Crazy Crash

Check out the video of this crash at the Melbourne Cup on Wheels U18 race. Apparently everybody walked away from this.

ABC News AU

Update: Video w/interview

Rink is Open!!!! /google calendar / cyclocross

warning: this post is pretty scatterbrained

We all skated on the rink for the first time yesterday! The surface is not very good and we're supposed to get a 1/2 inch ice storm today so i have no idea what that's going to do to the rink but considering the pain with the dog and everthing i'm very thankfull that we can now skate.

About a week ago i discovered google calendar and it's changing my life. I'm in the process of putting my whole training schedule into it. I'm finding it very flexible and great to use. The best thing about it is i can put all the different areas of my life on it's own calendar. Work, family, training, and whatever else i can think up of to fill my days. I can view all or just one at a time. Now if they would just provide a free syncing application like yahoo does i could automaticly import my work calander instead of having to do it the manual way every couple of days.

Cyclocross. I'm now dreaming of getting a cyclocross bike. It's gonna be a single speed and on the cheap but i would like to have that to ride in the winter and do a race or two on. I still am pretty sure i will really suck at cyclocross but it would be fun.

I guess that's it for now.

Hockey!!

As I did last year during the winter, this blog will drift towards the subject of hockey from time to time. I setup our backyard rink at the end of last week and all was perfect until the puppy from next door decided to try and cross the ice on saturday. Long story short is i had to drain the rink, found 20+ holes in the liner that i patched and after all that and refilling the rink it's still leaking. It's not as bad so hopefully it can all freeze and we'll be able to skate.

While watching my new favorite channel, the NHL Network, i saw a piece on Zdeno Chara. He now plays for the Boston Bruins but is also an avid cyclist. In this clip he talks about going to the Tour and riding some of the climbs.

World Aids Day

Today is World Aids Day. As a cycling community let's do our part and make a difference. Please go to the World Bicycle Relief website and make a donation.

check out this video

New Cycling Term

So i came up with a new cycling term the other day. Actually I was listening to the local sports radio station and they were talking about the chicago bulls and how one player had a great game and had gotten a bunch of rebounds. They refered to him as pogo, as in pogo stick.

As soon as they uttered that word I laughed out loud because it is the perfect description of some riders. There's one in particular that when he gets going out of the saddle or tries to animate a race there's no other word to describe his technique as well as the sound his bike makes. Pogo.

The perfect example of this was during the first fall fling crit. All of a sudden i hear this noise from behind and without even looking i think to myself, i wonder if that is rider x. sure enough he comes bounding past me in a way that's best described as somebody riding a pogo stick. left, right, left, right, and i swear to god he's actually bouncing.

so the tip for the day is don't be a pogo.

Rocky to be sanctioned

Found this on the onion today. This just makes you ask if they need to investigate kevin constner for his performances in American Flyers.

Rocky II, III, IV Decisions Overturned After Stallone Caught With Performance-Enhancing Drugs

PHILDELPHIA— "The only way to make so much physical progress in three to five minutes is to use anabolic steroids," sports medicine expert Bruce Thurman said.

Short Update

The back is getting better. I was able to do a 3 hour endurance paced ride this week without any nerve pain down the left leg during or after. Yippee. The lower back still gets tired and I wouldn't think of doing any high intensity stuff but since the season's over, i don't have too.

So it's more easy rides and lots of back exercises. I'm gonna have abs of steel when this is all over. :)

RC

Carpenter Park Cross pics

Yesterday i took my oldest son ryon out to the carpenter park cross race to watch a couple of races and we had a blast. It was great to see some friends and hang and be able to take some pictures and watch other people suffer instead of suffering myself. you can see the albums here.

Saturday i slept in and skipped the harper ride in favor of going out by myself later in the day. The weather was beautiful and i decided to test my back a little bit. right away while on river road i was passed by a car who kept doing the speed limit which meant i had a nice little motor paced interval for a few minutes. that was followed by my pushing myself up the little climbs that are my barrington hills loop.

Long story short is that later that afternoon i was feeling pretty stiff. I really can't ride like that yet. Oh well.

RC

Back update

I've finally gotten back on the bike which is good. After the fall fling road race i didn't even think of getting back on the bike until this past saturday morning. I rode for less than an hour on the bike path by my house. Took it real easy. Yesterday i rode for about an hour taking pictures and just having a good time on the bike. Today i rode for 1 1/4hrs and felt ok. Each ride i'm picking up the pace a little and it's getting better but i'm still a way from feeling normal.

This episode has been the worst one i've had in a while. Back in july when this happend at the Proving Grounds RR, i was racing again 4 days later. After a week and a half this time around there's no way i'd be racing. The main thing this does to me is affect my flexiblity in my left leg/hip. When i lay flat on my back i can raise my straightened right leg off the floor as far as i want. The left leg i can't even get past 30 degrees off the ground.

So thursday i have my first physical therapy appointment. I found a sports therapy place 1.5 miles from my house so i'm happy about that. I definately have something to do this off season. Fix the back. I'll keep posting updates.

RC

10.06.07 - Fall Fling RR

So yet another race has me scratching my head wondering what the heck happened. After doing too much in the front half of the crit last week i was determined to do as little as possible and just hang in the back for as much of the race as possible. I also had a couple of cat 3 guys that i wanted to keep my eye on and try to stay with as much as possible. Our 1/2/3 race was 6 laps of an 8.1 mile circuit out in the farm wasteland that is west of rockford. No real hills but plenty of little rollers to keep you occupied. The main feature is the wind. Coming strong out of the south.

Lap 1: After turn one someone up front starts to drill it and we get all strung out. Somewhere during this time the rider in front of me hits a rut and almost goes down. I thought my race was going to be over in less than 5 minutes. The rest of the lap is uneventful.

Lap 2: Even more uneventful than the first. Almost downright boring until after turn 4. On the stretch with a massive cross wind from the left somebody up front throws it down and we are off. At some point i check back and i don't really see anybody left behind me so i'm thinking, this is it. I have to make this group or i'm done. So i ride like mad to stay in the group and i make it. But now i'm trashed.

Lap 3: I hang on thru the first half of the lap and start to struggle on one of the hills when one of the abd elite guys give's me a little push and puts me back on the group. Then i hear move up the side. So with his coaching i move up and almost get to the front of the group just in time to watch another attack go and the group chase. That's when i get popped. I'm toast. As the lap continues i catch a rider and we get caught by a couple but none of us really stay together.

Lap 4: I notice a small group of riders coming up from behind me and i wait for them thinking at least i can finish with these guys. There's a couple of 3's and we're together for a while until one of them picks the pace up and i'm off the back. That's ok, here comes a bigger group of 3's that i can ride home with. I sit on the back for a while and the bang, i'm off the back again.

