Hanging Rock Squared

Coach had plans of hill repeats on Grapevine last night, but I had in my mind to do them on Hanging Rock instead. When concerning time, two Grapevines is about equal to one Hanging Rock...but the HR is much more difficult. On my warm up, I saw something that I knew I would have to check out and enjoy on my cool down. I was hungry on the way back so I stopped to gnaw on my newfound friend:

Stone Mountain Hike

The spousal figure, the four-legged figure and I decided to do some hiking today. She's nearing the end of her classes, and has worked ahead so she had the day free from studying! We opted for a fairly long loop, somwhere in the neighborhood of seven miles. We tagged Wolf Rock, Cedar Rock, and Stone Mountain Falls as well as some other cool places. Photos below:

Race Report: Meh.

A resounding "meh" at the end of the race summed it up. Erich and I headed the three hours south to Greenville for the Donaldson Center Road Race. The course was, for the most part, flat with a few minor rollers about midway through the loop. After all is said and done, the race ended up being a fast group ride on some new roads with people I didn't know. There was much whining and gnashing of teeth in the peloton about the surging and slowing of the pack, but the tissue for their tears could have been sitting on the front.

There were two semi-exciting points in the race. On lap one, right after the rough crossing of the railroad tracks, the whole left side of the peloton collapsed and dropped back. I happened to be on the right side, so I found myself in front. Erich makes a very small target in the peloton, so I figured that I had just missed him somewhere in the confusion. Lo and behold, he's off the front?!?!?! ALONE! INTO THE HEADWIND! ON THE FIRST LAP! So, seeing this, I had in my mind to block for a while so that maybe he could go past the crowd at the start finish in a solo break...how cool? The guy next to me realized that I was slowing to about 17mph and looked over, he said something to the effect of, "you need to pull through." My response was a big crap-eating-grin. He looked at my kit, then up at E and matched my grin. He yelled over his shoulder, someone needs to get ahead of this guy, that's his teammate up the road. I blocked for as long as I could, but eventually the pack caught E.

Excitement point number two was when big ol' George Hincapie himself in the pro race lapped us. Our race was briefly neutralized for his breakaway to pass us. He was rocking along at about 30ish mph, breathing through his nose. I think I even saw him yawn as he slid by. Humbling to say the least.

The finish was entirely uneventful, basically a mass pack finish with no real sprint, just a strong surge. Neither Erich nor myself were interested in getting tangled up sprinting from the pack and risk not being able to continue our training for our ultimate goal: Battenkill.

Result: 34th of 64...lame.
Avg HR: 175
Max HR: 202
Avg speed: 23.2mph

Out 'n' Back

Met up with E for some ride time tonight. Coach had the plan of 30 miles at 20mph, which seemed fairly achievable. After some last minute plan changes, we met at the square in Lewisville, quickly got ready and headed out. Our last time out in this direction we were killing it on the way out, but had a nasty headwind on the way back. Our 21mph average on the way out took a dive on the way back, so it was nice to know that we weren't going to be in a windy situation tonight. The way out was rather uneventful (aside from having to motorpace behind and excavator for a little bit).

We spent the first fifteen tucked, and working together with strong pulls. When we made it to the turn around point we were averaging 22.8mph, when we turned back, we did have a little bit of a headwind, but not enough to be demoralizing. We kept the power on and were riding strong. We decided to end on an ascent of Grapevine, and pulled back into the square with around 31ish miles with an average of 22.7. It was definitely a hard effort, but I know that it still pales in comparison with truly "fast" cyclists. Hopefully this effort will give us the warmed legs for this weekends trip to South Carolina for the Donaldson Center Road Race!

Grapevineeeeee

Coach had some malicous plans for me today, five repeats at zone 4 up grapevine with a thirty second interval in 5/b at the end. After a warm up, I got after it and completed the five repeats. When I got home I was in the mood for a post ride fruity concoction. Post ride smoothie consists of one part pineapple, one part strawberries, one part ice, two parts OJ, and three parts love. To top it off, pour into a frosty beer mug from your favorite microbrewery!

Brown County Breakdown

Soooo, I happened to be perusing the forums over at HMBA and found these photos of Brad and I in the Breakdown from this past year. Makes me long for warmer, longer days in the near future. Spring can't get here soon enough, even though there are signs it is just around the corner.

Photo credit goes to Alex, thanks!

Porcelain god

Today was my first venture into the world of multisport racing. Erich, Hekman and myself had all decided to do the race without really the aid of doing any real semblance of training for the running portion of the race. I knew before the race that I am a fairly one dimensional athlete in that my only real strength comes in the form of riding a bike. With temps in the mid 30's and a steady slow rain falling we toed the line with about 120 of our friends. Once the promoter said, "go!" it was on. My goal was to hold onto the fast runners as long as I could and try to enter the woods on the bike in decent position. After about two minutes of running I was becoming acutely aware of my face being melted off by the pace, so I had to drop off a bit. Into the first transition I was probably in about 35 or 40th place...definitely not where I wanted to be with the trails being very muddy.





I knew that from my truncated career as a horrible XC mountain bike racer that riding singletrack in the mud gets everyone all kinds of sketchy. I was able to pass about five or six in the woods on the first lap, then maybe another five or six on the little paved section.


At the start of the second lap on the mtb, I heard someone call out that I was in about thirtieth position. I caught up to about another five or six in the woods. On the paved section towards the end of the bike I passed Erich (he was on the second run and in fifth place). He heckled me to get me going a bit faster and I snipped off a couple more riders. I was really hoping that I would be able to muster a top ten, but quickly realized that this was out of reach, but that I was likely now in about 20th place. I transitioned to the run pretty quickly and got going as best I could. The feeling of going from riding the bike into a run is next to indescribable. For the first quarter mile it was miserable, my legs felt like iron, foreign almost. I saw a few runners off in the distance and made a goal of picking off all that I could see. By the end of the lap I passed all five of the runners and came into the finish in 15th.


Mark and Erich both put in impressive performances and finished in second and fifth respectively. The bikes were in dismal condition, in fact, I may just throw mine in the trash on monday. seriously, in the trash. I was half tempted to take it down and rinse it off in the lake, but that would have required some effort....perhaps I'll just leave the bike on the roof of the X and wait for the next thunderstorm.


Mud Butt

Erich and I cheesing it up after the race, something about riding a bike in the mud makes you feel like a kid:

Abused

Perhaps I have been abusing my bike too much. This stem will now join the wall of shame alongside a sheared cassette, a siezed headset, a broken eggbeater pedal and various other cycling products that met their demise at my hands.