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Not really. It is November after all. After the 4+ hours on Saturday, yesterday I went out for 2 and 3/4 at a relatively easy pace. Avg HR 128, max 161. I am pleased with that data as I felt quite fast, faster into the wind than with it actually? I might've been bonking on the way home just a lil as I hadn't really eaten that much. There was so little wind, but I went against it anyway, up to Webster and then over to Lonsdale and home through Dundas. Just a great day.
out my window:
Today however, I've got my work cut out for me:
So all I've got between me and thanksgiving break is a 6-8 page research paper on the book (Oroonoko) pictured above. It's due wednesday and I'm about 25% done. I've got another to write over break, but overall I'm in pretty good shape for the end of the year.
Back to task I guess
So sean and were almost hit by a red truck today.
A good example:
We also rode for 4 hours and 20 from Nfield to Cannon City, Nerstrand, Wanamingo, past Cannon Falls, through Cannon Falls, Randolph, and then home. The day started out from Mike's Bikes, with the Bill and Dave from the Nfld Bike Club as well as Finn. We started off going south despite a northwest wind. Sean was late and ended up getting motorpaced out to us by Ben on his way to Milltown Cycles. Pace was moderate, it was base. Bill sprinted for the Nerstrand Sign and then doubled back. he got Sean, Finn, and I. I though I'd lead out for the stop-ahead sign and then just burned up the legs. oh well. Sean and I rolled on 246, through the back part of the conference course and then north on 1. After turning back on 25, we heard the squeal of locked up tires on pavement. Then an old red dodge truck with three men wearing an assortment of blaze orange drove angrily past. They glowered at us. Cheekily, I gave them the bird for a good 15 to twenty seconds which prompted another squeal of rubber. Two of the them got out and started using the f-word at us. Rude. Sean rolled up to me on the phone with the police immediately and they drove off in a off. Phew. Hopefully they got picked up for road rage...
From that point on, every red truck we saw was a nervous experience. Sean didn't pee on two successive attempts just because of it. At least our sympathetic nerve systems had kicked in and our legs both felt great after the encounter.
Just before getting onto Northfield Blvd., I sprinted/spun out for the stop ahead sign and then Sean just dropped me hard after we turned onto the road. I had no response and let him go. I was more than a little fatigued, so I took a good 1/2 hour cool down.
The man who put 5 minutes into me:
A good, epic ride. Then ate, napped, ate and like a wild college student, am going to embark on upon one or two or maybe three different papers tonight.
ciao
Supppose it is time to restart this old beast. To come out of the off-season. over the past few months since school has started, I've been riding sporadically/as much as possible with an emphasis on my school work. shortly before the halfway point of october, I took 10 days off as a complete rest. Then at the beginning of november, I raced my first 'cross race here on St. Olaf's college campus.
A none-too-glorious shot of me at the run-up
This is the run-up we were faced with, Thorson Hill.
I took 7th in the C field, yes I was sand-bagging but I had never raced 'cross nor had I been training at all really. Jake beat Sean in the collegiate race and was crowned Div II conf. champ. Last week it was 75 on wednesday and I put in 3.5 hours on my favorite loop up through hampton, over to lakeville and then south on dodd rd. Friday we got six inches of snow. As such, I've mounted the aero bars and it's trainer time now. If I could only leave the damn thing in the closet all winter...
There I am looking like a tremendous workhorse in the cyan/grey/discovery colors at the front of the peloton. This was in kenosha, my first cat 3 race and it rained. We averaged 26.8 mph none the less and as the road are looking dry in the pic, this was probably at 3 laps to go, the initial sprint for position. I was sitting 3rd wheel through turns 1 and 2 and then on the back stretch I was sitting second wheel and then had to pull through 3 and 4 but on four I guess I slowed up alittle which threw off everyone behind me and then we had a nasty cross/tail wind that blew across from a side street and that's when I jumped, and held off the field by a clean (I mean daylight between the rear and the 2nd place finishers front) bike length for 200 or so meters, close to spinning out my 12...
it was a good dayAll right, I know it has been awhile as usual, and school is about to start so hopefully I can get my act together and write shorter posts more frequently. On Tuesday I had six wisdom teeth removed so I've been out of the action until yesterday when I went for my first one hour ride since surgery. The surgery itself was enjoyable (if such a thing is possible) because I only had local and n20 and the surgeons said to bring in my iPod if I wanted. Before the surgery I was somewhat depressed and burnt out and took four days off before riding two and then another three off after the surgery. arrg. My form hasn't diminished too much, I fatigue at 2.75 hours now instead of 3.5 and my sprinting seems a little slow, the legs don't rotate as fast as before, but I've got five more days to whip myself back into shape before the WI State Crit on Saturday in Elkhorn. Should be a good time with my family and a few of my friends coming out. It's the last race of the season and then I'm done.
