Fall Fling #1 and #2

Judging by the fine headwind and coldness I endured on this morning's commute, fall has definitely arrived. That said, we had a nice weekend for some road racing and it turned out to be mostly good. The organizer has been kind enough to combine the womens and 50+ masters fields (sorting out results separately) which makes for much better racing - especially when the number of women racing is small.

Saturday's criterium went down pretty well - I ended up finishing 4th in the sprint, first woman. Sunday's road race was less satisfying. As usual, I began to see a bunch of guys I'd not seen all day as the final miles wound down and the sprint was looming. Yep - the very same guys who sit on, chase nothing and think they should just be given carte blanche to the front at the end. In the final sprint I was clearly ahead of the 2nd place woman but was bumped by one of the men which caused me to sit up. The 2nd place woman crossed the line just ahead of me and my protest for interference was basically ignored.

I'm not happy because I was not beaten - I got screwed. If I get beaten fairly, fine - I'll take it and move on. Being unfairy impeded and then having a protest ignored is not cool. What is it they say? Revenge is a dish best served cold? I'm looking forward to next weekend...

MetLifeGuy had a great ride yesterday - he rode away in the beginning of the 4th of 7 laps and stayed away to take a well-deserved win. Nice work, Mike. Other fine performances included a win by Brian Harris (PYOC) yesterday and a strong showing at the USGP in Wisconsin by Mike Wakeley - way to go, guys!

Up next is the Maple Park TT on Saturday and a circuit race Sunday. Hopefully we'll get some slightly warmer temps on the weekend - it'd suck to close the road season with soggy or cold weather.

Not 'Crossin' Yet

I still have a few weekends of road stuff to do before busting out the 'cross bike. Yes, I've practiced a couple times but I'm stubbornly holding onto the last bits of the road season before shifting focus to 'cross. Last weekend's Verdigris 40K TT and Kenosha Crit were decent - I posted my fastest 40K time ever (as did most everyone else) and managed to win the field sprint for 3rd overall in the masters 50+ men's race at Kenosha. I've been extremely tired and just 'off' lately - not very punchy, sore, tight legs - typical end of season stuff.

Coming up the next two weekends is the ABD Fall Fling. I'm particularly excited to do the road race in Crete. I grew up not far from there and spent lots of time in the early years of my racing career training on the roads in that area. It'll be good to go 'home,' I miss the open, rolling pavement of the far South 'burbs.

I just finished reading 'Deliverance' by James Dickey which I truly enjoyed. Up next is 'The Rum Diary' by Hunter S. Thompson. Not sure what's coming after that - maybe some John Irving or another classic. We'll see what's on the shelves next time I visit the used bookstore.

Best of luck to all the crazy people heading to Wisco this weekend for the Planet Bike 'cross races, especially Wakes. He loves to get dirty and play in the mud - enjoy it, Mike! Can't wait to hear the post-race recap...

More Tunes

This morning's playlist for class was decidedly old school - some solid classic rock for a hard tempo session that included trips to threshold along the way and finished at or above threshold for the final 10min. Killer - it all seemed easy until the last two songs...

In the Mood - Robert Plant
In Hiding - Pearl Jam
Nice Guys Finish Last - Green Day
Baba O'Reilly - The Who
Dreams - Van Halen
Legs - ZZ Top
Have Love Will Travel - The Black Keys
Rock and Roll - Led Zeppelin
Hail Hail - Pearl Jam
Kickstart My Heart - Motley Crue
Althea - Grateful Dead (yes, really - for cool down)

I took out the 'cross bike yesterday for some easy miles and technique work. I'm surprised how much the skillz have stuck around - dismounting/remounting was pretty easy but I definitely need some new pedals. Three gnarly winter's worth of commuting have pretty much frozen the bearings which makes clip-in nearly impossible. This weekend will be the final 40K of the season and then a crit or two on Sunday.

I finished 'One Flew Over the Cukoo's Nest' and loved every page - it was an excellent read. Just started 'Deliverance' by James Dickey and have 'The Rum Diary' by Hunter S. Thompson in the queue.

2009 FIAC TTT Nationals

Mike, Tom, Stan and Jim

I think the 4man team trial might be my favorite race of the season - and I don't even touch my bike that day. For the third time I chose to be the 'directeur sportif' for the PACT/DishNetwork 50+ masters team and had a blast doing it. For those of you who don't know, the DS is the person who pretty much spoils the riders all day - pins numbers, inflates tires, fills water bottles, drives the follow vehicle, and basically does whatever the riders need to make the day as stress-free as possible. After being on the receiving end of said treatment for so long, I'm happy to return the favor and I know it's appreciated.

On the start line

This year's team members included 2 PACT guys (Mike and Jim) and two guest riders, Tom Doughty and Stan Watkins - beasts, all of them. I knew that they'd have an impressive ride and be among the top teams on the day. After an hour fog delay, things rolled off the start and the guys settled in for 60K of TT bliss.

Positively machine-like...

Ladies, if you had this view for an hour and twenty minutes, would you complain? Me neither! It was a beautiful day and the guys looked great. Early on we passed by an unfortunate crash in the second turn (hey! those guys aren't even bleeding yet!) and later learned that several others had also gone down in the same place. Fortunately we made it through safely on the way out and coming back.

