12 Hours of Dauset - short version

Last weekend I did my first solo 12 hour mountain bike race on the Dauset trails south of Atlanta, GA......and I won! It was a great experience and I learned a ton. I will post more details later.
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check out cara's post on the race here: www.caraapplegate.blogspot.com
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Bookends - Univest GP 08

Last weekend was most likely the final big road race of my road campaign that has lasted 10 years. I can't say I did very well, or that I was even prepared for Univest this year, but it was a fitting end as exactly 10 years ago at the very first edition of the Univest GP in 1998 I competed in my first elite level road race.
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Previously I had been doing a handful of big road races every season (like Fitchburg, Altoona and the Iron Horse Classic) as a cat 3 while focusing on MTB racing. By end of the 98 season I had some good road results in big events and was just coming off a 2nd place on GC at the Killington stage race. I upgraded to a cat 2 and was asked to ride for a regional all star team for the inaugural Univest race. That team was sponsored by a bakery called "Yum Yum Doughnuts".
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In that race I was in WAY over my head....I had no idea what I was getting into. For this race, the promoter had invited several European development teams and all the best US amateur teams to compete (no US PRO teams). I thought as an amateur event, how bad could it be?? It was incredible....I remember vividly being amazed at how fast we went out for that 100 mile race. I suffered in the crosswinds, riders were being shelled all over the place in the first 10 miles. I made it exactly an hour in before being dropped on an uphill crosswind grade. At that point there was less than half the 120+ rider field left in the race. I limped back from the big loop and watched the finale play out (the race is a 60+ mile loop followed by 11 laps of a 3-4 mile in-town circuit). Watching those riders suffer at the end of the race was a life changing experience. In particular I remember watching a young Jon Hamblen battle it out with 2 French riders in the 3 man break at the end. I was transfixed. I was hooked. I knew that I had to start racing on the road full time to see what I could do with it.
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Shortly after that I signed on with a regional elite road team Ideal Tile. In 1999 we went to Univest again. This time my goal was to finish...and I had great fitness going in. I rode well and made it back to the circuits with the lead group...perfect...I felt great and I was going to finish and do well. Then I was taken down by an inattentive rider in a turn. I was up quickly and back on the bike before any of the service vehicles arrived. Riding in the caravan, I was not going to have any trouble getting back to the field. Then my front tire went flat. I stopped and looked back to see all the support cars (including my team car) stopped at the crash 200 meters behind me. By the time I got a new wheel mounted, I was way back. I rode 2 laps of the circuit, then was pulled from the race, extremely disappointed. If memory serves, this is the year that an up and coming guy named Tom Boonen won the race....which I got to see from the sidelines once again.
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In 2000 I returned yet again to Univest with the Ideal Tile team....and again since this was one of my season goal races I had great fitness. Again I made it back to the circuits and was feeling ok. This time however, I had done a poor job with fueling while out on the course and started suffering for it with 25 or 30 miles to go. I was not too far away when the winning move went and had I been smart with fueling and hydration may have made the split. As it was, I suffered and hung in with a large 2nd group to finish somewhere around 60th place. But I finished on the 3rd try! Once again my goal was to come back and get a real result in this special race.
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In 2001 I had moved to NC and had hands down my best season ever. I won my age group road race at the national championships in Spokane and myself and my new Cane Creek teammates had won a huge amount of races in the southeast. Again I had absolutely the form of my life coming into Univest week and things looked great. On top of that Cara and I were married on Sept 10th and were going to head up to visit my parents in NJ before heading over to the race Saturday. Then came 9-11. We were driving TO the NY area when we heard the news. The race was cancelled...and rightly so IMHO. A couple years later I did the race in a tropical storm where the course was shortened to just the 4 mile in town circuit,,,,it was miserable and I didn't finish. There was also a sunday crit added this year ..which I did finish.
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It was a couple of years before I was on a team invited to (the now PROs included) Univest again. I had a couple of miserable experiences where I got dropped early ...even though my form was good. This year (2008) when I was put on the squad going I can't say I had much confidence for a result. My modest goal was to survive and make it back to the circuits in town with the field.... Again the weather forecast called to tropical storm remnants to hit the area on race day.
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We rolled in Friday and stayed with some great host families near Souderton PA. A light rain was falling as we lined up on Saturday morning. The start was again blazing fast. We were doing 38-40mph for the fist 10-12 miles on the flat part of the course. This was fun, but a little sketchy on the wet roads. I was quite worried about what would happen when we hit the hilly part of the course where there are numerous tight turns. I was suffering, but doing ok riding up in the front half of the field. Then, the legs came apart. I lost power on a long uphill and could not keep the power up. I watched helplessly as nearly 100 riders went by. I was done. I tried to recover and rode hard staying in the caravan for a few miles...then I started coming up on crashes, slowing me down. On one downhill off camber turn there was a crash and I was riding up next to the broom wagon....as I moved left to go around so did the car and I was run off the road entirely. Kind of funny, but the time I lost killed me. The rain and wind was picking up and I joined up with one other rider to get through the 65 mile big loop to get back to town. At some points it was raining so hard I thought I would drown....but in some ways it was kind of fun also. We rode quite hard and caught up to a large group just before we got back to the circuit. As expected we were not allowed to enter the circuit and our race was over.
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That was it, an inauspicious finale to my big road race experiences. That is not to say I am quitting though! I will focus on some different kinds of racing in the upcoming season, and while you won't see me lining up at any more uci, or probably even nrc road races, I will still do some road events.
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So 10 years of Univest. It is kind of fitting that I started and ended on the same big event....bookends.
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Race Across the Sky – Leadville 100 - 08

