A Different Approach

Over the past several years this time of the racing season has usually seen me in pretty good form and getting ready for the District TT up in Sattley. But over the past nine months a lot of things have changed and it's a different Spring for me this time around. Not that different is bad, more often than not doing something different has a pretty positive experience which I tend to believe this will be the case going forward.

Something called work absolutely crushed me leading into Sattley last year. Starting back in May I took over a pretty overwhelming integration program (Tandberg) that had just kicked off and the timing couldn't have been worse...for training and trying to peak. On the other hand, it was a shot of confidence from leadership that they gave me the "keys to the car" to drive this integration forward; for this I've been really happy. Anyway, Sattley was only a smidge better than the previous year, probably due to the new pavement and not my ability to peak and taper for the event.

The winds of change knocked me sideways. For the rest of June, July and August I believe I only was able to get on the bike around ten times. And to make matters worse, I lost a really close friend: My fitness! Gone was the motivation to ride just for the joy of riding. Work had crushed everything, except the nagging ability to put on a few extra pounds. The low point was in December when I stepped on the scale and saw that I put on thirty pounds. Of course that much weight spread over a 6'9" frame doesn't really seem like any cause for concern to my friends, but that's like carrying Chris Phipps' and Greg McQuaid's bikes on my back while climbing Mt. Hamilton.

Align all this up with the family stuff and I figured it makes sense to approach things a bit differently this season. Gone is the early fitness for the Spring, but I have a new appreciation of watching my kids enjoy their soccer and volleyball events, and seeing my soon to be 3-year old daughter blossom immediately in front of my eyes. Spring brings change and being around to see more Single A baseball is pretty fun.

On the flipside I've got my motivation back and yes things will hurt. Shedding a few pounds is not fun, but at least there's the motivation to get it accomplished. Most importantly, I'm excited to actually not burn out after Sattley and to experience the races in June/July/August/September that I've neglected from TT-itis (that's the medical term for post-TT letdowns). Only time will tell...

Negligence

On one hand I can understand why I haven't posted for a long time, on the other hand it's been way, way too much time between posts. I thought this post was amusing, but it smacked of reality...the reality that I have been slacking on this site and it's time to start posting again.

San Ardo RR

I hadn't raced since Sattley, and to think of it, hadn't raced in a RR since that fateful day at Petaluma where I cam in second, secured the cat 2 upgrade, and left the race shivering from the cold and eventually getting a sinus infection. Obvious to say, I hadn't done a RR in quite some time.

Due to life, my fitness was only around 60% of where my peaks had been earlier in the season, but I had the itch to get out and race. Ramon and I were in the same boat, so we figured we'd do all we could to help Dennis be in the right spot coming into the final lap. To sum it up, hold on as long as possible, then help until you blow.

The first two laps weren't too difficult, but due to a lack of fitness my HR averaged 156. There was plenty of attrition due to the goatheads (Dennis can speak to what happened at the start line); 13 guys were DNP in the race, including some of the favorites. Somewhere during the second lap a break of 7 got up the road, with no SJBC presence. Guess it would be time to help do some chasing.

As the third lap started I found myself in a position I hadn't experienced before. I was cramping in both quads, but it was "interesting". If I went hard, the legs felt better, but when I eased up I would cramp. But by going hard it exposed my lack of fitness, thus, I couldn't go hard for too long. To help Dennis out I got to the front on the rollers heading north on the course. I popped and thankfully was able to hide in the back to recover (...and cramp).

After recovering better than I would have thought (my quads, and now my hip flexors, were both cramping), I made one last attempt to help at the front. With about 8 miles to go I put in a good hard 5 minutes of time at or near the front (HR avg 178bpm). I popped and fell off the back. I rolled up the final climb and through the finish line. Man, it's hard to race when you don't have the fitness, but it was rewarding to help my teammate with his top 10 result.

Where did May go?

Wow, just noticed that the entire month of May went by and no posts from yours truly. Since I don't get paid by the number of words on this blog, it goes without saying that it was neglected due to some crushing waves of work from the job that does pay the bills. Thankfully I'm having a blast at work so it's all good.

District TT Race Report

Place: 9th, 54:11
Category: 35+ Masters Open
Field Size: 14
Conditions: Perfect

After a fabulous spring of racing and getting my cat 2 upgrade, it was time to focus on the TT events. However, life decided to intervene and throw a few hurdles. Between being sick in late-April and a motivational letdown after the upgrade, I had a sneaking suspicion that I might not hit this event at my peak. To make matters worse, things at worked ramped up mid-May and had me doing 12-14 hour days.

So with all this going on I decided to just shed any preconceived notions of success and just focus on enjoying the experience. One point of feedback I took away from last year was the fact I felt unprepared for the longer TT efforts. So to get ready I did several 40+ minute threshold intervals leading up to Dunlap/Sattley. This definitely helped in getting my mind wrapped around how it felt to go hard for so long.

Come race day I decided to stay at home the night before and make the drive in the morning. Out the door at 3:45am and zooming on the highway. It only took 3 hours and 50 minutes to get up to Sattley. Plenty of time for a nice warm-up and confirmation of the newly paved section of road.

With a slight tailwind on the way out I found a comfortable pace knowing the return leg was really going to hurt. About 10k into the race I was passed by my 30 second man behind me. At 18k I was passed by the guy a minute behind me. I didn't panic and just kept to my game plan.

