Yesterday I was on the CX bike for the 2nd time and it was rough. My legs had no interest in going hard because of the effort last weekend. But it was fun to be on the bike again and I put myself about 3 weeks behind last year in terms of skills and changes of pace.

I tried out my new tubular Ksyriums with Dugast tires and I am not sure about them yet. The tires feel different than the Tufos and the wheels roll very stiff which I'll need to get used to. I think my pressure was a bit high on the tires also (45 psi).

Going easy this week is hard to do since I want to get ready for CX and with 3 weeks until the 1st race there is still a lot to catch up on. I am looking forward to Sunday's workout and to the heat breaking a little.

Next week I start phase 2 which is back to dedicated intervals. My CTL is at 86 tss/d which is drop from 90 before the SS champs. My TSB is still positive but in the next few weeks I have to promise myself not to look at that stuff too much.

GA Single-Speed Champs Results

Photo: Grant Blankenship

A very fun weekend and big thanks to Shey and his family, Adam Jones, OMBA and John Johnson for putting on and running a smooth event.

Even though there was no prize for it, I wanted to win the omnium by doing the TT, STXC and XC races. Also, since all of the aforementioned folks worked hard and devoted time to a weekend of racing, it was important to me to support them by racing both days.

The TT was a 3.5 mile mini-lap with one steep hill and the cool BMX track at the beginning. It was the coolest temperature of the weekend and I railed it doing a 16.43, deciding to use a 34x17 gear. The effort felt good and I wanted to have something left for the STXC which was in the nasty Macon heat at 3:00pm.

The STXC was an open field and I threw on a 34x16 gear for this race and that worked well for me. I ate some dirt in the first corner, crashing on a root and worked my way back up front by the end of the first lap. The STXC course was mostly grass, flat and fast with the BMX course and a nice sand pit as well. We did around 30 minutes and maybe 5 laps(?). After the first lap I was pretty much solo and after I was left wondering what I would have left for the XC race.

The XC field was much more competitive from when I won my SS title 1.5 years ago and the course was tougher as well. Besides the steep hill in the first 2 miles, the last 2 miles were a series of rough climbs, and the whole course had a lot of sand and sandy, sun exposed slopes which radiated the heat back at you.

From the gun I tried to make the pace hard and get separation and soon after the hole shot there were 3-4 of us away.
I prevented another rider from getting up the hill first since I wanted to dictate the pace and by the end of the first lap the heat and pace hammered me. The rider with me (Stephen Ridgeway, winner GSC sport class overall) pulled away on a hill and soon I had to back off and try to get my core temperature back down.

Soon another racer (John Clayton, runner up in GSC expert class overall) passed me followed by another racer. On the second lap I was baked and felt horrible. Coming through the feed and start/finish I got some ice water dousing and going back into the woods on the third lap Shey looked at me in a way that made me feel like the podium was lost. I decided to screw the last lap, dropped my Camelbak and with no fluids, TT the last lap as hard as possible to make the podium.



That is exactly whatI did. I flew around the course in a 32.57 lap time, passing the 3rd placed racer with about 2 miles to go and hammered it all the way to the end. I was pretty upset at myself on that second lap for the mismanagement of the first lap and feeling sorry for myself so I had nothing to lose and they would not know I was trying to make it back.

Besides a comeback in the Marietta CX race a few years ago, this was the hardest I have raced on a bike all out and I was happy with 3rd. The top 2 guys were very strong and I was outclassed. My lap times were ~ 33, 35, 33 and I think I was only 3 minutes down off the lead.

(Last 3 photos by Carl Mesta)













So, the MTB campaign is over with these results...

Snake Gap 17 Mile TT: 1st (course SS record)
2 Ways in 1 Day TT: 1st (course SS record)
Flat Rock GSC Race: 1st
Ft. Yargo GSC Race: 2nd
Ft. Yargo Dirty Spokes 12 hour Relay: 4th
Heritage Park GSC Race: 4th
Clemson SERC Race: 2nd
Macon GSC Race (expert on SS): 5th
GA SS Championships: TT 1st, STXC 1st, XC 3rd

So long MTB...

