Race Report 3: My Legs Are Killing Me

The infamous route.

So last weekend I went to Arkansas. I have waited a bit typing this up because I had a pretty bad weekend there. Climbing is certainly not my specialty, and a combination of factors led to me being rather unsuccessful in the race. The course was the same as the Hell's Kitchen Road Race, and that means that we had to do a climb that was pretty unforgiving. It topped out at 22% for a short stretch, and I was in agony there.

Back to the beginning...

We drove up to Fayetteville on Friday night staying at a teammate's grandmother's house. The next morning it was a bit wet out. We got to the race course, and quickly put everything on. I hate running late for things. Within the first second or so an LSU rider crashed at the start line. It was good for a quick laugh. We had a fairly boring first few miles. Some conversations with people, etc. Then it started to rain. It rained a bunch. I was pretty miserable not just because of the rain, but also because we started to hit harder hills. I was getting dropped off of the back, and settling into my own pace. As we went up the toughest parts of Hell's Kitchen I was losing it. It just hurt. There is an intense sense of relief when you get up to the top of those sorts of climbs. You don't worry about what it's going to be like when you hit the next hill, you're just thankful this one is over with. Well, each subsequent hill I was hurting on.

The descent was pretty fun. I was apparently the only rider that had good visibility. I was wearing my PowerBar hat that I received in the seventh grade from my geography teacher, who just happened to be a retired pro. I also had my Oakley sunglasses, which didn't fog up unlike everyone else's glasses. I topped out at 42, which based on how wet it was and how much the rain hurt at those speeds wasn't too shabby. I struggled through the last 8 miles of the race having exhausted myself on the climb. I did better than 20 percent of the riders, which is low, but it was on a course that I am certainly not built for.

I have had this hat since I was 13.

On to the Time Trial. I didn't want to do it. I told my team I was hurting, and they did the typical thing of "unless it's serious..." So I went with them. We had to ride 8 miles to the TT along the course. All of the teams were out there riding at the same time. During this ride there were a few "What happens on race weekend stays on race weekend" moments. I won't get into details, but it was pretty funny.

I took the first pull for my team. I basically said I was going to burn myself out on one pull, then they could go. I knew that I wasn't going to make it very far, but I pushed myself. The start was at the bottom of a short but difficult hill. I powered up it, and stayed at the front of the group letting everyone else recover. I was already pushing myself pretty hard at this point, but I stuck with it for the rest of the first mile. I was broken at that point, and waved them on. I pedaled the rest of the way counting down each tenth of a mile. When it was over I was really tired.

We ate at a place called Mellow Mushroom. They had some pretty good pizza and beer. I was glad to be in a state that had decent laws regarding beer for once. They could actually keep a decent number of craft beers on tap. No offense to the major beers, but I need something stronger after a race.

The next morning we had the crit, and I did poorly. I'm actually pretty mad at myself for this one. I didn't DNF, but most people would have in my situation. I got lapped, and finished so far behind everyone it hurt. Half of the course was downhill, and through several turns. These were not a problem for me, and in fact I would gain ground on this section. Half of the riders were from Arkansas, and as physically fit as they are, they still don't know how to go around corners. I got accordion-ed in the corners and tired on the hill of the course. I just hope things aren't so bad this weekend at Kansas State.

Here is me feeling dejected after being ejected from the group.

Race Report 2: Electric Boogaloo. OU Land Ronde

Gratuitous uniform pic of me before the TTT

I just finished my second weekend of racing this year. We hosted the race this time. I have to say that I am incredibly pleased with how I did. I probably won’t be moving up to C’s this year, but I’ll end up toward the top of D’s. We had just about everybody from the team race this weekend. One guy is injured, and another is too out of shape to race just yet. They’ll do some of the later races. Now to get into the meat of it….

