Skating – Still a gentleman’s sport.
There’s been a lot of talk recently about Contador’s choice to not wait on Andy Schleck, who dropped a chain during this years’ TDF. I get both sides of the discussion. I get the whole “unwritten rule, show some respect, nobody wants to win on somebody else’s bad luck” argument. I also get the other side of it where Contador had to worry about his other rivals, and that it was ultimately Schleck’s fault. If he would have had a chain catcher like some of the other guys, he wouldn’t have had the mechanical issue.
Anyway, the situation has caused people to say that cycling is no longer a gentleman’s sport. While I don’t have further comments on that, I do have to say that speed skating, at least at the Chicagoland inline marathon, demonstrated that it still very much is. In fact, there were 3 distinct situations in the race where this was proven.
The race started off very fast. It was reminiscent of a Duluth race start. Justin Stelly was the one setting the pace I believe. Alex had a poor start. I don’t think he had his head in the game. He’s been skating really well lately so it’s not like he didn’t have the ability. It just kind of happened that he got stuck in the wrong spot at a very fast time and was bounced off the back of the main field early.
Roger Schneider, Olympic athlete and inline marathon world record holder, was moving up on the right side of the field in a narrow part of the course and caught skates with Olivier Jean (part of the Canadian gold medal Olympic short track team) and Olivier went down hard.
I’m sure Olivier is a really nice guy (and I was cheering for him at the Olympics), but for whatever reason, a few of us didn’t want to see him win. I guess it was just a form of nationalism. I’d rather see an American athlete win. We could have went on the attack when he hit the ground, but instead we steadied the pace and Olivier caught back on so we could try to beat him the right way, which I believe is the right thing to do.
Later on that first lap Olivier, Justin Stelly, and Marisio Garcia all missed a turn near the start finish line. Justin and Marisio were the top 2 overall in the stage race. Again, the rest of the field could have taken off and made the 3 work very hard to catch, but everyone knew it wasn’t right so the pack stood up.
This was pretty important to my race because it was the lull that helped Alex catch up. He’s not a quitter. He’ll go all out until he gets back on no matter how far back he gets. Before Alex was there, I couldn’t take a pull. If I did I’d basically be pulling the field away from Alex, and it was my job at this race to make sure Alex finished high enough up so that he could get 4th overall while I stayed in 3rd.
On the second lap the 3rd sign of sportsmanship came when Justin Stelly’s front wheel came loose. He was trying to tighten it with his thumb and other skaters would help hold him up and push him so that gaps didn’t open up. After a few miles he was able to get a wrench handed up and all the other favorites didn’t attack while he tightened his wheel on the go. For the 3rd time in one race I was really impressed at how polite people were skating.
That’s not to say the whole race was just boring, group hug. Sergio had a couple hard attacks. Justin spent the majority of the race up front holding the pace high. On the last two laps Olivier kept trying to get away but it wasn’t sticking.
I really would have liked to help a breakaway stick, but the “perfect” group never formed. Like I said before, I needed to get Alex to finish ahead of a few certain people. That meant if Alex wasn’t in the break then I wasn’t working. The other factor was that almost every move consisted of the fastest guys in the race that I was most worried about in the sprint. Even if one of the breaks would have stuck, the end result would have probably been the same.
In the second to last corner I got in a bad spot. I was in 6th place. I wanted to be about 3rd at that point, but an attack on the downhill messed up my plan. My next thought was to come from the back and start the sprint early and hope that it was a big enough surprise that I could hold most of the guys off. Unfortunately, the sprint started even earlier than I had planned on going. I was expecting about 200m to go. It started with over 500m to go coming out of the final turn. There was a gap in front of the guy I was following. I tried to go around him on the outside of a right hand bend but I didn’t have the speed to close the gap in front of us. I was able to pass him and so was Alex, which allowed us to keep our 3rd and 4th overall spots for the tour, but it was only good for a 5th and 6th in the marathon. We were reeling in Roger Schneider, but that gap was just too much to close. Justin ended up taking the win, which is awesome for the US. The top 4 spots were all taken by different countries (US, Colombia, Canada, Switzerland).
I’m really hoping that a similar group shows up to St Paul next weekend. It’s just a half marathon so I expect to pace to be fast. Outdoor nationals starts right afterwards, so I suspect a lot of the top US skaters won’t be there. I guess that means the pressure is really on the shoulders of Alex and I.
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Friday, July 30, 2010
Chicagoland Inline Stage Race
340m sprint – There’s not much I can say about this 30 second race. We knew that the rain was imminent during the pre-race meeting. I had a horrible start (lack of practice) and other guys like Justin Stelly took off like a rocket. About 100m into the race the floodgates opened and the rain came pouring down. I was 5th going into the turn and passed 2 guys to take 3rd.
