Drilled

Hey Guys,
I've been feeling pretty motivated this week and I decided to jump in on the local group ride. I've known of the local Hammerheads' "Tuesday Night World Championship" for the past year, but never joined because of many different but equally weak excuses. I finally made a point to leave work early on Tuesdayy and jump in. I rode twenty minutes to the spot, introduced myself and asked if I would have enough gears on my cross bike (46-12). They said that I was more than welcome to join and try to hang on. As I was waiting the local strong dudes trickled in (TJ Tollackson - Pro long course triathlete, Stuart Hayes - UK ITU pro, Cam Kirkpatrick - 5th Elite at WORS Subaru cup, JJ Bailey - Elite national AG triathlete, and sevearl CAT1 fast cats that I couldn't identify). I was looking for a challenge and I was going to get my wish ... and then some.
The first 30 minutes were at a nice easy pace as we rode away from downtown Des Moines to the country roads. It is awesome to ride for just a few miles before your out on smooth country roads with minimal traffic and plenty of rolling hills. There were a few decent hills and a couple hard accelerations out of corners that got the heart pumping early. The next thing I know I had slipped near the back of the group and the front blew the doors off. Before I realized what happened I was already gapped. I turned myself inside out for 1 minute ... 2 minutes ... 3 minutes .... sit up and spin. Boy, that escalated quickly... I mean, that really got out of hand fast! It really jumped up a notch. I wish I could blame it on running out of gears, but unfortunately that was not the case. I formed a small group with a few other shredded riders and pacelined in the wake of the larger group up the road. I took a little pride in the fact that I had never been dropped in a race or by a group before. I guess my number was up.
I know that I've been coasting with my training this year, making small improvements on inconsistent training. These hard group efforts are exactly what I've needed to remind me of where I'm at (spit out the back of the pack) and where I'm trying to go (trading pulls at the front). I'm going to keep going back and getting knocked out until I run out of gear before I run out of leg.

Tim

Motivation check

Watching international pros at the top of their game is a guaranteed way to stoke the competitive fires and think about what we need to work on to keep improving. I have no delusions of racing ITU or as a pro, but I want to keep closing the time gap.

I am here in Des Moines and just watched the 2nd Annual HyVee Triathlon. The flooding forced them to move away from the downtown, but the RDs did a phenominal job of staging this race and maintaining the swim for both elites and Age Groupers. I can't complain about the Chicago Triathlon's early start anymore. The AG transition opened at 4:30 am and closed at 5:45 am with a 6:00 start. I wonder if they had to light the sighting bouys.

Congrats to Hunter Kemper on clinching the final USA Olympic team spot. These guys are amazing athletes, running sub 33:00 10K times. Rasmus Henning wins for the 2nd time, taking home a huge pro payday of $200K. Emma Snowsill won the women's event. I'm still hoping that I see her whenever the elevator doors open in the hotel. :-)

I'm not the only one ...

I saw this in O'Hare a while back and snapped a pic with my phone. Travelling for work everyweek does present some challenges. I've been creative with my workouts and I appreciate the Marriott staff's flexibility in allowing me to store a bike (among other things) year round. It has definitely been my home away from home over the past 20 months. If only the hotel pool was 25yds instead of 12. :-)

xterra richmond - way to go , grace!

Whenever I ride and do stupid things (which is quite often) I call myself grace, you know, way to go grace.Yesterday I did xterra richmond and I lost count of thenumber of times I said this to myself. Let's start at the beginning. The swim is in the James river, light current, shallow water - 1-6 feet deep. Check out the link above to see photos of the boulders that are strewn throughout the river (and hence the swim course), and even the 'Mayan' ruin like thing we had to climb on the run. Anyways, the swim was wave starts, which was awful for me! Pros first, 2 minutes later were men 15-35, 2 minutes later were men above 35, 2 minutes later were women and relays. So, not only did I have the pleasure of trying to navigate lots of slower men who had a head start, since I couldn't take decent lines, I was swimming into boulders all the time. Most of them would just brush right under me, one I swam right up onto. The orange cone sitting on it was not supposed to be a magnet attracting me to it, but rather a warning to stay away from it. But my mind was not thinking except to get around the men, and I beached myself on it. The kayakers must have had a good laugh at that! WAY TO GO GRACE! I finished the swim with lots of abrasions on my arms chest. Not pretty. Then the run to T1 was .25-.5 miles long. No big deal except for the rocks you have to run over. ANd I mean a good solid 50 feet of those big chunky 2inch gravel pieces laid down for pavement. Many people stashed shoes at the swim to wear, but not me. Oh no, I had to do it barefoot - WAY TO GO GRACE! Then onto my sweet little mountain bike for a pretty technical 18+ mile course. The biggest problem was since the men had a head start on the swim I had even less of a lead on them so the first hour of the bike was jam packed with people. I stopped counting the number of crashes I had. One time I wiped out, got up and thought my handlebars seemed weird, and the front wheel and bars were completely turned around and I was sitting on my bike with them backwards! WAY TO GO GRACE! So, like I said, many crashes, none of them bad. Lots of dabbing, and several places I had to get off the bike and walk - a couple of steep switchbacks I didn't make it down, 3 short steep uphills that were littered with people - many times it was people in front of you that prevented you from riding something, and unfortunately I probably kept a few people from riding things - but that's mountain biking - crazy, fun, stressful, tiring - just so different from riding on the road. I should also mention that there werethese small bridges that cross the river so people can ride and walk across. And they all had these ridiculous stairs to climb. So around mile 3 we climbed the first, carrying our bikes, up 10 flights of 10 stairs each. Then ride singletrack, techincal sections, fun sections, crowded sections. This trail had everything you can imagine - and its right in the middle of a city. I wish our trails around here offered more variety. The more I get to ride other trails, I see more things I'd like to see on our local trails. Oh well, we did get to carry our bikes down the stairs next. Then more riding, and back up one more time - yep! That was F.U.N. FInally into t2, and I saw a gal who I met form Purdue, she cheered me along. I fumbled with my race belt for some reason, and my socks were full of sand and I tried to decide if I should empty them or just run. I opted for just run, and have a few blisters to show for that. But the run was pretty flat, except for more climbing up stairs to cross a foot bridge. A climb up the mayan ruin like structure, which was a hand and foot climb up a 75 foot steep hill with railroad ties every couple of feet to grab onto. One very cool section of the huge boulders that you scamper across, then climb up a ladder bolted into a wall. Then some trails, one long climb on the trails, back up to the footbridge and the finish. I was 3rd in my AG. I won't do this race next year. The swim is too short and negates any lead I can get on my strength, and its too far to drive, and it was way to difficult to do two A races two weekends in a row (Pelham then Richmond). Difficult to recover from Pelham, and then figure how to train for Richmond. Too bad, because the Richmond bike course has tons of room for improvement for me!My running is pretty slow now. I'll be adding some speedwork next because I was just plodding along. My overall pace was 9min miles, which probably meant I was running 8:30 pace when I could actually run, and that just won't cut it.And my swimming sucks too. So, I have to bump the swimming up starting NOW.

