Stony Marathon XC

Yesterday I raced the Stony Marathon XC; 4 laps of a 10-mile course. I decided to load up my Camelback rather than worry about somebody handing bottles to me... besides, I'm not used to drinking from bottles on the mountain bike. I also packed 4 gels with me.

I did a very short, easy warmup. I figured that the race was long enough that I didn't need to warmup much ahead of time. They started us in waves... with the Expert/Elites going first (they raced 6 laps!), followed by groups of Sport racers. My wave included Sport men from 19 to 40 I think. Nobody seemed to be pushing too hard from the start, and I stayed with my group until we hit the Pines. At that point, guys who were a little quicker in the singletrack started passing me. I held my own out on the two-track, but was getting consistently passed in the singletrack. By the end of the first lap, I was last in my group (which I thought meant I was last in my wave), so I was a little discouraged at that point.

I felt a little better near the beginning of the second lap. On a "two-way" section of the course, I saw some guys with number plates for my class still finishing their first lap. So, I wasn't last in my wave, just the last of the first sepatation. There was a long climbing section near the beginning of the lap (individually, the climbs aren't long, but there are a bunch of them strung together), and I passed about 5 guys at once on the last climb. So, that perked me up a bit, even though most of the guys got by me again later in the lap.

Before the race, I had expected the third lap to be the hardest. I was pretty fatigued at the beginning of the lap, but that had also happened at the beginning of the second lap. It was a combination of things, the laps ended with a long slightly uphill ride through the grass, which was an energy-sucker. The gels also weren't kicking in until a little later in the lap. As with the second lap, I felt better a little further into the lap. For most of the third lap, I was riding with guys who rode more like I did in the singletrack, and I was also picking off a few riders who were starting to fade. Some of the faster Expert/Elite riders also started lapping me on the third lap... those guys were pretty impressive. By the end of the third lap, I was really starting to drag. I took my gel at the end of the lap as usual and waited for it to kick in.

I started the fourth lap pretty fatigued, as seemed to be the trend. This time though, the boost I got from the gel was short-lived. By the time I finished the first climbing section, I could feel my energy level dropping and a bonk coming on. I ate my "safety" gel, and it seemed to help. On that climbing section, I made my last pass on a guy I'd been swapping spots with all day. I told him we'd probably see each other again, but we didn't. I also started having some pain in my left foot early in the lap; it turns out that I got a little blister, but it didn't bother me too much. The singletrack sections were a little dicey the last time through; I didn't have any problems, but I wasn't as focused as I should have been. Anyway, I got through the lap and finished and was happy to get off my bike.

I finished in just under 3.5 hours, which I was pretty happy with. The preliminary results showed that I finished 8th out of 11; although, there might have been a few racers still on the course. I'd hoped to place a little higher, but that's how it goes; I'm not sure what I would have done differently to improve my position.

Despite eating and drinking a lot after the race yesterday, this morning I weighed 4 pounds less than I did yesterday morning.

Bunch o' Pictures

I realize that my blog has been devoid of pictures lately, so I raided my camera, and here's a sampling of what was on there...

A squirrel sleeping on the tree outside the bedroom window.



5th anniversary picture. Suzie wasn't too cooperative.

Our regular crew of Mountain Rhinos at Bloomer.

Steve Balogh's picture of me at the Hines Park TT.

Stony Prep

I've been thinking about how I want to tackle the Stony Marathon XC race this weekend. The race is 40 miles, and will take 3-3.5 hours, so pacing will be key. The question is how do you ration out your energy? When to go hard, when to back off, do you even go hard at all? I feel like I might have an advantage for this race, since I think I have better endurance than most of the guys I race against. That being said, it won't help me if I use my energy at the wrong times, or don't take advantage of the "free speed" opportunities available.

The course is mapped out here. Roughly 40% of the course is singletrack, the rest is two-track. All of the more difficult climbs are on the two-track, although none of them are really that bad (easy to say sitting at my desk, I'm sure I won't be thinking that by the end of the race).

