tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-39556125903883851482024-03-13T13:59:25.686-07:00Pete Rides BikesPete Custer : Bike Racing : EDM : ShenanigansAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13013917411496312442noreply@blogger.comBlogger43125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955612590388385148.post-85662889261180384332014-02-26T07:38:00.000-08:002014-02-26T08:05:27.666-08:00Nick Backstrom: A More Reasoned Reaction<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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My entry on Sunday was a quick scribble of knee-jerk reaction and a regurgitation of select facts, combined with bonk-fueled speculation about Nick Backstrom's positive drug test and his subsequent disqualification from the Olympic Gold Medal game in Sochi. I've had a few days to look for some better information, and I am decidedly not writing this entry immediately after a 2.5 hour workout. <br />
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To be fair, I <i>still</i> am unclear as to which organizations are pulling what strings in this ordeal. Is it the IOC pressing this matter, or the IIHF? Is WADA even involved? Are the using WADA's banned list? Without knowing these things, I can't do more than unintellligibly shout that <i>this is someone's fault</i>. Still, after looking through all the details I <i>have </i>been able to find, I am still holding to my original general consensus that this isn't any one person or entity screwing up badly, it is more likely a sum of a number of unfortunate happenings all snowballing into a very, very sad result for Nicklas Backstrom.<br />
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The first 'shame-on-you' finger you'd throw if you are a Nick Backstrom fan would be pointing straight at the Olympic officials...that is to say, whatever group/s that are in charge of drug testing and subsequent rule enforcement. <br />
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I was right there with you in being angry with these folks. At the very least, they have admitted by apology that they took too long to analyse Nick Backstrom's urine sample, and you'd have to assume that they 'get it' about how poorly timed the actual disqualification was. Still, I would contend that if they were truly compassionate to what has happened here, this matter would already be concluded: they would have given Backstrom a 1-game suspension (the Gold Medal game he was pulled from) and awarded him the Silver Medal that his team earned. Per Greg Wyshynski on Twitter, the IIHF Chief Physician says Backstrom is "an innocent victim". This is important.<br />
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Shortly after I posted an initial rant on Facebook about this affair, an old coach of mine and devout hockey dad forwarded me <a href="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/features/1998/weekly/980202/nhlstory.html?mobile=no">an old Sports Illustrated article from 1998 titled 'Hockey's Little Helpers</a>.' I assumed this was going to be something about mighty mites on ice, but after clicking on it, my eyes immediately parsed the word Sudafed a few lines into the article. The piece goes on to describe how NHL players and trainers admit to pseudoephedrine being used deliberately as an ergogenic aid during games. This caused me to have a very big sad.<br />
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If you are a cycling reader of mine, then this sort of documentation about the abuse of drugs in sport will be 'cute' compared to reading details of blood doping taking place on team buses in between races. If, however, you are a hockey fan who discovered my blog just the other day and are not used to investigative journalism on doping, I implore you to not go very far down the rabbit hole. It is an extremely toxic subject that can ruin the way you look at players and spoil your enjoyment of the game. <br />
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The main takeaway I took forth from the SI article is not that 'some hockey players cheat', but that the IIHF likely knows to look for pseudoephedrine abuse. If Hockey is (or was) saturated with Sudafed abuse, it is understandable that the initial reaction for a positive drug test of the substance would be to impose a sanction, regardless of the indicated quantity of pseudoephedrine found.<br />
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Still, the IIHF had its Chief Physician quoted as saying he (Backstrom) is an innocent victim. Surely he can read between the lines and see the difference between a daily dose of Zyrtec-D, and gobbling more than a few sudafed pills right before a game. Yes, rules are rules, and Nick Backstrom has indeed broken the rules by taking enough of his allergy medication to break the allowed threshold for pseudoephedrine. Yet, I still maintain that WADA, as recently as 2010, adjusted the allowed limit of the substance to eliminate punishment of those taking it for reasonable medicinal uses. <br />
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The 150 microgram per milliliter limit was an extrapolation of what they found in tests to be the <b>average</b> concentration of the substance you would find in someone taking a standard dose of Sudafed (240 mg). The actual verbage in the <a href="http://www.wada-ama.org/Documents/World_Anti-Doping_Program/WADP-Prohibited-list/WADA_Additional_Info_Pseudoephedrine_2010_EN.pdf" target="_blank">WADA document</a> describing their threshold reads:<br />
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<i>The threshold level has been established based on the intake of therapeutic doses of </i><br />
<i>PSE, defined as a maximum daily dose of 240mg</i><br />
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I highlight <i>average</i> because, while there is an allowable limit, <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19571776">everyone's metabolism is different</a>. (Cited is a study showing how multiple people can take the same dose of pseudoephedrine and come out with different urine levels) This means that, despite WADA allowing some leeway for an athlete to take an acceptable amount of the medication, you can take this dose that they attempt to make legal and STILL go over the threshold in a urine test. I maintain that WADA is trying to do the right thing with this threshold allowance, but unfortunately, I think they are setting the cutoff a little bit too short. One other bit that isn't taken into account is the residual buildup of pseudoephedrine that occurs when taking it daily over a period of time. I don't have any studies to cite and back this point, but it is only logical that this drug will show up in your urine for more than 24 hours, and so, when taking it daily for reasonable medicinal purposes, your urine concentrations of pseudoephedrine are going to rise. <br />
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I'm concluding this 'sciency' part of my analysis by saying that hockey blog and forum commentors insinuating that 'maybe Nicky does dope...is that how he can stick handle so well?' No...just...no. Read into that SI article posted above; a veteran player believes a lot of the angry and hyped-up, dirty play could be a result of players taking stimulants before games. Nick Backstrom is one of the coolest, most calm players you will see in the NHL. I'm not going to say that I know how pseudoephedrine effects different people, but he doesn't look like he has been taking a bunch of uppers before games for the past 7 years.<br />
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Moving on, I'd like to clarify some of my conspiracy theories I jotted down the other day having to do with Team Sweden.<br />
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As an athlete eligible for USADA and WADA testing, I would be expected to file a TUE if I took Zyrtec-D every day <i>(for you cycling heads, I hate the -D formulations of antihistamines and rely on regular Zyrtec and Benadryl for my own issues) . </i>Nick Backstrom says the Swedish team knew about his Zyrtec-D, and he made certain that the doctors knew. Perhaps they could have filed a TUE with the organizers? The form is right <a href="http://www.iihf.com/iihf-home/sport/medical/anti-doping.html">here</a>!<br />
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Secondly (and I am far too lazy to research this), what if the team doctors live in a country where Zyrtec is not offered in the variant that contains pseudoephedrine?<br />
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Here in the U.S. you can buy brand name decongestants that have taken pseudoephedrine out of the formula and replaced it with phenylephrine. This is the difference between the sudafed you can pick up off the shelf, and the sudafed that you have to show your I.D. for. <br />
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I see two instances where the team doctors could have reasonably 'dropped the ball' here:<br />
<i>- Misunderstanding Nick's Zyrtec-D for a formulation that does not have pseudoephedrine</i><br />
<i>- Not being aware that the 240mg 'allowance' set by WADA is not rigidly reliable, (as we've explored above)</i><br />
Prospective blame aside, these teams have a lot to do in a very limited time to prepare for international tournaments. <br />
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Let's move on to how Nick Backstrom is, well...moving on from this. Yesterday, <a href="http://cdnapi.kaltura.com/index.php/extwidget/openGraph/wid/1_s58ognkl" target="_blank">Monumental Network posted a press conference with Nick held at the Kettler Iceplex</a>. The Capitals' local sports reporters immediately asked questions about his Olympic experience and its tragic end. By his answers, it sounded like Nick's head was in the right place: not focusing on what has already happened, not dwelling on the toxic and murky nature of doping sanctions, and looking ahead to his NHL teammates and the remaining regular season campaign. <br />
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Reading into this press conference, I compare it to past interviews of pro cyclists who would later be revealed to be dopers, denying accusations and proclaiming that they are 'clean'. To be honest, there is <b>no</b> comparison to be made. Nick is forthcoming in his answers and the most frustrated we see him is when he says 'next question.' Look at Lance Armstrong's "<a href="http://youtu.be/du0KxD-fjEI?t=50s">I'm sorry you don't believe in miracles</a>" speech, or Floyd Landis' explanation of Jack Daniel's roofing his testosterone levels. Then there is the often repeated, <a href="http://youtu.be/rWyGWu186zY?t=2m8s">stern assertions of being a clean athlete</a>. Nick simply stated that he's taken the drug before in international play, and it has never been a problem. <br />
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As Team Sweden said: this is NOT a case of doping. Given the circumstances, the limited level of pseudoephedrine found to be above the legal threshold, and the rocky stance the NHL has in allowing its players to compete at international tournaments, I sincerely hope that Nick gets his medal. The Sochi games hooked a lot of new hockey fans over the past two weeks, and I'm sure that the familiarity of so many NHL names was no small part of that. <br />
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Yes, he broke the rules. Yes, the IIHF have good reason to be proactive against this drug in particular. Yes, Team Sweden should have filed a TUE. Yes, an officer of the IIHF knows this is not a case of stimulant doping. So far, this is a calamity of errors. Let's cross our fingers that the IIHF and IOC put an end to this negative cycle and do the right thing: levy no further sanction against Nicklas. <br />
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I leave you with a photograph of me, beginning a bicycle commute to downtown D.C. wearing my Nicklas Backstrom jersey over top of my backpack. I hope this all brings out the Mean Lars for the last half of the NHL season.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13013917411496312442noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955612590388385148.post-57975726503213873852014-02-23T15:27:00.002-08:002014-02-24T09:12:42.167-08:00The Nick Backstrom Positive<div>
<i>Warning: wall of text ahead! I'm not going to bother proofreading this, but I wanted to get it out there. I've seen a lot of unsure information on the web today, and wanted to voice some science and editorial. I'm sorry if I'm missing recently published information; I was on the bike all afternoon and started punching away at the keys as soon as I got back.</i></div>
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Today, Nick Backstrom was disqualified from the Sochi Olympic games, roughly 2.5 hours before he was set to take the ice in the Gold Medal game against Canada. The reason for his DQ was a substance test of his coming back positive for psuedoephedrine.<br />
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Let's set things straight here: psuedoephedrine can absolutely be used to gain a competitive edge on your opponents. It is a stimulant that is expressedly prohibited by WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency), and it is commonly known as the Sudafed that you have to get from behind the counter at your local drug store. </div>
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According to Nick Backstrom, Team Sweden, and the Washington Capitals, he suffers from severe allergies, and uses an allergy medicine regularly to control his symptoms. By the reporting, it appears he uses Zyrtec-D (good choice!) Also reported is that his doping control test showed 190mg of psuedoephedrine.</div>
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The very first thing I want to clear up is the technical side of the chemical being in his system, and what that means.</div>
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The bit going around the sports reports of his test showing 190mg is an accidentally false statement. The way they do the test (unless things have changed since WADA published its 2014 Banned Substances List), they look for concentrations of chemicals in urine. Psuedoephedrine is actually legal by WADA's standards up to 150 MICROgrams per milliliter of urine. If Nick Backstrom pissed a sample that contained 190 mg of psuedo, he is going to be the subject of a spinoff from Breaking Bad. More than likely, someone misheard micrograms for milligrams, and along the story went. From here on out, I'm going to assume he was popped and the findings showed 190 ug/ml.</div>
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WADA's limit of 150 ug/ml is set up to allow for the reasonable use of common medicines in amateur athletes. In the sport I participate in, cycling, there are many opportunities for me to race at a high level where I will be subject to drug testing. Rather than expecting every athlete under the sun to read the rules (which you are usually required to), they found it easier to put a threshold number out there so that someone who took a sudafed two days ago wouldn't have to go through a positive doping control. </div>
