Similar to a professional bike racer I have now officially put in a full work day on my bike. About 8 hours in the saddle over, what my comp recorded as, 147.68 miles. I took in 3 states leaving from MA heading to VT by way of NH.
The terrain was great. Most of the roads were in good shape, the two major climbs were tough (I passed lots of riders walking their bikes up the second major climb) but they were suited to my style...longer and gradual. I was able to set a good tempo and I never ran out of gears and probably only got out of the saddle twice during climbs and that was more to stretch my legs and back.
All things considered I am very pleased with my ride. I felt like a managed my nutrition perfectly, I never bonked or even really felt like I was close to bonking, and I always felt hydrated even in the heat we hit heading north into NH and VT. I kept my heart rate where I wanted it and I don't think I went anaerobic the entire ride. I averaged just over 17 mph, didn't have any major mechanical issues and made it to Windsor, VT with some energy to spare. Basically all goals were met and two days later I feel 75% recovered.
But you might be saying to yourself...thats all well and good, everything went smoothly, blah blah blah. But where is the adversity? the toil? the hardship? the epic struggle? Because everyone knows thats the real reason people do these rides. Whats the point of trying something bigger than you have ever done, pushing your body to the limit...and then just having everything go perfectly, no big deal, see yah next year. Its almost a waste of a personal challenge.
Luckily for me though my ride wasn't all perfect. Sure, I finished and met my goals, but I met those goals after having hit, not one, but TWO parked cars at about mile 35 while I was traveling at about 20mph. I was coming into Groton as part of a very large group of about 80 riders, I was towards the back of the group and for anyone who has watched helicopter footage from the Tour knows...when big groups ride into roundabouts or narrow roads they squeeze together very quick and orderly. Unfortunately I am not in the pro tour and we did not squeeze in an orderly manner and I was the odd man out when push came to shove and didnt quite have room to squeeze into the flow of traffic.
Hit the first car with my right brifter to driver's side mirror...thank god for those space saving folding mirror designs because it just folded out of the way on impact. But I still didnt have room to squeeze left and the impact jarred me enough that I lost control and I slammed into the back left corner of the next car leg/knee first and then got sort of wedged underneath it. I was towards the back of the pack so I didnt get run over or anything. Long story kinda short...neither car was damaged (not sure how that happened) the impact hurt but thanks to adrenaline it wore off enough that I got on my bike and worked things out and was able to finish. Unfortunately my adrenaline wore off on the car ride home and my knee stiffened right up and started to swell a bit. I think I stretched/strained some ligaments on impact as I slid underneath the car my leg didn't have anywhere to go and the knee took some of the force as I got jammed under the car.
So I have to sort out that last 25% of recovery over the next few days, but hopefully that goes well because I have lots of MTB racing to do starting this weekend.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
EFTA NECS '08 #2 Bear Brook Blast Off
Due to some land use issues EFTA had to cancel the Sterling Sizzler (which I had scheduled for) and instead of completely ditching the Championship Series race they decided to use the Bear Brook Blast Off (which had just been a fun race, not part of the series) as the new NECS #2.
This kinda sucked for me because I had already booked myself that weekend for some white water rafting on the Deerfield River in MA as part of Voss' bachelor party. The rafting was really cool though and I am really glad I went.
Not a bad alternative to racing bikes
Shaun is scared
Boom, for real
I have read some race reports around on blogs and team sites and the race sounds like it was really fun and a very fast course. I hope they continue with this venue next year, it looked like the promoter knew her stuff and had things very well organized and Bear Brook is very close to my house compared to all the other races.
There was a very large SS class for this race...13 finishers. Probably the second largest finishing field I have seen in SS, maybe since Bradbury last year. This probably helped me out a bit because it spread the points out. Right now I am sitting in 10th with 130 points and only two people have shown up at both races and scored points so a lot of the people in front of me are 'within striking distance'.
Next race is June 22nd up in Biddeford. I'm hoping to race well there but I will be coming off of the B2B ride the weekend prior and I don't know how fast my legs will recover from a 143 mile effort in one day. Guess I'm about to find out.
This kinda sucked for me because I had already booked myself that weekend for some white water rafting on the Deerfield River in MA as part of Voss' bachelor party. The rafting was really cool though and I am really glad I went.
Not a bad alternative to racing bikes
Shaun is scared
Boom, for realI have read some race reports around on blogs and team sites and the race sounds like it was really fun and a very fast course. I hope they continue with this venue next year, it looked like the promoter knew her stuff and had things very well organized and Bear Brook is very close to my house compared to all the other races.
