Off Season

Well it's the off season for me and I am still riding. Once a week with over 20 miles a day, and about 2-3 times a day I ride to work and back (9 miles each way).

Last weekend I actually rode both days! Kids and wife out of town for semester break. I really have to do more than the 20 miles on a ride. The 40-60 mile rides I did over the weekend seemed to tap me out pretty well. I took a nap each day to recover. My legs were definitely tired as I cramped up a few times switching positions on the couch.

Well, I finally got fed up with fooling around with my positioning and got a professional bike fit with BJ Basham. He's been recommended to me by several guys I respect. I drove to BJ's place after work on Monday. Fighting through traffic on I-66 I finally arrived. BJ performed all of the measurements based upon the wobble naught system. He was very patient in explaining every measurement to me as well as how it would affect my comfort and power. BJ took a quick look at me on the trainer and remarked that I should raise my seatpost a bit more. I was a bit surprised as when I switched shoes and pedals, I was lowered down on the seatpost about 1 1/2 inch with my cleats moved all the way back. Well, after finally moving it to the point where Wobble Naught's system said I should be, I viewed my marker mark about the same exact point. This mark was put on in the Spring after I had to adjust my seatpost after draining the bike after a wet ride. Wow, I was really close before, however the cleat on the shoe was in a different place. My seat position also was moved backwards as far as it could go as I have a zero set back Thompson post. I still should move my seat back another centermeter. BJ also said that I should probably use a slightly shorter stem as well. I've used 130cm before, switched to a 120cm and now.. I should be using a 110 cm stem. I will need to find a new seatpost with more of a setback and a shorter stem.
I rode today and because I've been getting used to the other position I had been in after a couple of weeks of fiddling with the position, I definitely felt a weak point in my pedal stroke as my muscles probably lack the power from the previous position. I am hoping that this fit will provide me more consistent power and it may also help with the cramping I had had in my quads.

Anyway, only time can tell and I do think I'm in a better position now (kind of like when I was in the spring and of course I was performing decently).

If you are not feeling a smooth powerful pedal stroke or are uncomfortable on the bike, then you probably should get a bike fit. BJ also gave me some tips on pedal stroke and back positioning for a flatter and more powerful position. I think I ride in that position for the most part, however because the fit was different before, I may have started building a bad habbit, which I need now to break.

Time will tell... Now if I can continue to get some long miles in this winter, I should be in a good position to perform well this next year.

Summer Sufferin'

WTF?? I thought Summer was done!! It sure was hot this weekend!

After a week of pain, from my quads cramping all of the time, walking down hill, I decided to do something about it. I went for a run last Monday. Most of the people I spoke with said I need to do some cross training. So, I went for a noon time run. I ran about 3 miles and was pretty much spent. My legs were pumped and sore. The next day I was suffering with quad pain, hamstring pain and Achilles tendon soreness. So much for running. It wasn't till Friday that everything was starting to feel okay. I rode on Wednesday on the Hill ride, however we went out for a slow pace. I didn't have much chance to ride any other time this past week. Coppi was Saturday and I wasn't sure I had anything positive going for me.

Coppi... I arrived to see my teammates getting cooled down from the finish of the CAT4 race. Both of them said they cramped up and to save enough for the finish. It was damn hot. I was a bit worried that I would not have enough water, so I made sure I drank enough before the start. I filled up one of my bottles with some electrolytes (powerbar electrolytes. I was feeling pretty good through out the race, sipping often on my bottles. I even attacked and tried to ride away on the 2nd lap, though not pushing too hard as I had no one who decided to go with me. After a bit the pack caught me as I saw them gaining on me. Well, I fell back into the pack and rode on. I grabbed a water bottle from the feed zone as I didn't have the need to refresh till this lap. We rode up the hills and I was now feeling a bit queasy. My stomach wasn't feeling too good and everything seemed to close around my view. The pack picked up the pace on one hill, I started feel dizzy and fell back. I was thinking, should I chase back on??? The answer became apparent, as I started feeling the reflux action on my throat. I pulled over, thinking of passing out. Immediately I started to heave, (I remember telling some of the folks that I sometimes vomited after a major sprint to the finish). Well, happened again. I vomited another four times hoping someone would drive up. Of course the folks standing outside their houses didn't mind me heaving across the road from their yard. I waited about 10 minutes to see if I could stand without falling over. No one came!!! I decided to get back on the bike and ride. Another 10 miles to go. Well, I could make it. And I did. Slowly and surely I did, I was amazed, John from Coppi rode by me. I didn't really care at this point. All I did was to hope I could make it back. Of course, I was looking at the time and thinking that I had a Black Tie event to go to later with the wife and she would be pissed if I missed the car which was picking us up. Well, I made it back, missing the crash, refilling my bottles and leaving the scene. I did eventually get home in record time, showering and changing for the event. Damn, was it hot at the event that evening. We were outside under a tent and all I could think about was the sweat pouring down my back. We did get to go in to the performance later in the evening and I did eventually dry up a bit. However after the show ended we went back outside for the dessert. The car picked us back up about 11pm and we got back to our friends house only to continue the partying. Bottles of champagne and wine were continued to be served. Oh yeah... our children were still up playing video games and watching movies with each other. 2 AM rolled around, and my eyes were rolling back in to my head, I had to pry my kids away from their activities and then pull my wife away from our friends. Enough... time to go home. Sleep!

Well, we got up the next morning, fairly late, but early enough to make Church. It was a special day at Church as my youngest daughter was being presented her own bible. 11:30 rolled around and I had to depart from the Church gathering to get to Turkey Day race. I got on the Beltway only to find it backed up. Oh yeah.. all of those damn Redskins fans. I forgot. Oh crap...less than an hour to arrive before the race started. I crept along and arrived about 10 minutes before the race started, registered and had enough time to race up to the start line only to find out that I pinned my number on the wrong side. Yep.. I was the guy with my jersey off repining right before the start. I finished just in time when they blew the whistle. I pretty much sat in as much as I could as it seemed to me that no one would stay away. Immediate Mortgage did a good job of chasing down the breaks and I pretty much just stayed up within the first 15 riders. A few attacks, I chased a little bit, but for the most part I just hung in there. On the last lap the Immediate mortgage team did a great job lining up for the finish. I was one rider behind SuperDave. The train was off and running, unfortunately the guy I was behind didn't react hard enough and was distanced, I was hoping to have him lead me out, however he faltered and fell back more. The last 100 meters, I went around him trying to recoup the distance, however it was just too much and rolled in at 11th place, not enough to even contend to the sprint. Oh well.. Last race of the season, probably. Not too bad for staying up til 3 am for the night before. Next Sunday at the ING Capital Criterium, I think I'll pass on that as the night before, we have a late night family camping night celebration, so again, I won't be in a good form.

Clearly, the motto is correct: Don't train like me.
'cause you'll be suffering.

Page Valley RR.

What a tough course! Of course it didn't help that I rode hard on Saturday as well.
I was expecting more of a rolling course than one with two tough climbs.

Saturday, I decided to go out an do the 7 am DC Velo ride. We climbed Mass Ave. with a decent pace, and the pace on MacArthur and Clara Barton didn't seem too taxing. So, I decided it would be a good spin. I purposely didn't take many pulls on the front. We reached Anglers Inn, and the climb started out steadily, then faster. I was feeling really good and noticed that my heart rate was fairly low and if it did spike it dropped down quickly. I reached the top of Anglers with about 5 guys. You know the usual 50+ suspects (Ad Bax, Paul Middlestat). We descended down Great Falls and started back up. Paul seemed to be kicking up the pace constantly. I don't remember who he was chasing, however we were going pretty hard. Back down to Brickyard Road then up the steep hill. Wow.. I was not suffering a bit. Usually at Brickyard, I'm lagging, but on Saturday, I was going strong, only one back from the rider in front. We got back up to River Road and no one was waiting for us, so we all hammered to catch the other guys. We caught a group and passed them on Oaklyn, I rotated through several pulls up the hills and we met up with a faster group at the intersection at River Road. From then it was a fast pace through Potomac and then the final sprint on Democracy. Aziz gave the signal to follow him as he would try to lead me out. James Palo started the first leg, then Aziz, who got caught up in a bit of traffic, then I did my sprint. It felt good. I motored on home to recover after the ride. My legs were feeling good.

I relaxed watching some of the Olympic re-runs, then decided that I should do some house work before the family came home from their vacation. I was on my feet for most of the day. I had a late lunch because of the delay in my father in-law's schedule...We had a nice lunch in Bethesda. It was more like an early dinner as it was about 4 pm. I wasn't too hungry later that evening, however made some pasta at about 9pm, I watched more Olympic coverage til about 1am then went to bed. Oh yea, during the evening, I finally decided to change my chain, as it had been shifting a bit funky. You know you're never supposed to do things like that. I cleaned the cassettes and it didn't shift too well so I put some lube on the cassette and went out for a test ride. Well, it worked decently so I didn't decide to make anymore changes, except to clean the bike. It had definitely been some time since the last cleaning.

As you can see, these are not good habits to follow.

I awoke at 6:15 am, feeling a bit tired still. got packed and ready to go. I made my coffee and had a bowl of cereal. On my way. It was a very nice scenic drive for me and I left with plenty of time to spare. Of course, I passed the turn off of 340 and headed into Stanley, where I went to the gas station to fill up the car. I proceeded down the road looking for the sign, however never saw it. I kept going till I saw the next town and knew I drove too far and backtracked. Luckily I saw another cyclist heading towards the race so I just followed him till I got there. Still plenty of time and I warmed up a little bit and then the race started.

The first lap was slow and everyone seemed to be having fun chatting. I stayed up with the top 10 slots putting in little effort. We reached the first long hill and I found myself moving towards the second position and the guy in front of me was putting in a good brisk effort, he pulled off then I continued the pace from mid-way to the top. Well, I didn't feel too out of breath and it looked bright for me. Next hill came up soon afterward and that one again, I stayed up in the front several spots, dropping back a slight bit when others who had more power decided to pass me.

