Springfield Oaks Pre-Ride

I went out for a couple laps on the course tonight. There were a number of Rhinos there helping to set up the banner. I chatted for a minute, then got on my way. The course was great, Joe Brown did his usual good job setting it up. I just about went off twice, on my easy lap, where the course did something I didn't expect.

On my second lap, I pushed the pace a little bit. I started noticing I was slowly catching the only other two riders on the course. I didn't know who they were, but they didn't have local jerseys. In fact, the guy had on some kind of UCI rainbow jersey. Usually, I'd figure it was a replica and wouldn't think much about it, but, given the caliber of some of the riders in town this weekend, I wasn't sure.

I eventually caught the pair. I was going about 70-80%, they were definitely not working hard. Since it was near the end of the lap, I decided to just hang back a bit. It ticks me off on the trail when people go flying by me on a regular day like we're racing if I'm just putzing around (on the other hand, it also ticks me off when people just sit on my wheel). It just didn't seem right to pass some possible pro's on a pre-ride lap. I suppose they probably wouldn't have cared... unless maybe I passed them and then crashed (a classic move!). Anyway, they pulled off (to change tires?) and I stopped to talk to the Rhinos (who had finally finished hanging the banner). The pair of riders came back and stopped to talk to Jeff for a minute. I then discovered that the guy in the rainbow jersey was Steve Tilford, so I'm sure it was an earned jersey. I didn't catch the woman's name, but my assumption is that she's also a pro. Anyway, cool stuff... I'm getting fired up for tomorrow!

Leg Check

I'm progressing pretty nicely in getting rid of my cold. Still not 100%, but pretty close. Last night, I did a hard trainer ride (on the trainer because we had company over). I still think I'll get crushed this weekend, but I didn't feel totally weak on the bike. So, a big improvement over Tuesday.

I'm going to head out to the course tonight and do a few laps. Just to make sure the bike is ready and to check things out.

I signed up for the race yesterday afternoon. They had the registration set up so you could see the list of confirmed riders... I think this is a cool feature. There were only 5 B-racers signed up when I registered. By this morning, there were a bunch more. Most of my Rhino buddies that were on the fence decided to race the B's rather than the C's. They probably saw my name on there, remembered the way I rode Tuesday night, and thought, "At least I'll beat Keith." I may have to give John a hard time for racing in the C's this weekend...

Health Check

I think I'm finally getting over my cold; it took about a week. I was feeling slightly better Friday and Saturday; good enough that I did some easy riding on the trainer both days. I felt much worse on Sunday though, and I decided not to go to work on Monday. We had some water in the basement with all the rain over the weekend, and battling that probably didn't help my health. Anyway, yesterday, I finally started feeling much better.

So, I decided to go to the Tuesday night club ride at the track. A ton of people showed up; I don't know if it was because of the race this weekend or what, but it was kind of crazy. I actually felt really good on the bike from a technical perspective. I don't know if it was from laying on the couch and watching cycling videos all weekend or what, but I felt super relaxed and super smooth (at least, at low speeds... as the speed went up, I tightened up).

I pushed reasonably hard on the first "interval". It didn't go so well, I felt weak, and I got dropped by the group of my peers. For the other intervals, my plan was to just take it easy and keep working on technique. I definately did not want to take a step backward in terms of health by going too hard for too long. The plan worked OK, except that there were too many people on course. I figured I'd get dropped immediately and would have a clear course to work on. I discovered instead that my 60% effort pace was still faster than most of the beginners' pace. So, I did another 1.5 intervals and then called it a night.

I did the last little bit in the drops. When we were waiting to start the last one, a woman asked me to "feel her brakes". (My wife asked if that was a cycling pickup line? Alas, no, her rear brake was actually a little sticky.) Anyway, it led to a brief discussion on the merits of riding in the drops versus riding on the hoods. I actually like riding in the drops better... I think the bike handles better with the more forward weight distribution and you can get more leverage on the brakes. I just don't do it. The problem is that I'm not used to riding that low, so my back and arms get uncomfortable after a short time. Maybe part of the solution is to raise the bars a little?

Today I feel better still, which is definitely a good thing. I'm going to do some kind of easier ride tonight, try to go hard tomorrow, easy Friday, and then race this weekend. The Thursday ride should give me a pretty good indication of how things will go this weekend.

Long Week

I forgot to mention that I rode the Stony race with a broken shifter (stuck in the middle ring) and a bent front brake lever. I need to a little work on the bike now...

This week was rough. I played hockey Sunday night, which was probably a mistake. Playing after 'cross races isn't too bad, but it's too much after mountain bike races. I also had lots of stress at work this week which didn't help. So, by Tuesday afternoon, I started feeling sick. I didn't ride at all this week until last night. I did a relatively easy spin on the trainer for about 45 minutes. I'm still a little stuffed up today, but I'm getting better. I'll try another easy trainer ride this afternoon. None of this bodes well for the UCI 'cross race next weekend.

In light of my posts about high-intensity training, I'll just comment that I've noticed that pushing the limits on volume will consistently make me sick. Pushing the limits on intensity will burn me out and make me irritable, but I've never gotten sick (that I'm aware of) from too much intensity.

Stony Creek XC

Long time, no post... I'll explain later.

So, Sunday was my last mountain bike race of the season, a cross-country race at Stony Creek. I really only had one main goal for this race, to put in a hard effort. That was my main complaint about my previous race at Pontiac Lake. I got my hard effort in, but my placement was the same as PLRA, 7th place.


I did feel like I had a decent race. I pushed pretty hard in all the open spots, and I rode the singletrack reasonably well. I think my fitness is just not at the same level as the other guys right now. The break I took in the middle of the summer (and not racing too much) probably hurt me. Of course, improving my bike handling would also make an immediate impact...

I ended up 6th in my class for the USAC MTB series. Not really too bad, considering I only did 5 races, one of which I DNF'd.

Maximum Performance for Cyclists

I picked up a copy of "Maximum Performance for Cyclists" by Dr. Michael Ross the other day. It's an interesting book; it reminded me of the Dave Morris book. Despite the title, it doesn't actually hit the physiology material as hard as Morris, but it includes a lot of other stuff. There's an interesting section on bike fit (including measurement of Q-angle, which I hadn't seen before), and it does a better job of laying out what a training plan would look like.




In general, I think the book doesn't go into enough detail on most topics, and it skips some important things. Basically, I think this shouldn't be your only training book. On the other hand, if you're already somewhat knowledgeable about training, I think this book is enough.

So, Dr. Ross is essentially advocating a focus on high-intensity training after a relatively short low-intensity training period. It's been a long time since I've read the Morris book, but I think the approaches are very similar. Unlike some of the "crazy" Internet sites I read, it looks like rides would still be long enough that there should be no problems actually sitting on the bike for 2 hours if you needed to for a race. Longer than that, and maybe you'd want to rethink it.

One thing that Dr. Ross does very well in the book is focus on training goals for a given workout. If your goal is to build mitochondria, or strengthen certain muscle fibers, then you should do a workout optimized for that specific goal. This is something that I lose sight of sometimes. I think it's definitely important to know what you want to accomplish for a given workout.

Even though I'm currently following the more traditional Friel program, I keep looking at the higher intensity programs for a few reasons:

1. Especially now with the baby, my training time is very limited.

2. With the Friel program, I feel like I'm too far out of racing shape for most of the year. For example, I felt like I was only in good shape for 2 of the 5 mountain bike races I did this year (had I done the 7 races I originally planned, it would have been 2 out of 7). For 'cross this year, it will be about 5 of 9. Maybe this is a problem with my planning, but I think that I may be in better racing shape off-peak with a higher intensity program.

3. Intuitively, I question the value of long rides for the type of racing that I do. My mountain bike races are usually around 90 minutes, and 'cross races will be 45 minutes this year for me. So, is it really effective to frequently ride 2+ hours? On the other hand, I feel that my biggest year over year gains come from the Base phases, but maybe that's because I spend most of the year in them.

Anyway, so I'm going to mull this all over a bit. I'm not changing anything for this season, since I've only got 3 months left, but I'm going to consider making a change for next year. Whether it's this program, or Morris, I at least want to take a look again.

Rubber Side Down

Well, since my last post, I've managed to keep the rubber side down on my rides. I didn't get in as much riding over the weekend as I'd hoped, but I am pretty much recovered from my crashes. My legs and arms are still scabbed and bruised, but I'm not sore anywhere anymore.

I rode out at Stony again on Saturday. I know what happened when I crashed on the bridge now. There's a tree just to the left side of the bridge. When I'm leaning a little bit to the left around the corner, I tend to drop my left shoulder a little more near the tree (to make sure I don't hit it, I guess). When the bridge is dry, it's no problem, when it's wet, it's probably enough to put me down.

Saturday, I was working on breaking my habit of braking too much, too early. Just telling myself not to brake doesn't seem to be very effective. Instead, when I felt the urge to brake, I tried telling myself to look up and stick my elbows out. This seemed to work OK, and it gave me something to do.

