I couldn't do it . . . . a third time.

Well, the form has been coming up so I chose to do a weekend of racing when most of my other teammates weren't able to do the road trip. I've been feeling good but not that good. The first race was the Smoketown Airport Crit in Lancaster. I wound up working in Johnstown, PA (Flood City) which had me an hour on the route to Lancaster so instead of backtracking home, I just did my Friday evening ride there and then drove eastward. I got to the race and even got a decent warmup. I was expecting there to only be around 20 or so riders, but from the original 14 preregged, we wound up with about 35 riders. In this mix were 2 teams, one with 4 riders and the other GS Lancaster had a full compliment of 6. This made it a total bitch as they were able to have their riders roll off the front on a continuous basis. The first 3 went pretty much from the fun. It was a windy day out and I was telling myself, 'not the first move. wait til the second'. BUUUZZZZZZZ - OOOOOOO, wrong answer Bob! It stayed out. A second move involved the remaining Lancaster riders and a few others. When I saw the group form up and start riding away, I realized, I had to go right then. This involved a stretch of 200+ yards into the headwind and then through the turns where a crosswind would still slow you down. I made it out of the nasty headwind but still had a bit of a cross wind going down the backstretch. I punched it hard a second time and got within 25 yards by the bottom turn. I flew through the turn and was on. We seemed to go hard for a couple laps and I saw the remnants of the field falling away. Good, I thought. Less people for the party. Inexplicably, our group let off the gas and we wound up getting caught by all the small groups. Later they said, 'we didn't realize we had a gap'. I remember having that one used on me by the Alliance Environmental boys at Williamsport a few years ago in a nasty rainy crit which I still consider one of my best performances in a race. I'm thinking they were just out trying to waste our energy. It did work as I was unlucky when they attacked again and I was behind slower riders. All of a sudden for a third time, there was another freaking gap. I tried launching again but this time, it just wasn't going to happen. I got halfway across the gap and then the body told my brain to have a nice day and there you have it. I did ride strongly but really need to have teammates with me. It makes it easier when you don't have to be dealing with each and every move. Later Saturday, I drove down to Baltimore for the Kelly Cup. It was cool seeing my friends from the MABRA area. The 35+ race started with around 80 riders and it went hard and fast right from the gun. Did I say it went hard and fast? Inside of 3 laps, half the field was gone. Before we got 6 laps in I was just done. I was sliding back through the field and all of a sudden there was an acceleration which I wasn't able to stay with. I waited for the next rider to come past. After waiting a second and no one came through, I took a quick peek back. WTF!?? Where did everyone go. I was able to see the small group of 9 off the front. The second group has around 10. A third group just ahead of me has a dozen riders in it. Another rider and myself killed it for a couple laps to catch them, but once a prime got called for that group. that was it. I knew I was a bit tired from all the racing I've done in the past 6 days (4 races) but jeez, I should've been able to hold onto it for maybe 10 miles. Seeing riders like Kris Auer in the back group that I'd slipped out of made me feel a bit better, but only slightly. Oh well, it's time to lick the wounds and recover through the week while I prepare to spend all next weekend in the mountains. If things go well and I don't wuss out, I plan to have around 250 miles and at least 10 major ridge crossings in those 3 days. I haven't done a weekend like this for a while and I need to get it to try to get myself up to where I need to be for the next phase of the season. I really like riding in the Laurel Mountains in western PA. There are lots of good roads and you don't see many cars while I'm up there. It should be good.

Feeling the love set in . . . finally.

I'm back at the desk pretending to do work now. I drove up to Cleveland last evening with a teammate for the Westlake circuit race. They really need to get at least one or two more volunteers (pay them, i'll pay another buck for the race) so we can have both lanes open for the sprint. I would've done a top 5 finish there, but after the pack damn near ran into the back of a pickup truck on the final lap and then about 20 people ignoring the yellow line rule in the rush for the sprint, I wound up about 30 riders back. I got somewhere between 10th and 15th which wasn't too bad considering all I did was roam through the group(with the rider traffic, it was all I could do) til I crossed the line but when you finish and aren't even breathing hard something isn't right. I was happy with the race because about 15 miles in, a break started that looked like it had the right mix and I was able to burst away from the pack, fly past a couple riders who were blowing up from going with it initially and come up to the back, go to the front immediately and do a strong pull. Unfortunately, there was enough horsepower up there to scare the teams in the pack who didn't make it and a general pack reaction happened. When the other riders saw this, they backed off on the throttle, but it was still good to see the reactions of the top riders when I rolled up to them and then past to stoke the fires of the break. They know I'm back and they're beginning to take me serious again. It's a good feeling.

