The Felt B2: It is as fast as it looks

This weekend I have the Felt B2 Time Trial Bike to test out. It is a Demo bike that the shop has that I'm hopefully going to get to do a few races on in 2010. I've had it since Tuesday but have been to busy at work to get home early enough to ride it.

After riding it tonight I had one thought; man this thing is fast. I took it out and rode it on a couple of the longer sections on my usual routes that I knew wouldn't have a lot of traffic but the traffic was still getting in the way so I took it back to pioneers park where there is a good chance I might be riding a TT next year so it was a good testing ground.

It took me a while to get used to the position and to controlling the bike when I was down in the drops but once I got used to it I just let it rip and had a blast. On the big downhill in the park I kept sitting up cause I was worried of losing control on the big turn at the bottom but by the end I was able to stay in the aero bars and just fly. I wish I had a speedometer so that I could have seen what speeds I was getting up to.

I hope to get a few more chances to get back out on it before I take it back to the shop for a while. I'll be able to get it as I need it but it is a sales tool for the shop first plus it is still cross season.

Harp

Demo Bike & Update

It looks like I might get the chance to Demo a Felt B2. We are getting it in at the shop and I've had the inkling for a TT bike someday.

Other than that I've been just getting my assed kicked while I'm getting used to being back into the whole school thing. It's been really stressing me out. The program I'm in is really demanding so life will be tough for 6 weeks at a time than I get 2 weeks off than onto another 6 weeks and that pattern will keep repeating itself for 2 years. I've never written so many papers in a weeks time as I have this week.

I did get a nice halloween 50+ miles though. I took off early and headed down to Nebraska City so that we could celebrate Alexis' birthday with the families and then take them trick or treating. I actually had a lot of fun taking the kids out this year. Maybe it was casue I had the nice ride to clear my head so that I could relax.

I was able to get back on the trainer tonight (oh how I hate it). Trying to get myself tuned up for the state chamionship cross races in a few weeks that are in my backyard at pioneers park. I want the state chamionship. I haven't decided what Cat's I'm going to race or if I'm going to do both cat's like I did last time.

Short post. I got to get back to my schoolwork. later.

Harp

Need More Singletrack

After getting off the trainer tonight I looked over at my mtb hanging on the wall and all I could think to myself was "man I miss riding in the woods". I need to get out and ride my mountain bike before I go nuts. It has been over 2 weeks since I was last on it on some form of singletrack. That is to long for me for this time of year but with more f*%#ing rain coming it doesn't look to promising. Now I got to get back to my first class at school. Later.

Harp

Things are about to Change

Things are about to change in a big way for me. Tomorrow I start working on my Bachelors degree. I'm doing an online program from the New England Culinary Institute. I'm looking forward to it and not looking forward to it. I'm going to have to learn how to really manage my time better so that I can still get all my training in.

I've been thinking alot about my training and racing in 2010 and I think some changes are going to be in order but I will talk about that more at a later time. I still haven't figured everything out just yet. I haven't trained for the past few days do to again a very busy work schedule but thankfuly October is almost over and with that things seem to calm down some. I haven't been on a bike since the race on Saturday and tomorrow I'm also hitting things again in full swing. Back to more of my winter schedule of getting up and doing core work in the morning and riding at night. I'm ready and motivated. I've been working on some sponsorship stuff for 2010 and I'm getting pretty excited. Later.

Harp

Skyview Cyclocross Classic

photo courtesy of Dan Farnham

On Saturday I made my way up to Norfolk, NE for the first annual Skyview Cyclocross Classic. I was feeling pretty worn down from the busy week I had at the college last week (which explains why I haven't been posting much lately). I was feeling pretty run down so I wasn't sure how I would do but I was looking forward to racing my cross bike again. This time I went up early enough to race twice. Since I'm just a Cat 4 this year I was eligible to race the 3/4's race and the 4's race and since the 2nd race was only $10 it was a no brainer to do both.

