I'm fast. I'm hairy.

Cat 1 Upgrade?

2011-02-28T22:44:00.000-08:00

Okay you clamoring race report fans, I'm afraid you'll have to wait just a little longer.

The lovely missus and I just got home from the Callville Bay Classic and I had enough energy to unpack, then - drumroll please - officially file for my category 1 upgrade.

Hopefully I followed all the rules correctly and didn't have a math fail - I think I qualify. For those following along at home, here's a quick review of how it went down:

6 pts - 2nd of 41 2+, 2010 Madera Stage Race Road Race M35+123, 3/14/2010
1 pt - 5th of 21 2+, 2010 Menlo Park Crit M35+123, 4/11/2010
1 pt - 6th of 55 2+, 2010 35+ District Crit Championships, 5/2/2010
2 pts - 4th of 21, 2010 Colavita NorCal Gran Prix E2, 7/17/2010
3 pts - 2nd of 14, 2010 Copper Town Square Circuit Race E2, 7/31/2010
3 pts - 2nd of 16 2+, 2010 CCCX Fall #2 P123, 9/4/2010
2 pts - 5th of 56, 2010 Folsom Challenge Crit P12, 9/11/2010
1 pt - 6th of 15, 2010 Henleyville RR P12, 9/19/2010
2 pts - 2nd of 9 2+, 2010 CCCX Fall #3 P123, 10/2/2010
2 pts - 4th of 21 2+, 2011 Cal Aggie Crit M35+123, 1/29/2011
1 pt - 3rd of 8 2+, 2011 CCCX Spring #1 P123, 1/30/2011
6 pts - 10th of 56, 2011 Callville Bay Classic E2 GC, 2/27/2011
--
30 pts, holee crap.

I can't even tell you how many near misses I had for points - I've been one spot away from getting a point something like 4 times? It is really amazing to me how difficult it is to get them when you're focusing on it.

I'm looking forward to a different racing style that involves a lot less accounting and a lot more go for broke.

But first I'm looking forward to what I think will be a positive response to the upgrade request, a lot less time pressure, and a new family member on the way.

Some time in the next couple days I'll try to write up a "what I did during the off-season" report where I'll chat about how I upgraded my engine a bit, and how things played out the last month.

In the meantime - check me out in the NCNCA Point Series quickly (2/28/2011), I'm 20th M35-123 and 5th P12 until they update the standings with results from a bunch of races I didn't do, dropping me down :-)

Cheers

Always the Bridesmaid, but I'll Take It - CCCX Fall #3

2010-10-03T07:33:00.000-07:00

Hard to believe the 2010 season is over, but this is it - the last race of the year for me has come and gone. Yesterday was the CCCX Fall Series Circuit Race #3.

This race is held at Fort Ord near Monterey, and I've done this particular circuit once already when I did the 2nd race in this series a month back and got a 2nd place for my efforts (ha cha cha).

The good thing about this course is that it only has one flat section - the rest is either uphill or downhill. The uphills are short enough that they favor a punchier rider though - not a pure climber, and the final sprint is uphill. I happen to be a punchy climber because I'm basically a small sprinter, and uphill sprints usually favor me. So I love this course.

Here's the profile from one lap of my data:

Since I got second place here last time, I'll admit I dared to think I might win this race, and I was definitely hoping to get some upgrade points.

Strategically, there are 4 CalGiant team members here, including the basically-stronger-than-everyone Jesse Moore who showed up to try clinch the P12 BAR competition. There are two Metromint guys, and a bunch of solo riders including myself, in a small (15 or so) field. This course and a small field reward breakaways, so I'm not going to let anything go without me, and I'm looking to have at least one CalGiant and one Metromint rider for the perfect move. I'm hoping for some reason Jesse Moore won't be in the move.

We start off, and the first time up the hill a CalGiant guy puts in an easy leg-testing attack. The whole pack essentially covers it and we're strung out but all together. Few are suffering yet. The second lap we head up the hill and it's on for real. The same CalGiant guy goes again but harder and sustained this time and pretty soon it's him, me, a second CalGiant guy, both Metromint riders, and a ClifBar rider. Unless something happens, this is the break, and we have 75 minutes to go.

We roll along steadily increasing our lead but the composition starts to shuffle out. One CalGiant guy falls off and Jesse Moore bridges up, which worries me. One Metromint guy falls off and the ClifBar rider starts to falter then falls off.

We hit the finish hill for the 3rd lap and there's a prime on. Jesse goes to lead out his teammate, the ClifBar guy is gone, the Metromint rider is gapped hard, and I'm just a small gap behind the two CalGiant riders. Jesse looks around, sees the chaos and decides to keep his foot on the gas. I see immediately from his body posture that he's not letting up so I sprint across the gap and jump on his wheel.

At this point, It's Jesse and I in the front, a second CalGiant and a Metromint together in 3rd and 4th, and shrapnel behind. We have around an hour to go. Being in a two-person time trial with Jesse Moore isn't exactly how I pictured the day going. Jesse Moore wins time trials and hill climbs, but loses sprints. I suck at time trials, do okay on hill climbs, but win sprints. I'm pretty sure how this will play out, and I'm just hoping to survive. Sure enough Jesse keeps the throttle on long enough that I'm just about to crack within 2 minutes, but I just manage to hang on.

For the next 38 minutes I do what I can to help Jesse ride, which amounted to pulling around 2 minutes total in a few short, weak efforts, while hanging on for dear life as he motored steadily up all the hills just a couple percent under my maximum. I've given myself tough grades for not being tenacious enough over the season and I'll admit to being close to blowing up several times and thinking about the pain and weakness. That doesn't help. I consciously made an effort to use all the physical tricks I could, and to mentally repeat to myself that this was the reason I train so hard. This was the reason I race. You don't get to be in the winning break very often, and I wasn't going to give it up until I was completely shelled.

With a lap and a half to go, and a 3-minute gap, Jesse figured I could make it in by myself, so he throttled up one last time on the rollers and I blew apart completely - total toddler on a tricycle action. Now I'm solo in no-man's land behind the leader but still in front of the pack. Despite being horrible at time trials I figure even I can't lose 3 minutes in a lap so I pull it together, put my head down, and power through the final lap to hold on for second place.

I have to say, this was something like thorough ass-whipping number 5 (that'd be Mount Tam, Henleyville, Everest Challenge and now CCCX), 3 weekends in a row, from Jesse Moore, but I wouldn't have taken 2nd without him being nice about this one, so chapeau, sir. Strong and nice, a rare combo, and much appreciated.

That's a pretty satisfying way to end the season, I have to say. The points earned were enough to get me second in the series (50 points, vs 51 for David Wyandt) but since the winner wasn't there and I was close they gave the series champ hoodie to me.

Take that David Wyandt, I'm going to be the CCCX Fall Series P12 poser all year, and there's nothing you can do about it. At least the one time David and I were both there, I edged him out, so I don't feel too badly about it.

And yes, I take all my loot pictures in front of miniature horses to make myself look taller.

I started the season with the goal to get a top-10 in the P12, then hopefully a top-5, to learn how to ride breakaways, and to give the Everest Challenge a good go. I ended the season with 4 2nd places, a 4th, 2 5ths, 2 6ths, and 5 other top-10s of various kinds (E2, P12 and M35-123). That's really way more than I could have hoped for. I had no goal in mind whatsoever of upgrading to Category 1 but here I sit with 21 upgrade points! I'm also going to end up somewhere in the top-40 of the NCNCA P12 BAR competition. Quite a year.

I looked up some yearlong stats for the curious:

* 10,041 miles ridden over the season (I think I only put 8,000 on my car!)
* a little over 600 hours on the bike
* 314,860 calories burned (that'd be 89.9 pounds of fat! don't picture it)
* 76,800 heart beats while riding

To anyone that's supported, encouraged, or just followed along this year - thanks. It's been a fun ride.

2010 Everest Challenge, Day 2

2010-09-30T13:31:00.000-07:00

How flattering, people are telling me the suspense is killing them and they can't stand that I haven't posted about the second Everest Challenge Day. Okay, one person has, but I can't disappoint my fan, so here it is, Everest Challenge Day 2.

For a little course knowledge, it's important to know that historically Day 1 is stupendously hard, and Day 2 is merely tremendously hard. There's a difference. Day 1 usually took nearly 6 hours and 45 minutes while Day 2 will only take 5 hours if I hit my plan. During a heat wave, where every minute into the afternoon is another minute roasting, that's a big deal - during Day 2 I should be up at high altitudes on the final climb before things get really oven hot - and since a heat symptom related to hydration/electrolyte balance is likely what cracked me and took me off plan yesterday, I'm looking forward to today.

Before describing the day I'll talk a little bit more about preparation, since "looking forward" to a hard 5 hour day, after a 6.75 hour day, doesn't just happen.

Sports science wise, I attempted to do five big things in parallel to prepare for this event. I discussed weight last time (I dropped a bunch myself, and switched to lighter equipment), and I also discussed gearing last time (I switched to much lower gears so I could maintain higher cadence, thereby decrease peak pedal force per pedal revolution, and hopefully avoid cramps).

The three things I'll mention this time are:

1) that I altered my training program to be less focused on long endurance training and more focused on short, hard intervals. I mostly did 30-second and 1-minute intervals in the months leading up to this (with good effect), and only did a couple long rides. I think that mostly worked, but I should have done a couple longer rides at threshold I think. There's only so much time though - and I may just need another year to slowly get stronger.

2) I did more altitude training this year to make sure I was acclimatized - I spent 5 days at 7800' 2.5 weeks before the event in the hopes of triggering some red blood cell production, and I spent 3 nights at 7800' prior to the event to normalize blood plasma volume. I'm not sure if this worked or not. I think it helped, possibly 5% or so. It definitely didn't hurt, and it provided for interesting observations on just how low-pressure the atmosphere really is at 7800'. This is your snack food at altitude, for instance:

3) Nutrition - I really focused on electrolyte replacement and nutrition strategies this year so that I wouldn't start cramping despite pushing for a PR at a distance I don't normally ride. Specifically I finally figured out how to take the pill-based electrolytes you really need (drinks just don't have enough), without fumbling around a lot. Behold the "pill the dog" method of electrolyte consumption, based on Clif Bloks:

This makes it really easy to get the stuff you need.

The only problem then is getting the stuff you need when you need it, since timing is important and working out really hard has a habit of making me a wee bit stupid. My strategy there is to map out a plan the night before that has course information and when to eat what, so even when I'm an idiot I get it right. I just tape it to my top tube:

From my perspective, all this came together perfectly. I rode a really strong race, set personal records for power produced and times on this course, finished strong on the second day, and generally didn't have a lot of problems given the extreme difficulty of this race - just a little cramping on day 1. Unfortunately, more strong dudes then ever showed up, so that even though I had a great race on an absolute scale, I did worse relatively - I ended up 14th in the P12 category, and came away with no upgrade points, and only $45 in prize money. I'll admit I was hoping for more and I have a little "woulda coulda" afterwards (for instance, if I hadn't cramped I would have been around 25 minute faster on day 1...that's maybe 9th place...), but I'll have to take what I can get.

As the hardest race I do all year, and a cap to the season, it's sort of like a final exam. In that respect I'll be a little tough on myself and give myself a B+. I did cramp on Day one and I think it was avoidable. Other than that though, I rocked it and a B+ isn't bad.

Thanks to everyone that supported me as I tilted at this windmill - lots of encouragement from my teammates and fellow racers, and tons of understanding from my wife. I'm not a complete lone wolf, I can't do it without you.

For the data junkies, here's what the data looked like. I put two lines in indicating my target, and what I calculated after-the-fact based on the winning time would have been the power I'd have needed to win. I'm a fair ways off - 20%, and that explains why I got 14th GC instead of 1st for sure. If I had 10% more power I'd have been 7th or so I think. Maybe next year...One fun note is the top speed - imagine doing that on your bike. Also, you can see on the first climb I was cranking out tons of power the first 10 minutes or so. I specifically stayed with the lead group in order to see exactly how hard they were riding even though I knew I wouldn't stay there all day. Turned out to be 280-300W to start the day - or 4.8W/Kg or so. They faded by the end, but that's a stout effort. If you can do that for a couple hours, you could win...

Here's some other pictures if you're curious - they really capture the desolation out there well - luckily there's a lot more camaraderie then you can see from this lens.

One more race this year - the CCCX Fall Series where I got 2nd last time, then the season's done.

Cheers

2010 Everest Challenge, Day 1

2010-09-25T19:49:00.000-07:00

Wow, that was hard. That's banal, but pretty much what I think after the first day of the Everest Challenge every time. I don't even stop for food or water on training rides, but I had to stop twice today (for around 5 minutes total) to work a cramp out. Tough day.

Similar to the post describing the Everest Challenge though, I'm going to try to use pictures, because words don't really describe it. And today was hard enough I'm literally dyslexic right now anyway, and I don't want any accidental malaprops.

Herewith, the things that stood out to me most today:

The heat was the story today. I actually *over* drank to compensate (it is possible), which triggered a bit of cramping, but after not drinking most of the final climb (2 hours) I wasn't feeling so bad at the top. This is what it did to me though - same story on all parts of clothing:

So with the heat, the major salt accumulation (thank you s!caps) etc, I still did okay. Here's the data - I was on steady top-10 (*maybe* somewhere around 6th) pace, reeling people in, until I just cracked. Managed to hold the same power post-crack that I had in 2007, so I can't complain too much, but oh what could have been. If I'd stayed on pre-crack pace my math says I would have chopped 25 minutes off my time. Ouch! Look at that high temperature in the sun:

So, I'm all cracked up with just under an hour and a half to go. How did I survive? Well, I built a bike with ridiculously tiny gears. I was getting a little self-conscious while test riding it the last couple weeks as everyone was quick to poke fun at a 33x32 low gear, but I stuck with it and damn if it didn't allow me to get myself together from a major cramp and finish okay:

The other saving grace was that I worked on the denominator of "power to weight" and went on a major personal remodeling project this year. I lost just about every bit of body fat I could and lemme tell ya, *much* nicer not hauling that up these hills. I do miss pizza though:

After all the data and sweaty body parts, here's your unicorn chaser - the lake at the top of the first climb near Mosquito Flats. Check out the Aspens in blazing fall color:

There you go. 120+ miles, 15000' down. 14000' and change tomorrow, and at least with prizes going 20 deep I'm still in the money :-). Since it looks like I've got about 4.5 hours of power in the legs and that's how long the stage was today, hopefully tomorrow I can claw some time back on people.

Cheers

Everest Challenge - what's it look like?

2010-09-23T23:50:00.000-07:00

For most people when I describe the Everest Challenge it's like trying to explain a trillion. It's just too much, it's too far away from what they've experienced - both geographically and cycling-wise.

I think that's a shame though, because then how can I explain why I do it? I mean, it's a tough physical challenge, and no one cares how I do. I have to want to do it. Why?

One of the main reason I do it is for the geography, Inyo County and the Owens River Valley (where the EC is) is gorgeous people! You have to see it. One of these days I'm going to do a non-cycling trip this way that goes something like this: drive into Yosemite and stay in the lodge there. Hang out in the Owen's River Valley a couple days. Head to Death Valley to see the bloom and stay in the great hotel there.

Here's why that's a good thing - this is the big picture view of where this place is and generally what it looks like, relative to the Bay Area, with Bishop (the home base) and the 6 climb end points circled:

So, you go across Yosemite via Tioga Pass. You drop down the backside of the Sierras and you're in a valley (still at 7000' though!). You head South past Mono Lake, and pretty soon you pass Mammoth Lakes (where I'm staying for a couple nights, quite nice, 7800'). Keep heading south a bit more on 395 and you drop into the Owens River Valley at around 4000', nestled in between the Sierras on the West, and a ridge separating Owens River Valley from Death Valley. et voila.

Zooming in a bit, here's the 6 climbs we do. Physically each is epic, but if you look at the geography, that's the thing. Glaciers. High mountain lakes. Snowcaps. Massive ravines. Green valleys. The oldest tree in the world (no joke!). I can just about reach out and touch each one of these things on the climbs, depending on the climb.

Here's what they look like, in order:

This is a tough one. Highest point in the race, 10,100'. There's glaciers up there. Beautiful fishing lake.

Easy climb. I'd say this is filler to make sure we hit to the total climb number :-). Only a 3000' climb, to 7000+'

This is a killer - end of the day, 6000' climb that finishes just under 10,000'. Really pretty at the top though. Aspen trees all over the hillside on fire with golden leaves (I saw them today). Mountain lakes, snow packs, etc.

Starting the second day out right - climb up to just under 7800', the last climb into the Sierras, West of Owen's River Valley.

Now we're heading East - these are some moon-scape / desert conditions on the ridge in between Owen's River Valley and Death Valley. This climb is also a bit of filler really - same as the middle climb of Day 1. It's in a steep ravine though and is still pretty.

Final climb of the event - this climbs up to the Ancient Bristlecone Forest, which has the oldest living tree in it. They're scraggly little oxygen-starved, wind-blasted things, those bristlecones. Makes you think about what it takes to survive 10,000 years though, and what those years will do to you. The view all around from this point is amazing, as are the burritos cooked up by the event's support crew.

There you have it - a little bit of the visual of the event. I think that's important because it's a feast for the eyes, and makes it worthwhile.

Whole lotta racin' goin' on

2010-09-19T15:26:00.000-07:00

I mentioned in the last post I had raced a bunch but hadn't posted anything.

Couple reasons for that - work has been pretty hectic (even had to travel a bit, a rarity), home has been a little hectic (we're remodeling the front-yard among other things), and cycling-wise I'm building up to the grandaddy of them all - the Everest Challenge. Updating the blog...not really a priority. I don't even make it on Facebook much.

Anyway, I have been feeling slightly guilty about it among lots of other things not getting done though, and I made a major error in a road race today so I thought I would really quickly set down all the missing races with a special focus on things attempted, and lessons learned.

Herewith - the missing races, oldest to newest

o Patterson Pass RR (8th in 35+123)

My goal here was to be active, break up the field, and finish in the front group. I think I can climb, and I'd like to test that.

Lesson learned is that I can climb (that wasn't the hard part for me, and the group did split down to 10 or so) but the rollers after the smaller climb were a killer for me. I cracked off the pack there and had to chase back on. Was blown then and didn't make it up the climb. Kept chasing though, and learned that you will keep catching people if you don't give up. I think I caught three more and finished *just* behind the main group. I need more raw power.

Not too bad. B for climbing, D for raw power, A for tenacity.

- Dunnigan Hills RR (10th in P12)

Goal here was to get a result. No wind so I bet on a sprint. It was a sprint.

Lesson learned: my read of the weather and associated strategy is pretty good, however, my selection of wheel to follow left something to be desired. I was in the wrong spot and the sprint was hellishly dangerous. Top 10 was luck, as was staying upright. So, need to get closer to the front prior to sprints and pick better wheels.

A for weather / course research, D for finishing tactics

- Suisun Harbor Crits (weak in both 35+123 and P12)

Goal was to be active and get a result. I was expecting breakaways on this course.

Lesson learned: if you half-ass breakaways you'll burn all your matches like I did in the M35+123, and suck at the sprint. And the P12 won't magically be better.

This was an F all around really. All it was good for was a workout.

- University RR (24th in P12 but got girled by Katherine Matthis - go Katherine...) and

This is a very very tough climbing race that National level pros frequently turn up for. Goal here was to finish in the first significant group.

I'm not sure what happened here. Mentally I blew up - the legs were sorta okay but at some point I just couldn't do it anymore and gave up. It was really hard at the moment, but guys I know I can outclimb stayed in when I let the group go. I was disappointed. I finished the race and kept riding really good laptimes, for what should have been 24th but they DNPd me anyway, which is frustrating.

Lesson Learned: I'm not sure here - it's a lingering problem. Mental blowup while legs still have some juice? Was I tired? I just dunno. More raw power will always solve the problem, for sure.

D for tenacity, B for endurance

- Vacaville Crit (18th in P12 but beat all the pros in the race, because...they probably weren't trying very hard on the last lap since a break was away)

Goal here was to try to get a result even though I knew it would be hard. I expected a breakaway.

There were breakaways, and I surged off the front with them. Nothing I went with was sticking though (and yes, I pulled a bit). In the end I was with the main group and I thought there was a huge group up the road so I didn't fight hard in the sprint. My mistake, there weren't that many up the road and a good sprint would have been a good result.

Lesson learned: If you're not tactically aware enough to know how many are up the road, at least ask! Duh.

F for tactical awareness, B for activity

- CCCX Circuit Race Fall #2 P123 (2nd in P123)

Goal here was to be really active/attacking and try to win the thing. This is a race that is rolling hills (which suits me), and doesn't usually draw a strong crowd (which of course suits me) - so this is actually plausible.

I figured this would be a course with a breakaway because of the hills. The Clif team and the Metromint team each had a lot of representation. So I wanted to attack and draw out 1 Clif and 1 Metromint and anyone else that wanted to play. Tried once and got a lone rider, a Clif representative but he was hurting, and no Metromint. Let it die. Tried again and got same lone rider, Clif, Metromint, and a few others. This could work. Drilled it a bunch and we broke the pack - this was the winning move. Played some games near the end, and hesitated in the last part of the sprint, so I got a strong second but didn't take it. I'm happy with that and a little frustrated at the same time - I had the chance to win but didn't capitalize. Still, great result.

A for strategy, A for tenacity, B for sprinting

- Folsom TT (almost dead last in the P12)

Goal here was to pace myself correctly, and actually post a TT where I rode my threshold power, to see how that stacks up.

What actually happened is I went out way too hard, blew up a lot, couldn't really recover, and sucked all the way back to the finish. It was horrible and I was frustrated with myself - I don't practice TTs though so I guess this is what I get. Grr!