Georgia Single Speed Champs and Beyond

This weekend will be the GA Single Speed MTB Championship with a time trial and short track on Saturday and the XC races on Sunday. The venue is in Macon, GA and from the looks of the profile, it is very hilly and has left some interpretation to what gear should be used.

I placed this on the calendar as a peak race and I would like to defend my win from last year. Peaking for a single-speed race is kind of a mystery. Since single-speed racing employs mostly a neuromuscular system with short bursts of high power, it can be hard to emulate that in training very often. With 3 events of various lengths and times that system will be really taxed so I tried to taper so I was really fresh. This means I have lost some CTL and my tsb has gotten progressively positive to a point where hopefully the harshness of Saturday will not compromise Sunday. I believe in doing all 3 races and don't see why one would not unless time is an issue.

The downside I guess is that my CTL will have dropped after the omnium, then I will take a rest week and get ready for cyclcoross. I plan on doing the Gloucester, MA UCI race in October to it is unknown what condition I will be in for that. But my second peak is for December so I hope to train through the cross season with no real expectations and put in a good showing at nationals. I'd also like to try the SS cross category some this fall if possible.

I will skip the Savannah, GA race leaving me with 2 weeks of not racing cross. Hopefully that will allow me to ramp up my training a bit for the rest of the fall.

Impressive Performances in MTB

I have never met or raced against Thomas Turner PRO (Outspokin) but I do like to admire him from afar. It seems that no matter the length or intensity of the race he is always a contender. Even after a bad crash and shoulder injury this summer he came back strong for the national MTB championships and now in the Fool's Gold 100 MTB endurance race, placing second to Jerimiah Bishop. In the local MTB series he is somewhat without peer and even in takling a stab last year at cyclocross he showed he can win races and place high in the series. He is also a douoble GA single-speed champion in the open category and set the course SS record last year at Ft. Yargo. I look for him to tri-peat this year.

Greg Turner (no relation) is also a massive talent. A local/regional legend, whose name invokes groans from others in his race, shows year after year he can win a various distances and disciplines. He has used his abilities to win cyclocross, road and MTB races on a consistant basis in the masters category. He is also a GA SS champion in the marathon and just placed 1st on the SS in the Fool's Gold. It would be wonderful to see the Turners battle in the SS championship.

Jason Chapman and I first crossed paths in cyclocross and he was racing only on a single-speed cross bike and dominated the B race series. In fact, most all he races is either single-speed or fixed gear. He is the fixed gear SS MTB champion in Georgia and when he races I am always amazed at his speeds and his gearing on the SS MTB.

Shey Linder organized the SS championshups in GA, is a co-promoter of the GA CX series, Pro MTB racer and likes a lot of endurance distances races. He is quiet and reserved but on the bike I would say not laid back. He is very competitive and if he is not winning, he is placing very high. Besides his racing, his training and judgement about a lot of cycling related issues is invaluable. Because of his leadership and skill he is one person to definately have on your team.

Shane Schreihart races expert MTB and endurance MTB mostly on a SS bike. He takes on all comers in the expert division on the SS and seems to not care what gear(s) you use, just that it is a bike and it rolls. His high placings on the SS bike against fellow geared riders is impressive. He is also very mentally tough as displayed in a 12 hour MTB race (Dirty Spokes) last spring where he did 12 hours on the SS.

"Markie Mark" Stewart is another MTB racer who after performing at a hig level for years, picks and chooses his races now and many of them are distance endurance races. He has a great tactical sense and is also great at pacing. But, (like Shane) his mental toughness really impresses me also. I have never seen him give up and he always seems to maintain a positive attitude in ther midst of suffering.

There are lots of other folks who might make your list, and probably a few I have left out here (no offense). These are just a few that have stood out to me this year.

