Thursday, September 28, 2006

Voila (here it is)

24 hours of racing. Straight. I’m leaving early Saturday to head to Warsaw for the 24 hours of DINO race. My team (Minor Threat) and I are meeting at the race, as they are all from Indy and I want to have my car to sleep in and stuff. I guess it should be about 6 hours of racing for each of us, but we’ll see how it pans out. I have my "supplies" (groceries) ready to go and my bike’s ready, but am I? Sure. Why not? It’s all good fun.
Th Week:
Monday I went out and rode and easy –less than- 20miler, just to spin Sunday’s race out of the legs.
Tuesday we rode CX bikes. It was RS, Fred and Jean-Luc Serriere. JLS took us on this crazy route (he was on his MTB) that took connector trails w/ huge either gravel or chewed up tractor-made trails that ended up in the Yellowwood St Forest on the logging roads. It ended up being about 32 miles and was a killer ride; super hard and great scenery. We were off road for a good portion of this ride, which is awesome. Plus any time I can ride w/ JLS and not get dropped it’s a good day. For reference of just how fast he is, we rode in from Yellowwood on hwy 45 and he was out front taking looooong pulls of about 25-26mph ON HIS MTB! That dude is fast (and that’s why he’s pro).
Yesterday (Wed.) I planned on riding the Bottom Rd loop @ tempo, but the road that makes the loop (Buskirk) had a ‘road closed ahead’ sign on it, so I continued on the road I was on (Burma), thinking I knew where it lead. I was wrong. I ended up on Hwy 37, pissed off and having to get to a road I knew. So I headed south on 37 riding as fast as I could, into a wind, until I got to a road I knew (Simpson Chapel) and took it back home. I ended up riding longer and harder than I wanted, but whatever. It happens.
Today I (somewhat reluctantly*) rode what is normally Friday’s easy/short ride, setting up to take tomorrow off and race ALL WEEKEND. *I slept terribly last night and wanted to not ride a t all today, but I knew I wanted to stay the course an stick to my plan to ~hopefully~ ~kind of~ peak this weekend. We shall see.
So, tomorrow’s off, then hopefully I live through the weekend for another report.

Sunday, September 24, 2006

Back in the money

Not much going on the past few days. Weather forced me off the bike, Thursday and Friday and Saturday is always off, so I was good and recovered for today’s race at BCSP. As it turns out taking a few days off before racing and going in totally rested helps a lot; I had a great day. The first three spots in the Expert field were pretty much decided before we even started, as 1,2 and 3 were all pro. The rest of us were pretty much racing for fourth. Dan Prater and I went into the woods 4th (DP) and 5th (me) and that’s where we stayed. We battled the whole day, but we ended up just how we started, 4th for Dan and 5th for me. 5th overall was good for 1st 19-29 Expert men, so I won my age group award and 5th overall paid too. I got paid twice and ended up w/ $75 for the day. Pretty sweet for an MTB pay-out. Plus they had a cookout afterwards w/ veggie burgers, chicken and stuff, so it was a good day all around. I felt good and rode great. I was very happy w/ my day on this demanding course; I beat a lot of fast guys who normally beat me.
So you regular readers probably expect that this is my last MTB race of the year. Not so after all. I was asked to participate on a four man team in the DINO 24 hour race next weekend and I’m gonna. I’ve never ridden at night before, so this should be fun. I think it will be fun anyway, so I’m kind of psyched. We start at noon Saturday and race until noon Sunday.
Then the following weekend is the Hilly 100, which means about 26 hours of work in three days.
Then the following weekend is the UCI CX race in Cincinnati I’m 60-70% planning on doing.
Then the following weekend is the first B-Town CX race.
Off season? Off season? We don’t need no stinkin off season. (I’m lying, I need a rest.)