Post ride - waiting (forever) for the results

It always takes a long time for results to be finalized which allows for ample time to socialize and eat whatever a good DS bakes for her team (brownies and cupcakes, on this occasion). It's also when the ride post-mort happens - always an insightful discussion full of observations and commentary I'm not an audience to while in the car.

Mike, impressing us all with his massive guns. Did I mention there's a lot of post-ride self-deprecation and laughter?

In the end, the guys won their age group and had the third fastest time overall. I was completely impressed with their effort - way to go gentlemen!! For a bunch of self-proclaimed 'old dudes' you're all pretty darn fast!

IL Road Race Championship

The finish - thanks for the pic, Luke!!

I knew from the outset that things would be tough at today's IL state road race championship in Willow Springs - small field, lots of bike poker, a difficult to plan uphill sprint finish, etc. The course itself was not difficult - a three-step hill to the finish but otherwise flat to falsely flat for the remainder of the 10 mile loop. Pavement surfaces were pretty much perfect (thank you TARP funds) save a few small, well-marked potholes. On tap for the day was 5 laps - I paid a lot to race today and definitely wanted to do all 50 miles (get my money's worth). I was happy that the officials did not shorten our race due to small turnout and that the promoter was paying the prize list as published.

I knew that I had my work cut out for me with an ABD rider and 2 BH teammates to contend with. Small fields can often make for negative racing so I was hoping that wouldn't be the case. Things rolled off well enough and about 4 miles or so after going through the start/finish for the first time, Kristen from BH had a flat. I wasn't quite sure what to do - keep rolling and ride solo for nearly 50 miles? Ugh. Didn't really want to do that but that's exactly what happened. It's a race after all, right? I basically settled in, focused, and watched my power meter/speedo for the next 2+ hours as I rode alone behind the pace car. I had no idea what was going on behind me. Turns out (I think) Anne gave Kristen her wheel and Kristen chased but she wasn't able to close the gap alone. I thought for sure I'd be caught - it was still a long way to the finish.

I crossed the line solo, no one else in the picture. In a way, it wasn't a very gratifying way to win. It's a bummer when someone you respect as a racer is taken out of the action by an unfortunate mishap or a mechanical problem. On the other hand, I've had plenty of mishap-curtailed races of my own over the years and trust me, I busted my ass out there to take the win today.

Up next - maybe a time trial next Saturday and a crit in Kenosha or the first cyclocross race of the season at Jackson Park on Sunday. Cross season will be pretty mellow for me - local stuff. I'll be representing for Roscoe Village Bikes and am looking forward to the change of pace that 'cross provides. Track is over for the year - I had a pretty successful season, managing to finish 2nd in the Rider of the Year competition and taking state titles in the keirin, points race and the pursuit.

What I'm reading: 'One Flew Over the Cukoo's Nest' by Ken Kesey. In a word - masterful. I'm loving it - I'm finding it difficult to put it down!

Tunes

I haven't posted a playlist for a while. Here's what we're doing at lunch time today:

Warm up followed by 5X3min VO2 intervals, short rest between efforts.

Terminal Frost - Pink Floyd
Cheap Sunglasses - ZZ Top
I Will Follow - U2
Peacemaker - Green Day
Time Bomb - Rancid
Living Well is the Best Revenge - R.E.M.
Everything Sucks - Reel Big Fish
I'd Do Anything - Simple Plan
This Charming Man - The Smiths
Juicebox - The Strokes
Form a Straight Line - Sugar Shack
Shut Your Eyes - Shout Out Louds
Angel - Jimi Hendrix

IL State TT

When I have nothing good to say, silence is the best route. About my performance anyway. In the immortal words of Linda Mastrandrea, multiple time Paralympic gold medalist and member of the Chicago 2016 board, 'silver sucks.' Indeed.

I have to send HUGE congrats to my teammate MetLifeGuy who won the 50+ title. Mike, you earned it in every way and I am tremendously happy for you. After everything you've been through in the past 15 months or so and how hard you've fought to be where you are, I can say that you are a very worthy and deserving champion.

IL State Pursuit Championship

Jim, warming up before the 4K team pursuit.

We nearly froze our asses off last night at the track! It was a special night of IL State Championship racing - events on the schedule were the individual and team pursuits. I only did an individual 3K - no teammates for a team pursuit - but the guys (Jim, Dan, Mike and Ted) did the 4K team event. The pursuit is not a particularly pleasant race - it's basically an all-out, as-hard-as-you-can-go effort. In my case the 3K takes about 4 minutes. The guys did 4K in about 5 minutes.

I'd been under the impression that women had to do 2K. I was bitterly disappointed to find out on the start line that I'd be doing 3K. That additional 1K changes EVERYTHING pacing-wise. But I was there, I paid my entry and just rode it - hard. My start wasn't stellar but things turned out okay. I think the pursuit is by far the most painful, miserable, difficult short effort to do on the bike. I was very happy to be finished when I crossed the line - I had baseball-sized knots in my quads and could hardly pedal fast enough to stay upright. But I was done and my time held up as the best on the evening so I earned the title. Sweet.

The guys had an essentially technically flawless ride and managed to take second - they just weren't quite fast enough. But they looked great - smooth, tight, machine-like. Nice job boys - I wish things had turned out better.

I just finished reading 'Snuff' by Chuck Palahniuk and up next is 'The Rum Diary' by Hunter S. Thompson. Next weekend I will attempt to defend my IL State TT Championship....and get older.