Tour de Ephrata 08

Well this race certainly didn't go as I was hoping but it was still a good time and I met alot of really cool people. Saturday started with the road race at 2:03pm just 3 minutes after the 1,2,3 field took off over the same course. I was in the 3,4 race and was doing pretty well for the first two laps and then the bad stuff happened. There was a wreck in the middle of the road and I got stuck behind it. I almost got caught up to the group but just couldn't quite latch on and I was spent. Then I spent the remainder of the race just riding tempo around the course just because to continue with racing on Sunday you had to finish on Saturday. I ended up 71 out of 85 finishers and countless DNFer's. It was sad to finish like that considering how well the race had started but I survived to race another day.

On Sunday morning more bad luck started early. My TT start time was 9:42am and it was only 42*. Here is my picture of me warming up on the trainer and gasping for air while having an asthma attack just doing an easy spin before my actual TT warm up routine.

It was a fun course, starting with 5.5 flat miles before you really started to go up. I knew I was in trouble from the start when I couldn't breathe and my speeds on the flat terrain were low. Then once I got to the mountain part of the course I really began to struggle. I still could barely breathe and now I was trying to mash away up the climb in a 42x27 gear. I put on the biggest cassette i own but didn't want to bother changing my chain rings for this one race. My time put me mid-pack, even with all that working against me. So I had to be a little happy.The crit. in the afternoon didn't start until 2:25pm so I had a while to wait. I went and got something to eat and then went to the race venue to see all of the earlier races. This whole time I was very tired from the combination of the two previous races, having to wake up early the previous two mornings (Saturday to get up and drive to the race and Sunday to get up for the TT), and lastly I was tired from the 4 1/2 drive to the race venue on Saturday. The crit. was 25 laps long or about 23 miles. I started with no snap in my legs and dangled near the back for about 5 laps at which point I decided that I wasn't moving up any and I just kept falling further behind out of corners so I decided to pull the plug on the weekend's racing a little early.
It was a good time and a wonderfully organized race. The competition at this race far superseded any at any other 3,4 race I've ever been a part of. I'm really glad I got to experience this event but only wish I could have had a better showing for Ag3r/Indianacycling.com.

Spring stinks!

I think the winter down here in VA has nicer weather than the Spring. It's been cloudy or rainy here for about 3 weeks with a few beautiful days thrown in. Yesterday started out cloudy for my ride on the parkway but there were still a ton of people out riding. I passed 2 groups of 10 or more. I met one guy on a touring bike fully loaded so I decided to slow down and talk with him on one of the climbs. He had an Australian accent and told me that he was on his third day of a 2 month journey that would take him from Williamsburg, VA to Oregon. If I only had 2 months to spare! Actually if I had 2 months to spare I'd probably just stay around here but be able to race more often.
If I could get a hold of some of this stuff, I'd probably go faster. Maybe they could sponsor us;-)

At the end of my ride yesterday i decided to do my monthly power tests. I thought after riding for 2 hours my numbers would be lower than last time but to my surprise I had my highest power for 20 minutes ever. I guess all of those intervals are working. Now I'm just taking it easy on Thursday and Friday ahead of the Tour de Ephrata this weekend.

Hammer Brothers Ride!

It was far worse than it sounds. I haven't been trashed like that for as long as I can remember.






It was good to see some friends and get a ride in. It was killer, hard from begging to end.

Best Race Ever!

Yesterday was the most fun race that I've ever been a part of. It was the Harris-Roubaix just outside of Harrisonburg, VA. We started with an 8 mile parade type ride from downtown Harrisonburg to the race course. Then the actual race consisted of 3 fifteen mile circuits. Each circuit had 5 miles of paved road and 10 miles of gravel. The field was extremely varied and there was no category separation. We had a few pros, including at least one that just returned from the tour of CA, some Cat.-2s, and even some people who were even slower than I am. It was a great and jarring ride. By the end my seat had slipped and was now slanted back and my water bottle cages had been shaken loose. Then afterward everyone met and sat around a bonfire for laughs and to refuel. A great time was had by all (I think). It was a super hard day but very worthwhile and I look forward to doing it again next year.
More pics HERE

hard training and bad weather

The last week has shown worse weather than I've seen since I moved to VA. Yesterday it was cold and gray in Waynesboro when I started my ride. Then I headed onto the parkway and it was even worse, 10* colder and raining.

Today started out looking the same so I wasn't very excited about heading out on a 3.5 hour ride but I did. About 2 hours into the ride the sun came out and things started to warm up.
Hopefully more summer-like weather starts to appear soon.

The worst part of spring

The worst part of spring is when you have an 80* day one day it makes you think that all days are gonna be like that. Then you go outside for a ride the next day and it's only 50*, that can be quite a shock to the system.Today was a 2.5 hour ride at a pretty easy pace because my legs were still pretty fried from yesterday.
Normally I won't stop to take pictures but today had one exception when a bear cub that was no bigger than a beagle crossed in front of me. I thought I better stop in case mama bear was close behind. Lucky for me she wasn't. I tried to get a picture of it but I was too slow with the camera.
Unlike yesterday, today I ended up riding home into the wind. It was awful and I was already tired.
Tomorrow looks like rain and temps in the 40s so I'll probably be back inside.
I guess we should enjoy it while we can.

April Fool's Day

Beautiful day for a ride. 80* and sunny but 16mph winds from the south. I've decided (after getting killed at Mingo) that it's the time of year to start doing some intervals above threshold.

The plan for today was some 5 minute intervals at 110% of threshold with 5 minutes recovery between them. It really hurt. Maybe in the end it'll help.
Who needs Washington, D.C. for cherry blossoms? We have plenty of our own right here in Waynesboro.