12hrs of Pine Log- Witches, and mtn bikers

This was my second team outing at the 12hrs of Pine Log. Early in the season I had thought about doing a 12/24hr race solo, but I had an epiphany along the way... I'm not interested in that kind of suffering. So, with no desire to do one of these things solo, I took up the offer to be on a team again. I was doing this event primarily for fun, but considering my teammates I knew we had a decent chance of winning.

The day was supposed to offer perfect weather. Clear skies and temps in the mid 70s is what was called for. Considering that meteorology is not a perfect science, it's not hard to imagine that the weather that was forecast, and the weather we got were two different things.
It was cloudy and windy for most of the day, so everyone was walking around in jackets, arm warmers, hats, you name it.
Cal was to be our lead off man, which suited me just fine as it meant I didn't have to do any of that running sh*t. Cal got to his bike around 8th or 9th and took off into the woods. Since I was second I didn't have long to get warmed up and ready for the hand off. With the weather conditions, getting warmed up took on a whole new meaning.

The course was almost 7 miles long, 6.7 miles to be exact. There's nothing much in the way of challenging terrain at Pine Log, but what it lacks in technical riding, it makes up for in speed. It is a hella fast course.

Cal, being the superhuman freak that he is, was the first rider out of the woods.
We tag and I take off. Our plan was to throttle it during the daylight hours, so then we could afford to ease up a bit during the night laps. The biggest challenge for me on that first lap was keeping focused because I was having trouble staying warm...I was trembling at times. That first lap I didn't see anyone until the last mile or so. I came across the line with a lap time around 27:39. I averaged what I thought was a blistering pace of 14.3mph, that is until Cal's next lap...

Cal, heading out on one of many laps

Cal was turning out consistent sub-26 minute laps! The rest of us were pretty close...28 minute or less lap times. By mid afternoon we had almost 20 minutes on the second place team, and to add to that the sun finally came out. The best time of the day for the second place team was 28 minutes, so with each rotation we were putting time into them.

Surly Pugsly, courtesy of Big Daddy Bike Shop

The sun is out!

As the sun goes down, the real suffering begins. We're all getting tired, and with the temperature dropping it's a real challenge to stay warm in between laps.

Base camp

Now, what would a race that takes place on the weekend before Halloween be without some creepy goings on?
As the sun set we started noticing people wearing some odd attire. Most were wearing robes or capes (not Superman,but Dracula style capes). I saw one dude dressed like a pirate, and he was standing by the restrooms singing "what do you do with a drunken pirate". It was at that point that I chalked it up to some people enjoying Halloween a little too much. I came in from my first night lap and sat down, only to take notice of drums beating. Now, I'm not talking about someone jamming on a drum set, I'm talking about a "natives are restless, ceremonial drumbeat" kind of drum sound. I ask if I'm the only one that hears it, and I am informed that on the other side of the trees they have a big ole campfire going, and they are dancing around it, chanting. Hmmm. Cal jokes that it's a bunch of witches and that they're going to sacrifice a mtn biker. Up until Cal's remark, I had chalked this up to a bunch of people REALLY getting into Halloween. Earlier in the day I had parked in the group camping area (thats where we were going to setup our base camp), and I took notice of a bumper sticker on one of the cars. It read, and I quote "Get a taste of religion- Lick a witch". There were also a couple of "Goddess" type of stickers on the car as well.

Chilly night laps...brrrr

Later we were also told that they had a seance over there. Someone also overheard them announce "that all the kids participating in the children's ritual should come on over, as it is about to begin". Were they just having one hell of a Halloween bash, or something more? I have no idea. All I do no is, those damn drums were still going when I left to go home at 11pm. Allow me to add how that particular situation played with one's head while out on the trail all alone in the middle of the night.

Let's get back to racing...
By sunset we had lapped the second place team. Thank God I only had to do one full night lap. I came in at 8:30 and Rachel went out with a mission to make Cal do another lap. Both Rachel and Philip busted their asses to get back in time.
(Note: the rules for this race said that you could only go out for another lap if you had time to complete a lap before the 12hrs was up, and if you came in after 10pm your last lap did not count).
Philip comes in at 9:29 and Cal is forced to go out again. Cal came across the line with like 1 minute left to go.
Our final tally was 25 laps completed. 3 of us did 6 laps, and Cal did 7. Our prize for 1st place was $500, which didn't hurt my feelings any. We also set a course record. In the 5 years that the race has been taking place, no team has ever done 25 laps.

