Snap

As in: the legs have no snap.
As in: my chain just snapped.

Warming up for Mankato I could tell I just didn't have the energy for a good race. Start was poor, but passed a lot on the first climb. I tried to keep the speed up to maintain my position and was sitting top 20 after first lap. First half of Lap 2 I was just trying to recover. Then about halfway up the Staircase climb my chain seized, then it snapped. Game over. Oh well. 3-4 weeks until next race and I'm glad. I need some time to recover and train.

Mud Spanker

First photo: dry trail, shades. Second photo: grease trap, and contact lenses being dried onto my corneas. I think I was telling Dana (thanks for the photos and encouragement during the race) to get a shot of me falling on my ass.

Dirt Spanker

Working 10-14 hour days for the last 3 weeks then being sick the last 3 days didn't bode well for the Dirt Spanker. But, I raced anyway. Last year was super hot, this year it was cloudy, mid-70's with off and on rain. So, temperature-wise it was perfect. Trail-wise, not so much. The race starts at the bottom of the ski hill and shoots you all the way up with no warm up. A quick bomber descent then a super steep, rooty climb and you're in the singletrack. Or in this case, the grease. I had zero traction and was sliding all over the place. Every corner, root or log was an extreme effort to stay upright. Nothing like putting all your energy into staying upright instead of moving forward. The brand new trail was the worst. Several times I just about ate it. Then it started raining and it only got worse.

I was riding sideways as much as forward and I heard someone behind me and let them pass. It was Longley. D'oh! He kicked my ass pretty much every race last year and I was determined not to let it happen today without a fight. I did what I could to keep him in sight, and on the climb out at the end of the lap, I gave it some gas and passed him. One small victory for the day. Second lap went a bit better, still no trust in the tires though. Third lap I was feeling fairly good all things considered. I caught up to a Kenwood guy and used him as a rabbit. We caught up to about 3 other guys by the downhill, and I was praying that we could get around them. Instead, it was brakeville all the way down. Plan B was to sit on until the climb and go for it. All of the sudden I'm on my frigging back with my bike on top of me. My front wheel caught some grease in a corner, turned 90 degrees and launched me over the bars into the woods. I smacked the inside of both knees on the bike (I think) in the process. It was one of those deals where you don't even have time to check to see if your bike is still in one piece (or if you are in one piece), you just get on, ride and hope everything works. My knees were killing me and I just lost 3 places. I struggled up the climb one last time, survived the slip-and-slide downhill finish and was done.

4th in my age group, 23rd or something overall. Not bad considering I pretty much flipped a coin as to whether or not to race while sick. I had ice on my knees the whole drive home and still could not move by the time I went to bed. Mankato may not happen next Sunday. We'll see how mobile I am.

Props to Kevin for winning our group and 2nd overall. Jamison continues to rock. Big props to CJ for riding with the experts today (it's like his 3rd race or something ridiculous like that).

Rest Week Recap

After last Sunday's Afton race, I was supposed to have a week off the bike. That lasted until Tuesday, when I put in 70 miles. I stayed off the bike again until Saturday, mostly because I felt like crap. Saturday I still felt lousy, but it was my only chance to go to Mankato and preride the course before the race. So, I packed up and headed south.

The comp/expert course has at least 2 sections that aren't in sport. I've ridden "Mad Squirrel" before, which consists of a rutted, rooty downhill with some wicked switchbacks. I hadn't ridden "Quick Release" before. Yikes. The pictures on MORC don't really do it justice. SUPER steep, with tight turns covered with roots, meaning you've got to keep your fingers off the brakes and let it roll. The bottom drops out to the base of the ski hill with a big pile of loose dirt at the bottom to get through at high speed. 4 times through this outta be fun. If somebody in front of you doesn't make it you're screwed, because I don't know that you can walk this section. I'm hoping to not be that guy. I cleaned it both times I rode it, but decided not to push my luck any further since I was the only person out riding.

Yesterday, no ride, just a long walk with the family. No ride today, hills tomorrow.

Afton, again...

Rode into work yesterday morning to try to wake the legs up since I was still feeling pretty tired from Sunday's race. I'm supposed to be in a transition week, which means no riding. So what do I do? A 60+ mile ride from the Birchwood to Afton and back. See map and elevation profile here. Over 70 miles total yesterday. Ouch.