Here is a race I thought I would never do. After moving away from Colorado in 1996 I didn’t think I would ever be up for competing in a race that takes place between 10000 and 12600 ft of altitude. Well….after a call from my old friend Mark Wolff last winter who said he could get us into the race, how could I refuse? Mark’s friend Reid is a sponsor of the 100 mile running race in Leadville and as such had a couple of reserved entry spots available that we could take advantage of….thanks Reid ! (I think :) ).
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I figured I would make a late season trip out of the event and drove out to stay with Mark in his Airstream trailer in Buena Vista, CO. Buena sits at about 8000 feet in the Arkansas river valley in the shadow of the Collegiate range mountain peaks….very cool. I arrived late Monday night the week before the race. Tuesday I was so tired from travel and affected by the altitude that I was useless and didn’t even ride. Wednesday was a little better and I got out for a couple hour ride on some fun trails near town. Thursday was feeling like I was adapting at least a little to the altitude and again went for a moderate ride near Buena with Mark. The weather was cool and rainy and we hoped that race day would be a little nicer. Friday we headed up to race registration in Leadville (just 35 miles north) and after the race meeting drove to look at a couple of key points on the course. I was a little bummed that I didn’t actually ride any of the course before hand, but it just didn’t work out.
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The pre race meeting was an interesting affair and it was cool that Lance Armstrong showed up and said a few words….he played down his chances in the race, but I suspected he would give 5 time winner Dave Weins some serious competition the next day. There were about 1000 registered riders….but the registration process was so well organized that we were in and out in just a few minutes. With a 6:30 am race start we decided on a 3:45 wake up so we could get organized and up to the line with plenty of time. I am definitely not a morning person, but somehow early race starts don’t bother me once I have my mind set to what is needed for proper waking/eating/travel/ arrival at venue times.
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With the shotgun blast we set out on the 100 mile course. The neutral start was a little sketchy, but I was able to stay safe and end up near the front as we hit the dirt and the official race start. I was about 10-15 riders back at the beginning of the first climb just 5 or 6 miles into the race. This climb went well and I crested about 11000 ft in 19th position. Onto the road for a fast paved downhill I was in the 2nd group (Lance, Dave and about 8 or 9 other guys were just up the road). This descent bottoms out and goes right into the next climb. It was not long after the start of this one when I realized the altitude was already starting to get to me. I was feeling nauseous with every pedal stroke. Oh well…nothing to do about it, just keep riding.
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This climb went up to around 11.5, the last couple of miles being pretty rough….then comes the power line descent. I had to back off a little on the climb, trying to stave off the ugly feeling of altitude sickness and I gave up quite a few spots, but I was surviving. The power line descent was really fun…although I was kicking myself for not having pre-ridden it during the week. Off the descent and onto the rolling / flattish portion of the course I was in about the 3rd group on the road and at aid station 1 was riding in a group of 20 or so. After that the sensations started to degrade and I had to continue to let off the pace. Every time I pressed hard on the pedals I felt like I was going to be sick….not a good feeling. I kept hoping I could “ride through it” and feel good on the big upcoming climb….but that was wishful thinking. My big panic was that I felt so sick that I could not properly fuel or hydrate. I did my best, but I knew I was fighting a losing battle there…..so for once I did something really smart: I went into conservation mode. Don’t get me wrong, I was not poking along (yet) but I was definitely holding way back…not riding fast …and not worrying about other riders. I let plenty of riders go by and tried not to be concerned about them. Now, instead of racing for what I had hoped to be a high placing, I was going for that 9 hour mark. I knew I could make it IF I stayed within myself and managed the nausea.
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I actually rode through aid station 2 at twin lakes only about 5 minutes slower than my predicted time…not bad so far, but I had not counted on feeling so poorly…and with a climb over an hour long coming up I knew my time would fall WAY off soon. The area around twin lakes was a mass of people…it was incredible all the people out cheering and supporting riders. For about a mile I felt like I was riding Paris Roubaix or something….I guess Lance really does get the spectators out. Just past twin lakes was the “crew only” aid station where Mark’s wife Kitty had set up shop to support us. I pulled in and took my time getting some food and drink in preparation for the climb up to the Columbine Mine.
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The first long part of the climb was uneventful….in fact I didn’t see many riders at this point. I passed a couple of riders and a couple of riders passed me, but we were all going our own pace. After maybe 40 minutes of climbing the road degrades into a rocky trail. This part was fun for about a mile and this is where I saw Lance and Dave come flying down the mountain…and I still had over a mile to climb! Further along and the trail turns into a rutted path that has very steep pitches. All of a sudden I was above tree line and could see for a long way up the mountain: a long line of riders struggling up, walking at times. I had been climbing for over an hour and still could not see the summit and turn around. The closer I got to the top the faster the riders were coming at me on their way down. This part of the race is pretty sketchy as the uphill riders stay to the right and the downhill riders are forced into a rutted, rocky gully. I was able to ride most of the last uphill portion…I was only off the bike for 2 or 3 small steep sections. I suspect if I was fresh (or closer to sea level) these sections would be easily rideable. As sick as I felt I did still take the time to look around…. Amazingly beautiful….even if there is no oxygen to breathe. Over the crest of the high point of the trail there is a short downhill to the summit aid station and the turn around. This is kind of comical as you actually have to ride back uphill after the turn around…just about the last thing I wanted to do at that point.
