The Illinois Time Trial Championship (and a Birthday Party...)

At long last the final really important race of the season was here - the Illinois state time trial championship. I was defending champ and was feeling the pressure of having to compete against Leigh Thompson - the very worthy current masters national TT champion. MetLifeGuy and I both had early start times so we rolled at stupid-early-o'clock to Harvard under sunny, cloudless skies. Wind was minor but definitely present and thankfully the corn is up - it offered some shelter at certain points on the now familiar 33.3K mostly flat course.

Warm up went well though not great - my legs were not super so I hoped they'd come around at some point once I got started. I have to admit that my motivation has been lacking of late - I'm mentally ready to be done racing for a little while. Since doing the state TT last season I've gotten my position dialed in and learned a ton about pacing myself - two things that lend themselves to doing a faster time trial. I kept my effort under control for the first half to keep from smoking myself early then kicked up the pace slightly for the way back. I had Pink Floyd and Janis Joplin running though my head along the way and was really focused on passing people and staying steady (that's right - I'm old).

Coming up on the finish was a little confusing - there were two different tape lines on the pavement, one apparently identified a 300m 'sprint' line and the second was the actual finish line. I sat up as I crossed the first line, assuming it was the finish only to be told that the actual finish was the second line - I easily lost 15-20sec if not more because of the screw up but thankfully in the end I still had the fastest time on the day and repeated as state TT champ with a time that was about 2min faster than last season. Leigh was kind enough to inform me of the result as we left before results were posted. We still don't know where MetLifeGuy finished but his time was 1.5min faster than last season - I'd say he probably got on the podium in the very tough 45-49 masters category.

Winning the title again was cool as was the occasion to celebrate the birthdays of my two nieces, Lindsey (who turned one) and Elise - my god daughter - who turned four. My brother and sister-in-law hosted a huge party on their behalf on yet another perfect summer day.

I always brag about my brother's classic Mustang so below are a couple pictures of Richie's 1970 Mach 1. He got the car when he was 14 - it was in rough condition. He and my dad partially restored it so Richie could drive it when he turned 16. About 10 years or so later Richie dropped a new engine in it, hung new sheet metal on the entire thing, restored it to it's original color and started to enter it in car shows - he's won twice this year!

Richie's 1970 'Stang - restored to mint

A sweet, sweet ride - 351 Windsor under the hood....

That's all for now - just kicking back, enjoying what's left of Labor Day weekend. Thanks for checking in - there are a couple of things on the calendar for September so I'll definitely be posting even though the season is tailing off.

Winding Down, Shifting Gears

Wow - summer's almost over and here I am wondering where it all went! Funny how easy it is for a full racing season to go by so quickly when you're training, traveling, racing, working (yes, I have a real job) and trying to recover all while attempting to have a personal life. I did a fair amount of road and track racing this season and am not finished yet - I will be doing a cyclocross season, though not near the level that I did last season where I traveled a bit for some UCI racing. Oh, and soon I'll be hitting the driving range with some regularity.

Last weekend was some track racing in Kenosha - a velodrome I've not ever raced on. Whoa - it's significantly more steep than Northbrook and made me pretty nervous! That said, I did a decent 2K pursuit and jumped into the points race to mix it up with the guys. It was truly a lot of fun - we had excellent weather and the vibe was so mellow it was almost like I wasn't racing. Well, I take that back. I was 'slightly' tense before my pursuit.... The guys had an impressive team pursuit performance - fast and smooth. It was cool just to watch them.

'Cross for me this year will be totally without stress - no anxiety and just try to have fun. It's not going to be about winning but instead just staying fit and being positive. I'm going to try my best to avoid having the ever-present right calf bruise courtesy of regular pedal smacking this fall. Cross is dirty and well, I don't like dirt. And I really dislike mud. Anyone who knows me is aware that when I was a kid I was a really good softball and volleyball player but never played basketball. Why? Because it made my hands dirty. Beyond that, the risk of breaking a nail is ever-present and my risk-averse nature just begs me to keep things low-key and safe.

