I've been on a hiatus, both athletically and by means of blogging. The two tend to go hand-in-hand. I have felt very out of shape, hitting a lifetime high of approximately 170lbs while still maintaining okay training. I nearly got discouraged, but was aware that I was still somewhat strong and just needed to regain some mental (and some physical) structure. I cleaned up my diet, finally utilizing Sports Nutrition for Endurance Athletes - eliminating high saturated fat foods and rotating days of non-meat eating. I started eating more before AND during workouts and focused on eating for recovery, which is much different than eating to refill the tank. With this plan and an earlier sleep schedule, I was headed I. The right direction. Then I worked on having a purpose in training...rather than 'biking a lot'.
My Saviori here were a few individuals: first of whom is Jeff Dixon, our fearless Cat 2 leader of Base-36, who gave me a painful sprint workout, a boatload of his knowledge and advice (only a portion of which I have utilized and absorbed), and a tune-up workout. More impressive than anything is he got me to take a day off. By the way, I do NOT take days off. Also, Bill Black, an older local rider who has been around quite some time gave me advice on training, physiology, and ideas on threshold work. Third is Doug Welling, a fellow employee, awesome person overall, and Elite Level Cycling coach (but you'd know if you saw his resume...not by him telling you). Numerous others include the Base-36 teammates, and friends/family putting up with my annoying eating plan and blabberings!
So enough for the overly drawn out lead-in. Time for the good stuff. While I was working my way back to fitness, I figured I could get in some races...especially if my teammates were going. We headed down to the Cat 4 Concord Crit last weekend on August 6th. I had not taken proper rest leading into the race and was thus unintentionally training through it: Tuesday was a very hard hilly group ride, Wednesday was a sprint workout then a harder than expected evening ride, and Thursday was supposed to be easy but I made some solid efforts in the group ride. Friday I did take easy, doing one hour very slow. The Concord Crit is hilly (for a crit) but still quite fast. I felt rather flat most of the race, but managed an okay position into the final turn (8th or so) and made up a few spots in the sprint to finish 4th in the field and 5th overall. This race showed me that if I came into a race feeling fairly fresh and raced smart, good things were bound to happen.
On Wednesday (August 10th) three of us on Base-36 headed down to the Witches Cup in Salem, MA. Chris Jordan hasn't been on the bike as much as he would like to and was kind enough to actually give me his race entry as I did not know the Cat 4/5 race sold out in hours. Chris was not merely a spectator, he was extremely vocal throughout the race and let me know when I needed to move up or when the pace slowed and I didn't notice as the recovery felt too nice to consider making a move. Liam Somers also came down with us for the race. I heard this was a 'fast' crit, but thought to myself "well, aren't all crits pretty fast - this is probably going to be like Concord without the hills". I was very wrong. As Liam and I took a few laps I scouted out the competitors as normal...but soon found out that I was tagging every 3rd or 4th person as looking strong, with many contenders in mind. I immediately focused on myself and my own race, as this was clearly not the place to "go" only on one person's move. I took one extra lap to relax and missed the line-up. Thanks to Liam, I was saved. He had a great spot for me...I jumped from 6th row outside to 2nd row inside. The last couple minutes my heart rate naturally jumped and I started to enjoy being at the race.
The race started, and I missed clipping in two times. I lost contact with Liam immediately, however, the sheer fact that I had a teammate up ahead to work to get back to saved me! By the start of the 4th lap I was back into position with Liam. Without Liam up there and the courtesy you get from a teammate, I would have used a lot more energy getting up front or, worse, been stuck in the back. Throughout the race I stayed within the top 15 most of the time, and any time I got pushed back I worked to move up. When it got mid-race and my focus ever drifted for a lap or two, Chris was right there to yell at me to make a move. The race was interesting. We were either going 30mph or 23mph, and it didn't hold at either pace for long. Looking back, on some laps my HR was dangerously high - probably in the fast laps when I moved up or went on attack. There was little going on in the sense of breaks, only twice did anyone make a legitimate effort. The first was coming off of a prime at lap 14 or so, when 6 of us (who did not go for the prime) just rolled out of the first turn with a 15m gap. One guy yelled to hit it, so we laid down the pressure in an effort to create a significant gap. the field responded quickly as they did not want such a large group to gap the field. Within 1.5 laps it was back together. But the pace was really ramped up. Once we were back together for a couple laps it settled, and I was able to take 2nd place in a 2 place prime with very minimal effort. I did this by coming hard out of turn 2 in the lead by 5m or so. I let one guy pass me by putting in a sprint.