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Onto the downhill …which was a blast…seeing the endless line of riders struggling up as I was blasting down the mountain was sadistically fun. I didn’t stop at the crew aid station on the way back and decided I would wait and make one more stop at the final aid station which was still between 2 and 2.5 hours from the finish. Across the rolling part of the course I was feeling worse and worse, trying to eat and drink, but knowing my caloric deficit was increasing. Now I started to ride slow. From this point on I felt like I was racing in slow motion, just turning over the pedals trying to manage the altitude problems as best as possible…..looking for that last aid station where I promised myself I would actually get of the bike for a few minutes. I was playing numbers games with myself, guessing exactly when I would get to the stop and setting time tables as to how long it would take me to finish from there. I figured if I left the station after about 6 hours of riding I could easily make the 9 hours total.
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When I finally made it to the stop I was suffering pretty badly. The “flat” part of the course actually has some really steep and difficult hills. I got off the bike and looking at my watch gave myself 5 minutes of recovery. Several riders passed but I was not worried…I thought I heard someone say I was in 69th pulling into the stop….so I told myself I would be happy with a top 100 placing. Out of the aid station with *just* 25 miles or so to go, I knew I was about to face one of the toughest parts of the course: riding UP power line. My thoughts went something like this: how hard could it be? This is the last really difficult climb (not!), after power line everything is easy, how long could it take? 30 minutes? HA! Power line on the way back IS the most difficult part of the ride. It is steep and it is long. I rode all but a few short sections and that was just because I had that nausea when pressing too hard on the pedals. There are 3 or 4 false summits. You think you can see the top, then you get there only to see another summit in the distance. On top of this it started to rain pretty hard just as I was nearing the top. As I finally crested…after what felt like hours of climbing in my easiest gear (really probably 45-50 minutes) I stopped briefly to put my rain jacket on for the descent. This descent was interesting as it was muddy and my glasses became useless….oh well, I still got down pretty quickly and next thing I knew I was on that real final climb….mostly pavement…but still a tough bit of ascending. I passed a rider who was having the same thoughts as me….just wanted to finish in under 9 hours without needing a trip to the hospital afterwards. I figured that the finish would be just about an hour or a little less from the top….and as it turns out I was pretty close with that estimate. I crested the last climb and felt a small surge of energy as I got back onto the dirt. I was hoping for an immediate downhill, but the trail rolls around a bit on the crest before the final descent. Once my wheels pointed downhill I got some confidence, but I knew that at the bottom I still had a 5 plus mile gradual uphill grind back to town.
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The return to town is slightly different that the route at the start…and slightly longer as well, just to add a little bit of extra cruelty. When I hit the pavement I thought I was home free….but in fact I still had a bit of suffering to complete. Instead of mostly pavement to get back, they send you off onto a loose gravel road called “the Boulevard”. Here is where I was cursing myself for not having looked at the finish section. I was on the boulevard, grinding away, but the town was nowhere in sight! I kept thinking “how far could it be!”....but it just would not come into view. Finally I asked a couple of spectators who walking along the course (almost going the same speed as me) how far it was and I think I heard a little chuckle as they said less than 2 miles. OK, I can walk 2 miles if I have to, so this set my mind at ease. I was crawling…but I would finish…and well under 9 hours. I made the final turn onto the road and hit the last couple of rollers up to the finish. It was awesome…there were hundreds of people out cheering for ALL the finishers….and since Lance and Dave had finished almost 2 hours earlier it was incredible to see this much support. I crossed the line in 8 hours 39 minutes in 71st place overall and somehow managed to hide my exhaustion because a few people were talking to me and I can’t really recall much of anything. I felt so sick, I still couldn’t eat and I went up to the car and just sat in the passenger seat trying to relax and let my stomach settle enough to start replenishing calories. This took a long time, but I had to wait for Mark to get in so I had time before I had to move around much.
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I went back to the line to wait for Mark and as 11 hours passed I was getting a little worried that he would not make the official finish cut off of 12 hours….on such a brutal course anything can happen. He made it in at about 11:22….great! As we were starting to get ready to leave and the 12 hour mark was approaching, the countdown began. One minute! At the finish you can see for several minutes down the road so you can see the riders suffering trying to make that 12 hour mark. 3, 2, 1 Bang! They fire the shotgun again at 12 hours signifying the end of the race….All I could think of was riders who were still out there hearing that gunshot and knowing they missed the cut off.
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We headed back to Buena, a big meal, and thankfully a couple thousand feet lower altitude. After an hour or so I started to feel better and the appetite came back nicely. The awards ceremony was at 8:30 am the next morning and it really was quite an affair. The race promoter actually reads off the name of every finisher under 12 hours. You get a belt buckle for under 12 and a bigger buckle for under 9 hours. Pretty cool. The winning tandem time was 10 hours and 17 minutes….there were actually quite a few tandems….and believe me I took note of that time….hmmmmm.
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After the awards I wandered around town a little, and then hit the road for the 2 day drive back to NC. What an experience this event was…I am so glad to have done it. I didn’t even come close to my potential time on the course….I suspect with the right acclimatization and training I could get close to 8 hours….but that will have to wait. Maybe next year?

