Dessa's days

Pico de Veleta

2011-09-22T06:48:00.000-07:00

I had to be in Spain for work, in Granada of all the places. I did not really do my research before coming there.
During lunch, after I arrived, I mentioned that I wanna do some riding around, I’ve been told that there is “highest paved road in Europe ” just outside the town!

I could not pass this opportunity! Owner of the restaurant, cyclist himself said it should take me about 2 hours up Sierra Nevada ski area. Later in the day, 2 hours before sunset, I went for easy scouting ride, with the road to mountain starting just outside my hotel in city center near the church.

Basically, you have to follow the river. I met some Spanish guy doing his PM workout and explained that I want to go to Sierra Nevada. He directed me right up the climb after I attempted to take few wrong roads. That day, I went to about 4K feet, to save something for the next day.

After doing some research online, I found that after ski resort, the service road would go another 2500 feet up to the very peak of the mountain.

Due to local holiday, I had half a day to myself and I decided to go for the ride early morning.

At the bottom of the climb, in small town of Pinos Genil, I saw new Bentley being loaded in huge truck. They passed me on the way up, and I saw car going down from the mountain. Apparently, they test new cars on this highest road all the time, and you can see “taped” mystery cars all the time in Granada.

What a great climb! It is just a bit steeper than Haleakala, but is more scenic. I was going steady tempo, and did not have much wind until maybe 7000 feet, when I got to Sierra Nevada. All the way up you can see signs on the road from Vuelta. It was warm, but not to bad, maybe ~ 80F.

I took ride through the switchback of the town, instead of left turn off to the ski area which would be faster. Main road ends at Ski Area, and here is where the most people stop. But my plan was to go all the way up!

Once at ski parking area, you go pass military outpost to narrow and beaten up service road, that starts at about 8500 feet. It’s in pretty bad shape with a lot of potholes. One thing to note, is that eventually you end up at the fork, with sign “ National Park” in Spanish. Go left! The road on the right will end up at observatory. Luckily, there were people climbing it on foot, and I could ask after taking wrong turn.

In some places I decided to walk over, fearing for my skinny tires. With about few hundred feet it became dirt road, and I was still riding it, until it pitched to maybe 20%. At that point I got off the bike and started to push it until the rock where the monument sits. Than I have to shoulder the bike and climb up the rocks, not the easiest thing to do in cleats and with the bike. But I wanted the picture!

Mission accomplished. Another mountain is concurred, and I have a rock from the top for my collection! Descent was super fun as flowy, I liked it more the Haleakala descend.
Here is Strava file

Elkhorn Stage Race

2011-08-07T23:03:00.000-07:00

I always like to do Elkhorn race in Baker City, Oregon. I’ve heard some people are complaining that it is “hill climb with 100 miles before it”, but I disagree.
The last stage is like a route of European race, going over 3 mountain passes with 2000 feet climb in the end.
In the end, it all comes to TT and the last climb, but you can loose race on the first day or in the crit too.

I was registered for 1/2 race and felt well prepared, putting in good volume few weeks before. On the other side, I started too feel burn out of the long racing season.

The first stage, Oregon Trail race is pretty hard, at least for me. There is 800 feet climb before feed zone 2. I was close to front when it started and felt pretty comfortable. We were going at what felt like just a bit over threshold and after 8 minutes I was happy that we crested the hill. But I forgot that after the flat section another 100 feet of climbing is left. There was quite a surge on the flat part and in few seconds I found myself sliding from the front to the back of the pack, and as soon as the last kicker started my legs suddenly felt bad and lost it. Could not close the gap, losing maybe 20 seconds. I don’t have power file, but seems like my HR on the flat section spiked and I was not able to recover.
I tried to catch the pack, but it was fruitless. 20 seconds grew up to minutes.
Eventually few dropped guys caught up with me, I think there were 3 guys from Bob’s bicycle team. In the end, only one other guy was left from BB. We almost caught the pack before last climb, but did not really make it, loosing 6 minutes on the day.
That was kind of disappointing, if only I was more attentive to stay in front after we got to flat section of the climb, instead of sliding back, I would have made it.

Stage 2 was Pleasant Valley TT. I did not have big expectation for it. The day before was hard, I spent to much time chasing instead of cooling in the pack and legs were tired. Plus I never really did good in this TT.
I felt OK on the course and passed few people, which did not mean much, since I was starting behind people who lost time day before. Pacing was pretty standard, with slow uphill part on the way out and fast “descent” on the way back.
I was pretty sure I will make top ten, but to my surprise I found myself on the podium, taking 3rd in TT! I would say that it was my best result, getting 3rd place a stage of 1/2 race. There were some strong guys from both Washington and Oregon I beat. In the development coach moved to first in GC beating my time by 21 seconds. I think my TT was good, because we did not have any wind and significant part was slight uphill. Plus 56x11 gear on descend helped.
I made Oregon Cycling Action news page too.

Stage 3, Crit was uneventful for the most part. It is very flow-y course, and after first 5 minutes I moved up and did not have problem staying and moving up. But I spent a lot of energy nevertheless. It was one-hour crit at threshold. It was my first pack finish in 1/2, so I was happy with it!

The last day is the Queen stage. Finally we had great weather, it just took 3 years. I did not know what to expect from my legs, so opted out from going in a break, I just wanted to survive. My mini goal was to try and make it with the pack until mle 98 or so, before the main climb starts. (Last year, I was dropped few times on the passes, but made it back to the pack).
We had early break going on and sticking. Hagens team had man in the break, and Bob’s bicycle missed it and was trying to bring it back. Good report from the race in here.

I was worried about 3rd mountain pass with hard 5-minute section, and it was hard! But I was able to dig deep and made it with the pack without being dropped.
As soon as pack caught Alan from Haggens, who flatted from the break, HB set hard tempo right at the crosswind section of the course. I had a mistake getting stuck behind very small guy and was not getting any draft. Plus my road position is pretty high, so I was catching a lot of wind. I felt I was about to blowing , and showed guys behind me to pass mee, pulling out of single file. My plan was to slide back a bit to get recovery and find bigger guy. It worked! ( Latter Danny said he thought I was gonna get dropped when I pulled out). It was close for sure.
In any case, I was happy to make it with lead pack to the base of the climb! Goal accomplished. I tried to see how long I could hang on the climb. Few times I felt dropped but slowly crawl back doing that "one more last dig". Well, I lasted for 4 minutes! Then, I was done! No energy left. I actually did not eat enough during previous 4 hrs! I hardly finished climb and was actually much slower than last year. I had no energy left. I ended up loosing 13 minutes, finishing 25. Still, I was happy with getting to the base with the lead pack. So I finished my first 1/2 stage race, getting podium on TT stage.
I would consider it not too bad. I think I can do better next year in Elkhorn, learning from this experience.

CAT 2

2011-07-10T22:39:00.000-07:00

It seems like I have a lot of catching up to do here. It’s been busy May and June.
After getting sick in mid April, I decided to take a week off to get fully well.
With an off week, and lingering sickness, I felt that my fitness has dropped quite a bit to try doing Tour of Gila. It was hard decision to make, since I did plan to do race for a while and really wanted to. After going back and force on where to ride it or not, I finally decided to pull plug on it.
With no Gila and enough points, I felt it’s good time to move on with Category 2 upgrade! I also decided to take it a bit slow and try to rebuild base for the second part of the season, racing a bit less.
I did low key Green Valley TT as CAT2 taking 5th place. I’ve tried to race Vance Creek in 1/2 but did not have enough fitness and got dropped on second lap, after gaps started to open in front of me. 90 miles race proven to be too long for my fitness.

Afterwards I did pretty big endurance block riding to Carbon River/Rainier, then spending 2 days in Chelan/Wenatchee area doing pretty big milage. I knew it would take 4-6 weeks to see any benefits of the training block, so I did not have big expectations for Wenatchee Omnium.

I had pretty good TT on ALCOA course, finishing 13 in stacked 1/2 field. The weather for road race was ugly: heavy rain and flooding. I decided to do it anyway. I’ve got dropped first time up the hill, just could not go deep enough over threshold power for long. I finished race anyway, even though I was listed as DNF.

Next race for me was Enumclaw SR. I needed to put some racing miles in, but with time-cuts and technical 8-corner, there was no way I could do 1/2 crit within time cuts. I saw bunch of people pulled during race, but it seems that they did not enforce time cuts anyway! I was pretty sure, that I’ll be pulled in the crit and won’t start Road Race.

So I was racing master 1/2/3. My TT was pretty good, but the starters screwed up times. I knew what my time was, and some other people knew too. So we had a lot of protests. Officials made “Judgment of Solomon’s” and cut every ones time by 30 seconds, which put me in 6 place. I would never know what my actual place was.
As I expected crit was hard and fast. After so many laps, I was taking corners too slow and got dropped. I set in my own tempo and finished it loosing about 2 minutes.
Road race was pretty hard. With no team-mates I just followed the wheels. I made split first time up the Mud Mountain hill with lead group of 10, but everything cam back together. But I had problems on following laps, falling back, but every time I made it back. VO2 reliability sucks. I finished race in field sprint. Kudos to Nathan for staying away for the whole race and winning GC!

Next on the menu was Mt Hood Cycling Classic. Unfortunately, with no separate NRC race, Pro/1/2 field was full by the time I’ve tried to register, which left me no choice but to race 35+ category. I really was hoping to ride prologue to see how I’ll do, well no prologue for masters. That said, the masters field at Hood was the toughest field I saw. I’m not sure if there was a single 3 in the field, but I’m sure there were enough former pros and generally fast guys. The race did not go so well for me, I’ve got poor position before first climb, and had to go around people with the lead of the pack killing it at 6 W/kg. After making an effort to go around people and closing gaps from the back I got dropped to the chase group. We caught up with the pack at Moiser but could not bridge completely. I did climb OK on the long climb but it was not enough to close on the lead. I ended up loosing 9 minutes, effectively out of GC. Next day TT went not too bad for me, I finished 20th @ 1:16 back. Usually 20th place would be disappointing, but in that field it’s result I’ll take. Crit was a disaster, I was tailgunning for a while and you can only close so many gaps. I ended up loosing another 2 minutes there. Then came the Queen stage. Three summits road race. As TG put it, the “hardest 70 miles you’ll ever do”. It was never flat: always up or down, almost 8000 feet elevation gain, crazy descends, super steep climbs. It was mostly on forest roads, recently cleared of snow. But it was also very scenic. To no surprise, I got dropped on one of the climbs after an hour of hard racing, then I was going from group to group. I felt not too bad on final climb to the Ski area. Overall, the Mt Hood stage race was good experience, but my fitness was not there yet, after mid season building block. I was hoping it will come together in time for Elkhorn stage race.

After Hood, I did OBRA ITT championship and finished 3rd in 1/2, I was pretty happy with my time, 53:36 on 40K course with 27.6 mph average.

Next was Elkhorn stage race, I've got registered in 1/2 field. Somehow I was not super excited about the race with unknown fitness and lackluster results in previous month. But weather forecast looked good, and I decided to give it a go.

TO BE CONTINUED.

Deschutes River Valley TT Stage Race

2011-04-21T22:06:00.000-07:00

After Cherry Blossom, I was determined to go for Walla Walla and fight for overall , but unfortunately fate had different plan. Day before RvP I was feeling a bit of sore throat, and by the time I was in Las Vegas for annual trade show, I got completely sick. It was pretty bad, could not go out of bed on Tuesday. I’ve got back home on Wendsday night, and by next day it was clear I could not race on Friday in Walla-Walla. I felt like I need at least one day to start feeling half decent. I also felt that doing any lengthy anaerobic efforts will put me back into beign completely sick. So I decided to bag Walla-Walla and look for something more aerobic to do after almost a week of the bike.
Luckily, in OBRA land there was DVRTT going, 2-days time trial stage race ( maybe the only TT SR in US?).
I’ve heard about this race 3 years ago, from CycleU team-mate Steve H. (R.I.P.)
So on Friday night I was heading back to The Dalles Oregon then Maupin.

But let me borrow Steve’s description from 2008 of the trip to DRVTT:

“My trip to and from Maupin, Or. was also just as breathtaking as the races...no pun intended? I went over 90 to 82 through Yakima, followed 14 along the Columbia to 197 at the Dalles which goes straight to Maupin. I had never traveled that way before. Your up at snowline going south of Yakima in open range country it appears. Very spacious country. Curvey Highway 14 on the Washington side parellels the Columbia giving wide open breathtaking views of the gorge while I managed to stay on the road. Here were also a couple of wineries. As I crossed the Columbia into the Dalles I saw fishing platforms down on the water. I hadn't seen Mt. Rainier from that angle before and it seemed even more majestic and I could view Mt. Hood at the same time. Crossing into Oregon I climbed up out of the Gorge with many apple orchards all around. Then you enter range country and very beautiful hilly desolate desert country where you can see for miles. When entering Maupin from any direction you will descend quickly.”

The first stage was 28 miles loop with some 15 minute climb out of Maupin. I felt pretty good and was passing bunch of people. I finished 2nd overall and 1st in my category.

Later same day, we had 2000 feet hill climb. Though TT bike could have been better I decide to use road bike to put in some climbing training. I started 3rd from the back. I felt bad. After 5 or so minutes 2 guys from A-group on TT bikes passed me, and I became the last person on the course. I was suffering, I was demoralized. Maybe cold left me unable to go over threshold or maybe it was mental, but I ended up loosing something like 2 minutes and moved to last place in my category. Did I mention I only got 3hrs of sleep night before? Come to think about it later, I’m pretty sure I was completely depleted of glycogen as well. Not fully recovered from cold and racing an 40K TT few hours before.

The last day was 48 miles TT with about 3.5K of climbing. Out and back on Bakeoven road. I had 4 people starting after me with 30-seconds interval. And after previous day fiasco, I was concerned I would get passed on first 20 minutes climb. But to my surprise I felt really good. I glanced once on hairpins climbs and saw that I had much more than 30s after first 5 or so minutes. I was going pretty fast trying to treat this TT as 40K , 1hr+ race to turn around, hoping that way back would be pretty fast. I think after 20 miles are saw MickW coming back, and I passed everyone, becoming on my leg. Way back was fast but not easy. I was not sure how much time gap I have. There were too man people coming towards turnaround to know who is who. So I pretty much went all out on the way back too. Few rollers were especially hard. I felt bonk coming on, and was hopping for the last 4 miles of steep descent to come soon. I took descent pretty carefull, with all side winds and hairpins.
I ended up gaining 6-10 minutes! On competitors in my field.
It was enough to move me in first place in GC wining stage race in B group. I was 40-seconds off first place overall for the stage. Two pro triathletes beat me. But I blame it on cold!
So all in all it was good race and experience. Another win never hurts confidence either. Thanks to George for organizing superb and unique race!

Ronde Van Palouse

2011-04-14T14:42:00.000-07:00

Ever since I found about this race I wanted to do it! It is hard one-day classic with hills, winds and sections of dirt road!
We raced in combined 1-2-3 field but 3s were scored separately.

It was fast from the start. Race split in the beginning on steep 1-minute hill, I was able to close gap and get to the lead group, which was rolling away. Maybe 7 people. Then rollers started, guy in front open gap, I have not seen it. He closed it on another roller, but I could not close on him. So it was 4 or 5 groups on the road: break of 5, then 2 guys behind, I in no man land, chasing group of 6 ( with Alan from HB) 30 seconds behind, and remains of the pack behind. I was trying to close gap on guys in front, maybe 20 seconds, but could not. I was hoping to not get caught until dirt section.
Then Alan's group caught me and they hit dirt hard. I was having very bad stitch on the right, was hard to breath and pedal at the wrong moment! I could not stay with them and got dropped!
Group in front obviously split after dirt and was rolling away from me, I counted ~ 10 seconds, then ~25 before second hill. I went in TT mode trying to catch. I knew that there 2 more laps to go and anything can happen. I also knew that at least 1 Cat 3 guy is in that group. Stitch finally went away, and I was able to go harder on the hills and when I hit tailwind section I went in very low and narrow TT position and close 20 seconds on them, bridging. There were 2 cat2 and and 2 3s there. We dropped one cat3 shortly and only Travis from Hammer was competition then.
Second time on dirt I stayed behind and conserved. Then next hill we dropped another cat2, so we were down to 3 people. Another hill, I was feeling good and put in some acceleration on the hill. Cat2 stayed, but Travis started to fall back, but slowly came back.
Then on tailwind section I went in TT position again. Cat2 stayed behind Travis fell maybe 10 second behind and I kept drilling. But on the steep 1-minute hill Travis came back again!

When we hit dirt I let gap opened maybe 15 seconds on Cat2 and stayed behind Travis. Then attacked from behind and went full gas! Bridged to Cat2, he stayed behind me for a bit, but I’ve dropped him too somehow. Looking at the Strava file, my 3rd time on the dirt section was the fastest even with playing cat and mouse first minute of it! After I got the gap, it was 30-40 minutes of TT home. I did not look back and was going as hard as I can, it did hurt bad. I think I ended up about 2 minutes on Cat2 and must be 6 on Travis.

I was first to finish in the chase group, 6 overall and 1st in 3s. Felt completely spent by the end. The first road WIN of the season, and the main race I really-really wanted to win.

Cherry Blossom Stage Race 2011

2011-04-14T14:38:00.000-07:00

It was 3rd year I was doing this stage race that runs in The Dalles, Oregon. It is usually hard and fun race with is well attended and organized. It was not A race for me, but I had a plan to get jersey on TT day and ware it through crit and the last day.

First day was the circuit with one 3-5 minute climb. My plan was stay out of trouble, save as much energy as possible but still be close to front in case any big splits happen. Pace up the hill was pretty hard, first and 3rd time, but it was manageable. 10 lb less than last year helps tremendously. Last time up the climb, before feed zone, crash happened. I did not go down, but guy in t of me did, and my bike got hooked hard, so that front wheel and handlebars were at 90 degrees. I‘ve straightened it up as fast as I can, but it was still maybe 15 degrees off. Small group of us started the chase back, and we made it just in time before last short hill. I did not take any risks on descend with crooked handlebars and stayed in the back of the pack well before final sprint. Another crash happened in last 200M. I went around and saw Max C. just in front, I sprinted a bit to make sure I start TT behind him, but he slowed a bit too to put one more guy between us.

TT was new flatter course. It was quite windy day. 30 minutes before first rider started I rode the course to check out conditions. It was clear to me it was race to the turn around. I went pretty hard and was feeling good. Passed bunch of people. I saw Max at turn around and it was pretty clear I have about half a minute on him, so I knew I was having good TT.
It was a bummer when I found that I missed first place by 7.5 seconds to Doug T. Max C was 30 seconds behind. That was a disappointment.

Crit was uneventful. I lost my position after 2 or 3 laps and it was hard to move up, so I wasted a bunch of energy.

Last stage was hill course with dirt climb. Before the race I warmed up on the course with Jeff, legs felt not bad, overall was best recovery for the 3rd day of racing, GF diet helps I think with soreness/inflammation.

We did 2 short laps and 2 long laps, going through feed zone 3 times. I made sure I am close to front always, usually behind the leader. There was another hill on back side and 2 descents. I felt pretty good on the climbs and was in good position on descent. Every time we had attack I made sure to just pull out a bit to let race leader chase it down, which he did. I was never in the wind, usually second row. But I did not sag climbs so I do not loose position.

On last small lap Adam from recycled attacked somewhere before feed zone, which other people chased. Then last time into feedzone another massive attack happened with maybe 10 people going away. I thought It's gonna split and put good effort to bridge, but it went together with race leader catching on.

When we hit big loop I was close to front on descend, shifted to small changing and flew up the hill. I think I had to break a bit not to run in other people. I was in probably first 5 or 10, surge happened I think I followed for a bit but just could not go any harder. I did not blow just legs could go that hard and not more. I saw lead 10 going away.

People from the back of the pack started to come by me at very fast pace, including Jeff and Max ( who caught the leader and won SR). I kept going at what probably was threshold but felt as max sustainable power for me. I went by few people who blew up before the top, but really did not have anyone to pace off.

On the false flat some caught up and we caught someone else, maybe 4 of us. And before dirt climb we caught up with Jeff. I soon as dirt climb started I was going faster than other people and was feeling pretty OK. I think having 25 mm CX on back helped with dirt, or maybe CX/MTB training?
I caught up with some team Oregon guy who was going pretty good, and before the crest we caught race leader who was dropped from main group?
We started decent, 2 guys from behind caught up with us. I had to really work there to keep up on decent with big guys.
Next time up the big climb, Oregon guy set the pace and I stayed behind him, with 5 or 6 behind. We rotated before dirt climb.
Again on dirt climb Oregon guy set pace. I felt that I can go faster. So I attacked hoping to drop race leader and maybe get one more position in GC. But with headwind, "oregon" guy closed gap on me and brought everyone back. So we made all toghether to sprint hill. The race leader, big guy just accelerated with oregon guy up the hill, I could not go that hard. They passed some Hammer guy, I passed maybe 2 guys from our group. We were 4-5 minutes down on race finish. 15 in GC :(
Max C. made it back and stayed with the lead group to take a stage race win with 1 second margin! It still hurts to think that I missed TT and jersey by 8 seconds!

Another block of spring training.

2011-03-29T17:07:00.000-07:00

We had another 2 weeks of training races before Stage races kick in.

Sequim race #2 was a bit rough for me. I was a busy at work and could not put enough miles in. After pretty hard MTB ride on Wednesday night, I could not do VO2 intervals, and went for group ride around Mercer. Had to skip openers day before race, so legs felt completely flat for the Sequim.
I took couple digs, and felt that I just did not have it for a day. Luckily teammate Ryan G. went into a break, so from that point it was just covering attacks here and there. Ryan delivered, taking the win!

Next day was Skagit TT, many people skipped me, but in my opinion it’s good training for stage races, to do TT after road race. After pre-riding the course ( why other people don’t do it? I only saw Martha W), I came up with the plan. It was headwind coming out.
Go just a notch about threshold, recover on downhill, and all out into headwind into long flat section until turnaround. Then recover on the way back with tailwind, and hit it hard again on hill and hold to the end. I figured, that everyone will go fast on flat tailwind section, and 1-2 mph won’t make much difference there.

I pretty much executed plan to the dot. I went without power readings again, taping my Garmin. Unfortunately, it decided to shut itself down, so I don’t have a file.
In either case, I took another WIN in 3s, 3rd overall, 2 seconds off 2nd place. Icing on the cake was beating Todd G. time! Afterwards we did another 50 miles on Chuckanut drive before calling it a day. It was good block of training.

Next week, I took training more seriously, and did intervals, opting to do VO2 on hills instead of TT. I did pretty good volume, and was not sure, how next race will go. It was either I trained just enough or maybe a bit too much. In either case, my thinking was, that I should not save or rest for IVRR race, bu rather thing about season as the whole. Cherry blossom is more important even if I’ll go a bit more tired into IVVR.
But, Independence Valley RR went good. Loosing about 10 lbs vs last year made a huge difference. Though hills were hard, I don’t think I was in danger of being dropped or something. In fact, I made sure to start hills close to the front and sag just a bit to save the legs. But I was ready to go with any move over the top. Nothing stuck though. My descending was a bit better, but not great. Using alloy rear wheel with 25mm Vitoria made it easier adding a bit confidence in breaking and cornering.

As we approached 10K, I decided to try solo move, knowing that I have zero chance in the sprint. As I started a jump from the back, I saw people watching and ready to jump, something told me I’m not going anywhere. But I made it to the head of the pack, which was good. For the next 10K I made sure I’m not moving back and was aggressively holding my position for the sprint. After Hagens did pretty good leadout, I think it was Jeff who jumped with 1K to go, and I closed on him right away. You never know pack could let us go. He looked back and slowed down. Bad idea. I was shouting for him to keep going, you do not stop at 500M!
200M sprint started, I saw people going pretty fast on the sides, 2 guy in front off me, I made an effort to close on 2nd guy and we passed people on the left and the right, but I could not go around him. I saw Sean getting close to finish line, thinking “man, he could just seat and celebrate” :-)
I got third in the sprint! Power was not super great but apparently I sprinted there 3 times, first at 200M, then to close gap on 2nd guy, then to hold his speed. Plus one sprint more 30 seconds before, to close on Jeffs jump at 1K, which moved me in ok but not the best position.
If Jeff was let go, I had good chance of getting around him for the win. I ended up in second position at 200M which is not great, but we had enough speed for me to match other guys acceleration. But I’m happy for Sean, he deserves victory, he looked strong all day.
So with this placing I now have enough points for CAT2 upgrade. Plan is to race Cherry Blossom as 3. After that I’ll decide on upgrade.

Sunday, instead of training, team-mate Jeff envied to stay at his place in Portland and do Banana belt race. I always wanted to check out that course. It was perfect opportunity.
Except that weather was bad. Rain and 41F. We had only 25 people in the pack and it was a hard man race. The course is pretty brutal, rolling hills, with some ~1 minute inclines, a finish “wall”. It was never flat except for the bridge, where we had strong head wind. Jeff went in a break on one hill, and I started to cover attacks. Eventully, pack split, and remains of the pack bridged to a break. We lost about 10 people. After that it was survival. Hitting hills hard, eating, drinking, squeezing water out of gloves, shedding sand from eyes and waiting for the finale.
I thought I was going in good position for uphill sprint, when Nick jumped on the left, and I jumped on him. I should have waited and let him go! He blew shortly after, and then I blew, and people went around. 12th. Bummer. I should have been more patient. But I loved the race and the course!

Cherry Blossom is next!

On the roll, Mason Lake, 2011

2011-03-17T22:01:00.000-07:00

I did not look forward to Mason Lake race. Weather forecast was cold rain. But I needed back to back races for stage race training. Plus I knew that I probably could do well in bad conditions considering cyclocross season.
I was running a bit late to the race, and decided to skip stop for lunch break, hoping that good breakfast and a lot of carbs evening before the race should be enough.
Before hand, I decided to change tactics for the race. I still wanted to get in the break, but decided to follow the moves instead of starting the break. But, without team-mates it was probably not the best idea. I ended up burning way too many matches. Never the less, keeping the Murphy Laws in mind ( the break you won’t follow will be the one that goes), I finally found myself in the break that stuck. I think If I would to calculate chances I would never guess that will be the one, since it happened in the wrong place. That said, later I found that both Max and Keith were watching me and followed, so maybe I did cause it in a way.
It took a bit to get organized; some people did not know how to rotate in double pace-line!
But with 6 man break moving we got good gap, maybe 1.5 minutes after a lap. That did not sound like enough and we cranked the pace. In process we dropped Bryan from Northwest Velo ( he said he did not slept much and completely bonked, skipping even breakfast that day). With one lap to go we had 3 minutes gap. And I started to feel bonk going. Not having a lunch caught up with me. I became really lightheaded and power in the legs was gone. I had to skip many pulls here and there. It seemed that Keith was struggling as well. But other guys looked strong. I downed all my energy drink pretty fast to get at least some surar in, but I did not have any bars or gels with me. I guess it was enough, since with 2K to go started to feel better. Few attacks started, nothing. The finish line was approaching. I was not going to make the same mistake again, I stuck last, 5th wheel waiting for the sprint. Jeff jumped, I reacted a bit late, but it was enough to catch some of his slip stream. Finish line, I saw Max on the right, it was very hard to call if he or me got second. I got back to the tent to find out, they said I got second. Cool. Not so fast, final results listed me as 3rd. Bummer, but still I outsprinted NWCC guy, who was way stronger than me in the break.

