Cyclocross Season Update

Cyclocross season is in full swing now, and it has been several races since I've updated this thing.  Since Hermann I've done several races.  The first of these was Manions, which is essentially on a big hillside by the Missouri River. During the first day it was rainy and very muddy.  I was doing pretty well in the open race and handling the mud surprisingly well, but then my rear derailleur snapped off and my race was over.  I had my singlespeed in the pit, but the awful tires I had on it at the time were not worth the trouble of trying to finish the race. Thus, I had a rare DNF, which I really hate to do. Below is a photo of one of the several muddy areas that people were running that day.

I left the race and got my bike fixed so I could race the next day.  It dried up very well and turned out to be a packed in, tacky mud that was perfect to race on.  I felt pretty good and ended up finishing 8th out of the 24 that started.  I was pretty content with a finish in the top 1/3 and also content that I was able to finish ahead of some people that I couldn't get ahead of last year.  As can be seen in the photo below, Mr. Stitches was utilized in the course this year.  A select few rode it, but not me.

Next up was the 360 Cup in Lawrence, KS.  This is typically a pretty fast course with technical sections worked in that always seems more hilly than it appears.  The first day didn't go so great.  First, my legs weren't quite there, but that is something that I can usually deal with.  The problem I had was tire pressure.  I wasn't quite used to my FMB tubulars, and I don't think I had enough pressure in them.  As a result, I ended up having my bike slide out from under me on multiple turns, and one of these caused my chain to fall off.  I eventually grabbed my singlespeed out of the pit and finished the race in 11th out of 18 starters, but it was slightly disappointing.  The second day went better since I added pressure to my tires and didn't slide out in turns, but I still wasn't super excited about my result.  10th out of 19 starters isn't terrible, but I always like to be in the top half.

Cross Out Cancer was the next race I did at Shawnee Mission Park.  I've only done it for two years, but I think it is safe to assume that it will be a windy and fairly bumpy race in the future.  The field wasn't as stacked as I expected, and I ended up finishing 4th out of 11 people.  It is a very good result, but I take it with a grain of salt since several people weren't there that probably would have given me a run for my money.

Finally, this past weekend was Gateway Cross Cup in St. Louis.  I did this event two years ago and loved it, so when I knew I had to be in St. Louis anyway I thought it to be quite convenient that this event was going on.  We had limited space in the car and time constraints, so I did the singlespeed races.  The first day was a brutally terrible start for me and on the first lap I was as far back as 10th out of the 23 starters.  I finally found my legs for the most part and was able to climb up to 3rd to finish on the podium.  Craig Etheridge crushed it and won, while Peat Henry came in second.  Here is me chasing early on.

Here is the day 1 podium with two of the craziest guys I could imagine!

Day 2 was a smaller field and Etheridge was not present at the start, so the winner of the race wasn't known before it even started.  A group of 4 of us pulled away pretty quickly, and it ended up being just Peat and I for the last half of the race or so.  We took turns trying to crack each other, but stayed together until the final lap.  It was here that he decided to put his crazy bike handling skills to use and start destroying me on the technical areas, and I wasn't able to match him in the tight turns.  As a result, he opened up a small gap and I finished 3 seconds behind him.  Another podium finish is always good, but I definitely need to keep working on my handling.  Here is the day 2 podium...

... and me getting some love from the podium girl.

Dogfish Cross - Hermann, MO

This weekend I raced in the Dogfish Cross races in Hermann, MO.  This was my third year I've gone to the event and it never ceases to amaze me.  Jeff Yielding and crew do such an awesome job with the event and it is always top class.  This year they decided to avoid doing the entire stair section (I think it has 47 or so) and only did about 1/3 of it.  While I am not one to shy  away from running, not having to run 47 stairs 10+ times was a relief.  It has been quite dry lately, so both days were very dusty.

The Saturday night race under the lights was nice and cool.  During my warmup I was wishing I had something with long sleeves to stay warm, but as soon as the race started it was perfect.  There were 36 or so of us at the line, but only 30 finished.  I didn't get off to a great start since I was messing with my Garmin while the officials were talking to us and wasn't expecting the start whistle when it went off.  It didn't have much of an impact, but I was pretty tentative through the first several turns and fell to near the back of the group fairly quickly.  I finally got in a groove when the bunch started spreading out and I ended up in a group with 4 or 5 other guys.  At this point I made another mistake and sat in with the group for at least a few laps. I was pretty comfortable at that pace, which should have been an indication that I needed to attack, maintain my own pace, and suffer a little bit.  The group eventually dwindled to Peat Henry and I, and I eventually was able to pull away and ended up alone for the last 1/3 of the race.  Near the end I was reeling in the riders who finished 15th and 16th, but I ran out of time.  I finished 17th out of the 36 that started, so I was pretty content considering how last year I probably would have been near the back of the field.

Photo taken by Brian Singer.