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This 150 ug/ml limit is derived from a rounded estimation of how much pseudoephedrine you would expect to find from a urine analysis of someone who took a recommended day's worth of Sudafed. <a href="http://www.wada-ama.org/Documents/World_Anti-Doping_Program/WADP-Prohibited-list/WADA_Additional_Info_Pseudoephedrine_2010_EN.pdf">See here for a WADA document detailing this</a>. This is actually really cool stuff that WADA thought things through so that you can take a day's worth of sudafed in whatever form it might be dosed out as, and after it breaks down in your body and you pee it out, you should be under the threshold!</div>
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Well, they only really thought about that first day of dosing. In Nick's case, he is taking Zyrtec-D on a daily regiment. The thing about drug testing is that different substances stay detectable in your body based on your own body's metabolism, as well as their basic half-life. For Nick, taking Zyrtec-D every day keeps a concentration of psuedoephedrine going, its metabolites build up quicker than they can be totally cleared from the body. The end result is that while he may only be taking a standard dose of Zyrted-D or Sudafed each day, he is pissing out a bigger number than WADA built in to their threshold level. </div>
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I know this because I am an amateur athlete with major allergy problems. Because I compete at the top level of amateur cycling, I educate myself on the rules that I sign my name to when I am issued a racing license. A few years ago, I saw an allergist and tested highest level sensitivity to every allergen except for peanut butter (which is ironic, because I always thought I was allergic to PB!) Right then and there, I was given an albuterol inhaler, a few epi-pens, and Zytec-D along with orders to go through a few years of weekly allergy shots.</div>
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Without thinking, I switched out to regular Zyrtec, and only used Sudafed when my sinuses became congested. For me, I feel like crap when I take Sudafed and try to train. I feel weak, a little feverish, and I bonk pretty easily. Still, daily Zyrtec and allergy shots changed my life. In years past, I would lose weeks of training in the spring due to various eruptions of hayfever and sinus infections. I'd blow all my sick days and more because I was incapable of operating on a basic level. <br />
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This might be a conspiracy theory, but what if Backstrom's susceptibility to migraines is not a result of Rene Bourque's horrible elbow-to-the-head, but rather his allergies blowing up?</div>
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When I have a REALLY bad allergy day, things get so bad that I am sort of like white-blind or snow-blind. I've gotten on the wrong Metro train before, gotten off at the wrong stop, went to get food and walked around the block mindlessly for 15 minutes because I am unable to constructively figure out what I am trying to do. </div>
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I am also very sensitive to other athletes using allergies as a con. While I was given an inhaler to use, I never do. I feel that it opens your lungs up too much, and causes you to suck in whatever allergen you react to deeper than your body's natural defenses would otherwise allow. I used my inhaler once before a race during allergy season, and I ended up wheezing really badly at the end all the same, and ended up sick for a week afterwards. I once advised a fellow racer on seeking advice for how to deal with allergies. He asked me so incessantly on where to go, who to see, and what it was that got me the inhaler...I answered him truthfully and in particular, that I advice against using an inhaler for racing and training. Three weeks later, I am beside him at the starting line of a race and watch him pull an albuterol puffer out from his pocket and just go to fucking town on the thing. 'You are fucking kidding me' I muttered, and never spoke to him again.</div>
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With my personal story said, I understand Nick Backstrom's issue fairly well, and I also understand why WADA needs to have a line that you cannot cross...they problem is that they drew the line in the very middle of an extremely grey area. </div>
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As an allergy sufferer, it is insane to think of traveling and sleeping in a hotel without loading up on antihistamines. Sleeping on a foreign pillow can give me bad congestion and sensitivity to light. When you travel to a different area, sleeping accommodations aside, you have to think of the new local ecosystem, what different types of grass or tree pollen there might be, and what time of the annual allergy calendar it is there. At the Sochi games, Nick Backstrom did inform his team management that he took Zyrtec. This is where things get even looser.</div>
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Backstrom earns his primary paycheck from an NHL team, the Washington Capitals. The NHL seems to be responsible for drug testing its own players, rather than leaning on WADA or USADA (US Anti Doping Agency). I don't know this for a fact, but I believe it to be true, as Nick and the Capitals state publicly that he's been taking this allergy medication for several years, and it has never been an issue. Any USADA test would have triggered an adverse analytic finding, and this discussion would have been on a different day under much less devastating circumstances. </div>
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The NFL is another example of a league that deals with athlete doping in-house. You occasionally hear about positive drug tests (most recently, one of the Seahawks' secondary players taking adderall), but because it is kept in-house, the NFL can manage how (and possibly IF) the information is released to the public. In this instance, under international rules, there is no league entity looking to protect itself and its players, similar to my sport of cycling. Cycling continuously turns out doping positives because every single possible positive is IMMEDIATELY published and propagated. There are some organizations in cycling that are responsible for hosting major races such as the Tour de France, but they have only loose associations with teams, and do not fully cooperate with teams. As such, the sport is very 'open' which allows for new teams to participate, but it misses out on the stability that sports with built in governance enjoy (such as the major sports here in America.)</div>
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Back from that tangent, the takeaway is that Team Sweden and Nick Backstrom should have thought to register for a Therapeutic Use Exemption, or TUE. A TUE is a document that you get a doctor to sign off on saying that you have a legitimate reason to use a prescribed amount of a banned substance because of clinical reasons. </div>
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It is reasonable to say that Nick simply didn't think about this. Being a member of the NHL, he likely doesn't have to worry about this sort of thing and it didn't cross his mind. He did go as far as making sure Team Sweden knew about it, which leads to another wild thought: what if the team Doctor didn't think about a TUE because Zyrtec is not sold containing Psuedoephedrine in Sweden? This is a wild, shot-in-the-dark explanation for how the ball may have been dropped multiple times by multiple people; I'm just trying to illustrate how this is all such a grey area that you could call it...50 shades of grey.</div>
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Finally, I will get to my pissed-off-fan-of-Nick-Backstrom side: why in the hell did it take the IOC decide to disqualify him two and a half hours before the gold medal match? As an athlete, I've raced against guys who have been busted for LEGIT performance enhancers: steroids, EPO and the like. It always takes WADA and USADA months and months to actually do anything to someone who gets popped. Meanwhile, the athletes who test positive area usually allowed to finish out their seasons before any announcements are made. One particular local rider won a National Championship on the dope. Months later, USA Cycling would DQ the result and award the win to the rider who placed second, but that rider never got to enjoy the victory. They never got their photograph on top of the podium with the national champion's jersey on their shoulders.</div>
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In Sochi, at the highest level of competition, it seems only reasonable that, not only are they taking urine samples for doping controls, but they are running the tests on-site so that they can catch cheaters immediately. <strike>The worst thing of this whole story is that, apparently, Backstrom's sample that tested positive for 190 micrograms per milliliter (or milligrams...whatever) was taken a WEEK ago.</strike> <i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Edit: Reader Ron W points out that his sample was taken on Wednesday, which would allow three days to process and analyse his sample. To stick to my ranting tone, I am not editing any further text</span>.</i> They let him play though games all week, and only two and a half hours before the biggest game of this man's life do they sent a man in a coat to escort Nick from the dressing room and inform him that he has been disqualified, that he cannot help his team bring home gold for their country. Imagine what thoughts and sorrow must have been going through Nick's head as his teammates struggled to find the back of the net against Team Canada. I'm sure he felt cheated, felt confused, and felt that he somehow let down his teammates.</div>
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Still, what if none of what I wrote is true. What if his allergy story is just a story? What if he was trying to one up his abilities in hockey by taking a drug? If you were a professional hockey player, and would stop at NOTHING to win a gold medal in the olympics, what drugs would you take to play 'out of your mind' as they say? Testosterone? EPO? Maybe you'd look into HGH? How about a stimulant? I heard adderall is all the rage in the NFL and crossfit gyms, it must be pretty good. What about something simple and legal, like loading up on caffeine? There are lots of studies about how caffeine is a legal performance enhancer that works...Naw, screw that. Give me some psuedoephedrine! I'll take one 24 hour tab, plus a tiny bit more, that will work way better!</div>
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Please. I'm so glad that anti-doping attention can be placed on a beloved Swede who took Zyrtec-D, while the EPO positive of a biathlon athlete has gone mostly unnoticed. I hope that that Nicklas receives the silver medal his team earned without him, and that his forced and untimely disqualification per a substance rule that should be adjusted is punishment enough. Again, while it is awesome that WADA had the foresight to build in some tolerance for reasonable use, their 150 ug/mg limit should probably be bumped up just a little bit to accommodate therapeutic use spanning multiple days, but not so high as to accommodate abuse.</div>
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TL;DR: Nick Backstrom took Zyrtec-D daily to combat allergies. WADA prohibits excessive use of the 'D' ingredient. Their limit as to what 'excessive' is accommodates roughly 1 day's typical use of the drug. Nick probably took it every day, so he was over the limit and produced a positive drug test. This is against the rules, but the rules were not laid out to 'bust' people who took regular amounts of allergy medication. Also, fuck the IOC for waiting until just before the gold medal match to disqualify Nick Backstrom. Finally, I threw away all my maple syrup in my fridge. (that's for you, Jared Neiters)</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13013917411496312442noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955612590388385148.post-24236784749228499782014-02-19T07:51:00.001-08:002014-02-19T07:51:22.170-08:002014 is HereWhat a busy stretch it has been since I last had the time to write an entry here. This weekend, the William and Mary Tidewater Classic is happening, and I am going! With that, I thought I'd jot down some things that have been on my mind since last August.<br />
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The first thing a lot of you will notice if you find me at the races is that I'm shaving my head. Not razor to scalp, but close enough. For the past few years, I've been losing my hair, and I went through your typical 20-something obsessing over their image phase for a while. I did Monoxidil, Nizoral shampoo, and even Emu Oil (which is actually awesome for the skin). My takeaways are that Monox gave me the little documented 'aging' look in the face, and didn't help at all with hair loss on the front. I never even considered Finasteride...too much risk of permanently changing your body chemistry with that. Nope, after a few years of seeing it happen in the mirror, I finally too the guard off the clippers and chopped all the hair off, and I couldn't be more relieved. <br />
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All that anxiety because my hair was falling out and I was freaking. I should have just accepted that I was going to lose my hair and shaved it and dealt with it once it really started. When Monoxidil was kind of keeping it in check, I didn't look at my hair and say 'yeah, awesome'. Some people care a lot about their image and go a lot further to preserve or regain their hair, and that is great if that is what they want to look like. Me, I don't really care about what people think of my appearance, and it was only some phantom insecurity I developed because I thought I wasn't going to look young anymore. End of 20's going on 30's isn't exactly young...my parents had me when they were 21/22! <br />
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There is a lot more I could write about the topic, but the moral of the story for me is that I came away with some personal growth and a little bit of 'recalibration' at how I need to hold myself in society. I still feel like I'm the same person as when I was 13, but I'm certainly not, and I need to remind myself of this every once in a while. <br />
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Anyways, if you are reading this and are in a similar position, just know that no one else really gives a shit about your hair except for you. Go see a hair replacement clinic if that is what will make you happy, but don't make the mistake in worrying about how others perceive you.<br />
