Race Recap: Park race followed by a training ride. dood!

Yesterday I took part in the CRCA club race in central park. 4 lap race.



Our team, fashionably sporting the new kits (sans bibs, they're on the way) make a really strong showing. We had 1 lady in the woman's field, 5 guys in the b field, and 9 guys in the C field (myself inclusive).

Results?

We won the B race (great job Ethan!)

we controlled the pace of the C race and brought the hurt to the peloton (we didn't win it though). I think i managed to get top ten in the C race, but won't know till the results are up on the CRCA website. Judging from the photos on NYVelocity.com , it looks like i did.


(photo by of Andy Shen @ nyvelocity.com)

We were super aggressive in the C race, chasing down anyone that went off the front. we attacked a whole lot (myself inclusive), and we were able to split the field apart. However, our extreme aggressiveness early in the race turned out to be a waste of energy. there's no point in chasing down a one man break in the first lap of a c race- he's not going to be able to stay away for 4 laps. for the next race I'll be holding back for the first half of the race, conserving my energy, and either leading someone out or sprinting for a better placement.

I got pretty tired by the end of the race (being aggressive and sticking in the front for the bulk of the race will do that), so by the time the last lap came around, i was feeling it. my handling was getting a little squirrelly and i was fatigued.

Either way, I'm still happy with a top ten placement (if i in fact got it).


After the race, we all celebrated a job well done (especially Ethan's rockstar performance in the B race), and went on a training ride.



a training ride after a race? yikes.



we ended up riding to Nyack and doing some hills in the middle. an additional 50 miles tacked onto the 25 we had already done at the race. I ended up doing about 80 miles total. The highlight of the ride was definitely the celebratory Banana chocolate chip muffin and the latte' from the Runcible spoon.



on the way back my front tire met its demise at the hands of a sharp rock. it cut a pretty big hole in my sidewall, but we managed to patch it with a five dollar bill. looks like i've got to order a new set of conti attack/force tires!

Anyway, I was beat.



I need to buy myself one of those massage rollers that Jay was raving about...

Today we had hill repeats on the agenda. 6 repeats of the river road hill leading up to the alpine police station. I met up with Chad and eventually Cassie, and we rocked those repeats like a hurricane. During the repeats, Chad just had to one up my and also hit a rock which ripped an even bigger hole in his sidewall. he managed to patch it with a Clif bar wrapper (MacGuyvery!) and we made it to Piermont without a hitch. We celebrated with more fantastic muffins and coffee. This time it was a double chocolate chip muffin for yours truly. Hoo-rah.

It was a bike-heavy week. I'm happy with how I did, learned some important lessons, and managed to not die. Hooray!

Tomorrow's a much-welcomed rest day. I'm so excited. No biking for one whole day!!!!!!!

oh, and Congrats to Emma on placing Third in her race at OSU this weekend! Great job!

time to pass out.

New Kits in time for the first race

Hoo rah- just picked up our jersey (bibs coming later)

They're hot.

This is pretty much the only reason i joined a team! (half joking!)



the inside collar says this:



I'm sure Fatmarc would disagree...

I'll probably develop an eating disorder now...


These kits are going to get wrecked come cyclocross season.

Racing tomorrow morning. off to bed in a few. We have 9 people in the C race. we are going to (hopefully) dominate it.

My TT time for the 6 mile loop of the park was 17:04. respectable, but i'm not satisfied. Let's see how low it can go...

the arm wamers and collar say "None shall Pass." Let's hope no one does.

instant winter- just add beer

Well, most of the things i was looking forward to in the last post didn't go as planned. a freaky winter magically appeared out of nowhere and ruined all our plans!
Last Thursday morning i was riding in arm warmers, knickers, and a wind vest in 55 deg weather; 12 hrs later, the temperature drops to the 30s and 4 inches of snow gets dumped the following day.

Grant's tomb? Canceled.

Gimbel's with Saul Raisin? Nope!

so, I did what any man would do when confronted with a situation such as this on st. Patrick's day weekend: I drank way too much Guinness!

I had a serious case of Guinness 'stache.



I did attempt to make it out for a ride on st. Patties- even though the city was nasty and full of snow, Central park was clear. I hopped on my greener-than-the-Irish 'cross bike and met up with my teammate rob. we went for a quick spin. I don't know why, but it was a rough ride. I felt totally out of it. Those Guinness's were definitely welcomed afterwards.

I spun indoors on Sunday and somehow ended up getting a chainring tattoo on the front of my leg (while i was mounting the bike on the trainer...)