Circuit Race – Saturday seemed like it would be a complete washout too. The TT was postponed and they ran the circuit first. It was supposed to be a points race (sprint every lap) but they couldn’t put down the chip mat because of the rain so it was a straightup 10k. For Friday and Saturday I was on gold street fight wheels (MPC). When it comes to rain wheels, MPC is hard to top. The street fights aren’t a specific rain wheel but they do the job quite well and supposedly out perform the storm surge if things dry up. Two of the Canadian skaters must not have paid attention at the pre-race meeting because they sprinted every lap for prime points that didn’t exist. I didn’t mind since they were only hurting themselves. With two laps to go I tried to break away with Alex but we got separated. Justin Stelly flew past me like I was standing still. I assumed the rest of the group was there because he sat up right after he passed me, but they weren’t. By the time I realized we had such a gap it was too late. I tried to go again but knew it wasn’t going to work so I shut it down. I ended up 3rd in the sprint to Justin and Marisio…same result as the 340m race the night before.
TT – The course had to be changed because of the delay. The main road was already open to traffic. The directors ended up setting up a great course regardless. It had two 180 degree turns I wasn’t thrilled about, but everyone has to do the same course so it’s not like there is an advantage/disadvantage for anyone. You just have to accept what the circumstances give to you.
It was tough to decide whether to race with wet or dry wheels for the TT. The “hill” was still pretty damp and the sky was dark so I went with wet. Most of the other elite men made the same choice.
I took both corners like a big weenie. I hit them even faster during my warmup. I ended up 3rd again to Justin and Marisio. Justin slaughtered everyone. I think Marisio had me by about 3 seconds. It would have taken more than just better cornering for me to make up 3 seconds I think.
Circuit Race – Saturday seemed like it would be a complete washout too. The TT was postponed and they ran the circuit first. It was supposed to be a points race (sprint every lap) but they couldn’t put down the chip mat because of the rain so it was a straightup 10k. For Friday and Saturday I was on gold street fight wheels (MPC). When it comes to rain wheels, MPC is hard to top. The street fights aren’t a specific rain wheel but they do the job quite well and supposedly out perform the storm surge if things dry up. Two of the Canadian skaters must not have paid attention at the pre-race meeting because they sprinted every lap for prime points that didn’t exist. I didn’t mind since they were only hurting themselves. With two laps to go I tried to break away with Alex but we got separated. Justin Stelly flew past me like I was standing still. I assumed the rest of the group was there because he sat up right after he passed me, but they weren’t. By the time I realized we had such a gap it was too late. I tried to go again but knew it wasn’t going to work so I shut it down. I ended up 3rd in the sprint to Justin and Marisio…same result as the 340m race the night before.
TT – The course had to be changed because of the delay. The main road was already open to traffic. The directors ended up setting up a great course regardless. It had two 180 degree turns I wasn’t thrilled about, but everyone has to do the same course so it’s not like there is an advantage/disadvantage for anyone. You just have to accept what the circumstances give to you.
It was tough to decide whether to race with wet or dry wheels for the TT. The “hill” was still pretty damp and the sky was dark so I went with wet. Most of the other elite men made the same choice.
I took both corners like a big weenie. I hit them even faster during my warmup. I ended up 3rd again to Justin and Marisio. Justin slaughtered everyone. I think Marisio had me by about 3 seconds. It would have taken more than just better cornering for me to make up 3 seconds I think.
Sapulpa CritSapulpa Crit – This was the hottest race of the year for me. The announcer told us at the start that the temperature was over 100 degrees
This was the hottest race of the year for me. The announcer told us at the start that the temperature was over 100 degrees and the heat index was 114. Considering the weather, I actually felt pretty good throughout this race.
The course was a pretty simple 6 corner crit. All of the corners were wide open. One was slightly off camber but it was wide enough that you could take it with pretty good speed. The corners were in pretty good shape but one of the straightaways was loaded with cracks and potholes. Overall though, it was a good course, although not a decisive one for the race.
The deciding factor was the size and number of teams. There was one team (Tulsa Tough) that had 8 guys. The next largest team was a tie between ours and BOT with 2 riders each. Joey was sick, Brad was still resting, and Jeremy was in CO. Everyone else out there was riding solo.
I was really surprised at how some of the solo riders raced. It’s like they wanted Tulsa Tough to beat up on them. Everytime a Tulsa Tough guy would jump they would pull the whole field up to them. Another Tulsa guy would go and the same thing would happen. It happened over and over again.
Brian and I each got in some decent moves but nothing we were in was going to stick. I tried talking to a BOT guy to get something going. I told him when I was going to go and I told him he should come with me. He said smugly “are you sure about that?” I’m not sure what he meant by that, but I just laughed and said he can do whatever he wants. I jumped with him on my wheel. We got a big gap and I tried to get him to pull through. He came through but then took a weird outside line in the corner and basically sat up. I still don’t get the whole interaction. I don’t think he was too tired. I guess he just didn’t want to take a chance at winning.
When you are outnumbered that bad, it is impossible to get in every break. Eventually you’ll have to watch somebody get away. In the case of this race, I had to watch three get away.
With just a few laps to go I tried to get away again. Brian had a nice counter and was able to get away with Yanni. Brian was forced to do all the work and ended up 5th. I took 7th with a 2nd place finish in the field sprint.
