Hittin it hard

After being completely shot in class today I decided to take a short nap. nearly 2 hours later I woke up and it was time to go ride bikes. I cruised on over to Carleton to get Sean. From there we cruised on out to Big Woods State park going pretty hard up some of the hills. My legs were still asleep at the start, but soon enough they were ready to go. We then did 2 of the big laps (somewhere around 20 min each), the second was race pace. It felt pretty good to kick it in again. After that we cruised around on a shorter lap then headed back out on to the road heading into Nerstrand. That means a town line, which in turn means a sprint. So off we went I was leading it out and as Sean was throwing it down I stood up and went full bore 1165 watts to be more exact, a blink of an eye later my chain skipped and then things got interesting. My feet both unclipped, and I did some pavement skiing, then that stopped and I proceeded to smash my elbow, ass, and head on my left side into the blacktop, while my front tire ripped skin of my right leg twice. Shortly after that I was sitting in the shoulder wondering what the hell just happened. After a few minutes of recovery, it was up an at em again. As I recently have had no desire to ride on pavement lightly, (and crashing did not change that) and the fact that I had a large whole in my shorts, I said we should take gravel back. So we had a nice easy cruise back to town. For the Northfield town line I lead Sean out, while in top gear my chain was skipping, I am pretty sure that is what caused the crash.
We then met up with some of Seans friends and cruised for another 30 min. All in all it was a 3 hr 10 min ride, and I hit it hard in multiple ways...

Dazed.

Tire burns

Did not quite make the line
Back on the road again

Well then

Cross has started, it has been a few weeks since the last race, so it was good to start hammering it again.
This morning Sean and I cruised on up to St. Cloud. It is really nice doing the top level races, as they are always late. I did not have to wake up very early at all. Anyway, I was exhausted the whole way up, I think it was because of lack of sleep Friday night. But hey, thats college!
Even while I was warming up I thought I was going to fall asleep, I envisioned getting to the start line and just tipping over fast asleep. But luckily that did not happen and it was off for the first 60 minutes of cross of the year.
St. Cloud has a nice course set up. This year they even added a hill and barriers to make it even more fun. The course starts on top of a hill, weaves around for a bit then drops down to the Mississippi back up, right back down. A bit of flat then up and down and up again. It is not very technical and does not have a whole lot of recovery.
My start sucked, I felt well not good at all. I was just not able to push it super hard. After a bit over 2 laps I guess I got warmed up, and brought the pace up high to try and catch Herr Casper who had just blown by the small group I was in. I just went and kept going (never catching the ghost), but thanks to him I actually started racing. At the start I was a good 15 places back or so, and I had no idea how many people were in front of me. I just assumed it was 10 or so since that is where I finished up last year. About halfway in the Duluth guys started yelling that I was 6th. I was quite surprised at that, and noticed that 4 and 5 were not far. So I did the only thing that makes sense and chased hard. With about 4 laps left I caught them (Micha and Matt of Grandstay), Matt got on my wheel and we rode together for the rest of the race. He sat on, and said that I could have the sprint, but I think he coulda kicked my ass if he had wanted. ha! But anyway, the race ended up going surprisingly well. I had no idea that I was going that fast, I was not feeling all that great, or so I thought, but I guess I was. I wonder what will happen if I feel good for a race?
But it was a good time. I am off to a much better start than last year. Where I finished 30 out of 37 or so in this race compared to this year which was 5 out of 33. I'll take it! Now lets just hope I keep getting faster and not stay the same or get slow while everyone else flies by me.

Lets get the party started.
Sean leading me out for the barriers. ha!

Casper the ghost about to eat me up and spit me out.
Starting to hurt

Turn!

First time one has ever been able to read Milltown of the back of the shorts.

Colds, cramps, cross and homework...

The title pretty much somes up what has been happening lightly. Last Friday morning I woke with a light tickle in the throat, thought nothing of it and thus went hard on the bike. Not a good idea, Saturday I woke up with a sore throat and stuff nose. Sunday was worse. Monday was better, so I did a few hard hills, thus giving the cold another chance. Damn, that was dumb. Tuesday hurt a bit, then it started tapering off more. Today was insanely easy so hopefully tomorrow I will finally feel good again.
A large population of Oles are sick, so I know where I got it from. But usually my immune system can kick the common campus colds. I guess training was to hard?

Along with this cold I have had some death cramps. The first was just randomly (not that the other dont) started on a recent ride. It was concentrated and contained to the numb spot on my right leg from surgery. Just as random as it started it went away. Yesterday, I was riding out of Faribault and got on my seat a bit weird. This somehow caused a cramp that lasted for a good hour. Then today riding in the Arb, again for no reason my left leg started doing the classic death cramp. Not cool, I dont know why they are happening now. Ive been riding everyday, and except for Monday all easy.
In other news, I finally got an appt. at the Mayo.

Cross riding is all Sean and I have been doing. Lots of trail and gravel. Yesterday I went out early, thus by solo. I was only planning on going to the shop and back, but due to there being no wind I just kept going and ended up with 3.5. I rode some new gravel, always exciting. Anyways, this weekend is supposed to be the first cross race of the year. I really want to do it, but if I feel like I do now, there is not much point....

Other then riding bikes, all I have time for is homework. The professors are really piling it on these days. I don't really get it, I am in the same level classes (if not easier) as last year, but am doing much more work. Not fun. But at least some of it is interesting.

Cross time.

Time for cross riding, got the bike all set up, even with Powertap. Sean and I have been riping up the trails and gravel. Today we went up to Lebanan Hills and I had a nice face plant.
Time to go "recover."

Class, Power, and Jesse James

Last week classes started. Unlike most other semesters most of my classes should be really good.
I have: the ethics of war, Chinese, German, and it's about sex. I think they all have the potential of being very good.

