State TTT Championships

Sunday was the TTT state championships yesterday and this was my first time racing in the CAT 1/2 (Senior Men's) category. I knew it was going to be a hard race ... and it didn't disappoint!

I didn't get the warm up I wanted due to getting out of the house later than I wanted and having start times earlier than expected. I was able to get in about 30 minutes before meeting up with my teammates and had a good sweat going before putting things away and heading to the start line.

Since I'm a CAT 3 ... this was the first time riding with any of my teammates, giving me little idea about what to expect in terms or rotations, smoothness, speeds, etc. ... however, they had ridden together in many races and TTT's before. 

As we headed to the start line we did a little pace-line work (the start was about a mile from the staging area). We didn't really have a plan as far as which riders we would place where and just kinda winged it. We did decide to start with 30 second pulls instead of 1 minute pulls which was probably a pretty good idea.

We lined up, the clock counted down and we were off ... I was 4th man as we assembled and took off, which allowed me a little time to see what the pace would be like.

Well ... the pace was "Insane" from the start ... Out of the gate we were doing 30 mph into a 12-15 mph cross/headwind!

Needless to say, we were going a little faster than anticipated and my HR was through the roof. I managed to stay on and complete my pulls and lead the group up the only short hill on the course. 

I fell off the back a couple times ... mostly due to having problems getting in the draft after my pulls. In the past, with a slower pace it wasn't as hard to jump on ... but at this pace you had to be in the draft before you hit the back wheel. With that in mind, I was able to get a little draft off of them and TT my way back up to them within 15 seconds or so ... but it drained me doing this 3-4 times.

After the hill and a couple turns, we had a "Long" straight into a headwind where we averaged around 25 - 26 mph. The pace had settled down, but was still very hard.

The first 11 miles or so of the race was into the headwind/cross-headwind. Once we made the turn we had a hard crosswind from our right and I could feel it pushing me around a fair amount, so I'm guessing my teammates were feeling it as well ... however, we were able to hold a good eschelon through the next 1.5 -  miles before the turn back home.

When we made the turn, I was feeling it ... we had been holding 30 - 32 mph in the crosswind section and I was starting to wonder if I could hold on to the end. Then as I came off my pull and drifted back ... there were only two other riders in our group! We had dropped, likely the strongest rider in the group (last years Senior Men's road race champ). During the last part of the hard crosswind section he missed jumping on the last wheel after a long and very strong pull ... not knowing this the next guy took another hard pull ... and he was off the back. The next thing we knew he was 150+ meters back and the others decided to just keep going.

So, at this point ... I had no choice but to try and dig deep and hang on. For a couple rotations I just sat on the back while the other two rotated up front. We had the wind at our back and were rolling along in the 34 - 35 mph range. My HR finally dropped back down into the upper 150 BPM range (it was in the upper 160 - low 170 BPM range during the first half of the course) and I was able to start taking some pulls again. 

Over the last section I sat out of one or two more rotations, but was still able to contribute to the effort as we were motoring along.

With 1k to go ... I think we all dug deep and finished hard ... crossing the line with a time of 49:41 over 23.8 miles (just under a 29 mph average).

We didn't know where we finished results wise at the time, but knew we didn't win. We checked with another team and knew we didn't get 2nd either ... so we were knew we put in a very solid effort, but didn't really think we made the podium. With that in mind, the others on the team went out for another ride, though at a slower pace, knowing they have stage races coming up and wanted extra miles on the day.

I stuck around to see where we finished not really having anything else to do that day and wanting to see where we finished compared to the others.

As it turns out ... we ended up 3rd and on the podium.

It was a had, hard race ... and I felt a little bad not being in as good of shape as I could have been. I'm still around 200 pounds (usually am about 10 pounds lighter this time  of the year) and haven't hit the intervals as hard due to more base miles since my season hit's it's high point in July/August ... so I start hard efforts again this week.

Overall, the team had a good time and we felt like our effort was both good and smooth.

Anyway ... it was the fastest race I've ever done and was a super hard effort, but I'm happy with a podium at this level. The winners were about 2 minutes faster than us but had two domestic pro's and two of the fastest TT racers in the state on their team ... so I don't feel bad about that.

The TTT continues to be my favorite race of the season and I wish there were a few more on the schedule each year.

PIR ITT #2 - Epic Fail

The second race in the two race ITT series held at PIR took place on Memorial Day. Leading up to the race, the weather had been spotty, but all weekend had been dry. Upon waking up on Memorial Day and looking outside ... it was wet. The closer the start time to the race, the wetter it seemed to get with a consistent rain taking place up to the start time of the race.

