Cue dramatic music… Time to do battle on the HILL.

Today marks the pivotal point in this competition. I took Coach Mike’s statements about recovery and details to heart and really tried to put everything I know into practice last night. While I got home later than I would have liked, and wanted to just plop on the couch, instead I focused on doing several things that would help me recover for today’s races. I massaged my legs for about 90 minutes. It takes a lot of effort, but it really helps. My legs feel noticeably better afterwards. I also took a bunch of vitamin C (both in tablet and powder form) to try and help my throat out. Breathing so hard in the cold air was pretty harsh on it, I felt like I had swallowed a cheese grater. I was also careful to eat moderately and get as much rest as I could.

It all payed off.

Even though breakfast was being served at camp, I ate most of mine before I left home to give me plenty of time to digest. I knew some very hard work was ahead. I did have 1/2 of a bagel and a banana once I got to camp. After some short instruction, we rolled out for a ten mile warmup to the base of Lookout Mountain. Wow, it was quite a shock to the legs to get them going around in circles again! I soon settled in and was feeling pretty good – all things considered. Even though it wasn’t super-freezing, I put on about 5 layers and stayed very warm. I knew that I could shed some stuff once the competition got underway.

We pre-rode the climb to get an idea of where the finish would be, and how the wind was blowing, etc. Today’s event was the one I was least confident about (not being a natural climber), but I could tell that my recovery had gone well and I was feeling better than I did yesterday.

I experimented with different strategies today – starting easier, standing, sitting, etc. My first attempt I came in first place with a 7:09. I stood, sat, shifted, thrashed, and basically did anything I could to get up the mountain. My time was 7:22 on the next two. First place on each of those as well! I was feeling quite good and on the last run I stayed seated the entire time and never shifted from the 39×19. That climb definitely felt the best, even though it wasn’t my fastest, which was cool because it was the last one. I was riding a lot more consistently than I had yesterday. I also concentrated on sending extra clothes to the finish with Mike so I was able to stay perfectly warm on the descent. BIG difference from the day before. I was really happy with my overnight recovery and my performance on the three hillclimb TT’s.

Paul finished second on each of the climbs (7:23, 7:??, 7:44) and didn’t seem to be quite up to his normal level. My times today were enough for me to jump into first place in the overall standings, I now lead Paul by 11 seconds. That’s really cool because it means I get to start last in tomorrow’s time trial which will be a definite advantage. It should be quite a showdown!!

We rolled back to base for more great food, then headed out to a nice big parking lot where Mike and Christie had set up cones and chalk lines for the skills clinic. The drills were very educational and fun for all (except for Mike and Paul, who took turns dumping it onto the pavement). Again, I tried hard to keep an open mind – too easy to get trapped into thinking I already know it all… I learned some good stuff about braking while pedaling, and using my head and eyes to lead me through a turn instead of letting them passively come along for the ride. To finish, we rode through an obstacle course that put all of our skills to the test. It included a limbo section and another part where you pick a bottle out of a bucket with one hand, transfer it to the other hand, and drop it off in a second bucket. All while pedaling, riding a straight line, and looking ahead. I also learned how to hang off the side of my bike and drag my fingers along the ground. Never know when you might need that skill!!

The evening finished off with another great meal and a lecture on training program design and race tactics. As part of the tactics discussion we were divided into three teams and were given a package of balloons and some tape. We then had 5 minutes to race against each other to build the highest structure. Our team was short one person so we were the underdogs. We blew up our balloons as quickly as possible and then fumbled around for a bit trying to decide how to proceed. The other teams were going the pyramid route. Someone on our team said something about ‘start tying the balloons’ and then corrected themselves and said ‘taping’. Tying gave me an idea, though. We started tying them together in two’s and were able to lay them crosswise one pair on top of the other. With a little tape and the creative (but disputed) use of some overturned paper cups to brace the second layer of balloons, our structure quickly rose to great heights! We smoked the competition, and it was a great illustration of how you can still pull out a win even with the odds against you. Being opportunistic and creative count for a lot!

