I have to admit, I was more than a little nervous about today’s race. I had no idea what I was in for in my first race of 2010. My preparation has been less than stellar, in particular, February training was almost non-existent until about a week ago. So with that in mind, we headed to what’s probably my favorite race course: Fork Shoals. I got my first ever win at Fork Shoals in February of 2007. In September of that year, I spent most of the race off the front with Andy in the early break and we dominated the results. The next year, I had another solid race, and now, in my fourth race on this course, I would get my first try as a part-time bike racer.

We had a big squad on hand for the day. We were in different jerseys and kits, but there was no doubting who my teammates were. It was cool. Sometimes it’s hard to keep track of my own teammates wearing all the same clothes, but this team is a squad of characters, and even in different garb, it was like one big happy family.

The race started off fast and aggressive as races typically do. Geoff Mina got things going appropriately by making the early four-up break. Step 1 of game plan taken care of. After that, there was a lot of nothing. I didn’t move from last wheel for the first 50 miles. Eric and I had a lovely discussion on pretty much everything. Sometime early on, new teammate, Ben Zawacki, came to grief and broke a spoke(s). His race ended almost as soon as it started. It’s a shame, because he has been killing it in the collegiate races so far this year. I’m sure he’ll have some fire for Sunday’s race.

Once the early break came back with about two to go (30 miles), it was time to get to racing. So I did. I moved up and then we had at it. Moves were constantly going and coming back and it was fun.

Race:
Duration: 3:03:50
Work: 2771 kJ
TSS: 275.8 (intensity factor 0.949)
Norm Power: 313
VI: 1.25
Distance: 120.298 km
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1033 251 watts
Heart Rate: 0 209 33 bpm
Cadence: 29 237 85 rpm
Speed: 12.6 67.2 39.3 kph
Pace 0:54 4:46 1:32 min/km
Crank Torque: 0 114.3 27.9 N-m
Temperature: 13 22 18.0 Celsius

Eventually, Cleve got away with another rider (Bruce Humphries), and just a little bit after that, I got away with another guy. The order would stay like this for most of the final hour. I almost made it across to Cleve, but couldn’t quite do it. I didn’t. It was frustrating, but I gave all I had for the day, that’s for sure. We had a big gap leading into the final part of the course. I thought I had 3rd wrapped up all the way till the final 300 meters. Right as our break started to get pulled back in, I jumped on an attacker’s wheel and figured he’d take me to my 3rd place finish, but he fell apart too, and just as I started whatever I had left for a sprint, the swarm descended upon us. I sat up. I was tired. I might have made the top 15?

Cleve and Bruce held off the field, but Cleve couldn’t hold off Bruce. Cleve got a fine 2nd place though. Cleve never ceases to impress me. I talked to Eric about Cleve today, and I said that I could only dream of suffering the way Cleve does. He turns himself inside out so well. It’s a gift, a talent. He’s aggressive at the right times, and he has no problem hurting himself in mean ways. I hope I can pick up some of that ability this year.

On the other side of the spectrum, Andy is a juggernaut. He killed it in the bunch sprint to take 3rd. He’s going really well right now. I’m excited to see what he has in store for 2010.

That’s a pretty nice result for our first race together. I’ll fully admit that I wasn’t expecting anything like that. I wasn’t expecting that kind of ride out of me, that’s for sure. Everyone rode well today, and I’m sure it’ll only get better.

Off The Front:
Duration: 44:37
Work: 819 kJ
TSS: 78.5 (intensity factor 1.028)
Norm Power: 339
VI: 1.11
Distance: 28.691 km
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 992 306 watts
Heart Rate: 0 0 0 bpm
Cadence: 29 125 85 rpm
Speed: 18.4 58.8 38.6 kph
Pace 1:01 3:16 1:33 min/km
Crank Torque: 0 114.3 34.4 N-m
Temperature: 16 20 18.1 Celsius

The numbers off the front for 45 minutes aren’t in any way impressive. I really didn’t have much else though. I was tired, my legs hurt, my arms hurt, it was pretty weak. Ah well. With that said, I’m pretty excited about that performance as my first race after a really spotty last month or so of training. If that’s the worst that I ride all year, I think it’ll be a reasonable season.

This is a pretty crappy race recap. I hate race recaps. I’m also really sleepy. So it’ll have to do for now.

Today’s ride ended up an hour longer than yesterday. I got it started off peacefully with a quick ride up Paris Mountain. I have to admit, I’ll never be able to ride that climb without smiling to myself at least a little bit. It’s a happy place for me.

