Cramming

I’ve been trying to get a last few hard days in ahead of the 101.  Hard enough to put my body in a racing metabolism for the coming week.  Without doing many long days in the last few weeks I haven’ t been as hungry as I normally am and I’ve been worried that I won’t be storing glycogen the way I need to for next weekend.

So yesterday I went out and did Rebersburg-Madisonburg in the afternoon.  I haven’t done that ride in at least a year and I kept questioning why.  There was a stretch a few years ago where we did it several Saturdays in a row because it got folks home for afternoon commitments and I got kind of burnt out on the ride.  But it remains one of the prettiest rides in the area.  To and from the climbs on 192 isnt’ anything special, but once you turn up Rebersburg you are treated to some of the prettiest scenery in the area.  From Tylserville out to 64 winds down along one of the prettiest trout streams I’ve seen anywhere.  And the climb up Madisonburg is awesome: 5 miles of gradual climbing before it kicks up and covers 650 vertical feet in the last 2 miles.  4 hours and 70 miles later I was worked and treated myself to a few recover beverages at Otto’s with Nita and some of the boys.

Today I headed out with Chipper and Billy to do some 101 recon.  Up Vietnam, over 26, Pine Swamp, Greenlee, Croyle, to Seeger and out to Penn Roosevelt, then up Thickhead, Detweiler, Bear Meadows Rd, Lonberger, 3 Bridges and home through Boalsburg.  I was feeling great on the early climbs and was feeling pretty confident with my gearing choice for the race (sticking with the 34×19).  Spinning through the flats sucked, but it sucks in my 17 too.  Billy headed home after Greenlee and Chipper and I continued on.  When we got down Detweiler and onto the Bear Meadows climb I was starting to feel the bonk coming.  We were both out of food and Chipper promised me some Accelerade once we got to the top, so I had to dig deep to hold it together over the top.  I recovered enough to keep rolling, but I had to puss out when Chip suggested that we head out the Gap.  Through the rocks at 3-bridges I knew I had nothing in me to negotiate the rocks and heading down the Gap was a recipe for disaster.  So I rode home in Chipper’s draft, which was no small feat as he was pushing the big ring all the way into Boalsburg and I was spinning like a chipmunk on amphetamines to keep up.

The sun is out and it seems a perfect afternoon for a nap with my dog.

pouring

When it rains it pours.  Moreni tested positive for testosterone and Cofidis pulled out, now Rabobank has pulled Rasmussen for lying about his location.  Contador has the white and yellow jerseys now.  If I were him (and this is making the gross assumption that even he is clean) I would chose to ride in the white and leave the yellow out of the peloton.

Yesterday Sophie and I went out to Rothrock after work.  It is rate that I go riding without looking at the radar, but somehow I never checked yesterday.  So I was halfway up Lonberger when I started to hear the thunder.  By the time I hit North Meadows Rd it was raining lightly.  I decided to continue on anyway as I was planning to scout out Croyle and I’d already turned back from that mission on Sunday when my brain and body were on empty.  The blueberries are thick at the top of Croyle and I wasn’t far in before my shoes were sodden.  At the bottom I headed left and turned up Gettis in the drizzling rain.  By the time I got to the top it had stopped raining  and so I decided (perhaps foolishly) to go and hit the ridge and started down North Meadows Rd.  I took it fast and got well ahead of Sophie as the rain started up again.  I stopped at the bottom and the thunder and lighting came in and the rain became coming down hard.  Sophie had gotten a little disoriented by the storm and I had to ride halfway up the road to find her.  With the rain coming down harder and harder we beat a hasty retreat down Bear Meadows Rd and then down lower Lonberger.  By the time we hit the bottom my hands were too cold to feel.  Sophie and I piled into the car and turned the heat up high when we hit the bottom and headed home for a longer than average shower to get the sensation back in my extremities.

Black Tuesday

Vinokourov positive for homologous transfusion.  Astana pulls out of Le Tour.

Another round please.

Championship Weekend

Big props to our boy Zayne Braun coming up big at NORBA Nationals this weekend.  Second place in the semi-pro cross country race on Friday and first in the short track today!