There was a very large SS class for this race...13 finishers. Probably the second largest finishing field I have seen in SS, maybe since Bradbury last year. This probably helped me out a bit because it spread the points out. Right now I am sitting in 10th with 130 points and only two people have shown up at both races and scored points so a lot of the people in front of me are 'within striking distance'.
Next race is June 22nd up in Biddeford. I'm hoping to race well there but I will be coming off of the B2B ride the weekend prior and I don't know how fast my legs will recover from a 143 mile effort in one day. Guess I'm about to find out.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
EFTA NECS '08 #1 Glocester Grind
It appears as if my DFL'ing days are over. Even though today hurt really bad, I feel really good because a lot of my hard work finally paid off today.
I got into a really good position off the start, sitting in 3rd behind two very fast individuals who are still pretty out of my league and I felt pretty good for the first mile or so...no red lining and riding the technical stuff pretty well. That all came crashing down (literally) when I was introduced to a very deep mud pothole. I chose just about the worst line possible with my first attempt and performed a perfect display of the family jewels to stem / superman into the woods routine. There were 3 or so SS'ers behind me when it happened, one of which asked me if I wanted a medic sent out haha must have looked awesome...didn't feel awesome though.
So those guys all passed me while I was sorting myself out and I spent the next 10-15 minutes trying to recover a bit. I took a few more sweet spills that 1st lap....just getting the cobwebs out. Crashing like I was at least means I was going fast. My first lap was my slowest I think...just under 40 minutes for 6 miles.
The second and third laps felt better...less crashes, decent pace. For the first time ever I wasnt all by myself, I was still in a field of Experts with wheels to ride and pace on and I wasnt only being passed I was also passing people...especially the third lap. I caught one of the SS'ers who passed me when I crashed on the first lap at about mile 15, I came up on him fast and it was apparent he was in damage control mode. I was 80% sure I was feeling better than he was and that I had more left in the tank for the last 3 miles.
I rode his wheel for a bit waiting for a short portion of the course with some punchy little climbs and technical terrain and as soon as the trail tilted I passed him and up'd the pace. I didnt look at the time to see if he noticed I was SS or not or if he just didnt even bother trying to stay with me but I dropped him fairly quick. I kept my pace high for the remainder of the race to make sure I wouldnt see him again...this led to some sweet cramping in my calves but I was able to pull it out.
I broke 2 hours coming in at 1h:56m. This is a huge accomplishment for me. I have never broken that threshold on a course like this. I have never still been actually racing with experts on the third lap of an 18 mile race...I technically 'attacked' someone on a climb, it could be argued that I used 'race tactics'. Seems lame but this was pretty cool for me. But now to the big pay off...I came in 4th of 7 or so starters. 6 finishers were listed when I left not sure about the 7th. I was only 6 minutes away from third. No more DFL (AKA last)
my sweet rental car...pray for the Echo.
I got into a really good position off the start, sitting in 3rd behind two very fast individuals who are still pretty out of my league and I felt pretty good for the first mile or so...no red lining and riding the technical stuff pretty well. That all came crashing down (literally) when I was introduced to a very deep mud pothole. I chose just about the worst line possible with my first attempt and performed a perfect display of the family jewels to stem / superman into the woods routine. There were 3 or so SS'ers behind me when it happened, one of which asked me if I wanted a medic sent out haha must have looked awesome...didn't feel awesome though.
So those guys all passed me while I was sorting myself out and I spent the next 10-15 minutes trying to recover a bit. I took a few more sweet spills that 1st lap....just getting the cobwebs out. Crashing like I was at least means I was going fast. My first lap was my slowest I think...just under 40 minutes for 6 miles.
The second and third laps felt better...less crashes, decent pace. For the first time ever I wasnt all by myself, I was still in a field of Experts with wheels to ride and pace on and I wasnt only being passed I was also passing people...especially the third lap. I caught one of the SS'ers who passed me when I crashed on the first lap at about mile 15, I came up on him fast and it was apparent he was in damage control mode. I was 80% sure I was feeling better than he was and that I had more left in the tank for the last 3 miles.
I rode his wheel for a bit waiting for a short portion of the course with some punchy little climbs and technical terrain and as soon as the trail tilted I passed him and up'd the pace. I didnt look at the time to see if he noticed I was SS or not or if he just didnt even bother trying to stay with me but I dropped him fairly quick. I kept my pace high for the remainder of the race to make sure I wouldnt see him again...this led to some sweet cramping in my calves but I was able to pull it out.