Afton

Brutal. 2 hours, 11 minutes of suffering. Prologue ran us through a rim-deep bog (see 1st photo above), which bunched everyone back together right before the singletrack. Of course that meant a big traffic jam. After getting out of that mess I gave it some gas to try to get in a good position for the Bridge Loop climb, where there are always people getting caught in the wrong gear and stalling out right in front of you. Gave it some more gas up the Shady Lane climb, passing some people and tried to settle into a rhythm. Made it through the technical sections and was feeling okay. The sun came out just in time for the Manhandler/Whistler climb, and I cooked. The last technical loop was cut out because of the rain, so there was a big bomber downhill instead, leading to the start/finish. 2nd lap I was just trying to maintain my position and not blow up. All the short technical climbs were wearing me down. 3rd lap I was dying. Running out of gas and the legs were on the verge of cramping and total shutdown. Played leapfrog the entire lap with rockstar singlespeeder Ben. Don't know how the hell you can ride Afton with one gear. I granny geared Shady and Manhandler, not sure if my legs were going to function in the middle-ring. Popped it in the middle for Whistler and passed 2-3 guys, putting a nice little gap on them. Gave it what little I had left and rolled into the finish. My left leg totally cramped when I stopped to take off my timing chip (still cramping this morning). Tough race. Loving my bike more and more each time I ride it. New tires did quite well in the grease. 4th place in my age group, 21st overall.

Had our team pot luck: burgers, brats, beer. It was great to see a lot of people still hanging out at the end of the comp/expert race. This is why I joined PCR: bad-ass riders who have as much fun suffering on the bike as they do hanging out together off the bike.

Photos courtesy of Skinnyski.com

Recovery products

NY Times has an interesting article on recovery products and energy drinks/food.

I think it makes sense for the average Joe who only does a short, low-intensity workout a few times a week. But, and maybe it's just a placebo effect, I can definitely tell the difference in the hours and day after an intense workout or race if I don't take Endurox right after the event. Especially if I've got another hard effort that following day. It's also much more convenient to have a bottle of R4 ready to go right after a race than it is to have an actual meal.

Or, you could use Gary's preferred recovery drink: Heineken.

Afton

Hit Afton for a couple of laps Sunday afternoon. Saw quite a few others out doing top-secret training. Low 80's and sunny, pretty much like most race days there. Manhandler/Whistler was brutal, baking in the direct sun all the way up. Trail was mostly dry, except for start area and the gravel road. 2 days of potato salad and beer didn't bode well for training.

Looks like rain all week and severe weather forecast for Sunday. Good times.

Como

Fun studies for another day with a better camera and morning or evening light. I could spend all day in the Japanese Garden.

Stillwater ride

Original plan was to roll with the slow group and use this as a slow burner. Of course that didn't happen. I rolled with the fast group, which consisted of more new faces than familiar ones. The first 15 miles were relatively flat, but everyone was taking flyers, trying to split things up. I knew the big climb out of Stillwater on 11 would splinter everything so I saved my matches for later.

We caught the slow group right at the base of the climb, so we had to weave our way through 20 people and up the first part of the climb. This thinned things out a bit, but the faster guys came back together before the big hill. I decided to try keeping it in the big ring and sprinting up the climb. So, I stood up and went. Stayed standing all the way to the top (that was some good pain), looked back and I had about a 100-150 meter gap. Didn't get caught until Stonebridge (stupid stop sign), but by then we had shelled all but 6 guys.

The newbies didn't quite grasp the whole rotating paceline concept. When they got to the front they would hit the gas and fly off the front, instead of keeping the same pace and letting the guy who just did all the work catch a break. After a little coaching things smoothed out and we were flying between 25-30 mph through the rollers. I took one more flyer on the final hill, staying away until the descent. Then the cat and mouse for the sprint started. I thought I was finally in a good spot, about 4th wheel with 1,000 meters to go. Then 2 guys sat up and I was in the worst position possible. If I took a short pull and sat up I'd get attacked. So, of course, I went for it with about 600 meters to go. Legs were burning, got caught at about 100 meters to go but managed to catch a wheel. Was still in it but got boxed in for about 4th place.

Overall, legs felt pretty good. If the temp ever gets above 70 I may be able to breathe and we'll see how things improve then. Hopefully no repeats of last weeks total body shutdown (I'll be working on recovery the next few days).

Max Watts: 957
Average Watts: 210 (next ride I will try to hit the interval button to get more accurate averages, excluding the warm-up and cool-down parts)
Average Speed: 22.5 mph
Distance: 40.34 miles
Calories burned: 1575

Recovery Ride

Took an easy morning spin yesterday to keep the legs alive. Turned into a harder effort coming back into the wind, but not a hammerfest. Tonight we hit the hills by Stillwater for 40 miles. Can't decide if I'm gonna sit in with the slow guys and just get some miles in or if I'm gonna do the usual race effort.

Holy close call, Batman

We just missed the tornado by about 10 minutes. We were at Home Depot in Blaine and the sky was doing funky things so we headed home. By the time I turned on the tv the tornado warnings were out. Missed us by about 5 miles. Funny thing is it didn't even rain here until the second storm rolled through. Going outside now to see how much hail damage we have.

Where were the sirens? They didn't go off until the storm was well past us.

Lebanon Hills

I took it easy, skipped the Afton ride, and went to Leb instead. Did two full laps plus the warm-up loop for a cool down. Cleaned the entire Tedman's Curve section for the first time, so that was nice. I rode the whole trail with a bit more confidence on the new rig. It's nice having a bike that fits and that has full-suspension. I took some lines in the xx loop I never would have dreamed of on a hardtail, and the boing-boing saved my bacon in the rocks a few times. Perfect day for riding, hopefully the energy levels return to normal soon.

