Catching up on Kenosha
I will report on my Burnham results soon. Basically 2 pack finishes and plenty of gas left over. I was amazed with my form and now I have some more confidence to go with it.
I am trying to catch up on a backlog of reporting though. So....first things first...2 weeks ago at Kenosha. I was hoping to race this race, but I was laid off the Thursday before and spending $ on racing seemed somehow less important. MJH2 and JF were going up there though and I love being a superfan so I thought I would tag along and help out.
Turns out it was a lot of fun just going and prepping bikes, bottles, etc. grabbing jackets, yelling to the field time splits, etc.
The big news was the win though. That's right....win. Turns out JF was racing 5's. ABR was running both 4's and 5's together but decided to score them separately. Whatever...
This was JF's first race so I was starting to give him the whole "you're going to pop - don't let it discourage you" speach when it dawned on me that he's probably one of the most natural cyclists I have ever ridden with at this level. He's constantly exceeding my expectations so I decided I would just tell him to stay close to the front if he could, but stay out of the wind. Don't chase any breaks just go for the sprint. (did I mention he melted my trainer doing a quick sprint on my powertap. He took it easy and I stopped him when I smelled it burning, but the PT said something just shy of 1500W). Oh....and try not to hit the deck.
So I sat back and watched and took pictures. Fun.
MJH2 lined up in the 4's
JF in the red arm warmers hanging in the cat 5 starting group
"You guys are 4/5's so that means you suck. Try not to kill each other -kthx" (MJH2 is thinking "I paid for this?")"Rider'sReadyGO!!"
JF - Whatta ya doin on the FRONT!!!????
Our man J-Dub taking snappy snaps again. Check out his site and buy some pics to help support him. I would if I had an income right now...
So there was a break of 3 guys who got away and had quite a bit of time on the pack. I knew they were gone and the pack would come down to the sprint. I saw MJH2 lead JF off the front going into turn 1 of the last lap. They were hauling and I knew this was going to be good....then I saw JF come up the final straight way the freak in front of everyone.
HUGE gap. so big he just soft pedaled over the line. See for yourself.
So where was MJH2??? Well....I end up walking down the front straight to find him...
Turns out he had led out JF so hard and fast that when they came around the last corner they encountered some lapped traffic on the race line. It was hit the lapped traffic, JF or go into the grass. He chose the grass. He took one for the team and will most likely never let JF forget it. One thing is for sure...if we could ever get coordinated enough we could have a hell of a leadout. With even just the 3 of us we could rip up 1.5-2 laps of just about any race.
Although JF came in 4th overall the first 3 guys were Cat 4's so JF actually won the Cat 5's race that day. It won't be his last. In fact he's gotten medals in 3 of his first 4 races so far. There's a word for that. Awesome.
Perhaps a pillow?
I hate geese. Like really hate them. They're stupid beasts. I am sure that they'd drown if left to their own devices - that's why they have down. To save them from themselves.
Why this newly charged tirade against these silly creatures? Simply because they are the reason I went over the bars yet once again on Saturday. I say once again because that makes a cool 3 times in the last year and a half.
This time we were wrapping up the "developmental" version of the Bicycle Heaven ride when we jumped onto the Fox River Trail on the last leg back to the shop. I was following JF when I spotted a couple of the grass digesting swine of the air approaching from the side.
This is where geese are dumb. You see when you attempt to go anywhere near them on a bike they seem to think the way to get away from you is to run directly into your path. I was slowing and watching one of them when the other got in front of JF. Next thing I know I look up and I was on top of him. I started going over the bars as I heard my tire pop as it rammed his cassette. I tucked and rolled and thought for sure there was going to be others to follow.
Turns out it was just me. As usual the real damage wasn't felt until 2 days afterwards. I keep tearing up some muscle around my left shoulder. I chalk it up to my death grip as I go over the bars. JF thinks he might have done something wrong, but I have tried to assure him that kind of crap happens.
I haven't ridden since then. On top of that I ate ice cream tonight. First crit is on Sunday. ABD TT #4 is this Saturday as well. I think I might skip the TT. I have a feeling my time won't improve.
This is sad, but I remember the feeling in December right after the last race of the year. While a part of me was sad I have to admit I felt a lot of relief. Toeing the line and feeling that stress of anticipation followed by sheer pain is something that takes a strong stomach. Now that it will be happening again so quickly I am uneasy. Nervous actually.
Hope my shoulder holds out. Damn geese...
ABD TT#3 Report
Another round of beating your head into a wall is over. I am happy to say I have made no gains over the last couple of months. That said I have found that have made no losses either. Meh...here's the pics. That's all any of you care about anyway...