So my plan is basically this: ride at a "tempo" effort on the two-track, and back off and recover a little in the singletrack. The singletrack at Stony is, for the most part, well-suited for recovery. It flows pretty nicely, so you don't have to pedal too much if you stay off the brakes.

Update: I rode 2 laps of the course tonight. I didn't push much at all and was doing laps in the 55 minute range. This is a little slow compared to lap times from last year, but the course is slightly longer than last year, and my lap times include a couple short wrong turns and my crash. I expect to be able to pull my lap times down to about 50 minutes without too much trouble.

So, my crash... it was on a rough descent at the end of the Roller Coaster. Normally, you come off this descent, go across a "two-track" path and into the next singletrack section. No braking is necessary in that case. For the Marathon race, we have to make a hard right turn onto the two-track instead, so you need to do some pretty heavy braking to make the turn. On my first lap, I was on the brakes in the rough part and my front wheel stopped when it hit a rock. The results were predictable: I went flying over the bars. I landed pretty hard and my shoulder and hip, but it didn't do too much damage. I got some "gravel rash" on my hip and elbow and a little cut on my knee. Crashes like that are part of the reason I think it's important to exercise the entire body. Anyway, on my second lap, I braked before the rough section, rolled through it, and then braked again after... the results were much better.

More Bloomer Pictures

Farmer John just put up some more pictures from the Bloomer XC race. There's a good one of fellow Mountain Rhino Brien (I think I'd get that poster-sized if it were me!), and here's a non-poster-worthy one of me.

I decided to take the night mostly off. Even though I slept pretty well the past two nights, I've just been feeling a little run down since the race on Sunday. I worked on some trackstands in the backyard for a while tonight, but that was about it. Tomorrow night I'm heading out to Stony for a few laps of the Marathon course.

Hines Park TT - 2007

I did a road time trial out at Hines Park this morning. This was the Michigan State Championship event, and it was a 40km TT rather than the 20km TT I did last year. I wasn't really expecting too much going into it, my plan was to treat it basically like a hard workout.

I started pretty well, maybe went out just a little too hard (the start was slightly downhill), but I settled into my pace pretty quickly . We had nice weather temperature-wise, but it was a little windy in spots. The wind was really getting to me for the last 15k or so. Since this race was longer, I had more trouble staying comfortable in the drops (I only have drop bars, no aero bars); I tried to only get out of the drops on the slight climbs, but I'm sure I still paid an aero penalty for this. I think for next year, I'll at least get some clip-on aero bars.

So, I finished just under 1:15 (about 19.9 mph). I was shooting for a 1:13, but, given the wind, I wasn't too disappointed. The preliminary results they had posted showed me beating at least 2 guys, although I don't know if everyone was in yet.

Cornering Focus

I rode several laps out at Stony on Saturday; I'm starting to think about the Stony Marathon XC race coming up next weekend. My laps went pretty well, although I'm still having a little trouble riding the uphill logpile in the new section. I'm now convinced that I can ride it, it's just a matter of commiting and doing it.

I had a thought on my way home from the ride about my bike handling. I've been trying to focus on staying off the brakes before corners, with the idea that this will improve my cornering speed. I think maybe this is the wrong approach (at least, for me). I think I need to focus on doing things right in the corner and building confidence in my cornering abilities first. Then, braking is just a matter of setting the speed I know I can handle for the corner. Essentially, I'm just looking at my problem in a different way.

Deck of Cards

On Tuesday I tried out Ross's "Deck of Cards" workout. It looked pretty simple, you take a deck of cards and turn over each card one by one. For a red card, you do burpees, for a black card you do pushups. The goal is to go through the whole deck as fast as possible. Turns out that this was a tough workout. I switched from full burpees to squat thrusts with a jump about a quarter of the way through, and then to just squat thrusts at about the halfway point. I finished in just under half an hour. (I counted afterward, I did 190 pushups and 190 burpees/squat thrusts.) My legs, arms, chest, you name it, have been sore since then. I don't remember the last time a workout has left me so sore. I suppose that's good though...

Last night I rode the mountain bike for about an hour and a half. I didn't have any issues with my saddle sore, and I managed to keep myself from hitting any trees, so it was a nice improvement over my last outing.