Last week Powertap came as well. It is really quite fun to look at all the information I get out of it. While riding today I was just watching the watt reading. The reading is always changing, very hard to keep it consistent. I am wondering if I am putting more power in with my right leg then left, the reading kept varying 5-10 watts and seemed to be in unison with the push of each different leg. I'll have to look into that.
Now that I have the information, I just need to figure out how to use it to get faster...

Yesterday was the annual Jesse James bike tour. There is a 10, 30, 60, and 100 mile ride. On Friday night, while out and about, I had convinced two others to come with me. However, that was at 1 a.m., thus when 7:30 came around both were not to be seen. So off I went by myself. I rode with a doctor from the Mayo for just over 50 miles, then he said he was to tired to carry on at my pace so I took off for the rest solo. I only started getting tired in the last 30 minutes of the ride, which was after the 100 mile mark. On the way through the outskirts of Northfield I came across and art show, and they were selling kettle corn, I love that stuff, so I bought some and had to carry a giant bag of popcorn a good 5 miles. Ha.
All in all the ride was 181 km (108 miles) and 6 hrs 4 min long. I hit the 100 mile mark at 5 hrs 15. I had an ok avg. of 205 watts for the century. After that I just cruised back.

Today I woke with tired legs, but after breakfast I felt great. I went out for 2 hours, just me Powertap and iPod. During the ride I came to the realization that I really do enjoy riding solo. The iPod talks to me, and Powertap tells me how my form is, even better than other riders can. Group rides with the Olaf "team" a few times a week will be good this year, but not everyday like in the past. I need to do my own thing, train right, and now train really smart.

It's 101, lets go race.

Apparently it gets hot in Missouri. And yesterdays race started at 2, while 3 is usually the hottest part of the day. Good timing, eh?
Anyway, despite it being hot (the hottest I've ever raced in) I was pretty much ready to rock for the final day of the Gateway Cup. I did what I thought was a good enough warm up, and soon the race was on. The first 15 minutes sucked, I was no where near warmed up enough so I was suffering on the hot gradual uphill that was half the course. Eventually I started feeling better and started moving up. Up and up I went, it was great. After some time I was exactly where I had wanted to be the entire weekend (with the exception of a break), I was sitting comfortably in the position 1 to 20 of the peloton. Nice and safe and yet plenty of wind block, I sat on Dan Schamtz's (the local BMC pro that won the weekend) wheel for quite some time. I went with some break attempts, but nothing got away after the first break of the day.
As the race went on it got hotter and hotter. Most of the hill was in the shade, but the top was not, every time we went over it felt like stepping into a sauna.
Unfortunately my good positioning was suddenly lost with about 20 minutes to go. The peloton simply engulfed the front and it changed. I spent the rest of the race trying to get back up. I did not make it to the front, but came in with the main sprint group. so around 30 or so back I think. But it was a good day in all.

I wore the Olaf kit because white is cooler...

The weekend was a great time. For sure the fastest crits I've done. the 130 man peloton and the fast teams are really great. I need to do more big races. I am pleased with my form at this point, on most occasions I was able to make my body do what my mind wanted. Unlike Sean who had some trouble. It is always fun to see my training working right. Also this was my first real test of multiple days of racing. My body handled it great. My legs are not fried at all right now, but recovery ride is still in order. The only thing I wish I would have done was to go out and attack more. I was to afraid in the first few days because I did not know if I would have the energy to make it through. And the last day I had some chances, I just did not take them for some dumb reason. Oh well, I've still got a long time to race bikes. There will be more chances.

Next up Cross!

Days 3 and 4

Yesterday was the "Tour of Washington Ave." The course was right on the edge of downtown St. Louis in an area where they are remodeling a bunch of old buildings into new apartments. The loop started at the top of a longish low gradient hill, went down for two corners then up the backside which was also a long not steep hill, back down for 2 corners and back up to this finish. The hills were not hard enough to split things up, but hard enough to make it hurt.
I had decent position most of the race. A few time I made it right up near the front. With about 10 laps left I was right where I wanted to be, then all of a sudden I was 50 back and could not move up. Oh well, at least I finished unlike Sean. Ha!

The course

The fans are always a good time

Fun on the corners

This evening was the "Giro Della Montagna." It was in the Italian section of town called The Hill. The course was not really hilly, but it did have a nice long hill, one side of the course was up, the other down.
The race was going well until about 20 minutes to go. I was in good position and all, I took a shot of Hammer Gel from one of the refillable containers since that is all I have left. My throat really did not like it and for the last bit of the race I had the coughs. It sucked. I finished again in the 40s or so. Nothing special. Hopefully I'll find some pictures.

Tomorrow is the last stage, and my legs feel great right now. Hopefully that will carry through the night, and I'll be strong tomorrow.

Nighttime fun

Thursday I arrived in Des Moines, and Sean and I cruised on over the the local "race like a girl" training race. It was alright, short races, the longest being 20 minutes, the shortest being 2.
Nothing special happened, but it was a good warm up for this weekend.

Friday morning we cruised on down the road to St. Louis, MO to take part in the Gateway Cup. Four crits over the four day weekend.
The first of which started last night at 9:30. It was really quite strange to be warming up for a race when I am usually getting ready for bed. The course was pretty much flat, a little bit of elevation change, but nothing significant. It was nice and wide with mostly good roads, and only decently lit.
So at 9:30 all 121 racers took off for 75 minutes (plus 5 laps) of fun. I was about mid pack at the start and stayed there for 20 minutes or so while I adjusted to bike racing again. Eventually I found my lines and got the courage and the legs to start moving up. It took quite some time to get anywhere. On a few occasions throughout the race (after halfway) I managed to get to the front and I tried bridging up to random breaks. Of course all I managed to do was drag the field with me, but it was still fun to be up on the front of over 100 people. Just over halfway through my right contact got tired of the wind and decided to jump ship. That made the corners a bit harder, but luckily I had my lines all figured out so I just stuck to those. I was able to stay in the top 30-40 for pretty much the rest of the race. As the race wound down (and sped up) I was about 20th wheel or so for awhile. With 5 laps or so to go there was a crash on the outside going into a corner. On the 4th lap to go I lost my left contact, thus was nearly blind...With 2 laps to go some guy did not hold his line and cut the corner to much, bounced of me and the proceeded to cause a really loud crash.
The last lap all I did was try not to run into anything and hold my place. I estimate between a 30 and 40 finish place. It was a fun race, nighttime made it fun.

