2011/05/15
2011/05/10
17th Annual Sterling Classic Road Race - May 7, 2011
The Sterling Classic has been hosted by my club, The Minuteman Road Club for 17 years and this year marked the second time I competed in the Cat 5 35+ field. Since Battenkill, I made a few trips out to the race course to remind my legs what they would be getting into going up the start/finish along Meeetinghouse Hill Road.
I also engaged in various religious, non-religious and black arts rituals in an effort to prevent a repeat of last year's horrendous weather. As in the case with Battenkill, the week leading up to Saturday had me so busy with work and personal commitments that my "taper" was dangerously close to a "full stop", training-wise. I found myself still packing up the car and cooler well past 11 pm Friday night.
Head hits pillow, eyes close, alarm goes off. :: sigh ::
The forecast was looking very good with temps to be in the 50's and 60's with a fairly low chance of rain.
Coffee and oatmeal made and eaten, I headed out to Sterling. After a drive around the course, I head to the staging area at the school, check in with Ian R who gave the volunteers their last minute instructions. I'd be marshaling later after my race.
Pin on my number, set up the bike and start warming up along the roads near the school. Easy pedaling with a few jumps here and there to wake up the type II muscles... knowing that they would get a much more intense stirring when the race began.
Silly bike: even though I gave it a very complete tune up a few days earlier, my drive train was making an annoying clicking sound that I could not pin down. I decided that it would either be lost in the noise of the pack or could work to my advantage, letting others think I was more of a noob/fred/doofus than I really am.
Before I knew it, 8:35 rolled around and it was time for my field to assemble. Jorge H, our former club president call myself and fellow club members John R and Doran A to the front of the field and took our picture.
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| Yeah, we're all smiles NOW. |
The pace car rolled and we started heading into town.
The driver of the pace car kept us honest by going less than 20 mph and I maintained my position at the front all the way in. My race-induced tunnel vision was fully engaged as I was completely unaware of anyone to either side of me. Looking down at my computer showed my HR already starting to climb, surely due to some anxiety about what was soon to happen.
My plan: stay with the main group and not do any ill-advised breaks for the lead like I did last year. If I found myself near the front at the end, unleash myself upon Meetinghouse Hill like no tomorrow and deal with the consequences later.
On the way up to the start, I made one more incantation to "race my race" and not freak out at the beginning if anyone took off on the hill. Up we went, the dozen or so people along the way cheered and I remained in front as the race began.
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| No wincing, cramping or heavy breathing. Yet. |
Taunting? Showing off? Just feeling good? Beats me. My thought was either he was a ringer or a douche, maybe both.
For the rest of the first lap, I was variously pulling or in the top 10 wheels. Coming back around to MHH, again I lost a few places on the way up but gained them back on the next climb and after. I felt calm and reasonably strong.
When we turned from Rowley to Heywood on lap 2, I did a little seated acceleration just to keep the others on their toes, the pace was THAT leisurely at that point. The course takes a little descent right after the turn so I didn't sacrifice any matches. I got pretty far ahead and somebody who caught my wheel asked if I was serious. I barely had time to shake my head "no" when the pack swallowed us back up on the next incline.
When we got onto the newly paved North Row Road, I was maybe 3 rows back when I heard the dreaded crunch and "UGH!" and "Watch out!" that's concurrent with somebody going down. Hyper alert for the possibility of the tangle being in my path, I saw John R going by to the left of the yellow line, on his ass with his bike laid out before him. And then I heard another crunch as somehow, somebody else was across the yellow line and hit his bike.
At that instant, said to myself, "Now, it's up to YOU!" and felt as if John crashing out of the race passed on some additional "mana" and responsibility to me. I became more resolute in concentrating on my game plan.
This time, along Rte. 12, a different unattached rider had the lead position with me as second wheel. After a minute pulling or so, he began drifting to one side then then other, looking for me (or someone else) to take over. I let him know the futility in this and advised him to instead, hold a straight line and just slow down until somebody got sick of going so slow.
That somebody was me.
But I didn't pick up the pace that much and as we passed Dunkin Donuts and began the gradual climb back into town, others grew impatient with MY pace and I let them by. Somewhere along this section, I realized that John R had miraculously rejoined the race. Woot!
Once again, I drifted back through the pack up MHH but this time, just as I was regaining contact with the group as we turned onto Heywood, two guys were 30-40 yards up the road with no one seeming to care.
Following the example set by my Cat 4 team mates in races earlier this season, I saw a chance to help John. As I passed him, I said something like, "latch on" or "let's go get 'em" and I turned on the gas. Later, somebody else confessed that he grabbed my wheel before John did but I assumed John (and a bunch of others) followed suit. I hammered hard for a good long minute until we swallowed up the break.
Could they have sustained the break? A more prudent mind would likely have said "no" but as I found out watching the 4's later on, you ignore a break at your peril: a solo break early in their race maintained a 1 minute lead for many laps all the way to victory. And you never know if you got a ringer in your field when you are racing the 5's.
Soon after that, John had a near miss at a SECOND crash on North Row. Meanwhile, even though I fired off a bunch of bullets catching the break, the peloton graciously resumed it's pokey pace, allowing me to recover once again.
We hit Rte. 12 at a reasonably fast clip, me taking a fairly wide line just in case a squirrely noob-bot lost his nerve on the turn. The pace continued to slowly increase and when we got to the DD's this time, the race was finally ON. Of course, this was the moment my quads decided to hint that they'd had enough, but I was able to continue to feather on the power without upsetting them into total crampage.
Unfortunately, others in the field were feeling a bit better than I was and soon enough, dribs and drabs of them began passing me as we rounded the turn past the fire station at the bottom of MHH. I had to stop this erosion of my postion in the race, but I knew if I got out of the saddle on the hill, I'd be a knotted mess of cramped muscle on the ground.
Meanwhile, John was ahead, in a pitched battle up the hill to the finish and was beat there by Mr. Swervy Pants from early in the race, who later confessed that he was a former Cat 2 racer returning to the sport after many years. That's two 2nd place finishes for John in a row, the last one being at Blue Hills.
For my part, I progressively shifted to easier and easier gears while ramping up my cadence. This seemed to the way to go as I reeled in three of the guys that had just passed me and, breathing as hard as I ever have in my life, wheeled across in 16th.
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| It's a wonder I didn't grind my teeth down to little stumps. |
Afterwards, I got some constructive criticism from John R regarding the amount of time I spent on the front. I don't know, I wasn't working that hard when I was up there and yes, even if I wasn't working very hard, everyone else behind me had it easier. Could less time up front have left me with more joules for the finish?
Interesting footnote - while rooting around on Colin Reuter's road-results.com, I stumbled upon this happenstance: I finished one place ahead of the SAME GUY I beat by one place in this race last year:
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| (click for easier viewing) |
This year, the ride back to the staging area at the school was much more pleasurable and after a quick change and repacking my bike in the car, I was headed back up to Meetinghouse Hill Road. Of course I brought my camera along and got photos of the mens 4's before I went on duty as marshal above the start/finish and later, the mens 3's, and both the pro 1/2 men's and pro 1/2/3 women's races (many more photos here):
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2011/04/16
Battenkill Picture-palooza
Well, maybe not THAT many photos. I was certainly kind of busy ruining myself that day. But Kevin Jones got a couple of great shots of me (many more shots by Kevin here in his SmugMug gallery):
After my race, I grabbed my G10 and got some shots in the tent-area near the podium:
In other news, I took the MTB out two days later for a "recovery ride" and managed to fall off it about half dozen times. The last time I went down, I broke the saddle. Of course, this happened when I was about as far from home as I could possibly be.
The nose of the saddle had some plastic bit that held the rails to the seat top, when it broke, the front lifted off and would slide completely off the back of the rails, leaving my tender bits in mortal danger. I did not relish the prospect of having to ride home like this:
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| Slogging my way up Meetinghouse Road. Somehow after the cramping episode, I was able to get out of the saddle long enough for Kevin to grab a couple of frames. |
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| The whole story is written there in my face. |
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| Air in, fire out. |
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| Todd Prekaski (always thinking NECX) and Gary Sclar, amazingly able to smile again the moment he got off his bike. |
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| Carl Shimer displaying a nice encrustation of salt. |
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| Todd Prekaski on his 5th? 6th? cider donut. |
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| Here's our friend, Tom Keane (right) on the podium after getting 3rd in his Cat 5 45+ field. Joining him are team mate Dana Brown (2nd place, on the left) and winner Rejean Rochette (center). At least the guy on the far right isn't scratching his nuts. |
The nose of the saddle had some plastic bit that held the rails to the seat top, when it broke, the front lifted off and would slide completely off the back of the rails, leaving my tender bits in mortal danger. I did not relish the prospect of having to ride home like this:
So, I start pawing about my jersey pockets looking for some way to secure the saddle for the ride home. This is what I came up with:
MacGyver himself would be proud but would have given me points off for leaving my Swiss Army knife home. I replaced the broken saddle with a vintage 3ttt unit off my ancient Bianchi Nuovo Racing road bike.
