Leatherface and Sore Legs

The legs are bit on the sore side this morning after riding my third race, and first at the Cat 3 level, yesterday. It was a bit longer than the previous couple at 104k and the front group that I was in averaged a good 37km/h. As the race was in the area that the Texas Chainsaw Massacre was filmed in(Manda, Texas I think?) they had some fella dressed up like leatherface swinging a running chainsaw around to start each race.

Since getting caught in the arse-end of the group in my first race and finishing a fair way behind the leaders I had ridden the second race and the first portion of the race yesterday just plain scared that this would happen again. After about an hour and a few good pushes I realized that there wasn't a dirty chance in hell I'd let that happen again and started feeling confident and actually had some fun. I found Derek after a while and asked him how he was doing, he said he was hurting pretty good or something and then the next thing I know he's driving the bus at the front chasing attacks.
http://www.firstpics.net/gallery/7760108_hEbDU#501921407_ZKapK
(Derek hammerin')

Seeing this I got fired up and decided to put some work in and tried a few times to bridge gaps and join attacks that went but ended up bringing the whole group with me everytime. At one point we were cruising along a road with no center line and I noticed that a bunch of guys were riding on the wrong side of the road which I know from experience is a pretty big deal. The commissaire drove up alongside the group screaming and honking sending people to the back. There happened to be an all mexican team who must not have spoken any english as the guy was just screaming at them and eventually told them to get out of the race, but they had no idea what was going on and just kept on cruising and he eventually just let them carry on with the group..disqualified.

I was really pleased and surprised at how my legs were feeling, though, as the race went on and everything was smooth sailing until about half way through the last lap when a bunch of wild stuff happened. I got caught in the gutter in a cross-wind twice, draining the legs. Both times I figured that I was done as a gap opened between me and the guy in front of me, but the pace slowed soon after and I was fine. I tried to be smart, seeing the whole group aside from the lead echelon pinned against the yellow line and swung to the right of the road alone to start another echelon but that was a wasted effort as nobody followed me. Shortly after this I heard a tire explode and about 5 bodies and bikes slapping the ground behind me, and then a fella blew a spoke, making a racket, which spooked me a bit, too. But I made it through that and I'm in the last km with the leaders. This was my first go at a group sprint. THE CHAOS! I guess this is something you can only get better at with experience and lord was I shaky. The pace lifted and everyone started fighting for wheels. I jumped up to giver only to have a fella bump hips with me, knocking me off the road into the grass, which he actually apologized for after the race. http://www.firstpics.net/gallery/7760108_hEbDU#501925128_oSSck
(I'm coming up the left side of the pic with green and orange sleeves)

That was pretty much it for me, not that I likely would have had enough left in the legs to do much if I hadn't of been put in the grass, but I hopped back on the road and gave it everything I had anyway to get 20th. I'm not sure how many started but it was a hell of a lot more than that and I'm happy with the day. I really wanted to steer clear of grinding big gears, which I have a terrible habit of doing, and I also wanted to eat and drink more which I've been too nervous to do so far. I made sure of spinning a high cadence yesterday, though, and managed to take my hands of the bars long enough to put 1 clif shot into myself and a full bottle of water. I definitely needed more to eat than that and should have brought a lot morewater, which are mistakes I'll not make again.

10 4

Been Readin'

I'm in Texas and it's about 5 degrees colder here than it is at home in Charlottetown at the moment, and with the 900mph windchill it's frigid. The forecast is saying to 20-25 for the next few days starting tomorrow, but it's not all sunburns and tanlines down this way.

