Injured

I haven't been out racing for 3 weeks now.  The first of those weeks I was taking a week-long mid-season break like I've done each year.  It was great.  I spent more time with Laurel including going out to Lincoln City with her whole family for the weekend.

The Monday after all that, I was about to get back into my training regime until I fell off my bike on a training ride getting out of a driveway and hit my hip in a weird way.  Like my bad bike maintenance skills, I guess my body also suffered a bit of a breakdown due to not getting massages and not stretching enough or something.  I was in pain and couldn't ride normally and eventually went to see a physical therapist at guess where... shameless plug for a team's sponsor coming up...  Therapeutic Associates!

The pain has been going away much slower than I would like, but it is what it is.  Jordan Brandon has been abusing me and performing witchcraft practicing the art of physical therapy on me for the past 2 weeks.  It's become quite clear that my body could use a break from all this racing since nearly all of my leg muscles and glute muscles are really really sore and tense.  Jordan made me use a foam roller for the first time and it was terrible in a good way.

I appear to be finally getting better.  I just rode for the first time yesterday in 10 days on my commute to work and then to Laurel's via the MAX and it was exhilarating!  I went as fast as 35mph down a hill!  Weeee.  Today I'm going to try to ride a full 90 minutes.

How have I been handling myself with all this not riding?  Looking at computer screens mostly.  I've been working on a website for my wedding and staying slightly later at work just to get stuff done faster.  I think I'm not going to have any problem filling up the void in my life that'll happen when I don't race next year.

2015 race schedule

It's January and earlier today I was out riding in pouring, near-freezing, foggy rain at 8pm on Cornell on a Tuesday evening.  That is just not my idea of fun.  I'm lazy damnit and I just don't think I want to continue forever with these bike racing training antics, but I signed up for another year, so I better say before it's too late that I won't be taking 2015 racing seriously at all. 

Listed below are the pros of bike racing:

• Normal people think I'm some sort of superhero, which is kinda cool because I like being respected.
• Back when I started 4 years ago it was my excuse for not drinking so heavily so frequently (actually I didn't drink anything for over a year)
• I get to challenge myself and fight to persevere
• Winning does feel good

But the cons of racing are many!!

• Costs lots and lots of money
• Takes up hours of time every day
• It sucks when you or your team don't win for a long period of time
• Training during the winter in the Pacific Northwest is mostly unfun
• I have competing desires such as
• Trying to keep up a good relationship with my girlfriend
• Trying to have any other friends at all
• Working on computer programming ideas I have
• My real-life job which I make vastly more money every week than I do during the entire bike racing season
• Side jobs that also make more money than bike racing
• Community service projects

The big thing is that I currently train 7 days a week and have very little time for anything else.  I'm not going to completely stop riding a bike, I'll likely still commute every once in a while and definitely get out on the weekends and even hit up some PIRs here and there and even some other races that I typically enjoy.  I just feel like the amount I gain from devoting a huge part of my life to racing isn't enough to justify that expenditure.

So, with that, I present to you my 2015 racing schedule:

February:

Worst Day of the Year Ride or maybe the FHR

March-May:

Nothing, except maybe a PIR on a sunny day if I feel like it.

June or July or whenever this thing is:

Krivoklatsko Peklo which is a bicycle race in my dad's hometime in the Czech Republic.  At some point in my life I need to do this race.

August:

Eugene Celebration because I just really like this race.

September:

Mt. Ashland Hill Climb because I like to visit my grandparents in Ashland.

I'm having fun, right?

Well, I figured I fire off a quick post since I'll probably do another one for Walla Walla which is this weekend.  After my last smack-talking post prior to Independence Valley I just wasn't in the mood for another post.

IVRR

When the winning break gets away 5 miles into the race and you're not in it, that's a bummer.  And when you're trying to make moves to get a chase break started and they aren't succeeding that is frustrating.  And then it is just downright not fun when someone else chases you down just to yell at you for riding your bike hard.  Fine, my tactics weren't the best and I really shoulda just tried to form an alliance with Porcella, Soraz and Team O to actually chase that break down.  But I really don't like getting yelled at and that set me in a bad mood for the entire next week.

