Recovery

Thank goodness for Monday's off after a long weekend of riding. There are always other activities to take part in, if only I could think of them and motivate . . .

Squaw Pass

What better to do after a long road race than to go on a long climb over Squaw Pass? The weather was pretty good for a ride into the hills although there was some significant snowfall earlier in the week. I'm pretty sure the first effort of the day had me seeing things . . .



Although when out on a good Sunday death march, images can be confusing, disconcerting, and sometimes wrong.



As soon as Joey and I got past Idaho Spring and around the first switch backs up the hill, I was starting the question the idea of riding up and over Squaw. The last snow fall was pretty significant up here and we have plenty of reminders of that on the way up.



We probably could have brought the ice skates for Echo Lake.



You'll have to zoom in on this one to get the point, but it started snowing, yes, snowing going over the top of the pass.




All in all, it was a good ride. I really wasn't so sure about making it home after all the climbing and freezing coming back down into Bergen Park. I declined Joey's offer to ride back to his new house off of City View and instead rode directly home, keeping additional climbing to a minimum.

Deer Trail

While I didn't get stuck in the mud myself on the bike, there was a slight feedzone mishap . . . Keely very kindly followed the instruction of the race marshal to pull off the road to make some space. Uh, thanks buddy.



Every year I have done this race it seems like the weather was absolutely miserable. Last year we heard tornado sirens prior to the race, standing in the sleet and freezing rain. It turned out ok that go round. I wasn't sure what would happen with perfect weather, sunshine, and no wind. Kevin and I discussed strategy a bit before the race, but we comfortable knowing who to keep an eye out for and who to follow.

After a delayed start, an early break got up the rosd on the first out and back. It was actually a solid move with almost all the bigger teams represented. The only team putting in a concerted effort to chase was HART, even though Carlos (HART) was in the break. He did just have a kid (congrats) and has had a rough time at Deer Trail the past couple years. The break its gap through the second out and back, but things picked up as the race headed through town towards the rollers. Andrew Bajadali (Jelly Belly), Tarkington (VC), and others started animating the race just beyond the feed zone. Just after the turn around on the third out and back Kevin and the Baj got off the front of the main group alone. After a bit, Tarkington made a move with a few to try to bridge and I jumped on for the ride, having no obligation to pull through with Kevin up the road. Our group got close to making the catch with the main group coming up behind. Instead of letting everything come back together, I countered Kevin's move and hung on for dear life when a small group came up past me. We got a good gap on the field, everybody working smoothly and caught the original break by the last turn around. Some of the original break stuck with us, some got spit out the back after a long effort off the front. With about 5 rollers to go the attacks started coming. Tarkington got clear with nobody really willing to chase. His Vitamin Cottage teammate, Christian McCarthy bridged to him solo leaving the rest of us looking around at eachother. Nate Buyon (HART), Jon Mullen (Einstein's) and I were the only ones working to try to bring them back. They stayed away, the group started the sprint, I went to the get up and go well and came up dry, finishing 10th out of a 10 up break.

Lessons learned . . . skip some of the early efforts, they don't do much. With two Vitamin Cottage teammates in the break, sit on for the ride and stick it to them at the end. I think 10th is a good result, I learned some things and Kevin and I did what we could. Hats off to Los for a great finish, obviously none of us thought he had it in him especially given his new responsibilities.

The car got pulled out of the mud and we made it home for a cookout and a much needed shower.

Here Comes the Sun

At long last, the sun is shining, there is no threat of storms on the horizon!

I get to see Keely tonight, which is going to be great since I haven't really seen her much with her nights rotation and with me being out of town last weekend. Having a part-time girlfriend isn't very fun. She heads to work when I am getting home and she is done after I have left for work for the day. The only good part is that she only has five weeks of said rotation.

The plan is to make the rounds this evening. I am meeting my friend Rus who I used to ride with and play lacrosse with when I first moved out to Colorado at Mike Carter's house. We are riding up High Grade at a nice easy pace, Keely is hitting Chatfield, and then we taking part in cocktail hour. Margaritas are good fuel, good for tomorrow's race.

Meridian

There is something very satisfying about going out to a practice, bandit crit with a completly mixed bag of goons, and just blowing out the legs completely. I saw a guy riding around on a bike with clip on aero bars, clad in a sleeveless jersey, but wearing arm warmers. Keep that guy far, far away! I hate to sound like an elitist roadie snob, but yikes, dude might as well have had a tinfoil helmet on too.