Having no cable I've been reading everything that I can get my hands on. It's been mostly bike magazines, but I also picked up a Michael Phelps book while at the grocery store, stocking up on green tea and eggs, yesterday. I'm not saying that he's not absolutely a phenomenal athlete, but I think that his talent lies in his freakish body-type and not in his life story as the book poorly attempts to make out as being 'against the odds'. I'm a pretty firm believer in the overcoming of adversities in life serving as motivation for racing, and maybe I've been spoiled having read so much about Armstrong and his mind-boggling story of cheating death to win the TDF seven times, but this book doesn't present much of a story. The cover of the book states something like "Coming from a single parent home, Michael had it rough..." or something along those lines. Horseshit. Single parent homes are likely more common than obese Americans, and with his biggest adversity being a loving single parent and two sisters who spoil the shit out of him I don't see his life as much of a struggle. The most inspiring part of the book is a paragraph which talks about one of his relay teammates who started off as a poor, slow swimmer who's parents sold their possessions to get his suits and goggles. He worked hard as shit, though, and I think he eventually went on to be the first black fella to hold a world record in the pool doing something like a 21 second 50 free. I'd rather hear more about him.

I also picked up a cycling magazine which has a bunch of early-90's racing stories and profiles of riders back then. I've always found this type of old stuff boring until now. The flashy bikes and big name sprinters have always been what I enjoyed reading about, but after taking in some info about big names of old I have a different perspective. The most outstanding thing I've read had to do with the Tour de France. Of course it must have been tougher to ride the tour with a 50 pound bike in leather shoes and shitty roads right? What I didn't take into account was that the tour was about 1000km longer and raced entirely differently in its early days. Today you have directors studying the course for hours and the focus is on saving as much energy as you can and putting your big efforts in on a couple of key days. The hell with that. Apparently the older method was to go as hard as you could for as long as you could and hope that you finished ahead of everyone else..if at all. Wild animals and cheating in ways a lot greasier than taking drugs were common. That's god damn racing. None of this tip-toeing through the tulips for 2 weeks with a bunch of guys making sure you don't get too much wind or crash and then riding hard for a couple of hours to take the win.

I guess that does it for my book reviews.

Headed Home

I guess I'm set to make my way home next week and, riding wise, I couldn't be happier. The weather is niiice but I've had my fill, for the moment, of flat, windy, three lane roads populated with asshole motorists screaming at me from their 5 ton trucks. I feel as if I've accomplished what I came here to do; get a feel for and learn how to race in big groups, and build a big base for the long season. Having done these things I'm sooo excited to get home and head out to Emyvale and Hunter River to do some building and destroy myself on some hills. I don't care if it snows, rains or is -10, I can't wait to get out and do some climbing.

Before I head out, though, I'm heading to my first Cat 3 race on Sunday and I can't wait. The past two races have been really stressful and intimidating as I've been alone and ended up riding about 40k on both occasions just to get to the start line. This weekend, though, Derek is racing and his wicked nice family offered to drive us! I'm also feeling a bit more confident in my legs as I started to build a bit last week doing 3 days with a bit of intensity; one day of 5, 1.5 m hill intervals on the ONLY hill in Frisco, another of 5, 10m intervals at a hr of 165 and another day on which I rode with Derek and we did a few good pushes. It was really refreshing, and with a couple of days recovery this weekend I'm noticing that my legs are feeling fresher the morning after a day with a bit of intensity. I'm hoping that the couple of half-intense days will enable me to at least keep up with what I imagine to be a pretty fast pace.

I'm looking forward to getting home, too, for entertainment away from riding. I've been fighting off insanity for the past few months while having 800 channels to choose from and last week Marv came in and hauled out the cable to save him a few bucks(not happy). So I think I may now be on the market for a straight jacket. Aside from that I managed to misplace my bank card a few weeks ago, so I've had no money to go out and do anything until Tuesday of this week. Last night made up for this, though, as me and Derek hit up Hooters for a feed. The sights! We were kind of wondering if it was, like, ok to look/stare but if these people aren't looking for attention why would they be serving us 1/2 naked? When my food showed up I realized that I didn't even really know what I ordered as the mind was kind of pre-occupied but the Cuban sandwich was really good, likely clocking in at 60000 calories, but good. We headed to the theatre which happened to be COMPLETELY empty, aside from the two of us, to see Gran Turino. This came as a bit of luck as the Cuban sandwich left me a bit gassy. Clint Eastwood is what I want to be when I grow up.

