A long way to the top

Since the crash in August I've been plagued by knee and hip problems, not to mention the lingering, renewed Crohn's issues over the past year. It's been a (litterally and metaphorically) wobbly path back to cycling, with a lot of ups and downs.

I've worked up to finally doing some real distances again, but am still distrustful of my knee's integrity and shy away from any real torque or out of the saddle riding. My base miles are still low for this winter and my fitness is behind where I need it to be leading into the next racing season. I've got a lot of work to do, but it's looking up. I have a referral to a new physical therapist; one who worked wonders on a cyclist friend who was told they'd never walk again.

And, one more promising sign is that this weekend I did a relatively fast ride from NYC to Bear Mountain in Harriman State Park and back, which includes 6000+ feet of elevation with a 5 mile climb in the middle. It almost destroyed me, but I survived and even said, "Oh, this is it? I thought it was longer" at the top of Bear.

Here's to continued kneehab to come. If it wasn't hard, it wouldn't be fun. Right?

The view from the top of Bear Mountain, NY.

In two weeks I will ride 200+ miles in one day.

The challenge is on.

On July 27th 2013 I will ride no less than 200 miles, from New Haven to Providence Rhode Island and then back to New Haven. The goal is to maintain a moving pace of 18 mph average, although I'd be happy with 16 mph average for the last 50 miles of it. The inland route would total 103 miles each way, and the coastal route ~136 each way. It is currently undecided which combination of routes we will choose.

If it is 90+ degrees outside AND overly humid, we will postpone until August 3rd, to spare ourselves having a heat emergency.

Right now, it's just me and my friend John for the whole distance, plus a few "maybe"s and some joiners for the beginning or the end. The Brown and RISD cycling teams and some local Providence cycling folks will probably ride out to meet us, ride us into Providence for lunch, and then back out to the suburbs.

It's not a fundraiser (although, if you are feeling inspired to donate money somewhere, donate it to the UOAA or Camp Oasis). There is no structure in place or organization supporting this ride. It's just a couple of guys who want to ride till they can't ride anymore. This is a Rapha style, epic ride for the sake of doing an epic ride.

Spread the word. If you are in the area, join us for part of the ride!

the inland route. 

And, you might ask yourself why on earth I would want to ride so far in one day? Clearly, this will hurt. It will be mind numbing at points. It will be hot, and sweaty, and I will be very very tired. This (not G rated) cartoon from The Oatmeal pretty much explains it all. This is essentially the story of why I ride my bicycle so much, minus the part of the comic about hornets and Japan, and plus something about being sick with an autoimmune disease and having lots of surgery and challenging the world's (and my own) assumptions about what it is possible for me to accomplish. 

The Oatmeal is amazing.

power up, weight down

My goal for the future is this simple:

Power up. Weight down.

This means two things: 1. more training, more suffering.
2. Cutting out everything unnecessary from my diet.

I am shooting for an functional threshold power of 240 watts. Currently I'm just above 220.

And, I'm aiming for a >= 1 pound weight loss per week, with the hopes of approaching 120 lbs (54.5 kg) by the end of April. Currently I'm hovering between 125 and 126 lbs.


More power, less weight = faster.

Goals! Ready, set, go!

Eastern Collegiate Cycling Conference season opener

This past weekend was the ECCC ("E tri-C") season opener! The Pitt team caravan got home close to midnight last night, so I'm feeling a bit tired and achey. But, it was a blast!

The team report:
Our team did well overall, with a few guys in upper categories (A & B) making massive breaks off of the front of the peleton. The break in A was a 45 second gap for half of an hour long criterium, with three points Primes (sprint laps with points awarded)picked up. The breaks in B were in both the road and crit, with close to a full minute gap on the pack and overall top ten placements in both rides. In women's our team got 6th place time trial and 7th place womens A/B crit places. MIT cleaned house in the road and crits in men and womens, with a number of pro team members in the race (the men's A road winner is a Garmin development team member).

Sadly, we had one teamate crash in the D category, and one get caught in a major pileup in the C road race. They are both ok, but sore.


My report:
I went into this weekend not fully expecting to finish either the road or criterium, having only ridden a few times since spraining my ankle. And, I did pull myself from both the road and crit because my ankle was hurting in a bad way. It wouldn't be worth throwing away a whole season on the first weekend.

I did start in C category (the categories are A, B, C, D, and Intro) despite this being my first season racing with a team. And, after some initial intimidation and aprehension, it felt like a good place to be!

What I will say is that the collegiate categories are overall more way aggressive than the local categories. The guys are fit, fast, and not afraid of bumping in the pack. There was significant overlap in the time trial results for the A,B and C men's categories, and the C men's road and crit races were FAST! As the announcer said, "C men's: kinda fast, kinda dangerous". As opposed to B mens which is fast, and A men's which is blazingly fast and more stategic as a race.