Lap 5, 6: I ride by myself. Trashed. I finish but have no idea how far down. Pretty disappointing. What seems crazy to me is that i have the power to make that initial move but then i'm toast and then i can't stay with guys who popped way before i did. I gotta figure that one out.

This turned out to be the final race of the season. I intended to race on sunday but my herniated disc in my back flared up sunday morning so that was it. I guess i'm gonna really have to figure out this back think. I can go pummel myself on the bike for 50 miles but i can't play catch with the kids for 5 minutes. Very frustrating.

That's it for now.

Transfer news

That's right. I am switching teams for next year. I will be moving over to Project 5. Below is the contents of the email i sent to the abd squad thanking them for the last 3 years.

Thanks ABD!



This season was my 3rd year on abd and you guys have been great. The team has been a great place for me to enter back into racing. With that said I want to let you all (ok, the few who know me) know that i am moving over to project 5 for next year. The main reason is just location. I live in algonquin and never get to train with anybody from abd. I almost never get to take advantage of any bootcamps, workouts, or even the shops. For the last year and a half i have been able to train regularly with the guys from project 5 and it just makes a lot more sense for me to join them.There are so many people who have made the last 3 years a ton of fun for me. When i started racing again after a 15 year break i never thought it would be this fun or go as well as it has for me. I'm gonna screw up now and miss some names but i'd like to mention some people. mike e, mary, scott ligocki, ben springer, alex sharon (who's still listed as a 4 on our roster), steve parrish, pete hill, and all the 3's that were on abd last year and are now on get a grip.Thanks for all the support, camaraderie, tips, and friendship you all have given over the past couple of years. Keep doing what you're doing and have a great year next year.

09.30.07 - Fall Fling Criterium #1

So yet again i found myself taking pictures of the finish of the race i entered. I'm still ticked off at myself for dropping out but it wasn't before i totally tanked myself.

I went into this crit wanting to help out the team. I figured i'd try to do what i could so i stayed at the front early. John, Josh, and Jeff did their part by constantly jumping into breaks and steve and i would try to sit on the front and disrupt whatever was going on as far as a chase.

About 30 minutes in I had drifted back in the field a little and decided to move up the right side. Just as i was almost to the front an attack went from the left side and since i was the only abd rider there at that moment i decided to go with the break. I ended up in a group of 5 or 6 and we actually made a nice little gap. I made a couple of tactical mistakes by not making a guy or 2 pull thru.

Then jeff or john (not sure who) bridged up to our group and then kept going. I was happy cause then i had a reason no to take any more pulls. By this time i had been riding at my max for far too long. From the start of the race my heartrate was pretty high and during the whole breakaway i knew the end was coming sooner or later.

Finally the field caught us and i sat as long as i could at the front while we still had a solo rider off the front but then i started to drift back thru the field. I was done. I ended up getting dropped and then spun a couple of easy laps until i was about to get lapped by the field and then i dropped out.

Not the result i was looking for but i was still happy to be active during the first half of the race. I spent way too much time unshielded on the hill with the massive headwind we had so i'm gonna have to make sure i ride smarter next week.

Here's a couple of pics of the finish.

8.18.07 - Downers Grove 3/4

Well we made the trek down to downers grove again this year. I love this race mainly for sentimental reasons. I grew up just a couple of towns over so i am very familiar with the area. I remember going to the first ever downers grove criterium and getting pictures of guys from the 7/11 team with my Kodak disc camera.

This year was the 3rd year that i have raced downers grove. every year it seemed like the rain would threaten but it would always blow over. not this year. Just as i started to warm up on my trainer in the parking lot the rain started. As i made my way to the start i was hoping for a good result. After having disappointments all thru july and early august i wanted to do well. I was able to get a good start position on the line, being in the second row, and hoped to start the race off well. Problem was i got behind perhaps the worst pedal clicker in the whole field. I was clipped in right away and this guy in front of me was having a ton of trouble. If i don't get clicked in right away i'll turn over another pedal stroke with the other leg and then try again. Did this guy do this? No. He kept trying to click in while coming to an almost complete stop and then have to veer sharply to the right to keep himself upright. By the time i got to the first turn i was already 30 riders back. Crazy thing about this race is that's where i finished. Along the way i'd try to make up spots on the straights but because of the rain we would slow so much that by the time we were thru the turn i'd be in the same spot again. About half way thru the race going thru turn 1 there was a crash off to my right. A xxx rider went down and I had to go way wide to avoid him. I almost ended up over the curve but held it up and made it thru. On the last lap there were consecutive crashes in turns 5 & 6. Somebody slid out on turn five and was sliding backwards on his butt and that looked like that would be all until just about the time he came to a stop another rider endowed over him. Then on the very next turn a Get a Grip rider slid out on that turn and i watched him slide 15' or so on his hind side. I've never fallen like that in the rain but it gives the impression of going down a water slide. The final lap came and i finished 30th. Not what I wanted but i stayed upright under sketchy conditions so i'm happy. Now i'm taking a break this week and then start preparing for the fall fling. How much time? So before the race started there was a big debate between the riders and officials about how long our race was supposed to be. These races are already ridiculously short and the website had listed the race as 30min + 1 lap. Well according to the officials, and they won, the race was 20 min + 1 lap. When the race was done my heart rate monitor said 19:30. So not only was the race not the as advertised 30 + 1 lap, it wasn't even 20 minutes. What's even more interesting is that when you look at the posted results, the finishing time is 22:35. I polled a few other riders and they had total times similar to mine. Oh well i'm already rethinking my august 08 schedule. I'll probably skip the elk grove and downers races and do the races surrounding them.

