Riding at the Back

I went to the track again last night; it was the first time in a few weeks. Finally, the weather was nice on a night when I went.

Not too much to say, except that I still have some things to learn about road racing. I did OK in the first little race we did, except for right at the end. I ended up being near the back of the group near the end and got stuck in a position where I couldn't move up, even though I felt pretty good. Basically I was too far back at a critical point.

In the second little race, the pace picked up earlier than I expected, and I found myself near the back again. This time around, it was much worse. I kept following people, then they'd start to fall off, then I'd have to chase to close the gap. It seemed like every time I'd close a gap, another one would open up a few people up. If I could have stayed with the main group, I probably could have hung on longer, but since I kept having to chase, I ended up dropping off relatively early.

Anyway, it was a good ride...

Everybody Has a Plan...

"Everybody has a plan 'til they get punched in the mouth."

- Mike Tyson

More goin' hard on Saturday. I had wanted to get my ride in on the trails, but it rained all morning, so I opted for the road instead. I rode out toward Indian Springs; I had a good headwind to do my intervals into. I basically felt pretty decent while riding, but I was a little cooked by the end.

I got my first look at the natural gas pipeline that they're running through the park (and, as I understand it, also through a bunch of private property). There's a huge swath cut through the park right now; it looks terrible. Hopefully they do a good job restoring as much as possible.

I had a disappointing ride on Sunday; I rode over at Pontiac Lake. My plan was to ride hard if the legs felt good. If they didn't feel good (which they didn't), my plan was to work on my riding technique. That really didn't work out so well either; I just didn't ride very well. I think there were two problems: one, I hadn't eaten in a while before I left, and two, I hadn't set out my goals for the ride very well (definitely not as clearly as I wrote above). Maybe three was that I was more fatigued than I expected after Saturday. Anyway, I ended up cutting my ride shorter than I had originally planned since I just wasn't accomplishing anything.

One of the things that I've really focused on this year is to have some goal or objective for each of my training rides, whether it's working on a particular skill, doing some intervals, or just getting time in the saddle. This is the first time in a long time that I haven't accomplished what I set out to do. I suppose that's going to happen sometimes, but it's not a good feeling.

Camping

So, the reason for the meager (and late) posting last week was that the family went camping at Sleeper State Park in Caseville. We had a good time, but we also had the bad weather that seems to be tradition. It rained on us all the way up and it was cold the rest of the week.

We didn't bring any bikes, but we did do some hiking at Sleeper and at Port Crescent State Parks. The trails at Sleeper were much longer, but the trails at Port Crescent were a little nicer.

We also stopped by the Point Aux Barques lighthouse. It was a cold day, so it was nice to be inside for a little while doing things. They also had a nice playground at the lighthouse park.

Time to Get Fast

So, I decided this week that it is about time I start work on getting fast (getting some high-end fitness). My knee seems completely healed after my injury this spring, and I've got a solid base of miles in now.

I missed the track night this week because my throat was a little sore in the afternoon on Tuesday and I just didn't "feel right".

I felt fine on Wednesday, and I spent about an hour in the backyard and driveway working on some skill things. I mostly did cornering drills, but I also worked on hopping a little. I think practicing cornering in a controlled setting like that is really helpful for me. If things aren't quite going right, it's relatively easy for me to diagnose my problem and fix it. On a trail, the corner goes by so fast, so you might never realize what you're doing wrong.

I'm still struggling with a proper (flat pedal) bunnyhop/J-hop. I think my problem has to do with timing and the amount that I'm loading the rear tire. To resolve that, I've mostly been working on lifting the rear tire alone. It's been kind of a slow process.

Last night, after a short hike (still getting ready for Yosemite!), I rode over to a quiet neighborhood and did some sprint intervals. For me, this kind of very short, max effort work is the first step in building high-end fitness (once the legs are ready for it anyway). Ideally, I will work from these shorter intervals to longer ones. In the past, I've tried it the other way around, sort of tried to build a foundation from intermediate/long intervals and then top it off with shorter ones, but it doesn't seem to work as well for me.

The other interesting thing about my interval work was that I did them all from a complete stop (one foot on the ground). I wanted to do this because I've had some pretty miserable race starts lately (especially in 'cross last year). I need to work on getting that second foot clipped in... I think even if I have to look down for a while.

Room for Improvement

After we got back from camping last week, I put in a few easy rides over the weekend. Friday I went over to Lakeshore Park to ride. I haven't ridden there in a few years. It's a nice trail, but very different than what I'm used to. It's more-or-less flat, but very tight and twisty. They've also built up a number of technical features (big rock gardens, log rides, etc) that you can ride if you choose. I mostly stuck with whatever seemed to flow best... sometimes it was over the technical feature, sometimes not. The ride went fine, but I could tell I hadn't been on a bike in nearly a week. I felt a little rusty at the start, but I rode better as the ride went on.