Down the first part of the course, the pace really picked up. The first half of the course was the recovery section and pace was decently fast. I was in good position coming back up to the long hill. This time I was swallowed up my the pack deciding to go at a much faster pace as a couple of guys attacked the field. That put the hurt into me and I was feeling that I was putting out about 95-100%. The problem was that I found myself towards the back of the pack up the second climb. Several racers picked up their feed and I was caught behind them trying to pass them to bridge back to the pack. We got back to the leaders on the front side downhill section. Time to recover again. It seemed like the pace was not picking up. Obviously riders were sensing that there were several of us, who might not be recovering as quickly.
Third time around on the hills, attacks kept up. This time, however, the attack happened on the bottom of the rise before the hill got steeper. I decided not to put out too much effort as I didn't want to run out of juice for the next climb. I found myself at the back of the pack as apparently many had already dropped. The starts and hesitations on being in the back caused me to suffer. I made it over the top and I definitely wasn't feeling good. The next climb, I was in the middle towards the back of the pack and again, feed zone attack. I tried to react, however my legs wouldn't give me anything, so I backed off. That's when the rubberband broke. I was gapped enough before reaching the top and my heart rate wasn't subsiding. My head wasn't into it and I let the pack go. A couple of riders passed me on the decent and pretty much sat up. That's when Art Brown (who was racing the 123 event), caught me and passed me. I thought, well if he can keep up his pace then I can possible do it to and catch the pack again. I put my head down and started my time trial after Art. I was averaging over 27.5 mph and gaining on him. Well that was till the hills started approaching, my speed dropped and he went out of my sight. Here comes the hill climbs again. My legs were definitely feeling tired, I felt like I had bonked. So, I just took it easy up the hills, some one had yelled that I was 5 minutes behind. That definitely didn't help. So I dropped it another notch down and slowly pedaled up the last hill to the finish line. Over the hill I just looked for the place I was supposed to turn off and go to the parking lot. I stopped and asked for directions with one road guard and then trudged my way back. Another hilly road race which I didn't finish. Oh well, you have to know your limits.

Lessons taught, but probably not going to ever learn:

Don't ride hard the day before a taxing long race. (you can do a short crit and race another race the next day) So you have to wonder how these guys in the Tour de France do it (day after day).

Don't change your bike parts/positioning the day before the race (though nothing happened to me), however it's always bad luck.

Don't stay up too late before a race.

If you've exerted yourself and you know you have to rest, just rest! Don't do all of these other things on your feet.

Eat appropriately before a race.

Oh yeah.. take a day off of riding and rest. I've been riding to work every day this past week and thought I was going to take Friday or Saturday off. I didn't.

So, Today, I'm resting. :)

I hate DNF's.

Vacation and Pain.

I took a week off from Thursday, Aug 7th through Wednesday, Aug.14th. I was really starting to need it. I've been riding a decent amount this year, however most of it comes from commuting (9 miles each way to and from work), sometimes catching the Hill ride on Tuesday and maybe riding on Wednesday at Greenbelt races.

I arrived in Seattle, WA and spent the evening at dinner with the family and my wife's friend at an Ethiopian restaurant. Afterward we enjoyed a couple glasses of wine with my wife and her friend on the roof of her apartment building. What a nice sight of the city, harbor and background mountains.
We left the next morning for Spokane, WA, where we stayed at a beautiful hotel, called The Davenport Hotel. Our children enjoyed a nice swim at the pool, had a nice dinner. My wife and I, had a nice seafood dinner at a local restaurant, Anthony's, which overlooked the Spokane Falls. It was really relaxing. The Davenport Hotel really did a good job of pampering us.

The next morning, we had a long and late breakfast, mainly delayed because of the hotel's restaurant became overloaded by a wedding party. We were comp'ed for the breakfast, which was really nice of them. We headed on our way to Glacier National Park.
The drive was lengthy, however beautiful. Mountains, lakes, rivers were all welcomed scenery. We actually passed a forest fire which was consuming a mountain range. Pretty wild, as we could see the smoke from several miles away. The fire was peaking over the mountain top. As we wound our way around the mountain range, we saw the fire spread over about 20 different areas on the range. It was pretty sad to see this happening, however I heard on the radio later that week that it was started by lightening. Nature's way of rejuvenating the forest. We approached Glacier National Park from the West Entrance and saw that they had a fire a few years back as part the forest was pretty gray/brown from far away.
We arrived at for dinner at Lake McDonald Lodge, a beautiful, historic, hunting lodge. The main entrance area included a huge fireplace (used originally for cooking the meals for the guests, many trophy display pieces of local game including bear, elk, moose, eagles, and a polar bear pelt. Dinner was typical of a US National Park service hotel. It doesn't typically match the atmosphere. My wife and I typically stay at nice hotels (Historic Hotels of America), and typically choose a very restaurant to eat at. So, when you're at the US National Park hotels, you're stuck with whatever the hotel offers as there is limited choices in the park. This was the case at Zion National Park and at the Grand Canyon, though Zion Lodge was probably the best out of all of the restaurants we visited this past year.
We went on a hike on Avalanche Trail to the Cedars. It was a nice stroll uphill next to beautiful river from Avalanche Lake. See link for the e-hike. My daughter recently had a wart on the bottom of her middle toe, which my wife had the dermatologist try to burn off with liquid nitrogen, which didn't work too well even after two tries, then another doctor used some type of acid. The last treatment was done a few days before I arrived in Seattle. So to say the least, she was having a bit of pain on the hike. I carried her back down the hike, only to find that my quads were cramping badly. It was really weird. In the beginning of the summer, I was at the beach, playing around and doing these long strides with my knees bent. I thought I had pulled a muscle in my quad. I had to go out and buy some icy hot to give me relief. I'm thinking it may have been a major cramp as well. I think I'm in decent shape and I don't think the hike should have really tired me. I just checked the internet to see that I probably need to do some cross training. See here: http://www.cptips.com/muspain.htm The next day I had the same problem coming down from the hike on Logan Pass. The hike up was no issue but the downhill walk killed me. I was walking slower than a 90 year old. I had to walk backwards or sidewards while coming down. My quads were constantly cramping and my shins also felt sore (shin splints). So there is definitely something physically wrong with my muscles and training. If anyone had the same experience, let me know, what you did to alleviate this issue.
The hike to the hidden lake at Logan Pass was amazing! We hiked over snow fields, even though it the middle of the summer. We saw lots of Columbian ground squirrels (which look a bit like prairie dogs). From the top we saw a few mountain goats down in a rocky field near a lake in the valley. Other than that we didn't see many other animals.
We traveled from the West side to the East side of Glacier National Park. Then, I left heading back to Seattle to catch my plane home. My family continued the opposite way towards the Teton's and Yellowstone.
I had a nice time, however the next time, I'll probably want to do some camping, so that I see more wildlife, also I'd probably want to do more rugged hiking, though I don't know if my legs will be able to take it. Fishing is something else I really want to do. A few hours fly fishing and or lake fishing would be really relaxing and fun. I know that my family had done some camping already so the hotel stays were probably was a good break for them.

Well, I took the red-eye home and went straight to work. I was pretty tired as I didn't get much sleep on the plane because of this little girl screaming and crying the whole way. I ended up leaving work for the Greenbelt training race. I didn't know how my fitness would be as I've been eating well and enjoying my wine while watching the Olympics. Luckily for me, my fitness hasn't left after a week off. Good! I finished I think 7th, however for the second time, they didn't get my placing. It doesn't really matter, as it's just a training event.

I rode to work on Thursday and took Friday off. Today, I did the Highway to Heaven hill climb. I saw the Gamjam post by Nick Bax on his strategy, however don't know if that really would help anyone except for him. He's a guy who can climb and attack on the a climb. My rides with him every once in a while on Brickyard or Mountaingate is proof enough that not to many can do what he does on the hills. So I rode the hill time trial blind. On the start, I hammered it, thinking that by the second part of the hill, I could recover and keep a good pace up that part. Not the case, as I should have known better, from my climbs. I die if I go too hard on the bottom. In the case of Mountaingate, if I pace myself up, I can be ready for an attack or can attack and make it to the top and recover after that. Well in today's case, the second part of the climb killed me. I dropped from about 14 mph, from the bottom part, down to about 8 mph. Even if the pitch was not as tough as the start, I was blown. It really hurt and I was happy when I reached the third part. I shifted into my big ring and hammered away as Nick has said. Only to find out that I wasn't hammering away to a flat finish. The last 200 meters was another steeper pitch which wasn't ready for as again, I abused myself and blew up. I could barely pedal finishing up at a crawl. I waited for the results and Ad Bax, told me that I was at the top of the list. I was pretty amazed and couldn't believe it as I thought it wasn't a great performance. Unfortunately about 10 minutes later, the ref. said that there a protest. Yep...Karl Connelly from Kelly Benefit had been placed up top. I thought he had probably done well as he was in his long sleeve skin suit and looked like he could climb. I know that I'm not a great climber except for short sprints up, so I couldn't believe that I would win my category. Oh,yeah... I was wheezing and coughing at the end and still am coughing now (8 hours later). Weird, it feels like I have water in my lungs. The thing is that others were coughing like I was including Nick. Hopefully I feel better this evening. I'll probably have a couple glasses of wine to give me some relief. Just like last night, I had a few with friends and stayed up till about 2am watching the Olympics. Yep, Michael Phelps is amazing. Looks like my training regiment includes grapes (wine). Apparently there's a study about grapes(Resveratrol) about how it may enhance performance. I guess I'm a good test subject without really trying... hehe.

Too many training like me..

Doubling up seems to be the big thing this Bunny Hop or Hunny Bop. Doing it in 95+ degree weather is nuts. Why do we do this? Just because we like to suffer. Does it make you stronger, faster, better? For some... it's just normal and keeps them in shape. For those guys it's just another easy training ride. For guys like me, it's called stupidity.