I made it out to the track last night for cyclocross practice. I'm still pretty rusty on the 'cross bike. There were a number of things that I remembered during the course of the practice. Riding relaxed and light is really important out at Waterford Hills, since the ground is so rough. It took me a while to get back in the habit of thinking ahead a bit with gear selection (ie- shift to an easier gear going downhill, so you can be in the correct gear when you have to pedal back uphill). I also worked on my cornering technique; it's really the same as on the mountain bike, but the narrower tire is a little less forgiving.

A lot of the stuff I need to work on for cyclocross is the same stuff I need to work on for mountain biking. I find it easier to do this work at the track though, maybe because the course is short, so I go through the same corners a bunch of times over a short period of time. There's also usually no consequence for blowing a corner.

I really didn't feel like I was in very good "racing" shape. Mark C and others gapped me pretty easily. On the other hand, by the end of the night, I was going just about as fast as I was at the beginning, but with less effort. I was just doing a better job of maintaining my momentum around the course.

Crashes in 3's?

Hopefully crashes go in threes... I've had three in the past 5 days.

Crash #1: I got started at the race at Pontiac Lake. I exited a sandy corner a little wide, clipped a tree with my handlebar, and down I went. Result: scraped up right knee, sore right shoulder. It may have also precipitated Crash #2.

Crash #2: Wednesday night at Waterford Oaks (no joke! I know it's not even a proper mountain bike trail. How embarrassing!) There's a steep hill that a couple of 'cross guys and I use to practice run-ups. It's steep enough that I don't think you could ride up even if you wanted to... at least, I'm pretty sure I couldn't ride up it. I do sometimes like riding down it though. Here's what the hill looks like from the bottom:

There's a tight left turn at the bottom. If you blow it, here's what awaits:

I went down it fine the first time. The second time, I didn't negotiate the roots very well, so I was late on my braking. I should also mention that I noticed my front brake wasn't working right, it was a little too weak, but I didn't bring any tools, so I didn't look at it in detail. So, between my mistake and having weak brakes, I blew the corner. I sort of bailed off the back of my bike, so I didn't hit anything hard, but I did scrape up the inside of both of my knees and my left shin. I also cut my lip, which swelled up a little the next day. Nice.

After the crash, I looked at my brakes. I noticed that the lock nut on the front brake lever was loose and the lever wasn't pulling nearly enough cable (I have mechanical discs). I fixed it, and the braking was fine after that. This brake lever would be punished for it's failure in Crash #3 though...

Crash #3: It rained off and on all day on Thursday, and I went out to Stony Creek (site of my final MTB race this year) for a ride after work. There's a long bridge in the middle of The Pines that is notoriously slippery when wet. On my first lap through, I remember thinking "I don't know why people have so much trouble on this bridge, I've never fallen on it."

On the second lap, I was pushing the pace harder, including while on the bridge. There's a left hand turn just beyond what you can see in the picture. I apparently had the bike leaned too far over, and my front wheel slid out in a big hurry, and I went down hard. I sat up and contemplated whether I had a broken collarbone or dislocated shoulder. It turns out neither, but it was a hard enough crash that I thought I was going to throw up. Anyway, the damage here was a bruised left knee and left shoulder, and a big cut on my left elbow. The crash also somehow bent my front brake lever (revenge for Crash #2!).

My shoulder feels better today than I expected, I sort of thought I wouldn't be able to move it today. I did ice it for quite a while last night. My knee feels worse than I expected though.

So, a tough few days. Hopefully I'm done crashing for a while. I took today off work (I was going to take it off anyway). I had planned to do a nice long ride, but I think I'm just going to chill out and try to heal. Maybe I'll do a short easy spin on the bike later just to stay loose.

Pontiac Lake XC

"I'd always envisioned that Olympic athletes were these giant superheroes, and I knew I was just small and an average person."

- Sheila Taormina, 3-time Olympian (in 3 different sports)

The Pontiac Lake XC race was Sunday. I felt like I was well-prepared for this race. Even though I'm not in great racing form right now, I'm definitely recovered from my mid-summer break. I knew the trail very well. I was well-rested, my nutrition has been good, and I made sure I was well-hydrated. My bike was clean and working perfectly. With the trail being only 5 miles or so from my house, I didn't even have much of a drive. As a result of my preparation, I was really calm and relaxed before the race. Then I went out and tanked... I was dead last in my class after the first lap, and then I worked my way up to 7th (of 10 finishers) on the second lap.

There were lots of little details in the race that made some difference one way or another, and, certainly fitness and skill were factors, but I think my lackluster performance really came down to motivation. In all the bike races I've done well in, I've pushed hard enough so that I'm nearly always at the limit. I always say, "If I don't want to quit on the last lap, I didn't go hard enough." On Sunday, I think I just didn't work hard enough. I was at a "comfortable" pace for way too much of the race, and I had way too much energy left at the finish.

Part of the motivation / pacing problem was certainly that I've not really raced since the Stony Marathon. Yeah, I did the Hines TT a couple weeks ago, but a 30 minute road TT and a 90 minute MTB race are totally different (I guess a marathon race is a lot different too). The DNF at Brighton is also still kicking around in my mind. Really though, it comes down to the fact that I wasn't mentally prepared to race on Sunday.

The mental side was a big part of the reason I improved so much last year in cyclocross. I raced so often on the weekends, and I usually treated the Tuesday night practices as race efforts, that I got very good at knowing exactly how hard I could push myself. As soon as I got some good finishes, I started to expect good finishes every time. I started treating myself as a "fast guy".** I lined up at the front, I rode with the lead group (until they dropped me ;) ), I expected to beat anyone I was still riding with on the last lap. This kind of attitude makes a BIG difference.

Why this attitude hasn't transitioned over to mountain biking yet I don't know. I finished on the podium 2 of the 3 races (that I finished) this year... including a 3rd place, my best finish ever in a bike race. The results are there, but I still don't feel like a fast guy. Actually, I do know why, it's because I don't feel like my technical skills are on par with the other Sport racers. This is sort of a different topic, but it's more true on some trails than others.

Anyway, the good thing about having a bad race is that there's lots of stuff to think about and work on. Good races are so boring... ;)

** Little sidebar here... back when I was in to car and kart racing, I was talking to another guy I respected at the kart track (he was a full-blown (car) road racer). I mentioned something that the "fast guys" were doing, and he said, "Dude, you ARE one of the fast guys!". He was right, but it didn't sink in for me until he said it. In the series that was going on, it wasn't unusual for me to set the fastest or one of the fastest qualifying times, and I placed well in (and occasionally won) the A-race.

Riding Light

I did my "key" workout of the week last night, cruise intervals out at PLRA. I expected the trail to be crowded with the race coming up this weekend, but it wasn't bad at all. From a fitness perspective, doing intervals on the trail isn't ideal since intensity varies quite a bit depending on the terrain. But, for me, the big advantage is that I end up riding sections of trail above my race pace. From a technical perspective, it makes riding the trail at race pace a bit more comfortable.

Ever notice how the best mountain bikers seem to just skim over obstacles? I've finally got a good phrase to describe it, "riding light". I borrowed this from Jeff, who said something to the effect of: "If you don't ride light in a 'cross race, you're dead." This is something I've been working on when I ride the trails lately. Certainly, part of it is unweighting the bike a bit when you're about to come up to an obstacle. I think maybe the bigger part of it is staying relaxed on the bike and not sitting too heavily on the saddle. Because, a lot of times, it's the little unseen bumps that bounce you around, especially in 'cross. I'm getting better at this. Usually I can skim over the obvious bumps, roots, rocks, etc, but the little stuff will still get me, especially as I start to get tired near the end of a ride.

PLRA and Running

We'll start out with a couple of links:

Article by Adam Hodges-Myerson about motivation.

Blog entry from Alwyn Cosgrove about the phenomenon of leveling / sharpening.

And then a quote from Shalane Flanagan about her 10km Olympic race: "The plan was to run as fast as possible as efficiently as possible for as long as possible."


I'm still keeping up with my running plan. Still just working on a slow, steady progression. I'm up to a whopping 13 minutes per run this week, but, the key is, I'm doing it pain-free. At first, I think the running had a negative impact on my cycling. My legs just didn't feel right on the bike, I think it hurt my efficiency. I haven't had the same feelings though over the past couple weeks, so maybe I've adapted.

I'm getting pretty fired up about the race at PLRA this weekend. I've been feeling pretty fit again lately, and I know the trail well. By far, I've ridden at PLRA more than anywhere else this year. I actually had a dream about winning the race last night. In it, I ran past John on the last climb. Probably a pretty tall order in the real world; from reading John's blog, he's been racing well lately.

Pair O' Rides

I had a nice pair of rides over the weekend. I got up early Saturday morning and rode out at Stony Creek. The last USAC race is there in a few weeks, so I thought I'd check it out (not that I haven't ridden at Stony a time or two). I worked on climbing strength by riding the hills in too hard of a gear. There really aren't any long climbs at Stony, but it's pretty easy to string a bunch of shorter ones together.