Lesson learned: to pace TTs correctly you either need a discipline I don't have apparently or you have to practice them so it's automatic. Apparently all the people that do well at them actually practice. I'll have to practice.

- Folsom Crit (5th of a ton of P12 people, 50+)

Goal here was to be active to try to get in a move, and podium, why not? It was a course that suited me and I felt great.

I was active but the pack wasn't even letting serious gaps form. I pulled a couple times but there were literally so many strong folks from different teams that the pack never let anything gap at all, and the course was featureless. So I switched to field sprint mode. The sprint was pretty good, but right at the very very end I didn't give it full gas, and I got passed by two people. That's always upsetting.

Lesson learned: sprint right to the line every time, every muscle fiber

A for tactics, including the sprint, D for tenacity

- Folsom Circuit Race (17th out of 50+ P12)

Goal was to be active and get a result again (same goal but really this is most P12 racing for crits and circuit races). The course had two 180s and a short hill before the final 180, which then had a single-file corner followed by maybe 200m to the line, which meant the hill was the deciding moment.

I started to cramp near the end so I didn't have many bullets left and I decided to conserve up the final hill not realizing how important it was until *after* the race, so I came in a humdrum place instead of doing well. Got 15th in the full Folsom Omnium though which was good for $25.

Lesson Learned: Even if I don't pre-walk a course and really think about it, I really need to think about how the final lap will play out so I'm prepared.

D for tactics, C for endurance

- Mt Tam Hill climb (13th in the P12)

Goal: to pace myself correctly and climb quickly, duh

This is just starting at the bottom of Mt Tam and climbing to the top, with a bunch of the strongest cyclists in the state. Not much strategy to it except not to blow up at any point so you have to slow down to recover. I blew up a little at the start, but rode sensibly very quickly so it wasn't too bad. Right near the top of the hardest climbing section though I let a group I was in go because I didn't *know* we were nearly done climbing otherwise I would have held on. That was 5 places, easy.

Lesson Learned: no course knowledge usually means a bad result. Oh, and more raw power is always good. Or not weighing anything

I was frustrated with myself for not being tenacious and I needed a longer workout so I climbed it one more time even though it was blowing heavy drippy wet fog. I was nearly as fast the second time as the first time.

B for raw power-to-weight (hey, nearly top 10 in the P12...), F for course knowledge and tenacity

Finally, the race I just did this morning:

- Henleyville RR (6th out of 15? P12)

Goal: to get in the winning break, and hopefully sprint for a podium.

This was a flat 75-mile road race with no wind, but historically there is a breakaway here so I was counting on that and wanted to stay active. I do well in breaks with 5ish people though as longer rest intervals are more important to me (since I have less raw power than most). I got in the winning move and it had 9 folks for a while, so I was happy with that.

The breakaway kept whittling down but it never really eased up, which led to a problem - my food strategy was horrible. I haven't done a long race in so long I basically just blew it. I didn't have enough food I could eat while working hard and with 10 miles to go I started to bonk. No cramping at least, but this is where the real attacks were starting. With just a couple miles to go I finally bonked completely and just hung on to finish with the group shooting for 5th/6th/7th. I got 6th but maybe could have gotten 5th. Either way, my highest road race placing in the P12 ever despite a huge tactical error.

Lesson learned: food strategy, duh. And don't hesitate in the sprint.

There you have it. Lots of races, I accumulated a few more P12 points and earned some money. I had a bunch of fun, and learned quite a bit.

Recap on the lessons learned (primarily for me later):

- don't hesitate in sprints
- work on raw power
- food strategy!
- know your course
- really think how the last lap will play out, where do you need to be in front?
- sprint to the finish
- stay tactically aware or ask for help
- pick the right wheels in sprints

Seems like basic stuff, but it is hard to get right when you're at your limit. By writing them down here I'll hopefully remember it better and keep moving up the rankings

Cheers

Family Circus in SF

2010-08-31T11:09:00.000-07:00

You remember those Family Circus maps? For some reason, I do - they always looked something like this, although this is a dystopic parody:

Anyway, sometimes I picture my bike rides in this format (though hopefully without psychotic children running around) and with the magic of the new google bike directions it is easy to plot rides similarly

Without further ado, here's the "long commute" version of my morning ride - stitching together most of the little routes I know in the city. Mostly doesn't suck, which is high praise for an urban ride:

The gist of it is:

- Civic Center BART
- Golden Gate Park Polo Fields to ride around in circles
- Lake Merced to throw a big loop in and break up the monotony
- St.Francis Wood/Foerster/Teresita/Twin Peaks to get my climb on
- Arguello/Presidio to stretch the ride out a bit more
- get thee to work...

Here's a link to the google maps version of the ride if you're interested in any of the parts of the loop

Also apparently people actually follow this blog (sweet! thanks), and I haven't posted a race report in a while. I've been racing though:

- Patterson Pass RR (8th in 35+123),
- Dunnigan Hills RR (10th in P12),
- Suisun Harbor Crits (weak in both 35+123 and P12),
- University RR (24th in P12 but got girled by Katherine Matthis - go Katherine...) and
- Vacaville Crit (18th in P12 but beat all the pros in the race, because...they probably weren't trying very hard on the last lap since a break was away)

So no more cat 1 points, but lots of post fodder, just no time to post yet. Sorry!

If you're voyueristic you can always see results on my USA Cycling results page, though they aren't 100% accurate (e.g. I finished University RR in 24th but they DNP'd me, the bastards!) and they don't contain the minute details of suffering and power meter data that I know you crave.

So I'll try to knock something together about those races, hopefully soon.

Cheers

Kicking Butt and Getting Butt Kicked

2010-07-31T19:41:00.000-07:00

Today was an interesting day for me at the Copperopolis Circuit Race.

This event was too far from my house (105 miles or so) but it offered a separate Men's 2 category, which is something I almost never get - I almost always have to race with the Pros and Category 1 riders, and as mentioned previously, I typically get my butt kicked when I do that.

I'm not saying I don't like racing P12 races, I'm just saying that I don't think I am strong enough yet to be a protagonist in those races yet - I'm still just the chorus. I don't think that's surprising either - any of you 4s out there want to race a 234 race? How do you think you'll do? It'll probably hurt...

Contrariwise, oh I love the E2 field by itself. This is racing - I can try breakaways, I can do real tactics, and if it comes down to a sprint I can sprint with these guys. I'll skip to the punchline and say that I got 2nd today, and I'll mention that the guy who beat me also just got enough points that he's upgrading to 1. So I'm basically at the top end of the 2 range in crits at least. Doesn't mean much in P12 races but does make these E2 races fun.

The course was a Zamboni-smooth out-n-back essentially, with rolling hills. The race itself had one prominent strategic feature, that being a 15ish person field, with 4 folks on the same (Sierra Nevada) team, and they were dedicated to making it a field sprint. The other racers kept attacking, but there was always someone willing to chase, and there was always a Sierra Nevada rider marking the break by being in it but not working.

Near the end, I went off on a break attempt with two other folks and a Sierra Nevada rider, but true to form Mr Nevada didn't work. I proceeded to alternate pulling hard and then gapping him off the back of the break to make him work to close the gap. I tried to explain it to my breakmates but it's hard to talk in that situation so they didn't get it and he was basically getting a free ride. That doesn't make for a fast breakaway and sure enough we were pulled back (likely by Hendrik Pohl who apparently only knows one effort level - hard) and we were set up for an all-the-marbles sprint with 2 miles to go.

Sierra Nevada at least lined up a decent lead-out at this point, and I started touching the wind a bit to move on to 5th wheel. This was a downhill tailwind sprint, with a 75m rise at the end of it. I'd timed the sprint the last couple of times through and was set to jump around 225m to go. Unfortunately the Sierra Nevada rider doing the last leadout stint (36mph, nice) moved over when he was done instead of riding straight, sending me towards the cones and making me check up a bit when I should have been pedaling, but more importantly the guy that beat me jumped about 1 second before I did and held it. I rolled it up to 40mph and held my own against him but I never got that gap back.

I'll take 2nd though, my best placing since the Madera Stage Race road stage in the M35+123s. Here's the loot and dorky grin, including that t-shirt - ooo I'm rich

That gives me 3 more cat 1 upgrade points, for a 13 point total (out of 30 needed, in a 12-month window), so I'm still chipping away at the cat 1 upgrade and who knows, I might make it. I might even be ready for it when it happens at this rate!

I hung around for the second race of the day, my loved/hated P12 race, and this one was definitely a learning exercise. I was looking for the workout mostly, and I got that in spades, but what I learned is that a) Rand Miller has some sort of incredible anti-draft vortex immediately behind him, and b) I need to follow someone else's wheel if I'm looking to make it into moves, because Rand's a bit too much for me.

I learned all this in once of those decisive moments where you can either make or break a result - a possible result or no result. We were 10 minutes in, the race had already been pretty active, and after some reshuffling there were a few riders up the road. They were the right mix of teams and it looked set to go, with a 35 second gap already. After a U-turn, Rand accelerated and I thought "this is it - if I'm going to get there, now's the time". We were on a false flat up, into a headwind, and I'll let the annotated data tell the story:

That was a 20W/Kg jump! Then a full sprint, with 60ish minutes left. Damn. I blew up huge on the right side of that graph there - I had to sit up for 10-15 seconds, and after about a half minute when the pack finally came back up to me (yes, it took them twice as long to cover the same distance from the attack, shee-it) I was starting to feel a bit normal again, but ouch.

I'll mention for completeness that Rand made it to the break, then won the race. All I can say is dang.

Crit Century

2010-07-17T20:41:00.000-07:00

You know what's awesome on a Saturday? Doing a whole pile of crits. Not one or two, three. Make sure it's hot too. That was the plan this Saturday in lovely (no lie) Novato for the NorCal Crits.

There was some crit action in Watsonville as well - with a really deep field, a tough course, and a 1.5 hour drive from my house. All of those things were not on my menu. What I'm looking for is races where I can be active so I can learn some racing-at-the-front tricks while I get stronger, but I'll be the first to admit it - my fitness isn't quite there enough to trade punches with the full Yahoo and CalGiant squads. I can ride with them, but I can't make them hurt. So off to Novato I go.

Nifty thing about this race, it has a 2/3 field. You know what it's like racing P12 fields all the time? Wake up in the morning, make some coffee but don't drink it. Then have someone you like kick you in the nuts for 60 minutes. It's fun though I swear. Just not as fun as racing 2s and 3s without the P1 folks ;-).

I have a silly quest to upgrade to Category 1 (as you can see in the sidebar), though I have no reason to or use for it, and a 2/3 race is a good place to pick up some points, so I was looking to do well in this race. The course reads like a sprinter's fantasy with a downhill headwind (which kills breaks) and no technical corners (which help breaks). So I sat in like the lousy wheel-suck I am. After a bunch of last-couple-of-laps efforts I won't bore you with, I rolled into the last corner 3rd wheel behind Rainier Schaeffer (I think) while Rainier's Godspeed courier teammate was absolutely drilling it with a fantastic leadout. I jumped after the corner thinking the downhill would make the 200m-to-the-line run doable but - no - I hit 40mph then the headwind sapped the speed and 4 dudes came around, 2 by inches. 5th place. Woe is me, but I have to tell you - it was fantastic to be in the sprint for real. It's been a while and it felt great.

Bonus - they pick the 2s separately, and I'm sure there were more than 11 of us, possibly more than 21, so I got at least 1 elite category 1 upgrade point, and maybe 2.

That was the biggest excitement of the day - the last two races were duds for me but I'm planning on doing The Everest Challenge (29,000' of climbing in two days - awesome) so I need some long, hard workouts and I'm doing the next two races to get them.

The M35-123 was a big fast roll-around with nothing much happening, which is great for me because it allows me to do a nearly Oscar-winning wheelsuck performance involving soft-pedaling, refusing to pull, stealthily taking positions when people aren't paying attention and just generally going fast for free whenever possible. I was lining up on lap 3 to hit the sprint again but fixing my 2/3 race error, when I get that squishy feeling in the rear. Shit! Yep. my rear wheel is going flat. Not all at once - a slow leak, but it's definitely low. No free laps inside 5 laps to go, so my race is done - the tire isn't totally flat but sprinting on 40psi isn't safe. I'm a 110psi dude, 40psi is low enough you can roll a tire if you're not careful, I won't do it. I rolled around and got placed so I didn't get a DNF, but I was disappointed. That's racing.

Next up was the P123. 90 minutes of hot fun. 2 Yahoo riders. A bunch of "other" (myself included there). This race was really active - always someone off the front but I wanted to sprint, not ride a breakaway. I worked to stitch it together a couple times but finally a move of 7 got away, the pack gave up, and now the pack's sprinting for 8th. That's still okay by me, I'm looking for the workout. This sprint I lined up half-assed though and wasn't far enough up in the pack in the last half of the first lap. Maybe 10 deep when I should have been 5th, and the inevitable happened there - two people nearly collided, one locked up his brakes, and I had to touch my brakes to avoid them. If you've never been in a sprint at the end of a bike race, know this: to touch your brakes during the sprint is to lose. It's like putting a parachute out - everyone else shoots ahead of you and you're done. This sounds scary but no fear, we're rank amateurs on bikes wearing nearly no protective equipment and going 32 miles per hour - everything's under control. So I just rolled this in at the end - also a little disappointing but I was in it for the workout, so it's okay.

Riiight at the end of the race, I started to get the starts of cramp twinges. Not full twinges, and definitely not cramps yet - I was still able to throw down huge power but the legs are screaming. That's the workout what I'm looking for.

Final stats - just a touch over 100 miles of crit, averaging around 26mph. Nice.

That's it. 1 for 3 on luck, but that first one was a lot of fun, and I got an upgrade point, maybe two. Plus I got to see that even though I'm not quite P1 caliber yet, I'm still pretty quick on a bike - I'm very strong in a 2/3 field. I'll keep training and learning, and see what I can do about the P1 status.

Cheers!

Pacific Coast Ride to LA Day 4 - Santa Barbara to Altadena

2010-06-30T01:00:00.000-07:00

Alright! This is it! One more massive ride living out of a suitcase and I'll be happily back to civilization. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed every day but when you know the end is coming, you fixate on the finish line, right?

So off we go - Santa Barbara to Altadena (a city outside of Los Angeles, near Pasadena, but you have to ride through LA to get there)

One note though - I will admit I felt pretty creaky this morning. Sore and stiff - by the end of yesterday I felt good, but my body's definitely letting me know it's taking a beating. I'm ignoring it.

People say Southern California is all about "car culture", but really all the way from Santa Barbara through Ventura and Oxnard etc, it's all about boats. There must be two boats for every person there were so many boats. And every single one has some sort of punny name or attempt at a joke for a name like "Hey Sailor". Does anyone actually call their boat by those names? "Hey honey, let's take Hey Sailor out for a cruise". Has no panache. You say you want to take the boat out for a cruise, don't you? So what's with the name? Humans are silly.

Gil, I know how important a perfect yard is to you, and I've apparently found the secret sod growing grounds. Oxnard - look 'em up

Amtrak gets a bad rap. Yes, they're late. Get over it. They have huge picture windows in the cars. They have wine and cheese tastings. And they run up and down the coast. Teresa and I have done Oakland to Seattle twice, it was wonderful. I want to do the Southern stretch at some point. This is the Surfliner rolling North, near Malibu.

Hey kids! Let's go the missile park! Yaaayyy! Dad Dad Dad! Can I play on the Bullpup II? Can I? This was a real "Missile Park" (you can play on them!) outside one of the 532 military installations between Santa Barbara and Los Angeles.

I'm trying not to whine about it, but if you haven't noticed in the rest of the pics, the sky is a bit...leaden. The first 86 miles of this ride it was so foggy it was basically light rain. Or heavy mist. I don't know but if you live on the coast you probably have 30 names for the fog-to-downpour spectrum, and on a 1 to 30 scale it was maybe 6. 6 means you are wet but you aren't soaked through, and you have water dripping off your helmet and can't wear your glasses. 5 hours of that. So that's lovely Malibu in the distance, mmm, Califonia dreamin' today

I couldn't take any more gray pictures after that so I put my mini-ipad away and put the hammer down to get 'er done. From mile 86 to 100 or so was still gray (but not wet anymore at least) then I crested the hill between LA and some other part of LA and holy crap it was sunny and gorgeous. Like two cups of coffee, a huge mood booster.

It was also LA rush hour and complete grid lock. Now it's "car culture" time. Poor car people, I passed and repassed the same Ferrari up a 10% grade for 10 minutes, and I was on a sidewalk. He probably wished he'd saved the money and gotten a segway instead, his commute would be quicker. I averaged .4 horsepower and beat him over the hill. Come on cyclists, you love that

One final picture - I don't go on crazy adventures without a stuffed toy I picked up on the first crazy adventure I had (camping trip) called "The Happy Dot". It reminds you to be less serious. It's about a foot wide though, so Teresa made me a mini-Happy Dot to keep the tradition alive, and he cleared the way for me on the ride. Sort of like the "evil eye" thing from Asia, but more positive. He did a good job, because I made it in just fine.

Thanks a bunch for all the comments and contact while I was trekking, I had lots of good mind-wandering time but I wasn't lonely with you guys in mind. Also there was always some point during each day where I'd run low on energy or water or a foot would hurt or something, but I could feel the support vibrating with texts in my pocket. That helped a lot - this was supposed to be fun and that helped keep it that way.

So there it is - I really needed an adventure and I got one. Now for a couple days of R-n-R then back to the real world.

Final stats:
4 days
543 miles
29,912 feet of climbing (yes! 1.03 Mt Everests)
31.5 hours riding
17.2mph average (thank god for tailwinds...)
1 ripped tire+tube, 1 punctured tube (not bad)

Pacific Coast Ride to LA Day 3 - Cambria to Santa Barbara

2010-06-28T22:15:00.000-07:00

Day 3 of the trek sees me up-and-at-em very early in lovely Cambria. I wasn't sure how fast I could go, so with a 150 or so miles in the plan for the day, I needed to start around 7am to make sure I got to Santa Barbara before the sun went down.

Anytime you're near the coast in California in the summer, you get this huge fog bank in the evening, settling in overnight. It's in full effect this morning - I couldn't even wear my glasses, and cars had their windshield wipers on. I refer to these mornings as "good complexion mornings".

I rolled through Cayucos and stopped to look at this curious carving of a fisherman carrying a mermaid (I mean, for a coffee shop? I don't get it - it's not a seafood restaurant). Turns out I made the trip! You always want to find an "est" - "The biggest ___" or "The tallest ___" on a road trip, right? This, ladies and gentleman, is the most unique picture ever taken. Or, a picture of it anyway. You're welcome

Quick breakfast in cute San Luis Obispo, then more rolling along - maybe half of the day was like this. I'm a Hudson River School fan - I love looking mountains, so this works for me.

Exactly halfway through the ride today, I got a nice reminder of where I was. I love maps, so I loved this wall

I had a tail wind pushing me along nicely on 80 miles of flat stuff until I came up to this

Top of the toughest climb of the day, great vista opens up on to Lompoc, which must have been the world capital of people-getting-around-on-rascals. I was amused

This is the world's crappiest photo of dolphins but come on people, I saw dolphins! In the wild! I don't do that every day.

Ok you Santa Barbara people with your "it's warm in the evening so often that we have permanent sand volleyball courts set up" lifestyle. I hate you! And it's not because I'm really jealous, no...

Would you believe with 15 miles to go, I get the first flat of the trip? And it's not just a flat, the whole tire was cut. Luckily I was a boy scout. This was bootable (cycling term, you non-geeks) but I had a whole spare tire. I was able to pick up a new spare just 5 miles later at a bike shop in Santa Barbara too, sweet.

Now, I'm not proud. As a cyclist I travel to small towns a lot and I've stayed in every dumpy hotel there is. I'll stay in a Motel 6. And the one I stayed at in Monterey was predictable - it worked, but it wasn't really appealing. But holy crap, look at the Santa Barbara Motel 6. I was shocked enough I took a photo. Very nice.

For those curious how the tan is coming along, I'd say it's progressed from "unfashionable" in the cycling sense almost all the way to "hot". If cycling tans made people fast...

A bit more nerdy chatter about how I'm getting through the ride. 150 miles was long, but honestly it felt okay. In fact, I rode steadily enough for the first 140 miles that by the time I got to that point and I was sure I could make it no matter what I started going full throttle just to see what my body could do after 8+ hours of riding. Surprisingly, quite a bit. Not sure what is actually doing it, but here's today:

2x small non-fat latte (gotta watch the girlish figure)
3x 24oz water
2x 20z gatorade
2x 20oz Dr.Pepper
3x clif bar
1x ham-n-cheese croissant (I have a mean addiction to these)
1x old fashioned salt-n-pepper potato chips
2x electrolyte cocktail (tums for calcium, magnesium pill, potassium pill)

2270 calories in all. My power meter says I burnt 4000. My basal metabolism is 1800. So I'm happily not guilty about polishing a whole pizza post-ride.

That's it. So it's a lot of stuff but not outrageous. Whatever worked, I was happy it worked.

One other note for people interested in something like this, here's the nitty-gritty of the routine:

- 7am wake up, snarf something, kit out, sunscreen, roll out
- surprise, you bike all day
- ok, you stop 3-4 times at convenience stores to buy fluids and snacks
- ride into town 6ish, check in
- immediately eat something
- plug in almost completely drained phone
- order food
- get out rest of chargers and laptop etc
- download power meter data, photos
- get food, start eating
- shower, wash kit, use towel trick (roll kit in towel, wring it) to speed dry, hang it
- eat more
- work remotely, believe it or not, livin' the life...
- organize photos and post em
- use google earth and google maps to write down turn-by-turns on post-it for next day
- fill bottles, tape post it with turns on stem, pack
- 11:30pm (it takes that long), zzzz

I thought there would be time to watch some movies I brought on my laptop or read or something, but not at all. Maybe if there were 80 miles or less a day, but not at 120-150/day.