I arrived about 1/2 an hour before the 123 race and registered for that race as I thought it would be a nice workout and I could gauge my how my fitness has increased. I hadn't been able to finish a pro 123 race this year, well I've only done Reston this year and ran out of gas fairly early on. So, this one would be a good test. Well, I hung in there however there wasn't too much I could do, I couldn't react to any hard attacks, recovery definitely too too long, the heat was definitely getting to me. I was getting chills, my fingers were cramping, I was getting too hot and couldn't cool down. Unfortunately the water in my bottle was hot and didn't do much to cool me, either by drinking or by pouring it over my neck and back. I just wanted to finish upright, which I did. No sprinting for me, I just rolled in through the finish 35th. I was satisfied with my performance and quickly got to the car and drank a half liter of Gatorade quickly. Wanting to cool down quickly I turned on the AC and drove to my office locker room to take a shower. It took about 40 minutes getting there. During the drive, I started to feel my ass tightening up and seizing up. Oh crap, I didn't take time to cool down and spin.
I took a cold shower and cooled down a bit. It felt good, however my ass was in pain.
I tried to stretch out a bit but it didn't work well. I looked at my watch and had to head back to the race. I arrived to loosen up a little bit before the race. I was pretty amazed that my ass was feeling better but a bit sore. Well, I was thinking that the 30/40+ race was going to be lightly attended, however it looked like everyone in the 123's decided to double up. Sh*t another 123 race. Sure enough, it was pretty fast, I even bridged up to a break, however that effort pretty much took everything out of me and I had a hard time recovering. I was breathing really laboriously and feeling like dropping out. I hung for about 5 more laps, then finally with 5 laps to go, my head wasn't into the race so I just pulled up and out. No reason for me to sprint as I don't think I could. With 3 laps to go, I was on the sidelines watching the pack explode. Well, I guess people were feeling just as badly as I did, however they had it in their head to finish and not give up.

Chalk this up as a learning experience. Bunny Hop is always HOT! If you want to give a good effort on placing, then commit to only one race, unless you are just that strong. (or if the weather is much cooler). Bottom line don't train like me.
Where's my massage when I need it??!!

What gives today???Tri group ride Tuesday night in Arlington, VA and my ride home.

This evening I left work around 6:40pm. One of my co-worker said watch out for the weirdos out there. I chuckled and said I would. After only going two blocks away, I had guy who decided to walk in the middle of the road not watching where he was going, I had to brake and swerve at the last second. Then a car behind me decides to tail me very closely. What's the deal tonight?

Ahead I saw a bunch of riders in a group. I was pretty amazed and joined up with the bunch of riders going out towards Military Road. This was a pretty decent size group. First of all I was amazed that they got an Arlington police officer directing traffic to allow them to cross Washington Blvd at North Quincy Street. Nice....As I approached the back of the pack, I noticed a few with tri-bars. Then more and more. I noticed a few local racing jerseys and noticed many were wearing DC Tri Club jerseys. They were all having a very social ride chatting. I started riding past many of them on the road and all of a sudden someone swerves almost taking me out. I swerved over the yellow line, luckily no cars were coming. A block later another guy swerves as well and almost takes out another rider. Then another guy breaks wide and almost takes me out. What the hell? I have nothing against Triathletes, however these guys definitely couldn't ride smoothly in a pack. There are a few Triathletes who I have ridden with and I definitely trust, Mayor Adrian Fenty is one of them. A guy who rides the "goon" ride, well he was very dangerous in the beginning a few years ago, crashing on a curve. I think that taught him. He's a very strong rider, however I still don't totally trust his handling. I don't know what it is however Tri riders don't ride the same way as road racers. When a road racer decides to make a move towards the side, I usually can anticipate it. When the tri guy does it, it seems unexpected. I don't know why it's different. It could be that the road guy has more acceleration where the tri guy just goes sideways or backwards, I don't know. However, one thing it does teach me is to stay away from those tri guys.
Well, on I go, making the turn on to Military Road and I lose them from my sight when I look back. I'm cruising down the 2nd hill on Military going about 40 miles an hour, two girls are starting to walk across the road, I yell out to them. One girl stops, the other continues to dance across, I slammed on the brakes narrowly missing her as she is looking she's doing jumping jacks. Fricken weirdo! I could have made some major damage here going that speed, luckily, I didn't have an accident. I then pass a recreational rider without a helmet and yelled to him to get a helmet. I get to where Military merges with North Glebe Road and I merge on going with some good speed downhill. The car on North Glebe Road who was behind me gains on me and then follow me too close for comfort especially with the off camber turns. I just keep my pace and make sure I keep the rubber in contact with the road. Luckily, the lady driver gets caught at the light before Chain Bridge. I follow an SUV over the bridge then down to the left turn at Arizona Avenue. The light is green and the SUV doesn't turn. (It's the only way to go as Clara Barton Parkway is one way North, South of Arizona Ave. The light turns Red. Then it goes green. The driver still stays there and cars behind me are honking, (I noticed that the driver plates are from Florida), that must be the answer. Finally, they turn, and I of course can't seem to clip into my pedals. I finally get them on and cruise up the street and into the neighborhood street. The a guy who is walking his dog in the middle of the street decides to let his dog move into the intersection and doesn't tighten or retract the 25 foot leash. I slow down thinking the dog's going to run across. The guy not only doesn't stop and pull back he continues to walk. Luckily the dog had more intelligence than his owner and stops. I ride by. I did ride by a few riders today without helmets and pointed at my helmet and yelled out, where's your helmet? Wear a helmet it will protect you.
I'm riding up Del Carlia Parkway, the cars were zooming by without giving me much clearance. WTF? There are two lanes and they need to pass me in my lane? Now, Westmoreland Circle, the drivers are looking at me on Mass Ave. however one was still moving forward, I thought he might just run into me. He finally stopped and I shook my head as I have the right of way, but I'm just a cyclist and he's got a car.
Now on Western Avenue, I have this FedEx driver who seems to be in a rush. He accelerates hard at every light, I'm going pretty hard, he gets blocked in behind a car turning left, then passes me a few blocks later. I catch up as he's caught in slow traffic, my lane is clear and I keep thinking that he's going to move into my lane and take me out as he probably can't see me in his mirror I am almost up to his sliding door. Luckily he saw me from before and never came into my lane. I finally get home safely. Wow.. it was one of these crazy nights! I've never seen it as dangerous as tonight. Was it a full moon? What was the deal tonight????

Well tomorrow, I'll be driving in. Of course, I'll try to drive from Arlington to Greenbelt, hopefully the traffic will be light in the evening so I can make the race in time.

Great sportsmanship!

I was recently introduced to this blog:
http://everydayathleteblog.com

There's a great story about Chris Horner of Astana.
http://everydayathleteblog.com/2008/07/12/chris-horner-gives-fallen-rider-and-bike-a-2k-ride-to-the-finish/

There aren't enough articles published on the sportsmanship of cycling. However this one is excellent!

Highs and lows.

Let's start off with the highs:

I purchased a pair of used Shimano Dura Ace 7800 Pedals recently as it was a deal too good to pass up. I was originally thinking of buying some Look Keo Carbons, however, I wasn't going to buy anything till my old 14 year old or more. These things were produced before the first Shimano SPD road pedals. A few years ago the pedals actually spun off the spindle during a crash in Frederick. Recently, that pedal was feeling pretty tight and wasn't spinning much. So great! I mounted the Shimano cleats and felt that the new pedals definitely more efficient than my old pedals. It could be that my cleats were getting worn there was a bit of play in them.
I raced with them last Sunday at Williamsport and performed fairly well. Sunday night and Monday, my calf was in serious pain. I don't know if it was from my calves cramping up on the final sprint climb on Saturday's road race or whether it was from the new positioning of the cleat. So I played with the positioning all week.

Last week on Thursday, I finally got the right size of Shimano R300's. Everyone keeps raving about these. I have the older R215's in silver. They've been really great shoes for me after the first break in period. During the break in period, I kept getting cramps in my feet and I had to ride with the velcro closures fairly loosely. They finally broke in after about a month and they've been work horses ever since. (3 years ago) This year they have been starting to show wear and things look like they will start to fall apart by the end of this season. So, I broke down and bought them. I'll give store a plug even though I race for The Bicycle Place, as the Bicycle Place didn't carry that model. Race Place in Columbia, MD, was one of the only shop in the area which carries the shoes. I couldn't find a place in DC, VA or in Montgomery County which carried the shoes. Race Pace actually had a great inventory of the shoe, so if any of you want a pair, you can find them there. I had them custom fitted there. The soles were heated and fitted. Then the shoes were heated, and then the vacuum process. Wow..it was pretty amazing about the power of the suction on the plastic sleeve. Apparently the plastic sleeve, which was really thin, was really strong. The vacuum fit was pretty cool as the it feels like someone wraps their hands all around your feel and squeezes pretty hard. The custom fit was complete. I noticed as I rode with the shoe the next day that there was almost too much space in the toe box area. (height wise, width wise was fine) I'm wondering if I should not have custom fitted the insole and let it break in instead as it would probably been tighter. The one thing I can tell you is that the shoe feels like it's been broken in immediately and there was no cramping.
The weird thing was trying to get an optimal position on the cleat. I felt that I wasn't getting as much power as used to. So I tried moving the cleat backwards, it still didn't feel right and I pulled it forward again.