Moving Along

After seeing the full results for the race on the weekend, as it turns out, I actually did quite a bit better than I thought I had. I was at the front of the race the whole time and didn't even notice the field shrinking substantially, but apparently about 30 people got dropped and I ended up finishing 32nd of 62 even with the mishap in the last kilometer. I also read on the state cycling forum that one of the guys that went down at the sprint for the line broke his collarbone. Yikes. I think I'll jump up to the next category for the next, and probably last, race before heading home which is a bit intimidating as last weekend the next category up(3) was grouped with 2's,1's and pro's. Hopefully Derek will come out for a tear, though, and I won't feel quite so intimidated by the 60 rider field filled with teams of 5 or 6 who are quite a bit further along in their training than I am.

This being my fourth and final week of my second base riding portion of the year, I get to enjoy a big cut in hours and have a rest week. I'm really excited to see how effective working rest into training is as I've never really properly paid attention to recovery even though it holds probably as much importance as riding itself. It's kind of funny, though, as I'm itching to do long rides again already and it's only Tuesday. What else is there to do? Even during weeks with long hours I find myself sitting at home bored a lot of the time, and now that my hours are pretty much cut in half the boredom is twice as bad. I never seem to get sick of watching the recorded Tour of California and Tour Down Under programs that I have, so they help, but I need a hobby or something. Maybe I'll pick up a model car or go play with the turtles in the lake out front.

I suppose I'll kill some more time and post some pictures up of where I'm living.

Me Legs is Rubbed Right Raw

Second race of the season this morning in Celena. This one went 200 times better than the first....other than a little slip up in the last kilometer. I got to know who was strong and who wasn't in the last race and decided that the Plano guys who destroyed the field last time were the ones to watch. As the race began I decided that I wanted to follow the wheel of the fella who seemed to lead that team, and instead of jumping at every attack, this time, I watched to see how he would react as I figured he knew everyone's strength better than I.

This went perfectly and I stayed in the top 8 guys the entire race and only went to the front twice. At one point during the 3rd lap the fella I stuck to the whole time dropped back beside me and with a smile and a heavy southern accent said, "You always seem to be in the perfect spot, I think I'll hang onto your wheel and take second across the line." I laughed a bit and told him I was hurting something awful. I was super happy at this as I've never really been the smartest at anything I've been into. I've sort of always been the idiot who goes too hard too early and usually pays for it. This is probably most evident in the way I ride my bmx. At one of the first comps I rode in I tried to backflip a jump before I could comfortably jump it. Idiot.

Anyway some attacks went and were brought back and then the stronger guys started going. I had a part in chasing all of these down, which I was pleased with and even got my hr higher than ever before. The fella I had been hanging onto launched a super heavy attack about 1/2 way through the last lap and nobody seemed to want to chase him down. It probably wasn't the smartest thing to do but I went to the front, and pushed it as hard as I could and brought him back.

So we're 3/4 of the way through the final lap and I'm 4th or 5th wheel I'm just hurtin' but am absolutely certain that I'm taking the win. As we're cruising up to the last little climb before the stretch to the line I got bumped over the yellow line. The hell I was going to drop back 10 places to an opening and lose my spot, so I accelerated a bit to go past the guy who bumped me. As I'm doing this the referee comes up to my side and gives me the boot to the back of the group. I argued a bit but kind of knew I was wrong and just sat up and drifted all the way to the back. When I got back there he said something like "You're lucky, I won't make you go all the way back to the cars." and told me to get back up to the group. So I figured I'd gun it and sprinted by everyone and back to the front. I completely emptied the gas tank doing this and as I got to the front the sprint for the line was starting and I had nothing left. I was passed by just about everyone as I soft pedaled the last 200m. Damndest thing, though, there was a wicked bad crash at the last sprint and 4 or 5 guys were lying on the road as I came over the last little hill so maybe I got a bit lucky by being penalized.

Anywho, off to the hot tub.

Stevie's Hurtin'

Im hurtin', but it feels good. I've put in some heavy hours on the bike this week as I'm coming to the end of my third week of a build period and the legs are definitely feeling it. It seems as if I've moved to the only place in the world with wilder weather than the island. On Sunday I had to bundle up in my jacket, gloves and leg warmers and had to turn in after two hours as I was too cold. Today, however, it was 83 degrees and I couldn't get the water into me fast enough. This is pretty much how every week seems to go.