There's a block party afterwards in Mari's neighborhood and I think that's where I will be headed.
School starts on the 3rd, well move in anyway, can't wait to ride with Finn, Jake, Sean, and Peter again to see how well our summer's paid off. In the mean time I face my last week of work and I'll be posting more pics from this year's Superweek periodically.
here's the victory at Kenosha
I slept a lot today. Didn't do any riding...oops should have as I already had 7.5 hours at least for the weekend from Friday and Saturday's ride.
My first time out at the Doc Ride on Saturday's went quite well. I ran into my teammate Rita, cat 3, in Wales and we met Jimmy Winters there as well. Together we warmed up and headed to the Doc ride. It was just great, I had 7 teammates there all told. Oh and by Doc Ride, I really mean "group race." Teammates: Johnny, Rick, Barry, Russ, Mark, Jeff, Rita, and Jimmy. As it turned out we did a lot of the pace making at the front too haha. Peloton was pretty sluggish off the bat but I nailed the 2nd intermediate sprint and almost nailed the third one but my lead-out train came up short (wasn't really comprised of teammates, oh well). The 2nd sprint was really a short break up a short power climb led by Johnny and then the Doc and myself. I just pedaled past Johnny and grinned. He said if anyone beat him up to the stop-ahead sign it'd better be me.
one of the guys I ride with is Bill Ochowicz, his brother founded the 7-eleven team here in WI and I'm pretty sure is heavily involved in the Phonak team (eesh) He's quite fast and every ride thus far has beaten me in the final sprint into dousman. It's a great finishing straight, a few rollers through forest a right then a downhill to a left and then flat pine-lined for 3/8 of a mile into the 25mph reduced speed ahead sign. That's the finish. I've jokingly told him that beating him in the sprint would top all of my superweek accomplishments and I finally did. about 2k from the finish I was sitting about 8 wheel two back from Bill. John Van Susteren was going to give me a leadout so he was farther up but an Endeavor guy whose name escapes me was sitting on Bill's wheel and would not give it up. It was frustrating to say the least especially when we rounded the final bend. I was about 8th still and the horses at the front had pulled off to stay out of the sprint. Johnny was bringing it up to mach and it was 1 guy and then Bill in 3rd wheel. the Endeavor guy SAT UP and I was flabbergasted. Yes I know this is a group ride, but seriously... none the less I got around and bridged up just as John was pulling off. I nipped by the stranger and got bill by a length by the sign. And that was that...
I was only joking when I was telling Finn maybe I'll be 2 by the end of summer, but I'm starting to think about it. WIth one top ten and two wins I've got 14 points of 25 for my upgrade. All I need really is more experience. It's something to shoot for. That or if the Tour of 10,000 Lakes is back on, perhaps I'll bag it until then and cat up afterwards. It is certainly a lot to think about.
And I want to go pro, seriously, hopefully by my junior year at Olaf.
That and I'm considering doing my first mountain bike race after the state crit, one of the WORS races, haha I just have to find a bike.
Cheers
Off to the Doc ride shortly, my body has the usual 5 hour tightness but hopefully I've got some snap so I can continue to work on my sprint.
then I have to clean my car
All right all right this has been put off long enough. Over the next few days I'll be updating my blog with tales of superweek and getting some pretty darn sweet pics up (hopefully, there's an awesome sprint sequence). Where to start?
