimmer. That is also what I am hoping will happen Saturday.

I’m certain I’m going to suffer early in the race. There is going to be a moment when my body is going to scream for me to stop. However, after that initial shock, I trust my body will respond to how it has been trained. It has been in this situation before. Just start treading and I’ll be able to make it out of the pool without drowning.

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A foreigner in a strange land

Friday, July 30th, 2010

I made it out to my first race since my accident. No, I didn’t ride a bike. Actually, I take that back, I did roll a little ways on Thing Three’s 24 inch mountain bike. Don’t tell my doctor! It was a different experience — kind of surreal.

It was obvious that things were going to be different. As we pulled up into the lot I saw all the cars and then I saw all the tan people putting their bikes together. I’m always kind of dark, but I knew right away that these guys had seen a lot more sun over the last couple of months.

Meeting some folks I haven’t seen in a while was the highlight of the night. It was a little awkward. It may seem strange because I put myself out in a public way with this blog, but really I’m a pretty shy person. It means a lot that people were concerned about me and how I am progressing, but I don’t really like talking about it.

The problem came with what to talk about after that. Time has passed me by. I was not up on all the action that has taken place in my absence. Relationships are built on shared experiences and I haven’t shared a lot with my cycling buddies in a while.

That was really evident when I approached my teammates. It was just before the Masters 35+ race. I was going to wish them well. As I got closer, I could feel it. It is that aura of testosterone. I never really noticed it before because up till now, I was part of the generator. Now it was obvious to me.

The strange thing was that it felt foreign. It was like I was looking at strangers. It was like I couldn’t relate with what they were thinking and experiencing at that moment.

It was fun to watch them roll off and the attraction to the strategic part of the process was reawakened. Watching the expressions on the faces as the field streamed by did cause me to pause… “Man, I don’t know if I could do that right now!” Fact is, I can’t! Once again that foreign feeling crept in.

It isn’t that I didn’t at one time know exactly how they felt. It isn’t that at one time I was not able to hang with them. It was just that at that moment, it seemed a different world. It brought back experiences of what seemed like far distant past. It aroused questions of what it will take to experience them again.

Thanks to everybody who welcomed me back. This post isn’t to give the impression folks didn’t welcome me back. It is just that something inside of me was disconnected. Maybe it boils down to the fact that part of your identity at a race is your bike. Last night, I didn’t have one.

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Points is points – not really

Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010

Part of the focus of Low Cadence is the reporting of my attempts of “learning the ropes racing on the POA Cycling club team.” I’m hoping that as I learn a few things other people will also get some information they may not have known. Well, I learned something just the other day that might be obvious to people who have been in the racing scene. It was new to me!

Earlier I wrote about my decision whether or not to request an upgrade from Category 4 to Category 3. There was a formula that was used to determine the number of points I had toward the upgrade. My team manager tells me I now have 33 of those points.

Of course, I was wanting to find some official listing of this. I figured I would be able to go to USACycling.org and find out officially what points I had toward an upgrade. Searching around in the site, I happened upon the rankings. Sure enough, there was a list of racers with points out to the side. Those points determined their ranks.

When I discovered this, the races I had participated in this spring had not yet been added. So, I kept coming back every couple of days to find out what I could. Sure enough, I showed up. At that time I was ranked 3rd in the country (not hard to do when there isn’t much data to pull from). That was kind of cool for however long that would last. However, then I noticed the points beside my name…

15 points. What’s this? That didn’t seem right. I wouldn’t mind if I had that many points because that would solve my problem of deciding whether to upgrade or not. Then I also noticed that some of the people ranked ahead of me had not even raced as many races as I had. For instance at the time I write this I am ranked 25th and have more top 5 finishes than many of the riders ranked higher than myself.

So, what is the answer? The answer is that the rankings on USACycling.org is not where you go get your official upgrade points. These are rankings not simply of who has the best finishes but also in what races those finishes came. A Greenville Spring Training Series race isn’t going to rank as high as the 2010 Perry Roubiax.

Funny thing is, looking at the finishes made me wish I had raced the Perry Roubiax. The winner was the guy to whom I finished 2nd to at River Falls. I would have liked to have had a rematch — and may have picked up some good ranking points to boot!

For winning that race in Perry, GA, he got 60 points! Winning any race in the Spring Series earned you 10. Guess if you want to have a high ranking you have to determine what race you plan to race before you start considering how well you finish.

What did I learn? 1) Rankings on USACycling.org are not going to tell you how many points you have for an upgrade. You have to calculate it yourself based on the charts available on the site. 2) I’m not going to be very highly ranked this year! I’m not going to be able to be so discriminating in my choices of where and when I race.

I am getting the itch though… I’m ready to start finding a race to let off some of this steam. Only, it is going to have to wait a week before I’ll be freed up to consider it. Starting to look like Rock Hill in April will be the earliest I will be able to go back into battle.

Hmmmmm, wonder how many ranking points that one is worth? :-)

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The hunter becomes the hunted

Thursday, March 4th, 2010

River Falls is two days away. Maybe someday this will change, but each event so far this year has led me to think back to earlier adventures racing these roads. Saturday there will be one element I have never experienced – I will be the hunted rather than the hunter.

With two second place finishes in the third and fourth races of the Greenville Spring Training Series to go along with a fifth place finish in the second race, I now have 24 points toward the omnium. Jonathan Leifer, whom I knocked off that top spot, is only two points back in second place overall. Fellow Upstate racer, Wade Greene, is in third with eighteen points.

Two more races remain. I certainly don’t have this wrapped up, by any means. However, I have already pretty much assured that I’ll have reached my goals (or at least a variation of them) for this race series.

Goal number one is to finish top 5 in the omnium. By the way, in case you are one of my non-cycling relatives reading this blog, the omnium is basically standings based on points earned for finishes in all races of a series. Since I am currently first in those standings, I think I am well on my way to meeting this goal.

Goal number two is to podium at River Falls. However, even if I don’t manage this specific goal, I am pleased because I have already “stood on the podium” (we don’t actually have one) twice in the series. Frankly, I have already exceeded what I thought I could do. Everything from here on out is icing on one delicious cake!

Now I have the new experience of being the marked man. Last Sunday I knew Leifer was the only rider between me and the top spot. Knowing that had a huge bearing on how I approached the race. Without doing anything, he already dictated my actions.

What do I do? Will we end up like Sunday when we rode around slow as molasses in January because Leifer was sitting in patiently waiting for the field sprint? Will I be the one slowing us down? Are there other more team-oriented, tactical things that could happen in the race to make it more interesting?

If past experience is the guide, this race could end up simply being about who can climb the last kilometer fastest. I’m prepared for that, but hope it will be something better. Seems I know better how to hunt, than to be the hunted.

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