I really enjoyed the racing, but even more importantly I enjoyed the time with friends.

Will we do it again next year? Possibly. Maybe we'll shoot for 26 laps.

No rest for the weary

Today training commenced for the 2007 season. I would've liked some more down time, but to be able to peak for my first 'A' race next year I had to get started right now. For the next 4 weeks I'll be in the Preparation phase, or what the coaches call "training to train". My workout schedule will be made up mostly of weight training, so in a way I will get some down time from riding. I'll still be doing some riding, but no structured workouts, and will most likely do some of my riding on the mtn bike.

The legs are still kinda crispy today. I think it'll take a couple more days for the soreness to go away. Cal was trying to get me to do the Gar Pond Gallop, but considering how shot my legs are, that's not gonna happen.

That was hard

I survived yet another installment of the 12hrs of Pinelog. I'm still tired, so I'm not gonna go into too much depth right now.
It was a long 12hrs, but we won, and we won with panache. In the late afternoon we lapped second place, and when we were done we also ended up with an event record. We logged 25 laps, and no team had ever done 25 laps before. All in all it was a good day.

Look for a full report in another day or so. I even have a couple of pics too.

Pinelog bound

In a few hours I'll be heading out for the 12hrs of Pinelog. I've got everything packed and ready to go, so for once I should be able to leave without obsessing over last minute details. It may take me till Monday or Tuesday to post a write up about it, but I'll get to it.

All Base and no Max makes Johnny a slow boy?

In the world of exercise science, ever so often a concept comes along that challenges the status quo. For years, the idea has been that in the off season cyclists do lots and lots of "base" miles to build your aerobic capacity, but at the same time NOT do any maximal efforts, for fear of undoing your base work. Well, it appears that is up for some debate.
It makes sense, but I would like to know how "small" of an amount is needed.

Fall is in the air

I had to make an unscheduled trip to North Carolina, and I took the opportunity to do some road biking while I was there.

There are worse places to ride.

I came back to the last Tuesday Worlds of the year. Since it was the last one of the year the turnout was really good. I had really good legs today, and held my own...even covering a couple of attacks, and managed to save enough gas in the tank for the finish sprint (which I didn't win, but I wasn't expecting to win against the likes of Cal). I was just thrilled that I had some juice left to give the sprint a go.
This weekend is the 12Hrs of Pinelog, and everything is a go. We just haven't registered yet, as the topic of a team name seems to be a hang up...I didn't realize that it was something that required that much thought, but what do I know.
Starting Monday I'll be taking a couple weeks off from regimented rides. I'll ride a couple, three times a week just for fun.

That's depressing

Hit up the Tuesday Worlds again. This was the second to last one for the year. Cal and I were chatting, and he commented on my new Powertap. He asked me if I was gonna be doing a whole power based training plan, to which I replied, "yep, sure am." Cal proceeds to tell me that he doesn't follow any structured training plan. He'll just go out 3-4 weeks before an event and do some training specific to the needs of the upcoming event.

When he told me that, my first thought was "You suck!" I wanted to push him off his bike. He's pretty damn fast/strong right now, can you imagine if he followed a structured plan? The dude would be damned near untouchable in competition. If I ever want to throw down with Cal, I better pray that he doesn't start training seriously, othewise I might as well hang it up right now.

This is some funny sh*t!

If you haven't listened to Dave Zabriskie's podcasts, you need to do yourself a favor and listen to some of them. DZ has got to be the goofiest dude in the ProTour peloton (and I mean that in a good way).

WKO+

I've started using some awesome software by Cyclingpeaks. It's their WKO+ program, which is a full power analysis package.One of the most exciting aspects of it is the Performance Manager, which gives you the potential to predict performance, based on your training load.


It's cutting edge stuff... Training Stress/training load is like the new frontier for sports physiologists. Lots of new research will be done on it.
I'm really looking forward to using this software to its fullest potential.

Suffering for your sport

The 24 Hrs of Moab was this past weekend, and it sounds like it was a real sufferfest, complete with some post race drama. Between that and the action at the Solo Worlds a week ago I think I'll pass on doing any solo 24hr events.

