March 2008

Today was the Rondee von Brisbeen, Stage 2, Brisbane Highlands Circuit Race, perhaps the longest official name of a race on the NCNCA road race schedule. With a name like that, one has to get out and race, right?

A few years ago a group of us would get up early every Tuesday morning and climb Old La Honda Road, our weekly homage to hill suffering, I mean climbing. My friend Josh, one of the prime instigators of the event, once remarked that if, as a teenager, someone had told him he would get up early and leave a warm bed he was sharing with a scantily clad woman to go out and ride a bike he would say they were crazy. That is how I felt this morning as I got up at Oh-dark-thirty to eat breakfast, pack the toaster, and head north, all while The Wife continued to rest peacefully in the bed. And perhaps I should have stayed at home a bit longer; I arrived at registration at 6:30AM, but it did not open until 7:12 AM which did not leave a lot of time for number pinning, warmup, and getting to the line for an 8 AM start. After a few minutes on the trainer for the warmup I decided it was better to check out the course so did three laps of the 1.7 mile course as the main stay of the warmup routine. I was glad I did as it gave me an opportunity to test the corners and check out my gearing choices.

The circuit starts out with a fast downhill, interrupted by a sharp left turn and ending at a sharper right turn, a corner referred to by everyone as ‘the hay bale corner’. Afterwards it is basically all uphill to the start/finish line, a climb of about 140′ (not the 100′ advertised in the race flyer) with grades up to 7.5%. This should be my last race before upgrading, so I decided to try to keep it safe. To whit, I charged from the start to get out in front of the pack for the two tight turns which was probably a good choice for lap 1 since there were a couple of crashes at the left turn. I was successful in staying near the front through lap 1, fell a few spots back on lap two, stayed even on lap 3. Then on lap 4 there seemed to be a collective pause on the climb and I thought it would give me a chance to recover a bit from the hectic pace of the first three. Right. About halfway up the hill someone decided it was time to push it, and it was off to the races. I tried to hang with the leader group, but detached near the top. But I can descend fast, which served me well as I was able to reattach. Only to be dropped again on the climb, this time for good.

I knew there were quite a few folks behind me, but chose the closest two to try to keep pace with the leaders. I lost them on the next time up the hill, one apparently abandoning as I saw him cheering from the sidelines on the next lap. I did the solo flyer until a group of six from behind finally caught up with me. Ahh, I thought, reinforcements. By now visions of being on the podium were long gone and the main goal was to finish without being pulled, a definite possibility since Chief Ref Eric had warned that anyone down by a half lap or more would be yanked. The merry band of seven started fighting to stay alive, noting that we had just 5 laps to go. A rider from Team Bicycle Trip  and I were the strongest on the hills so we pulled everyone up, then did our recovery while tucked in behind the rest on the downhill run. Up and down and up and down we flew. Finally the bell lap which meant that we would not have to suffer the slings and arrows of being pulled and could finish on our own terms. So the group took it down a small notch as we flew down the hill for the last time and back to the uphill run. Note to self: even if you are the strongest climber in the group, do not pull everyone up on the last lap. Yep indeed, as we neared the finish line 5 of my 6 companions flew past me in sprint-to-finish mode and I, having buried my heart rate to the redline, could not follow. Lesson learned.

My cool down was reverse laps on the other side of the road so I could cheer on all my friends in the Women’s 4 field. An interesting perspective, and an opportunity to cheer on many as I passed the splintered parts of that field over and over again. Big congrats to Kimmy who finally felt that podium taste at Menlo Park and charged home for a first place on this tough course.

Last night was another night of Nolan suffervals at the Hellyer velodrome. I had wanted to get some heart rate data, so I mounted the Garmin Edge on the track bike but left the heartrate strap sitting next to the bed when we left for Hellyer. Doh! So no heartrate data, though I suspect it would show a flat line at a high number, but the GPS track overlayed on Google Earth sure looks “nice”. I recorded the ‘official’ warmup and a couple of the exercises, but forget to hit the start button for another couple of pain-fests otherwise the red doodle would be even more solid.

