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.