Saturday morning we headed out to Stanley Draper Lake. The temperature was in the mid-fifties, and it had been drizzling. I was a bit late with my buddy because he slept in, and he was my only feasible transportation to the race. Luckily this didn’t seem to be too bad. It was pretty miserable out there; too cold to wear just shorts while standing still yet too warm to wear base layer for the race. We set off on a route that I was quite familiar with. We made our way past the first turn letting everyone know that they should slow way down for it. The section we rode then was filled with potholes. It was much worse than I remember last year. On the bright side we got up the hills, and I wasn’t even pushing that hard. There was a rider from UNT that got dropped on one of the first few hills; poor guy. He finished a sizeable chunk behind everyone. Kudos to him for finishing the race mostly by himself.

The next turn put us out of the hills and into the wind. The pack stayed pretty tight at a 21-22 mph pace. It felt a bit slow to me, which is a bit strange. I’m normally pushing pretty hard at that pace on that section even with a number of teammates. I’ll just assume it was a larger group causing a more effective shield from the wind. The whole first lap was really wet. I was coated in red dirt by the end of it. As we turned North we brought the pace up to about 28-30 mph. This continued for the last 3 miles or so on the first lap. I became pretty exhausted by this, so I dropped off. I put in several efforts to catch them, but after the first mile of the second lap it was clear I should let them go.

I pushed through the hills to the best of my abilities. I slowed down on more than I would like on them though. I think I’m going to add some intense sustained efforts followed by some climbing to get better at this. I am not so great at hills, but this could help mitigate my weakness. After one of the fast downhill sections in this area of the course I saw 3 of my teammates on the side of the road. One of them was face-down on the pavement. The other two were clearly okay. The teammate that was down has crashed in all 3 road races this year. He couldn’t recall the month, so they took him to the hospital. He had to get his lip sewn up, but was otherwise fine. His bike frame cracked though.

On the second to last hill I was getting caught by two riders, and I heard one of them go down. He and the guy with him never caught me up, but both were uninjured. At the end of the hills I caught on to an Arkansas rider. I talked with him for a bit and asked him if he wanted to work against the wind. He agreed, and we pushed a rotation for the majority of the second lap. When we were closing in on the finish I told him good ride, and rode next to him for a bit having a chat. When the conversation lulled I took off and opened up a gap. I had about 30 meters or so on him at most. As we approached the finish there was a rider from West Texas that had a wheel change and was picking his pace back up. I pushed to catch him, and sprinted for the line. I held off the Arkansas rider and passed the West Texas rider with about 20 feet to go. Great road race.

The time trial was uneventful for the most part. Still wet, and miserable. It rained really really hard with about 15 minutes before the TT started. I was paired up with the teammate that drove me. We had another D squad with 4 guys who we pretty much put together to give a better chance of winning. I stayed with my teammate who was definitely stronger for that. On the way down we got caught by the Arkansas squad behind us, but on the way back we caught them. Poor planning I guess.

This was the beginning of the TTT. I am in the back.

Dinner was good. Beer was had.

The crit was the next morning. We were even colder. This time I put on my thick winter layer underneath the uniform. I had one warm-up lap. We took off pushing about 25 with the wind and 21 into the wind. I stayed in the top 10, but never pushed to the front. I stayed in this position through half of the crit. With 5 laps to go, the pace increased. I couldn't quite hold with the front guys, but I was still in the mix.

I am on the left, the OU rider to the right of me got second, and the OU rider on the right side of the pic got first. All riders pictured are either OU or Arkansas. Our schools dominated the worst division at this race!

I was gaining on opponents all through the last lap, and I went through the final turn perfectly. I sprinted for the line, and passed a couple of people right before the finish. It felt great. If I can focus on maintaining intensity I feel as if I will be able to reach the end of these races with the podium in sight. 

Here I am passing all three other riders just before the finish. Looks like I beat the West Texas rider to the finish twice. The final guy that I beat is a UNT rider that is just behind me from the photographer's angle. 

Until next time, I'm gonna take a big nap now. 

UT Austin Race Report

So the first race is over with. I am a bit disappointed, but also feeling okay about other things too.