The course was a pretty simple 6 corner crit. All of the corners were wide open. One was slightly off camber but it was wide enough that you could take it with pretty good speed. The corners were in pretty good shape but one of the straightaways was loaded with cracks and potholes. Overall though, it was a good course, although not a decisive one for the race.
The deciding factor was the size and number of teams. There was one team (Tulsa Tough) that had 8 guys. The next largest team was a tie between ours and BOT with 2 riders each. Joey was sick, Brad was still resting, and Jeremy was in CO. Everyone else out there was riding solo.
I was really surprised at how some of the solo riders raced. It’s like they wanted Tulsa Tough to beat up on them. Everytime a Tulsa Tough guy would jump they would pull the whole field up to them. Another Tulsa guy would go and the same thing would happen. It happened over and over again.
Brian and I each got in some decent moves but nothing we were in was going to stick. I tried talking to a BOT guy to get something going. I told him when I was going to go and I told him he should come with me. He said smugly “are you sure about that?” I’m not sure what he meant by that, but I just laughed and said he can do whatever he wants. I jumped with him on my wheel. We got a big gap and I tried to get him to pull through. He came through but then took a weird outside line in the corner and basically sat up. I still don’t get the whole interaction. I don’t think he was too tired. I guess he just didn’t want to take a chance at winning.
When you are outnumbered that bad, it is impossible to get in every break. Eventually you’ll have to watch somebody get away. In the case of this race, I had to watch three get away.
With just a few laps to go I tried to get away again. Brian had a nice counter and was able to get away with Yanni. Brian was forced to do all the work and ended up 5th. I took 7th with a 2nd place finish in the field sprint.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Season Update
Tulsa Tough consisted of 3 crits. This is Oklahoma’s biggest cycling event and has the largest (100+) and fastest field that I’ll encounter all season. It pulls riders in from virtually the entire country.
Friday night was a testosterone filled crash fest. Everyone wanted to prove they were “Tulsa Tough” and some people tried to show us by taking horrible lines and riding sketchy. Jeremy had a good first half and he was being aggressive up in the top 5. I, on the other hand, raced like a big weenie. Obviously I wasn’t mentally ready to race because I felt great but just didn’t do anything. The good news about the night was that all of Team Undiscovered kept both wheels on the ground. We were joking around that we may have been the only team to not have a rider crash in that race.
Saturday was earlier and therefore slightly warmer. It still wasn’t too bad. Again, I didn’t really do anything to make the race, but I did keep my legs fresh and kept better positioning. In the last few laps I was steadily making it up towards the front. With 2 laps to go a few riders in front of me went really wide in a turn and were forced up onto the sidewalk. I had to bail onto sidewalk to avoid hitting them and lost about 50 spots.
Sunday’s course has a challenging climb each lap. That benefits my strengths a lot more than the flat crits of Friday and Saturday. The heat was definitely an issue, but the huge, drunk crowd at the top of the hill each lap kept my mind off the pain/fatigue. I really wanted to make a move early on the final lap because I knew I wouldn’t have a good sprint. Looking back, it was the move to make because a lot of guys were hurting. Plus, I rarely get results if I don’t take chances. Unfortunately, going along with the weenie theme of the weekend, I waited for the sprint. I didn’t get the great finish I wanted (27th), but when over 40 guys DNF a race, just finishing in the main field is an accomplishment.
The main takeaway from the weekend was that I needed more experience in big crits. I race fine when the field is controllable, but in a fast race of this size, with a great caliber of athletes, I get too skittish and stop racing. I’ll add that to the “lessons learned” for next season. I plan on doing some of the bigger Texas crits to try to get mentally prepared for Tulsa Tough. I was physically prepared this year, but that will only take you so far.
OKC Crit –
The organizers are trying to make this into a big event like Tulsa Tough. I think it has the potential, but Saturday’s course needs to go. The road condition was terrible and it was a boring course for the riders and spectators alike.
The weekend started off poorly for Brad, Brian and I. For the first time in each of our lives, we missed the start of the race. We were still on the course warming up. On one lap nobody was at the starting line. On the next lap everyone had already taken off. Fortunately we were only about 200m back and were able to work together to catch back on. Going anaerobic right from the gun will really take a beating on your performance though.
The race ended in my favorite manor…a field sprint (that is sarcasm) and I finished midpack yet again. I was still kind of in the same funk that I was in since Tulsa Tough. My fitness was good enough to hang in, but not good enough to give me the confidence I needed to win.
The next day was on a better course. It has nice wide corners and the laps are short enough to be spectator friendly. I was actually feeling a lot better this day than the rest of my recent races. With about two laps to go I found Joey and told him I’d give him a pull to the front so hopefully he’d stay fresh for the sprint. We got split up, but I ended up putting myself in prime position going into the final turn. A few guys divebombed the inside line (I never get tired of that) and the two guys in front of me both swung way wide. Evan (one of the guys that had to go wide) was able to recover and still get a decent finish but I lost a bunch of spots and ended up 13th. I know I didn’t have winning legs, but I think a top 5 would have been possible if the squirrels decided to sit in the back where they belong instead of slamming on the brakes in the last turn because they chose the idiot-line.