On Sunday, I rode out to PLRA and did a couple of laps. I felt pretty decent; actually better than I have for quite a while. There are still a few descents out there where I need to let go of the brakes and let it rip, but I'm definitely getting better. It will be interesting to see how the race there goes this weekend. Based on last year's times, I should finish near the front, but you never know.

I'll be due for some new tires on the mountain bike at the end of the year. All of the riding on the road I've been doing to and from the trail is really wearing my tires out. I'm going to switch to a little bit faster tire for next year, maybe the Kenda Karma or Small Block 8.

'Cross Practice

I made it to cyclocross practice at the track last night. It was one of the first of the year, and the first one I went to. I've sort of decided I can only do one club ride a week (they take a little too long), so I need to decide how I want to split the Tuesday night 'cross practice and the Thursday night dirt road ride. I think maybe the Thursday ride is more what I need right now.

Anyway, it was a little weird to get back on the 'cross bike on a (sort of) proper 'cross course. Things went pretty well, but I felt rusty.

The main thing I need to work on is barriers. I've practiced just a little in the backyard this summer, but I need to do more now. I wasn't particularly good over the barriers last night. I had trouble with my timing when I didn't have a clear line of sight to the barrier (because of people in front of me). I was also slow getting back on the bike and into the pedals.

I think my cornering was improved over last year, thanks to continued practice on the mountain bike. There was one off-camber corner after a little downhill. I was able to take it confidently without braking because I kept the outside pedal loaded and my weight forward a little.

My intention was to keep the ride focused on skills and not to go too hard. I have some other hard rides planned later this week, so I wanted to keep this one easy to moderate. I was mostly successful; I held back a bit even on the group's harder efforts.

Hines Park TT - 2008

The 2008 edition of the Hines Park TT is in the books for me now. The weather had some influence on my race. The temperature was only in the mid-60's; I did my whole warmup with a jacket on. The wind was the bigger factor, it was blowing along the course, so you had a decent tailwind on the way out, but you turned back into a headwind.

My strategy to deal with the wind was to take as much advantage of the tailwind as possible, and then just suffer through the ride back. I passed a few riders on the road on the way out, and got passed by just one (this may have been our class winner, he was flying!). When I'd remember, I tried to keep my upper body relaxed and I focused on a smooth pedal stroke. I made it to the turnaround in about 15 minutes, well under my target pace. The ride back was tough, but I passed a few more people, and no one went by me. I basically managed to keep a steady pace, but it was definitely slower going back into the wind. I had enough left in the tank to push a little harder over the last mile.

I ended up finishing with a 33:11.75. Good enough for 8th place in the Eddy Merckx category (would have been 7th in the Cat4's, assuming they had the same conditions). I was shooting for around 32:30, but, considering the wind, I was OK with my time.

This was the first year this event has done the Eddy Merckx category, and I really liked it. There were some fast guys out there who had definitely done some racing before (I recognized at least one other mountain biker), and also some people that looked like they were taking their first crack at racing. The mental benefit of having everyone on course with the same equipment was bigger than I expected. I really liked not having anyone blow by me on a tricked-out time trial bike; with everyone's equipment more-or-less even, it just comes down to fitness and technique.

Hines TT Preview

I had a choice about what I was going to do this weekend. I either wanted to do a LT field test or ride the Hines Park TT. It's been a while since I've done a field test (the last one was in March, before my daughter was born), and it certainly provides a good measure of fitness progression for me. On the other hand, it's a little more fun to crank for half an hour on the road than it is on the trainer, and I'd still get some indication on progression. I decided to do the race...

I did the 20km TT two years ago. I had to miss the 20km TT last year, but I did the 40km TT instead. So, I'll be able to directly compare my result to the TT two years ago. Based on the progression of my trainer testing, I'm shooting for a 23mph average speed, or about 32.5 minutes. Not blazing fast by any stretch, but it's about 8.5% faster than I went in 2006.

This year, they have an Eddy Merckx category, for people without aerobars, aero wheels, etc. I'll probably still get smoked, but at least I'll know the equipment was more-or-less equal.

Eddy Merckx, 1966

Rest Week

I finished up the last hard week of my mid-season Base 2 phase. Not too soon either! I was really dragging on my rides over the weekend. It probably didn't help that I did a pretty hard run on Saturday morning.

My knee was a little sore last week and over the weekend. It didn't bother me on the bike or running, but I noticed it doing just normal things during the day. I'm pretty sure it's a result of my saddle height. I've been gradually letting it creep up again, and it seems to have caught up with me. I'll go back now and reset the heights on my bikes to what I found last year, and I bet the problem will go away. I just hate to give up that "free" power. On the other hand, I'd still like to be riding and running (on the knees my parents gave me!) in 20 years.

Speaking of positioning on the bike, I have a couple different ideas that I want to explore:

1. I'm curious about the effect of crankarm length on the whole saddle height issue. In some ways, the longer crankarm would act like a higher saddle height (more leg extension at the bottom of the stroke), but saddle height above the crank center would be the same. Maybe I'd still have the same problem, maybe not.

2. Moving away from under-cleat wedges. I have one right now on my left shoe. It does seem to position my foot better than with no wedge, but it also tends to cause my foot to rock on the pedal. I'm interested to try shoes (eg- Specialized Body Geometry) or insoles to make the correction inside the shoe rather than outside.

3. (Always three things!) Hamstring flexibility. I'm not sure that this is related to any issues I have or don't have, but I've got it in my head that my hamstring flexibility is poor. I've been working on it over the past few weeks with this active stretch, and my flexibility does seem to be improving. Whether or not it will have an impact on anything, I don't know.

Dropped!

I went to the club dirt road ride last night again. This week, we had a much better turnout, close to 15 people I think. There were quite a few people from other clubs / teams also.

Anyway, I made it to about the halfway point before things started getting difficult for me. The main group had already dropped 3 by that point. I didn't get dropped all at once; the group would sort of open a gap, then I'd catch back on, then a gap would open, and then I'd catch back on, until, finally, I didn't catch back on. I rode for quite a while with the main group in sight, I kept thinking if they got stopped at an intersection for a little while that I could catch up. But, in the middle of a hilly section, they finally pulled out of sight.

Since I wasn't too familiar with the route, I had to check my map at intersections once I couldn't see the main group anymore. This helped Joel to catch back up to me. He knows the route well, and he basically pulled me back into town. He was definitely stronger than I was at that point!

Anyway, it was a good ride. It is exactly what I need to work on from a fitness perspective: long, steady, fairly hard efforts. It also illustrated that I need to work harder at staying on the wheel in front of me. If I was better at that, I may still have gotten dropped, but I know I would have stayed with the main group longer. This is also a skill that's useful for cyclocross.

The only other weird thing that happened was that I got hit in the mouth with a rock that was kicked up off someone's tire. It got me in the lip and then one of my teeth. It didn't do any damage, but it sure got my attention!

More Running

I did a little more running Friday night. It worked out that running was about all I had time for. My wife wasn't feeling good, so I took care of the baby all evening. It was a little after 8pm when I got her to bed, so I didn't have much daylight left for riding. So, instead, I rode over to the middle school track and ran a timed mile (I was planning to do this Saturday anyway). Nights like this, by the way, are exactly why I want to be able to run.

My target for the mile was to run 6 minutes flat. My pace for the first half mile was perfect at 3:00. I started falling off a bit on the next lap, where I was at about 4:37. The last lap was all about holding on. I thought I might have a little left for a hard finish, but I didn't (which, I suppose, means I paced myself pretty well). I ended up running a 6:13. I can't be too disappointed, since I've only been back running for a few weeks, but I did hope to go quicker. My best mile time (in high school) was in the low 5 minute range.

In general, the running I've been doing hasn't had much impact on my cycling. This weekend was a little different though. My legs felt really drained for both of my rides this weekend. It looks like I'll have to be a little careful in the future about when I mix in harder runs.

Thursday Ride

Lots of people associated with the club have been telling me I should do the Thursday night "fast" dirt road ride. So, last night, I finally made it out. What I neglected to consider was that there was a road race at Waterford Hills last night and that there's a big charity ride going on this weekend. When I got to the shop, there was only one other guy there waiting for the ride. Eventually, two more showed up, and that's all we had.

Only one of the four of us knew the route, but we were all at roughly the same fitness level. Anyway, so the "fast" drop ride turned into a not-quite-so-fast no-drop ride. I thought the pace ended up being pretty decent anyway, we just had to stop a few times and regroup.

I ran at a low tire pressure last night, about 30psi, thinking I'd like it for the dirt roads. I did like it for the dirt roads, but then I almost got dropped right at the end of the ride on the paved roads heading back to Clarkston. I'm sure it wasn't that I was tired, it was just the low tire pressure, right?

This is roughly the route that we followed:

Running, etc

"It's not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential."
- Bruce Lee

I've been running a bit over the past few weeks. My thought is, as my daughter gets older, that my training time will become increasingly limited. In these situations, I think running is a nice workout, since it requires very little total time. You don't have to check your tires, fill up water bottles, find your gloves, etc. Just put on a pair of shoes and go. It's also pretty easy to squeeze in a run before work or at lunch.