Tour of Elk Grove Village (30+)

The photo above may be just a little bit misleading but it made up for a crummy race for me so let the excuses begin. I kept saying before the race that the only difference between me and my family was that i paid $28 to watch this race. As happens every year and will happen again next year if schedules don't change, the week leading up to the Tour of Elk Grove is one of the busiest weeks i have all year at work. The week ends with me average 5 hours of sleep wed - friday nights. Don't feel to sorry for me cause even though i'm working a ton, i'm having the time of my life. It's our biggest conference of the year and this year the band we had was one of the best collections of chicago area musicians that has been put together in a long time. Probably the best collection of talent i've ever had the pleasure of mixing. Then to top that off I actually got to mix Krik Franklin on sat. morning even though he brought his own audio guy. Since i was working saturday my only option was to race on sunday. Last year that was the 3/4 race but no such luck this year. It would be the 30+ and a stacked 30+ field at that. Based on how i did last year (feeling great even though work was crazy) i preregistered for the 30+ race. Come saturday night i was not feeling good at all. Very tired. When the alarm went off on sunday morning i would have shut it off if I hadn't preregistered. The alarm had woken me out of a very deep sleep and my body was screaming "I'm not done yet!!" After arriving in Elk Grove and suiting up i knew i was in trouble. I had zero energy. Once the race started i was in the middle to rear of the pack. I could not move up and while the legs started to warm up, once we got to the higher intensities i had nothing. I eventually got dropped on the long straight and that's when i noticed that my left crank arm bolt was coming loose. I'd love to say that the crank came loose so that's why i went to the pit and lost a ton of time but no, i got dropped first. The pit crew tightened it for me and helped me get going again but now i was a good minute back so i decided to practice cornering for a while. Eventually there was a group of 4 of us trying to finish out the race. Then 3 then 2. Me and Tim Henry. Just as i had settled into working as hard as i could to finish the race we came up to the finish line to see an official in the middle of the road pulling us off. For whatever reason i decided to raise my arms in a mock victory salute as i crossed the line. I had no idea that my wife was right there and she got a picture of it. So if you know Tim and see him, ask him what he's gonna do with his $500. So it's time to push the reset button and get ready for downers on Saturday. Overall i do feel pretty good so the plan is to take good care of myself this week and have a good showing at downers. See you next time.

Funny Superweek Moments

In thinking back over the three superweek races i did there are a couple of funny things that come to mind that didn't make it into my race reports.

Bullseye!
While riding thru the feedzone at the proving grounds i watched as a rider in front of me and on the left side of the road decided it would be better to throw his bottle all the way across the road to the right side instead of just dropping it to his left. Did he throw it in a nice high arch? No. He saw an opening and threw a line drive right thru the field and bullseye, right into the crotch of some poor unsuspecting guy trying to hand up water bottles. I didn't realize required feed zone equipment included athletic supporters.

Crit racing meets PBR
I think it was during the last half on the Evanston crit. I had drifted back a little and we had just gone thru turn 2. Up ahead i hear someone yelling expletives and i look up and did not expect to see what i saw. Right in the middle of the field was a guy who was having problems with his water bottle cage. My impression was that it had broke. So what did he do? What any sensible rider would do while riding in the middle of the bunch at 25mph during a crit. He unclipped his right foot and started kicking his water bottle cage. All that was left was for him to do was put 1 arm up in the air and all the rest of us could start counting to 8.

Would you like stitches to go with your staples?
After getting all patched up from my crash at Kenosha i stood up to climb out of the back of the medic truck. What do I do? Slam my head on the top of the door. Fortunately no stitches were needed for that.

Message Delivered

Found this on the velonews photo contest page. What a great shot.

Kenosh Crit seals dissappointing Superweek

Kenosha is always one of my favorite crits and this year i was hoping to do well. A goal I had for this years superweek was to show myself that i can be competitive at the Cat 3 level during superweek. After withdrawing from the Proving Grounds race with back spasms and then feeling good but wasting too much energy at Evanston I really wanted to shoot for a top 10 at Kenosha.

Seeing that I have been the only abd cat 3 at all of superweek i figured I would have to conserve as much energy thru out the race to put myslef in a good position for the final. The pace didn't seem near as high as evanston was and for the most part i did a pretty good job of not doing much. A few times i found myself at the front when i didn't want to and ended up pulling back a break or two but overall i was feeling pretty good.

The race had seemed pretty smooth with no mishaps. Turn 1 was nice and smooth since it had been repaired since last year. For the most part i was taking the inside of turn 1. Every time i would check the inside behind me to see if anybody was trying to bomb the corner and then go thru it.

What happened next is just my best recollection of it. Everything happened so fast that I don't exactly know but I was pretty sure i had the line into the inside of turn 1 when all of a sudden i got bumped and was going down. I never saw it coming. I don't remember crossing a wheel. Nothing. All i know is i was going down. I remember being down on the pavement and judging by the marks on my back and having my head bounce off the pavement a few times i got hit by a rider or 2.

After the the storm was over i was actually surprised it wasn't worse. I guess i expected to really get plowed into while down on the pavement but that didn't seem to happen. I picked myself and my bike up and moved over to the side of the road. Looking down at my leg i had road rash all over and also on my elbow. I actually contemplated trying to jump back in until someone handed my the rear strap of my helmet. That is when i became aware of the sensation on the back of my head.

I made my way over to the first aid station. The good news was that i was able to move everything and knew nothing was torn, separated, or broken. On the way to the station i was asked if i was ok and i said i thought so but thought i had a cut on the back of my head. That was followed by a "duuuude!" comment so i figured it was a doosey.

The tally was 2 staples in the back of my head, road rash on my right leg, thigh, and elbow. I'll spare you pictures.

All in all i came out very fortunate. Not so lucky was Ed Amstutz of team xxx. It was pretty obvious that he broke his collar bone. I have not heard officially what his injuries were but it didn't seem good. It's really unfortunate since he was 2nd overall for superweek.

I don't want to be bitter about this but from talking to people who saw this go down it seems i was more or less just taken out with the person causing the accident talking smack about it later. All i can say is that your actions took out a very good rider in Ed. All for 1 lame position in a turn in the middle of the field. Stupid.

I've never claimed to be the worlds best bike handler but I don't think i did anything wrong. If it's shown to me that i did then fine but i really don't think that is the case. Still i feel really bad that someone like Ed sustained an injury like he did.

Evanston Northwestern Healthcare Grand Prix of Cycling

First off, kudos to everyone involved in putting on this race. I knew that the location of downtown Evanston would be fun but the organizers did a great job of running this race. There were tons of people and the atmosphere was great. This will definitely be on my calandar in the coming years.

Well after barely being able to get around on Thursday the back started to relax on friday and saturday. Sunday morning i woke up with some stiffness but mowing the lawn seemed to help loosen it up so i made the decision to race. We packed the van and loaded up the kids and grandparents and made our way to evanston.

They had us all park in a parking garage which was kind of fun but weird. There was plenty of room so you could take up a couple of spaces. One for your car and one for your bike. I ran down and registered and then went back to the van to change and warm up. The weird part was because you were in a parking garage you didn't see too many other cyclist except those right around you.

After warming up my back felt really good. There was no tightness or pain so i was really encouraged. I put on my jersey and went to grab my cycling gloves and then realized i had 2 left hand gloves and no right so i went sans gloves. I then made my way to the start finish which meant i got to do something that i always wanted to do as a kid but would get in trouble for. Ride the bike in a parking garage.