Driving out to the track I questioned my sanity racing in conditions like this. I'm guessing some auto racing took place during the weekend, which likely put some oil on the track, which the rain brought up during our races.

Riding around before my start, I could tell conditions on the track would be sketchy since my bike already felt like it was sliding around a little and I wasn't even going that fast.

At the start of the race, things felt ... OK ... I was hitting speeds around 28-29 mph down the front straight into a head wind. Around the first corner I could feel my bike moving around a little but overall it wasn't too bad. My though was to go really hard on the straights and easy through the corners. Down the back straight we had a tailwind and it was easy to get up into the 30+ mph range before the 110 degree hairpin turn. My first trip through the corner took place around 26 mph and again, it felt sketchy as did the following two corners.

Down the front straight again I was a little slower, hitting more wind down the straight. This helped through the first corner as I wasn't going as fast.

Down the back straight I picked up more speed than the first time and came up on two racers just before the hairpin corner. The combination of passing riders and having a tail wind made me think I was going slower than I actually was. I entered the corner at over 30 mph and about 2/3 of the way through the corner the front wheel went out from under me at 31.8 mph (according to my Garmin).

When I hit the deck I rolled over onto my back and must have slid for a good 40 feet ... long enough that I could look back at the riders I passed and give out a loud "Woooo" as I kept sliding.

When I got up, my chain had fallen off and it was taking too long to get back on, so I walked to the side of the track out of the way of other racers. Once moving, my chain kept catching when I would coast making it difficult to continue. I made it through the corners and pulled in for a DNF since I didn't see any point in continuing.

Assessing my bike and body after the crash ... I had a minor scrape on my left elbow and very, very minor road rash on my left hip. My bike had scraped up left brake lever, base bar and skewer. I ended up replacing the brake levers and using nail polish on my base bars to make sure the exposed carbon didn't have issues. The rear skewer is toast though, but that's OK since it was the cheapest part to get damaged.

Overall both myself and my bike made it out very well for a crash at over 30 mph.

Next race up is the State Championship TTT, which I'm really looking forward to. The long term forecast only reaches to the day before, but it's looking really good so far with dry weather and warming over the next 10 days.

Crank Cycles PIR TT #1

The Crank Cycles PIR ITT #1 was the 3 race in the Oregon TT Cup Series. I love this course since it's closed to auto traffic (taking place on an auto race track), has a lot of turns (some tight) and is more of an all out power course with perfect asphalt to race on.

The weather for the day was perfect, especially for March. We had temps in the low to mid 60's for the race with low winds out of the N/NE ... somewhere in the range of 3-5 mph.

With such good weather conditions, times would be fast on the day.


I started with my normal 40 minute warm up on my trainer and was able to get a good sweat going quickly with the warmer temps. My legs felt a little dead during the initial part of the warm up due to a bit more riding leading up to the race. I usually will take the day before a race off, or do an easy 35 - 40 mile ride the day before (taking the day off two days before the race) ... but due to the race last week and schedules getting messed up,  I ended up doing a harder day on Friday with 50 miles and some intervals, a middle length but easy day on Saturday and then racing on Sunday this week, so I wasn't really sure what to expect time wise.

My previous best time (24:34 over 11.5'ish miles) was set last year at PIR ITT #2 that took place on Memorial Day ... which gave me two more months of training and threshold work compared to last year.With a good warm up (my legs started feeling better near the end of my warm up), good weather and good early season form, I was hoping for a good time on the day.

I've been working on my position with my TT bike as well and made some changes since the first TT of the year at Jack Frost. I've lowered my aero extension/pads by 5 mm and raised my saddle by a few mm's. I lowered my extensions after seeing pictures of my position at Jack Frost where I looked just a little tall up front. My saddle height was adjusted due to leg extension and feel when it came to power and feeling.

As it stands with my position I feel overall, it's pretty well set now. I have a nice flat back, I'm forward in the position, comfortable for extended periods of time (have completed 3 hour training rides on it) and feel like I have good overall power. I may still play with my pad width a little to try and gain a few more seconds, but am unsure about that.

Once on the course I felt pretty good. I started hard and accelerated to around 32 mph down the front stretch heading into the first left hand turn. It's tighter than you think and I had to back off a little because I could feel my rear wheel loosing traction a little.

