Willow Time Trial

Yesterday the 2010 racing season opened in Michigan with the Willow Time Trial.  While I would have liked warmer weather, at least it was around 55°.  The forecast called for rain, but for some miracle reason it rained everywhere but the park.  The Willow time trial consists of 6 laps around the park road totaling 13.2 miles.  The roads are near dead flat and the only thing you have to deal with is the changing wind direction as you circle, and believe me its windy.  Since this was my first event as a Cat. 3 is was a little nervous.  I didn't want to embarrass myself and finish near the bottom of the list for my category. I was also very concerned about my allergies and asthma.  The tree pollen this spring has been very harsh to me.  However today my lungs ended up feeling great.  So how did it go?

Great, I placed 8th out of 15 in my category, 50/~200 Overall.  I also set a new personal record for myself averaging just over 25.5 MPH.  I surprised myself a bit, I was only predicting a time under 32 minutes and I finished in 31:03.  I would have liked to get those extra three seconds, but I will settle for waiting till next year.  My ability to time trail is greatly improving and I think I finally got my bike position dialed in to go fast.  By finishing 8th I earned Michigan challenge points for myself and for the team for the overall championship decided at the end of the year.  Overall I am feeling good about my fitness and excited to be finally racing for a team.  I can't wait for Kensington in a few weeks.

Full Results

This weekend the season begins!

So this weekend it finally all officially starts. Saturday I will heading to the Willow Time Trial and picking up my team uniform, then hopefully setting a blazing fast pace on the course.   The last few weeks leading up to this event though have been a lot of pain.  I did two more Waterford races and had decent performances.  Which was good considering the windy conditions and the awful allergy and asthma problems I have been having of late.  I also finally got my upgrade to Category 3 approved.  So far the spring has went well.  Now, I just need to get a lot more miles in before May 8th to be ready for Kensington.

Bronchitis

In February I had Bronchitis for the first time in my life.  At the time I didn't think much of it, but now it's April and I can still feel the effects of the damage it caused to my lungs.   What started as a common cold I ignored, worked through, trained through(I did take it really easy though), has turned into something much more serious then I intended.  See I also suffer from allergies and and asthma, which tends to complicate bronchitis.  So why am I writing about this in April now, because my lungs still haven't returned to 100%.  In fact they have gotten worse in the past two weeks.  With spring here in Michigan, my allergies and asthma have started to kick back in.  With ramping up my training my exposure to these allergens has increased.  Last year I was able to make it through almost the entire spring/summer with very light medication.  Taking that approach to start this season has cost me dearly, I should of just taken my asthma/allergy medication.    Now sitting in April I have lost 4 weeks of good training to my lungs being inflamed.  Hopefully my lungs start to heal, people would think I am a chain smoker by how much I cough of late.  Despite this though I am still in my best shape ever, with a little rest, meds and a greater focus on recovery I should come out of this to have an amazing season.   Oh, and a trip to the doctor for a check up and fill of prescriptions.

Waterford Hills Spring Training Series #1

My first mass start race of the year is out of the way...sigh.  It was another cold and windy day but at least the sun was shinning.  The race was an hour long and very fast paced.  The first half if the race was easy, but I could tell at that point I didn't feel very good.  I just didn't have the energy and hadn't recovered well from work/training during the week.  At the half way mark there was a sprint for a $10 gas card...big trouble.  Going into the final corner I got caught up in the aftermath of a crash and was forced to do some riding through the grass.   This crash would ultimately cause the field to split.  After I rejoined the peloton I decided to sprint up and join the breakaway.  As I arrived though three more riders had just attacked out of the break, I was to tired to attempt and join the leaders.   They would end up winning.  The chase group I was in later gave up and the peloton rejoined us.  At this point I shut it down to save some energy for the sprint at the end.  I got 6th in the sprint to take 9th overall.  It wasn't a bad result considering how bad I felt.  If the crash didn't cause me to lose so much ground I probably would have been in the break.  Oh well, that's racing. Hopefully next weekend goes much better.

Full Results

Fisk Knob Time Trial

This past weekend I competed in my second Fisk Knob Time Trial.  While the day started out cold with some snow flurries, it was sunny and 45° by the time I started.  Last year it just stayed cold and windy with snow flurries holding about 32°.  I was very happy to have much nicer weather this year.  The day for me however got off to a rough start, I left my heart rate monitor at home.  So I would be flying on the day blind of my effort.  After I nice 30 minute warm up I felt great and went to the start line.  Despite it being cold I still overheated warming up and drank only one water bottle, this would turn out to kill me later.   The first half of the course was mostly downhill with the wind at my back.  I don't think my speed ever dropped below 30 mph in the first few miles.  However once I hit the halfway point I got greeted with a nice head wind.  This would of been a nice point to know my heart rate to gauge effort.  Soon after it wouldn't matter anyways as I started to develop severe cramps in my left leg.  I basically consumed my entire water bottle in the next few minutes.  Within 5-10 minutes the cramping went away, however I was a little sick from drinking that much electrolyte/energy drink.  All and all though I came to the finish hill with a lot of speed and power and sprinted to the top to finish in 47:03.  Which was over 5 minutes faster then my time last year.  I guess that really sums up how far I have come in a year, when I can struggle and its still 5 minutes better then my time last year.   I ended up finishing a solid 5/16 in my 25-29 age group and 42/149 overall.  Not to shabby since I lost basically a month of training in February to a nasty respiratory cold.  My training is progressing nicely for a strong summer of racing.  Next weekend I am going to kick off the road racing schedule by participating in the Waterford Spring Training Series.

Full Results

Trip to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park

This past weekend I visited Gatlinburg, Tn with 5 other cyclists and road into the Great Smoky Mountains.  Overall the trip was a blast and a great location to break in my new bike, which I built in my hotel on the way there.  As a group we went on three rides leaving our cabin we rented.  While the weather didn't hold up at least the riding was good.  Our rides all started with a crazy decent down the mountain with numerous tight switchbacks.  It was really a lot of fun, then we would venture into the mountains or the park on the outskirts of town.  This area must be extremely beautiful in the fall or summer, I might have to come back again. The strangest sight was the hundreds of people dressed up like Santa.  Just so happens it was the weekend of the worlds largest professional Santa gathering, crazy... All rides ended however with "the climb" the only way back to the cabin and it was always the worse.  That hill was 3 miles of pain, with gradients nearing nearly 20%.   After each ride I was glad we had a hot tube to relax in.  I'm not sure my legs would have made it without.  Overall I think my spring fitness is coming along nicely.  The real test is coming up this weekend at the Fisk Knob TT.  Hopefully the weather turns out better then last year.

Ridley Noah

So I finally got my new team race bike.  A few months later then I would have liked but this bike was well worth the wait.  Its a Ridley Noah built up with SRAM Red.  All I have to say about this bike is wow.  It might not be the lightest frame in the world but it is fast.  This frame is super stiff and all of your power is transmitted to the wheels.  When you get our of the saddle to sprint it just takes off.  Despite its weight it isn't a bad climber frame either.  With this bike this year I can no longer blame my equipment.