"If Only"

I read the other day that the two saddest words for a cyclist are "If Only". So funny and often times very true. You sit around long after the race and hear countless stories which usually start with those two words. I've fallen into that trap numerous times...I think it's just part of racing. There is ALWAYS something or many things that unfold during a race where hindsight is 20/20. But the bottom line is that if I could have done it, I would have, no bullshitting around.

I raced 1/2/3 Morgantown RR this past Saturday with my teammate Brian Rist. What a crazy day! It started when we hit a pretty good snow storm crossing over the Maryland pass into WV. We plowed on as I repeatedly kept checking the weather radar. When we hit Morgantown, it was pretty clear, sweet. And then ~30 mins before the start of our race it starts snowing/sleeting...geez.

Gotta give the promoter and officials huge props! They postponed the race 30mins and guess what? The precip mellowed to a light rain and we were ready to race! I totally misjudged my clothing options and went with wearing my Gore jacket. Garmin showed that it was 37 at the start and got up to mid 50s at one point. Holy hell that got HOT and I couldn't take it off b/c my number was pinned to it.

Here are the cliff notes of the race. ~30-35 starters. Course is fast for the first 20 miles and the field stayed in tact. We hit the first most significant climb and the field exploded. I dug DEEP and made it over the top with the front ~8-9 riders just on the last wheel. I was pretty cross-eyed, but it didn't seem like there were more than that. The move had 2 teams well represented, XO (Rugg/Langley) & some strong riders from Pittsburgh. They just RIPPED it to the next climb and stayed on the gas which was shortly thereafter. Damn, I needed a bit more recovery. I got gapped at the steep part on the last 1/3 of that climb. I was maxed out and tried to manage the damage. Rolled the next ~8 miles solo and when I was near the top of the following climb I saw a chase group coming so I mellowed out and hooked up with them. THEN I raced like a complete pansy...end of story...

I think this is where I'm about to get caught by the chase at the top of the climb.

But I DID have fun after it was all said and done. Super fun course! Really needed this race in prep for next weekend at Battenkill.

Black Hills Circuit Race M1/2/3 Race Video

HUGE shout out to Brian S (WWVC) for shooting this great video!

Black Hills M123 3/19/2011 from Patriot on Vimeo.

The View from the sidelines

Saturday our team promoted the Black Hills Circuit Race. First race of the year for a lot of folks. I bagged any attempt to race since I really wanted to focus on helping our lead Promoter, Robb Hampton, pull this baby off without a hitch. Robb & Brian Rist (& wife Jenn) worked a lot of the behind scenes magic. All I had to do was show up at 6:30 a.m., sweep the course and spend the day trying to keep the course safe...well, it was sorta fun to watch the suffering as well. We were also really happy to hear all the positive feedback from all of the racers! We definitely have some ideas on how to improve a few things.

In a strange way, it's kinda nice to just work the race all the day. You get to catch up with lots of folks you haven't seen in awhile and actually have a conversation. I also had a front row seat to watch ALL of the races. I really enjoyed it.

Off the top of my head:

Here's my top 10 award list:

1. Umm, Josh Frick simply riding away from the 35+ field. (Kevin Cross you get a nod here for being the only one to ride with him for 2 laps)
2. Ahem, the Kenda pro dude riding like a rocket.
3. Evan Fader sticking it out with Kenda dude for lots of laps before fading, but I have to give the guy credit, you could see the pain in his face, but he still kept pumping the pedals and managed to hang onto the third chase group. Man, that was a show of determination and guts.
4. The two NCVC riders in Chase 1 finished really strong...great riding.
5. My training partner, Pete Custer, had a great ride for being sick most of the week...so much for sitting in, eh! And glad we didn't have to call the EMTs at the finish line!
6. NO CRASHES THE ENTIRE DAY! AWESOME!
7. In the 3/4 race, it was great to see 3 guys lay it on the line for a successful breakaway. Way to work together and make it happen Tony, Paul & Evan. Exciting to watch.
8. The Women's race was exciting...lots of action at the front, attacks/counters. The gal that won put a huge gap on the field on the last lap..impressive.
9. TRASH- I hardly had to pick up any!!! Thank you to all for keeping the park clean.
10. My wife for saving us working registration with her friend Tatyana! We would have been in deep doodoo without their help.

