Tour of the GIla update

I figured I would give a quick update on what has happened over the first three days here in New Mexico. I'm going to keep it as brief as I can.

Day 1: 94.7 miles, basically flat, with a few rollers, wind, heat, and then a brutal climb 6.7 mile climb up the Mogollon to finish everyone off. Bascially, things started off well, right up until I missed my second feed zone. We had about 40 miles to go until the climb started and I was rocking one water bottle. This kept me from eating since that would make me even more thirsty. At the feed right before the climb I sucked down a gel, and drank a whole bottle of water but it was to little, way to late. I stayed with the front group through the first 2 miles of the climb. As soon as we hit the final 4 miles I hit a brick wall, and it basically took everything in me to keep the pedals turning over. My hamstrings cramped, my arms cramped it was miserable! I limped up the climb at about 130 watts lower than I could consistently do in training. Sad sad performance that lost me 7 minutes. Probably the worst I have ever felt, and it was obvious where the mistake was made.

Day 2: 77.9 miles. still just over 5000 feet of climbing but alot more climbs with less gradient. Woke up very sore from running the tank empty the day before. I was pissed and was ready to make something happen. The pace started off very quick, and on the first climb out of town, people were popping off the back right and left. I made the selection over the top and as we came down a very sketchy 3 miles decent, there were only about 7 riders left. Of course noone wanted to work, so a group came back. Long story short, I kept attacking and raising the pace but in the end, it was a sprint of about 20 riders and I pretty much just rolled in with the pack.

Day 3: 16 ish, mile time trial. 30+ mph wind with insane gusts. Its a tricky course because it starts up a rather tough 4 mile climb. You have to really know when to go hard because the final 4 miles you are going so fast you can barely pedal and it really doesn't take much work. I passed a bunch of guys but in the end I was 6th on the day. Finished 1:40 down on the leader which of course pissed me off again because I could've sworn I rode faster than that. Regardless, I went from 32nd over all on the first day to 11th overall today.

We have 2 stages remaining. The crit tomorrow is survival for me, and the last day is a brutal 102 mile road stage with tons of climbing. Should be interesting. This is my last day to take time back so I am hoping for strong legs and a strong mind.

At this point I am not where I wanted to be. The first day mistake broke my spirit a bit and it has been a struggle to recover from that. I felt I had the condition to win this race and after that bummer I just lost a little piece of my drive. Going to be hard to get a good ride with this kind of performance. Trying hard to rebound and make these last days count.

Thanks to all for the support. The crit will air live tomorrow. My race begins at 1:30 Mtn time http://nmaafilms.ezstream.com/play/index.cfm?fuseaction=embstay&id=1F22117FB5

Tour of the Depot recap

Friday evening, Lindsay and I packed the bikes and the dogs into the Element and headed off for Salt Lake City, Utah. Besides having to battle a slight blizzard for the final 100 miles, we arrived safely at our destination. We were lucky to be hosted by a our friend Justin Grisham who just happens to live at the top of what I would call a small moutain, just outside of Salt Lake City. We pulled in around 1:15 AM, got to bed around 1:30 and the alarm went off at 6 AM.

The road race started out of a small town (or area) called Stockton. It was snowing/raining, blowing and right around 32 degrees. They had re-routed the road race to stay at the lower elevations and shortened it to only about 70 miles. Within the first 5 miles, I thought for sure I was going to drop off the back. My legs felt horrible, I was cold and of course everyone wants to attack in the first couple miles. I was able to hang with it till my legs warmed up and from then on, I felt much more comfortable. The canyon cycling team had enough riders in the race that they were able to send an attack off the front just about every minute which made for a series of hellashish (if thats a word) accelerations. Finnally a break went, and our pace became more steady.  A somewhat organized chase began a few miles later but it became clear around mile 50 that there was not enough organization to pull the break back. The weather was miserable, and at times I could barely see the road in front of me due to the blowing snow.

