IronMan Preparation

Let me first start this little blurb with what I want out of the exercise of sharing a few electrons all over the interwebs:

1) express myself
2) stimulate some deeper thinking about IM preparation

This is a long one, so buckle up...

FWIW, I had a couple goals for my IM experience last year:

1) explore the limits of my own capacity to "suffer" during the last half of the marathon
2) learn from the whole deal

Anyway, drafting off my last blog entry, if I were to ask myself the question "what would you do differently about your IM preparation if you had to do it again"? How would I answer that?

I read somewhere that people like short bulleted lists - cuz that makes it easier to remember things and all. Well, here's a bulleted list that summarizes how I would answer that question above:

* shorten the "fill the right" preparation period -> probably down to 8 wks or so from 14

* shorter runs with higher frequency -> maybe 3 one-hour runs rather than one long run and a couple thirty minute jobbers

I don’t really know if the way I went about things is typical or not. If I had to guess, I'd say it's not super typical... And, I reckon it's more towards the "new school" approach side of things than it is towards the "old school" approach of IM preparation. i.e -> I spent maybe 10 hours a week training for this - and incorporated some goin' hard/intensity during that time.

But that is neither here nor there...

From a more global perspective, I'd characterize my prep as two to three years of "raising the left" by doing 20 MP and above focused efforts followed by about 14 weeks of "filling the right".

Huh?

Yeah, that's a long way of saying that I spent a lot of time goin' hard, and a little bit of time making sure I figured out how to meet the KJ demands of the effort. In the end, as noted above, the KJ demand/burn rate adaption deal took way less time than I planned for to meet/figure out.

Flexibility

My initial plan was very detailed. I wrote it all out and made a sweet, neat looking excel calendar - y'know, it probably looked like one of those canned training plans an interwebs coach might dole out...

Workouts were planned for the final 14 wks leading up to the event...but yeah, that plan didn't work out - If I stop and really consider the kind of person I am - I reckon I'm not really a big "plan" guy... There's just too many distracting details and whatnot. The way the whole "plan" thing that I put together actually worked out is a pretty interesting look into some of my internal workings. I mean, there is a definite part of me that wants to be able to control thangs and then just execute when necessary. There's another, probably overriding, part of me that is completely comfortable goin' with the flow, and taking things day by day.

When it came to the IM preparation, in the end, it was a global plan that was put into place with a lot of day-to-day flexibility. I never trained "fatigued" - if it felt like I needed an extra day of rest...well, then, I took it. That carries over into my general bike racing training as well - if I'm tired, I rest. Ride Hard. Rest Hard. That's my deal.

I had a pretty simple set of goals on a weekly basis -> one long run, one long bike, swim technique development, and one day of "raising the left" via a "classic vo2" bike ride.

That was it. Pretty simple.

Here's how things kinda went on a weekly basis, with a couple deviations when necessary:

Mon: complete rest

Tue: AM swim for 45 minutes doing drills. Noon hour vo2 bike workout 60 minutes

Wed: run 30-45 minutes

Thurs: swim for 45 minutes doing drills

Friday: complete rest

Sat: "fill the right" bike ride (3200kj in as little time as necessary -> about four hours) followed up by a 30 minute "run". This bike ride was pressure on the pedals, drillin' it for the duration. Hardest workout of the week by far!

Sun: EZ bike ride with no real KJ goals for 1:45; followed by a long run that progressed to 14 miles or around 2 hours

I had estimated that the IM bike ride would take me ~3200KJ to complete, so I targetted that KJ level in my "long" Saturday rides. Though, I frickin' drilled it to burn that 3200KJ in my training. Interesting to note that it only took me about 3-4 rides to go from doing 1600 KJ rides at a nearly maximal pace to routinely hitting 3200KJ at a nearly maximal pace - these rides topped out at around 4 hours or so. Here's an example of one of those 3200KJ rides that were the cornerstone of my bike ridin':



About 5 weeks out I tried my hand at going "long" as some folks like to say:

October 11

During this effort, I'd get up and swim for an hour continuosly, go home and eat a bit...then ride at what I figured would be my IM bike watt pace for 100 miles, followed up with an hour run.

In the last three weeks or so, These style of days were mental slogs, but they did give me some confidence and allowed me to figure out how to fuel things.

November 1 was my second "long" day.

And this effort really drilled into me what things might feel like if it was a stinkin' hot/windy day, and I forced too much of my chosen fuel down during the bike ride. That was a really good learning day for me. I spent that hour run after the ride feelin' bloated and pretty crappy - too much crap sloshin' around in the ol' belly...lesson learned - if it's stinkin' hot, pull back on the reigns a bit and relax...

Another of the deviations from the general week schedule outlined above include my issues with the running aspect. I'm not a runner - never really ran long distances at any point in my endurance sport career - though, I'm pretty sure I ruined my knees while playing lots of youth basketball (I can remember being a "gym rat" during the fall/winter time playing pick-up games all day long for the better part of my youth)...and those basketball knees have always been my limiter when running "longer" distances, it seems.

I really did try and plan for this...I actually started preparing for the run sometime in July or thereabouts... I progressed over a three-four week period starting at around a 30 minute EZ jog for my long run of the week and building it up 10 minutes a week. Well, like an idiot, I felt really good on one of those days and figured I'd see how fast I could run that last 15 minutes of a 45 minute run. I went pretty fast for me - laying down a sub 6 minute mile for the last little bit...I kinda felt a bit of a twinge in my knees when I was doing it, and sure enough, the next time I tried to run, I couldn't make it more than 5 minutes before the pain in my knees was too intense to continue.

Well, yeah, that was a pretty stupid thing to do in hindsight...and, as it turned out, I could not run for a couple weeks...and then I followed that up with walking 2-3 times a week for 20 minutes at a time for a few weeks... that put me into late august or so before I was able to "run" again without pain. I worked back into things and was able to string together five days of 30-45 minute runs with family up in p-town - which was a great way to kick the last 14-ish weeks of preparation off!

My long run progressed well up until the end of september, where I completed a long run of around 13.5 miles... but, I could feel my knees barkin' the last 20 minutes of that sucker, and it pretty much freaked me out...so I went with the flow, and tweaked things a bit.

How'd I tweak things? Well, I cut back my long run to 1:30, and then in late October, early November, I started doing multiple one-hour runs during the week -> i.e, I upped my frequency in order to make up/compensate for my fear of not getting in a longer run.

So, yeah, if I were to do it again, I'd forego the long run for quite awhile, and do more frequent shorter runs of 1-1.5 hours. That might have saved my knees for race day...then again, maybe not!

Taper?

I'm not a real big believer in this kind of deal when it comes to long duration events such as an IM. A two week long "taper" - where one actually tapers off their KJ expenditure might be good for shedding some prolonged, avoidable, unecessary fatigue though...but, since how I approached things never really left me carrying loads of physical fatigue, well, there's no real point in doing a long confusing tapering off of KJ's. I just made sure my legs felt good on the big day!

This approach, and respecting how my body was reacting to things, is why I kept the KJ train rolling all the way up to the long day I laid down 8 days out from IMAZ:



Y'know, honestly, I wonder how fast all those guys who carry six weeks+ of serious, significant, fatigue and then taper off their KJ's in the two weeks prior to their IM effort might go if they tried a different approach? Maybe one day, we'll find out, eh?

Lightin' it up

Here's what I did four days out from the effort (after fully recovering from the 8 day out big KJ day):



Yeah, I lit it up pretty good in the week preceding IMAZ. Above shows multiple efforts at 2+ times what I was going to target for an IM power target - sometimes, crazy physiological/hormonal things can happen when you lay into a series of crazy high intensity efforts on the bike just before a big event. I recovered from this sucker really quickly, FWIW. Did it help? Well, maybe, but it sure didn’t seem to hurt things.

There are some other nuggets I haven't mentioned above, that you might be interested in reading about...

Did you know that I rode my TT bike less than 6 times during the 14 weeks I was focusing on IMAZ? Yeah, I did the bulk of my riding on my road bike... the three long days described above were on the TT bike, and a couple more rides in the last week (including the shakedown spin up the beeline hwy on the day prior to IMAZ) were on the TT bike. That's it.

I targetted 170W for my IM bike power and rode to an official 5:16:xx split including 3 honey-bucket stops. This watt level was roughly 55% of my 20MP at the time. Here were my SRM time and watt splits for each of the three laps of the bike course:

Lap 1: 1:42:33 @ 170W
Lap 2: 1:43:19 @ 172W
Lap 3: 1:43:35 @ 168W

I was well within myself, there, eh? ;-)

I took down about 1100 calories +/- during the bike ride -> which was about 200 calories per hour.

I swam a 1:24:xx - which was way faster than I had done for the full distance 10 days out while swimming in a pool without a wetsuit.

I "ran" the first half of the marathon at just over a 9 minute/mile pace - which was my targetted run pace.

I walked 8 miles of the marathon, cuz my body broke... :-(

I waddled across the line in 11 hours and 35 minutes.

I didn't bonk.

I didn't "suffer" like I wanted to "suffer", and thus, felt like I "failed" to achieve one of my IM experience goals.

I don't know if I'll do that whole deal again! :-o

Hey, I don't think there's any rocket science here in my approach, or any approach that you'll read about out there. I raised the left for a really long time (2-3 years), then astoundingly quickly filled the right. Then, on race day I "run what I brung" so to speak. Though, as I mentioned in that neat bulleted list up above, I think I would tweak a few things if had to do it over again:

* shorten the "fill the right" preparation period -> probably down to 6-8 wks or so from 14 wks

* shorter runs with higher frequency -> maybe 3 one-hour runs per week rather than one long run and a couple thirty minute jobbers.

Eager to hear how you prepared for your IM,

-k

Teamwork on "Any Given Sunday"

Chip Woolley, Michele Ferrari, and "if you can race it, I'll eventually watch it"

Chip Woolley is the trainer of Mine that Bird, who was the surprise 50-1 odds winner of the Kentucky Derby a few weeks back, in case you were wondering.

Michele Ferrari is the guy who warns us of the perils of orange juice.

