Great Forest Park Race

Last Sunday was a great day for racing. The weather was warming, the wind was blowing, and everyone was outside. This was the first time I was going to do this race as I was away at a meet last year. It is a 1.1 mile course with wide sweeping turn and no real hill to speak of. The field looked large and there was a big contingent of area STL teams there. 708 was able to bring 3/4 of our team to the race and we were going to do our best to put our name at the front of the race.
The plan was to get Chris or Mark off in a break. Chris is a huge engine of a rider and can just ramp it up and go, and go, and go. Mark is also a very strong rider who has done a large amount of work in the off season to get ready for a great year.
Chris went for his flyer about halfway through the race. There had been break away attempts from almost the word go so there were guys already getting a little tired. It was a great break for Chris. He got away with about 5 or 6 other riders and if they worked together it would be tough for the pack to catch them. I was at the front with Matt and Mark, and we started to mark guys trying to go up the road. Doing so took my all the way up to the break though. Looking back to the pack there was a good 50-75 meter gap and I started to yell they the break was doing great so lets start working. At that same moment thought he pack must have noticed that there were two 708 racers and two Momentum racers in the break because they put in a great chase and caught us in less than a lap. I don't know that the guys that were in that group were really feeling it and had the energy to put in a very good break away.
About a lap later Mark took off and it was going to stick if I had anything to say about it. I stayed in the first 3 to 5 riders for most of the remainder of the race. This is some tough racing if you have ever been on blocking duty. You don't really slow down you just jump into pace lines and break up any rhythm that these chases might get. You have to work on cutting corners tight to make the back end of the field accordion more and you have to go fast enough that other guys don't want to come around on the straights. Matt and Chris also did a really good job of keeping the field in check as much as we could.
Then with about 4 laps to go I saw the break away group was getting closer, and I was running out of steam. It was getting harder and harder to stay in the wind and guys that had been at the back the whole race were starting to come up and push the pace. Then I saw Mark make his jump, this was the best that 708 could hope for. Our plan B of lining up to take me to a bunch sprint wasn't going to work as I was smoked, Matt was hurting, and Chris was feeling better but it wasn't really his type of sprint even though Chris would finish very strong. Mark put in a great effort and was able to hold of the rest of the field for almost 4 laps. But every engine runs out of fuel at some point and sometimes you miss judge your fuel consumption by feet. Mark was swallowed by the driving pack with only about 150 feet to go. It was a heart wrenching ending but it was a great learning experience. It has been a long time since I have raced with anyone other than Mike and it will take a couple more races I think to get us all racing like a real smooth team. But I know it is going to happen because we are all smart racers who all want to win but also have a great time. Our next outing will he at Hillsboro and Tilles Park in about 9 days time. I am excited for these two races because I have done both but that was two years ago. I am so pumped racing is really here.

Shitty training to start the season......Great

I was in California for the last 5 days and it really fucked up my training. The trip was pretty good. This kids did great and we placed well, there was a problem with an athlete and their parent so that almost ruined the entire weekend. I think that I was able to "do the dance" well enough though and have put out most of the "fires" that were started.
Soooo my training really suffered though because I was just not able to train like I should be, especially with my first race coming this Sunday. The hotel was great, it had an amazing gym and I used it, just not as much as I wanted to. I was there to work not workout, and keep bike fit, so I focused on the job. Which is good, but sucks for the riding. I did do a great job of keeping the weight down though. I came back weighing less than ever! It has been hard cutting the weight and hanging onto my strength, and now I guess I have to figure out if I was able to hang onto it. I hope I didn't lose it, shit!
Well I tried to put in a very hard ride today and I almost passed out. I did the same ride last week and survived but today was just too much with the flying and not working out right. I didn't get home till 2:00 last night and didn't sleep too great. My heart was jumping out of my chest right away. I was up at 170 just doing some tempo work. I had to call it quits, it was really going bad. Tomorrow I will do more of a tempo or endurance ride, that is what I should have done today. I really wanted to have that hard ride today though, I thought that going hard would really shock my system back into what it was like last Thursday. Not that it really has fallen that much, I dunno?
Had a guy quit 708 Racing today. Not really surprised, I don't really think he was much a part of the team. The only thing I am worried about is that he left owing $370. Maybe I will buy some of his kit, Mike said that he will buy some too. I don't get people like that, he is the second guy that said he was going to race for us and then quit on us. What kind of man says he will do something and then go back on their word. I really pride myself on my word. I am not the kind of person that you need a contract with me. If I say it and I shake your had, that is as good as any legal document with me. I know that most people aren't like that though and I always get everything from other people in writing. It is sad that people don't teach their children that their word means a lot. I guess that is just another thing to throw on the pile of people fucking up how they raise their children.
Hope tomorrow is a better day on the bike.