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HEKMAN 3RD AT US PRO CRITERIUM CHAMPIONSHIPS !!!!!

Let me repeat that: Mark Hekman just grabbed the bronze medal at the US PRO criterium championships in Downers Grove, IL. This comes exactly one year after crashing and breaking his heel in the 2007 amateur edition of the race. I couldn't be happier for Mark. The pic above is not from crit nats, but will have to suffice until we get one.

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Those who know Mark are familiar with his laid back style and sense of humor. What they often don't realize is the unbelievable amount of work he puts into his cycling profession. Of all the athletes I have had the pleasure to work with over the years, Mark has by far the ability to sustain the highest training work load. The other thing that really stands out is his consistency of race results. Week in and week out all year long Mark performs.....He has had some really good results this season, but 3rd today is some great payoff for all his efforts.

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Also a big congrats to Marco Aledia and the entire Inferno Racing team for Marco's 2nd place in the elite amateur crit championships earlier in the day!

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And it doesn't stop there! Asheville superstar Lauren Franges (Tibco) won the Saturday warm up race in Downer's where VeloSports coach Laura Bowles (Advil) was a driving force in the 4 woman winning break.

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Leadville report coming soon...I promise!

Nationals TT Details....

My individual TT was at about 9am. As luck would have it, the rain started about 5 minutes before my start time. It rained for about 90% of my time on course, but I don't think it affected my ride at all. The Power file above is my individual ride....here are the numbers:

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entire ride:

Time: 50:52 ( I think my official time was 50:53 or 54)

Average (and normalized) power: 344 watts

avg cadence: 92 rpm

distance: 24.13 mi

speed:28.5 mph

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Splits:

Out:

time: 24:46

power:342 watts

cadence:93 rpm

speed:28.94 mph

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return:

time:26:04

power:345 watts

speed:28.03 mph

cadence 91 rpm

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I really felt pretty good during the ride and knew pretty early on that I was going well. My target "cruising power" was about 340 watts. I knew I was good as every time I checked I was at or above 340 and feeling comfortable....or at least as comfortable as one can feel while riding nearly all out.

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What can we glean from the numbers above? One thing is pacing: note that the return was significantly slower than the out leg, but the power was higher. This is due to the tailwind out , headwind return...and I also suspect that there was a net elevation loss going to the turnaround as we were going downstream along the Ohio River. This is good pacing. It would have been easy to overcook the first half, feeling good riding with a tailwind. I held back slightly and it paid off. My weight was about 147lbs or 66.82kg. The power over this TT gives me about 5.15 watts per kg @ FTP. Not bad. I am quite happy I was able to do that...for 4th place in my age group..., and I believe it was about the best I could have hoped for given my current fitness level.

After my individual ride the weather cleared, but the wind kicked up significantly. I had just under 3 hours between this ride and the tandem ride. Unfortunately I didn't rest as much as I should have. I found myself walking around, talking to other riders....which was great, but not the best for recovery. Just as Cara and I were headed to the start on the tandem, I noticed my age group was on the podium. I ran over, jumped on my step, raised arms for the photo then ran back off to get on the big bike. The whole thing took about 15 seconds and was really quite funny.

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With a huge wind behind the tandem on the out leg of the TT course we were FLYING. I have no metrics, but we were riding 29-34 mph most of the way out. Since they started the tandems at 2 minute intervals it was difficult to tell where we were in relation to our competition. I knew the return into the wind would be very tough and tried to hold back some. At the turn we saw we had only gained 15 or 20 seconds on the team ahead of us. I admit I felt a little panic. We would need to ride hard to the finish. Everything was great....we were riding fast and strong until about 109KM to go when the fatigue really started to hit me. i have to say that the last 5 miles of that ride was one of the most excruciatingly painful things I have ever done. I suffered....knowing that we needed to push all the way through. We did and we won....but ouch. Our time was something like 50:42...faster than my individual time! We have never done that before....usually we are close but just a little slower.

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We had the fastest mixed tandem time of the day by about a minute and were faster than all but a few of the men's teams.

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Tuesday I was wrecked.....

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Hekman wins Iron Hill edition of USA CRIT SERIES

Congratulations to Velosports Performance Center athlete Mark Hekman on his win at the Iron Hill Twilight Criterium in West Chester, PA, the 5th stop in the USA Crit Series.

When the phone rings late on a weekend night and a coach sees it is an athlete we work with on the caller ID, it is usually either really good news or really bad news. Thankfully it was all good tonight.

Hekman went on a solo break during the 60 kilometer long race, eventually lapping the field.

Nice work Mark!

4th of July: Natz mission accomplished

We won a hard fought tandem road race yesterday afternoon. It was wet and there were plenty of crashes. Hopefully a real report later, but of my 3 events here in Louisville I won 2 national championships and got on the podium for the other....so needless to say it was a good trip..

Time to head home!

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quick update: masters road nats

Cara and I are in Louisville, KY this week at masters road nationals. Today was the TT. My individual TT was at about 9am this morning. I was pleased to get 4th in my age group with a time of about 50:54 for the 38KM undulating course. It was raining for most of my ride, but I don't think it slowed me down any. I averaged 343 watts which gives me slightly over 5watts per Kg....about as good as I could have expected today.

