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.