Pacific Coast Ride to LA Day 2 - Marina to Cambria

2010-06-27T21:59:00.001-07:00

Alright then, where were we?

I'm riding to LA, basically because I can. More explanation in a previous post.

This morning found me in partly foggy Marina (just North of Monterey), headed South for an "easy" 115 mile jaunt to Cambria. "Easy" because yesterday was 137 miles, and tomorrow is (gulp) 150 miles. So I'm trying to take it easy today and not push too hard so I've got the goods for tomorrow.

I promised a little bit of gear talk today. One of the things I did both for fun and because it gives a great deal of piece of mind to my lovely, very understanding wife, is that I'm carrying a "GPS beacon". The term "beacon" means "locates itself using GPS, then actively strobes its location out somewhere". Which means if you're watching, you can tell I'm still moving, and not 2-dimensional on the road somewhere.

Specifically, I'm using a Motorola i465 (built-in GPS, runs Java ME apps), and the Instamapper GPS tracker app, on a Boost mobile pre-paid SIM card. If you know me, you know I won't spend money if I a) don't have to or b) am not sure it's worth it. The phone is from Target with a 90-day return policy, the app transmits data in a way Boost mobile doesn't charge for, and Instamapper is free. So the GPS beacon is free for 90 days. Ha.

This is a screenshot from my tracking page, shows the track, pardoning lack of cellular signal on the rugged Hwy 1 route.

More tech stuff - Instamapper let's you export the track in KML, the format Google Earth accepts. So this is the same track, but laid out on the beautiful Google Earth canvas. I used to work in a Geology department and I just love Google Earth. Look at that! It's beautiful. All those tectonics, laid out to see. A California treat.

Alright, so let's hit the road!

The very start of my ride. Gorgeous, I'll take two please.

This was on the way out of town. 4 century plants blooming at once - must be some sort of record. Really I took this for Merritt (my late father in law). He had a few of these suckers, and this made me think of him.

First sight-seeing moment of the day was the famed Bixby Bridge. Isn't it beautiful! Ah, California fog. Next.

I tried not to take too many of these. Was like this all day.

People that drive on Hwy 1: newlyweds (I saw lots of "Just Married" on cars), sports cars (Porsche is winning vs Ferrari by numbers), Harleys (always with a girl on back taking photos except *one* where the girl drove and the guy was on back), cars with surfboards, and a caravan of 5 woodie wagons. The woodie wagons were my favorite.

Yeah.

Right about now, 90 miles into this ride, I was thinking, holy crap this is hilly. I've got 8000ft worth of climbing in, is this ever going to flatten out? Luckily I rolled into smooth ranchland right after that, hallelujah. Heck of a profile though.

On the right of the ranch land, the Elephant Seals frolic. Okay, they just lay there, and they smell a bit fishy, but still, very cool and fun to watch.

Just before my stop for the night in Cambria, I passed by Hearst Castle. Let me be clear, I thought it looked cool, and I'm coming back with a motor, but I was *not* tempted to ride up that hill to get a closer look. I was knackered.

That's it. Absolutely huge day tomorrow, bigger ride than I've ever done, so off to bed for me. Thanks for reading and following along! I've been enjoying the comments here and on Facebook. Encouraging to have some connection while solo on the road like this, and I hope you enjoy the photos.

Pacific Coast Ride to LA Day 1 - Oakland to Monterey

2010-06-26T23:01:00.000-07:00

"There comes a time in every man's life when he feels that he must ride from San Francisco to LA". Someone on my team wrote that last year, and something about it struck the romantic wanderlust chord in me. It wasn't my time last year, but I did do a lot of reading about what it would take. Just in case, you know.

This year, all of the sudden, it was that time for me. I needed to ride from SF to LA.

People that don't ride their bikes a lot are probably are either rolling their eyes (because it is admittedly a little nutty) or are more impressed than they should be (because it is a huge ride, but it isn't a moon shot or anything. Heck thousands of people do it every year to raise money for AIDS. Okay, they do it on a big supported ride and I'm doing it solo, but still, not out-of-the-question hard.

What am I thinking?

Basically, one of my closest friends and the best man from my wedding, Stuart Baur almost never takes time off, the 17 years I've known him. Except this year when he emailed me and said "hey, I'm taking 3 weeks off starting late June". So I've got a reason to be there.

I've got a bad habit of blowing up completely and being generally useless in breakaways (just ask...everyone I've been in a break with this season) so I wouldn't mind getting some more riding in to see if I can change that.

I commute to work by bicycle regularly, and go on bike picnics with Teresa, so I've already got all the cyclo-touring gear - just a rack, a briefcase bag that hooks on it, and a backpack that hooks on it.

Plus I've got a pretty telecommute-capable work setup and a ton of vacation myself.

So, what the hell, off I go.

The rest I'll basically tell in pictures, because the leg from Oakland to Monterey was 137 miles, and just cleaning up, eating, getting provisions for tomorrow and making tomorrows route sheet means it's already 11pm and I'm a bit tired for some reason...

This is all you need for a 4-day trip. Well, you need a bike and bags to stuff it in. But this (and my laptop) is all I'm bringing. When you're on a bike you have to travel light and just wash stuff in the sink etc.

If you don't ride a bike a lot, you probably think I look great here. This is me right before setting off, so I'm fully set up. If you do ride a bike, I counted at least 6 specific unfashionable things. Can you find them all?*

This is the route I took - it's oriented facing the coast from the ocean - North is left. The "ACA" (Adventure Cycling Association) Pacific Coast route runs through San Francisco but I live in Oakland. I took the shortest distance path I could work out in order to hook up with the ACA route on Hwy 1 - I met it in Santa Cruz and continued to Monterey from there.

This is the altitude chart (plus some other data) from the ride. My route was definitely not the flat route though - the Peninsula ridge and the Santa Cruz mountains are business time for cyclists.

I didn't take pictures of Oakland, San Leandro, Hayward, Union City etc. but, before I crossed the bay I took this snap of the Fremont wetlands. No one goes there, but it sure is pretty isn't it? Its a park on Marshlands, off Paseo Padre.

I never knew what biking the Dunbarton bridge would be like till I did it. When I mention it is possible I get blank stares sometimes, so I took this picture - this is the bike path on the Dunbarton bridge. 4 feet wide maybe, reasonably clean, big barrier between you and traffic, pretty good view. Bridge is pretty short too. It's a good route

I didn't go to Stanford (I'm a Rice alum) but it is a pretty campus...it's in between the Dunbarton bridge and the Peninsula ridge.

Couldn't wait to snap this pic, mainly because it's the top of Skyline road on the Peninsula. It's around 2700 feet in elevation, from sea level, with a very heavy bike. Downhill from here. Neglected to get a picture of my cousin Nellie, but when I hit Santa Cruz I met up with her at a tiki bar for a quick hello before pushing on. Hi Nellie!

This was the last shot I took - my wife love love loves Steinbeck (for good reason) and her eyes lit up when I mentioned Salinas. So I took a snap of the fields there. This is 100% strawberries. You know what it smells like to stand downwind from a whole field of ripe strawberries? Pure goodness.

Ah, safari clothes. Ok, what's worse, my biking get up, or the safari lounge wear? Don't answer. My wife calls pants that can unzip the legs to become shorts "shants" by the way. Wonder why

This is what's on tap for tomorrow - Marina, through Monterey, then along Hwy 1 forever, ending in Cambria

I talked about the "Why" and the "What" today, I'll try to go into some of the specific gear I chose tomorrow in case anyone else is contemplating really long rides. My stuff is working well so far so it could be useful info.

* unfashionable things in ready-to-go photo: race wheels while touring, route sheet taped to stem, the bike has bags on it for crying out loud, hairy legs, carbon bike while touring, my bike tan is pretty pale. Bonus thing - my kit is 4 years out of date. Bonus bonus thing - hard to see - seat has electrical tape holding it together. Being fashionable in cycling is hard!

"Liquid Sunshine"

2010-04-11T16:28:00.000-07:00

Menlo Park Gran Prix today. The weather forecast was bad, but I pre-registered, and I'll be damned if I'll throw away money instead of racing in crappy weather. So there I was, in Menlo Park.

I was signed up for the Masters 35+ 123 and the P12.

Here's how that worked out:

Yeah, so that was wet. "Holy crap!", "Really?" wet for the P12. It's Paris-Roubaix day though, so why not suffer a little in sympathy?

5th in the Masters race was pretty hot though, I'm happy with that since I wasn't just sitting in for the sprint, I was actively trying to get into breaks, went with a couple moves and actually bridged to a couple of threatening moves as well. If I'd saved those matches I'd have done better, but is that racing? I was about 10 feet from 2nd place, and if I had a lesson learned it's that the rules I have for what wheel to be on in the last corner must be followed. The final straight was about 250 meters with a headwind, and 3rd wheel would have been perfect. I was 6th wheel or so, and that's the way it goes. My new "chicane rule" ("you can't move up in a chicane, set up to exit fast") formulated after Merco was correct and worked well. Also, having a nearly full dry set of kit for the next race was good thinking. Shouts to Joel for leading the sprint forever into that headwind and coming away with 2nd. Hard man.

In between the races I had the pleasure of watching Mary Maroon, local not-quite-pro P12 gal working a 5-person break with some paid athletes, and trashing two of them in the finale to notch a 3rd. Nicely done, Mary.

Did I mention the P12 was really wet? Torrential rain. Wind. Still had 35 guys out there and many of them were really fast. I was torched pretty good from the Masters race but hung in okay. Even felt like I was sort of recovering in parts. When it was "go" time for the sprint though I didn't have any matches left - just determination. I didn't get gapped off the real sprinters but I couldn't make the moves with them and surf the draft for a real position so I was basically rolling it in. Shouts to Sean for breaking into the top 10

I'm threatening to have some good form here though, maybe I'll get a P12 result before too long, who knows? Just from Masters races I've got 5 or 7 points depending on how you count them though. Maybe I'll get a cat 1 card if I can keep progressing.

I'll see what I can do to catch up on tips-n-tricks and results from the last few races as well. I wrote about the Ronde last, since then I've done Merco crit and road race, Madera stage race (crit - 7th!, TT, RR - 2nd!), Copperopolis RR, Napa River Gran _rix and now the Menlo Park Gran Prix. Quite a bit of racing but no bloggin'. I'm having fun though. Hope you are out there...

Ronde van Brisbeen 2010

2010-02-22T13:50:00.000-08:00

What a beautiful day for racing! Except, you know, for the whole rainy windy thing on a technical half-mile course. Seriously, that was some horrible weather.

But it was the weather we had, and it was my team's race so I got a free entry for course marshaling. Might as well give it a try, right?

I'd been checking the forecast and saw well in advance that it was going to be crappy on Sunday (race day) but Saturday was going to be beautiful. So I went for the long fast ride (HOP) on Saturday and didn't shy away from getting a good workout. I specifically did this so that I had a great excuse for not taking silly chances on Sunday - if something was sketchy, I could bail on the race, and I'd at least gotten a workout for the weekend.

Given all that I really only had one goal for the day, which was to marshal the course ;-). A secondary goal was to not crash if I did race, or get cold enough that I got sick. I had no performance goals.

The rain let up a bit for the Master 35+ 123, so I went ahead and lined up. There were only 12 of us but I recognized two at least that I knew to pay attention to - Steve Reaney from CalGiant and Chris Phipps from MorganStanley. Had I recognized the ridiculously strong Chad Gerlach I would have done a bit better in the race but more on that later. I linked their results because they're worth checking out. These are extremely strong dudes.

Everyone is moaning about the rain on the start line, but good naturedly - seemed like we all had the right "be nice enough to each other so we don't crash" attitude. And off we went.

I remembered how quickly things went from the Cherry Pie so I was prepared to hammer. Reaney wound it up right from the gun, with Jess Raphael (who solo'd to a lap-the-field 45+ win just prior) on his wheel, and me on Jess's wheel. One thing about Reaney, he can just blow you up while you're drafting him on a course with this many corners. There just isn't enough rest - you're working almost as hard as him since it's constant accelerations. So Jess blew up, and I worked across the gap to sit directly on Reaney.

A couple of laps went by and now I think the pack was already broken into two pieces. Maybe more. We're still hitting 30mph on parts of the course. Reaney eases off the throttle for a second and looks back at me to see if I want to work. I think I either said "sorry" or just sort of gurgled in the drizzle I'm not sure, it's all a bit fuzzy. I certainly didn't throw down with a respectable pull or anything - I skulked. Sorry Steve. Maybe in March?

Somewhere around this point, Chad Gerlach, who I did not recognize at the time (major error) zips by and Reaney hooks on to him. Had I realized it was those two, I would have tried to latch on right away, but I was gassed and let the gap go just a bit...to the two strongest guys in the race. At this point, I'm looking around to see if there's a pack left I can hide in and it turns out there's only around 5 of us, with only one person looking like they're still alive.

I'm unclear how Phipps and one other person got ahead (did I mention it was raining? I could barely see) but they either went with Chad and Reaney and then were dropped, or they attacked the remnants before I noticed.

Either way, I was definitely "remnants". I rode with Steve Pelaez and one other guy (who then dropped), and we were basically a group of 2, behind a group of 2, behind a group of 2. Sounds like a recipe for pain, doesn't it?

So Steve P and I were busy lapping everyone else, holding the Phipps group of 2 at around the same distance, while Chad and Reaney were ripping around the course eventually putting a lap into us.

Steve and I managed to hang on to Chad and Reaney when they came around but the other lapped riders we had absorbed blew off again, so we were a mixed-lap group of 4 with 2 up, and other lapped riders suffering around the course by themselves.

We never caught Phipps unfortunately and Chad and Reaney didn't want Steve P and I pulling (can't blame them) so Steve P and I were in a non-sprint for 5th and 6th. Not that I would have beaten him anyway, Steve P did wind it up a bit and I didn't have anything to stand up to that. So I got 6th, sweet.

Here's a photo of Steve Reaney and Chad Gerlach in the break. Looks like fun?

So there you have it - a race that had it all. An encouraging result in that I got 6th place and was only beaten by folks that were clearly stronger than I was. A discouraging result in that I was only in the top half ;-). Miserable conditions but I handled them okay - no crashing, and I don't feel sick.

It started raining harder before the P12 race and most of Team Yahoo was going to be there (all of which are likely stronger than me) so I didn't pin up for that one. Turns out it cleared up for the race itself, went hard from the gun, spit people out the back regularly then outright broke into a front group of 17 or so and a back group of 16 or so that was pulled before it got lapped. Using the transitive property of race results, the guys I was with made it to the second group in the race so I could have gotten 20 something probably, and maybe held the first group for a 16th or something, but I probably made the right call not starting. It wasn't a DNF though - they listed it as that and I think a DNS is a different sort of failure and worth mentioning ;-)

There were only a few other brave Team Oakland souls that braved the muck, so I'll call out Anthony and Christopher - nice work out there, no crashes for you guys either and that's the most important thing on a day like that.

Here's the graph o' pain. You can see this is not a "steady state" course, it's all easing up into corners and motoring out of them, again and again and again. The two yellow lines are my threshold power and my 5-minute power, which explains why my heart rate was so high...

Other interesting stories - John Wilk did some He-Man work bringing back the #3 Time Trialist in the nation (#2 after Zirbel was popped for doping?) on the closing laps of the P12. Samaan bridged to the front group then won it, both impressive.

Lessons learned...well, I was prepared for the course and the early break this time, mostly, but I didn't understand my opponents well enough and I didn't realize how quickly it would get nitty-gritty with such a small field. I'll get better at knowing who's who as the season goes on and also hopefully get stronger.

Gear notes...I used my rain/commuter bike complete with fenders. Not fouling the race bike up with this junk. Worked well, 90psi was grippy in the wet per Gunderson's advice. With that much work and that much rain, Oakley half-jackets fog up.

Picking at a Weakness

2010-02-13T13:53:00.000-08:00

Well if there is one thing I suck at, it's producing steady state power for long periods of time. Really tough parts of crosswind races where you can't get a draft. Long breakaways with just 2-3 people where you have to work a lot. And of course, time trials, where it's just you and the clock and how hard you can go.

If you want to expose a weakness for me, throw me on a TT bike, plop me on a flat or rolling course, and watch me suffer to do what most folks can do while texting their friends or watching the birds etc. It's pretty sad.

My only saving grace, in fact, is that I have a Ph.D. in Allallogy which qualifies me as an expert aerodynamicist. So I don't produce much power but at least I have low drag.

Put the two together and you have an intensely mediocre time trialist usually.

Today was no exception.

I did the Beat The Clock Time Trial, a practice/fun charity race raising funds for cancer. I did it in honor of my late father in law Merritt Futter, which he probably would have thought was funny since he wasn't much for endurance sports. But he was a good guy and he was quick with a laugh or to help someone out. Anyway it gave me something to think about and I hope it helped in the grand scheme of things. Merritt, this one's for you.

The race started at 7:47am for me, which meant a 5am wake up call on a Saturday. The things a cyclist will do...

So Toby and I loaded up the truck, got our numbers, strapped on the skinsuits and dork helmets and got ready to suffer like champs.

For me personally, I was looking to just hold threshold for 20 minutes on a rolling course, in an aerodynamic tuck, and I didn't quite succeed. There were a couple parts (uphills) where I pushed over threshold as a pacing strategy but I believe I pushed too hard because I didn't recover after them which left me with a lower average time.

Really I just need to be stronger though.

Some stats:

-- unofficial, 24:25 for 10.03 miles, 24.6mph
-- 525ft elevation gain over the course
-- 236W average power (easier on downhill saving for uphill, but that didn't really work out)
-- 178bpm average heart rate (topped at 183bpm)

Not so much power, and not so fast. Not horrible, but 9% off my 4W/Kg goal for the day, and 30% off my full season target of 5W/Kg (which makes me think that may not be realistic...we'll see)

I'll close by requesting everyone I care about to please be careful out there. Toby crashed on course and got quite the nasty knee wound. He's stitched up and okay now thankfully but it was sad to see. Take care of yourselves.

Here's the pretty chart o' pain:

Cherry Pie 2010

2010-02-08T09:10:00.000-08:00

Opened the season for real with the Cherry Pie crit in the Masters 35+ 123 race as well as the P12. Check that link for a P12 helmet cam shot, really captures the feel - at least from the back - nice!

The one thing I wanted out of this race (other than not crashing) was simply to see how I felt relative to others in the field. I think I am in pretty good shape on relative to myself from the past, but that doesn't mean squat relative to everyone else right? I also wanted to see what two top-level crits in the same day feels like.

Now that I've done it, I have to say, it felt pretty good.

There were early breaks in both races, and I wasn't in either of them (I specifically was avoiding them, actually) which meant the rest of the race was basically a formality for me and everyone else in the pack - trying to ride steady and set up for the sprint.

In the Masters 35+ 123 race the pack got sketchier and sketchier as the laps wound down, resulting in two crashes which seemed completely avoidable from my perspective. Knowing we were sprinting for 7th or something ("who cares?" in other words), and that I had a race to go I decided to get a full sprint effort in cleanly and go for the last lap flyer to see if it would stick, and at least avoid the real sprint either way. I got a massive gap (maybe 15 seconds? 20?) immediately, almost recovered, but finally blew up completely on the finish straight and was swamped on the final climb. That's all predictable, but hey, it beats a crash and shows me the sprint I can do at the end of one of these races.

The P12 was nearly as sketchy but the difference between it an Masters racing is that the P12 field doesn't crash after bumping a lot, it just weaves around and people apologize (for the most part). Sort of a civilized aggression if that makes sense. The break had 8 or 10 people (who knows - more than 5 really and it doesn't much matter), I had little cramp twinges (not full cramps) the final couple laps, and in the field sprint so I didn't get any sort of result.

I was able to stay near the front relatively easily in both races, so the fitness is there which is satisfying at minimum after all the work this winter

Lessons learned -

* in the top-level fields if you're not in the break, you're probably not in luck
* the breaks go pretty early - first lap or third lap, not much waiting around
* the last lap flyer never works but it is fun
* I've got the endurance to hang in these races and probably work in a break, but the high-end efforts need work or I wouldn't have had twinges. I expected that though as I haven't really done any high-end work

Some data -

* M35+ 123 - 26mph average, 20 miles, first three laps (break getting established) 27mph in the pack
* P12 - 26.5mph average, 27.5 miles, 27mph in the pack while the break was getting off the front there too, whole last lap for field sprint was 30+mph with stretches of 33 and 34 on the flat.
* Max speed on downhill corner was around 37mph
* Peak 5s 10s and 20s for me were 1096W, 1056W and 949W. I've seen bigger fallofs from 10-20 over the last couple weeks, so that means my initial sprint workouts paid off a bit. I won 2008 Timpani E3 cleanly with a 760W 16second effort, for reference, so we're making progress
* Average power in both races was hovering around 225W, which is semi-comfortably below threshold (255-260W) for me
* Climbing the 30-second hill took around 300-330W each lap though, for a "staying at the front" or "maybe passing a few people" climb speed, on 66Kg of weight
* Heart rate was bouncing between 168bpm and 181bpm around the lap
* If you still want more data than that, you're a serious junkie
* Seriously, there's no more data

So, things to do for me:

* Interval and sprint training for real (started two weeks ago, 1.5 months more to build)
* Take chance on breakaways - stay up front and go deeper to get in them. Go down swinging at least, right?

2010 Season, Let's Get Ready To Rumble...

2010-02-01T16:59:00.000-08:00

Alright, so the masses (read as: my sole reader) demand new posts, so here you go.

