2009 PA 40k ITT Championships

Sunday was the 2009 state TT championships. A date that I've had targeted since the end of last summer when I finished second in last year's edition of the race. Henry and Steve B. came over the evening before and we went to eat at Panera bread. When we got back to my place Henry and Steve were busy making last minute cassette changes and we still had to look up directions to the race but still ended up getting into bed at a decent hour at about 11 o'clock. Sunday morning we had to leave at 6:45am so for a race day that is like sleeping in. At the race we met up with Steve M. and Skip who decided to make the drive from Pittsburgh that morning. Everything was going smoothly until I went to put my disc wheel on and noticed that the hub had come loose and the entire wheel could move back and forth about 1/4 inch while in the drop outs allowing it to rub the brake pads with each pedal stroke (maybe this is what slowed me down most in VA). Anyway, 10 seconds and an allen wrench later and that problem was solved. My warm up felt great and I was off the trainer and ready to roll at 9:11am (10 minutes til my start time). Put on my glasses and helmet and head to the start line. I get there with about 5 minutes til take off. Time to take a final drink (I didn't take any water with me) drop my jersey and line up. It's a good thing they were sending us out at minute intervals this year because the official at the start line had more instructions than I have ever experienced before so he needed the whole 55 seconds to fit them all in before the 5 second count down. I start out and start down the initial false flat. I feel like I'm going slow but I just focus on keeping my cadence up and hammering. I was trying to keep my cadence high so I wouldn't burn myself out on the uphill sections on the first half of the course and have something left for the return trip.
I felt really good the entire race (which probably means I should have gone faster) and I even waved at Henry when I passed him. He was about 3 miles into his race when I was 3 miles from the finish. I flew through the finish because I wasn't sure of where it was and I didn't slow down until I realized I was back at the start which was just around the next corner before a major intersection. I felt like I had ridden well but I still wasn't very confident in my ride until someone actually came over to my car and told me to get over to the awards presentation because I had won and they were calling my name. We headed over and sure enough I had won the Cat 3. Steve M. won the Cat 5 and Steve B. pulled out a bronze medal in Cat 5 after not even wanting to enter the 40k event because he said it was too long for him (sandbagger). Goal accomplished! Now I just want to thank everyone who helped me get here and everyone who will help me move on in the future. (tears welling up and starting to sob) You have all been great and I love you all but I'm keeping the medal and I won't share it:)

Great balls of fire (VA state ITT)

(this was the only welcome I revieved in VA and by later in the day all I could think about was getting as far from here as possible)

My journey to the VA state ITT started at around 11am on Saturday morning when I left Mt. Holly Springs for VA. With no lunch in my belly I started to get the rumbles in my tummy at around 3 so I decided to stop and get something to eat and being the type of guy who hates to waste time and loves to multitask I decided to fill up on gas at the same time. Now I'm sure there are many places where you can get gas and some good food at the same time but I chose 7-11. Now for the food part, I picked the last 2 roller dogs that have been rolling for God knows how long (Mistake #1). The rest of my trip was uneventful and pleasant enough. I arrived in VA just before 4pm and got checked into my hotel. After unloading my car I decided to go for a small ride to stretch my legs and see the TT course. I got dressed and started down the road. It was only 2 miles to the course and completely flat. So I rode the course armed with 2 bottles for my 25 mile ride since it was 97* outside. On my return to the hotel (3 miles to go) I started to get the rumbles in my tummy again but these were a different kind. These were the kind of rumbles that tell you that you've eaten something that you shouldn't have and you need to get to a bathroom or else. I hurried back to the hotel and scurried through the lobby, up the stairs, and down the hall with my bike in tow to get to my room to relieve the "situation". Great now I'm nauseated, probably dehydrated, and I have a 40k in less than 18 hours. Force myself to eat dinner and get to bed relatively early. Maybe a good night's sleep will fix this mess.

Up in the morning and feel fine. I had a good breakfast at the hotel and it was off to the race. I get registered and get everything ready, maybe it's going to be OK after all. I get on my trainer for my normal warm up routine and my legs feel dead. Every movement is so difficult. "Maybe this will pass", I think to myself. I get off the trainer and to the start line in pretty good time for my start.

I'm off and going well. I passed my 30 second man and 1 minute man only 6 minutes into the race. I must really be flying (and they must be really slow). I continue to chase and pick up people til the turnaround and I'm feeling pretty good. I make the turn and within 30 seconds I get passed. "What is this? This is crazy. How is it possible that this guy is passing me?" I keep hammering and keep him in sight the rest of the race but he is pulling away. With 8 miles to go both legs start to cramp simultaneously and now this is difficult. With 5 miles to go I feel even more pain and the first thing that pops into my head is Jerry Lee Louis singing "Great balls of fire" and that's not a good thing to be think with 5 miles left to race with your legs already cramping. The rest of the race is a blur of pain/suffering/dehydration induced delirium. I ended up finishing 4th with a time of 0:55:53 but I wasn't even close to 3rd. Now it's time to try and recover this week and try to be firing on all cylinders at the PA state ITT next Sunday. I'm officially off 7-11 roller dogs for good.*

*if all of this just sounds like the ramblings of a madman it's because I have a million thoughts running through my head right now and wanted to put just a few of them out there for others to enjoy/make fun of.