I kept it in a big gear from the start and found myself with a gap after going up one of the "hills" with Joey Brenner, dug out from the snow, sitting on my wheel. He said, "just keep going." I said, "ok." We stayed away for a while, then let up, then we started attacking again. He rolled off with a group of four and I watched as the gap got to the big enough point. I drifted back and then attacked from mid-pack and worked my butt off to bridge. I made in about half a lap with one other rider and happy to find out that recovery from such efforts doesn't take as long as it used to.

I get to take it easy tomorrow and then Saturday I get to race in scenic Deer Trail, CO.

CCTT - The Flood's a Coming!

Due to rain, the CCTT course had to be shortened. I am not sure what would happen if you hit this flying, do bikes hydroplane?



I had to walk back to take pictures because I would have eventually blocked out the memories of what this winter and spring have been like. I passed this sign and stated out loud to nobody in particular, "no shit . . ."



Today's TT went a little better. I'm hoping the whole Nebraska experience will help out on the fitness front. Though still not as fast as I'd like to be, the abreviated course was amusing and a little more challenging than the regular course.

Back to Reality . . .

Are you kidding me with this weather? I haven't seen rain like this in my 8 years in Colorado. After this winter, nothing should surprise me, but will somebody please give it a rest! I hear Joey got stuck at his new residence up in the hills without heat, power, water, entertainment, possibility of escape. At least the risk of fire during the early forest fire season will be low. Too bad the risk will be higher later in the season with so much new growth to potentially burn.

The National Weather Service is telling me that Cherry Creek is flooding in the Metro Denver area. I can only imagine what it is doing out at the reservoir.

Back to Life . . .

I have cleaned the grime of Nebraska off myself, now to get it off the bikes. Another weekend ends and real life resumes . . . While life on the road is amusing, getting paid is a good thing. I continue to learn more than I ever wanted to know about doors, especially hollow metal doors and frames for commericial applications. Amazing how it works . . . the more you know, the more you know that can be screwed up and the more screw ups you find. Go figure.

This week doesn't seem like it will be too crazy. I have a TT, some training rides, some work and a lot of bugs to clean off the bikes.

Lincoln Plating Stage Race - Day 2

Ah, nothing like a road trip and jamming people and bikes into a beat down hotel room. Rumor has it the TraveLodge has a sister hotel, the StayCheap . . . I don't think I ever really want to be there.



The forecast for today's crit included scattered tornadoes, not rain, not thunderstorms, but tornadoes. Not really what you look forward to when you get ready for a nice Sunday ride in the park. The course is a pretty fun one, but doesn't not lend itself to making up much time or picking up spots on GC. Add to it the rain and I was happy just to finish, pack up and go home.

There were indeed tornadoes, just not where we were. This guy wasn't as lucky, but amazingly he lived.



Me, I was a lot luckier on the way home, not only did I get to drive, but Brian let me drive AND eat ice cream. All in all, it was a good trip. Got to practice the bike handling skills in the wind and rain, got beat up by the old teammates some, but still took some money home. Even better, we got free burritos.

Lincoln Plating Stage Race - Day 1

We woke up this morning to find the wind was still there. Wind blows.

The drive out the the venue was not nearly as entertaining as the drive into Nebraska. The overwhelming thought was, "damn . . . it's really windy and we are supposed to time trial in this?" . . . it wouldn't have been so bad if the car/bikes weren't constantly getting buffeted as we went in and out of the draft of semis.

For whatever reason the race organizers decided to have Kevin as last year's winner be the first to go off in the TT. Even more odd was that they lumped all the riders by team for the start times. It could have resulted in some mad, mad cheating had we not been upstanding, honest cyclists. I signed in and got my warmup under way with a nice view of the white caps on the lake.




As expected we all survived the wind and as expected Kevin was sitting in 1st place after the TT. I was very pleased to be in 3rd, only 11 seconds back (and 1 second out of 2nd place) given my dubious performances at CCTT to date. HART represented very well with Wes in 2nd and Randy in 6th, not very far back. That put Kevin and I in a tough spot for the afternoon road race.

Brian and I did a few science experiments after lunch to test the wind strength and speed. Good to see the tan lines are back in full effect . . .



I asked Randy what the HART strategy would be for the afternoon and got the answer I expected.