Well, the bad (lows) things started to happen. On Saturday, I did the 7am DCVelo ride. I was thinking I was riding fine, as I doing my rotation on Clara Barton... Then came the Anglers climb. Boom... I faltered about 1/4 of the way up. Many passed me and I couldn't keep the pace. So I just spun up at my own pace, went 1/2 way down Great Falls and came backup. Well, I was feeling okay through the rest of the ride, I even got towards the front when the big guns started their train down Democracy Lane. I jumped in and waited for the sprint. It was going pretty fast and when the sprint came, I had no power. I felt pretty unstable and couldn't do anything except spin. Of course, Professor Greg Vadas gave me a few words about keeping on a line.
Well on to doing the extra 10. A small group of us rode down to Rock Creek Nature Center. I was feeling pretty good so I picked up the pace up the hill. After the crest I continued to ride with some effort. I rounded one of the right hand curves, and it got tighter and I leaned the bike over a bit more to handle the turn, and WHAM! I went down on my right side, slaming my head on the ground then sliding and fliping over to my left side before I came to a stop. I saw my bike in my corner of my eye bouncing around and the riders behind me almost crashed into me. Luckily they avoided me. Damn the ground was damp and the air was humid. I should have known better and slowed it a bit. Well, I de-virginized my shoes! Nice scrape on the carbon fiber and side of the show and I found the buckle on the ground as well. My brake hoods on my Shimano Dura Ace shifters were pretty dented and scraped. My new white and red gloves were torn and blackened from the asphalt. My Assos bibs came out okay, with just a small hole torn in it. My jersey was just a bit roughed up, but no holes. My helmet is cracked. One lens of the Tifosi glasses popped out, and luckily I saw it laying in the road and put it in my pocket. Amazingly no one ran over it and no scratches were on it, after inspecting it at home. What else, oh yeah, my handlebar tape was ripped up and I didn't notice it but my derailleur got scraped up, hopefully it's not bent or the drop outs. It doesn't quite shift so smoothly. F*ck! (I found out that today during the Reston Race) What else?? Oh yeah... bodily injuries. I actually came out alright. The biggest thing is the big raspberry on my hip, my elbow had a some scrapes and scratches, my wrist got a couple of scrapes, my shoulder blades has a couple of rubs, and luckily no bleeding, my right shoulder has a small rub, my left hip has a little bit of light scrapes and I have one small scrape just above my butt. So all in all, I'm in good shape, luckily (or unluckily) it was a bit wet. My neck is a bit sore from the whiplash sidewards, and the back is a bit sore too. I jumped into the shower, scrubbed my scrapes to get out the ground in dirt and pebbles and then put on the Doctor's Choice Advance Wound Care self adhering pads (for burns, scalds, Abrasions) (Luckily a few weeks ago I saw these on sale for 1/2 price off at the local Giant.) These things are kind of like Tegaderm, however it's a bit thicker and has a bit of cooling effect and provides a bit of moisture. I found these types of treatments work much better than gauze pads or other treatments which allow scabs. Scabs start itching and cracking causing more damage. This method allows healing just like a scab, except it's soft and the skin underneath the pad heals very softly.

I went to get my hair cut later, needing that badly, then went to The Bicycle Place to speak with the owner Mike. I got some bar tape and asked him about cleat positioning. He fit me immediately and we are trying the cleat as far back as possible. Mike's always got sound advice. We lowered my seat post and made sure the positioning of the knee was in the right place. I said I would give it a try. It felt a little different as I was a bit lower than my original position.

I was a bit tired and whacked from the crash, so I took the rest of the day resting. I didn't even try out riding the bike.

Sunday, On to Reston. 40+ race was fast, faster than I thought it would be. I loved the course, the cones on the turn towards the uphill was a really smart thing to do. No one would take chance short cutting the corner and causing issues. We could roll through the turn doubled up and everyone held true to the line. There were several breakaways, some which lasted longer than others. With about 6 laps to go I was thinking the last break would hold. It looked like several riders were blocking, so I took a hard attack and hammered trying to bridge the lead pack of 8 or so. I caught them and looked back and the others were not close by. However the group slowed for some reason. Well, great, I bridged and no reward, I was pretty tapped. We got caught about another 15-20 seconds. Well with 4 laps to go I was just trying to recover and to keep my position. The last lap, which I wasn't too sure it was, I was passed by about 4 riders on the 3rd to last corner and unfortunately I wasn't aggressive enough to move forward and ended up 8th.
Not to happy about my result, I decided to stick around and do the Cat123 race. I watched the other races and had a pesto pasta lunch. It was tasty, however, I think I would have been better off with some protein. It was also full of olive oil. Anyway, after standing around in the heat all day, I decided to take a short rest in my car in the parking lot. I cheered on my teammates in the CAT4 race. Then warmed up for the CAT123 race. We got the call up and then off we went. Frickin fast start. We were basically sprinting the whole time. It felt like someone was attacking constantly. I hung in there for a while then the body started taking it's toll. I can't remember when I dropped out, however I couldn't get enough oxygen to refresh my muscles and I was tapped. I started getting stomach cramps after I stopped. I think it could have been that I drank too much water earlier and that the pasta was too oily. The one thing it proved today is that I still need to improve my speed work, which I am definitely lacking this year. I am amazed to see that Ramon and Super Dave continue to perform well in these races, even after doing the 30/40+ races before hand. Unfortunately.. the bad thing is they will always be in my age category!
The Harley guys are pretty incredible.. Russ Langely put on an incredible race today. Dave Fuentes is just a hammer, the guy always performs. Anyway, I don't know any Harley guys who can't put a hurting on me.
Thanks to Team Evolution for continuing on this great tradition. I liked this course even better than the course two years ago. The pavement is nice and smooth and we could corner with lots of speed. It was fun, however hard it was. Best of all there were minimal crashes, a few in the Cat 4 race, which is expected and one in the CAT123 race.

Last comment... Funny thing I heard today: From a young lady at the wheel pit "Oh, I just met Lance Lacy, what a nice guy... he's so HOT!!" Lance, you definitely have a fan club!"


Picture credit: Phil Young

Tour de Washington County Weekend.

I have to say I had fun at the TDWC race this weekend. Thanks to AVC Racing, the good folks of Washington County, and all of the people who donated their time in making this event a success. I love being there just watching the spectators enjoy watching the race. The criterium was exciting! Each race was fun to watch. Luckily my family, had left on vacation, so I had time to stay for the complete Williamsport Crit starting from the morning CAT123 race all through the CAT4 race.

Of course, I screwed up by not registering in time the past week. I had arrived home and was called to dinner, only to remember right after dinner that I had forgotten to register. It was already 8:30pm. Oh well. Tough luck. Good excuse anyway as it looked like there might be rain on Sunday for the TT and Crit. The other reason was that I don't own a TT bike. I can't justify just racing twice a year to buy a TT bike. It used to be okay when I could just put on the clip on Scott rake bars... then came the Disc wheels, which my 30 second man would pass me making that awful racket with their carbon wheels. Now, to be competitive in a 40KM TT, you've got to be totally tricked out with your streamlined frame, disc rear wheel, Special TT bars, the TT helmet and of course you have to have the skin suit.. Not just the skin suit, however the full body low air resistant suit. Each little customization which cost lots of money will allow you to slash several seconds off of your time. However there's nothing like pure endurance and power. Well, I didn't have the chance to even try. I was closed out of the registration.

Saturday, I entered the Masters 40+ race, and for the most part it was fairly tame, not too many attacks, I felt relatively good, though with 3 laps to go, each climb was beginning to get harder and my legs were feeling like jelly a few times. I conserved my energy as it didn't seem anyone was strong enough to get away. Pete Lindeman and Andreas Gutzeit did get a small lead on the rest of the pack on last stretch. As I knew that the first hill was a false finish, I let others lead me out and on the final hill, I did the sprint to try to catch Andreas and Pete, they seemed to have a good clip and I was gaining, however not fast enough. I caught Pete as he faltered the last 20 yards, however Andreas kept his pace through to the finish. I finished 2nd, with my legs cramping up and Chris coming up strong on my left. It was a good race.

I went home and made sure I ate enough to replenish my energy, I stayed up late, and didn't know why.I woke up early at about 5:30 AM, just trying to hear the raindrops on the roof. Well, it wasn't there anymore. It was already bright outside, so I decided to get ready for the Williamsport crit. I arrived with plenty of time, had a few doughnuts (yep, Krispy Kreme, my favorite!), and Clif bars with my coffee. I warmed up riding with the CAT123 riders. Then watched them take off. It was pretty incredible the speeds they were holding and guys tongues were dragging on the ground.
The 40+ race was next and I started off with a brisk pace, jumping to the front and leading the pack around a couple of times. I was just testing the competition. We all settled in and for the most of the time it was fairly smooth. The final lap was going to be fast. Andreas, the GC leader unfortunately slid out on the final turn, and made hamburger out of his leg. Bill Luecke was ahead of me and went wide as Andreas was still sliding on the ground. He jumped the curb into the gravel lane and I had to follow as my wheel was the outside. We were passed by several riders in the crash. I jumped back on to the road and did my best to sprint to catch the riders who passed me. I caught a few however the accident was enough to cause enough delay so that I was not a factor in final sprint. I took 4th. Oh well, such is racing.

Here's a photo of Andreas. (Photo Credit: Phil Young, Kevin's dad)

I was not so tired so that I later entered the CAT 3 race as well. My goal was to protect my fellow teammate who was 2nd in the GC category. I stayed up in the top 10 positions for the most part of the race. With 4 laps to go, I felt my front wheel getting soft. I made a decision to drop out.. well that sucked. No more free lap, so I walked my bike back to watch the final few laps. My teammate Kevin Young, a junior, took 2nd missing the crash from rider in front of him. He's definitely getting smarter and stronger. The final GC results were finally posted and Kevin received the top position.

Anyway, I had a great time watching the race.

Peaking?? Not!

Here's the latest update and it's not encouraging...that is for me.

CSC... Got dropped by the 3rd group with 3 laps to go. Well, really it was the third group which got lapped by the lead group. So I solo'd it for the last 3 laps just to come in on the sprint of the 2nd group.
I have to say it was a nice challenging technical course. I loved it, but my crit legs are not here this year as I've been doing more riding up and down hills than speed work, not to say I've been riding much at all. For the CSC race I rode about 4 times in 4 weeks. Pretty pittiful if you ask me.