Today: ended up getting in 5 hours of riding today, the first time that's happened in well over 3 weeks. this week was supposed to be a recovery week from superweek, but it rained 3.5 inches in 1 hour last night so I didn't ride then or tuesday just because I didnt have the itch. so, 2 days of easy riding, 2 days off + working full time. It took a good 2.75 hours initially to get the gunk out of my legs from Superweek. at about 5 I rolled into the Cyclesmith Bike Shop for some tubes and Colin the manager said I should stick around because the Jrs he coaches were shoving off at 6. I got it 40 minutes of recovery and was off again for another 2 hours. Now, I'm cooked. Oh and I was riding in a TT set up.
the uh state TT was supposed to be this weekend but it was canceled due to the hazards of the out and back TT loop in New Glarus, WI. I am still riding the Madone 5.2SL from Milltown Cycles of Faribault, with a mavic cosmic carbone Sl in the rear (long story, but it just might have a happy ending) but I've got a set of Profile T2+ aerobars, a worth-while investment and the "S" bend is fantastic/looks nice. Also if you are ever in a pinch and need something from Europe that you can't get for your bike through your shop, check out www.totalcycling.com I ordered the Bell Meteor II TT lid on tuesday and it came today, fast. So is the helmet...
Sean says the TT is boring, I don't know, it's like an extended hammerfest/sprint. I think I am going to like it quite a bit.
Here are the short stats on Superweek, race reports coming soon:
Wins: 7 (5 cat 4's, 2 cat 3's)
Winner of the 4/5 omnium (which means I'll be getting a Waterford steel frame to build up with Force and Deda parts)
and I had to fill out a w-9 form because I won enough money that they will tax by p-b-a. shoot.
It's off to my first Drop the Doc saturday ride tomorrow, starts at 8, i'll get in a warm up from Wales after driving out there. Should be fast, hope the legs are up to it. Oh this is a mini build for my first pro/1/2/3 race in Sherrill, IA It's the Dan Bockstedt Cup and it'll be 80 miles of "hill yes!" terrain. At least that's what the flyer said...
Some bulletins:
I have a dog now, a 10-month old black lab named Princess. boo. I refrain from calling her by her name as much as possible. My dad and I have taken to calling her sweetie. She is one.
Check out www.wicycling.org for my race results for the last few weeks. Or Finn's blog for the UWW RR race report...
I figured I had better update or discontinue before I head to bed tonight. I chose the former...
Tonight is the second night of superweek, 2 races down possibly fourteen to go. As Noonan would say, I'm bagging it a bit as a 4, but hey there's a steel gunnar/waterford frame with an alpha Q carbon fork for the omnium winner so... Finn I just might be riding steel by next year, and yeah it'd be painted silver white and blue, mostly just silver. Maybe even throw SRAM's new superb grouppo on it... That's what I'm shooting for anyway that and the cat. 3 state TT and crit. None the less,
Day 1: Menasha, Otto Grunski Classic
the course was a triangle with two hairpins and a gentle bend in the middle. The finishing straight was on the second short leg before the long back stretch, which would become crucial to my race finish. The 4/5 field was pretty small for opening day, only 26 racers. There were a variety of attacks and everyone was too squierrely for anything to stick. Two accidents happened in opposing hairpins, one kid a pretty fast Endeavor jr. named Mitch ended up in the turn 1 barriers and he taco'ed his dad's zipp 404. oops. The second crash happened with about 4 left to go which kind of strung out the peloton. I was sitting about 7th and all of the sudden I was pulling. I pulled the last lap and a half. Sitting third into the final corner before the gentle wide turn I lost my line and went wide which left two guys off the front, 2 more filled the gap and they started to get in and out of their saddles, I got back into 3rd wheel and then poof everyone was gone. I was there pulling in the last 450 meters. We had a tailwind for the finish and that makes the sprint a lot shorter in a way, the finish comes up quicker. At 400 meters I jumped and everyone covered me I looked back twice to see if anyone was coming around but they were just hanging on. My rear wheel left the pavement on a bump around the gentle corner but I kept it down and my cadence up. I ended up sprinting for 400 meters and winning by a clean bike lenght. Brian Hertzberg, 3rd, and Andrew from Endeavor 2nd just rode my wheel but couldnt get by me. This bodes well for my form as Hertzberg and I have duked it out in friendly sprints 3 or 4 times. If I can hold him, I don't think I'll have any problems other than positioning and crashing and we all know those damn cat 5's...