Saturday: The road race
Prior to pulling myself in the road race, I learned lessons about not getting boxed in on a narrow road, about strategic placement on corners (don't get squeezed out to the curb!) and about when it is appropriate to start yelling at people. My teamates said I should have yelled more when two Penn State races tried to push me over the yellow line on a steady ascent (automatic disqualification for crossing the yellow line). But, it was also the first time i got to do some elbowing back in a road race. Three times! I've never honestly elbowed somebody with the intent of pushing them over before! It was a good learning experience. I still couldnt get out of the middle of the pack and move up until I was at the point where my ankle was twinging and I let myself drift out the back. luckily, I pulled myself just before the entire back of the pack wrecked. It looked like a landmine went off under the pack! Bodies and bikes flying through the air. A few major injuries with loss of conciousness resulted.

Sunday: The criterium
I was feeling more confident, despite starting with a bad right ankle and a mechanical issue with my left cleat (couldn't get muddy crud out of my finicky Speedplay cleat, despite lots of banging and resorting to putting it under a sink.

1 minute prior to staging, as my coach was holding me up on the bike while I was trying and failing to force it to click - which would have forced me to start on the wrong leg- he said "you're going to have to do a Lance on this one... don't push it too far if the stress is too much on your bad ankle".
I was consistantly able to move up towards the front of the pack on the 1/4 mile climb (atypical crit course!), and realized that I'm a much more aggressive descender than most others in C. But, doing most of the work with my right leg because my left was unclipped was too much stress on my ankle. One lap under half way through, I let myself fall off the pack on the climb. If I hadn't had to take myself out of the race, I might have stuck with the front group for the crit and gotten a top 20 finish. It was a confidence booster, but also a good lesson in what I have to work on before the next race!

Two top priorities for things to work on:
1. Finding my most efficient climbing gears for a race pace.
2. And, I desperately need to improve my nutritional status and get more sleep on a regular basis.

I was definately feeling the effects of anemia from recently diagnosed iron deficiency - it feels kind of like drowning and desperately trying to stay afloat on hard efforts. Not a fun feeling. And, the nagging cough I've had since strep throat came around my office a couple of weeks ago. I've always found that I got sick more often and more intensely than my non-autoimmune disease friends. This is yet another example of how much harder it can be to recover from illness when you are starting with any other nutritional deficits, or on immune suppresant medications (which, for the moment, I am not).

I can't wait for the race in a couple of weeks! Hopefully my ankle will behave better and I'll be back with a vengance as the only gutless cyclist in the ECCC, and maybe all of collegiate cycling history!

The power is on!

The PowerTap SL+ on a Velocity Deep V rim with DT Swiss Competition spokes is mine!

It was a team mate's "old" wheel from 2009. As he said about the deal, "I'd rather sell it to someone on the team and ensure we ALL get stronger." Word. I love discounts on well loved bike stuff! And, by the end of the season I may have a national champion's old wheel.

No more training without knowing my watts! I'm excited! And, training smarter means bringing my lofty goal of finishing the summer a Cat 3 more within reach.

That's all for now. Just had to say how excited I am.

Results of my Time Trial

I'm going to try to keep this blog less about racing and more about just plain old bicycling with chronic medical issues and an ostomy, and all the considerations that come with that. But, since it was my first TT at the track, I am posting all the gorey details. Apparently, I am now entering the world of racing at the velodrome!

The TT: It was OK. I didn't meet what I know to be a very reasonable personal goal, but I do have some ideas as to why. And, I'm totally ok with that. It means I have a lot of room to improve and can expect to be satisfied next time around. I suppose it's to be expected that it was a learning experience, being my first. Regardless of times or skill, IT WAS FUN! I enjoy working for something, and it is pretty awesome to share a track with the super fast guys on the aero bikes (fancy, real TT bikes) - their wheels make crazy noises when they zip on by!

Thoughts:

1.)  Five miles is really very short. I lost track of a lap and realized that the end was approaching when I was only 0.2 miles from the finish. Ooops. So much for pushing myself at the end!

2.) Corners. Mine are bad. I need to practice pedaling harder and leaning more through them.

3.) Probably staying out till 4am the night before is not a good idea!

4.) Must yell name louder when finishing.


Those were my major items of the day.

I also learned that it makes sense to actually practice the distance on the track before the race. This seems very obvious in hindsight. But, seriously, before the 10 mile TT coming up, I will be practicing.  That way I will know what sort of pace to maintain at what points in the race, instead of guessing or taking other people's suggestions. This time I drastically overdid the pacing and probably could have pushed a lot harder a lot earlier on.

Here's what my computer says about it:
Max speed (on the flat part of the course. Remember, this is a TT... no drafting!): 26.6
Average speed: 20.76

Still waiting on my official time! I know it was somewhere in the 14's, which is not terrible but not great.

And, next time I will be smarter, faster, better!  I just treated myself to a bowl of vanilla bean ice cream, for the heck of it, even if my average speed was not what I was aiming for (22) this time around. I'm pretty sure I can fix this by improving my corners.

Can't wait for the metric century ride in the morning! Here's hoping it stays as perfectly temperate out as it has been this week!