Mid-Year Stats

Jan 09 to July 4 09

Hours: 244
Distance: 4034 miles
TSS Accumulated: 15, 000 points
KJ Expended: 174,202
CTL Change: +31
Races: 9

Some Upcoming Race Profiles

GA Games RR

Looks pretty flat with a few rollers. I have never been to White, GA but if it is like Canton it is not totally flat.

Profile of One Lap:

I am doing the masters 35+ for 53 miles and I'll bet it will be pretty hard.

Race Course of One Lap:



Road Atlanta Circut Race

This looks like a great race but everyone says you either love it or hate it because of the surface and heat. It is pretty lumpy so I'll bet I will just try to hang on mid-pack.

Profile for One Lap:

Course Map

Harbins Road Race

I know this will really suck. It is going to take all I can just to not get totally dropped. The course is very hilly and will go for around 67 miles for the 40+ and these guys can fly.

Profile for One Lap:

Course Map

These are training rides for me so even if I just hang on I will get what I want from them. I have no intention of placing but maybe if I ride smart I can get in the top 20.

I went to Chattanooga last weekend with the family and on Sunday did the Raccoon Mountain SERC MTB race. What a beautiful reservoir and trails. It must have been an engineering nightmare to build but it is really scenic and not far from the city. The race was smaller than I expected and there were only 13 40+ expert guys and with 10 minutes before the race the promoter decided to cut our lap count down to two. I was using it as a training race so I really wanted 3 hours but I guess with the nheat and the lap distances being 12 miles, he did not want to over-extend the geezers. Too bad, we were up for it.

The race started off nice on a long road section and I was maybe 5th into the woods. I soon backed off and rode at my own pace but around mile 2 my seat broke. so I had to compensate for this and try to get off and fix it every once and awhile. I lost major time and placings and by the middle of the lap I was hoping to just finish the race. I rolled into the start/finish and asked the promoter if I could fix my bike and finish. He said yes but I would have to be DQ'd for getting outside assistance. I was in last so it did not matter to me. I fixed the seat temporarily and did the seocnd lap much quicker than the first. In the end I finished 11th and he did not DQ me after all.

I have been trying to prepare for cross this fall and the volume and intervals are going well. By no means am I doing PRO numbers (like 25-30 hour/week) but more like 12 or 13 hours. I am actually going to try and do a few road races since MTB racing right now is boring me. I am going to do the GA Games RR and the Atlanta Road Course and Dacula RR as part of the Gwinnett Fest race week. These will be in 40+ and I will probably be mid-pack at best. These are training races so I will not peak for them, just race through.

Starcrossed is in mid-September so August will be spent mostly doing cross workouts and other things to prepare me for that.

This week's plan:

Monday: 5x5(5) VO2 max in a 1.5 hour ride
Tuesday: 60-90 minutes w/ 30 tempo in there somewhere
Wednesday: 60 easy
Thursday: 3 hours endurance
Friday: 2 hours easy
Saturday: GTC TT effort (probably 60 minutes LT)
Sunday: 60 easy

11 hours total

NC Mountains Riding

I went on vacation with the family up to Bat Cave for a week of hanging out for my father in law's 70th birthday. We went to Bat Cave since it was close to Lake Lure and Asheville. Lake Lure was pretty fun and Charlotte got to swim and ride a horse as well as climb 654 stairs up to the top of Chimney Rock.

I rode Sunday around Lake Lure and it was very challenging. Basically there are 3 rules of riding in western NC:

1. All climbs are 3 miles long
2. There are no flat or straight roads
3. If you want to go somewhere you have to climb a mountain

The road up to our cabin on Shumont Road was a brutal piece of work. It climbed from Rt 9 through some very nice woods and then into great open meadows. It was 3.6 miles UP.

From Rt 9 I climbed up to Old Fort Rd and rode on this for awhile. I missed my turn onto Cedar Creek and got lost. I flagged down a local who told me, "Well champ, the first thing you want to do is take a nice long drink because you have to climb that mountain over there." So, another 3 mile climb back to the missed turn (where I had stopped to pee earlier--Doh!)

The road back to the lake was nice but not as flat as I had hoped. Getting back to Rt 9 took me through Chimney Rock and Bat Cave before the 3 mile climb to Shumont and the 3.6 mile climb back to the house. Here is the map, sans getting lost and the climb back to the house. It was 50 miles total.