There were lots of house parties going on during the races...

I managed to sneak into a photo (Olaf skinsuit) on the inside

The line

After a short spin this morning its off to downtown for race 2.

Enjoy

the add if you have not already, it's from the Australian DOT.

An ad campaign aimed at preventing traffic deaths in Australia mocks the manhood of speed-obsessed drivers by having women waggle a little finger at them.
The pinky gesture, meant to symbolize a small penis, hits male drivers where their sense of humour stops: below the belt.
The new ads show one young driver at a traffic light revving his engine and burning rubber in front of two young women.

As the car speeds off, the women exchange a knowing glance and slowly wave their little finger. The ads' tagline? "Speed: No one thinks big of you."
The Road and Traffic Authority (RTA) in New South Wales opted for the cheeky campaign when recent research showed its previous ads with images of horrific car crashes and fatalities were not working.
The statewide ad campaign coincides with the introduction of new restrictions on learner drivers, including a ban on all cellphone use, limits on the number of young passengers allowed and tougher speeding penalties.
Speeding is a factor in about 40 per cent of road deaths in New South Wales each year, according to RTA figures.
"We accept this campaign is controversial, but we must find new ways to make our anti-message sink in," said RTA spokesman John Whelan.
"This campaign continues RTA's efforts to do all we can to save lives on our roads.
If the road toll is to be reduced further, we must make speeding socially unacceptable," Mr. Whelan added.
"We will do what we feel we have to, to get the message through."
The ads provide new meaning to giving someone the finger.
One of the 45-second ads shows a female pedestrian being forced back to the curb by a speeding driver.
As she glares in disgust, the pinky gesture is made by a grandmotherly woman sitting on a nearby bench.
Their unmistakable message to the speeder is, you drive like a jerk so you must be compensating for your paltry physical endowment.
The first stage of the $2-million campaign includes television, movie theatre, and bus shelter advertisements.

Hitchhiking.

Hi, my name is Jake and I break way to many Bontrager wheels...
As I was finishing up my 499th recorded hour (plus or minus a bunch of hours) of training this year, I heard the now all to familiar pop of a breaking spoke. I was 58 minutes straight out from home. Luckily my wheel broke today while I was on a fairly busy road, rather that way the heck out in the middle of nowhere on some random gravel road that there is one car per hour on. Especially because there is no cell phone service way out yonder, not that there was any where I was either. But hey, thats when your hand comes in handy.
I had to ride a bit with the broken spoke, the last few breakings have been quite bad. Just throws the wheel way out of true, it must be the paired spoke design. I was always able to ride broken wheels home in the early days.
Anyway after about 30 min of waving at cars I finally got one to stop. An old guy named Ed. The car ride home was nearly 30 min long as well. So we had a nice chat about life. He was even nice enough to go 20 minutes out of his way to bring me all the way home. I know he most likely will never read this, but thanks Ed!
He said he picked me up because I looked nice, and non-threatening. The matching kit does it I guess. I like nice people.
Anyway, back to wheels. That is the third wheel I broke this summer, and 4th or 5th for the year. I don't really know why I do it so often, maybe because Duluth roads are basically like single track, or maybe its all the gravel, or maybe its the single track...hmmm. Whatever the reason they should not break so much, I am down to my last rear wheel, which is my race wheel.
Oh, I also went to the State Fair, all the food is always a good time. Just think of it as energy, then eating all the crap is just fine.

Rippin legs off

Tonight I rode with the mountain bikers from Ski Hut. I did so because they were going hard often, and on gravel. Both things are exactly what I wanted, and of course I rode my madone (I also rode 2 and a quarter this morning with Christoph. Not hard, but not easy).
Anyways back to the action. We rode out on pavement for about 50 minutes to the first gravel. I pulled the whole time at a good 34 km/h or so. The gravel was a road I had never been on before, so I had no idea what was coming. More fun...I took off right away and dropped all but one guy who did all he could to hold on for the next 24 minutes. It was great, the road was a bit sketchy at times for a road bike, but no all that bad. After about 15 minutes of easy it was time to light it up again. This road I somehow managed to get a good gap early on and just kept making it bigger. This road was about 10 minutes long, I came to the pavement over a minute ahead of the others. On most of the gravel I was going about 35-37 kmh, but saw up to 53, never below 30 though. Shortly after everyone was back together we took off again. I was out front at first pulling, but got a little at the start of a nice hill. I was still recovering when the guy who held on during the first interval took off with a great attack, there was nothing left to respond right away, and he got a good 100 meter gap quickly. After a short decent I got it back and just flew up the next small hill and on the next flat section just blew by him. Good times. Another 15 minutes of balls to the wall done. Just one little section remained, which we did not go super hard, but hard, only for about 5 min though.
Anyways it was a great ride, exactly what I needed. I showed myself that I am feeling quite strong and have lots of power when I need it. And it looks like my battery has a pretty damn good charge at this point too. I guess I have been doing something right in my training...
The whole ride the others were waiting for me to get a flat, the Refuse tires refused everything and baffled everyone, and made them hurt. HA!