The rest of the week found me settling back into a regular training routine capped off this morning by a nice 3.5 hour ride that included a visit to the Ride Studio Cafe for a choicified latté.
I felt so good about it that when I got home, I treated myself to the summer haircut:
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| Where the rubber meets the load. It actually wasn't all that uncomfortable. |
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| Earned my Boy Scout knot merit badge with this one. |
MacGyver himself would be proud but would have given me points off for leaving my Swiss Army knife home. I replaced the broken saddle with a vintage 3ttt unit off my ancient Bianchi Nuovo Racing road bike.
The rest of the week found me settling back into a regular training routine capped off this morning by a nice 3.5 hour ride that included a visit to the Ride Studio Cafe for a choicified latté.
I felt so good about it that when I got home, I treated myself to the summer haircut:
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| Coefficient of drag reduced by .02 |
2011/04/11
2011 Tour of the Battenkill
Well, yesterday was the culmination of a winter’s worth of hard work for me. I’m just as proud of the preparation I completed as I am about the result I was able to achieve in the race.
After doing 20 or so minutes of spinning/tempo/jumps up and down Rte. 22, I was at the point where I was thinking, “let’s do this thing already”. Scott Sweeney mentioned he had an upset stomach and Todd P, Jeremy and Matt seemed to me to be pretty antsy too.
Jeremy had announced his intention to be at or near the front at the top of Juniper Swamp. Sure, I thought, I’ll go for some of that.
Lined up on the center line maybe five riders back with Jeremy just in front of me and Scott and Todd to my side and behind. After a couple of minutes we were on our way.
The first couple of miles, I had some pretty good butterflies in my stomach as I was a) unsure about some of the wobbly guys around me (not my team mates) b) being hyper attentive to staying near Scott, Jeremy and Todd and c) riding on the centerline. Soon enough, the pack thinned out just enough so that the front was only 2-3 wide which left plenty of room to maneuver. After some jockeying around, I think I was around 8th wheel.
We wound our way along Rte. 313 at a fair clip when suddenly, it seemed to me, everybody slowed down a few mph. Well, most of you know me well enough to not be surprised to find out that I swung to the left and kept the pace up at the mid-20 mph place that it had been. I could almost hear Jeremy say, “There he goes again.”
Just before the turn off 313, I settled back into a slot near the front of the pack as we wound our way to Perry Mill Road. It’s only 1/2 mile or so longer than Oak Hill but oh, that extra 1/2 mile at 8% avg gradient (w/some 12% thrown in) is a killer. I stayed in the front 10 or so and hoped the descent towards Juniper Swamp would allow my HR to return from the stratosphere.
No such luck: we turned onto J.S. and were headed up with me still huffing and puffing, but my legs felt pretty good and I was able to keep up. The road surface was well packed (by previous fields?) and you could actually climb out of the saddle if you carefully kept your rear wheel to the ground. At the top, nobody seemed to spank it hard and so we settled into it once again.
The next 24 miles, from 13 to 37 are kind of a blur for me but I remember these few things:
I can’t recall exactly when it happened, but it was in this stretch that I had my last glimpse of Jeremy and the lead group as they gapped the rest of us (6?) over the top of some hill or other.
When we weren’t headed into the wind, my super-thin (and black) base layer had me feeling pretty hot, so I put it into my head to be careful about water consumption (I carried three bottles and was on vapors at the end).
As we went on, I began to get gapped on the hills, a little bit, maybe 4 or 5 bike lengths but then hammered onto the last wheel ahead on the descents. I knew this was going to cost me in the long run.
There were a couple of husky guys who were in the same get-dropped/hammer-back-on cycle and I let them pull me back on a few times, glad they were around. They were good wind blocks too.
One guy got his chain royally tangled up as he shifted on a climb, thought that was the last I’d see of him but he heroically made it back to our group.
Scott appeared steady as a rock the whole time.
Nearly two hours into the race and I realized that I didn’t take any Endurolytes since before the start. I reached into my jersey to pull them out when suddenly we were descending Carney-Cassidy Road and I thought better of one-handing it just then. Sure enough, on the next rise, I got out of the saddle to narrow a gap and BOOM: right quad cramped. My Garmin data clearly shows the moment when my cadence went from the mid 80’s to 25 rpm when it happened. I shifted to an easier gear to get my cadence back up but it was too late: they gapped me real good.
I kept them in sight for few minutes but every turn seemed to put me into more wind and I knew I would not finish at all if I kept trying to close that gap on my own. I was prepared for the likelyhood that I would finish this race on my own so I settled into finding a groove that I could carry for the next 27 miles.
These next, long, miles consisted of getting low to the wind, doing what I could on the ascents and pushing as hard as I could on the flats and descents. One part of me was half expecting a huge pack from our field to come and overtake me, the nagging thought of this helped keep me from converting the race into a sight-seeing ride.
Soon, however, I also had to deal with some serious lower back pain. Not like any I’ve had before, it was really low and overlapped the top of my hips. Strangely, it would come and go with no correlation to the effort I was putting out.
Meanwhile, I passed a couple of guys that either Jeremy’s and/or Scott’s group had dropped. I thought they’d cling to my increasingly feeble wheel, but they didn’t even try. A couple of those dirt road descents in this last third of the race were pretty hairy, with loose dirt and crushed rock dust about 2 inches thick on top. I could see some pretty wavy tracks laid down by earlier passers-by but kept an even keel as I went along. I passed one guy getting medical attention in that stretch.
The ups and downs of Meeting House Road were torture, the pain enhanced for a moment when 5 guys went blasting by me on one of the rises: “Here comes the rest of the pack!”, I thought. It took me a moment to notice they had different colored numbers on and were the leaders of a field that started after ours. Phew.
Onto Stage Road and, like on most of the last climbs, there was no spark left in my legs so I shifted all the way to 39/27 and ground my way up. I was keenly aware of all the people set up on their front yards or end of the driveways, cheering, ringing bells and enjoying the passing parade of pain. It definitely gave me a lift when I really needed it.
I was in heaven when one lone lady leaning on her mailbox shouted to me: “One more climb and then five miles to go!”
The last miles had me, forearms my bar tops, in tri-mode, pedaling towards the end. Somehow, after all previous agony, I managed a 20 mph avg for the final 4 miles. That last turn into the finish straight was a real treat with people hanging over the barriers, cheering as I crossed the line with no one else in sight. My assumption was that I finished barely in the top 20 and was going to confirm that later on BikeReg, I felt good all right about it but was not exactly jazzed.
Afterwards, I greedily grabbed a bottle of water that was handed to me and downed right away. I wandered with my bike along the vendor area until I came upon Len near the start-finish line and gave him the short version of my race. Then he gave me directions back to the high school which left me dreading getting back on my bike for the short ride back.
I bounced back a bit after I changed/ate/drank and returned to the podium area with Jeremy, Scott, Todd, Matt and connected with Carl “Old Salt” Shimer and Gary “Wasabe Chin” Sclar.
Finally, I wandered over to the posted results, looked up my field and found to my surprise that I had finished 12th.
Cool!
After doing 20 or so minutes of spinning/tempo/jumps up and down Rte. 22, I was at the point where I was thinking, “let’s do this thing already”. Scott Sweeney mentioned he had an upset stomach and Todd P, Jeremy and Matt seemed to me to be pretty antsy too.
Jeremy had announced his intention to be at or near the front at the top of Juniper Swamp. Sure, I thought, I’ll go for some of that.
Lined up on the center line maybe five riders back with Jeremy just in front of me and Scott and Todd to my side and behind. After a couple of minutes we were on our way.
The first couple of miles, I had some pretty good butterflies in my stomach as I was a) unsure about some of the wobbly guys around me (not my team mates) b) being hyper attentive to staying near Scott, Jeremy and Todd and c) riding on the centerline. Soon enough, the pack thinned out just enough so that the front was only 2-3 wide which left plenty of room to maneuver. After some jockeying around, I think I was around 8th wheel.
We wound our way along Rte. 313 at a fair clip when suddenly, it seemed to me, everybody slowed down a few mph. Well, most of you know me well enough to not be surprised to find out that I swung to the left and kept the pace up at the mid-20 mph place that it had been. I could almost hear Jeremy say, “There he goes again.”