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On a different note, I've been making a concerted effort to stay more in touch with family. I had a slightly alternative upbringing, with seasonal stepsisters, custody agreements, and an entire family on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. I was never able to spend as much time with everyone as I wanted to, and I fell into a sort habit of solitude.<br />
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This is a little bit ironic for me, but a <i>product</i> helped me out; I got a MotoX smartphone a few months ago, upgrading from a hand-me-down HTC Incredible (1). My new phone runs all the apps and has a front facing camera. I can easily hit up all my family members on all the different channels they hang out on. Facebook, Google+, Txt, Instagram, Skype, Snapchat, etc. This has been so awesome that I even went and got an iPod so I could facetime with people who use <i>that </i>as their primary channel. I'm really late to the 'stay-in-touch' party, but I'm trying to make up for lost time...<br />
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Peace from the Salt PondsAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13013917411496312442noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955612590388385148.post-17709519285717026852013-08-19T13:29:00.003-07:002013-08-19T13:29:29.791-07:00Update to Stages PostHEY YOU GUUYYYSSSSSS<br />
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I messed up on the last post. I didn't crop the power files correctly to compare my average power. <br />
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Here are some pictures to compare:<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Zdj-BOFagU8/UhJ7Cso4vlI/AAAAAAAAGaQ/pM3qhwlQWtM/s1600/PowertapFile.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Zdj-BOFagU8/UhJ7Cso4vlI/AAAAAAAAGaQ/pM3qhwlQWtM/s1600/PowertapFile.bmp" height="387" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Powertap!</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stages!</td></tr>
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Yeah, these are EERILY similar. As I'm posting this, I'm going back into WKO+ to make sure that they are, in fact, from different devices. The full files are different (Stages drops power data at under 30 rpm...when I crossed the line and ultra-soft pedaled around after the finish), but I wanted to show the interwebs just how close the Stages compares to a known high-standard power meter (honestly, I think of Powertap as a secondary Gold Standard, similar to SRM) at the expense of giving away my super-secret power numbers. <br />
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After cropping both files more carefully (one of them left out some of the starting lunge), the averages are: 303 and 303. I don't think there is anything more I need to write (<i>except can we have an Android App to upgrade the firmware?</i>)Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13013917411496312442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955612590388385148.post-85918594083878186562013-08-18T19:34:00.000-07:002013-08-19T12:26:35.251-07:00Stages Power Meter: First ThoughtsFor six years (I got mine when I was 24), I've been a devoted Powertap user. When I started using my Powertap, I had no ideas what the numbers meant, but was happy that I could boast about what I did up a hill with my friends after a group ride. <br />
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Through the seasons, I began REALLY using the thing and training with purpose. For a while (the second half of the year I wore the 'Your Ad Here' kit), I did the 'Training and Racing with a PowerMeter' plan...entailing a lot of 2x20's at 90-95% FTP. My big weakness, endurance and long-range power, increased a lot with a healthy dose of BORING work on the rollers, staring at Powertap numbers. <br />
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In 2011, the North Tek year, I made some STRONG progressions, with some big peak performances at Wilmington and Altoona. Again, I knew enough about FTP and sweet spot training to self-coach my way to all of this. in 2012, I rolled my way to the Nature Valley Grand Prix, where I focused on keeping a high average power on 4+ hour rides and starving myself to a svelt weight. I had a massively disappointing performance at Nature Valley, and it was after some chats with Lindsay Bayer that I decided I needed to suck it up and invest in a coach.<br />
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The last half of 2012 I was coached. The holes in my fitness were quickly sured up, and I began to rack up power data from more 'traditional' style workouts, with plenty of high-intensity efforts, and a HEALTHY portion of vomit-boiling sprint work. Unfortunately, that November, I tore a muscle in my leg and was relegated to rehabing couch-potato style for 3 and a half months. This May I resumed business as usual and got back to hard pedaling with my trusty Powertap.<br />
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One thing that ALWAYS bugged me was having to chose between running my Powertap on race day and collecting the data, or using a race wheel. While I can't say I've ever won or lost a race because of this choice, the mental boost you get from having your nice hoops on is significant. In my case, I have an 808 front, which quite frankly, looks ridiculous paired with a standard alloy rear rim.<br />
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Enter the Stages Power Meter. A few weeks ago, Bike Doctor Waldorf became a StagesCycling dealer, and a few of us on the race team decided we wanted to get into crank-based powermeters. For me, there were three factors in wanting to try StagesCycling: I LOVE Shimano cranks, and have been apprehensive about Quarq for this [silly and personal] preference. Secondly, I cannot afford an SRM. Third, Garmin Vector [was] in my mind, VAPORWARE.<br />
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Knowing full-well what the prospect of left-leg only power measurement could bring, I decided to get a Stages Dura-Ace crank. For you numbers-weenies, I do lurk on Wattage and Slowtwitch, so I know about the poo-pooing that has been levied upon this product.<br />
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When I got the crank, I ran it in tandem with my Powertap, borrowed an extra Garmin 500, and recorded a workout. Disappointingly, the Stages meter was significantly off from my Powertap readings. The next day, I found a friend with an iPhone 5, and used the free Stages Cycling app to check the firmware. Sure enough, there was an update available, that was easily applied to the Stages unit.<br />
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Again, I went out and did a workout with two Garmin 500's. HAPPILY, the numbers I saw in WKO+ that night were VERY congruent (for the most part). Some numbers over 3 minute intervals agreed between my Powertap and Stages crank. I checked calibration before and after the efforts. While the numbers are not 100% in tandem, I would say the Stages was easily 'close enough' to train by and go home and see what you have done. I'm talking 6-8 watt difference in Avg over an intense 3 minute effort (some jerky launching and desperate pedaling going on!) On Saturday I raced at the Church Creek 40km Time Trial, running both my Powertap and my Stages crank. Over the 52:35 effort (<i>*pats self on back*)</i>, there was a <b>TWO WATT</b> difference in the avg power recording between the two power files. Spoiler alert: I did a 301/303 average. I'll let you do the math as to the percentage error that is...<br />
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More significant than the difference in power recording was the difference in Elapsed time between the two Garmin 500 units. They were 25 seconds off of each other, and neither was consistent with the official measured time (we had timing chips on our bib numbers!) <br />
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When I mentioned <i>for the most part</i> I should fess up that the Stages doesn't do a great job in showing similar numbers when I do sprints, but in its defense, I've read that the Powertap tends to give high peak power readings. More to the point, there is no 'wattage zone' you need to stay in when you do sprint work. You pedal as hard as you can. There is no pacing, aside from the difference of a 10 second max and a 30 second sprint. The only significant thing I've used sprint numbers for is to stroke my own ego when I start to break the 1x00 w barrier. <br />
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All that said, I think the Stages Cycling powermeter is a great product. You can get into reliable (but not the most pure) power measurement for under a grand, you can swap your meter between bikes a little bit quicker than an SRM or Quarq (as long as you have multiple base-cranks!), AND YOU CAN RUN YOUR DURA-ACE CRANKS! Also, not worrying about what make/model/size chainrings are on those cranks is another plus (although this is not the big issue it once was).<br />
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If you are considering a Stages powermeter, I'd say go for it. It isn't the <i>perfect </i>powermeter solution, but it is a great way to getting in to training with power, or racing with a powermeter if you are economically constrained to a Powertap laced to a training rim. Since I bought mine, Garmin Vector <i>MAGICALLY FELL FROM THE SKY</i> and became available to consumers. The Vector looks like another great new addition to the power meter market, but at Quarq-like prices (and I hope you don't mind using an Exustar pedal body and cleats). <br />
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To put it simply, if I the 24-year-old me were shopping for my first powermeter TODAY, the Stages product would be a no-brainer. If you started the whole powermeter game with a Stages, a few seasons on, you'd have a tough time finding a reason to drop over $1.5k (up to over $3k) to get a little more 'sciency' with your power measurement. You can feel confident in riding a Stages powermeter, and use the money you could have spent on an established 'premium' meter for a coach, good food, and race travel funds.<br />
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See the folks at <a href="http://bikedoctorwaldorf.com/">Bike Doctor Waldorf</a> to order yours, and get some empirical data to go with all of your Strava records!<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EuHlca9AbvA/UhGDoCHOEYI/AAAAAAAAGZ4/bFykkPv0Wrc/s1600/IMG_20130818_221631.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EuHlca9AbvA/UhGDoCHOEYI/AAAAAAAAGZ4/bFykkPv0Wrc/s320/IMG_20130818_221631.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An elegant and affordable solution to power measurement!</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WujP_M8J7JE/UhGDqr88zHI/AAAAAAAAGaA/fPdY5po91tI/s1600/IMG_20130818_221718.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WujP_M8J7JE/UhGDqr88zHI/AAAAAAAAGaA/fPdY5po91tI/s320/IMG_20130818_221718.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">No one has said anything about my mismatching 6700 and 9000 arms! My bike LOST WEIGHT when I installed this power meter!</td></tr>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13013917411496312442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955612590388385148.post-63553026915081364432013-06-21T13:28:00.000-07:002013-06-21T13:28:53.090-07:00Getting Fit, and Getting FitTwo weeks ago, I took part in my first race back from the injury (if you don't count my false-start at the All-American RR), the Clarendon Cup Pro Race! This was my first time taking part in the Men's Professional event. As a teenager growing up in DC, I'd always follow the event, hoping that one day, I'd be in the pro peleton with the big boys. As a bike shop employee, I LOVED Clarendon weekend, because you'd be casually visited by ProTour riders who are out-and-about on the bike, keeping their legs loose! <br />
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I've raced in a number of Pro-1 Criteriums before, so I generally knew what to expect, but the distance of the Clarendon race was really intimidating. I was still sporting some sore hands and a banged up knee, and I was still early in the training build. Sitting at the start line, I was thinking lots of negative thoughts, but a veteran and personal peptalk from <a class="g-profile" href="https://plus.google.com/106047805937209297951" target="_blank">+Joe Mazza</a> got me out of the funk and took a lot of the jitters out of my stomach.</div>
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I started at the back, which if you have ever raced a criterium (specifically THIS criterium course), you will understand how big of a disadvantage that is. I spent an honest amount of time early on in the race gauging how easily I could move up, trying to find a sweet spot in the peleton where the cornering and braking was a little bit smoother. </div>
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For my non-bike-racer readers, there is a lot of technical skill disparity between riders, even at the pro level. When a peleton approaches a tight corner as a pack, there are so many small movements which can ultimately prevent you from having maximum exit speed, which in turn will cause you to have to put in a hard effort to match the speed of the front of the race (which is now 10 seconds ahead of you, and flying down a straight-away). </div>
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Eventually, I gave up on finding a smooth part of the pack where I could carry my inertia all the way through the corner without braking, so I tailgunned. Tailgunning is when you hang out at the back of the back, let the pack roll away from you slightly on the straightaways, and then you corner faster than them and make up all lost ground exiting the turns. You do have to pedal a little more in some sections, but you minimize the amount of sprinting you have to do coming out of corners. </div>
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Once I was settled, it was a 2 hour and fifteen minute battle for draft, preferred cornering lines, and time to reach for an energy gel or grab a sip of water. I wasn't having any physical issues in hanging on (besides putting in the HARD effort to stay in), but the MENTAL effort it took was surprising. If you relax and stop paying CLOSE attention to every minute detail of your position, use of energy, and your prudent entry and exit lines in the corners, you notice the physical price you have to pay QUICKLY. On two or three occasions I sort of fell asleep at the wheel, and by the time I realized it, my HR was going upwards of my own danger zone, and it would take 2 or 3 laps to settle back down. </div>