After the session, and today, I am trying to figure out where the gas pedal was last night. Last week I was cooking, doing better than in the past. Last night I was fine through the warmup, then faded on the next couple of training drills. On an Australian pursuit I did fine through the first 8-10 laps, but then the team put the pedal down and I could not follow. I minimized the loss, staying within 10-15 meters of the team but could not reattach; just nothing left in the legs. I did recover a bit for the final 12-lap scratch race and stayed in contention until the last lap, but overall my goose was cooked last night.

So I am bewildered. I did easy rides on Sunday and Monday to be rested for the track. I ate what I thought was sufficient calories during the day. But was it enough? Did I need more calories while at the track? Am I still in the hole from the early season weight loss (wanted to drop 10 lbs, dropped 20 but have recovered back 5)? Are the allergies having an effect? Lots of questions, no answers at this time. I will need to try to determine what happened as next week the real fun begins: racing instead of training!

A month or so ago, on a club ride, Angela asked if I was going to shave my legs. I let the question pass. The first two road races I did there was no telling what anyone did with their legs; everyone had on knickers, tights, or leg warmers so legs were well covered.  Yesterday I was at a team training event and I looked around.  Two women, maybe 10 men.  Number without shaved legs: 1 (guess who?).  Hmmm, should I, or shouldn’t I?

It was about two years ago when The Wife rode her first road race. And it was almost her last. She had signed up and tried the Wente Vineyards Road Race near Livermore and went into the race with a healthy dose of naivete and some incorrect assumptions. One of her assumptions was that the course would be flat since it was ‘Wente Vineyards’, connoting to her the bucolic fields of grape vines in Napa and Sonoma counties. The Wife was unaware of the benefits of teamwork, pre-rides, scouting, and such, feeling that being fit and relatively fast, in our world, was sufficient. At the first hill, and there are hills on that course, the slender, little climbing sprites took over and The Wife was off the back, making friends with another woman who had been dropped to have company as she did two circuits well out of contention. And to add insult to injury, her new ‘friend’ sprinted off to take next to last as they approached the finish line.

The experience of that race has led The Wife to groan, go cross-eyed, change the subject, whatever it takes to block the memory whenever that venue is mentioned. She has come far, but that race is still a ‘bad place’ for her.

Registration for the Wente Vineyard Road Race and the Wente Vineyards Criterium opened up a couple of days ago. The Wife will be doing the Crit, since it is not the ‘evil’ road race and because she will have teammates there. So far all I have scheduled, race wise, in April is the Madera Stage race. With The Wife racing the crit I looked for a field to enter remembering my new criteria:

1. Start time has to be reasonably close to the start time of The Wife’s field
2. No 45/55+ open fields, at least for now

And here we have the problem. The Wife’s race is late in the day, almost 3PM. Most of the men’s fields, excepting the P/1/2 and the 35+ 1/2/3, race in the morning. The last morning field of men is the 45+/55+ open category race, starting 4 hours before The Wife’s field. So to keep with criteria #2 my start time would be 6-7 hours before The Wife’s, violating criteria #1. Even the 45+/55+ open start, at 4 hours before The Wife’s race, stretches “reasonably” in criteria #1. So now I must make decisions, since the men’s fields are filling fast.

And I think the decision will be … forego the crit and sign up for the road race the day before. And I can sneak out early in the morning, go by myself, and save The Wife from having to re-live her nightmares from two years ago. So 55+ 4/5 at the road race is where I will line up, I think. Off to SportsBaseOnline to register.

It was a nice last night, beautiful sunset, just a bit of a nip in the air to remind us that, officially, it is still winter.  I am not sure how many of my companions marveled at the sunset in their hypoxic daze.  It was Tuesday night fun at Hellyer, and The Wife and I trudged southward to join with 30+ others to see what Larry Nolan could throw our way.   It was a good workout, fun to meet up with old and new friends, and start on the learning curve of a few new skills, notably The Madison.