Today, it was the Wilmington Classic (Age Graded Championships). Well, the number of registered riders was pretty low, however the high caliber of racers were all there. The 50+ race, before our 40+ race, apparently had a bad crash by one rider who lost it on the downhill turn to the backstretch. He was carted away by the ambulance. No word on his well being yet, from what I heard it was an awful crash. The 40+ race finally got started a slight bit delayed from the announced time. Right from the start it was fast. I thought that if I was somewhere in the top 5 spots, I would have had a good race. The pace was blistering right from the start. Then after the 3rd lap Ramon moves from behind to right up front shattering the pace and causing havoc in the pack. It was streamlined out on the back stretch, I fell back to around 15th position up the short hill right after the start/finish. Then boom, the pack starts to fall apart. Gaps started occuring everywhere. I was screwed. I chased down one gap, then another, passing racers who apparently couldn't hold up the pace. Well... it was too much for one rider and he left too much of a gap, I saw the guy in front of me trying to close the gap but couldn't, so I passed him and tried, only to see another gap start further ahead, that was it. Pete Lindeman had been gapped as well, I think by the same guy who gapped me. I caught on to Pete and tried to work with him to stay within eyesight of the lead pack. For 4 laps, we took turns, pulling, however I was seeing that the chase was not going to work. I was also starting to blow up. We went around a few more times and Pete dragged me around, I'm just not in shape for these crits anymore. We were pulled by the ref. We had probably another 10 laps to go. I guess they saw the pain in my face and decided to end it. What a waste! Well I could only blame myself. My spidey sense wasn't working and my body is even worse and can't react quickly anymore. I was tentative on the bottom turn as I was waiting for me to crash. Luckily I didn't. Well, as usual Ramon won. His break worked well and they hammered away.

I guess there is a bright light in my life, eventhough I missed last weekend's race at Ride Sally Ride. I missed the event because of my son's soccer game then he had a fencing tournament to go to. Wow! I had never seen him practice before and now he was in a tournament. He only started about 3 months ago in his training. He must have sparred in about 8 bouts before the elimination round. This went on for about two hours. Some of the duels were very graceful others were very brutish and disjointed. The duel between last season's 11 and under champion (a girl) and my son was intense. They became the only two sparring in the center without any other duels happening. All eyes were on them. Back and forth, foils clashing against each other, however neither of them could get a point for a good 3 minutes or so. Then it was both of them at once. It almost seemed like a dance as each pressured eachother forwards/backwards, foils chashing but not getting their target. They each won a round then the final round happened, it apparently was very even, and I was sitting across the area getting a great vantage point, however not being able to see the score. They apparently were very close and it finally ended. I thought my son lost, so my wife went to the coach/official to see what happens next, since we thought he lost. He said that my son had won!! All of the parents came over to congratulate him. He had beaten the winner from last time. What a feat! Well, on to the next duel. They gave him a 5 minute break to refresh. He was battling the guy. It was again close, howevever this guy was apparently 12 years old and probably a good 12 inches taller than my son. Even with that difference my son had him beat on the first round. Then back and forth on the second and the other kid had won by a point, then the final round. My son gave a good effort and lost that round by 5-3. He was dejected. We all came around for support and even the coach said he was really going to go far and that we had to be prepared for all of the travelling he might have to do. The last round was the guy who beat my son against another 12 year boy. He beat him easily and won all three rounds. I told my son that he lost to the best before the final round, so luck didn't go his way as he had an unfortunate pick. My son went away with a bronze medal. Not bad for just starting fencing a few months ago. The sport is intense, fun, very artistic, and beautiful to watch. I wish I had the chance to experience that when I was young. It's a really unique sport, with lots of head games, strategy, training and talent.

So even though I haven't had the time to train or race, this experience was breathtaking. You just have to live through your children sometimes. :)

As far as me... well... I just have to train harder, smarter and better. 2 days a week this last week for me just isn't enough. I did the hot hill ride in Arlington at a very low easy pace, and a Hains point ride as well. I don't have the time to do a goon ride, which would be very beneficial, however during the summer (while the wife adn kids are away, I might find some more time.) Then I can think about peaking. You never know though, I'll be breaking it up with a week long vacation in the beginning of August.

Life is good, it just depends on how you look at it.
By the way.. For all of you Father's out there, Happy Father's Day. Hope you enjoyed it!

Work, life, and racing.

I guess it's been some time since I last blogged.
Well, work got busy with about two weeks of straight travel and of course I didn't have a chance to ride. Right after the last race, Ft. Ritchie, I really didn't have a chance to even clean the soiled bike and I left on my business trip to New York City. Yes, you know it, all day long meetings and poor eating habits.

I got home late Tuesday night and tried to take a look at the bike. The headset was stiff from all of the grit from the wet race. I drained my bike, lubed the headset a bit then hung it back up. My rear tire was flat from the shard of glass which caused it to leak right after the completion of the race. Luckily it was after the race had completed!

The next day I went to work and then left for another couple of days. This time it was worse as the airline lost my luggage and then the delivery process seemed to be about 5 hours delayed every time they tried to deliver it. So I missed it at every turn, till I finally was forced to stay an extra night, because the flight was delayed so much that I would not have been able to get back to DC. Oh well, that's what flying is like these days.

Saturday, I don't know what happened as just happened. Oh yeah... Friday evening, I had enough time to get home from a long day from work, pick up some used cassettes from the Funga, and depart for the beach (Cape Henlopen) where my family was camping with some friends. I decided to bring my bike along knowing that I could probably ride at the beach. Not so, I arrived Friday night just to be able to grab some late dinner and a couple glasses of wine at a nice wine and pizza bar. I had a sleepless night hearing all of the rain splattering on the roof and sides of the tent. I was wondering when the tent might leak. Luckily, North Face makes some nice tents. No leaks in our tent or my children's tent. Either way, I didn't have a good sleep. The next morning we woke up early, had some breakfast and headed to the beach. I crashed out on the beach to catch up on some sleep... which I was lacking all week. The weather was beautiful, great for a nice ride, however I was snoozing on the beach. At noon our friends arrived, had lunch, set up their tent we headed back to the beach again. We stayed for another 3 hours and I did get a bit too much sun as my face was a bit burnt and chest and back.

We headed back to get ready for dinner with the rest of the extended group of people. It went on and on, cooking, drinking, cooking, eating, drinking, it almost seemed like more drinking than anything else. My wife put the kids to bed and then came back to join us... it lasted another couple of hours and then I dragged myself back to the tent to pass out.

The kids got up early the next morning, none of the adults wanted to get up, even one of the adults from the other family dragged his son over to our campsite, dropped him off with our kids and I believe he went back to bed. Nice, I think I tried to get an hour more of shut eye, however couldn't get any real rest. We went back to the beach for a few hours, tried to get some more sleep, I think actually did fall asleep for about 30 minutes or so. We had to leave by 1:00 pm, so we packed it up and left. (No biking at all!!)

We had to rush home as my wife had an event to go to, which I dropped out of. Luckily she had another friend attend as a replacement for me. I had to catch a plane that evening for another meeting on Monday. I had enough time to get home, shower, pack, and arrive at the airport just in time for my flight.

Monday, Tuesday were long days, in meetings all day. Luckily I didn't lose my luggage this time around. To say the least, I was still tired from the week before. Each day was early and the nights were late. This was wearing on me. After I got back into town, on Wednesday through Friday, I was catching up on work. I still haven't caught up yet. I rode in on Friday and I was feeling the effects of being off the bike.

Saturday, I decided to race at Bike Jam. What a nice coordinated event! Unfortunately I checked the registration the night before and the 30/40+ race was already booked full. Well, I would give it a chance the next day to see if anyone didn't show. I arrived and they said that I may not have a chance to get in, however I could check back right before registration closed. Luckily, a few didn't show and I was able be substituted in. With no warm up, we started up. Fast and furious was all I could say. I was definitely not in shape with all of the accelerations. Several times attacks happened, and I was able to hang in there. The beating was taking the toll. A solo crash happened a little bit before the start/finish line and that was enough to produce another gap. SuperDave took advantage of this and away he went with about 8 other riders, who were chasing down Ramon and another rider who were away by about 20 seconds for a few laps now. I didn't have the power to react, I saw it happen, but because of the wind and the fact that I was tired, I just sat in watching this group of riders ride away. About another lap later, I saw how the Artemis/Immediate Mortgage rider the Kelly Benefit Strategies/LSV were trying to control the pack and block for their breakaway riders. I attacked on the back stretch to see if I could get away and possibly chase down the pack in front, no such luck, I pulled for a half a lap and no one pulled around me to help. I pretty much spent myself and moved towards the back. With only 4 laps to go, I had to see if I had enough energy in reserve to make a good final sprint for 10th place or so. On the last lap, the pack got aggressive, there was definitely some pushing going around as I went elbow to elbow and shoulder to shoulder with one rider, for about 20 meters or so, luckily no real forceful motions so neither of us went down, (he probably was a 40+rider too, as we understand that we're too old to crash). I know the others behind were a bit weary about us wobbling as I could hear a few whooah! and watch out!! That incident dropped me back several spots and I spent the last lap trying to make my way back up. By the last turn, there was definitely some braking and I didn't have the momentum to glide me forward, so I had to start putting out the power early, I made up a several places but not enough to get to the front of the sprint. Apparently I ended up 18th, uggh. Not too good, however I was happy not to be dropped and to know that I could still hang in there even without riding for almost two weeks.
I enjoyed the race course, and hope it will be held next year and maybe life won't get in the way again. (of course it will)

Today, I took a rest day, not by choice, however I had to run errands in the morning, buy tires for the car, then take my parents to the airport, play with the children at the park, in the afternoon, watch a movie, and then have dinner, blog a bit, then do more work as I still haven't caught up, and go to bed. Tomorrow will probably be the same as today, though it will be more family stuff than today, if that is possible and maybe an afternoon party to go to if I am lucky.