Bikes and Beer

This past weekend I attended Trek Worlds down in Madison. Trek gives anyone who carries Trek in their shop to come and see all the new products, eat good food, drink free beer, and visit the factory. Usually the new bikes are available for demoing, but because of the rain they canceled the demo just for my group. Lucky me.
Anyway, it was a good weekend. I got to look at all the new stuff Trek and bontrager (and any company affiliated with them) have out now. To bad I dont have any money to buy a couple of those fancy bikes. I guess I'll just keep plugin away with mine. However, I am pretty sure I will be getting a powertap. If I am training as much as I am currently, I should probably do it right as to not hurt myself. All I have to do is suck it up and dish out the cash...

Other than that the big new is that summer is officially over up here in the arctic. Last week it started. Two weeks ago the high temps were 85 or so, and cooling off down to higher 50s at night. Last week up until Wednesday it was down to 75 as a high and low 50s at night. Then by the end of the week highs were less than 70 dropping to mid 40s. One evening last week I walked out of the house and smelled fall. Today the high was 62 with a 25 mph wind off the lake...
Which brings me to my next topic, along with a strong lake wind. Comes large waves on Park Point. These large waves are really fun to play in. Last year a friend and I took out the lazer (14 foot sailboat) in 14 foot waves. Todays waves were 5-7 feet I heard. Unfortunately we were low on time, thus could not sail. However, I did go surfing for the first time in my life. It was quite fun, I was able to stand up on the board. Sadly, most of the time, right after standing the wave would die and I would fall in. Even with all the surface water being pushed in the lake was still really quite cold. I only laster about 20 minutes with a 3/4 body wet suit on. On my way to the car a lady asked if she could have her son take a picture with me. Ha!
I forgot to mention that riding in Madison I got no cramps. Upon my return home (yesterday) I got pretty bad cramps when I rode. I tried to get them out, but only dulled them a bit. I ran this morning on the beach and cramped up in strange places. No fun. Then I hit it hard on todays ride and managed to get rid of most of them. But now my legs are more tired than they should be. Damn Cramps. I called Mayo after that, they have not looked into my case yet....

6 hours and a nagging question

Tone and I rode just over 6 good hours today. I felt wonderful the entire time. Even coming back up the hills home. I had forgotten how nice it is to have a training partner. The time goes by so much quicker.

Anyway, and more importantly. I was browsing the Olaf website the other day and came across this picture.

One can't really see that well in this picture. But the guy in the light blue shirt looks quite (if not exactly) like me. However, I know for a fact that it is not me because I don't wear button up shirts, and the guy has a bracelet on, another thing I do not wear. I have never seen anyone on campus that looks that similar to me. I am wondering who my clone is...

Pain be gone.

For awhile now I have been getting pretty bad hot foot. I don't remember it much from before getting new shoes, but can't say it was not there. Im told the stiffer shoe will cause a more noticeable pain because the foot won't move around as much. Anyway like I mentioned before I was messing around with cleat position and all. Nothing seemed to be helping relieve the pain. Whitey at Ski Hut and some others eventually figured out that it may be because the crank-bro pedals have to small a platform. It was concentrating to much pressure on the ball of my foot. So today I switched back to my old looks to see if the bigger platform would help. It for sure did. My feet hardly burned at all. Finally! Next week I am going to try out some different types of pedals to see which work best.
Also I finally got the seat height exactly right. No knee pain anymore either. Now I just need to figure out how to get rid of my upper back pain...

Finding a fit

I decided that I actually need to get my bike fit properly. I stopped at Ski Hut on the way home today. I changed a few things a bit. Seat up, and forward. I still need to work on the cleat position. My 3 hours of straight ride time had my feet burning almost the whole time...

Yesterday was the Brewhouse Triathalon. I have gotten to know the director (and owner of all Brewhouse establishments) pretty well. He put me in charge of the bike course and all involved. It was really good to be a part of a bigger event (there were 690 entries). Good experience to bring to my smaller races.

Other than that things have been pretty low key. After getting back from the BW I have picked up my training again. I did not have a whole lot of time on Fri. or Sat. so I only got to ride about an hour each of those days. But other than that I have been doing at the minimum 2 hours training, with 2 hours total of commuting. With commuting today is 5 hours. Good deal.
Rowing is going, but it just makes me so tired. This summer I have come to realize how important sleep is for good training. I can't wait until rowing is over...

Also I am a published writer!
The website makes you register. I will just put what I wrote on here. It was published in the Sunday paper. I posted something very similar before, but this is all jazzed up.
Recently, I have noticed a drastic increase in the amount of road rage toward cyclists. In the last week I have been honked at, yelled at, swerved at, sworn at in a variety of ways, and nearly been hit by passing cars in multiple areas of Duluth.
What I don't understand is why riding a bicycle angers some motorists so much. Honestly, he or she will maybe, just maybe need to slow down. Most likely all one must do is nudge the steering wheel just a little in order to not come dangerously close to hitting a cyclist. Maybe the motorist will be another 20 seconds late to getting to where he or she is going, surely no more.
Back to my question, why do some motorists hate cyclists so much? Is it because we cyclists are out using our bodies in the beautiful summer sun while they are sitting in hot cars? Is it because we are enjoying our ride for training or commuting? Or is there some other reason. And as long as a cyclist is going the speed limit (or the speed of traffic when it’s faster) there is no reason we cannot use the main roadway. Often, it is yelled by someone in a passing car to “get on the sidewalk,” when in fact riding on a sidewalk is prohibited by law.
All I have to say is that motorists should get accustomed to cyclists, because our numbers will grow as the price of gas goes up. Why not stop fighting a losing battle and get out, get in shape, save the planet by enjoying one of life’s simple pleasures. If you are unable to then please give us some space, wave and smile instead of honking and swearing. Is that really too much to ask?

Way up North..