Coming up is the state time trial championship - something I've been looking forward to for a while. It'll be a fitting end to the 'formal' road season. I'll be doing some local small races later in September with the guys but other than that, it'll be cross until I can no longer stand the freezing coldness.

What have I been listening to? Lots of stuff. Here's a sample:

Gamma Ray - Beck
Electric Uncle Sam - Primus
Only - Nine Inch Nails
The Fool and Me - Robin Trower
Driven to Tears - The Police
Murray - Peter Yorn
Original Fire - Audioslave
The Hives Meet the Norm - The Hives
Every Day I Love You Less and Less - Kaiser Chiefs
Juicebox - The Strokes
Deep - PJ
Jane Says - Jane's Addiction
French Fries With Pepper - Morphine
Get off This - Cracker
Temptation - The Tea Party
Nothingness - Living Color
Sweet Wine of Love - Robin Trower
Right Place, Wrong Time - Dr. John
March of the Swivelheads - The English Beat

Thanks for checking in - I hope to have some good news to share post-TT this weekend!

Crit Nationals at Downers Grove

Things at DG went much better this year as compared to last year's debacle. The temp was perfect, the sun was shining and there were no clouds in sight. I'd had some decent days of training the past few weeks and my legs were feeling really good today so I was hoping to have a strong showing at this season's criterium nationals. My head, on the other hand, was in sorry shape. I've done a decent job of handling pressure and nervousness this year but today was another story entirely. In fact, I'd been horribly anxious the past 3 or 4 days about the race and had slept very little because of it so I was also tired - not a good combination.

I did start to feel better after arriving at the venue and seeing my teammates - they're a great group of girls who are always very positive so being around them before start time was good for my always fragile psyche. That, some groovy tunes, a can of Whoop Ass and some pre-race encouragement from a friend (you know who you are) helped me get to the start line with a better mindset - thanks for that, it made a tremendous difference.

Representing for Kenda today were myself, Catherine, Kat, Kristin, Jessi, Andrea, and Amy - all strong, smart racers. Standing on the start line and waiting waiting waiting in the field of 86 for the 'go' signal just kills me but we were off soon enough and things were hot from the very beginning. The national championship course in DG suits me - an 8-turn mile-long course with tight corners, a couple gradual uphill sections and one very minor bump of a hill between turns 3 and 4. All the big US teams were represented and there was a lot of action at the front with a fair number of primes and a couple small breaks - we really never sat up at any point in the 31 lap race.

Gaining and holding position on this course is the real battle. I always had to be thinking 2-3 turns ahead, deciding whether to use energy to move up only to lose position 3 turns later or just stay where I was. I guess you could say I raced conservatively - safe and protected. I tried to stay in the front third to half as much as possible which worked out pretty well - I was usually able to move up when I wanted to and managed to mostly stay out of trouble.

At 6 to go I was sucked into a wreck just after turn 1 but fortunately got up and was put back in without much problem. Things were starting to wind up and the pace was pretty high. I was happy with my place in the field on the final lap - until someone skipped her back wheel in turn 7 and someone else scraped a pedal in turn 8 - I lost a LOT of positions because of those two things and ended up finishing 23rd. Really, when you think about it, criterium racing is the ultimate crap shoot. You can have the best legs of your life, be exactly where you think you need to be and still end up as an also ran. I didn't check the results very closely but I know Catherine and Amy were just ahead of me and the rest of my teammates finished respectably - well done, ladies.

Thanks to all my friends who came out today to watch the racing - there were so many of you that I can't possibly list you all here - I appreciate your cheers and encouragement. Congrats to Bill - you do belong out there. Also, I had the occasion to talk with Jim Scott who is recovering after a pretty heinous wreck at a Superweek race - so great to see you, Jim. That's a mighty nice scar you have...