Keith got 5th. It was great that he stayed with us in the break, even though he was cramping bad.
Overall, it was great weekend of racing. I got another 8 points towards cat 2 upgrade, and put some good racing efforts in the legs. I know that its pretty early in the season, and a lot of guys are not on form yet. It’s gonna be harder in few weeks!

Pictures by RideITLikeUstoleIT

Tour De Dung #1, 2011

2011-03-15T09:38:00.000-07:00

Two race weekend started with Sequim RR, a.k.a Tour De Dung.
We had 5 people in the race, which are pretty good odds. My plan was to start breakaway and try make it to the line. I knew I had no chances in a field sprint.

In the first 5 minutes, I saw AUDI guy dangling 100 meters in front of the pack, so I tried to bridge to him. In a minute we have a break rolling with 2 or 3 people bridged. It did not last long, no surprise.
I knew I had to go again, you have to punch it until break sticks, eventually they won’t chase you. Second attempt was even less long lived. I saw Ted went after me. He was chased, and then team-mate Ryan-D attacked before first hill. He got a good gap, and few people reacted, trying to close on him. Rayn G. covered the move. And more people reacted afterwards, and I jumped on them. At the crest they caught Ryan, which was good lunch pad for me. Max from AUDI kept going over the hill. I looked around and saw that everyone was gassed from hill effort. So I just went with Max and we started to work together for few minutes. Pretty hard. I had the feeling that we could stay, after looking back. I saw Vaughn bridging to us, and told Max to let him bridge. He started rotation with us, just as we hit downhill.
Then I saw big group coming to us, and we slowed just a bit a bit again to get them. Unfortunately I have not seen team-mates in the group, just one more AUDI guy. But group looked good. All teams were in, except Garage. We started to rotate pretty well from the start, and after 2 laps, we had 1:45 gap. That did not sound like enough, and we started to go faster. Somehow Strabucks guy dropped on the hill, which made me worried. Because I think they would chase. On the hills, it was clear then Max, Vaughn and me were the strongest, we were dropping people, and I had to tell them to slow, so we don’t break bunch too soon. But legs felt good. By the last lap we had 3 minute gap and game began, attacks left and right. Max went few times and both times either me or Vaughn closed it, which created separations, but rest caught back on the flats. Max attacked in the wrong place. There was downhill and tailwind section coming, easy for people to catch up.
After second to last corner, there is good hill. We already had a small gap coming from previous hill, and I let max set good tempo going up to it, thinking about attack before crest, when suddenly Vaughn jumped hard from the back, and opened huge, huge gap. It was impressive. I realized that it was too late to jump, gap was too big, I made good pull, max helped and people from the back came, but did not do much at first, but it to minutes we started to close the gap, and Vaughn gave up and sat.
We started to get to the last corner. Pete B, the oldest guy of the bunch, went in front and was going really slow.
So there is where I screwed up. I sat behind him, until 200M to go in second position with 6 people behind. My theory was that we had tail-wind and it’s slight downhill so whoever starts sprint first have good chance. Unfortunately Pete was going really slow, and I just did not had initial speed.
I jumped with 200M to go, and it was looking good. I saw the Vaughn jumped on far left and was wicked fast, passing me, and with 50 meters to go 3 more guys flew by. I tried to hold my speed, and was able to at least outsprint Max taking 5th.
I was disappointed in result. If only I stayed in 4th or 5th position before sprint, I could have at least podium. I was sad to let team-mates back in the field down and do not deliver when legs felt great and everything was right. Well, you live and learn. The strongest man always wins, so Vaughn deserves it, he was the strongest.
Pictures by Kevin Tu

Icebreaker TT 2011

2011-03-15T09:35:00.000-07:00

The frost bite TT was canceled due to snow, which gave me another week to recuperate before Icebreaker TT .

TT went pretty well for me. I taped my Garmin to not be destructed by power or speed readings and went by feeling. I passed bunch of people, include one 1/2, and really left all on the line.

My time was second best for a while until wind changed and big guns came through. Though I was able to bit Rattazi time, who started in windy conditions as well.

I took Cat 3 win, and was 10 best time overall. It’s always good to have W, first of the season!

Next day, instead of going for Mason Lake race, I decided to put big miles ride.My CTL was dropping last month due to races and travel, weather was good for long day in the saddle, and Mason lake for the first race for a bunch of people, recipe for the crashes.

I had a good ride that day , covering 140 miles with some good threshold work in the end.

Coach scheduled more rest days for me before next races, and I was able to recover and get stronger. During TT workout on Thursday, I posted 5% better 20MP power, so I knew next few races would be good.

On the Edge

2011-02-25T18:59:00.000-08:00

Well, I’ve screwed up with my training last week. Coming back from VoS stage race I was tired. But really did not feel how much initially. Even though I gave myself an extra rest day, Monday and Tuesday, catching up and doing VO2 climbing repeats on Wednesday was a mistake. It completely destroyed me. But, I continued with Computainer 40K race on Thursday, and felt really really bad, hardly keeping at aerobic threshold.

Weekend was racing in Oregon, and I was hoping legs will come around. It was cold but sunny Day in Corvallis Oregon, and I had teammate in the race for a change plus some other people I knew from WA.

Legs felt pretty bad during warm up, but I decided to stick to the plan and try to go in break away. It was windy. I attacked and went full gas without looking back. One minute later we had break of 8! Rolling, but it lasted only 4 minutes. After another guy was brought back, I decided to attacked again, since so many people joined me first time. But was brought back again. I moved to 3rd or so row, and another 2 guys attacked with team-mates sitting in front, time to go around and join the break.
It was the break of the day, and we had 11 people rolling. By the end of first lap we had about 2 minutes on the pack, and 3 more guys bridged. 10 too many.
On the second lap, I started to fall apart. Bad stitch in the right abdomen got me crippled and I had to skip few pulls. Surprise-surprise I saw like 5 or 6 people sitting. At some point it was ridiculous, we had maybe 5 rotating in front and others 10 sitting. To hell with that, I'm not gonna pull them and it did not look as we’ll get caught. Eventually formation started to break. By the end of second lap I started to have bad cramps and was wondering were I will get dropped if I’ll get another pull.

So I pretty much I had to sit in the back before the last stair step climb. I made it over OK, but my sprint was just pitiful , I was hardly going over my threshold!

I finished 13 from the break 14. Not a result I want. But there were 50 more in the pack behind. We had almost 6 minutes on the pack by the end. I’m pretty sure that If I gave myself more time to rest after VoS, we would have different outcome. But at that point I was just digging deeper and deeper hole!

Next day Jack Frost TT, was another disappointment. My average power was about 15W lower than VoS TT, not that I’m surprised. I finished 6th I think.

Well, this week, I took 2 days completely off in hope of recovery. Did 20 minutes interval on Wednesday; power was about 10% below what it should be, so I knew I’m not there yet.

Thursday, after some more rest, another 20 minutes interval showed that I’m recovering, maybe 5% below. But I cut my workout short to rest more.

Did some pre-race openers today, felt much better. Feels like cardio is finally where it should be, resting HR dropped few beats. Legs are still bit sluggish.

I’m pretty sure, I’m not out of the woods yet, Frostbite TT tomorrow.

I feel like I went way to close to spiraling to overtraining. I definitely screwed up last week and results are clear indication of that. Hopefully it was enough rest to get me out of this hole.

(Photos by Pat Malach and Leonard Johnson)

Valley of the Sun 2011, Day Three, Crit

2011-02-17T18:44:00.000-08:00

Two years ago, crit did not go well for me. I did not have warm up and did not pre-ride the course, so I was dropped shortly after, not that I tried.

This year I got to the crit course earlier, and pre-rode it few times. It was somewhat similar to Walla-Walla crit. It was not overly technical, and I was confident to make it just fine. So I practiced fast cornering a bit more or hit trainer to get good warm up.
The crit was fast but not eventful. I was making sure that I move up at every opportunity I have. After all, if you are not moving up, you are moving back. There were few sketchy moments with people sitting up in the corners or losing wheel on road bumps, but I was thankfull I stayed up right, and finished crit with the pack, without loosing time. OK, I’m not a crit shark.

So, I finished 6th overall in GC, in the money! I think it is my best GC finish to date.

I’m happy how my fitness and recovery was. I definitely was eating more than enough to have enough energy, still sticking to ~6 meals a day. I used recovery tights filled with ice as alternative to ice bath, which helped a lot. +Compex Active recovery program after each race.
TT power and speed were decent, I think I have a lot room for improvement there. One critical one is too stay low. Having portable trainer was a right call. It would be very hard to do proper warm up otherwise. The “race weight” in February helps a lot ( actually I’m about 1-2Kg below, 68-69 kg now).
I wish I took better care with pedals, I’m sure I could have got better finish in road race if not for pedal failure. But nobody is perfect.
6 place in GC gives me 10 points toward my Cat2 upgrade. One day…

Valley of the Sun 2011, Day Two, Road Race

2011-02-16T08:30:00.001-08:00

The second stage, 73 mile road race was near Casa Grande on 16-miles circuit with one 400 some feet climb.I only could pack one front wheel with me for this trip, flying my bikes to Arizona, so I had to ride my 1080 for the race. It was a bit windy, but nothing to worry about. I rode my 1080 many times to know how to handle it in cross-winds.
Before the race, I pre-rode first section of the course for warm-up, into headwind, noting the speed and power.
Joel from Cycle-U said that he’ll going to attack from the gun, since he ended up last in GC after his TT bike had catastrophic failure on the start ramp.
I was going to wait, how fast pack will go in the headwind, before deciding to join him. Saw my number on the head-tubes, not a good sign.
We rolled out, and speed of the pack was much faster than I did in pre-ride, so I decided to sit it this lap, knowing that first time up the hill people will be killing it. Plus with tailwind going up, all climbers will have a field day.
Pace was pretty hard, but manageable, first time up. But it took some effort to stay on.
After decent, I started to move up in the pack to position myself for possible attack into headwind section.
And as it goes, I started to have problem with my right pedal. Few moments later, I lost my pedal and had to pull over, with the pack disappearing downhill, before turning into headwind section.

Bummer! I tried to screw pedal in, but you need correct wrench. Follow up car did not have one. I sprinted it, only to get pedal undone again in 20 seconds or so. Guy in follow up car found some adjustable wrench I’ve tried to use. Second attempt! 20 seconds later, I lost pedal again! Man.
So, I tried to screw in pedal again as tight as I can, and the last time it worked. I really thankful to the guy in follow up car for finding this wrench!
What I found later the same day, is that bearing on my pedal were near death, and every so often when I pedal, bearings were stuck and forced pedal to unscrew. But bearings were not completely dead, so it was not easy thing to diagnose.

Anyway, at that point I lost 4 minutes time, and no sign of the peloton. I was faced with lonely chase into headwind! I though my race was over, but was not going to give up yet. I had to finish the stage even if I loose any GC hopes. So I can start next day.
In about 4 minutes I saw another guy getting flat. And his wheel changed. After he caught up with me we started to work together.
Finally we were out of windy section, and started to go up hill. I Tried to keep as much speed as possible on the first flatter section leading us up. Then about half way through he went at the pace that would put me in a box. The guy was probably 15 pounds lighter than me, so I decided to keep going steady tempo and catch him up on decent. Which I did. 1080 is great.
Long story short, one lap later, going into windy section we caught up the the pack.
I could not believe it. My race was not over. At that point, I decided to sit in, and recover from the chase effort.
Last time up hill, coming to finish, people started sprint late. I was a bit back, and saw people popping left and right. Few times I thought I was done, but pushed myself to accelerate and sprint to the back of lead pack.
I think it happened 3 or 4 times. With 200M to go, I looked back and saw that our group had good gap on the remains of the pack behind. I did not have much at this point for final sprint and rolled in.

Apparently, on the wind section before the climb, break went and 3 guys gained some time on main pack. Since I finished with the lead group, I actually moved to 6 place in GC! Results did not have the guy who actually won the race from the break, so I was listed as 5th in GC instead of 6th.
Digging deep on that final climb, hanging to the pack paid off. Guys behind lost 15 seconds, enough to loose GC standings!
I only had to survive crit the next day at this point.

Valley of the Sun 2011. Day One, Landis-Trek TT

2011-02-11T19:24:00.000-08:00

Two years later, I’m in Phoenix again, doing Valley of the Sun stage race.

First day is 14.4 miles TT.
I did perfect 1-hr warm up: spin, sprints, tempo, 2x2 threshold.
It was quite windy today. Plan was to go just above my threshold TT power first 5 minutes then ramp up from there.
I caught and passed my 30s man in that fist 5 minutes, and was slowly closing on my 1 minute man. I decided to wait until turn around before passing him, which was a bit of mistake, because turnaround lines of cones went for a while. But that little rest allowed me to go a bit hard uphill after turn around until I passed.

After that, way back was pretty fast, average 29+ mph! With 1K to go I caught and passed 2 more guys, but last guy decided to sprint for it in the middle of the road with cones closing on my side. I decided to play it safe again, there was no point crashing at the finish line, guy was 2 or so minutes behind me and I was going at 32 mph!

So my time came to 32:32, 8th place, exactly one minute down in GC. I probably could have shaved 15 seconds in turn and finish, but 1 minute? Need to train more for that. The first 20 minutes of the course was the key, I should have tried to go harder there. But it is fine line between going on the edge and blowing up!

Power was decent, where I wanted it to be for this ride. And it was something like 2 minutes faster than 2 years ago, with worse conditions I think.

Winter training 2011 “Part Deux”.

2011-02-06T16:34:00.000-08:00

Well, it’s February already. I’ve been more consistent with training so far this January, hitting anywhere from 9 to 15 hrs per week. I was consistently increasing my CTL from low of 71 to high of 94 TSS/d over January, but close to 90 now after the rest week.

Winter time is good chance to put those extra long hours on the bike. I felt pretty good on our team’s ride.
After going pretty hard for 30 some miles we hit 20-minute climb on High Rock Road. I set pretty good pace for the first 5 minutes, when I pulled over, only 4 of us were left: Olivier, Lane, Andrew and I. Olivier took over and continued to push pretty hard over steep part. We lost Andrew somewhere on the last 3rd of the climb and Olivier continued to haul Lane and I at 5 W/kg until road started to flatten a bit.
Total time from hairpin after Monroe-Duval road until the fork at the top was 18:11. Normalized power was 4.9 W/kg. Enough to set KOM for the climb at Strava.com

Another good ride was solo 128-miler to Snohomish, hitting some good hills on the way. I did not feel that peachy for the first 3 hours, but after refueling at “Snohomish bakery” with Chicken Wrap I was just cruising the rest 70 or so miles. I took me about 7.5 hrs for the 200 km ride with about 2000 meters elevation gain. I felt that I had another 50K left in my legs but it was getting dark!
I read somewhere that it takes about 4 or so weeks for the effect of the “big ride” to show. That will be around “Cherry Pie” race then!

Anyway, I took few days off after big block, and tried to do one 5-minute effort on Norway Hill. It did not go so well, could not hit power or HR. So I had to take another 2 days off for complete recovery. Afterwards, 20 minutes power looks pretty good and TT power is better than I expected. 5MP is a bit low but OK. I also hit my race weight before February has started!

So now it’s time for a bit short but intense workouts during last few days leading to Valley of the Sun Stage Race. I can’t wait to be racing in warm weather and on dry pavement again! Usually the race is decided during 14-mile TT, but circuit race and crit could provide enough challenge this early in the year. Most of California guys will have few races in there legs !

Winter training 2011

2011-01-23T22:39:00.000-08:00

During ride around East Maui in December 2010 I noticed that I can go pretty deep, 280-340W on categorized climb after 90 some miles at 4000 feet of elevation. That is first time I suspected something has changed and maybe my hematocrit bounced.
Following 4 weeks I saw progressive increase in power.
By 4th week of December I was hitting pretty much exactly power numbers of two years ago, Winter of 2009.
During that time, spring of 2009 I discovered thyroid problem which took about 9 month to fix, but top 5-12 minutes power never came back.
So, back to December 2010, I went to do blood test and on the same day hit my best 1hr power number on Computrainer.
When December results came back, I saw that my red blood count and hematocrit indeed went back to almost precise level they were in 2009. Almost 47% for HTC, that after being in 42s for 2 years. Other key blood values improved to 2009 level as well and some were better now.
What gives? Doctor says that some secondary blood markers show good improvement in nutrition and maybe overall thyroid issue improvement and switching to 6-days a meal for last 6 month played some role. I just afraid it will go crashing on me again, if I could not figure out what’s different.

Anyway, my power continued to improve, and since mid January, two weeks ago, I added another “secret training” to the program, I cannot disclose just yet. Not sure if it’s working, since there was not enough time to see the results.

On general goals: so far I keep working on my FTP, by doing volume. The plan is to hit CTL of ~100TSS/day first, before venturing into blocks of high intensity intervals. Though I do them here and there for Computrainer Race league.
Plus during winter time I’m trying to mix up some Mountain Biking rides. Plan here is to do few “marathon” races this year.
I started to do weekly workouts on TT bike and it hurts. 3 months off TT bike means at least a month to get adapted to TT position. But it’s getting better!

2010

2010-12-31T23:17:00.000-08:00

Two thousand ten, you are almost over.
I remember Constitution climb in the beginning of the year. Feeling good, passing people in front of me, and fighting for the first W of the year. I remember training for hours in the rain for 12hr race. Up and down the Tiger mountain, and back on TT bike over and over again. Second W of the year at Lewis and Clark Ultra was sweet. I remember flying in Peoria on 40K TT course. 4th of July, positing PB of 54:13 and taking a win. I remember fight at WSBA TT champs, catching Alex at not letting it go. Then it was the best cross season ever.

Nationals were a disaster, but afterwards, I hit my best power numbers of the season and continue to build on.

I’ve heard the term “training age”. Maybe you have to put so many miles or hours in your legs to get to next level. I feel ready. Bring it on . 2011 will be even better! I know what to do!

2010 in numbers:

Miles 8711
KJ: 324,351
Hours: 576.8

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Dessa at CX Nations 2010. Day Two. Never give up.

2010-12-12T00:00:00.000-08:00

I’ve got to race venue earlier to pre-ride the course. I was hopping that Tufo sealed Rhino will hold, but was considering racing on Typhoons instead, to not take any chances.

After first laps on the course, I’ve discovered that few sections on muddy grass were extremely slow on Rhinos, so I switched to Typhoons and did another lap. Surprisingly it was much easier to move through the grass on Typhoons! And I think it was not just a tires but 404 deep dish prevented wheel from sinking. The only problem was that I had non-existing breaking with 404!
I decided to try rear Rhino and front Typhoon, but it was still significantly slower than with Typhoons. I tweaked my breaks a bit to accommodate 404 better, but still did not like breaking coming into fast corners.
So I’ve tried front Rhino/alloy wheel with 404/Typhoon in the rear, and it was best combination. Front Rhino gave just enough traction in the corners while allowing to scrub speed a bit and rear Typhoon/404 allowed to float over muddy grass section. While I was feeling happy with time well spend finding good combination, I’ve heard a pop! My rear tire exploded! It was not the tire I’ve sealed night before, no, it was another one! I guess either it was on borrowed life or I just hit sharp rock.
Well, I did not have to worry about spare bike anymore. I had only one more rear wheel left. I was only hopping it will survive the race. And regretting decision not take clincher backup this year!

I finished my warm up while watching U23 race, and then lined up at the start line. I was in 8th row with about 5 more rows behind. I was behind Zach from HUP, hoping that he should be good starter. As we took off I clipped in right away and had good start taking some fast wheel t, but few second later I saw people going down in front, maybe 4 rows ahead with wave of falling people closing on me. I was able to stop without crashing, but guy on the left felt, and hooked my front wheel with handle barsbring my bike down. I was holding it a bit over the ground, so it it doesn't hit pavement and guy doesn’t crash. Of course it was all in matter of milliseconds!
After unhooking the wheel and handlebars, I did a quick check of the bike, it looked fine, but did not roll. Spinning back wheel, fine. What the hell?
Front was the problem. Skewer was still on in the left side of dropouts but pulled out on the right, so wheel was sideways with cantilever breaks under the rims on one side. I could not move wheel either way. An official tried to help me, but I could not get breaks loose or move the wheel. He said that maybe I should just run to the pit. Yeah, I just though I have no bike there and tried not to panic. I've tried last adjustment of the breaks, top barrel, and it was just enough to force open breaks and put wheel in place. People from the side shouted that chain is loose too. Bummer. I shifted front and put it back. Hopped on my bike and got rolling. I think I lost two minutes, and was probably last or second too last at that point. 100 feet from the start!

I put my head down, and started to go as hard as I can to get back, picking up people and counting how many I passed. I was feeling not bad and was finding good lines, eventually passing maybe 15 people on the first lap. I could not make it to the top of the steep hill near brewery and was wondering why. Could do it in pre-ride… Until spectator shouted, I should try it in a small ring next time. Rats, I was still in big ring after fixing dropped chain at the start! It explains why I was moving so fast and was feeling gassed. On second lap, I missed remount and I guess it was entertaining to watch me sliding forward on the saddle without stopping. It was getting harder, but reminding myself that it's the last race of the year, was doing the trick, I could pedal! I was picking up more people on 3rd lap, until BOOM, my rear tire exploded in about the same place on the course where I lost Typhoon an hour before!
Well, I started to run. All people I passed were passing me back. I was thinking, "Where am I running to?", I have no bike in the pit. But I was not about to quit. Plus people were encouraging, so I decided just to run until I’m pulled and put out of my misery. I did not what DNF to my name. But as I approached pit, I recognized “neutral” SRAM people, and was happy that I was running. I let SRAM change my wheel, after they stopped me from helping. I was rolling again. But the "neutral support" wheel was overinflated and gears were too big for me! That and I was gassed from running half a mile. At the barriers, I got lapped! I barely made it through grass section on that wheel. It was like moving lawnmower. But it did the thing. After barely making the stairs, I crossed finish line again, and was pulled. I did not DNF. I finished. 87. Only 3 people were behind, about 10 DNF'd and 20 or so did not start.

Well, even though my race was short, I'd do it all over again, but next time, I should have tires that used less than a season and in good shape. There is always next year. I hope for better luck.

Dessa at CX Nationals 2010. Day One. TT

2010-12-10T18:29:00.000-08:00

So this year, instead of playing lottery with who can click mouse faster before registration server crashes, USA Cycling implemented pre race TT to determine your start position. It is on pretty short course, less than 2 miles. There is one longish steep and snowy run up, barriers, some technical sections.
It seems like on average it took people 6 to 10 minutes to complete, so the effort is like VO2 Max zone interval.
I had a bit longer than usual warm up, about 40 minutes. With 2x15 and 2x60 seconds efforts, plus some tempo in between.

There was a ramp and count down clock. First three 180 degrees corners were on the pavement, and I took it a bit slow, rationalizing that it is beginning of TT and you won’t loose too much on pavement. Later, I was able to put descent power on flat stretches. Run up was hard. I was sliding back a bit. Then scketchy and icy downhill, straight stretch, barriers, last up hill to the finish line.
I was absolutely spent by the end. 7:15 was my time.
Not stellar. 71st. Winner’s time was 5:44. I think I could have done 15 second better than 7:15 if I took more risks.
Well, at least 71 is better than 100 something lottery last year.
And after the race, I’ve noticed safety pin in my rear Dugast Rhino tire! As soon as I pulled it out, tire deflated. Bummer. I’ll need Rhino tomorrow. It's mud out there. I hope sealant will fix it for one race?

Dessa at CX Nationals 2010. Day zero. Rat race.

2010-12-09T18:42:00.000-08:00

I’ve got to Bend late Wednesday night after uneventful drive from Seattle. Staying at Mt. Bachelor Village. It’s always nice to have kitchen in the unit, but no washer or dryer this time!

Go to Old Mill district, register and get my number.
Coffee

Walk the course. With racing still on I could not do it on the bike.

Go back to condo, change, get bike ready.

Ride the nationals course. Did 2 laps, at moderate pace. It felt pretty hard. The mud slows you down sooo much. A lot of turns, of camber, short hills. No barriers?
Crashed once.

Wash bike!

Food shopping and lunch.

Drive to TT course, it should be open by now. This year, you can do TT for your starting positions.
Did TT course twice. Still a lot of snow. Not like nats course at all. No mud. Barriers, long run up. What’s up with that?
On first lap I was going maybe 25 mph on one false flat, and as soon as you hit snow whole bike starting to fishtail so bad! I thought I was going down for sure.
Changed front wheel from low profile Rhinos, to ZIPP with Typhoon. Seems faster. But will keep Rhino on the back.
I think I can do 8 minutes if conditions do not change. Maybe 7:30. How have some people done 6 minutes is beyond me.

Back to Nationals main course to watch single speed race. On second lap people were in bitter pain! It is hard course. Who knows what it will be by Saturday?

Dinner and rest to follow.

It’s so much more fun this year vs 2009. Weather is not as cold, TT course and main course make it so much more interesting. I can’t believe some people decided to skip it!