We rode an awesome route today, once again up to the north, then straight west to the top of Caesars Head. The straight west part was an incredible, smooth dirt road. There was a wee problem though – there has been snow on the road there for a long while, and it’s just finally starting to melt, which means: some dry spots, some snowy spots, and mostly lots and lots of mud. It was a dirty, happy time.

The rest of the ride was once again solid. We have a good time riding bikes. I like that. At the end of the day, I got home tired and ready for some eating. We went out to dinner again and once again the conversation was jumping, the food great, and there were very few times that I wasn’t smiling. Then again, that’s not saying much.

Entire workout (221 watts):
Duration: 4:33:03 (5:00:07)
Work: 3617 kJ
TSS: 302.6 (intensity factor 0.815)
Norm Power: 269
VI: 1.22
Distance: 135.771 km
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 807 221 watts
Cadence: 29 219 77 rpm
Speed: 0 67 29.8 kph
Pace 0:54 0:00 2:01 min/km
Crank Torque: 0 93.1 28.1 N-m
Temperature: 5 16 10.3 Celsius

Tomorrow, it’s bike racing time. The Greenville Spring Series is heading to one of my favorite courses: Fork Shoals. I got my first ever win on that course. Like Paris Mountain, I’ll never be able to ride there without thinking about that first win. I can guarantee a second win on that course will not happen tomorrow. Not to be negative, but it would take a miracle. Let’s just say, I’m not quite as prepared as I was three years ago. That’s fair, right?

I’m talking to Ashley on Skype right now. It’s almost as good as being home… Almost. I really am happy to be able to see my favorites. Only a little while until I’m headed home again.

The first day of team training camp was a nice, if chilly, affair. We rode a fairly traditional out and back-ish type ride to the world famous Bakery, which took in a few climbs, 3.5 hours, and 5500 feet of climbing.

Andy gave me a nice, sold kick in the pants all day. It is always a sobering and grumpy-ing experience to get a 3.5 hour long ass kicking. It’s healthy to get kicked around though. I know it’ll get better. I love riding with Andy. We never mess around, that’s for sure.

It was a bit chilly all day, never going much over 40. It dipped down to around 34 in Saluda. Poor Oneal – he’s from Jamaica. That was a pretty rude bit of weather. It was funny though. It wasn’t too bad. Overall, it was a great day of biking, and I had a lot of fun riding with my new Team Ion/United Healthcare teammates. It’s a good group of guys.

Tomorrow’s ride should be even more entertaining. Cleve is talking stories about a great dirt road climb and lots of hours of biking. I like.

Entire workout (244 watts):
Duration: 3:33:45 (4:33:11)
Work: 3133 kJ
TSS: 265.4 (intensity factor 0.863)
Norm Power: 285
VI: 1.17
Distance: 105.448 km
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 816 244 watts
Heart Rate: 0 227 46 bpm
Cadence: 29 250 77 rpm
Speed: 0 65.2 29.6 kph
Pace 0:55 0:00 2:02 min/km
Crank Torque: 0 99.2 30.8 N-m
Temperature: -1 12 5.2 Celsius

My Garmin indicated 5500 feet of climbing for the day. We rode the climbs at a good pace, usually between 300-350 watts. I was pretty happy with the pace, though I will 100% admit, that I felt weird riding up hill. I’ve always thought it was odd when people say they can’t climb and they’re strong. Turns out, there’s something to be said for it. I don’t think a lot to say for it, but just a wee bit. I’ll feel a ton better tomorrow, but for today, I felt like I was pedaling through molasses. Tomorrow will be better.

It took a full nine hours, but I made it. I got in around 1, and Cleve’s house was dark. I had tried to get in touch, but it didn’t happen. I wasn’t too nervous though, I figured there was an unlocked door. Tried them all…oh no. So I started knocking. I knocked, knocked, knocked, the rang, rang, rang the doorbell: no response. The house is kind of situated a little below the road, so I parked and started flashing my lights: no response.

I was getting a little worried. I really didn’t want to sleep in my car after that drive, but it was looking likely.

I got lucky though when Cleve woke up for a nighttime bathroom break. He saw the lights, unlocked the door, and YAYYY! I was in. Good news, great news.

Even better, Cleve remembered the code for his locked internet, so I’m online and working.

Speaking of which, back to work.

I miss Ashley.

Ashley was taught well as a young girl. She spent a lot of time working at the family practice, making lots of phone calls, and watching her mom do great things on the phone in terms of getting people to do what she wanted. She used this skill to great effect today when she called Bank of America and got all the overdraft fees removed. Ashley gets today’s gold star.

