Thanks again to Rob & RJ for getting some shots and the help during the race.
Not looking fast on the fast descents.
Dropping a bottle at the end of a lap
All photos coutesy of Rob.
Monday, August 18, 2008
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Tranquility Tire Tantrum-Race Report
Today was the fifth race in the Nebraksa Psycowpath series and it was a race where I wasn't quite sure how I would do. I've talked some about how I just haven't felt very good this week. When I got up this morning I felt better than I did in the previous couple days but still not the best. My goal for this race was to focus on my nutrition and make some changes so that I could get through a race without dry heaving or feel like I'm going to almost the whole time I race. I also wanted to work on my pre race warm up routine.
So my new race day diet that I tried today was a breakfast sandwich and some coffee( I could never go without my coffee). About 4 hours before the race was an energy bar. 2 Hours before was a sobe energy drink and a bag of energy chews and then a gel 1 hour before the start.
I rode to Omaha with Rob who was racing the beginner race so I ended up getting to the park very early for my race which I really like. I never felt rushed and was able to take any lap with Millhouse and Ryan so that I could see the course since I've never been there before. And then shortly before my race started I went out and followed T6 team mate Robbwho was racing the 3 hour race. Following him at a good race pace was really helpful in my warming up process. I probably ended up stopping my warm up a bit early. Next time I may try to keep going until a bit closer to my race
When the race started I felt good going down a long service road before hitting the dusty singletrack. I only stayed with the leaders for about the first mile and then I just felt like I lost a bit of something and some of the leaders pulled away from me. As I continued to go through the first lap I found myself alone on the course and I think this hurt me a bit in the end cause i think I slowed down a bit during that time. I did continue to hydrate very well which was another goal. Towards the end of the lap I was back up with a couple of guys that had passed me earlier and was starting to feel a lot better. At the cross finish line I got a rolling bottle change with the help of Rob and his son RJ. Big Thanks guys.
I felt good going into the second lap and was riding pretty good and everything was flowing. I got into the lead of a group of guys and we set a great pace through a very tight long section in the trees of the track. As we continued through we ended breaking up on the climb towards the end of the lap.
As the third lap started I started to have a bit of a stomach twinge and was worried that my issues were starting up later than I'm used to but it never really became anything major but never went away either. I think now that I probably needed to take a gel and it would have helped me in the end.
On the last lap I was still good and was on the hunt for a couple of rabbits. I needed to see someone in front of me to really make myself push through the end. I found a couple of guys and started to work on catching them. I flowed through the course pretty well and was catching and passing people. I'm not sure if they were in my category or not but I didn't really care either. About a mile and half from the finish I saw way up in the distance a rider that I knew was in my category and set to work on catching him. As I hit the final set of climbs I did start to feel like I was losing some of my power and kept pushing to catch the rider but after I made up some ground on the climbs and with a large descending seciton right at the end of the race which doesn't play into my strengths I could not catch him but I did finish the race feeling ok and having accomplished what I set out to do and straighten out my nutrition plan.
I ended up finishing 8th out of 16 riders. I'm not overly excited about the end results but I did feel like I had a good race and with the rough week I've had and the way I've felt I'm happy with finishing in the middle and not at the end.
Congrats to Ryan on his 2nd place finish in the beginner open category.
That's about all I got for now. I'm going to go watch more of the Olympics and continue my recovery plan of sitting on the couch to get ready for my recovery spin through wilderness park in the morning.
Harp
So my new race day diet that I tried today was a breakfast sandwich and some coffee( I could never go without my coffee). About 4 hours before the race was an energy bar. 2 Hours before was a sobe energy drink and a bag of energy chews and then a gel 1 hour before the start.
I rode to Omaha with Rob who was racing the beginner race so I ended up getting to the park very early for my race which I really like. I never felt rushed and was able to take any lap with Millhouse and Ryan so that I could see the course since I've never been there before. And then shortly before my race started I went out and followed T6 team mate Robbwho was racing the 3 hour race. Following him at a good race pace was really helpful in my warming up process. I probably ended up stopping my warm up a bit early. Next time I may try to keep going until a bit closer to my race
When the race started I felt good going down a long service road before hitting the dusty singletrack. I only stayed with the leaders for about the first mile and then I just felt like I lost a bit of something and some of the leaders pulled away from me. As I continued to go through the first lap I found myself alone on the course and I think this hurt me a bit in the end cause i think I slowed down a bit during that time. I did continue to hydrate very well which was another goal. Towards the end of the lap I was back up with a couple of guys that had passed me earlier and was starting to feel a lot better. At the cross finish line I got a rolling bottle change with the help of Rob and his son RJ. Big Thanks guys.
