Training is going well. I was sick in the middle of May for a week and half but it wasn't much of a set back. I am at 1300 miles for the year. I think my highest total for a year is less than 2000 miles. Shooting for about 3000 this year.
Race season update:
Wayne Elliot Circuit Race: 14th, pack finish: Crazy downhill prior to the flat sprint, 1 guy got knocked off the road unfortunately for him when he tried to jump back on your own personal plus size racer was right there. Shoulder to Shoulder contact and right back off the road for him. I was shooting for a top 10 but couldn't find a gap to sprint through and decided safety was the better part of valor. Crit managed a top 10.
Sterling Road Race: DNF: We roll out for the neutral start and the rain is falling lightly, we take the left for the 2 decent size climbs and the rain starts to fall a little harder. We start to roll down some large hills and it is so humid I take my sunglasses off and it promptly starts HAILING...good size hail, really hurts at 35 mph. I can only open one eye at a time so the other can recover from the pounding. At the base of the descent the whole pack slows way down and as we are rolling along the flats a guy hydroplanes and wipes. I tail-gunned one more lap with Crit and we both called it a day. Not worth it.
Scarborough Training Crit: I did a lot of work for my boss in the last race and helped chase down a break for him on the last lap blowing myself up in the process...BUT don't forget he pays me! Crit managed to get the team a point so Team Last Place really was...we were the only team to score who scored only 1 point.
Westside Ride 8th, pack finish: My best finish as a cyclist! 8th in an open category race so we had everything from Cat 1's to 5's including 15 members of the Mathew's Central Maine Cycling Club. I had no problem hanging with the pack and on the drag towards the finish I ended up with a great alley on the inside and a semi-lead out by the Mathews team (is there such a thing as a side draft?) and as soon as I moved to the front and thought...hmmm maybe I will go early and see if I can get the jump on the faster sprinters there was a fire truck filling half of the right lane. I had to wait to see what the field was going to do before I became one with the fire truck. In hindsight I probably should made my jump then and hoped the fire truck would distract people but I hesitated. Not sure if I would have done better than 8th anyways. I was 24th and off the back last year so very happy with the outcome. Crit finished 5th (about 5 meters in front of me) and BF ended up 41st out of 59. Which is a great outcome considering he got dropped on the first acceleration as he was blocked by numerous "racers" who didn't come to race.
Lake Auburn is tomorrow--weather is calling for heavy t-storms. Great.
Great Falls Crit Race is Sunday in Auburn, more rain. I will need to be very diligent in both races as I know two of the guys showing up are capable of teaming up and riding off the front. If they go I go. Crit will be there for both and our goal is to watch for breaks but ideally get a sprint finish to work towards his upgrade.
Friday, June 4, 2010
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
The Boss's training plan
No Tuesday night ride with the Base36ers due to the t-storms...looked like it would be a lot worse than it turned out to be. When I got home it was sunny so I figured it was time to use part of the Dixon training plan...hill repeats on Windham Hill.
I got in 10 of the planned 12 before my IT band said enough but it felt good and based on my heart rate I did a good job of keeping it to 80% effort for all 10.
On to Sterling for this weekend, I have heard it is a tad hillier than I would like but I will see if I can stay with the pack for 5 laps!
The good news about Saturday is if I get dropped prior to lap 5 I will get back to BF's for golf sooner.
I got in 10 of the planned 12 before my IT band said enough but it felt good and based on my heart rate I did a good job of keeping it to 80% effort for all 10.
On to Sterling for this weekend, I have heard it is a tad hillier than I would like but I will see if I can stay with the pack for 5 laps!
The good news about Saturday is if I get dropped prior to lap 5 I will get back to BF's for golf sooner.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
I want to ride my bicycle
I am pretty happy with my training and my results so far this year. I have about 725 miles on the bike so far and have been training mainly with Dixon and the Base36 team. Crit and I are honorary training members of Base36 which works out well as these guys ride hard and make us work. My climbing is far ahead of last year at this time and perhaps on par with the best I have ever been based on who I am keeping up with and Dixon's perspective.
I still need to lose 15 pounds but can compete in all but the hilliest Cat 4 races.
Tonight I was out for the Back Bay Bike Thursday ride with a few fast people and although I was convinced I was going to sit in I went to the front, but felt awesome and started ripping it up. I found out later that I was threatening to drop people when I backed off a little. That was not my attention as it isn't my club's ride but it still felt good. Ten miles in I hit some railroad tracks wrong and ganked my (Dixon's) rear wheel. The Kysrium SL doesn't appear to permanently damaged and I managed to nurse it back to BBB and my car. Too bad though as I was really looking forward to tearing it up after feeling so good for the first 10 miles. Oh well.