The old teammates rode very well as a team and made Kevin and I work much more than we wanted to in a sustained 35 MPH wind. Wes kept the race animated and Randy and Dan got up the road with Tarkington in tow with enough of a gap to shake up the GC. Kevin and I dropped to 5th and 6th overall. At least we got to get out of the wind, finally . . .

Wind

It all starts when you throw three budding young cyclists into a vehicle full of bikes, wheels, and some snacks for the road.

Brian, Dan and I were on the road to Lincoln, NE for the Lincoln Plating Stage Race. We had made the conscious decision to ignore the weather forecast, know that those weather folk are usually wrong most of the time. There is no way there could be sustained winds across the plains of Nebraska! What could possibly sustain those winds? There's nothing out there.

I give you Exhibit A:



Had there been more time, we could have made use of salvage laws and done some pillaging, but we had to get to the race! Brian is a very safe driver, especially with the wind (and 4 bikes on the roof) limiting his speed.



And a good thing too, Colorado and Nebraska's finest were out on the road making sure the highway stayed safe for all interstate travellers. Notice the imposing size and stature of this particular trooper. He dwarfs his partner . . . a detail I didn't even realize until now given that the picture was shot out the window at 80 MPH . . . now that's skill.



We made it to Dan's in-laws just before dark, with enough time to get a ride in and knock the drive out of the legs, before the spaghetti feast that was waiting for us. Tomorrow's drive to the venue isn't too long, but start times are relatively early due to lower than expected turnouts. We have a 12.5 mile TT followed by a 86 mile RR . . . in the wind of course.

CCTT Take 2

Yesterday was the second round of the Cherry Creek TT series and the conditions reverted to the usual windy . . . at least it wasn't snowing. I'm happy to say that while my performance still wasn't where I'd like, I was actually faster this week despite the 20+ MPH wind.

The weekly program continues with a trip out to Meridian tomorrow night where I get to attack, recover, attack, recover, and attack some more. It is always fun to go out there and put the hurt on the weak and unsuspecting. Who says you can't make yourself feel big by picking on others?

I am still working on my blogging habits, especially the part about bringing the camera everywhere. I have taken some uninteresting pictures for work of sloppy door and trim installation, but I haven't gotten around to taking a quality picture of the new grill. I really missed the boat by not documenting the trip the grill took from Home Depot to its final resting spot in the backyard. It was nothing short of white trash fabulous.

Let this image from the Weber site serve as food for grilling thought . . .

Fitness

This weekend was good for gaining some much needed fitness. Conditions for Boulder Roubaix couldn't have been much better. The road was potholed as expected, but there were some lines that were decent enough. The race stayed together for the first few laps which made it a little tougher to find good lines going from the feed zone to the finish. I put in a small effort to get to the front and pick my own lines, but it didn't amount to much.



Once the real move made it up the road it was pretty well represented and the remaining group wasn't doing too much racing. I put in a feeble attempt to bridge, but did little more than dangle. My lack of volume reared its ugly head as I got progressively slower with each passing lap. I finished and that's about all I can say.

The race at the Air Force Academy was a good one to watch from the feed zone after 3 laps. My legs decided they had enough after popping off the back on the 2nd lap and chasing back for the third climb up the hill. I got back to the group, rode through, popped, and limped back to the car. Kevin rode well as usual . . . it was amusing to see Mike Carter roll around solo to finish a good 30 seconds ahead of the next finisher.

The program is set for the week including a nice long, slow recovery ride tomorrow. Ah to be a cycling tourist again . . .

What a Storm

I woke up Friday morning expecting the worst. All predictions pointed to up to a foot of snow. I peeked out the window (knowing there was nothing because of the birds chirping) and saw . . . absolutely no snow on the ground. The only accumulation was the petals that have fallen off of my plum tree in the side yard. Joy oh joy, I'd get to race the Boulder Roubaix after all!

This weekend is a good one for training/racing. Roubaix will be tough and from what I hear the Air Force Academy course used previously for Worlds is a crusher. My teammate Kevin is smart enough to skip tomorrow's race which promises potholed roads and dust a plenty.

The good news is that the lack of snow should allow me to pick up my new grill (photos to follow) at the Home Depot and join the rest of America in summer backyard grillling.

There's Always Next Week

Sometimes things go right and riding feels good, natural, efficient and sometimes you have to rely on a good optimistic outlook and remember that there's always next week.