What's been going on? Well, not too much - which is kind of the way I like it sometimes, especially after so many interesting times the last couple years. The last couple months, really since around October, have been very relaxed which lets me focus on some long-term goals, like developing completely pointless amounts of power on my bicycle.

To that end, I've settled back into my bike-commuting schedule (yes, even in the rain, much to my beloved wife's dismay) and have retrained from all the time off last year. In fact, from a foundation-laying perspective my endurance at this point is better than I ever remember it. I haven't surpassed my biggest week ever (that was on a Tour de France cyclo-touring trip - worth every penny if you ever get the chance), but I'm consistently getting over 300 miles a week and my body's gotten used to it.

Here's the charts-n-graphs for the data oriented

That's the weekly riding, which is a lot of stress on this old body (I'm a Master now by the way, so I can say that).

It feeds into short-term fatigue and long-term fitness though, and here's how those two things play out, with the 20 best 5-second, 1-minute, 5-minute and 20-minute points plotted on them. No peaking yet so my "Training Stress Balance" (aka "form") is pretty much non-existent - I'm fatigued - but my base level of fitness is very high at this point

And that performance management chart, which helps keep me from overdoing it and getting sick or injured or burning out is feeding into an ever-improving ability to produce power for different durations. At this point my power curve looks about like it did when I was doing well in 3s races, and I think with a month or two of interval work I can move it up to be competitive in P12 and M35+-123 races.

One can hope!

This last Sunday was the last day in the pre-season Early Birds criterium training series, which I have had the joy of being a mentor (3rd year) and a guest speaker (first time!) in this year. I hope I have helped make the racing a little safer for new folks this year, as that's the goal. Everyone seemed to have a good time, and they're great training days.

My typical weekend involved trying to get a century in on Saturday at a nice endurance pace, then riding to the Early Birds (20 miles), mentoring the clinics and the races then doing the P123 race (around 85 miles of crit racing total) then riding home for a total of 125 or so miles and around 7 hours, mostly that looked like this:

...which is me drafting off a huge pack and generally riding at endurance or tempo for most of the day. Not too bad, except you know what you look like after 6 hours of following wheels while wearing sunscreen?

Sexy, that's what:

Yeah, not a pretty sight. I hesitate to think what my lungs look like...

Despite riding quite a bit before this last race - and the one that kicks off the season by actually being scored and counting, I managed 17th with a couple actual pros in the field and had I not completely messed up the last three corners *in a row* I could have done a lot better.

Here's a good example of what a last lap shouldn't look like - check the speed dips in the last two minutes as I blow the positioning heading into the corners, have to brake, and then have to re-accelerate.

Pretty sad, and a mistake I hope not to repeat

That's pretty much it for the pre-season. I've got the endurance training in. The hard work (read: nausea-inducing intervals) is just starting, and it's time for some real racing.

Major goals this season are to stay healthy, have fun, do better in Time Trials, do better climbing, and get some results in crits. We'll see how it goes

Cheers

146.4, 142.8, 146.2, 144.4, 140.8

2009-06-28T18:03:00.000-07:00

So much of cycling is about numbers, or can be about numbers, if you are trying to do things scientifically and optimize everything (as I am, and as I try to do)

Don't get me wrong, I love the whoosh in my hair, and the little fright that comes from tipping into a corner at full speed, as well as just in general being outside a lot. I like not using my car to commute whenever possible. But I also like charts and graphs.

The numbers in the title are what happens when you have a thing for riding bicycles in 100 degree temperatures:

146.4 - weight Sat morning
142.8 - weight Sat afternoon, post race, and after 90oz of fluids
146.2 - weight Sat night, mostly recharged (whew)
144.4 - weight Sun morning after making the earth just that bit more humid while sleeping
140.8 - weight Sun afternoon, post ride, and after 140oz of fluids near as I can tell

There's just over 15 ounces of water in a pound. So apparently I'm 80 or so ounces of water away from being rehydrated. It's going to be a long evening.

And that despite every Cat 2 on Team Oakland collectively deciding we were cooked and bailing out to take the BART train home :-) (edit: Maury actually toughed it out and rode home, chapeau, sir)

The cooler air coming in tonight will be very welcome...

In other news, I have been racing some - I've done two races now, both of which were P12 crits (okay, one was P123). Both worked out roughly the same - I was strong enough and good enough at bike handling and pack positioning to be in the right spot when the winning moves happened, and I was mentally aware enough to know they were the right moves, but I didn't have the extra capacity, so I sat in the field. Then the field rolled around until the end came, and I could get in position for the pack sprint but not without my legs starting to cramp a bit.

Why cramping? Good question. My current thesis is that my training bands were way too low (they were, 20% - LT is 256W now instead of 210W from April) so I hadn't trained muscular endurance enough. I've changed that and we'll see in two or three weeks whether things have improved when I toe the line again. It's also possibly diet but in a 60-minute race I think that's pretty easy to discount, though if in 4 weeks I haven't gotten past cramping, I'll work on diet.

That's the haps. Hope everyone has avoided melting

Rain Meditations

2009-01-22T15:18:00.000-08:00

If you keep the wind off you, and the rate of incoming water is low, you don't have to stay dry, but you'll stay warm.

Really, a cycling cap to shield the glasses from water, shoe covers to keep the feet from freezing, some fenders to stop water from kicking up and drowning you, and a jacket is about all the gear you need for that.

When you ride by other cyclists who are journeying into the rain on two wheels with you, more often than not you'll share a grin, as if you were both stealing something.

When you ride your bike to BART in the rain and get on the train all kitted out and sopping wet, it's no longer paranoia, everyone actually is looking at you. No one smiles though, and they don't hold eye contact.

Earthworms are everywhere on the pavement when it rains. Someone should play Taps, it's a massacre.

Little glass pieces are everywhere as well. Flatting in the rain pretty much sucks, but finding a huge covered space to change your flat? Priceless.

When a car goes through a huge puddle next to you while riding in the rain, it's fun and comical instead of annoying like it is normally.

One little desk fan is capable of drying out all of your cycling gear in less than 8 hours just by blowing over it.

When it rains a lot, all the people that can't stand riding in the rain and burn out on the trainer become relatively weaker. That's what I tell myself, anyway.

Cheers

Holy Cow, it's Christmahanakwanzakah already!

2008-12-22T22:35:00.000-08:00

Winter cycling blog update

This cake pretty much says it all - kinda poo brown, with the value-neutral sentiment: "Winter"

Yep.

Bushwhacked by some job responsibilities that I thought I would have cleared by now but can't quite seem to shake free of, getting sick here or there and doing the requisite holiday party hop.

I'll be a cyclist again at some point, I know it

Fastsqautch Monthly Update

2008-11-23T17:01:00.000-08:00

My adoring fanbase demands yet more updates, so here you go. (thanks, both of you, by the way)

Mike's average weekly time allocation in November:

60-70 hours work at Tacit Knowledge (finance and infrastructure stuff)
56 or so hours sleeping
20 or so hours eating taking care of self etc
4-10 or so hours riding my bicycle
2-5 or so hours on finance education and personal finance
2-4 or so hours watching movies
1-2 or so hours work for Merritt's estate
.5 or so hours work for Teresa's web design company

Reeks of glamour, dunnit? Yeah, I'm not sure what happened to the pie slices I imagined growing up that were supposed to be at least 5 hours of fighting fires and operating earth-moving machines, or the one labelled "spacewalks for zero-g science experimentation" etc.

Can't really complain though, there's also no "5 hours, cleaning prison lavatories" or anything.

I do feel as though I need to justify my complete failure to either post interesting material, appear on group rides, or cause any suffering on said group rides. So there you go.

I will say that I went for a fan-tas-tic ride just now though. Lacked motivation the whole day but with just enough time before sunset on the last gorgeous day of the last weekend before "they" warn wet winter storms will start rolling in, I pulled my head out and climbned around the East Bay hills. Glorious - not sure why I didn't get out sooner. Something they call motivation I suppose. I recognize that I've never been one to train for no reason, and that reason is usually a race. I'm going to have to commit to some races next year to get the motivation up, and get back on the road again.

I'm not going to take credit for this picture, but this is pretty much the treat for pedaling up the hill behind my house at sunset:

Who wouldn't want to do that more often?

Surely carving 5 hours out of that bloated pie slice at work wouldn't result in the ruin of the company? Nah...

Unless something more interesting happens I'm probably not going to post again before Turkey Day, so happy thanksgiving everyone, with a wish that you have things to be thankful for and realize it in time to enjoy it.

Cheers-
-Mike

Updates, people want updates

2008-10-29T08:14:00.000-07:00

Here's some Frankfurt airport fun for people, apropos of my ride last
night

People appear to be saddened at my lack of updates, but not nearly as
saddened as I am at my lack of fitness!

Unbelievably painful for me last night, and humbling. I appear to have
taught my legs that they only need to store enough energy for an hour
because I didn't just blow up (though I *did* blow up), I also bonked.

Now, seriously.

Here's hoping there's enough time between now and Spring for some real
training or I'm definitely on the downgrade path :-)

Great to see everyone as always though. I do love that port ride...

where's mike?

2008-10-26T08:03:00.000-07:00

started in san francisco

stopped in chisinau, moldova

played for a bit in istanbul, turkey

flew on to manhattan in new york

just about to head back to oakland

will continue to guadalajara on thursday

whew!

lots of work, some fun - good to see the world a bit

I miss my bikes though, hopefully I can make it to the POO on tuesday

cheers, all

Bike Art and some randoms

2008-08-30T20:30:00.000-07:00

Thursday evenings are usually reserved for my honey, but recently I've been working about 482% too much. You can't ever really make up for that, but trying to is fun, you know?

(firepit burns *wood* which is the purported theme of 5th anniversaries for traditional gift giving. Copper is also good for the 7th anniverary, so hey, if this firepit lasts long enough I'm all set. Obligatory bicycle - Hillary, if you were wondering - in the background and I'm sure if you look closely enough there'll be a cat in the house looking out)

Teresa and I just redid the backyard last year with something like 50 cents and a lot of elbow grease, plus a couple special assists from Sean Smith (thanks Sean :-) ). And we haven't gotten to enjoy it much this summer, but this is definitely nice. Obligatory two-wheeled machine in the background (that's "Scout" if you were wondering)

Meat!

I pass this bicycle graffiti every day, and I have to admit, it's not bad:

A visual feast. Shouts to all the guys and gals racing this weekend - good luck to everyone and keep the rubber side down (unlike that graffit)

Thanks for stopping by

Bike Against The Odds

2008-08-24T10:11:00.000-07:00

I don't do charity rides usually because I don't like hitting other people up for money, I just donate myself if I'm into something.

But my cycling team (Kaiser Permanente / Team Oakland) *is* sponsored by a health care provider, there's a charity ride that starts at Lake Merritt and rides all over my normal stomping grounds, and it's supporting research into breast cancer which hits a surprising number of my friends.

So I end up supporting the Bike Against The Odds every year, and even though I haven't been riding much this year I gave it a shot.

Here's the crew (3 Jeff/Geoffs, 2 Mikes, a Tom and a Mel) about to depart at 6:30AM on a Saturday (sacrifice, people!) for an overcast romp around the hills of the East Bay.

Naturally, training in three months what I normally train in two weeks didn't work out to well for me, and I'll just say this picture is a metaphor for my fitness:

I started getting the tell-tale twitches that said "do you *want* to cramp before you get home, or shouldn't you just ride home now, buddy?" so I pulled the plug at mile 50 and retreated to a comfortable napping area to lick my wounds.

I'll do the full thing again next year. But hey, we raised a ton of money! And it's for the boobies, I think everyone can get behind that. Seriously, good work to all that helped the cause or have battled through it.

Cheers

I ride a bike sometimes

2008-08-24T10:04:00.000-07:00

Lots of stuff separating me and my beloved stable of fillies (Hilary, War Admiral, and Angeleria, if you were curious. You name your bikes, don't you?)

But I have still been riding to work when I can - BART in the morning, Ferry at night

One of the things I love about bike commuting is that it puts me in the urban parklands and urban core, where there is always incidental art hanging around. Bike commuting in, say, Wichita, Kansas just wouldn't be the same.

Right now there is this exhibit of globes on the beach (I forget which one, by the marina) in San Francisco. It looks like they've asked a bunch of artists to do whatever they want so long as it's this size globe and has the continents on it. This one is my current favorite - it's a fully "green" globe, but really looks like a welcome mat. Bonus points for having the bridge behind it :-). I'll be sad to see the globes go - I'll see if I can scope out another couple for posts.

And yeah, sunsets are cliche, but come on. You had a hard day at work, you're on your way home, and there it is. Ahhh.

Sam's Getting Married

2008-08-24T09:58:00.001-07:00

Bachelor party last weekend, and folks, take note - this is a good itinerary (good work, James):

- karting (of *course* I won, I mean, come on)

- guns (I'm not that into guns, but if you've ever gone to a range you have to admit it's fun - those paper targets never knew what hit them!)

- cocktails

- dinner (Espetus - more meat than you can shake a stick at, or fit on a stick, or whatever, just meat, man)

- out on the town

Honestly, a great day.

Best of luck, Sam and Jen.

FormulaGrub and a Track Day

2008-08-24T09:55:00.001-07:00

While this is a cycling blog mostly, I'll admit I'm generally
interested in most things that go really fast. Nascar doesn't do it
for me because turning one direction the whole time is a bit dull, but
Formula 1 and MotoGP are both great fun to watch.

Just about everything is better if you enjoy it with friends though,
so we've got a little dinner club going we call "FormulaGrub" where we
try to cook food related to the location of the Formula 1 race, then
we eat it up while we watch the race. Good friends, new food, and
fantastic engineering, what's not to like?

Here's Clan Gilbert cooking up some Indian food before the Hungarian
Grand Prix (note Lindsay criticizing us because while Hungarians may
eat Indian food a lot, it's not really Hungarian)

And of course, even better than watching MotoGP is acting out your
fantasy that you may actually have a little Valentino Rossi in you, so
I took Jimbei up on his offer for a track day and headed out to
Thunderhill for some moto-madness. Honestly, Jay Rossi (long-time
friend from FormulaGrub) talked me into it, so it's all his fault.

For an idea how much fun that is, my leathers are new so their a bit
tight, and they rubbed some friction blisters all over my shins. I
didn't notice that *at all* while I was on the track - that much speed
on that little machinery is definitely a form of crack. Jimbei, thanks
for the bike loan, and Sean, thanks for the truck loan.

Look at the smile on Jay's face, it tells the tale :-)

two wheels, but faster

2008-08-19T05:12:00.001-07:00

hey, if I'm not training enough to go fast on a bicycle, why not get an engine involved?

Thanks to Jimbei for letting me borrow one of his babys for the day, and to Teresa for being nervous but understanding

pics of the full stormtrooper/dork leather suit later

rubber side down!

Merritt Futter, 1936-2008

2008-07-20T23:24:00.001-07:00

Pictures do say a thousand words.

We're still working through all the details, and probably will be for
quite some time, but Merritt passed away last Thursday. It wasn't easy,
but answering the call to help Merritt these last few months was an honor.

He was genuine guy, and a good one at that.

Teresa loved him dearly, and having spent the time I did with him, I
could see why.

Rest in peace, Merritt

Superweek tales from the White brothers

2008-07-19T23:38:00.001-07:00

Russ and Greg White (Kovarus, and frequent Port Riders) are up in
SuperWeek racing in the cat 3 peloton, trying to show them a thing or two.

Looks like they need to be shown the way to some skills clinics...

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Superweek
Date: Sat, 19 Jul 2008 21:38:23 -0700 (PDT)

Hey Mike,

It was really cool watching Karla kick ass and represent the Port Ride.
Here is update on what we've been up to.

Ray Basso Bensenville Criterium - Day 1: 7/15

The course was a very much like a cyclocross course and not every
interesting. A break of the 3 went up the road with a buddy of ours from
Nor Cal, Matt Talbot the clean racer. So, we chilled in the pack and did
a bit of blocking. Then, I lead out Greg for the field sprint. I railed
the inside of the first turn and kept the gas on. I pulled off on the
backside of the course and Greg was second wheel into the last turn.
There was a crash and he took off a easily won the sprint for 4^th .
Russ DNF

Humbolt Park Criterium : 7/17

This course had a steady climb and a curving decent toward the finish.
Early in the race I'm a break and there was a miss communication with a
rider pulling through. The guy who flicked his elbow clipped and took
out the front wheel of the rider pulling through. I was right behind it
and we were going 35 mph, so I smacked the pavement really hard. The
SRAM neutral support guys couldn't repair my headset and they didn't
have a neutral bike for me, so I was done early on. I did bruise my
right hip badly.

Without me in the race, Greg had to cover more moves. Someone attacked
with 5 laps to go and he soloed for the win. Greg was 10^th wheel into
the last turn and the guy in front of him hit a cone it popped up and
almost nailed him in the head. The cone tagged the guy behind Greg and
he went down. The guy who hit the cone jumped on the inside, which was
wind protected. Greg followed and then unleashed his sprint to crush the
field sprint for 2^nd . Our host mom has a sweet video of Greg showing a
clean set of wheels to the field.

Ripon Red Hawk Criterium : 7/18

The course went endlessly up hill but in reality you would climb up a
hill then bomb down into the turn to go up the next hill. So it was a
funky 4 corner & 4 hill criterium. I felt too injured to race and took
an off day. The race stayed together until 2 to go when a tire blew out
in turn 3 and 10 guys and Greg got a gap on the field. After moving up
on the backside of the course, Greg was 6^th wheel into the last turn.
Greg jumped to start his sprint, his rear wheel skipped once and before
he knew it he was upside down and still clipped in. Greg landed on his
back and helmet and the bike flew 10 feet in the air. The helmet was
toasted and everyone was amazed that Greg was able to walk away with a
few minor scrapes.

Carl Zach Cycling Classic : 7/19

Today's course looked like staircase and the pavement was very poor. It
had 8 turns and they were tight. The pace was high and I had a poor
start, I was annoyed with the way that riders were allowed to start
clipped in since you're supposed to have a foot down when the whistle is
blown. The cat 3 peloton was having trouble around turn 1 where there
were two crashes that saw guys hitting the mattresses covering the
parking meters. It was very sketchy and I rode at the back playing the
train conductor collecting tickets, chillin' as the the last man. Greg
was riding well in the pack and it was strung out. With 5 laps to go
Greg came back to check on me and I took his wheel. Then going around
turn 6, some douchebag in a gay ass pink kit dove the corner inside me
and took out my front wheel. WTF, he was fighting for my teammates'
wheel at the back of the peloton. I tumble and superman over the bars
and I scraped up my elbow. Greg didn't contest the sprint and finished
24th, Russ DNF

Right now the morale is kinda low. We are wearing quite a bit of
surgical netting because guys can't handle their bikes. But there is a
race tomorrow and we are hoping that out luck has turned.

Cheerio,
Russell

I am not a smoker

2008-07-10T06:20:00.000-07:00

getting a bit sick of wildfires...

Good to be back!

2008-07-08T22:35:00.001-07:00

Even my wife is getting into the act and sending me funny pictures, so
I'll grace you with this fine product from these fine people:
http://www.designtoscano.com/product/garden+statues/fantasy+statues/assorted+creatures+outdoors/bigfoot%2C+the+garden+yeti+sculpture+-+db383049.do

As many of you know - I've been up in the far North Bay (Lakeport, to be
precise) doing what I can to help a family member that needs a hand. If
you didn't know, that's why I've been so MIA the last month or so.

Got back in town this week just in time for the port ride though, and
boy do I miss when it I'm not here. It's great to see everyone, even if
it's hard to talk while pushing so hard :-)

Missed a few though, where are the girls for instance? No Morgan, Karla
or Alice. Shouldn't Alice be getting close to healed now? I hope so. No
Justin either but Ryan was laying into people in his place. I'll give a
shout to Russ and Greg too - they're headed to SuperWeek next week and
it'd be cool to have some NorCal representin' up there.

Hopefully I'll be back to a semi-regular racing schedule in the near
future, but no guarantees.

One goal met, but a thorough spanking

2008-06-22T08:54:00.001-07:00

https://www.usacycling.org/results/index.php?permit=2008-1414

I beat the entire BPG team at Pescadero

I know, I know, it's practically cheating as there were only two there
and one of them (the guy from BPG that was in the winning breakaway
move, actually) flatted out.

But I didn't say what qualified, did I? Just that I thought it would be
funny to beat the whole BPG team at a race. This of course conclusively
proves I'm single-handedly better than all of them, of course.

More honestly though, I got my ass handed to me at Pescadero. I blew up
a bit on the main climb each time up the hill but chased back on the
first two times. The third of four times up the small hills I blew off
the back when Paul Mach hit the front to stretch his legs or something
and was unable to chase back on despite a real effort with a couple
other guys.

After that I just rolled it around for the rest of the 103 miles and
finished - not quite last, but really close. Total mileage to the car
for the drive home was 113 miles, and my nifty power meter told me it
was about 3 days worth of training stress in 5 hours. Made for a great
nap when I got back anyway.

What did I learn? I can't climb with the P12 pack yet. I'm a little too
heavy, and not quite strong enough. I'm close...but close isn't quite
good enough. So I need to work on that.

For the power junkies out there the main climb was something around 7:30
each time, which was 310W average for me, and I was 144lbs for the race.

Had I been able to hang with the pack I think it would have been 7:00 to
7:15, and while I was with them I was doing ~380W steady for 2 minutes.
Those are great numbers for me, just not quite good enough.

5lbs (to my racing weight last season, basically) and 5% more power and
I think I'd be there. That's attainable...