With about 10 miles to go, a second group went up the road with two team exergy riders and another Cayon rider. Once the gap got fairly large, I attacked with the intent to bridge the gap. It took me about 10 minutes, and a huge effort to cross the gap. Once accross, we worked fairly well for the final few miles into the finish, it was full gas, and I barely remember it as I'm pretty sure I was cross eyed the entire time. In the end I was able to take 8th place on the day and get a pretty sizable time gap over the next group.

As the weather deteriorated, the racer promoters decided to cancel the afternoon time trial. I was dissapointed, but at the same time, I had seen the course and it would have been extremely dangerous with the rain, snow and now slush on the roads.

I got a good dinner, and some good sleep that night to prepare for the 40 mile circuit the next day. The course was very similar to the Tucson Bike Classic circuit which basically went up a hill, then down the other side. An early break went, but I stayed with the GC leaders since they both had strong teams that I figured would eventually work to bring the break back. Unfortunately, this did not end up being the case and  in the end, 4 riders stayed away. Nice job to team Bissells Chase Pinkham for his well deserved victory on the circuit. I did make a last lap attack that snagged me the 5th position but once again, my playing it safe probably kept me from securing a better result.

The race really did not have a ton of climbing, but what it did have never really put me under pressure. My biggest challenge is keep up with the brutal attacks. I don't have quite the snap in my legs and I end up closing gaps a lot. I was impressed with the Team Exergy riders in both the strength of their riders and their proffesionalism. We worked together in the road race to gain time, and in the circuit as well to try and get rid of the leader. Definitely a good group of guys and strong riders.

I ended up 6th overall in GC and I was the highest placed Cat 2 rider. Still chasing my first win since my return! :)

The next race for me is the Tour of the Gila. I really don't know how I'm going to stack up, but in my heart I know up to this point I had put in a lot of work. I feel good, and with two more weeks of solid training, I feel that I can at least do something. I set a few personal power records over the weekend which is great because I am continuing to improve. Starting to become more and more clear that I need a good team to ride for. Hopefully a good ride at Gila will help with that!

April 2nd, the next step and a little history.

So after settling back into a normal routine back in boulder, it is time to look toward the next objective. Upon my return, I took a day completely off the bike and 2 days that consisted of an hour long easy spin. It was hard for me to even take that much of a break, but it did me a lot of good.

Training since I've been back:

Monday I got back in the saddle and road some flat roads for about 3 hours. Tuesday and Wednesday and thursday I went into the hills and did a bunch of back to back climbs. Wednesday evening, I did my first CompuTrainer workout in a while and it was brutal! Friday was an easy day with me simply teaching my indoor cycling class, and today was a great day of climbing hitting up the four steepest paved roads in the boulder area.

My goal this week was to ride just as much as I felt like riding and keep the rides 3 hours or less for the most part. I did just that, except for today which was about 4.5 hours, and justifiably so since it was almost 80 degrees out! Should end up with about 22 hours on the bike this week and I still feel quite fresh!

Next race:

With most of the Colorado racing consisting of criteriums this time of year, I have opted to use my time to get in long training rides with a ton of climbing. My goal has always been short 3-5 day stage races which tend to suit me better. I enjoy them more, and it is hard for me to waste a whole weekend day to race for 60 minutes.

My big goal is to somehow get myself town to the Tour of the Gila at the end of this month. That is still up in the air since the cost is substantial.
For now, I going to plan as though I am going to Gila and continue to build my fitness with that in mind. As a tune up for Gila, I am looking to head to Utah next weekend to compete at the Tour of the Depot stage race. Since it is 3 stages in 2 days, It appears I may be able to make it happen without missing any work! The course looks challenging, with a lot of climbing, and a medium distance Time Trial which will be really good for my build up. It is a mixed cat1/2 field so I will have to overcome some fast riders to place well, but I know I have done my homework the best I could up to this point.

