It begins.
With a flurry of mouse clicks and keystrokes the 2010 Chicago racing season began. Once again the cat 5 spots filled up instantly. Cat 4 was at 115 last I checked - within an hour of registration opening.
Honestly, I think something should be done. What would that be? I don't know. It just seems that coming off winter training and knowing that many new people to the sport decide to give it a try next season that the number of new racers that end up with a bad taste in their mouths about missing out on reg seems to be increasing.
Meh. - I've got a lot of thoughts about that topic in general - without trying to seem inflamatory I'd propose that its the 3/4/5 crowd that drives the sport. With that in mind I think provisions should be made to work more cat 5's (or even 4's for that matter) into the big early season races. I understand the logistics. I'm not sure how it would be done either. I understand that the rules stipulate only 50 5's in a field - for good reason, etc. I'm just suggesting that wouldn't it be possible to run a second cat 5 heat right behind the first one - separated by 10 minutes or soand wearing different color numbers? It might take 15 minutes to fill all the spots instead of 5 if that second heat existed. Just sayin...
Training is the meh. I've been putting in decent hours for me - which isn't saying much - but doing it at killer intensity. Good thing is coach says my ftp has definitely increased already - meaning my form is coming back much quicker than I thought it would.
I hate this time of year. Hours of time spent on trainers in basements staring into the depths of insanity as you watch time click off second by second knowing you have at least 1 more HOUR at the present intensity. It's worse then having to travel to some inane conference for business that includes you spending near 24 hrs a day with a "team" you were assigned to where the tasks include role playing and "touching base" with what was just covered to make sure it has sunk in. Both seem to be fundamental in personal development but both can also make you appreciate the whole psychiatric profession.
In other news I would like to welcome the following sponsors to PSIMET racing!
Tradesmithe - General Contractors
Provident Clinical Research and Consulting
Here's to 2010. Rubber side down.
2010 ABD Indoor TT #1
Raviv in post TT glow - number 1.
Well the Saturday before last saw the first "event" of the 2010 season. The ABD Indoor TT series is back once again in an attempt to allow us Midwestern trainer jockeys to come out of the concrete and sweat covered basements to brave the elements in hopes of seeing friends we haven't seen in months....so we can try to beat them.
We are indeed a twisted lot.
More importantly this year was the fact that this was the first real event in which our new team would be racing. Now I don't know about you but I personally have found I have made significant progress during this winter out-pacing my previous year's efforts at gaining weight and losing form. I have been so successful with this that I decided that I didn't even need to bother with entering the event as it was apparent what the outcome would be.
There were 4 PSIMET Racing team members who were in fact participating. Raviv, Scott, Joe, and Arron. This was Arron's first event of this type so I decided to do what I do best in these situations - stand next to him and call him names in hopes that it would result in him taking an extra step or two into his own personal pain cave - even if the batteries to his flashlight were dead. Is that even an analogy anymore?
Raviv did a double - 4's and 30+.
Arron Before
Arron After. See the difference?
Arron During the TT
pain
Arron's Stats. Nice job.
Joe getting ready to crush souls
Joe throwing down some power
Joe and Raviv During the TT
Raviv During the TT - Nice form.
Joe and Raviv's Final numbers. Joe with the win but Raviv following closely.
Final tally put Joe in 2nd in the cat 4 overall with Raviv and Arron both in the top 8 as well. Probably the biggest news of the day though - and with no pictures because this idiot had to leave - Scott Knoepke won the cat 3 TT. He crushed it. He's an animal and we all know it. Not only was this Scott's first event win in cat 3, but it was also PSIMET Racing's first victory as well. 1 race - 1 win. I like that. Thanks Scott!
Now it's to the basements we once again return. Trainer tires mounted. Fans plugged in and humming. Music set loud still can not drown out the voices in our heads which scream for the torture to end just as soon as we begin to turn the pedals.....
....there was sunlight this morning though - at a time when there hasn't been any. Can't wait...
PSIMET Racing Team 2010
Please help to welcome one of the newest teams in the Chicago racing community - PSIMET Racing.
http://www.psimet.com/team.html
Multi-diciplined team focusing on teamwork, fun, family, and integrity.
I have a booth at the Chicago Swap - hope to see you there. Stop by and say hi and/or to learn about the team.
Hold On
Lots of news and information to covey. Not enough time to do it. Soon...I promise.