Maui Century 2010

2010-11-26T12:00:00.000-08:00

Second year I’m doing this century, which is actually a race, if you want it to be. Locals are racing it anyway. Night before the event, I found that routeis different from last year, and with no map published, I was not sure how it will go.
Not that it worried me, I was going to follow people. With quite a few cross races this season, I did not have much desire to go all out on the first full day in Maui. There were still 10 days to go!
Before the start at parking lot near Price Hotel, I was looking for Bobby, break-away companion from the last year. I saw Bill, and he said Bobby had a surgery and not riding. Well, more reasons to take it easier.
We rolled out towards Makena, and it seemed like pace was more manageable than last year. Even though I was not going to race, being in the pack, brings those competitive instincts out of you! No one attacked on the first hill, where I tried to stay in first 2 rows, in case someone goes away! No one did. Soon we were on bike path to Kahului, and I was drafting in some 10-15 position, with slight headwind in front of us. We turned to Hansen road, pretty rough patch of road. You can only comfortably ride in the middle of the lane, where it’s smooth. So pack was going single file. Gaps started to open. I hate when people are doing that, not in the single file. You have to stay on! I had to go around some guys. Soon we turned to Hana highway towards Pai’a. One guy decided to cat through grass field, just for the kick of it. There was no reason to do it!
Pace slowed down until we passed Pai’a and first rollers began. Some guys were lunching suicide attacks just to died 20 seconds later. We did not stop for the water, which started to worry me. I only had 2 bottles. I should have stopped and catch them later, but in the heat of pack riding, you don’t think about it.
First longish hills started and I moved to first-second row. Pretty soon, we were in rain forest with zillion switchbacks. One guy, obviously local, was taking turns pretty fast. My cornering sucks, and I was not sure about other people’s skills, and decided to stay right behind him, in case someone crashes. Bill was not far away. Soon we reached turn around point, and I was still second, with main pack just few seconds behind. That cat and mouse game continued, for another 20 or so minutes. I think I spend a bit to much energy, powering through those rollers but pace was high! Another guy in black “Chicago” kit passed me, and I was third, not that it counted at that point. I was trying to be a bit safe in the turns, but kick in on the hills.
Soon everything was together again, and we reached first good hill. Here were Jason (in white Hawaii kit) put good effort, but I stayed right next to him. We opened good gap on the field behind. Crap, I started to cramp! Taking electrolytes was not enough. I was starting to get dehydrated. Eventually about 10 people caught up, and that set up pack for the next 20 minutes until West Maui.
Pass Pai’a we turned north on the bike path, which goes around airport. I did not know about this. It is good shortcut to Kahului! I asked where was the water stop. Guy in back “Chicago” kit said before base of the climb. It did not register to me, that “climb” is something we are going to do. I thought it’s just some climb.
People were asking if we gonna take water stop, sure yes! I was cramping so bad and was completely out of water! It was hot outside! Soon we reached to stop.
Jason, dropped off his camel back and continued without stopping. Only later I realized it was climb there we had to do and he was trying to get ligher!
Meanwhile, people just jumped to the water station and and it took some time to refill the water. I finished 2-litter bottle and continued, the climb started! Suddenly I started to fill really nauseas, light headed. It was so hard to keep concentration on. My body was probably absorbing all the water after I was dehydrated. 70-miles on 2 bottles of water in 90 degrees heat is not smart choice. I was hardly spinning my cranks in the easiest gear trying to stay up-right. I’m glanced few times on power meter, I was hardly over 200W! Well, I knew I had to continue, I will feel better later. I saw guy in Colorado kit, 20 feet in front. He was struggling as I was. Another guy passed us. I saw Jason descending after turn around. Then there was sudden screeching of breaks. I looked back. He almost crashed in the hairpin turn! Some minutes later I reached the turn, and was going down on descend. Still lightheaded and nauseas I was going down really slow, until we passed water station again. Here guy with TT setup passed me, and I jumped on his wheel, he was doing maybe 25mph, and it was good draft. I asked if he was doing 50 miles ride, and he was. We passed Colorado guy, who tried to stay for a bit, but could not. Soon another climb started and began to feel OK again. Amazing how fast water helped. I wish it was before the climb though. Then it was a lot of tailwind and fast speed. I started to feel pretty good on the way to Makena, and finally passed Bill. Apparently he crashed on descend and was not filling that good. But I never caught lead pack of 5 or so. I lost too much time on that climb. I made it back to the start for BBQ party. I did not feel as tired as last year. I think my fitness is better this year.
Thinking about what happened, it was clear case of dehydration. On Saturday in Japan, I spend half a day in the gym, with an hour ride on stationary bike, without fan, doing 30 one minuet intervals. I was sweating so bad there, lost a lot of water. I also hit sauna 2 times while there. Then there was 6+2 flight from Japan to Honolulu and Maui. Night before the Century, we were relaxing and drinking wine which finished my dehydration process. During ride, I noticed that people were sweating hard, and I was not even breaking a sweat, which I found amusing at the time. Little did I know that it was another sign of serious dehydration. Smart thing for me would be to stop at water stations and catch up later! Another thing, it was probably not the best place refill both bottles before modarate climb and carry all the way up the hill. Better way would be tod ring before, maybe have one bottle, and refill after descent. Oh well. Next time I’ll know. It was a good ride. I hope they convert some of it into actual race with feed zones!

Here is the link to the ride stats

Cyclocross Season 2010

2010-11-21T19:58:00.000-08:00

I’m on the plane to Tokyo. First part of my cross season is over. After Starcrossed I did Samamish Park MFG race, and it went really bad for me. Something about running in the sand did not work out. But after that race things started to improve slowly.

Five mile park. I did x2 races again. It was too slick, and I kept crashing in 35+ race. I decided to use Rhinos front wheel instead of Typhoons for the second race. And it made huge difference. After that race, I started to use Rihnos more, if conditions were slick. It’s better stay upright, finish good, than to sport carbon wheels and have power file.

Seattle cyclocross series opened with Evergreen school. And I decided race 3s in that series. The steep hill run there was killing me, but I think my overall finish was better.
-The Cross result points: 439
I decided to put more miles with good weather, and was pretty tired by the Silver lake race. I think course was not bad for me, but my legs were tired.

Beverly SCX race. It was muddy. Even though I could ride most of the mud, apparently running was faster.
- The Cross result points 365

King county fairgrounds, MFG race
Was technical course, I stayed up right, and felt like my cornering and power was better. I have not done this course before, and felt like it was hardest race of the year so far!
- The Cross result points 371

Steilacoom Park. Seattle CX series. It was “roady” course with minimal time of the bike, no running and good hills! I had pretty bad start, guy on the right could not keep balance and pushed me off the bike. I did not crash, but was immediately at the back of the pack. With the twisty stuff shortly after start, there was split I could not close. But, I felt good on the hills and corners, and finish 15 or so. My main problem there were corners coming after descents.
- The Cross result Points 382

Maris farm. This is new coarse again for me, I missed it last year. It was muddy and Rihnos was way to go. I was pretty good start and was hanging in 4th position. Oliver passed me before barriers, and I was thinking it would be good to sty behind me. IJM train! But as I was going over the barriers, someone hooked my front wheel, and I went down! I lost my good position and more critically focus. People were passing me. I think it took me one lap to get my concentration back. But again I felt like my cornering was much better. And funnt part, I was passing people on the long flat muddy run! That’s usually where people pass me! I finished 13, which was solid result. It move me to 10s in the series. Unfortunately, I had to skip last 2 races, which surely will drop me out of top 10.
Yesterday was the last MFG race in Woodland park. Great course. Huge crowds. It took me a lap to discover good lines I have not seen in preride. Eventually I caught enough people to finish 12. Good result again.

So I think my CX results are definitely improved from last year. I’m in 1/3 vs last 1/3 in CAT3 now. I’m still not good enough to get any upgrade points, but I feel like it was significant improvement nevertheless. So what’s different?
- my cornering is better. Counter steering, selecting right lines helps
- my fitness and weight is better, since I have not gone to Europe this fall, which allowed me to carry over some of the road fitness without gaining 10 pounds on French or Greek food!
- Bike setup is better. Scott CX bike works better for me
- Doing core workouts at least once a week helps with beign able to finish race strong.
- I’m doing Computrainer Racing League workouts, which are pretty intense and help to maintain and improve fitness.
- My power numbers are up, best in the last 18 month. I think it is due to more rest. I listen more to my body where to do workout or not, depending on how I feel, rather then blindly sticking to schedule.

So now I plan to do mid CX season training camp to put some miles and go into USGP and nationals with improved fitness.

59.2 seconds. Starcrossed 2010

2010-09-19T09:35:00.000-07:00

59.2 seconds. That’s how long my race was! I was eager to race my new bike. I brought my spare bike to the race, but I forgot to put pedals back to the old bike, so no I had to put just wheels in the pit…. First time in last 30 (?) races no pit bike! I was afraid, I could not cheat Murphy’s laws…….

I was sitting good in second row at the start line in 3s. Lucky. Start was OK, I lost few positions but got it back before first turn……

This week, I did 2 CX workouts in Woodland and then at Velodrome, in exactly the same weather….
Friday night I went to the Jonathan Page session to pre-ride the course. I did proper warm up, and a hot lap on the course. I was ready…

As I was dismounting before turn to the logs, someone hit me from behind, and I felt. Not bad at all. I did not even loose a position, I think. I picked up bike and ran, noticing brake hoods are angled, then realizing that handlebars are broken. I turned to the pit which was right there! But I did not have spare bike. My race was over!
59.2 seconds.

It has begun. Cross Season 2010

2010-09-14T15:44:00.000-07:00

Well, the first cross race of the season is under the belt. Actually two races are. Since I missed on Labor Day and Starcrossed coming in a week, I decided to pull a double. It was MFG#1, in Big Finn Hill park, hosted by Cycle U. My old team, they've put on a good show!

First race was Cat 3, 35+ Masters. I was in a front row (duh!), and had descent start. I decided to always keep it full gas, just like in time trials, go deep. It got a little congested in first single trek section, and I was maybe 20s coming into snaky grass section. Then gravel road called for big chain-ring. No rest on pavement, I went full throttle. More grass, more pavement and big chaining-ring. Barriers. It was not good. I was cleary slower than others at the barriers. Slow to dismount, slow to remount and get to the speed. Mud, was good, but it got congested on short steep uphill, had to run. Then main hill came, and I was passing people. Pavement-downhill, people were coasting. Not me, no rest on the pavement. I had to get those lost seconds at the barriers back. False flat/grass. Quick looks at power-meter, going over 300W, good. Passing people, but pace is fast. I see leaders with teammate Jeff leading, maybe 20 seconds ahead? And I keep gas on. 15 minutes later it really hurts, and I see people slowing down. Perfect, time to pick some more places!
“Your pain is not special”. Downhill, pushing even harder, need to gain few seconds I’ll lose on the barriers. Mud? No problem. People go around, I cut right through, Dugast+404 like mud. I gain few seconds and gain another place before steep hill. Ride it! Ok, now it hurts. I slow down on the longer hill, and someone is passing me. I had to remind myself, downhill is right after. But it's a trick. Last cog on downhill, all out, I get my placing back. Passing lapping riders. Had to pass 5 gals before single track. Not enough road! Stuck. Do not get upset. You cannot pass them. Sit and recover then hit grass hard!
I see people are bunching up in front, and no one is going hard on pavement. I go far right as hard as I can, and gain 3 places, I hope Jeff won’t chase. I see 3 laps to go? Piece of cake. I hear announcer calling my name, saying that I’m trying to “close a gap”? leaders must be close. OK, guys 10 seconds behind? Now they passing me after the barriers. I’m slow there again! No problem. Cutting through the mud again. Shortest distance is a straight line! Uh, that hill again. I trick myself in believing that is only 3 more times, this and 2 more. Go hard. Climb it out of saddle! Pavement? Big chain-ring, stay low. I see gap behind me is getting bigger. Another lap. One more time up the hill after that? Barriers. Need to go all the way to the right. Grass is more packed there. OK, much better. Can roll my bike now. Last lap. I feel good. It feels like I go threshold and just on the edge of dipping into VO2 zone. Last downhill. I sprint and pickup one more place! Had to lean on the bars after the finish. Checking average power- 240W. Not bad, for a cross race. I though I finished 5th? No, I was 9th. Hmm, how did I miss 4 people? Can I do race again in 2hrs? Maybe. Here is power file. 261W normalized.

Well, cat-3 race was hard. I was in the first row again, but someone anxious hit me from behind, split second before race started. So I was behind a bit. First downhill, I see Brad T-boning the barriers. Brad, always crashes! OK, I’m trying to go hard, but don’t have snap anymore. 2 laps later I am thinking about quitting. Brian always quits duing second race, right? Oh well, one more lap. Girl is passing me. What? I guess she is racing with Men 3? No good. Pass her back.
Single speeds passing me. But I'm still going at what feels like threshold. I’m playing tricks with my mind. Pass this guy, close this gap. Go around? Look this guy passed you. Stay on him! I hear cheering. Patrick is having fun in beer garden! Oh, 3 laps to go? I can make it! Ops, I’m catching up with Nick. He is 2, racing 3. Out of shape? He sees me, and puts his head down, and go as hard as he can ( yeah, he knows its my second race today). Cannot catch him. Bummer. Last lap. I see Colin in front. Wasn’t he like top 3 every race last year? Must be a bad day. I want to go around, but he sees me. And goes in full sprint, come on…. All I can do is stay on his wheel. Those juniors are creazy fast when it come to sprint. It’s over. Thank God!
Average power 10% lower then in first race and time is ~2 minutes slower! But it was good training! Here is the file for second race

Can’t wait for more. Need to get those skill sharpened. I think power is there.

Eugene Celebration Stage Race 2010, Day 3

2010-09-07T22:27:00.001-07:00

Coburg Time Trial.
The course was the same as year before and I had no need to preride it. It was pretty flat 15-mile rectangle, without turn around. It is half way chipseal until you cross county line. It felt like we had slight tailwind first half way and some headwind coming back. Being pretty low in GC, I started 11th from the back. Power data did not look right and I stopped being bothered with it after first five minutes. Overall it felt not bad, and by the end I passed 9! people. I was waiting for 1K to go sign to jump in 54x11 and leave it all out, until I saw parked cars, I knew there was no sign!
My time came to 34:37, about 30 seconds better than last year. I was not really happy with that, since I thought I could go sub 34 minutes. Though I did not feel sore at all on the day, I’m sure I had some fatigue from previous two days.
I ended up 5th in TT, which is not stellar.

The Critirium
Few hours later it was crit. Usually I don’t like crits, but this one I felt better. It was not technical, but still I could not lean low enough to carry much speed through the corners. It is strange how long it takes sometimes to get back from the crash. Anyway, with 3 laps to go I saw pack hesitated and attacked from mid-pack, going on the far side through the corner. It was fast enough to create some separation, and I saw 2 guys jumped and bridged to me. But next, I took corner just a bit wide, and they went past me and I was too gassed from the attack to bridge back. Half a lap later ( 2 to go), pack was sitting on me with two guys in front. Well, pack was flying by the end, but only caught second guy on the line, and the first guy from break I lunched got the win. I finished in the pack, no much sprint for me, afterwards.
Well, the guy who won the crit, won every single stage of the stage race! Adam preserved his placing and finished 3rd in GC! I ended up 17th in GC (out of 39). Loosing 1:40 on the last climb in road race was were I lost the most of the time for top GC placing.

I really enjoyed the stage race this year. It was warm and sunny weather. Great, challenging courses. Pretty fit crowd since it was the end of the season. The race was safe, I have not seen any crashes in our field. I felt that I recovered from day to day much better this time, and pretty much know what I have to do to get the result next year.
It was everything I love about cycling. Too bad the 2010 season is over! Next stop is cyclocross.

Eugene Celebration SR, Briggs Hill Road race.

2010-09-05T17:03:00.000-07:00

The course was slight modification from last year. Organizer added Briggs Hill ( hence the name). On profile it looks like 10 minutes 500 feet climb, but in reality is two steps ~5-minute climb. Last half a mile, 200 feet up is about 7.3% grade. There was another hill 2-3 minutes on Lorane HWY. That was much steadier hill, I found easier to do. I only knew two other guys from WA, Adam and Brian. Brian was late as usual, and did his warm up attacking the field in first 2 miles or so. After first 3 minutes climb there was descent then rolling terrain. and I saw big guy driving fast through the field. I think he won race one year. Anyway, I jumped on his wheel, and he went away from the pack. I’m in a break of two! We rotated for a bit, but it did not last. Pack was not letting us go ( I think they knew him or something). First time up the Briggs hill, it felt hard, but I manage to make it in top 10, on the rivet. I took descent slow ( after crashing on cougar 3 weeks ago in wet hair-pin, I could not go down fast) but so did pack. After 3 minutes hill, on the rolling hill someone opened gap and big group was a way, and no one wanted to chase. Headwind. I waited, finally one guy jumped, Adam jumped, I jumped on Adams wheel, after going around guys. I thought those 2 will close the gap, but they couldn't. Well, I went around Adam and pulled them for a minute, bringing pack back. That was a mistake. My legs did not feel good at all afterwards. I went to hard! I should have just raced my race and sit in the pack. I paid for it next time up the Briggs hill. I started to sag back on steep section and barely make with the last guys of the pack. And with fast descent we have to rotate for a bit to get back in. 3Minutes hill was not a problem again. Somehow I could spin 105 rpm there and hit VO2 HR, not so much for Briggs hill. People hit it hard even on first section, and I could not go deep anymore. Before steep part I was in threshold zone, and people were passing me. Heavy legs. I tried to limit my damage and go as hard as I can over the top.
I finally could take descent at good speed, only slowing down in very first 120 degrees turn. Then solo back to the finish. My luck changed and it was strong headwind. I managed to average 21 mph but power was in low threshold at that point. I finished 1:49 down the winner. 29th out of 39. Not what I expected. Adam did pretty well and finished 3rd.
TT is tomorrow. I’m 27 in GC, 3:41 down.

Eugene Celebration SR, McBeth Prolog

2010-09-04T21:59:00.000-07:00

Third year in the row this is the last stage race of the year for me. 2010 edition brings new road race, with addition of Briggs hill to the road race
I was hoping to come back with good fitness after Maui training, but got sick 1 hr after finishing the climb. 1 week of missing training doesn't help, but you you've got to play the hand you're dealt.

McBeth Prolog. 5K,
Last year I was late to the Start and was 40 seconds behind before my first pedal stroke. This year I got like 3hrs earlier, and went to check out part of the road course for the warm up.
I decided to use road bike this time around for prolog. Even though first 2K is just slight uphill, last year I hardly average 23mph for the first ~2 minutes, after that it was all 6% grade with some flat section in the middle. So I figured, I could gain a bit more just by producing more power on regular bike. Somehow it did not work that way. I was faster then last year, all right. 18 seconds in actual time and almost a minute faster because I started on time. But power was not there. I only averaged 310W for 13:03. It was Less than on Cougar TT for the same duration. Legs did not have much and I pretty sure I did not hit high VO2 zone. Usually my throat burns afterwards if I go read VO2.
I made a mistake looking back twice and both times it demoralized me. I got passed twice! I did not have 30 second man either. Looking at the power curve, first five minutes were fine, 325W about what I should do for duration, but right after the flat I never came back to target power, I looked back just before that! It also seems that my power was a bit erratic, 360/260 watts surges and drops. Need to work on those unsteady climbs to get better. I think taking a minute off my time is not impossible with proper pacing, spinning and focus.
My time was 27th out of 39! Not good, not good at all.
Looking at other people’s times every one is pretty consistent and time differs by few seconds only from year to year.
SL3 bike, Zipp 303 wheelset. TT helmet on, skinsuit, shoecovers.

Cycle To the Sun, Haleakala race 2010, Maui, Hawaii

2010-08-21T23:57:00.000-07:00

End of August is time of hill-climbs around US. State champs, Mt. Washington, you name it. I’ve decided to try something new this year. Race to Haleakala, arguably the toughest Hill Climb there is. Well, it’s definitely the longest one, 10,000 feet over 36 miles! Best times are usually in sub-3 hours!

I’ve done the climb last year, but it was solo effort and on heavier bike without support. My time last November was 3:38. I was hoping to cut 20 or so minutes off. I knew 3-hrs is still out of my reach, since I had to average 290W for this duration. But I was hoping that lighter bike, wheels, support and being in the pack, at least for a while will reduce my time significantly.

The Cycle to the Sun is mass start race. That means that theoretically you can draft a bit and save energy for later. But It’s all uphill, so it also means that you cannot climb your own pace if you are in the pack. I was not sure how long I could stay with leaders before the race. My expectation was that it will break apart in Makawao, where first 10-12% section is, about 30-minutes into the ride. But I wanted to stay with the pack for as long as I can….

The day of the race, I woke up at 3 am. Days before I was trying to get a bit more sleep, knowing that it will be hard to rest night before the race. And it has worked well, I was fresh and ready to go. My usual meal was T-3 hrs pasta, followed by some cereal and yogurt. I felt that I kept my race weight, around 70kg leading to the race. I was sticking to quality food and 6-a-day meal with biggest meal in the morning and lightest in the evening. I had my race bike was there, with ZIPP 303 wheels, which comes just around ~6.8 kg.

I had 2 big bottles with Hammer Perpeteum + one extra pack of it, Vitorria Pit Stop just in case I flatted, 4xfoil pouches of (4-Enudrolites, 2xEnd.Amino,2xAnti-fatigue) to take in every hour, starting 30 minutes before the race. Organizers had HEED and water at the station, but I just could not handle taste of HEED, and planned to stop and put one Perpeteum in the neutral water. I had extra energy bar, just for insurance.

I’ve got to Pai’a a bit early, and started to get my bike ready. I’ve asked for a pump from guy across parking lot. He looked familiar. Later I found it was Bobby from last year Maui Century.

I’ve registered, when for a spin to warm up and lined up at the start. There were a lot of people in front of me. I guess they were serious! The race starts from Pai’a bypass road, a bit west from the Baldwin & Hana intersection.
After speech and prayer to the Sun, the race was off. Pace up until Baldwin turn was OK, and I took it safe, you never know, there were too many people. Hundreds. As we turned, pace went up. People were killing it in first 200m! And it started to split up. I had to go around to get into lead group. It was big lead group. Maybe 40 or so guys and gals. The pace was fast. We were going at around 300W (4.3 W/kg) for me, 3hrs pace! I was wondering if they possibly keep it up, but stayed on. Plan was to hang on at least until Macao! We reached it in about 30 minutes. Here was the first steep hill, the wall. People were killing it! I was able to push it through and stay with the leaders, the pack was reduced to maybe 20 people after this hill. I think at that point I meant cardinal mistake, trying to continue to stay with the lead pack, instead of going my own pace. There was no way I could keep up 3 hrs pace!
Half an hour later we were still going at 300W. Close to feed zone, I started to drop to the back of the pack. We have averaged close to 300W for a bit under an hour. We made 3000 feet in 55 or so minutes. I bet people in front was going 20-30W more.
It was turn to the park, and that’s were elastic snapped. Pack broke up again and I was going my own pace.
I was trying to go at 270W at this point for a while, but it was hard to keep up! I was paying for earlier over threshold effort. I passed maybe 2 people, but have heard that someone is closing on me. It was a girl! Man she was fast. Well, I was trying to keep it up. It started to become quite windy. Another feed zone, time to get water on board. They only had HEED, and I gave them my pack of Perpeteum to mix in instead. I probably lost 30 seconds, but it was worth it!
I think at around 7000 feet guy and a gal caught up with me. Guy was pacing girl up the climb, and with wind being pretty bad, staying behind someone was giving significant advantage. I stayed on them, until guy could not go fast anymore, and they asked me to help pacing her, she was trying to close on gal ahead. Well, I had nothing to loose, I blew up earlier, so I gave it a go, and paced her, until we closed on her competition. My job was done, and waved for her to go. She just went around her competition to capture the first place.

Last 1000 feet were hard, last 300 feet even harder. That’s were grade is really steep. One last turn and I can see finish line! Clock say 3:29 and change. I hear someone is going behind me and peeps me on the line. It is Bobby! Well, at least I made it below 3 and a half hour! He stayed with the pack until Makawo, then went his on pace working with another guy I think. Bobby said he saw 3:29 and was not about to go over 3 and 1/2 hourse. It is strange how we finished at the same time again. Well, he beat me at the line.

My pacing strategy was bad. I should have stopped trying to stay with the pack at Makao or earlier. The only way it made sense if the 3hrs pace (~ 4.3 W/Kg) is below my threshold, but it was over. Then it would have been much better to work with someone who is going close to my pace, to trade pulls, but it might be not possible.

So I finished 7th in my age group and 21 (>?) overall. How much can I improve? Maybe one day I can break 3 hrs, if I can improve my threshold, drop a bit more weight and get better at altitude. I have time. I’ll be back!

RAMHOD or Ride Around Mt. Haleakala in One Day

2010-08-18T23:41:00.000-07:00

OK, I’m in Maui again, getting ready for Cycle to the Sun race, the biggest cycling hill climb under the sun!
I decided to get here earlier to put in some training miles, acclimate to heat and relax a bit. I also hope to build up enough fitness to kill it at the last stage race of the season, Eugene Celebration SR.

First day in Maui a Thursday, I just went on the easy spin after getting in the Kihei. Next I wanted to explore some area I did not visit first time, so I rode to Iao Valley. It is nice but not steady climb, there are some downhill and flat sections. Weather was so good, I decided to roll more and did whole loop around West Maui and then back to Kihei. Last tiem I did West Maui it was in wet weather, this time it was sunny and hot! Plus I was doing it in opposite direction. Here is the link

Next day, I decided to go over Haleakala Highway to Maui’s Upcountry. Never been there. The Highway part was a bit boring, but as soon as you get pass Pukalani, scenery gets much better, and it is all mostly uphill. Eventully you crest at around 300 feet and start descent to Ulupalakua. Ranches all around, cows!
A bit after state highway becomes Kalama park road, which is two lane, but in good condition. At that point I diced to turn and head back, and stop for lunch at Ulupalakua Store.

I had pretty good Elk burger and decided to take another turn to highway 377, which is another 700 or so feet climb more to the turn into Haleakala climb. But I left it for another day and started descent to Pai’a and return trip to Kihei. Another 90 miles in the bank!

Finally I was ready to do route I wanted to ride last year. Go all the way around Haleakala in one day ( or as I called it, my first annual RAMHOD). I knew some sections is unpaved, and ride in the desert on the south could be hot.
I decided to start in Pai’a since it is 100+ miles. I wanted to have faster escape route in case it takes me too long or I have some bad flat.
With the ride via rain forest you have to expect rain, and forecast was 50% chance of rain! I had my rain jacket packed just in case! But I was lucky and it stayed dry all the way to Hana. I was not killing it this time, just going steady tempo and enjoying the scenery. Somehow, on Sunday roads were mostly empty. It took me something like 3 hrs to get to Hana, just in time for Lunch!
Then my ride continued in the area I was not at before. I finally got tailwind and was moving faster. Some roads looked just like rain forest but a bit different. I passed through entrance to Haleakala park and few miles later I hit first unpaved section. I was expecting 4 miles of that, but it was changing to paved road, and than to dirt again. Many time over. It was not bad, in dry weather. I rode it carefully, since braking is a bit different and you have to select the line good. And the view was spectacular. I liked it so much more then rain forest. I guess they were riding road like this in old tours, before tarmac was invented!
Eventually you pass Kaupo, and pavement start, but it looks like it is made by guys one shovel at a time. I called it “Maui’s cobbles”. It was much worse than upaved road, probably hardest part of the whole route. You cannot really go fast, because it so bumpy, and was super hot with desert around, and I think it was going on for like 15 or so miles! I thought I had enough water and was prepared for it, but half way through, cup on my perpetuem bottle got lost because of all this bumps and I notice it too late. So I had to ration remaining water until Ulupalakua. After I made it to a good pavement I was more relaxed, knowing that I can do this trip after all! I restocked my water supplies at Ulupalakua, stopped for cappuccino few miles later and desended back to Pai’a where I started! What an epic ride!
Here is the link. 107 miles and 10K feet of climbing.