At about 1pm Cara and I set off for our tandem TT. We rocked it even though the wind had picked up dramatically. We did 50:43 ! Faster than my individual time ! We have never done that before. The return leg had a serious headwind and the last 5 miles were excruciating.....one of the hardest things i have done in a long time. We had the fastest mixed tandem time by about a minute.

Mission accomplished so far: one podium and a national championship......

Tandem road race is thursday.

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pics from the trials road TT

GAME OVER: paralympic trials road TT

Just finished the road time trial for paralympic selection. We rode really well and did 100.9 % of our time standard of 1 minute 17.6 seconds per kilometer. We rode a 17:56 on a tough little course with some difficult turns and hills. Unfortunately it was not good enough to get selection for the team. The hand cyclists and amputees ruled the day. 3 of them did 95% of their time standard! I don't know just what their standard was, but that is incredible. With only 6 male slots for the team and 3 of them "ring fenced" we would have needed to ride about 97% of our standard to get selection . We rode over 28mph average....and honestly no matter what we could have done we would no way have been able to ride fast enough to do 97%! To do a 97% for the pursuit we would have literally had to come close to setting a world record!
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So in the end...after all the hard work and time....training for an event I had never done before (pursuit) and travel, we never really did have a shot at making the team. The way the selection rules are written, and the small size of the team the US had qualified for the paralympics we were fitghting a losing battle from the onset.....of course we did not know this until recently....most of this is new for this paralympics as the uci recently took control of the cycling events and new rules are in place for Beijing.
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I do know that we trained hard and raced well....to the best of our abilities....and for me, the experience was truly amazing.
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I hope to have some pictures and more thoughts up here soon....
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4:43 something

That was our time for the 4KM pursuit today. We rode really well..especially for a team that had never done this event before. I was hoping for better, but we rode to our ability and this is what we came up with.
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We did start a little too hard. The start itself was near perfect about 28.0 sec for the first lap....then the big problem: 21 seconds for the 2nd lap!...too fast!!!! We knew this, but the damage was done....we needed to hold speed as long as we could.....and we were doing really well. Lots of low 22 sec laps...then into the 23s ...we made it past 5 to go with good times...then started to pay for the early effort with 24 second laps for the last 3......ouch.
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What an incredible experience though....this event is crazy hard..the focus it demands is complete. During the ride it was like we were on another planet....there was nothing else in the universe except us, our effort and the patch of track in front of us....
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When we finished all I could think was that I did not want this to be my first AND last pursuit with Matt...we have one more chance to move up and make the team.
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Our ride gave us the bronze medal for the national championship....but was 105% of our time standard....so we are still in 4th for the team selection ranking with just the road TT left on friday. We will need to ride FAST.
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No pics from today yet....maybe tomorrow.
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Paralympic Trials Day 1

Today was day 1 of the trials. The pic is Matt and Anton starting the kilo. They had an unbelievably fast start and ended with a 1:06.8 . This gave us a 102% ranking...meaning they were 2% off of the elite standard for this event. 3 riders (one tandem team and 2 individuals) had better rankings so we are now in 4th. This means we have to go FAST tomorrow and friday.
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It was a little stressful for me to be out there watching and not riding. I have to say I was a little underwhelmed by the amount of spectators (look at the throngs of people in the stands above!)..and even by the amount of competitors....but even though the fields are small for the track events the times were wicked fast and the competition is extremely fierce to get those team spots for Beijing.
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After the event Matt and I did a short road ride, then I headed out again after lunch and did some leg opening efforts. I can't say I felt great, but I was putting out the power so I think I will be ok for tomorrow. Conditions were great today....if they are the same for tomorrow we should be able to ride a fast time.
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Hopefully I will be able to put up a good post tomorrow.....but now to bed.
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Almost Time for Trials !

Pictures courtesy of cycling photographer extraordinaire Casey Gibson. Team King is the one on top....that is Anton, Matt, and me.......extra points if you can tell who is the sprinter and who is the endurance guy. Between Matt and Anton that is a lot of quadriceps muscle!

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This was essentially our last real week of preparation for the trials next week. Now we are in "taper" mode. We did some hard work Tuesday-Friday on the track....well except Thursday when a car ran into the track overnight and they would not let us do a workout....no joke.

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Honestly the workouts this week are a blur. I know they were hard. We did get 2 motor paced sessions in as well. OK.....motorpacing is relatively challenging. Now: do it on a tandem, with a fixed gear, on the track, in the aerobars, and on a really windy day. Let's just say the learning curve was pretty steep.....but it was an absolute blast. Today we tried to do a 4 KM slightly above race pace with 1 lap on and 1 lap off the motor. That was somewhat of a disaster with the wind....we really got less than half a lap recovery each time....so while we didn't get exactly the effort we were looking for, it sure was hard. Next we did a 4KM effort on the motor the whole time. This went pretty well. The first couple laps were a little ragged, but then we settled into low 21 second pace for most of the effort...until the last couple laps when we fell apart. After a rest we did 6 or 7 KM behind the motor in an easier gear and at a more moderate speed. After this I FINALLY really got the hang of it...too bad the session was over!

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As far as fitness we now have what we are going to have for trials....time to do some easy workouts, rest, get all the race gear dialed in, and try not to stress too much....which is easier said than done.