Thursday, September 21, 2006

walking the bike

Today’s Thursday and I’m tired. I opted for a day off of riding today. I figured w/ a hard race this weekend and being most of the way burned out anyway, it is a good idea to get a little extra rest.
Tuesday RS and I went on this 2 hour cross bike ride that was just over 30miles and I’m guessing probably 10-12 of those were on gravel roads. This one road in particular called McGowan rd (off of Kent rd, which is just east of town for the g-mappers out there) had this one hill on it. Oh man. This sucker is twice as long as Boltinghouse and climbs a little over 100’ more (.8miles and climbs ~275’). (for those who don’t know, Boltinghouse is considered to be the biggest hill around here, reaching like 21% or something). Oh and this one’s gravel. Basically the only person who’s made it up it riding is a local pro MTBer, on his MTB in his granny gear and he was going the same speed as the people who were walking their cx bikes up it. We got to it and RS said "just shift into your easiest gear and see how far you can make it knowing you won’t make it all the way." I made it about 3 pedal strokes further than he did, but that’s it; then it’s a walk the rest of the way. This is, no doubt, the biggest hill I’ve seen AND IT’S GRAVEL! This ride, which there are a bunch of around here, is awesome. It so cool to have all the great town things that B-Town offers, but then be able to go out and ride cx bikes for miles on unpaved forest roads. Most towns that have the good aspects of b-town are too big city-ish to have all the forest roads we do here. It is awesome.
Yesterday I rode the Paragon loop solo. It’s about 43miles and it was cold when I started. The sun was out, but it wasn’t much warmer when I finished. I know they’re saying it’s "unseasonably cool," but man it sucks. Plus there’s "a warm up on the way," but still. And lately riding I’m coming home super hungry. I’m not used to my body having to 1)acclimate to weather 2)work to stay warm and 3)work out and it’s whacking my system. Oh well, my training will take a dive next week anyway. I’m going to start some runs and try to ride cx a couple days a week and road a day or two. Just whatever for a month or so. Gotta wind down.

Monday, September 18, 2006

Big MTB

Yesterday (Sunday) we went to BCSP to ride MTB. Lindsay and I left form here and were meeting Dan P and Josh P. There were a lot of people there, so we picked up some others and had a decent group starting out. It ended up just Dan and I in the end and we rode 4 full laps of the BCSP trail. That’s 3.5 hours and just over 35miles. That’s pretty serious MTBing. I was definitely tired when we got home. I fell asleep for a little bit (~30 min or so, I’d guess).
I knew it was looking like rain this a.m. (which it is in fact raining and crappy), so I planned on either spinning on rollers for an hour or a run. I decided to spin and hold off on the until next week, as sometimes the soreness of a run can stick w/ me for a while and I want to fell at least kind of fresh for the BCSP MTB race this weekend.
I’ve gotten into turning on the digital cable music channel "Americana" lately. It plays stuff like Dave Alvin, Wilco, Marah, Son Volt, Nico Case, Dwight Yokum, etc. I’ve been pretty into this genre, which is a rootsy, stripped down rock, the past few years. Good stuff.
I going to plan on getting in a CX ride tomorrow and ride Paragon (~43miles, fairly flat [for here]) Wed and finish out the week normal going into Sunday’s race. It should be pretty hard. BCSP is a demanding course and ding 3 laps race pace will be tough. Doing 4 laps non race pace was super tough, so 3 @ RP should be a killer.

Friday, September 15, 2006

9/15-last few days

So I got my rides in, despite the downer weather. And I haven’t been sleeping well either. I thing it’s the weather changing. I totally get the SAD (seasonal affect disorder). When the seasons change, my system gets whacked. My mood gets down, I can’t sleep, my eating gets off (either up or down), etc.
Wednesday I rode out across South Shore Dr. and rode across Lanam Ridge rd to get some hard climbing. It’s a pretty hard ride. I ride these roads all the time and never have a problem w/ dogs, but I was chased by 5 this day. And I saw, I think, 8, 3 just didn’t chase. What a pain.
Thursday I rode hill ints. on the 4 hills I ride for this ride. It went fine, but I felt tired. Wed and thurs both were dreary, misty and no sun at all.
Today the sun was out, and I rode the normal easy Friday ride. I had to make a small detour due to closed road, but I don’t’ really care.
I think Sunday we’re going to go ride MTB at BCSP to get ready for the race there next weekend. After next weekend I’m done riding MTB this year. I’m going to tear my MTB down and slowly overhaul it. We’re going to start riding CX bikes pretty regularly next week too to get ready for that season. Plus I plan to start some runs not next week, but the one after. I got my brake pads on my CX bike and my RR hub overhauled. I was totally impressed to see how well the Rock-N-Roll Super Web bearing grease held up over a whole year of abuse (rain, snow, and 6 days/week of use). It was amazing. Every ball had a film of grease around it and the seal the grease creates around the cones was 100% intact. This stuff is impressive.
Anywho, the first CX race on my calendar is Oct 15 in Cinci, OH. It is UCI race, so top pro’s will be there. I hope to get to see Chris Horner, one of my favorite racers, race there. I read in Velo News that he’s going to focus on the whole CX season this year. It will be cool to compete on the same course as the big boys. That’s a month away though.
1 thing at a time . Gotta get through Hilly 100 weekend first (we’re talking ~ 28 hours of work between Friday night, Saturday all day and Sunday moring)…