Cougar Mnt TT and Baker climb

2010-08-10T18:07:00.000-07:00

I’ve skipped Cougar TT last year, I think I was doing OBRA ITT instead. But this August it was perfect timing. The TT is pretty short, 1000 feet and ~2 miles. It is probably VO2 effort if you can keep it under 12 minutes. I was hoping to break 13 this year.
Before the race, I found that Davis just set course record at 10:10, and Sam was going 2 minutes behind me, which is sure thing to get passed. Short efforts is not my strong suit, but I need to work on that. I think Eugene’s prolog TT is similar.
Anyway, I did not want to see my power while climbing and covered Garmin 500’s LCD with black tape.
I started in controllable manner, and kept effort hard, but not at complete limit. I passed bunch of people, and then turn –flat-turn came. Then stair sep sections started. I sprinted to the top of first one and definitely went over target intensity, but tried to keep going. Maybe a minute later Sam passed me. Well, what can you do. I’ve tried to not loose much time behind him, and by the finish there were a lot people together. My time came to 13:17.7, 19th place.
Average power was not great, 316W/NP319W, about 15W lower than I should be able to do for this duration.
Winner’s time was 10:10, it is interesting to count what it is in watts/kg.
According to Garmin TT climb is about 285 meters in elevation gain, with 8% grade.
So, 10:10 time will be VAM of 1681 m/h,
According to Ferrari, 8% grade we have to divide by 2.8 ~ 6W/kg. Davis is 61kg, which will render 366W.
(But in other sources climb is 1000 feet/300 meters at 7.2%. That would give VAM of 1770 m/h and 6.5 W/kg or 396W!).

Using first set of numbers for me, would give 1287 m/h, ~4.6 W/kg.
319W/70kg~4.55W/Kg, which is pretty close. I inclined to think it is 285 meters then.

Next day I decided to skip Skagit Flats, and go do Mt. Baker climb in preparation for Haleakala race. I never done Baker and it was good time to do so. I liked the climb, it was not that steep, could be good for me. After the ski station temperature dropped a lot with all the snow around. I was riding in the cloud, surrounded by snow! But it was fun. I wish I could do this race if I’m in town.

WA ITT Champs 2010

2010-08-01T18:50:00.000-07:00

Individual Time Trial Championship 2010, was back to the same route in Tenino after detour to Yakima last year. Yakima course was really hard for me. I liked Tenino better. Though with rolling hills I was not quite sure about it. Plus, supposedly new Shiv should be 40 seconds faster over this course than my P3C, so I had to do some improvements to my aero stuff.

In a weeks before, I tested few different setups on velodrome to make sure I fast and can generate power. Plus, I decided to take no prisoners, and added few tweaks to my setup. Second here and second there could cost you a place, you know. In the end you might gain those 15 seconds that will make a difference.

New center pull front brake,

Pearl Izumi Aero covers (had them for a while but never used), they supposed to be more aero than regular covers

Taped helmet vents ( it was not that warm to worry about cooling).

Sewed race number! Yep.

Fizik Extra grip seat cover, so I don't slide in TT position.

And oh yeah, I took ice bath day before, to flush any RAMROD fatigue.

I prerode the course last Sunday ( and got bitten by two dogs!), and my power was not that good. It was OK for the first 20 minutes, but as soon as rollers started, I could not recover. So coach advised to keep it really low first 10 minutes. I decided to stick to 5 minutes.
I started in really controlled manner, on the first 2.5 miles part of the course, averaging 260W. I started last in my Category , 30 seconds behind Alex R., probably my main threat and 30 seconds ahead of Nathan ( Masters-A).
Even though I was taking it slow, at the left turn I counted 15 seconds to Alex R, so I gained 15 seconds right off the gun, and I knew I did not push that much. Staying very low and aero helped. After the turn I ramped my power to ~270+W. I think 3 minutes later Nathan passed me. It did not concerned me much, I thought he went way to hard and his is not in my category. But suddenly he slowed down, and my power was dropping and I just went pass him. I thought he blew up. But not long after he passed me again. I tried to stay to the left side to avoid drafting, while he was on the right. Alex R was pretty close, he passed him. I passed Alex R too, and passed Nathan again! But before the turn first Nathan and Alex passed me again! I knew short hills a coming pretty soon, and I should stop this passing thing and go conservatively. Besides Nathan was in front on the right, Alex maybe 20 feet in front on the left, and I maybe 20 feet behind on the right. I could not pass them! Hills started and I really started to get gassed. Nathan finally went away, and Alex was not going his speed. I could not risk to go too hard on the hills and was actually loosing some time to Alex until crest. But over the crest it was visible that he is not powering it through. I also tried to tuck as much as I can on descent. Turn around was close. I was happy that I practiced turn around many times last week. Inside leg down, cyclocross turn with pedaling and brakes on. Somehow, Alex was very slow at the turn and I must have gained 5 seconds there (later he said front brake on his Shiv was the problem at the turn). I saw Todd closing at turn around I was sure he’ll pass me by the end. But he never did! Anyway, coming back over the hills was not good. It was killing me. I had to stay on the left, close to yellow line, so I do not get any draft from Alex, and he probably was close to 50 feet away all the way until turn.
Finally turn came and I was trying to put power again. I finally passed him again, and was trying to build up speed and go away from him. I was concerned that maybe Alex is not having good day, and I have to worry about Spencer and Rainier. I was trying to go fast!
Looking all way down few times I saw his shadow behind. I’m not pulling away. I guess it went up a bit again, and he passed me back! We passed last guy on the course and it was final turn to the finish. I could not go in 54x11 as I planned. Legs were dead. I was hopping to pass him again before finish, but settled on just not loosing much time!

I won! I got first. Alex R got 3rd and Rainier got second. Well, time/speed was not something and was happy with. And average power was almost 20 watts lower than during Firecracker TT. I don’t think it was issue of tired legs.I should be able to do it at least a minute faster, Thinking more about it, going over threshold is what kills me in TTs with rolling hills. It’s always the same story, at Wenatchee, North shore, Elkhorn.
Looking at power and HR, I have real HR spike followed by power drop, after going in low VO2 zone even for a short time. Maybe I should start doing Over/Under intervals on TT bike to address it?

Anyway, I’m glad it is 5th win of the season, and finally I’m state champ ( even though it is CAT3 only!)
Here is the file

RAMROD 2010

2010-07-31T21:41:00.000-07:00

Few moths back, in March I think, Edgardo said that he got “bypass” ticket to RAMROD, and should put my name for the lottery, which I did, and I got in!
RAMROD is “Ride Around Mt. Rainier in One Day”, I’ve heard about it many times, and always wanted to do it. I like epic stuff. 150 miles, 10K feet of climbing sounds like good fun. Only problem is that I have State Time Trial Champs 2 days after RAMROD. SO I was set to do it as slowly as I could, to save my legs. Which was OK with Edgardo, since his training was non-existent last few month.

I decided to ride 303 tubulars, to save so energy, but carried “pitstop”, spare tubular, and CO2 catridges. For food, I decided to stick to Hammer Perpeteum which served me well at Lewis and Clark. Since RAMROD support stops did not have it, I packed 3 packets with me, and got 2 bottles, filled in. I figured, that after 5-6 hours I could safely switch to real food, since it will be close to home.

In the morning of the ride, I got email that he cannot make it ( mustbe babysitter canceled on him?), so I was on my own. I’ve heard that Martin C. is doing it too, but was a bit late to join his group, but they probably were too fast for me anyway.

First 20+ miles were easy, tailwind, I found some pace line to stay in. But I was trying to stay safe ( you never know who is that guy next to you) and keep it below 200W. There was one short steep before Eatonville, which broke my paceline of 20 people to 3 or 4.
I refilled my bottles at rest stop, and saw Martin Ch., another Martin on the team. I did not know he was doing ride to. So, we decided to ride together. The ride to entrance of the State park flew by as we chatted a bit. He was going a bit fast on steeper short sections than I wanted to keep, so I kept in under 200W and then was catching up as it was leveling up.
As we started the Paradise climb, I went to keep very steady 190-200W pace, I guess Martin liked the pace. I watched my HR like a hawk, to make sure it was not going over aerobic threshold ( 145 for me). We passed pretty much everyone, even at that pace except maybe 1 or 2 people who were going faster.
My wrist felt good. I could stand up time to time to stretch up. But I did not climb standing up much, because HR was going up, and I wanted to save it for state TT.

At the rest stop before Paradise we saw Jeff, another teammate, and we started descent. There was another short climb, descent and we started Cayuse Pass climb. I think Martin decided to go his own pace at that moment, because he said he’ll catch up with me later.

Again, I decided to go below 200W and spin easiest gear I can ( 35x27 I think). People were passing me at that point, but I had to stick to my guns and remind myself that they don't have A-race Time Trial on Sunday. Funny, but by the end of the climb I passed them all back, just keeping that steady and easy pace. I guess, because it was easy pace I could be more efficient and keep it pretty constant. Interesting that I could not keep my HR below threshold anymore, it kept rising, even though effort felt the same. Maybe it was combination of altitude and dehydration setting on. After I made over the pass, it was all the way downhill. I decided to skip lunch at Crystal base, after checking the menu and line, and go for café in Greenwater I know.
I stopped there and had decent lunch and latte, had to start recovery earlier. Afterwards, I joint paceline, which brought me back to the Enumclaw.
Well, it’s over. I could cross it from my bucket list. I felt that it was quite easy ride, of coarse, I decided to make it easy. I guess you can go full throttle on the climb. I took me 8.5 hours of ride time and 9.5 hr with stops and lunch.
Hers is power file.
I hope I did not jeopardize my chances at state TT much…..

Bellingham Stage Race, Day 2, North Shore Road Race

2010-07-18T23:53:00.001-07:00

Well, it did not go too good. I put more tape on the left side of handle bars to reduce vibration. My attempts to shift from small to big chain ring before the race did not go to well, and I decided to use right hand for that. Ugly, but could work. I was wishing for Di2 before the race!

This course is hard! 3 minute climb, 3 minute false flat with headwind, followed by + 2 minute climb into feed zone. We were doing 58 miles, and about 4,000 feet for the day….
After fast neutral climb, the race was on ( which I proudly announced!). One guy went away and pack let him. After false flat, pack decided to just let him hang there, 100 feet in front, and he started to build up gap again on downhill. I let Husky work in front but helped just a bit. I guess I sprinted good downhill to bridge to breakaway guy, then I led him to the base of the climb, with pack still behind. We started the climb pretty well, and he asked if I wanted to work. I tried to stand up to no avail, my wrist was in pain as I did it. No, I said, could not help much. At that point Recycled guy bridged, and he lead him for a bit, but before the top pack caught us and I sagged remains of the climb. 5 minutes later, I wanted to get in the paceline, but some guy said he will not let me. Whatever, we were not going that fast and I went to front and talked with Alex W for a bit, he was sitting second in GC. He said that he will block If I will go ( he probably wanted to soften others people legs). Sure, I could not shift anyway, so it’s either be in the back or off the front. I prefer off the front! I went faster on downhill, took right turn fast and stated to build gap into headwind locking behind. 3 then total 6 people bridged and we got real breakaway. Recycled guy was here again, obviously he was looking for breakaway!
Some big Garage guy (was it Clayton?) was trying to take control of the break, directing rotation but after taking one pull, he said he cannot do it and I had to go around him. Headwind was strong. Only 4 of us were left when we started feed zone climb. Guys stood up and accelerated, but I could not. Damn! And pack was flying behind, and I could not jump on! I got dropped. Descend; there were 3 more people in the same boat, and we caught up with the pack as they slowed down on the top. I saw Brian W, turning in opposite direction. He said he quits: they neutralized us because we about to catch 1/2 race! Granted, ours was suicidal pace, but you do not neutralize pack, which is faster. But it was good for me and bunch of others, since we recovered a bit. 2 more painful laps I hanged on. Than acceleration came again on feed zone climb and I got unhitched! For the next 3 laps I was working with Steve Z. Not that I could help him much, but I’ve tried. Since I could not stand up, and was basically riding on the hoods, my back was getting worse and worse. I was able to stand up for 1-3 seconds here and there, and it was helpful. On the last laps I could not even shift into small chain ring with left hand. I started to feel vibration on downhill and even right turns, extra tape was not helping anymore. I was falling apart and only wished for the pain be over soon. On the last time of the climb, Steve went away. I finished dead last ( +10 people quit?).
I could not bend afterwards; back was so bad and sore, after riding in the same position for almost 3 hours. I was sore all over.
Naturally, I prefer to climb out of the saddle, even if I’m on computrainer. But today, I could not stand up or use any upper body what so ever. Climbing all the way seated is not something I used to. Maybe some people can, maybe it is my weakness.
But It was clear for me, I could not do Cascade Classic this year with broken wrist. Especially that Circuit race there features much steeper climb, a wall. No way I could do it seated! Well, time to refocus priorities. I need to target WSBA ITT chams at this point.

Here is file from today’s race.

Bellingham Stage Race, Day 1

2010-07-17T22:41:00.000-07:00

I’m doing this race to see how my broken wrist does on the bike, so I can decide where to do Cascade Classics next week or not.

First was Bay View TT in the morning. It is 8-mile course with couple hills, but nothing too bad.
I made rookie mistake, going out too hard. I blame it partially on very short warmup and some bad intel about the course. Anyhow, I made it to turnaround pretty fast, passing my 30 second man, but have seen sharp drop in speed on the flat section coming back. Luckily, I was able to recover for the hill and really pushed it on the last 1K. 18:18 time, a bit faster than year ago, but 53 seconds down on winner and 12th in GC (from 40 some people).
I think If, I were to reverse power on the flat coming out vs coming back, I would have gain 30 some seconds. But I was too greedy to catch and pass my 30-second man. Average power was not too bad, ~300W, but I should be able to do better. Luckily, wrist was not an issue for the TT. Here is the file.

Crit. It was new 4-corner course in Sedro-Wooley. Rumor is that Bellingham’s Mayor said that people want to visit library on Saturday and they could not secure usual course. Anywhow, I’m not a fan of crits, but one in Sedro-Wooley was much easier. But wrist was definitely an issue. We were going CCW, all left turns, and I could not put any weight on the left hand, so I had to do turn pretty wide and move up on th straight-aways. Somehow I left my 404 at home, so I was sporting my favorite 1080 in the front. That felt very fast. I’m now considering using 1080 in other crits!
So, I spent 40 minutes in the drops. I could not standup to accelerate out of the corners, and any grounds I was gaining I was loosing in the corners. That said, crit felt easy. I hoping that maybe my fitness is better now, but most likely it was just easy course! Here is the file. I have not lost any time, still 12th in GC

Hard north shore race is tomorrow. We’ll see how I will recover and how wrist will handicap me on the climbs.

Broken wrist

2010-07-07T22:21:00.000-07:00

After Firecracker TT, I went to Oakridge, OR for some mountain biking. I went too fast on one trail, over the top of the hill, between to trees and did not expect turn/of-camber section there and just flipped my bike over on the right side. It was a hard fall, maybe 5-8 feet down the slope. I’m glad I was wearing helmet. Somehow I hit my left wrist hard, even though I landed on the right side. Few days forward and visit to Seattle Hand Clinic + MRI scan, I found that I've fractured my capitate bone of the wrist. Bummer it happened in the middle of the season, less than 3 weeks before my A-race, Cascade classics…. Good thing, I can still train on my TT bike, but road bike is too painfull to ride yet.

Firecracker TT, Dialing in time trial setup

2010-07-04T21:28:00.000-07:00

After Elkhorn, it was clear to me, that riding in current position is causing too much power loss. With sunny weather in Seattle (finally), I went to velodrom to recheck, that going up, will not through out much CdA.
To my surprise, lower position was actually less airo! And it was less aero by a huge, huge margin.
57.5 cm height – CdA -0.278
55.5 cm height – CdA 0.262
59.0 cm height – CdA 0.229

That difference in second digit is huge! About 2 mph ( 25 vs 27 ) at my power output. On top of that, I was easily gaining 17W because of higher position. A bit about testing protocol:
I was riding in full aero ( except for disk, I was using Zipp 404 with powertap to cross check Quarq power reading) for 15 minutes at sub-threshold power+ I did few laps effort at higher power for cross check of CdA at higher speeds.

Anyway, what it means, is that I was virtually leaving about ~2mph all this year in TTs!

But it all was to a degree theoretical, and I needed real long TT to be sure. Luckily, firecracker TT was on the same course as OBRA ITT just few weeks ago.

40K on good flat course. Conditions were windy, with tailwind on the way out and tailwind coming back.
I posted my best 40K time ever, 54:13, way over 27.5 mph. I won Cat 3 and was second best result overall, beating time of some big guns. It’s a bummer I was not riding it for OBRA TT. But its better later than never!

Plus it’s another W of the season!

Elkhorn Classis Stage Race 2010

2010-06-22T21:20:00.000-07:00

Last year, I came to this race with a hope to do 100+ miles road race with monster climb in the end. Unfortunately, it was canceled due to snow. So this year I was hoping than weather will hold.

First day was Oregon trail road race: 76 miles on scenic roads.

We did start quite slow, ways slower than last year, even feed zone hill felt easy, but with about 40 miles to go, Second Ascend went in front and set pretty fast pace, just before 12-minute climb. I started climb in first 5 or 10 but soon went backwards, loosing contact with lead pack. I caught up with 2 or 3 riders and we started rotation to catch back. But timing was bad, instead of pulling for 30 seconds each, guys were just pulling through, and with 3 people in I got gassed on longer roller and got dropped. I was having really bad day! I could bearly made it to finish. My back just gave up and legs had nothing, zip! Eventually laughing group caught up with me, 10 or so guys dropped on the climb, but I could not stay with them either! It is still a mystery to me, of what has happened. I did not bonk, I was rested enough, fitness and weight was good. The only reasonable explanation would be a compound effect of first day at elevation, long drive, allergies and back pain. I ended up loosing about 10 minutes during first stage!

The TT next day was not bad, I felt much better, and put OK power. Result was 21, not exciting but decent. But I knew I had to recheck my air position on velodrome, once I back to Seattle. I did not want to change much before the race.
In the afternoon, I was ready to do crit, when summer rain storm rolled in, and they canceled the race! Good thing they did. 1-2 field saw some nasty crashes in the rain.

The next day started with heavy rain, and I was concerned they’ll cancel the race again. But it was a go, and I was happy to start 102 miles stage with 2000 feet uphill finish.

I did not know what to expect, and tried to stay close to front on each climb. First 1-minutes was painful, but stayed on. Then there was medium 5 minute hill, and I got dropped of the lead group, but stayed in 8 people chase group, we rotated up the hill in steady 4W/kg pace, then did work on downhill, and bridged back to the pack, before we hit first mountain pass. I started to feel better, and first long climb was not a big problem. J. was in every feed zone, and I fetched my Perpeteum bottles, which made a huge difference for 100+ miles race. Next 2 mountain passes I was starting in front again. The last one was the hardest! We were shedding people, but I was able to stay on with the lead pack. That was a good experience. As the race progressed I was feeling better and better. I was glad that finally I can go over all of the passes with the lead group. Then we started some rolling, fast sections, where remaining pack went single file, since we were averaging 30 mph and that point. We shed more people, and I was moving up, trying to make it in first 10 before base of the Dooley Mountain. Second Ascent guys were trying to close on the break in the last 5 miles, and one of them asked me too help. My legs felt good, and give it a dig in the front. When I looked back, no one was behind me. I opened 200 meters gap! Thinking now, I should have kept going, because we had only 2 miles before the climb and could see break in front. But at that moment I did not want to attack second ascend guys, they a nice bunch and they were leading Dustin to GC win. So I sat and waited for pack to catch up.

We caught up the remains of the break just before the climb. As the the ascent started, I set in my own pace, without trying to match speed of the lead group, maybe it was a mistake, but it was 40 minutes to go up. Going into the red was sure thing to blow up. I felt really good on the climb, and was passing exploded riders, including some good climbers.
I finished climb without running out of gas in 21, which I was happy with. It was a good effort after 100 miles race. And I lost less than 5 minutes to the winner on the climb. I moved into 27th place in GC, 62 people started the Elkhorn SR. Second Ascend guys raced good race and Justin H, won GC overall.
I think last day of the Elkhorn, was my best race of the year, at least I liked it the most.

Siouxon Trail

2010-06-13T15:08:00.000-07:00

After the OBRA ITT, a drove past Battle Ground WA, east to Gifford Pinchot Forest to check out scenic Siouxon mountain bike trail. I saw two guys from Oregon just finishing the ride. This was quite scenic trail, the best I saw to date. Way out was a bit of a climb, Garmin say 1500 feet for 4 miles, but it’s probably less than that. I had to cross what felt like 100 streams. One stream was quite deep and wide, about 12 feet wide waterfall!
The way back was a blast. I tried to go careful in technical parts, since I did not want to crash on wet stones!
My hope with MTB practice is to improve handling for upcoming CX season. Besides handling it seems to help with short anaerobic efforts to get over some steep sections.
Here is the file. And here are more pictures of the trail.

OBRA ITT 2010

2010-06-13T11:02:00.000-07:00

This was my second take at OBRA individual time trial champs. The last year I took bronze in men three. But I did not have any illusions this year. My TTs suck this year, plus I did not have much time to train week after Cascadia Crits.
The course itself is easy. It starts on Peoria Road by the boat launch park. There is slight elevation gain on the way out, but nothing to right home about. But, it’s usually windy. And this year was no exception. We had cross-tailwind on the way out, reverse of last year.
I was pushing myself hard that TT, probably hardest I remember. Afterwards, I cannot even sit for an hour. But my power was miserable, and speed bad. On top of it, they did not place me in results, then they did after I asked, then results were 30 seconds slower then in my computer, then when I asked again, they rechecked and it became a minute slower than in my computer! Well, it was difference between 6th and 4th, out of hardware anyway, so I have not seen a point to pursue it any further. The OBRA “virtual time” is really screwed up, they need to run on normal time as everyone else, and start people on time. Adding up virtual time to new “delayed time”, then converting it to real time is nightmare. I know I’m not only one who’s unhappy about it.
Anyway, after investigating what could be holding me back in TTs, I suspect, that since moving my cleats all the way back, my legs became “effectively” shorter by 1cm. Plus I moved my saddle up 1cm before Wenatchee (why?), so in results I was ridng TT with 2cm higher saddle. That would explain uber sore glutes.

Here is the file.

Cascadia Crits

2010-06-11T23:39:00.000-07:00

I don’t like crits. Crits are stupid. But it’s good training. And some crits, like one in Ballard are big events with crowds and fun to be part of. It is one thing to target crits specifically, like say cyclocross races, and another one just to use it for training. And when it’s training, it's a bit overkill to spend whole day for 1hr of racing, or even less in my case.
Anyway, fresh after my 12-hrs ultra race, I jumped into sanctioned crit in Seward. I know the course good, and it was not a problem to race, still, I had not much left for the final sprint. A 2 days later, on Saturday was Ballard crit. Fast and a bit technical course, due to uneven pavement and cobbles. But it was dry and warm. I was fighting there for half an hour, started to feel better, then suddenly got squeezed in few turns, and had to work extra hard. And at the same time someone must have been attacking in the front, because speed was getting close to 27 mph. I was hanging for 3 more laps and exploded: could not recover and popped. On my power file, I could see that HR went into MAX/anaerobic zone 4 times in the last 3 minutes. No good. It’s been a while I was dropped in the crit. Well, I guess other people were killing crits while I was trying for 12hrs TT!
Sunday, I was debating where to do Boat street or not, then decided to do it, sometimes you have to go out of your comfort zone. But it was even more pitiful than a day before. Virtually, after 5 minutes I was pretty gassed, and drifted back. I think Evan S., was in the same boat, and I just did not have much to go around him on the hill to close the gap. So two of us were dropped! We fighted for a bit, rotating for the next 5 or 7 laps, but with such a short course, 0.5 miles, we were pulled. I guess I should not be surprised much by results. I think if I’ll do 2 weeks of crit specific training I could improve enough to be in first half, but why train for training, or should I anyway? On a side note, I think someone should step up and make crit like they do in Europe, point race, with 1-2-3 on every 5th lap and double for the sprint!

Keep 'em rolling!

Lewis and Clark Ultra 2010

2010-06-01T17:46:00.000-07:00

I did it! I won L&C-12hrs in my second attempt! And I set the course record in the process. Exciting!

The experience from last year race, ultra-specific training, nutrition, taper, support, bikes and a bit of luck all came together this weekend.

Even though this is 12-hrs event, one or two mistakes could set you back. So you have to plan it pretty much like military operation. Wake up on time, top up glycogen stores with pasta, stretch, and arrive with some time to spare. Have bikes tune and ready, exchanges scheduled, food and drinks stocked, clothing for any weather packed …

During pre-race briefing, we were promised dry weather, but it started to rain just few minutes before my take off 6:36:30 am. Martin C., was my 30-second man.

I was riding in my TT skinsuit with craft base layer underneath ( short sleave I use in cyclocross) plus knee skins ( licra), TT helmet, waterproof shoe covers, gloves.
I put my rain jacket on for the first leg. It is slower with the jacket, but I was planning to start slower, warm up and it was raining. Plus most people were in jackets as well, except for the main competition.
First 18 miles I went conservatively. I did not kill it on the hills, I did not even want to get close to threshold or high tempo area.

I saw some people passing me, cleary going all out. There was one 600-ft hill during first hour. I was taking it easy, maybe 210W vs 300W+ last year. First I saw guy from 4-man relay team go pass me, then Guiness’ Todd flew by. He won last year. I was keeping it steady. I believed that Coach’s advice was right on: “These races are won not by whoever is fastest but by whoever slows down the least. So I think starting a little more controlled and seeing if you can go harder later in the race should pay off”.

I was looking for my support vehicle for TT bike change, but it was not there. With heavy fog and a lot of riders in first 15 miles, he lost me. But I knew, he’ll find me. You do not want to panic if something is going wrong, it is waste of energy, and not just mental.

After short descent I switched to my TT bike. I have QUARQ on both TT and Road Bike, so I was switching my Garmin 500 between bikes, and then selecting bike profile ( very inconvenient btw vs Edge 750, but 750 loosing power reading in TT position). Anyway, as I was doing it, guy behind me stopped and asked for power bar. No problem. He had Power-tap wheel, and somehow Garmin picked up his wheel, even though my bike profile have TT preset. I guess some “smart” algorithm in G500 looking for stronger signal initially disregarding preset ID. I had no power readings for two minutes, but again I reminded myself not to stress. As I was passing this guy 30 seconds later I picked up his power, yep. So a minute later, I turned Garmin on and off, and found my power meter again. Yeah, I lost 30-seconds messing with it, but pacing was more critical. I did not have such problem afterwards. I guess I need to file bug report with Garmin? If powermeter ID is set, they should not pickup random ID on switch!