The evanston course is a .9 mile loop with 6 turns. After the start it features 4 quick turns in succession and in talking with some friends before the race it seemed a great course for a breakaway to stick. The thought being you get a great jump before the first turn and just hammer thru the rest of the turns and you are out of sight. Watching the 40+ race before ours it seemed true since a break of 6 or 7 riders stayed off the front and won.

Our race was 45 laps or 40 miles. Our plan was to try to put something together with somewhere in the low 30's to go. The only problem was that the speed of the field was too fast. From the start there was breakaway attempt after attempt but nothing stuck. Even when the big teams in the race were well represented in the break the pace of the field never dropped too much.

For most of the race i tried to stay in the front half of the field and was pretty successful. Probably about half way thru i started feeling my back. It was getting tired. With maybe 12 laps to go i found myself on the front when a move went. I went with it but again it didn't stick. Now it seem pretty clear that it was going to be a field sprint. I remember working my way back towards the front with about 6 to go but then i slipped back and after that i couldn't move up more than a couple of spots. My back was hurting more and more and when that happens you loose a lot of your power when you have to accelerate out of the corners.

So it was i found myself towards the back of the field on the last lap. Coming out of the last turn I tried to sprint and gained a few spots by the finish line. Considering my day on wed. i'm happy with how the race went. I'm taking today off the bike to nurse the back a little and then will try to resume training this week for friday's race in Kenosha.

When it was over we had covered 40 miles in just 1 hour and 27 minutes. That's an average speed of 27mph. I think that is the fasted crit i've raced so far.

Here are a couple of vids from our race.

See you next time.

07.18.07 - Proving Grounds Cat 3

The above video is one I shot of the final sprint of my race. Long story short is back on tuesday morning i woke up with a little twinge in my back. Wednesday morning it was almost gone but as it got closer to race time it started getting tighter and tighter. The race started with me hoping that riding would loosen the back up. Unfortunately that wasn't the case. I survived 3 laps of six, but on the fourth lap i couldn't stand up anymore on the climbs. I had no way to get any power onto the pedals. By the time i came around to the start finish area i barely could get up the hill so I dropped out 2/3 of the way thru. This was pretty disappointing since i was really planning on doing well for this race. Now i'm just hoping that the drugs do their job and my back is good enough for sundays crit in evanston.

Ready for Proving Grounds

Well my first targeted race is just a couple days away. We now get to see where i'm really at with my fitness.

A couple of weeks ago my family went camping up by the Proving Grounds course and I got out and rode a couple of laps. I brought my camera and ended up taking 94 pictures. You can see them here if you'd like.

Busted

There's a section of road along the Fox River, apporiately called River Rd., where i've wondered if i could actually get somebody busted for speeding. The speed limit used to be 25 and then 35 but this year they've made the whole stretch of road 25mph. Depending on the wind, you can get up to 25 without a whole lot of effort. Now if I'm riding at 25-30 mph if someone is going to pass me they can easily get up to 40mph which means if the timing is right a member of algonquin's finest is going to pull them over.

Last thursday my friend Tim and I were riding down River Rd. We weren't hammering really hard or anything but we were going at a pretty good pace when a mini van passed us. We thought nothing of it until around the corner coming the other way was the aformentioned Algonquin's finest. He abrubtly slowed down and proceeded to make a uturn right in the middle of this 2 lane rd. In the process we had to come to a complete stop since he was blocking the whole rd.

After we passed the pulled over minivan i turned to tim and said, "I think we had something to do with that." I'm not gloating or anything but it was just a little bit funny.

FRG 06.24.07

The course for the Fox River Grove Cycling Classic is a great course...that is for the 14 other skinny riders in the cat 3 race who had a good 20 lbs on me. I realisticly have no chance in this race but after doing it this year i can't wait till next.

There is not more than 200m of straight road at any point during the 1.13 mile loop which makes this race very fun and interesting. The pain starts immediately. Just 100m from the start/finish line you enter turn 1 and beging the climb up Violet Ave. The first 200m of the 300m climb is a twisting banked road that must have an average grade of 15-17%. You don't even think of sitting down during this part. The remaining 100m or so is more or less a stairstep with a false flat leading into a 12%? climb the rest of the way.

At the top you enter turn 2 and begin the free fall back down a twisting, wide, newer residential street with a left turn at the bottom. While very fast this turn is really smooth and leads you onto another winding street into turn 3. More winding road with a little bit of an uphill into turn 4 which leads you back down to the start finish area.

Seeing that this course is only 6 miles from my house i've trained on this course several times. My goal was to try and ride the climb as smart as i could and stay in the main group as long as possible. I knew once things really got going i wouldn't be able to match the skinny climbers in the bunch so i tried to conserve whenever possible.

Laps 1 and 2 were just fine. I put myself as up front as much as i could at the bottom of the climb and rode my own pace up the first half of the climb. If a gap occured i was able to bridge it back on the not so steep, top part of the climb.

On lap 3 near disaster struck. I got stuck on the inside of turn 1 and as we headed up the climb i got bumped off the road onto the shoulder which consisted of 2 1/2" rocks. I had to stop and almost get off the bike. Then I had to remount and restart on the steepest part of the climb. By this time everybody was well up the road. I was pretty mad cause I did not want to get dropped like this. Fortunately I was able to not lose too much time and found my way back into the main group at the bottome of the descent.

Get a Grip(GAG), a team from chicago, had 5 or 6 riders in the field so on the second lap they sent a rider off the front. I think 1 other rider went with him and then the field settled down with the rest of the GAG riders controlling the field. I was totally fine with this cause that meant the pace would slow down.

This went on for several laps. Each time up the climb the gap i lost became a little bit longer and the longer it would take me to catch back on during the flat section. I knew the end was near.

About half way thru the race people finally got tired of just racing for 2nd place and the attacks came. This is where i got off the bus and said goodbye to the main field. A rider attacked on the climb and by the time i got to the top the field was gone. Now i was just riding by myself.

I contemplated dropping out but soon talked myself out of that. I thought, "how often do i get to fly down a descent with a good turn at the bottom. If nothing else just practice your descending skills."

After a couple laps on my own i started to see 1 rider and then a second rider up ahead. Each time up the climb I was gaining ground on them. Eventually I caught both and there was a group of 3 of us fighting it out for what would be 10th place.

Every time up the hill I would drop one rider and then the other but not enough that they couldn't get back on during the descent. So finally on the last lap I attacked the 2 and almost immedaiately heard one declare he was done. That left 2 of us.

I got a decent gap over the remaining rider but it wasn't enough to stay away. Between turns 3 & 4 he caught me and after leading him thru turn 4 he sprinted around me for 10th place, leaving me 11th.