I had been keeping a close eye on the weather all week. Holding a cycling training camp in the first part of February in Colorado is definitely a hit or miss proposition. The weather was good – mid 40’s and dry. Game on! I arranged to get off work early and headed to Paul and Marietta’s house for the start of our camp. I thought I would easily be the first one there because I made good time on the drive – turns out I was last! The whole group was already there and waiting, with a sense of anticipation in the air. Time to get this thing underway.

Our team clothing order (all $22,000 worth) had just arrived earlier in the week. Thanks to the efforts of some teammates, everything was tagged, bagged, and ready for distribution by the time we arrived. It was an extremely cool moment to put on the brand new team kit and roll out onto the road with my new teammates on our way to the first event.

The SEAR train.

The first activity on the schedule was a 3k time trial. To be repeated 3 times. I had waaaay underestimated the difficulty of this event coming into camp. When I first read the itinerary I thought; 3k time trial?? What kind of training camp is that? See, my idea of a training camp was doing back-to-back 80 mile rides or something. Boy, was I wrong. Keeping an open mind, as Coach Mike encouraged us to, would be the key to my learning and progress over the next couple of days.

The course was a long uphill drag (around 150′ ascent) followed by a quick drop to the finish. During our pre-ride I was surprised at how long 3k really was (1.8 miles)…

I was so confident about being able to produce maximum effort over the distance that I went ALL-out. In fact, it felt like I pushed my body harder than I ever had before. It was seriously 10 minutes after I crossed the line before I knew if I would live or die. I couldn’t breathe! My throat felt like it was torn to shreds (cold air+hard effort=ouch!). Wow, that REALLY hurt. To top things off, I didn’t even get the fastest time. I was 4:22. Hat’s off to Paul, he did a heck of a ride and beat me by 5 or 6 seconds. My attitude and respect for what we were doing was severely adjusted after that first pass.

I wised up on the second run and just kept the pace steady, but do-able. I felt quite a bit better, and recovered within 30 seconds or so after the finish. My time? 4:35, only 12 seconds slower than my first attempt. Cycling is amazing to me in that respect. The effort required to make the difference of a few measley seconds… Score another one for Paul. What’s up with that!?!? Paul (president of our club) is an excellent, very experienced rider that I have a lot of respect for. But – he’s known more for his climbing abilities. Not that I’m the greatest, but hammering along the open road is more my territory. I expected to really turn it on and lay some waste to the competition (I surprise myself with how cocky I can be sometimes…). That’s one thing about racing; it’ll humble you for sure.

The third try – fugeddaboutit. Chris’ legs have left the building… 5:00 flat. My HR average was 164. What?!? 164 in a time trial? I could do that with one leg on most days, this time I was shot. Still not recovered from the previous week’s training. It was getting late in the day and colder with every passing minute. I was shivering hard before the last attempt and just couldn’t turn the pedals. Paul? 4:44. He gave me a good thrashing today. We’re doing hill repeats tomorrow, looks like I’ll have my work cut out for me.

We shivered our way back to basecamp. I could hardly ride a straight line. Man, was I glad to get inside. What awaited us was a gormet feast prepared by Marietta from recipies in Chris Carmichael’s latest book. VERY good food! Mixed green salad, tomato florentine soup, and stuffed flank steak! Now that’s ‘camping’.

The evening concluded with a camp overview and an introduction to the bike skills that we would be practicing tomorrow. Coach Mike also encouraged us to really use this opportunity to practice recovery between events and to focus on the smaller details. Staying warm between efforts will be a big one for me…

We also reviewed our positions after the day’s three time trials. I’m sitting in second place right now, about half a minute behind Paul. With 3 repeats on Lookout Mountain tomorrow, it’ll be interesting to see how we’ve recovered from this first round.