Power tools

The last couple of days I've been enjoying using my new Powertap. It's been interesting to see the correlation between a given wattage and HR. It was like I was only getting part of the picture before. I tried doing an FTP (Functional Threshold Power) test the other day, and while I put in a good effort (and didn't come up with a totally embarrassing number) the legs didn't have a snap to them.

It's gonna be great being able to gauge my efforts better. One thing that you HAVE to do in training, whether you're using a power meter or HR, is know what a given effort feels like. When I was using HR exclusively, after a while I learned to recognize what my threshold HR felt like, and if I looked down at my monitor, sure enough I was right around my threshold rate. The reason for this, is you can't always be staring at your computer/HR monitor...especially in a mtn bike race. That's a recipe for disaster.
Anyway, back to being able to gauge my efforts better... Since I know what a given HR feels like, I can take a glance at my watts and see how the two compare, and either back off a bit, increase my effort, or perhaps cut the ride short.

Now, one thing you aren't gonna see here is any reference to my actual wattage numbers. They're just numbers, and don't mean much by themselves. The most you'll ever get from me on the subject is whether or not I am pleased with some numbers.

I bet the numbers from tomorrow's group ride will be interesting, to say the least.

2007 Race Season

I'm starting to put together my '07 race calendar. I'm doing this now, because I'll have to have this calendar laid out when I go to plan out my training program.

So, without further ado...

Sean's 2007 race calendar (tentative)

• 4/1-SERC #3- Bryson City, NC
• 4/15-SERC #4- Athens, Ga
• 5/6- SERC #5- Ducktown, Tn
• 6/3- BUMP-N-Grind- B'ham, AL
• 6/16 & 17- SERC #7- Fontana, NC
• 7/19-22- US Nat'l MTB Championships- Mt Snow, Vermont
• 7/28 & 29- NMBS #6- Sugar Mtn, NC

There are some events that don't have dates yet, and some of the above dates might change, so this is all I can do at the moment.

Who turned on the A/C?

Got out on the bike for an hour today, and the temp was 60 degrees, so it was time to pull out the arm warmers. I know, I know..."just look at that Florida boy, can't handle the cooler temperatures." Ya damn right! I don't have the insulation I used to have.

I've got the power!

The new Powertap is laced to my wheel, and all hooked up and ready to go. I took it for a spin this afternoon, and while I didn't do any testing, the experience was eye opening. I spent my time seein' what different wattages felt like. It didn't take long for me to realize that I was in the stone age when I was training solely with HR. I can already see the potential for serious improvement when I start training for next season.
The amount of data that is collected can be daunting for the uninitiated. For anyone considering purchasing a power meter, I highly recommend the book "Training and Racing with a Power Meter" by Hunter Allen and Andrew Coggan. Parts of the book border on techno babble and take reading it a few times to get an idea of what those boys are talkin' about, but it's good stuff.

I'm planning on not doing any formal testing(for threshold power + strengths & weaknesses) till after my 2 week break, but curiosity might get the better of me, which means I might have to break down and do the tests in the next week or so.

I would imagine that quite a few cyclists who train with a power meter use it as a bragging tool. They'll gladly tell you at every chance that their "threshold power is X watts" or somethin' along those lines. It's all well and good that you can produce a certain number of watts for X amount of time, but there's more to it than that. Having a Ferrari doesn't make you a great race driver...sure, that car gives you the potential, but it takes more than a big engine. You might be able to produce upwards of 5.5-6 watts/kg and if you don't know tactics and strategy then you could probably be beaten by a beginner.

Tuesday Worlds

I was back out on the road for yet another installment of the Tuesday World Championships. I've been learning some things about pacing and riding in a bunch, so I was eager to put it into practice. Not 5 minutes into the ride and a couple of the speed freaks were off the front. That left Cal with our group, and being the only guy capable of driving a pace that could catch the break, he wasn't in any mood to set a pace to reel them in. Needless to say we just let them do their thing. As it turns out, Cal cut his ride short (probably still recovering from the race on Sunday), so that left a group of about 7 or 8 of us.