This time around, I'm taking my running progression very slowly. In the past, I've gone too far too soon, resulting in some nagging knee pains, which quickly end the whole running experiment. So far, I've still not run more than 9 minutes, but I have done 8 runs over the past 2.5 weeks. With my runs being so short, but consistent, I have avoided the knee problems that plagued me in the past.

I still haven't decided how far I'll build. I'm thinking 30 minutes as a nice round number. We'll see how it goes.

Tonight I'm planning on doing the "fast" club dirt road ride. I'm sort of expecting to get dropped. We'll see what happens... I suppose it will probably depend on who shows up.

Sunday Ride

So, I didn't do the "epic" ride that I had planned. It rained all last night and a good bit of this morning, so I figured the trails would be pretty wet. This is what the radar looked like when I woke up, so I knew I wouldn't escape the rain...

So, instead, I waited for the rain to pass, and then I went for a long paved/dirt road ride. I took my GPS along with me, so here's the data (short story: 3hours, 46miles). For not having ridden much lately, I thought the ride went pretty well. I was definitely bushed by the end, but I basically felt OK.

This weekend was Quake on the Lake over at PRLA. I stopped and watched the boats for a minute or two both ways. If you look carefully, you can see the rooster tails in my wonderful picture.

The dirt road portion of the ride was new to me. The roads were pretty decent for being dirt roads. A little wet and sloppy in spots, but mostly very good. I'm sure the trails would have been much worse. It looks like you could ride a long way on dirt roads out there in White Lake, Davisburg, etc.

Negative Momentum

My mid-summer break was nice, and I'll definitely appreciate it in November, but with such a long break comes the possibility of accumulating some negative momentum. My training didn't go great this week and I didn't feel good about it.

I keep tabs a bit on what is happening at Ross's website and over at Crossfit. I happened to see that Crossfit has an add-on for endurance athletes, CFE. I've always been interested in the high-intensity approach to training, and this is exactly what goes on at CFE. Compared to more traditional programs, ride times are incredibly short (20 minutes or so). I could find plenty of success stories with people who had goals like: "just finishing", but I had trouble finding more than that. How did it work with competitive athletes? I finally found an answer that satisfied me here. Basically, the conclusion was that there are no free lunches. If you want to be a competitive endurance athlete, you'd better train endurance. (I still like this stuff for the off-season though!)

Anyway, questioning my training program did nothing for the momentum, although deciding that CFE probably wouldn't work for me helped.

I was supposed to race on Sunday at Ruby Campground. I've decided not to do it. I didn't feel good about my training this week, it's a long drive, and I've never ridden there before. Instead, I decided to skip today's workout and do what will likely be an "epic" ride tomorrow. I'll post the details after I do it. ;)

I feel much better this afternoon now that I decided to skip the race and got tomorrow planned out. I also stopped by the bike shop to pick up some stuff and had nice chats with a couple guys there. I also heard a rumor about a new 'cross race late this summer. It sounded cool, we'll see if it goes anywhere.

Why Race?

"Cycling is about proving to yourself who you are, what you can be... proving to yourself that you can mold and shape your body, your form, your morale... You are your final product."

- Erik Saunders (from “Pro”)

I've been hanging on to that quote for awhile, but it seems appropriate to pull it out for this post.

I've been asking myself the question: "Why do I race?" At some point, it becomes important to know the answer to this question. When you're trying to decide how much you're willing to sacrifice to become good at racing, it helps to know why you need to race in the first place.

Everyone is different, but for me, Erik's quote is pretty close to my answer. I race because it's hard and because it rewards commitment. Racing impacts what I eat, how much I sleep, what I do with my time outside work, whether I sit or stand, you name it! In that regard, bike racing is a true "lifestyle" sport (in my opinion, moreso than other so-called lifestyle sports like skateboarding or surfing).

The second part of my answer has to do with chasing "peak experiences" (flow states, whatever you want to call it). I've definitely experienced this a few times, in different areas of my life, and I think these experiences are worth chasing after. One thing key I've found, is that to reach these states, you have to be fully prepared. This is what the statement in the Wiki article ("Balance between ability level and challenge") is about. For sure, you're never going to have a peak experience racing a bike if your preparation is lacking.

Cross Training Weekend

My first week off training went pretty well. Aside from still having to go to work, it was pretty relaxing, and I got to spend more time with Cora. I still managed to get a little exercise in though...

Thursday night, we took a little family walk. I had Cora in a carrier, rather than in a stroller, so I was feeling the extra weight by the end. I did a little hill sprint / bodyweight exercise session afterward.

On Friday morning, I went over to Indian Springs with my rollerblades. They recently repaved the trail out there, so it was some very smooth skating. I'm definitely not used to skating for that kind of distance though. It took me a little under an hour to do the whole loop.

Saturday afternoon, I packed my meager hiking gear and went out to Pontiac Lake. I hiked the majority of the mountain bike trail; with my shortcuts, it was about 9.5 miles. It was kind of interesting. I went backward from the riding direction, so I could see riders coming at me. I didn't see nearly as many bikes as I expected, and, since I ride out there so much, I knew the areas where I really had to be careful. My GPS data is here.

Sunday was more laid back... my only physical activity was mowing the lawn. This week is another Transition week, so I'll just keep trying to find interesting things to do as time allows. I'll get back at riding next week again.

Mid-Season Assessment

I had planned to take a break after the Stony Marathon before starting into the second half of the season. I'm definitely ready for one; after racing Saturday, I don't really want to ride a bike for a little while. This is also a good time to re-assess (if necessary) how the second half of the season should go.

Really, the first half of the season went about as well as could be expected. I knew that having the baby would change things, but I didn't know how and I didn't know what kind of schedule I'd be able to keep. It took a couple months, but I've finally settled into a bit of a routine again.

I had my two best placements ever in mountain bike races (3rd and 4th) this year, along with a very bad showing at Brighton (last in the TT, DNF in the XC race). Still, even at Brighton, I was encouraged that my fitness was decent: I finished 4th in the Short Track race, even though a crash sent me to the back of a very big field.

The second half of my season will be focused primarily on cyclocross, but I also want to try to place well overall in the Michigan USAC Mountain Bike Series. So, my training will focus on 'cross, but I'm going to keep showing up at the mountain bike races. We'll see how well that works.

Short term, it means I'm going to take a couple weeks off from focused training. Based on past years, a break like this is necessary if I'm going to have any kind of motivation left to race 'cross through December 7(!).

Stony Creek Marathon XC - 2008

I almost decided not to do this race. We got quite a bit of rain Friday night, adding to the all the rain we've gotten for the past few weeks, so I knew the trails would be pretty muddy. Eventually, I decided that the race would go on with or without me, so I might as well go. I'll try to go to a trail work day when one is set up, because we definitely did some damage...

A lot happens of the course of a 40 mile mountain bike race, so here's what I remember:

- It was very humid. My glasses were fogging up in the singletrack for the first couple laps. Add that to the mud, and it was kind of hard to see. I think if I do a muddy race like that again, I'll have an extra pair of clean pair of glasses ready.

- A made a nice gap near the beginning of the race, but it was all for nothing, as the race stacked up once we got into The Pines. Basically, the whole first lap was just single file riding in the singletrack. There was no where to go if you wanted to pass.

- I nearly went down on one of the two-track descents. There was a fast right-hander followed by a gentle left-hander. The left-hander was muddy, and more slippery than I thought. My bike really started sliding when I hit the mud; I was fortunate to stay upright. I'll credit my recent cornering practice.

- Lots of riders were having trouble with their drivetrains. I saw several people pulled off working to clean things up. While the mud certainly made for some bad shifting at times (and bad noises), my bike basically worked well for most of the race.

- I actually dropped people on the singletrack this year. Maybe fitness had something to do with it, since the times I'm thinking of were on the later laps, but I must be getting better... I also got lapped by the Elite riders later in the race.

- Pretty much like last year, I started the 4th lap feeling really drained. I took an extra gel at the start of the lap, and, like last year, it seemed to help. At least I was sort of prepared for that to happen this year.

Anyway, I ended up finishing 3rd, my best ever finish so far in a bike race. It's nice to have that bad taste of the Brighton race(s) washed out of my mouth. I think the key was sticking to my plan:

1. Get into a steady pace early.
2. Focus on riding smooth, rather than fast.
3. Keep pedaling.

I was also fortunate to avoid crashes and mechanicals. With the tough conditions and the length of the race, there was a lot of potential for stuff to go wrong.

Carving

I had a nice ride last night. I rode to PLRA, then rode the whole trail at a pretty hard pace, and then rode home. My lap time was 0:49, which is definitely the fastest I've ridden out there. Usually, I end up around 0:55... of course, I usually don't ride the whole trail hard either.

I had a couple more thoughts on cornering. I've been thinking of it lately like skiing or skating. You need to set your inside edge, and then you hold it through the turn. So, the key I think is to really start the turn right, get that inside row of knobbies biting, then the rest of the turn should be easy... maybe... I've noticed that when I focus on doing this, my bike will turn a lot sharper than I'm expecting. Of course, since I do it inconsistently, that creates problems too...