Rest Week

So yeah, the next week was a rest week and I even chose not to race Vance Creek which I've done well at before.  Sigh.

King's Valley

The week leading up to this my coach decided that I shouldn't have a life besides riding my bike after work and that is what happened sort of.  4 hard days in a row and I nearly fell asleep at my church group just to go do 4 zone 5 hillclimbs afterwards.  But I didn't feel miserable which was strange.  One thing that kinda sounded nice was that my coach also suggested that I just call it a season after Walla Walla which gave me some hope that I may have a life again.  Actually if I had more time, I'm not sure if I'd have a life again since I'd probably sit behind a computer screen and code on personal projects most of the time.

Anyways, I was fairly happy to go down to King's Valley with some teammates.  Dave drove Joe, Mike and I down there.  Our race strategy was to watch out for Rob English and some other guy who I wouldn't have know.  So I stayed at the front a lot and chased down English about 30 times or so. 

Oh wait, before that actually there was a beer prime on lap 1.  At the corner to the finish road most of the pack forgot to turn, but I didn't and took the front of the pack.  A small break of 3 masters got away and then I jumped and passed those guys, but they eventually caught up to me and then like 4 others bridged up too, but it didn't look like there were serious threats.  I maintained a good spot going up the hill and timed my sprint perfectly and picked up that beer prime.  First prize winnings of the year!

 

So yeah, the rest of the race was a lot of chasing down English and then holding back while Joe and Dave both got in breaks.  When the finish hill came I didn't fare too well in all the traffic and was top 20.  Meh.

And onwards

Sunday I did Logie trail intervals and on the 3rd interval there were 5 rabbits with bike gallery kits which really helped me up the wattage!

Today I did PIR, gave Byron a good leadout for a hot spot and then kamikazeed on the final lap with Nate Gibson.

I'm thinking in the races that I don't get yelled at or the course isn't dangerous I generally have a good time, but all this training and not enough sleep sometimes makes my workouts a real chore.  I'm thinking next year I either need a break from all the training of racing or to find workout buddies or some other source of motivation or both.

See y'all at Walla Walla.

DNF Streak

Well, I'm definitely not on a win streak at the moment. I was recovering most of last week from the OBRA crit crash, so I didn't do PIR. Saturday came around and it was time for the Giro di Portland. And I was very unprepared for it. I didn't pre-ride the course, but I knew there were some cobbles, but I didn't know that they were nasty cobbles. Then, I got in a so-so warmup. And I didn't completely check my tire pressure or even make sure the skewers were tightened. Since I hadn't pre-rode the course I did a practice lap instead of lining up immediately. I went around corner one and was like "OH CRAP!" I lined up ok, and then we were off and it was tough. I got caught behind a crash and was able to get a free lap where I moved up a lot. But then, the skewer on my front wheel was all over the place. I got off the back and tightened it and the pack was gone. I sort of tried to catch up, but could hear the motorcycle and got lapped by Bedford and then decided to pull out. And that was I believe my shortest race of the year with a time of about 25 minutes.

That's about it really, I feel like I really disappointed a bunch of people who came to watch me race: my sister down from Seattle, my church friends, my new teammates and whoever else is out there following. I also feel lazy to myself for just pulling out like that. I really admired how Rocky raced since he dropped a chain and was a lap down and still finished the race and did work for the team at the end. And then Klipper got 2nd so that was good. More and more I feel like I'm a little less committed to performing well since I have my teammates in the field and am not reliant on myself or for winning money to stay financially viable in life. Furthermore I feel like it's a bad example I'm setting for our new teammates to bail out so soon. I'm realizing more and more that people really do pay attention to what I do and I don't want to set a bad example of being a quitter or having poor racer etiquette.

So this coming week it is a rest week, but I have really had it and am pissed off looking at my last 3 results: DNF, DNS, DNF. This streak must end! I am in fact going easy all other 5 days, but tomorrow at PIR I WILL MAKE IT IN THE BREAK and then I'm going to be trying hard to get a top 10 at Longview.

Same old, same old

In each of the four races I've done so far this year, a break got away and I wasn't in it. That is all.