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As I said, this went on for over 2 hours. Eventually I came unglued off the back of the race when the rider in front of my blew a tire approaching a turn, and I had no safe and fast line to get around him. After the corner, I had clear space to move past, but there was a 30 meter gap to the next rider (and the draft box behind him). Those 30 meters might have been 30 miles. I gave about 10 seconds of effort to try and close the gap, but the engine room was SPEWING steam...my legs were well beyond their limit. I went into time-trial mode, hoping to keep riding quick enough to finish the distance without getting pulled by the officials. I did entertain myself by trying to get as many kids to give me high-fives as I passed. Don't worry, I was soft-hands-ing it. No missle-five from me! </div>
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I did, sort of. On the final lap, I could see the leaders behind me, and United HealthCare was quite obviously shredding the field, so I COURTEOUSLY pulled to the side and let the leaders fly past me into the final two turns. Clipping back in, I pedaled the rest of the way to the finish, crossing my fingers that I would be counted in the final results. I was! </div>
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Post race, I enjoyed a DELICIOUS HAMBURGER AND MILKSHAKE from a really cool crew of people at BGR on Wilson Blvd. After over two hours of fast and furious racing, that brought me back to life like no endurance recovery product could. It was a great day; I [barely] finished the Clarendon Pro Race, and my wife and parents had made the trip to watch the whole thing unfold! The drive home, however, was less enjoyable. MY F***ING BACK HURT LIKE IT WAS MY FIRST BIKE RACE EVER! </div>
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In the weeks prior, I had been considering consulting the folks at Bike Doctor in Waldorf to take a look at my position on the bike. The Clarendon race was a wake up call to go in and get it done, as I had never had a proper fit done. </div>
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The fit is a topic all it's own. Spoiler alert: I needed to change my position.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13013917411496312442noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955612590388385148.post-20545621539992640382013-06-20T09:55:00.003-07:002013-06-20T09:55:34.612-07:00Where Was I This Spring and Other FactsThe 2012 season went incredibly well for me. I had a head full of steam in the spring, qualified for the Nature Valley Pro Chase, and went absolutely bonkers preparing myself for the Nature Valley Grand Prix. The story of how I disappeared this spring probably starts there...<br />
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NVGP is known for the Menomonie Road Race and the Stillwater Criterium. Both courses have mondo-climbing. Those who know me in real life will be aware that I climb as well as a rock dropped into the ocean. Local Pro-Am racer Tim Rugg attended NVGP the year before me, and gave me as much advice as 'get ready for hills, dude!' And so I did.<br />
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I went beyond monk-mode nutrition wise and was chronically underfed as I prepared for NVGP. I went straight through my healthy racing weight of 180-185 (where no one calls me fat), and continued to plummet below 175. I made it to 167 with many restless nights of trying to fall asleep before my hunger kept me awake. All this weight loss was done while training very hard, racing our local Wednesday Night Training Race in Greenbelt most weeks, and putting in some 100+ mile megarides. <br />
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It was all too much, too quickly. <br />
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I was VERY flat at NVGP. You can read about how the racing went down in my past posts, but I came home knowing that I had dug myself into a hole with my rapid weight loss and my ad-hoc self-training. Going forward, I knew I had to be more honest with myself about my body, my abilities, and my knowledge. <br />
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The first step in recovering from my slightly heartbreaking performance at Nature Valley would be to allow some weight to come back, and feed myself after I trained. I quickly came back up to high 170's and low 180's, and felt better, day-in-day-out. <br />
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The second step would be to recruit the help of a cycling coach, who turned out to be Ken Lundgren of Elite Endurance. I knew a few riders who worked with him, and his philosophies and methodologies 'clicked' with me. I can nerd out with the best of them when it comes to cycling equipment and wattage theory, but I prefer to have some 'old school' thrown in there. We don't race by comparing w/kg figures from power files, after all...<br />
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The third step was to reload for a late season event. I frequently participate in the Mayor's Cup in Boston, held in September. I ALWAYS got popped in this race, and I wanted to see if I could get myself closer to the finish this year before getting pulled. With a more reasonable approach to nutrition and coaching from someone who knew what they were doing, not only did I get further at the Mayor's Cup than I ever had, I finished the race! Not only did I finish the race, but I landed myself in a few off-the front moves. One of these moves in particular, I found myself HAMMERING on the wheel of a dude in a neon green Liquigas kit...Ted King. Pretty cool. <br />
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With the pride I took in finally finishing the race, I was ready to go nuts in the offseason and put in some hard work. Unfortunately, as I did in a similar fashion prepping for NVGP, I went a little TOO nuts and tore my left hip flexor and the accompanying tendon. It took me 3 and a half months of couch potato training for the tear to properly heal. Using the clutch in my car SUCKED, I couldn't walk up stairs very well, and I was all over the place in terms of daily pain. As frustrating as it was, I FINALLY healed up enough to ride as the race season was well underway. <br />
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My first real ride back was the All American Road Race, which I won the previous year. I weighed a noble 205 lbs and got dropped with some many miles to go. I took no shame from this, and continued on a solid, healthy track of progress. With Coach's guidance and no aspirations to starve, I've steadily seen my fitness rise as the spring rolled on and we arrive to summer.<br />
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Last weekend I raced at the Tour of Washington County. I have NEVER finished that RR with the main field. I still didn't, but I made it to the end of the main loops and cramped up BAD departing the race loop and rolling up the finishing straightaway. This, on a course where, in the past, I'd have been so freaked out that I was over some number of pounds in bodymass, I finished without once having the thought of 'I wish I was sub 180' or 'going back on the lettuce and coffee diet'. It feels FAR better to pedal with some drive behind it than to be starved and go about 200 yards further with the field because your watts per kilograms are technically better. Also, who doesn't prefer seeing bigger numbers on the powermeter to smaller numbers on a scale? Okay, there is definitely a limit to all this, but I think you get my drift...I wasn't taking care of myself before and I'm healthy now, blahblahblah...<br />
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With a shortened race calendar to go, I look forward to continued improvement, and a lot of fun on the way!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13013917411496312442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955612590388385148.post-16629805228983752122012-08-17T08:00:00.000-07:002012-08-17T08:00:18.139-07:00One, Two, Skip a Few...99-One Hundred.
I've been a little bit busy with curricular the past few weeks, which has kept me off of my blogger account, but I've found a small window of time this Friday morning to sip on some coffee and recount my bike riding through a keyboard.<br />
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A few weeks ago I raced out in West Virginia at Jay Moglia and NCVC's Lost River Classic Road Race, a semi-epic hill-burner held in the towering hills that sprinkle the mountainous ridgelines traversing the town of Mathias. I was pleased to see fairly full fields in most of the races, as this event was at its third year and really needed to break even with solid registration numbers in order to ensure future editions.
I was also pleased to see my teammate Bruno Neto turn out to race.<br />
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Bruno is around my age and was racing against me as a 4 when I first started racing. The first race I really traveled to was the Altoona Stage Race, and I vividly remember hanging around Bruno and Nate Wilson in the parking lots, as they were friendly and familiar faces. This year, Bruno has been riding like a beast, but he's been having trouble finding time to attend races. When I found out he was doing Lost River, I was happy to sign up myself and slog it out in the hills in hopes that I could help him in some way, shape, or form..<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RKbKKADjGmE/UC5XldEq0oI/AAAAAAAAEUY/P2sLcq7LpiY/s1600/Lost-River-Classic-088-0151-L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RKbKKADjGmE/UC5XldEq0oI/AAAAAAAAEUY/P2sLcq7LpiY/s320/Lost-River-Classic-088-0151-L.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Me setting up the ole' one-two</td></tr>
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While the end results of Lost River were not super fruitful, Bruno did land himself in the initial dangerous breakaway and got to ride his own race. As for myself, I made it a lap further with the field than I did last year, and was only pulled with 1 to go.<br />
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Races like Lost River are more of 'completion challenges' to me: I go to experience a different type of race, and also to humbly accept the will of the climbers, as they spend much of the spring time on the opposite end of the totem pole dealing with guys like me dishing out the hurt on the flatter terrains. To not show up and accept my own beatings, and more importantly, not experience and support a GREAT race course, would not fit the archetype of a sportsman.<br />
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More recently, I raced at the Millersburg Stage Race, but that report is worthy of its own entry. Right now, I'm mostly focused on my season's end. With the last MABRA series races occurring this weekend, I find myself with a plane ticket to the Gulf of Mexico in my hand. I leave today. Bike racing is certainly not over for me this year: I will be racing the Mayor's Cup in Boston again, and I'm leaning towards participating at Iron Cross. <br />
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I'm amazed that I've been 'on' for the entire season and never got tired of it. I accomplished a lot personally (whether or not I intended to), and I think I've helped my teammates accomplish some personal goals of their own. It is only fitting that I once again express my sincere thanks and appreciation to not only my teammates, who rallied around me to send me to the Nature Valley Grand Prix and were instrumental in my victory at the All American Road Race, but also to my team sponsors. The folks at Bike Doctor made it EASY to keep myself and my teammates rolling all season long with proper equipment, fast repairs (we took a few spills!), and how about our SWEET Caad 10s? <br />
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Elite Endurance was the final component in a 'perfect storm' of aspirations, expectations, and mutual motivation in the Bike Doctor Racing Team's continued ascent this year. A lot of the guys trained under Elite Endurance, and, shocker, a lot of guys had awesome years. Another Shocker: I'm working with Elite Endurance now, after I realized at Nature Valley that 'I have no idea what I'm doing.'<br />
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DigiSource (the logo on our side panel) threw in to the pot to complete the picture. Aside from providing support to the team, they are my employer, and deal with my bike racing 'problem' with grace and generosity. Also, I get to take my mind off of bikes for 8 hours a day and play with high end computer equipment. Legal-types in D.C. be aware: we have the equivalent of a P5 with 808 Firecrests for E Discovery equipment and services. I've been upgrading the speed of more than just my pedal stroke this year!<br />
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Finally, I've been helped out at races by Igda, Emir, Kat, and Katie G. Most importantly, though, my wife, who deals with me missing half of our 'visitation time' that I blow up by attending all of these events and racing with the team. <br />
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Coffee's done, and I've got to get back to work.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13013917411496312442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955612590388385148.post-72393545451019058252012-08-07T12:00:00.001-07:002012-08-07T12:18:22.285-07:00Cycling is too Win-CentricThis is a topic I've been spouting off with my buddies for some time now. Road Cycling puts far too much weight on achieving 1st place.
Why am I on this thought? Let's start here: it is late in the season, and I'm seeing race registrations on many categories boil down to a few 'core' riders, and riders who SPECIALIZE on the type of course being raced on the day. If you put that in contrast to spring and early summer-time races, you will see a huge difference; full fields, chock full of racers who might not have a great shot at placing high.
Here is where I am disappointing in my fellow roadies: so many get tired of being beat in the early season, that when the days are dog hot and the courses are dominated by little birdie-sized men, a good chunk of the spring-bloomers decide to stop showing up for races. I'm sure there are plenty of logical reasons for shutting down the race schedule (financial/time/too many weekends spent riding bikes), but I can't help but think that there is a mental attrition going on. Just how many times do you expect you can drive for hours, ride your heat out, and get STOMPED on by faster guys/gals?
I had a heated discussion with a family member about my attendance at races where I have absolutely zero chance at doing well, and a low chance of even finishing the distance. "Why would you waste your time? Why would you waste your energy? I don't know any dogs who are good cats."