Heading back to base. That’s me bringing up the rear…

This has been an incredible comeback summer for me. I’ve definitely gotten ‘back in the saddle’. Most importantly, I’m down 48 pounds since February. Just a couple more and I’ll hit my high school weight… I can’t believe I had that much to lose, but the past few years had really taken their toll on my body. I’m finally feeling like my old self again – and it feels gooood. My training this year has been centered around losing weight, so while I have a lot of miles in my legs, I’m not as race-fit as I would like to be. I’m just now starting to transition into more specific speed work and race training for a few more weeks, then will back off and start building a nice gradual base over the winter for next season (something I totally neglected this year). I’m expecting to actually ride somewhat less next year, but at higher intensities.

I even entered my first licensed race in seven years last weekend. It was a short local hillclimb, only 4.5 miles. There were around 60 starters in the cat 4 group I was in (good size fields around here), and I took 40th. The entry fee was $25 and my goal was to come in at less than a dollar a minute… Made that with a 24:15. Not too spectacular (winner was in the 19 minute range – fast!!), but I did take a minute and a half off my best time and came away with a good sense for what I need to start working on. Nice to get the first one out of the way.

I already have an ‘in’ on a really strong local team for next year that’s very well organized and has a good group of 4’s. There’s also a Tuesday/Thursday training race near my office that I’ve started to go to. At the last one we did a 26mph average for an hour with a good amount of climbing each lap. That’s the kind of training you just can’t get riding solo, I’m glad to have that kind of resource available so close to me. So, things are looking good. I’m excited about next year – winter scares me a little, though. That will be the true test for me. Maintaining my weight and building better base fitness are my big goals.

I just purchased a lightly used LOOK KG381 carbon frame off of ebay and am building it up with parts I’m finding there as well. Should be a good workhorse kind of racing machine that won’t be a huge loss if it gets trashed. The lugged-steel Bianchi I’m riding will be 10 yrs. old in a couple of months. Been a great bike, but definitely time to put it out to pasture.

Good to hear from you,

Chris

We spent some time in Utah visiting family at the end of August. Here’s a report of one adventure I had:

Since I had been riding a lot and was feeling pretty strong, I decided to check out the race calendar for Utah and see what was going on during our time there. I was very excited to see that the Eureka Road Race was taking place on the weekend we would be in town. I really like that race (having done it 4 times previously) and had been training at long distances so I felt especially suited for it.

It took some searching to track down the registration information. When I did, I was torn between buying a license, and racing with the citizen group. The USCF basically has no presence in Colorado (ACA here), so I really didn’t want to buy a license that would expire at the end of the year and be of little use for me. The citizen category didn’t appeal to me because they we’re only doing a 40 mile out-and-back vs. the 75 mile loop. I really wanted to do the longer race. I finally settled on doing the citizen category, but would ride to and from the race from my parent’s house in Springville for a little added challenge.

I woke up at 5:00 to get an early start and give myself plenty of time to get there for the start. Newsflash – it’s DARK in Utah at 5:00 AM. I’m used to living on the other side of the mountains where the sky lightens up even earlier than that during the summer. Newsflash #2 – it’s COLD in Utah at 5:00 AM… With only constellations for company (no moon), and a pair of armwarmers (didn’t want to wear more because I would have to carry it later), I set off into the great unknown. I basically felt my way along the road through the fields southwest of Springville, hopping off my bike and standing as far off the road as I could when a car would approach. I’m sure I surprised a few early morning drivers when they saw me standing in the weeds along the road. Finally, I made it to Spanish Fork and some street lights. They were very welcome while they lasted. With every minute I rode west of Spanish Fork, the sky would get just a bit lighter. Unfortunately, the temperature took an inversely proportional dive to the light. By the time I got to West Mountain, it was 36 degrees! Reminder – this was August!! Sunrise was still about 30 minutes away. Man, I was so cold I was hurting. My hands were frozen solid and were pretty much useless. I couldn’t ride a straight line because I was shivering, and it seemed like I could barely turn the pedals (we’re talking 15mph on flat roads…). I was cussing at the sun to get his butt out of bed and warm me up! As soon as I crested the ridge at the south end of the mountain, I was in the sunshine and instantly 10 degrees warmer – ahhhh… It would go on to hit about 95 degrees that day.