Obey the recovery week

I think I'm paying the price for overtraining. Yesterday morning I woke up and felt horrible. Super weak, nauseous and out of it. It took everything I had to get Owen to daycare and get back home. I crawled into bed to rest for a minute. I woke up 4-1/2 hours later. Better today, but still super tired. Hoping to ride this weekend, but will definitely take it easy.

Aw yeah

I hate penalty shoot outs, it's kind of like deciding the outcome on a coin toss. But, I guess you've still got to put the ball in the back of the net. Man Utd are Premier League and Champions League champs. Awesome.
In the "This could only happen to me" department: I set the TiVo for the match and Jen and I are watching the highlights. I fast forward to the penalty shootout. Good stuff. Even though I knew what was coming it was still nerve racking to watch. Hargreaves makes his penalty kick, then the TiVo cuts out. Thank God for the internet, where I found some video from Australia posted to Youtube.

Nason Hill

Super windy and I got gutterballed about 5 miles in (literally, blown off the road into the gravel). I latched back onto the pack, but as I was doing that there was a break of 6 guys at the front. We started chasing but only me and 2 other guys would pull through. I got frustrated and went for it, trying to bridge up. Didn't work. Sat up, waited for the chasers. Same deal for the next 15 miles: 3 people out of 8-9 took turns pulling, and if anyone else did pull through they went way too fast for anyone to follow (after they'd been sitting in forever).

Well, I put up with this until the big climb, Nason Hill. Dropped the hammer and shelled the dead weight. Passed lots of shredded riders from the original escape. Eventually, the stronger, cooperative riders from the previous chase group caught me. But, the 5 of us got a smooth paceline going and drilled it for the next 20 miles. I felt great on the hills and took a few monster turns on the front. Legs were absolutely screaming for me to stop, but I was able to ignore it for once (holy crap am I paying for that now. Ouch). Took one more big pull up the last twisty hill on 7 before the sprint. Dwight gave me the secret sign to follow his lead out for the sprint, but that was game over for me. Sat up and watched the sprint unfold. Good times. Great ride. This is what was missing from my training last year.

Max Watts: 795
Ave Watts: 225
Miles: 43.36
Calories burned: 1654

So much for my recovery week...

I was only supposed to ride 3-1/2 hours this week, all short recovery rides with a 40 minute TT today. I did a 40 mile hammer ride on Tuesday and a 3-hour leg ripper on the mtb at Afton today (including 5 times up Manhandler). I'm feeling pretty cooked, but it was a fun week. I'll take it easy tomorrow...

Fun facts from today's ride:

Guy sitting next to his bike on the switchback climbs, smoking a cigarette yells "You guys are ANIMALS!" as we ride by. He was in flavor country.

Some other dude was out riding with a cat. Yes, a cat. As in fluffy, litter box using, Meow Mix eating feline.

We got road raged by a guy in a golf cart.

Commute

I drove Owen to daycare, then went home and grabbed my bike and rode to work. It took me about 2-1/2 minutes longer to ride in at a recovery pace than it does to drive. It's only 3 miles each way, but with the extra trip home and back for lunch, I can get in 40-60 minutes of spinning every day and stick it to the man.

I certainly needed the spin, I'm feeling Wednesday's ride today worse than yesterday. Do you experience the 2-day lag? For me, the second day after a big race or a bad night's sleep is always worse than the day after.

Hey there legs, welcome back!

Did the R&G hammer ride last night. 40 miles from White Bear Lake north to Hugo, up and around Big Marine Lake, then back on the rollers via Norell and 7. I was able to hang with the fast group and actually put in some attacks on a few hills. Made the mistake of taking a huge flyer with John Thompson and burned a bunch of matches, almost got dropped, but recovered before the first climb. I didn't get dropped by the Oftedahl brothers (although I'm guessing this was a recovery ride for them) and had enough left in the tank for a long lead-out at the end.

I miss the group ride. There's nothing quite like a smooth paceline slicing through the wind at high speed. When I was taking my turn at the front the watts were in the 300-375 range on the flats. A few times even when I was sitting 3rd or 4th wheel I was ticking over 275-300 watts (my threshold is about 260). We caught the first group right before Big Marine and blew by them like they were standing still. I think Mealhouse was the only one to latch on and I think he fell off after the hill. Good times. Great night. Hopefully the fitness is coming around. Even if it's not, that was my best ride of the year so far.

The Stats (including warm up and cool down)
Max watts: 805
Average watts: 205
Calories burned: 1355
Average speed: 22.9 mph
Max speed: 38.75 mph
Distance: 40.68 miles

No Style Points

Another of Dana's shots from Sunday, showing me working on my cyclocross skills in the mudpit of death.