I though i was done with the trainer for the season. Much like many things in my life, I was premature. (Zing!)

the interval workouts have been getting tougher. yesterday's trainer session was pure ugly. 3- 10 minute efforts over my threshold, with 5 min recovery in between. When doing an interval of that length and intensity, you're confronted with pain for an extended period of time. it's not a flash of pain like the one you find in a sprint- it's almost a meditative state- a painful, sweaty meditative state with heavy breathing and your heart rate in the 180's. It's an odd sensation to explore. It's interesting to see how your though process changes when you're body's under steady stress. does anyone know what I'm talking about? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills!

I'm supposed to TT a loop around central park tomorrow morning to gauge my fitness. I'm hoping I can do it in under 17 minutes. It's a rolling 6 mile loop.

it's supposed to get warm again starting tomorrow. I hope it sticks. The first race of the season (for real) is this Saturday. I'm pumped and ready to go. My heart start's a-beatin' every time i think of being in a race situation. It's time to see if this training has paid off. I think I've done a good job at sticking to the training. However, i think my weakness has been diet. I've lost around 7 lbs, but could lose more if i didn't eat like an ass. I think i may be a little hard on my self, but that's the only way to improve, right?


time for sleep. TT in the morn. hoo-rah.

Crank it out

Hey boys and girls,

So while this past weekend didn't go as planned race-wise, it turned out to be a really awesome weekend for training rides. I got out for 60+ mile rides on both Saturday and Sunday. Sunday was a nice hard ride- I rode out to Rockland State park via River Road and 9 W. The weather was Fantastic. It was perfect arm warmer and wind vest weather.

I can't tell you how happy I am to not be chained to a trainer any more.

By getting out this weekend I was also able to gauge my fitness. The heart rate zone training that I've been following has definitely made a different. I chug along in the Low 20's on the flats in my endurance zone, and my heart rate is lower going up the climbs.

The workouts have been getting more intense. earlier in the training season it was a bunch of endurance work. Building the aerobic base. Now we've shifted our attention to threshold intervals- resulting in horrible workouts such as the one I have to do tomorrow:

85 Min Sub/Sup Threshold Workout: Warm up: 10:00 Min Endurance interval/ 5:00 Min Sup Threshold (max effort) interval/ 10:00 Min Endurance interval. 3 x 10:00 Min Sub/Sup Threshold intervals done 5:00 min Sup Threshold/5:00 Min Sub Threshold with >95 Cadence. Take 5:00 Min Endurance Recovery at >95 Cadence after each. Finish with 15:00 Min Endurance Riding at >95 Cadence.

For the record, 5 minute max efforts followed by 5 minute sub threshold efforts hurt my soul. It's a tough workout but I think it'll pay off. gotta teach the body how to tolerate and flush out Lactic acid- raise the threshold!

I've been using the program that came with my Polar S520 to track all my metrics this year. I used to use an excel spreadsheet, but now that I've figured out how to upload my HR data, I'm never going back. The program is called "Polar Precision Performance." I'm able to track any metric I could ever want to follow, and can also put out custom reports mixing any of them. the interface is also fully customizable. check it:



(click on the photo for a bigger size)

That background pic is from the Chainbiter cross race i went to this last fall in CT. sweet!
Here's what the HR charts look like- this is from the last Threshold workout I did:



This is the input for the day's workout- it logs mileage, avg speed, time, and how much time was spend in your specific HR zones (also fully customizable). It's a great training tool and perfect for huge dorkfaces such as yours truly.



I've been riding hard this week. Having to get up at 4:30 am to get your ride in is grueling, especially when it's followed by a 12 hr work day. Such is the life of an aspiring yuppie bike racer, I guess...

Things to look forward to:

-Team kits are in! we pick them up on Friday! Weeee! Hell, that's the only reason I joined this team!!! (half joking!)

-Going to watch the Grant's tomb Criterium put on by Columbia University. Rooting our cat 4 teammates that are participating. Following that, we're going on our first team ride decked our in out fancy new kits (from Hincapie sportswear- hollah!)

-Sunday is going to be a special treat. Our team is doing the Legendary Gimbel's Ride in Westchester, and Saul Raisin is joining us! if you're not familiar with Saul, go HERE. He is a 23 year old pro, riding with the Credit Agricole team. He was in a horrible accident a year ago, fell into a coma, broke multiple bones, and had to re-learn to eat, walk, and bike. He's made a remarkable comeback and is set to race his ass off once again. Apparently on his last power test he was able to hold 400 watts for 30 minutes. Insane. I may just die on this ride, but it should be a great learning experience. It's a ride that quickly turns into a sort of race simulation, with team tactics coming into play. It basically turns into a big dick-swinging competition. I'll be find on the flats; I'm just hoping to survive the hills. Either way I'll be looking SO Pro in my new team kit!