Anyway, after I get down to highway 14, I took of my jacket, and now was in full aero gear! First mile was scary, with rain and wind, I was going too fast! I had to gently break, so I don’t slide out of the corners and I was still doing 40 mph! Soon road turned flat and I was in aerobars passing people. At TS#1, I pass my main competition, Duncun, who passed me earlier. I never saw him again. Later I found that he was about 4 minutes behind me on the climb then flatted and have to DNF.

Back to the race, I was keeping 200W in TT on highway 14, then road turned into false flat/forest. There was some cross-wind, and I think that was the section I really gained some time. I passed 4-men relay team and in a bit found my self alone on the road with no one in sight before or after. By the base of the climb my average speed came to 20 mph. Then I switched the bikes and started “Old Man Pass” climb. Last year I was going 270W there, this time, I was just trying to keep I below 220W, it was a long race. Yep, I lost like 5 minutes there vs last year, but I saved something for later.
I grabbed my wind jacket on the top, passing the last 2-men team (Hammer) and started descent. At that point I was ahead of all people who started before me. I did not take much risks on the descent, it was too wet. When I got to the base, Tim, my support guy was still setting up TT bike, and I switched my gloves for the dry ones. It was raining hard again, but it did not bother me. I've trained in much worse conditions. But I knew I have to keep energy intake. I was drinking Hammer Perpetuem Latte mix, two scoops per bottle. About 2-2.5 bottles per hour. Plus I was taking electrolytes and Endurance amino at about 4+4 pills per 1-1.5 hrs to avoid cramps.
Once on TT bike I was flying again. Few sections were much more scary than last year, with all the water on the road and higher speeds. So I just took it easier. I crossed 100-miles mark at 5hr:10m, so it was close to 20 mph!
My neck started to hurt bad! ~4hr on TT bike in my aggressive 40k TT position done its damage. I had to sit up few times to keep my head up. With rain, and opened roads, I have to constantly look up, and it did not do well for the neck. Anyway, I arrived to time station #3 first, before they even set it up, since Glenn, organized just pulled in his car when I got there. That was a good sign!
Few miles later, I was surprised by another bike change for 400 feet climb on twisty road. I was 6-hrs into the ride. My power started to drop! I guess glycogen storage were getting empty even with all Perpetrum. I wished I’ve done that 9-hrs ride which was derailed by the nasty cold! Still, I was going ~170-180W at that point, way better then 140W year before.
I had planned TT bike changed coming but decided to stay on the road bike. I did not think neck or hip will handle any more TT. I also took in first hammer bar, solid food. Maybe I should have started to eat it sooner? I was afraid that solid food will upset my stomach too early. With 10 miles to go until big loop, 4-man relay team finally passed me! They guys were on TT bike. I did not try to race them, since it is different division, I just tried to keep good power, and finished 141 miles loop at 7hrs14 minutes! About 30 minutes faster than last year! I think I would have done just a bit better if I could finish on TT bike and take just a bit more food in during the ride.

After short bathroom break, I was doing small 9.6 loop. And that’s where the hardest part is. You have to climb 400 feet per lap, with 1 short but steep (~17%) grade, then another steep stair step climb few miles later. You have to really stand up to keep up right. Even with my compacts and 11-28 I had to go over 300W for few seconds, averaging ~230W on the 1-m climb at 55 rpm! I wanted to go as close to target wattage as possible. The short lap is like slow torture, sucks energy out of you. It is so uneven, you loose your pacing. One thing I wished is to have clip-on bars on road bike for first 2 miles flat and top of the loop. I think I was loosing 1-2 minutes there every time.
I stopped few times by my base station, to take in “muscle milk” ( for variety), bars, and asked to get “flat” coke ready for my last loop.
After I passed 198 mile mark, I knew that at this point, I was going to beat my last year time ( personal best), go past 206 miles mark, my longest ride to date. I saw some guy passing me, I was not sure if he was solo or team ( he was team) and I doubled my effort. I finished second to last lap in 32 minutes only vs 36 minute on the first lap. I still have 40 minutes left for one more lap. I grabbed coke and sped up to make sure I’ll finish it. As I was crossing the line, people were applauding and I thought I was done, but asked Mick what was the course record? With main competition far behind I wanted to make sure I beat last year winners time. Mick said it was 217 ( it was 214.9 actually), so I decide to do one more mile in few minutes left to make sure, and passed one mile mark with a minute to spare.
218.5 mile in 12hrs. That and 10,000 feet of elevation gain. I was happy to set course record, though last year Chris Rogsdale was doing 24-hrs race, and was 4-minutes faster then my time on the same loop #8. He did not finish the race and weather conditions were incomparable, but still if he would to finish his race last year, stop on the lap#8 and do 3 more miles, he would have set course record ☺

Anyway, I was really happy with result! I could not have done it without support guy Tim H., my coach, my PT any many other people!

Here is power file if you are interested.
12hrs, 218.5 miles, ~18.1 mph and 10,000 feet of climbing.
7,600 KJ, NP 197W, AV 183W.

Bikes: Cervelo S3C with ZIPP 1080 front and ZIPP 900 disk
Specialized SL3 with ZIPP404 front and 303 rear.

Leavenworth and Blewett Pass

2010-05-24T23:05:00.000-07:00

I spent next week after Wentachee fighting the cold. On Friday, I tried an easy ride with few efforts, and felt completely lightheaded. I felt like any effort close to threshold will put me back to being sick. So, even though I was preregistered for Enumclaw, and it was finally a stage race I wanted, I decided to pull a plug on it. Instead, I did easy tempo ride on Saturday and felt almost normal, without venturing into threshold zone.

On Sunday, I went to Leavenworth with some friend. There was charity ride there to lake Wenatachee they were doing. Leavenworth on Saturday night looked pretty cool, with the people exploring the streets, and it felt almost like European town for a bit.
I did a loop from Leavenworth to Lake Wenatchee and back, and then went over the Blewett Pass to Cle Elum. I always like to add another climb to the resume, and it was first time I went over the Blewett. It is not steep, but quite long, about 3000 feet gain if you go from Leavenworth side.
So it was good last long ride with about 100 miles and some climbing before Lewis and Clark ultra. The brewery in Roslyn had the best beer I tasted since Belgium!

Wenatchee Omnium 2010

2010-05-18T15:45:00.001-07:00

Training was going well before Wenatchee. I did 4x Zoo climb repeats on Tuesday. Power was good first time up, and I was not super tired after 4th effort. Then on Wednesday I did 2x25 TT intervals, again power on the first TT leg was pretty good, comparing to TTs I had all spring. I took Thursday and Friday easy, and felt pretty confident going in this year Wenatchee SR. It was the 3rd time for me, to do Wenatchee!

I never could crack this time trial course. It’s always up and down, and usually there is a lot of wind. I find it easier to get up to the speed then hold it. But with Wenatchee TT you need to dose your effort. It’s impossible to get into steady state there. Last year, I could not understand why my time was somewhat bad, with good power and descent aero. My two theories were that either wind has changed or maybe I did not carry enough speed over the top of the hills.
So this time, I really tied to hold back just a little in the last 1/3 of the hill and carry speed over the top. I new the power from Wednesday TT workout and tried to at least keep that. We had tailwind going out, and headwind coming back, so I was trying to keep effort a bit lighter on the way out. Only once I went over my target, when I was trying to pass my 30-second man over the top of the hill, so I can do only technical downhill turn on the way out. And it did cost me. My HR spiked, and it took me minute to recover with some time and speed lost. A mistake for sure!
Then there was sub 1-minute 5% hill before turn around, I shifted in small chain-ring and took it at steady pace. At the crest, my 30-s man passed me, who ended up 2nd in the TT. It’s never a good sign, when someone is passing you, but you have to keep going. Way back there was head and side-wind, but it did not bother me much. Very low front position make my bike quite steady. I continued to keep pushing over the top of the hills. HR was very steady on the way back, with power pretty close to the first half on the race.
I ended with time of 21:23, just barely enough to put me in top 10 and in the points.
The time was 20 seconds faster than last year, but power was 13W lower!
2010: 21:23/278W
2009: 21:44/291W
I think it is due to better aero position and slightly better pacing. I was somewhat happy with this TT result, considering that it is highest power for TT I had in new position. I still have 10-20W to go though to match last year power for this duration.
I did not know it yet, but I was getting sick.

Later I went for an hour tempo ride with Brian, instead of doing crit. I decided before hand, that I’ll skip it this time, to save something for the road race. This year race was going for 4 laps over the hill, with 6500 elevation gain. The organizer did not require to do the crit and I did not want to take risks on that pavement in 70 people field. Funny, that only 30 people showed up for the crit!

While I was watching the crit, my throat got really sore and I started to have problem speaking. Rats!
By night time, It was so sore I could barely breath. I never had it like that. I could not fall asleep because I was getting out of breath. By 3 or 4 am, I was thinking that I’m not gonna do the race and eventually felt asleep.
When I woke up throat felt just a bit better, and I decided to do the race.
This year, organizers rerouted the course skipping rolling hills after the white church, and adding 2 more laps of climbing! Each lap was about 1500 feet with some pretty steep sections. I had perfect 11-28 cassette with compact cranks for the day! I hit the first climb in the top 15. I did not last long, well, longer than last year but not by much! I just could not breath! I started to do climb by myself. I was spitting my lungs out, but I could not cough at all, throat muscles were numb!
On the descent Masters field caught up with me, but they just sat up on the flat. I put my head down I flew on the flats, passing some remaining guys from the 3s. When I started climb again I saw our pack, for a second I thought maybe I’ll get back? Sure, it was not going to happen. I knew something was wrong, I was sick. Legs felt OK, but I could not breath. Thick film was covering my throat and I have to take a drink, gaggle and spit to open it up! I finished my first bottle of Perpeteum and took another bottle from Neil on the crest. It is good to have someone from the team working feed zone. Unfortunately he gave me Gregg’s bottle. It was with Perpeteum as well, but only one scoop. Still beats the water! Talking about water. I was grabbing 2 more bottles of water as well, putting the 3rd one in my back pocket. I was drinking like there is no tomorrow! Third lap gone and pass. Keith helped with flats there, until he felt back on the climb. Last time up I started to feel bonk coming up. I needed 3rd bottle of Perpeteum! 3 scoops for 3 hours in not enough! I downed hammer bar as fast as I can and 1/2 leaders, then chase passed me by. I made it over the top for the 4th time and was on my way down.
Another two guys caught up with me, and I sat a bit with them on decent. I felt they are going slow. Guy in front was pedaling hard, I got into the tuck and just went by them, without pedaling at all until the turn. Guys in ½ should be smarter to know that it is better to get aero on descent then pedal hard and seat upright, right?
Anyway, the rolling hills section back to the finish was more or less fun, because of slight tailwind. I finished the race! 30s, I think only 2 or 3 people were behind me, and probably 10 or 15 more did not finish at all.

12 hours later my cold was in full swing. I could cough again, sinus and minor fever. I knew, it was not an allergy, I had a cold now. It was probably a mistake to do Wenatchee Road Race at all, but it is too late now. It is strange, but often after you get good result, or just best power you are getting sick. It’s a bummer that I got really sick the day of the race. One day later and it might be different story. Well, next time. At least I had good TT.
I need to take it easy and get better now. I don't know if I will be able to get any fitness back before Enumclaw, or even do it at all. My my objective now is to get back before Lewis and Clark Ultra.

Constitution Hill Climb

2010-05-14T08:35:00.000-07:00

I always wanted to do this climb/event, ever since Mike M. mentioned it on his blog.

I have to wake up before 4 am, to make it for 7 am ferry from Anacortes.
Climb was starting from Rosario resort, at sea level. After checking where it starts, I drove up to the top of the climb to check the road, and take some pictures on top. The view from there is truly amazing.

Back at Rosario, I saw teammates Martin and Angela. I got my number, and rolled to do a little warm-up. Climb is 7.4 miles long with 2473 feet of climbing. First mile, out of Rosario Resort is pretty steep, with pitches at 15%, then as you take turn to Cascade lake, it flattens for a mile, and then goes up again.

My Specialized SL3 bike, is about 14 lb ZIPP 303 and 50x34 compact cranks. I had 11-28 cluster and it was just great for this climb. Never I was out of gears, and was standing up only on the steepest stretches. Being able to spin 80 rpm up the climb, made a huge difference for me. On the way up, I was passing a lot of people, until I got my 2 ( or 1.5?) minute man in sight. I was trying to close gap on him, while we were passing more people, but it was proven to be difficult. He seemed to be keeping good 20 seconds one me, and I did not want to blow up. I was thinking, “OK I have to keep him in sight, he is at least a minute ahead of me, so I should have half a minute advantage, as long as I can see him”. With one more flatter stretch to go I was able to catch and pass him. He stayed on me for a while, and one steep section to go, he sprinted around me. What the hell? I was staying within my rhythm, thinking I’ll bring it back. But just as turn passed I saw the finish line! Rats, he was sprinting to finish. With that I lost about 20 seconds in final 2 minutes!
To my surprise, his time was second best, second to mine! Coming into this even I did not expect to win, I’m not a climber. Sure, the fastest people did not show up, but I cannot control that. As much as I was happy with the WIN, I was as happier with my power for 42:20 climb, I averaged 290W, around 4 W/kg. It’s been a while I was able to hold 290W for this long. I wish I was 8 lb lighter as last year! I’ve got this very cool trophy, beats a check any day!
Here is power file. I guess doing some volume, helps me? With some serious miles for the last two weeks, I was able to bring my CTL/form to over 90 TSS/d, ten more point to go to 100!

Volume

2010-05-12T15:48:00.000-07:00

I was thinking for a while, why my racing this season going downhill, without hope in sight. I’m doing training, doing races, but it seems like I’m only getting worse? 20-minute power test seemed OK before W-W and Cherry Blossom, but still I end up on the second page of the results?
After looking again and again at my “Performance chart” in WKO+, I have a working theory, and my coach seems to agree.
With extra long Cross Season this year (ended in December in Bend OR/Nationals), I did not put enough base/foundation before the season.
Looking at the chart, my “form” (aka “chronic training load”, blue line on the chart), is stuck in 70s TSS/d. I do workout or race, fitness goes up, but I cannot recover enough to do next hard workout or race. And it goes down again, then I repeat, and end up in the same place a moth later. Add to that travel plus being down few times because of allergies, and you can see the picture.
So, my plan was to put relatively low intensity long rides, I can do for a week or more to bring my form into 90s. This way I will be able to recover and build up form. With Lewis and Clark 12-hrs race approaching, it is also good time to test nutrition, bike changes, clothing etc.

So, here is what I did:

4/30 – I put 45 miles, 2.7 hrs commuting to and from work, at tempo ~NP200W
5/01 – 100 miles, 6 hrs hilly ride, with 5000 feet climbing and ~NP200W
5/02 – I did bike change exercise to emulate Lewis and Clark Ultra.
I left my car by Cedar River trail, so it was my base camp.
I was doing 15 miles loop first on my road bike, going from Cedar River Trail via Cedar Groove to Tiger Mountain, climbing Tiger and coming back to the my “base camp”. I was switching my bikes there to TT bike, and continued with 20 miles on TT bike on the trail out and back. I had a cooler with spare energy drinks and food there. I also had to change my shoes and clothing because weather was really bad. I ended up doing 100 miles in 5:30 riding time, with about 3.5 feet gain, mostly because of Tiger Mnt. Climb. I was trying to keep tempo and above for TT. NP200W.
Here is the file.
5/04 – 2x Cougar Mnt/Zoo climb to towers, in threshold zone, 26 miles. Just to get ready for Constitution climb TT.
5/05 – TT bike commute to and from work. 2.7 hours , 45 miles NP 227W, pretty long for TT bike?
5/06 – Road bike commute, 45 miles, tempo, NP ~207W.

So in a span of a week, I did around 370 miles and pushed my TSS in 90s, without getting overly tired. Actually, I felt pretty fresh every morning to go at it again. I will slowly adding more intensity now to keeping my form in “90s”, until next push to bring it to 100 TSS/d. Here is how new chart looks, the week of steady volume is on the right:

The only sacrifice so far, is skipping weekend races and a bit more time on the bike! I only hope it will work for the better!

Double punch

2010-05-10T23:01:00.000-07:00

I have some catching up to do here. The two stage races I did in a span for 10 days, felt like a double punch, where I was hardly hanging during first stage race, only to be punched second time! Eight races in ten days proved too much with current fitness level. First race was the Walla-Walla Stage race.

Week before the race, I did Volunteer park crit in A/B to get some crit experience again. I actually felt not bad there, and cornering/speed felt good. Somehow PruDog mistakenly decided that I was trying to crash him, and promised to crash me in the next race. I was really upset afterwards that he said that, no one ever promised to crash me. And usually I click with people I met in cycling. It came down that it was just weird misunderstanding. On that course you have to be attentive and see what guys in front of you doing, going up the hill. Anyway, it’s water under the bridge. We are cool now, I hope.

Next week, I had big trade show in Vegas, and did not get in any riding besides spin in Bellagio Gym. On my way to Walla-Walla, I stopped by Yakima river Canyon Road, where WSBA TT was last year. It is great road to do TT work out!

Walla-Walla stage race

We have something like 7 or 8 teammates staying at the team house, which was fun for a change, and beats staying in a motel.

Stage one usually is the hardest race of the event, with a bunch of climbing and high speeds. My climbing sucked, I almost got dropped on the first longer uphill, but get back, then on the KOM hill I saw Tony attacking in front. I was trying to sag a bit, dropped my chain, recovered quick but could not close last gap, and got dropped! I went by Ryan G, who looked like he did not know where the hell he was. He completely blew up trying to go all out! So for the next 2 hours it was a chase! I was working with Dave and Ryan and Doug. At some point I thought we almost get on. But it was not to be. Ryan was clearly the strongest, and it's a bummer he blew up on the KOM hill. Anyway, finally, with about 5 miles to go we bridged to big chase group, I saw Tony there as well. So much work, and we still finished 9 minutes down.

TT.

With such a low placing in GC, I decided I have carte blanche in TT to do something new. I went out a bit harder, and by the climb I caught my 30-second man. But that was it. I stayed in my big 54x23 on the way up, and refused to shift back. I’ve just died, exploded on that climb, and the guy passed me again, but I was able to pass him later on downhill. But the climb cost me 40 or so seconds! I did not watch my power on flat section because it felt fast, but ended up loosing another 20 seconds! That was first time I posted slower time in TT than year before. 1 minute slower to be precise. Stupid.

The Crit.
We had crit the same day. Unlike the last year, it was during daytime. Corners felt good, and I was able to move up, but it felt pretty hard. Gaps were opening as usual, and in the final sprint someone in front opened 2 bikes length or so, and they placed me 15 seconds behind. Nit that it matters, but lesson was to always sprint in the end, even if you are in the main group! Someone can open a second gap, and you end up losing bunch of time in 100 people pack!

Last road race was featuring 2 miles climb. Legs felt bad. People were killing it in feed zone. I was getting dropped on 2 miles climb, but was able to get back. I could not hold 290W for 8 minutes? What gives? Last time up the climb I felt a bit better, but was able to hold power for a first minuet only and rolled up at mere 240W for the rest of the climb, and that felt hard! I ended so low in GC, I don’t even want to mention it. I finished it, but it was a little consolation, especially taking in account the last year results.

Cherry Blossom Classic 2010 Stage race
Four days did not feel like enough of rest after Walla-Walla, and if you count if travel and work, it’s no rest at all. I got to the Dalles on Thursday afternoon, and did an easy ride on TT course, to remember the turns on downhill. Even after doing it 3 times it still look alike, and I have to count bridges to remember the turns.
Afterwards I hopped in my car, and decided to drive the second day course. I was in a shock! Cleary organizer was just screwing with people, when he said it is not as hilly as the last year one. The course looked brutal, with long climb, longish gravel uphill road, windy technical descent with narrow, blind switchbacks. After driving through course, I was quite sure that difference would be in 10-20 minutes range on the second day! Guys at the team house did not believe me. Though everyone except Todd, was fresh and eager to race. They did not do Walla-Walla. Todd wanted revenge, and they all were racing Masters, except me and Guy in 3s.

Stage One. Columbia Hills. The first day course, was the same as last year. I was hoping to race conservatively, and not loose too much time. I was sure, that gaps on the day will be nothing comparing to the next day. I made a mistake starting in the back, and just could not move up before the climb. The roads were very narrow. Even though course was the same as the last year, there was significant difference: we had tailwind on the climbs and headwind on the flats!
My power was not bad, but tailwind and starting climb in the back, made impossible for me to hang on! That and 10 lb difference vs last year, got me dropped! Me, Guy and 4 or 5 other guys regrouped, and we were rotating on downhill, and cought up with the pack. Second time up the climb, I did not try to go VO2, and just went steady threshold power, cresting, descending, and getting back in the pack before the turn around. Well, it did not work 3rd and last time. I ended up loosing 1 minute on the first day, coming in the chase group. I was not that upset, knowing what’s gonna happen tomorrow.

Stage Two. Orchard run.
I've got good warm up, and lined up close to front, not to make a mistake of the previous day. After neutral uphill, we were on the short loop, which we were to do 2 times, before venturing on the real course. But the short lap had pretty punchy hill in the feed zone and 2-3 minute hill on the back side. I opened too much distance on downhill, and slid in the back of the pack. I just could not trust guys in front of me on desent, when I cannot see road ahead. My mistake, need to do something about it. Second time up the feed zone, gaps were opening and you could not make it across to the pack. Before big loop started I was dropped! Well, we had 3 big loops still to go, and I knew, we’ll have more victims. I have to stay on and finish damn race! Did I say I was dropped in first 40 minutes?

Then long uphill started. I was trying to keep ~250W, like on Haleakala. I was expecting 3hrs race, and that what I knew I should be able to hold for next 3 hours. One problem was we had tailwind again, you think it’s good? It’s good for light climbers. I think it took me like 17 minutes to crest, then you descent and start riding on false flat, where headwind slows you down! Then turn and you start to climb more and more on dirt road, here you have cross winds and dust like its nuclear winter, when you done, you descent on narrow twisty road with zillion switchbacks! Then you go for second lap....

I was going by more dropped riders on the second lap. I knew I just have to keep going, there will be more victims. Second time down the twisty descent I got scared to death, when out of nowhere, Sam and Orbea guy ( 1/2/Pro leaders) flew millimeters of me. There was no lead car or moto, I guess because of dirt road and descent. With wind, I have not heard them coming. There were descending fast. No yellow line rule, mind you. That’s the way to do it! McKissik was not far behind them. Anyway, I went for the big climb 3rd time, and before the crest Lang, flew by ( he finished 4th in Pro race I think). On the headwind flats, big group of 10-15 people went by, lead by Kona tower. Hey, at least I had to watch Pro race from the first row. I kept going. On the dirt climb last time, I found second wind and kept going strong. I guess I smelled the finish. To make things interesting, organizer added another 100(?) feet climb before the finish! I ended up 54th on the day, 25 minutes down! Out of 73 who started. First 20 were within 11 minutes difference, last group was about 40 minutes down!
Here is the file

8-mile Time Trial.
Next day was TT. Organizer decided to make it easier, adding 2 more miles to the TT vs last year. It was called 8-mile,all right, but it was another joke. The road was called 8-mile, but TT was 2 miles longer. What a surprise before the start! I think this TT I pushed myself the hardest I ever did. But I have absolutely nothing! No power, and it heart as hell! I only managed to average 250W for 25 minutes. It’s pretty much my worst TT to day, and it was the hardest. The average power was whopping 20% down from last year!
I think on top of being tired, I could not get enough sleep, with TT starting pretty early.

The crit.
I did not feel like racing Crit, but knew I have to do it. I was pretty much about to crack! Yeah. But good warm up helped, and I lined up in the second row for a change. I started crit fast and was staying in top ten for the first 5 or so laps, until I started to take corners a bit slower. 30 minutes later, I was done with pack finish. Interesting that average power was 10% higher then in TT not sure about normalized, but I wonder if few hours of rest in between helped!

So that was it, I finished Cherry Blossom 46th, 29 minutes down! 73 people started it on the first day. They say, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. I hope so. 8 races in 10 days is no joke.

By the end I felt like I have to change something to avoid such fiasco the next time around!

Frozen Flatlands Omnium

2010-04-19T08:00:00.000-07:00

It was probably not such a good idea to race Frozen Flatland Omnium, considering weather forecast of 30 degrees and snow. But I never done race in Spokane before, there was TT on the program, and we had host housing, plus Todd was driving.

We stayed in the house on the hill of Spokane, everyone had his own room and host was very nice. But we found that she was mother of Cooper Jones, teenager who was killed 7 or so years ago, on the same TT course we were about to do the next day. It is very sad. House was filled with cycling memorabilia, signed letters and posters of support from big names like Lemond and Armstrong.
I did not really sleep well, I kept thinking about Cooper and race tomorrow, until finally I felt asleep. We had breakfast and coffee in the morning, such a treat from host family and were on the way to TT.
Then boom! Something just flew off the roof of Todd’s car. I was afraid it was my bike! It was Todds! I guess his rear wheel clamp got loose and bike just few off snapping the fork! Well, what can you do? He was going to put his TT wheels on the road bike and race it.

TT.
With all the problems we got to the race so late, I had not time for warm up. Just enough time to get my numbers, change and get my bike ready.
It was 32F, and 35+ mph winds. I knew that one guy there, beat me in every TT we were doing together. But I was still planning on winning! Way out was hard, with cross wind moving bike around. I essentially road from side of the road towards yellow line, the wind was blowing me back to the curb, and I was doing it all over again. Right arm and right leg were firmy pushing against the bike, and bike was leaning all the way to the left to work against the wind. I think I passed about 4 people before the turn around, then it was cross-tailwind. I hit 30-32 mph there, and it was fast. I passed another 4 or so people before the finish. But I was not fast enough! I was 6 seconds off the first place. I hate when this happens. Second place might sound not bad, but when you are so close, it feels like a complete loss. Well, at least I was not to far off to Coleman comparing to previous TTs.

