Race Day #1 - Lake Pueblo

Racing in April? Already? I'd like to think it was a warm-up race but I don't think such a thing exists since the effort never feels like a warm-up effort. If anything, it feels worse when it's early season! Knowing that that would be the case, Brant and I woke up bright and early on Sunday to head down to Pueblo for the Lake Pueblo Arkansas Point Challenge. Since we were making the two-hour drive it only made sense to race in the Sport category, which was 20 miles rather than 11 for the Beginner or 30 for the Expert. Rolling into the parking lot, it was evident it was a pretty relaxed vibe which was perfect. People were friendly and the typical chatter than masks pre-race nerves was abundant. Unfortunately, small races don't mean the nerves are any less. While roaming around the parking lot Brant came back and had asked if I saw the girl on the Stevens bike with quads bigger than my waist. I hadn't but was certainly curious and asked if it was Katie Compton, or KfC as she's otherwise referred to and the "f" isn't conveniently placed to tie her to Colonel Sanders. It's also not for her middle name unless her middle name is f'in (and that's being kid-friendly of course!). She's enough of a badass on a bike that she's definitely earned it. Arguably the best female cyclocross racer in the world right now and her palmares on a mountain bike and/or cyclocross bike are too long to list. My keen eye for attractive women on bikes (2 of my favorite things) had also spotted Kelli Emmett who's no slouch on a bike herself. She's an excellent mountain bike and cyclocross racer, and member of Team Giant. While she has her own remarkable palmares, one of my favorite things is her tattoo from winning the singlespeed championships in 2007. Have a look - I think you'll like it too! So here we are at an otherwise relaxed, early season race in the middle of nowhere with two of the best women that ride mountain bikes in the United States lining up with us. Pretty awesome!

Given the small overall field everyone lined up together. Expert/Pros first, then Sport, then Beginner, rightly assuming that the categories would get sorted out on the ride based on rider strength. The first 1-1.5 miles was on the road going uphill. The peloton pulled out hurriedly then slowed a touch. As it did the Expert field made it's way up the road. I was able to latch on to a guy and let him pull me up to that field and Brant followed my lead as we weaved through riders. Unfortunately for us, once we got to the back of that group they decided it was time to go and dropped the hammer. I was apparently part of the hammer since I, too, was dropped. Once at the top though, it switched to a sidewalk and the pace quickened since the hole shot to singletrack was quickly approaching and it's imperative to get in the right position. I was able to make my way by a handful of riders but got stuck trying to make my last move. This ended up costing me a little bit since I was faster than this guy early on but couldn't get by. There were little cacti on the outside the path making passing there an unattractive option. I had bumped tires with him a couple times to let him know I was there, and also verbally asked to be let by a few times. This lasted maybe 2 miles. At one point we were going uphill and he stalled. I bumped his tire again and lost all momentum so I got off my bike, pushed it uphill and hopped back on. I still didn't get by and the group I wanted to make contact with went farther up the trail. Finally he pulled over and I went off to the races pushing pretty hard trying to make contact. I figured that if I could bridge the gap, I'd be in good position to sit in and take advantage of the draft for a lot of the remaining miles. Part of the downside of early season racing is that I just didn't have the legs to fly up there on my own. A headwind didn't help. And that's not to take anything away from the guys in that group being strong riders. After all, that's why I wanted to be up there with them!

After pedaling in no-man's land I knew I had two options. Option 1 was to put out more energy than necessary working by myself and seeing if I could hold off the chase group. Option 2 was to ease up and get in that group and have people to work together. We still had more than half the race to go so I chose option 2. I led the group for a bit, then got passed by the same guy that wouldn't let me by earlier. He ended up being a strong rider at this point but we were out of tune with our abilities. I'd go up faster than him and stall, he'd descend faster than me. It made me expend more energy in/out of turns that necessary but that's part of racing. It's also solved by me having better descending abilities! Another few miles passed and one guy came through and went away, then the guy leading our pack pulled away just enough to make bridging difficult alone. We got to doubletrack and Brant pulled by me determined to get up to the other guys. Since he's 6'4", 195lbs, it's like drafting a bulldozer which worked well for me! Or so I thought it would. I went to take a drink and in the time I relaxed to do that, I fell out of his draft and didn't have the legs to get back on. No-man's land again.