I didn’t have power data for the last few races because my powertap wasn’t working (user error). My training during the week didn’t consist of many hard efforts because most of the week was spent recovering from the racing. Going in to the state TT I really had no idea where my legs would be or what I was capable of.
To make matters worse, I did a hot and hilly 100k ride the day before the TT.
I kept an eye on my watts to make sure I wasn’t going over threshold, but that wasn’t a problem. I don’t think I could have gone over my normal threshold even if I tried! My bike was uncomfortable, I wasn’t well rested, and my performance was sucking. Those are all great things. I still broke the 1 hr mark for a 40k, but I knew that during my peak I would have been a few minutes faster. My power was between 40 and 50 less than what my FTP was. Needless to say, I wasn’t the state champ.
After my performance at the TT I decided to take some time off from the bike. Instead, I got a few running workouts in and some swimming, but nothing too stressful. After a week I was back on the bike. All of my efforts were aerobic. I was trying to get out of the funk I was in.
Did it work? It’s too early to tell. The Draper Duathlon weekend was all I’ve done since then. In the 3 weeks leading up to it I put in 18 miles of running over 5 workouts. In the 4 weeks before that I had only run once for 2 miles. Needless to say, my run wasn’t where it needed to be for a longcourse duathlon (10k run, 43 mile bike, 10k run). Plus, it was the national championship race so a lot of people came in from out of state to try and qualify for worlds.
The first run was really boring. I was just trying to stay aerobic, run smooth, and not waste energy. I lost an eternity on the leaders, but as far as Okies go I was still in decent position.
The first lap of the bike felt good. I was passing quite a few people, including the 2 guys I thought were leading my age group. I took a Hammer Gel as soon as I got up to speed and both of my bottles were filled with Heed. This presented a problem. My stomach didn’t react well to something…probably a mix of running 10k and consuming too many calories too quickly on the bike. I only had Heed with me to drink, so my choices were to keep drinking calories and upsetting my stomach or to cut back on fluid to see if the stomach comes around. I chose somewhere in the middle and started dehydrating AND had stomach issues.
After the first lap I should have ditched my heed bottles and grabbed water, but I didn’t. I just kept on trucking. My power was lower than my goal, but the PE was right where I wanted it. I didn’t know how my legs would react to that first 10k of running, so I didn’t really have a good idea of what type of power I should put out on the bike.
On the third and final bike lap I got out of the saddle for a second and my legs cramped. The cramps went away when I sat back down, but my hamstrings were getting really tight and I couldn’t stretch them. My saddle must be a little high, because as my legs tightened up I could tell I was having to really reach for each pedal stroke and it really threw me off my game. There was a guy whom I almost caught that was out of sight again. I was losing quite a bit of time quickly.
My legs felt awful on the second run. I don’t think it was from going too hard on the bike. I think it was from the dehydration and poor bike fit. I came off the bike in about 7th position I think. I had visions of becoming a national champion and told myself I just had to keep running. I told Trey Cone the same thing when I saw him walking. He was in front of me and was having a great race but the heat was catching up to him. A few minutes later, I couldn’t heed my own advice and walked a few seconds. I picked it up again, but shortly after the turnaround I was caught by Bryan Journey, a long-time friend of mine who is in my age group. Knowing I wasn’t leading my age group anymore made me walk a little more. The funny thing is, I never was in the lead. The guy in 2nd overall was in my age group and he was flying. I never had a chance.
Anyway, on the second lap I got to run with Martha for a little while. She was on her first. It was nice to have somebody to run with but eventually I had to pick it up a bit to keep the next guy in my age group from catching me. I was in rough shape at the finish. I limped up to the ice bath and got in for a few seconds to try and drop my core temp. I wanted to see Sarah finish so I started heading to the finish line. Things started getting blurry and I thought I might pass out, so I got somebody to walk over to the finish line with me to make sure I didn’t fall over.
I ended up 15th overall, 3rd place Oklahoman, and 3rd in my age group. For the training I did, I can’t complain. I qualified for worlds, but whether or not I go depends on the location.
The next morning was brutal. I didn’t know how I would do another duathlon. At the end of the weekend I was going to have run as many miles as I had in the last 3 months combined. My hamstrings were worse than anything. I had won the overall award for the on-road/off-road duathlon the year before, so I had to suck it up and defend.
Things started feeling a bit better when the race started. I got in the lead pack of runners and we almost immediately shaved the field down to 4 guys. I was pretty confident I would be the fastest on the mountain bike so there was no reason to try to push the pace, but it was a moot point anyway since after 1.5 miles I was almost completely gassed. The 4th place finisher from last year went to the front and dropped the hammer. He was gone in no time. I wasn’t worried about him at all. He did the same thing last year, but then he took an eternity in transition and was riding some cheap, old bike. He lost a ton of time on the bike and I was able to beat him, even though he was a great runner.
At the water station I stopped to get a drink and the other 2 guys kept going. They were gone too. For the last part of the run I just tried to limit my losses and hoped that I would quickly catch the three guys in front of me.
I caught one after about 5 minutes. The next one ended up taking a wrong turn. He realized it quickly and got back on the trail, but not before I was able to go through. Since I didn’t see him, I wasn’t sure which guy it was. I figured it was the fast runner/cheap bike guy.