Road Race
After short break for the lunch, we were off for the road race. Weather did not look good. Very bad looking clouds were approaching and it was about to start snowing. The first flakes hit us few minutes into the race. It was hard! With cross winds, you have to stay in the paceline. Wind was keeping everyone at yellow line. If you not there, you are in the wind.
Now, normally I pre-ride course, at least in the car. Since I was with Todd, I was on his schedule and his terms, and we did not look at the course. I was told that hills come late in the race, but with cross wind, even false flats where dangerous. We hit some steeper section and I was caught in cross wind behind guys who opened gap, Now, some guys were strong enough to go around and close the gap. But I had nothing left to jump on them. I just did not have that little bit effort left! I found myself behind Ted, with another guy. It was 3 of us, trying to close on lead pack ( of 20 or so)? At one point I thought we got it! But I think we slowed down just a bit, enough for the pack to keep and extend gap on downhill into headwind. You can only rotate so much when there are 3 you and 35+ mph cross wind. That it started to hail ! Like thousand needles hitting your face. Eventually Ted gave up, and it was just Andrei and I. We rotated, and passed two more people, then I saw the Wall. I was thinking that even if I was to make the split, I would have died on the wall, but legs started to feel good, and we hit it hard until the finish, passing 2 more guys. I finished 13! Not to bad, considering we were dropped in first 5 or 6 miles of the race. I was glad I kept pushing. I was thinking that only worse thing that quitting was not trying, and that kept me in the race, given the conditions.
After the race, I was immediately struck with bad case of allergy. All cold symptoms without cough. Bummer. I need to take care of it.

Short Circuit Race
Next day, weather was complete opposite. It was sunny and felt almost warm. Pack kept it very easy, everyone must have been tired from yesterday race and weather. We only had 4 miles to go, I was not too far from the front, and small break of 3 was pulling away, but everyone thought we’ll reel them in. I had strong desire to go in front and hit it hard, since legs felt not bad. But I decided to keep with coaches advise to race more conservatevly and try to be patient. Unfortuanatly we missed the break by 3 or 4 seconds. When the sprint started, I was sitting good, but guys in front jumped too early ober yellow line, and was force back by official standing on centerline into the right lane, so I have to break and sprint again. It was screwed up! I ended up 11 or so, finshing omnium in 10th. Oh well, it was hard call to make where to go in front and chase the break or not. 50-50% chance.

I was suffering bad with allergy all the way home. I took Zyrtec ( USADA permitted list), and it knocked allergy right away, but left me so much drowsy I could not train for the next 3 days at all.

Ravensdale-Cumberland RR 2010

2010-04-15T09:14:00.000-07:00

The race was day after IVRR, on Sunday. Weather forecast did not look good, with rain expected to hit hard just before we were to cross finish line. I was set to do the race anyway, since I needed double-day racing for future stage races.
From the team, only Tony was present. Pack was medium size, big enough to make it interesting 40 or so people.
People hit it hard from the gun. First 15 minutes it was crit like effort when you just hang on, until crowd runs out of gas. There was one significant bump on the course, but it was not long enough to cause real damage. First time up the hill legs did not feel so good, and I kept staying somewhere mid pack. There were break attempts that stayed for a while, I think Randy was away and maybe Wes, definitely someone from Strabucks. I was riding very conservatively for the first lap, without getting my nose in the wind, legs did not feel that well. Tony was up there in front, but I had nothing to offer at that point.
Second time up the hill, legs felt much better and finally opened. By the crest of the hill, pack was split in two. I and Brian were able to go around people and make first group. But it was hard to make group to work together. Some bike-sales, big, sprinter looking guy was complaining, sitting in the middle of the pack that people do not pull. I told him, that they have like 6 people here, put someone in front and pull! Tony was doing way too much work for a sprinter, and I was just about to tell him to save some, but finally, HB went in front and did some work. I got into rotation and helped them to close on break. About 10 minutes later we finally reeled in Starbucks guy. Just before we caught him, I asked another starbucks rider if he’ll go for it, but he said he’s done. But Recycled started to counter attack, and gained some ground. Cucina guy went for a bridge and I jumped on him, we rotated for a bit and closed on recycled guy. Could be good break, with 3 teams present, yes? No. I think in was HB who brought us back, shortly after. Another attacks were on and off. Finish was getting close. Before downhill another break went, and the Zack was trying to get away, my legs felt not bad and I went in front and bring pack back to him, we needed good sprint finish for Tony. Now we all together, after the turn to finish line, one guy took diagonal line and moved me and few user guys a bit back, and I ended up in the 3rd row. At this point you cannot move up anymore, you are where you are. I could not do lead out of Tony, who made it into perfect second row. Finally with 1K to go it started to rain hard! Of coarse! Zack hit it hard in front and sprint was on. Guys on the right in front of me bumped into each other and screwed it up for some people including me, and we started to sprint few seconds after first 2 rows! But Tony had nice kick and made it in third. His winter training was paying off, with good rides both day, and I was really happy to see him making the podium. I finished 15th, but was satisfied with the race. I felt better on the second day and finally was able to contribute to the race, instead of being pack filler. I wish I could help Tony more, but some work in front is better than nothing.

Here is power file.

Independence Valley Road Race 2010

2010-04-11T18:23:00.000-07:00

Well, it’s been a while since I have blogged here. It’s been busy. Time to catch up on past races. With most of the early season training races behind us, IVRR is arguably the hardest race of early spring in Seattle area. It has 2 hard but short climbs on each lap, about 3 and 1.5 minutes long each. The first climb starts within first 15 minutes, and I forgot that road is narrow and it’s hard to move up. Beign in the back before the climb is rookie mistake, and it did not help. Right from the start breaks goes away, and we never saw them again. I only saw that for split second beign all way back.
First time up the climb people usually take it really hard, somewhere between VO2 max and anaerobic effort. I survived first time fine but we shelled quite few people. I think I spend a bit too much there, going around people. The climb is also tricky, that at the crest you have to be in the pack, because of false flat section where people really pinching it. Anyway, starting race at the back cost me few unnecessary burned matches. That, plus I did not really feel confident on descent, I could not see where the road turns with this pretty big pack. So I was tailgating the pack until the turn and burning more matches to get on the train going back out the turn into valley. First 1.5 minute hill felt better, I guess legs opened. One guy decided to pull in front of me on the climb and I barely saved it, scaring Matt behind in the process.
2nd time up longer climb did not feel much better, but pace was easier, another short hill and people really drilled it. I saw Alex R, giving up just at the crest after trying to stay with the pack. Weird. Then in the Valley boom! Someone goes down about 6 or 7 rows in front, packs swirls to the left. I’m staying up right. I see Brad walking in the ditch and picking up his bike with one hand. He looks alright, but I found later that he has separated shoulder.
3rd time before the climb, I see people trying to break away, Matt and I think Wes. Acceleration before the climb and I’m suffering to keep up with the pack. Up the hill, half way I’m starting to go backwards. And before the crest, I dropped. What happened? Remaining of the last lap I’m trying to TT back to finish, picking up Cucina rider. At one time I’m looking back and see my break mounted frame number is all the way to the right, I keep rotating it back until the finish. I think I ended up 40 or something like that. But being dropped on the 3 minute climb is embarrassing!

When I got back to the parking, I discovered, that my rear break T-nut got completely loose and centering spring was pushing my rear break into the rim. It was so bad, wheel couldn't make single revolution!
Here is video I took right after the race:

Apparently the same happened to Cancellara in Flanders! Remember that fast bike change?
Brian said he saw my break rubbing in the Valley on the second lap. Oh, well. It probably sucked enough power out of me, but I’m not convinced it was reason for the failure. I’m going really slow this year, and fitness is just not there. I keep hoping that it is the way it should be, important races are in June and July. But on the back of my mind, I have doubts….
Power file

Limiters

2010-03-26T09:29:00.000-07:00

I was thinking lately on how my power improves or declines last year. Eventually, I stumbled on pretty good article. It’s not new information, but the write up kinda puts it together on how different threshold levels work. Basically, you cannot push you VO2 up, if peak power is your limiter. Like a ceiling it just has nowhere to go.

So punching in numbers from my Training Peaks from last few months, it looks like this:

........................power......duration

VO2Max power.............380W......3-min

Anaerobic threshold......275W......30-m TT

Aerobic threshold........250W......2+hrs???

Peak power...............717W......30-s

..........................actual...recommended

VO2 vs Peak...............53%......40-45%

Anaerobic th. vs Vo2......72%......80-85%

Aerobic vs VO2............65%......65-70%

From what I can see, my peak power really needs some work to push VO2 higher. Even assuming I did not reach “true” 30-sec power, even 800W will be low. So maybe I need to start adding some plyometrics workouts. Joel has pretty good post here.
Now anaerobic threshold seems low too. Though it probably will go back to 290-300W as season progresses, still it is way far off 320W it needs to be at. But I'm working on threshold every week.

Tour De Dung #2, 2010

2010-03-20T23:50:00.000-07:00

OK, bike racing is hard. My week load was not too heavy, since I skipped Tuesday workout, and only had Wednesday double 10K TT and about 2x25 at threshold on TT bike on Thursday. But, my legs were not “fresh” or ready to attack today.
We had pretty strong team in 3s today: Brad, Guy, Jeff, Ryan, Tony and I. Plan was attack, counter attack, and do it over again until something sticks. We kept lunching people off the front, some stayed longer, some not so. Eventually it was my time to counter, and as soon as another attack we caught and pack slowed down, I jumped in center while pack was going sideway around the grate. I think I jumped way to hard, because I went from 20 mph to 30 mph up the hill in 15 seconds. When I looked back no one with me and pack behind. Well, TT time, maybe some one will bridge eventually? By the time I made to 1K turn, legs were dead and group of 4 were closing on with pack not far behind. Teammate was among them and I have no legs to jump on the train. My work was done. I recovered for a bit, and attacks continued. Eventually we had 2 people up the road, and the were about to get caught. Alex R. jumped with 10 feet to go, I covered, he went just straight by them, and here was Nick. We started rotation. But could not stay away long enough. On the last lap 2 team-mates got away again now with Garage and FRM boys. It was time to sit. Wines went to the front and chased them down before the turn with 6 mile to go. I was close to front just in case and Zack, Eric, Logan pushed pace up the hill, I saw gap opened and made immediate decision to go. But people in between were slowing down, so I had to go around 6 people until I was between Zack/Eric and pack. Last 20 feet were painful and took forever to close, because they were flying fast. I got in rotation when we hit downhill, but 5 minutes at VO2 zone after 2 hours of hard racing got me gassed. I was spent. I think I ( or maybe both me and Zack) opened gap on Eric and he was pulling away. We traded pulls for another 6 minutes, and just as Eric was making 1K turn, pack caught up. Game over!
I guess I was completely wasted because I did not re-aligned myself to go with the front of the pack for the last 1K, until most of the pack was ahead of me.
Why I could not stay just a bit longer in low VO2 with Emsky? I could do it again and again in double 10K TT at CU. Well, next time. Is still training racing. I guess getting in the decisive break is some consolation.
Oh yeah, Emsky ended up winning the race just few seconds of the pack and Brad gave great lead-out for Ryan G, who took 2nd place for IJM! So not everything was lost. The last attack helped to keep pace high until last 1K.

Here is power file.

Mason Lake #2, 2010

2010-03-20T22:41:00.000-07:00

My legs were pretty shut after TdD-1, but I decided to do Mason Lake Road Race anyway, just to stack 2 races on consecutive days for future stage racing. I did not have legs to do anything but to cover couple attacks, since Brad was on fire and kept going into breaks until it finally stuck. He got second podium for weekend! I got my workout and pack racing refresh.
Here is the file.

Tour De Dung 2010

2010-03-16T23:58:00.001-07:00

Master 123 race. I decided to do the race instead of 3s because I could not bring myself to wake up at 5 am after long day in the office to drive 3 hours for 9 am race. Plus we had 5 more IJMrs doing M123.

That said, I went into the race after heavy load week, with a moto: “it is a training race. Your legs have to be just a bit tired before you start it”. Yeah! Plan was to get some intensity, recall how to ride in the pack and help team if I can.

Right from the gun, Dave goes in the break with second ascend and cucina guy. Todd attacks on the first hill like there is no tomorrow. And blows spectacularly few seconds later. Then he tries again and now he goes. Martin tries to attack but no love. Ryan attacks in the wind and goes. But it seems pack is pulling him back , and Martin goes by and says that I should attack as soon as we catch Ryan. I start to move to the front to do just that. But Ryan put afterburners on the hill and went out of pack sight! Martin underestimated him! Ha. Well, and it was cross wind section where pack did not go that fast. Suddenly, Second Ascend (2NDA) guys attacks into the hill, going fast. I was in the front ready for the counter-attack in case Ryan is caught, so it is my place to cover. I’m sprinting after him and glue to his wheel while we climb. Short descent and turn, we are getting close to the next hill. I feel I will not be able to cover next attack and asking Guy to cover attack for me. And Guy (IJM) jumps up the hill, running out of gas midway, but Martin (IJM) picks it up and holds it to the crest and I’m barely making all the way to him from behind 3 or 4 wheels. In his last effort Martin exhales “Go Alex, go”. Sure, I’m almost dead from this 3 efforts, but crunching through and taking over attack over the crest. My only hope is that if I feel like I have nothing left, then it is probably good time to attack. This triple punch (Guy-Martin-me) did work. 15 second later I look back. 2NDA guy is right behind me, and we have sizable gap on the field. It is flat but headwind is super strong.
I put my head down and drill for next 3 minutes trying to keep 300W. I see can Ryan 100 feet ahead. I’m trying to squeeze out as much watts as I can. I was not sure if 2NDA guy will take over if I swing out. I’m getting closer but have nothing left, I finally rotate to let 2NDA guy to take first pull and see Martin approaching from behind. How the hell did he make it out of the pack? In few seconds we finally absorb Ryan. Now 3 IJM guys and 2NDA guy are together. We are starting rotation. After I pull through Martin screams that we have to take longer pulls. Sure, I’m in red after the bridge, but putting myself in bigger hole taking longer pull. Headwind and me are not friends when in rotation with two power-houses. But road turns soon enough and there is less headwind.
And what do we see? Todd (IJM) in the middle of the road waiting for us! Now we have 4 IJM people (Todd, Ryan, me and Martin) plus 2NDA in the break. Rotation now feels better with 5 people. On the backstretch we are flying at 35mph! It felt pretty much like IJM team time trial at that point!

Another turn is gone, and there is a lot of cross wind, we are pretty much riding echelon, and 5 people is too many! We turn and I feel both calves are cramping bad, after the hill it feels like another hard effort and my legs will stop. I’m telling Todd I need to sit and recover, could not help anymore. 2NDA guy don’t want to be dropped in the game and sits right behind 3 IJMers, and I behind him. After the turn I decide that my legs feel better and go in rotation again. But 4 or 5 rotations later cramps are really bad, I have to go back in the draft. Soon we catch lead break-away with Dave (IJM), another 2NDA guy and Cucina rider. It happened right in crosswind section, and I got in echelon just in time to be in rotation. 2NDA guy was not so lucky and he was shelled right away!

So now we have 5(!) IJM guys in the break with Cucina and 2NDA rider. Dave decided that we need another separation and breaks away. I’m in awe! Guy just spent 3 laps in solo break and he goes away again! Eventually Todd jumps, then Martin jumps, I’m trying to sprint and go by Ryan and 2NDA guy, but as soon as I hit speed my inner thighs cramp so bad, that I have to sit down right away, I cannot even pedal for few seconds. Here goes podium, but it was not my race anyway.

So now Cucina, Ryan, 2NDA and me together, with Dave, Todd and Martin gone. All we have to do is let other guys chase. But they are dying or it looks like that. I think if we slow anymore, pack will catch us (though it was 5 minutes behind apparently). Then Ryan jumps from the back and says something like cover or recover. Yeah. I guess he figured that he has better chance than me. Jumping from the back was good call, and with 2NDA guy in front, there was no answer. I wait 5 or so minutes until Ryan is safely gone.
Now I’m in disadvantage alone against Cucina and 2NDA guy, who we played so well. Hmm. I wait more and jump. I drop 2NDA guy but Cucina is on my tail. I try another 4(!) hard attacks including hill, but could not drop him. The headwind is not helping me. Turn, 1K to go. I see we do not have pack in sight. I sprint with what I have left. Cucina rider easily go around me and away. I finish six. IJM got 1/2/3/4 and 6! I’m glad I’ve finished. Not a training ride I was planning for. But, to my surprise it was worth 1000 3s races in form of team tactics and smart racing.

Picture of Todd, Dave and Martin is priceless. Dave is a hero for making the race and humbly taking 3rd place.

Here is my powerfile. Here is Martin and Ryan accounts of events

TT Positions

2010-03-08T21:19:00.000-08:00

I was looking at this year pro's TT positions, I can find. It seems that common trend is close that void between arms and head. IMHO Leipheimer does it the best. Hands are almost together.

Something to work on! Holding good position with exactly the same setup could easily make up 20-40W difference, or a minute over 20K TT. The trick is to make enough power in good position too.

Sweet taste of sandbagging or my first mountain bike race

2010-03-07T20:05:00.000-08:00

Well, the usual Mason Lake road race was in full force today but I was not there. There are few reasons for this. First, I don’t feel in that great shape right now, and being pack filler is not my idea of racing. After super long cyclocross season I feel like I’m not ready to go out there yet. Then with all good weather lately a lot of people were training and I expected the first Mason to be a zoo, with everybody and his brother to be there, which is recipe for stupid crashes. Crashes in racing are unavoidable, but first race is especially so. And lastly, weather forecast did not look good, with cold front moving 60% chance of rain over Mason. With my luck I was sure it’s gonna poor or snow there!
Well, I probably should have done it anyway, but I ended up doing much better stuff.

I attended my first Mountain Bike Race. ( I did one MTB race in South Seattle on my cross bike, but that doesn’t count). It is always good to try something new, and get out of comfort zone.

So, I decided that I should try to do “beginners” class for my first race, since I was not sure how are my handling skills are and what to expect in general and it was not USCF sanctioned race. It was a right call. My last ( and pretty much first) ride on MTB was like 45 days ago. My skills were rusty. I could not ride down steep hill during pre-ride, but was OK in the race. The course was in Black Diamond. Around 2.5 miles loop we did twice. I had decent start but could not go as fast in the corners as 3 leaders. But I was trying to be smooth and not crash. The effort felt extremely hard, like all out crit or 10K CU TT we do. Only some seconds here and there I had to recover was when I was behind someone waiting to pass. The course is mainly single track and not so many opportunities to pass. There were few short open logging roads, like 100 feet of it, where I was able to go around. There were a lot of stones and roots. I got unclipped few times hitting stones. I went down one time, before run-up ( which I rode in warm up but not race). Looking at the file, HR was over threshold, and hit MAX few times, including finish. When I crossed finish in all out sprint with another guy ( he was in 19-29 category actually) uphill, I had to lean on my bike, the legs were not holding me. Man, it was hard!
I finished 2nd in 30-39 category. But few of 40+ smooth peddlers were ahead of me. I guess I should do sport cat next time? Otherwidse it will be sandbagging. Well, at least I’m not “former pro” crashing master race every weekend ( hear that Todd?). First race is forgivable.

Afterwards, I did more single track and ventured to sick downhill course. Warning of “helmets” and “body armor” made me cautious, by eventually I made myself go through last scary off-camber downhill.
First MTB is under the belt. Mission accomplished!

Icebreaker 2010.

2010-03-07T19:04:00.000-08:00

I went to pre-ride course on Thursday, doing 300-320W intervals for 4 minutes on TT bike. Then restarting again where I left, so I rolled whole course at over threshold pace in chunks of 4 minutes. I was running the Quarq and Powertap at the same time, to make sure power is not off.
I’ve learned that 300W on the road on TT bike feels hard. Also, going back to the speed sucks a lot of power. Quarq and power tap were very close, usual ~5W difference depending on duration.

TT. My start time was early and it was very cold, 32F at 8 AM! I stayed in the car for a bit, then jumped on the trainer. It was easy to warm up, and I have to get intervals longer. Usually I do first interval for a minute over 300W, have to stay for 2 minutes to feel the burn. Then second interval usually is 2 minutes, have to push to 3 minutes to get lactate. Should be a good sign? Who knows? Might be just cold weather.
At the start line, Kyle was behind me, he had aero front wheel, but he said he rode for 2 hours to TT. Whatever, I have to race my own race. Start was fine. I’ve stood up and released breaks a second too early and holder has to keep me from starting ☺
I got to the speed pretty fast, and my eyes tear up pretty fast from wind and cold.
This time I did not try to stay really aero with all the turns. Just normal position. In hindsight, it was a mistake for sure. I was trying to dial effort down a bit, since way out was way fast. I passed bunch of people and have good turnaround without any traffic. And Kyle have not passed me. In fact, he was just approaching turn around when I got back to speed. I think I still had 20 or 30 seconds on him then.
I’ve tried to ramp up my effort at that point, but was still not watching power. I passed 2 more people, and then Kyle passed me! Never a good sign. Then finish line. Time was 22:59. Speed was not good at all. Only 26 mph. Power was bad too, 273W on the way out and 268W back (270W avg). It felt much harder though. Interesting, year ago, the same course with headwind out, I have the same power on the way out, but went ~290W on the way back. But last year I lost ~ 15 seconds due to traffic issues at turn around.
Well, with this power, CdA comes to 0.225. Not too bad, but not good. I should have stayed more aero for this course. .206 would be just right for the day’s results.
Well, my placing was disappointing, 7th in CAT3. Still 15 seconds faster than last year.

OK, I have to spend more time in new position and work on both staying aero and producing enough power. And I think I have to do it outside. I was able to do over 300+W in TT position on comp trainer this week, but not on the road. HR just did not go high enough. I think it is combination of mental and physical things. Probably a bit different muscles are working when on the road, and keeping focus is a bit harder. There is also theory, that computrainer forces you to pedal through the dead spot, where on the road it doesn’t happen. It would not explain though the absence of big difference on the road bike vs when riding Computrainer.

Here is the power file.

Here is cool video from Ride Like You stole it. He caught my warmup, start (0:27) and finish (1:06).

Frostbite Time Trial 2010

2010-02-28T23:28:00.000-08:00

This was the third installment of the time trial for me: I’ve done it in 2008, 2009.The course is next to Snohomish River, starting from Rotary Park. This year my team, IJM.ORG, was organizing the race and we put on an excellent show. Todd marked exactly 9 miles for the course (as opposed to 9.1 miles last year and 8.4 in 2008). I was well rested and expected to have good TT.
My CAT3 TT start was at 10:01. There was slight headwind on the way out, and slight tailwind on the way back. I was trying to concentrate on staying aero and was not watching power. And it was hard to see anyway with current position. Most of the time I had my right hand over my left hand and head moved forward, to kind of close that big pocket of air between hands and chest. It’s like "trying" to do pseudo “Praying Landis“ but with flat, parallel bars so it is UCI legal. That was fast, all right, but it seems my power was quite low: 270W on the way out and 263W on the way back, 264W average. That is comparing to 290W I did on road bike 30 minutes later on the same course, trying to stay aero as well. Of course, there is good chance Quarq was off, but it seems plausible. Assuming power was right, it would render my CdA for the TT ride about 0.206 ( with air density 1.246). If power was 15W off, it would make more reasonable 0.221 CdA.
On top of everything, by the end of TT, two trucks stopped at the finish line, letting rider in front to complete his ride. I had to break and slowly crawl to finish line, so I don’t come to complete stop. I probably lost another 3-5 seconds, judging from the speed drop in the end of the file. It was just enough to move my result to 4th place with 1-second difference to 3rd place. Or well, I was not fast enough for 1st anyway. Alex R. posted 19:49 vs mine 20:13. 20 seconds is big enough difference, but I "only" needed to go 280W to beat that time.
In 1/2/Pro, McKissick ( 2006 Elite TT champ) posted 18:18 time, just 0.5 shy from 30 mph. Our Dustin V., was 3rd with 18:46 time, 28.8 mph!

Half an hour later I did TT in retro category, on my Cervelo Soloist Road bike. It’s not really retro, but close enough. And I was wearing regular road helmet with holes taped, shoe covers and skinsuit. I lowered my handle bar all the way down, and put more padding so I could stay aero. I finished 3rd with 22:25 time. Not too bad. Here is the file.

Well, results are somewhat disappointing. I need to do few more tests with Quarq/Power-tap to make sure power stays correct.

Jack Frost Time Trial, 2010

2010-02-23T10:16:00.000-08:00

Racing has begun. I decided to forego Valley of the Sun this year, with El Nino weather pattern in Pacific Norwest and my fitness quite below levels it was last year. So the first race of the year for me was Jack Frost TT in beautiful Vancouver, WA. I've put in quite a few hours this fall on my TT bike, but mostly indoors. I also did few adjustments to my TT setup, going 3cm lower and 1cm shorter stem.

I have not done Jack Frost TT before, but they have changed the course due to the park closure. It became 2 mile longer than in previous years, starting from Port of Vancouver. The route goes along Washington/Oregon border on Lower River Road by Shillapoo Wildlife Area.

I decided to go to Vancouver day before, pre-ride the course and have less driving timing on the race day. The Shillapoo Area is right by Columbia River (hence Port), and around noon there are strong winds there. My projected start time was around 1 pm, and I did pre-ride at around 2 pm day before to get feel for the winds. And the winds were strong for sure. Crosswinds. I was running 1080 front and 900 disk in the back. New position felt very stable. With aerobars much lower, a lot of my body weight shifted forward, which made keeping front wheel straight much more manageable. I only took my aero water bottle of the bike, because it was creating additional drag in cross wind.