RATL and Westlake

Wow, it's the first time I've worn a road helmet at a road race in 3 years!

I just finished up the Summit Freewheelers Race at the Lake series for the year. I raced there for one of my teammates who really felt he had a good crack at the win there so after being fairly aggressive throughout the race (including almost picking up one little weasel by the scruff of his neck and tossing him in the weeds) we found ourselves in a pretty good position for the finish. With a lap and a half to go, I went up to the front and wound the pace up. I was able to hold it going fairly quickly for half a mile and heading into the final hill, I hesitated for a couple seconds thinking I'd be able to make a second push over the top of the little rise. Damn, I'd overestimated my strength. I did lead into the hill going around 30 and a bit, but I just don't have that long range ability to keep it going like I need it to. Another 100 yards up over the little rise and I would've been able to stay on it for another quarter mile. Unfortunately in the end, I blew up and Chris left a gap on the right side of the road where he needed to be opening his sprint from and we only wound up with a fourth place. It was a good finish but if I'd just waited before I blew everything out for another lap, we could've had a win. Oh well. On the plus side we'd done a decent race. The bad part of the day was when I started the 123s. Paul Martin and company from the RGF team just wound it from the start and it was hell. I hung in for around 6 laps, but I just wasn't in the frame of mind to be going that fast so soon after my efforts from the first race. When you're flying up the hill in the pack and you're doing over 25 and the pace wasn't cooling off, you know it's going to be a tough day. Most of the main protagonists from the first race blew within 10 miles and the rest of the pack wasn't far behind. There is so much talent there right now with multiple former national champs (Martin and Baldasare) along with the Inferno pro team and a couple top notch amateur teams it is pretty much impossible to double up when there is only a 10 minute break between the 2 races. I'll get a much better crack at them Tuesday at Westlake though. I'll be about a third of the way there and when I link up with a teammate who will be a bit further along the way, it shouldn't be that bad of a trip. I've done very well in the long drag out sprints there and I love the 120 degree turn they have on the one end of the course. Every year there riders go careening off the course when they realize they've overcooked it trying to follow someone like myself through that turn. I almost wish the finish was on that side of the course as I could really create some havoc by nailing it through the turn and blasting my way towards the finish. I at least know that I won't ever get dropped there as even the big boys tread a bit lightly there. Whatever happens, it'll be fun.

Warm and Fuzzy?

Well, I am just getting the warm and fuzzies with the current business climate here. Chrysler and GM are both being 'sent' into bankruptcy being ordered by Obama to do so. WTF? When does the government get that kind of say. Then part of the terms that are to be coming of this is that the UAW gets somewhere around 50% of it? Double WTF! They aren't putting a freaking penny into the game and they are walking away with half of it? That is just out there! It is a huge crime that is being committed on the tax payers of this country. If anything, the tax payers should be getting that ownership with a definitive plan to spin it off so the government can get on doing the things it should be doing what it should be which is protecting the country. We are seeing a full-blown arrival of what Ayn Rand wrote about 50 years ago. If this doesn't get stopped, we are doomed as a country. We are seeing the same type of economic positioning as was seen in Germany and Italy in the 20s and 30s. Bad things are coming. Get your arms out ready to have the chip implanted now. It's on its way.

First race hell.

I usually use the first few races of the year to really get my ass kicked. Over the years, I've found this lets me know what I have to work on. This year is no different. Pretty much everything needs help. I got thumped at the opening mtb race. There I would have to say that I really didn't have the right tools for the job. At Tyson's the tools I didn't have fell in the department of a bit of a back problem, but that said, I didn't feel like I was going to be lapping the field that day. Then came the Morgantown RR. This race was a nice rolling course for the first 20 miles and then it sucked from there. It was pretty much one bitching hill after another. I'm about 5lbs overweight from last year when I was really about 10lbs overweight where I need to be before I start climbing well. I really have to just say no to chinese which is an absolute addiction for me. I wonder if they put something in the food that causes that. Maybe the chinese buffets are just like the tobacco industry. Dammit, where's my lawyer? Oops, back to my races. I probably wouldn't have set the world on fire, but I do know I hand grenaded on the first hill mainly due to the work I did being the jerk on the front of the pack that was actively working to goof things up. Unfortunately, we had a mixed field and there was one of the women up in the little group off the front. That prompted Patty Buerkle to be chasing fairly hard. In hindsight, I should've rolled up to her and asked if she realized what the second half of the course was like. It might've saved her race as she had a bit of trouble dealing with Betsy Shogren's climbing prowess. Once we made the turn to begin the return part of the course, I could feel that I was really going to have some trouble if the pace kept up like it was going. It did and I wound up getting spit out the back when the climbing began to get steep. I tried rolling it back to a group, but ultimately was unsuccessful. At that point, I called it a day and declared it a training ride. So I did come up with a definite game plan on what I have to do now. Try to limit the crap food I'm eating, get more miles in get on with the racing. I'll be doing my first oval race in Pittsburgh on Wednesday so I'll go there to see how much I can hammer before I completely blow up. If I can splinter the field when I do that, I'll know I'm getting where I need to be. If I blow up and people roll past me with that 'WTF was that about, Jay' look on their faces, I'll know I've got a lot more work to do.
I did at least determine what wheels I have in stock for racing work well for me and which are training ones. The new Ventos are just a bit heavy and slow reacting so I will keep those as the ones for training. Maybe I should've taken the time to put some of the new tires on the Zipps.