Customers who have been awaiting responses - thanks for your patience. I promise I am working on it.
Keep your eyes peeled.....
Pretty please?
Someone please buy this for me....
http://chicrossphoto.com/
Yes I am still around. Wheels are flying out the door like crazy, been very sick, lots of family things going on.....oh and I've been getting fat(er). I am off next week so i am sure I will have a few blog posts to entertain.... 
Woodstock Cross
Ahh, a 4B beer handup Photos:John Wrycza
Woodstock. This had to be my most or second most favoritest course/race this season. I obviously was attempting to go out and race the 30+ and the 4B's just for the heck of it. Problem was Friedman showed up on his way to Timmyquest's....and we HAD to drink a beer or two....or a 6-pack...each....the night before. Not alot of beer, but I'm not a young as I used to be. Needless to say I woke up a few different times in the morning to go to the race. Non of those attempts were successful until about 10:30am - at the start of the 30+ race.
From what I hear Beverly Bob was PO'd. - Love ya Bob! t was so weird to head out to do just the 4B's. With my recently recovered cross mojo but NONE of the form needed I eagerly anticipated my first foray back into the mayhem that is 4B racing. I liken it to the feeling I think I would get if I was all of a sudden allowed to jump back into a Cat 5 race. Sure there'd still be some fast guys that would kick the crap out of me but I could make quick work out of the majority - even in bad form.
I kept telling myself - "this is just for fun. don't try to race it hard...." but I still ended up lining up in the front. I don't know what it is about people starting a bke race but I always seem to be out in the front group regardless of if it's road or cross. It was actually fairly easy to start. I wasn't pegged and I was throught the first turn while hanging on the leader's group or about 10 or so.
The course was almost exactly as I remembered it the previous year so I kind of instinctively knew when to shift and what was coming up. It actually handled better. It's my kind of cross course - All out, use all your gears, not a 400 corner technical mud fest. I started to see a separation from the front group after the first hill. I kept in contact through the downhill and sweeper but lost contact on the second big climb. Meh....I suck. We all know it. Time to let the guys who are serious by and give them a shot at a good position.
The funny thing is I really didn't totally sit up but these guys just weren't closing gaps on my like I have gotten used to this season. Dear god - did I find a field where I actually belonged in the top 20? I got off the rig for the first set of barrier and as soon as my feet hit the ground pain shot through my back. I've got a really messed up back. A genetic defect in my lower spine. Yay me right? I've had it my whole life and it's what got me into cycling in the late 80's to get out of the impact sports that were aggravating it. I instantly thought, "oh crap...now I have to lift my bike." Getting old sucks.
The handup hill was AWESOME! I loved riding in it. I have come to the conclusion that racing it and doing handups are both exactly the same amount of fun....but doing handups doesn't seem to require quite as much pain and suffering (although I am sure there are stories where it does). First time up there were so many options and I was still racing in the top 15 or so....I quickly went through grabbing everything I could try to grab - result? Nothing except a $5 handup....from Mrs. P (thanks dear). She just gave it to me though. I wish she would have tucked it.
The next laps were painful. At some point I watched a lot of guys I knew pass me. I got a beer the second time up and drank most of it before dumping the rest on my head and tossing it (see animated gif). That beer was good. Tasted like crap but honestly you'd lick up dog urine for some moisture during a cross race. On the last lap I let some people by and then once again found myself riding on their wheel. It dawned on me that I still had a lot of gas in the tanks and my performance was becoming mental. So I passed them back. It was great to actually have a race on going into the end. I was able to ride the wheel, check the line and blow by in the final sprint/straight. Ok...not blow by. There was a bike toss involved. but I got it over Ken - whom I've ridden with more than once out at Penny Rd Pub. He said, "I knew you were back there and I knew you had a sprint." - made for a fun ending.
So....I got some points. Yay. First points of the season for me. Finished 27th. not total crap. Much worse than my season last year and where I wanted to be this year, but I have been going through a lot of turmoil/politics/bs. Unfortunately the season is drawing to a close. Not sure about Montrose. Seems like the vibe has been that a lot of people I know are going to skip it. History shows us that it tends to be the coldest f'n race and who feels like freezing like that.....however...it's the last chance to really race until late March early April. Trainers suck.
Congrats go out to Debbie Dust who AGAIN won her race. That's 2 wins in a row on PSIMET wheels.