This has been a minor issue I've had with my Argon, through corners I don't feel as planted as I should be and I'm not sure why. The dimensions of the bike are very similar to my old Fuji, but it just doesn't feel as stable in tighter turns or at high speeds. The only thing I can guess is that I'm farther forward than I was on my Fuji with my position which puts a lot of weight on the front wheel, causing a bit more instability. With less weight on the rear wheel it has the ability to lose traction faster or skip around more.

With this in mind, during the race I had to make a few adjustments to my line through the first corner by taking it wider at the start and apexing it later in the turn. This allowed me to carry a little more speed and be more stable through the turn, but wasn't necessarily the fastest way around the course.

The hairpin turn on the backside of the course wasn't an issue with it's banking in the turn and a lot of room to move outward if you hit it too fast and I felt comfortable through it. The S-Turn after that was a little sketchy from time to time partly due to wind, partly due to my lack of confidence in the turns at this time and partly due to passing traffic through those turns.

Down the front straight I felt really good. With a bit of a tailwind I was able to hold a steady 30 - 31 mph down most of the straight, with good stability.

Looking at my lap times, I came out really fast through the first lap, slowed a bit over the next two laps, my 4th and 5th laps were the same time split and my last lap was closer to the first time wise. I could feel a couple places where I lost speed, such as through the first corner and down the back stretch where I seemed to enter it a gear to high and spinning too much.

In the end, I finished with an official time of 24:28 which was a PR on the course for me by 6 seconds ... but could have been better.

I placed 3rd in my class (40+ Masters Open) and had the 12th fastest time of the day out of all classes (two of those were by the same rider who rode in two different classes). So not bad, but could have been a little better. The bright spot was that I made up ground in the TT cup beating the winner of the first two ITT's (he finished 5th on the day) ... so I'm one point out of first at this time.

The next race is now two months away which will be "As the Raven Flies ... Only Longer" which will be a 40K ITT. The Estacada race that was to take place in April was canceled due to an inability of the promoter to get the needed permits for the parking area.

So I have a couple months to drop some weight and work on my FTP, especially with the longer distance of the rest of the TT's this season ... all but the hill climbs are 40K in length.

I may also make a small bike change after some wind tunnel results are posted. Flo Cycling took their wheels back to the wind tunnel and also tested several tires ... early results appear to have the Continental GP4000s as the fastest tire they tested (50 grams less drag than the Michelin Pro 3 they used in their first wind tunnel test) and was apparently faster than the Bontrager tires I'm using now. If I can lose 30-50 grams of drag, that 3-5 watts of power I gain and 15-20 seconds over a 40k ITT. They may also have slightly better traction than the Bontragers, which seem a little hard when it comes to their rubber compound ... though the Bontragers may have less Crr due to the harder compound so it may be a wash in the end ... I'll have to wait and see.

I would also like to get a FLO rear disc, but unless I get a new job sometime soon ... that won't happen for a while. Sometimes working in social services sucks due to working around grants, donations and government money. If the referrals are not there, the grants don't come in or the donations are low ... your position is cut and back to looking you go. Such is life I guess!

As the Raven Flies

This past Saturday was the second race of the season for me: As the Raven Flies, which is the second race of the Oregon TT Cup.

The race is fairly short at just over 11.5 miles, but is a tough TT with around 600 feet of climbing in that distance. The course starts with a short 200 - 300 meter flat section, then turn right into a 150 foot climb that averaged around 7.5%. 

From there the course flattens out for a little while, then goes into a series of steep rollers where you end up going from one end of the rear cogset to the other constantly.

The course is entertaining in that there are a few high speed turns (40'ish MPH at the bottom of the first and last hill) and a couple of other sweepers.

All in all a very fun course, but hard to get a rhythm on.

Since I'm a bigger guy, the first/last climb and rollers take their toll on me during the race, but over time I've had descent results.

Warming up my legs felt OK, but the week leading up to it they were pretty dead from training camp last weekend. I had two days off the bike which helped, but they were still suffering a little (I had a 285 miles week with 15000 feet or so of climbing).

On the first climb they were still very sluggish and I think it could have been the slowest I've climbed it in any previous race. However, once over it, they seemed to feel better and I was able to carry a good pace on the flat sections (what few of them there were on the course).

Another aspect that made the race hard was 1 minute gaps between starts, so having carrots to chase was more difficult since riders were so spread out on the course. As the race went on I was able to catch my 1 minute man at around the 8 mile mark, which helped me push during the race as I could slowly see myself catching him as the race went on ... then I caught my 2 minute man on the final climb.

Overall ... a hard but good race. I finished with a time of 28:27 which is about 13 seconds off my PR on the course, however on that run I had 6 weeks of extra training and more racing under my belt and was also around 7 pounds lighter, so I'm pretty happy with the result.

