NRC Crit aka The Big Dance

Well I survived. That is all I can say about the Chris Thater Memorial Race Weekend. I had some hopes and goals for the weekend . . .none of them came to fruition. Character. It is all about building character. I must have built some somewhere this weekend.

I won’t give you play by play. To be honest our results this weekend don’t warrant it. Here are some highlights:

SATTURDAY:
We predicted a break would stay away: It did, without any of us in it.

We predict Ramon Benetiz (US Postal Masters Squad) would be the man to watch: He initiated the winning break., without us covering it.

I moved into the Top 10 with 7 laps to go, didn’t show any patience and tried to bridge to a small chase group that had formed off the front. All I really accomplished was stringing out the bunch, dragging them to the chase group and blowing my legs for the last lap surges. Typical Wilson bike racing.

Ended up 37th, no where near the Top 20 and the cash. Goal No.1 denied.

SUNDAY:
The big dance. 125 riders. 6 corner 1.2 mile circuit with a hill. Many nasty pros: Colavita, Navigators, Sierra Nevada, Jittery Joes, Healthnet.

Lap 1-no problems.
Lap 2- Still no problems sitting 30-40th
Lap 3- Attack on the hill, I am in hurt central.
Lap 4- I am in the back third of the bunch and coming unraveled
Lap 5- Things seemed to mellow and I started to move up.
Lap 6- Some “pro” dumps his bike in turn 3, I bunny hop onto the curb (saving the Reynolds carbons!) and chase to close the now 20 meter gap.
Lap 7- Gap closed. Legs done, toast, rubber, adios.
Lap 8-10: barely hang on the back until popped for good on the climb.
Game over.

So my first attempt at an NRC race was brutal, as expected. I was hoping to make it to the halfway point. It may have been an unrealistic goal considering there were very few amateurs left at the end.

Back to the drawing board.
Training continues this week as scheduled. Chris Thater gave me two great days of high load racing and now I am back LT threshold work this week. Rest day today, sprints tomorrow, low rpm lt repeats on Wednesday.

More tomorrow.

Lance, Rain and EPO

Lance Trains in the Rain. Lance might even do EPO. The jury is still out on that one. Personally, my gut says guilty. Maybe he was smart enough to not take EPO once they developed a urine test, but pre-urine test . . .not a chance he didn’t take it. Okay enough of that.

Trained in the rain last night (like Lance). It was pretty miserable, but I felt pretty hardcore. I did the local TT on a hard rolling out and back course. I ran my standard bike with crappy training wheels. Being fast wasn’t the objective, it was all about getting 25-30 minutes of 175+ bpm. Mission accomplished. I did a (relatively) proper warmup and then let it rip. Some local dude beat me. He rocked the TT bike and a skinsuit. Results don’t count, but it would have been nice to get the W. My legs suffered in the cold rain and I definitely had some trouble getting the engine running after the 2 week break. TTing is definitely an art I would like to master or at least become efficient enough not to suck.

Leaving for Chris Thater tomorrow. Reports and results will follow on Monday. Thanks for reading (as Tyler says).

I'm Back

The return of the blog.
I must admit that updating this site has proven more difficult than I thought.

TRAINING
I am back training and it feels good. I took a 2 week break that included easy rides, runs, hikes, and some beer drinking. In general it was a recharging of the mind to get ready for some more training. Physically I wasn’t really tired, but needed a mental break. Mission accomplished. Let the suffering begin.

UPDRADE
The big news is my Category 2 upgrade. Many people are interested why I wanted to upgrade. I am not sure I can properly describe it, other than to say I want to “go to the big dance”. Many people have wondered why I would want to upgrade when I haven’t won a Cat. 3 race yet. . . .they will see. My fitness is definitely going to be border line when it comes to big NRC races, but I feel like I am ready. Other motivation involves next year. . . looking for a more serious squad. More info when I find something.

RACIN’
I am heading to Chris Thater Memorial this weekend. It should be a big trip. I am heading out there solo. There is a 2/3 race on Saturday night for $2000/20 deep and then a 50 mile NRC crit for $20,000/20 deep. I am ready to fire up the jets and make it happen. Results and a race report will follow when I get back.