My answer was immediate. I didn't even have to think. Just as I love the thrill of making a winning break, or surprising people in a sprint, I get a huge amount of satisfaction in the PERSONAL achievement in finishing or even contesting a race that is massively difficult for me. I feel like being a no-show to the difficult summer races we have on our calendar would not only hurt our local race promoters' bank accounts, but I'd also feel like a kid who started getting beat in a game of HORSE and runs home, taking the ball with him.
Being an athlete means working hard and striving for success, but it also means TAKING YOUR ASS KICKINGS, AND TAKING THEM WITH DIGNITY AND RESPECT FOR THOSE WHO SERVED YOU THAT SLICE OF HUMBLE PIE. With the attitude of so many cycle racers, I'm not sure if other people notice when I'm out there trying in total futility, but still giving it my all, but I'd like to think there are some. I, for one, definitely notice you if you are gutting it out like I do at so many of these shindigs. At the end of the day, winning a bike race won't get you any more QUALITY friends or TRUE respect than being DFL, but riding your heart out, and going until the officials pull you from the course, kicking and screaming to be allowed to complete another lap.
In short, I do the bike racing thing to COMPETE, not WIN. Winning is fun, awesome, thrilling, etc, but the thrill never sticks with me for very long. In my first year of racing, I won a bunch of races, usually on Sunday (because I had to work Saturdays). By Tuesday afternoon (the time of my local group ride), the satisfaction from the win was gone, and I was already antsy about re-proving myself at the next race, or looking towards another challenge.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13013917411496312442noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955612590388385148.post-83735227838760267732012-07-30T06:34:00.000-07:002012-07-30T06:34:45.221-07:00Euro Crit<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/9Utw-6yGOow" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Robbie Mac gives us this bell lap video of a post-TdF parade crit. Rarely do you get to see your favorite Pro-Tour riders mix it up in a crit, and Robbie gives us a 1st person perspective on the action!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13013917411496312442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955612590388385148.post-61235940868946465122012-07-20T15:10:00.004-07:002012-07-20T15:13:00.142-07:00Lost River TomorrowI swear to you this riff will be in my head the entire race<br />
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<object width="560" height="315"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/NAXz2z4giws?version=3&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/NAXz2z4giws?version=3&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" height="315" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13013917411496312442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955612590388385148.post-79871508304627838852012-07-17T10:11:00.004-07:002012-07-17T10:11:35.075-07:00Part 2: Franklin RRI've been excited about the Franklin Road Race for a few weeks. A long, flat course probably suits me better than most courses, and the Franklin course was just that! In addition, the race was promoted by my friends from Celerity Cycling who live just a hop across the Monitor Merrimac Memorial Bridge Tunnel Roadway Pavement Traffic Jam.<br />
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Regrettably, I couldn't partake in the Franklin Omnium, which featured a flat TT and a crit on Saturday, due to my participation in the MABRA Monument Giro di Coppi. Still, I could bank on a weekend of extreme leg-hurtingness with the level of competition present at the Franklin Road Race.<br />
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Despite a substantially smaller field turnout than the Giro di Coppi, the Franklin Road Race proved to be chalk full of strong competitors. The usual Southern VA fast guys were there like Marc Warner, Walker Owen, Dan Netzer, sleep-deprived Frank Cundiff, and oh-my-god Evan Fader! There were a number of D20 based riders as well, namely the Kelly Benefits Strategy squad, Dave Fuentes, and Justin 'Mach' Mauch.<br />
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The race began in earnest, with the full Kelly team stepping up and dictating the race. With the wind and flat terrain, attacks became such a show of power that the peleton was quickly blown up. I did a lot of early work rotating through to keep the pace high enough to discourage Kelly from sending people up the road, but this would prove foolish.<br />
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Paul Ward took off about midway through the race on a solo voyage, joined by no one. We let him roll away into the horizon and the pack started to picnic, share stories, and follow Blair Berbet, who was more interested in eating a powerbar than riding quickly. I was getting impatient, as I knew that Paul was a fast dude that shouldn't be given too large of a leash. Coming around a corner, my new found momentum from Minnesota gapped the field. I looked back at the group and saw no reaction to my sudden lead. I got out of the saddle and gave the bike a wag. Still no reaction. I started to give it the beans. STILL no reaction. I was something like 30-35 miles from the finish, WELL outside of my ideal range of 150 meters to give a race winning move, but decided to throw the chips on the table and hope for something good to happen. <br />
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Maybe the terrain suited me so well that the pack wouldn't have enough gas to catch me? Maybe at this range they would accidentally give me too much time and I'd finish well! All sorts of ideas were rolling through my head, but I was too busy listening to my heart: today was my turn to do the stupid solo move. Onward I journeyed along the cornfields of Franklin.<br />
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Almost precisely 20 minutes after I departed the peleton, I caught up with Paul Ward. I didn't pause at his back wheel, I immediately came around him and got up on the hoods to give him a 'Cadillac draft.' Poor guy had been solo for something like half an hour longer than me! The race personelle driving alongside Paul gave us the splits: 90 seconds to the peleton, SIXTY SECONDS TO THE LEADER. <br />
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"I thought you were first place!" I said<br />
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"No, Ben Frederick is still up the road," replied Paul.<br />
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"Oh." -me<br />
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No wonder I was let go. When Paul took off from the pack about an hour earlier, I didn't realize he was in pursuit. I had just spent a LONG time riding up to what I thought was 1st place, only to discover that there was another 60 second gap to close. <br />
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Paul asked for a few minutes recovery time on my wheel, which was totally understandable. He must've been pretty lonely out there. It was around this time that I stopped sweating. 'Awe, crap' I thought. As Paul and I started rotating, my body was giving me the usual alarm bells. Knowing how far we were from the finish, I started giving Paul hints that I wasn't feeling super awesome. The last thing I wanted to do was to screw up the pace and ruin BOTH of our races.<br />
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I was resisting the voices in my head and the signals from my body. I kept riding, kept pulling, kept trying, but the numbers shown by my Powertap and HR monitor were burning an unmistakable truth into my foggy, overheated brain. No more steam in the engine room. Still, I kept going, riding on pride, understanding that today was my day to go down swinging. Paul Ward was an absolute Sir to me during this meltdown, giving me plenty of positive vibe to help me extend my range just that little bit longer. He was fine with me sitting on for the ride, and gave me no negativity to my imminent failure. Thanks, dude.<br />
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I finally blew up at the exact same spot on the course where I had initiated my departure from the field. I came to pull through and my legs felt that same wobbly, powerless feeling as I felt the day before on the finishing climb, like a newborn Wildebeest attempting to walk in its first minute of life. I had ridden to failure. <br />
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It is never easy quitting a race. You have to come to terms with the fact that you were unable to complete the competition that you signed up for, paid money for, drove a long way for, and brought your wife to give you water bottles for. As I've grown up in the bike racing world, I've realized that, as long as you impact the race, or take on some crazy duty, it is okay to not finish. At the Coppi Road Race, I never intended to make it to the end when I found our team in a bad situation. When I blew up, I was passed pretty rapidly by the groups or riders who were left in the race. The Fuentes/Mauch group gave me a shout so I could accellerate and join them. 'Sorry guys, I'm done' I thought, and waved them off and bid them good fortune. A second group rolled past, with Blair Berbert sitting on the back. He gave me a little word of 'good try,' and coming from Blair, that was all the confirmation I needed to know that I went down swinging.<br />
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After that, I was just trying to ride back to the parking lot. Just make it home. Bonked, dehydrated, dizzy, cramping, and confused, I thought of the look on Melissa's face during the run portion of IM Cozumel. Being on a bike only 3 miles from the parking lot, I realized that things were fine, and I started thinking about that cold chocolate milk I was saving for after the race.<br />
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I got back, downed water, downed milk, and sat in the back of my car for a few minutes. Suddenly, I erupted in sweat, and the level of 'normal-ness' in my head increased dramatically. I felt a lot better, and started to pack my car up and share some laughs with a few other DNF'd riders as we watched Ben Frederick finish off a 40 mile solo breakaway in dominating fashion.<br />
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That was a great race. It was a gentleman's race out there: highly competitive, but honest. I hope we see another edition of this race, and I'd encourage anyone from D20 to give it a shot.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13013917411496312442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955612590388385148.post-32251339699928881062012-07-15T18:49:00.002-07:002012-07-15T18:49:42.283-07:00Make Your Own Stage Race AdventureDay 1: Giro di Coppi<div>
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The race started with two riders, DJ Brew and Nick Bax, gaining a 3 minute and 30 second advantage over the peleton! Yowzers! Stuck at the back, I only had a glimpse of the duo going away before the first turn, (and I honestly thought it was just people riding around in front of the race). I didn't really give them any attention until the information that DJ and Bax were up the road disseminated through the group.</div>
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Letting the two guys 'out to dry' would be a huge gamble. DJ and Nick are two of my favorite local riders (if you can classify them as 'local'), and aside from their sheer talent, they've got the INTESTINAL FORTITUDE to see a suicidal, mile-0 attack pan out to the finish. I knew that my team and I needed to pull back the break as long as we were still riding for 1st place, but it took MILES to get up to the front of the field. With a centerline rule in effect, the front 1/3 of the race seemed to be populated by blokes who were interested in staying 'at the front', but not doing any work. Like a magical 60-mile leadout. RIGHT. </div>
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I had to be VERY vocal in order to get guys to LET me up front, so that I could give them that magical 60-mile leadout to the finish. When I got close to the front, I caught a glimpse of Lindsay Bayer riding very comfortably, at the front of the peleton, with lots of dudes sitting on her wheel, perfectly happy with her endurance warm-up pace. I also heard murmers from the same people about how Bike Doctor was the biggest team, and we were supposed to be chasing. AS THEY HAD THE DOOR SHUT ON ME, WHILE I WAS ASKING FOR SPACE TO MOVE UP IN ORDER TO WORK.</div>
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Ok, I got that off my chest.</div>
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Anyways, my hopes to race for an individual result went down the toilet, and I resigned myself to work 100% for two of my teammates, who would stay as much out of the break-pulling-backage as possible. Many miles later filled with Bike Doctor teammates rotating with me and XO riders doing a crafty job at blocking our rhythm, we brought back DJ and Nick. Thanks to the MASSIVE firepower of my teammates, we had a new race! And the race was good! There were the usual brutal fireworks that you can expect from the super-fun Giro di Coppi course, and I was staying in the race as a 'just-in-case-i-can-help-more' measure for two of my mates. </div>
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On the last lap, I dragged myself to the front of the race to help out Nicholas Taylor, who was outnumbered and isolated at the front of the race. Nick Bax had thrown himself off the front AGAIN and was flying the coup. Another XO rider took off, and the field didn't seem interested in following, pursuing, or even pedaling after him. I took up this task, and as soon as I joined him, he went backwards to find my wheel, as I was obligated to pull, seeing that he had a friend in Nick Bax still up the road. I was happy to see Tony Abate and Kevin Gottlieb bridge up and give me help. Two super strong, super cool dudes. I was SUPER deep in the pain cave after the early-race work, and was keeping my speed up for the sake of not getting dropped, but hoping the whole time that we'd be swallowed up by a hard charging peleton and my misery could end.</div>
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Didn't happen.</div>
