Evanston Crit

Sunday, July 17th 2011 @ 9AM

Horse Flies

I have never stopped riding because of to many horse flies or any bugs for that matter but today was a first.  Riding at Grand Geneva I felt like I was in a horror film and has huge swarms flying behind me at all times.  When I slowed down they were all over my back.  I wanted to do three easy to medium effort but with the bugs, I did one at race pace and called it quits.  After a shower I counted 25 bits on my back.

Getting ready for my first Crit of the year, a Super Week Race, not a great idea but I am going to Evanston tomorrow morning for their Crit.  It is a great setup so I hope I can hang for the entire race.

Smiling now but not at the end!

Looking good and racing good are very different.  Typical first race of the year came in way behind the leaders and felt like crap.  I think it was much more related to the food or something I consumed before the race, or a combination of things I did before the race. 

I had one of the best lead outs in a race that I have had since my Sport days.  A lead out is the first 2-3 miles in the race and it can make or break the day.  I was in the lead pack all the way to were people start settling down and I felt  great!  Just as we started the single track my stomach started to really knot up and feel like crap.  I had three laps to do and I was ready to fall off the bike.  I keep going hoping that I would shake the cramps and start feeling good.  Well, that didn't happen until the last lap which then it started raining.  Just wasn't meant to have a good first race, better luck at the next one. 

Hope you all like the new look (UR = Unattached Rider)

First Race

First race of 2011 was looking to be pretty muddy and nasty day, but we woke up this morning to sunshine and a nice breeze. The early racers are coming around pretty clean considering it rained all day yesterday and last night off and on.  It's about 3 hour before start and really hopeful the tabernacle stays away.

Look forward to a good start to 2011.

Missed the Season Opener

Well, maybe racing is wearing off me a little or maybe since I don't have a team to worry about I don't mind missing a race?  Not sure why or what but I forgone the Season WORS opener Sunday to install over 1000 Linar feet of molding and trim in my living room. 

Saturday I planned on putting some trim up and then assembling the bike that was still in pieces from the attempt to take it to Sedona.  I wanted to get the new fork installed as well.  But, it was 8 PM Saturday the bike was still in the bike box and I was exhausted from a long day of back and farther to Lowes and a million trips to the garage and living room.  I made the call to not waste the time or gas to get to Iola Sunday morning only to limp around the course because I was pooped (that's a shoot out to Max)

So, Lets hope we are good and ready for the next race up in Crystal Lake, Rhinelander May 22.

Weight Management

This winter my lovely wife and I have tackled a much stricter diet.  She found a wonderful book full of great receipts made with as much natural ingredients as possible and serving sizes coming in around 400 calories each.  I have three meals and a snack totaling 1600 calories.  Throw in a couple coffees and a nibble on some finger foods (Cashews, etc) here and there and I come in for the day around 1800-1900.  We have greatly reduced the wine and beer consumptions, limiting it to weekends and when we do enjoy we try and keep it to a couple rather the a few :)

Lets just say, my winter weight is at an all time low on the scale, I am currently in mid March seeing numbers flash on the scale I usually see in late July in the height of racing or my peak fitness.

This is very exciting for may reasons.  One I look great.  More importantly, bike racing is greatly impacted by one's personal weight and weight of your bike.  You may ask yourself why is that, simple, GRAVITY!  The person that wins the races is the person with the best "weight-to-power" ratio.  I may put out way more power then many other cyclist but do to my very large size (in the biking world I am huge) I don't win a lot of races.  My Power has to be way higher to fight the dreaded gravity effect from my weight.    Also, why I don't send more then I already do on my bike to make it lighter since I my self could lose 10-20 lbs will give me much better results then dropping $2-3000 on a frame that weighs 3/4 lb lighter then what I have now.

Looking forward to getting outside and doing some real work out soon!

Unattached

New look and feel to the Blog for 2011!

So, last year was the first year in ten years of racing I didn't get a WORS Series standing and that was a little sad, but not a huge deal.

This year for the first time in about 7 years, I will not be wearing any team colors, as of now anyway.  The group in Illinois and Southern Wisconsin that I have been racing with for the last 4 years has disbanded for a multitude of reason.   Regardless, I am left without a team. 

So what does this mean really? 

Three things really, no team to hang out with at the races.  Not a big deal, after ten years of racing I know many many people and often just hang out with my old friends from the Green Bay team I use to race for.  Second, my racing points won't go towards any team points, not a big deal either.  Lastly and the one that is hurting my pocket book is the team discounts from vendors and bike shops.  I think I enjoyed those discounts more then I realized as I am looking at buying a new fork for the race bike at full price and some wheels at full price, I am starting to miss those connections.

Unattached means I am not attached to a team. You will see that next to my name more often this year on my race results, it doesn't mean that Aimee and I are having issues it simply means I won't be wearing any NASCAR looking kits while racing this year.

On my Blog this year I am just going to post the gear and vendors I really love even though they are not giving me any love. (Maybe someone will feel pity on me...doubt it) I ordered a racing kit that say "UNATTACHED" on it, which will be pretty funny at he WORS races.  Should be a fun and relaxed year.


PS I will be hunting ebay for all my discounts so maybe I will get an ebay patch for my racing kit.

Long Winter

Winter is upon us and the boring training is well underway in the basement.  This time of the year we look for any chance to get outside and work out.  Sunday I road 20 miles on the road and it felt great.  (literly had 5 layers on but still was great to be out) 


Now we have a major snow storm moving in and I am excited to get some good Cross Country skiing in with Aimee. 

Still not sure about the team status this coming season, may be riding unattached again, haven't heard anything yet but doesn't really matter either way.