The ‘most interesting’ part of the night, for me, happened on a leadout drill.  Four laps, six riders.  Should not be too bad.  But I had not recovered fully from the long day at Zamora, I had been feeling a bit queasy all day, I have been slow (an understatement) in sprint drills in the past, so with Shelley Olds, BamBam, Ali, and Natasha in my group I begged to go first so I could set the pace and get it over with fast.  I got a good drop from the rail, ramped it up, put my head down and led out.  I expected to hear a call for me to pull off near turn 3, but nothing from my companions who were mysteriously silent.  At the end of the first lap I figured I was getting low in the tank and time for someone else to do some work so I pulled up.   And only ‘Pocket Rocket’ Shelley came by, yelling at me to get her wheel.  Yeah, right.  I made an attempt, but who was I kidding.  Coming into turn 3 I heard Ali behind me yelling “pull up, pull up”, and I did as I was told and watched her pulling BamBam and Natasha in their attempt to catch Shelly.  At the end of the drill, as we pulled up near the judges stand, BamBam was asking “whose idea was it to let THAT guy go first?”   Sorry ladies; I had no intent to drill you off the back.  Next time just yell for me to slow “down”.

Lots of good practice with moto-pacing as Rob pulled us around the circles, even on our Madison warm up.  He was drilling it the last few laps on that one, and I got to see the fury of the “Legs of Gio” as he pulled in front of me with a cadence that has to be somewhere off the charts.  Bet he could do well on Beth’s ‘overpass challenge’.  Going to be a fun summer of Tuesday night sufferin’!

It was a long weekend. Long. Saturday morning was all about getting household chores out of the way, then packing for the rest of the weekend. Early in the afternoon we left home for the short trip to Foothill College to join in the memorial ride for Kristy Gough and Matt Peterson. There was a huge turnout, well over a thousand possibly up to a couple thousand folks, all being recorded by the local news media. Every major local race team and advocacy group was represented. The county sheriff’s office provided escort and partial to full road closures to accommodate the event. Many riders made sure to let the deputies know that their presence was appreciated, with the implicit message that community is not blaming them for what happened. It was a somber and moving occasion. And it was an important time to show solidarity and support for the family and friends of the victims.

One odd thing that happened during the memorial ride occurred while we were standing above the site of the crash, having passed by and paid our respects and waiting for the remainder of the group to do the same. As a group of us were talking another rider off my left side had an ‘ah-ha’ moment and called out The Wife and I by our on-line names. We can try to obfuscate, but we cannot hide!

We left from the college at the end of the ride for Woodland, the closest town of any size to Zamora and the nearby Bariani Road Race that was held on Sunday. It is a long, and boring drive, made tolerable by the show happening above the city of Sacramento. A huge bank of storm clouds were parked over the city and it was obvious they were dumping some precipitation onto the area. As the day faded to evening and sunset the clouds went from white, to pale yellow, onto orange and peach, transforming later into shades of pink, salmon, and red. Dramatic skies over marshes and fields of mustard. Quite a show.

I had a poor night of sleep in the burgh of Woodland. My right leg was suffering severe cramps throughout the night, a problem I do not recall having in the past. Ever. Alarms do not care how well you sleep, and mine was brutal at reminding me to get up and get over to the race course. We had a quick breakfast and coffee in our room, I dressed in kit, then we packed back into the Toaster to drive to the course … which we almost missed when I sailed past the turnoff. It was a balmy 42 degrees Fahrenheit with 20+ MPH steady winds at the start line when we arrived, a temperature The Wife would classify as too cold for human endeavors. I registered and went through preparations, getting assistance in pinning the number by The Wife who was happy to help as long as she could stay out of the wind in a relatively warm location.

The registration room became the spinning studio as everyone setup to do their warmups inside out of cold wind. Soon there were three rows of trainers and rollers taking all the available space in the registration room, with dozens of guys generating thousands of cumulative watts to warmup for the 8AM-ish start times. I was wondering how we could capture all that energy for later use.