The trip down there was okay. I rode with several teammates that I haven't spent very much time with. They were pretty cool, but I wasn't a fan of their music choices. No matter. I should have the ability to avoid that for the next two races at least. We got into Austin kind of late, but the place we stayed was really chill.

The morning of the race we headed out to the parking lot and noticed we had been towed. The lot was half empty, so I was kind of pissed. It's not like there was a need for us to be towed. Anyway, I don't need to stay mad about that. We got the car back in time and got our stuff for the road race ready.

I got dropped relatively early in the race, but they were averaging 26 for the first several miles. Bear in mind this is in D's. They shouldn't be pushing that fast. Those that did and weren't making the newbie mistake of pushing too hard too early didn't belong in D's. There were several such riders. That's not an excuse though. I should have held on for longer. I ended up riding my own race for several laps. I got to chat with a couple of Oklahoma State riders for the second and third laps. I spent laps four and five chasing one guy. I never quite caught him. Luckily I was catching other riders at the very end. That was one of two things to be happy about. The other was that I wasn't last. As sad as that sounds it was how bad I did last year.

After I was done with the road race I was pretty sick of the course. It was 5 laps for us on a 6.2ish mile course. A few hours later we had our time trial, which was 1 more lap. On the first turn of the pedals I felt some pain in my left hamstring. Being the knucklehead that I am I kept going. My team quickly left me behind though. The course had two real turns, the rest being gentle curves. The second turn was maybe a quarter mile to the finish. As soon as I passed that corner I bore down and held my speed at 32 mph to the end. I was having a shitty day, but I was going to end it strong. Several people noticed how hard I finished and told me. Hey, a pity victory is better than not being mentioned at all.

Afterwards we went out to downtown Austin. The first place we went to was crowded and really shitty. We left when we realized we weren't going to be treated well. We hit up a Chinese restaurant, and had some great food and drink. I had some Sesame chicken and Newcastle Brown Ale and a couple of shots of sake.

The next morning we had to get up fairly early for our criterium race. I warmed up, and was okay at half speed, but my hamstring was really bugging me the whole couple of laps that I stayed in. This was the first crit I have ever been pulled from, so it appears my hamstring was a bit more of a problem than it was letting on and/or there are a lot of D's that will quickly move up to C's. In fact, right after our crit the C's were racing. There was a rider from MSU who blew the whole field away in our race, and they made him move up to C's for their crit. He stayed with the lead group the whole way. He doesn't belong in C's either really. He should end up in A's by the end of the year.

As for me, who knows. I am stretching out my left leg taking it really easy here until I feel comfortable. Then I should be putting in a lot more intensity. After the A&M race which I am not going to I should be in a much better field of competitors from my perspective. I'll probably still struggle for great placing, but the next couple of months should lead me to a much better place on the bike. I am also adding in some running and swimming to prepare for the triathlon and half marathon that I am doing over the summer. I shouldn't have any problem training for the tri this year. I know how to do all of those distances without a huge struggle. It's the half marathon that I am a bit apprehensive about. The furthest I have ever ran is a bit over 6.2 miles. I am thinking of putting in a long run day where I run a half a mile or a mile longer than I have before. That seems like a decent plan as long as it's in the middle of the week.

Jitters

I'm already getting a bit jumpy about the first race, which is in 9 days. I promised pictures of the new uniforms last time, and I have been too lazy to put them up. So here they are. I was skeptical at first about the gray, as one should be, but they turned out really well. The stripe on the jersey and gloves is pretty awesome. The sponsor placement seems much better this year than last year as well. I think the two guys that come up with the majority of the designs for us are getting much better at that.