-Chad and I are building our teammate/friend Cassie a bike from the ground up. we've found an awesome frame and we're going to built her a sweet racing machine to replace the hunk o' junk OCR 3 she's been riding. I'll document the whole thing for you kids, including where I found sweet deals on components.

-I think I'll win an award for most color-coordinated bike racer- my bike (saddle, frame, tires, bar tape), helmet and shoes all match my team kit. So pro! my stocky ass might be getting dropped, but I'll look good doing it!

I'm such a tool.

Time for bed, pain awaits me in the AM.

Scratch that...

Stupid alarm clock didnt wake me up... will try to do the spring series race tomorrow morning. There goes my saturday night!

I'm pissed at myself and my alarm clock right now...

Ah well, no worries. It's going to be a long season.

TOMORROW WE RIDE!

Well tomorrow is my first race of the season! It's time to ride. Time to go to battle.

I just got back from watching "300." what an epic movie. It may have bordered on being slightly too homo-erotic for yours truly, but holy moly, I am inspired. I'll be thinking of that as i go to battle tomorrow morning. I'll try not to take it so far as stabbing someone with a frame pump.

I'm off to shave the legs and go to sleep. Wish me luck!

More TV Time, More Trainer time. Racing in T-5 days

And counting.

Well, kids, it looks like uncle Christophe was on TV again (thanks again to Jason for pointing it out) . looks like the VS network has taken a liking to the clip of me giving Floyd Landis one of my T-shirts (which can be found on sale HERE) . They've been selling pretty well, by the way. I've received a ton of positive comments about the "Free Floyd" shirts. I'm guessing they might be using this TV footage for some time (until the fiasco clears up). I'm really glad that VS has been making an effort to report on the situation in Pro-cycling in an even manner. That one network has provided more fair and balanced coverage on Floyd than any other major news source out there (although Trustbutverify could show everyone a thing or two). I find that comforting. Hopefully it's enough to bring more awareness to the true state of what's going on and how it's threatening the sport we all love. The more people know the true facts, the more public pressure there will be to do something about it.


I guess I should begin to reap the rewards of my fame and celebrity. Frankly, all I want is a lifetime supply of Assos Chamois cream and a flock of nude virgins to apply it. I'm sure that can be arranged for a Z-list celebrity such as myself...

Enough with my delusions.

The cold finally broke on Saturday, and by the "cold breaking," I mean it was a high of 53 degrees. I jumped out of bed, slapped on my early spring gear (base layer, short jersey, arm warmers, and knickers) as well as my obnoxious and commemorative Hincapie sunglasses, and off i went. I ended up riding 75 wonderful miles. some alone, some with my teammate Nate Follow the link for hit flickr site, he's a great photographer- and was the one that shot me for the Maxxis tire shoot- see below:



Anyway, enough of my narcissistic meanderings (wait, isn't the the whole point of having a blog?)

The ride was fantastic. I felt like a kid again (a kid with a $5000 racing bike and a heart rate monitor, but a kid nonetheless). I went across the GWB and headed up to Nyack via river road- doing a few hill repeats on the way. When I got to Piermont I met up with Nate. We met up at the Piermont bike shop and decided to extend our trip a little. we bikes out to Rockland State park and did a victory lap of it. as we were doing our lap, a cold front came in. Good job not remembering your wind vest, Christophe! It got colder, and my fingers started to numb a little. As we rode, though, we warmed up, and it was more than tolerable on the way back. I'm feeling pretty decent about my conditioning, although I won't really be able to tell until Saturday- my first road race of the season.

Hoo-rah. I can't wait to slap my race wheels back on my bike- my Eurus's have been sitting in their campy wheel bags waiting to go for a ride. Only 5 more days.

It's only a CRCA club race in central park, but it will be my 2nd road race yet. I'm planning on sticking with the pack and not trying anything stupid (unless I can find some accomplices to do so) The last thing i want is a broken collarbone or a snapped frame on the 1st race of the season.

I'm looking forward to it.

Am I ready? I don't know. I'm definitely in the best riding shape of my life, although I feel like I've slacked off the past week or so (although it was a rest week). I may just experiencing late term it's-been-a-long-trainer-season-and-I don't-want-to-see-that-godforsaken-thing-for-another-8-months-psychoses. (you can tell by the look on my face)


I also should quit eating like an ass hole.

The race is 4 park laps, about 25 mi. no biggie.

Here's to not coming in last!