On Sunday there were 28 or so starters and I made a concerted effort to ride my own pace and not get comfortable riding in a group.  I also did much better at the start to not just give up ground, but rather I held my line and tried to stay closer to the front.  I was mostly alone during the race and was able to slowly pick off riders here and there.  I knew things were going well when some of these riders were names of people who normally would have crushed me in years past.  I ended up finishing 8th out of the 18 that finished, so this was probably the best result I've ever had.  I've won some races in SS and lower geared categories, but finishing high up in an open category race is an entirely different challenge.  My wife told me that I was gaining on positions 6 and 7 near the end and I got within 8 seconds of them at the end.  So while I'm very content with the result, apparently it was close to being better.

Reflecting on the weekend, including my results and how I felt while racing, it is clear my training this year is drastically better than it has ever been.  I knew that coming in to the races, but I wasn't sure if it would translate into results or not.  I'm not getting too excited since there is no guarantee I'll produce high finishes throughout the rest of the season, but it is a nice start that I am pretty happy with.

2013 Gravel World Championships

I raced the Gravel World Championships yesterday on my SS in Lincoln, NE.  It was 150 miles that included almost 8,000 feet of climbing and took 10 hours and 51 minutes for me to complete.  I was actually riding for less than 10 hours, but there was a break worked in that I'll explain later in the post.  It was put on by the Pirate Cycling League, which is an organization that I think works on donations only.  The race didn't even have an entry fee, but they did an awesome job that would rival races with high entry fees.  Hopefully that means the donations are flowing because they are fantastic.

The race started in the dark at 6:00 AM and spread out quickly.  A lot of the people riding gears took off fast, but I had decided beforehand that I wanted to try to go with a more measured approach to avoid cracking later in the race.  At mile 11 I was in a line of riders going down a hill and the second guy ahead of me lost control and crashed hard.  I was pretty sure I was going down with him when it first happened, but somehow the guy right in front of me steered around him and I was able to steer even wider around that guy. I was very lucky, but the guy that went down wasn't.  I heard he dislocated his shoulder, but at least he was in good spirits hanging around the event when I was finished later in the day.

I rode with a group for the first 35 miles or so until the first of three checkpoints.  I refueled and bought a Nebraska lottery ticket, which is a requirement to provide proof that you went to the checkpoints since they get stamped with the appropriate information.  Part of the deal is that everyone has to give their lottery tickets to the PCL when they are done, so hopefully they win big!  When I left my original group was broken up, but I somehow ended up with 3 other singlespeed riders and rode with them for a while.  We got separated when I was on the back and the group missed a turn that I knew we had to make since my Garmin was guiding me. I stopped and yelled at them and rode on when they turned around.  My original intention was to ride pretty easy until they caught up, but they never did.  As a result, I was riding alone passing geared riders here and there.  I decided to hit it pretty hard when one of them told me a guy on a fixed gear was up ahead.  So from about mile 45 until mile 115 I was all alone and hitting it pretty hard since I had aspirations of winning the SS category.

I caught the fixed gear rider around mile 75 and I could tell he was in some pain, so I passed him while riding an intense pace to hopefully deter him from trying to keep up.  It seemed to have worked pretty well and at the second checkpoint at around mile 85 I was informed that I was the first SS rider to come through.  Knowing I was leading made me continue pushing hard, but all this intensity and solo riding started to catch up to me at around 100 miles in to the race.  This was around the most hilly section of the entire race and the heat was starting to pick up a lot.  This is also where the race turned south into a strong headwind.  I quickly faded and was in a bad place with how I felt.

I limped in to the third checkpoint at mile 115 and thought I might have to pull the plug.  I had the typical overheating symptoms (chills, eating/drinking made me feel sick, etc), so I went inside the convenience store and sat in the air conditioning for at least half an hour.  This is where the discrepancy between my time for the event and actual riding time occurred.  John Mathias, a former master's category gravel world champion that I've done some gravel riding with lately, rolled in and talked me in to continuing the race.  It didn't hurt that the fixed gear rider I had passed earlier also rolled in around that time.  Those two things combined made me decide that I needed to at least try to finish.  Had I not been leading the SS category I would have called for someone to come pick me up, but giving up while leading just didn't make any sense to me.

The next 35 miles were brutal.  My average speed would probably be embarrassing to see for that section, but I wasn't losing any more spots so I figured everyone was in some pain.  I hated myself to do it, but I actually had to walk a couple of the bigger hills in the last 10 miles.  My legs just wouldn't cooperate, and the effort required for even small hills made me feel like I was going to pass out.  My 42x16 gearing, while fantastic on flat stretches where I can push the pace, definitely did me no favors with those climbs.  There was a surprise checkpoint with 10 miles to go to keep everyone honest, and someone there told me that two other SS riders had already been through.  While I knew this would be impossible since I hadn't been passed by anyone on geared or SS since I was told I was in first at mile 115, my cooked brain accepted it as true and I just wanted to finish.