Just before the turn off 313, I settled back into a slot near the front of the pack as we wound our way to Perry Mill Road. It’s only 1/2 mile or so longer than Oak Hill but oh, that extra 1/2 mile at 8% avg gradient (w/some 12% thrown in) is a killer. I stayed in the front 10 or so and hoped the descent towards Juniper Swamp would allow my HR to return from the stratosphere.
No such luck: we turned onto J.S. and were headed up with me still huffing and puffing, but my legs felt pretty good and I was able to keep up. The road surface was well packed (by previous fields?) and you could actually climb out of the saddle if you carefully kept your rear wheel to the ground. At the top, nobody seemed to spank it hard and so we settled into it once again.
The next 24 miles, from 13 to 37 are kind of a blur for me but I remember these few things:
I can’t recall exactly when it happened, but it was in this stretch that I had my last glimpse of Jeremy and the lead group as they gapped the rest of us (6?) over the top of some hill or other.
When we weren’t headed into the wind, my super-thin (and black) base layer had me feeling pretty hot, so I put it into my head to be careful about water consumption (I carried three bottles and was on vapors at the end).
As we went on, I began to get gapped on the hills, a little bit, maybe 4 or 5 bike lengths but then hammered onto the last wheel ahead on the descents. I knew this was going to cost me in the long run.
There were a couple of husky guys who were in the same get-dropped/hammer-back-on cycle and I let them pull me back on a few times, glad they were around. They were good wind blocks too.
One guy got his chain royally tangled up as he shifted on a climb, thought that was the last I’d see of him but he heroically made it back to our group.
Scott appeared steady as a rock the whole time.
Nearly two hours into the race and I realized that I didn’t take any Endurolytes since before the start. I reached into my jersey to pull them out when suddenly we were descending Carney-Cassidy Road and I thought better of one-handing it just then. Sure enough, on the next rise, I got out of the saddle to narrow a gap and BOOM: right quad cramped. My Garmin data clearly shows the moment when my cadence went from the mid 80’s to 25 rpm when it happened. I shifted to an easier gear to get my cadence back up but it was too late: they gapped me real good.
I kept them in sight for few minutes but every turn seemed to put me into more wind and I knew I would not finish at all if I kept trying to close that gap on my own. I was prepared for the likelyhood that I would finish this race on my own so I settled into finding a groove that I could carry for the next 27 miles.
These next, long, miles consisted of getting low to the wind, doing what I could on the ascents and pushing as hard as I could on the flats and descents. One part of me was half expecting a huge pack from our field to come and overtake me, the nagging thought of this helped keep me from converting the race into a sight-seeing ride.
Soon, however, I also had to deal with some serious lower back pain. Not like any I’ve had before, it was really low and overlapped the top of my hips. Strangely, it would come and go with no correlation to the effort I was putting out.
Meanwhile, I passed a couple of guys that either Jeremy’s and/or Scott’s group had dropped. I thought they’d cling to my increasingly feeble wheel, but they didn’t even try. A couple of those dirt road descents in this last third of the race were pretty hairy, with loose dirt and crushed rock dust about 2 inches thick on top. I could see some pretty wavy tracks laid down by earlier passers-by but kept an even keel as I went along. I passed one guy getting medical attention in that stretch.
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| MRC Team mate Matt Pierson climbing Meeting House Road. Photo Courtesy Beth Trickett |
The ups and downs of Meeting House Road were torture, the pain enhanced for a moment when 5 guys went blasting by me on one of the rises: “Here comes the rest of the pack!”, I thought. It took me a moment to notice they had different colored numbers on and were the leaders of a field that started after ours. Phew.
Onto Stage Road and, like on most of the last climbs, there was no spark left in my legs so I shifted all the way to 39/27 and ground my way up. I was keenly aware of all the people set up on their front yards or end of the driveways, cheering, ringing bells and enjoying the passing parade of pain. It definitely gave me a lift when I really needed it.
I was in heaven when one lone lady leaning on her mailbox shouted to me: “One more climb and then five miles to go!”
The last miles had me, forearms my bar tops, in tri-mode, pedaling towards the end. Somehow, after all previous agony, I managed a 20 mph avg for the final 4 miles. That last turn into the finish straight was a real treat with people hanging over the barriers, cheering as I crossed the line with no one else in sight. My assumption was that I finished barely in the top 20 and was going to confirm that later on BikeReg, I felt good all right about it but was not exactly jazzed.
Afterwards, I greedily grabbed a bottle of water that was handed to me and downed right away. I wandered with my bike along the vendor area until I came upon Len near the start-finish line and gave him the short version of my race. Then he gave me directions back to the high school which left me dreading getting back on my bike for the short ride back.
I bounced back a bit after I changed/ate/drank and returned to the podium area with Jeremy, Scott, Todd, Matt and connected with Carl “Old Salt” Shimer and Gary “Wasabe Chin” Sclar.
Finally, I wandered over to the posted results, looked up my field and found to my surprise that I had finished 12th.
Cool!
2011/04/09
What, You Think I've Been Doing NOTHING?
If you go by the amount of activity here, you could come to a number of conclusions. You could assume I gave up on cycling. You might think I got so busy with work and had no time to devote to it.
Granted, there was a long gap between outdoor rides that ran from Jan 4th through March 2nd - all that snow!
As it turns out, I've been on a roll training-wise like never before. Gliding right into indoor training from cross season and dodging the nasty cold I usually get during the early winter has me approaching the spring in better shape than I have ever been for this, the 3rd incarnation of my cycling life. I've been eating well all winter and combined with the workouts, have got my weight down to where it was in July of last year.
Good looking numbers:
The entries in my log for January through March look more like what you'd expect during mid-summer from me.
I programmed workouts into my Garmin Edge 500 from both Joe Friel's "The Cyclist's Training Bible" and Sally Edwards' "Heart Zones Cycling". I also participated in a structured weekly CompuTrainer workout with seven others and even did two simulations on the CT of the Tour of the Battenkill race course (one in January and one last week).
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Phooey, wanted to finish this post a week ago but got really busy with work. Here's the quick catchup: tomorrow is the Tour of the Battenkill. The MRC has it's largest ever squad of cyclists entered. We've got a strong 4 man team in the Cat 5 35+ (yes, I'm racing DOWN one age group) consisting of myself, Jeremy Cratty, Scott Sweeney and Todd Prekaski.
They are all up there as I write this, pre-riding part of the course, plotting strategy and probably having a couple of beers. I've got to usher at a concert at our church tonight but then straight home for a small snack and to bed.
Dialed in the bike earlier today, packed the cooler, loaded the car and laid out the bike duds. In the morning: coffee, cereal and a good poop. Then it's off to Cambridge, NY with me.
Stay tuned.
Granted, there was a long gap between outdoor rides that ran from Jan 4th through March 2nd - all that snow!
As it turns out, I've been on a roll training-wise like never before. Gliding right into indoor training from cross season and dodging the nasty cold I usually get during the early winter has me approaching the spring in better shape than I have ever been for this, the 3rd incarnation of my cycling life. I've been eating well all winter and combined with the workouts, have got my weight down to where it was in July of last year.
Good looking numbers:
The entries in my log for January through March look more like what you'd expect during mid-summer from me.
I programmed workouts into my Garmin Edge 500 from both Joe Friel's "The Cyclist's Training Bible" and Sally Edwards' "Heart Zones Cycling". I also participated in a structured weekly CompuTrainer workout with seven others and even did two simulations on the CT of the Tour of the Battenkill race course (one in January and one last week).
------
Phooey, wanted to finish this post a week ago but got really busy with work. Here's the quick catchup: tomorrow is the Tour of the Battenkill. The MRC has it's largest ever squad of cyclists entered. We've got a strong 4 man team in the Cat 5 35+ (yes, I'm racing DOWN one age group) consisting of myself, Jeremy Cratty, Scott Sweeney and Todd Prekaski.
They are all up there as I write this, pre-riding part of the course, plotting strategy and probably having a couple of beers. I've got to usher at a concert at our church tonight but then straight home for a small snack and to bed.
Dialed in the bike earlier today, packed the cooler, loaded the car and laid out the bike duds. In the morning: coffee, cereal and a good poop. Then it's off to Cambridge, NY with me.
Stay tuned.
2011/01/09
Bandit Cross - Wrentham, MA
A handful of the New England cyclocross community, including Adam Meyerson, Jerome Townsend, Colin Reuter PLUS two Rutgers team riders who drove up from New Jersey took the snowy challenge at the Wrentham Development Center yesterday.