All in all i had a lot of fun. It was one of the hardest races i've done but i really enjoyed it. Catching the 2 riders and making a little mini race out of it helped me along. I never thought I would be the one attacking on a climb like that even if it was for 10th place.

Can't wait till next year.

Fox River Grove Cycling Challenge

For anybody interested here's the details for the race on sunday.

I will be racing the Cat 3 race at 2pm.

Here's a map.









There is parking just south of the course at the the jewel or dominicks, i can't remember exactly what store but they run a shuttle bus from the parking lot to the course.

Also if you would like some more info click the link to the left under upcoming races. At the bottom of that page is some printed directions on how to get there.

Would love to see you there.

Ron

Rant

In the tradition of Dave Zabriski's peloton interviews I will begin the post with one. While this isn't word for word this is the best as i remember it.

Rider 1: Who's the damn moron who keeps leading the field into traffic!
Rider 2: That would be me.
Rider 1: You can't lead a group of 60 riders into traffic!
Rider 2: Hmphh...It's only 40.

What led to this nice little interview was possible the dumbest group ride i have ever been a part of. For nearly 3 years now i have taken part in a ride, named after a local community college, that occurs on a saturday morning in the northwest suburbs of a big midwestern city that is located on a big lake.

Since last year i have been commenting on how this ride is getting choppier and choppier as it grows. Now before i rant i will make the disclaimer that at times i have done stupid stuff too but this was nuts. Let me give you some examples.

Incident 1: Just before a busy intersection is a right turn followed by a short downhill into the intersection. The road we cross is a busy road and most of the time we have to stop. While most of us are slowing down one joker decides to prove his agility and sprint to the intersection. In the process he nearly hits a pothole and almost takes a rider out trying to avoid the hole. My response: "Can we stop racing for stop signs?&#!"

Incident 2: The next major road crossing people at the front of the field start crossing the road with an oncoming truck coming from the left. We had to yell stop to some riders who were just assuming that beacuse the first rider went, the other 50+ riders could cross too. Finally cars from both directions stopped so we all could cross safely.

Incident 3: Just before the next major road crossing (notice a pattern here) we have a sprint to the stop ahead sign. That was all fine and fairly clean but then we have to turn onto a busy street with no shoulder for 500m to get to the next road. It is a blind corner to the left because of trees. So the first rider to arrive(rider 2 in interview above) just turns onto the road without stopping. I'm maybe 15 feet behind him. He doesn't say anything, doesn't call out car left so I'm assuming (my mistake) that nothing is coming from the left. When i reach the intersection there is a pickup truck pulling a trailer coming down the hill. Immediately i yell truck left! Now i'm getting pissed. "Rider 2" put a whole bunch of people in danger.

(Insert rider inteview above at this point)

Incident 4: Same rider from incident 1 while going up a hill almost takes a teammate out. This is when i notice the guy is listening to his ipod!

So in 1 hour there were 4 incidents where people could have gotten seriously hurt all because of stupidity.

I usually peel off from the ride after the hills and that's what i did this morning. I haven't heard yet but i'm waiting to hear of a crash or two.

I don't know what needs to be done but i'm getting tired of it. I'm honestly am really starting to see why so many people drive by and yell at cyclist to get off the road. When we ride like this it does no good.

And for the love of God, DON'T BRING YOUR IPOD TO A GROUP RIDE!!!!!!!!!!!

So instead of being able to write a nice post about how great it was to see a friend recovering from an injury at the ride, how i enjoyed the sprint, or how i felt good on the hills, i'm writing about this crap.

I think i'm done but i'm still steaming.

Hoping next week is better...

First Ride of Freedom

To continue with blogging about things that happend a week ago, last monday my middle son, Nathan, rode his bike for the first time without training wheels. It was an awesome experience. For whatever reason i don't remember too much about Ryon's first time mostly because he did it on his own. Ryon did it during the winter and rode down the cleared sidewalk and used the snow banks to crash into.

Nathan kept putting off his first attempt. I think it was all in his head. It's weird cause he's the risk taker, the climber, the crazy one. But for some reason he was pretty apprehensive about the bike thing.

We did a few tries in the morning that involved me getting him on the bike and running behind him with my hand under the saddle keeping him upright. It was clear he truly didn't understand the physics of it. He would lean way to one side and stop pedaling. After a few tries we decided to take a break. I could tell he was starting to get it though.

Later in the afternoon we went out to try again. This time on the second try I let go and he was on his own. About 7 or 8 more runs insued. The joy on his face was incredible. It was amazing. It reminded me how much fun riding a bike is and what freedom it brings. Nathan has now caught the feeling of Delirium.

One of the best moments is when half way down the hill he would ask me to let go and i would say that I let go way at the top and he would just giggle with delight.

What a day!

Winfield ABR 30+ Criterium Championship - 06.03.07

It was with threatening skys that this years Winfield Masters 30/40+ ABR National Criterium Championship got underway. It had been a day of isolated thunderstorms and although it looked like we might get dumped on we didn’t and we raced on dry roads.

I went into this race feeling good about my form and wanting to see if I would have the problems keeping the wheel in front of me like I did at monsters. My guess is that I wouldn’t seeing that this is not a completely flat crit like monsters and I wasn’t coming off on of the longest training weeks I had ever done like I was at Monsters.

Tactically I didn’t want to miss the big break like I did last year. The pack more or less split last year and if it happened again I wanted to be ready for it. So the plan was to just take it easy, ride smart, and try to be ready when it happened.

That’s basically how it happened except for the fact that I chickened out.

Lately I’ve been reading the blog reports of Mark Swartzendruber. He likes to rag on Team Mack and their race tactics. I find it funny since I’m not on mack but after reading his description about the 40+ race at Monsters you will get a good idea of what it was like in this race.

Basically from the start there were attacks. One or 2 riders would go with HeadsMACK barking out a command to somebody to grab a wheel. This went on for the first few laps. At one point a pretty good sized group jumped so I jumped too but it was all brought back. The 2 riders broke free. One Mack and one Met Life. Something told me right away that I was watching the race leave us. You had a representative from the 2 largest teams in the race off the front and immediately our pace lowered. At the bottom of the hill I heard someone yell that the gap was 10 seconds. At the top of the hill it was 20 seconds. I knew this was the race, I wanted to join them…but I was too chicken.

It was earlier in the race than I wanted to make a move and the move was smaller then I wanted to be a part of. I decided to stay put and watch the break ride away from us hoping that at some point a group of riders would want to chase this thing down but it soon became evident that we were all just riding for 3rd place overall.