Cheers

I don't understand my body at all

2008-06-10T13:08:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I think it's ironic that I'm viewed as someone that's always going by the numbers and is totally scientific. While I do use various numbers a lot in my training and attempt to be as scientific as possible there are two sides to the coin, and just as I am my own exercise scientist, I am also sometimes just Mike the guinea pig athlete.

Sunday and Monday, for instance, were a couple days where it's clear that sometimes no matter how methodical I am, my body knows more than I do and sometimes I just can't explain it.

For a quick bit of context:
- Tuesday was the Port Ride to round out a nearly 100mile day, and it was predictably hard but felt good
- Wednesday was easy (just about an hour toodling along)
- Thursday I felt great, so I went full gas on the short-end - 1minute intervals and sprints. Set a new PR here
- Friday, recovery toodling
- Saturday I go to my Father-in-law's house and move furniture until I'm dead-tired
- Sunday I try to race the 2-wheel crit and DNF a race for only the second time *ever* since racing from 1995

Sunday was awful. Splitting headache, foaming at the mouth, couldn't put power down, pulled myself an hour into a 75-minute crit.

So I figure the furniture-moving was bad. And maybe I was dehydrated, I dunno.

I wake up Monday, I'm pretty sore all over from moving still, but I go for a spin on the trainer anyway, and this happens:

WTF? I mean, basically I had planned to just ride easy and was riding what felt easy when I looked down and realized I'd been zipping along at my previous FTP (270W) for around 5 minutes with no heart rate movement at all, even as I put more load on a few times.

While I'm doing this, I'm thinking it is very, very strange. Like, maybe my heart has a problem and I need a doctor strange.

So I figure I'll round it out for a 20-minute FTP test and with 10 minutes to go I ratchet it up pretty big - to 320W. A couple months ago I could do that for 4 minutes and I'd pretty much hurl at 4:01, so trying it for 10 minutes is unrealistic at best. Now my heart finally edged up to threshold levels, and even then only after bumping up to 330W a couple times.

I still felt low perceived exertion though, so with two minutes left I figured I'd go for 380W. Why not? it's all impossible anyway. I was able to stick that and when I was done I felt recovered in about two minutes.

This just doesn't happen! That's a 50W improvement on both FTP and 5-minute efforts! Who sets a 5-minute PR at the end of a 20-minute test? On any other day, not me.

I checked this morning on a different bike (with a different power unit), and much of that power is still present so I know my Ergomo isn't f'ing with me.

I have never had that happen before, ever. I'm Mr.Slow-and-steady progress if I'm anything.

The athlete guinea pig in me is ecstatic at the numbers (more math tells me I'd do 27.7mph in a TT at that power!), but the scientist in me is completely puzzled.

I'm going to have to do some more testing surrounding fuel (maybe it was Bob's Red Mill Oats on Monday?), warmup (maybe it was just easing into it?), amount of rest (two days no cycling, one day hard ride, then something I care about?) and any other variables I can think of that may have resulted in blowing the doors off like that.

If I can make this happen in a race...

Anyway, I know there's some number-geeks out there, so I thought I'd share. Has anyone else had something like this happen? Total crap day followed by blowing the doors off? Any tricks you know?

And what's on tap for the Pescadero Suffer-fest on Saturday? Is my body going to be Dr.Jekyll, or Mr.Hyde?

Bay Area Summer = Suffer City

2008-06-04T07:06:00.000-07:00

ah, bay area in the summer

it's cold

it's crazy windy (check out that windsock from the port ride last night!)

we were struggling to do 21mph as a pack into the headwind last night

without Joel and John out there attacking it never blew apart, but Nate English (soon-to-be-pro phenom) was trying his hardest.

Sean pulled him back, of course ;-)

inadvertently set Haydn up for the longest sprint of his POO career

Even had a MaryMaroon guest appearance. Good times

First real ride with the Pros

2008-05-31T20:14:00.000-07:00

So, today was the first "real" race I've done with the P/1/2 crowd.

I say that because the two Modesto races I did, while they were fun, apparently weren't typical of a real race because there weren't enough strong folks there.

Even though today's flat four-corner office park crit (typical) was a P/1/2/3 field, so we had a ton of cat 3 riders in there, there were also some domestic pros (Roman Kilun from HealthNet and Kevin Klein from Rock&Republic Racing) as well as many other strong characters from the local scene including the ever-present wrecking crew of Joel Robertson and Brian Bosch from SPOC as well as lots of stoners and strawberries (BPG and CalGiant). And the field was full, with 120 (!) people ripping around the course.

I'll admit, when it started, I was a little worried - within 5 minutes there was a lot of pressure at the front, and for the next 10 minutes it was on. You can see in the chart how spiky the power demand was fighting for position in such a big field, and how far over my threshold heart rate it took me, but I was unwilling to get too far from the front as I thought a big break might go or a pack split might happened, and I didn't want to miss it like I did at Modesto.

All for naught though - the wind was pretty vicious, and the pack wasn't willing to let anything go, so I concentrated on saving the rest of my bullets for the sprint.

And oh, what a sprint. I learned something today (which I've already told several people, but it is still a revelation to me). In the P/1/2 races it's not "a" sprint. There are multiple sprints. Now, in the cat 3 races, there's sort of a last lap surge where you need to be in the top 5 or so, then everyone sprints. But there aren't that many people that can legitimately sprint or even last in that surge, so it isn't that big a deal.

In the P/1/2 though, there's a big surge around the last lap just to get anywhere near the front, then you have to deal with people literally pushing you hard to get you out of their way and bumping you, and then - if you're lucky and you've made it that far with good position - you have earned the right to have a big sprint way too early, something like 600 meters to go, where the sprinters are merely separating themselves from the rest of the pack as the last of the lead-out men are doing their job. Now! Now, is where the action happens - if you are still in the draft bubble up with the lead group, you've got the chance for one last burst of speed, and if you can accelerate enough you'll hit the line with a good placing, or maybe a win.

Not sure why, but I didn't think it through before, and didn't realize the last part of the lead-out was so strong that it was basically a full sprint. So when some (not all) of the sprinters stood up and jumped with 600 meters to go I thought they were crazy, and I did not go. My mistake. I came in 15th out of 120, but next time, I'm going to give that first sprint most of what I've got and even if I don't have a great burst after that I bet I do better. We'll see.

So there you go, P12 sprint tactics in a nutshell.

I'll take a moment to give Joel Robertson some credit here. I've been razzing him here and in person about how I've beat him twice, but he crushed me today *after* doing a leadout for Bosch (who got second by a whisker). And the times I've beat him he was working for teammates too. At any rate, he followed that performance up with a race-long break in the 35+ 123, and I gotta say, I can fight for position with the front of the group, and I can sprint, but I certainly don't have that power. All I've got is heckling, man, I can't help it ;-)

Other random thoughts. Does anyone else feel like a big ol' fred when they're riding next to either a domestic pro or someone they know is super-fast? It can't just be me. I see the Rock&Republic kit rolling around next to me and I think "better not squirrel out now Mr Wizard, don't want to crash out a guy that's actually good at this". I even skeezed a bit with Bosch next to me. Joel'd do it but I ride with him too much. Yeah, I should probably get over that. But I thought I'd own up to it.

Anyway, here's the chart. Geek away. And the result sheet, because, well because I took the picture and what else am I going to do with it? Almost beat Roman! Could've bagged me a pro if I had known about that multi-sprint deal. Next time!

Oh, final thought - MechaAlice (Alice-or?) was on her trainer "glowing" away, while cheering for Brian in the crit. She gets the "Mecha" tag because she had an articulated full arm brace and her elbow was still all swole up and green from surgery after her crit crash a few weeks back. That's core. Keep getting better, and we'll see you at the port, Alice.

Alright, enough blah blah. It was great seeing everyone out there today. Rubber side down...

OMG ponies

2008-05-29T06:59:00.000-07:00

could also be titled "why I didn't race last weekend" since my friend Stu, who got me in to this silly sport in 1997 was in town and I hung out with him, his wife, his new daughter Claire (starring in the pictures) and others all weekend instead of hitting the start line.

I'm in the strange position of being a little overtrained and tired while also jonesing for a race

so this week I've been resting, taking care of business, and looking forward to the ICCCCCC dash for cash on saturday

hope to see a big crew out there for that one now that the TO 3s team is so deep. Seriously - Mike Fee, Brian, Kieran, Toby, Stephen, Maury, Sean. That's crazy! if we got Ian, Scott and Chris Kovash out there we'd have 11. Why not :-)?

See everyone Saturday

recovery day randoms

2008-05-21T16:52:00.000-07:00

Here's the art shot of the day - Statue of what I take to be a mother
and daughter. It looks to me like the mother is protecting the daughter
and they are both happy, which I like. The daughter has four eyes
though, which I can't interpret all though.

And then I saw this old Chinese guy puffing up the hill with two
amazingly fluffy pomeranians chasing after him, and with the euphoria of
the clear bright sunshine of the morning, I couldn't resist snapping a
pic of him too.

People sometimes wonder what we cyclists do on those really long rides.
Well, ask no more, this is the answer. Just replace "France" with "the
Central Valley" ;-)
http://velonews.com/article/76403/what-goes-through-the-head-of-a-pro-cyclist-in-a-five-hour

Finally, I'll mention that last night's port ride was the hardest thing
I've done on a bike since the Everest Challenge last year. Immediately
after the ride I thought it was the hardest thing ever, but then I
remembered Everest and let's be honest, Everest was harder, just not by
much. So if you were hurting, I was right there with ya

I was shooting for 5-5.5 hours of riding yesterday. The tough part was
just that somewhere around hour 5 on the bike was when the port ride
started to really shatter, and I can't even describe how awful it felt
to have the draft stripped away, see the pack up ahead with a lot of
straightaway and headwind to go, and know that if I didn't get up there
it was all over.

Not that it would have really mattered but quitters never win, right? So
suffer I did. Unbearable agony. Such a brutal sport, gotta love it.

In the final chunk of randoms I'll mention that the things that went
through my head this morning on the ride into work were:

- how on earth do people ride 400 miles a week and still get their work
done and keep their families happy??
- Maury said I haven't been Mr.Chipper per usual lately. overtrained?
Just tired?
- Damn it's a beautiful morning
- Hey, the Polo Fields are open again after the Bay to Breakers, but the
Bay to Breakers runners trashed the hell out of it, just like they did
the rest of the park. Pigs.
- Huh, I can see my fingers through my gloves. Guess I should buy gloves
more than once every two years. Nah.
- If the POO was that hard after 85 miles, what's the finale at
Pescadero going to be like after 100? shit
- Look at those roses! Teresa loves roses

There were a few more, but if anything they were less interesting. If
you read this far, I should probably by you beer.

;-)

Cheers-
-Mike

Modesto RR - more fun in the heat

2008-05-18T15:06:00.000-07:00

Back in lovely Modesto for the second day in a row this Sunday. Yesterday was a crit, and today is actually in Salida, CA, but it's near Modesto so they call it the Modesto crit. Did you know Modesto is only 1.5 hours from Oakland? Salida is only 1.25 hours from Oakland. They're not that far away, but they are a world apart, for sure.

It was 60 degrees in Oakland when I woke up but after Sean, Jeff Sobul, Brian Johnston, Ed Lai and I got to Modesto at 7am, I was feeling pretty stupid in my hoodie since it was already 80 degrees. Only got up to 100 though, not so bad, right? Neutral water feeds helped a lot - it really wasn't that bad. We were all wondering in the car how the VeloPromo B team (Cicarreli Enterprises) can set up a great neutral water station, but (for instance) the Berkeley Hills RR can't. Makes no sense.

Anyway, the ride up was good - the truck was packed in tight with 5 guys but everything fit

The race itself was not what I was expecting. Breakaways simply didn't work today because Daniel Holloway had a different workout in his I'm-a-national-champion schedule than we did, and he needed to ride really hard for a long time apparently, because he just sat on the front and towed everything back. Damned impressive really but it meant that my attempts to be more aggressive today (4 different breakaways!) were all for naught.

At least I learned the lesson from yesterday, go with the breaks! It was a lot more fun, and one of them could have made it - if it had I would have been there...

Coming into the sprint, we just caught the cat 4 field, and boy was that a mess. We somehow kept everything together, and though I had been on uber-sprinter John Wilk's wheel I lost it into the last corner. Then while I also mostly learned the sprinting lesson from yesterday and I sprinted much more aggressively I didn't quite unleash the best sprint at the right time, rolling across in 7th place out of the 28 folks that started. But you know what 7th place is? My first cat 1 upgrade point, in my first weekend! Score.

Not sure what I can take away from this race (besides the upgrade point) except that in the sprint I need to really push harder and earlier. The numbers weren't as big as I can go - 700W instead of 1000W (big difference!) and the duration was a bit shorter than I can do when I'm mentally on my game too. If I really get all that right, I think I can crack top 5.

At the risk of alienating one of my 4 readers, I'll pick on Joel again and mention he was not in the top 7 ;-). John W (his teammate) was 3rd though (great showing!) and Joel worked for him, so it's only good for laughs. Honestly it was a great weekend - I really enjoyed racing with the stronger field, and I was off in a couple breaks with Joel (who was both supportive and ribbing me at the same time) which was honestly a lot of fun. Then sprinting with John was great too. I ride with these guys every week but never get to see them turn the pedals in anger - now I do and it's great to watch.

Also, it was fun to do 71 miles in 2 hours and 40 minutes, and finally, frankly, it felt great to race in a new field and just not do anything stupid or dangerous despite the higher speeds. Safe and smooth is good, and being safe and smooth while being aggressive and mixing it up in the sprint is a bonus. Good stuff.

Not sure what's up with the Memorial Day weekend, I've got a great friend coming in to town so I may be MIA. But I'll be out at the port. See everyone there.

One goal met, but some missed opportunities

2008-05-17T17:45:00.000-07:00

Went to the Modesto crit and played with the big dogs in my first P12 race today.

Carpooled up with Tim Granshaw, TOSean and Joel. Fun chatter up and back, with a free anatomy lesson. Good times.

Modesto itself was only 95 degrees or something for the warm up and race. Don't get me wrong, that's hot (hot enough to melt my cat, as you can see), but it's not apocalyptic.

Mixed up a bit at the start, jumping across gaps, rotating a bit, but it was a bit too early and by the time the heavy hitters went for it I was taking a breather. We'd been doing 6 minutes at 28-29mph by that point and 10 over 27.5. Similar to the heat - not lightning fast but moving along. So I'm resting up 15th wheel or so and there go the stars-n-stripes of Hollaway up the road with a bunch of folks.

That meant I watched the break that stuck roll away - a little disappointing since I was in position and honestly had the gas but thought "it's a long race, that's a messy number of people, I'll fire it up in a couple more minutes". Lesson learned there. If you can get in a move, just do it already.

In the final sprint I had an opportunity to help Chris Turner (a nice guy, you'd help him too) for the win after he lapped but I had a cranio-rectal inversion and didn't realize he had a lap. Would have been nice to exercise some power (which I had - legs felt great) in the finale with Bosch there too. Another lesson learned. Pay attention to who is off the front, and chat more with folks you know instead of playing the hermit. Even though I don't have teammates, that'll make the racing more fun. At least I let Chris in the slipstream with no fuss when he asked.

At the same time, next time ask for a hand though, Chris! I had about 600-800m of warp speed in the tank, and with me and Bosch, you might have beaten the super-strong Rapinski and scored one for us underdogs...instead there was a lull and he attacked solo on the last lap, then got pipped.

Finally, in the real sprint I hesitated at my pre-determined sprint jump point (Suisun Crit repeat here...), stood up with the rest of the group, and didn't do as well in the pack sprint as I should have. Was still accelerating at the line which is always the sign of a bad sprint for me. Had a clear line and everything but something along the lines of a starstruck "wow I'm in a P12 sprint" was going through my mind instead of "go go go". Dang! Final lesson learned - they're just bike racers, and so am I. Jump already fer cryin' out loud ;-).

I'm not mad at myself though. My clearly stated goal at the start of the race was to finish with the pack or better. I got a 18th (out of 40ish?), I don't think I rode sketchy or lacked class, and hopefully folks in the group will start to get used to a hairy legged guy with carrot choppers (tri-spokes) in the group. Which would be good, because I'm going to remember these lessons, and I intend to be mixing it up in here for the rest of the season...

Oh, I should mention (to steal a Paul Mach line) that you can see here that I beat both Joel R and Brian Bosch, conclusively proving that I am better at all things bike-related than them. Guess they're just handing out cat 1 licenses to anybody nowadays, sheesh ;-)

You can see in the chart what the numbers look like. I put gridlines in at my LT power (270W currently), 30mph and 100rpm. And I smoothed it a bit so you're missing the peaks but you can see better. The heat made my heart rate skew pretty high - probably 5-10 beats. Otherwise that's normal for me.

Now I'll take a quick moment to say thanks to everyone that I chat with or ride with or that reads these bloggin's and encourages me in general and specifically when I moved up to the 2s. I love pushing myself but it isn't always easy - your support helps a lot.

Next up, the Modesto RR tomorrow. 72 miles of flat hot fun, weee...

Cheers-

The verdict is in

2008-05-16T09:11:00.000-07:00

case closed

today was definitely the most beautiful commute ever

70 degrees, light breeze, early sun-up, and a recovery day so the pedaling was easy.

Even having the polo fields locked down and blocked off for the ING bay to ING breakers brought to you by ING didn't bug me since I didn't need to ride much.

Should be the perfect calm before the storm of my first P12 race

happy Friday all

It's a bike party!

2008-05-15T10:00:00.000-07:00

Went for the long ride this morning

GG Park to the Great Highway and the Lake Merced loop (thanks Beth!) then up Foerster/Teresita, across Twin Peaks, then bombing down 7th back at the park

Then .... skidding to a stop at 7th and something because hey! It's Bike to Work day! Woohoo - there's maybe 20 people clustered around a table with free bagels, coffee, water, bags, and scones.

Cyclists are whizzing around everywhere on their way to work, dropping in like hummingbirds for vittles. I'm a scone-a-holic so I grabbed one of those.

Then I pedaled off through the park, headed out Arguello and out to the Presidio, bombed down towards Crissy Field and .... stopped short at a *huge* bike to work party in the Presidio.

Maybe 50 folks and people are laying around taking it easier here - there's supposed to be a BBQ later, apparently but some of us do actually have to get to work at some point :-). So I grabbed an apple and waded out of the crowd back to the commute

Saw about double the bike traffic, all told - honestly I see quite a few bikes normally, so this meant that at any given point there were about 5-10 people on bikes cycling to work. That's a lot of people! A good showing

And all that hippie treehugger crap aside (because it's all about me, really) how cool is it when you're normal commute to work all the sudden has *feed zones*?? Very cool.

Apparently I get a free ride on the ferry tonight, and maybe another canvas tote bag. I have been warned that it is mayhem trying to get all the bikes *on* the ferry though with all the extra riders. We'll see :-)

At my office we had Gil, Dennis, Jon Belew (plus his daughter to school!), Nick and me. Go Tacit Knowledge

Hope everyone else riding around today has a good ride

Lion-based recovery day art

2008-05-14T09:27:00.000-07:00

The early cat catches the...snake, I think

But what if the cat foolishly chose to eat nothing but a lot of heavily-frosted chocolate cake for breakfast?

outlook not so good

Perhaps a healthy choice of oatmeal or similar would have resulted in the strength of an Assyrian emperor instead

And then there's this

I'm really not sure what's going on here. I'm getting mixed signals.

On the data junkie side, I'll say that the port ride was fast last night, but not as fast as it first appeared. Rumors of 30mph averages were exaggerated. The fastest lap I could pull out of the data was 28.8mph. Now, that's quick, but we'll just have to all collectively do some intervals and work harder to hit a 30mph lap. Get to it, folks!

In other news, this post is brought to you by the number 285, which would be significantly larger than 255, and represents the 20-minute power I kicked out in my most recent test (Friday). The legs are coming around, just in time for some racing

Which makes me think...maybe this weekend it's time to give the P/1/2 field a shot, in beautiful Modesto. We'll see...

Teresa's b-day strikes back

2008-05-13T17:51:00.000-07:00

so, we went to Chez Gilbert last night to watch the Istanbul F1 race for our usual formulagrub group, and we're unloading our cinco de mayo leftovers on everyone.

Turns out the cake we brought over still had candles and you can't *not* sing feliz cumpleanos when that happens, can you?

I do think 7 days of birthday celebration is either pushing it or something to shoot for though - can't decide which ;-)

Why I didn't ride my bike on Sunday

2008-05-12T14:59:00.001-07:00

This was just how the party *started*

(Karen, you're a beautiful Frida)

Isn't this a cycling blog? Where's the damned cycling?

2008-05-11T14:39:00.001-07:00

Where's all the cycling babble? Good question!

The missus and I had a blowout 40th birthday party / Cinco de Mayo festival at our house last night (complete with bartendress and a banquet of made-to-order food, sweet!), so that's a large part of the story.

I also up and went to Texas a couple weekends ago which knocked a few days out of the schedule and took out a race weekend.

Believe it or not I do things other than ride (like, you know, running a small consulting business with my wife, and helping run a medium-sized one with a bunch of other friends) so missing a few days meant the following weekend after that was almost completely spent on catching up

Then last week, during the week, we took off for the North Bay to spend a couple days with Teresa's dad (pictured above) who is dealing with some serious health issues and just needs a hand. Lots of driving and gutter cleaning and lawn mowing and stuff later, we dropped back in to town to play catch up furiously for a couple days before afore-mentioned birthday bash

So it's been a few weeks of Real Life Stuff but not much cycling and definitely no racing, and that's okay. I always manage to take the early part of the summer off from racing for some reason or another and I think it makes me better in August. This year looks like it's no different

I do miss the weekly Tuesday World Championships down at the POO, and hanging with everyone at Los Cantaros though - hopefully I get back in the groove and make it out next week.