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2863099

The other two rides were rides from the Blue Ridge Parkway. I rode from the Folk Art Center to the base of Mt. Mitchell on one day and the other day i rode from the French Broad (191) to Graveyard Fields. Both of these were about 50 miles and had a lot of tunnels and fast descents coming back. The climbs are pretty relentless and climbs over 10 miles are not my thing so I only averaged around 10mph. on those.

The new HUP United kits arrived a week ago and they are really white. They are also very hard to keep clean. I guess that is the price you pay for fashion.

I am getting a new cross build up plan for the summer since I will be doing the early Starcrossed in September. I have not been doing any specific training (besides races) above the threshold level since December so I gather I'll be spending a lot of time in VO2 max and above each week.

I have been getting some treatment for my back since the single-speed has taken a toll on it. Nothing serious but the SI joint needs a bit of rotation.

The GTC club championships are tomorrow and it looks like rain. That is good but bad as well since I won't get to recoed the power data. There are probably 5 racers that will go away and hopefully I can make the break this year.

After that race I am going to chill for a week up in the NC mountains and ride some of the parkway as well. I hope to ride from Craggy to Mt. Mitchell if the road is clear.

OUCH

Nice job Wild Bill!

I was...

a. 2nd in the short track
b. 6th in the night time TT
c. 2nd in the state champ race
d. Crushed in the woods by Bill
e. all of the above

This one hurt.

Klein Pinnacle

Well, another school year is almost over. Crazy how it flies. My daughter will be 4 in June and this will probably be my last summer where she is in school. It should be a lot of fun for the next few years having her at home over the summer (can you say water slide?).

So I am going to try and make the most of this last Pre-K year by training for some peak events. I am targeting Cross Nationals again in Bend, Oregon and I have already bought my ticket. I am also fulfilling my "dream race" fix by going to Starcrossed in Seattle in September. I am also going to try and hit the NC UCI races since I have never done them.

My spring peak is coming up next week for SSUSA and GA SS Championships. I am nowhere in peak form but they sort of sprung the date on us so I'll have to make the best of what fitness I have right now and then ramp up over the summer. I think I can win the 40+ title but it will be very hard to do so. I may take a crack at some of the GwinnettFest races as well but only for training.

My coach, John Verheul, is making me a nice summer plan to get ready for cross a bit earlier. Hopefully I can train like last year and really improve over the summer. I am also revamping my cross bike a bit with new brakes, handlebars and stem. I am going to try a wider bar this time and see how that works.

I may be putting the MTB away for the summer in a few weeks if it is not needed for the training. I really like the MTB and the races have been fun so far.

Power wise I am doing pretty good but I have stalled out around 75tss/d since my weekday time is limited. My ftp is around 300w and over the summer I hope to get to around 95tss/d by September and a threshold of at least 315w and lower my weight to 170lbs.

All of this is contingent on the family so it is better to remain flexible.

GSC #3: Ft Yargo

Ft. Yargo is a nice place to ride any time of year and I really like racing there as well. It is mostly single-track with some nice climbs and now a section dubbed "The Monster Mile". The gas line decent/climb was taken out and the Monster Mile added. This section was a thrill to race with many bmx style whoops and some gnarly steep climbs.

I was upgraded to the expert/cat 1 for this season and have been racing them on the single-speed. The competition is fierce and most of the guys have been around long enough to get reputations. Mix in a few just-turned-40 racers and it is pretty intense. Lately Shane Schreihart (sic) and Jason Childre have been 1 and 2. Shane hurt his back and did not race much this race while Jason went on to win.

The start of the race was fast and I think I got the hole shot but was passed by about 4 guys after the road got flat. I spun out for awhile and then was in around 5th going into the woods. On a set of whoops my bike bag came off and went into the read wheel causing me to slow down to fix it, losing about 4 places. Once I had it fixed I managed to pass Jeff Clayton and tow around Steve Rideway for about a lap. Steve decided to leave me behind and Jeff Caught me at the feed on lap 2.

I wanted to make top 10 but I was passed on lap 2 by Joe Dunlop and now I had no idea where I stood. The Monster Mile was tough on me and I took it easy through there not wanting to break a collarbone. I made up ground each lap on the climbs and tight stuff. But not enough since Childre beat me by 11 minutes! Shit!

Lap 3 hurt me and I was struggling for awhile but rallied a bit when I caught Joe near the end and held it to the finish. I was 8th which sounds good but 11 minutes behind is not that great. Especially with the SS state champs coming up. But...I was the only single-speed racer in this class and with that said, it was one course where the single-speed choice was not a good one. there was no where to go on the flats since I could not kick it into a big ring and I was already spinning over 100 rpm in a 34x17. I don't think I could have gotten up the hills in a 34x16 but for the flats it owuld have been helpful.