Went to Ft. Yargo State Park today to ride the fine MTB trails. I wanted to do a good 3 laps (31 miles) to build up some stress. The trail had been blown clear and it was a great ride. Torre Smitherman and Theron Colucci met me there and we rode together and also did our own thing. I think all of us are going to give the SS champs a shot.

Cross practice actually starts next Sunday (!) but I am not sure if I'll go to the first one since it tends to be more mellow. I need to keep up my TSS/CTL until a week before the SS Champs. I usually get 100 TSS with the pre-ride and cross practice but the first few practices are more oriented towards skills. We'll see.

I'd like to check out East Macon Park in 2 weeks as well.

School has begun with new students staring at me wondering what the year will bring. I took the liberty to ride a lot this summer and I have committed to coaching soccer next spring and summer school next summer.

With the SS champs only 3 weeks away my weekly hours will decrease by 3 or 4 and my CTL may drop a bit. The plan is to get it as high as possible before that race weekend, peak at around +20 and then salvage what I can for cross. With the Gloucester race in mid-October I should be pretty fresh but I have a bunch of traning all fall to get to nationals. Probably will not care about results for the GA CX series and try to just use them as a means to an end.

Brendan Sullivan is pretty much winning at will these days and his passion is cross so either he will burn up with all this racing (not likely) or he will enter the CX season ready to destroy. I just hope he can keep it cranked up until December. I really think he can get on the podium in December if he show a little restraint, does some longer A races this fall and maybe goes to 2-3 UCI races. Either way he is very talented and has come a long, long way in 2 years.

Grearing for the SS champs is going to be interesting. I have heard that a 2:1 might be too hard. I won't get to pre-ride so I will probably take 2 wheels. I may elect to try and push a 34x16 for the TT depending on how long it is.

The intervals in the picture below were 45 second intervals at or above 400w. I did 2 sets of 8. They look hard but on a good hill they are not really unbearable. I find the extended VO2 max intervals like a 5x5, 8x3 or 10x2 at around 330w to be much harder to do and I really have to take it easy the day before if I want to complete them, especially in the mid-day heat. I like the threshold intervals these days because compared to the VO2 max intervals they are pretty mellow. After the SS champs I will have to work on leg speed and sprints since I am not doing that stuff right now. I assume I will be doing some sort of microburst workouts at some point or maybe pyramids and they usually bring my lunch up in my throat. Very hard.

GSC #8 Pig Trail MTB Race

The last GCS MTB race of the year and my first foray into the expert class on my single-speed. I used the 34x16 since the course was flat but some new hilly sections were added days before the race. I divided the course in thirds mentally. The first third was flat and ended on an uphill where a water station was (two cups poured on my head each lap), the second third consisted of the hilly bits and the last third was mainly flat. The heat was nasty and the heat index was 105 but it was the same for everyone.

I elected to go with a 70oz bladder frozen into slush for the first 3 laps and then I went to a water bottle when that was dry. I had no support team so I actually had to stop and get my drinks on the last lap.

I went out hard with the lead group on the first lap and hung in there no problem until 2/3 into the lap. I backed off knowing we had 4 total laps (30 miles) and I was hoping they went out too hard. The SS gearing was nice for the course and I did not have too much trouble holding on to them but I could tell there was no way to keep that up for 2.5 hours.

I had a crash at the end of the first lap and the local hero Monty got by me and I thought I would catch him but he was gunning for 4th and I did not see him again.

The rest of the race was great. I went at my own forced pace and had a lot of fun. I ended up 5th which was a nice result I think.

The GCS series is nice but honestly I prefer the SERC courses. I did not get to do Raccoon Mtn and I'll try that this winter.

Next up is the GA SS Champs also in Macon but on a harder course.

Today was my first flat on my tubless MTB wheels. The Big Creek trails have gotten progessively rockier with baby-head rocks that really throw you around. One of them actually pierced the middle portion of my tire and even Stan's could not seal the pea-sized hole that was left behind. I also got thrown into a nice sticker bush while grinding through a rocky section. One rock flipped up from my front wheel and landed on the top of my foot/shin and kept bouncing between me and the frame for a couple of pedal strokes, sort of like juggling a soccer ball.