The main reason I went was to check out the pump track that they built. It was quite a bit different than the one at Stony, so it was interesting to ride. The soil type was about the same, kind of gravel over hardpack... I was really hoping for no gravel. Some features were nicer than Stony, others weren't. In general, I thought the berms were better (they were built higher and steeper), but one of the bermed corners wasn't a berm at all, it was more of a flat bank. Some of the bumps were also too tall for good pumping, it looked like they were built for jumping (which is OK I guess, but it wasn't what I was looking for).

Saturday, I just got in a very short skill-focused ride. I worked on my drop technique and also front/rear wheel lifts.

I went to a last-minute club ride at Pontiac Lake on Sunday. This was a beginner-focused, no drop ride. There was a pretty big turnout, maybe 10 people or so. The reason I've been doing these rides is to focus on descending and cornering. Typically, people will ride fast down the hills and then go slowly (sometimes very slowly) up the climbs and on the flats. I mostly followed a guy that was new to the club (and to the area), but he seemed to be a good rider. I was more tentative than I would have liked, and more tentative than I have been at other times this year... still lots of random braking. Anyway, following him around showed me (as if I needed reminding) that I still have lots of room to improve. (My drops were all very nice though, I could tell that I'd practiced.)

Some more pictures from the Stony Marathon race...

From Ten Mile Media (great pictures, thanks!):

From Jeff Borisen:

Photo 1 (not sure where this is and why I have my inside pedal down while turning, but I noticed that other people did too... must not have been a very sharp corner...)

Photo 2

Photo 3 (finish line... whew!)

Stony Marathon XC - 2009

It's always hard to figure out what to write about this race... it's so long and so much stuff happens. So, here we go, the 2009 edition Stony Marathon XC race:

My plan was to get up around 6am on Saturday to eat, finish packing, etc. My daughter decided that she had a better idea... how about wake Dad up at 4:15am, try to sleep in a chair for a while, and then finally give up and stay up around 5:45am? I ended up getting about 6.5 hours of sleep the night before the race... sweet.

I enlisted my dad to help me at the race, handing up water bottles every lap. This was the first time I'd done it (nothing like trying a new hydration strategy at a 40+ mile race), and it actually worked really well. I probably drank more water than I would have with the Camelbak. I'm not sure that I'm ready to switch to bottles for all races, but there are lots of open sections at Stony that make it easy to drink from a bottle.

My strategy for the race was to go out reasonably hard and try to build up a gap (and clear traffic) until we hit The Pines; then, just a steady pace after that. I also wanted to get myself a little more fired up before the race.

It worked pretty well, I think. At least, by the time I hit the long stretches of singletrack, there was plenty of space for me to pass and others to pass me. I ended up having a little crash right at the end of the Pines. It was a weird crash; I'd gotten through all of the slick spots, and my front tire slid out over a very small root in a nearly straight section of trail. The rest of the lap went OK; my improvement in riding was pretty obvious in the Roller Coaster section of trail. I still wasn't great everywhere, but I could open up gaps on people just by really nailing the corners. That's definitely a first.

The second lap was also pretty decent. The only problem I ran into was another crash; this time in the Roller Coaster. I had a couple guys behind me and I was pushing a little harder than normal. I've actually crashed in this exact same spot in the exact same way before... so much for learning from my mistakes. It seemed like the second crash took a little of my aggressiveness away.

No crashes on the third lap, but I was starting to get tired. I was also mostly riding by myself on this lap. At the top of the climb to Mt. Sheldon, I stopped for a few seconds to help a woman find a shortcut back to the start/finish area. At first, I didn't give a very clear answer when she asked; then I took a closer look at her and saw that her face was half-covered in blood. Then I really stopped to make sure I gave decent directions and that she felt OK to make it back.

The other thing that happened on the third lap was that my legs started to cramp on the long climb near the end. It's the first time that's ever happened to me during a bike race. Not a good feeling! There are a whole lot of possibilities for the cause, so I'm not really sure why it happened.

I was by myself for most of the fourth lap also. The Elite riders started lapping me once I got to the Pines. This is actually one of the ways I've been judging my performance at this race. How soon do the Elites start lapping me? Every year, I've pushed it back farther and farther. I managed to ride most of the lap at a level that kept me from cramping, but it seemed like I was close to it on every climb. I had a crash on this lap too... my front tire slipped on the edge of a rut climbing up Mt. Sheldon. When I fell, my calf hit a log, which immediately caused it to cramp. Anyway, I finished out the lap and the race OK after that.