The other thing I noticed was that I ride better with my knees bent more. I've been thinking about keeping my elbows out, but that also tends to cue me to bend my knees more. Lots of good things happen when the knees are bent more: lower CG, softer "human suspension", more negative bike travel available, head naturally looks up more, etc. I guess it should be obvious... I can't think of a sport I've tried where it's better to have straighter, stiffer legs.

Fluidride

I was able to do a few longish rides this weekend. I went out to Stony on Friday night after work and rode for about 2.5 hours. I felt pretty decent, I think my little practice session last week helped with my cornering. I wasn't suddenly quick or anything, but I felt smoother than normal.

I alternate between feeling faster than last year and feeling slower than last year. In general, I sort of feel slow, but then I hit certain sections of trail or do certain rides, and I realize that I am still getting better. I should probably do a test again and prove it to myself.

I bought a new mountain bike DVD last week: Fluidride: Like a Pro. It is definitely more downhill oriented, but when I watched the preview and I learned something from the 30 second snippet, I thought it would be worthwhile. I watched it Friday night, and there's great material. I thought the format was very good: a little lecture, followed by some demonstration. The main instructor covers the material really fast, which is sort of a double-edged sword. For the first time through, it was probably too fast, but I think it will be good for repeated viewings.

(I love pictures like this where the rider is leaning so far!)

Sunday was my opportunity to try some of this stuff out. I rode over to my home trail, PLRA for a couple laps. I wanted to do two things: work on staying in a neutral position and try the drop technique they showed in the DVD. When I remembered to do it, I definitely descended and cornered faster and more comfortably in the neutral position. It's something I'll just have to keep working on to make a habit.

As for the drops, I used to always either try to roll a drop by pulling mostly up on my bars (at low speed) or bunny hop a drop (at higher speeds). The DVD explains why bunny hopping off drops can be a bad idea. The main drop technique on the video emphasizes shifting your weight back to lift the front wheel. Nothing new really, but they explained it in a way that worked better for me. Anyway, I tried this on most of the drops at PLRA (none are very big, 2ft, at most) and it worked really well, fast or slow.

Dirt Trackin'

I took both Monday and Tuesday off this week. I was definitely still feeling tired on Tuesday from my workouts over the weekend and from not sleeping enough on Sunday night. Actually, on Tuesday, I was feeling like my legs were really strong, which usually happens right after I've been riding a lot and right before I get sick. That seemed to be another good reason to take Tuesday off.

After the extra rest, I felt much, much better on Wednesday. I had to ride the trainer though, since I had some childcare duties Wednesday night. I did the Spinervals "No Slackers" DVD. It's always a good ride...

So, Thursday, I was going to go easy again (trying to peak a little for the Marathon race next weekend). I grabbed my singlespeed and some cones and went out to a little gravel parking lot near my neighborhood. I set up the cones to make a corner, and started drilling the corner. Pretty interesting session... The gravel was so loose that I ended up "dirt tracking" most of the corners (my inside foot off the pedal). I learned (or experienced) a few interesting things:

1. The bike definitely corners better with the outside pedal weighted. I mean, really weighted.

2. I tend to keep my weight too far back, which tends to make the front end wash out.

I would have kept going, but I'd already spent almost an hour there, and I thought I should spend a little more time with the family.

Pentwater Ride

I was in Pentwater over the weekend to visit the family. I brought my road bike and tried out a route I found on MapMyRide.com. It ended up being a really nice route through farm country. Very little traffic and (mostly) smooth roads.

I went out to Stony Creek on Sunday to continue preparing for the Marathon race. I ended up not riding the Pines at all; I talked to another rider at the trail who said that part of the trail was in very bad shape from the rain. It was basically a good ride. I did notice that the bike handled much better with the trued up rear wheel. Who would have guessed? I suppose I'll have to keep an eye on that now to make sure it doesn't get too bad.

Musings

This week has been pretty good for training. I got out Tuesday night and did a little power workout at Waterford Oaks. I did a hard cruise interval workout on the road Wednesday night, and last night I did a fairly easy endurance ride at Stony. I am now "super uphill logpile man"... OK, maybe not, but after riding the (pretty easy) one at Brighton, I decided I needed to ride the (bigger) one at Stony. I cleared it both laps, no problem. I think being able to do this is a result of working on my balance over the winter; a lot of it is also mental, of course.

I did some work on my mountain bike last night after the ride. I got the wheel trued up. I took the tire off to do it, and I was pretty happy with how quickly I was able to seal the tire back up. Definitely easier than the first time. I got my new rear derailleur about half on (I bought this derailleur in May '06, when I thought I had damaged mine... it turned out to be a bent hanger instead). I noticed that the spring felt stronger than on the broken derailleur, maybe this will help with my chain falling off?

A couple of musings on bike handling:

1. I'm thinking that having a rear wheel noticeably out of true is a "bad thing" for bike handling. Imagine cornering near the limit with the bike leaned over. Your tire is happily holding the line, then it reaches the spot where the wheel is out of true, and the tire (and therefore, contact patch) moves over. I think you would at least feel this, and if you were truly at the limit, it might be enough to push you over. It will be interesting to see if I notice a difference now that my wheel is true again.

2. I think my priorities for picking lines on the trail are screwed up. I put too much weight on avoiding little obstacles and not enough on the geometrically better line. This is one of the things that makes me slow.

3. Another thing I need to focus on is keeping my weight balanced over my pedals. It's a little hard to explain (but easy to feel), but when your weight is really being directed through the pedals, control (and grip!) is so much better.

Stage 3

"Race results live on Google forever."'

For as bad as my racing was on Saturday, Sunday was worse. To make a long story short, I DNF'd. It was the first time I've ever dropped out of any race. According to Weather Underground, the temperature at the race start was about 95F, with humidity about 50% (so, heat index 105F)!

I felt reasonably recovered after Saturday; I knew I wasn't fresh, but I certainly didn't feel bad. I drank plenty of water prior to the race, and I still went through a warmup (although I did cut it back a bit). I tried to hold back a little at the start. I put in one semi-hard effort at the beginning of the race. Basically the group split very early and I was in the wrong half of the split, so I bridged up to the front group. I didn't feel like that effort put me in too much difficulty.

About 2/3 of the way through the lap, I started feeling really bad. I couldn't develop much power and I wasn't able to focus. Shortly after that I felt a few chills. At that point, I rode at a fairly easy pace and called it quits once I got to the start/finish area. I was convinced (and still am) that I would have crashed badly (or worse) if I'd continued on. I'm disappointed that I DNF'd, but I still think it was probably the right decision.

So, what happened? Probably a combination of racing on Saturday and the heat. We haven't really had many hot days this Spring, so the heat and humidity were a bit of a shock this weekend. On the other hand, a bunch of other people raced both days in the same weather I did. In hindsight, I wonder if I would have been better off drinking some kind of sports drink during the race rather than plain water (or, maybe I should have taken my gel sooner?). I tried sports drink once before during a race and I didn't like it, it sort of congealed in my mouth and then I didn't have any plain water to rinse it out. Maybe I didn't really drink enough water prior to the race, but I think that I did.

Anyway, I'm glad that weekend is behind me. I've got to do a little work on the bike, thanks to the Saturday short track crash: my rear derailleur is broken and my rear wheel is out of true. The next race I'm doing is the Stony Creek Marathon, just three weeks away. Last year, this was a hot one too.

Brighton Stage Race: 1 & 2

I raced the first two stages of the Brighton Stage Race today, the time trial and the short track race. How can I best summarize my day? I crashed, and then I crashed some more.

Stage 1 was the TT. I made it through the 2-track / road start and just barely into the singletrack before I went down for the first time. I think the front end started to slide, and then bit, and somehow this caused me to go down. The killer was that I dropped my chain and it seemed to take forever to get it back on (it always does). I fell again about a minute or two later, just about the same way, but my chain stayed on. Then about 5-10 minutes later (with someone right behind me) my front tire slid on a root and I fell again! The second two falls didn't slow me down nearly as much as the first, but falling that much really screws up your focus. To top it off, my bike was ghost-shifting like crazy.

I didn't expect to set a great time in the TT, since the trail was pretty technical, but I thought I'd at least keep the bike rolling! I can't remember the last time I crashed so much in a race (actually, I can). Anyway, my effort earned me a last place finish in the class. I don't remember the exact time gaps now, but I was about 30s or so behind the next guy, and maybe 7 minutes behind the leader.

Between the stages, I at least was able to fix the ghost-shifting problem. It turned out that the low limit on the rear derailleur was way out. I'm thinking maybe the derailleur got bent (or somehow otherwise screwed up) on that first crash.

We had a decent turnout of Rhinos today, 6 in total I think. It was nice to hang out with them between stages: swapping race stories, contemplating tire pressures, etc.

The second stage was a short track XC race. Basically, cyclocross-style racing with no barriers; the course and the race were also very short. They lumped all of the Sport and Beginner riders into one mass start! There were maybe 50-60 people in the race! I lined up in about the 3rd row (if there really were rows). I started next to John, and it looked like most of the people immediately around me knew what they were doing...