As for me, I headed down to the PA state road race on Saturday.  Nita and I loaded up early and caravaned down with Strabuer and Chip.  The sun was out and it looked to be a nice rolly course through the classic Lancaster farmland.  We all loaded Nita up with bottles, a cooler and set of ambiguous instructions about who to feed and which bottles belonged to who.  Chipper and Straub were racing the 1/2 race and I lined up in the 3 field.  There were a number of familiar faces in the field, though as it was my first (and probably last) road race of the year there was lots of vague recollection and very little concrete recognition of who all these folks were.  At the start I settled in next to Kevin and Glenn from the Human Zoom thinking I’d try to spend the day marking guys I knew.  It was an inauspicious start; when they blew the whistle I managed to bump off Kevin’s handle bar and drifted across the road as I struggled to regain my balance on the bike and get clipped in as the 50 man field surged around me.  I was scolded a bit by the guys around me and drifted to the back of the field for a bit to keep from getting myself in any more trouble.  An attack of 3 guys got away within the first few miles and dangled 30-45 seconds ahead of us for much of the first of the 5 10-mile laps.  After the two climbs in the middle of the course I was getting a bit tired of watching those three threatening to pull away and I moved forward on the false flat at the top of the second climb to try and organize a lifting of the pace.  The back section of the course was rolling and we managed to catch the lead break and complete the first lap as a group.  I came across the line at the end of the first lap in the first 3 positions which was an indication that I needed to drift back and mellow out for a bit.  I faded back a bit as the first few unsuccessful attempts to break up the peloton started on the rollers.  The bunch held together through the first climb but splintered on the second and split further into two groups in the false flat at the top.  I was stuck in the second group sitting 15-20 seconds off the bunch of 8 ahead.  We started to get some guys pulling through, and should have been able to catch on immediately, but too few guys were willing to put in the effort and we dangled for much of remainder of the lap.  Finally, one of the bigger guys in the bunch put in a strong sprint to bridge us across just before we turned the last corner into the rolling straight to the end of the lap.  Through the feed zone and onto the third lap I knew that we’d come together but I didn’t know how much of the field had caught on due to the indecision on the back side of the course.  Laps 3 and 4 kept the average pace high, but bunch did a lot of yo-yoing; lifting the pace for a while until someone failed to pull through and sitting up waiting for someone else to take charge.  We always broke up a little coming across the second climb and I had to struggle a bit to catch on to the leaders as guys faded and left a gap across the top.  It was a perfect place for an attack to get away, and I always tried to position myself near the front for when it came, but nothing ever materialized and we headed into the 5th and final lap as a group.  Through the feed zone the final time I finally managed to successfully grab a bottle and slugged it down to make up for my spartan rationing on lap 4.  I played it close to the front expecting something to happen on the climbs, but nobody moved and again rounded the last corner as a full group.  I rotated to the front and got stuck out in the wind at 2K to go.  I knew that taking an early flier wasn’t going to work so I sat up completely and forced riders to come around me on the left.  I dropped back into second position by 1K which gave me a little more confidence as the sprint set up.  The road dropped into a little descent before the short uphill finish and guys started jockeying for position as we crested the penultimate rise.  To my right the two juniors who’d held with us the whole time in restricted gears (one was in a national champion jersey) set up for their sprint and I settled in behind a guy that had looked strong for much of the day.  I came down the descent in my 11 and shifted into my 12 for the last riser and swung to the left side of the road expecting to see the field come pushing through my peripheral vision, as has been my normal experience in bunch sprints.  To my surprise I was able to hold the sprint through the finish and crossed the line in 4th position (that’s me on the right about to get beat by a 16 year old).  It turns out that the kid in third position was from Virginia, so my 4th place translated into a bronze medal for the state championship and enough money to pay for my gas and registration.  I came away pretty happy as it was my first good result in a bunch sprint.

After my race Nita and I stuck around to watch the finish of the 1/2 race.  Joe Whitman turned in an impressive win in a 2-up sprint after spending much of the race away in a 3 man break.  After Chipper and Strauber rolled in we loaded up and headed for lunch at a fabulous chrome filled Lancaster diner with an oldies sound track that  hurried us through our meal.

Chip and Straub headed home while Nita and I headed into the traffic nightmare that is the Tanger Outlet Mall.  We kept to a pretty targeted shopping plan so as to not leave the puppies at home too long, and managed to walk away empty handed with our credit limits in tact: a first on several levels.