About 15 minutes before my presumed start time I got off the trainer, loaded up my water bottles, changed into a dry base layer, pulled on the jersey, zipped on the shoe covers, and made my way to the start line. To wait. And wait. And wait. There were three races starting in the early morning, Masters 35+ 1/2/3, Elite 3, then Masters 45+ (open)/55+ (open) combined, a total of about 275 racers if all were present and accounted for. As we waited and cooled off, Chief Ref Paula came to bring order and showed us all where to line up; the Masters 35+ near the gate, then the Elite 3’s, then the old guys, strategically placed in front of the row of Port-o-lets because, as CR Paula said, we were the one’s that would need them the most.

They finally started the Master’s 35+ field about 20 minutes late, which meant our field would be about 20 min late, which meant that we all would have spent about 30-35 min cooling down before the start. Blech! The Elite 3’s got their start, then we rolled up and started jockeying for start position as CR Paula gave us the word, mostly that centerline would be strictly enforced on County Road 13/14 and that we should try to stay right of center on other roads. On the whistle we were off and I was jumping for a good position. I got myself situated well just before we turned west and into the crosswinds. A lot of jockeying for place and guys kept trying to get to my left to stay out of the wind, which in turn had me fighting to get back into a protected spot. Cat and mouse. And then the turn north and head first into that wind. The group was patient and the pace was a lot like a friendly Sunday ride to the coffeeshop. I was feeling good and hanging well as we turned to the east on County Rd 13/14, now fighting a strong crosswind from the left. No problem with me and that centerline rule; I got myself to the far right and fought to stay there. Be assertive I have been told, and I was. As we hit the base of a small hill I realized the pack had split and I was in the back half; no time to waste as I jumped and bridged up to the front group, probably about half of the starters. That was close, I thought to myself, especially with this wind.

As the pack made the turn southward, with the wind to our backs, everyone seemed to ease up a bit as we rode fast with little effort getting that big push. Three riders had gone off the front but had just a few seconds gap that was not increasing so no one seemed concerned. As we approached the second climb, a climb with KOM points at the top, one Alto-Velo rider even sat up to remove his jacket. Bad timing as just then one of his teammates shot up the right side in what appeared to be an attack. It might have been an attempt to join the front three, or just to get some KOM points, but whatever the intention the pack was not having any of that and the hammer went down. I pressed my own ‘pedal to the metal’ but the tank was near empty and I sputtered a bit, just enough of a bit to find myself off the back and chasing. I ended lap 1 within seconds of the group but with those winds any gap was too much. And so my solo journey for a finish started.

I rode about a half lap, most of it the nasty headwind section, by myself. Then I heard a voice, clearly, asking if we could agree not to attack one another for now. I turned around to find two lost souls looking for someone with whom they could share pulls on the quest for a placement rather than a DNF. They were gassed from chasing to catch me so I took the first pull to let them recover. Then it was time for intros as we formed into an echelon to make way in the crosswinds. Gerry from TeamCS and Dave from Alto-Velo would be my companions in this journey. Ironically, Dave was the guy who had made the mistake of sitting up to remove his vest. We shared the load and made good time, but not good enough to get back to the splintering front group. Dave thought of abandoning after lap 2 but decided to stay for at least 1 more, and then did abandon at the end of lap 3 to get home for family obligations. Gerry and I fought on together, picking up InfoVista rider Larry for the last half lap. That is Gerry in the photo beating me to the finish line, but it was all show since we were in different fields, him a 45+ and me a 55+.

I finished strong, despite having an episode of cramping calves half-way through the third lap. Total running time was just over 2 hours for the 40 miles, not bad given the wind conditions and the half-lap of fighting it alone. I ended up with a 14th place in my field of 27 (about 40th out of the 75 in the combined 45+/55+ group). Still working on getting used to this group, loaded with skill and ability, and will spend more of the race season in other fields, at least for a while. And one reason to try other fields is that …. The Wife and I need to be in fields that race in time frames that are not separated by 4-8 hours!