Now the thing about this race is that there are actually 2 fields racing together and there are 2 championship jerseys at stake. One for the 30+ and one for the 40+. What I didn’t realize is that both riders in the breakaway were 40+. If I could have joined them* and stayed with them I would have won the 30+ race even if I had finish 3rd.

I spent the rest of the race trying to stay in the front half of the filed and saving myself for the sprint. There was one point where it looked like a few of us had a gap but that quickly ended as nobody, including me, wanted to do any real work. Once that failed I sat back and waited.

Things really start to heat up for the last couple of laps. Guys start really fighting for position and you really have to work hard to maintain your position. This is where I really have a lot to learn. I have to form to be there at the end but I lose a bunch of places in the last couple turns before the final sprint. To me this is the greatest difference between racing cat ¾ and Masters racing.

Long story short, I had a good sprint but I was already back 20 places or more out of the last turn so I made up a few. I was hoping I made top 20 but wasn’t sure. Then I heard the pa announce state that 5 of the top 6 were 40+. Since the podium was 5 deep that made me stick around for a while. I ended up finishing 16th overall but was in 6th place for the 30+ field. Last year I was 11th so I was very happy. I missed the podium by one place. Next year this race is mine!!

Thanks for reading.

*This is assuming i could have broken free from the field, bridged up the the 2, and then stayed with them for the remainder of the race. It's nice to think that's possible but not sure what reality is yet.

Movie time

My ride home last night was unusual for a couple of reasons. I left work and headed over to barrington to hook up with a ride there. Because of the weather, very windy and looking like the skys were going to open up any second, only a couple of people showed up. They decided to go catch the northbranch ride which means going the opposite direction that i want to go to go home. I went with them for a while but eventually turned around when we hadn't met the northbranch guys yet.

The first weird thing was while on cuba road, i heard what basically sounded like a dog being mauled to death. It was pretty nasty. I couldn't see anything because they were on the other side of a fence but I definately heard the rustling and the yelps coming from the dog.

The second, more interesting thing was on Spring Creek road in barrington hills. As i came up to meadow hill road there was a police officer holding up traffic. Once i passed him and crested the hill there, it looked like a huge party was happening at this newly built house. The first thing that clued me to what was going on was i saw that there was distro feeder cables laying by the road and a huge production truck. The driveway had a sign on it that said "The Return." After crossing Braeburn rd i had to zig zag between 2 huge lifts with lights on them. In the field on the right there were a bunch of production trucks and about 100 cars parked there.

Once home i looked up "The Return" and found that it is a Tim Robbins movie about 3 iraq veterans returning home. Due out in 08. Should be interesting.

Monsters of the Midway 30+

Yesterday was the Monsters of the Midway Criterium held on the campus of The University of Chicago. It's actually on the Midway Plaisance a few blocks west of the Museum of Science & Industry. It's a flat 1.1 mile, long rectangle loop. For the most part nice smooth pavement and wide turns.

I entered the Masters 30+ race since it was early and I could get back home and still have some sort of mothers day celebration at home. After having 80 degree days this week yesterday at race time the temps seemed to still be in the 50's and overcast.

The race itself was good. Lot's of attacks which kept it interesting. It was also very smooth like a 30+ should be. Nobody paniking, just good clean racing. I went in with the goal of riding smart, staying in the field and waiting for a move at the end or the final sprint. For the most part I accomplised all these goals. As much as I could I stayed nicely tucked in the field and tried not to jump on attacks like i tend to do.

About 3/4 of the way thru the race there was an attack that drew at least 8 or 9 guys out. Since I was towards the front and saw everybody jumping I went as well. I made the group and we had a little gap but it died out and we were all back together. Now I was just sitting in for the sprint.

3 riders got away with 2 or 3 laps to go and it looked like they might hold us off but they were caught on the last half of the last lap. I tried to get into good position for the sprint but ended up back further than I wanted to. I ended up finishing 25th.

The one thing that i noticed thruout the whole race is i don't have the initial power burst yet. After every turn when you're toward the back of the field you have to jump to get back on. Almost every time I would lose the wheel infront of me and have to work to get it back. I can't say that i'm not that surprised by this because I haven't done any work on that yet with my training. The good thing about the race was fitness wise i felt really good. I had no problems finishing the race and felt pretty good afterwards.

Bottom line I'm really happy with how it went. I feel like my form is right on track for where I am in my training this year. Hopefully I can get some of that kick back in the next couple of weeks for Winfield.

Fun Harper Ride/Another trail reason

Saturday i had what was for me one of the more fun harper rides that i've had in a long time. My buddy Tim Henry from Project 5 and I left my house at 6am to ride out to harper. Once we joined the harper ride we eventually ended up in a break together with Robert Krone of Team Mack. The three of us worked together pretty well and by the time we got to River Rd in algonquin, we had a lead of 2:15. Tim and i peeled off at that point to go home and left Robert to battle on his own. Now i read that at the end of the ride there was a crash that took out a couple of guys. The harper ride has seemed to be getting a little chippier since it has started to get so big. Maybe more on that later. In any case the ride has me feeling pretty good about racing next week.

Last week i had another reminder why I don't like riding on bike paths. Near the end of a ride I was on the trail and coming up on a section that has an s curve in it. As I approched the curve I could see thru the trees that someone was coming from the other direction. I slowed down to make sure i could negotiate the turn while staying on my side of the trail. Once thru the turn my worst fears were confirmed. About 30 feet in front of me was a guy on a department store mountain bike, wearing 80's era walkman headphones and thick glasses, staring up and to his left at the tress, and IN MY LANE! I yelled a warning to him which scared him so much I don't know how he kept his bike up. Insane.

I go to sleep now.

Reason #3 not to use the bike path

I ride bike paths as little as possible. Usually only to get me somewhere fast or if there isn't a safe road to get me where I want to go.

Every day that I ride from home there is a hill that I have to climb up to the subdivision where I live. I would say that 2 or 3 times a year somebody passes me that just can't fathom why I would be on the road with there is a nice, wide, paved path right next to the road. The usually yell some form of expletive out the window surrounded by the words, "get on the" and "bike path."

I have several reasons for not being on the bike path but last week I got a new one. Mudslides.

It seems that all the rain, coupled with the 6 inches of snow we had last week was too much for the retaining wall on Huntington. Bricks and mud were all over the the bike path. It's been almost a week since it happened and crews came out to clean it up but no repairs have been made yet. I'm curious how long that will take.

Mudslides aside, there are two other, more often occurring, reasons for not using the bike path.

1) Debris: This for me is the main reason. There is always tons of junk all over the path. From glass, to sticks, to gravel, to garbage. All the stuff that was on the road gets blown on to the bike path.