I finished 2nd in my class again and had the 6th fastest time on the day of all classes (technically 7th but I'm not counting the tandem).

Next week is PIR, the 3rd race in the Oregon TT Cup. 

There is another Raven ITT next Saturday, but competing in two TT's on the same weekend is difficult. If the days of the races were reversed I'd do them both ... but the TT cup race is on Sunday and I don't want to burn my legs out the day before ... and I really like the PIR course due to it's overall speed (my fastest races of the year last year).

2013 Jack Frost ITT

 Today was the first race of the season for me at the Jack Frost ITT. A week out the weather looked spotty at best ... but it turned out to be an excellent day for racing with temps in the low 50's, a light wind and no rain.

I've made a lot of changes to my position on my TT bike over the winter and today was my first chance to give them a shot in a real race. I've put around 150 - 200 miles on the bike over the last couple weeks during nice riding days, continually making small adjustments here and there.

In the end ... all the adjustments felt like they paid off with a position  that was comfortable and appears to be pretty fast overall.

Jack frost is usually my worst race of the year position wise. I don't think I've ever finished higher than 3rd place at this race with a Personal Best of 27:42 that was set a couple years ago. With a course length of around 12.4 miles, that gave me an average speed of around 26.7 mph. As the season progresses on flat ITT's I'm usually in the upper 27 to low 28 mph range ... so I do tend to get faster as the year progresses.

I wasn't sure what to expect time wise given I'm at the tail end of a cold I've had for the last 9 days. I'm still a bit congested and hacking up stuff from my lungs, but overall felt really good.

I got off to a fast start and for the first 4 minutes or so my HR was above 170 and with a max HR of around 178, I knew I was pushing it pretty hard. When I rounded the 2nd tight corner I pulled back a little and my HR dropped down into the mid 160 range where I was able to hold in the entire race.

On the way out we had a tail wind ... which allowed me to move up to 5th overall on the STRAVA KOM list for the outward bound section with an average speed of 27.9 mph. I felt good on the way out and my cold didn't seem to be effecting me too much. I knew though with the speeds I was holding outbound, I was going to have a headwind on the way back.

Last year I crashed at the turn around by locking up my rear wheel, so I took it cautiously through the turn this year. I could see a couple guys I was chasing ... I was the last one off in my class having won the TT cup last year and could see I had made up little if any time on my 30 second man at the turn around. Up to this point I had caught/passed two people in the race, so rabbits were hard to come by until the turn back. From there I started passing other riders at a regular clip.

The headwind wasn't too bad, either that or my position is more aero than in the past ... not sure which at this time, but I was able to hold a good clip on the way back.

Rounding the final turn, I got out of the saddle and sprinted for the line finishing with a time of 27:25 eclipsing my PR by nearly 20 seconds. So, either I'm in better shape or I'm in a better position on the bike ... either way, I'll take it.

I ended up 2nd in the 40-49 class and had the 11th fastest time overall (I don't count the guy in the full fairing recumbent). My best result overall at Jack Frost.

After the race I received my trophy for winning the TT cup last year since I was unable to attend the awards banquet. I should be receiving my new skinsuit in the next month or so that each winner can purchase as well ... which I'm really looking forward to.

Anyway ... a good start to the season. Not a win, but a very good result for this time of the season.

Next up: As the Raven Fly's (two races) and PIR #1 that will take place at the end of March.

Winter training ups and downs

Winter training is always a mix in the Pacific Northwest and is usually a combination of weekend rides and weekday trainer rides.

For October and November I was really doing well. I was averaging about 15 hours a week between weekend rides and weekday trainer rides. I was also getting in regular lifting 3 days a week and making good progress with my fitness and maintaining or losing weight (though slowly).

Then December hit and all the food that comes with the holidays. I was able to get in some good riding, but ate "A Lot" of stuff I shouldn't have. I ended up putting on a couple pounds but was able to get in some good riding. The last part of 2012 was very wet around here and we had the 2nd wettest year on record. With that said it was fairly warm for most of it ... so it wasn't too bad getting rides in on the weekend.

When January came around I was really starting to feel good.

During one of our group rides we did one of my baseline climbs and I was able to hold 363 watts for 24:29 and was only averaging 155 bpm for my heart rate. I was going hard, but not full on and just wanted some basic baseline number. Extrapolating from those numbers I figure I could have held 375-380 watts if I was really being pushed on the climb. These are very good number for this time of the year and should make it easy to get back into the mid 390 watt range for 20 minutes during the race season.