As an experiment, I bumped up my tire pressure from 30 to 35 psi yesterday. My impression was that my tires slid a little sooner, but that they were more predictable. I had the same experience when I raced my car. Increasing tire pressure is an interesting exercise in trade-offs. In terms of contact patch, the lower the pressure is, the larger your contact area is, which should translate into more grip. However, at low pressures, the tire carcass is easily deformed which can result in a "squirmy" unpredictable feeling, and therefore worse overall performance. So, what we're looking for is a sweet spot where the tire deforms enough to provide a large contact patch, but is stiff enough to provide predictable behavior. I think I'll stick with this slightly higher pressure for awhile and see how it works.

Update

Looks like I may be heading back to Germany in the next couple weeks, we'll see. No doubt it will screw up some races I have planned. Cripe!

I'm still nursing my saddle sore, but it's just about gone now. I'm not riding today (I'll do a hard workout off the bike instead), but I'll give it a shot tomorrow. This little time off has also allowed most of my Bloomer race and Stony tree injuries to heal up.

Skidding and Sore

I found a cool set of "how-to" mountain bike videos here. Turns out that one of the best ones is the Skidding video. Most books tell you to find a dirt road to get a feel for your tires sliding. I haven't really had much success finding a suitable road out here though. This video provides a clever alternative: they practice skidding/sliding on wet pavement. This is pretty easy to find (or make)! So, next time it rains, I'll be out on a bike with slick tires (and platform pedals I think) sliding around!

On a different note, I've been staying off the bike this weekend while I'm battling a saddle sore. It's pretty amazing that something so small can be so painful. Still, I think this is the right approach, I don't need to be riding a lot this week, and I'd rather not risk this thing turning into something nastier.

I did get some running in both days this weekend and a strength workout this morning. I felt really good running this morning, which was a nice surprise.

Close Encounter

I had a close encounter of the tree kind last night at Stony. I drove over to Stony straight after work last night, parked at the trailhead and went for a short run. (I'd decided I need to get back to running a little bit.) I figured the run would serve as a short warm-up, then I could go ride.

Well, it ended up being pretty hot while I was out running. I'm definitely not used to running anymore, and I guess I'm used to the cooling effect of riding. By the time I was done, I was dripping sweat and a bit more tired than I expected. Still, it was a good run, and I didn't have any knee problems.

I took my time getting changed to ride, had a little snack and some water. I figured I wouldn't have much jump on the trail, but that I'd otherwise be OK. Once I started riding, I found that I was physically OK, but that I was in a mental fog.

I expected to be pretty sharp on the trail, since I ended up putting in a lot of time at the more technical Bloomer trails last week. Almost immediately, I realized that this wasn't the case. I didn't have any problems on the first few sections of Stony, but I didn't feel smooth either.

I struggled through the new trail in the Roller Coaster section. Back out on the old trail, I was descending through a rooty section that I've done many times before without a problem. For some reason, this time, I picked a line closer to some roots that run parallel to the trail (normally, I don't do this, and for good reason!). As I should have expected, the roots redirected my bike a bit, and sent me straight toward a tree. On a different day, I might have still saved it, but not yesterday. I ran the right side of my body into the tree (note that the tree was on the left side of the trail!). I ended up with cuts on my forearm, knuckles and ear (maybe from my helmet?) and a bruised shoulder.

I don't think I've ever hit a tree quite like that before. I've clipped them with the ends of the handlebars and gone down, but I've never run squarely into one. Turns out that it's not as bad as I expected it to be.

Anyway, after my crash, I decided I had better stop, even though I'd only been riding for about 30 minutes at that point. My focus just wasn't where it needed to be, and I thought I'd probably end up crashing more if I continued. So, I took the bailout trail and rode back to the parking lot.

Once I got back in the car to drive home I realized just how tired I was. Once I got home, I pretty much just ate a quick snack, showered, and went to bed.

Upcoming Races

I had a pretty good outing at the track last night. We worked on being comfortable in pacelines and groups, as usual. We had enough people to do a little riding in 4 lines; this was pretty interesting when you were on an "inside" line since you were completely boxed in. We did some "fartlek" style intervals for the last hour or so; my legs didn't really want to go for the first couple efforts, but after that I felt pretty strong.

