Doing the Bull Dance, Feeling the Flow.

I felt like writing something on the blog, so here we are.

Have you lost anything lately?  Cell phone, GPS,  sunglasses, a snake? If so, I've probably found it one the side of the road in the last week or so. Seriously, I found a fully functional Garmin NUVI on the road last week and this week I've already found 2 cell phones and three pairs of sunglasses.  None of the phones or glasses were keepers, but the GPS is money. I actually gave it to my brother to make up for being a mean older sibling.  As for the snakes, been seeing like 5 a day. The majority are dead, but I've seen some fatties that were still alive and scheming to eat me.

I've been scouring the racing websites for something good for this weekend, but there really isn't much worth traveling for. There are 2 crits within an hour drive of Bloomington this weekend, but I don't really want to waste 2 good training days on 1 hour crits. The solution, ride to the race and get a ride home. The race on Sat. is going to be about 50-55 miles to get there and then tack on a 75min crit at the end and it should be a good training day. We'll see how the legs feel on Sunday morning before I decide if I'm gonna do the same thing again.

With Little 500 coming up next weekend, I'll have the next two weekends at home, and that will be nice. I'm trying to save some of my "travel bullets" for later in the year, because if I don't, by the time cross rolls around i'm sure I'll be needing all the mental strength i can muster to deal with the full-on cx schedule.

A couple more weeks of training around here and then it'll be full time racing and recovering in-between. 

Alright, I'm outta here. The blogging energy I was feeling earlier is dying out, so I'm off to bed.

Where to begin? I'd really like to just jump to this weekends developments, but I owe you few readers an update from 2 weeks ago and the Marian University crit too. Here is the race report I wrote for the team website...

"The race was a crit/ circuit race hosted by Marian University in Indianapolis.
The day consisted of a full morning of collegiate racing and then USA
Cycling sanctioned races in the afternoon. Chris Uberti and Greg
Christian said that they’d be making the trip down and were planning
on doubling up. Well, as I rolled up to the course, the Collegiate Men’s
A’s race was about half way through and what do I see but Chris off
the front in a 2-man group and Greg slaving away solo trying to chase
him down. I was thinking maybe they’d take it easy and save a little for the USAC Crit coming up, but I was wrong. Chris won and Greg got 3rd.



When we all met up at the line for the second race they said I might
be on my own for a bit while they catch their breath, which was
understandable. The USAC crit had a pretty nice turnout of 60-70
riders. It felt nice to be in the group again and testing out freshly
glued Easton EC90’s. They felt pretty awesome and miles faster than
the heavy 32 hole training wheels I’ve been on for the last few
months. Well the attacks started flying early and often and with the
high winds I figured I better make sure I was at the front to keep an
eye on things. Although they were on their second race of the day,
Chris and Greg were doing their part to give us a presence at the
front. After only a few laps of the 1 mile course I bridged to a group
off the front and as I was getting there the group was splitting and
so I went through the fragments and with a handful of strong guys. We
worked well together for a while and cemented our gap. Once I had a
chance to look around I saw that all the decent teams were represented
in out group of 5, but that we had 2 pretty good sprinters in the
group. I started taking it easier so that I didn’t bury myself just so
I could get beat in the end by the faster finishers.



Soon, the good news came that Chris was bridging up with Jake
Rytlewski of Kenda Pro Cycling. This was music to my ears and so I
started skipping pulls and sitting on in hopes that Chris could get
across quickly. When Chris arrived with 3 to go that gave us 2 of
7 and Kenda 2 of 7, with Kenda having the fastest finisher in the
group. It got pretty tactical in the last few laps and everyone was
looking at everyone else to make the move. In the windy section about
800 meters out, Greg Strock from Texas Roadhouse attacked and we
looked at the PRO’s and they looked at us. Finally someone went and
chaos ensued. Chris was gassed from his days work and I didn’t play
the sprint very well either and the Texas Roadhouse rider held us all
off. The best that we could manage was 5th for me and 6th for Chris.
Definitely not what we were looking for from that situation, but
luckily it’s a long season and our communication will be better in the
future."

So that bring us to the racing from last weekend, Hillsboro-Roubaix. This is the 2nd time that I've done this race and I really look forward to it over the winter. It's honestly not really anything special but it gets 125 rider fields every year and if you ask me, I think it's just because it has "Roubaix" in the name. Regardless, it's a good early season fitness test and it seems to be pretty selective considering there's hardly a hill on the course.