Wednesday

I’m not really making any pretense about going to the speed ride these days.  I could easily say that I was watching the weather and figured it wasn’t worth the risk in the rain so I didn’ t go.  But the truth is I had no intention of heading out there, rain or shine.  As it is it was an effort to scrape myself up and ride at all.  I don’t know if I’m overtrained right now or if its just the miserable humid grey weather that’s sapping my motivation.  Ironically, once I start rolling I feel good.  I headed out to do Upper Lime and by the time I got to the stadium I had decided only to do the lower road.  I had the wind at my back on the way out to Bellefonte which gave me a bit more energy.  When I started heading up the hill at Coleville I decided that I wouldn’t feel good about myself if I wimped out on the climb so I headed up the high road and felt reasonably strong on the climb.  At the top, the part that I call the top, which is sort of the third top of that road, I ran into Tig coming the other way and paused to chat about the dog days of July and his ride at Nationals.  Rather than continue on solo, Tig turned around and rode across the top of the ridge and back down with me.  Its funny how someone else changes the ride.  I found myself thinking more about riding smooth, maintaining a consistent tempo, and worrying about my position on the bike.  Its part arrogance I suppose, but having someone else there just makes me take the ride a bit more seriously as well.  There are just some things that you can’t get by training alone.

Yesterday I registered for the state road race on Saturday, and today I’ll have to bite the bullet and shell out the cash to renew my license for 2007.  It’ll be good to race the road bike again, if only to maintain my commitment to multi-disciplinary racing.

recovery

Sunday’s race has been taking a toll.  Perhaps the heat too has led to a general feeling of lethargy.  My legs weren’t sore from the race, but my arms and back are still.  I think these solo efforts, getting up early, racing, driving home are partly to blame.  Its hard to recover well when you have to stay awake and seated in an uncomfortable position for 3 hours after a race.  But enough bitching and whining, I’ll probably do it again this weekend.  The state road race is in Lancaster on Saturday and I might use it to make my return to skinny wheels for the year.

In more exciting news, I finally bought my tickets to Europe for August.  I’ve been playing with different ways to do the trip and settled on the multi-destination route: State College to Detroit to Paris to Glasgow to Aviemore (by train) to Glasgow (by train) to Amsterdam to Detroit to State College.  Alas, my stay in Amsterdam will only afford me a tour of the inside of the airport, but its a nice airport and has a casino.  I leave August 17th and return September 4th, though I will likely be working for the week between PBP and worlds since it looks like the rest of the boys will be heading straight home.  And frankly, a few days of not riding will probably be in order.

Yesterday I scraped myself out of my chair at work and headed out for a spin on the IF.  I’d been running on empty all day, but after 2 ours in the saddle I started to finally feel better and my brain started to wake up.  I rode out 26, over to Pine Swamp, up Laurel Run and back out through the Gap.  Kind of a mind numbing ride on a single speed, but it worked well to shake to cobwebs off.  After dinner I headed over to the hood to join Strauber and AccuJoe in  watching Discovery’s mountain tactics implode on the final climb into Briancon.  Popovych is an animal though, they should have just let him bridge up to Soler and challenge him for the stage win, that kid earned it.

Fair Hill

My alarm went off this morning at 4:30. Needless to say, I rolled over and hit the snooze button. Thankfully I had the foresight to set a second alarm which reminded me that I did really need to get up if I was going to make it do Maryland in time to register and get warm before the start. Slowly I did manage to roust myself and stumble downstairs to assemble some quick food and get the coffee going. Sophie looked at me longingly as loaded the car and pulled out of the driveway at 5AM and I certainly thought she had the right idea as she rolled back up in her bed.

The sun crept up as I drove down through the narrows providing me with some lovely sunrise aesthetics as I struggled to stay awake on the road.  As I drove through Harrisburg and then Lancaster the sun rose higher and the air got warmer.  By the time I arrived at the Fair Hill State Park at 8 it was not quite hot, but warmer than you want it to be at 8AM.  I parked and headed to registration, looking out for familiar faces to get  a sense of the scale of the field.  With my number in hand I headed back to the car to find a shady spot to nap for 15 minutes before suiting up and trying to take the day seriously.

At 9 I got dressed and headed down to the course to get a sense of the trails.  I watched the beginners start at 9 and then investigated the tail end of the course backwards.  It had the feel of a typical peri-urban trail system; lots of convoluted turns, a mix of hard pack dirt and loose cobbles and non-stop rollers.  Back up towards the parking area I located the VisitPA tent and got a glimpse of the competition.  Wes, Yozell, Hebe, and Ray were all staying cool in the shade ahead of the start.  I joined them there and we spotted out the others from our field as they milled about; the boys from Bear Naked/Cannondale, the Alessio twins, and a couple of Trek semi-pros.  There was also a good turn out of single speeders (Fat Marc and the boys), but most of them were sticking to the single speed category despite the relatively single-friendly course.