When I came through after the first lap I asked a volunteer what position I was in and they said “2nd by 2 minutes.” 2 minutes? Mike was in site earlier that lap. If he put two minutes on me, he was flying.
On the next lap they told me I was in 2nd by 10 seconds. When I got onto the fire road I saw the leader and realized it was the fast runner. As I got closer I realized he was no longer on a hoopty bike. He wasn’t taking bad lines either. In fact, he was going fast! I sat on him for about 5 minutes and told him how strong he was riding. He told me he had been training for this race ever since last year. I don’t know why I expect myself to get better but don’t assume everyone else is making big improvements too.
I knew at this point he had the race won. His run was way too fast for me. I eventually made the pass to try and distance myself from 3rd place.
The second run was painful. It was hot and muggy in the trails. Luckily it was only a 5k and I was able to keep running. Chris (the fast runner) passed me in the first kilometer or so. I ran the rest solo and finished about a minute in front of 3rd. He was closing on me pretty quickly though. I was happy to have the fastest bike split of the day. I only did 3 or 4 rides on my mountain bike this summer and people kept talking about some expert class rider who was going to tear it up.
All-in-all it was a good weekend. It gave me a good vision of where I am now and what I need to do in order to reach my Redman goal in September. The two big things are my long run and my bike fit. My swim has actually been coming around pretty good.
This weekend I’ll be racing the Sapulpa crit. That will be a good indicator as to whether or not my base training these past few weeks has helped or hurt my overall fitness. The way I was skating last night, I’m pretty sure it has helped.
Friday night was a testosterone filled crash fest. Everyone wanted to prove they were “Tulsa Tough” and some people tried to show us by taking horrible lines and riding sketchy. Jeremy had a good first half and he was being aggressive up in the top 5. I, on the other hand, raced like a big weenie. Obviously I wasn’t mentally ready to race because I felt great but just didn’t do anything. The good news about the night was that all of Team Undiscovered kept both wheels on the ground. We were joking around that we may have been the only team to not have a rider crash in that race.
Saturday was earlier and therefore slightly warmer. It still wasn’t too bad. Again, I didn’t really do anything to make the race, but I did keep my legs fresh and kept better positioning. In the last few laps I was steadily making it up towards the front. With 2 laps to go a few riders in front of me went really wide in a turn and were forced up onto the sidewalk. I had to bail onto sidewalk to avoid hitting them and lost about 50 spots.
Sunday’s course has a challenging climb each lap. That benefits my strengths a lot more than the flat crits of Friday and Saturday. The heat was definitely an issue, but the huge, drunk crowd at the top of the hill each lap kept my mind off the pain/fatigue. I really wanted to make a move early on the final lap because I knew I wouldn’t have a good sprint. Looking back, it was the move to make because a lot of guys were hurting. Plus, I rarely get results if I don’t take chances. Unfortunately, going along with the weenie theme of the weekend, I waited for the sprint. I didn’t get the great finish I wanted (27th), but when over 40 guys DNF a race, just finishing in the main field is an accomplishment.
The main takeaway from the weekend was that I needed more experience in big crits. I race fine when the field is controllable, but in a fast race of this size, with a great caliber of athletes, I get too skittish and stop racing. I’ll add that to the “lessons learned” for next season. I plan on doing some of the bigger Texas crits to try to get mentally prepared for Tulsa Tough. I was physically prepared this year, but that will only take you so far.
OKC Crit –
The organizers are trying to make this into a big event like Tulsa Tough. I think it has the potential, but Saturday’s course needs to go. The road condition was terrible and it was a boring course for the riders and spectators alike.
The weekend started off poorly for Brad, Brian and I. For the first time in each of our lives, we missed the start of the race. We were still on the course warming up. On one lap nobody was at the starting line. On the next lap everyone had already taken off. Fortunately we were only about 200m back and were able to work together to catch back on. Going anaerobic right from the gun will really take a beating on your performance though.
The race ended in my favorite manor…a field sprint (that is sarcasm) and I finished midpack yet again. I was still kind of in the same funk that I was in since Tulsa Tough. My fitness was good enough to hang in, but not good enough to give me the confidence I needed to win.
The next day was on a better course. It has nice wide corners and the laps are short enough to be spectator friendly. I was actually feeling a lot better this day than the rest of my recent races. With about two laps to go I found Joey and told him I’d give him a pull to the front so hopefully he’d stay fresh for the sprint. We got split up, but I ended up putting myself in prime position going into the final turn. A few guys divebombed the inside line (I never get tired of that) and the two guys in front of me both swung way wide. Evan (one of the guys that had to go wide) was able to recover and still get a decent finish but I lost a bunch of spots and ended up 13th. I know I didn’t have winning legs, but I think a top 5 would have been possible if the squirrels decided to sit in the back where they belong instead of slamming on the brakes in the last turn because they chose the idiot-line.
I didn’t have power data for the last few races because my powertap wasn’t working (user error). My training during the week didn’t consist of many hard efforts because most of the week was spent recovering from the racing. Going in to the state TT I really had no idea where my legs would be or what I was capable of.