Up next, the state pursuit championship on the track. Should be interesting - I've never ridden a pursuit and I understand that they hurt a lot. We all know how much I love to suffer (NOT!) so I'm really looking forward to it!! Beyond that maybe the state road race and then the state TT championship before transitioning into cyclocross season. If I happen to get my hands on any photos or links to photos from today, I will update this post. Thanks for reading....

The Glencoe Grand Prix Post-Mort

I was totally stoked and overly nervous to be racing in Glencoe today. I finished second there last season, winning the field sprint with a rider off the front at the end. I knew going in that the field was going to be small but that the riders present were all good racers which meant there would be a lot of watching and waiting. The organizer had done a fantastic job of putting together a good prize list for the women's field - I wish there had been more of us on the start line. There was even an in-race points sprint competition for a pair of diamond earrings - not something you see very often. This was a chip timed event so at the end we would know the results within minutes which kept the waiting around to a minimum - nice.

The course in Glencoe is completely flat with 4 corners - the first two being 90 degree lefts, the third slightly more than 90 degrees and the last turn significantly less than 90 degrees before the final home stretch. Last year the pavement was pretty bumpy on the back side of the course but I was pleasantly surprised when taking a pre-race lap to see new pavement from curb to curb - verrry nice. I was so happy to see that my teammate Jessi came up from Urbana to race - seems like we haven't raced together in ages. She was feeling tired but worked really hard at one point to haul in a break that no one else wanted to touch - thanks Jessi!

We rolled from the start of our 50min +2 laps race and things were relatively pedestrian until they rang the bell for either points or a prime - I don't recall exactly. Two or three times along the way a solo rider was off the front for a little while but we pretty much hauled anything back in before too long which basically meant it was going to be a field sprint. It seemed like no one was really in the mood to take any big risks after a while - probably a good thing because I was feeling good and my plan was to counter any move that went late, which nothing did. I wanted to test my legs before the end so I jumped late and got a prime along the way which provided some much needed confidence. I had no desire to sprint for the earrings and basically sat on for all of the point sprints.

In the end I made the error of coming out of the last turn sitting 5th behind a bunch of good sprinters - d'oh! I had decent momentum so I just moved left and drilled it to the line - passing three riders and missing out on first by (literally) .03sec. to Devon Haskell who had exited the final turn sitting in first position. This is definitely a case of 'hindsight is 20/20' because I should have known better than to be so far back at the end. It's disappointing to lose by so little but also encouraging to know that my sprint is strong enough right now to make up a lot of ground if need be. I thought all the time trialing I've been doing would kill my sprint but I guess not - there's still some twitch in there.

I heard later on from the guys who did the two person 50K TT and they all just killed it - way to go Josh, Ted, Dan, Mike, and Jim! Up next for me is criterium nationals in Downers Grove on Sunday followed by the state road race and time trial the two weekends after that with a track event thrown in there too. It's going to be a busy close to August - good thing because I'm starting to feel a little burned out.

As always, thanks for reading. If I get my hands on some pictures I'll be sure to post them later this week. Also - thanks to everyone who was there in Glencoe cheering. I heard you all and I really wish the outcome would have been different but as the old saying goes, 'that's bike racing.'

'Always Look on the Bright Side of Life"

The TT beasts had to do their first ride on wet pavement. Who said we'd have rain today!?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!

So we rolled at stupid-early-o'clock to Harvard for the Bryce Masters 20K TT. As we approached the parking area the sky was looking ominous and shortly after we arrived the drops began to fall. I whined earlier in the week about a too early start time (that had me going a minute before MetLifeGuy) and was pleasantly surprised when I received notification that my time had been changed - to an hour later, thank you very much. I'd not slept much the night before so it was nice to have the extra time to get my head straight prior to go time. The rain tapered off before long but the pavement was still wet when Josh and Mike headed out for the first of their two rides. I hit the rollers for a little while, got in a decent warm-up and headed over to the start/finish area just as the guys rolled back in for a short break before TT #2.