Today: Manitowoc First National Bank Classic
Today's course was a .7 mile rectangle with a healthly tail/cross wind. The finishing straight and turn 1 were in the wind the other two sections were tail. We had 4 lanes to work with so most of the cornering was pedaled through. I did not plan on racing today but decided I would just take it easy (which never happens, again the Noonan easy training ride syndrome). I fake attacked no less than 4 times and worked way harder in the closing laps than I wanted to. Dallas Fowler of Chronometro brokeaway at a little after the halfway point. I must say the peloton is full of lazy lazy bitches. About 8 of us were working the soloist had anywhere between 15 seconds to 1:00 on us. Christ we just couldnt organize and the stronger riders were getting tired. Two guys bridged up at about 12 laps to go, I was sitting right behind them and I let them go. Dumb mistake. When I attacked it was to liven up the bunch and get them to chase. No such luck. Everyone else let them roll off... I couldnt find a rhythm to get off the front and we came within 5 seconds of catching. A guy from VeloTek jumped on 2 laps to go and managed to dangle between the bunch and the break. And again I ended up working 1 and 1/2 laps until some guy tried to jump around me on the tailwind section. I hung on and rested up enough to sprint for 200 meters and take 5th on the day, 1st in the field sprint. Just disgusting and frustrating that we couldn't work together to bring it back. That and as one guy asked me in the race, "how many matches do you have?" It's a good question, I need to keep the accountant happy, not go on so many attacks (Finn).
Tomorrow is Alpine Valley, a lot of the stronger guys were masters age and will not be there tomorrow. Today's winner Dallas is sitting just two points down on me, I sit in first with 36 points. He soloed for at least 15 miles today. Hopefully I can crush him in the short power hills tomorrow.
Tuesday is the 2nd RR at the Proving Grounds. Wednesday is Whitnall Park RR which is more like a circuit. All three are double points so I need to be there. Thursday just might be a rest day...or a hang at the back of the pack and just take whatever points come on the day.
Goddam this omnium series for 16 days is just the best thing ever. Time for a cool bath and 10 hrs of sleep. First an MET2 Shake...
Well, it's over. The Wisconsin State RR in spring prairie and it was quite a day. Finn would say I careered it (up a hill even). Here's how it unfolded: Baur drove down last night and spent the night because today was his first race. I gave him the tour of Waukesha, my involvment with the city anyway, and we made pasta with tomatoes. Woke up this morning and had a decent breakfast of eggs and cold pasta and started in on the first of 3 power bars. The race we were looking at was 6 laps with a total distance of 39 miles. There was only one section of flat and that was dead into a wind that hovered between 12-18 mph all day. The rest of the course had uphill rollers and a pretty decent decent as well as an approx. 1000 ft climb at 10-12% (I am unsure) that was quite difficult. On my saturday ride with my team for the first time Jeff T. attacked and I stuck on his wheel and then snuck around him; this was the strategy I used today... I'm pretty sure the field was somewhere in the mid fifties to low sixties, all cat 4/5. I think I might have trained too hard all week with tuesday at Hartland (55 miles at least but my heart screwed up at the end, I think it was nutrition, and then another 60 the next day for the DD ride) and then took thursday off, easy 1.5 on Friday and I felt just a little fatigued. All day my legs didn't feel all that fast, I felt like I was working quite hard the entire race even though I maybe only was out front pulling for oh 4 minutes total... Well there were some early foolish attacks and Brian did a good job of keeping me out of the wind for the first half lap. On the rolling/spun-out descent we lost contact when I moved to the front.
On the front a bunch of guys from Endeavor were hanging out as well as the two Team-Wisconsin guys, one of them, Tony, is pretty strong and we usually mix it up on the tuesday and wednesday rides. However, one guy from Team Metric worked pretty much the entire race, very few people pulled through for him and he tried to break away 4 different times. I was in his 3rd break with about 7 other guys and we didnt work together that well so we got reeled in after about 6 minutes off the front; we probably had no more than thirty seconds on the peloton. In classic style I either text-booked on the front when I had to be there or just simply sat in anywhere from 4th to 40th wheel. On the final climb, the thousand-footer, I just let myself get passed, but not too badly, climbing at my own pace. By the fourth lap it was pretty apparent where work was necessary and where the bunch would just come back together by itself. Still, it was a pretty fast armchair ride at parts, avg hr was 161 for 1:39 minutes. We averaged at least 23 mph. Didnt realize that, sheesh. I was sitting about 12 as we came around the final corner and I just stayed in my bigring and hauled it up.