I'm not doing any racing this weekend, but next weekend I'm going to square off against the roadies. I'm doing the "State Championship" 40km time trial out at Hines Park. I did a 20km TT out there last year, and it's a good location for a TT; the road is almost completely flat with some gentle curves and they close it to traffic for the race. Going 40km will be tough, but it's the same course for everyone. My goal is to complete it in 1:13 (about 20.4mph). I won't exactly be torching the competition with a time like that, but it would be a good time for me I think. Last year I averaged about 20.5mph for the 20km TT.

The following weekend is the Stony Creek Marathon XC race. I had intended to do this long 40-miler last year, but I got sick a few days beforehand so I didn't race. This should be an interesting race for a few reasons.

One is that, at least in past years, it's been a big mass start race. Instead of breaking the categories down by age groups, they started all the Expert/Elites together, all the Sports together, all the Beginners together. Especially for Sport, that's a lot of riders starting at once. So, I'll have to make some decisions about how hard I want to go from at the start; the course takes quite a few miles to get into the tight singletrack, so it may not be too critical to get to the front early.

Two is that it will be a pretty good indicator for how I might respond for the 6-hour race in July (although I expect this race will take just over 3 hours).

Three is the possibility that I might actually get a good result in the race. I hadn't really considered this until Brad mentioned it yesterday. The course is mostly open two-track with some reasonable climbing, so my weakness in the tighter stuff won't hurt me too much; I ride at Stony enough to know the trail pretty well anyway. I think it may also be to my advantage that the race is a little longer; you can see from the lap times last year that guys were cracking after the halfway point. Who knows though, maybe I'll be cracking by then too?

Bloomer XC

I raced the Bloomer Park XC this afternoon. The race went about how I expected, but I was a little surprised by my result. I ended up 6th out 12 (I thought I would do worse).


It's too soon (and too boring) to go through the blow-by-blow, but here's what worked and what didn't for me:

• For finishing in the region of the field where I'm finishing (mid pack or lower), there's no reason for me to go out really hard at the start. What separates me from the fast Sport guys is, in large part, technical ability. What separates me from the slower guys is fitness. I can let the slower guys go out hard and come back to me later in the race.
• I experimented with locking out my fork on the sledding hill climb. It seemed to work well, so I need to consider doing this more often.
• Don't try to pass a little "off trail" unless you're sure you won't hit anything and absolutely can't wait. I attempted a pass like this early in my third lap, and I ended up hitting some more substantial brush than I expected, which effectively stopped me and also caused my chain to drop. Had I waited 20 seconds or so longer, the trail opened back up into a hard little climb, and I would have been easily able to pass there (I thought we were on a much longer section of singletrack). I did apologize to the guy when I finally did pass him; not that I screwed up his race, but I felt like a jerk for my earlier move.
• I need to practice the big switchbacks at Bloomer if I'm going to race there again (I suppose it would be good for me to practice anyway). I never cleaned the first two corners in my pre-rides, so I ran them in the race. It wasn't a big deal to run, but I'm guessing I lost 30s or so each lap. That being said, running was the correct decision for today, it's much faster than crashing.
• I felt reasonably good in the tight singletrack; I know I need to go faster, but I rode about as well as I ride today. Early in the race, I was keeping up with the faster guys, but you could see the gap open when we descended and on the flat twisty parts; I was only staying on their wheels by climbing faster. (Consider that as wasted energy, or at least mis-used energy; it's much more efficient to carry more speed into the hill.)
• My strategy of going really hard on the flats worked, and probably salvaged my race result. I was able to pass a lot of guys on the flat sections, particularly those following climbs.
  

The luv2mtb guy has pictures up already... wow, that's quick!

Bloomer Race Prep

I'm racing at Bloomer Park tomorrow. I went out there last night to check the course out. I'd never ridden out there before, but the course was (mostly) marked, so I figured I could find my way around.