To make matters worse, I did a hot and hilly 100k ride the day before the TT.
I kept an eye on my watts to make sure I wasn’t going over threshold, but that wasn’t a problem. I don’t think I could have gone over my normal threshold even if I tried! My bike was uncomfortable, I wasn’t well rested, and my performance was sucking. Those are all great things. I still broke the 1 hr mark for a 40k, but I knew that during my peak I would have been a few minutes faster. My power was between 40 and 50 less than what my FTP was. Needless to say, I wasn’t the state champ.
After my performance at the TT I decided to take some time off from the bike. Instead, I got a few running workouts in and some swimming, but nothing too stressful. After a week I was back on the bike. All of my efforts were aerobic. I was trying to get out of the funk I was in.
Did it work? It’s too early to tell. The Draper Duathlon weekend was all I’ve done since then. In the 3 weeks leading up to it I put in 18 miles of running over 5 workouts. In the 4 weeks before that I had only run once for 2 miles. Needless to say, my run wasn’t where it needed to be for a longcourse duathlon (10k run, 43 mile bike, 10k run). Plus, it was the national championship race so a lot of people came in from out of state to try and qualify for worlds.
The first run was really boring. I was just trying to stay aerobic, run smooth, and not waste energy. I lost an eternity on the leaders, but as far as Okies go I was still in decent position.
The first lap of the bike felt good. I was passing quite a few people, including the 2 guys I thought were leading my age group. I took a Hammer Gel as soon as I got up to speed and both of my bottles were filled with Heed. This presented a problem. My stomach didn’t react well to something…probably a mix of running 10k and consuming too many calories too quickly on the bike. I only had Heed with me to drink, so my choices were to keep drinking calories and upsetting my stomach or to cut back on fluid to see if the stomach comes around. I chose somewhere in the middle and started dehydrating AND had stomach issues.
After the first lap I should have ditched my heed bottles and grabbed water, but I didn’t. I just kept on trucking. My power was lower than my goal, but the PE was right where I wanted it. I didn’t know how my legs would react to that first 10k of running, so I didn’t really have a good idea of what type of power I should put out on the bike.
On the third and final bike lap I got out of the saddle for a second and my legs cramped. The cramps went away when I sat back down, but my hamstrings were getting really tight and I couldn’t stretch them. My saddle must be a little high, because as my legs tightened up I could tell I was having to really reach for each pedal stroke and it really threw me off my game. There was a guy whom I almost caught that was out of sight again. I was losing quite a bit of time quickly.
My legs felt awful on the second run. I don’t think it was from going too hard on the bike. I think it was from the dehydration and poor bike fit. I came off the bike in about 7th position I think. I had visions of becoming a national champion and told myself I just had to keep running. I told Trey Cone the same thing when I saw him walking. He was in front of me and was having a great race but the heat was catching up to him. A few minutes later, I couldn’t heed my own advice and walked a few seconds. I picked it up again, but shortly after the turnaround I was caught by Bryan Journey, a long-time friend of mine who is in my age group. Knowing I wasn’t leading my age group anymore made me walk a little more. The funny thing is, I never was in the lead. The guy in 2nd overall was in my age group and he was flying. I never had a chance.
Anyway, on the second lap I got to run with Martha for a little while. She was on her first. It was nice to have somebody to run with but eventually I had to pick it up a bit to keep the next guy in my age group from catching me. I was in rough shape at the finish. I limped up to the ice bath and got in for a few seconds to try and drop my core temp. I wanted to see Sarah finish so I started heading to the finish line. Things started getting blurry and I thought I might pass out, so I got somebody to walk over to the finish line with me to make sure I didn’t fall over.
I ended up 15th overall, 3rd place Oklahoman, and 3rd in my age group. For the training I did, I can’t complain. I qualified for worlds, but whether or not I go depends on the location.
The next morning was brutal. I didn’t know how I would do another duathlon. At the end of the weekend I was going to have run as many miles as I had in the last 3 months combined. My hamstrings were worse than anything. I had won the overall award for the on-road/off-road duathlon the year before, so I had to suck it up and defend.
Things started feeling a bit better when the race started. I got in the lead pack of runners and we almost immediately shaved the field down to 4 guys. I was pretty confident I would be the fastest on the mountain bike so there was no reason to try to push the pace, but it was a moot point anyway since after 1.5 miles I was almost completely gassed. The 4th place finisher from last year went to the front and dropped the hammer. He was gone in no time. I wasn’t worried about him at all. He did the same thing last year, but then he took an eternity in transition and was riding some cheap, old bike. He lost a ton of time on the bike and I was able to beat him, even though he was a great runner.
At the water station I stopped to get a drink and the other 2 guys kept going. They were gone too. For the last part of the run I just tried to limit my losses and hoped that I would quickly catch the three guys in front of me.
I caught one after about 5 minutes. The next one ended up taking a wrong turn. He realized it quickly and got back on the trail, but not before I was able to go through. Since I didn’t see him, I wasn’t sure which guy it was. I figured it was the fast runner/cheap bike guy.