Where border rules don't matter and there is no news of doping (which it appears they all did dope now)!

I just got back from a nice trip in the Boundary Waters. It was great, I really love leaving civilization behind and going off into the woods. No news, no phones, just rocks, trees, and water.
Our route took us along the US-Canadian border for quite some time. It was my chance to get out of the country this year, so I took multiple excursions off into the Canadian wilderness. Good times. Other than the trip being really enjoyable, it was made even more enjoyable by the absence of cramps. I felt them coming on lightly on some portages, but never lasting.
Today when I got home I had a bit of energy so I got in the saddle again for the first time in a week and a half. And again, no cramps. Good deal. The ride felt great, nice and hot out. I also had lots of bounce in my legs, but I could tell the top gears are gone now. It will take a bit of work to get back up. But it was a much needed week.5 off.
Here are a few photos from the woods...

Up I go

Fearless four
Into the abyss

This is how you keep beer cold up yonder.
flying food.
A giant fish.

What the hell...

is happening to the cycling world. Vino, Rasmussen, all the other guys suffering because of false accusations and the like. It just makes me sick. I don't know whether or not to believe it. Two more of my favorite riders are now gone. Both of which are not even guilty yet.
Yes, I am strongly against doping and agree that when someone tests positive they suffer the consequences. That is how it should be, but I just find it retarded that after such a thing as Rasmussen winning a stage, and being in a great position to win the Tour, his team says. Well you missed a control in June, lets fire you now. It just does not make sense to me. Why not do it then? Why screw things up so much now. There is so much more of an effect at this point then there would have been then, I wonder if there are people how are trying to destroy the world of cycling. It always seems to be that big doping scandals come up during the biggest races. Riis and Zabel around the Giro (I think) now for the 2nd year in a row huge problems during the Tour. Some of which could be done at times other than during the race.

Then of course there is the testing itself. That makes me wonder too. This quote was taken from cycling news "Once again, the news was leaked to the French newspaper L'Equipe, which published the news five hours before the rider was informed." What the hell is this about. It is absurd. This seems to happen all the time with this paper and the particular lab, and it has been happening for awhile now. That really needs to stop, what if the test had been tampered with, or was done wrong. The rider is done, finished, without any chance of rebuttal. Then of course the news being shouted from the roof as soon as the A sample is back, why not wait until the B sample is back too so things can be certain before someones life is destroyed. Even if Vino and Rasmussen doped, pictures like the following are still amazing, there is such a look of relief in the face, personally I think if they doped to win, they would not look like that, they would expect it more. But who knows these days...


And why do news sources only crack down on cycling doping. I can guarantee there is way way more doping in the NFL, NHL, NBA, soccer, and many other sports than there is in cycling. But no one ever hears about those do they. Perhaps because people just don't care, all they want to see is action. Who cares is the players are all doped up. If they are not, I would love to hear how they train a 350 pound guy can move as fast as those in the NFL do.

Unfourtunate

But first a recap of the Tour of Granite County...

Saturday:
The races kicked of with a short 68 mile road race. This was the first RR I had done since I think Nationals back in May. So I was pretty excited to not do so many circles. So off into the wind and sun the field went. The Masters and 1/2 were mixed, so the pack was pretty big. The attacks start almost right after the neutral roll out. The first lap (of 3) was pretty fast. Lots of attacking, at one point a big group got off the front, with most of the strongest guys in it. But for some reason it did not work, we in the group clawed our way back up to them. Almost right after that there was another big attack, with almost the same guys, not quite as many though. They got off and away they went. That happened not much before the lap ended, the second lap was not particularly hard. The teams that had guys up in the break were just keeping everything under control. There were a few small attacks, but nothing of significance. Then on the third lap things got fun again. The whole lap was real fast, the pack strung out almost the whole time. It was a race again. I was feeling good, and took some turns at the front (I had a little before this too), eventually we were nearing the finish, I am guessing about 2 miles out. I was sitting 3rd wheel. Casper was putting in a long hard pull for his team and some Rocky Mountain guy was 2nd wheel. Then all of a sudden he (R.M.) swerved at put his skewer into my front wheel. Needless to say I was no longer sitting 3rd wheel. There were 3 broken spokes and the wheel would not move at all. Game Over...
I was quite mad, I was feeling good, in great position, and was having a grand ol' time. And for some reason the 1/2 wheel car was missing. No one was really sure where it was. So I had to walk for a bit since my wheel did not move. Eventually the 3 field came by and I stole a wheel from that wheel car. I ended up finishing, dead last quite a ways back, but at least I finished.

The time trial was new for me. I have done plenty of TTTs but never and individual after a race, I think I just mentally convinced myself that since I was in last and did not have a TT bike I was not going to do well, thus I did not do well. It is always amazing what a mental block can do to you. Oh well...

Sunday:
The crit was right in downtown St. Cloud, and did not start until 2:30. I was able to sit in the hotel and watch the tour. That got me nice and motivated.
I got there nice and early, but for some reason did not get my stuff ready until to late. I ended up only getting about 30 min of warm up in. I need at least 45 to be properly set to go right off the start.
The field was small at 23, which was good, because at some places the road was pretty tight, a big field would not have been good. The race was off and full speed right away. The first 15 laps or so were just terrible, I was getting gapped on the corners, and having trouble catching up. It was no fun, I was just riding like crap. A bit after that I got really warmed up, and simple relaxed myself. The difference was immediate after relaxing, I stuck the corners had no trouble closing gaps that opened here and there. I started moving up in the pack. However I got pretty far up at one point and then someone did a bad turn and forced me way out on a corner. I lost my place and by this time the pace was too high to get back up. Then a few laps later someone else (or maybe not) had another bad corner and I skidded across a sewer grate. Again losing what position I had left. So from there on in I just stayed right where I was and the pack came home as one.