The beard is about to come off. I will have some friendly mutton chops for the first race, then I'm taking it down to a mustache. I probably won't keep that for long. As much as I love having a mustache, I haven't been clean shaven since July 3rd. I do really like the feeling of having a smooth face, but I wanted to do at least a half yeard. Mission accomplished plus a month and a couple of days. I was only able to keep the beard for 4 months last year and the mustache for 7. I hacked off the whole beard in one day, which was fun, but I felt I could do something more interesting with it. I got a few compliments on my mustache at races last year, and I know the chops are going to get me at least the same recognition.

I've been putting in the hours on the bike, and my fitness is really coming together. Last night the team had a meeting, and we discussed a few things. Getting our team to move out of the C and D categories is the big issue. We have a list of 5 guys who can make it to B's without having too many fitness issues. I am only fit enough to compete at C's this year, but that is a far cry from last year. I'm gonna judge what I need to do based on if I can succeed. If I podium the first race weekend and don't struggle in the other races that weekend I am moving up. The first race is always stacked with guys who are fit enough to move up anyway, so I'm not sure if that will happen. No matter. I'm going to race my best.

New Semester, New Uniforms!!!

So I haven't posted in a while. It was my intention to do some well researched posts and have a slightly more empirical approach to this blog. I have been unable to do much of anything other than school these past two weeks. It's a tough semester for me, and race season hasn't even started yet. I will for the time being, avoid putting too much time into this blog. I saw I got a few pageviews the last couple of days, so I clearly a few people have read a bit of my stuff. As much as I want to provide an entertaining glimpse into the life of a cyclist, I will be unable to give too much until I start doing some races this season. My first race is on February 16th at the University of Texas. That means 3 weeks from today I'm gonna be in Austin.

In case you couldn't tell I'm the goober with the beard.

I will do my best to provide a race report each week that I race, but more than likely I won't do one for each. If I said I read all the details of the meet reports of people who lift on reddit I would be lying. I usually pay attention to a few posts really carefully though. There are things to be learned from strangers on the internet.

I will take a picture of my uniform tomorrow and edit my post. I'm just wearing my Hawaii jersey in the above pic. Hopefully I'll get some road pics up for the few people that read this. In order to do that I have to take the micro-sd card out of my phone, and put it into the computer, which can get to be a bit of a hassle. I have to say I am really excited about the whole season though. I have been way more consistent than ever before with my exercise. Last Saturday we did a 50 mile ride, and I actually felt like I could do more at the end. That hasn't really happened before. Usually I get to 50 and I want to collapse and have a beer. I was able to best a few of the new guys thoroughly which makes me feel much more confident.

Normally I am looking pretty out of it by that point. I also am dropping a bit of body fat.

It's weird looking back at the last several years of my life. This is the first year where I can say I haven't been a huge fuck-up since middle school. Don't get me wrong I was a better student than most, but many people can relate to the fact that that isn't enough for most parents; especially parents like mine who are both engineers. My sisters have had better grades than me for years now, and it was time for me to stop being a lazy idiot with my studies. I knew I wasn't putting in the time, and if I changed that it would improve. The same thing happened with my fitness. I have been getting at least 2 quality workouts every week. I know that doesn't sound like a lot, but remember that doing 2 workouts focused on a sport will give you more than 4 not focused on that sport. Things are just looking generally better in my life than they used to.

I have a plan for this season, and it involves going up into the C category relatively early on in the season with several of the D squad. We want to try to get a solid C team and a few guys in B's by the end of the season. We have 2 riders who are fully capable of racing in B's, and 3 others that could possibly make it there by the end of the season. They won't be winning races there, but they'll be gaining experience and bringing some notice to OU Cycling. Lord knows this state is behind in our sport, and we may just be able to promote it quite a bit this year. I see more people riding around on new road bikes than I did freshman year, which really makes me think that the sport can grow here. We aren't that far from the cycling center of the US, where I spend my summer and winter breaks.