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

another chore day

It’s raining something fierce today. So far this a.m. I’ve cleaned my road bike really well (got caught in the rain yesterday [more later]), done laundry and cleaned the bathroom.
Sunday’s Race:
Sunday was the DINO Series finale’ in Indy. Final series MTB race of the year. It hadn’t rained there for about two weeks and the course was the driest I think I’ve ever seen it. And super fast. I rode really well, past a few people and felt pretty good throughout the race. We raced 4 laps, and by my third and fourth, I was riding really well, just on auto-pilot. My trail memory was really kicking in and I was just flowing. Too bad all the locals were "just flowing" from the gun and I ended up 26th out of 32. Not too bad, considering about 8 minutes separated all of us. My dad showed up to watch, which was cool. I didn’t see him until I finished, but still cool. I felt like crap when I finished, the old standard stomach killing after hammering for 2 hours, which hasn’t plagued me much this year. That course is so fast that I had very little time to get in 1)GU 2) salt tabs and 3) water. This combo led to an imbalance (probably too low sodium) and the stomach aches that follow. No big deal, I laid down in the grass for a while and felt better. That, of course, turned out to be a mistake, as I have bites all over me now. I can hardly sleep I itch so bad.
Yesterday I decided to ride outside rather than my usual spin on the rollers. I rode the Hoosier Hills 20k route, which is a short ~17miles from my door. I just wanted to spin it out and ride easy, but about halfway through I heard thunder and saw the dark clouds rolling in. I got totally poured on for about 10 minutes and was soaked 100%. Oh well, it happens, I‘ve been pretty fortunate this year. Actually, in terms of racing it was almost a perfect weather year. A couple of the OVR road races had some rain (or snow/hail), but that’s to be expected.
So toady is a forced day off, hopefully back on tomorrow. Then next weekend is the MTB race at Brown County St. Park (non DINO), then I’m taking my MTB apart for overhaulin to tale place over the next month or so. No hurry on the MTB overhaul, I’m not likely to ride it again until Jan or Feb.
I re-geared my cross bike last week and need to put on new brake pads, overhaul the hubs, and headset and pull the BB to re-grease its threads. I’d like to get this done by next week, but we’ll see. Plus I need new tires for it before I attempt to race on it. I can ride it fine, but they’re pretty much road tires at this point. I’m sure we’ll be stating up the long CX rides next week; looong gravel road climbs that you can barely make it up (which is why I re-geared form a 48t front ring to a 42t), this should be fun!

Thursday, September 07, 2006

Off

I opted for today (Thurs) off. My left calf, which I mentioned a few days ago I suspect has a little tear in the muscle is still bother me some and my legs have felt tired the past couple of days. W/ a fast race (DINO @ Town Run Park in Indy) coming up this Sunday, I want to fell fresh-ish. SO I am not riding today, tomorrow I will do Friday’s normal easy jaunt and off Saturday.
I swept the floors this morning, a chore I’ve been putting off for a while. Actually, I swept the downstairs last week, so today I did the upstairs, the stairs AND downstairs again.
As for this weekends race, TRTP is usually a big draw due to its locale in Indy. I don’t show up w/ high expectations due to the home course advantage held by so many. I’d say realistically I will be racing for 15th or so at best. But it’s fun day and not too far of a drive, so we won’t be gone till like 10pm. Plus the series awards will follow and I (pretty much) have 3rd in 19-29 Expert men locked. At least I think I do. I can’t remember for sure the separation, but I think that’s right. Should be fun.
After this weekends race I am racing once more at the Brown County St Park race being put on by Matt Battin of Bicycle Station. It is the 24th, so two more weeks. Hopefully everyone else is feeling the effects of the long season by then and it’s not uber competitive, and little more laid back and fun. We’ll see (not likely though).
Gotta send blog-luck to RS, BZ and BTB at Iron Man WI this weekend. I think the weather is looking good for them, which is a huge +, as a crappy day when you’re racing for 9 or so hours would suck.

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

kerplunk!

Yesterday RS and I rode the MMSF (Morgan-Monroe St Forest) loop, which is 100% freshly paved. This makes for a sweet ride. The climbs are better and a couple of the downhill sections used to be downright dangerous at speed. No more. They are glass smooth and fast as you can go. We rode "easy" because RS is doing Iron Man WI this weekend. Nonetheless I woke up feeling sore in the legs and sluggish.
I set out to do my normal Wed. tempo ride of the Bottom Rd Loop, which was closed for construction. I then had no real agenda, so I turned around and just started riding. I got to Boltinghouse Rd and decided to climb BH, since it’s been a while since I hit it. I climbed it fine, then took a left and ride in on hwy 45. My normal ride is about 35miles, and I got in 27 or so, so no big deal. However, my av HR was super low, in the 120’s, so that tells me I should have just stayed in. I felt like taking the day off, but rode anyway, and my body clearly wasn’t into it. Also weird, yesterday after riding I was super hungry, which is kind of off for me too. I don’t eat before riding (unless I’m going really long) and I eat an egg w/ bread (or an egg sandwich, if you will) when I get in, but that wasn’t enough yesterday. Nothing too big, when you’ve been going for most of the year, your bound to get out of whack every now and again.