As I said, I was commited to being more aware of my pacing and certain group tactics, and I did much better this time. Heck, I even attacked a couple times. The first was a full blown sprint up a hill, and the second one was towards the end of the ride. As a result of that attack I ended up winning the sprint...not that it ended up being a sprint.
I took my final pull in the closing mile/s of the ride and I knew that if there was indeed a sprint then I would be at the back, and not in a good position to make a bid for the sprint finish, so I decided to stay in the front and drive the pace. I think the guy behind me got wise to what I was doing and came around me, and the rest of the group followed. I got on the back, and immediately came around the other side and throttled it. I got on top of a tall gear and just concentrated on turning those cranks. I came up even with the leader, and passed him. Someone made an attempt to pass me, but they just couldn't do it...and I held off everyone till the end.

Now, if I did that with the faster guys in attendance, then I'd really have something to brag about. As it is though, it just made me pleased that my legs had that much snap in them after only one day of R&R after the race.

Ride stats:
Time- 1:18
Distance- 32 miles
Avg Speed- 24.3mph
Max speed- 33.5mph

Lookie what I got!

That's right. A Powertap, baby! It's a Powertap SL, to be exact. I could tell you how much I paid for it, but then I'd have to kill you. I got a killer deal, let's just leave it at that. I'm looking forward to training with power. This past season I saw firsthand the limitations of training solely with heart rate.

Today is the usual Tuesday World Championships. I'm hoping I can hang after Sunday's race. The legs feel pretty good, so I think I'll be good to go.

Competition

The comment was just made how the Beginner class in the FSC series is much more competitive than say, the SERC series...possibly the equivalent of the SERC Sport classes. I don't know about that, but one thing is for sure...the level of competition has grown all across the board.
Last year when I raced at Tom Brown, I came in 7th out of 14 Beginner 35-39 racers. The winner last year averaged 12.05 mph, and this year the top 7 finishers all had faster avg speeds than that. I'm sure that the route of the course played into that some, but methinks that everyone is getting faster.

I don't know if the Beginner classes are this fast throughout the rest of the country, but if they are, the definition of what constitutes the beginner class will have to be updated.

Season in review

My season started back in April and so it has been a long one. While I didn't do a lot of racing during the season, I was doing a lot of training. I won some races, and I learned a lot about race strategy. As a matter of fact, learning race strategy is exactly why I didn't move up to Sport after winning a race. The strategy will come in handy for the more experienced classes that I'll be competing in next year.
I learned that I do well when the course goes up, and I learned that on flatter courses I have to get a very good start...even if I have to redline myself to do it. This is something I was thinking about last night, and this morning even. Yesterday I said I'd rather risk a mediocre start(for times that I don't get on the front row) than tangle and go down at the start. Upon reflection, I think it is better to adopt a "no guts, no glory" attitude towards starts. Just don't settle for anything less than a good position when entering the trail. If it isn't a mountain course, then you need to be prepared to go in the red and get yourself into the top 5 at the start. When training for next season starts you can bet that 'starts' will be something that I will be working on.

The 2006 season had the highest of highs, and some pretty low 'lows'. I think I made a wise decision to pull the plug on the remainder of my season, as I'm already excited about what possibilities are in store for the 2007 season. I still have the Pinelog race to concentrate on for now, but once that is over I'll take a couple weeks off from structured training, and then around mid Nov. start up again.

I ran outta race- FSC #3 race report

I had some bad mojo to cleanse after my disastrous outing at Hanna Park 2 weeks ago, so I came into Tallahassee looking to kick some butt and make up for Jax.

I arrived in Tally on Sat. afternoon and went directly to Tom Brown Park to register and pre-ride the course. I met up with, and pre-rode the course with Cal & Rachel. It was nice having some fellow FWB peeps to ride with. The course was essentially the same as last year, but with a couple changes...the biggest being that it was now being run in the opposite direction of last year's course. Upon riding it the first go-round I immediately gave it a thumbs up. It flowed nicely, and not long after entering the woods you were greeted with a sustained climb (that's right up my alley!).
There was one section though that was cause for concern. Not long after entering the woods you make a hard left turn and go down this rooty, eroded descent. The best line was, or I should say only line was on the left side. Venture too far over to the right and you could get your front wheel stuck in a hole and end up going over the handlebars (something that Cal experienced firsthand). During the pre-ride I cleaned that section, but I was still concerned about what would happen when you have a bunch of riders trying to go down it at speed during the race. As it turns out, my fears were unfounded and nobody (at least in my group) got hung up there. I saw a Sport class female with a bloody chin, and later in the day an ambulance and fire truck made an appearance at the race...carrying someone off. I suspect both of those injuries were sustained at that spot.

