Mountain Biking and Road Racing, maybe not in that order.
Over the last few weeks I have been getting back on the bike and getting into the swing of things again. I raced Syllamo's Revenge with more "training" than ever before, but I need to put the spurs to myself (kinda kinky huh) and really get in better habits of riding my bike more than 4 hours a week. I did pretty well over the last 8 days by doing some duration and some intensity and need to start throwing in consistency. I still have to trick myself into riding in different ways than most. It usually involves a ton of profanities and a cue sheet written on a sheet of high quality paper.
I have realized that my last week's exploration ride was truly an epic adventure. I just took off with a few bottles full of water, pockets full of gu, and my iPhone in case things got too squirrely before the light got too low. With that said I have a few different long rides that I plan to attempt over the coming weeks. I want to ride to places I have never been and maybe even end up somewhere I didn't know existed. I'm itching to do a century on the Bob Roll Plan: Wake up, eat breakfast, ride a century, do a shot and chase it with a Guinness. Nap til' 8. Eat a burger. Go to bed.
The road roll-out on the knobby tires this morning was brutal. I raced hard on the road yesterday. I guess that should come first, but it's not. My legs were feeling like they had been filled with lead and then encased in plaster. For the second time my Fizik Aliante saddle felt terrible. Like three rounds of tingly numbness trying to set into my pieces' parts (thanks Pirate for that line. I love it). It was hard to find my rythym, I didn't think I was as hungry as I was. I guess racing yesterday took it out of me. I was physically hurting so I was mentally weak. Things got slimy and I let a little muddy hike-a-bike ruin my fun for a little while. Then I choked down a bar, zipped my mouth shut, and tried to climb out of the "being a whiney ass" and into the "this is a bike ride, its fun" mindset. It sorta worked. For pictures from today's ride go here.
Saturday was the Circue Da Vaccuum race. It was out on the Long Road race loop which is a fast paced, windy, slightly rolling with one hill course. The Cat 4's and Cat 5's got split so the BPC presence in my race was killed. Richard Murphy, Randy, and Richard Patterson joined me in the 5's. The first 3 laps were prime laps, so the race started hot. 3 guys from two teams went off the front and things got ugly. The teams sat up and blocked so they started gapping and I thought "shit, we aren't moving" and went to the front. I baited the guys to start chasing their team mates for a while, till one Vaccuum yelled to another "Stop pulling when your own team is off the front." Le Duh. I just kept going to the front and making people go faster. I didn't want to roll along at a 17mph pace for 40 miles. At the end of lap 1 the gap was 20 seconds. Richard M and I went to the front and made it hurt. We went faster. Vaccuums tried blocking and parking. Some harsh words were exchanged at one point. End of lap 2 the time gap was 2 minutes and 20 seconds. WTF? Seriously. We put together a better effort but some people wouldn't pull, some teams wouldn't pull, and the race was falling apart in front of me. I got stressed out.
I overlapped wheels with a guy and almost went down but luckily didn't. Adrenaline junky. I kept wanting to go fast. I started bonking. One hour, 12 minutes with no food. SHEEEEEEEIT!!! I ate a gu. In retrospect I should have just eaten 2 at once and gotten it over with. I came back, but knew I wasn't going to to into the last lap fresh to sprint for 4th. There were guys missing from the race who I wanted to disappear. The field seemed to be slimming down. When certain guys were at the front it was a single file suffer fest. I was sitting off the back for a minute. I talked some mad crap to myself and closed the 3 bike length gap so I could draft to the hill. A few laps later, taking pulls each lap, I knew my matches were getting numbered. So I decided to burn 'em while I had 'em. When the 3 laps sign came out I knew I needed to keep all the team guys drafting. People didn't want to rotate through and let Murphy rest so I went from back and let him sit on my wheel for a while. One of the Circue Da Vaccuums popped out of the break away group and we swallowed him up. I put in a super hard launch at the beginning of the last lap to make the pace go up and then promptly popped. I lost the group as they went by and eventually pedaled in the last lap solo. This was similar to my hero effort I made at the Jackson race but this time it landed Richard Murphy on the podium. Was my work what did it? Not 100% but I feel like I did my part.