I finally rolled in nearly 11 hours after starting and Corey, one of the organizers with the PCL, immediately shook my hand and congratulated me for being the SS gravel world champion.  It turns out the people at the surprise checkpoint were ill informed and I was still leading.  I was passed in that last 10 miles by a very fast female racer whose name I do not know and Britton Kusiak and his wife on their tandem, but other than that it was just me watching my Garmin slowly tick down the miles.  There were a lot of strong riders that either pulled out of the race or finished in well over 12 hours, so the difficulty of the course, the weather, etc should not be overlooked.  The official results indicated that 112 finished out of 203 riders, so with just over 50% finishing I think that is a pretty good indicator of how difficult the race was.  Results are here:

http://gravelworlds.com/wpgw/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Finish-Roster.pdf

It turns out I didn't follow my strategy of pacing myself very well, but it all worked out in the end.  For future gravel events, such as the Dirty Kanza or future renditions of this event, I'll have to do better at not burning through my energy too early so I can be more consistent throughout.  I'm lucky it worked out yesterday and I'm now a gravel world champion.  With my struggles and relatively slow overall pace I almost feel like the win isn't deserved, but then again maybe working through those struggles is what these long events are all about.  

Me in my world champion jersey.  Thanks to David Neidinger for the photo.

Gravel Worlds

A quick update... I'm so smitten by this gravel stuff that I decided to beg, plea, and grovel for a spot in the Gravel Worlds on 8/24 in Lincoln, NE.  Somehow I got in, and it probably didn't hurt that I threw out the name Joe Fox since he is a regular at these big gravel events.  So now I have 150 miles of single speed gravel ecstasy to look forward to!  This might be a lofty goal, but I'd love to finish in less than 10 hours.

2013 Farmhouse Classic

Yesterday was the 5th annual Farmhouse Classic gravel race, which was the second gravel ride I've ever done.  The first was the practice ride of the course last week, and after two gravel rides I'm pretty much hooked.  From the sound of tires cutting through the gravel to the peaceful tranquility of deserted gravel roads, it is a blast.  The race went very well and I got 1st place in the singlespeed category and 4th overall.  The weather was perfect, which combined with eating and drinking a lot made me feel really great throughout the ride.  I probably should have ended up 5th overall because Brian West (a really fast guy) got lost and ended up riding an extra 8 miles, but I would have been just as happy with that result.  I think Micah Gordon probably would have challenged me for the SS win if he would have had the course in a Garmin and a bigger gear, but I guess we'll never know.  Here is me stopping at mile 90 or so since I wanted a picture on the record for the event.  This was right after the hill I like to call the Alp d'Gravel (a nod to the Tour de France), which is a seemingly big hill that definitely hurts on a SS.

Next up is another couple weeks of hard riding followed by a rest period of a few days just to make sure I don't enter cross season fatigued.  It looks like my next race will be the weekend of 8/24 unless plans change.  There are gravel, road, and cyclocross options I'm looking at, and in all likelihood I'll probably start my cyclocross season that weekend near Des Moines, IA.

My First Foray Into Gravel Riding

For several months I've been hearing about the Farmhouse Classic, which is a gravel race held north of KC by Joe at Cycle City.  I've always heard of huge gravel events like the Dirty Kanza (a 200 mile race), but I never gave much thought to actually trying riding in the loose stuff.  I decided the Farmhouse Classic would be an excellent opportunity to give it a shot in a very relaxed setting.  I rode the course last week with a couple Cycle City guys just to make sure I didn't hate it, and I was blissfully surprised.  I wanted to give myself a challenge, so I decided to ride the singlespeed for the ride that would end up being between 95-100 miles.  It was more fun than I could have ever imagined, but I was pretty cooked at the end.  The biggest hills of the ride were between miles 80 and 95, so that was pretty tough.  But otherwise it was fantastic and I'm now looking forward to the gravel race this weekend.  I'll also be giving some serious consideration to participating in the Dirty Kanza next year.  A lesson learned was that bringing excessive amounts of water/Gatorade/etc would be a good idea because I cut it pretty close at the end and had to nurse my last bottle.  Below is a picture I borrowed from Joe's Facebook page.  I'm on the left and apparently in the middle of taking a couple of drinks from the way I'm holding my bottle by the handlebar, and John (I think his last name is Mathias) is on the left.  He is a former master's gravel world champion.  More to come after this weekend's race...