After carving a course into the snow and ice, a practice lap or two, Geoff Williams of cyclocrossracing.com, after a week of online exhortations, functioned as "race official" and started the assembled riders in two 20 minute heats. Surprisingly, I don't think there were any crashes during either heat, though there is one great endo recovery at 1:47 in the video.
The terrific song, "Winter" is by Dumptruck, lengendary Boston area band from the late 80's. Here's a link to the album "Positively Dumptruck".
After carving a course into the snow and ice, a practice lap or two, Geoff Williams of cyclocrossracing.com, after a week of online exhortations, functioned as "race official" and started the assembled riders in two 20 minute heats. Surprisingly, I don't think there were any crashes during either heat, though there is one great endo recovery at 1:47 in the video.
The terrific song, "Winter" is by Dumptruck, lengendary Boston area band from the late 80's. Here's a link to the album "Positively Dumptruck".
2011/01/03
First, A Little Catching Up
This week between Christmas and New Years is a traditional time for taking time off and taking stock so I thought I'd play a little catch up on recent goings on. Shortly I'll take stock of the year just concluded and look ahead to what I might expect in 2011.
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The Ice Weasels Cometh - December 11, 2010
I think I took this race way more seriously than nearly every other person there that day, which was my great loss.
My race report was typical for Cat 4 cannon-fodder: Racing a bit above myself in the 3/4 heat, I started great, passed a few people for the first two laps or so, got passed by a few. Then the next few laps saw me transform from strong and in control to sloppay as all get out and wishing the damn race was over already.
Meanwhile, I was blind to every generous beer/donut/cabbage/money hand-up offered to me.
At some point, they must have realized I was a zombie. They stopped shouting at me to take what they were waving in front of me and instead proffered their gifts to those who actually had peripheral vision. The course was very dry and in some places a lot of dust got kicked up as you can see below. I spent the last two laps feeling like I was pushing a car, finishing (gulp!) 61st of 65.
A couple of days after the race I discovered that during a pre-race drivetrain teardown and buildup, I reinstalled my Rotor Q-ring rotated 90º out of whack, effectively making it HARDER to pedal instead of easier. Not that it mattered much.
--
New England Regional Cyclocross Championships - December 18, 2010
With a couple of trainer sessions and one hour of outdoor training (ha!) after Ice Weasels I felt confident that I would do well in this race. I really did FEEL good that morning as we lined up.
After a slightly too-short warmup, I lined up 4th row and had a very good start, crunching my way past a few people who couldn't clip in and then, as we made our way to the "death spiral", I picked up a few more spots on the way into the center. Right at the middle, however, there was a major traffic jam, I was on the inside and was forced completely out of both pedals and had to "Fred Flinstone" for a few feet until I could clip in again.
As we exited the DS that first time, a rather large front group had formed and I was just off the back of it. I worked hard to reel in the guy in front of me but even as I did, that front group strung out very quickly as it wound it's way to the far side of the course past the mostly frozen sand pit (was that a volleyball court?). I was very nearly at max effort and fully warmed up, finally.
I bolted past a coupla more guys at the barriers which were between the two long straights along the roadway and one more at the fly over then passed more pedaling up the run up (which had a diabolically placed chunk of ice/snow right at the middle at the top).
The first 1 & 1/2 laps done, I spent the next part of the race in a no man's land that felt like somewhere just behind mid-pack. A coupla guys visible ahead of me and when I was on certain parts of the course, I could see a coupla guys behind me. I knew this would not be good - without someone to chase or be chased by, the mental task of keeping the pressure on would be tough.
I bore down and over the next two laps caught up to the two guys ahead of me. My best moments in the race: I made an artfully timed and executed inside pass on a turn on the far side of the course to get by one of them (SKILL!) and a short time later, passed the other guy on a straight (POWER!) and got maybe 10 seconds in front of them both.
Along the roadside straights, I could even see Stefan not too far ahead and made him my next goal but that lasted about as long as it took to process the thought: I crossed the start/finish with 2 laps to go, my dilithium crystals failed and I dropped out of warp.
BRAIN: "Scotty, give me more power!"
LEGS: "I'm giving her all she's got, Captain!"
There just didn't seem to be anywhere on the course to get a little rest and at this point, I needed one bad.
Two turns before the fly over, the guys I passed earlier came up behind me fast and I let them by rather than foul them up with my now rather non-existent bike handling skills. The rest of the race was just survival.
Finished five minutes behind infamous sandbagger M. Brier, placing 21st of 42 over all and 14th of 22 in the 45+ class. Drove home, unloaded all the bike stuff and loaded up all the photo stuff for a location shoot later in the day.
--
Random stuff
I finally replaced my 25+ year old Blackburn wind load trainer with a spiffy new Kurt Kinetic fluid trainer. Much. Quieter. Easier to plunk bike into as well. Hello, BSG season two.
I'm riding a MTB again after, oh 20 years by way of a used 2004 or '05 Specialized Stumpjumper on loan from a fellow MRC member. Needs some tuning up FD-wise (won't shift to largest chainring) but functions well otherwise. Have done 3 rides on it, all in various amounts of snow, notably a couple of days after Christmas at the Delaney Project in Stow when Gary D and I tried riding in the post-blizzard drifts:
Post Blizzard MTB ride @ Delaney Project from Russ Campbell on Vimeo.
Well, we DID get pretty tired, pushing our bikes through the snow, so it definitely counts as a workout and not just "play".
The following day, I did a solo MTB ride in the Stow Town Forest which went "much" better. That morning a phalanx of XC skiers laid down a nice 12" wide lane of densely packed snow around a few of the trails which made it possible to ride as long as I did not stray too far to teh side. This is not to say I was going very fast, it was hard work: 4 miles in an hour, with many abrupt stops when I got into the deeper stuff.
On New Year's Day, I got in a nice 90 minute "gentleman's ride" with some of my MRC brethren. Easy pace, mostly, with a 1/2 hour coffee break in Concord Center about 3/4 of the way through. It was fun shouting "Happy New Year" to other cyclists we passed.
Next up: year end assessment and planning/prognostication for 2011!
--
The Ice Weasels Cometh - December 11, 2010
I think I took this race way more seriously than nearly every other person there that day, which was my great loss.
My race report was typical for Cat 4 cannon-fodder: Racing a bit above myself in the 3/4 heat, I started great, passed a few people for the first two laps or so, got passed by a few. Then the next few laps saw me transform from strong and in control to sloppay as all get out and wishing the damn race was over already.
Meanwhile, I was blind to every generous beer/donut/cabbage/money hand-up offered to me.
 |
| © John Franzen / Atomic Star Designs photo |
At some point, they must have realized I was a zombie. They stopped shouting at me to take what they were waving in front of me and instead proffered their gifts to those who actually had peripheral vision. The course was very dry and in some places a lot of dust got kicked up as you can see below. I spent the last two laps feeling like I was pushing a car, finishing (gulp!) 61st of 65.
 |
| © Itai Halevi |
I did rally and got some good photos of the shenanigans that followed. Many more photos from Ice Weasels viewable here.
 |
| Ryan White prepares to quench his thirst. © Russ Campbell |
A couple of days after the race I discovered that during a pre-race drivetrain teardown and buildup, I reinstalled my Rotor Q-ring rotated 90º out of whack, effectively making it HARDER to pedal instead of easier. Not that it mattered much.
--
New England Regional Cyclocross Championships - December 18, 2010
With a couple of trainer sessions and one hour of outdoor training (ha!) after Ice Weasels I felt confident that I would do well in this race. I really did FEEL good that morning as we lined up.
After a slightly too-short warmup, I lined up 4th row and had a very good start, crunching my way past a few people who couldn't clip in and then, as we made our way to the "death spiral", I picked up a few more spots on the way into the center. Right at the middle, however, there was a major traffic jam, I was on the inside and was forced completely out of both pedals and had to "Fred Flinstone" for a few feet until I could clip in again.
As we exited the DS that first time, a rather large front group had formed and I was just off the back of it. I worked hard to reel in the guy in front of me but even as I did, that front group strung out very quickly as it wound it's way to the far side of the course past the mostly frozen sand pit (was that a volleyball court?). I was very nearly at max effort and fully warmed up, finally.
I bolted past a coupla more guys at the barriers which were between the two long straights along the roadway and one more at the fly over then passed more pedaling up the run up (which had a diabolically placed chunk of ice/snow right at the middle at the top).
The first 1 & 1/2 laps done, I spent the next part of the race in a no man's land that felt like somewhere just behind mid-pack. A coupla guys visible ahead of me and when I was on certain parts of the course, I could see a coupla guys behind me. I knew this would not be good - without someone to chase or be chased by, the mental task of keeping the pressure on would be tough.