Since the white wave went off at 9:30am at the Jax race, we weren't going until 11:30am this time around. With that in mind I made it a leisurely Sunday morning. I still got up early because I wasn't sure if Cal was gonna need feed zone support. After my routine pre-race breakfast (Fruit & Nut pancakes, minus the nuts- Mmmm, yummy!), I made my way to the venue so I could watch the Sport and Expert classes.

After lounging the morning away I got ready, warmed up, and did a last minute check of the bike. I made my way over to the start line thinking I, for once, had gotten their in time to get a first row position. Boy, did I call that one wrong. Second row position. Again. Dammit to hell! I was shoehorned in there, so I wasn't gonna get too frisky on the start...I didn't want to tangle handlebars with someone and go down in the first 50ft of the race.

So, the race starts and with my lousy position I probably am somewhere in the upper teens to 20s as we enter the woods. It should be noted right here, that after that initial 50-75ft I can start sustaining a pace that no one passes me...I hold my position, so I think that if I just got on that damned front row I'd do pretty good, at least a top 10 position.
Anyway, that tricky descent is the first test. I nail the line and go scooting thru that section. The climb starts in a few hundred yards, and that's where I start reeling people in. I past 3 or 4 riders during that climb, so at this point I'm feeling really good, the legs are turning over nicely. The next section is some nice flowing singletrack, but it runs along an embankment, so passing spots are few. Despite this I still manage to get around a few more riders, some of whom are from the 19-29 class. The next singletrack sections are tight and twisty in places, and with my height and broad shoulders...most of you know that tight and twisty is not my fave. When you hit the climbs in the open fields you know you're nearing the end of your lap. Getting out of that tight & twisty doesn't come soon enough. Give me a sustained climb any day! By the time I get to the top of the last climb I'm sitting around 10th. The first lap is almost in the books. Just as soon as I can make it around the BMX track without going over the handlebars or doing a backflip. Let me tell you, after racing at or near your limits for 30 minutes and then have to deal with getting around a BMX track intact takes big time concentration.

On my second lap I catch up with someone from my class and I pass him on that first climb. He tells me that he wasn't too far off from the rest of the group. Nothing like a little extra motivation, right? He sticks on my wheel for a while before dropping off the pace. I come across the occasional rider, most of whom are from other classes. As I near the final climbs I've started catching up with some 30-39 guys. As I near the final section of singletrack, I see a couple guys ahead of me, but with the winding nature of the trail I can't tell how close they are. It's not until I exit the woods and make my way to the BMX track that I see how close (or far, depending on one's point of view) I am. One of them is not in my class, and unfortunately he's the closest one to me. I tried to reel that guy in but I just didn't have enough space to do it. I crossed the finish line a few seconds behind him. I asked the guy if he knew what position he finished. He wasn't 100% sure, somewhere between 4th & 6th. Hmm, if that's the case then that means I finished 5th-7th.

As it turns out, that guy finished 5th. I came in 6th...just off the podium. If there had been an extra 1/4 mile, or even an extra few hundred yards I would've gotten past that guy too. When he crossed the finish line he was cooked. He got off his bike at the finish line and sat down on the spot. It was a chore for him to answer me when I asked his position.
That said, if there had been a 3rd lap I have no doubt that I would've reeled in more of the top 5. As it was, I just ran out of race.

While I'm still miffed about the start, I have no complaints about my performance once I entered the woods. In two laps I went from around 20th position up to 6th. Nobody passed me, even from other classes. I passed aggressively (fortunately everyone was willing to let me pass), and I rode cleanly. This last part of my season didn't go as planned, but that's racing. I do have a NORBA Nat'l win, so I think I can still call my freshman season a success. Don't you?

I have more to add, but it's been a long day.

The woods are alive...intruder beware!

Gotta watch out for the flora when out on the trails.

A branch made an attempt at cutting my throat during yesterday's mtn bike ride.