The Wife raced at Bariani, too, with a 2:10P nominal start. Quite a wait for her in the windy fields of Yolo County. If I had thought in advance I could have raced a later race, with younger guys, in a field without any Cat 1, 2, or 3 racers. Doh! Signup strategy will be key. Especially given that Master’s fields get full in the first X minutes that they are open, with X often less than the number of minutes in 24 hours. Look for me to move around from field to field, looking for a place to sit on a wheel and work my legs in a frenzy while trying to spend less time parked at the races. Oh, I will let The Wife report on her race.

The original plan for today was to head north late morning, pre-ride the Bariani course, have dinner with a friend and her father in the Sacramento area, stay overnight in the area, then race Bariani tomorrow.  But things change and the plan has changed.  The major change is that the ride to honor Matt and Kristy will take place this afternoon, and The Wife and I feel it is important to attend, honor all the victims, and be with the community.  We will see a few of you at Bariani tomorrow.  Today is about more important things.

Before I get to the ‘dropped’ part, major congrats to VeloGirls and especially Lorri for putting on a spectacular event yesterday, the Menlo Park Grand Prix. Somehow they even managed to deliver nice weather for the event.

It was one long day. We arrived at the course somewhere just past 7:30A so that we could set up our popup as the VeloGirls warmup and socializing area, take care of some logistics, and have The Wife ready for her 10A start. My start, in the Masters 55+ (open) field was set for 2P, but that was wishful thinking. The first two races, Women 3 and Elite 4, went off like clockwork and everyone stayed upright. After that the wheels came off the wagon and every race afterward seemed to involve an ambulance call save the finishing flourish of the Masters 35+ 1/2/3 field. Early season jitters? I warmed up under our popup, after the Women’s 4/35+ 4 race (a race with two crashes and two taken out by ambulance), situated right between the registration tent and the medical tent. At times the medical tent looked like a triage scene from M*A*S*H, with too many bloodied bodies for the available space.

When it was time for the free lap for my race it was already past 2:30P. As soon as we were told we could enter the course I jumped on it and made a quick trip of the course because I wanted a position near the front. Alas, when I exited turn 4 I saw men lined up at least 5-6 rows deep. Sigh! Apparently more than a few rode the counter-direction to the start line. Chief Ref Eric gave us the instructions, including riders down by a half-lap would be pulled, then gave us the whistle to start. I got a good start, clipped right in, but still had to fight to hang on as the field turned on the gas from the gate. I moved to the left side to find room to move up, but found none right away but figured patience was key. Then coming around turn 4 I heard it before I saw it, riders going down in front of me. I was very fortunate to miss the crash but was forced off the back and had to fight to reconnect. On lap 2, coming around turn 3, one of the guys entered the turn a bit ‘hot’ and corrected into a line crossing in front of me and into the bushes. The braking and maneuvering to avoid him threw me back on the rear of the pack, a pack that had jumped fast and was still not wanting to drop below 30MPH. The speed on the back straightaway was running into the mid-high 30’s, a little slower on the front straightaway. Entering the third lap I decided that the left side was a bit dangerous and moved across to the right side. After turn 2 I made a jump and moved up into the front half of the pack. As we came up to the start/finish line at the end of the lap a rider popped out of the wheel pit area, the rider who had gone into the bushes taking his re-entry into the pack. Unfortunately this caused everyone on the right side to slam on the brakes since there was no room to move except back, and once again I was on the back of the pack fighting to stay attached. And there I stayed for a couple or three more laps, trying to stay connected, looking for a way into the mass of humanity in front of me. Then they announced the first prime, and the pace jumped another couple of notches. Then I realized that Alan, whose wheel I was on, had disconnected from the group. I tried to jump around and catch the train, but did not have a big enough match to light, a realization that hit home as Emcee Hernando exhorted me to attach back to Alan’s wheel and not let go. Now my goal was to try to stay alive, stay within that 1/2 lap distance. At first Alan was not ready to work so I struck out on my own hoping for additional stragglers. After a couple of laps of soloing OTB Alan came back up and we started to work together. Alas, it was too little too late; as we passed the start/finish line Eric gave us the double whistle, pulling our cards and sending us to join the realm of the spectators.

