Just some summer pics

New Car; Old One Exploded

New MTB; Old One Exploded

New Gravel Ride; old one Exploded

PR

I had the state TT today, and the junk is sore again! I warmed up, per plan, but had one small mishap. Landen did not replace the magnet on my wheel following Nationals. Thus, I had no speedometer. Moving forward.

I got out of the gates well, and passed two people before the turn-a-round. Between passing cyclist #1 and cyclist #2, I noticed what sounded like a jet. No, it was this guy . My monologue was as follows: I immediately thought,"nice, a very, very fast rabbit." Countered by,"Dude, what are you thinking, that guy just put 2 minutes into you, how on earth are you going to stay with him." Rob English is a TT demon and clocked a 51:20 for the TT!

I passed four more people on the way back, but was caught by another guy in the 1,2 devision. I did manage to not loose any more time to the second person to pass, keeping up with his pace for the last 10 km. All and all, I felt really good with the new saddle position. I ended up with a time of 55:03, a personal best for the 40 km TT, and besting my firecracker TT 40 km time by 2:03. I think runners call that a personal record. So to recapitulate:

40 km State TT
55:03
27.5 mph
5th overall

Schedule For The Remainder Of The Season

Here is what the rest of the year looks like. In leu of the fact that I haven't raced but 9 races this year, the next few months should be filled with a bunch of days, most notabally cyclo-cross. Below is a tentitive schedule:

Aug
2 OBRA State TT Championships
8 Willamette Epic TT
16 OBRA Hill Climb State Championships
28-30 Eugene Celebration

Sep
5 Mt. Bachelor Hill Climb or Cross over stage race
12-13 Everest Challenge
26-27 Central Oregon Cyclocross

CCC

I met up with my friend Marco in Bend this weekend to race the Cascade Cycling Classic. If former Spanish National Champion, Climber extraordinaire, Oscar Sevilla say a race is, "Really, really, really hard" then you know that there is something to it.

Although the stage races had 4 races, the Aubrey Butte Circuit race was the Piece de Resistance of the weekend. 4 laps with ~1000 ft of climbing per lap, this races is arguably the most difficult race I have ever done. The trick is to keep good position on the decent and flat sections and reach the climbs in the first five positions. Very hard and very mentally draining.

I arrived with the lead group of ~40 (out of 100) at the start of the climb on the last lap. I was on the rivet. I needed to make it over the KOM climb and two other climbs to arrive to the flame rouge. I made it within 10 peddle strokes to the top of the KOM. Implosion. Fin. Finished 37th and 35th in the GC.

I have only raced 9 races this year and 4 were this weekend. It would have been nice to get another couple stage races in the legs before that one.

Here is a link to a video of me passing some dude at the 1 km Mark at the TT, I am almost certain that he was drafting me.

Podium Training

I never realized how much energy and worrying I did in regards to training. When I missed a workout, or had a bad day on the machine, I went back to the drawing board, spending countless hours revamping the plan. Well, no more. To quote the wise and omnipotent Dr. Humphry, "I don't waste energy worrying about the unknown."

For three months now, I have been working with a coach and elite racer, Tommy Nelson owner of Podium Training. Last year was spent overtraining (15-25 hrs on the bike) with results that were, not up to snuff.
I had a certain criteria for a coach and tommy fit the mold, beautifully (he is an ex model, you know). Below is what I needed to justify a coach for my athletic pursuits:

1. A Coach had to be faster than me. I did not want someone that was some chump in a recliner with a little personal training background telling me what to do.

2. A Coach had to have a background in exercise science, preferably a b.s. or m.s. in the field. I personally, have a undergraduate degree in exercise science, and know how valuable this is in terms of coaching.

3. A Coach had to have an intricate knowledge of training and racing with power. A very critical component in making micro-advances in training.

4. A Coach had to be ACCESSIBLE. Often, coaches can only be contacted 1 X per week, or something silly like that. I think this notion is utterly rediculous. How can one accurately and effectively advise and coach a pupal without knowing his/her day to day progress and trials and tribulations? Tommy has UNLIMITED access.

Other than dedicating a large portion of my free time to cycling, getting Podium Training on the case helping me train effectively and efficiently has been the best investment I have made in my biking career.

Below is a picture of my coach, Tommy, spanking Ben Day from Flying V, Austrailia cycling team earlier in the year.

So Aero

With the help of my friend and teammate Luke from Collin's, I got setup yet again with the specialized body geometry 3D bike fit, this time for my machina de chrono. Fitting a TT rig is always a game of mm, with a improper fit lending itself to sacrificing power for aerodynamics. I think I have finally got the best of both worlds. Here is a pic.

T-minus 7,6,5...

One last big ride today, and then onto the Elkhorn Classic Stage Race in Baker City, Or. Gearing up to go do a large one, and then hanging out with the parents, for a couple more days. Rewind...