Final countdown

Today was my last training day before my race. Actually, I don't think you could call what I did "training", because I decided not to do any intervals today. The legs still felt a wee bit tired, so I opted for a low to mid intensity 1hr ride on the roadie, and then I attended the group mtn bike ride. During my rides I was thinking that maybe I should go ahead and do some intervals, but sitting here after the fact I think I made the right decision.
Friday will be a total rest day, and then Saturday I'll turn a couple laps pre-riding the course...nothing too intense.

I'm trying out a new beta version of blogger. Lots of neato behind the scenes additions. I took the opportunity to change up the look too.

Hammered

As I suspected, after yesterday's hammer session on the road the legs weren't feelin' snappy, so I called an impromptu R&R day today. I figure that at this point one more interval session ain't gonna matter. If my fitness isn't good enough then that extra session of intervals won't help. Tomorrow morning I think I'll go for a nice spin, maybe even do a couple of intervals just to keep the legs ready for the action to come. I'll do the group mtn bike ride in the afternoon and then I'll be done until I pre-ride the course on Sat.

Group Hammerfest-10/3

I made it out for another group road ride, and having been on 2 of them I can safely say that it is some of the toughest riding I've done this side of racing. I didn't get dropped this time, but I had to bury myself a couple times to hang onto a wheel. There is a big learning curve to riding in a bunch, let me tell ya. I kept getting surprised by the sudden accelerations when a strong/fast rider would take a pull. One second I'm about a wheel length behind someone, the next second I'm almost a bike length behind. I've just got to pay close attention as to whose turn it is, and be prepared to bump up the pace a little.

The other thing I have to do is get more comfortable sticking to someone's wheel. If I get anything closer than a wheel length to the person in front of me, my proximity alarms go off. I've just gotta get more comfortable with hugging the wheel in front of me. When I resolve those two issues I'll do just fine...and I think that experience will be the best teacher. I think I've impressed some of the old timers with my strength, they seem surprised at how new I am to road biking.

That said though, these rides can add a whole new dimension to one's fitness. Riding with people of this caliber HAS to make you stronger/faster. I know for a fact that one of the guys is a Cat2, and I know that a couple of the others have to be at least Cat2s or 3s. You can't keep riding with people like that and not benefit from it.

The group rides end on 10/24, and my goal is during one of the remaining rides to save a bit towards the end so I can contest the sprint. I won't win it, but I just want to show that I have a little something left to give.

After today's ride I'm prepared to alter my race week training program. The legs feel decent right now, but come tomorrow if they're not peppy then I'll abandon my training plans and then do a recovery ride on Thursday. I don't want to do anything to jeopardize this weekend's race. As far as the Florida Series goes, Tallahassee is as close as it gets to a home course...so I really want to do well there.

Ins-n-Outs

Coming off my road ride yesterday I ran into Cal & Rachel (I'll be riding with them at the 12Hrs of Pinelog), and the subject of the Tues group road ride came up. I knew that road racing has a lot of strategy involved (moreso than mtn biking), but I had no idea of the nuances of a leisurely group ride. Here are a few nuggets that Cal & Rachel passed on.
For starters, it is important that I learn who is who...in other words, who are the fast people. The reason for that is, if you're getting ready to take a pull at the front and one of those fast people is behind you then you don't want to take a really hard pull or run the risk of getting dropped when it comes time for that fast person to take the next pull.

That one certainly makes sense. I had already seen the folly of taking too hard of a pull. I was planning on putting a cap on my pull efforts, and this little bit of info was just further reinforcement.

The next thing is, there is also some...well, I'll call it inter-personal conflicts. Apparently, there are some bad feelings between some people on the ride and arguments can ensue, etc, etc. Now why is that important? You don't want to be behind the people who are sparring, as you might inadvertently get dropped when one of them 'sits up' to get back at the other one...or some other childish act.

People. Can't live with 'em, can't kill 'em.

6 days to go

Today begins the race week taper, in preparation for Sunday's race in Tallahassee. I'm gonna take a bit different approach to this weeks training than I did for the Jax race. While my legs didn't feel bad at the Jax race, I think that pushing the hard efforts right up till Thursday surely didn't do me any good. So, my new plan is to give it a medium intensity effort today, and use tomorrow's group ride as a high intensity effort, and then do some intervals on Wed, and wrap up the week with a recovery-ish kind of ride on Thursday.
That'll give me Thurs, Fri, & Sat to get recovered and be ready to fire on Sunday.