Until then I hope everyone else is having a good time and tearing the racing circuit up. Speaking of which - I have to give a quick shout to Maury (upgraded!), Mel and Kieran (Cat's Hill podium folks) for their recent success. Also a quick shout to Alice to get better quickly. I'll see everyone out there soon enough.

Cheers

International Teresa's Birthday Week

2008-05-07T21:29:00.000-07:00

I can't tell what's brighter, the candle, your smile, or that mischievous twinkle in your eye

I've always loved that twinkle though...

Happy birthday

(I'll be back to bike-related babbling soon, I promise but priorities are priorities after all :-) )

long morning rides / old house

2008-05-01T09:40:00.000-07:00

Been "experimenting" with longer rides in the morning. In quotes because I know hat the result will be - going from 15 hours week to 20 will make me a stronger rider, but the question is whether I can actually get up at 5 every day.

No way I could do it if Teresa wasn't also on this crazy dawn patrol with me (she's doing boot camp @ the Oakland Y)

It does pose a challenge though. Where do you go in San Francisco when you have 2 hours to kill? The polo fields are just too monotonous for that duration. Today I went out to the zoo then by our old house in SF (pictured). They still have the Dr.Suess trees looking good but I forgot how steep those Miraloma Park roads were. No wonder I hated riding when I lived there.

Headed up twin peaks for the view, then hooked up the polo fields for the usual route.

I'm definitely going to have to bust the maps out and get some loops going though or I'm going to go nuts with boredom...

recovery day art

2008-04-30T17:53:00.000-07:00

Endurance day today, no interesting cycling news except that yesterday was the most train-ridden annoying POO ever but tacos were great per usual. And I did win one of the "sprints" so I should get a world champion jersey or something.

I started at a new client today (Sephora, oo la la) and they've got problems I can fix so that's good

more interestingly for me though is that in their lobby they have these polished metallic warped takes on landmark SF buildings. I saw these first when I went to the open studios of http://catherinemackey.com (a good friend whose website Teresa built and I host) and was drawn to them.

Teresa doesn't like them but I do, and I haven't seen them since...until now. Small world :-)

hope you had a nice coincidence today

Cat disguise

2008-04-29T16:07:00.000-07:00

had to take one of our two cats to the vet today. She thought she could go all camo by hiding in the exam room boxes.

Not a bad try, but she was nabbed. Maybe next time

Lots of non-cycling stuff going on, go figure. Work's thick and fast at the moment and so is personal travel and social events. Good thing I upgraded so none of the races are that exciting at the moment. Still getting good training time in though and I'll test the legs soon enough.

Eat to Live, Day Uno

2008-04-28T20:44:00.000-07:00

Teresa's turning the screws on herself, and our kitchen is now a veggie production and consumption center as she tries out the "eat to live" philosophy and foodstuffs

Owing to 40-100 miles of riding a day I get a free pass for adding pasta and protein shakes, but other than that I'm going to give it a shot too.

I'll let you know.

By the way, what is tofu? I mean, really

In the meantime, chop, chop, chop, chop, repeat :-)

recovery day art / scout has a sibling

2008-04-28T14:57:00.000-07:00

Just going for endurance today, had time to stop and snap a pic of this beastie

It's almost the same as a moto my wife grew up with and is in the process of restoring - a long-lost sibling, seen on my regular route on grove street in SF. Wonder if the owner just moved in? Maybe we could get a rec for their mechanic :-)

i'm not really good at fixing the points on magnetos and ours are busted.

I'm better at pedaling...

texan baby clothes

2008-04-27T10:36:00.000-07:00

not sure about the tshirt but check out the baby chaps, why is that funny to me? Look out all you parents, Teresa's got some new ideas...

Happy Early Mom's Day

2008-04-27T08:41:00.000-07:00

Snuck out to my sister's house in Austin to surprise my mom early for Mother's day and her b-day

even ran in to two of my cousins on 4th street last night while out on the town

great town, good peoples, good times :-)

So disappointing!

2008-04-21T15:43:00.001-07:00

Paul Mach, the fastest guy I know (knew) who also refused the whole
baseless shaving thing gave in to peer pressure after moving up to the
cat 1 ranks.

He shaved his legs:
http://www.paulmach.com/index.php?entry=entry080421-141311

Boo!

Cat 2 Punching Bag, at your service

2008-04-21T13:33:00.001-07:00

I just asked Casey Kerrigan (our benevolent overlord of NCNCAness) for
the road cat 2 upgrade.

As soon as I figure out what it is I can actually do in the 2s I'll set
some goals and set about achieving them, little striver that I am.

Anyone have ideas? Collective brain-storming may help.

So far I have this in from Jason James on a ride Sunday - I should try
to beat all the BPG riders. Except Justin of course. Funny enough, if
you look at the Madera results - http://www.velopromo.com/mdra-rl08.htm

- I've, uh, already beat them (if you compare TT times from their P/1/2
area to my cat 3 area). I'm going to guess there's a more rational
explanation for that (they hit the "power brownies" early and got lost?)
but who knows.

So, competitive ideas:

- beat BPG except Justin. There's an idea.
- Beat Joel (and gloat over it, even if he's working for a teammate?)
- top-20, then top-15 then top-10 in crits? a good progression
- have the longest leg hair of anyone in the P/1/2 field?

Personal ideas:

- I'd like to drop my time at the Everest Challenge if I race it.
- simply finish a tough road race (like Berkeley Hills or Pescadero)?
- tune the engine up to 4.5W/Kg for 20min efforts? (I'm 4W/Kg now)

What think you, oh internets?

-Mike

woohoo! I got my bike back

2008-04-18T16:46:00.001-07:00

So, a mere 2 months (ugh!) after being hit by a semi, I got my trusty
commuter and backup race bike, Hilary, back. That's after Sir Edmund
Hilary, brave adventurer, and yes, I name all my bikes, they have
personality, I can't help it.

Not sure about the red bits on the paint job but you don't get to ask
questions when you get a crash replacement bike.

CycleSports in Oakland did a great job with a tricky part list - I have
an Octalink crankset fitted to an Ergomo bottom bracket (both of these
are rare things mechanics don't see much), and they work very well as
long as you install them carefully. If you don't, they pretty much suck.
CycleSports took the time to install it carefully and on a first test
ride it seems to work quite well. Much appreciated.

I have a raft of insurance forms to fill out still, and each of them is
trying to get me to describe the car I was in when I got hit, so that'll
be creative getting my money back.

But I'm just thrilled to have all my bikes working again.

I used to be a one bike guy, but with as much riding as I'm doing now I
have to say only having one machine is totally inconvenient. It's very
hard to fix all the wear and tear and keep a machine in racing condition
all the time when you need to ride it to work too.

Anyway, this is a pretty good Friday present for me, and it leads in to
a low-stress weekend with no racing so it should set the tone.

Hope all 3 people that read these scribblings have similarly good things
to usher in your weekend.

-Mike

Oops, never mind about that whole Wente RR thing

2008-04-18T05:36:00.001-07:00

I'm going to be in Austin that weekend with family.

A shame, it looks like a beautiful course, but I've missed it both of
the last two years I've been racing, why should this year be any different?

TGIF, ya'll

Madera SR (thank you sir, may I have another...)

2008-04-15T15:42:00.000-07:00

Some thoughts about the Madera Stage Race:

1) Chowchilla. This is where Stage 1, the individual time trial was.

Flat, hot, farmland (I warmed up for the TT here in the orchard next to the road)

2) I suck suck suck at time trials.

I'm really good at all the nerdy aspects. I fuel myself optimally (food / water). I have good equipment and a great position (air can't touch me). I have telemetry and I know how to use it (power meter, years of data, and a head for numbers).

What I don't have is actual power. 252W (139 pounds, for the curious) for 25.1mph over the 10.36 miles, for a time of 24:37

I would have been 7th in 2005, 13th last year, but this year that was only good for 35th or something. That's my worst placing in a 3s race just about ever actually. Well, one that I didn't have a flat tire in :-). I guess I should at least mention that this was, in fact, my best individual time trial ever, it was higher power than I've produced in testing so far, and I was happy with it *for me*. It just wasn't a competitive time.

So since this is a stage race, and it's run on time, I'm now officially not in contention to win it by a long shot. All I can hope for is to do well in the criterium or road race stages.

And to get better in time trials, for next time...

3) Flat square criteriums are pretty boring. Not much to report about the crit except the course was covered in tacks or something, with railroad tracks too. I got a flat, and so did 14 other people in my race. Thank goodness for the wheel pit...I was able to get a wheel change and get back in the race. Legs were blasted from the time trial, I got into position, but didn't contest the sprint and rolled in for 15th

4) Road races in 90 degree weather are...hot. And breakaways are hard to get organized. We staged in a working ranch with bulls for sale (pictured)

We had a 68 mile road race on a mostly flat course with a stretch of awful pavement, and a stretch of really fun rollers. Finish at the top of a roller.

I wanted to race aggressively since I all I can get are upgrade points, and I already have points, so a break went up the road on lap .5, and I hauled buns up to it with Yacov Spivak from Chico Corsa. 5 minutes later at a 300W / 29mph average, we were a group of 7, but there wasn't much cohesion. A couple of weak guys, and a strap-hanger were there. Sassan from Form Fitness had been the cheerleader to this point, and he drilled it on the rollers and cracked the weaker guys off so then there were 4. The EMC strap-hanger, a Delta Velo guy, Sassan and I. We held it until nearly lap 3 but were caught before the rollers. Maximum gap was a minute, we were out for an hour. That was fun - but how do you work together well in a breakaway with 4 guys? Long pulls (how long)? Do you change it up depending on uphill or downhill?

After that I just concentrated on refueling, recovering, and getting ready for the finale. The inevitable bum-rush sprint (all cat 3 sprints are a bit hairy) came on queue and I got myself in the right spot in the pack but I waited just a bit too late to start sprinting. Two guys flew by me on the left before I started, and by then it was too late. I dialed it up and came clear for third place, but I was solidly beaten for the top two steps. 7 more upgrade points though (woohoo...wait, now I'm probably sandbagging, sorry)

I liked the heat though - there was plenty of water from the neutral support (don't worry Morgan, the floaters in the neutral water make you stronger). I had plenty of food and felt good.

I just wish I could time trial better...next time I s'pose.

After the time trial whipping I took I'm going to stay a category 3 racer for at least one more race - the Wente RR. And if you're a 3 and you're reading this get ready to go with me because I'm going to attack. I need to learn how to work in a breakaway and make it stick.

After that I'll cash in my upgrade points and move up to category 2 to take my beatings from the Pro/Cat1 guys like a man.

Cheers-
-Mike

Martinez, Wente?, car/bike harmony

2008-04-08T14:04:00.000-07:00

Lots of things going on, but not much writing about them. That's okay
though, one of the mottos you could live by, were you so inclined is:

Rather than go on one ride and talk about it to twenty friends, go one
twenty rides and talk about it with one friend.

Although now that I think about it, you'd probably be a pretty reclusive
dude if you did that. Maybe 10 rides or so, and it's probably better to
have more than one friend. But you get my drift.

At any rate, I did Martinez on Saturday. That race is brought to you by
the letter 'P', because that's what the course looks like. It's
extremely technical, with a "dynamic" (read: changes all the time)
surface. I slid the rear through one corner at one point, and clipped a
pedal in another. That's when you know it's technical. Of course, I
clipped the pedal while I was second wheel in the second to last corner,
which you could correctly classify as "screwing up a sprint", so instead
of following Mr.First Wheel (Rob Dahl, of Metromint) like white on rice
then blasting around him for the win, I had a little mini-pack right on
my wheel and lost Rob's wheel, and they all came around me for 5th.

The lesson I'm taking out of that is that in the last few corners of a
race it is much much much more important to put big power down *into*
the corner and stop pedaling then it is to gimp into the corner and try
to get on the power earlier to make up for it. One way has brought me at
least 4 podiums, and the other way is top-10 land. I'm not complaining,
but if you want to be a killer you've got to think about the kill, not
8th place or similar.

Even the cat 3s got money though, check me out, I'm quitting my day job.

Other thoughts...I've got them cat 2 points now, and they're burning a
hole in my pocket. I went out on Saturday night (Happy Birthday, Brent)
and didn't want the early start time at Santa Cruz, so I pre-rode the
Wente Vineyards RR course on Sunday instead to see whether it suited me
or not.

The question I've got is, will it be my debut in the P12 field?

I think the course actually did suit me, so I think it might be my
debut. I also threw in a lap of Patterson, and at around 2pm while it
was windy in SF and Oakland, it was a full gale up there. 50mph winds? I
don't think I'm exaggerating - Toby and Aris were with me, they can tell
you. Epic. Great fun.

I'm still on the fence though. What has more value, getting your teeth
kicked in with the P12 to learn the ropes there, or doing the E3 race
where I'm relatively stronger and trying a hard attacking style to get
used to attacks etc.

Am I a wuss for leaning towards the E3? Probably, but so be it. I'm
going to pre-reg for the E3 (sorry Joel) and move the registration if
Madera forces me out or I choose different.

What else is going on? Your moment of zen is that this morning I did the
long form of my commute (lapping at the Polo Fields and back) so I was
out and about in morning rush hour for a couple hours and there was not
a single incident of something with a motor nearly killing me. Total
car/bike harmony. That's the first time since I've been bike commuting
in November-ish 2007 that this has happened. I hope it's a trend...

Oh, and the police report from when a the semi nailed me came back, and
it says what I need it so say. Unfortunately, the guy's insurance
company is non-responsive. I'll get 'em though.

Cheers

Podium shot from Ronde Lowlands (thanks Toby!)

2008-04-01T12:25:00.000-07:00

Toby just hooked me up with the podium shot from the Ronde (thank you Toby)

The last podium shot I had (Menlo Park GP, 2007) my Mom wrote in that I
looked like a dork wearing my jeans, so I went with the sexy pants this
time, and you guys get the full hairy-legged glory.

Behold the power of the shag!

Incidentally, I just learned that one of the best category 2 racers in
the area (a cat 1 now, actually), Paul Mach, also does not shave his
legs. http://www.paulmach.com/index.php?entry=entry080329-222519 - nice
to have fast company

I'll do what I can to honorably hold down the hairy-legged spot he's
vacating in the 2s

SF Tourist Tidbit

2008-04-01T09:28:00.000-07:00

Did you know that there was a pet cemetery in the Presidio?

Neither did I

Apparently if the soldiers that were stationed here had a pet that passed away, they laid it to rest right under the GG bridge on-ramp flyover thing by Crissy Field.

I've ridden by it maybe 100 times but the bridge retrofit had it covered until yesterday. They did the whole retrofit without disturbing all the little wooden tombstones though

Fascinating (to me) what you find wedged in any bit of open space in the city

Ronde Highlands Happnin's

2008-03-30T20:23:00.001-07:00

No pictures I'm afraid (I know, they're the best part of this drivel, sorry), but the Ronde Highlands was today.

Big thanks again to the Team Oakland crew and Pilarcitos for putting it on, Day 2 was a class act as usual and anyone that comes out to race this tough, tough, tough Highlands course gets a good race in.

I will take a moment to mention that I am continually amazed at the stupidity of the average driver. Or maybe I should say the average driver isn't so bad, but boy oh boy do the driving skills fall off quickly as we roll down the bell curve. I marshaled the intersection at the bottom of the course and the typical conversation with a driver would go like this:

Driver: I need to get in that driveway for Pitco [ed: Pitco is a cut-rate grocery store]
Me: It's one-way only today, and you can't go that way. You need to go this way, 1 mile all the way up the hill, around the top, then back down, and you can get in. But when you leave, you can just come right out. Is that ok?
Driver: sure, ok

... pause ...

Marshall #2: he's slowing down up there...what's he doing?
Marshall #3: oh no...he's not...not again...oh he is
Me (on walkie-talkie): Guys we've got a car that u-turned onto the course and is coming down the hill warn the riders, over

Driver (parked now, right before the apex, while about 5 people yell at them to exit the course where we're pointing): how do I get to Pitco?

Repeat, at least 5 times in 2 hours. Stunning.

Ok, enough venting. We all know drivers are bad, but it makes me feel better to mock the worst sometimes. Thanks for listening.

Back to the racing...what's to say? Started out calm, then got windier and windier as the day went on until it was blasting for the E3 and blowing the tents over for the P12. Anyone that had a calmer race, be thankful :-). The Men's E3 was apparently doing the same laptimes as the Women's E4. So, good on you Alice, you should upgrade (and you too Carol, with your cat4 power) :-) !

We had a big presence but results were hard to come by - I honestly don't think that's a bad thing, we have a lot of guys that are brand new to racing and you've got to start somewhere. I'll give you a cheer for coming out and giving it a shot. Most races aren't this hard, so keep comin'

I believe I did see Brian Johnston working out well in a sprint, but I'll apologize and say I didn't see much else, but it was mostly because I wasn't paying attention as I was having mechanical difficulties or marshaling, or ogling my gorgeous wife who showed up and dedicated her Sunday to the team by marshaling in the gale, and provided everyone else with homemade Power Muffins (strawberry version) that she made last night. (doesn't that rock? That rocks)

Right before my race (during the E4 finish) my rear dérailleur cable snapped, and the SRAM support guys were able to fit new housing and cable with near perfect shifting (!!) right before my race staged. I'd say I'm lucky but those guys are skilled, so it's not luck, just very professional stuff under pressure. Many thanks.

Our race was windy enough that it was a game of who can shirk the most by riding the gutter in the draft up the hill and not working. When go-time came, I had followed accelerations and spurts and such up the hill and I was sixth wheel going into the finale, then apparently I fell asleep. The first three guys jumped for the finish while wheel 4 and 5 (who I was anaerobically fixated on) sat there. By the time I realized the podium was headed up the road and jumped to get them there was a huge gap with a wall of wind in it. I never made it up and instead led out the second sprinting bunch. I held off as many as I could but only came away with 8th, which pushed me down to 4th in the omnium. What's the lesson? In the finale (as in most other times in bike races) don't just watch the wheels in front of you, watch the lead riders and if they're going, START GOING. Even if the guys right in front of you aren't. I'll do that next time.

No podium is not a huge deal except for one thing, no thin mints. This, dear people, is dire. I'll have to find some neighborhood girls now and actually buy some if it's not too late.

After that I sat on the trainer and finished my leg's destruction with some intervals because I'm all diligent and stuff. I was watching John Wilk be all studly in the P12 though and it was motivating, nice work man...I'm glad I wasn't up there in that race today.

Ed Lai asked for the power file today so I'll hook up all you power junkies. You can download it here, fire up your cyclingpeaks and have at it.

Ronde Lowlands, busted bike, and "gulp"

2008-03-29T21:34:00.000-07:00

So today was Day 1 of the official Team Oakland bike race weekend - the Ronde van Brisbeen.

Day 1 this year was the "Lowlands" (Sierra Point Criterium), a reversal of venue order from previous years in order to have less truck traffic on the Highlands course since it'll be on a Sunday instead of a Saturday.

First, a huge shout to all Team Oakland folks that set up the course, it was beautiful, Tom Simpson of Pilarcitos who always runs a good race, Geoff Gunderson for knocking this whole thing together, everyone that marshalled and of course the tear down crew. It takes a lot of folks to run a race. And most of them actually got to race too - here's the team tent with the crew powering a few lightbulbs in various stages of warmup and warmdown.

Great work everyone, it's a lot of fun hanging around everyone and that's why I'm on this team.

Sean Smith brought his "bike" - a mind-boggling collection of busted tubes at this point. If you were ever wondering what it would take to knock Sean over, here's a little example of the force necessary. Sean queued up for his first race back just to see what it was like and hung in quite a while given both his knees are gimped.

(Sean mentions that yes, the crankarm was bent, and no, he didn't bend any of these, he just took the cables out, and it fell apart like this - you gotta admit, that's nuts)

Finally, I didn't feel like I had the confidence to go with a breakaway today though looking at the numbers later maybe I should have. Solo and pair groups were winning all day so the odds were good but I just watched a Greg Gomez from Webcor roll away on a counter and didn't lift a finger. He stuck it for 20 minutes (or more?) so good for him - he earned the victory for sure.

I had a plan though, which was to come out of the hairpin second or third wheel and jump around the last corner first and sprint to hold it. I waited a bit too long on that last corner bit, and only got up to second wheel (just past Daniel Lam - upgrading after this weekend, congrats) but just couldn't quite make it to the front.

I did hold on against someone charging up from behind though and managed 3rd. My best finish since Suisun way back last August. Very encouraging after 8 weeks of total inconsistency this winter and only 4 weeks of solid training again. The "gulp" part comes in though as I realize that rather than get 3 cat 2 upgrade points, it looks like you get 4 for 3rd place. Which means (now that I fixed my cat 2 tally, thanks Russ and Greg for razzing me) I officially have enough points to upgrade.

Ummm, oh crap. Aren't those P/1 guys, really really fast?

So right about now I can almost *hear* Joel Robertson typing up a comment telling me to upgrade already (go ahead man, let me have it). I'll say I'm pre-registered for the cat 3 field in Madera, and I intend to race that. I may race Martinez as a 3 next weekend. After that, it's up in the air. I don't intend to sandbag - I've met almost all my goals in the 3s and could go. But I do want to make sure I won't just blow out of every race. Now that the legs are coming back from the travel and illness this winter, I'm more excited about moving up. I do hope I get to race with Toby or Maury once or twice though if they can get the points together. Anyway, soon enough.

recovery day art

2008-03-27T11:45:00.000-07:00

despite our silly little daylight savings setback, we early risers are starting to get a peek at the sun again - it's about time!

Ronde van Brisbeen on tap

2008-03-26T09:31:00.001-07:00

Starting to think about the races this weekend - it's Ronde time!