2) Kids use the path: There have been multiple times that i have actually used the path and while I'm going up the hill some kids come flying down on their bikes or skateboards and almost hit me. Bottom line it's too dangerous to use the path.

An issue related to this is the use of bike lanes. Algonquin has been cool enough to build some of the streets wide enough to include either painted bike lanes or non painted lanes. The problem with this is the same as reason 1 above. There is always crap in these lanes. What's worse is when the village comes around to clean the streets, they lanes are worse off then before they cleaned them.

The other week I finally saw it with my own eyes. The street cleaner goes by and it's tank is full so out of the top, pouring down the side of the vehicle is the overflow of the tank, depositing all the crap that it cleaned off the road right onto the bike lane.

Anyway I think I'm done typing now. This is the long way to say that hey, we had a mudslide by my house last week.

That's all for now. Maybe someday I'll actually have a race report.

Snow?#%*@&!?????

For the second week in a row a great week of training has been interrupted by bad weather. This time it's actually snow. Freak!

That's all

Wisconsin ride and First fitness test of the year

I was up in Eau Claire this weekend and I finally got a ride in on saturday morning during just about the only two hours that it didn't rain the whole time we were up there. I found a route on routeslip that was near our hotel. I detoured off the route to go up to Elk Mound. I almost didn't make it up to the top with my 21 cog cassette on. It was really tough.

After Elk Mound i returned to the route and all was fine until the road that was supposed to be the turnaround point was not just gravel but mud. I had to back track and find another way home. I made it back with about a half hour to spare before the downpour started again.

Back home today i did my first fitness test of the year. After warming up you do 5 miles on the trainer at what is for me 168-170 bpm. I did part of my warmup riding around the block with the kids, put the bike on the trainer in the garage and did the test while the kids washed their bikes. I have yet to compare the results but i'm interested to see where i'm at compared to this point in my training calander last year.

Best Recovery Ride Ever!

This week is supposed to be a rest and recovery week for me so I decided to do a nice easy ride on monday with my 7 year old son, Ryon. We did over 5 miles. We've set a goal this year of doing 10 miles. I'm thinking he'll have that done in no time.

The fun thing about the ride is coming back home we have a pretty good hill to climb. About a 1/4 of the way up we had to start walking. While walking up the hill some jr. high kids passed us on their bikes. Once over the hill we started riding again. After a couple of block we saw one of the kids up ahead and I said, "Ryon, I think we can catch him." Sure enough we caught and passed the kid. Ryon's first counter attack.

Anyway we had a total ball and the weather was awesome. Here are some pics.

My name on Velonews.com

So I actually got my name posted on the Velonews.com website.

They've been running these website of the day features and were asking for suggestions. I sent them an email suggesting they feature World Bicycle Relief. Well they actually did it. Very cool.

So you can see the feature at here to fullfill my vain desires to see my name printed on a big website and then more importantly click on over to World Bicycle Relief to check them out.

The day after

I woke up this morning pretty sore so I decided not to ride in to work this morning which meant no riding at all today. I guess that in the end is a good thing but I was really wishing i could ride home since it reached the 60's today and was very sunny.

The aching body parts are as follows:

The muscles on the left side of my neck are pretty sore. It must be some form of whiplash cause I didn't hit anything there.

Half way between my shoulder and my elbow i feel like somebody punched me.

My wrist is still sore but already seems to be feeling better.

I have a nice little contusion on my right thigh. It's more a bruise than anything else.

I have a very small nick on my right shin. Didn't even notice it until i was getting dressed this morning.

That's about it.

I actually rode around the block a few times with my son tonight and everything felt pretty good. The wrist is the source of the most pain. I will definately have to baby it on the bike for a couple of days.

I'll be riding tomorrow. Too bad it's only going to be 42 degrees.

Parkside #2 Masters 30+

Today we made what is now the yearly March trek up to Kenosha, WI for my first race of the season. Due to scheduling we decided the best race to do was the Masters 30+ race at 1:30pm. More and more I’m leaning towards doing the 30+ races. For the most part they seem a little calmer with less crashes (more on this later) so I was wanting to see how I would do in this race to see if I’m going to focus more on 30+ versus cat 3.

We arrived at 12:30 so I by the time I got registered, made a quick trip to McDonalds for the kids, and then got back and got the bike and myself ready I only had a half hour to warm up. After 2 seasons I’ve never settled on a warm up procedure. Sometimes I ride the trainer, others I just ride the roads. This time I opted for the roads. I spun around for about 20 minutes then headed back to the start finish. The previous race was running late so I headed back out for another 10 and then went back to the start. We watched the sprint for the 40+ race and then took our warmup lap.

I had read some reports from last week saying that the course was really rough. I don’t remember it being too bad last year but during the warmup I realized all the sealed cracks that run across the road sunk down a bit. This made for a jarring course.

I lined up with the 40 or 50 other riders and the race started. For the first few laps there were constant attempts of breakaways but the overall pace wasn’t too bad. I just tried to play it smart and hang in there. I kept myself in good position but tried not to jump at every attack like I sometimes tend to do.

About half way thru the race there was a group of 4 or 5 guys off the front. It seemed like it would be a good group to get up to since the ABR 30+ crit champion was in that group. Just as I was bridging up to that group, on the hill between turns 2 and 3, the supposed calmness of the 30+ racing was interrupted.

Now I still can’t explain how the 3rd guy in a 4 man paceline can just go down while going up a hill but he did. Next thing I knew there was a fellow human lying straight across the road right in front of me. I had no other option but to keep going. Translated that means my bike stopped when it hit his body and I kept going.

Well I guess my ninja skills came into play because I did a nice tuck and roll and landed on my right side. I got myself upright quick enough to see my bike still flipping around on the pavement. The next thought of course is please nobody hit me. Luckily nobody did.

I grabbed my bike, took the waterbottle and threw it in disgust. I had to twist my handlebars back and my left shifter was bent in. I then checked my front and rear wheels and everything seemed fine. Just as I was hopping back on the bike I saw my water bottle that I threw. I decided to go grab it. It was a good thing cause I realized that in the crash I lost my other bottle.
As I rode the backside of the course my intention was just to get back to the start and then call it a day. But then I remembered the free lap rule. I bolted for the start/finish and went ahead and swapped out my front wheel. I didn’t need to but I wasn’t sure what the actual rule was so I just wanted to make sure I could get my free lap.

There was 3 of us who got a free lap and as the field went by we jumped back in. The rest of the race I just tried to keep in a good position and be ready for the sprint. I wasn’t expecting anything out of myself for the final sprint since I haven’t even done one sprint yet this year. Sure enough I got myself in a good spot going into the last turn and then started the sprint. I managed an 11th place.