Masons Midsummer Meltdown MTB Race

I raced on Sunday in the Masons Midsummer Meltdown MTB race.  I was in the marathon category with 19 other guys and some of them were really fast mountain bikers.  I felt pretty great during the race for the most part, but my severe lack of guts and MTB skills definitely didn't do me any favors.  It turned out pretty well and I finished 7th out of the 19.  6th place was only a couple of minutes ahead of me so I can't help but think I should have kicked more on that last lap to try to catch him, but of course I didn't know he was that close until I saw the results.  The top 5 were all WAY ahead of anyone else.  I think they beat me by a good 20 minutes, but considering the MTB skills that group possesses I don't feel too bad about it.  The trails at Wyandotte County Lake Park were just incredible and it was a really great event, so Cliff Jones and crew deserve a ton of credit for both.  The bottom line: I had a lot of fun and it was a great 3.5 hours of intense training that will hopefully benefit me when cyclocross comes around (only 2 months or so away).

My next event will be the Farmhouse Classic, which is a 99 mile gravel race put on by Joe Fox at Cycle City.  I've heard great things about gravel riding and this event, so I'm excited to try them both.  I'll probably ride the course next week to get a feel for it and to decide on whether or not I should ride the SS or not, so that should be fun. 

Rib Update

My rib has been healing quite nicely since my accident over two weeks ago.  I've had no problems breathing and the pain has become almost nonexistent.  I tried to avoid using pain medication (why I don't really know) aside from at night, but that is no longer required.  I started biking 3 days after I left the hospital and I'm back to regular training now, so I have few complaints.  Running is still a bit painful since that involves much more jarring of the rib, so I'm still easing my way back into that.  I just got back from a short, easy run a little bit ago and as I write I'm experiencing a dull, throbbing pain.  So I'm reminded that I'm still injured to a certain degree.  Other than that, the main issue I have is if I twist in a certain way, which gives me a nice little shot of pain.  This doesn't happen often, so it's not a big deal.

As for biking, it looks like the next racing I will be doing is either the Tour of Lawrence Circuit Race on the campus of KU on 6/29 or possibly Masons Midsummer Meltdown at Wyandotte County Lake Park on 7/7.  I've been quite happy with my training this year thus far and hope I can keep it up.  On a mileage basis alone I'm far beyond where I've ever been at this point in the year and my intensity has been good.  My hope is that I'm setting myself up nicely for a solid cyclocross season.  The frustration of last year is still fresh on my mind.

A Visit to the Hospital

On Saturday I made a last second decision to race in the Robidoux Roundup mountain bike race the following day at Krug Park in St. Joseph, MO. I'm still relatively new to the KC area and I didn't realize St. Joseph was only about an hour away from my house, so I decided I should participate when I discovered how close it is. It turns out this was a pretty terrible decision on my part.

 I started the race and things were going fine. The course was incredibly smooth and fast and the conditions were close to unbeatable. The trails at Krug Park have several bridges that cross what I'll call ditches. It is a cool feature that has riders crossing what I'll guess is 2 to 4 feet in the air. On the first lap I came out of a turn onto the fourth of these bridges and cut the corner a bit too much. As a result, my rear tire went off the side of the bridge and me and my bike went over. Normally this probably wouldn't be a big deal, but I was pretty unlucky. My bike was fine and dropped into some brush and to my knowledge is in OK shape, but I landed on the right side of my back directly on a large rock. I was immediately in some pretty severe pain, but I didn't quite grasp the extent of the injury at that point. The Parisi rider immediately behind me kindly inquired to see if I was OK, to which I lied and said I was fine and that he shouldn't ruin his race over me. I stood up and leaned against my bike for at least 10 or 15 minutes. At first this was an effort to decide if I could proceed with the race, but then it turned into a debate in my head about whether or not I could get myself out of the woods. I finally got myself to start walking and due to sheer luck found my way directly to the start/finish area. I immediately told the officials I was out and then sat by my car for a good half an hour to try to deal with the pain. I finally mustered the courage to load my bike in the back of my car, which I should add was excruciatingly painful, and then I decided I needed to get home since I was feeling slightly better.

I made it home just fine, but it turns out driving myself home was probably a really stupid and irresponsible idea. I should have called my wife to help, but she is working nights right now in her residency and I knew she would be sound asleep since she had already told me the night before was pretty rough. So I tried making what I thought was the considerate decision and drove. On the way I noticed in my back that there were popping/crackling noises around the area where I landed on the rock and of course the pain was pretty persistent. This was odd, but I didn't think much of it. I got home and hobbled myself around the house doing things like eating lunch, unloading some things out of my car, etc. I then realized that the pain was not getting better at all and that my wife would probably be more mad if I didn't tell her than if I woke her up with a concern. I woke her up, told her I was in severe pain, and mentioned the popping/cracking noises that were especially prevalent when my back was pushed on. She was clearly battling going into panic mode and noted that she thought I had subcutaneous emphysema, which occurs when air gets in the subcutaneous layer of skin (not normal). Due to the nature of how the injury occurred, she immediately thought I had broken a rib (or more) and punctured my lung. She called my brother (also a doctor) just to confirm her thoughts that we should make a trip to the ER. He concurred.