Monday, September 04, 2006

9/4 the weekend (& Labor Day)

Man, we had a packed full holiday weekend. Saturday was a normal, riding day off, full workday for me. Nothing to report. Sunday Lindsay and I got up and went to Indy for a dirt time trial at Town Run Park, pout on the Bike Line racing team. It was a ton of fun and the course was in the best shape I’ve ever seen it in (and I’ve ridden there a lot). It was dry, but not dusty, so it was real grippy in turns and super fast. I haven’t ridden there since the race last year (in June) and I didn’t do a pre-ride for the TT, so I was riding solely on year old memory of the course. That being the case, I rode really well, made no real mistakes and hammered where I could. I turned in a 0:29:05, which was good for 18th (out of 86). I cannot complain, as almost everyone ahead of me was an Indy local who rides that course several times a week and knows it "w/ their eyes closed." The DINO finale’ @ TRTP is this Sunday, so I wanted to use the TT as pre-ride to at least attempt to level the field. At least I’ve ridden it now.
When we got back my parents were here and we spent the afternoon at the 4th St. Festival looking at all the arts and crafts and things for sale. It was all hella too expensive for us to even consider, but some of it was really cool. Then we ran some errands w/ the ‘rents, and went to dinner at Siam House Thai place. Good stuff. This was the ‘rents first time eating Thai food and they liked. I ordered a veggie dish w/ a bunch of veggies (and pineapple) w/ tofu and ordered it a 5* (the hottest they make it). I eat a lot of hot food, I put either crushed chili’s, chili paste, or some sort of hot sauce on everything I eat anymore, and I‘ve gotten 4*’s from Siam before and felt I could take more. The 5 was nothing. It was as if they forgot to spice it. It was really good, great flavor, but not too hot. Oh well, either my tolerance is way up, or the kitchen messed up.
Then today I rode to Spencer and came back through Elletsville. It was around 45miles, which is a little less than I wanted to do, but I had a stiff headwind the whole way back, so it was fine. I rode strong and felt good, though I think I tore my left calf little at the TT. It is sore, but totally functional, so I’m putting Icy Hot on it to bring blood to it to get it healed. Hopefully it doesn’t turn into something worse. I doubt it will.

Friday, September 01, 2006

9/1- the week

I feel like quoting Bret Michaels of Poison from the song "Look What the Cat Dragged In." "…ain’t seen the sun in the last three days." Of course he didn’t see the sun due to excessive partying and sleeping all day, the weather has been a total downer for me. And I think it’s been longer than three days. Gray weather kills my mood and brings me down.
Here’s my week:
Tuesday I set out for a 35 or so mile tempo ride, but it started raining a little about 15 minutes in and I had no interest in getting rained on when it’s cool out and my motivation to train is dwindling anyway, so I turned in. When I got into town it had stopped spitting, so I turned to take a very round about way in to add some time on. I ended up out by the Wapahani MTB park and saw RS and Tim Cote on their long run, so I chatted w/ them for few and continued on my way. I got in about an hour.
Wed the plan was to go for the hard ride w/ the crew, but RS and to work for a coworker that had kid issues, and Tim Cote was at school late, so I went solo and rode North Shore. My plan was to combine NS w/ Lanam Ridge Rd. to make a hilly bastard hard ride, but by the time I got to end of NS I was not interested in riding anymore hills hard, so I came straight in. I was able to ride hard and felt really good. It was a good, hard workout.
Thurs. I did my normal 4 hill interval ride, but for some reason decided to take the Fire Station hill (.635miles, 485’, 5.5% grade) in my big ring and stomp up it. I stayed in my 53x21. It was tough and my cadence dropped to 71 at a point or two and I’m sure it did nothing for me fitness wise, but I just wanted to do it. (maybe Blotinghouse in the big ring is next???)(probably NOT!)
Today I rode the normal Friday short/easy day.
I may go up to Town Run Park in Indy this weekend and do a dirt time trial. I always liked doing MTB TT’s, but haven’t this year at all. Their were some in Warsaw I used to go to from Muncie, but it’s way too far from here. Gas $$ is dropping, and it’s $10 to enter w/ profit going to the HMBA (Hoosier MTB Association), so I may check it out since I have a 2 day weekend headed my way. The TT is in the a.m. and then my parents are coming down later to check out the 4th St. festival and hang out. Should be fun.
Hopefully the sun is still in our orbit. If it is, maybe it will show its rays soon…?…