Now, I'm not an historical horse racing fan, but after I read an intriguing article in the print edition of ESPN magazine while chowing down on a bowl organic pumpkin seed granola mixed in with some honey nut cheerios (how's that for a weird combination of earthy-ness and mainstream-ness), I DVR'd the coverage of the Preakness this weekend as I was heading out the door on a Home Depot supply run.

Yeah, I think it sucks when some dubious trainers and doctors do what they do in the horse racing world and also in the bike racing world. The difference in my mind, though, is that the dipstick bike racers have a choice in whom they trust, and what they choose to stick in their bodies. The horses don't have that choice. They just run. And, as the espn article above reveals, sometimes the horses do stuff beyond what they're really capable of withstanding from a darwinian perspective.

The consequences of an illicit approach to winning are also real in the bike racing world. Just ask the families of those cyclists that gave their lives in the late 1980's.

For whatever reason, though, I found myself drawn to the story of Mine that Bird. And as I watched the DVR'd coverage of Calvin Borel (the jockey piloting Mine that Bird during the derby) making extremely risky moves in and out of the field and ultimately making a mind bending move up against the rail just after the final turn of the derby (mine that bird's ribs actually grind up against the rail just like those drivers and their cars do in NASCAR when they earn their first "Darlington Stripe"):



my thoughts immediately drew the parallel to the crazed antics of Djamolodin Abdoujaporov:



I don't know what it is, but whether it's horse or bike racing (and all of their drug troubles), NASCAR, or belt sanders...



...if you can race it, I'm probably going to eventually watch it. I guess what keeps me coming back is hope. Hope, that within the bad apples, there will be a story I can believe in. A story I can latch onto that is believable, pure, and genuine. I think there are some stories like that that exist in the peloton today.

One day, I'll find more of those kinds of stories within the bike racing world, and fewer stories like the one that came out of germany last week.

In my quest, I'll keep the DVR warmed up and my trigger finger ready, 'cuz if you can race it, I'll eventually watch it. :-)

crank it up

The big dawgs are lightin' it up in richmond right now:



that in-car shot of tony stewart's left rear quarter panel isn't too far off the fifty minutes of "rear quarter panels" I got a view of today during the Barrio Logan Grand Prix crit here in socal.

It was this race that put a severe crimp in my season last year... I got taken down late in the race and crashed pretty hard causing some bad things to happen to my rotator cuff. Anyway, I hadn't really planned on racing barrio logan this year, but since they finally added back the M35+ category, I had to support the local racing scene!

Well, I tailgunned it - but I really didn't have much of a choice - I haven't been going so well this year. If I had to put my finger on a single reason for the lack of power I've been seeing this year, I'd put that finger on all those long tempo rides I did last fall in preparation for ironman arizona. Regardless of the cause, though, I am just not pedaling the bike as well as I'd like to at this point. It'll turn around eventually, though, I reckon!

Anyway, it got kinda hard about 10 minutes into the race and that's when the race for 1st ended - six guys went up the road and 3 or 4 of them were sportin' Amgen jerseys. I think anthony galvan finally took it while continuing to sport his ibike power meter on the handlebars. nice!

it was pretty mellow in the back, and I went hard for the last few laps before coasting across the line with my sweet "2nd tier" field sprinting capabilities for a top 10 field finish. Much better than last weeks dana point debacle, where I had to pick myself up off the pavement with six or seven to go before snagging a top twenty.

I'm not sure I'll be doing the Dana Point race next year - too many doodz (master's racers nonetheless) willing to risk contact with steel barriers in pursuit of weekend "glory".

hey, I'm glad I got back on the barrio logan "horse" again, though - it's a cool race that's been around for quite some time. Eventually, the city will repave those roads, and boy that will make things a whole lot safer!

Before I left to go racing in old barrio logan this morning, I re-tested several tires on my rollers in the garage in order to determine their coefficient of rolling resistance. This time around I used my old-skool yellow wired powertap that I purchased used. As it turns out, things were pretty consistent with the SRM that I used last fall for similar testing.

I managed to take some pics of a couple of the "fancier" aero-featured tires - whoa, those weren't rotated like that originally!:


bontrager tire


zipp tire

the bontrager tire has a little "wing" as they call it that tries to fill in the gap between the tire sidewall and the outboard corner of the clincher rim (a mavic open pro is what my powertap is laced onto in the pics). That wing is claimed to improve aerodynamics, just as the dimples on the zipp tire are claimed to improve aerodynamics. Only the wind tunnel knows if these features are significant enough to rise above the "noise" of marketing wishful thinking, though, eh?

speaking of "noise" - let me tell you, those dimples make a heck of a lot of noise when ridden on 4.5" aluminum kreitler rollers. holy crap, not only were they noisy, but the high frequency vibration that I could feel through my chamois was pretty annoying as well! I wouldn't want to do a long roller session on these suckers.

I wonder how much those dimples cost on the supply side of things in addition to the demand side of things (the crr of the zipp @120 psi was only slightly worse than the veloflex @ 60 psi according to my quick experiment).

Interesting stuff!

President's Day Weekend

Well, it was a long holiday weekend for us here in the states - Valentine's Day and President's day.

Rolled up and did the season opener crit for me - the Roger Millikan Memorial/St. Valentines day crit in Brea. Saw some familiar faces that I hadn't seen in awhile.

I haven't been riding too well, lately - the motivation hasn't been there for a bit. A quick note to those out there that think doing an Ironman is a good way to prepare for bike racing. It's not working out so good for me!

I did a lot of hard tempo rides in preparation for that Ironman, and boy, I got real good at doing hard tempo rides! Granted, I back filled those efforts with one day a week of goin' hard (in the form of a vo2 style workout), but dang, one day a week might not have been enough to keep things going...

Anyway, despite all that hard tempo riding last fall, I seem to be really flat right now... errrr, or is that fat... honestly, it's a little of both! Low motivation, and high poundage is not a recipe for success in the local Pro socal masters bike racin' scene.

I was a bit nervous and unsure toe'n the line yesterday for the first race of the year, since the power and the body mass aren't where I'd like them to be. Millikan seemed faster this year than last - most of that effect could have been due to the re-appearance of the former NetZero guys on the Masters scene. Paolonetti and co are back in force riding for the Sho-air squad this year. Oooh, that's going to make things hurt a wee bit more this year, I reckon.

Maybe 100 guys toed the line for the M35+ race - I stayed somewhere mid pack and moved up a few times when the opportunity presented itself, only to filter my way backwards when things got singled out. Some really crazy stuff out there. Maybe that's just a first race of the year deal... or maybe not. Doodz just sittin' up in the middle of the race/field - I mean, really, droppin' anchor just doesn't seem like a good idea when there's 100 guys all around you, does it?

I narrowly missed drilling a couple guys...that'll get the ticker and adrenaline goin'!!!

Somehow, I managed to slot into the top 20 with a few laps to go, and that's pretty much where I stayed until the line. Some fast boyz out there - usually, I stick my nose in the wind a couple times during these things, but not on this occassion. Followin' wheels is about all I'm capable of doing right now.

Here's the srm file screenshot:



Things'll change soon enough, though, I reckon. There's more racin' to come!

Which Race was Harder...

...according to the SuperComputer?

the race depicted by the histogram data in the top row here (2008 M35+ San Marcos Grand Prix):



or the bottom row (2006 cat 3 San Marcos Grand Prix)??

Same scales for both, so no weirdness there! :-)

Last Races for a bit...

I woke up last Saturday thinking I'd go for a nice stroll up Couser Canyon and have a relaxing afternoon of rest prior to toein' the line at the Manhattan Beach Grand Prix on Sunday.

Well, I did give it a go up the Couser climb (this is where I do all my 20 mp type efforts) in the morning and began to enjoy the afternoon. As I was checkin' things out on socalcycling.com, I remember that the Green Trolley Crit was happening that afternoon - and my addiction to racing and wanting to support the local racing scene kicked in. So, I hopped in the truck and b-lined it down to the start.

Super small field, maybe 35 guys at the start of the M35+ race? Not more than 10 minutes into the thing I worked my way backwards from where I was and noticed that there was only 8 of us left... WTF? Not quite sure how that happened... Karl Bordine put in a couple of attacks and everyone jumped on his wheel... Then he dropped out -> maybe just getting some openers in???

Anyway, here's the SRM screenshot:




started to feel it near the end, and pretty much spent all my fun tickets jumping on Peter Anderson's wheel with a lap to go... Dude, I'm totally awesome, I picked up a 7th place finish...





...out of a group of 8!!! LOL! :-)



Loaded up the camry and made the long haul on Sunday morning bright and early to hit the MBGP.com.

I sucked wheel for pretty much the whole thing and was never pressed. A break darn near stayed away on that sucker! But they got swallowed up on the last lap or so. Coming into the last corner I had to punch it across a big ol' gap that opened up for some reason - latched onto what was probably 10th wheel coming out of the corner, but really didn't have anything left to drive it to the line. So, I just went as hard as I could and got passed by a half dozen or so guys and wound up 16th...

Funny, that's the same spot I was last year, but I definitely had a different way of getting it! Last year, I think I went from 25th wheel to 16th out of the last corner.

and the screenshot:




Maybe next year, I'll manage to come out of the last corner in the top 3 and still have something left in the tank. Yeah, that's the ticket. ;-)

Memories

I took a couple weeks off there, eh???

Anyway, here's the highlights...

I was big time into golf when I was a youngster - I can remember watching Curtis Strange rip it up at the US Open back to back (just like the Lakers did in the 80's, and as mentioned in the R-rated, Red Hot Chili Peppers Song clip below):




My passion for the unseen intricacies of competitive golf is why I jumped at the chance to go and watch the first round of the US Open a couple weeks ago here at Torrey Pines in La Jolla, Ca. Man, what an experience! Here's my ticket:



spent a lot of the morning at the par 4 6th hole watching the worlds best golfers struggle on their long approach shots. It was pretty crazy when the Tiger/Phil/Adam Scott group passed through. The throng was unbelievable!!