With about 9 laps to go one guy made a hard effort at a break, but only held until 5 to go. The race began to get jittery, with everyone jockeying for position. I stayed in the top 5-8 for laps 5,4, and part of 3 as Jeff had advised to do so by any means. On the second to last lap I prepared to emulate my line for the finish: top 3 coming into turn 3, pedal through as much of the turn as humanly possible without crashing myself, then the rest would be guts and waiting til I got past the pearly white line for the 32nd time. In this preparation, I scuffed my inside pedal pretty hard; it surprised me but I was expecting it to be a close call. I now knew exactly how much I could pedal through the turn.
Last Lap: Bell rings. You can feel the guys around you switching between seated and standing, internally debating whether taking the pull for position will bonk him or if it will be the move that sets up a top 5 finish. I kept the throttle on, not even backing if the guy in front of me came back. I held the inside for turn 1 and on the sweeping bend. Guys came around the outside trying to wizz by effectively putting me back to almost 10th, but with my position I was not at all concerned. I was left to take the inside alone with the head/cross wind to avoid feathering my brakes. The guy from MIT and I hit hands in our drops, but leaned into it and used each other to avoid an ugly crash. In the intensity of it all I said 'watch it' but was almost emotionally detached, my focus clearly elsewhere. Around turn 2, slipping right into third wheel as planned. I let off for the first time the whole lap and got about 1.5 feet in between the 2nd wheel and myself; just enough backing off to take the turn as planned, but keeping the pressure on enough to not sacrifice position on the inside. I give a final check to the inside of my rear wheel. Clear - but they were three wide right on my tail. No one was stupid enough to fly into the last turn and risk taking out the entire field (sadly someone around 25th thought it was worth it and took a bunch of guys out). I am in one of my top two gears. I accept the fact that coming out of the turn I will be without a wheel in front of me, and I disregard any other option. Pedal twice HARD into the turn, keep my foot up, two more on the apex, hold. As expected, I came out of the turn without a wheel in front of me and I knew I had people on my wheel. So I laid it all down, in an effort to create a gap and then hold it. I hammered with only one sliver of the white line in my focus and wouldn't stop until my wheel crossed it. With about 5m to go I internally knew I had the win, but didn't want to let up one bit because people had been on my wheel and could have made their move late. I yelled as I crossed the line in excitement and joy. I didn't even feel tired, I felt stronger and faster and more ready than I had at any moment of the race...but I knew if I tried to pedal it'd be laughable.
After the warm down lap, Chris came right out and congratulated me. The photographer was there and told me that the above picture would be gracing The Salem News Sports Section the following morning.
It was so exciting just to be at the race. It was awesome to finish and win the race...I didn't even realize it was a 'big' race. I was later informed that this is one of the top crits in New England/The Northeast, which pretty much just topped off the day. When I was with Chris I told him "Sweet! I just actually made money racing my bike!" I though the actual concept was far cooler than actually winning some dough. I thought the prize was $60 and with a $35 entry and $10 of gas, I netted $15. Boy, was I wrong. I got a trophy, which was sweet, then went to get my prize (expecting an envelope) and they pulled out a large carboard box, a canister of endurox, and a handlebar mounted light (for the prime). I tell them they must be mistaken and that I won the 4.5 race and not the Pro race. They tell me, "Yes, this is yours". My jaw dropped. It was a pair of Origin-8 Road Speed Pro Wheels that list over $700, which alone is about $640 more than I was expecting to win. Needless to say it was an awesome surprise!