At the whistle, everyone went pretty hard; my plan was to try to get to the front quickly to clear the traffic, but it didn't work out so well. The group made it through the first corner OK, but the second corner, a pretty wide off-camber right, was a problem. I thought I did OK holding my line, and someone to my right was bumping into me with their shoulder. I was actually expecting a little contact, so this was no big deal. But, at nearly the same time, someone sailed into my rear tire (after inspecting my bike afterward, I think it was actually my rear derailleur). Contact at two points was more than I could manage, and I went flying off the bike. It looked like 2 or 3 other guys also got collected in the crash. I know my bike was at the bottom of a pile of three bikes.

The other guys got their bikes and got going; meanwhile, I noticed my chain fell off (again!) and I had to get it back on while this huge field was streaming by. By the time I got going again I was dead last... just the old guys and kids in front of me (I'm not kidding! Like I said, they combined the Sport race with all the Beginners). So, I put the hammer down and started passing people. It actually went pretty well, but I had to get off the worn-in racing line a lot. Since most of the course was on a rough grass field, that felt like a lot of extra energy. About halfway through the third lap or so, I felt like I was back into the Sport field, and I backed the effort level down just a touch (I was definitely not riding at a sustainable pace up to that point). I was still able to make passes, just not quite as quickly. Near the start of the 5th and last lap, I started seeing Rhino jerseys. That spurred me on a bit and I buried it for the rest of lap.

I ended up finished 4th out of the 8 guys in my class in the short track race. I doubt I really gained much time advantage in the overall standings, but it was nice to finish with a decent placement. I had hoped to put a little more time into the other guys in my class, but there's only so much you can do in a 15 minute race anyway.

So, tomorrow is the cross country race: 18 miles or so. The trail is pretty fast and open, so it actually might suit me well. If I get a good finish, it might be enough to put me on the podium for the overall standings (since they go to 5 places). It depends on how much time I actually gained in the short track race and how much time I can gain tomorrow. Honestly though, I'll be pretty happy if I can just keep the rubber side down tomorrow.

RSS

I've "discovered" a new way to read blogs and other frequently updated websites: RSS feeds. I set up the Google Reader with feeds to all of my favorite blogs; then I just go to the Google site and it automatically checks for updates and pulls them in. I'm always looking for little efficiencies now...

There's a new article on Ross's website that's worth checking out.

I had planned to ride before work this morning, but I opted for an extra hour of sleep instead. I probably could have done it if I hadn't decided to stay up and watch the first period of the Red Wings game (yes, "stay up" means 9:30pm). I'll ride tonight instead. Sarah and Cora are coming back from Boston today, so tonight will be a little busier than I've gotten used to over the past few days.

Weekend Rides

With Sarah and Cora being in Boston this weekend, I've had some good opportunities to ride. Yesterday afternoon, I went rode over to PLRA and did a lap. It went OK, I was trying to push the pace a bit on the trail, and I didn't feel so good doing that. I've been having some allergy issues this week; I'm generally feeling better, but my nose fills up pretty fast out on the trail.

Today, I drove over to Brighton State Park and rode the trails out there. The next race I'm planning to do is a stage race out at Brighton. I've never ridden there before, so I thought I'd check it out.

The first race will be a time trial on the Torn Shirt Trail. I rode that one first today. It had some nice technical climbs and some pretty fast descents. I'm not feeling too confident about setting a competitive time out there though. I was probably descending too slowly... which is my habit when I don't know where I'm going.

The second race is a short track race which will not be on the trails, as I understand it. The third race is a cross-country race on Sunday. This is on the Murray Lake Trail. I wasn't sure about exactly which trails would be used, so I rode everything out there. The Murray Lake Trail was fun, a lot of it was open and fast. Racing out there will be interesting. I didn't see many trail features that would tend to spread the pack out.

Motivation Post, Part 27

It seems like every year I end up making some post about low motivation... well, here's another one. I started working on this a couple weeks ago, but I didn't get around to posting it (no motivation to post the motivation post?). It's probably better off that way, the original post was even whinier than this one. Who wants to read that?!?!

Basically, the situation is that I'm not sleeping quite enough, I've got a lot of work stress and the stress of the new baby (she's actually a pretty easy-going baby, I can't imagine what things would be like if she weren't!). This means that sometimes, even when I do have time to train, I don't feel like doing it. Then I don't train, and I feel bad about it, then I don't want to race, and feel bad about that, etc. I've gotten to the point where I don't even want to talk about it anymore with people who are kind (or foolish) enough to ask me about my training.

That negative cycle is obviously not going to get me anywhere. Here's the new plan:

A. I really need to be consistent about setting (and writing down) weekly goals. For me, this is key to getting the most out of my (now limited) training time.

B. During the week, I need to seriously consider working out in the morning. This may be my best chance of getting something done, especially if I'm wiped out by the time I get home in the afternoon. This seems to be what a lot of people with kids do to get their workouts in. Consistency is really what I've lost over the past couple months, and I think consistency is the most important thing!

C. I need to get back into the (bad?) habit of spending at least a little time reading cycling and fitness blogs and forums and posting on this blog. It sounds a little silly, but it is part of getting my head back into the cycling / fitness culture. It's actually part of the reason I started this blog in the first place.

I think that getting a little consistency back into my schedule will bring about a positive change in my attitude. The reality is, even though my training has dropped off significantly, I still seem to be doing enough to be getting better. I think I could get a lot done in 30-60 minutes per day during the week, with longer sessions on the weekend.

Singlespeed

I went out for a ride on my singlespeed Saturday afternoon, despite some chilly temperatures and occasional rain. Weekends are now prime riding time for me, and a little questionable weather isn't going to deter me...

I did what has become my typical mountain bike ride: home to Pontiac Lake and back. I don't ride the singlespeed too much on trails, and I've never ridden it on a trail as difficult as PLRA. So, it was pretty interesting.

First, on the road, on the way to the trail, I noticed that the bike is definitely undergeared (I'm running 33x17). It was a nice warmup since I really got my cadence up, but it felt pretty slow. I actually do have a flip-flop hub on the bike, and it's set up with a smaller fixed cog on the other side (33x15). The gearing would have probably been perfect, but I didn't really want to mess with flipping the wheel over, and I'm also not sure I'm ready for fixed gear riding.

On the trail, my gearing felt good. There was only one hill I had to walk (I did skip a section with a couple steep hills). I was surprised that I could really feel how much more efficient the singlespeed drivetrain is. I definitely felt like I was going faster than I normally do given my cadence and effort on the pedals. Not having all the drivetrain bits rattling around on the downhills was also nice.

Now the bad (sort of)... my singlespeed has a rigid fork and V-brakes. I also have relatively narrow tires (1.95in) running at high pressure (at least, compared to my new tubeless setup). So, it was a rough ride; I remembered why I like suspension forks. On the other hand, riding on a rigid fork regularly would probably be good for me to do. It forces you to relax and pick good lines; otherwise, your vision gets blurry and your teeth rattle out!

This ride also made me appreciate the tubeless setup I've got on my geared bike. I definitely have more traction with the tubeless setup. I'm not sure that there was a big difference in rolling resistance, but there was definitely a difference in grip.

Anyway, it was a pretty fun ride. My body held up pretty well to the gearing and the pounding. I may try to incorporate more singlespeed riding into my training. I think it would be good for those Force and Muscular Endurance workouts.

So, a rundown (mostly for me) of the things I'd consider changing on this bike.

- Wider tires. Tires are the only suspension I've got on this thing!

- Narrower handlebars, longer stem? I wasn't too happy with my position, too upright and wide.

- Better wheel nut wrench.

The Break

Hockey was much better on Sunday night this week. We had more of the regulars there, so the teams were more evenly matched. I didn't score this week (although I got close, from almost the same spot), but I played much better. Last week it seemed like I could couldn't catch a pass or handle the puck to save my life. On the topic of puck handling, a guy at work pointed me to this website. The previews for his stickhandling DVD's are worth watching.

Last night was one of my only nights this week with no commitments after work, so I went out to the track to ride with the Rhinos. My plan was to go easy, since I had a lot of time (and go hard on other days this week when I don't have as much time). For the most part, I accomplished that. I didn't do the time trial at the beginning of the formal group ride, and I generally just rode around at a pretty easy pace.

At the end of the night though, we did a short race. I lined up with the "A's and fast B's", since that's really where I belong (given that we split into only A's and B's). My plan was just to sit in the whole race and not contest anything. So, the race was 4 laps, and we were in neutral for the first half lap. I ended up around 6th or 7th position when we really started, and I just tucked into the group. My plan was working fine. Rob attacked about 2/3 of the way through the lap, and no one went with him. Once Rob came back, Matt made a little attack, but he didn't get far either. The pace was gradually picking up and the group was stringing out as we finished the first lap, but it was still reasonably comfortable for me.