Showed up early enough to see JAnd do his run.
Cheering section - L to R - JF, Little P, Mrs. P
GO JAND GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Time for us to go. Clipping in for torture....
"Hi...I'm f'n nuts!"
Reset the computer....and.......3.....2......1.....GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I burried my head for the first 5 minutes. I didn't look at the screen because I knew I would go too hard if I saw I was behind in order to catch up....or if I was ahead in order to maintain position. So I didn't look.
I was rocking out to a mix of punk and metal. Total "kill everyone" kind of stuff.
I hit my normal wall about 4-5 mintes in, but pushed through. I looked up to see I was behind...by a lot. JF was in front of me. Honestly he's got the chops even though he's new so I really didn't let that bother me too much, but I was at least gpong to try to pull him back.
Up until now I had been running about 270W. I shifted and started bringing around 300W in the second 5 minutes.
"OOooooo"
With a During the last set of 5 minutes I started to crack. I made myself take it easy for 1.5 minutes. Rode easier than I could just in hopes of recovering to finish strong. It kind of worked, but not really. I tried with about 2.5-3 minutes left to stand and go at it. I was within "50 or 60 feet" of JF when I did. When I stood...so did he. That just told me he wasn't going to just hand anything over.
At first I felt bad because I figured he thought I was standing to sprint to the end, but it was way too early for that. I was just hoping to get a quick jump to turn over the distance between us. Turns out when I stood I didn't upshift so my power dropped. Ooops. I sat back down to compensate, but by then JF had taken the opportunity to lay down some power.
I tried to stand and sprint at the end, but I didn't have much. Not the usual punch I have. When done...I felt like puking. So...I did it right. I definitely left some out there though. Just couldn't tap into the deep well if that makes sense.
Shoot me.
Seriously...shoot me.
JF took the win in style. The guy is a naturl athlete that will accel at this cycling thing with no problem. I keep telling him the only thing that will limit how far he goes is how much time he wants to spend on it. He won't be a 5 long and will be a 4 even shorter.
This time he won the CM 19-29. He also got to pick up his medal from the previous TT
To top it off I still owe him a beer to make up for the last $5 from registration I owe him. Will it never end?
So...I ended up 13th out of 28 who took the start out of Cat 4. Furthest up in the field so far, but 2 seconds slower than my last one on the "Flat" course. I did beat Rob Jungels...by like 7 seconds...which just means there is a story there. I'm guessing he had something go wrong or he was doing it as a recovery in street shoes and blue jeans.
Tuesday night at the shop we're doing the mother of all indoor trainer sessions. We're down to 1x45' at threshold. Those sessions have made it easier to race already. They have convinced me that I can ride at an intense effort for much longer than I thought I could.
Congrats to JAnd, JF and everyone else who went out there (MRIDan). Nothing like paying $25 so you can sit in one place and turn yourself inside out for 16 minutes.
Almost time to shave the legs. Mrs. P is thrilled.
ABD TT#2
Everyone has been asking me how the TT went yesterday. Funny thing is I don't really know. I didn't have a clear goal going into it and therefore even after having seen my results I don't know if that was good or bad.
In general I guess I have maintained my fitness. I finished mid pack cat 4 again.
JF - a new member to our team decided to give it a shot. He has had a road bike for a while, but really hasn't put much time in on it for quite a while. He's in good shape, but doesn't have a lot of saddle time. In essence I was more excited about watching his ride than my own. I love seeing new people get involved in the sport and I have a feeling he's going to end up loving racing.
So here I am a 'semi-trained' cat 4 (only because I fast-talked the upgrade with a lot of talk of cyclocross and TT's) and JF just about beats me. I took the time to manually record his power profile and plot it against my own after the fact.
If you know what you're looking at you'll see that with a little aerobic conditioning/threshold conditioning this guy can possibly kick a lot of cat 5 (and 4)ass this year. I should have savored my victory while I had the chance.
Here he is warming up before the TT (on the right). The guy ont he bike on the left is another BF member mridan. The guy who looks fast standing still is Andy Skeen.
In the pain cave - there's cobwebs, bats, and scary things. Time to clean it out and makes it a nice home. You'll be spending lots of time in there.
Beat. At this point I am guessing he was debating puking. This is a good thing.
After he was done I went over and caught the end of Julie's race. She put in a hard effort as well. She was especially pleased that her picture was being taken right after she finished.
mridan was up next. I wrote his power down as well and shouted as much encouragement as I could. I think he too has been bitten by the competitive bug.
All in all a good TT. Glad I did it. Now...Tuesday night will be me running the Bicycle Heaven trainer class. 2x25'@threshold. Hmmm....need to put together some tunes...