When I came through after the first lap I asked a volunteer what position I was in and they said “2nd by 2 minutes.” 2 minutes? Mike was in site earlier that lap. If he put two minutes on me, he was flying.
On the next lap they told me I was in 2nd by 10 seconds. When I got onto the fire road I saw the leader and realized it was the fast runner. As I got closer I realized he was no longer on a hoopty bike. He wasn’t taking bad lines either. In fact, he was going fast! I sat on him for about 5 minutes and told him how strong he was riding. He told me he had been training for this race ever since last year. I don’t know why I expect myself to get better but don’t assume everyone else is making big improvements too.
I knew at this point he had the race won. His run was way too fast for me. I eventually made the pass to try and distance myself from 3rd place.
The second run was painful. It was hot and muggy in the trails. Luckily it was only a 5k and I was able to keep running. Chris (the fast runner) passed me in the first kilometer or so. I ran the rest solo and finished about a minute in front of 3rd. He was closing on me pretty quickly though. I was happy to have the fastest bike split of the day. I only did 3 or 4 rides on my mountain bike this summer and people kept talking about some expert class rider who was going to tear it up.
All-in-all it was a good weekend. It gave me a good vision of where I am now and what I need to do in order to reach my Redman goal in September. The two big things are my long run and my bike fit. My swim has actually been coming around pretty good.
This weekend I’ll be racing the Sapulpa crit. That will be a good indicator as to whether or not my base training these past few weeks has helped or hurt my overall fitness. The way I was skating last night, I’m pretty sure it has helped.
Monday, July 12, 2010
May
In the past few weeks I’ve had a couple people ask what happened to my blog. The honest answer is that it’s a lot more difficult to gather the motivation to write about races that don’t go well. The other reasons are that I’ve been more busy than normal at work and I really didn’t think many people read it anyway.
I decided to do a quick recap on the racing since Joe Martin, but first go over what went wrong.
I’m pretty well convinced that I started my taper way too early for Joe Martin. As I’ve mentioned before, I followed the Joe Friel Training Bible for this year’s training plan. The fourth week of any period is a recovery week. That was followed by my 2 week “peak” period in which I probably went too easy thinking it was supposed to be more of a “taper.” The week leading into the race I kept the duration down but the intensity up to try and open up my legs, but I never felt great. Basically, I put in 4 weeks of lower-than-normal duration and probably didn’t get in enough intensity. It left me flat for race day.
After Joe Martin I took some more time off due to all of the hard racing. That, coupled with the 4 weeks before Joe Martin caused a pretty extreme drop in my chronic training load graph. I was expecting my peak to last from Joe Martin to Tulsa Tough, but since I ended up peaking early (because of my early taper) that peak was long gone.
Sand Springs Crit – 5/23/10
This was my first race after Joe Martin. Jeremy got in an early break with some fast riders so I sat back and watched for a while. Park Place ended up shelling Jeremy and the rest of the breakaway. Brad Huff ended up bridging into the breakaway, so that put 2 Park Place Guys and Huff off the front and the rest of the field was together. The break lapped us with 2 laps to go, which meant our lap count was changed to 1 lap to go. Mark Trimble went with about ¾ of a lap remaining but I didn’t react quickly enough. I spent to rest of the lap dangling about a bike length behind him. I think I was too busy watching the lead group in front of us to see who would win and wasn’t focused enough on my own finish. Waddell came around me in the sprint, so I ended up 6th on the day. I didn’t necessarily feel slow that day, but my PE was pretty high and my power numbers sucked. My NP for the hour crit was 285. That type of PE usually came with 315-325 watt races, but I blamed it on the heat that day.
Windy 100 Crit and Road Race – 5/28 – 5/29
This event had a big purse and a relatively small turnout. The crit course was flat and fast, which is very good for Jeremy and Brian. Jeremy got into a 4 man breakaway Waddell (Park Place), Godsey (Kenda), and Leigh (Tulsa Tough). He did a lot of work and ended up 4th on the day. I felt pretty good on the final lap and was in good position. I was sitting on the guy who won the field sprint. Then things started getting sketchy in the second to last corner and I sat up. I guess I didn’t have that killer instinct in me or something.
The road race was 100k on a mostly flat course with a decent amount of wind. I was sitting 2nd wheel when the majority of the field took a left when we should have went right. Since I was up front at the time it meant that when we turned around I was all the way at the back. There was a pretty nasty crosswind in this section. The few who made the correct turn hit the gas and put the field in the gutter. Eventually there was a gap and our entire team was behind it. We all started working, and after what seemed like an eternity we were able to put the race back together…mostly. Matt and Chad of Park Place stayed off the front with one of the Kenda guys. They worked over the Kenda guy and we caught him. The two Kenda guys did nothing but whine and complain the rest of the race. Joey and Jeremy helped set tempo at the front. I was feeling the heat and wasn’t good for much. I tried to help, but it wasn’t worth getting dropped for…especially when I knew the outcome.