Here's my top 10 list of naughtiness (there's always a few bad apples, but the vast majority of us racers were crazy polite and very patient with this being our first event, so thanks for that):

1. Just because you are at race doesn't mean cyclist don't have to obey the laws of the road...cough, don't ride against traffic.
2. Please don't ever ride ON the course during a race.
3. While you are warming up, DON'T swarm cars driving through the park. Your warmup won't be interrupted if you have to slow down.
4. When a road guard instructs you on the traffic flow, please don't think you deserve "special" treatment and it doesn't apply to you.
5. When someone at registration asks for your license, don't behave like a child and toss your card at them. Hand it over politely..it's a thankless job and you may as well be slapping them in the face by doing this.
6. Show up with your license. It REALLY makes things much easier. Don't expect everyone to know who you are and you are above having to show your license.
7. Remember, results are managed by the officials, not the promoter. Don't get feisty with the folks at registration b/c your results aren't posted. They have no control over this NOR the results (if they are wrong)
8. Don't make snide comments around the promoters as to why they are doing things the way they are. You have your chance to do it your way when you put on YOUR race.
9. Whoever swiped the 1/2/3 results off the score table at the end of the day, shame on you. You earned the douchebag award.
10. there is no ten.


Looking forward to Jeff Cup now. Thanks to all for showing up to race!

PSA: Be careful out there

Every year about this time the same scenario plays out in downtown DC.

1. Spring time = out of towner's coming into the city in droves. Also coinciding with the millions of people coming to view the Cherry Blossoms.
2. Out of towner's driving erratically b/c they don't know where they are going. They stop for no reason. Don't use turn signals b/c they don't know where they are going. Drivers trying to read their GPS devices or talking on the phone.
3. Taxi drivers hungry for a buck and will do crazy shit to pick up a fare.
4. Fare seekers opening up cab doors without a care in the world.
5. Frustrated local drivers mad about the increase in traffic....great, not like drivers need more fuel for the fire around here.
6. Wondering tourists not paying attention to anything around them while walking around the city.
7. The fair weather cyclists being awoken.
8. Out of town tour bus drivers who aren't familiar with the city.

What does this all this mean? IT MEANS BE EXTRA VIGILANT (CAREFUL AND DEFENSIVE) OVER THE NEXT 3-4 WEEKS WHILE RIDING IN THE CITY. Every year it hits me. Today it just happened to be during my commute into the city. The tell tale signs for me were:

1. Park personnel putting up signage at Hain's Point for the Cherry Blossom parking.
2. The countless tour bus drivers either parked along Hain's Point or driving aimlessly around the loop spewing exhaust fumes.
3. The two Freds who thought I wanted to race them at Hain's Point when I casually rolled by them doing like 180 watts for my recovery day mellow spin to work.
4. A taxi driver who thought it was ok to just swerve into the bike line to pick up passengers along 15th street. He couldn't understand why I was so pissed at him. And to the lady who was about to open the door to get in right in front of me...I confess, I yelled a few profanities.
5. I had my closest call to date for getting doored.
6. Driver nearly took me out while crossing K & Vermont. He was turning left coming the opposite way and obviously was in a HUGE hurry.

Needless to say, I was just happy to get to work in one piece. It's just a busy time of year around here and I hope folks get the message. Be careful out there!!! Things will return to normal in about 30 days.

4 day block

A few charts tell the story...lots of good tempo and threshold work.

time to rest...