I knew the race was getting close to the finish and another guy came by me. That was frustrating since I didn't want to give up any more positions. I don't know what his strategy was but since I knew we only had about 3-4 miles left, I wasn't letting him get away. I bridged the gap and hung on for 2 miles. Then it was back to the sidewalk and when I looked back there was another group working well together that was gaining ground. I told the guy I was with we needed to work together but he looked disinterested. I assumed he was playing games since he slowed down so much he was forcing me to take the lead while he would sit in for 1.5 miles and then outsprint me at the end. That kind of pissed me off so with 1.5 miles to go I did my own individual time trial. I started with a little surge and looked back to see if he was hanging in my draft. He was a little bit, but there was a bigger gap than I expected to see and that was all I needed. I shifted up to the big ring, put my head down and hammered the pedals. The effort was enough that every position caused me discomfort with each pedal stroke, but when I peaked back, my strateg was working and the gap was growing. I finally got to the bottom and knew I was safe. I was able to let up on the pedals a little bit but was still draped over the handlebars with my tongue hanging out. For 20 miles on a mountain bike, I covered it in 1hr 26min 20sec. That was good enough for 13th place out of 51 riders in the Sport category. Brant had a great race as well and finished 12th, exactly one minute ahead of me.

The normal post-race deconstruction/analyzing went on as normal, and that's part of the fun. As we were talking, I heard Brant yell and looked over my shoulder just in time to see Katie and Kelli duel it out in a sprint finish. After 30 miles (for the Pros), it came down to less than a second for these two. Goes to show that everything race counts no matter how big or small. Kelli had the inside line which propelled her to victory as she was able to keep Katie on the outside.

Since I've only been on my mountain bike about 7 times this year and have never really ridden a mountain bike seriously, I'm really happy with how this unfolded. My technical abilities need to be developed but that will come with more t.i.t.s. (time in the saddle). I said after the race that I felt like I had 45 minute legs for a race that was 1:30 and as my strength bumps up, I'll hope my results do too. Oh, and I won a sweet backpack from Specialized at the raffle which was worth about $100! Considering it only cost $25 to race, it added to the day being a success.

Fruita/Moab

Last Thursday, as part of YearOfAwesome (aka, YOA), I headed down to Fruita and Moab with Brant, Matt, Adam, and Nate. It's amazing that I've somehow lived here for 10 years and have never been there. What the hell have I been doing?! Fortunately I made up for lost time with this trip.

On Thursday we drove about 4 hours to Fruita where we stopped and warmed up with some loops at 18 Mile Road. The "warm-up" laps were much needed since I've only been on my mountain bike once this year and there's very little to be desired with my technical abilities. The trails were good, open, flowy singletrack which was exactly what I needed. What I didn't need, or could have done without is some of the ridges we were riding along and steep, tight descents. Brant and Matt made them look easy. Adam almost fell off the Earth on one of them but made it down safely. I made walking down a couple of them look as graceful as could be. It was still a blast though and after about 2.5 hours of riding we got some food and went the rest of the way into Moab.

We took a backroad into Moab which proved to be the better choice since we were in no real hurry. While driving through the canyon we took a quick pit stop so the boys could have a beer and just stretch out the legs (I was driving and didn't drink).

The next day we went to ride Slickrock and I can honestly say I don't think I've ever had more pre-ride anxiety in my life. It's basically like riding on sandpaper which is great because your tires hook up and get incredible traction. It's also terrible because if you fall, you're leaving a good chunk of skin right there. Fortunately, I made it through without any really bad crashes. Uhh, or at least until I got to the parking lot. I was so excited that I started riding a wheelie and took it a bit too far. The result? Me flipping my bike and ending up on my ass with a bloodied up elbow and bruised butt. Very smooth, I know.

After Slickrock my confidence got a lot better and the rest of the week was a blast. We rode Sovereign Trail, Porcupine Rim (which has a bit of riding that's a few feet from a 400 foot ledge), and Amasa Back Trail. Here's some of the pics from those rides:

It's Over

It's over. Ski season. Unfortunately it's gone now. Technically I think that A-Basin closes this weekend but I won't be around for it since the end of ski season means the weather's getting nicer and it's time to ride bikes. But before we get there, here's a few pics from the season. Okay, they're all actually from the same day but who's really keeping count. A couple weeks ago I took a Friday off work and Brant and I went up to Beaver Creek for the day. As luck would have it, it was snowing pretty good. As *my* luck would have it, we almost didn't get out of Denver. Once we did it was mostly smooth sailing. In fact, the sailing was so smooth that we drove right by the exit and kept going for an extra 15 miles or so. How two people don't even notice the freakin mountain out the left window is beyond me but it happened. A quick turn around later and we were on the hill which we almost had to ourselves. From the first run we knew it was gonna be a good day. Actually, it was probably the best day of skiing I had all year. Nice, soft powder and no lines whatsoever. We got a solid 4 hours of skiing in and could've kept going. But since we knew we were heading up to Aspen for the rest of the weekend, we didn't kill ourselves. Still, every run was as good as the last.