Quote of the day: "this is your race and you're losing it"
I passed the leader, a guy from Endeavor who had that quote yelled at him. who would eventually take second place, near the top of the hill and sat down to recover somewhat. I looked back and saw that he had started his sprint and was about 12 bikelengths back, so I got back out of my saddle and just hammered it in for the win, taking the Cat 4/5 WI state championship. It felt so good to finally give it my all on the final climp and just slip past everyone. At the podium the 3rd place guy said he was on my wheel but got boxed in as I was dropping him. Endeavor finished at 5" and 3rd at 8".
This means a few things:
My team cleaned up. John Van Susteren, team captain soloed for 4 laps in the 30+ category for a win by 1'50 over the second place solost and John Voigt, the initial team leader took fifth but first in his age category (30+, Van Susteren is 44 and so won the 35+ sub category as well) which means at least three state jerseys.
And I cat up to 4. John says I could become a 2 by the end of summer if I work toward it, 3 for sure. Superweek starts July 6th and I plan on pulling down some top fives there in the 4/5 race and then catting up afterward to finish out the summer.
That and I really need to clean my room finally...
Reading Peter's blog has reminded of that wonderful feeling that indicates progress. The end of the school year involved light riding and rest, but this summer, getting home and just killing it has been great so far.
I must hang my head today as I did not get out and ride, but spent the day with my Dad out at the boat yard cleaning the bottom of the sail boat and visiting my grandmother afterwards. It's all right I suppose, tonight I just might stretch and do some core work. Monday'll be an easy 2-3 hours, Tuesday 100k hard and Wedneday probaly the same. Thursday easy and friday not at all: the state championship comes June 10th.
Yesterday was my first team ride, and there were six of us. Apparently I am the youngest guy on the team; most of the guys are either masters 1/2/3 or 1/2 and there are some very fast women as well. I set out with Jon (team leader), Jeff, Rick, Tom, another Jon to ride the parts of the state road course and tour the hills around alpine valley. If only there were mountains... Initially I was pretty nervous about performing well despite it being a group ride (not without KOM's and Stop Ahead sprints). It almost all rollers of varying length, I think the longest climb back out of the valley was maybe 4 minutes tops. Before we left, Jon gave me my shorts, so now I have a complete kit and he offered me gloves as well, but i've already got the identical set. I appreciate how color-coordinated our team is, Despite the absence of white (sorry Finn) we still look fast which is what, half the battle no? We're blue and silver/grey, the kind of discovery blue. Nonetheless, I was able to stick with my guys the entire ride, including some very generous pulls. Three favorite moments: 1: the first sprint jumped at this little town named Lyons where one of the 10 superweek events will be held. Rick, Jon, and Jeff went and gapped the rest of us. I stood up and not only chased back on but passed on the left, crossing the yellow line, whoops, and managed to take the sign by a half a bike lenght from 6 bikes back initially. When we stopped for cokes in glass bottles at a small mom and pop store the guys laughed and said that I should be made a 2 and have done with it. 2: on one of the corners of the state RR Jeff attacked up this 10% hill, it's a 1000ft hill and it goes up 100 ft. I pulled around John and stuck on his wheel and then "counter" attacked in the last third (Brian arent you proud?) and just pulled Jeff the rest of the way up the hill. It felt good to match the attack and I recovered fairly well. 3rd: More rollers. Near the end of the ride, we took the road called Nature Rd. it was fairly winding and had short STEEP rollers. I attacked on the first one and over the next two I couldnt see my team mates, they eventually caught me when I slowed two hills later and when I looked back it was awesome to see my team working together to reel me in. I fucking love team and team-work. I pipped Jeff and one sign and we turned at the stop when our team went straight; we had to catch them and after we corrected our turn, I worked for Jeff to chase him back on. I must say, domestiqueing gives one a new kind of energy and you don't get all that tired...
Just read finn's blog, that ride sounded great.
Post ride, the 6 of us had pasta salad at Jon's house and he tossed me my first skinsuit. I must say, skinsuits are pretty fucking raw. Jon run's our main sponsor, Lakes Area Physical Therapy and therefore, all our gear is free. In addition we are sponsored by the Bicycle Doctor, in Dousman, WI. It's quite a respectable shop, just might get the Giro Atmos in Discovery colors to match my teammates, like Peter says, I really only spend money on food and anything bike related, even a bit unnecessarily. Maybe I'll even get those Zipp 404's...