Faith in humanity and the end of a good block

It has been a busy few weeks for sure. A few weeks ago while commuting home on Friday, I had an unfortunate event occur...yep, a bike commuter crash. I cracked the top tube of my Specialized SL carbon frame, bike frame destroyed. Without going into all the details since it's hard to explain, I'll just say that riding on the trails is dangerous. My accident occurred down by the airport where the trails merge near Crystal City. Fellow commuter came out of nowhere merging on. Luckily, we just barely avoided a head on collision, but I still went down after clipping his mtb handlebars. I thought everything was fine until I saw the cracked top tube...I cried inside. I loved that frame. It made it through 2 years of racing, yet, gets taken out and shot during an easy commute home...sad. BUT, the gentleman involved offered to help me cover the cost of replacement. I'll be honest, I was astonished. I never really lost my cool during the whole ordeal b/c I think I was mostly distraught over the frame. Neither of us were critically injured, I just had some scrapes and nicks. I gave him my card and said to email me if he was serious. I then proceeded to go 3 mph home on a nearly cracked in half top tube. So, Saturday I get an email from him. He feels terrible about the accident. We go back and forth and agree on a figure. Next thing I know on Monday morning a money order shows for twice as much as I expected, yet it will cover the cost for me to get a new frame, not exactly a true replacement, but good enough. Frankly, I was shocked, thankful and relieved by this. There are good people out there who are true to their word...faith in humanity restored.

Thankfully, teammate Brian is able to help me get my PCs off my training bike and get some regular cranks on it so I could hit a hard final week of training before some recovery. The plan was to take THUR thru SUN to get some good rides in.

Teammate Sunny met me THUR for one of the Haymarket loops. 70 miles, some gravel, 5k of climbing and wind. It was a great start to my mini-camp. Hit almost 3 hrs on FRI with some teammates, not too crazy, worked on some sprints. Then headed up to Frederick on SAT for a team ride. We had a shitty start to the ride when Brian got taken down by a car 10 mins into the ride. Out of towner decided to abruptly make a left turn on a 2 lane one-way street from the right lane. I was in the back of the bunch and watched the whole thing unfold in horror. Thankfully, Brian is ok, but his front wheel was taco'd and his bike un-rideable...needless to say he had a big headache. So, we get Brian in the police car and he gets take back to his car, the group pushes on. LOTS of climbing for sure. Legs came around and I was putting in some good work. I think we ended up with a little over 4 hours and then ended up eating some awesome Mexican food with Margies. SUN was a pretty free day. If I felt good, I'd do something hard. If not, I'd ride recovery for a few hours. Once I hopped on the rollers, everything came to life. Knocked out a hard 60min tempo effort at 325w avg after warmup and called it a day. Things are coming together. Getting amped about the team and our chances to do really well this year. Now I just hope my race frame comes in soon so I don't have to ride this boat anchor! It's looking more and more like Jeff Cup will be my first race...Battenkill is nearing.

Bam

Heard this before?

Yeah, it's what was ringing in my head after this morning's workout. You KNOW racing season is approaching when the "white hot" stuff starts to show up on the plan. You just never know what to expect. In the back of your mind you have some preconceived notion of what "would" be great, but in reality you just have no idea what's going to happen when the real intensity starts to get thrown into the mix.

Woke up early, had a few cups of coffee and tried to mentally prepare myself for some suffering. Hitting the rollers on the TT bike with 4x 3min all out efforts with a few SubSupers thrown in after that. For some reason, I thought the plan read 3x 3min efforts but then I noticed the "4" this morning..whoops. A little unusual for me, but the first one felt pretty solid..then the next..then the next...then the finale. I cracked a bit halfway through the last one, but stuck it out. I definitely was seeing some stars after it. Ended up with a 430w cumulative avg which is good and a bit scary. Good by way of numbers, scary that I now know what I need to build off of. Plan on some endurance riding the next few days and then a few good longish rides over the weekend. Should be fun.