I started the season intent on getting 20 days in. Since that requires driving up at least once a weekend and a couple/few weekend trips, I didn't quite make it and fell about a week short. I got a total of 14 days which still isn't bad considering the snow wasn't always great. There's also the added nuisance of dealing with crowds and the cost of parking at the Vail Resorts mountains, but that's a different story. The good news is that I made some pretty good strides on my teles and am much more confident getting down the mountain on them now. It's a fun switch from the alpine skis when the conditions aren't as good. Turns out it's also fun on them on good days like when Matt and I skied at A-Basin. Perfect bluebird sky day.

MMMmmmmm...That Looks Good

Wanna learn how boring things are? Write a blog! I can't believe it's been since 2/7 since I've updated it last but it has. The good and bad news are I've seemingly fallen into a routine that I've been enjoying. It's not completely set, but I've been in the weight room Tuesday and Thursday nights, yoga Wednesday nights, skiing on the weekends, and fitting other workouts in around those. That includes the resurrection of two-a-days (they're not just for football players any more!).

My eating has cleaned up a lot in the last few weeks and I've been mostly good about sticking to it. The weekends present a challenge but since I'm not dead, I'm still going to enjoy things sometimes (like taco pizza and biscuits and gravy maybe?!). I'm also no expert on nutrition but doing 5 meals a day with about 400 calories each, and of the right foods, has really helped out with my stomach issues. If I had to put the top 3 things out there it would be these in no particular order: 1) Pay attention to, and abide by, serving size! A serving size is hardly ever the entire container. Hell, a bowl of cereal is most likely 1.5 - 2 servings. And if you pay attention to the sugar content, well that's just a lot of sugar. Segue? I think so.... 2) Cut back on the....wait for it......sugar! Processed sugar has no nutrtitive value. None. Zero. Yet a can of pop has about 41 grams of sugar in it. And all the shitty sugar substitutes aren't a legitimate excuse or replacement. Just start looking at labels and you'll see it adds up really really quickly. And guess what sugar turns into? If you said "fat" you were correct. 3) Unless you suffer from celiac disease, switch from white flour to wheat. Simply put, the first ingredient would read whole wheat flour. White flour, aka the other sugar, turns into fat. If you are allergic to wheat, then lucky you, it turns out they have almost everything you can think of available in a gluten free offering. Even restaurants are now offering gluten free dishes so there's really no excuse.

Now I'm sure that anyone who knows more about nutrition than me (which is almost anyone) could poke several holes in those, but they're a good start to re-vamping a diet. In the last 3.5 weeks, by following that and working out I've lost about 6 lbs (mostly fat) and have gained muscle. I'm expecting my weight will start moving back up as I put on more muscle so no one needs to get too alarmed.

As for my guilty pleasures, just to prove that I'm not completely obsessed about my diet, I offer you the following:

Exhibit A happens to be the most delicious breakfast burrito in the west that can only be found at Pete's Kitchen (home of waitresses that have bra snapping wars while the other is holding full trays of food). A breakfast burrito with bacon, covered in red chili and cheese would look a lot like this:

And since you need something good to wash it down with, why not do it with a Wisconsin Lunchbox? I know what you're thinking and you're right. The Sconny Lunchbox usually comes before the late night food, and this night was no exception. The breakfast burrito is like a sham-wow with how well it soaks up the alcohol!



For anyone still scratching their heads while looking at that picture that's trying to figure out if I'm drinking for breakfast, or just maybe gazing upon that picture with competing thoughts of "wow, that really looks delicious" and "just what in the hell is that," let me help you out. First, you're right. It does look delicious, and it is. For anyone trying to make this at home the recipe to delicious is simple. It's a half pint of beer (usually a good domestic beer like Miller Lite, Coors Light, etc. will do - PBR has been known to be very effective as well), top it off with a splash of orange juice and drop, yes drop, a shot of amaretto. Then chug. All at once. There will be a second during mid-chug where you're waiting for what you're certain is an impending doom of grossness. While your brain is processing that, your next thought will be 'holy shit I'm done and holy shit x2, that was delicious!' You're right. And you're welcome.