When we hit the hill on the second lap, Mark W and Matt went hard. It sort of looked like it wasn't going to be a big attack at first, but it was. Being the scrawny guy that I am, I got up the hill pretty fast without much effort. At the top of the hill, I looked out and saw Mark and Matt were opening a big gap. There was one other guy with them and a 4th that looked like he was bridging the gap. I was at the front of the rest of the group. Since Mark and Matt were arguably the fastest guys out there, I decided that this was probably "the move", so I buried it to try to join the break. (What was that about taking it easy?) It was a pretty big effort, but I bridged the gap. I also did the right thing in the process by not stopping when I made it to the 4th guy, who hadn't quite caught on, but by continuing until I caught the break myself. That 4th guy never did catch on. I knew I was in trouble almost immediately after I caught the break. The other 3 guys had a little paceline going, and every time someone would pull through, there'd be a tiny surge that threatened to drop me. I hung on for the rest of the second lap and for the start of the third, but I knew there was no way I was going to hang on to these guys much longer. At this point, I remembered how this was supposed to be a relatively easy day, so I sat up, pulled off and did a little cooldown in the infield.

It would have been fun to hang on to the break a little longer (although I suspect they could have ratcheted up the speed a few more notches), but I just wasn't close to being strong enough to do it. Still, it was a good way to open up the legs a little, and I felt somewhat gratified that I correctly identified and responded to the winning move, even though I couldn't really do anything once I got there.

Escanaba

Wow, it's been a long time since I posted. I haven't been able to do a whole lot of riding since my last post. I got in some good rides last weekend. I also had a good skate at hockey last weekend. My team got crushed, but I scored our only goal. I ended up bruising my knee pretty badly though.

This week was a real mess. I only rode on Tuesday this week (on the trainer). I took a quick trip up to Escanaba later in the week for work, so there were another couple days shot. Then, last night, I did another ride on the trainer. It's pretty rainy today, so I'll probably ride indoors again.

I'm hoping next week will be better. I'm starting to think about how to get rides in at other times during the day, either in the morning or at lunch. I'm having a lot of trouble either making time to ride in the evening, or, if I do have time, feeling rested enough to make riding a reasonable proposition.

Bloomer XC - 2008

I got my first race of the season out of the way on Sunday, the Bloomer Park Cross Country race. I had a bad feeling going into it, basically because I knew it was going to hurt. My strategy for this race was to bury it at the start and ride with the leaders until I couldn't anymore. It's a hard way to go, but I usually get better results with this method.

I lined up in the second row, behind some Sport 19-29 guys. At the whistle, the two guys in front of me went out really fast, and I went right with them. The course starts out through some fields and wide open trail before it goes to singletrack. This year, the sledding hill was not part of the course, so there weren't any trail features to string the pack out before we hit the singletrack. I found out later that somebody locked up his brakes in the field section (!?!?) and that did spread the group out a little as people were trying to avoid him. I did wonder at the time why no one was coming around me; I'm not usually that fast at the start.

Anyway, it didn't take me too long before I realized that I'd probably gone out too hard. It was pretty clear that I wasn't going to be able to keep up with the first two 20 year-olds. I kept my position through the first section of singletrack, which had a decent little climb, but I started dropping back after that.

From then on, I just kept plugging away (and hoping for a mechanical to put me out of my misery). I felt pretty bad for most of the race, but I rode OK. My technical skills have definitely improved. Last year, there were some sections of this trail that tripped me up, but I didn't have any real problems this year. I did crash once on my last lap. My front tire just washed out in a sandy corner and down I went.

From about the halfway point until the end, I was basically riding with just one other guy. I wasn't sure if he was in my age group or not, but I decided to assume that he was to make sure I kept going hard enough. He was a little quicker on the tight singletrack, but I was faster on the climbs and open sections, so we kept switching positions. As we were heading back to the cricket field for the finish, I put in a last gasp effort and dropped him. (I talked to him after the race, and, no, he wasn't in my age group.)

I ended up finishing 4th out of 11. I was really shocked by the result. For as bad as I felt during the race, I expected my result to be a lot worse. That being said, I wasn't very close to the 3rd place rider; I was almost 6 minutes back! There was a decent gap behind me, another 3 minutes or so to the 5th place guy. I suppose it was a good race, given my current fitness and that it was only my 4th time out on a trail this year.

(Photo from John O's blog.)

Training Post-Baby

This week is a rest week for me. Usually, by Thursday, I'm feeling pretty rested, but it's not the case this week. I really thought I'd be able to sleep a little more than I have. The baby, of course, is part of the reason I'm not sleeping, but Sarah takes care of so much of the night duty during the week, I can't say that that's really the reason.

I've generally been able to make time to ride or do some other exercise at night and on the weekends. It's meant a few later nights than I'd like, but I've been able to do it. What's been getting at me lately is also practicing my trumpet. A friend of mine at work set up a gig and assumed that I would be able to play. He's really counting on me to show up (and play halfway decently), so I feel like I can't let him down. So, I've got to keep practicing for another week and a half. Once that's over, things should get a little easier.

I've done just a little riding so far this week. I went out for about an hour last night on my 'cross bike to Waterford Oaks and rode on some of the trails. They're not too technical, but, on a 'cross bike, they're pretty fun. It would be a good place for a 'cross specific workout once Fall rolls around.

Up A Notch

I wound up kicking things up a notch in my training this weekend. Friday night, I went on a ~3 hour mountain bike ride with Brad. We didn't push too hard, but my legs were dead by the end. He lives at the top of a long steep hill, which would be bad enough, but the dirt road was badly washboarded, so you couldn't keep any momentum. It ended up being a brutal way to end the ride. It's good for me to follow Brad around on the trails too. He's much smoother on the singletrack than I am.

I just did a pretty easy ~1 hour ride on Saturday to keep the legs loose.

Sunday night I started hockey with the new group. These guys were definitely a notch (or two) better than my Winter group. Basically, the group consisted of the better players from my Winter group, plus a bunch more that were as good or better. We had 4 guys on the bench, and we went hard the whole time. It will definitely be a good group for me to skate with.

Maiden Voyage

Yesterday I took my new (tubeless) wheels out for their maiden voyage on the trails. I guess I was sort of expecting to feel a huge difference from the tubed setup, but I didn't really. Maybe I would have noticed it if I'd already been riding the trails a lot and then switched, as it was, this was also my first trail ride of the year. Everything went off smoothly though, I ran the tires at 25 psi, and I hadn't lost any pressure by the end of the ride. Grip was probably better than with the tubed setup (where I ran higher pressures). I didn't notice rolling resistance being especially low, but I might have if I could have made a better back-to-back comparison.

Anyway, for a first ride on the trail, I actually felt really good. The first few minutes weren't great, but I got comfortable pretty fast. I think working on all of the balance stuff over the Winter really helped. I rode all of PLRA without having to dab, which I think is pretty good for a first ride.

By the end of the ride, I did feel like the rear tire was a little squirmy. I think I will try bumping up the rear tire pressure just a few psi and see if that takes care of the problem.

It looks like I'll be playing hockey a little more this Spring. The group I played with this Winter had our last skate on Sunday night. On Tuesday, a guy from the group emailed me to see if I wanted to play with a group this Spring. Since my racing schedule is pretty light this Spring, I decided to go ahead and do it. So, hockey resumes for me this Sunday night again.

Rhino Pacing

I ended up going out to the track last night for the club road workout. I hadn't originally planned to do it; they were predicting heavy rain earlier in the day. It turned out that the storm blew North of us, and since I'll be watching the baby tonight and tomorrow night, I figured that this was my chance to get out and ride.

We had a big turnout, maybe 30 people or so. This was the second week at the track, but the weather was miserable last week so only a handful of people showed up. Lots of new faces too.

We spent the first part of the night just working on getting comfortable riding in the group. My group riding skills could still use some work, but I'm definitely getting better at this. Then we spent the last hour basically riding tempo around the track. A few of the stronger riders (or those who thought they were strong) rotated up front and the rest of us just sat in behind them (thus, "Rhino pacing"). I felt pretty good doing this until the last 10 minutes or so. Not too bad considering how long I'd been sick.

While riding in line, I had the thought that this kind of riding is probably why the better 'cross racers usually come from the road side rather than the mountain side (Simon Burney makes this statement, but doesn't explain it, in his book, Cyclocross). Even though you definitely have some hard bursts in a 'cross race, the effort is generally fairly steady. So, it's more similar to the road rather than the trail. Maybe this is something I need to think about in terms of training as 'cross season gets closer?

I'm not sure how the rest of the week will go for me. Sarah is going to go to the rink for a while tonight and tomorrow night, so I'll be watching the baby (so, no riding outside). Friday is open, but the weather forecast doesn't look good for Friday (or the rest of the weekend). The last race of the Rhino Spring Training series is Saturday, I'd like to do the B race, but Sarah is supposed to be at the rink at the same time; I could do the C race, but I don't know if it's worth it. Sunday is the first mountain bike race of the year; I'd like to do this also, but I still haven't ridden on the trail yet this year, so maybe it's not such a hot idea.

Riding Again

I'm 95% over my cold now, and I actually started riding again on Friday. The weather was pretty crummy on Friday, so I rode the trainer. I mainly worked on pedaling technique drills. The first few minutes were a big shock to the system, but I felt OK by the end.