After the turnaround I was passed by one last rider with around 12k to go. The only redeeming thing at this point was the new pavement, which was a welcome change from last year's event. With a kilometer to go I thought I was going to break 54 minutes, but it didn't happen.

Overall the field was stacked this year, but I'm pretty happy to know I was 25 seconds faster this year than last. Sure it would have been nice to be higher up on the final standings, but hey, I can't argue with the blessed season I've had so far. The best part of the day was the drive home via Hwy 49. Some amazing scenery...way better than the 54+ minutes I spent in the pain cave.

A Bad Apple

For all the whiz-bang stuff that comes out of the Cupertino workshop, the folks at Apple need to get a better grasp on a few things. Oh where shall I begin...

How about the nifty little hand warmer they've had on the market. Oh yeah, it's an iPhone. Over the past nine months this device, which I have a love/hate relationship with, twice has decided that it doesn't play well with the apps. I'm no product engineer, but something in me says that there are a few apps that don't play nice when you shut them down, and they leave open processes running on the chip. These unresolved process spin out of control and cause the battery to heat up and drain over the course of an hour. This might be a nice feature if I'm an eskimo, but I'm not. I just want my phone's battery to last more than a day without having to recharge.

As long as I'm bitching about Apple, let's continue. Stand behind your product people. I'm not a fan of shelling out my hard-earned money for you to tell me that the device is out of warranty. Geez, there's enough cell phone service providers (AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, MetroPCS) that will throw you a free device and not think twice. I'm so tired of the warranty dance from Apple that I'm tempted to start a campaign to relabel their "Genius" bar, or whatever they think that is where they provide customer service, and just call it what it is. Oh I don't know, how about "I've drank too much Apple kool-aid...we can do no wrong" bar.

In the end I'm left with a kool-aid drinking shaggy beard twenty-something telling me to restore my phone and start from scratch. How 'bout you go back to your employer and suggest they do a better job testing apps and alerting users to potential conflicts that render iPhone's into hand warmers. Really!

Spring Hill RR - 35+ 3/4 Race Report

The last couple of days has been a siesta off the bike. Nothing like a little tickle in the throat that turns itself into a head cold. It was bad enough that I was fighting off crud developing in my lungs. So after a few days off, I woke up and thought, "Hey, it's a really stupid idea since I'm not healthy, but let's go race in the wind, cold and rain." Watching Paris-Roubaix at 5am will do that to a fool (i.e. me).

Let's get to the action. A good size 35+ 3/4 field ready for 2 laps around the hills and rollers west of Petaluma. The spectators were brave, but there were more cows taking in the action than people. With no warm-up the opening climb right from the start line hurt myself and probably a few others. By the time we hit the second climb a few miles later I made sure to get to the front for the descent into a tight right-hand turn. Made it down the hill with a local on my wheel passing up instructions to me on the safest route to take down the bumpy road. It felt good to get the HR up since it was absolutely raining hard and cold. By this point I was already soaked. One a side note I did learn some neat tricks by watching what a few other competitors did to stave off the rain.

Not much happened on the rollers but a single Wells Fargo (WF) rider got off the front. With the largest team in the field (at least from pre-reg), I was content to let somebody else bring him back. Nothing was happening so Ramon took a flyer to bridge up but nobody wanted to join him. Eventually Ramon was brought back into the fold.

The gap up to the solo WF rider was shrinking but not very fast. After passing through the start line (the finish is midway up the hill past the start line) and getting over the first hill I found myself with a dropped chain on one of the rollers leading up to the second climb. Calmly I dismounted and fixed the issue, and caught back up with the pack at the base of the climb. However, there were some guys hammering at the front so I had to pick my way through the pack to make it to the leading group.

I hit the top and saw the lead pack was about ten meters in front of me and a lot of guys were falling off behind me. I buried my head and got back up to the pack and found Ramon's wheel. Down the descent again and on to the rollers. On the slowest roller two guys near the front probably crossed wheels and went down. The WF rider was still off the front and not much was being done to bring him back.

The first time around the loop I took note of how many times I had to hit the brakes while descending these rollers. On the second lap I used my momentum to push the pace as we came flying down on the water-covered roads. With fifteen miles to go we hit another roller with a fair bit of head/crosswind. I hit the gas and quickly found myself with two WF riders and a lone Victory Velo guy. Not the mix I was hoping for, but I was committed. I dropped the Victory and one WF rider. The remaining WF guy sat on my wheel and did the smart thing and stayed put. I knew he wouldn't pull through to help me bridge and I wasn't expecting it to happen. But as we got closer I could sense we'd eventually be working together to keep the three of us away.

With the bridge effort complete and now in a break of myself and two WF guys, it was game on! Just like Warnerville RR, but the numbers were reversed. We rode hard to get out of site and then began passing groups and dropped riders from previous groups. It felt good to go hard and stay warm because I know that if I was just sitting in the pack I'd probably shiver myself off the bike.

We made our way around the loop to the final climb. The WF guy who I bridged up to led us up the hill and then I came around. With about two hundred meters to go I pushed the pace and then tried to find an opportunity to shift into the big ring. Due to my shifting issues (I had dropped the chain to the outside a few times on lap one), I had to back off just a tad to make sure I had a good shift. I was completely cooked and with about forty meters to go the WF guy I dragged across came around and sprinted for the win.

As soon as I crossed the line I went straight back to the car and took off all the wet gear and got dry. I think I shivered for the next thirty minutes. Though only forty-four miles of racing, the combination of wind/rain/cold made it one of the hardest days on the bike. No way could I have done another lap.