One big long ride

I got my first century in a couple years in over the weekend. In the past couple years, I haven't had the time or inclination to do one since most of my races have been anywhere from 15 to 60 miles. But I'm busy flogging myself back into shape. The weight is coming down and I'm starting to feel stronger. We got a 102 miler in on Saturday and almost another 50 on Sunday. My knee was playing up a bit from it all since the pedals on the cross bike just don't give me the same float as the trusty old Sampson's do. This weekend followed up a 20 miler on Friday after work in the Johnstown area. I managed more than 2000ft of climbing in that distance so the weekend wound up being a good one for me. I'm now beginning to feel a bit confident for the upcoming races we'll be hitting, the first being Tyson's Corner circuit race. There'll be big packs and most importantly, for the first time in a few years, there'll be a full squad there for our team. We usually hit our stride in May and June so everyone is getting going a bit earlier this year. This will follow the first Wednesday night Hammerfest in Morgantown. I have a teammate a bit incensed with me since we had a little team email list discussion about the merits of spinning versus mashing. Adam is a hell of a good time trialist and road racer, certainly much stronger than myself particularly when the course tilts upwards. He'll be looking to 'prove' his method is better by making me suffer during the ride. I'll just be calm during the hills but for the sprints, I think I'll take him on and see just how strong he is right now. It's when I get to the sprints that I can do the sit-down high spin sprints that I've favored over the past years after a few nasty spills in sprints took some of the leg mashing out of me. I've actually come to like sprinting in the saddle and have noticed that when you come rolling past another rider and they're up out of the saddle, wagging the bike around for all its worth and they see you winding the pedals still seated, it often takes the wind right out of their sails. If I'm having to go through traffic at the finish of a race, I find it also lets me move around with a lot more control. I'm hoping I'm ready for Tyson's. We don't have a specific team leader but I'm hoping the cards fall in my direction. If not, I can screw up the front of the pack pretty well. That's what I like about our squad. All of us are capable of winning on any given day. It just comes down to how we play our cards in the race. We'll try to race a team strategy, but as von Moltke said, “No plan survives contact with the enemy.” We'll go, race and see what happens. GO TEAM!

The season is getting closer...

Well, finally, the racing season is at hand. After a lackluster winter where I totally missed my goals on training, I'm finding that I feel like I'm going fairly well. I was able to do a high rpm low gear ride for 3 hours on the road and even climb some of the hills at a reasonable clip for this time of year. After a quick cup of coffee and a cinnamon bun, I pulled the mtb out for a couple hours at Baker's Ridge. The group again was small, but because of that, the stragglers weren't holding us back and we kept up a steady hard pace for almost a couple hours. After an effort like that, I was expecting to feel totally wrecked today, but I got up and aside from feeling a bit stiff, I'm not feeling that bad. With the first race coming up in a week, I feel like I'm just about ready for the season. This weekend's race will be interesting because it will be the first time that I'll be racing against mtb riders at my level where the race is a single speed race. I've competed against the vets fields in the WVMBA series but had my single speed versus their gears. Usually that puts me a minute or two down right from the gun. I can make it back through and on some of the days, even hit the podium or close to it, but it is really tough. The real MTBers can tell I'm a cross rider since I'm likely to hop off the bike and run with it a bit to get over some of the tougher sections. I usually look at it as being able to get through it faster rather than not having the real skills. All I can say is that it'll be interesting to see where I stack up against the others when we're racing the same type of bike.