I got to the race course and got myself registered for both races and was changed and out onto the course to warm-up. The course was about 2 miles long and was a wide open circut with a couple of barrier sections and few grinder hills that I knew where going to hurt during the race. I really liked the way the course flowed but was feeling pretty stiff without a lot of snap in the legs. I had only ridden twice last week so I wasn't surprised. Then it was time to line up. Here's how it went:

Cat 3/4

As I got lined up for this race I noticed that there was a few fast riders there and a lot of people I didn't know. I knew Matt Gersib and having seen him race at the mtb races this year knew he was going to set a fast pace for the race. When the gun went off I got a good start and was able to stay right up front where I decided I wanted to be for the race. I wasn't going to sit back and let everyone get to far away from me and have to try to pull everyone back later. As we went through the first lap I was able to stay in second position right behind Matt but shortly after the beginning of the 2nd lap I was starting suffer a bit with some side pain. I kept up the pace for most of the 2nd lap gettng mixed in with some other riders and changing positions around with some other riders but by the end of the 3rd lap I was starting to feel the affects of my lack of saddle time in the past 2 weeks and couldn't sustain the pace and started to see some people pull away. I started to slide back but kept giving it all I had which wasn't very much. At this point I was sitting in 6th position and the race became more about damage control for the second race and not lose any more spots. I made a push really late in the last lap to try to catch the 2 riders in front of me but came up a tire width short of the 5th place rider on the line.

When the race was over I felt awful. I went directly to my car and was really light headed when I got off my bike. I got into the car, layed the seat back and just layed there for about 10 minutes unable to get my heartrate down and I was still feeling light headed and could barely talk to my wife who had called on the phone. After a while I started to feel a bit better and had about an hour left before my next race so I sat up and started to drink a bottle of heed and get a little food in me so that I had something to burn during the next race. I sat in my car and stayed warm. The temps were pretty cool and I just watched the race that was going on between my races and then it was time to go warm up to do it over again.

Cat 4

I went into this race with the expectation put on myself to race well but after the last race I wasn't sure what would happen. When the gun went off I went directly to the front and started to lead the group. I was hoping to be able to get an early gap on the field and hold it for the 30 min. race. Things didn't go as planned. I led the group for the entire first lap pulling everyone through the long straight section into the wind that was towards the beginning of the 2nd lap. After that I was pretty spent. The effects of the first race and the lack of training had taken over and I just couldn't hold off a couple of hard charging riders behind me. I traded another guy back and forth for 2nd place but he lost me on the first barrier section and I wasn't able to get back up with him finishing the race in 3rd place.

Overall for the 2 races I was content but not happy with how things went. I felt that I could have done better if I had been able to prepare better in the last couple of weeks leading up to the races. Hopefully I can get things back on track before the state chamionship cross races in 3 weeks. I don't think I'm going to be able to get any more races in before than. I don't even think I want ot at this point. I just have to much stuff going on and more things starting and I just want to have a little time to rest and then get in some good training before any more racing happens. Later.

Harp

MTB & Road Season Point Results

3rd overall Cat 2 Open in the Psycowpath MTB Series.

2nd overall in Rider of the Year points Cat 5 Road Series.

I'll take it for know. Next year is upgrade in both.

Can't Wait.

It's going to hurt in a good way.

Harp

So I'm sitting here in a hotel room in Scottsbluff, NE. bored out of my mind but to tired to got to sleep. I've been here for 2days now to help get out culinary program that we are transplanting here from our school. I'm here cause I write all the curiculumn for the lab classes. Now that's not to exciting especially after the 7 hour drive yesterday and the 7 hour drive I got back home tomorrow.

I've been stressing out cause I haven't ridden my bike since Monday and haven't done any real training for a while. This week was a none race week so I would have liked to get a good solid training week in but then again I have just felt kind of sluggish for the past couple of days plus the hotel I'm in doesn't really have much a fitness center. So really what I'm trying to figure out is how to make myself feel like I'm going to be ready to race next weekend. Plus I'm going to be gone all day on Sunday to for work again with another six hours of driving thrown in.

I've also been having a lot of guilt for the past few weeks cause I've been eating like shit. Lately I just haven't had any self control and have just been stuffing myself with crap. That's probably why I don't feel very good either.

Shit this has been a whiny post. Sorry. I hope to get everything back to to normal soon. Later.

Harp