Am I done yet?

Ugh, racing. Not again. Do I really have to subject myself to yet another grueling series of efforts just to watch the asses of all the other racers actually compete for first place in the end? I didn't think I wanted to at all the weekend before the last so I didn't race at all. However, I did ride a considerable amount.

On Saturday I rode out to somewhere I've always wanted to ride: Vista House:

And then Sunday I rode with the Klipper family along Skyline. The photo below is from later that evening.

But I still felt exhausted after this "rest" weekend. I chose to not do PIR and only did Gig Harbor because my coach thought I should. Oh, did I just miss out on the Portland Twilight Crit? Yep. Who cares. Out at Gig Harbor nothing mattered until the final 200m where I got popped off the back. But I finally scored a victory or three of them in a row while playing beer pong at my sister's party.

I'm ready for the season to be over with.

Being Average Sucks

So it was another Tuesday, another PIR. Feeling all right I did the usual: go with a bunch of attacks and attack a bunch myself. And again as usual, I always seemed to attack at the wrong time and got zero points and an average field finish.

Another Wednesday another Mt. Tabor. At this race my secret weapon of swapping out my compact chainring for a normal chainring coupled with my 11/21 cassette sucked the climb out of me. I was barely hanging on in the climbs and got dropped so so hard in the final sprint. Ugh.

Another weekend another set of races. This time in Bend. This time an omnium. Saturday was the crit and I was feeling meh at best. My strategy was to make sure that DeMoe wouldn't win for the third time in a row. I set myself up for a prime with 2 to go and nearly got it with 2 to go. Then DeMoe launched, but then pulled an Evan and pedal-striked and crashed out himself and 5 other chasers. But after the prime sprint I had nothing for the final sprint.

Then there was the time trial where I whipped out another secret weapon, a skinsuit. I ended up getting 11th and midpack which is decent, but again nipped by 7 seconds out of omnium points. At the time I was happy that nobody passed me, but damn I need a full TT setup.

And for the final mundane race of the week, the road race. It's been a while since I've done 60 miles. And again, attack, get caught follow attack, get swallowed, are we at the sprint yet? Get myself to the front of the train for the sprint and get passed to get 12th. 0 omnium points for the weekend. Then, chose between either a frustrated Mindy for not having won in a while either or a pissed off "did-I-seriously-just-crash-because-of-someone-doing-a-power-bike-throw-stretch-in-front-of-me?" Brian to ride with back to Portland. Mindy assigned me to Brian's van.

A race I want to forget

This post is going to be super short because it was such a painful race on Saturday. I could let the negativity drag on and on and name some people some dirty names, but in the end it was entirely my doing and simply bike racing.

Yadda Yadda Mount Tabor, won a massage prime didn't have the brains for the final sprint.

Franz Bakery Crit - Broke Away about 5 laps in and rode with my last year's Franz Bakery arch nemesis from Bikesale. Crashed on the final corner after a pedalstrike. Field passed me as I ran my bike across the finish line. Bike is ok, got some wounds, still won $45, but it hurts mentally more than anything.

Pringle Creek - almost crashed after a pedalstrike on the other side and had very poor sprint tactics.

Bought the following book (if you have an ad-blocker you may not see the following):

Not racing today

I managed to recover from yesterday's race. But I slept in a tent over the night. I set it up in the rain. And then I wasn't intuitive enough to realize that the mattress pad required airing out before you actually used it. So I was part sweating warm in my 15 degree sleeping bag, part getting cold and went on the bottom. Did not sleep well. And then I got so hungry I couldn't sleep at 3am so I had some granola and raisins.

I made my way over to the TT start and got in an ok warmup and adjusted my bike except for the stem. I thought I would do ok since there was a hill on the course, but got passed by 3 people for 66th.

Then I bummed a shower from some friends and ate some pizza. Then it was time for the crit. It was a real technical course with 8 corners and cracked pavement all around. I didn't start too well and felt like I was slinkying for no good the whole race. I finished 50th.

Now I'm bumming half of a bed from the same people in hopes of feeling rested enough for tomorrow.