We spent the afternoon sitting in the grandstands of the 8th hole watching the world's best golfer's look like weekend duffers (like myself) - we only saw one birdie over a three hour span (Stewart Cink,I believe..)

Pretty extraordinary experience to see guys with that much talent battlin', and grindin' it out. I was inspired, and certainly won't forget it!!!

Yeah, so, I raced again last weekend at La Mirada - not very exciting, and I raced like a scared chipmunk, I reckon, seein' as how the field let three of the Amgen/Giant guys go up the road and take the first three spots. This time around, though, I did go au-bloc trying to go across the gap to those guys. Came up a wee-bit short, though, just like last year...

We'll see how it goes this weekend up at Manhattan Beach - should be an interesting deal up there!

See you at the races,

-kraig

Old Skool

Big sports day for me today! Brought back lots of old skool memories of my youth sports experiences...

Started out with some Euro 2008 action where Croatia took on Austria, and Croatia scored early on a penalty shot in the opening minutes of the match. Great coverage I was watching - pretty funny to hear the announcers chattin' about "dumping" an opponent - the description the color guy gave was "it's a move that sometimes happens that defies description" - or words to that effect...

I played a lot of youth soccer in my day back in the 80's. In the early years, I was a striker on the left side - it seems as if there weren't many left footer's amongst the available 8 year olds!
;-)

in my later years in the "select-teams" (you had to try-out to make the team) days of my competitive soccer years I played a lot of midfielder and often times as a defenseman. I was a little guy back in those days - but I was slow to make up for the lack of height! LOL!

Anyway, good stuff watching that euro match. I look forward to how things unfold over the next few weeks!

Next, I made my way to a bike race, and did the old-skool thing. I pedalled around without a heart-rate monitor nor a power meter (forgot it! doh!). Anyway, the chula vista course was the site of the CBR state crit championships. It was an interesting start to the race, as the promoter, started everyone off by saying "if you get dropped, you need to be training more..." or words to that effect. He was kidding around, and it lightened the mood a bit.

I hadn't done that course, and was a bit bummed to see that it included a U-turn at one end fo the course. But, it turned out to be alright, though the legs (or maybe it's the supercomputer??) just weren't there. I didn't really ever get put into any difficulty, but I just didn't seem to have the desire to do anything. Pretty disappointed in myself, now, actually. Not sure what is up with that.

Caro, and Galvan took off early, then Thurlow, Bordine, and another guy set off in pursuit. I was on Bordine's wheel, near the back, when he decided to throw down. Like I said, I saw it happening, but just didn't make it happen. Not sure why that is...

Caro and Galvan eventually lapped the field, then the other three did as well. The green machine - otherwise known as five star, lined it out for bordine and he took the win...

Pretty lame effort on my part - I tailgunned it, then moved up with five to go. Lost my nerve a bit when I saw Joel Stangeland bury a pedal on the u-turn with two to go. Never went au-bloc, which was disappointing for me...



Anyway, the real deal today is game 2 of the NBA finals. I'm a huge Celtics fan - in fact, I can remember back in the 80's when I was a gym rat and basketball freak, writing a report (and presenting it orally) about the history of the celtics in the 8th grade class of Mr. Day. Man, that would be neat if I could read that report today!

I can remember spending all day in the WSU gyms (bohler, smith, can't remember the one where the lights made things look green!) as a middle schooler. Good times. Shootin' around, wearin' knee high tube socks, and short shorts... ahh the good ol' days!

I always wanted a pair of those Converse Weapons, but was never successful in negotiating a pair like Magic and Bird had back in the day (image from The Converse Blog):



I reckon I was a total slacker back in the day, cuz I can only name four out of the six guys shown! Can you name all six?

I'm totally psyched to watch the new skool rivals of Garnett, Pierce, Kobe, and Gausol duke it out. Though, I reckon it will pale in comparison to the Old Skool rivalry of Bird/McHale/Parish and Magic/Kareem/Worthy. The supercomputer, though, I reckon will always favor the nostalgic moments, though, huh!

I think it is that nostalgia, that emotion that wells up inside you when thinking of the good ol' dayz - it's that feeling that makes old skool frames of reference so appealing and vivid.

And, it's those feelings that stay with you for a lifetime.

Go Celtics!

Positive Energy

I've made a pretty conscious effort this year to make a move towards a more positive mental energy state... Yeah, all the numbers/smart guys out there will scoff at this - but hey, that's cool, I can respect that perspective.

Often times, though (I'm human, right?), it becomes difficult to ignore all the "forum" threads that get forwarded to me by friends of the BTR cause.

Recently, I was pointed over to a bunch of questionable threads on a popular triathlon forum. I glanced at them a bit, and quickly recognized the MO of some familiar internet forum-ites. My recommendation to the owner of that popular triathlon site would be to whip out the "BAN" feature of his forum software package - it might be painful at first, but in the long term, it will save him and his readers a lot of mental fun tickets.

I administer a forum on BTR:

http://forum.biketechreview.com

and in the three years or so of running that section of the BTR site, I've only had to ban one individual:

http://forum.biketechreview.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=278&p=2953&hilit=height%2Fforearm#p2953

Lots of talk of "ethics" of science/scientists and whatnot over there on that triathlon site...

So, what's y'alls opinions on the ethics of when a person signs an non-disclosure agreement regarding wind tunnel testing and then goes and blabs about what was covered in that non-disclosure agreement all over the internets???

OK, I cracked on the whole negative thing... Please forgive me, I'm human, after all...

Anyway, on to more positive things...

I did the double at Dana Point this past weekend! That race is really cool - pretty funny to hear Floyd co-announcing the race. I about crapped when I was on the start line for the M35+ race and Floyd's co-announcer made some comment about running afoul of the rules (nothing associated with the currrent state of Floyd's legal affairs...) Floyd didn't skip a beat and kept ringin' the bell about In n out burgers and adult beverages.

35+ race was a mixed bag for me. I was a bit sketched out, this being my first mass start race since being taken out at Barrio Logan in the 3's race. Really nervous prior to the race and the night before. The whole crashing thing sucks, but, there's something about bike racing that brings me back - I think it's the hope that the strongest guy in the field won't win on the day!

;-)

LOL!

Felt good and was never in difficulty in the 35+ race - course was less technical than last year, and didn't seem quite as fast. There was a huge crash in the back half of the field in the last third of the race (I didn't hear it, and didn't even realize what was going on until one lap later when there was chaos with folks standing in the road telling us to stop...). I had to swerve to miss the big pool of blood in the road surrounding the person sprawled out - I hope things looked worse than they actually were, but I'm afraid that that wasn't the case. My thoughts go out to all involved in that incident. Really makes me think hard about the whole deal - lots of folks around me talked about sitting things out after having seen what went down, and I imagine some did. Really bad scene from my perspective.

They actually stopped the race twice - once to get the folks off the course to the inside, and then again to let the ambulance/stretcher exit to the outside of the course.

There was a break up the road at the time of the crash - I was eyeballin the gap with the SRM and had it at 15 -ish seconds for the first stoppage, then had it at <10 seconds at the second stoppage. Problem was, that after the second restart, the officials gave the break a good 20 seconds head start and then only gave the field 4 or 5 laps to finish the race. Needless to say, the break stayed clear.

I overcame some fears and gave it a go in the finale, though, my lack of mixin' it up on the crit scene in the past month left me a bit short in the end. Wound up top 25.

Took an hour break soakin' up the sun, then gave it another go in the 30+ race. I tailgunned that sucker for a good 40 minutes. Damn, that race felt faster than the 35+ deal! Lots of action in this race and it was strung out for the majority. Pretty amazing to see Karl Bordine ride away from that field in the last couple laps - unbelievable. Everyone knew what he was going to do, and then, when he did it, no one could do anything about it.

Again, I nicked a top 25 in this race - just didn't have the top end for the last few laps. These races seemed really fast for me! Never "comfortable" in the 30+ race, that's for sure...

Got a nice shout out from who I think was "Marco" on my "regain feeling in my legs after going as hard as I could in the last 500m" lap. Marco, was that you???

This coming weekend I'll try to get back on the positive track and improve the crit finish skillz at the CBR state crit champs here in Chula Vista.

See you out there - peace,

-kraig

Hindsight...

..is 20/20.

Well, I planned to get a couple of hard efforts in last weekend to put the final touches on my preparation for the Masters Road Champs here in Socal this coming Saturday.

It all started probably 6 years ago, maybe...

That's when I got tired of getting my ass handed to me in the Pro 1,2 races - and I thought the only way I wouldn't get my ass handed to me was to recreate the mega hours on the bike I had done in the past. I didn't want to do that again...

So, that's when I swallowed the pride and took a downgrade from a cat 1 to a cat 3. I still wanted to ride my bike a bit, but didn't want to grovel and suffer and ultimately get destroyed by the pros on a weekly basis.

Well, this past weekend, that decision to take the downgrade threw a bit of a spanner in the works during the Cat 3 Barrio Logan Crit.

Two laps to go, and I was sitting probably third wheel, when a rider from the UC cyclery/?? flooring team who was on the front (or maybe second wheel), and by himself - decided he wanted to get acquainted with the pavement for no particular reason...

I had nowhere to go and t-boned him at 45kph - went over the bars and landed hard on my right elbow/hip - and, as we all know, the elbow bone is connected to the shoulder bone. I couldn't really move my arm/shoulder so I made a trip to the ER. ER doc took some x-rays, and diagnosed an AC separation. Yeah, that diagnosis didn't turn out to be correct - my regular doc today correctly diagnosed it as a rotator cuff injury, and it seems as if it is healing pretty well. I basically immobilized the area for 60 hours, loaded up on ibuprofen, and iced the heck out of it.

I was pretty upset when it happened, since there was no reason for this crash - I sure hope that the rolled tire I saw on this rider's bike in the aftermath wasn't the cause (fwiw, there were several other crashes in that race, and I considered stopping mid-race...) - and the result of this crash put my near term goal of the masters road champs in jeopardy. I'm feeling a bit more positive now, though.

It has been a bit of an emotional roller coaster for me the past few days. I've gone from anger to denial ("I'm not hurt - I'll be fine in a day or so"), to resignation, and back to the possibility of racing this weekend...