Saturday morning, I went over to the track to watch some of the spring training races my club puts on. It was nice to see some of the guys, and the "B" race in particular was pretty entertaining to watch. We had 3 Rhinos in a 5-man break, and somehow managed to finish 3,4, and 5. That's how it goes I guess. Saturday was really nice in terms of weather, but it was almost dark by the time I was ready to ride, so it was back on the trainer again.

Yesterday, I rode outside around noon. I did the route from my house through Pontiac Lake State Park to Indian Springs and back. I ran into a couple guys from the mountain bike team at PLRA, so I stopped and talked for a few minutes. They said that the trail was muddy, but not too bad. If we get decent weather this week, it should be OK for the race next weekend. (I'm going back and forth about doing that race, it will really depend on how this week goes.) I ran into some more guys from the club at Indian Springs, but they were on the bike path and I was on the road going the other way, so we didn't talk. Anyway, it was a good ride.

I played hockey again last night, next week is our last skate. Since I hadn't played in 2 weeks, it took me a while to get going, but I felt like I played OK. I was on the same team with the best player in our group. After watching him a bit, I realized that the main difference between him and the rest of us is that all of his fundamentals are better. He's a better skater, stickhandler, passer, shooter, etc. than the rest of us, and when you put that all together, he's a much better player than the rest of us.

Training Reset

I went back to work yesterday. It was definitely a shock to the system; I was pretty wiped out by the end of the day. I'm feeling much better now, but I'm still a little sick. I took a nap for about an hour when I got home, and I got to bed at a pretty decent time last night. I feel like I'm really close to getting rid of this cold now.

I'm going to have to figure out what to do with my training; I've missed about 2 weeks with this cold and the baby. My original plan called for a rest week next week and then moving on to the Build phase. I'm definitely not ready for that right now, so I'll probably start over at Base 3 and see how that ripples down to my races.

Brief Update

So, it's been a while since I've updated this blog. "Real life" has been very busy. I went to the hospital late Sunday night with my wife, and on Monday afternoon, our daughter was born. It's been wonderful so far, but very tiring. I'm still a little sick (due, in large part, to not sleeping anywhere close to enough) and I haven't thought much about riding.


I go back to work later next week, so maybe I'll be able to start re-establishing what is normal, and try to figure out how to fit cycling in with that. In the meantime, I'm trying to get healthy and I'm honing my diaper changing technique.

Tire Lab

So, I'm still a little sick. I was feeling better yesterday and got on the trainer for about an hour for an easy ride; I think maybe that was a mistake. I felt worse this morning. So, I took things pretty easy today; even though I'm feeling better now, I decided not to ride at all. I did get out and shovel a little bit though... I can't believe it snowed again!

What I've spent most of the past couple days working on is getting my tires sealed up with the Stans Notubes system. I bought some new wheels from Stans: ZTR Olympic rims and Hope Pro II hubs. I'm using my Kenda Nevegal tires from last year. There are better race tires out there, but the Nevegal is a good tire, and, as it turns out, I think it was smart to start out with Stans on a used tire. I'm just using the yellow tape and sealant... no special rimstrip.

The first step in setting the tire up is to inflate it with just soapy water to help things seal. I spent about half an hour trying to figure this out with the first tire. This is where using a used tire helps, since the bead is already basically the right shape. The devil is in the details here; watching the video on Stans website really helped. I eventually got it (with a floor pump)... it was pretty cool when it finally sealed, you could hear the soap bubbles snapping and the tire actually held air for a little while. (Like I said, technique matters, I inflated the second tire on my first try.)

The next step is to add the Stans sealant and shake it around to seal any pinholes and around the bead. Again, used tires help here because most of the pinholes have already opened up. This is where Kenda's are a pain though, because their beads are notoriously hard to seal. It took me about two days to get them sealed, but I think I've got it now. Both tires held their air overnight last night, and the "soap test" doesn't show any foam. The picture below shows a soaped up tire during the sealing process, you can see the foam from a bead leak on the lower left.

I'll probably take the tires out for a little spin on the road before I hit the trail, but I expect everything to stay sealed up now. I was also originally concerned about the tires blowing off the rim on a tubeless setup, but now that I've worked with it a little, I feel pretty confident that the tire will stay on the rim.

Setback

It looks like I'll suffer a little setback in training this week. I woke up this morning (actually, in the middle of the night) with a pretty bad sore throat. We'll see how it plays out, but I expect I'll get more sick before I get better. So, I'll try to follow my usual plan of sleeping a lot and not working out until I get better. It's hard on the ego, but I think I get better faster that way. (I also need to get feeling better before the baby comes!)

I don't even have to look back at my training log to know what happened. I strung together too many days of not sleeping enough, having stressful days at work, and following my training plan as-written. I can do that for a while, but eventually, my body decides it's time for some enforced rest.

Training Volume

Sunday was a good day for training volume. I went to the group ride at Indian Springs and rode for about 2.5 hours. It's normally a pretty boring loop, but if you've got 10 people or so to ride with, the time passes pretty fast. We kept the pace very relaxed... 15mph or so.

I played hockey again on Sunday night. I was much sharper this week than I was last week, but I ended up playing more defense than I'd prefer. I got my lone goal of the night on defense though... a piddly slapshot from the point that stayed on the ice and somehow found its way in. Only three more skates left and we're done for the season.

Base 2 Test

After sleeping in until 10am this morning (!), I did my LT field test on the trainer. It was a very good effort today, and I ended up averaging 256W. That's a nice improvement over the 243W I did last month, and, in fact, it's a new personal best!

So, the training has definitely gone well over the Winter. I still expect to be a little slow for the first few races of the season, but my focus is really on races in the Summer and Fall.

I've also gained a few pounds since last year, so my power to weight ratio isn't changing much, but absolute power is still heading up. For the races around here, I think that's just fine. I'm going to post more on that some other time though.

Riding Outside!

I've actually been riding outside for the past couple of days! It's still fairly cold (especially on a bike), but bearable if you're bundled up. The roads are mostly snow free; just a little bit on some of the rarely-frequented back roads. The worst of it was actually dodging all the potholes that have sprung up over the winter. Anyway, it's been nice to get outside.

The Sunday Skate

I played hockey again Sunday night. I had missed the week before, and I could really tell last night. My skating and puck-handling weren't very good at first and my decision-making process was slow all night. I blew a couple beautiful chances in front of the net... hopefully next week will be better. Just about all of our "high-energy" players were there though, so the game was (relatively) fast the whole night, which is always good.

I spent some time this weekend working on my bikes. I'm just going through everything, making sure bolts are tight, parts aren't worn, etc. My fork came back from Push Industries. I haven't had a chance to ride it yet (or even put it back on the bike), but I'll be interested to see how it feels.

I've got some races coming up pretty soon. The Rhinos host a spring training (road race) series that I'll probably do (pending arrival of the baby), which starts March 29. Then, the first mountain bike race I had planned for the year (Pontiac Lake TT) is April 13. Given the winter we've had, I'm not convinced that the trail will be ready by the 13th though.

I'm not really going to be primed for any of these races; I'll be starting my Base 3 phase next week. I'll basically just treat the races as hard workouts; they're a good opportunity to remind the body what a race effort feels like after the off-season. I'll also get a chance to see what kind of shape my competitors are in. ;)

Trainer Burnout

I did some long trainer rides earlier this week. About an hour and 45 minutes both Tuesday and Wednesday. I was going to try to ride outside this weekend, but they're predicting a snowstorm for Saturday, so I'll likely be inside then too. My trainer rides this week were good rides, particularly my tempo ride on Wednesday, but I decided I couldn't take another trainer ride tonight.

So, I went out for a little run instead. It ended up being just OK. The roads were still a little snowy and icy; I decided to walk up one road that was completely ice-covered. It had been about 3 weeks since I'd run last time, so it was a little rough. Anyway, it was better than the trainer.

POTATOES Update

I haven't posted much about the 2008 POTATOES challenge that me, my dad and my uncle are doing this year. We keep a log of trainer mileage on Google Docs; this year's "route" goes from Pentwater, MI to Murfreesboro, TN. I finally updated the spreadsheet with most of my February mileage tonight.

It looks like the field in the POTATOES challenge has been shattered! We're spread across 3 states! My uncle is still in Michigan... maybe he had a mechanical? Dad is crushing the field, he's just crossed into Kentucky. Looks like my detour to Rhode Island cost me, as I'm now floundering around in the middle, not quite to Indianapolis.

I don't think I'll be able to catch Dad. In fact, I'm not sure if I'll be able to make it to Mufreesboro by the end of the month... I've still got 360 miles to go.

No Ride

I went out to Stony Creek this morning for the ride. Yeah, it was a little cold, and yeah, we got some snow last night, but I figured the roads would be clear... I was wrong. Driving over, the roads weren't too bad (except in my neighborhood, of course), but the park roads were all snow covered. I decided that a ride would end badly, so I headed back home. I ran into Curt out there; he was thinking basically the same thing as me.

Anyway, I rode the trainer at home for a couple hours. Not too fun, but racing starts in a little over a month, so what can you do?