We were slated to do three, 29 mile laps of a new, more twisty course. It was was more windy that the previous year and I thought it might split the race up a little earlier as a result. In the pre-race meeting Kirk told us to stay up front because he was thinking the same thing. I'm always a little paranoid of getting caught behind a split and being taken out of a race for lack of concentration, so I tend to overcompensate and really really ride at the front and maybe fight for position at times when it really isn't as crucial. Well I was really on my toes for the first two laps and I might as well have been tail-gunning the whole time because the racing was slow, boring, and almost non-existent. It maybe got hard for a few seconds here or there, but I couldn't believe how big the field was when we were going through the start/finish at the beginning of the last lap. Well the "racing" that didn't happen on the first two laps was made up for on the last one. I'm not really sure if the wind actually picked up or I'm just imagining that, but either way we were racing in the gutter and racing hard. At one point I was seriously suffering at the edge of the road, hoping to catch a sliver of draft while simultaneously praying for a right turn so I could catch a break. Once we turned and had a more favorable wind, I looked around and saw that the field had gone from about 100 down to about 30. That's more like it. With some more gutter racing and crosswinds on the run back into town it was looking like a small group might break off to fight for the win, but it wasn't to be.

We assembled at the front on the last trip up the hill about a kilometer out. And when I say we, I mean Kirk and Greg. I'm so damn glad those guys are on my team. Together they took care of Chris over that last K and dropped him off right on the doorstep. Chris took a few hard pedal strokes out of the saddle and won by a handful of bike lengths. Noah Singer and I tagged on to the back of the train and were able to take 3rd and 4th on the day. A Panther p/b Competitive Cyclist 1,3,4 in out first race with the new squad. Now I understand that this wasn't Paris-Roubaix or anything, but having success like that as a team was one of the most fun days I can remember at a bike race.



Chris looking like he's just won another bike race with Noah on the right with his hand up and me behind John Grant with my hand up celebrating as well.

Unfortunately I don't have much good racing to do the next few weeks, so I'm just going to be trying to hit the training hard so I can be ready for the big block coming in May and June. We've got some new races on the schedule that should be a nice step up for the squad. I'm getting pretty excited, but my girls gotta win the Little 500 first.

Less is More

Less posting on this blog probably means I'm doing more riding, so I guess I've been riding a lot. March has been pretty kind to me. I've been busy with Little 500 stuff and trying to complete this training block. The weather around these parts has been pretty awesome, trying to make up for the crappy February. My Little 500 team, Delta Gamma, just had their big spring Break training block here in town and I took a bit of time off of work to be around the track and watch their workouts, which they have been killing. I like the way things are looking for them on race day.



Actually lets back up for a second. I almost forgot to mention that we had our Panther pb Competitive Cyclist team camp a few weeks ago in Ohio. This was the first time we could get everyone together and get all of our sweet new gear distributed, talk race schedules, and have a few beers. We also got some decent riding in even though the weather was absolute crap. I feel like I've been getting in some pretty good training so far this year, and it seems I'm not the only one. I was pretty surprised to see how strong everyone was at camp. We had a few impromptu sprints up some hills and some good half-wheeling battles on the front. It was fun to finally get to spend some time with the man, the myth, the legend, Kirk Albers. We spent some time on the front together and he talked quietly and calmly as we rolled along at 350 watts and I tried to act like I didn't notice the pace. Really looking forward to racing with version 2.0 of the Panther squad.








Today was my first day of a rest week, a rest week that I feel like I actually earned by beating my head against the wall for the last three weeks. It was statistically and physically the hardest block of training I've ever put in, and my legs are officially toast. I capped off the three weeks with a suffer fest called the Brown County State Park Road Race. This road race is about 25 miles from Bloomington and is on most of the same roads as the Pan-Am games back in the 80's. The course featured a 5+ mile lap with just a shade under 500ft of climbing per lap. We did 12 of those babies. It ended up being 65 miles with 5,800ft of climbing. A few weeks ago when we realized the race was coming up a few people made some bets with me that I couldn't ride to the race, complete it, and ride back to Bloomington.

Being that the race fell at the end of my training block, I didn't want to waste training days just so that I could be fresh for this local race, so I decided to train straight through it and bury myself real good like. Well, I did all the training I had planned and even won the bet. I made it to the race and back, and even completed all 12 laps of the race. Predictably, my legs were pretty tired from the start, but I think it was a good experience. I got dropped by the front group with 2 laps to go and rolled in with a small group for some meaningless places.