We went to the ER at KU Medical Center and there was talk about the potential of a chest tube having to be inserted from the start. I didn't think much of it until my wife gently explained to me what that meant, and at that point I started to make it known that I wanted to avoid that at all costs. I really didn't want a tube being stuck between my ribs and into my lung, but if it has to happen there isn't a lot that can be done to avoid it. They do numb patients that require these, but they can only numb so deep and below that it supposedly involves a lot of pain. After a series of x-rays, CT scans, an IV, and a lot of random stuff being hooked up to me, we were told that I did in fact fracture a rib and that resulted in my lung being punctured and slightly collapsing. The subcutaneous emphysema was confirmed, as well as a pneumothorax aka pneumo (an abnormal collection of air between my chest wall and my lung related to my collapsed lung).  However, a chest tube wasn't yet required so they decided I needed to be kept overnight for monitoring. This involved x-rays at various intervals to ensure the pneumo wasn't growing in size. If it stayed the same size or got smaller, I would be in the clear. The picture below is me trying to put on my best happy face in the ER while waiting to get my CT scans done and then sent to my hospital room.

I never heard anything back on the results of the intermittent x-rays to ensure the pneumo wasn't growing, but I guess in this case no news was good news because I was sent home this afternoon. Now I just need to make sure I don't get worse in terms of pain or breathing, but otherwise I should be just fine. I do have pain medication that I'm trying to use minimally, so I'm not entirely uncomfortable. To my wife's dismay the doctor told me at checkout that I could resume biking whenever I could deal with the pain. She wants me to take a break until I'm more or less all better, which would be pretty much impossible for me to do. I'll probably take it pretty easy for a few days just to let my body do some healing, but I doubt I can stay off the bike until the end of the week. I had intended to take a small break of a few days to a week at some point in the summer just to get refreshed, so I guess this will be that break (albeit under different terms that I expected). Hopefully there will be no more updates regarding this rib/lung issue and it can be assumed that I healed as expected.

Running with the Cows Half Marathon

I completed my third and final half marathon over the weekend at the Running of the Cows Half Marathon. My main goal was to improve on my time from my previous two half marathons, but I also had a pretty strong desire to finish in under 1:40. While that isn't record breaking speed, it was a challenging but attainable goal I wanted to meet. It still blows my mind that the people winning these events are finishing in around the 1:10 mark and the fastest half marathon ever run was below 1:00. To end any curiosity about how I did I'll mention that I did break the 1:40 mark, so I was quite content with how things went. I think my official time for the event was 1:39:29, but it turned out to be longer than a half marathon by 1/10 of a mile. Therefore, based on my Garmin I found that I ran the actual half marathon distance in 1:38:54. I'll again say that this is quite slow by some standards, but I was pretty content considering my lack of true running training. I did get in a fair amount of running, but with my primary focus being biking I never worked in any kind of focused training (intervals, hills, etc) that would have really led to improvements. Something that pleased me with this last half marathon was my splits during each of the 13.1 miles. My fastest mile was the third mile, which was likely because of a generous downhill area. But other than that my splits were faster with each passing mile. In other words, I ran faster as the event progressed. This seemed to work quite nicely since I was able to ease into things rather than starting fast and blowing up like I did in the Kansas Half Marathon. The main goal of this entire treble of half marathons was to simply aid in building up some endurance to help with biking, so hopefully I'll find that it was a success. In other news, this past week I was offered and I accepted a job at Park University here in the Kansas City area. My contract will start in August and my official title will be Assistant Professor of Decision Sciences. This university is a great fit for me since their relative emphasis on teaching, research, and service match my interests quite well, so I'm excited for how things will develop. Now I just need to finish up that pesky PhD in St. Louis.

Joseph Sheehan Memorial Road Race

This weekend I did my first road race in a few years at the Joseph Sheehan Memorial Road Race. I was a cat 4 when I stopped doing road events in 2010, so when I renewed my license last week that is where I remained. I did the cat 4 race and it went pretty well. We started with 50 or so riders and I ended up finishing 11th about 50 yards behind the winner since I didn't have the legs to stand up and sprint at the end. There was a crash behind me about 600 meters from the finish, so that was a little bit unnerving. I learned a lot that I hope can help me as I transition through the summer with an eye on cyclocross. Road races have a pace that is tough to match in training, so the high intensity riding alone should be beneficial. It also reminded me that I should probably start getting some higher intensity intervals involved in my workouts. Since I like to focus on cyclocross my riding throughout the year is basically aimed at being ready for that. As a result, I haven't done much of anything beyond tempo intervals up to now in order to try to build a solid base. Since May is basically here, I think it is safe to start getting more strength endurance activities worked in to my rides. Not only will that continue my progression in my attempt to be strong for cyclocross, but maybe it can help me find my legs at the end of these road races. I'm pretty terrible about planning a racing schedule far in advance, so I'm not entirely sure when my next race will be aside from my last 1/2 marathon on May 11. I'd still really like to run it below 1:40, but we'll see if that is possible with my limited amount of running. In the meantime, Michelle and I are headed to Vegas tomorrow with her parents to spend a few days. I'm not really a gambler so I don't spend much time in casinos, but for some reason I just love going there.

