New TT PR

Sunday was the Carlisle 40k ITT. Nice warm day with a head wind on the first 20k and a really nice tail wind on the trip home. I set a new PR of 0:52:37 almost 2 minutes better than my previous best. It was good enough for 1st place in Cat 3 and 3rd place overall. I only lost to 2 cat 1-2 guys so I can't be too upset but winning is always more fun.
Second race of the day was a 7 mile uphill time trial that was started as a mass start. The first two miles were flat and at a fairly easy pace. That let me hide my legs that were still fried from the morning 40k. As soon as the race headed uphill someone jumped. He had fresh legs since this guy wasn't at the 40k. One other guy jumped on his wheel and I followed. There were only 3 of us and I thought I may have more left than I thought. This feeling didn't last long because as soon as I sat down after my acceleration I knew I was dead in the water. From there on out I went at my own pace and struggled but ended up finishing 10th place. My time in the morning race was enough that it would have given me the win if this had been scored as a stage race.

Tuesday racing in Shippensburg

Today I did the Tuesday training race in Shippensburg. It was painful as all of my experiences with road racing seem to be and my legs were still tired from Sunday. It was a good workout and now I just have to take it easy until Saturday's race in Virginia.

On a side note, I went to Pittsburgh Probikes on Saturday with Rich. That is one awsome store and I was highly impressed to say the least. As you can see above, I had a chance to sport my new Probikes shirt at the race on Sunday.

My extended weekend of riding and racing

Friday was 75* and sunny and I was headed for the hills along the border between VA and WV. I was riding to Reddish Knob, which is a 8-10 mile climb that dead ends at the top in a parking lot. Great way to spend a day.
Saturday was the running of the First Annual Bridgewater, VA to Love, VA Century(Made up by me, for me). This ride may happen more or less than yearly but since it's my ride that's what I'm calling it for now. This happened to be the coolest day of the weekend with intermittent mist and barely any sun.
This is my version of taking Ag3r to new heights:)

Easter Sunday was a beautiful day. Other than Easter it also happened to be the running of Paris-Roubaix and therefore in Harrisonburg, VA it means Harris-Roubaix. Harris-Roubaix is 3 laps of a 16 mile course, 12 miles of which is gravel roads. My race started out well with me following the first attack of the race and then making my own attack leading up to and starting the first climb. After a split in the race, I got caught on the wrong side of, I was charging hard with one other guy trying to catch the lead group. All seemed to be going well until we crested the second hill on a gravel section and I flatted. I stopped to fix my tire and then started again and got my second flat less than 1/2 mile later. At this point I threw in the towel and rode slowly to the to the finish line and the post race pot luck dinner. Then when I was getting ready to go back to my car someone pointed out that my handlebar was snapped. It must have happened when I dropped my bike to the ground at the finish line. Upon removing my handlebar tape I found that all that trainer time this winter led to a large salt build up which was weakening aluminum. Luckily it didn't snap during a ride:-)

In short it was a great extended weekend of riding in western VA.

New Ag3r flophouse

After May 15 it will be official but I bought a new house. It's less than 5 miles from the start line for IronCross and less than 5 miles from the start line for the Carlisle tt series course. Just let me know if your going to be in the area and need a place to stay. Great riding, both road and mtb, right out my front door.

New TT position and New Catlike Aero Chrono Plus

My helmet arrived today from Scotland today so I thought I'd post some pics of the helmet and position pics that someone might enjoy.

New Jersey 36k ITT

(pics will be added when/if I can get some)

48* and misty. It was about as flat as a course of that length could possibly be. This race is an interesting on because instead of a true 36k ITT it is actually 2 18k ITTs. At the end of the first half there is a finish line because on this road they can't stop traffic to allow a turnaround. After you cross the first finish line you line back up in the order that you crossed and they restart you back towards the next finish line at 30 second intervals.
My race started badly because I wasn't clipped into my left peddle at that start line and then I had trouble getting clipped in because I had accidentally walked though some mud in the parking area. It took about a quarter mile to get clipped in but then everything was working fine. I got into a rhythm and felt pretty good. Apparently I had bumped my cadence sensor when I put my disc wheel on because it wasn't showing any reading but I still had my speed and time display. I felt good and was happy that I didn't have any asthma related "issues" when I made it to the turn around.
Wow, that break in the middle of an ITT sure is nice. I makes me think that maybe this should be common protocol. Anyway, I had more trouble getting clipped in when I started the second half of the race. After that short break I felt much better on the return trip. It makes me rethink my whole warm up strategy (harder warm up from now on). I was feeling strong and all was going OK when I saw the 5k sign and I picked my effort up a bit for the last push to the finish. Next up was 3k and a little harder. Finally 1k and I was sprinting from the aero position. I was really hurting and was pretty sure my finish time would be pretty good but the finish line wasn't coming nearly fast enough. Afterwords I found out that the 5k, 3k and 1k to go road markings were painted on the road in 2008 and the finish line had been moved roughly 0.5 miles down the road this year. This made for a really painful 1k that ended up being 1.1 miles but it probably improved my time by starting my final push from further out so I'm OK with it. I truly had nothing, and I mean nothing, left at the end so all is right with the world. I ended up winning the overall in 0:57:41. My fastest race ever:)
48* and misting is a nice, although cool, temperature to race in but afterwords I was absolutely freezing. It took almost an hour after I was cleaned up and dried off before I started to warm up:) I guess winning warms your soul but does nothing for the rest of your body.