I pedaled on the trainer today, and to my surprise, once I got the blood flowing in the ol' shoulder area, it seemed to loosen up a bit. I tried to make some power and things seemed to get better as time progressed.

I'll give it a go tomorrow outside up couser to see where the power is, and how the shoulder feels while working the bars out of the saddle - but the jarring from real roads might make it a short one... Smooth, slow movements are OK, the quick, or unexpected motions are not so good.

As I type this, and with a bit more perspective and positive vibes - it's just bike racing, and healing should be my first concern. That's easy to say, huh?!

Hindsight is 20/20 and I shouldn't have done that crit - the competitor inside got the better of me - but here I am, not 100% healthy... There's only one thing I can do...

And that's to keep moving forward!

State Road Race

Hero of the Week

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Keep it real out there, folks!

-kraig

Alto Velo, Base, and Potential

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Perspective Shifting

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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




Keep moving forward, folks! :-)

-kraig

Slotting In

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hope to see you out there!

LA Circuit Race

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This weeks rides:

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

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

See you out there!

Mid Week Del Mar Crit

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

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

Don't these people have jobs? ;-)

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





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

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

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

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

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

Murrieta

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

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

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

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

Here was my training week:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here are the weekends results:

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

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

and the overall:

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

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

see ya out there,

31 k to Yuma

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

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

http://www.310toyumathefilm.com/

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ontario #1

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

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

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

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

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

Anger Management Crit

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I wasn't disappointed.

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

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

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

http://www.stservicemovie.com/

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

The Triple

Last sunday was a pretty crazy day of bike racin'. It started out with an early morning drive down to fiesta island where I pedalled the new Trek TT bike (which, according to Damon at trek, turned out to be a limited run version -> dubbed the "lance" version), for around 10 minutes on the trainer prior to rollin' to the line and givin' it full stick.

Super fast day down on the island - nearly dead calm and really warm (especially compared to last year). I didn't really know what to expect from the new TT bike, especially after having ridden to my fastest times down there on a non-conforming (according to the UCI) softride.

I was pleasantly surprised to come within 30 seconds of my fastest time on the new bike with 20 fewer watts. I went the 20k in 29:13 and averaged 261 watts on the SRM, FWIW, and measured a density altitude of around 280 meters - so yeah, pretty fast conditions. Similar air density and calm conditions have netted me similar times with 15ish more watts - yeah, partially anecdotal, but it seems as if the Trek is FAST! And I'm pleased with how things went.

Last year, I did the double on this same race weekend. Fiesta TT in the morning, then 35+ at the Roger Millikan in the afternoon. This year, I decided to give the triple a go - fiesta, 35+, then the 3's race. Full day of bikin'!

Felt good in the 35+ race, crazy, but I can't really remember many details of either of the pm races - field was sold out - lots of dudes out there!. My general perception was that I felt really good in the 35+ race, and was slotted in really good position for the finale - but got hung up and had to touch the brakes from about the 10th wheel position on the second to last corner... Not going to make that lost momentum up in the last little bit. Wound up top 20 or so, but a wee-bit disappointed with how it shook out.

The 3's race was a bit sketchy for me - lots of slowing down in the corners and general sense of nervousness on my part. It makes me really appreciate the 35+ stuff. basically hung out for awhile and went hard once trying to mix it up a bit... then, recovered and slotted my way into a little group that formed after a prime with 6 to go or so. whoa, I spent all my fun tickets gettin' into the move, and then couldn't take a single pull with those guys - sorry fellas. I just sat on the break as my legs began to seize (actually had to modulate the effort to prevent full-on cramps) and we were eventually reeled in with a couple laps to go. I went straight to the back and actually recovered quickly (like less than a lap), but when i tried to move back up, I could see it wasn't going to happen - so I decided to sit out the finale...

I got in something like 1800KJ on the day and covered 60k or so during the crits at 40+ kph. combine that with the mornings effort, and crap, it looked like I racked up 80k of some serious speed on the day. Dang - it's only february...

Finally!

It's been pretty crazy around here the past couple weeks, but today I finally got the new tt bike built up. Still need to slap a chain on it before I can take it for a spin (I need to go to a bike shop and pick one up...)

Not a moment too soon, cuz tomorrow I'll be toe'n the line for a 20k tt at fiesta island.

See you there!

13 years ago...

Holy cow! 13 years ago, I did this race called the "snakebite crit" here in SoCal. I'd done lots of miles prior to this crit in 1995 prior to tothe line in the Pro 1,2 event. My notes from the training diary looked like this:



Nice rest week, huh!?

D'oh!

Well, 13 years later, I toe'd the line today, again, at the ol' "snakebite crit" - only these days it is called the "red trolley" crit and instead of the P 1,2 race, I signed up for the Masters 35+ deal...

Man, going into this race I feel as if I am really far behind where I was last year with my training and bike riding capabilities. Ya see, I took this two week break in mid December to hang out with family (pops and the mrs' family)... So, yeah, that meant that I was on the "fat and shi&$^ program for a bit there! I totally enj0yed the experiences and wouldn't trade it for anything!

I mean, really - cookies and tecate (well, not necessarily in the same sitting...) taste good! Yeah, I'm weak, but this is life, and I'm going to experience it!!! :-)

Anyway, today was not a whole lot fun on the bike... As a matter of fact, it was downright miserable...

Not so much because of how hard everyone was pedalin', but just because it was 50 degrees F and raining. And not just a light mist... It was rainin' like a cow pissin' on a flat rock!!!

There were sheets of rain just 20 minutes prior to the start and I wound up picking road grime out of my teeth after pedalin' around in circles for 45 minutes while watching the second half of the super bowl and enjoying an adult beverage!

Small field and it didn't take long for the race to go up the road. I covered a move on the first lap (since it included an Amgen guy- Joel Stangeland, and a Ca Pools guy). Anyway, I spent my limited supply of fun tickets gettin up there and then the Ca Pools guy takes a pull that just about made me cry...

oh yeah, did I mention it's february 3rd and it was raining and miserable, out??

Yeah, so you can see in the power file screenshot below, the nice warmup I got (I was huddled up shivering against an office building trying not to get wet - dumb move, I should have never gotten out of the cab of my truck).



I spent maybe a lap or two off the front until Joel sat up (and i wasn't comin' around him) and we watched the ca pools guy just ride away... More guys dribbled up the road and I pretty much just followed wheels until I recovered a bit. by that time, I didn't have any idea what the heck was going on in the race - all I knew was that five guys were up the road, and I wasn't there.

We eventually got lapped by Thurlow (who I didn't immediately recognize because he now rides for Amgen - I saw this amgen guy who I told myself "hey he pedals like thurlow" - and yep it was thurlow... Dude is still fast.

I went hard a couple times trying to stay warm and race up more goin' hard time - I need more of that these days. I'm still trying to get back into the swing of things it seems after some time off around xmas/new years.

It's coming around a wee-bit though.

Here's the results:

http://www.scnca.org/schedule2008.asp?category=Masters+35%2B&event=Red+Trolley+Classic&rank=1

I'm signed up to do some more bike racin' this weekend - fiesta island 20k TT sunday morning, then in the afternoon it's the Roger Millikan crit. That day oughta be interesting!

Have fun out there, folks!

TT Bike

In anticipation of the rain that is supposed to hit SoCal tomorrow, I ripped off a hard 1500KJ ride this morning, then set out to start building up the new TT frame I lucked into...

This bike has been a long term project for me.

I pinged lots of manufacturers in my quest for a TT frame - the one thing I wouldn't compromise on was saddle setback. The most interesting exchange I had was with someone from Cervelo via email - when I asked them straight up if I could get 12-14 cm behind the BB on one of their bikes, they wouldn't answer the question - kept on trying to make things more complicated than need be. A bit odd, actually - maybe someone was just having a off day - it happens sometimes I guess. The other manufacturers gave me straight up answers, FWIW.

Anyway, last fall, Damon Rinard of Trek helped me get a hold of the prefferred seat tube angled Trek TTT - supposedly the one I wound up purchasing was the last one in existence at the Trek facility.

It's a totally sweet frame - interestingly, when I opened the box up and then wiped the drool off my lips, I found myself muttering that I didn't deserve such a nice bike! After building it most of the way up today, I still think I don't deserve such a nice frame. I mean, it's a real TT frame, the first one I think I've had since being a bike racer some 15 years ago.

I'm still working out the bar/stem deal in order to get my position where I need it, but I reckon I'll get it sorted out - I'll have to one way or the other since I signed up for the fiesta island TT on Feb 10 (that sucker is sold out already it looks like!). That TT will be interesting - especially considering how I've been pedaling the bike lately!!! :-)

Anyway, here are a couple pics:

More Tunnel Pics

Here's a new picture of the Felt track bike that Sarah Hammer tested here in the San Diego Wind Tunnel:

http://www.feltracing.com/images/download/assets/Home18.jpg

Anyway, I'll be making the trek up to the Home Depot Center tomorrow evening to check out the pursuit finals and the rest of the action - if you see me wanderin' around, give me a shout!

Last Race of 2007?

Ventured up to the Ladera Grand Prix in Ladera Ranch. This was supposed to be a quick hour drive for me from the diggs here in willetts-burg...

No dice - traffic was pretty bad and it wound up taking me almost two hours to get to the race.

I haven't really been riding the bike much since I went to Cascade (which ended pretty poorly for me in what amounted to a case of a mistake being made by a confused/creative OBRA official...) - so I was eager to do a race with the goal being to get that bad taste of Cascade out of my mouth prior to gettin' on the ol' KJ train this fall/winter (one of my goals this fall is to drop another 3-4 kilos by Jan 1 - that'll be some serious work, so we'll see how that goes!).

Anyway, back to Ladera where I toed the line with a whoppin' 10-12 hours of bike ridin' in my legs in the last month...

Started at the back of the 40ish rider field after explaining to Eddie M. how one of the Willett's is much better at winning bike races than the other. hmmm... I wonder which I was referring to!

