A weekend of firsts at the Tour of Washington County

So I have officially been bike racing for over a year now. Not surprisingly, I have fallen in love with this fast paced, adrenaline filled sport. A little over a year ago today i raced my first USCF Cat 4 race at Fort Richie in Cascade, Maryland. I remember sitting nervously at the line for my first Cat 4 race, my legs shaking with nerves and my stomach feeling like a couple of goldfish were swimming around and doing flips in it. As the gun went off the riders tore away from the line. This was certainly no Collegiate C race. I had never ridden in a race with over 40 riders and this 100 rider field was no doubt a first for me. I remember feeling way over my head after the first few laps. My head was spinning with the driving pace of this large field coupled with the faster more experienced riders.

Fast forward to today, June 2010 and I have now upgraded to Cat 3. After a solid season as a collegiate B, and some good finishes at the 4 level at the Tour of Atlanta, I earned enough points to move into a whole new category. This weekend I participated in the Tour of Washington County, a stage race in Hagerstown, Maryland. Below is a summary of the weekend.

The tour would start off Saturday afternoon with a 37 mile road race. It was extremely fortunate this race was not any longer as stepping out of the car into the 90 degree sauna, was not a good start. Luckily, it shortened the time I needed to warm up. The tour consisted of a fairly large field of over 50+ people, typical for a good USCF race. Anyway, as the road race went off I was nearly dropped on the first 6 mile loop following a strong surge up a hill into a sweeping descent. Fortunately, I was able to catch back on. On the third lap a group of riders went off the front. I was sitting about 10th wheel in the pack, and luckily, unlike my first Cat 4 race I had the confidence to go off the front and bridge the gap. Catching the group and feeling the bonk coming on, I did a GU, it really is amazing how a little sugar can make a world of difference to legs in a world of hurt! Re-energized I hung with the group and a few other riders managed to bridge the gap as well. I was now riding with about 30 guys. On the start of the 6th lap about 10 guys went off the front. I was not aware enough to go with them again. I made a desperate attempt to try to catch them and found myself out of water in no-mans land. FUCKKKKK, well at least I made an attempt I thought, I guess blowing up making an attempt at a solid finish is better than just dieing. 4 other riders who had decided to follow my lead went sweeping by me a gamjams, 540,evo, and kelly guy. I asked desperately for water and was fortunate enough to receive a bottle from the evo guy, i owe you man thanks a bunch. We took turns taking pulls and pace lining trying to catch the field to no avail. With about 2 miles left in the race I took a pull up hill and looked back to see that I had distanced myself from these 4 riders. I decided to go with it and broke from the chase, finishing my first Cat 3 road race in 13th! I was more than pleased for such a brutal race.

After the race Mike and I went to Dairy Queen for sub-par milkshakes and then went back to the hotel room to rest before dinner. We went to Five Guys, dinner of champions, and inhaled bacon cheeseburgers and fries. Of course i was still hungry after my burger, 2 rootbeers, and fries so we went next door to Weiss where I bought pretzel m&ms and some sundried tomato wheat things (warning: these things are like crack). We returned to the hotel room where we lounged about, computers open and blades of glory on, reminiscing about the day and the past collegiate season. We passed out fairly early, to rest up for the TT.

We got to the TT course a little over an hour early to warm up for this excruciating suffer-fest. As we pulled in the parking lot and i turned off my car i was overtaken with the sound of disc wheels. I watched as riders in skin-suits pulled Trinities and Transitions off their roofs like knights preparing to slay their foe (me) as he withered on the ground. I got a good warm-up in and was able to get most of the heavy feeling out of my quads before I went off. Before racing I had decided that anything under 28 minutes would be solid. I reached the up-hill turn around well under 14 and figured I was doing pretty well, until I saw 2 other riders had nearly caught me already. For those of you who dont know, riders in TT's go off in 30 sec increments. Before today I could proudly say that I had NEVER been caught in a TT. After today i can say that I have been caught only 3 times, I will not tell people that it was all in one race....I finished in 25 minutes and 2 seconds, i averaged over 24 miles per hour, and i got caught by 3 guys. I couldnt go any faster, i blow chips at time trialing, i can blame in on aero-helmets, aero-bikes, skinsuits, and shoe covers but when it comes down to it I got beat by 29 of 47 in the TT and that sucks.