Then this past week I developed a saddle sore from my trainer, then got a cold. I've missed about 7 hours of riding during the past week or so and feel like a slug. I've been able to get in some shorter training rides while sick, but could feel the extra effort it took. I'm on my way toward healing but it's going to take a couple of weeks to fully recover from this.

My weight during my sick time also went up a little to around 205-206 pounds, which is still very good for this time of year, but I'm feeling fat right now.

I'm hoping things pick back up from here on out since the first race of the season is about 6 weeks away. It's a flat ITT so if my power numbers stay where they are or get better, I should have a good time and placing ... assuming my TT position is good. There is also a road race the week before and if the weather is good and my weight is below 200 pounds I'll likely race in it as well, just to get one in early.

Our first team meeting is this weekend, which should be fun since I've only met a fraction of the team so far. Looking forward to seeing some people in normal clothing since we never look the same when not wearing a helmet or cycling clothes. We should get more information about this years retreat also which I'm hoping to attend.

Overall ... I'm encouraged by the power numbers I put out two weeks ago ... but frustrated with being sick and having a saddle sore. At least they came now and not during the season so I have time to recover.

It's also time to start hitting intervals a lot harder ... so let the fun begin ... next week :)

Winter training

Well, after my accident back in October, it took a while to get back into the swing of things. I had two weeks off the bike completely, then another month before I started to feel better on the bike. I was then able to start lifting again, but started with: Good Mornings, Calf Raises and some Core work. Then two weeks ago added in lunges again for a full lower body workout lifting wise.

I've been adjusting my schedule based on trying to get more rest/recovery time. At first my schedule looked like this:

Monday: 30 minute easy spin before work
Tuesday: 30 minute easy spin before work - 2 hours mixed speed work on my trainer
Wednesday: 30 minute easy spin before work - 2 hours mixed speed work on my trainer
Thursday: 30 minute easy spin before work - 2 hours mixed speed work on my trainer
Friday: 30 minute easy spin before work
Saturday: 4 - 4.5 hour group ride (part of it done on my own before/after the ride)
Sunday: 3.5 - 4 hour ride outside

Lifting on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday

If found that even with the easy spins on Monday/Friday that I wasn't getting enough rest and decided to actually add more time to my schedule, but take more time off the bike.

My current Schedule looks like this:

Monday: Off
Tuesday: 1 hour before work - 2 hours after work (picking up the pace with high tempo intervals every 10 minutes).
Wednesday: 1 hour before work - 2 hours after work (picking up the pace with high tempo intervals every 10 minutes).
Thursday: 1 hour before work - 2 hours after work (picking up the pace with high tempo intervals every 10 minutes).
Friday: Off
Saturday: 4 - 4.5 hour group ride (part of it done on my own before/after the ride)
Sunday: 3.5 - 4 hour ride outside

Lifting: Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday

This gives me two full days off the bike a week ... but bumps my time on the bike up to 15.5 - 17 hours a week plus another 1 hour or so of lifting.

So far, the extra time on the bike doing base miles has helped keep the weight off. I'm usually around 215 pounds by now this time of the year ... but I've been holding steady around 198-199 this year ... So, I'm much lighter than I've been past years.

I've also been taking my TT bike out at every possible time I can ... when it's been dry out. I've been working on my position, trying to get it dialed in since the first TT of the year is the last week of February. With the new saddle, it's changed a lot. I had to reverse the seat-post to the 76 degree position and have added some spacers under the arm pads so I now have about 4cm of rise compared to 1.5cm I had before. I've also been playing with pad width and think I've found a good balance between width and comfort.

I've been able to get it out 3 times, each with a different set up and I'm getting really close overall ... but still have some minor tweaking to do.

I've also set my trainer up so it's similar to my TT bike. I put a -17 degree stem on it replacing the -10 degree stem and put an Adamo Prologue saddle on it so I could mimic the position of my TT bike while training. Hopefully it helps in the end and the change in position has allowed me to pick up the pace on my trainer rides, so hopefully it's a more powerful position with adaptability to my TT bike.

Looking at the preliminary race schedule this year, it looks like there are more TT's this season ... which I'm really looking forward to. I'm hoping to hit them all as well as a several road races. They also moved the Banana Belt races back from March to May this season so hopefully they will have better weather and turnouts this year. If I can hit those around 185 pounds, I'll compete in them to support races close to my house, but they will be training races, as will all my road races ... though if I can pull off some results in a few of them I'll be happy.

Anyway ... just a winter update.