My Saviori here were a few individuals: first of whom is Jeff Dixon, our fearless Cat 2 leader of Base-36, who gave me a painful sprint workout, a boatload of his knowledge and advice (only a portion of which I have utilized and absorbed), and a tune-up workout. More impressive than anything is he got me to take a day off. By the way, I do NOT take days off. Also, Bill Black, an older local rider who has been around quite some time gave me advice on training, physiology, and ideas on threshold work. Third is Doug Welling, a fellow employee, awesome person overall, and Elite Level Cycling coach (but you'd know if you saw his resume...not by him telling you). Numerous others include the Base-36 teammates, and friends/family putting up with my annoying eating plan and blabberings!
So enough for the overly drawn out lead-in. Time for the good stuff. While I was working my way back to fitness, I figured I could get in some races...especially if my teammates were going. We headed down to the Cat 4 Concord Crit last weekend on August 6th. I had not taken proper rest leading into the race and was thus unintentionally training through it: Tuesday was a very hard hilly group ride, Wednesday was a sprint workout then a harder than expected evening ride, and Thursday was supposed to be easy but I made some solid efforts in the group ride. Friday I did take easy, doing one hour very slow. The Concord Crit is hilly (for a crit) but still quite fast. I felt rather flat most of the race, but managed an okay position into the final turn (8th or so) and made up a few spots in the sprint to finish 4th in the field and 5th overall. This race showed me that if I came into a race feeling fairly fresh and raced smart, good things were bound to happen.
On Wednesday (August 10th) three of us on Base-36 headed down to the Witches Cup in Salem, MA. Chris Jordan hasn't been on the bike as much as he would like to and was kind enough to actually give me his race entry as I did not know the Cat 4/5 race sold out in hours. Chris was not merely a spectator, he was extremely vocal throughout the race and let me know when I needed to move up or when the pace slowed and I didn't notice as the recovery felt too nice to consider making a move. Liam Somers also came down with us for the race. I heard this was a 'fast' crit, but thought to myself "well, aren't all crits pretty fast - this is probably going to be like Concord without the hills". I was very wrong. As Liam and I took a few laps I scouted out the competitors as normal...but soon found out that I was tagging every 3rd or 4th person as looking strong, with many contenders in mind. I immediately focused on myself and my own race, as this was clearly not the place to "go" only on one person's move. I took one extra lap to relax and missed the line-up. Thanks to Liam, I was saved. He had a great spot for me...I jumped from 6th row outside to 2nd row inside. The last couple minutes my heart rate naturally jumped and I started to enjoy being at the race.
The race started, and I missed clipping in two times. I lost contact with Liam immediately, however, the sheer fact that I had a teammate up ahead to work to get back to saved me! By the start of the 4th lap I was back into position with Liam. Without Liam up there and the courtesy you get from a teammate, I would have used a lot more energy getting up front or, worse, been stuck in the back. Throughout the race I stayed within the top 15 most of the time, and any time I got pushed back I worked to move up. When it got mid-race and my focus ever drifted for a lap or two, Chris was right there to yell at me to make a move. The race was interesting. We were either going 30mph or 23mph, and it didn't hold at either pace for long. Looking back, on some laps my HR was dangerously high - probably in the fast laps when I moved up or went on attack. There was little going on in the sense of breaks, only twice did anyone make a legitimate effort. The first was coming off of a prime at lap 14 or so, when 6 of us (who did not go for the prime) just rolled out of the first turn with a 15m gap. One guy yelled to hit it, so we laid down the pressure in an effort to create a significant gap. the field responded quickly as they did not want such a large group to gap the field. Within 1.5 laps it was back together. But the pace was really ramped up. Once we were back together for a couple laps it settled, and I was able to take 2nd place in a 2 place prime with very minimal effort. I did this by coming hard out of turn 2 in the lead by 5m or so. I let one guy pass me by putting in a sprint.