After the TT Mike and i went and feasted some Panera and listened to a 6 year old girl sing "bad romance." This reminds me of a conversation that Mike and I had this weekend. Bike racing is our "bad romance" you pay money to hurt like hell and beat yourself to death and after the weekend you go home in search of more agony...ok so maybe were a strange crew, but I think you could tell that by the lack of hair on our legs. The crit went well for me, I think I placed 11th or 12th but Im not sure yet. I still await the GC standings to come out. Overall a very successful weekend where i was able to affirm to myself that I do belong as a Cat 3. I am definitely proud of the progress I have made in the past year from a scared 4 to a solid 3. Thank you very much to all of my team at school for helping me with biking stuff and the like. Thanks Cory for making me suck your wheel through 400 watt intervals, JOA for dealing with all my annoying ass bike questions and for teaching me to clean my chain and listening to me as I bitch about my fucked up rear derailuer, Wilson for building up my whip, and Adam o mr. president for all you do.

Well, thats all I can write for tonight as i can barely keep my eyes open and its only 8. Thanks for reading.

And on the seventh day god created....

I can't believe its June already. This summer is definitely flying. I have to admit that after spending 3 years away from home at school it certainly makes returning home for the summer more interesting. I love my family but living in their house is certainly different than the ol' dorm room. Working is also taking quite a toll on me. I give mad props to those adult members of society that work 40 hours a week because the part-time 30 hrs a week that I put in at the Weg slays me. When I get off I can barely function. The past couple of days I have been so tired that I dont even have the desire to eat, which is HUGE for me. Fortunately on the seventh day god created ice cream, and therefore, I eat heartily even if my eyes can barely stay open.

As far as training goes this week it had its ups and downs for sure. I was talking to JOA the other day who mentioned that he hadn't really been feeling great until a couple days ago due to a sort of hang-over from the Tour of Atlanta. I think as well that this awesome memorial day adventure may have taken a toll on me as well, and hence the reason for some of my fatigue the past couple of weeks. I have come to realize that sleep is definitely critical to how I feel the next day, the nights when I worked late or stayed up too late doing useless things the next day I definitely just was not feeling it as much during my workouts. Heres how my past week looked:

Monday: Swam 3200, then ran a chill 6 immediately after before work.

Tuesday: Intended to bike nearly 100 miles but after 20 I found myself on a gravel stretch with very large gravel stones. I decided that it was not worth risking the amount of flats i could get and turned around and rode some more back in Clifton for a total of 65 miles for the day.

Wednesday: Long running workout with the Grimsley household. After about 6 miles worth of warming up did a tempo around lake accotink (approx 3.8 mile loop with TONS of gravel and lots of hills in 22:45). That puts me at a little under 6's which I was satisfied with given the surface. Glad to have a new benchmark for judging my fitness.

Thursday: Woke up in the morning intending to swim, got to braddock road and saw traffic so I changed my workout up into some digestion followed by a nap. Went for a ride in the afternoon with the Wakefield crew with my newly purchased Zipp 404's! Bryan and i rode off of the front but fortunately its not smart for me to try to hang on to pro's with quads larger than my waist so i got dropped and proceeded to get lost. Fortunately I found my way back to Wakefield after riding an hour. A sign from god that this was not a day for me to exercise? Anyway, went by my grandma's house on the way home, all in all a good day off from work!

Friday: 2 loops around Burke Lake, first one easy in 59 mid, second loop tempo in 58 low. Followed by 20 mile sustained effort ride through Clifton to Occoquan.

Saturday: Easy 20 mile recovery ride with my mom's boyfriend Mark

Sunday: 5 mile race at Burke Lake. After warming up for roughly 2 miles i was dripping sweat. This would be a rough one. The race went out in a little under 540. I had decided from the start not to make any early moves due to the heat. I sat comfortably on the leader until he began dieing after the first mile and through in a couple surges to distance myself from the guy in second. Ended up winning the race by approximately 45 seconds and setting a new course record!

Week totals

Swim: 1x for 3200m

Bike: 4x for 125 mi

Run: 4x for 36 mi

Overall, a pretty solid week. I would say this next week i want to get a little bit more swimming in but that would be a lie. I would like to get a little more miles on the bike in however, although i did have the one long ride I would like to try to log at least 2 rides a week over 2 hours. Although 36 miles isnt a ton, I do not plan on hitting that number again this week as it is a pretty big increase for me and id like to back it down a little bit so as to avoid injury this week. Next weekend assuming my Cat 3 upgrade goes through this week I will race the Tour of Washington County! As always, thanks for reading.

p.s. Congrats to Cory Scott who kicked ass this weekend in Florida in his omnium and earned MORE than enough points for his Cat 1 upgrade, what a bamf.