From there, I will have roughly 2 weeks to prepare myself. I have a bunch of other goals set for myself over the next two months that I will reveal later when I feel a bit more confident. For now I will be trying to hit up the races that suit me and see what I can do! Putting in the work will pay dividends at some point...and it doesn't hurt to have a little heart to go with it. Motivation is high!

Nonsense: If you don't want to know a whole lot about my history, stop reading here!

When I look at where I was fitness wise a year or even two years ago, it is definitely an eye opener. The years 2008-2009 were probably the worst year I have ever experienced. My last year at CSU was 2007 and was probably one of the best of my life. Coming off a breakout season and multiple victories over the summer, I was ready to take the cycling world by the neck in 2008. After an amazing training camp in Tucson and and productive winter on the Trainer, I ran into a road block. Team opportunities fell apart, job market was terrible and I suddenly found myself in quite a mess. A rather complicated situation with my soon to be team came to the surface and in the end, I was left with nothing. I was so shocked by how it went down, that I basically stopped riding. I didn't touch the bike for months.
That may I actually went up to Alaska, to work and get away from everything in Fort Collins. I spent upwards of 14 hours a day laboring for my mothers business. More than anything I needed a release to get out the anger I was holding from the team situation. When I returned to Fort Collins, I continued to work at a local athletic training facility and tried to ignore the nagging feelings. This was the most challenging time for me mentally and it tested me to a level that I wouldn't realize till over a year later.
A friend of Lindsays family broke me out of my funk and offered me a free ride in the Triple Bypass bike event. Its a fun ride with lots of climbing and is generally rather hard to get an entry to. I accepted and got back on the bike. I trained for a month, and rode the event is just over 7 hours. My goal was to ride it as hard as I could and just crush myself. Following that event, I had some motivation, but it wasn't enough. I put the bike back away and returned to my rather pathetic existence. This is basically where I remained for the next two years.
At the end of that year, Lindsay and I ended up moving to Boulder so she could begin Graduate School. I continued to work in loveland doing athletic training but the commute was to much. I then spent almost 2 years unemployed and searching for something to inspire me. Worst two years of my life by far. At the end of 2009 I really began doing a small amount of personal training and even riding a little. The roads around boulder are amazing, but with my level of fitness it was just embarrasing. I was overweight and extremely out of shape. The simplest rides would take everything out of me, but I continued to ride recreationally every now and then. That winter I ended up with an amazing opportunity to work the the soon to open Colorado Athletic Club Boulder. The opening of the club was definitely a turning point in my life. Good people were running the show and I felt comfortable for the first time in a while. I worked my ass off to be there every moment of the day for the first 3-4 months. My training took a huge hit, but in the end I knew it would be worth it.

After establishing a decent business, I began to train. In July and August of 2010, I put in about 90 hours on the bike each month. I entered my first race in 3 years which was the Boulder Time Trial series, and ended up 4th. I raced the ACA road championships and got my teeth kicked in. I raced the Steamboat Stage Race and once again got destroyed, but one thing came out of these. That thing, was the desire and motivation that I needed and was looking for.

The 2010-2011 winter was my most productive ever! I was at the gym usually over 12 hours each day. I would work in the morning, ride the CompuTrainer for 2-4 hours and then work in the evening. If it was nice out, I would ride from the gym. My fitness was so far behind everyone else in my category that it was going to take a ton of work to even get close to my previous level.  Its hard to look 6 months ahead and visualize the goal, but somehow I made it through.

This brings me to where I am now. I have one good race under my belt and am happy with the outcome. I have set very high goals for myself this season and some may seem a bit crazy. I have a lot of big races on my schedule and also the hopes of finding a good team.  You are never guarunteed anything in this sport, but a good friend told me, all I have to do is do my homework, and the results will come. So thats what I will continue to do. The peole around me are amazing and that is really all I can ask for.

here are some old racing pics

 Steamboat road race 2010

 Collegiate nationals Team Time Trial 3rd place. I'm on the right.

Steamboat circuit race..after getting dropped.

Thanks to all for following. I will keep this updated pretty regularly with training and racing updates.