Still, 32 miles in each race is getting easier and I feel good in the races but just don't have the firepower to get into the top 3.

Next up will be SSUSA/GA SS Champs in May.

I have had some fast women pass me in races and Sunday it was Jamie Dinkins who was absolutely blazing by me. She is pretty good looking too if that matters.

Things have been hectic around here with 2 trials in 2 months which leaves me with the munchkin for 2 weeks alone. The accumulation of work, her and life is pretty stressful and i am not sure how my mom did it all those years with 2 kids.

Anyway, I raced the East Macon MTB race in the Cat 1/Expert division and placed 4th which I was happy with. I gave it full throttle for 3 hours and I was pretty tired for a week after. After Jay's training camp I did a MTB TT the next weekend and my TSB was -38 when I did it. I posted the second fastest time overall and won the single-speed class.

Shey announced about 3 weeks ago that the 2009 singles speed state champs would be May 16-17 so I am very excited about it but I will not be on form like last year. Although I want to win it again, I think Shane has the best shot because he is really rolling right now having won two expert level MTB races.

I have been working in lots of threshold and sweet-spot intervals and I am pretty happy with my new FTP level. It increased about 10 watts but I need to slim down a bit for the benefit. I did a couple of sprints in a ride last weekend and my 12 second power was around 850 watts so I was happy with that although I lost the sprints.

My goal is to slowly raise my CTL and FTP through August. I would like to get it around 100tss/d by the weekend of Starcrossed in Seattle. But that is a long way off.

Spring Break

Jay Halgat put together a nice 4 day ride "camp" and I was able to make 3 of the 4. We started with the GTC Classic Ronde van Appalachee where we rode for around 60 miles, climbed a number of bergs and had a few gravel roads as well. We had 3 sprints and two of them were at the top of climbs. The group was around 20 I think and it was a,lot of fun on a nice sunny spring day. I got the ride start wrong and had to drive ahead and meet everyone which made me inelligible for the sprints but I did them anyway. On the first one we hit the gravel/dirt road leading up to the small hill climb and I punched it but my legs had no memory of last December when I sprinted last so by the time we got to the hill I was toast.

On Monday we did a longer ride which went from Monroe to the Oconee National Forest in Greene County and back. It was around 87 miles and it was very windy (20 mph) and colder than the day before. We took it slow and rolled in at 5 hours exactly.

Tuesday we did the Bethlehem-Madison route but it was so windy in places that at the store stop we decided to cut it short to Rutledge and tack through the wind. We ended up with 4 hours and around 70 miles.

On Wednesday after grading for awhile, I tried to go out and spin easy. My legs were pretty tired and needed a rest.

It is Friday and I have not ridden for 2 days but should go MTB tomorrow for a couple of hours.

It was fun doing those miles and hanging out with friends but I would not want to be a pro and have to do it everyday.

I am gearing up for May 16-17 which is single-speed USA and the GA State Single-speed championships. If I can keep the training stress up until then, this may be a peak event.

Ride Cluster Analysis and Matches

I was fooling around with some ride power cluster analysis and compared the "Dan's Macabre" Sunday ride which is usually fast and difficult for me to finish with the lead group. It covers some rolling terrain in Gwinnett/Barrow/Walton Counties.

In comparing the group ride with my own solo effort on the same course, the effects of the group ride are pretty obvious. My solo effort showed a lot of Low Force/Low Cadence (II) from me having to grind up hills. My power was above threshold a lot of the time and with the group we are going faster so I am clustering in the High Force/High Cadence (I) area as it is a bit harder to keep up and I have to turn big gears fast.

The other thing that is obvious is that I am spending much more time at higher power (>350w) in the group ride because it is a hard ride. My solo effort allows me to pace myself and not react to others driving the pace. My TSS for the group ride is around 220 and the solo was 200.



The second quadrant analysis is of a solo ride I do often from my house. It is a 55 mile ride from home to roswell and back. There are lots of hills and I am pretty bushed by the end. My TSS for this ride is around 191. I was surprised to see so much Low Force/Low Cadence power since I was solo and I was impressed by the amount of hill grinding I am doing over threshold in the High Force/Low Cadence quad. Basically I suck on hills.



The last neat graph shows a match burn graph plotting my 30 sec rolling average power versus time and elevating my power values to the 4th power to accentuate my efforts. It is pretty clear that this is a hard ride for me and that I burn a lot of matches on this one. My maximum aerobic power (MAP) is around 380w (2.0 on the graph) so it is easy to tell my matches.