Lookout

With no new snow in the mountains, or at least not enough to make a significant difference in ski conditions on Saturday, Brant, Adam and I went out for a bike ride. From REI out to Lookout Mountain and back. Nice little ride, about 2.5 hours in total, gently rolling uphill on the way out and a slight decline on the second half of the way back. Oh yeah, there's also a 4.25 mile hill (Lookout Mtn) that sparked an impromptu TT/FTP test. Adam had been planning on it; Brant and I had not. Or at least I hadn't. Legs felt on and off on the ride out and when we got there I told Adam I'd carry his water bottle to make his bike lighter. Since it's always helpful to have rabbits up the road to chase, Brant went first. I waited about 3 minutes and then took off, followed by Adam about 2 minutes behind me. The first 100 yards I wasn't committed to the effort required and then......well I clearly just quit thinking otherwise I wouldn't have committed to the effort.

Tom Danielson holds the record up the hill at 16:02. On this day I was really almost right there with him, killing it with a time of around 26:00. Yes, you read that correctly. Tom Danielson can go up that hill 10 whole minutes faster than me. That's why he's a Pro Tour rider and I'm.....not. My best time up it was 24:48 on 8.31.09 and I held 273 watts (avg). The first time I ever timed it was in an annual race last year where I went up it in 25:34 with avg watts of 261. The good news is I have 3 months to add 10 watts to be on par with where my cycling was last year. Or I can add 20 watts to be where I was at the end of last season. I think it's do-able.

Changes Update

So part of the changes I've made include my diet. I joined a new gym recently and with it get two free sessions with a trainer/nutritionist I can use how I want. We talked about nutrition mainly and made the decision to cut down to 2000 calories/day based on 5 meals of 400 calories each. Since I'm adding muscle now that I'll shed once my endurance activites pick up more, we're looking at 160-170g or protein per day and each meal generally not having more than 10g of fat. Keeping sugars low which means no pop or Starbucks; no white breads (not a real problem for me), not much of things like orange juice, etc.

My initial thoughts? So far I've been able to stick to it but I had a follow-up discussion and asked how the hell they expect people to stick to a diet of water and whey protein shakes. I understand the science of it but disagree with the practicality of it. That said, I'll stick to it for a bit, see if I get some results and re-evaluate.

One other thing I've realized is that with only 400 calories/meal, I'm always hungry. There may be a 30 minute window after a workout that I'm satisfied, but otherwise I'm hungry. To be fair, I was probably over-eating before and my body needs to adjust, but I also think what I've been told is more of a gym rat approach and less of an endurance approach. I owe a visit to my old coach who is very "up" on all things nutrition so I'm gonna run it by him sometime soon.

Other updates? Well, I went to yoga the day after a really hard workout (with weights) and my arms were shaking doing the simplest things. Needless to say it made for a long session. It was also a pretty hard session, but I enjoyed that aspect of it. New things I hadn't done before, including a headstand. That was going well until my arms gave out and I came tumbling down. Good thing it wasn't a crowded class!

Spent the day today up at Keystone skiing on my teles. Doing a thousand lunges down the side of the mountain two days removed from a solid legs workout isn't the smartest thing, but I felt as good on the teles as I ever had. Pretty happy with the day.

Some Changes Comin'

After going back and forth for the first half of January I've finally decided to make some changes in how I train. Since this is kind of an experimental season I can do pretty much whatever the hell I want. That could mean my new plan with either be a good idea or a bust but either way I'm going to stick it out.

Let me set the stage first. At the end of last tri season when I was riding my MTB a lot more and then throughout CX season I realized I don't have a lot of explosive power on the bike. Being able to make sudden bursts with a lot of power is fairly important in those races, particularly in cyclocross since they say how you get off the line at the start is about 25% of the race. Guess where my position was coming off the line? Ready? Yep, close to last. I'd go hard but there wasn't enough power there to make a difference. That's gonna change.

I've decided to start a dedicated weight program that incorporates plyometrics, building up my core strength, and gaining some explosive power. It doesn't need to last long, but it needs to be there when I need it. I'm not getting overly carried away as I'm going to do it twice each week through March. And of course I'll still be swimming, cycling and running on every other day. I have no idea what the end result will be but I'm looking forward to seeing what happens just the same.

Along the same lines I'm making some changes to my diet. Better foods, less sugars and crap. I'm also going to start with aiming for 2,000 calories/day and adjust from there. I have a feeling that's going to leave me feeling hungry and weak but I'd rather start under than over. I'm certain this plan will by no means be executed with perfection but I'm still going to give it a real shot. Hopefully I'll have some good results to show for it once the season gets underway.