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out for now

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tour of leelanau

After a week of training on the track in Colorado I flew to northern Michigan for the 110 mile uci road race near Traverse City. I knew the travel would be tough....but after landing in Chicago and sitting on the tarmac for 45 minutes I missed my connecting flight and the day became super stressful. For a while i thought I was going to have to rent a car and drive the 5+ hours the rest of the way....but luckily I got onto an evening flight.

The race course was beautiful....lots of tough hills. I actually RACED at the front for at least a while. I was feeling good and went with the very first attack.....ummmm....not such a good idea. We were looking good for the first hour....riding well, then it started to rain. I managed to get gapped off on the first KOM climb and had to chase back for a few KM...ouch, but no worries....got right back to the front and was able to mix it up a little more....then we hit a twisty/ wet/ pot holed descent. I was still in contact with the group as I passed a teammate right near the bottom. I waited for him and tried to pull him back to the bunch. Just as I was making contact I looked back and saw he was behind, so I slowed again....big mistake. the field was going fast and as it turns out he was not really having any problems....Ryan Gamm came around us and drilled it to get us back on. Ryan pulled off and I went hard up the base of a small climb. Joe was able to jump around and get right back on the group and I ...well....I got dropped. Of course at that point there was only about 50 riders out of the 110+ starters in the field....but still. I chased hard for a bit but was soon caught by a group of about 6 riders from behind. These guys were motoring and I slotted right in. We kept the gap at 15 to 20 seconds for several miles...then the gap blew out and we lost sight of the field.

I had good company with ex teammate Shaun Adams and MTB superstar Mike Simonson. We kept the pace high enough to hurt, but our goal was to make the tight time cut as we knew we would not see the field again until the finish. We rode hard for the rest of the course but still managed to miss the time cut....what a drag to see a DNF next to your name when you did actually finish the race....oh well ...that is what you get when you try to play with the big kids.

The highlight of the day was as our group was finishing up the final steep hill. Simonson and I were going really hard....not sprinting mind you but riding hard for the finish. Just as we got about a half a meter from the line, neither of us wanting the distinction of sprinting the laughing group we both jammed on our brakes and came to a virtual track stand at the line..... I am not sure who won that contest :)

After the race I got to spend some quality time with my teammates....while we were bummed that the team performance was not the best, we did manage to have some fun.

Up at 4:15am on monday morning and back to Denver and the drive back to C-Springs by noon.

Next competition: the Paralympic Trials !!!!

back on TRACK

I am not even sure if I can remember everything that has gone on since my last post....but I will try.

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OK, so I went home from CO Springs, did the Rock Hill road race weekend with Inferno (a great team weekend), then did the Cohutta 100 mile MTB race ...(where I finished 16th and which really deserves it's own post)...then did the Airforce uci road race (where I was dropped like a rock), came back to C-Springs for a week of intense track pursuit training with Matt, flew back to Asheville for a whopping 5 days and had a great time doing the 12 Hours of Tsali MTB race with my Kobold / Cannondale teammate Daniel Corum last saturday(where we were 3rd in the 4 person open team category with just 2 riders...hope to do a post on this race individually as well). Got up the day after the 12 hr race, packed and DROVE 2 days (10 hrs sun, 12 hrs mon) BACK to Colorado Springs again,.......which leads us to this week.....keeping up??? I am not sure if I am !

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Now things are hotting up with our training for the Paralympic trials. We have been KILLING it with our workouts on the track. I have to say in my almost 20 years of racing bikes I have NEVER done this much specific all out intensity work...nor have I put this much energy and sacrifice into preparing for a certain event....and I suppose that is saying something. I am convinced it will pay off.

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Training for the 4 KM pursuit on the track is quite complicated and specific. I am certainly learning a lot. Matt enlisted Chris Mirabella to help with our training program (husband of famous track star Erin Mirabella)...so a special thanks from my aching legs goes out to him :) > I should also mention the incredible help we have had from Bill Lahman ..who has done everything from airport runs, to lap timing to wrenching for us....not to mention training with Matt. So far this has been a real team effort.

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Today's bout of pain was a long track workout consisting of a nice warm-up punctuated with a 4KM effort building to 130 rpm or so in a light gear (51x17 I think). Then the fun began with 4x 3KM all out efforts in our expected race gearing. It was super windy and our lap times were not great...but our effort was really good. We finished off doing 2 start efforts from a real starting gate...which was good practice. This workout left us completely spent. We then took about 30 minutes off followed by a 2 hour easy ride up through the Garden of the Gods (pictured above).

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The picture on the top is Katie Compton doing a serious motor paced track session......

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Now I need to recover for tomorrow's killer session again...

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a2

US Air Force Cycling Classic

Andy is racing in the US Air Force Cycling Classic as I type this, with his team, Inferno Racing.