This race is always interesting because every USA Cycling club is required to work one race a year, and the Ronde is the race my club puts on. That means that instead of just showing up and racing you usually have to show up super-early and either help set up the course or do marshaling duty, *then* get ready to race and try to get some results.

In previous years I've been okay the first day but not so good the second day after being on my feet so much marshaling. But there wouldn't be races if people didn't work them, so it's got to be done.

The only things that make me nervous is that these races typically come down to a sprint, and if it rains the courses could be a little hairy since they're both technical.

With regard to sprints, I haven't worked on the sprinting much this year (though I did last night at the POO ride and managed a few 1100W 10s efforts after 3 hours of riding, woohoo)

With regard to rainy courses...not much you can do there except stay near the front...

Bonus for me though, Teresa's working the start/finish line on the second day to fulfill her spousal obligation of going to one of my races a year ;-). That should be motivating and it isn't supposed to rain there so hopefully she won't worry too much as we whiz by

Not much else going on this week except hard training for the Madera TT but hopefully not so hard I suck this weekend.

We'll see...

Happy Easter?

2008-03-23T19:10:00.000-07:00

After an evening where we essentially teetotaled it despite spending a
wonderful evening in San Francisco at Brent and Larry's with the Franks,
Teresa and I felt good enough to drive out to Walnut Creek and do
something Teresa has never done before: conquer Diablo.

Couldn't have picked a more perfect day either, look at the greenery and
the clear skies. Perfect temps too (although you can't see that in a
picture).

All in all, a very happy day

Unless you're a peep

Peep!

2008 Copperopolis Road Race

2008-03-23T18:38:00.000-07:00

(photo from Ken Conley - Spare Cycles)

Ah, Copperopolis. Just look at that.

It is hard to explain to people why I would want to wake up at 5am every
day to train on my bicycle, and then on a Saturday - which would
otherwise be a day off - get up at 5am again to head off to
nowhere-ville (Milton, California) in order to ride my bike some more.

On a daily basis, riding a bicycle for me is a sort of renewal. Despite
the ever-present danger of unwanted automobile interaction, through
careful route selection I'm basically on car-free roads most of the
time, just cruising along out in the smell and rush of the world,
limited by my own power to linger just long enough in any given spot to
soak up the texture of a place. Faster than walking, so you can really
get somewhere, but a completely different speed than powered transport.

But races...they are different altogether. Crits are just a stark
physical challenge - a line in the sand and how much can you bare your
teeth for an hour. Road races though, they combine all the personal
mental challenge you need to be competitive with that natural renewal I
get on the bike, and mix it in with surroundings you honestly just
wouldn't ever get to see otherwise.

I mean, why would you ever go to Milton, California? But if you didn't,
the beauty of the reservoir unfolding at the top of the climb would be
unknown to you. The horses, quizzically watching you as you blur past
their pasture wouldn't miss one cyclist. And I'm certain the hill up to
the reservoir doesn't know I exist, but oh how intimately I know all of
them after spending 4 quality hours pushing myself around them. This is
the type of course you never forget after challenging yourself on it,
mostly for the better.

The Men's E3 race started out with the rash of usual suspects I know,
guys I've been racing with for a couple years now - Brandon Hill from
Team City, David Levine riding strongly on Synergy, Ryan Prsha working
his way back into form on Webcor and Nathaniel English on ZTeaM. Okay,
Nathaniel wouldn't know me from a turnip (and why would he?) but I have
to give him a callout because have you SEEN how he rides? He's fast
enough that I actually don't even want to make it in a break with him
because I would simply shell out of it, like his unfortunate teammate
this year.

The first lap was brisk up the hill but otherwise a tea-and-cookies
affair. We were all marking Nathan, and he was just riding up front
looking back at us like he's bored (or am I projecting?). I was over
threshold on the climb, but not horribly and while we dumped some of the
pack, we still had 50 or so I'd say.

The second lap was tougher but not faster, just fatigue from the first
lap still in the legs. More people popped off but I made it over near
the front of the lead group, and Nathan hadn't really jumped yet. Maybe
30 people left at this point. People started to attack this time but
nothing came of it.

Ah, the third lap though. Here's where Nathan finally decided he'd take
his pro-level power and find the pain-setting on the E3 pack's dial
where he could shake free. We strung out up the hill and somewhere about
halfway up the elastic finally snapped. He made it away with a teammate,
and everyone else more or less blew up. I had it bad enough that at the
very top of the climb, when I was threatening to come completely apart
right as it levels off and the speed picks up, David Levine gave me a
friendly shove and a word of encouragement. My hand had been resting on
the mental "power off" switch, and the timing was perfect. I hardened
the ____ up, closed the gap and we were up the hill. Thanks David!

We never saw Nathan again, but now the 20-or-so strong pack was
basically a punching bag. People could roll away at will, and a few
people did. A second group of 3 organized off the front and rolled away
while everyone (including myself) in the pack ducked the wind and
sandbagged it.

We rolled around for one more climb up the hill and it seemed to me that
it was just straight threshold this time. 10 minute of pain, but not
quite searing - everyone just wanted to get through the lap. The lead
group was down to maybe 20 people, with 4 off the front. Nathan's
teammate cracked out of the break with Nathan and we fetched him.
Another person from the chase group cracked and fell through the pack,
leaving just 3 off the front as near as I can tell.

David finally couldn't take the waiting anymore and rolled off the
front, maintaining a power that kept him away to the finish (nice work,
man). My perspective on this was that I was right behind him, and he
honestly wasn't going that much faster but *I* certainly didn't have
anything. I mentally just wished him luck and cowardly hid from the wind
again. My left leg is twitching - threatening to cramp, and I'm
wondering if I'll make it up the last hill. I figure it's better to lead
than follow so stand up to set some tempo and am thrilled to notice that
the cramping parts of the muscle aren't used while standing, so the
pack's not dropping me this race! I made it through another one in the
lead group - good for the confidence.

We careen and chatter through the choppy downhill and with 1k to go a
Webcor guy went for the kilo sprint. Not sure if he held it or not, but
the rest of us waited until 200m to go before we launched our group
hairball of a sprint. I think I waited too long to start myself because
I had good position but let a couple folks come around before I wound it
up, which meant (duh) that now I was stuck behind them. Not thinking too
clearly is all I can say. Being able to sprint at all after nearly 90
miles of Copperopolis was a personal victory for me though, as was being
in the lead group. For that, I get one more cat 2 upgrade point for the
9th spot in a 50+ person field. Yay, me.

As I was rolling around after the race though, I was struck by how
genuinely great a vibe it was at this race. It is such a hard course
that most of the me-vs-them element is gone and it's just a collective
us-vs-nature thing. Everyone's hoping everyone else will finish and
we're just curious how other folks did. Teammates in other categories
are yelling encouragement at each other whenever they flash by. It's all
very cool.

Best example of this attitude I can think of is at the start of the
climb on lap 4, someone dropped their chain going into the little ring,
and as soon as that dropped-chain sound went out, someone yelled out
nicely "come on, give him a push". I'm willing to bet someone did, too.
Make no mistake, the strong men sorted themselves out but there's no
need for pushing and shoving. That's the spirit. That's racing at its
best and you find it in places like Milton. That's why I go.

Here's the chart for the power junkies. The lines are my various thresholds.

Pedal Power!

2008-03-21T13:57:00.000-07:00

My Mom just sent these to me in one of her many rounds of purging (everyone in my family *loves* to get rid of stuff or send it to someone we think will like it more. I just got some flambe dishes out of that too, look out)

These pictures are great though - huh?

The first one has my big sis in it too, whom I should mention is pretty quick in a crit! We're both in Wichita, Kansas I think - probably for both shots. Sometime in the very early 80's.

And apparently I have always had a slightly...uh...crazy love for pedaling around. I'm sure you're all shocked.

Maybe if we're all lucky I'll dig up some of the late 80s pictures of me in parachute pants, a Michael Jackson Thriller-type jacket, and my sister's borrowed banana-seat bike. I could ride a wheelie a mile on that thing ;-)

Happy Friday everyone

Recovery Day Art Shot, episode 2

2008-03-17T09:30:00.001-07:00

Congresscritter John Burton would like to sell you a very very tiny
bridge

(Lots of racing this weekend, and the legs...they are tired.

So I took it easy this morning, and smelled the roses while heading into
work.)

Echelons are beautiful

2008-03-16T23:56:00.001-07:00

So what do you get when you mix 100 cyclists up with a 25-30mph wind
during a 50 mile road race?

Well, among other things, you get 40mph on the tailwind parts :-)

On the headwind we were giving it most of what we had and doing around 16mph. Humbling.

But the crosswinds, now there's the trick. If everyone is fighting the
same crosswind, like if the whole pack decided to look for draft at the
same time and we all ended up on one side of the road right on the edge,
we'd all be going pretty slow.

This is what most people do, though I have no idea why. It causes
massive amounts of aerobic (anaerobic?) pain in the legs as you try to
stay with the group, your wheels are in the gutter and gravel, one gust of wind can
blow you off the road... it just sucks.

But you know what you can do instead? Echelon!

All you've got to do is go the same speed, but slowly move into the wind
to the other side of the road. If you're vocal about it, maybe slap your
hip and point out in a diagonal line where people should line up, then
you get a nice line of guys working together and after you rotate
around, you can actually get some draft. Oh, sweet draft.

Given how much I suck at punching through the wind (confirmed with the
time trial yesterday) the echelon was key for me today in the Bariani
road race.

My only goal was to finish with the lead group. I didn't know what place
that was going to be, but I did not want to crack out of the lead group.
With crosswinds, that means *before* the crosswind section, you need to
be in the top-10 or so, because when that first echelon forms, you HAVE
to be in it, or you're going to be in idiot-land, riding the gutter and
suffering like a dog. OK, I actually ended up there twice, and it was
awful. I wanted nothing more to quit both those times and very nearly
came unglued.

Well, I made it in the front group at the end. We started with 100 (or
nearly 100), and by the end of the race, there were two people off the
front in a breakaway, and then a little group of 7. I got 9th, and
sometimes even when you're not at full strength, just knowing where to
put your bike is enough to get 91 other folks out your way...

One more cat 2 upgrade point, brings the total to 20. If I could get some
strength to match the results, I'd be in good shape!

There was one hill in this race, and it was short, but I felt good enough
on it that I should be okay at Copperopolis next weekend. Last year in
the 4s (one category down) I got 3rd. Will I have any luck in the 3s?

We'll see...

Yokohl Ranch / Exeter TT - worst. TT. ever.

2008-03-16T23:40:00.001-07:00

There's your intrepid narrator, his chosen torture device, and a fellow
crazy person (Joel Robertson) antsy to get this time trial action started.

I haven't done a time trial in...forever. OK, I did the Treasure Island
Triathlon once by myself, and once as part of a relay where I just did
the bike leg. But since then I've been riding a lot more, and I've set
my bike up with a radically different position. So it doesn't count.
That makes it somewhere around 1995 when I last did a time trial. No
kidding.

And boy did it show. All I can say is that I'm pretty good for 1 minute,
I'm really good for 4 minutes, but over 60 minutes? I suck. I mean, it
was pretty sad. But the scenery was good, and what the hell. I went out
and did it.

I wouldn't even care except I miss doing stage races, and if you want to
be good at stage races you need to take your existing skills at
criteriums and road races (which I have) and also do time trials. So
here I am with the dork-pod helmet, giving it what I've got.

Hopefully by the time I get to Madera, that's a lot more than I had today.

Video of a POO

2008-03-14T16:10:00.000-07:00

Not quite what you're thinking, but I'm sure that got your intention.

Jimbei had a camera that shot video on his handlebars at the last Port Of Oakland ride

So you can see what I do on Tuesday nights.

I'm the guy with a bag on a rack in the video, if you see that. (Hey! I'm a bike commuter, I'm basically just on my way home from work, give me a break.) I'm reasonably certain that I give a hang-loose sign to the camera at one point ;-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Me9ule8RTMM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHxu-ZI_Mx8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zYpikbcm9U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQzSsIejci0

I've got a helmet-cam myself but haven't messed with it in a while.

Do folks like these videos? Is there any interest in race videos? I could give it a shot myself if so

Happy Pi day

Recovery day art shot / Awareness test

2008-03-13T07:39:00.000-07:00

Recovery days are always nice. Why? Well, normally I'm cruising along
pretty quickly, and not paying attention (too much) to the beauty around
me. It's kind of a blur.

But recovery days are different. I'm going slow enough on recovery days
that my mind wanders and my eyes wander to all the things on my normal
routes that I would miss otherwise.

Like this statue in a park in Piedmont on my way home. Oakland parks
usually don't have public art in them, but I live right next to Piedmont
so I go through it. I've passed by this park a hundred times but never
paid attention to the statue. So there you go, your art moment.

Elsewhere on the ride, a walker strolled by and when the person passed
some litter on the side of the road, get this, they bent down, picked it
up, carried it to a waste basket and threw it away. Holy cow! I thanked
the person (I always say thanks when I see someone do this) and they
smiled. So there's thing #73 that I'll say thanks for - some random
gratitude for ya. I see this about once a week believe it or not, and do
whatever I can to encourage it (including trying to pick up one piece of
trash per ride - try it, I dare you)

In other news, Morgan Fletcher sent this in - I thought it was apropos
given all the transportation conflict in the area recently:

http://www.dothetest.co.uk/

-Mike

Pain on tap for Saturday

2008-03-11T10:11:00.001-07:00

Here's the elevation profile of the time-trial course I'm racing on
Saturday. I'm doing it as a tune-up for Madera since it's been so long
since I've done a race against the clock, and the only way I know of to
really prepare is a full-dress rehearsal.

Here's a time trial pop-quiz though:

Q: Which part of this course will not hurt?

a) The false flat uphill part
b) The hills in the middle
c) The hill after the false flat downhill
d) The flat finishing segment
e) None of the above

No, I don't know why I do it either. Hopefully Exeter's pretty at least?

Transportation conflict

2008-03-11T10:06:00.000-07:00

Every day, on my ride through the Golden Gate Panhandle on the wonderful
bike path, I come to the intersection of Fell and Masonic. This is
pretty much a disaster of an intersection and has so many accidents at
it that someone painted this on the path before you get to the intersection

Fair warning indeed.

I don't know about you guys, but between the tragedy on Stevens Creek
Reservoir, the serious wreck of another crew on Skyline on the Peninsula
that day, Sean with a hit-and-run, me getting nailed by a semi and
countless others...I'm just sick of cars and car drivers.

I will grant that cars are convenient and to a not-insignificant degree
represent "freedom" to a lot of people. But did it ever occur to you why
it is convenient? By which I mean, the tremendous auto-based
infrastructure of roads, gas and service stations, traffic devices, laws
and law enforcement, financial instruments (loans and insurance) and on
and on. All those things make it convenient now, but that's a lot of
infrastructure.

And for what? Have you ever considered how noisy, dirty, dangerous, and
open-space consuming all these cars and the associated infrastructure
is? Imagine for a moment what city life would be like without honking
horns and flatulent Harley's in the middle of the night. What it would
be like to look towards the Bay and not see 20 roads and 2 freeways. Or
what it would be like to ride a bicycle legally without getting
seriously injured.

Might be nice...might be so nice it would make the investment in an
alternative infrastructure for transportation worth it.

Doesn't hurt to dream.

Lakeport is beautiful

2008-03-08T14:24:00.000-08:00

I think Lakeport, and Clear Lake in general get a bad rap.

I'm up here this weekend hanging out with my father-in-law, and I went
for an early ride this morning around the lake.

Check out the sunrise over Mt.Konocti, and the vineyards sloping down
towards the lake. Gorgeous!

64 miles around the lake, and I'd say about 50 of them are postcard
pretty. That's a tough ratio to beat - think about your favorite rides,
and there's always something not to like, and it's usually half the
ride. So I do really love coming up here and pedaling around here.

If you ever have an itch to check Clear Lake out, there's lots of houses
you can rent all over, though we've become partial to the Mallard House
hotel in Lakeport since it's got wi-fi and little kitchenettes for a
reasonable rate. The Konocti Challenge is a yearly century (or metric
century if you want a shorter route) and ends with some of the best BBQ
brisket I've ever had. Teresa did it last year and I can definitely
recommend it.

-Mike

Turkeys on the road

2008-03-07T15:52:00.000-08:00

So here's a pic from the back part of the Three Bears loop.

It must be spring because there's some big Toms strutting around.

I thought this was particularly fitting though, and not because I'm
curious why the turkey is crossing the road (he's trying to get away
from me while I chase him with a camera). I'm curious what would happen
if a poor driver were to be flying along the road, round the bend, and
have too much speed to stop in time?

Bam, turkey everywhere. Just like the ex-deer I saw on Mountain road
this morning actually, or the flat squirrel on Moraga. Or the bird...you
get the idea. And that's just from a ride this morning.

What's the point? This morning it wasn't just critters getting nailed
out there.

Sean Smith, a guy I rode with so much this winter my wife started
calling him "the other woman" was broadsided by a truck on his way to
work. They guy drove off - a hit and run, one of the scummiest things a
driver can do. Sean lost a chunk of tooth. He has road rash on his face
along with stitches in his forehead. I'm certain he's banged up all
over. His bike is destroyed. The CAT scan indicated his head's alright

but he's got to wait for an MRI on his right knee which got mangled up.

All because people are in such a hurry, and don't pay attention while
they're driving these multi-ton blocks of metal around.

Cars kill things, people. Keep that in mind when you're driving. It
doesn't matter if you're late or in a hurry or just like going fast.
Roads go everywhere which means they intersect with any creature just
trying to live a life. Slow down. Make some room.

I'm not sure if there's even a lesson to take from this besides all the
usual advice to be careful, etc. The only thing I can think of that
could possible be positive is if each person that reads this mentions
that a friend of theirs (or a friend of a friend) was in a terrible hit
and run accident and could have been killed while laying in the street.
All the guy had to do was stop, protect him from more injury and call
for help, but he lacked the common decency to do that.

It's not just cycling either, a woman in Montclair was killed by a car
while she was at her mailbox getting her mail. The guy left the scene.

Maybe a little peer pressure in the world against hit and runs would
help things. Couldn't hurt to go on the record with your friends and try.

And of course, keep it safe out there.

-Mike

Illness, lameness

2008-03-06T13:20:00.000-08:00

Sick again, how very exciting

Friday a twinge, not bad over the weekend, Monday a bit more and before the port ride definitely on Tuesday.

I stayed home most of the week and maybe I'm getting better?

Either way, it passes the "neck check" - it's 100% in the sinuses etc so I can still ride a bit, but what a pain. This is the winter of inconsistent training for me, for sure.

Hope everyone else out there in cycling-blog-land is doing better.

Tuesday Port Ride stats

2008-03-05T08:34:00.001-08:00

Turns out someone (Maury) actually reads this thing, and he admitted to an unsavory desire for updates, specifically those including Wattage information.

Well, who can blame him? I can't get enough wattage information either.

So here's a chart of last night's POO ride, just for you Maury

I highlighted the things that interested me - specifically the largest steady efforts of the night, usually when I was hitting the wind. Many people don't realize the difference in power required to ride in the group or to pull the group - this shows it pretty clearly.

The two yellow lines are placed at where my threshold is right now (260W or so - it's moving up as I get more fit) and where I can hold power for around 4 minutes (320W or so). The blue line is just at 30mph because it's a big round number. You can see average/min/max stats for the whole night in the bottom left (34.1mph max! and there was no sprint...)

You can see that it takes almost twice the energy to pull at POO speed as it does to sit in the pack. So even if it was really fast, if you weren't pulling, telling the people who were that it was easy and you felt good doesn't mean anything to them. Take a pull then pipe up :-)

You can also see that the an attack (or bridging to one) stings a ton. There was one point where a big split opened up, and I pulled for a straight minute at a 30mph average into the headwind to bridge the gap. I don't recall that ever happening in cat 3 crit, but maybe that's just me. Fantastic interval though!

And for Maury, you can see at the very end when he towed me along as he bridged across a huge gap it took a solid minute and a half at 30mph before we closed it. Since I was drafting it only took 260W on my part to sit on his wheel (instead of 300W to pull), but remember my threshold is only 260W? My legs were on simmer just holding on.

That's why the POO is the great workout it is though. In the pack you can recover, but when you hit the wind you get good Anaerobic Threshold and VO2max intervals.

Now if only we could get folks to pedal through all the corners and ride a good corner line (instead of arbitrarily peeling off...) we'd be all set ;-)

One final tidbit - cyclingpeaks.com occasionally posts Pro power charts. They just posted one and I noticed that the Pro (Bert Roesems) who has a threshold of 350W rides around at 160-170W pretty consistently. This is for a 4 hour ride. When they ride slow, they do ride very slow. When he did intervals on that ride he was doing ~500W though. When it's hard, it's very hard. Something to remember, and I'll probably be going slower on average after thinking about it.

Intervals

2008-02-28T16:07:00.001-08:00

Morning Intervals
Like hitting legs with a hammer
Getting faster hurts

Eucalyptus

2008-02-27T11:29:00.000-08:00

(I know, this picture is pretty pathetic)

So I ride the same route just about every morning. BART to Civic center, out to the panhandle and the Golden Gate Park polo grounds.

One of the roads I use to get there is a service road (it's the start of "Middle Road" I believe), and when I rolled by today it was as if there was a new Eucalyptus God, and he was angry

Apparently, all the storms tore up trees in the park, and I didn't know it but the service road I ride on is where the park service mulches everything.

I guess it's been long enough since the storm that the piles are fully active because they have clouds of steam on them.

The one pictured is 1 of maybe 3 or 4 massive heaps. 20 feet by 50 feet maybe. They all smell very eucalyptus-y which is pretty good actually.