Upcoming Races:
June 10th:WI State RR, Spring Prairie
June 17th:LAPT Crit, Madison, WI
June 24th: UWW Crit/RR, Whitwater, WI
July 4th: MN State Crit, Northfield
Reading Peter's blog has reminded of that wonderful feeling that indicates progress. The end of the school year involved light riding and rest, but this summer, getting home and just killing it has been great so far.
I must hang my head today as I did not get out and ride, but spent the day with my Dad out at the boat yard cleaning the bottom of the sail boat and visiting my grandmother afterwards. It's all right I suppose, tonight I just might stretch and do some core work. Monday'll be an easy 2-3 hours, Tuesday 100k hard and Wedneday probaly the same. Thursday easy and friday not at all: the state championship comes June 10th.
Yesterday was my first team ride, and there were six of us. Apparently I am the youngest guy on the team; most of the guys are either masters 1/2/3 or 1/2 and there are some very fast women as well. I set out with Jon (team leader), Jeff, Rick, Tom, another Jon to ride the parts of the state road course and tour the hills around alpine valley. If only there were mountains... Initially I was pretty nervous about performing well despite it being a group ride (not without KOM's and Stop Ahead sprints). It almost all rollers of varying length, I think the longest climb back out of the valley was maybe 4 minutes tops. Before we left, Jon gave me my shorts, so now I have a complete kit and he offered me gloves as well, but i've already got the identical set. I appreciate how color-coordinated our team is, Despite the absence of white (sorry Finn) we still look fast which is what, half the battle no? We're blue and silver/grey, the kind of discovery blue. Nonetheless, I was able to stick with my guys the entire ride, including some very generous pulls. Three favorite moments: 1: the first sprint jumped at this little town named Lyons where one of the 10 superweek events will be held. Rick, Jon, and Jeff went and gapped the rest of us. I stood up and not only chased back on but passed on the left, crossing the yellow line, whoops, and managed to take the sign by a half a bike lenght from 6 bikes back initially. When we stopped for cokes in glass bottles at a small mom and pop store the guys laughed and said that I should be made a 2 and have done with it. 2: on one of the corners of the state RR Jeff attacked up this 10% hill, it's a 1000ft hill and it goes up 100 ft. I pulled around John and stuck on his wheel and then "counter" attacked in the last third (Brian arent you proud?) and just pulled Jeff the rest of the way up the hill. It felt good to match the attack and I recovered fairly well. 3rd: More rollers. Near the end of the ride, we took the road called Nature Rd. it was fairly winding and had short STEEP rollers. I attacked on the first one and over the next two I couldnt see my team mates, they eventually caught me when I slowed two hills later and when I looked back it was awesome to see my team working together to reel me in. I fucking love team and team-work. I pipped Jeff and one sign and we turned at the stop when our team went straight; we had to catch them and after we corrected our turn, I worked for Jeff to chase him back on. I must say, domestiqueing gives one a new kind of energy and you don't get all that tired...
Just read finn's blog, that ride sounded great.
Post ride, the 6 of us had pasta salad at Jon's house and he tossed me my first skinsuit. I must say, skinsuits are pretty fucking raw. Jon run's our main sponsor, Lakes Area Physical Therapy and therefore, all our gear is free. In addition we are sponsored by the Bicycle Doctor, in Dousman, WI. It's quite a respectable shop, just might get the Giro Atmos in Discovery colors to match my teammates, like Peter says, I really only spend money on food and anything bike related, even a bit unnecessarily. Maybe I'll even get those Zipp 404's...
Upcoming Races:
June 10th:WI State RR, Spring Prairie
June 17th:LAPT Crit, Madison, WI
June 24th: UWW Crit/RR, Whitwater, WI
July 4th: MN State Crit, Northfield
It is Saturday in the early afternoon, and I've got quite a lot of catching up to do (people and cycling news mostly) but I must say, getting sponsored is sweet. More later, I have to take the salt in the basement for the folks and eat.