I remember the winter and Big Creek being really nice. Now the lack of rain and hard use has made it very challenging.

I am going to enter the 40+ expert race Sunday on my single-speed and try to use a 34x16 gearing. I also might try a Camel-bak hydration system since I have no one to give me a hand up. I don't really like them but it is going to be very hot and I'd rather look kind of silly than overheat. I hope the gearing is appropriate.

Only 5 weeks to the ss championships and my first peak. But, I am really excited about cross this year so it is hard to not overlook the SS champs.

School starts back again Monday so gone will be my free time and back to balancing everything. I am looking forward to school though since I always get to start fresh with a new batch of kids.

Someone was doing a photo shoot at Big Creek this morning with a bunch of kids. I wonder what that was for?

Going Tubless for CX With Stan's

First off, if you have the money just buy/use a tubular wheel set and tubular tires. It is the best option. Secondly, you can also but Stan's CX wheel set up which is a 29er MTB rim that is designed for tubless tires and Stan's system.

That said, the cheapest alternative to tubular tires is taking an old clincher wheel set and converting it over to tubless using Stan's cyclocross system. What follows is by no means the only way to do this but it worked for me.

1. Call Stan's and ask them if your wheel set will work with the system. I have a Sun ME14A wheel set that I won a few years ago and use as a back up set.
2. Take a drill with a 3/8" bit and drill out the inside valve hole. Sand it down to remove burrs.
3. One of the challenges for this and many other rims is that in order for it to seal the center of the rim has to be built up so that the Stan's rubber tire liner set up right under the clincher bead lock. What I did was take electrical tape and go around the center of the rim twice. Then I took TWO Velox rim strips and went around with those. Finally I took the Stan's rubber rim strip and installed it.
4. I went around the rim bead with a plastic tire lever and made sure the Stan's rubber rim strip was seated right up against the bead lock on both sides of the rim, all the way around.
5. I am using the Maxxis Raze tire to start with so I installed the tire and inflated it to 10 psi to make sure it held air.
6. I deflated the tire and hung the wheel from the post on my workstand (valve up). I then removed on side of the tire about 12" on the bottom, exposing the inside of the tire.
7. I shook the Stan's sealant and poured 2 Stan's cup fulls into the exposed part of the tire. I then rotated the tire around so that the sealant moved to an area where the tire was already set on both sides. Then I use my tire lever to install the tire I had exposed.
8. I inflated the tire to 50 psi and then meticulously grabbed the wheel in both hand and moved it back and forth (like a fan) revolving the tire so that the sealant was distributed.
9. I do not use soap to check the seal, I use Windex. I sprayed the Windex all around the tire/rim interface and looked for bubbles. If I saw some I placed the wheel with the bubbles at the bottom and then shook the wheel again to coat that area (Stan's website has some great video to show how this is done).
10. I then set up 2 buckets and rested each wheel sideways horizontal on a bucket for 5-10 minutes and after that inverted them.

All of this took about 2 hours. The wheels are holding fine and we will see what happens overnight. I am not using them as race wheels, only as back ups or training wheels. I am very interested to compare them to my tubular wheels.

I think this is the wave of the future but more so as UST/Tubless wheels are made more and more for cross just like MTB. I use a Bontrager tubless wheel set for MTB with Stan's sealant and have never looked back.

Tubulars are nice and feel nice but they are expensive. Stan's and tubless systems are made for the masses and I expect more and more people to give it a try.

Stan's has a nice cross wheel set for cheap and will be coming out with their own "raven" tire soon. Hutchison has a UST/tubless tire already for cross. Probably the biggest advantage to doing what I did is that you use wheels you have already and you can switch tires easily.

90 Realized

So I met my goal set way back in January of getting to a CTL of 90. Now what? Since CTL is based on a rolling average (basically like saying I am doing a 90 tss/day average), it will only fall from August 11th or so down to December. Simply put it takes a lot of time to raise your CTL. Like any average it gets harder to raise the ceiling as you go if you are not consistantly scoring above the average value.