The time trial yesterday didn't really go as planned and my lackluster performance showed with a time slower than any of my efforts from last season. There really aren't any excuses to be made, fortunately the series out at Cherry Creek is without real consequence or significance. I'll look at the ride as a source of motivation and a reason to regain my focus on training over the next days, weeks, months . . . The beauty of having a coach and a good one at that is being able to make adjustments on the fly. Mike is making changes and revising the program to work around the fact that I won't be able to make it to Tour of the Gila this year.

It was good to see some of my Tokyo Joe's teammates out and about. Mike P., Alex, and Duane were doing the TT thing. I saw Leonard in a car, he'll have to comment on that one on his own. Everything seems to be coming together nicely with sponsors for the season. We'll be well equipped in addition to being well fed.

KHTT (aka CCTT)

So now that winter is finally over and spring is here . . .

The time trial series out at Cherry Creek starts this evening. As usual the weather promises wind for the late afternoon/early evening time period, I'm sure with gusts picking up right around my start time. The goal for this year is really not to get passed by Mike Carter. I'm pretty sure I can accomplish it since he starts in front of me for once.

Winter has been excessively cruel this year. It has lingered, dragged on, sapped both motivation and will to ride. I feel like I haven't had much by way of real training over the last few weeks since getting back from Hawaii. Getting on the trainer feels like a chore and riding in wind like yesterday afternoon is mentally punishing.

The CCTT is a good test of fitness since the course doesn't really change year to year and I know what I was able to do last year. There haven't been any changes to equipment other than the motor. We'll see what happens.

A Day in the Life . . .

What follows is a tale told by Dempsey. This is your chance to find out what goes through the head of a 2-year old flat- coated retriever:



The day starts out with a trip somewhere, they usually don't tell me where, they just throw me in the car and assume I want to go. Some days I get to go to races. I like races because I can bark and I see people go by and every once in a while I can try to bite someone when they aren't looking.



Today we go to the store. I think they are making my dinner. I don't really care what they are making, I'm going to try to get some. I think this part of the chicken is for me.



I know this guy is crazy, but i'm pretty sure he's trying to romance this chicken.



Most of the time is seems like somebody is always leaving me behind to go to work or to ride or something. Can't every trip out of the house include me? If they just let me run . . .

Really?

There are some things you simply can't make up. For example:



I have absolutely no clue what sort of marketing tactic this is. It is unique, I'll give it that. Next time I am in need of an auto service center I probably won't be giving A-1 a call. In other rediculous news, the weather has taken it's end of the week, entering the weekend turn for the worse.



As you can see there are no longer mountains to the west, just a gray mass that promises to bring snow, rain and cold.



The forecast for Saturday is now a high of 32 and some sort of moisture. Great weather for a Colorado spring "classic" . . . to those of you racing the Boulder Roubaix, good luck, drink plenty of hot chocolate after the race when you are cleaning mud out of your sealed bearings. I have often been accused of being a fair weather cyclist . . . call me crazy, but I don't get paid to ride my bike and if I end up sick as a dog (Dempsey does have conjunctivitus by the way) and miss work for my real job, I don't get paid!

Where Does the Time Go?

As many others have found out before me, blogging on a consistent basis is much harder than you would think. It isn't that my life isn't the wild roller coaster ride it appears to be . . . it's just remembering things and pretending to have to time to write them down and add pictures.

Picking up where we left off, Sunday's plan was to get out and race at Colorado School of Mines instead of hitting the infamous Koppenberg. In the interest of showcasing one of my team sponsors Haber Vision (www.habervision.com - if you are interested in glasses, let me know and I'll give you the referral code which helps you and helps the team), Dempsey decided it was time to start wearing glasses.



You can see in this next picture that we do infact have a team and both of us showed up to race. Kevin has the skills and experience to get where he needs to be pretty much anytime, anywhere when it comes to racing. I knew this one was going to split up quickly and unfortunately I found myself on the wrong side of the split. One of the fast kids and a few of the fast old guys, Kevin and my coach Mike Carter included got away and lapped most of the field.



The remainder of the race was a good opportunity to try to shake off a winter's worth of trainer handling skills. While I am not the world's worst bike handler, I certainly haven't won any awards. There was a lot that I could get away with as a Cat 3, but I know the importance of not wasting efforts in P/1/2 races.

Passover started this week so my diet of fruits and matzo will result in significant weight loss. The only real treat for Passover is chicken soup with matzo balls which might come in handy anyways with the "wintery" mix forecast for the remainder of the week, including Saturday which is Boulder Roubaix . . .