I had a fun vacation, including a trip to Hawaii. I got to run on the Queen K Highway, and see the course for the Ironman World Championship. I was immediately reminded of my eventual Ironman goal. If I wait until I'm older than 24 it gets significantly harder, so I will be doing my best to improve all legs of the race over the summer. This means making my swimming better than laughable, improving my running significantly, and just adding a bit of distance for cycling. During my vacation I went para-sailing with my sister's fiance, dad, and my little sister. I was feeling a bit uneasy on the boat ride, and when I went up the harness was jerking back and forth. It was really choppy out, and this wouldn't normally happen. I threw up down into the ocean while I was about 600 feet above it. Watching my vomit fall 600 feet was awesome even if I felt terrible. When we got back to the pier I noticed something. We were at the start/finish area for the Ironman swim. This means I threw up into the waters they use for their swim. That made me chuckle a bit.

 That's just water, not vomit on my shirt I promise.

I felt awesome after this vacation. I still do, but things have definitely settled back into the dull steady effort that I am striving to keep. With any luck it will pay off. I'll get those new uniform pics posted tomorrow. I don't want to put on the uniform until I'm actually going to ride in it.

Until then you stay classy people who bothered to read all this. 

What Proper Squatting Can Provide For Cycling

Nothing is completely independent when it comes to exercise. Doing one type of exercise can help you with another. Sometimes, it will actually hurt your ability. Cyclists are often afraid of doing squats, but this is silly. Although I would like to find links for studies for some of the stuff in here, it's finals week, and I can't be fucked to do that. I want to do a post that will take on Mark Rippetoe and one that will take on Joe Friel when it comes to cycling and squatting respectively. I'll mention that I respect both of those men immensely, I just have a disagreement. For those posts I will have scientific studies. Here is the first on a series of why I do both lifting and cycling.

This is your body on squats...and a bit too much food.

FORCE

One of the components of bicycle racing is force production. It is essential for both climbing and sprinting. If you want to be good at crits, you need to sprint. If you want to be good at road races(for the most part) you need to climb. The more you can squat the better you will be at these things. More importantly, it is a training standard that you can hold yourself to with absolute certainty. A lot of cyclists will say you can do your force production training on the bike by pushing a bigger gear. You can, and I would recommend it in addition to weight training. The reason I prefer weight training for force production is that you know when you fail at a certain level of resistance. When you push a larger gear you may slip 10 RPM or shift down without noting the time/distance you spent in that gear. These things bring about ambiguity in your workout progress. A power meter can mitigate this problem, but most beginners don’t have power meters.

Now bear in mind a consistent program is better than an optimal one. If you hate lifting, you don’t need to lift that much. If you love it, then do it. Just know that when you get blasted on a sprint by some fat guy who barely kept up with you throughout the race it’s your fault.

But what if I am an underweight super skinny cyclist who can’t squat good, and want to learn to do other stuff good too?

Learn to keep higher cadence than heavier guys during sprints. Also, squat more. Spending 3 months in the off season doing a linear progression squat program where you squat twice a week can take you from being a terrible sprinter to one that at least stays close to the other racers. You may also find you have higher top end speed because that tough gear was much easier to turn.

You should be consuming a shitload of protein as well for this. I know that you think you’ll bulk up ridiculously, but that’s simply not true. You might weigh a bit more after a few months of squatting, but you’ll notice that weight isn’t slowing you down. Plus, if you cut calories from your normal diet to allow the protein in you will maintain your weight. You may gradually lose weight as increased muscle tissue would allow you to burn more calories. Make sure you know how many grams of protein you’re getting. Don’t estimate. Seriously, you’ll save yourself a huge hassle.

This is an old rookie mark. Not how dirty my chainring was to get that good of a pattern.

But what if I am fat, and want to lose weight rather than get strong?

Instead of attacking anyone personally, I would like to make known that this is a difficult issue. It would seem that heavier riders are at a great disadvantage when it comes to the sport. There is no easy way to put this, but if you are doing anything other than a crit with zero hills you are experiencing a big battle. Entry level road races and hill climbs will make you look far worse than you actually are. If you are on a diet that is working, continue losing weight before lifting. If you are stuck at a plateau weight, and it’s under 220 lbs. you should lift. I know that most of my lifting buddies would say lift no matter what, but being a reasonable weight will do way more for you in more types of races. When I was in abysmal shape during the A&M Race I caught up to a heavy racer and passed him. Had I not flatted out I would have beaten him. Bear in mind I was in really, really, really bad shape for this race.