I'm happy to be home.

Xterra Southeast Champs

I came back to Alabama again this year, because last year this race was such a challenge, I thought I had room to improve. For some reason, the xterra people like to start the regional championship races at 9:30am! In Alabama in June, at 9:30am its already 90 degrees! By race end this year it was 100. Challenge #1. So, this year, I was sporting a new GAG race kit! New shorts and tri-top. In knew the top had pockets in back, which is a big no-no for me in a swim. So I broke down and bought a Desoto speedsuit, knowing the speedsuit would eliminate that problem, and also might help compensate for my absolutely dismal swim training this year. My swim was still a little off last year, even with the speedsuit, but it serves me right. I have been swimming 30 minutes twice a week at absolutely pathetic paces. Such a waste for me to give up precious minutes on my best of the three legs, so its time to get back to normal swim workouts when I get home. Challenge #2, the water was a way too balmy 82 degrees. I swam the whole swim next to Melanie McQuaid, 3-time xterra world champion, so that's always fun. but of course she blew me away in T1 and everywhere else! In T1, there was one other age grouper just ahead of me. I started the bike knowing I should hydrate a lot, and I tried to ride smoothly. Challenge #3: In the first 10 minutes, tons of pro men, women and fast men age groupers need to get by. Its super stressful, because its all singletrack for the stretch, so I have to try to slow down which looses my rhythm, make room for them, try not to crash myself and not to take anyone else out. Its just not fun. One corner I tried to go too tight to give them room, and washed out. Lots of trail rash on the right leg (hard to see in the photo, but its really pretty!) , and I held up several people as I tried to pull my bike off the trail. Once I was going again, things were uneventful, the first AG woman passed me at the single track just before the doubletrack long uphill. She didn't pull away until I let some other guy go by near the top of the long hill, and I lost contact, because there's just inches of decent trail to ride on just on the side of the double track- the rest is rocks, gravel, and on the uphill its too easy to loose traction and then you can't get going again. So I watched her go. One more AG woman passed me just before blood rock, and the woman who was first in t1, was fixing a flat and I passed her. Of these 3, one was world champion last year, one was second at world championships last year (to a now first year pro), the other was just plain fast (20-24 ag, I'm guessing she will be pro one day soon). So I was not feeling too bad. Challenge #4: blood rock. I got to blood rock, rode half, then hopped off. I'm just not ready to tackle it yet. I've ridden the course 5 times now, and still do not have the confidence to ride the whole stretch. Lots of people stand there to cheer and watch people crash. I told them I was walking, and they cheered me anyways - all are so supportive. Its a nasty stretch of rocky trail. No more women passes before the end of the bike. My bike plus t2 was also a few minutes slower than last year. I'm not sure where Ilost the time, maybe just overall heat fatigue, and the little wipeout at the start, maybe I'm just getting slower as I get older! (I hope not). Challenge #5 - the run. The run scared me, as it is a beast. The first mile or two are relatively flat, and I ran the whole thing, moderately paced, taking gatorade and water twice. Then the run goes vertical on trail that is often loose, debris covered, and steep. And I mean steep. There is no hill in Bloomington that I can think of that compares - maybe that gravel road that Ange and I rode in January. Then back down. And the downs are steep, quad busting steep. I am slow on the steeps - down or up, doesn't matter. I had to walk a lot of the ups. I'd bargain with myself to run 40 more steps when I was ready to walk because my heart was ready to bust out of my chest. There are 5 or so big hills like this in 4 miles. It is an absolute beast. Did I mention its a beast? Well, it is. My run was 5 minutes slower than last year. The woman who I passed fixing her flat, passed me running, looking so strong. Then one more woman passed me on the run (she was world champ last year, and at this race I beat her by 10 seconds last year, this year, she beat me by about 30). This race I always am so happy to stop running at the finish. I hit the misting tent, which is just the most awesome thing at the end of a hot race. I need to set one of these up for my dogs. I finished 1st in my AG (there were only two of us), and I was 5th amateur woman overall. I got to meet Conrad Stoltz after the race. That was so very cool - he is an amazing athlete and mountain bike rider, and a super nice guy, and his blog/website is very entertaining.

So, I did qualify for the World Championships in Maui, so I'm thrilled about that. Not so thrilled that I was 7 minutes slower than last year. Next up is Richmond , now just 5 days away. In two days since Pelham, I'm not recovering well. Every muscle in my legs hurt. I hope that gets better as the days go by.

2008 XTERRA Southeast Championship

There haven't been many posts lately, but that doesn't mean that our crew hasn't been racing.
We had a great showing in XTERRA Last Stand in May. Netting 3rd, 6th and 10th overall. Winning the M25-29 and M30-34 age groups and 2nd in the M35-39 AG.

Dean flew to AZ to race in the Deuces Wild XTERRA and represented the Midwest well. He finished 3rd overall again, and 2nd in his AG AGAIN! Geez, tough AG, bud.