So...as the title of the blog states... don't train like me.

By the way, it looks like Murad is completely booked for the CAT3's so... I guess I won't be participating in that race. CSC maybe??? It doesn't look good for that one as I will be having a late dinner at a friend house the night before. Who knows what's next.

After Poolesville update.

We'll it's about time I update my blog.

Since Carl Dolan, I haven't done any racing. Good thing because from the stories about Poolesville, it was pretty sketchy. Bottles flying all over the place, crashes left and right, poison ivy... you know all of the things you don't want to be a part of. I was really thinking of going, however, I acted responsibly and stayed home with the kids. I don't think I would have made the race and back before my daughter's appointment. If I crashed... well, who knows... all hell would have broken loose. My wife would have been in a panic as she was out of town in NYC playing with her friend. My kids would probably not know where I was as I would have brought them to the race.
Well to say the least, it wouldn't be something I wanted to experience, so I didn't go. I was e-mailing a fellow rider, providing him tips on who to watch, what to watch for, and so on. He apparently finished the 40+/50+ race and placed decently. Attrition was big in the races. 75 racers start and only 25 finish? Well, I have to say something about the 50+ riders. They sure are tough. It was a pretty equal split of the to 10 finishers 5 were 50+ riders and 5 were 40+.

I've been riding to and from work about 3 times a week. It's about a 10 mile ride each way. It keeps me in shape to a certain degree, however it doesn't provide the longer 30-40 mile ride which will help me in keep my endurance up for the longer races. I ride the hill ride on Wednesday about half the time. I've actually gotten to memorize the route now. It is a decent ride, with several individuals sprinting up the hills and taking the KOM. Is that good for training? I don't really know. I've been feeling that I need a bit of change in my routine so this evening I did the horrible drive from Arlington to Greenbelt. I got there with a decent amount of time before the race started, thankfully. The ride was pretty smooth with several individuals attacking early on, however the pack was ready and gave chase everytime. I even got away for a very brief period going up the hill, however again, the pack didn't want to let us go. Finally after a hard attack by one of the Harley riders, several of us also jumped to try to chase him down, a second group attacked at the top of the hill and rode away. I was recovering and didn't have the legs to react to the attack. I thought we would reel them in after several laps, which we almost did, however for some reason, after about 5 laps the pack finally gave up and slowed and allowed them to go out of sight. Well I knew that that was it as there was Dave Osborne and Joe Baremore and a Harley rider and probably a couple more strong riders away. All I could hope for now was having enough energy for the final sprint. I apparently did and passed a few at the end to finish up 2nd on the group finish. I exerted so much that I felt dizzy and felt like tossing my cookies. I had to do some quick and deep breaths to feel better 30 seconds later. Tonight was a good training race as it helped me work on the speed work a slight bit with all of the chasing I did. I'll have to go down to Hains Point soon and work on my intervals as all I've been doing is a bit of the hills.
I'm going to Ft. Ritchie this Saturday and I hope be competitive. It's been sometime since I did a crit. This course seems pretty technical and I hope it will be fun. I'll want to stay out of any crashes.

Oh, BTW on that thought, I noticed how there were lots of B racers tonight and made a remark that there would be a crash today. Sure enough there was. There were an awful lot of racers tonight and it was good to see that many participants. Hopefully those who crashed are all right and will heal quickly. This brings me to the next comment: One of my teammates crashed out at Poolesville. "RayMan" as most know him, separated his shoulder, had stitches internally on the kneecap and externally on the skin covering his knee. Ray, I hope things look up for you and you heal quickly, cause I know how much you love the trainer. 4 hours a day on it, that's ridiculous!

Anyway, as you can see my training regiment is probably lacking. Work will be really busy with trips out of town for the next few weeks, so I will get even less riding. Kids and wife things of course will be the priority, so that leaves little time for riding and racing this month and probably for the first few weeks in June. Then it's vacation time for them and I will have more time, however I don't know what work will be like.

The real Carl Dolan post.

Well.. I coould have told you so. For Christ sake when will it stop raining during my races?!!!

Yep.. the race was sketchy. I almost got knocked down on the decent before the right turn. A big guy, I won't give you his name, apparently held too much speed down into the turn when everyone was starting to brake. Yes.. it is in the rain, so his brakes didn't work and gravity was definitely working against him. He came charging down through the pack, rubbing elbows with whoever he could to try to slow down. Luckily most of us, masters have enough experience beneath our belts not to panic. I just held my ground, not leaning into him much, just trying to stay straight and upright, as he continued to barrel forward. Good thing is that he didn't go down and held his position through the turn. Up the hill, he came back up to me and apologized for having no brakes. It's just part of racing in the rain.

Yep, there were attacks by the teams I had named earlier. The only thing I was wrong about was Paul Basler. It wasn't Paul who attacked with Ramon. Apparently there was a last minute registrar...Dave Fuentes of Battley Harley. I didn't notice him as I didn't remember seeing anyone from Battley register. Well, he and Ramon rode off without anyone trying to chase. Of course the Immediate Mortgage - Artemis Elite squad did their job of easing off the pedals letting Ramon roll away. There were a few guys who did some half-hearted chases, including myself. I came around towards the front and of course no one decided to come around me. Ugh. I went for another 50 yards or so and let the pack pass me. We're never going to catch them. The gap increased to about 30 seconds and I knew it was probably it. Just like my original post. I wasn't there and I was recovering from the Dave Osborne's attack. (you just don't know which one of them will be the break as they trade off attacks all of the time.) Funny thing though, was that Dave tried an attack after Ramon was long gone and he actually got away with about 5 other guys. The pack chased him pretty hard and eventually caught them, thanks in part to another Immediate Mortgage teammate and ABRT.

During the whole race it rained, sometimes harder than others. On a few laps, the rain felt like hail. Ouch!! Sometimes I could barely see a few bike lengths in front of me. I knew many times we rode through 5-6 inches of rain on the ground, as my whole wheel was completely underneath the water. I use the 50mm deep aero wheels. The splash sound it makes is pretty cool. WHOOSH with the carbon sound. At times I was wondering if the refs would neutralize us because of the rain. Not! It never happened. By the fourth to the last lap, my body was getting cold and my hands were cramping up. I had to stretch them, but the cramping was definitely coming on and I was worried about my legs as I couldn't really feel them. The 2nd to the last lap I was passed by Ray and I was falling back. I jumped on his wheel, hoping to get a pull up front. I knew by that time, I had to start moving forward or it would be too late. I saw Andrew Hong and immediately jumped on his wheel, he made some great moves moving forward and I tagged along. Well, who would have known, we got to Bo Lee's wheel. I took the train towards the front on the last turn and that's when Bo took off. Andrew apparently faltered a bit going up the hill and I was starting to fade as well. I got boxed in a bit then got around Andrew, however, I could only sprint a short distance before I got tired. I spun but couldn't increase my power. Three or four guys passed me at the line. Oh well. I placed 9th. Oh well. I found out that I took 3rd for the 40+ riders. So I'm not too sad about getting beat at the line as the riders who passed me were 30+ .
Well I quickly went to change to get out of my wet clothes. I was shivering. I finally started warming up a bit and went over to the registration table to find out when the CAT123 race was starting. Well, in about 50 minutes. A sucker for punishment and the fact that my family is away for the weekend, I decided to register. Plus the weather was clear and the roads were looking pretty dry!
The CAT3/4 race had a major crash and I found out that James Palo a fellow BPVC racer was involved. The CAT3/4 race was neutralized for about 20-30 minutes so that an ambulance could arrive. I spoke to James a little later and his bike is okay, he's just got a nice road rash on his hip.

The CAT123 race was finally about to start. As we were standing around waiting, I started feeling raindrops and of course there was a dark looming cloud in front of us. We started off , I made my way forward, expecting attacks to start happening pretty quickly. It was brisk, several teams attacked, the speed was pretty high. The rain started getting harder after a lap. Then there was the wind! A few times the wind almost knocked over the pack. We were having a hard time holding a good line as the wind would swirl. The rain started to downpour. Again the rain started to feel like sleet/hail. I stayed up in the front 20 as much as I could while trying to be protected from the wind. Several laps later, we were neutralized, as the ref said that there was lightening. I rode around trying to keep warm with some of the other riders, then since it seemed like that the race wouldn't start soon and the lightening was getting closer, I ducked under a covered entrance. A Kelly rider and I chatted a bit then he was told on his radio that the race was canceled. I guess that was good, as I was again getting cold.

So as you can see... this year the rain is following me around and I can't stand it! Funny thing is that I'm performing decently in the rain. Something I kept telling others that I wouldn't do. Ride in the rain. Even with my decent placings, I still hate riding in the rain.

I drained the seat tube, took off my headset and drained the downtube before the 2nd race. Now I have to do it all over again at home. I hate doing that. By the way.. What's with the Trek bikes which don't have a centralized way to drain the bike?

I don't know what my next races will be yet. I think I have Daddy duties on the weekend of May 3rd. (Poolesville) as my wife will be away playing with her friends.

I did get a good weekend of riding and racing (except for the rain)

C'est la Vie.

Carl Dolan Race.

Well, it rained again. This is 3 races for me in the rain. 60 degrees in the rain feels like 45 degrees.
Grit in they eyes and teeth. The race started off sketchy, with everyone trying to get in a rhythm. Once that happened that's when the attacks came. Paul Basler, Intermediate Mortgage - Artemis Elite Team, and ABRT decided to trade off attacks and counter attacks. A group gets away finally the pack stops chasing. Of course, I miss the break as I was recovering from the previous attack.

Well.. I would have done the CAT 123 race, however I was too cold and wet to feel like racing. So, I left and went on home. Nothing like racing in the rain again.

Good weekday ride today.