When i dont race

When I dont race I feast Jimmie cone with the Darster...and do lots of other things too, but she desired that I mention it, and it is pretty damn good, so here you go Darster!

p.s Darster is NOT annoying/or desiring of attention, she is my best friend and she is pretty damn cool =)

After last weekends long and tiring race in Atlanta i decided it would be good to take this weekend off and prepare for the future. Unfortunately, Im not exactly sure what the future holds in terms of racing for this summer. My goal from here forward is to prepare myself for Scotland and Duathlon Worlds. I am pleased with the hilliness, of Edinburgh, as i feel this will undoubtedly benefit me in the bike portion for 2 reasons. 1 is that I do not have a time trial bike, and those with them will not reap much benefit with this course. 2 is that I weigh 135 pounds and it is much easier for me to get my ass over the mountains then it is for individuals with quads as big as my waist that can push 400 watts on flats and smoke me like a pack of cigarettes in sprints.

This weeks training started with an off week Tuesday followed by a 2x burke lake loop run on Wednesday. 2x burke lake tempos have become an integral part of my training over the past few months as they let me gage my fitness and show me how I am recovering from previous days of training. I usually aim for about 58 minutes for both the laps on the approximately 9.4 miles worth of running. Thursday i went for a long bike in preparation for a track workout with Kyle and his Dad Friday morning.

In high school I hated the track with a passion. This workout showed me again why it was i hated it so bad. After a 200,400, and an 800, i was ready to pull the plug. Instead Kyles dad was the most manly of us all and convinced us to stick with it, albeit the scorching heat and terrible humidity, combined with the p.e. class on the track made a rough workout. By the end I was dizzy with dehydration and my legs ached like none other but I was happy i had stuck with it, thanks Mr. Grimsley! On the way back to the Grimsley's household a long discussion of the benefits of caffeine was held between myself, Mr. Grimsley and Kyle. Mr. Grimsley was adamant that soda was good for racing while Kyle tried to explain to him the negative side effects of the calorie laden beverage. Unfortunately, Kyle's attempts were to no avail. I dont know if there was any real conclusion from the conversation, yet it was certainly heated and entertaining.

Saturday Mike B from Vtech and i went to Skyline for a nice hilly training ride. I showed Mike how to climb, and he showed me how to descend (even though he repeatedly tells me that I'm just calling him fat when i say this, i am not the man truly has a talent for getting down the mountain). Using his talent almost landed him into the side of the building however at the bottom of the mountain when as he descended his brakes locked up, he went across the yellow line and the other lane and then on some gravel, stopping inches from the side of a building. As i came to the building I saw Mike standing up, with his hands in the air in triumph. Needless to say, he was a little more careful the rest of the day and best of all was the end of the ride milkshakes of course, its good to see Vtech enjoys the same traditions as we do at W&M.

Overall it was a good week of training and i even got a swim in woohooo.

Week totals:

Bike: 200 miles, 4 rides

Running: 23 miles, 3 runs

Swimming: 2800, 1 swim

Day off: 1

Memorial days 2010-The Tour of Atlanta, Milkshakes, and upgrades

To celebrate memorial day most people break out the grill, crack open a few beers and feast some delicious burgers and sausages. This memorial day JOA, Grayson, and I were not most people. After I got off work a little after 9 on Thursday night I drove up to JOA's house in Richmond so that we could wake up Friday morning, pick up Grayson, and drive 9 hours to Dawsonville, GA for the Tour of Atlanta Omnium, part of the Georgia Cup race series. TOA consisted of 6 stages, a Time Trial Friday night, 2 road races saturday and Sunday, each around 40 miles, and then a 55 mile road race Monday with a 7 mile climb in the MIDDLE of the race.

JOA, Grayson, and I left for the 7 o'clock Time Trial at 730 from richmond. The drive was supposed to be 9 hours, calculating time for food we figured wed be fine. We got to the race at 645, needless to say, my legs felt like shit, JOA and I both missed our start times, and then we almost crashed each other out in the parking lot as we road around on our jello feeling legs. If this was how the rest of the weekend was going to go, 40's began looking like a better idea then bicycle racing.