CROSS
I should have my new cross frames in a week or so. Thanks to Dave at Littleton Bike Shop (www.littletonbike.com) and Specialized for setting me up. Checkout the specs http://www.specialized.com/bc/SBCBkModel.jsp?sid=06TriCross&bikeTab=story
It should be hot.

Cross workouts start on Wednesday September 7th. Only time will tell if the famous, fast and furious Ward Solar will make an appearance. With any luck the people at Fuji have their priorities straight and he will show up with a new cross rig. Stay tuned.

So that is it for now. Revving up the engines to get the cross season started, but there is still lots of good crittin’ to be done before then. Maine (!?!) of all places has some big money crits on 9/16 and 9/18. It might be worth skipping Northfield to crit race in vacationland. Need to work on my power . . .it is all about the watts.

Later-mdw

Blogs and Blogging
So “the blog” is not exactly new. Well “Matt’s Daily Blog” is new, but millions of people have been blogging for quite a while. At first I thought it was a bit ridiculous, but then I found myself reading other people’s blogs on a daily basis. Oddly, many of them I don’t know personally, but either followed a link or heard about their blogs thru the infamous “grapevine”. Take for instance, soprojones.com or eriksaunders.com: both dudes are bike racers and write relatively amusing blogs on a (semi)regular basis. I don’t know Eric or Mike, but I check out their blogs. Seems a bit odd, but . . .

There are other people who are blogging that I at least know, and I check them out to keep up with what their daily adventures. JD has a really cool site called isoglossia.com. It is a pretty crazy blog that allows me to almost see JD telling these stories over a pint. . .a good way to keep up with friends that are not close.

So, I keep trying to decide if there is a goal, purpose or agenda to my blog. Currently- not so much. Just some streaming thoughts . . .

Hot and Humid
That is the recipe for today. It is mad stuffy out. I need some of the “warm summer polar air” to arrive. Or, as my Dad would say “Wahm Summah Polah Aiya”. Not such luck for a few days. I am pretty glad I won’t be doing hill repeats this afternoon on the old bike. It could have been ugly.

To Stretch or Not to Stretch
I hate stretching. Always have, always will. But as I get old and decrepit, I am suffering from “pain”. Tonight starts a daily stretching routine. That is unless I can convince Martha to go have a few IPAs in the sun. I am in the middle of a “training break” right? I will be better served by 60 minutes mellow on the bike and a session of “Yoga for Cyclists”. Time will tell which path I take.

Cowboy Solar 3rd behind a Former World Champion
So I haven’t heard it from the Cowboy’s mouth yet, but looking at the results from the crit at the Tour de Christiana, it looks like he held his own. From the report I read he lost by about a bike length to the former world track (multi) champion, Marty Nortstein. When Cowboy gets famous, I hope he still wants to teleski with us mere mortals.

Ciao.

August 9th (what an original title)

Caffeine. I tried to skip my morning coffee this morning. Not sure why, I guess I just wanted to see if I was addicted. Well, I got a splitting headache about 8:30. It went away at about 9:00 . . .after a cup of coffee. The stuff is worse than crack, but I love it.

Racing. I raced this past weekend in Concord. It was a tough crit and our plan was to set the race up for Jamie. He is trying to upgrade and need a few points. I did my part, but Kirk did the majority of the work when it counted. I still have no patience in a race where you have to wait and pounce at the right time. Only 6 more weeks until we start racing hard from the gun! (Cyclocross season starts on September 18th for those of you on another planet.)

Training Break. I am taking one as we speak. The break is actually about 2 weeks later than last year, and hope this will give me good form and motivation thru nationals on December 11th. Last season I cracked the last week in November (2 weeks before nationals). I ran/walked last night for the first time since the winter. Running is part of the “break”. Daisy and I ran the trail to lower falls, took a sweet swim in the middle of our trek and cruised back. Sweet.

MTB bikin’. I went on Sunday with Dave, Charles, Maggie and Martha on the new Moore Dam trail that Charles cleared last winter. I got thrashed. So much so that I am riding it again tonight with the boys from work. It’s all part of “the break”.

Photos. I keep saying I am going to start posting photos, but never do. Actually, since this is only my second post, I better not ask for miracles.

More to come tomorrow.