The next XTERRA on the radar was the XTERRA SE Championship near Birmingham, AL. 4 of us raced it in '07 and it was a well run event. The bike course is f-a-s-t and the run course wickedly steep, both up and down. I did ok in '07, but a mis-firing bike kept me from my best race possible.

Ted and Cheryl were both signed up for the '08 version and had their travel planned. After waffling for a few weeks then deciding not to race, I did a 180 and booked a last minute ticket. This was definitely a trip with a purpose, fly down Saturday, race Sunday morning, fly back Sunday night. I finally arrived on Saturday at noon, after a 2 hour flight delay. When we got to the race site I realized that it was going to be another brutally hot and muggy race, just like last year. We went for a swim but didn't find relief. It was actually worse in the bathwater warm lake.

We put our bikes together and waited a bit longer for the temps to drop a few degrees before pre-riding, finally heading out around 5:00pm. I vaguely remembered the course, but there were a lot of tricky root and rock sections. Bike handling, not cardio, would be the speed limiter in the first 1/3 of the course. The 2nd 1/3 was a series of rocky climbs and false flats leading up to Blood Rock and the 3rd section. A rocky, filling rattling downhill section where fearlessness would be rewarded. Wipe out here and you'll slide across large sharp rocks. Road rash would be a blessing compared to the aftermath of falling here.

Ted and I were riding the 1st section when I hear a large crack and my rear wheel grinds to a halt. Crap! I look down, expecting a minor mechanical problem but what I saw was worse. My rear derailluer hanger had snapped in two. This is very very bad and it was multiplied by the fact that I didn't have a replacement. I just flew to AL, registered for the race, and now I can't race?!?!?! We disassemble it so I can walk the bike out and Ted gets the car. It is now 6:00pm, the race village had vacated for the night., and Ted was talking about turning my beautiful Alma into a single speed. This can't be happening! I tried a last ditch effort and called Cahaba Cycles, which was near the park. They closed at 6:00pm, but after hearing my situation they offered to see what they could do for me. They were an Orbea dealer, but they only stocked Orca road bikes and the chance of having the part I needed was slim.

The shop owner took my bike into the back and I waited like a nervous father in a hospital waiting for a prognosis. They only had one bike that was available to rent, a full squish Gary Fisher High-Fi that was a size too big. Please, please, please let my bike pull through. I hear some rattling and wrenching in back but no indication of success. I'm pacing around shop when he finally comes out with the news. Miraculously the hanger from an Orca road bike fit on my Alma!!! I had to restrain myself from shouting my relief. Not only did he fix it, he re-tuned it and it ran like a fine swiss watch. If you're ever in the southeast Cahaba cycles is the place to go!

Fast forward to race day (this is taking way too long) :-) Roughly 200 people line up at the waters edge and the cannon sounds. We all head into the bathtub for our first of 2 laps. My first lap was about as fast (slow?) as I expected and I went out for lap two. I finish, transition and then hit the bike course at 32:51. Ouch. I get a bit anxious in the early sections, understeer a corner, ram my wheel into a tree stump step up, stop dead in my tracks and someone runs into me. Sorry bud! I get back on and try to settle in. The bike shifting is crisp and I pace with a couple other riders. As soon as we hit the climb my carbon hardtail Alma shines and I quickly drop everyone in sight and crack a smile. From here on out I'm flying blind, I rode here last year and that is the extent of my course knowledge. I'm forced to dismount and run down blood rock, but I ride the rest of the rocky downhill section aggressively and finally head back to transition. Bike: 1:19:04. A six minute improvement over '07.

I nailed the difficult run last year and was trying to match my time this year. Long story short (I ran up hill and I tried to keep my feet in front of me on the downhills)x6. The first 35 minutes of the run was tough, but the last 10 was real suffering. I alwasy know that I'm pushing my limits when the thoughts of "Why am I doing this!?! This isn't fun, this is torture!!" start creeping into my head and I decide to start playing video games instead of racing. Several time my eyes played tricks on me when I would see a 25 on another racers calf, which was motivating at first and then a relief to find it actually a 50 or 35. I exit the forest and head back to the race village. I'm glad that there are no threatening pursuers, but also I bit dejected that I only passed 1 25-29 racer. I finish and head for the rain tent. Run 46:30.

Total time: 2:38:25

After mustering the strength and nerve I get my 'stat' card to see how I stacked up. The top 2 guy in my AG qualify to race in Maui Hawaii at the XTERRA World Chamipionship. I find my AG results and see I finished 3rd. I had mixed emotions. Obviously I was disappointed to miss my qualifying spot by 1, but I had met another goal of finishing 3rd or higher to score 82 series points.

Congrats to Cheryl Stine, winner her AG and qualifying for Maui for her 2nd consecutive year!
Best of luck next weekend to Ted and Cheryl in Richmond at the XTERRA East Championship. Who knows, maybe I'll book another last minute ticket to race again this weekend :-)

Signing off.
Tim

Dirt Sweat and Gears - 12 Hour Solo

My excitement when registering must have prevented me from noticing how far away Fayetteville was (9 hours each way, $200 of gas and within 100 miles of Birmingham, AL). I planned on leaving at 11:00am on Friday, but work was a nightmare and I wasn't able to leave until 3:30, just in time to hit Chicago rush hour traffic. Nicole rode with and we finally arrived at our hotel at 1:00am. Thankfully Fayetteville was on CST, so I didn't lose an hour. There was a significant amount of rain that night and I got to talk with Mark Hendershot about how the course handles water at the hotel's b-fast bar in the morning. Mark said, "Not well."

There's no way I can detail everything, but I'll say it was a tale of two halves. The first 3 laps were a energy sapping, sticky muddy mess. There were several spots where there were 5-10 racers all on the side of the trail pulling large globs of mud from their forks, bottom bracket and stays near their tires. After cleaning the bike you push it through the un-rideable section, just to have it muck up again. I switched between carrying and dragging a 30+ pound brick for the first couple laps. After finishing lap #3 I was completely fried and lethargic. I ate and drank and ate some more trying to replenish energy and took a 30 minutes nap.