*Update: 4th cat. 3, 7th overall. If I had been a cat. 1-2 I would have placed better:)

Tuesday night Yellow Breeches TT

Today was my second attempt at the Yellow Breeches Racing weeknight TT. Since the first one I have moved into my new home and now I'm only 4 miles from the TT start. It's nice to be able to ride to the start and home again afterword. The first time I did this race I finished in 23:??(about 19). My goal is to someday do it in under 23 minutes. Tonight was not the night. Every thing started well enough but when I got to the turnaround point I made my turn about 1/4 mile too early because someone had placed a traffic cone there to mark something on the road. I saw an orange cone and just turned. I didn't even think that it was the wrong one until I was headed the wrong way and the guy that I had just passed seconds earlier was yelling at me asking me where I was going. I thought about throwing in the towel and just soft pedaling back to the start and home but I decided to turn around again and go to the correct turn around and try to finish strong. This being one of my last really hard intervals in preparation for the PA state TT next weekend. I ended up with a time of 24:05. Not really that bad since I lost a bunch with two extra turnarounds, some extra distance added between the turnarounds before I figured out that I had screwed up, and some lost time when I was coasting and trying to decide if I should bag it and go home or turn around and finish hard. If the weather holds the plan is to do this again on Thursday so maybe I'll get a clean run and be able to take another shot at sub-23.

Philadelphia Amature TT

(I'm in the money)

After waking up at 3am I still managed to get 1st place Cat. 3 and 5th place overall. It was a beautiful day and a great venue. Super smooth blacktop and completely closed to traffic. The only part of the course that kind of sucked was the expansion joints in the road 1/2 mile into the course and then again 1/2 mile to the finish. There were 3 of them and they were huge. Enough to make me loose my bottle. Not that it mattered on a course this short or at this particular temp but still. This was the most professional amature TT I've ever seen. The timing system was great and they had a spotter calling the upcoming riders # ahead to the finish so they had your time and finish place on the clock as you were approaching. This would have been great except that I didn't get to see mine because I ended up passing my 1 1/2 minute man in the finishing chute so his time was up on the clock and I never did get to see mine. The weather couldn't have been any better, sunny and 70 degrees at race time with very little wind. It was a really nice race but driving 2.5 hours at 3am to race 8.6 miles is crazy.

Resting is over, now back to work

I had a relatively easy week last week which was only planned because between the weather and travel I didn't have much time.

Anyway, today I was doing 1omin TT intervals with 10min rest in between. 10 minutes isn't all that long but sure can be painful if done correctly. Good times, hopefully this will all pay off.

I'll try to post some pictures eventually because I realize this blog really sucks if all you have to look at is what I write. A new Camera battery is on the way.

"Happy Birthday Bruce" Ride!

Happy Birthday Bruce! I realize it's a bit late but I was just at the party today so it seems appropriate. We did a 2-3 hour MTB ride and it was my first chance to get out on my new 29er that I just picked up from Probikes on Saturday. It was a fun ride with perfect weather. I was amazed at how the big wheels just seemed to roll over things easier than the 26ers. This was also my first ride on a hard tail which made things interesting. I'll do a better review once I get some more miles in. I did manage one spectacular crash on a flat and easy section to cut both of my knees open.

Yellow Breeches "Ironmasters" TT tonight

I'm doing the Yellow Breeches Racing Ironmasters TT tonight for the first time. It'll be a good TT so use as a fitness gauge because it's only 5 miles from the house I'm buying. I'm not sure of the distance or what kind of terrain is covered but from what I have seen of the results it should take around 23-25 minutes and at that amount of time it should be really painful if done correctly, I'm looking forward to it. Results and pictures to come later tonight or tomorrow.

Here are the Results!

new helmet decals

After a lengthy wait it's finally done.

Road bike out of commission

Well, now my road bike is out of commission for the the foreseeable future. I was planning on buying a new one anyway but I was gonna keep this one so I could have two. I've come to the conclusion that you should always have two road bikes just in case something like this happens. Unfortunately my new bike is not here yet so I'm left without a ride. Maybe this is a blessing in disguise because I'll be getting a lot more time on my TT bike since it's my only choice.

Thanks to the friendly folks at Probikes I also have a new Cannondale F29er 1 waiting for me in Pittsburgh. I might be able to get down there to pick it up this weekend and get a ride in if everything goes right.