*Almost forgot to say "Thank you Rich" for letting me borrow his TT helmet:)

Lake Ontelaunee TT

My first race of the 2009 season was this past Saturday. A 10 mile TT seems like just the right way to start off the season. Just long enough to cause a significant amount of pain but still short enough to be able to go full speed even with mediocre early season fitness. It was a fun course and I really enjoyed it. It was a hilly course for a TT. I don't know if there was any flat ground in the entire 10 miles. Even though it was a bumpy course there was only one section where I felt like I was spinning out my largest gear (54x12). I wish I had put on a cassette with an 11 tooth cog for that section. I could have made the 3 seconds difference that I ended up loosing by.
Well, I guess I spilled the beans, I lost. I had a pretty good race but the cold weather was really messing with my breathing. I was having trouble the entire race after the first 2 minutes but it peaked 2 miles from the finish. I felt someone was sitting on my chest. I ended up winning my category and breaking the prior course record but I got beat by a master's racer. In the end it ended up being alot of fun for an early season race and I ended up winning my registration back plus $2 so it didn't cost anything. Also, I managed to get some USCF points to help in my quest for complete domination of the rankings this year and to improve on my final rank from last year of #19. I have kicked my training into high gear now with T Max Intervals. These things hurt but hopefully it will be worth it. With longer days and warmer weather on the horizon this should be interesting.

Lactate intervals

I finally made the switch from steady state intervals to lactate intervals. Also made it outside for a few rides this week. Other than that not very much exciting happening here. I can't wait to get some racing in.

New bike alert

I have a new bike on the way. It won't be here for a couple weeks and I probably won't get to do my first race of the year on it but only time will tell.

Back riding indoors since being back from FL

It's been all indoors riding since getting back from FL last week. That's OK I guess it is still February after all. It's just hard to remember that after riding in 80 degrees for 2 weeks. First race of my season is in 2 weeks (4/14/09) in Reading, PA. With the new USAC policy on rankings by total number of points like what the UCI has done forever I need to do all of the TTs that I can fit into my schedule. Although this system sort of sucks for those of us who work some weekends and don't make it to as many races as we might like.

Just finished up with my last ride in FL before heading back to Mechanicsburg later today. It was a set 8 minute TT intervals with 2 minutes recovery between them and then a final 6 mile TT interval to finish it off. FL was fun but riding in PA is much better and less flat.

18 mile TT test

I did my first 18 mile all out effort of the year yesterday. The first 12 miles of it were into the wind and the final 6 was with the wind at my back. I'm not gonna lie, it hurt, alot. I don't know if I was fast or not but that wasn't really the point of this exercise. Just wanted to get that feel back. In the words of Greg Lemond, "It never hurts any less, you just go faster"

Greetings from sunny Florida!

Unlike the rest of my teammates who have been riding in the cold of winter and across frozen lakes and such I have spent the last 3 weeks in Southern Florida. I've been putting in some pretty big miles (by my standards, not Sam's) and I've finally got back on my TT bike. It seems to take a while after being off my TT bike for so long but things are finally starting to feel "right" again.It was really windy on my ride today and I got pretty beat up but considering it was also 74 degrees and sunny who am I to complain.
Been doing some cross training also................not really but I was forced to go so I figure I may as well make it sound like I was training. Don't worry, I rode 52 miles later that day when I got home

Sunny in Florida

Well, it may be sunny but it really isn't that warm. It's been as warm as 75 degrees on the cloudy/rainy day but today it is finally sunny and it's only 60 degrees. Oh well, it's nice to be outside riding again. I was on my TT bike yesterday, for the first time since Labor Day weekend, for a 50 mile cruise. It does feel strange after being off of it for so long. I'm glad I was on my TT bike because the wind was crazy.

bike-fit shoe wedges

I just got a set of shoe wedges from Bike Fit Systems. They are little plastic wedges that fit between your shoe and cleats. The idea is that most people apply perfectly flat pressure to the pedals (much like over or under-pronators in running) except these things cant the ball of your foot instead of the heel. They recommend installing two shims under each cleat and then add or subtract wedges overtime until you get to the point when your knees wobble back and forth as little as possible. I already had some expeirence with this idea because I used to have a pair of Specialized shoes that had this feature built in but I think the wedges are a better idea because it allows for adjustment. I found that I need 2 wedges on my left foot andn 3 wedges on my right foot. It really is amazing how much more comfortable this makes pedaling. They make claims of power gains. I don't know about increased power but increased comfort is gaurenteed.

4 hour trainer ride!

5 bottles of water, 4 hours of DVRed TV shows, 3 energy bars, 2 soaked jerseys, and 1 rearranged living room is just the recipe for a four hour trainer ride. As I told Henry on our New Year's day ride I started by dong my normal power testing routine and then just kept going for the rest of the 4 hours. The good news is my 20 minute power is up 8%. It was also my highest 20 minute power output ever indoors. Things seem to be going in the right direction. Maybe taking a month off was a good thing. So my 4 hour journey started off well and then got monotonous. Hopefully it'll help in the spring but my death stare (below) should tell the rest of the story of my experience.