The race day: sunny and 50s. I had good but not too long warm-up as planned. OBRA officials were running behind the schedule, people were going about 30 minutes behind the posted start time with confusing "virtual clock". Neither real time or posted virtual time matched final start time. After 12 pm, winds started to pickup significantly and probably was around 20 mph by my start. I think starting with Women 4/5, Men 3, Pro Women and Pro were racing in strong winds, opposed to the earlier races.
My start was good. I was in the right gear (had to be 3 cogs from 23, otherwise backpedaling can drop the chain, no that mistake again).
First 3 miles were in tailwind, I’m looking at the power and in shows low 200s! Rats, Quarq is off again! I had no problem during all fall and winter, but actual TT ( with standing start) is doing it again. Oh well, had to race by feeling,
I quickly got to 32 mph, but have to dial back a bit, with tailwind and first 5 minutes you have to pace yourself. Then it looks like a left turn, it cannot be that early and cones go straight, and my 30 second man somewhere in front.In file, I can see power and speed drop for 30 seconds of indecision there. But it probably helped me to slow down a bit. It was not the turn, why I did not remember it from pre-ride? Anyway, 3 minutes later actual turn, I take it in aerobars, quick section pass finish line, they are where I expected, sharp 90 degrees right turn I take slow, with other riders finishing TT and car trying to get in my lane. Have to be careful.
New position is quite low, and I really have to lift my head and look up, losing aero advantage. Now I’m on long 5 miles stretch until turn around. Cross wind is strong. I have to shift forward to keep front wheel stable at times. I’m passing 2 or 3 people. And I’m gaining on my 30 second man, Kenneth. I beat him by few seconds in OBRA 40K TT last year, but he is RAO2010 solo winner, I’m thinking by the end of TT I might be able to pass him. Finally turn around, he was just exiting it by the time I was getting into narrow parking lot/turn around. I took it slow but safe.
On the way back cross wind is much stronger. I really feel wheel pulling me to the right. But my setup is so stable it feels like I’m riding through water. Much more weight on right hand, opposing wind direction.
One uphill, I’m trying to go steady there without hitting red area and think I will pass Kenneth once over the crest, but suddenly huge truck with huge boat pulls on the crest of the hill and takes both lanes so he can turn around. Maybe he has not seen me, and just let riders in front of me to pass. Well, I’m trying to pass on the left, no luck. Finally I go on the right and pass him. Speed and time is lost. Looking at power file it took me 15 seconds to slow down and get back to original (uphill) speed. Oh well, it’s racing.
Finish is getting close and I’m starting to see my 30s man again. I see final turn. Rats, car in front going close to turn letting another rider to pass, indecision again, I’m trying to slow pedal to make sure car is pass the turn, loosing speed.
There are a lot cars parked in the curb and I thinking they might start to back up need to go safe. Stupid. Then flagger is standing way off the curb on the road shouting something.
She looks at me but not at the parked cars. I’m forgetting that you should not look at flagger but look into turn, by the time I pass her at low speed she shouts “ do not cross yellow line, ouh!” it was too late. I’m confused there, and as I exit the turn around I hear shout “on your right”! Must be my 30 second man caught me 200M before the finish! Hmm, sprint! Finish. Time shows 31 minutes, 27mph average not bad.
I feel like I went really strong. On the ride back to parking I chat with W.O., guy from West coast. He said he averaged 350W and his windtunnels CdA was around 0.19. Crazy. He won our TT ( and Sublime race day before).
I’m not sure how hard I have gone, I’m guessing 290-300W, and plugging my time/and this power into spreadsheet, it seems like my CdA was as good or a bit better than William’s. Cool. Need to work on power.
So I ended up 6th in results, 5th in time. They gave me 1 minute penalty ( probably for crossing the line).

Here is the file (power is obviously incorrect). You cannot go 27mph on 214W. I think next I’m gonna ditch Carbon FSA TT chainring for DA rings. I think it is causing the QuarQ problem. If it doesn’t help, I’m out of ideas.

Overall I satisfied with my TT, I was able to go harder then I think I could, and I happy with speed and time, considering cross winds. It looks like I was top 10 in time overall (without penalty), but no final results on OBRA yet. I’m glad to see better time than J.Banks, but maybe something happened to him, he has DQ to his name after time.
I think giving less mishaps and better concentration and could have cut ~20 seconds from final time. Frost bite is in few days!

Compact cranks, neuromuscular power and other stuff

2010-02-06T21:30:00.000-08:00

There is one climb in Seattle are, we do often, Tiger Mountain. It’s pretty short 600 feet. There is one particular section there, first steep grade where I always have a problem to stay with lead group.
So today, I decided to use compact cranks, 48/34 instead of usual 54/39. Plus a bit different setup (cross bike), with much more upright position and wider handle bars.
And during ride today I was able to stay on after that steep grade, passing some other guys. Though later I was still dropped by 2 leaders, as I thought reaching my limit. Could be just mental? But I was not far behind.
Anyway, new WKO+ 3.0 has quadrant analysis, which shows how you torque/pedal velocity looks.
Here we go. Ride from 2009 with 54/39

Ride from 2010 with 48/34 ( Me and bike 2-3Kgs heavier today, + 175mm cranks)

So, with standard cranks, most of the power, whooping 95% is in 2nd quadrant, High Force, Low Velocity. Where with compact cranks power is mostly between Quadrant 1 and 4 (72%), favoring medium Force and higher cadence.
What I think, is that beyond certain torque, I’m using mostly anaerobic power, and it takes me a bit to recover. Where with compact cranks, I could stay more aerobic.
So should I use compact cranks for the climbs (hate to have another power meter!), or maybe I should do more workouts on short steep hills like one by I-90 bridge?
I also hope that new DA 7900 with 11-28 will be close enough to compact setup.
That said I think Wednesday Bends ride ( RIP), was mimicking that type of workouts closely, where we hit steep hills surrounding Sand Point area.

But what do I know, should I ask Coggan?
P.S. Later, on the Squak Mnt, I exploded spectacularly. Had to spin at 220W for a while. Not sure did I bonk, or I'm still not over sinus I was struggling with this week. I had to really focus to stay on the bike. Last time that happen was at Cascade CR 2 years ago.

Can we trust Garmin power recording?

2010-01-27T22:31:00.000-08:00

I did a little experiment today, running Quarq powermeter with Garmin Edge 705 and 500.

Garmin Edge 705 v2.90
Garmin Edge 500 v2.10
( Both devices send calibrations to Quarq before the session and offset was identical +149).

Here is screenshot of 5-minute data. Interesting to see little discrepancies in power. There were speculations that Garmin only samples one ANT+ packet per second, but power meter (Quarq) is sending something like 4 packets per second.
Of coarse with RPM over 60, this will not produce correct results.

I think there are 2 ways to address it:
a) Garmin to sample faster than 1 packet/s, then average and store result
b) Quarq to sample as it is, average all packets, and send either 1 sample per second or 4 identical packets, if packet loss is an issue.

(Click to see)

But, what do I know…. I just wait to see how Joule works, if I can get one!

UPDATE, Garmin samples 1 packet/s, here is from QuarQ (on Google's Wattage forum) on how it measures power:

>>>>
Okay, here's my best attempt at explaining how I think it works.
Others may word it differently, and some people might understand some
explanations better than others. There are two separate processes going on inside the Cinqo, and they communicate by means of one number, which I will call x.

Process 1: 4 times a second, the current value of x is sent out via ANT + for whatever is listening to receive it.

Process 2: Independently of process 1, process 2 looks at the torque values from the cranks, which it gets 60 times a second. Each time a crank revolution completes, it uses the torque values recorded since the last revolution completed, together with the time taken for the crank revolution to complete, to work out the implied average power over that revolution (making the simplifying assumption of constant angular velocity over the revolution). It updates the value of x to that average power, with no regard for when the timing of this update occurs relative to process 1, it will just be picked up by process 1 the next time it sends x out.

>>>>>>>

I would expect similar problem with SRM/Garmin combo.

Training zones

2010-01-20T10:15:00.001-08:00

It's cool that WKO+ shows you time in training zones. Assuming my threshold is still at 290W, here is breakdown of my training for the last 7 days:

Anaerobic capacity : 32 min

VO2Max : 51 min

Threshold : 92 min

Tempo : 90 min

Endurance : 122 min

Active Recovery : 316 min

Looks like even time and Threshold and Tempo zones.

Weight is down by 6lb in last 8 days after coming back from Vegas ….

Hopefully it won't bounce back. Hydration levels are good.

Winter Training week 2/2010

2010-01-18T14:38:00.000-08:00

Tuesday: 2x10K
After 3hrs ride on Monday and flight back to Seattle, I took Tuesday off and decided to do 2xTT on Wednesday instead of usual triple.
Watching dusting to post 400+Watts in first heat was good motivation for 10K TT. I put 308W in first TT and 300W in second 15.7-minute set. That is Quarq numbers. Computrainer numbers were exactly in reverse. Sometimes CT calibration is off a bit depending on tire temperate. That by itself not bad, considering TT bike. Still not 315W I had last year ( on road bike).

Thursday: 2x10 Miles
Thursday I took off again, to recover a bit for double threshold intervals on Friday. 2x10 miles on computrainer, which took me j bit over 25 minutes each.
I was using my road bike, posting 305 and 297 watts. I screwed up pacing on second interval trying to race Garage guy. Anyway it was pretty good workout, almost an hour total time over threshold, but rest duration was quite long, about 25 minutes.

Saturday: 3-peaks IJM team ride
Saturday, was a team ride. Huge group. I’d say 30+ people. We split in groups at Gene Coulon park. Our group hit McDonald hill. It is the hill where I used to do 4-minute intervals. Dusting attacked and went away. Aaron accelerated and I just stayed behind him for a while, then as his pace went down a bit and Dustin was slowing on a steep pitch I went around caught up and passed Dustin. I worked for a bit until the curve, then Jason (?) passed me on the left. I jumped on him and stayed until the crest, where the main group caught up. That’s where I usually finish my interval, because of stop sign, but people from the back shouted to keep rolling, OK. 374W for 3.5 minutes. Then we started to roll towards May Valley keeping rotation, probably 24-25mph , until Dustin got flat and Olivier broke his fender clamp. Eventually we made it to Tiger Mnt. Legs did not feel good, and I stuck in the end behind Gregg, he was pacing very well. Every time I was about to pass him, he accelerated, eventually grade leveled a bit and I went to big chairing, still keeping 300W to pass him and Olivier before the crest. No good. 303W for 10.5 minutes.

We descended and started rotation until the Squak mountain. Initially pace was easy, then grade kicked in, we lost Gregg, and I stayed with the pack for a while, then I saw another steeper section and mentally gave up, loosing main pack. Eventually Gregg caught up and passed me. I finished dead last.

After descending in complete fog, we rolled to Cougar Mountain.
Apparently I felt better and passed bunch of guys, but 6 minutes after the climb Aaron and Dustin passed me, then Gregg climbing at his own pace passed me after the turn. I just tried to limit my losses, staying 20 or so feet behind him. After the turn to Cougar drive we did another 200 feet of climbing. Then I showed Gregg, Aaron and Jason (?) the last 50 feet climb to the towers, where you take right turn before going into the park. You go up really steep grade, 400W for a minute or you fall over! Overall, power on cougar was only 270W.
Then we rolled back to Leschi.
I‘ve compared this ride with one exactly an year ago. Here is average (not normalized) power:

Last year | this year
Tiger: 307W | 303W
Squak: 308W | 278W
Cougar: 293W| 271W

Looks like 10% drop on Squak and Cougar. On top of that I’m 2kg heavier, 163lb vs 158lb last year. So my speed up the climb is even less. Just miserable!

Sunday: IJM team ride to Monroe, Snohomish and Sultan.
Again, we had good crowd and I also invited Edgardo from Cucina. Tony was set to do his tempo workout and was keeping good pace. I was suffering up the first hill, but pack was not as fast, so it was OK. Then we started good rotation until turn out to Frostbite course. At the hill there Gabe attacked. I waited then accelerated again. Edgardo went with me. We caught Gabe, and he dropped chain at the top. After short descent, Edgardo said, “Let’s hammer from here”, and two of us went toward Snohomish. We rotated for 15 minutes, with Edgardo doing majority of work. I was averaging 270W, 300+ when pull. There was headwind. Just before the end, rotating paceline caught up with us, I did 2 rotation, asked Tony: “Sprint?”, anyway, as I was about to pull to the left, I accelerated and sprinted. I expected Edgadrdo to stay on me and come around. But I guess, acceleration was hard enough or people were tired, because they have not caught me!

At Snohomish me and Edgardo stopped at Bakery for re-fuel, but main group continue to roll. Afterwards it was just suffering, we went good tempo ~220W average. On the hills Edgardo was killing it, and I almost got dropped on one 3-minute hill. What was aerobic exersize for Edgardo, was VO2max for me, since I almost 20 pounds heavier! Finally on Ben Howard road hill, he managed to drop me, since I could not go over 320W there, and 5 minutes later I caught him at Monroe-Duval road. We continued back to Seattle via Woodinville.
Long ride, 3.2MJ
Edgardo is definely in great shape, and my fitness is not as good as it was last year. That plus weight I need to loose!
But it might be a blessing in disguise; I was killing it this time last year, only to get sick in April, without getting much of good results. Hopefully this year, I’ll take it slower and peak for important races later in the year. We’ll see.

Mini-camp in Vegas or Red Rock Canyon Take 2

2010-01-15T15:17:00.000-08:00

In January I usually attend CES show in Vegas to either exhibit or just attend. Being in Vegas in always stressful, because of casinos, smoke, food, zillion people and as many viruses from 100s of countries.

Well, this year I decided to take my bike with me, stay longer and do show in afternoon. This leaves me time to ride in the morning for 3+ hours.
Few years back, I rented bike in Vegas and rode Red Rock Canyon. So this year I booked JW Marriot. It way off the strip, but it is only 20 minutes on the bike to Red Rock on mostly bike-lane improved road.

As soon as you get on Charlston, you are in Vegas cycling mecca! During weekend, I saw more cyclists there then on good day on BG trail!

First 3 days, I hit Red Rock Canyon climb. It takes 20+ minutes, ~1000 feet. Plus it is ~1500 feet from JW to the base of the Rock.
First day up the climb it felt tough! I was out of breath. The base is at ~3000 feet above sea level, so by the time you climb up, you are at 4000+ feet. It is not much, but with dry desert air I could really feel altitude on the first day.
Second day, I did this climb twice, to put 2x20 intervals, improving my climbing time by 30 seconds.

On third day, I hit the climb hard, and was able to get 1:10 faster, going full effort! I was able to really keep some VO2 zone. The climb split in 2 parts, so you get like 2x8 minutes with 2 minutes rolling in between, and some downhill in the begging.

Anyway, that improvement was unexpected and I was really happy with it.
Besides, going outside, was nice balance to spending time at crowded tradeshow, casinos and restaurants. 10 minutes into the ride in 60 degrees sunny dry weather, makes you forget about any stress of Vegas.

Last day I rode the HWY 160 and climbed to Potosi Mountain at around 5200 feet. The climb too 40 minutes and 15 minutes of descent. Few hours later I was on the plane back to Seattle. Taking my bike was a good call, plus 4-days training block will help me to bump fitness just a bit faster before race season starts!

Here is more resources on Ridin' in Vegas!

Have you seen this bike?

2010-01-14T21:20:00.000-08:00

Teammate of mine asked to post the message below:

My house in NE Seattle was burglarized last night and my TT bike was stolen. Please keep an eye out for someone trying to unload a 55cm black Cervelo P3SL model year 2005. The most distinguishing feature is brand new a quarq power meter on brand new rotor cranks. Luckily I had training wheels on it, velomax I think, and not zipps.
Thanks,
Jeff
206.335.3551

Mountain Bike!

2010-01-05T22:14:00.000-08:00

Well, it happened, I build myself a mountain bike.
It is Yeti ASR Carbon with SRAM XX Group!

So after spending half an hour riding it in the park day before, I was off to McDonnald-Tolt park for MTB group ride!

There was pretty good group of people there. Joe M. was leading the ride. The park is huge. You start in the area across the road from Tolt Middle scool ( where I was doing Carnation TTs for long time).
Walk across foot bridge, then climb 500 feet in 0.8 miles, average 11% grade on dirt road to the park! There are some patches of 20% on the way up.

In the park, there was endless system of trails which starts and ends at “it’s a bitch” point. Joe showed me a lot of trail, including one leading to view point. It was a blast. I can see how MTB can improve your cross skills. For 3 hours it was steady aerobic effort, HR for me would correspond to mid-tempo power zone. Next day, I put my name in Leadville 100 lottery!

2009 in Review

2010-01-01T17:37:00.000-08:00

Another year is over!

Training hours: 565
Miles on bike: 8600
16% increase over 2008, 90+ days of racing!

Energy: 309MJ ( or 70 pounds weight gain if I did not cycle, and burn 100KJ/hr)

I did more stage races in 2009, 11 to be exact ( vs 6 last year):
Valley of the Sun, Cherry Blossom, Walla-Walla, Wenatchee, Enumclaw, Mt. Hood, Methow Valley, Elkhorn, Skagit, Cascade Classic and Eugene Celebration

I spent a bit of August on track and upgraded to CAT3. One night I was on very good form and won omnium there.

I’m improved my Time Trial abilities a bit, which is probably the best achievement of the season, winning one TT in April, when I was at a peak of form, and taking 3rd in both Washington and Oregon State Time Trials.

I did climb Haleakala this year, 10K feet up in 3.5 hours.

I'm happy that I did Lewis and Clark ultra, 12-hrs race. And I want to do it again!

Here are my top ten results in 2009

On the downside, I did not upgrade to CAT2 in either road or cross, though it was more of the target, than a goal. I think I went close to it in April, before I got sick. After that, starting from Mt. Hood it was just a struggle to get any good results in 3s.

Cyclocross season was a bit of disappointment, but I learned a lot, and I think improved a bit. I know what to do and how to prepare for the next year.

In 2009, I also discovered thyroid problem, and luckily addressed it. My other blood markers have some issues as well, but there is nothing I can do about it, either than eat healthier, rest well and maybe try to use legal herbal supplements.As long as I'm racing, I have to comply with USADA rules, and it doesn't seem that I can get TUE. Recovery is going to be main issue for me next year if I want to keep the same amount of racing and training.

So what are my goals for the next year? I will continue my quest towards CAT2. I need to improve my threshold power to 4.5 W/kg and get better on 3rd day in stage races. I want to do Tour of Gila. Also, I want to start doing a bit of XC Mountain bike races and maybe try Leadville 100 if I can win a lottery.

But main goal is stay healthy, perfect my training, skills and routine. Happy New year!

Cyclocross Nationals, 35-39 race

2009-12-12T17:08:00.000-08:00

The weather was much warmer on the race day than 2 days ago, plus I was racing around 2pm, when the temps hit the highest mark. I had pretty good warm up, sitting on the hill and watching U23 race! Here is the picture.
I definitely started to feel altitude, and warm up felt hard.

This race I was starting and 120+ position, 15 rows back. I was racing against people with UCI points, and most people in front of me were CAT1-2!

Even though course was almost the same as 2 days ago, higher temps made it muddy and snow free. Organizers changed the steep hill, extending the climb with off-camber section and making descent off-camber as well. I did not have problem there in pre-ride, but during race, I went down there twice! Both times my tires were folding when going at speed down off camber hill. Next 2 times I went there slower and was able to ride it fine. Another mistake I made is to try new line in grassy off-camber section before beer garden. The U23 guy suggested that going very high there next to the tape was the best way, but I overshoot it and went down touching the tape!
Even though my legs felt pretty good on a day, going down 3 times cost me too much time, and with the course less than 3K, I only made 4.5 laps before 3 leaders passed me!
Bummer, in Nats, they pull you out as soons as you passed. Even thou leaders were at least 2 minutes ahead of chasers, and I was pulled!
That said, by the end 50% of people were pulled. The short length of the course is partially to blame for. I hope next year organizers will find way to increase its length!
Anyway, I finished 124 out of 145 startes. Not a good result by any stretch. Well, it will be easier next year!
The last CX race and the 2009 season was over. Next day I stayed and watched Pro race.

Cyclocross Nationals. B-Race

2009-12-10T17:00:00.000-08:00

With the USA nationals in Bend Oregon this year, I had no choice but to go there. Plus it was oone of the yearly goals to go have experience at Nationals.
B-race was not the main event. Technically, this race is not even part of Nats, AFAIK.
But it was good warm up/test before the real fight!
Since I arrived Wednesday night, I could not pre-ride course day before the race. So I was there just before 8 am to check out the course.

Temperature was around +7F, very very cold. My hands were freezing in pre-ride and I had to buy gloves with liners. But it warmed up to maybe 20s during the race.
Still, I was pretty well dressed for the event: winter Pearl Izumi tights, with TPR bib shirts over it, Underarmour long sleeve base layer, short sleeve jersey + fleeced long sleeve jersey over it, high XC racing socks and Northwave Celsius winter shoes. The shoes made huge difference for me!

Before hand I decided to ride Scott CX bike and keep Veloforma in the pits. That was good call, since I did not have any issues with Scott.

I had lucky number, and was set in 3rd row, which makes all the difference! First lap was pretty fast, but I lost few positions, riding in the snow at speed was quite different from low speed effort. Luckily, later in the race I found better legs and moved up a bit. At one point I felt really good and was moving up, but lost attention and went too hot in one corner on back side after the pits, hitting black ice. The fall was short and not bad. I’ve finished 44th out of 80-90 people. By the end, I had such bad headache, from cold weather.
One problem I discovered during race was my cassette skipping on pretty steep hill, when I’m in 27 cog, thus preventing me from riding it!
Changing the chain few days before, showed that cassette wore out. It’s pretty rear occurrence, but it happens. I wish I found it before, but still better then during Nationals. Overall, I felt that my race was good, and made me more confident for nationals.

USGP Portland 2009

2009-12-06T16:56:00.000-08:00

This is second year I was doing USGP race in Portland, which is held at Portland raceways. Again, I stayed at Homewood suits, nice hotel I really like.

First day was so-so, pretty muddy. I kept crashing on Veloforma bike, until I was finally fed up and switched to Scott CX. No problems what so ever, I was able to ride all hills and turns fine. I've finished 81, which was really bad result.

Next day, I was riding my Scott and was going much better, no crashes!
I was fighting Joe M. for a while, until I’ve got rear flat on lap 3 or 4. Luckily it happened just before the pits, and I and I had quick exchange. But shortly after leaders passed me, and I was pulled! USAC race for you.

The race showed some problems with my equipment. Riding Veloforma was big issue for me. I found that handle bars I was using were close to ~40 cm, vs claimed 42 vs 44 on Scott CX! Secondly, Veloforma is much higher and I keep bouncing on it or even go over handle bars on steep descent. Maybe it would be no issue if I had better skills.
So before the Nats, I switched handle bars on Velofroma to 44 cm, and decided to ride Scott, but keep Veloforma in pits in case of flat. I also upgraded Scott CX setup a bit, going for carbon handle bars and swapping Ultegra to Durace. I think naxt year, I’ll swap veloforma for identical scott as the pit bike.

Monroe CX race

2009-11-29T23:13:00.000-08:00

Monroe CX race in 6 minutes from Dessa on Vimeo.

My flight from Maui was running late, and I only got home after midnight. That left me with not much time to sleep or get ready for the race in Monroe. On top of it, just before I was about to leave, I discovered that car battery was completely drained after sitting 2 weeks with doors opened! Luckily AAA truck was just 3 minutes from my home, and I was off to the race without loosing any time!

I did not do this race the last year, so I jumped on the bike as soon as I get there just to get feeling for the course. Overall it felt fine, except for one very steep off-camber downhill. And I mean steep! A bit steeper than Beverley park that claimed some racers’ collarbones! It was going from left turn, steep-off camber, and you have to turn to the right before the bottom, and start climbing back to another off-camber section! Anyway, in pre-ride, I’ve tried to ride it twice, but both times I just went over the handlebars. My Veloforma bike is way to high for me even if I slide all way back. It puts my saddle almost two inches higher off the ground comparing to Scott CX bike. Smart thing was to ride Scott bike, but I did not. ( Two weeks later I also discovered that handle bars on Veloforma setup was ~40 cm, vs 42 I ordered, where Scott has 44 cm! That doesn’t help with handling either, but I’m getting ahead of myself).

I was also testing new HD camera, mounted on my helmet. Unfortunately it slipped down a bit, because I don’t have the right mount. Never the less it made for interesting video, interesting from “what not to do” prospective it is.

It was the day when police officers of Lakewood were shoot in coffee shop, and our race started with minute of silence.

The start was not too bad; it was the longest stretch of road before turn to the grass. Race went to a stop at the first 180 degrees turn and I used my patented move just running around people, before they realize what’s going on. First problem happened on second off-camber turn, when I got pushed to outside, and guy stopped in front of me. I guess I crashed at some point and have to stop later to adjust my handlebars. Slowly I started to loose ground, but tried to hang on on road sections. Eventually I swapped my Veloforma for Scott bike, since it was getting muddy and breasks stopped to work. It felt much better, and I was able to ride that downhill on scott without crashing! Well, here is the time lapsed version of the whole race.

And here is the link to first 10 minutes and few minutes in the end at normal speed.

I finished 42 in Monroe race, it’s pretty pathetic!

32nd is Series overall, since it was the last race. I’ve skipped 2 races in the series.

I guess I don't have to say it, but I’ll do the Seattle Cyclocross Series again next year!

Monroe race was a good wake up call. I still had USGP races to do the tune up before Nationals in Bend.

Winter training camp. Maui. Day Seven. Stinger. Road to Hana

2009-11-27T22:32:00.000-08:00

With the last full day on Maui, I wanted to do some good duration ride, maybe go around east Maui, and put 140+ miles in. But I couldn’t get enough rest at night with road-rush burning, and I got late start again, at 8 am. I was on the road to Hana, very east of Maui. Since I start and finish in Kihei, I go north first then turn on Hansen street towards Paia, fighting pretty good headwind. I stopped there for a espresso and brownie. Hana hiway was extremely scenic. Basically you ride through 50 some switchbacks through the rain forest. Traffic was not bad, and I was enjoying the scenery. I guess they call it “rain forest” for a reason, because it started to rain, but not bad. Just enough to make road dangerous. And after yetsreday crash, I decided to make it through safe, without taking risks. But it was good descending practice. At some point you climb to around 1300 feet before descending to Hana. It took me about an hour longer than I planed. I was there at 12:30, or 4h:30 minutes after leaving Kihei. Probably 14 mph for 60+ miles. But on the way back, I was an hour faster. The reason is trade-winds and the climb back is not as steep. Plus on the way back it started to rain really hard. Good for me. More oxygen and more power. Ther view back was even more scenic. I recognized valley from opening scene of “Jurassic park”, where the copter fly over the valley. I pretty sure it was shoot there. It is definitely A+ plus ride route! Here is the map. Another 4 MJ rides, 125 miles! My CTL reached new high of 162 TSS/day. But legs actually felt good, especially last 2 hours, after 6 hrs in the saddle! Well, all that left is easy spin in the morning and I’m on the way back home to Seattle. They say it gonna snow for Nationals. I hope by that time I will feel effect of this camp.
Kihei to Hana and back via rainforest
Find more Bike Rides in Kihei, Hawaii
Stats for the camp: 7 days, 33 hours, 500 miles, 19 MJ, the same as 14 hours at FTP!