Not sure about you but I like seeing how part of the park ecosystem works. So there's your Nature Moment of the day :-)

Clear your mind, and examine your assumptions

2008-02-26T11:40:00.000-08:00

I like how every morning the BART elevator reminds me that questioning
what I'm doing is meaningless.

Should I bother waking up early to ride my bicycle?

Isn't it cold?

What if it rains?

Mu.

new phone, new pics

2008-02-25T11:16:00.000-08:00

Piecing everything back together after getting hit by the truck.

Rode to work again Friday with a new phone and snapped the SF skyline sunset shot on the way home. Cliche but still irressistible.

The other one is morning on alcatraz and angel island. Pretty stuff. My bruises only have a couple more days to go before they're healed I think, and I got a new rack and put it on my race bike with the fenders. So I'm pretty sure I have one of the most expensive rain/commuter bikes around. Beats driving to work though and my real commuter bike should be fixed next week I think.

Still traveling and doing other stuff besides racing on the weekend. Lakeport this weekend and two weekends from now. Unsure about next weekend.

Other than that, it's interval time now and I find that after all the illness and travel this winter I'm stomping out around 255W at threshold instead of 270 or higher. Not to mention the 4 extra kilos I'm carrying (but it was winter...and vacation... ;-) )

Should make for plenty of work the next month as I claw my way back into fighting shape. I'll be back though, look out :-)

Oh, and happy birthday to Jay, Merritt, Kelly and Colby (belated) (wow, lots of Feb kids...)

Cheers

Knocked over by a truck

2008-02-19T21:40:00.001-08:00

This is a Mack Truck. It looks like one I saw today.

So, I'm at the Port of Oakland.

I'm there every Tuesday.

I get there around 6:20 off the 5:45 ferry from the SF Ferry building.

I'm cruising around and not having a bad time even though the weather is pretty miserable (it's pretty much just pouring).

There's two lanes of traffic each direction, with this dead "lane" in the middle formed by two sets of double-yellow lines about one lanes-width apart, and there's a semi truck parked there near an entrance to one of the berths.

There's also a parking lane, which I'm riding in.

The semi-truck has been there, stationary, since I've been riding, and I'm on my third lap at this point.

As I get near him, with no signal, he all the sudden turns right, right into the berth entrance - crossing both lanes of traffic and headed *right* for me.

He admitted later to the police officer that he saw me but he didn't think I was moving very quickly. No, I'm not flattered by that.

I turn hard to the right when I realize it's really happening but it's too late. The infamous Right Hook got me.

His front-right fender nails me in the left thigh and knocks me forward and over the bike to the right where I skid to a stop in a heap in a puddle right in front of his thank-god-it-was-screeching-to-a-halt semi.

It was ... exciting.

I was not happy, but I managed not to touch him or anything, I just told him that I was very angry at him. Then I called the police who (can you believe it?) showed up in about 5 minutes.

I made sure the truck was where it stopped when the police car got there - with its rear wheels in the double-yellow area and the nose in the turn-in. I can't think of a legal way for a truck to get in that orientation, which should factor for something.

While officer Johnson took a report (08-012887) Brian and Karla saw me and pulled in for a chat. It was freezing and wet and miserable and the Officer offered me a ride so I told 'em to scram before they shivered apart.

I got the ride home, and here I am now (after a warm bath).

My rear wheel looks like it's seen it's last port ride. But my phone appears to have revived (correction: it is, in fact, busted. Sigh), and my laptop still works (despite the rain ride and the crash - I love my Arkel Briefcase bag!). I'm going to have a deep bruise on the left thigh and I've got a little rash on the right hip. All in all, not so bad.

I've tried to think of what I can do differently, but I can't think of anything other than more lights on the front.

Except...he *saw* me! That bastard.

Please, for all your friends and family and loved ones that are out there living and playing near cars, drive safely when you're in one, mmkay? Thanks.

Dawn patrol

2008-02-15T09:18:00.000-08:00

Me and the Missus both up and at 'em before dawn? On a Friday??

Crazy!

Fair weather though, and slated to stay that way all weekend. Tain't bad for a NorCal February.

The only question is to race or not to race. NorCal crit (in Santa Rosa) on Sunday, and the Tour of Cali starting too...I'm inclined to race I think.

Happy Friday to all

The ferry is so civilized...

2008-02-14T17:50:00.001-08:00

Sunset over the SF skyline with the port of Oakland on the side

You don't get that view (or a bike rack) on BART, as much as I do appreciate BART

and a bunch of people just got on board at Alameda with pillows - headed for the huge annual SF Valentine's Day pillow fight I'm guessing

OK, I'm just blogging because I finished my book (guns germs and steel, thanks Sam) and I have nothing better to do.

Good pic though, no? Time to stare at it instead of typing...

Polo grounds not a secret...

2008-02-14T17:34:00.000-08:00

Saw Roaring Mouse team guys and a couple Freewheel bike shop (edit: found out one guy's name is Josh) guys out this morning.

I was doing my first batch of intervals for the year (5x5' on, 2' off at just over threshold, and yes they hurt plenty, thanks...).

This guy was just plain ripping around on his TT bike though. Fun to watch.

It was so windy even aquatic park had whitecaps in it though. Nearly blew over headed to work :-)

Happy Valentine's day to all

I guess spring has sprung in SF

2008-02-11T09:02:00.000-08:00

Didn't even realize this tree at the GGPark polo grounds was a cherry tree

Hard to miss it today though...

TGIF!

2008-02-08T11:33:00.000-08:00

(a pond near the golden gate park polo grounds)

Here's hoping everyone gets their ducks in a row for a good weekend.

Looks like House of Pain tomorrow (7:15am @ Montclair Peet's) then maybe cheering at cherry pie Sunday.

cheers

Some commutes are prettier than others...

2008-02-06T09:37:00.001-08:00

The morning commute today was a recovery ride after what looked to me like the first proper (as in painfully fast) POO ride of the year last night.

Recovery rides are always good for taking the scenery in, and ya gotta admit, a commute in San Francisco sure is scenic...

Cheers

Back from Africa

2008-02-03T07:21:00.000-08:00

We're back in Oak-town.

It was a whirlwind tour with 37-hour travel stints each to get there and back, then a blitz through South Africa (Cape Town and surroundings), Zimbabwe (Victoria Falls), Zambia (Livingstone Island), and finally Botswana (Linyanti and Jao).

Teresa and I are wildlife-lovers, and we stayed in wildlife areas the whole time we were in Botswana, so I have to say that was my favorite. But really just about every part of the whole trip was amazing.

Hopefully I'll have time to write it up more soon and post some other pictures, but until then you'll have to be satisfied with this picture of a wild leopard that we managed to track down (literally, using footprints) on the last day we were in Botswana.

We were approximately 10 meters from this cat, but it was pretty safe because was keeping its eye on a couple of spotted hyena slinking back to their den after what the tracks indicated was a blood-spilling altercation between a lioness and her cub. Oh, and there was a fish eagle (one of the largest eagles around) in the tree in the background. And a herd of Lechwe in the field just behind the tree. And...and...just a ridiculous amount of wildlife, really.

Can't make any of that up :-). We were all just sitting there in awe, taking it in.

I hope I get to go back.

New upgrade guidelines. An upgrade soon?

2008-01-17T21:09:00.001-08:00

USA Cycling just re-tooled their points system and started awarding a
lot more points for high placings in races, especially road races.

http://www.usacycling.org/forms/USAC_rulebook.pdf

NCNCA always did that, but USAC is actually more generous than NCNCA now.

Re-totaling my haul from last fall, I've got 19 points now, out of 25
needed.

More important (for me, since I wasn't planning on upgrading so soon) is
that they force you out at 40 points now, instead of 60 or whatever it
was before.

Is it normal to be afraid to upgrade? Because I ride with a lot of 2s
and 1s, and...I'm not so eager :-)

If this helps any of you 4s pop up into the 3s ranks though, right on!
Come race with me. We'll have some fun

"You should know your place" --AMD to BPG

2008-01-13T20:32:00.001-08:00

That pic is Karla trying to come to grips with a hairy-legged cyclist. She's apparently in to the whole "shaving" thing.

Not sure what was going on in the 123 race at the Early Bird #2 in
beautiful Fremont today, but the moment of the day had to be the pack
streaming around Turn 1, where all us spectators were and some random
AMD guy looking back at the BPG guy ("Team Weed" per some spectator -
great moniker) on his wheel and saying (loudly and dismissively) "You
should know your place". What's that all about? Yes, sir, though. Very
humorous. We yelled at them to get in their place and know their place,
etc the next couple laps. Good times.

Joel Robertson predictably stomped on the pedals in the ever-so-lovely
Team Oakland kit (since his new team can't seem to get a kit of their
own), initiating some shit, driving some shit into a big gap, then
sprinting past Mister World Championship Armbands himself, Larry Nolan,
for 3rd I think (maybe 2nd?) in the winning break of the P123 race, with
lots of heavy hitters in attendance (a couple pros, a few ex-pros, a
couple stars-n-stripes rolling around). Nice work, Mr.Robertson!

The weather was great all day, and I mentored nearly all the races
(missed the early early 4s race, sorry guys). Had great fun and got a
lot of Insider Racing Know-How(tm) into the new guys' heads I think (I
hope). Each pack of racers seemed to have its own specific problem
(while getting correct the thing that plagued some other pack) which was
amusing except for the part where people can crash and get hurt.

Predictably, some people did crash and get hurt (firetruck made an
appearance today, that's no good), and some people are going to send
some expensive carbon equipment to the equipment graveyard sooner than
they would have hoped, but there was some great riding out there, too.
The majority even. That gives me hope for the rest of the season when
we're racing for real, which is why I do this mentoring schtick (it's
not the free bagels, for sure)

Honestly, after being sick all week from last Sunday's exertions, I was
overjoyed just to be clipped back onto my ride again and toodling
around. I did miss it so.

Also, there was a huge (in my opinion) women's pack today. I love seeing
that. Get out there and kick ass, gals!

Lots of TO folks out there too - Mel, Sean, new-Jeff (way to hang in
there this time!), new-Laura (nice riding, ma'am!), Brian, Ed(-not-Lai),
Carol, and TO-wannabees Alice and Karla. Everyone hung tough in their
fields and didn't cause any fuss. Can't beat that.

I'm on hiatus for the next few weeks. I'll be in lovely Cape Town, South
Africa for a week, then in Zimbabwe (Victoria Falls) and Botswana
(Linyanti Bush Camp, near Maun). I'll admit that I'm probably going to
miss riding while I'm there, but this is the trip of a lifetime, folks!
I won't miss it too badly.

See everyone in February...

Pop! (or, 100 miles of crits may be too much...)

2008-01-06T20:46:00.000-08:00

Did the first Early Bird this morning. Hello, 2008!

I clearly need to do some intervals, because the 123 race asked more of
me than I could deliver. It shredded apart (as good friend Joel was
initiating the race-winning break) and as it came back together I blew up.

I'll take solace in the fact I'd already done 97 miles of crit by that
point. And I was sick all week.

And the sun got in my eye, and the wind took the ball, and, and...oh
well, I guess it's time for intervals :-)

Oh, I should mention that there was a crash in 5s, and no, I have no idea why it happened. I mean, I know why. I was a mentor in the field and I was in the pack, near it. I saw a wheel overlap and stuff, but how do people crash on a big wide straightaway? Bizarre. And a shame. No major injuries though (whew), and all other fields survived with nothing but a flat tire here or there. Sweet! But protect those front-wheels, and maintain your space, people!

Cheers

New Year, New Season. Bring on the Squirrelly Birds!

2008-01-05T21:07:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow is the first Early Bird

Rain's in the forecast.

Been training hard...should be fun, if a little nasty :-)

The pic above is from when I first got back into cycling in 2005. It was
raining then too, and you should note that I do not have a goatee,
that's all road grit (mmmm)

Last year I had my legs back under me and I mentored a bunch. I'm hoping
to do the same this year, though I won't be around for the last too,
owing to some travel.

Rubber side down!

Mechanically Challenged (Challenge RR) (20070902)

2008-01-05T21:03:00.003-08:00

Not sure what to write about this one. I don't have a lot positive to
say about the experience.

I do try to take something positive out of everything though, so I'll
think of everything good about Saturday.

1. The scenery was fantastic - Challenge, California is in some
truly beautiful country, and the course goes through some great parts of it
2. The school the race is based out of has great facilities (not
always the case...)
3. Hmmm...running out of positives here. The guys in the pack were nice?

Alright, so what gives? What sucked so bad?

Well, Challenge, California, is just a bit under 3 hours from my house.
With an 8am start time, my alarm went off at the chipper hour of 3:45am.
That's ugly. To get up at that hour and get everything together
(correctly!) while still zombified from being so early, that means I
have to do all my pre-race prep the night before which hurts the WAF
(Wife Acceptance Factor) for a given race. So the logistics required for
this race don't make it popular in the Hardy Household.

But it's hilly, and I'm a small guy, so I'm a sucker for hilly races. I
should be able to climb with the lead group, right? So off I go. At
least I didn't get a flat tire on the way to the race like I did for the
last race I did last Sunday.

I get there, go through the whole pre-race thing and see who showed up.
I'd checked the pre-registration and most of the climbers were on the
list, but not all of them. Well, they decided to come, and around 10
extra juniors (read: strong light guys that can climb quickly) showed up
too. Hmm, so this is going to be hard

I'd done all my pre-race recon though, had a mental map of the course,
the elevation profile, how I wanted the race to work tactically, and how
I'd react in various parts if it didn't go that way.

We roll off and proceed to do a neutral (read: referee/official
motorbike leading us at a moderate pace, no passing allowed) down one of
the most poorly paved descents I've seen. Except for Copporopolis I
guess. Then we're off to the races.

At this point, I'll mention some actual racing tidbits. There were
hills, we went quickly up them, it hurt etc etc.

But that's not what got my attention. What got my attention is that
after one of the hills, leading to a long descent then a false flat
downhill section, I can't get into my big ring. Huh? I do everything I
can with the shifting and the cables and I finally get it in there.

So I forget about it, and I'm in the 50x11 ripping down the hill with
the pack when we get to the false flat part and I want to move up to the
13 or so. But my bike won't shift into it. I'm stuck in the 11!

For those reading (like my family) that are wondering what "the 11"
means, it's the biggest, hardest gear on the bike. I turn the crank
once, and the rear wheel goes nearly 5 times. It's a great gear, if
you're doing around 32mph. I'm doing 26, and it's not the right gear.

Worse, there are hills coming, I know, in about 3 miles. What can I do?
I try to think of options, and I can't think of any. What can you do
when all you have is the biggest gear? Go fast, I guess.

So I attack.

I sprint off the front of the group, dial the pain level in the legs up
to "simmer" and start hauling ass. After a couple miles I have about 30
seconds and the hills are coming.

Trying to maintain mental focus while I'm hammering along, I'm doing
everything I can to figure out what the problem is. I'm jiggling cables.
I'm playing with the shifters, I'm looking around the bike, and flying
along.

I finally realize what it is right as I get to the hills. My gear
shifter's cable guide had snapped off and moved out of position. The
cable guide is this little plastic bit that is on the bottom of the
bottom bracket, and it's what the shifter cables slide against as they
go back to the derailleurs. It's pulled off to the side, nearly into the
front chainrings, so the cables are nearly slack, jamming the gears.

Ah-ha! Maybe I can fix that. I look back and see the pack down the road
with my nice little gap, I sigh, and pull over, clip off the bike, flip
it over and start working on it. I see that the cable guide has a
plastic protrusion that holds the guide in place by fitting in a hole on
the bottom bracket. Or at least, that's the theory. Since it's plastic,
it's all mashed up and doesn't fit anymore. That's the problem. I shove
it into place, and jump back into the pack. At least the gap was good
for something.

The guys in the pack and I chuckle about it and we start going up the
hill. Then it pops off again.

Guess this isn't my race.

I pull over, the pack leaves (for good this time) and I fix it.

I ride on, and when I finish the first lap I decide to do the second lap
as training since I'd be doing a hard ride today anyway if I wasn't
racing, and it is pretty country.

Near the bottom of that hellaciously (non-paved) descent I hear this
awful rattle at the back of my bike though. "Now what?" I'm thinking.

Turns out the descent was so rough that the lockring on my cassette
unscrewed. I'm not even kidding. I know I torqued that thing up, too.
Again, for those wondering what this means, picture the gears on the
rear of a bike. Now picture them no longer stacked up neatly against the
spokes, but sliding off away from the spokes so that they're loose and
just rattling around. Yep, that's my bike. Great!

So I pull over, pop the wheel off, and do what I can to reinstall the
gears. I'm able to get it rideable again with finger-tightening at least.

Did I mention it was hot? Right about now, the temperature went over 90
degrees.

I ride for another 5 miles or so, then the cable guide snaps off again.
I fix it.

91 degrees, 5 more miles

The cassette rattles off again

92 degrees, 5 more miles

The cassette rattles off again. Oy.

95 degrees, etc etc etc

I stopped 9 times total. In a race. I was starting to feel like I should
have brought a tricycle or a big wheel or something. I was having
heat-stroke dreams of a professionall cycling team's team car rolling up
with a spare bike so I could throw mine in the ditch.

At this point I'll mention the last really good thing about the day.
Brandon Hill, a racer out of Sacramento that I've been racing with for a
bit more than a year and moving up categories with fell out of the pack
and rode with me the whole way. Every time I stopped, he stopped and
waited with me, and we finished together. That made the race if not
actually good ... slightly less bad. Thanks, Brandon.

Then I got in my car and drove home for 3 hours.

I always try to take a lesson from each race. What's the lesson from
this? Well check your equipment, I guess. Torque everything down. And if
your cable guide is just plastic and doesn't have any screws holding it
in place, maybe you should think about making sure it's really secure.

I also try to leave some information in here for future people racing on
the same course. What's the course like? Well, it has a section of truly
awful pavement. Adjust your tire/wheel choices appropriately. The course
is very hilly. The 3s were doing about 5.2W/Kg up all of the hills. If
that doesn't sound doable, the race won't be much fun. If that does
sound doable it's a great race though - if you've got the power (and
functioning equipment) it can be very tactical.

Last CalCup race tomorrow! The Giro di San Francisco! Racing in the city
streets of SF is fun. Hopefully I'll have my gear working well for it.

University Road Race - climber's paradise (20070828)

2008-01-05T21:03:00.001-08:00

Getting closer to the end of the season but the races are still packed
together for the second to last weekend of the California Cup.

August 26th is one of the hardest races of the year - the much-feared
University Road Race. The race is on a loop of roads in the University
of Santa Cruz. If you've never been there, you should go, because it is
a very picturesque campus - little buildings all nestled in the mountains.

Wait, did you say mountains? Yep - great in cars, but on a bike? Well,
the course is a 3-mile loop, and it only does two things - it goes up,
and it goes down. Each lap goes up one road for a total elevation gain
of around 400 feet, then it turns a corner, and drops down those same
400 feet, where it turns a corner and you go up again.

My category 3 race had 15 laps of this scheduled, quite a party, with 60
of my closest friends.

I should mention that on the way down, I got a flat right rear tire on
my car. I changed it quickly, but is this a good omen?

On my team we had the rarely seen but very strong Michael Fee, and James
Bauer was also present. James and I had raced the day before, but Fee
hadn't raced in months. I've trained with him though and know he's very
strong, so I think we had a good squad there.

I've heard that you can't let any gaps go in this race - that you have
to stay at the front the whole time and just ride as hard as possible,
so that's my plan. Not much team tactics going on with a plan like that,
but the course itself was so hard that it was what would beat most of
the riders, not tactics.

Right before the gun went off, Mike Fee noticed his front wheel was
flat, so he got one of mine, but I don't think this is a good omen either...

True to the prediction of straight-up hard riding, when the pace picked
up in the middle of the race, the peleton detonated, and pretty soon we
were down to around 15 riders.

With 7 or 8 laps to go, I realized that James, one of my teammates, was
in the feed zone now making sure I had enough food and water. That was
extremely nice of him (and his wife did hand up some of my infamous
"Hardymax" (or "CytoMike" if you prefer)) but I was curious how he ended
up out of the race.

So I'm down to one teammate in the race, but I'm able to stay
consistently with the front of the pack, so I'm starting to think my
chances are pretty good in this race. That's an amazing realization for
me as I'm still pretty new to this higher category racing, and I'm never
sure how strong I am relative to the other guys.

With 3 or 4 laps to go, unbeknownst to me, a deer leaped into the pack
and took out a couple of riders, with Mike Fee among them, so his race
was over. This is definitely not a good omen.

Each of the last 3 laps, going up the hill me and three other riders
surged off the front and got a gap on the remaining pack, but we never
had a large enough gap at the top that we didn't regroup. When the final
uphill came, my legs were so tired I didn't have much of a sprint, so I
took 7th in the grinding uphill finish.

That's not bad, but after thinking about it a lot, I've come to the same
conclusion I came to after San Ardo - if you want a breakaway instead of
a sprint you have to give it everything you have when you have a gap. At
the top of the hill when we had those gaps I never really pushed it, and
that let the rest of the group back on. I could have gotten 4th instead
of 7th at least.

Lesson not quite learned last time, but maybe this time it will stick.

I will admit I was extremely happy with 7th though. On a course this
selective, in a new category, that was a great result.

Two more races in the CalCup - the Challenge Challenge which is supposed
to be ridiculously hilly, and the Giro di San Francisco. It looks like I
can climb okay so I may do well at the Challenge, and I know I can
sprint, so the Giro should be an opportunity as well.

Maybe by the end of the CalCup I'll have a reasonable standing in the
series, and I may even have enough points to be upgrade to category 2!

We'll see how it goes next weekend...