Normally it is said that if you have a CTL of 70 or below you won't need to taper for a peak event. But at 90 tss/d or close to that I would taper if I were going to peak. The risk of tapering in September is that you loose CTL in your taper and for the cross season that might mean initial decreased performance. But, that is why you do specific workouts designed to maintain a certain level and focus on your weaknesses (for which I have many).

The last sub-eight hour week I had was back in April. The only "rest" period was during my vacation in June where I was still able to do some tempo stuff. So, using TSS instead of the traditional 3 weeks on/1 week off periodization got easier as I went. Plus, if you look at my average intensity factor for that period (May-July), it is only about .75 (out of 1, with 1 being TT intensity).

It is easy to see how the pros ramp up so quickly when they are doing 4 or 5 hours a day and racing in between.

A CTL of 100 tss/day would probably have taken me another 2 months. Once intervals start CTL will go down so I would have had to start building much earlier and since I work that is not possible.

An Open Letter to All Things Hymenoptera

Dear Queen of the bees and wasps,

I surrender. I have had 6 stings in 6 weeks, three on the face while riding my bike. I don't know what I did to you but please stop stinging me! Is it the honey I eat in the morning? I can switch to maple syrup. Let me know (nicely).

Sincerely,

Bob

Here is a 27 mile route from my house that has a few nice climbs and usually gives me 89 tss in 1.5 hours. Low traffic except for crossing Roswell Road and anyone who does the group rides in this area will be familiar with the roads. The best time to ride is between 9:30 and 11am when everyone is at work.

Tubeless With Stan's

I am going to make an adventure of it and try the new Stan's cyclocross rim strips out on a spare Sun ME14A rim set in order to run them tubless. The setup looks pretty easy and the price is good as two Maxxis Raze tires are $60 and the Stan's setup is also $60. That is about the cost of one Dugast tubular tire.

I have had great success with the MTB setup and there are nice instructions on how to do the same for cyclocross tires here.

Most folks I know would love to go tubless but don't want to buy a new wheel set, special tires, or don't want the glue mess. I'll try it out and update later.

I can't wait for a cheaper road system for tubless and it should be forthcoming.

Today on Dan's "Macabre" ride I got dropped again right after a big hill called Jack Pittman when Jeff Welp attacked. When he attacked I was in the shit already. So I tried to get back to them and only succeeded because they took pity on me and sat up. I guess it was my handlebar position which confused them to whether I was working hard to chase or not (I was on the hoods). There was a county line sign right after I caught them and I sprinted for it because I was glad it was over and because I was mad I got dropped.

Here is the power file selection that shows I was working at threshold chasing back and normalized power shows that I was a little above threshold (the dotted line is my threshold power line).

This ride is pretty hard for me (obviously) and harder now than it was back in February where I actually pulled a lot, did not get dropped, and sprinted 2 or 3 times.

Here is the zone by zone power distribution:

One of the best features of WKO+ is the "fast find" feature. In the ride graph you can search your effort for a self-specified power range. Besides the food poisoning last Saturday night I was surprised to get dropped on the Sunday ride. I was curious since I had done 5x5 VO2 max and 6x3 VO2 max efforts the Tuesday and Thursday before the ride, whether I had over extended in that range and was just very tired when those efforts came up in the fast ride.

What I found going back is that I had burned 13 matches of efforts between 30 to 2 minutes where the power average ranged between 318w and 450w.

Also, in looking at the power distribution graph I was 13 minutes total in VO2 max and 16 minutes above that.

While the ride might normally be in my wheelhouse, I would suspect that if I were to do a ride like this later in the week it might be better to adjust my intervals earlier so I can put in a better performance.

The Drive for 90

I had a goal to try and achieve 90 CTL by August 4th. Why? I would like to come into the SS championships with a high CTL so I can taper a week and have a positive TSB for the race weekend September 6+7. I'll shoot for +20 TSB for that weekend and pay for it later in cross season. My original goal was to try and get 100 CTL but that won't happen.