:-)

Yeah, so this course was deceptively tight - not much room for more than two abreast in any of the corners, and if you were on the outside you were pretty much taking your chances. Like five minutes into this thing, a buncha dudes were rolling up the road and I figgered I'd better cover anything that had good representation. Some guys were actively blocking (a pretty dipsticky thing to do, IMHO - a pet peeve of mine - it's pretty poor form to ride your brakes and take dumbass lines in a corner/just prior to a corner while on the front...) but I digress.

So, seein' as how I saw the beginnings of "Active Blocking" in the early laps as a dozen or more guys went up the road - I punched it just prior to turn 1, which is just about when someone on my left decided they were going to try and close the door on me. As I was going past this guy on his right (I think I came from something like third or fourth wheel) he made a sudden move to his right and we touched shoulders.

I didn't really think anything of it as I went across to the 15 guys up the road. Well, I got an earful by my friend who had decided to try to chop me the lap earlier. huh, guess he forgot that he came over on me and got a wee bit freaked out. that's bike racin'.

Anyway, the first 10-15 minutes I was pretty active, which is just about when the winning move went up the road and I basically chickened out trying to go across a twenty-twenty five second gap. Kind of sucks doing the lone wolf thing out there with no teammates - I just couldn't really bring myself to taking any pulls that really would do nothing for my chances of winning - plus, I was a little tapped after those opening few minutes and needed to recover.

So, I sat in and went hard at the end - lost a few positions on the last lap in turn 1 as I wound up on the outside and nearly got put into the curb. Followed Allen R. after that and hit the last corner in about 6th or 7th wheel in the field (there were 7 guys up the road?) and gave it a go before sitting up 25 meters in front of the line and coasting in for a whoppin' fifth spot in the field sprint.

Well, at least I didn't have to deal with any creative officiating this time around! :-)

Here's the SRM screenshot from the race (it was pretty hot - note the high HR in the finale - don't think I've seen 190+bpm in quite some time!):

Has anyone seen...

...the thirty watts I misplaced somewhere between san diego and bend?

I'm stuck here on the runway here at LAX, so figured I'd get this entry taken care of while I've got some time on my hands.

Anyway, it seems as if, for me, bend oregon is a power black hole! Sometime between last tuesday and friday morning I lost 30 watts - which when you are as weak as me to begin with is pretty much a recipe for disaster!

About the only thing racing wise that was a positive was a nifty little seventh place finish in the crit friday night. The rest was simply no watts available.

Oh well, sometimes you just have to run what you brung, eh?

Two Bike Lengths Too Far

Putting the final touches on things prior to headin' up to the Cascade Classic in Bend on Thursday. I had some reservations about traveling to Bend - usually, it's an all day ordeal gettin' up there to see family. Multiple connections (CLD-LAX-SFO-PDX-RDM), and anytime you have to set down in San Francisco, it's a crap shoot on whether or not you'll actually make it out of there, it seems. A couple of years ago during the holidays, we actually had to rent a car and drive from SFO to Bend, since United wasn't going to be able to get us on a plane for two days!

Well, now, there is a direct flight out of LAX into Redmond/Bend - so that makes life a little bit easier. Course, now I have to negotiate LA traffic and the long haul from long term parking to the terminal. Oh, well, at least once I am on the plane I'll more than likely make it to the destination!

Anyway, this weekend I was up at La Mirada doing the bike racing thing. Finally got the chance to shake hands with Il Marco of :

http://marcofanelli.blogspot.com/

didn't have much time to chat as I was staging for the 35+ race, but it's always nice to put a name with a face! Dood can ride a bike and I totally dig his writing. He's got some real gems in his blog.

I did the 3's race last year and it kinda hurt. I was 74 kg's at the time, so that might have had something to do with it! :-)

This year, I'm a wee bit lighter, and a wee-bit more fit - but this bike racing stuff still kinda hurts, eh? Yeah, so the 35+ race gets going, lots of teams with lots of doodz, and then there are the lone-wolves like me.

Second or third lap, a big group of guys (what looks like good representation from all the teams - Cynergy, NOW, CCM, etc..) goes up the road - maybe 8 guys? They've got maybe a 10-15 second gap, so I go across to them on the hill just after turn 1. I popped across straight away and immediately went to the front of the group to force the pace. No one else seems to motivated to drive this thing. Mark Scott trades a few pulls with me and one other guy on the little downhill section after turn two. No one else even sniffs the front...

So, I sat up and waited for the catch. That didn't take too long.

This move was countered, and from what I vaguely remember, this move turns out to be the winning one. arggh...

I sat around and watched the break consolidate with 5-6 guys and hold pretty steady at 25 seconds or so. Damn, I could probably make it across if it was at 15 seconds. The gap didn't budge much and the pace seemed to really slow down in the main bunch on the hill - so, crap, I decided to completely sell-out and try to make it across.

Guess what? I drilled it for a little more than a minute at ~8 W/kg:

and found out the hard way that the gap was...

...two bike lengths too far.

All I could hear in my head when I was bearing down on the break were the words of my brother, Kirk, from 15 years ago after some other race where I didn't seal the deal on a bridge attempt:

"when you get that close, you just gotta close it".

easier said than done! Seriously, I was less than two bike lengths from latching onto that winning move, but I detonated just as those guys started doing a bit of attacking on one another...

I coasted a bit and re-joined the field where I basically sat in, recovered, and watched for awhile. The finale turned out to be a bit of prolonged drag race, as it was strung out in the final rolly finishing stretch - I picked off a few guys on the way to the line - maybe 6th or so in the field sprint, and 11th or so overall.

It felt like I was actually able to race my bike out there - which doesn't always happen with me and my low horsepower motor! :-)

Did my last "fill" ride today, Sunday. Drilled it up Palomar mountain from the store to the store for you so cal folk - well, actually, I only really drilled it from the stor to the 4000' mark, then cruised up to the top. Here's a video I took just short of the T intersection at the top looking towards the south - pretty hazy and not too clear...

I seem to be pretty much on target, as I was able to manage ~ 4 w/kg up to the 4000' mark. That's about all I can do for that amount of time!

Next bike racin' post will more than likely be from on the road in Bend!

Take it easy out there, everybody.

Oh, the Acute Fatigue!

A wee-bit of a dilemma this weekend from a training perspective, as I'm trying to get a handful of "fill" rides in prior to heading up to Bend, OR to visit family and partake in the Cascade Classic master's 35+ race.

The dilemma was how to fit the Manhattan Beach Grand Prix Criterium (MBGP) into my loosely strung together training schedule - two goals this weekend, IOW: race MBGP and fill the right!

Typically, I find it's best to train the high intensity/"raise the left" type stuff the first day in a two-day type of training block. With MBGP coming on a Sunday, this meant I could either half-ass a fill ride on Saturday in order to be fresh for the race on Sunday, or drill it ferreal on Sat and "run what I brung" on Sunday. If bike racing were a math problem, the equation might have suggested one path of action. Instead, I ran things by a trusted advisor, and decided to hit it ferreal on Saturday and run what I brung on Sunday.

Saturday's ride was HOT! Drilled it for ~2200KJ for 2:45:

near the end of the ride, when the legs were really startin' to bark, I saw one of the Toyota-United boyz out pedalin' (Caleb Manion?) with a Jelly Belly guy (sorry, I'm not too good anymore at recognizing pro bike racers as they pedal by!). I waved - they didn't wave back - d'oh!

Where's the love? ;-)

Anyway, the ride above is a pretty typical fill style ride for me - constant pressure on the pedals, with crackage imminent in the last bit of the ride.

For kicks, here's a comparison of the last time I did this ride (fall '06 power file is the one on the bottom) - the only difference this time around equipment wise, was that I'm now training on a 36 hole rear wheel as compared to the 28 hole rear wheel I used to use (pulled out eyelets on that sucker after only 15,000 km's!).

Guess there's only one logical conclusion from this comparison, eh? Yep, you guessed it, 36 hole wheels are faster! :-) D'oh!

I'm also on a kilojoule deficit kick here currently (though, I still have the leeway to enjoy a discretionary caguama) as I'd like to get down to 67-68kg for Cascade. It can be done!

So, math equations, calorie/kj deficits notwithstanding, I packed up the car and headed up to Manhattan Beach this morning...

The last time I did this race was back in the late 90's as a cat 1. Pretty humorous actually, as somewhere in the Willett household exists a vhs tape of the ESPN2 coverage of the race. My claim to fame on that day was tailgunin' the entire race. I even got some airtime when there was a crash in the late going just prior to the final 180. Davis Phinney was doing the color commentary. Big stack up and yours truly is shown lockin' up the brakes for a good 15m or so before coming to a stop just behind the stack up. Well, the guy on my wheel didn't quite comprehend what was going on, and went full steam into the big pile of doodz on the ground. Phinney mustered up a one-liner something like "What the hell was that guy thinking!" Damn, I gotta dig that VHS tape up. Ahhhh, the good ol' dayz! :-)

Full field this time around! Lots of doodz toe'n the line - something like 120 or so.

Clean start, and on the second lap, I flatted my $80 rear Vittoria tubular - the second rear flat I've gotten this year. This sew-up didn't have many races on it - I think I put it on just after I flatted after/during Devil's Punchbowl 2 or 3 months back...

Got a free lap and was back in business. Not much action along the way, stayed out of trouble and in the first third of the field. With 5 to go I punched it up the front stretch hill and took second wheel. Maintained position in the top 20-30 for the next few laps, making sure I had the sprinters (if I can see Mark Scott or Joel Stangeland - I'll figure out the names of the other guys I recognize eventually - I know I'm in the right vicinity of where I need to be!). On the last lap, I slotted myself in the top 25 on the back stretch as it was kinda strung out - didn't touch the brakes in the last 180 degree corner and picked off a few guys in the finishing straight. Probably finished around 15th or so.

The math equations wouldn't have predicted this effort and result after yesterdays throw down - guess you just have to run whatchya brung, eh?

Oh, the acute fatigue!

San Pedro, States, Haircuts

Crazy busy week at work, so not a lot of extracurricular activity goin' on!