I finally mustered the energy to go out for lap 4. A combination of the course drying out, getting comfortable with the course, and possibly switching to Ted's full suspension bike helped a lot. After my legs warmed up I felt great, spinning the short steep hills and flowing on the downhills trying not to scrub speed and conserve energy. It worked and I posted my fastest lap time by 10+ minutes (1:13ish). I felt great, ate a bit, and then rushed back out for lap 5 with similar results. I had some crazy cramping issues that I think I understand now, but at the time were a mystery (hint: too much salt, not enough water). I fought through one last lap and ran to the tent to ask were I sat. She told me I was in 8th and 2 guys went out 10 minutes earlier. In hindsight maybe I could have caught them, but I decided that I had enough and my cramping was getting worse,

I finished 6 laps, 64 miles and finished as 8th solo amateur geared. Tinker finished 11 laps, that dude is amazing, killing guys half his age. Dave Norton, Team Pegasus rider who Ted and I edged out at Rock Cut by mere seconds is apparently an enduro-freak and did 9 laps. I congratulated him on a great race. He finished as the 7th pro.

There is too much that happened during those 12 hours to list everything, but my main takeaway from this race was 1) I love the atmosphere of these races, the people are all laid back and super cool. I got to see some legends of the sport up close and personal as they lapped me and everyone was supportive of each other. Over the course of 12 hours, you are fighting yourself more than any other race on the course. I'm not interested in doing a 24 solo (yet) but I will definitely look for more of these type of races soon. I definitely see myself doing this again next year. Next up: XTERRA LAST STAND

Gator Terra Xterra

I didn't quite know what to expect going into the weekend, but any expectations I could have set wouldn't have measured up to how well things turned out. The Gator Terra Xterra in Ruston, LA is the oldest Xterra branded event and has quite an illustrious past. The bike course is my favorite in the series. I'm not alone in that preference, none other than Ned Overend listed it as his favorite back when he was competing in Xterras. The famous camera-friendly "Tomac" hill is a close simile to a ski jump and always draws a crowd.

The Gator Terra is a tradition for me and my good friend Joey Guajardo, we've competed for the last four years with varying degrees of success. Last year neither of us were really in top form coming out of injuries and lags in training. This year we had no excuses. We'd done the training. We were injury-free. We were both sporting brand new no-expense-spared hardtails. Everything was lined up. This year was a chance to redeem ourselves.

There was some hard rain on Friday night, but the sandy course soaked it all up and on race morning the course was perfect. The weather was beautiful, sunny and in the 70's. The water temp was 74 degrees, wetsuit legal. I put in some warm up strokes and my swim felt strong. All winter I'd worked on building up my shoulder strength. I been training to develop more of a "wetsuit" stroke (more glide, more upper body power, less kick) since almost all my races are wetsuit legal. It seemed to have paid off, I felt great about the day.

At the start I positioned in the middle of the pack right behind the course favorites. The race starts, I feel good, and about ten strokes in, my wetsuit pops open in the back. I'm cursing myself and giving it my all to stay with the group as I drag what feels like a parachute through the water. I'm debating whether to strip it or try to fix it on the beach. I opt to strip it and confuse quite a few spectators and competitors as I quickly strip the wetsuit on the beach run between swim laps. Back in the water and I'm on a mission. I come out of the second lap with Joey right on my tail. I know I've lost time because I always beat Joey out of the water, but I know I'm not too far down because he puts in a good split.

I'm quick out of transition and on to the bike course. About two miles in, Joey passes by me at a fast pace, and I know he's going to have a good day. He's found some serious mountain bike speed in the last couple years. In our history on this course, he is usually chasing me down on the run. If he passes me on the bike, I know that our mano-e-mano race is over. I've become a faster runner, but he's become a seriously fast runner. After that I reel a few bikers in and swap places with another in a black jersey, and feel great. The pace feels as fast as I've ever ridden, the legs are solid, and I only dab once. About 7 miles into the bike a volunteer yells out "You're only four and a half minutes back! You're in the top ten". I'm doing the math in my head, and realize I usually finish 15+ minutes back and place in the teens. This is going to be a good race! Me and the black jersey swap places a few more times. He beats me at the end, but I pass him in transition. I'm out on the run quick and the legs are solid. I'm keeping a pace that is fast enough to feel unfamiliar on dirt. Can I keep it up? My heart feels good, legs feel good. The black jersey is chasing me down. He's flying. I'll let him pass. He's a couple age groups up. Usually, I always get passed on the run. Running's never been my strength, so I'm running scared. I want to leave a little in the tank in case I have to turn it up when I hear footsteps, but I also want to keep those footsteps from coming. A mile left and no other runners in sight, I turn it up a little. I sprint to the finish in a time of 1:37 and change. I finish 8^th overall and 1^st in my age group. My time is ten minutes better than last year with most of that gain coming on the run. Joey had a phenomenal race. He placed 3^rd overall and had the fastest run split. Keep in mind that neither of us had ever placed better than 17^th before. This was a breakthrough year.

While the Xterra was the focus, we both did the Rustman triple which consisted of a 2 mile run on Saturday night and a Sprint triathlon on Sunday morning. I ran a 12:29 in the hilly 2 miler and placed second in my age group in the sprint tri. I ended up 5^th overall in the triple challenge. Joey won the 2 miler in 10:59, took 3^rd overall in the sprint with a smoking 17:39 5k to close it and won the Rustman triple overall. Go Joey! It's going to be a great year. I'm looking forward to the next race.