Things started off oddly for me - I missed my pedal when I rolled out from the start. That is something I NEVER do - it's one of the most basic skills for any decent cyclist to master and I was actually sort of embarrassed... I recovered quickly after marveling at my blunder and settled into the ugly-yet-tolerable place we call threshold. There was a headwind on the way out so I made sure not to smoke myself early by going out too hard. At the turnaround I saw the guys coming up behind me and wanted to just finish without getting passed. It was nice to have a tailwind on the way back but I was concerned that Josh was going to pass me - he started 2min after me. I heard a disc coming up when I was within sight of the finish line but it turned out to be the guy one minute behind me, not Josh (though he wasn't too far behind!). I thought for sure I'd be passed much sooner so I was pleasantly surprised when I crossed the line alone.

In the end my time was good enough - not great but OK. We left before final results were posted but due to the relatively low attendance I'm pretty sure I won. Josh and Mike put up very fast times - both in the top 4 on the day - fantastic job guys!! Their fine efforts were rewarded with some killer chocolate chip cookies (you bet I made them!). Tomorrow both of them are doing two 50K 2-person TT's - best of luck to you guys, you're simultaneously insane and awesome. I'm not as tough as they are - I'm just doing a little criterium in Glencoe as a tune-up for Downers Grove next weekend.

What am I reading now? Two things: Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk and Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. A weird combination of things but that's to be expected of me.

As for the title of this post, well, you had to be there :)

Elgin Criterium - Racing With the Boyz

I love to race with the 40+ masters men for a lot of reasons - they're pretty much all nice guys (save a few creeps but that's just how life is), they race hard, they're aggressive, they race (mostly) smart, and the majority know how to race. When the whistle blows, it's go time and there's no screwing around. Sure, things slow down here and there and every once in a while someone f's up a turn but I seem to get more out of racing with the guys at local stuff. The slower guys are usually gone in the first few laps and things thin out nicely. Plus, the added bonus - it's an opportunity to watch man-butt.

I lined up today in Elgin flying Snoopy blue with Ansgar who I found out last night is sitting in 1st place for the 40+ Tour of Illinois and Wisconsin. Yesterday I was sort of on the fence about racing (my fragile psyche has been kicking in for some reason lately) until I heard that. Then I felt like I had to go. The course was pretty straightforward with one small technical left/right downhill/uphill chicane section that had been making things interesting all day. I knew when I saw a wall of hay bales at the bottom of the hill that there might be some action down there...

Warm up was decent and I think we had near 40 on the start line - lots of really good bike racers and some well, not-so-good. The Planet Bike contingent lined up with (I'm not kidding) HELMET MIRRORS!! Gotta love the Wisconsin guys. Stuff started off well enough and before long I got involved with the first of two wrecks in the chicane. I don't really even know what happened to cause the wreck - so many ways to screw up that turn - and it really doesn't matter. I went to the wheel pit and got my free lap and returned to action. Later on some primes were thrown out and a small break was away for a few laps but nothing that caused any concern - they were brought back into the main group before too long. With 3 laps to go I got stuck in another CF in that chicane and unfortunately Ansgar got caught up too. I got a free lap but had to chase to get back in - I was never able to close the gap and finished behind the main group in 11th. Ansgar snagged 9th and pretty much sewed up the 40+ masters TOI/WI points series - way to go Ansgar!!

After I got home I just couldn't stay in the house on such an amazing day so I headed over to the lake and killed a couple of hours reading by the beach - always good for clearing a mind full of traffic. What I'm groovin' to lately - Death Cab for Cutie, Hot Hot Heat, The Raconteurs, Matthew Sweet, Beck and R.E.M. with some Allman Brothers thrown in just because. What am I reading? Total schlock - the Scott McClellan book. I needed some mindless reading and it fits that description just right.

Thanks for reading - up next maybe a time trial on Saturday and the Glencoe Grand Prix on Sunday.