I bore down and over the next two laps caught up to the two guys ahead of me. My best moments in the race: I made an artfully timed and executed inside pass on a turn on the far side of the course to get by one of them (SKILL!) and a short time later, passed the other guy on a straight (POWER!) and got maybe 10 seconds in front of them both.
Along the roadside straights, I could even see Stefan not too far ahead and made him my next goal but that lasted about as long as it took to process the thought: I crossed the start/finish with 2 laps to go, my dilithium crystals failed and I dropped out of warp.
BRAIN: "Scotty, give me more power!"
LEGS: "I'm giving her all she's got, Captain!"
There just didn't seem to be anywhere on the course to get a little rest and at this point, I needed one bad.
Two turns before the fly over, the guys I passed earlier came up behind me fast and I let them by rather than foul them up with my now rather non-existent bike handling skills. The rest of the race was just survival.
Finished five minutes behind infamous sandbagger M. Brier, placing 21st of 42 over all and 14th of 22 in the 45+ class. Drove home, unloaded all the bike stuff and loaded up all the photo stuff for a location shoot later in the day.
--
Random stuff
I finally replaced my 25+ year old Blackburn wind load trainer with a spiffy new Kurt Kinetic fluid trainer. Much. Quieter. Easier to plunk bike into as well. Hello, BSG season two.
I'm riding a MTB again after, oh 20 years by way of a used 2004 or '05 Specialized Stumpjumper on loan from a fellow MRC member. Needs some tuning up FD-wise (won't shift to largest chainring) but functions well otherwise. Have done 3 rides on it, all in various amounts of snow, notably a couple of days after Christmas at the Delaney Project in Stow when Gary D and I tried riding in the post-blizzard drifts:
Post Blizzard MTB ride @ Delaney Project from Russ Campbell on Vimeo.
Well, we DID get pretty tired, pushing our bikes through the snow, so it definitely counts as a workout and not just "play".
The following day, I did a solo MTB ride in the Stow Town Forest which went "much" better. That morning a phalanx of XC skiers laid down a nice 12" wide lane of densely packed snow around a few of the trails which made it possible to ride as long as I did not stray too far to teh side. This is not to say I was going very fast, it was hard work: 4 miles in an hour, with many abrupt stops when I got into the deeper stuff.
On New Year's Day, I got in a nice 90 minute "gentleman's ride" with some of my MRC brethren. Easy pace, mostly, with a 1/2 hour coffee break in Concord Center about 3/4 of the way through. It was fun shouting "Happy New Year" to other cyclists we passed.
Next up: year end assessment and planning/prognostication for 2011!
2010/12/09
Yes, I'm "Training" for This
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| Colin "briefcasing" his bike over the barriers at the 2009 Ice Weasels. Photo courtesy of PainFace @ DoubleHop |
Despite the lack of activity, and one big-eatin' holiday, I've only a put a coupla pounds on during my "convalescence". Workouts since have gone very well in this c-c-c-cold weather we've been having around here, although yesterday's was cut short due to some major calf-cramping I just could not shake.
Gonna wait until mid-day today when it's (hopefully) just above freezing to get one last hard ride in before mixing it up Ice Weasels Cometh on Saturday!
2010/11/25
2010/10/22
The Secret Eye Was Upon Me
So, I'm reading Squat Lobster's account of the Cat 4 35/45+ race I was also in this past Sunday and when I got to his video, I enjoyed seeing some of my MRC team mates come and go through the frame of his camera:
At the end of the video, when his camera has fallen off his bike (jelly side up), I couldn't help but wonder if I was one of the guys zipping past. Enter some frame-by-frame analysis and BINGO, there I am!
Race Report: Minuteman Cross, Cat 4 35/45+ - Lancaster, MA
With not much of a warmup (sigh) because I was running around the course photographing the open Cat 4 race, I lined up 6th row, which was closer to the front than I thought I'd be with only one other cycocross race under my belt. Did my best on the first lap to just maintain position, passing some people on that first big climb then being passed later on in the turny bits of the course.
Somewhere in lap 2, Mark Van Lier passed by me (from starting in row 8) and I gave chase. Tried keeping him in sight the rest of the race. Played cat-and-mouse with Sweeney for a while too.
Lap 3, as I exited the last barn turn and approached the copse of trees by the bleachers, I snagged my left brake handle in the tape, stretching out 6 ft or so diagonally across the track - dang stuff broke so easy in the wind but wouldn't when I got caught in it. It slowed some BikeBarn guy down a half-second while I cursed a blue streak and finally freed myself.
Had to do a half dozen foot-plants on turns but was glad I had the instinct to do so, woulda definitely bit it in a few cases if I didn't.
I can hardly remember going up and over the flyover, I guess it wasn't an issue for me.
Last lap, I tried to stick with Scott but couldn't, Van Liere was out of sight but I had some guy on my tail so he would have to do for me to have any last acts of heroism. As we left the corner field before the finishing straight, he was actually breathing louder than I was, so I began to hit the gas. He matched my every move, likely tucked in behind me tight to stay out of the wind.
I kept shifting up and going faster and still I could hear his huffing and puffing behind me and as I hit the line, I practiced throwing my bars "just in case" but I don't think he was coming around.
Result: 34th of 76 overall and 17th of 40 in the 45+.
I'm very pleased with how I did. My ankle/foot did not pose a problem (but did need a bag of ice when I got home) and each lap was faster than the one before (9:19, 9:09, 9:08 and 9:06). My only self-criticism was that even though my remounts went without a hitch, I did flop my ass down on the seat really hard every time - I'm lucky that the barriers were in the forgiving wood chips.
Later, when the results were up, I did not find myself on the print-out so I pestered JD between races and he reviewed the tape, found me and even complemented me on the throw.
The rest of the day, I spent taking shots of the rest of the action. I took so many shots, it required quite a few man-hours of editing to create the gallery I posted online.
Somewhere in lap 2, Mark Van Lier passed by me (from starting in row 8) and I gave chase. Tried keeping him in sight the rest of the race. Played cat-and-mouse with Sweeney for a while too.
Lap 3, as I exited the last barn turn and approached the copse of trees by the bleachers, I snagged my left brake handle in the tape, stretching out 6 ft or so diagonally across the track - dang stuff broke so easy in the wind but wouldn't when I got caught in it. It slowed some BikeBarn guy down a half-second while I cursed a blue streak and finally freed myself.
Had to do a half dozen foot-plants on turns but was glad I had the instinct to do so, woulda definitely bit it in a few cases if I didn't.
I can hardly remember going up and over the flyover, I guess it wasn't an issue for me.
Last lap, I tried to stick with Scott but couldn't, Van Liere was out of sight but I had some guy on my tail so he would have to do for me to have any last acts of heroism. As we left the corner field before the finishing straight, he was actually breathing louder than I was, so I began to hit the gas. He matched my every move, likely tucked in behind me tight to stay out of the wind.
I kept shifting up and going faster and still I could hear his huffing and puffing behind me and as I hit the line, I practiced throwing my bars "just in case" but I don't think he was coming around.
Result: 34th of 76 overall and 17th of 40 in the 45+.
I'm very pleased with how I did. My ankle/foot did not pose a problem (but did need a bag of ice when I got home) and each lap was faster than the one before (9:19, 9:09, 9:08 and 9:06). My only self-criticism was that even though my remounts went without a hitch, I did flop my ass down on the seat really hard every time - I'm lucky that the barriers were in the forgiving wood chips.
Later, when the results were up, I did not find myself on the print-out so I pestered JD between races and he reviewed the tape, found me and even complemented me on the throw.
The rest of the day, I spent taking shots of the rest of the action. I took so many shots, it required quite a few man-hours of editing to create the gallery I posted online.
2010/10/16
Pre-Race Workout
Spent the day doing course setup for our race tomorrow, the CyclocrossRacing.com/Minuteman Road Club CX Race.
7 a.m. start with NO COFFEE. Big mistake, felt kinda logey all day, but soldiered on through staking/taping the course, pruning tree branches, clipping off exposed roots and toting 55 gallon drums. Oh, then there was the hauling of logs, hay bales and walking back and forth along the course dozens of times to move my car and it's load of tools to a more convenient location.
Meanwhile the wind was gusting to 25 mph and threatening to make our racecourse look like either a drunken Christo installation or a field of bedraggled TIbetan prayer flags.
Right around noon, I was pretty cooked and, it being two hours beyond the advertised completion time, quite ready to go. Just then the call comes in that the flyover is on it's way to the site.
Ok, I'll hang around a little longer. What's next?
Unloading the components from the trailer, that's what:
Here, hold this for a minute, would ya?