- Bill Driegert

My First Expert Race

So, I've only ever done two mountain bike races, and a handful of xterras, been riding mtb for two years now. The girls I train with upgraded to expert this year, and the Indiana series is not heavy on the women's side, so I decided to upgrade to expert also. My upgrade was approved a few weeks ago. We decided to venture down to one of the Kentucky Points Series races, at Younger's Creek. We prerode the 14 mile loop Saturday afternoon. And I was a bit worried for the 2 laps due the experts on Sunday. There are switchbacks, steep, and very loose, the likes of which I have never ridden before. A long set for 500 feet elevation up at the start, lots of fun stuff on top, more switchbacks in the middle, down and back up, more fun stuff, including the drop, what looked to me like straight down for 30 feet, off a completely horizontal lip. More hard stuff, and more awful switchbacks down. I seriously thought about dropping after one lap, but I thought if I could just pedal one more stroke, each pedal moved me past the half way point and toward the finish. The second lap was hard. I felt slow, and tired, and sloppy. But I managed a big smile going down the drop, as it was incredible fun, like an amusement park. I finished third. Out of only four women racing expert. Fourth dnf'd. One of my friends opted to not even start. ok, so I felt a little out of my league, but I'm happy that I did the race, and finished, and had a few smiles along the way. I think there were only 9 women total at all levels of the race, its a challenging course. Every ride is a new learning experience for me, since I've only been doing this for a short time. And this one was probably the hardest course I've ever ridden. And had things I don't get to ever practice, so maybe I'll get myself back down there some weekend just for some switchback practice.

First (and Last?) Race of the Year...

So I just finally got around to putting a post up for my first race of the year. I ended up getting dragged into racing the Rock Cut Race in Sport class. That means its almost a marathon length race 25 miles to be exact.

The race started out pretty good almost getting the hole shot and hitting the pavement at a good pace. That was until I hit the first patch of bog mud. I was trying to spin through a good 3-4 inches of mud. Looking back it would have been probably smarter to just run through it but inexperience told me otherwise.

As I got to the end of the first lap (out of two) at least two dozen comments in my mind told me to DNF. The joys of DNFing and just crying in my car from all the pains this race had given me was something to look forward to. By the time I got to the end of that loop I was looking forward to being that quitter. That was until I saw my gf just waiting there enthusiastically waiting to hand off the next water bottle. Little did she know I was running low on energy and ready to bonk any time.

During the second lap I was pretty much warmed up and ready for the nasties to come. I took the mud like a champ and was able to keep up with the pack that was miserably slower than me. I was feeling ok... not good but ok... Then came the second half of the lap, out of any drink and having used up almost all of my GU, I started feeling the typical muscle cramps. As I pedaled I felt my inner quads firing off. Imagine those good old oil cool Harley Davidsons on a hot day in traffic. One second they are running, the next - boom - engine seize. Yep that was what my quad's were heading straight into a slow but sure muscle failure.

I thought to myself if I can just keep the blood flowing I can get them slowly hydrated and just to keep the muscles moving they wont seize. All was good until I hit a hill I lost momentum on. I was forced to get off the bike. And when I did that... thats when it happened... my quads locked up and was a goner. Two thirds into the last lap and I just screwed myself by getting off my bike.

After 30 seconds of doing some basic quad stretches I decided to get on the bike and head backwards towards the last course marshal. I thought I had thrown in the towel and given up. On my way back to the marshal my legs gave a glimpse of hope. That had briefly settled into a rhythm again. There was a little pain but not the locking I felt before. And at that point I decided that I might as well turn around and finish this thing. Even if it takes me till dusk.

By this time about 5 more racers passed me up. I'd like to thank my fellow Get-A-Grip teammates for not pushing me over as they lapped me :) I was feeling good about getting my ass kicked because my legs gave up on me and all I was using were the stupid granny gears to wheelchair my way back to the finish line. At this point I was wishing that the whole way through would have been downhill.. unfortunately that was only about 20 percent of the trail. The rest was either flat or up hill.

I eventually made it to the end after sprinting out some rider from some Oshkosh/Fond du Lac team. But obviously there was a price. After my tag was pulled at the finish I sat down and locked up again.

And so today it took me about 3 days to get my legs back to where I can hit the gym again and not worry about feeling geriatric.

I can confidently say though that this has given me insight as to what will come in the up coming months. Because this will not be my last race. It was the first of many since my 9 year hiatus from mountain bike racing.

Dare I say comeback? We'll see...

The 2008 Rock Cut Race Results can be viewed here

Do The Rock

I was stoked to finally get on the trails and kick off the Midwest MTB season. Adam at the shop had recently changed my bike position and I've been feeling much more 1) powerful and 2) comfortable on my Alma. This is something I've had difficulty with in the past on my old Epic. My Orbea was also setup with a new front rim thanks to a last minute build by Matt.

Race Day: I was ready to race but I tried to stay relaxed. Unfortunately I was too relaxed which cost both Ted and me valuable starting line real estate and we were stuck near the back. I should have learned from my Chicross experience to sit on the start line for 15 minutes (note to self, look for LeMans start races)

Anyway, the director sends us of and Ted and I are trying to work our way up before entering the single-track, with little luck, and we’re still somewhere near the back 1/2 of the field. There were a few switchbacks and log crossings before we hit the first bog and the race blew apart. It was chaos with people slipping, sliding and falling in the muck.

Less than three miles into the race and I have lost any idea about where I sit overall. Do I sit up and soft pedal like a roadie because I lost my warm, sweet, nurturing draft or hope of an overall win? No, I turn it into a 2 person battle between the rider immediately ahead of me and myself. This is why I love MTBing and that was all that mattered for the ensuing laps. How much suffering can you take to bridge to the next rider?

My bike handling got a bit better with each lap I was slowly working my way through the field. By the end of the 2nd lap Ted had caught back up to me and we were able to work together. We both tried to help each other and push that pace when the other was lagging. It kept us honest for the final lap and we finished the race in succession. I think we went 16, 17 or something close. A good place to set the bar for the season.

I learned some valuable thinks to build on and I had a great time at the race. We’ve got a great group of guys and this should be a fun year. Next up: Dirt Sweat and Gears Solo 12 hour

Burnham Racing Spring Super Criterium

My first crit of the year. Hell, my first crit EVER. My expectations? Don't crash (or cause a crash) and finish in one piece, walk away with some experience, and have a good time.