Here I sit

Yesterday was a long one. I woke up at 6 am so that I could get 2 workouts in before I had to leave for California. I was going to miss a pretty important workout while I am gone and I wanted to put that together with the workout I was supposed to do on Wednesday. It was a very hard workout but I felt great that I was able to get it done.
Our flight for Cali left at 11:15 am so my mother-in-law and my wife pilled into the car and off we went with a stop over at Walgreens to pick up so meds. I like to think that I am pretty good at traveling, if you have seen that movie called Up In The Air with George Clooney I like to take his character's advice to try to get through the airport as quickly as possible. Not that I am a traveler like his character in the movie, I just try to get better at it every time, like everything else that I do I guess.

So I was the first one at the airport out of my crew of coaches. It was going to be a flight filled with kids and parents from my gym. Some that I had never traveled with and I have never really taken the time to get to know yet. I will get around to it eventually I guess but sometimes I like to keep my distance and keep up the aura of whatever they think of me. I like to fly Southwest and fortunately I have been able to use them for every meet so far. Back in college we would travel using American, or United and they were ALWAYS late and shitty people worked for them. I vowed that I would do everything in my power to never fly with them again. I also like that Southwest is generally bike friendly and only charges $50 each way to bring a bike. I have even heard that sometimes if you are nice and can chat up the check in lady they will wave the fee. I have only flown with my bike once but I will have to try that next time I come out to California in May.
The nice thing about this meet is we are going to have a lot of down time and we have the ability to go out and do some site seeing and what not. But here I sit in my room, I don't know why. It isn't because I am typing this entry, I have been here for a while. I guess I just need to stop being lazy and go explore.
I did get a pretty ok workout in this morning, I was up at 4 because of the time difference, I just stayed in bed for about an hour to see if I would go back to sleep but no. So I got up got some breakfast, met a parent from my gym that I have never really talked with, and then hit the gym.Nice PLACE! Nicer than my workout gym at home for sure, and my gym is brand spanking new. It was fun to people watch in there though. Lots of very attractive people and I would say stereotypical Californian people. Not that I would really know but when I think about people that live out here these people seem to fit. Very fit, shaved everything, tan, muscular people that look way too happy. I think it has to be the sun, I know if I had sun all the time I would be more happy. One guy sarcastically said welcome to California and our weather, it was a little cloudy, I told him it was way better than our weather at home. He said that he needed to keep things in perspective and laughed. Nice people :-)
So I am going to get some food and then head over to the meet to watch some of our lower level kids compete. It will give me a good chance to see what I will have to work with next season. Later.

The new season is just around the corner

I have been putting in some long hours on the bike for the last few weeks and in a little over a week I will see if it is starting to pay off. I will be starting my season off at the Frozen Waffle Training Race in Springfield MO. I am going to start off the year racing the Cat 1/2/3 race. I have never raced against Cat 1s or 2s and I have only raced one Cat 3 race so I am really jumping into the "deep end" here. I am not expecting much but I am also going to push myself to the edge and try to mix it up with these guys as much as I can.
My focus the last couple weeks has been on my anaerobic power levels. For some reason I just stink at this level of fitness. I am great in the neuromuscular which is short sprinting and longer systems, VO2 max, and lactate threshold. I guess I do well in the neuromuscular system because of my time in gymnastics. Everything I did in gymnastics was quick and powerful, our routines only lasted about a minute at the most, and even then they were split up into high power and no power. I am not sure why I do well in the longer power systems though, I wonder if my time running cross country in jr. high school helped that. I have always felt that the longer the race the better I was at it.
Well I have to get to bed so I can get up at 6am and workout before I have to go to California for work over the weekend.