tandem road race smack down

Unfortunately we were on the receiving end of said smack down.
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Well...... the Shogrun's finally pulled the stars and stripes away from us with a a strong chase down and a well timed jump at just 200 meters to go on the uphill finish.
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The race actually ended up being very tactical and even slow for much of the time. With 3 bikes in with a shot at the win, there was a lot of attacking and covering, riding slow and attacking again. The Eppens seemed to be strongest on the short climbs, but were not keen to keep the pace high...and in fact worked to keep things together and slow. We put in many attacks only to be covered every time. We were frustrated at every attempt, but we knew if we let it come to a 3 or 4 bike sprint we were only getting 2nd or 3rd.....so we kept trying.
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Finally at the top of the steepest hill with just over a lap to go we tried again and got a small gap. It was ON and we put in 100% to try to stay clear. We held our slim advantage through most of the lap, but on the steep hill again the Shogruns were closing. Coming into the final climb they had just made contact and for us the only thing to do was to try and go fast enough that they couldn't come around.....apparently we couldn't. At 200 meters they came around with a strong move and we had nothing left to respond. They posted a well earned victory just a few seconds ahead of us.
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Our consolation prize was that they bought us a nice dinner :)
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Well played Betsy and Gunnar!
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a2

cycling extravagaaaaaaanza

sunday, sunday, sunday. not to be missed: the throw down of the year......dreams will be crushed and feelings will be hurt. The tandem national championship road race in Louisville, Kentucky.
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Seriously though this is going to be a great race. We have won it the last 2 years, but Betsy and Gunnar Shogrun have plans to end that streak. Also coming into play will be the mtb tandem superstar team of the midwest the Eppens. Should be an exciting race to watch .....

catchin up

Soooooo....the weekend after the mohican 100 I headed over to a great little race in TN called the Disc Burner. This was a 12 or 6 hour race in a really nice park. After my last couple weeks' adventures there was no way I was going to do a solo 12 hour effort, so I opted for the solo 6. I felt great. I rode well and won finishing quite a bit ahead of 2nd place. Here are my lap times:
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1- 45:05 (includes Lemans start and I didn't get to pre-ride the course)
2-42:01
3-42:40
4-42:44
5-43:18
6-44:51
7-47:01 ( I held back a bit on this one on purpose so I could do the last lap faster)
8-46:44
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I was pleased with the effort. I can highly recommend this race for anyone interesed next year...I hope to do the 12 hour next time.
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The day after this Cara and I did the fletcher flyer full century on the tandem. We rode HARD...lots of attacking and stayed with the lead group until we had to stop for fluids with just 18 miles to go....I was pretty much smoked at that point anyway.
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The following weekend I took off...no racing, no traveling , just 2 solid 5 hour training days...sweet.
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That brings us to this past weekend. The Cowbell Marathon at fischer farms in Davidson NC. 50+ miles...6 laps of an 8. something mile course and a 5 or 6 mile run-in from town at the start. In a word: HOT. I think the temperature was near 100 degrees and the humidity was right there around the same number. I made the lead group on the run-in to the course....then was pretty much on my own. I passed a couple riders on lap 2 or 3, but after that there was no one close ahead or behind. I was fine with the heat until the last lap and a half. Knowing I was not moving up or back I rode pretty easy the last lap to avoid cramping or worse. I ended up 6th.
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I felt ok when I finished, but about 15 -20 minutes later heat exhaustion hit me HARD. I felt horrible and sick. It took me forever to get packed up (sorry Ddub!). I lost my voice and my hearing ?! Very strange but as I started to feel bad all of a sudden I lost about 50% of my hearing...like I had water in my ears...weird. I wasn't too bad off, but I had never had that happen before. I was cured on the drive home by blasting cool air conditioning in my face the whole way.
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At this point my legs are fine, but I still think I am recovering from the heat thing...at least the temps here in the moutains are nice 80s.
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Next up: tandem nats and Fitchburg!!!
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a2

The Mark Hekman Podcast Interview !

Ladies and gentleman...the moment you have all been waiting for! : a podcast interview with the legendary Mark Hekman....an absolute must listen!

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http://www.velosportsperformancecenter.com/downloads/velosports7.mp3

24 solo #1

The Burn 24. 2 weeks ago: my first SOLO 24 hour race. After having done many team 24s (all the way back to 1994), a couple of solo 12s and some duo endurance races it was time to give the full show a shot. What a learning experience!

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I went out a little hard, but stayed strong though about 12 hours ...then fell apart a bit. It rained overnight and things got tough. I started taking short breaks after every lap as I began to have trouble eating on the bike...so the breaks allowed me to continue to take calories in. I knew if I didn't do this I would completely fall apart. At around 4 am I thought I was done. I hurt in every imaginable way and thought we were going to pack up right then and go home. I took a 20 minute "nap" in the car...which resulted in about a 40 minute break all told. I woke up, and got back on the bike. It took just a few minutes , then things opened up and I started to feel really good....REALLY good.

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I had fallen from 3rd when I started my break , down into 5th.....and was about 11 minutes behind 3rd at 6 am. I started flying...getting better and better every lap. By about 9 or 10 am I had moved into 2nd....which I held through to the end. 24.5 hours, 28 laps and about 200 miles of single track riding later I was done. I felt better at the finish than I did at midnight.....