CRITS

These short and fast races are a good squatter’s dream. I was actually not horrible in them last year. If you want to win them you should know your 5RM, your 10RM, and your 20RM. In the off season do a widowmaker once every two weeks or so. If you fail to hit depth you did not do that widowmaker. See how much you can do, and make it a point to increase it when you don’t need to worry about training on the bike. If you can bring a 20RM up anywhere near 300 or 2xBodyweight, whichever is higher, you should be able to outsprint some of the track guys. Your 5RM should be more your focus though.

ROAD RACES

Hills, lots of hills. I have never done a road race that didn’t have a few hills that were actually pretty tough. If you hate the hills, then strength work can help. I hardly ever have to leave the big chainring on hills in Norman now. If I’m really tired I do, but there are some surprisingly steep hills here. I’m way better than I used to be though. Squatting will make you turn bigger gears, as well as help increase your overall speed on hills. Seriously, do them. As your season approaches you can do them less and less, but they are so beneficial to cycling it is insane.

There’s always gonna be that whiny guy that refuses to sully his pure training by going into that ghastly room with people getting swole. Make sure you do your part to embarrass him when race season rolls around. When he asks you what you did to get so good have a hearty laugh.

Moving up a Category

(After the last race of last season in Baton Rouge)

I’ve been wanting to jump up from the most mediocre of collegiate cycling categories(D’s) to a category where I can at least have a little respect for myself( C’s). Today I went on a ride with a group that would probably race at the winning end of the C’s or middle of the road B’s. We had a wind coming out of the South which meant there was a crosswind for the vast majority of the ride. This is fine for people that were in the shielded side, but that didn’t happen to me. Oh well, I know I am a better windshield than most of the other riders there anyway.

So I’ve judged where I am physically compared to last year based on a vague sense of where I placed last year in all the races that didn’t record the official times of all the riders. There was only one race that gave an actual time, and I’m pretty damn ashamed of it. For the training I suppose it wasn’t horrible, but this year I know that I would beat the crap of my former self. To be honest the amount of effort that I put into that ride today would put me on pace to win any of the races that I did. I did 22 miles in 1:10:00ish which was much faster than the pace to win the D conference championship road race, and if I could keep that pace steady for 1:54:00 I would win the C road race by almost 4 minutes. The distance of the race is actually listed incorrectly for the C’s online interestingly enough. I’m not quite fit enough to win a race with that course yet, but I have two and a half months to really make a difference in my abilities. I definitely have the fitness to move up a category, but I’ll at least try to win a race before I do that. If I am toward the top toward the end of the season I will just move up a category and finish a couple C races with the pack. That means more to me than forcing myself to stay at the bottom category and winning.

Most of the D road races were 25 miles, but the final one was 36 miles including a 7 mile “neutral rollout.” I use quotation marks to signify that that was just as much part of the race as the rest of it. In fact we slowed down when we got on the actual race section. Nobody wanted to pull. I pulled for about a mile or two in that race before being dropped. I don’t want to dwell on that though, because this post is about how much I have improved. I should be able to move up with some of the new guys who really shouldn’t even be racing D’s. We have a rider who almost won the Cat5 state championship road race, and he is starting in D’s. I don’t know who is getting second in the first race of the season, but I do know who is getting first. He will probably move up within the first two weeks. I imagine with my current level I should move up after about 4 or 5 races. Riding for 25 miles at 17-18 mph average seems much more doable this year than it did last year. If I can improve the pace and distance a bit I should be just as impressive in C’s. It’s amazing what actually riding does for your bike racing abilities. Who knows, this year I might end up on a podium in front of that pretty building in Louisiana.