Now I'm taking it easy for a few days and gonna ride around real slow to let my legs heal up. I don't think I'm racing again for a couple weeks, but this weekend is Quals for the Little 500 ladies, so that's the next thing on the agenda. Thanks to the couple people who came up and said they liked the blog. I'm going to try to keep it updated a bit more now that there might be some more news worthy material.

Not Just Go-Karts and Putt-Putt

There is a running joke that I have with my brother about going hiking anywhere within 100 miles of Gatlinburg, TN and that's that he's just going down to play Putt-Putt, ride Go-Karts and get 3 for 1 deals on Cowboy boots, the kind of thing most Red Necks do in Gatlinburg. I do this because I'm a mean older brother who likes to make my younger brother feel small and unaccomplished so that I can feel better about myself. Well for last weekend's trip we had to drive right through the famous G-burg in route to our planned destination of Black Balsam Knob, North Carolina.

In order to get to our destination and carry out our itinerary it required using a good chunk of the Blue Ridge Parkway, a road that was questionable due to the 36 inches of snow that some of the higher elevations had gotten recently. There is a number you can call to see if roads in certain areas are open or not and Aaron claims that the recording said the Parkway was open, but when we got down there it was closed and didn't look like anyone had attempted to remove a flake of snow. So we called the local sheriff's office and they confirmed, "don't expect that area to be open for another month"... So we pulled into a parking lot to throw together a new plan. The first night we found what we thought would be a decent little overnight hike down by Fontana lake and up to see some waterfalls and other bull.


My dad about to sneeze mid picture


A little scope: That icicle in the middle is close to 20 ft long

Well, we got to the trail head and it turned out to be much less extreme than we had hoped for, with a school bus full of 3rd graders, a big church group and a couple pushing a baby stroller down the first part of the trail. Aaron was pissed, I just laughed at how pissed he was. To be fair, the most touristy part of the trail was just a waterfall that was 0.2 miles from the parking lot and that's where everyone was heading, except us. We hiked as far away from the Billy Madison Field Trip and found a decent little place to camp while we adjusted our plans. We decided on a trip up Mt. LeConte, one of the highest points east of the Mississippi. We had heard the trail was impassable due to snow drifts, but we figured that might make it more fun.






The best part about camping this time of year is how much sleep you get. You go to bed pretty much when the sun goes down and get up when the sun comes up. This time of year that means near 12 hours of sleep and that is awesome. So we hiked out first thing in the AM and drove an hour to the LeConte trail head. The hike to the top was around 6 miles with three thousand feet of elevation gain. The trail wasn't too hard or technical for most of the first half, but the snow did add a few slippery situations. The real action took place in the last mile or so of the climb. This was the area where it had been impassable earlier in the week.

We weren't the first people to hike to the top since the snow, but it was definitely less traveled once we got higher up. The trail got really narrow and with that much snow you couldn't tell if what you were standing on was actually supported by the mountain, or something that was ready to break loose and send you bouncing down the mountain to your death. Tight. We just tried to step where other had proven to be safe places and we were alright. There were a few situations where we were looking 6 inches to our left and there was a good 200 feet straight down. That added a little spice to all the Go-Karts and Putt-Putting.


We "summited" in just enough time to cook dinner and watch the sunset. Then it was off to hang our packs and food away from the bears and be in bed by 7. The night was damn cold at around 10 degrees for the low, but we all survived. The next morning we went to see the sunrise and started the slippery trip back down to the car. We all had a few little slips on the ice coming down, but nothing too serious. There was one spot where we took turns baseball sliding about 20ft down this slope that was too steep to walk. As we were almost back to the car, we passed a group of German tourist who smelled like Cool Water cologne and they asked "Vas it vorth it?" Oh yes, German's, It was "vorth" it.

Dear "Innernet" Friends...

This weather is trying to drive me into the ground and I need to whine about it for a minute, will you listen?


This shit is trying to kill me. The average high for February around these parts is supposed to be in the mid 40's and I'm not sure if it's been above freezing yet this month. Not to mention we've gotten something like 20 inches of snow in the last 10 days. Snow doesn't go away very quickly when it's 24 degrees and overcast either. One of the main problems I've run into is that I went out too hard on my trainer riding and used up all my tolerance for for riding inside, and since I'm in the process of Hardening myself The Fuck Up this off season I refuse to skip workouts and skimp on hours. If I les out, someone out there is dragging their ass into the wild, doing their workout and getting ready to rub my face in the dirt come race season and I ain't havin' that shit.