Fortunately with Saturday morning came the feeling of fresh legs, maybe the fact that we were all to tight to be able to function on Friday was good and helped us save our energy for the road race. Not to mention neither of us even had aerobars, while most of the competitors road around on giant trinitys and specialized shivs with disc wheels. Anyway, the Saturday morning race began and the 4 or 5 University of Souther Florida Riders took control of the pace from the start. These guys were pulling hard for the first lap of the 2 mile course. The lap ended with a .7 mile climb up to the finish. The first lap was relatively uneventful even at the hill. You could tell some people were hurting more going up (particularly those of us over 150 pounds and able to put out real watts in a sprint) thankfully, that isn't me. On the second lap about a mile before the hill some of the riders on Scenic velo club began putting the hammer down. Having a lot of riders in the field this was a pretty good decision. Props to USF and SVC using team tactics. By the time we got to the .7 mile ascent to the finish the field was hurting and now the men would be sorted out from the boys. I was probably sitting maybe 12th wheel at the bottom but as the climb continued I kept moving up. At about the 200m sign i stood up and went wheel hopping as racers tried to tear away from the pack. With about 50m to go I found myself second wheel, legs strong and confident I made a move to the outside and punished the pedals. Putting my head down I sprinted for the line and left the SVC rider, who won the TT the day before in my dust for a first place finish and my first win ever! God damn that felt good.

The afternoons road race I was full of confidence but it turns out in a flat finish trying to break away with 500m to go against guys with 32in quads doesnt work so well. Needless to say I got swallowed up by the pack and spit out the back for my worst finish of the weekend in 15th, I admit here to riding like a panzi and sitting up when I saw the first 5 or 6 wheels go by me. The next morning was a lollipop with 6 laps and a big climb at the beginning, it started in the rain and was definitely a rough race. Luckily for me the finish again was at an uphill. After 2 man break the field and I approached the 1000m mark at the uphill. I began maneuvering to the front of the field again and found myself next to a rider I named "Jittery Joe". This guy shaked uncontrollably. He was a beast though, not a ounce of fat on his body but built like a brick wall. Unfortunately, the hundreds of caffeine pills he popped during the race made him shake like mad and he began leaning all over me. After the 3rd lean I decided to give it all I had and gunned it for the finish. Winning the field sprint I came in 3rd. Sunday night was a good race for Joa and I as we began using team tactics for 4th place (JOA) and 7 th place finish for me.

Monday morning came and our legs felt like shit but hey, we were used to it know. Only a 55 mile race and 7 mile climb before the end of the tour. The weather was bleak and rainy and as I huddled under the Caffeine tent next to Tour of Cali's Thomas Rabou, I seriously considered getting in the car and napping. As we began racing the weather got better and the sun came out and it got hot. This would make the 7 mile climb a warm one, but at least it wouldnt mean a deadly descent, I was pleased. As the climb continued the field shattered. After about the first mile i decided to put the hammer down and really try to break up the field. I stood up and began hammering. I decided to do this until I felt like I had been anaerobic for long enough and until I had shelled as many people as I could. A few riders came with me, maybe 8. Swinging off the front and sucking as much air as I could now it was time to let someone else do the work as I struggled to slow down my heart rate and regain more normal breathing. Luckily, everyone else was hurting so the rate of ascent slowed for a bit. As the climb continued most of us stayed together, and at the top there were 5 riders. At the bottom of the descent 13 mi lay between us and the end of this stage. Being tactical, no one really wanted to take a pull so there was much soft pedaling occuring. A few riders caught us and some of the Cat 3's that had been dropped joined to increase the size of our pack to maybe 15. With about 1k to go and another uphill the 3 riders on top of the GC and one other who had gotten second the day before in the break took off . As we rounded the turn I looked back to see no one and i yelled that we had created a gap up the hill. Fortunately for Tim and I they two riders in front of us slammed on the gas and we began hammering to the finish line. Sitting on the back of their wheels Tim (SVC rider at the top of the GC) and I were able to sling shot around them for 1st and 2nd finishes respectively. This brought an exciting end to a great weekend of racing!

That was long as hell and now my run is going to be very hot this morning, which is quickly turning into this afternoon. Thanks for reading.