Kansas Half Marathon

I did my second half marathon this past weekend in Lawrence, KS. It was the Kansas Half Marathon. It went pretty well, but was not without its problems for me. I started out really well and through about 7 or 8 miles I was on pace to finish in well under 1:40. However, then the route took me up a pretty big hill right in the middle of the University of Kansas campus and it pretty much cracked me. The hill may not be that big, but it sure seemed like it. At about mile 11 I started getting a pretty bad cramp in my right side, which hasn't happened to me in years so I was pretty disappointed in that. From then on I was pretty much in a mode where I just wanted to finish without stopping, so my time suffered compared to earlier parts of the race. I finished with a time of 1:41:45, so despite the problems I had the improvement over my first half marathon pleased me. I'm also pretty sure that this race was slightly longer than a half marathon because my Garmin information I uploaded to Strava told me that I finished the half marathon distance in 1:41:07. I don't have another half marathon until my last one on May 11, so until then it is back to working on my bike fitness. I'd like to finish that last run in under 1:40, so I'll have to keep squeezing in runs between riding my bike. I have my first road race in years this weekend in Leavenworth, KS, so hopefully that goes well. I'll be doing the category 4 race since when I renew my license I'll be a cat 4, so hopefully I don't disappoint myself with whatever happens. I'd really like to think I have the potential to finish well with how much I feel like I've been training, but I don't really know what to expect.

Busy Weekend

I had my first 1/2 marathon this past Saturday, which was followed by the Bone Bender mountain bike race.  The 1/2 marathon went extremely well - so well that I was quite surprised.  I focused on keeping my TSB at a reasonable level going in to the race, so being fresh seemed to help a lot.  I started the run with the 1 hour, 45 minute pace runners, but they were going seemingly slow so I decided to press on at my own pace.  I found that I was extremely comfortable running at a pace of about 7:52/mi, so I decided I was content with that and stuck with it the whole way.  My finishing time was just over 1 hour, 43 minutes.  My second of the three is this Sunday in Lawrence, so I'll probably shoot for a target of 1 hour, 40 minutes and see how it goes.  Then I'll see how it goes and decide on a target pace for the third 1/2 marathon later.  I stumbled across this picture and noticed how bundled up I am compared to others in shorts and t-shirts.  In my defense it was in the mid-30s when the race started and only in the low 40s when it ended, so pretty cool.  This winter has taught me that I would rather be warmer than cold, so I guess I'm just prepared.

The Bone Bender MTB Odyssey had 3 and 6  hour categories.  Considering that I figured I would be pretty beat after the 1/2 marathon I signed up for the 3 hour race.  I was pretty surprised from the beginning with how good I felt, and it only got better throughout the race.  The start was pretty chaotic, with all racers starting in one massive group.  I have to think there was well over 100 people, so it was crazy.  I didn't know these things started like this, so I was somewhere near the middle of the pack.  This is not a great place to be since you are pretty much stuck behind a lot of people.  I don't know how it happened, but a guy about 5 riders to my left went over his bars literally about 3 seconds into the race.  Hopefully he was OK.  For the first few miles of the race I just had to take it easy and wait as patiently as possible to pass people.  I think a starting position closer to the front may have made it possible to finish a position or two higher in my category, but I wasn't going to win.  I just don't have the technical skills needed to be really fast on a mountain bike and some of these other guys can just shred through technical terrain that I feel like I have to tiptoe through.  I guess that is why I'm doing this - to get better technically so I can be stronger in CX.  In the end I was 6th in my group out of 15 and I was quite impressed with the event.  I've heard Chris Locke puts on top notch races, and now I know that is true.

Now I'm trying to again rest enough to be fresh this weekend, but also get in a good amount of training to continue to improve on the bike. 

Disappointing First Race

This will be a short post since I don't have too much to say, but I wanted to post a brief recap of my first MTB race yesterday at the Feel the Burn event in Warsaw, MO.  It started off just fine with me hanging with the front of the pack without too much difficulty aside from my lack of technical skills on loose rocks, roots, etc.  Then I was hopping a typical log barrier lying on the course and my chain came off.  I got off the bike and fixed that, and several seconds later I was playing catch-up.  Not a big deal since by the end of the first lap I was back with the front group.  However, early in the second lap my tubeless system failed on my rear wheel/tire and I was stuck on the sidelines for several minutes dealing with that and installing a tube.  That ended my competitive riding for the day.  I ended up finishing the lap and riding the third lap for some extra training, but that turned out to be a mistake.  I started cramping fairly severely and frankly just felt nauseated, so I'm pretty sure my nutrition and hydration leading up to the event was below par since I drank a ton during the race.  This weekend I've got my first half-marathon on Saturday and another MTB race on Sunday, so I'll likely post again after that.  I'll be sure to chug lots of fluids throughout the week!