The most recent reason I wanted to hang myself was the 10 inches of snow we got on Sunday/ Monday (I know, cry me a river. D.C. got like 30 inches). The problem is that all this snow has come right in the middle of crunch time in this training block, so today I found myself playing in the snow for 4 hours while pounding out a sizable amount of Tempo into what seemed like an ever-present headwind. My legs tried to convince me to quit after each of the three 30 minute sets and I almost gave in, but now that I'm warm and dry I'm glad that I didn't. I know that I'm in the home stretch of this training block and hopefully the same goes for this foul weather. I'm sorry for whining, but it's just a really tough time to be a Middle Class White American bike racer.

Things are cruising along nicely here in the Midwest, in a mostly uneventful fashion. Despite the never ending below freezing temps I've been able to get in the best early season training I've ever done. I did have to invest in a few critical pieces of apparel, but since then it's been smooth sailing.

This month things are starting to ramp up a little, but still trying to enjoy some off season like activities at the same time. This weekend is Lauren's birthday as well as Valentine's day, luckily my significant other enjoys a good pedal herself, so I imagine it will be a good weekend with plenty of riding thrown in. Next weekend I'm going on a little camping/ riding trip in North Carolina with my dad, brother and Lauren. The trip is only for a long weekend, but it should be great to take in a bit of nature as well as ride the Blue Ridge Parkway for a few miles too.

Following the trip to NC, we've got our Panther/ Competitive Cyclist team get together in Ohio for a weekend of riding and distribution of all our gear. Seriously, I couldn't be more excited to ride for a team with a great roster and that's sponsored by the sweetest online retailer around.

After all of this stuff, it brings us almost to bike racin' time. Now, I'm not going to be driving all over the place to race every little spring race on the calendar, but I'll pin a few numbers in March and try to get myself up to a decent level for April and continue to take my time building my form for the summer.

And last, but not least... Cross Worlds to Louisville. Can't believe it, but pretty excited by it. Some of you know that I have aspirations to go to Worlds as a racer and some of you don't, well now it's out there. That's what I'll be working and training for over the next few years. Hopefully making a public declaration of my intentions will keep me accountable, and remind my friends and family to help me stay on track. In years passed, guys like Tristan Schouten and Brian Matter have been able to represent the Midwest at Worlds, and guys like that are my inspiration. Worlds selection is an interesting process and when those guys raced Worlds, they got a spot thanks to a few of the top guys not wanting to make the trip. It's safe to say that with the U.S. hosting worlds for the first time, there won't be any top U.S. crossers skipping it. I realize that this makes for a pretty lofty goal, but what's the point in making a goal if it's just to be mediocre? Plus, when you think about it, I really just need to make a couple minutes improvement in a 1 hour time trial over the next 3 years. Totally do-able.

Nose to the Grindstone

Since we last spoke, there hasn't been too much to talk about around these parts. I'd say that's a good thing, and just what I needed after a long season and maybe a little too much talking and not enough action.

I'll quickly recap of what I've been up to since I was in Oregon in December. There was CX Nats and that wasn't anything to write home (or on my blog) about. There was Christmas and unwrapping the Perfect Push-Up, which will cure all my problems in this new decade. Ski trip to Wisconsin with Lauren, Mike and Pam, and the Chartiers. I pursued rad skills on cross country skis and it's safe to say that I have much pursuing to do in that department. New Years was great. Old Style, Doritos, Saunas, Fireworks and kicking snowmen. And now I'm fully back in road bike mode and just a few days away from completing my first training block of 2010.

I don't want to count the number of races I entered last year or do a full on recap, but I do feel like I should say a few words about the season. I guess it was a season of what could have been's. Starting in the spring, things were going great(according to my powermeter...) and then I was mowed down with mono and had some decent days on the bike, but never really felt great all season. Cross was a new leaf and it started out great too, with a whole bunch of UCI pts early in the season, only to be derailed by the broken c-bone. So although I got some of the results that I'm most proud of in my relatively short cycling carear, the season still leaves me with a sour taste in my mouth and a lot of could shoulda woulda's...

That's OK though. It has also left me with a new found motivation and understanding for what kind of dedication it takes to be good bike racer. This year I'm clicking it up a notch all across the board. I've got the training plan set. Got motivation for days. Got the goals in writing. And I've been listening to Rap on Pandora.

Good talk. See ya out there.