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.

March 22nd Race Recap and training update

 Well, a couple days have passed, and I have had time to digest the result of my first race back. I can't say I am dissapointed in my performance, but I am a little frusterated with the final result.

Besides the fitness and speed you lose when away from racing, I feel that I also lost my head a little. I forgot exactly how to race. Despite certain people telling me, "look for the break" I still decided to sit back and hope things would come together. When I did take the chance to chase an attack, it was a complete waste as the whole group was on me instantly and in truth, the rider who attacked couldn't have gotten far anyways. Basically I wasted a lot of energy where I shouldn't have, and I saved a lot when I should have been chasing. In hindsight it seems so simple, but in the moment I remember being very frusterated and almost panicked with the situation. It's probably the first race I have been in that I wished I could have had another 20 miles!

Its funny because I was just going over race tactics with Lucy the other day, and it seemed to come to me so quickly and I felt I had an answer for every situation. I guess its easy to see from the outside, but when all the blood is in your legs, and your brain is working on the bare minimum of oxygen, you can't see quite as clear.

Its funny because the kid who won the time trial, and I had taken the leader jersey from, attacked me about 4 times in the first two laps. Each time I was forced to chase and due to my terrible positioning, I was almost always boxed in when he went. Each time I brought him back using a huge amount of energy. Then as thing calmed down and the dangerous break actually went I didn't seem to care. Then this kid comes back to me a lap later and explains that we need to do something to pull the break back. I agreed, and we both went to the front to work. After about 2 rotations the kid falls back into the group and leaves me to work. I realized later he was playing on my stupidity! Unfortunately for him, he was not able to follow when I did go, which knocked him completely out of the top 10, but the fact that he was able to manipulate me like that is something that still bothers me. Once again, my brain has to learn to race again!

I did realize that I love Hammer Heed drink mix while I was down here. Very little taste, but much better than plain water...I like!

The monday after the race, I went out for about 50 miles. The legs felt heavy and my motivation was a little low after the dissapointment from the day before. I got home just after noon and proceeded to sleep and eat.

Today I felt a little better and went out for a long ride. Rode out through Tucson mtn park and over gates pass, then through tucson and up to the top of Mt Lemmon. It ended up as a 112 mile day and I felt great at the end. Head held a little higher today, but its funny how even a small race like this can mess with your head.

I have two more days of long training down here before I head back to Boulder. We may stop in silver city on the way home to check out at least one of the major Gila climbs.

Thats it for now.

March 20th Tucson Bike Classic Circuit Race

Well, today didn't exactly go as planned, but I did give it a good effort, just a bit late though.

We had a 45 mile circuit race on tap, which bascially climbed up, and then came down for 8 laps. My goal was to mark the guy in second place for the first part of the race and see what happened. On the second lap, he attacked really hard and I was forced to respond. Noone seemed to care that he had gone, but as soon as I jumped, they were on me like white on rice. Twice I had to bridge gaps due to bad positioning and both times I knew I was making myself work more than I should. For the next lap I stayed glued to his wheel.

A break got away on the end of the 2nd lap, which I wasn't completely aware of. By lap 4, they had almost 2 minutes on the group. I went to the front and started rotating pulls, but noone really wanted to chase. The guy in second place took, probably 2 pulls and fell back into the pack.

As my frusteration mounted I figured I had to do something. On the 7th lap, I attacked and crushed the climb, one guy was able to get up to me, and proceeded to sit on my wheel. As we hit the downhill, he started to pull through a little, but his pace was weak. I figured this was the time to go all in, and I basically just Time Trialed for the next lap. We picked up 2 stragglers from the break, who also proceeded to sit on my wheel and not help! The final lap I would say I pulled 99.5 percent of the time, power on the climb was well over 400 watts and only dropped to about 390 for the downhill. I brought back some time, but nowhere near enough to hold the lead. All in all, I made my move way to late.

I have never been in a race where the riders in the top 10, who are only separated by maybe 30 seconds, have no desire to work??!! They were content to just let their GC hopes go down the drain. Maybe they were just that weak or already at their limit, but it was unbelievable. I made a bad assumption in thinking that they would care, so I waited to long to chase the break. I felt amazing, and had no doubt that I was the strongest rider in the race. Tactically, I made some errors though and it cost me.