At 9:35 Wes and I headed over towards the start for a little warm up spin and pulled up to the line with 3 minutes to spare.  We were off quickly through a section of open field and then a long double track.  The dry weather left the course really dusty and I could barely see what was going on in front of me, content just to follow the cloud of dust and spin as fast as I could.  The start went off fast and I was struggling to stay on top of my gear until we got off the dusty stuff and on to some proper single track where my gearing was more on par with those around me.   The group held together around the first set of twisting turns and started to break up as the course headed up a longer section of climbing switchbacks.  I got caught behind a few sluggish climbers and the  guys behind be got impatient and started cutting corners on the few downhill turns to gain position.  I’m a little wary of the ethics of cutting corners so I held back a little longer and made my move to get around whenever there was a little more room.  After a bit of climbing we popped out on an open field section where I was able to make a move and gain a few more places (thanks to a nudge from Kevin as I passed).  The gaps had formed and were holding and we I headed back into the singletrack with only a few other riders in sight.

It went up, it went down, it went left, it went right.  The course was very active, never much of an opportunity to sit and tick the miles off.  But it was fun, and the turns were mostly well banked and suited to the big wheels; though there were a few sections that were too tight and I did think a shorter wheelbase might have been an advantage.  I found myself alone for a while and was able to regain my breathing and heartrate after the start, but started the hear the clanging of chains and deraileurs behind me and so had to pick up the pace again.

A little before the first water stop I caught up to the Wissahickon rider ahead of me, and I sat in on his wheel for a while. We traded off time in the lead and were starting to build up a good rhythm.  Just after water, which we both blew through, we came through a tight little rock and tree feature and, in the wide open, flat trail behind hit I somehow lost my grip with my right hand.  The wheel turned and I went flying over the bike, landing on my chest.  I did the quick spot check: wrists, collarbone; and saw that nothing was broken and got back on fast.  I’d managed to scrape up both knees and one elbow, but I was mostly OK.  I was shaky for a while and had lost my lead man so I couldn’t even rely on the watching the rider ahead of me to get me through the twists and turns.  Thankfully I managed to keep the pace high enough to stay ahead of the riders behind me and rode alone for a good part of the next 5 miles.

Somewhere, a few miles after I crashed there was a beer stop (I presume unsanctioned).  Thea heat was coming up and I needed a little something to relax me after the crash so I called up for a handoff.  I’m not sure many ahead of me had done so because they seemed a bit shocked that I really wanted it.  But I made the grab (a paltry 3 oz) and managed to get a small gulp down my throat, and most of the rest on my hands and arms.

In the space between the two water stops I started getting passed by the riders that had either had early mechanicals or had missed the start.  Ray Adams came flying by me in an open section and Mike Yozell (who had accidentally started with the single speeders after us) caught me as we went into a section of tight turns.  Mike brought with him another geared rider and we all three rode together for a while before I bobbled on a root and they slowly crept away.

The second water stop was a lifesaver as the temperature was becoming an issue and their water was really cold.  I managed to get some cold water on my head and and got the legs spinning at speed again.  I was caught by a few other riders from the sport and master’s categories which gave me someone to ride with for a bit and we yo-yo’d most of the way to the finish, me going to the front on the ups, them gaining ground in the flats.  Finally, I saw a sign that said 3.2 miles, and shortly thereafter a guy saying 1 mile, at which point I hit the trail that I had scoped out in the morning and knew I was close.  There were two guys ahead of me as we headed into the pavilion for the finish, both from different categories, but I spun up to finish as fast as I could anyway, with Strauber’s voice in my head yelling to always finish strong.

I finished 18th overall, 2 places lower than at Neshaminy but only 14 (or so, if memory serves me correctly) minutes off the lead time on a longer course.  I was happy with my ride and pretty pleased with my result in a pretty tough field.  Trek riders took the Men’s and Women’s fields, but Wes flew the local flag high, taking second overall in the Elite field on his singlespeed.  Big thanks tot he VisitPA boys for the shade and the cold beer after the race, it was well worth the ridicule (which only betrayed their admiration and jealousy) at my quick change back into street clothes and bug-eyed sunglasses.