Ok, once the guys assembling the flyover seem to have things well in hand, I head home and finally swap out my front brake pads (long overdue) and install the shorter handlebar stem I've wanted since I got the XO1 in August. Both operations go quickly and smoothly.
Next I get the car loaded up with my standard race armament PLUS a few extras just for this race (I'll detail these later in my race report). But I keep wondering how the flyover is coming along, so I head back over to sneak another peek:
7 a.m. start with NO COFFEE. Big mistake, felt kinda logey all day, but soldiered on through staking/taping the course, pruning tree branches, clipping off exposed roots and toting 55 gallon drums. Oh, then there was the hauling of logs, hay bales and walking back and forth along the course dozens of times to move my car and it's load of tools to a more convenient location.
Meanwhile the wind was gusting to 25 mph and threatening to make our racecourse look like either a drunken Christo installation or a field of bedraggled TIbetan prayer flags.
Right around noon, I was pretty cooked and, it being two hours beyond the advertised completion time, quite ready to go. Just then the call comes in that the flyover is on it's way to the site.
Ok, I'll hang around a little longer. What's next?
Unloading the components from the trailer, that's what:
Here, hold this for a minute, would ya?
Ok, once the guys assembling the flyover seem to have things well in hand, I head home and finally swap out my front brake pads (long overdue) and install the shorter handlebar stem I've wanted since I got the XO1 in August. Both operations go quickly and smoothly.
Next I get the car loaded up with my standard race armament PLUS a few extras just for this race (I'll detail these later in my race report). But I keep wondering how the flyover is coming along, so I head back over to sneak another peek:
My those steps look steep! I trotted up... gonna be some sore thighs tomorrow! The crew also added a little skirt to the end of the ramp so descending cyclists can transition back to level ground less abruptly. Nice touch!
Ok, back home, dinner and now let's wrap this post so I can get some proper rest.
EDIT: I forgot that I got this vid-clip of an early test drive:
Minuteman Road Club Flyover - nearly finished! from Russ Campbell on Vimeo.
EDIT: I forgot that I got this vid-clip of an early test drive:
Minuteman Road Club Flyover - nearly finished! from Russ Campbell on Vimeo.
2010/10/13
Providence Cyclocross Festival - Day 1 - October 9, 2010
A beautiful Saturday morning greeted New England 'crossers as they competed on Day 1 of the Providence Cyclocross Festival. I was signed up to race but I was still feeling cautious about my ankle which left me free to photograph the goings on.
Fellow Minuteman Road Club member, John Smith bought himself an upgrade to Cat 3 over the weekend by winning the Cat 4 35/45+ on both days. Chris Pare took 3rd on day 2 in that category.
Doug Kennedy also had a great weekend, placing 4th and 7th on each day. He bumped up to Cat 2 as a result.
I covered the Cat 4, Cat 4 35/45+, Cat 3/4 Women and the U15 Juniors (1-4). Full gallery here.
Fellow Minuteman Road Club member, John Smith bought himself an upgrade to Cat 3 over the weekend by winning the Cat 4 35/45+ on both days. Chris Pare took 3rd on day 2 in that category.
Doug Kennedy also had a great weekend, placing 4th and 7th on each day. He bumped up to Cat 2 as a result.
I covered the Cat 4, Cat 4 35/45+, Cat 3/4 Women and the U15 Juniors (1-4). Full gallery here.
 |
| Competitors make their way past the Temple of Music in Roger Williams Park. |
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| Michael Weiler descends in Roger Williams Park. |
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| Todd Savage leads fellow Minuteman team member John Smith up at the start of the 35/45+ heat on Saturday. |
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| A victorious John Smith (Minuteman) as he wins the Cat 4 35+. |
2010/10/07
The Night Weasels Cometh - October 6, 2010 - Shrewsbury, MA
Rained like the dickens while we were stringing tape along the course but it eased up in time for the first heat of the evening, the Cat 4 Men. This didn't mean that the course was easy to navigate, there was plenty of slippery messiness to be had.
Since my ankle was still messed up, I was fine with the role of photographer, while the light lasted. One Cat 3 racer who shall remain nameless, remonstrated me for using my flash... it WAS hard to see out there, so I don't blame him. I didn't want to be the cause of anyone's crash so I took more slow shutter speed pan shots and saved most of the flash shots for the finish line.
Colin, Chip, all the volunteers and the crew from Ski Ward all did a terrific job. Everyone had a great time!
A gallery of photos is viewable here: click for mud
Since my ankle was still messed up, I was fine with the role of photographer, while the light lasted. One Cat 3 racer who shall remain nameless, remonstrated me for using my flash... it WAS hard to see out there, so I don't blame him. I didn't want to be the cause of anyone's crash so I took more slow shutter speed pan shots and saved most of the flash shots for the finish line.
Colin, Chip, all the volunteers and the crew from Ski Ward all did a terrific job. Everyone had a great time!
A gallery of photos is viewable here: click for mud
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| Minuteman Road Club Cat 4 crew after the race |
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| Matt Pierson hurdling a six inch pipe |
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| Peter Goguen, 14 year old Cat 4 winner |
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| MRC Member Rob Bauer shows why his nickname is "Pain Face" |
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| Jonny Bold ripping it up in the P/1/2/3 race |
2010/10/04
Ankle Update
So it's six days since I sprained my ankle/foot. Two days to go before The Night Weasels Cometh.I had a string of assignments through the weekend so I couldn't stay off my feet at all, but the ankle brace I picked up at CVS did a good job of helping me to function.
Every day, it's been getting a little better.
This morning, I taped it up and got on the trainer for some intervals and it held up really well but the bad news is that when I got off, laced up my running shoes and tried to simply JOG around the block, it was a no-go after 100 yards.
So, if you had to ask me right now, I'd say that I'll be photographing the race Wednesday night, not participating in it.
Every day, it's been getting a little better.
This morning, I taped it up and got on the trainer for some intervals and it held up really well but the bad news is that when I got off, laced up my running shoes and tried to simply JOG around the block, it was a no-go after 100 yards.
So, if you had to ask me right now, I'd say that I'll be photographing the race Wednesday night, not participating in it.
2010/10/01
My Own Worst Enemy?
Short post only to report that I have been finding new ways to maim myself.
Two weeks ago, I unwisely jumped on a BMX bike for the first time at the track in Billerica (I was quite the sight in my roadie bike shorts and jersey), went off course and my right thigh lost a fight with a rather sharp rock as I fell, leaving me with a 5-inch gash that provided me with a nice view of what things look like underneath my skin. (Sorry, no photos)
My wife is becoming an expert at rolling her eyes at me when I come limping back into the house.
Fast forward to this past Tuesday, I'm scheduled to have the stitches removed at 1:30pm but in the morning, I decide to do a little 'cross workout, concentrating on nailing down my remounts. Somehow, I manage to completely miss the saddle and sort of sit down on the rolling rear tire while simultaneously riding over my left foot with my ankle bent to the right at a rather unnatural angle.
Boof! Down I go and instantly I know that the workout is over.
Coupla hours later it's my PCP who's rolling his eyes at me when I ask him if he would check out my ankle after he is done taking out the stitches.
So, I've been hobbling around with a brace on the ankle. It's improved a lot in two and a half days. I'm thinking I might just be alright for the Night Weasels Cometh this coming Wednesday...
Two weeks ago, I unwisely jumped on a BMX bike for the first time at the track in Billerica (I was quite the sight in my roadie bike shorts and jersey), went off course and my right thigh lost a fight with a rather sharp rock as I fell, leaving me with a 5-inch gash that provided me with a nice view of what things look like underneath my skin. (Sorry, no photos)
My wife is becoming an expert at rolling her eyes at me when I come limping back into the house.
Fast forward to this past Tuesday, I'm scheduled to have the stitches removed at 1:30pm but in the morning, I decide to do a little 'cross workout, concentrating on nailing down my remounts. Somehow, I manage to completely miss the saddle and sort of sit down on the rolling rear tire while simultaneously riding over my left foot with my ankle bent to the right at a rather unnatural angle.
Boof! Down I go and instantly I know that the workout is over.
Coupla hours later it's my PCP who's rolling his eyes at me when I ask him if he would check out my ankle after he is done taking out the stitches.
So, I've been hobbling around with a brace on the ankle. It's improved a lot in two and a half days. I'm thinking I might just be alright for the Night Weasels Cometh this coming Wednesday...
2010/09/15
Crossin' Over, Catching Up - Plus QuadCross 2010
The month of August usually sees my cycling mileage drop significantly, mostly due to a 3 week vacation that begins when my daughter's summer camp ends late in the month and the beginning of school, which for her was the Wednesday after Labor Day this year.