I missed riding this weekend. No real reason, except I couldn't negotiate the pass to go out and ride with the 7am DC Velo Saturday ride nor the 8:30 Sunday Bicycle Place ride.
Monday... well I was lazy and drove in to work, so no riding that day either.
Today though was much different. I rode into work, an easy pace. At noon, I went out with the guys in Arlington for the hill Ride. The ride was decent in size. Of course the usual suspects were there. Simon... from the Thrasher Hill ride, of course let for much of the ride causing pain whenever he could. Harley guys pushing the pace, ABRT, NCVC, and of course Ken Young from DC Velo all contributed. I felt pretty good for most of the ride and even had enough to try to chase Ken down at the end, however no luck, he was long gone by the time I made a move.
I actually left work at a decent time today and rode home. I remembered seeing an email about the Goon ride today, so dropped off my backpack at home and went right out to see if I could catch the ride coming back out of the park. I saw a few young guys on a break going fast. A BPVC guy out there... I recognized him as Kevin Young, one of our juniors who is really riding strong these days and much smarter. In the distance, I saw the rest of the pack chasing, and I jumped in. We climbed Mormon Hill, I sat in till the middle of the hill, a couple guys attacked and started riding away (Adam Fung and Ken Johnson ). I put the hammer down and chased. I gained a bit of ground, but it wasn't enough and they both kept up their pace, so all I was able to do was to chase alone. By the time we were coming up on Beach Drive again the rest of the pack rode past me and I jumped back in. Wow, that was a hard effort. We continued on at a fast pace, I took a couple of pulls, one time the guy in front of me went so hard after he pulled off that I wasn't able to pass him (idiot!) We finally got to the light where I could recover. On we went to the final sprint. Kevin wound up and actually pulled away from me on the sprint. Good job young man! It looks like the camps and Tour de l'Abitibi are really helping.
On our way back, the ride typically is a cool down. Not tonight.. Ken Johnson and Adam Fung were playing around and attacking each other. So it was a spirited ride back.
Anyway, I was able to put in about 60 miles today. And I didn't feel drained, I guess the rides to work is helping, but it's only 9.4 miles each way. (I ride Military Road most of the time when ride to and from work, so my hill riding is getting stronger). I still am missing the longer rides like the Thrasher noon rides which I really liked.
Bottom line, good workout today.

By the way, every time I'm riding with the Battley Harley guys, they really hammer. No wonder these guys are winning the CAT123 races.

Tyson's Corner Circuit Race

I went to bed on Friday night smiling, knowing that I wouldn't be going to race in the rain at Walkersville as I've been checking Weather.com for the past week, plus, I had been closed out of the registration.   

I woke up on Saturday morning, feeling refreshed, and low and behold, the sky was clear and a beautiful blue color.  Well, to say the least, I was a bit pissed.  I didn't get up early enough for the 7:00am ride, if there even was one.  I checked weather.com and it apparently said that Sunday would be the rainy day now.  I wish these weather people would get it right!  Well, I enjoyed the day with my kids in the park.   I think I threw out my arm a bit, pitching to my son. 

Sunday, I woke up to the pitter patter of rain.  Oh, great another race in the rain.  I obviously didn't get enough riding in the wet this year.   I arrived at Tyson's, parked the car under the garage and waited till the start of the 40+ race.    The race started off fairly brisk, and I have to say, I was pretty pleased with everyone's riding skills.  No one was cutting anyone off, everyone was smooth into the corners and there was not alot of slamming on the brakes.  You have to love the masters races :).   Ramon attacked fairly early,  I went on a flyer immediately after that lap, however no one else went with me.  So, I eased off after a lap and let the pack catch me.  Everyone seemed to be in a rythym.  Unfortunately, when I was recovering, Ramon and another rider rode off the front and I didn't get to react.  No one in the pack made an effort to chase the two riders down.  The last couple of laps picked up steam and I made an effort to move from the back towards the front.  I moved forward to somewhere around 15-20th spot, and then after the final turn,  I kicked it in to high gear and sprinted, passing everyone except one other rider and got 4th place.  The last 20 meters burned and I could only muster a lack luster finish, I was waiting for a few to pass me, however luckily they didn't. 

Well there's something to be said for racing in the rain.  Apparently, I do okay at it, however I hate it.  I undress quickly and unfortunately I didn't bring a jacket. I was freezing after race and had to drink a couple of cups of coffee to try to warm up.  That didn't work.   I watched the CAT 4 race then went on home.  

Well, my son recently received an invitation to tryout for the Maryland AAA Hockey team.  This will mean that I might not have to have as much time in the spring as I had originally thought. My wife will have to cut the spring break vacation short and put my son on a flight back home so I can shuttle him to the practices.  I think this is a great opportunity for him to improve his skills, however I am not looking forward to it, should he be accepted on the team.  It's a real comittment for the parents as well as the child.   

Next race???  Poolesville or Ft. Ritchie??  I don't know.. I'll have to get the approval from the family, if there are no soccer games at the same time, which I am pretty sure there are.  Or I might get closed out of Poolesville before I know. 

By the way... Thank you to NCVC on continuing to promote a great race.  It ran very smoothly, even with the rain.  Thanks to all of the officials, police, ambulance personnel, road guards, registration staff, promoters, local government, and others who make this event a safe and fun event year after year. 

Week in recap.

Jeff Cup was miserable, cold, wet and scary. I've been riding a decent amount of hills over the winter, by the way, my first complete winter on the bike. Every year I dismount in the fall and return in the late spring, typically Tysons being my first race. I'm usually suffering at Tysons.
I registered at the last moment on Jeff Cup as every day when I checked weather.com, it said that there was a 40% chance of rain that day. So I delayed... Thursday morning, I checked again and it said that there was only a 10% chance of rain. Wooohoo... I registered with about 20 minutes before it closed. I didn't want to race in the rain. I've done too many rides this winter in the sleet, rain and light snow to know that it's not worth racing in that weather. Well, I was in no luck. As we drove up it started to sleet. We heard pinging on the windshield and then checked accuweather.com on my smartphone...it looked like we were on the edge of some wet stuff. Mostly snow and sleet. By the time we arrived it was coming down harder and in larger chunks. Like many of the others there, my carbon wheels were making a racket, I thought initially I popped a spoke. I was thinking that the race might be cancelled, however it was not the case. The thing which scared me the most was the GS Lancaster rider with the Audi/Cannondale bike.. what a racket those brakes caused! Of course I tried to stay away from that rider as he continued to use his brakes as often as he could on the downhills, around corners, etc... I was just waiting for him to slide out. It was so loud that it caused me to put my brakes on more often just because I was thinking that there might be a reason to do so. Well, after a while I finally tried to get some distance on him, however he continued to be there with me for some reason. I think I finally warmed up by the 3rd lap and felt comfortable, but then we got neutralized because the CAT123's were coming through. Well, nothing like getting cold again. Obviously we were not working too hard compared to those guys. I attacked a couple of times, one time on the hill, however no one came with me, so I let up. Finally at the last 2km the pace picked up tremendously, I was marking Art Brown much of the time, however at this point, his team went to work. One guy moved in on his wheel, and caused me to lose some distance with him, then his train accelerated forward and I couldn't follow as someone slowed down causing me to be caught up in the middle, both sides went around me and I must have dropped back about 20 to 30 riders. I finally was able to get to the right side and started to join the quick pace, it was too late as I saw that I was about 200 meters away from the finish, then I stomped on it, passing someone who I thought would lead me out well, however he didn't have any gas anymore. I was extremely lucky as everyone seemed to move towards the left and get caught up in traffic. Two bike widths was clear on the right where I was making up good placing and ended up an amazing 6th after being about 30th or more back. It's always better to be lucky than good. Art Brown's ABRT team did a great job of protecting him and leading him out for the win.
I was pretty happy about my performance as I was cold wet and felt a bit crampy during the last lap. I wasn't too tired or sore the next day, so obviously riding during the winter helped tremendously.
Monday, I took the day off.
Tuesday, I got out late for the noon Hill ride in Arlington. I didn't see anyone one out there so I did a slower and shorter ride. Plus my derailleurs weren't working well. Probably because of the crap embedded in the moving parts from the rainy ride. I cleaned the bike a bit after Jeff Cup, however probably didn't do it justice.
Wednesday, lukily I commuted in to work.. so I got a little bit of riding in. It was a busy day at work.
Thursday... Pete Lindeman sent out an email about an easier ride than the usual Tuesday ride. I knew it would rain in the afternoon, so luckily I got out and made an effort to go. Well...it could have been a hard ride as Josh Frick and Ken Young showed up.. so did Simon (he usually destroys us on the Wed Thrasher Hill ride), but we chatted a bit on the ride and it was just a nice relaxing tempo ride.
Friday, drove to work and left the bike at home... had a couple glasses of wine and relaxed.
Saturday.. it should rain... so no biking.
Sunday... race day at Tysons. I'll be looking out for Roger Friend, Art Brown, Ramon Benitez, Bryan Vaughn, Bill Gros, and several more. Those guys will be the ones making the moves. We'll see if Roger can ride away again this year.

End of the Hockey Season.

Finally, the hockey season is over for my children.  So, I may have time to ride on the weekends now.  Maybe... or maybe not. Soccer season is starting, however only one of my kids is on a soccer team.  

Well, I'll miss the hockey games.  Cheering on my children was a blast.  We travelled up to Wilmington, DE/Philadelphia, PA for a tournament and our kids' teams actually performed better than expected.  They both ended up 2nd in the tournament and the final game was very close for my daughter's mite team.  The children were pretty depressed losing the last game, however received a trophy for their effort, and the team received a large trophy.  Kind of a surprise for getting 2nd place. 

 Well, my riding has been almost non existence.  I haven't had the time to commute as I'm working very late and don't have lights.   Riding during lunch time is also out of the question as of many of the days, I have meetings scheduled.  