I never found a home for the $80 haircut, so if you are in the LA area and can find a home for this thing, drop me a note:

kdubenteprise at roadrunner.com

and I'll send it out to you.

Anyway, last weekend had lots of LA traffic fun involved. Saturday we threw down in San Pedro. When I first saw the course I was a wee bit sketched out - the last two turns (basically a sweeper 180) were downhill and off-camber. Not so bad when you actually rode it, though.

Pretty rough pavement, as there were plenty of bottles flyin' out of cages - first couple of laps I took a direct blast of orange sticky mess on the ol' sunglasses - ah, hell, who needs to see anyway, right! :-)


Wow, the first few laps of the M35+ race was pretty quick - drilled it good for the first 10 minutes and then it let up. I made sure I was near the front, as I didn't really want anything to do with those dual 180's while hanging out at the back.

Well, the race didn't exactly come back together as I had anticipated - couple of guys got away midway through it, and since the Cynergy boyz and the Central Coast Magazine boyz missed it, I figured it'd eventually be brought back (mark scott of Cynergy was in the field). Anyway, it didn't come back and 60 minutes later we drag raced down the slightly uphill 500m finishing stretch.

I missed gettin' a wheel out of the last corner (or, maybe I just got too impatient and left the one I was on...) and basically just drilled it to the line. 15th on the day according to the official results:


http://www.scnca.org/schedule2007.asp?category=Masters+35%2B&event=San+Pedro+Grand+Prix&rank=1


Sunday saw another trip to the LA area and the M35+ SCNCA district crit champs. Full field! Well over a hundred guys out there and they were turning people away at the registration table. Good thing I pre-registered!

I raced on this course a few years ago, and remembered that it was probably one of the easier courses I've pedaled on. I think I averaged like 150W or something in the three's race... This time around, I kept my nose up front and made sure I didn't miss anything. Huge group got away on this sucker but was eventually brought back with a lap or so remaining due to a huge effort by a single Cynergy rider (don't know his name). I saw this effort first hand, as I was sitting third wheel for the two laps that this guy sat on the front and reeled in a 10 man break.


Well, I should have been paying more attention, cuz, I got totally swamped as the break got absorbed and those dudes in the break "dropped anchor". Went from third wheel to twentieth wheel with one lap to go...


Sat up on the last corner.

Lots of doodz out there! Biggest masters field I've done thus far here in socal! I reckon it'll be a similar size field this weekend when I toe the line at the manhattan beach grand prix - giddy-up.


Here's a couple SRM screenshots for you data freaks:


the last 9 minutes of the San Pedro GP:







and the entire M35+ SCNCA crit champs effort:

Eighty-dollar haircut

Did the Bicycle John's M35+ crit in Glendale, today. Really frustrating race for me - watched what seemed like 20 dudes go up the road. I tried to bridge up to the group while the gap was at 20-ish seconds, and came up a tantalizingly 50 meters short.



Pretty stupid on my part, though, really...


I jumped across to a group that was between the break and the field, and, in a lapse of clear thought, waited for someone else to seal the deal and close that last little bit just after I took what I felt was a freakin' hard pull to get us into striking distance... One more really hard pull is all we needed - and it didn't happen. By the time I recovered a bit, the field was on us, and the race was over.

S0, then, what did I do (besides takin' the piss out of myself)? Well, I hung out a bit, went hard a couple times to get my money and driving time's worth in - then went for a prime.


Hit it hard for a $75 "value" prime and a D.A.R.E. rider was on my wheel (if I remember correctly, this was the same guy who couldn't come through when we were tantalizingly close to the break earlier) - I gave that dude a sweet 700W leadout! He sat up after taking the prime and I just kept going - simply because I wanted to get some goin' hard time in!


Next time through the S/F line, it was me by my lonesome and they rang the bell for, crap, I don't know what (all I knew was that the initial 700W+ surge was creating some pain that apparently effected my cognitive/auditory abilities!) - so I kept after it.



Well, I wound up holding off the field for a couple laps and took the prime. I soft pedaled for a lap, then the officials pulled me...


I didn't know exactly what I had won - my wife was watching, and she didn't know either - pretty busy chihuahua herdin':





that's Lucho (named after Cafe de Columbia rider Luis Herrera - you USA 1980's CBS Tour de France watchers will know this name!) on the left, Selene in the middle, and Lea (OK, we're mild Star Wars freaks - though, "princess Lea" is a spanish-english hybrid! :-) )

Anyway, two laps of goin' pretty frickin' hard:

and what did it net me? Yeah, an $80 haircut courtesy of Dave Alva at the studio city locaton of the Allen Edwards Salon! Thanks Dave!

For what it's worth (as a total aside), the last time I actually paid for a haircut was 1997 in Blacksburg, Virginia at the barber shop on N. Main St - just off Alumni mall. Ahhhhh, those were the days before I became familiar with the #2 guard and/or the "suckcut" - well, actually I own/have owned lots of clippers over the years - but never a "flowbee"...

Selene is going to try to give away the salon haircut at work tomorrow, but if there are no takers where she works, hey, I'll spread the love to someone who lives in the L.A./Studio City area and wants to give Dave Alva at Allen Edwards Salon a call. I'll keep you all informed - heck, that would be a sweet "surprise gift" to someone - regifting isn't such a bad thing, eh?

Well, not such a super bike racing result weekend for me, but, hey - an $80 haircut makes for a great story, eh?!

These guys are good.

Well, that's another bike race in the books - did the socal/nevada district road race yesterday. Found out that despite my setting all time personal best power records for the 2-3 minute duration period (I've been using a power meter since 2003-ish), that's just not quite enough (rather, it's not even close!!) to stand on the top step of the podium in the M35+ class down here in SoCal. Here's the SRM screenshot of the finale:






A wee-bit frustrated with the way things went/turned out (finished 21st out of about 25 guys that made the final bunch - I think around 50 or so started the day...), but hey, that's bike racin', eh?





Things that I am happy with:





1) preparation - I had estimated that the major climb on the course was going to take anywhere in the 3-4 minute range and I'd need to make 5.0-5.5W/kg each of the 5 times up the sucker to make the main group. There were a couple other small hills on the course that, when combined I figured I'd need to be able to do 30 ish minutes at 5.0 + W/kg over a two hour period. So, I did some chunk rides during my lunch hour that focused on making over 5.0 W/kg in significant chunks of time. Guess what, it turns out I can do about 20 minutes of 5.0+ W/kg during an hour's workout - might have been able to do more total time, but you know, I've got "meetings at the office " I needed to get back to! :-)





Anyway, those chunk rides were really key for me - they gave me confidence and really raised the left a bit. The efforts in the actual race seemed way easier than those chunk ride efforts (that might be because I basically crammed the entire race's "goin' hard" efforts into half the time.





I also made sure that I had some "fill" needs taken care of - about 8 days out I did a 2500 KJ day just to make sure the right side of the ol' power duration curve was taken care of - ya know, just in case I was riding hard tempo in a break for two hours or so... Race day KJ's were only 1400KJ, for what it's worth - that's a lot of coasting and soft pedaling, eh?





2) I felt like I rode as smart a race as possible. Honestly, I don't know what I could have done differently to have changed the outcome significantly - I mean, there is just a lot of horsepower in these fields. There was a break of two that was off for most of the day, and they dangled at 30 seconds to a minute for 4 laps or so. Maybe I could have been more aggressive, but some guys were trying stuff, and basically just wound up impaling themselves on the sword of Cynergy/Mark Noble's squad (Central Coast Magazing, I think it is??). Basically, I kept waiting for the split to happen on the climb, and when it didn't happen after the fourth of five times up the hill, well, it was basically destined to coming down to "how hard can you go for 2-3 minutes". I went as hard as I could...





These guys are good!

Double - Double

Basketball pretty much has a lock on the term "Double-Double" - ya know, when you get into double figures for any two of the following: pts, rebounds, or assists in a single game. Then again, those of us in SoCal might have a bit of a different take on the term:

http://www.in-n-out.com/menu.asp

mmmmm.... Cheeseburgers taste good!

Well, I managed to create my own flavor of a double-double this holiday weekend. Having gotten over my health issues of the past couple of weeks, I set out to do two races per day on two consecutive days - wow, that's pretty clever, huh 2x2 = double-double... ;-)

Anyway, totally cool race on Saturday up in Dana Point - it was a pretty tight figure 8 deal complete with an alley way and some slight changes in elevation. Not your typical industrial park crit! As I was warming up, the ol' SRM battery went kaput! ha! hey, that'll learn me for not checking the battery status before leaving home, eh? Anyway, this scenario brings to light the power-geek conundrum: "if you don't have a power file from the effort, does the effort truly exist?".

heck-yeah it does! ;-)

Since the course was really tight, I made a concerted effort to stay up front and out of trouble during the 60 minute long 3's race. The race felt pretty easy and maintaining position was not a problem. With 6 to go (laps started counting down with 5 to go, but I saw Mr. Official getting real antsy at the lap cards - and since I didn't have anything to keep track of time, the lap cards were all I had to go on!) I slotted up into the mix of things. Wound up top 15 in the final sprint.

The Dana Point M35+ race was a different story - holy crap - there was some horsepower out there! For the first 20 minutes of that race I had to take what was given to me - started on the front row, but quickly found myself tailgunning the field. It was pretty much single file, even after a break of 6 got away. Chris Walker and Co missed the break (which included Dirk Copeland - former US National team member who I remember doing rides with here in SoCal back in the mid 90's - in particular one long ass ride in the rain where it was basically just me and him...) Anyway, you could definitely tell when Walker would go to the front as I was pressed a few times in my tailgunner position. Yikes.

The break of six stayed away, and Copeland won it. There was two or three guys that scooted off the front of the main field (Walker included) in the last lap or so and they finished just in front of the main group. I mixed things up in the field sprint - pretty comical as I crossed the line, I looke left and right and was surrounded by the stereotypical "sprinter" morphology types! I felt a bit out of place being a scrawny-ass spindly sucker who's size M skinsuit flaps in the wind! Wound up top 20 on the day - that crit, FWIW, was kinda hard - I was not comfortable for the first half of that sucker, that's for sure!