Nothing much new

As the title of the post implies, there isn't much new going on with me recently.  I was supposed to have my first race of the year on Sunday, but the weather kind of hosed my chances of participating.  We got 7 or 8 inches of snow early Sunday morning and my street was entirely covered until about 9 when the plow finally came through.  I know from experience that my car can handle probably 4 or maybe 5 inches of snow, but above that and I'm just being an idiot trying to get out.  Since my race started at 10 and takes 30 minutes to get to on normal road conditions I knew it was hopeless to try to rush there on the snowy roads.  I was pretty disappointed to miss it since I heard it was a blast, but there will always be more races.  I thought for sure the promoter would postpone it, but he stuck with it.  I got the chance to talk to him today and gained a good understanding of the stresses associated with promoting a race and having to make that call.  I wouldn't want to be in his position!  I did take the chance to get out on the mountain bike around my house on walking trails covered in all the snow.  It was quite fun and good practice for both handling and power.  Pushing through 8 inch snow just sucks the power right out of you, so it would be great to practice on right before cyclocross starts. 

It looks like my next events will be my 1/2 marathon series starting in just under three weeks.  With my priorities focused on cycling I haven't been able to get quite as much running in as I would have preferred, but I should be OK.  I won't achieve a groundbreaking time or anything, and I'll probably shoot for a sub 1:45 time on the first one.  I wanted to go faster than that, but my new first mountain bike race is the next day so I don't want to kill myself too badly.  I'll probably try for faster times in the second and third runs since that will be my only commitment on their respective weekends.  My next update will likely be associated with that first weekend.

Wintery Mix CX #2

Cyclocross season grinded to a halt yesterday after the second iteration of the Wintery Mix CX series here in KC.  Despite my lack of anaerobic intensity in the past several weeks I thought it would be a good idea to do both the 1/2 and SS races.  It may not have been a terrible idea in the right circumstances, but yesterday was rough.  The temperatures were a balmy mid-50s, but the rain from the previous week made the course a thick, muddy mess.  There were also some pretty gusty winds, but those didn't bother me like I would have guessed they would have.  The heavy mud just sucked the power right out of you in the various sections the course required you to slog through.  I actually wish it would have been more wet since I think the bike would have flowed through it more easily, but it is what it is (or was what it was).  I finished right in the middle of both races.  I might have been able to fight for one spot higher in the 1/2 race, but 1st and 2nd positions were long gone.  I was completely fried for the SS race.  I think when fresh I should have been able to get 2nd, but Joe Fox and his crazy power just killed that course, so I'm not sure winning would have been realistic.  All in all it was a pretty rough season and I'm already trying to train a decent amount to start getting ready for the start of the 2013 season.  The whole not riding much at all during the first 3 months of 2012 didn't work out so well, so hopefully things are different this year.  Here is a picture from the 1/2 race.  It must have been the first lap or two because I was much more covered in mud later on.

Now my goal is to get a solid base in for the next few months or so while also ensuring I am doing enough running to be ready for my half marathons.  I'll also work in some marathon mountain bike races starting next month, so I'll be writing about those as they come along.  I figure a 3 hour MTB race can only help one get stronger.  The UFD East series looks pretty attractive, so maybe I'll try to do a lot of those.  In the meantime, hopefully I can get my dissertation proposal defended so I can get another step closer to graduating (again).

New Bike and Inaugural Ride

It is always exciting to get a new bike, and I've done just that.  I got the previously mentioned Felt Nine 20 and took it for a ride today.  There are a couple things I realized when I got on the trails that I have known in the past, but forgotten over time.  I love mountain biking and 29ers roll over things they have no business being able to roll over.  I found my technical skills to be a little bit rusty in very tight or rocky areas, but overall I was content with how things went considering I haven't owned or ridden a mountain  bike in over a year.  On top of that, riding through a smooth, rolling section of singletrack is probably one of the most fun things I can imagine doing.  So I definitely have no buyers remorse, but I was reminded that keeping a pristine mountain bike is more or less impossible since rocks, etc can catch cranks or wheels quite easily.  I know it is nerdy, but I briefly stopped and took a picture while on the trail, so here it is.

New tires and a tubeless setup are priority 1, which should be complete by next week.  Then new wheels will probably happen by next year. 

Other than 29er stuff, I don't have much going on (literally).  I'm in a phase of my dissertation where I make edits and additions and then send it to my committee.  My committee currently has it and are hopefully reading it, but in the meantime I'm twiddling my thumbs.  So aside from riding and running, I've been doing some painting at our new house.  I'm sure my wife Michelle is envious or annoyed with my lax schedule, but that is why I am pursuing a PhD rather than an MD (like her).  So she should probably get used to it!  She is getting absolutely abused in her residency at KU, so I do feel bad for her.  Waking up at 4 something every morning and not getting home until 7 or 8 is just crazy, and that is exactly what she has been doing.