It's great to see that Ray has won the CAT4 race at UMD.  Who would have known he could win a sprint, however during our Thrasher rides, he's been able to power it out on the final sprint by going hard for a long distance so that he tires the sprinters out.. namely me.  :) .   Now that he's won a race it will be much harder as people will key off of his moves.  He'll have to mix it up a bit more and take more chances.  The good thing is that there are a few who probably have the strength to keep up with him, so the CAT4 races may become more like the CAT3 races.   Any way good luck, Ray. See you out there soon at a 40+ race. 

change of schedule.

Well, my life is now turned upside down since I now work from an office in Arlington.  No more noon rides and the commute is challenging.  Riding into work seems to be decently safe, riding over Chain Bridge, while passing all of the cars sitting in traffic.  However, in the evenings, the speed is much higher and I don't have lights, except for one small red blinking light. So, to say the least it's been a bit dangerous.  I decided not to ride until I get some more lights.  To say the least, my training has been pretty much once a week.  I rode to work one day with my backpack loaded down with my laptop and other stuff.  It seemed that I weighed additional 15 lbs.   This past Saturday, I was lucky enough to get about an hour in the afternoon to ride the Goon ride.  It was windy as hell, and I did a good amount of pulling in front of Phil and Ira.  Luckily they were there to pick up the slack when I was depleted and allowed me to recover.  

Today, I tried to get out with the NCVC ride in Arlington from the Italian store, however I got out too late and only found Jim with DCVelo coming back from the ride.  The others were apparently behind him as he said the "geezers" go out about 5 minutes ahead.   Maybe next week I'll make it. 

Anyway, I have to find a better way to ride, I'll also have to leave everything plus a change of clothes at work, so I don't carry 15 lbs each way, though it may be good for me. :)

Longest ride this off season.

Well, since the noon time group decided to do a recovery ride today and I had some extra time on my hands, I decided to skip the ride and go do a Hains Point ride.  This would eventually be a 50 mile ride for me. Yea! It was my longest ride this off season.  I know, you're supposed to put the miles on during the off season, but who has the time? The longest ride typically is on a Saturday or Sunday when I do the Bicycle Place or DC Velo ride plus the extra 10 miles back down the park and back, however this off season, I have yet to have the time to do that.   I have only done one 7am DCVelo ride this year.   So all in all, my rides have been 25 miles or less. (If lucky I wiill do maybe an extra 5-8 miles after the noon ride.)  

I rode down to Hains Point at a brisk pace as I was running late out of the door.  Luckily the wind was with me and I made it down there with about 5 minutes to spare.  We started off slowly for a lap or two, then we picked up the pace a bit.  I took several longer pulls at the front making sure I was getting a good work out.  After the 2nd lap, I started to work on my sprint.  Boy, since I don't really train on my sprints, I don't seem to have the intense power anymore on my sprint.   I think my endurance on the sprint has gotten better, but the speed isn't quite there anymore.  I guess it won't matter much as I can work on my sprints and quickly regain that form.  Anyway, I had a few good sprints and was fairly tapped out for the last one.  The wind was blowing hard enough so that I couldn't catch Alex and I let off knowing that I still had to ride back.   

My ride back was pretty uneventful, though the wind was in my face most of the time.  I was almost home and saw that I was about a few miles below 50 miles so I decided to turn back down to the park to do a little bit of the rolling hills.  It was a good work out and on the last hill coming back, my left thigh decided to cramp,  good enough.  I made it back while rubbing out my cramp.  I'm a bit sore and tired now, but I'll try to make it out tomorrow, unless the weather prevents me from doing so. 

Total time: 2hrs and 38 minutes

Average HR: 158

Average Speed: 19 mph

Average Cadence: 77 rpm

Calories: 1778 calories burned. 

Since, I'll be taking on a new job next week in Arlington, VA, my riding schedule will totally change.  If you have any input on training rides in Arlington, let me know. 

Team Astana not invited to the Tour de France.

The recent announcement that Team Astana was not going to be invited to the Tour de France is mind boggling.  Team Astana was already excluded from the Giro d Italia. This is a slap in the face of cycling.  Sponsorship of cycling is hard enough to come by already, and now this announcement.  Alberto Contidor will not be able to defend his title.  Even with new team management, new team members, Astana will still not be able to participate.  What this is saying is that the sponsors are responsible for the team's actions.   Actually it is the total opposite.  The teams solicit sponsorships.  Sponsors may dictate rules, however it is up to the team management and members to provide integrity to the sport.  

I guess there are plenty of teams,  (I say that facetiously, as I know that this year has been difficult  year for the pro teams on getting sponsorships) which the Tour de France will invite, however are they the most competitive? This may be an interesting year for the Tour.  Will the reputation of the Tour be lost because of the lack of  qualified competitiors?  Will the Tour de France not be considered the elite event anymore?  Only time will tell.  

I for one, can't fathom that the ASO would not invite some of the top riders like Contador, Leipheimer, Kloden, Rubiera, Horner and the upcoming riders like  Rajkovic.   This is also a slap in the face of Bruyneel, who was so dominant in management of pro cycling racing.   I say give the management some respect.   I feel sorry for the managers like Sean Yates and Viatcheslav Ekimov.  These guys were well respected racers in history.   

I guess the ASO is trying to make an example of Team Astana.  Who would have known?  Why not exclude Team Mobile now Team High Road, I guess it's because T-Mobile dropped out of the sponsorship?  Was that done to appease the ASO?  and was it planned with the ASO so that they could ban any other teams who kept the existing sponsors?  Are there any ethics and integrity anymore in pro cycling?  

Is Team Astana going to survive?  Will there be any late minute shuffles in teams to take away the top riders of Astana? Would you want to be on Astana now??
Will a new tour in the Americas' be born soon? Notice.. Americas (Canada, Mexico, US,  Somewhere in South America?)  Should the ASO allow  Team Astana, however put stricter regulations on doping testing??

Happy Valentines Day and Enjoy your eating lots!

Wusses.. all of them.

Yep.. you guessed it.  Everyone wussed out today.  It was a chilly and windy day (26 degrees at noon), the email went out early that our leader would not be riding today.  I sent out an email about 11:30am to see if anyone would be riding.  Even the hardy Ad had to depend on Paul to ride.  Rayman apparently said he would be riding in his basement.   Paul's excuse was that he didn't see the email message in time to go.  Well, excuses, excuses, it was a Monday anyway, when during the season it's typically an off day.  I guess we're into our season already.  As I've said, the off season is no longer the off season. 

As for what I did?  I decided not to ride thinking I might ride in the evening on my rollers.  Well, guess what... I didn't.  Instead, I took my children to their hockey practice and one had a game.  So, by the time I got back from all of this, I didn't feel like riding in the late evening.  Instead, I had couple glasses of wine and relaxed watched a movie with the wife.   Well, so much for the training. 

Miles put in today: the Big 0, though I did do some gym work this morning. 

I keep reading everyone's blogs and email ride recaps on the weekend ride... Well, I'm damn envious of everyone.  I've get to wake up at the same time everyone else does, however instead of getting my riding gear on, I'm pushing my children along in getting them out of bed and quickly getting dressed for their hockey games.   Then I do the hour long ride to the other rinks.  Every once in a while, I'm passing a biker on the road riding to their group ride.  We'll hockey will stop by mid to late March, then of course it's soccer.  So I don't really know when I'll be able to do any of the usual group rides.  Yep, I'd love to do a Sugarloaf ride (80 miles or so).  I haven't done any long rides this winter, though, this year I have actually ridden hard during the off season.  I'm supposed to be building my base.  Well, that doesn't seem like it will happen.  So the long road races will continue to be my weak events.   

I guess the good thing is that I'm spending time with my children, cheering their team on and watching them progress.  It's pretty amazing on their growth in abilities from the start of the season til now.  I guess I'll have to live through their accomplishments now, since I get limited time for myself.  C'est la Vie. 

I think my schedule for work will be changing soon... so that will put an even weirder spin on my training or lack of it. 

Ride hard and ride on. 

Picture Day.

I wonder what type of tires they used on this?

You also have to be really trusting of your partner on this!

Look familiar? This can happen to you if you piss off the Police. Follow the rules of the road.

Tuesday Ride.

Well, the usual riders turned out for the 12:30 Thrasher ride. I immediately knew it would be a fast ride today because Simon showed up. We were missing James, Jay, and Ray. Laurie Marshall, Bryan Burns and Tracy also joined us. We were not joined by the Mayor's entourage. It was a cloudy day, the ground was damp and contrary to my rules (I'm not supposed to ride on wet days), we all embarked on time. I chatted with Laurie for a bit, noting that this was going to be a fast ride. Well, the chatting continued with everyone and it seemed that we were going to just have an easy ride. So I rode slowly away at my own pace. I couldn't believe that everyone would want to ride that pace the whole ride. We regrouped on Seven Locks/Bradley, then again, I rode away slowly and turned up Kentsdale and up the hill. That's when things changed. The group caught me before the turn onto Newbridge. It was amazing, things went from slow to furious. We continued that pace, dropping Tracy and Bryan and Shawn somewhere along the way, before Clara Barton. Down Clara Barton, we hammered, Paul apparently did not follow us but instead rode down MacArthur Blvd. I was breathing harder than I have all winter. Some of my pulls were ineffective as I could not pass Simon or Randy. I finally dropped back and let the others rotate through. Laurie happened to do that as well, so I didn't feel too badly. I just couldn't recover. Well, Ad of course was the instigator again, pulling through above our pace. We all needed recovery, coasting back to the start. All in all a really good day. Tomorrow is the hill day, which I don't think I'll be able to make as I have a meeting at 11:30. We'll see if I can get back in time.

One last note: Rest in Peace Sheldon Brown. You've helped me over the years work on my bike. I didn't even need to buy a book on how to service my bike. I'm sure you've been an inspiration to many in the cycling community. Sheldon's Cycling site His Journal