Now the important lessons:

1. Stay out of the ‘open’ categories for now (will be a few more weeks before this will happen, since the fields fill so early).
2. Get to the start line sooner and get a front row seat.
3. Work to stay in the middle.
4. Never assume that ‘experience’ negates the possibility of dumb mistakes and thus accidents.

I have a week before the next race, the Bariani RR. I will give the legs some hurt, try to get them ready for more suffer-vals next weekend.

Update: My ‘why bother’ comment. There was some chatter on the ncncaracing board a couple of weeks back about an incident at Snelling and comments were made that no one listens to the chief ref’s instructions. Well I do, and did on Saturday. Heard them multiple times. Among the instructions, while spelling out the conditions under which riders would be pulled, it was stated that pulled riders would be placed. Yeah, right. Myself and the rider who was pulled with me are both listed as DNS on the results just posted on-line.

Now I know a bit of what the REI dividend will fund. I am in serious need of some pants that fit the new, somewhat lighter version of yours truly. I loaded up on some pants at the end of last summer thinking that would do me for a year or so (I hate shopping so I concentrate my buying in a few, short periods of intense activity). Gravity can take those pants down to my ankles if I remove my belt now that I dropped a few pounds this past fall/early winter. I, like Jared, will have to make room in the closet for skinny pants to reside alongside the fat pants.

I have asked The Wife what she would like from REI, as I prepare to spend the spoils of being the buyer for my workplace. She has her eye on the latest in cycling footwear, the Keen Commuter cycling sandals. I am a big fan of cycling in sandals, as I blogged about last year. The Wife got a pair of cheap sandals a few years back but never got into riding in them. One of her concerns was lack of protection for the toes, and she maintained that if Keen’s ever made a cycling sandal it would be perfect. I think a pair of those will definitely make it in the shopping basket. Still looking at what else we might want or need from REI, especially that one item that will make maximum use of our “20% off one item” discount.

Some might read that this new shopping list indicates which way I decided to go on the data collection device decision (say that fast three times in a row). Not so fast. At this point in time the Garmin Edge is still the front-runner, but I realized that REI was not the place to purchase said device. The full kit (head, cadence/speed sensor, HR strap, cables, mount, software) is $359 at REI and is not eligible for the “20% off one item” discount. Other vendors sell the same package for $250. Even if it is ‘funny money’ (dividend) it seems silly to pay that much extra for one item.

… data. I figure that if I am going to continue to do some racing then I need to get a bit more serious, actually do a training regimen, and then I might need some data. And then it gets down to a question of what data and which data collection device. Ugh!

I had been ignoring the issue for a number of reasons.

• Holding off on spending $$$ until the taxman has come and gone (hopefully with no more of our $$$).
• Waiting to get over my loathing of the PowerTap after dealing with The Wife’s early Pro model which has lots of warts.
• Waiting to see how serious I will be at racing.
• I am not big on collecting new toys.

But then last week ‘Uncle REI’ informed me of my yearly rebate, err, dividend which is a bit on the high side due to a number of purchases made for work.  REI does not carry power devices, except the Polar, but they do have the Garmin’s (though they do not quality for the 20% off one item deal).  Hmmmm, says I.  That overcomes the first reason.  OK, need some time to think this over.  It would seem silly to get a Garmin if I were to get a PowerTap soon; no reason to lug both around.   And though the new Garmin 705 works with the SRM it does not work with the PowerTap (PowerTap uses the early ANT protocol, not ANT+), so there is no way to get all the information collected in one device.   And until the SRM comes off patent and inexpensive 3rd party knock-offs come out I will not go down that path.  What to do, what to do?

While musing on it over the weekend I joined up for the Saturday PenVelo ride (thanks folks) and did a bit of an survey.  Funny it was an even split among the participants, 2 for the PowerTap, 2 for the Garmin, the rest (20+) undecided (of course the real zealots were at Merco).   So for now the data I collect will be speed and cadence (average and max) and will continue to wonder what I am missing, other than frustration.