I forgot to mention that my folks are here from Iowa this week. We went to king estates for dinner, went to the coast, and saw UP last night.

Wolf Creek Ride

Did some silly ride with my buddy Tim yesterday. I just wanted to show time the oregon biking scene. As well as a prospect race he and some of his teammates may do. Ended up with ~5000 ft of climbing and one tired pavlovich.

Scotch Egg

Recently, my sister came to portland, we laughed, we danced( rot really), and we ate Scotch Eggs.
The scotch egg, pictured below is a little animal with a little more animal, and then deep fried. Delicious. Also notice the length of the hair in exhibit a. nice huh?

Rat Dog

I was on the tail end of a 4 hour ride, kind of tired, legs kind of burning, when I happend upon north bank trail on the willamette river.

To preface this post, everyone has to understand one thing, people in Oregon; they love their dogs. I love dogs too. I don't even mind whe three borzois wake me up at night. I hope to someday have a pup of my own.

While 99 % of everyone on the trail had a dog, and had their dog on a leash, one lady had two little guy that apparently, did not need leashes.

I was winding down from a hard day in the saddle when one of the two rat dogs jumped infront of my wheel. Brakes locked up. Power slide. Near endo. Rat dog aprox two mm from getting spinal cord run over by yours truley.

We don't have leash laws to take away the "fun" from anyone. We have them for safety, and so I don't smush you rat dog.

Sauce Demi Glace

A demi glace is a reduction made of equal parts sauce espangole and veal stock/veal reduction. I had everything in line to perfect this culinary treat that goes with a nice steak. I roasted my mirapioux, mushrooms, and beef bones. Then add water, veal stock, tomato paste, rosmary, thyme, and let the flavors get together, for 6-8 hours.

Things were going great, I was two hours into the process, and needed to step out to eat sushi with friends Randy and Greg. MY though process was a follows: put the stock on low, step out and eat, come back, finish stock. I came back to no stock, dried up burnt bones, and the inability to proceed with the demi glace process. Woops.

To weight 200 lbs. I had the great experience, on sunday during my ride. My dur-ace cable broke off in the hood, while i was climbing a 8% grade/3000 ft climb. The rear der was set in the 12. The two otions were 1. turn around 2. continue climbing at 20-30 rpms. What do you think I did? Yeah, at some points, my computer was regestering a cadence 1 I was moving so slow.

What it feels like-

What I do on my days off

As the above/below pictures would indicate, I am indeed back on the bike. I have a ride that I do call McGowen Creek road in the Mohawk/coburg hills area. McGowen Creek road is a great road with tones of elevation, and a bit of steepness as well. Their are a couple finger extentions that come off of the road. One of which, Rd 16-2-29 which between 13-19 % grade and an additional 5 miles. I effectively call this road the many things but none of them are good. McGowen Creek to Mt Tom road is ~12 mile ( I though it was 8 before but it ends up switching to gravel at the 8-9 mile point) and Crests out at ~3000 ft. Its gradient is only 5-10%, only. Here are a couple of pictures of the road, the good Doctor would be proud of all the tarmac/gravel climbing I have been doing.

O.A.R, Bikeling, and like blind melon said...

No Rain. Weird, I know. We haven't had rain in nearly a week. Not much sun either, but I'd rather have overcast weather and the occasional SSRI's instead of rain. My riding has consisted of night rides with the below pictured bike light. Instead of powering hours out on the trainer, the mild nights (high thirties) lend itself to the accumulation of hours outside. This week will make 15 hours, which throughly please my inner need to be on the bike non-stop. And a weight update, only 49,000 kcal left to lose!



Last night, I went to the O.A.R concert. It reminded me to that whimsical time called college. Ah, college, no waking up at 6 am and such...

The ride I am doing sunday has 4163 ft of climbing, sounds like a day at ragby if you ask me.

Git-fiddle

Here is a picutre of my old acoustic gitbox. Nice, and it doubles as a christmas tree if needs be.

Here is the picture of my new jangling noise machine. Gretsch electromatic in wine color with vox 15 watt amp. Just picked it up is Seattle this weekend. Don't drool too much, or do as long as it is the safety of your own home.

Training, week two

As we all know, I started training two weeks ago. And started weighing myself this week. I didn't have a battery in my scale, and it was finally time to update the equiptment this week.

Found out that skip a meal diet is in effect. I am 54,000 kcal heavier than I would like to be, 45,000 kcal larger than my lightest point last year. I guess that is what three + month away from exercise will get you. Not to worry, Two good friends have done this yo-yo approach, with good result. Jan Ullrich and Matt Landen. Diet starts, well monday.

In other news, I got a 5 mile climb up parsons creek road in during my long ride yesterday.