Race Results 2010:
Scarborough Crit Race 1: 14th
Scarborough Crit Race 2: 12th (following Battenkill)
Scarborough Crit Race 3: 10th (8th in the pack sprint...Dan V the retired pro got away with one other guy)
So I am only 2 spots out of the points, have been doing a lot of work, chasing down a lot of breaks and generally feeling my way around the Cat 1-4 (you know with the random retired pro thrown in) race. It is flat so that works well for me but not easy that is for sure. I clearly need to work on my positioning for the finish and my sprint overall. New handlebars should help with that though as my current drops face so far down I am never in them.
Tour of the Battenkill: 57th Well I finished. I will write a complete break down soon as the race deserves 500 words but suffice it to say I don't plan on going back.
Till next time.
I still need to lose 15 pounds but can compete in all but the hilliest Cat 4 races.
Tonight I was out for the Back Bay Bike Thursday ride with a few fast people and although I was convinced I was going to sit in I went to the front, but felt awesome and started ripping it up. I found out later that I was threatening to drop people when I backed off a little. That was not my attention as it isn't my club's ride but it still felt good. Ten miles in I hit some railroad tracks wrong and ganked my (Dixon's) rear wheel. The Kysrium SL doesn't appear to permanently damaged and I managed to nurse it back to BBB and my car. Too bad though as I was really looking forward to tearing it up after feeling so good for the first 10 miles. Oh well.
Race Results 2010:
Scarborough Crit Race 1: 14th
Scarborough Crit Race 2: 12th (following Battenkill)
Scarborough Crit Race 3: 10th (8th in the pack sprint...Dan V the retired pro got away with one other guy)
So I am only 2 spots out of the points, have been doing a lot of work, chasing down a lot of breaks and generally feeling my way around the Cat 1-4 (you know with the random retired pro thrown in) race. It is flat so that works well for me but not easy that is for sure. I clearly need to work on my positioning for the finish and my sprint overall. New handlebars should help with that though as my current drops face so far down I am never in them.
Tour of the Battenkill: 57th Well I finished. I will write a complete break down soon as the race deserves 500 words but suffice it to say I don't plan on going back.
Till next time.
Wii Bowling
I just want to officially announce to the world that I just bowled a 243 on Wii Bowling. That ties my high from the night I was hammered at Hendersfhegs and bowled with out moving anything but my arm. I feel it is important you people know these things.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Scarborough Crit Training Series A Race
So I decided to jump into the fray and do the A race. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be but then again it is a flat race so as races go it is well suited for me.
I helped chase down 1 break, sort of bridged another one with just over a lap to go (got almost there when some help showed up) and finished in the pack sprint. I was either 13th or 14th out of 35 people. I am pretty happy with that and clearly my early season training strategy is paying off. RE: do what ever Dixon tells me to do.
Based on today I feel like I can try to get in some some breaks this season and perhaps challenge for top 8 finishes which is where the points are. Crit, Haskell (our other Colavita teammate) and I were not really sure what to expect so we hadn't created a race strategy prior to the race but for the rest of the season we will pick one person per race to support and ensure sure the team colors are flying out front. Of course with about 12 OA guys there and 7 to 8 Base36 guys we will have to be smart about how many breaks we chase down and will need to quickly identify who is in the break but it will be great to work on team tactics.
Off to Battenkill!!
I helped chase down 1 break, sort of bridged another one with just over a lap to go (got almost there when some help showed up) and finished in the pack sprint. I was either 13th or 14th out of 35 people. I am pretty happy with that and clearly my early season training strategy is paying off. RE: do what ever Dixon tells me to do.
Based on today I feel like I can try to get in some some breaks this season and perhaps challenge for top 8 finishes which is where the points are. Crit, Haskell (our other Colavita teammate) and I were not really sure what to expect so we hadn't created a race strategy prior to the race but for the rest of the season we will pick one person per race to support and ensure sure the team colors are flying out front. Of course with about 12 OA guys there and 7 to 8 Base36 guys we will have to be smart about how many breaks we chase down and will need to quickly identify who is in the break but it will be great to work on team tactics.
Off to Battenkill!!
Monday, March 29, 2010
New poker game
I played at Purpoodock Country Club tonight. The format was an early turbo with a $20 buy in. I made it to the final table while trying to determine the quality of players and styles. I made some good early moves but got caught with my hand in the pot just before the merge and the guy apparently didn't see the flush I was representing...oh well.
With 7 players left I was down to about 4 times the BB and had pocket K's. Thankfully 2 players assumed I was simply all in because it was late so I tripled up but in the long run it didn't help. I got my money in twice with the best hand and lost both times, once at my own hand as I rolled the guy a 4 to beat me.