Now I am taking about 10 days off from training. It sucks because the weather is perfect for riding right now, calm, hot, and sunny. Of course the week I take off the weather is the nicest. No 63 mph winds...I am taking now off since rest is an import part of training, and there are not really and races coming up. I think there are only 2 or 3 RRs left in the year. One is Aug. 5 (which I cant do) and another is the 25. So perfect time to rest and restart for cross season.

Next year for road racing I need to change a few things. First I need to have my bike fitted properly, my neck was killing me on Sunday, a very sharp pain on the right side. My knees were also a bit sore. And secondly I need to not race on training tires. I think it might make a bigger difference then I thought. And of course I can always work on my riding, but that is different from the other two things...

Catch up.

It's been a busy few weeks, now things will calm down a bit I think. Here are some photos for the fun of it.

The 63 mph winds sunk what is known as "the barge," two eights bolted together

And then it was calm...

And warm again.
Both my shifter cables snapped. I guess they were old, this was from my rear cable and it was jammed in the ratchet mechanism in the hood.
No need for the new Oakleys, I got these babies.
And on the glasses note, these are for sale. Very good glasses, in very good condition. Let me know if you are interested.


Tomorrow and Sunday may be the last road racing of the year. Should be a good weekend.

Why the hate?

Recently there has been a drastic increase in the amount of road rage toward bikers. In the last week or so I have been honked at, yelled at, swerved at, revved at, nearly been hit by passing cars, nearly backed into, and been given the finger multiple times each.
What I don't understand is why riding a bike pisses a motorist off so much. Honestly, he or she will maybe, just maybe slow down. Most likely all he or she must do is nudge the steering wheel just a little in order to swing wide and not come dangerously close to hitting me. Maybe the motorist will be up to 20 seconds later to getting to where they are going, but surely no more. If 20 seconds matter that much he or she should have left earlier. Endangering the life of a cyclist is not worth it.
Again I ask myself why there is so much hate towards cyclists. Yesterday coming up to the lift bridge a guy in a very large pickup floored it from a 100 meters or so back as to get right up next to me. He then proceeded to yell about a sign that reads "walk bikes across bridge," then continued on to say something about how I am the cause of all the problems. I don't walk my bike across the bridge because the speed limit on it is 15 mph and it is all of 50 meters long, thus holding 15 is not a problem at all. Anyways back to this big truck, after him yelling at me he very intentionally swerved to the right (I was on the inside) trying to force me into the large metal guard rails on the road side. A quick pull of the brakes was barely enough to get me out of the way. All of this mind you is happening going over the lift bridge which has a grated metal surface, cars behind and in the other lane all at around 20 mph. Needless to say as soon as I was off the bridge I whipped out the old cell phone and gave 911 a ring. I had a nice chat with the helpful lady as she watched this dumbass drive through Canal Park (the slowest moving busiest traffic area in Duluth) with the traffic light cameras. Hopefully the cameras on the bridge caught the guy in action.
But back to my question, why do they hate us so much? Is it because we cyclists are out using our bodies in the beautiful summer sun, enjoying our ride for training or commuting. While the angry motorists are sitting in a hot car contributing to global warming and the American obesity problem? Or is there some other reason. I mean sure I might not stop fully at a stop sign or go the second before the light turns green. But I very often see a motorist doing the same thing, but he or she will be traveling much faster in something that can't stop on a dime.
All I really have to say is that motorists better get used to cyclists, because our numbers will start multiplying as the price of gas goes up.

The results are in...

for the muscle biopsy and, they are positive. Positive for something, but they are not sure what that something is. The lab here is unable to figure it out. Thus my case will be some soon (hopefully) transfered to the Mayo or U.
Lucky me...

Back in the game.

For the last two weeks or so my legs have just been shot. I am not entirely certain why. I thought it was overtraining, but then realized I was not training all that much, at least not enough to destroy my legs like that. I have come to the conclusion that I was under eating and not sleeping enough. This weekend I ate a lot and slept a decent amount. It is just hard to sleep because I get up so stinking early every weekday (5) to go ride around in a motorboat and yell at highschoolers. It really takes it out of you. Anyways whad ya know. Today was the first day since my Biopsy that I actually felt good. Finally.
Since I felt good it was off to do some hills for fun and games. I went out towards west Duluth, there are some nice hills out there. Good roads, long steep grades, a switchback. I did one hill (40th Ave. W and Haines) 3 times, this is the hill with the switchback, I had forgotten how much fun they are, and I just did one. The first was 11:17, the next time I flatted the second time and with time stopped during the fix it was 12:30. The 3rd time I went hard and got it down to 10:30. The hill is 3.55 km long and starts easy, kicks up real fast into the switchback and stays steep for a couple hundred meters then levels off just a bit for the last 1.5 km or so. It is a great hill.
After that I went one hill west. Longer at 5.5 km but not nearly as steep or hard. I just went up that, not particularly hard.
The final big climb of the day started with Lake Ave. A nice 3:40 for a new record. Then continuing on up to the heavens on Rice Lake Rd.
A good ride finally. Total time of the ride was 3:10 plus my 50 minute commute this morning puts me at 4hrs.

In other news I forgot to mention last week I got new shoes. They are real nice.

The white ones

Also I was planning on going to Superweek at the beginning of summer. But it is just to damn far to drive. I'll be doing the Tour of Granite County this weekend then. It could possibly be my last racing until cross season starts. Just have to wait and see.

On my feet or my seat.