At the end, I finished 3rd overall. Not exactly what I had hoped for but I guess its a good place to start. Now I got 4 more days of good training and then its back to Colorado.

Thanks everyone for all the support!

March 19th Tucson Bike Classic Road Race

Wow..where to begin..

Day started off fine, up at 6, coffee, oatmeal and an egg (seems to be a great breakfast for me) and then off to the race. The road race starts about 20 miles out of town in an area called Green Valley. Our group was set to roll out at 9:15 and we had four 20 miles laps on tap for a total of 80 miles. I was one second off the lead and the leader had his bright yellow jersey on so he was easy to keep track of.

Of course a break went on the first lap and I was in to position to join it. At the same time, half the riders in the group had my number taped to their handlebars as someone to watch, so I doubt I would have gotten away. I was content to sit in the group and do as little work as possible. I spent most of my time sitting right behind or beside the yellow jersey (the leader of the race). The first time through the feed zone, a couple of guys crashed right in front of me and my dad, who was handing me water, luckily it just slowed things down so I got an easy hand off and just simply dodged the bodies.

At this point, the gap to the leaders was around 2 minutes and unfortunately,  myself, the yellow jersey and the guy 3rd in GC were all without teammates. Very few riders wanted to work, so a group of 6 of us ran a nice rotation for the next 12-15 miles. We got absolutely no help, and only took about 30 seconds off the lead group. At this point we sat up, and rolled through the feed zone for the second time. This was where things got a bit hectic, I missed my feed due to butter fingers....and I had half a bottle of water for the third lap. The break was up around 2 minutes again, and I had very little water to work with which meant I really couldn't help in the chase.

I took my chances and sat in for the third lap. Luckily the pace was high enough to keep the gap from increasing. Coming into the final feed, we nailed it, I chugged some go juice, and got to the front. A group of the fastest riders assembled at the front and started taking monster pulls. I buried myself over the rolling hills and we actually created a bit of our own gap. Within about 8 miles we pulled back the break away. There were numerous attacks that followed, most were neutralized immediately. I knew with the yellow line rule in effect, I needed to be right at the front for the final 3-4 miles leading into the finish. I sacrified a good draft, for a better position for the finish. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd at the line would receive time bonuses, which is what I was looking for.

The sprint opened up just before 200m to go and being a bit of a non-sprinter, I luckily had the right wheel and came around to finish either 2nd or 3rd (not sure with no official results yet). Either way the yellow jersey scored no bonus which should put me where I want to be. All in all, it was a great day. I really never had to ride over my head and I am extremely happy with the result.

The race bike

Tomorrow is the final day which is a 5.6 mile circuit. We cover the course 8 times, for a total of roughly 45 miles. I'm sure it will be tough but I feel up to the challenge.

Looking for my first cat 2 win tomorrow!

March 18th, Prologue day!

Today started out well! Up at 7, followed by coffee, oatmeal and an egg. I then geared up and headed out for an easy ride around 9 am. I did an easy loop south of tucson, just turning on whatever road looked the best. I was shooting for an easy hour with just a couple efforts and I got just that. Legs felt great!

From there it was more oatmeal, lots and lots of water, compressions socks and rest. I laid down to take a nap, which of course didn't happen, but at least I got to rest my legs. Around noon it was time to get the bike and gear ready. This really meant standing it up, looking it over and nodding...yup, its ready

From here it was time to get the gear ready....Yup...all ready

Signed in at 2:30, began my warmup at 3:30 did a few good efforts, felt good. It was insanely hot...about 85.

 Rode up the the start around 4: 20 and found myself standing in line for 10 minutes. Pretty sure my heart rate was down around 50 when I rolled of the ramp. This made for a rather slow and painful start but I still gave it everything I had. Passed my 30 second guy after the first climb, and then buried myself on the final climb. Pretty sure I damaged a lung I was breathing so hard, but after a few minutes of dry heaving I was able to regain my vision and begin riding back for a cooldown.

So after waiting and waiting, I find that I ended up 2nd place, by a single second!! This is good and bad. Good because now I won't be quite as marked tomorrow which is really good since I have no teammates. Bad, because, damn I wanted to win that prologue!

Tomorrow is the 80 mile road race. Time bonuses at the end could make the difference. I'm hoping for good legs! For now I am compressing the legs and eating.

Stay tuned..