In the re-buy tournament I was playing well but got too loosey-goosey based on the re-buys and a couple of mistaken bets based on the weird chips with no numbers. I am not a loosey-goosey player and it was hard for me to reign the style back in. I still had fun and overall am pretty sure I can do well at this game. I watched for about 25 minutes after I was knocked out and it seems pretty obvious that a lot of the players lock it down late and the majority of them don't bet without a made hand or a good drawing hand. Not a lot of moves....
However I did notice that a few of them love to raise out of position to buy hands and I suspect I can use that to my advantage in the future.
Overall a good group of guys and I look forward to playing my tight early loose late strategy there in the future to see how I fare,
BACK to the cycling Thursday-Sunday. Looking to get in a short ride on Thursday and then 45 on Friday, 35 before my league of dorks draft on Saturday and then the first Scarborough Crit on Sunday.
It is going to be HOT HOT HOT
With 7 players left I was down to about 4 times the BB and had pocket K's. Thankfully 2 players assumed I was simply all in because it was late so I tripled up but in the long run it didn't help. I got my money in twice with the best hand and lost both times, once at my own hand as I rolled the guy a 4 to beat me.
In the re-buy tournament I was playing well but got too loosey-goosey based on the re-buys and a couple of mistaken bets based on the weird chips with no numbers. I am not a loosey-goosey player and it was hard for me to reign the style back in. I still had fun and overall am pretty sure I can do well at this game. I watched for about 25 minutes after I was knocked out and it seems pretty obvious that a lot of the players lock it down late and the majority of them don't bet without a made hand or a good drawing hand. Not a lot of moves....
However I did notice that a few of them love to raise out of position to buy hands and I suspect I can use that to my advantage in the future.
Overall a good group of guys and I look forward to playing my tight early loose late strategy there in the future to see how I fare,
BACK to the cycling Thursday-Sunday. Looking to get in a short ride on Thursday and then 45 on Friday, 35 before my league of dorks draft on Saturday and then the first Scarborough Crit on Sunday.
It is going to be HOT HOT HOT
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Cran the Kanc...or not
Well why not right, I mean it was a balmy 34 degrees with some bitter winds but lets go ride the eastern side of the Kanc.
The approach isn't really that bad, about 17 miles of 2 to 3 percent grade. Dixon, Crit racer and I pushed fairly hard on the way in but certainly weren't going all out.
But wow when you hit mile 17.5 and all of the sudden you have 2.5 to 3 miles of at least 7% it really hits you. Especially when you try to keep up with Dixon when he first takes off. BAD IDEA
The lactic acid shooting into my legs was torture. It was the closest I have come to getting off the bike in a long time. I decided to not worry about Dixon, not that I could do anything about him rapidly pulling away from me and just try settle in. Of course I had no idea how long I needed to settle in for as Dixon thought it was 26 miles from the ranger station to the top but thankfully it was only 21.95.
The best part for me was right when I was about to give up I turned to say something to Crit but he wasn't there!!! I rode Crit off my wheel on a mountain. It doesn't matter that he had been partying until 2 in the morning and had to throw up twice I still beat him to the top of the Kanc by at least 2 minutes. Trust me I am sure I will pay for writing this but it is still worth it!
2675 feet of climbing in 21.5 miles really REALLY hurts. Average speed for the first 21.95 miles was 13.7 mph. Not great but not bad.
Overall ride was 17 mph, 44.43 miles with the Garmin claiming I burned 3431. Garmin admits their calorie calculations are high I wish I could find out by how much. No heart rate monitor for this ride, I didn't want to know.
The approach isn't really that bad, about 17 miles of 2 to 3 percent grade. Dixon, Crit racer and I pushed fairly hard on the way in but certainly weren't going all out.
But wow when you hit mile 17.5 and all of the sudden you have 2.5 to 3 miles of at least 7% it really hits you. Especially when you try to keep up with Dixon when he first takes off. BAD IDEA
The lactic acid shooting into my legs was torture. It was the closest I have come to getting off the bike in a long time. I decided to not worry about Dixon, not that I could do anything about him rapidly pulling away from me and just try settle in. Of course I had no idea how long I needed to settle in for as Dixon thought it was 26 miles from the ranger station to the top but thankfully it was only 21.95.
The best part for me was right when I was about to give up I turned to say something to Crit but he wasn't there!!! I rode Crit off my wheel on a mountain. It doesn't matter that he had been partying until 2 in the morning and had to throw up twice I still beat him to the top of the Kanc by at least 2 minutes. Trust me I am sure I will pay for writing this but it is still worth it!
2675 feet of climbing in 21.5 miles really REALLY hurts. Average speed for the first 21.95 miles was 13.7 mph. Not great but not bad.
Overall ride was 17 mph, 44.43 miles with the Garmin claiming I burned 3431. Garmin admits their calorie calculations are high I wish I could find out by how much. No heart rate monitor for this ride, I didn't want to know.
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