I broke 2 hours coming in at 1h:56m. This is a huge accomplishment for me. I have never broken that threshold on a course like this. I have never still been actually racing with experts on the third lap of an 18 mile race...I technically 'attacked' someone on a climb, it could be argued that I used 'race tactics'. Seems lame but this was pretty cool for me. But now to the big pay off...I came in 4th of 7 or so starters. 6 finishers were listed when I left not sure about the 7th. I was only 6 minutes away from third. No more DFL (AKA last)
my sweet rental car...pray for the Echo.
*UPDATE*: Apparently I was semi deceived by the 'unofficial' results posted the day of the race. The official results were posted on the EFTA website last night and it turns out there were two more people who finished 3 minutes ahead of me at 1h:53m. I am still pleased with my results even though I came in 6th out of 8 starters as opposed to 4th. All that really means is that I get less points towards the series. I still broke 2 hours and I met my goal of being in the SS pack and there is no denying that I have continued to improve my fitness over the last few years. Plus I easily lost a few minutes during my epic crash early on the first lap so I think if I could have kept the rubber side down I may have been right with those guys till the end.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Franklin Falls
Naro and I got a pretty sweet ride in at Franklin Falls today. I happened upon this place through my chapter of NEMBA and I have to say I am pretty glad I joined up. I cant wait to put more time into making this place even better. I was testing out a new 'feeding system' for race day and trying to get a few more miles in before I go for broke next week in RI.
My new feed system consists of a little pouch velcro'd up on my top tube at the stem that I am hoping to keep Clif Blocks in. I think its going to work well for me but it needs a bit more tweaking. I'll post pics once I get it completely dialed in. (You can see it in the pic of my bike at the top of the Rusty Bucket trail).
'Prevalence of Groove'...ask Jomo
This is where they filmed the lunar landing in '69
Kula
Lost Wall Trail
Whaleback
My new feed system consists of a little pouch velcro'd up on my top tube at the stem that I am hoping to keep Clif Blocks in. I think its going to work well for me but it needs a bit more tweaking. I'll post pics once I get it completely dialed in. (You can see it in the pic of my bike at the top of the Rusty Bucket trail).
'Prevalence of Groove'...ask Jomo
This is where they filmed the lunar landing in '69
Kula
Lost Wall Trail
Whaleback
If I remember correctly my comp clocked us at an average speed of 10mph over about 14 miles for the day. No ticks and the bugs weren't quite that bad...yet. They are def around but they dont seem to be biting yet. Knock on wood.
Thursday, May 1, 2008
EFTA NECS '08 Preview
Well here we are again...first race is in about two weeks and I have maybe 20 miles on my mountain bike. But more coming this weekend and lots of trainer/commuting/road miles. I feel pretty good about this season. I think my fitness has definitely improved over last year and I am excited to see how much better I do this season...both with my fitness and my new bike. I think I have a good chance of being pretty competitive.
One of the last things I needed was some way to motivate myself mentally to push just a bit harder when I get to that point in a race where I feel like laying off and just coming in for the finish. My plan to get that extra motivation was to try and get some sort of sponsorship, so I would in some way shape or form be held 'accountable' for my results. I tried getting something set up with bike29, which looked promising at first, but later fizzled out (haven't heard from them in a while so I'm moving on.)
Instead I decided I would create my own pseudo sponsorship and just 'ride' for my chapter of NEMBA. It's a good cause, I can probably still trick myself into a little more mental motivation to try and represent the chapter well and I don't have to worry about any kind of actual 'sponsorship obligations'. Best of both worlds. And lucky me NEMBA came out with a 20th anniversary jersey that I can use as my 'kit':
LOUD
One of the last things I needed was some way to motivate myself mentally to push just a bit harder when I get to that point in a race where I feel like laying off and just coming in for the finish. My plan to get that extra motivation was to try and get some sort of sponsorship, so I would in some way shape or form be held 'accountable' for my results. I tried getting something set up with bike29, which looked promising at first, but later fizzled out (haven't heard from them in a while so I'm moving on.)
Instead I decided I would create my own pseudo sponsorship and just 'ride' for my chapter of NEMBA. It's a good cause, I can probably still trick myself into a little more mental motivation to try and represent the chapter well and I don't have to worry about any kind of actual 'sponsorship obligations'. Best of both worlds. And lucky me NEMBA came out with a 20th anniversary jersey that I can use as my 'kit':
LOUD
This jersey is right up my alley, loud colors that dont really match and it has an ax on it...c'mon. Fits really well too and the pockets are a bit looser than some of my other jerseys which will make it easier to get food. Which is crucial because I have come to the realization that I need about 200% more food than the average rider.
Bring on the Glocester Grind! (AKA last)
Bring on the Glocester Grind! (AKA last)
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