Read the live report here: http://live.cyclingnews.com/?id=latest

Colorado Springs

So since last tuesday i have been out in Colorado Springs training with Matt King on the tandem. This trip has been focused on track specific work looking toward qualifying for the Paralympic pursuit.
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I was up @ 3:30 am last tuesday morning and in Denver by 9:30 am. Matt's riding partner Bill picked me up at the airport...and we were on the track in the Springs by 1:30pm This was a tough session with 2 and 3KM efforts and some starts. This was my first experience ever on a banked track....and to do it on a tandem , in aerobars, and near race pace was quite the challenge.....and it was a blast. I had no trouble at all...although trying to hold the tandem on the pole line @ 34 mph and 120+ rpms is quite ineresting.....I didn't feel too bad at altitude (the springs is @ 6000+ft), but after the track session I felt like death. We took a 45 minute spin after and I thought i was not going to make it :)
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Thursday was another productive track session with a series of flying 500 meter (2 laps) and 3 lap efforts....and of course some starts. We went FAST this day, but to think of sustaining that pace for 4KM not just 500 meters is a bit daunting. After this session I was COOKED. I went back to Matt's house and slept most of the afternoon.
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Friday we were rained out of the track....but it cleared up enough for us to go out and do some road TT specfic work....which turned out to be 2x20 min @ TT pace up a 3-5% grade....a GREAT workout and we felt strong.
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Saturday was ENDURANCE day. we set out to do a 5 hr ride, mostly rolling north through the Air Force Academy then out east. The wind was moderate at the start, but was picking up all day....when we turned south we had a full on gale for a cross headwind....which of course was changing constantly to give us a headwind for about 3/4 of the entire ride. When we turned west again we were crawling into the wind. On small descents where the tandem would have easily been doing 30+ MPH COASTING, we were pedaling hard @ 15MPH. this turned out to be a 6 hour tough ride....character building my Dad would likely say.
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Sunday was cold and a well needed recovery day.....we did about 90 minutes easy mostly on bike paths.
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Monday (today) it was back to the track for some more solid work. We did 4x5 KM (15 lap) efforts. We didn't quite hit our performance goals...but it was really windy again and Matt and I were both not @ 100% ( I was just still feeling fatigue from saturday and Matt was up all night with his son who was sick). We still got a killer good training day in though....capping it off with some really good start efforts, then a 45 minute spin on the road.
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2 more days of track work to come before I head home on wednesday night. Tomorrow we plan to head up near Denver after the track workout to recon the road TT course for trials.
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Matt has such a great support system here. His regular training partner Bill is a huge asset, and his family (wife Kim and kids Lavyn and Spencer) are completely behind his bid to get back to the games.
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Another note is that while we have been at the track some other Paralympic athletes have been there as well.

It is amazing to see these folks training. You have not seen anything until you have seen a rider with one leg doing standing starts in pursuit race gearing....unbelievble.....
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a2

catching up again....

The problem with my blogging is that if I let it go without posting for more than a week, so much happens it is tough to get caught up with any amount of detail. Oh well...I will give it a try:
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After the TT from the last post I got back with a solid training week (about 23 hours) including 2 great days of training with Mark Heckman who was staying in Brevard for a few days. The week was capped off with a super fun 6 hour MTB race down in Georgia. I rode ok, not great, for 6th place and it was a blast. Other than having some serious foot pain from over supinating on the technical trails, I had no major issues....hydration and fueling were perfect. The course was quite technical (twisty with plenty of roots), so it was good practice for my less than stellar single track skills.
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The following week (last week) was slated to be a very high volume week. I got right back to riding after the endurance race....which was a mistake. After 2 days of lack lustre riding I finally took a day off (wed). When i got back to it on thursday I felt reinvigorated. Lesson learned: take a day off after an endurance MTB race in order to recover enough to train properly! I should know that already.
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Friday was the beginning of what has become an a2 annual tradition of a killer training block over Easter weekend. Since there are never any events this weekend it is the perfect time to get a nice crash block in. Friday Cara and I did a solid almost 4 hour ride on the tandem. Enough to properly fatigue me for the hardest training weekend of the season.
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Friday night Mark Hekman and $Rich$ "showtime" Harper drove over to stay and train for sat/sun. Saturday we set out to do a ride I have been thinking about since we moved to Black Mountain. My idea was to do my 100 mile (from Asheville) Hotsprings/ Doggett Mountain loop....but from Black Mountain. I knew this ride would be over 6 hours and probably over 120 miles. Of course we set out at a pace that was just above my normal solid endurance pace (which is about 245 watts). Everything was fine until we hit the Dog (Doggett Mtn) climb 80+ miles in. We had a cross tail wind on the stretch from Hot Springs through Spring Creek and Mark decided to pin it...and pin us in the gutter most of the time. We were too tired to complain and just rode.....About a mile from the base of the climb I cracked HARD and struggled up the 30 minute climb alone. After the descent I was feeling a bit better, but we still had (ouch) more than 40 miles to go. Thankfully the last 15 miles from Asheville back to Black Mountain was with a nice tail wind....and it was awesome to watch $rich$ and Mark suffer as much as I was for the last 30 minutes :) ...Ok maybe not suffering quite as much as I was. We ended up with 130 miles and almost 7.5 hours of riding on the day.
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Saturday night while I sat pondering how exhausted I was, the guys drank more beer than imaginable....I have no idea how they do that and still ride....quite amazing actually.
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Sunday we saddled up the mountain bikes and headed out for a nice 5.5 hour ride on most of the off road assault on Mt Mitchell course. This was done at a pace considerably slower than saturday...but it was great. We included what i call the "endless climb" up Curtis Creek road to the Blue Ridge Parkway..then continue the climb on the parkway to the old Mt Mitchell toll road. The Curtis Creek climb is about an hour long (14 miles?)...then the climbing on the parkway just seems endless before the turn back down the mountain.
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We survived.... and so ended the epic weekend.
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That brings us to this week and the next post........
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a2