I have realized that my last week's exploration ride was truly an epic adventure. I just took off with a few bottles full of water, pockets full of gu, and my iPhone in case things got too squirrely before the light got too low. With that said I have a few different long rides that I plan to attempt over the coming weeks. I want to ride to places I have never been and maybe even end up somewhere I didn't know existed. I'm itching to do a century on the Bob Roll Plan: Wake up, eat breakfast, ride a century, do a shot and chase it with a Guinness. Nap til' 8. Eat a burger. Go to bed.
The road roll-out on the knobby tires this morning was brutal. I raced hard on the road yesterday. I guess that should come first, but it's not. My legs were feeling like they had been filled with lead and then encased in plaster. For the second time my Fizik Aliante saddle felt terrible. Like three rounds of tingly numbness trying to set into my pieces' parts (thanks Pirate for that line. I love it). It was hard to find my rythym, I didn't think I was as hungry as I was. I guess racing yesterday took it out of me. I was physically hurting so I was mentally weak. Things got slimy and I let a little muddy hike-a-bike ruin my fun for a little while. Then I choked down a bar, zipped my mouth shut, and tried to climb out of the "being a whiney ass" and into the "this is a bike ride, its fun" mindset. It sorta worked. For pictures from today's ride go here.
Saturday was the Circue Da Vaccuum race. It was out on the Long Road race loop which is a fast paced, windy, slightly rolling with one hill course. The Cat 4's and Cat 5's got split so the BPC presence in my race was killed. Richard Murphy, Randy, and Richard Patterson joined me in the 5's. The first 3 laps were prime laps, so the race started hot. 3 guys from two teams went off the front and things got ugly. The teams sat up and blocked so they started gapping and I thought "shit, we aren't moving" and went to the front. I baited the guys to start chasing their team mates for a while, till one Vaccuum yelled to another "Stop pulling when your own team is off the front." Le Duh. I just kept going to the front and making people go faster. I didn't want to roll along at a 17mph pace for 40 miles. At the end of lap 1 the gap was 20 seconds. Richard M and I went to the front and made it hurt. We went faster. Vaccuums tried blocking and parking. Some harsh words were exchanged at one point. End of lap 2 the time gap was 2 minutes and 20 seconds. WTF? Seriously. We put together a better effort but some people wouldn't pull, some teams wouldn't pull, and the race was falling apart in front of me. I got stressed out.
I overlapped wheels with a guy and almost went down but luckily didn't. Adrenaline junky. I kept wanting to go fast. I started bonking. One hour, 12 minutes with no food. SHEEEEEEEIT!!! I ate a gu. In retrospect I should have just eaten 2 at once and gotten it over with. I came back, but knew I wasn't going to to into the last lap fresh to sprint for 4th. There were guys missing from the race who I wanted to disappear. The field seemed to be slimming down. When certain guys were at the front it was a single file suffer fest. I was sitting off the back for a minute. I talked some mad crap to myself and closed the 3 bike length gap so I could draft to the hill. A few laps later, taking pulls each lap, I knew my matches were getting numbered. So I decided to burn 'em while I had 'em. When the 3 laps sign came out I knew I needed to keep all the team guys drafting. People didn't want to rotate through and let Murphy rest so I went from back and let him sit on my wheel for a while. One of the Circue Da Vaccuums popped out of the break away group and we swallowed him up. I put in a super hard launch at the beginning of the last lap to make the pace go up and then promptly popped. I lost the group as they went by and eventually pedaled in the last lap solo. This was similar to my hero effort I made at the Jackson race but this time it landed Richard Murphy on the podium. Was my work what did it? Not 100% but I feel like I did my part.
Roll on!
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