Sunday was a long drive up through Hollywood and ultimately winding up in Woodland Hills for the Barry Wolfe Grand Prix. I had signed up for the M35+ race and also the Pro 1,2,3 race (the first time I would be racing with some pro's since the Cascade Classic in 1999-ish - wound up DFL that year...

Anyway, the 60 minute M35+ race was first and compared to the Dana Point race the previous day, this sucker was pie. Flat, four corners, wide open "vacuum cleaner" racing (ya know, you can hang out and just get sucked along). Knowing that I was going to have the screws turned on me later in the day in the main event, I just followed wheels and basically tailgunned the race. Slotted into the mix of things in the last few laps and wound up top 15 on a sprint where my max Watts (hey, I recharged the SRM and didn't forget it this time! :-) ) topped 1050W -> which means I was pretty rested prior to that effort - it's not very often where I can top 1000W in a race situation. Saw Eddie Monnier (whose team was helping sponsor the event) just before and several times during the race, he was sporting his SRM as well.

Rolled back to the truck and actually took a little nap as it was a couple hours between the M35+ race and the P,1,2,3 race. I really didn't know what to expect in this race - I just prepared myself to gut it out for 90 minutes...

The first twenty minutes were interesting - took awhile for things to sort themselves out at the back - lots of brake usage! Pretty uneventful from my perspective until the last 20-25 minutes when a couple guys blew and I had to close things up. That hurt a bit!

Not a super exciting race - actually tried to move up in the last 5 laps or so - managed to see the top 20, but that was about it. The last lap and a half were fast, and it felt pretty good to get a field finish when pro's were involved (granted, not that many pro's were there, but hey, it counts! :-) ) - I can't claim a whole lot of those field finishes when Pro's are involved...

I think I did like 110km on that four corner course that's a lot of laps! Here's the Chung Plot from the P,1,2,3 race (lots of little spikey-spikes out of the corners,eh?):



So, that's a wrap on the Memorial Day Weekend Double-Double. Maybe next year I'll pop off a triple-double! Oooh, that's a lot of jumping out of corners, on second thought, maybe the double-double is good enough...

Barry wolfe pro 1,2,3 crit

Field finish!

M35+ crit - barry wolfe

This was crazy easy compared to yesterday's effort up in dana point...

More to come!

102F

Whoa, it's been a couple of rough weeks here...

Two weekends ago I did the bike racing thing on Saturday at the Barrio Logan Grand Prix in San Diego. Pretty cool race that I have done a few times - back in 2000?-ish I did the Pro 1,2 race and was pack fodder - a few years ago I did the 3's race (yeah, checked in the ego points and traded in my cat1 license for the less demoralizing experience of racing with the 3's...) and the M30+ race - I can't even remember what I did in those races. heh, it's true, you're only as good as your last race!

Anyway, this year, Barrio Logan was the M30+ state crit championship race. A teammate of mine was in the break that was off the front for the whole race (until Karl Bordine and a Time racing guy bridged with a handful of laps to go. Bordine wound up taking the jersey. I covered a move midway through (sorry Brett and Allen from Schroeder for not taking any pulls, just lookin' for a free ride up to the break! ;-)

Here's a nifty plot from this effort using the "chung method"

Basically, I went hard covering that move and it took me a bit to recover... meanwhile, Karl went up the road.

Good day for the Jamba Juice guys though, as Brian wound up taking fourth on the day!

It was picture day for us as well:

OK, so what the heck is the 102F thing all about? Well, I was all ready to ride the bike on Sunday for the San Luis Rey Road Race. In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have even pinned the number on. I live about 15 minutes by bike from the start of this sucker, and on the ride up there the SRM said 102F.

I kind of woke up with a bit of a sore throat, but decided to pedal a bit just 'cause... Well, I bagged it after a lap (got dropped fer no good reason!) - the next day I woke up in the middle of the night with a 102F fever. D'oh.

This pleasant experience of having a fever of 102-103 lasted for around 7 days - it got so bad I even drug my lame ass to the doctor for the first time in I can't remember when! He gave me some antibiotics (not a real big fan of this...) and told me to take some ibuprofen. sweet.

So, on top of the whole illness thing, I also came down with some weird bilateral leg pain that caused a general ache that woke me up in the middle of the night on several occassions. Not pleasant - and wound up with me taking another trip to the doc (who probably thinks I'm a hypochondriac now!).

Well, the result of this whole health fiasco was that I wound up riding the bike very little over the past two weeks and took a pass on the SoCal State TT this past Saturday. So, just how long is it going to take to get the 20MP back to where it was before this forced off the bike period?

Well, it looks like four rides where I tried to go hard and I'm pretty close to where I was three weeks ago. Saturday I gave it a go up my ~17 minute field test hill: 288watts. Sunday I did the same ride and managed 297W. Took monday off completely. Tuesday I did my lunch hour Vo2's (I could only manage 10W below what I normally do them at). Today (Wed), I ripped it up the same hill I did Sat/Sun and managed 307W. Things seem to be coming back online power wise - my 20MP just prior to getting sick was in the 305-310W range.

Full slate of racing this weekend lined up - I'll be out at the Dana Point Grand Prix doing the 3's and the M35+ stuff, then on Sunday I'll toe the line in the M35+ and the P 1,2,3 race in Woodland Hills. We'll see how I feel after riding around in circles for 5 hours this weekend!

Have fun out there!

Motivation...

Nothing like trying to "not get dropped" to provide the necessary motivation to go pretty damn hard - that was the case this past saturday!

So, I toe'd the line at the San Diego Cycl-vets omnium this weekend.

Friday was a two loop affair (8.2 mile, 13.4k) TT on fiesta island. Went pretty fast for me for this time of year - just under 19 minutes on 286 watts. Felt like I underperformed 10-15W or so. Guess I need to ride the TT bike more than the night before for 20 minutes!? :-)

Seriously, I probably would have only needed one or two good rides on the TT bike to feel more normal - just wasn't used to sitting down for 20 minutes straight... D'oh!

RR on Saturday was an eye-opener - pretty crazy for me actually. Got dropped on the very first hill - while I was making 5.7 W/kg for 3.5 minutes and 5.1 W/kg for 6 minutes.

Hey, this master's racing is supposed to be easier than the Pro 1,2 stuff! :-)

Oh well, guess I just need to lose another 5kg's! It's possible, I reckon. But damnit, cheeseburgers taste good. And porkchops taste good, too!!!

Here's the file screenshot when I popped:



you'll see that I surged a bit to cross a gap (just prior to 3 min into the effort) to get to a little group of about six guys that were shreddin' the field. I got on and recovered a bit, but the next little surge put me at my limit. I never looked at the PM, mind you, when I'm racin' you either make the group, or you don't - it don't matter what the gizmo's are tellin' ya!

Guess, what, I didn't make the group - hell, that's bike racin'. Next year, maybe there'll be a headwind up those climbs! :-)

Sunday (today) was a crit - rain shower moved through during the 45 minutes prior to the race, soaking everyone and the course down. Real tentative on the wet roads for me - dude, I like my skin!.

I had surprisingly heavy legs, no real top end so to speak. No moves got more than 10 seconds or so on the field, so I just stayed put and rode what felt like hard tempo pace to stay in the field. Moved to the front with 5 to go and tried to stay in the top 10-15. Slotted my way onto Brett and Mark's wheel just prior to the last corner, probably 10th wheel or so - but that was just about all I could muster. Maybe wound up in the top 15. Just don't have the snappity-snap like the big dogz!

Well - that was a pretty good spring campaign for me - the most bike racin' I've done in a really long time. Probably more racing in the last couple months than I've done in the last 9 years combined. Good to be back, I'll say!

I'll be taking next week off from racing, it'll be a nice little break.

Crap, better get my taxes done here pretty soon too - those are due next month, right! ;-)

If you don't try...

...you win nothing!

I don't know for sure when I heard that - probably during some CBS tour de france coverage, or maybe it was ESPN... but it was pretty memorable for me, those words of phil ligget (or was it paul sherwin?). This weekend of racing was a bit odd in that respect - In the earlier race of this year, I've pretty much just been taking what was given - you know, if it is pretty clear that things are going to stay together, well, don't bother trying anything - it's just futility!

Well, bike races aren't WON with that kind of mentality, are they!?

Saturday was an interesting day down at the Del Mar Crit here in SoCal - rode down to the race with my teammates, Kevin and Fran. Had a good chat with Fran who comes from Connecticut - we got to talkin' about some of the terrain around Wilton (which is where I worked for Brand S back in the day). Speaking of which, Wilton, back in 1998 or so, was the first experience I had with a power meter. My boss back then gave me an SRM to train with and/or play around with - I can remember religiously setting that thing up -> spinning the cranks backwards and everything to get the zero offset right... Course, I don't ever remember pushing any buttons on the controller after that (i.e, I don't know if I ever zero'd it out before a ride...) ah, crap, those files from back in the day all died at the same time that IBM thinkpad hard drive that I downloaded everything to kicked the can...

Anyway, I digress..

I felt like a bit of an oddball on the ride down to the Del Mar race, everyone had their new bikes all set up and dialed in. We are riding Cannondale system six frames, and are left on our own to get the rest dialed in to our liking. Well, I've got a bit of a power meter affliction, so I've been delaying building my new frame up until I'd gotten the whole power meter thing worked out. The cannondale uses an SI bottom bracket, so that meant I'd need a new SRM powermeter - Jason Yanota over at www.thebikeage.com hooked me up with a deal on the PM portion, and I figured that all I needed was an SI crankarm and lockring (www.wiredbike.com) to complete the assembly...

Well, as it turns out, the systemsix cdale shipped with their carbon crank and BB - not your standard SI hollowgram BB assembly... Not sure what my options are now - I'll be giving the folks at Cdale a call tomorrow to see what needs to happen to make this thing work!