Another post? Yes, I'm bored.

Well my planned 2 week hiatus from the bike was cut short last week.  I think I made it to about 10 days before I was about to go completely crazy, so I'm now riding again.  I'm also running quite a bit (at least quite a bit for me) since at this point I'll be doing a few half marathons this spring.  I thought it would be a fun change of pace, but now I'm somewhat regretting signing up since I want to run enough to prepare myself to get a decent time, I want to bike enough to get a solid base in and be fit enough to do some mountain bike races this spring and summer, and I want to avoid doing too much and making myself suck at everything from overtraining.  I just don't know if balancing everything is possible, but I guess triathletes are doing a lot more than I am and getting away with it so maybe I can do the same.  Honestly I've always thought triathlons sounded fun, but I don't think they allow doggy paddling in the swimming portion so I guess those are out for me.

My current plan is to continue getting faster than normal base miles in for the next week or so and then dial the miles back and intensity up for a week since I'll be doing the second Wintery Mix CX series race on 2/3.  I'm assuming the fields will be smaller than I'm used to, but since cross is my favorite I'm just trying to stretch the season out as long as possible.  Then back to running and riding a lot.

I can pretty much guarantee I won't be posting this often in the future, but I had some thoughts I wanted to document.  It's been an interesting few days for me.  I'm currently on a forced 2 week hiatus from riding bicycles, so that is sort of driving me crazy.  I'm getting a good amount of running in, but it isn't quite the same.  I just want to force myself to get in a good recovery from cyclocross season before I start to work on building a solid base for this year.  Speaking of that, I'd love to give major thanks to a certain individual (a state champion) who has recently given me some great training advice, but I don't want to openly say his name or else people might start riding him for advice.  I say that as if people actually read this blog (ha!), but just in case I'll leave it out.  But in the event that you stumble across this you know who you are and I appreciate it.

I started playing indoor soccer again last night.  It was actually a pretty frustrating experience because the game was at 11:15, which is usually a point where I'm already sound asleep in my bed.  Also frustrating was the fact that the other team failed to show up.  They signed up for the league and this was the first game of the year, so it's not like they didn't know about it.  But my team still played pickup games with some random people, so all was not lost.  Surprisingly I can still play well enough to hold my own, so I can put those worries to bed.  At the location they had a soda machine that I couldn't help but take a picture of (see below).  The old school kit and bike along with the intensity on the guy's face was enough to give me a chuckle.  It must be from the 1990s.

The last thing I'll talk about is my new mountain bike that is currently on its way.  I haven't had one in a couple years, but I decided now is the time to blow all that is left of my bike fund since I now live in close proximity to several trails.  I decided to go with the Felt Nine 20.  It's not exactly the lightest rocketship race bike in the world, but it's got a solid component group (full XT) and frankly aluminum isn't THAT heavy, so I'm content with it.  I also know of some local riders who have done pretty well in races on aluminum bikes of their own, so it is not impossible.  The only thing I plan on doing is upgrading the wheels ASAP and getting some new tires on it.  I've been hearing good things about certain Maxxis tires, so that will be my likely choice.  I'll almost certainly participate in some 3 hour races this spring, so I'm looking forward to it.  Speaking of blowing my bike fund, I'm chomping at the bit to finally complete my PhD and get a real job.  Not having to save every bit of money I get for my birthday, Christmas, robbing banks (JOKE!), or whatever will be so nice.  Anyway, details on the bike are at the link below.

http://www.feltbicycles.com/USA/2013/Mountain/Nine-Series/Nine-20.aspx

Intro

This is not my first attempt at maintaining a blog, but I'm giving it another shot to document all things biking in my life, as well as other random topics interspersed.  I'm currently a PhD candidate at the University of Missouri - St. Louis working towards my degree in Logistics and Supply Chain Management.  The ultimate goal is to become a college professor, which conveniently I just found out is the least stressful job there is according to some list.  Excellent!

To biking matters... I am in the midst of wrapping up the 2012 cyclocross season.  After having lots of success in singlespeed races last year, I came into this season thinking I could do at least fairly decent in the open category, which is where the fastest riders race.  How wrong I was!  Apparently not really having a training regimen throughout the year or racing before cyclocross season is not a great plan for success.  I got my teeth kicked in numerous times until I decided I'm not quite ready for the open category, but I also don't want to sandbag and drop down the the next category down.  Thus, I've been focusing on singlespeed events again to wrap up the year and I've had similar success to last year picking up a few wins along the way.  I guess the bottom line is that training is crucial, which is why after a short break of a couple weeks I'll be starting a regimen to build a solid base this year and get ready for mountain bike races this spring and summer.  With  this plan and the sour memories of this year's open category races to fuel me, I'm hoping for much better results next season.