If our team would have worked our butts off to pull the breakaway back, as soon as we got within 200 yards Waddell would have bridged up to them and at least one of the Kenda buys probably would have gone with. Our guys would be exhausted from the chase and wouldn’t have had the legs to make it across. Instead of racing for 3rd we’d be racing for 5th at best.
I felt alright going into the sprint, but then we missed another turn. We ended up going through the finish line the opposite direction, but a few of us sprinted anyway. They said it didn’t count and lined us all up and had us do a lap of the crit course to determine our finishing position. In the meantime, two guys that had been off the back of our group took the correct turn and got the 3rd and 4th spot. Joey was 4th, so that worked for us. My legs were toast after that last sprint. I ended up 4th in the field sprint (8th OA).
The team made some decent cash that weekend, but in hindsight it would have been beneficial for our team to do the Texas crits instead. Tulsa Tough proved to me that I needed to race some bigger crits to get out of weenie-mode.
I’ll have some writeups from Tulsa Tough, OKC Crit, the state TT, and the draper duathlons later this week.
I decided to do a quick recap on the racing since Joe Martin, but first go over what went wrong.
I’m pretty well convinced that I started my taper way too early for Joe Martin. As I’ve mentioned before, I followed the Joe Friel Training Bible for this year’s training plan. The fourth week of any period is a recovery week. That was followed by my 2 week “peak” period in which I probably went too easy thinking it was supposed to be more of a “taper.” The week leading into the race I kept the duration down but the intensity up to try and open up my legs, but I never felt great. Basically, I put in 4 weeks of lower-than-normal duration and probably didn’t get in enough intensity. It left me flat for race day.
After Joe Martin I took some more time off due to all of the hard racing. That, coupled with the 4 weeks before Joe Martin caused a pretty extreme drop in my chronic training load graph. I was expecting my peak to last from Joe Martin to Tulsa Tough, but since I ended up peaking early (because of my early taper) that peak was long gone.
Sand Springs Crit – 5/23/10
This was my first race after Joe Martin. Jeremy got in an early break with some fast riders so I sat back and watched for a while. Park Place ended up shelling Jeremy and the rest of the breakaway. Brad Huff ended up bridging into the breakaway, so that put 2 Park Place Guys and Huff off the front and the rest of the field was together. The break lapped us with 2 laps to go, which meant our lap count was changed to 1 lap to go. Mark Trimble went with about ¾ of a lap remaining but I didn’t react quickly enough. I spent to rest of the lap dangling about a bike length behind him. I think I was too busy watching the lead group in front of us to see who would win and wasn’t focused enough on my own finish. Waddell came around me in the sprint, so I ended up 6th on the day. I didn’t necessarily feel slow that day, but my PE was pretty high and my power numbers sucked. My NP for the hour crit was 285. That type of PE usually came with 315-325 watt races, but I blamed it on the heat that day.
Windy 100 Crit and Road Race – 5/28 – 5/29
This event had a big purse and a relatively small turnout. The crit course was flat and fast, which is very good for Jeremy and Brian. Jeremy got into a 4 man breakaway Waddell (Park Place), Godsey (Kenda), and Leigh (Tulsa Tough). He did a lot of work and ended up 4th on the day. I felt pretty good on the final lap and was in good position. I was sitting on the guy who won the field sprint. Then things started getting sketchy in the second to last corner and I sat up. I guess I didn’t have that killer instinct in me or something.
The road race was 100k on a mostly flat course with a decent amount of wind. I was sitting 2nd wheel when the majority of the field took a left when we should have went right. Since I was up front at the time it meant that when we turned around I was all the way at the back. There was a pretty nasty crosswind in this section. The few who made the correct turn hit the gas and put the field in the gutter. Eventually there was a gap and our entire team was behind it. We all started working, and after what seemed like an eternity we were able to put the race back together…mostly. Matt and Chad of Park Place stayed off the front with one of the Kenda guys. They worked over the Kenda guy and we caught him. The two Kenda guys did nothing but whine and complain the rest of the race. Joey and Jeremy helped set tempo at the front. I was feeling the heat and wasn’t good for much. I tried to help, but it wasn’t worth getting dropped for…especially when I knew the outcome.
If our team would have worked our butts off to pull the breakaway back, as soon as we got within 200 yards Waddell would have bridged up to them and at least one of the Kenda buys probably would have gone with. Our guys would be exhausted from the chase and wouldn’t have had the legs to make it across. Instead of racing for 3rd we’d be racing for 5th at best.
I felt alright going into the sprint, but then we missed another turn. We ended up going through the finish line the opposite direction, but a few of us sprinted anyway. They said it didn’t count and lined us all up and had us do a lap of the crit course to determine our finishing position. In the meantime, two guys that had been off the back of our group took the correct turn and got the 3rd and 4th spot. Joey was 4th, so that worked for us. My legs were toast after that last sprint. I ended up 4th in the field sprint (8th OA).
The team made some decent cash that weekend, but in hindsight it would have been beneficial for our team to do the Texas crits instead. Tulsa Tough proved to me that I needed to race some bigger crits to get out of weenie-mode.
I’ll have some writeups from Tulsa Tough, OKC Crit, the state TT, and the draper duathlons later this week.
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