I felt good going into the second lap and was riding pretty good and everything was flowing. I got into the lead of a group of guys and we set a great pace through a very tight long section in the trees of the track. As we continued through we ended breaking up on the climb towards the end of the lap.
As the third lap started I started to have a bit of a stomach twinge and was worried that my issues were starting up later than I'm used to but it never really became anything major but never went away either. I think now that I probably needed to take a gel and it would have helped me in the end.
On the last lap I was still good and was on the hunt for a couple of rabbits. I needed to see someone in front of me to really make myself push through the end. I found a couple of guys and started to work on catching them. I flowed through the course pretty well and was catching and passing people. I'm not sure if they were in my category or not but I didn't really care either. About a mile and half from the finish I saw way up in the distance a rider that I knew was in my category and set to work on catching him. As I hit the final set of climbs I did start to feel like I was losing some of my power and kept pushing to catch the rider but after I made up some ground on the climbs and with a large descending seciton right at the end of the race which doesn't play into my strengths I could not catch him but I did finish the race feeling ok and having accomplished what I set out to do and straighten out my nutrition plan.
I ended up finishing 8th out of 16 riders. I'm not overly excited about the end results but I did feel like I had a good race and with the rough week I've had and the way I've felt I'm happy with finishing in the middle and not at the end.
Congrats to Ryan on his 2nd place finish in the beginner open category.
That's about all I got for now. I'm going to go watch more of the Olympics and continue my recovery plan of sitting on the couch to get ready for my recovery spin through wilderness park in the morning.
Harp
Thursday, August 14, 2008
A bad ride and XTR
I went out today for my first ride since Sunday and it has me a bit scared for the race this weekend. I felt like shit and had a horrible ride. I just didn't have any power when I tried to up the pace and could not keep it up for very long. I kept telling myself since it's 2 days out from a race I don't need to do any heavy riding but I hoped it would be better after having 3 days off the bike. Of course I have had a couple real late nights working and am a bit tired.
On another note I picked up my race bike from the shop and there was no big problems and it is tuned and ready to race. Next week it gets a couple of upgrades put on it in the form of new Shimano XTR Shifters and Front Derailleur. It was tempting to get them on today since they came in yesterday but Paul the mechanic and I both thought that it wouldn't be best to run new components for the first time during a race. I've almost got the bike upgraded with all the parts I wanted. The next is a new crankset which I'm eyeing a couple of different options but they are going to be pricey and I have to work off what I've already bought before I get more.
Now I need to go start getting some of my stuff together and organized for Saturday since I've got another day of double duty tomorrow and am not going to have time to get it ready after work and then get to bed and try to get my body in shape to race in 2 days.
Harp
On another note I picked up my race bike from the shop and there was no big problems and it is tuned and ready to race. Next week it gets a couple of upgrades put on it in the form of new Shimano XTR Shifters and Front Derailleur. It was tempting to get them on today since they came in yesterday but Paul the mechanic and I both thought that it wouldn't be best to run new components for the first time during a race. I've almost got the bike upgraded with all the parts I wanted. The next is a new crankset which I'm eyeing a couple of different options but they are going to be pricey and I have to work off what I've already bought before I get more.
Now I need to go start getting some of my stuff together and organized for Saturday since I've got another day of double duty tomorrow and am not going to have time to get it ready after work and then get to bed and try to get my body in shape to race in 2 days.
Harp
Monday, August 11, 2008
Racing Soon
My next race is only 5 days away and I'm feeling out of shape and unprepared. I think that I've been burning the candle at both ends for a bit too long now and its catching up with me. It seems like it's always a late night at the links and then a super early morning the next day to train before I go back to work at the school and then repeat. I mean I don't work both jobs everyday but it seems like the days I'm not at the work in the pm I got something to do and not resting.
Ok enough of me whining. Sometimes I feel like that's all I do on here is whine. The plan to try to prepare myself to get ready for my race this weekend is a different one than I've done in the past. The plan is to not hardly ride. This week I'm not going to get up and train in the early am before work and I'm just going to try and get some extra rest so that I can get out of this funk by Sat. I will go out for some light intervals on Thursday and Friday when I don't have to work both jobs.