Anyway, I might be racing that beast (the frame looks pretty cool, though, the aerodynamics freak in me is kinda wigged out about the shear size of that head tube!), without power. Oh, the shock and horror! :-)

So, the Del Mar race was pretty cool - it was a parking lot crit in the main area of the Del Mar fairgrounds - you started out near the main entrance to the horse race stadium and worked your way out to where the big ferris wheel is during the fair. Had a bunch of teammates in there, Dave, Kevin, Fran, Mike - it was neat to have familiar faces in there! It was pretty darn cold, and I seemed to have a bit of an issue with that, as a couple times when I tried to go hard, my left pinkie toe (then later, my whole left leg...) seized up in a weird cramp.

Hung out during the race and gave it a go a time or two - the course had a long finish stretch where I wound up officially taking 12th on the day - a few guys came around me at the line, my left leg was a screamin' - couldn't really put any pressure on the pedals with that side. Oh well, that's bike racin'!

Sat around and watched my teammate, Kevin, ride a real strong race in the subsequent 45+ race - he wound up taking fourth overall in the series - if only I was 10 years older, I might have been able to help him in those last few laps! Give me a few more years, buddy, I'll be old enough sooner or later! :-)

Here's the screenshot of the days 35+ race:



Today (Sunday) I took a solo trip up to Ontario and did the 3's race immediately followed by the 30+ race.

My observation about the few 3's races I've done lately, is that the crits don't really get hard consistently - by that, I mean it goes hard for a bit, but then everyone sits up and recovers. A good example of this is after I drilled it hard first big hump in the 3's race screenshot below:



and then when I eased up a bit, everyone sat up - so I gave it a go again for a wee bit. My thinking was, surely, someone would sense that it was a great time to counter and give it a go - instead, all I got was a curt "why'd you stop pedaling" from the Ranchos guy on my wheel. Sounds like someone had some reserves to give it a go...

Anyway, after that bit of futility, I wound up just sitting at the back and waiting for the 30+ race. Well, I did move up a bit with two laps to go and try to sprint, yeah, I'm all fast twitch baby! ;-)

Got housed pretty good in the finale - oh well...

30+ race started easy - tailgunned it for 10 minutes or so - well, almost tailgunned it - Thurlow Rogers was behind me tailgunnin' it even better than me! Things hotted up after 15 minutes or so and I snuck my way into a move or two...

With 3 to go or so, I followed a move by Frank Schroeder (THE MAN behind Schroeder Iron) and once he and I were covered by the Cynergy boyz, I kept on going - ya know, if you don't try, you win nothing!!!

I got small gap and before you know it, Thurlow (Synance), Bradley (Schroeder Iron), and a Cynergy guy came up to me - had to give it everything I had to stick with them as they flew past me. Sat on for a bit and then rolled through (mistake...) near the S/F line with two to go.

Wound up gettin' dropped by these guys with a lap and a half to go - totally tapped at that point! Sat up as the field went by and that was that. Hey, that's bike racin'!

Felt pretty good on the day - no leg issues or whatnot, and feel satisfied with trying to do something on the day.

Next week!

Peace,

-kraig

Indio/Fill

Well, had a bit of a bummer race over in Indio this past weekend - but I did give it a go! Sometimes you roll the dice a bit, or talk yourself out of something when it comes to the finale. I'm still kickin' myself a bit for how things went down during the Indio trip.

First things first, though, before I get to the finish... Pretty easy first half of the race (small field out in Indio - maybe 40 guys?), a small group of ~6 got away around midway with good representation from the big squads... I was thinkin' about going across the gap, but Eddie Monnier (yeah, he was pedalin' this weekend out in the desert) and a couple other guys had a similar idea, so I pretty much followed their wheels and basically just rolled through to help bring it back together.

It got kind of hard a bit later on with some attacks, and that's when the socal points leader (richard c) from the Amgen/Giant squad punched it pretty good - I followed him, and one and a half laps of futility later, we were re-absorbed with just over three laps to go.

I recovered quickly, and knew I needed to slot myself into the top 3 coming out of the last corner (head crosswind for the last 300m or so) - well, the group totally slowed down in the last few turns, and I talked myself out of just drillin' it with 500m to go... Instead, I rolled the dice and came up snake eyes in the finale. Way too far back and going' way to slow for this type I slow twitch guy to have a chance at a placing.

Learned something on that deal - again! I'm a caveman, remember...

Sunday, I flogged myself doing a "fill" ride through deluz - nary a flat spot on that ride - so it starts to hurt a wee bit near the end. Been awhile since I've done one of those - I keep tellin' myself that I needed to do one of those "fill" rides in order to have the sensations fresh in my memory before I chipped away at this series of articles a bit more:

http://www.biketechreview.com/op_ed/stripped_down_2.htm

no more excuses now! Stay tuned!

Redlands!

Well, it's been a few years since I've done the Redlands thing. I think I remember doing this crit 3 or four years ago, and also doing the Pro 1,2 race a couple years in a row around '94 and '95. DNF'd one of those years and gutted it out during the other.

I can remember getting shelled on the Oak Glen Stage and riding hard tempo for quite a long time in a small group - barely made the time cut, IIRC!

Anyway, did a couple crits today - started with the 3's race and gave it a go a couple times including a make or break effort with 5 or 6 laps to go. Sold out on that effort and was brought back with just a bit over a lap to go. Decided to sit out of the final sprint on that one...

A bit of a rush to pull off those cat 3 numbers and reveal the 35+ numbers pinned underneath, but had a couple minutes to shake out the legs and roll to the line for the "main event" for me. Took me awhile to feel good, but was never really pressed until 4 or 5 hundred meters to go while I was sitting 5th wheel or so - got gapped a bit when someone dropped anchor in the middle of a corner and I basically wound up giving it full stick, nose in the wind for the last three corners. One person came around me in the few meters before the line - so, officially wound up 8th on the day.

Still gotta figure out a way to crack the top 5 in these pro 35+ races! :-)

Here's the SRM screenshot for the days efforts - some good motorpacing going on out there and a couple "rasise the left" vo2 type efforts in the 3's race.

Run Whatchya Brung

San dimas stage race power numbers for the hillclimb - started out a wee bit too hard, but really, this is pretty much all I can do for the duration right now! Next year, I'll just have to drop 10 more kilos to be competitive - 59 kilos is healthy for a six-footer, isn't it?!? ;-)

Murrieta Power!

Pretty good weekend up in Murrieta - really hot on Sunday for the circuit race - my SRM temp gauge registered high 90's on the Fahrenheit scale, though, I think that was a few degrees high...

Managed to stay out of trouble during the crit - bridged across a 10-15 second gap to what looked to be a dangerous move (had what I thought was the right mix of teams - I don't know everyone around here, so I have to keep an eye out for the right color combination of jerseys goin' up the road, so to speak..) but soon got re-absorbed and gambled on the final sprint. It all came back together with one lap to go and I think I might have actually passed a few people on the run in to get a top 15 placing.

Here's the srm screenshot of the last 2k:



Sunday circuit race had a couple of small rollers and a bit of wind - centerline rule was in effect and that wound up causing a bit of "trouble" for me when a nice group of 5 guys got away and the gap was hovering around 15 seconds or so. I told myself I'd go across the next time through the roller section - well, the gap grew 20+seconds in what seemed like less than 1 or 2k and by the time I tried to go across to the break:




the gap was too big - I probably only made it half way - but it was a truly maximal effort for me for that duration... Spent the rest of the race sittin' at the back, and to the paultracy.com team's credit (nice work, guys) the main group absorbed three of the five man break with 10-12k to go. I slotted myself into the front with a couple k to go and duked it out to the finish for another top 15 sprint finish. Here's the last 2k power:




I ain't winnin' jack, but hey, this bike racin' stuff sure is a lot more fun than trainin' for the triathlon efforts I had been doin' for the last couple years! Not that there is anything wrong with that! :-)

10???

Is that too many pins?

;-)

Gettin' ready to toe the line @ the tour de murrieta!

Merced Weekend Wrap-up

Wrapped up the Merced Marathon! Went full bore non-stop since checkin' out of work on Friday evening and making it as far north as Visalia, CA before calling it a night at around 11pm.

Made it up to Merced with plenty of time to do the Crit (SRM screenshot) on Saturday:

Stayed out of the wind and rode very conservative - didn't quite know what to expect from the scene up here in Merced. Basically, I was trying to erase from my memory the last time I raced up here as a cat 2 in the Pro 1,2 race about 10-12 years ago -got totally shelled during this crit and to follow it up, during the RR the following day (IIRC), I drilled a pothole and snakebit the rear clincher Michelin SuperComp HD TIRE! on my Specialized Tri-Spoke. Well, at least I managed to stay well within myself during the 35+ race this time around! :-)

As the screenshot indicates - I kept things under control and went a wee-bit harder near the end - wound up top 25 by the official results:

http://www.mercocyclingclassic.com/grandprix_results/

First half of the race was pretty cool, in that I got a chance to say hi to a couple of old friends and an acquitance from the wind tunnel! After the race it was pretty cool to put a face to a name (bpeterson) from the BTR forum as well!

The RR Sunday was interesting. Same rough pavement sections I remember from the last time I was here (but not sure if it was the same exact roads - for some reason I remember going the opposite direction in the mid 90's??). Again, I raced real conservative, never touching the wind, though, the way the race played out I think that was the right thing to do - pretty fast, and I never saw a threatening break that had both the Safeway and the AMD boyz represented.

Put myself in a pretty good spot making the second to last left hand turn ~8-10k from the finish and was probably 20th dood or so going into the last kilometer. More than likely wound up in the 15-20 spot in the final sprint (despite overhauling a women's race that was simultaneously finishing!) - a wee-bit sketchy final few kilometers as we were weavin' in and out of the remnants of that field.

Here's the screenshot of that pretty good "fill the right" RR effort:

After the race, we packed up real quick and headed over to the coast - yep, we took the scenic route home. It was a pretty long drive, but man, that section of road between Monterey and San Simeon is just about the best scenery in the world. Good stuff!

Here's a shot off of the Cabrillo Hwy (route 1) a wee-bit before sunset:

and a sweet shot of me and the Mrs. just north of Big Sur!

All in all, a great weekend to put in the supercomputer!