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We were joined by a late bridge from Tim Rugg, who took a quick breather, then proceeded to pound us to the ground. Tony and I benefited the least from Tim's anti-gravity tricks, but we hauled ourselves back up TWICE when the roads tilted downward. As we rolled to the finishing hill, I attempted to give it one last rev and possibly podium, but Tim's pro-strength and Steve Gordon's euro-race pedigree proved far too fast for me. As I tried my best to match their sprint, my legs began pedaling in some sort of triangular-octagon style, rather than the usual smooth circular pattern. I rumbled my way up the hill to a 4th place finish and promptly laid down in a ditch and hoped to feel some sort of normal again.</div>
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Major Kudos to Nick Bax, who was by all aspects the deserving winner. Also cool to see was Lindsay Bayer mixing it up in the Men's race. It did not look at all like a stretch for her :)</div>
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Up next, I drive 5.5 hours to home and prepare for another road race the next day in Franklin, VA!</div>
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<br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13013917411496312442noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955612590388385148.post-43900643436062953452012-07-09T06:23:00.000-07:002012-07-09T06:23:31.284-07:00I Drove to the Iron Hill Twilight CritThe title is about as much excitement as I have to report back.<br />
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The race: I had terrible luck at staging and started at the very back. I did at least keep to my habit of finding a kid along the barriers to give a water bottle to, but that's as much entertainment as I could give the spectators. After FIFTEEN minutes of call ups, the race began, as did the process of gap-closing.<br />
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When you start that far back, all you can do is ride hard, pass as many people as you can, and hope that there isn't a field split.<br />
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Just my luck, I reached a point far enough forward to find that field split. By the time I was there, we were about 25 minutes in to the race, and the action was settling down a bit. I was at the front of my groupetto, and could take the corners at full speed. We were closing to the field, but the officials decided it was time to chop the race. We were pulled, and that was that. <br />
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Things other than my race were the highlights of the day. For one, the drive to West Chester was beautiful. I was picturing myself retired, driving an Aston Martin, and on my way to SPECTATE the bike race along the roads that lead you to the town. <br />
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As always, the race was well organized, and cycling fans (new and experienced alike) were having a great time. People were very interested in what was happening in the race, and when the field nearly pulled back the solo rider towards the end of the race, the spectators at the backside reacted with a loud "OHHHH WOWWW!" when it was announced. When people who don't race bikes are that into a criterium, you are doing something right. <br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13013917411496312442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955612590388385148.post-68933505810975667662012-07-02T13:31:00.002-07:002012-07-02T13:48:22.032-07:00Hooray for Bike Racing at Luray!Last weekend was another edition of the Tour of Page County, hosted by <a href="http://www.pagevalleycycling.com/">Page Valley Cycling</a>.<br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">This is a race that I love to attend. This is also a race that I am not very good at. With the steep, hilly terrain of Luray to contend with, I'm often left blown out the back of the race and pedaling to earn tough-guy points for seeing the race through and finishing (or at least riding until I am forced to stop by the officials!) While most cyclists are not used to getting dropped out of a peleton, the Page Valley events almost require that participants find themselves dropped at some point as a right of passage. There is no shame, the courses are tough, and are raced hard.</span><br />
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This year's edition of the stage race featured a brand new road race course, which we were unable to race on due to a freak thunderstorm unleashing chaos across the region on Friday night. Based on reports from racers who rode the course anyways, it looks like the race will be a big hit if we get a chance to race there next year. <br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">Apparently it has a really fun mix of hills, speed, smooth pavement, and mountain views. Sounds like some other classic races of our region, like Jefferson Cup, Giro di Coppi, and All-American (aka Murad). Hard enough to be difficult, but within the ability levels of a broad spectrum of riders. For any Mid-Atlantic area cyclists who feign away from registering for the Page Valley Cycling events, I highly encourage you to try the stage race out next year if we are lucky enough to see a 2013 edition with that road course. Fun for all ages/weights/power profiles!</span><br />
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With the road race scrapped, the stage race came down to a single day: a 9 mile time trial, and the now infamous Luray Crit. <br />
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The time trial started at the crest of Cavern Hill, at the Luray Caverns parking lot. You begin by SCREAMING down a smooth, safe decent, ride to the airport, and make a right hand turn. From there, the road starts to roll on you. The hills are enough to make you think long and hard as to what the best pacing strategy is, and the speed is absolutely high enough for TT specialists to see benefits from their equipment and abilities. In my race, the results sheet reflected this: GiroBio winner Joe Dombrowski of Bontrager/Livestrong won by 1 second over Josh Frick of DC Velo. My own teammate Scott Giles from Bike Doctor was 3rd, close behind. I placed 6th. The results sheet looked a lot like what you would see from the same riders at Church Creek, our local pancake-flat 40k jaunt.<br />
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After the time trial, I spent a few minutes soaking in our motel's swiming pool before packing up my car and prepping the sound equipment I brought for the crit course. Some sweaty time later, I had wires, speakers, mixers, and beats connected and pumping down at the Hawskbill and Main St. corner. (Sorry if it was too low; the acoustics on Main Street are pretty bad as the sound echoes 3 ways and is not particularly pleasing to the ear unless you are RIGHT in front of the speakers). <br />
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Approaching our race, the one word to describe the setting was HOT. With the mountains quite literally ON FIRE behind us, we embarked on our 60 minute crit amid 102 ground temperatures. Early on, DC Velo, one of our region's best teams, put their chess pieces into place. I was a little bit too focused on holding onto the wheel in front of me, so my details here might not be accurate, but here is my recount: DJ Brew of DC Velo solo'd away from us for a very solid number of laps. I think there were one or two chase attempts that Ben King of DC Velo (I think that's his name) had marked, but those chase groups didn't quite make it to DJ. Back in the field, I came to the front for a good number of laps to bring DJ back to the fold for good, but I had some XO riders sitting on my wheel and not giving me any help. I think they were waiting to spring, but the gap to DJ was too far for me to close on my own. A bit of organization would have helped seal the deal, but it didn't matter, as a few accelerations from the Cutaway/Hottubes kids and Joe Dombrowski pulled the last handfuls of seconds to my old teammate DJ, and his job was done for the day. The next significant move was Ryan McKinney being up the road. I think Ryan may have been off before we caught DJ (like I said, foggy recollections). My Bike Doctor teammates and I followed attacks and covered moves, making sure to keep things together to give Scott Giles a smooth ride wherever he was in the field.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A wide-angle view near the finish line atop Main St. In the distance are the mountains, and somewhere further back might be me</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
At some point, everyone in the field was really tired, but Scott was good to go, so he took off. I think he joined one of the Cutaway riders up the road and did his best to make it as far away from the field as possible. Once Scott was away, we rode circles around the course, Dave Fuentes (only a few seconds behind me in the GC) took off and I tried to pull him back (but couldn't!) and then we eventually finished. I was much pleased to have the first good sprint effort of the year on that lap, but I was at the back of the race, so it didn't make a difference. <br />
<br />
The GC battle came down to Ryan McKinney and Scott Giles. Scott had a solid chunk of time on Ryan before the start of the crit, but Ryan rode so fast in the afternoon that his solo efforts combined with the time bonuses he won gave him a very solid margin of victory over our own Scott. Sorry Scott! Joe Dombrowski finished 3rd in the GC (racing with no teammates!) and gave two local racers the photo opp of a lifetime by sticking around for a podium shot. <br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lA534uAcI8E/T_IFiLUp3MI/AAAAAAAAD0M/o-_GHWkiNcg/s1600/290069_10150876567080755_1676365029_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lA534uAcI8E/T_IFiLUp3MI/AAAAAAAAD0M/o-_GHWkiNcg/s320/290069_10150876567080755_1676365029_o.jpg" width="239" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A beaming Ryan McKinney atop our proud Scott Giles and Virginia's pro-bound Joe Dombrowski.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
After the race, I stuck around and cheered on other people I knew who were out to do battle with the heat and hills. Some people did well, others had a difficult race, but at the end of the day, everyone felt that they had accomplished something just by participating in that event. <br />
<br />
A fun side-quest in our already-race-within-a-race was a competition on Strava to produce the fastest time on the Main St. hill during the criterium. Visit <a href="http://app.strava.com/rides/luray-criterium-12252212#209655020">here</a> to see the ride segment. As I'm posting this, I'm in the lead/tied with my teammate from last year, superstar DJ Brew! Full admission, if no one posts a faster time, I give the gentleman's victory to DJ, as I think he made that time somewhere in the BEGINNING of the race, and rode like a champion for the rest of the hour in 100+ degree heat. I popped mine at the very end.<br />
<br />
Oh, also shout outs to my friends Emir Crnovic and Kat Klausing. Emir participated in his first Cat 5 race (he's 15 years old and plays soccer) and did really well! Thanks to the Cat 5 field for being a cool crew and NOT arbitrarily shouting at the junior rider :) My buddy Kat did her thing and was an absolute stud, despite having a journey to Luray that was nothing else but epic, slept on a chair, spent Saturday clearing road debris off county roads in the heat, slept on a bike shop floor, road guarded the morning races in the heat, and then got THIRD in the crit. I think the women's field is lucky Kat spent all of her energy and sweat on helping to make the race happen rather than actual pedaling.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fEqXZdcyqDo/T_IHNOgMl_I/AAAAAAAAD0k/0jmmHnV9f3Q/s1600/169366_10150873059400755_1348618716_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fEqXZdcyqDo/T_IHNOgMl_I/AAAAAAAAD0k/0jmmHnV9f3Q/s320/169366_10150873059400755_1348618716_o.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kat, David, Jacob, and some Whole Wheel Velo friends clear the road so that you can race and not flat your tubular wheels. Thanks!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
Finally, thanks to Page Valley Cycling and the Town of Luray. I know first hand that the town is highly involved in helping to make the Page Valley bike races happen, and each year they seem to be enthusiastic about opening/shutting down their town for us to pedal around in silly spandex outfits upon far-too-expensive bicycles. <br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WzfKdrMTctU/T_IHeOh0TTI/AAAAAAAAD0s/X7JfKtTsUWQ/s1600/333300_10150864971395755_1431049630_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WzfKdrMTctU/T_IHeOh0TTI/AAAAAAAAD0s/X7JfKtTsUWQ/s320/333300_10150864971395755_1431049630_o.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Please have us back for another year! We love your town (and your roads!)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13013917411496312442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955612590388385148.post-37448613260970121322012-06-27T18:28:00.002-07:002012-06-27T18:28:34.105-07:00The Clarity of TrailblazingI'm sitting here on the couch, watching the US Olympic Trials for swimming. It is fun watching the flow of a top-level swim meet, and seeing the superstars do their best to do 'just enough' to qualify, but not drop hints about their form and physical capacity.<br />
<br />
Hearing the interviews of new Olympic team members is riveting. These are athletes reaching the very pinnacle of their sport, punching a ticket to The Big Show. Watching this, I can't help but think that there is a fairly clear path for the Olympic hopeful swimmer. Find out when and where Olympic Trials are, figure out what time cuts are required, MAKE those, register. Show up in shape. Race your heart out and cross your fingers that Michael Phelps is getting old.<br />
<br />
I'm a little bit envious of this system. I'm on the warpath in a sport that has a less-clear pinnacle. The path that one takes to get to that pinnacle? I have no clue. <br />
<br />
Do you network your way onto teams that have phantom connections to a larger-scale teams?<br />
<br />
Do you podium at certain high profile races?<br />
<br />
Do you get important people to vouch for you?<br />
<br />
I HAVE NO IDEA.<br />
<br />
The same goes for triathlon. Where is the top of that sport? Kona Qualification is something big, but doing an Ultra-Distance World Championship is more of a split between insanity and athletic endeavor. Worlds are cool, but there are regional races that are more competitive (and more covered) than Worlds. Even earning a 'Pro' card is not as 'there' as being a SPONSORED Pro.<br />