Today was probably the roughest day of riding I've had since getting here. Intervals and 50km/h winds, along with the 80 degree heat left me pretty beat after riding. At home, I would like to ride for 2 hours into the wind and then turn around and ride with it at my back for the ride home as the legs don't have quite as much left in them for the second half of the ride. Here, though, all of the good riding is in the same direction and everyday I turn around to head home after about 2 hours of fairly easily ripping along at 40km/h and wrestle with my bike into the wind for the 2 hour ride home. Today I found this harder than usual, and for the final hour all I wanted to do was come home and watch Wedding Crashers while eating pancakes and drinking coffee, but instead the apt. seems to have fallen apart. Handyman that I am, though, everything is fixed....sort of.

The toilet gave away earlier in the week, and Lord knows I need a working toilet, so I dove elbow deep into the back of the thing to inspect the situation. I managed to mend the problem by jamming a dime under the stick on the end of the balloon thing to stop it from running and set the top back on all cockeyed to hold everything in place. It ain't pretty, but it does the job. Today, however, the hot water heater lost its mind and sprung a leak, spraying water all over the storage room. So I grabbed the duct tape and applied enough to slow the spray to a drip. Good to go.

Another breakthrough this week came when I became desperate enough to ask the main building staff if I could use the business center to fax some stuff. Marv told me that if I were to interact with them that I would be subjected to a heavy fee and some other stuff, so I've been hiking an hour to the library to get computer use. Yesterday I needed a fax machine right then and there, though. Low and behold the two most beautiful women are working the front desk and were more than happy to let me use the computer and fax machine. Not only that theres an assortment of free cookies laid out for me to dig in to. What a treat.

There are 3 races in the area this weekend, a TT, Crit and Road Race and I had originally planned on doing them all. After the long, rough week, though, I think I would like to stick to only the Road Race as that's really where I'm looking to gain experience and I'd rather not go into it having a 20mile TT and 45 mile Crit in my legs from the day before. I'm hoping it goes well but I think I'm really just going to try and have fun and gain some experience as opposed to going into it feeling as if the world will end if I don't win as I did in my first race. My real goals lie further on in the season so I guess I'll not get bent out of shape in these early races.

Anywho, better get back to the swampartment and make a pancake.

Stevie

New Man

After not getting the results I would have liked on the weekend I was a bit bummed and couldn't figure out why I felt so weak. I've done a bit of research and asked around which has led me to the realization that I've unfortunately been training at an intensity that has been far too easy, even for the easy riding time of year, and likely hasn't been doing anything for me. Though it's a bit of a bummer, it may come in handy to have ridden with no intensity thus far as the races I hope to do well in aren't until the end of summer and maybe the super easy riding up until now will help in preventing burn out.

That being said, after returning home from the race on the weekend I was more than ready to up the intensity a bit. I've put in 2 fairly hard 2.5 hr rides on Monday and Tuesday and a 3.5hr recovery ride today at the intensity that I should have been working at all along. I tell ya it feels like I've been reborn. I enjoy riding all sorts of bikes at all sorts of intensities but the part of riding, and I guess all aspects of life, that I enjoy most is pushing myself. I don't think I enjoy anything more than pushing myself so hard that I can't feel my legs and I'm on the verge of puking out my right lung. This sounds a little odd to some but I think most endurance athletes share this, or a similar, outlook on things.

The fact that Dallas is the 3rd windiest city in America used to drive me batty. Previously, when mistakenly trying to maintain a hr of 120, I despised the wind as any resistance at all would put me over this. Now, that I've realized that I should be riding harder than this, I love it. Most of the roads here a fairly flat and to have a good strong headwind is something I'm really starting to enjoy. The temperature has also shot up significantly in the past week and today I got a mean arm burn as it got up to about 25 celsius.

OH! I also got to live out a dream of mine on the weekend! Made it to the IHOP on Friday night for the $4 all you can eat pancakes. I don't know what happened but I couldn't manage to put anything more than one plate-full down. Terrible. I also found out that Tuesday was National Pancake Day. God bless America.