It has been very difficult to get to 90 CTL being an average athlete. It takes a lot of patience and a lot of time. With cross season beginning at the end of October I am hoping I can salvage some CTL for that, focusing again on December.

Here is a shot of my PMC for the summer so far:

and a shot of my time/distance so far...

Using TSS has been a different experience and I can't say I have missed "rest weeks" but it is a gamble. It has been a neat experiment and those guys who do it all the time have my respect.

Yesterday I got completely dropped on the Dan's Macabre ride and it sucked. I don't think I have gotten dropped on that ride before. It especially hurt getting crushed on the hill before Stock Rd. Hopefully the chart above had nothing to do with that. Maybe things will be different this weekend.

I liked the sequel to Hellboy a lot. I collected comics when I was a teen and I would certainly have subscribed to Hellboy back then. But with the web today you can see some of them online here. The movie is different from the comic but it is really fun and humerous. Even my wife liked it without me having to pay dues and see Sex in the City (never).

I would suggest avoiding any mussel dish at mexican style taquerias in Virginia/Highlands.

My wife told me 2 weeks ago that she thinks I should race cross this fall if I want to and to not say I am going to stop unless I really want to. Probably the biggest inhibitor to racing some races will be gas prices. Without knowing the schedule yet I don't know how many races might be affected. But, I assume that when my daughter turns 4 next year she will be playing sports of her own and I will be focusing more on that (car-pool, practices, etc.).

Anyway, no one cares really except me so moving on...

I am going to try and do one of my "dream races" this fall. The HUP guys in New England are going to host a get together for the USGP of Gloucester and I have booked my flight. It was a hard choice between that and Star-Crossed in Seattle but New England won out.

This year's cross season will be interesting in a lot of ways. First, the GA SS championships are right in the middle of the prime cross build-up month of September. So, how do you work both? I think you prepare for cross but try and do a weekly SS ride/race to keep sharp. I doubt that muscular endurance will drop too much unless one focuses only on cross in that time period.
Secondly, with the excellence of Brendan Sullivan this year it will be interesting to see where he races. If he goes A race, it leaves the door open for a few masters 35+ guys. Maybe that would encourage Tony to go with him. One can dream. I have the same dilemma as always: masters is first, A race is last, tennis happens during the A race so I will have to do the masters, get in my car and race home so my wife can play tennis. It is a balancing act.

I will probably go all-in and race elite masters 1/2/3 in Gloucester. Of course, that is if I can even register. Registration is as competitive as nationals and starts smack in the middle of the SS champs race day. Doh!

Sometimes I get the feeling that cross is like Dungeons and Dragons. It is a little obsession that means very little to anyone but your little circle and anyone else looking in realizes that you take it way too seriously. What would be the equivalent of a dice pouch in cross? (Yes I played, cast your judgement).

Bethlehem-Athens

The yearly pilgrimage to Athens to ride the Finley Street cobbles went off without any problems. It was about 3.5 hours in the saddle and 65 miles of nice roads. Once in Athens, we rode down Milledge and took a left onto Broad and then a right up Finley's steep cobbled climb (really the only one I know of around here). It is not very long but as you can see in the picture to the left, there are some pretty nice looking stones. Thinking back to walking that street when I was a student at UGA I would have not realized the appeal until Flanders and Paris-Roubaix.

The group eventually broke up around Tallassee Rd and riding from there to Statham, over the reservoir was pretty tough.

All in all a really nice time and I can't wait to do it again.

I can't believe how cool it is outside, but I can believe how little it has rained. The 3rd driest June on record and we are down 7" at this point.

I am looking forward to the GTC Athens ride Friday and no matter what Mike says I have 74 and 81 miles in the last 2 editions I did, not 62 miles. That is fine with me! I proposed twice up the cobbled Finley St. so we will see who bites. It is a great ride all around and I hope the weather is nice.