I was lucky enough to accomplish every one of those tasks.

My day started at 12:50 with the Men 4/5 race. Honestly, I should have done the Men 5 race, but it started too early. Either way, I was a little late to the line (still got there before the gun went off of course!) and was stuck at the back of the pack for the start. I thought this would be a bigger issue than it was, but I was able to get mid-pack within about 1/2 lap.

By the way, the best part about this race was the course! It was a 1.9 mi motorcycle course! I believe 8 turns, plenty of grip, and a great place to race.

Anyway, right off the bat we lost Brian. He dropped his chain, then when trying to fix it went down. It looked nasty, but he came out "ok" compared to how he went down.

Honestly, the race was semi-uneventful for me because I was just doing what I could to play it safe, have fun, and not get hurt. I did have one lap where I was leading, but Tim told me to back off since we had 4 or 5 laps left. Come to find out, that lap had a prime that he cost me. Luckily, I think it was for some Accelerade or something which I already have WAY too much of.

All in all, I finished 39th, Tim finished 33rd (he blew up about 400-ish meters from the end), and Ted finished 9th. Not bad for a group of guys who formed around off-road racing!

Check out some photos from the Burnham Racing website (www.burnhamracing.com):

Building and Prepping

Coming into '08 without a road bike, and having my first race be a road race, meant one thing: a new bike!

It took me a while to pick the parts. I knew I'd go with SRAM (I loved Rival on my 'cross bike) and Force just looks so nice. Now, what to do about picking up the pieces? Well, retail is pretty high, so I went to eBay and the Slowtwitch.com classifieds. After weeks of searching and piecing this bike together, I'm finally almost done!

What's left? Obviously a seat and seatpost have to be put on. I also need a qualified mechanic to check the cables (I can get them to about 85% functionality, but a quick stop by GaG and Matt and they'll be working perfectly), both shifting and brakes.

Matt's also in the process of building my PowerTap wheels; a PT 2.4 SL rear hub and matching PT front hub, laced to DT Swiss 1.2 RR rims and Revolution spokes.

Here she is:



Once I can throw my new wheels on and a seat/seatpost, I'll get her weight. I'm not sure what to expect at the final weigh in, since she'll have the PT and is an all-aluminum CAAD 9 frame, but is loaded up with full SRAM Force.

Specs:

Frame: Cannondale CAAD 9 Get a Grip Team Frame, 56cm
Fork: Cannondale Premium all-carbon
Rims: DT Swiss 1.2 RR
Hubs: PowerTap 2.4 SL Wireless
Spokes: DT Swiss Revolution
Tires: Michelin Pro2 Race
Crankset: SRAM Force 53/39
Bottom Bracket: SRAM GXP
Front Derailleur: SRAM Force
Rear Derailleur: SRAM Force
Shifters: SRAM Force
Handlebars: Cannondale C3
Brakeset: SRAM Force
Saddle: ??
Seatpost: ??
Bar Tape: Fizik Silver

2008 Is On It's Way!

As of today, we have 5 guys registered to race the Hillsboro Roubaix on 3/29. Get a Grip Off Road Racing is making it's true TEAM debut in about 6 weeks on the road circuit of all places. Racers in the 4/5 are as follows:

Tim Yuska
Ted Ramos
Brandon Elliott
Brian Hill
Derrick Fluegge

Being my first road race, I'm in it for the experience and to help pull whenever I can. We'll be working on our team tactics over the next few weeks, but I fully expect a powerful debut out of our team. I know everyone has been putting in a lot of trainer time (not much riding outdoors to be had when we are consistently getting hit with snow, ice, and -20 degree temps with windchill).

Here's to a strong 2008 out of our team.

Columbia Cyclocross

Cyclocross season is not over... or maybe it's just begining. In any case, I am driving down to Tennessee this weekend to do a couple races at Chicksaw Trace Park. I'm in pretty good shape running and swimming wise, but I have hardly been riding at all. We'll see how it goes.

First (Virtual) Race of '08

Today I logged the first official race result for "Get A Grip Off-Road," newly recognized by USA Cycling. The irony was that it was done indoors on a Computrainer. Another funny thing is that I placed 4th in CAT4, but my result would have won the Cat3 race and placed 4th for the Cat1/2 race. Oh well, I can only control my results, not who shows up.

ABD Mid-America Time Trial Series

Tim

40% and still moving!

This challenge has been an interesting experience so far. It's gotten me out the door for a runs when I had absolutely no desire to do so. It's made me run more time and distance than I've ever done on a monthly basis. Luckily it's gone well, hasn't left me injured, and has me running faster than before.

Back in the day (before 12/1/07) when I went out for a 4-5 mile steady run, I'd pace myself around 8:45-9:00/mi to keep my HR around 155. If I wanted to go a little faster I could, but that'd leave me dogged. Yesterday I went out for one of those runs, 4.4 miles, and averaged 7:45/mi with an avg. HR of 156.

More really is MORE.

Now for the bad news:

My biggest month of running in history, and I'm only in 8th place in my AG! Now, 8th place isn't so bad, until you realize I only have 16 people to compete against...hmmm. What to do? Talk Tim into heading out to Palos with me today. He's a much better runner than I am, so hopefully he'll drag me along for 6-8 miles or so. That'll help me make up some time!

The thing that really kills me about this whole challenge is that I am averaging slightly over 40 minutes and 4.9 miles EVERY DAY for the last 36 days. That's a huge jump for me, and I'm still lagging behind!

Here is my AG standing as of this AM:



Here you can see the top ten overall (out of about 190) based on number of runs. I'm sitting at #9 on this chart, after this weekend I hope to jump up a spot or two:



Here's to finishing the first half of this challenge this week!

A Quick Congratulations!

In our first formal season, we have to send a congratulations out to Cheryl! Having a great year capped off by a solid race in Maui has landed Cheryl on the 2007 XTERRA All Americans list!

