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Some Time Off the Bike

Just typing the title hurts. I'm going to have to take some time off from training and the bike for the next few weeks. It's going to be rough. I have some other "training" to do.On Oct. 18th I have to take a Chef Certification Exam. I'm taking the exam for Certified Executive Chef. It is a two part exam. The first being a practical or cooking exam and then later a written test. It has been a personal goal of mine for years to be a Certified Executive Chef. This level makes me very marketable for the consulting business that I do on the side. It also is very good for the college. I am the only one of the three chefs at the that is not a CEC. Of course I am 20+ years younger than the other chefs but it will be nice for our faculty to be all certified at this level.

So between now and the 18th I have got to focus on getting myself prepared for the exam. I will be practicing the dishes that I have to prepare for the proctors and making sure that I meet the criteria that is set for the exam and that my dishes are sound in technique and flavor.

I will probably not be posting on this site very much over the next couple of weeks. I do plan to use my other blog as a journal of sort to track my pogress and a way to remeber what I've been doing so that other people getting ready to take the exam can use it.

I hope to be able to ride once in while over the next couple of weeks. Probably mostly on the weekends or really the next couple of Sundays and maybe sneak out once in a while during the week. Is it me or does it sound like I'm taking 3 months off from traing not just 2 1/2 weeks. Like I said it's going to be rough.

I have had some things going on in the bike world lately. Next season I am going to be on a official race team through the bike shop. We will have another title sponsor but that is still being determined. We will be racing road races as a team where I will mainly serve as the domestique and help the other guys. I will continue to focus on Mountain Bike racing in both the XC and a little more on the Endurance end. After the exam is over I plan to get back to training in full force. I did have some good results late in the season but I plan to have bigger and better results for next season and that preparation needs to start soon for me.

That's it for now. See you later. Check my other blog Poissonier to see what's up with my exam if your interested.

Harp

Manawa MTB Mayhem: Race Report

Photo courtesy of Tom Winfeld

Well it finally came. The last race of the season. I went to the race still fighting the cold that I've had all week but feeling ok. I got there early enough (thanks to Rob who I was lucky enough to run into on the interstate so I could follow him in since I get lost rather easily) that I had time to relax talk with some of the guys getting to race in the early race and still have plenty of time to get ready, register and head out for a nice warm up lap to check out the course.

This was the first time I had ridden the course before. I've heard the Omaha guys talk about riding it and all I had heard was that it was flat. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the course being flat was still fairly technical with lots of twisty singletrack with a good mix of log and a few rock crossings. The course ended up being about 6 miles per lap.

When it was time to get going I was anxious to get started. We had a long roll out on a paved road before we hit the trail. I got a fairly good start and once we got to the trail I went into the trail in 3rd place. I got passed shortly after by the eventual winner and then I went around one of the riders in front of me and I sat in third place for most of the lap. Some of the more technical sections really threw me off. I can get through them fine but I need spend more time going through them fast. I lost a bit of ground on the 2 leaders during one section with a lot of log crossings. About 2/3rd the way through I got passed which put me in 4th position. It was on a pretty long straight section and I kind of just cracked while I tried to get my legs back. After that I was hanging around the 3rd place rider. I could keep him in sight which is key for me. Towards the end of the 1st lap I leaned two far into one tight turn and smacked my head pretty hard into a tree. I saw black for a second but I kept my bike up and kept on moving after clearing my head. On the start of the 2nd lap I just kept trying to push a bit and catch the 3rd place rider. About 1/2 way through I caught up to him and was on his wheel when the race was stopped.

The race was stopped cause of a rider that went down and was seriously hurt. He hit a tree and wasn't able to feel parts of his body. The rider had had neck injuries before from something else. It was just scary to all of the sudden be racing and then run into people going the wrong direction telling you to turn around and head out. From what I've heard he is doing well and getting better.

After we waited about 45 minutes for the rider to be taken away by rescue squad they had us come back together at the start line and sent us off in the order that we came through when we finished our first lap. They had us enter in a different section of the course about 2/3 rd's the way through. The restart was not good for me. It took me a while to get my legs warmed back up and get back to racing again. I started right behind the 3rd place guy but was having some issues with some tight turns and in the section where I hit my head earlier I wasn't feeling confident and not going through the turns very fast. All I could see was the rider in front of me pulling away. I then hit the ground when I moved my head to far cause again I was worried about hitting a tree and lost control of my bike. Nothing was hurt but I just wasn't in good form.

After I crossed the finish line on my second lap I was starting to feel a bit more confident again and I was finally warmed back up. At that point I really started to move and really started feeling good. Actually it was the best I've felt on a bike during a race all season. I felt strong and fast. About 1/2 way through the lap I passed the third place rider and kept on moving. I passed several other riders that were in front of me. Towards the end in the distance I could see the second place rider and was pushing to catch him. I was surprised cause I new earlier he was riding well. I really started to push it to catch him but I got caught up with another rider then hit my head in the same spot as I did in the first lap and then I just ran out of time. I finished about 5 seconds after he did. If the race had been a hundred yards more I think I would have had him.

In the end I finished in 3rd place. I'll definitely take it. Two podium spots in two weeks is a good way to end the season and a nice birthday present.