<br />
I feel like there is no path for me. If there is, I missed the sign a long time ago, and am too deep into the woods to just turn back and find the trailhead. Instead, I'm trailblazing through the bush carrying a machette and a compass. Sometimes things work out well, other times i metaphorically go hungry. I'm sure I'll eventually rendezvous with the trail far along, or fall off a cliff, or get eaten by lions on the way.<br />
<br />
Any way it works, I'll continue blazing through the jungle, swinging away. If anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13013917411496312442noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955612590388385148.post-29986264125404830552012-06-26T19:42:00.001-07:002012-06-26T19:42:55.589-07:00I'm Home from NVGP and I RambleBetter late than never. Happy Trails!<br />
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<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/kAgipsH8Yw4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13013917411496312442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955612590388385148.post-92142238658533480742012-06-18T11:00:00.001-07:002012-06-18T11:00:07.223-07:00NVGP: Minneapolis CritThis is a few days after-the-fact. I will get to the delay later...<br />
<br />
The Minneapolis Criterium was an AMAZING event. I have no idea how many hours of planning, labor, and stress went into pulling that race off, but whatever it took, the sport of cycling is better for it! The course itself was awesome. Tight enough to give spectators some really cool viewing angles, but open enough to fit 146 riders safely. Can I talk about the JUMBOTRONS for a minute? Live video feeds were broadcasted from a bunch of the corners to a Jumbotron so that spectators could watch the ENTIRE lap and not miss a second of action! Couple that with a great audio setup, feeding music and commentary to all ends of the event, and you have yourself a grand bike race!<br />
<br />
This go-around, my race story STARTS at staging, but does not end there! I managed a front-row start for the amateurs, which still put me around 20th. I wasn't very nervous before this race. Two of our host families were in attendence, my wife Melissa, and with long-time friends Geoff and Laura Beatty who used to ride with me but now live in Minneapolis. The 'home' support felt great. <br />
<br />
The race started without much incident, but my struggles began at lap 3. A rider biffed it two wheels in front of me as he cornered and pedaled over a divet. I slowed up to avoid and then sprinted as hard as I could to connect back to the leaders. For a VERY short while, I was the only one who stayed on that group after the pile-up, and I had glimpses of thinking that I had accidentally made an important race split. Those visions faded in about 10 seconds when the field did glide up to us without much panic or incident. This left me with a serious match burned, and now thinking I need to be more cautious through the corners.<br />
<br />
This caution caused me to start slipping places. Two laps later, I found myself maybe 30 back. It was at this point that two Competitive Cyclist riders decided they NEEDED to get to the front (to be fair, they were going to influence the race, whereas I was just trying to hang on). The first guy says something to me in spanish (sorry dude, no comprende) and I saw what he wanted. I was in no mood to escort professional bike riders around a professional crit, so I just squared out my arms a little bit, knowing he would try to navigate his was THROUGH me. I was wrong! He gave me the ol'e Grab-Back-of-Jersey-and-Pull-Backwards trick to give himself a hole in the field in which he could advance. I quickly closed the hole up once he left, but his partner in crime was expecting similar courtesy. Seeing that I was not keen to give up my spot, Competitive Cyclist number two grabbed my handlebars and gave them a back-and-forth wrenching and then shoved them off to send my flying to the right. <br />
<br />
At that moment, three things simultaneously happened. The second Competitive Cyclist dude moved to where I had been a split second before and continued his conquest up the field, I saved face by NOT crashing onto my face in the middle of a professional bike race, and after three crazy safety-related incidents in a VERY short stretch of time, I was nothing short of SPOOKED.<br />
<br />
The next, I dunno, 10 minutes I spent braking into corners, giving up positions, and moving backwards FAST. After that I settled down, and focused on getting my groove back. I did, and began a very slow surf up the field. As the laps counted down, the efforts along the two straightaways on the course started to take their toll. When Kenda/5 Hour Energy started to drill the pace at the front, a handful of riders IMMEDIATELY ejected, leaving some nasty gaps to close (which I did in futility). At 3 to go I was squeezing the last bit of juice out of my legs when I noticed that there was a gap about 5 riders up from me, and I finally pulled the ripcord. I rode the final two laps at a comfortable tempo, weaving left and right to high five any kid along the course who would put their hand out. I paraded across the line thinking I was the laughing stock of the race, until I later found out that their was a groupetto behind me, and I ended up moving up a few spots in the GC. <br />
<br />
STAGE RACING IS CRAZY.<br />
<br />
Major kudos to the young guns of the Nature Valley Pro Chase team, Conner, Tyler, and Tony rode like animals and looked cool and composed.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13013917411496312442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955612590388385148.post-40645126249694721232012-06-14T09:33:00.004-07:002012-06-14T09:33:42.418-07:00NVGP Round 2: St. Paul CriteriumThe story of my race starts and essentially ends at race staging. In a professional-level criterium, your starting position is of the utmost importance, as the speeds quickly become too high to move up without spending tremendous amounts of energy. <div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Typically I relax for criterium staging and use my legs and lungs to move up during the race. Given the caliber of riders I was up against, however, I staged about 45 minutes beforehand, and was determined to be sneaky about it. Eventually I found myself following Micheal Creed and Mike Friedman of Kelly-Optum, and I think Ivan Dominguez was in our little staging group as well. I figured I was in like flynn. The race officials saw us and moved us to THE OFFICIAL staging coralle. There were about 50 of us. The full field consisted of 146.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
It was only after the released us onto the course that we saw the other 90-some-odd riders who must have been already parked on the course, exactly where we were before we were all moved. That's how it goes sometimes.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
While we were in the coralle, a photographer wearing press credentials was snapping a personal pic using his iphone: he was holding out a Barbie doll and posing her in front of us. Must be a photo-collection thing. In any event, we all noticed, and the photographer asked a rider if he wouldn't mind holding the doll for a shot. The rider, who was non-other than Mike Friedman, awkwardly agreed and was obviously not in practice for doll-photo-taking. Some of the other riders told Mike to get her to do a pose, and I suggested he have her Tebow for the camera. Friedman informed me that he did not know what it was to 'Tebow'. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Like, totally for serious?</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
A few awkward minutes later, our photographer had his picture of Barbie Tebowing on Mike Friedman's handlebars, and we all gained a great new memory of the most awkward photo a famous pro cyclist had to take. I hope that shot surfaces up somewhere.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Back to the race.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
As the gun went off, my plan was to weather the early panic that would likely ensue with riders frantically sprinting their way to the front. On lap 3, I hit a modestly sized pothole, but at the speeds we were going I felt like I had fallen into the Grand Canyon. This strike caused my handlebars to rotate downwards by a few inches. Those few inches felt like MILES to my back and lungs. Fortunately, I was caught up in a small crash perhaps 5 or 6 laps later. I didn't receive any battle damage, and used my time in the pits to correct my handlebars. AHHH, RELIEF.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Upon re-entry I focused once again on picking a smart time to move up. Some riders were starting to fade and fall in-line, but others were still very antsy. I reasoned that as soon as the guys around me tired out a little bit more, I would begin my slow charge to the front. It was around this time that Kelly-Optum decided to throttle the race. Where I was riding, their effort was noteable. The field went from about 2-4 wide towards the back to single-file and gapped in an instant. This pressure remained for the entire race, and there was no opportunity to move up efficiently. I was sure that SOMETHING was going to happen up the road that would cause a regroup and a slight respite in the pace to allow me to cruise up front, but as it would turn out, there would be no easy way to advance. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
At around 15 to go, guys started blowing up and leaving wide gaps to close. Making up these spaces did some damage to me. Beginning at 9-to-go, I started channeling Lindsay Bayer's in-race-through-process on focusing on a single goal: finish this race. I was perfectly fine where I was, but the chance of there being a major split was very real, and I wanted to finish in the main group. Fortunately, nothing crazy happened in the closing laps, and I rolled in with my first Pro-1 Criterium under my belt.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I felt a little bit like a chump thinking that I could sag at the back of a pro race and then make my way to the front late. The reason guys were going ballistic early is because that was the only good time to move up. I know of two riders who were where I was and made it to the foward part of the field: Tim Rugg (who finished 6th), and my teammate Conner McCutcheon. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Another sour thought is how little I was able to help my teammates. I found Evan Fader a few times, but I couldn't drag him up to a better position. The same happened with Conner. I spent a lap trying to shield him from a crosswind when he was half-wheeled. He was able to advance a few positions from this, but I never did get back up with him to help out some more. For most of the race, I was about 15 riders back from Tony Olsen, another Nature Valley Pro Chase teammate. I saw him battling hard and I desperately wanted to go give him a big body to sit behind (he's our resident featherweight). Unfortunately, I kept being chopped in corners by the same 3 or 4 guys when I was trying to claw my way up to Tony. While Tony ended up finishing just fine on his own, that 'sheparding' instinct I have was driving me nuts: seeing him get pushed out into the wind was bugging the crap out of me, and I wanted to put an end to that.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
When all was said and done, we did well. No mishaps for our team, and Jamie and Conner moved up a few positions in the General Classification. Our host house family came out to cheer for us which was a HUGE motivator. Having a friendly face on the sidelines really does make a difference! A few of the Nature Valley Pro Chase girls also hung around after their race to see us in ours. Little Bri was there because she had retained her top-amateur's jersey, and Lindsay Bayer cracked a top-10! They helped talk me down from my post-race blues (not because I was particularly dissapointed in my result, but more of being a non-factor for my mates and just being drained and wiped in general). </div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
After a relaxing van ride with Tony and Conner in which much pasta was devoured and many beer-mixed-drink recipes were exchanged, we arrived at our host house in Stillwater and shared our war stories with our gracious host family. </div>
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I could get used to this :)</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13013917411496312442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955612590388385148.post-13249966141410200802012-06-13T13:42:00.002-07:002012-06-13T13:42:45.658-07:00NVGP Round 1: Time TrialThe quick and dirty:<br />
<br />
12.4 km<br />
17:46<br />
100th place Stage / 99th place GC (don't ask me how or why)<br />
<br />
<br />
The night before the Time Trial, Bart Bowen issued all of us Nature Valley Pro Chase riders our bib numbers and did up our team's start order. I would be one of the later riders to start, 4th out of six. What a whirlwind experience this morning was. I haven't been that anxious for a bicycle event in....I can't quite remember. The realization of the magnitude of the Nature Valley Pro Chase experience was completely sunken in and FULLY etched on my mind. I was thinking about how lucky I was, how cool it felt to be 'one of the pros', and how many people back home I was representing, that I never really fully focused on my ride, which is probably a good thing.<br />
<br />
I was on a good day. The week of no-riding before I flew up here to Minnesota put me right where I need to be for a 5 day stage race. Coming off the start ramp, I was flushed with adrenaline (which has been absent in my body for some time), and within minutes I was seeing heart rate numbers pinned in the 190's. <br />
<br />
With my mind [on my money and my money on my mind] on what lay ahead through the next five races, my in-race thoughts consisted of 'ease back. ease back. ease back.'<br />
<br />
Not much interesting to report. I rode well, stayed within my limits, and finished well. My placing was towards the rear, but in the middle of the amateurs, but in all honesty, I'm in over my head. Making time cuts and being ready for the next ride is what is important!<br />
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13013917411496312442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955612590388385148.post-20160880320094957462012-06-12T11:51:00.000-07:002012-06-12T11:51:17.930-07:00Summer Camp<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">After we finished up our ride on the first day of our team camp at Amery at Jay and Sue's house, my bike was finally delivered from the airport. I have to admit, the slight discomfort of riding a foreign bike for 3 hours was worth the sight of my bicycles arrival: the courier showed up to the house in this car:</span>