It's been a busy week or so with quite a few interesting events.
It all started on Sunday with the Hopkins crit. I was planning on going down myself since the Ski Hut guys never got back to me. At 6 A.M. I got a call from one saying, there are 3 of us that want to go down too.
So it was off to Hopkins with a full car. We got down there and it was hot and humid. The course was totally flat and really fast. Eventually after watching all the races I was ready to go and race myself. I got a good warm up in, and lined up. As we were lining up there was a large cloud rolling in. We started despite, 2 laps (3 min) later the officials were out in the course blowing the whistles. Everyone was pulled off the course and minutes later pouring rain, hail, lightning and wind. A nice severe thunderstorm. Eventually the race was simply canceled, and it was time to go.
Monday After rowing I took off on a 3 hour bike. For the middle hour I did motorpacing on one of the streets in Duluth. I found a few nice people who would keep the speed even and I was able to get on them. There were lots of not nice people who would floor it and go around me. No chance to get on.
I was shot after that.
Tuesday I did an easy ride and my legs were shot. Also Tuesday was crazy windy. Gusts up to 63 mph. Fun riding...really. The power was out (according to the paper) to 20,000 houses in Duluth. I had a dentist appt. and during it, while my mouth was numb the power went out. Lucky me.
Today was also windy. Not nearly as much though.
In time not spent riding, I've been working at the rowing club doing all kinds of things. Then as soon as I am done with that its off to the Lunds to watch Le Tour (with Caroline). Then back to bed.
I've also been riding my bike as much as possible instead of driving. It adds about 2 hours of riding per day.
With all the moving combined, I am just exhusted. Legs, body, and mind. Thus I need to go sleeping...

4th of July

The race was a smashing success, thanks to all of the people who helped out. The weather was nice and hot, the turnout great, and racing fast. Results and other stuff can be found here.

My personal race however, was not particularly stellar. Right from the start I was feeling slugglish, perhaps that was because I told the officials to have the first prime on the first lap. Thus the pace was 100% right away. I wanted to make things interesting. And that did it. After that the pace did not slow down much, and I never started feeling great. I started feeling better, but better was not good enough. Eventually a break of 7 or 8 got off the front, then another of about the same size. The rest of what was left of the field slowed slightly. Eventually right near the end of the race the first break lapped us. The then larger group stayed together until the last lap when those with energy left took off. I just cruised in finishing 21 out of the 54 starters. Not where I wanted to be, but, not every race goes as planned. I can blame a whole bunch of things as to why I did not race like I know I can. But I'll just say I prepared poorly coming into the race and it showed.
On a better note, my legs are finally talking to my brain again and letting me know they are tired, no more confusion is good.
So I'll rest up until Sunday when it is off to Hopkins for another crit.

Here are some photos from Jim Wellbrock

I guess I was not the only one hurting...

A weird state

I can't tell if my legs are sore from cramping and cutting, or tired from riding? Quite a strange feeling...

Northfield Crit Info

can be found here (MCF) and here.

Enough already

Yesterday I got back on the bike after 2 days off from the biopsy. I knew it was going to be painful because while I was doing some work down at the boat house I started getting cramps. The only way I know how to get ride of them is to ride them out. So that is what I set out to do. I failed miserably. It took me 20 minutes to get to a place that should usually take 5. My heart rate was at 150 (out or 197 or so) going 15 km/h up a shallow incline. At the top I could not take the pain and collapsed on a side street. I sat the for a bit then tired again, still intense pain. Then again and again and again. I wanted to do an hour at least, so I just kept trying to push through the pain. It was the most painful hour of my life thus far. right around the hour mark I was able to move a bit, I thought I had achieved victory so I started heading back out. Shortly following I got hit with another attack and did whatever it took to get home.
When I woke up this morning my legs were still tight, but not nearly as bad as they had been. I thought maybe today I will be ok, since the cramps have never lasted more than one day at full intensity. But again at rowing, while simply walking around the boat house I cramped up.
As soon as I got home I got ready for my ride and went. I made it about 100 meters before being slammed by cramps just as bad as yesterday. So more stopping and starting it was. Again for another hour and 15. For some reason my right leg almost relaxed for a bit, I was riding with only it for a while since my left didn't work. I thought I was halfway there (getting rid of cramps), but of course my leg was just toying with my and it cramped up again.
Another of the most painful hours of my life.
I am just so sick of this, all this pain after 2 days off the bike. What the hell...it is just ridiculous and really needs to stop. Even if the muscle biopsy does figure out what is wrong with me, and prove that I do have metabolic myopathy or some other dumb thing, who knows if it is even treatable.
I don't even know if I will be able to race on the 4th. It is less that a week away and at this rate I will still have cramps. My plans to go to Super week might also not work, there is not point in going if after 4 hours in a car I cramp up real bad.
I am just so sick of all this.....

My first stiches

I forgot to mention in yesterdays post that my muscle biopsy was this morning. I got to sleep in until 7:30 and then went and got chunks of muscles cut out. Hopefully that will tell me what is wrong with me.
It was an interesting experience, I think the doc. did not wait long enough to cut into my leg the first time after giving me the shot. It hurt. When he started cutting out the muscle my other muscles would contract, very strange feeling. I could also hear the tissue being cut. Ha. Very pleasant.
Anyway other than some pricks and muscle spasms it went well. While he was stitching me up I looked at the chunks he took out. They were not very big, but big enough to leave a hole. I took some pictures when I got home, don't worry, the samples removed were no where near as big as my incision.
The doc. said that I can return to normal activity tomorrow. But should take it a bit easy this week on the bike. That is fine with me, my legs need a bit of rest.

Don't look at the pictures if you don't like blood and bright white skin!

Something worth writing about.

This weekend the racing finally was on again. There has been a couple week pause, and I was not happy. I enjoy racing to much.
Anyways the races were in conjunction with the Nature Valley Grand Prix. Which made it even more fun then normal.