I arrived in Elberta to face a 9 mile, 2,000 foot climb up to Eureka. Nothing too vicious, but my legs felt terrible after being cold for so long. I rode steadily and slowly made my way to the top. Once there, I rode to the high school which was swarming with riders warming up and getting ready for the day’s races.

I had second thoughts about the prospect of doing a 40 mile race, after I had just ridden 40 pretty taxing miles and would have to ride another 40 home afterwards. What the heck, that’s what I’m there for – right!? I payed my fee, then proceeded to do my ‘warm-up’ – I layed on a bench in the sunshine for 30 minutes.

The field for my race turned out to be tiny – 3 riders. I didn’t even care, I was just happy to be at a race again. They started us with the women so our group totaled 8 riders. The route we were taking was to start at the finish line and ride the course backwards for 20 miles (to Jericho Junction), then ride back to the finish. We started riding in a paceline and taking fairly long pulls. The average speed for our race ended up being over 21mph, which isn’t too bad for a rag-tag citizen group on a course with 2,000 feet of climbing. I felt totally comfortable – my heart rate was in the 140-150 range for much of the time. I was feeling really good. Our group stayed together until the turn-around, then the ‘attacks’ started. One guy opened a pretty good gap on a hill and I kept a close eye on him. I didn’t want to sprint after him if he was going to fade. After he maintained it for a while, I increased my pace and rode up to him. He stayed strong, and it would be he and I together for the remainder of the race.

We got to talking a little bit as we traded pulls, and I found out he was Charlie from Park City. He shouted at another group as they went by in the opposite direction. It turned out that his 14 year old son was racing in the junior group that started after us. It was amazing to see how my attitude changed from – I can easily dust this guy, to – I need to help this guy win. I really thought it would be cool for him to win with his son there. I’ve never put so much effort into shooting for second place… We continued to take turns pulling, but I would keep my ear tuned to his breathing and take us right to the edge of where I thought he might start losing ground. He was putting a lot of effort into his pulls and I was impressed with the amount of work he was willing to do. I wanted to keep the speed up so we would stay away, but didn’t want him to blow and lose it.

Now the complicated part. There’s a pretty good climb through town to the finish line. I wasn’t sure how to act through that stretch. I didn’t want to overdo it, but I ended up slumping my shoulders a little and breathing harder. He took the ‘bait’ and moved ahead while I stayed about 20 yards behind. As we approached the line, a group of the licensed women was rapidly gaining ground on us. I really didn’t want to get caught before the line, but I didn’t want to speed up and pass Charlie, either. I kept looking over my shoulder and maintaining my distance on the group behind. Charlie crossed the line first, and I went over just a couple of seconds before the women’s group. Mission accomplished!

Now the crazy part. After the finish, I congratulated Charlie and was feeling pretty good about how things turned out. Then Gary Bywater (race official) called everyone over and informed us that we had all been disqualified and the race had been canceled. He said there were marshalls out on the course at that moment neutralizing the other races that were still in progress. He went on to say that no places were being recorded, no awards were being given out (so much for helping Charlie…), and that the school was locked and we were to pack up and leave immediately. Huh?!?

It turns out that several riders had been spotted relieving themselves behind the high school before the race – within sight of some Eureka townsfolk… Ooops. Should have used the bathroom inside the school, guys. I guess this has been quite a problem lately in Utah races and was the straw that broke the camel’s back. No refunds issued, and I guess it’s doubtful if the race will ever be held there again. That’s the part that really stinks, I really liked that course. I spoke up and mentioned to Gary that it sounded kind of harsh for the women – that was a spark that set the women that heard me off cussing and throwing fits. Rightly so, they weren’t at fault. Oh, well. I still had more riding to do.

I rode the last 40+ miles home in the blazing heat. Quite the contrast to my earlier ride (which seemed like a week ago at this point). The daily total ended up being 124 miles, 7:14 riding time, with 6,000’ of elevation gain.

Good workout…