Here's a video of the start of the beginners race. Congrats to Ryan for the second place finish.

Harp

Humid and Soggy

On my way home from work I sat in my car and debated whether to ride on the trainer or tough it out and go out in the rain. By the time I got home the rain had stopped and I looked at the forecast and decided to go out for a real ride vs. a ride on the trainer. I'm not quite ready yet to start riding the trainer on a regular basis. As I left the garage it started to lightly rain but I was going to carry on. I kind of liked riding in the light drizzle and was feeling good and happy to be out on the bike. It was pretty humid which for me seems to work in my favor. I'm not sure why but I always feel a bit better when it's a little more humid. My body reacts to it well. I my 16 mile loop with a 4 mile detour through the park to end up doing 20.5 miles for the day. This was probably the biggest ride I'll do all week. I'm going to taper it down a bit for the race this Sat.

I'm also going to be putting in some extra time at the shop the next few days since a few of the guys went to interbike I'm covering while I'm on break from the college. Tomorrow is an off day from the bike. My folks are taking Amy and I out to eat to celebrate our birthdays. Mine is this Sat. and hers is next. Should be a nice time.

Harp

Recovery and Training

Tonight was a light night back on the trainer. After getting home from work I had a bunch of stuff to get done around the house and then it was off to my daughters soccer game. She scored her first goal of the season tonight so it was pretty exciting. It was fun to see her jump up with her hands in the air and a smile from ear to ear.

By the time I got home it was getting to dark so off to the basement for a short interval session on the trainer. I'm trying not to do to much and over do it this week with my last race coming up on Sat.

Here's a pic from the race taken by Adrian_O from the Califraskan Blog:

If you get a sec go over to the Twin Six site and check out their 09 gear. It looks pretty sweet. My birthday is Sat. so I may have to be giving myself a present.

Now I got to finish watching my fav football team the San Diego Chargers beat up on the jets.

Harp

Capital City MTB Challenge: Race Report

Back to a real post again. It's been a busy week. Finals Week at the college is always hectic added in with a dose of being busy at Arborlinks means I barely have any time to ride or do anything else.


The race. The race this week was my 2nd to last race of the year. On Friday when I went out for a ride and felt awesome. I was hoping it would carry over to the race. When I woke up on I felt like I had a cold coming on. I was coughing up some gunk and just didn't feel right. I took some alka seltzer cold and cough medicine cause it works and doesn't make me feel weird. After a little bit it started to work and I loaded up my car and took off.

I got to the race site early and chatted with a few friends that were getting ready to do their race and then geared up and did a couple of laps on the course to see how it was. This is a shorter course than were used to. Most of them seem to average around 5 miles. This one was just under 3. The course was in perfect shape for racing. I liked the set up for xc racing of doing more laps on a shorter course.


When race time came I was feeling good but was still in the back of my mind worried a bit about how my stomach was going to feel and what was going on with this cold I had coming on and if it was going to affect me at all.

To start the race we had a 1 mile gravel road section before dumping into the singletrack. This was nice cause it spread out the group. When the gun went off I had a good jump and was heading up the gravel hill in first place. Right before the singletrack a guy jumped in front of me and entered the track ahead of me. He shot off and I was chasing him for most of the first 3 laps. My goal was to keep the leader in sight and try to hope I was in better shape and could catch him in the end. On lap 2 and 3 I was feeling really good and was flowing through the track well. Then right after I got past the start/finish line to start my 4th lap and I felt that my rear tire was squishy and going flat. At this time I started to freak out. The pesimist in me started having the thoughts of my race is over and I'm screwed. I was afraid that if I stopped and tried to change it I would never catch back up but what else was I going to do. I went through about 3/4 of my lap trying to figure out what to do. I got to a section of the course where we crossed a dirt road and I pulled off to the side and started to change it. I took off the rear tire and then realized that I may be able to get bye just putting air in it and hoping it holds. When I was trying to fix my tire Ryan came over and gave me a hand holding my bike up and helped held my stuff while I was all thumbs trying to get it together.


After I got going again I was really pushing it trying to get back some of what I lost. When I was off the bike I was passed my about 10 riders. I made it through most of the lap with the tire staying somewhat inflated. At the same spot I stopped earlier Ryan met me and I put another co2 into my tire and was off to finish the race.

I started chasing the rabbits and got some more spots back. The bad thing was I had no idea what lap I was on. I was so flustered by my tire that I couldn't remember so I asked a guy I caught up to and he told me it was his last lap so then I really bolted and pushed it till the end. The tire held. At that point I had no idea where I finished. I was pretty disappointed that I had felt good but something like a flat tire took me out of a race.


When the results where posted I was shocked to see that I had finished in second place. I didn't see what the split was to the 1st place finished but with all that happened I was pretty happy with the 2nd place finish. One of my major goals for the season was to finish on the podium once so I got that out of the way.

Again a huge thanks to Ryan for the support during my tire work. It was a huge help just having someone there to help.


Here's some pics and a video I took during my warm ups and the early race.

Ryan getting the bike prepped to race
Some sampling of the track
Towards the end we had this tall mowed feel to sprint through.A nice section of double track
Number 241 for the day
Rob during the race.

Turn your head sideways I was holding my camera wrong.

Harp

Finally

Race report to come later.