The course was a pretty interesting mix of trail. There's a lot of very tight, twisty singletrack, but also a lot of wide-open two-track trail. I rode two laps, my first took about 55 minutes, but I was going pretty slow and got off-course twice (like I said, the course was mostly marked). I finished my second lap in about 43 minutes... turns out that knowing where you're going helps. Although I wasn't going anywhere near race pace, you can't help but compare: the guys in my class did laps in the low 30's last year, but the course wasn't exactly the same.

On both laps, I had some trouble on a big switchback descent. I'm not sure what my deal is, it's really no harder (in fact, maybe easier) than the "chute" at Pontiac Lake. I think part of the problem was that I was looking over the edge toward the outside of the switchback instead of where I wanted to go. I'm heading back out there again today for a little more practice; I expect it will go a little better. Right after the big switchbacks, there's a long sidehill trail with lots of exposure to one side; I didn't really have any trouble with it, but I'm not used to trails like that where it's a long way down on one side.

Thinking about goals for the race:

1. Hammer on the flats. There are several long wide-open sections on the course; this is going to be my best opportunity to make up time, because the guys that know the trail will drop me in the singletrack.

2. Stay smooth and relaxed on the singletrack. Stay off the brakes as much as my "inner mother" will allow.


In other news, Ned Overend crushed the Vail Hill Climb at age 51, beating, among others, Floyd Landis.

Echelon

I had a good ride at the track with the Rhinos on Tuesday night. We worked on being comfortable riding in a paceline, then some fast cornering in the group, sprinting, and finally on echelons (circular paceline). The echelon work was pretty interesting. Once again I had little idea what I was doing, but the more experienced riders were happy to help.

Fitness-wise, I felt pretty good. I rode with the group right until the end, and by that time, the pace (or other obligations) had whittled the group from about 16 riders to about 8. I was pleasantly surprised to still feel pretty strong by the time we stopped.

Rainy Weekend

It's been a pretty rainy weekend. I still haven't been out today, but I did get out and ride for an hour or so yesterday.

My motivation has been a little low this week. There were a lot of other things going on: work was busy and my father-in-law got remarried. My real problem though is that I've lost focus since I'm not going to be able to race the Stony TT. To help combat that, I went ahead and signed up for all of the races I was planning on doing between now and the end of July.

My knee felt pretty good this week on and off the bike. The little bit of fatigue I was feeling on the bike initially has gone away, as I expected. I actually feel a little stronger climbing with the new position, I think I can apply force more smoothly through the pedal stroke.

Pudding

Is pudding the ultimate post-ride recovery food? Stay tuned...

I just got back from the Tuesday night club ride at Waterford Hills. Tonight turned out to be a time trial night; I didn't know this, but it wouldn't have really changed anything. It's a pretty laid back deal, you just start when you want and time yourself. Fortunately, I brought a bike that had a computer. The TT is 5 laps around the track, about 7 miles total. I did it today in 18:58... about 22mph average. It was a pretty good effort, but I might have gone out just a little too hard on the first lap.

We also did a little 3 lap race on the track. It was pretty cool, but I basically had no idea what I was doing. The first lap was pretty calm, everyone just cruised. I ended up pulling the field for the second lap, which I'm pretty sure was a bad tactic; I just found myself up there after the first lap. After my pull, I didn't drop all the way back, but tucked in about 6 rows deep. I was in the inside lane and still about 6 rows back when things started getting tense. This left me in the fast lane for the first couple corners near the end of the lap, but with very little room to pull out and move ahead. Finally, with about two corners to go, I pulled out and started moving up. It was definitely too early for me to sprint to the finish, but I could see the front of the field moving away and thought I had to do something. I was stuck in the outside lane on the last corner (a long sweeper), but I had moved up to 6th or so. I tried to hang on to the end, but at least one more guy passed me as I started fading. Anyway, it was pretty fun, and riding in the pack like that wasn't as scary as I thought it might be.

This sort of brings me to my next point. I don't seem to have the same cornering issues on the road as I do on the trail. Part of it is that the conditions are much better: I can see through the corner, the surface is predictable, it's wide, etc. The other part of it is probably that I haven't had a real crash on the road. That being said, I've crashed on my mountain bike a bunch of times, and I know, at least intellectually, that it's usually not that big of a deal. I think it comes down to the fact that I generally trust my tires on the road, but I generally don't trust them on the trail.