Saturday:
Ill start with my race.
I rolled on down to Mankato for a 2/3 crit. I knew it was not going to be that great of a day, when I woke up that morning my legs were tired. Not good at all. After arriving in Mankato I registered, while doing so I met a guy who just graduated from DU out in Colorado. He was at nationals and all as well. Raced D II also. So We went to preview the course. The line was at the bottom of a pretty big hill. I thought we might go up it, so up we went. About halfway up the "death cramps" came on. Today was going to be painful. Up we went then following the hay bales we found our way back to the start. It was a really long circuit, far to long for a crit. We found out soon after that we in fact did not go up (nuts) but stayed down in the flat downtown.
After that I went and warmed up. I found some flat and put the pace up to try and work out the cramps. It worked a bit, but not enough.
It was soon time to start. It was a big field, 50 some I think. So off we went, and it was sketchy right from the start. I almost got taken out on one of the first few corners. I went to the front for a bit, but then started to cramp. I could not do much so I slowly drifted back. I may have gotten to the front a few times in there, but was not nearly my normal self. Then a bit more into the race I started to get normal racing cramps. Not because I was dehyrdated, but because I drank to much plain water and flushed all the electrolytes out of my system. Oops.
Anyway, as is apparent was not very fun. Eventually it came down to the last laps, I managed to get a good position on the long straightaway and hold it through the final corner. And despite feeling like crap I got 10th and $15, which made for a free race.
After the race I ate 4 or 5 packs of Jelly Belly sport beans, I felt much better. Thanks Jelly Belly!
Not long after finishing the pro men came into the circuits. They went up the big hill 4 times. I just watched at the line.
It was fun to watch them fly through the line area.

Next came the pro women, including the current World Champion Kristin Armstrong. She just lit everyone up on the first lap, and extended her lead each time.




Sunday:
After a good meal and bed thanks to Jennie and her family I was ready to rock and roll this morning. I have always heard about the infamous Stillwater Crit, but I had never experienced it. I got to the course nice and early, one of the first racers even. I got ready and took off on a long warm up. I was going to need it since the race started at the bottom of the big climb (22% for about 40 seconds at race pace). Not long but steep! After a nice 45 min spin I registered and rode a couple laps of the course to get a feel. I have been doing hill repeats the last few weeks, and one of the hills I have been doing was very very similar. Wahoo! At 11 it was time to go rip off some legs. The field at the start was again large, a good at the very least 50. Including a bunch of sketchy people...
The race went from 0 to 100% right away, and right away it got safer. Horray! I was feeling pretty good, so I was hammering the hill. I set the pace a few time at the start of the race. About half way into the race the leading group was down to about 15. Each lap a guy or two would drop. Slowly but surely it came down to 7 or 8 of us. It was great. With 4 laps to go there was a prime and one guy kinda rolled off the front. I think everyone thought he was just going for the prime, but he just kept going and ended up winning. After he went off I was setting the pace up the hill with the remaining Grandstay guys doing the rest. It was good fun. At the top of the course a Grandstay got took off and his team did some good blocking. By the time I got around to the front he was to far off to catch, especially being gravitationally challenged. I was in good position in the finally corner, got some good speed going into the hill and held it. I was quickly gaining on the Grandstay guy, but he was just to far up. I just pushed it all up the hill. Another Grandstay guy had a great sprint and got me on the line. I ended up 4th. It was a great race.
The Women Pros were next.
Mara Abbot and Kristin Armstrong were amazing off the front...
Armstrong ended up winning.



The Men Pros were flying (at least the lead pack), by the time they were racing the hill was packed with people. It was really cool to see at a race here in the US..

Nice and steep!

It was a good day at the races. And thanks to the Langelys for lunch and a beer!

My work

at work at work...haThe bike rack that is. I have time before 8 am down at work to do some other stuff, so I build a bike rack out of wood. It works pretty well.

I made this awhile ago, but never showed it off

The weather has finally gone from...

This (fog, rain, cold)
to
This (sunny and windy)

This weekend there are finally some races. It has been way to long since the last. And it is the races that keep me motivated to train, so without those riding hard gets hard. Hopefully I have trained properly to do well. The races are in conjunction with the Nature Valley Grand Prix, which started today. I get to race the "infamous" Stillwater crit. So the last few weeks I've been working on my climbing.
It is now time to roll off to the Ski Hut ride, and hopefully rip some legs off.

But before that, the flyer is posted for the Northfield race on the 4th of July. I expect everyone to be there! I also need volunteers still, so let me know if you can help out. Also check out the Northfield Crit website.

Congratulations

to Dave Langely and crew for completing the 200 mile slog from fields to fish (Zumbrota to Duluth) today.

Also congratulations to mother who finished her 13th half marathon yesterday. That is more then I will ever do!

Other than that fun news, not much has been happening. I had my MRI for my legs the other day, I fell asleep during it. A good nap it was. I finished up my second over 20 hours of training during the week week today. Now I'll tone it down a few so I can race fast this weekend (finally). And finally I just set my new record time for Lake Ave. hill climb here in Duluth. Today was 20 seconds faster then my time earlier this week somehow. It is now 3:47. Short and hard. I am confident I can get under 3:40, and hopefully under 3:30 sometime soon.

I may have...

metabolic myopathy.
fun stuff...

Cold by the lake

If you haven't heard. I got a job for the summer. I am a rowing coach. It's been awhile since I have rowed. But it is coming back pretty fast. I get to get up early for the entire summer. Lucky me...

Today riding it was around 80 out in the country. 51 by the lake. and 74 and my house. Talk about a range in temp. Going up Lake Ave. (big steep straight hill). The temp change was very apparent.

Tomorrow I have an appointment to hopefully be told why my legs are dumb. I recently found out that they are tearing up the muscle (I think). A normal person has 40-240 units of this muscles stuff in the blood. I have over 6000. Yes, over six thousand. Fun eh?

Why is it

socially acceptable to wear a purple Vikings jacket, but not a pink T-Mobile hat?