I'm also a bit stressed about my bike. As I rode it this week the rear wheel felt loose. Hopefully it's just some loose spokes and it's an easy fix and we can move on but I didn't exactly like the puzzled look that Paul the mechanic at the shop had on his face when he gave it a quick look. He's going to try and get it taken care of in the next couple of days while I'm working. Hopefully I don't get the call saying that there is a problem and I'm going to need a new wheel.
As I continue to realize that in a month and a half the race season for me will be over I think about next season and what races I'm going to race. I've been following some people and some of the news on some of the longer more endurance type races like Laramie and Leadville. I think that style of format would suit me pretty well. I have the mind set where I need a beginning and end goal instead of trying to play the mental game with myself that happens in most endurance races where you just do as many laps as you can in a certain number of hours. I think that Laramie will definetly be on the schedule for next year. Of course I need to do a bit of research with a couple of the local guys that raced it this year to see what they thought.
That's about all I got for now. I need to go get on with my rest plan for the week and get to bed.
Harp
Ok enough of me whining. Sometimes I feel like that's all I do on here is whine. The plan to try to prepare myself to get ready for my race this weekend is a different one than I've done in the past. The plan is to not hardly ride. This week I'm not going to get up and train in the early am before work and I'm just going to try and get some extra rest so that I can get out of this funk by Sat. I will go out for some light intervals on Thursday and Friday when I don't have to work both jobs.
I'm also a bit stressed about my bike. As I rode it this week the rear wheel felt loose. Hopefully it's just some loose spokes and it's an easy fix and we can move on but I didn't exactly like the puzzled look that Paul the mechanic at the shop had on his face when he gave it a quick look. He's going to try and get it taken care of in the next couple of days while I'm working. Hopefully I don't get the call saying that there is a problem and I'm going to need a new wheel.
As I continue to realize that in a month and a half the race season for me will be over I think about next season and what races I'm going to race. I've been following some people and some of the news on some of the longer more endurance type races like Laramie and Leadville. I think that style of format would suit me pretty well. I have the mind set where I need a beginning and end goal instead of trying to play the mental game with myself that happens in most endurance races where you just do as many laps as you can in a certain number of hours. I think that Laramie will definetly be on the schedule for next year. Of course I need to do a bit of research with a couple of the local guys that raced it this year to see what they thought.
That's about all I got for now. I need to go get on with my rest plan for the week and get to bed.
Harp
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Post Work Training Ride
Anyone up for a training ride through wilderness after work on Firday? Let me know. One week to race and I'm feeling antsy.
Harp
Harp
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Still Trying to Catch Up
Finally got in a ride today. I didn't feel as good as I thought I would since I haven't ridden in 2 days but a mediocre ride is better than no ride.
Way far behind on work since I've had a busy couple days working at the Links. Got to get some stuff done for the school and then hit the bed for another early and busy day tomorrow.
Bad post I know hopefully I got some better stuff to talk about soon when I have time to write it.
Harp
Way far behind on work since I've had a busy couple days working at the Links. Got to get some stuff done for the school and then hit the bed for another early and busy day tomorrow.
Bad post I know hopefully I got some better stuff to talk about soon when I have time to write it.
Harp
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Just trying to catch up
Lately it seems like I've been getting my assed kicked by all the stuff I have going on. The past 3 days have been doubled up with the jobs and I've only been home long enough to sleep train a little and then off again. Today however was a day to just relax and spend some time with the family.
We decided to head out to Branched Oak lake today. The kids get to swim and I get to ride. I got in 3 good laps and was totally diggin time on the trails at the lake. Really good for training with lots of nice climbs and then the chances for me to work on my descending skills which still totally suck.
The heat today though was a killer with the heat index of 105. I do feel that I handle the heat pretty well and if I am smart enough to hydrate properly hot race conditions would be in my favor with all the heat training I've had spending 12+ hours a day in kitchens averaging a 100 degrees.
When I went out on my ride today I did get a chance to try out a new product that we are thinking about stocking at the shop. I used the dznuts chamois cream. Yeah something really nice to talk about on my blog but hey it's something almost all of us use or should use and can really make you a lot more comfortable especially when it 100 degrees out. With this being my first ride using I did think that it worked well and will keep using it to see how it works in the long haul.
lube em or lose em
Well that's about all the time I can spend on posting I got to get some work done for the school since I'm already way behind and we are only in our 3rd week of the summer term.
Harp
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