One other sort of related story. I just about bit it twice tonight in the gravel parking lot. I was riding down the hill from the bathroom and started to make the turn toward the track. The corner was a little sandy, but I really wasn't going that fast, so I didn't think too much of it. As soon as I hit the sand my tires started sliding. Fortunately, I kept the bike up long enough to clip out and get a foot down. Then, I pedaled not more than 10 feet and just about went down again in a second patch of sand. So, I guess I learned that skinny road slicks and sand are not a good combination.

Hmmm... time for pudding...

Update!

Sorry it's been so long since I've blogged. This week, like every week it seems, was pretty busy.

I spent a lot of time this week messing with my position on the bike. I was pretty unsatisfied with my "wedging" process, which I discussed last Monday. Essentially, while my knee was tracking better, I felt like I was using so many wedges that I was treating the symptom, not the cause. I also spent a lot of time browsing through the form articles on Cycling News.

What I ultimately determined, I think, was that my saddle was too high. This was causing me to drop my right hip, which was causing my left knee to move outward at the top of the pedal stroke. So, I dropped my saddle and took out most of the wedges I had put on my left shoe (I kept one, since I did measure about a 7 degree varus on my left foot).

One of the recommendations in the Cycling News articles was that your saddle should be low enough that you are "fluent" at the bottom of your pedal stroke. I had thought I was a pretty smooth pedaler, until I dropped my saddle this week. Dropping the saddle made a huge difference in the way my pedal stroke feels. It just feels buttery smooth now, even in hard gears. This is a major change; I used to get very choppy in hard gears with the old position.

As for my knee, lowering the saddle reduced the lateral movement considerably. If I'm not concentrating on good form, I still see a little movement in the harder gears. If I am concentrating on good form, there's no lateral movement that I can see. I am feeling a little muscle fatigue around my knees, but I dropped my saddle enough that I'm not too surprised about this. I expect it to go away within another week or so as I adapt to the new position.

Once my knee feels OK on the bike, I'm going to start a very basic running program. If nothing else, I want to demonstrate to myself that I've solved the problem. I was a little concerned about running too much during the season, but, as Sarah pointed out, the amount of running I'm talking about here won't amount to much more than a warm-up for me (probably just 20-30 minute sessions).

Wedges

My wedges came in today. Today was supposed to be an off day for me, so at first I only did a quick wedge fitting and test... maybe 5 minutes on the bike at most. I started with 2 on the left shoe and 1 on the right.

I had some dinner and then decided that I needed to do some more extended testing of the wedges. I popped in an easy Spinervals DVD and got to work. After a few minutes of pedaling, it looked like my right knee had more lateral movement with 1 wedge than it did with none, so I took it out. My left knee still had some lateral movement, so I added a 3rd wedge. It seemed to help a little more, but there was still some lateral movement. At this point, I decided to stop adding wedges; my thought was that I may just need to retrain the pedal stroke of my left leg. So, I ended up with 3 wedges on my left shoe and 0 on the right.

So, my impressions:

• Left knee lateral movement is considerably smaller than with no wedges, but it's still noticeable. Remaining left knee movement may be from bad habits.
• My left leg felt much more "free" than normal at high cadences.
• Pedal pressure on my left foot was more uniform. My left big toe didn't fall asleep as it sometimes does, but that may be because the ride was short and I stopped a few times to adjust things.
• Calf tight spot was still present afterward, but not too bad.

The plan now is to ride like this for a little while and live with the new position. I can feel already that some different muscles in my left leg got used, and I wouldn't be surprised if I end up a little tender from it tomorrow. I suspect that I may end up going back to 2 wedges on my left shoe, but we'll see, 3 just feels like a little too much.

Chilly Weekend

I had a pretty good weekend, but it was overcast and a bit chilly almost the whole time. My knee was basically back to normal by Friday, so it didn't affect my riding too much.