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<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2PHAnXGx0hU/Tle_v0uUlMI/AAAAAAAAGC0/Ef59Vi_UrE8/s1600/1965-buick-wildcat-2349.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="186" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2PHAnXGx0hU/Tle_v0uUlMI/AAAAAAAAGC0/Ef59Vi_UrE8/s320/1965-buick-wildcat-2349.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This, but in a classic purple color!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />They don't make'em like they used to. My bike bag was sitting in the back-seat, in the least efficient direction, and still had tons of space to spare. THAT, my friends, is a five-seater!<div>
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<div>
After being treated to a couple of casual seminars by Physical Therapist Alynn Kakuk (Jay and Sue's daughter) who is studying at the Mayo Clinic. She gave us a lot of information that is important for cyclists to know and be aware of that can help us both on and off the bike. Thanks, Alynnn!</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
I am attempting not to begin each paragraph with the word "After". AND THEN we had a GLORIOUS dinner of turkey, expertly smoked by resident chef extraordinaire (and fellow Alton Brown fan) Jay Kakuk. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
AND THEN we had a night cap of team building out back at the fire pit, roasting smores, drinking beers (my first and last one for a while), sharing stories and laughs. As some of the Nature Valley Pro Chase riders and staff began to turn in for bed, the night sky slowly became ablaze by the night's starscape. I've been to some pretty cool spots in the world that had an AMAZING view of the heavens:</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Savute Elephant Camp: Kalahari, Botswana</div>
<div>
Massai Marra, Kenya</div>
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Far Side of Isla Culebra, Puerto Rico</div>
<div>
Access Road of Mauna Kea, HI</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
and I now submit that Amery, Wisconsin joins my top list of places to lie down and stare up at the night sky.</div>
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<br /></div>
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That was only our first full day at the Nature Valley Pro Chase Team Camp.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Day two was more of the same. We started the day with breakfast for 16 cyclists (12 Nature Valley Pro Chase athletes and 4 Collegiate All Stars) and a slow lolligag over to the bikes to embark on a ~50-60 mile ride. This time around we had a team videographer join our Team Director Bart Bowen in the car to take video of us riding. At the end of 3 hours, we arrived back at the Kakuk's, hungy for food, and a bit more of a team after sharing miles with each other.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13013917411496312442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955612590388385148.post-15704058485752599632012-06-10T05:21:00.000-07:002012-06-10T05:21:00.651-07:00ArriveeMy trip to our host housing in Wisconsin was nice and smooth. I slept through half of the flight, brought plenty of water with me, and was not within earshot of any screaming babies on the aeroplane. The only hitch came at baggage claim. You see, fellow JeffCup qualifier Lindsay Bayer was set to arrive 5 minutes after me in the same terminal, so I hung out and tried to make a rendezvous by taking the long way to the baggage claim area. By the time I got to baggage claim, my flight had been loaded onto the roundabout belts and only 3 bags were left: one belonging to myself and the other two to fellow stragglers. I then waited patiently for my bike bag to be brought to the door where they place the oversized luggage. <br />
<br />
And waited. And waited. A whole new flight had been loaded and picked up from the same baggage carousel, so I went to talk to the baggage claim service desk. The helpful folks there got me the information I needed, but only after a nervous 30 minutes of investigation. Much to my relief, they were able to track my bag. Much to my amusement, the bag was still sitting behind the check-in counter back at BWI-Baltimore. <br />
<br />
90 minutes in a van later, 7 Nature Valley Pro Chase/Collegiate All Stars athletes (including myself) arrived in Amery, Wisconsin at Jay and Sue's house (sorry, I forgot their last name at the moment). Jay and Sue are our 'host parents', opening their house to a group of around 20 bike racers and staff. They have an awesome AWESOME house, and they are an awesome couple. So far, Jay and I have exchanged some of our best stories of dumb stuff we've done while drinking too many beers, and Sue taught me how to play shuffleboard and where to find decaf coffee beans.<br />
<br />
More to come...<br />
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13013917411496312442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955612590388385148.post-39061302672885782142012-06-07T10:32:00.000-07:002012-06-07T10:32:13.381-07:00IntentThis is all Melissa's fault.<br />
<br />
When I started racing bikes in 2007, I won 8 races and found the podium a handful of other times. I seemingly stormed through the Category system set in place by USA Cycling and earned a Category 2 promotion. So stoked was I to be invited onto a local elite team that, in my sophomore season of racing, I forgot to bring with me the form and focus that earned me all that freshman success.<br />
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For sure, the story is more complex than not progressing in fitness, but at the heart of my slump of that year was my inability or ineptitude to continue doing the hard work and keeping the fire in my belly stoked.<br />
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Intent: an important word not for athletes, but for everyone. What was my intent that year? I didn't have any. I did not intend to do anything.<br />
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In the winter of 2007, my cycling goals for 2008 seemed to be already achieved when I received a shiny new team kit and spent all of my money on a team bike. Surely, I would look the part of an elite cyclist!
At first, I was blind to the lessons my sinking results provided. The whole of 2008 was a blur, including a fantastic string of DNF's in July at Criteriums, a discipline that was allegedly my forte. And so the season progressed with my head hung low to match my morale, until the worst possible thing happened: I won a race at the end of the year.<br />
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Why was this bad? Because I immediately relieved myself of the pressure that was building from my lackluster season. I chalked the win to 'finally finding my legs' or 'needing more time to get used to the heat.' The win fed every single stupid excuse I had given myself.
2009 was essentially more of the same. My morale didn't slump so low as my personal expectations had since readjusted after my difficult transition to Cat 1-2 racing, but there were sill many lessons that I had not yet learned. It took a force outside of bike racing (although not far from it) for me to experience the Newtonian 'apple on the head' moment.<br />
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That force was my then-girlfriend Melissa, preparing with her Army buddy, [also] Melissa, for a Marathon. The Melissas had plenty of 5k and some 10k running experience, and wanted to scratch 26.2 from their bucket list. With their perpetual enthusiasm and a training guide for new Marathon runners that was probably ripped out of a copy of Runner's World, they began meeting up a few times a week to train together.
I didn't hear much about the runs; I barely realized that Melissa was in the middle of a marathon training block. She would come home from a run and we'd have brunch, and I was never the wiser as to what was going on. One morning the girls returned home on a HOT day and were slamming cold water from the fridge. "How far did you guys go today" I asked. "Today was 20" said Melissa. TWENTY? How did that happen? Since when could she run twenty miles? The thought slipped out in speech and the girls divulged their little 'complete a marathon in 3 months' worksheet. Listening to their build-up in mileage, it all seemed so...reasonable and achievable. It was all about making slow progress in a consistent manner.<br />
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Later that year, the apple crashed down on my head. Melissa and I were on vacation in Kona, HI during Ironman week. That trip is worth a book on its own, but the short story is that I was absolutely blown away watching the amateurs compete. It wasn't just about the speed at which even the 'slow' ones were going, but knowing and understanding how much work and sacrifice went in to placing them in this event at the Big Island. Perhaps more impressive than competing in the event was seeing all of these people out and about the day after, accompanying their families and travel partners on touristy-stuff while they are probably still feeling like they are in a body bag from the prior day's race.
If these people can make an Ironman World Championship happen for themself, perhaps I can make some improvements in my cycling thing.<br />
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My 2010 season was good. Not bad. Not great. Blue-collar, head low, soft-spoken, solid. 2011 saw a Renaissance of my 2007 self as I helped make a 4 man team a force to be reckoned with in a region containing teams of 14 in local Category 1-2 races. I was happy with things in races that were NOT results, and I was learning lessons each week about racing, training, and listening to my body. The floodgates did eventually open. I had a stormer of a weekend at Wilmington, DE, tearing up a crit to leadout my teammate DJ Brew for a convincing win, and going on to win the 80 mile road race the following day out of a breakaway with my training partner Pete Warner. A few weeks later, I hooked another win at Altoona against some of the biggest talent in the east including Reid Beloni.<br />
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As I pack my bags for the Nature Valley Grand Prix, 2012 continues forward from where 2011 left off. I can't help but think that this long road of lesson learning all started with something really really simple. In 2007, I wanted to make sure I didn't start my racing career as pack-fill. In 2008, I didn't want anything. Ever since Melissa showed me how simple hard work is, I knew I could prove myself, and I desired to make it so. I had all of the intent in the world to make it down this road, and I intend to see how far this road goes.<br />
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\Game_face_onAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13013917411496312442noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955612590388385148.post-46668464645340205572012-06-06T21:53:00.000-07:002012-06-06T21:53:37.639-07:00Getting CloseI'm getting antsy. On a rest week, my body is starting to come back to homeostasis from a solid month of pummeling training. With this rise back to the surface, I'm finding energy again, and with that energy comes ANGST! I'm nervous! Keeping with the spirit of documenting the Pro Chase experience, I produced a moviefilm which exhibits my thoughts and mood. Enjoy!
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/cj-qSpLTRdw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13013917411496312442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955612590388385148.post-60158201808065744972012-06-05T09:11:00.001-07:002012-06-05T09:11:08.314-07:00Stop That Noise"This is only a test" I reason with myself.
The Nature Valley Grand Prix looms next week. Legs and Lungs are all fine, I've stocked the barn full of hay, and I'm ready to rip-roar across Minnesota. Why then, has everything got to be so wacky?
Ever since I received a 10 pm. phone call from Nature Valley inviting me onto the Pro Chase program, all of my focus has been eat, sleep, breathe race preparation. I've made the most of my time, but my candle has been burning at 4 ends. Home in D.C., Work, Home in Hampton, and Training. That amounts to a scorching hot candle once you include travel time and bike racing time.
I've been making sacrifices in all of these aspects of my life: my room in Washington is a mess with bike tools scattered about and cell phone and laptop chargers lay hidden underneath my 'inbox' of clean cycling gear. I've possibly alienated my housemates, and one of them is still waiting for me to help him fix his bicycle brake.
I've spent far less time in Hampton with my wife then I intended this summer. That aside, there is yardwork to be done, 'the bike cave' to organize and stock, and I still haven't had a day to spend on the beach. It seems as though every time I arrive home in Hampton, I've forgotten something important at my room in D.C. and visa-versa.
Bike racing has been an absolute blur. I can't exactly remember when the last weekend race I did was. I omitted this past weekend's events (two criteriums I always do well at) in order to sort some at-home affairs (as well as delay the inevitable timing belt work and new brakes needed on my automobile). This of course meant leaving my teammates with less help, and missing out on all the fun!
"It is all a part of the experience" I tell myself. "I wanted the pro experience!" As I think this, I'm suddenly reminded of my ride the other weekend with my training buddy Kat. As we marched on to mile 90 in the heat and needing some food and drink, I started to slip into the 'bummed out' zone. "This is what I asked for; this was what I wanted to go through, and it felt like a great idea this morning!" Of course, a few minutes later I would be feeling right and cheery. I can't help but think I just hit that rough part of the journey where it feels tough. The journey is, of course, beyond the Nature Valley Pro Chase, and I expect that the Pro Chase week is going to be that Milky Way bar and bag of chips I bought in the rural gas station that brought me back to life on that eventful ride of a few weeks ago.
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/wsbR2dEmHGc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13013917411496312442noreply@blogger.com0