Camps and Such

As usual much has been going on since my last post. After Matt left, VeloSports put on a very successful MTB skills camp, then a few days later I headed off to the Inferno road team camp in Macon GA. This camp was tough...not from a riding perspective, but from a work perspective. Since Wobble Naught is a sponsor of the team we had to fit all the riders in just a couple of days time. We had "king wobble" himself (Tom Coleman) helping with fits and doing video analysis with Dartfish (more on that in an upcoming post)....along with myself, team rider and fitter Jim Baldesare and 55-Nine WN fitter Eddie O'Day. Even with all of us working non-stop it took 2 full days to get everyone set up. I spent so much time crawling around on the floor taking measurements and setting up bikes it left my back in a terrible state, BUT we got everyone set. One really cool note is that Thomson was the main sponsor of the camp (special thanks to Dave Parrett)....and at one point we had a few riders having trouble getting proper saddle set back (including myself) due to the Masi frame geometry, saddle rails on our new SDG saddles and the 1.6cm setback of the Thomson posts. How to solve the problem? Simple: have Dave custom bend some posts at the Thomson factory to get additional set-back......I feel pretty special now :) . Kudos to Chad Thompson for putting together an incredible team for 2008 and all the team sponsors for the support. There are a few sponsors in particular I will be talking about in future posts....stay tuned.

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So after a couple of tough days with that work and other logistics, we got to some good riding in great weather. We actually cut loose a few times and let some of the riders with a little better early season fitness kick it up.....the last 10 miles of the saturday ride was particularly fun. Sunday was a short ride dedicated to photos and the like....then after everyone headed home, I was able to get Tom to take a look at my TT set up and make a few really cool refinements. After that it was the drive home and back to work.

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My back was pretty darned sore when I got home from all the fitting work, and Tuesday I somehow managed to make a wrong move and pull a muscle in my lower back. Ouch. It was pain, pain , pain....so much I could hardly move, let alone get on a bike. The closest pain that I can compare it to was my hernia repair back in the early 90s.....yes the pain was THAT bad. It was frustrating not being able to ride for a few days....and the recovery was gradual, but is almost complete. I was worried about the TT we were going to on Saturday , but it turned out that my back was not a limiting factor in performance at all.

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Friday night we headed over to TN for the Spring Forward 40KM TT. The weather forecast was dismal, more like cyclocross weather, but we were determined to get it done. The weather was in fact abysmal: 30 degrees, snowing and gale force winds made for an interesting event. The course was quite rolling....not much flat, mostly big rollers....more down on the way out and more up on the way back. Cara finished with a couple of inches of ice caked on her bike. The wind was close to a full on head wind going out and it was a struggle to keep the bike up to speed and going straight. I dressed with multiple layers and heavy gloves...which was a good choice. I took the turn -around at about 30 minutes....slow! and my power was all over the place, very difficult to keep a steady rhythm with the conditions. After the turn was easier to be steady and even though there was more elevation gain, I was FLYING getting through sustained sections at around 38MPH....ahh tailwinds feel good. I was over 5 minutes faster coming back. I felt good about the ride even though power and time was poor. I felt I managed the conditions well and put in a solid ride. Turned out I had the fastest time of the day by quite a bit....and Cara had the fastest women's time as well...so it was worth the trip.

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out for now

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a2

Bid for Beijing : the Big News....

Ok, so here it is...the big goal for 2008 I was holding out on: Matt King and I will be vying for a spot on the US team for the Paralympics in Beijing this coming September.

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Matt is a blind cyclist from Colorado Springs and has been to 3 Paralympic games. He claims he is a track specialist, but I would argue that he seems to be a great "all around" rider. He found me to be his "endurance" pilot....so the events he will focus on with me are the pursuit and the road time trial. Of course I sure would like to do the road race as well.

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So Matt arrived here in Asheville last wednesday night. I picked him up at the airport in Charlotte....complete with 2, yes 2 tandems (one road, one track). We started riding on thursday of last week and it immediately felt great. We hit the track for the first time on monday and had some good speed as well. This weekend we headed down to the Tundra TT near Atlanta GA to give ourselves a real full on performance test. We rode early in the rotation and did the 9.5 miles in 20:28. Not bad at all. I went out about an hour later solo and pulled a 20:07....but I was beaten for the win by just one tenth of a second! The conditions were perfect for fast times and my power for my solo run was about 4% lower than last year for a time almost 50 seconds faster! Not sure how much time doing that first effort on the tandem cost me, but I don't care, it was a great day all around...Cara had a great ride too, for the fastest women's time of the day.

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Back to the Paralympics subject: So Matt will have been here for 2 weeks by this wednesday when he heads home. We know we have some serious training to do, but I think the prognosis for making the team for the games is pretty good. The qualification process is a little complicated and confusing....but there are time standards that need to be met regardless. I think we can smoke the road TT time standard, and I hope we can get the pursuit standard as well. I will need to do a lot more anaerobic work this spring.

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So that is the latest....and for me this is really an exciting prospect. I have already learned so much working with Matt. Honestly I can't say that I had ever had much interaction with anyone who is blind before. I was a little nervous at first, now of course I have no idea why, and the riding part was soo much easier than I thought it was going to be. Heck, I have to give Cara as much information while she is stoking the tandem as I do for Matt.....and Matt doesn't yell at me to slow down on fast winding descents :)

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I will post much more about our quest and what we need to do to get to Beijing. This is really just the beginning of what will probably be to say the least, an interesting adventure.....

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Chack out more info on the Paralympics here: http://www.usparalympics.org/