GCS #1: East Macon

What a great day outside and a great race. I raced the 40+ Expert (Cat 1) race on the single-speed and the field was stacked with very good racers. Shane and I were the only two SS guys in an otherwise geared field and today the 34x17 was a magic gear.

I was gapped at the start through the awesome bmx track and had to fight back up. I was a little concerned about 5 laps (30.5 miles) in the expert class but went for it the whole race. My first lap was ok and I got caught up behind some gearies on the small but very steep, rooty and twisty climb near the start. I was able to pass some and had a nice crash passing someone. At laps end I had no idea where I was in the standings but I felt very good so I kept putting it on. Shane had about 3 minutes on me at this point.

The second lap was a lot like the first and I was able to pick off more guys and move up. I have to say that today most of the 20+ experts would not yield properly so I could pass. I have a bad rep for coming up on people and not warning them but today I gave a lot of warnings and twice I hit the ground because guys would not move an inch. I don't want guys pulling over, just move over a bit.

The third lap was my best and I put on full gas because Jeff Clayton (SS state champ on a geared bike) was about 30 seconds behind and closing. The course was 1/3 flat, 1/3 twisty/sandy, and 1/3 climbing and the last third each lap I was able to put a little time on him. I was so focused on him that I did not know that the guy in front of me about 10 seconds off was in 3rd place. Doh!

The fourth lap I began to hurt. Legs were getting tight but I was able to climb well and at the start of the fifth lap I had maybe a minute on Jeff. The fifth lap I began to really get tight and had to just hold on. The climbs were now very hard and the flat stuff I was railing an hour ago I was creeping on now. The flat stuff between climbs was irritating and I wanted the climbs to start. As we got to the sandbox and infield Jeff was in sight but I had to keep on some pressure to hold him off and I think I did by about 20 seconds.

I predicted Shane would win and he did. I asked him how hard it was and he said that it wasn't. Thirty miles to him is just a warm up considering the ultra stuff he does. I am very happy for him to win on the SS in a very tough greared expert class. Hats off.

I came in 4th and I doubt I would have caught the guy in front for 3rd. I am very happy as I type and drink my Orval.

GTC Training Camp

A nice 4 days of mellow group rides starting April 4.

April 4th - Ronde van de Appalachee - 77km The GTC version of the Ronde with bergs and sprints.

April 5th - Flat Ride 3 - 93km at 10:00am-- Flatter than Keira Knightley.

April 6th - Oconee Forest 115km- at 10:00am --Pretty long ride with few store stops.

April 7th - Bethlehem - Good Hope = 88km at 10:00am --Pretty flat ride with the option to go long to Madison or pick up some worms in Good Hope and go fishing.

Should be a fun time.

I Guess I'm Just Getting Old, or Just a Pussy

I love mountain bike cross-country racing. A nice 20-30 mile race is all I need. But, the trend these past years is about making incredibly long and difficult courses to see who can nad-up and finish them, and yes, someone will win.

The list is long, Dirt, Sweat and gears, SSUSA, Cohutta 100, Mt. Mitchell MTB, Fool's Gold, etc. These are ultra-hard endurance races and they must be popular because people sign up and do them, tell tales, drink beer. There are also the 6 and 12 hour races. As if less distance/time is for pussies.

I long for the days when XC races were simple events ridden over mountains in digestible distances that did not lean toward the adrenaline junkie ultra crowd who pushes it to see when and where their body will fail, just so they can spin yarns over cool beer later.

Give me nice XC races and I am happy. Also, while you are at it, throw in some short track as well.

Personally, I have no desire to race past 3 hours on a bike. After that it feels like work, and work sucks unless I am getting paid, and even then it sucks a lot too.

I guess I am a pussy.

Riding in the Rain

Today I rode from my house to upper Roswell for 3 hours in the rain. I used my fenders (SKS Race Blades) and they were fantastic. I also tried a cross trick and used latex gloves under my light, full-fingered gloves and this worked ok for cross but on a long rainy road ride they got too wet from sweat.

The temperature was in the 40's and pretty much no wind. The route is rolling with some nice steep climbs. I like the route and this summer I can easily add 10-20 miles and make it a nice 4 hour ride.

I was pretty much the only idiot out there but I did manage to scare off a family of deer as I illegally rode through Island Ford National Park. I saw a 4 pointer and some does.

My Performance jacket bought for me as a present back in 1990 still works perfectly 19 years later, as do my Performance booties.

Anyway, here is the route...