You know my favorite surprise to get? Logging in to my bank account and seeing the red numbers topping out at almost 500 dollars. Yep, nothing like that overdrawn surprise to add a little entertainment to the day.

It’s pretty much the most depressing thing ever actually. I had a rough patch when I anted up 216 dollars for a traffic ticket. At this point, I just donated 140 dollars to Bank of America in overdraft fees. That’s if they don’t count this next 1 dollar charge as another reason to charge me another 35 dollars.

It really makes me rethink helping someone out; that’s the worst part. Ashley and I (mainly Ashley, bless her heart), helped a friend sell some stuff on eBay. We wrote out an incorrect totaled check to him, corrected it and gave him another with the understanding that the first would get ripped up…he deposited both of them, which made for about 1000 dollars. Of course, we didn’t have that money and now we get this. I don’t think I can sigh any more pathetically.

I guess I should get to driving.

Today is my last whole day in New Orleans before I drive up to Greenville for training camp. I need to get the oil changed, set up my tubeless wheelset (!!!), talk to Michael in Bosnia about my Croatia article, and most importantly, get in my 20 minute test.

I wrote that this morning. I just got back from my ride. I rode with Kenny and Tim, and it was great fun. I had made the small decision not to do the test, but Tim mentioned that he’d love to get out of the piercing, awful headwind, so I said, well, I guess I could do my 20 minute test… So I did.

It wasn’t so bad as far as 20 minute efforts go. I wasn’t feeling very emotionally available for a big dig, but I gave it a solid 97% I figure. Don’t get me wrong, I went hard, but when it came down to the last little while, I was looking to just finish it up, not pour on some more.

In the end, it was pretty ok! I can’t believe that I managed the following:

20 Minutes:
Duration: 20:01
Work: 451 kJ
TSS: 43.1 (intensity factor 1.137)
Norm Power: 375
VI: 1
Pw:HR: n/a
Pa:HR: n/a
Distance: 12.354 km
Min Max Avg
Power: 259 574 376 watts
Cadence: 73 101 88 rpm
Speed: 30.4 46.8 37.0 kph
Pace 1:17 1:58 1:37 min/km
Crank Torque: 27.2 63.2 41.1 N-m
Temperature: 12 14 13.0 Celsius

I’ve only ever done more than that uphill…so to do it on a perfectly flat road – I’m pleased-ish, even moreso when I take into account I took almost three straight weeks off the bike recently. I think there might be hope yet, especially with the training camp later this week. I’m doing a lot of focused, hard work, so I think I can get myself to a solid place. At least that’s what I’m telling myself.

Entire workout (252 watts):
Duration: 2:30:58 (2:33:17)
Work: 2282 kJ
TSS: 176.7 (intensity factor 0.838)
Norm Power: 277
VI: 1.1
Pw:HR: n/a
Pa:HR: n/a
Distance: 80.897 km
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 885 252 watts
Cadence: 29 235 81 rpm
Speed: 0 46.8 32.2 kph
Pace 1:17 0:00 1:52 min/km
Crank Torque: 0 97.2 29.7 N-m
Temperature: 12 20 13.8 Celsius

The results of my Monod Testing, three tests at three different durations:

3 minutes: 490
12 Minutes: 400
20 Minutes: 375

That puts my threshold at, no, this can’t be right, #%@#%#$Q$, 357? Ah hell, that means I’m going to have to ride a lot harder now. This is why testing is bad. It just makes me have to ride harder. The worst part is that if I went back and did the 3 and 12 again, I’d definitely go higher, because I did those right after my extended early February vacation.

Whatever, enough about numbers.

In cool news, Ashley and I got our new PEZ kits. Richard even had Capo send us XS sizing for Ashley, so FINALLY, at long last, I think Ashley is going to be wearing a kit that actually fits her. It’s a happy day here. I’m excited for some new clothes and even more excited about the huge gift box from Profile Design with EVERYTHING they have for time trials. They included bars, stems, clip on bars, bottle cages, a saddle, and lots more. I can’t WAIT to get it on the time trial bike and get to work making myself into a reasonable time trialist…ish.

First off, gotta get the oil changed or Ashley is going to be mean to me when she gets home.

Speaking of Ashley, wish her good feelings, health, and energy. She’s had a rough go of it the last week or so…well, more actually. She’s just taking it easy for the moment, trying to get her health in order, but hopefully she’ll turn the corner to healthy soon enough.