Winter training camp. Maui. Day Six. West Maui Loop

2009-11-27T22:05:00.000-08:00

I took off a bit late in the am, after 8. Plan was to go around West Maui, and maybe visit Iao Valley climb. I was rolling clockwise at easy pace and was taking pictures here and there, when I heard “Alex”!
What do you know team-mate D. was there. I had no idea he is visiting Hawaii as well. Anyway he had until 2 pm and decided to join me for the ride. It was his second day on Maui, and he was itching to put some power down. Good for me, I can hang on behind and spin my legs. Eventually we got to the hill top where Maui centery turned around. I was wondering why century did not make the whole loop. Well, apparently in a while road goes to single lane. But it is very scenic and hard ride. Always up and down. AT some point rain started and road get wet. In one of hair-pins I was going way too fast, SRM says 40 mph, and I was out of the corner going up, when I lost my rear wheel. It was completely unexpected. I was not leaning that much, it must have been some mud I picked up on the bridge in the middle of the turn. Anyway, I slid, and land on my thigh. Nothing major, just some good sized road rash right shin and thigh . It hurts/burns, but otherwise there are no damage. The road was wet and I slid over uphill. Weird crash.
Anyway, we continued the loop with some good short climbs, until we came to the point where century turned first time. With the crash and D. 2 pm appointment I decided to skip Ioa Valley and we where back in Kihei before 2.
Here is the map. It is really cool ride, great training. Basically you can go around hard and get anaerobic intervals-workout. Another 3 MJ ride is in the book!
CW West Maui Loop from Kihei and back
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Winter training camp. Maui. Day Five. Haleakala effort

2009-11-25T22:00:00.000-08:00

I was concerned about how my legs will handle the ride, after reconnaissance ride 2 days ago, and the easy spin yesterday.
Plan was to go with sunrise, to avoid strong trade winds of the morning and escape humid heat at low elevation.
Pacing strategy is the hard issue as well. On one hand, it is bad idea to go out hard just to die in the end. On the other side, you cannot produce much power after you hit high elevation (maybe 7,000 feet for some, I felt it was hard after 5-6 feet).

After going to bed early, I woke up at 4 am, to get serious breakfast ( aka pasta) and get ready for the ride.

I was planning to carry 3 bottles, 2 with Hammer’s Perpetium, and refill it after the ranger’s station at the first visitor center. I also got 3 gels and 3x ( Hammers, Anti-fatigue pills, 2x Amino and 3x Endurolytes) to take in at the end of each hour.

I got to the Baldwin Beach Parking area half an hour later than planned, and started my ride 7 am sharp.

To my surprise legs felt not bad at all.
0-4K feet: 1:25:38 252W 11. mph
4-5K feet: 0:19:58 251W 9.5 mph
5-6K feet: 0:19:04 243W 8.0 mph
6-7K feet: 0:21:38 223W 9.8 mph (including range station stop)
7-8K feet: 0:23.38 220W 9.6 mph (including refilling waterbottles)
8-9K feet: 0:23.02 212W 8.9 mph
9-9800K feet 0:18:16 195W 8.5 mph
Last steep section: 5:16: 195W 5.5 mph

First 4K feet I was trying to stay aero, on the hoods, and go conservatively. I felt like I can push 270W, but knew I had 2 more hours to go. And, after 6K feet ( almost exactly 2 hours), I’ve experienced almost 10% drop in power. The last 1000 feet up were especially hard. And the last 200 feet were very steep and felt much harder than 2 days ago.

My total time came to 3h:38 min, with average power 235W/239W normalized or 9.7 mph.

It somewhat disappointing result, almost exactly like last 3h:40 at Mt. Hood stage race or 5hrs at Lewis and Clark.
On the other hand, my program minimum was to break 4 hours and get around 240W average.

During actual race of-coarse it’s possible to get better time by using lighter wheels and less junk on the bike. As far as pacing, there are 2 more possible strategies to try: go ~270W until 4K or go 220W for 4K. I don’t think it will happen this year though.
Here is the power file.

Winter training camp. Maui. Day Four. Easy spin

2009-11-25T21:26:00.000-08:00

After two double 3 megajoules days, easy spin day was very much welcomed. Just before noon, I rolled down to the very south of Maui, until the road ended. It is very nice and scenic area. On the way back I stopped by taco stand and spend the rest of the day working on my tan lines.
Distance: 20 miles. 100 minutes

Winter training camp. Maui. Day Three. Haleakala Reconnaissance ride

2009-11-24T18:28:00.000-08:00

After the hard effort in yesterday “race”, my legs felt “powerless”. But it sounded like good idea to stack up two 3MJ rides back to back. Plus it was good oportunity to do reconnaissance ride day before easy day, followed by full effort climb.
I left home late, after sleeping in and taking it easy in the morning. After 30 minutes drive I was at Paia public parking, just a block west of Paia/Baldwin intersection, where official route starts.
The climb itself is 10,000 feet up over 35 miles, so it is a major effort, even if you go slow. First six miles were pretty hard, due to strong head trade winds. That is another important reason to start yearly. The humidity at temperature first hour were pretty bad. I had to drink a lot. Usually I could climb 2400 feet per hour at moderate effort, but today I was hardly making 2000 per hour. But since it was scouting ride to learn the rout and climb, I was happy to keep effort just at 3W/Kg.
I had route programmed into Garmin, and it helped me. After going straight on Makawao intersection, I went pass right turn into Olinda road! Garmin started to beep: you are off course!!! Good call.
After going on Crater Road, I stopped at Sunset marketplace for a can of coke, and re-filled 2 of my bottles. Then up again until 7000 feet to ranger station. One K later there was visitor center, where I refilled bottles again. Somehow I started to feel much better afterwards. At 8000 feet, it felt good, I knew that the summit was almost there. 2 miles to go was welcomed sight. I could see observatory, smell the barn, so to say.
As I passed parking lot, visitor center, I realized that I still have 200 or so feet to climb, and it was really steep part to the summit. So after 4 hours and 18 minutes( or 4:42 if counting for 2 stops) I was there, at 10,023 feet. Avarage power was very low, only 2.8W/kg. It was cool to see Mauna Kea and Loa of Big Island from there. The climbs I did the last year. Here is the picture

I took few pictures, put my jacket on and started uneventful descend.
Now rest day, and full scale effort tomorrow! I need a pacing strategy.
On the way up I was shooting 720p, maybe I need to edit it, but nothing I really like. Here is short video segment.

Reconnaissance ride up Haleakala
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Winter training camp. Maui. Day two. Maui Century ride

2009-11-22T22:18:00.000-08:00

I did not have problem waking up early, probably still on Tokyo time, jetlagged a bit.So I had time to get ready for Maui Century Ride.
After pasta and bowl of cereal I prepared 6 sets of Hammer’s Endurance Amino and Anti-fatigue caps, by wrapping it in small piece of foil. I wanted to check how it will work for me on the long ride. My other food was hammer’s Perpetuem and few GU shots.
I left my place at 5:45 am, to get to the park near Prince hotel before 6:30. It was still dark and I had my red flash light going. But it was also pretty warm, felt like 75F or sow. It took me about 25 minutes to get there . People were getting ready for the ride. I would say about 50 or so started 100-miles ride. Everyone stayed pretty much together until the first hill up the HWY 31. I saw guy in orange jersey accelerated up the hill and I followed him. Apparently he was catching up with other 4 or so guys up the road. His name was Bill, tri-athlete/ironman from Maui. There was also Bob there, who introduced himself before the ride. We kept nice rotation down the Pi’ilani HWY ( aka 31). Then we went straight onto Kihei Rd. From their windy section started. After few rotations, we only have 3 of us left: Bill, Bobby and I. At some point I looked back and saw that I dropped them, well. At the turn to the Honoapiilani highway I slowed down for them to catch up. I did not know the road, and company was much better, then struggling by myself. Then I learned, that people are actually racing the damn thing. They don’t have much road racing here in Maui, just Sun TT and metric century, I guess. That and they keep general classification between the races. I pulled them for a bit into headwind again. Legs felt good, and I was taking the Hammer’s stuff. We finally reached first turn around point at Waihee Valley road and the first aid stations. Guys seems to be eager to continue right away, but I stopped to refill my bottles. I only had two and was planning to rely on water support. That was right call. Then we were rolling back, and saw the chase group, pack of 20 or so riders, probably 5 minutes behind. After some hill climb back we hit tail wind/downhill section, topping 42 mph. I was actually spinning out at 42! And then we were on scenic route towards Lahina. It was kind of canyon with a view to the ocean. Really cool area. We kept steady tempo and good rotation, though I definitely was taking longer pulls. We passed another aid station, and it was getting hot. I had to refill the water. The guys did not stop and kept rolling. But I stopped for refill. And it was right call. There was no water at expected high point, the next 25 miles. The aid station was 75 miles turn around point. Bill and Bobby were going slower for me to catch up. Eventually we hit another longish hill. Bobby put nice tempo first time of the hill, and we dropped Bill. I asked Bobby if we should wait for Bill, but he said no, Bill must be done. Well, I guess they were racing !
At the top of Pineapple hill we turned back and were rolling fast again 35+ mph. We saw Bill and then much smaller chase group, probably 5 minutes behind. We started rotation again. I was running out of water completely. And the last 20 minutes before we reached aid station I was starting to feel dehydration, though my mouth was not dry yet. After quick water re-fill, we have to come across traffic on our side of the road, and fight multiple roller up the scenic highway. Then super strong wind started, maybe 4 or so miles before turn to Kihei. It felt like 30 mph headwind. We were crawling at about 12 mph, going all out. It was very demoralizing. I could not weigh for stop sign to come! Those last two miles before turn were probably the hardest. By then we had only 16 miles to go to the finish. Before turning to Pi’ilani Highway we got water at the last aid station. I felt legs starting to cramp. Last shot of Amino Endurance and Anti-fatigue pills helped a bit and we were rolling up the last hill again! By then my left leg started to cram really bad, and only thing stopping it from cramping was to keep light spinning. I guess I need to add Endurolytes to the mix. Bobby was cramping too. He said that pretty much everyone crams by the end. On top he got stung by a bee! I could not wait for the finish. It was a bit different route back and I followed Bobby. Few more miles and we were at the finish. No one sprinted, we just rolled in together.

Average speed ~ 21 mph for 4 hours and 43 minutes. Not too bad for 100 miler.
NP 230W, 204W average. 3.5 MJoles. Intenisty: 0.78
Afterwards, there was cool BBQ party with a lot of beer and free massage! On the table, my second leg started to cram. LOL! It was good to chat we local crowd. Tim, who puts ride together use to own bike shop in Edmonds, north of Seattle. There was one guy there from Kirkland/Ubrdo. BTW, since we gained something like 5 minutes on the pack, Bobby won Maui GC of 2009, he said he did Leadville 100 this year!

Here is the map, which includes 10+ mile riding from and to condo.
Maui Century ride 2009
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Winter training camp. Maui. Day one. Scouting South Maui.

2009-11-22T20:43:00.000-08:00

I’ve arrived to Maui on Saturday morning. After picking up Wrangler and short drive south I was at the condo in Kihei area. My bike was already waiting for me there and it took me just about 5 minutes to get it assembled. Then I went to Foodland store to stock up food for the next week, mostly pasta, of-coarse.
And I was off for scouting ride around the south part of Maui. SRM was showing nice 90 degrees Fahrenheit. I rode towards Makena area to check out Century start place for tomorrow. Then back via Kihei road to the start of the HWY 30. I stopped by South Maui bike store to pick up some CO2, since you can not bring it by air.
HWY 310 was quite windy. I was going up at ~10 mph, into headwing, pushing 250W. Going back, the same 250W produced 42 mph speed! What a diference the wind makes.
Then rode back via HWY 31 to Wailea. Traffic was really heavy, I remember that Big Island was not as bad with traffic. But, there is marked bike lane of the 31. After quick stop at Shopping mall to take some cool 3D pictures, I was on the way home. Total distance was 37 miles. Not too bad for the first day. Here is the map:
Easy ride around south Maui
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Catching up on race reports

2009-11-18T21:07:00.000-08:00

I’m on the plane to Japan. Sick guy next to me is finally asleep and not coughing anymore. What can you do? 9 hours on the plane next to sick person. I’m praying my immune system will hold on.Well, that aside, I need some catching up to do on race reports for the past 2 weeks.

Sprinker Cyclocross Race
First, race was Seattle Cyclocross at the Sprinker Rec Center in Tacoma. The same location as last year, and the course was very similar. Pavement start, pretty narrow track around woods, barriers, a bit of uphill, off camber, few rollers, sandpit and pavement again.
It stopped to rain just an hour or so before our race, and course was not as slow as in master’s race. Before the start Alex W, said, that he is only 6 or so points behind me, so the race was on. Start was fine, I clipped right in. I felt not bad. And was able to corner fine and get some power in. Troubled spot was the sand, I probably rode it half of the time, losing 10 or so seconds every time there. Also, on the pavement I did not go fast in the corners. I was running pretty low pressure ~30 and was afraid to fold tire. I think on lap 2 or 3 Alex W. finally passed me and started to pull away passing some other people. But with 2 laps to go I flew by him shortly after pavement section. It was obvious from the sound of breathing, that he is staying right behind me, and just waiting for the final sprint. But I took it quite slow in the sand again, which I guess caused him to dismount, but I rolled right on and was able to finish the race right before him, adding one more point to the lead.
I finished 25th? The course was not really suited for me, but I was glad to get 50 percentile result again.

WA Cyclocross State Championships
With the trip to Japan, I had to endure 5 days off the bike, so I decided to stack my workouts up just before the trip. I had pretty intense workouts on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. On Saturday, I was going to do first double race of the Season. The sates were at Pacific Raceways as last year. I really liked the course.
It had a lot of grassy section, long run up, another hill you can either run or ride if you can. Some single track, some gravel, some turns. It was not too technical, but good cross course.

First was masters 35+ race. Jeff and I were representing the team. Jeff is much better cross than me, and not a stranger to the podium.
My start was bad, I did not clip in and had chase a bit, but it all stayed together for a while. I started to pass people to move close to front, and boom! In the first corner I’m going down. I rolled my front tire! It looked like I rolled it only in one place I put it back and was on my way. I should have changed my bike right after we passed pits for the first time, but I was thinking I rolled it only in one place and it will be OK. Stupid! Once you rolled it, it won’t stay. So on the next lap I passed bunch of people, moved to six position, and was ready to pass 3 more people to jump on the leaders’ tail. And again in the same corner, I went down! I was going much faster this time. The tire rolled in multiple places and break hoods took the impact. It took me a while to put tire back on this time. I was heading to the pits this time not taking any risks steering upright. So I can keep the tire on. I was able to catch up to chasing group of five or 6 a lap later, but I did not have anymore power left to attack or pass them. So I finished 11th. What a bummer.
I talked with Kristi a bit afterwards. You have to check your tires before each race for possible gluing issues. After 10 or so races of constant exposure to cold, heat, water and dirt the glue completely dried out in few places. And that caused tire to roll. Lesson learned. You have to check it, and re-glue or re-apply glue on the edges time to time. Well, good course, I felt good, but in attention to details cost me the race. I felt like I had enough for the podium in that race. It’s good that I had spare bike in the pit to complete the race though. It was a mistake to hesitate changing bike first time around. I was afraid to loose the time, but lost the race. That said, Jeff got second place, Silver Medal!

So, less then two hours later I lined up for the second race of the day, CAT3 race. It was super fast from the gun, or at least it felt like it. This time I did not feel fresh at all. It was OK to keep good power, but I did not have kick to accelerate out of the corner. And running was progressively harder. With those two hills, 5 laps per race, 2 races, I run it 18 times! I only rode tricky hill twice in the first race. But could not do it again in the 3s! Attempt to ride it each time caused me too lose time. Also, Shimano M300 shoes are really bad when running up still hills. You have to angle whole foot, since there is no flex at all. Means no speed and super stress to the shins and no use of calves. I think I’m gonna switch to M180 shoes for the season. Anyway, I finished 10th in the second race. But I think it was like 15 or so guys only. 3 juniors were on the podium! Figures.

Woodland Park , MFG CX race
Sunday, was rainy day and I was dreading the race. But once I get outside, I realized that it was quite warm and not bad at all. The race was in the Woodland park. With the trip coming up, packing and stuff I only had time for one race. And with all the mud it was the right call. Logistically it would have been hard to cleanup bikes, change etc with such a mud fest we had.
So I was doing 35+ race again. Start was not bad, and I was picking up people one by one. I could keep pretty good power and speed on the hills, cornering was good, and I could do some good lines just like in practice. On second lap I think I moved close to top 10-20, and passing the pit I thought, hmm, it might be good time to change the bike, it’s getting just a bit heavy. But gears were still working, so I could do one more lap. And as soon as I passed the pits, right at the barriers, I felt my rear tire loosing the air. It was gone few steps later. Now I had to run WHOLE LAP to the pits! Well, I was running and running. I’ve got passed by pretty much everyone by the time I finally reached the pits, which were corner away from finish line. My luck, flat in the worst possible place! But they say if you don’t flat once during season you are running your tires too high. So I was on my spare bike, trying to gain some places back, but I was way too far. I suspect running for something like 2 miles in the mud with the bike took enough out of me. Because with one lap to go Randy S. passed/lapped me. Then second place went by and by that time I was able to latch on his wheel and stay behind for half the lap until the finish. Second race to the gutter in a row. Well, at least it was good workout and practice in mud riding. Thanks to everyone cheering and offering the help during that lap I ran around!

Now, back to reality. I’m still on the plane to Tokyo. Do not get sick, do not get sick.

Steilacoom again!

2009-11-01T21:52:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, was the first installment of Cascade Cross Series in Bellingham, put but Ryan. The course was in the Bellingham Athletic Center area. I can’t say I liked the course, it seems too much technical to me. Jumps over the curbs at least 3 times, very twisty gravel descend (wider than single-track, but to narrow to pass). There were some good things like steep hills and muddy grass after rain a day before. Twisty grass field was not bad, but lucked long enough stretches and was definitely not 3 meters wide.

Overall race felt quite hard, and legs hurt a lot in the evening after the event. Not sure what place I did end up, results are not up yet. Overall it was fun race, but pretty low key.

Next day, Sunday there was 4th installment of Seattle Cyclocross series. And it was in Steilacoom Park again!
For a change, I got to the race earlier, and pre-rode the course few times before Masters race started. I really liked the setup. I though it had right balance to test fitness and skills. There were 3 uphill sections, one very short and steep, pretty technical descend, long fast stretch of the road, where you can put power and go fast, twisty grass field with barriers.

Again, since arriving earlier I had time to do proper warm-up on the trainer and spare bike in Second Ascend tent ( our team doesn’t have one ☺), and chatted a bit with Kenton.
Then I jumped on my race bike and did course again before men 1-2 race. Afterwards, I washed and cleaned my bike a bit ( Nomad is working again!), talked with Brian ( sandbegger who won 3/35+ race and refuses to upgrade), and jumped on my bike to do easy spin. 20 minutes before the race, I changed in my skinsuit, put breath-right on, downed gel, drank water and went to the start line.

Start was fine for a change; I clipped right away, but probably was not as aggressive as I should in first minute. I felt good on the climbs, especially longer 3rd one, I was selecting lane with less people, so I can move up easier. Strange, I would think it was not really long enough to make the difference, but I guess making it few times got you tired, and it was good for me. The most problematic section was twisty descend. I just cannot do it without breaks! Brian said, that he not only did not use breaks except for the last turn, but he also spun going down. Another problem for me, was second uber-steep hill. It’s only 15 or seconds, but was real grinder. Once I made it in big chaing-ring by mistake. Anayway, I was able to pickup places I lost in callup and first minute, without loosing much (except silly speeders). I was probably loosing at least 15 seconds on each lap on descend. In the end, it was my best SCX finish this year, at least by percentile. 25 th place out of 60 people. I’m sure I could make top 10 if I can descend better! But this course was good for me, imho.
Here is the power file. I was able to post OK power of 240W/NP-276W for 46+ minutes. I wish we had 2 more laps to go.
Overall I feel that more thing went right for me this race, than wrong. We'll see what less favorable course will show.

I had to skip this weekend races in Maris farms and MFG. I was due to do tooth extraction on Friday, which ended up as surgical one. I did not want to loose stitches in all out cross effort. That plus course of antibiotics, ibuprofen and some sinus meds made my decision easy. I went for really slow steady endurance riding over weekend. It's a bummer to loose series points and I have season pass too! Well, there is race next week.

Silver Lake Cyclocross

2009-10-19T00:16:00.000-07:00

It was interesting course at Sliver Lake, Everett today.
The course consisted of long sandy beach + steep twisty up and down hills, basically single track. It was hard, technical power course.
The race did not go so well for me, as far as results concerned. But I felt there was some improvement today. Not as big as I need, since I did not make it to midpack, but I’ll take any improvement. Plus, I did not crash for a change!
Anyway, according to Matt H you need to analyze the race to get faster, so here we go.

What went well this weekend?
The cornering/bike handling felt a bit better. Cannot say much better, but better. I probably was a bit slower too, more aware of what I’m doing.
Moving way back, beyond the saddle on descents and when using rear break helped tremendously (thanks Ned). Concisely stopping any breaking when I’m in the fast turn helped too.

What went poorly?
Riding in the sand did not work so well, I probably need to specificly practice it, though question is how many sandy beaches we have left? Will cross Nationals feature sand?
Running was just really bad. It is like all power and motivation is sucked out of you and I can hardly move. Is it because I have to carry the bike, or because bike/run/bike transition?
My speed was quite low, especially in downhill-to-uphill 180 degrees corners. I need to use less breaks!
Doing small but steep hills was painfully bad. I need to be able to carry momentum better.
I did not push enough during first lap, backed off to yearly when got gassed.
Pre-race routine is still not perfect. Need to time it better, make sure I have proper warm-up on trainer and pre-ride course a bit longer.

What do you need to work on?
Cornering at faster speed, run with the bike (uphill and bike-run-bike transition), sand, small steep hills when super tired. Passing people at every opportunity? Going all out for 1st lap?

How did your bike work?
Bike worked well, maybe breaks could be adjusted just a bit better. My Nomad portable bike pressure washer did not work though! I was hoping to clean tires before race, but no such luck. Need to fix or get replacement!
Lost my powertap after 2 laps, the black platform broke off. Some good soul found and delivered it to Bilko.

How was your tire pressure?
Pressure felt fine, to major slips. Was ~35psi.

How is your body holding up? Any chronic problems? Sore hands? Back? Butt?
Body needs more fitness! Visit to podiatrist helped, no feet pain anymore!

Two steps forward, one step back

2009-10-12T22:20:00.000-07:00

Yep, you read it right, two steps forward, one step back. Pretty much every day this week I found time to put at least 40-60 minutes on my cross bike to practice turns, dismounts, remounts, you name it. I figured that trying to do stuff in the race, could only take you so far. I did interval workouts, core and endurance rides coach prescribed as well, so fitness is coming up, a bit.
So Saturday’s MFG#4 at Fort Steilacoom was the first test to see if I move in right direction. The course was not too technical. No run ups, some bumpy grass field with a lot of corners, false flat, hill, tricky turn, another hill, descent, pavement and then you do it all over again. There was only one set of barriers.
My start was decent, thanks to practicing it.
I hit the hill with the lead group of maybe 10. But on the tricky turn onto last part of the hill, I was trying to avoid dirt and got off the course stopped by the grass and bushes. I lost about 10 seconds and got passed by probably 10 people. The chase was on. I felt not bad in the corners and was able to pass some people back on the grass straightaway. Then on the lap 3, I put a bit of an attack on the hill and was able to pass 3 people. But on the laps 4, I lost it again in that damn corner between hills! At that point Rubicon guy passed me back. The race was on. On 5th lap on the hill I saw him fading and put another attack to go around and was able to keep the gap up until the finish. I’ve finished 13th out of 25 starters, which was not bad result. I was happy, finally mid-pack finish! I felt that if not for the corners uphill, it was possible to break top 10. It felt good to finally pass people instead of being passed.

Average power was 246W with 265W normalized. Here is the power file. First 5 minutes of the race was 285W. Not too bad, considering that one still has to corner and run over the barriers.

Second race was on Sunday; Seattle Cyclocross #2, Beverly park. It was much more technical course with steep downhill, run-up, steep off-camber section, and super twisty labyrinth of 180 degree turns. Looking at power file, I counted 24 turns per lap. I bet it was more!
Anyway, I was hoping to reproduce my mid-pack finish again, but it was not to be. The start was not bad (good), and I made it to the base of the hill mid-pack. But my running up that hill sucked! That, and I need 30 seconds recovery before I can pedal again! My turns were not too bad, but not great. What I learned after staying behind Dan for a while, that you have to standup and accelerate out of each corner to keep speed up. Unfortunately, I only tagged him for 2 laps, because my descending down that technical downhill was quite timid. I was trying to stay safe, after seeing other people crash in master race. It was probably fine call this time, considering that Steve (Garage) ended up with broken clavicle after loosing it there. On the last lap, I thought I can pick up 3 places seeing people in front fading, went around then raced too fast on that downhill, trying to build a gap on people I just passed, only to go over yellow line. Well, loosing 4 places was not fun, and I had no choice but to leave everything from that point, shifting to big chain-ring and hammering through the grass field and corners all the way to the finish. I ended up 42nd out of 58. Here is power file. Average power was quiet low 202W, with 224W normalized, but that is including run-up and descend. Also, there were no sections longer than 15 seconds, where you can put power down. Course designer really likes a lot of 180 degrees turns. Of course you can do so much given track/field boundaries. Be as it may, results really highlighted issues of poor running, cornering and descending. Something I had to continue to work on. There are still 8 weeks before nationals! I think power files in cross are quite interesting, that it actually shows how your skills were for the course. The closer you were able to push to your “road” threshold the better. I bet pro guys could even push 5-min VO2 max on the cross course. In any case, hopefully I will be able to monitor the progress through the season.
Good night.

It’s all about CROSS now

2009-10-08T14:16:00.000-07:00

Well, this weekend I managed to do 2 races. One was Crosstberfest in North Seatac, and another, MFG#2 in Sammamish Lake Park, aka Starbucks Gran Prix.
I hate to say it, but my performance in both cases was outright embarrassing! Well, Crosstoberfest was a notch better, but after a crash on lap 3, my chain got stuck between wheel and sprockets, from that point I think everyone has passed me. But I did not get lapped. Which was not the case at Starbuck GP. My front Dugast wheel was on its last breath, with sidewalls scrubbing breaks. So I switched to different wheel without adjusting the race. So basically first turn, front break locks and I went down, then again and again, and I have to pit to swap the bikes. On the last lap only leader of the race passed me, but he must have been at least a minute ahead of the pack.

Well, there are 2 problems I think: fitness and skills. As far as fitness concerned, I confident I’ll get back with slow, but structured training program. It might take me 4 or so weeks.
My CX skills are not there, so from now on, I’ll try to put 30-60 minutes each day, when I have a time to go out on my cross bike and practice turns, dismounts, off-camber, starts, but mostly turns. It is all low effort stuff, so it should not lead to overtraining. Wednesday’s workouts at Marymoor are good to learn how to do stuff right, but it’s just not enough and to crowded to really practice the stuff. This is it. So far 5 CX practices this week, a bit of slow progress. Intermediate goal now is to move mid-pack in B-race placing.

Meanwhile enjoy video I shot at Crostoberfest!

Crosstoberfest 2009 from Dessa on Vimeo.