Once I finished, I felt like I'd done pretty well, but I wasn't sure how I placed. It's so hard to keep track of who's who when you're passing, being passed, etc and there are so many classes racing at once. I stood near the finish line for quite a while and didn't see anyone from my class come through (other people in my wave though). I started thinking maybe I hadn't done so well.
As it turned out, I did do OK. I finished 6th out of 14 in my class, and I was only 30 seconds or so out of 5th place. The gap behind me was huge though, about 13 minutes back to 7th place, which is why I wasn't seeing anyone come through.

Even looking back on it, I'm pretty happy with my race. I felt like I worked really hard and executed the strategy that I planned. It was a hot day, and a long, hard race. About half the guys in my club DNF'd.

My only disappointment is that my lap times, in particular the first lap, weren't a little faster. I'd need to pick up another 2 minutes per lap (~4%) to be competitive with the top Sport guys in my age group, and another couple minutes to match my friends in the Expert class. The thing I did notice is that I generally slowed down less per lap than most of the other guys in my class. I'm not completely sure, but I'm going to put most of this down to fitness, although I know I could still go faster in parts the singletrack. Most of these guys have been training since late Winter / early Spring. With my knee injury this year, I've really only been at it since May, and I've hardly done any high-intensity work.

Last thing; here's a picture that Andrea took. Not the best picture of me (and you can see I have too much tension in my shoulders), but I like the look on my face. Compare that to some of the Ruby pictures, and it's obvious that I was pushing myself harder here.

Minor Fall, Major Problem?

So, Sarah left this afternoon for a skating conference in Delaware, leaving just me and my daughter for the rest of the week. That part of it has actually gone fine so far. We went for a nice hike this evening and got a good look at a big deer. I also got her to bed with no crying... what a champion dad!

Anyway, before Sarah left, I wanted to do a quick loop at Stony, just to refresh a few things before the race on Saturday. I also wanted to ride the pump track a little. I wasn't pushing particularly hard, but I have been riding more agressively as I've been gaining confidence in my (somewhat) newfound cornering skills.

So, as I was exiting what should have been a pretty easy corner on a sidehill trail in the Roller Coaster section, my rear tire slid out a little in some sand. If the trail would have been a touch wider, I would have been able to save it, but I ended up going off on the uphill side. It was really a pretty minor fall. I wound up with just a some minor scratches on my leg, but I jammed my right thumb in a weird way (sort of between my shifter and the handlbars), and it was extremely painful to use the thumb shifter after that.

My thumb has mostly stayed sore as the day has gone on today, and its gotten just a little swollen. If it isn't noticeably better tomorrow, I'll have it checked out. Anyway, I'm concerned that it's not going to be feeling good enough for Saturday... we'll see.

Big Weekend

This past weekend turned out to be pretty big in terms of training. I ended up riding Friday night, which is unusual for me. I had some extended fatigue last week, a combination of the race on Sunday, the hard riding on Tuesday night and not getting quite enough sleep.

The Friday ride was pretty productive though. I had intended to work on finding my balance point for wheelies, manuals, etc by intentionally "looping out" (letting myself go off the back of the bike), but I ended up working on switchback-type corners on the hill in my yard. I struggled with the switchbacks at Ruby last weekend, and so I thought doing a little practice would be helpful. By the time I started working on the wheelies, a storm rolled in and drove me inside to the trainer.

Saturday morning, I took my daughter out hiking at Independence Oaks. I hiked about 2 hours, but she only caught the first half hour and the last 5 minutes. She slept the rest of the time!

Saturday night, I went over to Stony to ride the pump track. I definitely rode better this time than I did the time before. In particular, I improved my speed through the bermed corners. I was riding up higher on the berms and I shifted my weight forward a little. It was interesting that the things I noticed were very different this time. As I was adjusting my saddle back up to leave, a guy on a BMX bike zipped through half a lap on the track on his way to meet someone. Watching him, I realized that I still have plenty of room for improvement...

Sunday morning, I went back to Stony to turn some loops of the Marathon course. The conditions were very muddy in the Pines and in a couple other spots, so I didn't do complete laps, but I got most of it. Again, I feel like my riding has really improved, but it's still inconsistent. Some corners will be great and I'll really rip through them, but then I'll get all balled up and stall in others.

Hopefully outside events won't conspire against me for the race this weekend. My daughter has had a little cold this past week, and now Sarah thinks she's getting sick. I've also been nursing a saddle sore; so far, it's not very bad. I'm hoping I can make it through the race on Saturday, then I can take a little time off the bike to let it really heal.