Oh yes, we do some traveling during that time: we had a most enjoyable time on Martha's Vineyard despite the squally conditions pretty much the whole time we were there. This was followed by our traditional father/daughter-only trip to Cape Cod to visit my mom, body-board in the Eastham Surf and do some rides with my brother, Doug.
A New Ride
But this year, I added a 2005 Trek XO 1 cross bike to the mix just before the hiatus began and, while my "saddle time" has dropped about to about the same level as it did last year, mileage is WAY down due to all the time I've been putting in riding the "new" bike around at speeds averaging less than 11 mph.
The bike is pretty much stock except for a 42 tooth Rotor Q-Ring and chain guard and a nice Specialized Toupe saddle (same as on my road bike) added by the original owner. It's a 56cm frame (1cm larger than my LeMond) and so, I have a bit of fit tweaking to do. Mostly likely purchase will be to get a 100mm stem to replace the 110mm one that is currently installed.
Just before we headed to MV for a few days, I got some basic pointers on my second ride on the Trek from MRC's Bruce T who gave me a handful of things to go practice on my own. Surprisingly, much of it came pretty naturally - except except for remounting: I quickly developed the "double-hop" habit.
Third ride in, while starting a lap in the too-rooty Stow Town Forest, my front wheel found a grapefruit-sized rock hidden in the leaves and stopped cold, sending me sailing over the bars, landing hands-and-knees down on the trail. The bike pitched over and hammered the saddle on the ground, bending one of the seat rails.
I got a nice, deep gouge just above my left knee and a bruised the heel of my left thumb. With my first cross crash out of the way, I soldiered on. The gouge did not affect my ability to ride, but the bruised hand pestered me for another ten days. I had to swap out the Toupe saddle for the Bontrager one that came stock on my road bike.
In between the MV and Cape Cod trips, the couple of workouts I got in with various MRC members started to give me an inkling for the kind of efforts that would be required to do a cross race.
Huge efforts.
While on the Cape, I got one decent 40 mile tempo ride in with my brother on my road bike. Wow, a bike that has brakes that actually bring you to a stop and not merely slow you down!
Back from vacation, I did another solo ride in the Stow Town Forest that consisted of one high intensity lap of about 15 minutes then some dismount/mount practice followed by some easy trail exploration that included another, more spectacular, fall.
I was poking along a mountain bike trail that ran along the side of a steep hill and got a little too close to a tree, which grabbed the left sleeve of my jersey. As my jersey sleeve was ripping, the force was pulling me to the left - and down the slope. Next, my left arm was pulled off the handlebar and even though I was intoning (out loud), "I got it... I got it...", the front wheel lurched 90 degrees to the left.
At that instant, the tree, satisfied with the amount of jersey it had captured, released my left arm, allowing me to tumble to the right and down the hill about 10 feet, with the bike coming to rest on my back.
Obviously, I didn't have it.
I lay there for a moment, waiting for something to start to hurt. Fortunately, nothing did. I gathered myself up and pedaled home.
More Serious Training
My next three rides were great: a cross workout with a large group of about 8 others where we did five 6 minute hot laps followed by a 20 minute tempo-level fartlek session. I pretty much played "catch up" the whole time.
The second ride was a 40 mile road ride with Doug K and Smudger (two of the strongest members I ride with regularly) that was billed as "easy-to-moderate" but ended up, for me, to be "hard-to-moderate", in that order. As far as I could tell, they only had to wait up for me a couple of times.
The third was the following Monday morning, Labor Day: a very welcome cross skills workout with Gary D, Stefan and new-to-me MRC member, Able. We spent a lot of focused time on run-ups, tight turning and most beneficial to me, barriers and re-mounts. With their help, I finally began to minimize the double-hop and maximize the number of smooth remounts.
Later that day, as if I hadn't punished myself enough over the labor day weekend, I took my family to climb Monadnock Mountain, where my wife and I had gone on our first date. We got about 3/4 the way up when my wife tweaked her knee and we had to, carefully, make our way back down. Not summiting hit my daughter pretty hard, her recurring lamentations adding to the difficulty of getting my wife down safely.
Really Serious Training
The Wednesday after that, I headed down to Wrentham to participate in the MRC Cyclocross Training Series. After some course maintenance (try riding your bike while carrying a 5 lb. lump hammer in one hand) we did a bunch of hot laps. This was the closest thing I would get to racing before the following Sunday's QuadCross in Bedford, so I was hankering to find out what kind of shape I was in.
Well, I learned right away that racing cross means driving your heart rate through the roof, keeping it there, while simultaneously pedaling like mad until your legs feel like bags of rocks. Good thing we took a 2-3 minute break between laps. Here's my HR plotted against elevation for the afternoon:
See how it ramps right up to 170 bpm and stays there until the lap is over? We'll be looking at another fun graph shortly...
The next two days saw me working more on skills than fitness, especially dismounts/mounts.
This past Saturday found me back at Monadnock, as I promised my daughter we'd give it another go. We made the round trip in four and a half hours in perfect weather. Probably not the best thing to be doing the day before a race, but a promise is a promise.
Now, compare that Wrentham graph above with this one from the hike:
HR barely exceeded 110 bpm even on the steepest sections.
First Race
And so, finally, we come to QuadCross 2010 this past Sunday. My first 'cross race!
I was registered to race in the Cat 4 heat along with a good sized MRC contingent. I got the benefit of not one but two warmup laps around the course, which really helped as there were lots of spots where you could either screw up royally or make a smart play to pass someone. I might have missed these features if I'd only taken one trip around.
10 o'clock rolls around and I find myself lined up in the 2nd row. And then we wait for about twelve minutes. So much for the warmup.
When the whistle is finally blown, I'm stomping on the pedals with all my might but my legs are telling me they want to continue the nap they'd just been enjoying. Off we all go and a bunch of people get by me right away in the first few turns. As much as I try to remember the rest of the race, only certain details have stuck with me:
Oh yes, we do some traveling during that time: we had a most enjoyable time on Martha's Vineyard despite the squally conditions pretty much the whole time we were there. This was followed by our traditional father/daughter-only trip to Cape Cod to visit my mom, body-board in the Eastham Surf and do some rides with my brother, Doug.
A New Ride
But this year, I added a 2005 Trek XO 1 cross bike to the mix just before the hiatus began and, while my "saddle time" has dropped about to about the same level as it did last year, mileage is WAY down due to all the time I've been putting in riding the "new" bike around at speeds averaging less than 11 mph.
The bike is pretty much stock except for a 42 tooth Rotor Q-Ring and chain guard and a nice Specialized Toupe saddle (same as on my road bike) added by the original owner. It's a 56cm frame (1cm larger than my LeMond) and so, I have a bit of fit tweaking to do. Mostly likely purchase will be to get a 100mm stem to replace the 110mm one that is currently installed.
Just before we headed to MV for a few days, I got some basic pointers on my second ride on the Trek from MRC's Bruce T who gave me a handful of things to go practice on my own. Surprisingly, much of it came pretty naturally - except except for remounting: I quickly developed the "double-hop" habit.
Third ride in, while starting a lap in the too-rooty Stow Town Forest, my front wheel found a grapefruit-sized rock hidden in the leaves and stopped cold, sending me sailing over the bars, landing hands-and-knees down on the trail. The bike pitched over and hammered the saddle on the ground, bending one of the seat rails.
I got a nice, deep gouge just above my left knee and a bruised the heel of my left thumb. With my first cross crash out of the way, I soldiered on. The gouge did not affect my ability to ride, but the bruised hand pestered me for another ten days. I had to swap out the Toupe saddle for the Bontrager one that came stock on my road bike.
In between the MV and Cape Cod trips, the couple of workouts I got in with various MRC members started to give me an inkling for the kind of efforts that would be required to do a cross race.
Huge efforts.
While on the Cape, I got one decent 40 mile tempo ride in with my brother on my road bike. Wow, a bike that has brakes that actually bring you to a stop and not merely slow you down!
Back from vacation, I did another solo ride in the Stow Town Forest that consisted of one high intensity lap of about 15 minutes then some dismount/mount practice followed by some easy trail exploration that included another, more spectacular, fall.
I was poking along a mountain bike trail that ran along the side of a steep hill and got a little too close to a tree, which grabbed the left sleeve of my jersey. As my jersey sleeve was ripping, the force was pulling me to the left - and down the slope. Next, my left arm was pulled off the handlebar and even though I was intoning (out loud), "I got it... I got it...", the front wheel lurched 90 degrees to the left.
At that instant, the tree, satisfied with the amount of jersey it had captured, released my left arm, allowing me to tumble to the right and down the hill about 10 feet, with the bike coming to rest on my back.
Obviously, I didn't have it.