From insidetri.com:

2007 XTERRA ALL-AMERICANS LIST

Wow! What a rockin' year of off-road action! Now that the dirt has settled, the mud has dried up and the lakes have frozen, we bring you the top XTERRA age-group athletes of the '07 season. We've listed the top five athletes in each category. Selections were based primarily on points scored during the 50+ race XTERRA America Tour season, taking into consideration national and world championship contests and head-to-head competition. An asterisk denotes the XTERRA world champion in each group.

You can check out the site here.

Congratulations Cheryl! It's great to have you on the team. Hopefully this gives you and the rest of us something to shoot for in 2008!

As 2007 came to a close, it found Ted as the 30-34 M XTERRA Points Series Champion in and Cheryl as the 40-44 F XTERRA Points Series Champion, both in the North Central Region.

Ted had two 1st place and one 2nd place finish to his credit in Points Series Races to give him 217 points total. Cheryl had two 1st place finishes at Points Series Races, and a 2nd in a Regional Championship Race to end 2007 with 240 points.

Tim finished in 3rd position, Brandon in 4th, both in the 25-29 M. Tim had a 2nd and 3rd in Points Series Races, and 6th in a Regional Championship to round out his best three finishes (191 total points). Brandon had a 2nd, 3rd, and 4th in Points Series Races to leave him 7 points behind Tim (184 total points).

I fully expect Tim and I to both move up next year, and have my fingers crossed for each of us to work at least one Points Series win into our schedules.

Ted has already voiced his points series goals for 2008, if I remember correctly he is shooting for 232, which would be two Points Series wins and a 3rd place in a Regional Championship. I'd like to see at least 209 (one Points Series win and two 2nd place finishes), and I expect Tim to do just as well, and hopefully better.

As for Cheryl, well anything short of the 240 points she posted in 2007 just won't hold water with me! ;-)

Best of luck guys training through the winter. My running is going well so far, I hope you all can keep up come spring!

100/100 Challenge

Tomorrow will bring me to 30% complete! I just realized tonight though, that I've been posting about this challenge for a couple of weeks and I've never added a link!

Click here to go to the Google Doc and check out the progress of all of the athletes.

Speaking of Google Docs, if you haven't used them and share any documents within a group, I highly recommend checking it out. It allows a group to keep a document posted online without having multiple versions of the document floating around via email. You can edit and save online, just like you would on your own computer, and publish safely for your group to see only, or invite others to check if out.

Here is a screen shot from my computer tonight looking at the docs I share:



That's it for now. 13.4 miles today and I am beat. I had to get the miles in though, how often is it nearly 50 degrees outside in late December in Chicago?!

More than 20%!

The 100/100 challenge is well underway at this point. Yesterday was my 20th run, it turned out to be just short of 6 miles holding a steady 8:08/mi pace.

I'm seeing some improvements already, and I'm only 20 days in. I guess this "training" stuff really does work. I've heard "more is more" for quite some time, but never had the enthusiasm/work ethic/patience to test it out. With a summer PB 5k time of 20:40, I hope to see if all of this running actually pays off this winter.

Now, onto something new for me: RaceDay and TriUtilities software. I'm just in the free trial period right now trying to get the hang of it, but basically it's software that takes input from each of your training sessions, uses a training score for that workout, and logs net positive effect (fitness), negative effect (fatigue), and balances those out to predict future performance.

In the long run, it should aid in showing your fitness and fatigue, and could potentially be used to help with preparation, program design, and taper for a race. Will this work as advertised? We shall see!

Here are a few screen shots from Race Day. First is the basic home page:



Here is a shot of the "overview" page showing training effect (positive and negative) as well as performance prediction:



Next is a photo from the Training page, which is more or less a log of each days' activity level:



Where do each days "Training" numbers come from? For me, they come from TriUtilities. I have been using the TRIMP Calculator to find the net effect from each session. This is a simple plug of information and it spits out a number. That result gets plugged into the RaceDay software, and we're done!

Here is a screen shot from yesterdays run, slightly under 6 miles at an 8:08/mi pace:



That's it for now. The more I record, the more I tend to want to train the next day. Will all of this pay off in the long run? I sure hope so, but only time will tell!

Surviving (and Enjoying) the Snow!

Well, Chicago was hit with 5-6" of snow last night. Many people will remain indoors and off the roads to avoid this mess. What does one do when trying to build their best triathlon off-season after getting hit with snow? They get creative.

Check out this blast from last night:



Running in snow can be fun for a little while, but when trying to log some miles I get tired of "dancing" around trying to stay upright. What makes it even worse is having a spastic dog pulling you around wanting nothing more than to sprint, leaving me flailing to keep from landing on my back.

In the true spirit of slowtwitch.com, I found I thread of a fellow "snow leopard" sharing his secret to winter running: sheet metal screws. With the correct placement you don't stab yourself in the foot and end up with great traction.

Thank you GregX for the recommendation, I'm going to be trying your method today! Here is a photo of GregX's shoes already done:



I only hope mine turn out well. Tonight I'm shooting for about 7 miles, and if these screws work it should save me 4-5 minutes on the round trip. Wish me luck!

What a Bunch of Idiots

Today I overheard a conversation at work where one broker was asking the other guy from the office who rides his bike in to work, "Did you ride in today?"

The dude replied that it was too cold and icy today.

Then the broker said, "yeah, I still see guys out there on their bikes. What a bunch of f_ _ _in' idiots."

After work I felt like a champ riding home in the rain.

Only 10%?

I am officially 10 days into my 100/100 challenge. So far I am running injury free (thanks in part to my Newtons, a b-day gift from Nisha) and feeling good.

Last week was just a hair over 30 miles, roughly 4.5 hours of running not including warm-ups. I'm shocked at how well my body seems to be doing with this, but I keep reminding myself I still have 90 more days and at least 340 more miles!