Overall I’m very happy with the result. I could’ve done without the crash. The bike seems to be just fine but my wrist is pretty sore and the hip is bruised. Hopefully I’ll be back on the bike tomorrow or Tuesday.

Thanks for reading.
Ron

The eagle flys

So today was a beautiful day. I had to ride to crystal lake to pick up my car from the shop but I took a detour out around union, IL as well as stopping by Wheelworks to get my wheel trued up. Coming back from Union i saw something i've never seen in these parts. A bald eagle. I first saw it flying to my right. It was big black bird with a white tail. I thought it looked like an eagle but I couldn't see it's head. It then turned to the left and when behind a barn and once it came out from behind the barn and crossed the road 50ft in front of me it was plain to see it was indeed an eagle. That's one of the things i love about riding. You never know what your going to see.

It hit 73 degrees today. Incredible. Even more so since they tell us that we will have snow flurries by thursday night. I'm going to take tomorrow off and then hopefully be able to commute to work on thursday and friday. Most likely I won't be able to ride at all on Saturday, and then race on sunday. The countdown begins.

Training in full swing

Well I've finally begun to feel like the cycling season is upon me. The last couple of weeks have been great. I've started riding the commute to work 3 days a week as well as getting at least one long ride in a week.

On thursday when i left home it was 24 degrees out. I actually made it ok. It was sunny and not very windy so I didn't get too cold. Right now it is 60 out. Things are looking up although it is supposed to get cold again by thursday.

My first race is scheduled for sunday. It's gonna be cold with a high of only 40. It's right near lake michigan so there's usually a pretty good breeze. It'll be nippy.

Outside ride today! / Tour of California

Well I've actually been a little sad about the warming temps because this winter i built a backyard ice rink and the whole family has had such a blast with it. Today temps were supposed to hit the 40's so I got my bike fixed up for the road and took it out. It turned out to be a beautiful day. It was right around 40 degrees and just as I started riding the clouds moved out so I had clear sky's the whole ride. You can see the route here. I took my time and really enjoyed it. The legs are stiff but little by little they are coming back.

I've been watching the coverage of the tour of california. It's been pretty great so far. I have to say the technology surrounding this race is incredible. I had 2 computers going watching the live coverage. On one i had the Amgen Tour Tracker showing live video with route and race descriptions overlayed. On the other computer I had Google Earth opened with CSC's live gps tracking on. It was pretty cool. At one point it looked like Levi Leipheimer had thown his transmitter out because it stopped moving with the field.

The Amgen site is quite amazing. I'm even finding more crazy things now.

Later

I am training...really

So i actually started my 2007 program this week. I've done 5 indoor trainer rides in my basement this week, watching cycling dvd's on my little tv. This weeks selections have been 2004 Paris-Roubaix, 2004 Amstel Gold, 2004 Leige, 2004 Paris-Nice, and the 2004 Criterium Intl.

Last night I did 1 1/2 hours on the trainer. It gets pretty boring but I have a lot of work to do. Here's some proof.

VO2max Test

Well 3 months of not really doing any training showed this morning as I went to the Gatorade Sports Science Institute for a VO2max test. After warming up for 10 minutes on the bike you start at 100 watts for 3 minutes, then 200 watts for 3 minutes, 300 watts for 3 minutes then 400 for 1 minute followed by 25 watt increases every minute.

The whole test you have your nose plugged and you are breathing into a tube. The machine measures how much oxygen you use. By 400 watts I was starting to suffer and my cadence was dropping. When they switched it to 425 watts it became really hard and my mouthpiece came off the machine and I had to stop pedaling. I tried to restart but I was just pedaling squares. I couldn't keep it going so I stopped. It came out to 45.2 ml/kg. Not high enough to get into the study this time.

Both scientists told me that I was very close and that in a couple of months they will be doing another study and that I should be able to score high enough after being back into training for a bit.

Though I'm dissappointed, i am glad that they will be doing another study in a couple of months because I was already wishing this study wasn't so soon because of the off season I've had.

In the midst of all this, training did start for me this week. It's back to the grind but I'm actually looking forward to it. I have a lot of work to do. I gained a bunch of weight but mentally I really needed the break that i had.

Until next time

Welcome to 2007

This week is actually the beginning of my 2007 campaign. Today it is about 0 degrees F and it's been too cold to even skate on the backyard rink i built this year.

After the end of last season I've taken the longest break from cycling that i've had since I dug my bike from under the pile of junk 4 years ago. I've taken the customary month break every year but this year was different. I had the goal of trying to lose some weight before the end of the year so after my last race in august I kept riding, doing long lower intensity rides in an effort to lose a fair amount of weight before the holidays.

Just after my birthday I had to stop. I really needed a break. My body was telling me to stop. My head wasn't in it anymore so I abandonded that plan and put the bike away...for 3 months!
It wasn't my intention at the start but after 4 weeks I had no desire to get the thing back out. We even had great weather and I could have gotten alot of outdoor riding in but I couldn't do it.

Finally in the middle of January I put my training and race schedule together. This season is going to be different than last year. I am focusing on different races and will be peaking much later than last year. By march of last year i was flying. My first objective was the Burlington RR on memorial day weekend. This year my first target is not till july. I'm going to be doing a long slow buildup to superweek.

Although i haven't ridden much the last couple of months I have been doing some other stuff. My son started taking hockey lessons and so I've been at the rink a bit. I've found that I can go skating before work and get a great workout in and it's pretty intense. Each time i've been nearing my max heart rate. It was refreshing to be doing something different for a while.

I also had a flareup of my herniated disc in my lower back. It actually happend in the middle of october but after getting better it got worse again in december. I finally broke down and got some drugs from the doctor and am finally getting that under control again.

There's also been another development on the Gatorade side of things. I am in their athelete pool and got an invitation to participate in a cycling specific study. This is what i was hoping for when i signed up last year. Tomorrow I go in to have a Vo2max test done. This alone is pretty cool. This is where you breath into a mask while riding till you can't ride anymore.

If i score high enough on this test I get to come back and do a Lactate Threshold(LT) test. This is where they check your blood levels while you ride till you can't ride anymore. If I score high enough on that I'm in the study.

The study is pretty intense. 3 3hour sessions. You ride for 2 hours right below your LT and then after 2 hours you ride a 20k time trial. I'm actually really excited about this and hoping I can make it in. It's actually a few hundred dollars worth of tests done for free. It would be great.

I'm only wishing that it was a few weeks later after I'd been riding a little bit but I'll take it whenever.

Well that's all for now. Stay tuned for the report on my Vo2max test.