I lay there for a moment, waiting for something to start to hurt. Fortunately, nothing did. I gathered myself up and pedaled home.
More Serious Training
My next three rides were great: a cross workout with a large group of about 8 others where we did five 6 minute hot laps followed by a 20 minute tempo-level fartlek session. I pretty much played "catch up" the whole time.
The second ride was a 40 mile road ride with Doug K and Smudger (two of the strongest members I ride with regularly) that was billed as "easy-to-moderate" but ended up, for me, to be "hard-to-moderate", in that order. As far as I could tell, they only had to wait up for me a couple of times.
The third was the following Monday morning, Labor Day: a very welcome cross skills workout with Gary D, Stefan and new-to-me MRC member, Able. We spent a lot of focused time on run-ups, tight turning and most beneficial to me, barriers and re-mounts. With their help, I finally began to minimize the double-hop and maximize the number of smooth remounts.
Later that day, as if I hadn't punished myself enough over the labor day weekend, I took my family to climb Monadnock Mountain, where my wife and I had gone on our first date. We got about 3/4 the way up when my wife tweaked her knee and we had to, carefully, make our way back down. Not summiting hit my daughter pretty hard, her recurring lamentations adding to the difficulty of getting my wife down safely.
Really Serious Training
The Wednesday after that, I headed down to Wrentham to participate in the MRC Cyclocross Training Series. After some course maintenance (try riding your bike while carrying a 5 lb. lump hammer in one hand) we did a bunch of hot laps. This was the closest thing I would get to racing before the following Sunday's QuadCross in Bedford, so I was hankering to find out what kind of shape I was in.
Well, I learned right away that racing cross means driving your heart rate through the roof, keeping it there, while simultaneously pedaling like mad until your legs feel like bags of rocks. Good thing we took a 2-3 minute break between laps. Here's my HR plotted against elevation for the afternoon:
See how it ramps right up to 170 bpm and stays there until the lap is over? We'll be looking at another fun graph shortly...
The next two days saw me working more on skills than fitness, especially dismounts/mounts.
This past Saturday found me back at Monadnock, as I promised my daughter we'd give it another go. We made the round trip in four and a half hours in perfect weather. Probably not the best thing to be doing the day before a race, but a promise is a promise.
 |
| Here I am, resting my weary legs atop Monadnock Mountain. |
HR barely exceeded 110 bpm even on the steepest sections.
First Race
And so, finally, we come to QuadCross 2010 this past Sunday. My first 'cross race!
I was registered to race in the Cat 4 heat along with a good sized MRC contingent. I got the benefit of not one but two warmup laps around the course, which really helped as there were lots of spots where you could either screw up royally or make a smart play to pass someone. I might have missed these features if I'd only taken one trip around.
10 o'clock rolls around and I find myself lined up in the 2nd row. And then we wait for about twelve minutes. So much for the warmup.
When the whistle is finally blown, I'm stomping on the pedals with all my might but my legs are telling me they want to continue the nap they'd just been enjoying. Off we all go and a bunch of people get by me right away in the first few turns. As much as I try to remember the rest of the race, only certain details have stuck with me:
- At some point, I was playing cat-and-mouse with a Threshold rider and, as we approached the sand pit with him in front, I was determined to go by him. I got off my bike first cut to the left inside of him and blasted by only to fumble the remount a bit and watch as he blasted back by me once we took the left onto the parking lot straight
- I did OK on the barriers and on the incline right afterwards - I ran up if someone was in front of me and rode it if not.
- I felt like I was able to keep a bunch of others behind me because I was more aggressive through the tight turns, swinging wide early into the turns, cutting close to the pole, then wide again under power on the exit.
- I was able to pass 3 or 4 people during the race but a few more than that got by me.
- Even though my lungs and legs were completely on fire, I felt like I achieved some sort of strange equilibrium that allowed me to still function and continue to race.
 |
| Putting the hurt on a NEBC guy. |
As I was nearing the start/finish to end my third lap, I was hoping to hear the officials ring the bell, signifying one-to-go, but there was silence as I went by. Two laps to go and I spent a lot of the 4th lap convincing myself that this was "only" a 40 minute ride, not some unending century on a hot June day. It would be over in less than 15 minutes, I told myself.
This seemed to do the trick, because by the time I started the fifth and final lap, I had a bit of a second wind and reeled in a couple of people who had been ahead of me for a while. Of course, right after I did, somebody else passed all three of us. And then it was over.
Just to the side of the course, past the start/finish line was a bunch of MRC guys to great me and the others from our heat. But I needed a few minutes to slow my heart and lungs down a bit before I could talk:
 |
| Heart rate and elevation. The horizontal gray line is at 170 bpm. |
I finished in 41st place out of the 76 who showed up to race in the 4's. I gotta figure at 49, I was one of the oldest in the field...
Big congratulations to teammates, Chris Pare and John Smith, who took 2nd and 3rd respectively in the Cat 4 35+ race, Paul DiBetetto and John Plumb who took 4th and 5th in the 45+ 4's and Doug Kennedy who snagged 2nd in the Intermediate 3's.
Big congratulations to teammates, Chris Pare and John Smith, who took 2nd and 3rd respectively in the Cat 4 35+ race, Paul DiBetetto and John Plumb who took 4th and 5th in the 45+ 4's and Doug Kennedy who snagged 2nd in the Intermediate 3's.
Next races: Cat 4 Mens at Night Weasels Cometh on 10/6 then Cat 4 Mens Master 35+ on Saturday in Providence 10/9.
2010/08/06
2010 Gran Prix of Beverly - August 4, 2010
The 2010 Fidelity Gran Prix of Beverly was hot... and fast! Still, I wanted to be out there rather than on the sidelines - even though I really enjoyed photographing the action. As I watched, and photographed, my Minuteman Road Club team mates race in the Mens 4/5 heat, it was evident from the expressions on their and everyone else's faces that it was an extremely high intensity race.
On the second lap, just at the 3rd turn, there was a crash, sending the pack into neutral behind the pace car. Word that one of the riders down had broken his hip actually beat the pace car back to where I was standing at the final corner. A broken hip - kind of makes my shoulder separation look like a mosquito bite.
Throughout the race, MRC's Chris Pare maintained a good position in the top 10 on the outside with John Smith holding a spot on the inside a few places back.
Nearly halfway through, frequent riding buddy, Jerry De Zutter of 545 Velo came around the corner with a significant lead and no one giving chase. I'm pretty sure he tookthe a prime lap before being reabsorbed up by the pack and then finishing 14th.
Later on, there was another solo breakaway by Gerald Harris who later took 9th. Meanwhile, the heat and pace were taking their toll, producing a fair amount of attrition at the back as people began to fall off the pace and get pulled by the officials as they came around the start/finish.
A sprint finish found Kenneth Thoman (Comprehensive) in 1st, Edward Uhring (unattached) 2nd and Colin Reuter (Back Bay Bicycles) in 3rd. MRC's Chris gave John the best lead out one could ask for, allowing him to finish 7th. Chris himself came in 24th.
I took pains to get nice, sharp photos of my team mates racing... once their heat was over, the pressure was off and so I got a little looser with my coverage of the Women's and Pro/1/2 races, not really paying attention to the race per se, but spent the time noodling around with some slow-sync and motion blur.
There are a A LOT more photos from the race in this web gallery.
On the second lap, just at the 3rd turn, there was a crash, sending the pack into neutral behind the pace car. Word that one of the riders down had broken his hip actually beat the pace car back to where I was standing at the final corner. A broken hip - kind of makes my shoulder separation look like a mosquito bite.
Throughout the race, MRC's Chris Pare maintained a good position in the top 10 on the outside with John Smith holding a spot on the inside a few places back.
Nearly halfway through, frequent riding buddy, Jerry De Zutter of 545 Velo came around the corner with a significant lead and no one giving chase. I'm pretty sure he took
Later on, there was another solo breakaway by Gerald Harris who later took 9th. Meanwhile, the heat and pace were taking their toll, producing a fair amount of attrition at the back as people began to fall off the pace and get pulled by the officials as they came around the start/finish.
A sprint finish found Kenneth Thoman (Comprehensive) in 1st, Edward Uhring (unattached) 2nd and Colin Reuter (Back Bay Bicycles) in 3rd. MRC's Chris gave John the best lead out one could ask for, allowing him to finish 7th. Chris himself came in 24th.
I took pains to get nice, sharp photos of my team mates racing... once their heat was over, the pressure was off and so I got a little looser with my coverage of the Women's and Pro/1/2 races, not really paying attention to the race per se, but spent the time noodling around with some slow-sync and motion blur.
There are a A LOT more photos from the race in this web gallery.
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