Saturday morning, I went out to volunteer at the first Bump & Run trail race. Sarah ran in it and seemed to do pretty well. She was wiped out for the rest of the day though. I manned a pushup station, and everybody but one guy did the pushups. (You didn't have to do the exercises, but you took a time penalty if you skipped them.) The guy that won was crushing the field when he came by me, and he did some of the best pushups too. I think someone told me he was a cross-country running coach.

When we got back home, it was still kind of cold and rainy, so I decided to do a hard trainer ride instead of going back outside. I'd already done one cold and rainy ride this week, and I really didn't feel like going back for more.

I've been thinking a lot about my knees this week after my Wednesday run. My new theory is that running isn't my problem, it's cycling. A lot of things have come together that make me think that the angle of my foot on the pedal is causing poor alignment of my knee while riding. It's very obvious on the trainer (if you're paying attention) that my left knee does not track straight up and down, it moves inward at the top of the pedal stroke, particularly under heavy load. I think my right knee also moves in, but to a much smaller degree.

I ordered some Power Wedges (formerly, "LeWedges" I think), and I'm hoping that they help. I think, at a minimum, I should be able to correct the lateral knee movement. My expectation is that this will also take care of the tight spots I have in my calves. What I'm not so sure about is if clearing all that up will let me get back to running a little; I hope so.

The weather wasn't much better on Sunday, but I decided to get out anyway. I rode two laps out at Pontiac Lake. I came very close to clearing the hill right after "The Chute", but I didn't quite make it. I need to either carry a little more momentum up the hill or be able to generate just a little more force, and I'd be all set. It's just the first pitch on that hill that's tough; if I could clean that, I could climb the rest.

Otherwise, I did a little better about riding the trail more aggressively: carrying speed through corners and rougher sections. It helped on a few corners to really study the corner and realize that there was no way I could possibly blow the corner (usually because of the banking). I also came to the conclusion that it's generally better to ride over rocks than it is to try to go between them. You don't get knocked off line as much and you can maintain your momentum better. I also think it's best to keep pedaling through rocky sections. I had sort of been unconciously coming to these conclusions, but what I was doing finally sunk in yesterday.


I've been following the Landis arbitration hearing a bit. The stuff that's going on there really makes me sick. This VeloNews article sums it up decently.

Grinding It Out

Yesterday was a pretty long day for me. I got up at 4:45am to do my strength workout before work. Then, at work, I was going full throttle the whole day. My boss has been in Germany the past three weeks, so I've been helping out on his project a lot.

After work, I drove over to Stony Creek for a road ride. The weather report in the morning said it would be a little cool, but didn't say anything about rain. So, I only packed a short-sleeved jersey and shorts that morning. I always take arm warmers and knee warmers with me, so I figured I'd be fine.

It turned out to be colder than I expected and windy (it's always windy at Stony Creek!), and, only a few minutes into my ride, it started raining. Fortunately, the rain didn't last long. It was actually pretty comfortable when the sun peeked out. I got rained on again on my second lap (in a different spot); I got pretty wet that second time. I stayed dry on my third lap. I rode for about an hour and a half, and I saw exactly two other people out riding. Usually, the roads of Stony are packed with cyclists in the afternoon.

After that, I went straight over to Bloomer Park (home of our velodrome) to meet Sarah and her Boot Camp group. I'm volunteering for a "trail run" they're doing on Saturday. So, I thought they were going to talk about the race and what I needed to do, then let the people doing the race scout out the course. I envisioned that I would be mostly sitting on a park bench eating my sandwich. What happened instead is that we all ran through the course. It's been a long time since I've done any significant running, but I ended up putting in almost 3 miles before I bailed because my knees were bothering me. It actually felt really good to get out and run, it was too bad I couldn't do the whole thing.

I did some super knee treatment protocol last night, which seems to have helped. I used my stick to massage my legs (last night and this morning), took a constrast shower and took a couple of ibuprofens. This morning, my knees are still sore, but it's not too bad. Mostly IT band soreness.

Interesting point about the massage. I tend to find a tight spot on my calf (both legs); it hurts like crazy to roll over it with the stick, but my legs always feel better afterward. Anyway, I'm wondering if this point on my calf and my knee issues are somehow connected, but I don't know.