With about 9 laps to go one guy made a hard effort at a break, but only held until 5 to go. The race began to get jittery, with everyone jockeying for position. I stayed in the top 5-8 for laps 5,4, and part of 3 as Jeff had advised to do so by any means. On the second to last lap I prepared to emulate my line for the finish: top 3 coming into turn 3, pedal through as much of the turn as humanly possible without crashing myself, then the rest would be guts and waiting til I got past the pearly white line for the 32nd time. In this preparation, I scuffed my inside pedal pretty hard; it surprised me but I was expecting it to be a close call. I now knew exactly how much I could pedal through the turn.
Last Lap: Bell rings. You can feel the guys around you switching between seated and standing, internally debating whether taking the pull for position will bonk him or if it will be the move that sets up a top 5 finish. I kept the throttle on, not even backing if the guy in front of me came back. I held the inside for turn 1 and on the sweeping bend. Guys came around the outside trying to wizz by effectively putting me back to almost 10th, but with my position I was not at all concerned. I was left to take the inside alone with the head/cross wind to avoid feathering my brakes. The guy from MIT and I hit hands in our drops, but leaned into it and used each other to avoid an ugly crash. In the intensity of it all I said 'watch it' but was almost emotionally detached, my focus clearly elsewhere. Around turn 2, slipping right into third wheel as planned. I let off for the first time the whole lap and got about 1.5 feet in between the 2nd wheel and myself; just enough backing off to take the turn as planned, but keeping the pressure on enough to not sacrifice position on the inside. I give a final check to the inside of my rear wheel. Clear - but they were three wide right on my tail. No one was stupid enough to fly into the last turn and risk taking out the entire field (sadly someone around 25th thought it was worth it and took a bunch of guys out). I am in one of my top two gears. I accept the fact that coming out of the turn I will be without a wheel in front of me, and I disregard any other option. Pedal twice HARD into the turn, keep my foot up, two more on the apex, hold. As expected, I came out of the turn without a wheel in front of me and I knew I had people on my wheel. So I laid it all down, in an effort to create a gap and then hold it. I hammered with only one sliver of the white line in my focus and wouldn't stop until my wheel crossed it. With about 5m to go I internally knew I had the win, but didn't want to let up one bit because people had been on my wheel and could have made their move late. I yelled as I crossed the line in excitement and joy. I didn't even feel tired, I felt stronger and faster and more ready than I had at any moment of the race...but I knew if I tried to pedal it'd be laughable.
After the warm down lap, Chris came right out and congratulated me. The photographer was there and told me that the above picture would be gracing The Salem News Sports Section the following morning.
It was so exciting just to be at the race. It was awesome to finish and win the race...I didn't even realize it was a 'big' race. I was later informed that this is one of the top crits in New England/The Northeast, which pretty much just topped off the day. When I was with Chris I told him "Sweet! I just actually made money racing my bike!" I though the actual concept was far cooler than actually winning some dough. I thought the prize was $60 and with a $35 entry and $10 of gas, I netted $15. Boy, was I wrong. I got a trophy, which was sweet, then went to get my prize (expecting an envelope) and they pulled out a large carboard box, a canister of endurox, and a handlebar mounted light (for the prime). I tell them they must be mistaken and that I won the 4.5 race and not the Pro race. They tell me, "Yes, this is yours". My jaw dropped. It was a pair of Origin-8 Road Speed Pro Wheels that list over $700, which alone is about $640 more than I was expecting to win. Needless to say it was an awesome surprise!
Overall, I am glad that my recent change in mentality has yielded positive results. I have taken on the challange of losing weight while gaining strength and netting a huge performance boost. This tactic is very difficult to do mid-season, and weight loss is best saved for the build phase. But it all is working out and I plan on gaining even more ground in the next month. I have a couple more races coming up and don't plan on letting up an inch of ground. My goal is another top place to get upgrade points, and then work for my teammates and put in work for them to get a couple wins. Winning this race was an awesome experience, but most of the time I feel like I am a great workhorse and would be able to benefit my teammates in that respect quite a bit. However and wherever it goes I am all smiles and just gonna keep on rolling.