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In the morning when I was moving so fast after having such a rough night I knew that my primary questions that would come from doing this race were answered...#1 is will I focus on this discipline in the future?: yes.... I think it suits me well.

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Big congrats goes out to Erik Nielsen on his win. He led the entire race and while he had a rough time early in the morning....he pulled through nicely to win (it was also his first solo 24).

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A big thanks also goes out to my support crew of my old friend Mark Wolff from colorado who worked the bikes and of course Cara who held me together....

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This past weekend with less than a week of recovery I headed up to the Mohican 100 ...100 mile MTB race in Ohio which was stop # 2 of the NUE series. All the big boys were there to play. We started and I moved like a snail for the first 30 miles....and I mean SLOW. I watched the lead group ride away ..then the middle of the pack riders ride away....then I finally got things going. As the day went on I again got stronger and stronger and finished fast, feeling great. Unfortunately I lost a ton of time early and my time was just 8:12....WAY off the pace of the top 10. I think my official place was 25th. So the lesson for the week was: don't race the week after a 24 hour solo! Or at least if you do: don't expect to get a good result :)

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Things are just starting to get fun......

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a2

new post!

ok...it has been a VERY long time since I have posted to the blog. Things have been busy and there have been lots of great events we have done that are worth of reporting on ( including 2 x 6 hour races, the tour of the battenkill and a 12 hour duo race I did with Cara)....but they will have to wait.

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Last weekend we headed over to TN for the big Dirt Sweat and Gears 12 hour race. I hope to get a real report up soon...but as you can tell I did pretty well (3rd). Now this was not really a bike race...it was more of a mud running/ walking race. Take a look at these videos to see what I mean:

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http://www.cyclingdirt.org/videos/coverage/view_video/234968-2009-dirt-sweat-gears/177599-andy-applegate-3rd-pro-solo-mid-race-interview-lap-4

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http://www.cyclingdirt.org/videos/coverage/view_video/234968-2009-dirt-sweat-gears/177746-andy-applegate-pro-solo-3rd-post-race-interview

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http://www.cyclingdirt.org/videos/coverage/view_video/234968-2009-dirt-sweat-gears/177733-pro-mens-solo-podium

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Hopefully I can get to a real report soon...but the videos tell most of the story.

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Right now I am covered in poison ivy and have some strange kind of illness that is sucking all the energy out of me and wreaking havoc on my digestive system....must have been something in all the mud I ate on saturday. I have not been on the bike in more than 3 days and with my first 24 hour solo race just a week away I am getting a bit worried. Hopefully I can get rid of what ever this is soon...I am going to try a bit of an MTB ride in a few minutes before heading over to work registration for our "ring of fire" race series event tonight.

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a2

break a commandment and .....

Train moderately and train consistently are two of Joe Friel's "training commandments". As Joe has been a mentor of mine...both as an athlete through his books and methodology and as a coach as part of his Ultrafit Associates group for 7 years you would think that I would know better than to break one of these rules. Well I did...and now I am sick.

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Cara had been sick for almost a week and I was holding it off well. After last weekend I was a bit disappointed in myself that I faded after about 5 hours of racing (even considering my mishaps). This week the weather has been nice and I had two days with no appointments scheduled, so I decided to get a couple of killer rides in. On tuesday I did the ride above. Out to Hot Springs from Black Mountain going over Doggett Mountain on the way out. 121 miles in just under 7 hours of ride time. I was very conservative with my pace and actually felt really good. I limited my power to just 70-80% of FTP on the longer climbs and this worked well to keep me comfortable...until about 10 miles to go. At mile 110 with home just about 30 minutes away I fell apart and struggled in. No worries...I still didn't feel too bad, but I think I pushed the limit a bit too far for what I was ready for right now.

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I started to feel like I was getting sick, but denied it and set off for a 4 hour off road ride on wednesday. I rode up through montreat, down rattlesnake, did kitsuma, then on the road through old fort, up curtis creek to jarrett creek, over star gap , down lower heart break and up mill creek to get home. Stephen Janes has some good photos of the fire damage from last week around lower heartbreak here: http://ashevillejanes.blogspot.com/2009/03/burn.html

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As soon as I got on the long climb up jarrett creek I lost all my energy and knew I had gotten in too deep. I crawled along knowing I was digging myself deeper into illness, but there were no shortcuts home from there. I got home and I was sick. I think it is just a nasty head cold, but the bottom line is I have not been able to ride for a couple of days...and probably won't be able to do any real training for a few more days...and if I do race on sunday, I will really just be riding without being able to push it much.

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So there is a lesson here...and I have learned it before...I guess I just have to make the mistake and re-learn it every few years. If you push the envelope too much and go far above what would be considered "moderate" in training, you get sick...or worse yet, injured. This causes you to break the other commandment of training consistently...if you are sick or injured and can't train, consistency goes out the window...and you lose fitness. SO I am not saying that athletes should not train really HARD when appropriate....or even for very long durations when trying to prepare for endurance events (like I am this season), but care needs to be taken to ride within certain limits in order to stay healthy and injury free. Playing around on that fine line is ok....but take a big leap over the line on a particular day and there will usually be less than beneficial consequences.

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Instead of doing an extreme ride on tuesday , I should have scaled it back a little and done 3 more moderate endurance days in a row. This more than likely would have left me healthy...able to train and race the rest of the week and would still have caused a significant training adaptation.....

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a2