I just want to say thank you to Mark Hekman for getting me back on my bike today. Well, it wasn’t Mark that did the actual mechanic-ing, but it was Mark that provided the idea to just put in a bar-end shifter until a replacement shifter could be had. It was genius, and absolutely something that I never would have thought of, mainly because I’ve never used anything like that in my life. I went to the awesome guys at Bicycle World here in New Orleans and a few minutes later I was out with a wonderful Frankenstein bike that will suffice until the new shifters arrive…in Greenville, South Carolina during our training camp later this week.

In other news, we went to pay my speeding ticket today. It bummed me out something fierce to go into town to fix it in person. Ashley had very helpfully called the number on the ticket, dutifully left her number, and waited in vain for the call to be returned (as they said it would) with the ticket price…multiple times.

So, with me leaving in two days, she rightly figured that we should go in and take care of it. I nearly lost it. I got caught in an absolute speed trap, one where I’m not even sure if they used a radar or laser, the policeman told me to pay the ticket no later than, wait for it, FEBRUARY THIRTIETH, then after multiple calls, the city wouldn’t do their job and tell us the ticket price. It was all too much for my Monday patience. It was terrible. Reluctantly, I went in, and we stood in line with all of the other people who were getting ripped off.

It’s pretty awesome to read about how cities are using traffic tickets to fund their budgets in a major way these days – a lot of them aren’t even giving points to your license or reporting it to the insurance companies anymore. They’re just taking your/my money, well, mainly my money in this case.

I know I’m whining, but it’s terrible to hand over 216 dollars and realize that’s that lens that I’ve been coveting for months. I’ve never worked so hard in my life on so many different things. We’re doing our best to get ahead as much as possible, so it stings really badly to see that goal, that hope temporarily set back by a ridiculous ticket.

I know. I was speeding. Let that be a lesson to me. I know. It still doesn’t mean I’m not steaming out of my ears, nostrils, and toes.

In other news, I rode my bike for one hour today amid all of that crap and writing EuroTrash. It’s shameful that’s all I could muster on the warmest day of the year, but it’s ok, it’s ok, training camp is this weekend.

More soon!

I took it easy on Saturday…not too much sleep, tired, whatever, it was a nice rest day.

I hoped to do a longer ride today, more specifically, I hoped to do a group ride, but apparently 8am was not the start time for the Sunday group ride. I guess I messed that up. I was wickedly uncomfortable on Ashley’s tiny bike and her girl saddle almost instantly started killing me, so after about 20 minutes of riding bikes, I nearly turned around and went home.

Instead, I just figured I’d ride kinda sorta hard for a couple of hours. It was bad though, because I felt like I was riding really hard, but the horrible position on the bike made for not much in the way of power. I always thought that whole bike position nonsense was just that, but after spending some quality time on a bike that is the opposite of well fitting, I raise my hand to join the chorus.

Entire workout (268 watts):
Duration: 2:04:34 (2:05:14)
Work: 2002 kJ
TSS: 147.4 (intensity factor 0.843)
Norm Power: 278
VI: 1.04
Pw:HR: -0.34%
Pa:HR: -16.09%
Distance: 70.443 km
Elevation Gain: 503 m
Elevation Loss: 492 m
Grade: 0.0 % (11 m)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 681 268 watts
Heart Rate: 112 189 164 bpm
Cadence: 30 136 82 rpm
Speed: 0.8 57.8 33.9 kph
Pace 1:02 75:00 1:46 min/km
Altitude: -2 28 8 m
Crank Torque: 0 85.3 31.5 N-m

I’m going to try and get my shifter fixed tomorrow. Fingers crossed big time that I can find some kind of solution.

In other more important news, we’ve had an awesome time with our good friend Franz from Innsbruck. He has been in town for the past week and stayed with us for the duration. It has been swell, but unfortunately, he’s headed back to the real world in a few hours.

The Mrs. Debbie and Dr. Steve just got back from St. Thomas last night. We had a nice brunch with them at Dante’s Kitchen today then went on a little bread buying adventure at Chico’s, I mean, Whole Foods. We parked at Chico’s across the street from the Whole Foods, which was more than enough reason for a trip into the store…and a new jacket was purchased.

Quote-ish from Mrs. Debbie: “40% off already and it’s 45 dollars, another 30% off? A third of 45 is 15, which means this jacket is going in my closet.” I love it. It was funny.

Alright, back to PEZ work and Croatia picture edits. Check em out HERE!