10 miles from home and walking

I was just out for what I thought what was going to be a 60 mile ride and that all changed in a heartbeat. I was accelerating away from a stop light when I heard a snap and then my rear wheel locked up. I came to a sudden stop and made my way to the side of the road and looked down. What I saw was a horror. My derailleur was twisted in my spokes and my chain was still intact but one link had one half snapped off. At first I thought my derailleur hanger had snapped and unleashed the carnage that I was looking at but it appears to still be intact, rather it looks like the derailleur was ripped straight out of it, removing all of the threading. So now what? I have my super multi-tool that I thought could end this kind of madness. I can use it to fix any problem my bike could possibly have. It may not be the best fix but at least I can make it home. That's not the case when you can't even get the rear wheel to turn because it's tangled with a derailleur and chain. Oh well, 10 miles from home and walking. About an hour and 4 miles later some guy out cutting his grass saw me and offered me a ride home which I gladly accepted. I now have blood blisters on both of my feet and I'm tired, too tired to even look at my bike and try to figure out what I need to do next. What a mess!

Windy day and dead birds

The two things really have nothing to do with each other. Yesterday when I was riding and noticed that birds in South Central PA must be the dumbest birds in the world. There are more dead birds laying along the road than I have ever seen in my life. I was just doing my normal ride and watched a bird sitting on the road take flight as a Ford Explorer approached. Instead of flying out of the way it just flew straight in the same direction as the road and got smacked. Dead bird.

Then today came the windy part. The wind was just completely crazy. My attempt at an easy ride was ruined. It was all I could do to stay upright and it ever seemed to get any easier.

Shippensburg Tuesday night race

It may not be a "real" race but it sure is fun. It's a road race so, of course, I get dropped. I can stay in about half way and then I just die. Maybe if I stick with it someday I won't get dropped. It sure does hurt so it must be making me stronger:)

Weekend off

Saturday was my first easy day in quite some time. I did an easy ride from my apartment in Mechanicsburg to Shippensburg. Then I did a TT on the South Mountain Hill Climb course. It took 1 min longer than when I did it with the group but I was 30 watts stronger than after having done a 40k in the morning. Then I rode back to Mechanicsburg with the wind at my back the whole way:). It was a nice easy 82 miles with 7 tough miles right in the middle.

Sunday I went to Rocky Ridge County Park near York, PA for a Trek bike demo. Now I wouldn't dare buy a Trek since our wonderful bike shop sponsor (Pittsburgh Pro Bikes) sells Cannondale, Specialized, Giant, Seven, Independent Fabrications and Delta 7. So, you may ask, what was my reason for being there? I wanted to test some new full suspension designs and finally try some big wheels. First I rode the GF Superfly and I got to see what all of the fuss about 29 inch wheels is all about. It just seemed to roll over roots, rocks, or anything else that may get in my way. Coming from me that is a major revelation since I'm hardly what you would call a good mt. biker. Next I rode another GF 29er but this time it was a full suspension model. In my opinion it was complete overkill. It was a nice bike but felt kind of like riding a down hill bike on a cross country corse. Between the big wheels and the 4 inches of rear travel it was just too much. Finally, my last ride of the day was on a Trek TopFuel 9.8. The Trek rep had told me that it was the bike that he thought I would appreciate the most coming from a road background and was he ever right. It was really a rocket ship. It felt like riding a road bike over double track and then made rocks and roots disappear while staying grounded enough to allow me to continue pedaling at full speed while never loosing traction. One of their big selling points for this bike was something called BB90. It's sort of like a copy cat of Cannondale's BB30 design but without all of the benefits. It does narrow the Q-factor but doesn't enlarge the spindle size to stiffen things up. The narrow Q-factor felt really good on a MTB and I can't wait to try a Cannondale with a BB30 crank. Now I just need to try and decide if I want a new Scalpel or F29er 1. Decisions, decisions............life can be so difficult.

Sorry that there aren't any pics from this weekend but my camera battery was dead and I didn't find out until I was already on my ride Saturday.

Also one last thing. One of the largest dfferences I noticed with all of the MTBs today was that the forks were so much less stiff than the Lefty. Since Cannondale was my first and only "real" MTB I had never experienced this before but the forks on the Trek and GFs felt like they wanted to wash out on every corner, thankfully it never happened but a bad sensation all the same.

Long rides and time to recharge

After quite a bit of traveling for the last 2 months this weekend I'll be doing some long rides around home and recharging my batteries for a push towards the PA state championship TT. This weekend the weekend should be nice and since my mother is in FL I won't be able to see her on Mother's day anyway.

Pedal Efficiency study

Earlier this week I had the opportunity to take part in a VO2 max study and Pedal Efficiency study. What I learned is that I'm moderately fit and I don't fit into any real model as far as pedal efficiency. Turns out that the trainer rides I do all winter long have my body equally efficient(or inefficient) while riding at a wide range of pedal rates.