Along those lines it doesn't look like I will be sponsoring the team I had intended on sponsoring next season. If you're a roadie and looking for a decent wheel sponsor - not free wheels - then let me know. Send me your race resume, goals, plans, etc.
It’s on
Just pre-reg'd for Woodstock. 30+.....
.....and 4B. Embrace the carnival. Last race before Montrose (coldest race I ever do). Cross is almost over and I just caught my mojo back. Trainer tonight. Bwahahahahahahahaha!
Hacking it up
JF (left) and Mrs. P (right) look on to watch the Chuck Norris of cycling (Wayne Simon) hand up $2 Fat Tire during the 4B race
Image By Chris
Chuck Norris doing $2 Fat Tire handups. This is cross.
HUGE thanks go out to SCW, Mr. Kelly, and the fine folks at Indian lakes Resort for the 24 hr party someone called a cyclocross race. I can't even begin to tell you how much fun I had. I have basically been dreading doign this write-up because there is just too much to cover and I know no one will read it all the way through. Actually after switching to the new site I can't even tell if anyone is still reading this....if you are - leave a comment!
This course had everything I like in a cyclocross race. If I had been even remotely on form I would have excelled. Alas as my faithful readers know - I had lost my cross mojo earlier this year. Circus atmosphere for the sake of circus-ness, courses that were little more than a test of your brakes and headsets, epic loses to Bob "the Sponge" Murray (aka "Beverly Bob"), and a split up of one of the coolest crews in cross - those of us who suffered like dogs for top 20 placings in 4b's all last year, all led to me no longer feeling the cross love.
As I had predicted earlier in the year though as the year has rolled on the "not so faithful" have begun to drop off. A lot of people that dipped their toes into the baptismal waters of cyclocross have decided that burning they felt meant they were too good to indulge in the mayhem. Sinewy faces I recognized from the road have slowly disappeared - replaced by the slightly more rounded faces of the winter peloton. Guys who wouldn't touch a salad with "full ranch" on it 2 months ago are enjoying an all you can eat cheesecake buffet and handing up bacon, cupcakes, beer and twinkies.
As I mentioned the course was perfect. A ton of wide open hammering. I used every gear I had, and some of them twice. I found a wide sweeper on the backside that let me hammer in the big ring the whole way around and still held perfect traction. It was a big guys paradise....but the skinny guys still won - imagine that. My race was Sooooo uneventful. I hadn't been ont he bike in literally 2 weeks - outside of a powertest at MJH2's the previous Saturday. Mrs. P and I had a date night the night before. Needless to sayI was hung over severely in the morning. I was in a hurry so I got nothing to eat or drink before the race. Ugh. I poured in a poor performance but really got geared up by cross again.
After my race I got a chance to watch Debbie Dust (recent PSIMET wheels "rider") hang a "W" in the women's race - the first cross victory for PSIMET wheels! Congrats Debbie!
- Win for Debbie Dust!
Photo: John Wrycza
After attacking the buffet we settled in to watch the 1/2/3 action. Holy crap - great race. SRAM Scott has been tearing up everything - this day was no different. What was exciting was to see Ben Popper and Brian Conant give pursuit. As a Brian Conant "superfan" (I will for now on consider Conant the Bruce Lee to Simon's Chuck Norris) I felt it my duty to scream "I LOVE YOU BRIAN CONANT!" every time he went past. I got a few half grins . What made it better was the fact that this was Brian's 3rd race of the day (that I saw) and he had won the previous 2. I believe this was Scott and Ben's only race of the day. Best moment of the day was when Ben and brian came charging into the first sand pit side-by-side both catching some high air as they bunny hopped into it. Classic.
From there it was time to make the funny. It was a blast. I take the whole "don't modify the course" thing to heart so we didn't.....we just kind of leaned on the tape. Result - bacon alley. It was right at the perfect spot where just about everyone was running. The beer, cupcakes, bacon, twinkies, etc....were all flowing. It was so loud I had a headache before I had even left the event. My voice has only now begun to recover.
Me screaming at Lenski to get his butt moving....pretty much sums up the day - Photo: Liz Farina Markel
So.....next week. Cross is coming to a close so I just want to have some fun. I have already been running and doing a tiny bit of core work. Maybe I won't totally suck this week. One of these days someone will convince me to race the 4b's......hmmm......