Thankfully I wasn’t talked out of the course from the early nay-sayers.  The trails were great perfect for the single.  Some long sustained climbs might have better suited my riding.  But this was much more fun!

   I stuck around long enough for the awards and then loaded up and got back on the road for the 3 hours back.  It was Amish rush hour though the Lancaster outlets which slowed progress a bit.  I was caught off guard by the first buggy I saw, towing a young Amish man on a pair of rollerblades, which seemed a bit out of character, but then I saw another, and another!

I came back into town as everyone else was leaving form ArtsFest, and looked with pity at the miles and miles of traffic between Boalsburg and the narrows.  For dinner Nita and I headed down College to the new burrito place.  The name doesn’t exactly scream quality (Belly Buster Burritos’: Taqueria and Espresso Bar).  And on the inside it was a typical college town burrito shack, not a taqueria.  But the burritos were pretty good and they make their own queso.  And they’ll be open late: midnight in the summer and 3AM during the school year.  So, they won’t threaten the supremacy of El Campesino, but they will make life in State College a little bit nicer.

Soul Food

I spent most of Friday trying to recover my legs from Thursday’s temple of pain.  Sophie and I made a quick run to Scotia before Nita and Bo joined us for a full on assault on Artsfest.  The dogs kept their noses to the ground cleaning up the kettle corn and provided us with a decent excuse not to get sucked in to the booths hocking Nittany Lion watercolors.

Saturday was a spectacular, sunny day and I spent a few hours testing out new single track (new, that is, to everyone who didn’t do the Stoopid 50) around Cooper’s Gap.  The Lewistown boys have really outdone themselves with the rock work on some of those new trails.  Nita and I closed the night out at Mike and Judy’s annual Artsfest party with the boys from the shop and a handful of the local suspects.  We left just as things were degrading into PG rated lap dances to get me home in time for an early departure for Fair Hill in the morning.

Deja vu

Chipper put out the call early in the day for a 3PM assault on the Magic Mo’ loop we did on Saturday.  I’d been hoping to get out on the trail and try out my new tire combination (Exiwolf in the front and NanoRaptor in the back) but was definitely willing to change my plans to have someone to ride with .  After a bunch of emailing back and forth we managed to set a rollout time for 3:30, which was of course 3:45 in reality.  We swung by and picked up Strauber on the way out and headed to Milesburg to do Saturday’s route in reverse, skipping Purdue Mountain in the name of time (and, it would have killed us).

We had a tailwind on the way out and Strauber set the tone with long fast pulls in the flats on the way out.  As I’ve said, I’ve been wanting the intensity workouts and I was not disappointed!  Up the first climb out of Milesburg Strauber and I started playing cat and mouse and I was able to capitalize on him pulling up when a 120 lb dog came charging out at us near the top.  We kept up the pace, pushing each other all the way to Rattlesnake before slowing the pace for a more leisurely climb up to the spring.  Shortly after we turned up we were joined by Nate with Brian in tow.  Nate was doing intervals all the way up the climb and I got drawn into it as he lifted the pace.  By the time I realized he was going hard only to slow down I was already committed to a hard steady climb and kept the pace up.  I managed to catch up to him just as he was finishing up across the top and we soft pedaled into the spring together as Chip, Straub and Brian caught up.  After a water break we headed across the top and Nate and Brian peeled off at the lake to head towards Phillipsburg while we headed down to Julian.

We pulled back into town at just about 7, completely worked. Hopefully I can keep up the motivation to put these efforts to work for me in Maryland on Sunday.  A closer look at the race announcement has the start at 9:45 which would mean a 5AM departure from town to get there in time to register.  I was hoping I was done with those early starts until the cross season, and even then I was going to buy an extra 2 hours of sleep by moving up to the A category.  We’ll see.  At this point I’m still thinking of going, but I could forsee an alarm clock malfunction Sunday morning depending on how the weekend plays out.

spun

The late day rain kept me from hitting the trails, and really didn’t make a road ride that appealing either.  So at 8:30 I took the single out for a quick loop around town.  About 14 miles spinning in the 34×19 with a strict no coast rule.  An hour later and I was spun out, the legs loved the light effort but they were definitely ready to slow down as I pulled into the driveway.  With that long opening stretch to Thickhead on the 101 course I figure I better get used to spinning that thing!  I may give in to the stupidity and go back to the big gear for that course, but for now I’m enjoying the one time in life that smaller is better.