With that said, here is a link to the spreadsheet tracking the runs:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pGfgkRUvLwmFwPN-1XWFWbQ&hl=en

Feel free to follow along! As you can see, we have about 180 people participating, I can be found on rows 117-119.

As of today, I am ranked 53rd in time, 49th in distance, 59th in speed, and 11th in total number of runs. As you can see, there is some room for improvement!!

Montrose Cross

The last few weeks I have been questioning my effort in my races. I have moments where I'm at the limit, but at the end of the race I question whether or not I could have gone harder.

This being my last race of the season I decided I was not going to hold anything back. I'm going 100% from the gun and I'll have no regrets over the off season that I could have done better.

I had extra motivation too. This was my first big race in the 1/2 ranks. As an average cat 3 crosser, if I didn't want to get embarrassed by these guys I would have to really bring it so they don't drop me at the start. In addition to that I actually had a contingent of fans out along the course cheering for me. I have to have a good race and show them that I haven't been wasting my time training all year long.

I could tell this race was going to be different because I had butterflies in my stomach. Over the years I've become so numb to the excitement of racing that it has been a long time since i had the butterflies before the start of a race.

Tristan Schouten lines up next to me and I know I'm in trouble.



Off the line I went hard to the pavement section and surprisingly I was in fifth place. From that point on I was redlining it for the next hour just trying to hang with anybody who inevitably passed me. I would lose time on the run ups and the straightaways, but could catch back up in the slippery turns.



There wasn't anyplace on the course for me to recover. I blew up about halfway through the race for riding at a pace over my head, but since everyone came to watch I kept pushing through to the end battling to catch the guys ahead of me. I don't think I caught any, but I tried.



When it was all said and done I held on for 10th place.



Afterwards, my chakra was completely drained from my body and I was utterly exhausted for the next day and half. This is how racing used to feel like and even though my result wasn't so great, I was glad to see I could still push myself to the limit.

Chris from Turin designed a short but challenging course. I liked it a lot. Thanks to everyone who came out to the race and was cheering me on. I really needed it.

Illinois CX Championship and ’07 Season Sign-off

I finally got the upgrade points I needed last weekend in WI to race as Cat3. I was in 3rd place for the Cat4 series, but out of striking distance to take the overall, so I decided to upgrade before the IL State Championship at Montrose Park. This was a no pressure race and a measuring stick before heading into the off-season.

I helped create the course for about 4 hours on Saturday. Thankfully my back and shoulder felt fine. I got a late start on Sunday and didn’t have a chance to pre-ride. I knew most of the course layout, but I never took the time to ride it Saturday.

20 people line up and I allow the CHICROSS Cat3 Series contenders to take the front row. The official sends us off 2 minutes after the Cat1/2s and I quickly find myself dropped to near the back of the pack.

It would take too long to describe the entire course, but it was my favorite of the year, even better than JingleCross in Iowa City, IA. It had everything from deep snow to slop, mud and long run-ups. I thought that I had an advantage with the long uphill runs and technical turns on slippery mud.

Back to the race … after a lap I was able to catch and pass 3-4 people on the uphill run.





Coming back down the hill we were sent underneath a soccer goal with the metal base exposed above ground. I misjudged my approach, leaning in too hard when riding over the metal base and I paid for it. My back tire slid out and I was thrown from the bike and skidded off-course across the snow. I smashed my knee against something and my shifters were bent in at a severe angle. Everyone I had passed on the hill, re-passed me as I ripped at my shifters trying to get them straight again.





The bike was fine and my knee seemed ok. I hopped back on and started my chase again. For the next several laps I held my position and was able to reel in everyone that I had lost position too. I got lapped by pro rider Tristan Schouten who fly past like he was riding a dirt bike. There were no other major mistakes and I finshed the race in the middle, 10 of 20.



I’m content with my finish (for now) and confident heading into the off-season. I have a marathon scheduled for Feb 2nd and I’ll start bike racing again in mid to late March. If I can handle freezing temps in December, March will feel balmy in comparison.

I want to thank Get a Grip for their support. Thanks Jason, Matt, Saj, Kevin and Geoff. Our team only worked with the shop for half the racing season, but they have been incredibly helpful, knowledgeable and accommodating. I’m really looking forward to doing it again in ’08.

I also want to thank Nicole for coming along for many of my races and cheering me on, including a very long day and night in Madison during the Ironman, and harrowing adventures to the far west suburbs where we nearly ran out of gas. You’re a trooper.

Best Regards to All,
Tim

Pop Quiz!

What is Ted doing in this picture?


A) Making a landing strip for Santa’s sleigh.
B) Sulking about Illinois’ OT loss to Arizona
C) Helping to clear the CHICROSS course at Montrose Park

The answer is D) All of the above. We both showed up on Saturday and helped the Turin RD clear sections of the course, drive stakes (sometimes into frozen solid groud) and tape off. Part of the course was a blank canvas that we got to decide the layout. I can’t decide if we helped or hurt our own placing with the sections of course we created. I enjoyed helping and the race was top notch.

Hales Corner CX

If I didn't crash so much and I could avoid bike malfunctions, I would be such an awesome racer.

Ha, just kidding. I might move up a spot or two but i'd still finish far from glory, fame and beautiful women.

Under dry conditions Hales corner would be a nice fast course, but the previous days snowfall added an additional challenge. The day went to those who could churn out the most power while grinding through snow and mud at 8 or 9 MPH. Guiding my bike through the worn in, muddy track was a constant challenge.

When it was all said and done I was exhauasted but i still questioned whether or not I left it all on the course. And if I did, did I expend my energy at the right times to my maximum advantage. I think the key to racing is knowing when are the right times to expend your energy and when to ease off the accelerator. After all these years of racing, I don't know if I figured it out yet.

One small rant, when a race goes off in waves everyone should start in the wave they registered for. Don't pimp everyone else you're competing against by jumping in a different wave. That's cheating and you might as well just cut the course or take EPO too. I guess the blame lies partially with the officials for not checking race numbers before each start.