3:24 min, 62.1 miles, hr: 151 lots of hills (state champ RR course)
Too tired to rub my hands together in anticipation of tomorrow, a shop ride that's 38 miles and usually done in an hour and a half; it's called "drop the doc" Jesus. On my first day home put in 4:04 with an average heart rate of 158, max 189. I set out at one and ended up weaving back and forth trough Waukesha, Wales, Delafield, Dousman, and Oconomowoc; I'd peg it at 70 or so miles. Today had everything, a couple mile climbs, flat TT, motorpacing, and townline after townline. Right out of the gate, my legs felt quite springy, the day off in the car yesterday must have helped quite a bit. Possibly the best route I've ever taken. The only problems I had were eating too soon before the ride (ham and some old noodles, both cold) so my heart rate was high right from the get-go and not eating enough: a sandwich baggie of raisins, a banana, 16oz coffee, 2shots espresso, 2 powerbars, that's it. The caffeine kind of irritated my stomach for a while and I cramped up after 2 hours on my left side, oops. Unlike Finn (no dis, I dont have the attack abilities except of rollers where I can kill the last third and then descend well; I am a wheel-sticker; pull me), I paced my climbing and it felt great to just sit at about 75-85 of my max and focus on my pedal stroke, killer consistency. |
On the note of pedaling, I have some product reviews. Foolishly (or maybe not) I threw down around 5 benjy's for the Shimano 215's (silver looks so fast) and the Look Keo Carbon Ti's. Shit. My feet and knees have never felt so great, and I think there is a larger Q-factor than my old Look 196's. So familiar yet so much better. The 215's also helped as they feel feathery even with the cleats and the ratchet strap makes adjustment on the fly so much easier. Also, cappucino power bars? cappucino power bars.
Tomorrow I start my American Dream, working full time at Mathison Metalfab, my grandfather's metal fabrication shop. With two raises under my belt through the spring, I should be able to afford (waste more money) racing as often as possible. Currently I also "unattached" and need to find a team... maybe LAPT, their kits kind of look like Milram. My five o'clock wakeup is approaching so I should probably get to bed, more catch-up later (weekend plans, Ole Tri results, etc)
Slainte
Woke up at ten til six this morning to begin studying for yet another time trial of a sort, my Norwegian exam. Have to say it is a decent language, and I am considering concentrating in it. After posting I will still need to study my strong verbs. Joy of joys.
After Wednesday's rest day due to the OPUS crit on tuesday in which I pulled down third in the final spring and in points for my first cash prize, $5, I was going to take it easy in prep for the ITT this coming weekend. Thanks to an initially unintentional leadout by Finn I took the first prime and and third in the final. According to the winning man, we were averaging at least 24mph for 28 minutes, and that is fast. Yesterday a guy named David came out with Finn, Baur and me. He wasn't too bad and has enough heft that he'd make a very very decent midwest sprinter. We still killed it though and dropped him (unintentionally) no less that 4 times. One day we will get easy days right... After my final, I think it'll just be lunch and I just might go out for a few hours, to Sogn, to pick up my waterbottle thrown during the conference RR.
Hey, it was a good bottle.
To clarify, I'm a 19-year old college student and cyclist succumbing to the awesome weight of peer pressure. Currently, I have no idea what shape this will take but the list of potentials includes:training diary, rant space, emo-confessional (kidding), and a few others I guess. In a little less than an hour and a half I have my first final for the end of my first year at college. Congratulations to my peers. Post-final I should be heading out for a moderately paced 13 mile time trial in prep for the team triathlon this coming Sunday. The sweet escape of summer starts Monday
Cheers
With four days of finals ahead, it is so close until I work at the factory again and summer training miles alone begin...
There I am looking like a tremendous workhorse in the cyan/grey/discovery colors at the front of the peloton. This was in kenosha, my first cat 3 race and it rained. We averaged 26.8 mph none the less and as the road are looking dry in the pic, this was probably at 3 laps to go, the initial sprint for position. I was sitting 3rd wheel through turns 1 and 2 and then on the back stretch I was sitting second wheel and then had to pull through 3 and 4 but on four I guess I slowed up alittle which threw off everyone behind me and then we had a nasty cross/tail wind that blew across from a side street and that's when I jumped, and held off the field by a clean (I mean daylight between the rear and the 2nd place finishers front) bike length for 200 or so meters, close to spinning out my 12...